‘The world’s hardest patience test’ Pros gear up for Pinehurst showdown | Seen & Heard at U.S. Open

With play looming, the stars continue to prepare for the tough U.S. Open test ahead of them.

Our Seen & Heard crew caught up with everyone from PGA Champ Xander Schauffele to high school biology teacher Colin Prater gearing up to make their U.S. Open mark.

Tune in and get ready for the 3rd major of the year.
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Wednesday we spent chunk of this morning talking with the last guys who made it into the field US Open qualifiers we had a biology teacher we had uh a familiar face someone you know and also a crowd favorite involved in that then we spent a little bit of time out getting the download on The Wire Grass um and all the craziness happening in the rough out here this week and finally we caught up with the Heavy Hitters the guys that everybody wants to see the guys who we think are going to be in contention come Sunday afternoon one of them is standing about 15 ft away from me here Xander shafley rigning PGA champ he’s one of the last guys on the Range US Open Wednesday in the books Thursday coming up tomorrow Lots coming for [Music] golf.com cool thing about this event is uh you know it’s probably the most democratic of um all the majors you you start with this massive pool of qualifiers or hopefuls uh there’s about 10,000 players who attempt to qualify for the US Open you know a lot of those players are familiar names a guy like Matt coocher uh Daniel Berger Pros who’ve been out here for years but then you have a guys like Colin Prader he’s a uh high school biology teacher from Colorado 29 years years old playing his first US Open spend a little time with him yesterday after his practice round we caught him by the uh by the 18th green and uh heard a little bit more about his to on vacation but are your uh students I assume a lot of them are aware that you’re playing in the US Open this week yeah I mean I don’t know how many of my like my current students but it was really really neat to to listen and hear from a lot of my former students uh that are bring maybe now in college or just got out of college so that’s that’s really cool to see those that I’ve inspired those kids you bring golf into the classroom at all yeah I think my kids probably get sick and tired of hearing about it um but yeah there’s obviously examples I love to use Sports I’m a big Sports guy big Bronco fan proof for the nuggets the ABS that sort of thing so trying to make it fun and light but at the same time too allow kids the opportunity to make their own connections I think that’s the most important part is fostering their passion their interest so giving them the freedom [Music] John ROM no longer in this tournament but he did give us one tip he said I encourage you to get out there and check the native areas because some sides of the Fairway are a lot easier for your ball to at least advance from the the scrubby stuff than others so we brought three balls one Titleist one Taylor May one Callaway no bias here on seen and heard and uh we’re going to see what players run into when they miss the Fairway all right so Martin kimer who one here 10 years ago said it at that point if you hit into here you had a probably 70% chance of advancing it and uh I want to see if that’s true he says this week you got about a 30% chance so this one it actually is in a very pretty low area in terms of scrub but it’s screwed right you’re behind this little tuck so you probably have to I don’t know a iron it that way and you have that right in front of you that’s not not good this one you actually might hit backwards because you can’t go left and you can’t go straight uh it is a par five but it becomes an extremely long par five at this point uh that’s just a wedge out and you’re kind of praying for par the third where did the third one go ah all right honestly this one is it doesn’t look the best probably from where you’re seeing but this one you can actually build a stance and you can swing without these guys getting in your way you could Advance it maybe with the five iron it’s a par five so these guys do think about those as birdie holes but anytime you H into here it’s suddenly like praying for par trying to avoid making bogey on we’ll probably play under par for the day this one feels like your best option I think Martin kimer might be telling the truth this week is like you throw three in there you might be screwed two times out of three what’s up buddy some my hat yeah I’m not going [Applause] to you were on the uh Jumbotron today well you were mentioned on the Jumbotron from Grayson’s brother it’s nice to be recognized and it’s nice to be recognized for doing well at what you love to do well I remember you saying that in Toronto last year when Suddenly at you were contending at the Canadian open and it kind of felt like you were reaching some sort of epiphany with like where you were at mentally and the confidence level and the expectations you were setting for yourself was that the week that am I something there I me no for sure I for some reason I don’t know why Canada loves me so much but everybody was screaming and yelling for me and then instead of like trying to avoid it necessarily um I did I did like just a way better job of embracing it quote unquote and had fun with it um and then you know I started I played good golf for that week that’s kind of part of the struggles was it would happen one week and then there would be four weeks where you know I was not as good and not as nice to myself and next thing you know the struggles just become even worse um so yeah I I actually have as you bring that up I have thought about kind of that week and how I did Embrace I guess the love um and I I’d like to do that some this week too but you know I’m here to also do a job quote unquote I’m going to try to enjoy it as much as physically possible though which looks like a damn hard Golf Course for us extremely hard what are you like what are you looking at when you when you see this place what are you trying to do differently hit my freaking targets yeah yeah um no I mean it’s going we my caddy mwin put it I thought very succinctly yesterday as we were practicing a bit this isn’t going to be golf this is going to be the world’s hardest Patience Test yeah obviously there will be some golf shots hit so technically it is still golf um but no you you were going to need to you were going to see a lot of balls you know land maybe even come to somewhat of a stop and then trickle 30 40 yards away from where you want them to go um and some way you know you have to take a deep breath and maybe laugh maybe let’s keep walking up to your ball are you a patient are you a patient player do you struggle with that absolutely not yeah I would not say that I’m patient at all um but I would say also that I have been a little better at it the last the last month or so okay um and I’m part is of that is also I’m hitting better golf shots to know I know it is to know that it’s okay that it may not end up in the spot that I exactly want it to be in I know that you know the next handful I’m more than likely going to hit it where I want it to go think you got bailed out here yeah I uh I went around we walked around the front nine with Neil sh on Sunday yeah and he said in his scouting trip if you hit it far enough left on this hole you’re not in this bushy stuff oh yeah you might have some kind of chance let’s see how you do it what am I going to do irn you got 230 front well then we got to try to hook it for the camera camera yeah we got to get this we got to hook it for the camera car Bud a little hook it off sand up right we’re perfect yeah yeah take four there all week good planing [Music] I feel really good about about Le big right now I know he’s been dealing with his knee injury I know he’s hasn’t been playing necessarily his best stuff but I think when you talk about a US Open you’re specifically talking about contending in a US Open it’s a battle of wits it’s not a battle of ability and I think he really has it between the ears have you see him swing a golf club you know he’s more than gotth the physical step to make it [Music] happen maxom hit one bad shot and I’m not even sure it was one bad shot at the Masters in April and lost to Scotty shler he just tugged an eight iron on number 12 want of making double bogey I just think he’s got the right mix of metal and Shop making ability I think he’s been close a lot of times in these big events I don’t know I think he just has the the Right Mix required to win a US Open and especially a US Open as his first major victory he’s hit a cumulative four BR shots to probably about 35 combined feet um so yeah he’s had some looks of pry out here we looking getting really really dialed and I think too there’s just like a comfort level and a confidence level that comes when you’ve done it you seem really tense at the PGA you seems relaxed to find nurse tell it’s late on a Wednesday afternoon right now because the silence is defin here all the joke cracking and autograph signing we had going on on Monday and Tuesday is over these guys are locked in yeah there’s still some friendly banter back and forth but this is close to a tournament round as you can get at a major without it finally hitting in and I think for a lot of these guys it’s finally setting in the US Open is here and whatever game you got right now it’s the game you’re going to have tomorrow afternoon [Music]