Fairway Rollin' - Collin Morikawa Takes the Win at the British Open

Episode Date: July 18, 2021

House and Hubbard tee up to talk about the brilliance of Collin Morikawa in winning the British Open after a less-than-desirable performance at the Scottish Open (01:13). They break down the adjustments to Morikawa's game and analyze the competitors that he left in his wake (29:48). Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Producer: Steve Ahlman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hello, friends, and welcome to this major championship victory golf podcast fairway rolling on the ringer podcast network. I am your starter, Joe House, on the line, as is always the case. Our PJ tour correspondent on the ground, our open championship. correspondent on the ground, even though he's stateside. Just like the NBC crew, Nathan Hubbard is right here. Hi, buddy. He called himself the champion

winner of the year. He called it the British Open in the same speech. And yet somehow he's the great gentleman and I think they still love him for it. Those are the biggest mistakes he made all week long. Of course we're talking about Colin Moracawa,

the unflappable Colin Moracawa, record setting Colin Moracawa, Kawmar Kawa, who we now have to regard as one of the all-time greats already at this very early juncture in his career because he's doing things that haven't been done since Bobby Jones, nobody, and we're going to run through a whole vast array of superlatives because they all fit. nobody has won two two majors in their debut in the same year and I guess this is calendar year

since Bobby Jones right I might be slightly messing that up but the first time he played the PJ Championship he won and the first time he played the open championship he won I think that's the stat right that's the stat so there you go first guy to win two in only eight tries

Yes. No bogeys over the last 30 holes. No three putts today. The stat that I've been seeing all over the place that the Twitter, the tweeters love is, of course, from our homie Justin Ray, went bogey free in the final round of both of his major wins, the only player in the last 25 years to win multiple majors with bogey free final. rounds. I think that's good. I think it is. You know what, Nate? It never really felt like anybody else had a chance. We were rooting for your boy. Jordan Speet was right there.

But it required a mistake. It required the unflappable Colmore Cow to make a mistake. I think when we saw Jordan, I mean, my lasting memory of this tournament is going to be that one and a half footer that Jordan missed on 18 on Saturday to close with two

bogeys. And that was the difference here. I mean, as he said in the post round interview, if he's in the last group, anything is possible. He shot 66 today. Morikawa shot 66, ROM shot 66, that, you know, the golf course did not have the defenses up this week to say the least. But Jordan really was the only bit of drama, as only Jordan can do. And that was in a headbanging, oh shit moment where you just knew when he missed that put that today, I mean, you couldn't believe in Louis after his post round comments yesterday where he just said,

yeah, my swing really just got loose down the back nine and I, you know, I wasn't really able to pull it together. Hopefully it'll be tighter tomorrow. That gave you the indication that he was off the heater. And it was going to be,

it was going to be Moracao unless he fell apart. Look, the thing that's not going to be talked about is Morikawa missed some shorties on Thursday and Friday. Yeah. He could have won this tournament by five or six if he'd convert a few more putts.

And I got a little bit anxious watching him that we were seeing the same old thing, which is absolute flushing striking of the ball and some really shaky putting, even as he moved to that saw grip, which down the stretch today, as you said, could not be shaken. He did a great job coming in of taking the drama out of this tournament. So let's talk a bit more about Jordan Speeth. You are an avowed speither. Is this a glass half full week for you or a glass half famp? because you mentioned it.

He said in the post-tournament interview that but for his bogey on 17 yesterday, that is Saturday, and his bogey on 18 yesterday, Saturday, both of which could have easily been PARs and he absolutely could have made birdie on one of those as well. So rather than being, it was really a three-shot swing for him

And that three-shot swing was absolutely the thing that kept him out of being in the final round and the point that you made about him being, I mean, the final group, then the difference for him being in the final group or not. So for you, as a speed truther, glass half full week or glass half empty week? I think totally half full. This is the first time since 2017 that he's played a major with game that he felt like was good enough to win the tournament is what he said. Well, I happen to agree with him. It feels like he's back. In all the best ways, in all of the pound your, the palm of your hand against your forehead kind of ways.

