Fairway Rollin' - Spieth Shines at the British Open (Ep. 43)

Episode Date: July 23, 2017

The Ringer's Joe House and Geoff Shackelford discuss Jordan Spieth's third major title (01:00), the incredible 30-minute bogey (03:00), "the Forrest Gump of the golf world" (17:30), Matt Kuchar's putting (21:00), Branden Grace's new record (27:30), R&A conspiracy theories (31:00), and the telecast on NBC (40:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey and greeting Shack House friends from beautiful Southport. This is a special Sunday evening open championship wrap-up edition, and what a tournament it was. We're going to get into Jordan Speeith. We're going to get into Matt Coocher's unbelievable play. Brendan Grace's historic round. But first, before we do that, let's get things started with a word from our good friends at Callaway Golf, makers of the number one fairway woods in golf, and they are red hot with the red hot fairway wood from Callaway. It's a supercharged version of a name you are very well familiar with, the beloved steelhead.

They are introducing the new steelhead XR Fairway Wood with a re-contoured Hawkeye's soul. We all know about the Hawkeye. It's a Calloway trademark and the explosive face cup technology. Steelhead XR is longer and more versatile than ever. And it is now in your favorite golf shop. So go hit it, people. Try that Steelhead XR from Calloway. And you will love it.

Calloway, the number one fairway wood in golf. Let's go to the Shackhouse part of the Ringer podcast network. House, it was a thrilling, thrilling final round open championship. I am here in Rainy Southport. It picked up a little bit after the championship. I hope you enjoyed it. It was a blast out there here. I'm dying to hear how it played on television.

Yeah, so I will not complain about the fact that the rain is starting now, Shaq. I mean, we blew right through all of the. high scoring prognostication. The low round was 62. We had a record setting low round. Let it go. I'm not bitching about it because the outcome was wonderful. It was a wonderful, wonderful tournament.

I could not have enjoyed it more, although we didn't get enough. We got a little taste of kind of the bloodbath, which I especially enjoy with the Open Championship. We got that taste on Friday, and that's kind of all we got of it. But look, Chek, I'm exhausted right now, the emotional roller coaster of watching that tournament. And now look, I saw you out there on the hill, on 13, on the hill, eyeballs on Jordan Speets ball. So if I'm tired, tell the people, how are you feeling, Shaq? I'm tired, but what I can't get over is Jordan Speeth ran up and down that dune, I think, three or four times.

I've now lost track, and he runs up the dune, which is nuts. It was raining a little bit. It was wet. It was slippery. Michael Greller, of course, got the bag, and he's, you know, tiptoeing up the thing. Jordan just sprints up it. I was exhausted watching him do it, but it was the craziest scene. I think I've really ever witnessed in person, starting right at the T-shot on 13.

you know, it just was not a good vibe out there. He hit a nice shot on 12, which is a beautiful par three. I hope it came off well on television. And then 13, he just ballooned it right. And they had us, the press stand back on a dune that'll probably be a T the next time they come here. It holds 499, and it was into the wind and brutal. Just a beautiful hole, though, when you stand on the T.

And we saw it, and I said, that's on the top of the dune. And then you saw this guy just go down. And I went, gee, I. I wonder if he got hit in the hat, of course. It turns out. I did not know this. Speeth mentioned it in this post round press conference. He was a direct hit.

So, yeah, so I walked down the right side with a bunch of people. And sure enough, you know, there it was down the hill. But I first went up the side and Speed started looking for it. And everybody was trying to convince him. It was over on the other side of the do. And for whatever reason off the tee, I just don't think he saw that or believed it. It was kind of peculiar. I guess, you know, it is easy to lose sight of the ball.

out here for sure. There's no question. It's, you know, gray skies and all that. So, and then from there, it was just surreal. Well, he expressed some incredulity at the idea that it had hit somebody in the head and bounced to the backside of the dune. Here's the thing. And I don't know if you, you obviously will not have had a chance to have caught this. Golf Channel, very quickly after the tournament was over, had Todd Harris out on The driving range. Lewis, I'm sorry. Pardon me, Todd.

Todd Lewis, with an RNA rules official. And they had a yellow T down at the actual divot that Jordan took. But they went through a very deliberate and very well-conceived walkthrough of the rules options and why the trucks were in play and the choices that Jordan made. And the thing that at the end of it, so everything made sense. And the guys in the booth properly gave Jordan credit for having his wits about him and for understanding the rules well enough to sort of map it all out. He obviously had great assistance from the rules officials there on the ground.

But the thing that I didn't really understand until the guys golf channel were talking through, Brandel and Rich Lerner a little bit and Frank, the amount of time it took to get to where he could actually play a shot. and what that meant for Couture. And it took easily 20 minutes. I think it took more than 20 minutes. And I'm sitting here watching this. It could have taken 30 minutes.

And that's a long time to ask your playing competitor with the tournament on the line to sit and watch. And it's just one of the things of tournament golf, apparently. Yeah, it was no, no, I've never seen one take this long. It was an eternity. And he apologized to Coucher, both. when he got up to the green before he hit his chip and then as they walked off the green

and I didn't I didn't actually hear see those parts of the whole thing but it was it was a one mistake I made down there was I did not look at my watch

because I just wouldn't have thought that when he finally got down to the ball and it was the people around were kind of shocked Was it clearly unplayable? Was it clearly unplayable? No, it was just a horrible lie and the steepness of the dune made it such that, I mean, he could have taken a swipe at it,

but he might have hurt himself, he might have slipped, and he might not have gotten it back to the fairway. But here's where he's just on another level house. And he joked about it a little bit in the post-round press conference that he's had, you know, he's had enough experience with unplayable lies and moonball drives that he knows. But he was never thinking about trying to hit that recovery shot. I'm standing there looking at it going, well, this will be. fun to watch. He immediately, from the moment he saw where it was, started looking back towards the range, towards the tour vans. It was in his mind all along to use the rules to his advantage.

