Fairway Rollin' - Open Championship Recap: Xander Claims Second Major Win of the Season

Episode Date: July 21, 2024

House and Hubbard recap the Open Championship and start with Xander Schauffele obtaining his second major win of the season, whether they expected more from Scottie Scheffler, and the surprising amount of players that struggled this weekend (02:03). After, they discuss the players that had good or bad performances (25:02), then end by questioning if this win cements Xander as a future Ryder Cup captain (29:52). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out rg-help.com to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Producer: Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Zander Shoffley has the claret jug. Nathan Hubbard is here to talk to me all about it. Our incomparable accomplice, our PGA tour correspondent on the ground. I'm your starter Joe House. It's a two ball to put our arms around. Zander, off we go. Nate Dogg, how's your Zander? Ooh.

A lot of history today. House. We got a president dropping out of the race, and we got a new king of majors. This is the Xander that we didn't really believe in about six months ago, you and I, but the game has always been there, hasn't it? Every facet of the game has been strong. It was always what was between the ears, and it was that press conference today, that first interview where he said, the PGA helped me. I just had this sense of calm all day. That's a very scary thing because it just means that what was in the way for Xander was what's in between the ears.

And say what you want about that win at Valhalla. It got him over the hump. And this is not going to be the last time Zander wins a major based on the way he just grabbed this thing by the throat. No, and that's the thing. We love it when we see a guy just see an opportunity and jump. all the way through the door, grab the thing, wrestle it to the ground, and dare anybody else to, you know,

mount a challenge. One of the things, to your point about, you know, our doubts with him, it was, it wasn't six months ago. It was barely three months ago at the players championship, where he had the lead on the back nine down there, part of Idra, and left the door open for Scotty.

And Scottie stepped on through, forum. So we had the desk. Now, one, you know, let's go ahead and start singing some of these historical hazaz. In the last 50 years, the best top 10 percentage at majors, the top of the board, and this is a minimum of 25 majors, Zander Shoply at 52%. So every time he plays a major, there's a better than 50% chance that that dude is going to finish in the top 10. And this list going back to 50 years. It's Rory at 49 percent, Jack Nicholas at 45 percent, Tiger at 43 percent, Brooksie at 43 percent, and John Rom at 41 percent. I mean, this ain't no chump change list right here, Night Dog. No, you've just got to put yourself around the hoop,

don't you? And that's what Zander's done. Our criticism of him was he was putting himself around the hoop, but never putting it in the hoop. And all he did today was hoop it, hoop it, hoop it. It was display of putting that we have not heard much of, seen much of on a back nine, 65s to close out both of these events. And just when you put yourself in the game, that's what you've got to do to win your second major championship in two years. We're now looking at a pretty historic year with a guy who closes,

two majors with 65s, aren't we? So let's just keep going. Top eight in all four majors with multiple wins in a season since 1980. Tiger Woods in 2000, Tiger Woods in 2005, Jordan Speeth in 2015, and now Zander Shoffley. Zander did credit his work with Chris Como in unlocking something to your point about those reps at the hoop, Nate. But, you know, the widely accepted, you know, handicapping of Xander is that he possesses

all of the game. He doesn't have a glaring weakness. It was just the six inches between his ears, right? Right. And you and I assessed for quite some time that having his buddy on the bag was getting in the way. And you noticed that he stopped his walk up. teen to let his buddy walk with him, let awesome walk with him up the fairway today.

A pretty good indicator that he feels good about the guy on the bag. I mean, it just feels like one of those things in golf where once you get over that hurdle, it's like minesweeper, the game. It just opens up a ton of light that you're able to walk through as a golfer. He's just an unburdened guy right now. we will have more opportunity to continue to sing the hazzaz of Xander, but we were disappointed in the first place by ourselves. We didn't have our strongest week of capping this week, Nate Dogg.

