Fairway Rollin' - Woodland Stays Hot and Wins the U.S. Open | Fairway Rollin’

Episode Date: June 17, 2019

Joe House is joined by Chris Vernon to offer their congratulations to Gary Woodland for his first major win and to Brooks Koepka for a valiant second-place finish. Then they discuss Dustin Johnson’s play and other disappointments, as well as guys they were impressed with from Pebble Beach. Host: Joe House Guest: Chris Vernon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's U.S. Open recap edition of Fairway Rowland presented, as always, by Callaway Golf Maker of the Epic Flash driver. The Epic Flash driver in the hands of none other than Big Game Hunter, Zander Shafley, another top five finish in a major for Zander. He loves the Epic Flash sub-zero. He won with it the first time he played with it, the Century Tournament of Champions back in January. He's still hitting bombs. He's hitting Phil Mickelson bombs with it. This driver featuring Flash-based technology

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All right, everybody. This is U.S. Open recap. edition of Bearaway Roll! And my man, Verno, is on. We are ready to break this whole thing down. Incredible performance by Gary Woodland. Holding off Brooks Kepka. Brooks was coming. But Gary, all credit to him.

What an incredible performance. Let's get on that first tee with Chris Vernon. We're ready to break this thing down. Let's do it. All right, Verno. Let's do this. It was an unbelievable U.S. Open. Brooks Kepka gave us a thrill through the whole thing,

but you got to tip your cap to Gary Woodland. How are you doing, buddy? I'm doing great. That was unbelievable. I must tell you, he won me over by the end. By the time he nailed that put on 18, turns to the crowd, raises his arms in exultation and does the fist pump, I was like, you know what, I'm happy he won.

I wasn't, I mean, look, in the end, I thought, and you and I were texting through this, he's going to fall apart. And they're all going to fall apart. And I kept thinking at the first seven holes, if Kepka starts on fire, they're going to look at that leaderboard and see that that lead's been whittled down and they are going to crumble. And not only did this guy not crumble, he came up with huge stone over and over again. when he pulled out that wood on 14 and went to the pin from 2.61 away and stroked it. And then obviously 17, he's in a terrible spot.

And to get that chip right up. Now, I thought he, I thought he jarred it. I'm not kidding. On 17. It was rolling right. It was rolling right to the hole. It was rolling right to the hole. You know, that's one of those where, look, I had kept going to win, especially we talked

about him a lot, certainly. Of course, he beat the shit out of Rory, which we expected. Knew that. So, yeah, that was easy. But, I mean, look, I like the history of it all. I liked him winning three times. I liked him doing the most masterful job of hiding the dip in his lip for 18 holes. It's a world-class, world-class lower lip.

World-class. World Club. But, look, down the stretch, Kepka didn't make, he didn't hit the fairway. He couldn't hit the fairway. You're just not going to have shots at birdies. And, you know,

they replayed that, that put on 18. I mean, that's a centimeter. That is a centimeter that turned right at the end. And so, look, Gary Woodland, like, mega deserves it. I have absolutely no issues.

with Woodland as a guy, a golfer, nothing. Like some of these guys, I end up actively rooting against him. I'm like, this nerd, or like, I don't like him, or he seems boring or whatever else. Like, Gary Woodland, like, he was a fantastic basketball player. He grew up playing basketball and baseball. And, I mean, you know, obviously, I've heard the stories of him many times. He was like a real athlete. And he still looks like it.

ended up becoming, yeah, and ended up becoming, you know, an outstanding golfer. And to have him do what he did, he was awesome all week. And I honestly, I thought that putter is going to cool off and it didn't cool off at the very end. I mean, he's on 18. It's 18 with the chance to win it. Like how many, like how many putts is this guy going to make? He was just on fire all weekend. So that's a deserving champion.

and if Brooks Kepka was going to lose this thing, that guy stood right in the face of it, never crumbled, hit massive shots, and I'm happy for the guy. Yeah, so, you know,

a few things that you mentioned that I want to touch on. First off, how about the fact that we had the first place and second place in the U.S. Open two athletes. Like Brooks Kepka, if he had his druthers, he'd be playing baseball.

And, you know, Woodland played basketball, for as long as he could play. He wanted to play D1 basketball. It just wasn't quite good enough to get there. But a couple of athletes out there, you know, two guys again, once again,

with the reputation of being, you know, enormous off the tee, two of the longest hitters on tour. But, you know, we properly assessed that, you know, Pebble doesn't give many opportunities for a bomber to take, advantage. You mentioned the three wood that Woodland hit on 14. That to me was the shot of the tournament.

I mean, 17 is going to go down in the annals of major history because of what was on the line, the significance of the moment. That chip that he made from the green on 17. And he said that he'd had that chip earlier in the week. So he had a little experience with it. But that will go down. We will all see that. No, that was, you know, kind of the moment where things. things could have gone way off the rails and he he clenched it. But to me, the stones, the sheer audacity to pull out that three wood from 260 on 14 and carry the bunker the way that he did. And then it wasn't even an easy chip.

He chipped right on and then made the putt. I mean, here's the thing. It took a bad mother effort to beat a bad mother effort. right so this is why i think your point about you know how he how he resonates this is this is what we want out of our major champions we want guys that go out and grab the title we don't want guys you know backing their way in or you know uh coming through you know three rounds and then falling apart and then hanging on for for dear life that is kind of what happened with with brooks at beth Page, but then he corrected the ship, and he saved, you know, his victory at Beth Page.