But Jordan Speath has been our most consistent golfer this year. He contended a ton. And this is just proof that under pressure the game held up. What was our criticism of, you know, of him before? He's Sunday round, Sunday round, Sunday round. He shot 66 today. I mean, it's just Mori Cowell played better. 11 top four finishes in majors now.

in his career. So he just keeps adding to those, those totals that at the end of a career, he'll look back and have a legacy that we feel like, we both feel like we'll rival ultimately the all-time greats. I had the same sort of instinct as you

to talk about Jordan as being the most consistent golfer this season. And then I was reminded to just take a quick look at John Rahman majors. And he finished, tied for fifth in the Masters and tied for eighth at the PGA and then

won the U.S. Open and then finished today with the 66 and finished tied for third and he absolutely had a bounce in his step. And by the way, if we give him because we're generous fellas the benefit of winning

the memorial, isn't John Rom the player of the year so far in 2021? I think you have to say yes, but this is maybe why the FedEx Cup really matters. Because there's some ties that have to be broken. I mean, you got to say to about John Rom. He's the 26th guy to finish top 10 in all four majors.

And, you know, Justin Ray put out a stat a little while ago that said there's only three times in history that a guy outside the U.S. has finished eighth or better in all four majors. And it was John Rom this year and Gary Player in 63 and 74. So it's a really impressive feat. And you got the sense that if this tournament was 81 holes, John Rom was going to win. He just didn't have the opening round that he needed. And, you know, that's golf, right?

But I agree with you that we picked John Rom. We talked about it coming in. He was clearly the guy to beat. And there's only two guys who could do that this week, even with the round that Rom had on Thursday. So kudos to him right now. he's certainly the player of the year. So one thing

I want to make sure we address as it relates to Kalamorakawa. I don't, we did talk about him. He was 40 to 1. And even 30, like between 35 to 1 and 40 to 1 all the way until, you know,

Wednesday night. He was horrible at the Scottish. Until he wasn't, right? He was and then he wasn't. And he gave an interview. where he talked about having a difficult time getting a feel with his irons because of the contact of, you know, off that firm turf. I think he gave a interview with like Daniel Rappaport, who is, I think, the golf.com guy. You know, golf digest guy.

That's right. I'm sorry. Sorry, my bad, Danny. But, you know, the Scottish Open was his first time playing tournament links golf. and he said that he didn't like the way that the club moved through the turf. So you hear that, you see that. He didn't have, you know,

he didn't go out there and go bonkers at the Scottish. So we weren't inclined. We wasn't disrespectful our approach to him. It's just it required him to do something that hadn't been done really before. That's all. He put in new irons after the Scottish to try to get a different flight.

So he came out of it. He did not play well at the Scottish. But what he said last night, after his third round, was there's no way I could be here if I hadn't played the Scottish. To which I say the dude assimilated everything it takes to play Lynx golf in under a week. Like, what is this robot that is Colin Marcawa? Now, one thing I want to absolutely be very clear about, he 10,000 percent validated the PGA championship that he won a fan.

free, surreal, very weird, weirdest major, probably, I don't know, in history, I don't know, very, you were there, the ghost major out on, on, on, in the, it's not called Marine Layer up there in just the fog. It was just Carl the fog was just everywhere. It was ghosty. Yes. So this, so he went from that as like this string of the seven majors that we enjoyed from August of 2020. Until this moment right here, July 18, 2021, seven majors. And he started the run and finished the run. And a lot of stuff has happened. And then the circumstances are radically different. The only comment I have as it relates to him playing links golf is you and I. And I think, you know, all the golf that's out there would say that really wasn't exactly what we would expect out of links golf. that was, you know, the most benign version of a wonderful summer round in the British Isles and, you know, right there in, in England, where you get four straight days of sun and, and gentle breezes.

