Fairway Rollin' - Top Competitors and Stats of the British Open

Episode Date: July 14, 2021

With seven majors in the past year, House and Hubbard are ready to break down all the greatness of this year's British Open. First they are joined by ESPN senior writer Kevin Van Valkenburg talk about favorites and how Jon Rahm's temper can factor into his performance (01:34). They are then joined by Justin Ray to talk about the best stats to look at and what will be key on your dance card (36:27). Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Guest: Kevin Van Valkenburg and Justin Ray Producer: Steve Ahlman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Flying Coach is back for a second season. Peter Schrager and Rams head coach Sean McVeigh are joined by guests from around the sports and entertainment world. They're discussing the latest NFL news, telling stories from their careers, and breaking down games from their unique perspectives. Check out Flying Coach Season 2 on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, friends, and welcome to this major golf podcast. Unlike any other, this is the Open Championship Edition of Fairwell. We're rolling. The Gold Podcasts on the Ringer Podcast Network.

It is the Wednesday before a Thursday major, and we are getting down like it's the last major of the season. I want to cry. We've had so many great majors, seven majors inside of 12 months. It's been wonderful. But my birdie buddies, we have brought all the big hitters out.

Kevin Van Valkenberg from ESPN is on to help. with storylines and some of the ways that he's feeling about some of the angles here. And of course, it's not a major unless we have Justin Ray from the 21st group on to help break down some of the analytics. My birdie buddies, the first tee is wide open. We are getting over there. The peg is in the ground. Let's just get swinging.

All right, my eagle enthusiasts. Our first guest today is a guy that we have admired from afar. For a while now, he has a long and deep relationship with golf. He's been doing thoughtful golf writing and making podcast appearances on every golf podcast, except for this one. I finally bribed him with a round of golf here in the nation's capital. And he agreed to come on. Kevin Van Balcaberg, welcome to Fairway Rowland. Guys, that's awesome.

I was struck by something you said, you know, mired from afar. that's like gorgeous from 100 feet away. I like to, that's what I've been striving for my whole life. Nobody get too close to look at me and they just think I'm fabulous. KV, this is one of those first time, long time. We've been watching it and I should be ESPN senior writer. And I want to congratulate you because your story that went up,

we're taping this late Tuesday afternoon of Open Championship Week. But the week began with an unbelievable story on ESPN. dot com, ESPN the magazine, ESPN cover story that you wrote and did a little TV piece as well, a produced piece on Trey Mancini, the Baltimore Orioles hitter, who, God bless him, gave Pete Alonzo everything he wanted it in the home run derby. So congratulations. It was an awesome story. Thank you. It was pretty cool to have that kind of play out as it did. You always kind of want an athlete, if you've just written about them, to at least not, you know, trip over themselves and stuff and

Trey kicked ass in the derby. It was awesome. He and his girlfriend Sarah were just super open with us about everything they'd been through. So it was a neat thing to when you get somebody who can really share their lives

with you and have no kind of reservations about you know, the kind of the most intimate dark moments of something like cancer, it's a pretty cool thing for a writer. So I definitely, I was lucky and fortunate.

that they were at that. So thank you. Yeah. Well, it was, it was moving and touching. And honestly, even though he didn't win, still feels like kind of a happy ending vibe, at least, with the home run derby performance. I mean, all the way back into the national consciousness. So very good. Speaking of the national consciousness, you just last month, hand an open letter to the USGA, imploring them, begging them. USGA, please, pair, Brooke. Kepka and Bryson D. Shambo together for the U.S. Open.

Now the USGA being the weak need, souls that they are didn't do it, and the RNA, God bless them, was not up to the task either. But Brooks and Bryson once again, here we are on the eve of a major championship, and they are capturing many, many, many headlines, deservedly so because they are saying things about each other, and it's wonderful.

I saw you on the tweeter today, today commenting a little bit. The cringe worthiness of Bryson DeShambo. Well, let's begin with this. So Nate and I, this is obviously for us also being a golf podcast, a longstanding conversation we've been having around Bryson and his comfort in his own skin and his role in this so-called feud. What's your sense of where these two guys are at and where we might be headed?

You know, I don't think it's like they're going to fist fight each other. I don't think that a lot of their whole deal is sort of bluster. You know, it's like two animals in the wild that peacock up and want to just seem tougher than they are. I think one of the things that I really, kind of the whole reason I penned that sort of open letter was to kind of just point out that they're more similar than they really would like you to believe. They like to sort of act like their opposite sides of the coin, but they both kind of really, like to be told how wonderful they are and how tough they are and how innovative they are. And they're just different. They go about it different ways. I think the truth about Bryson, I think, is that he is really interesting, even if it's sort of a nerdy way about it. I mean,

nothing, no one benefits if all golfers are exactly the same or if no one says anything interesting. And so even Bryson's cringy, like, I'm going to thank all my sponsors before I, you know, even sort of talk about what happened. And I'm going to drink muscle milk in between, you know, shots because, you know, I'm going to sort of talk about I'm drinking seven protein shakes a day. That's all kind of fun, even if it's just for people like us to kind of laugh at. And so I don't mind that at all. Bryson's weird delusions, I think, are what's part of what makes him both.

annoying but also kind of worth talking about right and so we were talking just a little bit on today about how you know someone it's always funny when american players go over to england for the british open and the standards of media i think particular golf media are always just a little bit different because you get like these english reporters who just truly don't care about asking like some potentially embarrassing questions or or kind of putting guys on the spot and so they'll ask them stuff that will kind of throw them on their heels a little bit. And so, of course, someone said, you know, why don't you ever shout for? And Bryson got very defensive.

You know, I show up all the time. You're asking a very controversial thing. Like, you know, the pearl clutching from golfers sometimes when you ask basic questions that any NFL player or NBA player would handle easily is always kind of funny to me. And so, I don't know, I just, I feel like sometimes, I just want to like both give Bryson a hug because I think he needs friendships, but also tell him, you're being a dick on some things.

You're really clueless about a lot of this stuff. And I don't think you have anybody in your life to kind of tell you that because everyone surrounds you seems to kind of be on the payroll or on the take. But that was the point that you made today that I think is an interesting wrinkle in the conversation. Because what House and I have been talking about

is, first of all, there has to be some residual mental damage from the U.S. Open Melt where we both feel like he really should have won that tournament. Secondly, you know, this is a guy who, you know, he just, I mean, I guess he does not really, in his own mind, I think, understand how his perception translates to reality. Like, he wants to be loved. He wants it.

You can see that he wants it. And he keeps trying sort of doubling down on the wrong things. You introduced this notion, almost like this Trumpian notion, that the guy has surrounded himself with yes men who hype him up and get him to swing an extra mile an hour in his house, but don't tell him that the video of that is the wrong thing to post. Do you think there's anybody in his orbit who tells him he's wrong? I kind of wonder, honestly, if like, and this is a total speculation on my part,

but, like, he just split up with his caddy, who had been sort of an essential department. part of his golfing existence. Was it Tim? It wouldn't surprise me at all if Tim Tucker was one of the few people who sort of said, like, no, do not try to hit a nine iron 215 yards on this. Like you might be able to do that in a simulator,

but this is not the time to pull it off. And Bryson just, you know, recoiled in anger about some of those kind of things. Because, you know, we don't have to practice until two in the morning, Bryson. Like, it's not beneficial to us at this point. And I think, you know, is athletes, so often find themselves, I think a lot of great athletes, surrounded by people who so enjoy being in their orbit that they're super quick to just kind of enable them and say, yeah,

yeah, Bryson, whatever you think, that's awesome. Like, let's totally post this Kings and Leon video. Yeah, let's do it. Right. And so honestly, right now, I don't think there's anyone in his life who's going to tell him that. Brooks is very thoughtful when you get him in long form interviews. Do you think he has anybody who tells him, there was a moment here where he was starting to look a little bit like the bully trying to stuff the nerd in the locker, right? And he seemed to ease a little bit off the accelerator on that until maybe today, although most of his comments today were basically saying, leave us

alone. We can play together on a Ryder Cup team for a week and it's not going to be a problem. But do you see anybody in Brooks's or is it Jenna who's telling him, you know, bringing reality to his world? Does he have that thing? It could be. I think, you know, his braille, when you grow up, I think playing team sports, which Brooks did. He played a lot of baseball, and he was sort of a kind of a more stereotypical jock. You got a younger brother who you've been sort of wrestling and feuding with and giving grief fun. And his dad, too, was, you know, someone who I think told him, you know, you're being obnoxious on some things.

