1166: 12 US Women’s Open Storylines

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We're going to be heading out there. Got a lot of fun stuff on tap. We'll have a live show on Friday night. We're going to be hanging out with our friends from Ally on Thursday night. If you're going to be around, come on out, hang out. Today's episode is going to be presented to you by our friends at Titleist and the new Titleist GTS drivers.

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Every week, the list of players switching to GTS drivers gets longer. Last week's Charles Schwab Challenge on the PGA Tour, 43 of the 59 Titleist drivers in play were the new GTS 2, GTS 3, or GTS 4 models. GTS was also the choice of the NCAA Division I Women's Champion. Players continue to put their trust in Titleist driver performance and technology at the game's highest levels.

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Over the past week, Titleist was the most played driver on both the PGA Tour, LPGA, as well as the NCAA Men's and Women's D1 Championships. I am going to put a lot of my stock into this. The GTS is the greatest driver I've ever hit in my entire life. I'm in the GTS 3. I have never driven a golf ball like this. You're going to hear this a lot from me.

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cody is here hello cody hello excited boys uh you know nothing nothing gets you going quite like the us women's open well randy you've always had this affinity for riv uh you know we always obviously talk about riv every year when it rolls around for the genesis you know every once in a blue moon you're gonna get the year like we got this past year in the winter and and we all say that yeah the genesis should move to a different time of year blah blah blah what is about riv that really captivates you and uh has you stoked for this week

211.846 - 232.818 Soly

I just, listen, some of it is silly and I think some of it is serious. I think Riv is just a really cool piece of land, kind of, well, in the Pacific Palisades, but near LA, Southern California, this very tony country club.

233.68 - 264.351 Soly

But the golf course, man, God, it just, every time growing up, it'd roll around in February, the weather where I was is so shitty, and it just looked marvelous all the time on television. And I think it yielded some of the more interesting golf we would see on, I'm speaking now of the PGA Tour, of the West Coast swing, always seemed to produce really good leaderboards, some iconic holes.

264.411 - 269.882 Soly

Like it's rare for me to be able to remember a lot of holes from just like,

269.862 - 294.857 Soly

annual tour stops right because the courses aren't really the star of the show and i i always thought riv kind of was the star of the show and uh the big cypress trees the kukuya grass the barrancas like it just felt very foreign to me growing up in the midwest and so there's this like mythology in my mind it's just like man it's california cool and

385.111 - 406.148 Randy

Yeah, 17. But granted, that was what, late July, early August for the AM? But yeah, just a different, much less moisture, right? Much less, like it was just faster and just balls on the ground. It was faster. uh so i'm stoked for that i'm stoked i don't know like like randy said anytime we get to see riviera really fun to watch

407.107 - 433.013 Randy

two very different styles of play as well like watching the ladies attack this place and i think it's gonna be a fascinating setup discussion as you said i've got the got the interview with shannon but from the like it's not really a place that you can really run the ball up because of the kukuya grass and so like i'll be fascinated to see how they set set stuff up like four i mean i think even like one do they tee off from the regular like one is

432.993 - 439.78 Randy

but by all accounts a par four for the men do they tee off from the regular tee box for the women and just

440.823 - 470.83 Randy

know send them out there and then they and then they they basically shorten the two par fives in the back i'm shocked or i'm fascinated to see like where they play 10 from uh where they play a whole like like four from that's you know just a brutish par four and like there's just such a wider range of outcomes sorry par three like there's such a wider range of outcomes for what these ladies are gonna be hitting in to you know i would imagine they probably have it up around 190 195 and

470.81 - 475.892 Randy

I'm really, really excited to see how the ladies attack this place versus what the men do.

656.156 - 670.68 Shannon Rouillard

But, um, you know, we're, we're certainly expecting a typical win, um, West Southwest that will, you know, have an impact on our setup plan and the way the best female players play, uh, throughout the week.

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For those that aren't familiar with your background, how long have you been in charge of the setup for U.S. Women's Opens? You have a playing history with this championship as well and USGA championships as well, but for the listeners' sake, can you give us a little bit of background on that?

684.616 - 712.896 Shannon Rouillard

Yeah, so I started playing golf when I was 15, played college golf at the University of Oregon. I walked on and earned a full ride my junior year, had a short stint playing professional golf, then went on to become a college golf coach at the University of Oregon. Then I took a turn and came to the USGA, started golfing. in the rules department and moved over into championships in 2012.

713.177 - 739.26 Shannon Rouillard

I've played in eight or nine USGA championships, including a women's open back in 99. I was fortunate to play a practice round with Julie Inkster, Dottie Pepper, and Nancy Lopez. That was at Old Waverly. Some may recall Julie Inkster won that women's open with a record score, and it was certainly a highlight of my career. I'll say that.