No, no teeth whatsoever. And they are at a, you know, tried with some pin placements on Saturday, but really the entirety of the defense of these golf courses. in the Open Championship rota is the conditions, the weather, and we just didn't get any weather. So I don't want to give the impression that I'm taking anything away

from the incredible achievement. It's just we didn't get any of that chaos, the Open Championship chaos, that we kind of crave, which is fine. It's still fine. Even still, the top three guys in this tournament

at the end of the day were the top three best. ball strikers in the tournament. And there were, I mean, Collins' approach shot on 17 was nifty, where he left it about 30 yards short and ran it up. I mean, they still, when the conditions were easy like that, you knew that the leaderboard might be a little more bunch, that the scores would be a little bit higher. But I still think these three guys distinguished themselves with their ball striking and the

sort of creative shot making that they still even had to make on this course versus if they we're playing TBC sawgrass. And that's the brilliance of Colin Moracawa, to be to be just, you know, frank about it, right? Like,

we know all about his ball striking skill. Every time there's a major, we talk about, you know, what kind of, of opportunity for ball strikers is there. We're always emphasizing, um,

the, the importance of second shots into these courses. And it appears, he's the best. Yes. He is the best. and it did not, he was completely unfazed. He figured it out in the course of one tournament,

the Scottish Open, what he needed to do? Your point about the, you know, the 30 yards that he left it short on 17 deliberately because he's already dialed into the strategy of the correct way to play this, this venue and this style of golf. Look, you mean, he's wired for it. he's here for it. He's the guy that we've been kind of begging for, I think. Him and John Romer, are we lining up, and I'll put it in the form of a question. Is this, do we, are we going to get a rivalry out of these two?

I think what's maddening about golf and in particular betting on golf right now is there's so many guys. This guy was 40 to 1 coming in and we forgot he won a major and he's won a tournament this year. Like there are so many guys who you just almost have to throw one. momentum out the window at this point. There's guys who are so damn good that with one minor swing adjustment or putting a few irons with different loft and in the bag

suddenly can go from like DFL at the Scottish Open post cut to winning the British the next week. Why did, I mean, here's what we'll say. When JT won the players and he was at 20 to one, we said never again are we going to let him go down to those odds without putting a little something on him. So what's our Colin Morikawa rule now? Bet him in every major.

I mean, you have to. Well, the problem now, though, of course, is you'll never get these odds again. He will not be higher than 22. We fucked up. We fucked up. I mean, it just should have been a Morikawa rule after he went out and won in his debut at the PGA championship. You just put something down, something that you're comfortable with,

20 bucks, 50 bucks, whatever it is. Every single time he's in a major because he's got. that game. He is that guy. Yes. Yes. And I was ready to buy into the theory that we floated, which was that he didn't really win a real major because he didn't have the pressure of the

fans and the crowd and the fucking whoopee cushions that Ustays and you know, that they had to back off 4 and 70. But they're the most smart. They're the smartest fans. They're most sophisticated fans. The smartest. Nathaniel. The most

smartest and making fart noises. But I was ready to believe that maybe the pressure in a moment was going to get to him, especially because his Achilles heel has been those putts inside of six feet that he seems to really struggle with the confidence on. Reminds you of the guy who finished second in Jordan Speath, who did have problems with those short ones this week. But Morikawa now, now he's starting to look like a little bit of a superhero. Because if the pressure isn't going to phase him coming up those,

long strides up 18, which by then the tournament was won. But my point is when there are a lot of fans at a tournament you haven't played before and you got the best players in the world in the moment nipping at your heels and you're really just unfazed. Like you got to take pressure off the table for this guy. Now it's just he can win any week. Well, one of the things, I want to give a shout out to our homies over at the Friday, the shotgun start boys, Andy Johnson and Brendan Pohrath. They were on the Twitters. And I think it was Andy. repeatedly making the point about the green speeds in particular, when the green speeds are slower like they were,

and they typically are for the Open Championship, it allows for more room in terms of creative pin placement and other. I love seeing the guys be able to bang the ball at the hole, and it is a testament to Boracawa to be able to, you know, walk into a venue like this with, you know, the only, you've mentioned it a couple times now, the only sort of flaw in his game is his putting stroke, and he immediately no three putts today.