He knew exactly what he was doing. He was going to go as far back as he wanted. And that would take him right in the middle of these tour vans, tour trucks, which were still there because they couldn't get out. So they had to stay there for the weekend. And then he knew he'd get a drop from there. and it just took a long time to kind of figure out the alignment and all that. And it was brutal for Coutcher. You know, he had a great second shot, but he had a lot of time. And, and Spieth did not, let me tell you, he did not drag this out on purpose. There was, it was chaos.

The officials were, you know, John Peremor, the European tour, kind of had to come in, the roving official, the walking referees. It was just, it was too much to try and figure out because you have this big dune in the way. So you couldn't figure out the line where the flag was. And he had to keep the flag and all that stuff. They had to move the spectators, right? Yeah, he first had to move the people to see if he could take a drop at the base of the dune and then realized that wasn't possible.

And so he then that led to this. I mean, it was a surreal little scene. I just wrote a long piece for Golf Week. If anybody wants to read it on Golf Week.com, kind of my eyewitness account. But the hilarious thing was on the range. He's moving back and forth trying to find the spot. to first to take the unplayable drop. And the photographers were kind of like a little swarm of blackbirds behind him,

just kind of moving with him. And then he finally finds a spot. He takes the ceremonial drop. And then from there, the official could declare that he had a temporary movable obstruction in his way. He moved over to the spot. And the question I wanted to ask in the press conference, and I couldn't because they cut it short.

And we had to have somebody from Australia ask if, you know, the Australian Open helped him win. That was really helpful to everybody's story. And I wanted to ask, do you, you know, do you think they should put a plaque out there? Because they have an Arnold Palmer plaque, you know, should just join the Burkdale history. And I think they should. It is in the middle of the range. So the only people who really enjoy it are the guys in the range picker.

But it was, it was surreal to see him do all this. And then in hindsight, realize he, he, He did this with full clarity. He used the rules to his advantage. There was nothing nefarious about it. It was exactly what the rules allowed for. And I am just so impressed beyond words at his ability to spot what was a. And it wasn't like he was playing well.

And, okay, now I got to deal with this. He was trending horribly. It was just not feeling good at all. And I don't know what, you know, I don't know what Johnny was saying on the broad. podcast, but I'm sure he was talking about the pressure and the demons and the things that were, had to be going through Spee's mind. And so to have that mental clarity is, it's one of the things that makes golf so special that even though we can slow it down and seemingly think things through, the thing I always

am amazed by when I get to, I have the privilege of getting to be out there and get inside the ropes. And the final round of a major is how quickly everything goes. It just flies. And when something crazy like that's happening for a guy who turns 24 in a week to, and now I know he's been playing a long time and he's been a great junior golfer and all that, but to be able to slow it down and know exactly what he's doing. And then to run up and down the hills, you know, Bob Harry gasped afterwards, what did he do to kind of reset himself because it was just chaotic and then he makes the great up and down?

and then the cool thing walking off the greenhouse he he he's walking off the green and and he is he turned to greller uh the caddy michael greller he he hands in the putter sticks the putter out and he just briefly flash this mischievous little grin uh and you had to be just happen to be looking and then i mean he did not want to be enjoying this moment too much uh but it just you knew at that moment he knew he had just pulled off I wrote, I think it's the greatest bogey in modern major history. I'm sure there's some great ones, but this one's pretty outstanding. A few quick observations in response to some of the things that you raised.

First, Johnny, Johnny was pretty insistent that he thought that Jordan was making the wrong call by taking the drop off the range. He thought that Jordan should have gone back to the T and re-Ted. Now, that seems crazy to me because Jordan in the press conference said, way that 13 sets you up, you can't aim for the fairway. You have to aim up the right side and have the ball land not on the fairway because it brings the bunker in play, but you have to land it in the rough and then let it come down off of it. And having just blasted one onto the moon, I'm not so sure that rushing right back up to the T to try again would have been the right job. The other thing, other observation, and this is a little bit of the incredible

you know, sort of good karma that Speed had going for him. How many places have you played where the driving range is not out of bounds? I mean, it's incredible, right? Yeah, yeah, it really is, especially since this week they made the 10th fairway out of bounds when they realize that players might take a shortcut there. The actual short grass of the 10th hole was out of bounds. Right. Yeah, so it is interesting.

And it also, it's a very good point you make because at Hoylake, just up the road from here, they do play this little internal range as a very distinctive out of bounds. Now, it's marked by a wall, and it's kind of a legendary hazard. I don't care for it myself, but it's done because the guys hit the ball too far, and they would just shred the place. And they also put tents within that little. That's the club's range. But yeah, you're right.