I've had long conversations with his dad at majors about various things. And so I do think you're right about Brooks. Like, he is very thoughtful when you, you know, press him on certain things. He doesn't like to, like, grab a mic and be like, here's, you know, my thoughts. But, like, during the Black Lives Matter stuff, he was one of the first golfers who who served up and said, hey, you know, we need to listen. And this is a sort of important conversation. And, you know, then you hear stories about how, like, you know, when Cam was walking,

And why you might not remember his name, the golfer hits it forever. Camp Champ. When Camp Champ was walking around at one of the tournaments with Brana Taylor on his shoes, like some of the other golfers were like, well, who is that? I've never even heard of that.

So you understand that like a lot of these golfers inhabit their own weird bubbles of just like they have no interest in any social issues. And so to hear like Brooks kind of be willing to take the lead on some interesting things like that, I think was sort of show. shows that Brooks, he may not be volunteering with, you know, sort of his opinions on a lot of stuff, like without being asked. But when he does, he has kind of thought deeply about it. And I don't really,

I don't quite get the sense that Bryson does any of that kind of stuff or reads the news or does anything but sort of, you know, play Twitch and lift iron and try to hit, you know, reach 205 miles an hour ball. But so, so with all this shit, can either these guys win this week? They're the story, but are they the story because they're talking about each other, or do we really think either these guys can win this week? I think Brooks could win. I think Brooks is able to, one of the things that makes Brooks so good in majors is he's super patient.

He knows, you know, he has the discipline to play away from stupid pins. He knows that like just because you have a kind of a rough stretch doesn't mean that you're totally out of it. Whereas Bryson, you know, I think he's really good at like golf that would be played in a dome. golf that we played in a simulator. And that's the complete opposite of what Link's golf is. Link's golf is knowing like, God, I hit a perfect shot there.

It took a weird, firm bounce, and now he's been up against the lip of a giant potmunker, and I have to accept that and chip out backwards. Whereas, I mean, can imagine Bryson, you know, hitting into a bunker, getting a bad break? It goes up against the lip and him being like, well, then's the brakes. No, he'd be like complaining the entire walk up there.

Like, because it was a perfect shot. It was an absolutely perfect shot. And so I don't get the sense like with speed will do that, but it's like I need to vent all these things and get them out and so that I can reset and all of a sudden I'm, I have a clean slate. Whereas Bryson, it's sort of like builds and builds and builds.

And that's what I think we saw at the US Open during the sort of meltdown. It was like, oh, I got a bad lie because I hit in the rough. It's so unfair. Well, no, that's exactly kind of how it works. Like the rough is meant to be a total like Plinko game of randomness. Your strategy is to hit it there.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that what's true about St. George is that it blows all the time. There's not necessarily like a good draw versus a bad draw at St. George's. It's just the wind is ever present. And part of the thing that, like, it's a variable that I don't know that Bryson can control. It's like the wind is going to pull the ball 10 yards left. And so I have to accept that.

And I still think that he's kind of in that like early arrogant American golfer stage that Mickelson was in for the first 10 years of his career, which is like, God, I hit this perfect shot. It was like this towering, you know, six iron to this back pin. And it came up 20 yards short. I don't get it. Well, you have to kind of get kicked in the face a lot of times in Link's golf to really understand it.

I think if Bryson never goes through that evolution, I think we're still like in the most early parts of it. I actually think that the same thing is true of Justin Thomas, who I think is super talented and has all the shots. But for a long time, just like was really good at like, I'm going to hit it as far and straight as I can. I'm going to hit the next shot, like as hot. like as high and straight as I can,

then I'm going to roll in birdie punts. And that's why he was so good at like Quill Hollow and Firestone and some of these courses that don't ask you a lot of different things. And you can see like Justin Thomas's evolution of like, he has a really smart golfing brain, but he's had to kind of learn to accept like, all right, this is the right shot to try at this moment.

And this is the shot to kind of be calm and safe with. And so I think almost all American golfers, unless they're like speeth and they're sort of born for this stuff, had to kind of go through that sort of, learning process and Bryson is just nowhere near like the the actual learning yet. And maybe never will be. Maybe no one ever tell him like, look, dude, in order to be contend in British opens, you have to be able to do this and this.

You know, I guess I just don't, I'm not sure that he has those kind of people around him. But the careers are long and as long as he doesn't blow his back, maybe it'll come about. Well, what I'm interested in is maybe it doesn't need to be people, right? Maybe it's just the experience. He doesn't have a ton of experience in Lynx golf. and he frankly doesn't have a ton of experience in international golf. And that is to me the one place where Brooks has the decided leg up. Like it's not even close between Brooks and Bryson at this venue.

Brooks left college and went to Europe and lived in Europe. And, you know, he has a natural emotional intelligence that is far superior to Bryson's. And it has helped feed his success across the board in the majors. and in a whole variety of different venues and a whole variety of different kinds of conditions and just to the point you're making which is so astute about Bryson he may yet get there

but he needs to get out of his own head for a little bit like the thing he'll never win at Augusta as long as he's stuck in this place like the thing that he doesn't possess it seems to us and we've talked about this a fair amount is is the ability to appreciate the artist's of golf. He's he can't he needs to get outside of the mechanics and get into the to the art of it.

And a lot of that does, I think, boil down to the emotional resilience of being confronted with what golf delivers, which is kicks in the nuts, relentless kicks to the balls. And when you've gotten kicked in the balls and you've doubled over when you stand back up, what kind of frame of mind are you in? Like, you know, are you, was that unfair kicking the balls or was it like, that's, that's a life kicking the balls? You know, that's, that's, that kind of vibe. So go ahead. I'm just always so like I in kind of in awe of Brooks Kepka's like golfing education, right?

Like it's it's kind of what you like as a parent would like dream for your kids. Like, all right, go off and be an adult and figure it out. That's what his dad would say a lot is, you know, he, he wanted to do this. He didn't, you know, he didn't get through the qualifying school. So it was like, here's your route to figuring this out is either go on the challenge tour, go on the cornfrey tour or whatever. And he was like, all right, I'm going to go to like Kazakhstan and play in these things, I'm going to go. He played, I remember talking about a tournament in Kenya where it's like,

well, what food are you going to eat tonight? Well, the only food is local. Like, there ain't no McDonald's here, man. Like, you've got to figure it out. And so you're right. Like, there is a sort of an undercurrent of worldliness to Brooks. And I think that, like, with that comes an appreciation of different cultures, a different golf, of different people and different attitudes. And yeah, like Brooks can be a little bit broish, jockish kind of, but it's really only Bryson that he behaves that way to. And I think he just sees someone who, is kind of to him like a fraud and who sort of was handed more opportunities when he had to go out and kind of grind and earn it. And so I really do think it was interesting to hear Brooks and his presser talk about, you know, I never would have really done any of this.

Even after Bryson and I kind of like had this sort of thing on the putting green where we kind of had a stare down. But it was like, I says like, hey man, just like let's just agree to like keep each other's name out of our mouth. And then like, you know, two weeks later, Bryson's like tweeting on video games. talking about or playing video games on Twitch. He doesn't have abs or whatever. And like he doesn't, I've obviously got abs and whatever. And like, on that point, like, Bryson had no majors. You know, he was still, he was like, well, like three wins on tour.

