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fifty dollars get free shipping in the US. Again, that's fifteen percent off with code tfe at Gooder dot com slash tf E look good golf Gooder. 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 bride Egg, Frida Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg, fridagg, Frida Egg, brigg Frida Egg, bride Egg, Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the hump. Hello
and welcome to the Frida Egg Podcast. My name is Garrett Morrison and I am here live at the twenty twenty two PGA Championship with Meg Atkins. Meg, you work for the Friday Egg. I'm not actually sure what your title is. I start every episode with fellow Frida Egg employees by asking them what their title is. What is yours? Technically miscellaneous.
Shellmate? You know, general shellmate at the Frida Egg. Yeah, not too good at titles here at the Frida Egg, are we No?
Not really well so, Meg, this is your first time on the podcast, so welcome, very exciting to have you on. You are here at the PGA Championship with me. We are the representatives of the Friday Egg at this event at Southern Hills We've been here since Wednesday, so we got to walk around the course a little bit on Wednesday, and the first round on Thursday has just happened. It's wrapping up right now. I think the leader board is pretty much set. We're sitting here in the media center.
We're in Radio Boo booth number three or four, I'm not sure which one it is. Five wherever we are, we're right next to Kevin van Volkenberg, who is currently recording an episode of The Shotgun Start with Andy Johnson and Brendan Porath. So that's just to set the scene for you here. But we're looking at the big board right now. It's on TV, so players are finishing up. But I think things are pretty much going how they're going.
So how was your day in general? What was like the structure of your day?
The day was fantastic. Got out here pretty early and immediately went out. Obviously, Tiger Speeth Rory we're out early and I was able to follow them for a few holes and then I kind of set up shop at seventeen. When we got here yesterday, we kind of went out in the evening. Crowds had cleared out and it was
a lovely evening stroll kind of getting ours. You've been out here before, my first time seeing Southern Hillston in person, so it's great to kind of get my bearings and walk the course and see, you know, get a feel for everything before all the craziness today. So seventeen kind of caught my eye, just so much going on on
that short little par four. So I kind of set up shop there and watched the first six seven groups come through this morning, and I think the longest approach, what I think I saw, was around one hundred and twenty five yards or so, so you know.
They were all kind of pushing up to that zone of that hole that is kind of it's all part of this extended green complex. There's a bunch of crazy undulations around it, and there's a creek that runs through the middle of it, and all the shots were kind of ending up there, so there was like these half wedges and all that kind of stuff.
Yeah, and so I watched seven groups, so twenty one players. Everyone in the fairway except for two and one Birdie is what I saw. So I saw short long right left spinning off the front. I mean that pin was up close, you know, barely hanging on that front left edge, the trap right in front of it, and for you know, a half little wedge shot. It just was proving to be pretty darn difficult for everybody. And I watched her in the media center, JT and Ricky and kind of
afternoon wave and Harry Higgs just flew the grain. So I don't think it was easier harder morning to afternoon, but a pretty perplexing little hole. And there's so much more they can do with it too, with different pin locations and move the tea up maybe and see if people still pull driver. There's just trouble everywhere too. So that was a great, a great start to the morning. Kind of came inside and then followed the supergroup for
the afternoon, which was just a thrill. I mean, still coming down from.
It, Tiger sith Rory. Yeah, you followed them for their back nine, which was the front nine of the course.
Yes, yeah, it was unreal cool but yeah, I mean we'll get into it, I'm sure, but some some highlights to talk about for sure.
Yeah. Cool. Yeah, So my my basic approach was to I followed a group in the morning through the back nine and then followed another group another group through the front nine, and so in the morning I followed Victor Hovland, Will Zalatorus and Cameron Smith, who were the group in front of Tiger spith Rory. So I kind of avoided the insanity, but I saw a few of the shots from the from the Supergroup when I was looking back.
And then in the afternoon I went along with John ram H Scottie Scheffler and sorry, the third one is escaping me right now. Who is the third member of that group, Colin Moore of course, Yeah, so that was kind of the super Group in the afternoon, decided to follow them. I was actually the only media member following them.
So I think a lot of our colleagues here in the media center may have followed the Supergroup in the morning, written their stories and then you know, maybe not gone back out on the course, which was understandable because by that point it was ninety degrees outside, the sun was beating down, the wind was picking up. It was a lot less comfortable than it was in the morning. And it was pretty comfortable in the morning, like you know, it is nice weather.