We didn't lead all the birdie buddies down the path to enormous riches. And a lot of that, this is not making excuses, was the challenge in trying to anticipate how this weather was going to behave because through the first three days, the weather really was the story. There was one particular bit of weather at one particular time on Friday that really determined who was going to make the weekend and who was going to compete for this championship. And so we crossed off a bunch of names, including Rory McElroy, who I think has to be on the permanent crossed-off list for me,

for the foregoing I mean, like what's the point of continuing to bang our head against the wall? The talent isn't the issue and it wasn't the issue coming into this event

and he showed us that by performing quite well at the Scottish Open. It's just he is a guy who now presented with any kind of adversity at all. Any kind of adversity folds. He is a cheap folding chair,

Nate Dogg. He took, talked about not being prepared for the way the wind was blowing on Thursday, and it took him right out of the golf tournament. So, you know, you were much, much, much more upset with Rory at the U.S. Open, and I think we've switched roles. I'm more upset with him now. Well, you are the jilted lover in this case, and I am sorry for you.

I was upset with him at the U.S. Open because that was his to win, and it was the second year in a row in which he gave a U.S. Open to somebody else. And this go round, I'm less upset with him because look at all the names that missed the cut house. Yes. Bryson for crying out loud, who we really talked ourselves into being able to play this golf course. I mean, he just was nothing. And the list of guys who missed the cut. I mean, there was a minute there where I was a little bit worried about what the weekend leaderboard was going to look like until it shaped into this thing.

Look, Ludwig got absolutely crushed. Tommy Fleetwood, both those guys, nine over. We thought those guys, I mean, I picked Ludwig to win for crying out loud. Tony, 10 over. Victor Hovlin, where have you been at 10 over? It just, it was a long list of guys, Cam Smith, who we thought, I mean, the guy won this tournament two years ago, stole it from Rory with his play. This was a weather phenomenon.

I mean, it really was the story of the tournament. And candidly, it wasn't just Friday House because Shane Lowry yesterday got pretty ornery. And I watched that tournament slip through his fingers yesterday afternoon getting upset and just not being able to handle the mental challenge of the unknown. And you know the guys who did?

It was Billy Horshel for crying out loud. It was Xander's level head. It was, I mean, it was Tristan Lawrence for crying out loud who was just happy to be there. There were just some guys who couldn't manage the unpredictability and the bad breaks. And you know what? That's why this is always such a great test to golf at the open. And I think, you know, if we're really going to try and be nuanced, we'll get some extra credit

to the guys that were near the top of the leaderboard for Saturday afternoon, because Saturday afternoon is really when the weather, that's what, you know, really got Shane Lowry was the back nine on Saturday because the weather just got kind of impossible and he got on a bogey train. He couldn't get off of. I mean, I will tip my hat for sure to Tristan Thomas. I mean, Tristan Lawrence, maybe both of them. Tristan Thomas for the Cavaliers. Thurston Lawrence, they finally figured out that he was not Thurston. Yeah. It was hard. Tristan Lawrence. But he was a guy who went out and put up an early 65 on Saturday. The guys out early Saturday were able to go out and put up numbers and put themselves in a tournament.

He shot three under today. Horshal shot three under today. I mean, it's not that these guys played poorly. Lowry shot three under today. It's that Zander Shafleys shot the best round by two shots today and grabbed this thing by the throat. I mean, there was not the only disappointing contender today was our boy, Scotty Shephler. it was the cross to bear that hangs around his neck and that is going to hang around his neck, I think,

for the entirety of his career. It was the putter because he got himself into contention. He got himself up to five. And you and I are texting back and forth about what we think the winning number is going to be. And he goes out and what does he do? He misses a shorty, double bogeys nine, and that's the end of it.

At that point, you knew he was out because right then, Zander had put his foot down birdying six and seven and would go on to shoot four under on the back. And if pushed, you could lead me to believe he would have made a birdie on 17 or 18 and shot 30 if he needed to. It was all there. By the time he got to 17, they were just protecting the lead.

So we will have some fun conversations as the rest of this season plays out, starting with the Olympics, because Xanders really put himself in the conversation for player of the year now. And, you know, it is almost unthinkable in view of, you know, the performance that Scottie had all the way up through July the 1st with all of the wins and the quality wins at the players and the masters. But, you know, we're going to have to sit back and ponder the case if Zander outplays Scotty at the Olympics. And if Zander, you know, goes and puts his foot down in the FedEx Cup playoffs and in that finale at Eastlake, to everybody, July the 21st, Scotty Sheffler does not like Eastlake. And that is where the Tour championship is held.

