Welcome back to another edition on the Frida Egg Podcast. Today we are joined for the second time by Golf Channel analyst and former PGA Tour winner Aaron Oberholzer. The pre podcast conversation was a fascinating one, so I decided to roll without the usual intro, so we'll jump right into it. Thanks for listening, and as always, subscribe, rate and review the podcast in iTunes or Stitcher without further ado, here's Erin Oberholzer.
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 Arid Egg, Frida Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg, Friday, Frida Bride Egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off the golf course wanted more of a restoration. They wanted to bring it back. They wanted to bring back the mackenzie bunkering because because Alistair had done the original bunkering at cal McCann did the routing and the greens, and then Mackenzie did the bunkering.
So the bunkering is all, especially on the back nine, is all like right where it was supposed to be in the in the twenties and the teens when he built it. It's that's The back nine is a full restoration. The front nine because of eminent domain, he had to create new holes, so he tried to get it back to kind of sort of what it was like. But the front nine is kind of a new nine. Yeah, they have that.
What six, seven, eight or all new holes.
Yes, seven's new hole, eight new hole. See two, three, two, three, four, seven and eight are all new holes. Three seven, two, They're all good holes. They're all great holes. He did a great job.
The great thing is the fescue and how it plays firm and fast.
Isn't that unreal? I mean, we got guys, We got guys now who really know golf coming out of there and like quietly whispering to all of our membership when they see us it plays better than San Francisco Club. But you didn't hear it from me. It's pretty funny to hear that. I love I love hearing that because it just whenever it gets back to an SF Club member, they just go, oh, they get all pissed off.
That's uh. I like I love the I love the way col Club plays like from a pure architecture standpoint, Yeah, I give I give San Francisco a little bit of a nod.
Well, it's but the only reason San Francisco, I think gets the nod is from the is because of the blue blood history. That's it, and it's you know, but honestly, the I can't remember the guy's name, but the president at the time I went out and I've played San Francisco, you know, twenty times, maybe a little more, maybe a couple more times than that, and it's great, I mean,
it's awesome. But when he made the decision and it was split on the board and it just barely passed to take it back to tilling Hass original design from in my opinion, it actually took away from the golf course. I liked the golf course the other way. They like changed holes like I don't know, twelve, like thirteen, fourteen, fifteen or something like that, and took it back to the original tilling Ass design, and I didn't like it
at all. I liked the course the old way when the way I played it in college, and just after.
College, Zach's caddy, Andy Martinez said that too, legendary caddy, Yeah.
Yeah, I didn't. I don't like what they did. And the guy came up to me and asked, asked me right after I finished my round there the last I think it was either the last time or the time before last that I played, And I said, quite honestly, I said, I said, you want my honest answer, and he goes absolutely, I go, I don't like it, I told him right to his face. Probably why I haven't been inviting back there, you know, in a long time. But I just, yeah, I didn't like it at all.
Didn't like it at all. I liked the old golf I like the old golf course better.
I didn't play the old course. I really like fourteen. I think that's a I think I like fourteen, fifteen, sixteen. I love those people Like a lot of people said stuff about those holes, like and how they didn't like him to me and Zach and both of us kind of were like, those are like some of our favorite holes on the course, which is kind of crazy.
I mean, I know you, but you guys didn't play the play the design.
Previous exactly like thirteen.
You might change your mind if you would have played the old design.
Yeah, I think twelve might be one of the best holes ever.
Twell, let's say ten eleven, the par three, oh phenomenal, part four absolutely, And I think what's lost on that golf course is just how good the bunkering is and where Tilling has to put the bunkers, and the shaping of the bunkers and the visuals of the bunkers. Funny thing is I like the back nine there, I do, but because of the way they change it, I'm not as big a fan of the back nine anymore. The front nine is like a lesson in golf work architecture.
In my opinion, the front nine at SF Club is some of the is some of the greatest nine. Is one of the greatest nine holes of golf I've ever played. There's no doubt for shot values, for every shot value around that front nine, it is awesome. One of my favorite nine holes in all of golf. Two the two par three just incredible. You know, it's just a special, special nine holes. The back nine, like I said, for me my money, I'll take the older nine. It's just okay. Ten,
ten and eleven are great. Twelve is great, but then you start at thirteen and go thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, and then I think sixteen it gets back to normal again. I think if I remember quickly, that's still an original hole. Yeah, and then seven seventeen and seventeen's one of the best part fours in California.
Yeah, it's a.
Great, eighteen's a good and eighteen's a good solid, you know, fun eagle opportunity finishing hole on the back.
I'll tell you what, Walking down like the eighteenth on an afternoon out there because like there's nobody out there is like kind of like a one of like the coolest but also like eerily eerie feeling you'll ever have in golf. Like I mean, the sun's going down and there's just nobody out there, and you're just like you just had like a great golf experience too.
Yeah, oh it is, and see and that's you know, that's what that's. That's I think where where SF gets the nod for most for that because because there's so few members and so few of those members play on a regular basis, they're able to have that kind of experience for everybody out there. Everybody gets to kind of have that experience out of SF, whereas you don't get that same experience at Olympic Club. You don't get it at or said, and to a certain extent, you don't
get it at Cal. You know, Col's probably, in my opinion, the closest. SF's really the only course that produces that that feeling you're talking about. I know exactly what the feeling you're talking about. I just I'm always at places I walk it, I feel like I'm walking on eggshells. I just I don't. I don't. I don't like that feeling. So I just that feeling of kind of that up at ease, staunchness that give that's a minus to the club in my opinion, and SF kind of gives that air.
Cyprus gives that air. So they're always they're they're not. That's why those two aren't in my top five of all time. I don't, you know, That's why I don't put those guys. So it's just a it's a feeling for me that I get on these deals that I just don't that that air.
I don't like the col club vibe, and just like everything about like how the golf course is presented, how you know the club works. Everything there is like top notch.
Like well, when when out did you meet Al Jamison?
Yeah, I've met him a couple of times now.
So Al's like a father to me, another dad to me. And I've known Al since I was fourteen. And when he came to me with the vision of cal and what he wanted to do to it, I was probably in my let's see, I had come to think of it. I think I just won at and T. So he came to me and he says, here, this is what we want to do. This is what we won't want to do. And he was the president at the time of the changes and the change of the way the changes got voted in. He's really the catalyst for why
the club is the way it is right now. That's his legacy. He turned this club around single handedly practically turned the club around. And I said to him, I said, Al, your goal, in my humble opinion, your goal is to should be to make this the Whisper Rock or Plantation in the desert plantation of northern California, the players club, the club the guys want to come to to play. Now, obviously we allow women not to be members, but they can play at those other two places. They don't even
want them to play half the time. But I said that should be the goal. Of the California Golf Club is to be the players club, not a staunch jopardy club that you have to be a blue blood to get into, like SF. But not Olympic Club where you know the masses play and they have fifteen hundred members,
and not a country club. It's a golf club for people who love golf, no golf, love to compete and are good players, and that should be the goal, only with old school design principles versus new school stuff, and that I think he I think the guys did a good job accomplishing that.
Andy, I would wholeheartedly agree. I've started to think this a new theory about tour golf, and you know, I'm a big believer that part doesn't really matter. And something I would rather have people judge a golf course on is how many different types of shots does it require the world's best players to hit? Because that's you know, why they're the greatest players in the world. So like CAL Club was one that jumped to mind, like, what do you think a swinning score would be at Cal
Club if they hosted a PGA Tour event? But would it be a more well rounded test of golf?
