June 12, 2024 • 10 mins
We preview the 124th US Golf Open out of Pinehurst #2 with Mr Majors, Graeme Agars. The same course that Kiwi Michael Campbell won his one and only major at back in 2005.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The country, sport breakfasts, weekly tea off, golf coverage with
Crown Trade up to a new Crown forklift, simply the best.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yes, The one hundred and twenty fourth US Golf Open
gets underway tonight, New Zealand time. Pinehurst number two out
of North Carolina, playing host of the championship this year.
Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina joining
us on the CSB this morning, mister Major's Graham, Aygar
this morning, Graham, good morning, How are you very well?
(00:29):
Thank you. We'll start with the course itself. It's a
course that many Kiwi golf fans a love, as it
was the scene where Michael Campbell one is US opened
back in two thousand and five, but known as one
of the toughest courses out and Michael Campbell, I believe,
just this morning, has been on the Golf channel over there.
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yeah, Well, we'll get to Michael later because it was
a stunning interview and I want to spend a little
bit of time on it. But the golf course is
a Donald Ross masterpiece, one of the famous Scotts that
came to America and stuff of building golf courses. It
is his response to not getting the contract to build
a Gusta National from Bobby Jones. Bobby Jones chose another Scott,
(01:10):
Alastair Mackenzie, who all golf fans will recognize, so there
was a lot going on between those two guys in
the US and Donald Gross's number two is his response
to it. And it is a stunning golf course. When
I lived in Florida, it was a morning strive to
get there, and the pr people at Pinehurst Wood intrite
us up there if they had a quiet weekend. So
(01:32):
I've had the privilege of playing number two on several occasions,
although not currently in its presentation now. When I played it,
the rough was bermuda and quite deep. Now they've changed
the course back to more like it was one hundred
years ago, and that is fairways greens the hardest in
golf and just junk along the side of the fairways
(01:56):
sand wild grasses. You can get a good bad lay
in there. So it's a different golf course, but the
strength is the inverted bowl greens. They roll off front
back and both sides, the hardest greens to hit and
hold in golf, and they will be the deciders of
the championship without doubt.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
This is going to be one that's really going to
test every single individual out there, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Well, there's been several players quoted saying that patients is
the key, and one player said that it is the
biggest test of patients they will find all year long.
So it's going to be a steady head that wins it,
that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Scottie Schiffler will start with him coming off another win
last week. Is it him against the field? Will he
like the course?
Speaker 1 (02:50):
He likes every course and he's such a cool dude.
The reason he wins all the time is he never
gets ahead of himself. He accepts that he's going to
make mistakes. He made a triple bogey last week and
to find a round as still won. He doesn't let
it worry him. He just brushes it off. He makes
more birdies per round than anybody out there, so he
(03:11):
can always recover and he's bounced back. Statistic that is
making a birdie after making a mess of the whole
before is almost forty percent, which is just ridiculous. So
sure he starts as a favorite without question. But this
is a course that favors shot makers and people who
(03:32):
have the courage to go for it. So you're going
to look at people like Colin Morakawa, Sanders schofflav course
full of confidence after his PGA, when maybe Rory McElroy
if he can get his head together, Brython Deshambeau, the
lib golf player who almost won the PGA the last
major we saw. So all of those guys are going
(03:52):
to be in the mix. But this is the sort
of course because of those, as I said, inverted bowl
that they call greens here, it could be a surprise
winner like Michael Campbell who came in as a qualifier
back in two thousand and five, then he started beating
Tiger Woods by two shots to pick up his major championship.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
We're talking about Tiger. Can't have a major without bringing
him up in a conversation. Are we expecting much the
same from a Tiger that was seen during twenty twenty
four for the tournament.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Well, he's on the practice range right now, actually, and
he looks awfully good. But you know, the practice range
is not the golf course at the PGA Championship. You know,
he ran out of gas, that was pretty obvious. This
is a less severe walk for him than the PGA
Championship was and the Masters was. The Masters is a
(04:48):
very hilly golf course, so you know that's a positive
for Tiger. He spent his practice rounds with his new coach,
that is his son. He's taken over the rain because
Tiger said in the interview where he disclosed this to
us that he's seen him hit more shots than anybody else,
(05:12):
So why shouldn't he be of assistant. So we'll see
if Wood's ink can do well this week.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Just one key we in the field. Ryan fox here,
Foxy looking to make his seventh straight cut at a major.