So just kind of sit on that and marinate. But yeah, so we thought that Scotty fixed his putter issues by switching to the mallet style to the spider. And lo and behold, that's not the case. And it's especially galling when you see, you know, him miss Shorty's both today and yesterday. Saturday on these slow greens. Like it's so it just gets,

it's unforgivable to be on those greens and miss that way. Yeah. I mean, 70th and putting on the event sort of belies what really happened. He was 10th on Friday. He made a lot of putts on Friday to get himself. It didn't feel like he was doing much, but he was very much in contention. It's just every other day was just a mess.

And, you know, we just, until we see it, it's always going to be that Achilles heel. He is still having an absolute ball striking, historic ball striking season. I mean, he was third T to Green.

When Scott, he's third Tee to Green and he putts mediocre, he wins a golf tournament. And it just didn't work for him today. And look, I think we really wondered what the key was going to be on this golf course.

And what was sort of fun about the leaderboard house was guys were doing it different ways, right? I mean, Zander was first in approach. Tristan Lawrence just grabbed his driver and decided he was going to ride it like Happy Gilmore

doing the horse dance, Wack, or boo weekly from the, you know, Rider Cup all those years ago or whatever. He just was fearless. And so it was fun to see guys work their way around this course. Billy Horschel did it, really

in all areas of him, he was second T to Green. So let's be clear. But he was second around the Greens. He really used that part of his game to his advantage. So I loved seeing, Justin Ray came on and talked about the democratization of the Open and how we tend to get an older winner. We tend to get somebody who's a little bit longer odds because the way that these courses are set up generally opens it up to the field. And we saw

guys with different games being able to compete here. And really down the stretch, alongside the best players, there's plural at this point in the world who didn't miss the cut for crying out loud, but having Scotty and Zander alongside this sort of melange of guys with different games made this one pretty fun. And we had Team Rosie.

We had Justin Rose right there, you know, staring us in the face. And that front nine that he put on was like awesome. He was resolute. He went out and shot four under for the day. Only one bogey.

The problem is that Zander went out and boat raced everybody. and Justin Rose had a front row seat. I thought the way that both guys were striking the ball on the front that we might end up with a back nine duel. You know, Trune is famous for these hand-to-hand combat situations. It never materialized because Xander just, you know, made birdies on the impossible, including the 11th hole. He really, to me, that was the winning performance of the golf tournament, was hitting it to three feet. on 11, the only birdie of the day.

That's what a champion golfer of the year does, Nate Dogg. Yeah. That is exactly right. I mean, he just, he took the oxygen out of the room for anybody else to find a spark. And again, there's going to be all, I think all of the guys who had a chance to win this acquitted themselves fairly well, save for Sheffler. Although, I mean, look, we really shouldn't fault Scotty too much for that double on 18. it looked like he grabbed his back

and sort of hurt himself on that drive that he had to take an unplayable on. So it wasn't like Scott, he had a terrible day. But at the end of the day, these guys, I mean, rose at four under,

he seemed pretty happy with himself. And not just because he played his way into next year by finishing top 10, won't have to qualify like he did this year. But, you know, there was a moment there where you thought we might get the Sergio

old hero guy, finally grabbing that major. He tried to win the He tried. Yeah. And they all, look, even Horshiel,

Horshels birdied the last three, and I, not to take anything away from him, but the drama was gone by then. Yes. So I put a little bit less on that three under, but I still think these guys all played pretty well.

We, you know, you and I were wondering whether there were going to be some tight back sides, coming down the stretch, we were texting about, it looks like there's some tight,

you know, you know what's going on around there. These guys all pretty well acquitted themselves. I don't know. I mean, if anybody wanted to try to take something away from Zander at Valhalla, you know, again, I was on the ground. I felt like course set up aside. He went head to head with a whole bunch of people and outduled him and earned it.

You can't take this one away. He outdueled the number one player in the world, came from behind. And again, six under a flawless day. Big time golfer in front of us now. You think he can still be friends with your buddy, Patrick Campbell? lay or not? Well, he's in his own class now,

Xander, as compared to Patrick. I have one last thought that I would have bounce off for you as it relates to Scotty and the guys on the live from post tournament telecast

kind of made this observation. You know, Scotty did not play the Scottish Open. And we were generous in, you know, talking about how his his worst performance

in the major this year, was at the U.S. Open. And we kind of observed, you know, he had a lot on his plate by virtue of the way the schedule played out with a dumb PGA tour having the memorial the week before the U.S. Open. And that Pinehurst is not the kind of venue. You just show up and sort of get yourself around. Now, it was a decision for him to not go play the Scottish Open,

to not get over, to not get loops at Trune. And, you know, he's got to. plenty on his plate. He's got, you know, his new baby. Do you fault him for any kind of a lack of preparation for this one? I don't fault him for it because he's a new father. I think lack of preparation probably played into the way that he performed this week. Although, again, the ball striking was their house. It was just the putting.

