Fairway Rollin' - A Master, Major Look at the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills | ShackHouse (Ep. 66)

Episode Date: June 12, 2018

Geoff Shackelford and Joe House link up at Shinnecock Hills in Long Island to give a major preview of the U.S. Open. They talk about the conditions at the course (01:45), their predictions for the event (17:15), and how the USGA ditching the 18-hole playoff will affect the tournament (31:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Seat Geek is the best app for buying and selling tickets to sporting events like the U.S. Open. Concerts and more, of course, for $20 off your first Seat Geek purchase on any game or sporting event. All you have to do is use promo code house. That's H.O.USE for $20 off your first Seatkeek purchase. Download the SeatGeek app or go to. write to seegeek.com. House, you have joined us in the media center here at beautiful Shinnecock Hills. Now, House, we've had a little pre-show chat, but I think I want to just reiterate for the people listening.

I have to work here all week, okay? Sure. We're in a nice booth. Uh-huh. Remember, these are my peers. They're my peers, too. I have a badge that says media on it. That means I'm in the media.

If you're feeling the need to yell out a big shack house. So what do you think of our U.S. Open Media Center? It's a nice facility. Well, let me just warn you right now. I'm not tamping down my enthusiasm or exuberance this week just because we're in a room full of folks who write words and speak words for living. They enjoy the words and they would enjoy my enthusiasm. That's my take and I'm sticking with it. It's a great big building with a lot of plugs and tables and stuff. So great. And you know what? I got a free water. The one thing about this, Shaq, that I'm disappointed by, my pass as gallery, media center, no media dining access for the house. That's right. Now, who put the word on me? Who told them that I was coming?

The people who issued that, they knew what they were getting into. Come on. We had Nathan's hot dogs today. What? He would have had about nine of them. You son of a gun. We have working writers here. You didn't tell me that.

We have working writers covering U.S. Open. You and I worked very hard. in advance here to scout out, to really take in the native grasses of the region. We did it. To donate some chrome softs to the greater membership of West Hampton and Sabonic Golf Club to phenomenal world-class golf courses. And I got over here to Chinatock. And I have to tell you, we'll get into it a little bit, but it's been already, I'm

really glad we got here early one because I love the golf. We had beautiful weather. It's a beautiful place to be. And I'm already seeing the difference in Shinnecock Hills just from Saturday to Monday. Right. This is part of why the listening public out there may be skeptical. House and Shaq got here early on Saturday to kind of get the lay of the land to take

in what the weather's going to be about, to kind of give us a reasonable sense of how to anticipate and forecast the way the week's going to behave. And of course, we filled our time with wonderful golf at wonderful clubs. The folks might not think that that was necessarily hazard duty. Yeah. But I will say it was a kind of, it was a scientific mission. much as anything. We had two radically different design concepts, different pieces of land, plots of land, with different kind of wind conditions and turf conditions, and each beautiful

and very special in its own unique regard. So, you know, West Hampton, shout out to my boy, Brad Robbins, for hosting us over there. We got to play with former club president, George Avani. And we had a nice chat with the super there. Yes, we did, who is doing an amazing job. That place is absolutely spectacular. It's an old Seth Rainer golf course, so much character, such an easy, joyful walk, lay of the land type golf, but geometric, funky featured. I mean, it's got some major quirk.

It's got some nice homes along it, too. Well, the thing that struck me is there's a golf course where everything's right in front of you. You see where you're aiming. You can pick your lines and everything. All of the intrigue for the course really comes. in once you get to the green. Like the, you know, the proper place. Speak for yourself.

Well, no, I just mean in terms of you can visualize. There was, it was so different in that regard from Zabonic. Yeah. Where a lot of times you're teeing off from a place, you know, pick a point into the top of a hill. Yeah. Or pick a point over to this corner. You can't see the green. You can't see the pin.

You don't know ultimately where you're headed. And that sort of, that discomfort that that, that, um, discomfort that that, creates it's a different kind of golf challenge but equally cool yeah yeah no and it's uh an incredible golf area you have so many golf courses i mean we put west hampton down anywhere in the world other than this neighborhood and west hampton is one of the always one of the two or three best courses in whatever city you put it in but here chicago there's a few places where it it's probably not as well known because it's not super long, but it's a man whose touch was obviously a big part of national golf links, which is next door, literally next door to Chinatock Hills.

