I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. And when I find my ball.
In a brid Egg Frida Egg Friday, Frida Egg Bride, Egg Lie, I'm about ready to run.
Off of the hump.
Welcome back to another edition of the Friday Egg Podcast. Today's episode is our Open Championship preview. So we did five things I think I think Clay's got to five things with golf course architect, former European Tour player and golf commentator Michael Clayton. So Michael has played in three Open Championships at the Old Court, So figured, you know, someone keen to golf architecture as well as the professional game would be perfect for this podcast.
Thank you to Mike for coming on.
It's always great to pick his brain on on the game of golf. He's got just a wealth of stories and history and uh and knowledge. So, without further ado, here is our Open Championship Preview with Michael Clayton. Clayton's You're back and we got the one hundred fithieth Open at Saint Andrew's the Old Course. I know it's a place that you love and I figured it'd be a great time to bring you on to talk a little bit about, you know, the world of professional golf. And
I'm sure we'll touch on the Old Course. But tell me how many how many competitive rounds have you played at the Old Course in professional golf rounds?
To miss cuts to make cut? So I made the cut in ninety nineteen ninety, missed at ninety four, missed at ninety.
Five, three majors, three majors.
Yeah, that was it. So, and I've never played the golf course outside of an open week. I've walked it, but never played it. So I've never actually played it for fun.
It seems like you got to go do that.
I do. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's kind of a train wreck of a course to play in the middle of the day when there are thousands of people out there, and just you know, when you've played it when you're in an open, it's like playing it when it's I mean, it's the craziest place in the world to play golf. It's not like you can go out there at four
o'clock and be on your own. You're playing in a four ball and it's six hours and there's balls going everywhere, and in some ways I just enjoy walking it rather than playing it.
So this is with it being there, I feel like it's a really nice kind of punctuation on the year of golf. I think we've had really really stand out major championships this year, and it's fitting that it's the one hundred and fiftieth Open and it'll be at St.
Andrews.
And for this I did our traditional preview here with five things about about the tournament that you're looking forward to, and uh, why don't you, Why don't you hit me with your first thing that you're you're looking forward to?
Tiger because everyone wants to know the state of Tiger's game. And we finished up watching was it YouTube last night and no wherever it was, I watched that round he played at the McManus thing in Ireland, so swinging looks good. You know. I just think he's the most compelling guy since Sevy who was the you know. So it's everyone's fascinat as to what he's going to do in the
state of his game. How the course plays is the second most interesting thing is how's the what's how's it going to be affected by the equipment, which is really a debate that's ramped up even more since the last Open there, you know it was it was it was a question in you know, twenty fifteen they were already playing the Torment on five different golf courses or four plus an out of bounds him malayas Eden New Old
and the seventeen's out of bounds. So but that debate has only gotten bigger in the in the intervening seven years. So it's a will highlight where the state of the game is re equipment and so much of that is the problem with that debate is that it's so dependent on not dependent on but people fixate on the scores they shoot. So if ninety underwins like it did in nineteen ninety, it's a disaster because well, look the course
is too easy and obsolete and too short. Five years later in ninety five, John Darley shot White five under, So five under one all's right with well, because only five under one, but that's complete. You know, that depends on the way that so you know, it's not asking the question of what the equipment's done. The courses including St Andrews and Roll, Melbourne and Marion and you know the great all courses that were intended to play one why but play another way because the vulgus I.
Fought, those two are are right there. I'm mined.
I'm you know, I'm very fascinated with Tiger for this this tournament. Obviously, you know, we didn't see him at the country club. Last time we saw him at Southern Hills, he made the cut. I mean, I think one of the things that has wowed me this year with Tiger is just like the really resiliency to make cuts. And it kind of makes me wonder about other guys that are in their primes, at the peak of their powers,
that are missing cuts. And it's like this guy, I mean, he's got like one and a half legs and he's out there making baking cuts and you know he's not
playing again tournament golf outside of that. And then at Southern Hills, i mean, the weather turned and it just wasn't a real pretty third round scene, and you know, it makes me wonder about this tournament, like, I you know, part of me in my head this if this goes for the Old Course and and Tiger is like, are both of these courses kind of at the end of their championship day, Like is Tiger and the Old Course kind of coinciding at the end of their championship days,
Like if you know, nothing meaningful is done with equipment, it looks like there might be something done with equipment. We'll see what it is exactly, but you know, are is Tiger's really major championship career? Could this this could be the end? You never know at this point with his body, it would be a fitting one hundred and fiftieth at Saint Andrew's place to say goodbye.
