Speaker 1: It was a tough weekend, and it was tough week
Speaker 1: for anybody playing at the US Open at Oakmont. What
Speaker 1: a brutal, brutal track to try and navigate for the
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty fifth playing. Our next guest on
Speaker 1: the Lindsey Hunter Foundation guest line is Grant Hefner, and
Speaker 1: he was able to do just that. He played there
Speaker 1: Thursday and Friday. He had to win a qualifying round
Speaker 1: in Ohio and was unbelievable in winning it, beating out
Speaker 1: some massive names that you're familiar with. And the Michigan
Speaker 1: native joins us here on this Monday, Grant, hope your
Speaker 1: dad had a great Father's Day. How are you this morning?
Speaker 2: Good? I'm doing well.
Speaker 1: Good. How difficult was that course?
Speaker 2: You know, it's sometimes it's tough to explain. It probe
Speaker 2: the hardest golf course I have played in my career
Speaker 2: so far, just based on the condition. You know, US
Speaker 2: Amateur was health there in twenty twenty one and I
Speaker 2: had a privilege to be able to play in that.
Speaker 2: But it was nothing like what I just experienced Thursday Friday.
Speaker 2: I mean, the rough is just five and a half
Speaker 2: inches thick, and you know, the people who did the
Speaker 2: best were those who could avoid it.
Speaker 1: How do you prepare for course like that with its challenges?
Speaker 1: I mean playing it in a practice round is one thing.
Speaker 1: Playing it like you said before, uh is another. But
Speaker 1: the conditions are not always the same. So how do
Speaker 1: you prepare for something like that?
Speaker 2: The conditions before the golf course throughout the weeks changed.
Speaker 2: When I got there Monday, we had just got off
Speaker 2: some rain and the course was quite soft in the fairways,
Speaker 2: like it kind of was yesterday to the final round,
Speaker 2: the rough was a little more wet. To prepare for it,
Speaker 2: I mean I must have hit hundreds of chips and
Speaker 2: shots out, you know, out of the rock, just over
Speaker 2: the course of three four days, just to you know,
Speaker 2: have any idea what to do. I mean, fortunately I
Speaker 2: had a good team with me, with you know, two
Speaker 2: of my country group coaches, you know, coaching on tour.
Speaker 2: But you know, even with that, I mean, it was,
Speaker 2: you know, it's a blind you're off pretty much. It's
Speaker 2: you know, it's it's a rubb of degree meaning it's
Speaker 2: you know, do you end in it or do you
Speaker 2: do you get in the rough or do you not?
Speaker 2: And you have to play your best to you know,
Speaker 2: you know, play very strategic in order to achieve that.
Speaker 1: Michigan ned a grand Hefner joining us here on extra
Speaker 1: Jo Bros. He was a qualifier for the US Open.
Speaker 1: On Thursday. You shot an eighty one. On Friday you
Speaker 1: shot a seventy seven. But your front nine is one
Speaker 1: that your back nine was really good. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you played the back nine, you're in right, you make
Speaker 1: the cut. It's the front nine that caused problems, not
Speaker 1: just for you, but for just about everybody. What was
Speaker 1: the biggest difference between the front nine at Oakmont compared
Speaker 1: to the back nine at Oakmont?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's funny you caught on to that. The
Speaker 2: I think the front nine there are holes there that
Speaker 2: are just absolutely brutal to take three Hold eight and
Speaker 2: Old nine. Those three holes are just they had to finish,
Speaker 2: uh three of the hardest holes of the week, and
Speaker 2: there's no escaping that, meaning if you hit a bad shot,
Speaker 2: you can't get away with it. Compared to the back nine,
Speaker 2: you know, full ten you don't need a hit driver,
Speaker 2: whole eleven you don't need a hit driver. And the
Speaker 2: green top pluses or I would say a little less severe,
Speaker 2: but you could have almost all a scoring stressed and
Speaker 2: I played really well on that nine the second day,
Speaker 2: and if I made a couple of cuts, you know,
Speaker 2: making the cut wasn't out of the question for twenty seven,
Speaker 2: but unfortunately, you know, I didn't, and so I still
Speaker 2: had a great nine of that shot even far. But
Speaker 2: you know, I'm bogied eighteen and it's still just a
Speaker 2: brutal tot. They hit it right and the rough off
Speaker 2: the team on eighteen, and I'm kind of knew it
Speaker 2: was pretty much a bogie immediately.
Speaker 1: How big of a challenge is number eight? It's a
Speaker 1: two and ninety three yard par three. It just seems
Speaker 1: like it's so daunting from the tee. What do you
Speaker 1: use in that? And how are you playing that? Specifically?
