Fairway Rollin' - Ryan Fox Wins the Open Championship! Plus, Bryson DeChambeau Disappoints Again.

Episode Date: July 20, 2026

House and Nathan recap the Open Championship, with Ryan Fox winning the final major of this PGA Tour season. They discuss Bryson DeChambeau's performance, his Friday-night penalty, and what's next for him. Then, the guys evaluate Scottie Scheffler, Sam Burns, Cameron Young, Si Woo Kim, and more of the top 20 finishers from the Open. (00:00) Welcome to Fairway Rollin’! (01:18) Ryan Fox (–10) wins the Open Championship! (13:33) Links golf strategy at Royal Birkdale (20:28) Bryson DeChambeau disappoints again (34:42) No majors for Scottie Scheffler this season (38:10) Evaluating Sam Burns (41:48) Recapping major season Exclusive offers await at your Lincoln retailer. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines. Check out https://triangle-inc.org/golf2026/ to support innovative programs for people with disabilities. Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Producers: Tucker Tashjian and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello friends and welcome to this golf program unlike any other. Yes, my friends, we've done it. This is Fairway Roll. A golf program on the Ringer podcast network and on Netflix. My birdie buddies, my par-saving pals, my eagle enthusiasts. What an open championship, my lord. It's amazing that we're upright. This could be several hours.

It won't be, I promise. And fortunately, we have another show this week. So we will try and keep it in our pants for a little bit. I'm your starter Joe House. Join by my incomparable accomplice, our PGA tour. Boots on the ground, Nathan Hubbard. The two of us are here to try and tell some tales about what we've just observed. Let's get this going.

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Nate Dogg! How's your TIO? Man, I'll tell you, this is the capping of a year house in which we had some unexpected major winners that I think we'll talk about, but I think they all were deserving largely because they all executed extraordinarily well down the stretch and grabbed it by the throat, didn't they? That's the commonality between all these guys. Now, we'll talk about what it means that we've got some really, really good golfers who don't seem to be able to grab these things by the throat always.

But there are two new major champions we never would have expected if we're being honest in Aaron Rye and in Foxy who earned it, man. I mean, all you can do is tip your cap. Those guys put themselves in it. And holy crap. I mean, I really enjoyed this house. And I wasn't sure after Thursday that I was going to enjoy this. Oh, after Thursday. What was your sour taste from Thursday? I guess I just got a little worried about the scoring, about the conditions. I got a little wrapped around the axle on some of that. And at the end of the day, between the Bryson drama, the 62s at a tournament where the winning score was only 10 under, help me understand.

And, you know, I just think we had a very high quality leaderboard at the end of the day. We had a lot of backdoor top fives and top tens and top 20s. There weren't that many guys who really were in contention for this. But man, was this an enjoyable, uh, open and I guess can I just start by asking you because I know you were in front of this coverage a lot. Do you think that the fact that we had 362s but the winning score was only 10 under is a credit to Royal Burkdale, a problem with Royal Burkdale, or am I missing the thought altogether? I don't think you have to necessarily cast it in that kind of a framework. I mean, the The golf course design has a notion of wind being part of the equation.

And we didn't get it. There wasn't any wind until the very end, Sunday afternoon, the leader, you know, the guys really contending for a chance to win the championship, finally getting, you know, pushed around a little bit by the wind. But I thought it was on balance an extraordinarily fair test. And I think the way that Fox came really out of nowhere, I mean, he set a record for where he came from. He was 85th on Thursday. He was 52nd at the end of the day on Friday.

And he shot a 62 on Saturday and shot a 68 on Sunday. And by God, won the goddamn golf tournament. He tied for the second lowest score on a weekend to win a major. And that is going and grabbing the golf tournament. But I think the golf course itself performed phenomenally well. Okay. I mean, yeah, his performance really second only to Marikawa at Harding Park, right? Yes.

In terms of his final 36 holes. And the 62 was legit. I mean, this is interesting. I mean, he's right, our second of the past, I mean, in the last two decades, like he's the second highest. ranked or excuse me lowest ranked uh player other than Darren Clark right to win this thing yeah um I thought the craziest stat was the one that they gave at the end which is this is the 13th year in a row that we've had a first time open winner wow oh well in this in in in the sense that um

yeah so no repeat okay no because it not only is it somebody not defending but also also not in any of those times a guy that's won the Open Championship before. Yes. And so we're getting variety. We're getting, look, we started at the top of the week. It's parody. The NBA loves me. Yes. We start at the top of the week, though, House. We shouldn't be that surprised. Because when we talked with Jay Ray, the first thing that he said to us, and this got us spinning on a bunch of our picks and choices, was I think that this course, because you don't need driver, is going to bring in a lot of guys. from a little bit further back. Now, the irony is that as the week went on, the strategy became follow what Bryson is doing.

