🔴 LIVE AT THE RANGE | Friday | The 153rd Open at Royal Portrush

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the world’s best together on the same stage for one last time this year. The Open Championship is about all of golf for all of time. I don’t believe it. Gust of wind, a hop of the ball. One more roll could be enough. And at the end of the journey, there may be a clar junk awaiting. Every great player who’s ever played the game has won that championship. The journey is long and filled with obstacles, of near misses, of heartache. But as the champion holds aloft the clar jug, we all know it’s bigger than golf. This is history. A very warm welcome to this Friday morning at Royal Port Rush. We are basked in sunshine at 7:30 a.m. here. There are some I’m going to call them interesting clouds surrounding us. An incredible first day of golf here. Four under leading the way, but there’s multiple players at the top. A slight breeze this morning, but it is perfect links conditions. Few are already out there. 6:35 the first tea time this morning. There’s a few on the range about half filled at the moment, but we’re all set for a fantastic Friday cut day here. And there are some of those clouds. They’re on their way, everybody. Uh they did forecast rain later on this afternoon. Getting heavier about 2 3 p.m. But at the moment, this is just amazing weather. It’s a joy to be here on this Friday morning alongside me, Peter Finch. Let’s talk about this weather first. I mean, this is beautiful. At the moment, we’re getting the first tan of the week. I’m going to say that though in front of us, our camera was obviously shooting this way. That doesn’t look great. Oh, you see this is where the famous Port Rush microclimate will come into play. I I always notice I always notice how people when they talk about microclimates, it’s always in a positive sense. That’s true. Have you ever noticed anyone? No one lives somewhere where the micro climb is terrible. It’s always in a positive. And this, I would say, is a good thing. I mean, there’s a little bit of cloud, but compared to yesterday, this is just a passing memory of a shower. Like, we’ll be fine. Two hours of brutal yesterday. It was horrible. Yeah, it was. Um, give us your reflection of day one. Uh, overall I think pretty exciting in many respects. I think the weather here does play such an important role and you you saw how it evened itself out. We kind of thought that the morning stars would have quite a big advantage and then the rain came in you thought oh god it’s going to be terrible but then the wind picked up and the temperature dropped in the afternoon. I think the scoring average was almost identical from morning to afternoon which I think for the overall tournament is a really good thing. And you did see a lot of good players sort of rise to the top. A few interesting stories in there as well. I thought as far as the first day went, it was really exciting actually. Yeah, I think it was really exciting. Yeah. Let’s go down this way a little bit. See who’s down here on the range. Matt McCarti, uh the American left-hander there. Man here who’s next to him. One of my favorite golfers on the DP World, Anggo Hodalgo. He was under par for his round. Came through final qualifying too. The Spaniard. Yeah. Took one of the final qualifying stops at Dun Donald where I was. Now, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry to I’ve got mixed uh I’ve got mixed feelings about Mr. Hadalgo right now. The way he plays the game is brilliant. It’s so good. It is. I I’m a big fan of mavericks in sport and people who entertain, but he is up there for me. Had Yeah. If you uh if you actually watch Hadal go on a driving range, then watch him on a golf course, there is nothing similar in the way they it’s like a schizophrenic personality. He gets out of the golf course and he’s completely different. It’s unbelievable. like he he seems to play the game with a real love of it and a very a flamboyant way, you know, shot shaping flights. It’s it’s great to watch. He’s a great person to watch as well. Yeah, cuz I think grouping wise probably won’t take the massive a big crowd. So, yeah, if you are here at Port Russian, you do fancy someone to watch and be entertained. Yeah, he’s a great person to follow. He he really is. He shapes his shots. I mean, I don’t He’s not exactly like Sevy, but you can see the you can see the comparisons, can’t you, with him? Um, let’s talk about a few of the tea times earlier this morning. Um, who have we got? Hidar goes off at 8:14 and then where are the big hitters? We got to go down a little bit further down. Should we talk about Rory at 10:09? Yeah, a bit of a weird day, wasn’t it? Bit of a weird day. I mean, he started off very nervously. Um, he missed what could only be described as a gimme on that first hole. Um, kind of fought his way back, got to three under and then finished just one. So, I think he’ll overall be quite happy. I thought Level Par yesterday was actually a pretty good score. Um, and you know, it is a bit of a classic, but you can’t win anything on the first day, but you can certainly lose it. If you think compare Bryson’s round, for example, for Rory’s, you know, another crowd favorite, someone you’d be expecting a lot more of. You know, he’s it’s silly to say played himself out of the tournament, but he’s going to have to have an incredible round today to even make the cut. So, you know, I’d say overall it’s a decent day’s work. He’s a settler. He didn’t hit his first C shot out of bounds. So for me, it’s a great bonus really. It’s a bonus. I think is it nine winners have been outside the top 10 20 to have ever won the open. Mhm. So Bryson’s got probably too much to do. Yeah. I mean, he missed a cut last year and he just doesn’t seem to be able to adapt his game to Link’s conditions. And it’s it’s a different mindset out here as well. It’s a different way to play because unless it’s a perfectly still calm lynx course which almost never happens. You can’t overpower a lynx like you do have to have some guile. You do have to work your way around it maybe in a way which he’s not used to doing. And I think by his own admission it’s something that he has been working on. But there are players kind of who went out yesterday as well like Aaron Ry for example went out worse conditions played great. This is his type of course really. You know you got to plot your way around. You got to be careful. Speed had a really good finish as well. Um, it’s nice to see him play some decent golf even though he was slightly over par. Disappointing from Tommy. I thought you could see it when he finished that part on 18. I must be honest, Tommy was looking a little bit unto Tommyike yesterday. He was quite feisty. I he there was he gave I’m obviously not going to use the word, but there was a huge let out of emotion through a swear through swearing. Josh, I’m not going to lie. You you heard that fbomb all the way back in Belfast. That’s very true. It was um it was quite quite the outburst. But that’s very unto Tomtomy like. Yeah. And it shows how frustrating a golf course like this can be, especially with the weather and with the conditions. You do got to keep such tight control over yourself and if you’re not playing well, it can easily go sideways. I actually think he rallied quite well. Did I think he got the most out of his round? Yeah, absolutely. Let’s take a little look at the uh the leaderboard, shall we? Um as to how things stand as we’re early on this day two. a five-way tie for the lead. Matt Fitzpatrick, who had, to be fair, a pretty average first five months of the year. He’s definitely found something. Matt Fitzpatrick, he was top 10 of the Rocket Classic, top 10 last week, leading here after round one. Uh, I would say that he’s obviously played much better golf and it is great to see. He I think four might be flattering is a strong word, but he turned a bogey into a birdie on the 16th yesterday when he slam dunked a pitch from from down in the hollow on the right probably. Oh yeah, it it would have been almost a guaranteed bogey. So you need those bits of luck if you’re going to compete at these championships. Look is an inherent part of Link’s golf. Yeah. How Tong Lee the first Chinese player to lead the Open after day one. Kakabolson, former amateur champion to the leftander, Harris English. It’s such an underrated goal for Harris English. He’s got an incredible record at all the other majors except the open. And then Chris Zayenhal, the South African who’s got a golden putter, that man. Um, and then can I just mention Scotty Sheffler? I mean, we could try and ignore and like pretend the fact he’s not going to win this by about six shots, but yeah, there he is. You know what? I don’t think he played that great yesterday and he’s one off the lead. He does it all the time, Sheffller. It’s incredible. I would say he’s looking more ominous in this open championship than others other ones I’ve seen him because you know he’s not played great really in opens. He’s not been his stellar best. Yesterday he was playing some shots and doing some things which I’ve not seen him do before open. So I think he might have figured figured something out and he put it actually pretty well which has always been his Achilles heel on slower greens. So if he figures that out then it he really is the one to catch. Yeah. I don’t remember seeing at the Scottish last week. There were a few issues he had on the greens. There was one I saw his reaction where he was like, “Yeah, one of one of us. He was one of us for one hole.” He was. But if he figures it out, everyone’s in got a big problem. So it’s it’s literally it’s just pace. Yeah. So he’s used to putting on greens which are, you know, over 12 on the stimp day in day out rolling that ball towards the hole. On links greens because of the condition of the course. The greens are great, but they have to have them slower by necessity. You know, if you get 30 mph whipping over a a 12 stem green, the ball’s going to blow off. So, they need to be a little bit longer. So, he has to actively hit them harder. And when you hit them harder, you have to take that into account with the break. And it’s just something he’s not quite been able to do. But, I know he’s been working uh with Phil Kenyon this week trying to figure that out. And if he has, it’s I mean, it’s obviously stupid to say it’s over, but he he will be around the top of the leaderboard. He has to be cuz he hits it so well. Be one away from the Grand Slam. Yeah, another one. Yeah. I mean, getting bored of Grand Slams to be honest. It’s kind of weird to say that he’s only won like a couple of the major championships, isn’t it? So, yeah. I mean, if he keeps playing like he is now, he will join that illustrious list. But golf’s a funny game. You know, there’s there’s so many stories of people who we say, “Oh, you know, he’s obviously going to win the Grand Slam.” Jordan Speed is, you know, he’s got a chance of probably Korean. He’s the only player realistically in the modern game who has a chance of doing the career grand slam. Um, and he doesn’t look like he’s gonna die anytime soon. And he was at one time like the golden boy. So, you know, there will be an opportunity for Scotty, I’m sure. But golf’s a funny game. It is a funny game about by his presence by his uh press conference over there. He might give up soon. So, that’s amazing press conference there. Um, okay. So, Pete and I are going to work in our tans here at the uh the driving range. But for the meantime, let’s get to the boys in the commentary box. Yeah. Thank you. It is a very interesting series of weather moving across here. I’m delighted to say in with John Cook from the US. John, welcome. Thank you. Good to be here. Have you you had a good day yesterday out watching Rory Maroy, Tommy Fleetwood, and Justin Thomas. What are your thoughts? Yeah, in I was in the morning I was in the box over here during the World Feed and then uh I was with Rory uh Tommy and Justin Thomas yesterday afternoon all afternoon and it was very interesting. It was the weather was in and out. Play was in and out. Good breaks, bad breaks, good shots, bad shots, a little bit of everything. But this is the Open Championship and that’s what happens. Yeah. You’ve had a lot of interesting visits over here. Have you always enjoyed the Open? It’s so different from playing in the US. It is. I I thoroughly enjoyed it. I learned to embrace it. I learned to understand what the the championship means to the world, not just to, you know, the Europe or the UK or or anywhere else. But uh I I think when us as Americans coming over, you had to embrace the conditions. You had to embrace the golf courses. You had to learn to love it. I didn’t have to learn to love it. I just stepped on the I stepped on the continent and I was I love this. What was your first one? Remember it? 1980 I played at Murefield. I was I still was exempt as I was the amateur champion from 78. So you kept that exemption no matter if you were a pro or not. Okay. Uh I didn’t come back until the early 90s. just didn’t, you know, things were happening. I had a young family. Um, I wasn’t really exempt very often, so you know, I just kind of stayed in the States. But once I came over in ’92 at Murefield, um, I came back every year I could. Yeah. Fantastic. 92. Think about that much. Did that your mind? Every day. Only every day. Only every day. Well, we can tell you this week. Tell say give us like the last three or four holes on that Sunday. Yeah, it’s it’s this is a bittersweet week. Obviously, it um you know, I I had a I had maybe both hands on the on the Clarit Jug and one slipped off and then the other one slipped off later on. But, uh you know, I I played really well. I hit a bad T-OT at number nine. I remember hit it out of bounds, end up making a seven. But, uh from then on, I played really well. I birdied I think the 12th hole. Um I birdied one of the tougher holes like you know 14. I bird 15. Um I had a chance at 16. I three putted 17 for a par. Yeah. And then I bogeied 18. The wind was really ripping and I had it was in between a three iron and a 4 iron. I should have taken the four iron out and run it all the way up there like you’re supposed to do. I said, um I’m swinging good. I’m going to cut this three iron right up into the wind. I’m going to get it back there to that back pin. And I miss it to the right. And uh end up making a bogey. And of course, Nick hit a wonderful approach shot at 18. Yeah. 187 up the hill. Yeah. I think he hit a three iron as well. That’s how long it was playing. So, you know, I I have great memories. I had a nice I had a nice opportunity in 94 95. I led going into the weekend at St. Andrews. Um I I just love being over everything about it. Yeah. So, Keegan Bradley, what do you think as a as a guy who’s played you played the 93 Rder Cup? Keegan Bradley, I would say, is definitely within your top 12 best players. No doubt about it. Do you think he can be in in today’s demanding schedule for media and all of the other stuff? Could it possibly be that he plays and captains or is are those incompatible? I’m not sure that you could you could mix those up. Um I think as a player you’d want your best 12. I don’t care who they are from. Yeah. He’s got to pick himself if he’s going to put the best 12 Americans out, right? And I think that he would abstain from that choice and let the players pick. And if they picked him, great. And they would have to ask him, hey, can you think you can do this? Will you relegate some duties? uh if you’re if you’re playing, you know, we let you prepare as you’re playing and relegate your duties to your assistant captains. That’s possible. But uh we don’t win very often. You we want the best our best 12. I don’t care players. I don’t care if it’s the captain captain steps in and plays. You want the you want the best competition%. Absolutely. Did you enjoy your Ryder Cup? You guys won. I did. Uh we won at the Belelfrey. was the last time we won um in in Europe in the in the UK. So, we have that going for us. I like to have that tradition broken in two years, but in a dare manner. Yeah. At a dare manner. Right. So, it was an incredible experience. I was in the middle of a really nice run for me through the 90s. I was playing well. Um and to be part of that team, I’ve always been a team guy. I played football and and basketball growing up as a kid. So, I was always in the team aspect. My father was a football coach, so you know, I understood the the unity of of um of a team. We had a really good team at Ohio State when I played there. Um so, I understood that part of the game. And so, I embraced everything about it. Um I only got to play on Saturday afternoon and then my singles on Sunday, but I was out there rah, you know, as much as I could. I totally enjoyed that experience. It’s something that they could never take away from you and uh people remember that. Yeah, they do. The Ryder Cup has grown and grown. What are your thoughts on it now compared to 93? It’s monstrous. It It’s taken on a whole new life, a whole new being. Um maybe it’s gotten too big at some point. I mean, I think that the, you know, the fans and the spectators, you know, they get so into it that, you know, maybe it’s not proper all the time. Yeah. But you can see the enthusiasm and and the uh the fanfare of it. It’s uh it’s an amazing event. Yeah. What can we expect from the crowds around Beth Page? Oh boy. Oh boy. What’s that mean? The New York crowds are something different. Enthusiastic. We’ll call them enthusiastic. I I hope it’s not over the top, honestly. I hope it’s a I hope it’s a just a wonderful event that that is fair. Um they can be enthusiastic, but just keep it on there. Keep don’t don’t get personal. Just don’t get personal. They It can get personal at some point, and we don’t want that. That’s not the way golf is. No, I that hair here. Oh, stars and stripes on his shoes. He’s already there. He is. Yes, he is. What about Keegan Bradley’s game? What have you been noticing from watching PGA Tour? you know, he’s he’s just been really good for a long time. Uh he never really had low lows. Um he’s had some incredible highs, you know, winning the PGA early in his career. Um you know, being a, you know, part of the RDER Cup in a major way a few times. Um maybe dropped off a little bit, but now has brought him his game back. And since he’s been Ryder Cup captain, he’s winning golf tournaments. he’s, you know, contending in majors. Um, but just a overall a really solid game. Yeah. And what do you think, John, about the way the US schedule works? You know, you have we we this is the last major of the year. Like for us in Europe, this is just the start of our summer. It’s like, and we’re nearly done. I I know golf has to kind of be off TV by the time NFL starts. But you have a few events now which are kind of after this shuffling to who gets in the top 100, who gets in FedEx. Correct. You’ve got the FedEx events, the three the three competitions. And then like from our point of view, watching how your tour is working, there’s a gap of nearly a month between FedEx Cup finals, which not everyone’s going to get in, and the Ryder Cup. Correct. What What do you think about that? Is that a disadvantage for the PGA Tour? Yeah, I think it is. says, you know, next season starts like there’s a couple of events that count to 26. Um, which was always odd to me. There’s no real off season on our tour except for December. That’s it. Yeah. Everything there’s tournaments going up until Thanksgiving, which is the end of November. That count towards next year. A lot of the players that are going to be Ryder Cupers choose not to play. So, they’re not playing for a month. I think that’s I think that’s rough. um you lose your competitive edge. I think that’s what happened last uh two years ago in Rome that a lot of the players had not played in a month. And you can practice and you can play at home all you want, but you have to have no competitive. You have to, you know, you have to practice like you’re competing. You have to have, you know, your your bag ready. You have to have a lot of things ready. And you don’t really know unless you’re sign your name at the end of the day on a scorecard. So, it’s uh I’d like to see if this continues on, you know, maybe have Keegan say, “Hey, guys, let’s let’s try to play Yeah. two weeks before.” Yeah. Um if you want to take the week off before before we, you know, get to Beth Paige. Um so be it. But let’s have everybody play one or two of those events. It helps those events as well. Yeah. Uh promote those events and it gets you a little bit ready. You can have your bag ready. you can have everything ready to go so you’re not trying to find it when you get to Beth Page. Yeah. Um technological advances in the game. On the right side of the screen is our top tracer technology. You know bull data, club data in the last say 10 years has become a little bit longer 12 years 15 years has become a massive part of the game. You you did not have any of those uh sort of um assets that back there. What do you what do you think of these new advances? Well, it’s amazing to me. I don’t really understand a lot of that because that’s not how I grew up or or how I learned. My my mentor, my coach for most of my career was Ken Venturi. Oh my god. Really? And we when we would practice, he would always tell me to, you know, watch where the ball launches. Watch you can tell just, you know, if it’s a consistent flight and a consistent trajectory, you’ll have consistent distance. Um, and then we would vary clubs doing the same thing. And that’s how we would get these numbers. I we did it with my my my eyeballs. Um, and then we would go play golf and we would play golf on the on the golf course. So, I understand this. It It’s you can, you know, really maximize what you have in the bag, the ball that you’re playing, the spin rate. I I get all of that. Uh, we did it more from my our eyes and our feel. Yeah. um trying to curve the ball or not curve the ball, seeing a shot, not seeing a shot, playing a shot, know when to play it, when not to play it. Yeah. You know, those are things that we just paid attention to on the golf course. Um I like everything about this. The only thing I don’t like is when players hit a shot and look at look at the monitor. I know. They don’t even watch the ball. They don’t even watch the ball. And that’s where that’s where my eyes got, you know, used to seeing shots out of the same window, out of the same uh floor, the platform, whatever you want to call it. Yeah. And that’s when I can now start to vary uh different shots and um different flights. Yeah. Is it a big adjustment? Like if you play, let’s suppose you take the modern PGA Tour player who who plays most of his golf kind of in a in a dome in a sense like in very nice weather conditions and you come here for this one week. Did you you obviously did succeed a lot in kind of moving your ball around? Is that a hard thing for a PJ tour player? thinking of Bryson who hits the ball hard and high with a lot of draw spin, you know, he kind of looked quite messy what he did yesterday. I I think when I got over here, you kind of throw everything away. You you have a yardage book. I never carried a yardage book. I just kind of felt things and saw things. Um, I I think it’d be wise for I mean this is to get your swing ready and I I totally understand this, but to play actual golf over here, I think you can take all this away and you have to play by feel and see, you know, how the how the golf course is running, how far short of the green you need to hit this to, you know, keep it underneath the hole or to the right, to the left, whatever it is. And that uh I think they should play more by feel and just feeling the golf course. Yeah. So, Keegan Bradley was looking at his numbers. One of the hoy gods that is Raasmus actually with a shorter hair coming on. Keegan Bradley just working up through. Oh man, what talents. It’s amazing that they’re both world class and they and they are and they are and they could easily be John. You know, the most interesting dynamic in in um in our RDER Cup team, Saurin Hansen in the background there with the titless hat on. He’s the coach of Raasmus. So, he’s had Ryder Cup previous. Interesting to see players moving through coming out of their careers of players and now into coaches sort of giving that advice, handing it down. I wish there were more of those. I wish there were more of those. in the US very very rarely does a younger player or you know even a middle-aged type player seek the advice of old veterans that are still in the game whether doing television whether they’re you know trying to coach whether they’re doing nothing I mean to to bring them on your team with actual experience and advice I think is um I mean you have to have that but it doesn’t seem like they’re uh the younger players embrace you know what came before them. Yeah, it is this in an interesting way. So there it is. The dunes are beautiful and on the other side, Royal Port Rush, which is magnificent. And the winner of the gold medal and champion golfer for the year. Winning the open changes a life. A hero at 22 and the first standard ever to win the title. A name remembered, a legacy secured. Open champion. But look beyond the champion and you’ll see that maybe there’s a little more to it. From first swings to final parts. From the back streets to the big stage. From the inner cities to the outer reaches. The open’s impact stretches far beyond the fairways. Every ticket, every fan, every roar drives our mission to shape the future of G. Removing barriers, protecting the land, honoring the past, leading for tomorrow. So yes, the open is lifechanging, but what begins as a moment for one creates a game for us all. My business has taken me all over the world and one day my son will take over. The family business just wasn’t for me. I wanted to build something of my own. And when my father saw how passionate I was, he did everything to support me. Now I have a daughter. All I want is for her to be 7,000 m from home. But this is exactly where I need to be. And no one understands that better than my dad. Wherever life or business takes you, HSBC can help. Yeah, fascinating to see. We are just kicking off day two at the 153rd Open Championship. John Cook has joined us from the US. Fascinating to see, you know, what what do you think, John, about, you know, if you have had a bad round, you know, what what do you do to kind of turn it around? Not everybody got what they wanted yesterday. Keegan Bradley won over, Daniel Burger won over. Kind of feeling like, you know, are the things that you can do like mistakes that you made yesterday where you go, “Ah, man.” Kick yourself and and turn it around. How do you improve that day, too? Yeah, there’s there’s I think there’s a couple of facets to that. Was it a mechanical issue? You know, what was I not doing that I normally do? You know, how do I correct that? What’s my one swing thought that I can go to that’s going to produce a good shot? Or was it mental mistakes? Was it, you know, missing the green with a nine iron or, you know, hitting the improper shot with, you know, whatever type of shot you wanted and you weren’t committed and trusting what you were doing. usually I mean your first thought is always the the right thought and if you secondguess yourself you know did I do any of that or was it a mechanical thing maybe I do need to go wind down hit a couple balls get by myself over here just me and my caddy you know I need to figure this out on my own and that’s where I would go to the practice tee I didn’t practice a whole lot after I was done unless I really felt that I needed to or I needed to just kind of wind down a little bit reset reset the the program. So, it um depends on, you know, how you decipher the round and what went right, what went wrong. Have a nice discussion with your caddy. I know they all have, you know, swing coaches, wind coaches, chipping coaches, chip out coaches, putting coach, they all, you know, so as a team coach, a down swing coach. Yeah, exactly. The team, um my team was uh my caddy me and if you know, Venturi was around, if he wasn’t, you know, I knew what to do. Yeah. And what Daniel Burger obviously you know he had such a bad he had 18 months away from the game came back he had a lower back problem you know did you have did you catch injuries in your I had two significant ones that cost me you know close to a total of oh about two years I had a a hand wrist injury that I had a broken bone in my wrist that I didn’t know for a couple years um in the late 80s 89 9. I had it had it done. So, I missed half of ‘ 89. Um, I was ready to go by the beginning of 90 and then I had a torn labum in my right side, my right shoulder in 03. So, I missed most of 03. I missed most of 89 and missed most of 03. Um, but other than that, pretty injuryfree. Um, it’s going to happen when you golf and I mean you put your body in so many interesting positions. Yeah, it’s it’s an asymmetrical sport. I think that’s one of the things. And I mean I think also the modern tour player pounds golf balls. I mean, we were watching this statistic. Bryson Dashambo hit over a thousand golf balls at the Masters this year. He did the same kind of at the open. I mean, that’s a heap of golf balls, isn’t it? I I wouldn’t hit a thousand balls in six months, honestly. I I played a lot of golf holes. And then people always ask, “How did you prepare?” I I prepared by playing golf. Yeah. Um I warmed up, saw where everything was going, and then I would go onto the golf course, and if it wasn’t going great, you learn on the golf course on how to correct that, how to adjust. This game, uh Simon, is is, you know, is about adjustments. You adjust to the the turf, you adjust to the weather, you adjust to your swing, you adjust to your mental. Um the changing conditions, you have to adjust and be able to do that on the fly. Uh, so I Yeah. You know, I the injuries kind of set me back a little bit, but I always came back stronger. Stronger. Yeah. Daniel Burger, interesting swing. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s kind of unique. Um, I think he’s working with Mike Mark Blackber now and uh, you know, tightening things up. I’ve talked to Mark a bit about a number of his students. Um, and so just trying to eliminate a lot of movements that will help his body. Um the way he used to swing the club was so personal and so individual. Yeah. It was so much side bend, wasn’t there? You know, and I mean you, you know, you can’t have a swing that damages your body. I mean, that’s a message to all amateur golfers. There’s Mark Blackburn. He’s got a lot of players out here this week. Most recently, Matt Matt Fitzpatrick for local fans just catching a tuneup. So, some filming just to kind of see if the what you feel is real. Big difference in those sometimes, John. Yeah, exactly. Um, yeah, it can fake you out what your eyes and your body, they they don’t they don’t uh click sometimes. So, you kind of fake yourself out. Um Ken Ventur used to always say that, you know, good players don’t get out of swing, they get of get out of line. Yes. and your eyes will fake you out. If you’re aim too far right, too far left, your eyes will always go back and then you’ll always figure it out. You make those compensations once you get online. Yeah. Swing can kind of feel its way back. Yeah. So, let’s have a look. Pretty strong grip. That left hand kind of comes over there. You can sort of see quite a lot of knuckles on there. Right hand under as well. kind of hold you how you’d hold a tennis racket. Yeah. I mean, his his background is tennis. His father, I think, was the CEO or president of the ATP men’s professional tennis tour. So, um, so I’m sure he kind of learned that. So, he kind of learned that way. Yeah. Um, obviously, you know, being a teacher, if you get that strong left-hand grip, boy, you get you better have face control. You better you better have some body rotation. And body rotation. Yeah. Yeah. you’re just kind of holding the face shut and then you know that’s become probably more a part of the game as the players have swung faster. So let’s have a look at Dan Burger when he looks over to the left side there. He’s looking over to see our scoreboard where all of our top tracer technology is sitting. So quite a deliberate routine there. both hands kind of holding the face closed. And now watch those hips rip. So you can’t have too much lateral movement onto that type of a onto the ball there. If you have that time of swing, you’ve almost got to almost like pitch that left side backwards. So your clearance has got to match how shut you hold that face. That’s what he’s feeling there right now. Kind of that low left exit. What you don’t want to have is kind of like a swing which chases down the target line. That’s going to flip on you. So you can see, watch that left foot just kick backwards, you know, not driving forwards, almost like that left side pitches up and back so he can loft it up and hold that face square. Yeah. He’s got that interesting follow through like you say. It’s kind of low left. Yeah. Try to just fight off of fight. You’re Well, I think you are. You’re basically It’s basically hook management, isn’t it? Correct. You got to be like Peter Pan, always fighting hook. So, while he tidies himself up there, let’s find George Harper Jr. There you are, mate. Have a good day, eh? Yeah. Oh, hi. Sorry I didn’t see you there. Good morning from the Open Championship. What a beautiful day it is here once again. Now look, I have been taking you behind the scenes all week, but I wanted to emphasize how important timings are here at a major. It takes a long time to get anywhere if you take into account signatures as well. But on game days, to get from the range all the way to the first te is quite the adventure. So I’ve worked out that it takes just under a minute to actually get to these buggies here. So come with me and we’ll keep the stopwatch running cuz this journey is quite a big one. And look at this. So all the players cruise in here and then straight into one of these buggies. Some keep going onto the chipping range. Look at this. Oh, and we go. Wham bam. Thank you, ma’am. Imagine this. When the intensity is high, you’re on the way to the first at the open. This is just a little journey to I guess be one with yourself, relax, get in your own head, and normally it’s peace and quiet, but if you’ve got Keith here beside you, you know, he’s always keen for a little chat. Keith, uh, how are you, mate? How much you enjoying this week driving around all the best golfers in the world? I’m good, mate. I’m good. Um, it’s a privilege. It’s nice to to get so close, hear some of the conversations, some of the mindset. Yeah, it’s enjoyable. Now, we’ve come to work out that it’s actually uh Keith’s birthday today as well. Uh who would you want to drive around most as a birthday present? Uh Rory. Not hard Rory. Yeah, he’s he’s the only guy that’s not not ticked off my list. Who has been some of the nice guys? What is what are the cool parts of the job? Uh Harris English was really nice. Uh managed to get a a longer longer trip by him out to 10. Uh and I had the the current champion Xander. That was good. Ah, very nice. Very nice. So, as you can see here, they go past all the corporate ospo, the shop, uh, and then you can see the flags of the 18th. So, the intensity would start building for these players. No doubt about it. We’ve had a great day on the golf course yesterday. Uh, all your big names are hovering there, thereabouts. So, later this afternoon and this morning, we’re going to get some big players cruising through here. This is the media center just on the right. So players will come straight off the 18th and straight into the media center here. But look at that. The first T is in sight. This is when the nerves will be brewing, bubbling to the surface. Especially if you’re Rory Maroy on this first te, he did well to to get out of there reasonably unscathed. We won’t talk about the little tiddler on the first, but off they get right here. Boom. Up here. Come with me. So, that’s about that’s about 2 minutes to there plus the minute from the range. So, we’re looking at about 3 minutes minimum. Up we go. Morning. Good to see you again. all of that. And then we quickly come up here and you’re not too far away from the first tea. So everything is a bit of a journey. So both your management, your caddy, the golfer all have to take into account how long travel time takes. Say so it’s um it’s all a very good journey morning. And then look at this. The first tea right here. And if you actually come with me, I can get you a little sneak peek sneak peek down the barrel. So there you have it. A big journey. Takes about 5 minutes to get from here to there. So you’ve got to be accurate. You got to be ready to go. Yeah. Thank you, Georgie. It’s fascinating. You know, that’s one of the things that I suppose when you’re getting yourself used to the environment, how long it takes you to move around, John, right? So, you know, okay, if it’s very close driving range to the first te, you can kind of see, you know, when it’s time to go. Um, one of the things you got to get used to, we had a couple of guys, Danny McCarthy left like 8 minutes before his tea time yesterday, was kind of running around a little bit. So yeah, I have this I have this reoccurring dream that I get lost on the way to the first tea either in the clubhouse or some I just it wakes me up and I tell my wife I go I’ll just like you know do one of those you know I out of out of your sleep moments. And she goes what happened? Well I had that you know I’m missing my tea time. I’m lost in the clubhouse or so. So part of your part of your routine early in the week is how long is it going to take? Before you just kind of walk from the range to the tea. Well, now they have all the infrastructure and the great buildouts and the the wonderful, you know, places for people to watch, but you have to get your way around and how long it’s going to take. And boy, the last thing I want is to be rushing to that first te the rear the rear inside the mind of a golfer. It’s a scary place. We are all all crazy people. Yeah. So, Raasmus boy, a talent from a very young age, you know, one he’s the third youngest winner, I think, on the DP World Tour. His brother played in Ryder Cup. He could join him. Yeah, absolutely. And I I the first time I saw Nikolai was at the 18 Carni. Yeah. I was there doing some work for Golf Channel that morning drive show and then I did some commentary in in the box. Um, and I think during the practice round, Nikolai was playing in front of or behind U. Patrick Canley, who I have known and I follow quite a bit. So, I go, “Who’s this kid?” He’s like, he was 17, I think, or whatever. And, “Oh, you think he’s good? He’s got a twin brother that’s just as good or better.” And I said, “Well, let’s keep an eye on these kids.” And all of a sudden, I go, “Wonder if they’re going to go to school in the States.” No, they just went to it, right into it. And they’ve been highly successful. It’s uh they have played in the states a little bit, followed them a couple of times in some of the um opposite field events that they’ve done very well in. Yeah. And uh have watched their progress. They teamed up in the Zurich this year. It’s fascinating to watch their progress. Let’s have a look at his swing. The thing which was amazing was like by the time they were 15, they were both about 6’3, you know, just peas and a port, aren’t they? absolutely identical. I can give you a little tip here. So, Raasmus is currently sporting a tidier haircut than his brother Nikolai and that is the only difference that anyone can tell between the two of them. Especially when they go into the same outfit, then it’s like so unfair. Aaron Ry joins the driving range just marching on. So, Saurin Hansen works a lot kind of on sequencing. These are all pretty neutral, playing kind of a neutral club face. A lot of sequencing drills. So, the mistake that he makes when he’s not playing well is that the his arms run on after his turn is finished. Then when he goes to kick, it kind of gets stuck under like um did you have like one or two reoccurring themes in your swing, John, that kind of came up back and again? I kind of was a right aimer. Yeah. So Kenny would always start to work, especially if we got into heavy wind. Want to knock the ball down. I got aiming too far to the right. I got high up on my right side trying to knock a ball down. And you know, I’d come back from Hawaii or somewhere, you know, not playing very well. He said, “Well, just, you know, oh yeah, right arm under that right arm. Let’s get your feet. I don’t mind if you’re, you know, right aimer. Just don’t aim that far right.” So, cuz I could always clear my right hip a little easier. Um, so that that was my my tendency, my my fall back on was get myself back in position. Um, and then and go from there. I always had to remember to turn my back to the target and make sure that my my shoulders and my back turn cuz I could get short and then lifty and then under and then high flip instead of when I was really playing well I could turn my shoulders turn my back then I could get that club head you club going down and then I could swing more you know closer to my body instead of out and trying to save it. So um just a couple of things but they were the same thing. I had a shoe box full of notes that I would take every session that Kenny and I had. They all said the same thing. Every single there was like two or three things on each one. And I go through these, you know, years ago and I I just went down and I wrote down all the notes. It was only this big. Only had three things. Three things. But that that’s what happens. If you are a good player, it’s because you have a consistent set of moves. even your errors are consistent but then at least you can you have the ability you have like that diagnostic toolkit where you can say okay oh I recognize this pattern in myself and then you can fix it on the course that’s a key skill a pivotal skill yeah that’s what you have to do is be able to adjust on the fly when things are going wrong on the course you have to understand what it is how do I correct it easily um I think with a lot of these guys that that they’re so reliant on their team and their coach that when get out on the golf course and something goes wrong, it’s like springs go off in their head and they don’t know what to do and how to fix it. So 836 Langask Hoyard and Bzaden Hood. If you like a surname with lots of different pronunciations, this is an absolutely fantastic group to follow. I have no chance in this group. You got no chance? No, I can barely pronounce Cook. Cook is Cook is a good one. Here we go. Raasmus. I’d say that’s his driving iron. Lost a hair to the right there. So, this is kind of like a little fireworks show here. Very interesting to see all of the data that is now such a crucial part of at least the learning or the feedback that the players are looking at. Raasma shot two under matching his brother Christian Bazaden. Hoot shot four under. He’s tied for the lead and Rammon Langask even P. So they all went pretty well. Yeah, nice group. I’m sure they fed off each other a little bit and that can certainly happen if you know you’re all going well and you all start out well. Um it kind of can continue on during the day. So that’s that’s a good group to watch. Rasmus Rasmus with a Yeah. his driving area. Yeah. Ball speed 165 get yeah they’re powerful players you know I mean 173 is kind of PGA Tour average for a driver so you can just tell that that advantage and I mean power has become a huge part of the game hasn’t it I mean the college kids hit the ball harder than the tour players now the div one division one superstars come out hitting it harder and harder and harder and we watch a lot of college golf I do all the college the NCA stuff so yeah I you know, the up andcoming players. Um, then you got, you know, Potguer who’s manu just on the golf course competing speed at 190 plus. So, we wish Raasmus good hunting. Let’s get down and join Josh Antman and Peter Finch. Whilst there’s a quiet bit here on the right hand side of the range, uh, got Peter here obviously with me. He’s like a kid at Christmas down here because we’re going to take a look at divot patterns. Peter, I’ve never seen so excited. Listen, we are reaching the end of the week and here we are. We are down in the dirt. Okay. Quite literally. So, you you can see we’ve gone further and further back as the uh the days have gone on. But let’s talk about the different different patterns here because we’ve got varying depths, haven’t we? Yeah. And I mean, what what you got to be looking for here is you’re so excited. It’s sad, isn’t it? Is it sad? Well, I don’t need a lot to keep me happy. It’s very good at Christmas. This is all I need for Christmas. All I need is a roast turkey and some nice tet patterns. That’s all I need. Um, and we’ve got a bit of a spread as, as you said, we kind of move back on the range. So, we start off right at the front and then we slowly move back and by tomorrow we’re going to be almost in the grand stand. But you’ve got these patterns here which are more of a I would haphazard. Yeah. Well, it’s just more of a a bit of a ditch being, you know, carved out here when you’ve got these nice train tracks which are being made. Now, oddly enough, these tracks, this big pause button here is probably not what you’re looking for on a range like this because this is more of a practice session. Now, these they’re going down towards the same targets. Whereas, if you’re about to go out and play an open championship, you’re going to be hit into lots of different targets. So, these big patches of uh carved out turf are probably a little bit more familiar. I’d say the people who are making these diver patterns, the single lines, you know, they’re probably well organized. They’re well ordered. Yes. Okay. At home, you mean? I don’t make these patterns. That’s more me. But these guys are having a bit more of a practice, a bit more of a grind. Tell us as well what the cuz these ones are a lot more shallow than these ones. Tell us what what these mean basically from the different kind of golfer. I would be delighted to tell you what this means. So the deeper that a diver goes generally the steeper the angle of the club. So you’ve got here about a depth of I don’t know maybe I’m not measured but it looks about 15 cm. So, you’re going to be going down, hitting the ball, then taking the turf after, and then the grass flying off down the driving range, hopefully with the ball. Hopefully, it doesn’t always happen. Um, and the deeper the divot, usually the steeper you’re going to be coming down into impact. The shallower, the less turf you’re taking. So, what you’re going to be looking at here as well is with the higher lofted clubs, if you’re hitting a standard wedge shot, you’ll probably take quite a deep divot. And then when you get to your forearm, you’re probably going to take a little bit less. But then if you’re going back to your short pitches and you’re trying to get a load of like grippy spin, you might not take any grass at all. It’s a subject on which we could talk all day. And that’s really we’re not talking to many of the plays today as they’re in they’re in cones of seclusion and concentration. We might have to Yeah, but patterns don’t say much really, do they? Um, no. I mean, their interviews aren’t great. If it ever gets to the stage where they start talking back, we really have reached peak madness, haven’t we? If Alex Noran was here, Alex Norin is different pattern. If you’ve ever seen them before, I’m mad. If Alex Norin was here, we could do a half hour bit to about pattern. Amazing. He’s fascinating. He really is. Anyway, I’m going to let Pete just check out all the different patterns here on the range, but I might just go over there to take a break. Heat. Heat. Welcome along to the open. It’s everything you wanted and more. How fantastic is that? Absolutely brilliant. Quite an extraordinary day on the tea. Yeah, she was staring this one down and for good reason. Look at this. Just delightfully done. She’s on top of the world. Going directly at the hole. Tell you what, oh, get in there. There’s something about the AIG Women’s Open. Oh my goodness. Yeah, welcome back. We are live at the range. Day two of the 153rd Open Championship from Royalport Rush. It is sold out. 278,000 tickets. If you want to join us at Royal Burkedale, you will have to get into the ballot. That’s the grand stand at the back of the driving range. We are looking from Minion Cam, which is like a little minion kind of looking thing in the middle of the drawing range. And there is Ah, there we go. There’s the QR code right there. Scan that, enter the ballot, and join us at Royal Burkedale. Royal Burkedale, another fantastic venue for the Open. And in our picture in the purple shirt, Sahath Thagala, there he is. I’m in with John Cook. John, you know Pepperdine, you know the college program so well. You know, Sahath is one of those guys. You know, we weren’t kind of expecting to see such an unorthodox looking player come out of that very structured American system, but Sahath is almost like a a kind of a Sevy style golfer. He’s not a great driver of the ball, but he’s a a Houdini from from wherever he finds himself. Yeah, no doubt about it. And uh a wonderful junior record there in Southern California. End up going to Pepperdine University. Uh our son Jason went to Pepperdine University in the early 2000s. Uh just before his caddy, Carl Smith is his caddy went to Pepperdine as well with the little mustache. But uh Sah we followed in in college. He was the player of the year in college. Um first team all-American. I mean everything about he just learns how to play. He’s one of those guys kind of a throwback that owns his own golf swing, has understood the game of golf. He’s struggled a little bit as of late. Uh does have one tour win to his credit in Napa a couple years ago, but um he, you know, once you’re kind of your own guy, um you kind of come and go, like you get hot, you get cold. Um but I think that he’s um he grinds. He just loves to play golf and he’s very dedicated. It’s just he’s not in a great place right now. He shot I think four over par yesterday. Uh needs to get going today. But um loads and loads of talent. Yeah, looking at his swing there. He had a neck injury. he was saying, you know, when we’re chatting to him earlier in the week and he just can’t like wrigle out of it and he just he doesn’t think it’s hurting, but he doesn’t he’s still got the thought of is this going to hurt, which is I suppose a residual, isn’t it? You got the the left wrist is taped up as well. Yeah. Once your body starts to ache. He’s in his 20s. So, um, but yeah, like you say, players hit so many golf balls nowadays, and you know, I wanted to do my work on the golf course, but yeah, he’s he’s struggling a little bit trying to find what’s going to work today. How can I get it around and underpower today? Yeah. So, let’s have a look. Got quite an unusual kind of pre-shot there. kind of like that little squat that he does. I don’t know if that’s to kind of lower his hands. So, he’s kind of trying to get some bend there from his pelvis. Pretty orthodox grip. Yeah, it’s pretty pretty neutral. Nice grip. He’s fighting some sore. That That’s not a good shot. No, that’s so tough place to be when you’re you’re kind of searching while you’re on the grounds. Well, that was one of those which um comes out of the uh the huzzle unfortunately of the club. We I didn’t know if on top tracer if we can erase shots. So, Heath needs to erase that from his mind. What if you have a terrible warm-up, John? What what does it does it what did it give you when you went out into the golf course? Well, you just caught a tackle. Yeah. You just weren’t sure. You know, where is this first T- T-OT going to go? And if there’s a T-OT that you don’t want to have and you don’t know where it’s going, is the first T-OT here with out of bounds right now. Out of bounds left, there is no bail. So, want to just get up with a T with a driver and just swing away. Yeah, I had I had plenty of bad warm-ups and and maybe some of those warm-ups um I just started to really generalize and say what can I what is one thing I know is going to get this golf ball going where I want it to and then maybe had a a good round of golf. Yeah. So, beware the injured golfer. Low hands. Mhm. Looked a little more organized. Yeah, it’s a it’s quite a big it’s it’s a big laggy kind of a swing, isn’t it? Very rangy. It’s not robotic at all. You can sort of feel his feels in there. And I think, you know, one of the good things about, you know, today’s swings where they’re kind of technically really good is um it’s all about sequence. And when you’re when you have a a homemade swing like this, there’s so much that has to go right. And when you feel it, Yeah. It’s all but when you’re not you get a little bit disorganized. Yeah. Okay. So, plenty of speed in there. 