Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by our friends over at Smathers and Branson. Back in two thousand and four, Peter and Austin, the founders of Smathers and Branson, were in college and their girlfriends made them a couple needle point belts. That is kind of the premise of how this whole business started. So after college, the two decided, hey, why don't we try and make these needle point belts
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can see it. Get all types of different logos, all different types of non golf things as well as golf things at Smathers and Branson dot com and use the promo code Frida Egg no spaces. That's Frida Egg at Smathers and Branson dot com for fifteen percent off your order with free shipping. So thanks to Smathers and Branson for the support. And now on to today's episode. Today we are joined by the great Shane Bacon. He is obviously one of the co hosts of golf channels Golf Today.
He's on TV almost every day there as well as the host of Get a Grip with Maxhoma, a stellar podcast that I'd highly recommend to anybody listening to this. You're clearly a golf fan. If you're a golf fan, Max and Shane have an awesome podcast that gives you unbelievable insights. So Shane joined and we talk about the twenty twenty one US Open, everything that happens Sunday, and then some more big picture things and a little bit
of chat about the Olympics and the Open Championship. At the end, without further ado, here is Shane Bacon.
I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. And when I find my ball in a brid egg Friday egg, the dreaded Frida egg Friday, Frida egg Brian Egg, Frida egg Bride egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the hump course.
Hey Shane, how much does the East Coast time zone suck to watch sports?
Andy, I'm trying so hard to be positive about all of these things. But I got home from Tory Monday at about one am, traveling across the country with the two year old on an airplane and on all I wanted to do Tuesday night to stay up and watch the Suns, and it just took everything I have. Like I it was my Jordan flu game to stay up to watch the entire Sun's game, and I did it, and I'm so thankful I did it. I saw the
eight and put back What a finish. But this, it's it's insanity, Dude, Dave, I told you my my, my rule. I think should be the case of this. Have I told you this about East Coast sports? Much like relegation in soccer, if you're the worst record in the league, or even just the worst record in the Eastern Conference, the next year, you have to play all your home games at noon Eastern, so it gives people something to watch during the day, or maybe it's four pm. I
don't care. But some of the players, they play hard not to finish the lot dead last. It gives them incentive, but at least give me something. It like, give me a sport at three pm. I mean, if it's not baseball, it's just not go. I'm not gonna do it, man, I'm trying to. I'm trying to pay less attention to things, not more. And uh, when I stopped playing baseball in my teenage years, I was kind of out and I don't think I'm gonna get back in.
It's it's the baseball is like the perfect argument for having scarcity in your sport. You know, one hundred and sixty two games just too many.
Somebody I don't remember who it was that was on Twitter during the US Open, but they were in New York and they said the Yankees game was starting at like three pm on Saturday, and it might have been like Peter Burns or something and said, all the TVs in the bar flipped to this random middle of the season Yankee game and the US Opens going on like Saturday at the US Opens, like sorry, it's game fifty four of the Yankee season. We're turning all the TVs to that. It's I don't know, I'm I can't do
the baseball thing. I don't fault anybody that loves the sport. It's just not for me, you know, it's just not there's I mean a lot of people trash NBA and it is what it is. But I'm just not gonna spend my time watching a baseball game. I watched playoffs occasionally.
You know, many are saying that the key to the Sun season was you leave in Phoenix.
It's a it's been a circulated rumor. I'm I was texting with some friends last night about Game two. I think we're going to try to get tickets and go to Game two, and apparently we have ends. If they make the finals, I feel bad if I fly back. Are they going to lose by forty to fifty? I mean, you know, it might have been me holding him back this whole time. But from afar, it's nice to watch.
It's like the most fun basketball team since the early season Warriors, and I'm not in Arizona for the first time in like fifteen years. It's very special.
Yeah, I remember talking to you at the beginning of the year about this. It's like if Suns are finally fun and you're gone, you know, it sucks. Anyways, you were out at toy doing live, from doing golf today, all sorts of stuff out there. What will be your lasting impressions from the twenty twenty one US Open, Big big question here.
I think you know, for me, like honestly, looking back on this, it'll be finally getting a young player that won a major, you know, I mean, that went out and won it. I've been talking to a lot of people as listening to you guys on shotgun Start. I don't know if this is just a thing that doesn't happen as much in majors, or we maybe just think it happens more often than it does. But like going and getting it, winning a major championship, you winning it,
not waiting for somebody else to lose it. It just doesn't happen as much as you think it does. I mean, even thinking about the PGA, I mean, Phil played fantastic in solid golf, but there was never that push that made it necessary for Phil to make those late birdies. I think the ROM finishes the first time since Phil at Mirfield where somebody birdie the last two holes in a major to win, And so you think about that,
what was that eight years ago? I mean, that's a long time, and we're not talking about Schwartzel's finish, just two birdies over the last two holes. So I think, you know, in three or four years, when we think about in twenty one, I think it'll be the WROM finish that we go back to, because you know, I mean, you guys talked a lot about this throughout the week, you and Brennan did, But it doesn't have to be
a great golf course to have a great championship. And I think it was a great championship considering all the names that we're in it, and I think it was as exciting as you're gonna get, especially you know, with all the characters involved. So it'll be the wrong finish that I'll remember, I think in five years from now.
Yeah, that's the thing I think about major championships, and I always think the best championships are when you look up at the top of the leader board and if you're a player that's in tenth, you say to yourself, man, I didn't really see that score out there. That wasn't in the bag this week, because you know, but this major championship in terms of like television drama, compelling Sunday coverage.
