Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Rockies Got The HalBro Bump

Episode Date: June 5, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat the latest baseball news with MLB Network's Adnan Virk (1:24), plus they set up the RBC Canadian Open with Sportsnet golf analyst Adam Stanley (27:13). 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.

It's time to chat with Adnan It's Adnan Ferkey's on the show We're gonna talk some baseball And take a trip to the silver screen That's right, it's time for Red Nen. Yes, San and Ferg, he joins us now. We'll head out to the ball game and talk about all the filthy scene. 702 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday everybody. Halford Brough,, Sportsnet 650. Halperd and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help with

over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We are now in hour two of the program. Ed Nanberg from MLV Network is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour two. Hour two is brought to you by Jason Homonuck at Jason.Mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason.Mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. Our next guest comes courtesy of the Power West Industries Hotline.

It's Adnan Virk here on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Adnan, how are you? I'm doing great, Mike, doing great. I'm watching a little bit of the French Open because I love tennis. It's the only sport that I play recreationally, not particularly well. And it makes me think of my buddy Stu Gotz of the Dan Leventer Show who wrote a great book last year. It's called Stu Gotz's Personal Record Book. Basically my friend Dan Santich wrote it, but Stu Gotz is not even credit for it. But he mentioned how in tennis, like, we should just disqualify the French Open. Like, quite honestly, it's such a ridiculous tournament. It's not like any other tourney.

And in doing so, if we just removed it, then my guy Federer would still be the greatest tennis player of all time. So, I curious your thoughts on the clay court season. If you guys really give a crap about the rolling girls. We've we've talked about this before. You play some tennis. Have you ever played on a clay court before? Fabulous question, never in my life. Like I've been playing, again, recreation,

I play once a week in the summer. I have a couple of bodies of players. Never once in my life, like I found a clay court to play on. But people tell me, and my game is particularly, you know, I'm like a ping pong player. I just go right down the middle, right? I'm not in corners.

It's a very safe, predictable way of playing. And some of the totally they go and play, you'd be the worst because it is dead in the surface. Like it's just like very bland and draft. The other question is, I think you kind of answered this already, but would you know how to find a clay court? They're not they're not prevalent in Vancouver. I I looked it's very difficult to find one up here.

Bear Mountain on the island. There's what there's there's two, I think. And that's it. And they're in. Yeah, they're they're closer. And the laundry you have to do if you fall on that thing. Yeah, that's a factor. That's a factor. I reached out to a couple of tennis players. There's a lot of sliding involved.

You have to you have to account for the slide on clay when you go. I would have a groin pull within three minutes out there if I tried to slide. All right. I mean, are there this is gonna sound so dumb like there's got to be some clay courts in America right I imagine they're somewhere has to be I mean I'm gonna pull a Google search and try to find something in New Jersey this is the thought experiment see if I can find one like you guys said just like in the Vancouver area there's gonna be one or two there's gonna be one or two in a Jersey like I can't see them being densely. Maybe like a bunch of Spaniards who just like playing

on the clay, that's about it. But I played on grass, which is incredible. You know, you're a sponsor, all the years I worked at ESPN. Newport, Rhode Island's a very popular spot for people living in that area, in former getaways. An hour 40 away from Connecticut. When I went there, they've got like a big mansion, two or three nice beaches.

But it's also the home, most notably, of the International Tenants Hall of Fame. And the coolest part is they have grass courts you can play like, oh, my God, this is incredible. So grass court at love. I feel like I'm in Wimbledon. I got the all white spot. I'm ready to go. See, this is why I love talking to Adnan.

It's not just baseball that we do with Adnan. We cover all the sports and I'm not even going to pivot to baseball now. I'm going to pivot to Connor Garland. That's right, because you know, yeah, NHL unscripted the podcast Adnan Burke, Jason Demers, you guys had Connor Garland, that's right, because you, yeah. NHL Unscripted, the podcast, Adnan Virk, Jason Demers, you guys had Connor Garland on not long after he captured gold at the World Hockey Championships. I know he talked about that, but also talked about the Vancouver Connect.

So what did Connor Garland have to say to you guys? Well, he was great. You know, 50 point season is you guys are well aware, but he kind of put it on soft. Listen, I had a good year, but I can be better. And he said, you know, we're well aware of all the noise that went on with his team and the expectations. It certainly wasn't good enough, but he did it. Fasting a guy, Mike, not sure if you and Jeff talked to much, but like he's,

he is much more cerebral than I was expecting. Cause in fact he's a huge chess guy and he said, I go, how did, how did this develop? But he was like, well, you know, I was, I think it was in junior or what? I don't know. Somehow somebody got him into chess and he's like a notable chess player. And I'm laughing. I go, well, I can't imagine know where it was out of somehow somebody got him in the chest and he's like a notable chess player And and I'm laughing at all. I can't imagine going into a hockey freshman. Sorry who wants to play chess today? He's like now there's always kind of like our video play court in Vancouver There's always water too and he plays chess all the time with Quinn Hughes

I don't think see that that to me is unsurprising so like I could be quick use Again, spark guys for a book at chess player. He's like, oh, yeah, man, we have some great matches So, um, just imagine the next time you're watching Connor Garland out there on the ice, him and Clint Hughes having a chess match before the game to get locked in. But good guy, smart guy, also, well as you're contacting the interview,

I looked in the background, I saw like a little bit of Jaws from Mobilia. He goes, oh my God, it's my favorite movie. He loves sharks. And he moves the camera and it's, oh my, he's all in on the sharks. He loves sharks. He goes, my son's name is Clint. I go, my God and it's, oh my, yeah, he's all in on the sharks. He loves sharks. He goes, he goes, my son's name is Quint.

