Fairway Rollin' - Inside the Ropes at the U.S. Open

Episode Date: June 15, 2023

House and Hubbard join to give all of their observations after walking the course at the Los Angeles Country Club. They discuss the challenges of the course, the insights they heard from the players, and what it’ll take to win (01:55). After, they address Jay Monahan’s medical situation and talk about the last-minute bets they’re going to place for the tournament (30:38). Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Producer: Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, everybody, I'm Brian Barrett, former Boston Sports Radio Guy, and now host of the new Ringer show Off the Pike that'll cover all your favorite Boston teams and stories from Fenway to Foxborough to the Garden and beyond. We're reacting to all the biggest games and moments with episodes at least three times a week featuring myself and some of your favorite guests at the Ringer and in the city. Plus, if the Celtics or the Patriots make a surprise trade, if the Red Sox's going to run, or if any news breaks, will drop instant reaction. episodes too, so you're always up to date with the latest chatter. Get in on the action and follow off the pike with me, Brian Barrett now on Spotify. Hello, friends, and welcome this golf podcast, unlike anyone. Oh, yes, my friends, we are together. This is the final preview of the 2003 U.S. Open Championship here on Faraway Rolling.

The Golf Podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. I am your starter Joe House, joined by my incomparable accomplice, our PGA tour, corresponded boots on the ground. Nathan Hubbard, the Nate Dogg and I were on course today for many hours and had an extraordinary experience. We can't wait to share it with all of you. The first tee is wide open. The pegs are in the ground and we are swinging away.

Nate Dog, let's get this thing going. We have so many things to say. We want to get all the birdie buddies, the eagle enthusiasts, the PARA-Saving pals ready at this last minute for this incredible championship staring us in the face. How are you feeling, buddy? Well, I'm feeling like I want to hear your first impressions of the course. I have seen it a bunch. It looked about the same today, but a lot of grandstands around it.

But you had immediate reactions as soon as your feet touched that grass. Yeah, so multiple reactions, multiple immediate reactions. and we've had the great good fortune of many of our friends in this golf media business sharing with us their perspectives. We've had the fried egg drone videos. We've had folks explaining, you know, the texture of grass and everything. You really can't get, and this is not, you know, an absolutely whammy of an observation, but you really can't take in the scale, take in the scope, take in the variety of elevation and the way the breeze is going to blow until you're on site. And Nate Dog, I want all the birdie buddies to understand how appreciative I am of the experience

that you delivered to me today because we had a game plan about taking in the course and seeing some sites and making sure that we saw some last minute preparation from some folks. looked at the schedule and you observed one guy that's that's a strong eagle enthusiast and a fan of ours and then the the well really i should say we're fans of his joel damon uh had a tea time a little after 11 o'clock this morning we circled it we said why don't we just go walk with with jd for a little bit experienced this joint from uh that perspective we arrived really at the very perfect time he had hit his tea shot on one he walked over to the ropes and all of a sudden we are inside the ropes, Nate Dog, walking down the first fairway and conversing with Joel,

conversing with his caddy Gino B. I'm going to let you say Bonali. Sure, Bonelli. And we walked the entire front nine with J.D. and Gino. And we're really treated to a front row seat of the last minute preparations, the strategic discussions, the, um, work around the greens, the work in terms of selecting lines off the T. Now, they've been out here and they've been playing, but this is the last minute, okay, here's how we're going to tackle this kind of dialogue. It was absolutely marvelous to experience, and it helped us experience the golf course, especially me, not ever having been on grounds before, in an unprecedented way, seeing it through the eyes of a professional that's about to compete in our nation's championship.

chip. So thank you for that. Well, I'll say you really are a fun guy to walk the course with because you have an appreciation of course architecture. And I think the first thing that probably stood out for you when we got onto the grounds was it wasn't concrete, was it. Those fairways are firm. Yes. But you can feel some give underneath your feet. And that's a good thing, Because the second thing that you noticed when we got out there was that as wide as the fairways look, they are as narrow as they could possibly be in practice because they are so sloped on many holes. And I'm thinking of three. I'm thinking of five. I'm thinking, right, on and on.

On and on. They are eight. They are so sloped that there is turf that has never been used before by a golfer because, the slope is so severe on those fairways that any ball that would be hit there will roll 20 to 50 yards down either to the left or right of that position depending on where it hits. And one of the remarkable things as we walked inside the ropes was observing where the USGA had put down protective netting because they anticipated the way the guys are going to play these holes with this enormous shape, this slope to them. a lot of balls will end up in these particular areas. They don't want guys. It's the only place that can go if it hits the fairway.

