Great Debate: Is Keegan Bradley the right choice as U.S. Ryder Cup captain? | Golf Channel Podcast

In this week’s edition, the guys debate the stunning Ryder Cup appointment of Keegan Bradley – the choice, the decision-making process, the challenges ahead – and discuss Rory McIlroy’s reflections on what went wrong at Pinehurst. #GolfChannel #RyderCup #KeeganBradley

Chapters:
(0:00) – Debating the merits/drawbacks of Keegan Bradley’s Ryder Cup captaincy
(8:00) – What to make of the PGA of America’s decision-making process
(12:30) – Is the benefit of a paradigm shift worth the risk of a home loss?
(16:00) – Bradley’s biggest challenges over the next 14 months
(20:00) – Rory McIlroy goes deep on what went wrong over the final hour of the U.S. Open
(28:00) – Rex’s rest of the week in Scotland, including an upcoming tee time at Muirfield (hence why he’s rushing out the door)
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Great Debate: Is Keegan Bradley the right choice as U.S. Ryder Cup captain? | Golf Channel Podcast
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hello and welcome into this edition of the Golf Channel podcast with Rex and lav and folks this will likely be the most jam-packed midweek edition of the Year America has a new Ridder Cup captain it is not Phil Mickelson it is not Tiger Woods heck it is not even Stuart sink the appointment after all these months is Keegan Bradley Rex to say that this has been a polarizing choice would be the understatement of the Year where you land on the great debate uh this is completely unscripted and I’m going to hit you with this because I meant to text you last night and I got busy so you and I were on golf today yesterday doing our Our Round Table our weekly Round Table it was with Aman and Damon who we adore and we were on with Golf Digest Shane Ryan and Shane went first with this answer and I don’t know what your reaction was but he went scorched Earth on the PJ of America he went scorched Earth on the idea that Keegan Bradley should ever be considered for a captain see little loone picked as a captain it was an interesting transition to where I wanted to come in because I thought I had the hot take when I was workshopping it early in the week and I was thinking to myself well do I like this do I don’t like this my take was not nearly as his was Point Blank it was a bad choice mine was it’s a bad choice only by comparison because I keep going back to the idea that if you and I are doing this podcast five years ago we are salivating at the idea that it could possibly be some combination of Phil Mickelson the US Captain as you pointed out and on the European side it would be either be Ian poter or Sergio Garcia neither one of bad choices it would be magical they would be barking at each other the crowds would be crazy you’d be in New York City it’s Beth pagee black it’s what we live for that’s the kind of content that not just us in the golf media but I think golf fans everywhere live for that sort of explosion of content is what it would be now transition forward that clearly didn’t happen because of live golf and Phil Mickelson was not considered for a captain either were poter or Sergio Garcia so the backup for the United States was Tiger Woods and you probably thought to yourself huh okay I like that option sure we could have fun with that and to land on Keegan Bradley and Luke Donald and nothing against either one of them a monsoon of credit to both of them for what they’ve accomplished in their careers Keegan Bradley has the credentials you may not like the pick you may like him as a pick doesn’t matter he has the credentials he’s one a major championship the one that really matters to the PJ americ the PGA Championship he’s played in two Ridder cups one of them was on The Winning Side so he’s got everything in his favor both losses ke Bradley lost in 2012 the collapse at Madina as well as Eagles in had a winning record I’m sorry sorry he had a winning record at Madina he was the only highlight of that you’re correct there so he has all the credentials it’s just by comparison where we were supposed to be this just Falls flat that’s my take so Shane Ryan who who you and I both uh very much enjoy I I think one of the best golf riders in the game if not one of the best sports Riders period called it I believe the most stupid fying decision in the history of the sport then you went and basically said yeah like yeah I don’t like it compared to tiger and Phil and then I went like the complete opposite end of the spectrum and said that I actually like this move I said it on golf Central on Monday night when the decision came out that Kik Bradley was the captain I said it again on Tuesday and if you guys think that I’m you know kind of a bandwagon uh a fan on this point yes here Rex are my notes from the 2024 live from the PGA Championship uh Wednesday show and this was following the PGA of America press conference in which they were asked about Tiger Woods and whether he was going to be the captain and here were the notes that I jotted down in which I said Keegan Bradley should be considered for the US Ridder cup captaincy and my my point there for those who we not following along uh on YouTube is that I do believe that you have to try and match the intensity and passion of what’s going to be a crowd unlike any we’ve seen in the rer cup before and and Keegan Bradley to me is the most inspired choice in in that realm because what the PJ of America is essentially doing with this modern Ryder Cup is you’re creating like a face of the program a face of the franchise someone who who sets the overarching tone with his personality someone who faces the media obviously has to explain some of the decisions he’s making a player who I I think