And, and Speed, by the way, wasn't sure if it was out of bounds or not at the team, and then back down in the fairer. way. Yeah, he said that he asked, and the RNA official, who appeared in this great piece with Todd Lewis, explained, you know, at this club, the members play the range as inbound. So it's in bounds for the professional tournament as well. And it just created this terrific opportunity for Jordan to advance the ball all the way to the green. And, you know, when he struck the ball with his three iron, he showed a little bit of discouragement. It seemed like he thought that he'd hit it into the bunker,

but he'd hit it poorly enough. And another bit of that good karma, it was short of the bunker, and it left him a chip that was not all of that difficult. Well, it was a tricky little chip. And again, I would love to have asked in the press conference. I thought he mishit the chip. I thought he landed it shorter of where he wanted to, but we won't know because we didn't get to ask someday we might.

And it's really a shame. got rushed through Brandon Grace's press conference yesterday, too. You know, he shoots 60 freaking two. And we, you know, we want to get these. These are cool details for history. And so anyway, my impression was, oh, I thought he kind of left the chip short, but, you know, worked out beautifully. There were two ways to play the shot. But from where we were standing when he hit that three iron, it's like a driving iron kind of thing.

He just added to his bag. We thought he'd hit it way right, like he'd hit it back into even more dunes. But he had been, obviously, it was funny, too. and I wrote about this in the piece. Greller, he was yelling at him up there and he was reminding him, you know, give me the line. But don't stand there. Don't stay there because, you know, if he stood there and gave him a line, it's a penalty.

And there were so many dynamics in the moment. And then I put this in the piece. There was one when he was kind of waiting for Greller to get back up of the hill, he just was mumbling to himself, taking practice swings. Stay through it. Stay through it. It was, but again, I'm thinking, oh, my gosh. So many players would unravel at this moment.

And he didn't. And that's why he's won three majors and has one more PGA win from being a Grand Slam, career Grand Slam winner. All day long, it felt like there were moments. There was probably five of them. And I'm not going to be able to rattle them off off my head without going back and looking at the broadcast again. But at least five different moments when Kucher could have seized control of this golf tournament today. And he was unable to do so.

he just could not get putts that were going to really change the trajectory of things he couldn't get those putts to fall so that should have been at that moment for Cooch a two-stroke advantage and possibly three

if he made the birdie putt that burned the edge and Jordan had not nailed his putt that would have been a three-stroke thing and we might be talking about Matt Coocher open championship but I mean you know champion golfer of the year Yeah, pardon me.

The same was true of some of those bogeys that Jordan made on the front. Cooch had birdie opportunities and it was burning edges or just coming right up and just could not seize control of things. But I want to just make a quick observation. And this is, we talked about this last year. Jeff Shackleford is, friends, the Forrest Gump of the golf world. It is now the case that not only was Shack present behind 17 Green when Hendrick Stenson took off. his shirt last year at the Open Championship. Not only was Shaq present

on 17 Green, took a picture of Brandon Grace's ball on 17 Green, the hole in which the 62 was made possible. But Shaq, you were right there looking at Jordan Smith's ball on 13. I mean, these are historic Open Championship moments. Maybe you're just the Forrest Gump of the Open Championship. I don't know.

I'm glad you didn't call me Zellig. That probably would date us if they, you know, with the old, old Woody Allen movie. But, um, right. Well, I mean, 13, it was just, I just darted over there because I wanted to see this. I knew it was going to be wild. Um, and obviously Brandon Grace, when he got going and we'll discuss his, uh, history making around in a minute, uh, I had to go out there and you want to see it because it was just

trending. We knew all morning that it was going to be possible. And, uh, and sure enough it happened. Um, but the, um, uh, the, the whole scene, uh, on 13 was just so much fun to, to, to, to kind of take in just the way the crowds are here. You know, that's another thing. I got to say, and Spieth manages the crowd so well and loves the crowds here. He noted that in his press conference.

And he feeds off him in a way that's different. And today was the first day where I sense he started to get a little whinier and pressing a little bit more. And obviously the pressure was there. But all week, he was pretty, there was just a little bit more of a calmness. We talked about it on the Thursday show. And I think a lot of that he really does feed off these people and how much they know golf. And like he had no problem shushing him a little when he was down there.

But he didn't do it rudely. He just, he clearly has a comfort level here. And part of it's just his, it's really cool. So here's a cool moment he told us about in the press conference. You'll probably see in the clips. But, you know, he's what I love, of course, you know, I love any player that appreciates the history of the game. And he takes in everything house. And so he watches the early telecasts as much as he can.

And then he watches these, you know, they have these running highlight reels on the internal feed. And, you know, obviously on the telecast. And he says he has no idea where it came from, but obviously it came from this. So 15, he makes the eagle putt. And he just points at Greller to go. And then he goes just kind of walking away. He doesn't go to pick the ball out of the hole. And he said afterwards that was a total retro move from seeing the old,

the old footage. You see the old championships. Guys would do that all the time. They'd make a big fun. The caddy would go run to pick up the ball. And we all thought, well, he must have, Greller must have given him the read. He goes, no, it was just a reaction to the moment.

And Greller didn't know what he meant. And it was just a cool moment. But it was one of those things inspired by his sort of his week of just soaking it all up and soaking up the open. And so we always love it when, and these people over here really love it, as you can imagine. When somebody wins who loves the golf course, Open knows some history. And so that's why they've, they love, you know, they've had a great group of Americans, really, who have, and they really take them under, under their wing and,

and try to do everything they can to, to love these guys who win here. So anyway, I'm rambling on about that, but it was, it was magnificent. But we should talk a little bit about Coucher, because it's, this is almost like Mickelson last year. You, you feel bad that he lost. He's three clear of third place. And I mean, I watched him probably more than any player this week. And he got the worst draw, that brutal weather on Friday. He got the wind.