97 Apex is probably kind of like a PGA tour shot. That’s not a link shot. It’s not that windy today. It’s a surprisingly mild morning. The weather here um John quite inconsistent. I know every single American I used to live in America. Every single American I know has thousands of weather apps on their phone. There’s like a weather addiction in America, right? We do. Absolutely. You can count them up. If you can play golf in America, look at these. I got one. I got nine there and four. I got 13 weather. Every which beam is the same. I’ I’ve got I’ve got three or four, but every American. And then when there’s when there’s nightmare weather coming in America, everyone’s addicted to the weather channel. It’s just it is what it is. They all kind of come up with different scenarios. The thing here, you could be a weatherman in Port Rush and have 365 days of never getting it right. So, short sleeves, nice to see, not much wind. He doesn’t wear pullovers very often. No. It’s kind of like Patrick Reed. Pat, it’s got to be really, really bad for Patrick Reed to even put on a vest. So, soath he he has he is probably more of a fader type of, you know, you can see the way he’s working that path through the ball there. He is trying to sort of hold it up, eliminate one side. Yeah, that bend trying to get down from the right place. You don’t want to get down to the ball with your upper body kind of rolling over. You want to get down from that kind of hip tilt. That’s a nice position right there. Looks very athletic. Yeah. Sometimes difficult for a tall guy to not look like he’s squatting. That was pretty good. Looked like good. Carl, a very good player on his own. Like I said, played. Yeah. How many drivers would you think someone is who’s hitting it 300 like Zah is going to use today round this golf course when you were out on the golf course following Tommy, Rory, and Justin Thomas yesterday. Rory hit a lot of drivers. He did. He hit a lot. He didn’t drive it very good either. So, um, but I give him credit for just taking it out and letting it go. It It’s hard to It’s how you’re feeling obviously. And I think here at Port Rush, you kind of want to get it to that that turn point. There’s a lot of subtle little dog legs and subtle little, you know, pitches in the fairways that go off camber a little bit. Um, so it’s whatever is going to hold the fairway. Yeah. Um and then you know let it go on the power fives. Yeah, absolutely. Did you have a very set routine for your practice before you went out? Were you pretty structured or did you kind of go with the flow? Pretty pretty structured. I I would get out, you know, just under an hour. I’d putt I would pitch the ball a little bit. Then I would go through my routine. Took about 30 minutes. I think I hit like five balls each with, you know, different Yeah. different clubs. Then I’d, you know, back down. I’d hit, you know, a couple T- shots, couple opening hole T- shots at the end of my warm-up. And then my last swings were like full five irons just to get a full swing in. Yeah. So, we’ll leave Sahath and wish him well at four over par. He’s going to need a good day. Let’s find out what George Harper Jr. is up to now. Well, we took you on the journey from the driving range to the first tea, but we didn’t get as far as the putting green. So, now I’m going to show you where the players come in. Once they come from the range, they come over this amazing walkway, which is forged by nature, and then they come on down, cruise down to this humongous putting green. Now, this is where a quarter of a million fans have to walk past every time they come in to Royal Port Rush. So, they get a very closeup view of their favorite players, as as you can see right here. W Neman is getting warmed up. He’s off at 9:25 this morning. And it’s quite a tranquil, quite a nerve-wracking time here. Everyone is getting in the zone. They are not far away from getting into their business. Now, look who it is just to our left over here. Christian Bazaden Hoot, our round one co-leader. He is off at 8:36, the South African. He warmed up with Rory on Wednesday before his round with huge crowds. Maybe that spurred him on. Maybe that excited him to lift to new levels, but he’s almost famous for getting off to a fiery start and getting up the top of that leaderboard. So, he’s going to be interesting to watch today. You’ll notice there’s not so many drills traditionally out on the putting green. There’s all sorts of gizmos and gadgets, but once it comes to crunch time, it’s all pretty natural. Unless you’re Russell Henley, he’s just arrived. Now, Henley, he’s not off until 9:36, but he is certainly one to watch this week. You get the sense he’s always flirting with the leaderboard in major championships. It would be of no surprise whatsoever if he was dancing near the top later in the week. Morning. Morning boys. How are we? And look at this. So many teams all preparing, all getting their player in check before they get going. And it is just a quick walk. So from here up the stairs across and to the 18th grand stand. This must be as nerv as nervous as it gets because there’s so many eyes on you. You can hear the announcer from the group before welcoming people to the tea and you can actually get a view of the first hole. So you can see the elevated green and the wind coming into and off the right. It’s scary stuff. So soon in a few hours we’ll have the likes of Rory Mroy. He’s off at 10:09 today if you’re keen to watch him. But look at this. Here is our co-leader, Christian Baziden Hoot. He is done and dusted, ready to lock and load. He is off very shortly. 8:36. So, long story short, this is the pressure cooker. This is where the players need to be dialed in. They need the feels. They need their hands to be working with their head. Goosebumps already. It’s getting exciting. Things are really ramping up here at Port Rush. Things are ramping up at Port Rush. And that is a fantastic looking hat you’ve got there, mate. To match it up with your trousers. Come on. I suppose if you’re going to come, he brought his agame. But he That’s his agame. That’s it. And here’s a man with aame. Thristan Lawrence. Yeah. Finished fourth, I think, in last year’s Open. strong player now with his success on DP World mostly focused on PJ Tour really seems to be kind of living on that leaderboard, doesn’t he? Yeah, he shot two over yesterday. So, I suppose then you have to look at it and I’m only six off the lead. Yeah, exactly. That’s what I kept thinking yesterday watching Rory and Justin and Tommy Fleetwood. didn’t seem like things were going, you know, very well. They were kind of under par. Then they get back the level par, but kept thinking they’ve kind of grinded out this round and they’re just a couple back. They’re only four or five and six. I think I think that keeps you going, isn’t it? Keeps keeps you going. You got to keep an eye on the leaders. You know, you have a a quick turnaround yesterday evening to to this morning. Um you kind of know what happened yesterday and you get right back in, press the reset button and go. Get nice conditions this morning. Yeah, it’s certainly nice conditions. So we are probably expecting to see better scoring today than we saw yesterday. Um don’t know yet what’s a good score is going to be today, but probably one under par I think was a good score yesterday. Oh, definitely. Yeah, par better yesterday was just fine. So let’s have a look. I mean, you know, built like a rugby player or a linebacker and hit the ball hard. It’s sort of like the PGA Tour’s perfect recipe. I mean, the frail golfers with silky smooth swings and medium hitters or a Brian Harmon, someone like a Brian Harmon probably only got four events where he’s got a a like forlike chance compared to the power that we now see where there’s so much pressure on so much more gain for power than precision in the game the way it’s played at the moment or at least on the courses we play on the PJ tour. Yeah, you get the Brian Harmon’s kind of cut out of that Cory Paven mode where they’re small, they don’t hit it very far, but they’re mentally just bulldogs. Yeah. And you know, once they get near around the lead, they know what to do. And you know, how Brian played at uh at Liverpool at Hoy Lake was amazing in horrible conditions. Horrible. But that’s him. That’s his his grip. David B. Goliath. Yeah. kind of a Zack Johnson as well. Zack Johnson, I mean remember watching him with Mike Bender on the range, you know, during his mini tour days, very early 90s and you it was very hoham. He won the Masters and he won the open at St. Andrews. Yeah. Won the Masters in not great conditions and never went for a par five and two and played him in 12 under par. Yeah. I mean that talk about grit. Grit. So Tristan Lawrence, nice setup. Yeah, kind of a punch through the ball. Watch how he just kind of punches those arms. Just kind of like almost like a ton layman kind of just like press the press the arms the shaft onto the back of the ball and push down on it and then hold it through that kind of sorn off high left elbow trying to keep that club face from turning over, keep that toe back at the heel. Let’s have a look at him. You can see prolific divot taker, long left thumb, but watch this push down. Punch. Yeah. Good footwork. Yeah. Not all over the place. No. So many tidy actions nowadays. The game is easier though, I think, than when you played it, John. Would you agree with that? Yeah. the the equipment has made it easier. You you you played in 93. Did you have a wooden driver? I did. Yeah. Yeah, I did. I didn’t go to metal until into 96. Did it help you at all? Did it make you a better player? I think it did. Yeah, I think it did. Once I kind of embraced it and got away from my wooden drivers, um I I understood it. Everybody I was playing with, I was one of the last to go. Um, and I think a couple times with Yeah. You and Davis and Bernard Langanger. Yeah. Kind of the last guys to give it up. Yeah. You still got your wooden drivers? I do. And they’re like this big. Yeah. It looked like a little Now it looks like sort of a But we had to swing. We We had to learn to swing to hit the ball in the center of the face every single time. Yeah. And so we didn’t learn speed first. No. You had to play goal from the fairway. Yeah. Yeah. Game has changed. Game is good though. It’s okay. No, that’s I get it. Yeah, I’m still playing golf and hitting it right where I was hitting it 25, 30 years ago, so I’m okay with that. Well, I spoke to Freddy. I spoke to Freddy at the Masters and he told me he’s never hit the ball further than he hits it now. I play a lot with Fred. You know, we used to play a lot together. Um Yeah, he’s the same. And smashes it. Smashes it. Yeah. But I mean, how I don’t know how old he is. 60. He’s 2 years younger than I almost to the day. So he’ll be 66, right? 1 of October. And he hits it further than And he was long when he was 28, 29, 30. Yeah, those guys. I mean, Ernie still moves it. We’re talking about PGA Tour Champions players. Uh Darren Clark still moves it. Ratif still moves it. Uh Stuart Sink. Yeah. Um really moves it. Hard to tell if that’s a face that liked that shot or didn’t like that shot. Yeah, he’s not giving it up, is he? You’re not giving nothing. He is in lockdown mode right now. Well, big job to do. And I mean, you know, he’s tasted that top four, fourth last year in in a Royal Trune. So, he’s got to be thinking, you know what? What his thoughts at the beginning of the week. Wow. I wonder if I can improve that. Let’s have a look. So watch that hold off finish punch down and that left arm kind of flies and make sure that face Yeah. kind of wipe that one look like. What’s the big skill that you see having gone round Port Rush? Like what’s what should we be looking for? Is it going to be a great iron player? Driving kind of feels like it’s kind you know Shane Larry when he won didn’t hit that many fairways. I don’t think it’s tough to hit fairways out here, honestly. As long as they’re not out of play. Yeah. You know, if they’re first cut or, you know, kind of, you know, in the right spots. Driving accuracy around here, I think, is a little overrated. As long as they’re not foul balls, but then from there, it’s all iron play. It’s all It’s all GI greens in regulation. Yeah. And you’re playing from the proper spots. Yeah. So, we don’t know what the cut’s going to be, but probably looked like today’s an easier day than yesterday. Thristen Lawrence. Maybe maybe plus two. Yeah. Is I wouldn’t want to I’d rather be on one than two, but I’d rather be on two than three, I think. Yeah. So, on the driving range, Tristan Lawrence warming up and down there somewhere, Josh Aman and Peter Finch. We’ve made our way from the range over to the chipping area here at Royal Port Rush. Pete, this is actually a pretty sensational chipping area for the players. I I think out of all the open venues that I’ve been to, this might be my favorite practice crowd sale cuz you got the chipping green short game area. You go on to the putting green, then you go on to the range. And they’ve also got a massive putting green by the first as well. It just flows nicely here, doesn’t it? Yeah. Okay. If you’re here to practice your chipping, what are you doing here? Well, I mean, one of the reasons why this is really a nice little patch is it simulates so much of what they’re going to be facing on the golf course. And this really is quite a classic example. So, this first pin here is quite tight to the side of the green. And what you saw yesterday, um, certainly on holes like the ninth, for example, were when players were missing greens just to the side, they were rolling off into these collection areas. And once you were down in this type of position, you can see where people have been practicing with the divs. It was trying to figure out the type of shot that you were going to play. I mean, the the beauty of Lynx golf is and why I love this type of golf when compared to say a US Open setup, for example, most US Open setups anyway, is the variety of shots that you can actually do around the green. So, if you’re in this position, I mean, realistically, you can try and put it so you can keep it very low to the ground and that will allow you if you if you’ve got that control with a putter, it’s often the best place to start because there’s very little that can go wrong. Obviously, the biggest problem is it can come back to your feet. What most players are using is a a lower lofted wedge and they’re trying to kind of bump it into the bank off a sprinkler head off sprinkler head and then release it. down onto the green and more often than not that feels like actually a safer shot, but in certain positions and we spoke to a few of the players and they absolutely love the turf conditions around here because the ball is actually sitting up nicely and then when you’re in a position like this and you’re going into wind, you can actually fly it most of the way and be relatively safe because it’s going to stop. The biggest issues around courses like Port Rush are when the pins are tight and all of a sudden you’re hitting downwind or you’re hitting over a bunker. I mean, the bunkers here at Port Rush, they’re they’re actually not that numerous, but they’re so well positioned and they’re so deep that it’s it’s such a challenge all of a sudden to get out of them. And the way that they’ve been raking the bunkers, I don’t know, this might be a terrible bit, but have you seen the rakes? Let’s go. Let’s go look at the Have we seen the rakes? I really I really hope these are the same rakes that we’ve got on the course. If not, I’m going to look like an absolute But okay, can have a scan. Oh, they are. Yes. Come on. Right. So, if you can see this rake, can you notice how wide that the gaps are in between? So most rakes and most of the time you find a bunker on tour, the actual sand is relatively compacted and it’s raked super smooth. Like when you go into one of these bunkers, the chances are you’re going to find like a really fluffed up bad lie. So when you rake a bunker with a rake like this, it doesn’t leave a super smooth surface. You can see how many ridges there are. You can see how fluffed up and uneven it is. It can be such a massive problem all of a sudden. Like most pros, if they’re in trouble and they want to miss, they’ll aim for a bunker because it’s pretty easy to get out of. But poor Russian, that’s just not the case. Yeah, exactly. I tell divot patterns, rakes. This is the most exciting you’ve ever been, isn’t it? Yeah. This is just just golf nerd heaven, isn’t it? Geeking out here. When I practice, I love coming to a chipping area. Links links golf more than I could be here for hours. Oh, it’s unreal. I mean, if I if I was a member here, I think I’d be a good golfer. Yeah. Pete and I probably practice. Pete and I are going to go find a couple of wedges and just hit a few around here. Oh, Rory Maroy in the house. He has arrived and Port Rush and the golfing world will follow his second round. Welcome along to the open. It’s everything you wanted and more. Fantastic. Absolutely brilliant. Quite an extraordinary day on the tea. Yeah, she’s staring this one down and for good reason. Look at this. Just delightfully done. She’s on top of the world going directly at the hole. Well, of course. Oh, get in there. There’s something about the AIG Women’s Open. Oh my goodness. Just swing. Visit golf.golf to find out more. Just swing. Visit golf.golf to get started. Why not give golf a go? Just swing. Swing wild. Swing weird. Swing wonky. Whoever, however, wherever, it doesn’t matter. Just swing. Head over to golf.golf to start playing. Find out where you can learn to play at golf.golf. Thank you, Andrew. As per usual in any Open Championship, the weather plays a huge part. Jason Day earlier on in the week said that this is some of the most insane weather patterns right here that he has ever seen at an Open Championship. That’s because the wind has been switching around every single day as the players were preparing and that has not changed throughout the course of this tournament. Let’s take a look at the forecast ahead of today and what it’s looking like yesterday. The wind was coming out of the south. That remains consistent throughout the course of the morning and early afternoon. However, at 6:00 p.m. roughly, it’s going to switch in the total opposite direction. That was what it was on Wednesday. So, the players have faced this in their practice rounds, but that time is when a lot of the big names are out on the golf course. So, how is that going to affect certain areas of this golf course? And when you’re looking at how a wind is going to affect a course, it’s usually par fives and par threes that you’re thinking, is it reachable? Is it not? Is this harder? Is this easier? The par fives yesterday with the southerntherly breeze, they were reachable. They are still going to remain reachable even with the wind switch. Harry Cult did an incredible design here where the wind doesn’t really affect those par fives too much. There’s still scoring opportunities available there. There’s three of them. However, the par threes, that is where it’s going to get significantly friendlier, especially when we look at holes 13 and 16. For 13 yesterday, if you watch any of the coverage, you’ll have seen players really struggling to hold that 13th green. It was pushing heavily down with the wind switch. That’s going to be holding it up into and it’s not the longest path three in the world. That’s going to be helpful. Speaking of long par 3 16, that is going to be the one that is the most friendly. You’re going to see a big different there. Big difference there. Calamity Corner. Um, all of the trouble falls off on the right hand side. With the southerntherly breeze, you’ve got the wind into off the left. So, clubbing up, pushing you into the danger. With the wind switch coming from the north, that’s going to be down and off the right. So, protecting you from the danger, you can club down a little bit. Also happy news for some of those bigger names is that 11 the hardest hole on the golf course that changes with the wind switch from driver five iron to about driver wedge. So some of the names like Matt Fitzpatrick and Scotty Sheffller will be rubbing their hands together this morning hoping that they can take full advantage of that wind switch later on today. Fascinating golf course. John, you’ve seen a lot of the links golf courses that we have here in the UK. Are you a fan of Royal Port Rush? Love it. absolutely love it. Used to come here um into Ireland uh before the Open Championship a number of times with with Omera and Tiger and and we would play around, you know, play the all all the great courses. Did actually get to play here one time and uh loved it. Yeah, that was Tiger’s prep, wasn’t it? Was to come over playing golf. Playing golf. He used to say playing golf. Yeah. He used to say like for every hour of time change, he reckoned it took him a day to adjust. I get that. Yeah. Yeah. He he wanted to be ready. He he did his all all his prep before. So when he stepped on the grounds, it was business. Yeah. And he didn’t have to find what he had wanted in the bag. He didn’t have to find a golf swing. He didn’t have to find the conditions. He’s already prepared for all that. Yeah. He was quite good. Tiger. What about Tiger Woods as the RDER Cup captain in Beth Paige? Oh my. Huh. Bring him on. Bring him on. Yeah. Let Keegan go play his golf. Keegan go play. Bring in Tiger. Why wouldn’t you do that, right? Why wouldn’t you? Call Tiger, tell him, right, Tira Hatton, have you watched him play at all? Yes. Highly impressed. Seriously impressed. Gritty and and an iron player. Oh, wonderful. Around here. Wonderful striker of the ball. I think he like his turf interaction is spot on. Yeah. Yeah. I I think he I I love watching him play golf. I I I’m with you. He gets a little fiery. You know what? I don’t mind that. Yeah. I’m the same as you. I I I find that quite charming. I know, you know, sometimes it doesn’t go all quite perfectly well, but like I love watching him play. I think he’s like he just lives near the leaderboards, honestly. He’s uh I think he’s as good as there is. He’s a Yes. wonderful player. Yeah. And and Oakmont was a tough test. Super tough test. He was a type of player that was going to play well there. JJ Spawn, I know, you know, the fans over there don’t know JJ very well, but very similar. Doesn’t have quite the fiery um personality that Terrell has, but same type of player. Yeah, totally same type. So, fourth around Oakmont and three underpar, he will be out with Russell Henley and Minu Lee. Minu disappointing. I thought he’d be greater bull striker. moves the ball around. More of a shot make a three over for him. He must not have driven the ball very well yesterday. Then a feast of golfers. 947 Bobby Mack, Bryson de Shambo, and Justin Rose. Bryson 7 over John. Thoughts on that? Game just doesn’t fit these conditions. There’s no there’s no magic to it. There’s no adjustment to um to to Bryson’s game to fit Link’s golf. It’s just all power in the air. because of his club set up, he’s not going to hit those little chasers that you need to hit. He just powers everything through the air and um you know that’s uh it doesn’t it doesn’t fit well. No, over here. So, Tier just gripping down on one there. Little pit shot just working on something. A shot. He maybe sees that on the course. Yeah. Taking maybe a bit of yardage off that. Yeah. Choke down on the club. make a full swing and they’ll see, you know, the distance between that and a full regular one. You know, it’s probably 3 or 4 yards, which makes a huge difference when you’re you trying to be that precise. Was that your How did you take, how did, let’s suppose you had your sand iron 110 or whatever. How did you take 10 off or five off? What did you do? Was it club speed? Was it speed, arm speed? You know, that’s stuff that we worked on as far as varying your trajectory. uh what a softer arm follow through does to take spin off the ball, you know, going through the wind. You know, sometimes my caddy would say, you know, just a this is an arm swing sixiron through the wind. Um so, but those are things that I practiced and I saw on the practice te. Um so I was used to seeing that. Uh I didn’t I didn’t I didn’t vary, you know, club yardage, you know, from like a two or three iron down to maybe a sixiron. Yeah. Yeah. But from seven iron on down, I also learned to hit the same distance with maybe two or three clubs and and see where that trajectory varied, what type of shape I was supposed to hit it in. A lot of times I wouldn’t hit a full sand wedge. I would take out um either a gap wedge when I started playing with a gap wedge, which wasn’t that long ago, um or I could take a lot off a pitching wedge. Yeah. Um so I could hit a pitching wedge 125 or I could hit it 105. Yeah, depending on the if I needed to spin it or how I needed to flight it. Yeah, fascinating to see. Tier Hatton just a superb ball striker. I’m sure Tier will be making that trip over to Beth Paige. Ros St. George is a be disappointed with that, but Port Rush the last time we were there maybe tells a story. He will embrace Beth Paige. He will. He’s good. They’ll love They will love a player like Yeah. Terrell. Yeah. Yeah. Have you followed Liv at all? Have you What do you think of the Liv or any opinion on that the tour that I I’m of the opinion I mean it depends on where you were and are in your career. Yeah. couple I didn’t really see or understand that. But, you know, I could certainly see some of the players where they were are in their career, whether they think they were going to win on the PGA tour anymore or be factors and majors, they wanted to set up generational money. I get that. That’s okay. Um, but is there a pathway back? I don’t know. Doesn’t look like it at the moment. I do miss Brooks. I do miss Dustin. I do miss Bryson. And I do miss ter and rom and rom. Um, but you get to see them, you know, together, you know, three or four times during the year. But, you know, it’s I I thought it was it’s all very personal. I don’t I don’t condone it, but I also don’t didn’t really embrace it. We always talked about it, my wife and I, what would you have done when you were 25, 35, or 42 years old? Could have been three different answers. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. So, Tier Hatton just going through his wedges, getting started his warm up. He will be off at 9:36. Let’s have a look. Little jump on that left heel as he works up through the ball. There it is. Interesting to see. Great contact. Just a superb ball striker. Almost like who would it be? Like a Scott Hul style of a swing. Remember Scott Ho like a great iron player? Yes. Absolutely. That kind of up and down. Up and down. Yeah. You played a lot of Lynx golf with Tiger during your practice rounds and stuff. What did what were the things that he told you or like observations that he had about playing links coming let’s say from Florida or coming from PJ tour? He was able to adapt and he he prepared himself, you know, not that our courses in Orlando were going to get you ready for Lynx golf, but he also understood, you know, how to flight your ball and what it would do when it hit the ground. And, you know, he would he would work for that. He would prepare for that. Great shot maker. Great shot maker. Great putter. always wanted to play the proper shot. Yeah. Left pin, little draw, right pin, little cut up against the wind, holding against the wind. He never was swinging anything across the wind. Always was playing um you know, the correct shaping of shots and never afraid to hit that shot. Have you chatted to him lately at all? I haven’t. Not not in a little while. You know, he’s kind of keeps his head down a bit at the moment. Yeah. Well, hopefully he’ll play some champions. got to be. He’s Greek because he can play with you. He can play. Bryson Dambo on the driving range must be furious with the damage that he did to himself yesterday. Seven over. Yeah. What kind of what will he find today? Will he just try to take the course on and just, you know, play as a possible? He’s only got to shoot, let’s say, five under. So, going to be interesting. Well, we leave Terrell and the lads on the driving range and we will go and join George Harper Jr. Well, an interview that’s always a special part of my Open Championship is chief referee Grant Moyer. Grant, another special time. How excited are you to be here and in action now at Port Rush? Yeah, well, it’s great to have uh got day one in the bag. Uh great to be at Port Rush again. It’s it’s not that long since we’ve been here, but such a great great venue. Really excited to be back. How is the venue looking from, I guess, a course management and a ruling perspective? It looks immaculate on the cameras. Yeah, well, the the course conditioning superb. Graeme beat and his team here from Port Rush have done a terrific job. You know, the greens are running beautifully. Firm, you know, now firmer than they were in 2019. That takes a lot of work to achieve that. And even with the rain that we’ve had, they’re still they’re still retaining their firmness. So, that provides a appropriate challenge for our players. Nice. So now, as we walk around this 18th green, I was just Oh, careful. Don’t get run over by the mower. I was saying to you before that there’s not a huge amount of historic pins here because we’ve only this is only the second open in recent history. So, uh, how do you go about finding the famous 18th pin or make creating one? Yeah. Well, you’re right. There isn’t there isn’t a set position here and and and sometimes even at venues that we’ve been at for for a long time, we change it up on the the final day. But uh yeah, we’ve got what we did in 2019. We’ve we’ve looked at that all around the course. We’re replicating some of those, but hopefully we’ve got some new things in store as well. Nice. And as you can see behind us here, Grant, they’re working on the stumps. Uh how much preparation goes on behind the cameras and each morning before the golf starts cuz you guys are up at the crack of dawn. Yeah. Well, the setup team and along with the the aronomists and the green staff are up first light. Uh loads of work being done just to achieve the consistency and pace with with the greens. Um testing them for moisture, testing their firmness, you know, where the bunker raking fairways are cut, the rounds are cut. It’s a ma it’s a massive operation and you really the almost the unseen unsung heroes of the open the green staff here at Royal Port Rush. Yeah. Well, they’ve got the stimp out and they’ll be trying to get them around 11, I’d say. Like how important is it to get that right so the ball doesn’t oscillate in the wind here at open venues? It’s a good point. Yeah, we’re always having to very keep a very close eye on the on the weather. Um, got to be careful with the green speeds by the coast and the links courses as you as you well know. We’re pretty comfortable that what we’re seeing with the winds isn’t going to give us um any significant issues. So, yeah, we’ve targeted 11 foot on the stimp. We think that that, you know, helps to accentuate the undulations in the green when we’re in a good place. Now, what number open is this for you and where does it rank in terms of enjoyment? because it seems to offer so much for the fans off the course, but what about on the course? Is this one of your favorite venues all of a sudden? Well, I love coming to Port Rush. Ever since we uh ever since we had the amateur championship here back pre209 and the decision was made that we were going to bring the Open Championship. It’s been a favorite of mine to visit. Obviously, I love all the venues. Um but this is certainly a special place to come. Nice. Grant, always a pleasure to chat to you. We wish you and your team all the best and enjoy the rest of the week. Much appreciated. Thanks, George. Yeah, fascinating to see all of the prep that goes into delivering an open championship venue. Matt Fitzpatrick, Hartong, Lee, Yakob, Scoff, Olison, and Harris English four underpar, and the pack chases. Christian Bazaden Hoot has bogei the first. He’s dropped back to three. We were going to see that. Tier Hatton, Scotty Sheffller, Ricky Fowler. Great work from Ricky Fowler. So much work to be done. Joined by Mark Row in commentary. Braasmus Hoygard Westy. Great from Westwood. Nikolai matching No, Rasmus was outlaw. So, he caught his brother. Friendly rivalry. Great from Rose Ram Lowry. Larry Larry Rowey I think was a very good first day. He must have been thinking about that for a long time. Yeah, absolutely. Simon, as was Rory as well. I think I think you know it’s just it’s you can’t Well, we said this yesterday. You can’t win it Thursday, you can’t win it Friday, you can’t win it Saturday, but you can play yourself out of it on any of those days. So, you know, I think good starts for a lot of the the favorites and a lot of our favorites as well, as you know, with Shane and Rory. And yeah, we we we’re we’re allowed to be a little partisan at the uh at the the Open Championship. We certainly are. Now the crowd has suddenly filled every available spot on the grand stand. Well, we all know why. Well, he he Rory arrived 1 hour and 24 minutes into the car park. Yeah. Before his tea time and headed towards the players area. The players which is amazing by the way. the players area. I have never seen it better. It’s incredible. Johnson Wagner did a piece on it. If you haven’t seen that, watch it. I’m sure it be on YouTube or somewhere. It takes you right through all the players areas. They’ve got everything in there. A gaming room. They’ve got table tennis tables. They’ve got a milkshake making center. Is there anything I need to add? They’ve got their own shop in there. They don’t need to go to the tent village. It’s incredible. It is. We used to change our shoes in the car park years ago if we were lucky. Yes. Who’d have thought 40 years ago? Looking good, isn’t he? Bryson today. I like that. I like that color combo. That’s That’s Oh, Ro. That’s I hadn’t even twiged that. So, here we go. Bryson up and over. Yeah. Yeah. But he we watched we were I was doing feature groups yesterday. I watched him all the way around and um yeah, he just doesn’t seem to I’m sorry to say this, but he doesn’t seem to get Link’s golf yet. I How could How crazy is that? Yeah, some of the places he was going, some of the shots he was hitting and his open championship record is not great. No, he was he was complaining a lot in chat yesterday about the spin rates and the way the ball was performing. He’s got about five or six people filming him down there catching screenshots, you know, and spin. His his record at the out there, seven, you know, missed cuts three, eighth, tied eighth. Okay. Yeah. Top 10 in a major is always a good result, but we’re looking at somebody that’s a, you know, a double major champion. You you you’ve got to you’ve got to sort of at some point figure out how to play Lynx golf. Yeah. doesn’t seem to adapt his shot shape or style or launch or speed. He bully it, you know, he he what he does is he he overpowers golf courses, doesn’t he? With his with his length and his aggression and, you know, um you can’t do that on Lynx golf. It’s it’s impossible. We saw him on a bank yesterday with a chip shot way above his feet and he missed it. He whiffed it. Now, it was in thick grass. It was a very difficult shot, but from the second he set up, I called it. I said, “He’s going to miss this.” Because he just wasn’t in the right position to play it. And you know, maybe whenever do you get a bank that steep and thick grass, but that’s what you get at the open. And when we used to play practice around Simon, we used to throw balls up there and we used to go and try those shots because hang on a minute, we might get one of these. Yeah, two US Open wins. I’m a big fan. I I must say I didn’t I’m going to be honest. I didn’t when he first came out. I didn’t sort of connect with him. I thought he was a bit petulant. I I I I didn’t really buy the whole scientist thing. And the whole act I didn’t get to start with. But I tell you what, last couple of years, he’s become for me a different person. He’s become a bit of a media darling. I I like his act now and I’ve suddenly gone from not being a fan to being a really big fan. That’s cool. I like that. Yeah, I think you can definitely be a fan of Bryson. I Oh, I like him. When he was 24, he behaved like a 24 year old should behave. You you know, you have you can’t you can’t hold that against somebody. I think Jordan No. Which is Here we go. Bryson. So, let’s go and find who George Hopper Jr. has chatting to. Yeah. Hey guys, I’m just on the range here delivering all sorts of balls and making sure everyone’s got their perspective balls. You’ve got your tight list. You’ve got everything. You got your Callaways, Taylor, mate. Okay, we can sort that out. Thank you very much. Thank you. We’ll take those. Thanks, Rory. There you go. Um, look, there was a few balls left, Rory. I don’t think he’s had enough of the short game area, but now he’s done there. You can see him cruise off over to the putting green. A nice effort indeed. But look how relaxed he is. He’s enjoying the chat with everyone, the crack, as they would say here. But, uh, this is the fun part, I guess. All the crowd have come here this morning for this moment. And he just cruises on by. He won’t. Traditionally, from what I’ve seen, he he he’ll have go straight past the putting green and over to the range. Certainly about to get a good cheer from this crowd as per usual. No doubt about it. He demands the attention. Justin Thomas right here going for the pink cashmere today. Not too bad. Not the worst option. So, so here we go. And look, uh, in terms of teamwork, in terms of passing over DY, I’d like to throw you the microphone now because Rory’s coming from my territory to yours. Thanks, George. Yeah. Harry Diamond, walk onto the ridge. Morning, Harry. Good to see you. Hi, Michael. And Rory himself is uh is now on the driving range here with Pete Finch. He’s all in blue, navy blue. Very smart today, isn’t he, Pete? Yeah, I mean, looking good. He was looking good for large parts of yesterday as well. I think he handled himself pretty well in the end and actually got the most out of his day that he could. So, I think second rounds are normally pretty good for Rory at the open. So, well, tell us who he starts in a moment. He’s just trying to pick his bay there. He’s going to bay number five. the grandson massive cheer because he walked all the way down yesterday. But they they’re all here to watch him, aren’t they? All of them. Every single person. Yeah. I mean, he’s going to take such a massive crowd. I mean, it it shows his popularity. I mean, it’s probably one of the fullstand on the entire property right now is at the driving range. And as soon as he gets up to leave, pretty much everyone else will as well. Round of 70 minus one. Uh he said, you know, it was difficult conditions on that back nine. Dropped three shots. We managed to make a a birdie on 17. I was in the 13th grandson last night with my kiddies watching Rory. They they were desperate to watch him as every junior in the country is. And uh 13th was a really fascinating hole. Everyone well not everyone 75% of the shots we saw went beyond the green into that little swell area. And he almost chipped in for a birdie too. It was just on the lip. the roars around that green and obviously you’ve got the 17th to the right hand side of of the grandson stand on on 13 where we were sat. They were just sensational. Absolutely brilliant. He picked up he dropped a shot, didn’t he, on on 14. He just he he made a lot of mistakes. He made a lot of mistakes, but 14 was a classic example where he misses the tough drive 14, but he he missed so many fairways yesterday, even with irons. And then obviously had to kind of get it out and then he had a bad pitch to the green, hit okay chip and then hold a great put to get out there with a bogey. Yeah, it was kind of like that pretty much all day. It was just a bit of a nervy bit of a round where he was feeling himself into it. As I said a couple of moments ago, massive crowd here in the grand stand. A little sigh because they wanted to walk him to walk all the way down. He says he knows he knows that everyone is supporting him and which is such a wonderful feeling but it’s also extra pressure but they they all love him. They’re all here for him. They want Rory Mroy to win the open championship. It’s about 10 deep there with their coffees. Cup of tea, cup of coffee. It’s it’s a little bit chilly. The wind has picked up. Conditions today, Pete? Uh they’re going to be pretty consistent. I think there might be a little bit of rain coming in this afternoon, but overall the morning starters, I think, are going to get the benefit. But we thought this yesterday, the actual morning starters had some terrible conditions, but Rory got away with most of the rain, but he got the cold and the wind, so it evened itself out. And I think today is going to be very similar to this. Kind of overcast, kind of fresh breeze, not too warm, but hopefully not as much rain. Oh my god, that was terrible yesterday. It was It wasn’t good. What did you make of his drive on the first yesterday? nervy. Nervy like the whole round yesterday, he didn’t look ever particularly settled. He didn’t look like the the confident Rory Mroy that we’re used to seeing when he’s at his, you know, heights of his powers. But I think today is going to be important in the sense that if he gets off to a good start, I reckon he can have a really low round because he should feel a little bit more settled now. Yesterday wasn’t a disaster. Listen, Rory Mroy is literally one of the best golfers in the world. He’s won everything there is to win now. But he will remember that first round from 2019 when he shot 79. He blew himself out of the tournament. He missed the court. He would have been playing on his mind. There’s no doubt about that. So to get through one under in tough conditions, I think was absolutely fine. He’s good in second rounds. Tell us some stats about that. Well, it’s just always seems with Rory that his first round and you get this with a lot of great champions. Tiger was always quite classic for this. Eases himself in on the first round, has a good second round, charges on Sunday, and then with Rory, he very rarely destroys a field on a Sunday. It’s always a bit of a nervy finish. So, he’ll want to try and get out and ahead by the last round and then hang on like all the rest of us with bit and nails. Tell us birdie opportunities on the front line. Where are they? Um, so today with this wind, I mean, we’re going to be looking at the the second, the par five, um, which he birded, which he birded. Obviously, you’ve got the fifth down the hill, which is birded, which birded. I mean, you tend to find that around here if you bird fives, three of them. Most of them are getable. And then the par threes, you’ve got to hang on cuz they were playing pretty tough yesterday. It’d be interesting to see what they’ve done with 16. They moved it a long way forward yesterday. Will it go back a little bit further because that could be carnage? Just to let you know about his card. Obviously that drop shot on the first hole just missed that putt for a par on the first. Then birdies at 257 out in 34. The pars 36 and on the back n there were those drop shots. He made birdie on the 10th hole. We like the 10th hole. 10’s a great birdie cuz it’s a very tricky drive. Um but if you want leg right yeah but if he wants to actually go low today which I mean listen a 67 66 is an amazing score out there amazing score but he’s got to tighten up his his tea again off the tea he’s just not hitting enough fairways and he was putting himself into some stinky positions where he had to hit out of bunkers he couldn’t go for greens. You know that’s the area that really needs to be sharpened up today. Fans are here. The stage is set. We can’t wait to see what he achieves in round two. We’re all behind him supporting him. He’s checking his phone, may maybe checking his stats or seeing what the weather’s doing. Okay, let’s get to commentary. And uh guys, you’ve got a great view of this range, haven’t you? Yeah, we certainly do. Rory Maroy, it’s a huge day for him today, Mark Gro. Yeah, it was interesting what uh what Vincy was saying there because I actually think today he’ll be more nervous than yesterday, believe it. And we saw palpable nerves on the first T yesterday. We saw it on the first green where he missed from no more than 3 ft. Yeah, it was down the hill and a little bit tricky, but you know, it’s amazing to think of a Grand Slam champion, a five-time major champion being nervous. This is a huge day to get through. How you, you know, yeah, 67 would be fabulous. Anything under 70 would be fabulous out there today. And you just have the feeling with Rory that today is crazy to say this, but about making the cut and laying that sort of ghost to rest from from the last time we were here. Should he do that? I think he might well go on and win this championship because I think he’ll freewheel at the weekend then. I think today is just a a monster day for him. Yeah, you do get that sense. 1009 is Maroy, Justin Thomas, and Tommy Fleetwood. They were they were quite untidy as a group. I think each one of those guys probably feels like you know what left some out there. Oh yeah. I mean, let’s I mean, to be honest with you, Rory got off to a really scrappy start, didn’t he? Left off the first and and a three putt from long range, missed a short one, but there you go. He did have a good stretch in the middle. He did. He’s done very well. He has made magic and including in 2014. Have a look at this. The Open to me has always been the biggest and best tournament that we play in. Go into Hoy Lake as one of the favorites to win feeling like my game was in good shape. 72nd Hoy Lake, the massive grand stands, you know, the standing ovation. Even just thinking about it now, I get goosebumps and hairs in the back of my neck stand up. It’s a memory that will stay with you for a very long time. Champion golfer of the year and the winner of the gold medal. It’s something you dream about. I think the most famous trophy in golf, one of the most famous trophies in all of sport. So to be able to have my name on it, you know, with so many other greats of this game, you know, it does it means an awful lot. testing. All right, we’ve made it into the grand stand to watch Rory because I believe this is one of the best views in the house. There is not an empty seat in sight and fair enough, too. If you are at the open, this is certainly a good place to be. So, let’s go see if we can find some punters. Who wants to You look like a chatty bloke. All right, what’s your name, mate? Logan. Logan, I’ll just pull up a pew next to you, mate. Pretty good seat you got here. How nice is it to watch the open from this view? Yeah, there’s a few boys hitting the big. Bryson’s letting a rip. Yeah. Yeah, it’s nice. Who’s your favorite player out here on show? Uh Bobby. Bobby went down to the corner. Bobby. Bobby. Bobby McIntyre. Now Sam, if you can pan as far right as you can, you’ll see lonely old Bob down there just having some time to himself. Uh you know, that sums up the Scottish well. Uh they just just relaxed, no media attention, absolutely loving it. And then if you keep working back, we got Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood. It’s a big man. Big M Woo fan. Good stuff. So, let him let him cook. How cool is it to watch from here? What are you noticing watching from up here, Logan? What do you love to see the most? Just the balls dragging on the irons is just ridiculous. Yeah, it’s nice to see. You think the range is better because you actually get to watch them hit 30, 40, 50 balls rather than the odd one out on course. Yeah, you can actually see like how far they’re hitting it as well. It’s nice. Yeah. How how’s your golf game? Uh, it’s all right at the moment. Yeah. Can’t really get off a tea, but everything else is good. I’m a master with a with a potter. Yeah. Where are you from? Uh, just up. Oh, nice. Play masarine. Oh, perfect. So, having this having the open back on the island’s pretty special, wouldn’t it? Yeah. Yeah, I’d like to keep it here. I wouldn’t mind if they to put it down in Dublin as well. That’ll be nice. Okay. Okay. We’ll put the request in, mate. And a few coffees, few Irish coffees this morning. Uh, yeah. Probably getting the paints and let it rip. Let it rip. Okay. It’s It’s not It’s not even 9:30, mate. So, so fair play to you. Uh, on that note, uh, cheers very much, Logan. Uh, let’s let’s get back to the golf where, uh, uh, some of our favorites are back on show. Cheers, boys. There it is, Mark Row. The grand stand behind the driving range. It has been a packed place, a popular place, an interesting place from which to observe the warm-up. Yes, it is. And uh they’ll queue they’ll be well you can see the cues behind there. There’s no seats left in that grand stand. They’re just hoping desperately to to get a seat because right now you know many of the legends are out there, aren’t they? Look at that. There’s major champions everywhere. Yeah, it’s an interesting little group featured sort of an hour of golf. It goes Russell Henley, Tier Hat, Minwi. Those guys are 936. Bobby Mack, Bryson Dashambo and Rosie 947. Bryson Dshambo seven over par. Justin Rose two under. Yeah, it was impressive. Justin was super tea green yesterday. His game was in great shape and for me the I I felt that he played the best golf, the most consistent golf of the afternoon. No players scored better, but for me he was right on his game. I don’t know about you, Simon, looking at Rory there, do you think he’s paying homage to the great Sevy by Asteros with that outfit? I mean, it is just so typically Sebie, the the blue cashmere, the white shirt, the blue trousers. Um, of course, Sebie always had the V-neck cashmere, and he’s got the roll neck. But I I I love his outfit today. I think that is smart, sharp, elegant, and and traditional in a way. Wonderful. Mark, that you’re you’re ahead of the game. I I I’ve been watching his I’ve been watching to see how his right arm folds and see if he get and see if it’s too rigid too long and you’re but I mean I’d love that. I think you bring a lot to the to the commentary. It’s a he’s a it’s always very tidy. Well, you had John Cook in before me. Golfing legend. I mean I can’t compete with that. So I might as well be the fashion correspondent. You’d be amazing at that Rorowi. You look very smart yourself actually. So Rory Maroy, I feel work to be done today. Where does he need to get to? Does he need to get to let’s suppose it’s an easier scoring day today? Does it do the leaders get to eight under par today? Um yeah, I kind of was I was thinking seven. I thought someone might get to seven today. We don’t know what weather comes in. We we you never know with a Lynx golf course what you’re going to get. But I think if Rory finishes today underpar, I mean that might sound crazy, but if he finishes underpar, I think he’s in great shape going into the weekend. And anything more than that, he starts to become a favorite for me. How about that? So Maroy, Thomas, and Fleetwood off at 1009. Maroy one under, JT one over, and Fleetwood disappointingly two overp didn’t really get any good breaks yesterday. We had bunker gate yesterday, Mark. Did you see um Tommy Fleetwood hit it into a bunker and they hadn’t raaked it or it had been raked very poorly. I was always under the impression that with each group there was a bunker raker, but I understand that from yesterday it wasn’t going to happen. Now come on guys, you’ve got to sequence yourself up there. So Rory, you’ve gone too early. Okay, much better from JT and Fleetwood. Are we going to get Oh, this this now. Here we go. Rory. Tommy’s got his ball. JT, do not go early. Tommy’s gone for a little practice. Ah, Rory, where are you headed off to there, mate? You see, once again, I’m more concerned about the sweaters because I think JT’s won the sweater contest because I think the soft pink look is just gorgeous for out there today. And I think with Tommy, it’s interesting you say because we’re just an observation. He looks a bit tired and weary to me. He looks like almost like I could do with a break type of Tommy. You know what I mean? He’s had a frustrating year, hasn’t he? Let’s line him up here. So great to see them all up together. And now what we can do with our top tracer technology is just show you obviously Maroy a little bit further down the bag. 182 possibly an eight iron for Rory. It’s got the shape of an eight iron, hasn’t it? Let’s have a look. Flat carry. Yeah. 185. Yeah, I think he’s right on 200 as a seven. So, I mean, you’ve been watching all morning. Where where is the wind on the range this morning? It’s not really It’s not much at all. No, I’d say it was um it’s slightly into on the first. I did have a quick look at the first hole. Slightly into off the right on the first. Very slight. Okay. So, kind of it’s across the range then really, isn’t it? Gently across. Yeah. Fleetwood. Fleetwood needs. What are you thinking the cut is, Rowey? Two. Yeah, I mean it’s hard to tell, isn’t it? Um, normally it’s just a we’re going to have similar conditions. It’s just a look at what it was yesterday. Double it. I mean, that’s we we know the formula. Um, I think it stays at Yeah. Yeah, probably two. Probably two. Yeah, we’ll go with two for now. Yeah, I think you’ve got to assume two. So, so Fleetwood, I mean to if he could get back into into into the red, that would be great. Look at the crowd. That’s his goal. The crowd absolutely magnificent. This golf competition I we were in early. We started broadcasting early. People were pounding down the streets getting into position. The enthusiasm, lots of different lots of families, lots of lads coming in. It’s the heart the the crowd is the heartbeat of the golf. Do you remember the co years? No crowd. It was like playing golf in empty room. So Rory Maroy has brought all of Ireland with him. Shane Larry as well I thought did very well yesterday. Yeah, super. He really did. Victor Hovland two over. He kind of had it going and just, you know, finished off sloppily. Yeah. Same same with JJ Spawn, the US Open champion. He bogged three of the last four holes as well from being under par. But, you know, this is a sort of golf course where the even the most innocuous hole can catch you out. And there’s really no point I believe you can relax and think, great, I’m on a birdie hole. Maybe the par five as well, maybe. But, you know, apart from that, if you hit it in the rough, you can make a double in a heartbeat. Um, it truly is a wonderful golf course and as I say, you know, for for Rory. It’s such a big day today. He said already, he’s openly said he’s got two events this year that he’s actually bothered about. I mean, how about that? Won the RDER Cup and won the Open Championship here. Yeah. Oh, to win the Open the W to win the RDER Cup in America. So Rory was I think he’d come off and have a mixed bag from