June 19, 2019 • 37 mins
We talk about Gary Woodlands amazing performance at the US Open. We also cover Brooks Koepka and how he almost pulled off the US Open three-peat! We get in to what happened to Tiger and what should we expect moving forward. With The Travelers this week...there's so much to talk about...let's do this...We are PLAYING THROUGH!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Don't mind us where playing Through. Here's Froggy and Whacker.
Welcome to the Playing Through podcast. That is Froggy from
Elvis to Ram in the morning show with my boy
Brian Whacker live on a location he is at, or
shall I say he's on his way to the Travelers.
He had to stop and pick up some fuel. We
(00:23):
call it Duncan donuts, but I call it fuel from
Brian because he is a real coffee He's kind of
a coffee snob and coffee conoisseur. You know, I just
want to I just have a question, right, So we
just talked about this before the podcast, so I got
you know, don't know. It is great by the way,
it started New England. I'm up in New England for
the Travelers Championship and they gave me the on the
(00:44):
received there's a survey you can fill out to get
a free bakery item, right, any Froggy, do you ever
fill out a receipt or fill out a survey to
get a free bakery item or No? I've never filled
out anything. I don't want to know who does that.
I don't think anybody does. But I'll tell you something
else I don't do. But I'm glad other people do.
(01:05):
Is when I see reviews online, like whether it's an
Amazon review or a Yelp review, I'll read them and
make my decision on whether I want to purchase an
item or go visit that place. However, I've never written
a review of my life, which is kind of selfish
if you think about it. Well, no, not really, because
that's for everybody else to write the reviews. Yeah, but
how do you know who's writing that review. It could
be some guy they pay, the guy that works there,
(01:26):
the guy that owns the place, Like, I never know
who's writing. Now. That's why I never Here's how I
approach reviews. I never like take the glowing five star review,
and I never take the worst review. I tend to
sort of gravitate toward the middle, see what the most
sensible of the reviews are, and how many good reviews are,
(01:49):
how many bad I mean in the middle surveys. I'm
gonna forget about that for seating about thirty seconds. I'm
gonna remember to co online when I get home, Like
I just pulled into the drive through. It gave me
the receipt. I mean, I'm not gonna remember when I
go back to Duncan knows tomorrow. If I'd st allowed
(02:10):
the service, I could get a free bakery item. No,
I'm gonna pay my money like an idiot. I'm gonna
I'm gonna by I'm gonna spend more money, right, a
free bakery item anyway, exactly, talk about golfoot golf. Speaking
of reviews, let's review the amazing, the amazing tournament that
(02:30):
was the US Open. I know you were there. You
were at um, you were at Pebble Beach. It looked
absolutely beautiful beach. If you drank every time that the
Fox crew mentioned the marine layer at Pebble Beach, you
would have been drunk, would be dead. You would have
been dead on Wednesday afternoon. We would not be doing
(02:54):
this podcast because I would be deceased from alcohol. How
gorgeous was Pebble How beautiful was the US Open? And
I mean just tell us. I mean, I have so
many questions, but I first I'm gonna let you answer
someone without me asking you. Everything under the sun. Look
the marine layer. Even with that marine layer hanging around
(03:15):
all week and temperatures in the fifties, that place was beautiful.
It's it's one of the most incredible places in the
entire planet. Um, look, we all know that it's been
photographed a million times. It's been we all saw the
shops from Fox with how about that, by the way,
the drone images, Uh, the drone footage that Fox provided, Uh,
(03:40):
just some gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous shops about property that we
haven't seen before. Yeah, and that, Yeah, it was awesome.
And that's something else I want to get into. I
want to get into my review of what how well
I think the Fox crew did uh this week as
a whole, and how far they've come from where they
started just a couple of years ago. Yeah, because you
(04:03):
watched a lot more of it from the TV perspective
that I was able to. I asked charge around the
golf course, and um, you know I only saw bits
some pieces of the television coverage throughout the week, whereas
you would seeing a lot more. So I'm curious to hear, Well,
let's start without what you thought of Foxes broadcast of it,
(04:24):
the presentation from the new technology with the drone, Uh,
shops that we saw, some of the tracer technology that
we saw, what what was your perspective? And as they
fan watching at home, there were things I loved and
things I did not love. One thing I did not love.
I did not love the bringing in of Jim Nance.
I just didn't think it was needed. Really, I did
(04:46):
not love that. I did not love the bringing in
of Jim Nance. But what I did love little Little
Small for it just kids just too much. And like
you know what, Jim's great over on CBS. He does
a great job at the Masters. I just didn't need
in there. I did love Johnny Miller on the Golf Channel,
but once again, that's not Fox. But speaking of just
the Fox presentation, let's go back to when Fox first
(05:09):
took on the U s G A contract and they
got all all the USG tournaments, and it was we
started off. We had Greg Norman, they had Holly Saunders
on UH, and they were really trying really hard to
be different. I always had Joe buck Um. I didn't
love it then. I thought they were doing a poor job.
(05:30):
I do miss well. I miss Holly Saunders, and I
think maybe there's a personal UH deal there, just because
she's a very good fan of the program. I love Holly,
she's great, she's fun to look at. Um. I do
miss Holly, but I want to say, Joe Buck and
Paul Eisinger did a phenomenal job all four days. The
(05:52):
drone footage was something like you said, we've never seen before.
And with now Johnny Miller being out of the booth
over at NBC, I could make an argument that the
Fox crew and Fox's presentation of the US Open was
the best in the business. Well, it's you know, it's
(06:13):
hard to say. I mean, Augusta in the Master's CBS
UH is a pretty tough combination UM for a lot
of reasons. And and a lot of that has to
do with Augusta national driving that bus and having control
over a lot more things than most majors UH or
most tournaments or most networks would. So UM see your point, though, UM,
(06:39):
certainly we have seen dramatic improvement I think from Fox
UM compared to and you know, I actually a thinger
I think has been terrific UM. But I would like
to see a little more. I feel like he's holding
back a bit. So I like to see a little
(07:00):
more UM critiques from Paul. He's a great, great voice
in the game, and I I think he's being careful
to UM sort of just being careful in his approach
and you know, maybe over time that will change and
you you'll get a little looser. But uh, yeah, overall,
(07:23):
I thought I thought the presentation is is dramatically improved.
And look, we have to remember Fox does this once
a year, right, and the same crew that did the
US Open was not the same crew that did the
US and Women's Open, So uh, it's not as if
they had a quote unquote run up to it, right. Um,
(07:45):
and I don't even want to call it dry run
because the US Women's Opens a big deal, but um,
you know they do it once a year, so it's
really hard to get all this in sink one time
a year, one week a year. Um, you know, the
Super Bowl is a big deal, but you're generally talking
about crush even though that's once a year event. They've
(08:09):
done sixteen weeks of working on football games, right, So
um that said, yeah, dramatic improvement. Love the drone stuff.
I think technologically this is where a Fox has always
sort of separated itself. Technologically, I think they're doing a
great job and it will continue to get better. Yeah.
I mean I even loved some of the T shots
(08:30):
where you would see them hit T shots that were
blind trying to cut corners, and and the trade the
shot tracer or shot track or whatever you wanna call
it was always very accurate. Like I new CBS had
tried to do some stuff earlier in the year and
it was way off. Um. I mean a lot of
the technology they used really really worked, and the way
(08:50):
they showed the golf course was very very cool in
ways that I had not seen Pebble Beach before, and
so I think Fox did a great job. Um. But
the tournament of up to the hype, even without you know,
Tiger Woods, Like all week long, we were very much
kind of given the whole what if Tiger aspect and
what if Phil wins and completes the career Grand Slam
(09:12):
and Rory had played so well at the RBC the
week leading in, they gave us Rory all week and then,
of course, obviously and rightfully so, uh, they gave us
the Brooks line. But never did we think about I mean,
there was no talk about Gary Woodland coming in and
doing what he did. But Brooks played very very well.
