Swing It & Ding It: Episode 233

Joined by Erin Cook from the Cobbs Creek Foundation to talk about the 3 part Docuseries on Golf Channel that premiered this week- Cobbs Creek Rising, Headwaters to Horizons.  JJ Spaun’s impressive US Open Win. The Tea with D, Preview of The Travelers, See The Line with Bet Parx and the Course of Course with Harry Mayes.

Thank you to our Sponsors: BetParx, Mall Chevrolet, Comcast Business, Rita’s Water Ice

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode is brought to you by Comcast Business. Whatever
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for what's next. Comcast Business powering Possibilities. You just got

(00:25):
to get out there and swing and ding it.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, you know, I guess it's gonna go out there
and try to swing it and ding it.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
All right, Welcome in to swing it and ding it.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
And yes, we are at Philly Show and today we'll
be talking about Philly Golf.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
We are sponsored by bet Parks.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
We'll talk about bet Parks when we see the line
later for the travelers buy my Balls.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
We'll talk about buying golf balls.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
And affordable price and wear SPF, which Harry does not need.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
It's not getting much sun.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Apparently wherever he goes, these clouds follow. But yes, we
are joined by Aaron Cook, Senior Vice president of the
Cobbs Creek Foundation, the most talked about golf project in
the country and obviously in the city of Philadelphia.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
Aaron, Welcome to swing it and ding it.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
Thank you so much for having me excited to be here.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
So you're talking to three Temple graduates.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Myself, I grew up in Southwest Philly, went to West
Catholic my freshman year. Cobbs Creek was the first golf
course I ever played. I have very little recollection of it,
but it's it's I love it because it for me
growing up and the guys we played golf with and
getting to play really nice courses. It almost became like
a if a course was in bad shape, you like,
oh where we at Cobbs Creek, right, And to now

(01:39):
see what that is going to become makes me proud, right,
And I think the city of Philadelphia is super proud
to see.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
And I know it's been just an easy, you know
kind of journey.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Raked a couple bunkers, got a quick couple permits, and boom,
you're off to the races. So it's good to see
that that was just such an easy process for you guys.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
That really easy. I mean, one, two, three, we're done.
You know, it just took a couple of months and
a couple of million, and you know we were good
to go.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
So Cobbs Creek Rising premiered last night. We're recording on
Wednesday on the Golf Channel. You could find it on
Golf Pass, Cobbs Creek, Rising Headwaters to Horizons, Right, that
was the first episode, and I thought it was an
incredible just look into what is going on?

Speaker 3 (02:25):
Right.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
I think when you talk to people, they're like, well,
it's taken forever, like, what's going on? You're restoring a
golf course. But that couldn't be further from the truth.
And when you see when this started, how it started,
and then getting into all the history and then up
into you know, all the issues that permitting the neighborhood,
everything about it. Just to see the level of commitment

(02:46):
of the people involved to just persevere and push through
knowing what this could mean.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
For the city was so cool to see.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
So congratulations on what seemed to be on everything I
saw on social media. Just a great, great premiere of
a three part series for you guys.

Speaker 4 (03:02):
Yeah, it was amazing to see the premiere last night
on the Golf Channel. We got a really great response.
We've gotten tons of outreach. People have been giving us
really positive feedback, tons of board members, tons of you know,
people who play golf in the Philadelphia area who love
it from their childhood like you do. They're just so
excited to see the work that we've done. And I
think that's what the documentary did so well, as it

(03:23):
really delved into how deeply committed we are to bringing
the cost free golf course back, but also how deeply
committed we are to the community and to the tgr
Learning Lab and to the kids and families in this
area who are going to benefit from golf's popularity and
golf's participation.

Speaker 5 (03:41):
Now, Aaron, what.

Speaker 6 (03:42):
Does it mean for affiliated not only bring back a
historic golf course, but like you were just saying, build
on something that invests in the future of the education too.

Speaker 4 (03:51):
We're just so happy to bring this golf course back
for Philadelphians. I mean, Philadelphians love sports, as you guys know,
they love golf. That was just to be true at
the Truest and out at Oakmont for the US Open
this past weekend. You know, Philadelphians who loved their sports,
they love golf just as much. I mean, I had
the honor of following Rory's group out at the Truest

(04:13):
on Saturday, and every single shot that he hit, somebody
yelling Gobert's And it was so funny because you know
he's not even American, but you know that's Philly, and
you know, we are tenacious in our love of Philly
sports and love all that's happening in sports in Philadelphia.
So we're really happy to bring the Copscreek Golf Course
back to become a part of that. There isn't a
regular PGA tour stop in Philadelphia, and we think Philadelphia

(04:36):
is an incredible market for sports and for golf, so
we really want to bring it back for the people
like you who played it in their younger years who
saw its decline, and it's going to be incredible. And
I think for people that played it, you know, through
the seventies through twenty twenty when it closed, they knew

(04:57):
that way back in history, there was something special about
this golf course, and we at the Cops Greek Foundation
just feel compelled to celebrate the history of the land
and also celebrate all of the amazing golf that's happened there.
And we want to bring a PGA to our event
to Philadelphia at Copstreet.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Well, something else that is synonymous with Philly, Aaron, is
it's not easy to get things done, and you know,
I know this has been a really long process. And
if you're want to expound upon that, you know, our
listeners would love to hear it. But I'm captivated by
how you you took this project that did have opposition,
you know, various you know opposition, and got through those

(05:36):
hurdles and eventually got a sixteen to zero vote in
the city Council. And I found that, you know, that
first episode, that's really what jumped out at me, like,
how did you do that?

Speaker 4 (05:47):
Yeah, And we weren't sure necessarily that we wanted the
documentary to cover all of those details because we were
we were really deep in opposition. We were really deep
in challenges and obstacles with the land, with permitting, with
the City of Philadelphia, figuring out our way through you know,
a four hundred page lease with the city. So that

(06:11):
was a really challenging time for the Foundation. Jeff Shanahan,
the President of the Foundation, Enrique Eravada, Chris McGuire. I mean,
they've been involved with the Foundation since we became a
five h one c three nonprofit in twenty eighteen, and
it has been one challenge after the next. And Don
Dissinger are head of design and Development. He has really

(06:34):
been able to move those conversations from the obstacles to
figuring out solutions. So I really credit Don and Enrique
with changing the relationship with the city and figuring out
a way forward and the right relationship, a working, cooperative,
mutually beneficial relationship with the city that they could help

(06:54):
us get where we needed to go. We needed those
people in place to really change the relationship with the city,
the vendors all the way from state, federal, and city
organizations that we needed their help in order to get
this done environmentally from a you know, building permit perspective,
the ability to build the TGR Learning Lab in the

(07:15):
way that we did so the city has has come
a long way in our relationship and it was quite
a turning point for us when there was some public opposition,
but really when we got to Philadelphia City Council, they
understood what we were doing, the truth of what we
were doing, which is really for the example of taking

(07:36):
down the trees, we are using and repurposing all of
those sticks to create twenty five acres of wetlands, and
we're doing a full creek restoration. And when we started
this project, you know, we were cleaning out the creek
and taking cars out of the creek. And now this
is going to be, you know, the largest fresh water
and wetland restoration in a mega urban environment in the country.

