Playing From The Tips #9
boo I’ve never seen anything like it before to attempt to hit the ball out of there is pure Madness the winner of the gold medal and the Champion golf for of the year is Cameron Smith this is the one that I’ve always wanted to win since I was a little kid so it just feels pretty amazing to be able to get it done today uh it’s amazing that it’s my destiny to be the first ay to win just incredible hello and welcome to episode 9 of playing from the tips the preview and tipping show from golf Australia magazine where like everyone we’re nursing a slight Master’s hangover yet Soldier honors the world of professional golf keeps moving I’m your host Jimmy Emanuel and joining me to take a look at the PGA LPGA and Asian tours this week are two of our so-called experts fresh off some good tipping at Augusta one of whom even managed to tip the eventual winner of the year’s first major I speak of course of golf Australia Magazine’s resident left field thinker and World golf’s Premier path man Adrien log who told us exactly a week ago that John Ram would win the Green Jacket log apart from any gloating have you got some Masters highlights for us uh no I was just going to gloat it was just a pure since this time yesterday it’s all you’ve had on your mind yeah come here and GL Ram just magnificent he was saving it up for the for the majors and he’s going to be unstoppable this major season Unstoppable are you ready to tip him now for the remaining three no but he’ll be He’s Surely going to contend if he can stay healthy it’s just yeah why wouldn’t he stay healthy it’s just like well you know somebody could come along and beat him on any given thing but he’s going to be in contention in all four majors he’s just he’s having his three window isn’t he he’s having his 18mon window as Harrington I think he’s bit more than the I agree but he’s yeah he’s not he’s not Target but he’s that rung down before you get to have a threeyear window player yeah yeah and my other P did Jason day finish top Aussie no no he didn’t he had 80 the last day that what okay what we’ll talk about that okay sorry yes that that other voice you can hear is uh the only golf columnist I think who managed to write two columns during Master’s week that were distinctly not about the Masters Rod Moray Rod uh what excited or disappointed you about the master were Masters adjacent were they before we come to that has one mention one mentioned AUST the National Golf Club as a jumping off point that’s about it that’s Masters adjacent isn’t it uh has log has log gone beyond socalled can we call it how many winners has he had this year it’s been pretty good hasn’t it uh a couple am I am I leading the I think he’s had three winners three winners um yes get oh there you go get on me three winners do not ever say that again that I don’t need to hear that ever again in my life ever again um you and I Rod though have had 14 top 10 and I’ve had two wins so we’re we’re consistent yeah Clay’s off us he doesn’t like consistent you better off to win three times a year and Miss every other cut you make a career out of that you can make a career couple we’re Patrick can’t laying our way through life here J well a little quicker than that hopefully let’s hope so uh what was it I really was taken by the Augusta what I wrote about yesterday the Augusta National announcement about the public o I want to see what happens with that it had the bit of a feel about the big flashy announcement we’re going to support the local public golf course I can’t see any reason why they wouldn’t live up to that commitment but it’ll be really interesting to see what it looks like I did see I read from someone that they went down to Augusta austa Municipal Golf Course when Ann was made and no one at the patch knew anything about it I read a separate story well I didn’t know it’s got real ties to Jim Dent PJ is the way in there exactly and his son is the pro there so look it’s a that could be a really interesting I hope that turns into something really interesting and a model I wrote yesterday I’ll be using the Jim Dent signature big berther as a homage then to that on uh this Thursday in your own little homage yeah exactly anyway so that’s what caught my the master is always interesting but that catches everybody’s eye and of course you got to you got to watch all that but I think that’s a really interesting potential development for the long term it’s not as sexy as the Masters in four days of golf but it’s interesting that’s what caught my eye I think on on log’s point about Ram before we finish introducing you I think Ram is one of the few that isn’t in his two threee WI window he’s a he’s a career long sort of there’s three levels of players there there’s tiger there’s the genuinely special where RAM and maroy and spe sit and then there’s the threee Window Guys which are unbelievably good Che sort of thing yeah yeah that’s exactly right he’s been on tour for eight years or so now and I think he’s W every year as well is that yeah close to yeah not eight years not that long six or seven played his first Mes in 2017 yeah first and had never played it as an Amon which is quite amazing no because he didn’t he didn’t really win a huge amount apart from College events as an Amer he was sort of yeah he’s a special talent though the one thing I will say about and this is just about modern golf we’re in an era now