- 2 years ago
Scotsman Golf Show
with Matthew Elder and Martin Dempster as they preview the PGA Championship
with Matthew Elder and Martin Dempster as they preview the PGA Championship
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00:00Hello and welcome to another episode of the Scotsman Golf Show.
00:07My name is Matthew Elder and I'm joined, as usual, by our Scotsman Golf correspondent
00:11Martin Dempster, where we're going to be looking ahead to the second golf major of the year,
00:17the 106th PGA Championship Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, where it looks as though you've
00:22been in the past, Martin.
00:24Yeah, good afternoon, Matthew.
00:26Yeah, I've been lucky to be there twice, actually.
00:28I was there for the 2008 Ryder Cup, which unfortunately ended in a defeat for a European
00:37side led by Nick Faldo, and I was back there in 2014, it's hard to believe, a decade ago
00:45for the very championship that's taking place this week.
00:48That, of course, was Ryder Cup year.
00:50It was a big event in terms of players qualifying for the Ryder Cup, and it was great to be
00:56there to see Rory McIlroy win the Wannamaker trophy in an event that finished in the dark,
01:03I remember.
01:04Yeah, but it's hard to believe it's been so long since Rory's last major win, which was
01:11at Valhalla, like you say.
01:14Before a ball's even been struck in the 2024 event, though, it's been another dramatic
01:17couple of days in golf.
01:18You just want to let us know what's been happening?
01:21Where do you want to start?
01:23Yeah, the good old golf world, eh?
01:26Never dull, and yeah, this week started on Monday when Jimmy Dunne, who had been part
01:34of the PGA Tour Policy Board delegation that met with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment
01:43Fund and he broke a deal that led to a framework agreement that's being worked on at the moment.
01:52He sensational resigned from that board with immediate effect, and that seemed to come
01:57out of the blue to everyone.
02:00He said that he felt there had been no meaningful progress in the talks that are taking place
02:05between the PGA Tour and PIF, also involved in the DP World Tour, of course, and that
02:11seemed a bit alarming, to be honest, because it seems to reflect what a lot of people have
02:18been claiming to be the case.
02:19So we'll just need to see where that one goes, because almost a year since that deal
02:25was struck, we don't seem to be any further forward, and we certainly need to see progress
02:30at some point.
02:32And then that was followed by Rory McIlroy.
02:35You mentioned him there a decade ago, since he won his fourth major.
02:40Rory confirmed, or his team confirmed, that Rory has filed for a divorce from his wife
02:47Erika.
02:48They've got a young child, so never a great thing to happen to any family.
02:54So Rory's had a lot going on in his life off the golf course, with the ways he's been involved
03:00in matters around the creation of Live Golf, being against that, then coming off the PGA
03:07Tour board, trying to go back on it.
03:09And now he's got another more important matter, personal matter, to deal with.
03:14It'll be interesting just to see if that has any effect on his performance this week and
03:19going forward.
03:20Yeah, always more difficult going through these things in the public eye as well, like
03:24Rory will be.
03:26John Ram, another who's created some controversy with his remarks about still being a PGA Tour
03:32member.
03:33Yeah, I mean John, of course, he signed for Live in a huge money deal at the end of last
03:40year.
03:42That was a really significant signing by Greg Norman's Live Golf circuit.
03:48It sort of seemed to be, I mean, John seemed to want to stay where he was.
03:55He talked about legacy, et cetera, but he's gone there, he claims he's happy there.
04:01That remains to be the scene.
04:03He's already made some noises about the events being 54 holes when he's been used to playing
04:0872 holes.
04:09Yeah, in his press conference yesterday, John sort of made some comments about he's not
04:14playing on the PGA Tour just now because he's not allowed to because of the Live Golf situation.
04:20But he says he remains a member and is keen to see a resolution.
04:26But just the way he sort of made his remarks and that's created a bit of anger.
04:33Aaron Oberholzer, a former PGA Tour player who's working for one of the American networks,
04:40he really was quite incensed about the way that John's talking about this.
04:45And it goes back to what we all said about when players left in the first place about
04:52wanting their cake and eating it in terms of going there, getting good money, but still
04:57wanting to come back and play on the circuits where they made their name.
05:03Yeah, I don't think personally, I don't think John's really been out of place a lot of the
05:10time in terms of the way he's spoken about things.
05:12I like how John handles things.
05:15I didn't agree with the move he's made, but this certainly stirred a bit of a horn in
05:21its nest. And it'll be interesting to see if John's got something to say about it as
05:25the week goes on.
05:27Indeed, indeed.
05:30Scotty Scheffler, another who's going into the tournament as a Red Hot Favourite, but
05:35he's another who's been distracted in the build-up to it.
05:38Do you want to talk through what's been going on with Scotty?
05:40Yeah, we've all been there, Matthew.
05:43He's a dad for the first time.
05:44So like anyone, a new arrival in the world, it's a huge thing.
05:52Very excited to be a dad.
05:54Bennett Scheffler arrived last week.
05:58Scotty's wife, Meredith, gave birth last week and he was at home for that.
06:03And yeah, I mean, he's won his four of his last five events, including the second
06:09Masters. He's been on fantastic form, almost getting to the point where he looks
06:16unstoppable because he leads, I think, five out of the six categories on the PGA Tour.
06:21And that's very, very impressive, showing that he's got a really solid all-round game.
06:27He says that he's not going to take his eye off the ball.
06:29He feels his prep's still being good, despite not playing for three weeks, waiting on the
06:34birth. But it remains to be seen if that's going to have any impact.
