I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset.
When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
And when I find my.
Ball in a Bride egg Frida egg, the dreaded Frida egg, Friday Frida egg, Brian Egg, Fride Egg, Bride egg Lie.
I'm about ready to run off of the.
Pawla. Does La have the worst fans in sports?
God? I think after this week, I think everybody would want you to believe that. I mean, we do have a reputation. I don't know if I want to include myself in that group, but we do have a reputation for showing up late this morning events, for being casual watchers, for you know, leaving after the seventh inning, you know, the whole thing. So I guess when you think about it, there we are pretty down the line in terms of
the best fans in sports. But I don't know. I think I would say that we're still pretty passionate about most sports. I think if you go to any Laker game or Darger game, you'll see that. Golf, though I don't know about that. It was an interesting one out there this week, for sure.
Yeah, and we'll talk more about that later. The somewhat odd atmosphere, but that atmosphere wasn't necessarily the fault of sports fans. As somebody who grew up a Lakers fan, I feel the impulse to defend LA sports fans and point out that it's hard to get anywhere in the city. I can understand why somebody might not want to go to a sporting event or might not get there exactly on time.
You know. Yeah, I think if you want to have a critique about the LA Sports team, you had to have lived here at least a minimum of two years to truly understand the situation that goes on here in terms of sporting events and traffic and just all of that stuff. So yeah, I think it's a little more nuanced.
All Right, you're listening to the Frida Egg podcast. I'm Garrett Morrison. That's Paalo Youghetti, a staff writer for ESPN. Later in the show, I'll bring on Joseph Lamanna to talk about the venue, which was of course LA Country Club. But first Pallo and I are going to run down
the main competitive storylines. Wyndham Clark was our winner at ten under Roy McElroy was one stroke behind and solo second followed by Scotty Scheffler, Cameron Smith, and a three way tie for fifth between Tommy Fleetwood, minwoo Lee and the fifty four hole leader Ricky Fowler. So PLO, what exactly did you do on Sunday at LACC, Who did you follow? What was kind of your plan or agenda?
Yeah? I think everybody was sort of hoping for the final group to be Ricky and Rory, right, and then when it wasn't, I think it became pretty clear to me what I would do in terms of who do I follow. I think the Scotty Scheffler and Rory mcl group was the one that most people were following outuld say.
It was a big crowd of kind of following them, and I think part of that was because a lot of people, myself included, thought Scotty still had a real shot after finishing Eagle Birdie, and I thought, you know, he seems a little bit inevitable in terms of how he just rises up to the leaderboard no matter how well or poorly he's playing. So yeah, I followed Rory and Scottie and just kind of watched him go through
the front nine. I think the front nine is such a fun set of holes to watch, especially for a tournament, because they are, you know, as we saw it, pretty gettible. They were not as gettable on Sunday, I would say, especially for Rory, who just had a you know, it's
a tough thing. You know, you look at those fifteen to twenty feet or whatever however you want to describe them, and you know, most of the time they're not going to go in right, and so it was tough watching him grind over a lot of putts that were a few inches from going in or you know, had a
shop it just did not catch the right break. So I watched Rory for the front front nine, then kind of bounced a little way back and forth in the back between you know, Winhem and Ricky's group and Rory's group, and it was pretty compelling there down the stretch in terms of needing, well not needing, but Rory needing Clark to Falter and still having no shot at a Bertie since the first goal. It was pretty crazy scene in that sense.
What were some of the most memorable individual moments out there, whether they were golf related or not. What kind of comes to mind as an image that will stick.
With you I think standing between fifteenth ten and fourteen green was a pretty compelling place to be when Rory's group was first coming through, because you know, he had that the drop that he got that from the from the ball in the bunker, and then you know he had the power put that he needed to say part
and missed it. So just watching that him moving on to fifteen and then just a few minutes later seeing the shot from Wynham Clark to second shot come in and land on the green to have a shot at eagle, I think that's the one that will stick with me because it was kind of it felt at that moment that the tournament was over. Obviously, then when it went on to bogie, I believe what fifteen.
Yeah, yeah he didn't Yeah, he didn't get up and down from behind the green there.
Right, So there was still more golf to play. But I think if I were to look back, that's kind of the moment where I was like, oh, okay, this one's over, Like Rory once again, couldn't just you know, make the right putts to be able to stay in this and to be able to win. That That's when I felt like, because that second shot into fourteen green was incredible way when him, Like I think everybody sort of realized that at the time, like, all right, that's.
Game unbelievable shot. And what it showed is that Wyndham Clark was fully ready to win the tournament, because you don't hit that shot in that moment unless you're ready, and so that's what he showed. And even if he bogied the next hole, it was a two shot swing on that hole, and so that was really you know, when you look back on these tournaments, you can identify any number of turning points. Going back to the first hole of the week on Thursday, Rory missed a short
put on number eight. That was a big deal, but fourteen was really just kind of the symbolic representative moment of that swing where Wyndham was just hitting the ball so well that he was able to hit it from two eighty two to twenty feet under the most intense pressure possible, whereas Rory was, I mean, he was just a little bit off. He was hitting the ball so well, but he's Rory McElroy. He always does that, and that
wedge into fourteen just wasn't good. It wasn't the type of wedge that you hit when you're truly in major winning form, and it's a testament to his talent, his ability that he was even able to be so close in spite of not having all of the components of his game together.
