Friday: Rough Balls

Shane Lowry is at the center of controversy at the Open Championship.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
The Open Championship is done for the day. We've got
tea times for tomorrow coming up, and it'll be Matt
Fitzpatrick and Scotti Scheffler in the final group tomorrow. Yeah,
you're probably gonna win this this contest again that you
win nothing for because.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Except bragging rights.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Yeah, because you picked Scotty. So that was a hard
decision to make. Well, you know, Rory's seven back, by
the way, so he's got some catching up. He's on
either sixty four tomorrow. At least you're I mean, you're
you're the biggest guy you have right now. You know,
Robert McIntyre is five under, so he's five back back.
But you know, if it's weather again tomorrow like it

(00:48):
was today, you never know, Andy, you know, you never know,
maybe Scotty comes back down to reality and shoots like
seventy two. Speaking of the weather today, Jason Day was
being interviewed and he said, I would love to be
a weather man in this city. You would never be
wrong and you would never be right because the weather
changed pretty much the whole day. They had sunshine in

(01:10):
the morning, then they had a south wind, then they rained,
then they had a north wind, then it rained again,
it went back to the south, then it rained again,
and then the sun came out and there was no wind.
I can tell you pretty much, and I feel this
way too. Playing in the rain is annoying, Playing in
the wind is hard, and playing in the rain, even

(01:31):
if it's a pretty heavy rain like they got today
is the biggest challenge is making sure your grip stay dry,
your hands stay dry, because it's hard to hang onto
the club, and the more you squeeze the club, the
more you put tension in your wrists in your hands,
and then you don't hit good shots.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
What about the golf ball, because I saw like.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Well, you get water on it, and then like the
greens that they have over in the UK are mostly
fescue grass, and the water doesn't sink into the ground
like it does in bermuda or bent grass or some
of the grasses in the United States. It just kind
of up puddles, not puddles, but like little rain beads,
if you will, on top of the greens, so it

(02:10):
doesn't absorb in the ground is pretty hard, so it
doesn't it doesn't soak into the ground as quickly. It's
as if the course the greens have that nice good
like turtle wax on it. Yeah, so the those two guys,
Fitzpatrick and Scheffler are in the lead. We had a
little bit of controversy today with a couple of things.

(02:34):
Number one, Shane Lowry. I believe it was on the
twelfth hole. The part five was getting ready to hit
his second shot and taking a practice swing in the
rough area, and the ball moved. It didn't move much,
but it rotated about a quarter of a degree backwards,
and the rules officials watched the video, which I know

(02:59):
my rules of vicial friends aren't going to like me
hearing this, but but there's no way that According to
Shane Lowry, he did not see the ball move.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
It was in some rough.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
It was in some rough and he took us a
couple of practice wings and as soon as the ball
the club hit the ground, he kind of looked up,
So if the ball moved, he looked back down. You
don't pretty pretty much pay attention to where the logo
is when you're in the fair way because you just
know it's your ball.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
And you and you and you move forward from that. Uh.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
And the video is what allowed them to assess the
penalty and the reason I look at that is unfair
to Shane Lowry is because he's somebody that they're going
to show a lot of his.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Shots, if not all of them.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
And there's guys that are going to play before and
after him that are never going to be on camera
and could have had the exact same thing happened to them.
And since there was no video and since he didn't
see it, there's not going to be a penalty assessed.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
You know what's dumb because.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
Again, still being introduced and learning, uh the game of
golf as a fan, I'm sitting there watching that, and
the guys were saying, if he just would have moved
it back, it would have been no issue.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
It would have been a one shot penalty.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
It would have been he But if now, if he
hadn't taken a practice wing and the ball had moved,
then it would have been nature moved the golf ball. Okay,
and there was and and and then he would have
had he would have been able to move it back
with with no penalty. I just but but the problem
is is that who who's to say nature didn't move

(04:36):
the ball? And he was still six eight inches away
from where the ball was, But there's a lot of
grass in the area, so you could move the grass
that's here that could move the grass near the ball
was wet, and it was wet, and and I don't
know that in that kind of pay that they have
over there, that you could actually recreate the same lie. Anyway,
it's it's ankle deep to shin high deep.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
But again, I'll go back to if that was even
somebody like Darren Clark, who's incredibly popular another golfer from
Ireland let Darren Clark played way earlier in the day.
There were no cameras on him for every single shot.
Yet if that would have happened to him, there may
not have been video for them to call the penalty