where I don’t think you’ll see another tiger where there’s a 25-year career at some point the way they play the game with that power game bodies are going to break down that’s not been the case with golf before mikkelson is an outlier and what he did was amazing youday but as he said himself he’s injury free he’s never had injuries he’s always had that incredibly languid flexible kind of body could set some records that nobody will ever touch no that’s exactly right and won’t he have the last laugh on tiger if he does but but I don’t see Ram we’ve seen Jason day zator is at his second back surgery at the age of 26 you look at that Sam Bennett he has to snap in to at some point doesn’t he him and him nean that same kind of you just can’t do that into your 30s 40s 50s um and I think that that’s the thing that’ll stop us seeing another tiger is the way the game’s changed even tiger himself he’s broken so but I think yeah Ram is definitely there’s tiger and Jack and and then there’s that second tier and I think Ram’s in there you’re right yeah agreed so that those tips took us to uh eight wins in 61 top 10 of the year so we do somewhat know what we’re talking about as a group uh but let’s move on to this week and we have the traditional PJ tour Masters followup with the RBC Heritage at harbort toown in South Carolina uh a staple on tour and in this slot for a long time RBC Heritage this year is quite unbelievably a designated event for the PJ tour uh meaning the big names are all but required to make their way and teed up the week following a major so long as your name isn’t Rory mroy and you can withdraw from your second uh designated event of the year which uh I assume given it’s kind of Jay Monahan is all powerful and this he won’t face any issues for but no reason given to the withdrawal but Rory not there this week um you’d have to assume it’s a designated event perhaps this this year uh B rewarding a longtime sponsor in IBC host venue as well and that next next year you won’t have the same status for this event uh particularly given Rory pulling out and already a bit of noise about it within the playing group that they wouldn’t want to play the week after a major most of them so uh it’ll be interesting to see what happens with this event next year but John Ram is of course playing um so to defending Champion Jordan SP who beat Patrick Klay in a playoff last year basically the who’s who of the PJ tour including Aussies Cam Davis Lucas Herbert Adam Scott and minwoo Lee who is chasing uh temporary special temporary membership on the PJ tour after he gets in here via being in the top 50 in the world ranking uh and a good Australian history here as well you’ve got Gran Marsh Greg Norman Peter lonard and Aaron badley all having had to wear that embarrassing and God awful Tartan jacket can you imagine going from trying to win a green jacket you’d wear everywhere as much as it may not be a good-looking thing and then you win a Tartan jacket the week after let’s just back up aside from the golf this week what is going on with this time why would you put a designated event the week after the Masters spe’s already said that he was too too tired at the Masters that’s what cost him and now he’s got to back up again this week of course Rory’s B I don’t understand what they were thinking Jimmy I I like I say it the PJ tour’s language around it is very much around this season it is a designated event um they obviously had a commitment to the number of designated events they wanted to have and they had to find established events to do that with um and like I say IBC has been a very solid sponsor on the PJ tour of both this event and the Canadian open um and harbort toown I mean they’ve been playing at harbort toown since I think 1969 a long time um course usually get winners it’s it’s a high-profile week I think cuz interest in golf’s peaked a little bit it’s you can see why this tournament as one but it has never had this sort of field that’s no it’s always had a decent field cuz you had like Dustin Johnson was an RBC guy for a long time yeah and he would uh he would play Jordan SMI plays pretty regularly Rah has played it once in 2020 um there was always decent Luke Donald’s always MD reg contended to far Ernie ell used to te it up there and Ernie is actually back playing this this week Redemption you have to feel don’t you that next year’s going to be a disaster for the PGA to with a lot of this stuff they’re going to take a long-term sponsor like RBC and it’s just not going to work designated well can they maybe the reason it works is the week it’ be hell of a lot better preparation for the Masters than that thing we had a couple of weeks ago it’s 120 M down the road from the gates to the gusta National that’s why it’s on um it’s a resort place it’s lovely course Golf Course wise you know it’s it’s narrow it’s treelined it’s it’s much more about ball striking so you wouldn’t have thought they’d want to play there the week before the Masters they don’t need many drivers around there so true it’s it strikes as they tried to do the opposite of what they did with the Honda Classic and Honda who was the longest term sponsor on the PJ tour where they’ve lost Honda because they didn’t give them designated status um but all it’s going to do is upset the players but it’s interesting interesting decision anyway we’re far from done with this whole the all just rup a