And even Scotty, who got in that weird pairing, started changing up what he was doing and using a lot more drivers. We thought we were going to see way more irons off the tea than we ended up seeing. And in fact, the reason that Foxy went out and won this thing is because he stepped up on 18 and said, I'll take my chances to try to make a par birdie here

because I'm going to hate myself if I lay up and make bogey. This is a hard hole. It was the second hardest hole on the day. It was playing four tenths of a stroke or four hundredths of a stroke over par. So you had a pretty good chance of bogeing this thing if you played it like a, you know what. And he just pulled out the driver and did it. But that was so different than the strategy. And we'll get to a lot of talk about strategy when we get to the big golfer,

but different than the strategy that we thought coming in, right? At the end of the day, House, there's a reason that Ryan Fox won this tournament. He finished eighth off the T, first in putting. And everything in between was just okay. But those are the two things that catapulted him statistically to this win. Yeah. And for the tournament, this was an element that I was surprised to see. He finished in the top five in greens and regulation.

He was like 74% greens and regulation. and proximity. That was the key. He was second only, or was he tied with Scotty, 31 shots inside 20 feet. Yeah, so that's the one. And the difference between him and Scottie, and Scotty was first T to Green,

is Foxy finished first in putting, and Scotty Sheffler was 60th in putting. And that was the thing. But I think there is something that is not a stat that's going to show up. Because if you go and look at Ryan Fox coming in, there is zero indication other than a T8 at the Canadian Open a month ago

that he remotely had a chance to do this. He wasn't missing cuts. His last missed cut was at the Masters. But, geez, 67th, T-35, T-27 at the Memorial, T-66 at the Travelers, T-30 at the Genesis. There just is nothing there. And by the way, he led, the field this week in putting.

Last week, he lost strokes putting. So it just wasn't there. But this guy has played around the world. He's won in a bunch of different places. And he's won on the PG tour. He's grabbed it. Like the guy, he's first in shots gains

big Cajonis, isn't he? I mean, he just is a dog. And the way that he was executing down the stretch with speed in many other cases, many, many other cases. By the way, we saw it, we've seen this happen on tour this year where a lot of the announcers come on and they're like, he's sped up. He sped up down. The pressure is getting to him. He's going too fast. That's just how

Ryan Fox plays. And it felt like he just was in the zone going as fast as he could to try to finish this thing because he knew he knew he had it. And it's just something that's immeasurable. My brother texted me and was like, look, I'm so happy for him because he's a great guy. We know him as wife a little bit. Like they just moved to Florida in the last two years. He was a 37 year old rookie on this tour. And there's something about that process of playing in a bunch of different places and being a little bit unsettled that I think just from a mental just fortitude standpoint, Mark's like he's one of the mentally strongest guys I've ever played with. And it's because he just doesn't overthink it, right? He just steps up, decides what to do and hits it. And sure,

his hands were shaking and he couldn't feel them on the last putt today. That's golf. But he took 22 seconds to hit that put after Burns took the ball out of the hole instead of three minutes to think about, uh, what am I doing? And they're just there guys who have it and there's some who don't. We'll talk about the Sam Burns situation because, uh, I, I loved to see Sam in contention. This is a tough one to swallow no matter how, how you cut it. He's not good with 54 whole leads. And there are some guys who are and there are some guys who aren't. Most guys aren't. But Ryan Fox down the stretch just separated himself. He executed even with those boats. Every shot I think that he that he hit he meant to hit. Yeah, the fun thing will be over these next 36, 48 hours, the world sort of getting introduced to Ryan Fox because he is an incredible guy and his story is incredible. He comes from lineage of parents and grandparents that were wildly successful in cricket and rugby in his native New Zealand. And, you know, the top of the charts in those sports.

And he took to golf very late in his teens. You know, he didn't really pick up golf until, you know, his late, late teens. Yeah. There's like Namath son being a golfer or something, right? Like that kind of thing. Like some guy of the older generation who just has this like hero status that, that, you know, he wasn't as good as his dad at that sport, but he went and figured something else out. And the thing that made his dad successful in sort of mental fortitude and toughness is what's making him successful here.

Yeah, well, the resume to your point, though, when you, when you sort of, you know, take it in its totality now, he has three wins in the last two years. He won at Myrtle Beach. He won the Canadian Open. He won the Open Championship. But his resume also includes, you know, all of these worldwide kind of high performances and then wins. He won the Dunhill Links and, you know. Yes. Real tournament.

Yeah. So he is that world traveler kind of. kind of fellow, but you know, hasn't really settled down. And here's the thing that blew my mind. Maybe you already saw this stat. He has 28 starts in major tournaments coming into this Open Championship. Do you know how many top tens he had in those 28 starts? Zero.

Right. Yeah. So you did see it. Yes. I'm looking at it. No top tens in 28 major starts. He missed the cut at the open last year. He missed the cut at the Masters.