Well, that's a great question. I think the guys would tear cal apart quite honestly, I really do, if you, because it would play so short, because cal Is is now fine fescue and bent everywhere, and we've sand capped the whole golf course. And we are we are, we're, as we like to say on the club every once in a while, we're down with brown, meaning it's cool if the golf course browns out a little bit, We're
not going to freak out. We don't need to quote unquote as I call it, augustify it and not everything has to be sparkling green, emerald green everywhere. We don't believe in that. At California Golf Club. We want to see the ball run. We want to see it run hard. We turned the sprinklers off. We handwater a lot, which is in my opinion, What did they do in the twenties, Well, what they did in the twenties they didn't have triplex mowers and they didn't have Norelko's. Basically that shaved the
greens down to nothing, that's for sure. So the grass grew a little longer, it played slower, there's no doubt, but in the winter time. But they didn't have the fancy watering systems they have now too, So in the wintertime when it rained in the Bay area, which was
obviously fairly frequent, they did play soft and slow. But in the summertime, when the rain stopped in late May and wouldn't come back until early to mid October, that place was racetrack, an absolute racetrack as racetracks go back in the twenties and thirties, And that's how we want
it to play now. We want that sucker to play like a racetrack from June first to as long as we can get it take to stay dry, and then handwater as needed, throw on a sprinkler here or there, just to you know, just to give it a little moisture so the grass doesn't completely freak out. But stressing fescue, from what I've talked to Thomas Bastus, who is our old superintendent, who's schooled me on a lot of this stuff,
stressing fescue is good. And it also helps keep the polana out because polana likes moisture and we don't want the polana in there. So the dryer we keep it, the more I believe it is. This I can't remember is it alkaline or acidic that Polana doesn't like. I think I can't remember one of those two we want more of, and I can't remember which one it is Thomas told me and I just forgot. But we want to keep the grass one of those two more so
it keeps helps keep the poan out. So whatever keeps the poan out, because that's kind of when the guys told me about how they were going to rebuild cal when we rebuilt it, that's that's how we did it. And now to get to your original question, because it plays so firm and fast, guys are going to be hitting flip wedges in everywhere, Andy, So we'd have to turn one into a par four, and we'd probably have to turn seventeen into a par four. So one in seventeen would have to be par four, as we'd have
to play it as a par seventy. And even then, I believe the winning score would be somewhere around let's see, that's two eighty as a par for four rounds, so I'd have to say the winning score would probably be in the mid to low two sixties in my opinion, so it'd be somewhere between fourteen and twenty under I think would win at CAL. And that's if you got the greens to twelve and you you put proper pins out there, so proper.
My whole theory goes around removing the idea of removing the idea of score. But would would Cal club require a player to hit more types of shots and be a better test than say like last week's course PGA and National where everything's through the air and you know, kind of tells you.
No doubt, no doubt because you can you can use the ground at Cal. They're the one thing that Kyle Phillips built in when he when he redid Cow, the one thing he built in was he built in options. So it's shaved everywhere. There's very little rough. And what rough we have is what you would could what would Augusta or what would you would call a first cut down like two inches tops, maybe an inch and a
half in spots. And so you know, when you misagree and it rolls down, you ship there and you go, okay, do you want what do I want to do? Like especially the front aprons of greens, Okay, do I want to bump this in? Because you have that option with fine fescue. Do I want to fly it on? Do I want to take that opportunity off this tight fescue and fly it on? Do I want? You know, you have options? Can I can put it? I can take a hybrid, I can take a seven iron, I can
take a four iron. The one thing that Kyle wanted, he wanted options, because that's what Mackenzie gave you. If you really looked at the way he designed golf courses back in the day, he gave you angles and then he gave you options. And if you missed an angle or you missed the proper playoff the tee, now your options are limited. So it really actually funny enough starts with the t ball, even though you would think, well that's the more the thinking of a US Open style
golf course, not so much. In my opinion. You have to create angles on a Mackenzie golf course in order to give yourself more options, and if you don't, your options become drastically limited as you move along with poorer and poorer angles.
Yeah, it kind of goes to the thinking of like, what are what are the everybody's favorite golf courses to watch? Championships played on Augusta. Yeah, the old course. These are places with the old course doesn't care what you shoot, but what it is about is having all the shots in your arsenal to win. And and that's what so many PGA tour courses don't do anymore. And and everybody's become so fascinated with par and difficulty that I think that's been lost is like, how many golf shots does
this require? The difficult types.
I call it. I've called it forever, even on TV. I think when I when we get in discussions about this, which is rare, but I've done. I think I've I've had a few discussions on this in the past with guys. It's shot values. What kind of shot values does the course present itself. I think Cal presents itself with a lot of great values, not only off the tee, but as far as second shots. I think the par threes
are very underrated at Cal. I think that our our old seventh hole now sixth hole, might be the toughest. It's a part three, but we call it the toughest part four in the.
Area you've got to hit it on like a blanket there.
On Andy, You're trying to literally hit it on the hood of a freaking Volkswagen when with it blowing down wind off the left, which is the prevailing wind at you know, ten to twenty miles an hour some of the time.
So the first time I played it, I hit it to like six inches and I was like.
Oh, this tells not that hard.
And then and then the next time I played it, I think I like struggled to make bogeye.
Oh yeah, it's it's that's why we call it the toughest par four in the in the Bay Area, so for a reason. So that's been there all the time. But but Kyle built we had to build a few new holes on the front nine just to to try to bring back some of the old holes before Eminent Domain built Westboro Boulevard right there and took away some of our original holes. So so he did a good job.
Number two, three, four all new holes, and then seven and eight are new holes, and eight is the other next is the next par three two hundred and forty yards probably plays about twelve downhill and then again down and off the left, same direction. That's the only thing I don't like about eight is it runs the same direction as number six, so you don't get a different wind, but it's a different challenge with a different club and elevation.
Chair and that green nasty that Green runs are front to back.
Too, even exactly even though it's pitched from back to front, it's fast going from front to back. Man, Yeah, I mean it really is. It's really weird. That's the way the way that Land sits at col I think that that has a lot to do with how difficult those Greens play and put and even on the old golf course that was bastard eyes for years by Greens committees who thought they knew what they were doing. You always look to You always ask yourself, where's the airport, where's SFO?
Because everything's going to SFO, especially on that back nine, everything's going to SFO. And it's not that much different now that Land still kind of everything wants to go to SFO, except for a couple of holes that you really have to have some local knowledge on. But I think the guys they'd still take it low there. But if you're in relation to par, which I know you're not a huge fan of, but as people understand it, in relation to Par, I think guys would take it low.
But they would have a blast playing it for four days. They would have an absolute blast because they would have so many different shot values to look at wedges, long irons, mid iron, short irons. You got to hit all the shots. You got to hit cuts, you gotta hit draws, high, low, You got to play a lot of different shots around that golf course to be successful, especially if they get that twenty mile an hour northwest wind.
Yeah, I think you'd also see like you'd see that Riviera variety where you have all different types of players. It's not just a pure ball striker's course, like you know, you'll see flushers up there at the top, but you'll also see guys that just have like a knack of getting it done inside one twenty five of their kind of magicians and are able to pull off these you know, these cool shots from being short sighted on short short grass.
