Halford & Brough in the Morning - Have The Whitecaps Left Their Mark?

Episode Date: July 18, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk the Whitecaps and why they haven't had a bigger impact on the city of Vancouver (12:00), plus they preview The Open, which got underway today, with Sportsnet golf reporter Adam Stanley (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-d Oh! Oh! He goes on a tear now, too! Maybe one of the best positives from us doing well in Copa America is that we can show some of these dual nationals that the program is serious, and we're going places. Barney was 6 for 26. Jalen Brown was 5 for 26 from the field. He's a good upside. I like my golfers in long pants. Good morning, Vancouver.

6 o'clock on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning.

Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling. They recycle.

You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We're also coming to you live from the Kintec Studios. Jason will tell you more about Kintec right now. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet. What are you waiting for? Kintec. That's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soar feet, what are you waiting for?

Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. You know, some people challenged us to put together a competent radio show on the slowest of slow sports days. We did it. It took approximately seven hours yesterday, but we did it. Guest list begins today at 6.30. Adam Stanley is going to join us. Sportsnet golf analyst. The Open Championship is underway from Royal Troon,

or Troon as they call it, or do they call it Royal Troon? I don't think it's Royal Troon. I think it's just Troon. It doesn't have a crown. It's just Troon. Just good old Troon. It looks horrible over there. It looks like the course has some teeth, as they say, this morning.

I love golf talk. We'll talk to Adam about that. The first round is underway. There's a bunch of scores already posted. We'll get to that later in the show. 7 o'clock, very excited to talk to Mark Strong from CBC Radio. You might recognize him. He's been on CBC Radio for a while, but he's also going to be calling and commentating the breaking competition

from this year's Olympic Games. Break dancing. So here's the thing. Break dancing. So here's the thing. Break dancing. Do not call it breaking. Can we tell an A-Dog story? We can. Nobody calls it breaking.

So I said to Andy yesterday in the midst of trying to get guests on today's show, A-Dog, can you please track down one of the break dancing commentators for CBC at the upcoming Olympics and then he said what's the difference between breaking and break dancing and I said nothing they are the same thing I have never heard anyone in my life call break dancing breaking

so that's not exactly how it went there is a list of commentators provided and it was commentators for you know of commentators provided, and it was commentators for swimming, commentators for basketball, and there was a few commentators provided for breaking. Adog replies to the group chat goes, is breaking break dancing? Yeah. So, okay. This is not a stupid question.

1,000% yes. No, okay. This is not a stupid question. 1,000% yes. No, it's not. Because, first of all, you should have been able to just make that match in your mind. Yeah. Second of all. You can see how they got there. What is breaking if it is not break dancing? And why would there be commentators for the sport of-

Breaking news, maybe? Breaking Olympic news? Breaking stuff? Like maybe there's a glass-breaking competition? Yet again, every day is what we learn. You didn't think this through, did you? No, I did not. Mark Strong...

Again, though, breakdancing is what it should be called. You know what? So, it is breaking, by the way. I know that's what they're calling it, but they shouldn't be calling it. And since they are in charge of the sport, they get to call the shots. Break dancing sounds, what, too cool or something? So they got to call it something stuffy?

It's like how the Olympics rolls? Yes. If there's one thing. That sounds stuffy, all right. If there's one thing that break dancing is synonymous with, it's stuffiness. Oh, will you be watching the breaking this morning? Yeah, exactly. What's with that?

I did a lot of research on the competition. Learned a lot. I had to as well. Did you really? Did you really? Yeah. Okay, that'll be good because I've done none. Yeah, we should go in with a little bit of knowledge as we talk to Mark Strong at 7 o'clock.

Again, he'll be calling the breaking competition. Okay, please stop. And I was marveled to find that Elliot Friedman is going to be doing the rowing and the kayaking play-by-play. And not only that, we're going to have Fridge on the show next week. We asked him to come on today. Not for hockey talk. We're not going to ask him to sing a hockey song, we're going to have Freedj on the show next week. We asked him to come on today. Not for hockey talk. We're not going to ask him

to sing a hockey song. We're going to ask him about rowing. Rowing Insider, the 32 rows podcast. The 32 strokes. Yeah. I thought that

and I didn't want to say it. Yeah, don't Google that. Yeah, it's a different podcast. Freedj is going to join us next week. We're going to go Olympic heavy and that's kind of one of the themes of today's show as well by the way uh 7 30 cory lavalette from the north state journal

and the athletic he is the uh carolina hurricanes beat writer for both of those outlets we're going to talk to him about a very transformative and not in a good way off season for the canes and then yesterday the uh contract termination of evgeny kuznetsov. So we'll talk to Corey about that. 8 o'clock, our boy Marcus Fitzgerald. Right here, Basketball Central on Sportsnet 650. We'll talk to Fitzy about Canada at the Olympics. USA steamrolling through its pre-Olympic tournament. A little bit of Barani.

We'll talk a little bit of Barani James. We'll talk about everything that's going on in the NBA offseason. There's lots to get into with Marcus Fitzgerald. When are the Sonics going to be back? And Marcus. When are the Sonics going to be back? And expansion. When are the Sonics going to be back? You know, last week we had – oh, sorry, it was earlier this week.