(07:58):
So now the dep he is on our side, the
Pennsylvania Deep is on our side, and so we've really
done an incredible amount of work to change those relationships
towards progress and away from obstacles.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
Incredible, incredible.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
So talk about you mentioned that your dad played Cops Creek.
Talk about your connection to the course and to the
game of golf and what got you involved and to
where you are.

Speaker 4 (08:22):
So my dad says that he used to ice skate
on Cops Creek with his dad. He grew up in
Drexel Hill, and you know, he told a lot of
tall tales and we're not exactly sure if that's true,
and Cobbs Creek was ever you know, if you were
ever able to ice skate on it, but I believe him.
So he played a lot of his first rounds of
golf in high school and in his summers at college

(08:44):
at Cops Creek and it was always a place that
he talked about that was a beautiful, amazing course that
didn't get the love and the attention and the maintenance
that it needed, but he could tell it had amazing
bones and that it was a really good golf course.
So he always talked about Cops Creek growing up. And
then my husband knew a lot about golf course Atlas

(09:05):
and years ago the work that Joe Bass was doing
photography in photography and photographing a lot of golf courses,
and he would just look at his website at the
beautiful photos, and so my husband would talk about Cops
Creek too. And so I sold my business in twenty
nineteen and was looking for something that was really purpose driven,

(09:29):
something that was local. I wanted to get my teeth
into a project that really had meaning for me. So
I had a couple of conversations, one with Michael McDermott,
who's a board member at the Cops Creek Foundation, and
one with a friend Jeff Shanahan, who's the president of
the Cops Creek Foundation, and I said, you know, could
you guys use some help, And they said, we could
really need some help. So I came in really to

(09:53):
create the search for a management company and to work
with the board to determine whether we wanted a general
manager to report directly to the Coffs Creek Foundation Board
or if we wanted to hire a management company, and
we quickly realized that we needed a management company to
help get us off the ground and to help us
manage the golf courses and the property. So we hired

(10:15):
Truon and they've been absolutely amazing. And so since then,
I've really taken on more responsibility with fundraising, marketing, and
strategy for the foundation. And I'm so honored to work
with this group because honestly, they are a toughest nails group,
which is will not take no for an answer, and
it's fun, very cool.

Speaker 5 (10:34):
Yeah, a lot of fun.

Speaker 6 (10:35):
I'm sure, Aaron, you mentioned the Truest Championship at Philly
Cricket a little bit ago. Selfishly, I want to know
because Philly is part of the national golf conversation now.
I mean, we've been pushing for this and wanting a
PGA Tour event, so we got a little tease with
the trust. What have you guys done, if anything, to
make sure that you know, the potential PGA Tour event
does come back, and you mentioned maybe as soon as

(10:57):
twenty eight twenty nine. Has there been any thing that
you've done with the course to make sure that it
happens and it can accommodate a tour event.

Speaker 4 (11:05):
Yeah, so right from the beginning of the development and
design of the property, we have included the PGA Tour
and their events companies in the conversation. So we've had
them on site several times to make sure that we're
laying the groundwork from an infrastructure perspective to be able
to handle a large event like a PGA Tour event.
So they've been listening and they've been paying attention really

(11:28):
closely to what we're doing in terms of the property
and making sure that we can get that amount of
people in and out of the area. What are some
of the best design and development decisions we can make
to make sure we can we can be a great
venue for the city of Philadelphia for a PGA Tour event.
And then we did. We've had great conversations with them
at the executive level. I'm sure you saw in the

(11:48):
documentary that their head of Global Ventures, Len Brown, is
a Philadelphian. He's a fan. He loves the idea of
what we want to do at Coscree and they came
for i think maybe their third or fourth visit during
the Truest because the Truth in the PGA Tour designated
the Cobbs Creek Foundation as the beneficiary of their chower
dollars during the tournament. So we got an amazing contribution

(12:12):
from the PGA Tour and Truest, And there was so
much hype about us that they came to the property
and kind of saw the progress and saw where we
are right now, and they're really excited. I mean, they're
blown away by what we're doing and the progress that
we've made. So the conversations are going in a really
great direction. And they did mention twenty twenty eight. I'm

(12:33):
not sure. I think our golf course is going to
be done by twenty twenty seven, but we're going to
need a year of growing. So we're thinking, hopefully, fingers crossed,
we could do a PGA Tour event in twenty twenty nine.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
Well, now that is excited.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
The history of Cobbs Creek, of course includes Charlie Sifford,
and that leads to Tiger Woods, which eventually led to
the TGR Foundation. Talk about that relationship and when that
sort of started and and how that blossomed to what
we have today.

Speaker 4 (13:03):
Yeah, I mean, that's a really amazing synergy there. You know,
it took a while for us to get to Tiger,
but we knew that we needed an education partner from
very early on in the planning of the project, and
we absorbed an amazing community service organization in Britamar, Pennsylvania,

(13:23):
and they sort of became our boots on the ground
in all of the schools. So we've had teachers and
volunteers and educators in the one hundred and twenty surrounding
schools near the Copscreek golf course for over four years,
and so we've been doing a lot of local immersion
into you know, meeting the families and understanding the needs

(13:47):
of the community, talking to the kids, finding out what
courses they'd like to have offered. But we we wanted
to talk to Tiger because we knew what the TGR
Foundation did and we thought that the Cobs Creek area
might be an excellent market for them. And so I
think it was Jeff and Chris Maguire who met Tiger

(14:08):
down in Florida, and as soon as they started talking
to him about Cobbs Creek being the home course with
Charlie Sifford, Tiger was in. I mean, he has a
really close relationship with Charlie. He called him Grandpa Charlie.
He named his son Charlie after him. You know, he
really credits him being his mentor and showing him the

(14:28):
way on the PGA tour. So they were looking for
an urban market to open a new tgr learning lab,
and they were hoping it could be somewhere in the
mid Atlantic, somewhere in the Northeast. And so when they
came and saw what we were doing at Cobbs Creek,
they were one hundred percent in. And they've been an
amazing partner for us for education.

Speaker 3 (14:49):
Wow, so cool, so cool.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
A couple couple things that really I took away from
the first episode of the docu series. One is with
Gil Hanson and Jim Wagner, Right, two of the biggest
names in the game and in restoration.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
And when you see Gil Hans who used to.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
Go out pro bono and fix portions of the golf course,
and Jim Wagner, who played high school golf on the course,
I mean, it must be so meaningful those guys who
literally travel the world working on golf courses to be
in a place that has you know, roots and their
roots and has such meaning. So talk about what it

(15:26):
means to have two guys like that having their hands
on the property and the restoration.

Speaker 4 (15:32):
Yeah, I mean that story from beginning to end is
so interesting, you know, starting with our golf nerds, Joe
ash and Mike Serbra. You know, I'm in my comfy
place with golfirs. I'm sure you know all of you
are too, people who are just so into the details
and the complexities of the golf you know in Philadelphia
and the history. So they reached out, like they said

(15:53):
in the documentary when they created the Friends of Cops
Creek in the early two thousands to Gil and Jim.
Before they were the number one golf course architects in
the world. This was when they were local Philadelphia golf
architects and found out, you know Jim Wagner who went
to O'Hara, he played high school golf at Cobbs Creek
and he has a very personal vested interest in the

(16:16):
redevelopment and revitalization. So Gil, as you know, his company
is local right here in Malvern. Jim is down in
Florida now, but we went down and visited him and
he is one hundred percent all in for this Cops
Creek project. He feels like this is his baby. As
I said, he played, He played his high school golf here.