And Spieth just got the rain and some wind. But Coutcher got just the worst wind. And so did Jack Johnson a little bit before him. And he managed the course so well. And he had such an interesting game plan. It was so clear, I'd love to ask, I'll ask his caddy John Wood at some point. It just seemed like his goal was to, If he ever missed a green, it was always going to be short.

He always under-clubed if he was on the fence. And he left himself in front of a lot of greens and made all these beautiful up and downs. I never saw him miss a short putt. Just, I mean, he just kept it going and going. And then, you know, 16 today was a little uninspired. And I feel so bad for him. And the people love him here as well. He loves it here.

He loves Lynx golf. He plays his own game. He doesn't try to fight the wind. He just throws a ball up there and lets it move and so impressed with him. Of course. And you know that I think well of him. Not only did I project him as a potential winner. I put my own money where my mouth was.

I gave him out as a potential winner. He performed, in all honesty, the way I kind of anticipated him this week. I mean, he fit exactly when we were talking this tournament through on Monday. the narrative that we'd kind of constructed about the combination of pedigree and experience and the form that he was showing, all of those elements were in play in terms of his game plan, his calm, his self-containment, his approach through the balance of the tournament. I just wished today that one of those putts had gone in. That's all.

And you nailed it. You nailed it. You know, you're absolutely right. been him grabbing the control of the thing. Yeah. And that's sort of been the kind of the story of his career that for whatever reason, and maybe it'll just happen in spectacular fashion one week, but for whatever reason, that consistency is his strength,

but then in a way, that inability to do what Speed did on 14 and 15 is the one thing he lacks in his arsenal. But I just can't tell you how impressed I was. with how consistently he struck the ball and putted the ball. And it was really inspiring watching and play and how well he handles himself. He's just a class act and really cool. So we have more to get to. But let's, why don't we take a quick break?

As you know, buying tickets to sports and concerts can be complicated and confusing. But there is a better and simpler way to buy. And that's with Seatgeek, the smartest. easiest way to get tickets to live events. They have a seamless mobile experience. You can buy and sell tickets in just two taps. That was more than two. Sorry.

Seek helps you find the best seats at best prices, fully guaranteed. They save you time and money by searching multiple ticket sites to compare prices and find amazing deals. And to help you get the most bang for your buck, I had a great time with this a couple of weeks ago at the Nationals Park here in Washington, baseball game with my kid. Seekkeek grades every ticket based on value, so you immediately identify the best seats that fit your budget.

I needed good, reasonably priced seats under the overhang because it was too hot out in the sun. We got those with the Seekek app. It doesn't end with sports, though. Seekkeek also has plenty of concert comedy and theater tickets available too. Best of all our listeners, Shaq House listeners, get a $20 rebate off their very first Seek purchase to get that rebate. Download the Seatkeek app.

Go to the settings tab, click Add a promo code and enter promo code House, H-O-U-S-E. Seek will send you $20, $23 after you've made your first ticket purchase. Download the app and enter promo code House today. Make Seek your go-to ticket source for all things PGA Golf and beyond. And House, we can't forget about our good friends at Odyssey. Besides me, the number one putter in golf, continues to dominate with most worldwide putter wins of any putter brand this year. And the new Odyssey O-Works, Red, and the O-Works black putters are brand new, spanky new.

Everybody's excited about them. They've gotten great feedback from the Odyssey staff pros. The O-Works Red and the black putters offer new head shapes, new finishes, coupled with the top spin generating microhinge insert. That helps all golfers make more putts, but especially house, but especially. Brandon Grace, who posted the first ever 62 in a men's major on Saturday. And it was a spectacular round. And I'm really happy in a weird way because we were starting to think it was going to be a bloodbath. And that Brandon Grace and his, he uses the Odyssey works, jailbird mini putter, by the way, House.

I have to look that one up. Yeah, yeah, me too. He's also, of course, an epic sub-zero guy. and the Apex utility woods and the Calloway-X forged irons and all that good stuff. But the Odyssey putter for him was incredible. And so what's really cool, though, I think, well, both days on the weekend, the morning guys scored really well in the afternoon, not so much. And so, of course, Grace was phenomenal after the round.

And he really wanted to talk more with us. But the thing that was cool, I feel, at the end of the day, the scoring average was 69 and change, and he shot 62. So he was seven shots better than the field. And, you know, some of the great rounds, the 63s that are noted like Justin Thomas's most recently, though, he was nine shots better than the average. So it was looking, though, like the 62 was, eh, you know, of course it was there for the taking. Of course, is immaculate.

The weather was perfect. There'd been a little rain. And I think by the end of the day, it became clear that this was a, a truly special round of golf. So congratulations to Brandon Grace and a very special element to our Saturday coverage here. So, Shaq, I'm glad that you pointed out, you know, the difference between Grace and the rest of the field. That's a seven-shot difference because, you know, there's a rush whenever something historical

happens, and especially with the magical 62-63 score to try and properly, recognize its place in history. He, Grace, did create some separation between his score and the particular achievement that it deserves by way of that seven-shot difference. It was not as big a big a difference as Justin Thomas's nine-shot discrepancy or the 63 he shot on the par 72 at Aaron Hills. and, you know, in relation to the field, Justin Thomas' was sort of statistically better also. But you can't take away anything from the number, and we had Johnny on the call for it. Did you get a chance to hear afterwards Johnny's reaction at all? I did. I did.

