Fore Play - Behind Winged Foot: U.S. Open Week with Jason Gore & Winged Foot Superintendent Steve Rabideau

Episode Date: September 15, 2020

It’s here. It’s finally here. The U.S. Open at Winged Foot has arrived, and the hype is REAL about the course condition, the difficulty, the “classic” U.S. Open expectations. We speak with Jason Gore (24:16), the USGA’s senior director of player relations & a member of the setup team, about the course, what the players can expect, and how he manages those expectations. Then we’re joined by Winged Foot’s head superintendent, Steve Rabideau (73:42), to dive deeper into this iconic venue, its famous greens, and the stellar team and commitment it takes to keep Winged Foot’s 36 holes in championship condition day in and day out!You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/foreplaypod

Hey, 4Play listeners, you can find us every Tuesday and Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. We got the whole crew. We got myself, Frankie, Trent, and Lurch. It's U.S. Open Week. It's just, I'm giddy, I'm pumped, I'm nervous a little bit, I'm excited, I'm anxious. I want to see this damn golf course. I want to see Wingfoot, all of the chat or the videos, the stupid media videos of people's feet and shoes and golf balls in the rough.

the greens, people putting it backwards, and it comes behind their fucking ass and rolls right up next day. It's just great. So, since it's major championship week, it's U.S. Open Week, we've got a huge show. We have a loaded show. We have Jason Gore, who is the senior director of player relations for the United States Golf Association. He's also part of the setup team. And then we have Steve Rabidoo, who is the head superintendent at Wingfoot Golf Club. We've had him on the show before, but it's probably been three years or so. He is the star of the show for one of the coolest projects we've worked on. Frankie, Jake, bug, a bunch of the production staff have been really grinding on this video that

kind of documents superintendents, course maintenance staff and what they do, focusing on the wing foot crew. And they're 55, I think Steve said, crew, 55 person crew that they have preparing this place for a United States open. So it's a huge show. It's US Open Week. Gentlemen, let's fucking do this. Were we supposed to talk there or were you going into something? I don't know. I was just excited. Wow. I'm excited too. I thought maybe we were going to hit some new like, dun, done, done or something crazy.

I was just pumped up. I don't know. I was just getting out. I'll talk on fucking death. I love it. No, I was just waiting to freaking go. I was waiting for, I felt like I was at a horse race. I was waiting for the little thing to open. Like I need to hear that bell, that gunshot. No, I think you said it very well. This is fucking championship week. You can't call the tournament. We'll find that out later on. interview and the interviews but um u.s opens here we've been waiting for it it's uh it got pushed back a couple months COVID all this stuff we didn't know if it was going to happen we didn't know if it was

going to be in new york but new york's getting another u.s open i love it i love it coming to the northeast it's a fall u.s open it's fucking bizarre wingfoot is an absolute monster we saw that in the video me versus lurch you guys are going to see that in the video tomorrow night uh at 8 p.m and riggs you know talked about a little bit it's definitely by far the most work with like most production we put into a video. Usually it's us out there on a golf course and we're trying to show you how a bunch of idiots fucking play golf on some of the nicest golf courses in the world.

But this one is really shining light on, I think, the most bankless job in all sports. I'm sure there's people in, like, baseball grounds crew that do the same thing and football and getting that field ready. But the amount of space and length that these guys have to make sure that's grass, and it's grass. It's a living work.

It's grass, soil, sand. And you have to deal with all of this fucking mother nature bullshit, wind, rain, COVID, all this stuff that could possibly happen. It's a story about these 60 or 50 guys that live in a house on the golf course. They don't do anything but get wing foot east and west ready to be championship ready every single day, 24-7, 365 days a year. It's a video that will make you actually not believe that we shot it and filmed it and edited it. Like it actually looks like we stole footage from HBO or ESPN or one of these other things or NBC.

I watch it every single night and I can't believe what I'm watching. We have narrators. We have Steve Ravidoo. We have special guests in there. It's fucking crazy. And I can't sleep at night thinking about like when we're just going to release it. I just want to walk. I just want to have it done.

I think it's just like, I don't know. I just think every single superintendent or like guy who's ever worked in the grounds crew or ever raked a bunker or like cat eat or anything. I think this is going to be like your video to be like, oh shit, like we're finally getting some shine. Like it's not just a bunch of people just hitting fucking shanked up greens and butter knife and balls into oblivion. It's like these are guys that actually know what the fuck they're doing. Two points.

Riggs, at the top of the show, you said you're nervous. I'm interested to know why you're nervous for this week. Well, it's a big week for us. I think that for us, like we're, a lot of people rely on us to cover golf in an incredibly unique way for them, and they get excited for major weeks. So, like, for us, this is, like, for my career, this is a top two week of the year for us, probably.

So I'm nervous for that. And I'm also nervous for, like, when Tiger Woods is on the first tee, when Kevin Kisner's on the first tee, or when one of those guys who's one of our boys, one of the guys that we root for fits, Max Homa, Kala, Kowler, like, when that guy has a 12-footer for bogey

to, like, stay in the tournament and not go off the rails, I don't know. It's like everything matters more. Everything means more. So I am nervous. Like I've got, I'm a little like jittery. It's like fucking, it's a major week. Let's go. I mean, given how the golf course is it sounds like some of these guys might shoot 80. I mean, I don't want them to shoot 80, but it sounds like the way the golf course is setting up that it might be, you know, there's going to be some high numbers out there. We want all of our guys to avoid high numbers. Yeah, I think listening to like the two interviews and hearing Steve talk, it's amazing because when he was talking about the course and preparation and the expectation is perfection.

by membership, by everybody looking is perfection. And it's nature. And like the only like thing that I was like drawing myself to or comparing it to was like the weather channel. And the expectation for somebody to get the weather right is literally like 50-50. It's a flip of the coin if they're right or wrong. And the fact that he has to get it right, basically he had to get it right back in June and now September is almost unfair. But the work that's gone into it and what our video and Frankie and all your work with eBrog Jake and the team is about to kind of like, unveil, I think is going to be amazing in terms of the work that goes into preparing this course

so that 700 acres can all have perfect grass and perfect rough with like no crab grass or whatever the case is. It's just amazing. Think about like when you book a trip, you might book a golf trip and you can book the most perfect four days, this great itiner, everyone's going to arrive at the right time and the tea time is going to be perfect dinner plan. Then like if the weather just sucks or there's a day and a half of shit rain or it's too cold. It's like throws everything off. And that's just a vacation in the trip. This is a bazillion acres of perfect grass that they are all dictated by the weather.

And they just do it perfectly. Like, the course is just perfect. And they even had such a wrench thrown that they've been preparing for this tournament for years. And then a global pandemic says, oh, no, it's not going to be at the beginning of summer when the grass is easy to grow.

And you can prepare in the roughs healthy. it's going to be in mid late September. So you have to keep this thing healthy all year long and then get to the end and have it be perfect. It's outrageous what these people do and how nobody knows about it. And the fact that we're going to be showcasing it with such high production,

with a lot of passion, that the guys that are featured in this, the people that are featured are cool as hell. They like what we do. So they kind of welcome to us and our camera crew. These guys getting in there at three in the morning to film it. it's really, really cool.

And then we've also got Steve, like I said, Steve Ravidoo, on this show, who is the head super. He runs the show. All of those people we've mentioned and all the work that they do, they all report to this motherfucker. And he is a great guy. He's like an icon. He's like the mob boss of this crew. And they all just work and live and breathe to make sure he's happy. Because if he's happy, that means they've got two world-class perfect golf courses.

and oh, this week, it happens to be there showcasing them off to, I believe Steve said, 120 million people worldwide are going to be watching the U.S. Open. So it's just, this is why I'm nervous. Lurch, there's a lot at stake. There's a lot happening. We've got a big show, like I said, we're not going to talk for very long because we've already done it. We did a great 35 minutes or so with Jason Gore, who's a, hey, salt to the earth, down

to earth guy who gets both sides. He played golf for 20 plus years professionally. He played in the final group with Reteep Gousson in the 2005 U.S. Open at Pioneers. I didn't bring this up when he was on the show, but he shot 84 that day. He has a 59 as a professional golfer. He's won a PGA tour event. How many people in the world can say they've won a PGA tournament? And then for the last few years, he's on the other side of it.

He just works for the USGA. And you can tell. I mean, he joins our interview, our show. He just appears on the screen from the fucking interview from the, what is it called again? What did he say? It's called the Flash. area. The flash thing?

It's a podium. He's not a podium. It's the U.S. Open podium. It looks ridiculous. It's a stunning look. Frankie said he's like, did you win the U.S. Open? What is going on?

Why do they have, he has a trophy behind him. It's like crazy. So it's great. Another thing that's great is the Barstall Transfusion by Owens in a lot more places now. So I know that we're getting more distribution in Missouri, which is my home state. So people that have been complaining from there,

get ready. It's coming your way. If you're not sure where it is, Owensmixers.com, they've got the store locator, and you can just find out. You can just look it up, search it, figure out where they have it, and go acquire it. We talked about how they don't take the barter system. That's outdated. That's old. Currency is actually what we're working off of.

That was the word I couldn't think of last time. I think somebody quoted me that I said coin trading system or something instead of currency. It's just based on currency. You have to have currency, provide it. then they will, in exchange for that, give you the barstool transfusion by Owens. You can also get it at store.com, and they'll just deliver it right to your face, and you can drink it and have a great time. You pour it in with a little vodka, little ice.

You got the best cocktail on planet Earth. And they make several others, too, several other flavors in terms of the mixer. So thank you, Owens Mixers, for supporting what we do. I'm waiting for my test results. I've got in order to get in as a media member, you've got to have a negative test result of COVID-19. So I've just been waiting. I went today. They did the nose swab thing.

I guess they've evolved a lot because I remember early on people were sounding like they're jamming fucking needles up to your brain and like twisting them around. And they kind of just massage the inside of my nose for I think 11 seconds. And then they're like, yeah, you're good to go. And it was a joke. And it was super easy. So that was nice. Did you say 11 seconds?