That's right. And so they will funnel. They did funnel. And so the USGA is protecting that turf until there's actual competition so that, you know, guys will have, you know, non-divot shots to hit in first thing. 13 is another example of that. I mean, and so I guess my question to you is we saw, so the fairways are going to run. Did the rough surprise you today?

This is different than what we saw at the country club last year. It's different than the way we think about U.S. Open Rough, certainly different than what we saw on television at Winged Foot, where it was grown up, and if a ball went in there, it was dead. It didn't feel like if a ball goes in some of these spots in the rough. It's dead, did it? It's not uniformly dense, thick, three and a half inch, four inch, five-inch, oakmont grass.

rough. It's not that. It's that California grass. It's not Kukuyu, which is the type of grass that, you know, prevails in some of these Los Angeles courses most prominently over there at Riviera. It's a different brand of grass. I think it's a Bermuda hybrid. Yeah. Yes. And the fairways are Bermuda as well. But yeah, it looked like there is a, it's going to be a little bit of luck. you can get a bad lie in this rough, but you also have manageable lies. And a lot of the experience we had walking around was guys putting balls down into the rough, various depths in the rough,

and then chipping up for potential par saving kind of practice and chipping to where pins might be on these greens. But one of the things for sure, Nate Dogg, I want to try and convey, this golf course has enormous elevation to it. It is every bit the rival of Augusta National in terms of the challenge of the walk. Now, the elevation is slightly different in my experience at the L.A. Country Club in the sense that you kind of move up and then move up and then move down.

At Augusta, their giant ski slope kind of terrain. You're in a bowl in Augusta. Yes, exactly right. and walking the circle of the bowl. That's exactly right. Great way of putting it. This thing has loops to it. And you move up,

you move down, you move up, up, up, you move down, you move over, big swoop down. Ronald Richie's house, yeah.

I took a picture of the garden. I wish he'd come out and sung all night long to us, Nate. Well, I think all night long is a good transition to one of the challenges

of this course is that they may be playing all night long because of how tightly packed some of these T-boxes are next to greens. And we should say the rough around the fairways is manageable. Around the greens, you know, it looks like grimace from McDonald's fur or something. There's some parts where you are dead around the greens. And we saw them negotiating some of those spots. But let's just start on the pace of play thing. They're hoping to get these rounds in four and a half. hours. I think we're going to be shocked if they get it in in less than 515, aren't we?

These are going to be long-ass rounds. Yeah, there's no avoiding it. Part of the charm of the golf course for the members that belong to it in regular life is the wonderful proximity, the design concept, the intuition of greens to T-box, greens to D-box. Well, that proximity presents a challenge when you're competing a championship of this caliber and this ilk. and there are. I mean, the first tea is literally on the balcony of the clubhouse, basically. You will be able to throw a gin and tonic at the guys teeing off if you are a member of this club. Well, that's typical.

That's the regular. But once you start moving around, there are a lot of places where the green and the tee box are close. And if they play to the very back of the tee box, then you're going to have to wait for guys to put out because you're not going to be able to. an example of that, right? Absolutely right. Five and eight or five and seven as well. It's just, yeah. Yeah, eight and five or the T-boxes of eight and five basically occupy the same area.

And seven green is immediately adjacent to it. That's right. 14T, 13 green are the same thing. I mean, it's one of the lovely parts of the chorus, as you say, is the way that it's packed in. but it's going to keep guys a lot slower than we think. But it does appear that the USGA has thought about this, and we think that some of the ways in which they're going to set up the course, including pins and including where they put the T's,

could be impacted by the fact that they got 150 plus guys. They've got to get through this field over the first two days. The instincts that we have and the buzz around the course house is that the first two days are going to play a little bit easier and that maybe they're going to crank up the difficulty level once they get through a cut on the weekend. Is that what you felt too? It's the only way to get 156 guys around this golf course in two days. I mean, if we don't want to be playing on Saturday morning to complete the second round,

then we don't. Then we're going to have to have, you know, teas in positions where the guys can get off and pins on these greens that let guys get through the greens. This golf course is east of Reno, Nevada. So we are very far east in the time zone. We do not have tons of daylight where, you know, unlike the East Coast where it just goes and goes and goes and goes. I mean, the last guys to tee off on this golf course, tee off at 2.27 p.m. tomorrow.

