Open Championship Mega Preview | Picks, Storylines, Best Bets - The Second Cut | Golf Podcast

Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_01 (00:01):
welcome in this is the second cut podcast this is
the mega preview pod for thisweek's open championship the
final major of the calendar yearit is going to be storylines
it's going to be best bets it'sgoing to be Greg breaking down

(00:24):
Windfinder to make sure that wehave everything in order.
We have a lot to get to.
And joining me to do just that,Mark Immelman, is here.
Hello, Mark.

SPEAKER_00 (00:34):
Hi, boys.
I've got my golf fandom at theready.
I'm practicing my coffee forearly in the morning.
I've got my sweatpants on and myT-shirt.
I am ready to watch golf on TVand not have to really work
during a broadcast, which isfun.

SPEAKER_01 (00:52):
Yeah, welcome to the viewing party for this week.
Rounding out our crew for today,Dr.
Greg Head.
It's Greg Ducharme.
Hi, Greg.
Gentlemen, I can't wait for thisweek.
We've been just doing so much toget ready for it, and now I'm
like Mark.
I'm excited to kick back andwatch some coffee golf.

(01:16):
I really can't wait, and I lovethis golf course, too.
It's going to be so cool.
Yeah, we've got...
The golf course to talk about.
We've got the

SPEAKER_00 (01:24):
weather.
Yes, Mark.
Speaking of loving golf courses,can you guys see the logo on my
head?

SPEAKER_01 (01:30):
Yeah, so for those who cannot, for those who are
just listening on the podcast,Mark is rocking a Muirfield hat.
Now, let me be very clear.
That is not to be confused withMuirfield Village in Dublin,
Ohio.
That's the one over there, Mark.

SPEAKER_00 (01:44):
It's the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers,
yes.
Yeah, what a spot.
Anyway, I'm in the Lynx golfspirit after being in Scotland
last week.
I'm a pretty pumped up youngman.

SPEAKER_01 (01:56):
Oh, we are pumped up as well.
What goes well with coffee aresnacks and potentially
chocolate.
And I have an update, gentlemen,because this saga of Greg trying
to rank candy bars did not gowell for Greg.
Okay.
No.

(02:17):
No, Greg, it did not go well foryou.
Oh, no.
I know.
What did you rank number one?
Kit Kat?
Yes.
All right.
He ranks number one, Kit Kat.
And I made a comment thatoutside of the United States,
there's like hundreds ofversions of Kit Kats.

SPEAKER_00 (02:34):
Yes, and every– well, you have Cadbury's
chocolate.
I've just come over there.
I ate my sharing chocolate.
Cadbury's chocolate is just– Ilove Hershey's.
If I'm ruining a potentialsponsorship, I'm sorry.
But Cadbury's is just waybetter.
Yeah, and we ate all sorts ofstuff last week, everyone on the
crew.

(02:55):
But Kit Kat, I would say overhere if I was ranking, I would
go Twix, number one.

SPEAKER_02 (03:00):
And

SPEAKER_00 (03:01):
I would go, there's an Oreo milk chocolate bar.
I think it might be a Hershey'sOreo milk chocolate.
I have number two strong.
That's me.
Okay.
Reese's peanut butter cups arethe good.

SPEAKER_01 (03:15):
You want to know something interesting about
Twix?
What's that, Greg?
There's a left Twix and a rightTwix?
It's not candy.
It's not a candy bar.
What is it?
It is technically a cookie bar.
I don't know if that meansanything because it tastes like

(03:35):
a candy bar to me, but it'stechnically a cookie bar.
I forget why that was relevant,but I learned that at some
point.
It's just added to the list ofuseless information.
I'll

SPEAKER_00 (03:47):
tell you why.
I get you because in the UnitedStates, it's essentially
chocolate with peanut butter andeverything.
There's peanut butter inbasically every candy bar that
you get.
where I see what you're sayingabout the cookie, but you're
right, because you're right.
There is cookie stuff in there,and a lot of the international
chocolates are sort of that wayinclined.
So I'm feeling you.

SPEAKER_01 (04:07):
Well, here's the issue, and I found this out very
quickly thanks to Google.
Twix is not a candy bar.
It is legally, legally a cookie,a cookie bar due to its flour
content.
So there are actually– becausesome states and some localities

(04:33):
tax candy, they had to come upwith a definition for what candy
is.
And Twix does not fallunderneath the candy category
because items that contain flour– or require refrigeration are
not considered candy.

(04:53):
So there's too much flour andTwix for it to be candy.
It is a cookie bar.
Yes, that's what it was.
My tax expertise.
Yes.
I must have been studying taxcodes.
Now, this has gone better than Ithought because our friend,
Peter, who's a listener of theshow, he's a member of the

(05:14):
Patreon.
He lives in Sydney, Australia,gentlemen.
And he has sent me over Ahandful of the options.
These are just, I can assureyou, these are just some of the
options that Kit Kat hasavailable in Sydney.
And he asked me to pass thesealong.
So as you can see, we've gotregular Kit Kat.
We've got the Milky Bar.

(05:35):
We've got the Neapolitan, theGold Rush, a mint flavor, the
Chunky.

SPEAKER_00 (05:39):
Mint for the win.
Mint Aero for the win.
That is so good, that one.

SPEAKER_01 (05:43):
Is Aero, Mark, is that another type of chocolate?

SPEAKER_00 (05:46):
Yes, it is.
You get it because Aero, imaginethe real, it's not spongy, it's
just chocolate, but there's likeair bubbles on the inside of it.
So it's just plain chocolate.
And there's a mint version andthere's a white chocolate
version too, but the mint one isreally nice.

SPEAKER_01 (05:59):
Okay, that's good to know.
Then there are gooey versions ofall of these, Greg.
So when I asked you this beforeand you said, no, no, no, just
the original, I couldn'tpossibly eat anything different.
Is there any one of theseflavors that has changed in your
mind on that?
Would you try one of these?
Well, yeah, I think I'd try anyof them.

(06:20):
Wow.
I might be swayed here.
I mean, these look spectacular.
Like the Milky Bar.
The Milky Bar looks really good.
Yeah, that looks great.
Now, I've been accused of beinga little vanilla before.
So forgive me.
I love.
I mean, I don't take offense toit because I love vanilla

(06:43):
flavor.

SPEAKER_00 (06:45):
And I have.
Just so you guys, Milo is like afortified chocolate drink that
they give kiddos at night.
My wife still drinks it.
Milo is really tasty as well.
And Milo and a Kit Kat, yeah,I'm circling that one too.

SPEAKER_01 (06:59):
Yeah, that's the thing.
It's not just the flavors, butit's the collaborations.
I think when I was in Australia,I had, it was like Kit Kat and
Coca-Cola or like something likethat.
And, you know, it was very, theydo a lot of the collaborations
like that.
So yeah, it is a, I'm glad tohear, Greg, that you're willing
to at least try some of these.
Yeah, that opened up my mind.

(07:20):
I don't know.
Maybe it's the packaging.
It's a little different.
They got a little differentlooking logo on there.
At least it looks that way tome.
I can't believe he sent that toyou from Australia.
That is incredible.
Oh, listen, if things keep goingwell, I'm going to import a box
straight to you and you're goingto do a live taste test.
on the show and score them we'llhave to figure all right that'll

(07:44):
be an off-season project yeahyeah that will work on uh all
right let's talk a little bit ofgolf here gentlemen we are
headed to royal port rushnorthern ireland for the third
time 1951 max faulkner yourchampion 2019 shane lowry your
champion and mark i'll throw itover here to you first because
uh you've got you know linkstyle golf uh flowing through

(08:06):
the blood right now when youthink If you think of Royal
Portrush, you think of what?

SPEAKER_00 (08:13):
I think of the fact that I'm somewhat aggravated
that I haven't got to see it.
But in Northern Ireland, I havebeen to Royal County Down, which
is special.
It's just hard as heck.
But Portrush is one of thoseplaces where everyone you talk
to, they use words likeunparalleled.
You'll hear people say there'severy hole is...

(08:35):
There's no one hole that'ssimilar to the other.
Every hole's got a lot ofcharacter.
They talk about reallyundulating greens, small
targets.
And then, you know, a lot of theLynx experts I've talked to, and
Ian Baker Finch kind of jumps tomind because I love to go to see
Lynx golf courses with himbecause he's got a designer's
eye.
And, of course, he's won theOpen at Royal Berkdown.

(08:59):
And so I ask him about it allthe time.
And he talks about the edging.
in the Lynx golf course is howthere's no sharp edges.
Stuff just rolls away intobunkers and the edges of the
greens is a little fall off.
Some of them raised, you know,there's always like gentle
undulations.
And sometimes the fairways looklike potato chips a little bit.
There's nothing that lookscontrived.

(09:19):
It's like to use, there's agreat picture there.
It's like it's forged by natureas the RNA call it.
And Port Rush is just that.
And of course, as far asdesigners go, Harry Colt is one
of my favorites.
You know, he's, Sunningdale is agem.
Went with Muirfield.

(09:39):
He's put together somesensational golf courses,
including this one.
And the way this thing fits withthe surroundings, because up
there it's dramatic coastline.
This is a dramatic golf courseand it's very, very cool.

SPEAKER_01 (09:52):
Yeah, not a tree to be found out there.
And Mother Nature certainly hadher way with this one.
If you're watching on YouTube,this is Calamity Corner.
This is towards the end of theround.
That's a long part three thatyou're looking at from Greenside
there.
And Greg, you know, this courseis one that is...

(10:13):
We've seen it twice now, 2019and, of course, 2025.
But before that, it was onlythat 1951 version.
And this is a course that hasgone through so many tweaks.
It's almost like it's constantlychanging in some form or
fashion.
Martin Ebert has done a varietyof work to this course leading
up to 2019.

(10:33):
And then post-2019, it's alwaysin a state of...
I don't want to say transition,but you know what I'm saying.
There's always something newhappening here.
Yes, it kind of graduallyevolves.
Now, leading into the 2019 Open,there were some pretty dramatic
changes.
They got rid of two holes, and17 and 18 were changed.

(10:56):
You're looking at a picture of16 right there, Calamity Corner,
which is just fantastic.
I think that the best golfcourses in the world evolve with
the game.
They don't ask the game to stayso that they can stay relevant.
They evolve with the game tomeet the challenges of the best

(11:18):
players in the world, if it's achampionship golf course.
I should say meet the challengesof players...
who play the golf course.
And this is certainly achampionship caliber golf
course.
And I'm so glad it's a part ofthe rotation because like Mark
said, it, it is dramatic.
It's probably a little moreelevation.

(11:38):
There's probably a little moreelevation change than many of
the other, uh, links courses inthe Rota.
Um, you know, any, and Mark alsomentioned Harry Cole and he, I
was watching the fried egg did alittle video on the golf course
and they were kind of describingit from an architectural
standpoint.

(11:58):
And they talked about how it'slike a, in this age, they
brought in Harry cult to dothis.
And it was, and not all thelinks courses were designed by
legendary architects like this.
So he comes in and what's socool is there's only like, 62
bunkers on the property whereyou think about like Royal

(12:19):
Lithium in St.
Anne's, which has the most inthe open Rota.
It has 206.
This has 62 yet in the pressconferences this week, both Rory
McIlroy and Shane Lowrydescribed Royal Port Rush as
well bunkered, which I think issuch a testament to, uh, Harry
Colt and his design and MartinEbert and his, his redesigns and

(12:42):
upgrades.
So very, very impressive golfcourse.
I think the coolest aspect oflinks golf is the design
features really come into playbecause the, the game is played
closer to the ground.
And so all of a sudden anglesbecome a little more important
and you have some of theboundary holes early on where in

(13:03):
order to get the angle, you gotto play close to the boundary.
And that concept of playingclose to the ground brings in
design philosophies like that,which I find them so interesting
to watch.

SPEAKER_00 (13:17):
Yeah.
If I may add something realfast, Rick, you see that picture
there that we're looking at, andit's intensely Lynx.
because a lot of golf courses,the links land is the land that
joins, links the ocean to theheathland or the inland area.
And this is like on the cliffsover there, on the beaches and
stuff.

