Fairway Rollin' - Top British Open Story Lines

Episode Date: July 12, 2021

The British Open is upon us, and House and Hubbard sit down with The Ringer's Kevin Clark to talk about the major story lines going into the tournament (01:06). They also break down the narrative of Bryson DeChambeau's new caddy and why his obsession with image may keep him from playing his best (14:16). They also touch on the notable players not playing in the tournament and whether the Olympics may be more important to them. Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Guest: Kevin Clark Producer: Steve Ahlman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The postseason is here and the Ringer NBA show has you covered with real ones, group chat, the answer, and Ringer NBA post game. Check out the Ringer NBA show on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, friends, and welcome to this major golf podcast. We have done it four majors in 2021. Seven majors in the calendar year. This is Fairway Roar. The Golf Podcasts is the Ringer Podcast Network.

I'm cutting it a little short today, Birdie Buddies, because we have a lot to cover. The fourth major is upon us. It is the Open Championship, aka the British Open. We are doing storylines with our homie Kevin Clark, with our homie Nathan Hubbard. It's a three ball.

We're putting the peg in the ground and we are out there. Kev, Nate, what's up, boys? It's coming home. It's coming home. home. What's coming home? I guess only the British Open at this point. The British Open. Well, here's the thing is, you know, this is sports. It's the highs and the lows.

So the good people of England, they don't get the European championship. But what do they get? Patrick Reed's coming to town. Brian Harmon's coming to town. You know, you got to take the good with the bat. Bryson D. Shambo, all the greats, Daniel Berger. I mean, really, whoever backdoored into the final spot in the John Deere, I haven't even had the shank oh god why don't we just

I'm seeing all these sad faces at Wembley and don't they know don't they know that Bobby McIntyre is playing a tournament just in their backyard well Bobby McIntyre is somebody worth rooting for so so par saving pals just to set the context we were taping this on the Sunday night the

Euro Cup final was just completed penalty kicks and we had about a 20 minute conversation Nate Kevin Clark and I around P.K. as an unsatisfactory way. Everything sucks. Anything. But how about the run that England is on?

Wimbledon, this Euro Cup final right here, and then the British Open all. Brexit. They did that too, right? The Delta variant. Everything's awesome. Wow, Nate. Nate's, what happened? Are you not a Lucas Glover fan? Listen, I love Lucas Glover played very, very well.

I'm actually happy to see him win. that's a very popular win. But we should talk about this open because we have been spoiled House and Kevin by, is it now, seven majors in how many months? Yeah, less than 12 months. It's been absolutely wonderful.

This is the last one until April. So we have to cherish this. It feels like we just did this because we did. But we have to cherish this. We have to treat this with the respect it deserves because we're not going to see this kind of tension until the Ryder Cup, but after that until April. Well, and I'm not ready to give up.

Like, we have the Olympics right around the corner. That will be interesting in its own right. And there are a couple players that we're going to mention who really have something on the line for the Olympics. And then we have the Tour Championship and then we have the Ryder Cup. So there's still significant golf on the horizon. But yes, this is the end of the incredible major run that we've been on. And it does feel right to end it with the British Open.

And since the British Open took last year off, the only one of the majors to not be competed in calendar year 2020. So good, good opportunity to remind ourselves how much we love coffee golf. We love, like a shout out to the shotgun. Yes. I mean, you know, coffee golf is back. We get to wake up in the morning and our PJs. Go get a nice warm cup or ice. I'm an ice coffee guy because it's summer.

Me too. And just enjoy the, you know, the broadcast, right, Kev? I love it. And I'm happy to be, you know, the West Coast, I moved from L.A. to New York since the last British Open. And since the last major, actually. But the West Coast, you can get the tail end of the evening. You can start watching the British Open. And that's amazing. But I would also say East Coast, you get more, more windows. You don't have to wake up as early on Sunday morning to catch it all. So I like this. As my life, the geography of my life changes, how I view the British Open changes. I'm excited for this. one. Well, let's do some housekeeping first, Nate. A few things to knock off. We mentioned Lucas Glover. He wins the John Deere, not in Iowa, Nate, but in Illinois. Not in Iowa. Not in Iowa. It was in Illinois. You could be in Iowa and play it, but it is not an Iowa.

