Fairway Rollin' - Scottie Wins the Open!

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

House and Hubbard are here with their recap of the Open Championship, including Scottie Scheffler’s win and how this further cements his ongoing success (00:48). They also touch on Bryson DeChambeau’s performance (06:24), how the LIV golfers fared (21:26), and how the Open affects the outlook for the Ryder Cup teams (28:28). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Producers: Marcelino Ortiz and Eduardo Ocampo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome to this golf podcast, unlike any other. Yes, my friends, this is Fairway Rolling. With an open championship recap here on the Ringer Podcast Network, I am your starter, Joe House, joined by our incomparable accomplice, our PGA tour boots on the ground. He's literally boots on the ground in Truckee, California. because there was a PGA tour event there. That's Nathan Hubbard.

He is coming to us live from Truckee. But we have an open championship to chop up here. Nate Dogg, two pegs in the ground and off we go. Nathan, our buddy Justin Ray calls him golf's most inevitable force. I have no basis for disagreeing. How do you feel? Yeah, I feel like Jordan Speath, The once golden child made the comments of the week after he finished his round and just said,

this guy's unlike any other modern superstar that we've had and that he's just built differently and that his ability to care about winning but not care once it's over is kind of his secret weapon. When you lock that in with a guy who is only Achilles Heel house has been the putter. And we talked coming out of the Scottish that he was first Tied a green and it was just the putter. And we said, you know what? I think this is a solvable problem. And sure enough, he finishes the week first in putting.

And when Scottie Schaeffler finishes first in putting, it's over, house. It's over. Yeah. And he is now well inside the top 25 on tour and strokes game putting over the course of the season. And Scotty himself was asked asked about the puttie. in Scotland and he referenced his relationship with Phil Kenyon that started after the Ryder Cup in Rome and how over the course of that relationship, you know, they developed a nice rapport and he checked in after Scotland and said, you know, I don't really feel like I'm missing

much. I'm just trying to make sure my line is right. And, you know, the difference to me was just acclimating. Really, you know, it's they're they roll 11. That's that's the, that's the as fast as they get over in the UK. And so his lines weren't, weren't off. And he came out and rolled it beautifully. I do want to make sure, you know, as we kind of talk about, you know,

the context of Scotty, that we go ahead and identify all of the places that he occupies now in Gulf history. Because he is the, the third guy in addition to Tiger and Gary Player to have, you know, three legs under his belt through the first four. He has since 2022 the most top fives and top tens. So he's always around the hoop. And there was a very curious comment from John Rom who we will get to in time that I think was trying, it was well-intentioned, but he really botched it. So I'll have a good time. John Rom's expense soon enough because Scotty's excellence has been here really since he

announced his rival winning rookie of the year back in in 2021. He now has 10 consecutive wins after holding a 54-hole outright lead. He has in each of his first four majors where he's How to Not Right Lead, gone ahead and converted that to a win, that streak. Obviously, you know, Tiger has the longest such streak, but those are just some of the high watermarks that this dude has accomplished. And there's, there's much more. We are finally now. And this was a conversation you and I have been having over the last 24 months or so. It's fine to start talking about him in the context of Tiger.

It is, isn't it? This is the one that felt like Scotty transcended. And most of it was because it felt like it was over after sad Friday morning, basically. And so really the talk of the week, he just kept it boring. Even with a double bogey today, it was still boring in its own way. But in the best way, because it was dominant, right? And yes, there's all of these tiger comparisons. But it did feel like even after the PGA,

It was like, okay, he's got three. Okay, let's see. But unlike last year when Zander won two, winning the PJ and the British, this year, when you throw in the two masters and just the way in which he's won these, it does start to feel like we got a potential Mount Rushmore guy. There's just, that's the ceiling now. Yeah. So I will confess, you know, hand up that I thought this was going to be the most difficult leg of the Grand Slam for him to accomplish. just because of the really the difference around the green and the putting. And, you know, there isn't anything in terms of his shot making that I could point to and say why it is that I thought the Open Championship would be the most elusive.

