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 Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg, Friday, Frida Egg Egg, Fridagg Bride Egg Lie.
I'm about ready to run off of the hump course.
Hello and welcome to the Frida Egg Podcast. My name is Garrett Morrison, and today we have takeaways from the twenty twenty two Open Championship. So by the weekend at St. Andrews it was pretty much the Cameron's versus the Rory's. On Saturday, Cameron Smith and Cameron Young started in the final group of the day and right in front of them were Rory McElroy and his smiley Rwegian doppelganger, Victor Hovelin.
By the end of the third round, the two pairs were flipped McElroy and Hobland at sixteen under and the Cameron's four shots back. The phrase match play situation may have come up in the Friday newsletter and I may have put it there. Look, I thought that the odds were that either Rory or Victor would shoot sixty nine or better on Sunday. That would mean that Smith or Young would need to post sixty five or better. I didn't think that either of them would do it, and
I definitely did not imagine that they both would. Cameron Young, who's a twenty five year old PGA Tour rookie, deserves more treaded for what he did in that fourth round than he'll ever get. He shot a seven under sixty five that included a three put, a drop from a gorse bush, and an eagle tooth on the eighteenth hole. Young now has a runner up in the Open to go with his T three at this year's PGA Championship.
It's been quite the rookie campaign. Stretch at the Old Course, all eyes were on two players, four time major winner Rory McElroy in Australian short game virtuoso Cameron Smith. The decisive stretch was the first half of the back nine. Rory wasn't making many mistakes, but he also wasn't making any putts. After a two putt birdie on the tenth hole, he basically stalled out, recording one boring par after another. Meanwhile,
Cameron Smith reeled off five birdies in a row. He hold putts from five feet sixteen feet, eleven feet eighteen feet and five feet again en route to a back nine thirty. About an hour later, he was the Open champion, one stroke ahead of Cameron Young and too clear of Rory McElroy. So those are the basic facts to talk about the deeper storylines of the twenty twenty two Open.
I have three interviews for you. The first is with Jamie Weir of Sky Sports to describe that remarkable final round up as Joseph Lamannia to discuss what Smith did well from a course management perspective and how McElroy fell short in the same area. And last up is the Friday Egg Zone Andy Johnson to reflect on the old course itself. Right, it was a great championship. So let's
get to it, all right. I am here with Jamie Weir, Sky Sports golf correspondent and somebody who has been known to root a little bit in a very classy way for Rory McElroy. So first of all, how are you doing, Jamie?
Yeah, it's also great.
It's a hard one to take that, and you know, I've got to remind myself that, however inconsolable I'm feeling at the moment. Rory mclury is probably feeling one hundred times worse, but Luke A just felt as if this was the one. It was kind of almost written in the stars. It was his destiny to win this historic one hundred and fiftieth Open at the Home of Golf on the week that perhaps Tiger played the Old Course
for the final time. It just it all seemed too perfect and it ended up, you know, it was too perfect to be the case because he just got.
Run doing today by an absolute machine in cam Smith.
But you know, Rory macur will be back, but this one will be a hard one to take, and it's going to leave a bit of scar tissue.
Who died. I WoT the full eighth with with Rory and with Victor today.
And you know he hit eighteen greens in regulation and had no bobies in a scorecard and had thirty six.
Pots and that's kind of the story of the round. So a hard one to take.
But my goodness, hats off when you shit sixty four on the Old Course, when you shit thirty on the back nine on a Sunday to win an Open championship, you've got to say that you deserve that Claret jug.
So before we get too deep into the Rory stuff, I'd like to give Cam and Smith his due credit for what was one of the great final rounds in major championship history. No doubt what. I know you're following the final group, but yeah, what what what would be your characterization of the way that Cam Smith played the Old Course this week?
Well, it's just obviously for those that have watched the coverage this week that you'll be aware of the loop at the Old Course where you've got sort of seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven all crossing each other and then twelve et off and head back towards the town. And I was walking across the seventh fairwee, well, actually across the sort of eleventh just as Rory was putting out in seven. And at that point we were thinking, this is Rory's for
the taking. Surely, you know, Victor looks like a rabbit in the headlights. It's just not going to happen for him. And it felt like a two horse race and we're looking at the leaderboard. I was with a few of the other boys.
With Cale Porter and with Andy and a few.
Of the other guys, and we're just looking at leaderboard, thinking yeah, I can't really see anyone making a run
from that pack. And then as we were on the tenth and Rory had that incredible live plot to leave himself a tap in birdie at the tenth, there was a huge cheer to my left and it was calm holding for a birdie at the eleventh, and at that point you just kind of thought, hang on a second, cam Smith really isn't not far that far back, and if he gets on a heater with his puster, which he's prone to do.
We saw it saw Grass.
Back in March, then he's still a threat. And that proved to be the case. I mean, the rattle up Birdi's at ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, Then to hold that huge power saving pot at the seventeenth, and you know, a simple tap in birdie at the eighteenth as well.
I mean it's some performance.
And you know, I honestly thought when he had when he got sixty four and Friday here and hold what it was, a two hundred and fifty three feet of pots, I thought, that's unsustainable, that's not going to carry on. That proved to be the case because yesterday had an absolute stinker with the butter, it just went stone cold. He had that aberration of the thirteenth where watching him play that like watching like looking in a merrit That's the way I play golf, and I just thought, right, well,
that's his race run. But to have two sixty fours during the Open Championship, one on Friday and one and Sunday having fair play to the guy twenty under par, yeah, some players and me and that when that totter gets hot, it is red hot.
Now, what most of us see on TV when we watch Cameron Smith is the incredible putting and the ability to just make puts from all over. It's almost like Jordan Spieth in twenty fifteen, where if he's outside of twenty feet it doesn't matter. You think the ball is going in the hole when he gets going. And he just seems to be mentally bulletproof with the short puts, with any puts that he needs to make, and he
seems to have some magic with those longer puts. Now, that's obvious, right, We can all see that on TV pretty easily. We can also see the creativity with the short game. Is there anything about Cameron Smith's game that you think people don't understand as well having not seen him in person. Assuming they haven't seen him in person.
Well that's a good question.
I mean I was the indefinable quality about cam Smith, and I think this probably is still pretty obvious to be honest, if you watch him on Telly, is just how gritty a competitor he is and how he just never knows when he's beaten.