Was there at the end with something to say? Um?
I thought Justin Rose played very well. Justin Rose or
(09:35):
somebody who did was not quote his ball striking was off.
For him to even be there with a chance on
Sunday was remarkable. And then of course Brooks and and
and and Gary Woodland, I I thought the golf lived
up to the hype without the stars that we thought
we were probably going to see going into the week. No,
(09:57):
I well, look, U know it's I mean it's the
leader boarder was pretty star packed as it was. It
didn't have Tiger or Phil certainly, but Rory was in
the mix. Uh much of the week. Um you mentioned
justin Rose. Of course, Dustin Johnson never really got going,
(10:17):
but we have kept gunning. Of course, that incredible start
on Sunday. I mean at that moment when he gets
off to that start for birdies in the first five
holds and and it looks like, um he made catch.
Gary Woodlands, Um, you thought, here you go. And to me,
Brooks and I wrote this for golf, didgest Uh? Brooks
(10:40):
kept cut to me, is the closest thing we've seen
to Tiger since Tiger. Now don't confuse that with me
comparing him to Tiger. That's just foolish. The point it
was this thing we've seen to him, and from that
I mean from a physical athletics standpoint, in the things
he's able to do with the golf ball and his
(11:03):
golf swing, but also mentally, this is a guy who
is a is proving time and time and time again.
He is showing up in the big tournaments pretty much
every single time. I mean, his his major record is remarkable.
His last four majors, he's gone first, second, first second,
(11:24):
I mean, and before that, before even one his first major,
he had a handful of top five and top ten finishes.
So this now, look, he doesn't do it on a
week to week basis. I don't know if it's just boredom,
if he says he doesn't care. I mean, he's been
asked that. He said that. He just he thinks the
majors are easier to win than than than than a
(11:45):
regular tournament. And and he's right, He's a hundred percent right,
because I always look at it. Look, when you look
at a major, um, you know you can cross a
certain number of those players off the US immediately immediately
because you take the p G a right, Well, there's
a bunch of club pros in in the PGA. Those
(12:07):
guys aren't going to contend. Then there's guys who maybe
slide in to qualify at the last minute. Those guys
generally don't content. Then you're gonna have a segment of
players who just don't play well. Those guys are going
to contend so automatically right off the path, you're eliminating
a good portion of the field. Whereas a PGA Tour event,
(12:28):
you know, you're talking about a deep field every weekend
in week out, and you never know who's gonna win.
Those courses are set up the same way. Um, they're
set up easier, and there's a consistency level week to
week on tour that you don't have in a major,
where a major is difficult. Uh. And again all the
(12:49):
things with the field that we just talked about, UM,
to me, it makes perfect sense everybody else. He says
that the tough set up rules out a lot of people,
but keeps him in it like he feels like the
tougher setup is better for him because it's gonna weed
out the low end players, where the easier set up
(13:10):
let's everybody have a chance. And it sounds crazy and
it sounds pompous, and it sounds like he's kind of
being a dick, But it's really when when you really
look at it, it all it kind of all makes sense. No,
it totally does because look at Tiger Woods his career.
Another comparison. Um, you know, he would win on you know,
(13:33):
the heart of the golf course generally speaking, the better
his chances were because he's better than everybody else. When
you were better than everyone else and you make the
golf course that much more difficult, well then it's going
to eliminate the people who are not as good as
your So uh, I'm not surprised he set it, I don't,
(13:54):
you know. And he's got he's got to have more
confidence than anybody in golf right now, and quite frankly,
he's the best player in golf and it's not close now.
The British Open has not been his strong point and
so I know that's his that's that's been his lowest
finish recently at a major that he I know he
(14:17):
didn't play the Masters when he was injured, But other
than that, he's been like top five and every are,
winning every single major except for the British Open. Last
year's British Open, I think he finished somewhere in the
twenties of the thirties, So do we like Brooks's chances
it at Royal Port Rushes? As as as we go
and start looking towards I know this week we we've
(14:38):
got the Travelers and you're there, and I know there's
some of the tournaments in between. But for some reason,
when it comes to Brooks kept a talk it is
all about the majors. Like you said, the closest thing
we've seen two Tigers since Tiger, somebody who has always
based his year around trying to peek at the right
time for the majors. Do we like Brooks at Royal
(14:59):
Port Rush? Does that laying into his game? Is there
a place that doesn't play into his game? If he's on?
I don't think there is a place that doesn't play
into his game. He's won in a variety of golf courses.
When you look at everything from um, it's regular victories
that he's had two he's made the championship, so it's me, um,
(15:21):
this is the guy who uh is bill for winning majors.
So yeah, absolutely you should consider him a favorite going
in a Royal Port Rush Because here's the thing, no
one's really ever played that golf course. I mean, there's
certainly there are some guys who have Ruby mcory set
(15:41):
the course record there as a junior when he was sixteen,
shot a sixty one. But they've redone some of the
golf course, they've redone the last couple of holes, they've
redone a couple of other places on the property. So um,
Now an Open championship, that's it's a different animal. A
lot of it's driven by weather, a lot it's drewn
by which end of the draw you end up on
(16:04):
the conditions. Look, we saw last year at Carnusti when
it was fast and firm and bouncy and and there's
really nowhere uh that you could get in too much trouble,
didn't need to hit a lot of driver and we
saw tiger Woods and contention. So um, I don't know
what we're gonna get in port Rushing about three or
four weeks from now. So uh yeah, but he is
(16:27):
every single time. Uh. Look, he after this week's US Open,
he immediately opened us the favorite to win the Bratis
show he's he's a favorite every time. If he's not
the favored, he's a favorite every single time he teas
it up in a major championship. Now, we would be
(16:48):
remiss not to talk more about Gary Woodland and what
an amazing performance Gary put on. I know that Rickie
was leading on on day one and in Gary makes
the run on uh, Friday afternoon, gets the lead, Saturday,
holds the lead. Sunday Brooks comes out of the gate
(17:09):
and boom he is. I mean he was, he was
three or four behind the start today. Then the next
thing you know, he's within one and Gary's got a
He's he's basically matching him shot for shot a group
behind him. But to me and I know that you
made a very good point when we had talked prior
to the podcast, I thought the two shots that one
(17:32):
the golf tournament for Gary was the three wood on
four teen that he said his caddy talked him into,
which is caddy, by the way, had one major prior
with Mike Weir many years ago, so that's probably very
good to have that stability on the bag. Uh. And
I thought the wedge off the green on seventeen was
(17:53):
pretty amazing. I know you you you say that's a
much more routine shot for them where it wouldn't be
for us. But the three would he hit on four
team might be the best three would Darry Woodland has
ever hit in his life. I mean that was that
was just a macho shot. I mean, he um, you know,
and there was really no other option. I talked to
(18:15):
his caddy about that yesterday, and there's really no play
there for him because you know, it was either three
iron or three would, and a three iron is a
no go in that spot because you couldn't bounce it
into the green, and then the three would as long
as you went even if you want a little long
and left, which is what carry did, that's fine. It's
(18:36):
not you couldn't miss right, but as long as you
didn't um, as long as you didn't go right, you
were fine. So uh, laying up really wasn't an option
because it had he done that, you would have been
faced with eighty or nine yards uphill to a green.