But he, the way he played this place. Now, I will say, this is not a knock. This is not intended to undermine the accomplishment in any way, shape, or form. They got extraordinarily great weather. He got three great weather. weather sort of um both saturday and sunday were great weather days and he got a great weather pocket on friday when he went out and shot his 64 the golf course you know he got uh an early dowsing and he got a later dowsing and both of those had the effect of letting him go ahead and do his thing

which is aim right at flags and and then and then convert on the greens um i didn't yeah so you know yes that that occurred and that did help some other guys i mean um we saw uh a near historical performance by Bryson D. Chambot, who started with his second worst opening round in a major in his entire career, a 78, and came back with a 54-hole performance. That is the second best 54-hole performance in an open championship behind only, Henrik Stenson, who won a dominant fashion back at Trues. So, I mean, you know. And is that, is that glass half full or half empty for you, house. I mean, does that have you believe more in Bryson and his ability to adapt his game? Or do you still believe that when we get weather here and we get wind, Bryson's going to struggle more than he did

this week? Both, but I will say, way more glass half full, enormous glass half full. The full, the glass is all the way for. This is an interesting tournament if he plays better on Thursday, I think. Yeah. I mean, he would have been only a couple holes, shots behind. If he had shot, got even par on Thursday, then he would have been one or two strokes behind Scotty coming in. And this, you know, the conversation we had with Justin Ray at the outset of this week was, you know, we sort of cast this year's majors in the, you know, sort of framework of there's five guys that we feel like can win. And maybe, maybe, you know, that's just a device for talking about these things.

and trying to choose. But it kind of proved itself out a little bit. Part of why we did not have Bryson in that conversation this week. This week it was Rory and Scotty and John Rom. Yeah, sorry for you. Sorry for him. And we'll get to him. But we didn't include Bryson because Bryson hadn't to date demonstrated any particular adaptability.

And this week for whatever. reason. Now he was helped by the weather for sure. But he also, he hit tons of fairways and made tons of birdies and made tons of putts. And he himself said after the round, wait till I get my new ball. When I can start flighting the ball, look out. Because right now he feels like he can't really fight the ball. He can't control it. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I think we saw a lot from him this week. I mean, again, he struggled around the greens. But second off the T and 16th in putting, Like I think, you know, when we started this year, we weren't exactly sure what the separation was between guys coming into the first major season. And coming out of the last one, it's just really crystal clear that there's a group of guys who have separated themselves pretty significantly.

And Bryson's in that upper tier. I mean, I think Bryson right now, from my perspective, is one of the big three. I'm really disappointed in this ROM performance. and I know you are even more having picked him, but after the signs of life that we saw at the PGA and at the U.S. Open, it just felt like John was super due, and he just was not competitive in this.

And when you look at this leaderboard, though, House, I think, you know, weather be damned, it's a great leaderboard. You've got all, mostly, all of the best players in the world sitting there in the top 20, all competing. And it did really at the end sort of help separate. players and it required some creative shot making even with the weather as it was and um this this one this one was a really great open i i i know some people love it when the elements come into

play and and certainly this course's defenses were down but it's not like sheffler set an all-time record it's at 17 under uh he he didn't you know he didn't set the whole place on fire uh what he did do was set the competition on fire this thing just just just wasn't close i mean i don't even really know what the intrigue was, but by the end of it, it was really the NBC guys trying not to glaze him too hard, I guess. Well, there was, there was an effort at drama when, you know, on the eighth hole, three would win in, but like, you know, and he has double bogey and then he immediately does the most Scotty Schaeffer thing ever. And we can now say this, with confidence, he immediately bounced back with Bernie because that's who he is. And that's how resilient he is.