This outside of like a two person duel was about as good as it guess, because there's twelve guys that could win in the middle of this. You know, golf course to a certain extent, keeping people close together also has a very high entertainment value, and I think it also it aided the finish here. I mean, who would have said to with the way things were going on
that back nine for everybody. When Louisu stays in makes par on twelve, if you say, oh, you play even par in you win everybody everybody would have been like, yeah, he's going to win if he plays even par. And because at that time Harris English all of a sudden looked really good three under.
Three, I legitimately thought three might be a playoff, you know, once he finished and shot sixty eight. So I was doing featured holes all week with Trevor Immelman, and our holes were eleven, twelve, thirteen, And that's where all the craziness was happening, you know, on Sunday, and so we've got all this stuff going on and ball stuck in trees and Colin morricawb kind of forgets how to play golf on thirteen for half an hour and Bryson slips on thirteen and his he ends his championship on the
par five. You know, I mean there was there was a moment where I was convinced one hundred percent that Briceing was gonna win. There was a moment I was convinced one hundred percent that Kopka was gonna win or at least getting a playoff. I felt a little bit like it felt a little for a while like there was it wasn't gonna be wrong, and then all of a sudden, it might be wrong. He makes the Pudd
on seventeen. I'm like, okay, maybe Rom gets in a playoff, and then the Verdy at eighteen and you're at six and you go, okay, now Louis got to catch you. It's crazy to think that there was a time where I was convinced one of, like, what the top seven best players on the planet, we're gonna win a major.
I can't really remember the last time. I keep going back to twenty eleven Augusta, when all those guys were in the mix late, you know, and you had and if you think about it, it was kind of Pete Jason Day and Adam Scott was in the mix, Tiger was kind of flirting with it for a bit, and then Schwartzel goes out and wins it. It felt a little like the Eleven Masters to me, and there was equal amount of throwing up on yourself equal Mount Birdie's right,
So that's why it was. It was cool because you were getting both the good and the bad of major golf. So listen, I know you're not an enormous fan of Tory Pines. You and I've had conversations about it before, but drama wise, I mean, you know you kindor are two for two and what you're looking for in a major because it was exciting and again, you could have an exciting major championship on a dirt track if you
have the best in the world involved. And we got exciting golf again at Toris, So you know, you got to I guess you got to give it credit for at least giving us great majors when it comes around to it.
Yeah, I mean, obviously storybook finishes both times around, and I think I think I struggle with that that kind of defense just because like when do we have the best players in the world get together and they don't, you know, we don't have a great leader board. Every single time they get together, the best players in the world get together, we have a great leader board, you know.
I think I I got questions about eleven through thirteen. Yeah, I mean it seemed like Rory hit perfect shots, the best shots of any player on eleven, and he like would make both he made both pars. And then how many guys hit that putt on twelve on Sunday, like twenty feet by? And then what happened on the thirteenth t Like, what was going on? Did you have any insight into those?
So eleven? Okay, tell me you know as much about architecture as anybody I know. I keep going back to eleven at Tory, especially this week at the US Open, it felt a little like seventeen at Bayhill. Does that make sense? It's it's a long iron. You can't really get the ball close. The best shot you can hit is to hit it to about twenty twenty five feet, But it's the smart shot, right You're playing it to the fat part of the green. You've got to use
the slopes to get the ball close. And then Rory gets up there and hits exactly what you're looking for nobody hit it was nobody was hit it hole high. And he gets on the tee and he hits a dead center of the green to thirty feet and you go perfect, You made par eleven was the hardest hole for the entire week.
That's where you thought he might win.
Exactly exactly, considering the way he played twelve throughout the week. He birdied in each of the first three rounds. So he hits it to thirty feet, he hits just an awful putt, I mean just awful, leaves it six feet low and short. And I was on live from on Saturday talking about Rory and I said, what we've seen from Rory this week is different than what we've seen from Rory in the past. I went back to Thursday
when he finished in the dark. I remember when they made Justin Rose run up to the tee at eighteen. Rory's playing basically in the dark and he wedges it to that back left hole location, which typical Rory over the last seven years. Hits that there, it rips back thirty feet, two puts. He two putts for par. He gets off the golf course and you kind of go, ah, you probably left one out there did eighteen, he wedges
it to eight feet and makes that putt. There was a moment on what was it fifteen where he hits it left or fourteen where he hit left on Saturday and he somehow saves bogey and you go, that's a place where Rory makes double a lot and he's saved five. It just there were these moments with Rory throughout the week where that was where he would typically let these majors get away from him, and he wasn't letting him get away from him.
Yeah, and Sunday he's just kind of like plugging along. He's not doing anything spectacular, but he's done. You know, everybody's shooting themselves out of the tournament and you're and all of a sudden names are falling out and you're like, oh, Rory.
Yeah, so he hits it there, he hits just I mean, he hits just the typical Rory putt that he's done over the last you know, five six years, where he's got six feet, doesn't hit the hole, does the hand thing, you know, the thing I love where he's you know, he's kind of doing this and you're like, well, you didn't the hole from six feet I don't really know which way you thought it was gonna break. Then he hits in the fairry bunker on twelve, he gets an awful break. A lot of those balls we're kind of
feeding into the bunker. Of course, his plugs into that the down slope lip. I mean, you can't, that's.
Just it was a terrible bunker shot though too to hit it over there.
Oh yeah, it was the Fanny one. I mean, you can hit middle of the green he had. I think he had like one seventy nine or something. It's like, hit in the middle of the green with an eight iron and you're fine, maybe a seven iron and he hits that the scared swing where you miss it right, plugs in there and then it's done. He makes double and it's over. I'll tell you this, he hit the best shot. I'm thirteen. I saw all week. Give him a chance at the eagle. I have a lot of
takes on thirteen. I'd like to get with you on at some point. I talked about it and get a grip with Max yesterday. That episode's out, but he's still but it's like he makes double and you know he hadn't really done that throughout the week and you were kind of waiting, is Rory gonna finally not have this this hole that shoot him out of a championship, out of a major. And he goes bogey double there and
he's done, and that's that's it for Rory. Uh. I've talked about this to Andy, going from Rory to Koepka. Kept had a chance at post five, you know, which would have changed the entire dynamic of this this late major championship. And he just makes an awful bogie on eighteen.