But, you know, he went out and grabbed Beth Page by the, by the throat and, you know, shook it all the way until DJ, you know, got off his back. Gary Woodland just did the exact same thing. And this is a little nugget that I want to share with you. We have to put this in the memory banks for next year. seven of the last 10 U.S. Open winners were either in first place alone or tied for first through the second round. So next year, Berno, let's remember Friday night, who's in first? Let's live bet that shit and just go ahead and have a little bit cover off the exposure.

I mean, 70% likelihood. It feels like a trend to be. Let's cover it. But the other thing I wanted to touch on, happy Father's Day, buddy. Yeah, happy Father's Day to you also. This was perfect. I played early this morning. I mean, this U.S. open being at prime time was the absolute greatest thing ever.

Because I had a 1044 key time, I believe it was. Played it in three and a half hours. Played it in three and a half hours and was back home. I think Tiger had played two holes or something like that, maybe. By the time I had gotten back home and I had an hour and a half to spare before any of the final groups were going to tee off. So that was unbelievable. Just one point on the Woodland thing, too, there's a fine line between being stupid and having stones, right? And so a lot of times, and you know what the difference is?

the difference is delivery. That's it. Execution. When Andre Aguadol or Draymond Green takes a white-ass open three and they make it, look at the soul, these guys are gamers, right? If they miss it, it's like, what the hell are they doing shooting that, right? Step Curry's on the team, Clay Thompson's on the team. And the same thing goes with Gary Woodland.

He's 263 up a hill, pulls out a three wood. You know, if he throws it in the shit, you know, we're like, what do you do? doing like you know it's like all you all you have to do is not F up you know what I mean like you're you're way too brash pulling out that three wood but if you deliver you're legendary you're legendary and so he did he delivered well I mentioned the father's day thing because they on the broadcast today and I want to talk about the broadcast a little bit get your reaction but on the broadcast today they shared a story about you know he uh He has a little boy, but his wife in 2017 was pregnant with twins and they lost one of the twins.

The boy survived and he's healthy thriving. And they mentioned on the broadcast that his wife is right now pregnant with another set of twins. They're expecting, I think, in the early fall. If I had known that nugget on Father's Day, that would have, I mean, that that would have helped me understand the way that the cosmos were going to align them. I mean, Kepka's out, he's a swinging Johnson. He's just doing his thing. He's got that girlfriend. She wants to be in every picture. She wants to be on every, you know, telecast. She's chasing that, his rear end. She wanted to make sure she got her kiss for the U.S. Open. But he, you know, I want a guy with kids and a story having to do with his kids on Father's Day. That's a nugget

that I need to know coming into the event. Well, and who was it that retweet? it. The, oh, it was the, the no laying up guys, the podcast guys. Yeah,

by the home. I guess somebody sent them. It was the Arthur meme with the fist clenched up. I saw that, I saw that come across. And it said, Jim Nance sitting at home,

thinking Joe Buss waiting too long to name all family members. That makes you laugh so hard. That made me laugh so hard. But yeah, no, hey,

how about Gary Woodland? The shocking one. wouldn't you think dad gets first hug but I would have hey there's another bet I would have lost to go along with all the other ones we had oh my God

I would have bet Gary Woodland's dad gets the first hug off the green no mom still wins even on Father's Day but that's the right role mom always gets the first hug dad knows that the hug will be there not to further deprecate

on us. Gary Woodland was 80 to 1. Well, this is a thing. How about this? Let's just go through it right now. At the beginning of the week last week, I had you on. We talked it through. I had a bunch of other guests on. I went on a show the prior week, all preview in the U.S. Open and coming into the week because of the moment that we were in in terms of how competitive the tour is and how great the guys are and all the programs.

performances out of the top names, I expressed heavy skepticism around the idea that we would get a guy coming from out of the blue and that we would get somebody, you know, even a first-time winner. Now, there were a couple names on my list that were going to be potentially first-time winners. I bet on Patrick Cantlay. I expected a whole lot more out of him. I bet on, I had a little touch, a little taste on Coutcher to top 10. He's speaking of defecate. He threw that away in the first five holes. But it just felt like, it felt like, uh, you know, there were about 12 guys who really had a legit chance to come on out and grab this thing. And you just got to give it to, to Woodland. Now, you know, he did things that are not his

strong suit. They mentioned on the broadcast and, and our, our boy, uh, Justin Ray, uh, from the 15th club also tweeted this. Woodland entered, we had the analytics correct, Verno. We knew that we need guys that are going to be good at hitting the greens in regulation, and we need guys that are good in scrambling. Well, Gary Whiland came into this event 169th in scrambling, but I'll be goddamned if he didn't come out and scramble his ass off. He went 16 for 20 for the tournament.

He was 88% through the first three rounds. He led the entire field in scrambling this week. And he was, he ended up tied for first in greens and regulation today, 83%. And he was second for the tournament, 72% greens and regulation behind only Rooks Kepka, who was 75% greens and regulation through the whole tournament. So, you know, Woodland did the things that that Pebble requires you to do. He also seemed like, I mean, it felt like he made two miles of puts. I don't know what the official numbers are in terms of the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the feet, uh,

of putts made over the course of the four rounds. But good God, he was making putts from everywhere. So, you know, everywhere. On the one hand, he did come out of the blue, but he came out of blue and did the things that were required. We also got a couple other things. Right. We thought that there was an opportunity for some low scoring.

