2025 U.S. Open Preview with Geoff Ogilvy

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 fried egg Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg Friday, Frida Egg, Brian Egg, fridagg Bride Egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the hump course. Welcome back to the Friday Egg Golf Podcast. I am your host, Andy Johnson, and we are here. We are at the US Open week. It will be the one hundred and twenty fifth US Open at Oakmond. It's the one hundred and twenty fifth US Open, not the one

It feels pretty good. I mean, obviously it's a little bit different than defending a normal tournament.

I think.

Because it's such a big deal. It's just amplified. It's it's a big deal. And what made it better, I guess was better or more memorable as I played with Tiger first two rounds because he I think it was he'd won Hoylake six Open, and we played with Richie Ramsey who was the US Amateur champ, so it was it was a cool group. Any time you played with Tiger was memorable. I mean I remember all of those times.

So one of my favorite things was, you know, before you guys did the or the Medina Project, the Redal, I was like, what do you remember of Medana And you're like, well, I couldn't really see the chorus because I played with Phil and Tiger, and it's pretty much when you're playing with them, it's the worst way to see the golf course.

That was so many people. Yeah, that was a memorable one too. Like that was there was three hundred people inside the ropes at that one. Whenever you played with Tiger, there were so many people inside the ropes because it's the only time anyone in the media center actually left the buffet and went out and actually watched golf, and

Memorable.

That was great play with talking, I mean like just a good I was. I was the right age to play with a guy like that in times like that at a place like Goakmont. It was fun and I don't think either of us played great, but I think he probably ended up finishing better than me, but we were both finished on.

A second or third. He was like sneaky in the mix, but wasn't really in the mix.

Yeah, we were kind of doing okay. After the thirty six solls we played together. I was probably thirtieth or something and he was tenth or something like that.

Yeah, the uh, the the O seven, you know, besides Zelpato was the coming out party of Bubba Watson. That's the thing that I forgot. We did rewatch a few years ago and I was like, oh my god, this is like the this is Bubba Watson's like opening act where and it's funny because he played you know, it's this first major. They played really well, and then he never played well in the US Open after that. It's like and it made me actually think, like, you know,

Oh absolutely. I mean it's probably the hardest course if all the weather is neutral, if everyone has seventy if it's seventy degrees, then there's no wind. Oakland's the hardest course that we ever play in the US Hope. I mean, Wingfoot's close, but Wingfoot's more of about the greens. I think you can get out of Fairway bunkers a little

Most courses have a theme.

I mean, wing foot is if you hit it to the front edge of the green all day, you're going to do okay because you're always under the hole. But that doesn't work because six or seven other greens go the other way. It's it takes all the shots. And I mean, I guess it makes sense that Bubba would play well there. You wouldn't think at first that he would play well there because would think it would be awful for Bubba. But he was a really elite ball striker.

Yeah, Also, like the the ability to hit chaps can counter some of the movement. The severity sure.

I mean like if you think of a green like ten or a whole like twelve, twelve is sort of a right hand as nightmare, if you like, because it's all falling away to the right, like for six hundred yards and you have to sort of hug it up the left hand side the fairway and hopes it hangs on bubble. Can hit that big right to left slice

I was thinking about just getting if I was getting ready for Oakmart and the stuff I would be thinking

It's funny you say that because most of the caddies. I always felt like my caddy, especially Squirrel, for the longest time through those majors. He's like what I'd always drive on in the rough and then just flick it out the fairway and hit it because I just wanted to hit it off the fairway because it's more fun. And he used to be mad because I wouldn't try any of these shots out of the raft. And I think there's some players who do hit shots out of the rough, but most of us just flip it out

He said it was unsafe. The ruff was unsafe.

The ruff was unsafe. Always won for a bold statement, but it was very long and falling over, falling over itself.

But you should.

You've definitely got to in a US, especially the US Open, hit some that you hit out of the raff like that you hit into the roff, to work out what you can and can't achieve out of the raf, because sometimes ruff looks tough, but you can actually move it a long way. Sometimes ruff doesn't look that bad and you can't move it. You've got to have a sense for what you can get away with and how much you can take it on. But like you said, the first hole, if you're coming out of the rough, you can't hit.

The green, can you? I don't know. I mean maybe if you're.

In the left rouff, maybe and you sort of have one tumbling up the right ruff.

And it dribbles on the front of the green.

Maybe, But you definitely should sort of assess how aggressive or conservative you should be out of the rough, because the number one thing is to just get it out of the rough. You don't want to be you don't want to drive it in the rough and then have your next one in the rouff. You know.

It is one of the things that I think that particularly in US opens, that the adage of if you hit a poor drive, the next shot has to be like it's a different calculus in golf typically, especially at one at Oakmont, where you're you're kind of thinking about getting the ball back into a position to possibly make par as opposed to you know, this week in Canada, it's going to be like, oh, a hit and the rough, Like can I still make birdie? Possibly? Can I still

Yeah, I think more than anything at a place like Gokmont, you've got to play every single shot on its merits and not have like a score that you're supposed to make in your head, Like you say on too, you just hit it as far as we can basically and work it out as we go, And like this is a birdie hole. Even if you're in the rough, you

To you know, you don't want to make six. You know, you drive it the first raff.