This year, you know, he's just, he's played a lot of these events through time because he's, he's accumulated a lot of points worldwide, world ranking points, particularly pre-lib, that got him into these things. But again, there just wasn't that, there just wasn't that indication that he was going to be able to deliver this, except that when he's been in those moments around the world, he's won. He's won golf tournaments. And look, how, Cam Young, for all of this round today, that was awesome. Cam Young shot a 35 on the back.

Scottie Shephler, for all of the hype, oh, once again, here it is. Sheffler's making a run on Sunday, supposedly. He shot a 36 on the back. He shot even par on the back. Brian Fox shot two under, and that was with two bogeys that at least one of them,

the one on 15, felt like he hit the exact iron shot he was intended to get. Oh, I mean, yeah, that's just, you know, the golf luck. That's links. Four birdies in the last six holes. That's what captures my attention. So that does cover off the bad luck that occurs on 15. And him getting up and down for bogey, the bogey save on 15, he even said so, was an elemental, crucial, vital element of the push.

He didn't birdie 17, which is, you know, the gettable one. No. And that pace of play, in a lot of ways, just didn't leave a lot of room for ruminating over bad luck or things that, you know, sky. He's screaming, why, why? On 17, just having that absolute meltdown. Juxtapose that in the moment, right, with Ryan getting into that bunker

after he hit the exact iron that he thought and where I think a group before that, it was Ryan Gerard, who had just cleared it by a foot and given himself a good look at Bertie there. That's Link's golf. And I think the more, obviously, Scotty's won on a link's golf course. It's not a knock on Scotty in any way.

But like, today, it's very clear that the guy who had the strongest mental game won this golf tournament. Yeah, I like that. Now, Cam Young, I would say, had a pretty strong mental game. I mean, he came the one inch that Ryan Fox successfully navigated on Saturday out of that bunker on 18. The difference for Cam Young. And Cam Young, speaking of that fortitude, his bogey save on 18 was pretty goddamn good. No, it was awesome. Yeah.

Don't get me wrong. He's five under through nine, right? And so it was. 29 on the front. It was there. And listen, there's, there are not many other people who finish solo second at the open twice. There's one guy who's done it more than him, and that's Jack Nicholas. So like, this guy is.

Yeah. Twice in four years now for Cam Young. Right. Just for a reminder. Circling the hoop. Like, there it is. It started with that eagle on 18 at St. Andrews. where, by the way, the open is next year.

So if you can get into those markets, Joe House, and look at Cam Young at St. Andrews for next year, it might be a good time to do that. I mean, you're not going to get any, there's no value. The value is all gone because he's just served notice to the world once again. Well, you had value on Cam Young coming in because he had not played particularly well since Miami,

since Terrell, right? And so there was an opportunity here to pick it up. It's just a reminder, I think, with this guy that, there's going to be some ebbing and flowing, but he has hit a level, right? He's on a level for sure. And we've just got to take him seriously. So, I mean, but just to, you know, you and I texted after Thursday, and you said, what do you think the number's going to be?

And we both were at 10. Yeah. And I really thought after yesterday that we were in trouble. I thought it was going to be more like 11, 12, or 13, just because we'd seen a few 62s and I thought that maybe somebody in the top 10 was going to end up doing it. But I mean, did you know that Adam Scott played this golf tournament? Not only did he play it. He played it quite well, including today with what was his number today, 66?

He shot four under. Yeah. Did you know that Russell Henley played this golf tournament? Oh, well, look, don't you say one bad thing about Russell Henley. No, I'm just saying the cameras never showed him. I sure hope. We just had a lot of backdoor top tens today because a lot of the guys who'd been in position had just okay rounds. It was just Cam Young coming from 20th that really put the pressure on.

Everybody else didn't go out and grab it by the throat. The two stories of the day in the first part of the day were Fleetwood, Can Tommy make a charge? And this charge that Cam Young really did undertake. I just have to get this out. I pray that some of our faithful listeners played the Henley-C-Wu top-10 parlay that Justin Ray recommended 33-1 on Monday of last week that was available. That was a big fat when that would have covered off. I hope some of the good folks out there got that to cover off the Matt Fitzpatrick. Poo-Poo-Patter.

That he served up, yeah. Well, I mean, don't talk to me about him anymore. No, we're not going to talk about Matt yet. But since you mentioned Siwu, do you see his Instagram post? No, what did he say? He said, another choke job in a major, but I finished top five. So it's top ten. I love him so much.

He was poor over the last five, six holes. He just got sideways on him. The thing I just don't understand about Sioux is the problem has always been the putter. He was 17th in putting this week. He just, he struggled a little bit off the tea, I think, which is not totally normal for him. This just was a little bit of a different kind of open. I mean, if you just look at the guys who top 20, statistically, they're just all over the place. And I think had Fox and, you know, coming into today, before Fox really made that run at the end,

I was going to text you and be like, man, nobody seems to want this. I mean, like, they're just, it was there for Sam Burns by the time he got to the eighth hole. even though he was struggling a bit at the outset. It was there for him. And it didn't feel like Fox, who was over par and had dropped to seven under and seemed to just be struggling to get the round going, wanted to grab it.