You know, this is the second lowest score in the history of the U.S. Open, the lowest score being the score that Brooks Keppka's, accumulated out at Aaron Hills and my man Gary Woodland outscored Tiger by one Tiger had 12 under in 2000 Gary Woodland's birdie on 18 brings him to 13 under

you know setting the the Pebble Beach U.S. Open record so he did the things that we anticipated he went out and grabbed the golf tournament he scored all over the place that he took what the golf course was giving. It just, he wasn't the guy who the analytics, you know, you're looking at the data coming into this. There weren't any like real strong signs that this was, you know,

in his, in his wheelhouse. But this is the point, right? The tour is so good. These guys are so good. They come in, they see something that they like, something clicks for a week, and they're off and running and it works the whole week long. Yeah.

As always, Verno, today's show presented by our pals at Callaway Golf Makers of the Chrome Soft Truvis golf balls currently available. You might have missed the opportunity to share some of these golf balls as Father's Day presence, but there's still tons of time in the golf season. It's still the beginning of the golf season. You have all summer long to enjoy the Truviz in two brand new patterns. One is an updated version of the Stars and Stripes. Get yourself some of those and go out and pull.

play right around 4th of July week. That's a perfect one. Every Calloway staff were on the range at Pebble this week was hitting these beautiful stars and stripes balls. There's a lot of pictures of this at Callawaygolf.com. Also, an incredible super limited run of a version of the Truviz called suits, which refers to card suits. So if you're a person that enjoys playing some cards or counts on cards to play an important

role in your life. You got the aces, the diamonds, the clubs, and the spades. If you buy a dozen, you get a sleeve of each of those available right now at calawaygolf.com. These are chrome soft golf balls, which means tore proven distance and performance with unparalleled feel available in these true-vis patterns right now at callawaygolf.com. The other thing is that, you know, golf analytics has become a big deal recently. It is, still in its utter infancy, right? Great point. And so we are, we are so given, and it will become, it will become more and more refined.

It will become better at predicting future, you know, future goals. But for right now, it's hard. It's hard because it's still, now it will be very good because much like baseball, it's given to the individual, right? You are not necessarily, you are not dependent upon the others. That being said, it is so intensely mental. And we know that if a guy, you see so many of these guys where, you know how like athletes will say like the hell with the analytics, right? Because they're sitting there going, I know what it feels like.

It's like when an analytics guy will tell a basketball player, there's no such thing as being hot. or there's no such thing as well man they're like what are you talking about right like sometimes the goal feels huge sometimes i feel like i can make every shot i take and it's a confidence thing and there is no measure of that will you and i both know you get out on a golf course i mean you shank one into the tree and then you're hitting amongst the trees like you may be messed up for five holes now obviously that's not the case on the highest level as much as it is with the weekend hackers, but it still exists. And there's a lot of these guys that once they get rocking, they get rocking.

And then they've got their confidence. And then every time they're standing up at the team, they just feel like I can do this. You know, some days you feel good. You know, every shot you hit. I feel like I could put it in the fairway. I feel like I can pull out this three wood and hit this thing straight. That's a confident thing. and there is no measure of that.

And I'll just say that, like, this woodland guy, he is a perfect example of us trying to figure out things, numbers-wise, and then him crapping all over it. And the other thing, regarding the Tiger thing, though, this is a much different 13 than Tiger's 12. Because of the condition. Absolutely.

Yes, yes. I mean, they never got wind there, which was crazy. They never got, like, did you ever, this entire four days? It never seemed like conditions were a factor at all. It was never like, oh, man, he's hitting into the swirling wind or the, you know, this is coming off the ocean or whatever, or the, you know, it's soft because it rained last night or nothing, nothing. It was perfect all weekend.

It was literally perfect condition. That's the whole defense with the golf course is the wind. In fact, we didn't get it. And I'm glad you made that that point. I mean, all I was intending to do with Woodland is demonstrate, you know, that he had a high level of achievement. We didn't think 13 was going to win that? No, no, no, no, definitely not.

No, no. If you would have told me Brooks Kepka shot 10 under, I would have told you he won by at least two strokes. well the thing is and speaking of kepka here is a couple of aspects that ended up separating these guys how many birdies do you think brooks kebka had on the back nine on the par fives through over the course of the tournament so the two par fives are 14 and 18 yeah yeah i actually i actually know this um unfortunately i know this because lord knows i wanted i wanted i was was rooting for Eagles, and he never got a birdie. He never did it. He never did it. Zero birdies

on the back nine out of Brooks Kefka through the four rounds of the U.S. Open. And he is, you know, I don't know, I don't have it in front of me where I can pull it up, but he is among the very tops in all of professional golf at par five scoring with good reason, the combination of power and accuracy and for him to leave to me that's leaving eight strokes out there you know what i mean that's that's eight opportunities holy hell on that three iron on 18 you think you was feeling juicy that is a murdered ball murder is there any way we could have talked him into swinging four iron there? Do you think that, that, you know, they, they could have, like, just go through it and, like, bounce it short and have it roll up? I would never second guess the decision-making between Brooks

and his caddy. It was it. He said, he called Joe Klatte after the round. The decision was between four or was between three and four. And it was just an in-between distance, and we felt like four wasn't going to get there. And so obviously you try to flush a three, but the three was obviously too much. And that you, you know what? We need to get to this.