He refuses to lie down.
I mean, he's had some pretty rough moments in his young careers in the twenty eight, but he's at moments where he's throwing tournaments away with I remember what tournament was, right, went out of bonds on the seventy second hole to lose a tournament, and you know those are body blows to take, but to win the players and the fashion he did back in March with how many greens did he want put in that final round like thirteen or something ridiculous, and then to go out and do pretty
much the same today. I mean the final round of an open at Saint Andrews. To shoot thirty in your back nine, you have to be so mentally strong to do that, such inner belief, especially when you've got the crowd favorite ninety nine point nine percent of the crowd all pulling for the guy in the group behind you. I mean, it just it takes some serious stones to do that. And there are a few Aussie fans around
today cheering for cam Smith. There were definitely a few cheers I heard from from up ahead when those pots were ruling in. But I mean the mental resilience of the guy after the disappointment you would have had yesterday in his Saturday round is something else.
Yeah. Now, one of the great WTF moments that I had today was looking at the scoreboard after the second to last group had finished and seeing that Cameron Young was all of a sudden in solo second at eighteen sorry at nineteen under, and ahead of Rory McElroy, who went on to par the eighteenth hall and finish in third. And so Cameron Young's round almost seems destined to be forgotten. But he shot sixty five today. I know, how did he know? Again, I know you were following the final group,
but how did he do that? What happened?
I know?
Well, I again, I'm just having real information relayed to me as I'm in the group behind. But I understand that he missed a he made a bogie at nine, right, which almost feels like a double bogie.
Yeah, and then he has a very.
Short pot at which all was it thirteen or fifteen maybe.
One of them? Yeah, there was. And also there was a three put on the first hole that didn't look good.
You'll be thinking, You'll probably be thinking this is the one that good way because you're right to go and shot sixty five in the final round of an open. Yeah, it's still not the best score of the day, and you lose by one is a bitter pill to swallow. But my words nineteen hunder part are on the old
course in his very first experience of an open. You know, links golf takes getting used to for some players, and Cam Young has absolutely taken it in his stride and Yeah, to shoot a sixty five and it gets the clips while you're playing partner, that's.
Going to be a kick in the teeth.
Yeah, I mean maya Kolpa sort of. I wrote yesterday in the Friday newsletter that I just didn't see this being anything other than a Rory versus Victor show, and maybe one of them would drop off and the other would stick with it. I did not have both of the camerons shooting under a sixty five or under it. I just didn't see that in the cards at all, and I did.
I also did see Saturday, not after what they both did on Saturday. I thought on Saturday they just looked at the.
Stuffing knocked out of them, and you know, a pair of sixty six is from Rory and Victor. It felt like, right, well, you know it's going to be We're going to be destined for another sort of jewel like we saw in seventy seven with Watson and Nicholas, or six years ago at true with Michelson and Stenson. It just felt like this is going to be Macro and Hoveland going toe to toe, blow for blow, Bertie for Bertie. But Victor just looked like, I said, a rabbit in the headlights.
He just looked so.
Uncomfortable basically out there, I thought for the front nine, just looked so in control, and to be honest, looked in control for eighteen holes, but just could not get.
A single pot to drop.
I mean, I think I saw Justin Ray just tweet something like he had thirty nine potts in his second round at s and Andrews in twenty ten and he had thirty six pots today and those are the two rounds in his entire major career he's had the most potts. So, I mean, obviously the greens here are absolutely massive, but it's very rare that you have eighteen greens in a regulation in your final round boogie free and you still end up not winning.
And you started the day for ahead of the two guys who ended up beating guy. I mean, that is just that I don't know, Justin Ray can probably dig it up, but that's gonna be visual occurrence.
Yeah, the record bicks.
We was sure that Rory finished third and the shot behind Camy, and I think he would have already the eighteenth if he wasn't trying to go for it with that hit. You knew he had to hold that chip for two to get into a playoff. Where is if you need a birdy to get into the playoff, you lag it up and leave yourself a little tap in, don't you.
So it probably could.
Have been, you know, a sixty nine for Rory and nineteen under par, but that still wouldn't have been That was still have been one shot too many.
Okay, So let's talk about that final game of the day, Rory and Victor you followed it. What do you think will be a moment or image from that group on this day that will stick with you.
I think the moment when, which was a huge sliding doors moment, was when Rory had a bite and then he put it around eight to nine feet perhaps for Birdie at the ninth and it just slid by. And that was the first moment where I kind of thought, ah, okay, he doesn't have his potting boots, and in recent weeks that has been the strength of his game.
He's potted so well well did he' pot of Brookline?
And when that one slid by, I was just like, oh, man,
he really needs a part to drop here. And you know, if he'd hold that, and I think you would have given him a three shot buffer, I think that would have just sent the message to the group in front of the cams if they looked up at one of those yellow scoreboards and saw, okay, Rory McRoy suddenly eighteen under Parnoi, then that would have been a real killer blow And that could be the moment that Royl maybe look back and think, ah, man, that that was the
moment I just let it slip through my fingers. But I you know, I don't know how much scar tissue this one's going to leave. He's spoke on Tuesday about this being the holy grail to win and open at Saint Andrews. Everything this week, the fact that he missed the last open here in twenty fifteen when he would have been the defending champion because of his injury, the fact that he spent the week, you know that he looks. He was smiling from ear to ear at the Champions
dinner and the other night. He spent the week talking to the greats like Jack Nicholas, Tiger, obviously Gary Player. It just felt, as I said earlier, like written in the Stars, that this was gonna be Rory's week. We were going to see him standing on that eighteenth green at the Old Course, the Clark jug with the whole of Andrews hanging from their balconies, the crowds packed in the grandstands just screaming for Rory, and it just wasn't
to be. And it's a hollow feeling, and I think it's a hollow feeling for many golf fans.
And we've got to address the elephant in the room. As well. It's kind of a hollow feeling for the game of golf.
Because the rumors, if they're to be believed, are that Cam Smith is heading to live, if not next week, then imminently or perhaps after the President's Cup. So to have the champion golf for the year playing, you know, on the exhibition tour is going to be a bitter pill for the RNA to swallow.
