Bob Weeks joins Nick Taylor and Corey Conners for a practice round to discuss the US Open at Oakmont, why they trust a Titleist golf ball on the biggest stage, and how Canadian player camaraderie and competition fuels them.
[Music] good hat thanks Gord [Music] what makes the US Open different in terms of a challenge everything I’ve heard it’s going to be an absolute beast this year the miraculous thing about Oakmont is they keep making it harder and harder and harder oak is tough it’s just a bear i’ve never played there everyone that tells me it’s been there it’s the hardest course I’ve ever played so I’m I’m expecting that great stuff to look forward to yeah exactly us Open coming up how do you prepare for that every week on the PGA Tours is a big week obviously that one’s you know a little extra special it could be a little extra intimidating you know I know the conditions are going to be tough i think T- shots are going to be really demanding there could be some different TE’s you know I’ll have to practice some shots out of the rough get some fairway bunker shots but I think you know just seeing the property trying to make a plan for you know when things don’t go how I want you’re going to get horrendous lies you’re going to have tough bounces it’s try to make it as difficult as possible and I think the mental challenge of it of knowing that I’ve you know every year you get the ball dropping in the rough videos you get the the long par 3es you know seems like one has three of them over 250 drivable pars yeah exactly i feel like a lot of it is kind of sticker shock they move the TE’s around it never plays probably as long as the scorecard might say but it’s a challenge things started falling apart he was three under at this point in a tie for the lead in the end this looked like this was going to be a disaster is it easy to kind of when you do get into trouble forget that probably everybody’s going to get into trouble at some point it’s certainly easy to forget that i feel like I’m pretty good at recognizing that you know everyone’s going to get themselves in in crazy spots it’s not just me inevitably everyone’s going to be in a situation that they are uncomfortable with or certainly don’t want to be in so I think just yeah recognizing that and it’s okay just try and you know battle hard and do what you can to get out of trouble four Canadians in the US Open do you do you mix competitiveness with camaraderie like do you sort of look where the other guys do is there something a big Canadian it feels like week in week out someone is up there in the leaderboard trying to win i think that just spurs all of us on that hey I play practice with these guys all the time and we compete it’s fun to see everyone up there and then you want to be up there too so it inspires you to work a little harder couple of Canadians going out together longtime buddies and I think it’s almost easier for us to see ourselves in that position when you know guys we play with week in week out right uh are up there so it’s it’s been a fun run for the last four or five years everyone playing so well we’re a close-knit group it’s a fun group to be a part of we’re all competitors but we’re all supportive of one another and care about how those guys are doing and I’m happy when when those guys play well and it’s another playoff victory for Nick Taylor your likelihood of playing a practice round is probably pretty good the four of you yeah you can probably pencil us down we’re playing together it’s always fun at the major championships you know representing Canada but having a bunch of other Canadians there as well when you guys play in your groups who would you say over the last two three years has won the most well it’s definitely not Adam and I when we were through the run of of Mac and Cory versus A and I we were just not practiced around people apparently good gracious we had a stretch probably with the co tie we’ve It’s not like we’re playing for that much it’ be 100 bucks or 200 bucks but we are getting drumed a lot so when we won we’d like to tell them even though they had the upper hand but me and Adam are in the red for sure how much fun is that to play in an all Canadian group with a little something maybe on the line and get Yeah it’s that’s awesome i think Mac and I sure had Nick and Adam Hadman’s number for the last number of years we probably still do i don’t think they can really say they’ve ever ever gotten us it’s just fun you know friendly battles you know friendly competition you know add something to our practice round so it’s definitely special what do the other guys outside the non-Canadians when they see you guys together is there any kind of do they look at it they laugh at it they give you any jokes about it or Yeah I think it’s just known that we’re going to play our practice just assume we got four and it’s going to be how it is but yeah I think we’re just known as the the Canadian squad and that’s just how it is good pace are you serious oh my goodness glorious and free when you come to the Canadian Open and all your pals that year that you soaked the putt all your pals are up behind i mean half of the golf in Canada was up behind that green when they all came pouring out what was it like to sort of sense this that you’ve not only won it for Nick Taylor but you won it for a bigger wider group of people yeah I think that was kind of the the thing that probably hit me the most later on was just how impactful it was to a lot of people obviously to me it was you know career changing life-changing in a way but to have the emotional impact of everyone else around has kind of hit me as time has gone on i feel like we’ve all spurred each other on and hopefully that means that me or another can wins it again and we don’t keep this talk of since I won hopefully it just keeps happening you were standing greenside a couple years ago at Oakdale when he rolled in that putt what do you remember about that moment and and how that went in i mean it was crazy we’re just hoping that you know he hit the putt with good speed staying there with Adam Hadwin and Mike Weir and you know the speed looked really good and it was just shock when it when it went in honestly you’re certainly not expecting you know to make a 72 ft putt pretty remarkable moment definitely something I’ll I’ll never forget the drone is over he’s an icon now in this country if you were to say what kind of style you play what would it be like you you compared to Cory how are you guys different i feel like my iron play is probably the strength of my game at least the last handful of years and Cory’s always been a great ball striker i think he’s probably one of the more underrated drivers of the golf ball i feel like I hear too often that he’s not the longest hitter which he’s not but he hits it plenty far and very very straight so he’s he’s ta green arguably one of the best on tour what a ball striking clinic you remember not playing the titleless golf ball i’ve played the titleless golf ball as long as I can remember i remember getting my dad’s gently used handme-downs when I was younger he always played with the titleless ball and right from the get-go was fortunate to be be able to have access to them and feel and performance was better than anything else are you a Prov1 or Prov1X guy i’ve always pretty much been a Prov1 it’s allowed me to hit all the shots I want and have great spin with shots coming into the green it’s as good as it gets in my opinion if you were to pick one part of Nick Taylor’s game that you could steal what would it be probably his short game he’s got some pretty crafty shots around the greens definitely envious of that part of his game he certainly works hard but he’s always been pretty talented on and around the greens back of the cup for Taylor wow what is it about the title ball that you like i’ve really really liked the consistency and the predictability the windows that I like to see with anywhere from the wedges to the long clubs you got to trust that when you land it on the spot that you’re trying to land it on that it’s going to come out in the flight it’s going to check it’s going to roll out and uh when you have that ultimate trust it’s it’s only going to make you play as well as you can [Music]
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