Our buddy Adam Rappaport was arguing with me there yesterday, insisting that was Shinnecock we were driving through. I said, no, this is national. They're right next to each other. And then you have Southampton Golf Club, which is a rainer. Not a lot of, you know, every man's public golf out here. But some amazing golf course, and really none is more. incredible than Shinnock Hills and you've gotten your first glimpse of the property. The scale of it, I think, is rather impressive.

So, yeah. Compared to what I think most people are used to or even what they'll see on television. It's a gigantic plot of land. And from our experiences, Saturday and Sunday, the places that we played and kind of how you access them and just the sort of plot that they occupy, plus the weather of Saturday, and Sunday was pretty different from today. I had where I got dropped off far from the front gate here. Right.

At Chinacocque had a long walk up and got to really sort of take in, you know, the expanse. And it's just a, it's just a huge ballpark. It's a wide open. I don't, I'm not sure if I've seen a tree yet. I haven't been looking for any trees, but I'm not sure if I've seen a tree yet. And the first big impression is the undulation, the levitation, the elevation, from where the clubhouse sits kind of up at a high point, and then you go down on one.

It's a down T-shot. And I walked in the length of one. I walked into the center and said, one's a birdie hole. I had no idea. And it is. Yeah. It is. Especially today.

Of course, it was downwind, kind of not the normal win. And then you took me over to nine. Yeah. You have to go see nine immediately. Yes. Yeah. And so that the win today is into the T-box. Yeah.

And three professional players were sitting. It's a place, what yardage? 435, 4-40. 4-85. Oh, 4-85. So these guys were sitting. These are professionals with the driving distance average of a certain number. Yeah.

They were hitting in at 230. Yeah. That's where we stood and watched them hit in from. Yeah, 230. Hitting in. Now they all had irons. their hands. No, one guy hit,

one guy had a hybrid. You saw, I don't know if you saw Putnam's footwork. He put a little more into that than normal. And it was quite fun to see that because they don't hit long irons very often. And because we weren't having to hit the shot. But, and then they're basically trying to land a long iron on the fourth. I think it's about the fourth floor of an office building on that hole. It looks like the size of a small plate.

You know how I like to eat. I go have the tapas or whatever. It was the green appears to be the size of one of the, these small plates. Now, I'm not a small plate fan. I'm a big plate kind of guy. We know. So I said to you, this thing looks to me like a par six. If you put me back there at that T-box, I would be so lucky to make six on this hole, especially with the way the wind is into our face. And it's all carryover native grass. I think, I mean, it's clearly the most extreme hole, but what makes the golf course house lovable for the players is that element you mentioned,

that visually, for the most part, every hole here looks really. really good as you stand there in front of it. There are a few blind shots. There are a few moments where it's awkward and makes them feel awkward. But I think that's why they love the place and why they get so testy when it's not set up right. But with this win, which we haven't seen, it's a beast. I mean, it's par 70, 7445. A par 70, it's 449 yards longer than the last time they hosted the U.S. Open, a number you're going to hear a lot.

it went or went a restoration in in 2012 and it was it was a combination of things what I what I struck me this the first time I've been out on it I've seen it from national during the Walker Cup but the the greens house they got a lot of green peeling off I think we're going to see a lot of balls rolling off of greens and down when you say peeling off that means that kind of shave surfaces feed you right back down yeah the green the green kind of tip It's over an edge and down a slope, and it's going to be absolutely wicked, I believe. Well, if this breeze and the expectation is there will be a breeze for the balance of the week. There will. I did bring a forecast for our show, and now everybody here cautions you to not get too obsessed with it. But the forecast has been pretty careful to not really show a whole lot of wind. But I'm looking, you know, we're going to get a few days. Thursday, we've got a chance of some nice breeze.

All you want is just a nice, stiff breeze here. You know, we don't need the silly stuff, but that is enough to make it incredible. And the routing here is such that, you hear that word a lot, but the course is routed in a beautiful way that no matter what the wind does, you're probably going to get a good balance of shots and shot shapes and things. So even though one day may be extreme seemingly, I think it slightly reduces the luck of the draw.