So it's not like Rory who was unprepared for the wind or whatever we saw from Sive. and a few of the other guys who just bombed out. I mean, no, I don't really fault him. I mean, he's a new dad and he just felt like getting over there and playing the Scottish wasn't right for him. Fine. It's just the putter. It's always the putter with Scotty when he doesn't win.

And that's all we saw. So let's do some guys where we saw some sparks. And, you know, maybe they're, you know, sort of reminding us. And mainly I'm looking at John Rom. It was good to see John Rom go out and birdie. the first three holes and put us on notice. Oh, were we on John Rom? Alert.

Now, he couldn't, you know, get it all the way home. But he finished T7, his first top 10 in a major this season. And, you know, first really good performance in a major since the masters of last year, honestly. we wondered aloud with Justin Ray based on having observed John Rom at his press conference show a kind of calm that he didn't show prior to this week. It would be good for John Rom to be back on the scene. I guess it remains to be seen.

We'll see him at the Olympics, and then he'll finish out the rest of the year with the live tour, right? maybe. I mean, maybe. What he's talking about is, it sounds like there's some concerns about this pregnancy with his wife, and he's just not sure from here when we actually are going to see him again, which is a shame. Because by the way, for all the, you know, relatively poor performance in majors this year, he was second in the live standing. So he's playing good golf over there. Just hadn't gotten the sort of, you know, the high profile win. and certainly hadn't been competitive in the majors. I don't know what that says about that tour versus the major. Whatever. I think John, either way, this has been a year of probably lack of focus.

If he really was being honest, he's got a, you know, he's got his wife and family to be concerned about the transition over to live was not a small thing for him. And so I'm willing to give him a year of reset and refocus. But boy, this is, this is, this is, this is, one of the best golfers in the world when he wants to be. Let's see if he wants to be, and if his ass is red after, you know, four performances that certainly today,

a top 10, he gets kudos, but he was not competitive, and he was not about to win this one today. Certainly not any of the other three. So for John Rom, we miss him. We want to have him back. I hope he takes whatever time he takes

to get that game into a shape where he's going head to head with these. best players in the world. You and I definitely share that that sentiment. And the reminder is that there are not an infinite number of majors to be had, you know, case in point, Roy McElroy, who now we are officially, you know, going to be a decade beyond his last win. Hey, hey, my birdie buddies. Fairway Rowland is brought to you by Fanduel. Line up your first win when you bet the PGA Tour on Fandul, America's number one sports. But because right now new customers get $200 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet.

This upcoming week, we're hot off of the Open Championship. We are on to the 3M in Minnesota. There are only two tournaments left before the postseason for the tour. So a lot of guys are jockeying for position. Lee Hodges won this thing in Minnesota last year at 24 under par. We're looking for good performances by some guys that do very well at this event, namely Tony Fee now, former winner, and then take a look at that guys finishing high in the Baracuda, Mack Meisner, right there at the top.

Those are a couple names. You just want to catch a winning $5 bet to get these $200. and you can play a top 20. That's fine. All kinds of finishing position bets always available on Fandul. Plus while you place your bets, you can track every shot live in the app

and watch, select par three holes. Just visit Fandul.com slash Roland, R-O-L-L-I-N, and take a swing at an extra 200 bucks. Fandul, the official betting operator of the PGA Tour. Quick disclaimer. you must be 21 years old or older, 18 plus in D.C. and present in select states. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com.

First online real money wager only $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-witrawable bonus bets, which expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at Sportsbook. Bandul.com. Let's talk about a couple other guys that may be some positive signs. Are you happy with a T-25 out of Jordan Speeth this week? No.