Do you know how cool that's going to be? And do you know how possibly bad that's going to be for the Kraken? We talked about this with Dave Softy-Moller. Yeah, he was like 26, 27. Yeah, he said he thinks that there will be an announcement in the latter part of this year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, yeah, he kind of penciled in 2026, 2027

as their first season. But he said it's an inevitability, and the clock is ticking on the Kraken. He was very critical of the Kraken's work so far, not just on the ice, but how they've failed to penetrate the market. So we talked to him about that a lot. A lot of penetration talk. A lot of penetration talk, yeah, on the ice, but how they've failed to penetrate the market. So we talked to him about that a lot. A lot of penetration.

A lot of penetration talk on the 32 Strokes podcast. Marcus Fitzgerald at 8 o'clock. Corey Lavalette at 7.30. Mark Strong at 7.00. Adam Stanley at 6.30. That's the program. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened?

What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety simpler by providing construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. We begin with the lone local sporting event of the evening which i could not watch on regular tv although i was able to watch lafc and rail salt lake wasn't that an odd choice yeah uh another watched a bit of the montreal red bulls game too another prominent sports network in canada that shall not be named was not carrying your Vancouver Whitecaps last night,

but instead another MLS match. You had to go to Apple TV to watch the Whitecaps edge sporting Kansas City 2-1 on Wednesday night at home at BC Place. Fafa Pico, rumored to be wanting out of Vancouver via trade request, shot down by Axel Schuster on this very show, scored the winner late in the second half. It never really should have been that close, but it was. Whitecaps stretched their unbeaten streak to five matches with the victory.

And all in all, good result. Maybe not the greatest process, but the Whitecaps put another three points in the bag. So how are they doing overall? Do we expect them to do anything once they get to the playoffs? We expect them to qualify for the playoffs. They're fourth in the Western Conference right now. But it looks like there are some teams that are some really good teams. Like the two LA teams look pretty good.

Intermiami, Columbus looks pretty good. In the West, the two Los Angeles teams are, I would say, the class maybe of the league, if not definitely the Western Conference. I've watched... Well, Real Salt Lake's pretty good, too.

Yeah, but Real Salt Lake doesn't have the talent that those two... They're up there in the standings, but LAFC and LA Galaxy, they're loaded. They're stacked teams.

Yeah. They got full... I mentioned yesterday all these younger, like early 20s South American players that have come through and signed from different countries in South America, obviously, and they both feature a lot of them. They score a lot of goals. They're very dynamic in the way that they play.

They're good teams. They're very strong teams. And the Whitecaps are a notch below that for sure. You mentioned the standings. What's happened recently is a very good thing. Not only are they winning matches, but they're actually scoring goals. That helps to win matches, I find. See, this is the kind of analysis that you're not going to get on other programs,

especially here at Sportsnet 650. Scoring goals equals soccer victories. They had a really lousy May. The Whitecaps, I don't know if you remember. I don't. You do because it was punctuated at the end of May with that, you know, messy-less match. Oh, right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

In a very weird way. They lost that one too. Yeah, they lost. No messy, no wins. No. One goal. It almost felt, in retrospect, like they were so excited about the match

that they almost put the actual art of trying to win games prior to it on hold. They're like, we're going to save everything up for the Miami match. That didn't work. They had a really rough patch where they had one win in six. They only scored four goals over the six matches. So here's what I'll say. They're not a perfect team. They've got kind of a weird roster where they don't have all the pieces

that you would expect from a contender. There's still gaps everywhere. They score a lot of goals. They make things more difficult on themselves than it needs to be, though. That's the problem consistently across the board. There's only been like two or three instances this year, including an earlier match where they hammered TFC 4-0,

where you thought that was a complete performance. They looked good defensively. The keeper made good stops. They scored a lot of goals. They were dominant. Like yesterday, again,

Sporting Kansas City, they should have been up at a minimum 3-0 at the half. Sporting KC took the very risky approach of not starting its best 11 because they were short. They only showed up. They were like, oh, worked for Inter-Miami. Yeah, I don't. They didn't start anyone and they won 11 because they were short. They only showed up.

They were like, oh, worked for Inter-Miami. Yeah. They didn't start anyone, and they won. And they won handily, I might add. They were shorthanded. They only showed up with like 15 or 16 guys. God, Vancouver is just like, they should never lose at home. They shouldn't.

And they haven't been good at home this year. It's only five victories at home. So I would say my expectations are they'll get to the playoffs. If they get a favorable first-round matchup, they might get through that. But right now, it seems very, very unlikely that they'll be able to get through one of the powerhouse teams. Okay. I have another question for you.

Yeah. What is with this 14-year-old kid playing for Philadelphia last week? That was a little weird. Okay. We do need to discuss this. 14 is what? Grade 8? 14.

Grade 8 or 9? He's turning 15 in a matter of days. Okay. So I believe he's going into the ninth grade in the fall. He was born in September 2009. Oh, he's in 09. Sorry, then he'd be going into the 10th grade. He's going into the...