I do want to go ahead and draw a comparison. We will continue to see all. the numbers that validate the idea of Scotty in Tiger's orbit and to Scottie's credit he's like guys you know because they ask them the question at the press conference right hey the numbers are saying you're sort of

in that he's like uh I have four how many did Tiger have he's like I'm a quarter of the way there let's just so to his credit and we will we will also here at Fairway Roland be respectful of that caution Eldrick Eldrick is still

is still the top dog and he's going to be for a very, very long time. The fun thing, though, is there is a very, very close comparison to Rory McElroy. I saw this. This is very good. Through the first 25, their first 25 major starts, each guy had accomplished four major wins and each guy with three legs of the grand slam. Each one, their fourth major, in their 25th start. Now, Rory went from his 25th major start to his 64th major start.

And we sit here today and we see what Scottie has done. And we've seen the consistent excellence of the last three years. And you and I would say without hesitation, he will definitely get his fifth. as soon as possible. Yeah. But life intervenes. Life intervened with, with Rory,

for sure, in many different ways. It doesn't feel like with Scotty that life will intervene. And that is to the, the comment that the Justin, Jordan Speath made earlier. He's a different cat, but. Yeah.

That's it for me, I think. I mean, I think we have talked about, the news at the beginning of the week was that fantastic press conference that he gave that he sort of semi-apologized for or at least reprimanded the media and saying, don't take my,

please watch the full clip. I think some of it was misunderstood. I thought that was universally praised. I don't think he got any shade for that. I don't know, he's not much on social. So I don't know what filtered through to him. But the point is it was incredibly revealing insight into somebody who is so excellent at what they do

that he can actually think about the lack of, the lack of satisfaction that you get from winning a major golf tournament, something that, you know, only a handful of men in the history of the sport have really had the luxury to stop and ponder, right? And I think, but that is, it is his family. It is his faith that I think give him that grounding in a sport that is 90% between the ears. I mean, look at the way the man swings the golf club. It is not something that is going to be taught on a regular basis by instructors going forward. But he's obviously worked his ass off and mastered it.

But I really do think that what gets him to this next level is what's between his ears. And that as Jordan pointed out, there was a moment where he just decided what his focus in life was going to be. And that is the extra club in his bag that, again, Rory and Jordan, both at one point in time had three legs of the slam. And we felt like for sure the fourth one was coming. And these were potential Mount Rushmore guys. I just think Scotty being so grounded in the way that he is so much more mature and wise for his age, I think, than either of those guys were that that's what's setting him apart.

And I think that's what's going to continue this run. I mean, I don't know how is. Is there any doubt in your mind that Scotty Schaeffler is going to win a major next year? There's none, right? He's going to win at least one before. As long as, you know, life doesn't intervene, right? life may intervene. As long as he and Ted Scott are healthy, but something could happen.

You know, like Ted Scott wasn't on his bag in Louisville for, you know, under circumstances that were the weirdest we could conceive of, but less weird. He cut his hand open on a wine glass. Yeah. I mean, there are lots of ways that things could get in the middle of it. But it sure does feel inevitable. Rory wasn't able to defend his open championship after he'd won it in, what was that, 2014, because the dope, we went out to play kick-up.

about with his with his pals and effed up his ankle and missed that that open championship. So, you know, he, Dustin Johnson fell down the stairs at the Masters when he was favored to go in that mask. Yeah. I think, I think if there was any misinterpretation of Scottie's comments, it was conflating dispassion on the golf course for apathy. I agree. There's no apathy with Scotty, right?

Scotty is a killer and he's a shit talker and he's a motherfucker out there in his own way. He wants to kill people. But it comes through dispassionately and he's able to detach, which is, again, I mean, it's just shots gained between the years. He's got everybody beat. And in a week in which Scotty's going to be first, second or third in the greens, it really feels like the rest of the field just doesn't have a chance. And you saw that. I mean, this is, you just said this is his 10th conversion of a 54 whole lead. The most interesting thing for me that we're going to find out through the course of this guy's career is, is he best as a front runner?