I don't think he will necessarily.
This is all just speculation obviously, But then also like with the Old Course, like this is a place that is a you know, it's a temple, it's a you know, holy grail. It's one of the you know, greatest courses of the world, maybe the greatest and you know, historic championship courses in the world. And like you said, it's the number of places they have to move teas to to fit championship golf in and the way that championship golf has played there now is so far removed from
what it was. You know, the question is is it still a great open venue?
Well, it's a great venue because the venue is more than just the golf course. So is it a great You know, the venue is the town, so it's it's the best venue. So is it the best course? And does it offer a suitable test? Well, you know, there are lots of short part falls out there now, are lots of wet shots and only has two part fives, which is maybe maybe golf needs more part fires, because maybe that's the only way to test a driving a
two on us to build more part fives. But you know it's it's I think it's I would say reverse it and say this is what this is the straw that breaks the camel's back and forces there Ina to do something about the ball. I think, you know, I hope someone goes out there and shoots fifty eight and
makes a mockery of the golf course. I hope Bryson drives it on the first hole and they can see the insanity of what they've allowed to get out of the bag, you know, I mean, how they've let this equipment get to this point when they I mean what scared I think what scared them off was that was we had this ridiculous argument about grooves in ping irons essentially made no difference to certainly made no difference to half other ball went, but that case spooked them so
much they just kept putting off and I were too scared to band the driver head size that They've been terrified by the threat of lawsuits from the ball manufacturers, and they've just done nothing for this has been a problem for twenty years now. But I think at some point. I think at some point they're going to have to do something because you and America will see it more than me because they are just because it's a numbers game.
But you know that there's a ten year old out there and a twelve year old out there that's tomorrow's four hundred yard driver unless they do something, because it's not going to just stop going further. And I've long argued that the freak in one generation, and that freak now is who is it, Camon Champ, is that Nie and Bauer? This African kid is at Bryce and they've always been the norm. In the next generation that all,
they've always become the norm. So how does the game manage a norm of three hundred and fifty oard average drives? Can't it can't function or work on any course. And Andrews or raw Melbourne or Carnusta or Augusta or no course can function when the scale is that far out?
How would you say?
What?
What hole out there?
Or A couple holes have changed the most with modern technology from when you played it and opened, well.
They've moved the teas back so farther. The fourth is I haven't played the fourths obviously since ninety five, so for twenty five years, but it teas back so far now that looks like such a long, incredibly difficult hole. So I start on the team, go the hell do you play this with less than a drive and a two one? But then you go play with kids and you hit a good drive and they hit it eighty yards further than you do, and you go, well, that's
how they play it. So it's hard to you know, unless you're out there watching them playing in them and seeing how they play it, it's hard to imagine how difficult is that hole is going to be? What can you do with holes like six and seven and you know nine and ten and twelve and sixteen and eight, and you can't make them any longer. They're just drives
and pitches, drives and wedges. So yeah, it's unusual. If you're building a golf course now, you would never build as many short part fours as they build on the old course. I mean one short, three, short, six, was short, seven, eight, nine, twelve, eighteen, sixteen, were all kind of short part fours. So no one would compile a group of holes like that and put them under one course now, no matter how great they are.
So it's I'm convinced they're going to do something at some point, They're going to do something about the ball because they have to.
Yeah, you know, at some point something has to be addressed.
What you know with regards to the with regards to the golf course, and I know this is you know what you consider the greatest golf course in the world to be the greatest golf course in the world.
What's your what's your.
Favorite memory or the one you think about, like is there a shot that you played in your majors there that you think about the most over the years, Like, is there a shot you remember the most?
Well? Two The first was the second hole in No. Eighty four I put I pulled the drive over in the bunk away on the left. And the first lesson you should learn about links golf is if you're in a bunker, get out, And it was kind of a nice lie a lot of downslope, not that high a lip. I can get there with a seven nine straight into the face, nine nine straight in the face, Sam Way
jat sideways triple. So I remember that is you know, the first just get out, just cost you a shot, get out, and the second was playing with It was a freak draw. The drawing nineteen ninety was supposed to be Payne Stewart, Bernard Langer and Larry Nelson right before the tourment like on Monday, Larry Nelson with drawers, and I would I was the second qualifier. I'd played well that year on tour, so they stick.
Me in the in the group unbelievable.