Well, hopefully. Hopefully. That is... We'll see. His geography has been a little off so uh his name is cavin sullivan i have heard about him in the past he comes from a footballing family in america his brother uh who's 21 actually also plays for philadelphia so they linked up yesterday late in a philadelphia five, one victory over the new England revolution.

Kevin Sullivan made his professional debut yesterday at a 14 years, 293 days old. The reason that's important is because it's set an MLS record and a North American professional sports record is the youngest ever debutant surpassing the sort of infamous Freddie Adu. You'll all remember him, I'm sure. He was the previous American wunderkind who was supposed to be the next great thing and really the first sort of superstar for American football.

Never really panned out for him. He ended up just becoming a journeyman player in Europe. He played for 15 teams over a 15-year career. Good, not great player. Yeah, and some would argue maybe not even good. Like, good as a youth player, but as an adult, not that great. There's always a concern, always a concern when kids are fast-tracked like this. And it happens in the football more and more because I think if you're physically mature and you're fast, you can just play, right?

We saw it with the Spain team. Lamin Yamal, who turred 17 during the tournament. He was an old guy by the end of it. Right. Yeah, he got his braces off after the semifinal, between the semifinal and the final. Now, I mean, what do you want me to say? Like, 14 is crazy young to be playing with grown men

and professionals and everything, to the point where there's a bunch of stuff uh the bunch of rules they have to follow like labor law rules and things now he's he's already property of man city but he can't go because of english labor laws and play with them until he's 18 is that english labor laws or is that just the premier league's rules about 18 because the nhl has rules for 18 and the other major league i think they might i mean i think very weirdly they might work in conjunction because their school boy rule like it's called it's a school boy program essentially all of the big premier league clubs have these

wide expansive academies yeah and um like there are young kids that get their debuts to but to be signed to a contract to become a full-fledged professional is a different thing. You can give a youth academy player a stint, but it's under a totally different... So does Man City have a relationship with Philadelphia Union? I thought they had one with the New York team. Yeah, they do. This isn't a relationship other than that they targeted Kevin Sullivan and want him to be a Man City player. So they've worked out an agreement between the two clubs.

Oh, I see. Okay. Yeah. and want him to be a Man City player. So they've worked out an agreement between the two clubs. Oh, I see, okay. Yeah, but for the foreseeable... Because I heard that there's a chance that this guy could also go play in... When he's 16, he can go play in France or some other European leagues that don't have the rules that England has. Right, but Man City would sort of be the overseer?

The steward of it all? The steward of it all, that's the right word. That's a good word. Now, aside from chaperone aside from the the nitty-gritty and the the semantics of the contracts and everything there is a bigger story here about you know and i think we a lot of parents are probably dealing with this on a smaller scale with their own kids about you know pushing them forward and playing them up an age group and we had Macklin Macklin Celebrini's dad um Rick

Celebrini on the show and he always talked about how Macklin played like one or two years ahead growing up and everything and I understand it from a competitive standpoint like that's what you want to do you always want to challenge and push your kids and everything this is a this is an extreme I still don't really know how I feel about this because they tried to make it a point yesterday the Philadelphia Union of saying this isn't a publicity stunt. And I was like, yeah, it kind is. There's a reason. The fact his brother's on the team, though, should help him.

Having an older brother on the team in the organization. I'm not saying it wasn't like good for the player. Like, I'm sure he got something out of that, right? But there's a reason they put him in now, and it was because he was days away from not being able to break Freddie Adu's record. And I don't want to be that cynical,

but it also came at the slowest time on the sports calendar where something like this was going to grab a lot more national attention than any other time, right? I mean, we're talking about the day after the MLB All-Star Game, which is traditionally the slowest time in sports. I mean, it's hard not to look at it a bit cynically that this is a bit of an attention grab

from a league that wouldn't mind getting the attention. That's all I'll say about it. We got a text in to the Dunbar-Lumber text line. What a jerk you are, Halford. 650-650, text in on the Dunbar- Lumber text line. What a jerk you are, Halford. 650-650, text in on the Dunbar Lumber text line. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way. That's Progress.

In Tilbury's Industrial Park. That's my favorite industrial park. More room, more product, more awesome. Details at DunbarLumber.com. Unsigned text. I used to be a hardcore Whitecaps fan. Now I can hardly name five players. Awesome. Details at DunbarLumber.com. Unsigned text. I used to be a hardcore Whitecaps fan. Now I can hardly name five players.

Their stock in Vancouver has fallen so far. It's a shame. Lost opportunity. Halford and I have talked about this on air and off air. They are, they should be further along than they really are. Um, in terms of their popularity in the city, we were talking yesterday about how kids are wearing, you know, soccer jerseys at school now of all the European clubs.

And I know it's not the same and they're not going to see, um, you know, many white caps players or MLS players on, you know, on their video games and on social media and where they learn all this stuff because it's not necessarily on TV and it's sure not listening to the Halford and Brough show on traditional radio. I still think they've got this great opportunity.