And for a lot of golf fans as well.
And it would have been a warm, fuzzy, cozy feeling inside if it had been Rory. But you know what, sport can be cruel, and today was a cruel, cruel day and I think a lot of us are feeling it.
On a scale of one to ten. How strong do you think the rumors are of Cameron Smith going to live? Because I've heard those rumors too. We've heard a lot of rumors lately about a lot of different players, and there's been a lot of smoke and in some cases there hasn't been much fire. Smoke do you think there is around Cam Smith and Live and do you think it's safe to assume that there's at least something of a blaze there?
Yeah, Well, you know, rumors start for a reason, don't they end. All the signs are that Henry Stenson is going to be going soon, which will obviously create a huge storm for Ryder Cup Europe to have to deal with. He'll be stripped to the cap and see they'll have to find a new man. It will be a huge feather in the cap for Greg Norman to get him.
And then the rumors that I'm hearing from speaking to people on the ground here that the Aussie trio of Adam Scott, Martin Leishman cam Smith are all potentially going to jump.
After this year's President's Cup with quil Olough. So those rumors are around for a reason.
Now, what we don't know, we've seen in so in recent weeks, so many players just do huge unexpected u turn, usually in the up direction. Bryce saying I'm happy in the PGA tour. A week later he joins Live DJ saying I'm happy in the PGA to a few months later he joins Live Now there could be reverse few turns as well.
All this stuff.
Cam Smith could have a contract sitting on the table to Live Golf and he could suddenly decide, do you know what I've just won the Claric Jug at s Andrews.
This is what it's all about.
Looking at that Clark jug and seeing Nicholas Palmer player woulds Foald bias Steros seeing those names in the Clark Jug as he fits this evening in his bedroom before he drifts off the sleep, probably hugging that Clark jug, Perhaps that changes his mind again and he thinks, this is what golf's all about, and I want to stay and win more majors and create a legacy and put my name in the history books rather than just go
and accept a squillion dollars to play exhibition golf. So who knows what's going on between cam Smith's two years at the moment, but it would be a massive blow, I think, just for golf in general if the Open champion was to join live and let's hope that if it is the case that that offers on the table that Sobey's reconsidering it right now.
Yeah, And you know you described a thought process there that we might hope cam Smith might go through. But the other side of that is that he could equally go through the thought process of well, look, I have a bunch of exemptions into majors now totally, and I don't have to really worry as much as some other people do about being able to play in the majors if my world ranking kind of goes off a cliff. And so that's present as well. And I think that
this has been hanging over the entire week. You know a lot of us haven't wanted to admit that live is a factor at this championship because it just seems, you know, to kind of disrespect this open at St. Andrew's to be talking about live. But guess what, that's part of what made it feel significant for Rory to potentially win, because he has been the main anti live voice in golf, and if he won, then that would have been bigger than just Rory winning his fifth major.
It would have meant something for this kind of existential battle over men's professional golf. Did you feel that in the air today at St.
Andrews.
Yeah, I mean I've I've definitely made a conscious effort this week to try not to talk about it because I don't want it to overshadow you know, this historic moment for the sport at this historic venue. But the final part of the tournament drops it.
Six to fifty five.
Pm our time over here in the UK this evening and at six fifty six pm its seeds. We're talking about Live again because this is a fractious moment in the game of golf. We don't know what's going to happen next. We don't know what decision all of the majors are going to take regarding the tour that Live Golf and whether players on that can participate Peyton Majors. That's still a huge unknown factor. There's still a huge question mark. It would be very difficult to imagine Open
champions getting banned from returning to the Open. So, as you said, Tom Smith, he's got thirty two more Opens to play until he's sixty years of age as things done. But yeah, it looks who really knows what's going to happen. I certainly felt you're right that sort of that feeling of good versus evil is perhaps over egging the pudding, but it would have felt it if Rory had won today. Everything was good with the world, you know, everything was left a warm, fuzzy.
Feeling for the entire game of golf.
And as it is, it's a champion, a very deserving champion. He played the best golf of the week, but a champion with this huge question mark lingering over his future.
For sure. Now from a pure golf perspective, it was a great championship. The old course was wonderful all week, so a lot of positives to take away, but equally a lot of questions to ask about the future of golf coming off of this. So thank you so much for discussing all this with me, jamieciate it and go have some fun in St Andrew's.
Will dry my very best.
As things stand the moment, I'm sitting in the grand stand by the second tea box. I'm looking out over the eighteenth fairway on the seventeenth Green and it's like a music festival.
There's just people sitting.
Down a cross legged, having picnics and drinking a few beers everywhere. So I'm sure the party would have been a lot rightier had Rory mclroy been the Champion Golfer of the year.
But it's Camps Meth.
Congratulations Australia on this occasion your vote on Northern Ireland, but our fellow will be back.
Thank you so much, Jamie. This episode of the Fridagg Podcast is brought to you by USGA memberships. The USGA is working to make golf accessible to everyone who loves the game. A great example is the inaugural US Adaptive Open, which is being played this very week at the Pinehurst Resort and is giving adaptive golfers the chance to compete for a national championship. Support for members helps the USGA continue to make golf a game for everyone. If you
believe in this mission, join today. Go to USGA dot org slash frid Egg and become an eighteen ninety four club member. If you use this link to get your membership, you'll receive a member's only US Open hat, a year subscription to Golf Journal magazine, a personalized USGA member bag tag, and other benefits. That's USGA dot org slash fried Egg. All right, back to the episode. All right, I am here with Joseph Lemanya, who is a regular guest on
our Takeaways podcasts. I always like to check in with you, Joseph, because on days like this, you kind of cut through this sentimentality nicely. And there's going to be a lot of sentimentality out there today. And it's not that I don't endorse that in this case, it's just that it's useful to find another perspective. But Joseph, you are the founder of Optimal Approach Golf. You write the Finding the Edge newsletter, which is excellent, and that's who you are. So thank you for being here.
Appreciate you having me. That was quite the eventful day of golf. So I was excited when you had asked me to come on the pods so we can flesh out some of our thoughts.
Absolutely, I sensed on Twitter that had that you had some ideas brewing, and so I'm really excited to get into those. The first question I want to ask you, I mean, I want to give you some freedom to go where you want to go here and tell me your ideas. But the first thing that I'm wondering is is there a story to tell about this day that doesn't just have to do with Rory missed putts and Cameron Smith made putts, because that's going to be the narrative.