So it's Stuart Langer, Clayton, what's going on here? It was like ridiculous. So Bernard and I were Payne was obviously playing well, we finished second that week. He was playing well, Langer was not playing well. I was playing well. So we were both one under, playing seventeen on Friday and the cut was going to be even. So I thought, well, I can make a bug in a part, It'll be fine. End of the wind three iron shot. I flew it into the bank at the front of the seventh green
and propped it and ran up to about fifteen feet. It was like an amazing shot and Bernard did pretty much the same thing. So we made fours there part of the last and the cut finished up going to one forty three. It was the first underpart whatever in a major. I think that was kind of a cool shot. But yeah, one good memory of one bad one, but it was it was It was fun to play with those guys. You kind of was a That was an unusual draw for me and a major for sure.
Yeah, well, what was that like being in a major?
You know, it being we see it happen all the time, where you know somebody wd's you get out of that group. Do you remember, like what was the difference in the feel of a major at that And I'm sure, like you know, you had events where you were in high profile late Sunday pairings, but when it's a Major championship, how's that different?
I remember? Really, I mean again, you just kind of you're into what you're doing. I remember walking on the first tee. I was with Squirrel who was cutting for me, Squirrel who carted for Jeff Ogilvy when he won the US Open. I walked on to the first tair looked at but I said, you guys must be nervous playing with mid today. But yeah, it was that were great to play. I mean, Pain was that. It was. It was a It was a really cool group to play with. Bernard was you know, there were two cool guys to
play with. It wasn't like that I felt out of place or you know, they didn't treat me any differently from they would have treated Larry Nelson. It was it was just it was fun playing with him. And there's always kind of you know, I don't know what it is, but there's always more angie or more something around a group like that, you know, partly because you don't want to make a fool of yourself, and you tried desperately
not to. I played decently enough that you know, I walked off the last screen, and at least I didn't think I was a complete hack. But it was fun and Pain played. I remember how beautifully Paine played. He was using that beat, that that way or Wilson Driver, and he played beautifully for two days the Wheel.
I didn't think we were going to talk about the wheel, but that's you know, old school, old school club that not everybody listening to this will be even be aware of. With Tiger, you know, we kind of breezed over what are your expectations? What do you expect out of Tiger this week? You know, and I always preface this with saying anything it does would surprise me.
But I'm curious what you what you think?
No, well, Shack and I did a state of the game played last week where I said, of course Tiger
can't win, and he said, well, why can't he win? You? Well, you know, we've spent I mean, I thought in nineteen ninety six, it was, you know, there's no way this guy's going to make enough money to make a card for nineteen ninety seven and of course Yah won twice, and so we've we've spent twenty years underestimating what he could do and how great he was until he until kind of s Andrew's and Pebble Bee Well, well, Augusta in ninety seven, it was you know, that was the
first time. But once he'd done s Andrew's and Pebble Beach in two thousand, you could never underestimate how great he was and what he did. It's interesting to look back at his career now, you know understand that we lived through one of the you know the greatest eras Ian the Jones era, the Nicolas era, the Hogan era and Tiger and it was, you know, we're all lucky
to incredibly lucky to see him play and play. I saw him play some inside the ropes a couple of times, the last round at beth Page in two thousand and two, the last two days at Hoylake, and the and the singles at the at Royal Melbourne and the President's Cup, and it was, you know, golf beyond belief. Really only in my time only watching Sevy was close to being as good.
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Now back to Michael Klay.
A thing I'm watching is, you know, over the years, I think this goes a lot with the weather conditions, the courses, the architecture, the firmness of the turf. The Open is an older, older guys tournament. You know, we see a lot of older players win Open championships. If you go down the list like that, the average age of winner is a lot older. So that's something with with with us in an unprecedented youth cycle. That's something
that I would like to see, you know. Is something I'm just watching, is are we gonna are we gonna get a guy that like bags his second major or an unexpected you know, add on to a two time major that's a little bit older in the in the tooth like a you know that. That's something that I'm watching this week.
Yeah, I mean, it always amazes me when I watch Adam Scott play. It's like, why isn't he still He always looks like he plays beautiful and he's played now a bunch of opens. There's no reason why that course doesn't suit him. Is he the sort of old guy who could jump up and have a great week and win? And kel Nagle won the Open there in nineteen sixty he was forty years old and one of the most amazing stats ever in golf that no one ever let
him know about, let alone talk about it. It was the fifth major he ever played, and he was forty years old and he won the Open. So whilst he was old, he was he had he was young in golf terms in terms of and he was he top tender pretty much through the sixties in the open.
