I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. And when I find my ball in a brid egg Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida egg, Frida egg, Frida egg brid Egg fridagg bride egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off the golf course.
Welcome back to the Friday Egg Golf Podcast. I am your host, Andy Johnson. Today I am joined by Trevor Immelman. We are going to break down the one hundred and twenty fifth US Open. It was held last week at Oakmont. It was very wet, It was quite a week. It was a lot of weather. Pure chaos broke down on the back now and I'm excited to chat with Trevor about all the ins and outs and contenders. Also the setup Oakmont overall is a course. Really fun chat with
Trevor breaking down this major. I can't believe we're we are three legs of the four through the major season. We've got Port Rush coming up in about a month exactly from today, so really a lot of storylines. Obviously, JJ spawn captured the title. Incredible finish for him to win his first major and and win at Oakmont. What a first major to get Oakmont? It's not usually a first major golf course. Today's podcast is brought to you by our friend at mob Jack.
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Mob jak use the promo code Frida egg to get fifteen percent off. Let's get to Trevor Immleman. All right, Trevor Immelman, as always, was becoming a tradition, maybe not unlike any other a tradition. Is you coming on to talk about our last major this weekend? We had the US Open. It was It was quite the tournament.
I think.
There are a lot of things to talk about about this tournament. JJ Spawn captured the title. It became anybody's tournament. On the back nine just a you know, a ton of players had a chance. JJ Spawn though, makes four birdies on the back nine the last two holes to win by two shots over Robert McIntyre and capture his first major championship, his second win of his career and obviously a part of a breakout season for Spawn, who's now top ten in the world.
And you know, the win goes with the.
Runner up playoff loss at the players one of the other huge events on the PGA Tour calendar as well as a second place at down in Palm Beach. So thoughts on JJ Spahn and and kind of the finish there.
Yeah, well, extremely impressive gulf from him. I mean, what a week it was, what a final round it was. I posted a message on X earlier in the day that just always had a feel that there were going to be some crazy twists and turns throughout the day. Every shot seemed on such a knife edge, particularly the t shots. If you hit it into the rough, you just never knew what you were going to get. And things were just changing dramatically, and then we got the
weather delay. But you know, you've got to give so much credit to JJ for the way that he finished the tournament off, to go ahead and come back in thirty two. I'm just looking at the scorecard here. Four birdies in his last seven holes. You know, birdies were hard to come by. We saw that throughout the week,
even when conditions were better. And for him to go ahead and make those four birdies down the stretch there, and particularly the last two holes when everything was on the line, you got to tip your cap to him and congratulate him. He went out there and won that with a moment that will be remembered for a long time. With that brilliant pot across the green at eighteen.
I mean, the pot was incredible.
I was standing right there behind and you know, like I'm a member of the media, I'm supposed to be impartial, And when that putt got about five feet away, I like threw my hands up because I knew it was one of those putts that was traffic. And I mean I let out an audible like oh, I you know, I cheered because it was just such a remarkable putt. I mean, you just it's when I saw where he
hit it. When I got up to the green, I was looking at him, like, God, this is that's a hard put I wouldn't want to have to two put that to win.
You know. That's that's about one of the worst putts you could have on the green.
The odds were far greater than he was going to three put than what you know it was going to be if he made it, and just incredible really, and it went in at perfect speed like there was no you know, in a week where it felt like there was quite a lot of luck at play with the lies and the rough and you know whether you're to be able to advance the ball twenty yards fifty yards
get it up onto the green. There was just felt like no luck involved in all that partt When in perfect speed it was tracking the last eight or ten feet, you just were like, man, I think this is going to go in brilliant moment there for him. I'm a huge JJ spawn fan. He is a wonderful guy, a great guy that's very popular on to a really good sense of humor. It doesn't take himself too seriously, and you know he's put in the hard yards throughout his
career to make it to this point. And so fun to see good people get rewarded who've put the work in and battled through the adversity. That was quite something. That was really a cool moment. They're watching him make that putt and you see the reaction from all the other competitors, whether it be Tyrrell or Bob or even Halan that he's playing with. I mean, these guys just looking at it going like yeah, fair play. I mean, that's that's something special right there.
I loved it, like just like kind of like putter toss going in and It's almost like he didn't know what to do, like just through It's.
Gaddy caddy was so close to him that I thought he might try to dive and catch him. It was. It was quite funny to see the caddy right there with him, probably trying to get a read on the pot if it went by the hole, and you know he's holding the umbrellas hammering down with rain again. Yeah, I mean, I've probably watched it fifteen times since, and you always spot something that brings a smile to your face. You know, after the initial shock of the ball going in.
The more you watch it, the more other things you start to notice really cool, I think.
You know, obviously the first two majors of the year, we had Rory McElroy Scottie Shuffler, supreme talents, players that from a young age were destined for, you know, stardom on the PGA Tour. Obviously, Rory tons of expectations as a kid. Scotty wins the US Junior becomes the number
one player in the world. Jaduspahn a little bit different path, and one of the beautiful things about golf is is that you know you never know what age you're going to play your best golf, and here he is at thirty four, really rounding into his his his best self. I loved the quote he talked about in his post round. He said, I grew up watching golf. I was a young kid wanted to play golf. I loved golf. It was a passion for me growing up. I always played
with my parents. Growing up, one thing led to another. I wasn't really groomed to be a professional golfer. I didn't get put through academ academies. I didn't play a JGA. I played local stuff. I did qualify or actually, my first big USGA event was the US Junior. I did that two times when I was like sixteen and seventeen. That's kind of when I realized my potential. I just kept going like one foot in front of the other, junior golf, college golf, turning pro, and now here I
am with the USGA, a US Open trophy. Think about the career and it's like this just incremental rise. Where he's not playing AJGA golf.
He's played.
He plays at San Diego State, obviously a pretty strong program. But you know his path to the tour. He started on the Canadian Tour. He got up through the Canadian tour to the corn Ferry Tour. You know, it was the web dot com. I remember watching him at the
very beginning of the Frida Egg. I went to one of my first trips to pro golf tournament was to the Columbus Nationwide event and I watched him there and you know, because a guy on web dot com tour was like, you know one guy you should watch hit a golf balls, JJ Spawn. He can really hit it.
And I watched him there and then it's just like he kind of was just mired in in the middle of the PGA tour for years and who knows where he goes from here, but it's just, you know, to get to the top ten in the world rankings, it's just a very unexpected He's not someone you go and watch and you're like, wow, like you know that guy, you know, whether it's aesthetically, he doesn't look like he's like, you know, he's not one of these like six foot
four Cam Davis, like gret you know, god like looking golf swings when you're looking at the range. But that swing is is really repeatable and we saw it under pressure just you know, deliver two. I mean, two absolute perfect drives on seventeen and eighteen.
