Wednesday, July 23, Hour 1

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
ATCR TWUSA number one on your car radio preset and
the new and improved iHeart Radio app. This is Tucson
Sports Station CHET Fox Sports fourteenth. This is I on
the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty
powered by Nova Insurance Services Ensure your Most Prized POSSESSIONETS.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hey, good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to I on the Ball
here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera, and
today with me is Mike Eager from where are you.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
From Southern Arizona Sports Tourism and Film Authority. How's it
going over there? It's good. I was trying to go
over the note, so you just sent me two seconds before.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
We went on there.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Okay, good, I'd live a lot.

Speaker 4 (00:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
How you been. I haven't seen you in a week?

Speaker 4 (00:46):
Good.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
I was at the Arizona Conference on Tourism. Oh yeah,
yeah week. It was really good. They had a good
sports panel with visit Tucson, Visit Mesa, Visit Tempe, and
visit Tempi and visit Mesa. Had a lot of things
to say about operation things that they worked on. I
think it gives us a blueprint down here on how
to how to execute at a very high level when
we when we need to.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Those guys have an advantage over Tucson. I'm talking about venues,
sites to see stuff like that. Sometimes I'm sure that
people look at Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:18):
I mean, any I think any metro hub that large
has has probably quite a bit over us. But that
I think what we have over a lot of those,
And you and I've had this conversation both on and
off air, is that if I don't know somebody, you
know somebody and you can get that person in the
room right where in places like Phoenix or l A,
those it takes a lot of people to try to
figure that out. So community efforts here I think we're

(01:41):
working in the right direction.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Yeah, And the weather's much better down here.

Speaker 4 (01:44):
Weather is much better. Yeah, the traffic is much better, I.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Would say, so, Yeah, both have terrible drivers.

Speaker 4 (01:50):
I will say that.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah, it's funny.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
It's it's not that bad here, although it is kind
of bad. What the instruction and stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Yeah, I mean I think at one point in the
last month you had Speedway, six, Broadway and twenty second
all had construction on it. And so you're like yeah,
and Grant, so you're like, which I don't how do
I get there? And Swan?

Speaker 4 (02:08):
How do I go here?

Speaker 3 (02:10):
I'm well, because I'm downtown, so I come up to Campbell,
come all the way down Campbell, go up River and
then go Hasse over and then.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Up Okay, that's fine. Yeah, because it's tough on Swan
coming north off of Broadway.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah, it is, it is. It's really tough. And even
at two o'clock in the afternoon. You know, we are
giving the people what they want right now, right traffic updates. Yes, yeah,
to everybody, it's their seats. And it's the summer too,
which is easier than the fall and winter.

Speaker 5 (02:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:37):
Absolutely. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Well, welcome back, mister Eager. Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
We're gonna have an type of show today. We have
Matt Watson from the U of A golf team. He's
the assistant coach. We're gonna have him on specifically because
he was the caddy for one of his players that
played in the British Open last week, so we'll see
how that experience went.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Talk about their year gonna be pretty good.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
I think they have a couple of guys in the
top twenty five, right, and then on the four to
four seventeen hour. We're gonna have a mister Toby Brigee,
who's you know, everyone knows him from the Tucson Turf
commercials and his little girls and family. His son played
at the issue, the quarterback, and I think he has
the next one is that BYU will find out more

(03:21):
about that. Yeah, his daughter, younger, one of his daughters,
is gonna, I think try out for the USA team
for turf. USA team for the Olympics for oh years.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
That's really cool.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
And then his teams over the summer or just recently
had a great showing at the national level for turf
nineteen to four total record best competition in the United States.
Twelve you girls were number one seed after pool play
EIGHTU finished in the final four A ten You in
the Elite eight and twelve U National champions Tucson, Little

(03:54):
Old Tucson and mister Burgee National Champions. Yeah. That's a
nice little it's a nice little thing to have next
to your name. It's kind of like, I don't know
if it's kind of like this, but it'd be cool.
When you were little, did you play Street the Littleague
World Series and all that stuff. I never made played
and that's your dream, right, that's kind of like similar.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, so we'll talk to him more about that and
just what what's up with his family and things like that.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
We know some people that played in the Little League World.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Series, Yeah, well, and the World Series and the College
Series Eddie. Yeah, so do you do you know? I
asked you yesterday about our my guy, I asked you,
you don't know old school You wait, guys like like
the Erickson's and the Greens and those guys way before
your time. I know, probably not. No, No, okay, when

(04:41):
do you start? No, No, I don't know all baseball.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
Like you're talking about baseball, you're talking about Scott Erickson
and all those guys.

Speaker 4 (04:48):
Yeah, I knew those.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
I mean some of the alumni games that I used
to go to, the like some of my my dad
used to take me to, like the first memories I have,
or like the Scott Rickson group, and I know those
guys because I got pulled into But it's the ninety
three team quite a bit because a lot of those
guys are my close friends. So anybody that's kind of
in that spectrum, that's really it. But like Chip Hale
and that group. You know, Jack cal George, those guys.

(05:10):
Anything in that time frame is kind of like have
you the Howels you're close to them?

Speaker 4 (05:14):
Or yeah?

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Yeah, really Jack? Do we have Jack onn No, we
had Dallas, the son, Dallas Jackson Reno.

Speaker 4 (05:19):
He's coaching. No, no, no, he moved. He's done. He retired.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
Is that the dad or the son?

Speaker 4 (05:23):
Dad?

Speaker 3 (05:23):
Dad retired and moved to Reno. Son's still here. Yeah,
you're talking about son. How old is the sun thirty five?