yesterday. Let’s take a closer look at it. We started with a bogey um Simon and you know a massive improvement however. Well well you say that you say that. Okay. Yes, I know that because he hit it out of bounds when we were here last time, but he was on that tea and he looked I mean, incredible to look at a player of this stature and and see noticeable nerves and it was left and it did miss the fairy and it was in the thick stuff and he hit a brilliant shot to get it onto the edge of the green and hit a great putt as well up to a couple of feet and missed it. So, those nerves obviously were there but I thought from that point on through 10 it was fabulous. Sam, he got himself to three on the path. I mean, he really did start to to to to turn up the screw and of course then you turn into a difficult stretch on the back n we all know how hard that stretches and then he popped in that birdie at 17. So a mixed bag. A mixed bag but is I think a a positive day. Yeah. But today’s more nervous. I’m telling you today is more nervous. Yeah. As it gets closer million%. Rory Maroy. There’s some great groups there, Spath, Ludvig Arberg, and Victor Hovland out right before at 958. See, the thing is, you know, Rory Maroy is one of the few players in the game that’s capable of brilliant things bordering on genius. if he if he suddenly gets into that zone, you know, he can w it round here on on a on a on a slightly windy day in 63 64, he can do that and he has the ball flight and the and and the control of the ball flight to be able to get at flags that other players can’t get at. So getting through to the weekend and getting into a reasonable position, he can still be one of your favorites. Yeah. Incredible that gap though, wasn’t it? There it is. There’s the scoreboard. So what Rory is doing, he knows that these numbers are the actual numbers. So what he’s trying to do is figure out what he thinks he’s hit it versus what the conditions are hit it. So if you watch, you’ll hit look across to the left there just to see the carry number. Victor Hovland work in progress. working really hard with Grant Weight making some great improvements to his technique. Havland coming back in form. Grant rate former player now really an excellent advisor, excellent coach. It’s interesting, isn’t it? You say talk about Grant Grant Wait, I saw him on the range was a great ball striker. Amazing. Yeah. Saurin Hansen was on the range coaching. He coaches the boy guards and and Manisero also great ball striker. So there it is a look from our overhead our plane. Superb. See that little bit of low cloud there. That that worries me when when you see a little bit of low cloud below the plane then I kind of get a bit nervous that maybe some inclement weather’s coming in. You know what? It’s coming Rowie. Right. It’s coming. But right now, maybe this is the calm before the storm. I mean, this is I mean, not that how could you ever do a forecast, right? It’s an amusing thing. But right now, at least, it’s kind of saying rain will come and not much of it at about 4:00. That’s what we got, right? And the wind is 11 mph right now. So, not very much. And it’s coming from the south. So, that’s kind of weird cuz that’s a different direction even than yesterday. There we go. Rory Maroy the flat carry number 239. Probably his for Ryan. Yeah, I was going to say I think that’s his for Ryan. I can’t I can’t get my head around that. It’s just it’s a beautiful action though. So classic. I mean the way it all the speed all comes to stops at the same time. Absolutely amazing. connection, isn’t it? It’s the connection and the flow of it. And I I actually like the fact that he practices the twizzle of the club on the range. Do you see that last shot? Struck it nicely. Little twizzle. It was beautiful. So you think four iron, which is about right. Look at the length of the shaft. I’m guessing you’re spot on, right? So that four irer. Yeah. And not well. So did he shank it? No. So Heath did shank it earlier. So he was disappointed. He was disappointed that we were recording that. So Maroy in his own world, Mike Bannon. Isn’t that lovely? I mean, Michael Bannon has coached him his whole life and there he is still there. I think that’s amazing. Rory’s a good guy. You know, he ever since he came on the golfing scene as a youngster, he’s always for me spoke truth, spoke honesty, spoke clearly, spoke from the heart, and I think he plays that way. He plays with his heart on his sleeve. That for me is the way I I want to watch a golfer. I want to We go through all the ups and downs with him. We’ve all had our head in our hands plenty of times. We’ve all cried tears at Augusta this year when he finally got the grand slam. And he finally, I mean, when he hit that wedge into the 72nd hole, I actually was on the floor, I was on my hands and knees with my No, not not at this point do you hit another poor wedge shot, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. And then, of course, well, when he actually came up with the brilliant wedge shot in the playoff and knocked it in, it was uh joyous. It was It was a great great moment in history. That’s historic when you do that. the Grand Slam, all of the majors. It was amazing that gap though, wasn’t it? The gap of 10 plus years. Yeah, it was more. It was Yeah. 14, whatever it was. But, you know, that’s the other thing that that that every single youngster can admire about Rory Maroy, every pro, every everybody in the game can admire is that resilience. Yeah. That belief, that never say I’m not going to do it attitude. I mean, we all think he should have won 15 majors by now. We we know how good he is. We know the talent level. We know we know what we see. You think the Mast’s victory opens the flood doors to more majors? Row, I Yes. I I thought there would be a big comedown period after that, to be honest with you, where he would actually start to, you know, just question motivations and and where he wanted to play and what he wanted to do. Um, and I think he’s probably well, this could be the watershed of being through that, Simon, to be honest with you. This could be this championship here, should he go on to have a good day today, contend it, and end up winning this. I mean, all that can matter to him in his life, his major championships. Yeah, I do. And an away victory in the Ryder Cup. Yeah. Yeah. Of of course, that’s hugely important. But I’ll I’ll ask you a question. When he does eventually retire, how many majors do you think he’ll have? Double figures. Yeah, I would have said I would go for 10. I was going to go for 10. I I I I think that’s doable for him. You know, injury obviously that that that anything in the way of that that’s uh not controllable. Uh you can’t control like Tiger when Tiger started to get more and more and more injured, you know. Let’s have a look at it. There is sometimes too much of a loop where that club goes too much outside in the back swing and then it when he rroots it the rroot is too big and it kind of tilts him out of angle. Um but this looks pretty good to me like kind of more it’s a tiny bit steep to shallow which is what you want. Well, he talked a lot, didn’t he, about the fact that he was working on pretty simple things and he was working on width in the takeaway and he was very aware of trying to get the club in the right place in the first sort of 18 24 in of the takeaway. And that is that pretty much ties in with what you’re saying, doesn’t it? Because if he gets that width, he’s less likely. Yeah. Yeah. For me, he’s one of those guys, some guys need to set it later, some guys need to reset it later. He’s one of those guys I I think he’s one of those guys who needs to set it earlier so he doesn’t get too much um rroot in that change of direction which is amazing. So if we look at the sort of the Rory Moy superpower kind of look at those hips see that rivet on his belt buckle there it’s going to drop and rise. So it’s the sinking in transition of the pelvis and then the explosion up through impact. So this will be now his driving iron. What we now gone back to, we used to carry one iron, didn’t we? That was our driving iron in the old days. But now it’s got a two on it or even a three, but it can have anything up to 16° or down to 16° of loft on it. Yeah. I mean, that’s incredible to me. I mean, it’s an iron in essence. Yeah, the game has changed, Mark. It’s amazing. He’s gone to the 3-wood now. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was speaking to John Cook. He said, you know, probably like stock 7 iron was like a 150 shot, you know, when he was when he was in his pump and and Rory’s 7 iron is 200 yards. Yeah. Well, you’d have to say that would be in his pump. Yeah. I mean, but that’s quite short for a 7 iron, you know, but that’s that’s 1990. Yeah, I was playing in the 90s. Yeah. So, not particularly well. No, actually, I was playing okay in the 90s. Yeah, I was doing all right then. I still never forget my golf lesson. I got a few. Yes, I still tell everybody. There I am on the range at the Lancome Trophy in Sam Samesh. We had a French openers this year. Down the range walk, Simon Holmes just stands behind me for 5 minutes. How are you, Rowey? I said, well, it’s not really feeling very good this morning. And you went, you know, you’re just a bit disconnected, mate. Just just just try and slow your bottom half down. I said, well, how do you want me to do that? and you said to me, “Just imagine there’s a beach ball and just try to squeeze a beach ball between your knees and that might just slow you and I thought, well, that’s interesting. I’ve never heard that before.” So, I tried it and I tried it and I thought, “That’s better. That’s better.” So, I went out on the golf course and I thought about that the whole week and I picked up the trophy at the end of the week. I won the Lancome trophy that week and I promise you, I had that tip in my head the whole week. Isn’t it an amazing game? It’s a crazy game. Five minutes. the most simple tip and you help me win that. You help me win that championship. Yeah, it’s a mad% mad game. Or maybe it’s just played by lunatics, Rowey. Anyway, well, there’s no doubt about that. Let’s have a look. Maroy 3wood. I think this is off the tea. So, he’s obviously thinking, you know, when he’s going to I mean, he played a lot of T- shots yesterday with his driver. He didn’t drive the ball well yesterday, Ro, which is unusual for him, isn’t it? Unusual for him. But, you know, he can get around this golf course. He can get around this golf course with a 3-wood and a and a driving iron. So, first hole. Yeah, but he’s not going to be hitting that club, is he ever, off this tea. That’s the thing. It’s what you can make that comparison, but it it’s not relevant. I mean, we’ve seen Aaron Ry, who’s the straightest driver on the PGA Tour, hit a driver off the first TE, but Rory’s hitting an iron, and I tell you what, he’s hitting an iron and he’s struggling to hit the fairway down there. So, that’s psychological. Yeah, he’s got that holes in his head. It’s not a friendly start, is it? OB right, OB left. Let’s have a look now. Driver for Maroy. That is his superpower. Do you know what? We we we talk about his driver being his superpower, but his short game is is is Oh, I’m going to say it’s it’s it’s really good now. I mean, it is it’s he’s a great bunker player and he’s and he’s got a lot of variety in his short game. Oh, we would take that. What’s his carry? 315. Oh, look at that. 330. 330. That’s quite 340. I thought I saw 340. 340 total. Oh, 340 total. Yeah, only 340 total. It’s just I think that’s his opening T-shot there. Let’s have a look. Look at this. Amazing. Everyone’s looking at the number. Let’s go. 345. 330 again. very consistent 191 and everyone going he did what? The thing about it is though you can’t see the ball unless you’ve got amazing and you pick it up early. You cannot see the ball. You say that because of the launch angle as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s 140 ft high. Yeah. That’s what I That’s what I love about it. I mean I mean you’ll know this cuz you know everything but he he just got to be in the top 10 sort of apex hitters in the game. Yeah. 133 apex. So that’s his kind of PGA Tour Apex. I think probably Matsyama hits it higher than him. Bryson, but I mean Rory Rory can have a couple of 160s if you if it’s the weather’s correct. I mean it’s like sending a ball up into the atmosphere. So Rory Maroyy’s best results at the open. Amazing he was at Royal Liverpool. Incredible. And then look at the consistency, the heartaches, especially especially since 2020 uh two St. Andrews. Yeah. Yeah. Puted the trophy out his hands on the back nine. Really? Well, that putt on 17, the the two putt from around the bunker on 17. Cam Smith. He he hasn’t done so well since then really Cam Smith. So I did used to love watching him play. I got to say he was amazing. So Maroy also looking at the numbers that you were just looking at. Victor Hovland grinding as he does the fans old and young. Lots of young faces we have seen at this open championship. Have a look at this. magnificent balance. Is he the best driver of the golf ball in your mind when you look at a combination of accuracy and length in the game? I think no doubt. And I mean when he’s won golf tournaments very very often, it is because he can bully the golf course to death with his T-shots. Right. So let’s have a look. Great line here. Mike Bannon in behind. It’s like a controlled explosion, isn’t it? It’s like a ground to ground missile. Yeah. Three. I mean, it’s it’s amazing with 330. It’s just turning up the power very slightly now. 190 ball speed. 144 a pound. It’s the the numbers are incredible. Curve a foot. No, stop it. The frozen rope. Stop it. 338 with a foot of curve. That’s super human. Do you know what a frozen rope is in French? Do you know what? This will be probably the most exciting thing that will happen to me today hearing this. Laord joule. Super. Thank you. I don’t know if that’s going to be of any use to you at all, but there it is. Oh, I’ it’s already in my subconscious for when I see one of the French players hit it straight. Here we go. So fascinating to see and some great golf coming your way. If you’re out here, you can feast your eyes. Next out, McIntyre, Brighton, Dashambo, and Rose Spith, Ludvig, Orberg, and Hovland. 326 is the best that Bryson’s done so far. Yeah, but Rory’s looking over at that cuz it’s up there, and he’s just going to leave that little message up there. So, lads, follow that. Yeah. And I and I think that will will stay there until uh Aldrich Pot Heater comes on the range and then that will go from 340 to 370. You can’t believe that, can you? 370 carry. Yep. Yep. Fascinating to see. Do you know looking at Raasmus there, that’s Raasmus has got power on board. Nikolai got power on board. Those those two guys are flushers. Yeah, I think they’re in the Ryder Cup. Do you think they’re on Ryder Cup? They got to be in the R cup. Oh, there they are. Team team Hoyard is is definitely in this RDER Cup. Surely Nikolai is doing everything now. He’s coming into form. Raasmus has been playing nicely. Surely. Anyway, let’s have another joyous look at that action. It is speed, power, balance, connection. Rory satisfied. A nod. There must be some heat on that. Do you suppose the sweet spot is hot? The the dog must be Kevlar. Yes. All the Open Championship bags look, don’t they? Each company has their own bag. Tailor made bag looking very sharp, very stylish. Have a look at this. This is a recreation of his first T- shot. Absolutely. Yep. Recreation of the first T-shot. He will come in from behind. He will visualize the line. Yep. What do you think? You visualize the applause. You think you’ll visualize how he how his heart rate is and then the silence. And now let’s hear Rory Maroy. Hopefully not snap up left. Oh, don’t do that. Look at it. Look at it. Look at it. There you go. Now, what is it, Rowey? It is Laord J. frozen rope. Yeah. And it’s also 277 yards. Laor Jo. There you go. Off he goes. Please do that off the first T. Rory, our work here is done. Looking good. Look, that was a good practice session. It was flushed. I think he said I think he said every shot he wanted there. Yeah. Yeah, he flushed it. He flushed it. You know, now he’s just got to deal with the just the first two nerves and get into the round and settle into the round and 19 minutes. Let’s go over and see where George is. Yep. Well, the moment has come. Harry, Diamond, Roaring Maroy on their way. 10:09 the boys tea off. There he is striding it out. I love seeing him in all blue. Very open color scheme today. All the crew absolutely loving it. The boys are staying close by this week. The full team are here. It truly is an exciting prospect. He is 10:09 for those at home. And as you just saw with the team in the commentary box finishing on that driving on to know exactly what is coming in a few moments. So if you saw the broadcast this morning, this is the journey onto the buggies. It’s about 3 minutes to get back to the putting green. Off he goes all aboard. There’s one lucky driver. 17 minutes until he is on the tea. So, always leaves a little bit of time for a few putts. He just has one ball. Rolls him out. Michael Bannon, Harry Diamond all tucked up on the back and the crowd send him on his way in style as they so often do. He did well to fight back last night. had a bit of a rough patch through the middle of his round, but he’s finished okay. He’s finished in the red. And in terms of a first round in a major, that is very good. In particular, very good for Rory, who’s traditionally been a slow starter. So, he is in this game and today could be his moving day. Yeah, thank you, George. Um, the gallery has left the building. Everyone off to see Rory Maroy. give you some news from the golf course. Mark Leechman, the great Aussie, five underpar today through 12. So, we were sort of saying that earlier, Mark, that there could be some good scores out there. Seems like Leechman is proving that point. Yes, it’s uh that’s an excellent effort so far from Leechman. Showing everybody the way, isn’t he? Showing everybody what’s possible. That’s the interesting thing when you see somebody out there on that score. mentally you think well obviously there’s there’s something good out there but he is he is a long way ahead of what everybody else is doing at the moment great as you said to see Ricky Fowler there inside the top 20 at a couple under part Aaron Ry continues to improve playing over there on the PGA Tour and we hope the best for Lee Weston as well who qualified at Donald Lynx and came out yesterday at one point was four underpar rider cup captain Keegan Bradley proving to everybody that he should be on the team. Rder Cup player. Yeah, Keegan Bradley. He has to play. Yeah, he has to play 100%. You know what? He if he delegates to one of his vices to to to do a call Tiger. Just call Tiger. Tiger’s not doing anything in September. Just call Tiger. Boom. And let’s let’s let’s bring Tiger back into the game. He’s he’s too invisible. I know he’s got to do his rehab and everything, but we need him a part of the game. There it is. Overhead shots. Some low cloud, but mostly sunny, mostly fair, not much wind, lovely scoring conditions. It’s another perfect day. Becoming champion golfer of the year is rarely a straight line. I got to play my first open very fortunately in St. Andrews. As a golfer is most special place in the world to play an open there is incredible and I actually played quite well. Nicely done. 300 under through 10. I didn’t qualify in 2011. I didn’t qualify in 2012. 2014 I shot 65 in the final round actually to finish ninth which was pretty cool. That was my best finish ever in a major and then from 2015 onwards kind of all downhill at the open championship. Going to break a few eggs before you can make an omelet. I was just going through such a bad phase in my career. And then 2018 was Carnusi where myself and my caddy split up and probably one of the lowest points of my whole career. I don’t think I’ve ever been in such good form going into an open. What a start. Shane moves to 11 on He’s leading the Open Championship. I get down onto the tea and I’m looking around. The crowd are going mental and I’m just taking it all in. I’m like, this is incredible. Oh, what a boys in Lowry. There’s no in between today. Like, it’s either going to be one of the best days of my life or one of the worst. What a time to throw in another birdie. I have to go and win. And that’s the way I felt. And thankfully, I did. Just swing. Visit golf.golf to find out more. Just swing. Visit golf.golf to get started. Why not give golf a go? Just swing. Swing wild. Swing weird. Swing wonky. Whoever, however, wherever. It doesn’t matter. Just swing. Head over to golf.golf to start playing. Find out where you can learn to play at golf.golf. Yeah. Fascinating to see the top tracer technology. This is Rory Maroy. The work that he’s done Thursday and Friday, Thursday morning, Thursday afternoon and Friday. Those are his shots. That’s his performance. The longest carry 347. Now on the putting green. Aiming a bit all over the place already there. But look at the cannons going out the back of the driving range. Marky needs to sort of get the putting. No, I think the putting was pretty good yesterday. Just a couple of loose ones, wasn’t it? Kind of looked like he had the speed in there. Was frustrated. Got he got into about spots a couple times. If you were going to have your confidence dented, it would have been done at the first with the little 2 and 1 half footer down the hill that he missed. And it wasn’t. And from that point on, there was there was four birdies through 10 and a further bird he picked up at 17. You don’t do that without putting. Okay. So, I’m not concerned about his putting at all. Yeah. Fascinating to see. Look at all those. It’s like a fireworks show as it all comes together. Rory Maroy this to win the open. Rory Maroy this to win the open. Damn. So Rory just visualizing the break trying to get the speed. Yeah. Yeah. I mean there’s no Yeah, that’s exactly what he’s doing, isn’t it? I mean, you know, look, he’s just he’s he’s just picking random putts as if he was on the course and just reading them, standing over them, and and and getting a a feel for pace, as you say. There’s no mirrors, there’s no gadgets, there’s no gizmos. This is just purely about, you know, just a a optics, isn’t it? Yeah, optics and a little feel and touch. And there is an adjustment to make when you come back to a Lynx golf course. We do have a little bit slower greens um because we have a we have a little bit of more dangerous win. So, how about that? The career grand slam winners 1935 it all started and because that was where the sort of the name was coined Jean Saren Hogan 53 a man whose swing is still on every single phone of every single tour player in the world. Gary player legend only Arnold Palmer missing from there really Nicholas Woods and Maroy 1953 Hogan won the three majors he played in and couldn’t play in the other one to to actually have the grand slam in in the year because he couldn’t get back quick enough to play in in from the open championship to America to play in the USPGA because they were traveling by boat in those days. Yeah. Yeah. So he in essence he in essence won the three majors he entered and the only three majors he could win in 1953. Who will be the next to join that? I would say well nameka. Keeper potentially. Yeah. Yeah. Kepka. He was surprising. I I thought he warmed up amazingly well. I was watching him working so hard with his coach Pete Cowan and he just didn’t seem like he kind of got it kicked off at all yesterday. So So hitting a few long putts now. What is that? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15. Yeah. So that was a 45T sort of pace feel. Yeah. Not even to a hole, just to a spot. I think actually would be going to the old hole just behind him and probably slightly over hit it. But this is all field related practice. This is all trying to hit a spot at different distances. Amazing how every player has a different way of practicing as he walks past the putting mirror there. That’s somebody’s just vacated for a few minutes. Yeah. Interesting to see you. You can’t you can’t put too much science on this. It’s just like No, this is great. Is it Is it how I feel it is? Is my Is my read in? Is the green a little faster than I feel it is with my eyes? Is it a little slower? Well, they’ve been consistent. the the the the stint meter, the green speed, which is which is, you know, obviously read by a stint meter, has been 11 both days. Today, they are just slightly uh softer, only by a couple of millimeters, but they have a machine that measures the the firmness of the greens. So, they are a fraction softer because of I think 3 mm of rain that fell over the course of yesterday. The ball run out there. Look at the ball release. Yeah, they’re beautiful. The rains are fabulous. Yeah, they’re fabulous. The course is fabulous. Condition wise, I’ve never seen an open championship better. Maroy, it is 10:01. 8 minutes to get ready. Lot of curve on that, wasn’t there? Lot of swing. But he’s paying He’s not worried, you know. He’s not, this is not in any way, shape or form bothering him that he’s not making them. It is all field related. No, it is fascinating. Well, those two will have company. They will head out onto the back n in about 6 minutes time onto the front n T1. Let’s have a closer look at the front nine of Royal Port Rush. Huies, one of the most difficult opening shots on the open roa. Any player will be happy to simply avoid crossing the white stakes which line both sides of the fairway. Echoes of Rory Mroyy’s opening iron in 2019 will remain in the minds of players and fans alike. Unlike traditional links opening holes, there is no gentle start here with the hole playing over par in every round of the 2019 Open Championship. Giants Grave. After the tough opening hole comes a par five second hole that offers one of the best birdie chances of the round. The fairway narrows after the slight dog leg and the biggest decision for those that miss the fairway will be where to leave their layup. The cross bunkers and undulating fairway will mean many could lay back further to give themselves a better chance to attack the flag. A large runoff the front left of the green means players need to play the approach with caution. Isa the first of four par 3es and the shortest of them at 176 yds is a very stern iron test. Local knowledge states that everything breaks in off the right side of the green and the runoff area to the left side will suck up many balls throughout the week. Looks simple on paper, but any crosswinds will make just binding and holding the green a very good result. Fred Dies a challenging hole in 2019 now poised to play even tougher having been lengthened ahead of this year’s championship. out of bounds runs very tight to the right hand side and the fairway slopes deceptively from the right beating balls back toward the center line but also toward the fairway bunkers. The approach to a slightly raised green will be blind for all pins on the left side of the green as well as playing into the prevailing wind or here is always a good score. White Rocks, the first sight of the ocean at a spectacular par4 that is sure to be a popular landing spot for fans throughout the championship. Despite playing only 372 yds, it’s a hole that brims with danger. A true riskreward dog leg with those willing to bite off more of the corner able to hit just short wedges into the green or even get close to the front. With the undulations of the fairway and the blue ocean in the background, this is one of Royal Port Rush’s true iconic holes. Harry Colts with the players backs to the ocean. Now it’s the second of the par threes. With a tailwind from the sea, it will play a lot less than its 193 yds. But the large green will offer a wide range of pin options. The back right pin in particular will make for a very tough par. Current point, the second of the par 5s is also the longest at 607 yds. Another of Royal Port Rush’s iconic holes. It was created ahead of the 148th Open in 2019. Imposing dunes line the right side, hiding the ocean and disturbing the prevailing wind. A huge fairway bunker guards the right side and anyone who ends up in here will play it as a true threeshotter. The greenside dunes will be covered by spectators creating a natural amphitheater to see which players can tame the undulating green. Click here to watch Rory Mroyy’s take on the seventh. Done loose. To hit driver would require a draw off the AT, and many players will choose less club in favor of accuracy. Anything left will be swallowed up by the dunes and the spectators that line the fairway. The eighth, like many greens at Royal Port Rush, is crowned with runoffs on all sides. Players will favor hitting deeper into the green to avoid the nasty front right bunker. Tavern, the final hole on the outward nine. And things don’t get any easier. The hardest hole on the front side in the final round of the 2019 Open. At 432 yds, it can feel like much more when the wind is hurting. Sweeping from right to left, the sight line off the tea is nothing but thick rough and some pot bunkers at the turn of the hole. The large green has two tiers, meaning many will be tested on their lag putting. A par at the knife should not be taken for granted. It’s absolutely beautiful. Here is our aerial shot. Our plane circling over giving you a view of the area. Sort of have a bay here. The beach is amazing and up over the dunes. Paradise on earth. Golfing paradise. Mark Row. Absolutely. And it doesn’t just sort of end here. You go down a little bit further down to Port Stewart. There’s the old course of Port Stewart. And you, you know, this is a golfing mecca. I I I haven’t played any of these courses. And actually this week, I’ve decided that I am going to come and play these golf courses. I am going to make a trip. I’m going to make a special trip, organize it, come with my wife, spend a week, maybe five, six days, and and and travel around here because I I’ve fallen in love with this coastline. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. If you haven’t if if it’s not on your list, your list is no good because Royal Port Rush should be on every single list. It is absolutely magic. And some other port as you say there. Um, Odd Glass, I think it is. Odd Glass down by County Down. County down. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Harris English going through his paces with Justin Parson’s. Quite a tall fell, Harris English when I’m telling you. I was surprised how tall he was when I walked on the range. And 67 yesterday, was he? Yeah. Brilliant. Yeah. Fabulous day yesterday. He is following Maroy, Thomas, and Fleetwood. He is the 1020 time with Nick Taylor, the Canadian and lovely Tony Feno. Have a look at that. That’s the Harris English card. Seven birdies out there. It’s a good tally. That’s some very very good golf indeed. You I don’t know. Did anybody go bogey free yesterday? I I can’t imagine any Rosie have a bogey. Oh, you might be right. That’s a very good shout by the way. Oh. And I told you, didn’t I earlier? I said for me, he was the most impressive TT Green. Yeah, good shout, Simon. That’s impressive. Well done. Plunk that out immediately, didn’t you? Yeah. So, I’m I’m I’m I’m thinking he must be the only one, but I mean, it’s just so hard to go bogeyree around this golf course. Yeah. I tell you though, Harris English, he is some player. Beth Paige. He’s Yeah, he’s Oh, yeah. He’s not% He’s not going He’s not He’s not And he won’t go away. He I’ We’ve seen him put on some great victories. He was amazing when he won the century in Kapalooa. I mean, just some of the shots that he hit. Another massive talent. I mean, that’s one of the things. It’s like it’s so hard to get a result at a major, isn’t it? It’s only four. It’s so difficult. Yes. But I do think it changes last day and particularly back nine of a major. It does change. See, I like that every in the gum in the bin. Harris English. That’s a little gold star for your chart. Well behaved. Like to see that. So you are a traditionalist, aren’t you? Do you know what? I hate seeing rubbish on the ground. That upsets me. Do you know what I hate when I watch the PGA talk of is when they spit. When it’s the chis it, the chewing tobacco and they No. No. No, off. I think that’s a shot penalty for me. Yeah, in play it’s pretty bad. So, Christian Bazaden Hoot back to three, back to four under par. Raasmus. Nice work, Ra Rasmus. Brilliant. It’s brilliant. And Brian Harmon, links specialist, medium hitter, gritty as you like, he’ll love this course. I mean because he can’t you his lack of power or his as a medium hitter he has to find other ways to do it. But you can you can pull this course apart with the precision which is what his skill is. Yeah. You’re seeing names now starting to appear, aren’t you? That that won’t disappear. They’re going to be around the whole weekend. It’s a fabulous leaderboard. It is. The cream has has arrived very quickly to the top, hasn’t it? I I’ve been disappointed I think for a bit. Bryson I was hoping was be in the mix. You know I kind of half expected that strangely enough. Um then Nikolai at two under. Yeah. Four under. Yeah. Hoy guards are right in this. Who will be the first Hoy guard to win a major? Oh very different personalities if you ask me. And they’re both I think they’re both going to have a chance this week. Yeah. No be interesting. Ryder Cup player/captain Keegan Bradley just continuing great form. All Irish hopes well many many hopes on Shane Lowry, John Ram, Phil Mickelson, Maroy. I tell you what’s unbelievable is how many major champions are inside the top 30. That is for me I I’m just looking at that leaderboard and I can’t remember seeing that many major champions in the mix. And that’s this golf course. That is what it is. It’s not about hitting it a long way. It’s not about overpowering it. This is a strategic It’s a game of chess. Yeah. This week, it’s a game of chess. It’s a game of major chess for these players. No, it’s a very good show. I think that’s going to be how you have to play it. And I mean, we’ve got amazing conditions today. The conditions yesterday were inconsistent. You know, there was a forecast that came out. It didn’t follow the forecast at all. Ah, Wakim Neman. I was watching him. He’s an absolute flusher. Nico Echavaria from Colombia was explained to us that he never ever has been this cold in his whole life. Bless him. Christopher Wright, one of the stars of the DP World Tour this year so far. He was a couple under par yesterday. Let it slip. But what a couple of weeks he had through Belgium where he shot 62 final round to get to the playoff in Belgium at the Sudal Open and win that and then 60 the final round the following week and nearly won again. Yeah. No, great to see. So important. DP World has been a place where stars have formed their skills. Brian Campbell, recent winner in the PJ tour, very medium hitter, the shortest hitter on the PJ tour. It’s not the It’s not the thing you want to be known as is the shortest hitter on tour, is it? I tell you what, what you want to be known as is a winner. I you know, of course, of course, and we talked about this golf course being a a course you can’t overpower. There will always be courses where length is not imperative or as imperative as other golf courses. He beat pot heater in a playoff to get his first win. He’s won again. He’s a twotime winner. Yeah. I tell you what, you can call me the shortest on the on the tour if you want to. And if I end up my career with four or five wins, happy days. I don’t care. No, it is amazing. And and winning’s everything. Yeah. Winning’s everything. And but I mean the way the game goes, especially on the PGA Tour, the medium hitter is such a massive disadvantage, you know. But hang on, let’s talk about medium hitters. Let’s be honest, right? Um if you look at the PGA Tour stats, I think the top 100 hit it 300. Is 300 now considered a medium hitter? I I mean, you can make that argument, can’t you? But I mean, listen, 300 is is is good is good driving of the ball. Yeah. Jakob Scoff Olison, the leftander. I like the way you said that. I think you’ve spent some time in the in those sort of in the Scandinavian countries. You have, haven’t you? I have. Yeah. Did you say scoff? You could scoff. Scoff. You said scoff. You’ve got to give it a little bit of that. Yeah, I saw that. You see, I’ve been calling him scoff. Yeah. But you see, I’m a northerner, so to me it’s scoff. But I love the way you did that. The Danes. You got to love the Danes. Anyway, let’s go. I like that. I like that. Look at that. It’s lovely posture. Lovely grip. That is absolutely textbook. Well, it just plays golf from the middle of the fairway. It’s a beautiful golf swing. 280. Let’s have a look. Now, Rory was what, 330 337 I think was the longest. I think Rory hit 270. 161 ball speed 173 ball speeds kind of PJ tour average. So, just a 60 odd yards behind Rory. more. Slightly more. Yeah, I got to say I would find it a little hard playing with Rory. I’ve never Yes. I’ve never played with anybody that hits it that far, I don’t think. But if I was in a tournament and I I kept looking up and my playing partner was 70 yards ahead of me eventually will get a little annoyed. I might snap his driver. Yeah. I played in a a sort of a a a competition in Samaritz last summer and Martin Borgamire was my um playing partner. And is that the world is that the world long drive? And on the 18th hole he he carried it 419 yards, which is quite good. Beastly, isn’t it? Yeah. Is he Can he actually play as well? He can really properly play. Okay. We were magnificent as a pairing. Well, I knew you would be. Absolutely. It was Midland and Lodge. Every time I’ve ever asked you, “How’d you play?” I was magnificent. I was But it is. It’s all just a case of sort of the Well, it is you have in your head, isn’t it? With your six shots that you get on the first T. Yeah, you normally are. Nothing better than hanging out. Nice shoes on a Friday. They’re new. They’re out the box. It might be a rookie era at the Open Championship getting a brand new pair of shoes out. The shoes are so comfy now. They’re not like I I have to say those are those I mean and those are those those FJ joy shoes there that is like you haven’t got them on it’s like a pair of slippers. I know but they’re stable though. I don’t think now we I heard you talking about this the other day the technology that goes into shoes now days but it is it is incredible. But I think that the fashion fauxar with the socks I’m have you seen the light blue shorts. No no no you spotted the socks. Yeah. No. No. Sorry, Brian. They’re bad socks. I’m not I’m not Do you think they’re the little anklets? Well, they they’re neither, are they? They’re They’re kind There you go. Are they Are they actual socks that they go further up? I think they’ve got stripes on them. I think they’re not as bad as we originally thought. Tell you what, he’s straight, isn’t he? 15 ft of curb. That’s Well, that’s that’s not bad. Breeze is slightly off the right hand side. Now he’s 226 now. So, he’s moved up to what would be his I’m going to say three. I think that’s a three iron for him. I don’t think it’s his driving iron, is it? Oh, it might be actually. It might be. Yeah, it might be with a graphite shaft. Yeah, I think the socks aren’t as bad as you thought. I think they’re actually multicolored. They’re longans. I think they’re they’re actually pretty good. When it went to cream, I thought that’s his skin. I thought they’re No, no, no. But they are actually they’re long longer socks. I think they’re sort of like one of those rock socks, you know. Are you a stripey sock man? Oh, I can absolutely do stripey socks. Yeah, I can’t do stripey socks. You’ll never see a stripey sock anywhere near me. No. And I think it matters, by the way. It’s just all about how you look on the golf course. Do you know how important feeling good is and dressing well and dressing smart and feeling good about I think that’s massively important. And I’m not joking there. That is for me. I want to look sharp. Go on the golf course. I want to look as sharp as anyone. Yeah. Just throwing darts, isn’t he? Brian Campbell throwing darts. What was he? What was he yesterday, Campbell, by the way? Did you mention that already? What was he What was his score yesterday? Because I don’t know that. Simon’s as we speak. Scrolling, scrolling. He’ll get there. He was two over. Okay. So, not amazing. Oh, no. He’s not. No, no, no, no. Good day today. You’re back in it. Yeah. Just moving around. Very, very good optics on the driver, aren’t you? Golf, by the way. one of the very very best pitchers on the PJ tour. And I say pitching I I say that like 100 120 yards to 80 yards, that sort of distance. That’s a big penguin, isn’t it? Oh, well spotted. Yes, it is a big penguin. Yeah, I like that. Do you ever see that film where there’s the penguins tap dance? No. Happy Feet. Oh, Happy Feet. See, that’s very good. I I I like that. Yeah, I know. I watch that with my children when they were little. Kids movies. I watch them. Problem is, I’m always crying at kids movies. They’re supposed to be happy, but I end up in tears all the time. I thought that was great. Anyway, here we go. Stay. He’s gonna have a good day. I’m I’m I’m going for a Brian Campbell today. Get back to level part. I’m going two under. Yeah, great demeanor. Speaking of great demeanors and elegance, let’s go to Dy Stewart. Thanks, Simon. What a great throw here with Pete on the range looking at tea times. Elegance and grace as well, Pete. That’s what you’ve got. Rory Maroy. Gosh, it was a it was a circus, wasn’t it? There was a big show here. all the cameras, everybody I think in the world of golf was on the range when he was and his grandson was absolutely packed. It’s pretty empty now because everyone’s following him. It’s when you know you’re a power player when literally you leave, everyone else leaves just to go watch. I mean, it’s incredible the amount of support he does have. I mean, obviously, you know, it’s kind of hero here in Northern Ireland, but it kind of really does hit home. And he seems a lot more relaxed today as well, which is nice. Those two are still there. They’re pointing. Give us a wave. Can they give us a wave? They can see us. Can you give us a wave, Japs? Or he’s getting his camera out. Get your binoculars out. Can you There you go. We’re waving at you. I mean, they’re actually lost. They just They’re on the beach watching the watching. He’s got his binoculars now. Can you see me? I’m waving at you. Yes. Can you give it There we Yes. Took a I was determined to keep my arm in the air. Thank you, Jent. Having a good day. You too. Good fun. Great stuff. Oh, avid golf fans. Brilliant. I think he was completely confused with what we were doing there. So, Rory has gone. Uh Bob McIntyre actually walked past the back of him and said, “Wow, crazy.” Yeah. Because every camera was on him. It’s almost like there aren’t all the other players in the field when he comes onto onto the range here in Northern Ireland. Yeah. Is it I mean most pro golfers have uh like a little bit of an ego and to like be in the presence of someone who’s like a world class player obviously world famous as well it can be a little bit of a shadow cast and you know it’s only when you get out on the course where you can maybe outshine him. I mean I have just heard a roar coming from the course. I imagine it’s a Rory Birdie. There is a different sound to a Rory Birdie. It was a deep underlying tone to it. Scream 12 right in the middle. Birdie birdie birdie Ferori on the first which is great which is two strokes better than yesterday when he made that bogey. Honestly, he did look really relaxed out here. It was a little bit nervous on his the first few drives he hit. He missed everything left yesterday. There’s another chair. That’s him just leaving the green. Oh, probably. Oh, Flea. Flea was also good. This is what’s great when the when the tournament starts to begin. You hear the roars and the anticipation starts to build. It’s great. Nothing like it open. There really isn’t. And my walk around the golf course last night when we came off air, walk to the to the eighth, the 10th, it’s so undulating, but there are some real sort of spectator spots. All of us bundled on top of a small hill watching, but you the view is of a couple of holes. It’s not just of one. So really great sort of cinematic viewing of the whole course. great spectators cause like the here and Burgdell are probably the two which really stand out because the dunes are big and they surround the hole. They frame each hole. Yeah. It’s often like the case with St. Andrew. St. Andrew’s most famous course maybe in the world. It’s amazing to play. It’s a great open venue. But for a spectator it’s not the best because you got to go all the way around the outside. Here because of the individual nature of the holes because of the dunes you can wander out be pretty much guaranteed to see some golf. This is the fly over and obviously we’ve got white rocks the path five which goes down towards the cliffs the beach you could end up on the beach out of bounds at the back Stuart Sink was talking about that a couple of days ago when we spoke to him and two miles east of here is Dunloose Castle which dates back to the 13th century this of course is the Dunloose links we’ve got the valley course next to us where Graeme McDall grew up he’s just had a hole named after him Darren Clark’s had the ninth here at the Dunloose named after him the the tough nine Par four into wind. Not an easy one. Darren had a great chip in yesterday on 17. Crowd went mad. He had a birdie on 17, didn’t he? Yeah, he played pretty well. I mean, a few of the a few of the golden oldies yesterday played quite well. Justin Leonard came in with a one under par which was fantastic. He went out in some of the toughest conditions as well. Lynx golf is great for for bringing fields together. Like there’s no way Justin Leonard is going to go out of a US Open and shoot on the par. It’s just not that kind of course. But at links you have those opportunities. You know we have Tom Watson almost winning you know not that long ago now. So you know Westwood obviously had a good round yesterday. It has that ability to bring golfers together from different skill sets is great. Super exciting. Okay let’s have a look at the leaderboard who’s right at the top at the moment. I think the score is still four under par. Eight players on minus four on that score. Brian Harmon former open champ from a couple of years ago two minus two for the day through three. There are birdie opportunities, Pete. Yeah, I mean this is it’s it’s a very good Brian Harmon course this and he went out again tough conditions yesterday. Played really well. Slightly different putter in the bag um than his usual Thor’s hammer. So, we’ll see how he gets on with that. Um Tier, a lot of people’s favorite. A lot of people’s favorite coming into this. Loves Lynx golf. Has won the Dunhill links before. He’s definitely he’s proudly. He put it unbelievably well yesterday. I think it’s because they chatted to live at the range on Monday. We’ve obviously inspired them. Brian was uh was a true gent. He did our 160 HSBC challenge. Did very well. I think he finished second in that. And Tier Hassan also did the challenge. 158 in his first go. 162 162. I mean, Hong Lee as he left the range, I actually gave him like a little high five as well. So, I don’t want to, you know, claim responsibility. Well, but I think that’s 10% at least. Scottish Shefflers out this afternoon. Obviously, one of the late at times 3:10. Rory was out at 3:10 yesterday with Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Thomas, but today it’s uh 310 is Shane Lowry, Colar Caua, and Scotty Sheffller. So, we can’t wait to see that wave. They’ll probably come on to the range about 2:15. Pod Carrington’s on the range. How did Podrick get on yesterday? Uh he was okay. A little bit a little bit up and down. I mean, he birdied the first. Do you want to take a wonder? Which is always great. Yeah. And he’s uh currently just grinding away. He just uh crossand swung a driving iron and took a divot the size of a shoe box. I just saw that actually. Um yeah, struggled a bit on the back nine. Yeah, but it’s tough, isn’t it? Because four over par score was yesterday. It it’s a course where you could you could easily get away from you. This this isn’t easy, you know, especially with um off the tea if you’re not quite hitting the fairways. It can just gobble up score so quickly. and some of the pins yesterday as well with the runoff areas positioned close by. Yeah, it can get away from you fast. Is actually out in 38 strokes which is two over. Bogis is three, four and eight. Did have a birdie on the first hole. Remember that we had that big cheer, didn’t we? And then bogeies. What about the back nine? What happened there? Um I mean I think with the layout of Port Rush, the par fives are absolutely crucial. And on the par fives yesterday, he was only he was one over on the par fives yesterday. That’s those are the holes you got to pick your shots up on because there’s not very many easy birdie opportunities out there. I mean, if you think about it, the fifth is the only really getable par four. You know, all the others are tough T- shots, tough approaches. 17 maybe if it’s downwind, but I don’t think it will be for most of the week. So, yeah, par five is going to be crucial. Guestimate on the cut. Oh, I mean it’s actually quite a nice day today. I think it was sitting around two over yesterday. Two over is tied 70th right now. Yeah. So I think and um plus one is tied 45th. Everybody’s really tightly packed. I think I can’t imagine it’s going to move too much. I’d say two three over at a push. Yeah. I don’t think anyone’s going to go crazy low today, but yeah, I reckon two over. What we think is going to be the lead score by the end of the day? I mean minus four obviously of after day one with eight players right now at minus four. I’m going to go minus 8. Pete I think seven. I think seven seven would be great with the winning score probably around 12 or 13. Well as Jason Day said yesterday he’s never known a weather pattern like this. He could not believe how much the weather changed yesterday. If you speak to the locals that’s what happens here. There’s wind, there’s rain, there’s wind, there’s sun, and then there’s another a little bit of sun down every now and again. Yeah, a little bit. We’re enjoying it now, aren’t we? It’s great. You got to enjoy these slight moments of blue sky. You certainly do. There is Harrington’s cardia as I say out in 38 and back in 37. Those uh four bogey double bogey on the 10th hole. That’s going to hurt a bit, isn’t it? That par four dog leg. Right. It’s not very long. It’s not. But it’s it’s toughing. The roof here is very thick and with the rain that came down yesterday, it’s obviously gone to the roots. So, it’s going to be lush underneath and thick in the middle. If you go to like an east coast of Scotland uh lynx course normally it’s it’s you can get through the roof it’s wispy it’s light here and on the west coast of Scotland it’s so thick it’s a real punishment in the purple behind us George BL who we spoke to a few over I think George finished four over par yesterday need to make some birdies today but as you say you just make a couple of birdies you’re in that cup mark and then it’s normally very tightly packed for an open championship you’ve got a chance of finishing up further up the leaderboard come the weekend. But what you make of George’s swing up. Take a look. Really good. Really solid. Very modern movement. Very athletic. Hits the ball a good distance. Super consistent. And he’s making his way up the game. He’s still only a young lad. Like you know, open experience with these crowds at a tough course like this. Like if he makes the call, it’ be a wonderful achievement in itself. Yeah, it’s brilliant. Really great experience. Okay, let’s get back to Simon in the box. Simon, hope you’ve got a cup. Have you got a biscuit as well? We we on we’re on sort of health drinks in here. Um Diana, so yeah, it is a very modern action, isn’t it? So much is all about creating power. There is such a huge benefit to be able to get that ball speed up into the 180s. Always fascinating to see the distance that the players hit the ball nowadays. He’s got quite a few logos, hasn’t he? He’s well, he’s well supported, well sponsored. There’s a lot going on. He’s a bit more like a Formula 1 driver than a golfer with all those logos. Yeah, I like his I like his game. I like the kind of the briskness and the way that he moves. He was spoke to us during the week. Super charming guy. Conducts himself really nicely. Great physique, isn’t he, as well for a for a golfer? Yeah. Good length, good good proportions. Strong. Can see he’s strong. Yeah. I noticed how you kind of semi ignored the uh the throw from D there with the chocolate biscuits. I just taking it’s taking liberties, isn’t it? No, but I’d like to add that when the chocolate biscuits did come in, they disappeared very quickly and I didn’t get one. You are like a chocolate raptor the way you went at those chocolate biscuits. They’re not really there. It’s more of a survival pack, Mark. And I think there’s nothing wrong with having your dessert first. Anyway, what an amazing experience for How old were you when you first played in the open? Um, so it was 1987 in Murefield. So 63. I I’m not very good at mathematics. It takes me quite a while to work this out, but 24 years of age and I qualified there and I had a great break with the draw to be honest with you because I was a qualifier. I was out at 4:00 in the afternoon and and it was a horrible day and then about 4:00 4:30 all of a sudden like it can do on a Lynx golf course, it became a beautiful day and I capitalized on that. And I also remember playing with Ben Krenshaw in the final round when it was the worst conditions I think I ever played in. driving rain, horrendous strong winds, and he went round that golf course, Ben Cshaw, and he scared the hole just about on every putt, and I think he shot 68 and moved from 30th to third. And I shot what I thought was a lovely round of 72 or 73, I can’t remember exactly. And I got myself a top 20 in the open championship, which I was so pleased with. But I asked him after, I said, “Ben,” I said, “that was for me.” I said, “I can’t believe how well you puttered.” I said, “It was incredible.” I said, “What what do you think of when you’re putting in in the strong winds and in those conditions?” He said, “I don’t think any different to how I think always.” He said, “I never try to hold putts.” He said, “I just always see the hole on the journey of the ball.” He said, “And try to get the pace right.” I like that. I mean, he won he won. That’s a very stressfree way of putting, isn’t he? And he had this thing. He had one of those Wilson 8802 putters, I think, which is like a long thin blade, and it just turned open slightly, and it did. It did. It rotated slightly, but I tell you what, I I I think part of that um is something that you almost can’t teach in a way. I I know that sounds crazy, but it was the greatest putting performance. It’s a great swing thought, though. It’s a great swing thought. It’s a great thing to tell yourself. Look at that. You know, we often say, don’t we, in in in putting or in chipping when you’re that that actually the ball is just on the journey of a good technical motion. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Certainly. I mean, you see amateur golfers, they hit at the ball. If you we if we stay here on minion cam and we watch George, just watch how fluid he is through the ball. So, I mean, watch his finish. Is it actually a minion with a camera in it? It’s a It’s a minion. It’s one of my minions. Look at that. There’s no There’s no event at the ball there. There’s not like, okay, I’m going to I hit to the ball and stop. It’s It’s a fluid movement hitting through the ball. It’s like an explosion to the finish. So, if you can finish and hold your balance. Oh, there it is. See, I control that. I’ve got hundreds of them. It’s a clever little thing, isn’t it? I’m actually very fond of it. Sometimes people knock it over and try to hit balls at it. Oh, that I mean I have to say to be honest with you, that wouldn’t be there if I was on the range. That would that have been gone by now. That have been a low a low three iron. Oh, sorry. Podrick Harrington as well on the driving range. Four over Podrick Carrington yesterday. So, here we go. Minion cam. There it is. Can he sneak Can he sneak He is obviously remote controlled. Is he Can he sneak up on them or is he fixed? I’m not telling you. Oh, I’d love that. Imagine the fun you have. I’m not I’m not telling you. Here we go. If you give me the controls. Listen, you’ll get some interesting. Give me the controls. Well, I’ll get you some interesting angles. The dangerous Mark Row. George, we wish you well, mate. Yeah, good luck. Beat you over par. Have a great day. Hopefully see you tomorrow. Look at that amazing scenes. The massive buildout that is the Open Championship. There is no finer place to watch golf. on the tea. Yeah, she’s staring this one down and for good reason. Look at this. Just delightfully done. She’s on top of the world. Going directly at the whole of course. Oh, get in there. There’s something about the AIG Women’s Open. Oh my goodness. Just swing. Visit golf.golf to find out more. Just swing. Visit golf.golf to get started. Why not give golf a go? Just swing. Swing wild. Swing weird. Swing wonky. Whoever, however, wherever. It doesn’t matter. Just swing. Head over to golf.golf to start playing. Find out where you can learn to play at golf.golf. Heat. Heat. Welcome along to the open. It’s everything you wanted and more. That’s fantastic. Absolutely brilliant. Quite an extraordinary day. Yeah, fascinating view. This is the fourth hole on the valley course and the fifth hole coming back the other way. It served as our driving range. It’s been magnificent for the visuals giving the players a really good feel of what it’s going to be like once they go out onto the golf course. They’re able to recreate the shots. In the bottom of your screen there is Podrick Harrington who will be very annoyed I think at how he went yesterday alongside Peter Cowan. And we have got some unbelievable merchandise tents here at the Open Championship. There is the QR code. Scan that and feast your eyes on an amazing catalog of fantastic kit, including if you want to join my gang, the yellow umbrella. That is really sort of a signature of of where you stand in the game of golf. Don’t want to see any sign any umbrellas today, but very important to get your merch in as they say. So, it’s going to be a very difficult test. We’ve had a really good look at the front nine here at Royal Port Rush. Let’s just remind you of some of the feature holes features on the back nine. Himalayas. Few players will choose driver at the 10th. A hard left to right dog leg means the landing zone is narrow with the fairway seemingly sitting in a valley of dunes typical of this spectacular setting. The green also seems nestled in deep amongst the dunes and players can use the natural mounding to their advantage to bank the ball onto the green. PG Stevenson’s the 11th is a fearsome hole. The fairway so hard to find that bunkers are not required for additional defense. The hardest hole in 2019. There were 27 double bogeies or worse here across the four days. Playing more than a half shot over par in the final round, the green sits over a large hollow and a false front will collect the balls that don’t quite have the legs to carry on to the putting surface Duvarin. After the 11th, the 12th provides a bit of a respit. The easiest hole of the 2019 championship. The final par five on the card offers a great scoring opportunity. If the wind is prevailing, the players will have it at their backs. The main obstacle off the tea being three large bunkers on the right. If those are avoided, there is clear sight to the green. Anything sliding to the right is in danger of catching the slopes, which could kick the ball towards the thick rough. But the players will certainly see this has a strong chance for birdie. feather bed. The 13th is another of Royal Port Rush’s eye-catching par- threes. Playing considerably downhill, yardages will be tough to calculate when the wind is factored in as well. There are slopes off the back of the right bunker, which can be used to a player’s advantage. However, many will end up long, especially downwind. The green itself is a tough read with everything tending to break from the front right to the back left. Causeway. Another of the Back N’s daunting par fours. The 14th was the second hardest hole in 2019. Playing well over par every day. There were 169 bogeies or worse made here over the four days. And avoiding the two fairway bunkers off the tea is non-negotiable. At the 148th open, less than a third of the field were able to hold the green. The large bunker to the left is a fearsome sight and getting up and down out of there is a rare feat scaries. A great par4 rising over the crest of the hill and giving the players another sight of the ocean. Named for the island you can see as you walk up to your ball. A drive up the right side gives the best line into the green. Despite not being the longest, this hole still played overpar across the 2019 championship and will be a good four again this year. Calamity Corner. And then we come to Calamity, one of the Open’s most iconic and fish par 3es. 236 yds of pure terror. The valley to the right constantly in the mind as the wind blows directly into your face. Expect to see players take a lot of club into this green. Many will bail out left where swailes await to absorb any balls that miss the green. This hole is sure to play a leading role in the drama that will unfold at the 153rd Open. Purgatory. With Calamity Conquered, there are still two tough tests to come. The 17th sweeps down to the right. The blind T-shot demanding every ounce of concentration to find the right aiming point. If players find the fairway, they’ll be faced with a downhill approach to a firm green that will be hard to hold. The huge downhill slope to the green means players can actually get close from the tea should they be feeling bold. The atmosphere here is sure to be electric with grandstands surrounding this area which backs on to the 13th green. Babingtons. Those seeking to secure the clar jug in a place in history face a demanding final challenge on the 18th with the biggest obstacle being the landing zone from the tea. With dune land to the right, the players will favor the left side which also opens up the view to the green. A large bunker short right may tempt players to take more club. Come championship Sunday, one player will take the greatest walk in golf heading into this spectacular arena about to be crowned champion golfer of the year. Champion golfer of the year. That is what it’s all about. Here is the driving range. It is 10:45. Podrick Harrington is out there. Rory has gone and we got Harrington Hoyard Nikolai that is Tom McKibben that’s at 11:26 um Lou Hazen Guido Miglozi and KJ Choy Cam Smith soon going out. So just a load of star power coming through. Peter Finch is here. What was it like Peter down on the range when Rory arrived? It was sounded for us here a different vibe. Uh it was a little bit of carnage. Even um kind of Rob McIntyre walk past like muttering how crazy he was because it he is like a little planet. Yeah. Like you know people orbit around him wherever he goes. And the crowd was slightly disappointed because the grand stand was packed and he stopped short of going all the way down the range. So they had to watch him from a little bit of a distance. I have to say he was he was hitting it a bit weird to begin with, especially with the driver. Like we saw yesterday how he was missing it left and as he started to go through the motions, he started to figure a few things out. It looked like the ball was finding a bit straighter. So, and I hear he’s had a a really good start. So, Pete Harrison Pete Harrison. Pete Harrison. Pete Cowan. Pete Cowan. What an absolute ledge. That was a fantastic combination of Pete Cowan and Podrick Harrington there by the way. Thanks Pete Harrison. It was Podrick Harrington four overp Pete Cowan telling him Podrick that is a terrible idea mate. I have a cunning plan. You can just see you can see Podrick coming in there. The tinkerer that tinkerer that is Harrington. I have a cunning plan Pete. And Pete going you total muppet. Yeah, Pete is just nodding his head, isn’t he? He’s like, “Yeah, okay. Okay, okay. How about we don’t do that?” What’s the phrase? Sucking his teeth, trying not to say anything. No, but a part of being a coach is obviously listening. But it’s also to say to your player that don’t that because you you’ve got to bat away all of their genius ideas. Yeah. Harrington though has impressed. Incredible how I I think longevity is one of those markers that we don’t respect enough in the game. Harrington, Adam Scott, Langanger, obviously the poster boy for longevity. I mean, Harrison’s great because he has such a passion for the game and it’s only through that real love of golf that you’re going to carry on that long and you’re going to practice, you’re going to look after yourself. I mean, Justin Rose for me is always the the key example of this. You know, he’s preparing himself so he can still be a a force in the game for the years to come despite him reaching the autumn of his career in certainly what you would consider a young man’s game. Yeah. And Podrick is the same. He’s working hard. He’s still grafted. He’s still winning big tournaments, you know. Senior Open. Won the Senior Open. Yeah. Just won the Senior the US Open. US Senior Open. Yeah. Sunningale next week is for the British Senior Open played in that and then the ladies there’s no need for that Peter. No, because you’re a good you’re a good player. Why aren’t you playing? That’s you. Thank you very much. I am though. I’m really a very good player. And so and then the ladies Royal P call the AIG Women’s Open Harrington 27 starts and then the backto back 207 208. Yeah, still one of the most impressive shots I’ve seen that fivewood on 17. Oh, at Burgdale. Unbelievable shot. Well, he when you chat to him about it, he was he wasn’t going for the green. It was and he got this massive kick forward. Yeah. He just said like basically everything he touched turned to gold that week and that can happen. I love the way he’s played the game though. He’s always respected the traditions of the game. Plays golf in a really charming way. He’s been a great ambassador. He’s always been prepared to take his game on the road. He’s improved himself. It’s very impressive for he first came out really as someone who was a good kind of mudder and a great short game and he’s become a really premium ball striker. Yeah, absolutely. It’s the I think it’s one of the beauties of golf that you know we all know anybody who plays you can always improve on something. you you’re never ever going to conquer this game and but it can we wear you down like if things don’t go well if like changes you make don’t work out you know you can often get worse sometimes in golf and it’s hard to keep going and Podrick’s like taken his mentality and he’s taken his ability to consume just so much information and he’s really channeled it into he’s probably one of the more knowledgeable players out there. He owns his game a lot more than anyone else. I like that. And there it is. Brought to you by our amazing sponsor Rolex. It is 9 minutes to 11. And it is all about time. And what you don’t want to do is have your time end today. You want to make the cut. You want to have a time tomorrow. Nikolai Hoyard, how’s your Danish, Pete? Uh, you know, it’s not what it once was. No. Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately, uh, Fullwood High School in Preston didn’t have a great Danish department. They didn’t? No. I mean, they didn’t have running water. So, so Raasmus, just so you know, Nikolai is leading the golf tournament. So very good rivals, very good friends, and hopefully very good RDER Cup partners. They’re powerful bloss though, aren’t they? Yeah, really strong. They approach They approach the game slightly differently. I mean, I think often siblings when they learn at the same time, you know, they’ll have pretty similar swings and they’ll have similar characteristics, but actually Nikolai and Rasmus have quite different techniques. Yeah, Nikolai seems a lot more structured. Not exactly robotic, but you know, there’s a lot, it looks a lot tighter as he swings, whereas Raasmus is a lot more flowing. Yeah, it’s kind of hard to say really which one’s been more successful at this point as well. Yeah, I mean, Nikolai obviously has had the Rider Cup, has a massive experience. Let’s have a look at his swing here. So, very much in the angles. Very geometrically sound, isn’t it? Interesting to see that sort of maybe trying to keep a bit of radius in that down swing into delivery there. Let’s have a look. Yeah, he’s also one of the modern group of players where you see from the from a normal kind of camera outlook, if you don’t slow down his swing, he looks like he’s got quite a short back swing, but the shoulders and the body turn fully, but it’s that short arm swing. Yeah. And I think that’s kind of the blend that you want. You know, like Tiger always used to talk about that was how it was too easy for him to get his arms to run long and then when he went to kick the club wasn’t where it was where he needed it to be in the sequence. So a shorter wider arm swing with a full turn poster boy for that. Let’s say like John Ram who’s you can really clearly see it. So if you think John Ram’s swing is short, have a look at how much chest and hip rotation he’s got. Um, so Raasmus out there charging Nikolai probably keeping an eye on that and thinking I can’t let my little brother I suppose I don’t know who was first. It’s hard to know with twins isn’t it? Anyway, four underpar is currently leading that Rasmus Hoyard, Christian Bazaden Hoot, Brian Harmon, Tier Hatton, Harris English, Jakobskerson, Hartong Lee, Matt Fitzpatrick, bunched to say the least. Your thoughts for a uh your thoughts for a leading score after today? I think seven. I think seven would be around the mark. I don’t think there’ll be that many players up there. I think someone might separate themselves or a couple people maybe on seven and then few fives potentially. Yeah, it depending on it’s obviously so weather dependent. But I think anything towards 11 12 is probably going to be near the just into double figures, you know, because I mean on the first two days that they can’t put the pins in the super premium spots because they need to get everybody out of here. So, good luck, Nikolai. Have a good day. Let’s go and find Dye. Who is she harassing now? I’m never harassing anyone. Thank you, Simon. I’m here in the stands with some avid avid fans. And uh if Kev could pan our camera around, doing a brilliant job there, Kev. These gents are working from home today. So, um, welcome to work. How’s how’s work going so far? Yeah, it’s going very well. It’s a nice day. Enjoying the scenery, enjoying the the round of golf. Yeah. Sent sent those emails. The weather’s been great. That’s all that’s the only email I’ve sent today. The weather’s been great. We won’t mention what company you’re with, although brilliant. It’s really great to have you here. Uh, who you supporting here? Supporting Rory. So, I’m in McKibben as well. Oh, brilliant. Tom McKibben. Yeah. All the locals. Oh, great stuff. And uh and who you watching on the range right now? Trying to get a few taps off. Yeah, it’s not working. Well, yeah, he dropped a few shots yesterday. Plus four, but my goodness, he can make those back very quickly as a twotime open champion. Thanks, Jensen. Get get back to work. Um hello, sir. How you doing? Good, thank you. I’m all right. I believe you’re on paternity leave. Paternity leave. Yeah. Um so, where are your children? Uh hopefully with my wife and and either wife and grandparents or I think she’s maybe seen a few friends today. So um yeah uh but you know what I have to make the most of the open. There’s another one working from home. He’s had to move. Um listen, who are you who are you supporting? I mean here to support Rory obviously Tom McKibben. Darren Clark I was there at St. George’s when Darren won the Open. So I’m hoping I’m a bit of a good luck omen for the Northern Irish. Yeah. Yeah. Grace. So he he chipped in on 17 yesterday. It was a huge cheer. I didn’t I I was I was in the the village most of the day actually, so I didn’t actually get to see too much golf, but uh hoping to see lots of golf today. What What were you doing in the village having a good time? I um maybe had too good a time. Um but uh yeah, just having good fun and nice to be uh nice to be off. Oh, brilliant stuff. Thank you so much. It’s good to know that you can have a lot of fun here at the Open Championship. What makes the Open so special, sir? Well, it’s the atmosphere that makes it special in some of this. Yeah, it’s great, isn’t it? Where are you going to go today? Yeah, I like to walk the course and go through all the holes that I have played in the past. So, I sort of from experience I know how badly I played them and how well they should be played. Oh, it’s a fantastic golf course. Your favorite hole. Do you have one? Oh, you have to go to Calamity Corner at 13. Yes. Which we can see, can’t we? We can see the Grandstand in the distance there. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. We look forward to it. Thanks. Thank you so much. And Rory, of course, you’re supporting him. Yes, we support Rory, but also would like to see Justin Rose come through. I think he’s been very unlucky. Plays well, but does doesn’t uh get over the line sometimes. And I think he’s going to come good this year. Brilliant. Well, he’s just had a birdie actually, so he’s now gone to three under pass. Started the day at minus two. So, you could be on to something, sir. Well done. Absolutely. Enjoy. Awesome. Well, we are back for live at the range at 12:30 this afternoon. Scottish Sheffller will be on the range. Of course, we’ve got the afternoon starters. Uh 3:10 is a really important tea time. So, we’ll see you in an hour and a half time from all of us here at Live at the Range. We’ll see you after your lunch and we’ll be back here 12:30. Hold on. 7:32 a.m. here with Pete Finch and we’re on the putting green. And Pete, it really is a delight to be here. We’re heading to the driving range. And how are you feeling day one of the Open Championship? It all starts now. Yeah, it’s it’s exciting to finally kind of get the action underway. I’m sure the players probably feel the same. I would expect that they’d hoped for slightly warmer and slightly stiller conditions. Like normally a Lynx course in the morning, it can be quite calm. It can be quite pleasant, but I’ve already seen a few people hit it out of bounds on the first. We Yes, we were watching they they teed off at 6:35 a couple of out of bounds already. Podrick Harrington, how did he do on the first? He bearded it. Great stuff. opening T-shot, opening birdie and I mean he must be absolutely delighted with that. That’s a great score. What’s the wind doing though on that first hole? So, as as people might know, it’s out of bounds on both sides. Uh the wind is into off the right hand side and it is cold. As far as an opening T-shot goes, it’s probably not the one that you wanted first thing. No. Just looking at Lee Westward to our to our left, Pete getting ready for his tea time. Looking at the tea times, Westwood is off at 8:14. So, he’s come down to the driving range. What do we expect him to come a bit earlier? Um, no. I think that’s about fine. 814. Yeah. Cuz what you want to be doing, especially in temperatures like this, he’s getting to the first te still warm. You don’t want to have any chance to cool down. You want to be able to go. You don’t want to be having that weird kind of wait while you, you know, look over that first T- shot. You want to be able to get on that tea and go straight away. Really great to see Lee here at the Open Championship. He did unbelievable in open qualifying. So he was playing in a li event in Dallas. He flew in, got there on the Monday. The open qualified on the Tuesday and he arrived about 7:00 p.m. in the evening. It was hammering it down with rain. We were all having nice dinner in the clubhouse and he wandered around the golf course, checked it out, went the next day, shot seven under two rounds, won qualifying in his first major in about four years, I think it is. Absolutely brilliant. Brilliant performance. Let’s let’s go further down. I just sp spotted Cam Young. He’s getting ready for his tea time. He’s off at 8:25. Of course, came so close to Open Championship victory in 2022 when Cam Smith was victorious at St. Andrews. But this is where you just getting the getting warmed up. I mean, you got to do your stretches. You got to get the body ready because um you’re going to tense up in this cold, aren’t you? Yeah. I mean, you’re going to be a little bit tense anyway. It’s a major championship. These things really matter to the players, but that first t-shot, honestly, it’s going to be so difficult to commit, especially in the practice rounds. I’m sure they would have hit driver at some point. Yeah. But most of the time, it’s an iron or a fairway wood off that tea. Yeah. That’s why you have to come here a couple of weeks before, come and play in different conditions. Absolutely. Because it can change so quickly around here as well. like the wind can switch, the rains can come in which is expected to happen a little bit later on today as well. So yeah, you’ve got to be prepared. That bag is going to be full of everything. Good morning everyone. George Harper Jr. here and I am back on the ground. It’s been a busy few days. We’ve had such great access to all the players. So once again, thank you to the lads who got involved throughout the last three days. But now it’s tournament time. The putting green is quiet because the first wave of players has just gone out, but there’ll be plenty more to come. One thing I just want to highlight is look at this. It’s already so early in the morning. It’s just gone 8:00 and the crowds are hissing into the Open Championship day one. This is what it’s all about. It’s all about the fans, the global fans as well. So many people from so many different parts of the planet are here to watch the best in the business. than this. As we showed you earlier in the week, this is the walkway that the players will go to get to their first te. There’s a play well, my man. He’s been looking fantastic in the warm-ups as well. But this is just beautiful. So, they come charging down here and then forged by nature, won by champions. That is where they take to the first te. We saw Padre Harrington get things off in fine style this morning. 6:35 a.m. And you know what he did? He went and birdied the first hole. How good is that for the local crowds? But I’m going to be hovering around here a little bit today and I’m going to make sure I’m back here for one of the feature groups of the morning. Shane Lowry, Colin Morawa, and Scotty Sheffler. They’re off just after 10:00 a.m. So, I’ll make sure we’ll try and find them for you. Get behind the scenes and get you ged up because it’s only going to get better throughout the afternoon. So, I’ll keep an eye on things down here, but Simon, you keep an eye on things up there. Great to see all the superstars. It’s an incredible that I can tell you what he’s watching. He’s watching Pot Ger’s driver. Yes, he is. That when people actually stop and go, you know when you’re good. He’s the new daily. He’s the new like what what did he just do? 200 ball speed. Yeah, that’s the thing with potter. There has been a few guys over the years, hasn’t there, that have that sort of power, but they don’t have the all round game. Heater has it and this is obviously the part of of the game from Shane Larry that everybody wants to emulate, everybody wants to watch his pitching and chipping game. He’s a great driver of the ball. Of course, he’s got an all round game. If anything, his putting can be inconsistent. We’ve seen that over the years, but this part of the game is um right up there. Top draw, very best in the world pitching and chipping the most gorgeous rhythm, the most wonderful connection. Just a lovely harmony of the arms and the body turn. You watch the left hip. There’s no slide in this motion. You watch him hitting bunker shots. You watching hitting chips. There’s no left hip slide. It’s the most gorgeous rotation. It is. And who can forget the open of 2019? Let’s give you a little reminder. You know, some people say the greatest championship in the world. I think when you get your hands in the trophy and you actually start reading the names and how far it goes back and who’s won it, it’s literally all the greats. And it was getting to a stage where I just wanted to hold puts because the roar was just kind of it was it was almost entertaining for me, you know, to hear the roar. And then when you see the emotion I show after holding that put, that was it. Like that was the tournament over at that stage. I think it’s because of where I’m from. That’s how we celebrate things. To be able to bring joy to so many people. The history of the trophy. What an incredible trophy. And for me to have that on my mantle piece in the house, I walk in some mornings and it’s hard to believe, you know? Scotty Sheffller and Larry. Larry, what is he thinking this morning? Lovely soft arms, you know, not the rigidity that you see from the modern day tour players. Softer arms, more flow. It’s I think we can learn a lot from that. You know, all of the chat row has been all about your arms don’t just keep your arms connected. Don’t use them. And I don’t think that’s always universally such great advice. So, watch Shane’s flow of of rhythm here. The arms aren’t stiff. They’re not rigid. The left arm isn’t straight. It flows around him. A little drop of the pelvis and a rise of the pelvis and he just works the face. Scotty Sheffller to the left side of your screen. Very similar. Great calibrator of the face as well. But you know, Simon, in in short game and pitching, what controls your control of distance is the flow of the club head. Yeah, it’s quite simple. I I I think it’s just beautiful to watch. And as I say, I love the centralization of that motion. I really do. It’s the most gorgeous centralized. As I say, the hips do not slide, they turn. And it’s so often when I’m teaching short game, I’m asking people to get the feeling that their left hip turns. You’re always moving. You’re always turning. You’re always turning your torso. If you look at it, it’s almost pretty much from his knees up to his chest that turns. Yeah. Yeah. No, great. It’s beautiful. Yeah. Shane Larry and Shane Larry fans, we wish you well. Magnificent champion. Lovely, lovely person. Has had a frustrating year just looking for that first win in America. Came very close at the truest. Here we go. Xander Shalay, defending champion. He’s a He’s a lovely guy, isn’t he? Golf has been lucky that so many of our superstar lead players have been such great ambassadors for the golf. US Open champion in the white there coached by Adam Basilgette which a very very old friend of mine from Lake Nona in the in the in the poncho then the green and the woolly hat. So JJ has arrived. You know you you know you’re doing something well when you go out with a defending champion, don’t you? So, let’s have a look at Xander trying to work on his game. He felt as though, you know, as he got injured, the club club got a bit more closed, a little bit more cross the line. Now he’s trying to get it a bit more laid off and and kind of rotated. He’s a draw of the ball, so he needs that. Um just an injury, a gym injury. Wow, that looks like a tornado coming down from the sky, doesn’t it? Well, it’s possible. Just a bit of a You never know. Just a a mark on the roof there. So, Xander, let’s have a look. So, swings more around him. He’s a drawer of the ball. So, stands further away, swings it more around his body, kind of that legs leading, upper body, leaning back a little bit. Call that kind of like side bend. I like the way I mean, I look at his grip as well. I love his grip. very conventional. There’s nothing strong, nothing weak in either hand. It’s just a a lovely It sits beautifully on the club. I think, you know, we we talk about so much about technology nowadays. So much about data and and and and all sorts of information that we have, but it’s still a game of balance, posture, and rhythm, isn’t it? Always will be. Well, look at look how the tour players are practicing. You know, we saw it all week since Monday, if you’ve been joining us. aiming club on the ground. Ball position club in between the feet. Lots of chat between the the coach and the player. Have a look at that. So, Xander from face on here. Just watch his head. His legs will lead him through. His hips will lead him through. And watch his head. Just lot of regpping on that right grip. Have you noticed that? I I I don’t remember seeing him doing that as much before. Yeah. So very slightly built but very very powerful and he was masterful when he played around Tron last year. Hard links isn’t it Trun. Oh John Ram. What a three ball. What a three ball. What a player. John Ram. 958. Just a bull shuffle spawn Ram. That’s worth going out. 100%. They’ll take they’ll take a big big chunk of spectators out with them. John Ram is just a magnificent golfer. Just soaking in some coffee. And look at that. Got a great game, has I? I’m amazed he hasn’t won an open championship by now because his ball flight and his ability to change ball flight, his ability to maneuver, particularly the low draw and a low fade. I I’m amazed he hasn’t got one a clar jug in in his locker room yet, but I mean it’s impossible to think that he’ll go through his career and not do that. No. Dave Phillips from the Titus Performance Institute is the coach of John Ram. So, stands very close to it. doesn’t have a lot of depth of hands but has a lot of rotation of arms and it’s like a lasso where the legs lead the club head through. Great ball striker. I love the creativity. So Xander on the right side two different shot shapes stands much further away from it much more around him. Brahm fader by nature just a little closeup and watch the speed of the legs. I think it’s fair to say when you when you compare the two swings and you look at there on the right hand side, one is a swing and one is a hit. Ram’s a hitter. Yeah, he is. He’s a hitter. So, what a three ball. Here are the ball flights shown to you by Top Tracer Technology. We’ve lit up the whole of the driving range bringing you all of the ball data. JJ probably on a sixiron. Xander on his 3-wood and Ram flat out with his driver. So Ram, watch for the red tracer coming soon. So fascinating to see Rahm just about to get the green light going the 3-wood Ram a cannon shot. No, that’s not his driver. So that’s the three-wood shot there. Just moving the ball around. Little baby fade for Ram. I mean, it’s so neutral, isn’t it? 170 ball speed, little 3-wood, 260 carry. Just flighting it down. Fascinating to see the ball data and the and the tracers. Billy Foster in the background with Moracawa. He’s new on the bag, Billy Foster. But just look at the speed and the footwork. Let’s have a look at his footwork again. Ram 3wood just flighting it down. Probably a club he’ll use quite a lot. Maybe even off the tea. So just watch the feet there. That’s left foot. He’s got a problem had a problem with his feet when he was young. And then just bang. Again, you’re seeing the little tap, the little movement in the feet, toes, the heels. Just that little bit that initiates the movement. I’ve been talking about this all week. You’re seeing it with so many more players now that are actually particularly Padre Harington who’s really doing a fabulous version of River Dance through Impact. But you know what he’s doing is he said to me, “Ro, I’m just it’s it’s getting me moving. Everything is about motion.” He said, “When you start playing badly, you get too set. You get too rooted and you stop turning, you stop rotating, and you stop moving.” The feet are so important, Simon, in the game of golf. It’s like for so many years, people don’t really talk about the feet as much as they should do. No. Well, the balance comes from the ground up. I mean, that’s that’s where you talk against the ground. So, yeah, absolutely crucial. Ram with a driver. Would he have a three What was 370 carry? Well, that’s strong. No, it’s super human. That’s super human. You don’t you can’t compare anybody else on the range. I don’t think really you could go to Penge or NAR but but pot heater is um that’s otherworldly isn’t it? Yeah. John Ram having said that he’d love the career of John Ram, wouldn’t he? He’d like a US Open that JJ Spawn has got. Yeah. He’d like a a clar jug that Xander’s got. You know, it might come for him. I mean, you know, he’s only 20, isn’t he? Pot, but he’s got game. There’s no doubt about it. And I mean, power is a weapon in the modern game. It didn’t used to be when you were on the tour, you had to really play golf from the fairway. The golf balls and the drivers were not nearly as Well, that’s the point, isn’t it? You play, you can only play with the equipment and the technology that you have in in your in your era, if you like. And, you know, the golf ball has always been the uh kind of dominant factor in the changes through the history of the game of golf. Right from the feather ball era, right through the guty ball period to rubber core guties and on and on and on. The golf ball has dictated so much in club design as well. Yeah. Yeah. Some incredible groupings. They tend to do this with the with the majors. They tend to group a lot of the big players together so the crowds can follow them round in conjunction. And Scott, it looks like he’s swinging it very well today. Yeah. Not been playing Lynx golf for that long as he mentioned in his press conference. I’m looking at the time right now. It’s 9:44. Morning, John. John Rams just walked past us and John is off at 9:58, so needs to make his way to the tea time. But he’s he’s been in his press conference this week. Scotty Sheffler talking about fulfillment in life. Uh you win a tournament, you celebrate for a short period, and then then it’s move on to the next one. Lots of uh lots of debate has been created around his press conference and what what he’s been saying this week. Finding the balance in life is so important as his caddy throws him a ball. Great way to just just throw the ball to the to the player. Yeah, I think uh that ability to celebrate will be tested if he does lift the clar jug at the end of the week. I know George Harper Jr. spoke to Justin Rose. He said uh he could help out in terms of he knows how to celebrate and have a party. I think we all I think we all could. Yeah, I think we could all volunteer our services. But Scotty doing what he does best just in the zone says he loves practicing. He loves playing golf. Loves a challenge. Um loves playing on the PJ tour. He was asked in the press conference whether he would consider traveling to other destinations around the world. He said, “Right now, I’m playing on the best tour in the world, playing with the best players, and that’s my home right now.” So that might change in years to come. What do you make of those comments? I mean, he’s the number one player in the world. He’s playing like some of the best golf. He’s a major champion already this year. Like why would he change anything that he’s doing? Like he’s currently on top of the world and he’s earned the right to kind of say and to think whatever he wants. It’s a little bit like Rory at the start of the year when the comments some some of the comments he made where he said you know I feel I’ve earned the right to kind of say what I want. Now I think Scotty’s there like you got to listen to what you know you got to listen to his opinions because he’s the best player. He is at the pinnacle of the sport and people want to know what he thinks. Last year at Ral Trun tied seventh position there. He’s played in four previous open championships. His first one was actually Roy St. Georgees. He had a top 10 there, tied eighth position. So, and as he said, you know, he’s not been playing Lynx golf for that long. No, it’s there’s nothing wrong with his ball striking. There’s nothing wrong with his imagination around these courses. It’s just his putting. It it always is because, you know, the same comments that he’s made about playing on the PJ tour and the best in the world. They also play on incredibly quick greens. Um, these aren’t very quick. They roll in great. They’re beautiful surfaces, but they’re not they’re not fast by any means. So, he struggles to control his speed. I know he’s been working on that with Phil Kenyon this week. So, have you had a chat with Phil this week? You managed to catch up with him? Yeah, we had we had a little bit of chat. We did uh I actually had a lesson with him a few weeks ago. So, we’ve been we’ve been talking about that. Just imagine imagine the difference in quality. Listen, you almost qualified for the Open. We look forward to you qualifying next year. In terms of stats, his career achievements, just looking at a few on the screen right now, uh, three major titles, obviously victorious at the USPJ championship this year. What did you see from him in that major? Ju just a continuation of everything that we expect. I mean, he had a slightly dip in form at the start of the year, but that’s only in comparison to how incredible he was last year. And he also had that injury. I think it’s it’s interesting to to compare different players as well because Manisero as you mentioned he’s always been kind of a shaper good ball striker but not not long off the tea compared to some of his peers medium hitter but is I suppose it’s about getting the most out of your game and I think you can add distance through physical work and through technique change but it depends what you’re chasing and if when you get there it’s worth the cost. Yeah. And you have to swing your swing, you know. I mean, that’s one of the things which where the technology perhaps has put such a premium on distance. There you go. Just working a little bit of aiming and ball position. Just trying to match up those two vital um trajectories. It’s very clean action, isn’t it? It’s not explosive. It’s a It’s a swing, isn’t it? His skill was feeling that face moving the ball around. A fantastic victory at Wentworth. Never forget that. And then you’re thinking, okay, sky’s the limit for this guy. There it is. Hands on the club. Super neutral. Little interlock. Just very classic. Bryson Dambo getting ready. He is off at 248. He is certainly a superstar. Bobby Mack and Justin Rose for company. Let’s have a look. I can’t believe the the response he was getting yesterday. We walked some holes and the fans just love him. Like they were char like grown adults just charhooing and shouting his name and he’s hitting extra drivers for them. who was just absolutely playing the game and they they were screaming for you mate. Oh, it was very cool. They were they kept saying, “Listen, Bryson, can I borrow your pen so George can sign my card?” Bryson Dashambo, that US Open victory at Pinehurst number two. Remarkable. But then um the the opens have not really been good hunting grounds for for Bryson. Maybe his high ball flight, his high spin rate, his high club head speed not suited perhaps to Link’s golf and the crosswinds that he’ll have to face out there. That’s exactly what he was saying yesterday. He’s just like, “Yeah, I just need to sort my ball flight out. Get it a little bit lower.” Um, but look, it does take time, especially for an American, especially a brute like Bryson. It does take time to adjust and uh, yes, he’d want some better results, but he’s the type of guy that can just win. And I and I prefer to be that type of golfer, one that when they’re on, they’re seriously on. Uh, and whether it’s up and down in between, that’s fine. But when he finds his stride, when he finds his link’s rhythm, he’ll be a scary prospect. Yeah, Dana Dulquist on his knee there just filming the swings. I think they got two cameras going there on every shot. Bryson leaving nothing to chance. I know he uses this fantastic technology, Sportsbox AI, which is an amazing machine. You can just pop it on your iPhone, film yourself, and get a really interesting insight into how your body’s moving compared to different models. It’s a real sort of game changer for um you know, apps which are which are educational. It’s a it’s an upgrade. It’s it’s very very good. Have a look at that. The front camera there is Paul from Sportsbox who’s measuring how Brighton is moving. Wow, that is a huge chair from Calamity. Could be. Could that be a one? Surely not. He must have a one. Wow. Imagine getting an Bryson Bryson immediately looked up there. What a place to do it. That surely looks looks to be an ace with that sort of roar. on Calamity. It’s a good group that one up on the tea. Bryson McIntyre Rose followed by Spath, Ludvig Arberg, Victor Hovland, Rory Maroy, Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood. Unbelievable. That would be that’s that that that’s going to empty out the whole of the gallery who are following here. 278,000 tickets sold for this week. Yeah, it’s amazing. It absolutely amazing. Some very, very big names. Nice to see Bobby McIntyre featuring in feature groups more often, earning the right. He had a great His first ever open championship was here in Port Rush in 19. I think he finished tied eighth from memory. Uh he was one of the early rounds out and I remember sitting in the clubhouse and the rain and the wind starts coming in and his name just crept up. Every 15 minutes his name would get higher and higher. It was uh that was very entertaining to watch. So 129 apex. You see that’s kind of Bryson’s stock shot. You know you need something under 70 for these crosswinds. But it looks like the kind of the rain has stopped. and the wind with it. Yeah, I think I think as this afternoon goes on, once you get through it and 160 apex, I I think it’s going to be great scoring. That’s a moon ball. So, let’s have a look. Draw swing. Every single shot looking at the spin. Amazing how he looks at it so closely. Every shot. Well, it’s funny because in the old days you used to watch the ball, right? Now that that doesn’t even watch the ball, does not watch the ball. Just looks straight down on them. Doesn’t watch one like no no impact from the ball. No look at the ball. On the golf course yesterday, he hit this approach shot and I thought he’d stuffed it up because he just looks straight down at his thing and and it put it to 3 ft and he just goes that’ll be that’ll be on the number and it’s so statistics. So interesting, isn’t it? So Bryson de Shambo, a very warm welcome to this Friday morning at Royal Port Rush. We are basked in sunshine at 7:30 a.m. here. There are some I’m going to call them interesting clouds surrounding us. An incredible first day of golf here. Four under leading the way, but there’s multiple players at the top. A slight breeze this morning, but it is perfect links conditions. Few are already out there. 6:35 the first tea time this morning. There’s a few on the range about half filled at the moment, but we’re all set for a fantastic Friday cut day here. And there are some of those clouds. They’re on their way, everybody. Uh they did forecast rain later on this afternoon, getting heavier about 2 3 p.m. But at the moment, this is just amazing weather. It’s a joy to be here on this Friday morning alongside me, Peter Finch. Let’s talk about this weather first. I mean, this is beautiful. At the moment, we’re getting the first tan of the week. I’m going to say that though in front of us, our camera was obviously shooting this way. That doesn’t look great. Oh, you see, this is where the famous Port Rush microclimate will come into play. I I always notice I always notice how people when they talk about microclimates, it’s always in a positive sense. That’s true. I mean, you never know anyone. No one lives somewhere where the micro climb is terrible. It’s always in a positive. And this, I would say, is a good thing. I mean, there’s a little bit of cloud, but compared to yesterday, this is just a passing memory. I know of a shower. Like, we’ll be fine. That two hours were brutal yesterday. It was horrible. Yeah. Yeah, it was. Um, give us your reflection of day one. Uh, overall, I think pretty exciting in many respects. I think the weather here does play such an important role and you you saw how it evened itself out. We kind of thought that the morning stars would have quite a big advantage and then the rain came in you thought oh god it’s going to be terrible but then the wind picked up and the temperature dropped in the afternoon. I think the scoring average was almost identical from morning to afternoon which I think for the overall tournament is a really good thing and you did see a lot of good players lot of rise to the top. A few interesting stories in there as well. Well, I thought as far as the first day went, it was really exciting, actually. Yeah, I think it was really exciting. Yeah. Let’s go down this way a little bit. See who’s down here on the range. Matt McCarti, the American left-hander there. Man here who’s next to him. One of my favorite golfers on the DP World, Anggo Hodalgo. He was under par for his round. Came through final qualifying too, the Spaniard. Yeah. Took one of the final qualifying stops at Dundonald where I was. Now, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry to I’ve got mixed uh I’ve got mixed feelings about Mr. Hadalgo right now. The way he plays the game is brilliant. It’s so good. It is. I I’m a big fan of mavericks in sport and people who entertain, but he is up there for me. Hadgo. Yeah. If you uh if you actually watch Hadal go on a driving range, then watch him on a golf course, there is nothing similar in the way they it’s like a schizophrenic personality. He gets out of the golf course and he’s completely different. It’s unbelievable. like he seems to play the game with a real love of it and a very a flamboyant way, you know, shot shaping flights. It’s it’s great to watch. He’s a great person to watch as well. Yeah, cuz I think grouping wise probably won’t take the massive a big crowd. So, yeah, if you are here at Port Rush and you do fancy someone to watch and be entertained. Yeah, he’s a great person to follow. He He really is. He shapes his shots. I mean, I don’t He’s not exactly like Sevy, but you can see the You can see the comparisons, can’t you, with him? Um, let’s talk about a few of the tea times earlier this morning. Um, who have we got? Hidar goes off at 8:14. And then where are the big hitters? We got to go down a little bit further down. Should we talk about Rory at 10:09? Yeah, a bit of a weird day, wasn’t it? Bit of a weird day. I mean, he started off very nervously. Um, he missed what could only be described as a gimme on that first hole. Um, kind of fought his way back, got to three under and then finished just one. So, I think he’ll overall be quite happy. I thought Level Par yesterday was actually a pretty good score. Yeah. Um, and you know, it is a bit of a classic, but you can’t win anything on the first day, but you can certainly lose it. If you think compare Bryson’s round, for example, for Rory’s, you know, another crowd favorite, someone you’d be expecting a lot more of. You know, he’s it’s silly to say, played himself out of the tournament, but he’s going to have to have an incredible round today to even make the cup. So, you know, I’d say overall it’s a decent day’s work. He’s a settler. He didn’t hit his first shot out of bounds, so for me it’s a it’s a great bonus. bonus. Um I think is it nine winners have been outside the top 10 20 to have ever won the open. Mhm. So Bryson’s got probably too much to do. Yeah. I mean he missed a cut last year and he just doesn’t seem to be able to adapt his game to link conditions. And it’s it’s a different mindset out here as well. It’s a different way to play because unless it’s a perfectly still calm Lynx course, which almost never happens, you can’t overpower a Lynx. Like you do have to have some guile. you do have to work your way around it maybe in a way which he’s not used to doing and I think by his own admission it’s something that he has been working on but there are players kind of who went out yesterday as well like Aaron Ry for example went out the worst of conditions played great this is his type of course really you know you got to pl your way around you got to be careful speed had a really good finish as well and it’s nice to see him play some decent golf even though he was slightly over par disappointing from Tommy I thought you could see it when he finished that part on 18 I must be honest Tommy was looking a little bit unto Tommy like yesterday. He was quite feisty. I He There was He gave I’m obviously not going to use the word, but there was a huge let out of emotion through a swear through swearing. Josh, I’m not going to lie. You You heard that fbomb all the way back in Belfast. Very true. It was um it was quite quite the outburst, but that’s very unto Tommy like it shows how frustrating a golf course like this can be, especially with the weather and with the conditions. You do got got to keep such tight control over yourself and if you’re not playing well it can easily go sideways. I actually think he rallied quite well. Did I think he got the most out of his round? Yeah, absolutely. Let’s take a little look at the uh the leaderboard, shall we? Um as to how things stand as we’re early on this day two tie for the lead. Matt Fitzpatrick, who had to be fair a pretty average first five months of the year. He’s definitely found something. Matt Fitzpatrick. He was top 10 of the Rocket Classic, top 10 last week, leading here after round one. Uh I would say that he’s obviously played much better golf and it is great to see. He I think four might be flattering is a strong word, but he turned a bogey into a birdie on the 16th yesterday when he slam dunked a pitch from from down in the hollow on the right probably. Oh yeah, it would have been almost a guaranteed bogey. So you need those bits of luck, you know, if you’re going to compete at these championships and look is an inherent part of Lynx golf. Yeah. How Tong Lee, the first Chinese player to lead the open after day one. Yakabolson, former amateur champion to the left hand at Harris English. Uh it’s such an underrated golf for Harris English. He’s got an incredible record at all the other majors except the open. And then Chris Zenhal, the South African who’s got a golden putter. That man. Um and then can I just mention Scotty Shuffler? I mean, we could try and ignore and like pretend the fact he’s not going to win this by about six shots. But yeah, there he is. You know what? I don’t think he played that great yesterday and he’s won off the lead. He does it all the time. She incredible. I would say he’s looking more ominous in this open championship than others other ones I’ve seen him because, you know, he’s not played great really in opens. It’s not been his stellar best. Yesterday he was playing some shots and doing some things which I’ve not seen him do before an open. So I think he might have figured figured something out and he puts it actually pretty well which has always been his Achilles heel on slower greens. So if he figures that out then it he really is the one to catch. Yeah. I don’t remember seeing at the Scottish last week there were a few issues he had on the greens. There was one I saw his reaction where he was like yeah one one of us. He was one of us for one hole. He was but if he figures it out everyone’s in got a big problem. So it’s it’s literally it’s just pace. Yeah. So he’s used to putting on greens which are, you know, over 12 on the stimp day in day out, rolling that ball towards the hole. On links greens, because of the condition of the course, the greens are great, but they have to have them slower by necessity. You know, if you get 30 mph whipping over a a 12 stim green, the ball’s going to blow off. So they need to be a little bit longer. So he has to actively hit them harder. And when you hit them harder, you have to take that into account with the break. And it’s just something he’s not quite been able to do. But I know he’s been working uh with Phil Kenyon this week trying to figure that out. And if he has it’s I mean he’s obviously stupid to say it’s so but he he will be around the top of the leaderboard. He has to be because he hits it so well. There be one away from the grand slam. Yeah. Another one. Yeah. I mean getting bored of grand slams to be honest. It’s kind of weird to say that he’s only won like a couple of the major championships, isn’t it? So yeah, I I mean if he keeps playing like he is now, he will join that illustrious list. But golf’s a funny game. You know, there’s there’s so many stories of people who we say, “Oh, you know, he’s obviously going to win the Grand Slam.” Jordan speak this. We, you know, he’s got a chance of probably Korean. He’s the only player realistically in the modern game who has a chance of doing the career grand slam. Um, and he doesn’t look like he’s going to die anytime soon. And he was at one time like the golden boy. So, you know, there will be an opportunity for Scotty, I’m sure. But golf’s a funny game. It is a funny game by by his present by his uh press conference the other day. He might give up soon. So, that’s amazing press conference. Yeah. Um, okay. Okay. So, Pete and I are going to work in our tans here at the uh the driving range. But for the meantime, let’s get to the boys in the commentary box. So, here we go. Bryson 7 over. Yeah. Yeah. Buddy, I mean, we watched we were I was doing feature groups yesterday. I watched him all the way around and um Yeah. He just doesn’t seem to I’m sorry to say this, but he doesn’t seem to get Link’s golf yet. I How crazy is that? Yeah. some of the places he was going, some of the shots he was hitting, and his open championship record is not great. No, he was he was complaining a lot in chat yesterday about the spin rates and the way the ball was performing. He’s got about five or six people filming him down there catching screenshots, you know, spin. His his record at the up there seven, you know, miss cuts three, eighth, tied eighth. Okay. Yeah. Top 10 in a major is always a good result, but we’re looking at something that’s a, you know, a double major champion. You you you’ve got to you’ve got to sort of at some point figure out how to play Lynx golf. Yeah, it just doesn’t seem to adapt his shot shape or style or launch or spin. But he bully it, you know, he he what he does is he he overpowers golf courses, doesn’t he? With his with his length and his aggression and, you know, um you can’t do that on Lyn’s golf. It’s it’s impossible. We saw him on a bank yesterday with a chip shot way above his feet and he missed it. He whiffed it. No, it was in thick grass. It was a very difficult shot, but from the second he set up, I called it. I said, “He’s going to miss this because he just wasn’t in the right position to play it.” And you know, maybe whenever do you get a bank that steep and thick grass, but that’s what you get at the opener. When we used to play practice around Simon, we used to throw balls up there and we used to go and try those shots because hang on a minute, we might get one of these. Yeah, two US Open wins. I’m a big fan. I I must say I didn’t I’m going to be honest. I didn’t when he first came out. I didn’t sort of connect with him. I thought he was a bit petulant. I I I I didn’t really buy the whole scientist thing. And the whole actor I didn’t get to start with. But I tell you what, last couple of years, he’s become for me a different person. He’s become a bit of a media darling. I I like his act now and I’ve suddenly gone from not being a fan to being a really big fan. That’s cool. I think I like that. Yeah, I think you could definitely be a fan of Bryson. Oh, I like him. I’m When he was 24, he behaved like a 24 year old should behave. You you know, you have you can’t you can’t hold that against somebody. I think that’s No, which is Here we go. Bryson. So, let’s go and find who George Hopper Jr. has chatting to. Yeah. Hey guys, I’m just on the range here delivering all sorts of balls and making sure everyone’s got their perspective balls. You’ve got your tight list, you’ve got everything. You got your Callaways, Taylor, mate. Okay, we can sort that out. Thank you very much. Thank you. We’ll take those. Thanks, Rory. There you go. Um, look, there was a few balls left, Rory. I don’t think he’s had enough of the short game area, but now he’s done there. You can see him cruise off over to the putting green. A nice effort indeed. But look how relaxed he is. He’s enjoying the chat with everyone, the crack, as they would say here. But, uh, this is the fun part, I guess. All the crowd have come here this morning for this moment. And he just cruises on by. He won’t traditionally from what I’ve seen he he he’ll have go straight past the putting green and over to the range. Certainly about to get a good cheer from this crowd as per usual. No doubt about it. He demands the attention. Justin Thomas right here going for the pink cashmere today. Not too bad. Not the worst option. So, so here we go. And look, uh, in terms of teamwork, in terms of passing over DY, I’d like to throw you the microphone now because Rory’s coming from my territory to yours. Thanks, George. Yeah. Harry Diamond, walk onto the rage. Morning, Harry. Good to see you. Hi, Michael. And Rory himself is uh is now on the driving range here with Pete Finch. He’s all in blue, navy blue. Very smart today, isn’t he, Pete? Yeah, I mean, looking good. He was looking good for large parts of yesterday as well. I think he handled himself pretty well in the end and actually got the most out of his day that he could. So, I think second round was normally pretty good for Rory at the Open. So, tell us starts in a moment. He’s just trying to pick his bay there. He’s going to bay number five. the grand massive cheer because he walked all the way down yesterday. But they they’re all here to watch him, aren’t they? All of them. Every single person. Yeah. I mean, he’s going to take such a massive crowd. I mean, it it shows his popularity. I mean, it’s probably one of the fullstand on the entire property right now is at the driving range. And as soon as he gets up to leave, pretty much everyone else will as well. Round of 70 minus one. Uh he said, you know, it was difficult conditions on that back nine. Dropped three shots. We managed to make a a birdie on 17. I was in the 13th grandson last night with my kiddies watching Rory. They they were desperate to watch him as every junior in the country is. And uh 13th was a really fascinating hole. Everyone well not everyone 75% of the shots we saw went beyond the green into that little swell area. And he almost chipped in for a birdie too. It was just on the lip. the roars around that green and obviously you’ve got the 17th to the right hand side of of the grandson on on 13 where we were sat, they were just sensational. Absolutely brilliant. He picked up he dropped a shot, didn’t he, on on 14. He just he he made a lot of mistakes. He made a lot of respect. 