Another veteran on tour, 41 years old, another guy who hasn't won on tour in 10 plus years. And, you know, I'm mad at you, Nate, because you, you talked me into playing Brian Harmon as my one and done. And honestly, I'm not saying that you should have told me Lucas Glover, but you know who you should have told me?

You could have reminded me of Ryan Moore. Yeah. Ryan Moore was staring us in the face. He fits all of the requirements for a one of, you know, he has the course history, that Midwest success kind of thing. He was sitting there and he told me to go with the bulldog

and the bulldog, bulldog me. Look, picking the winner this week, there was no way to do that. This is always one of those tournaments where some Rando wins. What we were right about is that the guys on that threshold of being relegated if they don't make the top 125 or keeping their card if they do, all played really well. And so if you focused on guys like Brian Stewart, if you focused on, you know, some of those guys, Ches Scott Brown.

Scott Brown. All those guys, Chase Seafurt, all those guys hanging around that 125 number played really, really well this week. So if you were thinking DFS, this was a good week for you. I don't know what to tell you.

When the top five guys are like Glovermore, Nah list and a guy named Shank, you know, you know what kind of week you got. It was rainy and awful. This was, look, this tournament is great. The people are good. People love the course, but man, you know, the real hitters were over in Scotland this week. And the question is, did we learn anything?

We didn't learn anything from John Deere other than, hey, you know, Lucas Glover knows how to play golf. We knew that when he won a major title. But the question is, did we learn anything from the Scottish Open this week that is going to give us little tidbits of insight into how this upcoming week is going to go? Well, I'm glad you asked that, and I want Kevin Clark's reaction. For my own part, I very much enjoyed like the recalibration of the visuals, right? Seeing guys in long clothes, seeing like the overall, the color. You know what I mean? The color of the program is different.

And then being reintroduced to the entire European tour, Thomas Detrie, Stud, Lucas A. Bear, stud. Very good golfer. Yeah. So like guys that I'm like not at the forefront of my consciousness until I sit down and start watching a little of the Scottish Open and absolutely enjoying watching the ball, take the undulations of the fairways and everything.

Like just getting reoriented. Just just a wonderful thing. Kev, what's your sense? Okay. First of all, I can't believe you'd skip over Ian Polter like that. You named Dieter. You didn't go.

Ian Polter was right there at 17 under. You don't even shine anything. give him any shine. All right. So my sense is a big picture view for me on the British Open is that the most money I've ever made betting on golf is that took Shane Lowry two years ago. And I didn't do any research. It was right before training camp.

And I did no research. And I was just like, you know, we'll just throw on some Irish guys, some, some Arab and Irish guys, some British guys. They'll, you know, I knock it around over there. And I won. And I learned exactly zero lessons from this. Now, you could learn a lesson that my research makes things worse. You could learn the lesson that a lot of it's all luck.

But no, I press on, both against the current and still do my research, despite the British Open. Probably should have taught me some lessons. I think that I was looking at form of the winners over the past five years. Shane Lowry was a little bit against the current just as far as his form. But really... Here's in Ireland. You can't really count it in that way. But the guys who have won,

actually, it's just like any other golf tournament. I kind of think we sometimes overthink it because it's over there, because the wind is going to be blown and all that stuff. But these guys who come in and win tend to have good form. Molunari finished second of the John Deere.

He'd won the Quicken Lonez a few weeks earlier. Speeth who won the Travelers a few weeks before his victory. Stenson won the BMW. Zach Johnson finished third and six in his two previous tournaments. And so I think sometimes, we look at these courses and we think too much about the bunker play and the wind play. And I'm certainly going to be doing that. I was all over that stuff.

Scambling percentage. San save percentage. I've got some guys based on that. But I also think just like any other tournament comes down to form. And that's why, you know, I was I was playing around earlier with the guys who were best in the wind by strokes gained. Ryan Palmer is in that hunt. Well, Ryan Palmer is finished fourth in the Scottish Open. He's on a few dance cards for me.

And, you know, I kind of think. with stats. There's an old joke that stats are like a hostage. You can get them to say anything, right? And at this course, at this course, you can talk yourself into so many different things, kind of like what I'm talking about. And every time I get excited about, oh, Stuart Sink, you know, he's won a British Open. He's playing well. It cost me $50 and an additional dance cards. I get too excited. But there's just so many different directions you can go on. Kev, first of all, Stuart Sink did not win a British Open. Tom Watson lost a British Open. But the second thing is- How thinks he should have tanked it? I still think that. Oh, I do too.