Terrible bogey on twelve too. The three putt on twelve was really bad.
Yeah, And you asked about the three putts on twelve. Everybody, Kepka did it, Bryson did it, Paul Casey did it. Everybody was running that putt not four feet by, I mean, had Kepka had twelve feet. Louis ran it by and made it from like nine feet, Bryson ran it by and missed that putt. Everybody. I don't know what was going on on twelve, but everybody that hit it late, that hit it over there on the right, that gave themselves the putt you need, because there were three birdies
on twelve all day long. Everybody that hit it over there ran it by eight or nine feet. I mean, you never see that, Andy, you never see that anywhere to run it that far by. And we kept getting player after player after player doing it. It was so wild, and of course Louie gets up there and makes the comebacker that everybody he was missing. Everybody was missing. It left, and then you get to thirteen. They've got the tea
moved up. We saw players slipping. I don't know if it made the telecast, but Patrick Can'tley was was fairly close to whipping his t shot. That's how much he slipped on the tee there at thirteen. Like for him to make contact, Trevor and I were talking about it's like it was unbelievable athleticism for him to make contact his right foot was possibly it was I don't know,
it's just close to the ocean. It's I don't know, it's you know, it was like it was just that hangy, heavy air all week and for whatever reason that tea players were slipping on. I don't know what the reasoning was, but it was more it was you saw more slips there than anywhere else.
I wonder if spikes were actually a detriment on that tea box, because like, if you're playing in tennis shoes, I feel like you'd never slip even if it's wet.
Yeah, but bryceon Bryson said it right when he made contact, he goes, I can't. I did it again, and he looked at his shoe and he goes, my shoes clean. I'm wondering if Bryson needs nail.
I feel like Bryson was a well I think he has nails.
But I think he might have changed because I didn't hear him as much this week, so maybe he's gone to side soft. Maybe that's something he's going to change after he does some serious experimental uh you know, you know, uh proceeding a guy, get a spike guy, get a fan guy, get a light guy, get an umbrella guy. But it was wild. That thirteenth holl was wild. And then you had you had Colin Morerikowa make the most
confusing decision of the week. He had three eighteen in and hits three wood and blows it in the right roff. You can't be there, he makes double. Bryson lays up in the right rouff. You can't do that, you know, say Louis hits his layup in the right roff and then his ball somehow stays on that ledge, which had to have been about a two foot area that the ball doesn't roll back on. But you know, I loved I love the USGA and I love the US Open. I mean, it's been a big part of my life
and it's been a big part of my career. That thirteenth hole was bad all week. You know, I watched a lot of golf there and there's no reward. That was my big thing is there was no way to get rewarded there. On Saturday, the best shot we saw in Kopka banged his second shot into the lip of the bunker and it landed on the grass slip of the bunker and then kicked on the green. Balls that were landing on the green were rolling over, balls that
were landing short, rolling back seventy yards. There was no reward. That's the issue is you at least need to be rewarded if you can hit a good golf shot. I talked to home about it. He was saying that that back tee it just doesn't it doesn't help the hole at all. It's a tough t shot. Unless you're one of the top ten longest guys on tour. I just felt like thirteen played poorly all week.
Phil talked about that a lot in his pre show. Actually after the first round, you know, he was just like, there's just nowhere to hit it that I don't know, I don't know, I don't know exactly what the number is. That The thing that I think with it is that if you lay up short of the big valley, you're just too far away then, you know.
And Max talked about it being a blind layup. Max was saying on get a grip, you guys, listen to it if you want. He was great this week, as he always is, but he was talking about he said the thing he dislikes the most in golf is blind layups because he says, it's like they're trying too hard to make it difficult. And you know, he's saying, you're laying up with an eight iron. You know, you're laying up with an eight iron to a blind area and
then to hit a wedge. It's just not it doesn't really make a lot of sense for for trying to test the best in the world. It was, but it was it was. It was a game of avoiding dibbots. Again, that's so locked.
And that's where every municipal Joe hits it too. Everybody hits from there. So it's just it's going there's not in a fair way down there either. It's the other problem. It's like a tiny little ribbon, so it's like it's twenty yards wide. Of course it's gonna be just littered with divits because you know the balls are coming down. There's just it's just so much of chance. And we saw it was it in the first round. Bryson ended up down there in.
The second round, Yeah, yeah, he had that hybrid in it was about a yard short of the green, rolls all the way back down and it did. I think he makes six there, yeah, and you know it's and he got a crappy break, right, I mean, it was a bad break to have the ball. I'd say he
hit probably two great golf shots. He smoked his t shot and I think that second shot was exactly how he wanted to play it, and it was probably a yard or two short of the putting surface right at it and it rolls back to the same spot that anybody that's just laying up with a seven iron was laid it up to. So I don't know that that to me if you were kind of going to ride out.
If I just simply wrote out how that hole played, I don't think people would read what I was writing and go, oh, that sounds like an awesome par five And what's crazy, andya is we don't get a lot of US Opens that have two par fives on the back. That rarely happened. So to have a US Open course that has two par fives on the back, it would be fun if they both gave opportunity for good, and I felt like they gave opportunity for bad. And we saw two big doubles from two of the best in
the world. But you know, we didn't see some amazing three. Now Rory almost made a three, but we didn't see some amazing eagle some guy, you know, like like when Kopka was trying to chase down grey Woodland and he flies that hybrid on eighteen over the flagstick. You know, those those are the moments that make championships.