11 seconds. That seems like. That's particular also. It's like, were you counting? she said 11 seconds she said now I'm just going to do the nose swab for 11 seconds and I was like that's interesting but I'm not really in a position to question you medical professional so go do your 11 seconds that's something sounds like I've gotten one like three or four times I feel like at this point and they've been like the first one was by far the most shocking because the girl told me to look down and then shoved it up she was one of those like three two boom and I was like what

my brain's now forever messed up um but I think Sam Decker put it up on Instagram yesterday. He was like doing it at the bubble for the NBA. And they fricking, they swab the back of his throat and then stuck it from his throat up his nose the same swab. It was so, it was such a like violation. And he was like coughed. He was like in the backwards throat. And then she like shoved it up his nose. He's like, woo. It was like, it was a fucking ride. Some people face to that. Yeah. Right. She wasn't like after the nose. She's like, why don't you bend over, we're going to be, we're going to shove this up your ass. People pay for that experience.

I mean, he was like, he was coughing, he was choking. It was crazy. I think like, Decker, I got to watch that again. I got to go look it up and make sure it was him. That's like that gift where the guy. So like I had to do left side and either like you have to go pretty far. So like, you know, I'm not a medical professional. I don't know how, but like I make sure I want to make sure I get an accurate test or as accurate as possible.

And then once you're done with that, I had to go to the other nostril. But it was all done by. on yourself, which stopped. She did double nostril for me, but that with Decker, man, that reminds me. You know that, uh, that gift where they shut it down his throat and then up his nose. That's so disgusting. That's like that, that gift where the boyfriend like slaps his girlfriend on the ass and hits her in the face with a pie at like the same time where it's just like,

you can't get away from it. What is happening? Awful. But no, this one was easy. It was incredibly easy. The guy just rubbed it in my, or the girl just rubbed it in my nose. both nostrils 11 seconds, boom, we're out of here. So hopefully I test negative for COVID-19, and then we can go to the tournament.

Okay. In terms of the tournament, U.S. Open before we get to Jason Gore, just a few reminders to get you fired up. This will be the sixth U.S. Open hosted at Wingfoot West. Tiger Woods, I believe, said he would take five over par. Five over par, I think, would win the tournament right now. things could of course change in terms of weather that could be a little rain maybe one of the days

or somebody could come in and decide that they're going to cut the rough a little shorter. We get into some of that stuff with Jason Gore. Historically, you're going to see this brought up eight tonne. Phil made double on the 72nd hole in 2006 to blow it to lose the tournament. He ended up finishing that tournament at six over par and he lost by one to Jeff Ogilvie, who won at five over par. A couple other little nuggets from historical evidence at Wingfoot Golf Club.

In 2006, five over won it. In 1984, four under won it. In 1974, seven over won it. In 1959, two over won it. And in 1929, six over won the U.S. Open. So only one time in the history of this golf club hosting the United States Open has the winner been under par. And the rest have been pretty much massacres. And, you know, You know, those are the winners, right? So if the winner is seven over par, like, if you shoot 15 over, you're probably top 10, top 15 that week. So just think about that.

Put that in your little brain going into the week. I saw, I think it was Justin Ray from Golf Channel, tweeted out that Rory in his last eight major starts is 16 over par in the first round and a combined 23 underpar in rounds two through four. He's going to figure that out. We're top 10 all the time. Yeah, he is Mr. Backdoor Top 10. But that is a staggering stat.

16 over par in the first round over the last eight majors, 23 under the rest of the golf. That's so like, I mean, I don't know if it has anything to do with. There's him getting a rhythm. But that's like so much my golf game. I feel like I don't start playing golf until like the eighth or ninth hole. And on a larger level for him, like he must feel like, all right, I really don't get going until Saturday.

and it must be so frustrating for him to be like, I'm still the same golfer, still with the same swing, playing the same golf course. Why can I not just start? Why can't I just get this first day? I'm waking up the next day and just lighting up the golf course. Why can't I do it the day before? And, you know, Rory is, he's clearly that's in his head

because he's a Zen guy, is reading books. You know, he's quoting fucking authors and stuff. So he knows that he, he's a very perceptive person who's into learning a lot about, the world himself, other subjects. So it's not lost in him that he's fucking 16 over bar in the first round of the last eight majors and then way under the rest of the way.

So interesting little tidbit there to focus on when you get Rory McElroy on that first tee. He made what a quad when they were in North Ireland at Royal Port Rush last year? I think he made a quad on the first hole. Yeah, it was really bad. Yeah, I was trying to find what he shot. Did he shoot 80 in the first round?

He shot high. I think it might have been around. 79 or 80. Yeah, he duck hooked that like four iron off the first team. And it was like, oh, no. Tiger Woods. We have to talk about Tiger. Last time the U.S. Open was at Wingfoot, it was the first major back since the passing of his father. Tiger showed up. He shot like 12 over par, didn't look good, looked frustrated, took a little time off after that, and then won the next two major championships after it. So I think that Tiger probably has a little bit of some unfinished business in his mind at Wingfoot. He likes to obviously stamp his legacy on some of these more historical places. He's

won two majors, two British Opens at the Old Course at St. Andrews, one of them, I think, by eight strokes. He won at Pebble Beach, one of the most iconic U.S. Open venues by 15 strokes. He won the Masters by 12 and has won there five times now. So he clearly, when it comes to iconic venues, likes to stamp his legacy. This is about as iconic as it gets in terms of U.S. Open venues. So I think he's going to be very, very, very focused. The one real swing I saw looked amazing. It was on the 10th hole, which Lurge Birdie.

And his swing just looked. Maybe it was because his shirt was untucked and he was wearing a fucking mock neck and cargo shorts. I don't know what the reason was, but it just looked. perfection what I saw yesterday. It looked like a guy that was very laid back and ready for the week and weekend. I mean, it's weird to see Tiger on, you know, open,

U.S. Open Championship week in just pretty much a T-shirt and shorts and just hitting a golf ball by himself. It was weird to see him kind of in that light, but, you know, he knows himself better than anybody. So as long as he gets him in the right mental space, I'm excited for the week. I just, I mean, to Gore's point, I am so excited for the first ball to fly on Thursday. It's just, it's one of the best, and it's just so fun to watch,

and it's so fun to see these guys manage, navigate this course, that I'm just so eager to have that first fly, and then hopefully Tiger doesn't buy bogey the first and gets off to a good start. Even if he does, even if he does bogey the first, you've got to be patient. Patience is going to be key. I've been, since I can't be on site today, I've been, I've been just firing text to the guys and just, it's always a weird move, right, to like, you don't know if you want to text the guys because it's a major week.

They've all been getting right back to me, which is great. Kiz texted me and just said bogey, bogey start. I was always, so, you know, that's just, those are the conditions. Matthew Fitzpatrick, I talked to a little bit. If you remember in the Florida swing, I believe it was like Bay Hill, when the scores were incredibly difficult single digits under par was winning that thing. He had some quotes because he played well about how much he just loves that kind of golf.

Same exact vibe from him this week. He loves when PARs a premium. And so guys kind of through everyone I've talked to, love it. They love the setup. They like the fact that it's classic U.S. Open that you're going to have to just hit your ball, golf your ball really well, as both of our guests talk about quite a bit. So let's get into it. Let's just throw it to Jason Gore really quickly before we do that.

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You're going to get 15% off your membership. Get the Woop band. Get involved. It's going to change your life. Okay, Jason Gore is up first. Here is the director, the senior director of player relations of the USGA. Okay, folks, we are now joined by a friend of ours. He is a winner on the PGA tour.

He actually has played a rounder professional golf in which he just took 59 strokes to do that. He played in the final group of the 2005 U.S. Open at Pinehurst. And he is most recently, I believe, the first ever, USGA's Senior Director of Player Relations, Mr. Jason Gore, welcome to the show. Thank you very much. It's been a lifelong dream. So you've got, you're in the, you're at the presser, you know, table spot here. You look at media flash zone. Media flash zone. I'm not good with that. If you couldn't tell.

You're kind of like intimidated me with your little setting here. I was going to say, I mean, it's making everybody nervous. Frankie and I and Rigg were lucky enough to walk. alongside him during wingfoot. But now looking at you, I feel like our relation has changed just in a split second just based on how you come off and how you look right. I'm in bed. I'm in bed right now. I'm sitting in my bed. Jason, we haven't met. It's nice to meet you. But I'm in my bed right now, and you are, you're at the podium at the U.S. Open. No, I'm actually at home. I just keep this. Believe me, the way I used to play, I never knew that this thing existed. So this is my first time, too.

Oh, five, baby. Oh, five, you were sitting in front of that thing. Yeah, it was a long time ago, though. A lot's happened since then, a lot of miles. So I can't really remember. Look, it's U.S. Open Week. We're all very excited. You obviously have to be excited.

We met you for the first time three weeks ago. We were out there playing. Lurge and Frankie had a nice little match. I'm interested in your thoughts on that match. I mean, a match is a stretch. That's it. It was a beatdown, actually. Lurch put the weapon on Frankie pretty easily.

But it was a fun day. It was a great day. We got to go play Wingfoot together, and it was awesome. It was great to hang out with you fellas and finally meet you, have to listen to your show for a long time, and it was awesome. It was cool. I love how you said that just as Frankie was finally able to do. It was his face of community.

You joined your room and just say, Tappetated. Look at the setup they have you in. Are you kidding? made? You just win the U.S. Open? Yeah, there's the sea flight, but yeah, I won. Look at that. Shut up. Holy shit.

So, Frankie's joined the show. He's having a little bit of issues, but he has joined the show. We were talking about the match, which he said wasn't a match. So no one really cares. I mean, people do care. People who care. I mean, any other highlights or takeaways from the match there or just that it's not called a match.

Just almost a charity event that I played in against Frank? It was an event. It was activity. You asking me for play-by-play? Yeah, just any tidbits, maybe any deep takeaways that you might have. Yeah, I think we only lost 10 balls in the first five holes. I think it was something like that, wasn't it, in the rough? What were some key highlights? I mean, it was, I wrote it down in my scrapbook, so it's a, you have to watch it. Luckily, you can just, you can just check it out on YouTube.

It's great. It's a beauty of the whole thing. Let's get to kind of the great drone work. Yeah, do you like that? That was, that was actually I had forgotten how good my drone work was. I was rewatching the video today. I mean, it was amazing how some of the drone shots I got. I mean, yeah, you should break a mirror, high-fiving yourself on that one. It was good work.

So look, you are the senior director of player relations for the United States Golf Association. You are the first ever to hold that position. What does that mean? Well, since I'm the first ever, I can't do any worse than the guy in front of me did. So it's basically all I'm trying to do is be the bridge between the players and the USGA. It was kind of like, you know, there was a little bit of an avenue missing. So I played out here for 20-something years, 22 years or whatever it is.