Yeah, I think I was struck by just the margins, right, how fine those margins are in terms to Rory, because you know, I wasn't there at the Old Course last year when he had the lead and just could not do enough to to you know, to hold off Cameron Smith. And this one, you know, there's some differences, but this one just felt like there was just none of the breaks. He wasn't getting any other breaks, you know. And I
think he even talked about it after his round. He said on fourteen, on that web shot, you know, I would have waited maybe fifteen twenty more seconds. The wind might have been differently and the guts might have died down, and that would have been the right shot, you know. And it's like it's crazy to think about that. Those margins are so fine in that way that you know, fifteen second way could have you know, could have been the difference, right, or a putt that drops the other way,
like the putt on eight. I think that's the one, and he said it, he said he would want to have that one back, the putt to short put for Birdie that he missed, and just all these little moments, you know. And I think fourteen kind of really embodied that in some ways because I thought that was a hole where Rory could really go after it, right. I mean, the hole doesn't totally fit his shot shape in some ways. Right.
But and then he just hit a drawer right into the rough and it was like, okay, like that's the place where you need it to go for a green in two And not a lot of players, I felt like, did that, which is what made win him's you know, second shot that much more impressive.
Not a lot of players hit the green at all, right, There were some who went for it, but a lot of them ended up left on the fifteenth tee or somewhere around that green. It was so hard to hit that green in two because you needed to be supremely long and supremely accurate in order to cover the distance of that hole in two shots. But Rory is one of the few players out there who can do that fairly regularly, just cover the sheer distance. He is capable of doing that, and so that's a hole that really
gives an advantage to long players. Right, You've got to be long to carry that bunker and you've got to be long to get on that green and two and so that's where Rory needs to take advantage and not make bogie. Now, what are some of your observations. You know, we should be talking a little bit about Wyndham Clark
here obviously, but one more question about Rory. What were some of your observations about his state of mind or his approach to the game, you know, beyond the fact that he was just kind of missing putts like he was, he was a little bit the putts weren't falling, and sometimes that happens, But what were some of what was your sense of where he was at mentally during this round.
I think, you know, I think he looked pretty focused. I think he it was admirable that he stuck this game plan right. He was not he was not overly aggressive, and I think this goes for the whole week. You know,
he seemed to manage the golf course really well. He hit the right spots, you know, and he always had a shot to go for it in two and Yeah, I think he just played really smart golf, and he was really focused, and I think kind of like at St. Andrews, right, it's like you kind of wish that maybe he would have been a little more aggressive insurn spots, but then
he could have also been out of it. I think something I think about is some of those up and downs for cars too that he had on the back nine were really impressive as well, So it's like, if one of those doesn't dropped in, we're not even discussing
how slim the margins were. So yeah, I would says he was pretty focused, he's pretty locked in, and I think he just he said afterwards, I executed my game plan, which you know, you can't fault him for that, right, And I think the scene afterwards was pretty pretty remarkable, just to see him dealing with, you know, the realization and the acceptance of just coming up short again and getting closer and closer but not being able to just get over that home.
Yeah, Roy is in this weird position right now where he gets a lot of scrutiny and even a lot of criticism for his shortcomings, precisely because he's always on that big stage. He's always in contention where somebody like Scotti Scheffler in this tournament. Yeah he was there, but we're not going to criticize him as much because he wasn't really all that close on Sunday, right, And so you know, there's a there's a tweet that Kevin van Volkenberg sent out that I that I liked, where Kevin
says Roy play today should absolutely be critiqued. But it's kind of fascinating that we save our strongest criticisms for athletes who finished second, as opposed to third or fifth or twentieth. Being almost great annoys people more than being slightly worse. And that's a good summary of kind of
where we are at in the Rory McElroy story. The player who ended up winning was Wyndham Clark, and when we got to the end of the tournament, I'd to be perfectly honest, I was a bit at a loss as to what to say about Wyndham Clark's victory, except that he played extraordinarily well on Sunday, in spite of maybe not being completely on form, getting in a couple of nasty situations on holes, and being able to get up and down, especially on eight and nine on eight,
he was in the baranka and he had a hard time getting out of the baranka, but once he did, he got up and down for a bogie where a lot of players might have done something much worse. And
then on nine, he was in a bunker. We're sort of on the edge of a bunker to the left of the ninth green and basically in an impossible spot, a spot where he had to play well away from the hole and let the ball kind of trickle back, and he got that thing up and down, he got his his chip shot within you know, eight to ten feet, and he sank the putt. Those were two big, big time up and downs in a spot where he could
have really let Rory back into this thing. So that's those are kind of my big take takeaways for Wyndham Clark. But say you were kind of writing a game story about him, Yeah, what are some of the things that you would focus on.
