Sean Zak, Golf.com and Golf Magazine - Afterhours
In this episode, we engage in a profound discourse surrounding the unsung heroes of golf, particularly spotlighting the remarkable Lydia Ko, whose enduring commitment to the sport is often overshadowed by fleeting accolades. Our conversation traverses various engaging topics, including the significance of personal connections to the game, exemplified through the nostalgic reflections of a beloved grandfather who imparted invaluable lessons in golf and character. Furthermore, we delve into the evolving landscape of professional golf and its relationship with amateur players, contemplating the potential ramifications of proposed changes by the USGA aimed at reinstating the authenticity of the game. The episode culminates in a reflective note on the cherished possessions that evoke poignant memories, demonstrating how the essence of sport transcends mere competition. Join us as we explore these themes with earnestness and depth, fostering a greater appreciation for the complexities inherent in the world of golf.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Leon Bridges
- Lydia Ko
- Michael Bamberger
- Genesis Invitational
- In N Out
- Cushnet
- Callaway
- Nike
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcript
Welcome to Grilling at the Green After Hours.
Speaker A:The conversation that took place after the show ended.
Speaker A:What's the first song you want to hear on the radio when you start your car in the morning?
Speaker B:Oh, gosh.
Speaker B:Good question.
Speaker B:I am a big fan of Leon Bridges.
Speaker B:He's a folky kind of rhythm and blues artist, so truly, anything by Leon Bridges.
Speaker A:Okay, cool.
Speaker A:You can answer this one.
Speaker A:Name a player.
Speaker A:Any tour that you think is underrated and underappreciated.
Speaker B:I'm going to go with Lydia Ko.
Speaker B: know, an incredible season in: Speaker B:She continues to do it at an age that a lot of people start to give up the game in the women's sport and.
Speaker B:And all.
Speaker B:I mean, we forget what she did at 15, 16, 17, 18, 19.
Speaker B:And so I think we are underrating that.
Speaker A:Fair enough.
Speaker A:Fair enough.
Speaker A:Who's an unsung hero to you in the golf world?
Speaker B:Sean?
Speaker B:Ooh, unsung hero.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I'll go with a senior writer at our brand.
Speaker B:His name is Michael Bamberger.
Speaker B:He is kind of a.
Speaker B:He plays a fatherly figure for a lot of our team, you know, in a.
Speaker B:Like, a journalistically fatherly way.
Speaker B:Michael definitely looks out for all of us, and I would say he.
Speaker B:He'd be my unsung hero.
Speaker A:I'm actually reading his book now, his new book, and he's been on the show before, so I liked him a lot.
Speaker A:You're on the road a lot.
Speaker A:Name one place you always look forward to going.
Speaker A:And you can't say.
Speaker A:Can't say St. Andrews this time.
Speaker B:All right, so Scotland's out of the question.
Speaker B:I love going to cover the Genesis Invitational in la.
Speaker B:You know, I think a lot of people get intimidated by la.
Speaker B:This massive city, crazy traffic.
Speaker B:But if you can find yourself on Friday afternoon sitting in the amphitheater around 18, the sun is out at that point, even though it's February.
Speaker B:I think it's the best.
Speaker B:My favorite place to watch golf.
Speaker B:You're.
Speaker B:It's a grassy lawn.
Speaker B:You're on a hill.
Speaker B:You see these approach shots come in, and it's Beverly Hills.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's delightful.
Speaker A:And there's an In N Out burger not too far from there.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:So it's got it.
Speaker B:It's got it all.
Speaker A:It's got it all.
Speaker A:Here's something very important.
Speaker A:What's your favorite color?
Speaker A:Lifesaver.
Speaker B:Green.
Speaker B:I'm a big fan of, like, sour apple, like, sour candy.
Speaker B:So green apples.
Speaker B:The move.
Speaker A:Excellent, excellent.
Speaker A:If you could take a lesson or play a round of golf with one of your golfing heroes, they don't.
Speaker A:I mean, it could be somebody from the past that you never met, but who would that be?
Speaker B:Yeah, you know.
Speaker B:Okay, so are you looking for, like, someone who's played at a high level?
Speaker A:It doesn't matter.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's all for you.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:People we don't even know.
Speaker B:So, okay, this.
Speaker B:This probably won't land for.
Speaker B:For anyone but me, but my.
Speaker B:My grandpa.
Speaker B:My dad's dad's the one who taught me the game, and he basically carved out a path for me to get decent at it and to really enjoy it.
