The PGA Championship comes to Valhalla! Can anyone challenge Scottie Scheffler?

"Mr. Golf" Ray Hustek breaks down the 2nd major of the year including who his dark horse pick is

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
All right, so good morning onthe Legacy Retirement Group dot com phone line.

(00:03):
Mister golf ray Hustig Raymond, howare you, sir? I'm doing
great, Thanks, how are you? The PGA Championship this week, the
tournament that's had a difficulty finding itsidentity. Unlike Tom Cruise, right,
you know it started. This isthe Professional Golfers Association. The guys who
work at the clubs and give lessonsand run tournaments and things. These are

(00:26):
the guys who have have their weekthis week, A bunch of club pros
playing and you know, they playedmax play until nineteen fifty seven, and
then the tournament has bounced around.It got a better spot on the calendar
here a few years back, andstill something that I think they struggle with,
but still considered while probably the leastprestigious, certainly one of the four

(00:48):
majors. Let's talk about the trackValhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.
This is a Jack Nicholas course.It is right much like Yourefield Village for
those folks who are driving down fromColumbus or double and they'll look at this
and go, wow, this lookspretty similar. A lot of a lot
of the features are the same.You've got to be a high ball hitter
here to play well. It's agolf course that has, you know,

(01:11):
pretty pretty decent sized landing areas,so you've got some strategy here. It's
not a matter of like in theUS Open, trying to fit it into
a teeny tiny little bowling alley withsized fairway. The fairways are generous,
and you want to be in thecorrect side of the fairway so you can
attack the pens if you short sideyourself. Again, like Mirefield Village,
it's gonna it's gonna take a playerwho's a great scrambler uh to get around.

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And a golf course again, likewe talk every year a Mirfield,
if it's uh firm and fast,it's gonna be a lot tougher. And
the golf course is firm and fastin Louisville this week talk about mister Golf
Ray Hustik PGA Championship teas off tomorrowmorning Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville. So
defending champion Brooks Koepka, although thisyear Scottie Scheffler is a massive favorite.

(01:56):
I think his wife. His wifehad the baby, so that is uh
that is off of his mind asfar as being pulled off the course mid
round a mid tournament, So heshould be laser focused this week well,
and he's won four of his lastfive tournaments, so it's hard not to
pick him. But you know,look at Brooks. You know he had
a horrible Masters and that's still gratingon him. I mean, he was

(02:19):
outside the top forty at Augusta.But justin Thomas sitting there coming home.
His hometown is Louisville. He's wonthe PGA Championship twice. John Rahm is
anxious to try to get back intothe to the spotlight because we've all kind
of forgotten about him. He playedso poorly at Augusta and everybody expected him
to be a contender there. Ithink it'll be a fun week for a

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lot of these guys, Rory McElroyand Jordan Speith trying to complete career Grand
slams it. Rory won just lastweek, so it's a lot of good
storylines. Yeah, Oh, Iwas just going to bring up Rory.
He won last week. He wasHe won the p GA Championship the last
time it was at Valhalla back intwenty fourteen. He beat Mickelson by a

(03:05):
stroke in that tournament. And personallyhe's going through it with He just filed
for a divorce from his wife theseven years this week, so I don't
know if that will affect his play. Maybe he'll feel a new sense of
freedom. I don't know. Yeah, it's hard to tell, you know,
the family events, will Scotti Schefflerbe you know, focused on anything
other than the new baby and beinga dad and will that distract him or

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will that help him? Will Roymckilroy's problems at home be something that,
like you say, frees him upor will it be stuff because they'll be
asking him about it in every interview? Will it become a burden and you
know, get in his mind.I don't really know, and we won't
know until we see how they perform, And I think a lot will depend

(03:50):
on Thursday. We will see wherethese guys are when they get out on
the golf course and get that firstround. It's not something that you'll win
at day one, but we willcertainly know mentally where they are after the
first round of golf. A coupleof other names that Vegas likes ray Xander
Schaffley. You've got Ludwig Olberg andBryson Deschambau. Yeah, Oberg is great.