So I think he's a, he got used to the speed and came up with, you know, a way to make it work. The saw grip did it. For the, something, something for sure. So let's talk about some other folks.

We touched on, um, dude, I guess we have to talk about bright, Bryson and Brooks, don't we? What we do. I mean, of course.

So Brooks, damn near 65ed his way into a backdoor top five. You ended up six, solo six because Dylan Fratelli burdied, I think he birdied 17, but Dylan Fratelli's birdie at the end kept Brooksie from a backdoor top five, which I have some friends.

A top 10, Tony, top five. Yeah, I've got some friends who were disappointed. They might have put a little something on Brooks for a top five at some reasonable odds this morning. I was not one of them, but... But he never threatened in this tournament. his day was Saturday. This is the thing.

I woke up Saturday morning. I looked at the board. I looked at where guys were. I observed the weather. And I was like, here are a couple guys that I just think, you know, they have the pedigree. They have the major experience. Dustin Johnson in particular had the experience at this venue, which one. Why isn't it a decent bet to go ahead and sprinkle a little something on Brooksie and a little something on DJ to

go out and boat race Saturday and they went in the absolute opposite direction. I guess I did. I don't feel responsible but I feel you're responsible. Brooks especially sucked Saturday. Yeah. I mean, again, Brooks T6, DJT8 and they weren't really factors in this

tournament. They just weren't. And that's not a knock, but, but you know, okay, Bryson also, speaking of 65s, a tree fell in the woods this morning and it was Bryson DeShambo shooting a 65. Well, let's, I want to, I want to hit pause on that for a second. Because we are going to do a full dive on, on Bryson. We have not convened since the great equipment debacle of 2021, the ongoing Bryson, the Bryson saga.

And really, like, I'm, I'm almost sick now of doing the psycho babble as it relates to him. Yeah. All we do is get in the goddamn therapist chair and try and make sense out of this brother. But the 65 today, the thing that caught my interest, my curiosity, I was, you know, piqued my interest here. Does the 65 suggest to you, Nathan Hubbard, that the artistry required for success in this kind of venue and this kind of setting that maybe something clicked for Beefy Bryson? No, because of what you said earlier. He just flat out, no. No, the defenses were down, like you said.

he didn't actually have to perform exquisitely to shoot a 65 today. So that you would say, and I don't want to put words in your mouth, I'll put in the form of a question. Would you say that the 65 today is the result of him acclimating? He's been at the venue for a week. He's an extraordinary golfer, absolutely positively top 10 of the world. He's good at golf. And so he, it was the same conditions over four days.

And on the fourth day, his diagnostic. worked and he went out and took care of business. Is that what you're saying? No, I don't even think he learned anything. He was playing with Ches Revy on an early morning tea time. He was going to be done before the leaders even teed off all of the pressure and focus that had been on him in the week leading up to it. And then after the, my driver sucks comment, dissipated and disappeared. And he was just by himself on a golf course playing for something that didn't really matter. There was no chance he was going to get into the top 10. So he was playing. in for a little bit of money. With all of that pressure and,

and spotlight off him, like you said, he's good at golf. And if he's hitting the ball relatively straightish on a course whose defenses are down, Bryson DeShambo can make five birdie puts, which is what he did. And no bogeys. I'm not moved by this round at all. You're not convinced that he's figured out links golf. No. More than ever, it tells me that all of this shit is not serving him. And it's not serving

Bryson or Brooks either. They're making a circus and then they're figuring out that, you know, what happens at the end of a circus. There's a lot of elephant shit that has to get cleaned up and you can't, you can't do it without the elephant shit. Well, the elephant shit for these two guys is it's a distraction to them being arguably two of the top five golfers in the world. They did not perform as well this year in the big moments as they ought to have. And I cannot believe that all of this drama isn't contributing to it in some way. Okay. Well, he ended up tied for 33rd, by far his best performance in a links competition, by far

his best performance at the Open Championship. The 65 today, I want to be more generous. I want to, you know, build off the idea that, you know, he's learning something. Like the robot is taking information and data in and then the robot is processing it. and then the robot is, you know, trying to adapt. It's a type of artificial intelligence inside of that head. But we continue, and we'll do this just for the two minutes is all I can muster. The emotional intelligence remains as dumb donkeyish as ever.

