Shane Bacon is joined by a Scotland-based Andrew Putnam as the PGA Tour season heads overseas for the Scottish Open this weekend! Shane and Andrew discuss the John Deere Classic before getting into Andrew’s time in Scotland thus far, his round at North Berwick and how players are excited for the next two weeks of links golf. The conversation then touches on the difficulties of traveling and being alone while on Tour before wrapping up with a look ahead at the Scottish Open.
Listen on Spotify and Apple here:
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Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Vp4KS6UowtaLz50kYjpYX?si=D-R5GLxyT0CVZksqXqK_Ng
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hey everybody welcome back to the gig grip podcast I’m Shane bacon joined by Andrew putam in Scotland we’ll get to that in just a bit of course this episode as all of them are in this season is presented by Pion Hurst Resorts an awesome host for the 2024 US Open hope hope you guys enjoyed the battle between Bryson and Rory down the stretch there at Piner number two and of course it isn’t just number two there for the first time in the early three decades Piner opened its first original golf course that’s number 10 it opened in the spring of this year do design number 10 features dramatic elevation changes natural Sandy areas remnants of the early 20th century sand mining operation thus the awesome logo you see there if you go in the shop number 10 number two number four any of those you want to play including the Cradle all awesome and all worth your time plan your next golf trip to Pinehurst at pinehurst.com Andrew we go from talking about Pinehurst to my favorite golf season the Scottish golf season Links Golf season where does it fall in your world cuz you got over there I think on Sunday morning Saturday night and now you get to spend a couple of weeks playing Links Golf both for fun and obviously for your job I mean to be honest people would ask like what’s my favorite tournament I’ve played and I’ve always said Port Rush British or the Open Championship literally just was one of the coolest experiences of my life like you know staying in these small towns there’s not a lot to do other than golf it’s just pure you’re out there playing um you know obviously link style a lot different kind of golf than we’re used to seeing in the states um so great couple weeks to get out of the summer heat I mean I think everyone just loves getting over here it’s a it’s a really fun really fun couple weeks does it feel like that collectively does it feel like that as you’re on the Range and you’re talking to your buddies on tour does it feel like kind of across the board everybody International Players American players are excited about this yeah everyone’s pumped I mean it’s it’s uh you know it’s like Thea golf right this is where golf is invented and um we don’t get to play link style golf very often in the US I know there’s a couple places that try to emulate that but um it is a couple special weeks for sure all right I want to touch a little bit on John Deere and then I want to get into the golf you’ve already played in Scotland but before John Deere and we recorded unsuccessfully by the way about seven minutes of a podcast last week about your uh your fishing trip can you hit on just kind of the the great moment from your was this your first ever big fishing trip is that right yeah first ever fishing trip got invited by uh some friends and uh kind of a charity fishing trip Best of Both Worlds it it was uh had like a group of 30 guys and we went up to BC Canada got a little float plane helicopter ride into a floating Lodge in the middle of BC and um it was incredible I mean four days of fishing with friends and caught our limit um um had a great time I mean never been on a fishing trip before so I think I just ruined myself cuz we started at the top and it’s all downhill from there but uh great to get away from golf just for a little bit and you know you basically in a area you can’t be on your cell phone you’re disconnecting from the craziness of life and uh luckily my wife let me go on my on this trip we got two kids and one coming so I figure that’s my one get out of jail free card that I played for the year so it’s a good good one to play by the way this is like did you see earlier this year when that journalist at the Masters got picked to play Augusta National on Monday and apparently had never played a full round of golf before I feel like your fishing experience was that golf equivalent to to to that experience it’s like hey do you would have fly to this floating island and like catch salon and catch your limit have it all shipped home I mean seemed like a pretty uh it seemed like like a top tier situation yeah it was incredible I gotta go with some some n past NHL guys uh Seahawks quarterback Jim zor I think he was the first ever Seahawks quarterback so it was it was an incredible trip I mean uh if anyone looking to do a trip like that I highly recommend it Kings Lodge up in BC it’s awesome experience two thumbs up all right so uh want to touch on John Deere because I got a couple questions for you one I I saw you post on social um I think it was just somebody um just throwing up on themselves over and over again I really appreciated that um considering I think I’ve just been cleaning up throw up and poop for about the past four days with traveling with two little kids um that was your last three holes at the John Deere I don’t necessarily want to get into your last three holes but I did want to ask about playing in these golf tournaments where the scoring is consistently low you know you see the guy you see the winning score 28 29 under I don’t think golfers really understand how good that is or how low that is I always look down the leaderboard at tournaments like the John Deere I think there were 51 players that finished double dit double digits under par for you going into those weeks and for the people you talk to the friends you have on tour what is it like approaching a week where you know you’ve got to shoot five six seven under every round to even be competitive yeah I mean early in the week honestly the the fairways were bouncy the greens are somewhat firm and then we had this crazy Storm come through um tornado warnings and all sorts of stuff where I feel like we we got two inches of rain and it just once that comes through you just know in your mind you’re like all right well here we go it’s just going to be a