now needs to be more deeply connected with the team’s players there’s always been this divide I know Zach Johnson was on sort of the younger uh Spectrum there but but a Steve Stricker a Davis Love A Jim there was like a 20year age gap between what was the Ridder cup leadership and the rder Cup players and so they’re trying to bridge that Gap as well and this face of the franchise is ENT you know creating the best possible environment for the team to thrive and and in that respect you know I think Keegan Bradley makes a lot of sense he obviously is passionate about the event but that is that is not the only attribute that he brings to table every Ryder Cup captain is passionate about the event otherwise they wouldn’t assume the position their legacies are the ones that are at stake here you know they they desperately want to win I think Keegan brings a lot of smarts he brings a lot of Analytics he brings connections he brings thoughtfulness obviously it’s too early to say whether this will be a successful move or not but I actually applaud the PJ of America for going to this decision with Keegan Bradley and I’m going to all right I am gonna play the contrarian here a little bit on this front because I again I was very much not on Shane’s side of this and I’m clearly not very much on your shot side of it it was not a great decision in my mind I’m not sure there was a great decision out there for the PG of America I will give you credit that yes they’re clearly thinking outside the box they have clearly pivoted from where they were just a decade ago when we created the task force when they created the task force the idea that you wanted to create this continuity of leadership where if you were going to become a captain and Davis love has explained this to me before that it’s essentially a 10-year commitment where you’re going to serve as a Vice Captain at least one time probably twice then you’re going to do your turn as a captain and then you’re gonna have to serve as a Vice Captain again at least once or twice because what you want to do is pass along all those knowledge they all that knowledge they were trying to copy what sort of happened organically with the European team over all of those decades they have clearly gone against that Keegan Bradley has never been a Vice Captain alone a captain for either a rder cup or a President’s Cup team so that did not matter they have pivoted away from the idea that you need to be of a certain age late 40s somewhere in the 50s somewhere around in there with this pick but the idea the passion I rolled my eyes at because you’re right they’re all passionate they have to be you’re not going to take the job if you’re not going to be passionate about it’s going to consume two years of your life I would hope that you’re passionate about it the other one that was brought up by in this press conference yesterday the idea that oh he’s from New England he’s going to bring something special to the table trust me if Steve Stricker was the captain if Zack Johnson was the captain if you were the captain the New York crowds are going to be behind this team that’s not going to matter at all and to be fair I interviewed about a half dozen players here at the Scottish open American Players yesterday about this idea and almost all of them will tell you that look they all feel bad for Zack Johnson because there was nothing Zach could have done in Rome to turn that tide that entire team just played poorly so I don’t know if Keegan’s going to be a good captain or a bad Captain only time is going to tell but it’s not going to matter if his team doesn’t show up and play well we always read too much into this that’s why it’s fun for you and I and certainly Shane Ryan had a really good time with it B bannering this back and forth in the idea that it’s a terrible pick it’s a great pick how about if we just fall somewhere in between it’s really not going to matter if the Americans show up next year at Beth Page and do the same thing they did last year in Rome what do you think Rex of the PGA of America’s decisionmaking process the fact that Tiger Woods uh rejected the invitation sometime after the PJ Championship he said that his uh sort of loyalties and his responsibilities were divided between the PJ tour and piff deal uh he has a lot going on with the tgl which they’re hoping to launch uh in early 2025 and oh don’t forget he also is competing a few times a year and desperately wants to win obviously one more major championship one more PJ Tour event as well which would make him the winningest PJ tour uh player of all time to me not even interviewing Keegan Bradley for the job seemed uh bizarre uh unorthodox it seemed like they were like there was really no plan B if you read some of these sort of inside the decision type stories that have come out now on Wednesday morning there was an hour and a half Zoom call uh but once Keegan Bradley’s name uh was mentioned during the first five minutes the meeting was essentially wrapped what do you make of John linder’s explanation on Tuesday and how they actually arrived at this he called it a slam dunk John Linder did called this a slam dunk here was a name that you and I would not have thought of before this announcement here’s a name that most people in golf I would say the vast majority of people in go would not have come up with and somehow the PG of America came to the conclusion that Keegan Bradley is a slam dunk now maybe he is only time is going to decide that fate I don’t understand this decision making at all because the first time that they talk to Keegan Bradley is to offer him the job on the Sunday of traveler Championship so essentially two weeks ago I talked to another player that should have been on that short list I’m