Yeah, in a lot of ways, it's it's like a little bit of a throwback, isn't it. You know when I when I turned pro, it was kind of accepted that you would go through years of like cutting your tea and learning the ropes and getting to understand the golf courses and learning from the other great players and stumbling a bunch before being able to win, and then
eventually you would reach your prime in your thirties. I mean everyone used to think you'd reach your prime in your thirties, and then I guess really started with Tiger was the first guy to jump on there and absolutely dominate in his early twenties. But as the years of progressed,
guys have had more and more success early. But you know, as you talk about that and read through some of his accomplishments, I mean, it's it's kind of like a throwback of he took his time, he lost his card, He used to go through the mini tours a lot of self doubt in moments, wondering whether it'd be good enough, but he kept at it and had the right group of people around him to keep nudging him in the right direction, and now he's major champion, and he's won
the US Open at one of the toughest golf courses to play. He absolutely flushes the ball, there's no doubt about that. My son has done some travel with me this summer since he got back home, and he was with me at the Charles Schwab at Colonial and I always like to go down on the range on Saturdays and Sunday mornings and watch the leaders warm up and you know, maybe have a chat with them, see what's going on, see if I can notice any patterns with
their swing and their ballflight. And JJ was up near around the lead that week as well, and we watched him warm up and we left the range and my son Jacob said to me, man, I didn't realize JJ hit the ball that pure. It was extremely impressive warm up all the way through. The bag doesn't have a crazy amount of power to be able to overpower any sort of golf course, but there's for sure enough pop in the bat. We're talking mid to high one seventies
penetrating ballflight. He moves the trajectory around, up and down quite a lot. For the most part, hits the fade but the ball comes out and it feels and sounds like, man, this thing has been hit, and it's been hit rarely squarely. Love is swinging, Lovey is right shoulder powers through the ball. Not a lot of face flipping and face rotation going
on there. And I was like, yeah, I mean, this guy flushes it and he's starting to get that self belief now that he's had all of these close calls after the initial win at Valero, but he's for sure up this game in the last twelve months. And you know, I think he leaned on all of those experiences coming down the stretch yesterday, and maybe, you know, it's one thing getting it done at the end and making all those brilliant birdies and hitting those two brilliant drives on
seventeen and eighteen. But I'll tell you what. You know, a lot of people would have packed it up after five or six holes after the start that he had. And I don't mean that in necessarily even a quitting fashion. I mean it in getting down on yourself mentally and be like, oh, this is clearly not my week. I've just hit the flag stick on two after hitting a perfect wedge, and I'm off the green, he makes another
bogie there, he makes what does he make here? Five fives to start, and then he bogies the next hole the past three. So he's five over after six on Sunday, And yeah, I'd love to know the self talk and the thought process he was going through at that moment. But to be able to hang in there and keep grinding it out is something that I think is super impressive. The rain delay probably helped him to be able to reset, maybe take a little squizze at the leaderboard and go okay.
I know that was maybe the worst possible start I could have got off to, but the good news is I'm actually still in this and he was able to be able to reset. But yeah, man, it was cool. It was cool to watch. And you know, in sports, we love to see the favorites win, but every now and then it's fun to see somebody step up and prove to themselves and the world that they can get it done too. And that's really what I take out of his performance. And who knows where this goes from here?
You know, who knows? That's It's one of the beauties of sport where you have to watch, you have to get in the game and you've got to complete all seventy two. Hold. I mean, this guy who knows he could win more majors going down the road for sure.
Yeah.
I think with Oakmont's pedigree for winners, the the membership certainly wishing him to win more. The uh, you know, I had in my notes, so I was going to ask you this is is this the rain delay that that changed the course of the US Open? Because if you look at Spawns quotes and from his press conference, he you know, he he talked to his coaches obviously during the break, and I think it was Josh Gregory who said.
It was. He said they were just like, dude, just chill.
If you're if you were given four shots back going into the back nine on Monday, you would have you would take that. They just said, just let it come to you. Be calm, stop trying hard. That's what I was doing. I felt like I had a chance, a really good chance to win the US Open. At the start of the day. It was just unraveling very fast. But that break was actually the key for me to
winning this tournament. You know, you just think about Yeah, And it seemed like the break was also had a detriment on other players, you know, and uh, one thing I was curious about and it seemed like we a lot of guys had a lot of trouble hitting hitting approach shots from the from the wet fairways when they came out. Is there something that spawns swing that you know, we both have talked about, like that consistent strike that
he asked. It's seemingly a heavy ball the hits when he is there something about his swing that actually was you know that separated him on the on the soggy fairways because that was giving people a lot of trouble.
Yeah, it's really tough to answer because all of these guys are are so good through the impact zone. You know, you don't get to this level unless you are. You just kind of wonder did he let that bother him less than some of the others. The thing that makes golf so elusive and winning and championship golf so elusive is it's just one little tiny piece of doubt can
cause havoc. And you know, maybe he just dealt with it mentally in a better way to where he was like, look, I'm gonna put my swing on the on the shot and see what happens rather than being a little apprehensive or being a little more defensive. Who knows, you just need that one little shred of doubt to cause absolute havoc. But it reminded me so much of other sports. You know,
we've seen delays like that change outcomes in sports. You see it in tennis sometimes players will go for a bathroom break or the rain or.
Come my Cubs World Series.
Remember that Super Bowl in New Orleans when the it went out and all of a sudden the game changed. Uh. You see it in Formula one all the time. So it's just one of the beauties of sport. Nobody knows what's going to happen. You just got to keep rolling with it. You've got to be you've got to be unflappable. You've got to you've got to be in a situation to where you need to be able to expect anything and and and not allow any of it to bother
you and to affect your psyche at all. Uh. And that's probably the main thing that I was impressed with from JJ yesterday was the start, the the delay, the change in conditions, the sloppy fair ways. He dealt with all of that so well. And uh came out on top.
Yeah.
The other thing is, you know, he putted extraordinary and one of the things that's been a soft spot throughout his career has been the putter. He's always been really tee to green Ace. The putter has been, you know, not as reliable put it. I think like what impressed me the most, and it impressed me at the players was like his lag putting under the gun under pressure where you might see that's where and all of a sudden you get more you have more thoughts going through
your head. It gets harder to leave putts dead and uh, and the putts he hit coming in made it a lot easier on him because you know, they just matching perfect speed with the with the you know, in a in a situation where finding the perfect speed was hard because the speed of the Greens drastically changed after the rain delay. I think like the the adaptability and for him to just kind of go out and just really in a situation where nobody was taking the ball, he just grabbed it and ran with.
It and and I think, you know, it'll be interesting.
Josh Gregory was talking afterwards, he and he and I think this is like an important note of JJ spawn as he was talking about how you know, he obviously works with a ton of players, but he was like, you know, this guy is having a career year. He's gotten into the top fifteen in the FedEx Cup, top twenty five in the World golf rankings, and it's really easy when you get there to become complacent. And what he said to me is, I'm ready to work. I'm tired of coming up short. I want to be a lead.
And you think that that type of mindset is kind of what can lead to people becoming world class at things, especially when he already has the traits of being a really good ball striker. If he you know, he makes some incremental gains on the short game and putting over the next you know, eighteen months, you know this, it might not be where we're surprised that he's a top ten player.
Yeah. Yeah, he's clearly put a lot of great work in. You know, if we zero in on putting shucks. I remember a couple of seasons ago. You know, he was trying all sorts of different styles. He was trying arm block, he was going conventional, different putter styles, all sorts of different things. But you know, he's done well with this putter change. He's found a stroke that looks rarely, rarely solid, and he made a bunch of putts throughout the week
that were absolutely clutch. I mean none more so than that bomb on eighteen. It's fascinating to me, you know, nowadays, with the advent of social media and all the great coverage, whether it be podcasts or pregame shows and all that sort of stuff. It was so much talk going into the week from the members at oakmand from the USGA, from players that had made scouting trips up there, like
these green these greens are going to be fifteen. They're so fast, they're so undulating, and in a lot of sense that sort of starts to plant seeds in your mind. You know, never mind being a fan, but how about if you're a player and you're starting to hear all that stuff, read all that stuff, and then they have all of the rain coming into the tournament. The players get there on Monday, it's soaking wet. The greens aren't quite as fast. Then Tuesday, Wednesday, everybody's like, oh, they
started to get fast again. And then the rain kept coming in throughout the week and they never quite got to that point to where they were super scary, but he found a way to keep adjusting. So well, really really cool stuff.