(16:36):
He has a huge stake in bringing this back, and
he's been in conversations with us for fifteen years. So
he's kind of like, Okay, let's get started. I want
to get on a bulldozer. I want to get on
an excavator, like, let's go. And you know we're trying
to adapt the Issencroft the T's but he's starting this summer.
Gil and Jim have both been incredible supporters of this project.
We are so honored that they're going to be the

(16:59):
one to do this renovation starting the summer.

Speaker 3 (17:03):
So cool.

Speaker 5 (17:05):
A lot of talent on this project, for sure.

Speaker 6 (17:08):
Aaron I always like to close out our guests with
Philadelphia style question. So if you can go ahead and
share what you feel is you know, either the most
fun or your favorite Philadelphia golf course you've ever played?

Speaker 4 (17:23):
Favorite Philadelphia golf course? Well, I have a great story
about Riverton, but I can't talk about New Jersey because
I'm a I'm a Philadelphian and I grew up very
luckily playing at Ironom Ink where my dad ended up
playing most of his golf. And I can't say it's

(17:43):
Marian because that's too hard for me. So I have
to say that my favorite golf course in the Philadelphia
area is Ironom Mink. I absolutely love Roanom inc. I
tend to be long and wrong, so it gives me
a little bit of leeway there because I could get
out of the trees and I get myself in trouble
and then I get my self out of trouble. And
I absolutely love Ironom Ink. And we are really really

(18:05):
excited at Aronomy to host the PGA Championship next May.
And coincidentally, what we're doing with the documentary is we're
dropping the three episodes around the golf events calendar in Philadelphia.
So this episode came out after the true as at
Philly Cricket, the second episodes coming out after the PGA
Championship at Ironom and then the third episode is going

(18:26):
to come out when we are open to the public
and teeing off of the first hole at Houscree.

Speaker 3 (18:30):
Okay, oh wow, cool, Well, we're gonna have to play together.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
We have similar games and we actually we had Jeff
Gitty on last week, which was so cool, right to
go from that conversation to this conversation.

Speaker 4 (18:42):
So I heard that episode. He's so great. Jeff is
such an amazing golf professional. We love him at ironom
INGK We're so excited for what the club is doing
and what the PGAM America is doing to prepare for
the tournament. We're really really excited.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
Love it.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
Well listen, if there's anything we can do, swing it
and it. iHeartMedia.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
I saw you guys have a podcast studio there. Maybe
we can come to a show from there.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
If you want us to come out and teach the kids,
you know, something we could happy to do.

Speaker 3 (19:09):
Anyway we can get involved. We would love to be
a part of a part of this.

Speaker 4 (19:12):
Let's definitely do it. Let's do it because we have
this amazing music recording and podcasting studio that's one of
the classrooms in the TGR Learning Lab, and we're going
to start a Cobbs Creek podcast. But there's only seven
of us at the foundation, so we're all kind of
wearing every hat. I'd like to start the podcast and
call it the cobs Cast, which I think is a
cute name. But we we need to yeah, get some

(19:34):
experts and some professionals like you guys, and then i'd
love for the kids to be the hosts. So we're
working through a planning outline for that for this summer,
and we'd love it if you guys would come down
and take a tour and maybe you know, record something
in the studio.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
Happy too, Yeah, Well, be honest, mister Bousch knows all
about my broadcasting history.

Speaker 4 (19:53):
Just to ask him sometime, I will ask him any
conversation I can have with Joe.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
I'm loving it.

Speaker 3 (20:00):
Well, Thank you, Eron, it was great talking to you.
Continued success.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
All eyes are on the project with anticipation and excitement,
and it was really great to see it. If you
didn't catch it, head over to Golf Pass and you're
able to watch it right there. I know it's re
airing a bunch on Golf Channel, but really well done
and I think gave a great perspective into everything that's
been going on to get to this point.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
So congratulations, Thank you so much.

Speaker 4 (20:25):
Thank you so much for generating the awareness that's what
we really need in the project right now. You know,
we're going around the final turn in our fundraising campaign
and creating awareness and having people talk about it and
having this be a big conversation topic in Philadelphia golf
is exactly what we need. So thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
You got it.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
All right, Let's take a quick break and we will
be right back and we're back.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
Welcome back to Swing and Ding.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
It great to talk to Aaron Cook on the project
that is, it's been a labor of love.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
I mean it's funny. I mean, what was it.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
I think two years ago we had we had a
guest on from there and you know it's in the
in the docu series. It talks about like how they
they were planning on twenty twenty four to really have
things going, and you see what they're dealing with with
all the different the city, the different municipalities, the environmental
but I think it's it continues to push through and

(21:19):
I think, you know, obviously now we see a finish line.
So it's going to be great to see this come
to fruition, true Philly Golf.

Speaker 6 (21:27):
All the names in it, Like she was talking about
Gil and Tiger, like it's just speak.

Speaker 3 (21:33):
I think Speek was involved to right, I mean he
has some involvement.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
Well, the short course, I think, yeah, very very cool
and I'm.

Speaker 5 (21:41):
Just over the moon. I'm like, I like the Truest.

Speaker 6 (21:43):
That was so cool to have there, and to potentially
have another venue that can host a PGA tour event, Like,
I'm excited.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
Yeah, And it'd be great to get a regular tour stop.

Speaker 5 (21:53):
Right right, that's on the calendar every year.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
Yeah, the majors are great, right.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
The Truest was a one off that was just a
you know, a time thing, but I would love to
see and one annual. Yeah, yeah, no doubt. All right, Danielle,
let's spill some tea and then we'll get into US
Open recap and take a peek at the travelers.

Speaker 5 (22:12):
Oh, the US Opened that happened this past weekend.

Speaker 6 (22:14):
Sure did lots to talk about with that, but let's
start off. I mean, I guess this is kind of
a good segue. So James Nicholas, we've seen him a
few times, give shed some light on what it costs
to be, you know, a tour player. He got some
you know, internet trolls giving him some grief about how
much he was spending when he was in Argentina, but

(22:35):
he just did a breakdown of his costs and earnings
for playing in a major.

Speaker 5 (22:41):
So that was.

Speaker 6 (22:43):
You know something I think not a lot of people
think about either is these guys have, well half of
them or more, have to qualify, so you have to
do like the local qualifying and then you have to
do sectional qualifying. So he broke all that down, which
you know, sometimes people forget about that. So some people
are flying out for Tuesdayes qualifying and then won't even
make it through. But James Nicholas was able to qualify,

(23:05):
and he was able to finish t sixty one, so
got a nice little paycheck, had some sponsors taking care
of obviously balls, gloves, things of that nature that they
obviously do, and then he had one of his sponsors
fly him home, so saved on a flight home as well.
This year or this event, only spent three hundred and
fifty dollars on groceries, so after expenses, he ended up

(23:26):
earning thirty eight hundred and ninety four dollars, so a
little bit more than he made on that cornferry event
in Argentina, which I think was like, what was it
a thousand or a couple hundred dollars?

Speaker 5 (23:36):
But I always like when he does something like this.

Speaker 6 (23:40):
It just gives people perspective because again a lot of
people think that the PGA Tour is like the NBA
or the NFL, where you know, you jump on the
team plane and they fly you there and you're staying
in the team hotel and everything is for free. The
only thing you're getting for free really on the PGA
Tour is a courtesy car.