It's like the rouff on the first the decision is, okay, I just have to make sure I don't make six. So how do I make my decision from there? That Okay, I want to make four. But let's take sick, Let's take double bog out of the equation. And that's the

You know, it is like you know, the analytics say like there they get to and you obviously have worked with analytics with your experience with the President's Cup, and they make these defiant statements about you should hit driver every time here, or it is better to be closer

Yeah, I mean, I totally agree. I think analytics they would disagree with me, but you've got to throw it out at Oakmont. I think it is definitely more about a headspace than a freedom. I mean, Augusta does the same thing to you. It makes you hit shots that you don't want to hit. But the only way you can hit it well is if you're swinging it with freedom. You know, like Oakmont's going to have some shots that you would never normally take on in a seventy two hole,

So I think you're right, Hope.

Month's about trying to find yourself, get yourself comfortable on a very uncomfortable golf course.

That's that's what I felt, you know, my one time playing it was like, I do feel like the thing that makes it makes it great and not gimmicky, is that I do feel like if you like get going, you can go like there's no you don't like, there's no reason you can't make birdies there because if you hit it into the right spots, you're like, okay, And there's now with the expansions on some of these holes, like there's enough space to like, oh, if I hit a good T shot here, I can you know, but

Sounds like you're describing Scott Scheffler a little bit. At the moment. It it definitely doable I think that's why it gets away with it somehow. It Most courses this hard are just players don't want to go back and play again. But Oakmont somehow because you know that the good score is there. I'm sure we won't see it. We might see another sixty three or something like that.

I was thinking about this about let up like where, and I think this is like so many people are going to talk about the eighth being three hundred plus yards in a way, it's maybe the most docile surrounds. I think that might actually be like the hole that you take a deep breath and you say, okay, you know, and we've seen it it's actually like the hole with

Yeah, for sure.

I mean I think when we talked about it a few like a few weeks ago, I thought eight was a letup hole if I run through them in my head. I mean, four is a little bit of a let up, but it's only a let up if you hit the fairway, Like eight is a relaxed hole. I mean then not.

Oh seven.

They had the three hundred tea, but they only played at once. Maybe so we probably played two fifty a couple of times. Maybe you're two to twenty and a three hundred eight is like you say, it's a three or four. I mean, maybe you make a two with an amazing shot, but you're not really like focused on a two, but yeah, it's a three or four.

If you miss the.

Green, you hit it out, you're going to have a reasonable chance to make it, and if you miss, you just tap it in. Like there's not many other lead up holes out there. And it's funny that it's the three hundred yard path three that might seem to seem that way. I mean, they might play at three hundred every time. Three hundreds are long part three. I mean, I think they'll probably go on the next one up a couple of times. But yeah, it is. There's no

You know that's to my own herd. But I just drove the green. You know, it's easy. You hit it on the green, then you two pot and you get out of there.

You know, simple way to let the scorecard. As USG I written on the top of it.

I'll never go back, just so I can hold on to that up easy, easiest you know hole though out there, what were the scariest What did you feel like? We're the you know, one to three scariest shots out there, like the particular nitty gritty this shot I still think about.

Well, the first green, the second shot of the first is a little I was. It's not scary because it's not that long a shot, but it's just how am I going to make this? How am I going to hit this green? Because it's just so severe sort of front right to back left, How am I going to do this? It wasn't that scary because if you just miss it over the back, you've you've got some You can chip it reasonably close as you're coming back up

Kind of a shinnercock shot.

Yeah, it's very repellent, it's very sort of pinehursty. Yeah, it's a shinnecock hole exactly.

You're just playing straight up from a noun even lie to something that just sheds in all directions, right. I feel like that's shinnakock in that middle stretch of halls.

And it felt like it feels like you don't You can land it and hit it on the green, but it doesn't feel like you've got a very big area to have it end up in a good spot, and if you missed that spot, it's going to be in a really really bad spot. Four or five, seven, eight, nine. Nine's a pretty scary tea shot. I think totally blind, you can't see anything, and you want to go left because you don't want to be in.

The fairy bunkers.

But left has got one of those ditches that's just you might never get out of and you're never really sure or even though you've got your lines in your book and you kind of know. I found nine are really scary te shot.

The ditches are such a unique aspect because I feel like they're in. They're always in the places that you kind of want to bail a side, and then you're like, oh, wait, that's actually worse than the bunker.

Well it could be. It's definitely worse than a bunker. I mean you could you could have ten swings, you could hurt your risk getting out of that.

Stuff could be unsafe for rough in there.

Nine. I think sixteens are really tough shot. Sixteens are really scary. Part three. It's even longer this time than when I played it. I think it's back to two fifty or something now, which is these past three? Is it getting pretty long? Insane? Yeah, Aan's a scary TA shot to atane is a tough TAA shot.