element. I think you still have to factor that in when you look at who might win, and there may be a couple of, maybe one afternoon's worse than the other. But so that's something, though, that they all say here, you know, the weather is very difficult to predict. The good news is we don't really have significant rain of any kind in the forecast. And maybe a little Wednesday night, which I would have said Saturday, oh, that's not good because it'll take a little of fire out of the course and the course is too soft right now. Well, the difference between Saturday when I walked out here already to today with

today's nice, bright skies. And it looks to me like John Jennings and his staff took the cut, you know, maybe a touch down. Yeah, we were out on the fairway. And this place drains ridiculously well. And so that's why what happened in 2004, which were

recapping in a feature on golf channel and I wrote about it. When's that going to run? I think it's moving to Wednesday night. I think it was Tuesday night. Now, I think it was Tuesday night. Wednesday. It's nine minutes long. I did the voiceover for it today and it's a tough look at things, but it's a good reminder of what happened, how Phil

got screwed, and how quickly it got away from them. So if somebody, if you're watching and you say, well, the place doesn't look that fiery. Just remember this place drains unbelievably well and it can turn quickly. So they're taking a cautious approach house because I think the USGA

has a lot on the line this week. They have a lot of detractors and a lot of people who say, if you screw up this great golf course again, you just don't deserve to be setting up courses. Oh, wow. Well, I, that's a view of a lot of people, not everyone. Okay. I don't know about deserve or not deserve. They're going to keep doing it. I mean, in the sense that nobody else is going to take over. The championship, so. Yeah. Well, but for their sake and for our sakes, I'm rooting for that, that perfect sort of balance. One thing I was struck by also just in terms of the lay of the land, it felt like there you can get some pretty like reasonable lies like you're not gonna it's not um

dusta in the sense that like you're going to be constantly tilted one direction or other now that's just this side of the property i haven't been to the back yeah so i'm asking you whether or not that's accurate that's why i wanted you to see nine nine and ten are the most extreme holes but i would also say you you are going to get a lot of holes where you you don't have a perfectly level lie yeah so it's again it's like everything here everything here is so balanced and it's just a balance of So you feel like it should, if the setup doesn't intervene, reward somebody who's good at everything. And that's why we obviously like certain people.

But no, there's some very extreme stances and lies you can get on certain holes. And then there are other holes that are very gentle and benign and pretty straightforward. Yeah, okay. All right. Before we continue, there is, of course, the great suspense this weekhouse. I know you're dying to know if our friends at Callaway and their amazing Odyssey putters are going to win the putter count again. You know, they won every major this year.

And we played with a fine young lad yesterday, Cole, who was, I guess he did it for us. He brought the XO putter out. So it was my first chance to see somebody use one live on the golf course. It was a beautiful seven, Colvestikio with the seven. And it was short. You know, I like the short putter. Yeah, I know, I know. You saw me standing upright with my cringed.

But that beautiful, beautiful design, the multiple materials, the concentrated weight for the incredibly high. M-O-I. I mean, it just it was, you got the white hot field. He did put the best of all of us, but he also plays college golf. Yeah, and those greens and sabonic are very difficult for sure. So anyway, they are out in stores now finally. If you want

to get dad a cool putter, get in one of those. Maybe he has to exchange it for a different length or whatever his little thing is, but it's a great putter. It's a great looking gift. It exceeded my hope in the way it appeared visually on those incredible

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right now and you will get up to $125 off your mattress order. That's helixleep.com slash shackhouse for up to $125 toward your mattress order. Helixleep.com slash shackhouse. All right, house. So what do you want to do here? What do you want to talk about? It's Monday. Yeah.

And so we're still in the early stages. This is very common of the shack house shack. Where we're still in what I would call a formulating mode. We are cogitating on formulating on the players that we expect to do well. We have ideas. Well, you know, I'm not going to make a final call yet. I know, I know. I'm going to give out, you know, a bunch of my feels.

But we still have another 48 hours of stories to emerge. We do. Of players to come and speak. I need to see with my own two eyes. Sure. I was here in the media center. Well, we might as well start with him. I just use the word live.

Not only do I like his attitude, I love his attitude. I like love it. You're live under park. He keeps walking into places and saying this is the best setup. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, that's fine, but that's indicative of his attitude. And I need Phil not going around saying, I can't believe the hay is like this.

I can't believe that the, you know, where last year at Aaron Hills, we had players on Monday agitating about the conditions of the course where the fescue was, and we saw mowers on Tuesday, Shaq. The mowers were out. Well, I haven't heard any of that kind of negative talk. And any time I see a guy talking about, this feels unfair to me, or I don't know a way to look.

He's off my list. It crossed off. I like where Phil's at. I like where his head's at. So that's just one name, but this is in terms of building the book of information to be ready on Wednesday, to pull the trigger on some delicious action. That's where the time's going to come.