Speaker 5 (23:57):
And you have to fill it up with gas.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (24:01):
Yeah, yeah, so pretty cool.

Speaker 6 (24:03):
Staying on the topic of Oakmont, there was an amateur
who played Golf Channel's Brandon Newcomer. He played the morning
after same pins members teas and he shod a ninety three.
That's twenty three over in one round. So just to
put things into perspective, we were talking about that when

(24:24):
we were at the Truist that I was like, how
many people like, what does your t sheet look like
the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday after the Truest Because it's always
a thing whenever I'm walking on the event and I
hear the members like, yeah, we got a tea time
on Monday.

Speaker 5 (24:36):
We're playing it in you know, tour conditions. Yeah, yeah,
how it's set.

Speaker 6 (24:42):
Up for them, And most of the times they're like,
don't touch the pins. We want we want to play
the Sunday pins. So it's always cool to see, you know,
something like that, but to see he shot a ninety
three twenty three over on one round just put it
into a perspective further than from what we saw.

Speaker 5 (24:59):
On TV this past week.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
Oh yeah, yeah, I know the media got to play.
Some of the members of the media get to play
at the Day after two, and yeah, I'm curious to
know how some of those guys did. But I did
the thing on the US Open website where you can
say what would you shoot at Oakmont? And I put
in my handicap index and it said I'd shoot a hundred,
And I'm like, there's no way I'd shoot a hundred.
That's way kind I don't know where they got that number,

(25:22):
but after watching it for the weekend, and there's no
shot that I'd shoot a hundred.

Speaker 6 (25:29):
I had a friend go up I think like three
weeks prior to the US Open. Obviously it wasn't even
in full tournament conditions, and he actually is getting a
shadow box of his broken wedge and his scorecard of
like one hundred and like thirty four or something like that.

Speaker 5 (25:44):
Because he got a little.

Speaker 6 (25:45):
Prostrated without the condition tour and yeah, like I said,
that was probably three or four weeks ahead a tournament time.

Speaker 5 (25:51):
But Harry, I'm surprised when you mentioned that.

Speaker 6 (25:53):
I thought you were going to go with how does
one apply for media to play afterward?

Speaker 5 (26:00):
To get Harry on that.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
Oh, well, yeah, I could get media credential for the
US Open. I've actually been to No.

Speaker 5 (26:07):
No, I mean to play like media.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
You have to have a credential first, and then I think,
you know, you work it from there where certain members
of the media get to play it, like Mark Canne.

Speaker 5 (26:17):
Let's put that on our radar to get heavy out
there after next.

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Year we played the BMW right and that was that
was prior. Yeah, in Wilmington, and of course it rained.

Speaker 5 (26:29):
Actually they're going to listen to the podcast in Bean, Harry,
they're gonna to show up. It's going to rain.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
We're not much rain. They don't need me around.

Speaker 5 (26:37):
Oh that's amazing.

Speaker 6 (26:40):
We we do have to talk about jj'spawn and the
men in the sky.

Speaker 5 (26:45):
Did you guys catch wind of this at all?

Speaker 3 (26:48):
No, it did not.

Speaker 5 (26:49):
Oh, this is pretty cool.

Speaker 6 (26:50):
So JJ's close friend and roommate Andy Wood at San
Diego State passed away the morning of the final round
of this year's Players Championship, and Spawn went out and
played the quote unquote best golf of his life, which
he pushed Rory to a playoff. And JJ had been
obviously worried about keeping his tour card everything else, and

(27:13):
then obviously this past weekend came out on top. We
found out that his his caddie, he jumped into his
caddy's arms at the end and he shouted in his
ear like Eddie in the sky, and a lot of
people were like, what is that, Like, what.

Speaker 5 (27:28):
Does that even mean?

Speaker 6 (27:31):
JJ's caddy or JJ's caddy's father passed away on Father's
Day last year, and throughout his play he would say,
you know, not just at the US Open, but throughout
this entire year. He said his dad would kick the
ball out of the rough for him or give him
a good lie or whatever, and they'd always be like
Eddie in the sky, like that's why I like, that's

(27:53):
why we're getting that, uh, you know, that good break.
So I thought that was a pretty cool story and
to hear that out and just that moment, there was
a lot of coverage on his caddy, his coaches, things
of that nature, But to see something like that pretty
special come out, I think is pretty cool, even you know,
taking aback the NIPA Invitational that Ben Griffin won, you know,

(28:15):
with the brother of you know, the foundation that we started.
So sometimes something special like that just gives that motivation
and makes it even better. But to have him finish
and say Eddie and the Sky, I thought was pretty special.

Speaker 5 (28:32):
Yeah. And then he as he was leaving oak Money goes,
I'm gonna have a beer for him tonight. So I
thought that was pretty cool.

Speaker 6 (28:40):
And then everything's kind of on Oakmont because that's just
with all over social media. But did you guys see
that Rory kind of tomahawk club throat and he actually
bounced back at him and the two kids in the back.

Speaker 5 (28:53):
Did you see their reaction?

Speaker 6 (28:55):
At first they were like what as he like threw it,
and then when it came back and Rory just.

Speaker 5 (28:59):
That hand eye coordination I get, I guess like grasped
it and caught it back and the two kids kind
of looked at each other then started like giggling. It
was a It was pretty funny.

Speaker 6 (29:09):
But there's a lot of different player reactions just with
the frustration of the state of the course, but one
that we highlighted in our our group text that you
know we were not fans of, would be the Wyndham
Clark locker damage.

Speaker 3 (29:25):
And he still has yet to come out and say
anything about it.

Speaker 5 (29:27):
I do not apologize.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
I haven't seen anything like.

Speaker 5 (29:33):
Over two hundred years old. These lockers are not.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
Going to find that stuff.

Speaker 1 (29:36):
And you know it lows and you know, like and
then Graham McDowell posted, I don't know if you saw this.
He said something that you know, basically almost apologizing, justified ration,
justifying it. Hey, you know, this is you know, one
of the most frustrating UH sports at one of the
most frustrating places. Kind of thing. This is what can happen,

(29:58):
and hint that it's happened before and it may have
been Tiger Woods, like that's what how people were taking it,
like he was talking about Tiger Woods years ago did
similar things but it wasn't reported. I don't know if
that's true, but if it is, you know, shame on
him too, because I mean, you know, you talk about history.

(30:21):
It's strong the locker room. I know they can rebuild it,
but that's just compound that with the way he behaved
a couple of weeks ago where he you know, he
threw his club behind himself and he could have tomahawked
somebody and taken their head off. This guy has anger issues.
He needs he needs some help.

Speaker 5 (30:40):
But yeah, that's what they did say, harol.

Speaker 6 (30:42):
Though they said this is minimal in regards to what
I've seen other players do. Players, you would never expect
Oakmont will test players mental fortitude seeing it in person.

Speaker 5 (30:50):
Guess who in twenty six.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
That's what I'm talking about. That that's people were taking
that as he was referring to Tiger Woods. I don't
know if that's true or not.

Speaker 6 (30:57):
Yeah, well it was somebody guess who in twenty sixteen.
But other player reactions to the demands of Oakmont we saw.
We heard John Rahm and the hot mic, Bryson's hot mic,
that tomahawk throw by Rory I just talked about.

Speaker 5 (31:13):
He's done with Oakmont.