And Siwu just was having this. So I don't know. Scotty didn't click into gear in the same way. And then, you know, the exact same vibe that we got from Aaron Rye at the PGA championship, suddenly you were getting it from Ryan Fox down the stretch, even as he made that bogey on feel.

You just could tell that putter was there and he just looked like an athlete out there. He was going after it for sure. Totally agree with that. I honestly thought Cam Young was going to win. I thought he was just going to sit there and the guys were going to come in and nobody could get to that nine. The chances on 17 to make birdie, you know, the combo of 14 and 17 and guys not like, you know, going and grab it. Sebu ended up shooting 40 on the back. He was three over the over the last. It was just brutal. Three bad bogeys. And that was a tournament that he absolutely could have won.

I mean, he was sitting there at 10 under. And I mean, he had the lead through the first handful of, you know, eight holes or whatever. He was atop the leaderboard. Hey, hey, my verde buddies. This episode of Fairway Rolling is brought to you by Lincoln. Too many summer plans. And then maybe next year, the Lincoln summer sales event is on now. this the time to go watch the sunrise through the available panoramic vista roof in the lincoln

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Ryan Fox sort of inadvertently criticized Live when he said, again, he's 37, old rookie on the PGA tour, but he said being on the PGA tour forces me to keep my game sharp because I'm playing against the best guys. And it's just been such a great, again, forcing function to have me be at my best. And Lucas Herbert shot a nice 62 this week. He did. And John Rom at one point seemed to be sort of hanging around the hoop. But yet again, we've got another kind of me mentally and game-wise weak performance from the live guys and more than anything there's a lot of opinions about bryson and we need to talk about it i just think that unfortunately for this guy once again the gaping hole in his game is he's just not mentally tough enough house

He's too easily rattled and he does it, A, to himself, but B, he allows external forces to rattle him. And unless the tailwinds are blowing as strongly as they possibly can, which is what happened at the two U.S. opens that he won, he is not able to execute in the way that his talent is capable of doing. And above all else, that's what we saw this week. It is all about the vibes for Bracin DeShambo. Well, that's the case right now. It's definitely the case over, you know, since his performance at the Open Championship last year at Port Rush, he didn't give us any indication. He had these, you know, stirring victories on Live, but nothing in,

competition where, you know, the measuring stick competition, right. So it, to us, it felt like he hadn't recovered from the way that he collapsed against Rory at the Masters, right? Like, Rory kind of kind of kicked his ass at the master. Yes, yes, but I just- And then he missed the cut to the next two majors. Pinehurst, he did not shoot as good a score as Rory did. And I still think Rory handled that major, handed that- That's fine. I mean, he had the lead. So he didn't have to shoot his... What he did on 18, that shot on 18 was awesome.

But like, Bryson did not handle the lead well that day at all. And I think he struggles in those moments of pressure if he doesn't have everything going for him. It's just like it's out there for all to see. And look, he didn't talk to the media this week. It's now come out. Looks like Shackleford is reporting that he tried to call Trump during this rules infraction issue. I mean, you know, he... Well, I mean, Tiger did.

I don't understand. What's the big deal? All the other guys say, in even the guys who defend them, one of the things about this Bryson Rules episode is that it just reinforced that that, that schism between the European and American players that happened in Rome is still there. Because those Europeans. I let me mean Beth Page. You don't have to go all the way back to Rome.

Well, I mean, it started there. But it, for sure. The Rory fight in the parking lot. Yes. Like, it is. Yeah. It is still. there and even if sam and scotty and others were kind of circling the wagons around bryson a little

bit just saying like i know that he's kind of a weirdo and he's a different kind of guy he's an interesting human but he's not a cheater and i i think that that is true i don't have a problem with bright i mean i think bryson made some bad decisions maybe wasn't aware of the rule but but look at the end of the day it unraveled him and he still was in position to win this golf tournament heading into Saturday morning. And he played poorly on Saturday and Sunday. And that's it. I mean, he could have grabbed this and you thought maybe he was going to take it

as motivation as his Instagram post after he'd threatened to quit, suggested and go stuff it up everybody's, you know, back sides. But he just wasn't able to execute this weekend. And I think the weirdness of him walking up the 18th yesterday, taking his hat off and giving everybody the thumbs up, it. just again, it felt like he was more worried about what people thought than what he scored. See, I don't think that at all. I thought the Saturday round was honestly kind of ballsy from him.

I mean, he had a 68 in hand. He ended up shooting 69 because he bogeyed that 18th hole as he walked up giving everybody the thumbs up. But that's the point. I thought an underpar round after what transpired, you know, late Friday. You know, it made everybody late. I thought that was showed a kind of resilience. And I honestly thought.