You said I would never question this caddy. Well, who's caddy would you question? Because I've got at least, I don't know, I've got at least 10 to 20 expletives on my phone right now regarding one caddy

that was of a elite level player in this tournament. Who could be, how? It's not fair. And we're at the point now in this US Open recap, where we're going to go, we've done a lot of superlatives

for Brooks and for Woodland, properly giving out some accolades. We're going on the other direction now. We're going to talk about some guys who disappointed us, Verno. And leading off, I mean, what the F was going on with

Dustin Johnson. Where was DJ? I think, you know, we could do the, they were there. I saw a lot of the terrific photoshopping of the Brooks was here all over Pebble Beach, you know, especially on that front nine. The Brooks was here with a sign with the, I mean, kudos to the internet. There were a lot of beautiful artistic renditions of Brooks was here. What I want is, is an explanation for where the hell was DJ and this is the thing, Verno, he started off the day to wonder. And we saw,

over the course of the day, the score, the low score for the day was 66, six under. So we know that, that the golf course was given out, you know, some opportunities out there.

And, you know, DJ coming in, he really was just scratching the, the entire tournament, 71, 69, 71. So he was, he arrived, you know, just a little under par. But we've seen DJ on Sundays before come out and go crazy.

He did it at Beth Page. This was not going to be the case for some reason at this event. And he came out with a bogey on number two, which I, you know, two is hard. Two is impossible. I think two is going to go, you know, over the course of the entire PGA tour this year. year, two will show up as one of the hardest holes they played the entire year on tour. They go up to number four and he pulls out a driver. Now, number four is a 324 yard, you know, uphill, you know, room off to the left,

so get a bowl, par four, but everybody who was scoring on this thing was going up there with max three wood at the very most three wood so DJ gets up there pulls out driver and smacks it right off the cliff what is going on in this place I mean he he double bogies I mean we I can't keep having these major recaps where we have these conversations where the tournament is still sort of out there for him he could do something meaningful And then I'm not killing his brother, right? This is something going on with, with him and his brother in terms of their communication and the decision making.

But, you know, the thing to do in that instance, you cannot under any circumstances have a score worse than par on this hole. And he smacks it, you know, into the Pacific. So double bogey, the tournament's over for DJ. That's it. And he's scuffled, you know, through the rest of the. thing. He shot two over on the front and he shot one over on the back. That ain't getting it done, buddy. Now look, maybe Claude Harmon, who he parted ways with, you know, a week ago, 10 days ago

is looking and saying, you know, just shaking his head. Uh, DJ still doing sending his videotape over to Claude's father But I, you know, I don't know what the hell's going on with him. His track record at Pebble was, you know, rivals that of. Tiger. He has an incredible track record at Pebble, but he never got it going. He couldn't make any putts the whole week. Now, he was burning edges Thursday, and he

was burning edges Friday, and it felt like there was a low round in him the entire week, but, you know, didn't see shit out of DJ. What did you think? I totally thought I even regretfully texted my buddy

as he is winding up his third round. I texted him and I said, this dude is going to be heard from tomorrow because I thought he's right there. He's got a chance. Like, he's close. And he's going to lock in and he's going to be heard from on Sunday. So obviously a colossal disappointment. Look, the two that were disappointing for sure to me, because I thought they were going to be heard from and I thought they were going to be great was DJ.

was DJ coming into this? Okay. Look, you could, if he posts a 66, he's there. He's up on the leaderboard at least, right? I mean, he's still getting a top, whatever. He's getting like a top 30 finish, but that's way underwhelming. And the other one was our boy Eldrick broke my heart with the way he started today. I mean, because the first seven you can score, he was terrible.

He was terrible. I think he was four old. Over. Four over. I mean, you got, if you would, I don't, I don't know how much I would have bet that if you, if you told me first six holes over under Tiger Woods fourth round today. Yeah. And you would have said, if you would have said minus three, I would have at least thought about it. I know he had not been locked in, but now it's, it's Tiger Time. It's the last round. You can score. It's good scoring conditions on that on that first part of the course and And then how about this? He goes on this frigging

Birdie Brigade in the second half But at that point everybody's already started we didn't even get to see any of it I know He after going he was like go look at his scorecard. It's like I know Party party party party and they didn't even show them like we weren't even seeing his shot. He was four over through the first six holes, and then he was six under.

He went bogey, bogey, par, bogey bogey, then birdie, birdie. So he finished in 37 on the front. And then he birdied four more times between 13 and 18. And all we saw was the put on 18. Now, I guess it's sort of, it's fair enough, you know, because he's completely out of contention.

But he did shoot, you know, the single most prominent major round of golf, major terminate performance in the history of golf at this venue. And he's back at it, you know, after being laid off a golf for a little while. It would have been nice to have seen a little bit more. But, you know. Well, and he won the Masters. So it's not exactly like he's not relevant. I mean, I think he ends up, what, T-21?