Yeah, I would echo those. Those are like it's kind of where you it comes and go, like you feel like you kind of have to take advantage of, like in that like four or five six area of the golf course. Then seven, eight, nine is really hard, and then you kind of go on the back and it's like can I get something going early or at the end of the back nine? Can I get a sneak one at seventeen? It's a it's it kind of comes and goes in waves.

Like.

One of the things I like about the golf course, and we'll get somewhere else other than the golf course soon, is that it does have like it's really hard, but there are they have the scorable there's a lot of short par fours, like sub four hundred. When you start to add them up.

It's very doable. I mean, like I said, I think that's why somehow, somehow we all we tolerate it, because it's very doable. Like there's birdies everywhere in Oakmont. It's just the fear is the carnage if you get it wrong, I think. I mean, there's a lot of hard holes that are just really hard to make in the world of golf, that are just really hard to make a birdie or a par. But if you don't, you just make a five and you're bogie or something, and you

Say that, you know, it's like even like what you're saying. When I played twelve, I hit a great drive and I had a hybrid in and I hit like I thought, you know, you look at everything is just screaming left to right, and I'm just like, okay, just get this, like just land it short left. It's gonna hum down there. And I just pulled it five yards and then I'm in this like thick ruff and the green. I'm looking at this green, I'm like, I don't think I can hold the green, Like, I'm not going to hit it

Yeah, I mean twelve is the best example.

Like you to make eagle, you have to land it in the left edge of the fairway, very short of the green. Yes, to hope it hangs on in a good spot. But if you like you say, you miss it two yards to the left. Now you can't get your third shot on the green, and now you start thinking, well, how do I get my third shot to a place where I can hopefully make PA. So you've gone from pulling at a yard or two maybe making an eagle,

But if you fail, like you just get annihilated.

What do you I think a big topic of the beginning of the week is going to be score, and I think it's so conditioned dependent. I looked at the weather today. I didn't like what I saw I saw. I saw a decent amount of rain in the forecast. I think as of yesterday there wasn't a lot of rain in the forecast. So these things change. What would you say if we get it? We'll say a soft Oakmont versus a firm Oakmont? What would be your your just general gas un score?

So O seven was what five over? Sixteen was? Under right?

Yeah?

I mean DJ was? I think six under right with a penalty with which I don't know.

I mean, look, i'd probably say soft. A few under, you know, single digits, single digits under. I think soft. It's still crazy hard, but you can fly it on greens. You can fly it on the first and hold it. You can fly it on ten and hold it. Like shots into the third are going to be easier because you're going to be able to hold it. It's not going to get crazy soft Oakmond. I mean those greens are pretty firm. It's gonna take a lot of rain

That's I got a message from a couple players who played it recently, and they I sat on a podcast, I thought, like the new par for US opens is four under, and it's like, that's the level par. It's four under. And they said that I was crazy and that it's going to be over par if it plays the way it's been playing recently. But I also believe that they all don't realize how good they are, you know.

Yeah, and you never know, people follow the leader to a little bit. Like I think sometimes in these tournaments if the leaderboard, if someone gets off to a good start makes a few birdies, it makes everybody else think they can do the same thing, and everyone kind of follows,

The other thing that happens is like if a player goes out and they get deep, there's like then like a restrict plate that goes on you. Whether it's like there's like a mental thing, you know, you can't just keep going. Uh, It's like you get kind of stuck and then people catch up to you. You know, it becomes more about like not losing the lead then continuing

Yeah. Absolutely, I mean that's it's also unique about Tiger and guys who go and win by fifteen shots. It's like he's not the rest of the field he isn't relevant, you know, he's just scoring the score that he would shoot whether anyone was there or not. You definitely get influenced by what other people are doing, you know, Like

You know, you just are.

You know. So maybe you end up scoring better because the go in front of you showed you that you can't do that, you know, But maybe you go worse because now you're scared and now you put it a bad swing on it. Mean, I don't know. Everything gets affected by everything else. Right, It's look, if it's firm, I can't see anyone breaking part. But if it's soft, someone will. I would say, these guys that like you say, they're really good.

It's funny you bring this up. I never thought about that. With golf, is like the idea of like what other people do in your group, your fellow competitors, how they influence, like how you make decisions, like even like club time par threes, Right, it's like, oh, he hit that and it went over but it's like you could be thinking of a completely different shot in your head and then you go down a club and then you end up short.

You know.

Yeah, I mean it all like you play with better players and you end up hitting better shots because you see a shot that maybe you didn't see, you know, and you can definitely get dragged down like we've seen it. You see it forever.

Like bad vibe groups.

Yeah, you get bad vibe groups and everyone gets dragged down. I mean you see the match plays the most obvious. I mean, match plays a different sort of game, but the scores that people shoot relative to power match players just outrageous. I mean people go nine, ten, eleven, twelve under. They chip in from everywhere because they have to. You know, the guy they're playing against just birdying the hole. I just have to find a way to make a burdie.

Yeah, you get affected by everything.