It was not bad at all. And yeah, to your comment about everybody following that group, they're overheard multiple fans commenting on look at all the people following, Look at this entourage following, So yeah, I can officially say it was part of the entourage, but yeah, it was. I think it pretty much cleared out and everybody here in this room was out following them and then kind of came back in and took a break. So pretty wild to that you're the only one with that group.
I know other people inside the ropes who were following along, but I didn't. I didn't think I don't think it was any you know, media people specifically, So yeah, I don't know. Maybe maybe I'm maybe I'm the crazy one, but I just followed them for their front nine, which was the front nine of the course, and they have since finished up. So what we're going to do with this podcast, it's going to be pretty brief from here. Basically, we just wanted to run through a few observations from
what we saw today. You've already talked about a kind of course related observation with the seventeenth hole, but what we want to do is have one tournament observation from the two of us, So one observation of the play that was happening, or you know, stuff that was has occurred in this first round of the tournament, even though that's probably all going to be a race by tomorrow.
One course related observation, so what we saw from Southern Hills today, One fan observation, stuff that we saw out there, and then one thing that we are watching for this weekend. So let's start with the tournament observation. I'll go with mine first and the thing that I saw out there. And I'm not sure if the stats are going to really bear this out at this point, but to me, there was a distinct difference between the morning and afternoon waves today just in terms of the comfort level of
being out there and the shots that were required. The winds were really calm in the morning for Tulsa, Oklahoma.
For the forecast that we got, there were some kind of random rustlings happening, some gusts that kicked up, and some sudden places, weird little pockets of the course that suddenly got windy in the morning, So there were some of that unpredictability happening, But in the afternoon, it was, you know, at least what I felt was far more steady, and it was a lot hotter out there, and so so far, there's about a shot difference between the two waves, a little bit less than a shot difference at this
point because I think maybe things have calmed down out there in the evening. But looking at the leaderboard right now, we have a lot of people who were out there in the morning at the very top, you know, most significantly Roy McElroy and will Zalatorus. They got their work done in the morning wave. Rory shot a pretty clean sixty five. Will Zalatorus, who I saw for his front nine shot sixty six. He was striking the ball really
well and he was putting really well. The putting stroke looked smooth, like there were a couple of kind of dicey short putts, a couple of where you saw that hitch come in that he tends to have, But like in general, his lag putting was great and it seems like he's comfortable on these greens in a way that he might not be on poem. What was one tournament observation that you.
Had back following Rory, I mean it was the driver was just unreal. The drive on five. I think he said in his post round interview that he duck hooked it left in his practice in his practice round Wednesday, and so he's like, whatever, I'm just gonna go with my fade. But the line over those trees, I mean, you're the driving range is right over there to the left,
and so starting it over there and fading it. The wind was helping a bit a bit, you know, pushing it a bit with them and the bit to the right. So it made sense. But you know, to start it left out there after you after you duck hooked it in the practice round, I think tells you the confidence he was feeling by that point in the round with the driver.
Yeah.
I mean the story is Rory from the first round and getting rid of the Thay struggle the Thursday a headache, and and and putting himself in a hole that he can't dig out of for the rest of the tournament has been has been the theme for him, and how did how is he not completely freed up this evening and and just loving obviously where he's at. I would think there's some relief in coming out strong out of the gates for the first time in a while and.
That was his demon. But I wonder if this puts even more pressure in like literally leading the tournament sure, you know, because what he's been doing in first rounds in majors in recent history has been just taking himself kind of out of the tournament. Now he's done exactly that. He's gone to the opposite extreme. So you almost hope for like him being in that mix around T eight right now, which is a couple of shots back, but still very much in it. Now he's out in front.
It'll it'll be an interesting test of nerves tomorrow maybe, but yeah, it is possible that that. You know, this was kind of a hurdle that he had to get over just playing well in the first round, right, So what was he doing well out there? Like I didn't see much of his round because I was following another group obviously, what you know, he's had trouble with his wedges and stuff like that. What what did you see from him that was kind of different?
He was he was steady, you know, the hiccup on the on the front nine. His second nine was that six seven eight stretch. I thought, you know on five after that drive getting up and down for Bertie was all right, you know, let's took advantage of that par five like I should. And then six and eight were
just tough long par threes. Yeah. Six was interesting. We were sitting right on the tee, probably the closest we got to them for the whole round, and he kind of had a little hesitation, a little hiccup in his takeaway. And I mean, normally it's just smooth and perfect, that sweet watch in real life and up that up close like that is it's just beautiful. But there was a little, a little teeny little hiccup. He ended up a little bit long there and just didn't get up and down.
And there's gonna be, I mean, on these surrounds, there's going to be you're not going to get up and down from everywhere. And then you know, seven, the drive one of the only way where drives out left but recovered tap in par and then ate just in a terrible position in the left front.
