Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Jon Wright reacts to day 1 of the British Open

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Jon Wright reacts to day 1 of the British Open · The Sean O'Connell Show

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  Speaker 1: You are listening to a Sean O'Connell show.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: It's your source for the best youths football coverage.
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  Speaker 1: Here's oc for the Murdoch Hunting Studio of ESPN seven
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  Speaker 1: hundred ninety two to one.
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  Speaker 3: Half am, all right, talk a little golf the British Show.
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  Speaker 3: But is happening right now? Conversations here on the Sean
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  Speaker 3: O'Connell Show brought to you by you went to golf.
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  Speaker 3: You went to golf by Worldwide Golf in store free
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  Speaker 3: custom fitting you into golf as locations all up and
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  Speaker 3: down the Wassats Front, or you can shop online at
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  Speaker 3: Worldwide golf dot com. John Wright kind enough to join
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  Speaker 3: us here, one of the most decorated golfers here from
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  Speaker 3: the state of Utah and a friend of the program,
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  Speaker 3: to talk a little bit about what's going on at
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  Speaker 3: the Royal Birkdale.
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  Speaker 2: John Wright, Welcome, How are you, sir?
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  Speaker 1: I'm well, thanks, o C. Good to be here.
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  Speaker 3: Do you have a preference on calling it the Open,
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  Speaker 3: the Open Championship or the British Open.
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  Speaker 1: Well, they prefer it the Open Championship, so they like
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  Speaker 1: to be a little snooty over there, so I call
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  Speaker 1: it the Open. But I grew up calling it the
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  Speaker 1: British Open my whole life, so.
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  Speaker 3: Well we'll use it. We'll use it interchangeably here on
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  Speaker 3: the show. So you know, we're just off at the
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  Speaker 3: start of this thing. What do you think into the
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  Speaker 3: place so far? What do you think of the course
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  Speaker 3: and how it's playing so far?
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  Speaker 1: Well, first of all, I love this tournament because of
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  Speaker 1: when the broadcast windows, so I never sleep well. So
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  Speaker 1: I woke up around five this morning and the Open
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  Speaker 1: was on, which was great, and Scotti Scheffler is one
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  Speaker 1: of the first groups off and watched a little bit
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  Speaker 1: of that and then actually went and played around at
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  Speaker 1: golf and did some work, came back and it's still on.
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  Speaker 1: I love it. So the thing that jumps out of
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  Speaker 1: me so far as the different playing conditions. The guys
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  Speaker 1: who played early had a much better go of it.
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  Speaker 1: This golf course is completely burned out. I just got
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  Speaker 1: back from the British Senior Amateur last week in England
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  Speaker 1: as well, and they haven't had rain in like three
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  Speaker 1: months and this golf courses looks like concrete to me,
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  Speaker 1: like they're keeping the greens alive, but the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the golf course is browned out and super firm. Rory
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  Speaker 1: mceilroy hit a driver on a three hundred and eighty
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  Speaker 1: nine yard hole and rolled it over the back of
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  Speaker 1: the green. So the ball is definitely rolling when there's
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  Speaker 1: quite a bit of wind. So the afternoon players, the
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  Speaker 1: guy's playing right now, they're holding it together. But the
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  Speaker 1: guys who played earlier had a bit of an advantage
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  Speaker 1: and that'll switch tomorrow because they flipped tea times. But
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  Speaker 1: that was the two things that jumped out of me.
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  Speaker 1: It's just that the wind is picked up and it's
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  Speaker 1: super dry, and the ball it's hard to control your
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  Speaker 1: ball when you don't know how far it's going to roll.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I'm sure these guys are forecasting out and
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  Speaker 3: they've become aware that the weather is, you know, kind
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  Speaker 3: of anomalist right now in the UK, hey, But I imagine
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  Speaker 3: when you're expecting to go overseas across the pond and
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  Speaker 3: play over there, they you're not expecting those types of conditions, right,
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  Speaker 3: So is there I mean, is there any adjustment you
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  Speaker 3: make realizing, holy cow, we're going to play the British Open.
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  Speaker 3: But it doesn't look like a British Open is supposed.
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  Speaker 1: To right I mean, well, I used to used to
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  Speaker 1: wake up in the morning and watch the coverage and
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  Speaker 1: you see guys wearing sweaters and gloves and you know,
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  Speaker 1: in beanie hats and trying to stay warm because they're
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  Speaker 1: up in Scotland somewhere and it's windy and cold. But
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  Speaker 1: it's just not the way. It was super hot when
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  Speaker 1: we were there last week and it's continued. And what
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  Speaker 1: I did not know that maybe some of your listeners
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  Speaker 1: didn't know either. They don't have a lot of air
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  Speaker 1: conditioning in Europe and it was uncomfortable to say the least.