Like the opportunity is not lost on the Whitecaps, but it does seem like they've wasted a lot of time i will is that fair to say like they've just wasted opportunities to to really grab the city and create a tradition in in this city they're in year 13 they're in year 13 i mean that's all you need to say and this is the market saturation that they're just year 13. I mean, that's all you need to say. And this is the market saturation that they're just coming out of another dark period, the Mark DeSantos era, where they were bad on the pitch.

They didn't win enough games. They didn't go to the playoffs. They didn't have enough good players. And then they had to shut that down. And you remember having Mark on the show. I mean, he talked about how he was in charge of player recruitment and scouting and they didn't have those things in place and that was kind of shocking because

you're like well but you're not an expansion franchise anymore you're well along and now you're starting to see an upswing again especially with attendance numbers like they had 23 000 at the game last night and having been a season ticket holder for a few seasons now, it's grown to this level. When I first started, we were talking about being in the 13, 14, 15 thousands, which at BC Place does not look good. It does not sound good. And when you go, you kind of feel like you're in a sparse crowd.

It's a lot different this year. But I think the sentiment there is if they had a fan that was willing to engage and has tuned out in a 13-year window, that's not a good thing. So I always get asked by friends or, you know, people I meet, how do you decide on what to talk about on the show? And they always ask, like, do you get told what to talk about? And I say, no, we don't. And you can believe that or not. We don't get told what to talk about i say no we don't and you can believe that or not we don't get told what to talk about we can talk about whatever we want um but i say so then they'll

typically ask you know do you ever get tired of talking about all canucks and i'm like yeah sometimes sometimes and they say do you talk much lions or whitecaps? And I say, we talk as much as we can. And the one thing that I tell them is sports talk radio is basically contributing to the soap opera of sports. Sure. So with the Vancouver Canucks, there is a soap opera storyline for almost every player right down to the eighth defenseman and 13th forward. That's not true of the BC Lions and it's not true of the Vancouver Whitecaps.

That is the challenge in talking about them. You're talking about a team that you know that a lot of the listeners don't know about. So there's this explanation factor that you have to go into and then you have to make them care about that. You know, last night, a perfect example of one of the things that I think is hurting the

Whitecaps. Maybe it's helping the league, but I think it's hurting the Whitecaps. I couldn't watch the game that doesn't help i i had how so halford and i were i feel like that's a key we're chatting on we're chatting uh at around five o'clock we're like oh god what are we going to talk about tomorrow we were setting out the plan for the show and i said okay well we'll leave with the white caps and you're going to watch that game so you can get the details of that game.

I said, I'll probably watch it, but you lead the way on that because you're the Whitecaps guy. I get home, my laptop's out, and I'm ready to prep, and it's 7.30 and around game time, and I'm flipping around on the channels. I'm like, oh, man, this is one of those Apple games. I can't even watch it. Well, the majority of them are Apple games. That doesn't help. Yeah, the majority of them. That oh, man, this is one of those Apple games. I can't even watch it. Well, the majority of them are Apple games. That doesn't help. Yeah, the majority of them.

That hurts, man. Now I'm like, I wake up this morning, and I don't know who won the Whitecaps game. And the Whitecaps have no control over this, just to be abundantly clear. This was a league decision, and a very bold and a very innovative one. And innovative can work both ways.

Innovative can be like, oh, we're trying new things, but also you're taking new risks, right? Innovation isn't all good. Innovation can be very, very different. Well, there's a glass ceiling you've got to break through sometimes. Also, sometimes when you make big decisions, it hurts a certain segment. Right.

And so when the Whitecaps spent the better part of those first 13 years with their games readily available on traditional cable models, people got used to it. And now the games have disappeared, and it's very difficult for some to understand exactly what you have to do because what you have to do is you can't just go to Apple TV. It's not a la carte on Apple TV. You need to go and you need to purchase an entire MLS package.

And honestly, even the minutiae of it, like if you go to Apple TV, it's not prominently displayed. Right. It's on a side menu that you have to kind of click on. And is it something you pay for? Yeah. Now, they've had... Because I remember at one point they were giving away free games you could watch.

Even now, it's hard to find them. They've had numerous free offers and like you know free trials and what have you but like you said it's not like just on the flat like the front of the page you gotta like dig through the menus for it which seems a little bit like it's not great you know i kind of texted intel brough to return his beer cans and spend the hundred dollars on apple tv hey listen i get it um but i have to make i make choices about how much money i spend on certain things. And the MLS pass is... But there's a valid argument.

I won't watch it enough. There's a valid argument to be made that I already spent... Not I spent enough on streaming. I spent enough on soccer streaming. If you want to be a football fan... I thought all this stuff was supposed to make it more affordable for people to watch TV. Now it's just like you got all these subscriptions. Sweet, simple, bro.

It's crazy, man. I did this exercise like a year ago. I spend more on streaming services than I did at cable when I decided to not have cable anymore. It's pretty much become cable. I mean, it's one of the more difficult things. Let's say that you enjoy the sport. It doesn't matter what league you follow in particular.