14 was a classic example where he misses the tough drive 14. But he he missed so many fairways yesterday even with irons and then obviously had to kind of get it out and then he had a bad pitch to the green. Hit okay chip and then hold a great put to get out there with a bogey. Yeah, it was kind of like that pretty much all day. It was just a bit of a nervy bit of a round where he was feeling himself into it. As I said a couple of moments ago, massive crowd here in the grand sand. little sigh because they wanted to walk him to walk all the way down. He says he knows he knows that everyone is supporting him and which is such a wonderful feeling but it’s also extra pressure but they they all love him. They’re all here for him. They want Rory Mroy to win the open championship. It’s about 10 deep there with their coffees, cup of tea, cup of coffee. It’s it’s a little bit chilly. The wind has picked up. Conditions today, Pete? Uh they’re going to be pretty consistent. I think there might be a little bit of rain coming in this afternoon, but overall the morning starters, I think, are going to get the benefit. But we thought this yesterday, the actual morning starters had some terrible conditions. But Rory got away with most of the rain, but he got the cold and the wind, so it evened itself out. And I think today is going to be very similar to this. Kind of overcast, kind of fresh breeze, not too warm, but hopefully not as much rain. Oh my god, that was terrible yesterday. It was It wasn’t good. What did you make of his drive on the first yesterday? nervy. Nervy like the the whole round yesterday, he didn’t look ever particularly settled. He didn’t look like the the confident Rory Maroy that we’re used to seeing when he’s at his, you know, heights of his powers. But I think today is going to be important in the sense that if he gets off to a good start, I reckon it can have a really low round because he should feel a little bit more settled now. Yesterday wasn’t a disaster. Listen, Rory Makoy is literally one of the best golfers in the world. He’s won everything there is to win now. But he will remember that first round from 2019 when he shot 79, he blew himself out of the tournament. He missed the court. He would have been playing on his mind. There’s no doubt about that. So to get through one under in tough conditions, I think was absolutely fine. He’s good in second rounds. Tell us some stats about that. Well, it’s just always seems with Rory that his first round, and you get this with a lot of great champions. Tiger was always quite classic for this. eases himself in on the first round, has a good second round, charges on Sunday, and then with Rory, he very rarely destroys a field on a Sunday. It’s always a bit of a nervy finish. So, he’ll want to try and get out and ahead by the last round and then hang on like all the rest of us with bit and nails. Tell us birdie opportunities on the front line. Where are they? Um, so today with this wind, I mean, we’re going to be looking at the the second, the par five, um, Which birded whichy birded obviously you’ve got the fifth down the hill which is birded which birded I mean you tend to find that around here if you birdy the par fives three of them most of them are getable and then the par threes you’ve got to hang on cuz they were playing pretty tough yesterday. It’d be interesting to see what they’ve done with 16. They moved it a long way forward yesterday. Will it go back a little bit further cuz that could be carnage. Just to let you know about his card. Obviously that drop shot on the first hole just missed that putt for a par on the first. Then birdies at 257 out in 34. The par’s 36 and on the back n there were those drop shots. He made birdie on the 10th hole. We like the 10th hole. 10’s a great birdie cuz it’s a very tricky drive. Um but if you want leg right yeah but if he wants to actually go low today which I mean a 67 66 is an amazing score out there. Amazing score. But he’s got to tighten up his his tea game off the tea. He was just not hitting enough fairways. He was putting himself into some stinky positions where he had to hit out of bunkers. He couldn’t go. We can’t wait to see what he achieves in round two. We’re all behind him, supporting him. He’s checking his phone. Maybe checking his stats or seeing what the weather’s doing. Okay, let’s get to commentary. And uh guys, you’ve got a great view of this range, haven’t you? Yeah, we certainly do. Rory Maroy, it’s a huge day for him today. Mark. Yeah, it was interesting what uh what Finchy was saying there because I actually think today he’ll be more nervous than yesterday, believe it. And we saw palpable nerves on the first two yesterday. We saw it on the first green where he missed from no more than 3 ft. It was down the hill and a little bit tricky, but you know, it’s amazing to think of a Grand Slam champion, a five-time major champion being nervous. This is a huge day to get through. I you know, yeah, 67 would be fabulous. Anything under 70 would be fabulous out there today. And you just have the feeling with Rory that today is crazy to say this, but about making the cut and laying that sort of ghost to rest from from the last time we were here. Should he do that, I think he might well go on and win this championship because I think he’ll freewheel at the weekend then. I think today is just a monster day for him. Yeah, you do get that sense. 1009 he is. Mroy, Justin Thomas, and Tommy Fleetwood. They were they were quite untidy as a group. I think each one of those guys probably feels like, you know what, left some out there. Oh, yeah. I mean, let’s I mean, to be honest with you, Rory got off to a really scrappy start, didn’t he? Left off the first and and a three putt from long range. Missed a short one. But there you go. He did have a good stretch in the middle. He did. He’s done very well. He has made magic and including in 2014. Have a look at this. The Open to me has always been the biggest and best tournament that we play in. Go into Hoy Lake as one of the favorites to win. Feeling like my game was in good shape. the 72nd Hot Oil Lake, the massive grandstands, you know, the standing ovation. Even just thinking about it now, you I get goosebumps and hairs in the back of my neck stand up. It’s a memory that will stay with you for a very long time. Champion golfer of the year and the winner of the gold medal. It’s something you dream about. I think the most famous trophy in golf, one of the most famous trophies in all of sport. So to be able to have my name on it, you know, with so many other greats of this game, you know, it does it means an awful lot. All right, we’ve made it into the grand stand to watch Rory because I believe this is one of the best views in the house. There is not an empty seat in sight and fair enough, too. If you are at the open, this is certainly a good place to be. So, let’s go see if we can find some punters. Who wants to You look like a chatty bloke. All right. What’s your name, mate? Logan. Logan, I’ll just pull up a pew next to you, mate. Pretty good seat you got here. How nice is it to watch the open from this view? Yeah, there’s a few boys hitting the big bracelet rip. Yeah. Yeah, that’s nice. Who’s your favorite player out here on show? Uh, Bobby. Bobby went down to the corner. Bobby. Bobby. Bobby McIntyre. Now, Sam, if you can pan as far right as you can, you’ll see lonely old Bob down there just having some time to himself. Uh, you know, that sums up the Scottish well. Uh, he just just relaxed. No media attention. Absolutely loving it. And then if you keep working back, we got Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood. It’s a big man. Big M Woo fan. Good stuff. So, let him let him cook. How cool is it to watch from here? What are you noticing watching from up here, Logan? What do you love to see the most? Just the ball dragging on the irons is just ridiculous. Yeah, it’s nice to see. You think the range is better because you actually get to watch them hit 30, 40, 50 balls rather than the odd one out on course. Yeah, you can actually see like how far they’re hitting it as well. It’s nice. Yeah. How how’s your golf game? Uh, it’s all right at the moment. Yeah. Can’t really get off a tea, but everything else is good. I’m a master with a with a putter. Yeah. Where are you from? Uh, just up Arum. Oh, nice. Play Mazarine. Oh, perfect. So having this having the open back on the island is pretty special, isn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. I’d like to keep it here. I wouldn’t mind if they to put it down in Dublin as well. That would be nice. Okay. Okay. We’ll put the request in, mate. And a few coffees, few Irish coffees this morning. Uh yeah, probably get in the paint and let it rip. Let it rip. Okay. It’s It’s not It’s not even 9:30, mate. So So fair play to you. Uh on that note, uh cheers very much, Logan. Uh let’s let’s get back to the golf where uh uh some of our favorites are back on show. Cheers, boys. There it is, Mark Row. The grand stand behind the driving range. It has been a packed place, a popular place, an interesting place from which to observe the warm-up. Yes, it is. And uh they’ll queue they’ll be well, you can see the cues behind there. There’s no seats left in that grand stand. They’re just hoping desperately to to get a seat because right now, you know, many of the legends are out there, aren’t they? Look at that. There’s major champions everywhere. Yeah, it’s an interesting little group featured sort of an hour of golf. It goes Russell Henley, Tier Hat, and Minwi. Those guys are 936. Bobby Mack, Bryson Dambo, and Rosie 947. Bryson Dambo seven overp. Justin Rose two under. Yeah, it was impressive. Justin was super tea green yesterday. His game was in great shape and for me the I I I felt that he played the best golf, the most consistent golf of the afternoon. I know players scored better, but for me he was right on his game. I don’t know about you, Simon, looking at Rory there. Do you think he’s paying homage to the great Sevy by Asteros with that outfit? I mean, it is just so typically Sevy, the the blue cashmere, the white shirt, the blue trousers. Um, of course, Sebie always had the V-neck cashmere and he’s got the roll neck, but I I I love his outfit today. I think that is smart, sharp, elegant, and and traditional in a way. Wonderful. Mark, that you’re you’re ahead of the game. I I I’ve been watching his I’ve been watching to see how his right arm folds and see if he get and see if it’s too rigid, too long. And you’re But I mean, I love that. I think you bring a lot to the to the commentary. It’s a He’s a It’s always very tidy. Well, you had John Cook in before me. Golfing legend. I mean, I can’t compete with that, so I might as well be the fashion correspondent. You’d be amazing at that, Rowey. You look very smart yourself, actually. So, Rory Maroy, I feel work to be done today. Where does he need to get to? Does he need to get to let’s suppose it’s an easier scoring day today? Does it do the leaders get to eight under par today? Um, yeah, I kind of was I was thinking seven. I thought someone might get to seven today. We don’t know what weather comes in. We we you never know with a Lynx golf course what you’re going to get, but I think if Rory finishes today underpar, I mean, that might sound crazy, but if he finishes underp going into the weekend, and anything more than that, he starts to become a favorite for me. Oh, how about that? So Maroy, Thomas and Fleetwood off at 1009. Maroy one under. JT one over and Fleetwood disappointingly two overp. Didn’t really get any good breaks yesterday. We had Bunker Gate yesterday. Mark, did you see um Tommy Fleetwood hit it into a bunker and they hadn’t raaked it or it had been raked very poorly? I was always under the impression that with each group there was a bunker raker, but I understand that from yesterday it wasn’t going to happen. Now come on guys, you’ve got to sequence yourself up there. So Rory, you’ve gone too early. Okay, much better from JT and Fleetwood. Are we going to get Oh, this this now. Here we go. Rory Tommy’s got his ball. JT, do not go early. Tommy’s gone for a little practice. Ah, Rory, where are you headed off to there, mate? You see, once again, I’m more concerned about the sweaters because I think JT’s won the sweater contest because I think the soft pink look is just gorgeous for out there today. And I think with Tommy, it’s interesting you say because we’re just an observation, he looks a bit tired and weary to me. He looks like almost like I could do with a break type of Tommy. You know what I mean? He’s had a frustrating year, hasn’t he? Let’s line them up here. So, great to see them all up together. And now what we can do with our top tracer technology is just show you obviously Maroy a little bit further down the bag. 182 possibly an eight iron for Rory. It’s got the shape of an eight iron, hasn’t it? Let’s have a look. Flat carry. Yeah. 185. Yeah, I think he’s right on 200 as a seven. So, I mean, you’ve been watching all morning. Where where is the wind on the range this morning? It’s not really It’s not much at all. No, I’d say it was um it’s slightly into on the first. I did have a quick look at the first hole. Slightly into off the right on the first. Very slight. Okay. So, it’s kind of it’s across the range then really, isn’t it? Gently across. Yeah. Fleetwood. Fleetwood needs. What do you thinking the cut is, Rowey? Two. Yeah, I mean it’s hard to tell, isn’t it? Um, normally it’s just a we’re going to have similar conditions. It’s just a look at what it was yesterday. Double it. I mean, that’s we we know the formula. Um, I think it stays at Yeah. Yeah, probably two. Probably two. Yeah, we’ll go with two for now. Yeah, I think you’ve got to assume too. So So Fleetwood, I mean to if he could get back into into into the red, that would be great. Look at the crowd. That’s his goal. The crowd absolutely magnificent. This golf competition I we were in early. We started broadcasting early. People were pounding down the streets getting into position. The enthusiasm. Lots of different lots of families, lots of lads coming in. It’s the heart the the crowd is the heartbeat of the golf. Do you remember the co years? No crowd. It was like playing golf in empty room. So Rory Maroy has brought all of Ireland with him. Shane Larry as well I thought did very well yesterday. Yeah, super. He really did. Victor Hovland two over. He kind of had it going and just, you know, finished off sloppily. Yeah. Same same with JJ Spawn, the US Open champion. He bogged three of the last four holes as well from being under par. But, you know, this is a sort of golf course where even the most innocuous hole can catch you out. And there’s really no point I believe you can relax and think, great, I’m on a birdie hole. Maybe the par five, maybe. But, you know, apart from that, you hit it in the rough, you can make a double in a heartbeat. Um, it truly is a wonderful golf course. And as I say, you know, for for Rory, it’s such a big day today. He said already, he’s openly said he’s got two events this year that he’s actually bothered about. I mean, how about that? Won the RDER Cup and won the Open Championship here. Yeah. uh to win the open the win to win the RDER Cup in America. So Rory was I think he’d come off and have a mixed bag from yesterday. Let’s take a closer look at it. We started with a bogey um Simon and you know a massive improvement however. Well well you say that you say that. Okay. Yes, I know that because he hit it out of bounds when we were here last time, but he was on that tea and he looked I mean, incredible to look at a player of this stature and and see noticeable nerves and it was left and it did miss the fairway and it was in the thick stuff and he hit a brilliant shot to get it onto the edge of the green and hit a great putt as well up to a couple of feet and missed it. So, those nerves obviously were there but I thought from that point on through 10 it was fabulous. I mean, he got himself to three on the path. I mean, he really did start to to to to turn up the screw. And of course, then you turn into a difficult stretch on the back n all that stretches. And then he popped in that birdie at 17. So, a mixed bag. A mixed bag, but is I think a a positive day. Yeah. But today is more nervous. I’m telling you, today is more nervous. Yeah. As it gets closer. million% Rory Maroy there’s some great groups there speed Ludvig Arberg and Victor Hovland out right before 958 see the thing is you know Rory Maroy is one of the few players in the game that’s capable of brilliant things bordering on genius if he if he suddenly gets into that zone you know he can walt it around here on on a on on a slightly windy day in 63 64 he can do that and he has the ball flight and the and and the control of the ball flight to be able to get at flags that other players can’t get at. So getting through to the weekend and getting into a reasonable position, he can still be one of your favorites. Yeah. Incredible that gap though, wasn’t it? There it is. There’s the scoreboard. So what Rory is doing, he knows that these numbers are the actual numbers. So what he’s trying to do is figure out what he thinks he’s hit it versus what the conditions are hit it. So if you watch he’ll hit look across to the left there just to see the carry number. Victor Hovland work in progress working really hard with Grant Weight making some great improvements to his technique. Coughland coming back in form. Grant rate, former player now really an excellent advisor, excellent coach. It’s interesting, isn’t it? You say talk about Grant Grant Wait. I saw him on the range. Was a great ball striker. Amazing. Yeah. Saurin Hansen was on the range coaching. He coaches the way guards and and Manisero also great ball striker. So there it is. A look from our overhead, our plane. Superb. You see that little bit of low cloud there. That that worries me when when you see a little bit of low cloud below the plane, then I kind of get a bit nervous that maybe some inclement weather’s coming in. You know what? It’s coming, Rowey. Right. It’s coming. But right now, maybe this is the calm before the storm. I mean, this is I mean, not that how could you ever do a forecast, right? It’s an amusing thing. But right now at least, it’s kind of saying rain will come and not much of it at about 4:00. That’s what we got, right? And the wind is 11 miles an hour right now. So, not very much. And it’s coming from the south. So, that’s kind of weird cuz that’s a different direction even than yesterday. There we go. Rory Maroy the flat carry number 239. Probably his for Ryan. Yeah, I was going to say I think that’s his for Ryan. I can’t I can’t get my head around that. It’s just it’s a beautiful action though. So classic. I mean the way it all the speed all comes to stops at the same time. Absolutely amazing. It’s the connection, isn’t it? the connection and the flow of it. And I I actually like the fact that he practices the twizzle of the club on the range. Do you see that last shot? Struck it nicely. Little twizzle. It was beautiful. So you think four iron, which is about right. Look at the length of the shaft. I’m guessing you’re spot on. Right. So that four zoom in. Yes, he hit that harder. Yeah. And not well. So did he shank it? No. So Heath did shank it earlier. So he was disappointed. He was disappointed that we were recording that. So Maroy in his own world, Mike Bannon upset. Isn’t that lovely? I mean, Michael Bannon has coached him his whole life and there he is still there. I think that’s amazing. Rory’s a good guy. You know, he ever since he came on the golfing scene as a youngster, he’s always for me spoke truth, spoke honesty, spoke clearly, spoke from the heart. And I think he plays that way. He plays with his heart on his sleeve. That for me is the way I I want to watch a golfer. I want to We go through all the ups and downs with him. We’ve all had our head in our hands plenty of times. We’ve all cried tears at Augusta this year when he finally got the grand slam. when he finally I mean when he hit that wedge into the 72nd hole I actually was on the floor I was on my hands and knees with my no not not at this point do you hit another poor wedge shot you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. And then of course well when he actually came up with the brilliant wedge shot in the playoff and knocked it in. It was uh joyous. It was it was a great great moment in history. That’s historic when you do that. the Grand Slam, all of the majors. It was amazing that gap though, wasn’t it? The gap of 10 plus years. Yeah, it was more. It was Yeah. 14, whatever it was. But, you know, that’s the other thing that that that every single youngster can admire about Rory Maroy, every pro, every everybody in the game can admire is that resilience. Yeah. That belief, that never say I’m not going to do it attitude. I mean, we all think he should have won 15 majors by now. We We know how good he is. We know the talent level. We know we know what we see. You think the Masters victory opens the flood doors to more majors? Row, I Yes. I I thought there would be a big comedown period after that to be honest with you, where he would actually start to, you know, just question motivations and and where he wanted to play and what he wanted to do. Um and I think he’s probably well this could be the watershed of being through that Simon to be honest with you. This could be this championship here should he go on to have a good day today contend and end up winning this. I mean all that can matter to him in his life his major championships. Yeah, I do think and an away victory in the rider. Yeah. Yeah. Of of course that’s hugely important. But I’ll I’ll ask you a question. When he does eventually retire, how many majors do you think he’ll have? Double figures. Yeah, I would have said I would go for 10. I was going to go for 10. I I I I think that’s doable for him. You know, injury obviously that that that anything in the way of that that’s uh not controllable. Uh you can’t control like Tiger when Tiger started to get more and more and more injured. You know, there is sometimes too much of a loop where that club goes too much outside in the back swing and then it when he rroots it, the re-root is too big and it kind of tilts him out of angle. Um, but this looks pretty good to me. Like kind of more it’s a tiny bit steep to shallow, which is what you want. Well, he talked a lot, didn’t he, about the fact that he was working on pretty simple things and he was working on width in the takeaway and he was very aware of trying to get the club in the right place in the first sort of 18 24 in of the takeaway. And that is that pretty much ties in with what you’re saying, doesn’t it? Because if he gets that width, he’s less likely. Yeah. Yeah. For me, he’s one of those guys, some guys need to set it later, some guys need to reset it later. He’s one of those guys. I I think he’s one of those guys who needs to set it earlier so he doesn’t get too much um r-root in that change of direction, which is amazing. So, if we look at the sort of the Rory Maroy superpower kind of look at those hips, see that rivet on his belt buckle there? It’s going to drop and rise. So, it’s the sinking in transition of the pelvis and then the explosion up through impact. So, this will be now his driving iron. What we now gone back to, we used to carry one iron, didn’t we? That was our driving iron in the old days. But now it’s got a two on it or even a three, but it can have anything up to 16° or down to 16° of loft on it. Yeah. I mean, that’s incredible to me. I mean, it’s an iron in essence. Yeah. And the game has changed, Mark. It’s amazing. He’s gone to the 3-wood now. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I was speaking to John Cook. He said, you know, probably like stock 7 iron was like a 150 shot, you know, when he was when he was in his pump and and Rory’s seven iron is 200 yards. Yeah. Well, you’d have to say that would be in his pump. Yeah. I mean, but that’s quite short for a 7 iron, you know, but that’s that’s 1990. Yeah, I was playing in the 90s. Yeah. So, not particularly well. No, I was playing okay in the 90s. Yeah, I was doing all right then. I still never forget my golf lesson. I got a few. Yes, I still tell everybody. There I am on the range at the Lancome Trophy in Sam Sames who had a French openers this year. Down the range walk, Simon Holmes just stands behind me for 5 minutes. How are you, Rowey? I said, well, it’s not really feeling very good this morning. And you went, you know, you’re just a bit disconnected, mate. Just just just try and slow your bottom half down. I said, well, well, how do you want me to do that? and you said to me, “Just imagine there’s a beach ball and just try to squeeze a beach ball between your knees and that might just slow you and I thought, well, that’s interesting. I’ve never heard that before.” So, I tried it and I tried it and I thought, “That’s better. That’s better.” So, I went out on the golf course and I thought about that the whole week and I picked up the trophy at the end of the week. I won the Lancome trophy that week and I promise you, I had that tip in my head the whole week. Isn’t it an amazing game? It’s a crazy game. Five minutes. the most simple tip and you help me win that. You helped me win that championship. Yeah, it’s a mad% mad game. Or maybe it’s just played by lunatics, Rowie. Anyway, well, there’s no doubt about that. Let’s have a look. Maroy 3wood. I think this is off the tea, so he’s obviously thinking, you know, when he’s going to I mean, he played a lot of T- shots yesterday with his driver. He didn’t drive the ball well yesterday, which is unusual for him, isn’t it? Unusual for him. But, you know, he can get around this golf course. He can get around this golf course with a 3-wood and a and a driving iron. So, first hole. Yeah, but he’s not going to be hitting that club, is he? Ever off this tea. That’s the thing. It’s what you can make that comparison, but it it’s not relevant. I mean, we’ve seen Aaron Ry, who’s the straightest driver on the PGA Tour, hit a driver off the first TE, but Rory’s hitting an iron, and I tell you what, he’s hitting an iron and he’s struggling to hit the fairway down there. So, that’s psychological. Yeah, he’s got that holes in his head. It’s not a friendly start, is it? OB right, OB left. Let’s have a look now. Driver for Maroy. That is his superpower. Do you know what? We we we talk about his driver being his superpower, but his short game is is a Oh, I’m going to say it’s it’s it’s really good now. I mean, it is it’s he’s a great bunker player and he’s and he’s got a lot of variety in his short game. Oh, we would take that. What’s his carry? 315. Oh, look at that. 330. 330. That’s quite 340. I thought I saw 340. 340 total. Oh, 340 total. Yeah, only 340 total. It’s just I think that’s his opening t-shot there. Let’s have a look. Look at this. Amazing. Everyone’s looking at the number. Let’s go. 345. 330 again. very consistent 191 and everyone going he did what the thing about it is though you can’t see the ball unless you’ve got amazing and you pick it up early you cannot see the ball you say that because of the launch angle as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s 140 ft high. Yeah. That’s what I that’s what I love about it. I mean I mean you’ll know this cuz you know everything but he he got to be in the top 10 sort of apex hitters in the game. Yeah. 133 apex. So that’s his kind of PGA tour apex. I think probably Matsayyama hits it higher than him. Bryson, but I mean Rory Rory can have a couple of 160s if you if it’s the weather’s correct. I mean it’s like sending a ball up into the atmosphere. So Rory Maroyy’s best results at the open. Amazing he was at Royal Liverpool. Incredible. And then look at the consistency, the heartaches, especially especially 2020 uh two St. Andrews. Yeah. Yeah. Really puted the trophy out his hands on the back nine. Really? Well, that put on 17, the the two putt from around the bunker on 17. and Cam Smith he he hasn’t done so well since then really Cam Smith so I did used to love watching him play I got to say he was amazing so Maroy also looking at the numbers that you were just looking at Victor Hovland grinding as he does the fans old and young lots of young faces we have seen at this open championship have a look at magnificent balance. Is he the best driver of the golf ball in your mind when you look at a combination of accuracy and length in the game? I think no doubt. And I mean when he’s won golf tournaments very very often it is because he can bully the golf course to death with his T-shots. Right. So, let’s have a look. Great line here. Mike Bannon in behind. It’s like a controlled explosion, isn’t it? It’s like a ground to ground missile. Yeah. Three. I mean, it’s it’s amazing with 330. It’s just turning up the power very slightly now. 190 ball speed. on 144 a pound. It’s the numbers are incredible. Curve a foot. No, stop it. The frozen rope. Stop it. 338 with a foot of curve. That’s super human. Do you know what a frozen rope is in French? Do you know what? This will be probably the most exciting thing that will happen to me today hearing this. Lord julle. Super. Thank you. I don’t know if that’s going to be of any use to you at all, but there it is. Oh, I’ it’s already in my subconscious for when I see one of the French players hit it straight. Here we go. So fascinating to see and some great golf coming your way. If you’re out here, you can feast your eyes. Next out, McIntyre, Bryson Dashambo, and Rose Spith, Ludvig, Orberg, and Hovland. 326 is the best that Bryson’s done so far. Yeah, but Rory’s looking over at that cuz it’s up there, and he’s just going to leave that little message up there. So, lads, follow that. Yeah. And I and I think that will will stay there until uh Aldrich Pot Heater comes on the range and then that will go from 340 to 370. You can’t believe that, can you? 370 carry. Yep. Yep. Fascinating to see. Do you know looking at Raasmus there, that’s Raasmus has got power on board. Nikolai got power on board. Those those two guys are flushers. Yeah, I think they’re in the Ryder Cup. Do you think they’re Ryder Cup? They got to be in the R cup. Oh, they our team team Hoyard is is definitely in this RDER Cup. Surely Nikolai is doing everything now. He’s coming into form. Raasmus has been playing nicely. Surely. Anyway, let’s have another joyous look at that action. It is speed, power, balance, connection. faces. Keeping something for that last day. Yeah, that’s it. Heat. Heat. Oh, it’s in. It’s in the win. Here she comes. Oh, no. I don’t believe it. This is just extraordinary. It’s the afternoon session, day two of the 153rd Open Championship here at Royal Port Rush. And that is the stage for the golfers. It’s absolutely stunning. First opened here in 1951, second stage in 2019. Shane Lowry victorious, of course, and there’s been a lot of movement on the golf course. Many birdies being made. There are schools available out there today. And the sun is shining, which we’re absolutely delighted about. Gorgeous coastline here. So many visitors that come from all parts of the world to see the best golfers in the world for golf’s greatest and oldest championship. Who’s going to lift the clar jug on Sunday? We’re live at the range here with Trey Nan. And Trey, really good to see you. I know you’ve had a busy you’ve had a really busy week. I know you’re also very impressed with the golf today. And Rory Mroy is out on the course. We’ve uh we can’t stop talking about him because all the fans in the in the grand want to talk about him. Everyone does around the course. Uh minus one at the moment, but you you we were just talking before we came on air. What what did you see from Rory yesterday? Well, firstly, we we came on, didn’t we? And we watched him on the range in his warm up and it was a little bit late actually for him. I I think he usually gives himself an hour and a half. We waited and wait. We finally got him and he was looking at his phone, wasn’t he? He was looking when is his tea time. How long has he got? And he went out on the golf course and he actually he drove it pretty poorly. He was struggling a little bit with the lefts off the tea yesterday. But what really impressed me is how resilient he was actually on the course. His approach play was awesome, but he’s ranked like 130th yesterday, strokes gained off the tea, which in him, he’s one of the best drivers in the world. And for for him, the most impressive part was how he stuck in there. He didn’t get ahead of himself. Whenever he was out of position, he played it back, relied on his short game and pitching and he strung together a very nice round of golf. Gosh, 130 I think in strokes gained. He’ll be looking at that with, you know, disappointments. I saw him nearly chip in on on 13. Yeah, I saw his touch around the greens for a few holes and yeah, absolutely had to rely on that. But today at minus one, so he’s level for the day. But many players making a lot of birdies. One is Brian Harman. He’s moved up the leaderboard. You got the likes of Justin Rose there as well. Is spotted anyone else making birdies. Can have a quick look at the leaderboard now actually. Tier’s up there. He’s got five under for the day, hasn’t he? He’s two under. Brilliant. Two under for the day. Five under total. and he is in some unbelievable runner form in major championships this year. Yeah, he also had a top 10 here in 2019 uh the last staging of the event. There is Justin Rose. So much support for for Rosie burst onto the scene at Royal Burkedale, didn’t he? As a 17year-old 1998, Rob Bob McIntyre minus three for the day. Oh, Bob could do it. Yeah, he can. He’s had a decent week actually this week. He had a few hot mics yesterday which was entertaining. I always love a hot mic and he was a little bit he puts a lot of pressure on himself, doesn’t he? He slams a few clubs, but I mean he’s clawing them back today. Yeah, absolutely. I was actually just taking a look over our shoulder there, D. All the the fans out there watching Rory. Uh Tommy Fleetwood in Rory’s group minus 4 through seven. Tommy fans, he finished second in 2019. They’ll be absolutely delighted with that. Mhm. Yeah. Tommy, I I actually said at the start of the week, it’s a golf course. Yeah, he was actually him and Tier golf course that suits Tommy. I think a lot of approach play relying on this week. Pockets on the greens and uh yeah, Havland as well clawing it back. Three under through eight holes. Maybe today is the day where we’re going to see a few of the low ones out there. Our papers are blowing. What is the wind going to be doing this afternoon? Cuz it’s all about the wind on this golf course. Yeah, I mean it’s already in the last half an hour it’s picked up a little bit, but I’m super surprised at the the weather right now to be honest. I was looking at the BBC weather app last night and all it said was rain, thunderstorms, and we’re out here. I’m in a t-shirt. You got your t-shirt on as well, D. And it’s perfect. I mean, water overnight on the golf course did soften the greens up a little bit, but sometimes it just makes them a little bit more skidy, so it doesn’t actually soften them up a little bit. I’m going to keep my eye on Brian Harmon. Pete Finch tipped him two years ago. I remember that. And said he was going to win the Open Championship 2023. And he did. and he was he was on the range earlier this week. We spoke to him a couple of times, was in really good spirits. Doesn’t like any lights in his bedroom. He’s brought electric tape. I think it was electric tape he said to cover up all the lights. And if there’s a bit of light at the bottom of your door, he puts a towel down there. Wow. He’s picky, isn’t he? Well, exactly. But he’s obviously it works. W he’s slept really well this week because he’s playing really well. Raasmus Hoygard is minus 6 through 13. Tell us a little bit about Raasmus in his game. Um, Raznus is one of them players. He’s actually got an unbelievable short game if you look at look at the stats. I can never pick I actually I can never pick him and his brother apart. If they’ve had they both if they both had a haircut, I can’t pick him apart. Usually Raasmus has got the longer hair, but he’s a he’s a golfer. You see his back swing bode leader. It’s like a modernday golf swing. He’s a joy to watch Raasmus. Really lovely to Yes. Rasmus Nick confused now. So easy to get confused. I like chatting to his dad as well. He’s such a humble chap. Uh just saying, you know, what great sons that you’ve produced and uh he’s always his demeanor is very sort of um he’s chill, isn’t he? He’s very chilled and he’s not invasive in any way. I really really enjoy his company. Uh I’m just wondering about these afternoon starters and who you’ve got your eye on. I mean, I’m I’m looking at Matt Fitzpatrick at minus four. Really well placed. Sort of bursting into form at exactly the right time. He is. Yeah, he’s actually spent a He mentioned yesterday post round that he kind of found something in his game with coach Mark Blackburn. Um he was struggling a little bit and just didn’t really have anything, but he’s worked with his coach Mark Blackburn who’s an unbelievable golf coach and looks like he’s found some form this week. He’s put on what surprised me most about Matt is he’s put on all this length off the tea, but he’s actually got more accurate, which is why we’re seeing him do well around a golf course like this. And he hits it super low. He’s a classic Lynx player. Won loads of amateur golf events which are all typically on Lynx golf courses. So, it’s no shock to see him doing well this week. No, brilliant stuff. Looking forward to his tea time. And I’m looking at Scotty Sheffller’s tea time, which was Rory’s tea time yesterday, 3:10 p.m. It’s a It’s a special uh timing uh with Colarakawa and Shane Shane Lowry. What a group. Your thoughts on Scotty Sheffller and his play yesterday minus three. Well, when I got in and I checked the scoreboard, I see Scotty there at what was he minus three? Yeah, minus three. And to my surprise, I was I thought he was level par or one over. He’s just plotting along. Plotting along and he just Scotty does what he does. That’s what he does best. He just stays in there. He never There’s no fireworks. He’s just in there hitting good golf shots. And I don’t know, he’s just one of those sneaky golfers that he’s he just Yeah. sneaky find the top 10 all the time, which is is great. We’ve loved Scotty’s press conferences this week, haven’t we? Talking about how he loves practice, loves the challenge. Does it fulfill him? Absolutely not. He said in terms of fulfilling his heart, but he loves being out here and competing. Uh whether the celebration lasts for two minutes or five minutes, then they’re on to the you’re on to the next tournament. We could speak for three hours on that. Really interesting, fascinating insight from Scotty Sheffler this week um in the press conferences. He’s minus three. He’s three off the lead at the moment. Top of the leaderboard is six under par. The story is there. It’s all going to unfold overlooking this driving range. Delighted to say for the first time we’ve got Claude Harmon III in the box and he’s with Simon Holmes. Homosy over to you. Oh, thank you guys. Yeah, very excited to have Claude Harmon III join us in comms. Claude, welcome mate. Good to be here. What have you been up to? You’ve just had DJ out on the golf course. Yeah, just on the range with DJ. did the warm-up and um ready to see some good golf this afternoon. I think it’s going to be exciting. The weather’s good and um four seasons in one day. That’s what you get here at the Open Champ. Can you imagine trying to be the weather man in Port Rush? Um so when you’re when you’re getting your man ready like pre-around, like an hour to go, whatever. What’s the kind of form? Does DJ say, “Hey, listen. Am I getting closer to this?” Or does he talk to you? How does it work? He doesn’t really say much. You know, some guys are talkers, some guys like to talk. Simon, you know that. I mean, I I always say tour players are like dogs. They kind of communicate with you non-verbbally. So, when they walk up, you Yeah. I mean, I’ve been around DJ. I’ve been working with DJ since 2012. You can kind of tell if he’s in a good mood, if he slept well, if he wants to talk, if he doesn’t talk. Uh my dad told me early on, and we said, if you’re going to work with tour players, here’s the most important thing. Sometimes it’s what you don’t say. Yeah. That is the most important. He he just doesn’t like to talk a lot and I kind of wait for him to kind of say if he wants to say something and if I see something I’ll jump in. But hopefully you don’t have to say anything during the warm up. You just let them do what they do. And is he in good form? He double booged the last hole yesterday after burden 16 and 17. So um you know played well shot 64 at Valddorama on the weekend on live. You know seven under around there. No bogeies. You’re playing good. Yeah. No fantastic. So, the 16th TE, 236 yards of total misery. There it is. Um, what do you think of the golf course? Were you here in 219? I was in 19. I was working with Brooks Kepka at the time. He finished, I think, fourth that week. So, um, and was right there. Yeah. I There were a lot of guys after that week that said this was one of their favorite venues. They liked it. I think it’s fair. Um I think there’s a good mix of of of shots and I think it demands a good mix of your total game. So yeah, it’s it’s a really good venue. It is a really good venue. What about that little right wrist angle? Is that good for our our viewers at home? Absolutely. I mean that’s something that was kind of invented by Dave Wood and and Sean Foley. It’s called the Pro sender and basically it helps kind of set your wrist in that angle. But what I like Simon for players to use and a lot of times is to have them kind of keep it in that cradle through impact cuz so many players are just throwing it at impact and they struggle with with contact. Yeah, contact and compression. Patrick Kentlay. Um I guess that’s Jamie Mulligan and Joey Lava. Yeah, Tiger former category. Yeah, two pretty strong team members there. Um have you seen Kentlay hit it lately? opinions on him. Patrick Kentley has a very very simple golf swing. Um, you know, I think sometimes when he he doesn’t really get that off with his ball striking. Um, I think that’s one of his strengths. Uh, sometimes the putter can go a little bit on the cold side, but from a technique standpoint, I mean, he just he does a lot of really really good things in the golf swing. He’s got a very good setup. Yeah, it looks simple, doesn’t it? It looks really simple. Looks repetitive. Kind of a rhythm swing. is a swing, not a hit. Well, part of that was by design. Uh he had a pretty significant back injury that basically derailed him. And uh Greg, Dr. Greg Rose and uh Dave Phillips, the co-founders of the Titus Performance Institute, he went out and saw them. It was does he have surgery? Does he not have surgery? And they said, listen, you can hold off having back surgery, but you basically have to shut everything down for at least a year. And early on his career, he just shut everything down, didn’t play any golf, let the back heal. And I think that’s the problem when you’ve got a back injury. I had back surgery in 2011. I always we always say to our our golfers, our juniors that get injured, no athlete has ever waited too long to come back from an injury. Everybody comes back early. But Patrick really did take the advice of of the medical guys and just basically let his body heal. So, the opposite of Tiger Woods, who never takes who never listens to his medical team. Fair or not fair? I just think I just think Tiger’s he’s he’s put his body through a lot and sooner or later your body is going to say there’s only so much Bondo we can put on it to make it work. Yeah. Well, the Masters was kind of a hoham finish around a golf course you would think would suit him. Um, Bull Striker, great chipper. Quail Hollow, you would have thought again for a Kentlay game and maybe US Open. You know, those are kind of surprising misses. Nothing really firing for the Kentlay camp. You know, when you when you look at the package that Kentlay brings to the first TE, you know, we we’re kind of expecting a few more wins from him. Is that fair? Yeah, I mean, listen. So, I mean, golf is professional golf is hard. And I think the guys at the top, Rory, Scotty, Sheffller, they can make it look so so easy. Um, we’re we’re obviously not used to seeing this from Patrick. You know, T36, and then to miss two cuts in a majors. He’s one of those players that I think everybody expects not only to make all the cuts in the majors, but make expect to to have chances to win. um writer cup year. Not the form that he would want, but he’s a very methodical. I think that’s a a nice way of saying at times he can borderline on a little bit slow. Yeah. Um but really good look at his grip. Yeah. Kind of pretty neutral both hands there. Maybe right a little stronger than left, but what would you say like I mean in the Kantlay swing? It’s not the ball striking, is it? It’s it’s not it’s not like foul balls off the tea. Just maybe the putting a hair or a little slower on the putting greens. Listen, it’s hard to continue at an elite level for a very very long time. And again, I I said this just now, the good ones just make it easy. And you forget that week in week out over the course of 300, you know, days you’re going to be playing, you you’ve got to bring your good stuff. And so, um, I I have every confidence that he’s going to be on the Ryder Cup team. I can’t imagine them going to to Beth Paige without him. No. Um, he’s great in the team room, but, um, just golf is hard even at this level. Yeah. And what do you think? Keegan Bradley is definitely in the top 12 players on the in American players. I think Keegan Keegan Bradley is probably at the moment from a play standpoint probably playing as good as anybody on the American team. I talked to his caddy the other night. He came over to the house, Scotty Vale. Um I said, “Is he going to play?” And he said, you know, he’s in between. Obviously, if Keegan were to play well this week, I think he could make a case for that. Um, but I think it’s very very interesting and I don’t think we’ve had this. I mean, can you remember a time in history where we’ve had a captain such a such a young pick to pick an America to pick a player who’s actually I mean, Keegan Bradley, I think, could have been on the team in Rome. Yeah. Right. For sure. Right. We all saw that with full swing, right? And then and then you pick him to be Ryder Cup kind of not in the peak of his career, but certainly in major game time of his career. It’s a strange choice. You know, we have typically played, I would say, players who have retired, who are definitely not even close to competition standard and America has kind of done that too. You know, Zack Johnson was never going to be on the RDER Cup team. Um, so so to pick to pick Bradley or at least and what’s done to Bradley’s game be very very interesting. I just think it’s such a hectic week. Like imagine imagine Keegan Bradley’s on 15 and the pairings have got to go out and then you’ve got to go and disturb his match and ask him to write down, hey listen, do you want to change anything? I do think that if Keegan does attempt to play however many matches he would play, he will rely heavily on his back room staff, the cap the the co- captains and so they will have gotten all of that figured out. But I do think the US is trying to take Simon a little bit of of a page from the the Euros book in that when Paul McInley was captain at Glenn Eagles, he was still playing. He was still in touch with all the players. I think for a while when the Euros were just beating the Americans, you know, left, right, and center. We were picking old school veterans, the house suttons of the world who the further you are away from the modern game, whether you like this or not, whether it’s right or it’s wrong, you you’re out of touch with the players. Um I think Tom Watson at at at Glen Glenn Eagles in a lot of ways was a little bit out of touch with the modern game. He didn’t want the players really to bring their coaches. He didn’t want them to bring their physios. because he didn’t want the other being those trainers because in his day that didn’t happen. I think if you are going to be a Rder Cup captain, you have to captain and understand the group of players you’ve got, understand how the game is played today. And I think in the Europeans have done a better job at that. I think in Rome uh last time bringing in Nicholas Koulsards, bringing in Eduardo Molinari, guys that are still playing that the players know, that the players trust, that the players know, hey, they know how I’m playing. They know what my game is all about. And I I think that’s really important. Yeah, it’ll be fascinating to see Ryder Cup not far away, but a very simple golf swing, you know, just basically sets I like the way Patrick sets the golf club at the top. There doesn’t look like there’s a lot of excess motion. Yeah. The only thing that I see at times is his body, his rotation through impact when he does get off can just get a little bit on the slow side. And because he doesn’t have a very long back swing, it looks to me like he and Jamie sometimes work on making sure that he completes the turn that he’s got. For everybody watching, whatever turn you’ve got in the in your back swing, however much you can turn, if that’s all you can do physically, you have to get there every time. Even if it looks a little bit short, you’ve got to make sure that you get there. Yeah. There’s times where there’s times where Jamie will kind of hold a shaft on his right hip and to make sure that he gets that hip turn, gets into that right side. I think that came from his back injury like he’s a little bit self-conscious or a little bit stiffer. Yeah, I mean I think golfers work around the injuries they’ve got and you know Jamie Mulligan is is an incredible instructor. He works full-time with Nelly Carter, who’s the best in the women’s game. And um he couldn’t have a better team in Joe Lava, not only catting for Tiger Woods for Tiger Woods’s last major, but also the longtime caddy for Freddy Couples. He couldn’t pick a better cat. I I was chatting to uh to Joey who I’ve known for years and alarmingly we decided that I actually met him first in in playing at when he was playing at Disney caddying for Ken Green which we decided that was in 1988. That’s not good is it? Well, it just goes to show how old we are, Simon. Anyway, Patrick Kentlay just working through looking pretty solid. Also looking very solid. Let’s find Henny in the open zone. The championship committee at the RNA deliberate long and hard about the pin positions at an open championship day in and day out. So with that said, let’s take a look at what the pin positions are for round two. What the players and caddies have to face on the front line. Well, you’ve got that first. It’s such a tough start. That T-shot is brutal. And once you find the fairway, you don’t get much rest bite from that pin that’s tucked long left. Roy Moy made birdie there. But we’ll see a lot of players come unstuck on that position on the first. And then on the sixth, if we look down here, nine on four from the right. That is a brand new pin. That is one that they didn’t use back in 2019. In fact, the closest that they went to the front of that green was 12 on. And that was in the final round on a Sunday pin. So just nine yards on. That is tough on six. Now, if we take a look at the back nine, because the rest on the front nine, they’re fairly friendly. They’re doable. There’s quite a few difficult ones on the back nine. Starting off with 10, which is another new pin that we didn’t see in 2019. 