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 Dread and Friday Friday Frida Egg Egg, Frida Egg, Bride Egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off of the hump.
Welcome to the Frida Egg Podcast. I'm Garrett Morrison, and today we are recapping the twenty twenty three Open Championship at Royal Liverpool. Brian Harmon pretty much ran away with the tournament. He took the lead with an incredible sixty five on Friday and he stayed well ahead of the field the rest of the way, ended up winning by six strokes. I've definitely seen more exciting majors, but there's
plenty of interesting stuff to discuss. So in this episode we're going to dig into two big stories from the Open with two different guests. First up, we have Sean Martin of PGA tour dot Com talking about the champion, Brian Harmon. Sean is very familiar with Harmon, having covered Harmon's amateur career, and by the way, you may not have known much about Harmon before this week. But he was an exceptional amateur golfer. After Sean, we'll call in Joseph Lamania for a few takes on the golf course.
Royal Liverpool was a compelling venue, I thought, and it had some unusual traits that maybe other championship golf courses can learn from. Joseph is the author of the Finding the Edge newsletter, which he should check out, and a contributor to the Frida Egg. All right, let's get to it right after this break, you'll hear from Sean Martin. Our first sponsor for this episode is a new one, Ores and Alps. Ores and Alps was founded by two women with outdoorsy husbands, so they know what sun wind
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doesn't melt in the heat. I carry it in my golf bag and it just glides on nice and clear, super convenient, and so that has been a big part of my summer. And when the sun comes out and it starts to get hot, you really need to take care of yourself on the golf course. You know, if you're out there, please put sunscreen on. It is such an important thing to do. So Oris and Alps have
a huge range of skincare products. Go to Orisonalps dot com to start building your kit, and when you go there, use code egg fifteen to get fifteen percent off all products. That's Orison Alps dot com. Code egg fifteen for fifteen percent off all Right. Back to the episode, Sean Martin, Welcome back to the podcast.
How you doing good? How are you?
I'm doing okay. Did you have a weird sleep schedule this week?
I did not. I think being on the East Coast, honestly, I can keep it pretty normal. I get it at five am most days, so I hadn't missed too much when I woke up. Maybe there were a couple of four thirty alarms. Did a little bit of watching it on my phone in the gym, trying to keep it a fairly normal schedule. I still have a day job, still have kids to take care of, so I didn't go too far off the rails. No I know Brendan or Andy or any thing like that. Nothing overnight.
I mean. I think Brendan is similar in the sense that he's a dad too. Wakes up early anyway, Andy as well. Andy. Andy wakes up early. But being on the East Coast does a major advantage here. I always get a little bit screwy during open Week because the first day I stay up late to watch the beginning right, and then I try to reverse it as the week goes on, and that's the big challenge.
I grew up in California, so I remember the open being on so early. I was shocked my first few years when I lived in Florida at how late it seemed to come on almost because I mean with eight hours being from California, you could turn that thing on.
It.
Yeah, you turn on the night before if you wanted to, and so it is even that three hours definitely makes a huge difference.
Yeah for sure. All right, So Brian Harmon is our winner. What are a few things that you think he did better than anyone else this week? Because he clearly was a cut above.
And I think the big thing was the potter. We all saw it. It was hard to miss it. It's such a big putter, which makes for plenty of jokes.
Golf scene from space, Yeah, it's it shows up in satellite imagery.
Between Crystal Lamprect and Brian Harmon.
Golf.
Twitter definitely got its fill, probably went over its rate limit on high jokes. I think you know it's harmy right away.
At a certain point it gets a little bit mean, right like, I mean, the guys come on, you know he can't he can't help it. But yeah, Crystal lamb practice. I haven't seen the photo yet of them. We just wrapped up the tournament. There is going to be a photo of the two of them standing next together to each other, presumably.
And Kyle Porter made a great call pulling out the air and judge jose Al Tuove photo it definitely fit. But yeah, I mean the first thing was the potter, which is one of Brian's strengths. And then you know, coming from your own Twitter handle, it was I think he hit in two bunkers all week and I thought even you saw it the first five holes Sunday, you know, he hit it in some spots and it got a little squirrely, but I mean he really minimized the damage
playing those. I think in one over after he made the birdier and then quickly getting it back with the birdies, and and that was another big thing too, is the bounce back. I think Justin Ray had the stat I think six bogies all week and he followed four of them immediately with birdies. So it was just the control of staying out of trouble, staying out of the pop bunkers,
and then just putting fantastically. You know, I think you can get away with a little more at a links course because you have the option of running it up it's one right reason why we see older players contend as well, because you know, it's not like it's immediately hack out or I can't carry down to the screen. A guy like Brian Harmon, who's very creative, who talked
about his love of hitting a variety of shots. As long as he's at a spot where he can move forward, he has a chance to get it on the green because he can, you know, use the ground and finagle something and roll something on there.
One quick correction, Brian Harmon actually was in three bunkers this week because he found one on the final hole of the tournament, and so we tweeted that out prematurely and got pretty owned in the replies. So three bunkers, but he was in two of those bunkers, you know,
through seventy one holes. Two bunkers. Both of them were on Friday when he played extraordinary golf, a sixty five bogie free and he was in a bad position in a fairway bunker on the twelfth hole, had to play out backwards, missed the green on his long approach and proceeded to chip in. And so that's the kind of day that it was for Brian Harmon On Friday. It was not an easy golf course, and he played as good of golf as I think you can play in
those conditions, so it was super, super impressive. I believe he gained eleven strokes putting over the week, So that was kind of the story. And this is sort of how players win at Royal Liverpool, right, just the control and a good putting week.
Yeah, and really, I mean, outside of the actual the game itself, the most impressive thing probably was how he kept it together. Sitting on the lead for fifty some odd hours. You know, you're sitting there, You're spending multiple days going to bed and trying to not think about how you're on the precipice of this goal that you've
devoted your entire life to. And you know, even on the golf course, you know, so many other other sports are reactive and they last, you know, ninety minutes, let's say, and there's constant you know, it's just about reacting to
what's going around you. Golf is hours on the golf course, minutes between shots, and you have all this time that you're just still not doing anything really, and then trying to hit a stationary golf ball and you're just alone with your thoughts, and so really that was the most impressive thing because after Friday, with all the putts he made the chip in for par you know, everyone's screaming regression.