Ryan Fox shot 62. Well, that's not that's not the comparison. Like Ryan Fox didn't have a two stroke penalty assessed after his round. I mean, I'm just saying. The course played even par on Saturday. And he shot under par. So I shot one under. I just like it wasn't a go grab it.

In view of I'm just gently pushing back on the notion that he completely unraveled in, in the context of. that penalty. The unraveling occurred today. He showed up without a complete golf game. And this golf course exposes it immediately. And that's the place that I think is fair to say, like when you look at Rom, when you look at Bryson,

even Air Bear, Air Bear, however you want to say it. That dude shot 70, had 271 to 70 and a 62. So that's why he finished inside the top 10. He did shoot the 62. It was mother effing impressive, but we got to see those guys put four together, put four together for us. I mean, Ram's got, well, Ram was the closest at the PGA championship. Bryson was 68th in his iron play this week. Like, he didn't stand out.

I think that's a big improvement for him. Look, what we didn't know is he put in, he got these new irons approved and put him in. And he looked great in the first couple days. He did. I mean, he really looked awesome Thursday and Friday. And so it was, to your point, I guess it was a tale of like basically sort of three sections. His Thursday was sublime. Yes.

I mean, he was, I don't know, first T to Green on Thursday. And then, you know, Friday, all of a sudden you're like, man, this guy is in position to go win this thing. And then it fell apart a little bit. But just overarchingly, look, big picture for Bryson. He finished T14 at the open without doing anything well statistically over four days. So my only point is like, it's there for him. This guy should have seven, eight majors, not now, but like in his career, it's there for him. It's just the internal whatever happens inside this guy's head.

And again, I think he's got like, he's got some stuff that makes him an interesting human being. He's a different kind of guy. And I think that I think it just is coming up, whereas it, it, it feels. fueled this massive love affair for him after he was at his lowest moments in the whole Brooksie scandal. It now, to me, just seems to be getting in the way of him just going out and playing good golf. And that's just what I see is that I think that Rory's comments were sharp. They were a lot sharper than Rory's game was after the Masters this year. But they were they were kind of on target as it just felt performative forget the like character judgment

that's between rory and bryson i just mean i wish he you know it just i wish he could just play golf because i think he's so damn good at golf that if he could play the way that ryan fox played today he's going to win five six more majors and if he can't he's going to be this just uh yin yang character and quite honestly it's better for the drama and better for the narrative if he just stays this yin yang character that that is undoubtedly the case i mean this golf tournament was absolutely riveting compelling drama because we had the you know once again this friday night you know uh hit parade of incredible golf twitter moment yes and and and you know just the incredible unknowns of of what what was out there it

really did rival Scotty Shephyrower getting arrested. It did. No, it did. And by the way, you and I are not going to weigh in on whether we think that was, but it doesn't matter. Everybody else has weighed in. It does not fucking matter. The only thing I'm interested in is your opinion on this question. What do you think is the outcome for Bryson if that penalty isn't assessed? How do you think he fares in this golf tournament without that, that drama? I think he wins the tournament. Wow. See, I wasn't going to go. go there. Wow. You think he wins. I think that... I think he was... Dude, he had so much positive energy and all the reports from the

ground were that people were just all in on Bryson and rooting for him. Even to your point, Saturday during that round, they wanted him to... He got a great reception on Saturday morning. You wouldn't know it from the NBC coverage because they missed it completely on the walkup, at least the audio they did. But they, but like, yes, I think that he was moving into position. Again, you had a bunch of guys on that leaderboard today. only one or two of whom had ever won a major. Like Bryson knows how to do it. And when that train gets rolling, he's tough.

And he just, it was such an own goal to go out there at night and keep everybody waiting. And here's Justin Thomas like, hey, can we get tea times? It's 11 in the morning. And Marco Penn just like, dude, I woke up at 354 today. Can we get on and on and on? And nobody wants to go at it. I will say this. It does seem from the reporting that I observed.

there were two things going on. Part of why they couldn't complete the, they were having groups that were finishing after Bryson finished. And when they pulled him in to have this conversation, it seems like the physical space in which the guys could get their scores in so that the administrators could go ahead and complete the second round and set the cut and set the times was held up because they were taught. talking to Bryson in the same physical space.

That's where they pulled him in to go through to review the video. So then they took him out to the fifth hole house. I mean, he was doing that for an hour and 20. That's on the that's on them though. That's not on Bryson. That's my option. Now they, for the purposes of what his score was going to be and who he's going to be playing with,

that's a different animal. And whatever threat he levied in terms of I won't be out there. But that's, I think they humored him and took him out to the spot before they docked him and set the tea times. I'm just saying that like he wasn't singularly responsible. No, but he also went out to the range and started hitting balls and cheekily asking if anybody wanted a beef jerky that he had in his bed. You know what I mean? Like it just was and when you're hot, you got to go, you know, let it out however you're going to do it.