Of course Brooks was going to be like, like, what? I thought we just talked about you ran and whined my caddy. I confronted you about it. We were supposed to be cool. And now you ran your mouth again. I have media relationships like that. I can totally understand why you want to crack back at someone. It's like, look, I'm not going to sub-tweet you if you just shut your mouth.

Well, you talked about the arrogance of American golfers, and I'm sort of annoyed that all these American golfers are the story this week. We've got the Brooks Bryson thing. We've had a lot of guys pull out stateside because of the protocols. We've got use golf facts and Justine complaining about Patrick Reed's tea time, even though, you know, he's paired with a bunch of good golfers. We got more of cow. It's with Rory and Camp Smith. Exactly. We got more a cow. complaining about the bounciness of lynx golf grass.

We got J.T. who is representing himself well, but he's got the new putter. So there are all these stories about Americans. About the only guy on the European side who's actually getting any conversation is, of course, the guy who's been playing with an extra club in the bag, and that is his foot, John Rom. Can anybody stop him, first of all? And second of all, is there anybody else on the European side who we should be paying attention to who we're not? And in parentheses, let me whisper very loudly, Rory McElroy.

I think that, like, John obviously, Rums is the clear favorite. Like, he should be the favorite. He's playing the best. Like, he knows how to play links golf. He plays, you know, that sort of booming hard fade that, you know, can hold up against the wind. Like if you, anytime you're staring down a shot, like the wind's coming off the right and you can hit like a sweet cut right into it that's not going to blow off line.

That's a huge advantage. But golf is so quirky that like, you know, it's hard for the favorite to win. And I think it's rare, especially after Tiger came along and a brief flicker of Rory that like the favorite steps up and wins the open championship because a lot of times you have to get a good draw. And then you have to get good bounces. And then you have to put well because the greens are slower than normal. So like I would I would say like it would surprise. me if Rom wasn't in contention just because I think he's got

probably the most complete game right now, including the mental game. But, you know, is the, I always think, like, the best time for Rory to sort of actually snap out of this sort of funk that he's been in for seven years, especially majors, it would be

when no one is paying attention. Nobody's paying attention. You know, and that's what's happening. Because he obviously, like, gets in his own head in a way that, you know, is detrimental. That wasn't true. when he just had the swagger of like the biggest badass on the block and knew that he was going to go out and kick ass. And so I think what's, you know, Justin will probably be a good person to sort of bring this up because I think he's tweeted a bunch of times. But like,

if you look at his first round scoring average in majors, in the last 10 years, it's like, you know, 74 or 75 or something. Abysmal. Yeah. It's like, you know, 50 over. And then like the last three rounds, it's like 60 under. So it's like if we could just get out of his own way, a little bit in the first round. You saw that at Port Rush where everyone was like, I knew, I've never been more confident in a golfing prediction in my life that the open at Port Rush was going to be completely caused Rory's brain to short circuit. This is a really thoughtful, deep thinking person who has always been sort of torn by the fact that like he's a Catholic who grew up in Northern Ireland and he felt more English than Ireland, like rooted for, you know, Liverpool

pool or I think, or maybe it's Manchester United. And so it was like all these kind of thoughts were like swirling in his head and all these people writing these things about a Rory win is going to like unite Ireland. Like, you know, the most ridiculous thing possible that like a hundred years of religious strife could be kind of united in some way by a golfer and just completely overwhelmed. I mean, we shot like 76 in the first round. And then like came out and almost shot like 64 to barely, you know, miss the cut. It's like Rory has the skills to play Link's golf.

but for whatever reason, like the thinking part is kind of, you know, it's a lot, especially in the Open Championship when everyone wants him and expects him to be the sort of standard bear of their con. Well, before we get off on the mental thing, just because you mentioned John Rom, I just want to ask you as a member of the media who has probably tracked the John Rom as a hothead narrative for years now, is there anybody who's handled the last two months with more class than this guy? I mean, he's just been stunning, hasn't he? He's awesome. I mean, I really think, I always kind of knew in some ways that John was super thoughtful

because I'm actually one of the first people to really write about the John Rom temper thing because I followed him at the U.S. Open at Aaron Hills. I think it was his first, Aaron Hills is a professional. And one day, I was a columnist, and I sort of told my editor, hey, like, I'm going to go out and write about John Rom because he's kind of a hothead. And I'm sort of interested. And my editor was like, well, what if he doesn't like do anything? that like, Steve's a hothead.

And I was like, well, trust me. Like, I think it's gonna, U.S. Open's gonna break charm rom. And he, not kidding, I think it was on like the 15th pole at Aaron Hills. He, like, hit a bad chip, slammed his club into the ground, kicked the club,

then hit it out of the bunker, through the bunker rake, like shotgun his putter towards his bag, and then walked up the hill and started punching the sign on the 16th pole and then threw his ball, like into the woods. I was like, wow, like this. And I think I tweeted,

that as it was like happening and all these people were like holy shit like john rome is a lunatic and afterwards i went up to him and i was like hey john you know i'm i kind of want to talk to you about like temper stuff but i want to be like fully like disclosed i sometimes have a temper on the golf course too and so i know what it's like and he was so thoughtful and so interesting he's like i know it's a problem like i know that like i i i holds me back i've been working on it for years and sometimes it just like, it's like somebody shakes up a Coke bottle. It's got to, like, explode. Like, it can't, you know, stay, you know, fizzy inside forever. And he wasn't a dick. He wasn't angry. Like, can you imagine asking Bryson, like, why did you act like a baby on the golf course?

Yeah, they did that today and he was a dick. Yeah. So just that thing of John being like, I know, man. I wish I could figure it out, but I just can't. That was like, oh, wow, like, this is a person who's pretty introspective and interesting. And you've seen that like over and over in Rom's career about all kinds of stuff. I think we all kind of held our breath when the stuff at the memorial happens. Like, oh, what's going to, you know, how's it going to react to this? Because you could tell like there was a whole army of people out there just waiting to be like, John Rom got screwed.

This is so stupid. This is a COVID theater. And he diffused it so quickly by being like, no, they made the right move. Like they, you know. Absolutely. And that was like, wow, like, what perspective is that? Like, you know, is this someone who probably going to make over the course of his career, like, you know, $500 million in like total golfing money if he turns out to be like the next, you know, European, you know, star and like a Faldo type career? And what is $1.8 million to him?

Like, he was like, ah, whatever. Like, it'll play itself out. I'll work itself out fine. And then Wednesday is open. And so it's like, that was a kind of a really cool thing to, worth admiring in sports of like someone who handled, you know, the pretty, you know, not a me unfair break, but. a tough break and he was like he was like of course I'm going to get vaccinated like I should have been vaccinated before and I you know I know now

that like that was on me so let's just move forward because there's no sense in whining about it when and all of this context of his introspection and his deep thoughtfulness creates a place that we can now like safely navigate him

missing a put on 16 of the Scottish open and yelling fuck very loudly so loudly that the TV cameras picked it up and nobody he, you know, thought to scold him. The Sky broadcast, you know, apologize for the untoured language. And we all got on with it.

We understood. Yeah, I mean, right. He missed a put for Bertie that would have had a chance to put him in a position to tie for the lead and yelled, fuck. And then he moved on and got on with it. But we understand that that's not all that John Rom consists of at this, this point in his career.

KV, I want to ask you, I'm going to go off on a time. bit of a sappy tangent here. We have not had the open championship in our lives since 2019. And my own personal anticipation for this, I'm feeling like romantic about it. I just have to confess. And in particular, I'm excited for this venue, even though the sort of surrounding atmospherics about this are like, oh, it's not the best one. and the Rhoda and

Bryce, I mean, Brooks was complaining because there are a bunch of blind shots and the power, the power plants are visible or whatever. But I don't care about any of it.

I'm so excited to just be up in the morning to watch championship golf here on the East Coast of the United States to see the colors, to see the guys in the clothes, to see, to hear the accents. I just am feeling romantic about it.