(04:13):
I mean we you know, cameout of nowhere essentially for a lot
a lot of people at Augusta.He's got Ryder Cup experience. He's you
know, he obviously now knows hecan play with the best, and he's
one that I don't know what kindof pick that is in Vegas, but
it's something that they like to throwup there because it looks like fun.
Xander Schaffley second last week. Ilike looking at guys who have played well

(04:35):
at the Memorial, and he wasI think top twenty or just outside maybe
the top twenty last year here atMierfield. So Xander's a great pick.
I think Jason Dave's coming into hisown he was third last week, and
and the golf course at Quail Hollowagain a very similar style of golf to
what they will face at Valhalla.Here's the name for a dark horse.

(04:59):
Maybe some folks won't think so,but Denny McCarthy, who finished second last
year at the Memorial you'll remember losingin a playoff, is a guy that
I think is going to have agreat week. You know, he played
very well last week. He hashad a pretty good solid year and he
is a phenomenal putter, and heranks third in scrambling. I think he's

(05:21):
a guy that will be on thefirst page of the leaderboard come Sunday.
Were obligated to mention Tiger Woods isjust part of our contract. Ray.
He won Valhalla in two thousand,that's twenty four years ago, shooting eighteen
hunder to win that playoff there.He'll be back this year, but is
pretty much a long shot. Yeah. Again, the big question is can

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he make the cut. It's agolf course, it's fairly difficult to walk
the back nine, especially will hebe able to hold up physically for two
days, let alone four days?And of course I predicted he would miss
the cut. It a gust thathe didn't made the cut there and may
do it again here. He's gotall the ball striking and you know,
mentally he's got that Tiger toughness.But the question is whether his body can

(06:10):
hold up and actually you know,haul him around for four days. It
is going to be interesting. Phil'shere, you know, the guy,
the oldest man to ever win amajor championship, and so he's playing this
week as well, so lots ofstar power, lots of great TV ratings,
and certainly fan favorites in the PGAChampionship this week. When we talked
during the Masters Ray, I thinkwe talked that Monday following the tournament.

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We talked about how kind of noncompetitive it was. It was kind of
a Saturday was I think the bestday as far as competitiveness, but that
final round was kind of a snooze. Do you think this will be more
competitive with the PGA Championship, Well, it depends if it's Scotty Cheffer leading.
No, It'll just be him goingout and letting everybody kind of fall

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away as he makes his birdies wherehe needs him where he can play smart
golf. If you have, youknow, you have to look back at
the history of Valhalla. The backnine has not changed a lot. They've
linked ined a couple holes, butthose last six are tough. However,
if you hit good shots, likeon every Jack Nicholas design, you can
make birdies and you know Tiger andBob May coming down. You know they

(07:16):
were shooting thirty one thirty two onthe back nine. We've seen guys throw
some low numbers up on the backnine, not unlike Augusta. There are
chances for you to go low.So if somebody comes charging from behind,
it wouldn't be a big surprise.And the question is will somebody like a
Scheffler or Rory jump ahead. Imean, Rory has a tendency when he

(07:40):
wins, he wins big, soif he's got a six shot league going
to the back nine and maybe alittle tiresome, but it is going to
be. It's gonna be a funfirst two days, especially, I think
this week because I love watching tosee if one of the club pros can
actually make the cut and hang inthere with their professional playing brethren. Ray,
we've got to have the memorial herein what the three ish weeks or

(08:00):
so. Getting excited for that.People are starting to get fired up about
it, and you're gonna be intown for that. You got to come
in and check it out. I'mhoping too, but don't know yet.
It's gonna be a great tournament withit again, a great field. All
these guys are gonna be there.It's the week before we go to Pinehurst
for the US Open, So thenext three four weeks there're gonna be some
great golf but Nearfield Village Golf Courseobviously one of the always one of the

(08:24):
best manicured golf course, is certainlyone of the best tests that requires you
to be able to curve the ballboth ways. You've got to have a
great short game, you've got tohave great distance control of your irons.
It's, you know, it's it'ssuch a fun week to watch because it
really does make the cream rise tothe top, as they say, and
and every year we end up witha great tournament and we think, you

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know, it's it's hard to imaginethat it could be better than it was
last year or the year before orthe year before, but never disappoints