This is a crazy It was a weird week, yeah, for a tournament, just with you know, kind of the lead up the rain.
Then it was, you know, kind of hot.
There's a lot of different like conditions within days, you know more nothing more so than Sunday, where you know, it's pretty idyllic in the morning, great scoring conditions, and then the afternoon got you know, it was a little windier. The rain obviously threw a huge wrench in it and
became very difficult in the middle. And then you came out to I think like what a number of players that Adam Scott called it borderline whether they should have been out there, and he was more this was more talking about what happened to Sam Burns, not himself.
I want to be clear with that.
This is not him, like you know this this was prodded and asking about Sam and he said, you know, the you know, the fairways were borderline. Justin Thomas was tweeting, doesn't look great out there, you know, like you had a tweet about whether they should be out there.
I think the.
This week was it's just gonna be one of those tournaments where we go down to look back on and be like, a lot of weird stuff happened that week, And I think it was a setup style that we haven't seen from the USGA in a long time. Obviously, the Mike Davis era was centered around kind of the graduated rough philosophy, where and what I mean by graduating rough is where your penalty for hitting in the rough progressively gets greater the further from the fairway you get.
I think then John Bodenheimer came in and we've had an era of like where he came in was after Shinnecock and there was a lot of negativity amongst the players about the USGA and they're may be credentials for hosting such a big tournament. And I think we got a number of years in the recent years where they've been very cautious with setups, very you know, this is
the way it is. But it almost felt like Oakmont gave them a veil because it's Oakmon, and the gravitas of Oakmon is similar to Augusta National, where players aren't going to really say because this is the way Oakman is it's it's punishing, it's unforgiving. Where they really put their foot down on the setup. It was thick, uniform, rough from the second you ventured off the fairway to
the rope line. I would say that my biggest critique would be if you're outside the rope line, you're in a much better spot than if you're inside.
The rope line.
And then obviously the greens, and I think the new whole locations that were created by the Green, the restoration historical renovation that Gil Hans had really opened up some new dimensions to to the golf course in terms of whole locations that otherwise would have felt more like in the middle of the green. What was your what are
your thoughts on kind of the US Open? You obviously played through a couple of different eras in the setups that they've they've had, and where this setup this week stood for you.
Yeah, there's a lot there to unpack. I would say that this US Open at Oakmont was how how I remember it when I was playing, just got to hit it so straight, got to find a way to keep it in play, otherwise you're just hacking it out. Uh, you know, I kind of liked the idea of graduated rough.
I think there would be a way nowadays too, through the use of data, figure out what the the penalty should be, how heavy the penalty should be depending on how far you stray from the middle of the fairway or or the edge of the fairway, even if you wanted to do it that way. But yeah, gosh, when
you have in a certain aspect, I wonder. Let's just say there was no rain throughout the week and that course got like super firm and fast, like we saw guys putting it down the first fairway from one hundred and sixty yards out. Okay, thanks thanks to your great idea there. Imagine if it just kept getting firmer throughout the week, with amount of slope and undulation you have in some of those fairways, how hard it would have been to keep the ball on the short grass. It
would have been galy. It would have been so hard to keep your t shot in play it.
Was away on Friday, Yeah, there would have been.
A bunch of eight and a half out of ten te shots that then end up a foot off the fairway and just in complete hack out rough. And to me, that was kind of one of my concerns as I enjoying watching. I didn't work at all this week. I was just a fan on the couch, you know, reading, listening and watching as much as I could. Was it becomes a little a little bit of a fifty to fifty call on what sort of lie you're going to get, and it doesn't punish you according to how poor the
shot was. And earlier in the week I also put something out on social media where you know, I'm a huge fan of Oakmont. I played a US Open and was way too hard for me, but have a ton of respect for the golf course and how it has stood the test of time. But I always felt like the beauty of the course is the greens and the
magnificent slopes that you have on these greens. You know, you think of some other courses like Augusta National or many links courses over in the UK and Ireland, even a wing Foot where you get these giant ridges and slopes and bowls and plateaus and so much interesting stuff. But when you have super thick rough around the greens,
it becomes quite one dimensional. Rather than seeing players use their imagination to use these ridges and slopes and funnels and see the ball get rejected down a hill like we were seeing at number two or we were seeing at number three. I would love to have seen a little bit more of that so we could have seen some more variety. It just felt like it was it
hit your drive. You know, guys were fifty to fifty, whether they were hitting the fairway or not, and you're walking up there praying that you've got some sort of lie that you can advance it or not. You can have two balls right next to each other and have one guy going for the green, one guy hacking out sideways, and it was the same thing. Around the greens. We saw this either a bunker shot, a pot from off the fairway or the chop with the love wedge to
thirty feet. And I would just love to have seen a little more variety there to see it mess with these players' minds to where they have to bump and runs and flops and checkers and all sorts of different things. So it's an interesting it's an interesting one. It'll be fascinating to see what the USGA learned from this, because you're, you know, you're always capturing the data, especially nowadays, and seeing how everything unfolded so Yeah, that's kind of my thoughts on that.
Yeah, I I echo a lot of thoughts. I think the setup philosophy. I did a panel with Scott Langley on Tuesday, who's obviously very with the setup. Their their goal with the setup was to create a black and or a true or false test. He we kind of talked about, you know, before we went on you know, you know, multiple choice tests, true false tests. He asked me what type of test I like more and I said, well, I like short answer, which wasn't that's not even in the USGA wheelhouse.
They don't to me, you know that what.
So they wanted to set up a true false test, and to me, that's kind of like for me, my personal taste. And I think, like what's very interesting is like I think a lot of like regular uh you know, like your weekend golfer loves the true false test because they like to see the best players in the world struggle and feel that relatability to somebody hacking it out of the rough at.
Times, because they don't see the best golfers struggle very often. Yes, I think this.
This was so far from a typical PGA tour stop. I mean, this was this was like Memorial setup ratcheted up, which is typically one of the hardest PGA Tour setups. I'll just say the one thing that the Memorial has is they have like one of the things I think that course does really well is it scaled the appropriately for the modern game. And what I mean by that is that it does have thick rough and it is
very punishing when you get off the fairway. The fairways are just forty yards wide where you have a little bit more space to play in, and the test is achievable.
It's what you said, you know.
I think like one of the things that I don't like about really thick rough is the idea that okay, we want to test who's driving the driving it the best, But isn't the way that golf course was set up, particularly Thursday Friday. I thought it played a lot better on the weekend when the fairways got soft and they played wider.
Yeah, but the way.
It was set up on Thursday and Friday was we don't know who's even close to passing the test because the test isn't passable. Yeah it, And what I mean by that is, you know, I always thought in college, and you know, I don't want to get into the academics. But like I always thought like the stupidest tests of the world were like, oh, the high score in the class is thirty percent, you know, or high score in
the class is fifty percent. To me, the way and this is my personal setup, and I want to just you know, this is my personal and you can disagree. It's fine to disagree with this, but my personal belief is that the way a golf course should test a game should be like the first part. The first question in the test is off the tee, do you can you pass that test? And I should have a good chance to pass that test. Then the next question is approaching the greens, and all in all with that, there's
layers of gray. And this is what I think Augusta National does so so well. And I'm not saying every venue should be set up like Augusta, but when you have great greens like Oakmont, what you have the ability to do is induce a lot of gray area. So the passing the test that Augusta is getting into a
small pocket in a rather wide fareaway. There is a grade a place and you can still be in the fairway and you could have gotten that question off the team wrong and smart players know that they got it wrong. Other players might might say, like I can take this on. I'm from the faraway, but you don't know you're playing from the wrong area. But it allows you the opportunity
to hit the great shot to recover. And I think that's the biggest thing that we were missing from this tournament was the excitement that recovery brings, recovery shots and this and the actual like you know, we can say we're testing skill. The one thing that the setup did
not allow for was the skill of recovery. Yeah, and the skill of recovery to me, like you know, when I was looking at I was trying to you know, Sam Burns hasn't played well in many major championships, and I'm getting into like I'm thinking about, like, why is Sam Burns playing well here? I was thinking about this this morning when I was on my way to the airplane, and it's like, well he was. He's an example of
where the recovery here. It wasn't daring recovery shots, skillful mid irons from judging a lie and the rough and really like saying okay, like I can I can take on this screen. It was more hack it out hacking. He what he was doing was hacking it forty yards up and then wedging it close and putting. Which wedging and putting is his real Like, that's his bread and butter.