15 on four from the right hand side. Uh 14 is brutal. That is just five off the right. And now players and caddies, consider the right side of 14 green still as part of the green. That is a big Dell and a swale there that you would miss in with any other pin other than that one because you can’t get up and down from that Dell. So it just makes that already narrow green even more narrow because you must hit the left side of it in order to get access to that pin. 18 is also a new pin 14 on seven from the right hand side. That’s all the difficult ones. However, players will be very happy to hear that on 11 that is the easiest pin that you can have on that hole. 25 yards on five yards from the left hand side. I’m looking at all of these pins with this current wind that’s going to be facing the players throughout the morning and the afternoon, but as we get later on, the course could change and some of those friendly pins might be bearing their teeth a little bit. And the winner of the gold medal, champion golfer for the year. Winning the Open Changes a life. A hero at 22 and the first Spaniard ever to win the title. A name remembered, a legacy secured. Champion. But look beyond the champion and you’ll see that maybe there’s a little more to it. From first swings to final pass. From the back streets to the big stage. From the inner cities to the outer reaches, the Open’s impact stretches far beyond the fairways. Every ticket, every fan, every roar drives our mission to shape the future of G. Removing barriers, protecting the land, honoring the past, leading for tomorrow. So yes, the open is life changing, but what begins as a moment for one creates a game for us all. My business has taken me all over the world and one day my son will take over. The family business just wasn’t for me. I wanted to build something of my own. And when my father saw how passionate I was, he did everything to support me. Now I have a daughter. All I want is for her to be 7,000 miles from home. But this is exactly where I need to be. And no one understands that better than my dad. Wherever life or business takes you, HSBC can help on the range. It’s amazing who you bump into. Anna Northquist, threetime major champion and Soulheim Cup captain. Really good to see you, Anna. Thank you for having me. Oh, it’s great. You’re here at Royalport Rush. Have you had a look around? What have you seen so far? Yeah, so over all these years, I never had the opportunity to go to a men’s open. So me and a couple friends are in town for a few days. We’re going to watch today and then we’re going to go into Belfast tomorrow. So um I I love this event. I mean I don’t watch a lot of golf, but this is the one that I make sure I watch on the guys. Um just the atmosphere. I mean seeing uh Ludvig, uh Victor, uh Rory, Justin, all those guys te off this morning was pretty cool. So we’re going to go watch a little bit more uh later on. But yeah, this is golf at its best. So we got a really nice day for it. So excited to be here. Oh, brilliant. that atmosphere on the first tea. Just describe what it’s like to our viewers. Yeah, like I’m sure the support here for Bory uh it’s it’s quite overwhelming, isn’t it? Yeah. And I think it’s it’s almost like you kind of see it on TV, but you got to be here to experience it and um as a player like it’s such an honor like playing these events and it’s just so much history to it and being back in like a fantastic venue. Uh I’m looking forward to come back here and hopefully playing one day. Uh it just looks so cool and tough get a women’s open here at some point. Yeah, hopefully. I mean with the AIG women’s open, I mean we’ve gotten some fantastic venues over the last couple years and we got a lot of good ones coming up. So it’s very exciting to see that event grow as well and uh in two weeks coming to Wales for the first time. So I’m excited. Yeah, that’ll be absolutely great. Royal Pool, tell us about your schedule. Uh next week you’re playing, aren’t you? Yeah. So, next week, uh, the LPJ and the L is playing, uh, the Scottish Open at Don Donald Lynx, uh, outside Glasco. So, I’ll be heading there at the end of the week and then, uh, gearing up for the British. So, yeah, it’s a nice little European swing here and, uh, getting to go home a little bit after that. So, I’m excited. Oh, great stuff. And obviously, you’ve got the Soulheim Cup, which is next year. We’re we’re sort of a year and a bit out. Are you sort of really busy behind the scenes doing lots of hard work and lots of meetings? You’ve just been over over in the Netherlands, haven’t you? Yeah. So, I mean, it’s such a cool role to be kind of still playing on tour and doing the captaincy. Uh, it’s a lot more work than probably people expect and the players probably won’t won’t see a lot of the work until next year, but I was just over there in the Netherlands for 4 days doing a little bit of site visit. I had Carol Headwell, one of my vice captains with me. So we played the golf course Monday, Tuesday, Bernardes, um, and then kind of looked at the hotel, the team rooms, uh, and a few a few things here and there that where you as a European captain has a little bit of a say. So, it’s a really cool opportunity and I’m very excited to be there and I I don’t think it’ll hit me that I’m the captain until I stand on that first team next September. But, uh, very honored to to be in that role. Yeah, that goosebumps. My goodness. You’ve got to keep a breast of what all the girls are doing and how they’re how they’re playing and and also team outfits are very important. So, you’re thinking about colors and design and Yeah. Car car is now the most fashion person. So, she assigned me and me and Mel Reed uh who’s also I thought that would be the case. Yeah. So, we’re trying to make it uh getting out of the box a little bit. So, uh we’re going to see we’re going to see some cool uh I’m encouraging everyone to wear yellow because it just pops so well. So, you’ll see a lot of yellow in our outfits. But that’s also been a cool being part of the the design process and being able to have a little bit of say and what we’re going to wear and um yeah, it’s absolutely fantastic. I love I love what you wear at Solheim Cups and that first tea at the Soulheim. I mean, it’s if you’ve never been, it’s pretty indescribable. It’s similar to a major championship or you know, the same as a as a RDER Cup. As a player, what what is it like when you walk onto that tea and and hear the roars and the cheers? Yeah, I think those are the moment you live for as a golfer. At least I did. I mean, we know over the years some people hate it or think is is really hard because it’s just so much pressure. Uh, but, you know, anytime I I don’t feel motivated or having, you know, it’s rain outside or something like those are the moments I live for because it’s ultimately, you know, our sport at its best and it’s going to be hard not teeing it up there on the first te uh next year, but I’ve had the opportunity to do it in nine previous times. So, um, yes, I like I love I love the passion. And I love the atmosphere and I love all about it. And I think those are those really are the moments that we’re going to look back at when we’re not playing anymore and really embrace and be special that we could be a part of. I mean, you say it quite flippantly just the nine previous times, but when we think about it, my goodness, it’s such a huge achievement to be part of nine teams. Is there is there one in particular that stands out? I think every every opportunity has been so special and um you know it’s going to come to an end where you’re not going to be playing. Um so I’ve I felt like embraced every single time. I knew I’d put my name in for captaincy before I played last year. Um so I knew it might not be any more times. Uh my family loves it. Um it’s a family affair and just just getting to share those opportunities with your friends and your family, your fans, your teammates. Uh there’s just nothing better. So, I’m very grateful for having had the chance to play in so many. Um, and when my career is over one day, uh, those are the the moments that really going to probably feel even more special. Yeah. Oh, amazing. You’ve had so many brilliant moments. And a final question, Anna, who’s going to win the Open Championship? Well, I think probably all of us are cheering for Rory and and I hope I hope we’re going to see him there on Sunday. Great stuff. Thanks for your time and enjoy the rest of your day and also going into Belfast. Got to go and see where Titanic was built. That was my top tip. Thanks, Anna. Cheers. Fantastic. Soulheim Cup captain, LPGA legend, Anna Nordfist. Wish her well next year at the Soulheim. Um, and the Soulheim has grown and grown and grown, Claude. It really has. I mean, if you look at the crowds and you look at the caliber of play and you look at how much every player around the world that plays ladies professional golf, you know, wants to be on that team. Um, Anna will be a great captain. She was a great player, major champion, and uh, great to see her here and and be interested to see how she I mean, she’s Swedish. I mean, Simon, you kind of you were kind of the Swedish tour guru legend back in the day with Hegy the Hegman. Oh, man. All the Yeah. All the Swedes. I still remember being at the Ryder Cup in 93 and watching Yokim Hegman basically go undefeated up until the singles. He didn’t miss a shot for No. No. Beat John Cook. He beat John Cook on the last hole. Big fist pump. Yeah. No, those were the days. Ah, Claude, when we were young. Um, here we go. This is Minion Cam. This is my favorite camera on the whole of the golf course. Stuck in the middle of the driving range. And one of my favorite swings in professional golf there in the white. Torbjorn Olison aka Thunder Bear. I know. Love that. An absolute flusher. One of the best ball strikers I’ve ever seen. I mean, Saurin Hansen was a great ball striker, but Torbjorn, I mean, just what a beautiful golf swing. See if you can spot Pete Cowan. He’s normally in camo in the black watching. He’s norally standing behind somebody. That’s He’s standing behind Henrik Stenson. Let’s have a look. Yeah, Torbjon Olison in the white pants with the white arm sleeves. Look at that angle that he’s holding there. Such a simple golf swing, right? sets it in a beautiful position. Lots of rotation through impact. Really good balanced. I I I’ll be honest with you, Simon. I’m surprised that that Torbjorn doesn’t win more. Um because the technique is he is the type of player where if he is hitting golf balls on the driving range and I’m walking and I’ve got time, I will go stand behind him because to me it’s just it’s as money as it gets. Yeah, good shoulder turn. No real wasted motion at the top and then just such a great move through it. Clears that lower body, covers with the chest. Yeah, great sequence. Kind of that long right arm punch through there. Yeah, great compression from him. He’s one overpar. He’s going to go off at 1337. That’s match 38 with Matthew Jordan and Philillip Yakub kick. I’m glad you chose that name or not under. Now I I’d say that was a a check name, but here we go. But one of the things, Simon, when we’re looking at a lot of these players and we’re seeing the the grip being close up, one of the changes, I think, of the modern game in the last 20 years is the grips have gotten much much stronger and and we just don’t see players anymore at the junior, the college level, but certainly on tour, you rarely see a player with a weak grip anymore. that helps them get the face in a much stronger position because equipment has changed so much and because the technology we have to measure what the club is doing launch monitors 3D you know my dad when he worked with Dustin Johnson the club face was very very shut everybody said hey you’re going to have to change that but these players have so much speed now so much ability to rotate their body that in the day back in the day used to feel like you had to hold that off now you can really see these players getting that club and that really strong left wrist position at the top rotating out of the way and really just not really doing too much with the hands through impact. No. Well, it’s almost like take your take your impact position you want, which is kind of that right wrist saw the angle. Turn it to the top and you’re presetting your impact and then you just turn and burn it. Well, one of the things that I always do to players is I have them set up and say, “Okay, take a setup and show me where impact is without a back swing.” Yeah. And most I’ve yet to see a player that head goes back, hands go back, left wrists cup. So, you could see Torbird kind of rehearsing that move you talked about, but look at where that logo is at the top of the back swing. That logo is kind of pointing a little bit more skyward than it is more ground. And then like you said from there he basically just tries to keep that left wrist in that position not doing that that move that he’s doing with his right arm there. That’s the impact. And that’s what you were talking about trying to have that right arm that straight right arm through impact. It’s a great thing for everyone watching. Try and keep the cup in your left your right wrist through impact and then let your body rotate. Yeah. And and that kind of straightening of that right arm keeps the shaft down. Stops it kicking up with the centrifugal force. Torbjon Olison looks simple. So simple. Looks like he had so much time and space. And then the other thing about all great ball strikers is Torbjorn is one of those with his irons where the sound is different. He really does compress the golf ball and when he’s playing his best he’s got great great balance. I think sometimes the only negative that Torbjorn has is sometimes he can get a little bit down on himself and his temper can get the better of him. Um, but I love I asked Saurin Hansen. He came to Saurin brought him to our academy in Dubai in like 2008 just to practice and and I was watching him hit golf balls and I’m thinking this sounds like Roy Moy hitting golf balls. And I said, “What does Torbjorn stand for?” He says, “Well, it stands for Thunder Bear.” So to this day, I saw him earlier this morning. I call him Thunder 100%. But again, He’s going to set this in a really good position. Watch the footwork through here. He’s going to get that weight into that left heel through impact. Really, really quiet with the footwork. Ground force is something that we talk about right now. But the easiest way for the average golfer to not get into the trees of ground force is at impact. But I think for the majority of golfers that are listening right now, if you’ve got more weight in your left heel at impact and if you have more weight on your lead foot as a right-handed golfer, your left foot, the average golfer tends to have more weight on their back foot. They tend to get their weight on their toe. But watch, he’s going to rotate on the down swing into this left heel. Really quiet with the right foot as well. And that’s just that’s a CL. If you want to improve your ball striking, work on forward. Copy that. Finish in balance. Left leg straight, weight in your left heel. There you heard it. And from this angle, we’re going to see how the belt buckle starts the down swing. The down swing. My dad used to say to Tiger Woods, the down swing starts from the ground up. So, he’s going to unwind the belt buckle first, then the chest, then the arms, and then the club face. There goes the hips. You see the belt buckle facing the target. If you’re fighting the snap hook, your your lower body is probably going to be too square. Your upper body is trying to be too square. So from this angle, you can see here, watch this move. You see that left pocket getting out of the way. You can see he’s holding that angle. He’s got that shaft lean. Love that post impact position there. A lot of rehearsals. Yeah. Just drilling it in. I’m telling you, man, he’s got one of the best swings in the game. Yeah. Great mid iron striker. Putter maybe lets him down a little bit. Yeah. I would say what you said. I just think it’s like his dissatisfaction with his own mistakes. He’s he’s so bad at forgiving an error. Yeah. Right. And then he carries the mistake and and it and the and the thunder bear turns into the volcanic bear. And that’s not a good combo. One of my favorite guys on tour. He’s a sweet guy. He is. And when you talk to him, you can’t believe he could get that mad. I know. Cuz he’s that type of personality. Well, Thomas Bjorn was like that. Thomas Bejorn. The Danes. The Dane. Nikolai is that like that. Raasmus not so much. Well, maybe they all learned from Thomas being the the the Danish OG of golf, but Thomas could get the head off faster than any human being on the planet and they learned that you had to have Thomas’s temper. Yeah, Thomas was like coal, right? You think it’s out, tiny little breeze on it and it all fires up again. So, the great Thomas Bjorn, he could have he could have had his hands on that Claret Jag St. George’s. Anyway, let’s not talk about that. Well, Torbjon, we wish you well, mate. We think the cut’s too underpar. He’s a two over par. Yeah, two over par. He’s out with Matt Jordan who’s a Lynx Specialist, tied 10th in his last two opens. This is his third. Now, he has a has a a wood in his hand. If you notice, no over swing in the back swing as well. really efficient. Probably hitting a three-wood here. So, right around that kind of or maybe a a forward. A lot of the players this week, Simon, have been looking at their their launch monitor data and saying that the ball is going much shorter than they’re used to. I think a lot of that is we’re so close to the water. There’s a tremendous amount of moisture in the air and that’s that heavy wind that they talk about at the Open Championships. Yep. Thank goodness cuz Uldrich Pogita only carried it 34 uh 373. He works with uh one of my best friends and one of my former instructors, Justin Parsons, who I think is one of the best instructors on the planet. and and I’ve seen and watched the the transformation that JP is trying to get Aldrich to go through. But if we look at these numbers launching at around 10, the holy grail with once we get up to the longer clubs for everybody watching, high launch, low spin. Yeah, fascinating to watch. There’s the technology yet. Super. Well, we will leave the range for a few minutes and find out what chaos George Harper Jr. is creating now. Well, the skies are starting to clear here at the Open Championship. And that’s not just the weather we’re talking about because of this specimen. What a beautiful bird. Dave, how are you, mate? Can you tell us a little bit about Pilgrim here who’s out to help? Yeah, certainly. So, Pilgrim here is a 24 year old male bald eagle and he’s here to do a bit of pest control. uh keeping the gulls clear of the food areas while the public are eating their fish and chips. Mate, this is a serious looking eagle. There’s a few eagles out on course, but this is surely the best one. Uh how old how long’s this guy been around for? Uh so he’s 24 years of age. 24? Yeah, he’s 24. Okay. Yeah. There’s a bit of experience behind him, which is good for a for an area like this with so many public around a bird that is very used to service and experiences and things like that in the in the public eye. He’s very cool, calm, and collected. How long have you been working with Pilgrim for? Uh two years. It was actually the first bird, however, that I handled when I was 18. Uh don’t want to say a number, but that’s 22 years ago now. Uh was the first that I met Pilgrim here. And uh for the last two years, we’ve been working with them on our own experiences in pest control as well. Nice. And will Pilgrim get up in the air at all today or is he going to be nestled on your arm? I’m sure that’s getting a bit tired. Uh Pilgrim is going to be strapped to the arm for now. He’s a bit too big to be flying in around the areas. We do have the smaller species, the Harris’s hawks that are on course as well. We have four of them uh servicing all the food areas and they’re a wee bit smaller and easier handled. Wow, it’s pretty amazing. How cool is it to I guess spend time with birds like this because you know we see them in emojis all the time, but this is the real deal. He looks amazing. Ah, it’s an absolute honor. Uh every day you wake up and you don’t mind the office, especially if it’s one like this at the open in Port Rush and uh you know, you never get sick of it. Do you like your golf? I do. I do. I I like watching it. I don’t like playing it. Normally people that say they don’t like playing it is because they’re not very good at it. I think there’s a quarter of a million fans that are probably on a similar wavelength. Very good. So, do you just coast around, cruise around this sort of area or do you get out close to the course? So, we do get up uh closer to the food villages um just around the course. So, we’re getting to see a wee bit of golf to and fro. The public perception of what we’re doing is amazing. Everybody’s so welcoming and so, you know, just dying to hear what we’re doing, why we’re there, and what the bird is. Um, but the idea of what it is is it’s a it’s a predatory bird. It’s there to do a job, which is to show the gulls in the air that want to come down for the food that there’s a danger there. So, he he will stay in his lead, which means that the birds can see him from a mile off. So, he doesn’t even have to get in the air. Just the presence has Yeah. Yeah. Just that presence is enough to keep them away. Wow. Okay. Well, it’s probably presents enough to keep me away, too. So, I might leave Pilgrim to it. But, thank you very much for your time, mate. It’s great to have you and Pilgrim here. Lovely to see you. Thank you very much. Stop. You can stop looking at me now. Okay, cool. Cool. Leave you guys to it. Oh, there we go. Okay, that is absolutely stunning. Welcome along to the open. It’s everything you wanted and more. How fantastic is that? Absolutely brilliant. Quite an extraordinary day. on the tea. Yeah, she was staring at this one down and for good reason. Look at this. Just delightfully done. She’s on top of the world going directly at the whole of course. Oh, get in there. There’s something about the AIG Women’s Open. Oh my goodness. Just swing. Visit golf.golf to find out more. Just swing. Visit golf.golf to get started. Why not give golf a go? Just swing. Swing wild. Swing weird. Swing wonky. Whoever, however, wherever. It doesn’t matter. Just swing. Head over to golf.golf to start playing. Find out where you can learn to play at golf.golf. Yeah, fascinating. We are just past 1:00 on day two of the 153rd Open from Royalport Rush and we are live at the range in here with Claude Harmon III. Just chatting some golf swings. Claude, it’s been a very busy place that grandstand. When Rory arrived, you would have thought the Pied Piper was coming in here. Dragged everyone in with him. And then when he left, everybody left, too. Well, he is such a popular player and in this part of the world, he’s pretty special. He is special. He’s pretty global. So the Frenchman Guvia, superb ball striker, already picked up a win. Just a young man. What’s the common routine, would you say? Is it just like, you know, like how did how did DJ warm up? Did he train first this morning? Did he Was he physically warm? How are his timings? He’ll go through uh a warmup with his physio. He’ll get stretched, maybe get in the gym a little bit. DJ likes a long warm-up, so we’re about an hour and a half. Uh where some guys like Ricky and Brooks are maybe 30 minutes, but uh DJ always likes to start on the putting green, then he goes to short game, and then he’ll do full swing, and then he’ll go back and finish on putting. Yeah, fantastic. The Swede. The Swede. The tool Swede. Henrik Stenson shot four overpar yesterday. has drawn Fanny Sunnison. Yeah, the famous caddy there. Just if we keep going around there, that’s it. Just to the left of Pete on hand on the bag. Fanny Sunnison pioneer. She was on the bag last week in Valddorama. Okay. Got to be very good friends to Fanny to get her to come and caddy few. A great mind. She was incredible. She was so professional in the way that she caddied. She gave a lot of support to Nick Faldo. A lot of emotional support when he needed it. I don’t think she gets the credit she deserves for the the caddy job she did catting for Nick all those years. Uh obviously the player hits it right. The player is the player. The caddy is the caddy. The coach is the coach. But I think she played a huge role. I think caddies play a huge role. My dad always says the same thing about instructors and caddies. They get too much credit when the player is playing well and they get too much of the blame when the player is playing poorly. So I think they were a great team and Henrik such a great player for a very long time. And I I think people forget and you were around on tour back in the day, Simon, in the early 2000s. Remember that year at the Belelfrey where he he was hitting it out of bounds on holes where you have to hit it off the property to do what Henrik did and to come back from the doldrums that he was in to where he could not find the planet. Yeah. At at a time and I think Pete Cowan has played a huge huge role in in Henrik’s career. golf swing that he helped him build to be a major champion to be on all the RED Cup teams that he did. I mean, won the FedEx. I mean, time golf t um won TBC Sorrass. What do you What were your thoughts on that Stenson Mickelson battle? You know, Phil Mickelson very well. I mean, it was our it was the modern version of the duel in the sun, right? Um they were both playing great. uh his caddy at the time, Gareth Lord. The Lord Lordy’s going to be on the bag for DJ next week. Come on. DJ’s brother AJ is having a his second baby, a son. So, he’s leaving Monday. So, Gareth Lord on the back for DJ next week. Oh, what a combo. I’ve talked to to Lordy about that day. And to be a part of that, just to be a part of that, it was a two- horse race. They kind of separated themselves and it was very much like a heavyweight title fight to where they were taking swings at each other and both of them were just standing. Yeah. I was speaking to Steve Stricker and he was talking about that. He finished third and he said I was never in the I never ever felt at all on the weekend that I was in the competition. One of the things you just saw Pete Cowan, he’s talking about there, Pete is a very big fan of trying to put pressure on the golf club through impact. And that’s one of the things that I really, really like about it. So, he’s trying to have him now feel like the pressure gets down and then he delivers the club through impact. Pete feels like a lot of times players body gets out of the way. And so, I like the work that he he does. That thought of pressure. It’s something that I’ve taken from what Pete talks to players about um and said, “Listen, Pete Cowan loves to have his players talk about getting pressure on the golf club through impact because the hands want to be active in the golf swing, right?” And it’s that marriage of trying to get the body rotation to match what the arms and the golf club are doing. Um I’ve always thought, Simon, that the golf swing can kind of be divided into four parts. You’ve got your lower body. So if you think about Henrik, the lower body in dark blue, the upper body in light blue, excluding his arms, then he’s got his triangle, left arm, right arm, left hand, right hand, and then the golf club. And the the best players in the world match all of those up. They match the body, the lower body, the upper body, the arms, and the golf club. Yeah, it’s interesting. I’ve coached Henrik from time to time, mostly in emergency situations of Simon I can’t the ball, just have a quick look. And he’s such a left-handed player very much, right? He’s such a left-handed player. He’s left-handed naturally playing right-handed. His left hand’s quite weak. And I always felt like, you know, when he pulls, it’s very lateral. Mhm. And then to he goes too lateral and then to come back onto it, he has to bounce it up and those hands get high. The spine backs up. Yeah. Backs up and flips on him. though. Well, I also think that’s one of the reasons why if you look at the way Henrik’s body is designed, there are players that look like they were born with a a driver in their hand, Rory, Adam Scott, whereas Henrik’s strength has always been iron play. He puts a heavy hit on it. He really compresses the golf ball, but he’s never been really an elite driver of the golf ball for years. The 3-wood, he he never really even used the driver. Yeah. Well, it’s just there was no loft left, you know. I don’t know what the angle of attack was, but it was heavily down, right? Alex Norin, heavily down. Yeah. What is What was What’s Brooks at impact? Is he Brooks? Brooks was one of those that was down as well. You know, Brooks kind of hangs out in that kind of when the years that I worked. No, he was kind of one to 1.5 down on it. But you’ve you you can’t do that if you don’t have the strength and the speed of someone like a Brooks or someone like a Henrik. When you when you when you’re around Henrik, the first thing you’re surprised at is just how big of a human being is. He’s tall, big shoulders, he’s incredibly strong. And his game, his iron game was always a little bit better. Henrik’s iron game was so good. He was such a good iron player that the weeks that he drove it well, he would win or he would be in contention. A little bit like Brad Faxton. Brad Fax was such a great putter. Never really a great driver of the golf ball. But the weeks he drove it well, he had a chance to win because he was such a great putter. And I think Henrik is a great example, Simon. to be great at this elite elite tour level because once everyone gets here, everybody’s good on tour, but you have to put yourself in that major championship category. You have to be great at something. Yeah. No, he’s a great iron player. Yeah, he is. Well, I remember chatting to Tiger years ago in a rain delay and he said as soon as someone told him when Trackman’s came out that he had it up on his drivers, he became he be he became a much much worse driver. Tiger always hit down on his T-shots. No, it is fascinating. So Henrik needs to have a good day. Oh, Matt Fitzpatrick and Mark Blackburn, new relationship. Yeah, his Matt’s longtime coach, Mike Walker. Um, not out here and we miss him. Um, I think Mike’s one of the best in the game and going through some stuff off the golf course, taking some time away from from I was from golf. I was messaging him the other night and um Mark’s kind of come in and and been a little bit of a fill in for Mike. I know they’re kind of tag teaming him. No. Fascinating. So, but Mark Blackburn, PJ Teacher of the Year, works with Justin Rose, doing some work with Matthew Pavon, Adam Hadwin. Um I think he’s one of the best. Uh I spend a lot of time with Mark. Uh, I I ask Mark a lot of questions. If I’ve got a player, I I’ll bounce ideas off of Mark. And um he’s a confidant. He’s a friend. And if there’s a better instructor in the game, I don’t know who it is. Yeah. No, I think that that’s one of the things there is a solidarity amongst amongst golfers and amongst golf coaches. It’s like the game just keeps pacing on, right? And there is really, you know, you do find time to times confidence. So coach also needs to chat coach. No, it’s interesting. We’ve got some fantastic golfers going out during the afternoon session. So you think Fitzpatrick gets on the RER Cup? I mean, I think in mentally he’s in our top 12 players. And I think if you go to the United States, you would prefer to have someone who’s been blooded before than take a rookie perhaps into that cauldron. So I would think I mean what would be great is if some of those fringe players actually qualify to allow Luke Donald more picks and I think if you’re picking your top 12, you know, it’s like once you you could be swinging lovely on the DP World Tour, get to get to the RDER Cup, you might even be able to hit the ball. You need someone who’s who can play their game under that cauldron of pressure. So, there are players that want a lot of information. There are players that don’t want a lot of information. Brooks and DJ, players that I’ve worked with in the past, they didn’t want they don’t want a lot of information. I worked with Trevor Ilman. I couldn’t give Trevor enough information. Fitzy’s in the category of he wants as much information as possible, but his brain works like that. And I think the balance from the coach player relationship is if you’re a very analytical coach and very data driven and you get a player that isn’t like that, you can overload them. Fitzy, I I would struggle to work with someone like Matt because he would be asking me questions on every show that maybe I didn’t have the answer to because my brain just doesn’t work like that. So I think the coach caddy relationship it’s it’s it’s it’s or the coach player relationship is very similar to the caddy player relationship. You have to get that personality right. You have to do it. And I think Mark Blackbird is very much in the vein of someone who can do both. He can give a lot of information. Um big big TPI guy the Titus Performance Institute. Mark has taught a ton of their level ones and level twos. So, I think in the standin for Mike Walker, having someone like Mark who can somewhat answer all the questions, but I I would struggle to work with Matt because I wouldn’t be able to give him enough of the data that he needs. Yeah, it’s interesting. So, like when I I haven’t never coached Matt, watched him play, but um very very strong grip, very long arms, like huge wingspan. It always looks to me like his arms are too long for his body. Shoulders back. That’s just like a little posture drill there. Reminder, trying to make and he always chokes down on the club, too. Pretty much. I think that’s because his arms are so long. So, um, he is, it’s interesting, you know, the work that he’s done with Sasha McKenzie and stuff on trying to generally increase the pace of everything. You know, maybe you can tell us a little bit like, you know, an amateur thinks, well, I’ve got to have maximum speed maybe in transition. That’s the wrong place. You know, for Fitzy, he found like maximum speed in the takeaway. There are a lot of different I mean the long drive guys that’s where they do it. That’s one of the things I think Bryson kind of keyed in on when he was chasing his distance. Uh there are a lot of different ways to to create more club head speed. But I remember listen talking to Dr. Greg Rose and and Dave Phillips out at the Titleist Performance Institute and I think it was Cameron Tringali that came out four or five years ago and and Cam increased his distance a lot. He said listen I want to come out. I want to hit the golf ball further. get in the gym and do all of these things and and and Greg Rose said to him, “Well, have you ever thought about just swinging the golf club faster?” So I think that’s what you you said Fitzy did that the long drive guys they have that move off the golf ball where it is a tremendous amount of speed and Fitzy I mean for a guy of his stature to put on the speed in the last 5 years that he has it it has been it has been a conscious effort to do it and the takeaway does get quick and does get fast. Yeah, it is interesting. I played Claude last summer in Samuritz in Switzerland in a rider cup style competition with Martin Borgamire. Oh yeah, that guy moves it. Martin Borgamire and I we’re first of all we are undefeated. I’d like and Martin on the 18th hole I know we’re up in the mountains hit it 419 yards on the carry. That’s longer than me. I did an outing recently for Cobra Puma with Kyle Birkshshire and he we actually played golf and it was interesting to watch for as far as he hits it. The the issue is he’s got massive gaps in that he’s got a he’ll have a distance where he doesn’t have a shot, right? And I do think chasing distance, the thing that I find really interesting about Matt Spitfax one, after Fitzy won the Open, I saw him at the the US Open. I saw him couple weeks later here about a month later and I said to him, and I and I meant this, I haven’t seen a professional golfer work as hard as this kid does. There is no stone unturned, right? the way that he if you watch him on the golf course, he hits he’ll hit a shot on the golf course, he’ll write down in his every single shot he hits. He writes the number of the shot down in his yardage book. So again, he’s a very very meticulous player and his attention to detail is very very important. There’s that strong grip. I mean that’s I mean that’s very close to kind of a David Deval four knuckles and an elbow style grip to where that left hand is very much on top. Yeah. What do you like about his swing? I mean, I would say that, you know, he first of all, I would say the matchups are very good. Like for me when he loses back swing those arms get so long past his past his chest turn that I think maybe that the arm swing being so free to go is there’s a there’s a strength and weakness there where he lets it be so armsy the set the set is quite late and then and then when he goes to kick the club isn’t there it’s is it’s still back on the top. I definitely see that’s his weakness and then he loses angles through up and through it. You know, if he can control that sequence and get the chest and arms to be more matched up, which he uses the little ball. Yeah. Then then I like the move. But the mistake, at least maybe when he was learning it was so free with the arms, they disconnected completely and then when they came down, nothing was in the right order. He was like super grip first. And with a strong grip, that’s a catastrophe. Yeah. And if you look at I mean, he’s probably got a wedge. Looks like he’s got a wedge in his hand here. Maybe a pitching wedge or uh maybe a 50. Look at the length of the back swing for everyone that’s watching. I mean, if you want to improve your ball striking, I think most golfers tend to overswing. Yeah. The body gets out of position and then they struggle to deliver the golf club to the golf ball. So, very much like we were talking about with Torbjon Olivesson. I like how he sets the golf club. I like his arm structure with his with his short irons. I think he does a really good job at keeping that arm structure in a good position. But again, the shoulders back is very much a posture driven thing because at times Fitzy can get a little bent over and being shorter. Yeah. On kind of more of the in the vein of kind of an Ian Woonham type the when his shoulders get slumped, the back swing can can get really really out of sync. Yeah. Yeah. There is very much a process driven guy, isn’t it? It’s almost like if you watch one shot, you’ve seen them all. He’s not an artist. He is a scientist. And I don’t mean this in in a in a negative way. He is a he is a paint by numbers type player. And that is his biggest strength. His his process. And if you look at on the range there, he’s only he’s on a pitch count here, right? There’s only a certain amount of golf balls that he’s hitting. He’s not pouring an entire bucket of golf balls out there. So the warm-up you were talking about players having different types of warm-ups. the balls. He’s got a specific amount of golf balls that he is going to hit for this warm-up. Very, very process driven. Yeah. Yeah. His coach at Northwestern, Pat Goss, who was the longtime coach for Luke Donald, talked he didn’t stay there very long, but he said he was very, very organized. Um, that’s another term I would use for Matt as a player. He is incredibly organized as a golfer. Yeah. So kind of throwing darts there. Technology has changed a long time since your or changed much since your dad was on tour. Use use the ball. This is ball data. This is top tracer technology. And I mean, you know, when we when I was coaching players, you know, the ball the guy would hit the ball, see if he hit in the right window, see the flight, look at the spin, and then kind of know the number. Now the guys don’t even look at the ball. They just look down on the machine. You know, as an instructor, Simon, you know, I’m I just turned 56. So, when I You look amazing. Can I just say you guys aren’t with Claude? He really does look very I appreciate that. Very refreshing. You You do not look amazing, but that’s another story. So, um, but no, Simon, I’m glad when I came out on tour in on the European tour, I think my first year out was 2012, I had a a a Dell Daylight readable laptop and a computer. We didn’t have launch monitors. We didn’t have 3D. We didn’t have force plates. We didn’t have any of that. And as an instructor, I’m actually glad that I grew up in that era because I think I learned how to coach and I learned how to teach. And my only criticism from our end of this table on this side of the aisle from an instructor standpoint is I think it’s important as for the instructors listening, don’t become a data collector. Yeah. Just don’t be someone that just is constantly looking at data because what’s really happening before your eyes is what the golf ball’s doing. Yeah. Right. The launch monitors have algorithms in them. They’re trying to tell you. They’re radar driven, but what’s really happening is what is in front of you and what your eyes can kind of see. No, it is very interesting. Yeah. You’ve got to be able to diagnose it. This is just all data capture. So there’s just a ton of numbers. You still need the doctor to say, “Okay, listen. This is what you should do. Here’s your upgrade. This is the next thing you should work on. If you hit a bad shot, it’s because of this.” You need that diagnostic toolkit to take out on the golf course and go, “Okay, I hit it left. I know exactly what that is.” The worst thing you can have is a surprise from your golf swing. If your technique is like suddenly gives you a pull out of nowhere, that’s not what you want to hear. And I always say in the seminars that I do and I think Mark Blackburn is is in this in the same camp. We use technology to draw the picture and tell the story for the student. But I always say to young instructors, if if you need a launch monitor, if you need force plates and you need 3D to tell you what’s happening with the ball and the body, you need to get a new job because the technology should be able to help you just tell the player this is what you’re doing so that the player can get it. So then then you as the instructor says, you can say, mate, it’s not my guess that you’re too much in the out. We’ve got a launch monitor for 30 grand that’s telling you you’re too much more into out. Yeah. Yeah. It’s just feedback. It just helps create an easier level of understanding. So, always fascinated to see, you know, here we are. Matt Fitzpatrick in great shape on as he heads out. He’s got uh Hideki Matsuyama and Ryan Fox who both were not amazing. Hideki has got a left shoulder injury. He was saying that came something like just slept funny. He just came from Japan. Ryan Fox, I thought he would fancy it around here, but you know what? He’s kind of a streaky player, isn’t he? But he’s had an incredible year. An incredible year. Two wins. Well, Matt Fitzpatrick in great shape. Four under par. We will leave him and wish him well at 226. Enjoy Train Nan down on the driving range. So, we’re down here on the range. I’m joined by Oscar who is head of product at Top Tracer. And there’s some interesting new technology here on the range this week, isn’t there Oscar? There is indeed. Yeah, we’re we’re proud to be an official technology supplier uh of the Open. And as part of that, we try to always every year enhance the fan and player experience. And when it comes to the fan experience this year, this is what I’m probably most excited about myself. So I mean what we can do is when you walk up to the grand stand you scan a QR code and instantly you’re getting data from shots. So here we have the shot that Sebastian Soderberg just struck over there. So it was a drive 177 mile per hour ball speed 266 m carry and that is instant isn’t it? Yeah. Literally as soon as he strikes the ball like obviously our uh How does it actually work? How do the cameras pick up the ball flight? So they’re at the top and on the sides aren’t they? Exactly. So our cameras are positioned behind the Tline and they can basically observe every uh every shot that every player hits. So it follows the full ball flight and then it relays it in real time. So you see it uh in the app and on the big LED screen behind us. It’s really really impressive. And what sort of numbers does it pick up? Does it pick up everything from ball flight? I see apex ball speed. All the hot numbers that we see on the TV is on there, isn’t it? Yeah, absolutely. like what we we put up there, like what most people are probably interested in is how far they’re hitting their shots. But I think a week like this, especially at an open championship on a links course with windy conditions like we’ve had this week, you have a lot of players practicing flighted shots. So, it’s quite fun to go in there and see like how low they’re keeping those shots being like particularly on number one this week trying to hit those really like low stinger uh four irons, two irons and stuff like that. I think that’s a real cool cool shot to see. you’ll see like um launch angles of down to like 2 3 4°. Um so yeah, I mean for for the golf nerds, they can really dive into the more like geeky numbers and for everyone else you’ll get the like the the distances. It is super super interesting. So, if you are down here at the open at Port Rush, head up to the grand stands, find the QR codes which are in the seats and in and around, and you can pick up live data of the players that you’re seeing hitting on the golf range. Heat. Heat. Just swing. Visit golf.golf to find out more. Just swing. Visit golf.golf to get started. Why not give golf a go? Just swing. Swing wild. Swing weird. Swing wonky. Whoever, however, wherever. It doesn’t matter. Just swing. Head over to golf.golf to start playing. Find out where you can learn to play at golf.golf on the tea. Yeah, she’s staring this one down and for good reason. Look at this. Just delightfully done. She’s on top of the world. Going directly at the whole of course. Oh, get in there. There’s something about the AIG Women’s Open. My goodness. Yeah. Welcome back. We are live on the range. The next group to go is the 1348 Henrik Stenson, Stefan Jerger, Sebastian Soderberg. We have been just looking at some of the players warm-ups. That’s a proper looking hat, Claude Arman. Yeah. I mean, the bucket. It look good on you. I have a hat. I have hats like that. I’m not surprised. You think that’s too grandpa? Uh, really? Oh, that’s I think I think it it’s a perfect suits me though, right? Absolutely. You know what? I’m going to take that as a as a I’m going to just say as a hidden compliment. Now, a swing you know very well. Brooks Kepka be extremely disappointed. I would have said with his four over par. He was out with Sam Burns, Aldrich Potgita and Brooks. Four over for Brooks. Far below his expectation. Claude. Well, I think Brooks uh you know in the what was I’ve had two stints with Brooks 2012 to 2020 and then got fired and then got asked to come back in 22 and got fired in January of this year. So I’ve had two stints with Brooks and um yeah, the majors I think for Brooks are everything, right? Uh he’s working with Pete Cowan now and his putting instructor Jeff Pierce. And um so yeah, the majors are what Brooks kind of gauges his career off of, right? He’s got five of them. Um he’s the type of player that if he looks at you and you don’t have as many majors as he does, in his mind, he thinks he’s better. And he always from the first day I met Brooks, he only talked about majors. Um, the first day I ever met Brooks kept 2012. I think he was still on the challenge tour then and I watched him hit some golf balls. I was working with Ernie Ells at the time. Ernie had just won his fourth major at Litham. I was working with DJ and I said to Brooks, “What are your goals?” This is 2012. He was on the challenge tour and he said, “Well, I think I’m good enough to be number one in the world and I think I’m good enough to win multiple major championships.” And I said to him, you know, Ernie Ell is 44, 45. he’s just won his fourth. And he said, “I feel like I’m that good.” He didn’t say it in an arrogant way. He just said it in a in a way that he said, “I just need someone to try and point me in the right direction.” So Brooks looks at that. And if you don’t have five majors, the way his brain works is I’m a better golfer than you are. Because he believes that professional golf at the end of your career, you are judged not by