I'll put it out on the Twitter. I just said a name. What kind of names are you thinking about, this early formulation stage? Well, obviously, I'm rooting for Phil in the sense that I feel like he was robbed last time here. And it would be an amazing story, a six-time runner-up in his 27th U.S. Open and all that good stuff. It was interesting when he came in there in the press center.

he said all the right things. And then finally there at the end, one of the questions got him rolling on the setup last time. And he still has some anger issues from that, as he should, by the way. It's a proper grievance. He should. And I'm sure he went back and looked at his notes and things. Well, actually, he did. I asked him about that.

And that was kind of a fun answer. You're going to want to read the transcript on that. He mentions how he actually notes percentages on to go. or not to go on certain shots and certain pins, which I had never heard him mention that. I'm really curious about that. What do you mean by percentages? He apparently puts down a number to certain whole locations, either legitimate or his own estimate or a combination of actual stats from previous tournaments or his own number that kind of gives

him a number on a whole location on whether it's a green light special kind of thing. So that also presupposes he has a sense of where he's going to. going to be drive-wise. So like some... Well, assuming, yes, he's in the fairway. Not just in the fairway, but also on one side or the other of the fairway, right? Perhaps, perhaps. Although, yeah, now these are wider than they were last time.

That's been a big topic of discussion with a lot of the players and caddies. They're 41.6 yards and width. They were in 2004, 26.6. So they have room to firm this thing up. I love this. Yeah. Yeah, well, a lot of people don't. A lot of people feel like the USGS.

has changed their philosophy too much. They want the old U.S. Open back of guys just laying up down the middle and trying to not screw up. Who likes that kind of golf? A lot of an old school mentality. Or use the right word. There has been some revisionist history, the people who are longing for that now, that they forget how boring that could be, how often that rewarded a fluke winner, and how it's just not, it's a certain skill to hit it very straight,

but there are also skills in deciding whether to go for something or not. There are skills in sometimes taking an aggressive play, a risk and getting a reward. So the idea that they've completely sold out the U.S. Open, I struggle with, I understand a few of those positions. And Phil got into that a little bit in his thing. But no, you're right, his mood was overall good. Yeah, we're just paying the price for the USGS.

innovating. This is the way I think about it in the sense that they tried two new venues in the last four opens. And trying new venues means they are exposing themselves to variables that are always uncontrollable the first time you try a venue. So Chambers Bay Greens and how low guys went at Aaron Hill. Those are not controllable variables the first time you're at a venue. And I would throw in there the style of architecture. Sure. It was not old school USGA inland of course. They were both kind of faux or imitation link style golf and but built in a like over the top kind of bold way that just didn't sit well with a lot of people.

So anyway, our friend Tiger Woods is here. Yeah. And he, you know, I just found out a couple of interesting things about him. He, when he visited here early in the week before the memorial house, he didn't put. he didn't put because the greens were up at a pace where he felt like that that would not be beneficial

to him to put on these greens he didn't want to go practice putting at the speeds at which the greens were at two weeks ago because he thought you don't want any of that bad information going into his head and it's just not reflective of the brakes will just be different when they go when they pick up a foot in speed

on the stint meter yeah the difference in the way putts go is just is incredible. Jordan Spieth I heard did not put in his practice round today either. Today? Yeah, I don't know if that's on the putting green now. How different does he think the speech is going to be between today? I thought that was, well, I wonder if that's speaking to his,

something else going on with just the kind of, yeah, I almost wonder if he's saying to himself, I've over-obsessed about putting, and maybe I need to let it go a little bit and just focus on getting to know the golf course. But I- You just mentioned two guys that have. you know, quite publicly and prolifically sucked at putting in the recent... And two of the greatest putters, in the history of the game, by the way. Jordan Speed so far has shown himself to be statistically one of the greatest putters.

It's an incredible oddity we've ever seen. This moment where those two great major winners. Like who would, under other circumstances, we would just be going crazy as the potential winners of this tournament because of the putting woes that are so out of character. and so unexpected. Especially as they both hit the ball great. Yeah, yeah. Right, their ball striking metrics are outstanding.

So for Tiger, I think that he is somebody who should love the golf course. He's got kind of a weird history. You know, he injured his wrist. As an amateur in 1995, he didn't play all that great in 2004, although I don't know if anybody did. Well, let me ask you this. Yeah. Between those two guys, Tiger, Jordan, who you got. Definitely Tiger, definitely Tiger.

You didn't even let me get it out. Definitely, Tiger. Oh, of course. I mean, Speed, well, Tiger's had a bad week at Memorial on the Greens, which is weird because he knows the place. Right. But he's putted really well this year for the most part until this recent run, whereas Jordan, I feel like the thing that's going on with him is much more severe.