Speaker 6 (05:30):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (05:31):
No, no, no, Dallas, because I know I remember talking to
Dallas the jack.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Jack's kind of like fifty sixties some of that. Yeah,
I think proud of the sixes, always thinking about his
dad's the dad used to be a heck of a
player too, now yeah, the whole family lineage. Yeah, okay,
goodball player, get ahold. Maybe him next time, the dad.
I can text Jack right now?

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, yeah, at some point maybe when you come back. Yeah, yeah,
that'll be fun because I'm trying to get some old
school baseball guys.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah, I know, and he's not that old. He's like
sixty maybe at the most. Yeah, yeah, I don't even
know if he's that old. Yeah, somewhere around there yet. Well,
Dallas is what thirty four? You say, thirty four to
thirty five? Okay, well he's got to be you know,
fifty nine or sixty. Yeah, I think Dallas is the
second to youngest.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Oh yeah, definitely older than Yeah, I think he's older
than me. Okay, no, cool, we'll see you looking to
get on like I need. So I try to get
Ahold Channing Fri today and he didn't respond to my text.
He was just a nominated for the Uh there was
our Hall of Fame for you, man.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
I think it was.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
So that's cool, that's really cool. Yeah, he was in
the book, one of my chapters. I just you know,
he's sometimes too busy. So we'll see. Sometimes sometimes these
guys are always too busy. I'm guessing always for Steve Rivera. Yeah, yeah,
sometimes my book works and sometimes my book doesn't.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
You know, my rollodecks.

Speaker 4 (06:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
I can get sean On and Steve, but I can't
get Channing or Richard. But I can get maybe baby.
He's gonna come out with his daughter sometime soon.

Speaker 4 (06:53):
Yeah. She's playing volleyball.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Sheet committed to the UB, so that should be a
lot of fun. She does, she's pretty shy, he's said.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
So he said, well, it's kind of the tree, you know,
the acorn doesn't fall, because he was that way too
back in the day. So would you do this? Would
you this last week weekend?

Speaker 2 (07:13):
Well?

Speaker 3 (07:13):
Nothing? What did I do this weekend? Did I watch sports?

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Oh? Watch journalism? When the high school? Oh yeah, it
was one of those nip and tuck races. He came
from behind the wind. Didn't pay much. I mean it's like,
you bet one hundred dollars, you get twenty five back. Yeah,
so it's one hundred to win, win twenty five.

Speaker 4 (07:34):
You take those beds.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
No, no, but no.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
But at the time it was like four to five,
which is if you've got one hundred bucks, you get
eighty bucks.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
Yeah, but it was he was so favorite that it
was just dollars.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, by the end of the start of the race,
it was yeah, twenty five bucks.

Speaker 3 (07:49):
But it was a good race, and he's a good horse.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
He'll probably lose again to uh the one he lost to, yeah,
in the other two races.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
But it was fun. That's kind of I didn't do much.
It's a little what what's going on this weekend? No baseball? No,
you're golf though Scheffler one. Yeah, that was yeah, not
a golf cut.

Speaker 4 (08:07):
I don't watch it.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
No, no, why I mean, you know where I have
a golf coach on today? Right, Yeah, I should I
watched golf all the time. That's a better way of
looking at it. Yeah, right, No, just get ready for football.
I mean football starts next week. We have a press
conference on Tuesday.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
See what they say about this season in addition what
they already said at the Pac Twelves by Pack Twelves,
the Big ten, the Big twelves. If I can get
my conferences straight, I'll tell.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
You you way. Football starts next week. Starts only cow Man.
Doesn't the years go fast? Don't you think the years
go fast? I can't believe it's August almost August it is.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
I know, I wass thinking about this today. And I
know you're not that old. You're kind of a youngster.

Speaker 3 (08:48):
As you get older, the years go faster. Yeah yeah,
and then when you're younger, they kind of like last forever.

Speaker 4 (08:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
I don't know why, but it just feels that way.

Speaker 4 (08:58):
You have more to live for.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, to take advantage of the time that you have.
That's why I don't watch golf.

Speaker 3 (09:05):
I mean it's a open though. Yeah, okay, you don't care, ye, No,
I mean there's listen, I hate to say it, there's
really a Sunday to lay on the couchifts and watch
golf under a fan with some acion.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
I'm a true I'm a true crime guy. I watched
a true crime path dateline. My dad just texted me
Jack sixty three six. That's about right, sixty one sixty three.
He has a thirty five year old son, and he's
the youngest one of.

Speaker 4 (09:34):
Them, second to gangest. He's got a daughter.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
That's okay, okay, that makes sense. Maybe we have him
on next week. See if we can get him on.
Let's talk about the good old days all text Jack,
I can get that whole.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
I told you that we should do a panel one
of these times and grab all those guys when they're
back in town in the fall. I can grab all
those guys. We can go into the studio. Yeah, okay,
in these rooms. The problem is you're gonna have like
Shelley Duncan and George and Jack and Tito Georgia and
coming out. He's we asked him all the time, so
you know, I mean, George will come on if I
can get those. If I get that, if I tell

(10:04):
George he has to come on, I'm pretty confident he'll
come on. But I did tell him that. You said
he was a very good interview. Yeah, yes, sure, okay, Yeah,
pretty quiet spoken.

Speaker 4 (10:15):
Talk about golf.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
Man.

Speaker 3 (10:16):
That guy will go so excited about a good athlete.
That's why.