Yeah.
Agree, and that should be.
Part of his recovery, but that shouldn't be the only path to recovery in my opinion.
Yeah, you know, we saw something similar at Wingfoot when Bryson won in twenty. When you dial it up to this point, all the answers are false. It's so hard for anybody, even at this great level that these players are, it's just so hard for them to constantly be hitting good shots. I mean, it's not possible. They're not machines, you know, never mind uneven lies and wind and rain
and all that other kind of stuff. And like at Wingfoot, for instance, they got the fairways so narrow that all of a sudden, even the most accurate drivers were missing a great amount of fairways. So then all of a sudden,
the equation got put back onto distance. Okay, now, because everybody's missing fairways because the fairways are so narrow, that means that the longest hitters have a massive advantage because if everybody's missing them, why wouldn't you just rather be forty fifty yards further up there like Bryson was, to where you've got a better chance of hacking it out up onto or near the green and a better chance to make a part. And kind of had a little
bit of that feel this week again. And the emphasis at the end of the day for me, when I look back at the last four rounds was it was it turned into you know, who's putting the best out here, Who's who's going to be able to to put from long range? Who's going to be able to make those eight ten foots to save pars after they've had to chop it out of the rough? And JJ was the guy that really rarely putted well this week.
Yeah, and I want to be you know.
The other thing about this is that when you think about the ethos of the US Open, it goes to a new venue every year. Part of the ethos of the US Open should be showcasing the the spirit and the the wide range of golf that we have in America through these different venues in different locales. My question, my question, you know, my bigger question, and if Oakmont wants their identity to be this, I would say, that's great,
that's you have that identity. But like my my critique would be, as you alluded to earlier, this is one of the greatest golf designs in the world.
Yeah.
To me, the this style of setup kind of puts restrict plates on on on what type of creativity, the creativity and shot making that this golf course could bring out if set up a little bit differently. And I think, like, you know, what's what's wild to me is like why people don't And I think this is like maybe more of a Mike Davis thing, where like people just like
do not like Mike Davis. But I am I'm shocked at like the negativity that people have towards the graduated rough idea, because to me it makes a lot of sense. And like the idea of if I'm three yards off the fairway, I hit a without a doubt better t
shot than someone that's fifteen yards off the fairway. Thus I'm penalized less for being three yards off the fairway then somebody that's fifteen yards off the fairway, And then what like my real issue becomes when somebody's twenty five yards off the fairway and they're in they're in trampled down spectator areas, and they get a clean lie and they're they're better off than the person who missed the faraway by two inches.
Yeah. I always love, love it when when a player has to make a choice and you know, if you've missed the fairway and you look down at your ball and you're like, gosh, I think I might be able to go for this. But there's absolutely that conflict of you know, maybe the smart play is because at the end of the day, you know what's playing well in the US Open is trying to keep the double bogies
off your card. I mean, it's impossible to go through a US Open without making your whole host of bogies, But can you keep the big numbers off of your card?
And when you start to really challenge the players and bait them into going for it, especially when you've got green complexes like this to where we could see some really fun chips and pitches and putts and bunker shots with all these great undulations and stuff like that, I would be in favor of the graduated rough to be able to if you're three yards off the fairway, you're absolutely in two minds of whether is this going to jump? Is this going to come out soft? I've got this
deep bunker in front. I don't want to be short sighted there, you know, And you're managing that reading of the lie all the time. I'm kind of in favor of that. I mean, I'm in favor of that when I was playing. I'm in favor of that now as an announcer because there's so much more meat on the bone to talk about and to question and to listen to the player and caddy conversation and the caddy saying oh, I don't think you can get there, and the player
going oh no, no, this lies good enough. I can get there, and then hitting the shot and going through that process and bearing in mind what just happened. Was it the right decision, was it the wrong decision? I think that kind of stuff is quite interesting. But you know, when you think back to the the the US opens at Oakmond, I mean, this is is kind of what we've seen. You know, It's just it's a beast, it's a monster. It's it wears you down. I mean, we saw players
do so many crazy things this week. You know, guys really losing their cool early on in the week. You know, the Shane Lowry one is just like so funny to me that he went and just picked his ball up. He thought he had put his market down and he picked it up. You know, for a player of that caliber to be so scrambled in their mind in that moment to make a mistake like that just shows how how this course really was beating them up mentally and physically.
I think that's just the test that you're going to get here.
Yeah, I you know, being there on the ground, I don't think I've ever seen just the like seemingly uniform million mile stare from player after player as they walked from green to tea. Just nobody was having a good time out there. Nobody was having a good time. It was pain and suffering and you know, it hurt a couple of players wrists on the way out. It dispatched some some physical pain. I think, like the final point I'll make about this whole the whole setup, is it
is necessitated that this this tournament. They were gung ho. The president of the club got up at media day and said, we're going to have an over par winner. That's what we've told the usj we're having an overpar winner. One guy finished under par, one under, you know, and if it was if.
It was firm, it would have been way over par, like way over part.
Way over par.
And and and they they did this through the rough. Let's be clear, when people like those bunkers were fierce, you saw a.
Lot like I love.
I love the penalty that bunkers, Fairway Bunkers gave out this week, where you saw guys just having to like just flip it out.
I love that.
But where I like struggle is when the rough, the rough, which is not of a hazard, the rough is doling out a greater penalty than the bunker.
Almost.
Yeah, I think we've had that for many years though, don't you.
I think that's where we and this gets to the greater point and why we've gotten here is because of the equipment and how far it goes and us trying to hold on to to the the relic of even par. And it particularly comes true at the US Open. Every year comes ahead because nobody's happy, like I thought. You know, Pinehurst last year was one of the greatest championships I've ever seen it, and it was you know, two of the world's best players elevated and distancing themselves from a
field and having one of the great showdowns of our time. Yeah, and there was a whole contingent of people that were upset because of what score?
Where are they finished? And score it apart?
Oh, I don't know what score they were. I enjoyed it so much.
I have no th at six hunder, you know, And I think like that's that's the push and pull of this tournament, is that nobody's going to be happy, whether you you know, and and the whole kind of metamorphois of this is that equipment's made it and it's been you know, you cannot get even par unless you have rough like this.
Yeah, I do agree with that. This is this is a debate that may never end. It's been going on
for decades. You know. Jack always tells the story of him starting to talk about this in the seven these uh and you know, golf, golf, social media, you know, people get fired up when you talk about about the equipment and possibly rolling it back when you get to this level of player and these guys that have rarely dedicated their whole lives to getting good at the sport and then you give them this high level of equipment there, there's all this is there's really no defense that you
can come up with other than the setup that we just saw.
Yeah. Yeah, and I think you've got to have three hundred.