Speaker B:And I think he.
Speaker B:He passed away maybe 10 years ago, but I still think about him all the time on golf courses, and it would be so fun to have a range session with him right now because my game has changed and gotten a lot better since he's last seen it.
Speaker B:And I just think he.
Speaker B:He was so big on, like, the moral ethics and honor of the sport, and it's, you know, it's the best thing that this sport has going is what it teaches you.
Speaker B:And I think he would appreciate just hanging out one more time.
Speaker A:I bet he would.
Speaker A:You kind of answered this in the regular show, but do you think professional golf is getting further removed from everyday golfers?
Speaker B:I think there is.
Speaker B:I think they.
Speaker B:You know what?
Speaker B:I think the answer to that is no.
Speaker B:But I think they are pretty far away.
Speaker B:I think the answer is no, because I think they bottomed out at some point in maybe 20, 23, where, yes, it felt like pro golf was as far away as it's ever been from the game that you and I really play.
Speaker B:But you know what?
Speaker B:If we take the USGA at their word, they are going to roll back their golf ball and if necessary down the road, roll back the driver.
Speaker B:And I think we'll.
Speaker B:I think we'll see a game that starts to feel like it's the game that we all play.
Speaker A:Do you think that'll actually happen?
Speaker A:I'm quite.
Speaker A:I'm not.
Speaker A:I'm sincere.
Speaker A:I don't know if it'll.
Speaker A:I know they've implemented it, but you're also going to go up against a Cushnet and Callaway, and these people have billions of dollars in R and D and stuff, and they're not too hot on this.
Speaker B:You're correct about that.
Speaker B:My only response is that billions of dollars in R and D should actually help you, I think, deliver a product that fits within the boundaries.
Speaker B:I Do think that the USGA is as serious as they have been about anything.
Speaker B:And I think the, the other bodies will fall in line, and I think Augusta national plays a big role in that as well.
Speaker B:And, and so, you know, you get, it's, it's a bit of a house divided on that front, but I certainly lean on the, the rollback side myself.
Speaker A:I, I did an earlier show today and, and their position, which I will tell you, I'm kind of more in that camp, is narrow the fairways for the pros raise the rough, postage stamp the greens and make them slick as glass.
Speaker A:You know, I'm paraphrasing, but, but that might slow down the, if you will, the.
Speaker A:Bryson's trying to do 425, but when he's got, when he's got a two acre wide fairway, he can get away with it.
Speaker A:You know what I mean?
Speaker A:And I'm not picking on him.
Speaker A:I'm just giving you an example.
Speaker A:So I don't know.
Speaker A:In my world, I need all the help I can get.
Speaker A:So if, if I got a ball that's going to go 10 yards more, I'm, I'm for it.
Speaker B:Okay, you're with it.
Speaker B:Yeah, Sounds good to me.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:What's one thing you wish spectators wouldn't do?
Speaker A:And you can.
Speaker A:We don't have to refer to the Ryder cup from a couple weeks ago, but.
Speaker A:Because that was off the, off the chain there.
Speaker B:Yeah, the, my best answer for that is I just, I wish they wouldn't treat golf as a opera, as a, as a place to go viral.
Speaker B:I think that's where a lot of the shouting comes from, is I'm gonna do something that's going to be shown on television and going to be clipped on social media or I'm gonna record, you know, Rory as I yell at Rory.
Speaker B:And my friends will think it's funny.
Speaker B:It's just not that funny at all.
Speaker B:It really isn't.
Speaker B:And it's almost a, it's a pretty narrow demographic.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:It's probably 17 to 25 year old men if we're, if we're really narrowing it down.
Speaker B:And so it's just, you know, it's a point in life where you're trying to figure out, like, what is cool, what is funny, what does maturity look like.
Speaker B:And it just shows itself at these golf tournaments as if they were football games.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's more on the live side.
Speaker A:You know what?
Speaker A:From what my understanding is.
Speaker A:Okay, a couple more questions and then I'll let you go here.
Speaker A:Sean, if you could have dinner with a historical figure, I don't care whether they're alive or gone.
Speaker A:If they're gone, we'll bring them back for you for a couple hours.
Speaker A:But if you could have dinner with them, who would it be and what would be on the menu in the historical figure, in golf, golf, politics, history, anybody?
Speaker B:You know what?
Speaker B:I'll stick to golf.
Speaker B:I would love to have dinner with.
Speaker B:With Tiger's dad, Earl woods, because.
Speaker A:I.
Speaker B:Came into the sport too late to understand or to.