birdie Fest so um it is a it is a strange feeling you know obviously having to you go out and you’re making pars and you feel like you’re just getting lapped and you make an occasional Bogey and you just feel I mean Terrible by yourself you gotta make two birdies to even get back to even so um probably not something i’ would love every week but um it’s hard for them to you know this time of year you know if you played that course in the fall I think it would be a much better test but it’s just tough you know being in the midwest this time year they get so many storms going through they can’t really set a course up hard enough for to really challenge any tour players yeah I just I think you said it I think it’s kind of what it is right I mean some of these golf courses you can’t make them that much more difficult conditions aren allowing you to make them firmed up or um kind of to do the appropriate things around the golf course that might make it play a little bit more difficult so it just kind of is what it is you you missed the cut so then you go to Scotland early and you just ticked off arguably my favorite golf course in the world you got to play what yesterday can you walk us through a what what kind of brought you to North barer why you wanted to play it and how was it kind of getting out there and doing it yourself did you did you push your bag what’ you do yeah so uh I told my caddy he was I I got in a day early I kind of hung out in Edinburgh for uh a night and it’s one of the coolest cities in the world I don’t know if you’ve spent any time there but um it kind of centers around their Castle I guess it was built on an old volcanic uh volcano or I don’t know that’s what they said but um I told my cat I said hey if you get out there I’d love to play and he was like sure I’ll go walk into the shop I know he was on a flight with hadwin and hadin was wanting to play it’s kind of a thing when you fly in in the morning you’re just pranked that you can stay up for you know about five six seven hours that’s the key that’s the you take a nap you’re just gonna ruin yourself so um it’s funny because Adam actually he said he went into the shop with his you know his full hoodie and and jeans on and he asked the dude he’s like hey is there any room you know to go out and the guy’s like oh no totally booked today sorry sir Adam’s like okay and then my caddy goes in and he’s obviously name dropping he’s like hey my player Andrew puam and it’s like oh yeah no problem he’s like you want to go out in 40 minutes so he text me and I was just at my my place I was like sure let’s do it and so we rolled out there and uh and I actually got a a remote controlled push cart which was nice nice dude and then uh did you feel really young when you were using that did you feel like a really young guy I actually I have one at home that I use so the remote control one yes I’m very familiar with it um I use one it just you know I’m just lazy I I don’t have a caddy at home so I uh I haven’t got I haven’t gone to the remote yet I’ve got a couple of push carts and I think the moment I turned 30 I was like there’s no shame in this I’m just going with this it’s better than carrying it on your back especially tournament golf but I have not ventured into the remote world yet I might have to lean into that if you have any they had them available and the guy just asked me if I wanted one you’re not you’re not going to say no to that all right so I’m tired yeah you’re jet lagged all right so you you’ve walked North bar before but you never played it how how’ you play first of all uh I played okay yeah honestly it was it was one of those like Bluebird days were perfectly Sunny no wind it just was like a perfect day that you know they get once every three weeks today is actually the the same tomorrow it’s supposed to blow 30 in rain so think we’re getting the good weather out of the way way but um perect it’s uh it’s just such a cool experience you know it’s like you’re on the on the ocean and you know the course has been there forever you’re just you’re like walking in history and um there’s something about playing golf over here that just you feel like you kind of rekindle like your love for the like your early love for the game I don’t know if you’ve had that experience but um you just see people out like there’s a range that’s probably I don’t know a thousand yards out into the middle of the course and people have to walk over there and you see this thing just packed with like 30 people and you’re like you’re walking a thousand yards to go bang a bucket of balls like you guys just absolutely love golf over here so it’s it’s yeah you just feel like you’re kind of on some special ground and um yeah it was a lot of fun yeah there’s something about getting over there it’s funny as a player to hear it on your side Andrew because as a journalist I’ve covered I think I’ve covered One open I’ve been over there for a few of them and what happens as you get over there this only happens at the open by the way it feels like during Master’s week you’re very very busy you’ll prepare golf or plan out Golf and it almost always falls apart us open’s much of the same very busy week it kind of is like sun up to sundown non-stop obviously at the open the days are so long and and and the sun really never sets I mean it gets to kind of midnight blue but it never really gets that dark so you can play all night but it feels like every morning you wake up and there’s some text from somebody of yours that’s like hey cril it you know 74 tonight or we’re going to play north barer um later in the afternoon it just feels like you’re you’re chasing the reason you got into the business to begin with and I know on the journalistic side that makes a little bit of sense it’s really cool to hear it on the player side have you heard of like are there other players you’ve heard of or other guys that you know that went out and snuck in round at a random course that’s not the Renaissance where you guys are obviously playing the Scottish shopin this week I think pretty much everyone’s getting out like I saw I saw probably three or four players out playing barck yesterday and that’s you know most of those guys just got off a flight so I saw Harris English out there I know I I think honestly that course knows like when this tour events in town like they hold a bunch of tea times because they know block out a few extras that’s right yeah but uh there’s a lot of guys that play you know mirfield is right next to