(13:37):
And some like Brookdale, forargument's sakes, you wander
between these sand dunes andsuch.
And it's like, Colt fit thisgolf course in between the
dunes.
And there's one or two highspots on the golf course.
And the beauty about the designtoo is, Pretty much the golf
course sits on like a northeastto a sort of a southwest axis.

(13:57):
And the prevailing winds arebasically across that.
So you've got crosswinds.
That's why these bunkers arecoming to play so well, just the
number of them.
And I wanted to build on whatGreg said about the two holes
that were adjusted.
Because there's two golf courseson the premises.
And you had this links placethat was 16 holes adjusted.
A lot of people, the Irishpeople, called like the best

(14:19):
16-hole course in the world.
But then you had these other twoholes that sort of didn't fit.
And then what Martin Ebert camein and did was basically made
two adjustments to make thisthing like thoroughly links 18
holes all the way through.
So it's a sweet spot, and it'sone of my wishes that one day I
get to go and see it.

SPEAKER_01 (14:38):
Mother Nature– helped build the golf course.
Mother nature will certainlyhelp determine the championship.
And I will give people a lookbehind the curtain about a half
hour before we started thisshow.
Greg sent a text in the, in thegroup chat and it said, Hey
Rick, do you have wind finderavailable?
And I was like, I can have itavailable for you, buddy.

(14:58):
Like I'll, I'll, I'll pull it upfor you.
So the big part about not onlylinks golf, but open
championships are the, the waythat potentially the wind and
the weather could play a role.
And Greg, I've got wind finderup.
I admittedly have no idea whereyou're going here.
So I will, I will follow youwherever you want me to go on

(15:19):
this, on this diagram.
All right.
So where do we have our days?
I've got, I'm, I'm set up aThursday at 11 AM, a 13 mile an
hour winds going back out to thesea off the Southeast.
Okay.
Now, there is a chart.

(15:39):
That's great for the direction.
There's a chart.
Yeah.
Are you familiar with the chartthat shows Thursday, Friday?
Yeah, I'll get it for you.
The super forecast or whateverthey call it?
What do they call this?
I'll get it for you.
All right.
So this is basically the set.
The reason why I'm so interestedin this is there's been some

(16:01):
pictures floating around onlineabout this, and it looks like an
AM, PM wave advantage.
So the guys that start Thursdaymorning and play late Friday
looks like they may have anadvantage.
And I totally see where thatcomes from.
Because, okay, yeah, here we go.
Yeah.
So now we've got to scroll downto Thursday.

(16:22):
You just got to...
Yep, there we go.
Now, if you look over on theright-hand side, 4 o'clock...
Well, I guess you can include 1o'clock, 4 o'clock, 7 o'clock on
Friday afternoon is like thelightest wind of the first two
days.
So guys that are finishing lateon Friday, in theory, play with

(16:44):
the smallest amount of wind.
But there's also these...
little droplets down below that,which indicate rain.
Now I'm wondering if we'retalking about rain, would you
rather play in, let's just lookat the Gus 14 to 16 mile an hour
wind Gus, like you'll see in themorning or seven to eight mile

(17:09):
an hour wind Gus with rain,active rainfall.
And I'm not sure if, Looking atthe earlier part of Thursday,
like early Thursday, looks likethe heaviest rain.
So that would be in thequote-unquote favorable
advantage with still20-mile-an-hour wind gusts, just
like we have through the rest ofthis day.

(17:31):
I'm not so sure that there's awind advantage.
So I wanted to get Mark'sthoughts on this as well.
Mark, what would you rather playin?
So hold on.
Before we do that, Mark, soGreg, you're saying that you
don't think there is as– strongof an advantage either way than
what is being perceived.
That's correct.

(17:52):
And well, I want to hear Mark'sthoughts before I go farther.

SPEAKER_00 (17:56):
Okay.
Well, Greg, you make a point.
I'll just add that any coastalgolf course, especially a links
place, 10 mile an hour is aquiet day.
I mean, when, when we talk about10 miles an hour with a wind in
the States, it's a thing, 10miles an hour over there.
It's like, all right, we'replaying in perfect weather kind
of deal.
So if you get up into thefifteens and such, it's, It's

(18:16):
enough to bother you.
But part of the examinationaround the Wynn Golf Course,
about the Lynx Golf Course, isstriking the ball well.
And that's why the low ballhitters and stuff and that sort
of thing deal with these golfcourses well.
So I honestly think, despite therain, I think the weather
forecast is good.
Because in that northern cornerof Ireland, like when I was at
County Down, which is brutallyhard, when the wind gets to

(18:39):
blowing around that place, it'simpossible.
Because it's just so difficult.
So a course like this with theundulations and stuff, I can see
if you're getting like 25 milean hour and such, it could be a
handful.
But right now, I think unlessit's downpours and stuff, we're
losing control of the golfclubs.
No, I think this is just a niceLynx tournament.
It's going to add to the flavorof it.

SPEAKER_01 (19:03):
I do think that Thursday is going to be very
difficult.
because you have, you know,we'll call that 15 to 20 or 10
to 20 mile an hour winds withthe gusts and rain.
That's a brutal combo.
And that looks like it's goingon all day.

SPEAKER_00 (19:19):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's going to be one of thosethings where you don't use an
umbrella.
You have a good rain suit.
Yeah.
I mean, these guys are equippedfor it.
Yeah.
It's all about attitude.
And if you've been listening tothe press conferences, when it
gets to the weather, you'll heareach and every one of them go.
Lynx golf is an attitude.
Part of the attitude is like,you're going to get some bad
bounces.
You're going to get some puttsthat don't go where they should.

(19:41):
You're going to get some windgusts and stuff, but that's part
of the thing.
Everyone's going to face thesame sort of deal.
Yes, I know in these events youcan sometimes have wave
advantages, but I'm sort of onthe fence.
I don't think there's that big aglaring wave advantage right
now.
It remains to be seen what rollsaround Thursday because, again,
forecasting the weather at thecoastline is an impossibility.

(20:04):
Yeah, it really is.
So, so, so we'll see.
I mean, that's cool information,but it's links golf.
You wake up in the morning andyou deal with what you got and
you know that in the blink of aneye, it's likely to change.
That's,

SPEAKER_01 (20:15):
that's to your point, Mark, that Thursday
forecast.
I've been checking this like onthe hour last, you know,
yesterday, there wasn't thatmuch rain in the forecast.
And I don't think there was anyFriday either.
So, Or maybe there was a littlefright.
But anyway, my point is it'schanged already.

SPEAKER_00 (20:35):
Bro, I hope it rains hard.
I hope it absolutely pounds itdown on them because I'm going
to be lying on my couch withcoffee.
in my sweatpants.
So I hope it rains hard.
I do.

SPEAKER_01 (20:46):
Begging for carnage when he's not out there, Mark.
I love it.
Well, okay, so let's do it likethis then.
So now, Mark, that we've kind oftalked about the weather, we've
talked about the link style ofplay and what to expect.
How does this start translatinginto the types of players, the
skill sets, maybe who would bebetter suited for an open at

(21:09):
Royal Port Rush than anotherguy?

SPEAKER_00 (21:12):
Okay, I'm going to preface my take with the fact
that I don't know this forcertain because I'm operating on
other people's information.
I've not been to Portrush.
I can speak with authority onLynx Golf.
I'll say Lynx Golf, you've gotto be a really good iron player.
You've got to be a really goodlag putter.
Although the greens at Port Rushare not that big, but still lag

(21:35):
putting with humps and hollowsand stuff, if you get some gusty
winds, is hard.
I'll share a quick story fromlast week where my spotter from
on the course, Craig Capano,made the trip over to Scotland
with me.
And we played Gullen on theSaturday morning, Gullen number
one, the tournament course.
And there were certain spotswhere a whole location you just

(21:57):
couldn't get to.
And he looked at me and he goes,I see now why fans will clap for
a ball to 25, 30 feet at times,because that's just a good shot
in the Lynx golf.
Where in the States, if you hadan event and someone hits it to
25 feet, people are like, oh,whatever, man, come on.
Because it's a different styleof golf.
Well, yeah, the ball gets tomoving on the ground, and

(22:18):
sometimes 15, 20 feet is thebest you can do.
So with that being said, I knowwith Lynx golf, you've got to be
a good iron player.
You have to strike the ballreally flush.
You've got to be a really goodlag putter and you've got to
have a really good attitude.
I mean, you've got to beprepared to take the rough and
the smooth because you're goingto get it all.
No one's immune to anythinggoing wrong.

(22:40):
And if you can avoid potbunkers, then you're on the way
because a pot bunker, like inthe very first call I made last
week at Scotland, I joinedLudwig Oberg and he was 300
through seven or something.
tries to drive it down eighth.
There's a pot bunker right inthe middle of the fairway.
He covers it, but it rolls backin the bunker.

(23:00):
And it's basically, he'sblasting out from there.
And I said to him, if Ian BakerFincher was his hole, I'm like,
as you know, I mean, these potbunkers are essentially a stroke
penalty.
And then he sort of goes, yeah,well, a half a stroke or so.
But the reality is, if you're ina pot bunker, the furthest
you're advancing the thing,unless you're crazy, is probably

(23:21):
30, 40 yards.
So that means you're going tostill have yourself a pretty
long club into any sort oflengthy par four.
You hit that to 30 feet andyou're making bogey.
Now, I know if you look at allof the data, it'll say, well,
you're going to lose threequarters of a stroke or
whatever.
A putt bunker is a stroke as faras I'm concerned.
So if you can avoid the puttbunkers off the tee, then you're

(23:44):
on your way.
Iron play, lag putting, avoidthe putt bunkers and you're on
your way.

SPEAKER_01 (23:49):
It is a lot of...
Like Mark said, Greg, the goodvibes, understanding you're
going to get bad breaks,realizing it's a 72-hole event.
Don't play yourself out of it onThursday.
This is a style of golf that wedon't get to see, and some guys
are just honestly just notsuited for it.

(24:11):
Yeah, there's definitelysomething to that.
It takes a little bit oflearning around a golf course
like this.
You got to understand where...
Perhaps there's a side that'sbetter than another.
Even if it's not a good option,maybe it's better than the other
option at your disposal.
Similar to a U.S.

(24:32):
Open, you've got to understandthat you're going to make
mistakes.
And when they happen, you can'tlet them get to you too much.
So there's definitely a bigattitude factor at play here.
I think that's why you see...
It's kind of surprising to me.
I think of all this volatilityand weather that comes and goes

(24:53):
in the open, and yet thechampions are very worthy.
Most open champions, it's nottheir only major, which is just
a fascinating thing to me.
I've always thought it's themost difficult to predict.
I don't know if that's right.
I think that there's somethingvery specific you need to have

(25:16):
in Lynx golf.
And I don't know what the Lynxacumen is, but there are people
that have it.
And maybe what it is isall-around game.
I mean, think back to 2019.
Just listen to these names inthe top 10 without any stats or
anything.
You got Lowry, Fleetwood, Finau,Koepka, Westwood, Fowler,

(25:40):
Hatton, McIntyre, Willett, Reed.
Maybe Danny Willett is...
an exception.
Um, maybe Patrick Reed is alittle bit of a specialist, but
I hear those names.
I just think these guys are allaround solid players.
Um, maybe some of them strugglewith the putter, but Tita green,

(26:04):
these guys are really solid.

