Ever wondered what a decent casual golfer would shoot at the U.S. Open? With super long holes, punishing rough, and lightning-fast greens it won’t be easy.
This is Part 2. If you’d like to watch Part 1 first you can find it here: https://youtu.be/W76PqYndf-8
Thanks to Abercrombie & Fitch for sponsoring today’s video! Use code RGCAF to get 20% off men’s, excluding clearance and fragrance, valid June 12th to 29th!
Featured RGC apparel:
Spoon Bucket Hat – https://bit.ly/3tsIoBv
For more on the 2022 U.S. Open, all things Random Golf Club, merch, podcasts, news, and meet-ups go to www.randomgolfclub.com and follow along on Instagram and TikTok.
#AbercrombiePartner
45 Comments
Love his attitude, he shouldn’t be playing blades though.
The scary thing is EAL is a good golfer and this course ate him up….damn.
15:46 LOL! Great production guys, always enjoy these.
Let’s see Francis break 70!!!!!
I got to be honest, I am here for the backup birdie. Making one later makes it ok to toss out but just in case, I don't feel like I got skunked if I made the backup.
It's not an authentic experience unless hordes of Americans storm the 17th green right before you putt.
2:48 golf rule violation
Definitely want to see Francis try to break 75!
definition of grinding it out, respect
change the title to break 100 maybe
Love it.
Get Francis on the sticks to show you how it's done!
This was like a bad accident. As much as I didn’t want to look I just couldn’t help myself😂. Great job keeping your composure and positivity. Course is a bear!
If you're a hcp 5…. i'm at + 10 at least ….. BUT good fun as usual …
Looking forward to seeing your trip to Ireland. This course wouldn't even make the top 100 in Ireland 🤷♂️😁
Great content! And yes to Francis breaking 75 for sure!
Love watching you on these vids EAL. Hope the Break 90 series is here to stay for a long time!
I guess that we must watch 13-16 after all
"it's like how long can we keep Satan behind us"…poignant words considering that you're +18 after 10 holes…
So I mean really. This cannot be the US Open layout. This might be the US Open tee placement.
But there are no leaves on far too many of the branches, and the fairway and greens are just…not in tournament shape.
And what the fuck are you doing playing in shorts in weather like this? Everyone is in long sleeves even pullovers, even you.
Eh, well I guess a well-deserved result.
So, #12, he's lined up over the starboard side, the hole cuts 15 deg to the left tee to green, "fuck it we're going to play only cuts" is coming up and he just parred a hole…
What could the golf gods have in store for Erik here…
boy do I love it when greenskeepers drive by the teebox right when I'm hitting a tee-shot
and yes it's hard right but on a straight line, drawing ever so slightly, this might stay out of the trees to the right…but it's definitely off into the right rough.
Not his best tee-shot, but he'll have a good angle back to the green 😉
Hm, hits a provisional but unfortunately in his urge to hit a good 2nd shot he pulls the driver down with no extension, bounces the club off the ground in front of the tee and hits a mild hook left.
Not too bad, maybe 150 yards out into the trees left down into what looks like a steady train of greenskeeper carts choosing just this moment to drive by the green like a Russian armored column.
I think he picked the ball to the left, he's playing out from some trees…two caddies, now. Maybe a forecaddie and a real caddie. Anyway advice from two cooks…
Another 175 yd shot from the trees uphill to a hidden green…08:04 oh that's just not looking good.
So many scenes in these two videos which just don't look good. Looks like he just chipped back to the fairway…145 to the green from the right side.
Another shot off the side of a hill, this one running along the fairway. How does this keep happening?
High, lands short left in a trap…"I don't think the scores are gonna be that low", he says…no, the lie is on top of a grassy knoll just short & left of the green.
So let's see some chipping magic!!!
oh fuck, the ball flies at least 2 feet lands 10 feet short below the hole but just accelerates past the hole like a Top Fuel racer. Stops 25 feet above the hole.
With a cross fall-line putt….and break in the top ledge that's maybe 3 feet above the pin.
This put is going to be fast and then break hard left just before the pin. But he's gotta put some speed on it or it will break well above the pin and race by 10-15 feet left of the pin.
"Survey says!!!!"
He drains it no problem. Ball slowed down considerably and then turned into the cup. Schweet.
Follows a quad with a par and a bogey. +19, now it's time for #13. "We're still in it, folks".