Let's say you follow the sport. You've got a lot of choices you have to make about where your dollar is going to go towards. If you're an English Premier League fan, then you have to subscribe to Fubo. And if you want to watch the FA Cup, then you have to subscribe to Sportsnet World. Serie A, don't worry, that's on Fubo as well. But if you want to watch

some of the lower leagues and Champions League, you have to subscribe to DAZN. It is very, very complex. There's like six different subscription services for soccers what do you guys think about that whole notion though that I brought up about the soap opera and following it like I am not a soccer expert by any means tactically when people start talking tactics I'm I can't say I'm lost but I'm definitely the listener as opposed to the talker um the england story with gareth southgate that is a soap opera everyone talks about it and and you will pick up information on that whether you like it or not

that's not the same way with the whitecaps it's not the same way with the lions which is why in reality the soap opera around those teams the best soap opera is the business aspect of it well i'll go i'll go another direction with the soap opera part of it and it's something that'll tie closer to home with soccer in canada is what canada's soccer team did the cope america the reason that that was compelling was because it was a Cinderella run and they had a very central figure in Jesse Marsh that was bold and

demonstrative and was getting all these and was a good talker and was out there saying really inspirational things and, you know, defending Canada. We had people texting him being like, I'd run through a wall for that man. That's soap opera stuff that makes you care beyond like what formation it's a big stage what formation the canadians had right

who's playing a striker like that stuff's interesting to the hardcores but for the soap opera aspect well we have to remember that about the canucks like if we start talking about f3 f2 f1 and all that sort of stuff there's 5% of our listenership that'll be like, I really like this. This is really interesting. There's 95% of our listenership that's like, I don't care. I want to know, is Nikita Zdorov going to be back next season?

I want to know, is the coach getting along with this player? I want the juicy details. I'm not an expert, but I'm a fan of the team and I want to follow that sort of stuff like a casual fan does. Even on this show, sometimes I think we cater way too much to the hardcores because they're the ones texting in all the time.

Sure. You talk to the casual Canucks fan and I won't even call it the casual Canucks fan. There are some hardcore fans that just don't care about a large segment of what everyone else is talking about, what a lot of the hardcores talk about. They just want to see the Canucks succeed,

and they want them to have success, and they're willing to talk about the players and follow the players and all that sort of stuff, but they're not necessarily all that interested in the tactics. Coming up on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650, the drama of one of the most prestigious majors in golf. The Open Championship is underway from Troon, just Troon, not Royal Troon, just Troon in Scotland.

The weather looks hideous. It does not look like Scotland already. Sure looks Scottish out there. We'll talk to Adam Stanley, Sportsnet golf analyst, about everything that's going on in the early stages of round one of the open championship. That's coming up next on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.

It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the post game show. Listen, four to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. This one's a banger. I like it.

We've played it before. 634 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Alfred Ruff, Sportsnet 650. I mentioned 634 because we are three minutes away from Tiger Woods teeing off at the 2024 Open Championship. Tiger appears to be wearing some sort of snood. The weather is...

Well, it's not great, but it's very Scottish right now at Troon. I was wrong. It is Royal Troon. Oh, okay. That was the first time I was ever right about something about golf. And I feel better today. It wears a crown. You are listening. It's called Ray Altruan.

You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly,

knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program. Adam Stanley, Sportsnet Golf Analyst, is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 1.

Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. Troon was granted its royal designation in 1978 during its centenary. I'm learning a lot today. That's not even what we learned time yet. By the way, if you want to weigh in, Dunbar Lumber Text Line 650-650.

Get your what we learns in. Let's go to the phone lines now. Adam Stanley joins us here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Adam. How are you? Good morning. You guys are just a bucket of knowledge this morning about Royal Troon and everything else that people need to know about the final men's nature of the year.

And did you know that the opening ceremony when Royal Troon was granted royal status, Queen Elizabeth II hit a 300-yard drive. Just striped it. Just absolutely right down the middle. She normally hit hybrid off the tee, but she decided for that special time she was going to hit the driver. Tell us a little bit about Royal Troon, actual facts, about how it's playing today,

because it looks like there's some big numbers out there right now. Yeah, so it's a very typical it looks like there's some big numbers out there right now yeah so it's um it's a very typical uh scottish open championship is unfolding here in the first round you know guys are grinding to uh to make any semblance of a birdie um you know justin thomas off to an incredible start makes a birdie on his second last and then his final hole of the day so he's the early leader he's at three under right now. You know, Troon is kind of your very standard out and then back style of golf course. So,

you know, your, your front nine, that's where your birdie opportunities lie. And then it's, it's really a tale of two nines from there. You got to just hold on tight for the back nine. We've got the longest hole in open championship golf here at true and um one of the par fives in the front is going to be

623 or something like that and then they've got the shortest uh part three as well in open championship golf in that postage stamp uh part three eighth hole which you'll be hearing a lot about as well as basically tiger wood said his best he said on the green good off the green bad that's pretty much it uh for for that particular hole rory uh mack roy made a complete mess of that early on he made a double there he had another double on 11 so he's he's really been you know he's been playing well he just kind of made uh or had two really bad holes and and to be honest to go back to the point about what we're what we're seeing from Royal Troon here this morning, that's kind of what the guys are doing.