I do too. But what I want to understand from you is that all makes perfect sense to me, except for the history of this course, where we had 42-year-old Darren Clark win, and we had Ben Fing Curtis win, who is probably the most out of left field major winner of all time. Does that give you any pause as you think about some ghosts on this course that suggest it could be anyone's tournament this week?

I mean, maybe, but Greg Norman and Sandy Lyle were the winners before that. There's not a lot of, there's not a lot of history on this course. They don't play it very often. I get there, we've run. So everybody, I was, I was hearing that it was maybe the hardest of the open courses. Then Gary Player comes out yesterday and says it's the easiest of the open courses and then starts telling a story about. Yeah, but he also had a rant about trees.

I don't. Yeah, he also told a really long story about how some guy hit a, had a ball into a bottle and had to play it at this course. I didn't really track there. But is this supposed to be a hard course? Is Gary Player just off his rocker? No, it is a hard course because I think the cumulatively, there have been only five players across those two opens that finished under par.

Like, you know, 2003 and 2011, only five players finished under par. The thing that I will observe about Royal St. George's is, you know, it is this, the difficulty, I think, comes from the natural undulation of the terrain. It is, has extreme movement in the fairways. The ball is not going to land in a flat place and let somebody. Fairways are scrunched up. And the green complexes, they have like, you know, gigantic greens and they can put the pin in, you know, and a dozen different places on it. But I do, Kev, you walked me into a couple things I want to observe about, you know, some of the common traits of the winners and just sort of get each of your thoughts.

Like the average age since 2011 of the champion golfer of the year is 35.7. And of the last nine champions, all of them played the Open Championship, no less than four times. So it doesn't feel like in the sort of era of golf that we're in right now, that you're going to get just a complete outlier, a Ben Curtis. And all of those winners also had recorded a top 10 finish in the British Open preceding their victory. So like there are some attributes.

You know, there is a, all the last 10 champions have hit over 72% greens and regulation. You have to be top 10 in scrambling. Like some things that feel sort of obvious, but they're also borne out by the data. You agree? I would also say, by the way, we talk about the fluky winners. Ben Curtis wins in 2003.

Vijay is second. Davis Love and Tiger Woods are right behind that. Sergio Garcia is in the top 10. Rachev Kuson's in the top 10. Phil was second to Darren Clark. Phil and DJ. Phil and DJ were second to Darren Clark. So it's not like it was just a Cinderella story.

the way through. So, but House, I agree with you. I've been, I've been overreacting to scrambling percentage all weekend. I got to bookmarked at this point. I don't think it's an overreaction. I think it's necessary. I meant financially. Oh, well, good. I think it's not a tell my wife, we can't make rent because I'm into scrambling percentage. It's a good investment. I really do think it's, it's a good investment. Nate, I want to pick up on another sort of bit of housekeeping. and it does factor into this British Open analysis. And that is the fact that Bryson D.C.M. Bo has a new caddy.

Bryson. Come on down, Brian Ziegler. Yeah. They showed the debut of their relationship. Now, obviously, they've known each other for a while. And good on golf.com. I think it was Luke Kurdineen. Was that who did the interview with both?

Bryson's the playing editor. of that magazine. Oh, yeah, right. Okay. This was, this was, yeah, this was like

Ben Affleck and JLo, you know, being paid by the son to put pictures in, like this was a highly controlled presentation of the new era for Bryson DeShambos. Well,

what they shared, and they got had Tucker also. It was controlled is the right word. Contrived might also apply. But they share that Ziegler has been in training because Tucker has other interests and his own sort of ability to handle the load of Bryson. And literally like the load of Bryson, not just the weight, but also like the hours and the grind and all of it.

He just reached a point where we couldn't do it. Yeah. And we knew we talked about this on last week's show. I just don't believe that you leave being the caddy for the guy who could be the guy to go run buses from the Bend airport to Band and Dunes. You can do those two things. Those are not mutually exclusive activities. So I'm not 100% sold.