Well, yeah, you just could see, you could see, you know, somebody just popping a win and it wouldn't be a surprise, right. There's so many great guys, great players, long jevity type players in their like late thirties, early forties, Adam Scott, you know, you've got Justin Rose, who's been playing good golf lately. You've got you know, I don't think Sergio is gonna do it. He hasn't done much of anything since he won the Masters. But you look at that
that age group of players. Even you know Mark Leishman, he's not exactly old, but he's older, you know, and has played well at the at the at at C and Andrews almost one in twenty fifteen.
Yep, no doubt. I mean Louis, I mean Louis got I guess he got a little lucky with the draw, but I mean he still plays beautifully. And you know, there are as always it's the it's the course that throws up the most number of possible guys who can win, really because there are so many different ways to play it. And you know, Pennet Thompson's view in nineteen ninety five was he told me on Wednesday, he said, John Dai will win here because you'll hit us, said it over everything,
and he did. And Day's record in the open to that point was terrible. But he found a course where he could hit it over everything, and he hit it over everything and beat Rocker and Michael Campbell. So so there was that. You know, you look at Rocker, Campbell and Daily and Leishman, Johnson and Louis. There were you know, six guys you finished up, you know, threatening to win and playing off and opening and they're kind of wildly
different games. And you know, at that point they weren't the best players in the world, but they they played great golf and during the week. So it's you know, it's a we'll see.
So what's your what's your third thing?
Well? I think this is because I saw it because he posted it decade How decade works there, Scott force it because this is the ldimate disrupted this course for you know, the mathematical formula of playing golf courses, and it's you know, at seven, you know, he put up a picture of seventeen which was take driver and at sixty two yards White it's too eighty and sixty two
yards white, take a driver and aim it here. So, you know, as much as I detest the fact that you can distill golf down to a mathematical formula, I kind of understand that on most courses you can. And this is the ultimate disruptor, this golf course for his system. But a lot of interesting to see how it works and how I mean, you probably won't know how many guys are using it, but you know Zella Taurus is
and you know Bryson probably is what Bryson is. So it's interesting to see how that plays out, how that that formula. You know, can you play St Andrews in a formula way with a computer and a Google map and a protractor and hes you play the golf course? Does it work? Yeah?
I think one of the things that I'm curious about is the firmness of the turf and what that does.
You know.
Obviously, I remember with decade with the USAM abandoned. You know, I think he I think Scott Faucet send a tweet out it was like this is a driver everywhere of course, like or something along those lines. You're gonna hit driver everywhere and then I was watching the Usam and it was irons everywhere because the firmness of the turf and the way that ball just runs, you know, And that will be the interesting aspect of like you know, mathematically, when you look at it, it's like, Okay, I can't
hit my driver this far. But we've seen in so many opens guys reached bunkers that they didn't think they could ever get to in very crucial spots like the seventy second hole of an open, where they hit you know, they're just pumped up and the turf's running and the ball gets to a bunker they never thought in a million years that they would reach.
You know.
That's the the I think the equalizer with links golf, along with the wind, you know, and what that to particularly young players, And you know that mathematical not hitting different shapes of shots. Is this one stock kind of shot type of mentality.
Yeah, I just teed up and hit as far as you can. And it's in some ways it's such a tempting place to do that because you can get so close to so many greens. The ultimate case of I mean that bunker that Norman drove it into. It true in the playoff I played that week, the bunker was never a consideration. It wasn't remotely close to being in play. And because no one almost no one walked back to that tea, because that tea was so far back at true.
I mean Wayne Grady, who I stayed with that week, was in the playoff and as soon as Greg hit that drive, Calcu and I just said a great shot and we was walked off. It was just a great drive and couldn't believe where it finished. It was just beyond belief that that thing went into that bunker. So you're right, that's the that's the you know, it's the mystik of the links and why they're so interesting and
why they're you know, a bunker. That's you know, the Arni l story about those bunkers at Millford on the fifth hold that why the hell are they there? And then he comes around three days later and the things straight into the window. Now I know why they're there, you know. So it's no right. It's golf like no
other golf. It's like tennis on a clay court, which I never understood until Paul Mcam, a great tennis player, explain to me why clay court tennis was the equivalent of links golf, why it was so much more nuanced than hard court tennis or grass court tennis, and why it was the most interesting and the best form of
the game. And he drew that straight parallel between clay court tennis and lynx golf, which you kind of wouldn't think that, but he said, you know, you really find that who can play when you watch people playing a clay court, and you really find that who can play when you watch people player on the links golf course.
I think, you know what thin I'll parlay off this.