And obviously, then I saw the fallout. Johnny brings it out in people. and I somewhat disagree with his assessment only because we later had a good chat with Fooch, Justin Rose's caddy, and a couple other people got this feedback from the players. So that the pins did look easy. There were a lot of holes that were cut in spots that you looked at and you went, and they moved up some holes, so they were trying to make the fifth drivable. And so there was.

Well, it was driving. Ricky, my father almost hit all in one. Yeah, it was drivable for sure. There were four eagles and it was, I loved it. I thought it was great. I was amazed how many guys took the bait because it's a hard shot to pull off, even though I'm sure people saw that yardage and didn't think much of it. But anyway, but to your point about Johnny.

So I get why he reacted the way he did because from afar it did kind of look that way. But what Fuch told us and a few other people kind of gave the feedback was these pins, the pins on Saturday were, on some spots. And so there was a lot of respect for what Brandon Grace did and some of the other great scores in the morning. And if you watch closely, you know, one of the things I've learned, the PGA Tour guys, when they set up a course, you'll watch, they work very hard to not have the ball snap at the hole. And there were a couple puts, and I'm trying to think, I'm drawn a black now. Spieth had one that just snapped at the hole. And he was kind of shocked at it. And I'm,

I'll think of in a minute. It's been a long day. But so the point is, though, that, that it was a sneaky, tough setup on Saturday. It was, you know, the course was totally getable. And I'm sorry, Johnny's right in that you can compare different scores, different 63s, and now a 62 with this group. You can compare them. Certain courses are different. And he took so much heated air and he just brings it out at people.

I think it's great. It's what makes Johnny Johnny. And he doesn't care, by the way. And he doesn't, and not in a way that's like, screw you. It's just, he just says what he sees. And he, he floats along. And that's Johnny. That's what he does.

That's why he's, that's why he's a great lead analyst. Well, you, you just mentioned setup. And I did see some conspiracy theories out there. Oh, yeah. The RNA was, was deliberate. And one of the things, a statistic that I read today about that round that Grace had, Now, one curious thing that came out, he claims he did not know standing on 18 that he, that three footer was for 62. Yeah, no clue.

Totally in the zone. Totally in the zone. That's all right. Well, look, but the thing that, the stat that jumped out at me, he in particular are not known for being an enormous, you know, long ball guy. He had nine iron or less into 10 of the greens yesterday. Yeah, not wild. He had one three iron and one seven iron. and the rest were basically wedges.

And that was with less roll. That's a setup thing, isn't it? No, no, no, no. That's the guy's hitting him. That was the case for most of the field. Remember, there was no win. So for a change, they were dealing with conditions where they could, he hit, I'll tell you what's admirable.

I don't have, shoot, I don't have it, it's in my workstation. But he hit, Tim Roosevelt asked me this morning, what was it? He had a lot of drivers. Okay. It's the point. He hit his epic, and it was an aggressive round of golf because it's a golf course where you definitely do not need to hit driver in those still conditions on many holes at all. And he attacked it. And I think that's the other thing that when other players see that, and we printed it at Golf Week,

and a few people tweeted it. The guy here used to edit the Golf Week magazine, Dave Seiner, got his caddy to go through the clubs and the yardages and all that because they rushed Grace out of the press room. because, you know, he had nowhere to go. And anyway, and he was being great, too. He could have sat there for an hour with us telling us about the round. You know, he just shot 62 at a major. He knew he'd made history. And, of course, you know, they had to get him out of there.

And so we didn't get to go through the clubs and the shots. But it was an attacking round and good for him because this is a hard golf course to his speed show today. If you blow on offline, it's penal. Well, I do. I do want to. But to your point. on the conspiracy theory, yes. Yeah, this is what I want to touch on.

I mean, one of the thoughts that I heard was the RNA deliberately set it up this way as a means of forcing a conversation that the governing bodies in golf want to have with the club manufacturers and the ball manufacturers about the distance and that, you know, taking the sort of historical, these crucial historical markers and having this generation of players blow through them is, going to bring everybody to the table so that the courses aren't, you know, these great classic courses aren't rendered obsolete. That's one of the theories I read out there. Yeah, John Huggins. Yeah, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm starting to get on board with that. Well,

here's the deal. John Huggin wrote that. We discussed it a lot. That's right. Exactly. Several of us have kicked it around when we saw the scoring early on and we were all sitting around at lunch going, there's going to be, there's going to be a good one today. And the USGA now has had the Women's Open, the Senior Open, and the U.S. Open have incredible low scoring. Now, the RNA historically is not like the USDA. They don't care about, they don't try to produce a winning score. They don't try to manufacture the field. In fact, several the players noted how great they did this week, of course, airing on the side of caution with the setup on the windy days. And then Saturday, I'll tell you, and this would be my case with a lot of people who don't

quite believe it, but they map these setups in advance. So the fifth hall had been telegraphed to be drivable on Saturday. And to their credit, they didn't go well. It's going to be calm. So let's make it tougher today. And they had made Saturday, I think, the day to be, to have some real scoring in some spots. But I do believe we've seen the signs this week. Martin Slumbers said it. They are seeing a big spike in distance this year. And I think that to the argument people have always made against people like myself who say, you know, the tour pros were losing the element of skill. The argument people said, well, look at the winning score. Well, the things that have been done to get winning scores sometimes at tournaments are just insane.