(05:19):
on him. So anyway, the ball moved, Scott Shane didn't
see it move, he didn't move it back.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
He played the hole, and.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
A couple holes later they said, hey, we got video
of you on number twelve and this is the situation
and we're going to review it when you get in.
They took almost twenty minutes to review it before they
agreed what the situation was going to be. And Shane
took the high road today said I wasn't going to
sit there and not take the penalty because then I'm
going to get blasted on social media for trying to cheat.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
And that wasn't the attention.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
I didn't see the ball move, and I saw it
move on the video, but I thought if it wasn't
if it wasn't available to the naked eye, that it
then it didn't move.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
And that's that's the funny thing is, yes it did move,
but Andy, we're talking about it might have moved half
an inch and and let and it.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Didn't improve or not or disapproved the lot and that,
and that's the thing. But that's where that's where I
think the rules of golf have always There are a
lot of non golfers that look at what happened to
day to Shane Lowry and go, really, and you expect
me to watch golf tomorrow right here, And that's we've had.

(06:30):
We have some rules in the game of golf. Now, listen,
if the ball had moved, and it had moved into
a perfect situation where you can see the back of
the ball, but he would have realized, Hey, it moved,
and I better call somebody over here and go, hey,
I think the ball moved, but I'm not sure, And
I don't know if I caused it to move or
if act of God caused it to move.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
And so where that where that ball basically oscillated a
half a turn is the is the difference in where
the ball was, and it had no impact what's on
the shot. But I understand that we've got to protect
the other one hundred and fifty five players in the
field integrity. But the other one hundred and fifty five
players in the field weren't necessarily on TV for that

(07:11):
particular shot to be seen. And so if this was
a random qualifier for the US Open at at at
at Cedar Creek and the ball moved, there's a good
chance that nobody would have seen it and there would
have been no video for it.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
And you know it would you would.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
Have never known that it didn't because you didn't see
it and you didn't pay attention to where the logo
was when you came up to the ball. And it
looks like it's in the same place it was when
I got here.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
So I So Shane Lowry was at minus one and
now he's at plus one because of the two shot penalty. Yeah,
I think it.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Actually, he's even par.

Speaker 3 (07:45):
Yeah, I think he's even par and that that almost
wound up making him miss.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
The cut line with minus two right, plus plus one
I mean plus two, yeah, plus one.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
It was plus one plus one. Okay, yeah it was
plus one.

Speaker 3 (07:57):
So but yeah, I'm sitting there watching it and I'm
just like this, this is the the the jokingness that
I always rag rag at you on for you, you
golf guys and golf ladies that are very snobbyish when
it comes to.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
The integrity part of the game.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
I'm a stickler for the rules, and I hear golfers
all the time say, let's bifurcate the rules for the pros.
Everybody else the rules are bifurkated every day. Most every
group takes mulligans or breakfast balls. Most every group has
more than fourteen clubs in their bag.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
The hell is a breakfast ball? I do over?

Speaker 3 (08:30):
Oh a mulligan? Yeah, okay, breakfast ball, that's another term
for it. I was like, hey, we getting food here?

Speaker 2 (08:36):
What are we doing?

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Yeah, if you want some Most most groups players have
more than fifteen clubs or fourteen clubs in their bag.
Most players, when they hit the ball out of bounds
don't go back to the tee and start over. So
we bifurcate the rules every Saturday and Sunday and every
day of the week on every golf course on the planet. Uh,
the pros have to play by the USGA rules and
by the technicality of the law.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
Shane Lowry gets two penalty.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
But again, if Shane Lowry were one of many of
the other one hundred and fifty five in the field
that was not on camera, that would have never been called.
And that's where I think that's becomes unfair, because only
those who are on camera are the ones that are
getting assessed this. And that's why years ago and they
got rid of this, people would call in and go, yeah,
you know, I saw David Duvall in the third hole,

(09:21):
you know, breathe in the wrong direction.

Speaker 2 (09:23):
Let's give him a two shot penalty.