how many tournaments you’ve won, not by how many rider cups you’re on, not by how many FedEx cups, you are judged by the majors you won. So what he’s doing here is he he he struggles with his alignment at times. So he’s got his longtime caddy Ricky Elliot who’s a Port Rush native, still has a home here. He’s making sure that his alignment is good. So for everybody watching, these players have so much speed that if the alignment gets off, if the car is pointed in the wrong direction, they can start hitting the golf ball a long way offline just due to the alignment. And I think you’d agree with this, Simon. How many times you worked with a player that the golf ball’s going in a direction they don’t like, but it’s something they’re doing before they even hit the golf ball? And there’s Ricky Elliot, who I I just think he’s one of, if not the best caddies in the game. And the first week he cattied for Brooks Kepkco was at the PGA in at Oakill. And my dad came out and he didn’t know Ricky and I was kind of the the catalyst to get those two together. He’s best friends. He grew up with Grant McDow. And he said, “Hey, your boy looks like he’s a good player. We need to get him a real Caddy.” I said, “We do have a real caddy.” He goes, “No, no, no. We need to get him a veteran, like a Tony Navaro caddy for guys.” I said, “No, no, no. Ricky Elliot is the absolute perfect caddy for Brooks Kepka. They are basically like brothers.” Um, Ricky Elliott, a lot of people don’t realize this about Ricky Elliott. He played college golf at Kent State University. We were at Hazeline for the Ryder Cup. He played in the amateur there. So, I think Ricky Elliott doesn’t get nearly the credit that he deserves for the role that he has played in Brooks Kaiser’s career. I don’t fundamentally believe that Brooks has the career that he has without having Ricky Elliott on the back. Yes, Brooks’s talent could lead him to where he is today, but Ricky Elliott to me, you give me the top five caddies in the game right now for the last 10 years, to me, he’s one or one A. Yeah. Now, I’m biased because I spent a lot of time with him, but and in the background there, that’s his to the right there, that’s his putting instructor, Jeff Pierce. Um, and that’s the team of of guys he has around him. No, it is fascinating. Ricky Elliot is extremely good chap, isn’t he? So, it’s a lot down to fundamentals and the fundamentals of golfer, you know, imagine you’re trying to aim at something 180 yards away, you know, and you only have like a seven yards tolerance right or left. I mean, and it’s not a straight line and the wind’s off the left and you’re in between clubs. It’s not that easy to just get those fundamentals right. And we’ve seen so many of the best players in the world this week with aiming clubs down, with ball position clubs down, trying to find those straight lines. And it’s not that easy. I don’t even think you ever get good enough at it. Well, my grandfather used to say, if you aim at nothing every time, you’ll hit it every time. So, I think one of the things that that for everybody watching, make sure when you’re on the driving range that you pick out a target. Make sure that you’re moving your target around. Just don’t get wrapped up into that one um target. So, team Kepka. Yeah. Listen, work to do. I I’ve been so incredibly lucky to to work with Brooks over the years and and the things that he’s done for me and and my career and my family. I’ll forever be in his debt. You know, Simon, you as you know, as I know, players come, players go. Um, it’s the nature of our business, but I’ve been around a lot of great golfers. I’ve been lucky enough to see some of the greatest players in the game, and Brooks is easily one of the best golfers I’ve ever seen, and he does it in a different way. Um, he has his own unique kind of style. Um, I What were the What were the things you worked on? Like, take us through his swing. We always tried to work on trying to hit get Brooks to hit fates. It looks to me over the last three or four months that he and Pete are working on a maybe a little bit. I see him hitting more draws than I saw him hit the years that I work with him. I’m I’m shake agnostic. I don’t care which direction players hit it. Um, but listen, it’s hard to to maintain the level that Brooks maintained. And you know, there was there was a three-year period where everybody in the game, Simon, thought he had had something figured out to win major championships that they didn’t. They they felt like he had something they didn’t. Um there were I remember a couple years ago Rory Maroy said he was trying to be more like Brooks in in a certain way. So um he’s got a great team of people around him and Pete Cowan and and Jeff Pierce. And then one of the unsung heroes that Brooks has behind the scenes, Blake Smith, um who is also the um manager and agent for Scotty Sheffller whose father is Randy Smith who is Scotty Sheoffller’s coach. So, Brooks has a great team of people around him. Um, Brooks can be really hard on himself at times. Um, I remember him making a cut. I think we’re at Memorial that he didn’t play great Thursday. He kind of had to fight on the back nine and he made the cut and I came into the locker room and I said, “Hey, good job making making the cut.” And he said, “If you think that’s a good job, then we’ve got a problem.” cuz making cuts should be normal for me. So don’t ever praise me for making cuts. That’s kind of the way he thinks and that’s one of the reasons why I mean Brooks is not a golfer. He doesn’t watch golf. He doesn’t really follow golf. And Brooks is a killer. He wants to step on your neck. And I think you can’t all of the great players that have gotten to number one in the world have a mean streak in them. have uh and again here we go. He’s he’s having Pete step into where his stance is because he wants to take a look at where his feet are aiming. At times Brooks can get a little bit maybe aiming a little bit too far to the right. So they’re checking the alignment because the alignment is going So he puts a a stick a club down making sure that right foot gets in there. That’s where the left foot is. And then he’s going to try and take a look at where he’s aiming. What are his swing thoughts? Like what what swing thought do you think he’s taken out? What what were the swing thoughts that were the most successful? The swing thoughts that we used were keep to hit the fade were to keep the club in front of him on the back swing, keep the club back in front of him on the down swing, and then turn turn left, swing left. Brooks at times can get the handle to rise up. He’s got a very strong grip and then the handle can get high and then he can get a little bit kind of hung back or the modern term for that is side bend. I always wanted Brooks to feel like he rotated as hard as he could to the left. And Brooks asked me when we first started to work together, what’s the goal? I said the the goal is to turn you into the best one-dimensional golfer on the planet Earth. you hit a fade pretty much 90 to 95% of the time. He did that. Now, Brooks, unlike DJ, DJ doesn’t really hit a lot of draws. He’ll maybe draw a short iron. Brooks can draw. And as I said, it just my observation, I don’t know what they’re working on cuz I’m not in that camp anymore. But it looks to me like he’s hitting more draws than I used to see him hit. But Pete Cowan’s one of the best golf instructors in the world. and he knows what he’s doing. It’ll be interesting to see. You know, it’s quite a big change though. I mean, where is the draw going to come from? Changing the path. I don’t know if that’s what they’re working on. I just when I watch it, I just see him hitting more draws than he did in the past. Yeah, he’s quite steep onto it, isn’t he? Steep angle. You know, Brooks kind of lives in the years that I worked when when we were looking at launch monitor data, his stock shot was kind of We kind of he liked to kind of hang out in that kind of path range of kind of being kind of three to three and a half to the left and then the face would kind of be one to one and a half to the left. The the bad one for Brooks when when he was trying to hit fades would be when the path would get left and the face would get to the right because then the ball would start online. I distinctly remember for the five majors that Brooks won when I was working with him, the misses for those week were straight balls. Balls that started left and didn’t move. And we always knew that Brooks for what we were trying to do at that time in in Brooks’s career and with his golf swing that if the miss was a ball that started left and just stayed there, basically just like a straight pull, we always knew his golf swing was kind of in a good spot. If he was missing it to the right, that was the bad miss for him because that always meant the club was getting a little bit behind him and with his grip and his speed when he was trying to hit a fade, that was the death move. But if you go down the list of players that have played this sport that have five major championships, um that’s the death zone on Everest. There aren’t a lot of people up there and there aren’t a lot of people that have stood on the top of Mount Everest as well. So for me, if you’ve got five major championships, you are in a class above everybody else. And up until the Masters, I know for a fact that Brooks looked at Rory Maroy and thought, I’m better than you because I’ve won more majors than you. You see with his arms folded there in the glasses. That’s Blake Smith and his father is the long longtime coach of Randy Smith and he manages Brooks and Scotty Sheffller. Yeah. Interesting. Most majors won since 210. I mean, look at the names behind him. Yeah. Behind him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. I think he was so dominant because he just thought the majors were everything, right? for him winning majors. He could win five times in a year and if he didn’t win a major, he would think that was a bad year. That’s the way his he doesn’t look, you know, the knock against Brooks is majors versus how many PJ tour events. He doesn’t care. He looks at the majors and says, “Hey, how many majors do you have?” Yeah. Maybe you’ve won 10 times on tour. Maybe you’ve won 20 times on tour. You got any majors in your bag? Cuz I’ve got five of them. Yeah. And so he just was a guy obviously not the I I thought he played better at the US Open, had a good first round. Um but we said this about Patrick Kentlay, guys. It’s hard to keep that up. Tiger Woods is my dad right now. People constantly ask my dad, “Is Scotty Sheffller doing what Tiger Woods is doing?” And my dad always has the same answer. Yes, if he can do it for the next 15 years. Yeah. And it is hard to say. Brooks has had some injuries. The body changes. He’s had a baby. He’s got a young son now. The priorities change. So, um I think Brooks dominated and beat people up with the driver. Yeah. Right. And this is a golf club in his bag. Um it’s a Nike threeiron. Um he used used to be with Nike and when they quit making golf clubs I mean you can’t get that golf club out of his bag that the shaft down by the grip is there’s a hole in the shaft from where it’s rubbed off and butdding up against the inside of the bag that always there’s an indention in the shaft. That’s how many how long he’s had that golf club. I think he’s probably had that golf club in his bag since I think he put that in in 2015 maybe. So that’s been in his bag for 10 years and you’re not going to get that out of his bag because look at how far this is going. Yeah. So, and he can get this up to 275 to 280 if he wants. These are his stingers, aren’t they? And he can also hit this thing. Look at the apex of this. I mean, he’s not going very high. There’s three golf clubs in his bag. when I worked with Brooks that were never coming out. The putter, he had a a tailor made M2 3-wood, which is probably 10 years old, and then that iron in his back. Well, once they work, they work. And I can’t tell you how busy a guy Ricky Elliott has been. I mean, every player on tour is, he’s been getting them houses, he’s getting them he’s getting them um nannies, he’s getting them restaurant reservations. So Ricky Elliot’s a busy man. The Lord Mayor of Port Rush. Absolutely, man. Okay, let’s have a look at the driver swing. What was What’s the club head speed? He’s probably kind of Brooks kind of cruises in that high 70s to low 80s. I’ I’m guessing this is going to be 77 to 80 somewhere in the ball speed number. Club head speed’s probably Yeah, there we go. 180. That’s about normal for him. He can crank one up to He can go get 183 to 186 if he needs it. And and kind of 122 apex is like a PGA tour apex, isn’t it? That’s not a crosswind apex. Does he practice a lot away from the course? Yeah, absolutely. He did the years I worked with him. Yeah. So, there we go. 181 launching it at 11. that kind of that’s kind of where he lives. Yeah. And then he’s got one where he tees it down which he calls his fairway finder where he hits a little bit more down on it. Yeah. Very interesting. Claude, fantastic to spend time with you, mate. Great insights. Claude Harmon, ladies and gentlemen. Got to thank him for spending some time with us, giving us an insight into the tour range coaching position. Been fired by some of the best. Hey, that’s just part of the game. You’ll be you’ll be the you can’t be hired until you’ve been fired. Claude, do you take care, mate? Great to see you. See you soon. Let’s go and find George Harper Jr. See what carnage he is creating. Now, well, you’ve seen the team just here on the range throughout this championship, but I’m going to take you next to it to all the trucks. We’ve got the Titless truck here, the Nike, Mazuno. So many manufacturers are right here by the range, so they’re on call when their players need new clubs and everything to make sure their game is bang in line. Every little detail counts. So, let’s pop into one and see what we can find. All right. Oh, this looks new. Smells new. How about this? Absolutely beautiful. Alex, how are you, mate? How are you, mate? Good, mate. This looks fantastic. You must uh love working in here. Yeah. Yeah, this is brand new. So, welcome. And I’m going to give you a quick little tour. Well, I know we haven’t got long, mate. So, I know. Let’s have a quick tour. What have we What What happens? What’s the generic process for for the players to come in here? So, I’m on here tech. So, I do all the building. Sam and my colleagues bring me a build sheet a little bit like this. So, they’ll fit the product out on the range. Looks like a fast food order form. Yeah. I’m a little bit like the chef in here, right? So, these are the orders and then in these drawers, I’ve got all the ingredients I need to put these things together. Right. I actually worked in the kitchen, so this is like a natural environment. Oh, wow. Brilliant. Okay. So there’s a hybrid there for Colin Morawa, Loft and lies there for Tommy Fleetwood. So much detail, so much precision. How nerve-wracking is it to build club for the best in the world, you know, weeks like this, we I thrive on this. This is great. This is what you you live for, you know, um building for these guys, it it feels quite special, you know, it’s great job satisfaction. So being here, we we’re loving it. We’re having a great week and um it’s a pleasure to have you guys on. Brilliant. All right. So, we’ve got all the bits and bobs. Gluing the gluing the club heads to all the shafts. You’ve got the drawers, all the glue, all the machinery. It’s all calibrated. So, no matter where in the world we are, it’s going to get built to the same locked as well. Yeah, we’ve got the child lock on there. That’s just for you, mate. Might take that one. Thank you. Um I massively geek out on putters, so I’m sure you love this section over here. So, this is my backup uh putter section. So every single player has a replica putter this week and that’s just in case you know something touch word something happens. So brilliant Shane Larry Sheffller Mroy Bobby M. Oh there’s some good names. Mory C. Jeez brilliant. Got all the guys in there. So that could change everyone’s game at home quite drastically, couldn’t it? So if these guys, you know, if something does happen, we can get this putter out to them. It’s the same swing weight, it’s the same loft, it’s the same lie angle. So they can get it in their hands and it’s going to be like Yeah. straight away. No getting used to anything new. And that’s all pre-built so it saves me a job. If something does happen, you know, it’s there ready to go. That is super cool. All in the preparation this week. Yeah, that is absolutely amazing. So good to have it all on hand. Absolutely. More tool tools and drills through here. Yeah. So in here, you know, I’ve got grips, heads, and shafts. So this is our brand new shaft rack, and you can see some pretty cool names in there. Wow. So that’s a backup set of wedges, putter shafts, wood shafts for every single player of ours, you know. Is there any unique things that the players do with their equipment? Is there any I guess every player is different? Any subtleties that that trick you sometimes? There’s no standard on here. You know, I play something different to you. And and just like these guys, we’ve got Nelly Corder, we got Charlie Ho, we got Tiger Woods. Everyone’s totally different. So as you’re looking in here, you can see a range of different weights and flexes. And we need to make sure we’re fully stocked because if we’re not, I’m I’m getting I’m getting it. You know, you’re getting in trouble. Yeah, exactly that. You know, major championships are on the line both in here and out there. Very good. It’s absolutely stunning. And then over here, we’ve got uh their little locker rooms by the looks and Oh, what have we got in here? Look at Mo sitting there. Eh, that’s Tommy Fleetwood’s boy. He should be out there watching, but he gets very superstitious and he’s on secret. Yeah, he’s supposed to be secret. We’ve busted him. Nice company on a bit of a roll. And what do we got? What have we got in here, eh? Oh, hello. That would look quite good on my driver. Thanks, Tiger. You’re going to be empty, mate. Thanks, Alex. No worries. All good. Thanks. Very cool tour and great to see what happens behind the scenes. Wicked. Thank you. On the tea. Yeah, she was staring at this one down and for good reason. Look at this. Just delightfully done. She’s on top of the world. Going directly at the hole. Tell you what, of course. Oh, get in there. There’s something about the AIG Women’s Open. Oh my goodness. Just swing. Visit golf.golf to find out more. Just swing. Visit golf.golf to get started. Why not give golf a go? Just swing. Swing wild. Swing weird. Swing wonky. Whoever, however, wherever. It doesn’t matter. Just swing. Head over to golf.golf to start playing. Find out where you can learn to play at golf.golf. Welcome. come along to the open. It’s everything you wanted and more. Fantastic. Absolutely brilliant. Quite an extraordinary day. Let’s take a look at one of the great scoring opportunities. At the start of the players rounds, you’re navigating the first, which is incredibly tough. The second, you get a bit of a reprieve, and then players are thinking about the fifth. It is this wonderful par4, drivable par4, 382 yards, which yes, does sound long, but there’s a trick. You can take on this corner. Dog leg left to right down the wind. And the carry on that is between 260 to 290 depending on how brave you want to be. The trouble is is this run out. If you get it going long, you can get this pop bunker which is right here. All the mounding that’s waiting ready to collect your ball. The rough is quite long up here. In that regard, if you do miss it here, the pin position today is exceptionally friendly. 41 yards on four yards from the right hand side. So you’ve got loads of green to work with. And this is also the hole where you have that famous Royal Port Rush bench. So all going to plan, make your birdie, take a load off, and enjoy the view. Fascinating to see all of the insights from Claude Harmon and his knowledge. of those two great players, great insights. Ryan Fox from New Zealand, I think. And I’m very, very pleased to announce George Harper Jr., a fellow countryman. You’re from New Zealand, aren’t you? I am. I am indeed, Simon. Yes. Uh, and it is a pleasure to be here. I’ve been running around all over the show, so it’s nice to sit down. You’ve done a great Can I just say you’ve brought us some nuggets, George. Really good, mate. Thank you very much. Have you caught up with Foxy at all this week? He’s kind of a confidence player just heading off, I would think, to the first TE. Yeah, had a lot of time with Foxy, especially over the last few weeks. Um, played played around with him before the Scottish Open uh North Ber. So, uh, he gave me an absolute hiding naturally. Um, but yeah, I I was super super surprised with his round yesterday. Four over 75. I He’s been my tip of the week. I just thought it was everything aligned for him, and he he looked good, he felt good. So, yeah, he’ll be absolutely ropable about uh yesterday. Five birdies in the opening six holes. You just you don’t expect that from most of these players here. So that was um yeah just it’s the game of golf but yeah he’ll be very very disappointed but the great thing is about Foxy is he is the type of guy that could go out and shoot five or six and potentially get himself back into this championship but uh yeah he’s obviously got a long long way to go now let’s have a look at the cut well let’s think I mean that’s probably a two a plus two cut I would say. Well, he’s he’s got a record at the moment. I think he’s eight or nine, maybe nine major championship cuts in a row. Uh so that’s pretty impressive stuff and uh shows that he can turn the tables when he when he is required. But yeah, he’ll be he’ll be absolutely heartbroken about yesterday that everything was in my eyes and I think in his team’s eyes. I spoke with his coach and his caddy a lot over the last few days and yeah, everything looked in sync and aligned and uh yeah, just just quite simply didn’t happen. Yeah, that could that can be a first round though. He was out with Hideki Matsyama who probably was thinking the same thing. Hideki just carrying a little neck injury on his left neck. Slept funny. and Matt Fitzpatrick who had a really really good day and we heard from him is longtime coach Mike Walker needed some love Mike we send you love mate we miss you hope everything’s good top dog Mike Walker ash shapeteer very interesting style of player kind of like kickback Back to the old school. He was on plus two. He was out with Seb Straa and Ben Griffin. They didn’t have great momentum. Straka one over. Griffin three over and A B two over. So they need a little kickstart. We do see that out on the golf course though. You catch a group that runs a little warm in the first few holes and they kind of keep each other going. Yeah, it’s it’s amazing how important your playing partners are. you know, whether they’re a slow golfer, a quick golfer, or whether you get on well with them or if they’re on fire, a lot of the time you’re like, well, I need to keep up with this guy. So, it kind of lifts your energy into positive flow as well. So, uh, Arsh is a great character. I think he I think he’ll be an awesome ambassador for golf. He’s fun. He’s always up for a chat. Um, been lucky enough to to know him since 2019 when he came to the amateur championship in Port Manik just down the road. So, uh, that was his first taste of Lynx golf back in the day. And, uh, yeah, he he is a good fun man. And jeez, he hits a golf ball. He does kind of a shot maker. Very much. George Gangas is his is his coach. I mean, if you if you want to see some of the swing thoughts from George Gangas. Really kind of like a genius guy. Check him out. George Gangas. Yeah. Yeah. He’s a He’s a fun fun guy as well. He’s got a great little team around him and yeah, almost almost too much shot shaping sometimes for his own good, but it’s fun to watch. It is very fun to watch. I remember had to walk a cup as well. He’s he has just got the most amazing hand eye. He’d tee the golf ball up as high as humanly possible and with a 3-wood he would try and pluck it off the tee and flushes it. the apex is a million feet high and it was the funnest little sort of 10 15 minutes of watching it. It was very very impressive. But that’s a great thing to do, you know, if like if you if you’re a dad and you’re taking your kids out or a mom taking your kids out, if you’re are a child with your mates, throw the balls all over the place and try to figure it out. see if see how high you can hit one, how low you can hit one, just to build up your repertoire of skills, you know, you you just start educating your hands and you create that that movement of okay, I’m not a robot. I’m not just going to keep slotting it down a straight line. Start to move it around. Those will be the skills you do need to be able to spin the ball if you’re going to come out on this tour and have any kind of success. Akshay Batia needs to get him head into the game early. Some good groups coming out following Batia at 248. Sam Burns, Aldrich Potgita and Brooks Kepka. I mean Keeper and Potgita must have felt they shot 150 each of them yesterday. Xander Shelf defending champion. He ran even. JJ Spawn, he was plus two and John Ram one over. One under. I beg you pardon. They are the 259 tea time. A hates it. So ah look who’s here. Scotty Sheffller. The smileyfaced Scotty Sheffller. World number one. three under pari shot. You’ve hung out with him a bit this week, George. Any any insights you can give us into the nature of the guy? It’s alarming how calm he is. Uh had a good chat to him and walked a couple of holes with him on Wednesday. He is super chill. Uh it’s incredible. He just didn’t really doesn’t really look like he’s playing in a major and I you almost think he played kind of hoham average and still shot three under. Uh so yeah, I think he’s I think he’s a great guy, lovely guy. Uh but it’s it’s just insane how just methodical and goes about his business and it nothing really phases the bloke. So uh he’s just dangerous. He’s always going to be dangerous and if you’re a Rory Maroy fan or a Shane Larry fan from this part of the world, it it would be terrifying to see him at three under. Very interesting guy. Very creative, very process driven. Just look how long he takes to get his hands on the club and the face square in his hands. It was amazing talking to him about how he just like he almost doesn’t have goals, right? Like he was I was mentioning to him about like, hey, now that Rory’s got the grand slam, like surely you’re kind of considering that, right? Like he’s at the stage now where he’s pretty good at golf. He’s ticked off a few majors. So like that’s a very realistic goal for him in the next two, three, five years, right? Yeah. But no, he’s just going about his thing. just doing doing what he does and he’s not looking he’s not looking any further past this week. It’s I don’t know it’s very it’s very alarming because he’s obviously stats and facts just don’t concern him. So he’s just going to keep winning. That’s his goal. Left hand goes on the club very precisely. Always checks the face up to the sky. I suppose faces square in his hands. Very good at calibrating his shots, isn’t he? Very good at moving the ball around. It’s almost like this is actually just to physically warm himself up. There’s really no emotional attachment to any of the shots that he hits here. And then once the gun goes, he’s the creator. He’s just trying to figure out how what’s the best shot I can hit in the current conditions that I got. Where do I want to be next? It’s like that’s his whole skill set. It’s it’s very appropriate to the task. You don’t want to be a fantastic range player. You want to be a master of scoring. He seems to be that style of golfer. Yeah. And that’s what I love cuz I I feel like a lot of players, they need to be more relaxed, especially at the start of the range session. You are literally there to warm up. And Tiger used to always say, you know, how was the rain session if you’ve hit heaps of shockers? It’s like, well, no, my body’s warmed up. So, that was the job of the rain session was to warm up. So, I think as you slowly go along your range session, nearing the back end of it is when you start dialing in and you start aiming for more targets and getting getting in the zone. But yeah, he is, as you say, he is an artist and look at that record in majors over the last four years. That is simply incredible. It really is. It really, really is. He is very much on our radar as we look at getting I mean Nicholas’s record I think is is out of sight. Tiger’s record I think probably also in the modern game. You reckon? I I think you you think you think a Scottish Sheffer could get to 18 majors. I think Jax is a a humongous call. I think that’s a long long way away. I mean 18 majors he you know I mean the the first thing is you know how long Nicholas’s career was right and then how long really Tiger was Tiger’s career was from from from those two ma if you bookend those two major victories that was a long time of playing golf I just think I think I mean one a year for 15 years in a row one a year for that’s achievable for this guy but will be playing for 15 years. So, he’s 29 years old, which is a little bit older than I thought to be honest. So, let’s say he’s got prime time real estate for 10 more years. And that’s that’s been on the low side. Yeah, he was pretty tidy yesterday. Three under par. Let’s take a closer look. There’s definitely going to be a year where he goes bang bang. Yeah. Yeah, it could be. There’s his scorecard. It was tidy, wasn’t it? Bogey. The There the two tough holes. I think he’d like the kind of the finish there coming off the golf course. The birdie birdie par finish is going to give him a lot of momentum coming into today. He’s got to feel like, okay, you know what? Job done day one. It’s such a big birdie, too, on 16 against the field, right? Yeah. I mean, just kind of kicked it off that right rough and and knocked it up to 68 ft, I think it was. Yeah. Not not many players making two on there. So, we’re hearing some big roars coming off that 16th green. That’s always fantastic. I was talking to Adam Scott actually at the Scottish and he said, Adam Scott at the Scottish. Adam Scott at the Scottish and he said, “There’s a different crowd here. The the sound is different around the gallery. The sound is different around the golf course, you know.” And he goes, “I hit a shot. It wasn’t it was it was a difficult light to a bad angle. I hit about 30 ft.” And everyone applauded me when I walked up. He goes in America they they wouldn’t even you know I’m not not to say but like he just this was Adam Scott’s quote it’s a different knowledge here the sound is different and the knowledge is different that’s that’s nice to hear isn’t it the open crowd well it’s it’s been known by so many that it is the most knowledgeable like talking to the Fleetwood family earlier like at Oakmmy hit what he thought was an amazing shot to 20 ft on one of the hardest courses on planet earth and no one clapped them uh so yeah it’s Oh, proof’s all in the pudding there. Yeah. So, Scotty Sheffller mesmerized by the process. Just working his numbers. It’s a beautiful afternoon here. He’s looking across to the left there to see our top tracer technology. Oh, there you go. Yay. Nice shot. She thinks Scotty’s outfit and his shot there was epic. That’s the age of stardom. I I couldn’t agree more about the outfit bringing the sunshine to the course. I love that. So great to see so many families now spending the day out at the Open Championship. So Scotty working hard on his game. Let’s head back down to the driving range and join Dy Stewart. Thanks very much, Simon. It’s been brilliant listening to you uh observing the range. Here we are, of course, live at the range here with Pete and we’ve got John Rahm in the right in the middle of us. Had a good result in 2019, tied 11th. He likes the Open and he loves this part of the world as well. He’s won the Irish Open twice, enjoys a test. Yeah. Yeah. And he was my pick pre- tournament. So, I’ve got a vested interest. I’m going to go give him a quick shoulder rub and tell him it’s all going to be okay. I’m sure he’ll appreciate that. I know. I I’m looking at Brian Harmon as well at the top of the leaderboard and you tipped him two years ago. I know. Listen, I’m not saying that I am the Oracle, but I’m, you know, Oracle adjacent. Yes, you are. He is. He is the Oracle. Uh Rahm’s game though yesterday won under par round of 70 on day one. Very solid. Yeah. And I think today is probably going to be a true reflection of where their games are at because yesterday was so hard, especially when most of the players who were going out this afternoon teed off in the morning when that deluge came in. I think that today if they’re not underpar, I think they’ll be more a gasast than if they were kind of overpar yesterday. Yeah, I’m just gonna get my leaderboard out and have a look at uh who’s doing well because there are birdies out there. They are. But also people are dropping shots on the back nine. Yeah, see Justin Rose in a bit of trouble. He’s dropped back to two under. Well, he started the day so he’s level par on that. But leading right now is Brian Harmon at minus seven. There we go. There is the leaderboard. Seven under par 3 75 under for the day. If he finishes that’ll be a round of 66. Yeah, it’s a it’s a great score. I saw he just missed a birdie put on 17 as well. So he’s played some really really good golf. It’s it’s a great course for Harmon. So he’s very accurate. He can control the golf ball and he’s an amazing putter. So it’s not a huge surprise to see him up there in that context, but he’s not been playing amazing golf recently. Yeah. Yeah. So to actually see him at the top of the leaderboard in that context is is a a welcome addition I would say having a former open champion at the top. Yeah, we spoke to him early on in the week. He said he he felt actually he felt that he’s good his golf was in a great position. It’s all about margins, isn’t it? This level of the game for going further down there is Rosie level for the day. Uh Lucas Glover, former US Open champ minus. I mean all these names, they really are in contention. There’s five shots away from the top of the leaderboard, but anything can happen. That’s that’s a couple of holes, isn’t it? Rory Maroy minus 2 through4. What you make of that score? Yeah, good. Much much better. I mean, it has to be said his scorecard today is a little bit wild. Lots of birdies, lots of bogeies. Uh he’s also playing with Tommy Fleetwood who’s having a good game. Uh there’s Ricky Fowler. Great to see Ricky at one end. Uh has got lots of invitations to events of late because of his performances to to the big events. Shane Lowry. Yeah. So he’s he’s off at 310. Good to see Lee Westford. Oh, he’s dropped a shot. Threw four, goes back to minus one. Chris Goserup who won the Scottish Open last week, minus two for the day, one under for championship. Uh he’s through three holes. As if we wander down here, go past John Rahm. We’ve got to the world number one, Scotty Sheffler in in yellow. Splendid today. Do you like the yellow? I love a yellow whenever there’s an open involved. It’s classy. Three under on day one assessment. great school. Like out of not everyone who played, but certainly when that kind of storm struck, he was the one who looked the steadiest. He looked really calm. He managed to get the birdies. He took kept all the big scores off his card. And now he’s going out in arguably the best conditions. It just remains to be seen what the weather will come. And there is Shane Lowry coming on to the That’s the Putting Green, walking across the Putting Green and he’ll He’s about to come on to the driving range. I’m sure there’ll be a big cheer for him. Rory, when he came on the driving range earlier on today, he stayed in bay bay number five, which means he doesn’t walk the length of the driving range. So, he didn’t get the massive cheer. There was a bit of a from the crowd. But Lowry, um, I’ll be really interested to see if there is a cheer. I’m sure there will be one under on day one. It was, uh, yeah, it was good. It was fine. Like for him and for Rory, for all the local favorites really. Yesterday was about just trying to settle the nerves and not doing anything too crazy. Like one on par. Anything under par yesterday was absolutely fine. He stays over there, doesn’t he? Stays at the end of the driving range, which is near the near the entrance. Doesn’t come far down here. Um Scott is in bay number 22, but he’ll probably go in bay three. It looks like bay three or four. Um but yeah, the crowd’s out in force obviously with him that he’s out at 310 with Colin Moraua and Scotty Sheffller. There’s a lot of pressure on his shoulders though even if you say I’m just going to take each round still feels the weight of a nation as does Rory Maroy. Yeah, I think it’s sometimes nice to share that burden. I mean it’s obviously Rory I think is probably the real kind of hometown favorite. you know, Northern Irish, people want him to come through and to win, but the whole island of Ireland is rooting for the two of them both. So, it’s not like all the pressure is on him. So, it’s always nice to be able to say, you know, you’re in this with me. We are in this together. Yeah. There we go. I knew there’d be a chair. He’s going past bay 16. He’s walking down. He’s walking towards uh his playing partner, Scotty. There’s a little gap here. Bay number 20. Dressed all in blue, just like Rory today. Navy blue seems to be the color of the day. He’s just checking out. Uh balls are put down. What’s he got in his hand? What club? It looks like he’s just going to start with this lob wedge and then work way up from there. Yeah. Yeah. In between Scott Sheffer and John Ram. It’s quite the torpro sandwich that they’ve got going on there. They’re just having a bit of a chat. Oh, what are they chatting about, John? What are they saying? Can we lipre? Wish we could. Maybe it’s a bit about the course. Which hole should I be playing driver on? Did you go out last night? No, I was good. I stayed in. Really? I was in the dolphin. Get my son the fried chicken. Uh, a couple of couple of giggles there. Who has got the best beard? I wouldn’t want to argue the point with either of them really. No, I love it when Shane says he doesn’t turn right out of the members car park because it goes past the mural of him. He always turns left. He doesn’t want to look at himself. If you don’t know, in Port Rush, there is a huge mural on uh on one of the sort of walls at the end of a row of terrace houses. I think at this stage in their career none of them turn right that they all turn left on planes. Yeah, we’re still turning right. But no, it’s glorious. It’s brilliant. Everyone gets their photo taken. If you if you come into Port Rush, that’s where you go. You go see the mural of Shane Lowry. Such history. And that will be there for a very, very long time. Just reminding ourselves that the Open Championship has come back to Northern Ireland and there was a gap of 68 years. Uh committee worked really hard to get it back here. Gray McDall we heard from the other day. I was chatting to him. him and Rory, Darren Clark, Podrick Harrington, all combined combined effort to get it back after, you know, Northern Irish Irish success at major championships in 2010, 2011. There was a push to get it back here. I know Wilmer Erskin as well, uh, the club secretary here at Royal Port Rush. She worked incredibly hard and a lot of money as well, Pete, you know, was was spent on the course. I mean, it costs to host a major championship like this. It does take a huge amount of investment. I know recently there’s been a lot of talk about also going to um Port Marik as well. So the amount of investment that would take for example to to get a open championship there but the island of Ireland is such a wonderful place for golf. It does deserve to have the open more often than it has. I mean the the fans and the atmosphere everything surrounding the open in Ireland is is amazing. Yeah. Well the countdown is on the time. I’m I’m looking at Kevin, our cameraman’s watch, and it’s 2:33 at the moment. So, they’ve got just over half an hour’s time until they go to the first tea. We had McCarthy, Denny McCarthy, dashing to the first te yesterday. We’re wondering whether he’s going to make his tea time. He left the range with 11 minutes to go, but I’m sure they’ll leave more time. This is the group that’s out at 310. Scotty Sheffller, Shane Larry, Colin Maracawa, the winner of the Open Championship on his debut in 2021. That was a fantastic achievement. He’s got Billy Foster on the bag. Not permanent, but Billy’s going to be out there with him for a bit. Yeah, Colin’s kind of searching really at the moment for a permanent caddy. I know there was kind of some conversation about the open championship and Colin and obviously made that fantastic victory at Royal St. George’s, but short game a little bit squiffy at the moment. Maybe not quite up for the the challenge of Port Rush this week. We will wait and see. There’s two open champions though. Scottish Shefflin may be ready to join them this week. Yeah, if he play if he plays like he did yesterday, I’ve no doubt he’ll be there or thereabouts come Sunday. Yeah, minus three on day one. We’ll see what the weather does uh this afternoon because our weather predictions change quite dramatically yesterday. Jason Day was utterly confused. But this dynamic of the group in terms of personalities, do you think they all want to play together? Um yeah, I mean feed off each other. I think so. It’s a It’s a relatively comfortable group. I think Shane probably actually takes a little bit of pressure off Scotty, you know, with the with the crowd. So, I think they’ll be happy to play with Shane. Um, but I I don’t think they’re going to be spending much time talking to each other anyway. They’re they’re going to be in their own games. They all are. Even if you’re playing with your best friend, you’ll chat a bit, but you know, you’re concentrating on your golf. And that first TE environment really is absolutely fantastic. So Shane, he was out in 35, par 36 on the front nine. Two birdies on the second and six. Dropped a shot on the the ninth hole. It’s a really tough par four. Dropped a shot on 13 on the back nine and made that brilliant birdie on 17. Uh and par on 18. So it was around a 70 one under. It is a par 71 here. It’s changed and he is at the moment six shots off the lead. The leader being Brian Harmon and Howong Lee as well. Do you have any money on him? Um, no. No. Howong’s a very funny player. He goes through these little streaky periods of great golf and then he might disappear for a few months and then come back. But he’s just had three birdies in five holes. He’s doing well. But that’s that’s the opportunity out there today with these conditions. Okay, Pete. We’ll take a bit of a wander. Let’s get back to commentary team and uh see what they’re up to. Yeah, fascinating to hear all of the little nuggets that we discover. Scotty Sheffller, left hand on. Look how precise he is up to the face and down. The precision of taking the grip. The world number one. Not skipping any of the fundamentals. Aim, ball position, grip. posture three under par yesterday. George in in questionable decision in questionable conditions when we weren’t sure what was going on I thought was the dream start for him. Simply perfect. not obviously on the scorecard in all facets, but just anything in the red at the open on major championship Thursday is really, really good. And the fact that he managed a couple of bogeies in there, he kind of flunked his way around the middle of the back nine and then as you said earlier, he went bang bang 1617. So, as a world number one and always the bookies favorite, you just don’t want to lose the championship, right? You just don’t want to get yourself too far out of it. So to be able to manufacture two late birdies and card a three underpar round is is bang on. Yeah. So let’s have a look at the Scotty Sheffller footwork. Now he’s not up into his full irons here. But watch he goes left. He goes his weight shifts left very very early. So if you think that you swing an amateur golfer all the way up to the top and that’s all the way to the right and then back down all the way to the left, that is not how a tour player does it at all. So you can move a little bit into your right side, maybe up until kind of like left arm parallel to the ground. But from there, your weight shift is moving down into that left leg and then through. Now Scotty Sheffller goes earlier. Maybe Scotty and Tony Fen now the earliest to go left. By the time that club shaft is parallel to the ground, he is already shifting into that left leg. And then that kick is really just it’s almost a landing. So he’s pushing up through that left foot and then it comes down to earth, lands, and then the right foot just hops in behind him to stabilize. So stands close to the ball very much. Arms hanging close to his body underneath his shoulders. That’s a fade position. High left arm. That’s a fade position. And a shot maker, someone George who I think really feels the face incredibly well. doesn’t spend a huge amount of time whacking golf balls, just kind of looking at the numbers a little bit, just physically warming himself up, getting ready for the examination that he needs to pass, which is actually going to be on the golf course, not on the range. This is not where he’s trying to win. He kind of I get the feeling the golf ball stays on his club face for longer than most. You know, if he if he’s pushing it out to the right, he can just roll the wrists and bring it back. It’s just the control is almost in slow motion, especially once he gets into the short iron range. He just nurses, caresses the ball onto the green. And there are some good scores out there today. You’d be very pleased to hear if you’re a Bryson Dambo fan that he is five under par with two holes to play. He’s back to two over, which is we think the cup mark. So just need Brighton to hold it together over those last two holes. Not a player that we want to lose on a Friday afternoon. Yeah, that’s opening with a 78 and to be five under is good stuff from Big Brassen. Who else? Matteo Manero. The cut has just gone to one over. Bryson’s going to have to go again. 70 players. The cut has now just gone to two. So, okay, we’re kind of on a 2-1 cut. And I think with decent weather, George, we have to probably say with certainty it’ll go to one. Yeah, I would say so. Have to be to one. So, here we go. The whole of the driving range has been lit up by our top tracer technology. We’ve got fantastic uh technology, the same technology that the tour players are using to look at their ball and club data. We have the pool data for you. Here we go. Scotty Sheffller. So, look for the yellow tracer. Just chipping away a few woods. He’s looking at the same numbers you were looking at. just working some flat little t-sh flat little kind of fairway finders I would say George. Yeah, absolutely. That’s that’s exactly what you want off the first te right there. You were out there a lot um you know today and during the competition round practice rounds you saw a lot of guys kind of experimenting with different clubs off the tea. Yeah, like I in particular the first hole I was watching for a while and I was super immersed and quite intrigued as to how many different players use the different option and and on a lot of groups I saw an iron, a driver, and a 3-wood, all different clubs, which is so rare on tour. Yeah. Normally there’s there’s a pretty obvious option. Um but it was really nice to see on that first hole players having to make somewhat of a decision. Yeah. So the fluid movement of Shane Larry, he is out at 10 3 just about a half an hour. He has got Moraua and world number one Scotty Sheffller for company. Morawa very very disappointing plus four. Shane Lowry I think would have come in breathing a sigh of relief. It must have been a round of golf that had been in his mind for a long time. The first time coming back as a local hero to Port Rush George. Oh, this week has been so huge. I’ve never seen him in a better mental space, an almost aggressive mental space. He’s been absolutely loving this opportunity. His buildup has been arguably perfect. He’s been on the island of Ireland for so long playing a handful if not more of these amazing courses which he loves dearly. So he’s played a lot of Lynx golf and he’s obviously put a asterisk next to this track as his major to win his best chance of winning a major since 2019. So yeah, he’s dialed in with his team there. He’s got Brian Morren in the back there on with the Sunnies on his phone. He’s got his coach Neil Manship and Caddyy Darren Reynolds. So, champion golfer 2019. He’s such a fierce competitor. I remember at St. Andrews, he made two eagles in the round. I think this was on moving day Saturday. Made two eagles in the round and then just had a couple of blemishes coming home. And boy oh boy, was I in the wrong place at the wrong time. He came up to me and just uh and and just vented and it was aggressive and it was great to see his passion. I loved it. Absolutely loved it. I won’t repeat what he said, but he he was concluding that he’d just just butchered the open and it was in his hands and it was in his sights and he um he just loves this championship and loves the loves the fight. He’s like loves showing that bit of Mongrel this he he is a guy you can easily support. He’s Yeah, he’s a proper He’s like a grownup. So, John Ram has just left the driving range. We wish him well. Sorry, did you just say he’s like a grown-up? Chain Larry. He is like a grown-up. Well, well, he is a grown-up. No, but he’s like he be he takes it on board. He takes responsibility for his own actions, right? which is quite unusual given his profession and I like that about him. He was brilliant when he won. Oh, so good. Superb. Just chipping away. John Ram one o one underpar spawn the US Open champion two over without defending champion level. This is kind of like a golden window. Burns Potgita and Kepka Xander Shelf JJ Spawn Ram Shane Lowry Morau Sheffller absolutely golden time give us some amazing entertainment all the way late into the evening. Scotty Sheffller in the yellow working through some different shots. Lowry working the magic hands with those wedges. George, the most magic hands in golf. I’ve I’ve got I’ve got him um I’ve got him to play a wedge shot over my head, a little lob shot over my head, and I’ve actually never felt safer. I just stood right in front of him and just said, “Go on, we might as well have some fun here.” Well, as long as he hit you in the head, you’d be fine. Well, 2019, the Open returned to Royal Port Rush. It was a memorable day in the history of our great game. You know, some people say the greatest championship in the world. I think when you get your hands in the trophy and you actually start reading the names and how far it goes back and who’s won it, it’s literally all the greats. And it was getting to a stage where I just wanted to hold puts because the roar was just kind of it was it was almost entertaining for me, you know, to hear the roar. And then when you see the emotion I show after holding that put, that was it. Like that was the tournament over at that stage. I think it’s because of where I’m from. That’s how we celebrate things. To be able to bring joy to so many people. The history of the trophy. What an incredible trophy. And for me to have that on my mantle piece in the house. I walk in some mornings and it’s hard to believe, you know. Welcome along to the open. It’s everything you wanted and more. Fantastic. Absolutely brilliant. Quite an extraordinary day on the tea. Yeah, she was staring this one down and for good reason. Look at this. Just delightfully done. She’s on top of the world. Going directly at the hole. Tell you what, of course. Oh, get in there. There’s something about the AIG Women’s Open. Oh my goodness. We are live at the range. It is coming up for 3:00 on the 18th of July, which reminds me, happy birthday, Sir Nick Faldo. Open champion, masters champion. Um, great news if you are a Bryson Dashamberg fan because he has just gone to six underpar birding 16 for the day. Back to one overpar. Wow. The cut we think George it looks like one over par. It’s kind of hopping around a little bit but Victor Hovland. Ah, Victor’s fallen back. There’s some great scores out there. There is the defending champion getting himself ready. We do have in our weather, not that it makes any difference, it’s really more to amuse us than any sort of accuracy, a prediction that rain is on its way. We don’t know, but it does say that really from about nowish till about 6:30 we should have rain. That grand stand has been absolutely jam-packed. Most of the players now watching the marquee groups. Most of the gallery watching the marquee groups. Kepka just gone. Cha Spawn and Ram two go in 9 minutes and then following them Larry Morawa Sheffller. Enjoy that. Oh, those are dark clouds. George Harper Jr. I’ll tell you what, we haven’t had a day. Three autumns. Three Three every three seasons in every day so far. What? You skipping summer? Yeah, I’ve skipped summer. Haven’t had any of it. on Sunday when we’re on the range. It was lovely. Oh, wow. When we first got here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, when But when the tournament starts, it seems to seems to flex its muscles pretty damn quick. How does the weather know to do that? Is it Does it know where the open is? It just knows that this is all about the test of the elements. You know, forged by nature, right? They’ve got to keep us on the on our toes. Okay. Couldn’t I forgive and sunny? Anyway, the driving range, the players tuning up. Who do we see still to go? Cory Connors, Windam Clark, Tom Hogi, Patrick Reed hasn’t gone yet. Nico Echavaria. We’re getting there, aren’t we? Quarter 6 quarter, I’m sorry. 