But I think there's probably I looked at the stats here a little bit, not the advanced stats, but just the normal stats, and I feel like there might be something else going on here.
Yeah, So I'm very analytically driven. I always am looking at the stats, it's also worth being cognizant of what the stats do not reflect. And one concept or important theme I think, especially with regards Rory McElroy, is that stats don't tell you a lot about shot selection. And that is where I take my biggest issue with Rory in particular, and especially how much he tries to curve
the ball at times. Now, I want to preface this with saying that I know a lot of golf purists will not be happy to hear that curving the ball a lot is not advantageous.
Wait, who are you calling a golf purist here? Let's be clear about it. Are you calling me a golf purist?
Joseph, I'm calling you a golf purist. I'm calling a lot of the listeners of the Friday eg a golf purist. I myself consider I consider myself a golf purist.
You're coming after everybody, including yourself.
Yeah, it brings me no joy to say that, but I do. I am high conviction that the amount Rory curves his ball at times comes back to bite them. So to give you one, I have many examples, but to just go through a couple of them on his Friday round holds eight and eleven. The par three's Rory tries to hit this massive sweeping draw into number eight and he ends up leaving himself like one hundred and fifty feet on the putt. It doesn't curve, leaves it way out right. That whole plate to a three point
zero eight stroke average for the day. So it depends what number you want to put on his chances of two putting from there. But I would feel very confident saying it's less than fifty percent of the time he's two putting that. I think it's probably closer to like seventy five percent of the time he's not two putting it. But okay, he's giving up a significant amount of strokes on the field with that t shot. Now I've had a lot of people then text me and say, well
what about hole eleven? Talk about whole eleven, the other part three where he hits that draw in again and he makes birdie. He makes a sixteen footer on number eleven, and I will concede like he hit the draw, he made birdie. That whole played to an average of three point two two. And not to bore people too much with the numbers, but he doesn't. He's not gonna make that put every time. He's probably gonna make that put
twenty twenty five percent of the time. And the extent of my argument here is that when you zoom out and you try to hit those sweeping draws, over the long run, the big misses are going to eat into the returns of when you actually execute that shot. And so between those two holes, Rory McElroy, one of the best players in the world, loses strokes on the field tee to green, and that includes the averages of a
lot of players who are much worse than him. Rory should not be losing strokes tea to green.
Did you see him working the ball both ways today? And would you rather see him kind of sticking with a shot shape.
It is absolutely an advantage to be able to work the ball both ways, I want to be clear about that. But when there's no wind, especially today, you don't need to curve it very much. If Rory's going to curve it, I'd like him just to see him do it just a little bit, not these sweeping draws sweeping fades. And so there were three very clear examples where it was
like my eyes were bleeding watching the tournament today. His tee shot on hole nine, right drivable par four, he tries to go for this big draw off the tee. He hits it to I think he leaves himself fifty five yards. Just for some quick math here, it's a three hundred and fifty yard hole. He hit his drive three hundred and twenty two yards and he left himself almost sixty yards in. If you're a math buff, you'll
know that that's pretty far from a straight line. And I'm not arguing that he should just be going directly at the flag, But when you try to hit these, you know, significantly sweeping draws and fades, you're taking on a lot of risk with those misses. And I think with a much flatter shot shape there, Rory could easily have been putting for eagle. So sure, it could have only been a couple of yards here and there. Maybe he'd with a strategy I'm advocating, he ends up forty
five yards from the hole instead of fifty five. And that's the difference between winning the golf tournament.
M Yeah, So okay, let me lay out what the easy narrative is going to be based on kind of the traditional numbers that get cited most often on traditional coverage, which is which has to do with you know, greens hitting regulation right, which maybe doesn't mean too much of st andrews because of the sheer size of the greens. We need to talk about how close the ball is to the hole and a number of puts, you know,
the length of the puts made, things like that. When you look at those kind of traditional numbers, you see big differences between what Cameron Smith and Rory McElroy did today. And this is what I think what is going to be the dominant story about this tournament is going to be built on is these numbers about the putts that they made. So Rory, the longest put that he made
today was five feet on eleven. I'm not sure how long the putt he made for that two put on three was because it seems like the shot tracker kind of went screwy on that one. But he just made a five footer like that's it. He made no putts of note today. Cameron Smith made a nine footer, a seven footer, a six footer, a fifteen footer, an eleven footer, a ten footer. He had a handful of sensational lag puts. Rory had a couple of really good lag puts too,
But I'm talking about Cameron Smith. You know, from one hundred feet getting it to two feet or one foot. It was a great putting performance. Today. Cameron Smith beat Rory by two shots, and so what is the argument that you would lay out that that's not what the real difference was between them today.
Well, I don't disagree that. A huge part of the story here is that cam Smith put very well and he's one of the best putters in the world. But the point I would make is that it's not about turning this thing into a putting contest. There are other shots that you get to hit, and Rory didn't convert on holes nine, twelve or fourteen, which are some of the holes where he should have been in the best
position too. So, like I'm saying, with the big sweeping draw on number nine, on number twelve, he tried to hit this huge sweeping cut off of the tea, ended up having I don't remember exactly how far he had for his birdie, but twelve feet or so. Like, look where Cameron Smith was on that hole. I'm not gonna argue that it was perfect where cam Smith hit his te shot. But the argument I would make in reference
to well, what was the difference between them? You don't want to be in a putting contest if you're Rory McElroy versus Cam Smith, so it's not effective to only talk about the putting numbers. A lot of other stuff happened there too. Rory could have won the tournament by five throughout the course of seventy two holes if he's making smarter decisions. So I fully believe that Rory McElroy is one of the most talented players in the world,
if not the most talented player in the world. People always say that, like, why doesn't he win more often? I'm offering a suggestion here that his shot selection is not always smart. And this is not a new idea for me. I've been calling this out for a while now, and I'd be happy to produce more examples, but it comes back to bite them. So I don't disagree with the putting argument today, But I mean Rory had a
huge lead coming in. He actually didn't gain strokes on the field today total, So there's a little bit more to this story than just cam Smith made some long putts.