Well and further further to that point, Woodland's you know, hitting fourteen in two that year was such a huge moment.
Yeah, that's right. Great point exactly.
You know, the thirteenth eight. It did provide some entertainment. I will say that, you know it this is like sometimes like what we talk about a s chotcun start a little bit, but like sometimes things can be so bad that they turn good. That might be an example of a hole that was so bad that it was like, oh, it's pretty fun to watch because you know, Bryce is
obviously self destruct. I think like that's the thing that I go back to with this tournament and is like John Rohm went out and won it on the last two holes, right, he got some good breaks along the way. He got some bad breaks, but like there are there's got to be ten guys that tournament feeling like they could have won it, you know, not Bryson. I know he said he could have gotten it to eight or nine when he finished at three over. That's a little bold of acclaim, but like you look at like you
get a break here, you get a break there. I think that's the thing that one of the things I'll take away from it is that like this one really came down to a bouncer two.
And the rom bounce even on eighteen. I mean, you think about the bounce. I mean that ball could have kicked left right his second shot and it kicks into the bunker on the downslope, and then Rom's got to kind of create a birdy opportunity, which he did. He did unbelievably. Can I can we talk to Bryson comments? I know it's been a couple of days, but I keep going back to this. You know, when you are
using the directions on your phone to go somewhere. I just feel like Bryson's comments after golf almost are always you going the opposite direction that your phone's telling you to go, you know, like the phone's going up here, take a right, and I feel like Bryson always takes the left. That you should be upset. You are standing on ten t leading the US Open, trying to win back to back. This has happened seven times in the
history of the US Open. Don't walk and you shoot forty four and you walk off, and you go.
You got thirty straight holes with no bogey.
And you go, I'm already over it. You're not. I mean, you shouldn't be over it. If you're already over it, then you are. Then your mentality about this championship is wrong. I mean, you can't shoot forty four on the final round of a US Open that you're leading on the tenth te and walk off and go, I'm already over it. I've already won one of these. Because if that's your mentality,
then just skip US Opens forever. Because if you've already won one and you don't care to win another, or you don't care that you had a great opportunity to win back to back, then why are you teeing it up there in the first place. You should be upset. You. We want you to be upset as a golf fan. We want you to be upset because you played like crap down the stretch when you had a great opportunity to win. You know, Andy, to win a US Open on the on the on the East coast at this
exclusive private golf course that's historic. To couple that with winning on the West coast this public office the next year, back to back. What a story that is. And to say you're over it to me, A, I don't buy it, And B why do you feel like that's the road you should go down? Just just say you're upset. All we all would understand that.
Yeah, I completely agree. I think his press conferences are just ridiculous. It's like he's trying to put on like a show. I love that he was like mad about the term derailed. Came off the rails, like, well, how else would you describe what.
Happened shot forty four? Forty four? Like if you shot forty we'd be going, man, that was brutal and forty four. I mean, you and I played some competitive golf through our lives. When you shoot one of those rare times where you come in on some just some awful number, I know, there are moments where you just have to laugh it off, but.
You're like shell shocks in a lot of times you just can't right. And like that's the thing is like I would be if I were in his shoes, I'd imagine it. I'd be like, you know, to be honest, like I don't even know what happened, right, everything was in control and then it wasn't. Like that's kind of
what it looked like what happened like? And I think that it shows a little bit like how high of a level it, you know, when you're playing at that uh, you know, in contention leading at a US Open, and how small the margin is for air to where it can just tailspin into an utter disaster. I think that's like one of the things that should give everybody an appreciation is like just like these guys, they don't have like a Ford f one fifty that can you know, you can burn the oil down and you know go
without an oil change. Have some things broken. These These are like Lamborghinis that one little thing gets like a little off and all of a sudden it a lot of things don't work well. And I think one of the things that I took away, I came away so bullsh on Bryson because like he really didn't play very good the first two days and then it was and he's still like always within shouting distance just because his
floor is so low. Our floor is so high in terms of like golf, like that forty four might be the worst round of golf we see him play for a long time.
Yeah. I said it on Live from on I think Saturday, when Damon and I were on Live From I said, Bryson's proving that he has the best B and C games since Tiger. I mean, his B and C game can can compete. Now, I mean you could probably argue that keepkaz Is up there as well, which is obviously very fun that those are the two guys you debate.
But Bryson's ability to get himself in the conversation and these championships where it sure doesn't seem like he's got his best stuff is what we yearn for from guys like Rory, right. It's what we hope to see from the Rareries and the Speeds and the Justin Thomases of the world, because we want them to be in contention, even if it's not there the week that they're supposed to win.
Hey, So back to rom I think, obviously, like he was, I think the guy that everybody was like, well, he's gonna win a major soon. He was like the de facto who's gonna be the next first time win major winner. I think everybody would go John Rahm. I think I I even was getting a little rap uh, you know, restless waiting for at least a close call uh from him where he was really in the mix. And obviously
now he he has his major. Who would you say, is is the guy now that we would that you would look at or a couple guys immediately that jump off the pages, like he's the next major winner, first time major winner.
I mean, I think the answers Xander. I think Xander's the answer. I think Fenale is probably the bet. So you're probably gonna get a better number on Tony Finow In terms of who's the next, you know, person to break into the major world. Feenal's just been so unbelievable and these majors finish in the top ten that you just expect that if he keeps doing that, he's eventually going to win a major championship. So I would probably have Xander first, just because I think Xander's the most
talented of the bunch that hasn't won one. I think female should be up there considered what he's done basically up until this US Open, and probably a sleeper in the world is can't Ley, right, I think Can'tley is a name as well. But you know, you know, dude, like you can go through this European tour list of players, you know, Tyrrell, Hatton and Fitzpatrick your favorite. I mean, there are some of those guys on on that side
of things. Sung Jay is another one that I feel like any of these guys that win a major would not be surprising, but I feel like Xander's game, he just is there so much. I expect Xander to be a major champion before maybe some of those other guys.