One of my things is I've got will zel Torris along with Rory Baceleroy. These both these guys have three top tens and all three majors. Zel Torus obviously has been extraordinarily close to the last two.
I think I watched a ton of him.
At at the the country Club, and I did. I mean, I think in terms of young talent, he's got the widest array of shots from Teter Green. I think, I just I'm so impressed with his with his striking, you know, the the the iron play that like of all the young players, I feel like, if it gets really windy, he's the guy that I actually like a lot because of the way he can control his trajectories and and
different things. And obviously I think some of that, you know, I don't know how you agree if you agree with this, but the other thing with wind when it's windy, short game kind of becomes important, and that could be you know, a spot where like a guy like Scheffler thrives. But the you know, the other thing with Rory on this point of the three top ten guys is I, you know, I feel like Rory was really in the crux of the live stuff the last two majors, between the PGA
and the US Open. I mean, there was very peak peak live and things have started to play out a little bit more. I think there's less pressure there.
But also.
I just don't think he's in the same position that he's in at the Masters and this and and I don't know, something about this year, the way he's played and it being the one hundred and fiftieth at Saint Andrews like makes me think that we're gonna get an all time winner, you know, just something you know, maybe it's the romantic of me, but like it feels like a Rory Maceleroy win would be just apropos this.
Week, and he's when we were talking about the five things you you know, were that have going on interest us this week. Rory's really almost at the top of the list with Tiger. What's What's I mean? I watched him. I haven't seen him play much. I've seen him pay. I saw him playing Australia. In fact, he played, he played in the open when he was a kid, he straight open when he was sixteen. But I watched him play. He was here in the twenty and forty or fifteen mile,
I can't remember. In fact he won, he buried the last and Adam Bogan it and he beat him by shot. I was a standard of how good he was, and he was he won four majors at that point, I think, and it's beyond belief that he hasn't won one since. How's that possible? And you know, and we watch him play and it's like, how's he going to mess this one up? And surely you can't keep not winning if he was as good as that, and you put yourself
in that position. I mean, he seems like he's gotten around playing that miserable first round and taking himself out of it on Thursday. He's played some great opening rounds the last couple of Majors, So I just kind of imagine that Roy McRoy finished his career with four Majors and not not. I mean I would bet on eight. So I just think he's that good a player. But you know how as each one, as each subsequent year and major goes on without him winning, won't it's gotta be tough for him.
Well that's the thing too. It's just the pressure that adds with every miss, you know, and every close call. And I think, you know, like everybody was writing there, like you know, everybody kind of talked about how the Masters was such a big deal for him, finishing second and walking away happy like he couldn't have walked away happy coming in his side, like you know, you know, like that when you're that elite of a player, like I know he said he was happy, like he's shot his best rounde ever.
But it was all that.
It's always all the other things that you know, you think about. You get done with a four round tournament, and you know, you remember every little micro moment and every time you just you gave one away. And I think That's been the big thing with with Rory over the years is just the his game just doesn't seem quite as tidy as others in majors. And there's the
there's these lapses and these three whole stretches. And but that being said, I do think he's playing as good of golf as he's played in a very long time. You know, he's he's you know, he's had some runs of great golf and this year has been one of those runs. And and it just it seems like the moment, like if I was going to pick it out right winner this week, I might pick I think I've gonna pick Rory.
I'm gonna have to pick.
Somebody different for like by one and done zem in, but because I've already taken him.
But like I like Rory this week.
Yeah, and he played what he played. He got caught in the wind. That was it. They opened Louis One where he shot sixty three the first round and then got the horrible start of the draw and shut a shot a high seventies in the second day and finished up you know, that far behind. But it was only that one day that Yeah, I mean, I just you know, he's I mean his thing always looks great to me when you watch him play in Canada and you think, well,
of course he's the best part in the world. But if it was the best parande in the world, he would have won one major in eight years, wouldn't he. So that's why it's why it's such a fascinating game. You know, that's a that's a conundrum of the gun. I how can when when when Tom Watson walked off the eighteenth Green in nineteen eighty three, and you know, if someone had said that's the last major he's going to win, you would have been what are you talking about?
Because he's the best part in the world. He's thirty four years old. Same with Arnold Palmer in nine to sixty four Augusta. It was inconceivable that was going to be the last major he was going to win, as it would be inconceivable that the PGA that Rory won at Valhalla was you know, if someone said, if someone when he walked up that green said in the dark, that's going to be the last major that guy's going to win, it's like, well, you completely crazy, of course it's not.
I mean that's the thing too, that's the kind of.