Speaker 4 (10:19):
Yeah, he's great golfer.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, I have a friend, what's four handicap of a
friend A lot like him? The same last name too, Yeah,
all American baseball player. Yeah, okay, we're gonna talk to Oh,
we're not gonna go till about we'll take off here
about fifteen fifteen after because he won't come on till
about three twenty, and we'll talk all golf, all things

(10:40):
golf with you.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
Ay and his weekend last weekend with some.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
Of the guys.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
Did you watch the All Star Game? Didn't I see
you since then?

Speaker 7 (10:48):
No?

Speaker 4 (10:49):
That was we I was on the show the day
of Oh.

Speaker 3 (10:52):
The day did I watch it? Wednesday? You on a
Tuesday came a yeah, that's right, did I watch it?

Speaker 4 (10:59):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (11:00):
Of like, yeah, I was out and I watched a little.

Speaker 4 (11:02):
Do I like it?

Speaker 3 (11:04):
It was? Okay? What what didn't you.

Speaker 4 (11:06):
What didn't you like about it?

Speaker 3 (11:08):
It's not interesting to me. Oh, you mean just the
game in game in generally?

Speaker 4 (11:12):
Why why is that?

Speaker 3 (11:12):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
It's just I'm older now, Like I have that luster
just ran off a long time ago. Hey, I know,
I know the call is coming from inside the house. Yeah,
so it doesn't you know, when you're a kid, you
have these things. O. God, looks why playing? Who's doing
what they're doing?

Speaker 4 (11:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (11:28):
I means nothing to me, And I'm not like Jake
where I got to put money on it.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
I don't care about that stuff either. No, no, no,
just from a period.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
It was a good game at the end, you know,
they tied it up and then they went off to.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
The You didn't like the did you like the home
run derby Pie? That's a gimmick of novelty, I mean yeah,
but it's kind of cool compared to anything.

Speaker 4 (11:48):
You want them to go extra anything.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
I don't care what they do. So if you don't care,
why wouldn't you rather see You don't want to see
those guys go up? Then like being able to see
Swarber and potentially Lonzo and a home run different that
doesn't excite you at all should it. I mean to
the greatest. I mean, you can make the argument to
the greatest home run derby hitters of all time. I
don't fantasize about this stuff anymore, just so purely athleticism.
Either you don't care about.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
It, depends if I see it, depends if I see
it and you say wow. And I've seen it a
lot recently or a lot lately. I couldn't tell you
what it was, you know, some of those things that
athletes do NBA wise or whatever. Baseball to dude, that
that ship sailed a long time ago. I write too
much about this stuff I talk about all the time. Yeah,
I'd rather talk about something else.

Speaker 4 (12:33):
You want to talk about Black Sabbath.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
Oh that's yeah, we could tell we got three minutes. Yeah, okay,
so something else I really don't care about, But go ahead.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
Because you love music. Yeah, you're not big Black Sabbath.

Speaker 4 (12:43):
Gam No.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
I think that the family is interesting, that dynamic is
very interesting.

Speaker 4 (12:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:47):
I don't think foreigner and Black Sabbath can live in
the same house. You said wow, said like war pigs
didn't do anything for you, paranoid iron man, Who are
you kiming with these people?

Speaker 4 (12:57):
These groups.

Speaker 3 (12:58):
I mean, I mean it's one of the greatest abus
all Toto. I mean you changed the course of music
to degree with what Black Sabbath was able to do.
I mean that's realistically the I mean people want to
make the argument led Zeppelin was heavy metal and where
it started in all those things, But I mean Stooges
was punk and Black Sabbath was heavy metal. I mean
changed the course of music. It's a big deal. You

(13:19):
don't think so I'm indifferent to it. You're indifferent. No,
there's no Black Sabbath on that you put on.

Speaker 2 (13:25):
I would even change how much a much clicker I'm
a changer that would not last five seconds in my car.
I would change it, but I would just move along
to something else. Yeah, you know, you know I listened
to old school seventies. Black Sabbath is old school. That's
not the old school. I listened to.

Speaker 4 (13:45):
What did you're doing?

Speaker 3 (13:49):
I don't know if it's head bagging, it's I mean, listen,
I said heavy metal, and I take it back for
heavy It is head banging at that time, but I
mean melodic, like a sense of what's going on. I mean,
you listen to pair annoy you listen to like iron Man.
This is wild to me. Okay, don't give up. Let's
talk about this. Let's talk about this, because you and
I can have a better discussion about this. We don't. Okay,

(14:09):
two weeks before he dies, he has the biggest cons
all his friends. For me, it doesn't get any better
if I'm choosing a timeframe to go out and say
like this is like, that's the coolest thing. He was
able to go back, Like I was talking to my
dad today, he was able to go back to England
finally and forever. Right, So he passes in England, his home,
he has the concert with literally all his friends and

(14:30):
family around him. You can't ask for a better ending. No,
I totally agree with that.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
When when you're able to do that before you pass
and kind of even not call your shot, you know,
because very people and my sister did that, some people
other people I know have done that. You know what
better way to go when you know your your days
are numbered and you can say goodbye to whoever you
need to say goodbye to. Yeah, hey, well that's kind
of like a goose bumple time. No, it's gonna be

(14:57):
goosebumple from now on. Yeah, I got a different kind
of bumps bumps. Well you're yeah, no, so if you
say it that way, yeah, of course.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah, I can't believe nothing. Just and you were into
the reality show though, piece of it. Oh, I know.
I've saw a couple of.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
Things, and it's a dynamic and family dynamics are crazy.
Everybody has them, different ones, good, cool ones, bad ones.
Everyone's dysfunctional, you know. Just some people hide it, some
people known, some people hide it, some people want to
show it.