I think that's something I've realized. What we're speinking about is the last few majors, if you love, We've had a couple guys who have ended up in the leaderboard going into someone they were close the leaderboard and everything. So this guy's going to fall away. Right, it's not not one of the premiere players in golf, so they're gonna you know, I don't. I don't give him much of a shotgun at this time, and like this time, Windham felt like that guy, except he went out there
and did it right. So I think he kind of We've had a lot of really good elite major winners recently, and I feel like he's kind of I don't want to say he's not one of those players, but he's definitely an exception right to the last few major wins in terms of pedigree. But he went out there and did it, Like I think that's the thing is, you know, with that shot on fourteen, I would say the short game was probably would save them in a lot of places.
The flock shot, I guess, if you want to call it on the eleven was ridiculous, and I think that if I were to just just think about him, it's like, Okay, well, he had to overcome a lot of narratives, right, a lot of the Ricking narrative, the Rory narrative, even the Scotting era, right, but he just did it by literally literally hitting all the right shots. And I think that's maybe the way I would frame it and then kind
of look at his winners. He just hit all the right shots at the right time, even on eighteen Saturday, that shot he hit into eighteen and making that Pott what you kind of just have to hand it to him at that point, right, because he just hit the right shots at the right time. And whether you know that means he's here to stay and we'll compete in
further majors. I don't know. Golf is so deep, right, but I think for this tournament he was the best player in terms of shotmaking and also just recovery, which this course demanded of a bunch of players.
The question about Wyndham Clark's future is obviously very hard to answer. We don't know if he's going to stick around at this level. He very well could, and we could end up in a situation where this championship is looked back upon, sort of like the Aaron Hills US Open, which Brooks kept go one. At the time. I remember people were kind of like, well, that's kind of random, Brooks sort of seems boring. That's a bit of a disappointing major, And yeah, that's kind of the outcome here.
We have a bunch of guys in second, third, fourth place who maybe would be more exciting winners because we're more familiar with them and we want to see those players rack up majors and start to get into that historic conversation. And sure Wyndham did not deliver that this week, and maybe he'll fade away back into the middle of the pack as some past major winners have. But there's also a possibility that he becomes a Brooks Keepka type because he does have the game for that. This is
not a this didn't feel like a flukey win. He's super long, he is a great iron player. He has a terrific short game that holds up under pressure. So he has all the skills that he needs. And whether those stay as sharp as they were this week is completely unanswerable right now, but it's very possible.
Yeah. So what I'm hearing is when Clark.
Brooks, Yeah, that's gonna that's gonna be the headline from this podcast. That's going to get aggregated.
Yeah. No, but it's it's a great point. I think you're right. I think he has the makings of being able to stick around for a while, and I think I don't know I think maybe the golf course too, right. It's you guys have talked plenty about how different at the US Open test it has been. Obviously there's been a lot of bad discourse about the subject as well
this week. But you know, maybe it just kind of fit him, fit him well, and then if they go back to a more quote unquote traditional US Open, maybe it doesn't fit it well. Right, So I think that's something to think about too going forward.
Well, let's talk a little bit about something related to the golf course. We'll talk more about the architecture and those matters with Joseph Lamannia later on in this podcast.
But you are an La native, as we kind of implied at the beginning of the pod La Country Club was a sort of controversial venue this week, or became one, not just because of its unusual design, but because of the atmosphere on course as it came across on TV and some of the questions about how the club and the membership contributed to creating that atmosphere through their demands about the size of the crowd and where people could go on the course and all of that kind of stuff.
And you know, I was on the course for a few days, I can say that those concerns are valid. Right, there are some things to say about the atmosphere on site. What did you make of that issue overall? And maybe speaking specifically about Sunday, was it different then?
Yeah? I think it's funny because I feel like I maybe should have seen some of this coming. I went to the course way early in the process. The USGA had first looked they we got to walk the course, and first thing I thought it was, how are they going to get fans in here? Like it's such a weird setup for watching golf, just built into that canyon most of that course, and how are they going to get fans in there? And they were like, oh, we're going to build out a few things that they're building
the bridge over Ulster. So but but I think there was just like a there were starting from a bad place in terms of like how to create these big appears. Right. That's that's one issue. I think The other thing is, yes, as was reported, I think Joel bel from Golf Digest reported that the club tried to almost buy all the tickets right, and and and and there was there was definitely a sense of a corporate vibe for for you know, during a lot of the tournament. And that's not surprising.
I mean, this is a club that you know, I think when I went the first time for that, for that first look, there was like no no photos and no phones in the in the in the clubhouse, you know, like just all these very distinct rules. And that's not dissimilar to other country clubs across the country, you know, I would say, but in la I think that takes a you know, it goes up, goes up a level, if you will, I And that's the reputation it also has in the city. It's not considered the more or
less the anti celebrity club. It's they don't want any fuss, they don't want any kind of like fanfare. So on the one hand, it's kind of shocking that they allowed this tournament to be there, right, But on the other hand, they are very golf focused in terms of they love their golf course and wanted to showcase it. But it sounds like they wanted to showcase it in a very specific way to a very specific type and amount of people, right,
And so that's where I think the issue is. You know that being set on Sunday, I thought the atmosphere was great. I mean, I think there are definitely more people on hand. I think it felt like and I don't have proved it back this stuff, but I feel like they let fans go into places where maybe they weren't letting them in before, or maybe they were just
more fans and that's what it felt like. But it definitely felt like in some spots it was more crowded, especially on eighteenth that kind of going up one and down eighteen. It was a great atmosphere and I think like people really came out in full force. I don't know, it's just it was different. But it did not feel like that all week, right, So I think that's where you kind of notice the difference between Sunday and the
rest of the days. And you know, maybe part of that is the LA fandom aspect about where they are like, oh, we'll go Sunday, you know, we won't go Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Yeah. And maybe the people who had tickets to this event, whether they were corporate guests or LA members or some of the lucky few who managed to get publicly available tickets, of which there were not many relatively, maybe a lot of those folks were somewhat complacent about it and said, I've got this ticket, you know, well, you know, I'll go on Sunday whatever, right it's And whereas you know, when you have an event that's more accessible to the public,
there's maybe more competition to get on the site and see something, and so you're excited about going on Thursday because maybe that's your only chance. I feel like a lot of the people who were there, you know, were comfortable in their opportunity to see some golf, and so maybe they didn't feel that impulse to get there on Thursday and create a great atmosphere.