I am a conspiracy theorist Tin Hat guy on what just happened, in part because I did watch that dynamic, and it was not all good. And it's really hard for me to believe that a bunch of the public pressure that's come on Bryson, some of which has been warranted and some of which has definitely not, didn't play into this.

And House, as you so, I think, astutely pointed out last week, he choked the U.S. Open. He choked the U.S. Open. And really, in hindsight, that's going to be my memory of that U.S. Open is, you know, ROM hitting the two putts, but Bryson could have won that tournament and probably should have won that tournament.

And I think that that had an impact on the relationship and they all had a cooling off period. and Bryson, who is massively image conscious, you know, worked with his team to make this happen. And Tim Tucker, who is a good guy and definitely has affection for Bryson, played along in this. But there's more than what we just saw. And I think that's part of the reason why a guy who knows Bryson and is part of his coaching team was the one to step in. Because as Bones said on the telecast last week, you cannot just step in off the street and caddy for this guy. it's a different thing than any other golfer on the planet.

Well, it was happy to see that it was a young guy and a guy spry enough to put the golf bag on his shoulder and jump in the pool. And jump in the pool. I still don't know why he did that. But so, Kev, you did a great recap immediately after the match ended Tuesday night. This is the fourth iteration of the match. And you went through some of the aspects of that Bryson and Aaron Rogers dynamic. I have the lowest of low expectations for Bryson this week at the Open Championship. Is there anything in your own assessment of the Bryson situation that makes you think that he's going to be competitive?

I'm of two minds with Bryson here. Number one, I felt like the elevation was getting a little bit to him in the match. And I feel like he was having some trouble with that. You're right. I totally agree with you. It's not a joke. I agree with this. No, no, I really don't.

I think he didn't know how far he was going to go, whatever. And then I ran that pass, a pretty smart golf person. And they said, well, it's also possible he was like the fourth guy in a scramble and his partner's crushing it. And you're kind of just not, you're just trying to crush 550 yard drives, not taking it seriously. Well, I think you're right. He flew the green a lot. As the guy constantly being carried in four, in foursums, I understand. Hey, experimentation of it.

Kevin Clark, don't, don't talk badly about your golf game. The medalist of our outing at Columbia a couple of weeks. ago that all-star outing. You were the medalist. Now, I'll have you out there again and we'll have another opportunity. But with the Bryson thing in particular, and this did cost me, literally cost me money because I loaded up on Tom Brady and Phil Mickelson. I loaded up.

Why did you understand why you did this? You know why? I gave him a chance to get out. You know why? Why? Because I in my heart of hearts did not believe that Tom Brady is a cheater. and now we have irrefutable proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Tom Brady is a cheater. He plays a vanity handicap.

He is a 14 to 16 handicap. There is no scenario. And the scores bear it out and the quality of play bears it out. And I'm angry at myself and angry with the world for gambling in the way that I did. But I do think to go back to Bryson and your observation, Kevin, I wondered aloud with Nate last week, if that match might have a liberating effect, and Bryce is young so we can just sort of rearview mirror all this stuff. Where are we going to land with this this week at the British Open?

I don't think Bryson can rearview mirror anything. And I think that Bryson at this point, everybody maybe except Phil in that match, probably wants a little bit of a different image than they currently have. We've seen Tom Brady get more online over the past couple of months post Belichick. We've seen Rogers, I mean, he's kind of trying to be Mr. Mello, kind of a cowboy type persona. Jeopardy host.

And Bryson's trying to be embraced by the masses. And I kind of think that's a full-time job right now. And I think that he's in his own head about everything. He sucks at his job, if that's the case. Okay. No, no, I was, so his job being, being, being, trying to make us like him. Yes. Yes.

But I don't think he knows how. I don't think he knows how. Right. And I think he's trying. And I think that's why it's really hard for him right now, because we've seen, he said this a press conference. It's not us for reading the tea leaves.

He's, hey, I'm the things I'm doing for the game. I think people are really going to think it's cool. Nobody thinks it's cool. Nobody thinks it's cool. I was one of the five people defending him. I'm one of the five guys who would take a job as his caddy as of last week.