You know, I mean, if it's a five-hour, 15-minute round, it's going to be tight. Yeah, and one of the things for sure as we try and compare notes on our final picks and prognostications for who might have success here, it's going to definitely be a marathon. And it's not going to be a marathon like what we anticipated with the masters where there was bad weather and we knew the weather was going to interfere and interrupt. This is going to be a marathon of guys who can keep their focus over five and a half, five hours and 45 minutes, you know, with the challenge and be able to bounce to, to accept the bounce of the golf ball.

and whatever result is obtained because you're going to get some unfair and unlucky bounces. The ball's not going to behave linearly at this golf course. It's two giant canyons and it wants to roll. For sure. And we saw that with Joel. He was in the rough on the right on far, five. Four is the par three.

He was in the rough, in the rough on the right on five, and he made two completely different plays. One was with an eight iron that he popped way up in the air approaching the green. The second was with a punch seven that he ran

way up the left side, almost a British open type shot, where he just played it and ran it along the ground and he used a huge massive slope to bring the ball back. There's going to be a lot of pieces of the puzzle to put together. What we saw today as these

players went through was guys who were having to think in ways that they haven't before. I mean, we saw Tommy Fleetwood coming off the back of getting into a playoff and darn near winning the Canadian Open spend 35 minutes on the sixth hole. We were super lucky. He came up to our group, he and his caddy, and, you know, he was experimenting. He had a putter and a wedge or two wedges in his hand. And he was experimenting to different pin positions and different lies and around the 6, 7,8, you know, juncture of holes. And we got to walk with those guys and observe the conversations that they were having about potential strategy, about potential pins and what the ultimate goal was going to be.

I'm glad you made that point about the ground game. I honestly think somebody, I can't recall who made the observation, you know, it's obviously not a links course. but you need to be prepared to have a little bit of imagination, a ground game kind of imagination around here. And I think Nate Dogg, that might, you understanding all of that, having played this place a bunch of times, is the reason that you pick Jordan Speeith as your lead horse for the week. Now, we will at the end of our conversation today. Yeah, we'll circle back and talk about, you know, some of the guys that we think you might have success based on. the experience of the way the golf course is playing.

I do want to make sure. So the weather today was completely overcast. The marine layer never left. We didn't get any sun whatsoever. And so there was no burn off of any of the moisture. There was, to me, as an East Coast guy walking on Bermuda, there was a, it wasn't wet by any stretch of the imagination. But it was not that super hard, dried out, firm and fast.

The greens are rolling impeccably. We got to walk on the greens, watch the putts that were rolling. Dylan Wu and JD, Joel Damon and Tommy Fleetwood. We got to see them try putts to a variety of different pin positions. We wondered aloud with Gino how the speed might change over the course of these next few days. The speed has to be tempered for tomorrow and Friday. But there's no reason if the weather, if the sun comes out for a portion of the next couple, couple days and I think your weather forecast in front of you suggest that maybe Sunday that

they can't let the greens go ahead and rev up for the weekend, right? I think that's right. I also think as you're looking at the first two days, there's some sort of small chance of a little bit of rain, which would be weird because it's June today. Maybe we get it, maybe we don't. But generally speaking, it looks like Thursday is going to be a lot more clouds than sun and that Friday afternoon we might see a little more sun. So that would imply that the people who play late and

in early might have a slight advantage. And so that's players like, you know, DJ goes off late. Rory, Cam Smith, Brooks Kepka go off late on Thursday, and then they'll be early. Jordan, Spieth, and Patrick Cantlay go off late and then early on Friday morning. So those are guys who are going to play mostly under cloud cover. And their course is going to feel a lot like the one that you walked on today, I think. It could be that by Friday afternoon, the thing starts to try. dry out a bit. And we heard from a lot of our golf media friends that yesterday and Monday,

when the sun was more out, as those balls were hitting the fairways, they were getting more of that traditional thud, like it was hitting that concretey harder stuff, a little bit like what we started to hear at Memorial on Sunday two weeks ago. Yeah. And part of the challenge strategically will be as that transformation starts occurring, what does that? that mean in terms of approach? You know, how, what side do you try and hit a ball to? What yardage are you trying to hit a ball to? Because it feels like to me having walked that front nine inside the ropes, having the

lines, watching Joel play the lines that he played, there are not going to be very many pins that these guys are going to have an opportunity to go at. It's just not that kind of golf course. No, I, I, you know, I do think the firmness of the Greens is going to depend on it's going to dictate that though because I think today Joel walks off that course and a lot of the guys that we watched walk off that course feeling like there are birdie opportunities though house it depends on where they it depends on where they put those pins but I think there are more birdie opportunities than

your traditional U.S. Open I don't think this is going to be one guy at one under one guy at even two guys at plus two in the top, you know, four. It feels like there are going to be some chances for guys to go. But that said, I think you're going to have to work mentally around this course. And that always sounds so like, it's kind of a dushy thing to say about a golf course. You know what I mean? It's like, what the fuck are you talking about? But really, Joel, who doesn't think much as we know, I mean, he's not nice. He's a grip it and rip it kind of, I mean, that's not true. He's very cerebral in his own way. But, But he walked off that sixth green, which again for the birdie buddies, is very short par four,

where players are going to be forced to make a choice. They can go at the green. They can absolutely get there. But it is death all around that green. And there's a big saddle in the middle of six green that makes the chipping, if you miss the green, very, very difficult depending on pin placements. And so you will see some guys lay up to the left, which will be 40 to 60 yards. left of where they normally would would shoot.