And it's not the Yips, but he's just kills some of the. these short putts. It's just something else he's trying to work through and probably tried a little too hard, which is natural. So I definitely Tiger. How do we account for maybe this doesn't have an answer, but we were so

suspicious of his putting form as we approached Augusta and he came out on Sunday and bolstered the joint. But what did we say? That place has a funny way of making players who know those greens and love that place.

flip a switch and find something. And this is different. I don't know how much experience Jordan has here. We're watching him right now as we speak. He's grinding out on the range. Cameron McCormick's showing him something on the iPad. So he's working at it. I mean, there's no question.

The man works very hard. But yeah, it's a spirited conversation there, isn't that? Anyway, let's get to some other thoughts about, I mean, is there anything else you want to kick around regarding this event? And I mean, this is such an amazing. I don't want to lose the opportunity here that we have to really appreciate how special this place is. I mean, the Stanford White Clubhouse. We won't go into the story about how he was murdered.

That's kind of a bleak one. Original architect of Madison Square Garden, by the way, House. Did you know that? I had no idea. You know what you're telling there? And this is, I'm glad that we were sort of back to properly setting the context for this. Yeah, because this is a very, very. A great argument. The Friday guys have done a good job with this. There's a good argument to be made that this is America's greatest venue for championship golf. There is an argument. I would put Pebble Beach ahead of it myself. Sure. But there's the history of this place. The first incorporated club. The first clubhouse ever built. I mean, really, this is America's home of golf, right? The National Golf Links next door and this. But yes, I think that it was an amazing thing when they brought.

brought the U.S. Open back here when Frank Hanigan was part of the group that did that in 1986. So that is certainly something that we maybe even lose sight of how bold that was to do that and figure out a way to build a bridge over the railroad tracks so that people could, and over the highway so that people could get here and enjoy this amazing place. And then obviously for the club to offer up this amazing venue, especially given how it ended last time, it took a little longer than normal to return. They're already set to return here in 2026, but it definitely took a little longer. And I think they negotiated well based on the fact that the members were still playing golf on Saturday. I'm telling you, Shaq, I saw members on Sunday. They were not

professional golfers out on the golf course here on Sunday. I'm telling you, there are a lot of pro-golfers wearing shorts in the practice round, which kind of surprised me on Sunday. Today, everybody's in pants. And actually, it's kind of cool out. There's a little bite in the air. Is there anything to be made of the previous champions here in terms of characteristics? I feel like the answer is no, but it's Gousen, Pavin, and Ray Floyd, who've all won U.S. Opens here. And I can't, there's not a unifying thread among the three that sets me up for picking a guy. Short game. Short game.

I mean, Gusson's short game wasn't as, you're talking about two legends around the greens, Corey Pavin and Ray Floyd. Two of the most imaginative, just consistently wicked at getting up and down with little shots. I mean, Pavin was an artist, one of the last real shot-shaping artists and one of the last around the greens kind of funky field players. And Ray Floyd, arguably top three or four chippers of all time. Gusson had an unbelievable, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but some unbelievable putting numbers and short game stats. He got up and down from some places that had people's heads spinning. So I would say that that is the link between those three.

Gousen in his prime is the superior ball striker in terms of just consistency, power. But Ray Floyd never quite gets a due in terms of his ball striking ability either. I can't believe I'm sitting here listening to you share. this incredible observation and I'm processing it and I what the name that keeps coming to mind is is Tiger Woods. And I came in here very skeptical of Tiger Woods this week. And when you talk about that kind of wizardry and that and the only thing that we just, we just went through it, the only thing holding him back is putting. But. Wow. Yeah, well, his short game has been very good this year. I'm going to be curious. So the thing that's changed, though, house is they've got a lot of

short grass areas around these greens, I mean, major difference between last time. And, you know, we have seen at times, I don't subscribe to that he's a, he gets yippy on shortgrass and all that. Not anymore. Have you watched this year? Yeah. And I don't think that, I mean, he did briefly there and sorted it out. I, that to me is the only thing that scares me a little is if he, he isn't excited. But he made some comments to me at Memorial implied that he's excited about. that, that it's going to weed out some people. And we discussed that last week. But it also screams Phil.

It screams a few people who have really good short games. Justin Thomas doesn't get enough credit for his overall game. Yeah, that, it's true. Ricky Fowler certainly probably doesn't. Although chipping is, I believe, statistically kind of his by far his weakest area.