SPEAKER_00 (26:07):
It's please Mark.
Mayor or fast to, to the solidplayer, the all around player
too.
I was looking at how the, um,how the golf course sits on that
sort of that tilted axis.
Right.
And you get the prevailing windacross a bunch.
And from what I've read, onlytwo holes play downwind and one

(26:27):
of the path bias plays into thewind.
And so to the ball striking andthe complete control as well,
it's not just, not justtrajectory because like, if you
playing to land the ball shortfor argument's sakes, and you're
relying on a forward bounce and,If you've got a right-to-left
wind and you cut the ball upinto a right-to-left wind, it's
going to come down softlybecause the wind and the spin

(26:48):
will mitigate each other.
And so the ball won't bounceforward as much as what you
think.
Then the next thing, you've gotsome awkward chip shot over a
hump from 50 feet, you know, andthat makes life hard.
So it's not just the ballstriking, but it's the spin
control too.
So like you've got some sort ofright-to-left wind crooked,
hurting a little bit, and thenyou've got to draw something in

(27:08):
there.
If you cut one, you're nothitting your target, as simple
as that.
Or if you overturn one on one ofthose things and it gets on the
wrong side of the green, all ofa sudden gets one hop and it
sort of tumbles a bit, nextthing you're playing from one of
those horrid little pot bunkers,which are a lot smaller on this
golf course too.
They're kind of very much in thecult fashion, like Lhythm, Greg
mentioned, Lytham, when I havenightmares about that place,

(27:32):
because a lot of the holes arestraight and you look down the
fairway and these little dotsthat are sort of, they're just
down the sides of the fairwayslike that.
And they're like vacuums, man.
They suck balls in there.
So to drive the ball in thefairway at Lytham, that's the
big challenge.
But here you want to controlspin so you don't get something
tumbling.
All of a sudden you're in one ofthose pot bunkers and then, you

(27:52):
know, you're likely making bogeyon one or other easy-ish par
four.

SPEAKER_01 (27:56):
We've alluded to a couple other courses on the
road, which I think is a reallygood time to jump into our, or
at least one of our questionsfrom Patreon.
We've had such great supportover there trying to restart
this show and it's muchappreciated and you can continue
this, but we get some questionsover there and I try to pick out
ones that are best suited forthe conversation and Alex sends

(28:19):
this one over.
So he's talking about open Rotacourses and which one you might
take out, which one you mightreplace it with if you have a
favorite.
And I pulled, gentlemen here,the...
Sorry, me and I screwed that up.
I pulled the list of coursesthat are current or past open

(28:43):
Rota venues.
And you're seeing them on yourscreen, everything from
Carnoustie, Presswick is wherethey held...
the first bunch of these.
So, Greg, let me fire this outto you first.
Is there a venue that you'd liketo add, swap, remove from the
rota, or do you have one thatkind of makes you feel the warm
and fuzzies?

(29:03):
It's hard for me to add onebecause when it comes to Lynx
Golf, golf in Scotland andIreland, I'm really only
familiar with the golf coursesin the rota.
So it's hard for me to say oneshould be in that isn't.
Maybe Royal County Down, whichMark added, would be the one I'd
put in there because I'msomewhat familiar with that

(29:25):
place.
As for taking one out, my leastfavorite is probably Royal St.
George's.
It's the farthest south.
It has the least...
Elevation change.
I think it's the least dramatic,although the fairways are so

(29:47):
bumpy.
It's just the least interestingof all of them to me.
Difficult one to really explain.
But, I mean, look at these otherones.
Carnoustie might be my favorite.
Muirfield.
Well, I mean, if we're headingto Muirfield, I might say that
one's my favorite.

SPEAKER_00 (30:07):
It's the best one.
It's designed as brilliant.

SPEAKER_01 (30:11):
Lytham and St.
Anne's is really cool.
Port Rush is just awesome.
Troon.
Turnberry.
I'd like to see them go back toTurnberry.
I think that's a really good oneas well.
I like Lynx Golf.
I think the road is prettysolid.

(30:33):
We haven't seen Turnberry since2009.
We have not seen Muirfield since2013.
St.
George's was obviously 2021mark.
When you look over this list,what stands out to you?

SPEAKER_00 (30:47):
Well, Muirfield is great.
The way it's designed, becauseyou have the front nine, it
travels sort of in onedirection, and then the second
nine goes around the outside ofit and goes in the opposite
direction.
So you're getting differentwinds on basically every hole.
It's a genius in the design, andbeing able to do that in
Lynxland is especiallychallenging.
And obviously, the view of theFirth of Forth is sensational.

(31:10):
I mean, I sat there on a benchand just gazed out at the place
for about 15 minutes.
I was just overcome by thebeauty of it.
So Muirfield is great.
As far as adding a course, I'dkind of sort of lean to Port
Marnock, another one in Ireland.
Turnberry is fantastic.
It truly is.
Taking a course out, I'm sort ofwith you a little bit on Royal

(31:34):
St.
George's, but I'm partial to itbecause my brother made the
finals of the British Amateurthere.
And it's also down in the southand everything else is way north
in the United Kingdom.
And the British Isles, I wouldmake an argument that the place
is built on golf, especially,well, certainly Scotland and
Ireland are, you know, as far assports go.

(31:55):
So you've got to sort of have anopen that's representative of
the British Isles, which is downon the southernmost tip of the
countryside.
And they're great courses downthere, like Royal Sankt Ports
and stuff.
I mean, that entire list isbrilliant.
It truly is.
Prestwick is a little gem, butit's too small.
The whole thing about the Openis it's so big.
Some of these courses you'llnever get to go to because they

(32:15):
just can't handle all of thetraffic and the size and the
stature and the magnitude of theevent.
So if I was adding one, I'd addanother one in Ireland just to
kind of even up the score alittle bit.

SPEAKER_01 (32:26):
Here's the map.
You can see how far south RoyalSt.
George's is by far the mostsoutherly of the Open Rota
courses.
The most northern, Carnoustie,there it is, just edges out St.
Andrews very, very closely thereon the map.
I want to tackle some of theplayers via the featured groups

(32:52):
that they are in because they'realready out.
And I think this is a fun way tokind of frame the groups, the
players, and the chances forthis week.
So I'm going to start with game19 here, gentlemen.
And that is, if I can pull it uphere.
I'm sorry.
Game, well, hold on.

(33:12):
There it is.
9.58 a.m.
local.
Xander Shoffley, JJ Spahn, JonRahm.
Greg, we've got the reigningchampion golfer of the year.
Our most recent major championin JJ spawn.
And then John Rahm looking towin the event that he called.
I think he said it would be thegreatest achievement of golfing

(33:37):
lifers.
I'll get the exact quote, but itwas very high praise.
It was very high praise.
Look, John Rahm has beenspectacular.
His performance in majors hasreturned this year.
I expect him to be a real factorthis week.
Xander Shoffley is aninteresting case to me.
So I want to point out a coupleof key statistics from Xander

(34:00):
last year to Xander this year.
And these are some that I lookat as very important major
indicators.
Not necessarily week to week,but in majors, I pay attention
to them.
One is scrambling.
Last year, Xander was first.
This year, he's 166th.
One is three-putt avoidance.
He was second last year.

(34:21):
He's 73rd this year.
Another is bogey avoidance.
Kind of encapsulates both theother two.
He was first last year.
He's 130th this year.
So where does that come from?
Where do the mistakes come from?
And unfortunately for Xander,last year he was the most
complete player in the game.
Now we have a guy that was 10thin strokes gained off the tee.

(34:44):
He's now 112th in strokes gainedoff the tee.
12th in strokes game putt in,138th in strokes game putt in
this year, and 42nd around thegreen, 99th this year.
There are some aspects ofXander's game that are
phenomenally strong.
He is a fighter.

(35:04):
He is gritty.
If there's anybody that can playthrough these kind of things, it
would be Xander.
But these little mistakes worryme, and they have a tendency of
adding up in majorchampionships.
He's got two of them.
Both of them came last year.
Here's that John Rahm quote.
He says the Open Championshipis, quote, the most prestigious

(35:24):
event you can win in golf.
He would go on to say there's anorder to it, too, because it
changes venues.
So if you can win it at St.
Andrews, I don't think anythingin golf can come close to that.
That is high praise, Mark, froma man who has a green jacket in
his closet.

SPEAKER_00 (35:44):
Well, the Europeans are tough.
typically in a tilt that way,because as far as television
goes, you get more coverage ofEuropean tour golf if you're a
young European golfer.
And, you know, for the longesttime, I can't speak for John
Rahm.
I know this, that, you know,he's very influenced by Seve
Ballesteros.
And Seve, the Open Championshipwas it.

(36:05):
And Seve was one of those guyswho won at Golf's Grandest
Cathedral in the old course atSt.
Andrews.
So there's a lot of thatinvolved with that statement
over there.
But I know this, in terms of,like you say, being a complete
golfer and winning on a placewhere golf is becoming so

(36:28):
predictable, the one thing youcan't predict as a player is a
Lynx Golf Championship.
You just never know.
So part of being a really goodprofessional golfer is the
ability to be adaptable.
and to sort of roll with thepunches a little bit.
And these players know it.
If you're playing some soft golfcourse, it's kind of rinse and

(36:48):
repeat a little bit.
And if you're hitting the ballon the button, you control
distance well.
And so you sort of know, okay,I'm going to get myself 12, 13
looks at birdie.
Hopefully like six of them arein makeable range there and you
can sort of piece somethingtogether without your best
stuff.
nothing is guaranteed around anopen golf course, especially in
a major like the OpenChampionship.

(37:09):
So it brings into the equationthe whole thing about that
mental game.
And I feel like John Rom, who'sa pretty savvy guy, realizes
that thing.
So it's not just his heritageand the influence of savvy.
It's just all these playersunderstanding that once you get
over the fact that Lynx Golf isgoing to treat you kind of nasty

(37:29):
at times, You know, you'vereally got to play the game.
I'm looking for a better wordthan completely.
But you've got to be aware.
You've got to be adaptable.
You've got to have everythingfor the entire round of golf.
And even still, you might make amistake or two.
And that, in a strange way, ifyou choose to look at it that
way, is beautiful.

(37:49):
And you look at the list ofmajor championship winners on
Lynx Golf Courses.
When the mind is clear andthey're there, then they do the
special things, like Xander didlast year at Troon.

SPEAKER_01 (38:00):
Major championships abound in that group.
I want to put a bow on thisgroup, Greg, with your thoughts
on this, because Oliver from thePatreon asked this question, and
I kind of like it.
He says, would Hideki or JJSpahn be major champions if they
hadn't had a raid delay in thefinal round of their
championship?
And I guess the idea is...
they were able to reset andregroup and adapt to conditions

(38:25):
better than their peers, which Ibelieve is where Oliver is
going, where he says, you know,this weather is often
influencing this championship.
And it got him thinking aboutthat.
It's a phenomenal point.
Hideki's rain delay was onSaturday in the Masters.
But to his point, he came out ofthat rain delay on fire and won

(38:46):
the golf tournament on Saturday.
basically hung on on Sunday.
And even a charge from,ironically, Xander Shoffley
wasn't enough.
And for J.J.
Spahn, he pretty much said asmuch in his post-round press
conference.
Things were not going well, andthe rain delay was huge for him.

(39:07):
And he came out like a differentgolfer.
So, look, we always say there'sno timeouts in golf, but
sometimes there are.
You just don't get to choosewhen you call them.
And so I would...
I would say that it's hard tosay there wouldn't be major
champions, but I would say thatthose tournaments would likely

(39:29):
have gone differently if itweren't for those rain delays.
The infamous quote from Hidekiabout what he did during that
rain delay, sit in his phone.
Or sit in his car and scroll onhis phone.

SPEAKER_00 (39:43):
You know, if I could respond to that real fast.
We live in such a hypotheticalworld.
And we all feel like we canpredict golf, which you can't.
It just isn't real.
And that's sort of ahypothetical.
I want to say anyone who's won atournament has had something
that's gone right.
You know, when you win a72-year-old event, it's not just

(40:04):
all skill and decision-makingand stuff.
There's been breaks that havegone your way.
And there have been players thatyou don't even know about that
have had three or four lip-outsthat if they go in, they're
winning the tournament justbecause they weren't necessarily
covered on TV.
So, yeah, that's just glaring.
And, yeah, I was on the call atAmen Corner when Adeki stopped
on the right side of 11th.
and marked the ball and thendidn't got to sort of remark it.