I mean, he finishes, He's finished at the top ten and over fifty percent of his tries obviously, I think that's the one. Hoblin is another one I was throw in there also, But it's uh, I feel like everybody that we think really should have one at this point has one.
Yeah, probably yep.
Because like you start you look through the rankings, it's like none of them, Like, you know, Xander, if he guess one, he gets one. But he you know, and I think he's getting to that level, but he was nowhere near like the Ram you know, Oh, the other guy Ricky. You know, everybody asked about Ricky.
I didn't. I didn't want I didn't want to bring him up. I didn't want to say anything about it. So I'm going through so top ten in the world, Xander's the highest rank player without a major. He's fifth in the world, can't Lay seven, Hatten's eleven, and then Hoblind's fourteen and Females fifteen. It's it is crazy. You make such a great point It's like, as you go down this list, there isn't really a name that scream off the board right that says I should have a
major by now. I don't really feel like there is that name after rom win It one one. But I have I run through my my Sunday major thing with you yet? Have I have I talked to you about my Sunday Brooks thing basically going back to the twenty nineteen Masters.
Go for it. I'm looking forward to.
This, Okay, So I don't have all my notes in front of me, so I'm just gonna have to go off memory.
But I mean, you're a little off. We won't. We won't kill you.
Twenty nineteen Masters has two great puts at the end. Doesn't hit the hole on either of them. I would, I would say, as good a look as I can remember somebody having on seventeen AUGUSTA. I mean, that's such a hard hole. You don't ever see anybody hit it close. He hit it really close on seventeen, and then he hit hit it on eighteen close and did the rory thing where he's doing the hand like it went the other way.
Those are two putts that I really vividly remember and I think the thing that got me about those two putts is, like we see Koepka like always puts so well of these things, those two putts he looked almost a little out of sorts on him, like they like everything. It just didn't feel like he hit the putts the way he hit putts normally. And I don't know if that was a little bit of the tiger juice coming at him.
Yeah, right, and and and and and you know so, so he has those birdies late that would have changed the whole, the whole dynamic of that final round. Next major is the PGA has what seven shot lead going into it, plays awful four bogeys on the back Dustin I think was it within one at one point. Now he wins that major. So I mean, it's not like we can discredit what he did those first three days to put him in a position where he could play a mediocre final round and have a chance. Fast forward.
Next major was the US Open. Has an unbelievably hot start. If you remember, thinky bird eat something like four of his first five. Yeah, doesn't.
Woodland kind of was answered the bell though. That was too. That was something that I think was like a little a little bit of a he he threw a haymaker, but you know, the Woodland kind of got him back with something, you know, across.
Or Woodland Woodley butter birdie like like two of his third first three holes or something. Kepka hit it really close on seven, missed it, and I think he made one birdie the rest of the day. Never really put any pressure on h On Woodland outside of that shot at eighteen, which I mean he did. I don't think he made birdie there, right, didn't he didn't He chip it up there and missed the putt, which didn't It didn't. It didn't matter anyway. Open Championship next Shane Lowry, big lead.
Kepka Bogi's like his first four holes I think on Sunday and uh. And I mean, you know, obviously you're trying to go out there and apply a little bit of pressure. He was playing with JB. Holmes. Couldn't do anything from that. Uh. And then you kind of get into twenty twenty Andy and it's like, you know, we kind of saw a lot of the same stuff PGA Championship in twenty twenty. You know, he's talking all that trash about Dustin he is the second worst score on
Sunday of anybody in the field. You know he did he obviously didn't. He didn't play wing foot. Uh. I don't really remember what he did at that Masters on he maybe missed the cut at the Master, the.
Knee the knee thing. He was not finished seventh. He finished seventh at the twenty twenty Masters.
And then and then and then he was injured. He like battling injury, wasn't really in the in in much of the conversation there, and then really, I mean, you get into this PGA Championship and see what he played like on Sunday there, played very very mediocre golf, made some very very questionable decisions on Sunday, trying to push you know, Phil Mickelson a little bit. I think you
were kind of waiting for him to push Phil. And then here, I mean, he's got a great chance at shooting at posting five hunder and played great golf basically for ten holes eleven holes and then bogie sixteen, bogie eighteen at Torrey Pines when he really needed a late birdie. So I'm just saying, over the last couple of years in these major championships, it has been a Sunday where we've seen Kapka struggle and there's I mean, basically, if you go through every major, he's seen a struggle in
some in some capacity there. So I don't want to I mean, listen, the guy's unbelievable majors and get himself in a position know where he can win one. But this Sunday thing is something I'm keeping my eye on.
My question about this would be like when you point out where the struggles have come. You know, we saw Tiger was nails when he was ahead going into the final round, but then you know when he's chasing from behind, it was always the big thing. Tiger never comes from behind to win, Like is that? Is it the same thing with Kopka, where you know, when he's leading and he's out in front, he's you know, almost impossible to
take down. But when he's you know, coming from behind, maybe there's something that he's trying to push a little bit more than he usually does. Maybe that's it.