1616 is the last tea time today. It looks pretty stormy. That is what we’ve heard. And we’ve just seen Xander Schoffé on the range. So this was him earlier in the week. Ladies and gentlemen, a very warm welcome to our defending champion golfer of the year, Xander Ch. Zambber. Good. How are you? What’s going on? Good to see you. Nice to see you. Good to see you as well. Now, you have sadly just had to hand back the clar jug this morning. That’s That’s correct. What are some of the emotions coming back on site at an open championship? Uh yeah, I mean, you know, with the venue changing, it feels uh a bit new, I guess. Um but yeah, bitter bittersweet to give it away. Uh definitely motivation to to try and hold it again for a year. Are some of the memories from last year flooding back to you? I know obviously it’s a different venue, but a lot of the buildout very similar and it’s the open championship. Yeah. Um, RNA does a great job with the buildout. It literally feels the exact same, just sort of twisted a different direction. So, a lot of a lot of similar feels, a lot of similar familiar faces. Um, and yeah, just really I remember last time I was here, I enjoyed playing the course a lot. So, looking forward to sort of relearning it and uh preparing for the week. Uh well, in terms of some of those familiar feels and memories, we’re going to show you a few highlights from your final round last year at Royal Trune. Uh it was low round of the tournament. It was a 65 bogey free to get it just bump up the hill. Talk us through this. Yeah, this was a a bad spot and um you know when you’re trying to win a tournament, you have to sort of get away with certain things and one of those where you sort of get guess how it’s going to come out and it came out perfect. Uh at the turn, this was again another little save for you. Yeah, this was actually not not a terrible place to leave it. Nine’s a a really brutal brutal hole and um when you walk away with a four, you’re you’re you’re ecstatic. I mentioned it was a bogey 365. This on 11 kicked off a stretch of four birdies in six holes. Yeah, it just it feels, you know, looking back on it just feels like a little bit of luck, you know, to to hit a pitching wedge. Yeah. I mean, to hit a pitching wedge to three feet on 11, um you’re trying to walk out of there with four, maybe five and feel good about it. And then this was the moment down 18. What were some of the the emotions that you were feeling at this point? Just hit the green. Um, you know, there’s there’s some some deadly bunkers around this around this hole and my goal was just to hit the green. You know, luckily it was it was downwind and there’s no better hole to to have a two- shot lead on hitting iron off a tea. Uh, so an incredible walk down 18. Uh, really cool to share that with Austin and yeah, it’s uh it’s the best walk in golf. Now, this was your second major victory and second major in that calendar year. The first one being PGA at Valhalla. What did that first major give you that perhaps you utilized here in the final round? Just a lot of confidence. You know, I feel I I kept saying just just give me a chance, you know, just sort of this newfound belief um clipping the first one at Valhalla and um my goal was to just get myself in contention. So, Saturday was a really big day for for us and put myself in in a good spot and uh was able to to pull through on on this Sunday. Just in terms of that first major giving you a lot of confidence to do what you did here 12 months ago. Obviously as fans and in the media we talk about lot a lot about what the players do and you know what you’re winning or not winning and where your game is at. But for you personally how does that feel and how does that story or narrative feel to just get that weight off of your shoulders and to to move forwards? Yeah, it was it was incredible. Um, you know, definitely some whispers I heard of of of being close often and not getting over the hump. So, just a big monkey off my back and um, you know, the the the hope is to, you know, it’ll free myself up moving forward in in future majors. Um, since then, you had a little bit of an injury over the winter, but you’ve been building yourself back up. Last week, top 10 finish. Where’s the game at now? How’s it feeling? Yeah, I I’ve been trying hard to to get back, you know, um, pretty pretty humbling uh, experience there. Sort of my first injury. Uh, a lot of firsts, uh, you know, first first couple majors and first injury. Um, you know, I was sort of felt like I was on on cloud nine for a little bit and then, uh, got struck off of it. So, been trying to find my my way back up to to the top of the mountain. Yes. Uh, well, hopefully what we’re about to do with you will kickstart that climb up the mountain. You’re halfway there. We’re just going to help you to summit hopefully. Um, we’ve got our Shane Lowry challenge that we’d love for you to take on. So, back in 2019, he’s walking up 18 with a two- shot victory, two shot lead. Um, and he had 175 yards into that final green. Okay, this is the shot here that we have recreated on our mat. Now, you’re used to a bit of simulator technology, um, having played in TGL, but with our platform golf mat, we’ve got it. It was a little bit below his feet, the ball, it was uphill to the pin. Okay, so we’ve got that here. All right. Uh, and we’ve also got our Causeway Giants Causeway Stones there, which is where the pin was. Um, so nearest is off the top of my memory, I think it was 15 yards to beat. Okay. 15.1 yards. I’m hearing 45 ft. Um, yeah, like I said, winds down off the right, 175 nearest to on the spot. Haven’t even swung a club today. Wish me luck. Um, but do you feel nah? I feel like you look like fairly flexible. You’d be fine. Yeah, right. You know, just talking about how I was just injured and here I am swinging ice cold. But you’re an athlete at the peak of his game. Yeah, we’ll just won’t even use a glove. All right. I mean, feel free to have a few stretches. Don’t let me No worries. I don’t want to keep everyone waiting here. Uh, so is this normalized? Uh, yes it is normalized. You know what? I’m gonna club up here, ladies and gentlemen. Okay. Play it safe. 175. What have you got? I have a seven iron now. Okay. Okay. I’m feeling this for you. Are you? Yeah. I’m not feeling very good about this to be completely honest. One of us is. 175. Oh, Xander. Catch a break. Okay. Got some to find out. Pretty good for me. 10.5 yards. You are the current leader. We’ve got our replay in coming here just so that you can embody this flight. Absolutely cold. First shot of the day. It was. Yeah. It looks like I’m done warming up. Exactly. You don’t need to hit the range now. It’s overrated. Here we go. Look at that. All right, that was good. Taking it. What is your uh current swing thought? That’s a dark hole you don’t want to crawl into there. Got a few going. Just one. Um the top one. Do you actually have a few on the go? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, come on. Give me the full what’s going Oh, it’s I’ve been working a lot with Chris Como and um my swing used to be sort of shut really shut and laid off and uh for you know a year or two I was pushing getting the club more online and this year when I came back from injury for some reason it was short and really across. So for the last you know month we’ve been trying to get it back to being more laid off which is a horrendous feeling. Is it? Yeah. So that looked all right. Well that was looking good. Yeah. working well. Um, last year I seem to remember that you played a practice round, big money match with JT. Similar plans this year. Is that like a good luck thing that you’re going to keep going? Uh, we actually spoke about it. Uh, it’s been a while since um since we played played a match, but um yeah, I think I’m I’m going to go out this afternoon around 1, maybe play, you know, 18 hopefully hopefully nine and see how I feel. But, uh, yeah, um, I need to warm up before I play any money matches. No, no, you don’t. Not from what we’ve seen. Xander, thank you so much for joining us and very best of luck this week. We’ll give you a final chance to say goodbye to the clar jug for now. Not touching it yet. No. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks. Welcome to the HSBC Golf Zone. It wouldn’t be an open championship without hanging out with these two sporting legends, Tim Heman, Brian O’Driscoll. Boys, always a pleasure. We’re celebrating the 160th anniversary for HSBC. You boys are almost clocking up 160 years. He’s close. He’s close. He’s a few on me. I think this is 11 for me. Few more. You’re you’re stretching. Yeah. 15 at the Open. Um but Midland Bank sponsor me when I started playing tennis. So I I think I’ve been with him for 30 years now. I’m hanging in there. And the Open doesn’t get old, does it? Especially for you, mate. Uh on the island here. It must be pretty special to be back in Port Rush. It’s so good. It really is. Um, like I’ve been lucky enough to play up here the la twice in the last kind of couple of months and this is a course that just gets better every time you play it. It is a spectacular. I think it’s the best on our island and um it’s so good to have the open back over here and the crowds are great again and the weather is we’ve it’s only three seasons today and we haven’t had the full four. Um but it’s what you expect at at Open Championships what almost what you need because of how good these golfers are that they have that capacity to tear it up. So when the wind does come in sideways, we do kind of breathe a little bit of a sigh of relief as well. Go, welcome to Ireland. How annoying is it for you this week? Because we can’t go far without this guy getting dragged around with his home fans. I remember 2019 was an absolute experience. Yeah, it’s it’s pretty busy following this man around here. But uh no, I mean it’s amazing that it was six years ago. You know, the time has just flown by, but I think on the you know, back of that with Shane Lowry winning, it was such an amazing time and atmosphere here. So to be back at Port Rush is uh is really special. Very good. Well, speaking of winning, I want to see who wins out of you two cuz it’s 160th anniversary. We’re going to do a 160 yard challenge. Closest to the pin. Uh, heads or tails, Brian? Um, heads. It is a head. Correct. You go first. Well done. Thank you. All right. So, three first win of the day. Three balls each. We’re on Calamity. One of the most famous holes in the world now. It’s getting a lot of headlines this week. So, B O uh on the eve of a Lions test. We need some sort of form to inspire. Oh, it’s a lovely swing. It’s a lovely start. That is that is a great shot. Oh, that is a banker. 12 ft. Okay. Yeah. Almost just hang it up. Okay, here we go. Early pressure on Tim. That’s a seriously good swing. That was uh There we go. That’s more like it. We say blind squirrels find nuts once in a while and that was Brian I think finding one. How’s your golf game, Tim? Uh rusty I think on the back of French Open and when will I played I played once actually with uh a nice group after Queens um after the HSBC championships with Alcarz, Juan Carlos Ferrerero, Andy Murray, Leighton Huitt. Yeah, we had a we had a nice game at Beaverbrook. So, all right. That’s a serious You’ll take the first one. 12 ft. It’s a serious four ball, right? 12 ft. Tough challenge to ask. Oh, happy with that, Bri. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, always good. Good set. Good good settler early on. He gets twitchy first up. Okay, it’s not bad. Silky smooth. There’s something to work with there. That is short, though. It’s nice. That’s nice. That’s a good banker. He’s into it, but it’s not good enough, is it? So, he’s into it. 27. So, you just need to take 15 ft off that. You’re good enough. Honors M. How did you go when you played Calamity in uh I made one of I I’d say one of the best parts of my life because I was down no spin. I was down the very bottom of the gully and I got up and down. Oh wow. Honestly, like life-changing part. Life changing part. That is an alltime part. It was It wasn’t quite Matt Fitzpatrick yesterday with the with the in at the on the full, but it was um Yeah. What a hole. All right, last chance. Good looking swing. Needs to hold on. No. No. Calamity. It’s gone. Oh, that’s 22 20 21 ft. Well done. Well done. Good early challenge, boys. Very good, Brian. Good to see you. Look, um Timmy, hard luck, mate. Uh but look, way to go. Look, it’d be remiss not to talk about uh hopefully a victory in the weekend for you guys. The Lions back in action in Australia. How pumped up are you for that? I’m surprised you’re here to be honest, mate. Yeah. No, head out on Tuesday for second and third test. I you know, it’s it’s funny. It’s it’s been one of those tours where it kind of feels it hasn’t properly ignited yet, but that some that will all change Saturday morning and everyone will be dialed in for it. Um the squad looks good. You know, there’s very few contentious decisions. I think if you’re a Welsh, you’d be disappointed not to see Jack Morgan in there. But other than that, I think it’s a it’s a good Lions team and then it’s just a matter of whether they can get the the quality um kind of possession and and and game that they’ve been showing over the course of the last few weeks to to put it to Australia. Nice. Well, as a New Zealander, I actually always get quite scared talking about Lions with you. I remember last time we nearly got in a bit of a scrap here in 2019, but I remember that. and Tim, couple of good weeks at Wimbledon. Pretty special that that last month as well. Yeah, it was. Yeah, it’s been uh and I think it was it was a good tournament. I don’t think there were um necessarily the best matches. Obviously, the men’s final was what everyone wanted to see on the back of Roland Garos. Um you know, the women’s final was tough. I think we all felt for Anisim over I was there for that 57 minutes. Were you? Wow. No, it didn’t. No, the doubles final was good before with um Glass Ball and Cash winning uh the title. So look, no it was it was a good chance and uh yeah it’s busy summer of sport. Nice. Well, the sport continues here, Jens. Thank you very much for your time celebrating the 160th here for HSBC. See you next year. Hopefully, please. I’d love to come back. Yeah, huge activation by HSBC. One of the key kind of steel strand sponsors that we’ve got here. George out with two legends, Tim Henman, Brian O’Driscoll. The weather has absolutely changed. So, we are anticipating some rain coming in. That’s disappointing for the afternoon starters, but great news really for Bryson Dashambo fans. I can tell you he has really put together a very, very strong return. Just finishing off on the 18th green as we speak. He has shot six under par. hopefully makes a par on the last and he gets to one over par there you can see Brian Harmon 65 eight underpar leading Lee just getting started Raasmus fantastic from him great news for Tier Hatton fans great news indeed for Bobby Mack fans what a great round from him congratulations links specialist Matthew Jordan Matt Fitzpatrick renewed with the excellent advice from Mark Blackburn, Feno, Harris English, and we think Keegan Bradley must play for the US team if they’re going to have their strongest performance. He continues to shine. Let’s just remind you of the beauty of Royal Port Rush and join Inc mett as she highlighted some of the keyholes out on the golf course. This is the best seat. And you’re about to get the best view. Come on then. Time to go to work. So this is the opening hole at Royal Port Rush. A relatively short hole, in fact. But most players will keep the driver in the bag and instead pull out the long iron to take these two fairway bunkers out of play. Now you’ve got internal out of bounds on either side of the hole, making it feel quite claustrophobic. Back in 2019, we had home favorite Rory Moy with the nation’s hopes upon his shoulders, and this is what happened next. Don’t tell me on the wrong side of the white line. Even the best get nervous. Even if you do hit the perfect T-shot, the difficulty doesn’t end there. With the second shot to approaching this green uphill without being able to see the putting surface, the majority of it does slope back to front. But this first third is a false front. Pitching there, you could end up at least 50 yards away, if not in that bunker, short left. Alternatively, some players might try and favor the right hand side to play a little bit safe, but then you overcook it. You’re going to leave yourself an absolute stinker down the hill, making it a difficult up and down. Alternatively, on the left hand side, you’ve got another bunker there playing hide-and-seek pretty much, and you’ve got the rough long left, too. Trust me, you don’t want to be there because it’s going to feel like you’re chipping up and over a mountain. You make a four on this opening hole, you’re sprinting to the next tea. When you think of Lynx golf, you think about playing golf along the coast, which we are, of course, to a certain degree, but starting off with the fifth is probably when we get a real good view. And this being the most scenic stretch of the golf course. You’re standing on that elevated tea box with everything in front of you. Now, this is a drywall path forward, dog leg left to right. Some players will opt to play the long iron down the left corner. Others will absolutely be tempted to take on this drivable par4 at just under 400 yards. It might be a driver or a fairway metal depending on that wind direction and strength of course. But they have to make a calculated decision because if you go for this anything along you’ve got the out of bounds where chaos truly meets beauty and probably the world’s biggest water hazard. Now, this is the most exposed part of the golf course where the nature and the elements of nature will truly show its teeth. But up next, you’ve got the path 3. You’ve got the instant change of direction. You can hear the waves crashing out on this corner. Don’t get distracted by these views because you’ve got that coming up next. And that looks like it’s got my name on it. Now, that is some path three. Par 57th visually is one of the more dramatic holes cuts amongst the dunes, especially with that one all the way down the right towering over you. And when you’re standing on that tea box, it really feels like it’s you against the golf course and you’ve got these two fairway bunkers staring right back at you. Starting off with this one on the right hand side could be in play of course win dependent but ahead of the open in 2019 they made a couple of changes and this is one of two holes where they did just that putting in that tiny bunker in the left corner. Despite only being so small it will catch a fair few players out and depending on your positioning it will determine whether or not you can take on this par five in two or not. The fairway snakes all the way gradually uphill. It will present some eagle opportunities if not birdies. Anything slightly weward you could get punished. Undulations a classic feature when it comes to links golf courses and they have their pros and cons. You can definitely use them to your advantage. We’re on the tent happens to be called the Himalayas and this is a great example where you could hit the perfect T-shot and everything is spruced into place. Alternatively, you could hit an absolute pearler and just get an unlucky bounce and end up in no man’s land. But that’s the beauty of this game and the stage that Royal Port Rush presents itself. Alternatively, you can get quite unlucky and get varied lies. Here’s a great example where the ball is below my feet and imagine I’m standing over this with the wind howling from the left. Not only is it going to test my skill set, but also my balance and everything else that comes with it. That’s that’s not easy for sure. Anyway, the green over here is one of the most undulating one yet. Let’s go have a look. Racer, come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. No, that’s not fair. You’ve got four wings and I’ve only got two legs. Anyway, tent is a great example of how everything valleys in and you could definitely use it to your advantage. But the beautiful thing about the open and how it sets itself apart from all the other tournaments and championships is that you can have a particular lie. You can put five different clubs in someone’s hand and there can be a multitude of ways you can pull it off. Yes, sometimes the result might be good, other times it might not. You can use the ground, you can take it out of play. Say this back flag, pitch it about there. That’s going to ride in. Alternatively, pitch it in the same spot, maybe with a bit of height. I mean, ideally, I really wanted that to come back just to show you the severity of it, but even that, that’s not a good place to miss. There’s a reason why I’m not a runner, right? Imagine if you were about to hit this t-shirt. That’s it. From that tea box to this green. Respectfully, I think the majority of us would genuinely struggle to reach this green, especially if it’s howling wind into. From 236 yards, and it only gets from bad to worse because there’s no place truly to lay up. Anything just short or right at this green, you get swallowed up by this steep chasm. And even for demonstration purposes, with all due respect, I’m not going to go down there because I think if I go down there, I’m not making it back up. But here’s a little history lesson for you guys. Back in 1951, Bobby Lock. He actually was a smart man cuz he played it down the left. And to this day, they call this the Bobby Lock hollow. That was his safe slice. That’s where he could play from and see the whole green right in front of him. Trust me, from back there, this is a tiny target. This is the final test here at Royalport Rush. It’s a demanding T-shot with the out of bounds running all the way down the left. And on the flip side, you’ve got those googlyeyed bunkers staring right back at you. Now, if, and that’s an if, you can hit this intimidating fairway like Shane Larry did back in 2019 after he struck that second shot, realizing that this was his moment, walking down the fairway, taking in the energy and the atmosphere that the final hole presents, seeing his name up on that leaderboard and catching a glimmer of his family. He celebrated walking in between these two bunkers with both hands raised, realizing that this was his moment. Who will walk down this hole and become the 153rd champion golfer of the year? Welcome. come along to the open. It’s everything you wanted and more. That’s fantastic. Absolutely brilliant. Quite an extraordinary day. on the tea. Yeah, she was staring at this one down and for good reason. Look at this. Just delightfully done. She’s on top of the world. Going directly at the whole of course. Oh, get in there. There’s something about the AIG Women’s Open. Oh my goodness. I can confirm the appalling weather has started absolutely hosing it down. So for those who have just tucked in, Rory Maroy just about to finish. And those who are just started, it’s pretty ugly down there. Dye, you’re down there somewhere. Hopefully under an umbrella. What have you got for us? Old say I think I think Simon Pete’s hogging the umbrella a little bit. If you could just do that, that’d be great. I’ve got The umbrella is practically in the jug right now. Yeah, we’re not allowed to get the clar jug wet, so hence we’ve got the umbrella over the Oh my goodness. Literally in the last two minutes, it’s changed completely. It’s hammering it down. It’s gone really cold as well. We put our jackets on. The temperature has dropped. Can you feel the cold in the air? It is wild. I mean, this is what they mean about how changeable links weather can be. Yeah. Get the waterproof on really quickly. T-shirts were out literally two minutes ago and now we are counting. Can I just see is that Paul McDonald? Paul. There he is. Justin Rose’s agent looks after him. Look, he’s doing the hard graft, isn’t he? Yeah. Doing a great job there. Uh, keeping keeping the equipment dry. It’s horrible. It’s really horri and really difficult as well for everyone out on the golf course. Of course, we’re we’re by the clar jug and come Sunday, my goodness, will it be raining? We don’t know. It as we say, it changes every every two minutes here. But it’s absolutely brilliant to be so we are very close to it because trying not to get wet. But my goodness, this is a trophy steeped in history. So many prestigious names on it. We’ve got Shane Larry back in 2019 whose name is going to be on it. It’s going to be down here. There’s there’s quite what happens when it runs out of room. By the way, I think they just add another ring. Yeah, I thought they did. In about 50 years, it’s going to be above our head level. Have you hear that? That’s horrible. It’s awful. But I’m feeling quite cheery. Welcome to Link’s Golf, everybody. This is it. This is hilarious. This is the one they all want to win. Do you know? Do you know who will be so pleased? Brian Arman. He’s in the clubhouse. He’s eight under par. He shot a round of 65 today. Six under for the day. My goodness. That is a brilliant score. It is. And like he seems to be a bit of a link specialist. Weirdly enough, that is the first 65 uh or lower he shot since the open at Royal Liverpool. I’m feeling it. I’m feeling it. Which is quite a surprise. I mean, he’s obviously a very good player, but over the last few years, it’s not like he set the world on fire. So he’s running into really good form just at the right time. Matt Fitzpatrick’s one and depart only female Henry English as well. But this is the scene. This is where we are. Can you just about see us? Make us out. It’s really tough. Do you know what? It’s really tough for cameramen to keep their lenses dry when they do a brilliant job in showing you pictures around the world because it’s it’s not easy. You’ve got to have octopus arms, haven’t you? Well, we’re going to we’re going to stay here and try. Are we? Well, we’re not moving because we’re we’re gonna get wet, Pete. So, we’re not going anywhere. But I want to listen to the man of the moment, Brian Harmon. Let’s hear from him. He’s spoken in his press conference about his brilliant round of 65. Can I have some more umbrella? When when tournaments come to Link’s courses, we like talking about the roll back ball or golf ball roll back. Yeah. Um, does it ever make you think when you play at a course like this, if tournaments were held at golf courses like this all the time? 100%. Yeah, that’s nail on the head there. It’s um, you know, I mean, we could we could talk all day about the golf ball. Um, you know, I I think I’m not going to say that we need to roll it back, but it’s it’s like the golf ball is so stable. It’s like the golf ball will accept speeds of up to 200 miles an hour and and that just hasn’t been the case. And so guys have kind of got that figured out and so they’re just way laying on it because they know that it’s not like the spin of the ball doesn’t go up with speed like it did when I was a kid. Does it ever make you think though when if every I know it’s unrealistic, but if every tournament that you play in was at a course like this, there’d be any talk of a golf ball roll back at all? No, I I I don’t I don’t I I think that anytime that you can play at a place where the further the ball misses from the middle of the fairway, the worse off you are. If if that held at every tournament that we played, then we wouldn’t be having a conversation at all. Number two, please. Brian, you you waited a long time to to win a major. When you when you won the opening Hate, how much did that change you as a person, as a as a as a competitor? Did it make you more relaxed or more hungry to win more? Yeah, I mean I I I think I was quoted afterwards like, man, I’d spend the rest of my life trying to, you know, get in a position to feel this again because it is it’s the top of our profession, major championships. So, yeah, anytime you can get in contention, have a chance to win. I mean, that’s what we’ve all worked for our entire lives, and you know, you don’t get that many opportunities to do that. In the middle, please. Brian, how would you describe the way you’ve played the last two years since your victory at the Open? Um, you know, I’ve done okay. I feel like that I’ve, you know, before before 23, I’d elevated my game to a different place than where it had been previous in my career. And I’ve I’ve maintained there, maybe dropped off a little bit. I just haven’t I haven’t, you know, I haven’t sustained winning. you know, I’ve won this year, which was fantastic. Um, just and competed one other time, but just just really trying to get in contention a little bit more, trying to, you know, find whatever it is that that clicks it clicks it on because when it’s on, it’s really really good. I just trying to figure out a way to to make that happen a little bit more. And when you thought about where you might be able to win the second major, is the open the one that jumps out as like this is your place? Yeah, I love I love the golf over here. I mean, it’s it suits me, you know, it’s not, you know, distance of course matters over here, but it doesn’t matter as much as as maybe some other tournaments. And it doesn’t matter because the ground is so firm that the ball rolls. And there’s just there’s just a million different ways to to play over here. Um whereas at some other majors, you get you get kind of stuck into this. Well, I’m gonna swing as hard as I can off this T-ball and try to hit this seven iron as high as I possibly can and hope it stops. Bob, please. similar question, but after you won, did did you have any difficulty getting focused again or, you know, getting dialed in again to try to do it? And did did you sense any lulls in your game at all or or frustrations, you know, at at times like you would have before? I actually I actually think it’s made me probably more patient with myself just knowing that um that you’re capable of something like that. like you know it’s in there and it would be really easy to get you know when things aren’t going your way to get frustrated but you know it’s all just hey you know you start seeing some signs that things are going the right way and it’s like all right well here you know so it it um I actually think I’ve I’ve been pretty patient the last couple years without having you know the results that that maybe I should have had if that makes sense in the back then Brian how would you describe how you were treated at this tournament before you were the champion and then how big of a difference is when you’re walking through practice rounds, playing in rounds. How different is it now? Yeah, I mean they they have um incredible respect for the game. They’re the golf overall fan knowledge over here is is unbelievable. They all they all play. They they love the game and and being an open champion over here is really cool. I mean, they they know who you are. They have respect for you. Um, yeah, it’s, you know, like I said, I love coming over here. It’s, um, as far as golf, I mean, it’s as pure as it gets. I guess the respect factor, too, is what I wanted to get at is just the feeling of how much more people regard you here because it’s a different type of championship. Yeah. Yeah, but if you go back to August, you know, and you’re you’ve won you’ve won the Masters, they’re going to treat you differently than if you haven’t won one. I mean, that’s it would be the same at probably every major. But me personally, I I like like I said, I I love coming back here. I I love all these courses. They’re, you know, it’s a lot of fun to play over here. Fantastic to hear from Brian Harmon who was amazing in very similar conditions as we have now around Royal Holik. Now Peter Finch and Dy were complaining complaining that it was it doesn’t look too bad to me from here. George, I don’t think it’s you can all those special effects. I don’t think it looks so bad. Oh, looks fine. Yeah. Oh, take the lunch. Take the pack lunch and get out of here. Take it easy on those stairs, madam. Yeah. Yeah, that’s enough. Not nearly as bad as Dye and Pete were making out. I think Dy She Dy didn’t want to get her hair wet. She’s put a lot of effort into that look. Yeah. You see, it’s it’s not that bad. That’s fine. I’ve never I’ve never actually felt so smug being inside the commentary booth. I’ve been on the course literally all week, every minute. Yeah. No, you came in yesterday smelling like a wet dog. But anyway, there it is. Scan the QR code, get the open app, all sorts of nuggets in there, and you’re going to have keep an eye on that. Who makes the cut? Who’s going to have a good chance? Watch your favorite player. All sorts of navigations. That’s a very sensible place to be, young lady. It has It has rained a little bit. Okay. It’s not as bad as Dy said. It has We have had a little bit of rain there. You see, she can feed it. It’s not that bad. are intrepid spectators. 278,000 of them. That’s super impressive, isn’t it? Yeah. The open the open and the organization and the and the way that all of the gallery greet you. I mean, you as well being sort of like I wouldn’t say Hollywood, but whatever it is, just like celeb central. I saw you I saw you signing. I saw you stage that signing. I was I was going to be sick. I was thinking I wonder in my rucks sack if I have one of those little air sickness bags from the last plane trip that I was on. But I didn’t have one. I managed to hold it all together. George Harper, you have had a long way. So great views. Now that is Minion Cam. My That’s my favorite camera. Fortunately, he’s waterproof. the Minion. Um, it has just changed a little bit earlier today. Well, just Rory Maroy approached the driving range. Every single seat was at full capacity in there. And as he left, they left. Let’s have a look. Absolutely packed. all of the banks around the side 10 deep all to watch Rory Maroy his warm up earlier this morning. It’s pretty amazing. It’s as close to Tiger as we’ll get. He is really flying the flag for this game at the moment especially and obviously because it’s here in this part of the globe. It was interesting, George. Um, at the Masters this year when he came onto the driving range, the patrons stood up and applauded him, cheered. I’ve never heard that. So, yeah, a lot rides on his shoulders. He knows his role in promoting the game and he commits so much time to everyone like just watching him having to get around. Everyone wants a slice of him, whether it’s from the media or the fans. It’s so hard for him to get around and um I guess keep everyone appeased and he does so well. He’s so welcoming and yeah, it’s super impressive. It is. He went out with Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood. They were kind of all of them ho hum after day one. This was his warm up for day two. Just hit, you know, hit quite a lot of wedges. I thought maybe feels as though that’s one of the key clubs around this golf course to to open up those scoring opportunities. George, yeah, just proximity to the hole. I think if you look at a lot of the times where he’s fallen short, he’s relying on his putter to to bend putts from 15 20 ft too often. So like St. Andrews, you know, barely barely got a putt to drop there. So, he just needs to I guess when he does go green light, he needs to be super accurate and make the most of it, which I’m sure he will tidy up today. Yeah, it’s a very neat posture, isn’t it? Hands hanging a little closer to his to his thighs on these wedges now. Used to have his hands a bit more away from him. That kind of promotes more of a circular motion, maybe a bit more draw shape. the draw shape with a wedge kind of unwanted. You can lose a little bit of spin on that. Lose a bit of control of your yardage. So, something higher and softer. Those are his playing partners in the pink. Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood, bending down, setting up his training aid that he uses to keep himself on plane to make sure he can find exactly that direction where he’s trying to put the club head. The tendency is that he drops under it, hits to the right. What a great three ball. Three Three guys with a lot of rapport with the crowd as well, right George? Yeah. Yeah. JT, you you’d be immensely surprised with his little mini drop off over the past two seasons, but he’s starting to find his way back into form. But you’re right, like JT’s a big character over in the US. and Tommy Fleetwood. Wow, he is massively loved in this part of the world. He would be a great open champion and I’m sure he will be one day. He’s licking his lips because he loves Port Rush and then he’s got Burkeale as well after that which he naturally loves. That’s his backyard and then St. Andrews after that. So, three open venues which he has said is his arguably his favorite three. So if he gets on a heater, you never know. That little sorn off finish so recognizable of Tommy Fleetwood. The feeling of of really trying to keep that that same angle all the way through. Here is the firework show. So JT just clipping a few wedges. You can kind of see his ball speed and carry kind of match up. We kind of expect that with a sandwiched kind of that 1 one ratio. Tommy is probably hitting his eight iron. You can see Rory the higher of the flights. Rory 1858 iron. Fascinating to see. You know, they’re all going off at the same time and they’re all at slightly different stages of their of their warm up. Yeah, that is interesting. Rory was Rory was quick yesterday. He didn’t arrive with on the range within too much time. Yeah, we will remind you that this was earlier footage. And once he got to his driver, that’s when I rocked up to have a quick quick little look. And wow, it pops off the club face. It is so good to watch. He was playing a few big draws and arguably some of them were a bit too big. So just needs to straighten it out ever so slightly. Michael Bannon directly behind the line. His coach since he was 2 years old and he just made it fun. Never really taught him anything. Just made it fun. Went on the course, played lots of games, kept up the young Maroyy’s interest. and now reaping the rewards of his earlier genius. Maroy the footwork stable. Yeah, it was it was quite mild at this time of the morning. Everyone relaxed. Talked to a couple of punters in the crowd. Having a great time. Few Irish coffees at 9:30. Yeah. Wow. That’s strong. That is It’s punchy. It is punchy. Ludvig Arberg right behind him. And it was all eyes on Rory Maroy. Victor Hovland hoping for a good day today as well. Working with Grant Weight, which I think is going to be a great combination. New Zealander. Yes. And a very good ball striker on his day. very good ball striker. Alarming for me. I used to coach Grant Wait. Oh my Giddy. That is really pretty alarming. So So what were some of your challenges at an open in coaching Simon as because you got to coach them all year round, but how hard is it to adjust and change their technique, change their change their processes ever so slightly for Link Golf? Yeah, it was interesting. I I had a couple of opens training Nick Faldo. I thought that’s probably where I learned the most as a coach. And we used to have a run which is different now. We used to have an Irish Open down in the south, the Scottish Open and then you used to play the Open and those players would all play those three events. So, um it was fascinating to see like first of all to understand the task, right? So, you had to really control your ball flight, the speed, the compression. So, so we we used to do games of okay, here’s your seven iron number. Now, practice 30 balls hitting with your five iron. Right? Here’s your six iron number. Practice with your four iron. So, just to know that we were going to hit a lot of shots where you have a lot of knockdowns, right? Um the ball didn’t used to shoot up as much. It was a case of getting the spin and then it was a game very much still with wooden drivers of okay, if you drive it out of play or miss the sweet spot, it’s a foul ball. So, it was so much a case of, okay, do not swing faster, right, than you if you’re going to if don’t swing any faster and miss the sweet spot. So, missing the sweet spot was the goal and playing your second shot from the fairway was the goal. That was Rory Maroyy’s first round. Um, he missed a short putt on the first, but that was much better than 2019 instant back on the par five. And it all started to look pretty good. Three under through 10. Couple of looser shots. The weather kind of turned on it a hair. Rory looking down at his numbers versus the numbers on our massive scoreboard which have been lit up by Top Tracer. So, we’ve been able to bring you all of the technological advances so that you, the viewer at home, have the same value points as the players are working on as they’re trying to figure out how does the cold, wet air impact their carry numbers. Those are Rory Maroyy’s titles, his major titles. The US Open at Congressional, we were not surprised. It continued in the darkness PGA championship the open and we thought this is all going great in the same year the PGA championship we used to be played after the open and then the long long wait the agony George we were not expecting that it’s it’s tough like it’s so hard to explain or so hard to even for it to become real that we had to wait that long for one of golf’s gener generational talents and he teased and teased and teased us. Very hard to support as one of your favorite golfers because he plays so much good golf and he just couldn’t find a way to get over the line all those years. So what the masters this year mate wasn’t like a no sweat hoham event. It I I was physically ill. Yeah, it was it was horrific. It was um it was his whole career. Think of all the rounds of golf he’s ever played, all the challenges, all the tough times. It was all in one round of golf. 19 stressful holes. You look back at the Masters and you look at the he found both bunkers straight away in that final round. holds one and two and then birdies three and then on seven he’s way left and hits the shot over the trees to two three feet. Just a glorious shot for the highlights reel and just kept finding ways to get in trouble and then he’d be back and hit the best shots you’ve ever seen. Mindblowing. Mindblowing. And Justin Rose was so appropriate in the way that he behaved during what must have been a very heartbreaking experience for him. Respecting so much the history of the game. Respecting so much Rory’s Rory’s climbing of Mount Everest. There is Grant Weight. There he is watching Vikita Hoffland. There is Maroy hitting four iron. I guess for Rosie it’s he was so far back for so long to then deliver such a grand stand finish. Winning the green jacket was probably only realistic sort of on the back nine or quite late in the piece. So he didn’t have the emotional drainage and everything. He was just spritly and happy to be in the playoff. I think I think everyone was thinking Bryson Maroy match play. I think that’s what people thought and Bryson didn’t get his agame going. So, let’s have a look at the Maroy swing. It’s just the jump of the hips. So, Rory Maroy maybe looking for a T there thinking this is just a T-shot. So imagine there is a line through Rory’s like draw a line in your eyes through Rory’s pelvis there. Here we go. This is even better. And now watch the kind of the little down and up the kick. So it starts early in the back swing down and up. That little jump that you see that is his kind of superpower as he goes from lateral through rotational straight into vertical. Those are all of the dynamic forces that you need to get in that sequence. The start of the down swing is lateral. you push off from right to left. Then you have rotational as the belt buckle continues to turn around. So it’s going doesn’t aim at the ball when you hit it. It aims far around the corner and then post up through that left leg. Watch his left side and that left leg kick and jump there. That little bounce down. You see the left knee compress. take the force of the lateral shift, the drop of the pelvis, and then he pushes up all the way through that left leg. All of his body weight, and that keeps that face square through the ball. Simon, what’s it like in terms of players picking their driving range spots, picking their locations, because if you’re warming up next to Rory, like I was watching a few other golfers alongside him. Even Victor Hovland looked so so and he’s one of our great golfers and he was pumping his driver. But then when Rory pulls out his it’s it just looks, sounds, feels different. What’s it like as other golfers to rock up next to him and try and not watch his ball flight and focus on your own drills? I think it feels as though you’re there’s a feeling of inadequacy, right? And so when Tiger used to come on the driving range, people used to stop and watch him hit and there was this realization from everyone else in the field. You know, Tiger came onto the driving range and what he expected to have happen was that he was going to win. Yeah. That’s what he expected, right? And everyone else hoped, no, some of them hoped they would win and others knew they would have no chance, right? And so there’s a massive psychological difference between going out there hoping you’re going to win and and expecting you’re going to win. Like that was one of Tiger’s real strategic um sort of traits was he was intimidating, right? He was absolutely intimidating. to Maroy soft of hands folding the release of the hips all in amazing sequence. Does he have it today? I don’t think he will have been pleased with the way he hit T-shots yesterday. George, you were out and about scraping around in the in the heavy fescue grass like a like a little weasel or something like that yesterday with your microphone on. looking for balls. It’s embarrassing really. Anyway, so Marroy has to drive it better though today. I’m sure he will. That’s the driver. Couldn’t be happier to be right next to you now though, Simon, in the comfort of the commentary box. No, this is I’m thinking here we go. So, dream team anyway. Something like that. So Ludvig in the back, brisk, elegant, delightful. Maroy, fluid, dynamic, explosive. Watch this. Front leg takes the pressure. It drops and rises. What I always get impressed by is how still they are after the shot, the follow through. The balance. Yeah. It’s cuz it’s not difficult for them to do it because it’s like walking. Yeah. Whereas if we try and grip it and rip it all of a sudden, it’s it’s a a very damaged Scotty Sheffler type vibe. I’d need my nurse. Anyway, this is the Maroy. I am I think the fairway iron, two iron, the hands soft in Maroy swing. The hands only hold the club just light. Four out of 10. Six out of 10. six. Yeah, it’s pa tiger. As we used to say, four out of 10 for the pter, didn’t he? Yeah, there’s Victor grinding away. Victor with a new swing and new hope and hopefully a part of our RDER Cup team led by that man, the first man in the team after his victory at Augusta. his next goal on his list after this to win the RDER Cup in America. Yeah, that would be huge. And it does feel like the RDER Cup has certainly balanced out a little bit in the last two or three years. Maroy 3wood off the tea just cruising it out there. That is his advantage. PJ tour average with a driver is 173 mph ball speed. Maroy just clipping a few away with his 3-wood. 179. He’s checking the numbers. Just getting a feel trying to find out how much will this heavy wind impact the carry numbers. How will he have to calibrate it? Those are the things he and his caddy Harry Diamond will have to work out. Must be nice to just clip a little 3-wood at 320, mustn’t it? Wow. Um George 320. Not many golfers Not many golfers have driven that green at the back of the range. Not many at all. 136 ft of ape with nearly an 8second hang time. That hang time’s almost as much as his driver as well. That is just Look at it. That is a long time off the deck. Here we go. I mean, it looks easy, doesn’t it? That’s more of the stinger. That’s not much curve. Yeah, I think with his driver, it was similar this morning. That’s sort of the trouble shot at the moment for mine. Maroy must be now picking a hole coming from behind. He’s looking at the same numbers. This is the fade. See him just kind of working maybe holding it up. Yeah. Starting to Let’s put him out. Let’s put him on the first hole and see. Okay. I think that was exactly the shape that he wanted. Our aiming line not quite matched up to Rory’s, but that that was definitely the shot that he wanted to hit. Just a little cheeky fade. 306. You can see you can see later in the range session being far more deliberate with each shot, slowly getting in the zone, taking his time and picking targets now. Yeah. Is it appropriate to call this the big dog? Absolutely. Roar. Yeah. Simon, closest to the pin. What’s this first drive going? How far carry? I’m going to say 335. Oh, I was going to say 330. Okay. You Do you want to have the You can have the plus minus on it. I’ll go I’ll go plus. I’m I’m going the other way. I feel like he’s in the zone. 335. It’s just No. 330. You carry. Do you go carry or total? Oh, I’m I’m total by the looks of that. Bang on though, Simon. A good a good over or under. It’s amazing, isn’t it? You probably you’ve already watched this if it was earlier today, haven’t you? You cook in the books. I can’t say either of mine like a goldfish. I don’t remember anything. 191 334 just hovering at 191. That is easy as you like. Yeah. And they were captivated. They They came only to watch one man and when he left they left. It’s actually amazing. We’ve been out on the grounds. We’ve been catching up with as many fans as we can and especially global fans. HSBC is really shown how the game of golf and is so global and it was amazing how many Irish were here. Like they must have got such a lion share of the tickets. Like it was it was at times it was challenging to find someone without an Irish accent. You know what? And they’re noisy as well. They’re great. They’re and they’re ed and they’re and they’re great fans. So there we go. The best results at the Open obviously the win at Hoy Lake and then Carni second heartbreak I would say in 2022 at St. Andrews. I think he’s got to feel like that he gave that away. I can’t stress the the heartbreak for him at that moment. I was there behind the scenes as he came off the green and through the media and he just burst into tears. It was it was tough to watch. There it is. Five to four. Rolex, one of our amazing sponsors. Another heartbeat of golf. Two soggy flags. But it looks as though the rain has stopped. Here are the longest carries. Now Rory Maroy at 347 is going to be fairly um what is polite to say annoyed. Oh he’s fuming that he’s sitting in third place. He’s on the podium but Aldrich Potgita we met him on Sunday he to couple of 200 ball speeds I mean like 375 carry Nikolai Hoyard and his brother absolute beasts as well. Then the fluid movement, the controlled explosion, the ground to ground missile that is Rory Maroy 347. And then pick your favorite. Podrick Harrington’s 52 years old. He’s not supposed to be able to do that. 330 Xander Shelf, slightly built, similar to Rory. Silky smooth, incredibly explosive. So, did you see the good the footage overnight of Bryson Dash to Shambo vers Richard Teta in a long driving comp? I’m not sure you saw that, but find it somewhere in your feed. It was very entertaining. Big Bryson doing a long drive contest with Estonia’s first ever competitor at the Open. As we look through the leaderboard, Brian Harmon flying once again at the top. But these guys were literally putting their backs out. And it was so cool to see such a big character with arguably one of the smallest and skinniest characters. And Richard Ted got a 369 370ish and Bryson was 388. Fantastic. Well, um there is your leaderboard. It is stacked. You’re going to have an amazing rest of the day, an amazing weekend. Superb to see all of these names climbing up to the top of the leaderboard. It is going to be another epic open championship. So, let’s head down sadly indeed for the final time to Dy Stewart and Peter Finch. Thank you, Simon. You’ve done a brilliant job in the box with George Harper Jr. 160th anniversary of HSBC. We’ve been doing the 160 challenge all week. Pottery Carrington right at the top of that leaderboard. Carried 160 exactly on his first attempt. We’re here with the Clar Jug. And my goodness, Pete, the weather has changed. It’s now the sun looks like it’s coming out. The the rain has stopped. But we’ve been looking at these amazing names on the Claret Jug. Oh, Nick Faldo, Greg Norman, Nick Price, John Daly. Uh, and at the front we’ve got Shane Lowry, Xander Cha right at the front and names will go here. I love I love the fact how they started it up here as well. They started it on on the lip of the jug. Yeah. And then it comes all the way down a couple of the sides and then these were added a little bit later when it was established that oh, people might want to play for this every year. Possibly. Your favorite open ever? I’d say for me 2000 Tiger Woods at St. Andrews. I mean it was such a for me growing up idolizing Tiger monumental victory some of the best shots I can just vividly remember. Yeah. Yeah. That for me that was my favorite. Absolutely brilliant. Who’s going to win the open championship? You’ve seen all the action on Live at the Range over the last few days. It’s Friday. Prediction for Sunday. Oh, I mean I picked John Ram start the day start the tournament. I am going to stick with that. I’m not sure how he started off the second round. Other than him, I think Terrell looks really good. He’s put in fantastic. Those are your predictions. I’m going for Matt Fitzpatrick. He’s six under par at the moment. Pete, it’s been great. I’ve loved it. Thank you to everyone who’s been involved at Live at the Range. Brilliant crew. Such hard work goes into it. Who’s going to lift this clar jug on Sunday evening? The greatest and oldest golf championship in the world. We’ll see you next year. Good evening.