I go, my God, that's like from, from obviously the movie, Robert Shaw's character. He's like, yeah. So he's an old guy at home with like six months named Quint and of course, Jaws 50th anniversary coming out this summer. Connor Garland will be there locked in. Did you ever go to the Jaws exhibition at Universal Studios? I haven't, but I don't remember. Is there anything like Back to the Future 2, Jay?

Like that shot where Marty McFly turns around and looks back at the hologram shot? Is it Edith? I don't know about that. All I remember is little Jason was pretty scared and asked to switch seats with his dad. And he's like, why don't you sit by the shark? It was part of the Universal Tour.

Like you did the tour around Universal Studios and the shark comes up when you're on the boat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, it's awesome. I remember that. Okay. Let's talk a little baseball. Adnan, we had a beat reporter on earlier in the week

that covers the Colorado Rockies, because we were like, what's it like to do that? He's like, it's not great. And we gave them a bump. They're not an actual bump, but they have been playing better and with more energy lately. Did they go and sweep Miami? First sweep of the year.

Maybe that's where they got the bump. Yeah, they pulled out the sweep and I was on one of our sister stations in Calgary talking with George Rusnik and Matty Rose about attendance. And he was like, you know Who do you think is going to draw more the Rays or the Rockies? And I didn't know off the top of my head, but I'll say this attendance is up approximately baseball by 2% It's up to 28,000 a game specifically the Rockies. Tell us they're right on par with everybody else. I couldn't believe it

There's 28,000 a game. Wow So like this team is on pace to lose 130 games and yet the fans still show up. I mean, listen, I've never been but I've heard it's a beautiful ballpark and I guess they're there to see the opposing team but like even even Marlins Rockies is drawing. So I don't, don't figure man, terrible team but the hell with fan base they're still showing up and I just really like baseball there in Colorado. But yes, they pull off the sweep which is great news. A couple of the Rockies just came to LB Network last week You know, there's three guys actually having good seasons

Ezekiel Kovar under Goodman and Jordan Beck and Beck and Goodman were there and these guys look like straight at a central cash in The other from Alabama, Tennessee They got like the other the thin pencil thin mustache the mullets like oh you guys look at ball play It's all up, but they were telling us to go exactly theriders said, yeah, it's not great, it's tough, you hear it every day, it's around you, but you're still playing for pride, you're trying to incrementally get better. And they had not won a series,

this was the first series they'd won, a 22 series. That's a lot of losing, man, to think, oh my God, I can't even get two out of three. And to actually pull off a sweep against the Marlins, they got a feeling they just won Game 7 of the World Series. So, good for the Rockies, finally got to feel like they just want to get him seven of the World Series. So good for the Rockies. Finally get some good news.

I mean, the crazy part of all of the writer we were speaking to is Patrick Saunders, Rockies, the writer for the Denver Post. And he said that the first question I asked was, you know, they were built to be bad, but obviously not built to be this bad. And he said they weren't even built to be bad. He thought they'd be somewhere in the neighborhood of like a 70 75 win team. He's obviously way off on that total. And he kind of mentioned the same thing you did.

The attendance numbers haven't really taken a massive hit. There was a lot of sort of extraneous reasons for that. But he actually brought up another good point, too, and said that in this industry, it's better to be really, really good or really, really bad, because at least there's something interesting about really, really bad. And I mean, the Rockies are on pace to be as bad as the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, but the brand hasn't taken a massive, massive hit yet, at least in terms of attendance, which I think is interesting. Yeah, I remember being there in March and talking to the locals and said,

Listen, people go to Rockies games, something to do to weather's nice. And they're there to see the opposing team like they're not there really support the rockies so i guess with the weather's been good it's still a good game experience that is good news but yeah i would agree with with his opinion that you know if you're covering a 75 win team it's just an awful lot of mediocrity but you're going to be truly atrocious you can all right well it's really dig in here and try to find a feel good story it's probably tough to do or just you know reap through the carnage and do the best you can with it. But I really hope they don't, I mean,

I just hope they improve because I just feel like it's good for baseball and the team that's gonna lose potentially 130 games. And the good news is like, it's been a really good year for baseball and why is that real easy? The big market teams are doing well. Yankees, Dodgers, Mets, Cubs. Tigers are not a big market, but they've had baseball

in Detroit for over 100 years. Like that team's rolling right now. Giants made a good story. Poders are doing well. Yankees, Dodgers, Mets, Cubs. Tigers are not a big market, but they've had baseball in Detroit for over a hundred years. Like that team from Olin right now. Giants have been a good story. Padres are really good. Padres are second I think in attendance in the National League. Ever since the Chargers left, they've really kind of clung to that one-town team which is the Padres and they're very exciting, etc. So the Rockies are like the one blemish right now on what's been otherwise a pretty strong year for baseball. The Jays are winning some games recently. It helps to have four game series with Oakland, but the 32 and 29. Do we know what the Jays are yet or are we still waiting to see? Still waiting to see.

There's been some bright spots. So Addison Barger is a guy today. People should start paying attention to. He's hitting third right now for the Blue Jays. And last night Vlad jr extends, extends yeah he's on base week to 34 games that's the longest since Kendries Morales went 44 straight back in 2015 but back to barter he was in triple-a he's now assume the man filled their starting third baseman and he can bang man he's a big body if you look at a

hard-hit percentage not to get too nerdy but only five guys hit the ball harder than it names you'd expect like judge and autonic so barters there really good for the jay-z homer to four straight games going into last night uh... often by the mention bobershets been fine to get not much power be sold still at least be able to contribute to helping getting kids the concern that jay-z uh... the pitching to be honest with you i mean burrios is a good start, was really good last night. 16 is only one or one.

