June 11, 2025 • 7 mins
"Mr. Golf" breaks down the incredibly tough course just outside Pittsburgh. Scottie Scheffler is the favorite but Ray also believes the LIV golfers, and younger golfers will really struggle!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's jump over to the Legacy Retirement Group dot com
phone line and look who it is. It's mister golf Ray,
Hustik Ray. Good morning, how are you.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Sir, morning, Mike. I'm great. US Open Week the toughest
mental test in golf and certainly the toughest golf course
in all of the US Open sites, in my opinion,
at Oakmont in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
No doubt, one of the most difficult golf courses on
the planet. Actually, and it's funny. I've seeing these videos
of they've got the push mowers out at Oakmont mowing
the rough and I saw Johnny Vegas tweet you know, hey,
good news guys, they're mowing the rough at Oakmont. Bad
news is it's still unplayable. And it's funny. People think, oh,
they're mowing the rough. They're trying to make it easier
(00:42):
to play out of Actually, the way they do it
and the agronomy here is so interesting to me. They
actually makes it harder when they mow it because they
raise the deck of those push mowers up a quarter
inch every time they mow it. So that's how they
get it super thick. It's not about how tall it is.
It's the thickness of the grass because they want the
ball to go down in it, not stay on top
(01:04):
of it.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
And you've got the additional last month's rain fall, like
like we've had in Columbus. You know that has made
it even more lush and more sick and more difficult.
And the players talk about the rough and we're used
to it at the US Open, although last year at
Pinehurst there's no rough. You know that golf course is
totally different. Look, this is more traditional, you know US
(01:26):
Open site. You missed the fairway by two yards, you're
in the deep stuff. You missed a green by a
couple of yards. I know somebody had a practice around
lost the ball right in front of the fourth green
Tuesday and there were you know, ten people out there
looking for it. Now, it didn't have spotters and there
weren't galleries. I don't think we'll have anybody actually lose
a ball, but I think there's a chance guys will
be stepping on them or trying to find them. And
(01:48):
if you do find it, that's the good news about
news says, Now you got to play it out of
that stuff, and you know there'll be a lot of
balls chipped sideways to the fairway. There will be guys
that will be trying to hit those little crazy seven
and nine woods out of the rough and they'll top
it and move it ten yards. It's it's going to
be a wild show for us as fans watching.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
And Oakmont is, if I'm not mistaken, it's long for
a par seventy golf course. I heard it's playing fast,
but it's also a longer course than people think.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, it's seventy five hundreds or seventy three hundred, whatever
the number is. Anymore, you know the golf course as
far as these guys hit it, this is not a
monster long course, especially if it does start to dry
out now when it's wet and the ball just hits
where it lands with the t shot, that's a different story.
But there are some holes where that you know, there's
so long. And they got three hundred yard par three,
(02:37):
We've got a couple of five hundred yard par fours
where you can't really lay up. You're forced to go
at it with the driver and then you know, hit
some kind of really rocket long three wood or hybrid
into into a par four. It's going to be more
like how we play, you know, in terms of some
of the shots, and I listen to a couple of
the you know, kind of the older players that are
(02:58):
in this thing that don't hit as far as the
Houston are like, I can't get home on some of
these holes. I can't reach a part for him too.
It's it's going to be pretty wild. But in terms
of the size of the golf course, it's more really
about getting the ball in the fairway, and that's what
the US opens all about. You got a thing that
looks like a bowling alley with hay on either sides
of it, and you got to try to fit a
ball in there, and then once you're there, you got
(03:20):
to fit it on the right spot on these incredibly
fast greens.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
It's well said mister golf Ray Hustik joining me. So,
you know, for a course that will absolutely punish you
if you miss. I mean this is of course you
cannot fake your way around. That would seem to set
up players who play mistake free, boring golf like, oh,
I don't know one, Scotty Shuffler.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Well, yeah, the number one player in the world, the
best player in the game, best complete player. It's the
thing that I haven't heard anybody really talking about with
Scotty this. I think there's almost no pressure on Scotty
because he plays every week like a US Open in
the sense that he just has a strategy. I want
to hit it here in the fairway on this side,
then I'm going to hit it on the green. I'm
going to take my spots and be a little more aggressive,
(04:02):
maybe with the shorter club and if I've got a
chance for a birdie, and then he just keeps going
like that. He's not a bomb and gouge guy. He
doesn't hit it as far as he can and go
out there and try to find it like a Bryson
or some of these younger guys. And so you're right, Scott,
he's the not only the Wilming favorite because he's playing
the best golf right now, the most complete, but I
think mentally he's got far less pressure on him because
(04:25):
he's used to playing golf like this. It's just how
he plays every single week.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
See that's proved positive to me that the old school
approach that having your shots in your bag and looking
ahead sometimes beats that how far can I hit? I mean,
this is a surgical course. Who are some of the
other guys that are up there with Scottie right.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Well. I think Taylor Pendris is a guy that I
like to do play really well this week. He was
sixteenth in the Open last year, he was fifth at
the PGA. Earlier, he was twelfth at Mirrorfield. He's fifth
in driving. He's got a seventh position in those stats
in greens and regulation. You know, just a good, solid
all round player. Colin mor Cole is another guy that
(05:07):
you know, just very steady, drives it in the fairway
laser with the irons. Jordan speech played this way at
his peak. Maybe he snaps out of it this week.