As out of reach as ever. The funny thing to me, and this is part of the ongoing conversation we've been having with Bryson, is if he had simply said, I sucked with driver today. I'm having a hard time figuring out driver. I'm not sure that I should have been hitting driver in some of those places. I'm not comfortable with the face and maybe that I should not have been attempting to be so aggressive. If he'd just done it in that manner, which honest to God's felt like what he was intending to communicate.

Trying to say. In some form or fashion, now he also was frustrated by the equipment. There's no two ways about it. But if he just had like that instinct to talk about it in terms of his own performance as opposed to this recurring phenomena of him talking about other things outside, having some kind of outsized impact on his performance, that it's bad luck like he talked about at the U.S. Open. And, you know, that there are these outside forces that are conspiring to keep him from being the best version of himself when, It's really just you, bro. It's just you, buddy. It's just you and your decision-making and the clubs that you select and the shots that you

attempt to pull off. And at the end of the day, just own it. That's all we're asking, right? That's it. That's why we know that there's a troubling fragility there because you got to step up and take accountability for your performance. And Bryson is always looking to deflect. Now, there is some crazy, like, it's never.

my fault, I'm a great golfer no matter what, like idea that you've got to have to be a good golfer. But like Tiger would be crazy in that way and believing that he was going to be awesome with the next swing. But he also took accountability. He didn't blame other people or his equipment when he didn't play well. And that's the difference. And so for Bryson, it feels like a weakness to hear him unable to, as you say, own it. And until he can do that, I think he's going to have this career that ebbs and flows, where he's either great and everything's firing or when it's not, he's just unable to dig himself out. Now, all that said, he finished tied for 33rd in the open. So, I mean, the guy is a great golfer. That's not what we're saying. But it's fun to talk about

because he is elite. And at times is the only guy amongst this pack of people who we can't figure out who to fucking bet on week and week out because they're all so damn good. But he's the only guy who you could actually see fully separating himself from the pack if he unlocks the mental component that seems to hold him back. Because his physical skills are that much distinguished from a lot of his peers. So that's a great observation. And on that note, the one thing that we felt very strong about, and this was particularly true in the conversation earlier last week with Kevin Van Valkenberg, Bryson is not wired to be successful in Lynx Golf. And we went through all the reasons why,

and we, you know, in the same way that at least to me, he has not yet unlocked the key to Augusta. Yeah. These venues that require the art. Exactly right. Like you can't, you can't run the data machine on these joints. some of it's going to have to be feel. And in that respect, because we were all so confident that all of my best wins this week,

betting wise, I bet him to not finish the top 10. I bet him to not finish in the top 20. And I bet him to miss the cut, which was at almost three to one odds. Yeah, it was close. He made an eight or nine footer for par on 18 to make the cut on the number. Don't forget what's around the corner, which is the. Green's books aren't going to be around, right? Anywhere, not just not Augusta. Like, he's not going to be able to use them next year. And I think that's going to be a bigger adjustment than he'll

ever let on. We can't really take anything that he says in a press conference anymore as absolute fact. I mean, he says interesting things when you really get him and a little bit of that guard down, talking about his swing and his game. You can learn from it. But anything that he sort of says about how he's going to do or how things affect him psychologically, you just throw out the window, it's bullshit. It's a facade at this point. I think he's going to have a struggle between now and the next time we see him in a major. We are going

to see him at the Olympics, God willing. I'm knocking on the right. I mean, well, the Olympics is right around the corner and yeah, we're not sure. Well, I mean, right, exactly. There is all kinds of COVID concerns going on out there,