He couldn't really see hitting a wedge that probably would,
you know, very easily could have spun back off the green.
(18:58):
That green had given people fits all week. If you
remember Rory uh and Tire both on Friday, it rolled
all the way back to their feet and had a
really hard time. Yeah yeah, Rory a seven on the whole.
So um, you know that that derailed Rory's chances almost
immediately on Friday, So you want to be in that spot.
(19:20):
So an unbelievable three wood gets over that bunker by
a couple of feet, trickles off the back. Incredible shot. Yeah.
Then the one on seven teen, a little a little wedge,
the little Phil Nicholson wedge from on the putting green. Um,
what a great what a great shot in a cool
backstory because he used to practice those when he worked
(19:42):
with Rick Smith. That's how he improved his chipping was
by chipping off a putting green. I mean, if you
want to improve your chipping, go chip off putting green
or a tight surface and eventually you're you're going to
get better at chipping. Um. And that's and then sure
enough that moment played out and Gary actually had that
same shot on Friday as well. Not a lot of
(20:03):
people remember that, but he was faced on a similar
shot on Friday and did the same thing and it worked. So, uh,
kudos to Gary. That was an incredible performance. Never playing.
You know, he's I wrote this Regulf Digests. He's sort
of like a costco version of brooks Kepk in my opinion,
like sort of a a friendlier, um, lighter version of Brooks.
(20:28):
You know, these guys are both jocks who played other
sports grown up. They were really good at those sports. Um,
they started carry themselves with a swagger and a and
and a macheesemo about them. And they both played similar games.
I mean they both hit it a mile and when
they started to really get games in there in their
(20:52):
resolves is when their sharp games improved. And that's exactly
how Brooks kept got success with its wedge playing short game. Uh,
that's why one of the reasons he's been able to
have the success he's got. Nail Gary Woodlands, we got
we had a couple of top tens in recent majors
coming into this one. Remember he set the thirty six
(21:13):
old scoring mark at the PJ last year before Brooks
broke that record this year at the p g A.
And you know, he's sort of just a lighter version
of Brooks. Skeptists, So I don't know if this means
Mary's gonna win more majors, but that performance was was
really top nine. Yeah, there's two stats I I definitely
(21:34):
wanted to go over I had written down while watching
the tournament. One of them was he was over seven
on fifty four whole leads. None of that mattered. Comes Sunday,
he's now one of eight, and that one of eight
is a major that he was able to close out.
Also this year, going into that week, he was a
hundred and sixties something in scrambling a hundred and sixtie
around the greens, had not done very well, had really
(21:56):
not been able to hold his own. But this week
he was first, which just goes to show you when
it's your week and it's your time, what he was
able to do at Pebble Beach really is something unbelievable. Now,
real quick, before we move on to Tiger and some
other things, I want to ask you, did the U
S g A do you like this setup? Or did
(22:18):
they go a little too easy because of where we
had been in the past and they didn't want the
golf course to be a story and to their credit
it was not. Did they go a little too far
and make it a little too easy? Or or these
guys just playing really really well. You were there, you
would know. Well, let me put it this way. You
(22:39):
ever watch an NBA game, yea, And and notice when
let's say Lebron James drives to the basket, Mrs Shot
complains about getting fouled, didn't get doesn't get the call.
And then next time down the floor drives to the basket,
same thing happens, maybe even less happens, and they blow whistle.
(23:00):
Yes we call that an over correction. Yes, right, a
makeup call. Right, this was this was absolutely a makeup call.
The U. S g. A. I was going to do
whatever it could to avoid any shred of controversy. Um.
Now that's said. They were aided by the fact that
(23:25):
the often talked about marine layer hung around. Um, the
conditions were cool and moist, and and you really couldn't
get the golf course to the edge because the conditions
didn't really allow that. But do you have a problem
with it with the make and then and it neither
do I no, Because look, I certainly would have liked
(23:50):
to seen a little tougher set up, and I would
have liked to seen, um, just seeing some some more
difficult pin placements, maybe some firmer conditions. Um. But I
also don't want to I don't want to see what
we had last year. It should have got either. So
it's a really fine line to try to to try
(24:13):
to nail it, and there was zero chance that the
U S d A was gonna go anywhere near going
over that line this year. Um, they took a ton
of heat. You could read our preview issue and Golf Digests,
which I think we talked about in the previous podcast. Uh,
you know all the the U S t a confidential
(24:35):
with anonymous quotes about all of the shortcomings and problems
without tournament and with the organization through the years. So
this is clearly a step to try to vend the
senses with the players, to try to have an event
free of controversy, and that's what they had. And I
(24:59):
it is it didn't quite feel like the U S Open, honestly,
because you know, it wasn't that difficult from the standpoint
of I think you had thirty plus guys finished under
park for the week compared to the last time they're
at Feble Beach. But um, it was really fun to watch.
(25:20):
It was really good golf. Yeah, No, I I enjoyed it.
Hard to criticized. I didn't think it was too easy.
I still enjoyed watching it. And I don't have a
problem with the makeup call, like because like you said,
I feel like the quality of golf and the fairness
of the golf course was much better than what we
got last year at Shinnecock. Yeah, and in the end,
(25:41):
that's what matters looks. Certainly again would have liked to
see just seen it play more difficult. Nothing, it played easy,
but it just didn't quite feel like the US Open
to me. Um. You know, some of the growth wasn't
as uh as thick or heavy as you would have
(26:02):
expected out of US Open. The fairways were a little
wider than you would have expected, but that's what we got.
It was entertaining to watch. We got a great finish,
We had a great leaderboard really on Sunday, So you know,
you can't really ask for a whole lot more than that. So, uh,
if I was I guess, if I was scoring it
(26:24):
on a one to ten, you know, maybe i'd give
it like a seven. That's certainly better than what we
had last year. Oh for sure, Now you were there. Uh.
Tiger never really figured into the mix at all, kind
of hung around on Thursday as Putter kept him in
his game. Friday, he couldn't make anything Saturday, and then
(26:45):
Sunday started off really terrible and then made a run
there at the end to get a respectable finish of
twenty one, I believe was this final finish? Um, what
do you make of Tiger's week at Pebble? Was it
Tiger just wasn't prepared? Was it the golf course? Was
I mean, what exactly do you make of the twenty
one place finish? Well? I think he you know, he
(27:06):
clearly didn't play it well, didn't pot well at times.
At times, his ball striking was often this is really
what we've seen. Look, if you go back to the
beginning of his comeback, Um, you know, we most weeks
are a lot of weeks he's you know, something is
off and Augusta it wasn't off, uh and and consequently
(27:28):
won the golf tournament. So to me, it says that
everything he needs to be able to win with his
day game, or he needs a day game rather than
win and he's not really going to win with a
B game or certainly not a C game. I also think,
you know, I wonder what the conditions the cooler weather.
(27:50):
He brought that up. He said that it bothered his back.
