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Paul Pugmire on the PGA Championship, Utah State Am Champ gets to play at PGA event at Black Desert + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: You are tuned to the Shan O'Connell Show for the
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  Speaker 1: Murdoch Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety two
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  Speaker 1: to one afm all the.
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  Speaker 2: Damn Welcome back to the Shat o'connall Show. Welcome in
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  Speaker 2: the president.
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  Speaker 3: Of First t Utah, host of Utah Golf Radio right
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  Speaker 3: here on ESPN seven hundred, Paul Pugmyer, friend of the program,
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  Speaker 3: to check in on the PGA Championship.
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  Speaker 4: Paul, how are you aot? How are you doing?
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  Speaker 2: I'm great? How are things, sir?
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  Speaker 4: Paul?
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  Speaker 2: You got me?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, okay, that's weird. Okay, I'm I'm should have
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  Speaker 4: a good signal. How are we doing?
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  Speaker 2: Oh great? How are you sir?
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  Speaker 4: Fantastic? There's a major going on. How's life not great?
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  Speaker 2: It's well. It's an interesting one to watch so far.
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  Speaker 3: And one of the reasons I love talking these majors,
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  Speaker 3: especially with you, is your encyclopedic knowledge of the courses
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  Speaker 3: and how these courses are playing. Now that we're in
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  Speaker 3: day two, what are you making of? What are you
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  Speaker 3: making of this one?
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  Speaker 4: The ghost of Donald Ross wants to see these guys work.
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  Speaker 4: It is so fun to see Donald Ross, one of
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  Speaker 4: the most prolific and impactful golf course architects in the
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  Speaker 4: history of the game. His fingerprints are everywhere, and he
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  Speaker 4: calls Ironomic. He called Ironomic his masterpiece. He thought this
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  Speaker 4: was his best work. And there have been times when
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  Speaker 4: the course was not set up to its full potential.
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  Speaker 4: It was hosting a pro event and the scores were low.
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  Speaker 4: Nobody's having any of that week. These players assume, world
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  Speaker 4: the full potential of Ironomy is on display, and I
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  Speaker 4: am loving it.
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  Speaker 3: So give me a sense of what that, what that
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  Speaker 3: looks like? What are the differentiating factors of this course
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  Speaker 3: in particular?
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  Speaker 4: Couple things. First of all, Ross really made use of
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  Speaker 4: slope there. There's you'll see time and time again, left
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  Speaker 4: to right, right, left side slopes on the fairways where
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  Speaker 4: players will hit a ball that in the air is
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  Speaker 4: tracking up the fairway, but it lands on the wrong
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  Speaker 4: part of the fairway, takes a slope and kicks down
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  Speaker 4: into the rough. Yeah. That tournament organizers have made the
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  Speaker 4: ref very strong and deep and thick, and so that
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  Speaker 4: is a penal shot right there. And then a Donald
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  Speaker 4: Ross characteristic is crowned greens that you hear the term
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  Speaker 4: a turtleback green green false fronts false and where the
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  Speaker 4: ball can be on the green for a minute but
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  Speaker 4: run away. And that is very much at Donald Ross thing,
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  Speaker 4: and it's in full display at ernom Ink. And there
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  Speaker 4: are both turtleback greens and there are greens with simply
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  Speaker 4: severe slopes on them. Number eleven in particular is so
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  Speaker 4: severely sloped, and these greens are running at about thirteen
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  Speaker 4: on a stemp meter. You combine all that with some
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  Speaker 4: firmness that they have achieved this week, and it's really
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  Speaker 4: really difficult. It leads to a situation where you can
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  Speaker 4: hit the ball in the fairway and be ound of position.
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  Speaker 4: You can hit the ball on a green and be
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  Speaker 4: ound of position because the next shots are so severely demanding.
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  Speaker 2: This course is.
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  Speaker 4: Asking a lot, and so far players are only able
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  Speaker 4: to answer so much.
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  Speaker 3: So well is best suited to this particular course? I
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  Speaker 3: guess I should just look at the leaderboard for the
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  Speaker 3: answer to that question. But there might be a surprise
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  Speaker 3: or two up there.