but he has qualified and he said that he intends to go. And part of what I'm particularly curious about and interested in seeing is this will be like the first team kind of opportunity with this version of Bryson, right? The version of Bryson that was really invented in the offseason of 2020 during the pandemic period between March and May of 2020, the reinvented Bryson, this will be the first time these Olympics that we get to see him where there should be some camaraderie. There should be some, now, the

guys are the competition is so stupid i mean god forbid the olympics you know figure out a way to have countries compete with some kind of team component it's so stupid but it's an individual metal kind of competition and yet you were still there representing your country again god willing he'll walk out in the uniform he'll be with zander and with jt and who's the fourth it's colin right oh it is it's colmorkawa god how could i possibly forget um And so... By the way, JT. needled him a little bit

this week over the driver comment on Instagram. He dropped a little response about the scientist. And what did he say? He just said, you'd think the scientist could figure it out.

Well, so it must be the case, right? That that, because he, they know they're going to see each other. They know that they're, you know, going to be teammates. And this, this Olympics is going to be

the first time for them to get a little bit of extended time together. And then it is building towards the Ryder Cup. It's easy to, take those chief shots at Bryson because everybody's so focused on the Brooke stuff that these other guys can get a few sucker punches

in at the bottom of the pile. Anyway, he doesn't even know where they're coming from. He doesn't even know he's getting hit. He's big enough that he doesn't even care. Yeah. Well, so we do have some intrigue on the golf calendar with that coming up.

We mentioned some guys that disappointed us. Who have we not mentioned thus far that was the biggest disappointment to you? Well, I mean, besides Phil finishing DFL. That wasn't a disappointment. That's just Phil being Phil, isn't it? Yeah, I think it is.

I think you're exactly, but we saw that coming from a mile away, I think. We at least got that one right. Rory continues to befuddle, right? He had an okay first day, but he just wasn't able to pull it together. Just too many mistakes.

I mean, the guy had a lot of bogeys this week. He just made a lot of bogeys. There was like a 15-minute period Saturday where I started getting some Rory buzzes, you know, on the, on the phone. It's like, oh, is Rory? Is Rory? It's signs of life for Rory? Four under through nine. He was four under through nine. And then he just

drops three bogeys on the back and it's totally over. And yeah, you just want more from him. It just, you know, even when he started the day, you know, listen, even par in his first round and you think, all right, he's back, but he'd made four birdies and, but then he starts his second round on Friday with two consecutive bogies and you know he's out of the tournament at that point. Nobody's coming back from plus two when the guys were running up into the high single digits under par.

I honestly think it's fine to just say this is the Rory normal. Like he might go to venues where he's had tremendous success in the past and go out and burn him down like you did at Quail Hollow. But for the most part, like we just need to be prepared to satisfy ourselves with anything between 10th and 40th when it comes to import. events until he demonstrates us that he's got it all back together and that he's going to put together a string the way that Jordan Speath really has. I mean, I loved that interview afterwards with Kara, whatever her last name is these days. Thanks. Thanks. He talked about how like the overall speaking of emotional intelligence, like all the cobwebs are clear now. Like he's he's back in possession of his game. And we just

have no indication other than what Rory did for four days at Quail Hollow that Rory is in that same boat. He's not. We love him. We want to see it back. He's just not playing good enough golf. Is it weird that there's a couple of Canadians finishing in the top 10 of majors all the time between. Corey Connors is effing good. I mean, the ball striking is there. He keeps doing it. I mean, if you have that class of ball striking, you're going to be there. It's just the nature of the game and where we are at the moment, I think, right?

Yeah. It's nice to see those guys. Maybe we'll get a Canadian major winner again. Mike Weir awaits. I don't want to, I'm right on the edge as to whether or not I want to bash NBC very much. It was driving me absolutely nuts yesterday. Come on.

publish our text thread. Yes. Just speak the truth. Well, I'm going to just talk about Dan Hicks, you know, acting like it was a revelation that the South Africans are fucking good at golf. I mean, I don't have to F bomb it. But like, yeah, Dan, we've been talking about this for nearly four months now because they continue, you know, we've been looking for a kind of profile for success.