Speaker 2: That's burn the practice round. A lot of the players
Speaker 2: just put it myself, we were hitting drivers at it.
Speaker 2: As a week went on, out of the course firmed
Speaker 2: up a bit, we switched over to three woods, and
Speaker 2: but still the difficulty of it is you're hitting the
Speaker 2: three wood of the small you know, I don't say
Speaker 2: small green complex. The broach is large, three upon complex.
Speaker 2: But you can't miss, you know, the moment you hit
Speaker 2: it in a rough, you're still just you know, debt,
Speaker 2: you're trying to sit from around the green, and so
Speaker 2: I mean it was very easy to make a four.
Speaker 2: You know over.
Speaker 1: Immediately is the mindset of par Is okay? Or even
Speaker 1: a bogie on certain holes is okay? How challenging is
Speaker 1: that to adapt when you're you used to being the
Speaker 1: guy who was shooting sixty two and sixty three.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's amazing. Really, the mentality of bogey as your
Speaker 2: friend in the major championship, especially as mainly as I'd
Speaker 2: say the US Open is a very accurate statement. And
Speaker 2: I don't know if it was so hard to it's daft,
Speaker 2: but sometimes making bogeye was hard. Best example for me
Speaker 2: it was whull number three the first day. I hit
Speaker 2: it right in the rough, and my Kaddy and I
Speaker 2: talked about shipping into sideways last. But if I took
Speaker 2: this sideways, the least it would have gone through the
Speaker 2: fair way into the other rough. But let me try
Speaker 2: to killing forward. And I tried hitting at nine iron
Speaker 2: just to get it to go one hundred yards, and
Speaker 2: I couldn't even get us to go one hundred yards.
Speaker 2: And so now you know, a bigger number wasn't playing
Speaker 2: it ended up making triple.
Speaker 1: Grand after joining us here on Exison Bros. Professional goal
Speaker 1: for Michigan or played in the US Open. And it
Speaker 1: is a very challenging track, the greens or the rough.
Speaker 1: What was more challenging for you?
Speaker 2: The rough, without a doubt is uh, it was just
Speaker 2: such a It's so thick and it was so dense
Speaker 2: that it was really just luck if you had a
Speaker 2: good lie. You know, sometimes you did, but in the
Speaker 2: jord of your time you didn't. And you're opening that
Speaker 2: club base on your wedge and taking a swing that
Speaker 2: you would from sixty yards and you're hoping your ball
Speaker 2: just on the green.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you watch the last round, but
Speaker 2: you know Sam Burns on fifteen and you know, short
Speaker 2: side of himself to the last and you know he's
Speaker 2: taking this huge swing and he'n't even getting on the green.
Speaker 2: I mean, it was just it was just incredible to
Speaker 2: playing conditions like that.
Speaker 1: So I got a quick question for you. I'm glad
Speaker 1: you brought up Sam Burns. I forget which hole it was, Grant,
Speaker 1: but his ball lands would look to be in a
Speaker 1: puddle of water. I mean, it was. It was nasty
Speaker 1: usually it's a drop from there, right, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: some type of relief. Should they have get they didn't
Speaker 1: give him relief? Should he have gotten relief?
Speaker 2: And why if it was whole fifteen someone? I think
Speaker 2: some of they posted a picture on Instagram or stuffing
Speaker 2: saying like this is where his ball was. But you know,
Speaker 2: I didn't look at it too much. But to my knowledge,
Speaker 2: I don't know if there was enough rain to justify
Speaker 2: him get in what they call a standing water release.
Speaker 2: And so in order to get standing water release, you
Speaker 2: have to literally stand on pretty much where your golf
Speaker 2: ball is and water has to rise out of the ground.
Speaker 2: And at that point, it was not raining, and I
Speaker 2: think the ball the water was draining away, and I
Speaker 2: don't know if it was I don't know if it
Speaker 2: was justified. I can't say, but I think, you know,
Speaker 2: based on the telecast that I was watching, I thought
Speaker 2: his ball of fine didn't have mud on it. He
Speaker 2: just hit a really bad shot on fifty. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, his daddy should have had a name in way, right,
Speaker 2: and knowing that if he, you know, makes a thirty
Speaker 2: on seventeen, he's you know, still in the tournament.
Speaker 1: It's a good answer, Grant Hefner joining us on the
Speaker 1: Lindsay Hunter Foundation guest line courses in general, Grant, do
Speaker 1: you find that they are trying to make them pro proof?