It's a that's a great point you brought up. And it's like the Masters. There is an extra weight when you make the turn on Sunday or you have t off on Thursday. There's an extra weight of winning the Masters because of the history of Masters. When you look at when you look at Oakmont and people that have won championships there, Jean Saraz and Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan,

I mean it's a bit like Mialfield in the Open Road. I mean that's just produced like number one in Nicholas and number one in the world Ernie Els and Nick Faldo and I just you're right. I mean, it's it shouldn't be US Open to US Open. I mean, luckily wingfoot is places. I got a pretty good one. You didn't get cheam Er Spey, No, you take any us open.

But you're right.

It looks different, and it's different because you feel the history, especially at Okenmand. I'm sure you went in the locker room. I mean, it's a pretty amazing clubhouse and it's a cool locker room, one of those original locker rooms with spike marks on the seats, and you feel it when you're at a place like that. It definitely adds to it.

Did you see in the lockers how they have the little booze compartment from the prohibition where there's like a little compartment that you can fit two bottles of booze in the lockers and when they build new ones they build it into it.

Like the more you learn about this prohibition is that booze was banned, but everyone still was drinking, right like in the golf court with little stash, a little stash in your luck at a KP. Bow's like no, that sort of stuff's s amizing.

This tournament, I think is the dominant headline beyond the course is going to be the big players in golf. I think it's a it's an interesting time. Obviously, we always have like our big whatever number, and this is always the story. But it feels like we've got like a class a player that's starting to separate itself with Scotty obviously, who's playing some of the best golf we've ever seen, Rory McElroy, Xanderschoffley Bryson, and John Rahm in

Yeah, well those stats are pretty telling. I mean, what do you say, They're just good players, like you're right, Like we you the Targer era, we had Targer and there was a few others, you know, feel out he's run and he had his run. A few others would pop up here and there. But there does seem to be five or six that seem to be that always

I think that's the one other player that you could put into this group that like you could be like, okay, that's that's another player in this group. But it's interesting. You know, he has one to ternament in three years, you know, basically.

Which is interesting. Yeah, I mean, I think j T will probably do well too. But like, these guys are just good. I mean, the level that Chefler's playing is a level almost that we haven't seen. I mean, Tiger was Tiger, and it's a they're a different sort of great player. But Shecheffler just it's so peaceful and calm and stress free. How he wins tournaments. It's like even Tigers seemed to be there was more drama. That doesn't

I mean, maybe Jack.

I never saw Jack in his prime, but it seems like very Jack, like very workman like not getting carried away, just hitting good shots and just wearing the field out, you know, and then all of a sudden on Saturday, whether Chefler's been on the leader board or not, all of a sudden Saturday afternoon, all of a sudden, there he is.

You know, Xander.

We haven't seen Xander play this year like he did last year, but it can't be far away, you know, like it's he's just that one one roundaway, almost from saying, oh okay, I remember, this is it.

You know it's going to take. It's going to take.

You would expect out of that list, you would would you take the field or that list?

And this is where I feel like I've started to get and I felt this way at at the PGA, is that I've started to get to the point where I don't look at the leader board. I look to see where one of those names is at after round one and the first one I hit, I'm like that that's the leader in the golf tournament right now. And it's it's a wild I hadn't. I don't think we've been at this type of place in golf where it feels like one of those names is going to win.

Yeah, Kyile Hollowe very like that one.

Like that.

The lady board didn't really it was kind of a bit odd, and we didn't it didn't take shape, and then all of a sudden, Scottie berties what for the last five on Saturday and it's like, okay, this later would makes sense now, you know. But it took until the end of the day Saturday for it to look like what it was going to look like.

And the only other person on Saturday and Sunday that you felt like we're going to win was like You're like, oh, Bryson might win. And then on Sunday it was like, oh, John Rom's gonna steal in this tournament. And it's like, that's the kind of weird situation. And after round one on our other podcast, I said, Sky Scheffler's leading at too.

Well, I mean, look, these hot these tournaments are really hard. I mean, it's more of a belief thing, and I mean you look, it's a it's a headspace belief thing that they know they're going to be there at the end because they always do it. They just it's almost an expectation. It's like, well, I'll be top ten this week because that's what I do when I play a major, you know, so it almost doesn't matter how it's like Rory how much how often does Rory not be in

You know, maybe at Oakmont. But you're right, it's a very.

Sunday the Sunday, the finishing results feel very predictable at the moment necessarily exact winner. But like you say, like six of the top ten seems to be like, well they were always six, those six are always in the top ten. Like it does seem like that a lot the last couple of years, And.

I don't know what it is. I think I think it might be just like how all around talented these players are. Where you start to look at like, I mean you just at this point with Scotty, it's like if you're playing against Scotty, it's like I think you have to like pray for poor putting, pray that he just doesn't make putts in a day because everything else is such a high level, you know, Rory, it's I hope he doesn't have his a game with his driver,

Yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, I don't know, Like you just it comes down to belief, I think, more than anything else, and you've got to kind of do it to get the belief. But it's a leap of faith there between where you're at and the result, where you've got to sort of think I can do it. I don't know. These torments are hard, they're very mentally challenging, these tournaments from the first two onwards, not just the

You know, what's it like when you think back to like coming down the stretch when you haven't done it, trying to get it done in a meter.