And I'm still, at some points, I'm just like, I can't even watch it. This is cringy, bro. Bro. And so, bro,

I didn't mean to say bro. I didn't mean to say bro. No, no, there's a lot of bro. This is, this is not good. Well,

Let me ask this, though, because first of all, it's not, you're not just one of five people that would be his caddy. No. Mark almost. Mark almost left the rocket mortgage last week to go be his cat. Mark, you think, you guys think you'd be his caddy. You guys wouldn't last one round with Bryson D. Chambu. He texted me and said, I think I might be the first player ever to withdraw from a tournament to go caddy. He's like, I think I can make more.

Well, look, it's not the lasting part, Kev. It's the interest in doing it, the intrigue in giving the, the attempt. I have a question for both of you. So the Omni presence of Bryce and Des Chambot, which really is the story of professional golf in 2020 and on into 2021, I'm not so certain that I'm convinced that he wants us to like him. I just think the point is to constantly be pushing out content that is revealing of a person, a certain aspect of him, the aspect of him that he wants to

share, because we now have, again, irrefutable proof that he's not capable of convincing us to like him. And I don't think he cares, and I don't think he's trying that hard, to be honest. I think I fall with Kevin's earlier point. I think he

wants desperately to be liked, and it's getting in the way of him being great. I think you are right. He doesn't know how to do it, but he's that guy who's in Vegas getting his ass kicked. There are no more aces in the deck, and he just keeps doubling down. Instead of doing what Brooks did, by the way, where he said, fuck it, I don't care. I'll be the heel. I'll be the villain. I actually don't care what people think of me. Bryson really does.

He's that fragile. And we're seeing it. He's trying to control the one thing he can't. He cannot control public perception. He can control his swing. He can control the length of his clubs, etc., etc. All of the science does not apply to how those of us in the general public think about him and it's getting to him. And that is why he's not playing his best right now. Well, Kev, that really does lead us into a very salient point when it comes to the Open Championship, which is the lack of control over the variables. No venue, no event is more subject to the variables that can't be controlled than the Open

Championship, right? Yeah, it is, I mean, the wind is, listen, I know I sound like Golf 101 here, but it really does come down to the wind. And we were talking to Kevin Van Valkyberg a couple weeks ago and he was saying that he's heard it does blow all the time. There's not going to be the hey, where'd the wind go kind of day? It does blow

consistently. It just gets down to what that looks like and how much of an impact it has. So yes, this is, for a guy like Bryson, who wants as few uncontrollables as possible, this might not be the tournament for him. We got no rain this week. That's the good news.

Well, speaking of good news, let's do a little bit of bad news. whole bunch of notable players that are not playing in this tournament for a variety of reasons. A couple of COVID casualties, Bubba Watson announced this morning, again, we're taping this on a Sunday, that he's out because even though he's vaccinated, he had direct contact with somebody who tested positive and he will not be able to quarantine long enough. Well, I don't know. Is it strange, Nate? I mean, isn't it the case that if the incubation period is five to seven days. And, you know, we have no, no, we, we understand that people that have been vaccinated

can still transmit COVID, that that's the protocol that the UK has, right? Yeah, it feels excessive. And to Ricky's very gentlemanly, but, you know, under the radar, sharp comments from a week ago. Nobody really understands this. They're being much more vigilant with the players than they are with the fans. And so I think there's a lot of players who looked at this thing and said, you know what, the hell with it. And so we lost a few players in the process. Nobody who is at the very, very top, but Kevin Nah, who is playing well enough that we might look at him as a momentum type player who you would take in your DFS lineup for sure over there. On this course, he's thoughtful about his short game, so on and so forth. He's out. He's out.

right? Sung jay's out for different reasons as you know I just think this is one where they didn't handle it as well as maybe the tour has in terms of the clarity of who's in and who's out and what the protocols are I mean Hadeki is out because he has COVID so that one's not not complicated let's talk about Sung J and Siwu Kim now see who probably couldn't have played anyways because he withdrew from the John Deere on the front nine with an injury back yeah but both of those guys Korean players announced that they were not going to compete in the Open Championship because they instead wanted to focus on performing well at the Olympics. And that's important to these guys