Speaker 3 (15:30):
Yeah, that's very true. You're more into like the Kardashians
and like Love Island though, right, No, none of that. No, no, dude,
I'm too old. I've seen too much. I don't care anymore. Yeah,
what'd you say you want to watch on Sundays?

Speaker 4 (15:42):
Oh? True crime?

Speaker 3 (15:43):
True crime?

Speaker 4 (15:44):
You just want to get it killed.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
No, it's just I wouldn't even say it publicly, but yeah, no,
true crime. Just kind of crazy people out there. Yeah,
but that's there's a.

Speaker 4 (15:54):
Lot of them.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
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Speaker 1 (20:58):
Steve Rovera He's got his eye on the ball on
Tucson's sports station, Fox Sports fourteen fifth day.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
Hey, welcome back to y on the Ball here on
Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Ribera in today with
me is Blake Eager. Now on the phone we have
assistant golf coach at u A. Matt Watson. Matt, how
are you? I'm doing great? Thanks guys, Thanks having me on.

Speaker 3 (21:24):
Yes, no, great.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
You you were well traveled in the last few days.

Speaker 3 (21:27):
Where did you go?

Speaker 7 (21:30):
Yeah, I've most recently I was at the Open Championship
at Royal Port Rush, but I've I had been over
to Europe for three weeks, so kind of kind of
on and off planes and around Europe.

Speaker 4 (21:43):
It's been a great summer so far. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
No, heck, and you were able to go back home
for a little while and to explain to the people
where home is.

Speaker 4 (21:52):
Yeah, that's right. So I went to.

Speaker 7 (21:55):
I went back home, which is in northwest England, a
town called Lidam, Saint Anne's.

Speaker 4 (22:00):
It's a it's a it's a big golf area.

Speaker 7 (22:02):
They host one of the Open Championships there at Royal
Lythm and Saint Anne's Golf Club. So I was able
to take my wife and child back to England to
catch up with my catch up with my friends and family,
and then went and did a little bit of recruiting
in the Czech Republic. There's a tournament that's held every
year called the European Boys Team Championships. And then after

(22:27):
that I was able to go over to the to
the Open Championships. So yeah, it's been it's been an
incredible journey so far this summer.

Speaker 3 (22:34):
Yeah. So no cool.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
And then they put you to work at the golf.

Speaker 3 (22:38):
Tournament over there.

Speaker 7 (22:40):
Yeah, I was, I was caddying for Phillips. So my
right shoulders a little bit sore after carrying and and
doing all that fun stuff, but yeah, it was.

Speaker 4 (22:49):
It was a great, great week, a really really.

Speaker 7 (22:53):
Great experience for me and and just an unforgettable experience
for Philip.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
Explain Explain who Philip and the last name? Could you
say it better than I do?

Speaker 7 (23:03):
Philip Jakubik is a currently he's going to be returning
as a as a senior. He's from the Czech Republic.
He is, he's a uf A golfer. He's been here
for three years so far, and he was an All
American last year and he's a He's a phenomenal golfer.
He's a great person, he's a great team guy, and

(23:27):
he's worked really really hard to kind of give himself
these opportunities to play in in the Open Championship. He
just moved to number six in the world in amateur
rankings and he's the number one player in Europe at
the moment. So he's earned all that and he's done
a fantastic job of getting himself to where he's at.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
So, so was that Explain the experience for you? Oh,
was that your first time doing that type of thing there.

Speaker 4 (23:55):
Yeah, it was my first first major.

Speaker 7 (23:58):
Carrying at a major as is a little different than
most other tournaments I've I've had the experience of carrying
other professional events, but this was by far the biggest,
the biggest tournament that I had ever been a part
of and carried for. And the atmosphere was was just
so unique. And the Open Championship is you know, it's

(24:23):
been going on for one hundred and fifty three years,
I believe, so it's it's the oldest, oldest major, It's
got a lot of history, and the crowd is pretty
well educated, so it's it's it's a really unique experience
and just getting to be inside the ropes and and
just you know, for me growing up in links golf,
it was really kind of a dream come true if

(24:44):
you obviously want you know, I wanted to play, be
a player, be a professional golf for myself, So carrying
and inside the ropes for a current player is about
as good as it.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
Gets other than playing.

Speaker 7 (24:55):
So it was for me it was a really really
unbelievable experience.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
What was it, What was your day like and when
did it start? For that, because it's such a unique
experience that you know, there's only a handful of people
that ever get to experience that, right, and that's all
around the world. It's been around it's I think it's
the longest ongoing event outside of like the Olympics, but
an annual event in any major sport. What time did
you wake up, When did you get to the course?

(25:21):
How long were you at the course? What was it
like when you were at the course? From an atmosphere, like,
just take us through those steps if you can.

Speaker 7 (25:28):
Yeah, absolutely, So the time that we woke up and
the time we arrived kind of depended on our tea time.
So during the practice days, we arrived on site on
Sunday evening, and one of the things we did Sunday
evening is we just went straight to the golf course.
You know, we've we've never been Philip or I've never

(25:48):
been inside the ropes in a major So we kind
of agreed that the more we could get inside the
ropes and get familiar just with the terrain and everything,
then we just felt like by third day it was
when it was our tea time, all that stuff would
kind of not be that important or special at that point.
So we got there on Sunday kind of got out

(26:09):
of all of our badges and parking passes and the
locker rooms and all those things. But the practice days
were Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so most of our days
we're at the golf course around seven thirty eight o'clock am,
so we were kind of getting up about six have
breakfast in the player dining so, you know, Philip and
I would be sat our table and a couple of

(26:31):
tables over you'd have you know, Rory McElroy, Shane Lowry,
Scottie Scheffler, I mean, you name it.