Will he have those moments where he reels people in, right? Where he, where he chases on a Sunday and where you go, oh, Scott, we used to talk about Tiger. Well, he's lurking. He's only four back. Tiger. Here comes Tiger. It's almost the opposite with guys here. I mean, Rory, Roy didn't give up.

That's not the right way to say it. But you could tell the air was out of his balloon by the third hole, right? Scottie was, it was over, but through five, right? And Rory kind of just whacked it around. Yeah, that's the beauty of Rory. That is the beauty of Rory. Which is what? You know, you can tell.

He wears it on his sleeve. He shows it. His approach game just wasn't up to par. I mean, he just could not get the, his, his, he had a wedge in his hand several times from yardages that should have been all day yardages. Like, let me go eat. Let this dog. I'm at home. I feel great. I know this golf course. These are my people. Let me go eat. And, you know, he's leaving at 25 feet short. Like, bruh, come on. With the wedge in your hand from 94 yards, you're 25 feet short? Nope.

Ain't going to happen. And I think, I think, you know, off the tea was the concern that we had about him coming in on the weekend. He was 10th on the tee. off the tea today. He was 13th off the tea yesterday. So like all that was good. It's just that Scotty was better. And much better. I don't know. I don't know if you are Rory, if you are Bryson, who probably doesn't ponder this as much. If you are Xander, if you are Rom, what do you step back and go, God, here's what I got to get better at. Like this is the thing he has that I've got to go work on, right? In the way that like Scottie knew he was going to. have to fix the putter to get better, you know, when Rory was talking about the importance of the, of, of, of, uh, Scotty shifting to the mallet, right? I, I just don't know. These guys are all

going to start looking, they're going to start looking for therapists and they're going to start looking for, I don't know. I have a point of view on this. I'll say this. I mean this respectfully, the only one that I think, um, can challenge Scotty's focus is Bryson. Because Bryson does think. it. He's constantly thinking it. And the other things in his life, um, are just golf adjacent things, things that are conducive to him dialing in and having the, the success. And, you know, he, he, he so clearly loves, you know, just being amongst the people now. He's got that as part of, of, of a thing that's in his bag. And it, and it fuels him. And I mean, the scoring, after

Thursday I mean the man had rounds of 65 and 64 this week yeah at a you know at a venue that's not his so and his like I know

5-7-under today I mean it was great I'm going to find a golf ball that works for me like yeah I think that I don't me I'm not casting shade on Rory I will cast a little shade on ROM, but like, you know, Xander, Zander got hurt. Like it's not a lack of focus for Zander.

It took him a while. And things are going on in his life that will come, you know, reveal themselves soon enough as well. I think Zander's going to have an awesome rider cup. I think Rory's going to have an awesome rider cup. I love where Rory's head was at this week. He was tremendous. He finally showed all of the,

comfort, I don't know, whatever. The, the, the press relationship was good. His sentiments were, were thoughtful. He was back to the old Rory. And it came, you know, by way of, you know, we saw some of it at the Scottish as well. Yeah. But it was the full kind of Rory experience. He just didn't have his A plus game, which he needed to compete properly with Scotty this week.

Let me, let's talk about John Rom real quick because we're in this, this conversation. He is in, you know, real danger of just being a guy that's good at majors that might get lucky enough to win one. And I will say this, I do wonder, I'll wonder out loud. And I mainly think about it in the context of a guy like Tom McKibben. And why am I talking about Tom McKibbon and John Robb? Well, live the week before the Open Championship at Royal Port Rush was not in the UK, not anywhere near the UK. They were in Spain. They played, you know, the Andalusia Open or whatever it was. And there is, while yes, it is in Europe, it's a different style of golf, a different type of golf. Everybody that

played in the Scottish Open had an advantage, in my humble opinion, over the live guys. And that is, you know, I'm not here to dunk on the live guys performance this week, but the live guys, not only did they not get a major, this major season, but this golf tournament, they were not, you know, Bryson's brilliant performance, you know, unique performance, really was the one thing you can point to. I mean, very disappointing fade by Tirol Hatton, who we really liked a 72 on Sunday. And, you know, really, look, Dustin Johnson finished tied for 23rd. Dustin Johnson beat John Rom by three strokes in this golf tournament.