Gosh, an ambassador generally good, but down in Francis was a revelation of season ago. They thought he'd be like, Oh my God, this great number four starter could be a number three on most teams. It said he's been atrocious. I mean, he's just getting crushed with the long ball and they signed shirts or that contract one year, $15.5 million. Even when they signed it, I said to myself, I'll probably make 15 starts,

like a million dollars to start for future hall of Famer. He'll go five and a third innings and give a pre-runs and that's it. Had you been pitched as we all know, it pitched once got hurt. That's it. Like we're into June now. So they only have three fifths of a starting rotation. I would not have thought Toronto had issues with their stars, but they do. And the bullpen wise, again, they don't score enough runs.

So Jeff Hoffman solidified the closer position but there's really not much margin for error because the fact is still a hit home runs, Anthony Santana there's been a terrible bust so far so the jury's still on what this Blue Jays team is but I'll keep saying it it's a very diluted water thin American League the Jays can go like a five game run and all of a sudden be comfortably in a wild card spot right now as it is they're only a half game one game out of that third wall card spot so we'll see what the next hundred games as it develops but it's been okay so far Clay courts Connor Garland the Colorado Rockies we covered it all here today

Adnan thank you very much for doing this as always we really appreciate it enjoy the rest of the week we'll do this again next week thanks boys we'll we'll get auto racing off the next maybe a NASCAR race I could dive into for you guys next time. Sounds great, buddy. Thanks. At Denver, remember, we know we're here on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650 and watch a NASCAR race on clay. So someone texted in that there are clay courts in Vancouver, correct? Yeah, there's a bunch of examples of clay courts. We've done this before on the show. I don't know.

There's this rec center. No, no, no. We've done it before. And then people are like, I played a clay court down in Phoenix. I'm like, that's not Vancouver. Same place. You went on vacation and did something elsewhere that is not relevant to the conversation.

But if someone said there's some in Syria and some of the summit, the law and tennis club, I got to go play at a clay court. It's something I have to do before you would hurt yourself. Yeah, I know. But I was going to say, pretty bad is completely broken down. I'm 90 percent of the way there. Finish that 10 percent by playing on some clay. OK, we got Adam Stanley coming up at 730 to talk a little golf.

We have run through just to recap what happened last night in the Stanley Cup final. What happened last night in the Calder Cup final? We went through Gary Berman Batman State of the Union address Canucks coaching changes Kevin Dean's coming in Yogi Sveikovsky's on his way out. What have we missed? What else haven't we got to yet? Well, here's I've got a question for you Yeah, are you prepared for the Oilers to win the Stanley Cup? Yes. Yeah me too I felt like last night although it was game one

Had so much more significance for the Oilers winning it than it did for the Panthers losing if that makes any sense whatsoever Yeah, no, we're gonna go up three nothing and lose in seven now. There's a there's a topic. I want to address I have a thought happen. I've thought about two beautiful story lines One of them would be a beautiful storyline big Beautiful many people are saying it. Two that I've thought about. Musk is against it. One is the Edmonton Oilers losing this thing in game seven

at home and Connor McDavid winning the Con Smythe, thereby becoming the first player in NHL history to win consecutive playoff MVPs, Con Smythe, despite losing consecutive Stanley Cup finals. I think that would be an amazing, amazing development. We've seen sad McDavid, but not like this. It would be a whole other level. The other one is that in an inverse of last year's Stanley Cup final, it's the Oilers that go up three nothing this time around.

And they can't close it out. Yep. Yeah. Leading to what would be an absolute spectacle of a game seven. Just picture right now, dear listeners, you've got a game seven in which the Oilers have blown a three nothing lead. They're at home. Could you imagine? I hope this series goes the distance because watching the game last night, I think overall

the Oilers deserve to win it, but for most of the game, it was very close. Yep. The teams are very evenly matched. Score line and shot attempts and all that sort of thing. So people might conclude and perhaps rightly so, well, this game is going to go, or this series is going to go a long way, six or seven games.

But there can be situations where you've got four coin toss games and they all go to the same team. You can have a close sweep if that makes sense. I just hope it doesn't. Who, you're running tomorrow? I, yeah. I hope it doesn't go that way because I want to

see, I want to see both teams really, really have their composure tested in this series. Um, and I suppose it's going to happen regardless because even if the others do go up three nothing, their composure is going to be tested in the game where you have to actually get it done. Um, but I think last night just kind of whetted our appetites for this series.

And this, this is going to be, there's going to be an awesome series and there was, um, a little bit of nastiness. There was certainly some testiness, but I also think, you know, you had dry subtle and Bennett bumping up against each other a few times. Um, but I think you also had two teams that recognize like, we've got to play aggressive, but we can't be stupid.

And the Panthers especially, like this, this is a team that's built on, you know, in your face hockey and grinding down opponents. But you also don't want to put the, the oilers on the power play because you see what happens when you do. Yeah. And the, I mean, the oilers were also very assertive physically yesterday. Oh, and they're going to cane. Yeah. Vander Cane, pod Coles and like those guys are hitting and they're hitting hard too. There should be a new scat. Hard. It's like a super hit. Super hit. Like do you know what I mean?

Because it would have to be one where you make a guy lose his footing. Like he has to either be placed in the air or just knocked off his feet. Yeah, that would be a knocked off his feet. No, no, no. I disagree. I think it would be a judgment call

and the actual stat would be staples. Like, you know, when you really staple a guy? But that's into the boards. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. What about it? I really want to mix up all the stats.