Speaker 4 (26:37):
They did.

Speaker 7 (26:38):
All the big names were there, and they would kind
of come and go throughout the day and and really
we just tried to soak it all up. So we
ate there basically every day, so breakfast, lunch, and dinner
we were We were basically there till you know, seven o'clock,
eight o'clock at night. And some of this time was
just pretty relaxing too, because once you get into the

(27:00):
locker room, you've got player saunas, you've got hot tubs,
cold tubs, you've got massage therapists, I mean, you name it.

Speaker 4 (27:07):
So Philip was and I were kind.

Speaker 7 (27:10):
Of enjoying that a little bit just to kind of
get the full experience. And after, i mean after after
each day, you know, we were walking nine or eighteen
holes and it kind of takes a toll on the body.
So we definitely tried not to overdo it, but we
you know, we tried to have some fun. But come
tournament days, the you know, the atmosphere, you could kind

(27:32):
of you could kind of see the crowd crowds building,
So you know, on Monday there was a there was
some people there, Tuesday kind of doubled. Wednesday was a
significant increase from Monday and Tuesday, and then Thursday it
was just it was like, you know, the crowds were
four five, six rows deep on some on some games
that they were watching, so you know, just it was

(27:53):
it was it was kind of a loud Once you're
inside the ropes and walking, it's it's quite loud you
and you know, you kind of as golf as you're
trained to kind of ignore all that nonsense, but when
you kind of tuned into it, it was a it's
a loud environment and there's always cheering or clapping or noise, and.

Speaker 4 (28:11):
Philip did a great job to kind of block that out.

Speaker 7 (28:15):
But then when we we had a eight thirty tea
time on on Thursday, which was round one, So we
got to the golf course at six thirty, which meant
we got up about five point fifteen, had breakfast there,
and then we go out to the practice area, do
a do about an hour and ten minute warm up,

(28:35):
get to the te ten minutes prior, and then you
walk you walk over, kind of walk over the crowds.
They're all underneath you on this bridge, and then you
kind of walk down into this tunnel onto the first
te box and you're surrounded by the one of the
you know, one of the grandstands there, and you know,
they applaud the players and then they kind of announced them, and.

Speaker 4 (28:56):
Then you go and and you.

Speaker 7 (28:58):
Know, Philip, Philip told me is that was probably the
most nerve wracking moment of his career to this point.

Speaker 4 (29:04):
And you could, you know, there's several hundred people.

Speaker 7 (29:07):
There watching, and and it was he handled it like
a champion. But once you kind of go and you
kind of get you know, you get kind of get
going through the round, things kind of settled down and
took Philip a couple of holes to kind of I
think you know, really get the nerves out and focus
on what he's great at, which is playing good golf.
So you know, it's it's really each day was just

(29:28):
a little different, and then you know Friday again that
the crowds just kept getting bigger and bigger, and you know,
Friday's whether you make the cut and advanced to the
weekend or your week's cut short. So Philip played good
second round, shot two over. We kind of got a
little bit of a bad break with some of the
weather which kind of didn't make it that easy.

Speaker 4 (29:51):
But you know, that's the.

Speaker 7 (29:52):
Open Championship, and when you tee off and the weather
you get is.

Speaker 4 (29:57):
Kind of is what it is. That's what makes it.

Speaker 7 (29:58):
Such a a memorable tournament and in a historic event. So it's, uh,
you know, unfortunately Philip didn't make the cut, but it
was just you know, that didn't dampen the spirits, that
didn't dampen the experience. This will be an experience in
a week that him and I will will never forget.

Speaker 3 (30:16):
Oh yeah, I can definitely. I mean I can only
dream about that.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
It's likely giddy little school girls kind of walking there
on that place.

Speaker 3 (30:23):
Yeah, I mean, you're just hoping you take you hope
that you're able to step back in the moment and
take it in just a little bit. What was it
like from a from a process research standpoint from the caddy,
Like for you, what what did you have to do
to make sure you were on top of your game
to provide as much information? Like what was your preparation
going into that process?

Speaker 4 (30:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (30:44):
No, knowing Philips, he's fairly straightforward with the way that
he likes to play golf.

Speaker 4 (30:49):
He likes to keep things pretty simple.

Speaker 7 (30:51):
So knowing that for me there was that kind of
helps not obviously knowing what the play needs and kind
of how they performed best, So kind of what the
way that I'm a little bit more I kind of
like to know the details, So I kind of I
kind of went and went through the process and preparation
that I want to get the most amount of details

(31:13):
I can in the event Philip needs that information, knowing
he's unlikely to use it, but I didn't want to
skip any steps. So before getting on site, I kind
of go through the golf course from an aerial view,
and we have we have a performance app that we
can kind of input some of Philip's data, his dispersions

(31:35):
of all the different golf clubs, so kind of going
through that and already kind of having a rough plan
of what golf clubs he might hit off each tea box.

Speaker 4 (31:44):
And kind of roughly what the target lines might be.

Speaker 7 (31:47):
And then Monday we played eighteen holes, so it's kind
of putting that plan into play a little bit seeing
you know, seeing it on a on a satellite map
versus real life, and of can obviously be different with
elevation change, wind directions and just how the golf course plays.
So then we're kind of, you know, adjusting that kind

(32:09):
of what's what what clubs are going to be best
off the teas, how is the golf course reacting. So
from my perspective, you're kind of making all these different
notes throughout the round.

Speaker 4 (32:21):
Tuesday.

Speaker 7 (32:23):
Tuesday, now I kind of get into a bit more
of the details, so I'm kind of stepping off the
ridges on the greens and making making notes of how
how big the first hop is with wedges versus mid
irons versus long orions.