You've got to have, you got to have. You brought up the Memorial earlier. Uh Memorial has kind of similar rough, wider fair ways, but there's four par fives where there's only two at Oakmont, and you know, you've got to have three three hundred yard past threes. We had the eighth hole yesterday. I had three hundred and one yards,
if I'm not mistaken. And that's that's just due to excuse me, that's just due to having to stretch it out so much in order for the players to have a similar shot value than what all the other great champions through the years have had to endure. And yeah, that's the only way you're going to the only way you're going to create some defense is make the penalty so severe from a rough standpoint.
Let's talk about some players that did not lift the the.
Okay, but I first want to go through some of this here with JJ before we jump off of that. So driving distance, he was thirty sixth so he's right at three hundred average, so that's in the top quarter there. Sixty three percent of fairways he hit, field average was fifty three percent, so he did drive the ball straight than the majority of people. He was nineteenth and fairways hit greens in regulation he was ninth. That's seventy one percent.
That's also pretty stella. Field average fifty six percent, so he rarely gained a lot right there. And then twelfth and putting, so yeah, he was really rarely consistent throughout the bag. But strokes gain putting, he was twelfth a number of putts second in strokes gain putting, a lot of that probably due to a sixty five footer on the last hole there.
But did you see he didn't even know where he was on the leaderboard?
Excuse me?
He said, said he didn't want to be to be play it safe. He didn't want to like.
I'm too afraid to look at it, because you know, he wanted to remain in that same mindset, which I totally get. You know, I used to do something similar, and he wanted to make sure that he wasn't distracted going on to that final green and that he could feel that he was in the lead and just rarely wanted to try his best to stay in the zone. And it was a great choice because he went ahead and made that putt. You know, another thing I'll just say is I'm a huge fan of the USGA. I
think they do so much great stuff. And if you look at you know, this Championship through the years, you know, I was, I was so excited leading into this week. You know, the US Open really gets me pumped up. And when you look at this venue, you look at Pinehurst last year, you look at the venues that they have upcoming, you know, it's like it's it's mouth watering stuff. And so yeah, I'm really excited to see what they come up with going forward.
I think, and I mean next year going to Shinnacock, that's a golf course that can kind of I think it might be the only golf course in the world that can statiate the both parties that want to see recovery shot, high level shop making mixed with even pars course.
That is to me.
You know, Oakmant, It's Oakmant and Shinnacock are without a doubt, the two most challenging golf courses in America.
Yeah, I would say that's that's fair to say Shinnecock as well. You know, you get the possibility of strong winds.
And I played an open there way back, the US Open, and there's just so many holes where you you're not sure if you're going to be able to hit the green, you know, just thinking about ten and eleven, like ten is a shortish part four and you got a somewhat of a blind t shirt and you steer one down into the fairway and you've got a short club in and you just you're like, I don't know, this green is so firm. I don't think I can keep the
sandwich on the green. And you get to eleven, the pass three up the hill, and it's the same thing. You're just wondering, like, gole, this is I'm not good enough to do this. I mean, the golf course just constantly asks you those questions of you know, I'm going to have to strike this perfectly from the fairway to generate enough spin. I'm probably gonna have to hit it ten to fifteen feet higher than my standard flight to try and get some elevation on it to stop it quicker.
And then you're hoping it somehow catches a soft piece of the green, because this thing could just bounce flag high straight over the back. And then if you throw the wind into it and your down wind and knocks it down into a front bunker that's you know, eight or nine feet deep. You've got a whole host of other issues. It's it's gonna be a fun one. Yeah, they they have, they have some incredible venues lined up. It's gonna be awesome to watch.
I think I think ten ten eleven or shen Cock is maybe the worst two starting holes because they obviously split tea if you're a little nervous. Oh, I couldn't think of two worst, two worst shots to have to hit than the approach shots of those two.
Well, I mean the whole the whole place. I mean one is one SnO barg and either because you've got to try and drive it into a dog leg downhill if and the wind's blowing across and then that green falls off on all sides. And then two is the long part three, right, Yeah, you could be going in there with lumber and yeah, it's uh.
The twenty twenty sixth preview here, All right, let's take a quick break. Today's podcast is brought to you by Club Champion. Oh come on, it's very penal.
Uh.
When I played it, I was very tired. I was coming off a long trip in Scotland. But one of the things that helped me out a lot was that my distances were dialed in. And one of the ways I get my distances dialed in trajectories. I know what the ball is coming out, what windows coming out of, and how far it's going. Thanks to our friends at Club Champion there, I get fit in their track Man and Sam Putt Labs. It helps me get a pure role on the putter. I think a lot of people
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get to some guys that didn't win. JJ spond all around performance though obviously played really strong t De Green as he does often with that golf swing and then the great putting week on top of that.
You're close with Adam Scott.
I think that this was kind of the story everybody wanted, was the near forty five year old adding that second major. Obviously he was right there, had the lead at times on Sunday. You know, what is it about him that most impresses you as he continues to play high level golf into his mid forties.
His motivation to still want to play well and his motivation to win. You know, I've never ever heard the guy talk about money or the amount of money that he's playing for. He's obviously been around so long that he's seen everything from a standpoint of prize funds and through the Tiger boom and then now over the last few years as things have really jumped up. But for him, it's just all about winning and building this legacy of winning the best tournaments, the best championships, and now he's
still motivated and keen to put the work in. For me, you know, we've known each other forever. We competed in junior golf together and came through all the different stages of amateur golf, young on Tour, European Tour, PGA Tour, winning majors. You know, here I am, I'm six months older than him, and I haven't played a professional tournament since the end of twenty nineteen, and he's still up there.
You know, the last two majors, at the PGA Championship, he's tied for second with seven holes to play, and the next major, the US Open, he's what was he tied for the lead after the eleventh hole, maybe twelve, tenth hole, maybe something like that, And that to me is just seriously impressive that he's still willing to make the sacrifices from a practice and travel standpoint, living in Europe and still got all the speed to be able to do that. That is impressive. I have not spoken
to him today. Spoke to him a few times before the round yesterday and during the delay yesterday we were texting back and forth. But yeah, he's going to be hurting for sure. You know. He felt really good all week. He felt great going into the week. He loves Oakmont. He liked the way the course was set up, even from he called me on a scouting trip. He went the Monday after the Memorial and he called me from the golf course and was like this, I like this.
I really like this. He had played a couple opens there before and so felt like he was comfortable with it mentally. It wasn't overwhelming like it normally does to people when you go there for the first time. It's just so hard. It starts to make you anxious and nervous about man, I might not break ninety at this place. And so he felt really good, had a good vibe, and it was fun to see him up there, you know, like you say, I'm really close with him, spend a
ton of time with him, and it was fun. Afternoon on the couch rooting, rooting for him and seeing it all unfold. But for sure he's he's going to be hurting today. And it absolutely was was an opportunity that that he's going to feel like he let slip by.
It's funny as you as you were talking and I just started scrolling through the leaderboard, you know, with him calling you on the scouting saying, you know, I really like this place. I think it really sets up well for me. You know, there's a level of experience. Obviously, he was one of the few players in the field. I think it was like him justin Rose and I'm playing Phil who had played three plus US opens at Oakmont,
you know, this was being their third. But you look through you scroll through the leaderboard and something that's that's kind of void on the leaderboard is is that that youth wave that has seemingly taken over pro golf When you kind of start to scroll through it. Sure there all the guys that were on the board have been around for a while, Ben Grit maybe you could say a little bit inexperience in in majors and uh and then like you get to like rasp miss andeerguard Patterson
or is kind of the next one. But you know, for the most part, this leader board was very, very seasoned. Yeah, he drove the ball so well, and I think something that people have been were just shocked by was seeing some of the ball speed numbers. I also thought like one of the things he carried around at Oakmont that was particularly useful was that mini driver. Yeah, where you saw it on eleven where Sam Burns hit his three wood.