So was it it was? Was it abnormally cool? It
looked like it was in the fifties most of the time. Well,
it's cold. He lives in Florida, right, I know, So
that's what I'm saying, So that those conditions definitely were
a lot of the reason where his back was never
really able to free up and he had a lot
(28:11):
of stiffness. I I don't think we've you know, you
can go back to Tory Pines a couple of years
ago when he was trill, because you know, all of
a sudden he got cold and his back got tired,
and there's a long weather delay and things like that. So, uh,
you know, at forty three and with all these uh
(28:32):
surgeries and injuries, you know, the cold weather's going to
have an effect on occasion. And look without the only
reason though certainly not, but um, you know, I think
it's a factor. I think when when the winter, when
you get conditions like that, um, it's a factor. So UM,
(28:54):
I just think this is the new This is this
is what Tiger is. You know, he needs everything to
click in order to win or be in intention, and
we set us you know, that just doesn't happen every
week for him anymore. What do you make of the
time off that he now will be taking time off because,
as you know, we took time off after the Masters.
We did not see him play again until the p
(29:15):
g A, and he showed up very unprepared. We did
see him at Jack's tournament, and then we saw him
here and we all had kind of higher expectations. And
then now I know he's on vacation in Thailand and
he made it pretty clear that we won't see him
again until Royal Port Rush. What should we expect a
Royal Port Rush. Should we expect another p g A
performance or should we or is this a case Well,
(29:36):
he'll prepare and maybe we'll get something closer to what
we saw in August. There will we get another pebble performance?
Where do we stand? You know? I think coming off
the way at the Masters, there was such an emotional tie,
but he was coming down from that. He you know,
he clearly just didn't look um prepare it as you say, A,
(29:58):
I think it will be different it. Uh, you know,
he seemed prepared this week, just didn't play very well. Um.
I do think links golf port roush again. I should
suit his his game. I can't really get a lot
of trouble. Uh, you know, he might be able to
(30:20):
get away with not hitting drivers often, so I would
expect something closer. Two, I don't want to say Gusta
because again he's going to need everything to click in
order to be a contention. So and that just doesn't
happen as often at forty three as it does at twenty.
(30:40):
Very so. Um. That said, I don't think he'll miss
the cott. I think he'll play well, maybe be in contention. Um,
but certainly wouldn't be shocked at he's in the top ten,
fifteen twenty on the leaderboard at the end of the week.
You know, it really was a good tournament. Uh. It's
(31:04):
I was hoping the Tiger and Phil would probably show
would have a better showing. I would have liked to
have seen one of them pull off. I had an
argument with somebody what was a bigger story, Whether it
was Phil completing the career Grand Slam, Tiger winning again,
or Rory winning and all of those would have been great.
But the truth is, we got a great week out
of the U s Open with none of those things happening. Uh.
(31:26):
The only one that we really kind of expected was
Brooks still showed up once again and dominated on a
golf course again. Uh. And showed us that he will
be there at every single major championship. So this week
we move on to the Travelers. You've got a really
good field there this week. Correct, it's amazing. You've got
Jordan's speece Uhdaya, Justin Thomas, a number of good players.
(31:54):
They managed to do it every year somehow. Um, and
they're you know, they're lou They had a charter bring
guys on Monday morning from Pebble Beach right down the
street at Monterey Peninsula Airport. Flew people here. Um, it's
a it's a fun golf course to play. It's it's
(32:14):
a much easier golf course than than a US Open.
So it's always a nice reprieve. But year in year out,
the Travelers people seem to somehow get a great field,
even off the West Coast Open, which you don't you know,
you don't often see that. But um, they do a
terrific job running the event. And it should be a
really fun week and in a lot of big names
(32:36):
in the field. As you mentioned, well, you know what,
I hope you have a great tournament. I would be
remissed too. As we've mentioned Phil, have you checked out?
Phil seems to give us something new one on social
media every single week. Have you checked out fireside chats
with Phil yet, Brian I have. That's a great, great story,
he told I don't want to spoil it for anybody
(32:58):
who haven't here to put it. A great story, it's
worth checking out. Bill is uh. Bill has crossed into
in some interesting territories. He stays, but he's look, he's
always entertaining, So I give him that much, and people
should definitely go check it out. I'm sure that most
of our listeners have already seen it, but if they haven't,
go checked out. On Phil Nickerson's Instagram, it is uh,
(33:22):
it is hysteric. Speaking of excuse me, speaking of Instagram. Uh.
We gave away a bag, a US Open bag on
our Instagram. Taylor Maid was so gracious in providing us
one of the bags that you saw. Rory was carrying
one of the bags Dustin Johnson. Many of the Tailor
Made guys chess ready carrying the Tailor made bags. And
(33:43):
so I want to announce the winner of last week's
US Open Taylor Made bag from the Playing Through podcast
is Connor O'Neill. Connor O'Neill will get a bag I've
already gotten his address and I'm going to ship the
bag to him from Taylor Made. So once again we
(34:04):
are you know what Taylor Made is providing us these
bags for each and every single major championship this year.
So if you want to register for the next one,
will be doing it again. Come Royal Port Rush and
the Open Championship. Our Instagram handle is at playing through
podcast really simple at Playing through Podcasts. Go on there
and follow us and we will be giving away more
(34:26):
cool stuff. So very very cool bag for Connor. I'm
sure he'll be showing it off on Instagram. That's awesome.
And uh yeah, Taylor Made does a great job other
products of course, uh great friends, the program, make incredible equipment,
terrific looking bag. I had a chance to take a
look at it last week out of Pebble Beach and
(34:47):
I'm excited to see what they got cooking for Royal
Port Rush, the first open in Northern Ireland in uh
more than fifty years and almost sixty years, and it's
gonna be awesome, and then the crowd is gonna be awesome.
I'm sure some of the stuff that they will the
tailor Made will have for that special week will be incredible.
(35:09):
Uh Rory of course, being from not too far away,
grew up about an hour south of there. Um, so
I'm sure he will have special gear from Taylor made.
So looking forward to checking out that next bag. And
you know, as Frog you mentioned check it out and
played through golf uh on Instagram and of course on Twitter,
(35:31):
and that's uh, that'll do it. Yeah, So make sure
you check out Brian's latest article in Golf Digest also
as well. He uh kind of chronicle the guy who
made the cut finished at the US Open, got on
an airplane, traveled overnight, drove to TPC River Highlands, and
then Monday qualified to play in this tournament this weekend.
(35:52):
I read your article in Golf Digest there. That is
a very good read. Uh, if you want to read
about how difficult it is, you know, it's not all.
Not everybody's brooks kept geting Gary Woodland and winning and
just getting into the next event. It's just smooth sailing.
You realize there's a lot going on on the tour.
And uh, I enjoyed reading that piece that you've got
in Golf digestive. Yeah, that was a wild story. Uh,
(36:16):
taking a red eye from San Francisco, landing in Boston
at five am, opping in the car, driving two hours
to Ellington Ridge for the Monday qualifier on and in
folks unfamiliar with the Monday Qualifiers, I mean, you generally
got to shoot something in the low sixties, low to
mid sixties, um, to have a prayer, and you're generally
(36:38):
going up against the field of about a hundred guys,
sometimes more, maybe less um, but it's a big field.
It's it's it's lightning in the bottle. And to do
it off the Red Eye, off a couple hours of
sleep and and some McDonald's for breakfast, uh, and then
got out Bertie's first sold then surviving nine or three
playoff to earn one of the four spots. Who was
(36:59):
It was a cool stories. So yeah, you can check
that out on golf I just dot com all sports
coverage uh of the Travelers Championship and a whole bunch
of other stories all week long again Golf Dodges dot com,
golf World dot com. Check it out and yeah, that's
a rout. All right, Brian. We will talk to you
next week and fresh off the Travelers, I know you'll
(37:21):
be headed back to beautiful sunny South Florida and uh
we will talk to you then. Have a great tournament.