assuming he would have been on that short list he didn’t talk to anybody from the PG of America it’s baffling to me that you’re going to make a decision like this would you hire a manager for your beloved Atlanta Braves and never actually interview him are you just going to base this on well I know he’s a nice guy he’s got passion he’s from New England or I’m sorry he’s from daab County so we’re going to pull him in because he seems like a good fit you’re never going to do that you’re never gonna hire anyone for a job and trust me this is a job without interviewing him it’s it’s this is going to end up backfiring I fear for the PG of America that that to me is is where some of the criticism is warranted where this felt like a gross overreaction to what happened in Rome where a lot of people took exception with Zack Johnson’s leadership style they didn’t like some of the uh perceived infighting some of the um sort of Patrick Klay Xander schafle uh Stefan scha drama about paying for play like all all of that um sort of Disconnect I I feel like this was sort of a overreaction to that and listening to the explanation and knowing how it played out so vividly for Netflix documentarians last year it almost wrecks it almost this the skeptic in you the the cynic in you could say it almost felt a little bit scripted that Zack Johnson in concert with the PJ tour and the PJ of America in that documentary last year for full swing calling and giving the devastating phone call to Keegan Bradley it was the uh obviously the most uh viral moment of that entire season now Zack Johnson is the one who’s calling Keegan Bradley to deliver the news I I think it’s easy to imagine Netflix filming this just as they did a year ago I I’m with you that I do think that this is taking on a ton of risk just as PJ of America president Ted Bishop did by announcing Tom Watson for the 2014 Ridder cup we all know how that one went that eventually led to the formation of the US Ridder cup task force the counter to that though is that the Americans will be enormous home favorites just as they are each and every single time the the crowd itself at Beth Page black 40 or 50,000 strong each day should should account for three to four points I would think in the overall spread in addition to what’s probably going to be a world ranking Advantage anyway keep in mind the Americans have also won their last two home Cups by a spread of 36 to 20 so if you are going to take a risk this feels like Keegan Bradley could not possibly bungle it so badly botch it so badly that they surrender that sort of advantage to me it feels like a high upside pick that the the the the benefits potentially outweigh any sort of risk and the benefit of a huge paradigm shift is is pretty appealing to the PJ of America I can see your opinion swinging dramatically if we end up on Sunday night with a dramatic us loss I I can see your opinion oh I mean they will be inated they will be inundated with criticism not just Keegan Bradley but PJ of America leadership I mean Seth W who’s the outgoing PJ of America CEO obviously John Linder was involved in this decision as well they will receive a monsoon of criticism and it will fall all on them for appointing Keegan Bradley without even interviewing him for the job and going so quote unquote outside the box there’s no doubt about it or interviewing anyone else for that matter it’s not as though this isn’t just about keeg and this is the other players who are on that short list and we can go down the list it’s Webb Simpson it’s uh I think Lucas Glover’s name propped up on that list at some point it’s Stuart SN I mean it was a pretty short list after Tiger Woods said no then they did have to Pivot and it it was a shallow pool at that point and that has a lot to do with sort of where the US team and the Europeans going to run into this as well are because of Li goof they have sort of ran out of captains that would have been in line because you have to consider Phil Mickelson probably would have had at least he definitely would have had one turn maybe even two tiger will end up taking one turn probably two and so now of a sudden you’re looking there’s a decade taken up as it is I I understand where you’re coming from and I actually agree to a certain point that yes this is sort of an upside gamble on the pgf America’s side because you have a player who I don’t want to say is in his prime but he clearly is a contemporary of all of these players on the team that he clearly is probably going to try to play his way onto that team that’s where the motivation stands right now I think they would love to have sort of the conversation that could he be a playing Captain simply because it opens the doors to a lot of other things and I think that’s where John Wood our colleague at NBC Sports and Golf Channel comes in in may he was named the team manager of the US team the idea there being that he can take a lot of things off the Captain’s plate that he normally has to deal with and I understand where this motivation is coming from that you have someone now that understands exactly what it takes to get ready for a big tournament and Keegan sort of laid this all out during his press conference he knows exactly what top players do to get ready to play their best so he’s going to be able to pave that way probably better than someone who’s not part of this generation who hasn’t been through everything that it takes now to compete at your prime it is still such a gamble in my my mind because what you’ve essentially done and this goes back to last year’s rer Cup selection you you’re right that you’ve taken a guy that probably didn’t get a selection because he’s not quote unquote part of the Cool Kids Club he lives in South Florida but he’s not