T-21. Yeah, no, you're right. And I had some guys in the top 20. I had some top 20 bets. I don't know who knocked everybody out of it. Everybody had two under was hanging in there at 20th. And then all of a sudden, they all got pushed down. I'm not sure who did it to them.

But I'm going to pick that person out and put a hex, put a hex on them because it cost me some money. It was a bad start. And then obviously he had to rally to get the number that he did. But he put himself out. The other thing is, by the way, and this is what I do. this is one of the reasons I also have become a fan of Kevka. The dude plays faster

than hell. They didn't have time. They didn't have time to show anybody else. It's like they're bouncing from him to Woodland to Justin Rose fucking up and then they go back and it's like, how about this? That Chase Revy

he's like, what? Third, I think, or he's got a top five. Yeah, time for third. Yeah, if I'm his head, yeah, if I'm dad, I'm like, my boy just tied for a third at the U.S. Open, and I think I saw two shot. They didn't show them until there was on the back nine. I don't remember what hole it was, but it was like, you know, not even until like the 13th, 12, 13th, 14th hole we even saw the man. It's incredible.

I didn't even know. The crazy thing is, I did not, I didn't even know who exactly was in Kepka's group unless Who was paired with. I take that back. I knew because of the matchup bet. Yeah, right. That was ridiculous. He was like minus 155 against Revy.

Come on. Get out of my face. Pay the odds. Pay the odds. Okay. But I did forget because you didn't see any of the other guy's shot. So I forgot he was playing with until I saw that tweet that came out that said on the 12th hole, you know, when they were all like standing around and they had to wait forever.

because of the Louis Houthousin thing. Yeah, yeah, shanky Ustie, Hoosy. Yeah, so did you see that one where they were saying that they were, it said in case you were worried about Brooks Kepka's nerves of trying to win a third U.S. Open champion, this time at the 12th T has been spent with Kepka and Revy comparing tobacco products. That was spectacular. I who authored that I saw it that it was an all-timer it was a great one it was a cbs cbs uh kyle oh Kyle yeah Kyle Porter Kyle Porter right yeah Kyle Porter terrific a plus a plus tweet Kyle Porter shout out Kyle Porter yeah

best reporting ever I don't know whether that was true or not I thought it was he made it up I thought it was a joke but either way it doesn't matter it doesn't matter a plus a plus tweet all right quick break i want to tell you a little bit about golf digest schools do you want to take your game to the next level you're halfway there by listening to this podcast so well done check out the new golf digest schools they're offering more than 350 classes on every part of the game all from golf's leading teachers from buch harmon to david ledbetter to jim mclean these are not quick tips that you can just go look up on YouTube, you're getting from power to putting, from breaking 100 to breaking par, no video program gives you more opportunity to take your game to the next level, just as if you were

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Don't wait. The sooner you download the free ZipRecruiter Job Search app, the sooner it helps you find a better job. Let's talk about a couple guys that we were impressed with. I want to start with the X-Man. I mean, he just keeps doing it, Vernau. Shame on me for sleeping on him. No, no, why, why?

What's the boo? What are we booing at? I just because my love, because I feel, you know what I feel like? I feel like the guy who like, he dumps the girl and then she shows back up at the party and she's got like a guy that's infinitely better looking than you. And you're like, oh, shoot. You know, I should have never, I should have never, I should have never left her. That's right.

And it's exactly how I feel because I was so bad at Zander over the media. Yeah, you remember? I know, I know. He finished with five straight bogeys. I literally, I literally had him. The bet was 18th or better. Yeah. That's the bet.

I know. And he bogeyed every hole. Coming in. Yeah. The last four holes. And I said, you know what? Just like the hot girl. I can't do this anymore.

I can't do it anymore. I'm sorry. The T, the 19th or better, or the 18th or better, and you getting 19th, that was, you ripped my heart out, man. That one hurts. I kind of bailed. I will tell you this. I did take it today over Adam Scott, because I don't respect long putter. I mean, this is the mistake.

You know, I looked at some of the stats coming into the, in the, in the morning coming into this fourth round to see what guys were hitting the ball good and what, you know, whether there was any advantage in the matchups. And Adam Scott was hitting the ball damn good through the week. And Xander was hanging in there with his putter. He putted extraordinarily well over the course of the week. And I was like, you know what? at some point, the putter is going to go quiet.

In fact, that's exactly what happened to Justin Rose. You know, if you're going to, if you're slapping it a little bit, it's tough to, you know, correct that. And then just count on that hot putter to carry you through it. So I put a small taste on Adam Scott, immediately regretted it. Of course I lost it. He hit it out of bounds on 13. I guess, I guess so this is the, I guess this is continuing my analysis. right so ran into zanzer last night at a party

ended up hooking off yeah we might get back together now we might might that's exactly right hey we might get back because we did just that we had a really good day today we had a really good day zander or you know who who else i'm i'm getting back together with john rom John Rom. I actually

I actually Hey, hey, not Tommy Fleetwood. We can do that. We can, that'll be easy. Let's go ahead and just,

we're going to do this for every major. We're fading the F boys until one of them does something that's worth a shit. Fee now missed the cut. Fleetwood came into the weekend, shot 73, 73. And, and Ricky,

God bless him, 66 on, on, on Thursday. never to be heard from again. I don't even recall. Did they show him once today? He shot 66, 77, 71, 72, you know, plus two for the tournament.