the re uh Renaissance Club you can see it from Whole 10 I think it is um I know my caddy he brings his clubs pretty much every week on tour and he’s like this he this is like his favorite week of the year because he gets to play you know everywhere he played mirfield last year with Ted Scott they’re the only ones on the course I mean it’s pretty yeah it’s a pretty unique week um what’s uh have you so you played north barck out here did you play in good like windy conditions or how was how was your experience with that yeah I played it I’ve played it a couple times I played it a few years ago on a media trip and it was pretty windy and pretty gnarly I played it last year or sorry two years ago when they open was at St Andrew it was pretty benign I think it it wasn’t necessarily I think a windless day but I was playing by the way you’ll love this that’s the year my golf clubs got lost in the whole Twitter Fiasco and the random person found him at the airport and brought him to me in St Andrews and and like people like wrote these blogs about it and stuff but um I was I played I played north barck I had we basically had golf set up that day before we got across the pond now I don’t have golf clubs I’m a lefty so there was one set of Lefty rental clubs and by the time we arrived D at North barer I think the guy somebody had him and they were on the eighth hole so we had to wait two and a half hours before the Lefty clubs came in WoW but the conditions were were solid you know what’s crazy is if the winds what coming out of the West you play that whole front nine directly into the fan and then you make that turn and it’s just straight down Royal dornick which is obviously Northern Scotland is very similar to that where I think the prevailing wind or the predominant wind is basically straight into your face to begin the day and then when you make the turn you get it on your back I mean obviously St Andrews is very in andout like that as well but uh yeah both days I’ve played it it’s been pretty good I would say it’s a top two or three golf course I think that I’ve got a chance to play is it high on your list yeah it’s hard to say because like I said it would when there’s no wind out here every the courses feel so easy right you’re like man these some of these shots would feel so much harder if you had a 15 mph Breeze but we we had it was literally 5 mph so it’s it’s hard to it’s hard to say when it’s going on like that um it just I I want to go out and play it again maybe like tomorrow afternoon when it’s below 130 and maybe have a deeper appreciation for the track I um so I I caded at St Andrews out of college in 2006 I CAD for a season out there my dad had not traveled internationally since Vietnam he came to Scotland to come over and see me into play St Andrews and I got it all set up and the entire week Andrew was what you call the bluebird week every day was sunny windy I remember I wore shorts one day when we played the old course it was lovely and as our trip was winding down my dad said you know this was nice but I’d love a little bit more Scottish weather well a couple years later we came back over and this was more of a West Coast so we played trun Turnberry and then we went North and played cruden Bay and Aberdine and places like that we played crude and Bay in about 40 mph wins it was our first round there and about three holes in my dad went well this was a terrible thing for me to say I should have never said anything about asking for more win in Scotland uh we got we got we got kind of pummeled by the by the fan there but I do think the elements when you’re over in Scotland and Ireland and England I think playing an elements are massively important for the interest level of of of all that you know yeah because I mean even the greens are the greens are designed to have wind like me and Adam were talking were like if you saw these greens in the states you’d be kind of kind of laughing like you know this is a mun course greens and they’re just so Shaggy and and uh but that’s how they have to be because there they have so much slope on them and when the wind blows they get really dicey like they’re really tough to put and so um hoping I I know this NE you know we just got lucky the first couple days we’re here so we’ll we’ll be getting some wind um but yeah so I got to ask hey you you were you were just uh you were at home hosting an ajj event yep um is that your first time hosting a tournament yeah first time hosting something like that yeah uh we did a ajga Invitational um at a golf course in East Texas called Pine Dunes which is you know it was kind of a hidden Jimmy place that I’d found out about I think it was built probably 30 years ago 25 years ago something like that and it’s very hidden hard to find I always have wanted to bring a golf tournament there and so hit up the ajga about it um earlier in the year and said do you guys have any interest and they said yes and so yeah you know kind of put it together and had some sponsors come on um some great sponsors I mean like no laying up and and fried egg and back n Press and my club in Connecticut brookln my parents and my dad’s Furniture Store um my logo company helped out as well we had a whole bunch of kind of people come together to help us out and uh the event went great the golf course was in great shape my team won the junior am which I think might be kind of a lame thing for us to do like I feel like my team probably shouldn’t win the actual event they were handing Us trophies with my name on them you’re like you guys keep those I’m going to be good but uh the event went great Pine Dunes was awesome you played ajga growing up I’m assuming yeah I mean that’s kind of the Premier Junior League uh played ajj Canon cup the whole whole nine yards but um it’s probably still the top thing kids are playing right to noticed by college coaches and all that yeah it was always interesting because you know like a lot of sports and I know it’s changed now I mean you know I’m 40 years old for goodness sakes but when I was growing up if you were a great High schoool basketball player you could get noticed by Collegiate col you know Collegiate coaches things like that but you didn’t get noticed in high school golf in terms of how you played for your high school golf team you got noticed by how you played in agga events in national golf tournaments uh us Junior AMS things like that so the ajga massively important for me as I was trying to play college golf because I had a couple of