league and everything they fall out from that we’re years from that sorting it going to be one of those to be fair Liv plays its next event next week and that’s all the way down here in Adelaide I can’t imagine too many of them would have been stoked back in on a plane for that length of time either so kker will be a joy on that flight won’t he yeah to be around yeah anyway let’s anyway let’s get some tips log you’re the winning form so you may as well lead us off your deep research well you mentioned the jacket and the jacket that you get the RBC Heritage which I I think there was somebody who was reviewing uh full swing or they were tweeting about it or something and left a screenshot of the presentation from the Heritage and said is there anything that screams golf more than every like a red tart everything in this photo a bunch of old BS in red Tartan uh I can see Matt Fitzpatrick looking pretty good in that jacket though and uh this is a course that suits his game interestingly the players will tell you that they’ll always hold this course up in the anti-rollback argument because they say this is how you this is how combat length long players don’t win here and it’s kind of true um Matt Fitzpatrick it’s my pick he showed some form last week he he’s been in bad form but he well you Porter tweeted that he’s a mudrunner he reckons he’s the best he’s the best bad weather player in World Golf and apparently you got I didn’t see the original tweet that Yan put out he said he got howled down for that and then Midway through the r he smugly noted that mat Fitzpatrick was going very well yeah I think the best the best mud Runner is actually Shane Larry who seems to play unbelievable golf in Reigns but he’s not far off Fitzpatrick yeah r a tip from you I’m going with our own Cam Davis uh third third last year but more importantly he won’t want to miss the Masters again and this is the very first opportunity to make sure that doesn’t happen for 2024 by having a win here he’s got everything Cam he’s an underrated understated type of player but he’s got everything he could B up and win any given week including this one he’s got a good first name Cameron’s a trending going very Cameron’s on the way up in go yeah big time Big Time so yeah and he didn’t play the Masters last week I think that works against you not to say you can’t win here if you’ve played the Masters and played well what what not spe proof that last year I guess although I think he missed the cut at the Masters last year but I think players who didn’t play the Masters are more likely to sort to get up here so I’ll go with Cam Davis yeah I think spe is an interesting one but as he said he’s gassed I mean it’s hard to hard to yeah he was impressive on the last day but in I’m going to go with sah thala who is one of the best ball Strikers I reckon out on tour it’s a ball Strikers golf course he was ninth last week on Debo and he’s young so he doesn’t care about being tied he’s going to show up and play well and like you know he’s already guaranteed himself a spot back at the Masters with that ninth last week he has to win eventually he has to be he’s a delight as well is he just fantastic to watch He’s ALS he’s also slipped straight into the Master’s magician category with that with the chip that absolutely well he tied ninth on Deo and played a magical special shot at 16 uh that puts him straight in there and he was he’s one that before it was his first event if you going to say those who’ve never been there before who would you think mik go well you would have picked him as one that might yeah absolutely lovely like great story good character everything about everything to like about him so yep good pick I hope he does wi this week so let’s move on to the LPGA Tour which this week is in Hawaii for the latte Championship presented by hakai log what do we need to know uh the Lotte Lotte Championship presented by hakai this is the tournament with the hoola dance presentation at the end oh of course which is a bit degrading and cultural appr tart Tartan jacket and a hola dance this week we’re doing good I’ve never liked the look of that hola dance presentation but anyway they they enjoy it and it’s do it does immediately it immediately sets it in your mind as oh this is that Hawaii tournament um y h h Kim is the defending Championship uh defending Champion she also finished third in the recent La open so she’s bringing some good form in there uh past winner Brook Henderson is one to look at I think she’d be hard to beat she’s won twice there she won two years running and uh she’s looking to prepare for the Chevron where she’s uh had some success as well so not where it is this year though no not where it is this year not with that name indeed indeed but uh yeah Brook Henderson is a notable in the field Seline boutier I think is another notable um she’s coming off her first tournament since the playoff win she had Over Georgia Hall a few weeks ago on the drive on so those are a few and Georgia Hall is another form player so there’s a few form players in this field but interestingly the tournament will feature 30 all 31 of the old pga’s 2023 rookies so I don’t know what that tells you about the overall strength of field but this is a field which isn’t necessarily packed with all the stars but there’s Hann for a start isn’t it Ries get top are out week so yep indeed um and of those rookies one to