00:00You mentioned it, the bunkering.
00:02I think it's also important to know you were talking a little bit about the playing conditions
00:05and what we'll expect this week.
00:08I think there's some overnight rain, either Wednesday going to Thursday, Thursday going to Friday.
00:12So that Thursday morning, that could be a really prime opportunity.
00:17Wouldn't be surprised to see the winter coming out of that morning wave.
00:20Yeah, right away, early, late.
00:22Let's look at that category.
00:23We're kind of making our picks later on.
00:25But I'd say you mentioned the rough as well.
00:28A number of people told us up here just a tough winter, a cold winter but a dry winter up
00:34here in the northeast,
00:35which obviously is not conducive to grass growth, particularly rough growth.
00:39So that's why when you're looking at the profile player, and Rory, we're going to read his quotes right here,
00:45just bang driver as far as you can go.
00:48Yeah, you just play angles.
00:49You play angles.
00:50You look at the whole location, right side of the green, missing the left rough.
00:53And I think this is where the advantage of that morning time is on Thursday, is you could potentially not
01:00have to worry about angles on a Thursday morning.
01:03You could hit in the right rough and then still be able to get to a front right hole location
01:07or a back right hole location.
01:08That's the difference potentially in that morning tee time versus the afternoon tee time, especially if you're getting some moisture
01:15overnight.
01:15So not to say that the winter is going to come out of that, but when we think about classic
01:22northeast golf,
01:23that is always the way I've always approached these golf courses is it's about where you miss it off the
01:30tee to give yourself the angle,
01:31to give yourself enough room to land it, to have enough runway.
01:37Because a lot of times, if the fairways especially are angled with hills, it can be difficult to find the
01:44fairways.
01:44But if they play soft at all, sure, you'll find more fairways.
01:48But if it gets firm at all and you find just a fraction of rough and firm greens, it can
01:54be very, very challenging.
01:55So the Rory quotes, we'll read some excerpts here.
01:58He says, I like the style of golf.
01:59He's speaking about aeronomic, of course.
02:01I like the bunkering.
02:02There's a lot of bunkers.
02:03I think it provides quite a nice bit of variety with shorter par fours, a couple of longer par fours.
02:08The par threes, there's three pretty long ones and a shorter one.
02:12I think in this day and age, I'm not sure if it's going to test all aspects of your bag.
02:16There's going to be a lot of, again, as I said, strategy off the tee is pretty non-existent.
02:20It's basically bash driver down there and then figure it out from there, which I think is a lot of
02:24these newer, newly renovated.
02:25I think about Oak Hill in 2023 here.
02:28When these traditional golf courses take a lot of trees out, it makes strategy not as much of a concern
02:32off the tee.
02:33But the greens are, as I said at the start, the greens are the main focus this week.
02:36And I think getting yourself in the right sections of the greens, making sure you leave yourself below the hole
02:41for the most part, that's the key this week.
02:43And I can stop there because I have more tree quotes from Rahm in a second.
02:47But just reflecting, boy, trees, we put out a clip on social this week.
02:52And you are in the comments debating the trees.
02:55JT is in the comments.
02:56So we're going to talk a little bit about that with Rahm.
02:58But reflect on Rory there, maybe about just right section of the green, that part of it.
03:03To me, it's a mix of a bunch of different golf courses in my head.
03:07I think Travelers Championship.
03:09I think that's kind of classic northeast golf to me at times where you get, especially more so like the
03:19front and the beginning of the back nine, where you get a lot of wedges in your hands.
03:23But you have these green complexes that have a bunch of pitches with hole locations that are very tricky that
03:29you have to play from the correct side.
03:31But then you also get some big boy holes out here, some long par threes, more of the Oak Hill
03:36types of holes that we experienced up in Rochester where you're hitting.
03:42Also Donald Ross course.
03:43So good ones there.
03:44Where you're hitting, you know, four, three irons, seven woods into par threes.
03:50But and then also, I think the 15th hole, just the finishing stretch requires you to hit a lot of
03:56big boy golf shots.
03:57But then the front side, you have a ton of wedges and that has more of the Travelers Championship vibe
04:03to me to where, you know, it's all a little bit about where you leave it off of the tee
04:08to kind of give yourself the best angle with wedges in your hands.
04:12But I do feel like it's going to be a course that that that should be on your you got
04:17to be on your front foot.
04:18But you can't go out and have an even par round.
04:21Feels like to me, we'll see the winner kind of in that 20 under range would be my guess at
04:26the end of the week.
04:26I think so.
04:27So even though 15 to 20, even though 20 was a playoff in 2018 when it was wet, you still
04:33think they'll get to that number.
04:34These guys are really good.
04:36If especially you get some soft.
04:37Yeah, I just think if you if you get any type of rain on on Wednesday night, I just feel
04:44like these guys are going to tear it up Thursday, Friday.
04:46You give these players wedges unless they're like if the wind is down at all.
04:52Yeah, they're going to go tear it up.
04:53I know it's I know it's a PGA Championship.
04:56I know this golf course is is can be very difficult.
04:59But if the rough is not up all the way around and it's patchy, these guys are too good.
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