But it was a tough hole.
Yeah.
I saw a few different groups make a mess of that hole.
Yeah yeah. And then the birdie on nine to kind of end on a high note, you know, where it was, you know, getting a little shaky and you know, just kind of got it in, got it in the house, got it in, you know, wrapped up, wrapped up. The round well, definitely helps.
And something to remember is obviously that his last major round was at the Masters, that spectacular final round, and after that he was representing to the press at least that something had changed, that that had unlocked something in him. And so maybe he's maybe he's really proving that right now that that would be great to see obviously. All right, so one course observation, why don't we start with yours?
Is there something other than the seventeenth hole itself that caught your eye about the course this time through.
When we walked it Wednesday, you know that we had it to ourselves.
Yeah, yeah, you see the Wednesday everybody everybody gone home, they're resting up for today.
Yep. You see the wide corridors you see, you know, the with the true movel, how you can see through the property so far, which is which is so so neat and I mean I can't imagine it in O seven plaustrophobic like that. But the course observation, you know, on top of seventeen was the tightness around six te and then you you kind of walk past five green and you get to three t two green, then you get up to six green and seventies, right, there.
Like literally right right back of the green. Yeah, it's this narrow little strip of land clearly wasn't intended to be a tea right and right behind the green that's packed, yes.
There with people. There's the hospitality tents lining on the left side of six, and there's just so it was the most crowded part of the course is that area, and then seven was very crowded to with some hospitality there. Awesome for fans. You can see so much, so so much from there, so many different shots a little you know, claustrophobic for the for the players. Yeah, Tiger Roryan speaks.
Teed off on six, then kind of walked a bit, had to stop as another group was teen off three and then continue their walk on.
I mean the problem has been created by the pushing back of the third t into the middles in the sixth holes corridor, and then the pushing back of the seventh te basically right just tucked behind between the sixth green and the property line. These teas were not intended to be there. They're there. They're making it work, but it's pretty hectic, like it's pretty smashed in there.
For spectating, it's great, it's great, Yeah, it's great.
Where would you stand, like specifically around there.
Maybe beyond yes, yeah, behind the tea and then you know the left side of six you kind of get that whole vantage point six t all the way to six screen and everything in between. That's a great if you're a fan.
Yeah.
But the traffic, you know, you need a traffic copp almost in there. The marshals, there are the volunteers. They're not getting they're not getting paid in that, they're not getting paid anything. They're not getting paid it at all. But yeah, they've got a job in there, that's for sure.
Yeah. Yeah, it's a good place for a fan if you don't mind like being around a lot of people, Yes, if you'd rather be someplace where there aren't a whole lot of people around, there are other places on the course that are a little more chill.
But if you want to see action.
Yeah, but that's yeah. Yeah, you see the approaches into two and that's so. This is something about the course that Andy and I noticed when we first visited the course in twenty nineteen, these clusters of teas and greens. You know, Perry Maxwell was looking for natural sites to put his teas and greens because he wasn't using advanced drainage methods to get them dry, so he was looking
for places that would drain naturally. There are a few specific places on the property that drain really naturally, and that's where he put all his teas and greens. And part of the result of that is what we called these concentrations of energy, and that is certainly one of them. At that corner of the course where the fifth hole is, the sixth hole, second, third, seventh hole, all of that is kind of mushed into a little ridge on that
end of the property. Of the land rises up a bit there, and there are other places on the property that are like that. You know, I'm thinking of where thirteen green and sixteen green are right by that little pond. You know, that's a great little concentration of energy. And then in the middle of the course where you have the first green, the third green, the seventeenth green, the
eighth green, that is a big time. You know, there's a lot of hospitality there right now, but a ton of people are in there, and it's noisy in there, and it's it's fun. I think, you know, that's kind of where i'd like to be because there's a nice variety in what you're seeing. So one quick extra course observation that I had is that the back nine is just so excellent at this course. I think that there
are some weaknesses in the front nine. The fourth hole is just doesn't function for this tournament as it was intended to function. The sixth hole is never one that I was a particular fan of, So to my mind, there are some weaknesses in the front nine, but the back nine is just hit after hit after hit for me. Now, what really made an impression when I first came to the course was the opening and closing stretches of the back nine. So ten, eleven, twelve in that beautiful little valley,
they just use it perfectly. They're great holes. And then seventeen and eighteen a spectacular short par four and long par four finish and opportunity and a big brute of a closing hole. So those things that really jumped out at me when I first saw the course. But this time, when I was going through, I saw how great those middle holes in the back nine are. Thirteen is a well, the tea isn't a ridiculous place over the twelfth green.