And, you know, I've created a lot of relationships over the years and having that avenue for the players to either vent, compliment, and a way to get the USDA message across, let them know what we're doing why we're doing it, more importantly, because the USDA has so many wonderful things for the game. And let them know that, you know, that we're listening. That's the most important thing is the USDA cares about them, cares about the game, and we need their help.

We want their help. So it's been a really positive thing, and it's been, you know, fun to be part of the setup team at the U.S. Open and, you know, looking at whole locations and given my experience of, you know, those years I've, played out there and the players know that and they know what I'm they know I know what I'm looking at and it's uh you know just it's been a lot of fun on many different uh facets so the USDA hired you obviously for a reason like they created this position for a reason and for us I mean we

we talk about the U.S. Open all the time we love high scores you know we had a an event yesterday with a hundred plus golfers that are kind of similar to us in their mind. set and everybody's talking about, hey, do you hear about the wing foot that people will think the winning score is going to be five over, eight over, people love it. Yet there's this disconnect where we've had Justin Thomas over the years. Last year, he said it's pretty obvious on where I stand with the U.S. Open and the U.S.GA. We've had our difficulties over the last six months. My frustration with them and the core setup at the U.S. Open system stems from how the PGA tour does a great job setting up tournaments the entire year. We feel like the U.S. Open gets away from us,

gets out of hand almost every year. We had Zach Johnson, who a lot of people probably don't know who he is, said that they lost the golf course. We had Bryson called it clown golf. So essentially, were you brought on, was your job created to try to change that narrative? And how do you go about that? Because like I just said, there's the fans who love it,

and then there seems to be players who bitch about it. And so how do you go about changing that? I think the most important thing is to tell them the truth. I mean, we're not trying to embarrass them or trying to sabotage their games or whatnot. It's we're trying to define the best player this week. And, you know, I've constantly heard like John Rom said something to me last year at the PJ Championship at Bethpage. He goes, you know what? I want to play in a U.S. Open I grew up watching.

And that resonated with me and the fact is, you know what, we've gotten away from what it is with the U.S. Open and, you know, the rough, the intensity and just, you know, testing every facet of your games. So I think we're now getting back. This is Wingfoot is a prototype U.S. Open golf course where it's going to test every aspect of every part of your game, whether it's ironplayed, driving accuracy. mental capacity, maybe not capacity, maybe that's the word I'm looking for, but mental stamina, mental everything, short game, putting. And, you know, the first thing you do is we put a premium on driving. And then, you know, this year we're letting wing foot be wing foot. It's, if you come here, you guys saw it. It was three weeks before the U.S. Open, and it was still hard. And you come here next year in September, and it's still going to be hard with, you know, with member length rough, if you will.

but, you know, just to bring out the best parts of everybody's game and just the fortitude and the stick-to-itiveness, I don't even know if that's a word, but I've heard it before. But we're not trying to embarrass the players. We're trying to identify them. It's an old line. I think Joe Dye said it. So Wingfoot, they've been asking for rough. They've talked about it from anything from the distance insights to getting back to the U.S.

U.S. Open. So right now the communication, I'm here to just get the communication and, you know, it's if they start complaining about the rough, it's like, hey, guys, it's what you asked for. It's what you wanted. So, you know, it's, they know that I know that, that I understand. And I want to present, we have a whole, the whole USDA, the whole team wants to present the best test of golf. Not to embarrass them, but we really want to test driver accuracy, your integrity of iron strike. There's no faking it around wing foot. And, you know, decision making, everything, short game, putting, where you can put the, how you place the golf ball in the right parts of the green to put. So, you know, it's just not going to be a bomb and gouge and, you know,

30 under par or whatnot. But it's going to be a test. And it's going to be, it's going to be a great, it's going to be a great week. It's just going to be fun. It's going to be fun to watch. I'm pretty fired up. I'll say that here and here and all this. You know, we do a lot, right? We talk about a classic U.S. Open. And USGA over the last, whatever, handful, six, seven years has mixed it up. There was Oakmont and there's Shinnock. But there was also Aaron Hills, Chambers Bay with wider fairways. What in terms of a classic U.S. Open, you know, when you say going back to like,

I want to watch the U.S. Open that, or I want to play in the U.S. that I grew up watching with the narrow fairways and the high rough. Like, is it that simple in terms of getting back to it of just, oh, we'll just grow the rough up, we'll narrow the fairways, and boom, now we've got the U.S. open? Well, I mean, we didn't touch the fairways here. This is just the way it is. It's like this everyday wing foot. But, you know, like going back to, say Aaron Hills, Aaron Hills, is designed to play in a strong

Wisconsin wind and never got it. And you give these guys a golf course that's designed for something that's not there. And they're just that good. They're going to kill it. And that's why the fairways were wide at Wisconsin to deal with the high cross winds and stuff like that. But you know, this place is not designed for that. It's designed for the northeast, you know, like hot, humid, tight, relatively still, you know, mild winds, let's just say. and yeah, there's more to it than just growing the roughup. And it's being tactical and thoughtful and trying to do the right things. And yeah, there's more to it.

There's a lot more to it. That's the one thing I didn't know as a player. It's, you know, there's so much thought going into how you're going to think and how we want you to think and how Tillinghouse wanted you to think here at Wingfoot. and what the original, what the architect thought about and what he wanted. So, yeah, there's so much more involved than just growing the rough up and speeding the greens up. You really have to think of what the architect wanted and how the player is going to play and, you know, test every aspect.

You mentioned Penn locations earlier, and, you know, these greens are large with a lot of different shelves, especially after the restoration. Gil Hans came in. How excited do you get thinking about all the different. options with the pen locations. Well, I mean, it's very exciting. But, you know, in my opinion, they're going to be docile. This golf course is not about the whole locations.

It's about putting your drive in the fairway, getting the right strike on your iron, putting it in the right spot. And if you do that, you're going to have a chance of birdie. You're going to have an opportunity. But if you don't, our setup team always laughs to me because I always say this. If you don't do those two things, you're going to be busy. You know, these greens are hard. hard to chip to, there's always one side where you just cannot play from.

But that's Tillinghouse. That's the way he designed it. We're always going to give you an option if you do the right thing. And we're going to give you an opportunity to make birdies. If you drive it straight and you hit the right iron shot, we're going to give you an opportunity. But if you don't, you're going to be really busy. When we played 12 or 13 holes, and I found myself in that wrong spot every single hole. You were so busy.

You were incredibly busy. I was the busiest man in America. Busiest man in America when I played wingfoot. I think it was after eight. We joked that you had missed on the wrong side of the holes. And what he says is completely true there is, and there's a definitive line on where is the wrong side, right? Like on one, behind the hole is unplayable.

Even though it's just rough in a green, there's no water, there's no trees, there's no creek, there's nothing. It's just rough and a green. It's unplayable from behind the green. It's a shelf. It's like hitting on ice and you're trying to stop the ball by the pin. and I listen, I'm setting up golf courses now for our little virtual Barstool Golf Society on the video game, and I love when the golf course wins. I love the fact that there's going to be a golf course in which people are going to have to work and they're going to be busy.

I'm done with all these 30 under, 40 under. I turn off the TV. DJ's 30 under? See you later. Give me DJ trying to hit that shot on one all day long. I'll have it on replay. Because that is, that's the peak of athletic performance in golf. If you can perform on a golf course where you're allowed to go 30 under and then also where maybe even PAR is going to be a winning score, that's how you show your range and that's how good of a golfer you are.

And the fact that we have a tournament or a championship, sorry for saying tournament. I don't know if I'm a loudspeaker right here. I don't want to get a gun to my head, a championship that shows us that range, the guys who have the range. That's what we need. I mean, come on. Everything can't be the easiest test. You have to have a hard test once in a while. This is it.

I'm jacked up for it. I think this is the kind of golf course that, you know, there's going to be somebody who's going to shoot 65, but there's also going to be somebody who's going to shoot 85. And that's the idea of a perfect set-up golf course to where you're going to reward good shots and you're going to penalize poor ones. And, you know, somebody's going to get the driver grooved

and hit, you know, hit it down the middle, hit it down the sprinkler line on every hole. And they're going to make some puts. And listen, we want that. We want you to play well if you play well. We want you to sign for a good score if you play well. If you don't, then, you know, it's going to be penalizing, and you're going to have to, you know, just try not to compound poor shots in a row.

So, you know, if you hit it out of position and you, the best thing you can do is try to hit it back in position and then almost start the whole over. So if you, it's only when you start. compounding poor shots, poor mental mistakes in a row is when you'll start seeing some big numbers. Be better. Be better. You know, just be better, right?

Like, you're having a bad day, be better. The golf course isn't going to get easier. You have to be better. We want you to play well. If you play well, might need to be the U.S. Open's new slogan. That was perfect. It's also, like, the amount of times I'm going to say, boy, is he busy after a bad t-shot or something? You like that, don't you?

Oh, that is too good. That's busy over there. Is like your goal, I guess the first part, to in this championship, try to create like a bigger delta between the best and the worst. And then the second part of that, when you think about like course difficulty set up, et cetera, and you think about like what's important to this person, like the golf game that they'll need to have this week, you mentioned driver accuracy.

You mentioned like their iron play. Do you stack rank those or are there like four or five big? one that you think of when you think of course set up like can you talk a little bit about that um no okay i mean you know the fairways are 24 yards wide but one of the things that that wingfoot that's so distinctive about wingfoot is that there's so many holes that turn you know there's a lot of dog legs a lot of dog leg lefts for you know which is which is difficult now for for a lot of these great players who hit cuts off the tea i mean it's uh you know you're going to have to think maybe you know, if it's an uncomfortable T-shot, maybe back off with three-wood and, you know, something you can turn.

Kind of like you don't see many drivers on 10 at Augusta anymore. They have these three-woods that they're able to kind of turn over, hit right-to-left for a right-handed player, hit right-to-left shots, and get it in position and, you know, shape the shot to where Tilling hasn't wanted you to do it. So, but that's why Phil played one, you know, played well here in 06 because he's got such an imagination around me. these greens and he hit a left to right shot which you know shapes into the shape of most of these some of these holes a lot of these holes so you know you're going to need imagination around here and you know maybe maybe going straight at the hole isn't the best option maybe you got to use the use the features in the green Tillinghouse designed and stuff so there's a lot of there's a lot of imagination a lot of a lot of thinking going on there's another there's several more aspects of thinking rather than just looking straight at it pulling the trigger and going

everybody wants to get better at potting. That's just a fact, especially me. I mean, I spent how many months trying to get better at potting and people just kept saying that I wasn't, that just didn't look like I was. Some people call you rigsy bananas because you got kind of a banana hook. I've never heard. Never heard of riggs bananas? No, but I, that's what, that's clearly just what Frankie has been like saying behind his back. I've heard of your age. I've never heard bananas. On your like, on your buddy's group text, that's what you've been saying. about my putting stroke, Frank? A couple guys, you know, a couple guys that, you know,

we know, we know, hey, Riggsie Bananas out there and Pied Harris. Like, and, you know, we've watched your progression and you're not there yet. But I've often said regardless of your putting stroke, you've been the best putter of the group, which has been stunning to me, because we are a bad putting group, though. We're a very bad putting group. But, yeah. But Riggs is nails, man.