Okay. I mean, we got to see a little bit on him a little bit in this tournament. I think it's his best performance in a major this year. But still, we're going to call this the last year for Jordan Speeth. Yeah, I still think it was a pretty mad performance, all things considered. It was, you know, he putt mediocrely again, a little bit better tea to green. But it just, if you're, Spieth is still searching. And, you know, when you finish five over and the, and the winner finishes nine under,

I'm not sure you take a victory lap. Speaking of still searching, our boy, Justin Thomas, still in the wilderness. this. He went 68 Thursday, 78 Friday, which was defensible. 67 Saturday. Okay, J.T. Let's go do something. JT's on the board. Everybody wants to see it. 77 today. Come on. Ooh, D31 JT. Well, he was dead from the opening T shot. Yes, he was. I mean, made double on one and, excuse me, triple on one. And that that was, yeah. right and and so there just was nothing else to do there and I think that the good news if you're

j t is the putting was there this week it really was it was the tea to green game that didn't you know didn't perform the way that he is used to so the reason that he has fallen has been the putter so it feels like an off week you know with the weather messing with people swings all this I think he probably comes out of there with little bit more confidence than maybe you or I would take away from a day in which he shot 77. Yeah, I mean, top, he finished the event with a top 20 finish putting wise. He was 18th, but it was, it was his off the T that was abysmal. He finished 71st strokes game off the T, which is not getting it done. I'll express a tiny bit of disappointment in

Colin Morcawa, only because I said at the beginning of the week that he was my pick to win. And a lot of smart people out there were paying attention to the improvements across the board in his game. But he ended up, he putted poorly, which kind of didn't make sense and was out of alignment with the way he putted in majors earlier this season. He finished 54th in putting in 54th in around the green strokes game. So, meh, performance out of Morikawa. a top 20, T-16 out of him. Anybody else catch your eye in terms of good performance, bad performance? We talked about Noren coming in.

I think Noren is a guy to continue to watch. These were good reps for him. I think, you know, Dean Bermester has been around the hoop a little bit at these majors. And I think, you know, he's a guy who's come over from Liv and sort of like he keeps showing up. I liked the performance from Sung-J, although it continued to be, you know, what we've spoken about. I mean, look,

he has been playing excellent outside the majors. So to get a top 10 this week was eye-opening. I guess I want to ask you, Billy Horshaw's won the BMW. That's why I got into this tournament, Wentworth, right? Did this make you think differently about Billy Horshull at all? No.

Or is he just one of the guys who's, kind of on this, because he talked a lot about legacy. And so I just wonder how you think about Horshiel's legacy after today. Any different? Solid PGA tour workhorse. Appreciate that the guy can think outside of, you know, sort of the blinders that a U.S. PGA tour player might be enticed to put on. He does play across the pond.

he does play in some of the DP World Tour events. The Wentworth one that you mentioned is something that he's not only won, but he's played well in on some other occasions to go along with it. But just a nice player who had the great good fortune to be good at golf at a time

when Tiger Woods injected billions of dollars into the golf industry. And so we'll live a very comfortable life. I do like that we're doing a little bit of legacy because one of the things I wanted to ask you about is indeed going back to Xander, he is now immediately into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

He has enough wins on tour. He has enough wins abroad. He has the Olympic gold medal. He has two majors. That's it. He's in the Hall of Fame. Now there's no quibbling about it. And I wondered aloud in one of my text threads, whether he is somebody that we would think about as a potential Rider Cup captain. Now, you know, the win is still fresh. But, and, you know, the only sort of reservation is, does he want that responsibility? It doesn't, he's never been a person that, he's been always very, very humble, very understated, but he's never been out, you know, when he's doing interviews and stuff,

talking about, you know, his place among the greats and, you know, his goals of, of multiple majors and so forth. He talks about it in an understated way. Do you think of him as a potential down the path guy that will get comfortable with his place in the game and that might be

in the mix for a Rotter Cup captaincy kind of situation? I think if this is it, maybe not because you're going to have Kepka there, you're going to have you're going to have speeth there

with a larger assembly of majors, but I mean, he just got two in a couple months. So I don't put anything past him at this point. I do. I think what helped him win today was that calmness and that even temperament. And anytime you got a guy who can go over to foreign soil and win a golf tournament, I'm very interested in him helping to captain us, because as we've talked about, the Ryder Cup now is not really about winning at home. You've got to win at home, but you're supposed to win at home. If you don't win at home, something's gone terribly wrong. I look at, I look at the last six major winners being Americans and I go, what the heck happened in Rome? Somebody take this collection of great

young American players and go get a win on European soil. So when, when Xander won that tournament, you and I sort of, we weren't sure about Zander because he's got the buddy, buddy with Cantley, not the Can'tley's a bad guy or any of that, just like they seem to be their own sort of unit on tour, right? And we weren't sure how fit in he was with the other guys. When Zander won, man, people came out of the woodwork of that generation of players talking about how much they like him and how hard he works and his game. So he's clearly liked.