You know who I think it would would play really well. There are the guys like Kevin Naw, Kevin Naw's of the world, the grinders at cal especially when the wind blows, because the great equalizer on that golf course is the wind. And the funny thing is that, you know, people would say to me that no the course would go Aaron, why wouldn't you change fifteen into a par forwar instead
of seventeen? Well, number one, seventeen even though it's like five hundred and forty yards, it's straight downhill, down wind, so and you can run it onto that green and that green kind of goes from front to back to a certain extent towards the SFO.
Yeah.
The reason I wouldn't say that about fifteen, even though fifteen is only four hundred and ninety five yards or four hundred and ninety yards straight up hill and it's head into a twenty twenty mile an hour breathe. There have been plenty of days I've hit driver, driver and have come up short of that course. And that was when I was healthy. Yeah, and I still had speed and I could I could still pop it out there decent ways, you know. I mean only on a calm
day can I get a driver and a hybrid there. Yeah, in these these days that.
Beast for four ninety it's I mean, especially in the afternoon when that that damp air comes in.
Oh oh god. Yeah, it's brutal. It's brutal. And you know, depending on what time of year you played the tournament there. I mean, it could. It's much like Tubble Beach, you know, that whole area that the micro climates that stretched throughout the Bay Area to the Moneray to the Central coast where I grew up. You could, it could be. It could. You could be dying of heat out there, you know, like you can in August and September or like you said,
your fingertips are going numb this time of year. You know, when that even on a sunny day, when that northwest wind comes in and nature's air conditioner kicks on your your your fingertips are literally going nune. You lose your touch, you lose your feel, and it becomes a lot a lot harder a golf course. Mm hmm.
Yeah, it's so that's kind of I was getting ready for this podcast and I just was was thinking about golf courses. I started thinking about cal Club and I just started, as you know, I think it's more about hitting shots than score.
Yeah, well, I think obviously score, and yeah, that's kind of how I judge a golf course. That's why I look at That's why I think I look at pasa tiempo the way I do Oh pasa tempo is sixty six hundred yards with one foot in the back rough off of every tea. That awesome, and it's all you want. It's all you want. If they if they get those greens to they don't even need to get him to twelve. They get him to eleven, it's all you want.
There aren't many pin positions on a few of those greens, with greens with green speeds at eleven.
Oh, that's true. I mean, you lose so many pins on those greens even getting into eleven. I agree, you're limited for sure.
Did you watched the golf yesterday? Is JT the best player in the world right now?
That's a great question. I think that I've seen the arguments on Twitter about how he should be the best player in the world. You know, wins is how everybody's judged. And over the last what is it, sixteen months, he's
got is it seven wins or eight wins? Seven wins over the last sixteen months, and no one has that many wins over the last sixteen months, it's hard to say he's not if that's If that's your measure, there are there are definite things that are wrong with the official World Golf ranking, but when you look at what he's done and you go down his OWGR finishes. Okay, he hasn't been as consistent as Rom, even though he hasn't even though Rom hasn't won as much, he hasn't
been as consistent as ROM. Number over the last year and a half, he hasn't been Rom's had more Top five D da da da da all that. But I don't, I'm not, I can't. I compared him in ROM, I didn't compare him in speed. But there's a reason why he's still third, uh and not number one. And I believe that that. You can go ahead and make arguments for the against the O WGR all you want, and they would probably some of them would be valid. But for the most part, it's it's consistency, uh and divisor.
I mean, you know, if you keep your divisor low, you can kind of game the system to a certain extent. Quite honestly, that's got of the biggest flaw in the whole system is a guy who plays more is penalized for the most part. And so until they fix that, until they truly fix that, I don't think they've fixed it completely, then guys are still going to be getting
penalized for playing more golf versus playing less golf. So to answer your question fully, right now, he's playing the best golf I believe over the last I'm going to go this way, over the last Over the last year, he's playing the best golf of anybody in the world. There's no doubt if you take the last year, better than DJ, better than Jordan, even though Jordan they both have a major. But he's playing the best golf when he gets it going. There's not a lot of people
that can stay with him. Actually, DJ can stay with him. Speef needs his A game to stay with him. Rory def Rory, in my opinion, needs his A game to stay with him. But there's not a lot of guys that can that. There's not No one can beat him without their A game. Yeah, no one can beat Uh. No one can beat Justin without their A game. There's no doubt when when Justin has his A game, it's proven to be as good as anybody's in the world.
I watched him at riv Uh for those first two rounds with Tiger, and I just forgot how good he was and the thing and he did it last night was like the thing that it's the the wedge play with everything else, he's you know, he's a great driver of the golf ball. He's a great iron player, he's a great wedge player now, and he's a great putter. It's just I mean, everybody's got their defined, like great skill.
It's like you you bring up John rom, Dustin Johnson or Rory, you're going to talk about their driving ability. But with with Justin, it's everything.
Yeah, he's got a he's got a very well rounded game, and he's worked extremely hard to get there, and him and his dad have addressed the right areas at the right time, in the right way. And he hasn't done it overnight. It's taken a lot of work because when he first came on tour as a young guy, I remember looking at the stats going, oh my god, this kid can hit it off the planet at any given time and he doesn't know which direction it's going off
the tee. But if he ever learns how to dial it in, he's going to be really hard to beat. And then I remember looking at him going, Jesus, if this kid could make a putt inside of ten feet, he's going to be tough to beat. And then I looked at him and went, then he figured that out, and I go, Jesus, if this kid could could could hit a wedge close to the hole, he's going to be a world beater. And then he figured that out. So he's figured everything out step by step, you know.
And and then then finally I finally said, now, if this kid can play with a lead, he's going to be he's gonna he's gonna be right there with speed DJ and those guys. And he's learned how to do that as well. So it's it's it's it's a step by step process that he and he's followed every step that he's needed to it, and he's addressed every issue that he's had within his game, and he's done it
in a manner pretty much better than everybody else. And I'd put him right up there with DJ as far as the way he's systematically kind of changed his game to what he needed to do to be one of the best in the world. Jordan is close there too. But the issue I have with Jordan and I and I love Jordan's game, but he's never going to have ridiculous speed and distance like like DJ and Rory and Justin or Rom, he's not going to He's never going to be there, and quite honestly, in the era we
live in, that is going to be a detriment. And I said it three years ago at the Masters when he won by four shots and shot eighteen under and everybody was like, he he's going to dominate. And I said, no, he's not going to dominate. And I got killed for it, got killed for it on social media when I said that on air, I said, no, he's not going to dominate. And Ryan Burr, who's my host, He's looking at me like I'm crazy. I'm like no, because putters go cold.
Number one. We've seen that putters go cold, and distance dominates in this day and age, and Justin has that and he does he's not going to have to. He's not going to wake up and automatically lose twenty yards off the tee. So that's a massive advantage that he has along with Rom. But he's been quicker to refine his game. Rom still got a ways to go. He's
still a lot. He's still younger, obviously, and has more time, has a little has more time than just Even though they're both young, Rom still has more time to get that done. And when Rom does the same things as Justin does, because Rom's not there yet with his wedges, with his short game, with his playlf, with his with his refining the little things that that JT has, when Rom does it, oh my gosh, then we're we're in for a treat. Because dj is already there, he could
probably refine his putting even more. In my opinion, I think that's always something he can do better. But Rom's a good putter. Rom just needs to refine as some of his iron plays, some of his wedge play. Yeah, and his putting's pretty good. There's no doubt he's an excellent putter now. But when those that iron game from one twenty five to one seventy five and some little wedge stuff gets fixed on Rom, Holy mackerel, he's going to be him and JT are going to give Justin
or excuse me, Dustin it run at number one. There's no doubt. There's no doubt.