But you know, but I will say, like I think that's the part that was a little tough to kind of square, which is if you go to rub every year. I've been there the last two years, right, and the tournament gets special on the weekend, and the atmosphere is great and people come out for golf, and I would
say buy in large. LA has become pretty big golf down in terms of the golf interest, the golf playing, you know, just there is a lot of that has been a ton of that the last two years or so since the pandemic, and I think there's a lot of really passionate golf fans out there, and maybe just if there would have been a little more accessibility to the golf course, both on the ground and just getting into ket wise, I think we could have gotten a
better atmosphere and a better vibe for a tournament that you know deserved it, right, And so I think that's a little bit of the Well, we'll see what happens next time, right, and if they do come back to LA.
One regret I have here is that the USGA didn't push harder for the interests of the common fan. And I think that the real shame here is not necessarily the limited capacity. I think they probably could have gotten more fans on site. As you mentioned, Riviera is packed into an LA neighborhood as well, and you know, they managed to get a bunch of fans out there and create an incredible atmosphere. So I don't know. Maybe there
could have been more people at LA. I'm not sure, but the ratio of tickets that the public had access to was too low this time, and I think you could feel the effects of that on site, and for me, it goes against what a national championship should be, what a national open should be. It's called the US Open, right for God's sake, and it's still open to players, but it's got to be open. It's got to be open to the public. This has got to be the
people's championship. And yes, it's being held at some of the most exclusive clubs in the nation, but for the week that the tournament is happening, it has to have the feel of a people's championship. And they didn't achieve that this week, and the USGA needs to own that, think about that and try to push a little bit harder for the public inch next time. In my opinion, that's just my take on it.
No, I agree. I think there's kind of a funny dissonance right between like this open tournament open to all players, should be open to all fans going to like you said, these exclusive clubs, right, and and that really kind of just displays golf's me right in a very very very open manner. And but I think you're right. I think
that's kind of the the important thing going forward. If they do decide to come back to la is you know, you kind of if you're going to bring in the US Open, if you're gonna let it come to your club. You're going to have to deal with everything that that that implies, right, and you know what it looks like next time, we'll see. But I think that's going to be a crucial thing going forward.
Here's my solution, Palo renov Griffith Park.
There we go, now, now we're talking, yes.
Come on, come on. There's a lot of room out there.
Now.
It's been years since I've been there, so I don't know what the access points are like. They might be a little harry, but yeah, but you know, listen, they
have two courses out there. I think they probably have room. Man, if they turned that into the golf course that it should be, the George Thomas golf course that it should be, and at least made one of them sort of national championship worthy, that would be That would be a great place for the People's Open in LA And I trust, I trust that the fans would come out for that kind of event and create some craziness.
Oh yeah, no, that you kind of just spurke my brain trying to think about how that would even be possible At Wilson.
That'd be tough, but it would have to be a renovation, not a not a pure restoration. There's been a those courses used to be out in the you know, all of these courses in LA used to be out in open space, right and since then the city has converged on all of them. Same deal with Rancho Park, a great public facility but pretty hemmed in by neighborhoods now and so you know, it's it's tough to find, you know, the great public course that that can host these championships.
And that's why we see so many private courses doing it because they have the resources to do the things that need to be done to their course to to be able to even come close to hosting in the first place.
Not every city has a Tory Pines, So.
That's right, yeah, yeah, for better, for worse, Tory Pines is unique yet, I mean, we focus on the architecture so much, but listen, Tory Pines is a hell of a great venue for getting spectators, in allowing people to watch, and being open to the public in those senses. It is the gold standard. All right, Palas, So are you basically done for the year with U with a big golf tournament? So you're not going to Hoylake, are you?
No?
I am you are going, Tolake, oh man, that's awesome.
I didn't.
I didn't realize that was part of the plan.
Yeah, I didn't. I didn't. I didn't know I was going, but I found out recently a few weeks ago that yeah, we'll be heading up there. So we're excited for that. I've never even been across quote unquote across upon ever in my life, so I'm excited to go over there and you know, watch some golf and hopefully to play some golf too.
All right, Well, I'm jealous, but I'm also very excited for you, So that should be fun to follow. People can find your writing at ESPN dot com. And thanks for coming on the pod.
Thanks for having me.
