Stephen Hennessey from the Golf Digest on talking The PGA Championship, Rory & much more!!!

Stephen Hennessey from the Golf Digest on talking The PGA Championship, Rory & much more with CK on Sports

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Golf second major of the year.Welcome to ck On Sports. It is
Fox Sports radio man Stephen Hennessy fromthe Golf Digest on with me right now.
Okay yo, what's up? It'sgoing out man, Major week?
Yes, sir, yes, sir. Very excited about what's going on with
the PGA. But I gotta behonest with you, why does it seem
for me like the PGA is almostas difficult to figure out as the US

(00:24):
Open Yeah. I think there's alot of similarities between the setup and the
US open um, you know,the kind of complete test that this is
going to be this week. Andokill, I also think and I don't
know how you feel about this,you know, being at on the on
the West coast, but a fewof my friends who said, like,
it's a major week, like,why hasn't there been more buzz about it?

(00:45):
It feels kind of you're right,So, yeah, it was curious
for your thoughts there, because youknow, I'm so close to it.
No, you know what, itdoesn't necessarily feel like a major week like
the excitement that we normally get.I can only think the reason why now
follow me on this. We allget so excited for the Masters. We
love Augusta, we love what it'sabout, the music, the sites,

(01:08):
the sounds, Jim Nance, it'slegendary. But this one kind of crept
up on us. And then withso many elevated events, what's going on
with live it just seems like,Oh, and by the way, the
PGA is next week. Yeah,I think that's a great point with all
the elevated events, and it's justwhere this is in the schedule now.

(01:30):
Obviously they moved it to May tolike a commedate the Olympics back in twenty
sixteen the first time, and soyeah, I mean it's unfortunate that that's
the way it is. I feellike once it's he's off and once people
realize it's on, you know,everyone will be paying attention. But yeah,
the lead up, it's it's definitelynothing compared compared to the Masters.

(01:53):
Everyone was so pumped for it.So yeah, those are all good points.
Looking at this week's event, oneof the major storylines is Rory McElroy.
Rory a member at the club,wife is from the area. But
yet he said something very interesting.If I don't win another tournament, my
career is still a success. Whydon't you take away from that, man,

(02:16):
Rory is kind of a tough dudeto figure out at the moment.
I mean, he was the faceof the PGA tour so vocal against Liz,
you know, for the past yearor so, and you know,
we've seen a difference in him sincethe Masters. You know, miscut at
the Masters and the players struggled atQuail Hollow, and you know, obviously
didn't show up that RBC Heritage gaveup that three million dollars he would have

(02:39):
taken from the pit. And Isaw his press conference today, like,
you know, a bunch of peoplewere trying to ask him about Liz and
his stands on things, and he'slike, no, I'm not gonna go
there. You know, I don'thave a crystal ball, etc. Etc.
So I feel like finally Rory isrealizing, like his job is to

(03:00):
go out and win golf tournaments andhe hasn't won a major since twenty fourteen.
Like part of me, I thinkhe's realizing, like, dude,
this is your shot. You're you'rein your prime right now, and who
knows how how much longer you haveto do this. You know, you
never know with injuries and stuff likewhen your career is going to be shortened.

(03:21):
So I think he's he's saying that, but what his actions. He
was saying that he doesn't care ifhe was another tournament. His his his
actions this today and the press conferencetold me a different story. Like and
Rory does this a lot. Hekind of speaks out of both sides of
his mouth. Ye, So thatquote I think is kind of doing that

(03:42):
to me, Like, you know, I don't want to show that I
really care, but I do.That's it's kind of like a Brooks captive
mentality. I think that's a goodthing because you know, it obviously works
for Brooks. Like he says hedoesn't care, but you know we saw
on the Netflix show like when it'sa major he obviously really cares. So,

(04:03):
you know, my expectations for Rorythis week are I'm not exactly sure.
You know, like this place shouldsuit him really well. It's a
bomber's paradise. He has more knowledgeon this course than anyone else. He
during COVID, he came up toRochester, you know, to spend time
with his wife's family. You know, they spent a lot of time in

(04:24):
Rochester and he would go up andwork out at the club at o'kill and
you know, play the course whenyou know things were kind of closed.
He spent a ton of time atOkill. He kind of downplayed that too
in his his press conference today.I think because he doesn't want to put
more pressure and more expectation on himself. That's kind of what we have seen
from Rory, you know, ashe's become the face of the PGA tour.

(04:45):
So it's a really interesting week forhim. You know, I will
say that, I think this willsay a lot about you know, the
rest of the year. You know, his game is not in great shape.
He's coming in in very poor form. So whether he could figure that
out or not, you know,I think that's gonna kind of set up
the rest of the year a lotspeaking of coming him in great shape.