Can't keep it up. You know, putter's gonna cool. We're gonna see him go by the wayside, even with this five shot lead. And that's a very reasonable take. So for him to withhold it all, to still play strong and steady on the weekend while also having to withhold or withstand the pressure of a five shot lead is humongous. You know, with a one shot lead, you are you're
not looking too far ahead. But when you're five shots ahead for that long, it has to be so hard to just keep everything in control and even try to get a good night's sleep and just go out and perform the next day.
Yeah, you know, usually it's a good theory that somebody who is leading a tournament primarily because of a super hot putter might not be a sustainable leader of that tournament.
Usually that's like a pretty solid way of thinking. But in Brian Harmon's case, he is an extraordinary putter, right, He's one of the best putters in the world, and so yes, he was, even by his standards, exceptional this week on the greens, but it wasn't that surprising to see him keep it up on Saturday and Sunday with the putter right.
And also, you know, after two rounds we screamed small sample size, small sample size, regression. It's like, well, four rounds is still a really small sample, and I mean, really, a golf career, golf season is a series of small samples. Four days is a really small sample. Seventy two holes of stroke play, you know, is a good way to identify the best player. But also there it's just a small lest sample that there is still variants and randomness
that come into play. And just because a guy has a hot putting round or two doesn't mean necessarily that he's going to regress to the mean. I mean, careers are made on these small sample sizes. It's about putting four good rounds together. It's not about one hundred and sixty two game season. It's you know, Brian Harmon's year, His career is made by these four rounds and what he did in these four rounds. He could miss the rest of his cuts for the rest of the decade
and he's still the Open champion. He still has a satisficate saturdaye so is satisfied with being the Open champion. He's still gonna be on that Ryder Cup team. And I think that's one of the crazy things about golf, and I love seeing it in a story like this. This guy's thirty six years old, he's been a professional for more than a decade, and his career will be defined by these four rounds. His life changed in a week.
And that's the great thing about golf where I think it's different than other sports that no matter what he does from here, he is the Open champion, all right.
I don't think many people are super familiar with Brian Harmon's backstory, but you definitely are. When did you become aware of Harmon the amateur player?
They're very familiar with his off course pursuits now, that's.
Yeah, the hunting and stuff, especially in the UK where it seems like that has caused a bit of a scandal that he likes to hunt. I think he's a bow hunter, right, so this is not really a gun thing necessarily, no.
And I do appreciate I mean, he eats what he kills. Also, it's not this you know, sadistic type thing, which a trophy hunter, right, he's not.
I'm not sure.
I have to tell you where their hamburgers come from. But that's another topic. But yes, Brian Harmon, he was in this great sweet spot in my career where I worked at Golf Week and it was a great role of covering college golf and you get to know players well. They're excited to talk to the media because usually they've done something well. And I was there from two thousand and six to twenty thirteen, and Brian Harmon's amateur career was two thousand and five to two thousand and nine,
pretty much his college career. But even before that being a humongous golf nerd I mean early two thousands, the era of like the Laker, you know, yellow and Purple Shaft and the titleist nine to seventy five D and the titlest nine nineties. Like in that era of golf, Brian Harmon was the guy in junior golf, I mean, absolutely dominant. And this is before Speeth, this is before we kind of got accustomed to teenagers really getting into
two events and even making cuts and playing well. It just was not there was a larger gulf between the amateur game and especially the junior game. Then there was the professional game, and he was just the guy. Two time AJGA Player of the Year. He won the US Junior in three. The next year he was the medalist by eight, which is over thirty six holes, so he
beat the field by eight at Olympic Club. I was looking if you lost to Brian Harmon in stroke play at the two thousand and four US Junior by nineteen shots over two rounds. He still made match play. And then later that summer he made a PJ Tour cut at age seventeen. He was calling his players playing partner's mister. You know, I think he played a role in Thatcher and he called a mister Thatcher would say, sir, I
mean he was. And then he played in that Walker Cup team with Anthony cam at two thousand and five. He was the youngest American ever to play in the Walker Cup. It was just stuff that, you know, Speeth and Thomas came along and did it. But at that time guys were not doing that. That was it was really unheard of, and he was he was the man. He lost his way a little bit at Georgia. He describes as being a little banged up, had some trouble kind of making the adjustment. He has spoken to about
just taking some time at each level to adjust. But then he did play another Walker cup in O nine to close out his college career, so two time Walker Cupper. But even when he turned pro, he missed his first two Q school attempts at first stage and was playing what was called the E Golf Tour at the time, playing the mini tours. So an interesting career in the fact you had a guy who was really kind of
unprecedented in a bit. I mean, you had Tiger and Field befo him, but he was in really rarefied air as a junior golfer. Good college career, but I don't think really was what would have been expected from him. And then comes out of school and is playing mini tours for two years because he misses a Q school. So this teen phenom who also had to overcome some adversity to get to this level.
A couple of fun stories out there about Brian Harmon as a kid. First of all, what did you learn about how Harmon got started in golf, how he became interested in the game. It involved a tournament in nineteen ninety seven, but maybe not the tournament you would expect in nineteen ninety seven.
Yeah, a lot of people were inspired to play golf in nineteen ninety seven, and they were inspired by a double digit dominant victory. For Brian, it was Steve jones eleven shot win in the Phoenix Open, which is still one of the I mean, he'd won the US Open last or the previous year, so he was a guy, I guess, but it was definitely one of the more just random victories, if you will. And Brian he was
home from school that entire week. He couldn't remember if he was sick or if it was spring break or some sort of holiday, but he said he watched like every minute of it. And also Tiger did make that hole in one at TBC scott Still that week, so
there was also the excitement around that. But I mean, Brian says when he played a practice on with Steve Jones when he got on tour, he told him, he goes, look, you're the reason I got into golf, which I'm sure had to just kind of, you know, take Steve Jones back a little bit. He probably has not heard that statement too many times, despite being a major champion. But
Brian's parents didn't really play golf. He said the year course was like two miles away, so literally would throw the clubs on his back and bit two miles to the nearby course, and within two years he was breaking eighty.
Yeah. Wow, it's Steve john crazy.
I love that.
I mean, that's just so funny to me. But you know, also I don't want to insult Steve Jones because this guy, as he said, was a real player. Another story that I love about Harmon as a young golfer is one that gets told a lot on Twitter these days. That might be a little bit overplayed in some ways, but I believe that you were the initial reporter to put this story out there about what happened at the two
thousand and nine nc Double A's. Brian Harmon at that point, I believe, is a senior at Georgia and he comes up against Ricky Fowler. Could you tell me how this match ended up unfolding in the end.