If you're John Rom with the talent that he has, this is my quibble. It's a squandering of, there's only four of these a year. There's only four majors a year. And he's not playing in the players champion. which is another way to add luster to your career resume. Scotty will forever be a guy who has two players with back to back players. And Scotty will always be a guy who has a gold medal and beat John Rom. He did.

This is the only one, I will say. He did hunt down John Rom at the Olympics and go grab the gold medal. That would be my only sort of example of a place where he came. Now, he was so far back that it wasn't really, you know, mono-e-mano. kind of situation. And so we're looking forward to to one of those where he's down four strokes and in either the penultimate group or the final group. But the ROM thing that bothers me is is the putting. He was bad putting and he was negative strokes gain around the green. Well, those are the things where playing it acclimates you, right? Like, Links golf is a unique

kind of thing. And the Livtor has the capacity. If they imagine themselves to be, you know, kind of the world tour, if that's the space that they're going to occupy, then please get something on the continent. Please go get something over there, right? I think it's fair. I think it's the kind of thing that Scott O'Neill is going to do some thinking about. They've obviously got all the sponsor obligations and so forth.

But, like, it's just not good enough. Like, these guys are, I mean, the thing for me about Jordan's comments today, listening to him talk about Scotty with such reverence was you kind of got the feeling that Jordan Speeith may never win another major. And that he kind of understood that, that maybe time weirdly had passed him. I can't imagine like thinking that five years ago, but it sure is what it feels like right now

because there just is this level of excellence. And you've got these young guys who are coming in every year into the game. Yeah. Who knew Chris Gotter up before three weeks ago? Right. And you're going to have your job. Jay J.J. Spawn. And by the way, JJ, I thought, acquitted himself very well this week. Great. Great. And is super deserving the Ryder Cup team. But like, you're going to have a JJ Spawn moment where some, you know, he grabs a major. You're going to have one of those now and then. And there just, there just isn't enough space for some of these guys who even just five years ago, we were thinking, well, this could be an eight, nine, ten major player by the time their career is over. Suddenly they're getting boxed out. And so, yeah, on the live side of things, I think they got to organize, look, there's two things at play there.

One is they signed some names in the early days who now this far into the experiment are past their prime, right? And so there probably isn't as intense a competitive, you know, opportunity at some of those events. But I do think you're right, that there are still great,

brilliant, beautiful players, including, you know, the guy who, in my estimation, is the third best player in the world right now. that's that's bryson and and and you know he's got a shot to be to be second any given day right so um i just think that they're going to have to think about how they prep their guys for these events because this is really the main stage and other than bryson we just haven't seen a guy really push all the way through the glass half full for the live guys was the um it was old timers week

henrick stenson um played well uh philly mick made the cut yeah right phil right exactly um Sergio tied John Rom for the turnout. Sergio is trying to make his bid. Broke his driver. Right, right. Amazing, considering that he broke it very early in the round. On the second hole. Yeah.

Yes. So shooting a 68 driver, let's say, that was pretty. Maybe he deserves a little extra. Lee Westwood, Lee Westwood siding. I mean, he, except for the 73 today that really took him out of. I mean, he was angling for a top 15 outcome at this. this tournament. So fun to see. On the other hand, Wachin Neiman misses the cut. Like, bruh, you know, don't, don't anybody waste a breath. Don't, you know,

Cam Smith, only guy to miss all four cuts, to play all four majors and miss all four cuts this year. Please miss me with those dudes. Please. Yeah, there's just, there's enough, there's enough evidence that suggests that the breaks or the not playing or the level of comfort, something is not prepping really great golfers to perform their best in these majors. And hey, that's okay. That's a, that's a competitive thing that the live guys in Scott O'Neill and the team will certainly think through. And it'll be interesting to see what adaptations they make. Listen, I imagine if you're ROM, you go home right now and he's a competitive motherfucker. It's going to burn in him in his own way. And I think he'll do some reflecting. And I bet the live guys hear from him on some ideas

for how he could be better prepared. I love that. But also there's a redemptive arc staring us in the face, which is I want to transition to this portion of the conversation. If he arrives at Beth Page Black and is ready to go kick a whole bunch of ass, then he could rewrite the tale of his season in 2025. And the same definitely true. Now, Tyrell Haddon was good.

