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Episode 63 - U.S Women's Open Recap
19 Plays6 months ago
The boys discuss the U.S Women's Open, the man from Oban and, cheap airlines. Enjoy!
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Transcript
Return from Hiatus & Pinseeker Travels
00:00:16
Speaker
Hello and a very warm welcome back to the Off The Tips podcast. We're back in the hot seat after a week's hiatus. Once again, the time zone difference has got the boys tipped up. But before I introduce your co-host,
00:00:30
Speaker
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00:00:33
Speaker
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00:01:00
Speaker
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Lancaster Country Club Major Highlights
00:01:18
Speaker
But before without further ado, AC, welcome calling in from London. What a great weekend to golf.
00:01:28
Speaker
Yes, mate. Good to be here. I'm flying. I'm feeling good. I'm ready to talk some golf. Further ado, that word just reminds me of price givings. I don't know why. It's a real staple. It's just a bingo card word at one of those.
00:01:45
Speaker
Absolutely, and I've absolutely just thrown it in there. But mate, what a week it was at Lancaster Country Club in Pennsylvania. Probably one of my favorite majors in recent memory. I think it's right up there with events such as Brookline and even Pie Needles for the women's event back in 2022.
00:02:07
Speaker
Yuka Sasso getting the job done just a absolute Sunday clinic. She was helped by, you know, some people in front of her tripping over, Minji Lee, the main one
US Open Course Setup & Player Struggles
00:02:20
Speaker
of those. Geez, what a capitulation. But A.C., what did you kind of make of the setup and the week and kind of a few words, mate? Yeah, I think first and foremost, the golf course just shined. It was the star of the show.
00:02:37
Speaker
It just gave a great stage to play good golf, exciting golf to watch, and just rewarded players that were hitting the ball well and control of their golf ball. The short game was on point. It was audible. You could hear the ball bouncing on the greens. It was great. It was all that you want from a major test and was a great change of pace from what we saw at PGA Championship at Valhalla.
00:03:07
Speaker
It was just the complete opposite of that. And so it was really good to see. It wasn't tracked up either. It was fair, but it was difficult at the same time.
00:03:17
Speaker
What are your thoughts? I think fear is the perfect way to describe it. Some good players completely lit themselves on fire for that when they were slightly off, notably Nelly and Minji on the last day. But there were still birdies to be made out there if you picked your right holes.
00:03:38
Speaker
Man, I just think that the Greens staff and the USGA can pat themselves on the back because this setup was incredible and what a US Open is supposed to be.
Yuka Sasso's Historic US Open Win
00:03:50
Speaker
The pin positions on the first day were fantastic as they were on Sunday. I think that front pin on 12 when Nellie made 10 was sick.
00:04:03
Speaker
a front pin with a false front into a creek like god that that's epic but if you went long you're in a bunker and you're heading back towards that front pin oh yeah there was some really really tough scenes for some golfers but man the cream really rose to the top and the end and yugasaso just what a what a week you know the first
00:04:29
Speaker
the first player to win a US or to win a US Open representing two different nations. She won in 2021 representing the Philippines and won on the weekend representing Japan, which is a great stat that has been thrown around religiously on Twitter over the last few days. But what I really like about her is I love watching her swing the golf club and I'll be keen to see what you think AC but her move looks a lot like Rory's.
00:05:00
Speaker
I was just about to say that, that that Iron She Her Inter 17 reminded me of Rory so much. Just took this flag on with this high flighted five-line, I think it was. No, I definitely agree. I think there's a lot of similarities when you watch them
Minji Lee & Lydia Ko's Challenges
00:05:20
Speaker
swing. Just that real flow to it. She's got a bit of a swagger to her as well. And I thought just just a clinical performance.
00:05:29
Speaker
It's, um, she hips it a lot longer than most women out there. So that was a real advantage this week, just being able to land it soft on these firm greens. She, she could really get like where people were hitting hybrids, she could, could hit irons and that really did help her. But, um, yeah, I, I thought when Minji bird the first, I was like, look out, she's, she's the one to beat.
00:05:56
Speaker
and then just lost her way. 75, I think, and then just a real stinker from... Oh, 78, sorry. A real stinker from Minji. It was bad. Well, it was tough to see. I got up in the middle of the night because I was really excited to see a Minji charge.
00:06:16
Speaker
It just didn't eventuate. She started the day at five. I only got to six pretty quickly. And then just, yeah, it was pretty much all downhill from there. Another person that was brought to her knees on 12. She asked her Caddy before she hit that shot if it was going to be enough club and it wasn't. It was. She mis-hit that. She flared it.