Yeah, and then we'll be talking about like guys like Sam Burns and Cameron Champ like the are talking about j T. It's the young the youth explosion is is just insane out there.
Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy, and uh uh, you know, and there are some there are some theories behind why that is. And you can name you can name probably five different theories and why that is, and you'd be correct on all of them. Probably.
I was going to ask you, this is a question I had written down. Would you contribute the youth movement more to technology, training or Tiger?
I put Tiger last on that list. I would say, I'd say the youth movement would be more towards technology, and one in particular, track Man. Track Man's been the single most single biggest technological advanced in golf in my humble opinion, since since the golf ball change in two thousand and three and the drivers now, the drivers in
two thousand and three weren't up to the ball. The ball hasn't changed since two thousand and three when Titles came out with the prov one that changed everything, changed everything without a doubt. Okay, but the drivers weren't up to snuff. The drivers couldn't couldn't unload what that ball could really do. Now the technology and the drivers are are such probably within the last two three years, to where they it can really take advantage of that of
that ball. Then you talk about now, then you you throw in there on top of that, you throw in training, proper training, proper diet. And these guys train like athletes and live like proper athletes now and do the things for their bodies like proper athletes. Then now you've got Now you've got young stud athletes who could have played a lot of different sports and been good at them, like baseball or basketball or tennis in uh in some guys,
in some people's cases. And now you've got lots of speed combined with phenomenal equipment, combined with now the coup de gras in my opinion, which is TrackMan on top of all this, to be able to self diagnose and
optimize to the nth degree, to the nth degree. And then after that, it's it's a it's a weapon for these guys like no other in the fact that it gives you confidence knowing you're doing the right thing because a number equates to something you can, you can, everything's measurable, and you know what good is based on a number.
This is how these guys are learning these days. And I have a very good uh a good friend whose son who's like a who's like a younger brother to me, who just signed with the University of Alabama and he's gonna go play for Alabama. Frankie Sappin, who they just got a track Man, And the amount, the amount of how much better he's gotten with his wedge play in the last two months since he got that track Man is astounding when we go play, astounding because he just
works on his wedges constantly. He went from being a not very good wedge player even by top junior standards, to a phenomenal wedge player by junior standards, collegiate standards, and maybe even low level professional standards, you know, Web dot Com Tour, Canadian Tour standards, like within two months because of TrackMan.
Yeah, I feel like JT is like the ultimate like track Man test case where you've got this one hundred and fifty pound guy, but he swings it so efficiently and like optimizes the launch so he hits it so high and so far. But I mean, like what you just said about the wedge play, that's what the game has turned into. Is if if you're a high level player, if you drive it well and wedge it well and putt well, you're going to be a great player.
Yeah, I think that. I think that I don't even know that you need to drive it that well. In my humble opinion, Anomar, I honestly think that the biggest stat for me for guys that drive it over three hundred yards is distance from the edge of the fairway. You know, how house can you keep it between the white line, the white stakes, can you keep it between the tree lines? If you can do that and you hit it three hundred plus on every T shot, you're
going to have a lot of short iron opportunities. So at that point it becomes about basically your iron play, your one hundred and seventy five yards in play, one hundred and fifty yards and in play, and how good are you from that? From that, from every different scenario in the rough out of the fairway in the first cut, how well can you control your ball? JT does a phenomenal job of that. Tiger does a phenomenal job of that,
and always has throughout his career. And so the game's changed, and I believe that that the single most important factor on the PGA Tour, quite honestly in my opinion, is iron play. Yep, his second shot performance is approach performance. I think that that's one of the biggest determining factors of giving yourself a chance to win week in and week out. You know, as long as you keep the ball within the uprights, so to speak. It's all about the iron play. Quite honestly, you don't have to hit
every fairway now. Obviously, as you get shorter, you know, you start driving it in that two eighty five to two ninety five range. In my humble opinion, you got to hit more fairways, and the shorter you get, the more fairways you got to hit because it gets increasingly more and more difficult the further back you get out of the rough's. That's that's a fact. So so the longer hitters have a massive advantage as long as they can, like I said, keep it between the uprights. Somewhat.
You parlayed perfect into a discussion with Tiger, who led the field and iron proximity approach proximity last week, and that was obviously like the thing that got lost with Tiger is he's probably the greatest iron player of all time. What are your thoughts on Tiger's play and moving forward.
I think he's right where he needs to be he just needs more reps. Quite honestly, the fact that in his third tournament back in real competition, I'm not really going to use the hero as as test for him, I'd have to say, in his third tournament back, to lead the field and proximity to the hole on that golf course in those kind of blustery conditions is pretty amazing. Goes to show you how much talent the man has.
But it also goes to show you how much he understands what he needs to do with his body when it's healthy, to get the club in the position he needs to get it into to hit the shots and create shots. He's a creative genius. And the fact that he's not using anybody for lessons except for himself right now,
I love, love, love, love love. He is the highest level of savant and creative genius that the PGA Tour maybe has ever seen, quite honestly, with his ability to create, create shots, to visualize create shots, he has blended the technical and the artistic better than anybody in the history of the game. Again, in my opinion, and I think that if he's allowed to do that continually, and he allows himself to do that, he's going to be right where he needs to be, and he's going to give
himself opportunities doing tournaments again. The putter looks good the short game. I walked with him for all four days at Tory Pines. It was flat out amazing because any other normal human being on the PGA tour would have missed that cut. Tiger finishes like T. Twenty something, which was again amazing and considering where he was hitting that driver, and so the prospects for him are looking up again. Just reps. It's the competitive flow, caden routine, process, reps.
Everything he talks about that, people go blah blah blah, and the writers just want to pull their hair out. Unfortunately, to the writers, that's all true. Tiger's speaking the truth. It's all about cadence, process routine, cadence, process routine. Every professional golfer has a cadence of process and a routine, and it's getting back into that competitively that makes you who you are. He just needs to get back to that, and once he does, I think the stuff's going to
start falling. I think everything's going to start falling into place, and he's going to give himself opportunities on the back nine to win golf tournaments. He was really close this week.
Yeah, I mean I completely agree with the reps thing, Like I'm nowhere near Tiger, but as a mid am, like I play competitively and every year, like my first tournament out, I shoot like mid to upper seventies, and I'm like, how did I just shoot seventy seven? I hit the ball so good, like but like sure enough, like the next time out it's dramatically better, and it's just like you're like almost like an idiot with scoring. You know, like you hit it well, but like it's
just so you're you're not in that mode. So so like at a high PGA tour level, you've got to imagine that the amount of reps to get back into that form has got to be so high.
Oh yeah, I mean that without health, he can't put the reps in, So that that's the biggest thing for Tiger. But since he basically missed a year, he's got he's got it. He said it best, and I agree with him one hundred percent, is that he's got to find out what his body is going to allow him to do because he didn't know. He's an uncharted territory. You know, for himself, he doesn't know what that fusion is going to do and what it's going to allow him to
do and not allow him to do. But if he can create a pretty good sign that he can create one hundred and twenty four mile an hour club ed speed, that he's healthy and that he could do what he needs to do and he can put the work in. You know, he told me about as we were talking on the fairway in San Diego one hole, and he's got a pretty extensive regimen after every round to get his body recovered. And that's no different than you know, quite honestly me. Now, I understand were he and I
have the same age. I understand what my body feels like after a round of golf, and I don't swing at one hundred and twenty four miles an hour, and I don't have a fuse back, So I know exactly what he's talking about there. I mean, my hand hurts from all the surgeries, my low back's little sore, no doubt.