But that's just stats. Those two love this place. They've played some golf here. Rory McElroy really loves the place. He's played, he also shot a 65 last summer. Several people came here and shot 65, but they've all done the old immediate knocking on wood. It wasn't the U.S. Open set up golf gods. I'm not saying that, yeah, which is a little sign of experience from the young lads, all making sure to throw that caveat out there because they know how the game works. And so there are a lot of people who love the place and it fits the eye,

but we're also going to need some love of wind golf. One other thing before we do a little more, I want to give you a few names. But this is also the first two-hole playoff in U.S. Open history. Should we have a playoff? No more Monday, 18 hole. And you know I'm not particularly keen on this, not because of the decision to get rid of 18. I'm glad we're not doing that. Right. But I do feel it should be a three or four-hole aggregate after years of lectures about the importance of 18 holes. And Dan Jenkins wrote a piece. And again, with a two-hole playoff, they're going to play the 17th and 18th. I hate the fact they're starting on a par three. It's another problem for me with this. I would have played one in 18. I would have rather had two par fours. If those, if you were

going to do two. Yeah. I just don't understand. If you have somebody who's sitting in the clubhouse for two hours, finishes early, shoot 65 on Sunday, and then they got to walk out and hit a four iron or a five iron, depending on the wind, on a long par three. One shot. One shot. shot right there, as Phil showed, he double bogeed that last time. It could end the whole thing right out of the shoot. And I just feel like three holes, there's a good chance you can recover from one mistake and not be quite so punished. But Dan Jenkins estimated, again, just going off the first two holes, which is not, of course,

necessarily accurate. But 15 of the 33 playoffs would have had a different outcome, had they been two-hole playoffs, including the great 1913, Francis we met, would not have he and Eddie Lowry would be forgotten. They would not have beaten Harry. Well, they might already be forgotten. The great Al Espinoza would have taken down Bobby Jones at Wingfoot, even though Bobby Jones over, they played 36 holes in house, by the way, beat him by 23 in the playoff. But Jones would have lost in a two hole. And then Hogan's win at Marion, he would have lost the Lloyd Mangrum, who was a great U.S. Open player. And Lloyd Mangrum would have had another U.S. Open. But

the iconic high Peskin photo would still be a great photo but it's a better photo because he won the playoffs. So it's just something to keep an eye on if we get one. I'm curious. Well,

it is a prop right now plus 300 for yes. That will have a playoffs. Yes. That's pretty, I mean, look at the season we've had. You're going to win three. You know,

we've had so many playoffs. It just, it does seem inevitable. I kind of like it. I'm going to, you're talking me into this. I got you excited about. about that. Yeah, you know, plus 300 is good. I get a three to one return on my investment.

I like it. I like it. So anyway, that's just something else to keep an eye on. And then, of course, the underlying story is just the USGA and this sort of hostility towards them and set up wise. And so they're working hard to try and remedy that. So that's going to be something. If you feel like the golf course is sort of airing on the side of easy, I would factor that in. But everything I've seen out their house, there's nothing easy about this place. Some of these holes are just. They're wicked, wicked tough. So you promise to name some names? Yeah. So obviously, I believe everybody feels like, based on his recent play, I think it's obvious. You can tell me if it's not. But Justin Rose is the favorite of this tournament because of the fact he's won the U.S. Open. He's just playing so well in really every facet of the game.

and I think he's a deserved favorite, and I have no problem with that. I know it doesn't excite you because he's... Well, I'm a petty dick, as has been documented before on this podcast, and I liked him quite a bit for the Masters. I extolled his virtue. I took note of a full calendar years worth of outstanding golf performance. I mean, the metrics are really impressive. He has been on a really incredible run.

I just think that having gone out of... out and won the colonial and kind of torching that place, you would think that there might be like a corollary because of the target kind of golf there. This is so much more golf course. But he can handle that. He's a great long iron player. I'm out on him. Okay.

I'm not going to. He's not making any of my list. All right. Now, Dustin Johnson just had an amazing performance in Memphis. I don't know how you can leave him out of any, if you're on any pool team. You just have to go with him. He's shown he can handle everything the USGA throws at them. This is the incredible thing with him.

And he should love this place. He showed up today for his first 18 ever at Chinatat. He said he'd never played it before. How about that? So that would be a thing that for any other mere mortal, I would hold against them. But for DJ, I think it works in his favor. And just so we, it's fascinating because I was not aware of that fact. But let me give you a little fact to it.

I picked up a couple weeks ago. He was going to come up here and make a trip. And I heard he was discouraged for the same reason on the green speed. And I think that's fascinating, that that's how players are approaching things. So it's not a laziness thing. He did choose to come here because he had gotten or not come here because he got certain kind of information. But, I mean, that was an amazing performance.