part of that South Florida cool kids club and now essentially you’ve put him in charge of the cool kids I can see that going badly I could also see that being a big benefit the fact that he’s not necessarily playing favorites has not necessarily uh have any uh earlier biases that he’s fighting against I really do think and if you watch the press conference with Keegan Bradley on Tuesday along with PGA of America president John Linder I think you came away very impressed with Keegan I really do believe that he could be an amazing Captain he’s clearly a very sharp guy he’s very thoughtful he’s proven to be a great Problem Solver in his career as evidenced uh by sort of his resurrection after the anchor band a lot of people thought that his career was left for dead he ended up being and is currently a top 20 player in the world I love the fact he’s going to said he say he’s going to talk to all of the uh winning and losing us captains over the past 25 years to pick their brain on what could and couldn’t work Rex what do you think will be Keegan’s biggest challenge ahead as he looks not just to formulating the team but also getting sort of the environment right for more American success I think it’s the challenge and the part that I probably like the most out of this press conference yesterday was he didn’t get caught up in the politics of the moment at all number one he was asked specifically about Phil being a potential Vice Captain and he kind of dismissed that idea but I love the idea that he immediately leaned into Phil will be a captain one day where maybe he sees the time in the future that that is going to be appropriate that somehow everything gets brought back together and Phil does get that turn as a captain I think we would all love to see that he also made it perfectly clear I don’t care what tour they play I want the 12 best players and you’re right to a certain degree not being part of the Cool Kids Club could help out on this front because he’s going to be inclined not to go back to the old Staples just because they’ve been old Staples he’s going to go to who he thinks is best we could end up with a very much a new look Ridder Cup team so I think all of those things are going to work to your advantage the drawback here is the expectations and I think he’s going to hear everything all of these conversations for the next year and a half going in to the Ryder Cup and I think the pressure that’s going to be on him not to have one slip up he’s going to try his best not to make one simple mistake the simplest mistakes pin cut on the wrong side of the green something wrong with the setup something wrong with the workout room whatever it might be he’s going to have to avoid those issues so I think one of the biggest assets for Keegan is obviously he’s his Youth and to an extent his inexperience but I also think that’s a potential challenge that he could face like I I like the idea of Team USA getting younger and setting up for the future he said he’s going to uh sort of put some Vice captains in place who are younger and more a part of this generation that’s obviously a sharp rebuke of what has been pretty un imaginative retreads and the the the vice captains who have largely felt like lifetime achievement awards at the end of their decorated career Seth W called it a echo chamber of sameness that we’ve experienced in the rer cup over the past decade and like you look at it Zack Johnson his vice captains in Rome were Davis Love uh Fred Couples Stuart sink Jim furck and Steve Stricker with Tiger Woods very much involved uh from home and so I love the idea of a Rider Cup captain who looks and sounds and mirrors what the sport looks like at large like you look at the NFL it’s gotten younger and younger with head coaches under the age of 45 who don’t necessarily have head coaching experience prior to that you look at the NBA with coaches like uh Steve Kerr and Jason kid who have sort of skipped that step of being an assistant coach as well like I I do like that aspect of Team USA going that direction with the r cup as well however there is a balance to strike here sort of oh to that experience Gap he needs to fill in his vice captaincies very uh efficiently and effectively here that’s where I think you can bring in a Fred Couples a Steve Stricker a Davis Love the third he said he’s gonna use tiger as much as tiger is willing to and then you can also spin it ahead where I would imagine like a Ricky Fowler would be a a lock to be an assistant Captain for this team just because he’s able to to bridge that generational divide as well and being able to get Young I think it’s absolutely imperative that Keegan Bradley because of his inexperience in this position surrounds himself with the right Captain’s picks because then that’ll allow him to make the right calls with the captain picks it’ll allow it’ll allow him to make the right calls with the pairings it’ll allow him to create an environment that allows the best players in the world to shine which has not always been the case particularly on the road for the rder cup Rex you are in Scotland obviously let’s transition to the other big story uh of the week I think you just froze up there but we are perfectly okay you just got done interviewing Rory mroy this is the first time we’ve heard from Rory uh since the US Open collaps particularly over the final hour and anyone Rex who I think was uh upset the fact that Roy did not speak to the media that Sunday at Pinehurst like this to me was the prime example of why you want to hear from Roy M he is such an ex a gifted explainer in his press conference today he added context to his Miss power putts on the 70th and 72nd hole he fiercely defended caddy Harry Diamond uh and slammed in the process Han KY