Yeah. So we're at Inverness in toled Ohio, the famous Inverness Club, the first year the ncla's had gone to this match play format, and the two teams that year are Oklahoma State and Georgia. Oklahoma State has Fowler Morgan Hoffman. I want to say Kevin Tway is also on that team. He might have been a year later. And Georgia is
some iteration of Harmon Harris English Hudson Swafford. I mean, just two teams that are stacked with future tour players, and you have stroke play qualifying and Georgia does not play well, and they actually tie for seventh place in stroke play and the tiebreaker. So the best man in my wedding actually played in that nine text A and M team that goes on to win. They tied for seventh with Georgia and my friend Matt. He was the
fifth man on that team. His score never counted in the stroke play, but the tie breaker was your fifth man score, and so text A and M because his fifth man score beat Georgia's fifth man score. Georgia was the eight seed, tex An M was the seven seed, and Oklahoma State had one going away, and so they got text A M got to avoid Oklahoma State, the powerhouse, and it set up really the one to two matches in the first round. Unfortunately, so I believe then coaches
didn't set the matches. It was just based on your golf stat ranking. So it's Ricky falavers Brian Harmon and Ricky I don't know the exact details, but he's leading. He makes a putt and after the fact you find out that it was just kind of an oversight that Ricky and Mike McGraw left the green without putting the flag in. But you know Brian Harmon, you know, being a smaller guy, he is very fiery.
And maybe a little chip on his shoulder.
Exactly totally, and he will admit that and sees the flag now put in, and that just grinds his gears and he goes on, I believe, to birdie four holes in a row, the last four holes to win the match, for Georgia to win the team match in advance, and I mean it did it. Put I mean Ricky Feller had to go into the locker room, and I mean he came out and his eyes were red. He had
been crying. And then text Am goes on to win, and my friend Matt the Great, the late great ROMBLICKI wrote this great article about how Matt this like upstanding, like good GPA community service, all this stuff helped text am win with, you know, by being the fifth man who's the throat score contributions greater than his his golf. I think was the way they phrased it, which base was like it wasn't that good, but like he did help them win, and he has the ring to prove it.
So we always joke about that as well. But I mean it was Brian Harmon in a nutshell of a very just a good competitor, good ship on his shoulder that I think we saw this week. And actually I do have one more texting with Justin Huber about about Brian Harmon, because I was looking at those two thousand and four US Junior scores and I think Hubert lost to him by twenty four and Justin says he warmed up to him. Warmed up next at the Olympic Club range.
He says he was a better wedge player fifteen than I ever was. He hit the pan at least twice and hit probably ten out of ten from one hundred yards inside a four foot circle on the range next to me. I thought I should go home. Then we had a fog delay and he's laying on a couch taking a nap during it, and I'm stressed out about playing and he's just napping, goes out and shoots sixty six sixty five, So pretty good story.
These are the kinds of stories that you hear about Brian Harmon as an amateur. There's a bit of a gap between I think how current golf fans view Brian Harmon and how his peers and competitors do on the PGA Tour, because if you ask tour pros who are about Brian Harmon's age about the guy, they're like, no, seriously, this guy is unbelievable, but he just didn't quite do it in his career so far on the PGA Tour. And he's in his mid thirties, so like, this has
been a long time. Why do you think his skill set? I mean, he's been a really good pro. I don't want to misrep present this. He's won two substantial PGA Tour events, the John Deere Classic and the Wells Fargo, as well as the QBE Shootout, which everybody seems to forget that he won with He one with Patton Kauseaire. I believe it was either okay, I was gonna Sayton
because I or Jason Kokrak is one of those. But in any case, Harmon wasn't as dominant as a pro as he was as an amateur, especially initially when he was on the many tours and kind of struggling. Why do you think his skill set didn't immediately translate to the PGA Tour. Do you have a theory about that or is it just kind of the randomness of golf.
I thought he had a great quote about it this week when asked about it, when he said that he played just so freely as a junior, and you can kind of see. I mean, people got on about the waggles and the amount of waggles there were, but I think he's fairly quick in his decision making, and even in the waggles, he's he's quick, and he's moving. He's not kind of and so I he just kind of is rapid fire. I think when things are going well, and so I think when he was a junior, things
are rolling, He's winning everything. You know, he said nobody could beat me. I think he just was free wheeling, you know, And you get to the tour and you get to harder golf courses, there's more trouble, there's more rough, the fairways are narrower, the greens are firmer, and if you don't have I think that easily can kind of some doubt can creep in, especially when you're someone who's had success at so many levels. And even he said no one junior golf could beat him, which was I mean,
it wasn't even really being braggadocia. I think it was kind of true. But then he gets out, you know, college golf, there's more players who are good, and then has some struggles off the bat as a pro and I think you just realize there's tons of good players here. There's our guys who can beat me, There's thousands of
guys who can beat me, he said. And so I think just that you lose that free wheeling self a little bit, and you get a little cautious, get a little doubt, And I think I definitely think that's part of it. And I think too, it's just you know, you look at it and it is like it's not sex, but it's this incredible consistency. You know, he's kept his card. I think he said twelve straight years, which he's really
proud of, and there is something to that. It's it's not sexy, and I know he expected more out of himself and more and people expected more out of him. But maybe it's a lack of length, but it's just a it didn't really pop until like this week, and then even at the Wells Farga would be a great field. But I don't know, I really don't know. It's a it's a strange game, and I think there's a lot
of guys like Brian Harmon's. You know, I tweeted that his career kind of has the ebbs and flows that most do over this time period, and I think it's just the nature of the game. And I mean, I kind of it sounds bad, but I kind of refer to him in a text as the next Jimmy Walker, which honestly that sounds like a slight but it's really not.
Yeah.
Yeah, ask Andy to pull up the list of Feedest Cup number ones, and I mean, he's all over it. But you know, he played on multiple national teams, won a major one eight times, let's say, and so this could be the catalyst for Brian Harmon who realize he can beat some people and do some of the stuff
he did. But I think I do think, you know, you see it even with guys like Speef and when guys come out and get on a heater right out of the gate, that there's periods in your life where nothing can go wrong, and then when that first thing goes wrong, it can take a while to get over it. Right, you get punched in the face the first time, like
you know, you go through these. When Speed came out, he was rolling and winning everything and all the putts are going in and life's easy, and it's it's hard one to get hit in the mouth the first time, and so there could be some of that as well that takes while to come over and get that confidence back.