I was a pretty good putter. That's the crazy. You're a pretty good putter. I would say Riggs's 13-foot putt is the best putt in his game. And where he needs work is probably a two-foot slider. Now we have to be the best. Yeah. Now we have this perfect putting mat, perfect practice putting mat.

And these guys actually reached out to me early on during quarantine. And they're like, hey, like we can't watch you do these videos anymore. Like, this is crazy now. Like, you have to learn how to putt. Like, you're not going to put in something that's like in your backyard or whatever. This is a putting mat. and we've all seen them. I think Paige Baranick has been putting on them on her Instagram page.

Like everyone, they did like such a big social media push that. You couldn't find a golf person on Instagram that wasn't using the perfect practice putting mat. And I was like, I need to have this thing at this point. So I got it. And we now have a bar stool one. It is sick.

It's got our logo on it. It's got barstool golf written and script on it. It's in our color scheme. My arms are exhausted holding. Yeah, Riggis has been a horrible. You don't have to hold up. We're the only ones you can see it, but I appreciate the effort. I wanted to help you guys describe it.

I wanted you to be able to help you describe it. Right. So you have two different lines. You have one that has like the dotted line. So it actually keeps your club base going straight back and straight forward. And then the other one's like a more free swinging line in which like you have to, it's still the same idea. But it's not as like boxed in on that line. So you have two versions.

One you and you have six feet, I believe, six or seven foot putt. It rolls up this hill, goes into the hole and comes down out the other side, comes right back. your foot. There's no like walking around. Eight feet. It goes eight feet long. So for me, I just do it all night in my, in my room. And I showed you guys while we're doing the podcast, I've just become obsessed with putting on this mat. It is a higher level mat. It's a little bit more expensive than you would say, like a regular, just one that you pick up at the store. Because of the quality,

you will not believe how good it feels when you're putting on it. It actually feels like a putting green. I don't know how to explain it other than like you just have to get it and see it for yourself. Like you can, like, some of these are like the little green ones where they like wrinkle and like you just throw it down your office and there's a couple bumps here and there hits the back of the hole and like at the place. This is like a putting green. It's got thickness to it. It is next level. It's got the different.

So every level. Every couple feet it's got the how far away you are. So you can practice your different lengths. You can compare it to what's going on on tour average. How good are the best putters in this length? okay, I'm going to try to get to this level and make this mini. And we have just custom made ours. It's got the Barstool logo, Barstool Golf.

You go to the Barstall store. That's store. Dot barstoresports.com. We've got it on there. It's the perfect putting. You're going to love it. Perfect practice. Again, we kind of threw our own little logo, our little customization branding on it.

So you can support us, support your own game, improve your own game by going to store. not barcelports.com and checking this thing out. Let's get back to our friend Jason Gorge. Talk to me about what happens. Let's say it's Thursday. Zach Johnson's out there. He has a tough round. He says, I think they've lost the golf course. Are we going to see like Jason Gorg comes out and like taps him on the shoulders, like come down here with me? Like what happens? It's more like a spear. I'm just going to kind of just go right out of and hit him out. You better, don't you dare. That's an Iowa icon you're talking about. You can't, you can't

Spears, Zach Jones. Just like a, you know, just head-on tackle. No, yeah, I'll talk to Zach. I mean, I can certainly say, like, you know, what were you thinking? I mean, I've been driving around all week, seeing these guys, you know, I mean, it's Monday, but many players have been here since Thursday. So I've been driving around the golf course, looking at it, asking a lot of players what they're thinking, if anything concerns them, what they like about it, what they don't like

about it, it's been really positive. I mean, golf course is right in front of you. There's no trickery to it. It's, you know, so. I'm getting feedback already. And, you know, we're monitoring things. We know the rough is brutal. Is it too brutal?

Is it not brutal enough? Is this what you want? You know, we're listening. And I think that's the big reason why I'm here. I know these guys. I know all these players. And it's just going up and showing we care because we do. We want to hear from them.

We understand that they're such a big, they're an important part of what we do. and we want to let them know that. And I care, we all care about what they think. And if there's something that, you know, early in the week that we can handle, that maybe we missed, that they saw, like, you know, we can look into that and we can find out and how we can make it better. We want to put forth the best championship that these guys have ever played in. Any player that comes to a USDA championship, we want the USDA championships to,

when they make our championship, I've said championship a lot. Just bear with me. We get it. We want them to know that they've made it in their career. Whether it's the U.S. amateur, the U.S. senior women's open. I don't care. Anything that we conduct, we want them, those players who are in that field,

to know that they've achieved something in their golf career. And that's the feeling. That's the golf course we want to present. That's anything down to service. the media to anything. We just, we want it to be the best and, and we want to hear from them. We want, we want, we want to be the best. We're all competitive here.

That's why we're here. How late is too late to make a pretty big change? Like, let's say you're out there Monday, you know, you go back, you sit at the little meeting with the, with the crew, with Mike Davis, with everyone, and say, you know, I talk with the players and there's a few spots with a rough. It's just a little extreme. Guys can't even get it out back into the fair. How late is too late to change it where the guys are like, well, no, we practiced for X and now we have Y come tournament time?

Probably Tuesday or Wednesday. I mean, we've already, you know, adjusted the rough height because we know how fast it's growing. We know how firm the golf courses. We have readings for a week of how firm the greens are. We're watching how they're firming up and we're watching how fast the rough is growing. And I mean, we got it, we got all that. And there are people where part of our agronomy team has got all that down. And it's, it's down to a science.

So, I mean, we're pretty nimble with what we can do. And the time frame we have to do it. So exciting. I just, I get, I get so giddy about the golf course. It's so unique. We get so few tournaments, I feel like, a year where it is about the golf course. Like so far, people haven't really. been talking much about any individual player. And I know it's only Monday, but it's people get

so giddy about the golf course and the reputation, especially at Wingfoot, where we have seen seven overwin it. We've seen six overwin it. We've seen five overwin it before. You know, how important is the number for you guys? Not at all. Not important one bit. Not one time in any of the meetings or any of the conversations we have where we have a target number. We want to see the best player win, and that's it. If it's 15 under, good on you. You know, if it's five over, you know, it is what it is. We're going to hand the trophy to the guy who shoots the lowest score this week.

It's amazing how that works. So, yeah, there's not a target number. We want a fair test, fair challenging. golf course and we want to present that to him and we want to get to a point where we're out of it. It's up to the player and his golf ball and his golf clubs and his caddy and go play. And we want to be, I know from our side, from setup team, we want to be out of it. We don't want this to be about anything that we did to the golf course. We want to show, we want to exemplify the best player and that's where we are.

No, no score has ever been brought up. We just want a good, fair, hard golf course. I mean, if it's 15 under, we're going to revolt. If somebody shoots 15 under, they will boat race the place. And I mean, this is the kind of golf course where if somebody's got A-plus game going, it could be, you know, I'm not making any predictions here, but like you could see at 2,000 Tiger Woods. You could see somebody who wins by 15, you know, like a Martin Kimer in 4.4.

Like if somebody's going to play that well, we're not going to have the golf course dictate what they shoot. We're not going to set up the golf course to get a number, to try to combat what they're trying to do. We're just, we're going to set it up. We're going to hand a scorecard to them on the first tee and say good luck. And in the age of COVID, we can't even shake their hands. But, you know, we'll give them a thumbs up and say, enjoy your day. Go accomplish something. how how closely are you watching and and paying attention to all the different readings like you said i mean

you're you're i guess i'm asking how much of the set up team are you because player relations i wouldn't have necessarily guessed that like asin gore is the set up team i mean you guys is this like a roundtable with king arthur and his knights where everybody's kind of chiming in or is it can you dictate much as the guy that's, you know, that's the player that's representing the players, how much can you kind of impact the setup? Well, I'm wearing many hats this week. So I don't, I feel like I'm influencing them. I mean, I'm obviously not the final decision maker, but if there's something I see that

that bothers me as a player in all of my years that I've played, then yeah, I'm certainly speaking up and they're certainly listening. And I'm very happy about that. There was a couple places where, you know, wing foot where you get to, and you're like, well, it's flat around the hole, but you can't put to it because, you know, the features in the green are so dramatic. So, you know, we've dumped that. We're not going there. We're going to go to someplace more docile to where, you know, it's, because a lot of these greens were designed not to be this fast. You know, Tilling asked when Gilki many or many years ago, or a couple years ago, I guess, whatever it is now, to recreate what Tilling has did.

did. You know, there's a lot, you saw it. There's, there's a lot of places where you just can't put a whole location. And so we're staying away from it. We're not going there. It's, it's going to be, if you hit your proper shot with some integrity and do the right thing and then be smart about it, you're going to have a look. And that's the way we want it. But, you know, you got to, you got to get A to B to get to C. So if you miss either one of those steps, it's going to be a challenge. Is there, is there any concern that someone misses a fairway by five? 10 yards and loses a golf ball? Without 40,000 of our nearest, of our closest friends?

Yeah, I mean, that's a concern. It certainly is, but hopefully we got enough spotters out here and we got cameras on every hole. And I hope that doesn't happen. I mean, it can happen at any time at any event. So, you know, without the fans that we sorely miss, it's definitely going to be, you know, hopefully it's not an issue, but it's certainly a concern.

The spotters, it's a huge week for spotters. Spotters are going to be the MVP's this week. How excited are you? I mean, you've been here. You've been building up the U.S. Open. It's been now 400-something days since the last U.S. Open. How eager are you to just get this thing going. No, I'm excited to get the ball in the air on Thursday.

I'm excited to watch. I mean, I'm still a fan. I love golf. I'm, you know, I just, I didn't miss traveling. I've been playing on the tour. You know, I mean, 20 years it just kind of got beat up, but I still love the game. I still love every part of it. And I'm still a huge golf fan.