It wasn't enough to cover the hill in that And on Sunday afternoon rolls down the hill, he goes up there with that mini driver. Where has he been finding the speed? As as someone who's approaching forty where where can I find the speed that he's finding?
Yeah, it's it's it's quite incredible. I mean he cruises, absolutely cruises, and in one eighties. I mean it's the one eighty seven on eighteen on Saturday and the one eighty eight that they picked up on the fourth hole yesterday. I mean that's a that's a little more than normal probably probably you know, he's normally in that one eighty four zone. So there's there's some adrenaline attached to that.
It wasn't the fourth hole yesterday, Excuse me. It was it was, Yeah, the part five, the part five A couple of things. You know, he's pretty big guy, always been in great shape, always worked out a lot. He's very in tune with his fitness and his body and managing all of that. And he is one of the most hyper mobile, flexible people that I have ever come across. I mean, his shoulders and arms and upper back, it's
like it's like rubber bands. In fact, one of the things that we talk about a lot with him is sometimes he's so loose up top that his swing can get a little bit long and then he can get a bit out of sink and you know, but the advantage to that is that he's able to really generate a ton of club hit speed on the way down. I mean, he's got a near perfect swing, unbelievable leg action to be able to send all that energy down into the club. And he's not afraid to let it
rip either. You know, it's a club that he's very very confident with, and so he steps up and just freewheels it. The money Driver's been in the bag for a long time, more than a year now. He absolutely loves that club. Every now and then he'll throw in a three wood instead depending on the course set up. But yeah, he loves that many driver. He calls it the weapon. He uses it a lot, likes it. Able to change the trajectory quite a bit with it and get a low one out there if he wants to,
if he needs a little extra run on it. So it's a club that he loves. But yeah, you know, he's just a guy that's like it's aspirational in many ways when you observe him, you watch him, you hang around.
You know, even yesterday, they caught that moment where, I mean, the guy's just shot seventy nine, he's he's come back in forty one, he's one, two, three, four, he's five over the last five holes yesterday to finish, and they catch that that moment of him congratulating JJ spawn and it's so authentic and so real, and you can see that he feel feels good for JJ. He understands and appreciates what a mo mentus occasion that is for him and treats him accordingly. He's a true gentleman of the game.
You know, we spoke about we spoke about JJ being a bit of a throwback with having to wait later in his career to become the finished product, if we want to call it that. In many ways, Adam's a bit of a throwback from that's standpoint of it being a gentleman's sport.
It's funny you brought up that hyper flexible. You know, back when I was working my first job out of college, I was living in the city and I used to watch Morning Drive every morning and they had a feature with Adam Scott and I'll never forget it. They like went through like his fitness regimen and they had I think they had the guy that was helping him at the time they were doing it, and they were like, Adam's biggest problem this we have to rein in his flexibility.
We're doing counter exercises to like make him like almost less flexible with like resistance going the other way, which you know, and it makes sense to how he's how that has parlayed into aging. So well, you know, on top of you know, I'll just add this on top of you know, the congratulating JJ. You know, this guy just had had you know, he was gutted, obviously, probably had a Sunday that he did not want or expect
to have. He was he was as always completely open, honest, available and gracious with his time with with people that wanted to talk to him. All the way out to the parking lot, he was talking to Brendan Quinn, who wrote a great piece in The Athletic about about him today. In that piece, he talked about about kind of where he goes from here. He said, I I feel like I can keep this up for another eighteen months for sure.
Then at that point I'll be forty six. I think I can push myself for the next year and a half and then reassess. You know, that's a reasonable goal. It's not so long, but it's like, are you ever going to do it? I need to give myself a bit of a deadline, a bit of an or a bit of urgency, right, So you know that gives them a gives them a year and a half, that takes them right through the President's Cup eighteen months.
Yeah, it does. You know, because he has the speed still, he could probably stretch that out a little longer. So we'll just have to see. You know, he still has the appetite, he still has the speed. It's gonna be gonna be fun to see what he does over the next eighteen months because he's still ride it. He's still
right into it. And you know, something that a lot of people don't talk about is, you know, the amount of time that he's investing as well into being on the board of the PGA Tour and being a part of that. You know, there's a lot of things going on. He's got a young family over in Europe, doesn't live in the US. And you never see though, or at least he doesn't show the frustration in any way. He always handles everything with the utmost class and I have
a ton of respect for that. He's just just a wonderful guy.
Yeah, I think that was one thing I was going to say, is like, you know, I can't imagine, you know, in terms of like probably the thing that is, you know, the golf swing and the skills it seemed to be there are going to be there for probably the next five years, the ability to do it at least for five years, you know, in the vein of like Michelson one of fifty one. Yeah, and a lot of that is like similar to Adam Scott, like still has the speed and the movement capabilities.
You know, and similar to Michelson too and completely different to somebody like Tiger is just hasn't really ever had any any crazy injuries, yes, or anything that would set him back or surgeries to where he would need to take time out. So that's probably been one of the things that's aided him to be able to maintain all of the speed and decent play into his mid forties and maybe, yeah, maybe he can stretch it out the way the way.
Filled in, Yeah, to be to be the biggest threat is the family piece, Like that's that's got to be the hardest thing about chasing this is the idea I was reading a little bit about it yesterday, is like the two to three weeks off, you know, it is as someone who occasionally leaves his family for ten ten plus days, that that is the hardest part about, you know, about any of this, And I imagine that is probably
the thing that that would hold him back. And then you know, you know, he's in a spot where he doesn't have exemptions forever, you know, and he has to keep his game at a certain level to play more than the masters.
Yeah. Look, that's something we all sign up for as athletes. I mean, you look at any any athlete out there, or any entertainer or any high level businessman or woman. When you when you get to that that one percent, you're probably gonna have to make sacrifices in your personal life in order to keep that going. And it's something
that we're all juggling at all times. I mean, like you say, if you're in a similar situation, constantly be on the road, whether it be going to majors or big tournaments, or doing podcasts or going to do you know, course visits and stuff like that. You know, we're all just trying to do the best we can. From that standpoint. It's, uh, it's it's tough when you've got three, four, five balls in the air that you're trying to juggle. But to some extent, every everybody is in that same situation.
Yeah, different way.
Everybody's got circumstances, whether they're home every night or whether they're on the road one hundred nights, two hundred nights.
Yeah.
The Was there anybody else that really impressed you this week that maybe didn't that did not win?
Ah? Yeah, I thought. I thought Bob McIntyre showed a lot of toughness. We've seen it from him before. You know, he's got he's got something inside him that that that like that grittiness, which which I.
Like, Like you watch him and nothing jumps off like it's nothing. Nothing is like screams he's world class at this or that. But he just shows up and is is around and and gets the ball in the hall.
See he's not afraid.
He doesn't seem like he's afraid to have the ball. He's not afraid of of a moment. We sought a little bit at the Ryder Cup. We saw it leading into the Ryder Cup. We saw it a few times last year the Canadian Open, we saw it the Scottish Open. And when he's coming down the stretch there, it's not easy to win at home when you've got everybody putting a little extra heat on you, wanting you to win as the hometown guy. And then yesterday coming down the stretch,
I mean he was tough. He was making brilliant putts and hit wonderful t shots as well up the last couple of holes. And yeah, he's got that little something extra that's that's and I mean this in the most respectful way possible. He's got that that something extra that's it's annoying to have to play against because you know that he's he's not going to give it to you. You're going to have to do something like make a sixty five winter on the last hole like jj'sporn did
in order to beat him. So yeah, I was super impressed with him. He just continues to take incremental steps to getting better over the last few years. Great to see Hovlin back up there. Same thing with with pj's guy Cameron Young. Some better play here over the last few weeks, of course, I think in a certain way, it's starts with qualifying for the US Open and that marathon day and getting through the playoffs. So good to see him.