All right, let's take a quick break and then Joseph Lamanna will join me to talk about LACC. This episode of the Frida Egg Podcast, and indeed this week of the Frida Egg Podcast and the Shotguns Start podcast, was brought to you by b Dratty. B Dratty has been a big supporter of the Friday Egg from the beginning, and this week they outfitted us in some really great stuff. The first day I was at LACC, I wore a
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Thank you to B Droddy for supporting us this week, for creating the B Droddy House and making it all possible. Really appreciate it. Let's go back to the episode. All right, I'm here with Joseph Lemanya. We're gonna talk about the course. The architecture at LACC was a big topic of discussion this week. So Joseph, why don't we dig right in. What are some of your what is one of your major takeaways about this golf course? What do you want to start with this?
Yeah, well, thanks for having me. I'm super excited to do this. I think it's interesting that you run on course and I was locked in watched pretty much every shot that was hit all four days, So it's cool to have the on site perspective mixed with somebody who's.
Just watching a lot of shots.
So, and by the way, related to that, the on site perspective is important and it gives you a lot that watching on TV doesn't give you. But a lot of people assume that it's better, but it's not necessarily because when you're on site you miss so much.
Yeah yeah, I mean too that I generally, like my dream scenario is generally to be on site like Wednesday, Thursday and then leave and watch the rest.
Yeah, because you get both.
But I don't know if I have like a one overarching takeaway. I thought the golf course was awesome, and some of the criticism I think is a little unfair. The one major question I have, and I would be interested in your perspective on this and maybe some of the people you were talking to who are more knowledgeable than just me sitting on my couch. Did we miss an opportunity to maybe see it a little bit firmed up?
And I thought Saturday was the opportunity for that. I do think we missed a little bit of that one note on that it never really got that firm And I think this course played a little more bomber friendly than it would have if it had been firmed up, which would have made the fairways play a lot smaller and more narrow. So I'm sure like the Wyndham Clark
T shot on eighteen. We'll probably get into that. But if that's much firmer, it might miss the fairway, and there's some other fairways out there that it would have become a little less of a long iron. Just hit it as high as possible and stick it. You might have seen some craftier off the tee play if it was a little firmer, But I don't know that it needed to be. I mean, it played really well. What's your opinion on that?
Well, I have like a number of different ways that I've been thinking about that this week. First of all, I definitely agree that it could have been firmer, and I would have been a bit more entertained if the greens were less receptive to wedges, et cetera. And so you know, first off, yeah, I definitely acknowledge that. But a few things to keep in mind. One, it's been a very wet winter in California, extremely unusually moist at LACC throughout this year, and the course is holding all
of that. You can see it in the barankas. They're not dry, they're full of vegetation, and that's pretty unusual. That course is usually pretty sand belty kind of in appearance right now, it's green. And that's not just because the USBA was out there with hoses watering down the entire thing. They couldn't have done that. That's just because California has had a wet winter. So that's one thing.
The other thing is that during the tournament itself, we had relatively little sunshine, and the one day that we had of full sunshine was Saturday, and that's when the course really started to get a bit fiery. And it didn't get all the way there, but it was the firmest day. I wasn't on site on Sunday, so I can't really compare it, but I think it was the
firmest day. You could see some dust in the air instead of there being a little bit of moisture in the ground when I sat down, for instance, you can feel the moisture when you sit down right on Saturday. That wasn't there. It was dry. So that's another thing. The conditions didn't really assist super spicy turf realities. You know, it was a lot closer to the edge than people thought it was, but it really wasn't riding that edge in the way that like Shinnecock Hills did in twenty eighteen.
And here's two other points. Because I'm a little hesitant to be like it should have been firmer. I'm holding back on that for two reasons. One, if you do push it too far and things get a little bit unplayable, not to go full Zach Johnson, you lost the course. But it does actually undermine the quality of some of the shots out there, and you might you might compromise a lot of shot value. So it's hard to push it all the way to the line. But here's the
other point. I don't think I've heard this point made, but I was reflecting on this a lot Saturday night and into Sunday morning. LACC has tremendous variety right whole fifteen playing eighty one yards, but it was you had to be super precise. Then you've got a stretch of
three brawny par four's coming in sixteen seventeen eighteen. To achieve a proper firmness level that plays correctly for all of the shots that are required is extraordinarily difficult, because it might have been cool to see it firmed up for how would play off the tee or some approach shots where you have an eight iron in But then is it even possible? Can you even hold shots on sixteen? Seventeen eighteen?
Does it work?
Then?
Was fifteen might have been impossible if it were any firmer, And that's I think. I hadn't thought about it a ton. But when there's such variety long irons like short irons, it's hard to argue that one level of firmness that would be super firm would play play well for.
All of those different shots.
So I was trying to reel it in a little bit, like maybe it could have been a little firmer, But overall thought the setup was excellent.
So aside from the firmness issue, aside from the turf issues, what were some other observations you had about the course.