Speaker 1 (09:24):
And then they'd go back and look at the video
and they'd see what he did. Oh yeah, David gets
a two shot penalty. Well nobody but you saw it
and I And they finally went away with all of
that because because there was only a handful of players
that were on TV, it just gets stitches. Any not
in golf, they don't wow, So all right. Now, there
was another situation today where NBC has its own cameras

(09:50):
for a lot of the coverage, but they're also taking
video from a lot of the BBIS or the Sky
Sports coverage going on, and there's a lot of sharing
of content, and apparently there was a string of cusswords
from somebody today. I don't know if it was John
rom or somebody in John Rahm's group, or.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
I think it was a maybe like one of the reporters,
is what it was. From what Mike Tarico was saying,
it was like they were having technical headphone technical issues
or something and.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
What somebody didn't turn their mic off?

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Well, yeah, hot, Mike, somebody dropped an F bomb, I guess,
and it went over the air, and like twelve minutes later,
Tarico says, hey, we've been made aware of some technical
issues that took place a little while ago.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
We apologize. Okay.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
I know this is a hotbed conversation and everybody has
a different opinion on it, and there's some of you
listening that have never uttered a cussword in your life,
bless you. But if you've ever played the game of
golf and you haven't said that occasionally. You're in the very,
very minor minority of the world. There's been a storady

(11:00):
a saying for a long time. The reason golf was
called golf is because there were no other four letter
words available.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
It makes sense, Yeah, the other four letter words were
already taken.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, So anyway, and you see that all the time
with golf, golf especially because we want to hear the
contact of the club, so the cameras there, and of course,
you know, John Ram's been famous for having a temper
tantrum occasionally, and so a bunch of others. And sometimes
they say it in English, sometimes they say it in

(11:31):
a different language, but they're still saying it. And it's
I understand it's not an FCC approve.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
A deal, but it is sport.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
It is I think there's a lot of people that
don't understand the emotion that comes with sport. Well, here
Scotti Scheffler other day, go, I don't know why I
love this game so much. I don't know why I
like to get ready for it because the celebration lasts
two minutes. Well it's two minutes you wouldn't have otherwise.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
And there is there is.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
Fatigue no kind of anxiety when you're not playing well
and you're gonna say some things that you may not
say in mixed company frustration. Unfortunately you're on National TV
and there's a hot mic nearby.

Speaker 2 (12:13):
Yeah. I just thought it was funny.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
It was just hilarious because I actually I thought it
was rom when he hit he hit some horrible shot.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
Well, he was kicking the club down the fairway a
couple of times a day after another another shot, so
his his his meter was running a little high.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
It was kind of funny because you know, being introduced
to this, the link this links course is there were
Matt Fitzpatrick had a couple, John Rahm had a couple
where they're sitting here saying for you know, and they
throw the club as soon as they hit it, thinking
it's a terrible shot, and it actually is. But because
it's a links course, the dang thing goes and goes like.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
Right back to way. I were trying to get the
hole where it needs to go.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
It was you know, some of those were like I
was thinking Pop Manu style.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
He's like no, no, no, yes, all right.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
Kyle Costner writes for Sports Illustrated, and he wrote an
article last night being critical of the fact that NBC
and Peacock and USA are showing twelve hours of open
content each day and tomorrow and Sunday you'll be a
little less because there's fewer players in the field. And
his headline was, do we really need to watch golf

(13:22):
for twelve hours? And my answer is why not fourteen?
And listen dedicated channel to this.

Speaker 2 (13:30):
Here's the deal, Kyle.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
If you don't want to watch twelve hours, your television
remote has two buttons. One turns it off, one changes
the channel. Shut up, because there's some of us that
do want to see twelve hours of coverage and it's
not boring to us. And guess what, I'm not going
to sit there and watch all consecutive twelve hours. No

(13:52):
one's probably doing that unless they're in a hospital or
in a situation where they can't move. But if listen,
if I were sick and sitting in a in a
hospital bed or a nursing home or something like that,
I would absolutely watch twelve hours consecutive of golf.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Of course you would, and so with a lot of
other people.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
So obviously, Kyle, you don't know what you're talking about.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yeah, why are you complaining.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
Is it something that you're if you're actually covering this,
maybe it's time that you pick a different sport.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
I think it's it's somebody that is a general beat
writer for Sports Illustrated and they said, hey, Kyle, we
need we need a topic.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
What do you got for us?