Speaker 4 (32:38):
And then Wednesday we just played nine holes, so.

Speaker 7 (32:42):
Before Philip went to practice, so then I went to
walk the golf course and kind of just double checked
a lot of my notes, make sure my start lines
are right, and just all you know, all the refined
details that kind of goes into it. So you know, Philip,
like I said, is pretty straightforward. So a lot of
that information for him was probably overkilled. But just as

(33:05):
a caddy and as a coach, I am kind of
programmed to making.

Speaker 4 (33:09):
Sure that you got all the information.

Speaker 7 (33:11):
In the event that your player doesn't need it, then
you can provide that in the way that they want
that information.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
As you speak this, say this. He had a fantastic
summer already. You know he qualified for that event, winning
the European Amateur. How do you think, how do you
think this will help him move forward? This is his
final year, right.

Speaker 4 (33:31):
That's correct.

Speaker 7 (33:32):
Yeah, so he's he's got one more year left here
in Arizona and then he'll graduate and he's got his
goals set to being a professional golfer. So I think
the biggest things for him that he'll take away is
he's got a couple of things and I think he
wants to improve on and coming back to college golf,

(33:52):
I think he's going to have a next level of
confidence and self belief in his ability. When you go
play a profession event and a major event, and then
you go teet up at a college tournament, and as
good as the college tournaments are and as strong as
our schedule is, it's it's still not quite the same
as teeing up with you know, thousands of people, millions

(34:13):
of people watching. So I think that'll give him an
extra level of comfort coming back. And then I think,
you know, for him, just knowing that he's not that
far off, he's he's a great ball striker. He's one
of the best ball strikers I've been around. So his
game is fairways in greens. So I think when he
he's able to see that with some of the top

(34:33):
pros at the Open last week, and I think that
can kind of give him some reassurance that he's on
the right lines to being pretty successful at this game.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
Before we go to Zach Polo too. You're you're an
international guy. He's an international guy. I'm sure you have
a number of them. I know Tennis had some with
the kid who did so well there. Ua has a
bunch of them, and they're so successful. What's the difference?
You know, basketball has a few. What's this secret sauce
to this.

Speaker 7 (35:03):
I'm just gonna say good recruiting, great coaches, and good recruiter. No,
I think you know, U of Age is such a
and two songs, just such an attractive community and university
you can obviously get great education in. We've got great resources,
great great coaches, great people, great communities.

Speaker 4 (35:23):
So I think when when we when we bring.

Speaker 7 (35:26):
These players student athletes on into onto campus and into
the community, I think they kind of see that straight away.

Speaker 4 (35:32):
And once you get you know.

Speaker 7 (35:34):
Kind of like anything, once you have one or two
successful players from a particular area, then that starts to
kind of bleed into the into the next generation of players.
And I think, you know, well, Coach Anderson has done
a great job of that over the years, and and
that's why we get great players like like Zach, sorry,
like Phillips. So you know, our job is to continue

(35:55):
that as we as we continue to build a program.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
So you're going to have a Polo and Philip you're
probably in the top twenty five.

Speaker 3 (36:03):
What does this mean to the program moving forward this year?

Speaker 5 (36:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (36:08):
Yeah, the they're both inside the top twenty five in PGA.
Toy you and we've got to we've got to schedule.
That's going to help promote them and keep moving forward.
So to our program, I think it's just hopefully it
speaks to to future recruits and all the people surrounded
around Arizona Athletics that you know that we're we're here

(36:30):
to compete at a at a very high level and
win national championships. And when you've got players like Philip
and Zach and that have played in major championships and
some of the best players in the world in golf.
So I think for us, it's it's it's a huge
it's a huge benefit. And the guys on the team

(36:51):
get to benefit from that as well. They they get
to play and compete and practice around great players. And
you know, we're our program, We're lucky, we're filled with
great players that are on our team.

Speaker 4 (37:00):
But you know, Zach and Zach and Philip have really
done a great.

Speaker 7 (37:04):
Job of really developing their games to give themselves the
opportunities they have recently playing major championships.

Speaker 4 (37:11):
So that alone just gives us, you.

Speaker 7 (37:13):
Know, national and international marketing and recognition, which is what
I believe that the program, you know deserves.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
So so I'm here with Blake Eager, right, He's he's
a former pro baseball player. Uh, and I know that
he's thinking, God, I should have been a golfer. It
would have been better.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
No, I was a golfer. I wasn't good enough to
play it, I don't think. And that's the other thing
that people, you know, even casual golfers are really good
casual golfers think, oh man, I could definitely do that.
But it's not just it's a strike. It's it's repeating
over and over and over again, and then having to
do it in an atmosphere and the pressure. It's a
it's a completely different world.

Speaker 4 (37:51):
Yeah, it it really is. It really is.

Speaker 7 (37:54):
And and uh, you know it's these these guys even
at you know, at Arizona and other programs and just
elite amateurs. I mean, just to get to this stage
requires so much hard work and discipline and self sacrifice,
to a personal sacrifice just to kind of get here
in a you know, number one, and then to be

(38:15):
able to perform and consistently do it. It's just a
whole new level on top of that. So it's it's
a it's a really it's a really tough sport and
it's going to test you in every possible way. But
you know, the rewards are also far greater.

Speaker 4 (38:30):
I believe in than just winning.

Speaker 7 (38:32):
You know, you get you get a lot of personal
development out of this game and a lot of personal wins.
So I think you know that's the key to to
enjoying this game and playing it for a lifetime.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
Yeah, no question, Okay, coach. I'll appreciate your time. Good
luck to you and the and the group this coming semester.