good good finishes when I was a junior in high school and it got me in some some bigger events but did you like win the ajga I mean how did you go about like did you play a lot I mean were there ajga events up near you like what was what was your career like in that circuit yeah I I played uh they had one up at trophy Lake up in Washington when I was a junior and I think I won it when I was 14 or 15 so that wow I I won state wjga which I feel like that was a big moment you know you get recognized by the local colleges ubb and some of those local ones once you start playing ajga that kind of puts you on the the map for the national scene you know and uh I also had a brother who played who was you know really great college coach so I remember playing my first US Junior am I qualified at I think I was like 14 or 15 years old like really young um it was at Olympic club and I was on the first te and I had I had Oklahoma State I had UCLA Stanford I had all these coaches out there just because my brother put out the word like hey Andrew’s coming and I I remember being so nervous because I’m like I hadn’t proven or done anything this was like one of the first times I’ve ever traveled for a tournament and I you know I just got lucky to qualify for this thing but um I had a little more interest just because my brother kind of paved the way but uh I didn’t play you know I didn’t play a ton of AAS you know I played enough to um like qualify for the Canon cup and stuff but um a little more old school back then I think it’s you know it’s become probably a lot a lot bigger nowadays you know with Juniors having to get out and play those and and uh uh he’s just more competitive so I’m sure it’s different now yeah it’s it’s it’s interesting is what I’ve noticed and and again I I would not have have jumped into this world except for the fact that I was a part of one of the ajg events now but what I’ve noticed is there’s a ton of golf tournaments way more than existed when I was trying to play competitive junior golf but they obviously put them in different locations around the country so when I was playing ajga there was one agga event a week during the summer or maybe one every two weeks and you in theory would have had to travel to Alabama or Texas or New York whatever the case may be to play in it now they do a good job of having one in the Pacific Northwest right they might have one in Texas they might have one in New York the same week so people in the Northeast and and Beyond don’t have to travel and you know buy three or four flights and and go places but still extremely competitive I mean I think there was a 66 the final round on the side um you know where where someone went out there and the golf course is not easy I mean it is not an easy Golf Course tough you miss a fairway you’re probably going to have to ret te so um still uh the update Junior golfer still very good at golf speaking of that by the way we haven’t discussed this yet it’s been a couple of weeks um I played uh you’ll appreciate this I played the Connecticut Amer a couple weeks ago and it’s um it’s one of the N you know now the the the US Amer has switched qualifying I got through last year was the last year that had 36 Soul qualifying was how you got in the US amiter now it’s switched to where there’s local US amiter qualifying into kind of final like the US Open does but they also have switched it where if you win your state amateur Championship you automatically get in to the US Amer which is great I think it’s a really really smart thing for them to do so I play the Connecticut Amer a couple of weeks ago um I get through uh qu you know stroke play two round stroke play getting a match play it’s 32 players getting a match play and you play obviously till you have a champion I win my first match in extra holes um I’m going in cuz I’m can I think I’m playing basically the best golfer in the state of Connecticut this guy named Rick D who’s awesome he won the mid last year I played with him in the final round he’s a great dude great player he’s played in a million things and he was sitting at the bar having a beer and I was like well that’s weird you know I would imagine he was getting ready to play and I’m like he’s like I lost and I’m like you lost you know first round he’s like yeah I lost to this 16-year-old kid and I was like oh gosh and he goes you get him next um lo and behold I lost as well and he went on to win the Amer I think he’s the youngest winner of the Connecticut amiter ever but it was dude it is crazy Andrew how much confidence and how much these guys expect to compete and win and they’re not scared of anything and they’re not it’s not they’re not cocky they’re just conf and I just don’t know if this existed when I was growing up it didn’t exist I don’t know about when you were coming up but it feels like these young guys maturity level is way higher than it ever was when we were coming up and you’re seeing it I mean you’re seeing it on the PGA tour was some of these teenagers having a ten a success and nearly winning man that’s crazy yeah 16 I mean that I can’t even hardly remember back to that day but um I’ve noticed it just with some of the Pepperdine guys you know they members at my home Club then coming back out and I’ll go play with them and they’ll shoot like 61 and I’m just like what is going on like you know I’m a pro like I’m on the PGA you guys are you know they’re just turning pro and they’re just like I don’t care about you like I’m taking your money today you know they just flat out know how to play it’s incredible how good some of these kids are flat out know how to play and I guess you know and again I I I saw a little this at the USA Amer last year you know I played a couple rounds um in the stroke play part with two young guys in college they were both awesome they were both great to play with but I was just I was amazed at how they kind of understood everything right they were very aware of everything that was going on around them they were very aware of how to speak to certain people and you know how to acknowledge people that are cheering or congratulating them for good shots or good putts it just feels like again I don’t know if it’s more exposure in this space I definitely think exposure has helped amers get more comfortable playing professional golf like what you’re seeing on the PJ tour right now but the the level of everything going on and it not seeming like a bigger deal and to your point playing with the PJ Tour player and not being