So I have kind of a philosophical wondering that's related to what you're talking about here. This whole story would seem to have some kind of appeal. A guy who is incredible as a junior, doesn't quite live up to expectations when he turns pro, has a solid career but not an extraordinary one, and then he arrives at the Open Championship and he absolutely obliterates the field with frankly
beautiful golf. You would think that this story would be very appealing to a lot of golf fans, and I think it probably is appealing to some golf fans, but there's also a lot of people that we've heard from this week who are unhappy about seeing somebody like Brian Harmon dominate this tournament. And there's a couple of threads
to that. One is that he ran away with it and there was never really any threat to his lead, and so we didn't get to see a really dynamic tournament where the outcome was at all in doubt at any point except for maybe a few times early on Saturday or early on Sunday. But the other thread to it is that often golf fans just don't really love seeing an underdog win. I believe that if John rahm Orry McElroy we're running away with this tournament, that fans
would be more riveted to it. And so I wonder why you think that in golf we don't root for the underdog more, or that underdog stories don't seem to have the appeal that they do in other sports.
I think it's the where were you win? Factor? So you see some dominant win by Rom or Rory, who are putting on Hall of Fame careers, they are all time greats, and you can kind of remember where you were when they won this tournament by you know, ten shots, and you remember where you were when they put on this all time historic performance. And I mean, the odds are that Brian Harmon's Open Championship win is going to just kind of be lost to history. You know, we'll
move on. It's I mean, you have to have a heck of a career to become a Hall of Famer, let's say. And so I think that it's not gonna be one that you're going to tell your kids about right that you saw this one, whereas with Rory or rom it could be you know, where were you when Tiger won the Masters by by twelve? Where were you when I mean, I remember where I was when the ninety nine Ryder Cup happened. It's just it's different when
a star wins. You feel like you're I think because you don't have the team dynamic of other sports, where you know, if your team is in it, you're rooting for your team, but if they're not, then you're probably rooting for the underdog. You're in part because when Butler wins, or George Mason or whoever you that's the same. It's the opposite side of it, but it is the where were you win? You know, I remember when FAU made its final four run.
Let's say, yeah, they're like beating Duke or something, yeah, or North Carolina, you know which is. You know, if you're not a fan of one of those teams, then you like to see them lose. Yeah, But that's not really the case with dominant golfers very much. With Rory and rom you know, most fans I think want to see them win.
They do, and I think it is funny how it is.
It is so different. I look at you know, I look at a win like Harmon, like yeah, I mean as a writer, I know, like writing Roaring Ram, you're writing something of historical significance, significance possibly whereas but like Harmon, I look at a guy like Brian Harmon, who you know, he shows up to the golf course every day for however many years and hits balls and goes to this whole routine, you know, hoping to win a major, thinking he could win a major, seeing guys who he's probably
better than win a major, but it hasn't happened for him until now, And just what it would be like and how to even relate it to my own life of just doing something consistently for ten fifteen years with no idea what the result is going to be, and just the discipline it takes to just keep doing it with no idea what the outcome is going to be. You know, I think so much I look at my own life of like I like to tweet and then see how many people like the tweet right because instant.
But I'm like, what if I picked something that really meant a lot to me? You know? He talked to this week about someone told him to do something that when you're doing it you lose track of time, that you love it that much that while you're doing that activity, the world melts away. Kind of, I was like, well, what if I just you know, picked something, figure out what that was for me, spend ten years on it,
Let's say writing a book, being a writer. What if I just said I'm gonna write a book and I'm gonna spend an hour a day on it for ten years. It may not be good, it may sell be a best seller, it may do nothing, but I'm I'm going to go down this path with no idea how it ends, and just keep going down this path that to me is really admirable and something frankly that I would love to see in my own life. And for Brian Harmon,
that's you know, that's what this has been. He shows up every day and he hits balls and goes through his drills and you know, does the same stuff and plays a bazillion tournaments a year and has played probably five hundred golf tournaments in his life, thinking of you when the British Open one day, but never knowing, and then he finally does. And I mean, the satisfaction that has to bring is immense.
And we should appreciate that. And yet somehow it's hard to engulf. But once you put it that way and you try to relate to it, then it certainly becomes more meaningful because this type of achievement is frankly more, I want to say, it's more common just across life, right where you work at something hard through your twenties into your thirties and then it starts to pay off. Usually people aren't successful or acclaimed right away right like
some recent great golfers have been. Usually, just in life, it takes us a while to find our thing and to develop that skill set and that set of achievements that then eventually pays off. And so that's what we saw with Brian Harmon this week. That should be satisfying.
Yeah, I mean for Rory and Rahm in some ways, it's probably easier to go to the driving range every day. It's like, man, if I keep work and keep working this, I'm probably gonna pick off a major, win a bunch of big tournaments, you know, add to my Hall of Fame career. But for like Brian Harmon, who spent twelve years on tour, he's won twice. I mean, obviously it provides a very nice living for your family and you
need to do that. But you show to the golf course just not knowing what's going to come out of it. I don't know. To me, it'd be easy to become cynical or give up, or become lackadaisical. And you know, I think Brian Harmon, though, I really like that quote about doing something where the world melts away while you're doing it, where time just you forget about time, because I think we look at Brian Harmon we're like, oh,
it's from Georgia Haunt's Simple Story whatever. But to me, he's actually a really pretty introspective guy who really loves golf down with him in twenty seventeen, after the after Aaron Hills, just to kind of do an interview because that looked like maybe that was when Brian Harmon was finally gonna, you know, reach this level that we all
thought he was, or fulfill all the expectations. He'd come close to Aaron Hills, he'd won earlier that year at Wells Fargo being a good field, and so it seemed like that was when Brian Harmon was going to break out. And he gave this really good quote about he was at the Humana that back then the Palm Springs event, and it was his thirtieth birthday and he's having a barbecue and he's just like he's like, man, I turned thirty. I'm like the end is near. Not so much like
I'm gonna die tomorrow. But you know, earlier in your life, you know, you graduate high school, graduate college, you meet someone, you get married, you have kids. There's always like milestones, right, but you hit a certain point in your life where you stop hitting those milestones and is like, Okay, most of my career is actually behind me, and so if I want to accomplish the things that I think that I should accomplish and want to accomplish, like I need
to take this thing seriously. And it was just a really interesting it was partly pondering his mortality. It was mostly about golf, but it was it was a really interesting perspective I've really never heard fromyone before of like of just pondering the end. I mean, this is the way he phrased it. So the end was the end is approaching kind of more of his golf grouper, I think also his life and also too so when he gets the end of his life knowing like, hey, did
I really accomplish the things I wanted to? And did I do the things necessary to accomplish the things that I wanted to? So I always have found that really interesting. I think some of those quotes come out this week too, that he's act, he's a pretty he's a he gives good quotes, he's a good thinker, he thinks about things. I think.