If you're just a little bit off, if you're just, you know, in the fescue, or you kind of hit it in the, you know, one yard by one yard box versus a six inch by six inch box that you need to land it in, you might end up in one of these big bunkers and you might be completely screwed. Such is the beauty of the Open Championship, and we're all true, and it is really bearing its teeth so far this morning. Is the weather supposed to remain the same all day? Because I know there's been a handful of British Opens where luck has played a role, and certain

guys get out when the weather's good, and certain guys get out when the weather's good and certain guys get out when the weather's bad yeah i think um all all day the the weather's supposed to be the same today i i think your your question is a great one you know i've uh talked about it uh a little bit over the last couple days and and really you out of all the majors that that you know firmly the luck of the draw is something that really kind of played into uh into the open championship guys could go out early late uh and everything's gonna be fine or they could go out late early and be be you know again completely at mother nature's mercy or or flip-flop but i today first round all day thursday seems to be about the same uh if anything i think the wind

later on in the afternoon uh in scot Scotland is supposed to pick up a little bit. But kind of that misty haze is supposed to be there all day long as well. And now it's just a matter of trying to navigate that wind, which is supposed to go up a little bit more in the afternoon. But the guys in the morning, they still had the same stuff they had to go through. I'm looking at the flags right now, and I think if the wind goes up anymore, the grandstands are going to blow over. It's just whipping. Yeah. What's the biggest story for you at this Open?

Yeah, I mean, I think because it's the final major of the year on the PGA Tour, we kind of nailed it down to just who's played well at majors to this point and who could kind of make or break their season if they if they end up winning another one so you know scotty scheffler obviously the six wins uh to the point in the season including the masters you know if he wins again uh you know that kind of puts a bow on one of the greatest seasons in in modern golf you know certainly since prime tiger woods you know 15 20 years ago so uh you look at that um, Bryson DeChambeau did not get off to a good start today, played very, very poorly.

So my assumption is that he's pretty much out from, from winning this particular major championship, but had he, you know, gotten off to a great start and won this one, you know, that would kind of be the big, the big story for me, given how much of a big box office draw he's been all season. And then Xander Shoffleyele would probably be my third, just based on the guys who've won so far this year, because he's just been captain steady.

He hasn't finished outside the top 10 in a major in like two years. This year is no different. But then, of course, the Rory story is probably the biggest question mark for me. Like I mentioned a few minutes ago, and he just kind of popped up on the screen here, he's well over par. He's going to to cause way back uh to get he's going to have to shoot under par tomorrow i would say to to actually make the cut uh but really the rory mcroy question how would he bounce back from piners uh where's his head at right now that that to me you know we're halfway through the first round now but but heading into the week that

would have been kind of the biggest question mark storyline, in my opinion. Tiger Woods, of course, making headlines there, and along with Colin Montgomery, who questioned whether Tiger should still be playing in these events, and Tiger shot back and said, well, I'm a former champion and you're not, and as a former champion, I'm allowed to play this tournament until I'm 60 years old.

I believe they've changed that rule to 55 now. All the champions after 2024, their exemption goes to 55. The Masters and the PGA lifetime exemption, U.S. Open 10-year exemption. Have I got that right? The U.S. Open is, yeah, a 10-year exemption. Sorry, I had it in my head because Tiger won the Masters in 2019, so he had a five-year exemption into the U.S. Open,

which is why he needed that special invite for this year. So, yeah, Tiger will probably keep getting the special invites from the USGA, so that one's not that concerning. I think on the Monty comment real quick for me i i personally don't think that he was trying to be malicious about it i think monty just sometimes kind of gets in his own way yes i the way that i read it it seemed like he was just kind of bringing up a point that tiger himself kind of brought up on that friday i was there you know tiger did look miserable you know he he really kind of mused about whether or not he'd ever play a,

you know, how many more majors, certainly how many more opens he had left in him. So, you know, Monty's comment to me was more so kind of expanding on, you know, what Tiger said himself versus like, you know, trying to take a stab at him. But obviously, you know, the European tabloids and, you know, everyone trying to make headlines and etc etc etc kind of really turned it into into that but tiger as he does

because he is the ultimate clapback with pretty much anyone saying anything about any major championship um yeah he he always has you know a bullet in the chamber so um yeah wasn't surprised to see tiger come back with with a comment like, and it was a very factual one at that. But I really don't think that Monty was, like, incredibly off base with his comment. Yeah, Stephen Ames probably texted Colin Montgomery and was like, I've been there, buddy. What are you doing? Yeah, just don't talk about Tiger.