00:06:43
Speaker
She flared it. So if you're going to flare it like that, it's always going to be a bit short. I think she had the right club. Just didn't execute. You can't go right of that flag and she did. Yeah. And I think it was just the story of the day, wasn't it? Just nothing went right and it all went wrong.
00:07:04
Speaker
Do you think it was such a quick turnaround to the PGA Championship? Do you think this will play on her mind at all or do you think she's just such a gun that she'll move on and get in the mix again? It is quite a melt. It is, but it is also we saw with Nellie, Lyn Grant, Lydia, it can happen around there.
00:07:31
Speaker
You just have to be a little bit off and it can buy you. So I don't think it will. She's won two majors. I think she'll be fine. What do you think? Yeah, I tend to agree. I think maybe if she has a lead similar going into a final round of a major early, it might
00:07:53
Speaker
My playman might have touched, but these girls at the top of the world are built different to the way we think about playing golf. So I think that she'll probably flush that and be almost better for the run. It was pretty tough to see and it's a big learning curve.
00:08:11
Speaker
losing like that. It's not like she had this massive lead that she was playing with though. Even if she played some good golf, Yuka Sasso was every chance of running her down. What I liked about just back on Sasso, she played this shot on 16 on that
00:08:31
Speaker
great hold of the drum, part four, where she just was like, fuck, just put her foot to the floor and just put one to about 12 feet, two parts walked off. And I was just like, man, that's that shades of colon at Harding Park. Yeah, the one that she left herself a bit to do on 16, too. It was a pretty, pretty poor first part. There was a lot of tricky four footers when I was watching this week.
00:09:01
Speaker
like just parts that just get away on you, get a bit low of the hole and it didn't look fun. There was a couple I was looking at, I was like I'd be so squirrely over this one.
00:09:13
Speaker
And it's a credit to the green staff for leaving those greens crispy. Obviously they got the weather for it, which is what you need and what we didn't have at Valhalla the other week. But man, I was so impressed with the way it played.
Golf Course Conditions & Pinehurst
00:09:34
Speaker
I really hope that we see something similar next week at Pinehurst because, man, it'll be good if we can get a couple of great majors back to back after having one that probably didn't live up to expectations. Yeah, I think we will. I think we have a good week at Pinehurst. Yeah, back on to 12. 12 was just a great test that you knew that to pass. When you're watching that front line, it was
00:10:04
Speaker
You just sort out in the back of their mind like, oh, there's 12 coming up. You have to step up and hit a big boy golf shot. And if you can, then you're going to go a long way to winning. But you're also a massive chance of doing what Minji did and what Nellie did earlier in the week and just melting.
00:10:24
Speaker
Man, I was pretty disappointed in Lydia's performance this week as well. You know, just a couple of fucking huge numbers to miss the cup. But as we've kind of established that that could easily happen at a golf course like this. And man, I, I'm all in on Lydia when we get to the old course, personally. I think I've said that before on this pod. I'm really looking forward to seeing her around there. And A.C., have you got your tickets to go yet? Because you were thinking about getting up there, weren't you?
00:10:53
Speaker
I really want to go. That's also the only long weekend really. So I'm like, do I maximize that and go travel somewhere to a country I haven't been to? So I'm going to Scotland in a month. I'm going to St. Andrews as well. So I was like, or do I go and enjoy the woman's open? So yeah, got a decision to make there. I am very keen to go. It'd be great to see
00:11:23
Speaker
see them play but also at St Andrews like I think it's like not dispecting the the woman it's outgrowing the men a little bit but I think it'll actually be a lot better watching them then play it and play the course how it should be played. How it's designed yeah. Yeah so that's I'd really like I really want to try get there but I'm also want to get to Wentworth as well so yeah there's a bit of golf around and
00:11:51
Speaker
I'm going to hard pass on the lever vein that's in the UK that everyone's going to. Fair enough. It's outside of my principles. I can't be doing that. It doesn't belong to the values of podcasts. When we're forking up for the media accreditation, we can't have an AC.
00:12:14
Speaker
AC takes the moral high ground when it comes to going to golf tournaments. But before we move on from the US Women's Open and head over to another great national open, there are just a couple of yanks hunting which made for good TV, you know, all the local crowd getting behind them and LAUing and Andrea Lee, but at the end of the day, they were never really in contention, but it added. And I just want to add one thing about the US Women's Open on the coverage is
00:12:45
Speaker
I think that is the most I've heard mashed potatoes screamed at a golf tournament. Fuck, I heard that a lot. That sauce, wasn't it? It's something with some of the worst things to see. And yeah, but hey, overall, what a fantastic week. And for the first time in any major championship, we had a Japanese quinella with Hanaka Shabuno just finishing outright seconds. A great week for a pretty proud golfing nation that have
00:13:15
Speaker
on both sides of the religion, the men's and the woman's have some fucking premiere players. So that's great to see. Uh, but I see any kind of, anything else to add on the US woman's open or do you want to head on? Just learn grant. I, I've been really disappointed with her this year. I thought she'd take the extra step. She was 18th will golf rankings start the year and now she's slipped to 32nd, which isn't anything like.