Now I've wrote about this for the website. But it's a true risk reward par five where some players are going for it and some aren't, and that landing zone is just this big gully, and so you find all these strange lies and that complicates the decision about whether to go for the green. The fourteenth hole is in a weird spot on the property. It's like a nothing piece of land, but it is the coolest green on
the course. And then the fifteenth you really need to challenge the bunker on the left if you want a good angle to the green, because the green slants so severely to the left, you want to be over on the left side as much as possible so that you're not hitting down the slope of that green. The sixteenth hole has this kind of tight driving zone where a bunker in pinges, but if you lay up short of that driving zone, you're back in that gully that crosses
the thirteenth hole that I was talking about. So just looking at these holes, they didn't make as big of an impression on me the first time I saw them as the holes that are around them. But this time I saw that, like every shot was really challenging these players on those holes. And yeah, I just think the back nine here is about as good as it gets. So it's so so good. All right. One fan observation for you seen and heard. Is there anything out there?
Hi? You know, for following that the Tiger group. The silly things I heard were not really in that group. It was pretty tame they were.
It was an incredibly well behaved mom. Yes, following them. I noticed this too in the morning.
It was more. I tweeted, you know, on seventeen Hedeki's hidden from the trees and fan behind me goes, that's Mozarella over there in the trees. And I mean the things that you get the I mean, some of the comments are just so hilarious, you know. Yeah, you can't get annoy you gotta. You gotta laugh at it because
it's it's it's pretty pretty hilarious. After Tiger's group finished, I kind of went over to the interview area and then I was up by one as Ram Scroup was teen off and first time I heard the mashed potatoes and the bab babui by different people at the same time, so they kind of canceled each other out. So we'll take that as a win. I mean, besides that it's just, you know, something that looks like a great shot is
actually forty feet away. You know, you know, you just really can't see how good or out of a shot it was into the greens, and you just hear fans all around and be like, it's stuck it two feet two feet that's all he's got. And then you see up on the big board tiger Woods thirty seven feet ten inches.
Yeah, the perception sometimes people don't understand. They see a shot that's online, they think it's close, but it's all about the distance victual run, and so they can't see that it's.
Actually over all great crowds, I don't think.
The fans were any less informed necessarily fans anywhere. It's just these are these are the funny things that happen when you're walking around a big tournament like this where not everybody is super familiar with what they're watching.
Now, I'll forever call him Hideki Motzrella perfect.
So one fan observation that I had, and I'm not I don't mean to create any controversy here or imply that there was any bad behavior on the part of the culprit. But on the third hole, John Rahm lost his t shot to the left and it hit a woman in the faces. She grabbed her mouth, so it seemed like it hit her in the mouth. Now what I heard, I thought was a tree hit and the
ball bounced back in the fairway. And I looked around and I saw this woman holding her face and crouching down, and there was there were a couple of people there who were helping her and calling over, calling over some help. But she sort of crouched down behind this tree, seemed to be in pain. But nobody told John Rum and so he went on playing.
How far was this ball from her?
It was I would say like twenty twenty five yards, and it's like kind of in this shaded place on the third hole to the left.
To the left, yep.
And it seemed like she was trying to stay out of sight, and so I you know that she didn't want people to make a big deal, and and so I was I was kind of asking around, is she okay? It seemed like she was fine, but she had she had gotten the golf ball hit to the face. I'm not sure if the ball deflected off the tree before it hit her or something, but there was a big smack when that ball hit what it hit and it bounced back in the fairway, and uh, and that was
just that was just kind of a strange moment. I sort of wonder if if John Raum knows at this point and has you know, sent a signed glove or something along to the poor woman who got who got hurt?
Did he yell four?
That's a good question. I do not know.
Were you down?
Down?
Three?
Down? I was down. This was when I was first arriving at that group. That's when I first caught up to them. I managed to work my way to them. It takes a while to work your way across this golf course sometimes because you got across a lot of fairways to get where you're going. So I just arrived at the hole and I was walking up and this is what happened as soon as I arrived in the vicinity of the group. So I did not hear or
not hear afore call. So I'm not sure. I think John ram is somebody who does call for and he seems like kind of a soft hearted guy. I'm sure he would have, you know, gone over and consoled her. But that was just kind of a strange incident. In any case in general that the big thing that I noticed in the morning was how was how tame relatively
the fans were around the Tiger group. I mean, there was cheering, but there wasn't a whole lot of just super obnoxious behavior like like sometimes you expect when the crowds get that big. And then another thing I noticed in the afternoon is that everybody left the course. Yeah, by the time I was following this group of like world number ones or former world number ones in Morikawa, Scheffler and ram and there was a substantial crew who
was they were following that group through the course. But we arrived at the ninth green and I looked up in those big bleachers that are above the ninth and eighteenth greens, and they were empty.