The Kopka mentality that he talked about to that point does make sense, right. Kepka's mentality about these major championships where it's not having to be overly aggressive don't feel not feeling like you have to make a whole bunch of birdies, just feeling like all you've got to do is play solid, smart golf and then all of a sudden you do have to press late. Maybe that major mentality has to change a little bit. I think also, and I mean this is something that we don't talk
up about. It's hard to win majors from behind, right, So it's so you guys laugh about this all the time. We chuckle about it a lot. It's, Hey, all this guy's got to go out and do is shoot sixty five on Sunday. You're like, yeah, but like that rarely, if ever, happens. So maybe it's just maybe chasing people down is really hard, and that's why we don't see
a lot of closing Birdie Birdie finishes right. What there's been forever in US opens now and it's Hogan, Jack, Tom Watson and John Rahm, Like, I mean that that's that's wild, and that shows that it's it's very very hard to kind of come back and do it.
Do you think, uh, do you think Louis doesn't make that punt? If it's uh, if it's not, if it's through the win on eighteen.
I'm I love Louie, God, I love Louis, but I don't have a lot of confidence in him having to make one. You know, it's just he made it. He made that one because it did it truly didn't matter. We do a thing, we do winners that don't win on golf today and this we're not going to remember this Louis run in ten years from now, but we should. We should remember it. He shows up in every major right now. It's it's it's remarkable to see him do it.
But you know, the trophies matter, right, The trophies matter a lot more than anything else does. And to finish second, you know, it's it. It's a good finish. But I feel like we don't We're not going to remember it a couple of years away, going back on what Louie did, basically going back to that masters.
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the rare years that we didn't. We don't get a great one, and this kind of illuminated a little bit when I when Brenda and I did this Lee Trevino spotlight on a shotguns start, but just how awesome having a field. This got a substantial open qualifier component to it. I thought was was really is really neat because it gives this like gives a player that comes out and plays against the best players in the world and shows
out like a different pathway to the tour. We saw obviously like camp Smith did it really successfully and from Chambers, you know, finishing fourth at Chambers, getting his card, you know, a couple of years ago at Aaron Hills, we saw like this was like the breakout of Xander Schoffley. He obviously had his PGA Tour card, but he was heading for you know, losing his PGA Tour card and then all of a sudden he finishes six that at Aaron Hills.
Cameron Champ was you know in that mix two. All these guys were qualifiers and it serves as kind of like a launching pad for careers. Andrew Landry even to a smaller degree, you know, he was sputtering as a touring professional and then Oakmont kind of like relaunched his career gave them confidence. I tell me, do you think there should there's space for more events where And I think the key to this is having the best players
in the world in the in the field. Like, if it's not the best players of the world, I think you lose a little bit. But like, what do you think about the idea of wgc's being the top say, top seventy players in the world like they are now, and then there's thirty open qualifier spots.
I mean, I love it. I think it's it gives it an identity all of a sudden, it's not just an everyday tour event. I mean, even if the w gcs want to say they're the best player best fields in the world, they're a little sleepy and they need an identity reshape. And so I love the idea of allowing these players that wouldn't be in the field otherwise to get a chance to get in there. I mean, I keep going back to this Cameron Young run and uh,
you know we're going to start. I think we're going to start this thing where we do our our current five, the top five ranked players in the world. And there's an argument to be made last month that Cameron Young's a top five player in the world, and so to get into those fields and to have a chance to compete. Andy, what you're hinting at is to see more Wills Alatura's stories. And I think everybody would sign up for more Wills Alatura stories because it has been so fun to follow
him along. There are players out there that are good enough given the opportunity to go on tour and compete. Justin Sah is a player that keeps coming to mind. Justin Suys had opportunity on the PGA Tour, It's taken them a little longer to kind of get in that space to be as competitive as Victor and Matt Woolf and Bryson and that crew. But we know he's talented
enough to do. So. Let's say he gets into a WGC by qualification, and he plays well in tops fives, and that gets him in next week, and then he wins that next week. These things could happen, so I love the idea. I also love the idea of big events holding spots for two time corn Fairy winners. I know that we're talking about promotion changing from three to two, but if you've won twy on the corn Ferry Tour in a season, you should get auto invites into all
the wgc's. Let's just give him a spot and so now all of a sudden, you're getting a bonus for the way you've played on the corn Ferry Tour. But yeah, I love the idea of opening up and having more qualification because we're seeing less qualification on the PGA Tour. I mean, you know, you're seeing LA Open losing the available the ability to play your way into these tournaments. And so let's open up the qualifying because golf is
getting deeper in the talent is widening, you know. I mean there's four hundred guys that can win a professional golf event right now.
Well, that's the thing I think about it is like it's like it's becoming more and more of a closed door and there's only you know, a certain number of spots available through corn Ferry Tour every year, you know, and it's like these this Open, the US Open, and
it's it's been proven year after year after year. Like Xander's a perfect example, Like granted he had his card, but he was not playing well and then all of a sudden we saw him on the type of golf courses that he's now proven and are suit on the best, the most difficult golf courses with the best players in the world. There's something that creates, you know, that brings
the best out in him. He gets in the US Open because he qualifies, and all of a sudden, now he's got his chance to perform on the best stage. And you know, the guy hasn't finished worse than seventh in a US Open since then.
It's I love the idea again. I just think that, you know, every golf tournament right now should just be trying to think about how can I be unique? And the golf tournaments that the non major golf events, the most successful events are the unique ones. I mean, you think about the waste management, it has a thing. Travelers has a thing. I mean, the Travelers has this unique ability to get the best fields post major of any event we see, and so the Travelers, all of a sudden,
is substantial. The Scottish Open has a thing. It's this Links tournament that is played right before the Open Championship.