I think one of the the fallacies that we fall into every time we get a guy that wins one, you know, John Rahm at last year's US Open, it's like, well, like, could this guy win five majors? Like is the media thing? And it's, you know, it's hard to win two majors. It's there are a lot of great players that don't get two majors. There are a lot of generational talents that get to like, look at Dustin Johnson and his
career at majors, How's that guy only have two? You know, like it feels like he should have five or six and he only has two? And will he ever get another one? I don't, you know, I don't think he will.
I mean, how does Fred Couples have one? How did Fred Couples, Hell Sutton, John Bobby Klamp at Marco Amira have three between them? I mean it's beyond imagination that. I mean, my contemporaries that were the best colleges plays in America when I was growing up, And how is that possible? As good as they were, and Sevi and Felder finished up with eleven between them.
It's so hard to win majors. And I think it gets harder when you go through these lapses, when you have the droughts like once once in your mind, like I it's one of those things you want the young talents, you want them to pick one off early, because then if they don't pick one off early, it's all of a sudden you start to get worried that it may never happen because of the scar tissue that comes from coming close and falling up and falling short so often.
Because you know, when you think about golfers, is like, there aren't a lot of golfers that have more than a ten year window of really good golf. For most guys, it's five years, like you know that of really great golf. And you know they're the people, the players with more of more than that window. They're they're just generational players.
You know, yep, doubt it's a golf Tourments are hard to win. They're really hard to win. You know, it's easy to sit back and say you should have done it. It's like comes down to that when you've got to get it done, which shows how it only shows how
great the great guys were. Tiger the obvious One, Tiger Jones, Hogan Nicholas, you know, shows how great that they could just pick them off and in a part, in part they picked them off because they knew that that was what was going to happen to the other guys, and very often it did.
So we both I think we both dispensed of four. I'm guessing that we probably share a fifth here. We've we've shared almost all five. We didn't talk about these before, okay, and uh, I'm guessing live is on your list? Is the fifth one? The Lift Tour and the PGA Tour and and what might happened that week or do you? Did you keep it off?
I know I kept it off. I'm so over it. I just I think history will in ten years will know how it's played out. I don't think anyone has any idea how it's going to play out. That is what it is. I don't know. I don't think. I don't history's going to I think there'll be a whole
lot of unintended consequences. Hopefully one of them is the PGA tour gets out of November and December, unlets the rest of the world have some time to play their own torments in their own countries without destroying the mean the Australian Tour has been destroyed by the wrap around tour, and not entirely that, but the fact that Leishman and Smith and Cam Davis and our best players are kept behind after school to play because they want to get off to a good start the following year's kept them
out of playing in Australia and it's just trashed out tour, you know. So if one of the unintended consequences is the PGA Tour gets out of November December, that'll be a great thing. And I've long argued, because I was a disciple of pretty much everything Peter Thompson ever thought and wrote, was that this should be a great tour outside of the United States, and that was what he tried to start. My bitch with Greg is that Greg's twice now done it for the benefit of Greg and
what Greg's thinks should happen. Peter was doing it to try and create jobs for players outside of the United States, and he started the Asian Tour basically, he skipped the
US Masters one year to play the Indian Open. He played the European Tour, the Japan Tour, the Australian Tour, and the Asian Tour primarily as the best non American player for fifteen years and brought those tours to life really because he and Colnaga were the big stars in Australia and they know they've created those tours, and golf outside of the United States went otherwise, who knows what would have happened. So the best thing that could happen
for the game would be a great World Tour. You know. Everyone's argument is the source of the money and the number of players that are playing it. If you're gonna have a great world too, I can't be forty eight players. It has to be one hundred and fifty players.
That's I mean, I think that's a wonderful I think that's one of the holes of of live is obviously
the small player field. Like if the bigger you know, I think they have to have a feeder tour, they have to have a lot of movement up because otherwise you'll just get guys up there that are that are dead weight, like you know, you nobody would want to see, you know, two years play out of a guy losing his game, you know, and just being at the bottom of every leaderboard every week and wondering why he's there.
But I think one of the bigger things with Live this week is is just like, is this the is this the last normal major championship?
Really? Right?
Like?
What what are exemptions going to look like next year? With a World Golf rankings and everything? Like, you know a lot of guys that were used to seeing the majors might not be exempt into majors next year.