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  Speaker 4: You know, you know the PGA Championship for reasons I've
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  Speaker 4: never fully known that it comes about again and again
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  Speaker 4: in history. This tends to be the major championship where
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  Speaker 4: first time major winners emerge, and so it will never
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  Speaker 4: be a surprise when somebody didn't have on your radar
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  Speaker 4: going into the week is the one who comes out
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  Speaker 4: of it with a trophy. At the PGA, it doesn't
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  Speaker 4: happen as much in the other majors, but it happens
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  Speaker 4: more in a PGA, so it's not a surprise to
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  Speaker 4: see some names on the leaderboard who are not household names.
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  Speaker 4: On the other hand, we also see names on the
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  Speaker 4: leaderboard that are major champion winners and have proved that
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  Speaker 4: they know how to manage the demands of a major
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  Speaker 4: championship and emerge victorious. So you ask what kind of
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  Speaker 4: game is best suited to this. I'm going to take
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  Speaker 4: a step back from a physical game, because the runn
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  Speaker 4: Ink will both test and reward different types of physical games.
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  Speaker 4: But what it is absolutely demanding is a player that
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  Speaker 4: is patient, that is not trying to force the course
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  Speaker 4: to give up more than it is willing to give up,
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  Speaker 4: that is not trying to take what to make pars
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  Speaker 4: make another par in another part, until finally a moment
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  Speaker 4: emerges to go for the birdie and so they execute
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  Speaker 4: it then. But this is very much like Muhammad Ali
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  Speaker 4: doing ropodope, sitting back waiting for the opening and just
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  Speaker 4: waiting and waiting and waiting and then striking. That waiting
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  Speaker 4: part is really hard and a lot of players will
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  Speaker 4: have a hard time doing it. That's the player that
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  Speaker 4: will be rewarded this week.
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  Speaker 3: I have to sneak this in because we were laughing
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  Speaker 3: about earlier when when John Rahm hit somebody volunteer with
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  Speaker 3: a divot. Yeah, obviously, you know, nothing comes with something
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  Speaker 3: like that when somebody, if somebody does get hurt in
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  Speaker 3: the gallery or you know, an errant drive smack someone.
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  Speaker 3: Is there an insurance policy covered by like by the player,
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  Speaker 3: the course the tour is there? Like if there's something
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  Speaker 3: like a settlement, if there's a medical expense that needs
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  Speaker 3: to be paid, who is the insurance policy underdo all
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  Speaker 3: these players have to carry that around like a doctor
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  Speaker 3: does malpractice insurance?
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, not the players, but the tournament organizers. Now, if
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  Speaker 4: you get down a magnifying blast and a bright light,
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  Speaker 4: you can read on the back of your ticket really
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  Speaker 4: tiny information, tiny prince about how by using this card
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  Speaker 4: you accept all liability. But the reality is the tournaments
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  Speaker 4: carry the liability insurance, and so it would be the
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  Speaker 4: tournament organizers that that would deal with that. I do
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  Speaker 4: want to give wrong a shout out for how he
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  Speaker 4: responded to that situation. What he did was unseemly and unprofessional,
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  Speaker 4: but he completely owned it. He said, that's on me.
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  Speaker 4: I was wrong. I apologize and as soon as we're
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  Speaker 4: done here, I'm going to go find that man and
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  Speaker 4: talk to him in person. I wish I would not
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  Speaker 4: have done that. I can tell you I've got a
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  Speaker 4: long list of things I wish i would not have
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  Speaker 4: done in my life. But John Rahm stood up and
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  Speaker 4: with a grown man and accepted responsibility and he's dealing
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  Speaker 4: with it.
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  Speaker 1: I admightd of that.
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  Speaker 4: It was wrong. He's done it right in response and
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  Speaker 4: we can move on.
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  Speaker 3: How much of what's happening with ry McElroy is is
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  Speaker 3: that the problem with he's having with his foot, the
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  Speaker 3: blister or whatever, and how much is just a bad day.