Well, mine was kind of weird. Mine was kind of weird the way it finished. There was lots of guys with a chance, and I just ended up. I ended up the good one in the end. But I just I think it's I mean, I don't know, I don't know. It's a headspace It's one of those intangibles that you can tell when you the first time I ever played with Brooks, I don't know, first year on tour or something back in somewhere or wherever we were, are you just like, yeah, this guy knows he can do it.

Yeah, I felt that way with you know, unfortunately, like the back's been a huge problem. But Zella Taurus was that like you you know, and when you listen to him talk, it was like, Oh, this guy thinks he's the best of everyone, you know, And I think that's a good I think that idea looking at like who's won a lot, because if you finish, if you finish tenth a lot, there's a reason you finished tenth a lot, but not you know.

Yeah, And it's also there's like, I mean, Brooks is the interest Like you mentioned Brooks Brooks and Ram especially, they win against great fields. It's almost like they need that rise. They need what Okay, now all the studs are here. Now I'm going to show you that I'm the alpha, you know. Like It's whereas if it's just in a middling tournament in the middle of the year, they're just a normal golfer. But you get into the US Open, and all of a sudden, they're the best golf from the field.

Like I think, and Tiger just won everything. He just wanted to win absolutely everything.

I think everybody's got a different competitive sort of fuel, you know, and some guys need need it to be the US Open, you know. I think this group that you're talking about, Sheffler seems to be able to do it every single week.

But this group you're talking.

About, the bigger the field and the bigger the event, the more they feel like I'm the one who's going to be up there at the end.

You know, how would you rank those their six names, so it's it's it's Scottie Bryson, Rory Xander, Ram, Brooks.

How would you Scotty's got to be number one at the moment, right Like.

In terms of this coming this week for the Oakmart So for.

Yeah, Scotty, for sure one.

Rory is hard to rank because his best is probably the best. His best is probably better than Jeffler's best, But Chefler's the same every week, like he's just nuts every week. Rory kind of gives us some sort of strange ones. So I don't know, Xander, I'd probably have to put Bryson two, Rory three, Xander four. Who we got left?

Ram and Brooks?

Ram and then Brooks probably Now like the I think it's is it what we think they're going to play or their ceiling? I mean, because I think rams ceiling is clearly really high. I think it's higher than most. Brooks a ceiling is clearly higher than most, but we haven't seen that for four or five years, so you can probably almost Brooks has to be down the bottom of that list.

Yeah, you know, but if.

Every one of them, if every one of them plays their best, who wins? You know?

So I think that's like it's interesting, It's like the most fascinated question in golf. I think Rory's probably got the most, Like he's got an explosiveness about him that but like the thing that Scotty does is he just he's relentless. I couldn't imagine playing Scotty Shuffler in a match in like a match play situation, like just dealing with the constant stress that he inflicts on you hall after hall, where it feels like you probably can never hit a shot that's better than his, you know.

Well, and he just won Quail Hollow playing decidedly average for him, you know, like it was a long way below his best. He played an amazing last five holes on Saturday, and that was kind of it, you know, like that's that won him the tournament. Like I don't think any of that other list could do that, could play below the level and still win a major by four shots. I just don't Rory wins a major by four shots if he plays to his level, you know, and so does Xander and.

Brooks and Rahm. But Scotty found a way.

It was a Nicholas like performance, like he just made him got himself into the right position with twenty five or twenty four holes to play, and then just said, okay, I'm going to win this now, you know. And then he played awful on the front nine. Really on Sunday. Awful is relative term, but relative to how he normally.

Plays, it was like categorically awful.

If any of those other if the five other guys played a front nine like that, then they probably don't win the tournament.

You know.

So you kind of have to say Cheff is going to win because it just feels like he's going to have one less than all of the others, you know, like it doesn't matter what they shoot, He's going to find a way to have one less because he's gone really low, like we saw him at Dallas. He's clearly happy to go crazy low. It feels like he just does what he needs to do to win. Just tell me where I have to shoot to win, and I'll just work out how to do that. You know, it's crazy.

The ram piece I think is, you know, he got he got a taste of something he hasn't had in a while with the PGA, and I saw that. Brandle afterwards was like, this is what happens when you go to a non competitive league. And I don't know if there's truth to that, you know, where like he got

Yeah, true.

I mean I look, I see him in Scott style all the time. He plays a lot like he's very good at golf, like he is next next level better than everyone else here, like and there's some good players hanging around in Scot style, he is amazing and still wants it, you know, he definitely wants it, and the majores are he's outlet. I mean, maybe he is outlet

I was going to ask if outside of just like outside of a flusher, you know, just a pure great ball striker, what's the other skill set at that Oakmont can really reward? Is it the guy the short game.

Short game and putting.