Speaker 1: If you look at it, Oakmant has only two par fives,
Speaker 1: number twelve, six hundred and thirty seven and number four,
Speaker 1: six hundred and seventeen. You're playing par fours that are
Speaker 1: over five hundred yards five hundred and nine on number fifteen,
Speaker 1: five hundred and five. On eighteen you got a four
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty five yard par four, four hundred and
Speaker 1: ninety yard par four. Are they tricking these golf courses
Speaker 1: too much? So you guys can't score as easily as
Speaker 1: perhaps you could have ten years ago.
Speaker 2: Even ye you know, so I looked at this. But
Speaker 2: so if you were to have two ins rotten at
Speaker 2: that US Open instead of the five and a half
Speaker 2: six sens roughly played in, I think the winners you know,
Speaker 2: under ten under parts. So it put a premium on
Speaker 2: hitting the fairway out there. And because you know you
Speaker 2: take nine, it's four hundred and ninety six yards, and
Speaker 2: if you missed the fairway two yards left, you go
Speaker 2: into a penalty hazard. If you miss it two yards right,
Speaker 2: you're in a bunk or a rough, and from neither
Speaker 2: location you can't get it. On the green. You kind
Speaker 2: of thread this ball through a small, small opening and
Speaker 2: it puts just an exacerbation on accuracy and temperate patience.
Speaker 2: Not for the par five is they were very long,
Speaker 2: but they're actually both very reachable because some elevation change.
Speaker 2: So every guy was going for hole twelve pretty much
Speaker 2: if you hit the fairway, including myself, and I was
Speaker 2: going for them with either a six wood or three wood,
Speaker 2: and some guys were going for him with the iron seasons,
Speaker 2: but those were the only holes. He felt like, you know, hey, Exeason,
Speaker 2: my thirty opportunities. So I mean you just have to
Speaker 2: hold on and you know, grind out the rest.
Speaker 1: It's such a narrow margin of error though, I mean,
Speaker 1: you're talking about two yards. You hit it two yards
Speaker 1: right of your target or two yards left of your target,
Speaker 1: and you're getting pedalized even though you're hitting it in
Speaker 1: the fair way. And Grand Heffner can relate. He's on
Speaker 1: the Lindsay Hunter Foundation guest line with us here on
Speaker 1: X's and Bros. We saw the frustration from Terrell Hatton.
Speaker 1: We saw it from Sam Burns. We saw it from
Speaker 1: Bryson to Shambo. What were your colleagues on the PGA
Speaker 1: tour telling you about the course when all was said
Speaker 1: and done.
Speaker 2: You know, it was funny hearing a lot of people
Speaker 2: weren't thrilled as the four setup. I think they wanted,
Speaker 2: you know, they would have appreciated like four inch russ
Speaker 2: instead of you know, the five and a half six
Speaker 2: and stuff we had, which I think that it would
Speaker 2: have been a little more fair. But I wouldn't say
Speaker 2: the USJ ass the golf course as they have in
Speaker 2: the past. It's like USOLP such as Shinnecock. But I
Speaker 2: think it just led the frustration. I know, we all
Speaker 2: saw the Rory McElroy slams in the club head on
Speaker 2: uh on seventh or slamming this clubhead on the team
Speaker 2: marker on seventeen. But you know, I mean, I think
Speaker 2: that golf course does that to you. I mean, it's
Speaker 2: it is. It just puts a premium on you know,
Speaker 2: staying within yourself and making incredibly smart decisions and you know,
Speaker 2: not screwing up. And I did a nine hole where
Speaker 2: I played that way and it was a good score.
Speaker 2: Was out there, but you just really had to, you know,
Speaker 2: buffle down and earn it.
Speaker 1: Was it more challenging physically or mentally?
Speaker 2: I think I think physically, I think it's from like
Speaker 2: a I think mentally, I mean, because this game, this game,
Speaker 2: all of us have like very good golf wings and
Speaker 2: have the ability to shoot a low score and just
Speaker 2: to be able to mentally stand over a golf shot
Speaker 2: and really commit to a line and know that, hey,
Speaker 2: if I turned my club days a degree closed the
Speaker 2: reopen on this and you know, I've we're going to
Speaker 2: be in the rough and he just can't be in there.
Speaker 2: So it just puts an exager just exaggerate, you know,
Speaker 2: just frustrating.
Speaker 1: You got a chance to work out a little bit
Speaker 1: with JJ Spahn. You get to know these guys a
Speaker 1: little bit better as you continue to improve your game.