And you'll see some guys who just say, let's go and go right at it. Depending on the pin placement, that's going to have a whole different risk-reward strategy. But Joel walked off that hole today and looked at us and said, not a lot of golf holes that make you think like that. And, you know,

I don't think it's a hot take. I've been lucky enough to have played Riviera a couple times. Riveriera 10, especially comes to mind as, as, you know, revered short par four. This short par four, number six at LA Country Club, might, might grab the mantle as the most, you know, sort of climactic short par four. I mean, I know it's on the front side.

We had the short par four, the drivable par four at Oak Hill, the 14th hole, but that didn't end up producing like a ton of drama. Guys were able to navigate that, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's a little bit more analogous to something that you see at Quail Hollow or maybe even in the matchplay at Austin or that hole that we're going to see next week in, which is I think I believe is 16 at TBC River Highlands, right? 15, 15. Yes, it's 15.

16 is the part three. Yeah. So these are the fun ones. But this one, I mean, you made the point and I think you should just say it directly or I'll say it for you because this was your take. you looked at me and said, this is a better hole than 10 at Riviera. I do think that. I do think it because the layup options are so much more prominent. You really have to like get to a number.

And one of the things we heard that I liked very much that I think is a really interesting observation. Tommy Fleetwood's caddy said, you know what, guys, 85 is going to be a super important number around this golf course, meaning an 85 yard shot. from a variety of different holes. It's like an 85-yard shot will be important on six. Obviously, if they set up the short part three, I'm sorry, on the back, it's 15, right? If they get that to that yardage that everybody's been anticipating, I'm sure. Yes, yes. And just all the way around the golf course, an 85-yard shot might end up being really important.

But to your point earlier about birdie opportunities, we did watch Joel, Damon almost hole. He hit it to two inches, his approach on the third hole, where he hit a drive up the right side that when we got up there because of the enormous slope, it was down around the netting that the USGA anticipates because all those drives will go all the way down to the bottom of the left side. But it's a giant green number three with two different tongues on it where you can put pins. So there will be these opportunities, you know, you can hit a ball past the pin and have it come back. But by by and large, one of the things we observe today, you cannot be above the pin on really any of these holes. It really any of these holes, right?

I mean, we just watch these guys tap a ball onto the surface and watch it go all the way to the front of the green. And that's going to be the theme, isn't it? That if you can keep the ball below the hole, you're going to have a chance. If you don't, bogey double is immediately in play because there's not a lot stopping these balls from getting into the big shit. It is a thinking man's course, and I think your takeaway on that is very important. By the way, it is not a coincidence

that we saw John Rahm on the practice range hitting 80, 85-yard wedges for about half an hour as we went down there. But we can talk more about what we saw in the range in a minute. I just think this is more cerebral of a golf course than any of these guys are used to playing. There's just nothing like it on tour. And to that point, as we try and come up with like final observations around who might, you know, be best positioned, it's going to be.

And then this isn't like, you know, real rocket science stuff who has the, who's the best suited to have patience? Who's the best suited to not feel like the golf gods are out to get them when they get the unlucky, unpredictable, you know, ball in the rough that looked like it was an. perfect position as it traveled up the fairway. Who's got that the best sort of survival game, bogey avoidance, double bogey avoidance, three putt avoidance, the safety kind of game because it's, you know, it's a cerebral golf course. Our walk today really brought to life the things that we've been hearing other people saying about how important it is to think your way around, to take what it gives you,

and then, you know, try and maximize opportunities. One of the fun conversations we had, we ran into our beloved pals, media pals, both Brendan Pohrath and Kevin Van Valkenberg, they were walking around a little bit. So we had a great chat with them. And we tried to prognosticate the Vegas bookmakers have set the winning score at, I think, seven and a half or eight. And we were trying to talk through what we thought might ultimately be the winning score here. And Nate, you know, I'll cut to the chase for everybody.