scared to go out there and show off how good you really are that seems to be the big thing to me that has changed yeah for sure and and like even in the college level um for example Pepperdine you know they’ve had three or four of their tournaments on the Golf Channel you know y me I was unheard of when I was going through college we had maybe right at the end they had Nationals on television but now some of these kids are getting used to cameras following them during the tournaments and they’re on you know when there’s only 10 teams playing you know you’re you’re on TV all the time so like the experience that they get through college is completely different than what I what I experienced I remember my first you know few pro events like having a camera out there following me I was just like I didn’t know how to deal with that and these kids are just they’re getting that in college now so they’re that much more prepared for the pro lifee and those big tournaments and they just seem like they’re just ready yeah it’s it’s almost like you get to skip the annoying parts that it that come with turning professional or getting into that space like all of those things about what do I need to do here or I need to be more comfortable in these these situations or these instances and it’s like all that stuff kind of goes out the window because you’ve already gone through that I mean even some of the coverage for things like us Amer or like when I was at Fox and we would cover you know we would cover the US Juniors and things like that and it’s like getting that on television is extremely helpful for these top tier players I mean I remember having the junior amiter it’s like OE versus Thor bjornson at baltis roll and I mean we covered the whole match you know I mean these are now you know stars and potential stars on the PJ tour and they’re getting that level of exposure in what 2016 2017 you know that’s that’s six seven years ago that’s a long time ago to consistently be in front of that um do you do you feel like we’re going to see the PJ tour continue to get younger like is there going to be a cap to this where eventually we get to a place where 16-year-olds are consistently competing or is it going to be outlier players like what we saw with tiger what we saw with Jordan and maybe what we saw with oxj and and players like that I mean the new pju that they developed um shout out to my my college uh golf coach Brendan Von Dorne he actually started that is that right PJ tour so yeah that was his idea it’s kind of his uh his baby that he started think the way they have that incentivized is you know you got to stay in college all the way through the end to be able to get that status on the PGA tour and I think um I think that will keep most kids staying in college and not coming out too early I mean it’s a kind of a catch 22 it’s like you know college is such an amazing time to be part of a team um have all those experiences on the road I mean there’s so much cool stuff that you don’t I I necessarily wouldn’t want to skip that you know in my life um because once you’re on the road with you’re on tour I mean it can be very low you know you’ve had a lot of people talk about this like it could be very lonely o you know he I think opened up a little bit about how it’s the transition’s been tough and I think a lot of players would would agree that’s the case um there’s just there’s no rush to really get out here and uh have this kind of life I think there’s a lot of experiences you want to have and a lot of maturing um that takes place in college that hopefully I feel like those kids need to be incentivized to stay in colge college and not turn pro too early I mean they got that’s one of the cool things about golf is you can play professionally till you’re I mean all the way up through Senior Tour so it’s not like there’s this tight window that you have to turn pro and make as much as you can you know um we have there’s a lot of you know the sports unique in the way that our careers can go for a long time yeah the only thing I’d say the only push back I’d say on that is it does feel like these windows in terms of dominant Windows feel like they’re shorter and they’re younger you know guys like Jordan and Justin I don’t want to say they’re P their window but it’s been a while since we saw Jordan is dominant Jordan Speed you know and even JT he gets that PGA win a couple years ago uh in that playoff but kind of outside of that we haven’t seen the JT of 2017 and 2018 in a minute do do you do you not feel like those windows are kind of shrinking a little bit and I’m not talking about the the ability to play professional golf for a long time but I’m just kind of more talking centered on the the do Windows which if you are a Michael thorbjornson who thinks he’s going to be a dominant player on the PGA tour is your window maybe 22 to 26 or maybe 23 to 29 when it used to be to your point 25 to 40 you know I actually I would agree with you because the way these kids are swinging when they come out they’re swinging so hard at it you know it’s like your body can only like handle that for so long before like there’s these little nagging injuries that start happening and I think think the speed that the game’s played at now would would it would go to yeah your your your peak’s going to be in your 20s because after that you know start having kids you start you know there’s just little things that make it tougher for you to maintain that same um swing speed and without injuries and I mean that’s how most guys I feel like start you know their career starts going down downhill is this little injuries that that flame up and a lot of it’s just because guys are swinging at you know 185 ball speed that’s kind of like the average coming out and I I watched some of these kids hit and I’m like dude how is your body gonna you know handle this over the long haul you see some of these positions are getting into you’re like this is insane like your lower back I don’t know how it’s not snapping but mine would at this point I’m sure mine could have handled that when I was 20 but I’m thinking about that now I’m like dude I would have some major issues so gonna have to change the move um Can can I ask you about the can I ask you the loneliness question you brought it up about the loneliness of traveling on tours so consistently I know you get your family out there as much as possible when you’re traveling how do you deal when you have weeks I’m assuming these two weeks it’ll be you