Yeah, that's uh, that's that's something that people should read up on. Brian Harmon is certainly not just another sort of assembly line pro from Georgia, although he has some elements of that in him, he also has definitely something else about him. All Right, Sean as always really fun to talk to you. Let's take another break here, and after that, I'm going to bring on Joseph Lamania to
chat about the golf course. This episode of the Frida Egg Podcast is brought to you by Gooder Gooder mikes twenty five dollars active sunglasses that don't slip, don't bounce, and are one hundred percent polarized. My personal favorite pair of Gooders is called Just Knock It On. They're in what Gooder calls the BFG style. This is for large noggins and I just wear them all the time. I wear them everywhere. I wear them when I go out
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You can go to Gooder dot com slash TFE and use the code TFE to get free shipping. Gooder offers a thirty day money back guarantee and one hundred percent satisfaction. So find your pair at g oo d r dot com slash tfe and use code TFE to get free shipping. Right back to the episode, Joseph Lemania, the final Men's major of the year is in the books. Are you sad or are you relieved?
What do you mean that the Tour Championships in August? No, I'm both. I'm sad, but it's also like, scarcity is what we advocate for, right, So I'm glad they are only for majors. It's special that we get to experience them in the windows that they exist, and then the wait until next April. There's something nice about it. So mixed emotions, but I actually really enjoyed this Open Championship.
Yeah, I enjoyed many aspects of it as well. Not everybody was as into it as we were, perhaps, but one of the reasons you and I were more into it than a lot of people is that the course was really interesting to watch be played. And so that's what we're going to talk about here. I asked you to come up with three different takes on the golf course or all Liverpool. Of course, as always, you tend to approach things from a competitive perspective, you know, how
the course plays for a field of elite players. There's a separate discussion to be had about the aesthetics of Hoylake and some of the recent design changes that have been made there. I'm actually going to write a bit about that for the Fried Egg, But what we're talking about right now is slightly different, focusing more on the strategic and testing aspects of the course. So what's the first thing you want to touch on it when it comes to Royal Liverpool.
Yeah, well, hot button issue is the internal out of bounds I think, especially leading up to the tournament, there was a mixture of opinions on it. I think once the tournament started most people were into it. I'm very pro the internal out of bounds that was on three and eighteen. As you've noted multiple times throughout the week. Important to note that those are not artificial lines like there's a berm in there, and it they serve a purpose.
It denotes the practice range. But that like that aside, it's important. But even that aside, if it were artificial, I shouldn't say that I would sign off on it if it were artificial. But I'm a huge fan of the internal out of bounds on those holes and the strategic test that it presented. I've heard some calls for like, well, is out of bounds rule a good rule? Like should you really have to hit from the original position or
maybe should it be lateral hazard? Like no, I am very here for having to rete when you hit a shot into a spot that's out of bounds. I thought it was unbelievable. It made three and eighteen infinitely more exciting and it was something completely different than we see most weeks.
So I thought that was like a star of.
The Major Championship, both those holes three and eighteen, right.
And so first of all, you mentioned that I've gone through this a number of times this week on Twitter and elsewhere. Once again, internal out of bounds is a tricky term for what this actually is because at one time it was not internal out of bounds. It was not property that belonged to Royal Liverpool or Hoylake. It was it was a separate of the property that the golf course. You know, it wasn't part of the golf course.
I think when people hear internal lot out of bounds, they automatically assume that it's like another part of the golf course, another fair way or something that has been somewhat arbitrarily marked as out of bounds, which is what you've referred to as artificial internal out of bounds. So that's one thing I think that the just the term is what made people mad this week, as opposed to what was actually on the ground at the golf course, which is a historic burm and enclosure that have never
been an intended part of the course. But you mentioned that you like the rule stroke in distance, the threat of that penalty you think does some good things for the strategy of the whole. I was unsure about this myself going into the tournament. Would this make players too conservative in their approach to these holes? Would it mean that nobody challenged the hazards alone on the right side of eighteen and three? And so what did you make
of that? Like, do you think it would have been different if this had been just a hazard and a stroke penalty as opposed to the stroke and distance.
Maybe, but players are conservative with water anyway, so it might have had a slight difference, but not overly impactful. But beyond that, like, I just think it plays much more interestingly and it's much more intimidating. If you have to hit another shot, like you've uncapped downside, you might make a nine on that hole. If you spray a couple out of bounds, it's far more intimidating than having water there. You hit into the water, you drop, you
make five or six. Like, we don't see big numbers anymore and professional golf in part because players have adapted a more modern strategy of avoiding those hazards. But it's nice when it comes into play and when it's scary, and when there's a wind coming off your left and there's out of bounds to the right, Like, that is an interesting dynamic.
I don't think that should go away.
One kick I've kind of been on is talking a little bit about how everything in professional golf has gotten easier, which is not a unique idea, right, Equipment's gotten easier, there's more information, there's track man, there's course management.
The agronomy has made everything easier too. I mean the quality of the greens and the fairways.
Everything's easier.
So is it really a problem that you're going to have to re tee if you spray one out right off the golf course? Like I'm here for it.
Yeah, what specifically did you see about the strategy of those holes that you liked? Because they I mean it's not just that the internal out of bounds quote unquote internal out of bounds is there. It's that these holes incorporate the line of that out of bounds in pretty cool ways. Right.
Yeah, I think both there's something to chew on with both of those holes. So whole three is a it's a clever example of.
Hey, if you're going to want to.
Take driver out of golfer's hands. The way you do that is it's got to be really penal on a wide miss, which the out of bounds to the right clearly was, and generally it has to be wider in the fairway for shots that are less than driver. So at long iron length, the fairway was pretty wide there. If you wanted to hit driver, you had to carry the corner and if you went a little left you
were in the fescue, which was actually pretty playable. But if you've sprayed it out right ob and you're hitting three from the t box, and then on the approach shot, if you spray it out right again, you're out of bounds because the approach ran the entire length of the berm and the ob to the right. So you had some shots that got flared out right, some approach shots that ended up out of bounds. It's it was cool, right, the more aggressive you were off the tee, you gave
yourself an easier approach shot. A lot of guys just kind of fired a long iron down the left side of the fairway, which is what I would have done in that instance, and then you don't have to take on quite as much of the ob on the right.
But there was a lot players talked.
About that being an actual decision point in their rounds versus ninety five ninety eight percent of holes that we see week in and week out you don't really have to think about.