You know, the rough height, the narrowness, the sticking cups on little spots. And so they've been caught a few times, I think, where people realized, oh, yeah, they've. They were trying to prevent people from seeing how good these guys are, how good the equipment is, how good the conditioning is, how good the trackman, dialing in, all these factors are. And so we now have a situation where I think they've decided to not try and produce certain scores. And so we are now seeing the product of not manipulation the other way trying to produce red numbers, but instead just letting them play as the modern. equipment allows them to play and you will let the public decide. So, yeah, so basically, that's fine. I mean, that's what I think that's going on.

That's fine to me as a consumer of the game and I, you know, somebody that enjoys watching the very best players play their very best, it's not a secret with the open championship that all of the defense of these golf courses resides in the weather. And it just wasn't any weather. And this is the second straight year. Well, Friday. sure, Friday. And I mean, but, you know, none of the forecast, the Monday or Tuesday forecast really came to bear other than the water. It rained Wednesday, and that was predicted. And it rained Friday into Saturday. And that was predicted. But in terms of the winds, you know, the forecast Monday Tuesday had winds and gusts and the, you know, the 20 mile an hour steady wind with gusts up to 50. And just none of that really came to bear. other than for one stretch on Friday that caught one particular segment of the T-Times.

And those guys had had the worst of it. But there were still under par rounds on Friday, including Jordan Speath, including Rory McElroy. And, you know, those guys, that was a skill thing as much as, you know, their ability to kind of navigate around out there. So I don't have any issue whatsoever with the basic approach of like, We plan to set up a certain way. We imagine that the weather might be a certain way.

And it didn't come to bear. The same was true at Aaron Hills, right, Jeff? I mean, we were expecting big wins at Aaron Hills. Yeah, yeah. And in the past, they've taken these setups to the edge and they've been criticized. So they've decided to err on the other side. And then, hey, if it leads to this low scoring, so be it. Because they'd rather not, I think they've learned their lesson, all these organizations.

And the RNA included, they had an incident at the old course. They have the greens too fast again. They've learned that while the public has changed and the players have definitely changed, where they're more accepting that, okay, so what if George Speeth wins at 12-under at Burkdale and we aired on that side? We did not taint the championship by trying to interfere the other way. And that's what I love about it. And that's why because I wrote, you know, for years about these tainted championships where they

jacked around with the setup and did things that were really, We're really cynical and really designed to produce a score, not a great champion. Well, that observation is very complimentary with the observation that I want to make, which is there is no doubt that Jordan Speath was the championship golfer of the year this year. He went out and kicked the field's ass. And that's the thing. I don't care what the score is. I want to make sure that the guy that played the best over the course of the four rounds wins the tournament.

He played the best. He won. The same is true of Stenson last year. Those guys put on crazy score. feats, especially in relation to the rest of the field, Phil and Stenson. But they were the two best golfers all week long. And Stenson was a little bit better than Phil on Sunday. So he won.

So I can live with that. I don't care if they shoot four under or 40 under. I just want to make sure for me that I want the champ, the best player for that week to win the championship. And I think you can say that about each of the previous eight majors that we've had. Yeah, absolutely. I completely agree. I'm very happy about it on all fronts.

Now, House, you mentioned you're a consumer. You have to tell me. I am. Now, I was on the golf course, but I did have my seat here a monitor that we could flip between Sky and NBC Golf Channel. We got a little feedback after our Thursday pot, our pop-up, on some of the telecast stuff that we discussed. So thank you all for listening. And as always, the feedback on the Twitter. Give me your kind of your overall impressions of how NBC did and what, you know, because I see the usual, there's not enough tracer and there are too many commercials, which I'm not downplaying the importance of those observations.

But just kind of your overall thoughts on how they presented it. I feel like I'm constantly coming on here after these majors in giving the, well, I think I'm too generous. people on Twitter tell me I'm too generous a greater. I actually, I again thought it was a pretty great broadcast. Now, for my tastes, I would like a little less, I don't know what the word is, formal. I know, you know, some of that, you know, the cadence of the way that the guy is in the booth when it's the Sunday round of a major, you know, there's a sort of quiet respect that I understand and I agree with. it just as a guy that's come to enjoy other ways that these tournaments can be presented with

sort of a looser feel where guys are telling stories that, that, you know, give you a little bit of inside the ropes kind of feel. And especially like, you know, with the things we got earlier with this tournament with bones, being there on the grounds and telling stories and so forth. I could do a little bit less with the reverence on Sunday and a little more. with kind of the color of it. But look, the broadcast was great. I agree with the idea that more shot tracer and less commercials,

that's just a good life rule. But to NBC's credit, the playthrough thing was pretty neat. They did a really good job of running this commercials on the right hand side of the broadcast. And you can watch the guys, you know, playing or walking on the left hand side of the TV screen. That's a nice innovation. I heard they went to one of those during the Spieth incident on 13. Is that correct? I don't recall.

Yeah, people complained about that and missed. I mean, it was a long thing. It was, again, I wish I'd written down the time. But, yeah, I just wondered about that. I would agree in the parts I saw, there was only one thing where it bothered me. They had done a, and I just, you know, obviously I have a big bias. work with the Golf Channel and I think the world of the NBC team and the visuals. But I, the one spot where I sat there and went, oh, if I were at home, I'd be annoyed. They did this.