"…we've got one shot to play with?" Hm.
"We do have a 700 yard par5 coming up in 2 holes."
A little clue about how that works out: he's just picked-up 5 strokes in 3 holes with a par. +18 through 12 holes.
He's looking +20 right in the eye…when he still has 5 holes left.
How many of us have seen a similar situation unfold many times and know the feeling of depression and imminent failure that ensues upon recognizing its arrival yet again?
For those of you who have forgotten what struggling to break 100 is like, you know that you need to into 16 at about +25. You need that three-shot cushion.
Because you know that you're going to blow those last 3 strokes on the last 3 holes. Right there at about 16 is where the shit hits the fan and you know that you need to finish the front half of the back side in good shape to break 100. Because 15-18 the pressure is on, everything seems to go n slow motion the ball never goes where you want it to go and it's like a car-crash in slow motion.
The easiest shots become impossible to make. and you're lucky to go +2 every hole, all the way out. It's almost a relief when you go +28 on 16 and you know it's over.
But you have to start the back side at +15 or better, and you need to still be at or under +20 somewhere in the middle of the backside. Those last 8 strokes will disappear with the snap of a finger.
The point is, by the middle of the backside, you know that you're not breaking 90. Now you're just playing for a semi-respectable 100.
So here we go, teeing off on #13…with 10 strokes to break 100, 9 strokes if you're picky.
We're changing course and racing for the nearest port that still has a decent hotel-room available and good beer in the bar.
Because that is much preferred to sleeping on the boat another night out in the cold, with no chips, no salsa and no beer.
Started off talking about breaking 90, and we couldn't even break 100. That's like running out of gas at 2am on the way to the titty-bar after last call.
Plain and simply put, the mission is a complete failure if we don't even break 100. And folks, the skies are getting dark, the seas are rough and Failure is looming on the horizon.
"These are the times that try mens' souls"
The way you hit that 5 wood. C’mon man 🤌🏻🤌🏻
That intro was legit awesome … well done team!
FYI, the USGA guidelines states a par 5 should be between 450 to 710 yards. There are a good few variables to establish the actual par though. 710!!! Yikes.
I wanna see Francis and you play.
The course kind of looks like shit
Does anyone think Erik needs to take a different strategy to break 90. He is playing the worlds hardest golf courses like he is a pro. Maybe he should club down occasionally, particularly off the tee – hit a few more fairways?
I need my short game 100 percent to have a chance at a decent score
Boring rambling people
You’re a single digit handicap? Bro you were spraying them more than a really white woman spray tans.
I would love to see Francis/Frances (not sure how to spell your name sorry) try and shoot 75 at a major championship course!
Good to see you regain your perspective and maintain your composure. I’m gonna give partial credit to Francis the Green Whisperer for helping you with that.
The handicap system awards Erik 14 strokes as a 6.0 Index. Unreal.
An ESC 95* means a net 81 WITH the given strokes… meaning the course is playing MUCH harder than that already brutal scorecard.
* Equitable stroke control reduces the damage on holes 10 and 15 to two 7s.
Every time I see the guy with the frosted blonde hair in Eric’s group I think Bond villain.
Just me or besides long rough and fast greens the layout of this course doesn't really look that hard?
Fun video man, love it. Also, first time wearing shorts this summer ? Nice pale calves lol
"Satan does make his way into our midst". #13, Par-4, 490 yards. Indeed.
The one thing is that the US Open is going to be held in the summer and this is early spring clearly in Massachusetts and the ball should fly quite a bit longer in the summer.
Not sure if that's good or bad but.
Also more leaves on the trees…maybe making it easier for players to see the trees…
The rough should be far deeper and thicker and more of a problem…eating a lot of balls, but there will be spotters…
Crescent left over water the last 50 yards…oh no…
out comes that fucking fairway-wood again…oh man, hits it on a rope with a slight draw, same as the last time I saw him hit it, but the problem is that you don't want to be left on a crescent-left…
he's hoping that it's long enough to come back to the fairway…
ok he's officially give up on breaking 90. Still gotta break 100.
Not "in the center of the fairway" so 5 feet left into the fringe, but under the tree branches left. Blind shot all the way to the green. Another disaster in the making.
Going at it with a 4-iron. Or just "going near it". There are two creeks crossing the fairway between him and the green.
12:48 He gets out of this with anything less than a triple it will be amazing.