And his way of letting it out, he's always the last guy on the range. as a rule. So that's what was happening. I just thought, and listen, again, I'm listening to the American players who were like, dude, you got to apply this evenly. I mean, there's people who look back at Wyndham Clark trompsing through the shit at Shinnecock and go,

was this rule fairly applied? Just because Bryson was all on camera, I don't really have, again, I don't really have an opinion on that because I think it's been spoken about by people who are smarter on that. I'm actually sympathetic with Bryson that it feels like he was maybe singled out because he was on camera. Flipside is like you read those rules and it's like, well, yeah, I mean, yeah. To me, it's just about the drama because he spins it up in ways that generate eyeballs, but it's not helping his game.

It's not helping his game. And it doesn't feel like the people around him are able to say, bright, let's go home, dude. Take the two-shot penalty. you're going to win this open. The helping his game part, what would have helped his game is receiving the score that he shot without the two-stroke penalty.

So he put up a pretty vociferous challenge that took all of that hour and 20 minutes or whatever it was in the interest of supporting his game. But yes, I understand exactly what you're saying. I don't disagree at all. Go ahead. I feel I just, I feel badly for him.

him because he is now his own worst enemy. He is. And I hope that he will reflect on this year and see if he can do as much work on his mind as he has on his irons because he's good enough and he's got the equipment to get it done. It is between the ears right now. And I think he has some challenges, some natural barriers to that being a, a way. weapon and a thing that he can overperform on. But I think if he can find a way to spend a bit more time, try doing something different there, Bryson's going to be deadly because I think there was a lot of people, you know, we talked ourselves out of the missed cut bet on Tuesday. Thank God we did because he's just too good to miss four cuts. And I think about him now we can pivot to

Scotty Sheffler in the same bucket, which is that every year for the next five years, that a year goes by in which one of those two guys, both of those guys, don't win a major, I'm going to be surprised because they've got the skills and the talent to do it. And in Scottie's case today, man, all we talked about all year long was how his iron play was just a shade, not good enough, just not quite where it was last year, but it really was the putter that led him down this week. And that's something that we haven't totally been used to seeing. and it then cascaded and manifested itself into the,

into some of the screaming on course and the frustration that I think is a reflection of this whole year. I just personally chalk this up to some strange variance on the scale of sort of karma and that the golf gods are sitting there ready to come back and probably give him a year like he had last year with two. I think he just played well enough this year. And if you look at the stats,

in fact, the four guys in the majors who had, you know, who played the back, did not actually win one this year. Yes, that's right. Those four were Scotty, Zander. Sam Burns, Zander, and who was the fourth? Was it Cam Young?

Yes. It is Camion, yeah. And that list, you know, you have to go all the way down to like, you have to get to sixth to get to Rory, you know, in terms of cumulative score to par in the four majors. Scotty beat everybody. Look at strokes gained, you know, over the, across the four majors. He's, he's dominant once again.

Strokes gained across all four majors, all competitors. I sort of hang my hat on the narrative that Justin Ray walked us through when he drew the very nice comparison to what Nellie Korda experienced in 2025, which was super effective golf. that was very, very, very high level, not up to her highest level, but still good enough golf to win golf tournaments. She just didn't win golf tournaments. Right. And then she showed up this year and she's, you know, winning half of every time she sets forth. Look, dude, he was first Tita Green second on approach this week. Yeah.

That's all we can ask for. I think any of the other three majors this year, he wins with those stats. So I think he just probably frustrated that he finally. I mean, it's the same thing that really is the same taste of my mouth from the back nine at Shinnecock. That was, he could go win that golf. He could have gone and won that golf tournament. He was hitting the ball absolutely incredibly on that back nine. William Clark was right there dying to let him go ahead and take the golf tournament.

Just couldn't make a putt. And you and I texted about this, you knew he wasn't going to make the putt, the vibes and the body language and the end. was just whatever the opposite of what Ryan Fox felt like today. Yes. Or even Bryson saving PARs on Saturday where he just was like he just, he wasn't hitting the ball well at all, but you just felt like, man, this guy's got it, got it bottled up. Scotty just any of that and Scotty wins.