The Dunhill Link has a thing. You're playing the old course in Carnoustie and Kingsbarns like these golf tournaments that I get excited about that aren't major championships all have something unique and to be a great event to make yourself separate than the regular PGA Tour, you've got to have a thing, and that thing's either one thing you harp a lot on, is be a great golf course, you know. I mean, rib is always going to be riv because the golf course is awesome. Pebble's always going
to be Pebble because Pebble's awesome. Even with the celebrities there, you still want to see Pebble Beach on your television once a year. If you're the WGC and you're looking for run out identity, I think this is a great way to make yourself something something new and something cool.
Yeah, I mean, it would be so cool to be talking about like Ricky Fowler out there playing and he's playing a qualification round with Cole Hammer, you know, because they're they're both trying to get into WGC. You know, China. You know.
I mean, I think I think it's a great idea you have. You have a lot of brilliant ideas. I'm just going to tell you this is a good one.
I liked this one. It just would it would automatically give the WGC so much more juice than they have. So what looking ahead Open Championship, last major of the year, Who's who's the most desperate for for this Open? Who would you say? What player would you say is that is needs this Open the most?
I mean that I think the default answers Rory. But I mean I don't think it's I mean, unfortunately, I don't think there's I don't I don't foresee it happening. So I would say, in a in a in a weird way, I think Keopka needs it. I think Kepka needs a major. I mean, he has majors and he will forever have these major championships, But to end the year with a Kepka Major, to say I won one
this season Bryson didn't, or I guess this year. I know the season has been like thirty majors in this season, but to say you've won one this year to in the in the year with Kepka Major for it to be an Open, I feel like Kepka kind of needs one because he's been so close and as I stated earlier, we're seeing a little shake. He finished to Kepka's major run as of late, So I feel like he's a guy that I'd probably put on that list. What about you, I would.
Kind of lean Kopka, you know in the trying to be different. What about Speed? I think like the reclamation project and everything the coming back, like to fully be back. I think there's an exclamation par that could be made with a major win.
To me, the last hurdle for him back is the final rounds. That's where he's really struggled. I think he's shot in the sixties in one final round in twenty twenty one, and that's when he won in Texas. That's the only round in the sixties he's shot on a Sunday. That's the next step for me. With Speed, the finding whatever is going haywire in the final round, and he's talked about this one percent better thing. So I mean,
I do think it's still a work in progress. But to me, to me, Kepka's still Trump's speath because to Kepka, majors are the only thing he cares about. And for Jordan Speed, this this return to the top of the world in golf. Sure it would be helped by a major, but just playing well in these majors has been a good thing to me. I think twenty twenty two is the Speed year. I think twenty twenty two is when Speed wins another Masters. Looking at kind of the golf courses,
I think they set up really well. I think US Open sets up well for Jordan Speed next year. So I'm looking more at next year as the major year for Speed. I just feel like for Kepka, now you're going a couple of years without a major. It's like all right, now, it's not. This hasn't been as easy, and it's harder to win majors than I thought it would be by the way I got. I gotta bring up. I gotta give a shout out to Joel Clatt, so you'll appreciate this, because you're a weirdo and your mind
works in mysterious ways as well. But I called Joel Clatt yesterday because I had a Ricky Williams ron Daine thing I wanted to ask him about. And we got into majors and he made an unbelievable point about Tiger and majors, and so I want to give Clap the credit. He said that when you leave events, when you leave a sporting event as an athlete, you leave with experience or scar tissue, right, and you either had the experience of being there and you take that away, or you
leave a scar tissue. And for Kepka, he never had scar tissue. Now he has it. He said, Tiger never allowed himself major championship scar tissue. He never left major as a loser. You know, every time he was in the Honey won him.
All the scar tissue came after he lost to Yang.
To why Yang everything right, And so for most of his career he never had He never knew what it felt like to lose a major championship. Now he never He would not win every one of them, but he
was either in the hunter, he wasn't right. And I just thought it was such a great point because you see all these young players Speed and Justin Thomas and Rory, for goodness sake, says all the scar tissue in the world at majors, and now you're seeing it with Kepka, and Dustin's had it, you know, in spades kind of earlier in his career. But Kepka now knows what it's like to be in the hunt and lose a major. That was something he never really experienced earlier in his career.
So for Kepka to go out there and win one now would prove that he's able to kind of swallow the bad and push it away on a Sunday. And so it still it just reminds you of how impressive Tiger Woods that he went what twenty years where he never if he was in the Honey won. You know, that's that's such an unbelievable thing to carry that no other pro golfer has the ability to carry around. You know.
A sneaky answer to that question is DJ You know, at the end of last year, early the first three weeks of this year, it was like, God, this guy's the best player of the world that sat even close. At this point, I don't feel that way at all.
Is he a top ten player like I'd say now or you argue he's not? Right?
Yeah, And you know the sneaky thing about it, he wins and open all of a sudden, he's I almost would put him in like best chance at the career Grand Slam of any active player if he wins an open, because then it's like, oh, all this guy needs is a PGA, Like that's right, that's the major. He should have like four of by now, you know, And I think that's like that could be a sneaky answer to that question as well. It's like, you know, like this has kind of been a disastrous twenty twenty one for DJ.
Like after that Master's win, it's like, well, like, you know, could this guy get to four or five majors by the end of his career? Six majors? Like it doesn't It didn't seem like he was slowing down at all. And then he wins in Saudi Arabia and maybe maybe there's a curse of the you know, the the prince over there or something.
Anytime somebody wins and goes about four months without winning, I think you call it a curse. So we're just gonna happen. Every tournament's gonna have a curse.
It's uh, there's you know, might be more to it than just the poor play. You know, could be the new boat though. So hey, Shane, are you going over the Open or are we going to see you over there?
I still am not one hundred percent. I think I'm doing a lot of stuff from here for the Open, but I'm not sure. I uh, you know, I I'm really excited about this. I'm gonna call some of the Olympics golf in Connecticut, so I'm kind of gearing up for that and getting ready and going through kind of the notes and stuff like that. I'm gonna be there doing that, which I'm really fired up about. So I'm not one hundred.