I mean, Timor Al-Hatton, he fell off today, but his performance at the U.S. Open was excellent. And his performance most of the week here at the Open Championship, what was quite excellent. And so both of those was not good enough. Yeah. Yeah. That's all. Both those guys, you know, can, you know, on behalf of the Europe side, make a pretty impressive

conclusion to their season, put themselves back on sort of the, put the golf world on notice, put themselves back on the mat. And I think that probably the most interesting part of this entire. championship besides the sort of transcendence and or ascendance of scotty to to the sort of mount rushmore ceiling is the rider cup i mean i'm looking at this top 20 oh it's juicy baby and harris english locking in the second place solo puts him on the rider cup team he is on the team brough chris goderup uh solo third, you know, Jersey boy hits it far. I don't know that he's on the team, but you got to at least think about it. You feel good about Zander. You feel good about Bryson. Russell Henley, as you

told everybody, top 10, he is playing this Ryder Cup for sure. He is in. But there is this handful of guys who are could-bees who have not done this before. And I think Keegan has got to be stepping back and thinking, all right, what do I do to shake this up? He's got some interesting choices to make house. I mean, I don't know if you have taken a look at what the revised world rankings are, but do you know who the fourth best player in the world is according to the world rankings? No. It's Justin Thomas. Do you know who the sixth best player in the world is according to the world rankings? It's Colin Morikawa. Yeah. So this is, I'm not going to, I don't want to have any this conversation.

The conversation I'm willing to have is looking at the rankings for the Ryder Cup because they're scoring, yes, it derives from the world rankings. Yes, it does. Sure. But if you're not in the top six, then these numbers, and JT, finally, you know, JT's been,

he has not been good at the majors. And so I'm glad that when he finished, 34th, tied 34th. Okay, good. Yeah, it's not great. He's still inside the top six. The point of this, for me is there's a bunch of could-bees.

Like, Kagan has free reign with his captain's picks to go weird. And I think he might go weird. I mean, I think he's got to have some scar tissue from when they picked the old faithfuls and picked Thomas and picked Spieth last time. It wouldn't surprise me to see him go and say, you know what, I'm going to take a guy who's playing well right now. Remember Lucas Glover won two golf tournaments in the playoffs two years ago and did not get added to the team. That was a hot hand that they

basically picked Speeth over or Sam Burns over, right? And I look at this now and say God, this is going to be enough of a hodgepodge of a team. What if Keegan goes super deep and just says, I'm going to take Goddra up because I'd rather, yes, Wyndham Clark just played well at the

British, but he's 22nd in the rankings. I don't know that I can trust him. He didn't play great in Rome. You know, I'm not going to go to my bag and grab him. I'm shaking my head at Windham. But here is the truly juicy aspect of what you're describing, which is these next two tournaments, which are the Minnesota 3M and then Sedgefield for the Wyndham

into the playoffs, like these next four golf tournaments, let's see who plays like the Ryder Cup angling. Because the names that came out of Keegan's mouth, the guys he said, I'm glad to see them play well, were Brian Harmon and Harris English. And so from my perspective, I think that Keegan would very much like to have both of those guys on the team in no small part because it does seem like it would be best suited for Beth Page to have as few rookies as possible. And there are two rookies baked in right now. J.J. Spawn is a Ryder Cup rookie.