watch is uh Minami katsu who’s a 10- Time winner on the Japan LPGA and in her first or in her last start she had a tied seventh at the LA open so that’s that’s one to watch um and if you got a pick for us log oh well I’ve just I’ve got to let you know a little bit about Haka Country Club the host and presenting sponsor of the latte Championship is that a bad sign when the course has to come in as a well LTE is there as the LTE is is the I think it’s just getting the name of the course into the it’s obviously owned by a business so yeah yeah uh firstly there’s a red flag on their website they use this font called a Matic SC can’t be a decent tournament if the fonts out I’m sure everyone who visits thinking they’ll go fore hit there goes oh no I can’t now it’s a small caps handdrawn font and it’s just it’s a bit of an odd choice I can see what they’re going for they’re going for sort of playful and fun and friendly but it doesn’t it’s a very odd Choice it’s for a professional high-end Resort exactly I’d love to have been a fly in the wall in the meeting where they’ve chosen a Matic SC uh as the font on the website um it’s it’s in aahu uh it’s actually the longest course in Hawaii I’m not they’re not playing off those back tees though um it’s designed by Ernie El second mention of Ernie Els in this podcast um and there’s not a lot to say about it except that it has 112 bunkers and nine water features okay that’s it that is terrible isn’t it it’s an awful can I suggest didn’t have a meeting talking about yeah I’m Sugg meeting I don’t think they had a meeting it’s clear red flag yeah despite all of this all of this offense we’ve taken with the font have you got a winner log uh my pick is in Chun um yep just getting into major season uh with the Chevron next week uh I think in chun’s going of be peaking and uh she’s she’s class r a thought a nice pool by the way at the the country club there just have you look at the website sorry I was going to pick Georgia Hall who’s the for player of the moment two seconds back toback in the last two tournaments but I think you might have picked her as well so I’ll let you have her I’m going to go with Brook henders who was my backup pick two-time winner loves this time of year she’s a rabid Christian Brook Anderson loves Easter in this time of year and has probably contributes to good form around this time of year so she posted some stuff over East on on her Twitter account but yeah I’ll go with band I will take Georgia Hall Second Twice looks to have done a lot of work in the offseason so she’s had the slump hasn’t she good player who’s had the slump every player has the slump I think she probably won she probably won a bit earlier a bigger event than everyone thought she would and then sort of played at her level for a while and so she can improve and be a better player but she was probably actually playing at her level rather than slumping so interested to see what she comes up with this year particularly at the majors cuz she’s a good player so yeah all right not riding away of Christianity though no no no not like uh I don’t believe so no okay all right good good luck to us finally uh we go to the Asian tour and this time the international series goes to Vietnam and Rod you’re going to Enlighten us on all the details inde well these These are the 10 I think they’re 10 or 12 events that use the the PF the the Saudi money to have these elevated events on the Asian tour which has been great for the Asian tour it’s kind of the thing we don’t speak about with Liv this is been really good for the Asians around for Australian golfers in particular who get to play in Asia so the purse is $2 million which is their normal purses are closer to $750,000 or a million us it’s a Greg Norman design golf course there seems to be a bit of this in this International series which is probably not really a surprise maybe it is just a coincidence but it’s in Vietnam the knen golf links cam ran 65,000 meters so it’s not short on uh on distance that’ll be plenty of that five power fours 5 Par 3 is your standard setup Scott hen posted a photo this morning of some shark you know the darkark logo oh yeah some actual ornaments of that in the ground I don’t know whe Norm anything to do with it but sort of large versions of that uh I’m certain staked into the ground around the place so do you know who didn’t have anything to do with it Ernie Els that’s a three Fe there you go the trifecta well done only the course actually looks pretty interesting big rolling landscape on the beach front window be a factor uh sort of rolling and wrinkled ground how much of that Norman’s inserted how much was actually there hard to say um does look to be some quite difficult holes out there who knows what’s going to happen they’ve never played a tournament here this is the first of this tournament the that’s to be played does seem to be a bit of internal water around the golf course as well so it could be some interesting stuff in terms of the golf players to watch well the list is well all the Australians virtually the best known names Casey leiri Tumi canay Andy ogry are the ones people probably heard of in the field loads of players we haven’t heard of and it’s probably going to be one of them that ends up winning the tournament uh because that’s how these things work the Amer TK can you give us his name in full Jimmy chantan or what rat name raten on chantan