Am I, is it just because I'm a sap? No, I think it's dead on. I mean, like on some level, wouldn't it be nice if they hadn't,

if they just told St. George, you got to get to the end of the line again. And this was St. Andrews that we were tracking towards because that was originally, what, you know, this year was going to be. But,

I mean, I just, I miss everything about, you know, that early morning with a coffee, golf and the sort of understated tones, you know, like selling from knowing,

knowing up and I were laughing about when Watson was coming up 18 and at Turnberry, when he was going to win it, like the sky, feed was just like, and this would be one of the great accomplishments in all of gold history. It's like so understated and chill and just kind of like amazing. You know, like Peter Ailes left us this year and stuff. And so he was the

king of like just the quiet sort of, you know, dry humor. And like I live so many great memories of waking up, you know, in the morning and watching, you know, I'd watch Vandeveld live coming apart. And it just I want that back in my life. It's the most enjoyable major to me. It'll always kind of be that way. I've been twice, and it's such a unique, fun experience

to get to walk those things and to see the balls bounce. Watching Spieth make that put on 16 at St. Andrews is just a surreal kind of memory. And I just, I love it, and I don't think it's sappy at all. I'm all in on that kind of sappy golf experience. Is there an angle this week,

that is important that that has been sort of undercovered? You know, there's a lot that gets lost in the noise of some of these, some of these headline stories. Is there something underneath the surface that's a big deal that we aren't talking enough about? I mean, I think that the open has always been a place where older guys can sort of get into contention and are really, you know, have a chance to snatch that long lost major that they should have gotten was as Darren Clark or, you know, when, you know, Ernie else, you know, got his, like, he hadn't won a major in so long when the Adam Scott collapsed. And so it would be kind of really cool if this was Lee Westwood's moment, right? Like, Lee Westwood was a great, great player. And you don't have to put

great to win an open championship because the greens are flat, not everybody, they're kind of slow. And so it sort of eliminates kind of certain, you know, advantages that some of the best putters have. It kind of brings everybody back to the pack. And if Lee Westwood, you know, newly married, Lee Westwood could sort of, uh, is she on the bag this week? Because it's somebody else was on the bag in Scotland.

It looked like his son was on the bag. You know, it's funny. He actually seems to play a lot better when she's on the bag. So I kind of hope that they were like rotating back and forth taking turns. But when Helen is there seems to, to calm him a bit. I just think he's, you know,

he's such a fun ball striker. I was watching recently the, when Phil won, I just kind of pulled it up on YouTube. He could have won that one in Mirfield just with like a decent round. And it just, it was typically like sort of slowly, you know, pulled away. And, you know, he could have won that US Open, the Tiger won against Rocco. Like, he's had so many chances, so many top fives. It would be neat if like this was the one, you know, that he kind of got to sort of snag.

We were talking about this in the same way as we talked about the English soccer team last weekend. So I don't have high hopes. but I do agree that that's the right. I do agree that that's the right angle. And we are on that number. I think I saw that he has officially tied with Jayhoss for the number of major appearances without a win, like at this moment.

And so it would be a pretty great story. And as a capper for like the seven majors that we've had inside of 12 months, and especially like the four majors of this year, with the quality of winners and the background story. to each one, Lee Westwood would be absolutely wonderful. KVV, I know that you have a pretty great relationship with Gary Player. And I know sometimes Gary, like, you have him available on certain moments. And then you sent me a note saying Gary could be available for a question today.

I do have a question for Gary. Do you think you could get him for a second? Yeah, I think we can probably pull that out. That's excellent. So my question is, like, look, we talked about the romantic vibes. towards this. And one of the things we've been doing here on Fairway, roll in this major season. We've been enjoying these majors. We've been relishing them by having a drink. We've had a drink for each,

each of the various majors. And this one, it feels like, you know, because of the early part of the day, it's probably a coffee drink with something in it. But we want to be really venue appropriate for this one. So could you ask Gary? I mean, I'm going to ask Gary. Gary, what would be, the proper kind of beverage. What kind of drink should we be looking at, Nate and I, as we enjoy this? And really all the birdie buddies out there, Gary.

First of all, host, it's just tremendous honor to be here. You're looking very fit. And I heard you are down to, you know, but just basically nothing. You're wasting away in the DC heat. And it's just disgraceful. I hope you are eating some proteins. As for what Gary Player would drink,

well, I've got to say, I mean, it wouldn't be anything like this nonsense about like wheat, grass or some nonsense of fitness people are. My fitness comes from real, from real elements. There's a little bit of orange juice, a little bit of grapefruit juice. It may be just a nip of vodka, the natural kind, you know. You know, the kind that made from potatoes. I wouldn't drink more than maybe two or three.

You know, then I'd maybe go out for a run. Gary, it sounds wonderful. And maybe a couple, I wouldn't recommend doing any sit-ups after that, maybe before that. Nathan, do you have any questions for Gary player? I just would like Gary to replicate the tree rant from the Missouri made for TV thing that he did alongside Nicholas, where he lamented no trees on course. The strangest thing of all about the Links Championships is the lack of trees. There's one thing I would do if I would fix it all would be to plant trees all over St. Andrews. That would take away some of the angles of people. You got these guys trying to take it over the hotel. What if there was a giant tree in the way? That would make them think,

twice, Sweden dips. Gary, thank you so much for joining us. Get Kevin. We want Kevin back on that. All right.

He's out of breath. He's running over here. He's working on his own fitness here. KVV. Spectacular is always, my friend. Please come back. Please be a repeat performer here

on the Fairway Rollin podcast with us. We would love to have you. We have some incredible golf yet to come, notwithstanding the fact that we've run out of majors this year. There's still the Olympics in front of us, the Tour Championship and the Ryder Cup, all of which carry along with them their own

intrigue, even if it's not major intrigue. So we'd love to have you jump in and share some thoughts with us. I would love to. You know, there's always like fog at Whistling Straits. The underrated thing about Whistling Straits is like the really bad weather and like fall. So like the radical is going to be

really interesting when they're all like and like, you know, big puffy coats out there. You know that Bryson's going to have some problems with like his big puffy coat. It's going to be complaining about how it doesn't let him swing like he wanted to. Magnificent. I'm sure Brooks will have something to say about it, too. Brooks is going to be out there, like tear the sleeves off.

You're rolling out there like a movie villain. All right. Kevin Van Valkenberg, ESPN senior writer. Thanks so much for coming on today, buddy. Thanks, guys. All right, my birdie buddies, you know how we get down here on Fairway Roll. And it's not a major unless we have this major guests all. to help us sort out the wheat from the chaff,

the fairway from the bunker, and I'm going to run out of the goods and the bads. Just like that. Justin Ray, head of content for the 21st group. What's happening, JR? I don't get any more enthusiastic welcome than I get from you guys. There's no, I mean, there's no comparison in terms of just the sheer ferocity of which I'm welcomed on to the podcast.

So thank you for that. It's because we recognize when we're in the presence of greatness. And what I was just saying before we started that I told you I was going to save for the pod, my favorite new thing is other journalists taking your stats and asking players questions that use your stats as if they invented those stats or found those stats on their own. And then somebody on the internet adding you and saying, Justin Ray, it's interesting. Somebody else was talking about this stat too.