We're just going to keep fading the F boys. That ought to be a way to, you know, a way to, I want to get in touch with our friends at Westgate and come up with a, with a fade the F boys parlay. There's got to be a way, you know, like set the threshold for them not finishing, like finishing outside the top 10, all three of them. just start betting that parlay every damn week. I mean, every damn major. Because these are not serious dudes.

Can we keep hearing? This could be the one Fleetwood. You know, his statistics are so good. He plays the U.S. Open. Look at his U.S. Open finishes. Come on now. Why are we talking about Tommy Fleetwood anymore? So we're not.

We're fading the F-points. But John Rom, John Rom, God bless him. And this is why I bet him. I bet him to top 10. He is in all or nothing. He's played, he'd, coming into this event, he'd played in six majors. He had three top tens and three missed cuts. And I went ahead and played on him this week because he has a really good, uh, record in,

in California. He plays, he plays these California courses, uh, well for some reason to win, six top 10 finishes, a scoring average in California under 69. So I was like, that's worth, you know, that's worth a hundred bucks. Let me just see what happens here with John Ron. And I got him at plus two 50. So two and a half to one. That's a small winner.

That's a small winner on the card. There are a lot of giant losers out there, but that's a small winner. And, you know, John Rom continues to make himself relevant. He deserves to be in the major, you know, winner conversation.

68 today, you know, three under. That's, that's plenty of competitive. And, you know, another top five finish in a major for John Rom. So he's back on my good list.

All right. On my bad list. All these drafting bums. Luke List. Oh, no. Kim. Those two guys I went with the caddy stuff for. Boo to them.

They suck. Jonathan Vegas. Crumbled. Completely crumbled. He was doing good. And then just totally crumbled. But a massive shout out. The lowest price.

of my lowest price guy on draft king, even though I got absolutely drilled. There's like a big group that I'm a part of. And it's like, I think they just take my $20 donation every time. Because I'm never even in the running. I have a hard time with that. I've got to figure this out. I've got to do more studying on the daily fantasy. I got to start.

I see this Patrick Mayo retweeting like a thousand guys that won like hell. And I see all these. guys, all these guys, they're like, they're retweeting all these, like, massive wins. And I'm like, why am I, why, why am I sitting around with frigging Luke List? Um, anyway, the massive shout out goes to, and I text you over the weekend. I love Hovelin. I love it. Yeah, I know.

I love the swinging Pete Oklahoma State logo. Yes. I love, I saw somebody called them, said he looked like a stoned Rory. He's always, he's like always friggin smiling. He is always smiling. I love the guy. I love him.

And he's good. Jesus Christ, he's good. Yeah, giant nut 67 today. I had him on my list. He was on my card to play his top amateur because I was in Pebble Beach last August walking, you know, the first couple portions of the U.S. amateur, which he won at Pebble Beach and watched him a little bit. And he hits the ball a mile and he's got great accuracy. And I just never got around to getting it. I didn't get it in on time. But I should have done, I should have

I bet something with him. Because that was a hell of a performance. I'm glad you brought that up. This is going to be useful to everybody that's out there. Because I guarantee you, there's thousands of guys that had this conversation today. So now I get to ask somebody that could actually really know. Okay. So me and all my buddies, we were like, dude, we have to do this. Like one time we got to go do this. So like plan a trip and just go out there and play it.

I said that I think I could par the 100-yarder. I could part three. I was unsure of any other hole. Any other hole, I'm not sure. of I think I could par that 100 yarder down the hill. I know that the depth perception's off, but that's the one I think I could par. But here's the big question.

Everybody, if you look it up on the web, it's like $4.95, but like you've got to stay there at the thing. I know you've got all these connections now, but have you ever done it and like gone and done the like, I don't live in California? I'm paying and I'm going to go do. this as a moment in time bucket list type thing. Do you have any idea what it actually would cost?

I don't see how somebody like in our circumstances, I would be coming from, you know, the East Coast. You're coming from, you know, kind of mid, the Midwest a little bit. Middle. Yeah, the middle of America. That's right. There is no way you're doing that trip for less than two grand. I just can't come up with the way, you know, between the airfare, between, get your, forget the, forget the flight.

Like we. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. You know what I mean? What? Some guys have like, you know, points for business, you know. Okay, okay. Well, if you take the flights out of it.

I'm just talking about the lodging and the actual, like, we want to play golf and stay there. What do you think it would cost? Just, just to stay there and play golf, it's, I think it's like $1,100 bucks, $1,000, $1,100. something like that. You have to stay in there at least some number of nights. I can't. Maybe it's down to one night. Yep. And play one round. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You could do you, you could figure out a way to figure out the accommodation. I don't remember all of it. But yeah, I think it's the playing it and the staying, I think right around a thousand bucks is the number. You know what? I mean, like again, when you're talking about a, right?

It's a bucket list. It's a bucket list. I need to do this because, well, that is one of those where it's like, you know, we can't say, oh, hey, we're going to go, we need to go play Augusta one day. Like, you actually can go play this. Right. That's exactly right. You got to look with a little bit of planning, a little foresight.

You can do it. Absolutely. It's packed all the time, but, you know, you want to say you played it. And you want to hit that shot. You want to hit a T ball on six and have it go all the way down. If you crush it and then look. up the giant mountain in front of you. You can't believe there's a green sitting at the top of that thing. And the cliff is falling off down to the right. It's like, God, please don't hit it right.