I mean, clearly puttings are important because that's one of the hardest places to partner the world. But it's very dependent on where you're putting from. And it's more of a like you were talking about angles on twelve before, Like it's angles, it's where you miss it. Like you know you're going to miss some greens and maybe you're in a spot where you can't really hit it on

If you're in the wrong spot.

You just can't. It's the whole package, Like everything is rewarded pretty like proportionately. I think the better you ball strike it, even though you're going to miss greens, you're going to miss it in spots where you can get it up and down, and you can have some pretty simple up and downs. But if you get off track a little bit, which you will over seventy two holes, you're going to get off track. You have to have

Know, I think Bryson's probably the one.

He's pretty crazy around the greens two these days with a thirty eight degree wage. I don't know how he does it, but a thirty eight inch long or whatever it is, seven one long sixty, I don't know how. I don't know how he does it, but he's amazing.

He's gotten so good around the greens. It's, you know, the what's fending the irons have been the thing that has let him down in the last two Majors, and he's on I mean, he's on maybe the best run in Majors of all these guys. Obviously he missed the cut at the at the the Open last year, but he's finished in the top ten of every other one, like really in the mix in every other one. Him sneaky of all these guys, has the best course history too. He was he had a chance to win on Sunday

So all right, yeah, I mean, look, I think if you can play Augusta, you can play this place. I think it's similar test around the greens and a similar sort of philosophy of like under the hole is premium and you've got to have flight control and move the ball both ways. And if he can do it there, which he clearly can. He hasn't won there, but he's clearly plays really well there, I think he can do it at Hope Pont he can. Also he has that

He seemed enamorated with it in in his YouTube video he just put up, so you know, if you want to glean from from his YouTube content, he seems he seemed very into it, by the way, putting a nod on a more kwa good good record as you imagine, because he's very good at golf T four, T five and then T fourteen the last two years. So last four open opens no worse than fourteenth, which pretty uh

Eh, maybe. I mean they'd have to be really good.

Like there's some good good like they got Jackson in.

A like just the very pony end of good.

So you got like Jackson Coven who has his card as a sophomore, has his card, is going back to school for a junior year, has AARA earned it. You've got Ben James, the Virginia kid that's that's competed, contended. I think in in a in a PGA Tour event or two. You've got some some very good amateur names.

I think, look, physically, they clearly would have the skill. I mean, there's no shot that oak One's going to ask that those kids can't hit. I just think there's an experience, if any course that we ever play in a major maybe outside of Augusta. But even so, even including that, that experience is like a fifteenth club. It's Oakmond, I would say. I mean, it's look at like you said, you the list of winners and Nicholas and Hogan and Jones and Miller and Ernie El's. I mean, these are

I think like it's one of the biggest things. Probably advantage of experience is the ability to get over stuff.

Yeah for sure. Absolutely.

Yeah.

When you feel like you hit two good shots and you make a bogie or you three put you go to the next tee and like seemingly always it is like a bad t shot next. And that's where Oakmont just gets you more than anywhere else, is like you feel like you can't hit consecutive shots poorly, and what happens is often you have that like four whole stretch of bad golf, and at a course that doesn't punish bad that much, you might get through it even par

You can't compound your errors here because it's just going to get worse. I mean the morning I when either the morning I woke up or I was going out to the golf course for Wingfoot for my last round. Judy Rankin, who's a family friend, put a little note in my locker or sent me a text or so. I can't remember how it was, but she said, everyone always opens the paper on Monday morning after the US Open is surprised at how high the winning score was,

That's a hard headspace.

If you've never if you haven't played a bunch of US Opens to get like, if you're yeah, like you say, you have a bad couple of holes, and you're three over after five on Thursday. You kind of any other week that's a disaster. But I mean the guy who wins the tournament might very well be three over after five on Thursday, you know, and having that sort of experience level to realize that this is not that bad, you know, like I don't have to get these three

I can do this like.

That. I don't think can be taught. That has to be learned, you know. I Mean we've seen some amazingly mature young kids along the way, but even Jordan had that the US Open that they're sorry the masters that first one was in contention and didn't win, and any won the next one. Like there's just experience to be had and lessons to be learned, and I think the US Open lessons can only be learned in US Opens.

Rory Is I think he was talking recently about how he's like mentality shift to being a great US Open player, and he was talking about how it's so hard to get to the state, but like where he's gotten to is I'm playing seventy two holes and I'm playing every hole and I'm not worried about where i am, but

And you can't in the US Open, you cannot use your score as a barometer to how you're playing.

You just can't.

Like every other tournament, you get a pretty good feel after halfway through Thursday morning, all right, this is going to be four hundred day is gonna be good, sixty.

Nine is gonna win the toll. You never know in years, you have no idea how you're playing.

You can be playing well and be whyever power you can be playing it. It's it's it's an unusable sort of metric how you're scoring. You just have to that seventy two whole mindset that Rory says is exactly is the only way. You just hit every single shot on its merits. Every shot is so hard and there's a train wreck after every shot of you hit it poorly. It's just every shot of its merits, and make decisions based on I want to be at the lowest I can be on Sunday night. It's not about shooting a

Do you think golf would be easier if there were no scoreboards for players? Do you think the scores would go down?