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  Speaker 1: But these guys are they're used to the heat that
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  Speaker 1: what they're not used to is playing the ball in
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  Speaker 1: the ground and the European players will have a bit
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  Speaker 1: of an advantage doing that, but we're not seeing it
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  Speaker 1: out of Rory McElroy and watching him really struggle right now.
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  Speaker 1: And some of the big Pride like Jackson suber Is,
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  Speaker 1: he's the leader and he's never won on tour. So
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  Speaker 1: I would have said prior to the to the start
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  Speaker 1: of this event that Royal Burkedelle usually produces like a
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  Speaker 1: pure bread type champion, you know, Nick Faldo or Jordans
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  Speaker 1: beeth or Ben Hogan or those types of all the
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  Speaker 1: guys who won on this golf course, and sometimes at
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  Speaker 1: the Open we get some surprise winners like Ben Curtis Er,
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  Speaker 1: Todd Hamilton or guys you never heard of, And I
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  Speaker 1: would not expect that to happen at this golf course.
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  Speaker 1: But we've got Jackson Suber who no one's really no
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  Speaker 1: at the top of the leader board to start. Now,
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  Speaker 1: we have a long way to go, but the golf
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  Speaker 1: course is playing really difficult, and I think these guys
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  Speaker 1: are a little unprepared for the way the ball is
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  Speaker 1: bouncing around and rolling out. So and I just watching
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  Speaker 1: Royan McElroy is struggling mightily right now. So and that's
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  Speaker 1: a guy who grew up playing this type of golf.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, if we're on the same point on the broadcast
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  Speaker 3: that you are, he just bunkerd something.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that was the terrible shot. But again, you know,
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  Speaker 1: when it's burned out like that, you know he's trying
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  Speaker 1: to hit a big, high American style flop shot and
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  Speaker 1: if you don't get that dead perfect, it can go
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  Speaker 1: arrive pretty quickly. And that's what happened there, and the
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  Speaker 1: reason it's so difficult is you You're really you're literally
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  Speaker 1: trying to slide your club head underneath that ball. And
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  Speaker 1: that's easy to do when you've got a little cushion
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  Speaker 1: under there, but when it's baked out, burned out, rock hard,
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  Speaker 1: there is very little margin for error, and you you
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  Speaker 1: hit it a little bit behind it, you bounce right
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  Speaker 1: into it and hit that shot.
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  Speaker 3: So Jackson super, as you mentioned, he's atop the leaderboard
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  Speaker 3: right now. He's five under, got a couple of guys
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  Speaker 3: at four under behind him, a logjam at three under.
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  Speaker 2: Uh.
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  Speaker 3: You think these numbers are going to kind of hold
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  Speaker 3: through four rounds or will we see some some big scores.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I think that those scores are going to go
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  Speaker 1: up just because it's gonna it's gonna get tougher. I
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  Speaker 1: did see they are forecasting some sort of weather on Saturday.
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  Speaker 1: So again, that's what I usually say about this tournament
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  Speaker 1: of half of the battle is just pure luck. And
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  Speaker 1: the luck is getting a good draw because you either
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  Speaker 1: played late earl or early late in the first two days,
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  Speaker 1: and with the way the weather is there in the
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  Speaker 1: British Isles, it's just pure luck. If you get a
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  Speaker 1: bad draw and you happen to play through the worst
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  Speaker 1: of the weather. Well tough, too bad. But if you
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  Speaker 1: get a good draw and you miss the miss the
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  Speaker 1: bad weather, then it turns out to be a huge advantage.
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  Speaker 1: But I'm not seeing that yet, But maybe Saturday when
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  Speaker 1: the predicted storms move in, and that might send scores
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  Speaker 1: going up. But this course is very gettable. It's a
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  Speaker 1: par seventy. There's only two par fives, but they're easily
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  Speaker 1: reachable if this same wind stays up. But I'll tell you,
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  Speaker 1: you get it offline just a little bit and get
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  Speaker 1: a little bit of bad luck and you can have
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  Speaker 1: a shot that you don't even have a shot. And
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  Speaker 1: we're seeing that right now on a same coverage. Roy
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  Speaker 1: mckluy's playing a book shot from his knees.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, he's trying to decide if he's going to take
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  Speaker 3: it from his knees. These bunkers it's like a little
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  Speaker 3: cliff and then down into the sand. So he's trying
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  Speaker 3: to try to see if he can go. I think
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  Speaker 3: he's going to go, not quite down on one knee,
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  Speaker 3: is what it looks like. Is he tries to approach
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  Speaker 3: the flag here. Uh, and you know, I guess.
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  Speaker 1: He's glad he's only five to seven right now.