because meddling in the Olympics would forestall their military service. Let me tell you something. BTS is, the K-pop group, their company went public in, I'm going to say it was October. and the number one risk associated with that IPO in the fine line of the documents that were filed was these guys are going to be subject to conscription in the South Korean army at some point unless the legislature and the government passes something that lets them out. So they have nothing to get out. These two guys in Siwu and Sung-J have one option, and it is not the bronze, not the silver, but the gold medal. So they got a lot to train for. Wow. Matthew Wolf also announced that he's withdrawn, and I haven't seen any explanation for it,

although I think it more likely falls along the lines of the challenges he's articulated, you know, in terms of his own mental fitness and then the combination along with the protocols that seem, you know, unwieldy, I guess is the polite way I'll put it. So that's like the sort of the bad news aspect of it. Kev, who are you most excited to see in this upcoming Open Championship? Wow. Great question. I think that there's a whole host of them. I mean, I do think I'm intrigued to see the Brits. Is Hatton going to go out and win something is? God, he was great today. I really was. I'm permanently intrigued. I was playing golf with a notable golf media member of the day. I don't want to out him, but who's really talking up Tommy Fleetwood, even though Fleetwood is

not maybe the name that you'd expect. I think that Justin Thomas going over and shooting 15 under at the Scottish Open is really interesting to me. And someone like Matthew Fitzpatrick being second in the Scottish Open is interesting to me. I mean, my dance card for the Fairway Rowland thing is actually quite a few Americans. Fitzpatrick is the only Brit on there. I've read, Cantlay, Palmer, Harmon, and JT. But I just think there's a huge pack of guys who can go out and win this thing.

I think that. Harmon is on your dance card? Yeah. I mean, first of all, sixth in scrambling. Okay. Favorite in Iowa and he missed it in Illinois. And he missed the cut.

House and I are going all in on scrambling percentage. We've taken out three loans. Reminder, House went all in on Mickelson, Brady. Nate, I want to do this. We are going to talk about the Fairway, Roll and Doe leaderboard series. You don't know what place.

you're in. How do you not know what place you're in in this thing? Because it's been so painful. Oh, so you're not looking. No, it's been so painful. Kevin is ahead of us. I'm in like in the high 500s or something. Kev, you're like in the 300s in this thing. Out of a few thousand people, by the way, which is

a decent level of competence. I am going to shoot the moon this event with only with a full roster of non-Americans. and John Rahm is not an American and Victor Hovel is not an American for these purposes.

I'm shooting a full dance card of non-Americans. Is Lucas Saber are going to find his way on my dance card? Your goddamn right he is. Lee Westwood, I'm going to figure out a way to get him in there. Detry, sure. Matt Fitzpatrick, you beat me to it. I mean, and Ian Polter is on my list.

You gave me a hard time for not mentioning him when I was doing the rundown earlier. I'm staring at him right now. I'm not taking Ian. I am. He fits a lot of these categories. Hey, what about Dick Bland? Louis top 15 and scrambling, by the way. Louis, another one. We had this conversation when we played together.

I'm still high on him. And by the way, not American. That's why I mentioned him. I know, it's great. That's the way I'm going to play this one out. Nate, who, what are you most excited for next week? This week. It's this week. It's not next week. No, it is this week. I'm excited for a few things. The first thing that I'm excited for is to figure out whether we now have a very clear and uncontested heavyweight champion of the world because Rom is playing great golf. He's shot 16 under. I mean, the winners today were 18 under and Rom is, I think he played better than most than the guys who finished above him this week. And somehow he lost his number one ranking in the world. I don't get it. I don't get it. But when they introduced him as the winner of, of the race for Dubai, the U.S. Open champion, the number one golfer in the world, you're like, okay, here we go. So that's going to be the most interesting storyline is do we have an uncontested heavyweight champion? Then in the mid-tier, hey, we finally got a top 10, as Kevin just astutely observed from Justin Thomas, which has been few and far between since he won the players,

which is a non-existent since he won the players. I think Thomas is rounding into form. He does not tweet or Insta Post about his game specifically, unless it is trending in a good direction. And he did that today. So I'm excited to see how, yeah, I'm very excited to see. That's what Nate has his own filter, the Twitter test. Yep. And I know that I'm about to mention a third American because we already, I would have told you before, Ty Hatton shot six under and it's time for, you know, an Englishman to win this, this tournament. So I think we got to keep eyes on him. But, you know, Listen, there's one guy who didn't play this week, who has won a British Open before.