So that's that's all. Three.
Do you have any thoughts on hoole three? Before we talked briefly about eighteen.
I love whole three. It's the opener for the members, and I think part of the magic of it being an opener is that it's so the opposite of a gentle handshake. It just goes hard in the opposite direction, which I think is a really great way for golf architecture to violate unwritten rules. You know, there's an unwritten rule that the first hole should get players away from the clubhouse and you know, let them take their hacks and stuff like that, and in general, I think that's
not a bad principle. I think it makes sense. But if you're going to work against it, then go the opposite direction all the way. Commit to it. And that's what I appreciate about hole three, or for the members hole one. So then eighteen, this is god the rerouting has messed with my head, but it's sixteen for the members. I think it's a great finishing hole, you know. I think it's probably a better finishing hole than it is
a sixteenth hole. And maybe that's the main reason for the rerouting, But there was some real jeopardy on that hole this week for sure.
Clearly, what those two holes have in common is the OB is in play on the T shot and it runs the entire length of the hole. So what eighteen had in particular is that at some point you had to take on some serious danger because the bunkers surrounding the green were penal, especially that string on the left side.
Left side, especially to a left pin where we saw some disasters exactly.
So if you want to really bail out on your T shot, you may end up with a reasonably long approach in and it's some the second shot you're gonna have to take on some danger with the right side and challenging the OB a little bit. You can't really just play along the fescue the entire hole. Eventually, you're gonna have to hit a daring shot if you want to make power better, especially if you want to make birdie. So I appreciated that about it. The second shot was
no gimme. Even if you hit a great t shot like you were gonna have to navigate a lot of trouble again flair one out right so be You even had some golfers who got really conservative with their tea shots went out left into the fescue and then it's hard to control your ball out of there. Hit second shots out of bounds. Ricky Fowler hit a few out of bounds right. You had to take on the trouble at some point, and I appreciated that about the hole.
All right. What's your second big note about the golf course from the week?
Well, sticking with the theme of penalties, the bunkers, that the penal hazards that the bunkers were this week. It's been a while since we've seen bunkers as penal as these ones were at Royal Liverpool, and that something I appreciate. To challenge these golfers, really make them think about their lines. It has to be a stiff penalty, and both on the fairway bunkers and in the green side bunkers. It was no gimme that a lot of them are coming
out sideways. You had some players hitting shots backwards. You had a couple of players putting in the bunkers just to get to a shallow to the more flat spot in the middle of the bunker instead of being up against the lip. They were legitimate penalties this week, and that restores a lot of shot value, both on the approach and on the tee shots. It's a constant threat of a big number that kind of keeps you on edge for your entire round. So I thought that was a refreshing watch this week.
It changed the way players played off the tee right. And this is not a new take about Royal Liverpool. This has been around in you know, our kind of like twenty first century discourse about this golf course since Tiger won basically while keeping the driver in the bag, and so did you basically see that kind of tactic from Brian Harmon this week, that sort of conservatism off the tee.
Brian Harmon hit some drivers.
I think overall you saw much more conservative play off the tee, largely from the field than in most weeks. That said, I actually think this setup and how playable the fescue was lent itself to kind of some more
aggressive play than some players went. I think some players got anchored a little bit to the idea, oh, Tiger Woods never hit driver here, like this week, I'm just gonna hit a bunch of irons off the tee, when honestly, I think there were some holes where I would have gotten pretty aggressive with driver, especially as conditions were pretty calm.
But generally speaking, the combination of a lot of wind with bunkers, especially at your driver length, that were extremely penal, that's going to result in some conservative play when the wind died down a little bit, especially when the fescue is playable, I would have gotten I would have been ripping some driver out there, though, I will say that.
And I think it created varied play off the tee this week, which is sort of what I appreciated. And I think what the argument for the less brutal rough might be. I really liked the rough here, not necessarily purely for reasons of strategy, but more that it was inconsistent, unpredictable, and fit with the natural environment of the course in a really nice way that you rarely see at US courses. But I think the fact that players could really play most of the time out of the rough effectively meant
that taking driver on some holes was the play. You had to make a judgment on individual holes about whether you were going to go after it, because you know, it wasn't for sure that you should keep the driver in the bag on all these holes. Sometimes that little area up around, you know, three hundred to three hundred and thirty yards off the tee, Yeah, there was some rough up there, but you can take that chance, especially
if you can get past the fairway bunkers. I think that was sort of the calculus on some of the holes, whereas on others it was like, driver is super risky here, and you know if you're playing the percentages and you're probably not hitting driver.
Yeah.
And I think it's important to note that those fairways are very narrow. So if you had super narrow fairways and then unplayable fescue right off of the fairways, it would result in a little bit of a The dimensions wouldn't necessarily fit the modern game super well. So I think it makes sense to have playable fescue. Could probably make an argument for some graduated fescue.
I don't know how people.
Always feel about that, but that's why I like, I think whole five stood out to me where there's the gorse bush on the left and to dog leg left, So the more left you go, you're kind of shortening the hole. But if you pull it a little left or Brian harmon a lefty, if you flared out left, wide miss goes into the gorse bush, significant penalty versus more narrow misses might just be a little bit in
the fescue or right and still playable. So I think that hole stands out as one that I like off of the tea, where you have that gradience in the penalties online is rewarded taking on more risk and going left might incur a big penalty.
So I really liked the way that hole set up off the tea.
What did you make of the fact that after Day one, Royal Liverpool and the RNA decided to change the presentation of the bunkers a little bit. Much was made going into the tournament about how the bottoms of the bunkers would be flat so that balls would not roll back toward the middle, which allows players to play out of them because they're not up against the stack sod lips
of the bunkers so often. But when they're flat, I would even say that most of the time you end up against the face of the bunker, because when your ball lands in the bunker, it's going to run out a little bit on a flat bottom and just come to a stop once it hits that wall. And so on the first day we saw a lot of players just like absolutely boned in the bunkers. By the second day of the championship, that had changed. What did you make of that? If anything?
Pretty hard and fasttable for me is I don't like to see changes made between rounds one and two. So in terms of the competitive integrity of the tournament, I just don't like to see modifications made between rounds one and two. I'd rather see you wait till after round two, once both waves have experienced the same conditions or the conditions as similar as possible. That said, I don't have a super strong opinion on the small tweak that was
made to the presentation of the bunkers. Will say, I don't think bunkers are penal enough generally that we see fifty one weeks of the year, so I'm never gonna complain about bunkers being too penal. Don't hit it there, so I don't think it had to be done, but I don't feel I don't land super strongly one way or the other. I just don't like to see changes made between rounds one and two. And I'm never going to complain about a bunker being too penal. It's always an option to avoid it.