Speaker B:To really see Earl's contributions.
Speaker B:And those contributions are not just being Tiger's dad.
Speaker B:They are being, you know, a friend of the media.
Speaker B:Earl was a hell of a talker.
Speaker B:He talked to everybody.
Speaker B:He was, you know, a big prognostic.
Speaker B:To see Tiger become a dad, to.
Speaker B:To see the.
Speaker B:The effect, the true effect in ways good and bad that Earl had on Tiger, the most fascinating golfer who ever lived.
Speaker B:I would love to have one hour sitting around.
Speaker B:We're definitely having steak, and it's.
Speaker B:And we're definitely having red wine, but it's.
Speaker B:It's me and Earl and gosh, I feel like one hour would certainly not be enough, but I'd love to have it.
Speaker A:You would be picking up the tab, by the way.
Speaker A:Just.
Speaker A:Just telling you.
Speaker A:They used to spend a lot of time over at the Nike campus, you know, over there, so whatever.
Speaker A:Okay, next to the last question, if Sean Zach was declared supreme ruler of golf for one day, what would Sean decree as supreme ruler?
Speaker B:Okay, so I think the people would want me to say, like, oh, you know, cancel live and bring back the game.
Speaker B:What I would.
Speaker B:What I actually would do is I would spend the entire day figuring out a global schedule for the top 100 players in the world.
Speaker B:And it would start in Australia is where January would start.
Speaker B:A lot of people love that it starts in Hawaii.
Speaker B:And you're trying to not compete with the NFL, but even Hawaii events compete with the NFL.
Speaker B:Sunday, Sunday night playoff games.
Speaker B:And so you.
Speaker B:The way you get around it is you start in Australia and you visit some of the best golf courses in the world.
Speaker B:That's where your PGA Tour season begins.
Speaker B:Then you can go to the west coast of California and you can kind of play it out.
Speaker B:But I really want it to be as global as possible, meaning more than just the Scottish Open in the Open Championship in the Lynx Land.
Speaker B:You.
Speaker B:That's what I would spend all day doing.
Speaker B:And it would include stops in Ireland and Spain and hopefully a very big amount of time spent in America.
Speaker B:But just, you know, I think that's the stuff that Rory McElroy believes he wants.
Speaker B:And I just don't think we're ever going to quite get it.
Speaker A:Probably not.
Speaker A:I hope, I hope you're right, but I don't think it will.
Speaker A:Last question.
Speaker A:If I gave you a box with everything you've lost in your life, what would be the first thing you would reach for?
Speaker B:Oh, goodness, that is such a tough question of things that I've lost.
Speaker B:So it's probably not gonna be okay.
Speaker A:Oh.
Speaker B:You know what I think, like, just like maybe my first baseball glove I think is like when you look at like the baseball glove that I played with in high school, it's probably, I actually, it's probably not even lost.
Speaker B:It's probably at my parents house, but it's certainly lost to me.
Speaker B:And like, I don't, you know, I don't play catch with the baseball down here in Chicago or anything like that, but I do think like there are, there are certain dings and scratches and whatever on a baseball glove that was used for years and years that like speak to a ton of innocence and where you were when you were 16, 14, 12, whatever.
Speaker B:And it's like a baseball glove can.
Speaker B:It can just be.
Speaker B:It can represent a moment in time by just being leather and I don't know.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:The smell, everything, you know, it'll bring you back.
Speaker B:And I think that's where my head goes because, like, I've really carried golf forward.
Speaker B:Like there's nothing that I've lost in terms of golf that I need.
Speaker B:But I think it's some of the other sports growing up with that you don't quite have.
Speaker B:You have emotional attachment to, but you don't always level up with when you turn 30.
Speaker A:No, I get it.
Speaker A:Sean.
Speaker A:Zach, new book, new for me and I hope for a lot of you folks searching in St. Andrews.
Speaker A:It's a great read.
Speaker A:I recommend it.
Speaker A:You can also see Sean's stuff on Golf.com and in the Golf Magazine and maybe we can con him into doing a second book.
Speaker A:Maybe I'll go with him next time.
Speaker A:We'll do that.
Speaker A:Anyway, Sean, thank you very much for putting up with me.
Speaker B:Oh my gosh, this was a blast.
Speaker B:Truly.
Speaker A:Okay, we'll be back next week with another edition of After Hours here on Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:Until then, go out, have some fun, play some golf.
Speaker A:Most of all, be kind.
Speaker A:Take care, everybody.