Speaker 1 (14:31):
How about why are we watching twelve hours of the
Open Championship and nothing?

Speaker 2 (14:36):
They didn't do this.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
They didn't do that this week, but last week at
the Scottie ch Open, they picked up the Sky Sports
feed for a lot of the early coverage and well,
it's boring because that's the way the brit stuck on TV.
They don't they don't have a a a bombastic color
commentator that's going to rip the golfers. Like Johnny Miller
used to, this is easy all if he doesn't choke. Yeah,

(15:00):
I told you it was gonna choke.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
You know. They don't go down that road.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
And so American television coverage is a little bit more
over the top and entertaining, and it's about TV.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
And I mean, listen, I've spent an hour.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
To day in commuting from place to place and I
was listing the Sky Sports coverage on radio and it's
they're they're kind of stale when it comes to the
way they describe shots monotone, yes, yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
But hey motionless.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
But when when in Rome you do as the Romans do,
and when you're an islander Scotland you do it the way.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
They do it. I can only I think it would
be hilarious.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
You know, if like Augusta just randomly sent an email
to the Sports Illustrated editor and said, we regret to
inform you that you will no longer be available or
allowed on Augusta ever again because of this dumb idiot's
comment about wanting more comfort TV.

Speaker 1 (15:58):
I know, I put Augusta in the same boat with
Kyle here. I don't think the Master shows enough coverage
because they don't show every t shot, they don't show
the eight o'clock tea time on Thursday.

Speaker 3 (16:08):
Well, that's what I'm getting at, is Augusta. You know,
they run the thing how it is. It's like, hey,
if we want to show twenty four hours of coverage,
we're going to Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
I don't like it. Yeah, you know, but if our law.
But I wish they would. I wish Augusta would show that.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
I wish the US opening the US Open was on Peacock,
but not but they had featured groups. No, get yourself
out there, get yourself some announcers. I'm available if you
want to pay me, and let's uh, and let's broadcast
the entire tournament. It is a major, after all. When
I was back in the day and when I first
started watching golf in the seventies, you turn on the

(16:44):
TV on Saturday and you'd get holes fifteen through eighteen
for the last four groups to take two hours, and
that's all the coverage you got. And then over the
years you got a little bit more and more coverage.
It wasn't until the until Tiger came around that you
got the back the entire back nine of Augusta maybe
Greg Norman uh. And then I think it was early

(17:07):
two thousands when they started showing the entire final round
of the leaders.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
But if there's a golf channel, if there's a USA,
if there's a Peacock, if there's a paramount, if there's
a place to put it, and now that we have streaming,
you can put up pretty much anywhere. There's no reason
why we can't watch every single shot of every golf
tournament on the planet.

Speaker 3 (17:27):
I'm just warning you, Shane. You know back in the
day when I was doing the Golf Show, it doesn't
take long. I know you've been doing it for two years.
You're gonna get in doctor NATed, like I haf Man,
this is gonna this is just gonna be like an
extended golf.

Speaker 2 (17:39):
Show during during during during golf season.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
During the golf season ends in a month, that will
be will be squared into football except for the Ryder Cup.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
You're saying golf cult. You know, I wouldn't go that far.
I wouldn't go that far. I would go with.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
A elegant, sophisticated establishment.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
That's a good people.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
I'm not going to deny that. But that's sometimes the
way we have to roll. But no, I wish the
Master which would show more. I wish the PGA and
US Open would show more. And then like on Saturdays,
you've got Golf Channel that will they'll show like from
noon to two in the last fifteen minutes are the
World feed so that they can get out of the

(18:23):
booth and CBS or NBC's guys can get in the booth.
And I wish they would show if you want to
watch golf before that you have to watch ESPN Plus,
so at least it's available to where you can basically
watch golf on a Saturday or Sunday for ten hours.
So no, there's never enough of anything. It's the same
thing with basketball or baseball or whatever.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
Give me more. I want to see more.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
All right, major League Baseball's second half gets underway. We'll
talk about that next. It's the Andy average show on
the ticket