Yeah, I think, I agree. I think in this case, the reason that I'm sort of with you and I don't feel too strongly about the change that was made is that the bunkers were still really brutal round two and on. They were still places that you did not want to be right, and I get that they were
trying to reel that in a little bit. I don't know if it was necessary really, but they did it, and the difference was, unless you were, like really paying super close attention, the difference was pretty minimal.
All right.
Third take on the golf course. What's your kind of final thought that you want to put out there about it?
Sure, this might be slightly controversial, so it's eager for your opinion here as I was forming my opinion of the golf course over the course of the four days. But really likes be more than that, because in the lead up to the tournament itself, I will caveat this with I know. Something some people have said about Royal Liverpool is you don't appreciate it as much the first time you play it, and over time you come to appreciate it more and more.
So, Yeah, notice what people say, especially who are like members of the course or who have played the course many times. There are a lot of subtleties out here that you don't necessarily notice on television or playing it the first time. It grows on.
You as more iterations of the Open Championship are played here. I'm sure I'll pick up on some of these things and update my opinion. I think Royal Liverpool is a little bit redundant and that monotonous might be too strong of a word, but I like the redundant qualities it has. But it's kind of the same thing over and over on a lot of holes, which is avoid the bunkers off the tee, like control your ball in the wind. There's not a whole lot going on on the greens.
Most of the course is flat. A lot of the holes are pretty similar to me, So one my litmus test right now that I like for architecture and for professional golf, but also just for playing in general is how many holes could you draw?
After?
And if somebody watched let's say three days of the Open Championship this week, and they maybe watched three hours a day, how many holes could they name at Royal Liverpool and draw. I think some of the holes would run together a little bit, so I think in the variety column I wouldn't give it the highest marks, And maybe if I played it more, if I saw it in person, i'd feel differ diferently, But I think it was a little bit of a redundant test. What's your reaction to that?
I see where that comes from, for sure. And it's notable that the holes that we've already talked about, like three and eighteen are really ones that stand out from the rest, that have a different feature on them that grabs you immediately when you see it and fixes itself in your memory. Seventeen the new par three was sort of like that, but maybe not in entirely the best
way for different reasons. I would yeah, exactly. I would say that fourteen, that Harry hole along the Dune ridge is memorable for several reasons, the alpshole the par three along the Dune Ridge, But yeah, I mean some of the inland dog leg holes with bunkers left and right usually staggered in the landing zone, and a similar type of sort of angled green you run together when you watch the course during a tournament, for sure, And I think that some of this is baked in to the
history and the architecture of the course, where especially before Harry Colt came and made changes updated the course to the golden age of golf course architecture in the nineteen twenties, naturalized some things, redid some greens. Until that point, Royal Liverpool was sort of your classic Victorian golf course in some ways. It was on Link's land. It wasn't a boring inland course by any means. It's always had some cool undulation, even if it's small undulation in the fairways.
But the architecture there involved before Harry Colt, a lot of kind of cross bunkers and steeplechase type hazards that were a little bit repetitive, and that were intentionally repetitive because that at one time was sort of the style. You wanted to test the drive. Can you carry this bunker, test the approach, can you carry this next bunk? Or if you achieve that, then you've done your job and
you can have a chance at a good score. And I think that even after Harry Colt made the changes that he did in the twenties, that some of that essence still stayed at Royal Liverpool, some of that repetitiveness, and that's just an aspect of the course. Another factor here is that I think a lot of the greens
have been monkeyed with in the modern era. Since the nineteen eighties and nineties, a lot of the greens have been renovated and they've gotten some of these little runoffs, the kind of scoopy runoffs that have some interesting playing characteristics that are certainly testing and allow for a number
of different recovery shots. But to me, a lot of the inland greens have started to look pretty similar because of this modern construction method that has been used, and some of the artistry of Harry Colt's green, or some of the uniqueness of the kind of pre modern greens at the course has gone away in favor of this more modern style around them. And that's something that I would say makes some of the holes repetitive too, because you know, used to be that this week's whole one
for the members seventeen. The whole called Royal used to have a unique green pressed up against the road. Everybody said, everybody who saw this green said it was a masterpiece. You know, that one's no longer there, and instead we have this green that was originated by I believe Donald Steele and maybe renovated by Martin Hottree and just has these little, you know, scoopy runoffs around it, And so we don't have that injection of distinctiveness on that whole
anymore that the course used to have. To those points kind of make sense, you know, how this has emerged over time. You know, this is kind of part of what the course is, I guess, but it has been made more so maybe in recent years.
No, it does.
I'm a proponent of the tight runoff areas, so I can't be too critical of the flat greens. And also, you know, without appreciating the tight runoff areas because they do a lot for the approach shot value and then for some delicate chips around the greens. It just felt like every putt players were hitting was pretty flat and maybe had a tin of other movement in it. But yeah, really easy golf course to put on. Don't tell that to Cameron Young or Scottie Scheffler. But overall, mild greens
that I don't think had a ton of character. And if you said to somebody, hey, you know, draw this green, like how does this green break?
I don't think it show.
Maybe it just didn't display as well on TV, but I thought the greens were pretty boring overall.
L liked the golf course.
Would be excited to see another Open championship here because again the style of repetition, it's a good style, strategic and it's fun. But a lot of holes kind of ran together for me. I think like two, six, seven, eight nine, like twelve, fifteen, sixteen, A lot of those holes like didn't do a whole lot for me.
What did you make of the new seventeenth hole?
Yeah, this this feels like some hot water here. I kind of land somewhere in the middle. So I appreciate the argument that the masterful work, original architecture like that that shouldn't be meddled with, and that makes sense.
To me, and I don't think like to that point, I'm not sure that the thirteenth hole from members fifteen for the Championships that Harry Colt designed going Inland was ever considered like one of the best holes at this course. So right, No, the Dowie hole, the Dowie hole was the Dawi is was what this week was number nine And yeah, that one was considered to be an amazing hole, but the pros didn't like that. Kind of a separate subject.
But the hole that was replaced by seventeen this week was a par three that ran Inland that Harry cult designed, but I don't think was ever like among the top tier of cult holes at Hoylake, gotcha?