We kind of thought that double digits under par might be possible out there, right? Yeah, I certainly feel that way. I feel like if hammer the over, hammer the over, right? Well, mainly because if the course remains in the version that we accept, experience today, the par fives especially super getable, super like scoring opportunities on the fives. And then the shorter three, shorter par fours also depends on the pins. I mean, we saw only, only benign pins today. No nefarious pins. But depending on the pins, some scoring opportunities. And then it's just, you know, your ability to hold serve. It is exactly what folks say. It is a golf course

with a lot of half-pars. There's a lot of four-and-a-half pars. There's a lot of... The par-fives will be four-and-a-halfs. There are some par-fours that are four-and-a-halfs. The par-threes, you know... Even though seven, Joel hit Threewood and Driver, his driver, it was a 296-yard hole to set up today.

Yeah. He hit two balls off the team, you mean. Yeah. Well, he did because he was testing and whatever, but the driver that he hit. he hit it to 15 feet. I mean, it was like, you know, sure, you're right. It's not, the length is a challenge for sure.

But if you're relatively online, it's not going to, you know, brutalize you. Six might be harder because, you know, it's an 80-yard wedge shot with the hope that it'll, you get a little backstop action, right? Yeah. I mean, look, this is going to be, I mean, I think. if you ask the players, if you inject them with truth serum, they're going to tell you that they think this course is going to play easier than the traditional U.S. Open, as it should, because anything else on this course, and it's not fun and it's not fair. But easy is really a,

it's the wrong word. The scoring is going to be better, right? Yeah. It's not really that it's going to be easy. It's the right, you know, it's a super cool test for a venue that's, hosting its first major championship and first professional competition of any sort since 1940. And so it's going to play the way that the golf course is meant to be played. They're not tricking it out. They didn't squeeze the fairways. There isn't enormous rough. They didn't do the old Mike Davis USGA thing, at least the things that people allege that Mike Davis did, you know, when they wanted to complain about the USGA. This is they, they, the golf course has been set up in a manner that, you know, lets its value shine through. And so the values of

thinking and being able to roll with the, you know, unpredictability and the unfairness of some bounces, that's, that those are the, that's the test of the golf course. And those attributes will shine through. And then we'll see if we get any sun that firm stuff up a little bit, right? I think it, I think it's going to come through. They've, they've got a lot of options out there. I think the scores that come into the weekend, I would be surprised if the field does not back up on the weekend relative to what they come in on. We set the stage.

It's going to be awesome. It's going to look awesome on television. Yes. By the way, I heard today from a source that knows House when we were not together, they only gave out 4,000 general numbers. mission tickets. Every other ticket on the ground has access to hospitality suite or something. So there are not going to be a lot of people wandering this course, which again is a good thing because there

aren't a lot of places for them. There isn't anywhere for the people to go because the ropes are not close. You're not going to be, you're not going to see grandstands surrounding these greens. There aren't grandstand surrounding the greens. You're not, I mean, it's going to be a different kind of experience for the guys, right? Yeah, it is. I think it reminds me a little bit of Harding Park during COVID when there was nobody allowed on the course and all the fans lined up on the fences and cut holes and were sort of shouting that way. But the energy on this one is going to be unique, I think, because there are... Great call. Vast swaths of this golf course, including 13, back to 14 and beyond, where people just are going to be 150 yards away. Yeah, it's going to be

a private golf experience for much of the round for the guys, I think, right? And noticeably quieter than definitely quieter than a sort of standard tour event, you know, in a big energy. So if there was a hope that we were going to see big L.A. energy out there and get some some raucous behavior. I don't, I don't think we're going to, it ain't going to come through on TV. Yeah. No. There's not going to be Jack Courtside. Exactly. At a Lakers game vibes. Not at, not at this event. No. I want to make sure, because this news is just barely 24 hours old that we touch on the news of Jay Monaghan having a medical issue and pulling himself. And I think that, you know, the tour put the press release out.

He's going to be out of public view for a little while while he recovers. We had the opportunity to chat with some folks about, you know, what we think is going on. But Nate, you know, what was your reaction? You heard the news and we had a chance to talk about it. What's your reaction? Yeah, these are, this is a unique situation because I think a lot of people have been throwing a lot of darts at Jay Monaghan over the last two weeks. And I think from a business decision-making perspective and maybe in a communication perspective, I think those darts are warranted. But there are a lot of easy jokes that made their way on the internet.

And I think concern number one in this situation is for a guy's health. And so that's where I come out. There's a lot of, just a lot. I mean, look, we saw three guys dressed in traditional Middle Eastern garb out on the course today. Heckling player. I mean, there's going to be some stuff that creeps in here because of, because, you know, as we said, a lot of this dialogue about the Live PGA tour stuff has merged into popular culture. Yeah.

