Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
At time of it, Stephen Elk is having doing great
things on the seniors tour, speaking of golf and up
and down round for Kiwi Ryan Fox, but he remains
on track for a top twenty finish at the year
second major, the PGA Championship in Charlotte. He's parted a
third round one over seventy two, mixing six bogies with
(00:32):
five birdies. He's tied seventeenth three under for the tournament.
Scottie Sheffler has the outright lead by three at eleven
under with birdies on seventeen and then on eighteen.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
So this for sixty five the round of the day
and a three shot lead heading into the final round.
It's a Cheffler showcase performance. Scott's thinking, what green mile
five under the last five holes for the world number one?
We could have talking it.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
When take the ball out of the cup.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
He was charged and they're channing Scottie here in Charlotte. Yeah,
they're channing Scotty. Indeed, Scotty Scheffler with a sixty five
in the third round is his final few holes quite remarkable.
He had a birdie on twelve, then a bogie on thirteen,
an eagle on fourteen, birdie on fifteen, part sixteen, birdied seventeen,
(01:29):
birdied eighteen. Let's bring in Grahame Agars to wrap the
round and look ahead to round four. I guess you
look at that from Scotty Scheffer. Could that be the
defining five or six holes for him, Graham? Could that
be the stretch that wins him the PGA Championship.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yeah, it could well be. That eagle, by the way,
was a two on a par four, which makes it
more impressive than a three on a par five. But
Scotty played the what they call the green Mile the
last three holes better than anybody did all gay. It
was treacherous. It was very windy today and it brought
(02:08):
undone a lot of big name including Bryson de Chambeau,
who was in contention Tilly tangled with that green mile,
and also John Rahm, who dropped back a little bit
along that green Mile as well. So Schaeffler is doing
what Scotti Scheffler normally does, just quietly go about his business,
(02:28):
and then suddenly you look at the top of the leaderboard,
and there he is going away from everybody. He's got
a three shot lead going into the final round over
Alex Norn, a Swede who's better than a journeyman but
certainly not a big time major championship winner, and he's
only played two tournaments this year, having been out injured
(02:51):
for the whole season. You've got to go all the
way back to six under define John Rahm, who's showing
some decent form finally in the majors, and a shot
further back, six back Bryson de Shamba, who, as I said,
made a mess of the closing hole. So Scotty Scheffler
(03:11):
has laid down the gaunt and to the rest of
the field. He started the season slowly after injuring his hand.
But the bad news for the rest of the field
is he's back and he's ready to start winning again,
and he's about to pick up his third major. As
far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah, it looks very likely. So with a three shot
lead over the field, and as you say, more than
that over the guys who you expect would make a run,
how will Scotty Schiffler approach the fourth round? What does
Scotti Shiffler do when he's got a three stroke lead
hitting into the fourth round of golf tournament.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Well, he's getting used to it. He's let me see.
I think the stats are that he's had fifty four
hole lead tournaments on the PGA Tour on seven occasions,
and he's brought every single one of them home. The
odds are certainly in his favor, and it happens because
he just knows how to go. He's not a flamboyant
(04:07):
player like De'shambeau who plays for the crowd. He's not
a grumpy player. He might have been when he was
a junior, but he's certainly not now because he's caddy
keeps him calm and he's learned to just focused, as
boring as it is, on one shot at a time.
If he makes a bogey, he has the best bounced
(04:28):
back statistic on the PGA Tour that is making a
birdie on the very next hole. So he's just got
all the tools that he needs to be a great player.
And as I said, this would be his third major,
but you know, we're looking really at a Hall of
Fame career starting out here. And if he can keep
(04:49):
up this sort of play and not get injured. The
sky is a limit for him because there's just not
a weakness in his bag. Last season there was a
little bit of doubt about his putting. He took some
advice from Rory McElroy change from a blade part of
two a mallet a big headed putter, and that seems
(05:09):
to have solved that problem. So there's no weakness there
and everybody else in the field knows it, so that
helps him as well.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
To give hope then to the others. Graham, there do
seem to be a lot of holes on this golf
course that are available for birdie, a lot of birdies
being made, but by the same token, quite a few
bugies as well. But is there something to give hope
to the chasing pack that they can shoot low on
this course?