And if Keegan Bradley with one major can be a Ryder Cup captain, and there is no reason Xander Schaufflay flexing the muscles that he is right now can't be either. Well, a lot of stuff can happen between now. You might have to pay him. Who knows? Maybe that'll change by 2027. The thing that we will be paying attention to, if the good Lord shines his light down upon both of us,

and we're both still kicking and doing this kind of thing come 2027, will the U.S. team go over together and practice on that goddamn golf course together? unlike what they did in Rome, where they just could not be bothered to get over there and practice properly. Right? You and I are going to talk about it until we're blue in the face.

The sort of traditional golf media is going to talk about it until they're blue in the face. They're going to do it. I do think, though, that there are a few interesting things that happened at this tournament that make you wonder,

what is that team going to look like, right? I mean, Sam Burns in position today shot an 80. Yeah. Max Homa made a great put to make the cut, and I was thrilled to see how much he cared. But yikes, he's kind of just hovering out there right now, isn't he? There's a bunch of these players who you and I feel like

might have been the back part of our bench, who have got to sort of step it up here because you've got this next young group of players who are coming in to maybe take it over. It's going to be a very interesting and tumultuous couple of years on the American side here as it looks like the Thor Bronsons of the world and some of the other collegiate guys who are coming right off tour, maybe start challenging this generation of guys that we thought were locks on a go-forward basis. What we know now is Xander's a lock.

And I guess we would have always assumed that he was going to be there, but we just didn't necessarily think he was going to be our horse. it sure looks like at the moment. I mean, in the clutch right now on the back nine, who's the American golfer? Who do you want? Zander, without a doubt, without hesitation, reservation. It's Zander. That's who I want.

He's not afraid of anything. And there isn't a weakness. And there isn't, you know, this, this miss that occurs that immediately deflates him. That was part of the thing with Scotty today. He was deflated and he, and, you know, immediately the three putt on nine ended the competitive aspect of his golf tournament. I do think somewhere as we go along our last sort of dozen shows here,

one of the bits you and I are going to do is sit down and look at the current crop of up-and-comers and see if you and I will try and do a way too early futures bet on which Americans. Because I do think that we are not that far away from some of these stalwart. some of these guys that we see on this rider cup, you know, sort of getting rotated out. And I'll come up with some names. Neil Shipley is a name that I'm paying attention to.

Yeah, sure. Nate Dogg. In addition to Mr. Dunlap, who won, you know, as an amateur on the PGA tour, like there are some names that we can take a look at, you know, Gordon Sargent's going to be up and playing. It doesn't look like Wyndham Clark or Tony Fienow right now are making a compelling case for why we should put them on a rider cup team.

I mean, you know, if you follow the Luke Donald school, they're going to be some big surprises in about 12 months, you know, 13 months on who's going to be on that team. Well, we have that to look forward to. My birdie buddies, my par saving pals, my eagle enthusiasts, we are taking a break. The tour presses on. They will be in Minnesota this week.

We will not be joining them. I will fire off on the Xbox Twitter machine. Some of my preferred plays, and I'll ask the Nate Dog to share with us some of his preferred plays as well at the 3M in Minnesota. But we'll be back with this podcast, the week of the Olympics. And I'm going to try and talk a very distinguished guest of ours, one of our favorites, to come on and help us handicap how the Olympics play out. Because the last time we saw anybody play golf at this venue in Paris,

it was in the Ryder Cup and the Euro guys were whooping the U.S. up and down the block. But that is something to look forward to. We're back next week with an Olympic golf preview. Only happens once every four years, give or take. But until then, beautiful weather all across the great country. It's summertime. Get a peg in the ground.

Get a late round in if you want. But please, let's hit them straight up there. You must be 21 years old or older, 18 years old or older in Washington, D.C. and present in select states. Bandul is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit vandal.com slash RG

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