in a rental house with whomever you’re staying with or whatever the case may be how do you deal with the the loneliness that is professional golf when it is just you on the road yeah I mean it’s a little different for me right now because I’m either when I got my family out here I’m I’m with them and it’s just non-stop 24/7 stuff going on and then when I come out by myself there’s the first few days where I feel like I’m just getting that breather of like just you know relaxing and catching no asking me for anything this is amazing it’s kind of like two extremes like it’s it’s very weird it’s a huge contrast between like non-stop which I do love I do love having my family on the road because it kind of takes my mind off of golf when I’m home just I can’t even think about it because I’m tending to other stuff and then when I’m my family’s not with me there’s literally just like like this week is actually it’s kind of bizarre cuz there like you said the Sun is up from like 4: to 10:00 p.m. and you feel like there’s literally nothing else to do during the day other than Golf and I don’t know what else like literally there’s nothing to do and so I actually I have a a former pepper dying uh caddy who’s staying with me this week I was going to be solo and now he he didn’t have a room and I was like hey you can stay with me I got a little pull out bed so I’m kind of happy uh he’s joining me because it is a it’s kind of a weird this week is kind of weird because there’s nothing to do over here other than Golf and drink coffee maybe I don’t know watch Wimbledon I guess you could get up and watch Wimbledon in the morning if you want to do that you get a few few days of that left all right let’s get into uh Scottish because you got Scottish this week and open next week you played the Scottish last year at the Renaissance and you played I think you played relatively well finished top um 50 tied 42nd last year what can you tell us about this golf course what do you have to do does have you got a chance to look at it or play a practice round yet out there yeah I played uh played nine holes today and uh it’s in incredible shape um Fairways are rolling pretty fast and greens are pretty firm right now I mean they’re uh we couldn’t find any ball marks when we were playing out there and so you know last year I think it was pretty benign the first few days and then uh I think Sunday it really like the wind really came up so you know it’s it’s kind of more of an I guess more of an American style links course if you were compared to anything else um I know the owner is I think he’s like the CEO of Insperity or something he’s a he’s an American dude so it’s not your traditional link style course um so but I think it’s a good like warm-up course for the guys who are playing the Open Championship it’s not so extreme um but it kind of gets you in that mode to uh start working the ball on the ground and and playing the ball on the ground but like like I like we’ve been saying it’s all about the wind and and the conditions and uh I played actually I think this is my third or fourth year out here I played I played this event I got a sponsor’s invite back when it was just a European Tour event came over and um I think I finished fourth that week it it was a really great week but which course was that at it was at this course it was it was here okay good it was here I know they’ve made they’ve made a couple tweaks couple changes um when they found out the tour was going to be coming here they made it a little tougher um but for the most part it’s pretty much the same routing and um yeah it’s just uh there’s some pop bunkers here and there but it’s not anything too extreme like you see at some of the other uh link style courses you can see a lot of the bunkers on this golf course where like North barck we were playing and you would hit a t-shot and not really know if it was in the Fairway or if you’re were going to be chipping out that’s right and that’s kind of that’s how typical link style is where you’re you just there’s a little bit more unknown off the tea this is a little more you can what you see is what you get so um but you know it’s just going to be all weather dependent I mean last year remember just on 18 uh hitting a it was a par 4 you know it’s like 400 I think they put the T up 450 or 440 I remember hitting driver driver short of the green this was on Sunday this was on Sunday you know this when Rory hit the two iron or whatever yeah yeah it was impossible just like the course felt impossible and the days before you know it’s driver seven iron or whatever so you know the courses just change so quickly over here you feel like you play a day in a practi you’re like yeah this course is pretty easy and then when comes up and you’re like man this place is impossible so I you know I I have a really interesting relationship with practice rounds to begin with I think practice rounds for the most part are a bit of a waste of time outside of just kind of getting familiar with the golf course I feel like I I don’t know if the answer is either they are the most helpful practice rounds or the least helpful practice rounds when you talk about playing a practice round for a lynx Golf Course like the Scottish or the Open Championship because a you need to know what the golf course presents like you said they might be hitting bunkers on Sudden golf courses I mean ryal trun is like the most lyed golf course that they play on the road in my opinion right and that’s the Open Championship next week but you also have absolutely no idea what the condition is going to look like so you could play a hole like you said on Wednesday and hit driver eight iron into 18 and then the next day the fan straight into the fan and you’re hitting driver 3-wood you’re like I don’t even know what this whole look like I didn’t even know that this was an area of the golf hole right I mean I was 50 past this when I played here yesterday is this is this a a waste of time in terms of practice rounds or is it nice to just get out there hitting certain golf shots yeah it is like today is kind of a waste of time honestly when it’s perfect weather and there’s there’s no wind and it’s nice and sunny I mean there’s not a whole lot of reason to be out there because I you know I was like just remembering some of the shots from Sunday you know and there’s just certain putts where you know you’re looking at the green it doesn’t look like there’s that much of a slope but then you add in a 20 mph downwind