There's just, what else can you say? Yeah, it reminded us of why he's been the number one, you know, player in the world for an extended stretch, notwithstanding, you know, the recent exchange of that title. So the name I'd wanted to give you because I know you're going to give us one.

So I've done nothing but give obvious names. And I'm not ashamed to give you Dustin Johnson, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose. I also would throw Jason Day in the mix as close to being a favorite. I mean, how can you not love the way he's played on tough courses, the way he's paced

himself? But if you're looking for a name deep down the list. I put them on my golf week fantasy. We do a nice breakdown at golf week.com of Brentley Romine puts together. All of our writers put together names. We do the low amateur. We do our sleepers.

We do who we're kind of cooling off on. John Rom, even though he was T5 at Colonial, I kind of am a little chilly on him. Just, I'm not sure about Chinnecock and his temperament. Maybe it's just because I'm remembering last year in Aaron Hills how mad he got. I don't ever like betting against or putting down John Rom.

He's too talented. But I have to put down one, and that was one I picked. My draft king's bargain for golf week was Sam Burns, who shot 62 in the sectional qualifier. And, you know, a few years ago, John Peterson, another LSU alum, who was a little bit hot that he got left off the Walker Cup team, came to the U.S. Open, played beautifully. and contended for a long time. Sam Burns is nothing against John Peterson. Sam Burns is a much better golfer. He's an incredible talent.

He should have been on last year's Walker Cup team. And that's 62 in the sectional has been talked about by a lot of people. He is a $6,400 bargain on draft kings, which means nothing to me. I know nothing about that. Let me tell you something that will have me something to you. He's 10 to 1 to top 20. Okay. You take $100 and put it down, and your boy Sam Burns finishes inside the top 20.

That's $1,000 delicious dollars in the pocket. Right now early in the week, just based on what you hear from people behind the scenes who say, you're looking for somebody who's playing really well. That's my name, Sam Burns. Okay. Well, I like that you use that as the setup. What name are you hearing and like what kind of places are you hearing it? The name that I keep hearing.

And we can't mention who told us. No, and it's from a lot, but it's from disparate sources. I'm hearing it. You know what's interesting is? He's a listener, long time listener. A first time tipster. A fair number of the input I've received is from international sources. Reminding us.

International sources, I like that. I about that. Reminding us that there are non-U.S. Yes, there are. And by the way, we are at a very lynxie venue. Yeah. I mean, it felt like a British Open out there today, the Open Championship, for those of you who were about to scold me.

Well, a guy who's, you know, played well at the Open Championship, but also very well here at our national championship, Tommy Fleetwood, available at 40 to 1 at the moment. I love those odds. Now, there is our good pal, Justin Ray, has laid out a parameter for us. Justin Ray of the Golf Channel. Got to follow them on Twitter. Yeah, that's right.

the last seven U.S. Open champions were inside of the top 30 of the world ranking at the time they won. Tommy Fleetwood definitely. That's a pretty strong number. Yeah. Seven, it feels like a trend to me. That is a trend. And we know having observed him earlier this year, he got hot in the Middle East. He's had a couple good tournaments.

He had a very nice Sunday at the Masters. he was charging up the board. He kind of like was just messing around, scrapping about the first three rounds and then reminded us all of really what I consider to be major championship chops. Yeah. And I, so that's a name for you.

And that's an interesting stat, by the way, just again, for some context for people thinking of this, oh, the USGA's lost its way. The point of a golf tournament house is to identify the best player. And that's a very strong number the last seven years, which are all Mike Davis setups, of identifying somebody, you're not going to get the top 10 player every time, but top 30 in the world, the U.S. Open has produced some winner's house, I can tell you, had there been world rankings at the time, they would definitely

not have been sniffing the top 30 in the world. So that's just something else to keep in mind, but I love that number. And then I think you couple that with the quality of this golf course, And I'm a believer that great architecture brings out the best and top players. And I think that's what's so just kind of disheartening about last time was the architecture here. The conditioning was such that it should have produced. I should have produced the Phil Michaels and went. Nothing against Retief Gusson because he was a fine player at the time and a fine U.S. Open style player. But I think that that is something we have to be aware of.

this golf course should I hate the old cream rises to the top cliche so I think that you will on Wednesday tweet out some picks obviously I'll be doing coverage for a golf channel house I'm going to be on the set for an hour and a half Tuesday and Wednesday

so we're going to watch some people hit balls so we're going to pick up some intel there but we'll try to do a roundup of who to watch and kind of some of the fun pairing because that is what's so great about this event we have so many qualifiers We have so many amateurs this year. We have 20 amateurs house, and that's only because it would have been more, a couple of them turned pro.