And our parents and people who are not golf fans are now getting fed a bunch of information, and it's become a big drama in a soap opera and Jay getting, you know, whatever happened to him from medical perspective is part of that drama. I think if you just step back to 30,000 feet and think about being in a position where you made a very quick, you know, a big time sport altering decision in a short period of time that then required you to do some things that probably aren't in your strong suit going in front of the. camera and communicating in a highly articulate and concise and clear way why you made the choices that you did. And then the natural consequences that come with that shortcoming in a skill set

is the criticism that follows that percolates into pop culture. You can imagine that's stressful on a human being. Yeah. And let's be blunt about it. It's a soap drama of their own creation, of their own design. They deliberately went on television to capture the world's imagination to steal headlines across the world to announce this thing that was such a radical departure.

Radical isn't even the tip of the iceberg in terms of the 180 and went from this very clearly intended theater and had the obvious desire to grab all of these headlines. lines. We will in another, you know, forum continue to ask why, what possible reason could

there be to do it in that manner at that time, but that's not the purpose of this pod. No, but we do, we'll go ahead. Yeah, no. And then, you know, suffered the consequences of catching his most important constituency by surprise. Again, still don't have a good explanation for why, but it's basically a nervous breakdown kind of thing. Very understandable when the level of stress and the lack of sleep and, you know, trying to engage in the high, high wire act decision making that they clearly had to engage in from Tuesday,

from being on television, you know, this television show that he and Yasser put on until last night when the news came out, like, yeah, I bet he didn't get much sleep. I bet his heart is, under stress. I bet his, you know, everything's under stress.

So it's a kind of, he, I'm sure doctor's orders are, you need to go get into a bed and, and, you know, have some intravenous fluids and get some chicken noodle soup in you for the next couple weeks. Well, listen, I, I hope it's, I hope it's as benign as that. It was concerning to me that he did not have a quote

himself in that press release that said, you know, I, my full faith and trust and I intend to come back. There's no quote from Jay. And so that suggests that the health issue may be a little bit more serious. You want to give everybody their privacy. There's speculation running rampant around what it is. But I don't think on the grounds right now, there are two things that are clear. One is nobody thinks this is a, nobody, no serious person thinks this is a, you know, a Saudi plot to get rid of the commissioner.

So let's put that sort of silliness to bed, although, you know, the crazier things have happened. But no one who's close to the situation believes this is anything other than a serious health issue. And I think the tension and frustration, and I think it has to be said, anger of the players is palpable on the grounds. And not the guys that we were walking with today. Like, we didn't really have a lot of talk about that. But across these players, in their press conferences, in their side conversations, you know, I saw Ricky Brooks's caddy having a chat with some, I mean, like, there, is still palpable anger, concern, confusion. And I think part of this week, as crazy as it is, for these big guys is who's going to be able to totally block it out? And again, you know,

when you really step back and think about what you hear from the podium, the guy who seems to be able to sort of shrug it off and who's always been able to compartmentalize this shit is the defending PJ champ. That's exactly right. I mean, it is, it is, not a surprise that the guy that we've watched with the very best success at majors seems to have a psychological advantage and edge an ability to focus on the task at hand to the exclusion of every single other thing. I mean, let's just say it. Let's say it out on that house. We heard a story from multiple sources that there was a Zoom call on Friday

where Victor Hovlin was screaming is screaming at the commissioner. Yes. Now, we say that we have no confirmation. We weren't there. We've heard that from two highly credible sources. If the nice smiley looks like he's baked out of his mind, Norwegian young guy is screaming. Hi, Rory. There's a hell of a lot of tension that's going through. And I think that could overwhelm almost anyone. So I just leave it at, we hope that Jay's health gets better. it does not change the way that the players on the course are feeling about their future. And I think there is part of the mental examination of this week is going to be those top guys who are sitting there still wondering, how am I going to get paid? Is really what they're wondering. And was I betrayed and did I get used? Their ability to block it out and then do the really hard final exam that this course is going to require of them.

I love it when you talk at final exam and all we're talking about is, you know, the cerebral test in front of us and the decision making and all of that. Literally, the math problem. Let's talk about the math problem staring us in the face. That is, who are we going to bet on and try and put a little bit of return on investment? And we had a wonderful preview with Justin Ray. part of the challenge of handicapping this particular event is you need to be good in a lot of different categories. There wasn't one particular attribute that's a strong suit.