And, you know, I'm excited. I'm excited to get the ball in the air and I'm excited to see what they do. I mean, when the gun goes off Thursday, I'll be finding a TV and closing the office door and watching. Well, monitoring, looking, seeing what's a concern, seeing what's awesome, seeing what's, you know, not so awesome. And just seeing how the golf course is playing. and we'll meet up that evening and talk some more and go out in the morning and, you know, micro adjust if need be. But, no, man, I'm excited. It's going to be an awesome week.

This is an unbelievable golf course. You think you made one of the best birdies of U.S. Open Week when you made a birdie on one after pulling a drive dead left into the rough when playing with Frankie and I? Yeah, that was a good one. But that was the last good shot I had of the day. So it was, you know, the rough wasn't quite quite what it is now. But, I mean, you can pull a good lie in this rough. You can get lucky. It's not just automatic pitch out, you know.

You can pull a good lie. And that's kind of what we desire. We want these, like I said, these greens are so remarkable up and around it, that we want you to try to do something that you're not supposed to. We want to tempt these players to do something and to be heroic. you know, sometimes you're going to pull a lie that you're going to look down and go, who did I upset? You know, it's like, and sometimes you're going to get in there and go,

I can get a club on this. I can get some metal on golf ball here. So, you know, that's why it's rough. If it was easy, it'd be called smooth, you know. So it's, yeah, there's going to be, there's going to be. Another good line. That's another good. Sorry, that was, that was, that was a line cheesy, and I apologize for that.

No, no, I think that. We liked it. loved it. This show, we live for that. Those are perfect. We'll take any term from a real golfer. So anything that a real golfer says, we'll just take that and just go with it. But, you know, you're going to have some, the unit, there's going to be some variety in the rough for sure.

So it's going to be fun. I did just get, like, flashbacks to fill, like, you know, 205 out with three wood in his hands in, like, the right row. trying to run one up there. Oh, and it's just, it's the U.S. Open, maybe. But you're right, those options, right, like having, having a guy stand there and think, you know, I could chip it out and have a 75-yard wedge shot, or I could try to claw it at this thing and run it up the right side and tempting them that way that you keep them busy.

You got to keep them busy. Yeah, and the approaches to these greens are wide open. I mean, there's no bunkers, you know, rarely are there, you know, most holes, most hard par fours have approaches that you can run something up. So, you know, you're going to see some. heroic shots. And you're going to see some ones that go a little sideways and little haywire.

So, you know, a perfectly ruined plan. But, you know, you're going to see some heroic shots. And you know what, good for them. Like, we want that. We want to see some things go awesome and be heroic. And we want to see some stuff that goes a little sideways. Well, look, we did enjoy seeing

your birdie on the first hole after you chirped these guys and made them go back to the back to the back tees. They're ashamed. I think it was horrible. Yeah, so bad. That comment alone made me beat Frankie. I mean, Frankie lost before he even got this perjury. I think when he saw the pin locations, he changed his goal from 90 to 100.

But then when you asked us to go from like whatever the USDA sanction teas to the blue tees, I think Frankie just melted inside. Yeah, yeah, because like I was already kind of nervous walking up to that team. we're playing with, you know, gore, and it's like a pro, and all of a sudden, I'm like, like, a little heart rate's going. And I just said, like, let's just get this ball on the ground before anyone says anything here because you know he's going back there. And of course, you were, you just said, you said it out loud to the point where I was like,

shut your, shut your mouth. Like, you said it so loud that I had no other choice. Like, are we playing from all the way up there? We're going to play back here. You, uh, you want to play up there? Yeah, I'm going back here. I'm going back here. I'm like, ah.

You do what you want, but I'm going back here. I mean. everyone's like it's frank against you from up there i was like no i'm not i'm going to come in the back and i'm going to get destroyed you did you did get destroyed that's that's exactly what happened i didn't know what we were getting into you that that freaking course man is something and like and like i saw you out there the other day and like from the change that the amount it's changed from even three weeks ago like it's still the same but also is so different i don't know how to explain it like nothing visually if you're saying on the tee you don't notice any

But like it's just, it's gnarly is the word. Like the rough is almost like a morning bed hair and everything just kind of, it's rough. It's not smooth. It's crazy what this golf course is. It's incredible how fast it morphed, isn't it? A little fertilizer in irrigation. Yeah. It's a, and it changed personalities.

I mean, I came out the next week and played and they were growing on the rough, like they were kind of letting it go and, you know, so where they can get it, you know, where they can back it off at that point. I walked out and just strapped the bag on my back and went for a walk. And it was a beautiful day. And I was just like, I'm going to go focus on some whole locations. I'm going to chip around these greens. I'm going to see what works, what doesn't.

I walked in at dark. It was probably I was out there for seven or eight hours. And I put a dozen balls in my bag. And I walked and put the clubs in my truck. And I looked down and I go, how many golf balls do I have left? Four. I lost eight balls out there. So I don't know where they were.

I mean, it was a little sideways that day, but yeah, I lost eight balls. So the mower is going to go through about eight titleists pretty soon here in a couple weeks. We were out there. We were out there in the morning at like 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning. I dropped the battery up in the rough, and I lost it for 10 minutes. I couldn't find it. Like I was like, I was like, oh, man, someone's going to fucking hit this thing during the U.S. Open. This is crazy.

Like this is absolutely crazy. Once it's in there, it's gone. Yeah. It's just. He, like, he closed his eyes and threw two balls in front of him and the balls were just gone. He couldn't find it. Like, he's looking around.

But that's also, like, way in. So you'd have to hit a bad T-shot, which is what we've been talking about for the last 20, 30 minutes. You'd have to hit something in which it's almost like you weren't supposed to be there. Just like if you're at Pebble Beach, you hit it right on 7 and 8 and all this stuff. Like you'd be in the water. You're just in, you're in a bad area of the golf course. You can't complain about it because you hit it there.

Don't hit it there next time. We didn't know. The USDA didn't make you hit it over there. You know what I'm saying? That's what I'm saying. I like that. The course will, I love the course, man. I'm on the courses side.

I am on the courses. I'm on the USDA side, man. No more complaining losing the golf course. Let's go. Let's just play better. Be better. We just want to put forth a good challenge for these guys. And, you know, like I said, if they hit a good shot,

then we want them to be. rewarded. We're not trying to, we're not trying to trick anything up. We just, we want to put, we want to, we want to identify the best champion. Also, I think Frankie complained during the charity match the whole time about the rough and everything else. I think it was a little too much for him during the match with me. The match is already out of my head. Like I couldn't, I couldn't tell you. Like, I'm, I'm so mentally stronger than you. I'm not even thinking about it. I'm on to, I'm on to the U.S. Open. On to the islanders. Let's have a good therapy. Still playing hockey. mental toughness is what Frankie's known for that's what I'm known for

all right Jason well look man we really appreciate it we appreciate the time it's an awesome week we're as jacked up as we've ever been we might have to start selling like team wingfoot shirts or something we're just on the golf courses team this week ex-el and so to hear a lot about it from you is very cool so thanks for taking the time My pleasure. Thanks, guys. Thanks for having me. See you. Thanks, man. Thanks, Jason. Big thank you to Jason Gore.

Excited to see him around this week. Excited to see him and just be friends with him going forward because he's a very funny guy, very sarcastic. He was actually pretty chirpy with us before we even went on camera, which I loved, especially coming from that podium, as Trent called it. So a great guy. Nice to meet him. And he clearly is a great choice for the USDA, happen as their player relations guy.

I didn't want to say this to him, but there has to be some aspect of his job where when he's going around and asking the players and taking notes on if players are complaining about certain aspects of the golf course, where he takes those notes and then puts them directly in the garbage. Like I think, like I feel like the USGA was like, we just need for these little babies when they cry about the golf course. We don't want to have to. We don't want a little baby. Not Zach Johnson, but all the other guys. When they are complaining about. Who is the biggest baby of them all. No, no, no.

But when these guys are complaining, I feel like the USGA was kind of like, we just don't want to deal with these babies directly. So if you could just be the in-between, and I'm sure they take some of the stuff to heart because they are the players and they want them to be happy. And it's never a great look when, like, the players are complaining so bad about how they may have lost the golf course. But part of it has to be that they just don't want to deal with these guys directly.

And they send our guy Jason Gore out there, who is an incredibly nice and personable guy. It can break the news to them essentially saying, like, just you got to be better at golf. That's it. That's right. And he's such a good person for it. He's a jolly personality.

And he's got great insight. He's on the course set up crew. He's right there. I mean, he's everything we want in terms of information and knowledge. And they're always keeping their cards close to the chest. They're always going to claim, you know, we don't really care what the number is.

This is, I don't have any evidence to back this up. I've never heard anything different. But no part of me believes that they don't have a number in mind. no part of me. I will never believe that. Not once. I'm of the belief that the United States Golf Association, our friend Jason there, who's attached to that association, they want to see somewhere around four, five over par, maybe higher win this thing. That's my opinion. They say they never talk about number. Maybe they do. Maybe they don't. I don't have any evidence to support it. Just my opinion. Those motherfuckers want a number that starts with a plus. He is plus five. Congratulations.

He's plus eight. Congratulations. That's what they want, in my opinion. He wouldn't say that. Who knows? That's what I want. And I imagine that's also what they would like. Okay.

A couple quick things. We have some U.S. Open themed merch coming out. We've got Peter Malarge here, a little American flag. We got a couple quartersips, a couple polos. Check those out at store. That barstoolsports.com. We've also released like that transfusion polo, which is awesome. We talked about the perfect practice putting mat.

and then our videos again reminder to go to four play golf on YouTube please we put a lot of work into these Jake Bass Brendan Jones Frankie Borelli Trent Lurch myself we all put a lot of work and a lot effort into these videos to try to become a little bit more of a video brand we try to diversify our portfolio of content if you will and you can help us out by going and viewing those videos and watching them just put them on and go cook dinner or something if you really have to because we still get those view counts. So just kind of whatever you have to do, just go fucking hit play.

And that would be lovely. And we have the Lurch Frankie match, which we sort of, we use that storyline to drive through the course tour of Wingflit. And it works incredibly well. There's drone footage. There's your classic amateur golfers hitting good shots, bad shots.

Lurge birdied the second hole. Frankie didn't. And so it was just, it was a really good way. to showcase the golf course from an Amber to golfers perspective. And then we've got again Wednesday night the awesome behind the scenes documentary style video of the superintendent, the course maintenance staff at Wingfoot. And that is Steve Rabadu, who is the head super. He's the next guy up in terms of our interviews.