Is it a course that might suit Foxy? Do you
think he's a big driver.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, he's a big driver. The fair ways are reasonably wide,
but if you get off them, you know, it's a
toss of the coin, whether you're ge an unplayable eye
or a playable Ye. I mean, it's as I said,
it's insult in the court chunk. But you know what
I mean. It's unmaintain it's unmaintained, and there's a little
scrubs and bushes and all sorts of things around the place.
So you can get in there and get lucky, have
(05:51):
a perfectly clean lie on a hard sandy base, or
you can get in there and be in in the
middle of a little bushy clump and you just have
to hack out. So it could suit him. He's got
good touch around the greens. As I said, the greens
will be the determining factor here. Some of the players
have even said that on some holes, defending on the conditions,
(06:12):
they may actually aim to miss the green because it's
going to be easy to get up and down from
a bunker or over the back of the grand. So
we'll see what happens. When Martin Kaimer won here in
twenty fourteen, shot a ridiculous score of nine under. He
didn't chip once because you can put from off the greens,
(06:33):
and every time he missed the green, he putted and
did it exceptionally well.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
And we mentioned Michael Campbell appearing on the Golf Channel
this morning. You were impressed by the chat they had
with them.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Oh, they couldn't believe it. I mean, he's come back
nineteen years removed from his championship. The first thing he
said was coming back here, he suddenly realized what a
huge win this was. And he said that he remembers
every single shot that he played during that championship, particularly
in the final round, he beat Tiger Woods by two shot,
(07:08):
two shots. He said the key thing for him was
that he turned up and he just happened to be
in the zone on that day. And he actually started
out playing for second or third because he thought he
thought Retief Gooson and Tiger Woods would be the guys
that would battling it out. But he played a good
front nine. Then he got to the tenth tee and
(07:28):
Tiger Woods was playing in front of him, and Tiger's
playing partner hit it into the rubbish and needed a ruling.
So Michael stood on the tenth tee for fifteen minutes,
and he said his brain started spinning and he remembered
what his mental coach had told him, and that is
(07:49):
to see this as an asset, not a problem. So
by the time he was ready to hit his te shot,
he said, my cup was overflowing with positive thoughts. Stopped
worrying about what Tiger was doing in front of me,
and I completely reset mentally and just focused on playing
one shot at a time, And by about the sixteenth
(08:12):
hole he realized, you know what, I'm an underdog. But
I can win this. I'm just going to do it.
He watched the scoreboard all the way round to see
where he stood and in the end a two shot victory.
Absolutely fantastic. Now this is something I didn't know about Michael.
Six or seven months following that victory, he traveled the
(08:35):
world doing charity events, sending a positive message to people,
marry people in New Zealand and to people all around
the world. Bear in mind, he was a European tour
player at that stage, and he said he did that
because his grandmother told him when he was ten. She
(08:57):
said to him, Michael, you are going to do something
that changes the world. I know it, I can see
it in you. Remember this. When you do, you have
two hands, one to receive and one to give. And
he followed that following his US Open victory and gave
back everywhere. Now, I got to tell you, the Golf
(09:20):
Channel people watching this were just mind boggled at what
was coming out of Michael's mouth. It wasn't a golfer
the interview, it was a person's interview. And you know,
their estimation of him went through the roof. Not because
he'd beaten Tiger Woods by two shots, to win the
(09:41):
US Open, which is amazing, but because it is attitude
after winning it, and he's anybody who sees that in
America now believe that he's going to make a lot
more friends.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, that's inspirational. That's inspirational. Graham, great to catch up
with you and I we'll talk a little later on.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
It's a pleasure mate, talk good again.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
That was absolutely inspirational from Michael Campbell. Brilliant stuff.