And they were packed.
They were packed packed in the morning. They were shoulder to shoulder. And so it seems like people got their fix whatever they were looking for in the morning and knew that the hot weather was coming and got a dodge.
And perhaps you know, going off at eight fifteen in the morning tampered some of the rowdiness. And yeah, tomorrow Friday afternoon, that group rolling through could be a different a different story. But Tiger Mania not so much. And he got off to such a hot start. I know you would have thought that, you know, it would just continue to grow and grow. Now, his play obviously faltered down, you know, faltered a bit down the stretch.
Yeah, and there were some roars, but there wasn't the kind of constant din that you'd expect. And maybe partly that's because it's Thursday. Maybe it'll be different tomorrow. All Right, one thing you are watching for this weekend, I'll start with that, and that is the that's the importance of distance. That's something that I'm going to be watching for because that's not something that I necessarily had my eye on going into this tournament, the thought that distance off the
tee was going to be pretty important. But watching that group in the afternoon, Rom, Moricawa and Scheffler on the front nine especially, I noticed that there were a lot of holes where they were hitting driver where the two longer players in that group, who were Rom and Schefler, and especially Rom had a real advantage on the hole overall, So on the first hole, on the second hole, on the fourth hole, fifth hole, not so much, the seventh, not too much, the ninth, but those holes toward the
beginning and middle of the front nine in a way that is not the case on the back nine. There was a there was a you know, an opportunity for the longer players to really stretch out and gain an advantage. They could cut the dog leg on the par five fifth hole and give themselves a much better shot into that green. You know, the lines you were talking about, the lines they were taking on that hole earlier though, I mean Rory hit a three hundred and seventy yard
drive there. Rom hit a similar length drive on that hole cutting the dog leg. That is something he can do that just you know, Colin Morrikawa can't can't do. You know, Marikawa ended up in the bunker on the left there. He took a similar line, but he didn't make the carry. And so I wonder whether you know, through the course of the week, we're going to see some bigger hitting guys rise to the top. Now. Of course, toward the top of the leaderboard, we see the likes
of Matt Kocher. We see Kevin Nah up there. I mean, Kevin not's not short. We see a Matt fitzp I mean, these players are often in the mix in big tournaments, and so this is not to say that shorter hitters don't have a chance, but I'm just wondering if distance is going to be a little more important at this course than I thought it was going to be.
Yep, and the weather, the change from Friday to Saturday.
Yeah, this is the thing that you're looking for.
Yeah, yeah, you can't imagine the high of sixty whatever, sixty eight seventy on Sunday, seventy seventy seventy five on Saturday. I mean, that's that's what it was at seven ams, you know, eight am today and today and tomorrow, so that's a big drop when that When that cold front comes through tomorrow should be interesting. It you know, comes from the north and brings in, you know, the colder temperatures. We had a south wind today and that made let's
that made nine and eighteen play into that breeze. You had it a bit behind you on five where we saw the big drives of three seventy from Macrooi. I think Ram was up by around three eighty. So if that switches in five plays into the wind a bit more, one plays into the wind a bit more. Who knows if we're seeing those bunkers get carried by as many players as we saw as we saw today. The other thing is where this u early late, late early, you know, ends up with that weather change.
It didn't go too crazy today.
Yeah.
Point eight point eight is what the last number that Will Knights has given us. He was kind of tracking that.
So then you look at it.
Maybe tomorrow afternoon round bigger. Yeah, there could be a bigger difference tomorrow.
But the solid afternoon rounds today by JT by Fitzpatrick, by who else had a good one, Joquing Neeman. Obviously we'll see you tomorrow.
Yeah, if it's there in the morning, those guys could really if they put themselves in a good position.
If the gusts come, if it's super winding in the morning and they're still hanging around the leaderboard, then obviously keep an eye out for them over the weekend if they're so. Yeah, I mean, who knows. Whether it's very unpredictable thing to yeah exactly, but I think it's I'm glad it's not ninety ninety ninety ninety in the same wind all four days. I'm glad that we're going to have that change. How that change pans out and when it happens, we'll see. But at least we're gonna get some variety.
All right. Perfect, Thank you Meg, You're welcome.
Thank you Bery