(40:26):
So he had a better line, a verywet area.
And then he stuck a seven ironto about 10 feet to back hole
location.
You could not have done that ifthey'd kept on playing, but it's
kind of rub of the green.
It just is what it is.

SPEAKER_01 (40:39):
It is.
And I, I love the hypotheticalgame, but, uh, I, I, yes, there
are shots that never even get totelevision or never get anywhere
that, um, We can play thewhat-if game for every golfer in
the field.
How about the what-if game forgame 20, 10.09 a.m.
local time?

(40:59):
And this is a big boy group,Marcus.
They all are because that's whyI'm showing them.
Shane Lowry, the winner the lasttime we were here at Royal
Portrush.
Colin Morikawa, he's got aclaret jug.
And Scotty Scheffler, hmm,number one player in the world.
What do you make of game number20?

SPEAKER_00 (41:17):
What if Scotty just decides to give up golf because
it starts getting in the way ofhis family and his friends, like
he said in the press conferencethis morning?
I mean, yeah, I was fascinatedby his comments.
He seems like he's just tryingto put stuff into perspective.
He's talking about embracingLynx golf.
I would say of the three here,Shane is the most accomplished

(41:41):
Lynx golfer.
Colin...
He won down at Royal St.
George's where you can have somelucky breaks because balls will
go down the middle of thefairway and end up in bad spots.
And Scheffler, you would figurehe's going to win one at some
stage.
But if I was looking at thisgroup and I was going to be a
betting man, it's going to wreckGreg the wrong way.
But I'd bet Lowry in this groupif I was.

UNKNOWN (42:04):
Wow.

SPEAKER_01 (42:05):
Does that rub you the wrong way, Greg?
Well, no.
Here, I would say it's...
The least likely major, the mostdifficult to predict for Scotty
Scheffler specifically.
So I understand where Mark'scoming from with that.
Links is a totally differenttest.
But at the same time, I wasthinking of what Mark was saying

(42:29):
earlier in his description ofwhat links golf requires.
And all I could think about, Iwas seeing that headshot all the
way on the right-hand side ofthat screen in my head after
every comment he made.
I know that Shane Lowry andColin Morikawa are capable of
that too.
But watching Scotty Scheffler,what was the tournament?

(42:52):
This is going to bother me.
It was not the Scottish Open.
There was a tournament earlierthis year, Scotty was playing,
where a lot of guys landed itshort of the green.
and bouncing it up.
And I could not get over howoften he landed it 10, 15 yards

(43:13):
short of the green, and it stillended up flag high.
There is nobody better atgetting that distance right.
And it hit me earlier this yearthat it's not about landing it
the right distance for him.
He can do that.
He can also get the totaldistance right.
he can control his spin as wellas anybody.

(43:36):
He can move the ball up and downas well as anybody.
You look at short game.
I mean, he's pretty complete,but I'll give you my one concern
and why what Mark's commentsdon't rub me the wrong way.
You look at his last six tripsto Lynx golf, whether it was the
Scottish open or the openchampionship, just including

(43:58):
those two, he's lost strokes,putting in all six.
Now, he's having his bestputting season of his entire
career this year, 22nd on thePGA Tour, but he did struggle
last week, losing nearly a shotand a half to the field on the
greens.
So, yeah, I worry about Scottiein one way, one way only, and

(44:20):
it's what happens on the greenswith him.

SPEAKER_00 (44:24):
One more thing about Scottie to me, and I'm building
on Greg's observation about howhe hits it.
He is...
he is so predictable, I think hehas a problem with
unpredictability.
You know, he plays it off and helooks like he's not getting
frustrated, but underneath thatveneer, he is burning hot.
Because when he hits the ball awhole high every single time,

(44:47):
when over here you get a bouncethat goes in the wrong
direction, he's like, how onearth now I've got to deal with
that?
And then you're more fightingthe battle of trying to deal
with that than you're just goingabout hitting the shots that you
should.
So I think when he sort of comesto grips with the fact that Even
someone as reliable as him,Teeter Green, is going to get
stuff that doesn't go right.
And you're like, well, dang.
Well, gosh darn it.

(45:08):
Whatever you're going to say,you just keep on playing.
That's when he's going to unlockthe magic that's required to win
one of these.

SPEAKER_01 (45:15):
Yeah, it doesn't happen often because things
rarely go wrong for him.
But when they do, he does runvery, very hot.
And you can see it immediately.
It doesn't happen very often.

SPEAKER_00 (45:26):
They're not like Wyndham Clark blow-ups or
anything, but his chili burnspretty hot at times.
Yeah,

SPEAKER_01 (45:32):
well, there are very few Wyndham Clark-like blow-ups.
Let's get to the afternoon.
2.59 p.m.
local time.
Look at this group.
It's Game 45.
It's Jordan Spieth.
It's Ludwig Oberg.
It's Victor Hovland.
And, Greg, we've got a pair ofScandinavians and one of the
most accomplished OpenChampionship players in this

(45:53):
field.

UNKNOWN (45:54):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (45:55):
Fascinating group.
Absolutely fascinating.
Last time we saw Jordan Spieth,he was withdrawing from the
Travelers Championship becauseof a scap.
His words.
Injury.
His scap.
Yeah.
I mean, it's basically like astiff neck, even though the
scap's not in your neck.
They're connected.
They affect one another.

(46:16):
So that's bothering him.
Ludwig Oberg has been hittingthe ball so much better recently
He's been an absolute stripeshow.
I really like where his game istrending.
And the same is true for VictorHovland.
I'm very bullish on VictorHovland this week.
Now, you might look at this andsay, well, is this a bad tee

(46:38):
time?
It might turn out to be.
I'm not worried about itpersonally.
I think that anybody who winsthis tournament is going to have
to play through some difficultweather.
I don't think there's an easywave to be in, but Perhaps one
ends up easier than another, butI don't think there's an easy
wave.
So whoever wins is going to haveto play through some difficult

(46:58):
conditions.
And I think these players rightnow are...
There's something that theyhaven't achieved yet this year,
but everything about their gameis trending in the direction of
achieving those things.
It's one of my favorite groupson the entire board.
Yeah, I think the predictionmarket...
on this, Mark, would be quitebullish on all three of these

(47:19):
guys.
Their odds, according to Vegas,Hovland and Ludwig are both
30-1.
Jordan's beat is 55-1, but Ithink there is a general
positivity around all three ofthese players right now.

SPEAKER_00 (47:29):
Yeah, well, Jordan, I think, is playing with the
freedom of having now the littlebaby born, Sully.
And so that concerns out of theway, so now he can just go ahead
and play a little swing-freegolf.
And he's at his best when he'sfree swinging.
Ludwig...
He was like Jekyll and Hyde lastweek.
He went from sublime toridiculous in front of my eyes

(47:50):
on Saturday afternoon.
I mean, he couldn't miss.
And all of a sudden, he playsthree holes and five over.
It was fascinating.
And it's almost like all of asudden, when he missed a shot,
he missed two in a row, whichyou can't afford to do.
Like, he was looking unreal.
He was way under.
He was tied for the lead.
He hits it close on 12 and threeputts from like 15 feet.

(48:10):
Then the next hole on 13, kindof...
hits a weak tee shot, sort ofmishits one, then tugs a five
iron into out of bounds.
Just ridiculous sort of collegegolfer stuff in a way.
So I'm high on Ludwig, butthere's a little something
missing there right now.
And so of the bunch, in astrange way, I'm kind of leaning

(48:31):
towards Victor in this.
because he looked very easy withhimself.
There were a lot of smiles lastweek.
He plays links golf well.
He's one of those ball strikers,especially with the irons that
we talk about.
And this could be a sneaky weekfor a Victor Hovland, I believe.

SPEAKER_01 (48:47):
That's the 2.59 p.m.
local time group.
I'll give you one more here,gentlemen, and it is none other
than the 3.10.
This is Rory McIlroy.
It's Justin Thomas.
It's Tommy Fleetwood.
Mark, this is a group late inthe day that, of course,
everybody's going to have eyeson.

SPEAKER_00 (49:08):
The winner is going to come out of this group.
I'm saying it now.
And it's going to be a battlebetween Fleetwood and Rory.
Fleetwood plays his golf courseso well.
I think last week...
He didn't have his best stuff,but it was kind of a week where
if you're not playing well, it'snot a bad deal to just sort of
get your reps in, hit someshots, kind of test the golf

(49:30):
swing, low stress, save yourenergy for the big week, the
Open Championship week.
So I love Tommy because of theway he hits his irons around
this golf course.
Rory and everything I've seenfrom last week, he's got the two
iron in the bag that is arocket.
And I feel like it's going toreally stand him in good stead

(49:51):
around this place so he doesn'tforce the issue.
Because the strange thing,remember the last time we were
here, how the ball hit out ofbounds that essentially cost him
the tournament off the firsthole was with a long iron off
the first.
But he's got this two iron rightnow that is like so reliable and
it goes a ton.
And all the video I've seen ofhim in practice, he's swinging

(50:11):
like the guy that I watched atPebble Beach.
It's not flat out.
For a little while here afterthe Masters, he was like
swinging for the fences oneverything again.
Where I'm watching in practice,it's measured, it's balanced,
it's kind of three-quarterspeed, the ball flight's
controlled.
I'm loving what I'm seeingthere.
And then there's JT.
Gosh, I mean, theunpredictability is rampant

(50:34):
because if he putts well, thedriver misbehaves.
If the driver goes well, he putspoorly.
So I'm kind of out on JustinThomas a little bit, but then
he's likely to prove me wrong.

SPEAKER_01 (50:45):
Yeah, he's Jekyll and Hyde every single week.
The Rory McIlroy 2019, if youdon't remember, if you weren't
watching, the anticipation ofRory going back to Royal
Portrush and Portrush hostingthe Open for the first time
since 1951, and for Rory tostand on the first tee and hit
one OB...

(51:06):
He then took an unplayable up bythe green.
He walked off the first greenwith an eight.
And the world was spinning very,very fast.
And he battled back.
He battled back, Greg.
He missed the cut by a stroke.
I think he shot a 65 on Friday.
But there is certainly, I wouldimagine, some revenge in the

(51:28):
back of Rory's mind.
I would think so.
In fact, that's what I wrotedown.
Rory's revenge at Royal portrush.
Whoa.
Royal rush.
We'll just shorten it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I really liked that.
Look, he, he made a quad and hemade a double triple and a quad
in that first round.
It wasn't just that opening teeshot that got him.

(51:51):
But Rory talked about somethingquite interesting that he wasn't
prepared for that moment.
Now in 2019, he was a, veryaccomplished um you know
four-time major champion he saidto shane lowry before the
tournament that this would bethe biggest tournament of his
entire life i think roryunderstands that and and now

(52:12):
that he's getting still in hisprime a second pass at it he
will know how to handle thoseemotions and then which is a
huge deal um maybe a bigger dealthan the Mark made about the
golf swing, which are a hugedeal as well.
But understanding how to controlthat is crucial in its

(52:34):
importance.
Then you listen to what Marksays about the golf swing and
that viewpoint.
That's massive.
Then the numbers start to backthat up.
We're starting to see somereally good play now in the U.S.
Open, aside from the firstround.
The Travelers, he finished tiedsixth, finished tied second.

(52:54):
Last week as well, things aredefinitely trending in the right
direction.
This is a guy where heading intothe U.S.
Open, I questioned the focus.
I questioned...
his ability to flip the switch,so to speak.
And what I'm noticing nowlooking at these last three
weeks is this, this wasn't aswitch that was flipped, right?

(53:16):
He's put in the work.
He's put in the work since the US open to get ready for this.
And I like Mark.
I think he's ready for thechallenge ahead.
50 to one for Justin Thomas, 28to one for Tommy Fleetwood.
And the man with the secondshortest odds is, the sixth man
to ever complete the careerGrand Slam, the man from

(53:39):
Northern Ireland, that is RoryMcIlroy, second to only Scotty
Scheffler in the odds market.
Gentlemen, I am going to nowtake us to the grid, which is
our opportunity to put someofficial wagers on the line.
If you've never seen it before,it's matchups, it's finishing

(54:00):
positions, it's two separateoutrights.
And if producer Mina is ready,She can fire that grid off right
now.
There we go.
Good job.
Good timing.
All right.
Match-ups.
Let's start there.
Mark.
Oh, look at you.
What'd you find?