he explained how he felt in the back nine that got him sort of out of his own world uh which was a sort of a unique experience for him in a major championship and he even said so somewhat somewhat uh depressingly that he spent these the first few days after the US Open wandering around Manhattan making calls and sitting with his thoughts you interviewed him what stood out uh well first and you and I have have gone kind of gone back and forth since Pine Hurst over this and and I do not feel like the players have to stop there is there is no written guarantee that they have to stop and and speak with the media at least not in golf did I want Rory to stop yes absolutely I did because I was riding the Rory column that night he was asked today Point Blain do you regret not stopping him he his answer was very unequivocal he came back with a absolutely not like I was not in a position to answer your questions at that point he understood where we were coming from however he said you were the last thing on my mind the media being the last thing on my mind as I was leaving the golf course on that Sunday night I’ll also point out that the answers we got today while you’re 100% correct they were all thoughtful is exactly what we expected I think you and I talked about this on on Sunday on the podcast about what do you want to ask them well I want to ask about Piner because we haven’t heard any answers and now he’s had three weeks to think about it yes it was all well thought out he had process it processed what happened that just not that Sunday at Piner but the entire week how he was feeling that entire week he processed what this means to his career and how he could learn from this and I think weren we weren’t going to get those answers on Sunday he didn’t have three weeks on Sunday he had about three minutes to get in the car and drive away so where I I tend to agree I would have liked to heard what he said regardless we weren’t going to get those answers on Sunday Pine that’s certainly Fair like obviously he has the the time and the cont context and and able to contextualize it in the course of his career I think a lot of people also Rex not just the fact that he didn’t talk I think a lot of people were butt hurt that he didn’t stick around to congratulate Bryson n Shambo with whom he was clearly locked in a head-to-head battle a lot of people thought he should have stood around to to shake his hand before H off on his way instead he posted on Instagram the very next day uh congratulating him uh I loved the explanation and I thought it was very interesting because being on the ground on that back nine like Rory was very aware of what Bryson Des Shambo was doing because everyone was aware of what Bryson Des Shambo was doing there was an intimate sort of routing on the back nine of pineur number two where greens are close to te’s T’s are close to Greens Fairways are sort of running adjacent to each other like you you knew exactly what was happening and Rory said that he got out of his own uh little world there’s been a lot of talk about the club choice on 15 opting for a seven iron that went over the back when he could have hit eight iron into the middle of the green there’s been a lot of criticism of Harry Diamond I for not sticking up uh there for the club Choice which obviously Ry shot down pretty uh forcefully he also said as we probably could surmise the putt that lingers with him is not necessarily the one that he missed on 18 that was an excruciatingly difficult putt where he said he was playing at two two and a half cups left on what was a three and a half four footer that if he missed uh in with a little bit too much speed could have gone 10 feet past obviously it was the two foot putt on 16 uh that he rimmed out he said he caught himself uh looking to where Bryson was in the Fairway thinking ahead he said Patrick kley maybe maybe slow played him a little bit on the green as well that is the one that’s kind of sticks in his craw a little bit more than this the Miss in the 72 hole it’s been replayed so many times uh no you you’ve got the timing on that yes he’s he talked about the putt on 16 the two and a half footer he said that’s when he quote unquote started to feel uncomfortable because he he he thought for a moment the birdie putt was going to drop and then it was about an extra foot of roll out and he realized he’s put himself in a position that he didn’t particularly want to be in what he was referencing when you talked about where where Bryson was that’s on the 18th hole he knew as he stood over that par putt on the 18th green exactly where Bryson was back in the Fairway he saw that he was down the left-hand side in a difficult lie and so it was situational at that point he pointed out that if it was a match he goes I would have hit the putt much different I would have been firm and not really cared about what I left myself he said in this particular case he knew Bryson was in trouble he didn’t know if he was going to make a bogey didn’t know if he was going to make a par so he didn’t want to put himself in a position where he tries to make that Putt and leaves himself five six feet coming back so that’s sort of how the timing of that worked out I guess the part that got me as he unpacked this is missed opportunity 100% probably his best opportunity to win a major since he last won a major back in 2014 he understands all of those things I I am taken by the idea that he was able to sort of compartmentalize the the entire week in its entirety just not Sunday just not the last four or five holes the entire week and how he felt and how he starts to understand how he reacts his body reacts certainly the 16th hole is an example of that but how his mind reacted and I’m not saying this is going