Speaker 1 (31:14):
Yeah, he finished runner up years ago to Dustin Johnson too,
so he's played that place really well.

Speaker 6 (31:20):
Oh yeah, picking up his ball without marking AG's Oh god,
I mean I can't imagine. I mean god, he seeming
frustrated on the range and Rory smashing the t marker.
So we saw a lot of this, and then these
were just the players that the camera was on. You know,
it's twenty twenty five. We have cameras all over with

(31:41):
the patrons that are you know, capturing stuff too, but
these are just some of the ones that I can
quick highlight to let you know, like you know, what's
been going on.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
So I just love the way the Irish say the
F bomb.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
I stick out of it.

Speaker 5 (31:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (31:57):
Well, talking about damage, let's take it over to the
Cornfair tour in Wichita, Kansas. I was I kind of
talked about this ahead of the show with you guys.
They had the course completely closed yesterday on Tuesday, we're
recording on Wednesday. Players weren't even allowed out there. We'll
have to take this and put this up on the
Instagram story. Took out the grandstands, there's holes that were

(32:19):
completely a nihiland the tornadoes sleep through. Brandon's out there
and one of our good friends Mike is on the
bag too, and he, you know, they were both saying, well,
you couldn't even you couldn't even sleep. You just heard
like a you know, freight train coming through. And then
this morning Wednesday, tournament starts tomorrow. Guys, there's two holes.
They're not even able to play or you know, they

(32:40):
can basically walk around it today. But tornado came through
and really did some damage there in Wichital Kansas.

Speaker 5 (32:47):
So kind of.

Speaker 6 (32:49):
Crazy, but thankfully everybody is okay, no issues.

Speaker 5 (32:52):
Just you know, play two holes blindly. I guess.

Speaker 6 (32:59):
Keeping on the topic of Corn Fairy Touring and we
got a lot of tail try to wrap it up here,
but the PGA Tour Board approved adjustments to the Corn
Ferry Tour competitive structure, so there is going to be
some changes. It's kind of like what we've been hearing,
I guess with these or what we've been seeing with
these elevated events really with the PGA Tour and things
of that nature. So changes are affecting the priority ranking.

(33:21):
This is not effective until twenty twenty seven. Twenty six
is going to have to be that like bridge gap year,
but the top sixty players from the prior year's Corn
Fairy Tour points list will be fully exempt. It used
to be seventy five. So we see this theme here, right,
We're chopping it down, we're making it smaller. It's just
it seems to be the trend that's occurring, and then

(33:43):
players finishing sixty one through seventy five will retain like
their health insurance benefits and things of that nature, but
they'll be subject to a reshuffle after the season starts.
So fields are getting smaller. They're making it tighter and tighter.
The transition year, as I mentioned, is twenty twenty six,
and then the players who were former fully exempt category

(34:03):
must use their exemption in twenty twenty six. So if
you were in a winners category or a health category,
medical category, something like that, you better use it next
year because it's switching up, and in twenty twenty seven
it's changing again. Top thirty finishers from the twenty twenty
four corn Fairy points list and the top five and
ties get into a final stage of Q School and

(34:24):
then they'll get corn Fairy exempt status in twenty twenty
six if they lose their tour eligibility in twenty twenty five.
So a couple different things from there. I could highlight
it all, but it's better for you guys. Just check
it out if you are interested, and.

Speaker 5 (34:38):
Then want to know your guys' thoughts that Jay Monahan,
how about that offficiently to step down. How do we
feel it?

Speaker 1 (34:45):
Well, we knew that was common. I mean we did.
We knew that was common. Brian roll lapped from the
NFL is going to take over, but apparently Jay is
going to stick around for another year or so is
a consultant to transition the role. But you know, you know,
mana Hand had a very tumultuous run. I mean a
lot of stuff happened and it really wasn't you know,

(35:08):
it wasn't all his fault, but things. You know, he
could catch some blame for some of it, and maybe
for some of the ways he pivoted after first coming
out saying this is what we're doing, and then you know,
backtracking and changing things, going maybe behind the players backs
and negotiating with with the live guys. And it's a

(35:29):
lot of criticism can come his way and it's fair,
but you know, they had to make a change and
hopefully this hopefully this guy rollapp finds a way to
get the best players playing together more often. I don't
know how that works out, but hope that's to me.
Isn't that his job number one? And to figure out
whether these elevated events because it doesn't seem sustainable with

(35:52):
the kind of money that they're spending, even with their
other investment, I don't I don't know that it's sustainable
to figure out a way forward, you know, for the tour.

Speaker 6 (36:02):
Yeah, I was surprised with the corn Fairy changes coming
right after they announced that Jay was stepping down. They
you know, they have I was like, wait, are we restructuring?
Is this going to all be changed again? And I
wonder if he's going to continue on the path of
let's make it smaller and smaller and smaller. But the
way that it's being set up is, you know, we're
not going to get to see guys like you know,

(36:22):
even Jj'spoms fighting to We wouldn't see a story like
that if we continue on this pathway where it's just
going to be you know, we're just seeing the Scottis,
the Rorries, the top players, and there's no way to
break into that unless you possibly get an exemption. And
we saw the exemptions that truest and who they were.
They're all big names.

Speaker 1 (36:42):
And I don't know if that's the intent, but maybe
that's their way of fixing slow plays. Just make the
field smaller and smaller.

Speaker 5 (36:50):
Yeah, but not if the small fields still have the
slow players.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
I think. I don't think it'll change much.

Speaker 6 (36:56):
But yeah, yeah, I mean the slow play I think
is just going to be slow play, Like you know,
you're playing for this amount of money or playing to
keep your card. It's not like we're casually out there
on a Friday playing with our friends having a few cocktails.

Speaker 5 (37:08):
Like if you need a ruling or you know, you really.

Speaker 6 (37:11):
Need to think about how to get up and down,
you need to take your time and figure out what's
going on. But a lot of changes in the world
of golf professionally and just kind of anticipating what this
will be and if these.

Speaker 5 (37:25):
You know, management changes will affect it in any way.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
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Speaker 3 (38:05):
All right, so US Open talked about it.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
JJ Spawn wins it, his first major, wins it with
a sixty four foot putt on eighteen bot you free
first round, so he jumps right out.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
He's all over, all.

Speaker 2 (38:18):
Over the coverage, sixty six, sixty six, right, he finishes
one under, so he beats Oakmont, the only player in
the field that beat.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
The golf course Sunday right plus two.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
He's five bogie's in the first six hole, so he's done.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
He's out of it.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
There's nouns like me.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
But he gets four birdies on the back nine, benefits
from it from a weather delay, right to cool some
other guys down and get his mind right. But four
point three million dollars and an incredible win.

Speaker 3 (38:50):
Bobby Mack comes in second place.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
Hovelin is up and down, up and down, but this
game seems to be coming and coming into form.

Speaker 3 (38:59):
Cam Young, right, it's like T.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
Four Hatton who was all over the coverage or tease,
and then he had Ram and Scheffler right in in
that T.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
Seven. But Harry incredible.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
US Open seeing this course, seeing what Oakmunt was doing
to these guys, Danielle talked about it in the tee,
but JJ spawn just persevered.