Those are the kind of guys that I look to
do really well. I'm not sure that you know these
young guys that just hit it a mile and are
hoping they can get close enough to hit a wedge
out of the rough. I don't see that as a
(05:29):
successful strategy at Oakmont.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
How do you think the live guys are going to
do it? Guys like John Rahm, who you know, I
don't watch a ton of live golf. I haven't seen
those guys play in a little bit. How are they
going to fare as they jump over to Oakmont.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Well, let's leave Brighton to shamble out of it for
a second and talk about the rest of them. The
rest of them, I think, and I will continue to
say this, they don't They are not prepared for the
mental struggle of seventy two holes of golf in the
US Open setup. They don't play this kind of setup.
They don't play seventy two holes. It's a less stressful.
(06:02):
Not that they're not great players, not that they don't,
you know, enjoy the competition, and not that they're going
to be really working hard this week. Dustin Johnson won
at Oakmont in the US Open, what nine years ago?
You know. John Rahm's looking to get back into the
Winter circle in a big event. They're all great players.
Brooks kept, how can you look at him and go, well,
(06:23):
he's not going to play very well in a major
when he was the dominant player in majors for a
few years, not that long ago. I just don't think
mentally they're prepared for this, and I don't expect them
to do well.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Well.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
It's going to be hot for tomorrow and Friday, rounds
one and two in the mid to upper eighties and
some humidity and then we're starting to see some forecasting
coming in for the weekend for Round three and four,
some showers and thunderstorms. I really hope that we don't
have any of these long prolonged delays. I would hate
to see this thing have to wrap on a Monday.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, that would be awful. And as fans, we want
to see at end on Sunday, and you want to
see that, you know, brutal finish and the greens getting
really fast, and you know the nerves people are starting
to fall apart, and you know, it's just the US
Open is such an amazingly different golf tournament mentally, it's
it's it's a grind that you have that's not like
(07:17):
anything else they do because of the difficult of the
golf course. And you said it earlier, there's no let up.
Every single hole. This course fights back, it punches back,
It exposes your weaknesses, and that's where we're going to see,
you know, the really interesting you know, super big numbers
on some holes and players just scratching their heads and
you know the frustration that we don't typically see out
of guys making birdies.
Let's jump over to the Legacy Retirement Group dot com
phone line and look who it is. It's mister golf Ray,
Hustik Ray. Good morning, how are you.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Sir, morning, Mike. I'm great. US Open Week the toughest
mental test in golf and certainly the toughest golf course
in all of the US Open sites, in my opinion,
at Oakmont in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
No doubt, one of the most difficult golf courses on
the planet. Actually, and it's funny. I've seeing these videos
of they've got the push mowers out at Oakmont mowing
the rough and I saw Johnny Vegas tweet you know, hey,
good news guys, they're mowing the rough at Oakmont. Bad
news is it's still unplayable. And it's funny. People think, oh,
they're mowing the rough. They're trying to make it easier
(00:42):
to play out of Actually, the way they do it
and the agronomy here is so interesting to me. They
actually makes it harder when they mow it because they
raise the deck of those push mowers up a quarter
inch every time they mow it. So that's how they
get it super thick. It's not about how tall it is.
It's the thickness of the grass because they want the
ball to go down in it, not stay on top
(01:04):
of it.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
And you've got the additional last month's rain fall, like
like we've had in Columbus. You know that has made
it even more lush and more sick and more difficult.
And the players talk about the rough and we're used
to it at the US Open, although last year at
Pinehurst there's no rough. You know that golf course is
totally different. Look, this is more traditional, you know US
(01:26):
Open site. You missed the fairway by two yards, you're
in the deep stuff. You missed a green by a
couple of yards. I know somebody had a practice around
lost the ball right in front of the fourth green
Tuesday and there were you know, ten people out there
looking for it. Now, it didn't have spotters and there
weren't galleries. I don't think we'll have anybody actually lose
a ball, but I think there's a chance guys will
be stepping on them or trying to find them. And
(01:48):
if you do find it, that's the good news about
news says, Now you got to play it out of
that stuff, and you know there'll be a lot of
balls chipped sideways to the fairway. There will be guys
that will be trying to hit those little crazy seven
and nine woods out of the rough and they'll top
it and move it ten yards. It's it's going to
be a wild show for us as fans watching.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
And Oakmont is, if I'm not mistaken, it's long for
a par seventy golf course. I heard it's playing fast,
but it's also a longer course than people think.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, it's seventy five hundreds or seventy three hundred, whatever
the number is. Anymore, you know the golf course as
far as these guys hit it, this is not a
monster long course, especially if it does start to dry
out now when it's wet and the ball just hits
where it lands with the t shot, that's a different story.