Takes a 3/4 backswing, hits it…oh man, could not have cut it closer to the trees on the left…looks right and short, will have to see if it's wet or dry…
Just crossed the water in front of the green, stopped 5 feet in front of the false-front just right of center. Fucking lucky as shit.
Chips up…leaves it 15 feet below the pin. Crowd goes "ohhhhh…" That's a stroke saved and a stroke lost right there.
And now the squealing starts. If he gets down in 2 that's a 5 on a 500 par 4 that's a party. Turns it into a 6 there will be some sad faces.
Takes it 5 feet past but somehow makes the comebacker for 5. Flashy but stupid, got away with it.
You can just hear the golf gods grumbling. That is outright insolence. Not a major insult but still an insult.
It's one thing to hit that wood into play and keep it on the short-cut. Another thing to hit that 4 iron and get it almost on the false-front…from a blind lie.
But to leave that chip 20 feet short? Seriously? Then putt it 5 feet long and make the comebacker? That's just too careless.
Making the hard shots and missing the easy ones. And for that the golf gods will have a piece of your soul.
…well I know what is going to happen so that's poetic license.
This is karma for the club twirl counter on your last vid
What about a break 90 on a regular course. Just to have a control per se
Was the Brookline caddie supposed to be so grumpy?
Francis Francis Francis
What is EAL's index? (And from that, a rough idea of his course handicap would have been from those tees?) It seems the toughest part of his round was the unforced errors off the tee. Almost seems like it would have been better to take out a fairway finder off the tees and play the par 4s like par 5s, with a focus on a good short approach shot.
Let's see Francis!
15:00 +20 after 13
6 holes left, 8 strokes to lose
So this is the thing, if you need to go 6 holes in +8 (to shoot 100 or lower) that's bogey golf plus 2 strokes over 6 holes. At most 1 triple and 5 bogeys, or 2 doubles and 4 bogeys.
Now he has a couple of pars so par is still on the table, but he also has doubles, triples and quads.
But he's got one ace still up his sleeve, the course is only Par 70. So he has TEN strokes to lose over 6 holes. That's a lot more like 4 double-bogeys and 2 bogeys.
At this point, seriously, he's almost got it made. All that he really needs to do is not shoot any high numbers, certainly no more than one high-number…if he goes +5 on the 700 yard par 5, which is very possible, that still leaves him 5 strokes for the 5 holes. 5 bogeys other than a 10 on the par 5. Now that, if he could do it, would be pretty-good.
Even better if he gets a par in there somewhere.
The point is that he needs to keep it to just one big number. Just one. Over the next 6 holes.
Not 3 triples and a bunch of doubles…not 6 consecutive doubles….there are many ways that this can go wrong, but the idea here is to pick a conservative goal.
Keep the stress-level down. Stay in the moment, but don't lock-up. Play the game. Breathe. Swing the club. Let the shots happen. Don't try to force anything.
Take your time, think through your plan but don't obsess over any one shot. Keep the whistling out of your ears, no daydreaming about what can go wrong.
Plan your shot, take a deep breath, exhale, swing the club. No problem.
And it never will be a problem until the driver or iron goes shooting off into the woods, or you leave that chip short of the green, or that putt halfway to the pin.
15:30 …and there it is, first shot…hits it center off the tee but cutting right…but it's wider than it looks…ball lands in the trampled-down rough just left of the treeline.
Straight shot to the green, another wood to the end of he fairway and then a blind 5 iron that lands on the front edge and runs up to the back but stays on the green.
Now a 15ft downhill putt for BIRDIE…but he leaves it 5 feet short. Is this a makeable par putt? Yes it is makeable, but he did not make it…
The old "3-putt from 20 feet"…well at least he has a 1-foot tap-in but that has gotta sting.
18:42 now that's not what you want to see when you're +14 after 9 holes.
But still it could be worse. He could be +24 after 14 holes and have to bogey his way out, knowing that if any one of those bogies turns into a double it has to be matched with a par and a par in these last 4 holes…probably not going to happen. So he's not in great shape but could be worse.
Can’t believe Shia Leboeuf parred that hole. Unreal.
Duff and the 20 Bunkers
Definitely curious to see francis’ game
Loved the Vid but I must say the orange tracer on the cloudy background was hard to see.
19:20 Hole 15, 515 Par4. A winding hole with a big cart-path running across the fairway. No, that's an actual 2-lane road.