No one has been copied this much since like the black rock and roll musicians of the 50s. It's unbelievable what's going on. He's the true original bluesman. Yeah. I mean, it's crazy. It's not a new phenomenon. It's been going on for a while. You know, there are a lot of people, though, who do credit me when they source my material, which is good.

but, you know, I was told once by a particular organization that if I put it on Twitter, they regard it as like public domain. Well, fuck that. That's what I was told by, like, literally that was their, that's their policy. It's like, we don't source you. We bring you on to speak the truth. And the first question that I've got to ask you, because you have been hinting at this all week. There's been a lot, House mentioned this a little bit earlier.

there's been a lot of drama and conversation about this course and does Brooks like it and did they not, but you have been posting a whole lot of data that if we simplify it and distill it down, it says this. This course is hard. Yes? Yes, 100%. And I know we don't have a ton of past history to go off of, you know, in terms of, you know, recent times. It's just been, the open's only been there twice in 20 years. But if you look at what happened in 2003 and 2011, obviously the first thing people are going to notice is how nondescript and kind of out of nowhere the winners were, right? Ben Curtis was 396th in the world, Darren Clark 111. They were, I mean, I think Clark was maybe like 150 to 1. And Curtis was like off the board going into the tournament. So that's kind of, you know,

where you start with that. But, you know, if you look at some of the underlying core statistics from those two weeks, the GIR stats, right? Yeah, I was going to, well, good to the GIR first. the so there's been three open championship venues since 2003 that have had lower than 56% green and regulation for the field two of them have been a royal st george's that's number one so basically everybody is going to miss greens it's going to happen now there was some pretty tough weather in o3 and 11 that may have impacted a little bit but what that tells me is that everybody is going to have to scramble at some point right nobody's going to go out there hit 17 18 greens every round it's just not going to happen and that leads me to the more interesting number which

is how difficult it has been to get up and down out of the bunkers. About 34% in 2003 and 2011, 34% for the best players in the world got up and down. So what that tells me is that you're going to end up in them at some point. And two, there's a little bit of randomness in terms of, you know, we all know about links golf. And if you end up in a bunker with a stance where you've got one foot, three feet over the other, or you don't have a direct line to the hole,

you know, there's going to be, you're going to have to, you know, wear out the storm in terms of that happening, right? It's going to happen to you eventually. So those are two of the more interesting numbers for me is that, you know, the greens and regulation numbers when they've had the open here have been low. And across the board, that tells me you're going to have to scramble well because it's going to bring everybody into play in terms of, you know, not everyone's going to go out there and just be able to fire at all the pins and, you know, not have to scramble. You're going to have to at something. So I'm interested. Some of the, one of the constant themes as it relates to Royal St. George's is it constantly blows. It will be blowing.

It's not necessarily as susceptible as a lynx that's immediately seaside to like some of the crazy, gusty stuff. But it will blow a consistent like, you know, 13 to 18 and sometimes some Gus will get in the 20s. The other thing we've heard in a run-up to this, It's been one of the wettest, you know, periods in that portion of England in some time. And so we're going to see a golf course that is greener than than we might typically sort of anticipate. So if you sort of factor in the combination of constant win plus the fact that the rough has had an opportunity to grow up a little bit,

I'm interested in like, how are you sort of taking those two kind of factors and building them into your modeling for this one? You know, typically for the Open Championship, you don't really regard the rough as that. I mean, I guess depending on the venue, but, you know, the fairways are so wide and so expansive that driving accuracy is something you can usually kind of get away with because, you know, you can find a fairway here or there where on other courses you might not be able to. Now, the extra rain does kind of bring that into play and you think, okay, maybe the rough will be a little bit more penalizing. Maybe for a guy like Jordan's beef, if he gets off line a little bit, it's going to be a little more difficult than you might think. But regardless, whatever rain totals they've had, I still don't think that the rough is going to be super, super penalizing. I don't tend to see it as being as impactful as some other factors.

I really do, though. I have to harp back on the fact that you're going to have to get up and down and scramble to make some parts here at some point because just the fact that so many players miss greens on this golf course the last time they're open here, it's happened so often it's going to bring it into play. Jay Ray, when we have you on, you always surprise us. with a guy who you would not have thought would show up highly in your course fit modeling. Who is that guy or those guys this week?

We're going to ask you to parse some of the favorites in a minute or two. But we always love to understand on the DFS side, who are those guys who probably aren't going to win, but where the course really resonates with their game? Are there some of those guys this week that aren't being talked about? I'll give you one guy who played a lot better golf earlier on in the year, and we talk about going into a lot of major championships, but I haven't heard much about here leaving into the Open. There's only one player who finished in the top 10 at the Open Championship in 2018 and 2019.

Top 10, Tony! Correct. Tony Fienow has a surprisingly strong record in Link's golf throughout his career. you know, exceptional through the bag on Link's style golf courses. He averages more than a stroke and a half underpar per round. Why do we think this is? Because he's good.

He's good at golf. He's a good player. He's good. And the other thing, too, that's interesting about Tony is he's, he's able to change his ball flight, depending on what kind of golf is playing. That's a hundred percent. He dials it down a little bit. The ball flight's a little bit lower,

and he's able to get an extra five to seven yards over some of the other longer players, because he's able to use that runout, and it's led to him being able to really play the par five is extremely well throughout his career in Link's golf. So I was kind of surprised to see him as high on, I did an article for PGATor.com earlier in the week where I did a pretty in-depth study of Link's style players over the lab,

I think it was all the way back to 2010. And the names at the top of the list, I was like, okay, Adam Scott's got a million top 25s at the Open Championship. That makes sense. Jordan Speath won the Open a few years ago. one of the best short games in the world. John Rahm is great everywhere.

And then I saw Tony Fienow right up there with those guys, and it was a little bit surprising. But, you know, as talented as he is, and then to look back and go, oh, yeah, by the way, it wasn't low American in 2019. It wasn't Brooks Kefka. It was Tony Fee now.

And Tony is the only guy with the top 10 each the last two years. So I thought he was kind of surprising. Another guy who kind of fits the mold who, look, I know that Lee Westwood is the English tug-tug-at-the-heartstrings-type storyline in terms of who would really resonate if he contended. Mine too. Mine too. I'm running through.

I love Lee Westwood, too. But I'm giving another name of one of his contemporaries, another Englishman. We always talk about him in a Rider Cup year, but he shot 63 Sunday at the Scottish Open. And Ian Colter fits a lot of really good metrics here. He's been a really strong putter throughout his career, you know, everywhere,

but especially on Link's courses. I think he averages the third most one putts per round in the majors over the last five. years, sneaky strong record. And I think that he would fit kind of that mold of these veteran guys who we've seen have big moments, not just Phil Mickelson, but like Stewart Sink and even like Lucas Glover at the John Deere last week, breaking through with a win, it kind of would fit that mold where experience pays off. I like this narrative. We have to hate these guys in a month on the Ryder Cup thing. The Americans are acting like brats. I'm great to root for some Englishmen this week.

They had a heartbreak with the football, the soccer last weekend. I'm all in on the English guys. Why not? So, JR, you mention how important scrambling is going to be. And I do want to do a kind of a deep dive on like, does that mean we look at the scrambling statistics and we invest some faith in the U.S.

tour scrambling stats? Or is it wiser to think about guys who have success scrambling on the Euro tour because it's one thing to scramble well? you know, at the John Deere and a whole other thing to scramble well at this venue. Are you parsing the scrambling in that way? That's an interesting question. Yeah, you're right. I mean, there's a difference between, you know, flopping it out of some Bermuda that's kind of high

and having to play like, you know, bump and run or, you know, contours of what you'd see in Lynx golf. It's a good question. I look at it as more of like an eliminating factor when I'm looking at guys. Like the number one example for me, you know, Bryson DeShangeloz never played well in his brief history in links golf. He's been outside the top 100 in strokes game around the green each of the last three years. It's the weakest part of his game.

So I think for a guy like him, like, okay, if I'm on the fence about Bryson or somebody else who's got kind of some weak around the green numbers, that's the thing that's going to push me over to I'm going to miss him this week. I'm going to wait until he gets back stateside on stuff he's more comfortable with. So I look at as more of a maybe it's not the first thing you look at, but it's a number that can be an eliminating factor for some guys. That makes sense. Now, what do you do about somebody like Victor Hovlin, who also is not great around the green?

It's the single weakest aspect of his game, and yet his ball striking is so sublime. And we love him as a guy that's ready to jump onto that major stage. And there's a lot of, like, storylines, notwithstanding the sand that got in his eye at the U.S. Open. Right. And boy, I've ruined a betting ticket of mine. Mine, too.