And this is the thing I'm interested in and I want to keep an eye on this. me and you. Here's what I'm asking. I think we're not that far away from the point, and maybe we're there. I'm interested in your reaction to this, where because of all of the analytics that are going into this and the heightened interests and the gambling, that the golf community now is so much smarter than it was maybe, you know, like two years ago. And to hear these dumbasses come on these broadcasts and basically share information as though

they're talking to our parents. And this is a golf tournament that's on at like, you know, seven in the morning. And I'm sitting there watching it at 8.30 in the morning on a Saturday. And I know that everybody else that's watching it is like the people that we follow on golf Twitter, they're smart people, they're engaged people. They're people that are devoted to this. And these assholes are on these broadcasts giving us the worst kind of lowest common denominator observations.

Oh, look at the picnic tables. They're having fish and chips. I mean, I'm going to stop cursing, but I just felt so insulted. I just felt so insulted by so much of it. Like, they need to start ratcheting up the quality of the research, the quality of the analysis, and start talking to us in a way that we're entitled to because we are mother effing smart and much smarter than we used to be. And I'm, you know, there is a.

ton of very smart people tracking these, these trends in a way that's so far superior to what these, the pablam that these assholes are feeding us. So I'll get off my soapbox right now. But I, the, the question for you is, you know, have we reached the point where all of us watching the consuming public are, are so far ahead of the dummies doing the broadcasting that, you know, am I right to be indignant about this or no? You are. And you did not even mention the fact that we watched 75% of the shots from a goddamn blimp. I mean, we probably would have seen it better

if we'd gotten in a small plane and flown over the southern coast of England because tons of these shots were from above, which are cool as a sort of sidecar counter shot to the one where we can actually see the undulation on the fairways and the approaches. I got so little from the ground view of a course that is interesting

because of what it looks like from the ground. Not to mention, we almost never got a distance unless we overheard a catty conversation. We never got a distance on putts. Just give me some basics so I know what we're looking at. I liked the shot of the lie that they would sort of superimpose split screen with the guys going.

That was a nice little innovation. It's sad that no one in American television has thought about that. But could we please? see the golf course in a different way next year. This was, it was like a seascape. I don't know. So we were supposed to just hold our nose

and accept the fact that it was a limited, you know, they weren't going to be able to do the bells and whistles because of the COVID considerations and the restrictions in place. I'm just telling you, that's what they asked us to do. I know. It just, I mean, it's bad enough

to have guys sitting in Connecticut commenting on, I mean, it was like, you and, me going into a green room except with information from 2010 and no data. So that's it. That's the point that I'm making and that's the point that's frustrating me. And I honestly think we're not that far away, just in general. And you're closer to this than me because you're the tech guy. You understand how this is possible. We're not that far away from like an alternative broadcast. We're not even close. Yeah. The rest of us are just going to start listening to people that we want

to listen to on this stuff and just put TV on in the background. That's like when my dad, yeah, my dad used to listen to Sonny and Sam on the radio watching the football games instead of listening to the telecast, right? Yeah, yes. So we're getting close. Maybe it'll be us. We'll go in a green room. Well, actually, that's too much pressure.

I'm not good enough. But, you know, there will be people. Pat Mayo would be fantastic. Put Pat Mayo. You know, if he wants to open up a green room and broadcast for three hours, I'll listen to him for a final round. the whole way through. Anybody.

I mean, come on. Anyway, enough for the rants. I need to give a shout out to an entirely different golf championship that occurred this weekend. The USGA hosted the Girls National, which is 18 and under here in the United States of America. It was at the Columbia Country Club here in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was spectacular. the number one amateur woman in the world, Rose Zhang,

won with a dominant performance, including a 62 in stroke play that is a course record. And she has, Rose has nothing but like the very best things in her future. There was some chatter today about whether or not we'll leave it.

See, she's headed to Stanford, where the 17-year-old who placed very highly in the U.S. women's open. Megagana is also headed. And there is some conjecture like maybe Rose is just going to skip Stanford or maybe Stanford will get a year. It's like a question of how many more titles Rose wants to take down.