I think I have one main positive and one potential negative that I would like your opinion on to maybe keep me in check. So I think the biggest positive for me is that I feel confident. And there's no way to know this, but I feel confident that when most people were watching the golf tournament, when players were going to a particular hole, the fan had context for what that hole was about to test because there was
variety and these holes have character. I think people knew whole thirteen, like, gotta be precise on that t shot or it goes way right and down the slope. Fourteen, the par five, I think people were pretty familiar with really short par three. On fifteen obviously, whole six, the semi drivable par four. I think people knew they're probably nine to ten holes that somebody who doesn't even follow golf that closely, if they watched multiple days of play,
they knew what was coming. And I think that's a tremendous compliment to pay a golf course. So like Augusta in that way, I think some of these holes had a bunch of character and clarity.
The clarity of design is terrific at LACC. The features are big and bold, and the lines that you can take to attack the hole or to play a little bit more conservatively are really well defined and easy to see. And so yeah, that's that's definitely a huge part of why I enjoyed La North so much. I know a lot of people didn't, but just personally totally agree with that assessment. So what's your negative?
So one potential negative. We always talk about shots of consequence, right, I want there to be you should.
Be rewarded for a good shot. If it's if you hit a bad shot, there should be some penalty.
I do think being a little bit critical of maybe the t shots on three, eight and eighteen. Three and eight are sort of funnel fair ways where there wasn't a whole lot required out there. You could kind of just hit it into a big area and it was
gonna bounce down into a pretty advantageous spot. Now, I don't know if that's something to be critical of the architecture about or if I'm just I think there's a difference between viewing a golf course purely through the lens of architecture and then viewing it through the lens of it being an entertainment product and a test of professional golf.
And I think those shots failed a little bit as far as the entertainment value and how well it's testing players because they're hitting three woods on three and eight into really wide areas that it was just gonna.
Bound down all end up in the same place.
So is that do you, as somebody who's more informed on architecture has more of an appreciation for some of just frankly more knowledgeable. What's your reaction to me being a little bit turned off by that.
Yeah, I don't know if I agree with that that premise. I don't think I am more knowledgeable. I think I probably am a little more familiar with how with how amateurs play lacc right. I've played it a couple of times myself. I don't hit it as far as Rory McElroy, and so for me that the experience of playing La north Is is different. And so I can say first of all that you're right on the money with the
drives on number three and number eight. Those ones stuck out to me too as ones that just really didn't work for this field, in this tournament. But there is definitely a reason for that. There's no room to move those teas back. So those holes are basically the same as they were in nineteen twenty eight. They're the same length, and players are hitting driving irons so much farther than people used to hit hickory drivers in nineteen twenty eight. Like, truly, that is a situation we're in.
If you moved it back, do you think those holes play significantly better? It would be, would be my counter argument.
I think so. I think so, And here's why. On number three, the idea is that the baranka or the finger of the barank. It's kind of a tributary that cuts up the left center portion of that fairway. Is sort of the risky carry hazard. That's what it's meant to be. If you carry that, then you've done well and you're gonna filter to this one spot at the bottom of a goalie in the fairway. That's about a two hundred and fifty yard carry back in nineteen twenty eight,
that was a hell of a carry. The other option on that hole is to play up to the right, and there's a couple of places that you can end up there. You can end up on a side hill, or if you're pretty precise and you decide to aim basically well away from the line of the hole, you can kind of get up on top of a hill there at the edge of the fairway and have a nice view of the green. And so that is the other option. Frankly, it is the option that I've used
when I've played the hole. Because I cannot reliably carry my driver two hundred and fifty yards. I can't really make that carry, so I have to play out to the right on that hole, and it is a very different experience.
But with I think with the firmness and how short probably the grass was in the fairways, I thought, and I would have to go back and look at some shots that were hit pretty high up the right side, they're still kind of funneled down into the same area.
Absolutely, yeah, And that's a factor of the severity of the ground right, but also just how far everybody was hitting those shots right, because even if they hit them way up to the right, they were hitting them more than two hundred and fifty yards and so they made the carry right. That's the reward on that hole for
being able to hit a ball that far. For somebody who doesn't make that carry on a consistent basis, you play up to the right and your ball does not funnel down to that main goalie that everybody ended up in. But yes, everybody was in that goalie. It was covered in divots by the end of the week. The hole really didn't work very well for this field. Kind of the same deal on eight and eight was a bit
of a disappointment. I should have seen it coming. I love that hole for amateurs, but the thing is everybody in the field can get past those bunkers on the left and just throw their ball into that big slope past the bunkers on the left and let it filter down next to the baranka. And they can do it with a driving iron. A lot of them hit threewood off the tee, some of them hit hybrid. I saw Gordon Sergeant just hit a long iron out there, and the thing is, yeah, you can do that on that hole.
The ball runs way from the left down to the bottom of the hill. But again, it's sort of like three, where the assumption was when that hole was built that not everybody would be able to make that carry, and the reward for being able to carry those bunkers to get past that trouble was being able to get that advantageous position so that you could go for the green in two. But there are a lot of other options
on that hole, you know. Just giving this as an example of how Immortal would play this hole, you could legitimately play it where you go out to the left short of the bunkers, you are away from the branka, and then your option is to go out to the right with your next shot and lay up short of the green and leave yourself a wedge or a short iron in. But nobody took that option because they just didn't have to. I mean, they can make the carry and so that's the reality.