Thanks so much for your time and thanks for listening
to the Playing Through podcast. I think you've had enough. Now,
you've had enough from bitch
Don't mind us where playing Through. Here's Froggy and Whacker.
Welcome to the Playing Through podcast. That is Froggy from
Elvis to Ram in the morning show with my boy
Brian Whacker live on a location he is at, or
shall I say he's on his way to the Travelers.
He had to stop and pick up some fuel. We
(00:23):
call it Duncan donuts, but I call it fuel from
Brian because he is a real coffee He's kind of
a coffee snob and coffee conoisseur. You know, I just
want to I just have a question, right, So we
just talked about this before the podcast, so I got
you know, don't know. It is great by the way,
it started New England. I'm up in New England for
the Travelers Championship and they gave me the on the
(00:44):
received there's a survey you can fill out to get
a free bakery item, right, any Froggy, do you ever
fill out a receipt or fill out a survey to
get a free bakery item or No? I've never filled
out anything. I don't want to know who does that.
I don't think anybody does. But I'll tell you something
else I don't do. But I'm glad other people do.
(01:05):
Is when I see reviews online, like whether it's an
Amazon review or a Yelp review, I'll read them and
make my decision on whether I want to purchase an
item or go visit that place. However, I've never written
a review of my life, which is kind of selfish
if you think about it. Well, no, not really, because
that's for everybody else to write the reviews. Yeah, but
how do you know who's writing that review. It could
be some guy they pay, the guy that works there,
(01:26):
the guy that owns the place, Like, I never know
who's writing. Now. That's why I never Here's how I
approach reviews. I never like take the glowing five star review,
and I never take the worst review. I tend to
sort of gravitate toward the middle, see what the most
sensible of the reviews are, and how many good reviews are,
(01:49):
how many bad I mean in the middle surveys. I'm
gonna forget about that for seating about thirty seconds. I'm
gonna remember to co online when I get home, Like
I just pulled into the drive through. It gave me
the receipt. I mean, I'm not gonna remember when I
go back to Duncan knows tomorrow. If I'd st allowed
(02:10):
the service, I could get a free bakery item. No,
I'm gonna pay my money like an idiot. I'm gonna
I'm gonna by I'm gonna spend more money, right, a
free bakery item anyway, exactly, talk about golfoot golf. Speaking
of reviews, let's review the amazing, the amazing tournament that
(02:30):
was the US Open. I know you were there. You
were at um, you were at Pebble Beach. It looked
absolutely beautiful beach. If you drank every time that the
Fox crew mentioned the marine layer at Pebble Beach, you
would have been drunk, would be dead. You would have
been dead on Wednesday afternoon. We would not be doing
(02:54):
this podcast because I would be deceased from alcohol. How
gorgeous was Pebble How beautiful was the US Open? And
I mean just tell us. I mean, I have so
many questions, but I first I'm gonna let you answer
someone without me asking you. Everything under the sun. Look
the marine layer. Even with that marine layer hanging around
(03:15):
all week and temperatures in the fifties, that place was beautiful.
It's it's one of the most incredible places in the
entire planet. Um, look, we all know that it's been
photographed a million times. It's been we all saw the
shops from Fox with how about that, by the way,
the drone images, Uh, the drone footage that Fox provided, Uh,
(03:40):
just some gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous shops about property that we
haven't seen before. Yeah, and that, Yeah, it was awesome.
And that's something else I want to get into. I
want to get into my review of what how well
I think the Fox crew did uh this week as
a whole, and how far they've come from where they
started just a couple of years ago. Yeah, because you
(04:03):
watched a lot more of it from the TV perspective
that I was able to. I asked charge around the
golf course, and um, you know I only saw bits
some pieces of the television coverage throughout the week, whereas
you would seeing a lot more. So I'm curious to hear, Well,
let's start without what you thought of Foxes broadcast of it,
(04:24):
the presentation from the new technology with the drone, Uh,
shops that we saw, some of the tracer technology that
we saw, what what was your perspective? And as they
fan watching at home, there were things I loved and
things I did not love. One thing I did not love.
I did not love the bringing in of Jim Nance.
I just didn't think it was needed. Really, I did
(04:46):
not love that. I did not love the bringing in
of Jim Nance. But what I did love little Little
Small for it just kids just too much. And like
you know what, Jim's great over on CBS. He does
a great job at the Masters. I just didn't need
in there. I did love Johnny Miller on the Golf Channel,
but once again, that's not Fox. But speaking of just
the Fox presentation, let's go back to when Fox first
(05:09):
took on the U s G A contract and they
got all all the USG tournaments, and it was we
started off. We had Greg Norman, they had Holly Saunders
on UH, and they were really trying really hard to
be different. I always had Joe buck Um. I didn't
love it then. I thought they were doing a poor job.
(05:30):
I do miss well. I miss Holly Saunders, and I
think maybe there's a personal UH deal there, just because
she's a very good fan of the program. I love Holly,
she's great, she's fun to look at. Um. I do
miss Holly, but I want to say, Joe Buck and
Paul Eisinger did a phenomenal job all four days. The
(05:52):
drone footage was something like you said, we've never seen before.
And with now Johnny Miller being out of the booth
over at NBC, I could make an argument that the
Fox crew and Fox's presentation of the US Open was
the best in the business. Well, it's you know, it's
(06:13):
hard to say. I mean, Augusta in the Master's CBS
UH is a pretty tough combination UM for a lot
of reasons. And and a lot of that has to
do with Augusta national driving that bus and having control
over a lot more things than most majors UH or
most tournaments or most networks would. So UM see your point, though, UM,
(06:39):
certainly we have seen dramatic improvement I think from Fox
UM compared to and you know, I actually a thinger
I think has been terrific UM. But I would like
to see a little more. I feel like he's holding
back a bit. So I like to see a little
(07:00):
more UM critiques from Paul. He's a great, great voice
in the game, and I I think he's being careful
to UM sort of just being careful in his approach
and you know, maybe over time that will change and
you you'll get a little looser. But uh, yeah, overall,
(07:23):
I thought I thought the presentation is is dramatically improved.
And look, we have to remember Fox does this once
a year, right, and the same crew that did the
US Open was not the same crew that did the
US and Women's Open, So uh, it's not as if
they had a quote unquote run up to it, right. Um,
(07:45):
and I don't even want to call it dry run
because the US Women's Opens a big deal, but um,
you know they do it once a year, so it's
really hard to get all this in sink one time
a year, one week a year. Um, you know, the
Super Bowl is a big deal, but you're generally talking
about crush even though that's once a year event. They've
(08:09):
done sixteen weeks of working on football games, right, So
um that said, yeah, dramatic improvement. Love the drone stuff.
I think technologically this is where a Fox has always
sort of separated itself. Technologically, I think they're doing a
great job and it will continue to get better. Yeah.
I mean I even loved some of the T shots
(08:30):
where you would see them hit T shots that were
blind trying to cut corners, and and the trade the
shot tracer or shot track or whatever you wanna call
it was always very accurate. Like I new CBS had
tried to do some stuff earlier in the year and
it was way off. Um. I mean a lot of
the technology they used really really worked, and the way
(08:50):
they showed the golf course was very very cool in
ways that I had not seen Pebble Beach before, and
so I think Fox did a great job. Um. But
the tournament of up to the hype, even without you know,
Tiger Woods, Like all week long, we were very much
kind of given the whole what if Tiger aspect and
what if Phil wins and completes the career Grand Slam
(09:12):
and Rory had played so well at the RBC the
week leading in, they gave us Rory all week and then,
of course, obviously and rightfully so, uh, they gave us
the Brooks line. But never did we think about I mean,
there was no talk about Gary Woodland coming in and
doing what he did. But Brooks played very very well.