But she now holds. She is currently the solo possessor of the U.S. women's amateur title championship and the U.S. girls championship because as a 17-year-old last year, she won. the U.S. women's amateur, and she will be defending that at Westchester Country Club in about five weeks, a dominant performance. The Golf Channel did a great job. And I also have to give a shout out to Bailey Davis, a local girl here from White Plains, I think, or Owings Mill up, up towards Baltimore here in Maryland. Yeah, up the Maryland way. Yeah, up the Maryland way.

African American woman headed to Tennessee. She was ranked 950th in the world and then came here down to Columbia and put on an unbelievable performance. She's got nothing but greatness in front of her. So shout out to both of those young ladies. They did an awesome job and it was a super cool championship to watch. Sounds like they did more from the fairway than I did in high school when we used to break into Columbia and drink at night on the weekends. Sounds like they made much better use of it.

I think they made better use of it. I think that's exactly right. Okay, well, look, let's put a bow on it. anything else from this Open Championship that you think we need to cover? No. Shout out James Hahn for almost shooting 59 in Kentucky yesterday. That was fun to watch. We're taping this right after the Open Championship.

So Homeless Hubbs has a round in front of him where, you know, he's been, he's been doing some good work out there. Doing some work. A little more. A little more, but look, you know, this, this event of Barbisol down at Keen's Trace. I would love it. No disrespect to Barbisol, a perfectly, wonderful shave cream. But like this is at Keene's Trace, like the Buffalo distillery,

Buffalo Trace Distillery is down there. That's like pappy. That's, you know, Eagle Rare, all of these great bourbons. Let's really embrace the brown liquor somehow or another with this event. That would be my only suggestion. There was a big tasting for all the players who were down there. And it seems like a few of them tried it a little too much on Friday and Saturday. We weren't invited. So I mean, you know, as far as I'm concerned, it didn't happen. We would have rather have been at the open and perhaps next year when it's easier to travel. That's what's going to be great. It was great to see the fans out. Colin was very gracious in his, even if he mislabeled himself and the championship, he was very gracious in his recognition of the fans. There was some craziness

out there that didn't totally come across on the broadcast. You saw Terrell Hatton flicking people off. You saw John Rom pointing out people in the crowds. You heard the whoopee cushion on 17 or 18 today. but they handled themselves well and it brought an energy and life back to that tournament it finally being back and I'm just excited for for the next major

which is going to be a long ways away. I know. Hopefully if everybody takes care of their own, we're going to be full, free and open and have all the fans packed in so we can really see what these guys do under pressure. That's right. Well, we just finished.

So that means the Fairway Roland Doe leaderboard series for 2021 is done. I'll have to check the tabulations with the good people at Fandu. How's your lineup end it doing, Nate, dog? Fuck you, Thomas D.Tree. Oh, God. Well, I mean, here's two guys. You just mentioned Tyrell Hatton,

two guys that are never, ever. I mean, I just, this is it. I'm very petty in this respect. Teryl Hatton and Mark Leishman can get into a position with each other and, you know, enjoy each other's company in an intimate way forever as far as I'm concerned, because they ain't getting no love for me anymore.

I've had it with both of them. But it was a wonderful Fairway Roll and Doe leaderboard series. I didn't get a chance to check Kev Clark's lineup to see where he ended up. I did have Speed on my team. I had Paul Casey on my team. Yeah, I did too. You know, we had some decent instinct, some decent performers out there, but you can't have a miscut if you are going to perform well at this.

We will tabulate the results. There's going to be another blue jacket handed out. There's some cash that definitely went out today. So shout out to those winners. We will give the proper shoutouts on the next. No doubt. Fairway. Rolling, we should be in a couple of weeks.

Nate Dogg, between now and then. Try and play some golf, buddy. I'm on it. Okay. There we go, my birdie buddies, my eagle enthusiast, my par saving pals. We will be back right around the corner until that time. All the rest of you out there. Please, hit him straight.