The country, sport breakfasts, weekly tea off, golf coverage with
Crown Trade up to a new Crown forklift, simply the best.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yes, The one hundred and twenty fourth US Golf Open
gets underway tonight, New Zealand time. Pinehurst number two out
of North Carolina, playing host of the championship this year.
Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina joining
us on the CSB this morning, mister Major's Graham, Aygar
this morning, Graham, good morning, How are you very well?
(00:29):
Thank you. We'll start with the course itself. It's a
course that many Kiwi golf fans a love, as it
was the scene where Michael Campbell one is US opened
back in two thousand and five, but known as one
of the toughest courses out and Michael Campbell, I believe,
just this morning, has been on the Golf channel over there.
Is that right?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Yeah, Well, we'll get to Michael later because it was
a stunning interview and I want to spend a little
bit of time on it. But the golf course is
a Donald Ross masterpiece, one of the famous Scotts that
came to America and stuff of building golf courses. It
is his response to not getting the contract to build
a Gusta National from Bobby Jones. Bobby Jones chose another Scott,
(01:10):
Alastair Mackenzie, who all golf fans will recognize, so there
was a lot going on between those two guys in
the US and Donald Gross's number two is his response
to it. And it is a stunning golf course. When
I lived in Florida, it was a morning strive to
get there, and the pr people at Pinehurst Wood intrite
us up there if they had a quiet weekend. So
(01:32):
I've had the privilege of playing number two on several occasions,
although not currently in its presentation now. When I played it,
the rough was bermuda and quite deep. Now they've changed
the course back to more like it was one hundred
years ago, and that is fairways greens the hardest in
golf and just junk along the side of the fairways
(01:56):
sand wild grasses. You can get a good bad lay
in there. So it's a different golf course, but the
strength is the inverted bowl greens. They roll off front
back and both sides, the hardest greens to hit and
hold in golf, and they will be the deciders of
the championship without doubt.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
This is going to be one that's really going to
test every single individual out there, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Well, there's been several players quoted saying that patients is
the key, and one player said that it is the
biggest test of patients they will find all year long.
So it's going to be a steady head that wins it,
that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Scottie Schiffler will start with him coming off another win
last week. Is it him against the field? Will he
like the course?
Speaker 1 (02:50):
He likes every course and he's such a cool dude.
The reason he wins all the time is he never
gets ahead of himself. He accepts that he's going to
make mistakes. He made a triple bogey last week and
to find a round as still won. He doesn't let
it worry him. He just brushes it off. He makes
more birdies per round than anybody out there, so he
(03:11):
can always recover and he's bounced back. Statistic that is
making a birdie after making a mess of the whole
before is almost forty percent, which is just ridiculous. So
sure he starts as a favorite without question. But this
is a course that favors shot makers and people who
(03:32):
have the courage to go for it. So you're going
to look at people like Colin Morakawa, Sanders schofflav course
full of confidence after his PGA, when maybe Rory McElroy
if he can get his head together, Brython Deshambeau, the
lib golf player who almost won the PGA the last
major we saw. So all of those guys are going
(03:52):
to be in the mix. But this is the sort
of course because of those, as I said, inverted bowl
that they call greens here, it could be a surprise
winner like Michael Campbell who came in as a qualifier
back in two thousand and five, then he started beating
Tiger Woods by two shots to pick up his major championship.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
We're talking about Tiger. Can't have a major without bringing
him up in a conversation. Are we expecting much the
same from a Tiger that was seen during twenty twenty
four for the tournament.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Well, he's on the practice range right now, actually, and
he looks awfully good. But you know, the practice range
is not the golf course at the PGA Championship. You know,
he ran out of gas, that was pretty obvious. This
is a less severe walk for him than the PGA
Championship was and the Masters was. The Masters is a
(04:48):
very hilly golf course, so you know that's a positive
for Tiger. He spent his practice rounds with his new coach,
that is his son. He's taken over the rain because
Tiger said in the interview where he disclosed this to
us that he's seen him hit more shots than anybody else,
(05:12):
So why shouldn't he be of assistant. So we'll see
if Wood's ink can do well this week.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Just one key we in the field. Ryan fox here,
Foxy looking to make his seventh straight cut at a major.