gust or 30 m hour and you’re like this is the fastest putt I’ve ever hit and today you’re just thinking like I don’t even see the slope at all so I mean it is nice in a practice run you got to really pay attention to where the like the tiny little slopes are places to miss it because once that wind comes up you really need to know like you need to know the the little details of where the ball can be and where you can get it up and down from are you going to play any more golf besides um play an actual tournament golf while you’re there do you think you’ll you’ll throw another round in somewhere or no um possibly yeah maybe maybe mirfield we’ll see my uh my caddy has an open invite out there I’m sure he can hook it up and get me out there too um but yeah we’ll kind of see what the weather looks like tomorrow supposed to be I mean they’re they’re saying it possibly not even playing you know it could be such a a bad day I mean we we’ll be playing I think people people always over exaggerate you know but 20 to 30 m hour winds with you know 100% rain so they don’t they don’t stop playing golf over here for that just it’s a normal day um I have a question for you in conditions um because I was thinking about this the other day there was a it was it wasn’t John Deere because I wasn’t really paying much attention John Deere must have been the week before um and it was lift clean in place um one of the rounds was lift clean in place I think it was a 59 at The Travelers it was lift clean in place I was thinking about it it feels like lift clean in place is played way more now than it ever has been before do you think we do it too often do you think we error on the side of lift cleaning place on tour versus just leaning into either the elements or the potential elements that might exist personally as a player no I mean I there’s nothing worse than like hitting a fairway and having a mud ball like in my opinion that’s just it’s not golf because you’re just guessing you know i”d rather be like in in those conditions you’d rather hit it in the rough you know because you wouldn’t get a mud ball gotcha um and I just sense it’s just kind of a weird way to play and so I know the tour they they they are very very conservative on you know if they if they know a storm’s coming later that day you could be playing in the morning in perfectly sunny conditions and they’ll have lift clean a play sometimes um that’s just to protect the field from whatever happens I think they’re I think some of these rules officials are a little scared because guys have just you know lost their minds on these that they’re like we don’t even want to Chances anymore because these guys are you know because it I’ve seen players you know there’s nothing more frustrating than hitting Fairways and then your ball just flying all over the place you know and so players will really give it to the rules officials and I think they’ve just really gotten scared so they they do probably do it too much now but that just I don’t know may maybe the PJ 20s to hire the NHL like refs as rules officials when you hear the miked up versions of them and they’re just like talking [ __ ] back to the players you know it’s like maybe we need to get these like hardcore rules officials in there that just give it back to the Sergio Garcia of the world that are likely into him about something but I like that’s I understand what you’re saying and I think as a viewer sometimes we roll our eyes at lift cleaning place but as a player you’re a morning wave guy and it’s wet you’re going to be screwed versus the afternoon players that aren’t playing in as wet a conditions you’re hitting Fairways you’re getting mud balls and you’re making bogeys the afternoon wave it dries up a bit they’re not getting any mud balls like that not isn’t necessarily Fair especially but Shane you’re kind of you’re like a golf purist okay there’s not a lot like you that are actually watch watching and caring about like the average to totally you know it’s the guys who really are like into the the game who probably have more of a problem with it like I don’t even I don’t even real I don’t even like when I’m watching the coverage I don’t really see a lot of the lift clean in place like when it is in effect you know it’s more the people who are really tuned in like yourself a journalist or uh someone who’s covering the sport who who who probably get annoyed by it it’s you know it’s the it’s the group like I always think about this like the group on Twitter that yells about stuff and we’re just yelling all to ourselves like it’s not really like anybody else nobody else is reading it nobody else probably cares I just feel like we’re all screaming to ourselves about this it’s like you said it’s that group group of kind of purist golf that oh we shouldn’t do be doing this everybody agrees right and everybody’s like I didn’t even know it was lift cleaning place like I don’t even know when it’s lift clean in place yeah I mean and the guys you know who hate when they’re shooting 30 under you know it’s like well I’m sure the average golf viewer is like oh this is cool a lot of birdies man a lot of eagles I don’t know yeah I I think the only my only score and we talked about scoring earlier I think the only thing I’ve ever said about scoring and my only the only thing that bothers me about scoring is when it’s so low and when it’s so soft and when it’s so quote unquote easy for you guys the fear of bogey kind of goes out the window you know it’s like you’re going to make PA birdie and you’re just going to kind of keep lead going up the leaderboard and when it gets down to it on Sunday the 18th hole like nobody that’s playing well enough to be in contention is probably going to make a a bogey there anyway because the golf courses are playing so easy and I want an errant golf shot to bring in bogey or H much like a good shot brings in birdie or better and I feel like a lot of the time when the conditions are so soft or it is so benign in terms of the way the golf courses are playing the first part of that kind of goes out the window does that make sense yeah no it totally makes sense and and we play you know plenty of those kind of golf courses on tour I know like like mirfield Jack perfect example you know I I remember here in I think I was playing Alex nor in the final day and he was having a good round and um and he was kind of going back and forth with his caddy he was just you get to a point where you’re playing a course that’s playing really