They need him, They need him for that Ryder Cup. They need some players with some pop in the bat for.
Yeah, I agree with you, And a lot of that stems from him starting to put much better in the last month or so.
Uh.
You know Hatton as well, he's got that little extra chip on his shoulder.
I thought it would have been apropos for the man that it always has great quotes. You know, whether you agree with him or not, you just love his quotes about golf courses. If he would have won in that torture chamber.
Yeah, it's brilliant. It's sort of halfway through the week, or maybe it was before the week when he said people ask him about the mindset and he's like, well, I love us opens because everybody starts on the same page. Is what I do every week of my career. They're just angry and irritable and can't quite figure out, you know, all these different breaks that they're getting. And I thought he hit a lot of high quality shots.
I thought he kind of got jammed by by seventeen with that rough going down into the bunker. That was like something that happened all week. Obviously that was there. Everybody knew about it. But you know, it's like you basically got put into a spot where it's virtually impossible.
Yeah, sixth inch of off on a forty five degree downhill, lie hitting uphill to a fairly quick green. There was just nothing that he could He could really do that.
And needing a three.
Yeah, so there was there was a lot of good stuff, you know, Ram and Scheffler kind of hung around. Seems like Ram is starting to find his stride again and and really hit some high quality shots like we were used to seeing a few years ago when he when he won those two majors and shefflet they mayeazing thing about Scheffler is he's he's so good. He's so good that he can have his D game and still have a chance to win with with nine holes to play,
and and that that's that's quite special. That's quite something.
I mean, you look at you watched that Saturday round. If you watch it again, it's just like that guy should have been right in it. And even on Sunday he's just a couple putts, you know, he had I think he had seven three puts on the week.
Yeah, and he made nothing, made nothing on Sunday and still with a few holes to go when everyone else started to leak oil, you were like, go Lee, is he going to be able to get in there two over and have a chance to win this before JJ made those great birdies to finish. But yeah, he yah, he he's good man. He's that's obviously not groundbreaking analysis
right there. But to be able to come to U as tough of a tist is what this is, uh, and and clearly not have his best stuff and still have a shot at it is it's quite something.
He's one of the ones that I think if you looked at if you looked at if it was a graduated rough setup, that's probably someone that finishes maybe a little bit higher on the board. And you know, I just I don't think he really misses very much wide.
Yeah, right, I agree with that.
I think he's probably the guy that is the most penalized by the one yard you know what we talked about with like one yard, two yard, three yards off type of setup. Uh so that was that would be I think like if you it'd be an interesting you can't do this obviously, but if that that graduated rough setup, it might have been a similar situation to DJ, where you looked at the board at times on the weekend and it's like, who are these guys? You know, a reminder of you know, at the time when DJ won,
Shane Lowry wasn't really who Shane Lowry is today. Andrew Landry was on the board, Scott Piercy, you know, similar you know set up. It was just you know where where Scotty might have lifted and separated the way DJ did. Obviously winning winning by two in the score books, but really four if you take away the silly penalty.
Now let's just talk from from a graduated rough standpoint and an agronomy standpoint, this is your wheelhouse, you know. The maintenance stuff obviously did an incredible job with pretty much everything going against them for everything but the weeks leading up and the week of the event. I mean they did an incredible job, even during and off to the delay, squeezing water all over the place.
I read I read an article real quick about with Mike McCormick, this great superintendent there that was from the winter and it was a Pittsburgh article, a Pittsburgh newspaper, whereas like, what would.
Be the dream lead in and he was like, ideally no rain for the monthly day?
Get and he got something.
Got the most rain ever recorded in Pittsburgh. Yeah, in the time frame lead again, you.
Gotta tip your cap to just the man hours. I mean, those people are not getting they're working so hard, they're not getting any sleep. They're just grinding it out, making sure that that they keep the course the way they want it, in the way this championship deserves. But if you had to do graduated rough from a maintenance standpoint, and how how much extra work is that to be able to maintain that?
I don't think it's really I think it's the matter of like changing the blades on. You know, like it's like if you're mowing your lawn and you just change the height of cut.
Okay, But what happens if you get a week like this and maybe this would have been a better first question, where there's so much rain and they can't necessarily get the mows in there, then then what happens?
Well then I think, like, I mean, I don't think they mowed much of this week obviously, then you you would already have the base of the graduated rough and it would just grow longer. Okay, But it's not like you know, the shorter rough's going to all a sudden be longer than the longer rough, right.
No, I understand that. It seems like earlier in the week they were they were going with the hand mowers, and then they had the blows and the rakes and they had everything going trying to get it to stand up.
Yeah. Yeah, I mean that's.
I think, Like, I think the thing is like you can agree or disagree on the setup in the philosophy, but they absolutely executed the setup they were going for.
Oh they nailed it. Yeah, they nailed it to a tea. Even with all of the rain and the bad weather. Would you go, would you go, okay, so you've got about it. You've got a yard of the of the semi right, would you go what two or three yards of maybe two and a half inches and then jump to the five or what would you do? Uh?
I think like I might go like yeah, probably, like maybe maybe I go to like three three and a half even I mean they were cutting in five and a half right, Yeah, we're not talking about just like having no rough.
I think that's like the thing that people.
Like, no, no, no, But how area? How wide? Would you have that strip?
Just probably a couple of yards? Right you want to?
I think like you could do it, even running in and out of bunkers, right, like you see those bunkers into the in the faariaway. Maybe that's the lean line of demarcation is in and out of those bunkers. One of the other things it would do is more balls would get into those ditches, which are like real penalties.
I love the look at those. I love that long grass coming out that looked so good on TV.
And if you conceivably if the if the grass was shorter, running into the bunkers, you would you'd probably deduce that more balls would get up near the faces because more balls would enter the bunker with more pace. And that's one of the things I loved. I love the way
the balls rolled up to the faces. They didn't come like one of my big big complaints about Quail Hollow would be, like all the balls end up at the bottom of the bunker, and at the bottom, yeah, and at the bottom of the bunker, it really reduces the penalty that those bunkers are going to inflict, like what we saw why those bunkers worked, the faraway bunkers. And you know, Sam Burns is like the quintessential the way that I don't think like enough people are going to
give credit to Sam Burns. That Saturday round he played was incredible. Ye to just like have to just shovel a couple of balls out of the bunkers and save par over and over again was awesome without his best stuff off the tee, but the that like him having to just chip out, I think like if you had for rough, then the ball comes in a little bit faster into those bunkers and gets up to near the face.
So the bunkers are them.
More penal, But yeah, I don't think you have to do much right, Like I'm not talking, And I think this is where like people people were like, oh, he just wants fair away everywhere. It's like, no, like, give us, give us the opportunity for flyers. I thought, like a perfect example of what you were talking about earlier about like that chance was was how Sunday's eleventh hole played off. That played out with Adam Scott and Sam Burns. Now this was because Sam Burns was in the in that divot.
He ends up short and all sorts of problems. He's trying a very tough shot, right, that was a very challenging shot from the divot uphill to that small green on the eleven. Yeah, I'm Scott hits a bad approach, but let's just say he caught a flyer from the rough instead of just hitting a bad approach. He ends up long and they both like then chaos ensues around the green, right because they're in certifiably awful places around
the green. And I think that's what I I You know, like what you said, this great these great putting surfaces that they have there. You know, you could you could say to me, Oakemont's got the greatest set of greens in the world, and I don't think I could like, I'm not going to disagree with you. I might say I like these maybe more, but they're like, you know, without a doubt in the question.