We were having that conversation with Drance the other day. Staples would be good. Staples would be good. I think they should have team stats that, I mean you could add this up if you wanted, but it would be easier if someone just tracked the amount of stats that were in the offensive zone versus the defensive zone. Break it up between forwards and defensemen,

because if you've got a lot of hits, sometimes that's a bad thing, right? That's like, wow, you never have the puck, you're always hitting guys. And a lot of the times that's in your own zone, right? It's defensemen trying to break up the cycle. But it would be interesting if you could

just separate the stats a little bit because there's so many useless hits out there. My mind is racing right now. Cause not all hits are created equal. No, no, there's a lot of useless hits like, okay, I'm going to bring them up. Jake Furtanen never had a useful hit in his entire career as a Kinnock.

Right. But he had a lot of them and a lot of them were just him late on the four check and he's like, okay, I'll finish my head. He chipped a lot of guys. I think. I think he got in and he chipped him and then he flew away. Yeah.

Yeah. Yep. And it was kind of like the D man was like, yeah, okay. I know you're going to kind of hit me, but I'm not all that worried. Yeah. I'm just going to go up against the, against the wall and that didn't hurt at all good stuff, me, but I'm not all that worried. A glancing blow. Yeah, I'm just going to go up against the wall and that didn't hurt at all. Good stuff, Jake. But what Evander Kane was doing and Paul Colson were doing, but more Kane was like, there

were some staplings going on out there. So stapling would be a good one. There should be a single statistician that sits there and documents each different type of hit. Staples would be a good one. Like popping of a helmet, that should get you like almost a bonus point really. The Kane hit, that was on Ekblad, right? And that really kind of set a tone.

The interesting thing about Edmonton and the amount of physicality that they had last night is two things. One, they're doing it with those Zach Hyman, who was averaging roughly what, 10 hits a game? And most of them like well earned. He wasn't doing any of her tannins. There's a, we can call those useless hits for tannins.

The other thing too, is they're getting contributions physically from so many different guys. Like Kasperi Kapanen, thrown into this series and contributes obviously on the score sheet with the pair of assists, but he's also running around hitting guys. And they get that from their bottom six,

but they also get it from some of the guys that are doing the heavy lifting in the top as well. He almost scored an overtime too. Yeah, he hit the post, right, yeah. It becomes infectious on a team and they have to like to do it, like they have to want to, but they also have to like to do it as well.

And I will say this for Evander Kane, you can tell that he relishes the opportunity to impact a game physically because he's got an arsenal of offensive. He's a good player, right? He can do things offensively. He can score goals when a guy like that relishes the opportunity to tilt a game in the physical department. That's when it becomes infectious. There's guys that are out there and that's their job is to hit. Right. But when you're getting it from a bunch of different guys, one, you can tell that it's spreading throughout the team, but two, it's other guys

pick up. It's like, OK, well, he's hitting, I'm hitting. You know, this is the way we're going to play this game. Also, against the Florida team that, let's be clear, has made it their DNA to be the most physical team on the ice when you can give it back to them and when you can maybe even start to inflict pain on the inflictors it gives you a huge sense of confidence right it's the whole not necessarily David versus Goliath but all of a sudden you're like all right I landed a blow on the giant I've staggered him a little

bit I think we're making headway here you know I mean say what you will about Luke Gazznik I know not everyone in Vancouver loves the guys an analyst but he brought up this anecdote that's been told countless times throughout the playoffs is sometimes in game one you're not landing hits to win game one you're winning winning them game six and game seven right you're landing them now to get the residual effects down the road and the Oilers did a lot of that last night in that overtime win. A few people texted in that we haven't talked about

the PWHL signings. We haven't. Vancouver got some players. We can finally cheer for a nurse? Yes. So the, I'm going to try and get all of the X's and O's parts right here. So Vancouver and Seattle are each now in an exclusive window that goes until Sunday to sign a maximum of five players.

That's followed by the PWHL expansion draft. So if you're wondering what happened yesterday, Vancouver and Seattle went out and signed a bunch of players that were left unprotected. The most well known name, as you mentioned, Sarah Nurse, who joins Vancouver from Toronto, that of course is the cousin of Evan Toronato's defenseman, Darnell Nurse, sister, or sorry, cousin of WNBA star Q&A.

Proud Hamiltonian. And a proud Hamiltonian. I should say. Claire Thompson, so they really built out their blue line yesterday, right? Claire Thompson and Sophie Jacques both came over to build out the blue line. I think Claire Thompson's-

They're like, we're gonna build like like the Canucks seems to work for them. Claire Thompson's considered like a, a top flight number one defenseman in the PWHL. The overall impression I got from the teams that were losing players were like, we're losing really good players here. Like we're not just losing fringe players. We're losing some of our best players. Well, Hillary Knight went to Seattle.

Right. And tell us about the goalie. Yes. I mean, let me talk about the goalie. Yeah. This is your time to shine. Emmeren's Mashmeier was kind of forced out of a job. She got injured, lost her job to Gwyneth Phillips in

Ottawa, who ended up taking the ball and running with it. So they're happy sticking with her in Ottawa. That left Emmeren's Mashmeier, the team Canada goaltender, it's kind of been her and Henry de Bien ever since the Zabados era ended. And she's one of my favorite goal tenders to watch in the PWHL. I am so excited that she landed in Vancouver

because it's the perfect situation. It's a number one starting job for her. And personally, I get to watch her play every game. Mashmeier was the fourth of five players that they are expected to sign. So we're just kind of sitting away. Now they've got time. I guess they went out yesterday.

Part of it was a splash, right? Like Hillary Knight goes, Sarah Nurse goes. Those are big ticket, high profile attention. They clearly wanted the teams to have stars. The league clearly wanted star power going to Vancouver and Seattle. And that's honestly smart. Yep.