difficult and it feels really hard as a player especially on a Sunday back nine you feel you’re feeling like you have to hit perfect shots even if you have a 120 yard gap wedge and you hit the shot a million times you’re feeling like you got to be perfect and those courses kind of I feel like they just challenge you mentally a lot more because you are always on edge because there’s a bogey that if you make a little you know a little mistake you’re making bogey John Deere you make a big mistake you still have a good chance of pars you know and that’s I think that’s the main difference it’s a mental challenge do you do anything different these these two weeks in terms of your prep any like Golf Club changes anything like that do you do anything to your equipment um not necessarily I’ve tried to you know mess around with putting a two iron in play um but it’s never never really I’ve never had conditions consistently like blowing enough to that Mak sense every round um so I usually just stick with what I got I know a lot of some guys do they they maybe take out some bounce in their clubs because it’s pretty firm out of here and uh put like a Shon has a really great two iron that a lot of guys actually play um that can be nice I played in prac rounds it’s fun to hit those little laser beams you know but you’re like am I really going to trust this a tournament I I did last year in the open I had a two iron in the first round I hit a couple good shots with it but um no I just try to stick with what I got for the most part by the way you’re looking for a day of golf you should go to muscle brough it’s not too far from where you guys are at they have that golf course that’s inside the the horse track and you can play with hickories that’s a great little afternoon um get away actually that could be fun I’ll take I’ll text you the uh I’ll text you the golf course cuz it’s got a they have the hickories there and you can go play it and it’s awesome it’s one of the oldest I will say one of one of my favorite things about Scot and it’s a little bit like on on elf when it’s like the best cup of coffee in the world a lot of the places over there claim being the oldest course in the world or one of the oldest courses in the world I think this truly is the oldest golf course in the world but yeah they’ve got hickories you can take out so um a good would that screw up my swing or would that help like me just getting in the slot nicely maybe maybe it’s maybe it’s like a Tempo thing like how’s the tempo right now you feeling good uh it’s you know so so so I think Hickory slow you down a bit you know they just kind of slow you down get you there maybe you go buy the outfit as well like the you know go go go go go for it you know film it like Bron did for his YouTube channel you know what I I will say this like i’ I’ve talked to you about this we talked about it on the Pod like I’ve done a full 180 on Bryson that outfit played Bryson wore the hell out of that outfit it looked good he wore it well the stash played uh all in I just I love to turn around uh for Mr Des Shambo people love that episode by the way so uh nice work on that um well exciting I’m excited to watch I love this time of year getting up in the morning um our buddies with the shotgun start call it coffee golf it is great coffee golf when you wake up and there’s like half the waves already finished on Thursday and Friday before you’re even into cup number one um so this is awesome and uh I’m pumped to to watch play you know who you’re playing with by the way they got that come out yet no I think probably tomorrow is when they post that stuff we got Pro AMS the next two days and then they’ll got who won by the way did you beat hadwin or no when you played them did you beat him at North bar well we we said we were just playing for fun we actually didn’t keep scored the two Cades we had the two caddies in our group did they were having a a pretty good match but hadwin he had just got off the flight and he was just not in the mood to really be competitive so sounds like he sounds like he didn’t want to lose money to you what it sounds like sounds like he wanted to keep his pound do can I ask you can I ask you a question do you have do you change cash when you get over there I’m assuming you got to tip people do you do you flip over cash yeah we need we actually had to uh last night we we did a little fish and chips after the round and it was uh no credit card allowed so we we had to go to the ATM get some cash for that how doin actually was funny he had he had a bunch of old bills from like three years ago when he was here and he tried to pay and the guy’s like what are you doing those are those are old those don’t work anymore and he’s like they don’t work what do you mean the money just not good so he literally he like I just wasted this money I guess they like switched all the bills and the old ones are bad now dude dude I had the same thing happen to me when I was there last time I save like I’ll save International cash if it’s if it’s not more than about a like a 20 pound note or something I’ll save it in a bag you know all this International money if I go anywhere and then when I’m leaving to go somewhere I look through it and see if there’s anything in it I might have had 30 pounds with me none of it played when I got over there and I was like well this is cool guys thanks so much yeah they must have Chang you’re trying to be responsible and keep all your money trying to be an adult try to be an adult over here BR well awesome well listen play well how about our Wi-Fi by the way how about the international Wi-Fi bringing it it’s yeah it’s going it’s working we’ve had some rough times the last couple weeks so we if you play as well as the Wi-Fi played on this episode I mean we’re looking at like an easy cool top 10 right yeah that’s what I need too I need that to get in the the open next week so you got a top you got a top 10 to get into trun right probably yeah that’s yeah approximately they’re taking the top three players not otherwise exempt so I mean top 10 should should do it now this is a this a crazy thought you could you could just win it and then not have to worry about it because I think if you win that’s top three right that would get you top three yeah yeah that’s right like UFA education right there that’s that’s the right there for you um awesome all right we play play well this week we’ll be keeping an eye on you and we’ll check back with you next week good times thanks Shane