Was there at the end with something to say? Um?
I thought Justin Rose played very well. Justin Rose or
(09:35):
somebody who did was not quote his ball striking was off.
For him to even be there with a chance on
Sunday was remarkable. And then of course Brooks and and
and and Gary Woodland, I I thought the golf lived
up to the hype without the stars that we thought
we were probably going to see going into the week. No,
(09:57):
I well, look, U know it's I mean it's the
leader boarder was pretty star packed as it was. It
didn't have Tiger or Phil certainly, but Rory was in
the mix. Uh much of the week. Um you mentioned
justin Rose. Of course, Dustin Johnson never really got going,
(10:17):
but we have kept gunning. Of course, that incredible start
on Sunday. I mean at that moment when he gets
off to that start for birdies in the first five
holds and and it looks like, um he made catch.
Gary Woodlands, Um, you thought, here you go. And to me,
Brooks and I wrote this for golf, didgest Uh? Brooks
(10:40):
kept cut to me, is the closest thing we've seen
to Tiger since Tiger. Now don't confuse that with me
comparing him to Tiger. That's just foolish. The point it
was this thing we've seen to him, and from that
I mean from a physical athletics standpoint, in the things
he's able to do with the golf ball and his
(11:03):
golf swing, but also mentally, this is a guy who
is a is proving time and time and time again.
He is showing up in the big tournaments pretty much
every single time. I mean, his his major record is remarkable.
His last four majors, he's gone first, second, first second,
(11:24):
I mean, and before that, before even one his first major,
he had a handful of top five and top ten finishes.
So this now, look, he doesn't do it on a
week to week basis. I don't know if it's just boredom,
if he says he doesn't care. I mean, he's been
asked that. He said that. He just he thinks the
majors are easier to win than than than than a
(11:45):
regular tournament. And and he's right, He's a hundred percent right,
because I always look at it. Look, when you look
at a major, um, you know you can cross a
certain number of those players off the US immediately immediately
because you take the p G a right, Well, there's
a bunch of club pros in in the PGA. Those
(12:07):
guys aren't going to contend. Then there's guys who maybe
slide in to qualify at the last minute. Those guys
generally don't content. Then you're gonna have a segment of
players who just don't play well. Those guys are going
to contend so automatically right off the path, you're eliminating
a good portion of the field. Whereas a PGA Tour event,
(12:28):
you know, you're talking about a deep field every weekend
in week out, and you never know who's gonna win.
Those courses are set up the same way. Um, they're
set up easier, and there's a consistency level week to
week on tour that you don't have in a major,
where a major is difficult. Uh. And again all the
(12:49):
things with the field that we just talked about, UM,
to me, it makes perfect sense everybody else. He says
that the tough set up rules out a lot of people,
but keeps him in it like he feels like the
tougher setup is better for him because it's gonna weed
out the low end players, where the easier set up
(13:10):
let's everybody have a chance. And it sounds crazy and
it sounds pompous, and it sounds like he's kind of
being a dick, But it's really when when you really
look at it, it all it kind of all makes sense. No,
it totally does because look at Tiger Woods his career.
Another comparison. Um, you know, he would win on you know,
(13:33):
the heart of the golf course generally speaking, the better
his chances were because he's better than everybody else. When
you were better than everyone else and you make the
golf course that much more difficult, well then it's going
to eliminate the people who are not as good as
your So uh, I'm not surprised he set it, I don't,
(13:54):
you know. And he's got he's got to have more
confidence than anybody in golf right now, and quite frankly,
he's the best player in golf and it's not close now.
The British Open has not been his strong point and
so I know that's his that's that's been his lowest
finish recently at a major that he I know he
(14:17):
didn't play the Masters when he was injured, But other
than that, he's been like top five and every are,
winning every single major except for the British Open. Last
year's British Open, I think he finished somewhere in the
twenties of the thirties, So do we like Brooks's chances
it at Royal Port Rushes? As as as we go
and start looking towards I know this week we we've
(14:38):
got the Travelers and you're there, and I know there's
some of the tournaments in between. But for some reason,
when it comes to Brooks kept a talk it is
all about the majors. Like you said, the closest thing
we've seen two Tigers since Tiger, somebody who has always
based his year around trying to peek at the right
time for the majors. Do we like Brooks at Royal
(14:59):
Port Rush? Does that laying into his game? Is there
a place that doesn't play into his game? If he's on?
I don't think there is a place that doesn't play
into his game. He's won in a variety of golf courses.
When you look at everything from um, it's regular victories
that he's had two he's made the championship, so it's me, um,
(15:21):
this is the guy who uh is bill for winning majors.
So yeah, absolutely you should consider him a favorite going
in a Royal Port Rush Because here's the thing, no
one's really ever played that golf course. I mean, there's
certainly there are some guys who have Ruby mcory set
(15:41):
the course record there as a junior when he was sixteen,
shot a sixty one. But they've redone some of the
golf course, they've redone the last couple of holes, they've
redone a couple of other places on the property. So um,
Now an Open championship, that's it's a different animal. A
lot of it's driven by weather, a lot it's drewn
by which end of the draw you end up on
(16:04):
the conditions. Look, we saw last year at Carnusti when
it was fast and firm and bouncy and and there's
really nowhere uh that you could get in too much trouble,
didn't need to hit a lot of driver and we
saw tiger Woods and contention. So um, I don't know
what we're gonna get in port Rushing about three or
four weeks from now. So uh yeah, but he is
(16:27):
every single time. Uh. Look, he after this week's US Open,
he immediately opened us the favorite to win the Bratis
show he's he's a favorite every time. If he's not
the favored, he's a favorite every single time he teas
it up in a major championship. Now, we would be
(16:48):
remiss not to talk more about Gary Woodland and what
an amazing performance Gary put on. I know that Rickie
was leading on on day one and in Gary makes
the run on uh, Friday afternoon, gets the lead, Saturday,
holds the lead. Sunday Brooks comes out of the gate
(17:09):
and boom he is. I mean he was, he was
three or four behind the start today. Then the next
thing you know, he's within one and Gary's got a
He's he's basically matching him shot for shot a group
behind him. But to me and I know that you
made a very good point when we had talked prior
to the podcast, I thought the two shots that one
(17:32):
the golf tournament for Gary was the three wood on
four teen that he said his caddy talked him into,
which is caddy, by the way, had one major prior
with Mike Weir many years ago, so that's probably very
good to have that stability on the bag. Uh. And
I thought the wedge off the green on seventeen was
(17:53):
pretty amazing. I know you you you say that's a
much more routine shot for them where it wouldn't be
for us. But the three would he hit on four
team might be the best three would Darry Woodland has
ever hit in his life. I mean that was that
was just a macho shot. I mean, he um, you know,
and there was really no other option. I talked to
(18:15):
his caddy about that yesterday, and there's really no play
there for him because you know, it was either three
iron or three would, and a three iron is a
no go in that spot because you couldn't bounce it
into the green, and then the three would as long
as you went even if you want a little long
and left, which is what carry did, that's fine. It's
(18:36):
not you couldn't miss right, but as long as you
didn't um, as long as you didn't go right, you
were fine. So uh, laying up really wasn't an option
because it had he done that, you would have been
faced with eighty or nine yards uphill to a green.