And that's what you can do. It sucks for the other teams. Well, it's what you can do too, when there's one owner of the entire league. There's no franchises in the PWHL, so the league can operate purely in the best interests of the league, and I think that's an important way to start so you don't have any like,

teams that are really, really struggling. Sucks for the players though. Sucks for the players. I'm gonna negotiate a contract with somebody else. Yeah. No you can't. But again, given that this is a Vancouver expansion team, you almost have to hearken back to the Grizzlies

and how restrictive the expansion rules were for them and how bad they were for the six plus years of existence. Oh, that worked out. Right, now this is obviously swung the pendulum far rules were for them and how bad they were for the six plus years of existence. Well, that worked out right. Now, this is obviously swung the pendulum far the other way and that you're getting star caliber, high profile players moving locales. But you can look at the other end of when that pendulum swings and what happened with the NBA and the NBA regrets it.

Like David Stern, prior to his passing, said that was one of his biggest regrets as a commissioner was the way Vancouver went down. So it's a model for any professional league that when you're starting from the ground up and you've got an expansion team, the old way and the old rules do not apply. You can't have a team come in and be God awful right off the hop. It just doesn't work anymore. We got a lot more to get into on the health of the rough show on sports net six

50. It's been a very eclectic sporting show thus far. We're going to keep going around the sporting world. We're going to go going around the sporting world. We're going to go to Toronto. The Canadian Open is underway. Round one is underway. Adam Stanley, golf analyst from Sportsnet, is going to join us next on the Haliford and Bref show

on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Vic Nazar. Have your say and join me on the People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets, weekdays three to four on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. This is just classic golf music. When I play when I'm out on the course, this is what they play at Liv's tournament. It is 7.32, now now 733 on a Thursday. You are listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. It is thrash Thursday here. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first entrusted choice for net help with over 3000 five star reviews. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are now in hour two of the program. Adam Stanley, Sportsnet Golf Analyst, is gonna join us from the Canadian Open here in just a moment. Nick Taylor, tied for first. He's gonna do it again.

Nice. What's he at? 300. There's a lot of players at 300. Okay. Including Lee Hodges. He's one of my favorites. He's Adog's favorite.

Where is he from? He's American. Okay. Where do you think a Lee Hodges is from? Could of my favorites. He's a dog's favorite. Where is he from? He's American. OK, I knew it. I think a Lee Hodges is from I've been from England, Oklahoma. Are you going to be from England? I don't know. That's true. He could have been from England. We are in our to the program.

Our two is brought to you by Jason Hominke, Jason mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him online at Jason mortgage to the phone lines. We go powered by Power West and too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at jason.mortgage.com. To the phone lines we go powered by Power West Industries. Adam Stanley joins us now on the Halford and Breast show on Sportsnet 650.

Good morning, Adam. How are you? It's good morning. I'm, I'm doing all right. I can't, Lee Hodges. He's from, he's from Alabama. So you were close. Oklahoma, Alabama, essentially the same. I can't believe that Lee Hodges was the first player out of my mouth on RBC Canadian Open Week, but here we are, stranger things have happened. Okay, tell us about how the tournament has started. Tell us a little bit about this course. Yeah, so TPC Toronto, it's north of the city,

it's about 45 minutes north of the airport. It's been around for about 30 years, so it's a very new golf course, because obviously, the initial thing is like, well, what's it like? And in the comparatives that we've had, it's not really fair, right? Like St. George's, essentially in downtown Toronto,

Hamilton, these two golf courses are 100 plus years old, and depending on who you ask, they could be the number one golf course in the country. They're certainly in the top five, and again, depending on who you ask, those two courses are probably in the top three in a lot of people's lists. This TPC Toronto is just not that, and it's not really a slight against it. It's just a completely different golfing experience.

Now, it's the longest RBC Canadian Open venue in the history of the tournament. It has been completely renovated over the last 18 months or so to prepare for the best players in the world to arrive. So they've taken out some bunkers, they've added a bunch more, they've done a bunch of different kind of shaving efforts near the green sites and they've completely changed them around. The routing is completely different. So there's a lot of things that have occurred here to prepare for the best players in the world. And it is, it is a very fine golf course. I think the thing is a course needs to have

a lot of space. It needs to have a lot of other things to be ordered, to be able to host the RBC Canadian Open, which is a golf event. It's not just a golf tournament. And this has worked out incredibly well so far. And now we're balls are in the air and we're off to the races.

And they're going to do it there next year as well, right? Next year as well, yeah. So Oakdale, which hosted the 2023 Canadian Open, which of course Nick Taylor won, they had signed on originally to do 2023 and 2026, but the membership ended up voting that down recently, the 2026 one, they voted it down. They said it was too close to 2023.

They were at the time of the vote, there's still a lot of questions about the state of men's professional golf. So Oakdale will likely come back again and they'll have kind of a bit of a rotation. But yeah, TPC Toronto picked up the slack. They're going to do it again next year and it seems like they'll probably do it every three or every four years on the rotation as well. They're never coming back to Vancouver, are they? They can't just fly those investment bankers

out on a PJ and like, it's like Shaughnessy's pretty nice, you know? Multiple. You know what? Shaughnessy's starting to get a little too small, I think. Yeah, it is. For how much of a build out and how many things

kind of go on. Like obviously it hosted the women's Canadian Open a couple of years ago and I was out there and it was like the perfect size for for that But I think if people haven't been to the Canadian Open in a long time They would come to this and they're not from here You know they're from somewhere else and they come here and they see like all of the other stuff that is actually involved and built and you know created for this event and then they

They realized pretty quickly that it eliminates a hearty percentage of golf courses across the country to be able to do something like this. What's the hardest course that they could put it on? And I mean, the one thing about Shaughnessy is when they had it here, man, that course was playing real tough. Like most guys I think finished over.

But yeah, and like, I mean, we all know what the scores were sometimes at Glen Abbey. And it was, I found it a little bit embarrassing. Like this is our national open and the guys are like 30 under or something like this. This is just any other tournament. And I don't think the Canadian Open should be like that.