I know. Who is back in form. Yep. Who you know I love Jordan's. I mean, arguably, he has played the most consistent golf of this calendar year. I mean, he only has one win to show for it, but he's been around. This is a par 70 course. Yeah.

This is his baby right here. It's so true. I'm so with you on. He's off the radar. This is from a betting perspective, the best odds that you're going to get on Jordan Speath in probably the next two years in a major, I think, because he's a little bit off the radar. So you got to jump in.

I'm with you. That's the only American that might sneak his way onto my card. Kev, how are you feeling about Jordan Spee? I feel really good about it. I'm the last guy who was going to hop on the Speed Ben wagon. As I said, there's just so many good Americans. I had made it at declaration at the beginning of the year. I just wasn't going to have Speath.

in any of my bets for anything. And if I miss that train, I was happy to do so. And now I'm coming around on it. I mean, this just seems like his kind of thing. And also, by the way, I mean, this is what we're talking about. You can look at this course so many different ways and see it for so many different people. You know, I was messing around earlier with Joaquin Neiman. And it's like, oh, he can, he can hit the ball low.

They can keep it below the wind. And it's like, you know, you can just kind of talk yourself into anybody here. But I think Spieth is one of these guys where you can look at it from three or four different ways and still see speed. Yeah, I love the aspect of this particular venue that goes along with kind of the Open Championship characteristic that driving distance is is not important. You just, you know, the last 10 winners have averaged around like 24th or 25th in driving distance. And so that gives, and look at the two winners at this place, Ben Curtis and Darren Clark. Like not, you know, now DJ was right there and Phil was right there in 2000.

and 11. Can I ask you about that? Go ahead. DJ, I mean, Data Golf has him falling rapidly as a player. He's seventh in their sort of rankings. We haven't been talking about him for a long, long time. He did make a showing here. Do you have any vibe on DJ? And then the other guy that I want to hear you talk about is the guy who's actually been the best best English player this year. And that's Paul Casey. Do either of these guys have a chance or are they sort of also ran's? who are not going to be a factor this week. I can do Casey first, and then I'm interested in Kevin's thoughts. I absolutely adore Paul Casey and think that he fits so many of the criteria that apply. And he also would fit kind of the narrative of this year's major winner, you know, kind of a class kind of pedigree. Exactly. Coming out of the woodwork, finally getting his thing. Who's been around for a long time.

I mean, he's kind of the English Hedecki in a way. who's been, now, Hedekke's got a different kind of skill set, but I'm just for the purposes of like a guy that's been around the hoop a ton. And real quick on DJ, he hasn't had a top 10 since he won the Masters of November, Nate. So that, that's kind of enough. Like what other data points do we need at this point? Kevin, you have any counterpoint? No, I don't.

I'm a complete agreement. I think that Casey's right in there. He's on a handful of my dance cards. And anybody who knows how to play in the elements who has, decent form this year is in play. And I think it's funny because we talk about, before I have a major, we talk about how there's basically a group of guys

who can win any golf tournament now. And we know who that means. That means Morcala, Hovlin, Bryson, all of these guys who if one element of the game goes correct, they'll win it. And then that's, you know, John Rom. And now because of this course,

that just expands. And I actually feel like there's a bigger group where I go, oh, this makes sense if they win in case he's obviously right there. All right. Well, I think that's maybe the right note. We've hit on all of the context, the storylines for this week. It's going to be an incredible week.

Birdie buddies, par-saving pals. You know how we do it here at Faraway Rowland. Another show up Wednesday. We're going to get down into the nitty gritty. We'll hear what Justin Ray thinks about some of these things we're talking about in terms of who fits this situation the best. We're also going to have, we mentioned a couple times, Kevin Van Valkenberg from ESPN, And our buddy, we're going to get him on here and talk a little bit.

He's going to, speaking of Gary Player, I asked for permission for him to do some Gary Player voice for us. So I think we have that to look forward to. Kevin Clark, always a pleasure, my friend. Thank you for coming on and setting the stage. Maybe we'll do a little bit of our live green room for the old Spotify crowd out there. I think we could get that going this week, right? And Nate Dog, we got some more to hash out here, but an appetizer to this British Open Feast

that is not going to have. We're in England, so we don't have to have any of that garbage haggis. It's coming home. Thanks, boys.