He couldn't really see hitting a wedge that probably would,
you know, very easily could have spun back off the green.
(18:58):
That green had given people fits all week. If you
remember Rory uh and Tire both on Friday, it rolled
all the way back to their feet and had a
really hard time. Yeah yeah, Rory a seven on the whole.
So um, you know that that derailed Rory's chances almost
immediately on Friday, So you want to be in that spot.
(19:20):
So an unbelievable three wood gets over that bunker by
a couple of feet, trickles off the back. Incredible shot. Yeah.
Then the one on seven teen, a little a little wedge,
the little Phil Nicholson wedge from on the putting green. Um,
what a great what a great shot in a cool
backstory because he used to practice those when he worked
(19:42):
with Rick Smith. That's how he improved his chipping was
by chipping off a putting green. I mean, if you
want to improve your chipping, go chip off putting green
or a tight surface and eventually you're you're going to
get better at chipping. Um. And that's and then sure
enough that moment played out and Gary actually had that
same shot on Friday as well. Not a lot of
(20:03):
people remember that, but he was faced on a similar
shot on Friday and did the same thing and it worked. So, uh,
kudos to Gary. That was an incredible performance. Never playing.
You know, he's I wrote this Regulf Digests. He's sort
of like a costco version of brooks Kepk in my opinion,
like sort of a a friendlier, um, lighter version of Brooks.
(20:28):
You know, these guys are both jocks who played other
sports grown up. They were really good at those sports. Um,
they started carry themselves with a swagger and a and
and a macheesemo about them. And they both played similar games.
I mean they both hit it a mile and when
they started to really get games in there in their
(20:52):
resolves is when their sharp games improved. And that's exactly
how Brooks kept got success with its wedge playing short game. Uh,
that's why one of the reasons he's been able to
have the success he's got. Nail Gary Woodlands, we got
we had a couple of top tens in recent majors
coming into this one. Remember he set the thirty six
(21:13):
old scoring mark at the PJ last year before Brooks
broke that record this year at the p g A.
And you know, he's sort of just a lighter version
of Brooks. Skeptists, So I don't know if this means
Mary's gonna win more majors, but that performance was was
really top nine. Yeah, there's two stats I I definitely
(21:34):
wanted to go over I had written down while watching
the tournament. One of them was he was over seven
on fifty four whole leads. None of that mattered. Comes Sunday,
he's now one of eight, and that one of eight
is a major that he was able to close out.
Also this year, going into that week, he was a
hundred and sixties something in scrambling a hundred and sixtie
around the greens, had not done very well, had really
(21:56):
not been able to hold his own. But this week
he was first, which just goes to show you when
it's your week and it's your time, what he was
able to do at Pebble Beach really is something unbelievable. Now,
real quick, before we move on to Tiger and some
other things, I want to ask you, did the U
S g A do you like this setup? Or did
(22:18):
they go a little too easy because of where we
had been in the past and they didn't want the
golf course to be a story and to their credit
it was not. Did they go a little too far
and make it a little too easy? Or or these
guys just playing really really well. You were there, you
would know. Well, let me put it this way. You
(22:39):
ever watch an NBA game, yea, And and notice when
let's say Lebron James drives to the basket, Mrs Shot
complains about getting fouled, didn't get doesn't get the call.
And then next time down the floor drives to the basket,
same thing happens, maybe even less happens, and they blow whistle.
(23:00):
Yes we call that an over correction. Yes, right, a
makeup call. Right, this was this was absolutely a makeup call.
The U. S g. A. I was going to do
whatever it could to avoid any shred of controversy. Um.
Now that's said. They were aided by the fact that
(23:25):
the often talked about marine layer hung around. Um, the
conditions were cool and moist, and and you really couldn't
get the golf course to the edge because the conditions
didn't really allow that. But do you have a problem
with it with the make and then and it neither
do I no, Because look, I certainly would have liked
(23:50):
to seen a little tougher set up, and I would
have liked to seen, um, just seeing some some more
difficult pin placements, maybe some firmer conditions. Um. But I
also don't want to I don't want to see what
we had last year. It should have got either. So
it's a really fine line to try to to try
(24:13):
to nail it, and there was zero chance that the
U S d A was gonna go anywhere near going
over that line this year. Um, they took a ton
of heat. You could read our preview issue and Golf Digests,
which I think we talked about in the previous podcast. Uh,
you know all the the U S t a confidential
(24:35):
with anonymous quotes about all of the shortcomings and problems
without tournament and with the organization through the years. So
this is clearly a step to try to vend the
senses with the players, to try to have an event
free of controversy, and that's what they had. And I
(24:59):
it is it didn't quite feel like the U S Open, honestly,
because you know, it wasn't that difficult from the standpoint
of I think you had thirty plus guys finished under
park for the week compared to the last time they're
at Feble Beach. But um, it was really fun to watch.
(25:20):
It was really good golf. Yeah, No, I I enjoyed it.
Hard to criticized. I didn't think it was too easy.
I still enjoyed watching it. And I don't have a
problem with the makeup call, like because like you said,
I feel like the quality of golf and the fairness
of the golf course was much better than what we
got last year at Shinnecock. Yeah, and in the end,
(25:41):
that's what matters looks. Certainly again would have liked to
see just seen it play more difficult. Nothing, it played easy,
but it just didn't quite feel like the US Open
to me. Um. You know, some of the growth wasn't
as uh as thick or heavy as you would have
(26:02):
expected out of US Open. The fairways were a little
wider than you would have expected, but that's what we got.
It was entertaining to watch. We got a great finish,
We had a great leaderboard really on Sunday, So you know,
you can't really ask for a whole lot more than that. So, uh,
if I was I guess, if I was scoring it
(26:24):
on a one to ten, you know, maybe i'd give
it like a seven. That's certainly better than what we
had last year. Oh for sure, Now you were there. Uh.
Tiger never really figured into the mix at all, kind
of hung around on Thursday as Putter kept him in
his game. Friday, he couldn't make anything Saturday, and then
(26:45):
Sunday started off really terrible and then made a run
there at the end to get a respectable finish of
twenty one, I believe was this final finish? Um, what
do you make of Tiger's week at Pebble? Was it
Tiger just wasn't prepared? Was it the golf course? Was
I mean, what exactly do you make of the twenty
one place finish? Well? I think he you know, he
(27:06):
clearly didn't play it well, didn't pot well at times.
At times, his ball striking was often this is really
what we've seen. Look, if you go back to the
beginning of his comeback, Um, you know, we most weeks
are a lot of weeks he's you know, something is
off and Augusta it wasn't off, uh and and consequently
(27:28):
won the golf tournament. So to me, it says that
everything he needs to be able to win with his
day game, or he needs a day game rather than
win and he's not really going to win with a
B game or certainly not a C game. I also think,
you know, I wonder what the conditions the cooler weather.
(27:50):
He brought that up. He said that it bothered his back.
So was it it was? Was it abnormally cool? It
looked like it was in the fifties most of the time. Well,
it's cold. He lives in Florida, right, I know, So
that's what I'm saying, So that those conditions definitely were
a lot of the reason where his back was never
really able to free up and he had a lot
(28:11):
of stiffness. I I don't think we've you know, you
can go back to Tory Pines a couple of years
ago when he was trill, because you know, all of
a sudden he got cold and his back got tired,
and there's a long weather delay and things like that. So, uh,
you know, at forty three and with all these uh
(28:32):
surgeries and injuries, you know, the cold weather's going to
have an effect on occasion. And look without the only
reason though certainly not, but um, you know, I think
it's a factor. I think when when the winter, when
you get conditions like that, um, it's a factor. So UM,
(28:54):
I just think this is the new This is this
is what Tiger is. You know, he needs everything to
click in order to win or be in intention, and
we set us you know, that just doesn't happen every
week for him anymore. What do you make of the
time off that he now will be taking time off because,
as you know, we took time off after the Masters.