We have a lot of members from the last Walker Cup team. So this is an event where there's some interesting young talent. There's some people. I mean, we could, here in the media center, we could go on all day long. I mean, Shantaro Bonn is this name. I keep hearing a UNLV golfer, everybody's excited about. House. His Twitter handle has shinny in it.

I'm just saying, if you're one of those people who goes to the track and bets horse names, there's a guy who's had his Twitter handle for a long time, pre-qualifying for the opening Chinat for me. He's had a little shinny in there. I've heard he is an eccentric guy. He is a lot of fun, and he is a kind of a rising, late-blooming talent from UNLV. So Shantaro Bond, just somebody, just somebody. But there's so many stories here. We've got the U.S. Junior champion for the first time ever playing. which is kind of wild to think that we're going to throw a 17-year-old out there into this, that golf course. I don't know. We watched the 14-year-old at Augusta National, you know, nearly make the cut.

All right. So I think we've got it. Wednesday, I'll come out with a few selections on Twitter. And then we'll reconvened. You're going to be playing a little member guest golf, but then you're going to see a little, yeah, your annual big event. And then Thursday night we're going to talk. and we will cover whatever's kind of gone on early in the week. Yeah.

We will not cover this week, although I would love, you know, I would love to talk. Now, why these things have to happen during the U.S. Open? I don't know. But the backstopping thing we've talked about forever finally exploded last weekend. We're not going to get that. We need to save that for another day. It's a very layered thing, by the way. And it's still, it's fast developing as we speak.

It's going to be hilarious and funny. The slow play masters was incredible. You as a numbers guy, I've posted on my blog, some European Tour numbers from that field stroke average dropped over a stroke with the guys playing fast. Wow. Might be a little hint to the boys that taking all that time doesn't help their game. So we'll kick those around on a slower day. This is, though, about the U.S. Open, Shinnecock Hills, one of the greatest golf courses on the planet, one of the most historic clubs in the United States. Fox has the coverage.

the golf channel is live from all the great publications are here it's going to be really a fun week and the weather is going to cooperate it appears and the house is here by the way so food wise just quickly before we thank our great friends at Calloway makers of the Chromesoft with the Stars and Stripes

all that patriotism is flowing if you want to get dad Father's Day gift they're limited time only better get out to Dix or wherever you get your chrome soft and make sure to tell dad they've got the graphene That's what's going to make the Father's Day gift great. House food-wise, you are going to do some Anthony Bourdain coverage. You're going, I believe, with Andy Greenwald. Yep.

You have a House of Carbs in a can. Well, working on it. I got an interview coming up with Pervet Shawnee, who's a newsday writer, food writer, who specializes in Long Island cuisine. So for all the hungry homies out there, and everybody coming. into town to check out this U.S. Open, how about listening in to the house? Of course. We'll have some insight for you, some intel. You are going to walk the grounds tomorrow and probably test out some food. I'm going to do both of those things. The USDA has worked hard

the last few years to try to get some more local stuff. Now, speaking of local, again, before we go, my colleague at Golf Week, David Ducek, I here gave you a hot tip on a lobster roll. I had a lobster roll at Sabonik yesterday that was arguably the finest I've ever eaten. Now, I'm from Santa Monica. So that means we don't really know lobster rolls. And when we do them in California, we tend to, you know, throw in a little, little quinoa and some other nonsense. So it was really masterful, though. As I told you, the bun was perfect, the cold, crisp celery with the fresh lobster. It was, I was at this point, you two didn't partake in that, but I was jealous. I just, you know. At the beautiful Sabonac Golf Club. Yeah. I, I, I, I, I,

It was a little too complicated for me at that point of the round. But it looked marvelous. All right, House. But enough about food. That was probably the last great meal I'll have this week. Nothing against the USDA catering. But that was sensational. I will be here all week.

Can't wait to hear your thoughts on as you getting out on the grounds a little bit more. Yeah, I'm going to encourage everybody. Check out Jeff Shackaford's Instagram at Jeff Shack, S-H-A-C. And I also, at House from D.C., will be throwing up photos. and maybe a little bit of video of live from Shinnecock Hills, the 118th U.S. Open is ready for competition, and we here at the Shackhurst could not be any more excited about it. On the Ringer Podcast Network.