00:13:45
Speaker
ridiculous but I thought she was going to go the other way. Yeah, disappointing. I hope she can find a game soon because she's a much better player than what she's dishing up at the moment. Yeah, I thought she was a fantastic fit this week. I mean, I tipped her on radio and I was pretty confident that that'd be a
00:14:08
Speaker
a good bet. But as anyone knows who follows this podcast, probably steer clear of anything we're tipping. But yeah, I thought she was riding it for a finish this week. And just as we have discussed, it was a golf course that could tip people up. But yeah, I love a golf swing and
00:14:30
Speaker
I want to see more of her at the top of the leaderboard as well. But that's pretty much it for me on what was a fantastic week at Lancaster Country Club. And I wouldn't hate seeing them go around there for a big tournament either and see how they take it on.
Canadian Open & Robert McIntyre's Victory
00:14:50
Speaker
But I see.
00:14:52
Speaker
What happened in Canada, mate? A Bobby Mack special. Gigi, you'd love to see it. There was some pretty wholesome stuff on display in Canada. How many times did you hear that his old man was on the bag this week, do you think? I think at least... Not even exaggerate. I reckon at least 20. Yeah, it was...
00:15:19
Speaker
The other thing is, how often do they mention that he's from Oban? They're very specific about it. They don't call him the Scott or he's from Oban. Would you know where Oban was if Robert McIntyre wasn't from there? Absolutely not. No idea. I don't know. Just a great win for him.
00:15:49
Speaker
Like I don't know anyone that would hate Bobby Mac. Uh, just the real, it seems like a real down to earth family guy, uh, just plays the game for the right reasons. He had that heartbreak at the scholarship and last year, um, struggle. He struggled a bit at times. Like he wrote a copy was lucky to sneak in, uh, played okay, not great at the writer cup. And now this year was, he was really struggling.
00:16:18
Speaker
But things have started to turn around. PGA Championship, he played well, seemed to find his game. It's obviously quite tough settling in the US as well, which we've seen with Foxy as well. But yeah, this tournament provides some good stuff the last few years.
00:16:39
Speaker
Yeah, let's not forget the Adam Hadwin getting it pole axed by the security guard, but on the course it's had some fantastic finishes, you're right. Last year was fantastic, that playoff, but man, just on Robert McIntyre, it kind of felt like, I know Ben Griffin was breathing down his neck, one of the great journeymen of the PGA Tour.
00:17:00
Speaker
But he never seemed to let it get away from him on Sunday. I didn't feel at all like he was not going to win. And what I noticed that I hadn't really thought of before is just how nice his touch is just on the eye. I love watching him golf his ball close to the green.
00:17:24
Speaker
Man, a couple of really nice fist pumps from the man from Obam, especially on 11, most notably on 11 actually. That was a great one. That was a proper fire up one. Yeah. He pudded the lights out too and just made a heap of parts. Yeah, lefties always look like they've got more touch as well. It's just, I think it's
00:17:49
Speaker
It's like watching a lefty bat. It's just a bit different. A gold kick. Yeah. It's got that look about it. Better venue this year. They didn't have that shit par five to finish like they did. Oh, that was just, that was some of the worst. Oh, that was awful. That par five last year. But I think they're hitting back there in 2026, which is, which is not good.
00:18:18
Speaker
it's tough to see but a good learning curve for our man Ryan Fox this week didn't really have his best stuff on Sunday but man he'll learn a lot from that but it's just glad that he could kind of string four decent enough days together and yeah I think he'll learn a lot from that he's kind of in the similar boat to
00:18:41
Speaker
Bobby Mack with the you know, as you just spoke about I see the settling into life in America and and it's it was good to see a couple of good lads out in that final group playing together both got their PGA tour cards through the DP World Tour queue school and
00:19:00
Speaker
It's obviously proving that that was a good decision because, yeah, two of them were writing contention late in the event. But there's a couple of, it was also really good to see a couple of Canadians in the mix at their National Open, Corey Connors and Mackenzie Hughes, Mackenzie Hughes, I should say, who plays slow. Yeah, he does. Did you, did you see what Corey Connors was wearing last day? Yeah, he looked like he was about to.