(05:10):
Finally, we're having discussions about Liveand their tour as well alongside with the
PGA. Dustin Johnson won his thirdLive event. He kind of had that
little smile on his face when hewas doing the interview on Sunday, basically
saying he's kind of ready for thePGA. How do you think Live golfers
are going to perform this week?Yeah, I think really well, you

(05:30):
know, we saw at the Masterskept Goa fill a bunch of others top
ten. You know I would havekept Goa. I mean, he should
suit this course personally too. Youknow, his mentality in these majors just
power, you know, staying disciplined, hitting the middle of green, you
know, kind of that formula thatwe've come to expect from Brooks. That's

(05:53):
what we saw at the Masters.That was kind of like peak twenty seventeen,
twenty eighteen Kepta. And you know, it seems like he's healthy again.
It seems like he's returned to forhim. So I really like kept
good this week. I think whereasRory has all the pressure in the world
on him, it feels like Kevkottdoesn't really because like this is kind of
an added bonus of his career.He was at such a low with his

(06:15):
injuries, like he wasn't sure ifhe's gonna be able to do it again,
and he proved that he can doit at the Masters this year.
And you know, even though hedidn't win, he proved he could get
to the highest level of golf again. So I think this is all great
before him. I think he hasa good week. I think Dustin Johnson
same thing. He loves golf inthe Northeast. He you know, he's
had a ton of winds up herein the Northeast area, so you know,

(06:40):
he's obviously in better for him thatwe saw at the Masters. With
the win at Live, I feellike, you know, Cam Smith's also
being under looked. He's forty toone from a betting perspective, and you
know, if if you were totake a true world world ranking of all
players that were fair, I mean, Cam Smith's is obviously a top ten
player, probably close to a topfive player, and has had sneaky some

(07:02):
consistent finishes on Live this year.So yeah, I see a lot of
these guys making some noise this weekfor sure. I know we have a
limited amount of time, and I'mjust gonna throw this in there. Finally,
someone on the Golf Channel, PaulMcGinley, he said, I think
we need to find a way forlive golfers to qualify for every major because
we want the best of the bestthere is. The golf world and golf

(07:25):
media starting to just kind of havea different perspective about Live. Yeah,
I mean, like we've talked aboutc k I think the Masters did a
ton for Live and we've seen acontinuing momentum from the Australia event and now
these last couple too. I definitelythink we'll see some changes to the qualifications
for next year's Majors. So we'veturned this into a bit of a tradition

(07:47):
where Major's Week we pick a DraftKings team together and we kind of just
think that we're gonna be the nextmillionaires. But this week I have a
really good feeling about it. Beforewe jump into that, talk a little
bit about one in who do youlike? Yeah, so my favorite bet
I think is Zander. You know, I don't bet Zander a lot at
the Majors, and you know hehasn't come through yet, but I think

(08:09):
his time is really coming, andhis form coming into this week is exactly
what you would want to see froma guy breakthrough in a Major for the
first time. He plays really consistentgolf, plays really well in these Majors,
and his mid to long iron playI think look really set up well

(08:30):
for oak Hill. So you know, Xander's my favorite bet. I probably
roll with him in a one anddone situation unless I still have John ram
I do really like John Ram thisweek, it's just the seven to one.
I don't love betting, you know. I think it comes down to,
like, you know, ten tofifteen guys who really have a chance

(08:50):
at winning because it's gonna put sucha premium on driving distance with a combination
of short game. There's only somany guys who have that. So yeah,
you know Xander Brooks, katka Um, I like Fitzpatrick too. Hideki
kind of fits that mold, andthen DJ and Cam Smith those are my
best. All right, let's goahead and jump into it. Draft Kings.

(09:11):
We gotta be brief because I knowyou gotta get going. Man,
you're a busy guy during Major's week, you know me. I like to
start low so that way we cansee what we're working with. Well,
you liked you liked Kegan, right, you mentioned Kegan. I do like
Kegan. I think Keegan is awesomein the Northeast. I think with the
playing conditions, it totally fits hisgame. And I was gonna go with

(09:31):
Keegan, and I'm trying to findhim on my draft Kings here. Oh
there he is seventy seven hundred.What are your thoughts about Kegan? Yeah?
I think we lock him in.Loves golf in the Northeast, like
he said, and h he hasbeen playing some really good golf this year.
So I like Keegan a lot.It's kind of like that mid level
price. All right, buddy,who are you going with? I feel
like Tommy Sweetwoods another good one inthe wh fair way. Jesus Jesus,

(09:56):
he's one of our guys. Soyou gotta put him on our roster.
Eight thousand, UM place really wellof these difficult courses, and that's what
you're going to see this week.You're you're going to need to scramble when
you get out of position a littlebit. So yeah, free Jesus at
eight thousand, I think is agood addition. All right. At ninety
three hundred, I want to gowith Cam Smith. I like his game
when you look at these sorts ofconditions, I look at Australians New Zealanders.