I don't know, Like we kind of hinted on that before, I don't know. I think they'd go up or down. Do you think they would shoot thirty seven under par or whatever they do at Capellura if they didn't know everyone else was doing it? Or do you think they go lower because they know everyone else is doing it? I don't know. It's an interesting that's an interesting question.

I think for different people, it would be different. Yeah, results do you have any We've just talked about big names. Are there any other names that you particularly are might be keen on that type of player rising up?

I mentioned JT. I think JT is playing well this year. I think he loves this occasion. I think he'd be very interesting, you know. I think what the Rasmus. I like Rasmus Hoyguard's game. I think he's long and he seems to have something special about Hi. Nikolai too obviously, but Rasmus is on a better run this year and he sort of got himself sort of in the on the fringes of the mix at kail Alo for a little bit there.

Rasmus, how do you feel about Corey Conners?

Look, I think Corey Connors will have a good week. I mean, he has a lot of good weeks. If he has a weakness, and I'm sure he'd be happy to admit this too, would be his putting.

And I think Oakmont, You're.

Gonna have to be really brave to hold a lot of pots at Oakmont because they why outside the whole pots and how we saw him on the weekend of the Masters, He's going to have to improve on that performance on the grains at least. But he's he's certainly got the ball striking chops.

That's what I just think he could just be around because like when you think about I, he's it's kind of like the way Scotty drives the ball is where it's not flashy, but the accuracy is at such a high level with enough distance, and Scotty's pretty plus distance, you know, He's. Scotty's like a souped up Corey Connor's with with with a better short game and better better putting. Yeah, you know, but like Corey Connor's like kind of machine like te degree you know.

Yeah, I mean he's going to bull struck it.

I mean he hits it so well and that's sort of one hundred and fifty to two hundred and twenty yard sort of id on through four and I mean he's as good as anyone, you know, Corey, and he does it every week, you know, so you'd think.

He's going to be in the mix. I don't know. I mean, I loved his I'd love.

To see Corey.

He's a he's a great guy and.

Presence of our team. Yeah, like.

You should just pick all Presidents, International Presidence.

International Presidence Cup players. Look, I mean Sung Jay at some point surely is going to get there in the mix at the end of one of these things. He's talk about machines, I mean he is. He's been a little bit off for his standard, but he's so good, Sung Jim. It's incredible. He has every shot, there's nothing he's missing.

I've floated this crazy theory. I'm curious your your thoughts on this. Uh. One of my colleagues ask me why I think that Patrick Cantley hasn't played well at major championships and I this was just off the top. I just got me thinking. I was curious. He's so efficient with his golf swing where he doesn't have a high end swing speed, but he produces like very great distance results.

You don't have rough in every major, maybe specifically to US Open. You would think he's like he's been built in a lab to play US Open. You would Patrick Kenley, you would the US Open player. Yeah, I don't know.

One of the one of the other things I love about the group that we just talked about, the big names, is there you don't see like swing coaches lingering around a ton, you know, like they're pretty self reliant players.

Yeah, well, that would be my h I think that's a better way to approach it. I mean, at the end of the day, you have to hit the shots, and golf fundamentally isn't a game that you can teach someone. It's a game that the player has to learn themselves, right.

They only work it seems like they only work on like three things. Just set up, set.

Up, swing play, Yeah, whatever it is, alignment or whatever. It's just aim further right or whatever it was. I think that's especially in the big tournaments.

You've got to.

You've got a sort of dance with the girl that you brought with you. You can't find it on the range on Wednesday afternoon at the US Open, you know. I mean maybe like maybe it's like happened, but really your game is at the level that it's at, or it's in the state that it's in, and it's always it's an up and down situation. Just work out how to get the best score out of what you bring to the tournament. And I don't think that's a coach thing. I think sometimes that's just a you thing, you know.

It feels like it's almost like the final thing to unlock is like you work with someone to get to that top level, and then at the top level it becomes about your ability because that's when things are going sideways on the golf course. The only way you're getting out of it.

Yeah, I mean, look, you can't probably do it without help along the way. You know, you need wisdom and teaching. It's just the week of a major is it should be done. That's not the week for it, you know. And ultimately it's about adjusting along the way golf, you know, it's just every shot is different forever. Like I mean, like you make a swing off the first it feels a little bit funny. You can't just like go over to the ropes and say, hey, what did I do there?

You know, Yeah, I mean he's see somebody long enough. You're just working on the same things too, over and over again.

You have to know your own game.

You have to know how to fix your game on the fly because any given day you're going to wake up and it's going to feel different. You've got to know how to fix.

It for you, you know, which is probably hard for someone else to do.

All right, who's are you taking? Scartia I assume.

I mean, I know that's the boring answer, but I have to. I think, like, how do you not take him? I mean, I think he's a hyper competitive He's not a list like.

I don't think he's a lifetime list guy, like goal list.