to serve him well in the past but he was really really quick to point out that after these heartbreaking losses in the past he has had a tendency of bouncing back certainly you look at what happened at Masters made the turn and imploded and just a few weeks later he another major championship so I’m not saying that’s going to happen but he did do a really good job I think of today explaining exactly where his mind was yeah I think this would have been much different if if that Pinehurst open was the last major championship of the year if all of a sudden he had eight months to sit on it now heading into an open in the next week like he can clearly sort of put that behind him realized that the Pinehurst open was one of the best ball striking majors of his entire career what was doing on that Sunday was something he had longed for that had been missing over his past couple years he was in line to shoot 65 or 66 on that Sunday before he came undone over that final hour like that sort of golf is what we’ve been waiting for Roy maoy to do and the fact that he did it for 68 holes I think is something that you can take positively now he looks ahead to the Open Championship the last major championship that he won back in 2014 uh his record has been Sterling in this event in the past eight opens six top six finishes it’s the style of golf that he obviously feels eminently comfortable in playing and he have to figure that he’s going to be in the mix again I was uh taken back Rex by the fact that we argued about this on Sunday at Pinehurst whether this was the most devastating loss of Roy Mary’s career I said yes clearly you said no definitively Rory today said that the Augusta collapse in 2011 in which he went from up four to to to losing by 10 after a Sunday 80 as well as the 2022 Open championship at St Andrews where he tied for the 54 hole lead uh got lapped with a final round 70 in which he did not birdie any hole that was not a two- putt birdie On a par five those two were harder to get over than Piner I found that very surprising uh and he put that in context as well to to the point you’re trying to make talking about yes those probably hurt more because of where he was in his his career those hurt because he hadn’t felt like he is at a point in his career where he has he’s got he’s gotten to the point where he’s fond of looking back and seeing the things he’s accomplished nothing wrong with that I mean good for him you know enjoy your flowers while you can but in this particular case I think yes it hurts probably those three days wandering around New York City when apparently no one recognized him which I find that hard to believe as well but those three days he was able to sort of think this through and put it in the context of oh I’ve done a lot in my career this isn’t going to be the end of me I’ll still have chances going forward I I think that’s what he was trying to make that’s the point he was trying to make Rex a busy week in golf Evan Championship there’s a senior major there’s an opposite field event on the PJ tour and of course there’s the Scottish open give the people something to look forward to this week at the tournament in which you were covered well I’m at the Scottish open and I think if you look at last year’s finish that should be reason enough Roy won here last year he with probably one of the best shots of the year on the 18th hole on Sunday it was a two arm into the win just a just a gale of a breeze from 202 yards hits it to 10 feet and makes the putt uh and to beat Robert McIntyre who of course is trying to win his own Scottish open so there was a lot of emotions in involved this place has a history has a tendency of producing kind of finishes like that so I’m not saying don’t watch the other ones but definitely pay attention to what’s happening in Scotland you have a tea time this afternoon after your Monday tea time at North B I have let’s let’s do cor thank you at mirfield on Wednesday what are your expectations for your own game real quick tick tock uh actually played halfway decent on Monday at at North barck I will also say that I ran into a lot of players playing North barck on Monday if you’ve never played I would make it a bucket list item for anyone who loves Golf and can be a little geeky about it you’ll attest to that one it’s I I said it to you I was playing with super producer Andrew Bradley on Monday and we played the first 12 holes and I said those 12 holes are really cool they’re really enjoyable the next six I could play every day for the rest of my life they’re quirky they’re fun they’re unique they have character to them like everything that makes it great and I had the longest conversation that I’ve ever had in my life with a tour player about this because Mark hubard and Ben Griffin were playing a match essentially right in front of us it was them and their caddies playing a match against each other and neither have ever been over to play link scoff before and my take was your first experience to linkx golf as North barck like that’s about as good as it gets and it’s it’s it’s such a special place it was a perfect afternoon the Sun was shining it was warm bunk mate was waiting for me on the 18th green when I finished up so it was pretty cool and folks that will do it for this Edition g j podcast with Rex and lav as you can tell Rex has to go get in his 104 bad Strokes at one of the world’s Great Courses we’ll be back on Sunday afternoon following the conclusion of the Scottish open I will likely be in the Delta Sky Club making my own way over to Scotland for next week’s Open championship in the meantime you guys know the drill NBC sports.com golf for our latest news notes and updates have a great rest of your week we’ll talk to you guys on Sunday