Reflecting on the Amgen Irish Open at Royal County Down (Feat. Mcilroy, Harrington, Power & Lowry)

right Jasper let's reflect on our day we've been wandering around watching these pros play rcd what's your uh first thoughts on how they approach a golf course of this standing and this much strategy so I think what's come through for me is how aggressively conservative are what I mean by that is they don't try to take off too much but they really commit to what they're doing so they'll they'll take a conservative line but they fully commit to it the difference between like good and great or really being tested is so fine here uh I mean they've got the course dialed in that's probably more than what mere mortals would have to play but it just shows you the best golf course architecture brings out the best in players I think this course is probably going to be about the misses and missing in the right place so and that's why I I've got another I want a tea off in about 24 hours so I've got 24 hours to figure out where to miss in every Hall and try and just manage my way around the course pretty well because I think this week it's going to be about it's not going to be about your good shots it's going to be about your bad shots and make sure that they're not too bad and don't get you into too much trouble the the texture of the golf course itself is unbelievable there's probably more Heather on this Lynx land than most heathland golf courses around London yeah so you've got an amazing tapestry you've got uh amazing Turf quality you've got fesk and B you've got Short Grass Heather and then gors so it's an amazing tapestry for golf and yeah it's it's quite unique and unusual plan the Irish opening on you know arguably one of if not the best golf course in the world in my eyes is um is a real treat you know we don't get to play this caliber of golf course very often on tour so uh to be able to come and play Summer like this is is amazing you know it feels like every hole's just sort of been carved out of the land it doesn't seem you know seem like they moved a lot of dir or gr to to make this golf course and um you know if you look at this golf course you can head numerous different clubs off te's um you can hit numerous different clubs around the greens in terms of bumping runs or chips or you know Landing it on the green not Landing it on the green I think the best the best golf courses I've sort of decided are the ones that provide you as many options as possible I think the the collection of part 3s is is very good here I think the seven pole you know it's 140 yards and um especially today with the wind blowing off the right you're you're standing on a te wondering how you're going to hit the green so this is the back right pocket of the seventh hole and you can see if you're slightly right you're going to hit this bank and run all the way down here we can already see a few pitch marks from the proam today I'm 6' 5 that thing is nearly my height look at that where are you meant to aim the consumate member and the high low handicapper aims at the right hand peak of seve donard and hopes for the best I think on even eight and nine coming in there is kind of laugh and you're aiming 15 yards right of the green and trying to hit a fade and hoping that it doesn't miss it left so it's completely different a lot of it's mental and just trying to like trust as it looks when you set up you're just kind of aiming off to an awful place and he trust that the wind is going to move it so it was nice I said I got to play 8 yesterday actually over in poor Rush play again today in these sort of winds so it's you you get kind of relearn it pretty quickly and uh see what you can and can't do but yeah you're just going to make sure you kind of trust whatever you're going to do I don't know if you want to play good golf out there more so you want to think well out there you got to you know you want to be get your head in the game and and and you know work your way around the golf course Be Clever uh and and you know be patient I suppose but it then a lot does depend on the weather and the and the setup so one thing I do notice whenever we're walking around is um there's been a few people with a butter there's been a few people with the wedge and it seems to have been the skill of these guys to be able to play these shots on these hard greens yeah well and I guess that's the thing you I mean recently we just watched someone coming in to five six and they were tucked behind a bunker um and both of them basically flopped uh basically a tilted up wedge off the toe and flopped it over the bunker and stopped it on the green if you seen that happen at your local Club you would be amazed uh these guys did it and walked on like it was just another shot um but there's just so many options around these greens and having those options it makes it not only exciting to play but also to watch for