what yeah ex he’s a really impressive player he’s got a sponsor invite this week have has have three Saudi Arabian golfers which is interesting you wonder what the politics TK gets no shortage of sponsors he’s he’s more covered than Sam Bennett for an Amor so and he is man though he is the man though great person great live uh live logo on the collar of his shirt at least last time I saw him in person so yeah indeed so the three s invites I thought were interesting is that is this doing something for golf in Saudi Arabia is there perhaps a small positive in there somewhere there’s been a couple of times they’ve played some asan 2our events this year couple Saudi players so maybe there is well yeah uh strange in the field there’s bucket loads of them Tom hor and Scott henway I won’t go through the full list the ones that I think we’ll probably see Bob up this week Tom power horen who was really impressive at the national a couple of weeks ago this this course doesn’t look completely dissimilar to that necessarily got a linkfield there’s no trees Big Sandy waste areas blowout bunkers that aren’t constructed just part of the the sort of wasteland uh as will John Lis I think I really like the look of him at the national didn’t have his best stuff yet played well completely knacked though and he’s been playing so much golf yeah had a week or so off yeah they’re young um and this kind of field here I mean it’s not like stepping up to the mes or the US Open it’s um you know they’re in they’re in company that sort of is uh is applicable uh trap SM Wade Orby are two winners so far this year on the agent who are both there you wouldn’t write them of Zack Murray good player Todd Cate he’s a really interesting Todd S I thought he was going to just come rifling back after that win here in Australia last year and it hasn’t quite happened the way you thought this C course could I tell you who this course might suit is Marcus Fraser yep who surprised everybody I think at the Olympics not a completely dissimilar course to this uh where you can get the ball on the ground and running Etc um Andy Ogle tree maybe Rio hit’s how about we live in a world where Andy Ogle Tre is like still bobbing up this two after won that us Amar I was thinking there’s no way we’re going to see this BL again but he’s to his credit he found himself a place here hasn’t he this is a well this is kind of his only place isn’t it so there’s a real incentive for him to do well here and he has done he’s had three top 10 four starts in he would have been he would have been the kind of guy who would have had a maybe a career on the corn fairy tour bobbing away and trying and occasionally getting promoted and coming back and he’s kind of found his Niche by playing Asian tour events like he’s he’s he’s one of the better players there so and the bloke he beat in the US am at a final at Pinehurst that year I thought he was a star and I haven’t seen Ain yeah orstein John orstein yeah what’s happened to him I made golf signed an equipment deal with Wilson that’s the last thing I remember hearing from him so anyway yeah uh look it’ll be an interesting event this week who knows who’s going to win I’m going to tip Tumi canay cuz he’s just such a good player he’s got to win lots he’s already won one of these International series events wouldn’t surprise me to seen him wi another but that’s really just chucking a dart at a list of names and seeing what it hits oh is that is that how it’s done in the uh as a so-called expert sometimes yeah I’ve done I’ve done the same thing in gold with P power horen so I wouldn’t be love love to see him win uh I’m going with leiri uh you know he’s a class player that’s undeniable he’s going to be uh one to watch this week I’m interested to see this golf course have they played there before no they haven’t played this tournament they haven’t played this golf course and it does it looks really interesting really interesting sort of land so did Harley have anything to do with it oh he might have yeah he’s been over there a fair bit but yeah I’ll ask him about it we get some inside inside info for you that might be the most interesting tournament this week do we know is it going to be telis here I think yeah absolutely yeah absolutely yeah uh that’s it for everything for this week impressive effort from us to bounce back after M this week I think but uh thank you for listening and coming along for the ride keep up to date with all of these tournaments and more on Golf australia.com and keep out for the May issue of golf Australia magazine which is on sale this Thursday with Rory maroy on the cover he talks about being the most complete player he has ever been despite not playing des and most complete schedule just the most complete player we look at Jason day’s Resurgence and see if CAD Shack stands the test of time through the words of Adrien log oh we will see you next week on playing from the tips [Music] [Applause]
It’s time to take a breath after a whirlwind Masters week but there’s no rest for the golf world with three events to preview.
The LPGA are in Hawaii, the Asian Tour heads to Vietnam and the PGA Tour are at their traditional Masters wind down spot at the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head.
Host Jimmy Emanuel, Rod Morri and Adrian Logue have the low down on all of them in episode nine of Playing From The tips.
Music by www.Audionautix.com