So I don't think this is a glass half empty situation for Scotty. He's going to have to answer these silly questions, but I really do think this is like a statistical anomaly. Lee. I do think for Sam Burns that the taste is bit more bitter, but it's wonderful that he was here. He handled it with humility. He said everything that you want him to say. I was rooting so hard for him. And here we are with another 54-hole lead that didn't convert, where he just didn't have his best stuff today. He actually, you know, I mean, there wasn't much today that really kept him in it. I mean, it was the iron play that was the problem today. 55th on approach and 66th.

around the green and the putter was just okay but it wasn't the putter that let him down today he just didn't have the chances yeah and and you know his last birdie of the day was on the second hole um i'm actually super glass half full on him uh great i feel like he this was a free role for him and he needed a pep talk from his wife she's she told him just to feel good about being here be where you are like put be be where your feet are you're you're over there everything at home is cool. Go play some effing golf, bro. He kind of instantly becomes our Tommy Fleetwood

now, doesn't he? Because it's impossible not to root for him. He's a great soul. I don't know. Now with these almost come close moments, it's going to be maybe it's not like our Tommy, but maybe more like our Phil. Like where you just were sort of

back pre-masters win where you're just waiting for him to get that one and get over the hump. He's playing well enough. He's playing well enough. I I feel pretty comfortable, you know, if he's fortunate enough to stay healthy and nothing derails him. He's going to have to do it like he did as Shinnecock, though, right? And make a run and somebody falls over in front of him. Because I just think, I just think this, you know, barring a, you know, Rory catharsis, like when at the Masters,

it's just a thing that he doesn't seem to handle the 54-hole lead that well. And that's, that's okay. There's lots of guys. Most guys are like that. most guys aren't good enough to win or capable of playing golf the way that he does either. And so he just has to get himself into the right situation and circumstances. And it does feel like as long as he keeps hanging around the hoops, something's going to happen here. But I feel a little bit differently about it.

I think it stings a little bit. He did say all the right things yesterday going in. But man, even as poorly as he started this round today, right? It sure felt like making that turn. Even after those three bogeys, you looked at. up at the scoreboard on, you know, I mean, he made the birdie on on two, but then goes boogie, boogie, boogie on four, five, six. You look up at the scoreboard on seven or eight, and it was like, it's really Burns, Cam Young, or Ryan Fox, who can win this thing unless Siwu, you know,

figures out a way to stop messing up. So I don't know. That was sort of where I, I, I had a sense maybe he was going to grab it. And I think you ran out and did, I got a bunch of texts of people who went out and bought Burns in sort of live betting. Oh, I love that burns for sure. Yeah. Yeah, it felt like he felt like an even par round today could win once he got to 10. Well, he shot even on the back. Yeah. He just couldn't get the birdie, right? He didn't make a, he didn't make a bogey on the back.

He just couldn't, the par five's in particular. Exactly. He can look back on the par five performance and, you know, circle that is. And that's it. But, but look, I don't, I don't say that to like eliminate the possibility or get down on. It's just like you got to know what you're good at and what you're not. And in that situation, he hadn't handled these things that well. Okay.

So let's do more Shinnakox and see if we can, you know, bust a, bus a 64 or 63 like Cam Young did today and go grab one. I want to give ourselves the opportunity to sort of take this all in because it was really sensory overload over these past four days. It was really, you know, a beautiful way to end major season. it pains me that this is the end of major season. I want one more major. How can we get a major into August?

We got to work on this. FedEx Cup doesn't fire you up. Come on, man. Come on. I mean, I'm happy that we're going to have these events and, you know, come on. Ryan Fox's international player on the President's Cup team now. Well, the President's Cup team keeps improving. I mean, you know, Siwu, Ryan Fox.

Yeah, there's, you know, Adam Scott. Min Woo was pretty effing good at the, yeah, Adam Scott, Scotty, Min Woo. Who knows? Who knows? Yeah, but it's hard to now think about we got to wait till Augusta for this. I mean, the only thing that kept me going today after the World Cup finished was we got football in eight Sundays. Yeah, 236 days to this one. But look, I want to let us go ahead and take in a bit more of the.

sort of afterglow of this one. We will be back on Tuesday because we have some glass half full, glass half empty. I mean, I really am going to, I want to to calm down a little bit. I got Matt all over again about Matt Fitzpatrick. No, Matt Fitzpatrick's going to make you angry. I got to ask you how you feel about this Ludwig performance. We got more to talk about with Rom and Rory. I have no opinion on Ludwig. It's just like, congratulations. Another one. Another one. Good job. Zander delivered about in the way that we thought. I like Ludwig, by the way.

I like him. I think he's likable. I just, you know, go, no dog. No dog in that dude. That's the Sam Burns thing. This is what we talked about. Stan Burns revealed to us some dog. You've been on the fact that Ludwig is dogless for a while.

I chalked it up to some injury, but we don't have that excuse any longer. That's not the case. But we need to really sit down. It's process. by friend some some some some work on this NBC broadcast because we're not doing it tonight we're going to sit back and let you know yeah there let everybody take their swings there's quite a bit of a sentiment out there and everybody the the the Twitter stream is is replete with directions and instructions on how to do this watching the sky broadcast yeah no no you got a spoof of VPN just done the colors better

The commercial load is lighter, on and on, and on. By the way, I like... All of it. I got a text today from my brother. He's like, is it me or are they missing? I mean, 50% of the shots they couldn't find on camera. We blew up CBS at the Masters when they missed that shot coming up 18, and they had no idea where it landed.