Speaker 1 (39:20):
Yeah, he really did. I mean it's something I think,
you know, people like us can really learn from that.
You know, it's not over. You know, you boge the
first couple of holes, you can still rally. And Eddie
and the Sky may may have taken a time out
over the first couple of holes because JJ Spawn's luck
was not good on Sunday. He went rough to rough
on the first hole, makes a bogie. Then he hits

(39:42):
an excellent approach shot on number two and it bounces
off the green and hits the flagpole and rolls not
just off the green, but like almost back to as
far away as he was when he hit the initial shot,
and he couldn't even see it with the way the
contours are, but he knew something happened. And the look
on his face when he finally saw that ball rolling

(40:03):
off the green was like, oh my god. And that's
enough to crush somebody, you know, Like, what do I
gotta do? I just get I just stoned a wedgshot
and here I am, you know, with this kind of luck.
And then he missed the fairway on three, which was
a super hard hole for everybody all week. He couldn't
advance the second shot to the green, makes bogie. Then
he hits the rake on the par five fourth hole

(40:26):
and ends up with a really awkward stance in the bunker,
hit the baseball swing, missed the fairway on five, couldn't
advance to the green on his second shot, makes a bogie.
Or he made the par actually on number four when
he hit the rake. My bad. But then he missed
the green on six in the right front, right funk
bunker and makes another bogey. And You're like, how are

(40:48):
you gonna come back from that? Knowing you've got weather
coming in right, You've got twelve holes to go on
this brutal golf course, and you're five over in the
first six holes. It was just unbel believable what happened
to him on the back nine, And you know, I
was captivated by it. I didn't like the tournament up
until maybe the latter part of the round on Saturday.

(41:11):
I got kind of caught up with watching Burns and
Spawn and Cam Young. You mentioned Hovelin was hitting great irons,
and I kind of got into it. Maybe that was
because Scheffler really was kind of scuffling around. It seemed
all four days he just couldn't get anything going. He'd
make a birdie and then he'd make a bogey. He'd
miss a real short putt, maybe for Parr, and it

(41:31):
was like a sloppy bogey from two feet. You're like,
he just doesn't have it this week to win. But
he's so good that he was still there kind of all,
you know, running off the pace, and you're like, man,
he could catch fire at any moment, but he never did.
But then I got really into it after the rain
delay and they came back, and I thought some of
the conditions we'll talk about the Sam Burns situation. My god,

(41:54):
the way he accepted that brutality was amazing, because he
all was in a puddle. I mean, now, I know
he had already made a couple of bogies before that.
He was three over on the front side but still
had the lead, and then I think he doubled eleven.

Speaker 6 (42:12):
I have it right, But something like that can get
in your head and then you're frustrated and then even
where you went that that could have.

Speaker 5 (42:17):
Cost that probably cost him.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
But that was like the fifteen all. By the time
he got that bad ruling. But still, I mean, you know,
if he if he gets to move that ball, he
might put that that that approach in a better spot.
Who knows what happens from there. I felt really badly
about him because he played really great golf all week.
But yeah, the sixty four foot putt. How about the
teach from Hoveland. Hovelin hits the ball just outside of

(42:42):
JJ's talk about like maybe Eddie and the sky. You know,
we're gonna we're gonna affect your playing partner here and
he's gonna give you a teach on the putt. And
I just thought it was amazing watching, you know, like
Robert McIntyre's classy you know, reaction to what he just saw,
you know, give in the claws. And you know, we
saw a guy not too long ago. I know I

(43:04):
harp on him a lot, but you know, strop his head, sulk,
walk out of his shirt, yeah, rip his shirt, walk
out and screech out of the parking lot and in
the uh, you know, the company the vehicle, like just
acting like a baby. And then you see the way
a class act like Robert McIntyre.

Speaker 2 (43:22):
Behavin hatten Right had stayed an interview and he's like unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
I mean that.

Speaker 5 (43:32):
We were out to dinner. I stopped and I looked up.

Speaker 6 (43:34):
I'm like wait, I just stopped speaking for a couple
of minutes, and it was just like staring up the
TV and I'm like, wait did that? Like people who
didn't even like watch golfer had no idea, like us
Blue was on, Like I think my reaction. They were
all like looking back off the TV and some people
were like, well that that was really long.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
And he didn't need the putt to win on finish,
It's like, what a moment that's gonna be really ever.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
Yeah, and on those greens, you know, you're you're sixty
four feet away, like a two putt is not a
guarantee at all, right, Like you're grinding for a two
putt there, right.

Speaker 3 (44:10):
So it was still.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
Watching that because he's like, all right, if he goes
four or five feet.

Speaker 3 (44:15):
Past, right, I'm in this thing, right.

Speaker 2 (44:17):
So incredible and yeah, Tarry to your point, like to
see that sportsmanship.

Speaker 3 (44:21):
I hope I hope all the guys were watching that.
I hope.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
I hope they see the reaction of the fans and
how they appreciate that way more.

Speaker 3 (44:26):
Let's not I get it. You're pissed if you lose,
but ye shows your Yeah, no doubt about it.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
Especially when the camera's on you, right, you know, you
know what the cameras will do.

Speaker 3 (44:37):
Yeah, go back to your hotel room and bring away
and yeah we're.

Speaker 5 (44:40):
Getting your car and scream. You know, figure it out.

Speaker 6 (44:42):
But JJ's bond all but secured his spot in the
Ryder Cup. He now has his securitiest PGA Tour card
for twenty twenty five. He secured exemptions into the US
Open through twenty thirty five and the next five editions
of the other majors went on Father's Day. Two young
daughters jumped to eighth and official World Golf ranking in

(45:04):
six and FedEx Cup rankings.

Speaker 5 (45:06):
Cool four point three million dollars his largest single tournament
went to date. I mean, just pretty cool, pretty cool,
And now we get to say him.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
At the Open at Royal Port Rush, one of the
daughters was puking all night the night before in the hotel.

Speaker 5 (45:20):
He made a run out to CV.

Speaker 1 (45:23):
Like he had hardly any sleep, not that he would
really sleep all that well anyway, given the final round
of the Open. But everybody will talk about the putt
and I get it. But the seventeenth hole, the t
shot on the driveable par four was the shot of
his life. I mean, it was an unbelievable drive, puts
it on the green, ends up making birdie, and then
has to come out to eighteen, which is one of

(45:45):
the toughest drives in all of golf to hit that fairway.
We saw so many great players missing the fairway, even
with shots that would hit the fairway and eventually run
off into the into the deep rough. He stones one
and then hits a six iron another cut about one
hundred and ninety yards and puts it where he puts
it and makes the pott. So it was it was

(46:06):
really cool.

Speaker 5 (46:07):
It was cool he got a root for yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
Oh yeah, yeah, and probably tough to play against r
because he seems like he kind of he shows his emotions,
you know, he does, like you see it in his
face a lot. But yeah, he's got that gear to him.

Speaker 3 (46:20):
So I love the fact that he's going to be
a ryder cup.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
Right.

Speaker 2 (46:23):
I love seeing some some new blood, right. I hope
Ben Griffins is there can continue is playing well.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
There's one guy at the bottom that I hope just
keeps keeps.

Speaker 5 (46:31):
One point, I thought Ben was going to be.

Speaker 2 (46:33):
Last guy to just drop off. You guys know what
I'm talking about the way.

Speaker 6 (46:37):
Yeah yeah Ben with the US Open too, I saw
his play at one point. You know, Brandon was even
looking He's like the way Ben is striking this right now,
like he's he's going to finish up there, like he's
he's been on the streak.