The one thing I want to talk about before we get to that is the Barstool Classic Controversies, which we had another one. And it's pretty simple. but we had one group qualified. They shot six under par. Everybody's hanging out, having a good time. I came in from kind of being out on the course doing my duty, and people pulled me over and said,

hey, we watched that group on their 18th hole. They didn't finish out. They kind of guy lagged it up there close to a couple inches, just raped, scooped. This is a golf tournament. You have to finish everything out. They didn't do that. Well, I pulled those guys over and said,

did this happen? They said, no, actually the other guy was already in for the same number. so that's why that guy raped it became he said versus her he said she said ultimate ruling is like unless there's clear camera evidence or unless their playing partners said that they were just picking up the ball a whole fucking day there's not much that you can really do but as commissioner it's interesting because i've never really been in these positions before and people present these problems but i don't think there's really anything you do unless you you actually have video evidence of them never put a guy so does that give you reason to put a camera up on the

18th green check footage. No. Are you trying to turn, hey, are you trying to turn the Barstall classics into a police state? Are you trying to put up, are you encouraging people to do what you did at Pynurth? They paid to bring their cameras out and start taking a picture of everything because it started sound like that. All I'm doing, Tread Daddy, is saying, I didn't create this drop. People brought it to me.

People came to me and said, hey, Commissioner, we all, 15 of us were having a cocktail and watch these people not put out on 18. What are you going to do about it? So was I supposed to just go silent, Trent? So now you go to a Barster Classic. You've ever been on a long road trip where it says this area is like police by radar? You're just going to say like random cameras are in the trees looking at the cameras.

Fake cameras. Great idea. Yeah. Some people do that at stores. They just put it like a, you don't want to pay for the everything that comes with the surveillance system. So you just put a camera up in the corner. It's connected to nothing.

And people are there on their best behavior. You see the one where it says radar enforced by. aircraft? That's a lie. Has to be. That just doesn't check out. There's no way that they can do that. No, I don't think we're going to get to that point. We don't have the budget for it, sadly. But I think that in golf, you're just going to get that. You're going to have people that on some level we're going to try to shave. I don't think that these guys were doing that.

I think that people saw something on 18. They all kind of a little gang mentality. They're like, I didn't see that guy put out. And meanwhile, the other guy had just finished and made the same score and people didn't know that. Either way, there's really nothing else that we could do in terms of the authority, unless we saw it or unless we filmed it, I can't just go off people making random accusations and kick people out of the tournament. So a little bit of controversy, but I think mostly it was avoided. Okay.

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You want to buy a home. That's going to be the next step for me. I just moved out of my apartment. So it's like I'm back home and I'm just going to, like my next thing that I'm going to have to do is purchase a home. And I don't know how I'm going to do that. Maybe this next thing that you're about to say is going to help me with it. But that's something that keeps me up at night. I have to purchase something in which then I have to live in.

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Cross-country Mortgage LLC N-MLS 3-029. Go to www. nmLSS consumer access.org equal housing opportunity. Congratulations for me, reading that like an adult, and now you can go acquire a home like an adult. You are welcome. Thank you, cross-country mortgage. Next up is Steve Rabidoo, who is the head super at Wingfoot Golf Club. All right, folks, we're joined by a very good friend of ours, another good friend of ours, who is the head superintendent at Wingfoot Golf Club.

They've got two top 100 golf courses in America in the world, many would say, one of the best 36 whole facilities on Earth. And he has been preparing the golf course Wingfoot West for the U.S. Open for years now. We had you on for the first time, Steve. I know you're Massachusetts guy. We had you on for the first time, like, three years ago, I feel like, and we were getting jacked up for the U.S. Open at Wingfoot. Then now it's U.S. Open Week.

So how are we feeling? So psyched that it's here. You know, this whole year has been a roller coaster, but there's definitely a buzz going on now. My guys are jacked up. We're ready to rock and roll. How, you know, how, if you could rate, how well things have panned out for you guys

in terms of being able to prepare the golf course how you want to because we know that some, you know, at Oakmont a few years ago, there was a bunch of rain. At Aaron Hills, there was no wind. In terms of Mother Nature and things being able to go your way, how in control are you guys able to be this week with the golf course?

Man, I don't want to jinx ourselves. or, you know, us right now, but the weather forecast looks really, really good. So, you know, it's fall golf in the Northeast right now. It's a great time to play golf. And the weather forecast looks really good. Only one day that has a slight chance of rain, and I think that's going to miss us, or at least I'm hoping it's going to miss us. And the place is firming up, and it's going to be, it's going to set up to be a really good week.

So I know you guys have pretty much in terms of the subair, the restoration. We have a couple different videos coming out about a lot of things, about the work that you guys do, about the greens and the technology behind them. But talk a little bit about sort of what is underneath and what is in the makeup of those greens now that would allow you to and does allow you to control the firmness when it rains and give you guys control over those things. Yeah, so, you know, before we did the restoration work, we had what you would refer to as an old push-up green.

You know, they just back in the days and the 20s, they would push the soil up and, you know, they were built to hold moisture, right? You know, but now, fast forward almost 100 years, moisture is really not our friend anymore. We control moisture with an irrigation system. They didn't really have that back then. So what we did is when we did the restoration work, we wanted to preserve the contours of the greens because Wingfoot is known for their greens. So we didn't want to change the contours of the greens.

So we used technology that we could shell the greens out and change the infrastructure, but keep the contours exactly the same. And a USGA spec green has 12 inches of mix in it, and that's a mix made up of sand. That mix varies from place to place. You can change that. a guideline so that it can fall within how much sand or not. But our grains are about 85% sand and a little peat, so they drain exceptionally well.

Underneath that, 12 inches of a sand mix is a 4-inch gravel layer, and then there's drainage underneath that. So these things drain. You know, then you couple in the fact that we put sub-air in, and a sub-air is, it's another tool, you know, it's not the end-all-be-all, but it's another tool that after a rain event that we can turn that on and it can suck out all that moisture that's in that greens cavity and help firm these greens up much quicker. But then, you know, the whole goal when we did all this and try to change the infrastructure

was to keep, you know, the contours the same. That was the most important thing because these screens are so awesome and, you know, that was the goal. But contours stayed the same. Infrastructures modernized up to, you know, the latest technology. You know, went from like a Cadillac to a Ferrari. I love that. I love that.

What type of golf are you expecting to see? I mean, we saw a couple rounds. One at TBC Boston, we saw a 59 and a 60 on the same exact day. A week later, we see at Olympia Fields. We see even PARs an amazing score. What type of golf is the guy that's as close to this golf course? Is anyone on planet Earth? What type of golf do you think we're going to see Thursday?

It's going to be challenging, you know? I mean, it's going to be long, you know, par 70 golf force. 74-77 is what it could tip out at. Narrow fairways. I mean, it's a classic U.S. open setup. Narrow fairways, it's got really challenging greens. It's going to have good rough. You have to golf your golf ball from your first shot in the first T-box all the way through to 18.

and there will be bad shots and you'll have to scramble and make some bogies and maybe an occasional birdie, but it's, you know, the guy that can play 72 holes and withstand the ups and downs, I think, is going to come out of the champion at the end. It's going to be, it's a test of golf all the way around. In terms of the rough, we're seeing it all over the place. How long is the rough? it's it's gonna it's gonna be four inches uh right now we're gonna be we're gonna it's right at four inches now and it's uh you know it will go through probably get a little bit longer than that but it's

four inches right now and it's it's healthy that was our goal all summer long on the rough you know when you move an open from june to september you know june is a great time for a u.s open now you you move it to September, you got to keep the rough healthy through the summer, which is hard, you know, when you got to keep 70 acres of rough good. And so keeping it with, you know, keeping it healthy and disease-free and watered, you know, my guys, my team did a just incredible job keeping that rough good and it's prime and it's ready to go. Yeah, we've been, you know, Frankie, Jake, Brendan, a few other of our camera guys, our production crew have obviously been working with you guys documenting a lot of what you guys do i think a lot of the world's going to see

that on wednesday when we release the video but talk a little bit about your team right like because you know we we talk about it's a it's a thankless job you in in the teaser that i saw you're saying you know the the sneaky part about our job is like all of our work is done before anybody else even shows up like we got to get it done talk about your team how many people are there what time a day are you guys up. How many fricking tractors do you guys have? What is this operation like? Oh, yeah. It's a massive

operation. You got 36 holes like we do and 36 champion holes, championship holes. You know, we got 55, 55 guys on staff right now. We were going to have a few more, but we kept it a 55 this year. You know, and I

got guys, Weston, you know, JR, figs, those guys have been on me a long time. I could go on and on some of these guys, you know. You know, this week, we got here at 3 a.m. this morning. We probably won't leave from 9 or 10 o'clock tonight. That will be probably our M.O. all the way through until Sunday until we get to kick back and watch the final round.

And then watch the Sunday night football game, which is the past. So hopefully it didn't go 2 and 0 after 1 and 0 this week. That's what that, the hours to me is insane. And obviously I've seen it first half. And I think I may have bit off a little more than I can chew trying to do this video. I mean, every time we showed up, it was fucking 4 o'clock in the morning. I'm like, are these guys ever going to show up at 8 o'clock? And can I sleep in one day when I do this video?

It's crazy. I couldn't keep up with you guys. And I think we saw how much of a unique, and I'm sure there's, I mean, you go to all these different golf courses. I'm sure everyone does it their own way. But you could just tell the community that you guys have. I mean, people will see in the video, people quite literally live on the golf course. It's a college atmosphere almost where they're inside their own rooms and all there.

They are there to work. And I don't know that I could do it. I love golf. I love everything about it. And the fact that they do this, it's all they do is get that golf course ready. Think about that. 3 a.m. to 9 p.m. You're right back at 3 a.m.

I can't. When do you watch a movie? When do you get to just like do anything? Go to dinner. It blows my mind. You couldn't like, honestly, He couldn't pay me all the money in the world at some point for what these guys are doing. But they love it.

They love it. It's like, it's their dream. I was talking to Wes. And he's like, this is what I do. This is my life. He's like, what else am I supposed to do? This is what I do. This is what I was bored to do.

And I want to go. I want to keep moving up the ranks. This is my path. And that stuff to me is so inspiring. The work that you guys do on a golf course, this video Wednesday is going to open up people's minds to what we step up to the tea and we shank a ball into the fucking road. And we just grab our breakfast ball. We just take it for grass. I think you guys have been out there for five hours prior to that.