Is it a course that might suit Foxy? Do you
think he's a big driver.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, he's a big driver. The fair ways are reasonably wide,
but if you get off them, you know, it's a
toss of the coin, whether you're ge an unplayable eye
or a playable Ye. I mean, it's as I said,
it's insult in the court chunk. But you know what
I mean. It's unmaintain it's unmaintained, and there's a little
scrubs and bushes and all sorts of things around the place.
So you can get in there and get lucky, have
(05:51):
a perfectly clean lie on a hard sandy base, or
you can get in there and be in in the
middle of a little bushy clump and you just have
to hack out. So it could suit him. He's got
good touch around the greens. As I said, the greens
will be the determining factor here. Some of the players
have even said that on some holes, defending on the conditions,
(06:12):
they may actually aim to miss the green because it's
going to be easy to get up and down from
a bunker or over the back of the grand. So
we'll see what happens. When Martin Kaimer won here in
twenty fourteen, shot a ridiculous score of nine under. He
didn't chip once because you can put from off the greens,
(06:33):
and every time he missed the green, he putted and
did it exceptionally well.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
And we mentioned Michael Campbell appearing on the Golf Channel
this morning. You were impressed by the chat they had
with them.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Oh, they couldn't believe it. I mean, he's come back
nineteen years removed from his championship. The first thing he
said was coming back here, he suddenly realized what a
huge win this was. And he said that he remembers
every single shot that he played during that championship, particularly
in the final round, he beat Tiger Woods by two shot,
(07:08):
two shots. He said the key thing for him was
that he turned up and he just happened to be
in the zone on that day. And he actually started
out playing for second or third because he thought he
thought Retief Gooson and Tiger Woods would be the guys
that would battling it out. But he played a good
front nine. Then he got to the tenth tee and
(07:28):
Tiger Woods was playing in front of him, and Tiger's
playing partner hit it into the rubbish and needed a ruling.
So Michael stood on the tenth tee for fifteen minutes,
and he said his brain started spinning and he remembered
what his mental coach had told him, and that is
(07:49):
to see this as an asset, not a problem. So
by the time he was ready to hit his te shot,
he said, my cup was overflowing with positive thoughts. Stopped
worrying about what Tiger was doing in front of me,
and I completely reset mentally and just focused on playing
one shot at a time, And by about the sixteenth
(08:12):
hole he realized, you know what, I'm an underdog. But
I can win this. I'm just going to do it.
He watched the scoreboard all the way round to see
where he stood and in the end a two shot victory.
Absolutely fantastic. Now this is something I didn't know about Michael.
Six or seven months following that victory, he traveled the
(08:35):
world doing charity events, sending a positive message to people,
marry people in New Zealand and to people all around
the world. Bear in mind, he was a European tour
player at that stage, and he said he did that
because his grandmother told him when he was ten. She
(08:57):
said to him, Michael, you are going to do something
that changes the world. I know it, I can see
it in you. Remember this. When you do, you have
two hands, one to receive and one to give. And
he followed that following his US Open victory and gave
back everywhere. Now, I got to tell you, the Golf
(09:20):
Channel people watching this were just mind boggled at what
was coming out of Michael's mouth. It wasn't a golfer
the interview, it was a person's interview. And you know,
their estimation of him went through the roof. Not because
he'd beaten Tiger Woods by two shots, to win the
(09:41):
US Open, which is amazing, but because it is attitude
after winning it, and he's anybody who sees that in
America now believe that he's going to make a lot
more friends.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah, that's inspirational. That's inspirational. Graham, great to catch up
with you and I we'll talk a little later on.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
It's a pleasure mate, talk good again.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
That was absolutely inspirational from Michael Campbell. Brilliant stuff.
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