SPEAKER_00 (54:16):
I'm going super linksy this week.
And Port Rush is one of thoseplaces that not a lot of people
go to unless you're from thearea or a tourist.
And so I'm loving the fact thatLarry was in here a couple weeks
before the time.
He went and played a number ofother Lynx courses to get in the
mood for this sort of stuff,where Jon Rahm was playing in a

(54:36):
very windy Valderrama.
So it's like a quick mindsetshift.
Now, he's capable of anything.
But Lowry, the place that he'swon, a groundswell of Irish
support, the short game he has,he's a lovely iron player.
I feel like I'm lacking him overJon Rahm, plus 165.

SPEAKER_01 (54:55):
Yeah, very good number there.
Plus 165.
You drive into town, you see a30-foot mural of Shane Lowry and
the Claret Jug.
That's certainly worth somemotivation.
Speaking of numbers, I couldn'tbelieve my eyes when I saw that
Sepp Straka was plus 110 overColin Morikawa.
Colin is...
I think he is confused.
I am very confused.

(55:16):
I don't know what to expect outof him, but I know that Sepp
Straka never misses the centerof the club face after a little
bit of a mini slump.
It's starting to play a lotbetter golf.
I think the way he hits it isgoing to work very well around
Port Rush.
I'm going to pick on Colin alittle bit here and take Sepp
Straka at plus 110.

(55:37):
Mr.
Greg Head, what matchup did youfind?
I'm sorry.
It's Dr.
Greg Head.
Yes, thank you, sir.
I didn't want to short you yourofficial title.
All of my intensive schooling onthis.
All right, I got Sam Burns, whois the dog.
He's at minus 105, to CoreyConnors.

(55:57):
Now, Corey Connors coming off aninjury at the U.S.
Open, finished tied 47th at theTravelers.
We haven't seen him since.
I'm sure that his wrist isbetter, but...
still not overly excited aboutwhere we are with Corey Connors.
So I like where we are with SamBurns.

(56:18):
Conversely, I think that he isdefinitely rated out very well.
His iron play has been a wholelot better.
Not the best week in Scotlandlast week, but I'm also thinking
a Sam Burns playing really wellat the US Open this year.
And he got into contention lastyear at the Open as well before
absolutely disappearing onSunday.

(56:41):
I think he's learned from that.
So what that told me, what RoyalTroon told me was Sam Burns
capable of playing Lynx golf,capable of playing major
championship golf.
And I think he's built on thatthis year with the US Open.
So I like Burns over Connors.

SPEAKER_00 (56:57):
Just for the record, Corey played last week.
And Scotland finished a coupleunder, I believe it was.

SPEAKER_01 (57:03):
Oh, I think that's what I meant when I said tied
47th.
Because he didn't play theTravelers.
Tied 47th at the Scottish.
That's right, Mark.
And seemingly came outunscathed.
No worse for the wear there.
Finishing positions.
Greg, I'll bounce it right backto you first here.
And you are continuing to backup.
a man who has paid off the lastcouple of weeks.

(57:26):
Yes, that would be MattFitzpatrick.
I like him for a top 30.
I believe that the OpenChampionship at...
royal port rush is his best everfinish and it was it was a tied
20th in 2019 so he accomplishedthe feat then but what i really

(57:48):
like is the way that he'shitting the ball it's very clear
to me that matt fitzpatrick hasfound something with his golf
swing you're seeing it greatimprovement in the numbers off
the tee and approaching thegreen his short game has been
very good the last couple ofweeks as well so i like the
direction matt fitzpatrick'sheading in and i think this
number is a little you knowwasn't wasn't a much longer

(58:10):
number for top 20 so i i think ithink it was plus 160 for a top
20 so i went to plus 120 for afor a top 30 give a little extra
little extra cushion here alittle extra cushion for mr
fitzpatrick mark uh yourfinishing position is actually
top 40 for this week who is thegolfer please

SPEAKER_00 (58:31):
Well, maybe I'm affecting the Vegas line because
I see he's down to plus 125 now.
Yeah, you're

SPEAKER_01 (58:39):
moving the line.
You're a market

SPEAKER_00 (58:40):
mover.
Maybe I'm a victim of the momenttoo, but I talked about him in
the last show we were on.
Nikolaj Hojgaard just lookedreally, really good.
I know I'm high on the Hojgaardsright now.
Top 40 for this dude, the wayhe's playing, the way he hits
it.
gosh plus 130 i was all overthat although i did and to
continue the local knowledgething i took a long look at tom

(59:03):
mckibben plus 120 for a top 40as well um he's i like his game
he's a talented kid sort ofguided by darren clark and rory
mackler so mckibben top 40 butnicolai plus 130 is a good idea

SPEAKER_01 (59:17):
yeah tom mckibben also uh grew up in the same town
as Rory McIlroy did.
He plays on Live Golf now.
He's coming off two consecutivetop five finishes on Live Golf
in Dallas and at Valderrama.
I went with Cam Smith to missthe cut.
Plus 115.
He has missed four consecutivecuts at major championships.

(59:37):
So that's one at every major hehas missed.
The play around the world hasbeen a bit uninspiring.
It is, as you can imagine...
incredibly reliant on him beingthe best putter on the planet.
And even when he does that, it'snot particularly great.

(59:59):
So I'm going to go with CamSmith to miss the cut here.
I tried this, though, Greg, withBrooks Koepka at the U.S.
Open, and that did not work outvery well.
But I'm going to try to get CamSmith.
I'll have my eye on him.
It makes total sense, Rick.
He's got a claret jug.
But he won it at St.
Andrews, which is a totallydifferent test because the

(01:00:20):
fairways are so much wider.
And you can understand why thatwould play into his hands.
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:26):
Let's be honest.
Rory gave that a little bit tohim too,

SPEAKER_01 (01:00:28):
though.
There was a couple of Rory andVictor, but hard St.
Andrews to death and just watchthe cams run past them.
It's brutal.
Two separate winners here.
And we've got, oh, we've got avariety of, we've got six
different golfers everywherefrom four and a half to one to a

(01:00:48):
hundred to one.
So let's do this.
Let's do this.
Let's start with the shortestand work our way up.
Greg, give me your shortestgolfer.
Surprise, surprise.
Scott Schaeffler.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:02):
Unbrand.

SPEAKER_01 (01:01:04):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Unapologetically.
I just, I believe, look, lastweek I've struggled with this.
I'm like, well, he can't putt inlinks golf.
So I don't like Scotty thisweek.
Well, He still finished insidethe top 10 finishes inside the
top 10 every single week.
And if he happens to break astreak of six of six poor

(01:01:29):
putting weeks in a row on linksgolf this week, he will win.
He is by far.
the best ball striker in thegame.
This is really what gets me.
When we get into the fantasyportion of this, Rick, all of
the guys I'm interested in thisweek, it's all-around play.
It's tee-to-green play.

(01:01:49):
And there is no one even closeto as good tee-to-green as
Scotty Scheffler.
How could I not have him in thisspot?
So I'm rolling with it.
Greg always says it doesn'tmatter what the odds are.
It's the one that ends upwinning, and it's hard to argue
with that.
He's cashed a lot of theseScotty Scheffler wagers over the

(01:02:09):
last two years.
Mark, you're checking in nextwith the second shortest golfer,
please.

SPEAKER_00 (01:02:15):
Also very much on brand, I guess.
I'm talking about him, RoryMcIlroy.
He just looks different.
He looks like the golfer I sawearlier this year.
When I talked with him last weekin Scotland, he had a relaxed
air about him.
Again, the golf ball strikingwas tremendous.

(01:02:36):
He putts links greens prettywell, which is strange because
ordinarily he used to get a bitfrustrated with the whole thing,
but he looks like he's in a goodplace.
And, you know, whereas golf canbe really nasty at times, we've
been in a year now when one ofthe greatest golf achievements
in anyone's life was achieved byMcElroy.

(01:02:56):
and it almost was snatched awayat the last minute.
Now he's going back to PortRush, and I feel like it's going
to be the finest hour, and it'sgoing to be to Greg's thing,
redemption at the Rush for Rory.
So let's go.

SPEAKER_01 (01:03:08):
Seven and a half to one for Rory McIlroy to get the
job done.
And I think we're all going tostart with our, with our anchor
here.
And I'm going to XanderShoffley, who is a man that I
just cannot quit.
I see the way that he's beendriving it, which is much
better.
I like the way that he can workit in a variety of directions.
He's got to fix the putter.
He's usually a very good putter,but when you get to a major

(01:03:29):
championship, Xander is as closeto Scotty Scheffler as we can
get when it comes to a top 10lock.
So I suspect Xander is going tobe back in the mix again.
This week, which is why Iclicked his name at 25 to 1.
Now, our second golfers are alittle bit abstract.
They're a little bit off theboard for what we normally go

(01:03:49):
with.
Mark, your second outright isour fourth shortest golfer.
Who is it?

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:56):
Well, when this show used to be the first cut and it
wasn't so good, and we did apreview late last year about who
was going to win events thisyear, and...
Greg essentially picked Scottyfor every event that he picked.
I was like, at Port Rush,Fleetwood's going to win.
And so I had to go back to thewell.
He's been really solid thisyear.
Yeah, he fumbled the TravelersChampionship badly to give

(01:04:21):
Keegan the victory.
But Tommy is comfortable.
He's playing solid golf.
He's a wonderful iron player.
I feel like Tommy gets it doneat a place where he finished
runner-up the last time weplayed here.

SPEAKER_01 (01:04:34):
He's got three top 10s, including that runner-up
finish at Opens in his last fivestarts.
Four top 12s, if you go back onemore year, to Cardinousti.
Tommy Fleetwood is 28-1.
Greg, didn't you also pick J.J.
Spahn to win the Open orsomething like that?
No, no, I wish.
It was Robert McIntyre.

(01:04:55):
I believe, if I'm not mistaken,Mark will love this.
Scotty, Scotty, Scotty.
scotty was at least two of thetwo of the first three and
mcintyre was for sure the openhe's not on my card yes that was

(01:05:16):
okay i remember talking about itat the u.s open thinking okay
well if he wins this that okaythat's that was why i was
thinking it was it was jj spoti'm up next because i've got the
50 to 1 golfer it's justinthomas i have i have been
twisted into a pretzel betweenhe and Colin Murakawa I've been
shaking around and stirred andnow up is down and down is up

(01:05:36):
and black is white white isblack and I don't know what's
happening but Justin Thomas isgain strokes with the putter in
10 straight I don't know why hisLynx history is so bad I think
it should be better I think hehas a mental thing at major
championships but I've learnedthat the four weeks in between
majors allows me enough time toheal and get back on Justin
Thomas so here I am again 50 50to 1, JT, and I'm sure he will

(01:06:01):
be gone on Friday evening.

SPEAKER_00 (01:06:03):
You're like that guy that I sent you the clip that
was sent to me about bettingsomeone.

SPEAKER_01 (01:06:08):
Yes.
And I did it again.
I did it again.
I'm the cartoon character thatsteps on the rake.
It comes up.
It smacks him in the face.
He turns around.
He steps on it again.
It's just over and over and overagain.
You can't help us.
Maybe one time it won't.

SPEAKER_00 (01:06:23):
One of these times.
But Rick, you're a smart guy andyou're a data guy.
So there's got to be somethingbehind this argument.
So I really need to know,despite the emotion, why are you
making this pick?