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  Speaker 4: I think he's just struggling with the driver. Look, the
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  Speaker 4: slopes on these fairways requires absolute pinpoint precision with the driver,
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  Speaker 4: and Rory can be on There's no question this man
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  Speaker 4: can be and frequently is the greatest driver of the
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  Speaker 4: golf ball on the planet. But not every day, and
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  Speaker 4: he certainly wasn't yesterday and he had he had a
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  Speaker 4: bad day, on the wrong time, on the wrong course,
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  Speaker 4: and it showed on his scorecard those four bogies in
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  Speaker 4: a row to finish. Yeah, that was not pretty.
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  Speaker 3: Not related to the PGA Championship, But other big news
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  Speaker 3: that we got, the Utah State Amateur Champ gets to
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  Speaker 3: play in the PGA Tours Bank of Utah Championship this
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  Speaker 3: fall at Black Desert. So just a huge opportunity for
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  Speaker 3: the Utah State Amateur Champ. Does it add a couple
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  Speaker 3: more names to the field, Like what are what's the
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  Speaker 3: impact of this opportunity going to be for the State
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  Speaker 3: Amateur Championship?
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  Speaker 4: What a great question. I can't wait to see how
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  Speaker 4: this plays out. First of all, mad props to Black
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  Speaker 4: Desert and Bank of Utah.
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  Speaker 2: For doing this with the UGA.
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  Speaker 4: I'm really interested, really excited to see the State am
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  Speaker 4: champ tee it up and that on that stage against
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  Speaker 4: those players on that course. That'll be an awfully lot
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  Speaker 4: of fun to watch. And State am champs tend to
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  Speaker 4: be college players who are normally planning to build a
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  Speaker 4: pro career anyway, so this will be an incredible opportunity.
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  Speaker 4: If you know, in fact the State Am champions up
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  Speaker 4: being one of those players again, it'll be an incredible opportunity,
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  Speaker 4: a great stepping stone, and I'm measuring time in that
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  Speaker 4: player's development. But it's just going to be fun to
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  Speaker 4: watch and fun to see. I'm really looking forward to it.
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  Speaker 2: Who's gonna end up victorious in this weekend's tournament?
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  Speaker 4: Great question. Look, I think when you look at that leaderboard,
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  Speaker 4: first of all, at the end of yesterday's play, and
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  Speaker 4: they're still out on the course as you and I
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  Speaker 4: are talking right now, so we don't know how day
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  Speaker 4: two will fall. But at the end of day one,
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  Speaker 4: at the end of yesterday, there were forty eight players
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  Speaker 4: within three shots of the lead. That's the most ever
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  Speaker 4: in the history of all the Majors all time, which
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  Speaker 4: means that it can be anybody, and everybody's in position
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  Speaker 4: to make a splash if they can put up a
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  Speaker 4: good number today and go into the weekend and do
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  Speaker 4: it again. But you have to look at players who
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  Speaker 4: have proven they can do it, and you look on
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  Speaker 4: the leaderboard and you see names like Scotti Scheffler, Xander Schaffley,
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  Speaker 4: Patrick Reid, Heidki Manciyama. You see players who have won majors,
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  Speaker 4: who have proved they can withstand this crucible and walk
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  Speaker 4: out the other side. Those are the players you have
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  Speaker 4: to start looking at, and then after that, look at
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  Speaker 4: players who are ready to become stars.
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  Speaker 2: Again.
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  Speaker 4: The PGA Championship tends to be a place where players
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  Speaker 4: who are ready to become stars do so. And the
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  Speaker 4: name I like there is Minwu Lee. You look at
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  Speaker 4: this guy. He's got all of the components, all of
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  Speaker 4: the pieces and parts, all of the characteristics to be
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  Speaker 4: a star. He just needs to take the step and
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  Speaker 4: grab it. This might be the week that Minwu Lee
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  Speaker 4: does that.
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  Speaker 3: Paul, I love picking your brain about golf. You're an
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  Speaker 3: encyclopedia of knowledge, and thanks so much for once again
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  Speaker 3: offering your expertise on our show.
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  Speaker 4: Oh you're sure welcome, always fun. Thank you for having me.
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  Speaker 3: Paul pug Meyer, President of First t Utah, host of
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  Speaker 3: Utah Golf Radio.
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  Speaker 2: Right here on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one FM,