But he's going to be diligent. He's going to do what he needs to do because this is what he loves to do, and he loves to compete and there's no doubt that if he's able to put the reps in, healthy reps in, that he's going to give him self opportunities to win golf tournaments this year. Whether he gets one or not, Boy, it'd be hard for me to bet against him. Quite honestly, from what I've seen, you know, I think the biggest thing was health. Was he going to be able for me? Was he going to be
able to do it healthy? Was the back going to be his new one hundred percent, which might be you know, his old seventy you know, his he might be seventy five percent of what he used to be or eighty percent of what he used to be, okay health wise, but but it's his new one hundred percent. As long as he can swing a golf club without pain, that's
all I was concerned about. Now he can put the work in to get back if he has the desire to get it, and I think he has the desire to get it back, and that's you know, that's the other big thing, is the desire. So now he can start taking proper steps and getting himself into the hunt on Sunday, and then it's basically now then it gets to the point was two. Does he still have the killer instinct? Because we haven't seen him right right there?
But yet? Does he have that old killer instinct? Now some people are gonna say, oh, come on, Aaron, of course he does not, so fast. This is a different Tiger. This is a different guy than it was in two thousand and six, seven, eight, you know, and nine, and then he had the personal problems and so on and so forth, and that changes guys in a way. And so you know, does he have that same killer instinct that he once had or is he going to have to find a kind of a different way to get
that killer instinct to win. I think that's a question that still has to be answered because he hasn't put himself in that in that crucial position yet with a with a serious opportunity to win with a backdown on Sunday, we're talking like one back to Tide too, in the lead with nine holes to go.
Mm hmm. My cousin asked me this yesterday and I was like, WHOA, I don't know, over or under point five wins this year for Tiger.
Yeah, I'll go over because I do believe he's I do, I really do believe he can get one. I really do. I think he can get one. Uh you know, I'm not going to go out and say it's gonna be a major. I'm not there yet. But you got to also look at the fact that and I got to temper myself a little bit because I'm excited for what
I see for him too. But he also still playing a very difficult schedule where he's playing against the best players, like his old schedule where he was the best playing against the best week in week out, Tory, riv Honda. He's not in the WGCs yet, but Bayhill don't know
what that feels going to live as of now. Then you got the Masters and Memorial, you know, I mean the players, So I mean he's playing kind of is still of his old type schedule that are very difficult golf courses, very demanding golf courses against the best players. Were most of the best players there where there are a lot of top fifty players playing. You know, we called it back in the day. There seems like that
then there still is to a certain extent. But when Tiger was playing his best, there was the Tiger Tour, as I called it, and then the other the regular Tour, and the Tiger Tour was all the events that he was at and he was always playing the best events against the best fields on the hardest venues for the most part. And so and he's kind of doing the same thing now, so that might that might be, it might be a little tougher for him, but I think he can get one.
So I've got an article that is probably going to come out the day we release this podcast, and it's it's kind of about the wgc's. We're talking about the best events in the world. Like, I'm kind of just let down by the WGCs, And I'm curious what your thoughts are because of the golf courses they play and the fact that it's not really a World Golf Championships because they don't really visit any other parts of the world other than the US and China and Mexico.
Yeah, I think you gotta go with the sponsorship dollars. So you got to go, man, I mean, I mean, to be quite frank, you know, money, money talks, and in this in this world, to be quite honest, you know, if if you had control over where you could go, you know, and money was and and the guy with the money said here's all the money for the if any guy, any guy who cares who it is, goes, you know what, I wanted to go to one of the greatest old golf courses, a twenties gem. You know,
Let's go play at the Monacito Club. Let's go play at WGC at the Monacito Club. Or let's go play a WGC at riv in the summertime where it would play firm and fast, it'd be phenomenal, you know. Or a WGC god Forbid at Pebble Beach in the summertime. Oh my gosh, in August or September. Uh, you know, it's a scheduling issue, it's a money issue. There are so many things that go into that.
Andy, Yeah, I'm obviously cognizant of this, of the sponsorship thing.
You are. Yeah, but like i've but it does. It is a little bit of it. It is a little bit of a downer that they don't play as good as golf courses and that you know, Austin Country Club is cute and it's and it's fun and it's a you know, I think it's a peat die, right.
Yeah, it's a pete die. It's a good match play.
Course, it's a it's a great match play place. I'd never want to play a stroke play tournament there, but it's a pretty cool match play place. But the biggest thing, that the biggest issue that I have with with WGCs. I used to have a big issue with the fact that there's there, there's it's it's not at least one hundred and thirty two man field like Phoenix, where there's a I mean, if you're going to play against the best, you know what, make it the top one hundred in
the world. Throw in thirty two guys from their respective money lists. You know, South African Tour, Australasia Tour, Asian Tour, Japan Tour, you know, do that for sure, European Tour do all that for sure. But I always thought, have a cut man, make it legit, have a cut. Yeah, But and then there's something to think about. But you know, again made for TV. They want the stars there all four days, so on and so forth. It's you know, I could sit here and talk about this till I'm
blue in the face. But I would like to see it travel more around the world. But yeah, again, a lot of guys around the world are home based here, they don't want to travel.
My my thing with the like the sponsorship thing is all right if I'm if I'm going to go to a sponsor and I used to sell sponsorships for a living, Like if I was going to say, hey, like, this event's gonna draw like major championship eyes because we've got the best one hundred players in the world playing at Royal Melbourne in Australia during prime time television like awesome.
The the effects of the increased exposure as opposed to like, hey, you know, we're gonna do it on Sunday after Sunday afternoon at Firestone, which is probably one of the most boring golf courses to watch golf be played at. Like the increased in ratings and digital exposure. Like in today's world, they are so great for playing at a great golf course like Riviera gets great ratings and gets a ton of buzz exactly.
Best people want to see the best players in the world play the most story best golf courses in the world. If you, like I said, if you put a WGC at Pebble, oh my gosh, it might blow doors. Because first of all, there's not one guy that's gonna say, I don't want to show up. Everybody's showing up in the top fifty unless they're injured, Okay, and I bet
you some guys try to play injured. So you Firestone. Yeah, I need the gift whenever I hear Firestone and play in Firestone and you talk about it that way, I need the gift of the cartoon character continually hitting himself in the head with a hammer, you know, over and over and over again, because that's what it's like to play Firestone. It's just it's it's boring and it and it beats you up on a regular basis. But more so that's just boring. It's just the same thing over
and over and over again. I would like to see it change venues. I'd like to see I'd like to s s the wgc's change countries more often and play more great of the great golf courses around the world.
And the reason they could do that if they wanted to, is, if you're going to maintain seventy five to seventy eight player fields, it's not an issue of infrastructure because or at least practice facilities, I would think, because most even hell, even San Francisco golf club's range could practically fit a you know, a WGC field on it. Yeah, you know so, and so I would say that, I would say that
that that could be possible. But there, you know as well as I do, there are so many more moving parts to that that we don't have time to discuss here.
Yeah, yeah, I go into a lot of detail, but it's I just think it would be such a cool, cool thing if if the WGCs you keep it, keep an event in Asia, you have a rotating event in the British Islands, and then you have an event that kind of you know, maybe it's the British Isles, South Africa and Australia rotate every year, and you keep an event in in uh, in Mexico and South America, and then the US has one event? Like how cool would that be?