I mean, I don't think it has to necessarily be as tough as the U S open, but man, the U S open next week is going to be real tough, uh, tough course, the rough is going to be up. Like where could they do something like that among the courses that are okay with all the bankers back East? Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, like if, if we're thinking about kind of greater Toronto area, you know, Toronto golf club is, uh, is a really good test. It's like an incredible kind of golfing course and across the road, there's a city of Mississauga, um, like public facility, literally across the road, they share it. So again, if you're thinking about space,

it's like there, they've, they've got a, a ton of space kind of built in. So if it goes to Toronto golf club, I honestly wouldn't be surprised at some point in the next decade or so. I think some conversations have happened already there. Coppenwood, which is in Uxbridge, it's a really, really, really like sturdy test of a kind of a modern golf layout. I think that, you know, that could probably host it at some point too. If, if only because like, you know, there was, there was always this conversation around like,

well, it's too far, but now it's up here in Kaladin and Kaladin's probably twice as far as Uxbridge is from kind of the main midpoint of Toronto. And then of course there's the National Golf Club of Canada. Like the Nash would never host, like the Nash could host it tomorrow, but they never would because they don't allow female members and the membership just doesn't want you know people to come to come to their golf course but like you know they host like a pretty intense kind of pro-am situation

every year and the winning score is usually like two under par and that includes guys who have won on the PGA Tour before so yeah I mean there's there's certainly a variety of options that could make this a lot harder of a golfing test, but you know, at the end of the day, the guys on the PGA tour are really, really good. And, um, you know, the last couple of years when the memorial took place right before the US Open, uh, they didn't love, they didn't love how

hard that week was and then having to do it all over again at the US Open. So this at least gives them a bit of a break. Um, what did Rory have to say, uh, before the tournament, because of the first time he'd spoken to the media for a while. Yeah. I mean, he, he, to his credit, he covered

off a lot of things. You know, he, he answered the question about why he didn't want to talk or why he didn't talk, excuse me, at the, at the PGA championship. Um, you know, there was a variety of reasons, uh, why that ended up occurring. I think from just finishing late to the scheduling being completely mixed up to obviously kind of the driver stuff coming out and then by the end of the week he just played poorly

and he was ready to go home. So he addressed all of that. He did talk about the driver stuff as well. He admitted he was pretty ticked off because we you know, we all found out that Scottie Scheffler's driver failed as well, and we didn't find that out until Sunday, you know, Sunday night after, you know, Scottie had won the tournament. But for Rory, you know, the news gets out from the testers to the media and then the media reports on it, and you know, Rory's mad for a variety of reasons. So, you know, he touched on that. He has a new driver driver in the bag this week kind of the new model from TaylorMade so he's kind of working through that as well. You know talk to him about why the tournament is

important to him. You know national open is obviously point number one and then point number two before he started to come to the Canadian Open he missed a cut at the US Open three years in a row and then the day changed and he started playing the Canadian Open the week before and he's had six top tens in a row including two runner-ups in a row at the US Open so he's like there's something to that as well but yeah I mean he touched on everything and that people had been curious about and it was a pretty tight press conference but now he's out he's not playing all that great this morning so I was like two over before I jumped

on a call with you guys but he's on his front nine or excuse me, he's on his back nine now, which is the front nine. And he played that nine yesterday for his program. So at least he's got a little bit of course knowledge now for the next eight holes or so. Um, can you explain to the listeners why a driver might not be allowed? Yeah, sure. Yeah.

So the, the simple reasoning is that the USGA, the United States golf association, which is like the stewards of the rules of the game for essentially the PGA Tour, it's basically what Golf Canada is here. They do this driver testing every single week and they do it for about 30% of the field, which is weird because you think, you know,

if you're testing it for legality reasons, it should be 100% of the field, but I digress. Anyways, the thing is, so the driver can only have a certain like spring-like effect and the number, it can't be ahead of a particular number, the spring-like. So they have this like little device that they use, they test the driver face, as long as it's under the spring-like number,

it's good to go. So it becomes illegal, it becomes past the spring like number from over usage. Thousands of hits at 150 miles an hour over and over and over again, the driver faces just become more springy. Spring, spring, spring, it becomes hotter, becomes faster. And so it happens all of the time. The best players in the world have to change out their drivers all of the time. The best players in the world have to change out their drivers all of the time. And all of this information is supposed to be kept confidential and it just wasn't at the PGA.

So yeah, it was just a pure matter of over usage. And it happens all the time. And this news happened to come out and Rory thought that that was inappropriate. Does that happen to recreational golfers a lot? Like they're just, they hit it so hard. Literally never. So hard so often that you need I gotta go I gotta go to the store and say like I need a new one this is non-conforming please help me. There's all sorts of marks on the top of your

driver. I don't know what's going on there. Yeah sir we have never seen the crown be non-conforming. We're used to faces. Yeah, we're speaking. We're speaking. Adam Stanley Sports. That goal, the Gulf reporter here on the Haliford and Rough show on Sportsnet 650. I am following actively the leaderboard

here. Nick Taylor now moves to three under one off the lead. So he's the top Canadian behind and Nick Taylor, though, at 200 now. Maybe I should know who this is, but I don't pay a ton of attention to golf. And I've never been afraid of looking

or sounding stupid on the air. So I'm gonna ask the question anywhere. Two under, who is Canadian Ben Silverman? Ben Silverman actually has a really great story. He didn't pick up the game until really late in his life. And he shot a 118 in his very first tournament when he was in high school. So relatable.