Yeah, because yes, So the biggest question, one of the biggest questions is do they give them the the World Golf rankings give them points. So if they don't clearly the guys who are not otherwise exempt, like DJ's exempt obviously for a bunch of years and Bryson, I guess, but Kopka. But the guys who are just what once they're top once out of the top fifty, how do they get back in? You know, that's the question. But
Rory and Rory hinted at it. But at some point is there a compromise and that everyone kisses and makes up and who knows? I mean, that's why it's so interesting.
I think, So what's your what's your fifth thing?
If I was an Australian, it would be on a whole heart did the Australians play because they've always there's always generally been an Australian in there with a shot to win. So which one of them is it? So that's purely out of self interest. But you know, cam Smith, Scott Leishman, we've got a bunch of guys playing this.
I should know Matt Griffin who qualified from Asia. Sorry a torment no, no, no, the vic Open, the Victorian Open here got three spots, which was kind of bizarre because because we didn't play in the Australian Open last year, so they gave those spots of the Victorian Open. So Matt's from Melbourne, a friend of mine, so he's playing. So, you know, from a purely selfish point of view, my interest is in how the Australians play that.
Camp Smith I think one of the most more fun you know, top ten players in the world to watch. You know that he gets it done differently. He's obviously added a ton of distance, he's gotten so much better with the with the striking, but that that that short game, you got to think, with the firm conditions, tight turf, that's a that's a good spot for camp Smith.
Yeah, yeah, he's a remarkable. I saw him when the Straien Amateur. He was five down after fourteen holes in the morning, and you know, the kidd he was playing looks so much better, hit the ball, further, better swing, just look And wasn't that impressive because we only watched him for fourteen holes and to go five down by the time he walked off the sixteenth green in the afternoon winning three and two. When you kind of pulled apart how he played, it was incredibly impressive. It just
didn't look that impressive. And he's just been the same way his whole career. He just doesn't he doesn't look like Rory or Kepka, or he just doesn't look obviously Greg Norman or se doesn't look obviously impressive. But if you really watch him play and study how he plays, he's incredibly impressive and he keeps doing it.
So who's your pick to win?
I think Rory? I mean, I mean, but I always picked Rory because I just because he always looks like the best player to me, and it's always like, surely this is you know, surely this is going to be the one, and I think we're all guessing it. It was.
It was much easier in the seventies. This is sound like an old bitching guy here, but it was much easier in the seventies when the Open pretty much identified the best player in the world every year because it was Simon and Balada and still and it was hard to play in the wind and only the very best players won. Wis Golf was the best player in seventy three. Jack was always the best player, so he was always there.
Treno was playing the best golf in seventy one. Miller was coming at the end of that amazing US Open seventy three, four, five, seventy six, but he was the best player in seventy six. And you know, so if you're picking the best who, I mean, who's the best player in the world, now, it has to be Ry He always I mean, Chef was number one, but he's
he the best player in the world. I mean, I mean, I know you you watched him play it Brooklyn and said, it just doesn't look that the ball comes off his club. It's just not that impressive, Right, I'm gonna have a sitting play on TV. It's like, how's this got How's this got the best part in the world? But is.
That's it?
You know.
I said that, and then somebody was telling me.
Somebody was telling me that it's because he uses Tailor Made clubs, that that that's the sound. But I when I listened to somebody else playing Tailor Made clubs, it doesn't sound like that.
It just like it's this weird.
It sounds like he hits them fat, almost like it's like fat and clunky, and then it ends up like four feet away from two twenty and you're like, wait, like is that really like it's funny. I got text from some other some caddies around the tour that were like, dude, I totally know what you're talking about. Like, you know, you hear him hit the ball and it's like you think he like toe hooked it into the into the junk and it ends up ten feet and you're like, wait,
how did that? But yeah, I you know, if I was gonna say who's I think Justin Thomas impresses me the most. Justin Tom and I would say I think Xalataurus outside of putting, really impresses me too. Like those two guys I think are on a different level when it comes to their shot making capabilities in terms of being able to really control distance, height, shape, everything. They got all the shots in their bag.
Yeah, of course if you don't, Yeah, you've got to see them play to see what they're like. I watched Bobby klamp I played, I played with Clamper down here in nineteen eighty one, and he was they kind of some I've never seen xalators play, but in some ways they seem like the same player. I watched clamp A play Naty one. I mean, he was a flusher. He just crashed it, beautiful player. He was gonna be there, you know, he was going to be an unbelievable start. Yeah,
and you know it went away. But you know they almost you know, kind of thin Californian kids, blonde hair, great hitters. So as bad as Zlato's short punting struck looks. You haven't missed that many, does he?
No, No, not anymore.
I mean I think I think one of the other things I really like about Xalatorus is is his swagger.