I think it'd be awesome. The only issue is, obviously, well here's the issue that I see. I see the scheduling and then the golf course scheduling Southern Hemisphere wintertime, summertime sort of thing with southern the southern Northern Hemisphere kind of thing. Ye uh, you know, I think more than an even more so than sponsorship money I think it's a scheduling thing. Andy, quite honestly, is where are you going to put those events?
The other Yeah, it kind of screws over the event before.
And after, especially because if guys have got to go to South Africa. I talked to Trevor Immleman. He does that trip a lot, you knows. He said. It's brutal, you know. And obviously I've been the man on the ground in Asia for the Asian events the last three years and for Golf Channel, and I can tell you what the travel is like to go over there. It sucks. It's fun when you get there, but it's it's hell getting there. And then Australia is no different than South
Africa from what my friends tell me. I've never been down there, but it's a long trip to British Isles wouldn't be too bad. Guys on the West Coast had struggled a little more than the guys on the East coast of the United States that is. But yeah, we used to play at the Grove, which was funny enough. Kyle Phillips design for the WGCMX back in the day. Last year it was there, I think it was six was the last year. It was there when AMEX had the sponsorship, and it was it was an okay golf course.
Tiger ran roughshot over the field, shocking, but at least they took it to someplace different. And but the reason they don't is for that reason alone. I think right there, if you could pinpoint on one thing, Andy, it's the field before would get killed and the field after would get killed. And these tournament directors just don't want that to happen. And I don't blame them.
Yeah, that makes sense. I mean it would be the scheduling side of things is the most difficult aspect of it. So with uh, since you've moved from playing to the booth, like, how's your perspective of golf changed?
Oh, it looks a lot easier. It looks a lot These guys are so good, and it's it's, you know, I don't remember it being this easy or looking this easy the way the guys make it look. And there are times I'm sure that I made it look easy myself. I think we all do as professionals at some point in our careers. But I find myself for at times, admittedly forgetting how hard it is and maybe at times being I don't think I'm overly critical of guys. At times I think I think I I think I balance
it out fairly well. But there's sometimes where I think about I go, ah, you know what, I say something that I think about it, and then you know, on the commercial breakout, sit there and go, you know what, that was a lot harder than it than than then I made it sound. And I need to I need to respect how hard it is to hit some of the shots that these guys hit, and they pull off and you lose perspective, I think, to a certain extent when you've been away from playing at the highest level
amount of time. But it's something that's going to happen to all of us because you can't play at the highest level for forever. So it's it's an interesting it's an interesting balance that Golf Channel has to has to deal with with players because no player comes right off the golf course. They've got the knowledge and the understanding and so on and so forth, but they're so raw on TV. They don't understand the and the mechanics of television.
So they're usually not very good on TV until they learn the mechanics and when and how to say things and so on and so forth, but they've got fantastic information. That's the that's the double edged sword, you know, that's the that's the thing where you're like, oh, this guy's he understands perfectly because he was just there. But as you grow into this end of the role, you start understanding mechanics and when to say things and when not to say things, and how to put things and how
to do highlights properly, and the mechanics become easier. But then you you tend to forget how freaking hard the game is at times, and and you can tend to be a little harsher than you should be with some
of the guys. So that striking that balance is important for me as an analyst, whether I'm doing live golf or I'm doing studio golf, and making sure doing live golf is huge for me because it helps me understand on a weekly basis what these guys go through on a regular basis because I'm out there and I see the shots and I see the lies, and I'm right there on the ground. I hear the conversations between the
caddies and the players. I see the looks on their faces when the cameras aren't there, and you can't see him on television, you know, I I and and that brings me back and helps me to understand what these guys are going through on a regular basis, because as players, we've all been there.
Yeah, it's I perspective. So what what shot do you think is like the most underappreciated shot that pros like make look so easy?
Great question, Golly. I think it's all dependent upon kind of from from a player's perspective. I was never a good fader of the golf ball. I was always a you know, my my fade was a two yard fall to the left. So so I think that I think that for me whenever I stand up and watch a guy hit an effortless bomb fade like rom or Dustin and it just doesn't come down and it's the sweetest little ten yard fall to the right with the driver, I'm like, oh God, that looks so easy. Why can't
I do that? For? You know, from my perspective, I look at that and I'm in awe because I could never do that all that well. But for the average Joe sitting at home ten handicap five to well, let's say five to fifteen handicap, and the guys that I play with, that I played with in pro ams, I'd have to say the most underrated shot. Golly, you know, the medium trajectory. This is gonna get real golfy. The medium trajectory, mid mid yarded spinner with.
The wedge kind of like JT hit last night.
Exactly kind of like that. But I see that a guy hit a pat bad drive. He's got to play now, he's got to make a US Open style par. He pitches out from the rough a La Toy pines and he's got seventy five eighty five yards and the pins tucked the front over a bunker, and he throws this gorgeous medium trajectory spinny little floater in there that just comes down like a butterfly with sore feet. One hot stop, comes back maybe three or four feet to inside ten
feet and make it for park. That is an underrated skill on the PGA tour. Underrated.
Those are just underrated pars too, because those are the pars that just keep your round going and that always get lost.
I call them round savers, and they are absolute roundsavers, those that that eight to fifteen footer you got to make for park because you've hit it a a in a dog awful spot. So you know they're all round savers, but that shot in particular, I watch amateurs struggle with that time and time and time again. They just can't they can't hit it. They can't hit it. It's a
very underrated shot. Yeah, I've seen it. I've seen ten handicaps hit the most beautiful lob shots and I go, WHOA, that's pretty cool, you know, from a ten handicap, But none of them can hit that float, that medium spinny floater, that's a seventy five yards.
That's that shot. And then I feel like when I see a guy another shot I love. I always look at like with younger kids when I play in these amateur events, is like, I know, I'm playing with a kid that, like I say, is a high schooler that really knows how to play when he takes two extra clubs into the wind and hits like a choke a little choke flighter as opposed to just trying to taking extra club and hitting it hard and spinning it up.
Yes, yes, and guys, and you know it's funny you come back to now, we come back to the young kids on tour and how their games evolve totally. That's how I can tell Jason Day what did he what did he do when he came out on tour? Andy, everything was nuke. Take one lesson nuked, didn't matter what the win was doing. Take one lesson nuked. Jt same thing,
Take one lesson nuked. Now, both those guys have developed soft arm shots, you know, and that's you have to have those shots if you want to win major championships period. Tiger talks about it. You watch. All you need to do is just go back and look at any of the fourteen majors Tiger won, and just fast forward through all the days and just have them cut out all of the shots of everybody else and just watch Tiger shots and watch how many half swings that or three
quarter swings that guy makes a ton, a ton. You gotta have them. Three quarter cut shots, three quarter draw shots.
You gotta have them, yeah, especially in bad conditions like what wind. I mean if you if you don't have that shot, you're dead. All right, We've already you know, we've covered like half of what I wanted to get through. So I want to get into some overrated underrated and so overrated, underrated the idea of master's prep, oh prep in what regard like you know, well, he's prepping for Augusta by playing here, or he's prepping for Augusta doing that.
Like, dude, that's overrated. You can't prep for a gust of my playing a certain golf course, no way, that's bs no chance. Nothing prepares you for what that golf course is going to throw at you. Geez. Nothing prepares you for the way the golf course changes from Wednesday to Thursday in the span of eight hours. I mean, they can turn the screws on that thing at any time. It's just forget about it, kids, never moving on.
Yeah, it's funny. I talked to Stuart hagasaid he said, he said, he said the same thing about how much of the golf course changes from Wednesday to Thursday.