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  Speaker 3: Okay, he is going down on one knee. He's god like,
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  Speaker 3: And how would you play this here? I mean, can
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  Speaker 3: he not? Can he not do anything? From the can
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  Speaker 3: he not go south?
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  Speaker 2: Paul shoot left hand free?
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  Speaker 1: And this would be a lot harder for me I
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  Speaker 1: And plus I'm also fifty five years old, so not
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  Speaker 1: nearly as flexible as he is. And no, lefty is
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  Speaker 1: not an option there because he's got to flip the
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  Speaker 1: club over and it wouldn't go through the sand. So
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  Speaker 1: this is this, This is a harder shot that it looks.
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  Speaker 1: It's actually looks harder than it is. He should be
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  Speaker 1: able to get this close. He's done this before.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, see that was not a bad shot. Okay, pretty
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  Speaker 2: good there for Rory.
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  Speaker 1: That's the beauty of that's the beauty of link flam golf.
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  Speaker 1: It's very you these pot bunkers, they're not meant to
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  Speaker 1: be you know there. They're a penalty, not like the
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  Speaker 1: golf the courses over here in the States that if
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  Speaker 1: you get a good lion a bunker for a good player,
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  Speaker 1: it's really not a hard shot. But these these they
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  Speaker 1: roll in and from all different angles and sometimes you
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  Speaker 1: can't get it out. Sometimes you have to go backwards.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes you have to do what Rory just did. So
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  Speaker 1: and the American players really aren't used to this kind
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  Speaker 1: of stuff, and I know I wasn't. It was a
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  Speaker 1: rude awakening when I played last week. But it's it's
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  Speaker 1: a really different type of golf, and it's played lower
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  Speaker 1: to the ground, and it's it's it's played mostly on
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  Speaker 1: the ground, and American players aren't used to that.
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  Speaker 3: Kopka is even now through seventeen, it looks like you've
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  Speaker 3: got Bryson de Shamba who's near the top. I think
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  Speaker 3: he's in that log jam at three under right now,
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  Speaker 3: aside from Jackson Super, is there American who you think
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  Speaker 3: can kind of battle his way on this course?
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  Speaker 1: Well, I mean Scotti Scheffler is the number one player
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  Speaker 1: in the world, and I know he missed the cut
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  Speaker 1: last week for the first time in like four years,
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  Speaker 1: but that's not indicative of how he's been playing. He's
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  Speaker 1: had a wonderful year. He just hasn't won. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: he's won three times, but he should have won more.
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  Speaker 1: But he's played so well and his stats are by
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  Speaker 1: far and above way. His strokes game, which is a
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  Speaker 1: golf stats He's in the top fifteen of every strokes,
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  Speaker 1: game cutting strokes, game driving strokes, game ironshot. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: he's just that good. He struggled a little bit this
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  Speaker 1: morning when I was watching him, and he's shot two
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  Speaker 1: under par. He's right where he needs to be. I
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  Speaker 1: just think he has to be the guy to beat.
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  Speaker 1: And Cameron Young, who won the Players Championship, had a
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  Speaker 1: nice round today. He's three hunder with one hole to play.
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  Speaker 1: Look for him to have a great week. Two. He
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  Speaker 1: hits the ball really far, and I'm telling you, the
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  Speaker 1: ball is really going far. And if a guy like
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  Speaker 1: Bryce and December, who also hits it far, if he
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  Speaker 1: can keep it straight in between all these pot bunkers
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  Speaker 1: and all these heavy fescue rough he's someone to look
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  Speaker 1: out for. Now. He's going to be super aggressive, and
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  Speaker 1: he got away with it today shot three hunderd par.
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  Speaker 1: But if he starts hitting it in some bad spots,
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  Speaker 1: it gets a couple of bad breaks. You can make
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  Speaker 1: double and triple bogie here pretty fast.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, it's it's old news now, but you did
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  Speaker 3: mention Scotti. Scheffer missed the cut for the first time
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  Speaker 3: in a long time. Why I didn't get to see
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  Speaker 3: any of it. What was going on with this game
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  Speaker 3: last week?
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  Speaker 1: Well, I was too busy missing my own cut. Great,
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  Speaker 1: I didn't see any of it. But I just think
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  Speaker 1: he had a You know, golf is hard, and no
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  Speaker 1: matter how good you are, you get it going the
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  Speaker 1: wrong way and have a couple of bad holes, get
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  Speaker 1: over par, start pressing, and things just don't go your way.
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  Speaker 1: I think it was actually probably a benefit to him.
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  Speaker 1: Give him some give him some breask, get over to
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  Speaker 1: this golf course a little bit early and gets the
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: practice rounds in and just kind of forget about it.
