00:00In regards to PGA Championship week, looking back at the 2018 BMW Championship, this would have been, I guess, a
00:07year after y'all's restoration.
00:09First off, about that BMW 2018, Keegan Bradley, Justin Rose going to a playoff. Keegan Bradley was victorious.
00:16What do you remember about how the golf course played at that BMW Championship, and what do you hope for
00:23it to play like this week for the PGA?
00:26I remember playing very wet. I mean, it was wet out there, and those guys shot, you know, what they
00:32do, right?
00:32I mean, the best players in the world, and like you said, two of the best, you know, of this
00:37generation.
00:38And that, I think, is ultimately the testament for a great test of golf if you get a great champion
00:43when they play out there.
00:45And I think, you know, having those two guys go to a playoff was exciting.
00:50You know, we've learned, and Kerry Hague is great at setup, is like, all right, we've channeled Donald Ross.
00:58We're trusting Donald Ross's instincts. We're trusting his design.
01:02And we're basically saying, okay, Kerry, we've trusted him. Here you go.
01:07And then Kerry's going to take it where he wants to take it.
01:09And so it's an interesting thing for an architect. Our hands are off the wheel, right?
01:14I mean, we can talk to him, but Kerry's great at what he does, and so he's going to set
01:20it up.
01:20And then the other thing is the weather, right?
01:23I mean, if we get a really good, firm, dry week, John Gosling, the golf course superintendent, is amazing.
01:31That place is going to sing, and it'll be a challenge, because I know the rough will be thick.
01:35And if they can get those greens where they're bouncy, I mean, Smiley, you know this.
01:40To defend golf courses to the best players in the world, there's two things that can do it, and that's
01:45thick, rough, and firm greens.
01:47Yep.
01:47They don't care about speed. I mean, those greens, if they get really speedy, they could get super scary because
01:51of the slopes in them.
01:52But it's firmness, right? And you always, you guys work so hard your whole lives to basically get to a
01:59point where when you get over a shot, there's a predictable outcome, right?
02:03I'm going to hit this, your caddy says, hit it, this stock, whatever you guys say.
02:06I don't know that game. But you get to a place where you get that predictable outcome, well, you get
02:13thick, rough, and you're not sure how the ball's going to come out.
02:16You get firm greens, and you're not sure if it's going to bounce twice in check or if it's not
02:19going to check at all.
02:20How do you play it? So when you have unpredictability, and wind is the other thing, if we can get
02:25it windy and firm, I think that golf course would be all that they can handle.
02:29If it's wet like it was in 2018, then they're going to shoot really good numbers, and that's not a
02:36condemnation of the golf course.
02:38It's just that weak, right? I mean, everybody thinks you can kind of wave this magic wand and say, hey,
02:44we're going to get the score to be what we want it to be.
02:47That doesn't happen. The weather and the conditions are ultimately what does it, and you've got the best players in
02:53the world.
02:53They're going to play good if you give them good scoring conditions.
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