Speaker 5 (46:49):
It's fun to watch.

Speaker 1 (46:50):
And one final thing was spawn you juxtaposed that to
the way things went for him at the Players. You
touched on it earlier, Danielle, Like, you know, he goes
into that extra for a you know, playoff the next
day and hits that shot on seventeen that he just
thought he flushed and he did. He is a flusher,
but it just went a little far. Hits the green
and goes into the water, and then the look on

(47:11):
his face like I just lost the tournament literally like
is he is he going to be a guy that
can never get over that?

Speaker 3 (47:18):
And you know he showed.

Speaker 6 (47:19):
Us yeah, of course hit that shot. It's like you
can't even swallow. And then you come back, you know,
two months later and you're.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
Like I went, yeah, yeah, great, US open, but I
you know, the people really want to know, how did
the round that ramble would go? Danielle, That's what that's
what people that's what people tuned in for.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
How is that?

Speaker 5 (47:37):
You know?

Speaker 6 (47:38):
I should have had some content up on the swing
and ding it, but it was it was nuts.

Speaker 5 (47:42):
I actually got an elite perrying.

Speaker 6 (47:44):
I was with the bride herself, with Gabby for BALLEI wow,
two other girlfriends.

Speaker 5 (47:48):
It was funny.

Speaker 6 (47:49):
One of our girls after nine, she's like, I'm done,
I'm going to go back. I'm going to get a blowout,
like maybe a massage, and I'm like, wait, you're not
the bride. But we had a blow so we had
a lot of fun. We I did have to call
the ranger over. There was some slow play.

Speaker 5 (48:04):
I was like, you wake it up.

Speaker 6 (48:06):
Put these people on the clock in front of us.
But we had a shotgun and there were two people
off of each tea, so I guess I was kind
of expecting. We were right behind her mom and I
was like, I'm hitting into your mom.

Speaker 5 (48:16):
I don't care.

Speaker 6 (48:17):
I was like, clear the clear of the faraway Janet
out of my way. But we had a blast. But
it was a weekend We started off we Ramblewood, which
Be came with us and we were driving and he goes,
not gonna lie, it's a little bit different taking this
route to go to Ramblewood instead of Pine Valley. I'm like, okay, okay,
well we're lumbing it today. But it was fun and

(48:40):
actually Jalls did a really great job with that course
because I don't know if you guys have played it,
but it's for people to have fun.

Speaker 5 (48:46):
It's you know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (48:48):
It's not like they're ever going to hold a PGA
Tour event there or anything like that.

Speaker 5 (48:51):
It's wide open. It's fun anybody, can you know.

Speaker 6 (48:56):
Yeah, and my all my friends from and they were like,
are you kidding me?

Speaker 5 (49:02):
They were like fighting to buy drinks.

Speaker 6 (49:03):
They're like, wow, six drinks or seventeen dollars Like in
Jupiter it's about ninety eight dollars.

Speaker 5 (49:08):
They were all like, hey, who wants to drink? Who
wants to drink? So it was pretty cool, very cool.

Speaker 3 (49:14):
Very cool. The Green Valley member guests Green and I
played played well. We finished three and two.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
We were right there in it. Saturday we had one
I wouldn't say bad round. The team we played against
just played really really well.

Speaker 3 (49:27):
But wait, did you go viral? That was I videoed
my my buddy Nate.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
So he makes the shootout and every hole went into
a chip off because there were ties, and he chips
one in to advance. It was tremendous and they made
Nate and Johnny made incredible shots. They were in it
right until the end. Stu Finkel and Doug Friel were
actually the winners. They guy hits his drive off of eighteen, Harry,

(49:56):
if you're familiar with Green Valley into the bunker on ten.

Speaker 3 (50:01):
Oh wow, and our eyes Johnny smokes the drive all
the way down the hill on eighteen, so we're like,
it's over. I think it was.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
Stu hits a hybrid out of the bunker to the
front of the of the kind of right in front
of the bunker on eighteen, but gets over to the
left of the water, gets up and down and you know.

Speaker 3 (50:25):
Close putts boom boom boom.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
Tie.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
They got to go back play it again and then
they came back and wonted.

Speaker 3 (50:30):
But electric out there.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
Yeah, remember, guests, those things are fun when everybody's out
there and the carts following along watching it.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
But our boy Coop the Master of ceremonies.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
Oh as always, Harry just put on a great show
and it's a it's a great event, it really is.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
It really is.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
So looking forward to the Legacy club member guests coming
up in September. Green and I are going to get
into a shootout in one of these. That's our that's
our goal. But I'm going to see our buddy Corey
Riley today a five Iron'm gonna a little little iron fit.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
It's been a minute, so I'm going to.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
Take a look at some new callaways, see if I
can get these irons dialed in because we have the
mini driver yet no, but the seven would Uh it
was good. I put it in play a couple of times.

Speaker 3 (51:11):
I have to to play it a little bit.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
It was I was losing it a little bit out
to the right, so just gotta just gotta dial it in.
But great contact off it. I was hitting on the
range and next was like, damn, that sounds good.

Speaker 5 (51:23):
You know You're like it's a player, not the product.

Speaker 1 (51:26):
It's definitely not any one degrees yeah yeah yeah, yeah
yeah nice yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:31):
So uh, our golf outing is live.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
There's teams that have already signed up. I would encourage
you if you were playing, to get in there because
it's it's it will sell out, it will it will
cut off.

Speaker 3 (51:42):
So the link is in our bio.

Speaker 5 (51:44):
Send this link. I had a couple of people ask me,
what's the data again.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
I was like, let me get back home, Chober twentieth,
get in there, get in there, yep, and uh yes.
Let's also thank our friends that buy my balls right
t off with top tier golf balls without the top
tier price. Buy my balls dot com for top quality,
recycled premium brands for a fraction of the price. Go
to buy my balls dot com. That's balls with a Z.

Speaker 3 (52:08):
So we roll right from the US Open into a
signature event.

Speaker 2 (52:11):
I've talked about this before in the podcast. This is
my first recollection of golf. I had an uncle that
worked for Travelers, huge golf fan, always had it on TV,
and I remember seeing the Traveler's umbrella and then watching
the Travelers tournament and maybe that's, you know, sponsorship advertising,
that's what struck the nerve golf.

Speaker 3 (52:27):
It tied it all together.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
I bring it right back to that moment at my
grandfather's house and eleventh and Writtner, you know, watching golf
with my uncle.

Speaker 3 (52:34):
But the Travelers No Cut signature event. As we talked
about the.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
Course, of course, Harry, TPC River Highlands, you're up in
that region right now.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
Yeah, I'm about an hour away. I won't be getting
over there today heading home tomorrow, but yeah, not far.
This is one I definitely want to attend because it
looks like just a fun place, fun place to play,
it looks like and also just a fun place to
watch these guys over these final closing holes. But it's like,
you know, this used to be the greater Hartford Open
you talk about Travelers, that's the Hartford was the insurance

(53:05):
town of the United States where all the companies basically
had headquarters, and that's the genesis of this. But yeah,
TPC River Highlands Pete die back in nineteen eighty two.
His understudy Bobby Weed did a redesign in nineteen eighty nine.
It's a par seventy only sixty eight hundred and thirty
five yards, the shortest golf course they play on tour.