Like a Tiger. But he's such a hyper competitive guy. He just wants to win so bad. And I think Rory winning the Career Grand Slam probably added a little bit of fuel to that. You know, like, I know I'm actually the guy, So I think he's on a I think he's on a run of motivation and competitiveness at the moment, and it's gonna be hard to go past him.

Where would you put if you were gonna put career majors? What do you think is like if you just threw a number out for suffer?

Yeah, what's he got? Three?

He's got three?

Seven? Like something always happens, right Like at the moment he would think he's going to win seventeen, but like there's always something that happens. You know, we didn't have like they're hard to win, you know, and look at Rory. When Rory a decade ago, it was like this guy's gonna win twelve. You know, seven, I think he's. I think he's and seven is would be like in the elite of the elite of the elite. You know, that's an unbelievable amount of majors and this day and age, the.

That Sunday turnaround, because I think like that career just like he's now like still like scar tissue free. If that Sunday he hadn't won, I think, like, you know, there's like real damage that can do mentally. But the fact that he played so bad and then just one by like skating down the last three holes like stress free, I think that almost helped him. It's like the complete It's crazy, like how that tournament goes opposite ways. It could have like a a completely different such a different

You know, I don't know where do you have him? I mean, look, it's just hot.

I mean I think the appropriate over under his six and a half. I saw that there was a line that was like nine point five. I think it was no laying up called fan duel, and they said it would be nine point five, which I think is like crazy because, like you said, stuff happens.

I think that happens, and other golfers come along, like yes, look at Jordan. I mean he was winning him for fun. You know, Rory was winning him for fun at the start, Like life happens. You know, he's had a kid. Now he might have.

More like school drop offs.

Maybe doesn't it ball, I don't know, like just life just comes along, you know, and then you Luke Clinton's and all these sort of kids come along and they might even be better again, you know, like the level keeps going up. I mean, who would have thought Greg Norman. I mean, we're going way out of the thing. But Greg nominal only won too. I mean, if Bob Twy had to hold that bunker shot, Larry Miies having to hold that chip shot nor than one of one ten. You know, things happen.

You know, that's it's it's very very rare for a player to sustain like elite elite player play for more than ten years and he still.

Has to do it against Bryce and Rory, Xander Marikaua, like he still has to beat these guys, and these guys that group's only going to get better, you know, not specifically those names, but the five, six, seven, eight, the top ten in the world, the level they're going to play is just going to get better and better and better. So it's going to be harder and harder to keep winning them.

I'm fascinated to see if we could get you know, Xander had two majors last year, which I mean like winning multiple majors in the years is the crazy stuff. And I feel like that's a separator of like all time greats is like they usually get to a couple of years of two majors, you know, like three Big

Defending her.

I just I didn't even think about that. It probably makes it harder. But uh, he's been rattling around so much people will say, oh, he's not getting it done. Does he have a closing I saw somebody ask if he has a closing tournament problem? Well, like people, you you make up that storyline because somebody's available and has

Yeah, it'll be a challenge. Yeah, I mean I think, yeah, that's a pretty good goal. Rom's got to get an honorable.

Mention though, I think, yeah, I think I'm saving Rom for the Open. I'm doing my I'm I one and done. I got to stick with my You know, I can only pick somebody one time, so you know, I'm interested

Well, I mean you got that, you got the hangover out of the way, if you like. The next Major was always going to be on the one or the other for Rory one after Augusta. So maybe you got it out of the way. Maybe he's free now, you know, expectations are go on, everyone's talking about someone else.

You know, thank you for coming on and chatting about this. Thank you for being a part of that US Open video. You were great in that. Uh and Uh, congrats. We we haven't talked about well, have to talk President's Cup another time. Congrats on your appointment than you. You know, I'm very invested in the Chicago President's Cup as a Chicagoan and uh, I'm excited to uh for that tournament and glad that you're going to be running the show. And of course you, uh, you helped renovating and I

Well, you just have to rally all your international fans and get more to go out of the tournament.

I got I should I should have wore my my internet, I got the international gear.

I am.

I'm a I'm an international team guy.

You'll be in trouble in your town. But like we lock it.

Well. You know, the last time I was at Medina for a team competition, I was I was watching the Ryder Cup, which you know, at the time I was I was an American fan through and through, and you know, since I've kind of I've departed my American roots in in the golf space. So I'm more of an international and European team.

If you need any more gear, just ask.

Some more geary. You know, I like busting it out every once in a while. I think I wore I wore one of my hoodies with with the Davis Love. He was disappointed to see that if this was a president it was just a stock President's cup now that I'm thinking of that, but uh, but yeah, we'll be Uh, we'll be in touch. And thanks so much for for covenant.

Absolutely, thank you for.

Listening to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast. Big thanks to p J Clark for editing and producing. If you haven't yet, check out our our pro shop. We cooked up some really neat merch We've got a lot of kind of limited edition Oakmont themed merchandise, really creative T shirts and hats. I would go check that out at proshop dot Thefridagg dot com. As a reminder, if you're a Fridagg Golf Club member, you do get a discount, just check your email you'll have a discount code in there.