Yeah, yeah, and I agree with you. And one big reason why is that, you know, going back to these kind of traditional numbers. If you look at the opportunities that Rory had to make birdie today, aside from the greens that he was driving on par four's and the greens that he was reaching in two on par fives, he really didn't have any opportunities for bertie inside ten feet aside from on the third hole a six foot
putt that he missed. He was not sticking his irons with in that really kind of super makeable birdie putt range. And it wasn't just because his irons were bad, not necessarily. It could also mean that there was just there was there was stuff going on from tee to green where he was not able to give himself a lot of birdie chances from short range. And I think that that's going to be an underrated part of the story today.
Yeah. I'm glad you're contextualizing his round a little bit more because stats are great. I'm a proponent of strokes gained, but you have to call out the shortcomings of strokes gained it These are a system of expected values based on aggregate numbers. So for example, Rory leaves himself in a pretty bad spot on number fourteen the par five today after his second shot.
Yes, yes, right, he can't. He can't get that chip within four feet.
That's going to show up as poor strokes gained around the green for that shot, which may be true that you know, from thirteen yards in the fair way there should be a particular expected value. That's not going to be true with Saint Andrews in particular, where you have significant undulations like these are PGA Tour average numbers, so at almost no course more so than like Saint Andrews or Augusta. These aggregated numbers and a really small sample
like one round can be misleading. All seven footers are going to be given the same expected value and so yeah, cam Smith easily part of the reason he put well could have been that he was leaving himself some easier putts. So people need to be very careful when interpreting strokes gained in a small sample because as you're adding context to it, it's worth examining that a little bit further and calling out some of the shortcomings of those numbers.
Yeah, it's worth looking into why Rory was in the places that he was in today basically, and that's a complex question because it has to do with what he did off the tee, with what tactics he was using overall. You know, you've mentioned the shot shaping and how he did on approach. Generally think of Rory being impeccable in those areas, and often he is, but you know, today he was just I felt like he was a little bit off Teita Green and that the putting was off too.
But man, there were a lot of ways that he could have shot sixty eight today and gotten to twenty under and been in a playoff, and he just really didn't do any of them. Now, on the other side of it, you've pointed out some of the tactical shortcomings as you see them of Rory kind of overshaping the ball. Often people say like, you have to shape the ball, and links golf, this is you know, having a nuanced
game is really what you need. And in fact, that's a reason that people kind of endorse Cameron Smith when it comes to these firmer and more complex courses, you know, because he kind of has that reputation as an artist. But what did you see from Cameron Smith tactically or did you see him, you know, sort of performing at a superior level tactically than Rory this week.
Yeah.
So generally a lot of modern golf analytics kind of gets boiled down or at least distilled down for public discourse as be aggressive off the tee and conservative on the approach. So just to tie a couple ideas together here, when I was watching St Andrews getting ready for this week, if it was going to be very windy, the need to shape your shots a little bit more and to get crafty was going to be of much more importance. As soon as I saw, like, this is not going
to be windy. It's a bomb fest, and that's what this was, right Cam Smith, with the exception of I would criticize his laying back on eighteen, especially on his second round, which I.
Saw was an anomaly too. The other days he pushed it up near the green. I don't know why I did that.
It didn't make any sense. But Cam Smith is a very aggressive player and he liked Rory, so I would give Rory a lot of credit. Rory recognized I need to hit driver over and over again.
He did it.
I'm not being critical of Rory's entire course management here. I picked him to win. I picked Rory to win before the week. Cam Smith knows like he knows to be aggressive, sometimes to a fault, but at Saint Andrews when he missed with some of his aggressive approach shots, he has the short game to get himself out of
some of those situations. And if you're playing at Brookline and you shortside yourself, you may not have the opportunity, even if you're Cam Smith, to flop some kind of shot that ends up, you know, converting that into an up and down. So I think Saint Andrews was perfect for Cam and that he could pretty much just rip Driver off the tee all day and despite not being the most accurate player, put himself into positions to score. So this is a testament to a lot of the
players in the field. I think pretty much everyone understood, like, I just got to go out there and bash Driver, and if you look at the leaderboard, it was a distance fest.
Yeah. Yeah, And let's not underestimate the fact that Cameron Smith had two extraordinary putting days round two and round four. But as you're saying, he put himself in position to have have those extraordinary putting days, and that's kind of his game, you know, That's that's why there maybe why there's some some range in how he performs day to day because sometimes the aggression is going to get the best of him. But when he's hot with his putter, he just can go super super low, and that that
worked in his favor this week. So Saint Andrew's there was some talk this week about whether it's it's obsolete for the modern game, right Matt Fitzpatrick weighed in on that and he said, yeah, I kind of is right. If fitz Patrick's a bright guy. What do you make of that? What did you make of Saint Andrews as a test for the modern championship men's game this week?
Yeah? Well, I think in general a lot of courses could be rendered obsolete under the same principles that Matt Fitzpatrick would would probably describe here, I will say, I think with a lot of wind, Saint Andrews is not obsolete. And whether you have wind or not, it's still interesting. I think it's an interesting test even if it becomes a distance fest. Let's rip driver and then you have to hit these creative short game shots. So do I
think it's become obsolete a little bit. I think the strategic value of Saint Andrews was certainly not on display today or really the rest of the week. You need wind, and it's tough to schedule a championship knowing that you need wind for the course to have teeth. So I would agree with him to a point, but that doesn't that doesn't make me think that we need to stop
going to Saint Andrews. I think it's still an interesting test even if you're not going to watch guys hit five irons, you know, from two hundred and thirty yards and watch it roll out. Where do we see that anyway? Where do we see that?
Yeah, we really don't see it anymore. And one thing that I was sort of impressed with this week when it came to the course and its test, was that I felt like it was a pretty good test of driving. I mean, the line on St. Andrews is that you can spray at and you'll be all right, And to an extent that's true, some holds more than others. But man, if you missed in the wrong place, then the punishment
was really really severe. And that factored in to the shots that guys were playing off the tee, and I think that that made it a more interesting test of driving than maybe people give it credit for.