00:19:30
Speaker
He was wearing Canada kit almost. He was, but he wasn't pulling it off. He doesn't dress that well at the best of times. He doesn't dress that well at the best of times, to be fair. Also, I must mention Foxes, I think you kind of mentioned it. It's not like he lit himself on fire on the weekend. He had a pair of 70s. It just didn't quite...
00:19:59
Speaker
quite work out for him. It wasn't anything, you know, he didn't play awful. It just wasn't as hot as earlier in the week, really.
00:20:11
Speaker
It wasn't to be and look, I think it brings him back to the kind of front of mind when it comes to President Cup selection though. Like he probably needed a week like this in America to maybe justify what Mike Ware was thinking. And I heard on the radio this morning back in New Zealand that he's in regular contact with Mike Ware and they even had a hit together at Tariti. So look, hopefully
00:20:38
Speaker
It's been a long time since we've had a Kiwi involved in the President's Cup and it'll probably make it a bit more interesting for us to get amongst really this year. So hopefully that's put him in a good frame. Like I personally think he's not an absolute lock by any means and hopefully the big fella gets in there.
Travel Anecdotes & Cultural Reflections
00:21:01
Speaker
And the other thing about a few good finishes is he does need to climb his way up the FedEx Cup.
00:21:07
Speaker
because he hasn't been playing well. It's important that he can get to a stage where it's not, you know, not stressful. And also, you know, it's not nice playing, knowing that you like, it'd be nice if you don't have to worry about and you just go and play golf. And so a couple of good finishes are like what you need for that to happen. So yeah, I'm glad Foxy's just turned a corner.
00:21:34
Speaker
Yeah, because you don't want to be grabbing your schedule at the back end of the year with like heaps of tournaments in a in a berth to kind of make up points so you can keep your card essentially. And because man, like there's also an Olympics just around the corner as well. So like, yeah, because at the moment, he's sitting 97th. So you know, he can get into that first event. Oh, no, not anymore. No, he wouldn't. So yeah, to make the playoffs, he's going to have to
00:22:05
Speaker
get to the top 70. So he's going to need a couple more good finishes. So that's one to watch. AC, I haven't come to the floor with any playoff holders. We haven't done them for a few weeks. But do you have anything that you want to arise with the listeners? Anything that you want to get off your chest before we wrap up this pod and send you on the tube?
00:22:33
Speaker
Oh, just a tough scene. It's not anything too ridiculous. But last weekend, I went to Krakow in Poland and we had an 8 a.m. flight. So we had to get up at about, I think it was 4, it was 4.30. We had to get up. And so my mate and I went to the pub on Friday night. We were leaving Saturday morning and got
00:22:59
Speaker
I'd say we got a little carried away. We went to go for three pints and it turned into seven. And then so while we were there, we forgot to check in online. And so we're like, okay, all good. We thought we'd do it in the Uber on the way to the airport, but it had closed. But since we were going on a really cheap airline,
00:23:25
Speaker
It's obviously not that bad. You just have to print a boarding pass out at the airport. But they stung us 40 quid each just to print a boarding pass. That was a lesson learned. That was a tough consequence for not doing a whole heap wrong. But the boys will be better for the run after that. I'm not doing that again.
00:23:53
Speaker
There's some, you can, you can get some pretty dodgy cheap flights over in the UK. It's, it's some of the, some of the great, um, some of the great rots of all time flying to like Dublin. I think I'm fine at Dublin for 25 quid this weekend. Oh, that's outstanding. What's on the agenda in Dublin? You've been spending a little bit of time there. Yeah, it's a lads trip. Um, so a lot of Guinness is probably what I'll say.
00:24:23
Speaker
I've seen over there, doesn't it guys? It does, it's creamy. All I've seen is everything they see in Dublin, so we'll probably just literally just hook and go to the pub, soak it up, find some live music which isn't hard in Dublin, and yeah, it'll be a good night out.
Podcast Conclusion & Future Plans
00:24:47
Speaker
Mate, outstanding. I don't really have anything in the playoff holes, but I'm heading to my first origin tomorrow night, so I'll be getting amongst the atmosphere, maybe doing my best renditions of some Gus Gould final words at the park beforehand.
00:25:08
Speaker
Looking forward to that, that's definitely something I've wanted to tick off for a while. I don't really sit on either side of the fence, but I think I'll ride with the crowd and hope New South Wales get up. Apart from that, I think we can sign off. Thanks for tuning in this week, guys. A little bit of a shorter one.
00:25:28
Speaker
We'll be back next week to preview a US Open at Pinehurst, which is an event that we've both been looking forward to. Like, subscribe, and as always, enjoy the podcast and just catch you next time.