06:39If not, and Scotty Scheffler can take up where he left off in the Masters and then the RBC
06:46Heritage, he's going to take a lot of stopping this week.
06:49There's no doubt about that because the golf he's playing is phenomenal.
06:53It's Tiger-esque in his prime.
06:56Tiger won here in 2000 when he was world number one.
07:00Rory won here in 2014 when he was world number one.
07:04So the stars could be aligning for Scotty Scheffler.
07:09Yeah, of course, how the course is playing, how it's set up, all come into it for the players.
07:14What have they been saying about Valhalla and who do you think it's going to suit over the next four days?
07:18Well, the one thing they're all saying is it's long.
07:22Every golf course nowadays that stages a championship, a major championship, is all about length, really.
07:30But this one, I think it's about 7,600 yards.
07:32I think it's six new tees since 2014.
07:36I remember it's not the prettiest of golf courses, but I think there's some nice holes,
07:42nice sort of short par three, shortish holes in the back now.
07:47The rough's quite thick.
07:48Apparently, they had rain yesterday.
07:50There's a bit of rain coming on Wednesday as well.
07:53So that's going to make the rough even more penal and it's going to play its full yardage, of course.
08:00So that points to a big hitter.
08:04And really, I mean, McIlroy, he's as long as anyone and playing well.
08:08But I think the guy, in addition to Scheffler, you've got to look at Bruce Koepka, three-time winner of this event.
08:15He's the defending champion.
08:17He won in his last live out in Singapore.
08:21And there's no doubt that when it comes to majors, Bruce Koepka is a machine.
08:27He's just got that focus to come into these events prepared as well as possible.
08:32And he's got a mindset that allows him to really move up a gear when it comes to these big events.
08:39So don't be surprised if Bruce Koepka walks away on Sunday with a sixth major,
08:46because he's very, very impressive in the events that matter most to all these golfers.
08:53Of course, we'll all be cheering on our own.
08:56Bob McIntyre, the sole Scot in the field.
08:58He's playing with John Daly, the 1991 winner, and he's opening two rounds.
09:04Do you see Bob being up there and amongst the leaders?
09:08Yeah, well, that's a big test for Bob, a big challenge to see if he can do that.
09:13I mean, John Daly is an interesting one straight away.
09:17John's a bit of a character, of course.
09:19And let's hope that Bob can just, if there's any sort of circus around John Daly, fan-wise, etc.,
09:27let's hope Bob can just switch off of that, focus on his game.
09:32He's got a good record in majors.
09:35This event last year was the first one he had missed a cutting.
09:39He had been playing really well in his majors before that.
09:43We all know that he's gone to the PGA Tour this year.
09:46He's found it difficult over there, not produced the results he's been looking for.
09:50He's found the environment difficult over there.
09:53But he was in contention for three rounds in the Myrtle Beach Classic last week,
10:00which was a second event after the Wells Fargo Championship on the US circuit.
10:04He didn't have the last round he was looking for, but he'll definitely take a lot of confidence from that.
10:11And he is hoping he gets off to a good start.
10:13He's got his team out there, his mum's out there doing the cooking.
10:16That'll give him a wee sort of homely feel.
10:20And if Bob can go off to a good start and get those good feelings going again in the majors,
10:25he's hoping he's certainly there for the weekend and hopefully maybe challenging for a top 20, top 10 on Sunday afternoon.
10:34That would be great.
10:36I know you've already written a piece about this this morning, but how important do you think this week is for golf?
10:42Obviously, at a time you've spoken about already when fans seem to become a bit fed up with everything that's going on in terms of the politics,
10:49away from the golf course over the past two years.
10:51Hugely important.
10:53We're two years, as I said at the start, we're two years on now since Liv came on the scene,
10:59created a big division in the game.
11:02The hope was that the deal that was struck last June was going to lead to a coming together.
11:09Tiger Woods talked yesterday about, Tiger Woods is on the PGA Tour policy board.
11:14He talked about how steps are being taken, not giant steps, but said there's still a long way to go.
11:21The TV figures this year, they've dropped dramatically.
11:26That tells you the fans are not happy with what they're seeing.
11:31And there's no doubt that the solution, the way forward is these players all coming back together again, as is the case this week,
11:39as was the case at the Masters, as will be the case at Pinehurst in the US Open, and the 152nd Open at Royal Troon in July.
11:47That's what golf fans want to see.
11:50Majors still have that special feel about them.
11:53Players just raise their game at a different level when it comes to majors.
11:57Fans get more excited when it comes to majors.
12:00So we can't have majors every week.
12:03But in the future, we need to see the top players getting back together again more frequently.
12:10There's obstacles, to be clear, to allow that to happen, because the players who went to live, the John Rams who lined their pockets,
12:18can't just come back and play without some penalty, some retribution.
12:25I don't know what you call it, but there has to be something.
12:28But for the good of the game going forward, we need the best players to be playing against each other more frequently.
12:35And there's no doubt we'll see this week what a major means for the sport, and that's so important.
12:44Well said, Martin. We're all looking forward to hopefully some good golf this weekend, take our minds off all that nonsense off the course.
12:50Thanks, everyone, for watching today.
12:52The PGA Championship will be covered on Scotsman.com forward slash golf.
12:58Martin will be keeping on top of all the goings on over there and obviously covering Bob McIntyre, our own man flying the saltire in Valhalla.
13:09But for now, thanks for watching and we'll see you on the next golf show.