(10:22):
I would have said Jason Day,but he won last week. I
like Cam Smith att yeah, Cam, Yeah, I bet him out right,
so obviously I like him. Um. I think the reason why I
like him is the ownership is probablygonna be a little lower on him.
I think the public sentiment on camSmith is low at this price, you

(10:43):
know, you could go to anyof these other guys um and you know,
Tony Keenow can be really popular.Cam Young's gonna be really popular,
really popular, So you know,it's it's kind of like a game serie
play with cam Smith, and youknow it might backfire because we haven't seen
a lot of him recently. Butat ninety three hundred, you know,

(11:05):
I still think we get one ofthe other elites higher than him, So
I definitely don't hate it all right, Cam Smith is in who are we
going with? So I mean weprobably should lock in who out of the
top, you know, five orsix guys we feel best with, and
that'll help us dictate the rest ofour builds. So you know, it

(11:26):
depends like can we live without JohnRam or can we live without Rory?
I think those are the two forme. I would go with them over
Scottie Shuffler. That being said,you know the price dropped between them.
That then Brooks Kepta at ten thousand, one hundred or Xander and nine hundred.

(11:48):
I like both Brooks and Xander alot, so I would leave it
to you who out of Brooks andXander do you like us, well,
I like Brooks. You already knowthat, but you sold me on Zander
and this could be his this moment, I say, we like an Xander.
Okay, yeah, I like thattoo. So you know this is
a balance build. We have twoguys left and about seventy six hundred per

(12:09):
guy, um, you know,so we don't have to take too many
risks, which I like for sure. I know that you don't want to
take risk, but I just wantto throw this out there. I do
like Ryan Fox at sixty five hundred. Yes, you know a bit of
a risk. I like his gamefor sure. I mean, you know,

(12:31):
hit the ball a mile, No, he should sue this course,
Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna gowith you on that, okay, because
then you know, that allows usto get like a second level of lease
in there, and I think that'sa good way to build our lineup.
We're gonna be depending on Ryan Foxto come through for us, but if
all we need is like a topthirty, top forty from him, and
we'll be in good ship. Youknow, That's exactly the way I look

(12:54):
at it. We have eighty sixremaining, so it's kind of up to
you, my friend, you talkedabout fitzpat Patrick. He's there at eighty
four. There's a couple of options. Yeah. I like Fisty. You
know, we saw him win inHarvard Town. The distance he has is
going to be, you know,elite. The short game is so dialed.
I think he presents a rare combinationand he can win the tournament.

(13:18):
No one would be surprised at all. So I think this gives us like
three guys who you know, theycould easily win the Scots from in four
really, so a lot of goodwin equity with this lineup. I like
it, dude, I like thislineup. I think it's extremely unique.
I don't think anybody will match thislineup. I kind of like what I'm
seeing here. Let's go. Wealways come up with something good. There.

(13:41):
He is Stephen Hennessy from the GolfDigest. I know you gotta get
going really fast the Loop. Makesure you check that out. Is there
anything you want to say about theLoop before you go? Yeah? We
had Michael Breed on this week.You know, obviously one of the more
well known PGA pros, So appropriateto have him on during PGA Championship week,
and he's based here in the Northeastto spent his entire time teaching here

(14:03):
in the Northeast. So really hadsome great insights about what to expect this
week at oak Kill and encourage everyoneto go check it out the Loop wherever
you get your podcast, and gocheck out last week's episode two because we
had Megatron, Calvin John What,former Lions why what? Yeah? Our
run of great guests. K it'sjust better somehow. That's incredible. I

(14:28):
love that, especially Megatron, alot of fun, smart dude, So
I think people will enjoy Gonna checkthat out. All right. There he
is Stephen Hennessy from the Golf Digest. It is Major's week. We'll talk
a little bit later on this weekvia text my friend and we'll see how
it goes. Sounds good man,Let's win those millions. I heard that
its Cko Sports. It is FoxSports Radio. Hey, we're gonna wrap
up the show. I'm gonna talka little Dodger baseball next with Jeff Snyder,

(14:52):
the SNYD Dog.