Maddie Curring is green and it's crazy to me. You've blown my mind and I know I'm pumping your tires crazy right now, but it's really blown my mind of what you guys do. It's blown my mind. Well, it's a passion, right? I mean, it's not a job. You know, I tell all the guys that and they have to understand that, you know, they go seven days a week.

It's seven days a week. It's long hours. You know, when the driving force is the fact that everything you do is on public display every day for the members and the guests, and now it's going to be on public display for 120 million people worldwide to watch. I mean, that's motivating. And, you know, we've had a lot of guys come here before that think they wanted to work at Wingfoot, but really found out that they can't hack it.

And, you know, the guys I got here now are awesome. It is like a brotherhood. I mean, I spend more time with these guys than anybody. We all spend more time with anybody together. So we have a lot of fun and we work really hard. I mean, I'm ready to run through a fucking wall right now. And it reminds me of here with like Dave Fortner, right? It's like you expect the best out of these guys.

And when I was talking to them and interviewing him, they all kind of chuckle when I'm like, what do you think about Steve? Like him as a boss. And they're like, they laugh at first because they know how hard you probably can be. But then at the end, they're like, but that's why wing foot is. Like we can't make a mistake. We minimize our mistake. every day we have to make this golf course a championship level.

And like, they laugh because they're like, man, he could probably be a dick sometimes when I do something wrong. But at the end of the day, like, I respect the shit out of that guy. And same with us, with Ard Boss. Like, this guy sometimes makes you want to frickin' never leave my room again. I'm like, I'm crying in the club in my room. Like, I can't take this anymore. But at the end of the day, like, look at where we get to go.

And, like, we're all just like moving forward in life. And I think that's what your guys are doing. It's a fucking hard life, though. Like, there's no denying that. It's a grind. It's an absolute grind. It is, it is. But, you know, and, you know, I want to make these guys better.

And, you know, and the only way to do it is, you know, to be firm but fair. But you got to be, you know, you got to show them, you know, show them what's up because sometimes they don't miss those, they miss those little things and the attention to detail. And, you know, because I hear it from the members, you know, and, you know, but that's it. You know, it's just about being on public display, you know, and it's hard for members to realize that. The golf course isn't perfect every day.

The golf course changes. It's an evolving thing with weather and rain and wind and humidity. And, I mean, it's just never the same, you know. So it's an outdoor game that sometimes people forget that there's no dome over it and that things change with it. You know, it's not perfect every day. I could probably say how many times a year I think the golf course plays the way I want it to play. But, you know, we strive to give them the best conditions we can day in a day.

out and it takes a dedicated team to do that. And all these guys are educated. They're all turf guys. You know, I've got a great team. And they're passionate. These guys are going to go on to do great things. It's, so I'm curious how different is the golf course going to be this week versus how it

presents on a day-to-day basis with the members? Because I've been there six or seven times. I've seen you every time I'm out there. I've been there in March. I've been there in late October. I've been there in June. The damn thing is playing pretty similar every time. The greens are perfect.

They're firm. You can three or four jack from anywhere. If you miss fairways, it's going to be tough to make bogey for guys like us a lot of the time, let alone par. So how different right now is the golf course from what the members see weekend and week out? You know, it's just about ramping it up, right? When I got a volunteer staff now, I got like 80 guys. that are volunteering to help. You know, so all the super is an assistance

them all around. When you get for a championship level, it's you're cutting every playing surface every day. You're rolling it, you know, where for instance, on the approaches, we would maybe just, we cut approaches,

we don't cut them every day. We usually cut them three days a week. You know, now if championship week you're cutting approaches every day, you're rolling approaches, you know, and you're cutting in rolling greens and you're cutting fairways every day

and you're cutting the keys every day. And you just, you just take everything and you just dial it up a little bit, right? You dial it up a little bit to get to that next level. And, you know, thankfully we're in a position where we don't have to dial it, try too, too hard because we're pretty good day in and day out, and we just dial it up to get to where we need to be. And it takes a lot of guys for that.

You know, we've got guys out, you know, just doing every little thing and attention to detail to make it as perfect as we can for these guys. And so they can go out there. see who gets the hoisted trophy at the end, you know. So the golf course, A.W. Tillinghast, Gilhant's come in. This is going to be the sixth different U.S. Open. The bunkering's amazing. The green complexes are going to get talked about a lot.

Do you have a favorite hole out there? You have one hole you're most excited to watch these guys play? I think 15 West is probably my favorite green complex. You know, it's got that creek at the bottom of the head. be interested to see what the guys do. Creeks like, what's a creek down there? Creeks 310, 320, I think, at the bottom. You know, so are the guys going to,

and the fairway slants down to the left a little bit, so are the guy going to try to chase something down there with an iron? If you hang up on the hill, you could have a bad shot. If you get in the rough, it's tough. The green's sort of tilted on an angle, so it could be hard to get to. it's just an awesome hole. But yeah, I could go through almost every hole and pick out why there's something that's

great on every hole. I mean, it's just from one through 18, every hole is awesome. That 15th green, every time I've been there, I found myself pulling out my phone and trying to get like down on ground level to take that video and showcase to people that there are, like, it feels like 10 different ridges and ledges and pockets on that green where you could put pens. It's so cool. Yeah, that green got, when, when, when, when gilded the restoration, we looked at old photos and everything was going back to like 1929. And we had, and I showed you in the shop,

we had an awesome photo of that green in 1929 and, uh, of what the original size of that green was. So we restored it to the, uh, back to the original size. That green got about 2,500 square feet, 2,600 square feet bigger than what it was when we started. And we got, you know, gained whole locations on it. It's just, it's just an awesome green. It really is. That was that experience walking through there with you guys and hearing all about the backstory, the process of that green and the fact that you guys did that on all 36 greens on the golf on the property. It's, it's amazing. Yeah, that was a cool project. Never knew that that was going to take off like it did when we started on the practice facility, then started on the east course. And it just turned out awesome. What Gil did was,

was so good. You know, but like I said before, the greens were the, you know, we went back to what the original scale of them was off of the photos, but the existing contours that we started with are all the same, you know, it's just, they're just better, you know, when we changed everything and the infrastructure of them. Talk to us about the sand splash. I always thought that was pretty interesting, the more you talked about it. It's something that I feel like golfers don't realize.

All the sand that's being accumulated on the green from. hitting it out of the bunkers walking onto the greens and it accumulates so much so it actually is like i mean i don't want to say it was it like what was the number of how much when you guys ripped up one of the greens and how much sand was there what foot and a half i mean we think we did the practice facility in fall of 2012 and we just redid it last fall now it's a practice facility so it gets heavily used but we took about 14 to 15 inches of sand splash off that off all those bunker faces and you can tell where the existing soil was. He just got sand all the way down to the hard soil.

So we had to go and scrape all that off and re-sought it. And some of the greens on the golf course, three west, the right side of three west. There had to be a foot, foot and a half of sand. And we had actually lost a hole location because it raised up so much. And then, you know, it just sort of changed the, you know, that angle went into the green. So it made it steeper so you couldn't get a whole location.

location there. It's amazing. It's like an archaeological dig when you go down to see where the existing soil was, and you can see just a layer of sand on top of it. It was pretty cool. It is so cool. So from 06 to now, I mean, the games change. Guys hit the ball farther, and there's just different stats, different equipment. How much have you guys factored that in? Did you work with the USGA, new T-boxes? How different does the course have to be from the last time the U.S. Open was at Wingfoot? So the course got longer.

Gill and the restoration. Some of the bunkers were moved, were slid further down the hole. Two was, the two bunkers on four were, five, nine, we put bunkers back in that were originally there. What do we do? We did a 14 we moved down, 15 we moved down. So, you know, these guys hitting at 300, 320 off the T. So, you know, but it's relative to the, you know, the 10 handicapper or the 18 handicapper, they're still hitting a ball a little further too.

So a lot of times bunkers just are obsolete. They're not even play anymore. So, you know, some of the bunkers were moved further down. We lengthened some holes and didn't make it. It's not goofy anywhere, you know, but we got some good length on it. We lengthened nine got lengthened. Five and nine are going to play different this open. Five will be a par four, 500 yards, where last, in a previous opens, it was a part five.

But now nine, because we lengthened it, used to play a par four. Now is going to be a par five. So 15 got a little bit longer, and then 16 and 17 got longer. So that's where some of the meat comes in. You know, you get those final three finishing holes, and 18 got a smidge longer. So you get 500, 500, like 470 finishing coming in. So that's pretty good, pretty good test right there. So you're obviously as tied to the golf course as anybody, like I said earlier.

the USGA runs the championship. It's not a tournament, it's championship. How much say, how much involvement do you have in changes to the course from this point on, whether that's cutting the rough, changing the rough, anything like that. Are they consulting you a lot? Have you turned it over to them? What's the relationship like now in terms of decisions and how the course is presented for the championship? Well, it's a partnership, you know, and one of the things that was comforting going into the open is they were, you know, they've always said they've had a lot of comfort in the fact

that the golf course is in championship condition and probably host an open almost any time there. So we have daily meetings and discuss all those things, and it's something that we, you know, work together and work, work together on all those decisions, and it's a great relationship. So, you know, we've known that going in. It's, you know, we're going to pull this off together, you know, teamwork. Are you rooting for anything, right?

Like, we're rooting for 10 over par. We're rooting for we want to see guys breaking clubs, throwing clubs, bitching about everything imaginable from the rough to the greens to the fairways to the clubhouse. We want them upset about everything. What are you rooting for this week? I won a great championship. You know, I want to be a good test this week.

I'm hoping that the membership is happy after it. And I'm rooting to be able to sit down with my guys on Sunday, watch golf down at the shop on Sunday, watch the final round, hopefully be able to kick back with them. You know, after the championship's over, then we're going to hang out and enjoy and then put the Pats game on. 820. It's just always on to something that it's just like they're never,

you guys are never really resting. You're always, it's like the paths will be on and then you guys will have one day where you sleep in a little bit. No, there's an outing Monday. No, there's an outing Monday.

There's no rest. We got to go back to work the next morning. That's crazy. We should make wing foot shirts with Rabidow on the back. Like he's an athlete and we're rooting for him to win. This is like I want to walk around with like your name on the back of my shirt, like a jersey. Like we're on your team this week. Well, you guys got to come down the shop.

Oh. Yeah, we'll be in there. We'll be in there for during the tournament. We got to come see the guys like in the tournament. Championship. Oh, shit. Just screwed that up on a prior call. I did.