Russell Henley is a Ryder Cup rookie. Now, Russell has played for the president. Ben Griffin is eighth. Well, Ben Griffin missed the cut. And I understand. I'm just saying he's eighth and you like the rankings. He's eighth in the rankings right now on the rider. And Matt McNeely is 11th.

And Andrew Novak is 13th. You're going to have a lot of rookies. Or Sam Burns, who's sitting there at 15th in the rankings, who finished tied for 45th, goes out and kicks ass at either one of these pre-play off events or kicks ass in the playoff events up to the Tour Championship. And Sam Burns puts himself squarely back in the mix. Jordan Speeth, I feel like is too far out now. I just don't think it can happen.

I don't think it can happen either. It's inconceivable, but Jordan Speeth is not going to be wearing the colors. Rest in peace, Captain America. For a minute there, it seemed like it was going to be a fun conversation about Patrick Reed. He missed a cut. It never was. not playing in the Ryder Cup. One of the things, what are your thoughts now on Colin Warcawa?

What are we going to do with Colin Warcawa? Yeah, I mean, I think that's why I looked at the world rankings. It's why I looked at, I mean, he's going to be on the team. And I don't know how much he's going to play. Unless he throws up all over himself over these next five weeks. I think the next four weeks are going to tell us a lot. And that's going to be whether he basically plays once and then the singles match or, or whether he gets inserted back into it.

He's obviously been struggling and he's tearing through caddies. Let's see if he takes the next month to write the ship. Patrick Cantley sitting there at 14th on this list. Now, this list will be revised. We are taping this immediately after the Open Championship so we can revel in Scotty's greatness. We'll see these numbers that will take into account the meteoric rise of Chris Gottorup

and some of these guys that missed the cut. Cantlay is, I would suspect, going to drop from 14th. I don't know how far down. But yeah, Andrew Novak did make the cut sitting there at 13th, but he finished tied for 63rd. Like, you know, are we, Mavrick McNeeley finished tied for 23rd, and he's in that 11th place. So like, I'll say this.

Cantley Burns Glover are lurking there. Yeah, I'd want Cantley on the team if I was Keegan. I think his performance last time, he was a dog and they're going to need some anchors given that there's going to be some new and fresh faces who we don't know whether we can trust them in that situation. Yeah, yeah. Tony Fienel is a 20th.

Anyway, we'll see how some of this. I know. I feel like a hard no to me as well. The European side feels formidable. And this has been sort of rounding into form here. It's all guys that we keep seeing and around the leaderboard and and here comes you know matthew fitzpatrick uh with an outstanding performance trying to i mean their side is rory tommy who who you know remember went five and oh

in in in in france or in yeah in uh yeah in france that's right uh robert mcintyter terylap straca multiple time tour winner sour shane lowry what do you do glass half full glass half empty for sour shane lowry this week. I don't. I think it's, I think it's half empty. I do. I think he's struggling with a short game still and it hasn't been great, but he's going to be on the damn team. That's for sure. And I think you're going through these names. I mean, I think they're locked up through 11 because I totally agree. Keep going. Rasmus Hoygard is on the team. Justin Rose is on the team. Ludwig is on the team. Lund is on the team. Now let me ask you about Victor. John Rom is 11. Let's hit pause on

Victor for a second. Victor, the only thing with Victor is I could see him self-selecting his way out. In the sense that he has the conversation with Luke, he had 3-73s. He won a golf tournament not long ago. I know. It's so weird. I don't know what to do with the guy.

He is weird enough to select out, but don't forget, he was the guy that made that put on the first hole in Rome that kind of just shut everybody up. He's on the team. I take your point. He's on the team. But you're almost at the drama.

The first 10 guys are on. Rom is 11. He's definitely on. And so the question is who's taking the 12th spot? And Matt Fitzpatrick, the last couple weeks, has been telling us it probably should be him. But if it's him, then Thomas Dietrich's out or, you know, Thorbiorn Olson or, you know, some of these other guys. I think their squad is locked at 12. And it's a pretty good 12.