Percent Rory Sabatini's inn I had.
I saw that. I heard it. I was excited about it, but uh, like, could I do that? Andy? Could I just I think.
You have to be a certain rank in the world rankings, you know, Like I think that's the big barrier, where like it can't feel like, you know, there's that like open quality. It would be cool if the Olympics had an open qualifying aspect too, because that would be really badass if there was, like, you know, two, say there's four spots for every team, two of them go to open qualifiers on every team and you get like seventeen year old kids like beating out the pros to get a snag a spot.
I'm with it. I love that all the four Americans in the Olympics are all young. I mean, I know we kind of have bagged on Ricky with the tattoo and all that stuff. But Ricky Fowler, I would say, did as much for Olympic golf as anybody. I mean, he talked it up, he loved the experience. He was visible right as a golf Olympian and twenty sixteen, and he was young, and he was very young at the time. I think he was twenty seven or twenty eight. All four of the American guys going over are under the
age of twenty eight. I think that's really important. I mean, I think when you're forty, maybe you don't maybe you're not as interested in doing this. But if you're twenty six, why wouldn't you go over there and be an Olympian. So I love that the four young Americans are all going to go over there and do this. I'm fired up for the Olympics because I think it's going to be very, very cool, and it's a reminder each and every year that it's a lot bigger than just one sport.
It's a lot bigger and just golf, right, I mean you you said it with the LPGA players and and kind of the l E t and and and you know, any any golfer in this global game, especially a female golfer. It's as big a win as you can have, It's as big a tournament as you can compete in, and so I'm kind of pumped. I'm I'm I'm just as pumped, if not more, to call the women's side of things that I am the men's side, because I just feel like it's going to be such an enormous event.
I think that's just like everybody has been so shortsighted, especially in men's golf, about the Olympics and the value of being an Olympic gold medalist. Like they look at the FedEx Cup and they see, oh, you know, it's it's all this money, and it's like, guys, you're missing the long term point, you know, like the golf might
become like a big Olympic sport. Who knows, like it's not off to the best start because of like, you know, a lot of a lot of it I think has to do with like the schedule makers of golf has kind of screwed it. But like in twenty years, being an Olympic gold medalist is probably going to carry way more weight than being, you know, finishing eighth in the fed X Cup in terms of your ability to generate money on a random day of the week for an.
Appearance if I asked you, and again, this is no knock to the FedEx Cup. I think the FedEx Cup has actually been an enormous benefit to the PGA Tour because it gives the players something to look forward to at the end, or at least try to play for at the end. But if I ask you to name and you know, I mean, you know as much about
golf as anybody. If I asked you to name the last five FedEx Cup winners, I'm not sure I think you could get it, but I think it probably takes a little bit of time and you might mix up a couple. But if I asked you to name the six players on the podiums at the twenty sixteen Olympics, you'd get all six right away. And that again, that's the point is that's.
A great point because it's Rose, Stentson and Coocher and then it was mb Park shenschen Fang and who finished third. That's the one I lady Lydia, Okay, So yeah, I mean, like easy.
Rattle them off in and on and on. The FedEx Cup. Again, it's like, that's great and I do think the FedEx Cup is exciting. I think that like as a person that watches a lot of golf, giving me something at the end of the year that you get the best players playing for and you can tell it matters to them. Maybe the money doesn't matter to you and I, but it definitely matters them because you see players struggle and even choke on that Saturday and Sunday at the Tour Championship.
But I just feel like in twenty years from now, let's say Justin Thomas wins a gold medal this year, right, and he'll have that forever over a Speek who is gonna be thirty thirty three next time the Olympics are a round and men's golf, and you look at a at a Ricky who will be thirty six or thirty seven if he wants to qualify again JT if he wins a gold medal, will always have that. And I mean, this is like Carmelo's the Olympia basketball player, right, That's
the Carmelo thing. And so I don't know I'm gonna write a big thing on Rory. I think I'm gonna write something for golf channel dot com about Rory and the Olympics as we get closer to it. But I just feel like it will, Like to your point, I think at twenty or twenty five years from now, we will We're already talking about the importance of the Olympic medal in women's golf. I think it will get over to the men's side at some point once we have more Olympia Olympians in our sport.
Yeah, they're just they're being shortsighted about it, which is like they're looking at money today and not realizing the potential money tomorrow for the Olympic gold medal.
You know, if a DECI wins the gold medal and he has a green jacket and a gold medal, it will go down globally. Is one of the great golf seasons that we can remember it?
Yeah, it would be. It would be. It was like when Trevino won Sportsman of the Year, Like that's the type of story that Hideki having the green jacket and the gold medal. It can can with almost any story in sports.
I agree. I'm excited for it. I think it's gonna be great. I'm pumped to see the golf course and I love that there's a lot I love that there's a lot of guys doing it, at least more than there were in twenty sixteen, willing to see what this is all about, because I think if you go see it and see what it's about, you're gonna enjoy it and want to be a part of it again.
All right, Shane, everybody can find you on the Golf Channel almost every day, Golf Today co host and then obviously with your Get a Grip podcast with Max Homa. Anybody that doesn't listen to that, that listens to this, I recommend that highly. It's an unbelievable podcast. And Shane, do do is you know, relationship in many hours recording with Max gets more out of its active tour pro than anybody in the world gets out of you know, almost any active athlete.
Well, I appreciate that. I love you. You're one of my favorites in the world. Thanks for having me on, Thank you all for listening. Hope you guys are having a great week. And yeah, anytime you need me, just let me know, all right, Thanks Shane.
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