SPEAKER_01 (01:06:34):
Yeah.
Okay.
So it's a huge improvement withthe putter.
He has putted statistically alot better over the last two
months.
And at his best, he's obviouslyan elite putter.
He's played, he's played wellenough.
The 22nd, the Scottish, theninth at the travelers.
Basically, if it hasn't been, ifit hasn't been a major, he's

(01:06:54):
been awesome.
Right?
So these are his last five orsix non-majors runner up at
Valspar.
He won the heritage.
He finished second at Phillycricket, 31st at Memorial ninth
at travelers, 22nd at theScottish.
That's a great run.
It's just the majors that havegiven him trouble.

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:13):
All right, well, this is just a major this week.

SPEAKER_01 (01:07:17):
One of these times, Lucy is not going to pull the
ball away from Charlie Brown.
She's going to let him kick thatfootball, and I think it might
be this time.
He is a two-time major champion.
Yeah,

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:31):
look, I'm wearing the T-shirt.
Yeah, there you go.
How about that?

SPEAKER_01 (01:07:36):
Feels like a million years ago, which also was also
Mito Pereira-aided.
Greg, round this out here withthe longest outright on our
board.
It is 100 to one.
Who is it?
All right.
If you're rolling your eyesbecause Scotty's on my board,
maybe this is a little a littleredemption here.

(01:07:59):
OK, I every major run a analysisthat I come up with, which is
the trends of the last fivewinners of said major.
Now, the key is with this, allfive have to meet these
criteria.
So I dig deep trying to findwhat they all have in common.

(01:08:20):
And it's harder than you mightthink.
But I found it.
So I'm going to walk you throughthis.
Humor me.
And you'll see why I get to thelongest player on our board.
Okay.
The last five winners of theOpen Championship gained.756
strokes total in the year oftheir win leading into the Open.
Before the Open.

(01:08:41):
There are 51 players in thisfield on just the PGA Tour, Euro
Tour, and Live Tour that meetthis criteria.
So we've already hammered outhalf the field.
Yeah, more.
More than half.
Some of them just becausethey're Champions Tour

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:55):
players.
Is Fleetwood on that list?
Please tell me he's on there.

SPEAKER_01 (01:08:58):
It has to be, right?

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:59):
Yes.

SPEAKER_01 (01:09:00):
I believe Fleetwood made it pretty far in this.

SPEAKER_00 (01:09:03):
Okay, cool.
That's what I wanted to say.
All right,

SPEAKER_01 (01:09:05):
carrying on.
Three or more top tens in theyear of their win leading into
it.
So nothing counts after the win.
Now we're down to 38 players.
And where's Tommy?
I'm looking.
Tommy Fleetwood's still in themix.
I'll keep you updated as we go.
You have all of these writtendown.
And what'd you do?
Cross them off as you went?

(01:09:27):
No.
No, they're separate.
You rewrote the list every time?
Yes.
Oh, my God.

SPEAKER_00 (01:09:35):
This is a labor of loving.
I love you.
I

SPEAKER_01 (01:09:39):
love doing it.
All right.
Now, the next one.
They all had at least one topfive.
Rick, I rewrote almost theentire list.
Only two players were removed.
That only knocked out two guys?
Yes.
Three or more top 10s, one ormore top fives.
Only knocked out two.
We got 36 players left.
Obviously, Tommy Fleetwood'sstill one of them.

(01:10:01):
Now we start to get some chunkplays here.
They all had, all five of thelast Open champions, had at
least two major top 10s in theircareer before their win.
Now we're down to 22 of them.
Yes, Tommy Fleetwood still inthe mix.
Now they also had a top 20.

(01:10:22):
or they were a rookie in theOpen Championship before their
win.
Now, there's only one rookie.
It's Colin Morikawa.
So that's why I threw thatcaveat in there.
But either way, 19 guys stillapply.
19 guys still apply.
All right.
So now at this point, I'm alittle worried.
I'm like, there's going to belike 18 guys who can win this.

(01:10:46):
This isn't very interesting.
But now we get into the stats.
Okay.
Now, the last five Openchampions had gained at least
1.834 strokes off the tee in atleast one of their last five
events before the Open.
Okay.
Down to 16, guys.
Wow, I thought that would haveknocked out more guys.

(01:11:07):
Yeah, 1.8 is pretty good.
This one, Approach Play knockedout quite a few.
4.449 or more in one event oftheir last five leading in.
Now we're down to 11, guys.
That is what knocked out...
No, that knocked out Fleetwood.
That knocked him out.
Yeah, that knocked out Fleetwoodand a number of others.

(01:11:28):
Now we go around the green.
1.55 or more strokes around thegreen in their last five events
before the open.
Now that knocked out one.
So now we're down to 10.
I'm like, oh my gosh, this isnot going to go very well.
Interestingly, The last fiveOpen champions had gained at
least 5.029 strokes putting inone or more of their last five

(01:11:53):
events leading in.
That knocked out eight of them.
There were two players left.
One of them is Robert McIntyre.
I kid you not.
And you just knocked out ScottyScheffler as well, bro.
Scotty Scheffler got knocked outas well.
So Robert McIntyre was one, butthe caveat is I was doing this
during the Scottish open his, hewould have been knocked out on

(01:12:17):
the approach.
McIntyre would have been knockedout on approach.
It was the only thing thatchanged in this.
He would have been knocked outon approach.
If, uh, if, uh, you know, thefifth event before, if the
Scottish was counted, he wouldhave been knocked out on
approach.
Let's just say it that way.
So the only man that survivedall of these trends in the

(01:12:39):
entire field was Ryder cup.
Captain Keegan Bradley, who's ahundred to one.
Now this gets even better.
I put this on a, on X and I,Look, it's not an opinion piece,
right?
These are pure numbers.
It's just fun for me.
Oh, you probably got skewered onX.

(01:13:02):
Well, not as bad as you'd think.
But one person was like, whatOpen champion has missed their
last five cuts in Openchampionships?
I knew that was going to be theissue.
So Keegan's missed his last fivecuts at Open.
I knew that was going to be theissue.
Yep.
And I knew that as well.
And I was ready for this.

(01:13:22):
Do you know how many openchampionship cuts Shane Lowry
had missed before winning in2019 right here at Royal Port
Rush?
I was going to say, I'll guessfive.
No.
Four.
Pretty darn close.
So I call it a wash.
Keegan Bradley is going to winthe Open this

SPEAKER_00 (01:13:44):
week.
Greg, that's not pure facts.
That's opinion, then, if youlike comparing four and five and
saying it's the same

SPEAKER_01 (01:13:49):
thing.
Well, no, it wasn't in thetrends.
So now at that point, we'reoutside.
Yes, because Keegan has a top 20in an Open.
That was part of the trends.
But there was no recencyattachment to that.
Let me, what is one of thetrends going to be?
Has not missed five cuts in theopen.
Four is okay.
Five's not.

(01:14:09):
You'd think that most guys wouldsurvive that.
Keegan would not have survivedthat.
No, no.
But he survived.
He survived.

SPEAKER_00 (01:14:16):
I want to be you when I grow up.
Will you help me with my bets inthe future?
Because I kind of just go...
Mark,

SPEAKER_01 (01:14:24):
I'm not sure which one works better.
I'm willing to help, but I don'tknow how much this really helps.
Do you have the final 10 thatqualified for this?
List off the final 10 that madeit deep into this.
We got Scotty, Rom, Hatton,Reed, Patrick, that is,

(01:14:50):
Morikawa, Henley, Cantlay,Keegan, Jordan Spieth, Robert
McIntyre.
All right, there you go.

SPEAKER_00 (01:14:59):
So Rory didn't win an Open in the last five years
or whatever you're looking.

SPEAKER_01 (01:15:05):
No, I lost Rory in the approach play.
He hasn't gained 4.449 or moreon approach in his last five
events.
That's where I lost Rory.
That's where we lost Rory, Mark.
Where did we lose you in thatwhole thing?

(01:15:27):
Yeah.
Because I was working real hardto keep up.
Well done, Greg.

SPEAKER_00 (01:15:32):
Bravo.

SPEAKER_01 (01:15:33):
That is Keegan Bradley, Justin Thomas, Tommy
Fleetwood, Xander Shoffley,Scotty Scheffler, Rory McIlroy
are the official outrights forthis week.
We're not done.
We're not done.
Greg and I are going to dofantasy stuff here.
But Mark, before we let you go,we're excited for you to be able
to just kick back, relax, feetup, sip your coffee, watch your

(01:15:57):
golf, root for rain, root forwind, all that fun stuff.
Hell, you might even root for aplayoff.
You might be feeling friskyenough to do that.
Any final thoughts before we getyou out of here?

SPEAKER_00 (01:16:10):
Yeah.
I mean, if I'm in front of theTV long enough, we should do
like a live tweet, like tweetannouncing.
The group of us.

SPEAKER_01 (01:16:18):
I've got some ideas for some watch-along stuff that
we might have to investigate inthe

SPEAKER_00 (01:16:23):
future.
The second cat's got a nexthandle.
We can sort of live tweet andput commentary up there.

SPEAKER_01 (01:16:28):
All right.
Listen, I like it.
All right.
Well, we're going to get you outof here, but we're going round
by round this week, so we'regoing to talk very, very soon.
Mark, thank you very much,brother.

SPEAKER_00 (01:16:37):
All right, you boys.
Take care.
Nice to see you.

SPEAKER_01 (01:16:39):
Thanks, Mark.
All right.
Mr.
Ducharme, we've got a little bitmore work to do.
We're going to do the fantasyaspects of the show now.
I had to do this a couple ofweeks ago, and I'm going to ask
again.
Can I have 30 seconds to run tothe restroom?
Yes, you can.
So, Mina, give me a thumbs up ifwe're ready to do a quick
30-second intermission.

(01:16:59):
She will mute us and play somebackground music.
All right, she's ready to go.
Thank you.
Now you can drop your line.
And we're back.
Is that my line?
Yes.
Okay.
That's on the back of a t-shirtof mine.
Yes, it is.
Second Cut t-shirt.
Yes, which is available atsecondcutmerch.com.
Very good job, Greg, for gettingthat in there.

(01:17:21):
There's hats.
There's bucket caps.
There's quarter zips.
I think there might even be...
No, I don't think there's abeanie.
You know what I've been seeing alot of are the golf towels.
Everybody can send it over thegolf towels, which is very, very
good and very, very fun.
Okay.
I'm resetting here.
I'm getting my outlines inorder.
And we are now going to enterthe fantasy portion of the show.

(01:17:44):
So the way that we do this is Iasked Greg to highlight a
handful of golfers in each oneof the tiers and then come up
with a golfer of the week.
Now, you'll note, Greg, there isa 5K range this week because
Scotty Scheffler is over$14,000on DraftKings.
So that gave us another set ofnames that we got to look at.

(01:18:05):
Yes, it's a deep field.
It's fascinating.
I think the 6K range is verydeep as well.
The 5K range has some names thatare quite interesting.
Look, I mean, even the fall offfrom the pricing this week is
just fascinating.
It's basically like DraftKingsis saying, hey, do whatever you

(01:18:29):
want.
It's almost like there's nopricing.
It's fascinating to me.
I think that's why one of thereasons why DFS and majors is
just so good because it stilldoesn't make it easy.
It doesn't.
It feels like there's a lot morecombinations.
The idea of trying to decidewhether to go up and spend the
$14,000 on Scotty or build somepretty, pretty strong lineups if

(01:18:54):
you skip out on Scotty makes foran interesting conversation.
So let's...
Let's start with your golfer ofthe week.
And Mina, fire it up there.
But Greg, we've talked a lotabout this guy.
I'll just tell you, it's KeeganBradley.
Trends aside, what do you seefrom Keegan that makes him the

(01:19:14):
man that you cannot live withoutthis week?
Yeah, so the trends is fun andall that, right?
But now we got a really...
decide if we're going to usethis or not.
Because like I said, the trend,they're fun.
I like to see what it spits out.
It gives me something extra toroot for, something to share
with you all.
But now we get to the seriousstuff.

(01:19:36):
So consider this from a fantasyperspective.
Keegan Bradley is in the$6,000range, right?
He is 6,700 on DraftKings.
At the same time on the PGATour, he is fourth in strokes
gain TD Green.
Fourth on the PGA Tour, StrokesGay and TD Green.