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How long have you been working with the USGA and involved with championships and kind of in this role?

797.088 - 809.005 Shannon Rouillard

set of the golf course as the architect intended it to be played and we have this wonderful opportunity to do so with this George Thomas design gear as well.

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How do you set up a golf course to be a hard and solid yet fair test? And I guess as that fair word, have you struggled with that at times? Do you ever think that there's a little bit of a discrepancy maybe with what players think of the word fair and what, you know, I keep calling you test administrators like it's an SAT, but you guys are the test makers here.

831.243 - 832.004 Unknown

We are.

832.024 - 857.689 Shannon Rouillard

I, you know, I think it, yeah, I believe it comes with some experience and obviously early on in my career and still to this day, leaning on fellow colleagues that do the same thing that I do, you know, being in and around those individuals, being a part of those conversations, experiencing it, being on putting greens to know what is fair and what a

857.99 - 864.456 Shannon Rouillard

that particular demographic is capable of is really important in putting that test together.

1045.37 - 1073.419 Shannon Rouillard

you know, every single hole. There are strategic what we call kick plates that are going to help the player, you know, a little bit the right of hole two on the back end of the bunker on 17 on the second shot. There's places everywhere. But ultimately, player has to decide what's going to fit their game based on their strengths and go from there.

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I hope this question makes sense in my head. It's going to make sense here, I think. But you obviously have a massive, extensive background of golf knowledge. But from day one of when you started thinking about or working on the Riviera setup to today, what have you learned about Riviera specifically?

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I'd imagine there's something that has evolved in some way in the process of getting ready for this championship. But I'm just curious. It could be history related or anything about the way certain shots play or the property moves. What have you learned about Riviera over the last couple of years?

1103.268 - 1132.771 Shannon Rouillard

Right. Well, to do this championship justice, it starts years in advance, right? And so I have taken the time to read through Jeff Shackelford's definitive history book that he wrote on Riviera, which was excellent and has served an incredible basis for my knowledge about Riviera. And George Thomas, what he intended. And obviously the history of the property, et cetera.

1207.201 - 1230.01 Shannon Rouillard

Yeah, our primary yardage is at what I'm going to call the Genesis tee at 307 yards. But you can likely expect us to use a couple of different tees on that hole to give the players the possibility of giving that green a go. Love to hear that.

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Good answer there. What, so Riviera was about as wet as we've seen it this past year at the Genesis. Can you, and I know we're again, we're recording this a couple of weeks out of the championship, but how has that course evolved over the last several months in terms of firmness? And as we're sitting here on May 19th, recording this, where are we at as a course condition?

1252.898 - 1275.615 Shannon Rouillard

Yeah, course conditions have been fantastic. I was there the end of April for media day, spent a good amount of time on golf course, completing our preliminary hole location work and taking our setup team around the course, getting them familiar with it. And That golf course was just in immaculate conditions.

1275.836 - 1302.919 Shannon Rouillard

The fairways were tight and strong and it looked the fairways look like they were literally a carpet. They were beautiful. And we've worked closely with Marshall on a more aggressive top dressing program on the approaches and the putting greens to ensure that we're able to get the firmness and the speed that we're looking to achieve for the championship.

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That's fantastic. What what the last several iterations of the U.S.

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What has caused some of the most internal discussion, I guess, in setup meetings or in planning? What are some of the elements that have been the most discussed or most talked about?

1394.564 - 1428.645 Shannon Rouillard

You know, I would say as my setup philosophy has evolved, I find myself more apt to show players alternate tees that I'm thinking about. To see how they're going to play the hole, right? Whether they prove me right or prove me differently than what I was thinking, right? I didn't use to show quite as many tees early on as I probably do now.

1428.665 - 1455.788 Shannon Rouillard

And just observing their play to ensure that come game time on Thursday that that we are putting the appropriate test of golf together based on the condition. We know the condition of the golf course is going to be fantastic. But what is Mother Nature going to give us, right? Is the wind going to do a 180? Are we all of a sudden going to get a Santa Ana wind coming out of the north?

1455.808 - 1469.695 Shannon Rouillard

Well, that's going to change the setup plan pretty dramatically compared to a southwest wind. and making sure that we're paying attention to those things to ensure the proper test for the championship.

1470.62 - 1489.007 TC

What can you tell us about Kukuya Grass and what that introduces challenge-wise from a setup perspective? I know that probably the best example, the one that sticks out probably the most in the listeners' and viewers' eyes is what happens on the fourth hole with kind of a Redan-style hole. But the Kukuya Grass, short of the green, stops balls from rolling up onto it.