(53:26):
The average green size five thousand square feet. They're bent
and Poanna. The collers, approaches and fairways are all the
same bent in Poanna, but the rough is Kentucky bluegrass.
We've had a lot of Kentucky bluegrass rough here of
laid on the tour and fescue, and it's going to
be at four inches plus. There's sixty nine sand bunkers,
four water hazards, and they're in play on five of

(53:47):
the holes, many of them in the closing section. The
average fairway is thirty yards wide, and they finish. The
finish is great. There's a drivable par four fifteenth with
water on the left, the par three over the water
on number sixteen. Then you turn around and the par
four seventeenth has water all down the right, and then

(54:07):
your second shot is to carry over water to the green,
and then you turn up towards the clubhouse and the
par four eighteenth, which is not an eighteenth closing hole
that blows you away, but it's it's kind of it's
a very tight fairway with a big fairway bunker on
the left and kind of a hill on the right
that if you don't you don't want to be on there.

(54:27):
Mixed the approach a really difficult shot to a narrowish
green with a large bunker in the front right corner
that has figured into this championship greatly. Remember Jordan Speith
hold a bunker shot out of there. There's been other
bunker shots made from that bunker, you know, at crunch time,
and there's like an amphitheater grass bank around it, which

(54:47):
is a pretty cool way to finish. Just the hole is
not something that you know would tip. I don't think
is all that difficult for these guys for the closing hole.
But these guys are going to need to be around
twenty underpart I have a chance to win actually with
how wet it is. You know, they've had the same
wet spring that we've had at home. It's gonna be
really soft. It's not very long if you could put

(55:08):
your drivers in play. It's a wedge game and a
putting contest, so you know, beware of when you're picking
your players. This week a.

Speaker 3 (55:16):
Little bit, a little bit different than last week for sure, Yeah,
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
Yeah, So your tight, tight field. You got some sponsor exemptions.
Tom Kim Ricky Fowler, who does he get a sponsor events?

Speaker 1 (55:27):
I think he's going to get one from now until
you know, when he's sixty.

Speaker 3 (55:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:31):
Yeah, Louke Clinton, Gary Woodland get in on sponsor exemptions.
You had obviously Scheffler. He won every tournament last year.
This was included in that Keegan in twenty three, Xander
in twenty two, and Harris English in twenty twenty one.
Our friend Jeff ulrich ten of the last eleven winners
of this event had posted at least a T thirty
one at TPC River Highlands prior to winning, and the

(55:53):
last six winners, not including the COVID season, all had
a top five finish in their first three months of
the season in the same in which they won the event.
When we look to see the line with our friends
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Gambling problem Call one eight hundred gambler. Yeah, and Corey
Conners is not in the field. He hurt his wrist.
I don't know if he broke something or severely hurts

(57:33):
his wrist at Oakmont and Johnny Vegas is in for him.

Speaker 3 (57:37):
Okay, there you go, get him in your lineup.

Speaker 2 (57:40):
Kegan T two here one in twenty three thirty five hundred.

Speaker 3 (57:45):
I don't hate that number.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
Can't lay T five and twenty twenty four, T three
and twenty twenty three. I think he needs to win
an event right like now. This could be the one
short number of twenty two hundred. When you look at
bet Parks, I mean obviously Scheffler's two eighty and then
Rory at twelve hundred. JT's had success here T three
and sixteen, T five and twenty four. Henley also had

(58:08):
some success here at T six and eighteen T eleven
in sixteen. Jordan Speith won this in twenty seventeen, his
numbers at forty five hundred, as well as Ben Griffin.
If you're looking at somebody that's playing well right right now,
how are you seeing this here?

Speaker 1 (58:24):
Well, I'm looking at this through the lens of last
week in a large respect. In fact, the guys that
were really in the mix throughout, you know, for the
four rounds, I'm fading them. I'm just staying away because
I think the mental grind and the physical grind that
was last week is going to be a whole lot
to sort of rebound from to play another great four

(58:45):
days of golf. So I'm looking at guys that either
missed the cut or just really weren't in contention through
the four days that have a good course history here
and can hit good wedges and good irons. And I'm
looking at Brian Harmon. He was te fifty nine last
week at the US tremendous success at this golf course,
with a lot of top tens. I know you don't

(59:07):
like watching him because he's all the waggles, but I'm
taking him in a top twenty. Justin Thomas is my
one and done guy this week. Outside of last week
where he missed the cut, he's been trending pretty solidly.
You look at his stats, you look at where he's finished.
He's got to win a couple of weeks ago. I'm
going with j. T. Spieth always plays well here, he

(59:27):
has a win here. He was T twenty three in
the US Open. Not really in it. You know, on
Sunday he's plus one thirty for a t a top twenty.
I'll take that. Straka missed the cut last week. His
irons are just two darn good. I'm taking him in
a top ten. And I'm gonna take Okshay in a
matchup over Sung j M. At plus. You get plus

(59:49):
one hundred on Oksha, you gotta risk one to thirty
on Sungjay. I will take Oksha.

Speaker 3 (59:56):
Very interesting, Danielle.

Speaker 2 (59:57):
Our eyes will be on Kansas to make sure everything
goes well there, rooting for Brandon and rooting for that
event to take place in the Cornferry Tour.

Speaker 6 (01:00:05):
Yeah, I just put up while we were talking here
some stories on our Instagram, so we'll have to you
guys can check that out to kind of see the damage.
And then also when I looked at our Instagram account,
I saw that Justin Tupper has followed us, so he's
a friend. He's part of the Cops Creek project, so
that may just be our next guest.

Speaker 1 (01:00:22):
There you go, nice love it. The women have a
major this week, the KPMG Women's PGA Championship down at
the Gilhans Course. Gill Hants is everywhere Risco. That's the
PGA headquarters. Now it is going to be hot, so
hot down there. That's going to be something they're all
going to have to deal with. Jim Young Co I'm

(01:00:43):
going to take her at plus thirty five hundred and
Nelly is plus eight point fifty. It would be great
to see, you know, someone at the top of this
board win this Genotitick and his plus nine hundred. They
need somebody that there's been I think eleven different winners
over the last twelve majors on the LPG, and nobody's
really sort of, you know, taken the forefront and going.

(01:01:04):
I think a superstar Nellie Corda, she becomes a part
that really wins a lot on this tour. Would do
a lot for that tour. I'd love to see her win.
But one other nugget on spawn I saw this. He
was the first player to shoot forty on the front
and go on to win the US Open since Francis
we met, did it back in nineteen thirteen?

Speaker 3 (01:01:25):
He doesn't remember that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
Yeah, he shot thirty two. Yeah, they made a movie
about that one. Then he shot thirty two on the back.
That's the lowest score on the back nine to go
on to win since Johnny Miller shot thirty one at
Oakmont in seventy three. Yeah, thirty two. So the next
time I turn and you know four, I'm thinking, Man,

(01:01:47):
I got a thirty eight in me here on the back.

Speaker 3 (01:01:49):
Let's go. Damn right, damn right, beautiful.

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
Yeah, all right, Well, thank you to Aaron Cook from
the Cops Creek Foundation. If you didn't get a chance
to watch the the first part of the docu series.
Check it out on golf Pass. You'll learn a lot
about the process and everything that's going on in the future,
which looks bright for the Cops Creek Foundation.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
And we'll be back next week. Thanks for listening, Thanks
for watching.

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
Yeah it to listen, swing it and ding it.