Speaker 1: How happy are you for a guy who made a
Speaker 1: sixty four and a half foot putt for birdie on
Speaker 1: number eighteen to win it by two and be the
Speaker 1: only guy in red figures.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's incredible. You know, it's funny. I thought I
Speaker 2: thought two under was a pretty good score for the
Speaker 2: end of the week and ended up being one under.
Speaker 2: But I can't say more nice things about JJ spawn.
Speaker 2: I happened to be able to play in the Rocket
Speaker 2: program with them last year. It was just a gentleman.
Speaker 2: And you know it's funny enough. I it's a golf course,
Speaker 2: setsuots so well, he's not the longest said are he
Speaker 2: has you know, he gets it far enough. He's a
Speaker 2: great iron player. He's patient. You know, he's not some
Speaker 2: guy who's going to go two twenty under in a
Speaker 2: US Open, but he can you know, stay around are
Speaker 2: in the US Open. And that's what they did this week,
Speaker 2: and uh, you know he's gonna be a nicer guy.
Speaker 1: What did this experience teach you and how do you
Speaker 1: use it moving forward in your PGA to her career?
Speaker 2: The my coaches and myself, we learned, we learned a
Speaker 2: lot about this week. We learned what I need to
Speaker 2: work on and what our game plan is going forward,
Speaker 2: and we start at this Thursday with that implementing this
Speaker 2: stuff so I can you know, get my get my
Speaker 2: status out there and you know, play out there week
Speaker 2: in week out and being out there for those guys,
Speaker 2: it just makes me want it even more, you know,
Speaker 2: it makes me want to be Uh, you know, a
Speaker 2: solidifide figure on the PGA Tour makes me want to
Speaker 2: be someone. You know, I may not be an r
Speaker 2: mac or air Bipon, but I can go be you know,
Speaker 2: even makes me makes me say I can go be
Speaker 2: a JJ sponsor. You know he uh, he's gonna win
Speaker 2: his first PJ Tour event. Soal ten years being a
Speaker 2: pro and uh, you know I'm only in year two.
Speaker 1: Help us with the challenges, I think it people view
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour as private jets, five star hotels, you know,
Speaker 1: Chaufford cars to the clubhouse and then you're playing and
Speaker 1: living the life of luxury. That's for the very rarefied error.
Speaker 1: It's a challenge. It's really hard. What's the most difficult
Speaker 1: part about trying to stay get and then stay with
Speaker 1: your tour card on the PGA Tour.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the lives we see if you watch,
Speaker 2: you know that's the full swing or the top of
Speaker 2: the line guys. You know, you see the price and
Speaker 2: you see the roar, you see the Jordan's ps and
Speaker 2: Justin Thomas and all these guys who are just you know,
Speaker 2: phenoms and world numbers, top ten in their life. Looks
Speaker 2: pretty tarn good. But there's a there's a large PJ
Speaker 2: tour that's you know, find commercial every week. You know,
Speaker 2: has rental cars who who you know, you may not
Speaker 2: be able to recognize if they walk to do a restaurant.
Speaker 2: I mean Jay Jay Fond told us, you know the
Speaker 2: practice FREEKW that is kind of his thing. You know,
Speaker 2: like you could walk into a restaurant and you know
Speaker 2: not really you know, maybe one first recognizing them. You know,
Speaker 2: it's not not uh you know, not somebody gives someone
Speaker 2: the starstruck. But with that, you know, not being a
Speaker 2: top of the line guy. I mean, it's it's adop
Speaker 2: and you know it's not glamorous, especially when you're chasing
Speaker 2: it like what I'm doing. You know, you don't have
Speaker 2: status and you're driving across the country to play in
Speaker 2: these events that are called mini tour events or Monday
Speaker 2: qualifiers just to have an opportunity, and you're staying in
Speaker 2: uh you know, you're not saying a five star hotels
Speaker 2: or you know, driving around a courtesy Lexis for the week.
Speaker 2: You're you're grinding it out, looking at your finances, making sure,
Speaker 2: uh you know you're well within your meat. I mean
Speaker 2: it's by far. Uh, you know, not a oral treatment
Speaker 2: when you're chasing them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's tough, but we give you a ton of
Speaker 1: credit because you're a hell of a player and we
Speaker 1: know that the challenges are there, but you can overcome them.
Speaker 1: We appreciate the time. Congratulations on winning the US Open qualifier.
Speaker 1: Congratulations on playing at Oakmont. We're going to hear and
Speaker 1: see you quite a bit moving forward. Thanks for the
Speaker 1: time today, Grant. We appreciate you joining us.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it. Thank you for what you do.