We did not see him play again until the p
(29:15):
g A, and he showed up very unprepared. We did
see him at Jack's tournament, and then we saw him
here and we all had kind of higher expectations. And
then now I know he's on vacation in Thailand and
he made it pretty clear that we won't see him
again until Royal Port Rush. What should we expect a
Royal Port Rush. Should we expect another p g A
performance or should we or is this a case Well,
(29:36):
he'll prepare and maybe we'll get something closer to what
we saw in August. There will we get another pebble performance?
Where do we stand? You know? I think coming off
the way at the Masters, there was such an emotional tie,
but he was coming down from that. He you know,
he clearly just didn't look um prepare it as you say, A,
(29:58):
I think it will be different it. Uh, you know,
he seemed prepared this week, just didn't play very well. Um.
I do think links golf port roush again. I should
suit his his game. I can't really get a lot
of trouble. Uh, you know, he might be able to
(30:20):
get away with not hitting drivers often, so I would
expect something closer. Two, I don't want to say Gusta
because again he's going to need everything to click in
order to be a contention. So and that just doesn't
happen as often at forty three as it does at twenty.
(30:40):
Very so. Um. That said, I don't think he'll miss
the cott. I think he'll play well, maybe be in contention. Um,
but certainly wouldn't be shocked at he's in the top ten,
fifteen twenty on the leaderboard at the end of the week.
You know, it really was a good tournament. Uh. It's
(31:04):
I was hoping the Tiger and Phil would probably show
would have a better showing. I would have liked to
have seen one of them pull off. I had an
argument with somebody what was a bigger story, Whether it
was Phil completing the career Grand Slam, Tiger winning again,
or Rory winning and all of those would have been great.
But the truth is, we got a great week out
of the U s Open with none of those things happening. Uh.
(31:26):
The only one that we really kind of expected was
Brooks still showed up once again and dominated on a
golf course again. Uh. And showed us that he will
be there at every single major championship. So this week
we move on to the Travelers. You've got a really
good field there this week. Correct, it's amazing. You've got
Jordan's speece Uhdaya, Justin Thomas, a number of good players.
(31:54):
They managed to do it every year somehow. Um, and
they're you know, they're lou They had a charter bring
guys on Monday morning from Pebble Beach right down the
street at Monterey Peninsula Airport. Flew people here. Um, it's
a it's a fun golf course to play. It's it's
(32:14):
a much easier golf course than than a US Open.
So it's always a nice reprieve. But year in year out,
the Travelers people seem to somehow get a great field,
even off the West Coast Open, which you don't you know,
you don't often see that. But um, they do a
terrific job running the event. And it should be a
really fun week and in a lot of big names
(32:36):
in the field. As you mentioned, well, you know what,
I hope you have a great tournament. I would be
remissed too. As we've mentioned Phil, have you checked out?
Phil seems to give us something new one on social
media every single week. Have you checked out fireside chats
with Phil yet, Brian I have. That's a great, great story,
he told I don't want to spoil it for anybody
(32:58):
who haven't here to put it. A great story, it's
worth checking out. Bill is uh. Bill has crossed into
in some interesting territories. He stays, but he's look, he's
always entertaining, So I give him that much, and people
should definitely go check it out. I'm sure that most
of our listeners have already seen it, but if they haven't,
go checked out. On Phil Nickerson's Instagram, it is uh,
(33:22):
it is hysteric. Speaking of excuse me, speaking of Instagram. Uh.
We gave away a bag, a US Open bag on
our Instagram. Taylor Maid was so gracious in providing us
one of the bags that you saw. Rory was carrying
one of the bags Dustin Johnson. Many of the Tailor
Made guys chess ready carrying the Tailor made bags. And
(33:43):
so I want to announce the winner of last week's
US Open Taylor Made bag from the Playing Through podcast
is Connor O'Neill. Connor O'Neill will get a bag I've
already gotten his address and I'm going to ship the
bag to him from Taylor Made. So once again we
(34:04):
are you know what Taylor Made is providing us these
bags for each and every single major championship this year.
So if you want to register for the next one,
will be doing it again. Come Royal Port Rush and
the Open Championship. Our Instagram handle is at playing through
podcast really simple at Playing through Podcasts. Go on there
and follow us and we will be giving away more
(34:26):
cool stuff. So very very cool bag for Connor. I'm
sure he'll be showing it off on Instagram. That's awesome.
And uh yeah, Taylor Made does a great job other
products of course, uh great friends, the program, make incredible equipment,
terrific looking bag. I had a chance to take a
look at it last week out of Pebble Beach and
(34:47):
I'm excited to see what they got cooking for Royal
Port Rush, the first open in Northern Ireland in uh
more than fifty years and almost sixty years, and it's
gonna be awesome, and then the crowd is gonna be awesome.
I'm sure some of the stuff that they will the
tailor Made will have for that special week will be incredible.
(35:09):
Uh Rory of course, being from not too far away,
grew up about an hour south of there. Um, so
I'm sure he will have special gear from Taylor made.
So looking forward to checking out that next bag. And
you know, as Frog you mentioned check it out and
played through golf uh on Instagram and of course on Twitter,
(35:31):
and that's uh, that'll do it. Yeah, So make sure
you check out Brian's latest article in Golf Digest also
as well. He uh kind of chronicle the guy who
made the cut finished at the US Open, got on
an airplane, traveled overnight, drove to TPC River Highlands, and
then Monday qualified to play in this tournament this weekend.
(35:52):
I read your article in Golf Digest there. That is
a very good read. Uh, if you want to read
about how difficult it is, you know, it's not all.
Not everybody's brooks kept geting Gary Woodland and winning and
just getting into the next event. It's just smooth sailing.
You realize there's a lot going on on the tour.
And uh, I enjoyed reading that piece that you've got
in Golf digestive. Yeah, that was a wild story. Uh,
(36:16):
taking a red eye from San Francisco, landing in Boston
at five am, opping in the car, driving two hours
to Ellington Ridge for the Monday qualifier on and in
folks unfamiliar with the Monday Qualifiers, I mean, you generally
got to shoot something in the low sixties, low to
mid sixties, um, to have a prayer, and you're generally
(36:38):
going up against the field of about a hundred guys,
sometimes more, maybe less um, but it's a big field.
It's it's it's lightning in the bottle. And to do
it off the Red Eye, off a couple hours of
sleep and and some McDonald's for breakfast, uh, and then
got out Bertie's first sold then surviving nine or three
playoff to earn one of the four spots. Who was
(36:59):
It was a cool stories. So yeah, you can check
that out on golf I just dot com all sports
coverage uh of the Travelers Championship and a whole bunch
of other stories all week long again Golf Dodges dot com,
golf World dot com. Check it out and yeah, that's
a rout. All right, Brian. We will talk to you
next week and fresh off the Travelers, I know you'll
(37:21):
be headed back to beautiful sunny South Florida and uh
we will talk to you then. Have a great tournament.
Thanks so much for your time and thanks for listening
to the Playing Through podcast. I think you've had enough. Now,
you've had enough from bitch
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