It was very cool looking and written and all this, but it was some anonymous actor in a locker room putting on a sweater and staring and there was cool lights and music and lighting and the whole package. And it was sort of the set up this moment that the leaders are here. And then next thing you know, there's, there's Spieth and Coutcher on the first team. And I would have, of course, if I were the producer, I'd junk that. And I want to watch them walk from the range to the T because they, you know, they got all these cool shots. And it's this wacky little path they have to take to get there. And that, to me, is much more interesting seeing the gladiators going into the arena than those kind of, then a prepackaged thing like that.

So that might be kind of what you're getting at, I think. Yeah, and I don't. I have to be honest. I never sit around for those prepackaged. Sure. That's, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's sort of, and that's the thing. It takes your eyes off the live moment. And I think more and more, what's really fun is seeing those guys go to the tea. That said, it's the open. You have to do some of the ferity things and capture the flavor. I'd be disappointed if they didn't do the travelogue stuff and, and give you that sense of what it's like here and some of the beauty shots in Southport and the links and the people. No, that's all crucial. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

You got to have that. You're right about that. But the tracer thing is just as our usual ongoing thing. I got a bunch of people on Twitter wanting more of it. And a little that's them and Sky. I know they had an issue with it last year. I know they had an issue with it working, I think. Here's the last thing I want to conquer.

I want to make sure that we touch on this because Jordan has now really distinguished himself. So let's take a crack, even though. it's Sunday. We're barely two hours since his press conference going through here. We got to get this podcast up for the people, Shaq. Let's give a gut reaction to sort of the historical prominence. I liked very much a column that Meg Schuster of the ringer.ringer.com wrote, does anyone want to dominate golf? This was her, I think, Wednesday column. Yes, Jordan's beat those. That's right. Yes, how about that? He answered the call and, you know, all we're going to see all the way through Sports Center tonight on Golf Channel and every, every, you know, sports outlet where this ranks, you know, how he compares to Jack Nicholas and Tiger and, you know, on both the wins basis and the majors and now how close he is. And this is just wonderful to me. He gave us a narrative for Quail Hollow. We have the PGA Championship in three weeks.

And the interest in that. And, you know, look, this is another sort of aspect of the broadcast. You asked me, you know, what I thought about it. One of the things that I am interested in seeing is how the ratings turn out. Because I got the impression that a lot of people were watching golf this morning and kind of early afternoon. Nice. Yeah, Bill Simmons even. tweeted. I mean, he's even watching golf. I love it.

Right, right. Well, and so in that respect, getting eyes on the game, how just from, you know, Wednesday, Meg writes this column, here we are with Jordan. And you answer the question, Jordan Speeth wants to dominate golf and how great that is for the next upcoming major and all the juicy storylines that come of it. But, you know, give me your thought on kind of in the first place, like the historical kind of presence and where you think Jordan is and what the potential is. And then kind of this idea that, you know, there's now a juicy narrative that maybe we didn't have a week ago. Yeah. Well, when you have somebody who's doing things that get him mentioned with Woods and Nicholas at this age, and it's really amazing and wonderful and thrilling. And then you mentioned that that person is well aware of all this. You know, it's not like, oh, dude, oh, that's great. You know, like, oh, I love Tiger.

You know, he knows all sorts of stuff about these people. He takes it all in. He wants it badly. And, of course, as we know, the more you want it like that, and the more you're aware of the history, the harder it is to do. And you just look at the contrast, you know, this morning, you know, we get here, And we sit around a lot all day. And Karen Krause and the New York Times came up to me and said,

what do you think about comparing Rory and Spieth with sort of a Palmer and a Nicholas? You know, Palmer was the charisma and the power and the this and then and the meticulous. And then Nicholas is the more meticulous tactician and gave things, it was just tougher mentally or whatever. You know, however you want to look at. I said, yeah, I think it's a fair analogy, although obviously I think Arnold Palmer's a, you know, much greater player than Rory McElroy appears he's going to be unless he gets his act together. And you just, you know, you come in, of course, it's great being here, house because the, the UK writers are such homers, you know. And although there was, I was disappointed there was, there were fewer groans this year.

I think they've gotten used to some of Rory's ups and downs. But you do sense that people can tell there's just. There's just he's got to get a little more spieth in him in terms of his preparation, what he takes in information-wise, maybe his catty relationship, you know, that kind of stuff. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Let's just tap the brakes for one second. Oh. Yeah, well, tap the brakes for one second. We killed speed last year.

You and I both. We killed him for what he did in between the 2015 season and the 2000, the beginning of the 2016 season. because of the money grab because of traveling the world and everything like that. So I'm not ready to get down on my knees and say that Jordan Speets' preparation deserves, you know, accolades or anything. Did he play the John Deere Classic this year? No. He was over here at Burkdale, he was in Cabo relaxing, having a blast with Michael Phelps and Michael Jordan. And then he came here and early and prepared.

And he worked. He heard it on the Shack House. That's why he did that. Well, look, the same is true, though, of Rory. Now, the thing, you and I both have been very critical of him, and I think properly so. Oh, sorry. Well, not just that, but, you know, this is a season where he entered it hurt

and then has twice had setbacks due to injury, and he changed equipment in the middle of it, which makes people very cynical. And he just hasn't played enough, but this is, again, another top 10 in a major. And if you go back and look at his record, in majors, I think since like 2010, he has some crazy number of top tens. You know, he's always around the hoop.