That's the thing. lot of wins across that 12 this season. And I think they're going to be well suited. It's a bunch of guys that have that experience from Rome to point back to. And all of the chemistry that they built up there, they're basically running it back. Yeah. I mean, Nikolai Horgard was T-14 this week.

He was the guy that they pulled on along with Ludwig. Yeah. At the last Ryder Cup, he did not perform very well. But I, you know, I don't think a T-14 gets you up the rankings on the team. So I really think they're 12 are pretty well locked at this point. I think it would be really hard for them to not take Fitzpatrick based on his recent form. I totally agree. I want to talk about a couple other performances, glass half full, glass half empty kind of guys.

I think we're in lockstep that we liked, you know, Zander with yet another top 10. he finished tied for seventh. You know, feels like he, if he won... Can we bet him in East Lake already? Yeah, right. I'd be doing right now.

Yeah. So let's see, as soon as the Tour Championship odds open, because reminder to everybody, there is no handicap start to the, it's not the net event at the Tour Championship anymore. Somebody's going to walk in. You're starting at zero and go out and try and win the golf tournament.

How about, Ricky Fowler. Yeah, I mean, nice to see him playing well. Just like Hoygard, he's T-14. It's not enough to get him in the conversation, but I'm happy for Ricky. He put well this week.

The approach play was not good, but the rest of the game was really great. And, you know, yeah, he's one of those guys who these last month of the season. Maybe he can make a run. He's not going to be on the Ryder Cup team. Fine. I can live with all of that.

I'll let you go. I know that you're about to make a move. We hear at Fairway Rolling. We'll be in your feeds in the ringer gambling feed. Nate and I doing some picks for some of these events leading up to the Tour Championship. And as the Tour Championship arrives, we will be back on this feed with our forecast. Maybe we can nail down Justin Ray to help us walk through some thoughts on it. Some bonus Jay Ray this season.

We are really getting ready. honestly, for the Ryder Cup, because that's what it's all about. And all of the machinations between now and September, it's just about Beth Page Black. The last, I want to go through, how did you feel about where we landed in terms of our observations around who? Did you give out Scotty? Is that who you gave as the winner for this thing? I said, I said my head is Scotty. Just to zag, I'm going to, because I hate those odds, I bet Rose, but I also said, let's definitely make Rose a top 20 and he was a top 20. There we go.

That was a great job. But yeah, Scotty, nobody gets credit for picking Scotty Shetler to win the open. Sorry. That's why we didn't do it. We couldn't come up with any reasons. Not to other than, you know, tiny bit of,

of it's the one that he hasn't, you know, gone out and kicked ass out yet. Yeah. But yeah. I obviously regret John Robb. Matt Fitzpatrick was somebody you talked about. We talked about Justin Rose

in the top 20. We talked about Russell Henley for top 10. So I feel decent about our observations. I think when you look at this leaderboard, the guys at the top are the guys who played the best this year. And as you said, there are some American flags in particular near the

top of the leaderboard of guys who it's going to be pretty hard to leave off this team. It's going to be a delightful sprint to this Ryder Cup. Nate Dogg, get yourself safely back to home base. Thanks for for checking in. Who's going to win? I mean, you'll have your opportunity. Forecast right now.

Everybody will be listening to this tonight and tomorrow. Who's winning the Barracuda? I think it's going to be Ryan Gerard. I really do. And he's been playing great golf lately, and I think he's going to win. The name we've been seeing. I thought about getting invested in a little Eric Van Royan, a little live market, but my man Gerard is out there cooking. So let's look for that. Nate Dogg, always a pleasure. My birdie buddies, my par saving pals, my eagle enthusiast. We'll be back. Look for us.

We'll let you know what feed we're going to be in. Nate and I can't stay away from this portion of the golf season. If you're able to get a peg in the ground, please let's hit us right up there. 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. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Hall.com. Call 188-789-777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MD gambling help.org in Maryland.

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