Yeah, that's what Maybe I was a little bit disappointed because I think the design of Whole eight it's the anatomy of like a brilliant par five where you get the reward for going down the right side of the fairway, you don't have to hit as much of a draw into the green. Like, I was so excited to see that hole and it just didn't live up to the standard that.
I was hoping for.
And then the other the last nitpick I'd probably have is Whole eighteen, which I was already worried wasn't a great finishing hole. I didn't think it was a particularly exciting hole to finish on Wyndham's Drive on Sunday. I think there's a legitimate gripe like that was well mishit and it ends up in the fairway. You can make the argument, well, then he didn't have an opportunity to make Bertie if you go a little bit left.
But nobody was really making Birdie there.
You just got a bunch of pars and then maybe some bogies for some of the shorter hitters, so I don't think that was a great finishing hole. But to be fair, I don't think eighteen at Augusta. At Augusta is a great finishing hole, and no one complains about that, So overall I felt very positively about LACC. I'm just articulating the nitpicks and other than that thought, it was
tremendous variety and really good test. Like whole five, probably one of the coolest holes I think we've seen in I mean, I won't say one of the coolest holes in Major championship history, but I think whole five was.
Like a strong, strong golf hole.
Yeah, that was a pleasant surprise for me because that's not a hole that I had picked out as one of my favorites when I had played the course. But in the tournament that hole is fascinating. I mean, the green kind of runs away a little bit. There are certain pin positions that are so hard to get to. You have to hit great shots on that hole in order to be successful. One note on eighteen. There's a
reason that fairway is wide. It's really a hole that's built for nineteen twenty eight, where covering the distance that that hole is would require a running shot into the green on your second shot. Everybody would be hitting a shot along the ground into that green in order to get there. And now that's not the case, and so the strategy of the hole that in the width of the fairway don't make as much sense for this field.
Then where does that leave us? Right?
If you know that going in, Because if they had narrowed it, and just to play Devil's advocate, if they had narrowed it, I could see some fried egg ethos being like, this is compromising how it was supposed to be played right and kind of going that angle. But it might have played better for modern professional golf.
I mean better, it would have been more punishing.
Do you think they should have I mean, what do you do about that in the future on a whole that you know, hey, this isn't gonna play particularly well for the modern player because they used to have a you know, a super low running in thirty yards, but now that's not how players. They're gonna have a seven iron in What do you do about that? Do you still set it up the old way to adhere to George Thomas's original vision, or do you contrive the set up a little bit.
I don't know the right answer to that question.
Yeah, you roll the ball back is what you do. I don't know what the right answer is either. I don't think rolling, but the ball back it would really bring that hole back into play. It's one of those holes that's, in my mind, really a relic. And overall, I'm okay with a couple of holes being a relic. There's a couple of holes that Augusta National that are sort of relics. They just don't play at all like
they used to play. But I'm okay with them being preserved from a museum perspective and the fact that the game has moved past them. That's one part sad and two parts inevitable. But to narrow that fair way doesn't make that a great hole. It just makes it more punishing. And I'm sure a lot of people would have loved to see Wyndham Clark get in the rough there, right. It would have required required a more accurate drive, and
in that sense, if that's better, then that's fine. But I think that also people if Roy McElroy had been in the same position and hit the same kind of you know, banana sliced drive, that was nonetheless, one eighty balls speed, so he must have hit it decently well, or maybe the equipment is just that ridiculous. If he had been saved in the same way by the width of the fair way, we would be having, I think a different discussion about this.
If Rory were one up going into eighteen and that happened to him, I think I'd have the same reaction like you would.
You know, you're intellectually consistent. I'll give you that, Joseph.
Yeah.
But all that is to say, going back to the earlier point of there's a difference between maybe appreciating great architecture versus a modern entertainment product. And I will say I think it's a fair knit pick of a major championship to conclude on a hole that is maybe a little bit boring, not a lot of scoring, that's much different than the rest of the course. Same way, I
think it's a fair criticism of Augusta. And I think one of a key ingredient of an awesome modern entertainment product is a little bit of uncertainty going into the last hole. I think that's part of what makes Sawgrass compelling, is that if you're three up going into seventeen, it's not over and as a sports fan, that's compelling. So if somebody says, hey, LACC was boring for me, I disagree.
I think it was awesome. If somebody says there were some t shots out there that didn't play particularly well in eighteen felt like a dud, I can't push back too much on that.
I would agree. But overall, this notion that.
We shouldn't go back to LACC to me is crazy, Like that was an awesome brand of golf. If you didn't appreciate it, that's fine. I'm not going to try to tell you you're wrong. But I thought it was a great, great test.
You know, Joseph, I think that's really well put, and I agree with basically all of it. Anything else you wanted to cover.
I have some thoughts on like the whole Rory discourse and did he lose or did Windham win? I think this turns into a binary did Rory lose or did Windham win?
Here's what I will say.