You know, like he he when you see you see him, the way he moves, the way the way he reacts like it doesn't he never gets too high or too low, and and it just he's got you know, he honestly has that that cocky, that quiet cockiness, that arrogance that so many great players have, like where where they know they're better than the guys they're playing with, but they don't they don't say it, but you can tell when they the way they move around that they are better players.
Like it's just you know, like you see, you're hard to talk to you because you were, you know, growing up, you were probably one of the better players always. But you know, he reminds me of when you're in junior golf and you knew, like the great, the great player in the date is on the putting green and just the way they move around to putting green versus everybody else on the putting green. And I think xel Taurus kind of has that mojo about him where he knows.
He talked about how he believes at Brookline, how he believes he belongs there. I kind of read into that as him saying, I know I'm better than most guys out here.
Yeah, And it's just when you're that, you know, the evidence is there. You watch the shots you hit, and you watch the other shot, the shots the other guys hit, and you can just see that you're better that was it. Bobby Jonesy's was it? Giants said that it's always good to have a song or unsaid contempt for the ability of the other man, you know, and I mean Sevee
was like that because Sevi could Greg. They knew that were better because they could they could see the shots they could hit that the other guy couldn't hit.
That's why the majors are the most fun.
Yeah, yeah, and it's why that it's why the game would be better if it went to better courses more often. You know, you know, we can see how much better the golf was it, you know, Augusta, Southern Hills, the country Club and presumably the old course. You know how how great the golf is because because the stage is
so great. You know, you go to the average PGA tour course or the Mount Juliet and go, okay, you know, it's just it's a place to play golf and it's a nice golf course, but it's not really doing it.
But we're preaching to the choir here. But you know, you watch Tiger play at Roy Melbourne in the President's Cup when Tiger was old at twenty nineteen Presidents Cup, and he wasn't playing much golf at the time, and he was clearly the best player there because because the course showed off the things that he could do that
the other guys couldn't. That's why you need the great stage, and that's why golf needs to stop playing down the motorway for twenty five million dollars and ten million dollars, needs to start going to better golf courses, and it needs to start regulating the equipment so he can go back to better golf courses and they're relevant again, you know.
So they're that that along with so the equipment and the architecture and live and the compromise that we've got to make, all the compromise that the game is going to have to make to manage those three things are the most important questions of the next ten years, really, and it's going to take people with a high golf IQ to manage it. Not manufacturers and not administrators, but you know, administrators listening to people with high golf I
cues as to why this needs to be controlled. And someone needs to tell the PGA too, why they need to go to better golf courses and not just the same formula thing week afterward week because I don't know about you, but so many of my friends just say, I just don't watch golf anymore. I'm not over. I'm so bored with it. When's it interesting anymore?
Yeah?
I think, I mean, I think that's the that's kind of where it's headed when it when it becomes so homogenized and you know, every week is the same on the PGA tour. I think that's the kind of the that's what they've you know, they tried to add all this and they thought, oh, make it uniform would be
a good thing. But reality, what they were doing is stripping away the history and and the quirk and the the neat things about a week in, week out stops on tour and and that's where they find themselves now with you know, a huge competitive threat. And and as you said, I I can't add anything more to that. That was a beautiful closing statement. That's the great Mike Clayton. Thank you so much for coving on and UH and talking about the the old course and the open and UH.
And we people can find you on to Twitter and on Instagram.
Uh.
Your you're writing is on Golf Australia, UH mostly and uh, you know, just all time, all time golf mind.
You're one of the golf mines that that the administrator should.
Be talking to I should be.
Thank you for listening to another edition of the Friday podcast that was our preview for the Open Championship.
Early this week.
For the Open, I've got a special episode. I think it'll be really neat. It's gonna we're gonna go in depth on preparing for the Old Course with a player and a caddy. So I'll let some more details come out later, but really excited about that episode. And uh, I'll also probably give some thoughts on the Old Course of first time visiting and there. So thank you to Meg Atkins for producing and editing this podcast as well as Fridays.
She's doing an awesome job. Thank you, Meg.
And a quick reminder, we have some Open Championship gear. I hope there's still some there. We've got Tartan Seamus headcovers and yardage book covers as well as ballmarkers with a special Saint Andrew's logo.
And then we have T shirts.
We have regular T shirts, long sleeve T shirts with a cool illustration on the back, as well as our Saint Andrew's logo Fridagg Logo, so you can get those at proshop dot Thefridagg dot com.
And thank you for listening to the Frida Egg Podcast
No.