Okay, Well that all that aside, I do think it stood out a little bit as like this doesn't really look like the rest of a Royal Liverpool. Yeah, Garrett, am I correct that reworking that hole, though, added a significant amount of length to what they played as whole eighteen yes this week, and I do think like that is a byproduct of modern technology, so that it should
be called out. I also think Holy eighteen with modern technology plays much better at the length it played than if it were fifty yards shorter, so I have to appreciate that when within this discussion, I don't think seventeen was a great hole. I don't think it created the drama, even if the conditions have been a little bit better. I just don't think it was that engaging of a hole.
Don't love the idea of messing around too much with Harry Colt's architecture, even if it wasn't one of his best holes, But this part I will not back down from.
I do think the closing stretch of a tournament, having some holes that heighten your attention and then get you engaged and you know some big numbers are at play is a very positive attribute of a golf course, and some of the implications of that are dangerous because you might have some courses then trying to rework sixteen through eighteen if they want to host big golf tournaments, and I'm not sure how I feel about that, probably feel pretty negatively.
But as an.
Entertainment product, a highly volatile closing stretch, it creates a lot of excitement and it makes the championship better, So I can appreciate that. Don't think seventeen nailed it. Don't love the hole, but.
There's a lot going on.
In that reworking that I think all warrants discussion.
The lengthening of eighteen probably was a major consideration in rerouting that hole that we haven't talked about enough. I think everybody regarded eighteen as one of the highlights of this course during this tournament, and so it's worth mentioning that it would have been a different type of hole if seventeen didn't turn into what it is now. Now talking about the execution of this idea of having a dramatic par three right near the finish, which, as you say,
is a good idea for championship golf. We've seen this proven out at any number of courses, maybe most famously TPC Sagrass, which was mentioned as potentially even an inspiration for this remaining of the clothes at Hoylake. The execution of it, I think just didn't quite get there. What we saw basically was that in calm conditions, this hole
was just green and regulation after green and regulation. You know, it is eighty two percent on Saturday, and that can be fine, right, These are pros sometimes the you know, greens hit from that distance especially is that high. But the thing is, once you're on this green, there's not that much interesting that happens. It's basically a bunch of flat putts, So once you get on the green, the drama is sort of over. So if players are hitting the green a lot, then the drama isn't quite there.
Then when it's windy, if it's really windy, then the hole maybe tips into ridiculousness a little bit. You know, it was forty eight percent greens and regulation on Friday when it that was the windiest toughest day of this championship. And so if the conditions really come in hard, players are missing the green a lot and they're finding themselves in these really really penal pop bunkers, especially on the right hand side of this green, where the recovery is
very very difficult. Long is super dead, short is not good, left is not terrible, but not great. And so I'm not sure I necessarily love this hole in any conditions.
I think I probably enjoy it much more on a windy day than on a calm day, even if it borders on like maybe.
A little ridiculous.
Ridiculous is maybe too strong of a word, But I hear you, I think one part of the hole, and that this idea is occurring to me in real time, so you can check me on this. But I don't think it gets much more interesting based on the pin location.
And no that yeah, yeah, I mean maybe if it's like a right pin, where that right bunker that is the worst place to be is really in play. Maybe, but especially if it's a front pin, everybody's just going to the middle of the green and putting back.
Yeah, Like it doesn't really change your targets like a whole lot.
I mean, the dead spots are still deaf.
If it's on the right, yeah, it doesn't change your target. You're playing in the middle of the green if it's on the right, yeah. Yeah.
So I think that was the part that was kind of standing out to me versus like TPC Sawgrass, which seventeen isn't necessarily my favorite Part three in the world, but though each of those pin locations has a distinct character to it, like you're hitting different shots to those pin locations, and I don't think seventeen at Royal Liverpool had that at all. So for me, a brilliant Part three does depend on where the pin is and it plays a little bit differently. So I just wasn't quite
as engaged by seventeen. But look like there's compared to a lot of Part three's we see week in and week out, like I'd rather watch that, But you're right, wouldn't give it like the most glowing review either.
Yeah, maybe my standards are a little bit too high there, or I'm I'm might be I might be a little quick to criticize because I really I don't like the waste bunker work between the tea and the green there. But we don't need to go down that particular rabbit hole right now in this conversation, and so it's very possible that I have a general kind of ill feeling about this hole that I'm applying to the strategic merits
of it as well. I don't know if your model is the seventeenth that's t TPC Sawgrass fine, But one of the things that makes seventeen at Sawgrass so awesome is that the green is incredible and the pin positions are so different, and so I don't know, I think that's that might be the part that's missing for me is some internal contour and differentiation in the green, which may not have been really practical to create because the green itself is so small.
I think maybe part of the problem with it is the way danger kind of surrounds the entire green. Yeah, and when there's that much danger on all sides, it almost like it just becomes purely execution. There's not a whole lot of like risk reward based on the pin, So I don't know's it's.
Middle, middle, middle every time, especially since there's not much internal contour. There's nothing else to consider except for the hazards, and the hazards are basically equidistant from the middle of the green, and so that's where you're going. I mean, maybe you edge a little bit left, because if you miss left, then you're if you're a decent bunker player, you're probably making par whereas if you miss right, you're in some real danger of making a big number. So
maybe maybe that's a little adjustment. But the green is so small that I think you would agree that that adjustment would be very minute, you know, exactly. Yeah, Okay, all right, that's seventeen at hoy Lake and we've got your three takes on the golf course. Joseph, thank you so much for that, and thank you in general for coming on the post major podcasts this year. They've they've all been really interesting. Always appreciate your thoughts. So let's do it again.
Soon.
Let's do it again next year.
Yeah, talk to you after the Tour Championship. Appreciate it, Garrett, all right, thanks man.
This episode of the Frida Egg podcast was edited by Natt Rusius. Thank you, Matt, and thank you especially for working on the weekend during the Open Championship. One of the best ways to support the Frida Egg is to join Club TFE. Just go to the Frida Egg dot com slash membership and check out what we're offering there. We had lots of Open Week content, including a post with some of the best writing that's ever been done about Hoylake from authors like Bernard Darwin and Patrick Dickinson.
Just some really interesting stuff, along with some historical images that we found. This week, Andy wrote a profile of North Barrick Great Course in Scotland with some beautiful photos that they took last year when they were there, along with some really nice analysis and reflections about the golf course. There's a great community in clubtf that's developing. In the comment sections on these posts, people say such interesting fun things.
We had a lot of discussion this week about the Open Championship itself, along with a Club TFE pool that I haven't actually looked at the results of but I'll have to check that out after I get off the microphone. So CLUBTFE the Friday dot Com slash membership really fun experience there. Go check that out. Thank you for listening, and we'll be back again soon