(01:19:57):
He finished tied eighth at thePGA Championship just earlier
this year.
So I think that he has a gamethat is very capable of
competing and contending inmajors because his TD Green play
is so strong.
Usually that comes from greatdriving, great approach play.
It still does.
But the kicker is this year he's10th.
He is 10th in strokes gainedaround the green.

(01:20:20):
This is exactly the type ofcomplete player that I'm looking
for.
And, of course, my attention ispulled his way initially because
of the trend.
That's probably why he getselevated to the golfer of the
week.
Also the price.
Yeah.
All those things in combinationmake him my golfer of the week.

(01:20:40):
The price is really intriguing.
You've got a major champion, aguy who won two starts ago, a
guy who has three top eightfinishes in his last five
starts, a man that's had areally good...
His major record's prettystrong.
He missed the cut at the Mastersthis year, and he missed the cut
at the Open last year.
So it's back-to-back, but theywere nine months apart.

(01:21:03):
And outside of that, it's been areally good stretch of me, even
major championships for him.
I am concerned about the fivemissed cuts in a row.
I am, but I, the price does makethis really interesting.
Yeah.
And I get that you, and youshould be, you absolutely should
be.
But the thing that kicked meover the edge was one, it's

(01:21:24):
possible, right?
Shane Lowry just showed thatit's possible that you can
struggle and come out of it andhave a, you know, one of the
best weeks of your life.
So now that's in my mind.
Now, why would Keegan break thattrend?
Because there are other peopleI'll discard because of poor
record and links golf.
One, he's played well in linksgolf before.

(01:21:45):
So early in his career,especially.
And two, he says, and I think alot of the data says he's
playing the best golf of hislife.
Strangely, this is a differentKeegan Bradley than we've seen
in the last five years.
He's simply better.
So I think that there's a lot ofvalue to be gained with Keegan.

(01:22:08):
$6,700.
Keegan Bradley will allow you tomake any lineup that you want.
Certainly will not be adetriment or a handcuff to
anything there.
Let's start with the big boysnow.
And there are four golfers over10,000.
As mentioned, Scotty Schefflergoes all the way up to 14,200.

(01:22:29):
Rory McIlroy is there, Jon Rahmand Bryson DeChambeau.
You have found me too.
I'll spoil it.
There's Scotty Scheffler andRory McIlroy, as you can
imagine.
But let's talk first aboutScotty Scheffler and your
willingness to spend the bigprice tag here.
Yeah, I think a lot of it has todo with how strong the field is,

(01:22:49):
how strong the 6K and 7K rangeis.
I think that really opens up alot of opportunity.
And if you put price aside andjust looked for your favorite
golfers, I wonder if you tookout, like, all right, we're not
going to put Scotty Schefflerand Rahm and Bryson on the same

(01:23:10):
team, but I'm going to pick...
four, five, six guys, I thinkyou'd get pretty close with the
price because the six and sevenK range is so strong.
So it doesn't feel like a bigjump to me.
It doesn't feel like I'msacrificing a whole lot on the
other end of a lineup.
And again, He just pays off.
This guy just pays off.

(01:23:31):
If we see Scotty Scheffler gaintwo strokes putting this week,
that's a big jump from what he'sdone in links golf before, and I
think he ends up winning ifthat's the result.
It has been four months since hehas not finished inside the top
10.

(01:23:53):
He has finished inside the top25 of every event that he's
played this year.
I feel like I have to keepsaying that because it's
jarring.
And remember, we complainedabout his slow start to the
year.
He still can't putt all thatwell.
And he's not the killer thatTiger was, but this is as good

(01:24:17):
as it gets in our era.
It's spectacular.
In fantasy football, there's asaying that Some we like certain
guys are matchup proof.
It doesn't matter if they'regoing to go up against the
number one defense.
You play them no matter what.
I tend to be in that camp withScotty Scheffler.

(01:24:38):
Scotty Scheffler is matchupproof.
Golf course just doesn't matter.
Yeah, I don't think it matters.
And even though, look, XanderShoffley's record at Open
Championships before winninglast year was also...
While he's very good at majorslike Scottie, I would argue that
Xander's open record was theworst of his major championships
before winning the openchampionship.

(01:25:00):
Wouldn't surprise me at all.
With a win this week, ScottieScheffler's open championship
record looks a whole lot better.
You're damn right it does.
You're damn right it does.
Well, the Rory McIlroy trainrolls on.
A couple thousand dollarscheaper.
Rory McIlroy finishes T2 at theScottish Open, sixth at the
Travelers Championship.

(01:25:20):
All of a sudden, this dude isputting the lights out.
And Greg, talk about gettingback.
There's this intersection ofgetting to the right place at
the right time.
And Rory McIlroy at Portrush in2019 wasn't the right time.
It was the right place, itwasn't the right time.
And now I feel like we aregetting Rory back in the right

(01:25:43):
place at the right time again.
Yeah, it kind of strangely doesfeel like that.
Take all the narratives out ofit, Rick.
Let's look at numbers like we'regoing to the rest of the way.
He...
lost 0.1 strokes off the tee atthe Scottish Open.
Other than that, he's gainedstrokes across the board in

(01:26:04):
every category for two straightweeks.
And I would argue that the ballstriking is lagging behind his
potential.
The putting is sensational.
We know he can do it in Lynxgolf as well.
There's a revenge factor.
There's a, I'm having a secondgo at this.

(01:26:26):
I know what this is going to belike when I get on the first tee
and I know how to get ready forit.
It's a scary thing for RoryMcIlroy.
So I would probably leanslightly Scotty Scheffler over
Rory McIlroy, but it's two weeksago would have been a big
difference right now.
It's pretty darn close for me,Rick.

(01:26:46):
Yeah.
It's, it's also not a, It's notlike a nervous thing going back
to Port Rush.
It's like, oh, this time it'salmost ceremonial.
It's almost a victory lap.
I'm back here in the year that Icompleted the career Grand Slam.
Let me show out.
But I don't think he's lookingat it that way.

(01:27:07):
I think he's looking at thislike revenge.
And look, I see where you'recoming from.
But his attitude has not...
There has been no...
celebratory factor in golf forhim after the Zurich Classic.
None.
It's been like scandals andfrustrated and skipping the

(01:27:30):
media.
It's been crazy, but I thinkhe's got his mind in the right
place now.
It's calm, but it's determined.
I didn't expect to see that.
It's been fun.
It's been a fun roller coaster.
The 9K range, obviously a ton oftalent.

(01:27:53):
I've got three names from youhere, and I'm going to start you
off with a man that you werepicking to win this event a year
ago.
And all of a sudden, I thinkthings still line up very well
for Mr.
Robert McIntyre.
Yes, and they lined up well lastweek.
Now, a lot of you are probablysaying, well, he let me down
last week because he was verypopular and finished tied 65th.

(01:28:16):
I think going back to theScottish Open was a really big
deal for Robert McIntyre.
Like a bigger deal than goingback to the Canadian Open as the
defending champion the yearbefore.
I think it was a big deal, andhe did not handle it well.
So I...
I give him a little pass onthat.
I'm a little worried that hestruggled off the tee so much.

(01:28:38):
But I do think he can correctthat because he was driving it
so well going into that.
I have to think it was, youknow, he just wasn't ready.
And I think he'll be ready thisweek.
He had gained strokes off thetee in the four events leading
into that.
It was five of six leading intothat.
His approach play was in a verysimilar category.

(01:28:58):
He was putting very well.
heading into the Scottish Openlast week.
I think all those things showtheir colors this week at a
place where he finished tiedsixth in 2019.
That was going to be my nextsentence.
So he has never missed a cut infive starts at the Open.
His best finish is here in 2019.
It was a T6.

(01:29:20):
Trending indeed, I believe, isthe way that we would describe
Victor Hovland, who actually...
It's in the$8,000.
Yep.
So I am going to come back tohim, and I'm going to go to the
other man that I should havegone with here, who is Ludwig
Oberg.

(01:29:42):
Let me share that screen.
He is$9,100.
Greg, you're actually playingtogether.
Same group.
I've been generally concernedwith Ludwig this year, and it's
almost in its entirety.
He got sick early, then won,then it was...
Or won and then got sick.

(01:30:03):
Got sick and then won.
Got sick and then won.
Yeah.
And then I missed the cut at theplayers in the Valero, and it
was just kind of not very good,not very well-rounded.
And because so many of thestruggles were with short game
and putting, I was like, well,maybe he's just not as good as
we thought.

(01:30:24):
Yeah.
I know he won at Torrey Pinesthis year.
I'm not saying he's not good.
Maybe he's not as good as wethought because we all thought
very highly of him.
Okay, so that was in my mind.
But I'm looking at this guy nowand looking at this ball
striking, and it's this guy thatwe saw last week finish tie
eighth at the Scottish Open withthat little struggle period that

(01:30:47):
Mark mentioned earlier.
This is the guy that we allthought was so good.
And that's what it looks like tome.
He was better on the greens lastweek, much.
He was better around the greenslast week as well.
I think that Ludwig Oberg isready to put together a really
solid performance on a golfcourse where you have to hit the

(01:31:09):
ball really well.
I think he's ready to do thathere.
This is going to be majorchampionship number eight.
This is going to be the secondlap, so to speak, because he'll
have played every majorchampionship before.
twice when he gets through thisweek.
It feels like he's been around alot longer than that.
It's shockingly only his eighthmajor, which is crazy.

(01:31:31):
It does.
He's played great at theMasters.
He's missed his only cut in theOpen.
I can't see him missing the cutthis week.
I think he's hitting the balltoo well for that to happen.
Let me try this again.
Hitting the ball too well mightbe a way to describe Victor

(01:31:54):
Hovland, who has now gainedstrokes on approach in every
event dating back to the AT&TPebble Beach Pro-Am.
He has put together gains ofseven plus at the Scottish Open,
eight plus at the Travelers.
That was only three rounds.
Six plus at the US Open.
Greg, Victor Hovland checks inat a mere 8,300 bucks.

(01:32:18):
And in a way, I think the bigconcern with him is, well,
there's a little concern withhim off the tee.
But I think when you're hittingyour irons like that, I think
it's a sign that the golf swing,there's confidence in the golf
swing somewhere.
And I think he pulls it out thisweek.
Around the green, any struggles,any technique that he may

(01:32:39):
struggle with can be minimizedthis week.
It's almost like, well, atOakmont, You know, he gained
seven and a half strokes aroundthe green at Oakmont.
But what is...
Oakmont takes away the techniquestruggles in a way because you
have so much rough.
So it's like a different kind ofshot around the greens.

(01:33:01):
This is a different kind of shottoo.
But the difference is you havethe option to putt here if you
want.
You have the option to hit aeight iron here.
I think it asks for morecreativity and less technique.
And I think that's a good thingfor Victor Hovland.
He took the putting option...
Every time at St.
Andrews.
Yeah.
And was in the final group onSunday with Rory McIlroy.

(01:33:26):
I don't know if you can do thathere.
I don't think you can do itevery time.
But I think it isn't.
I think you will sometimes beable to use the like you said, I
think it's it's not wedge off atight lie.
There's just going to be a lotof a lot of options.
Yeah.
Maybe it's a five wood or, or,uh, you know, another, a wood, a

(01:33:47):
three wood.
If he's carrying a long iron orsomething, maybe it's a seven
iron.
There's those options are a goodthing.
Cause all of a sudden you can gosomeone hitting the ball, like
Victor Hovland, go hit 13greens.
And now you got five greens thatyou missed and you put three of
them.
You chip one with a seven ironand the other's in a bunker.