Having walked it a little bit today, I do feel a little bit better about a couple names that we talked about and guys that I have a particular fondness for. But you also were at the range for a little bit longer than I was. So let's hear your final instincts on some names that we ought to have everybody pay attention to. Well, we were in the practice facility in the afternoon. And, you know, the guys who are on the practice facility in the afternoon who are going out in the morning, to me sometimes raise eyebrows. You'll recall the year at the Masters when we saw Zander in the Twilight putting just over and over and over again on that putting green. And sure enough, he was awful with the putter in the Masters, right?

And then he missed the cut. And so sometimes these plays. players will show us their Achilles heels in the moment. And I have to say Colin Morcowah was grinding with his coach alone on the range. So I mean, that poor guy, this should be a tremendous opportunity for him. And he's effed. And he's F because his back went out of him. And you just can't, you know, it's a shame. Injuries happen in sports. You know, it's like the Milwaukee box lost to the Miami Heat because Janus got hurt. I mean, it was going to to be a fun series and maybe the heat ultimately would have would have prevailed anyway but yonis got hurt so

it's a bummer because morikawa has an impeccable track record here what he did in the walker cup the california connection all those things but but poor homie uh colin you know and again i i said on on monday show uh that i was i i had quietly thought about you know having some action on him you can't you can't bet on the guy that's coming off an injury i and it just looked like work with his coach, he was almost, I mean, if the back's still bothering him, he's literally looking at swing changes to save the back.

Right. Right. And if the back's not bothering him, the time off has him out of sync. It's one or the other. And right, you just, you could see it. Now, watch him come out tomorrow and shoot 800 and stuff it right down our throats. But that would be fine. All we're saying is, you know, what we saw. It didn't look right.

It's, if he's teeing off tomorrow morning and he's teeing off with Max and with Scotty at 813 in the morning, Being on the range at 3.30 is something and it's telling. Yeah. Max was out there, but what he was doing was signing autographs. Very popular. I also saw somebody over all the way at the end by the hedge,

working very hard with his coach, Cameron McCormick, taking some swings and stomping his feet. And it is the same guy that I picked when you put me on the spot. I didn't put you on the spot. You knew it was coming. I did know that it was coming. And I, look, the Jordan Speath experience this week is going to be fascinating because it is such a thinking man's course.

And there is no one who thinks out loud more fascinatingly than Jordan Speath when he's out there with Greller. And he was tinkering today. At best, he was tinkering today. The swings looked good. But he was turning to Cameron and asking questions. he was doing the thing where he sort of does the swing rehearsal that you and I hated and that sort of scares us a bit where he tries to get the club, we're in the slot in the right way. And it looks like he's thinking about his swing a little bit.

And so I mean, we, that's the roller coaster ride that is Jordan Spee. If you sign up for it, you're on it. But we're going to get the roller coaster ride. And again, he won the British Open hitting it into the merch tents. or the merch trucks. And like so this is the, this is the experience, but it didn't look like he was

lasered and dialed in the way that some of the other guys on the range did. Does that mean that you want to change your pick? Is that where we're going with this? Listen, I said what I said. I think I'm going to live to regret it.

I'm saying to the other birdie buddies, I wouldn't necessarily lock in on that one in the same way that, you know, perhaps house you have softened just like the fairways. at LACC, you have softened to a certain player who you have had a lot of betting animosity towards, not personal animosity, because we like him.

He's been on the show. But you've had some betting animosity. You've had some questions about whether he really has that dog in him. And I think the more that you've thought about this week and thought about his history on this course and his history in this city and thought about a single change that he's made in his golfing repertoire,

which I will let you articulate, I think you've gotten a little bit more excited about one Patrick Cantlay. It's a true story. And I will tell you there is a combination of factors that are really making me bullish. Now, one of them, I have to give a shout out to one of my favorite golf Twitter follows. Ron Close. The Twitter handle is at PGA splits 101. Follow his stuff religiously.

And he built a model for this week that I think is just so smart. He's calling it the safety model. And what he did was try and grab data. He's a, you know, data golf statistician that covered rounds played this season at the elevated events and then at other difficult scoring courses. And he looked at categories like bogey avoidance, three putt avoidance, double bogey avoidance, fairways gain, strokes gain putting from five to 15 feet because you're going to need to make those putts. to save par, scramble, scrambling percentage, stuff like that. And Ron's model, you know, he published the results, he puts it out there. It's really the best stuff.