Please don't hit it right. I mean, how many balls are, you know, there are so many opportunities to just slam balls out into the ocean. Eight looks impossible from, you know, when you're walking up. You can't see the fairway from the T-box. Now, I did hear a good story. We had a my boy Paul Coherst, who was the caddy at Pebble. He told a funny story about, you know, when he, when he was caddy and he was 19 years old and started this first week. And he ended the other guy, went up the fairway on number eight. And the amateurs that they were, you know, the hackers that they were caddying for,

one guy hit a ball up. And the caddy ran up to that ball and kicked it 30 yards forward. And my boy, Coherst says, sir, sir, what are you doing? And he says, you know, trust me, son. It'll make sense. It'll make sense. And so, you know, these guys, they give you, you know, you want the whole experience to be,

to be worthwhile, but you also want to have a chance. So like a normal person trying to hit that second shot on number eight, it ends up being like a 220-yard shot for us, normal human beings to a green that looks like the size of, you know, a miniature basketball with the way you look down on it. It's impossible. So I think the whole karma of it, the whole karma of it is part of the experience. And that's the other thing about today's round that what we watch in the U.S. Open is there were at least 10 times where I was watching these guys. And more specifically, both Woodland and Kepka, where they hit it into what you and your friends would likely call the ship.

Yes. And they're in it. And it's deep. And I'm thinking to myself, I mean, that is a club breaker. I would be in that for an hour, an hour. Like just hacking at the ball, like hacking. Like there were some of those where the lie is terrible and it's in like two foot weeds or rough that it's just buried in

and these guys were putting it on the friggin green and I'm like you've got to be getting me the save that Kepka had on two it was really like two saves he hit it from the hay you know because he blasted it left to the to the to the

front part of the of a bunker and then you know blasted it again from a terrible lie to what looked like about three feet and made the put like that's just not i if if i find that ball off the tea i just say i'm going to write down seven just give me let's just do seven i'll try and hit it out of here just write down seven that's my max not all and they had tough bunker shots but both of those guys they're strong they're strong as a knock both of them that's right that's how they got out of that and a lesser player

has even a lesser I saw Rory hit one in that stuff earlier today and he hit it two yards, he hit it into the bunker, which was two yards in front of it. Yep. Like it was just, like you got to have crazy

power to get it through that stuff, to get your club through it, or else you're just stuck. And those guys both being so strong gave them that opportunity for sure. And by the way, can we please take one minute, I would be remit

if we end this podcast without laughing, laughing at the Las Vegas bookmaker that set Brooks Kepka and you rightfully asked how much you could wire me

and how much we could pay, how much you could take. He, somebody in their right mind posted a Brooks Kepka versus Rory McElroy matchup with plus odds at the beginning of this tournament. That happened. That really happened.

It's incredible. I mean, there was, you know, this is the power of Rory, the enthusiasm for Rory. I mean, I think Vegas ended up, Vegas had to have had a terrific day. Like, they were really looking at their wounds after Tiger, you know, the whole world bet on Tiger to win the Masters and then he won the Masters. I think that that was an outchy. But Woodland coming out of nowhere. 80 to 1 and everybody hedged today against woodland like nobody was was everybody was jumping in anybody who wasn't on hepka

on capka got on capka i don't think there was a lot of people jumping in on a woodland hedge um but you know the the the rory enthusiasm because of how um lights out he was on sunday and that fresh taste in everybody's mind that what your mind's eyes sees out of Rory, it recalls that major dominance when he gets on those runs where, you know, 59 feels like a possibility. And, you know, he was tied for the low odds entering the week to win the tournament. And they gave out plus odds for Rory against D.J. against Tiger and against Brooks now. I, again, I'm not, I'll, we already went through DJ. DJ had a chance of catching Rory today, though. There was definitely

in the mix because Rory ended up five under and the, you know, at plus one and DJ started the day at two under. I'll leave that alone. But Brooks was never in doubt. It was never in doubt with between Brooks Kepka and

Rory Mac Roy in this US open. Not at one minute did I think oh, I made a mistake with this giant bet on Brooks against Rory in this matchup. Well, and I thought, I think it was, I think Kepka's odd until last night pretty well from opening bell, which was plus like 700. And then this is very rare.

I've almost never seen this before. After round one, he was plus 700. After round two, he's plus 700. After round three, he was like plus 450. Right? But like I have no idea. The British has not been the one. you know, for Kepka.

No. But we will see. We will see because this is, I saw that Bill Simmons posted, you know, his last four or five majors. How about this? This is his last, hey, this is his last nine majors. Listen to this. Second to that, okay? First, second, first, 39, first, 13, six.

That's going back. That's four of nine. Yeah, yep, it is. That's four of nine. He's won four of nine. He's had two seconds. So now six of the nine, he's either been first or second. And then the other finishes were six, 13th, and 39.

He has never been outside the top 40. And he has been within the top, what did I say? 13. So he's been within the top 13 in eight of the last nine majors, six of them. he has been in the top two, four of them, he has won. That is insanity. Insanity.