But there are some holes where that you know, there's
so long. And they got three hundred yard par three,
(02:37):
We've got a couple of five hundred yard par fours
where you can't really lay up. You're forced to go
at it with the driver and then you know, hit
some kind of really rocket long three wood or hybrid
into into a par four. It's going to be more
like how we play, you know, in terms of some
of the shots, and I listen to a couple of
the you know, kind of the older players that are
(02:58):
in this thing that don't hit as far as the
Houston are like, I can't get home on some of
these holes. I can't reach a part for him too.
It's it's going to be pretty wild. But in terms
of the size of the golf course, it's more really
about getting the ball in the fairway, and that's what
the US opens all about. You got a thing that
looks like a bowling alley with hay on either sides
of it, and you got to try to fit a
ball in there, and then once you're there, you got
(03:20):
to fit it on the right spot on these incredibly
fast greens.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
It's well said mister golf Ray Hustik joining me. So,
you know, for a course that will absolutely punish you
if you miss. I mean this is of course you
cannot fake your way around. That would seem to set
up players who play mistake free, boring golf like, oh,
I don't know one, Scotty Shuffler.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Well, yeah, the number one player in the world, the
best player in the game, best complete player. It's the
thing that I haven't heard anybody really talking about with
Scotty this. I think there's almost no pressure on Scotty
because he plays every week like a US Open in
the sense that he just has a strategy. I want
to hit it here in the fairway on this side,
then I'm going to hit it on the green. I'm
going to take my spots and be a little more aggressive,
(04:02):
maybe with the shorter club and if I've got a
chance for a birdie, and then he just keeps going
like that. He's not a bomb and gouge guy. He
doesn't hit it as far as he can and go
out there and try to find it like a Bryson
or some of these younger guys. And so you're right, Scott,
he's the not only the Wilming favorite because he's playing
the best golf right now, the most complete, but I
think mentally he's got far less pressure on him because
(04:25):
he's used to playing golf like this. It's just how
he plays every single week.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
See that's proved positive to me that the old school
approach that having your shots in your bag and looking
ahead sometimes beats that how far can I hit? I mean,
this is a surgical course. Who are some of the
other guys that are up there with Scottie right.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Well. I think Taylor Pendris is a guy that I
like to do play really well this week. He was
sixteenth in the Open last year, he was fifth at
the PGA. Earlier, he was twelfth at Mirrorfield. He's fifth
in driving. He's got a seventh position in those stats
in greens and regulation. You know, just a good, solid
all round player. Colin mor Cole is another guy that
(05:07):
you know, just very steady, drives it in the fairway
laser with the irons. Jordan speech played this way at
his peak. Maybe he snaps out of it this week.
Those are the kind of guys that I look to
do really well. I'm not sure that you know these
young guys that just hit it a mile and are
hoping they can get close enough to hit a wedge
out of the rough. I don't see that as a
(05:29):
successful strategy at Oakmont.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
How do you think the live guys are going to
do it? Guys like John Rahm, who you know, I
don't watch a ton of live golf. I haven't seen
those guys play in a little bit. How are they
going to fare as they jump over to Oakmont.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Well, let's leave Brighton to shamble out of it for
a second and talk about the rest of them. The
rest of them, I think, and I will continue to
say this, they don't They are not prepared for the
mental struggle of seventy two holes of golf in the
US Open setup. They don't play this kind of setup.
They don't play seventy two holes. It's a less stressful.
(06:02):
Not that they're not great players, not that they don't,
you know, enjoy the competition, and not that they're going
to be really working hard this week. Dustin Johnson won
at Oakmont in the US Open, what nine years ago?
You know. John Rahm's looking to get back into the
Winter circle in a big event. They're all great players.
Brooks kept, how can you look at him and go, well,
(06:23):
he's not going to play very well in a major
when he was the dominant player in majors for a
few years, not that long ago. I just don't think
mentally they're prepared for this, and I don't expect them
to do well.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Well.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
It's going to be hot for tomorrow and Friday, rounds
one and two in the mid to upper eighties and
some humidity and then we're starting to see some forecasting
coming in for the weekend for Round three and four,
some showers and thunderstorms. I really hope that we don't
have any of these long prolonged delays. I would hate
to see this thing have to wrap on a Monday.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yeah, that would be awful. And as fans, we want
to see at end on Sunday, and you want to
see that, you know, brutal finish and the greens getting
really fast, and you know the nerves people are starting
to fall apart, and you know, it's just the US
Open is such an amazingly different golf tournament mentally, it's
it's it's a grind that you have that's not like
(07:17):
anything else they do because of the difficult of the
golf course. And you said it earlier, there's no let up.
Every single hole. This course fights back, it punches back,
It exposes your weaknesses, and that's where we're going to see,
you know, the really interesting you know, super big numbers
on some holes and players just scratching their heads and
you know the frustration that we don't typically see out
of guys making birdies.
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