There's a guy sitting at the very top of the model over the course of this season. The number one name is one Patrick Cantlay. And the combination of that, you know, skill set, which is minimizing mistakes, being able to play survival golf alongside his no smile temperament, dude. He has some sense of humor. But what I really think we

value here on Fairway Rowland is the teamwork in these majors. And him putting Joe Likava on the bag is this could be the one where it really pays dividends. I just think it's you can't overstate

important it is to have a grown-ass adult helping you navigate a challenge of this ilk with all the unpredictability or whatever. The dude who's seen everything and has the right thing to say at the right time, they'll get their numbers and everything. I'm not worried about that part. It's the temperament part. Yeah. Man, La Cava and Cantley, that's a formidable pair. Nate Dog, I'm prepared to go ahead and make some pretty heavy investment on Patrick Cantley this week. Well, I'm proud of you for coming around on that. There's one player who I want to talk about before we go. And that is just very quickly, as we talk about this being a cerebral thinking man's course, I would have loved to see Phil Mickelson play this 15 years ago. Yes.

But, you know, this course is going to run dead smack in like a train collision to Bryce and DeShambo, the scientist. And only one of two. things are going to happen. It's going to be a wonderful explosion or it's going to be a nightmare. And we watched him on the range today. He looked bigger than I expected him to look. His back I mean, looks legitimately like NFL linebacker strong. He is not, I mean, yes, he's lost some weight, but boy, does he look strong. But he had six people on the range with him. Yeah. And he was hitting drivers and he was frustrated. And, you know, look, he's, he's, he's, he's, he, he's, he, he's a little bit of a walking, you know, every good superhero has his theme music or whatever.

But he's, he had in sort of trailing him a bunch of hangers on. And it wasn't the, you know, sway house content makers. It was a bunch of different coaches, caddy, you know, so he's made some changes to the people around him. But it looked like he was really working on the science of his swing this afternoon. And I don't put a ton of stock into that. that even though he's got an early tea time because you remember at wingfoot he was out there with the lights on right um and that's that's kind of been his his mo is he goes late when he goes it has to go early so do i take that maybe it's just the old bryson he's back working hard but i he's a conundrum to me because looking at him today i would have said wow his back looks great his

ball trajectory looks unbelievably high he's having trouble controlling it he's got a lot of people around him trying to help him. But this is also the scene the night before he went out and won at Wingfoot. Yeah. And the thing with Bryson that makes it a challenge is he played Oak Hill quite well. I mean, his strokes gain numbers and some of these survival numbers that we're talking about, he did very well, you know, both in the quality of his drives, but also, you know, getting to the greens and his approach game was above average. But across, you know, he hasn't. that we don't have enough data for him to really get a good gauge of where he he resides in terms of these survival skills the guy the three guys dressed up in the traditional garb we're going

to heckle the shit out of him this week well i i don't think they're going to be there tomorrow to be honest with you if it's only 4 000 you know patrons what do they call them in l a fans sure were we allowed to call them what's the u sGA calls they're fans for crying yeah i don't i i think that was a little bit of a lax vibe on Wednesday. Wednesday is a little bit, you know, quiet and you're getting around and folks are, you know, guys are signing autographs during the practice round. Really nice. Just a really lovely walk today. I don't expect to see shenanigans tomorrow. I don't think so. I do think that the crowd is going to be, as we spoke about earlier in the week, is going to be in sort of the brooksy mode with Bryson. The CNN interview he gave did not go over well. Okay. Well,

Any last thoughts? Any other guys you want to hit before we go? That's it. I mean, please come through for me. I do want to say Justin Ray picked Tyrell Hatton, and I saw Tyrell Hatton in short, smiling a lot today. Terrell Hatton, right behind Patrick Cantlay on this model that Rock Close put together. Patrick Cantley is number one. Terrell Hatton's number two. So, you know, if you have any reason to believe what Justin Ray says, what he says it, go ahead and make a little investment. that that's a tried and true methodology me and the Nate dog have right yeah and the last point I'll make is we saw Max Homa we did a lot more relaxed a lot looser he looked happy hugging more

people he looked happy completely different than he looked happy happy happy homie completely different than he looked coming up 17 on Augusta on Wednesday this year which again we saw him Wednesday afternoon before both these majors this was a different, an entire different energy and aura around that man. I'm going to get me a little homo. Let's end it on that note. There we go, my birdie buddies, my power saving pals, my eagle enthusiast. Nate Dog and I will be on the grounds tomorrow.

If you're in Los Angeles, come by and you see us, come over and say hello. We would love to, you know, maybe have a sip of a beer together. And we are going on the Bill Simmons podcast to give a reaction to what we've observed the first day of the U.S. Open tournament, that is tomorrow. And then Sunday night, we will be on with the recap. I think we have a special guest joining us from the Ringer. I'll just leave it at that. But in the meantime, I hope that you're able to throw a peg in the ground.

Enjoy the beautiful long days wherever you are. Play a little golf. And if you're able to do that, please let's hit them straight out there.