Yeah, there's something that's relatable. So yeah, he just kept grinding. I went to a really small school in the States and he became like a mini tour legend in Florida. He won, I think he's won like three dozen, like one day tournaments with prize funds of like, you know, $1,200 here, $4,000 there, that sort of thing. So anyways, he kept doing that, kept doing that, kept doing that. And then he finally earned his corn fairy tour car, you know, at 34, 35, something like

that, one in the corn fairy tour a couple of years ago. And he bounced around a little bit, corn fairy tour, PGA tour, but yeah, he's back on the PGA tour now in the last two years and is kind of the perfect encapsulation of why golfers just don't give up because you never know when you're going to go on a life-changing heater and achieve a dream and for him that was getting on the PGA Tour. So really kind of unique backstory of kind of getting to the PGA Tour. Has had a very kind of pedestrian PGA Tour career to this point. Nothing really of note, but yeah, I mean, he's a PGA Tour member. There's only 150 of them. So he's doing pretty good.

I got to ask about another name, Canadian. I think you probably know who I'm going to ask about. Cougar Collins. Cougar. This is the greatest name on tour, easily. Cougar Collins is the best name in the field, maybe the best name of anyone in professional golf. Yeah, I mean, another one of these amateurs, another one of these young guys on the Canadian side, actually I think he's turned pro now.

So part of the Golf Canada national team, I think he's associated with TPC Toronto in some capacity. I think he's got a little bit of an ambassadorship deal here and he's played here a bunch and he hits the ball a long way. I don't know too much about him other than that he hits the ball a long way and he's got a great name. So it's a curious kind of blowing that point up a little bit. It's a curious time I think in men's professional golf from a Canadian perspective because we have this incredible generation of guys on the PGA Tour, unlike any we've ever seen, kind of inspired by Mike Weir. And then we don't have kind of that, you know, just in their 20s,

kind of starting to climb the board, really making a lot of noise on the corn fairy. We just don't have that group. You know, there's a couple of guys out there, A.J. Eward, who's from out west, you know, he's probably the main one that I'd be following in that regard. But it's really kind of this Brooke Henderson generation that I'm looking at. The young girls who are 15 or 16, we've got a ton in that age demographic who are all basically been following golf since they were seven or eight and saw Brooke do what she did. And now they're starting to kind of come of age with respect to playing these big tournaments. So that generation is actually the one that I'm kind of more excited about.

And then I think maybe if there's kids who are nine, 10, 11, 12, who are boys who are seeing this generation come along and do what they're doing, then that's going to be kind of the next one. So it's just going to keep coming in waves, which is pretty cool. Adam, enjoy the tournament, hope a Canadian wins. And then maybe we'll chat again next week

before the US open at Oakmont. And I. Busy time. Yeah. And I, you know, I'm looking forward to the Canadian open, but this US open, I think is going to be real interesting, not only because of the field, but the course is going to be tough.

So we'll talk about that next week. Enjoy the weekend, Adam. 100%. Can't wait. Thanks guys. Appreciate it. Thank you, Adam Stanley, Sportsnet Golf Reporter here on the Haliford and Rough Show on Sportsnet 650. In our never-ending quest to talk about every single sport available to us as sports radio hosts and consumers, I do want to turn our attention now to the National Basketball Association. Not only, Jason, is the the NBA gonna get its finals underway tonight.

So tough follow-up act for the NBA after game one of the Stanley Cup finals was so good last night. Some also some news out of the NBA as it pertains to the NHL, they're trying to steal the NHL's idea. They're doing their own version of the Four Nations. So how are they doing this? I don't know, I thought you were gonna answer that question. Oh, okay.

Yeah. So how are they doing this? I don't know. I thought you were going to answer that question. Oh, okay. Yeah. The All-Star game apparently is going to be USA versus the world. So this is not only taking the NHL's idea, which the commissioner of the NBA, Adam Silver, was saying, I watched what the NHL did with the four nations and I said, we got to do something like that. But it's also going to be a bit of like a Ryder Cup feel in that you've got the Americans

versus everyone else. Um, my question about this is, are the players going to buy in? Because remember all the talk we had about the four nations and Adog got it pretty wrong. He thought the four nations was just going to be kind of all star game-ish, not going to be that intense and then there was like three fights

right off the bat. Adog's never wrong. No, he's never wrong. Never wrong. Um, and, um, my question is, are the players gonna buy in and what's it gonna look like if they do? Because if it's an all-star game, you wanna get everyone into the game.

But if it's a true game, if it's a true game where you're going, okay, it's USA versus the world, there are gonna be some guys that make the team, but there's going to be a 12th man. Are you going to get the, the 12th man is going to be a good player, but is he going to play? I don't think that's the problem.

I think the problem with the format is that it's the world. That's what I was going to say. Yeah, but the Americans would be into that, I think. But the other team isn't. It's like having a team Europe in the game. Yeah, I feel, it comes together for the Ryder Cup though, but I know it doesn't have the tradition, right? They could have had an international tournament.

There's enough nations that play basketball. Ryder Cup is also Europe. They're not representing the world. Yeah. You know what I mean? You're gonna have Canadians on the team with guys from Italy. Yeah, you're gonna have guys that are from the Caribbean.

You're gonna have guys that have their origins in Africa playing with guys that are from Europe like it's it's it's too I don't like saying it this way, but it's it's almost too global I think the big the big draw with the four nations was that there was a fierce sense of national pride and respect on the line specifically and especially of national pride and respect on the line, specifically and especially with Canada versus US, all due respect to Finland and Sweden. But the tournament was designed for Canada and US. And then in a twist of fate that worked out great for the tournament, it came at this time where geopolitical issues fired up between the two of them.

So I also think there was a long layoff from best on best as well. Right. Now, with this, the NBA hasn't had a large layoff and what we saw at the Olympics. Now, I don't know how many of you again in listener land followed this closely, but that French national team. Hosting the games, playing at home, had a decided, decided sense of pride and will and determination to advance.