Yeah, and I will say I had tweeted this out there, but just to reiterate, I do think some holes at Saint Andrews are almost like if you were to say, what if we designed a hole where there's zero reason to hit less than driver just to see if some people still will, And you'd still have commentators saying, hey, he's taking the conservative smart play here, like right, No matter if you designed a three hundred and fifty yard completely flat hole, no bunkers, there would probably be some
players who talk themselves into an iron off the tee. I actually think whole one at Saint Andrews is kind of like that. I think the next time they go there you will see players get way more aggressive. I have no doubt interesting players are being too conservative and not pushing it up there closer to the burn. But to your point about it being a interesting driving test, seventeen, when that pin is on the left side, angles matter
on that shot. You cannot just bail out left and expect to make part.
You can't.
Those left pins are not accessible, so it's a bit of a dramatic way to create that angle and make players take it close to out of bounds, kind of like fourteen at Royal Saint George's. But that works, So I'm with you. It's an interesting driving test, but that's pretty much what it is, a driving and short game contest.
Yeah, and that's why Rory was a decent choice this week. And you know why. It's somewhat remarkable in fact, that Cameron Smith came out on top. You know, Cameron Smith can maybe win anywhere. I think that can be said about him. But Cameron Smith is not knowing and not known for being, you know, a great, great driver of the golf ball. But you wrote an article about him a while back for the Friday Egg website where you
noted that he had added some distance. Do you think that came into play this week?
Absolutely? You look at the leaderboard that they're all bombers pretty much without exception, they're all bombers. So absolutely. And one point that I would like to make that I think is maybe subtle, but I've seen some people say that Cam Smith can do well at both Augusta and at Saint Andrews because they're wide while I would agree, I would take it just one step a little bit further, which is to say that wide misses you're still playable. So when they're short grass like that, Cam Smith can
still hit himself out of those situations. If a course is really wide but the rough is super thick, that's not going to be as good for Cam Smith as somewhere like Augusta or Saint Andrew's where that rough was playable. So I think any course where cam can just go out and bomb it and get away with being a little bit inaccurate, he's going to have a chance to win. But that's not Sawgrass, and he won there too, So Cam Smith is a very well rounded player. Especially with
this added distance. He's dangerous anytime he tease it up.
Yeah, and now he's exactly for a bunch of majors. So get used to his presence at the top of leaderboards if he maintains his current form, because yeah, he can. He can compete a lot of places.
He's not going anywhere. Yeah, when you watch his short game, you know that if he's hitting the ball well off the tea, he's going to be in contention. So definitely pretty bullish on Cam Smith.
Yeah, all right. Always interesting to talk to you, Joseph. Thank you. We'll talk to you again soon.
Sounds great. Appreciate you having me on.
Thanks Garrett. All right, I am here with Andy Johnson of the Frida Egg. Are you in your dorm room right now? Andy?
I am, I am. I just the sun just went down.
It's been kind of a really cool night as Saint Andrew's. Obviously, the old course turns back into park on Sunday night, and like there have been you know, my my dorm room overlooks the road Hole Green and the Swolking Bridge, and I've been looking out and there's been like fifty or sixty people on the seventeenth Green having putting competitions, and you know there's like, well you were walking back after the tournament, there's you know, probably about a two
year old out hitting balls and people taking pictures in the road Hole bunker. I mean just you know, one of the neatest, maybe the thing that sticks with me the most is how I just I can't get over the fact that all this happens right after the tournament, and after thinking about all the other major championships that I've been to, like the idea of people just loitering around on the golf course until dark is absolutely crazy after a major championship, but that's what happens here, and
it's just a magical place because of that. It makes you think some you know, after spending a week out here and seeing specifically that you know, and how intertwined golf is with this community and how this golf course is the town's golf course, Like how is this where we started and how we got to some of the places that we are with golf.
That is a huge story about how, yeah, how this game started with a course like this that is being treated in this way. I'm not saying it's treated badly, but it's being you know, it's sort of like golf courses we regard as being so sensitive and so fragile that we can't have people walking around them. They're going
to ruin the golf course. And here's the old course, sturdy, old burly, old course, just sitting there being like, yeah, come on, two year olds, you can you can take swings here, you can have a picnic and a bunker. Come on, I'm I'm fine, you know, I'm.
Here, and a chance and cartwheels on the seventeenth green, Like, think about incredible, Think about that happening at the country club moments after the concluded.
Yeah right, they would send the cops to shoot you down if you did that on the eighteenth green at Augusta. So, yeah, I wish I were there. These are the moments when I when I saw the tournament going on. I don't think I ever really felt like, oh, I wish I was there in that huge crowd, like trying to see what's happening. The moments that I wish I was there are. It's like right now, when people are just walking around the course on a beautiful evening having a fun time,
that's so appealing. That's such a that's such an idyllic scene, and that that is the image of golf that I wish were out there more.
Well, maybe that's you know, we got it that beans, We got a rebby that by getting you out here, like getting you into town on a Saturday night so you can spend an entire Sunday having a picnic out there.
That would be the plan. That would be the best way to experience the old course for the time. But speaking of first times, this was your first time at the Old Course. A lot of people are stunned by this. They like to get the digs in afterwards, you know, like, oh my god, I've been to the Old Course, and when you're there, even when you yeah, you can't do that bit anymore where you say you're a fraud. But but yeah, I mean it's yeah, okay, we haven't been.
You know, Augusta might have heard and they might have caught radioed in a policeman.
Wait, what what happened? Are there that just went oh I didn't, I didn't Okay, Yeah, they're tracking our Actually they don't want people doing cartwheels on the green in any case, Uh, this is your first time out there. I just wanted to get your impressions of the course, whether they be general or specific. We've started talking sort of about the spirit of the place and how it is so woven into the town and how people just sort of walk all over it and have done for
hundreds of years. But you know, architecturally speaking, what were some of the things that that really jumped out at you.
God, there's so many. I it's it's almost organize this somehow. I think. I think the number one thing that sticks with me from the tournament standpoint is the how it's got this elasticity about it with scoring about you know nothing. And it's very similar in a way to Augusta. How we feel about Augusta National. But nothing, no shot out at the Old Course is unattainable. No, you know, there are plenty of opportunities to go get red numbers. It's
very easy to make birdies at the Old Course. Maybe not very easy all the time, but there are very Every hole effectively is a birdie opportunity, and that makes low scoring extraordinarily attainable. However, as we saw all tournament law, you know, low scores are available when you're in the right positions. In the second you get out of the position, that's when year round often gets derailed. And while there were sixty fours, was there sixty four every day?