Speaker 4 (38:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (38:50):
Well appreciate you guys having me on and let me
share some of this information with you guys and the listeners.
So we're looking for for a great year and a
great season and bear down.

Speaker 3 (39:00):
Yeah, take care of down. Hey, congratulations, man, Like what
a trip he wouldn't he went to do recruiting first?
Who cares? I don't care, Like, just that's unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (39:10):
What a life? My questions.

Speaker 3 (39:12):
Can I borrow your action for like a weekend? I'd
have a great time with it.

Speaker 4 (39:15):
Yeah, how you doing? I already out for you?

Speaker 2 (39:18):
Yeah, yeah, thank you, just because you be my side guy,
you'd be by by weing man.

Speaker 3 (39:23):
Thanks coach, appreciate it, kids, guys, take care.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
Matt Watson one of the assistant coaches that you obey
good to hear from him.

Speaker 3 (39:32):
Welcome back bare Yeah, man, I was stuck out there
banging on that door for like twenty minutes, and you
just off of the show I worked to do because
you got to do the board too. There's no like,
there's no like an emergency way to get in either.
There's not like, so I'm standing there just knocking on
this glass door, like hello, Hello. We said don't if

(39:54):
you don't let that guy, you said, don't feed.

Speaker 4 (39:56):
Him, they'll come back.

Speaker 3 (39:57):
You gotta go.

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Speaker 1 (43:56):
This is I on the Ball with Steve ramon Fox
Sports more teen fifty.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
Subscribe now to the.

Speaker 1 (44:02):
Podcast on the iHeartRadio while just search Eye on the Ball.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
Hey, welcome back to the ball. Here all Fox Sports
fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera and with me today is
Blake Eager. That was fun, he said he had a
fun time on the show talking about golf.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
I need his accent, though. How you doing. I know
you don't get starstruck. I'm not saying I'm starstruck by him,
but that experience, Oh that'd be cool. I mean it's
a little cooler than cool. Yeah, to me, it'd be cool.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
See, but I'm I'm like, okay, I'm here, what else
that's just me?

Speaker 3 (44:35):
I'm sorry, but bil go ahead. No, No, I just mean, like,
that's a okay. As an amateur, you can't experience a
bigger event in the world than your sport. I get that.
And he gets to Caddy and he's assistant coach at
u of a like, that's it's amazing.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
I don't want to poopoo it because I know it's
a big deal, but let me ask you directly and
maybe maybe a caller tool Colin Wi's been your most
wow moment?

Speaker 4 (44:58):
Oh man, I don't know, like.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
You said, not that you met anybody, but just your
experience out of place, a venue, or maybe who you
met somebody because you you worked, you worked or played
for some of the bigger names.

Speaker 4 (45:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got to be around a
lot of people. You know.

Speaker 3 (45:16):
The first time I pitched in Brooklyn was pretty uh
pretty crazy. Yet was I was a brook I mean,
I got drafted out of college and then I had
to move up pretty quickly from like a no name
guy to being an Instructs top thirty guy out of
my prospect out of my first year. So I got

(45:36):
to pitch in Brooklyn and it was like fifteen thousand
fans like in New York City.

Speaker 4 (45:42):
It was wild.

Speaker 3 (45:43):
I would say that was probably the big venue it was.
It was sold out. It was fifteen thousand, you know.
And you see you played for or you worked with
some of the guys. Give me Roger Clemens, Paper Martinez,
you know, seem to me that would be Gary Carter
Wase that'd be cool. But I wouldn't be you. I
don't get I know, like because there I still at
that point in my mind I viewed them as sure,

(46:05):
not equals by any means or contemporaries, but peers, like
we did our job. Sure, that's what you were supposed
to do.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
And like you said when we were talking about stuff
off the air, the people are just people.

Speaker 3 (46:15):
Yeah, you know, I get like and this kind of
I get starstruck around people that have gone to like
they've got a you know, a bachelor's degree from Harvard
and then they got a master's from Yale and then
they went to Oxford. For like, I get nervous around
those people because they're just so smart, right, and you're
smart in different ways, but they're so smart, Like there's
no way my my dumb ass would have been like nah,

(46:36):
I'm kidding, Like you just listen at that point, you listen,
you say something. The only time I get nervous speaking
around people, well, how many people? How many times does
that happen? It happens a handful of times. What are
you around these people? Usually these conferences that I go
to you a keynote speaker, and I was like, oh,
you're real dummy, excuse me, So are you my uber? Yes,

(47:00):
gotta make that money some Yeah, that's the time I
meet them. Yeah, no, I can. I can understand that.
Uh so the book Brooklyn Brooklyn, Goose.

Speaker 4 (47:09):
Brooklyn, New York, a burrow in New York.

Speaker 3 (47:12):
Yeah, I know, they give you goose bumples or whatever, goosebumps.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
Okay, yeah, but you was you experience at.

Speaker 3 (47:20):
Greatest greatest things I've covered.

Speaker 13 (47:23):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
I was there to cover Steve Kerr and he hit
the game winner in Game six in Chicago. Just happens
that I was covering it for the paper and I
was going back and forth in Utah. I happened to
be there, wrote that story. It was fantastic for a great,
great moment, a great guy. You know, that was fun.
The two Olympics I covered in Greece and in Australia.

(47:44):
That was fun, great events coverage, Candre winning a gold medal.
That was fun just for him to watch him kind
of experience.

Speaker 3 (47:50):
Did you stay in the Olympic village or did you
see No, no, we stayed in the media quarter.

Speaker 4 (47:55):
Yeah. Yeah. What was that like?