We're going to have to bet them top ten. That goes without saying, even if we're not feeling the, you know, Royal Port Rush is the next major on the calendar. And, you know, I'm already, you know,

I hate to say it at this early stage. I already crossed Tiger off the list. We'll save, we'll say for another day in another conversation. What we think, Tiger's next best. Speed, by the way,

he threw up all over himself today. Yeah. I was, that was, you know. I was so ready for him to be back. I was so ready for him to be back. And then he,

and then he's yelling at Michael. Come on, man. Get off, Michael. All that early week stuff with, with Speeth, it was like,

oh, forget it. I mean, it was too late to fade him. because he made the cut, but, you know, it was over when he was yelling at Michael. I thought when people were, people were like jumping on him, look, those guys are like brothers. Yes, yes, of course. Every time Speed wins, he's we this, we that. He loves that guy, but that was mega frustrating.

I would tell you, I laughed my ass off. He says, that's two. You put me, you put me over the green on one and in the world. he was so mad he was pretty good pretty good pretty good yeah 76 today i speak that's like you know what that's like to me that is like that's not like a player mistreating a caddy that's when you know their buddy and that's exactly like like that's kind of why i'm always like speech is like he wears his emotions on his sleeve he he gets like super angry like who doesn't it's the real it's the relationship.

That's right. Yeah, but I mean, I get, but golf is the most frustrating shit ever. You know, it really is. I agree. When things, when things don't go your way, that's how you act like a normal person does. So I've always been kind of drawn to him because I kind of feel like good or bad. It's kind of, he acts like, you know, a guy you know. That's right.

And a guy you know would yell at it, you know, you blame your frigging candy. Or you blame your buddy. you have the conversation with your buddy I'm between clubs what's what I hit oh hit the hit the one that goes longer and then he hits a 20 yards over the green you son of a bitch well I didn't think you're going to flush it

hey no my buddy what was it last week my buddy told me to slow my hands down I hit this shit dead right I said I slowed them down exactly right that's it well I don't think you and I have any major golf in our futures other than watching and we have the The Open Championship is a little bit, we have a little bit of a breather, finally, between this jam-packed schedule, Verno. It feels like we've been cranking on majors.

You know, it started with the Players Championship in March, not a major, but a big-time tournament. Players, Augusta in April, Beth Page in May, and here we are, barely a month later, we barely catching our breath with the U.S. Open. but now we have a little bit of a break, about a five-week break here to go ahead and, you know, collect our thoughts a little bit. And nobody knows anything about Royal Port Rush as a venue hosting a major. So, you know, obviously a little advantage for Rory being from Northern Ireland, little advantage for Graham McDow being a, that's the venue that he grew up on. And other than that, I don't have any early thoughts.

I'm fading tiger because I just, you know, I don't see having watched him, you know, this, Beth Page, he had an excuse of being sick. This, I'm interesting to hear. It'll be interesting to hear what ultimately he points to is the thing that kept him from really good going this week at the U.S. Open. I honestly, it's the one, hey, it's the one that I actually will not mind if he would not win that one. because, and I believe I'm going to get Signor House to Memphis for the first time in his life. That's true.

The next week after the British is Memphis. You're right. Tiger Woods has never played in Memphis, ever. The fans have never gotten to see him in the South. And this is, with the WGC event, they've got an opportunity. He has not committed yet. But obviously, if he wins the British Open, he ain't playing nothing. So I actually kind of need him to not win the British.

Should we do like, should we do an emotional hedge? Should we bet on them to miss the cut at the British? Just so we can have them. Just so we insure. Yeah. So we haven't to improve our chances of getting them to Memphis. That's all.

I like it. Yeah, right. So there, you know, we got, I think it's 32 days until the British, something. It's about that.

that would put it at about 40 days until the World Golf Championship takes place in Memphis, which I got to get you here for. We're going to make it happen, Verdo. I promise. A lot of things to look forward to here on Fairway Roll. And Verdo, thanks for coming on for this U.S. Open recap. I'll talk to you again soon, buddy. Shout out to Gary Woodland.

Thanks, Howard. Shout out to Gary Woodland. All right, my friends, there we have it. Incredible performance by Gary Woodland. and Brooks, Kepka, the 119th edition of the U.S. Open is in the books. If you want to hear more about the outstanding performances of everyone at Pebble Beach this week, get yourself over to the Callaway Podcast Network, CallawayGolf.com, and check out Real Golf Talk with Johnny Miller. Let's hear Johnny Miller's thoughts about the performance by Gary Woodland.

He will sit down with Chris Harrison. It'll be the second episode of Real Golf Talk with Johnny Miller. They talked a little bit after the PGA Championship. We're going to sit down again this week. I think the podcast with Johnny Miller will be up either tomorrow. That is the Monday after the U.S. Open or Tuesday, if production gets delayed a little bit. But check out that podcast. Real Golf Talk with Johnny Miller should be up in the next 48 hours,

recapping this beautiful U.S. Open. Speaking of the beautiful U.S. Open, we loved it. We're so, we enjoyed it so much. We're off for a couple weeks. Giving ourselves a break here at Fairway, Roland. We'll be back as the schedule starts to heat up in advance of the Open Championship. I was going to say the British Open. Nobody calls it that.

No serious golf person calls it that. Well, I'm not a serious golf person. The Open Championship will be coming. We will be rolling. Until then, my friends, let's hit them straight. out there.