I believe maybe, I don't know. Was there a sixty four on Saturday? I think so there might have been.
I think sixty four was the low score every day. But it was very very rare for anybody to shoot below with sixty six, So it wasn't like, oh, there was a flurry of sixty fours. It was no. This Playerson played extraordinarily well, and very few people played extraordinarily well every day, which is what led to such a great tournament with three players coming down the stretch with a chance to win. One on the outside with Cam Young who had an unbelievable finish, but three players who
had clearly separated themselves from everybody else. Now we could get into some nitty gritty other things that I noticed, but I think the big overriding point about the old course and the architecture is that it allows you to attain scoring, but the second that you miss, you play the wrong place, it takes away your chance to score. And at that point it becomes about I need to
play really well. I have to hit usually a great shot to make a par and I think that's uh, you know, when you look at the tournament, I was
kind of bummed out. I requested will Zel Taurus on Saturday because I you know, obviously he's somebody that's a disciple of decade and very strict with how he plays golf courses, because I wanted to talk to him about, you know, how his strategy had been going and it had to change because there were places that you had to play to certain spots to have chances, especially with the way the RNA tuck pinned, and it just like
it really exhibited lines of charm and strategy. If you're into strategy, this was the week if you understood the golf course. And this is a tough thing with the television is it's so hard to see in the middle of the day with cameras that are thirty feet off the ground, the contours and what makes these shots so hard?
Well, what makes one side of the fairway harder than another, Because often it has to do with sight lines, you know, and you can say as much as you want that the guys know their distances, but when they've got a big dune in front of them or a big ridge in front of them from their angle in the fairway,
then it makes the shot harder. It just does. So, Okay, you've said that one of the special things about the Old course, at least as a championship test, is that you can attain scoring if you're in the right positions, But if you're in the wrong positions, then things can go south quickly. What's a hole that you think exemplifies that?
So I think like obviously the sixteenth today and the I think most people will watch. The final round was a really great example. And we saw a play out down the stretch early in the day. I was watching and I saw Justin Thomas hammered to drive and a lot of guys were hitting driver, and that was a really smart play when the pin was on the right side. This week the pin was on the left side twice
and on the right side twice. And the days that is on the right side, you could hit it over on the left side of the fairway and just In or in the left rough and dump it over to the right side of the green because there's no bunker in there. And again, like you know, this is a simple golf strategy. Right pin on the right, hit it left, it opens up the green right. And then but then today with the pin on the left, you know, players that hit driver were put into a really precarious situation.
Even Cam Young from the fairway he had like seventy yards. It was an unbelievable T shot. Watching that up close him hitting T shots, he.
Could be an extraordinary smash.
Yeah, but but from there, you know, in camp Smith, I want to say he hit like a five iron off the tee. It was not It was not a three iron based off the loft, and it was an iron, it was like a five or six iron, and he laid back. But what that allowed him to do was to have a shot that run ran up the hill, up the slope to get there, even though he was on the left half. And I saw something similar on the fourth hole with Scheffler yesterday where he laid back and he was a lot he was able to climb
the slope. But anyways, on sixteen Jt in the morning, hits it to the right and hits this wedge. He's in the perfect spot up there to kick in range, and it was like a simple birdie. But then we saw every leader come through. Outside of camp Smith, who had the makeable birdie chance, he had about twenty feet. Everybody else came through, hit driver and hit a lot. There were a lot of great drives that were hit, but none of them had actual chances at Bertie because
they were in the wrong position. You know, that was a position at that point you're playing for par like or giving yourself a long putt at Bertie. And Rory obviously almost made his birdie putt, but he was forty five feet away, you know, And that was about as
good as he could have done from his position. So I think that's like that was a really good example late on Sunday that exemplified that where laying back actually gave you and having a long eye I mean Smith, I think he said he hit a six iron in there, like that's not something you want to do, but that's that gave him the best chance to hit it close if he'd and nobody would take nobody'd be crazy enough to take on the right side on purpose with the
driver because it's right, you know, off the fair away, But with that iron, laying back was the other option to give yourself a chance to get to that pin by using the slope right.
Yeah, And just to clarify, the whole moves to the right right. So the longer you hit it, even if it's on the same line that Cameron Smith hit his iron, the longer you hit it, the more left you are in relation to the green, because the hole is moving more and more away from you right, and so that angle into the green becomes kind of more and more
toward the road over the green. The road's not as obviously, not as close as it is on the seventeenth hole, but it's there and you have the bunkering along there. It just makes the angle tough. And this is not
a new strategy thought about sixteen. Literally, this is what Alistair mackenzie was talking about in his book Golf Architecture Slash Spar of Saint Andrew's about what the strategy is for the sixteenth hole that has been there for like you know, probably a couple hundred years at this point, which is amazing to me that still this kind of quandary is being presented to players at this course in twenty twenty two.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, and it was all over the place like you saw it in. One of the other things that the old course has and was working against players was that wind. It was coming off the left today, so it made it even more difficult in that case, like a lot of times. That's the other neat thing about the old course is how the wind. It comes
at a crosswind right for most of the course. The only holes that typically play into the wind are one or into or down or one eighteen and then at the loop eight, nine, ten eleven are the ones that kind of go into But all those other holes play per dominantly in the crosswind, which just makes it.
It makes it harder.
You need to be on the right, in the right spot because of those crosswinds make it so hard to
get at tuck pins like they were this week. That That's another thing that I think is just kind of neat about it, is how when when your predominant wind is crosswind, the holes have to move in different directions far less if that makes sense for them to change significantly, because when you have a crosswind and you just the hole can go in the same direction, but it can just jog a little differently than the last hole, and the wind plays so drastically different.