Canadians, I know you spoke to Corey Connors, and he was looking pretty good heading into this major. We've had this conversation multiple times, Adam. When are we going to see a Canadian male actually in contention on a Sunday? Not, you know, finish with like a backdoor top 10 where you're not really in contention, but you play reasonably well on a Sunday and you sneak your way into the top 10. And actual not really in contention, but you play reasonably well on a Sunday and you

sneak your way into the top 10 and actual there's three holes left and this guy could actually win it. Um, what was your, have you had those conversations with Corey Connors about how he can get to the next step or any of the other male Canadian golfers? Yeah. I mean, I think the, the thing about getting into the conversation to try to win a major means you just need to be in contention to finish top 10 in a major. So I think there's a lot of these stairwell kind of situations, and the guys have started to climb them, but they haven't started to make a lot of headway. Look at Nick Taylor, for example.

It's almost shocking at this point that Nick Taylor has played so poorly at major championships guys have made a cut in a major in two, in two years. So, you know, we're not talking about Nick Taylor trying to win a major. We're just trying to talk about Nick Taylor finding the weekend at a major Corey. On the other hand, you know, he's, he's notched those three straight top 10 finishes at the masters a couple of years ago, uh, came into this week, week uh top 10 at the u.s open the last major he played uh top 10 of the scottish open last week um and really he's had kind of a

ball striking uh just fiesta this summer like we are canadians we observe i analyze i i've been involved in the cory connor's trajectory of golf a long time. But you zoom out from that and you look at just pure numbers. This guy's one of the best ball strikers in the game right now. And that's exactly what you need at an open championship like this. The putting is the thing that has held him back. And that's going to be the thing that makes or breaks him in contention through two or three rounds or certainly late on Sunday. He has been putting much better, his coach told me. But really, from a drill perspective, from the perspective of,

I need to find some semblance of consistency with that part of my game. Whenever that is average, then we see Corey Connors have the results like what he's had the last couple weeks. But it's so touch and go that it's hard to kind of put a pin on yeah, you know, Corey's got a real chance to win this major because all of his parts of his game are firing. He just

hasn't quite gotten there yet. We're speaking to Sportsnet Golf analyst Adam Stanley here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. I meant to ask you this before the last time that we had you on about Jon Rahm. Is he actually playing poorly right now? Because he kind of seemed to

suggest that it was more like a media creation that he was struggling. He was actually doing quite well on the live tour, but I think it's fair to say that it's been a forgettable season maybe for Jon Rahm. I just saw him miss a putt actually on TV. So is he actually playing Portland? What a loser.

So the short answer to your question is that he's actually having a really good season on live. I think he's like the number two ranked guy on that circuit. But nobody really watches that. So when we, all we've seen him is have a completely pedestrian finish at the Masters. And he wasn't even there at the U.S. Open, hurt his foot. And another pedestrian, you know, wasn't even a part of the conversation at the PGA either. So, you know, from a general, I'm a casual golf fan perspective, yeah. The comments that you're going to get is like, Jon Rahm stinks this year.

And that is going to be a hard thing for him to kind of get over he's obviously had a very decent start to uh to the open uh he's clearly playing pretty good golf uh on the live circuit this year uh it just you know very obviously again you just look at pure numbers and pure results um you know that obviously hasn't translated uh at the majors this year at all. Okay, so we're going to end on a very serious conversation, one that we had yesterday. Do you support the male players wearing shorts on the PGA Tour? Because I am anti-shorts. I think it looks ridiculous on the live tour. And A-Dog's got a clip of me saying, I like my golfers in pants. Yeah.

I mean, I think the weather-dependent situation, I really don't mind. But these guys are at work, I guess, right? Your buddy, the accountant, wouldn't wear shorts in 35-degree heat in July, although he would want to, but he just doesn't because he's got to go to work. So that's why I think the pants are just part of the deal. They look much cleaner. They're at work. The live guys, they're banging around on exhibitions.

It makes complete sense that they wear shorts. But yeah, the guys on the PGA Tour, sometimes in the middle of summer in Memphis, yeah, it really stinks. But other times, you know what? It just makes sense. They wear shorts or they wear pants. They're at work.

It's all fine. Adam, thanks for doing this today, man. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the tournament. We'll do this again soon. Looking forward to it. Thanks, guys. Thank you, Adam Stanley, Sportsnet Golf Analyst here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

I like this text. Nobody wants to see a grown man's calves. So I thought that when I heard that they were going to let the Liv guys wear shorts, I was like, yeah, that's pretty cool. No. Right on, Liv. And then I saw it, the practice of it, and it sums off. And you know what it is. I didn't think we'd ever be steeped in tradition, guys, but we are.

We know and understand that golfers, they wear pants. That's just what they do. They might not like it. It might be uncomfortable. Might be hot. They just have to do it, right? It's also like, are there any golfers that don't wear hats now? There might be a handful, but most of them almost want to wear it

because it protects them from the sun, but also it's a sponsor. Yeah, it makes sense. I mean, if you go back and you look at golf in the 70s and some of the old clubs, there's a lot of guys that are not wearing hats and also smoking. He's hatless. Repeat, hatless. So would you like a golfer less if he chose to only wear shorts?

He's not allowed to. Would you just support him less? He's not allowed to. Would you just support him less? He's not allowed to. Well, you can unlive. Unlive, you can wear shorts. I know, but let's just pretend for a second. I want to see a golfer. I want to see a golfer.