We love Victor Hollen head-to-head. at Torrey Pines, but do you tap the brakes with Hovlin because of that particular aspect of his game for this week? You know, maybe not necessarily. Victor's such an elite ball striker and such an unbelievable iron player. The ceiling is so high. He just won his last start, the BMW International Open. And I know the he'll tell you he sucks.

He's, he gained strokes around the green this season. It's right there at the borderline. Like, it's pretty much dead flat even. but he's a better chip around the ground. I'll give you an example. He has better strokes again around the green numbers this season than Kevin Kisner. I mean, that's not something that you would think of when you look at those two players. I mean, he, I know, conversationally, Victor Hovlin's got, he had that great sound by, yeah,

I suck at chipping. Well, he's getting a little bit better. So I'm not, I'm not totally off the boat with Hoblin as well as he's hit the ball coming off of victory as high as that ceiling is. It's not something that would, I'm kind of a little double speak here because I was so on the scrambling numbers, but Oblin might be an exception there. It's just a guy whose game I just absolutely love. Well, take us through the favorites then, because Rom seems to be the clear and away favorite, and it's really hard to go against that. There's some other guys a little bit underneath

the radar this week, and in particular, DJ, and, and, and Rory, who were just, you know, just coming into the masters in November, we were talking about the two of them as sort of the headline stories. Now they're beneath the surface. But as you look at that pool of big name guys, who do you see jumping up outside of ROM? I'm sure you're going to tell us ROM looks good. But is there anybody else who is a little bit quieter on that board who you feel better about than the odds would suggest? Yeah, just to button up, Rom, you're right. I'm really high on him. I don't know how you can't be. I mean, his last 12 rounds around the world, he hasn't been worse than 11th place after any of them. I mean, just he's a... And he's a...

And he's mentally right. He's the guy who got uncorked by the big win. He just, everything is flowing in the right direction right now. This is what he's supposed to be, right? Number one amateur in the world. That's the right way to say it. All the town on the planet. He's at home in this space.

And he, by the way, he has the best strokes gain per round average of anybody on Lynx courses over the last 10 such years, you know, with 20 or more round played. So it's got that going for him, too. I will say, though, it's exceedingly rare for a player to get each of his first two major wins and back-to-back starts. It's only happened three times in the modern era. One was Craig Wood in 1941. Oh, yes, Mr. Wood. Yes. Bobby Locke did it when he only played in the open and he went back-to-back in 40, 1950, and then Jordan Speeith in 2015. So it almost never happens where a guy gets his first two majors of back-to-back starts. But as I said, Rom,

clearing away, as you said, buttoning him up, definitely the favorite. DJ's interesting to me because he's had kind of a pension to have these high rounds at the Open Championship. I'll give you a number that absolutely floored me when I found it out. Five rounds of 75 or higher for Dustin Johnson at the Open since 2015. The only two players with more in that span are Sandy Lyle and Todd Hamilton. Now, DJ's tied with a handful of other guys with five in that span, but that is a crazy number, really kind of alarming. I know we're going back to the course where he had his best shot to win the Open

10 years ago, and then he hit that four iron into a cow pasture on the other side of the planet. it was just one of those moments seared in your mind where you just can't believe the shot you just saw this guy's striping it all week and then it kind of falls apart there. But he, you know,

I think it's justifiably so that he hasn't been talked about a lot because, you know, he was the 36th old leader at the open championship five or six years ago and then fell apart. But really since then he hasn't really done

a ton at the open. So, and then the other guy you mentioned there towards the top, you know, every major until he breaks out of it, I'm going to mention that round stat for Rory McElroy, right? Where, you know, since 2015, he's 34 over par in round one of the majors, and he's 60 under par in rounds two through four.

So until, you know, he bounces out of that, you've got to address the elephant in the room. I will say, though, after coming off a miscutt doesn't necessarily bother me. You alluded to this because this is the stat that was mentioned in the press conference earlier to Rory. But the last nine times he's missed the cut around the world, eight times he's. followed it up with the top 20 three times he's one. So it's not something that necessarily bothers him and keeps him down. So he's a guy who can bounce back.

JR, I felt like you were sub-tweeting me all week long with the Rory evidence, you know, the building the case for Rory. Well, just because I've been a Rory truther, I've been on Rory for all these majors, starting with the Masters. And I just, you know, every one of these, I

've been a believer. I just believe that he could go out and win any one of them. He can catch that hot streak. Now, the thing that I wonder about, and we deliberately did not talk any Rory at all on the preview show that went up Monday because I wanted to save it, that thing that happened with him at the Scottish Open where he missed the cut after a wacko walked up and took golf clubs out of his bag. I think that had an impact on him. I'm hoping that he could put that in the rearview mirror. I mean, the gates were breached at Wembley and they lost. There's going to be some handful of

of maniacs who look at the Scottish Open and are still recovering from this. Something's going to happen this week. Can Rory sustain it? That's the question. Yeah. Well, and, and, you know, he has his, his fair share of support over there, right? I mean, he is a very important part

of their Rider Cup strategy. So you think that that would be in his favor, right? Now, a guy that, that, I keep seeing show up on lists that is not in, in Rider Cup, favor. And in fact, I was happy when I saw this. This is his first opportunity on European soil since a couple of, well, let's call the missteps in terms of the rules. Patrick Reed is going to face a crowd, speaking of folks that might be in a mood to, you know, share a certain exuberance and maybe it won't be positive.

I keep seeing him on lists from some of the golf cognoscenti that he's like a contender. And I'm just not feeling it. I don't, I haven't seen and I know obviously. Justine's tweet didn't make you feel any better either. If they're worried about the times. The history here at Royal St. George doesn't help, you know, instill confidence.

You guys come in out of nowhere and win so that you can't disqualify him, but make the case for me or not as it relates to Patrick Reed, J.R. So I am not super high on Patrick Reed either. I don't see a lot going into the week. I mean, look, he was amazing early in the year when he won at Torrey Pines and we really haven't heard a ton from him since, right? Right. It's kind of been a quiet year. You know, I'm with you. I'm not super high on it.

His putting numbers are still really good, but he's been, you know, his numbers are down off the T all season long. Yeah, I think justifiably so. I don't think you can put a ton of stock into it. And honestly, I haven't thought about that yet. The point you bring up about his first trip back since the infractions, it's the first thing I thought of, I have to, I'm from Houston. I'm a lifelong Astros fan.

It's part of who I am and this whole post-cheating experience. Yeah. Thing to watch. Not so fun. Yeah. No, not fun. Not fun at all. Try being a Washington football team fan like me and house, buddy.

we're going on three decades. We haven't cheated. We just suck. I mean, that's a whole different thing. It's carmic blow that you take either way. I didn't want to derail the conversation, but I mean,

there's a little bit of, look, there's probably going to be some animosity there. I mean, yeah, I'm interested to see how the fallout looks like. The RNA paired him with Rory and Cam Smith, and Cam Smith called him a cheater.

So, I mean, you know, R&A doesn't play house. No, they do not mess. I will say, let me ask you this. One of the things I noticed, I could not find a single threesome of all Americans. The most you could, I don't know if I went down that list. Now, I didn't study it.

Well, about 30 of them of withdrawn. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Right, right, right. Right. It's a good, good point. Good point.

Yeah. Well, so on that, on that, let's dive into the point that you made before, which is that, hey, the last two times this tournament, whether you want to call the British Open or the open, was played on this course. you had guys out of nowhere win it. When we went into the Masters, we knew somebody big was going to win. It felt the same way going into the U.S. Open.

It just did not feel like, you know, Harold Varner had a chance. But he snuck into this. When you take the sort of top 20 favorites, top 15 favorites versus the field, do you feel that the weighting is a little bit different this week and that there's guys outside those top, you know, those top slots who have a chance

to win this thing, at least more so than the earlier majors that we saw this year? I do. And I think on the whole, the Open Championship is the major that lends itself to the biggest upsets for a couple of reasons. One is that it has the democratic entry process that the U.S. Open has where if you're good enough and you can get through qualifying, you have an opportunity to get in. The field is enormous. It's not like the Masters where it's a truncated smaller field, where basically it's the world's best players and a bunch of ceremonial guys. And that's why you're going to end up with a really good champion almost every year. You know, that part of the equation is not there for the open.