It all of us do. It did when I played it. I mean, it was just like all of us Tuesday or Tuesday and Wednesday. You go out for you go out for a Tuesday practice round, You're like, oh, okay, hitting the shots, hitting the shots, seeing the ball, the way the ball reacts, Okay, I got this Wednesday kind of the same deal. You play nine holes because they close the golf course down early, you go play the
par three. You wake up the next morning, you hit your first shot into one, and you're like, oh shit, what happened. Honestly, that's exactly your reaction. What happened?
That's uh, that's all right, so overrated masters prep? So what about eighteen hole playoffs timely?
Uh? You know, for our Nations Championship. I'm going to say they're they're underrated, and I'm going to get totally outvoted on this one. But it was something spec. There was something special about an eighteen hole Monday playoff for the toughest test in golf. And I'm hoping the USGA gets back to that the toughest test in golf, because I mean, listen, I was a player. I bitched about how difficult Oakmont was in seven and complained and and
you know what, that's just part of it. And I want to hear players do that again because I don't hear I don't hear enough complaining. And when I hear, when I start hearing more complaining, that's when I know we've gotten back to the toughest test in golf. But I think that an eighteen hole playoff on Monday is worthy of the toughest test in golf for our nation's championship. Quite honestly, some people would say, ah, no, it's not you're not going to get the you know, and now
they probably obviously you know the news. They changed it and it's going to be a two hole aggregate. And I understand why they did that, and I'm sure it'll be great, it'll be fine. They'll finish it on Sunday, which there's positives to that, but I will miss the
eighteen hole. I will miss the eighteen hole waking up the next morning and you know, turning on the TV and sitting down, or guys in the office watching it on there, you know, no eight watching on their computers or wherever they could turn on the TV and watching it. There's something special about that too, in my opinion, Yeah.
I just I don't like the two hole, Like how did you get too?
I honestly think they wanted to be different, Andy, because you got a three hole aggregate in the PGA, you got a four hole aggregate in the open. I think they wanted to be different. That's my humble opinion. If they come up, they give me an If they give me an answer that I can that I can believe, and they're not just selling me something, I'll buy it. But in my humble opinion, I just think they needed
something different. They just wanted to be different than the other, than the other two majors.
Well, you know, they probably did some some big study that nobody ever saw the results of except for a few people.
That's a good point at the point.
Yeah, so I'm I think everyone every golf fan secretly wishes for Monday playoff eighteen holler.
Yeah, yeah, I think I think all the all of us golf nerds who are who are two golf nerds like myself? I mean I did that. I mean I I loved it. I loved I loved watching the one, you know, Scott Simpson and Payne Stewart. I remember that one, Hayler when Mike Donald these are one when I was a kid, loved it. So Rocco, Obviously this is going to be the last one, so I'll miss that'll it'll
be we're losing some nostalgia, you know. Well, well we'll have nostalgia now for that, but we're losing a little bit that I think we're losing a little bit not having an eighteen hole Monday playoff.
In my opinion, it's just an odd thing that like there's so much about tradition and history and like this is one of like the staples and like one differentiator of the championship, and they're just like, yeah, we'll get rid of it.
Yeah. But the way the USGA is going, it's they're there and they're listening finally, which I give them so much credit for, because they're listening to the pros, they're listening to the people. They're listening, and they're they're modernizing to a certain extent. They are, and and I appreciate them for that. I just don't want them to modernize themselves to where the championship itself is unrecognizable. Like no offense to the great people at Aaron Hills. I don't
want to see another US Open at Aaron Hills. I really don't. It's not a US Open golf course. Great PGA course, maybe even a Ryder Cup course, but it's a that's a PGA Championship style golf course, not a US Open style golf course. We need to stick to
US Open nineteen twenties greats. We need to stick to riv Pebble, shinnecock Bethpage Black, even though I don't think they're going to go back there now because I think that's more of a PGA type course, Marion, you know, Marion, Yeah, we need to stick to the old guard in my opinion, and not trick them up so like the way they were meant to be played.
So like a there should be a US Open Rota, just like the Open Roda.
Absolutely there should be a US Open Rota. Don't don't just take some dudes, you know, cash if that's the way it's happening, and go to some place just because you want to be different. Stick to the Olympic Club, stick to stick to the greats, stick to the greats, the ones that have stood the test of time.
I think the other thing other thing that does is that it adds value to the viewer because like two of the most popular events on TV are the Players and the Masters, and that because they're played at the same course, you're in, you're out, big events and they have like like people remember the finishes at those places in the.
Holes exactly so so so how cool is it that every five years you know you're going back to St. Andrews. For the most part, it doesn't stink. It doesn't stink. You look forward to every five years we're going to be at St Andrews or for me this year Carnousti. I love Carnousti. Some people might have an affinity with Mirfield. You know you're going back to Merefield. Well I don't know anymore, but but but maybe hopefully we're going back
to Meerfield, or maybe some guys are. You're a lit them in Saint Anne's guy, so you know, you know you can count on certain ones in that open ROTA. And I'd love for the USGA to do that with the great old golf courses in the United States, And quite honestly, I would love, my humble opinion, I would love East Coast, West Coast, East Coast, West Coast bounce back and forth each year.
I don't know if there's enough courses for that though on the West Coast.
Well, but remember, if it's a RODA, you're fine, Yeah, so you do if you do Tory, Tory riv La Club or I don't know if you could do both those you probably have to do one or the other. Pebble Olympic. So you've got what is that, four or five courses just on the West coast. Yeah, now you do four or five on the East coast, and now you have eight to ten. Maybe you can add a couple more. There's more on the East coast, Yeah, waymore.
You can get up to twelve golf courses. But if you bounce back and forth or every every two years instead of every other year or every three years, every third year, you come back to a West coast course, I think that'd be cool.
You know, I have to say, you're just diss in the Midwest just because I'm a Midwestern If I didn't, if I didn't say something, I was going to hear some heat from that.
You're right, and I don't mean to diss the Midwest, but I but we don't.
I don't know if we really have a great golf course for that in the Midwest. I'm trying to think in Chicago Inverness with the redesign could be one.
Yeah. Is that too short? Though? Still I don't.
I think it's seventy four to seventy five hundred yards.
Work for sure, Yeah, no doubt. I didn't realize they added that much link to it.
I'm not positive though it might only be seventy. I haven't I haven't been out there yet, so but.
Yeah, obviously there's lots of great ones in Chicago, but you know, but I mean Olympia Fields. I was there for the Ladies KPMG PGA Championship last year, and the guys would turn that into a pitching putt.
Now, yeah, in.
The back, even from the back teeth, they're just they ran out of real estate. And that that's obviously leads to another discussion about the ball, but in technology, but.
That's a that's a future pod. I had it on my list of topics and that's not going to wear getting into that.
We're not going to get there today. No, but that's that. Yeah, But I agree, I think there needs to be a rotation. I think that the USGA said in a rotation, I think that that that would be that would be fantastic.
Actually, yeah, and it would be good weather and all those places for it.
Like for the most part, you can still get the occasional stoppage of play on the East coast, yeah, the West coast smooth sailing. You might have to worry about a fog delay here and there, but nothing major.
The West Coast would be so great with it finishing at like nine o'clock.
That that's what I might argument all the time for West Coast events is hey guys, TV people on prime prime time on the on the East coast, you know, for a West Coast event, and I think TV digs West Coast events. But the one thing you don't have to worry about, like I said, other than fog, and you can get the fall I'll get at Olympic or at Pebble or Tory in June.