Speaker 10 (47:57):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (47:57):
Different? Different in Greece. It was differ Greece or maybe Australia.

Speaker 13 (48:02):
It was.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
It was right after right after nine to eleven increase.
It was crazy. It was kind of scary because it
was so armed, every price, every place you went, the
media facility was armed like crazy, and you kind of
just hoped it was just day to day, right, But
it was like I had that feeling of who knows.

Speaker 3 (48:22):
What could happen?

Speaker 4 (48:22):
Yeah, but it was.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
It was just a cool I mean, come, I'm with
a small town dude from Santa Fe, New Mexico here
covering this event, and I'm thinking, not that I made it.

Speaker 3 (48:30):
But it's who would have thought. I mean, you can
take a step back and be like, I kind of
made it. It's the Olympics, it's the epitome, here's the
here's the funny thing. You went to the sites and
all that. Some of the other guys the media, I'm
not into those things. It's crazy.

Speaker 4 (48:46):
You know.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
I was living in DC when I was you say today,
and I didn't go see.

Speaker 4 (48:50):
The birthplace of democracy. You're like, nah, I'm good.

Speaker 3 (48:53):
What it is right now.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
But I you know, for my last week or so,
I went to Smithsonian and got a day pass and
I went to everything. Yeah, just because I lived there.
I had to do something right, so I did that.
I think Georgetown it was fun. I mean Georgetown was
super cool. Yeah, it's very nice.

Speaker 3 (49:11):
I like DC a lot. Didn't need a car, just
took the metro, thumbed it out. See who picked up
not in those times? That was very very Mayor Barry times. Yeah,
may Or Barry. Yeah, yeah, those are fun times. That
guy was always hyped up for some reason. After after
we left that ninety that was that's what all hell broke. No,

(49:31):
so you were in Australia. Yeah for those games, which
one would you prefer between Greece and Australia. The people
were fantastic, Yeah, fantasticlish No, they were just nice, super
nice people. Hell like give you we take the bus
a media bus or whatever busses to our venues. I
lost my sunglasses twice. They returned them to me twice.

Speaker 2 (49:51):
No way, I wrote about it because the said where
else would that happen but in Australia.

Speaker 4 (49:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
I just could have put a reside, left my glasses
at this but and I he brought them back to me.

Speaker 3 (50:01):
Wow, it was like, holy crap, what kind of glasses
were there?

Speaker 2 (50:03):
They were cool, you know, those back in the day,
like Nike you overviews, you know those you know wraps, Yeah,
and the hole they got them back to me.

Speaker 3 (50:14):
Were you able to get any like free merch from
the Olympic stuff get like pullovers or anything. No, no,
because you had to buy those.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
But we had our own merch from from They gave
us the media stuffs like an antique discus from back
in the day, just memorably of that they give the media.
I have it somewhere, it's in my house. It's kind
of like a bunch of crap. It's a bunch of crap.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
But it was cool.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
I mean, come on, like I said, I'm the small
due time dude going to these things.

Speaker 3 (50:41):
Did you have a specific sport you had to cover
while you were there? Softball?

Speaker 2 (50:44):
You had to cover softball because covered those times both times. Yeah, both. Oh,
he was there one time, two thousand and four and
two thousand and four. That was two thousand four. He
was in two thousand boxing and boxing. I love boxing.
Cover boxing. That's super cool. Yeah, that's really cool. And
there was some world champions going eventually became world champions.

Speaker 4 (51:03):
Yeah, that were there.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
Yeah, the kids from Hawaii, I forget his name now
that and then they sent me to a bunch of places.
The most crazy place I covered the game was in
Greece and it was the USA versus Greece. I think
in volleyball, men's have you ever seen those people hit
the ball and just the building was going to collapse.

Speaker 4 (51:22):
It was so crazy.

Speaker 2 (51:24):
But just the fans just going crazy in Greece with
their with their country playing against I think the United States.

Speaker 4 (51:33):
That's incredible.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
Yeah, just I mean you can't really duplicate that stuff,
especially the you know, playing for your nation rather than
playing for your school.

Speaker 3 (51:40):
It's just different, no, I mean, I mean I've been
fortunate enough to coach national teams, right, and it's always
that like what's across you. You're representing so much with
the name across your chest. So you felt fortunately you
failed it? Yeah, I mean I to degree right, I
never got the chance to wear USA on my chest.

Speaker 4 (51:56):
I was never that good.

Speaker 2 (51:57):
But a certain sense of disappointment. Are you hoping you
don't disappoint Yeah?

Speaker 3 (52:02):
I think on some different levels, right, I think some
different levels, right, because you you you don't just let
down your fan base, you let down your country. That's
a lot of weight to carry on your shoulders. Sure,
so yeah, no else I would assume it would be. Yeah,
and then Greece had I mean because they built some
baseball stadiums there. They built a baseball stadium there, and

(52:23):
they built a softball stadium there, right, yeah, and then
they never used it. They rarely used it ever again.
And I think by in like two years, a pretty
much dem out.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Well in two years, pretty much the whole economy went
to the whole country went bankrupt. So these great facilities,
you know, just fantastic and then all of a suddenwo
years later it was just done. Yeah, but it was fun.
It was fun that they took it to the mountains
of mountain biking. You just got to jump on the
bus and it takes you where while. Yeah, that's so cool. Yeah,
because they have media buses, right, taking the media to

(52:52):
the events.

Speaker 3 (52:53):
Yeah, just fantastic time.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
And to me, it was back then in Greece it
was very hot, like Tucson kind of landscape was outside
of the wa right, you know, a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
You gotta go, okay, see you later. I