Yeah. And also crosswinds are just sort of more fun hard wins, Yeah, I mean harder, easier, I don't know, Like you're into the wind, your your down wind, the into the wind holes become harder and the down wind holes might become easier, depending on how the green is designed. But if you're talking right left strategy, if you're talking later strategy, which is what the old course has always tried to do, and which is the thing that is sort of going away from today's pro game, because it
doesn't matter right left where you are so much. It just matters if you can you flip a wedge into the green. On the old course, it's right left strategy and that crosswind will accentuate it one way or the other and give you the opportunity to make some strategic plays off the tee. Now, the thing this week is that we didn't have much wind, and so that was
maybe a little bit less of a factor. But in any case, a big part of the court part of the course I want to hear you talk about, and that jumped out at me this week in terms of just the entertainment value and the importance to the round in a way that I didn't expect was the loop.
You mentioned it earlier. It's basically holes seven through eleven, but i'd include twelve also in that sequence of holes because twelve is is sort of like nine and ten, a short par four that's really dynamic and it's scoring profile,
if you want to call it that. But the other holes in the loop include short par four, seventh, You have the eighth hole, which is a par three, the short hole, you have eleven, the edenhole, really hard par three, and then you have those two very short par fours nine and ten, which were drivable for most of the week. This week.
So what did you.
Notice that at the loop? Did you enjoy that part of the course as much as I did?
Yeah, I mean it's super cool. One of the things that's funny. The first I haven't played the course yet. I think I might be playing it shortly after recording this, okay, but I think fingers crossed. But the thing about it when you walk, like the first time I watched it, I got out to nine and you walk on this you see these just like extra i mean mind melting greens the way out and obviously they're all double greens and I kind of was trying to just look at
them in the vein of the hole that I was walking. Yeah, and you see this like wide array of crazy greens. And at the start of the loop is maybe the craziest one is the eleventh and the seventh greens and then you get eight is kind of like you're kind of like, okay, it's a little boring, you know, it's like this is like huge part three and this huge
like pretty flat green. Yeah, and then you go to nine and you're just like, well, this hole is like this hole you could put on any course like this is just this revides me of like a beauty hole, right, except for there's like centralized buckers. It just like reminds you of like a pasture course hole.
Right.
Yeah, It's got this huge green, it's super flat, and you're just like, well, I mean, I guess it's kind of and you think about it in your head, it's like, I guess it's kind of nice to have a break. Like That's the way I kind of thought about it.
And and the tenth.
The only thing that it saves the tenth from having a similar faith if fate is the ninth is like it's got this really audacious false front, which we saw with Rory's hole out. You know, it's a really neat front part of the green. So it's kind of like this lull. But if you think about it from like a song perspective, it's like kind of like a the chilled out part of the song before you get rocket again.
Solo.
It's like a piano solo and like a bass solo. Yeah, or it just drops away and it's just the bass and the drums and.
Uh and then and then it ramps back up with like the heart maybe the most like taxing shot on the golf course with the eleventh, so you come in in the seventh green is like out of the control, crazy stuff happens. We saw it like Cam Cam Young and on Saturday, chunk that wedge.
You know, Rory's ball is literally like what is it? Like?
I couldn't see it land but like a foot or two from being perfect. Instead it runs over to the left and instead of a birdy opportunities trying to scrambling to make par, it's just this like chaos spot and there's that you're criss crossing there and that that nine to ten is kind of like okay, we just we need to like kind of chill holes after this nuts part, and then eleven comes back. It's just wild, and then
twelve is another scoring opportunity. I think what makes it is that little center section in terms of tournament golf, provides this opportunity for people to go on crazy runs. You know, you can go through there and make you could you know, seven is like you you kind of think you should make a birdie eight if you hit a good shot in the pinzon and the crazy you can make a birdie nine. You feel like you should
make a two or three. Most dates ten you feel like you should make a birdie, and then eleven's obviously gonna be hard, you're gonna take a par every time. But then twelve at the end of it, when you leave, it's it's really neat. It's like another birdy opportunity, so you get this flurry of scoring. The other thing about it is there's this communal feel. It's like an amphitheater right the every you can see everything going on. I
was standing for most of it. I walked down to near like ten T nine green to see Rory and Cam play there. But I sat for a while on eleven t and I could see everything going on from that spot, and all the spectators there saw it. And then the last part is the most exposed part of the course and we didn't see this on Sunday because the wind wasn't blowing. But out there that's where like
the conditions it gets. It's colder and it's it's windy because of the estuary, the Eden estuary behind the eleventh Green. So it's just listen like the hole is to me like it's it doesn't it doesn't fit the golf course. It's really weird.
It's the least good hole at St. Andrews. Everybody says, yeah, yeah, nine and ten, maybe even throw eight in. There might be the architecturally least interesting holes at Saint Andrews, especially if you can can find some more features on one. But uh but yeah. And knowing that going in, I was fascinated how big of a role that stretch played
in the championship because it was such an opportunity. And not only that, but if you got through there and you didn't go a couple under, then you missed it. And Rory today he played those holes one under. Basically he made a birdie on ten, Yes, and he easily
could have gotten to twenty under by hold twelve. Easily he should have, and then he could play the way he played coming in, which was clearly his intention in the final round was kind of to play this somewhat conservative form of golf where he was really avoiding big trouble and he was too putting a lot. But he had to make those birdies. He had to birdie nine, he had to birdie twelve. He just had to get it done, and he didn't.
And one of the things about it is like it puts a little pressure when you expect to score well on a hole there is like a psychological thing like you know, you have to get it done. But I think you know is in the way Camp Smith came out of there with ten birding ten eleven twelve, you know for sure?
Yeah, all right, Well, we've spent a good amount of time on what might be the least interesting holes on the course, which is which is funny. But you know you'll have plenty of other thoughts about Saint Andrew's coming up soon. You're writing something for Tonight's newsletter, I believe, or what will be. I don't know when this podcast is coming out, but it's going to be Monday's newsletter. Yeah, and I'm sure we'll get some more thoughts in the
coming days about what you saw out there. But thanks for coming on the pod obviously, Andy, and enjoy the rest of your time in Scotland.
Thanks Garrett.
This episode of the Frida Egg Podcast was edited by me Garrett Morrison. If you've enjoyed the Fridagg's Major Championship coverage this here, consider leaving a rating and review in iTunes. That's one of the simplest and most effective ways of supporting what we do here. All right, that's it for the twenty twenty two men's Majors, but there's a lot of golf still to be played this summer, from the US Amateurs for men and women to the Women's Open
at Mirfield. So make sure you're subscribed and we'll see you soon.