The more shots that.
We we encourage people to play into the greens, the more interesting they're going to get.
Yeah.
Yeah, last one of my parting thoughts with Sam Burns. I loved how he handled the situation. Maybe didn't handle it well in the moment to play well. It seemed like that lie affected him I'm fourteen, maybe mentally and the end actually hitting it, but afterwards, like could have been so easy to blame blame the rules officials just kind of took ownership of it, and I thought that was very classy of them.
Yeah, I totally agree with you. Kind of the guy is. That's how I know him. It's what I've witnessed and seen every time I've been around him. He's a great guy. And even in the moment, I thought he handled it quite well, Like, Okay, he asked for the second opinion, that's perfectly acceptable. But when the second opinion came down and that official said no, we don't think you should get relief. He didn't really throw a tantrum or do anything. He said okay, and he went about hit the shot.
Shot very clearly had a ton of water come in between the ball and the grooves. I mean it just had a snap hook on it, which is a shot he doesn't hit all that often, being a favor of the ball. And then afterwards, yeah, you know, handled it, handled it like a pro, and you know, had had a great shot at it really until that moment. It was at that point that I felt like the final
pairing was out of it. He made the double there and Adam three putted to make the bogie there, and at the same time JJ hit that brilliant drive on seventeen to within ten or fifteen feet and it was just like, oh man, you know, I think this is over. Because McIntire was in the clubhouse at one over and in the last three holes, we're a bit of a struggle for that final pairing.
Last question, any any thoughts on the struggles of some of the top players this week.
I just think it's that sort of golf course, you know, if you are if you are just off your game, it's it's gonna it's going to eat you up. Yeah. I remember playing in the US Open. I missed the cut by a shot or two. I wanted to say it was one shot, and I bogie the ninth hole, which was my thirty sixth hole in O seven. You just got to be You've got to be on it with your game, You've got to be in it mentally.
And it's a brutal test, you know, when you get a course that is set up and playing this difficult. Nobody nobody is immune. Man, nobody is immune. It can it's there's no there's no judging out there. You just nobody cares about your reputation. Nobody cares how the course doesn't care how many tournaments you've won. It's going to eat your lunch if you if you're not not on it. And yeah, that was what we saw.
I think, like the margin between being nine over on on on Friday afternoon and and six over and you know, at six over having a legitimate shot at contending was so narrow, just because.
It's like a a.
Lie here, a couple of minutes of misputt here, And I mean that's the amazing.
You know.
The thing you sit back at the end of all these golf tournaments and realize is how small the margin is over the course of four days. I mean, it's the amazing thing with with golf is like so many people focus in on what happens on Sunday, but you know often there's you know, just monumental moments and Thursday and Friday that shape tournaments.
Yeah, I mean the cut was cut was seven over, right, Yeah, So if you made the cut on the number and then found a way to shoot even on the weekend, you went from making it on the number to tie nineteenth. Yeah, and just shows just how difficult it was.
I mean, big shot Bob had the best weekend shooting sixty nine, sixty eight, but he you know, he was he finished second after being four over, and he was what he would have been nine shots back of Sam Burns.
At that point.
Yeah. First round seventy, second round seventy four. So how on earth do you shooting back to back? How on earth do you shoot back to back grounds in the sixties on the weekend of a US Open at Oakhorn. That's pretty pretty impressive stuff from Bob right there.
I Mean, there were so many guys in the mix that he kind of snuck up on the on the whole tournament telecast and everything, and he was out way in front of the leaders.
You know where he in just the bogie.
I think the way he started with two bogeys in the first three holes, like it threw the scent of Bob McIntyre maybe winning off the mark. But then he al, Sudi's just there.
I thought, Yeah. I mean the other thing in in defense of that is he started with two bogeys in his first three holes, so even further back, Yeah, but to play his last twelve holes bogie free with three birdies in awful weather, So his last twelve holes he made six threes. That is that is some proper stuff right.
There, I said, I tweeted about this, but I think like in this, as you said, you know, bogie his first two holes, like he's immediately that five over and the leaders are going off at three under when he's five over.
It makes sense why he wasn't on the telcast.
I had just dealt with for sure, and then all of a sudden he just played some Brillian go I mean sixth threes in the last twelve holes.
He could have won.
He could have won it, and they showed twenty shots of him in regulation because of like just the nature of this tournament. It was a wacky tournament.
I mean it really was. And I saw a clip. I saw a clip of him. He made a nice little I don't know, maybe three foot on the eighteenth hole to say to save his part. And I mean, there's no gimmes at Oakmont because the greens is so treacherous. But this putt, it's got to put a break to it, and he's made it, and he's given like a decent sized fist pump because he's probably thinking to himself at that point that that might have been the winning putt, and then and then he's has to sit around and
watch those guys finish. And it was only JJ's brilliant stuff from seventeen and eighteen that stopped him.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's incredible tournament. Thanks as always for coming on. Are you back on the road your Travelers this week?
Right?
Yeah, I'm home till Friday, and then we go up to Travelers, which is the final signature of the end of the season.
And then then you got Scotland.
Yeah, we got we got Scotland.
Uh, you're gonna play any golf while you're over there.
I you know what I think I'm gonna do. Well. I always love to play in North Berrick. It's one of my favorite courses in the world. And I mean, I'm not going to take my clubs. I think I'm gonna play play it with like a rental set or something like that.
You know where you should go?
Where you should go to Boris's shop in Golin rent a set of hickories.
That's not a bad idea.
He's got. He's got a little shop in downtown Gollan. Get you yourself a little a set of hickories. He's He's one of the most interesting human beings in golf that I've ever met. Oh really yeah, very interesting guy.
Great.
I wouldn't I wouldn't advise getting in a hickory match with him though, No, I'm.
Sure he'll take me down and he hit probably fifty shots in my whole life with hickories.
My biggest regret of my latest Scotland trip was that I didn't bring old clubs because I had to play Oakmont the Monday on my way back, and I was like, I'm not playing hickories.
Imagine how tough that would be.
Be extraordinarily tough.
That would be. Yeah, So I'll be over there and then we come back and finish the regular season and uh then that'll be it for me for the for the year.
Yeah, all right, well we're we'll look forward to uh look forward to those couple events and uh looking forward to the last majors of the year.
And thanks. It's always for coming on.
Yeah, I know, it's Uh, it's fun to join you. It's it's fun too. You know. Usually when I'm working on TV, it's like a platform for me to be able to get my thoughts out, but this week I didn't have that platform because I was sitting at home watching it and uh, you know, it's fun just to be able to sit with somebody that loves the game as much as you do and and talk about it. And major championship golf is is the best. And uh, you know, Kudu's kudos too to JJ on the great win.
He is gonna gonna remember that pot and lifting that trophy for the rest of his life and be celebrated for the rest of his life. So that's awesome.
Yeah, epic moment too with his with his kids there like unforgettable memory, brilliant. You know, I won't ever forget that visual. It's on Father's Day. Awesome, awesome win. So all right, thanks Trevor. We'll talk to you soon.
Thanks and.
All right, thanks big thanks to Trevor for coming on. These have been really fun. I hope you guys are enjoying them as much as I am. Also, huge thanks to PJ Clark. He was on the ground all last week at Oakmont, was rumbling around put out some new feature on the Shotgun Start called the Lunch with the Boys on our social page. Him and Joseph kind of dove in and we're doing a bunch of stuff on
the ground at Oakmont. That was a fun development. Big thanks to PJ for putting that together and putting this podcast together. We'll be back next week with a new edition of the podcast. And big thanks to everyone who followed along for our open coverage. It was a lot of fun to be there and and I wouldn't be there without your support.
Thanks.