We killed them. And today, it was like a regular thing. And I don't have... I don't want to talk about kids. people are going to talk about kids. I mean, it's funny as hell to me that he's scrolling, Twitter searching his name during, that they got so many commercial breaks that he's searching his name

and chirping at people. Great. Go do it. During the broadcast. You know what? I actually think it's a feature. Poor Kyle Porter. Yeah, whatever. And then no laying up. Like, go at it. Like, I love that that's the world we live in. I love that he's responding in real time, I guess.

Whatever. My issue is with the production, and we will talk more about it because, you know, three years ago, House, we were complaining about the lack of technology, about how it felt like people weren't trying. And now, and this is not the on-air personalities that I take it. This is about the production, because the quality of what we're looking at,

and the way that it's assembled, and the way that it's serviced as a product, is noticeably different. And today, to me, when you have, and this is a great thing about competition, you as a consumer get to make those choices. And people who care are spoofing VPNs, and IPs and watching the Sky Sports International feed because it's better.

It just is better. And these guys, and this is a thing that as much as much as the new commissioner has got to figure out what he's going to do to make the competition right in 2028 and where he's going to put these tournaments, he's also got to lay down the law on the quality of this broadcast because it can be better. And I know this is a major and not a normal PGA tour event, but it spills itself all the way through. And there is a difference now.

There is something that's better that I think we should demand in service of this sport that continues to grow. That's way more than you wanted to talk about. But what – No, you're right. Am I wrong? Like, what did I miss? What was your reaction today? No, that.

All I wanted to do is scratch the surface a little bit here because I want to have the benefit of going through and seeing some of how NBC handles some of the criticism that's being. levied? I think the criticism is extraordinarily narrowly fair. The problem is the ratings are going to be good, right? So they're going to be like, well, we're up 30%. So it was an incredible, you know, feed into the World Cup, like just an all-time awesome spot that it occupied on the sporting calendar and a run up to, you know, an event that, however many billions of people watch. So it made me angry. It better have tremendous ratings. It just made me angry, not being able to find those shots. Like you get everybody out.

there and there's this whole thing and we just get and I'm not knocking the camera guys either. I really think it's production. Like it shouldn't sit on the guys in the booth to be like, oh, actually that did find the rough and there's no visual angle of it until the guys are up there. I don't, but Smiley, I thought was awesome. Dude, they handled the Bryson thing that night when Smiley went out there and there's a rock concert, 50 feet away from him and he's hitting these shots and they hung in there and they showed and Todd Lewis did a good job today.

interviewing Ryan Fox, I thought. So again, this is not about the personalities. I actually think all those guys did a pretty darn good job this week. And people can have their debate about kids. I'm not going to talk about that so much as it's just the quality of the production that is the issue that I have right now. Yeah. Well, and a big element of that is the commercials.

That was the single biggest complaint was like the commercial load and the playing through. And it was several commercials in a row for playing through, like, you know. Just missing shit. Yeah. That's it. That's it. Bryson's walk up. You've got to have the audio.

Do we like him or not? Because you know what CBS did? When Bryson and Rory walked out at the Masters playing in that last group, they gave us the audio and all of a sudden we understood the vibe of the moment, right? We had no audio on a playing through where you've got the fucking straight down the middle commercial playing for the 50th time in the last hour. You got to show us set the scene, which by the way, the guys on site, again, Tariko is great. at setting the scene. He understands the history of the game. He can set it up with words so well,

but you need the other things to help make the broadcast what it should be. Yeah. Well, we don't want to end on a sour note necessarily. We're back. We're back this upcoming Tuesday. We will be continuing to enjoy this foxy afterglow. There'll be tons more news and notes. I have a feeling. We'll hear a bit more from Bryson. What did he want to do with that scorecard? The mine can only imagine what kind of activation he was going to undertake. Put it up for sale at Fanatics Fest from this weekend. The world is his oyster. Anything is possible. We had a great major house. We had a great majors this year. And that's the thing we need to be grateful for. Not one was boring on the back nine. Not one was boring on the back nine. That is an absolute true fact. Nate dog. My birdie buddies,

my par saving pals, my eagle enthusiasts. Golf is just getting going, even though the majors are all in the rearview mirror, we still have some playoffs, playoffs and, you know, guys playing for their professional

lives in front of us these next several weeks. So the hits just keep on coming. I hope you are in a place where you can do some hitting. Nate, Doug, did I tell you I shot, I broke 80 today? What? Your story.

Yep, we're out there moving around, moving the ball around a little bit. Are we playing in my hometown in the next couple weeks or not? We're working on it. It's a TBD. But please, if Nate Dog and I are able to play, we're going to hit him straight out there. We wish the same for you. Must be 21 years older, older, and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino, or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming. Gambling problem.

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