Worked against Canada. Right, I'm saying like on paper, Canada should have been able to take care of the French national team. They did not. And a large part of it had to do with the fact that that French team was playing with an immense amount of pride

because they were representing their country and hosting the games. I'm not sure that Janis and Tentacumpo and Nikola Jokic are going to suddenly team up and be like, you're Greek, I'm Serbian, let's do this together to beat America. That's the thing, you can't do half measures. But that's what this is. They never work. Okay, not never because it kind of worked when the NHL had, they changed their All-Star format to three on three, right? They were like, okay.

It worked for a year. It worked for a year. And I actually remember interviewing Corey Perry after that and being like, wow, yeah, you guys actually had to work out there. And he was kind of joking and was like, yeah, I'm almost out of breath. Almost.

Yeah, almost. Right? And like, you know, the all star, the NHL all star game got to the point where it was just like, there was no point in it because it, it, the only point was that, wow, all these great players are on the ice, but they're not really doing anything special.

They're going at half speed. None of them want to defend. The goalies are, you know, like they have no chance out there. And probably the goalies are like, well, I'm not going to work all that hard to like push across the crease and maybe get myself hurt on this three on O. And it was just, it became a joke.

Well, the NBA all star game has become that as well, but they have no, they have no solution. Like the NHL does have a solution now and that's not playing the all star game because instead that's a not playing the all-star game because instead that's going to be the break for the world cup or the Olympics. I think the Islanders are eventually going to get their all-star game in like 2027.

Yeah. But it's just not one of these events. And like, I commend the NHL for going like, what if we just didn't have it? And this is what the NBA that's well, this is what the NBA they're at this crossroads now as well. Because the last year's All-Star game was so bad and the weekend was so widely panned,

even from the network that was covering it, that they've gone to this format. Now I will say this, there's a sliver of hope because the talent level from a world versus USA team would be pretty intriguing. Would the world seem be way better though? Not way better. Okay, so let's just, off the top of my head, from a world versus USA team would be pretty intriguing. Would the world team be way better though? Not way better.

Okay, so let's just, off the top of my head, you could go USA All-Stars, just so you could have a starting five, if you don't care about positions, because it's an exhibition anyway, Steph Curry, LeBron, James, Kevin Durant, Anthony Edwards, take your pick, right? There's a great line up there.

You still have all those old guys out there. Yeah, they're all so old. But they're all still very good. Yeah, I know. All still very good. The world team. It very good the world for the American the world team you could have like SGA yokich Yanis, you could have Carl Anthony towns because technically plays with the Dominican Republic Don Chich. Yeah, take your pick right there Don Chich. Yeah, like doesn't that sound like a Vash for the world's though considering the age of the Americans

Well, Anthony Edwards is young and he's a very talented player Jason Tat Tatum, if he wasn't coming off a tour in Achilles, would be a very difficult player to stop and he's young. You don't think you could get them into this though? No. You just couldn't? Just because they've already got their outlet? Let me, let me. Like in the Olympics?

Yeah. I mean, did you watch any of the highlights of Jokic playing for Serbia? He loved it. He might've loved it more than playing for the Nuggets. Yeah, because he was with his boys and they were crushing beers and they were having a good time and he was back home. Right. And you can't replicate that by saying now go team. Now your teammate is a Slovenian. Right.

Now, yeah, like, you know, exactly. You know what I mean? Any Croats out there? Right. It just it won't work. And I know the NHL's tried this format. They did North America versus the world. And it was awesome. Was it? What do you remember about it? I remember liking the gimmick, but ultimately it was forgettable.

Like you remember Sandus Ozilench playing? I loved Team North America, man. Team North America was awesome. Oh, it was great. I mean, it was fun in the moment, but as soon as it was over, I'm like, okay, I'm good. Like I didn't have any lasting impact on me, but I did enjoy it in the moment because of the gimmick behind it. And there were lots of great players out there. It was great I don't remember a single thing. And they actually looked like they were trying a little bit like it wasn't like an All-Star game they're actually playing like two. They were trying in that World Cup it

was just a silly format that proved nothing. I know that's what I'm saying so at least in the moment because they were trying it was entertaining but it didn't really have any lasting impact on me. I'll always remember where I was when Canada beat team Europe in the final never forget man team pan Europe as I like to Get is like team Europe except for a bunch of countries. Yeah, you know what I I think I could probably Leftover countries I should probably pick if I had to remember without looking maybe like five to seven guys off that I remember Ralph Krueger was the coach and I you know I don't like was the goalie was he see I had to remember without looking, maybe like five to seven guys off that. I remember Ralph Krueger was the coach and I, you know, I don't like was the goalie. Was he? See, I don't remember. I don't know. I think Char was on the team.

Yeah, he was. Yep. And then maybe Thomas Vannix was still kicking around. I don't know. I don't even think they remember. If you were to ask him who you're that would be a great question to get one of the players from that team on the show and ask him how many team teammates he can remember from team Panhearup. Was that the first time that Marshawn played for Canada? Yes it was. I think it was. Yeah and the other thing for the big team I think he... Right yeah I also remember Dean

Lombardi who was in charge of putting the US team vehemently opposed to the Young Stars team because that was all the American players that he wanted to take on. Yeah, it was stupid. That was totally- That's why I was so good. Team North America rocked. They were so young and fast.

Yeah. Adog, I'm glad we've got you on the show because you're a good sounding board for the children. Yeah. We need to- Think of the children. The children love the All-Star game. They don't care about the intensity of the game.

I wouldn't say I love the All-Star game. I wouldn't say you hate it. No, I don't hate it. Thomas Drantz is coming up next on the Alfred and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650.