Well, I mean, if he had nice legs, I might like them, but. Look at the gams on that one. Don't you hate pants? I don't know. I don't know. Homer? If someone was to go hatless with shorts, I'd almost be like, I don't know what you're doing here. You look like you're going for a winery tour.

Rebel without a cause. Yeah, right. That's not going to work. Mike D'Aurello just from Brockville, but do you want them to wear ankle socks or crew socks if they wear shorts? You can't wear crew socks. Are crew socks back? Apparently, I've been told,

which is too bad because I have a million of them, I'm going to wear some right now, ankle socks are out. Right. They're not cool anymore. Well, now hold on. Apparently, I've been told, which is too bad because I have a million of them and I'm wearing some right now, ankle socks are out. Right. They're not cool anymore. Well, now hold on. Apparently. At Shaughnessy, they used to have a rule that you could wear shorts, but you had to wear knee-high socks.

Yeah, really? Yeah. That's a luck. And then they finally allowed ankle socks. And ankle socks went out of style. But you cannot wear like calf high socks or whatever. So here's the thing though. Ankle socks are out of style for a younger generation.

You're 40. Yeah, you can wear them. Yeah. Nice. No one's going to be like, ah, look at that guy in his ankle socks. They'll just be like, that guy's invisible. I'm not going to say anything about him. It happened to me yesterday. A bunch of kids laughed because he was wearing ankle socks.

Look at that loser. Where are your socks, bro? I like these socks. Are they all the way down in your shoes? Speaking of... Pull them up, bud. Speaking of men in shorts, we have three minutes here, so I did want to... Well, men in shorts, the basketball. I did want to touch very briefly

on what USA Basketball is currently doing ahead of the Olympics. And that is beating the piss out of their opponents. So they thrashed Serbia yesterday. It was 105-79 in a game in which they led by as many as 31 in regulation. And it's almost like compiling the modern version of the dream team is paying off like the earlier dream teams because they are running through people right now i know that the canadian exhibition was at least close it got within single digits in the fourth quarter and canada looked good in the start but there was nothing to be taken from that exhibition because

the canadian guys seemed like they were all on a minutes restriction. The Americans guys said they were off too, right? They played well defensively, not offensively. But they were off on their shooting. And then they've kind of put it – so they're in Abu Dhabi right now doing their pre-Olympics, I guess a tournament for lack of a better phrase. They're going to play a bunch of exhibition games. Canada plays France on Friday, so that's tomorrow.

That's going to be awfully interesting. Australia, who Canada is going to play in the round robin, also got off to a pretty good start. They also beat Serbia as well. I'm excited about Olympic basketball because of Canada's potential, but I also keep trying to tell the listeners that might not be familiar with it that it is a fundamentally more difficult tournament than the FIBA World Cup because you cut the field in half.

It's super tough to qualify for, and your group stage doesn't have any minnows in it. Some of them do. I think the U.S. is going to play South Sudan. They're going to tear them a new one. But Canada's group has Spain, which is the second ranked team in the world, Australia, which is fifth,

and has about eight NBA players on the roster. I think there's third in the world in terms of NBA players on their Olympic roster. And then they've got Greece. They've got Giannis Antetokounmpo. It is not an easy road. I know Canada's favored. And I know that, I mean, we had Michael Grange on the show while you were away, and an easy road. I know Canada's favored, and I know that they – I mean, we had Michael Grange on the show while you were away,

and he said part of the reason Canada's group is the group of death is because Canada's in it. Canada makes it the most difficult group because they are considered to be the best team. But it's not going to be easy at any stretch for Canada. Once they get out of the group, I mean, then you're whittling the field down even further, and there's going to be some really good teams left.

So it's going to be a real challenge for them. Okay, two things for the next little bit on this show. One, our next guest is Mark Strong, who is going to be commentating on breaking. Breakdancing. Hey, dog. I'm not going to stop. Okay.

Can't stop, won't stop. They get like a glass shattering sound effect anytime you mention break. Me and all the B boys call it break dance. So we're going to talk to Mark and we're going to ask him like everything about break dancing. Basically they're like competitive break dancing. How is it? How is it judged?

What are you looking for? Like I tried it once and I was hospitalized. Who's the Wayne Gretzky of breaking? Yeah. That sort of thing. Like that sort of thing. We're going to be asking of Mark. And then. Are they allowed to wear shorts?

We're going to keep making Mount Rushmores. And our Mount Rushmore today, and I think it was Dylan on Twitter had this. What is the Mount Rushmore of Summer Olympics events? Yeah. And we're going to do it for this year with Canada in mind. Yeah. What are the four things that we're most looking for, looking forward to at the Paris Summer Olympics,

which start next Friday? So there's going to be a lot of- Try to convince Prof that the Summer Olympics are fun. And cool. Yeah, I'm going to need to be convinced to be a lot of... Try to convince Brough that the Summer Olympics are fun. And cool. Yeah, I'm going to need to be convinced. Take a lot of work. I'm going to need to be convinced. So it's going to get real Olympic-y

in these next few moments on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.