Championship, Frank. In its very nature at the tournament, but we'll say it's a championship. I mean, it's a championship. It is a championship. I'm just saying, I'm not incorrect by saying it's tournament. Let's let's get, let's get that down. I know what they say, but I'm letting you know, right? It's still, like, an aspect of what it is is a tournament.

You're not going to win this one, Frank. No, I know, I know. I just wanted it back. No, you can't win this one. You can't win this one. It is true. I wanted to bring this one up. We were walking out of your shop the other day, and we saw your historian.

I guess he's the one that had put together all the pictures and placed them up, stitched them in, the Photoshop. We've seen some incredible photos inside your guy's shop. It's crazy, 100-year-old photos. He actually mentioned to me to bring up or ask you had you ever driven a cart onto a green when doing the restoration and what happened with that. It's a great story. So when I got here, the fourth green on the West used to like always die. and when we're getting ready to rebuild it, I reached out to a couple of my old assistants

that are now at the superintendents elsewhere because they were there from some late nights on us trying to get that green back when it was dying in front of our eyes. And I said, what do you want me to do to this green? So we had just taken the sod off the green. And they're like, just go up there and do donuts on the screen. So I'd just gotten a new golf cart

and it had lithium batteries in it, so it's a lot lighter. And I go driving up on the green and I go to do a donut on it and Neil is right there. He's our historian. He was taking photos and the cart flipped right on the green right in front of it. I jumped out and the cart just the whole thing

just went down and he has a great photo of it. I was just like he was just dying laughing. It was, yeah, it was some moment. It reminds me so much of an office space one of my favorite movies where they just can't get this printer to work. They work in this office.

Like they finally take this printer out to the fucking field. And they're hitting it with like, like, bats and axes. And like, you're looking at this fourth green. You're like, what do you boys want me to do to this thing? You want me to light it on fire? Should we take a piss on it? Like, what are we doing with this? Like, the devil sent us this green.

Like, how are we getting rid of it? That's so funny to me. Yeah, that green was a nightmare. Oh, God. We're so happy that we've done with that green. Was it because it's like tucked back in the trees there? Didn't get any saw or something? 100%

So it's surrounded by trees behind it It's to the right of it And the sun comes up to the right of it It doesn't get morning sun It doesn't get wind And there used to be a lot more trees there And it was always in the shade And it was just

Just a nightmare down there In that pocket down there I cannot wait For us to get to witness People playing that 18th green Trying to finish their rounds On that 18th green I think seeing it for the first time

For people I mean, it looks, it looks like the back of a boat or something. Like it's such a massive drop off. There's so much curvature to it. So just the thought that we're going to get to watch guys finish this championship, Frankie, on that green and on this golf course and knowing the awesome work you guys do, it's just, it's crazy that it's US Open Week. We're just giddy that it's US Open Week.

Yeah, it's great. Yeah, that green is, uh, One, it's big, but I think there's like eight feet from the back to the front of that green. It might even be nine, but it's eight or nine feet from the back to the front. It's great. When you walk up there, you see how massive it is. Yeah, if you miss short there, I imagine some guests and members have bladed a few up over by that patio from short. Yeah, I'm not sure there's been a bunch of blade jobs down there.

Well, look, it's been, it's just been, it's been, it's been, great to chat with you. It's been great to document you guys for the last month, three weeks, whatever it's been. And I think it's going to be really cool for people to see on Wednesday what all you guys have been working on. Yeah, no, it's hopefully it is. And thank you guys. I think my guys are psych. You know, it's, like I said, not a lot of guys know what we do. So it's pretty cool that you guys are doing this. Well, look, Steve, have an awesome week. Me and Frankie and the crew, we're going to be out there as much as we can, depending on credentials and the situation.

But we're going to come down by the shop. We're going to check it out. We're going to have, I'm sure, a few off-the-record conversations about how things are going out there on the course. And it's going to be a great time. Awesome. Championship, Frankie. Championship. Championship.

Championship. All right. Thanks, Steve. Appreciate it. Thanks, Steve. All right, guys. Thank you. Championship week.

Thank you, Steve. Thanks. All right. Two good interviews. A lot of fun, a lot of hype, a lot of excitement for the U.S. Open. It's U.S. Open week. It's classic U.S. Open. It's Wingfoot, which is as U.S. Open as it gets.

I'm pumped. We got a lot of videos coming out. This one with Steve and with the Wingfoot crew is, again, one that you must watch. Wednesday night, 8 p.m. Is that when it's ready, fellas? Yeah. Barstlesports.com and the YouTube page. Go to the YouTube page.

Subscribe so that you see it. We'll be in the chat watching with you guys. It's a video that we're not in. So it's super different. And, you know, we're not, it's just from our point of view. We were flies on the wall. And, like, we got the idea just being in this crew, being around this crew, being in the yard after we played the Meverse Lurch match.

And I just saw, like, how much of a fucking, like, character crew this is. And they're literally made to have a documentary made for them or made with them in it. And I'm very, very proud of the team that has, you know, we've got in getting there at 3 o'clock in the morning, 4 o'clock in the morning. It's crazy what these guys do, the crew. It's absolutely crazy. I've shown the video so far to like my mom, my dad, like people that really don't. And my dad obviously knows golf, but like people that don't know golf or don't golf and they just can't take their eyes off this. It feels like some, it feels like a hard knocks. It feels like an HBO show. And you're going to really, really, really get jacked up for the

U.S. Open, which is the next day, like that next morning. You're going to watch this course during a five o'clock sunrise as these guys are figuring out like the dew and and and and the changes in the weather and they're on the walkie talkies and they're talking about what the weather is that morning and how much that affects the ground and the fairways and how that runs off into the rough like now what I'm going to do after watching this video like I'm now going to check like oh shit at five o'clock in the morning what is the weather like because that's going to change the golf course you learn that type of stuff in this video like if it's a certain number I'm not going to give away the number like the golf course and I think Ravidu says it's a light switch that he can't turn on.

Like, it's something that can just, it's something that can just light the golf course on fire with speed and firmness just based off of September weather in the morning. It's awesome. So you see a lot of stuff like that. We give a lot of shine to guys who would never get shine before. Guys were just on these mowers at fucking 4 o'clock in the morning. They went to UMass and they went to Penn State and they went to all these schools. They're hundreds of thousand dollars in debt of turf school, uh, tuition.

You would never think that they go to school. I think I've shit on turf school people. I did, like months ago. Maybe like a year ago. I was anti-grounds crew. I like, who the hell of these guys think they are? They're like the most like self-righteous people in the world. You fucking cut a little grass.

And in classic Frankie fashion, like now I'm waking up at 4 o'clock in the morning, driving a Westchester. I'm getting dinged with all these freaking tolls every single day. I'm like $180 down on the whole. I can't believe how many tolls you go through to get the Westchester from Long Island. It's insane. I mean, they hit you on every single fucking turn. Another thing is like, I never knew that that world exists.

I didn't know people lived on a golf course. I looked at one of the guys in this video tomorrow, I said, you couldn't pay me 500 grand to do this job. You couldn't. You honestly couldn't. I don't know if I'd be able to do it. What is the point of having the money if you can't leave the course? You don't leave the golf course.

You know what I mean? Yeah. They have such a passion for it. They're at like boarding school as adults for just cutting your ass all time. and like the math that goes into it we have we have we have shots of a guy doing all right like one one one and a half eight years times zero point two five percent dew point and like all right you need to get this amount of spray on this green because that temperature at that rate on that fucking green needs to be this or else he's going to be dead like that's crazy to me the amount of math and the amount of schooling and all this stuff and nobody nobody knows anything about these people like i show up at 635 for that first tea time and no one knows how to fuck that golf course became a a top 100 golf course in the world. They have two of them. Members are out there.

They're throwing their ice on the ground. They have their drinks. These guys have been out there for five hours doing this shit. Imagine me going out there in that bunker and blading it into the fricking into the ledge every five seconds, stepping around like an idiot, doing my little dance on the green. I have such a more higher respect for these greens you wouldn't believe for the grounds crew and for these golf courses. it's very cool to highlight the insane work that certain people do because let's just be honest not everybody cares about their job that much like not everybody has passion for their job a lot of people you just got to pay the bills you got to clock in clock out you got to somehow

get through you got to make money to survive these people they went to school for it they got the gig at wing foot they were able to do what it takes to keep that gig and to earn steve's and documenting what they actually do day in and day out, documenting the fact that they present a world-class, not one, but two, two world-class golf courses every single day that it's not snowing in wintertime in New York is unreal. So documenting that is an honor that our team was able to do that.

And I hope we did these guys justice. I think we did. I hope we did. If it didn't hit, then I'm just going to fucking quit. I don't know. I don't know how much more effort we can put into something for it not to be good. I genuinely think it's going to be the best thing that I've ever personally been worked on because I think that we're not in it. So you're not going to see, I can't ruin it. I can't be that annoying fucking Frankie walking down the green and saying something stupid because I don't know what I'm talking

about. I can't. There's all guys that know what they're talking about. The content can't be bad because it's guys that are actually good at what they do. Like I'm not good at what I do on the golf course. These guys are good at work and we're just documenting it. Right. If you hate us and think that we suck, if you hate us and think that we saw the best video we've ever seen. We're just not in the video. It doesn't. It doesn't matter. We're not the video. And I also want this to open up a new world for us, right? Like we can go to a place like band and dudes or all these other places. We can play the golf course. We can fucking do our travel series. We can do it. And then also like we we now have a recipe for success hopefully. And we can show

these people what this fucking, how that golf course got to where it is. And we can show it in our own way, like the bar stool way. I guarantee you no one that would ever have done that video would go into these guys' frat house and see all the stuff on the walls and how big of a barstool fan they are. Just watch the video tomorrow and you're going to see how cool this shit is. It's really cool.

Let me break you down and watch this video. It is going to be absolutely incredible. The footage is so impressive like what the guys go through, their camaraderie that they have. He's a beast. He's an awesome boss. It seems like he's like, no BS, work hard, play hard,

but just like get it down and get it down the right way. It's going to be really cool. 8 p.m. Eastern, Wednesday evening, we'll be promoting it. We'll be in the chat. We'll be talking. We'll be fired up for it as you should be. So go to YouTube, Foreplay Golf, check it out. Have a lovely week.

Follow us, Foreplay Pod. Our accounts. We're going to be all over the U.S. Open all week. We'll be back Thursday with our second show. And then it is go time, balls in the air. Hit it hard. Hit it hard. Hit it hard.