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  Speaker 1: Because the Scottish Open is a great event, it's an
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  Speaker 1: elevate event, it's it's co stationed by the PGA Tour
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  Speaker 1: and the DP World Tour, and so it's a great event.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, he's over here to defend his major
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  Speaker 1: championship and win another claret jug So I don't think
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  Speaker 1: it's even indicative of any of how he's been playing
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  Speaker 1: this season.
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  Speaker 3: The British Open will stay on top of it at
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  Speaker 3: the Royal Birkdale.
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  Speaker 2: Have you ever played this course, by the way.
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  Speaker 1: I have not. That was my first trip over and
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  Speaker 1: I was unsuccessful. I made it eight on a par four,
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  Speaker 1: which kind of hurt my chance of making the cut.
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  Speaker 1: So no, I have not I want. Next year, the
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  Speaker 1: same tournament is in Scotland, so I'm going to go
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  Speaker 1: a little early in play some of the Scottish golf
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  Speaker 1: courses that are in the British Open ROTA. But Birkdale
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  Speaker 1: is definitely on the list and it's the players love it.
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  Speaker 1: It's it's a very fair test. It's not nearly as
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  Speaker 1: hard as some of the Scottish courses like Carne and others,
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  Speaker 1: but it can be had. But like I said, you
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  Speaker 1: just have to be very strategic about the way you play.
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  Speaker 1: And that's why someone like Brython he's just gonna bomb
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  Speaker 1: it and just see what happens. And if he can
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  Speaker 1: get away with it for four days then he might
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  Speaker 1: he might win the whole thing. But I'll tell you,
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  Speaker 1: you can get one or two bad bounces and things
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  Speaker 1: go really sideways, really quickly. Same thing weather too. If
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  Speaker 1: a storm rolls in and you get it blowing forty
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  Speaker 1: miles an hour, they don't stop there. The reason we
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: have to lave is here in the US is because
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: of lightning, and it's dangerous. They rarely have the lightning
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: storms there, so it doesn't matter if it's raining, sideways,
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  Speaker 1: blowing fifty miles an hour, you're playing and it's extremely
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  Speaker 1: difficult to play through that stuff.
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  Speaker 3: What is the bucket list of courses currently for John Wright?
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  Speaker 3: Where's like, what's your top three that you need to
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  Speaker 3: play as soon as possible.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I've been lucky enough. I've played all of the
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  Speaker 1: top thirty in the United States except for Pine Valley,
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  Speaker 1: which is just outside of Philadelphia, and I've been invited.
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  Speaker 1: I haven't just haven't been able to get there yet,
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  Speaker 1: So that is number one on my list. I'd love
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  Speaker 1: to play all the British Open courses I want to play.
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  Speaker 1: Obviously St. Andrews is number one, the home of golf.
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  Speaker 1: They're having the Open there next year. It's iconic and
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  Speaker 1: it's it's where golf all started, so that's number one
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  Speaker 1: for sure. But and that one, that one, and all
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  Speaker 1: of the British Open wrote of courses. You know they
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  Speaker 1: have Tarniusti and Turnberry and Troon and Royal lit them
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  Speaker 1: at Saint Anne's. All those are bucket lists. I just
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  Speaker 1: haven't been able to get over there yet. And you know,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: it's hard to take two weeks off of work and
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: spend fifteen thousand dollars playing golf. So if wait, why
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  Speaker 1: I mean, and the scheduling is very difficult. Those courses
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  Speaker 1: are hugely popular. You got to book them years in advance.
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  Speaker 1: It's not a last minute type of thing. So those
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  Speaker 1: are the ones I'd love to play. And then there's
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  Speaker 1: one in Australia called Royal Milburn. It's usually in the
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  Speaker 1: top two or three in the world, and that's a
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  Speaker 1: They had the President's Cup there a couple of years ago.
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  Speaker 1: It's a fantastic golf course. I'd love to play there.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I hope you get to all of them.
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  Speaker 1: Very lucky. I've been very lucky. I've played Augusta National
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: and all the great ones here in the US. So
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: I have no complaints if I if I don't play
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: any more of the greatest golf courses. I'm very happy
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: with the ones I've been able to play.
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  Speaker 2: John, appreciate your time and your perspective.
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  Speaker 1: Sir, Thanks very much, Thank you glad to be here.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: So let's wake up. So the cover starts tonight again
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: at eleven thirty pm. Just go all through the night.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: You can watch it all the way through.
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  Speaker 3: I am not that dedicated to golf. I'll tell you that.
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  Speaker 1: That's what we have you for, John, Yeah, exactly. You
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: tell me about the fights and I'll watch the golf.
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  Speaker 2: That sounds good.
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  Speaker 3: That's John, right, brought to you by our friends over
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: at you went to golf, the British Open right now,
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  Speaker 3: Jackson super five under atop the leaderboard, at least through
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: his first round of play.