We only focus on a couple things, and like a couple holes, narratives take shape. This whole idea of like was Rory aggressive enough? Was he conservative enough? I think his game plan was very good. Where I believe he lost the tournament, so to speak, was on Saturday. We're focusing so much on he couldn't make a put on Sunday and you know, terrible wedge on fourteen, which I agree with, like fourteen was a big mistake, but he missed on Saturday. He had a very straightforward up and
down on four that he did not convert. He had a very straightforward up and down on six that he did not convert, and he didn't take advantage of number eight from the fairway. To me, that is where the tournament was lost. And he played exceptional golf almost the remainder of the tournament. On Sunday, sloppy three put on eight, didn't execute on fourteen. I just mentioned five shots and
he lost by one, Like let's not overreact. And the only other thing and then I've said my piece is that this idea that Wyndham Clark is this like mich Liz, this long shot like Sean mckeel type story, I think is misguided. He's been tremendous this year, Wyndham Clark. When he won the Wells Fargo, a designated event, people were saying, like, okay, he's probably a Ryder cupper. Like Wyndham Clark is a great golfer. He's having a breakout twenty twenty three. He
hits the ball long way. I think the setup was good for him. He's been gaining like a stroke per round with his irons, and he's a fabulous putter.
Like, let's stop with this.
Narrative that he wasn't a deserving champion, Like, I don't think it's fair at all.
If you listen to podcasts that sort of minutely track new players coming on the scene, whether it's like Fantasy podcasts or the Shotguns Start, you know where they have three shows, three times a week and they talk about a lot of different players. Wyndam Clark has come up for years, right. People have been saying for years, this guy is really really good. I mean just you know, maybe he hasn't had the results yet, but my god, he just profiles out to be an extraordinary player. That's
been the word on Wyndham Clark. That's not hindsight twenty twenty. This is not a Sean mcheel situation. This is this is a great player and he may not continue at this level, but it seems like he could all right, let's take one more quick break and then Joseph and I will be back to do some recommendations. Our next partner is Athletic Greens. I take ag one by Athletic
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I mean really appreciated the media dining situation that the USGA provided. It was very very good, but a lot of the food was pretty greasy, which I love you know, and I was very happy to eat it, but it didn't exactly provide the best nutritional value. So having those travel packs being able to take some ag one and support my gut health was a big deal during this
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Well, I would think normally here I would give some kind of music recommendation because I listened to a lot of different music, But I am running dry right now, and the main recommendation that I think I could give that's not golf related. I recently watched a movie I loved and I had never heard of it.
It's called In the Name of the Father.
Oh yeah, Daniel day Lewis.
Daniel day Lewis, who h who? I love.
I didn't even know this movie existed until like three weeks ago. I watched it, thought it was incredible, and I would highly recommend it. Cool movie where the theme is truth and it is a true story. It covers the some civilian bombings between the British and the Irish and somebody gets falsely accused. Thought it was awesome. I've recommend it to a couple people who have all liked it, and I would recommend it to anybody. Sounds like you've seen it, Garrett.
A long time ago. I was a big movie nerd when I was a teenager, and so I watched a lot of great movies like like that then, and I had a bit of Daniel day Lewis phase. And I think it was maybe the first Daniel day Lewis movie that I had seen, and so I fully thought that that was his native accent because he is so completely absorbed into that character. It's brilliant, all right. So what I'm recommending is a little bit flimsy by comparison, honestly,
but it is golf related. And just this morning, Tom Watson sent out an open letter to j Monahan and the PGA Tour, and I don't think he's necessarily saying anything super new here, But what I appreciated about it was its clarity. It set out the issues really clearly about the proposed partnership between the PGA Tour and the PIF. But what I just most appreciated about this was Tom Watson's willingness to actually engage with the issues, not just to wave them off and say, I'm a golfer, I'm
not going to concern myself with this stuff. This is not my job to be an expert on these matters. Instead, he's saying, no, I'm taking responsibility to learn about this stuff, and he admits at a couple of points, I don't have all the information about this. I know a little bit about it, but I need to learn more and I need to ask questions. And he does a great job of just not letting anything off the hook, and I think that's a great model for leaders in this situation.
There's been a void of leadership in this situation. There's been a void of moral leadership. Specifically, people have just completely abdicated that responsibility to be moral leaders. And so I don't know where this is going to go with Tom Watson, whether he's going to eventually acquiesce to the
situation like so many other people have. But his willingness to kind of reckon with complex issues and put something out there that alone, I think I commend, And for that reason alone, I would really recommend that people go read this open letter. It is a touch long, It's longer than most of what people read on Twitter, but I think you should seek it out.
Look, Garrett, speaking truth to power. I'm not sure our recommendations were that different.
After all, are we comparing the troubles to the PGA Tour's current situation. Yes, well, that's a great place to end. Joseph, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I'll talk to you again soon. Thanks for having me. It's fun. This episode of the Frida Egg Podcast was edited by Matt Rushis. Thank you Matt, and in fact, Matt was out there this week at LACC along with Cameron Hurtis, taking some terrific photos of the action at the US Open.
We've been publishing those photos on Twitter and Instagram and in our stories for the tournament. So all credit to Matt for not only being a great podcast editor, but also being a very talented photographer. So if you would like to support the Frida Egg, the single best thing
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This past week we had a great video that Andy did on every hole at LACC, or at least one feature from every hole at LACC, and we also had some different things going on with LACC and US Open themed content, as well as a course profile that I wrote on Rustic Canyon, which is of course that's not far from LA that's public, really well designed and that I highly recommend that you seek out if you're.
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