You've got a huge swath of players from all parts of the world. That's one thing I love about this golf tournament. It truly is the global championship in the sport. And then the other part of that is the weather. The draw can always have a big impact on, you know, the number one example that's always going to stick out to me. 2010, Rory McElroy went out in the first round at St. Andrews, shot 63. And he went out in like Gail Force twins Friday and played well and shot 80. Like that's kind of the.

Right. On the other side of the scale example of how bad it can go. But, you know, the draw can have a big impact and more so have any more so than any of the championships in the United States for sure. So I think you throw those factors in together. And yeah, there's also the facet that length isn't this big of an issue with the Open championship, right? The courses aren't as long.

There's run out for some guys that they're able to take advantage of. it's not like the U.S. Open where you felt like a guy had to absolutely mash it at Torrey Pines to have a chance, Augusta National where you can take advantage of distance, but it's more so of an irons competition. This is kind of a balanced out type competition. And if you get the right side of the draw, you know, a couple things happen. You get a hot week. We had a couple of amateurs in 2015 at St. Andrews. I think it was Paul Dunn was an amateur, was a 54-hole co-leader and like Jordan Ebergie was there.

Like you always have characters, regardless of what course it is, especially at Royal of the Georgia's, but you always have these characters of the Open Championship and kind of introduce themselves to you. And, you know, sometimes we get a big name that sifts through at the end of the champion. And sometimes you got Ben Curtis, hold McClure jug. I need to understand one. If you won't take favorites versus the field, give me Phil Mickelson versus Dick Bland. Who do you take?

That's fun. Phil's still on like the World Party tour celebrating. Richard Blan's played some pretty consistently good golf. You give me some juice. I might go Dick Blan there. House? I'm joining. Yeah, I'm on Dick.

I mean, I'm off. I'm all Phil after, and it wasn't even his fault. It was the cheater Tom Brady, who has a cheater handicap. He's a liar for all the, whatever scores he's entering into,

for his single-digit index. What do you say? It was like a four? No, well, it was like seven, or eight, but still, I mean, that's an atrocity and an abomination and I lost a bowload of money on it. And that's what I get for gambling on something as dumb as the match. So I own it. Now, I'm interested in a handful of a whole run derby last night. I can't talk. Well, I mean, that was fun at least. I mean, I saw. That was ridiculous. They're hitting Pro v1s out of the stadium. It was awesome. I loved it.

I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. I want to ask about a handful of names if it's a not John Rom and these guys aren't necessarily favorites but they're in that that top class and you mentioned you know how you know less important it is to be great distance wise here so the three guys I want a reaction to are Paul Casey Louis Euse Tazen and Jordan Speeth because those are the guys any one of those all three of those guys are getting money on my dance card and all three of them have have different sort of attributes that I feel like really could be successful at Royal St. George's. Well, I'll start with Louis because it's just how great he's been at the last couple of major

championships, runner up in each of the last two, a guy who, I know it's cliche, but he really does peak for the majors, right? He's a guy whose entire schedule and golf career life is built around building his game towards the major championships. It's kind of remarkable that he hasn't broken through him one another one as many times has been a contention. When he finished runner up at the U.S. Open, became the first player in men's golf history to have six runner-up finishes and majors

and either one or zero victories. The only guy to ever do it. His game travels everywhere. He's got a lot of great finishes at the Open Championship. No one's going to be surprised if he contends. Paul Casey kind of fits in that veteran. I know I mentioned Ian Poulter.

Paul Casey is kind of that same kind of mode, right? Except for the fact that Paul Casey still strikes a shit out of the ball, man. He is second on the PGA Tour and strokes gained approach. He's got a ton of consistently high finishes. The thing with Casey, it's almost like a Diet Westwood syndrome in terms of getting there the big moments and just not quite, you know, getting over the top.

You know, he still hits it plenty far too. I mean, that's something that he doesn't have to quite worry about. I worry about him on the weekend and major championships, just someplace where he's never really had some of the success. I really like Jordan Speath a lot this week. I mean, I feel like the momentum train of Jordan Speath. We felt like the destination was Augusta National earlier in the year. Maybe not.

Maybe it was gearing towards the open. He's still got nine top 20 finishes and his last 11 starts, wide really close to being a two-time winner this season should have beat jason co-crack in texas i mean at the open championship since 2015 he's first in scoring average score to par rounds in the 60s one putts like he's he's he's fantastic his career on lynx courses gains more than two strokes per round on average on lynx courses in his career i really like jordan speed a lot i feel like he's not being talked about enough and this would be a place that would really kind of fit right we kind of fit the imperative too that we've had of guys

through and returning to the top of the sport. We've had so many of them this year. I mean, speed could be doing it again. And we know he's not going to be flustered by the adversity that he's going to be confronted with because there's this the whole, the British Open, the Open Championship is all about adversity.

You're going to get kicked in the nuts. So how do you bounce back from that? I mean, he had a 40 minute span when he won in 2017 that was unlike anything you've ever seen in golf. He went like, what do you go? Like double, go get that, birdie, birdie, and then he ended up as anticlimactic.

He got to the 72nd T-box and it was over. So, yeah, not a guy who's going to be phased by the big stage, for sure. We usually can find a few guys who are at least going to be locks for top 20s, top 25s, based on momentum the week before. Did we learn anything from the Scottish Open? Did Turtle Hatton's 6 Under on Sunday sway you? Matthew Fitzpatrick, Herbert, you know, were any of the guys who showed their medal in that tournament, something that you factor in this week?

Or do you think that that's really just a warm up and we don't put a whole lot of stock into it unless somebody plays terrible, say the way Morikawa did? So I think it can be encouraging and can be a reminder about a guy like Xander Schauffley is a great example of that where he finishes in the top 10

and then you're kind of reminded, oh wait, he's got a great history at the Open Championship 54 whole leader a few years ago. You know, seems like he's on the precipice of breaking through. Fourth best scored a par in majors since 2012. 2017, yep. Right, correct. So he's a guy who would be kind of encouraging.

Fitzpatrick is another example of someone who is priced really low in DFS for some reason. I don't really understand why. I think he's under 8,000 of DFS this week. And I think that, you know, that's a tremendous value for a guy who very easily could have won. I think you might have been more concerned about getting to that Euro Cup fight on that. Yeah. Yeah, he was trying to get to. And then another guy who I thought was really interesting going in last week, who is a veteran player.

He's seen a lot of his contemporaries break through and win. He's from West Texas. He's not afraid of the win. Ryan Palmer missed that playoff by one shot at Scottish Open last week. And he, not a lot of people talked about him. I saw him hit baby three putts on the broadcast all week, you know. But he's a guy who played really well earlier in the year. He could be kind of, you know, buoyed by what he's seen out of Mickelson and Stuart Sink,

winning twice this season. And, you know, some of these older guys having a lot of success. he was really interesting to me because he could kind of he could kind of be that you know sneaky underdog american that comes through and maybe i'm not going to say win but you know could make a run here this week so we we've hit on a bunch of prominent names that are kind of under the radar and guys that maybe haven't been in our our golf consciousness but that we should consider uh as contenders for this thing one of your specialties one of the things we love about having you on the show for JR is a couple names that nobody but their parents know,

know these names. Like only, only these dudes parents have heard of them. Give us, give us a couple of those deep, deep names that your research is producing that might have a little success at this track. All right. So this isn't necessarily a name no one's heard of,

but it is a name I've not heard anyone say all week, regardless of where you look. Top 10 finishes in each of his last two starts had a pretty bad stretch in the middle of the season, but two straight top tens coming off, you know, back to back on the PGA tour. He held the lead at Carnusty a few years ago. Really good short game. I anecdotally mentioned him earlier, but Kevin Kisner is a sneaky value down the board.