And, you know, he had a top 10 at the Masters, the top 10 here at the Open Championship. He missed the cut of the U.S. Open. So it's Feast or Famine with Rory. You saw how quickly I jumped all over him after that 32 back nine on Thursday. I mean, I thought he really found something with the putting stroke. And then he started off on Saturday. And, you know, he birdied two of the first four holes. I thought, look, he's going to be on the leaderboard here.

He's going to be top three, four on the leaderboard, and he just couldn't sustain it. I again just attribute that to the rust. But I like that idea very much of Rory and Speath. I think that's a nice foil. Well, it would just be, yeah. And I think that what we see with McElroy's finished is that he's getting there, and he likes being in the spotlight. And he got another flavor, a little taste of it and a little motivation.

based on what Speedth did. So he knows what he has to do. It's just a matter of will he put it all together? And he obviously has the talent. So it would be nice because people really would like to see it because they have contrasting styles. And that's another big part of this, is that Steve is not a power player.

And he's got a lot of dimensions to his game. And we need the contrast. It's more fun, just like tennis is more fun, when you get different styles clashing. And so now it's up to the other guys to bring the heat and the love for the preparation, the love for the study. I mean, when you really parse those transcripts of things Beath starts talking about,

it's just fascinating to see the things that he's taking in and looking at versus what some of his peers at his age are taking in and looking at. I mean, he just, his thoughts are more like somebody who's, about 40 and who's been playing out here a long time. One final thought on that Rory Jordan thing as we approach Quail Hollow. You know who has a pretty darn good track record of Quail Hollow check. That's Roy McElroy. So Jordan trying to complete his career Grand Slam with the very next major tournament, Roy McElroy with the wonderful Quail Hollow record.

Let's do it next week. Why wait? Let's do it next week, Shaq. Yeah, it has gotten a lot more interesting because, in fact, that's what a writer, I know you're going to be shocked to hear this, had a cynical take sitting there waiting for Jordan and looked at me in the press conference and said, well, at least there's something to look forward to now at Quill Hollow. And I said, yep, everybody's kind of feeling that way. I don't know if there's, you know, after the open, it's just always hard to go to a place where it's going to be hot and muggy and all that.

And this kind of golf is just so much fun to everybody. Anything else you want to get off your chest before we call it a wrap on the 2017 open? Let's not forget to thank everybody for chiming in. We had an excellent turnout for the XR Steelhead Threewood giveaway that we're going to tally up. We're going to tally that up, Shaq. I know you're still in the UK. I'll take a look tomorrow. We'll announce the winner or, yeah, we'll come up.

with a lot of folks had 145 as the cut line. So I think there were like 15 to 20 different entries. I haven't seen how, you know, I didn't do the math on, you know, how many guys actually made the cut and who had the right sort of combo of that. But thanks for all the great input on that. I can't wait to give away the red hat XR steelhead fairway would. And I know you have another observation from our good friends at Callaway to make as well. Well, we mentioned it on the Thursday pot.

if people did not hear that, that we have to tell you about the latest Calloway Live and, of course, Calloway Live in general. It's everybody's favorite internet golf talk show. And of course, now I have made, I don't know if they'll count it as a record third appearance house because I got pulled after six minutes. But it was a great reason and a fun reason. Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan joined the show. He was backstage. He got a fitting that day up at the.

Eli Calloway Performance Center. And then because Harry Arnett, the brilliant host of the show and a great supporter of the Shackhouse, is the biggest Atlanta Falcons fan you can ever imagine. They wanted to make it a surprise. And Jeff Newbarth made it a surprise. And so I got to be the one to say, hey, Harry, I got a little something for you. And of course, it's almost as fun watching Harry go, you know, we can edit all this out. It was painful for him.

And then there's Matt Ryan, Class Act. and total golf nut. And so it's a great conversation. Of course, Harry has to do with Relive the Super Bowl and all that. And I was sitting there going, okay, Harry, come on, chop, chop. Let's get to the golf. And he's a golf nut. And he's got some fascinating things to say about everything related to the golf swing

and his offseason and going to North Barrett and playing Lynx golf and all sorts of stuff like that. So Matt Ryan, great show. And then they've got some, they've had some really good run shows in this run lately. and not just stars or jocks or whatever. They've had Jeff Yang and Angel investor who really had some interesting things to say. And they've got some business guys, Greg Maffa and Terry McGurrick, CEO types.

And they've got Reggie Bush coming up. So all sorts of interesting guests. And you can just very easily search that Calloway Live. It'll pop up on YouTube. And it's great to have both to look at and also maybe to have in the background while you're working and you want to just have a nice conversation in the background. Anyway, so it's live, it's unscripted, what could go wrong, Callaway Live, check it out.

Well, House, thank you so much for your patience in letting me do these shows at oddball hours. You know this is my favorite tournament. I thank Jim Cunningham or a producer for coming in on a Sunday to do this so everybody could listen to this on Monday. I'm jazzed. I think this is, I'm just excited for, well, I'm excited for lovers of golf history and the Open Championship. and to have that kind of a finish and class acts at the top and different people and Houtung Lee and Cabrera Beo and I mean all sorts of international players. I mean, this is what we love about the open, bringing all these interesting characters together and these wacky links courses. I'm just, it's so fun when it all kind of comes together.

Yeah, we, on the very first preview show, we're talking about pedigree and experience and we were looking at a bunch of old dudes, at least I was. Little did we know. Jordan Speeith is ready to, you know, jump up and say, hey, I've got the pedigree, and I've got the experience. Here I am. And he did it to us. Another outstanding, you know, week with the Shackard of the Ringer Podcast Network.