Speaker 3 (05:36):
Yeah. The opening three holes are very difficult, so you
don't see too many birdies there, and the closing three
holes the Green Mile are incredibly difficult, particularly when it
was wendy like it was today, because there's water in
play on every one of those holes. But the middle holes,
you know, from four three to fifteen, there's plenty of
(05:58):
holes out there, drigable. Par four's easily reachable, Par five
that can give someone who has a hot day a
chance to post to come from behind. But you know,
I'm thinking, and have thought most of the week, at
about thirteen under wins this championship. So Shefflin needs to
go three under for the day and his score so
(06:20):
far sixty nine, sixty eight, sixty five. But for the
john Rams and the Shambos of the world, they're going
to have to post near record low final rounds in
majors to catch him. So that works in his advantage
as well. But there are a group of holes, as
I said, the sort of middle stage of the golf
(06:41):
course where low numbers are available, but you're going to
have to be right on your game to get them.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Well, let's say I look at Ryan Fox, so as
I say, a third round one over seventy two, six
bogies with five birdies, which has been the story of
his tournament, really fourteen birdies at the tournament, which is
fourth equal, but he's made eleven bogies. So when you
see scorecards like that, what does that tell you about
the way that Ryan Fox is playing this tournament?
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Yeah, I looked up in excuse me, I looked up
his stats just to see what was going on, and
they didn't surprise me, and it tends to point out
the weakness. And the reason he's gone backwards instead of
forwards is he's number thirteen in distance for the players
in the field, and there's seventy four of them left,
so that is as expected he smashes it. He's number
(07:29):
thirty four in driving accuracy, which is also excellent for
somebody who hits it a long way, so there's no
problems for him off the tee. His problem is that
he's sixty out of seventy four in putting, and that's
what's dropped him down. I watched a few of his
holes today and there are a couple of really shaky puts,
(07:49):
one that he missed from about four feet that barely
reached a hole. So that's where the issue is. And
it's not a good issue to have on these greens
here because after five days have rained leading into the championship,
the greens that now recovered card and super fast, So
if you're worried about your putting it all, that's where
(08:11):
you're going to struggle. So after tea he's doing fine.
It's just around the greens that he's having trouble.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
In many ways. It's a bit of a free hit,
isn't it. I'm not sure you can say that about
a major. But of course he didn't even think he
was going to be here, Graham, until he won at
Myrtle Beach a week ago. Can you forgive Ryan Fox
for perhaps, I don't know, being a bit fatigued after
four straight tournaments, the elation of winning on the PGA
Tour for the first time. Will these sorts of things
be affecting him at all?
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Oh for sure. I mean he had a big hurdle
to climb. First of all, you've got to deal with
the latdown after a win, and everybody in the world
suffers from that except Tiger Woods, or used to. It
never seemed the worried tick. He just picked up and
started a new tournament. But then he's making a major
championship and he's coming in in very difficult circumstances because
(09:04):
one of his planned practice round was completely washed out,
so he only basically got one look at the course
before he went out there, and the fairways, as has
been discussed, were very very wet for the first two days.
In fact, the first day they really should have played
less clean and pace as far as I'm concerned, because
(09:25):
there were mudballs all over the place which was distorting
the scoring. So it was an uphill battle always for him.
But if he can manage all of that and finish
in the top twenty, that would be an excellent result
for him. And going ahead, you know, he's got starts
and big tournaments now for the rest of the year
because he's a PGA Tour winner.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
I had to scroll quite a way down to find
Rary McElroy just speaking of bouncing back from victory. I mean,
just such an emotional time for him at the Masters.
I found him he had tied forty ninth, seventy four,
sixty nine, seventy two. So maybe that proves the point Grahma,
And it's just so done difficult to win golf tournaments,
isn't it.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Yeah, it is the other thing that's working against them.
