00:00And here we are, Aaron Rye, a somewhat unlikely major champion, but one who, by the account of everyone on
00:08the tour, is one of the hardest workers out there, one of the most polite and likable guys that is
00:13on tour.
00:14So how are you feeling about the Rye guys win?
00:16It's my brother's favorite player.
00:17You know, he plays with the rain glove.
00:19He always gets sweaty hands.
00:21So he's been a big Aaron Rye fan for quite some time now.
00:24And it's amazing.
00:26If you've ever played rain gloves, you want to talk about not having any feel.
00:29This guy chooses to play the game harder.
00:33And I got a lot of respect for that.
00:34And he played a really difficult golf course as well as anybody.
00:37And I think that is, and I'm not trying to attract at all from Aaron Rye's win.
00:42In fact, I'm trying to add to it because I think for those who are going to say, oh, I
00:46wish we had a John Rahm win or a Ludwig Oberg win or a Roy McIlroy win.
00:50Here's the thing I'd say to you is go reclassify the eagle putt he makes on the ninth hole, the
00:56bunker shot he hits at 13 and the ensuing birdie he makes there, the birdie he makes at the 16th
01:06hole, the long putt he makes at 17 for birdie to essentially end the championship there.
01:11Go reimagine that as one of those big names and tell me those aren't all incredible, iconic major championship moments.
01:18Oh, man, it's, you know, for a tournament where we never had any separation, I think the biggest lead of
01:25the entire golf tournament may have gotten to two shots.
01:27I can't remember it ever getting to three.
01:30And so when Aaron Rye, you know, gets that ball up and down at 13, which, by the way, I
01:35don't think people have any clue how hard that bunker shot was.
01:38And a little disappointed that I didn't get to hit it because he kept on hitting more good shots down
01:43the way.
01:44I ended up hitting.
01:44We were really hoping you were going to hit that.
01:45Yeah, Jackson, I was standing right there and watched it in person.
01:48Y'all all could have had your baseball mitts in the bleachers at 13 and you would have been able
01:51to catch a fly ball like it was coming at you.
01:54Well, the thing I thought about, you know, again, we'll unpack each of these individual moments as we get into
01:58the show.
01:58But that one in particular, all week long, you said how it was so difficult to generate spin out of
02:04that sand.
02:04And he's got this long bunker shot.
02:06And most guys are trying to hit it short and run it up that slope.
02:09It's a back pole location.
02:10And he when he hit this thing, I'm thinking I'm thinking exactly that touch them all like he hit in
02:15the bleachers a home run or or it's going to bounce off the green, not spin.
02:19And it sticks right there and gives him a birdie look that he ultimately converts.
02:22So this morning I was walking over to the back of the 13th hole looking for my rental car keys,
02:29which, by the way, were not found.
02:31Actually, you find them had my rental car towed.
02:34And I had to go get another car today.
02:36R.I.P. the van.
02:37And it's a shame, you know, somebody came in the house and ended up stealing stealing just rental car keys,
02:42you know, it's the day not taking the car.
02:46Left it a lock, left your your your travel case in there, but just took the keys.
02:50I mean, how about this photo, man?
02:53So this is what I took of 13 today.
02:55You want to talk about a whole location that looks like it's on the edge of a cliff.
03:00And that's from that vantage point of the front of the green.
03:03And, you know, his thing was a little bit here.
03:05We'll put on the broad.
03:05It was a little bit further, right?
03:07But, man, it's so easy to come up 15 feet short on that shot and just give yourself a putt.
03:12And he flew it all the way back there and was able to hold the putt, too.
03:16And, you know, that was just kind of the beginning.
03:18And, yeah, I guess you can look at his front side, too, which we need to touch on the, you
03:22know, the eagle at nine, of course, gives him the momentum going to the backside where he absolutely stuffed a
03:28wedge at 11.
03:28And then he hit a nice shot in the 12.
03:31The great, of course, bunker shot at 13, played 14 the right way.
03:3515 was probably the most interesting decision.
03:38Yes.
03:39I think that three would, you know, it's this golf course wasn't going to give you, you know, the risk
03:44reward of, you know, a TPC sawgrass, right, where you got to make a decision.
03:49Do you want to go for it?
03:51You know, do you want to take something on?
03:52And it's it was strategic decisions.
03:55Right.
03:55And so deciding how to hold a fairway that's on an edge of a mountain, like what it really is,
04:02what it played like because of the firmness.
04:04And nobody was able to hold that 15th fairway unless you were up that right side.
04:09And we've picked up a lot of stuff this week.
04:11And Luke from Golf Digest helped me with his last name.
04:14I can't Luke Cardenine.
04:15Yes.
04:16So his he had mentioned something very interesting this week.
04:21And I've always watched it with Aaron is that he's hits his driver very low, but he's a very high
04:26spin guy.
04:27So 2,400 is optimal for what tour players are looking for air rise around 2,800.
04:34So that's a spinning golf, spinning golf ball.
04:36But for the low, low launch angle that he has, which is in that seven degree area, which is very,
04:42very low, you know, it's he needs spin to be able to help hold fairways.
04:47Because if not, the ball is only going to fly 260 yards.
04:50So he needs that extra bit of spin to keep the ball in the air longer.
04:55And you would think that would be beneficial for somebody like him on that 15th hole.
05:00But if you really got to shave something left to right, and that's what he did.
05:05He took the three wood out said, you know what, I'm just going to make sure I hit the fairway,
05:08hit a spinny fade up there, had 234 left for a second.
05:12But the thing is, at that point, he had a two shot lead in the golf tournament.
05:18And he's just trying to make sure that he doesn't give anything back.
05:22And I think hitting that fairway was was so crucial.
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