Wow. Yeah. Kind of broke out of this mini funk he was in. I think that's a really good value. Another guy who's further down the board had a pretty good week last week at the Scottish Open when I thought he was kind of a wild card. but the man's led more rounds on the PGA tour than anybody this season. The ceiling for Sam Burns is astronomical, right?

He hurt my feelings at Torrey Pines. Yeah, and look, there's a lot of variance there, right? He's not a finished product yet. He's going to be, you know, the 2024, 2025 Sam Burns isn't the guy we're seeing right now. But the talent is through the roof. He's a next possible superstar. The guys who were there all think he's next. You're right.

And I've loved him. I mean, that's why I say I got all excited because of how good he was early in the year at Tori. And I thought, oh, I got an inside track on my man, Sam Burns. 130 to 1. EMC. Whoa, whoa, whoa, right now that's a price. Let's hang up on this podcast and go get some money down. You kidding me?

130 to 1. So, I mean, that's not, you know, I'm not pulling out Richard Blan going into the U.S. Open. That's not, you know, it's not as is way off the board as that. I'm trying to give you a name of a guy who I like and maybe no one's heard of before you know I've seen a lot of there's a lot of good value

Victor Perez hasn't played as well recently you know I know he got a Pete earlier He looked good in Austin though He was terrific and he really showed something Yeah he was terrific he looked like he might be a guy Who was on the precipice of breaking onto the Ryder Cup team He made me nervous there yeah Yeah so he could be he could be interesting

Well I do want to pick up on that that theme though You guys you mentioned the Ryder Cup And this is for the European guys, especially, their last opportunity to impress Captain Padrig on a big stage. And two guys, you mentioned Polter. He's on the outside looking in. He hasn't qualified yet. The other guy who has not qualified yet, who has an unbelievable track record, both in the Open Championship and on the Ryder Cup, is Sergio Garcia. Is there any reason for us to discount Sergio?

I mean, I know he's not been in a spectacular form, but his record in Austin. The record, his record at Open Championships is just undeniable. It is. It is. Now, he hasn't had great major championships success since he broke through him on the Masters. It's kind of been a tough ride. You know, but I don't think you can count them out at an open. Absolutely not.

You can't. Just in terms of sheer experience, what the ceiling there is still drives the hell out of the golf ball. House, that is a very. orange light. Do not bet on him. Come on, man. Okay. All right. I'm being positive. I'm not going to bet on him personally. All right. All right. I just, I mean, it's just that that angle, the rider cup angle, where he's going to jump up on that national stage again and remind all of us, he and Poulter both, like, okay, we're gearing up for this. It's a rider cup year. Let's let's go get it on. J.R., we can't let you go. You know what, what time it is. Who's going to win this thing? He's finished in the top 10 and

more than half of his career major championship starts. He's coming off a top 10 finish at the Scottish Open. He ranks fourth or better in the major championships in virtually every scoring statistics since 2017. Has a great Lynx golf background. I think this is the week Xander Shoffley breaks through, gets into the- Wow.

Gets his major championship. I'm so happy you stop with the arm lock. How was the putting without the arm lock? Well, honestly, that was the thing that kicked me over the finish line in terms of picking him because at Tori Pines, he may have won the tournament if he had putted better. He was at a 71 players in strokes game putting.

It was, and this is a guy who had led the U.S. Open and strokes came putting the previous three years combined. And he was atrocious on a golf course. He's played a zillion times being. I just want to say to our birdie buddies, we have asked Justin Ray about Zander before. And he, in the last few conversations about majors, he has tended to say, I don't totally get it. I feel like he's a little bit overrated. So the fact that he's come around means there's some numbers.

that are triggering some belief here. This is a serious call. There's a small group of, in my Lynx golf study I did, there's a small group of players who are at least 5% better than the field average in greens and regulation

and at least 5% better in scrambling. And Zander's one of them. There's only like four or five. So those are two key things like you want to stay onto the greens and not have to scramble, but in those instances where you can, he's a guy who's been well above average

when he plays Link's golf. So I feel really good about that. And then seeing all the putting green, not doing the arm block. Thank God. I will share this anecdote. I've been sitting on it, Nate. I can tell you, I have a little bit.

You have your inside access, Nate Dog, and I got a little bit of my own. I heard from somebody inside the Xander Schaftley camp that when he walked off of 18 at the U.S. Open within a half hour, some of the team was convened around him and so forth. And he said, he proclaimed for all to hear, I am winning the fucking British Open.

That's a direct quote attributed to Zander Schaftly. I've been cogitating on it, thinking about it ever since mid-June now. And Justin Ray is here to go ahead and validate the numbers. So, I mean, I think we have our play. I just don't, I feel like I shouldn't bet it because of my own, My powers of persuasion, right? But you will. You just shouldn't say you're going to bet it.

Okay. That's a great point. That's a great way to distinguish it. Just right. Yeah. Well, look, we're going to let you go. But first, we need some input. You know, we've been how.

Yeah, we need cocktail input. We've been, we're, the only way to enjoy these championships is with a, a lovely adult beverage. This one's, you know, a coffee kind of vibe.

Although you get up to lunchtime. You could be a brunch, a brunch thing, what do you recommend for us for this British Open? Well, the first time I ever covered the Open championship, or British Open, however, by the way, you can call it either one. It's been called both forever. You can call it either one. So the first time I was over there,

I was told beers for lunch and whiskeys for dinner. That was the line I was given. So you kind of escalate as the day goes on. Now, I'm going to be stateside. COVID restrictions has made TV production over. We're there kind of a, you know, we're not quite back to full speed. The coffee pot is going full blast because your boy's waking up at like 3.30 a.m. Oh, my God.

Yeah. Yeah. So, baby Jack is. Jack is. Yeah. Yeah. So, but that does mean that around 2.30, 3 o'clock, like, you know, whoa, whoop, whoop. So, yeah.

I don't know. I know they're not in Ireland, but I always feel like an Irish whiskey just kind of feels right for the over. Yeah. Maybe it's because of all the. advertising over the years for Glenn Moranji, it seeped into my brain. And I just, you know, but a nice, but a nice Irish whiskey or a scotch. I think that is a, that's, that just feels open championship, right? Classic.

You mean as a, as a standalone or a little drop in, I drop her into the coffee? Yeah, either way. You know, however, how are you roll? I get to Sunday and it might just, you know, it might have all fallen apart at that point. It could be 10 in the morning and in the bottle. Yeah, we're drinking them neat. All right. J.R.

always a pleasure it's not a major without you thanks for coming on now look there is some important golf still to be had on the calendar this year we got the Olympics we have the tour championship and the rider cup so don't don't be bashful if we can get you

on one of these upcoming fairway Rollins to talk about some of that important golf we would love to do it I won't change my phone number guys don't worry thanks buddy all right fellas all right my par saving pals my birdie buddies there you have it, all of the intelligence we can muster around this open championship. I hope you are

feeling as romantic about it as Nate and I are thanks, of course, to Kevin Van Valkenberg and Justin Ray. Nate and I will, of course, be available for our recap on this podcast Sunday afternoon immediately after the Claret Jug has been awarded. And we're going to keep doing some of these live in the moment kind of broadcast. There's a green room possibility both Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon for Fairway Roland and our extended family. So just pay attention to the to the tweeters out there. Fairway Roland Doe leaderboard series.

If you're listening to this, if you have not jumped in with an entry, get in there. Nate shared with us today that he thinks he's inside the top 100. I'm in the 500s and Kevin's in the 300s. No, I can get there. I'm not inside it yet. Oh, you're not there. I'm close, baby. Okay. All right.

Well, if you beat all three of us, I'll buy you a cheeseburger. If you beat all three of us and you can prove it, I'll buy a cheese. I buy all of our par saving pals out there. There we go. Those are the shows coming up. I hope everybody has the best of success with return on an investment for this Open Championship. How about enjoying this a little bit of coffee golf and maybe drop in a little Irish whiskey?

Why not? Justin Ray gave us permission.