June gloom, it's no doubt.
June gloom, there's no doubt. But other than the fog, you're not getting lightning and you're not getting rain, so you know, and the fog is somewhat rare to a certain extent, so weather delays would be few and far between in my opinion.
Yeah, so last overrated, underrated, And this was going to be a topic, but we're just gonna throw it in here. The resurgent Phil Mickelson.
Oh God, I always think Phil's underrated. He's just he's so good. I mean, the guy astounds me. He's amazing. Definitely underrated. I think that at forty seven, almost forty eight years old. To be able to still swing it between one hundred and sixteen and one hundred and twenty
miles an hour is incredible. In my opinion. It's a testament to his It's a testament to his desire to continue to work and find things to get better at, which is hard to do it forty seven, forty eight, because I know there are plenty of guys in there early to mid forties that are having a hard time doing that, but and maybe even late thirties having a hard time trying to figure out, you know, motivation to
go out there and work on things. But you know, his hernia surgeries really set him back speed wise, and I didn't know if he was able to ever able to get to be able to get all that speedback from those hernia surgeries. And lo and behold, he's been able to get a lot of it back.
And that hadn't hitting it longer than he ever hit it before in his career.
I know, yeah, I mean a lot of it's a lot of it's you know, listen, you can't discount technology for both him and Tiger. Technology is helping both those boys. There's no doubt the optimization of the ball in the club and the shaft, clubhead and the shaft, without a doubt. Track man helping those boys big time. But but they still got to get in the gym and get it done and put put in hours and hours of work on their bodies at forty you know, forty two and
forty seven years old in Phil's case. And so you know, I'm all in on a Phil resurgence. It's just a matter of can he put it all together? You know, it's all it's been. It's one thing each week. So far, he's so close, but it's one thing each week. It's it's it's either as and luckily a short game. And his putting has been there pretty much every week, which in your forties, that's usually the first thing that goes you get a little you know, YIPPIEI doda around the
greens with the with the putter and the wedges. At times, Phil not not even showing zero signs of that. And but he's just either struggled a little bit off the tea or he struggled with the irons. So if he can, if he can find a week where he puts those two things together, he can win. Yeah, no doubt he can win.
Kind of feeling this week is that altitude. He's always played really well at altitude.
Because he doesn't have to hit a lot of drivers in.
Yeah, and the ball goes straight in altitude, Well.
That might not be a good thing for him. Actually, he likes he likes to see it curve. So one thing about altitude that I think that that that is actually if we're doing underrated or overrated, is underrated. The one thing about altitude, it's hard to curve the ball. Yeah, at altitude because there's less guys who really like to curve it, like Bubba and those guys and like to work the ball. Those guys might struggle a little bit in Mexico. We'll see, We'll have to wait and see.
But that's kind of one of my you know, hypothesis is with the hypotheses, if you will, or theories that I have with guys. So if Phil can adjust to that, yeah, there's no doubt he can. He can win Mexico.
I think he won that. Like what international that you used to get played at?
Uh? He did, Yeah he did, but that was how long agot.
But he was in contention last year too, there, so he was.
Yeah, maybe it's working for him. He understands exactly what he needs to do, So maybe maybe altitude is straightening his ball out for him.
I mean, and it's one of the things, like you know, he's like he thinks about all those different factors of a shadowy and it's perfect for him.
Can you. I wish there was a thought bubble on television above Phil's head filled with all the stuff that's going through it went as he's trying to calculate yardages. That would be classic, that'd be fantastic because the permutations of the algorithms that have to be going through his head to get it, to get all this stuff done. And I honestly, I think it's going to be less with his brother with Tim on the bag than it was with Bones. I almost think Bones gave him too
much information, even though Phil wanted it. I don't think he needed it all. I think that he I don't think Tim gives him all of that quite honestly. Maybe Phil does, maybe Phil doesn't want it, but it sure doesn't seem like it. I don't hear the same conversations with Tim and Phil as I did with Bones.
And philm Bones was an enabler.
Bones was an enabler. I love it. I love it.
So all right, last question and then we'll get you out of here. All you need to give four names who are major champions this year.
Oh well, let's see, I'm gonna go. Gosh, it's hard for me to go against statistics at the Masters, So I'm gonna go based on what Justin Ray sent me. And I'm not gonna name him off, but I'm gonna go with I'm gonna go with Justin Rose at the Masters. God, I hope he putts well because that's pretty much all he needs to do there. And let's see, I'm gonna go a US Open, Shinnycock, I'm gonna go with. I'm gonna go with Spieth at the US Open, all right,
I think he gets his second US Open. I think that's gonna be a great golf course for him, very creative and gonna move the ball around a lot, and short game is gonna be required, and grinding is gonna be required. I think the usg is going to get back to a more traditional US Open setup. But so I think they're gonna allow you some angles they're not gonna allow you all the angles usually get a chinnacock, but they're gonna allow you a few more. See Carnoustie. Oh boy, you need a ball striker.
Yeah, you gotta bring you better, bring your.
Yeah, you gotta bring the you gotta bring up. It's gotta be a big boy at CARNOUSTI I think, oh, let's see Sergia. No, you know, that's the obvious choice, obviously for what happened in O seven, But oh gosh, this is hard. I'm gonna go with John Rahm.
Yes, that's a good peck.
I'm gonna go with John Rahm. He's still he's still, he's still rang and he's got a little ways to go. But on a golf course like that where ball striking is paramount, I mean, you got a nut at around that place. I like John Rong, especially when the weather can turn on a dime like it did in O seven when I was there. Uh, let's see, so it's you got faler gets off the schneid.
Yeah, that's it would be a good place for him. It's uh, that'll be a soft, soft and slow golf course.
Yeah. And my my other choice after him was going to be Rory because it is going to be soft and slow, and Rory's won all his majors on soft, slow golf courses. Yeah, so so I I but I but I like I like Ricky to get off the schneid there and and get the get get his get his first major.
He's kind of hey, he's gotta he's got to get one eventually.
It's it's it's got to happen. I mean it, it'd be it'd be a shame if it if it never did. I think he's got the talent to do it, and he's got the game to do it. He's just got to do it. Yeah, And I think Belle Reeve Is is just as good as any place for him. But I think it gives him an opportunity. The fairways are a little wider, As you said, it's gonna play a
little softer, and so I think a lot. I think the firm, fast, bouncy rollie stuff is is uh isn't going to be there, and it's going to protect some of maybe the occasional wild shot that he's bullet hitting well, even though he's been very, very good with staying away from big numbers of late, which has always been kind of his Achilles heel in the past.
Thanks for coming on. We really appreciate it. And what do you got up next? For Golf Channel so our listeners can tune in and catch you on TV.
I'll be with I'll be with the champions for guys PJ Tour Champions Guys at Tucson this week. I leave on Thursday morning for which will be tomorrow morning if everybody's listening to it, Thursday morning with down there for our production meeting, and then which is nicest about an hour and a half drive or so for me from Phoenix, and then I'll go the following week to Tshiba over Newport Beach for the PGA Tour champions as well. So next two weeks PGA tourch Champions. I like that tour.
It's a lot of fun. Love working with Lanny and John and John Cook and Billy Ray. They're just just a great group of guys to work with and be around.
And Tucson and Newport Beach are too bad spots to have to hang out at.
I'll get great Mexican food one week and great seafood the next week.
All right, Well, thanks a lot for coming on again and we'll talk soon.
Thanks for good calculator, Randy, you've been listening to the Fried Egg podcast. We do the digging for you.