(01:34:07):
And it's like, well, That areathat I tend to struggle with is
not really in play.
That can happen very quickly fora Victor Hovland.
I think it bodes well for him.
Also in this$8,000 range isTerrell Hatton.
He's$8,900.
He played well at the U.S.
Open, and he has made all threecuts in major championships this

(01:34:31):
year.
When you see the bearded man inthe Legion 13 shirt not named
Jon Rahm, what do you see?
I see somebody who's very readyfor major championship golf.
Another one of those guys that'svery well-rounded.
I love the way...
Look, he shows this in liveevents too, although they're a

(01:34:53):
little harder, a little morechallenging for me to quantify.
But they're quantifiable whenyou also do this in majors,
right?
Yeah.
That means this is what he is.
He's a well-rounded player.
He's a great driver of the ball.
He's a great iron player.
He's got a very solid shortgame, and he can put lights out

(01:35:13):
at times as well.
I think that's part of thereason why he finished tied
sixth here in 2019.
It is an all-around test, and Ithink Victor Hovland meets the
all-around challenge.
He missed the cut at the Open in2021, and he has only missed one
cut at majors since then.

(01:35:34):
A lot of really solid play atthe Big Four every single year.
So that's Scotty Rory up top,McIntyre, Ludwig, Hatton,
Hovland, and now we're going toget to a lot more names here
because there are just moreoptions in the 7K range, the 6K
range, and the 5K range.

(01:35:55):
Let's start with the onenon-American that you have In
this group coming out of the 7Krange, it's Matt Fitzpatrick,
Greg.
We talked about it a little bitearlier, but this is a stat
profile that I'm sure you loveto see.
Yes, and I'm sure you do too,Rick.
It's T to green, so approach offthe T and around the greens.

(01:36:15):
In his last three events, he'sgained points.
significant strokes to the fieldin all of them.
The putter at the Rocket Classicand at the Travelers wasn't
great, but he bounced back in abig way coming over to Lynx
Golf.
Again, this is his...
Royal Port Rush was his bestever finish in the Open

(01:36:37):
Championship.
And I think you're starting tosee a guy with a golf swing that
he's figured it out.
I love where we are with MattFitzpatrick.
Yeah, the...
The season-long slump seems tohave come to an end.
Finished T8 at the PGAChampionship.
He's actually made the cut inall three majors and his results
getting progressively betterover his last three starts.

(01:37:00):
The newest dad in professionalgolf, at least as far as I'm
aware, is Jordan Spieth, who ischecking in at$7,700.
It seems, Greg, like that...
The scap is behind him.
That was nearly a month ago atthis point.
Yes.
And so I think that's a goodthing.

(01:37:21):
I think he's had some nice timewith his family.
But ultimately, this is the mostcomplete that I've ever seen
Jordan Spieth with his game.
I mean, it's right up therewith...
2015, 2017.
It's not as electric, but everyarea is clicking on all

(01:37:41):
cylinders.
From tee to green anyway, theputter's been a little cool.
And that's the big difference.
That's why you haven't seenJordan win the way he did in 15,
16, 17.
But you are seeing a guy that'sextremely reliable with the
driver in his hands.
His iron play has been verysolid and very reliable.

(01:38:02):
The short game that kind of lefthim last year, shockingly, is
back in full force this year.
Because of his open record, Idon't necessarily care if it's
traditional short game, if he'sgoing to putt, if it's going to
go the Hovland route.
He has the ability to get up anddown from a lot of places that a

(01:38:24):
lot of guys can't.
I love Spieth this week.
He was almost If we had seen himmore recently than W.
Dean from the Travelers, he hada possibility of being my golfer
of the week.
Has never missed a cut at anOpen.
In fact, his first Open in 2013was his worst Open, T44.
He's got one, two, three, four,five top tens.

(01:38:49):
Since then, obviously, thevictory at Birkdale.
That's where we're headed backto next year.
And if you look at just a purestrokes gained record, It's like
him and Xander Shoffley are thetwo best open championship
players in this field.
Let me get you to a man who hasa victory this year and a very
big one, a signature event backin March.

(01:39:09):
It was the Arnold PalmerInvitational, and he gave it a
good run at the Travelers aswell.
Russell Henley is next on yourlist.
This guy is just so reliable.
He plays hard golf courses sowell, and his stat profile is

(01:39:30):
phenomenal.
This is a top 10 golfer in theworld who finished fifth at the
Memorial, tied 10th at the U.S.
Open, tied second at theTravelers, and is in the$7,000
price range.
Why?
Why?
He, what did he finish here inthe open last year?

(01:39:52):
And he was top 10 in the openlast year too.
Fifth.
Fifth.
Yeah.
So why is he 7,900?
I don't know that to be honestwith you.
Also when I, so I've been, youknow, tinkering with like the
shot shape and like the advancedstuff.
And he, he hits it low.
He hits it solid.

(01:40:12):
He hits it straight.
He like, I just tell you what,there's, there's, There's a lot
of sneaky good stuff for Russellright now.
Yeah.
Now, if I look and see projectedownership is out of control on
Russell Henley, I'm fine withgoing to Fitzpatrick or Spieth a
little below if I can get a bumpthere.

(01:40:35):
Those three to me, they're$79,000,$78,000,$77,000.
I gave you the three mostexpensive 7K guys.
They're almost interchangeableto me, but I could not leave out
a top 10 player in the worldplaying very well, get headed to
a major and be in the$7,000price range.

(01:40:58):
It's ludicrous.
He's also like, uh, I don't, I,I don't want to call him a dog
because everybody calls him adog and he's actually a Georgia
bulldog.
What's a better, what else can Icall him?
He's like a, he's a tough guy.
I don't know.
He's a grinder.
Uh, He's a gamer.
He's a gamer.

(01:41:19):
Russell gamer.
Henley is exactly what he is.
And as I transitioned to your,your last golfer in this range,
Greg, look at how buttoned upthe, the.
the shirt is, the polo is onRussell Henley's because we're
going to go to the exactopposite end of the spectrum
here because Sam Burns isletting it fly.

(01:41:40):
That is the deep V, not a singlebutton being sniffed.
He is$7,400.
Greg, I'm thinking about thecollapse on Sunday at the US
Open.
What are you thinking about?
Yeah.
Well, the collapse is definitelya factor.
But that collapse at the US Openwas much, much better than the

(01:42:03):
collapse on Sunday at the Openlast year.
I think there's a little, thisis getting better and better.
The other thing I'd like tomention is at 7,400, we don't
need a winner here.
The winner's either coming fromway above this position or way
below this position.
I love where Sam Burns is withhis game.

(01:42:24):
I think he's proven to himselfthat he belongs in the contest
in major championships.
If you're watching on YouTuberight now, there's a lot of
green with his off-the-teeperformances and his approach
performances, his puttingperformances.
This is another guy that's overthe last month or so has really

(01:42:46):
turned into a complete player.
7,400 bucks.
He, again, I'm glad Gregmentioned it.
You don't need him to win thegolf tournament.
The 6K range, I'm going to skipKeegan.
We have spent a lot of oxygen onKeegan Bradley.
He's the golfer of the week.
He's the trend play.
He's the 100-to-1 shot.
So we're going to go with theCanadian at$6,500.

(01:43:08):
That has not missed a cut sincethe Byron Nelson.
Of course, I'm talking aboutTaylor Pendrith.
Taylor Pendrith has shown mesomething in that stretch, Rick,
because he hasn't been hittingit great.
His iron play has taken a littledip to where it normally is for
him for about three weeks there,yet he's still able to to make
these cuts and finish inside thetop 40 and perform at a

(01:43:32):
reasonable clip.
And this is another guy at6,500.
I feel like his performance onbig time golf courses has
warranted a, this is anunderprice in my opinion.
He's an elite driver of the golfball.
We know how important that is inmajor championships.
You look at his short game, andhe's gained strokes in every

(01:43:54):
event since the CJ Cup, ByronNelson.
That's a lot of events withsolid short game.
Four in a row with the putter,and he finished tied 13th at the
Scottish Open, if you'rewondering if he can handle Lynx
golf.
Yeah, he always impresses me.
He kind of finds a way to playwell on courses that you don't
think you would always playwell.

(01:44:15):
And a really, really strongskill set for somebody who's won
on the PGA Tour who does nothave a lot of chatter about him.
Now, finally, we're going to getto this 5K range.
And this is a lot of the bottomhalf of this 5K range are the
open qualifiers, the pastchampions.
The top half of the range aresome of these diamonds in the
rough, guys that might beplaying really well on the DP

(01:44:38):
World Tour.
And I think that's what we'vegot here in Christopher Riet in
the Norwegian, who I'm sure wetalked about at some point last
week.
We did.
We talked about him right herein this spot.
I believe he was in the 6K rangelast week, and he finished tied
13th.
So all the same reasons apply.
He's been hitting the ballreally well.

(01:45:00):
So the Sudol Open was in May.
It was basically right after thePGA Championship.
He's finished outside the top 15in one event, which was the
Italian Open.
He finished tied 46th.
It's five top 15s in his lastsix events would be the number

(01:45:20):
with a win in there at the SudolOpen.
It's a pretty darn good record,Rick.
Yeah, and he also has therunner-up finish two starts
prior to that win.
And also, he mashes it off thetee.
And he's pretty well-rounded ingeneral.
Has a sound short game to goalong with it.
Yeah, he is...
Very, very good.
I think there's also aconnection.
I can't remember what...

(01:45:45):
I don't want to say that becauseI thought it was a college
connection, but I don't rememberwhat it is anymore.
I'll have to look that up.
And then finally, the last manhere, Greg.
He's$5,700.
You've probably heard the namebefore, but you might not have
thought about him in a while.
Who is it?
It's Haotong Li.
I thought about Haotong Li lastweek and...

(01:46:07):
Wisely passed.
I wanted to get a little lowerthan 5,900.
I thought there was some valuesomewhere here on the board.
I wasn't sure where it is.
I think it's with Haotong Li.
He missed the cut last week, buthe did finish tied fourth at the
Sudol Open, tied second at theTurkish Airlines Open.
He had a couple of other toptens a little earlier on in the

(01:46:29):
season on the DP World Tour.
A lot of his work has come fromreally solid ball striking, And
I'll add the putter hasn't beenbad either.
So things have looked prettygood for how Tong Lee, um, he
has a spotty record in the openwhere he's missed his last three
cuts, but he's, he did finishthird here, uh, third in the

(01:46:52):
open in 2017 when Jordan Spiethwon.
What was the major that how Tongshot like the course record and
then went to the driving rangefor like six hours?
I don't, believe it was royalbirkdale 2017 open was it i

(01:47:12):
think i think so he was likeleading leading the tournament
yes that's exactly what it was2017 uso yeah he was leading the
golf tournament uh i don'tremember if it was through
however many rounds it was butyeah then he had like the early
tea time and he just stayed juststayed and hit false like by

(01:47:33):
that and then and then implodedBut you know what I liked about
that?
He was like, I always do this.
Yeah.
And he was like, what else was Igoing to do?
Was I just going to go home andlike, I was going to either go
home and hit golf balls orsomething or like just stay here
and hit golf balls.
Right.
So I like, I like this answer.
Yeah.
He took it well.

(01:47:54):
Good dude.
Greg, we are now nearly twohours into this show.
Is there anything possibly elseyou think we should cover right
now?
Or should we just come back atthe conclusion of the opening
round every day the rest of theweek?
I think we come back at theconclusion of every day the rest

(01:48:16):
of the week.
That's exactly what we weregoing to do as soon as possible.
Probably it ends up being...
usually like a half hour afterthe round is concluded.
But if we can go sooner, we'llgo sooner.
When coverage ends or when thefinal putt drops, we'll be here
round one, round two, roundthree, round four for major
championships.
Hit the subscribe button.
Make sure you're tuned in.

(01:48:36):
If you can share this with yourfriends, that'd be great.
Anything you can do to supportgoes a long way.
For now, big thanks, ProducerMina.
She does all the hard workbehind the scenes.
Greg Ducharme, Mark Gimmelman,who we've said goodbye to
already.
I'm Rick Gaiman.
This has been The Second Cut.
Catch you next time.

UNKNOWN (01:48:52):
Thank you.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Open Championship Mega Preview | Picks, Storylines, Best Bets