This is a story that's actually developing. People don't realize
that the rules that govern the faces on golf clubs
are very specific these days, and on drivers in particular,
because they have a restitution of rebound. In other words,
(10:30):
the face dense a little bit and then springs the
ball out when you hit it. And I think the
number now is it can't be more than point eight five.
And I don't know what point eight five means. It
maybe point eight three, but it's one of those numbers.
So they periodically people from the USGA and the r
and A pop out of the tournament and they test
(10:52):
the drivers of players at random, and they tested I
think up to seventy players here at the PGA, and
Rory McElroy's driver was found to be non conforming. In
other words, it was hot made him change the head,
which you do these days. You don't have to change
the whole club. You just screw the head off and
put a new one on. And they tested that one
(11:13):
and that was okay. Now, I'm not saying that Rory
was cheating because one of the reasons they do test
these clubs the manufacturers of always send them samples when
they producing your driver or new clubs of any sort.
But the constant hitting that these guys do, and particularly
the power with which McElroy hits, can soften up the
(11:37):
face and increase the spring, which gives you a little
bit more distant. It may also give you a little
bit less control, but that could vary. So Rory actually
had to take the driver out of the bag, and
nobody knows whether it's the one he used at a gust,
And even if he did use it at a guster,
at that stage it could well been legal, but he
(11:59):
had to take it out and substitute a brand new head,
and he's been spraying them all over the golf course
this week. So I think part of his problem is
that he's not comfortable with the driver that he's using,
even though in all respects it's supposed to be exactly
the same as the one he was using, But obviously
(12:20):
he's just not comfortable with it, and that's been his
biggest problem this week.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
So interesting. So a compliant head can over time, if
you're smack enough golf balls, will it become non compliant?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
That's correct, that's correct. And there was a stage where
before they brought in this rebound rule. I call it
that the manufacturers were making hot drivers and I bought
one once just to try it out, and I couldn't
control it, of course, all over the place. But I've
still got it. I've still got it. And there are
(12:56):
also people who built hot golf ball And if you
have the combination of a rebound driver and hot golf ball.
You can do some perfect things, but it's not legal.
So the fact is that these guys do actually damp
the driver faces. John Daly was one of the first
ones that I knew that dented them on a regular basis,
(13:19):
and he had to swap out the whole club because
back then, of course, you couldn't just screw on a
new head. And I do know that Scottish Scheffler, maybe
last year or the year before, when he switched to
one of these graphite faced drivers, not titanium faced drivers,
he actually put a ball through the face on the
(13:40):
practice range one day. He'd weakened the face to the
point where it just cracked. So, you know, if technology
moves on, so does the testing regime that's necessary to
try and keep you know, these guys within the bounds
of the golf course, because if you let technology go crazy,
(14:01):
there wouldn't be a golf course in the world that
wouldn't become obsolete within two or three years.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
So interesting, so interesting, always in education. Chatting to your Graham,
thanks for joining us as always on Weekendsporker this afternoon.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
It's pleasure indeed, Thanks Jason, Thanks.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Graham, Gray May Gars there the one and only. You
always learn something, don't you win? Gray ay Gars is
on the radio with US Sir Scotti. Scheffler is three
strokes clear at the top, having fired a sixty nine
to sixty eight and a sixty five. Is the only
player to have shot three rounds under seventy the three
shot lead. Eleven under the card Alex Noorn is his
closest challenger at eight under. Then Davis Riley and j. T.
(14:40):
Posten are both at seven under, the two Americans, and
then a bunch of players at six and five under.
Ryan Fox currently tied for seventeenth. He is three under
for the tournament, having fired a one over round of
seventy two today, four under in the first round, even
par yesterday, one over today, three under for the tournament.
Ryan Fox so looking pretty good really if he can
(15:01):
If he can stay solid in the fourth round, stay
on par, or maybe even pick up a couple of shots,
he may well earn himself a top twenty finish at
a major, which, let's not forget, he didn't even expect
to be at a week ago.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
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