Fore Play - U.S. Open Reaction Show

Episode Date: June 19, 2023

Wyndham Clark wins the U.S. Open. Rory comes up short. Rickie comes up short. Scottie comes up short. We instantly react to all this week’s drama and takes. How was LACC as a venue? Was there a conspiracy behind keeping fans away? Will Rickie ever get it done? Is there a beauty to Rory’s anguish? The whole crew discusses it all.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/foreplaypod

Hey, 4Play listeners, you can find us every Tuesday and Thursday on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Oh, Rick! What's that my brother? I got a buddy who struggles with that shot a lot. His name's Frankie Borrelli. So the guys actually gave him a nickname of Butter Nives because he was always nice to the cross the green. Bro, 100.

Now you've got to break 90s. We appreciate what you guys do for golf. It's been really cool. Thank you. You're making it cool. I was like, hey, Phil, you only fucking 2999. And he grabs 100. He's like, yeah, I won 90,000 a lease yesterday.

He goes, take 100 and go, fuck yourself. What? What are you that different? It's a hobby. Four players are my personal sports. Brought to you by Chevrolet. This is the 2023 United States Open Reaction podcast, Wyndham Clark, just won his first major championship.

We got about as much to talk about, I feel like, from a tournament as you ever had. It was a roller coaster. We got to talk about LACC. We got to talk about all kinds of takes from record scoring to no fans to controversies to Windham Clark, taking down the three big superstars that clearly were the fan favorites out there. We got a lot to get to, but Wyndham Clark, who was on this show, a month or so ago, who's had an incredible year, who went from high 100s, I believe he was in the official world golf rankings last year to just winning the U.S. Open, a month or so after winning an elevated event at the Wells Fargo.

He hit a drive that looked like in a classic U.S. Open fashion on the 72nd hole would be way right, way right, right in the right side of the fairway, hits the middle of the green. A lot of takes about that. But at the end of the day, that guy had so many clutch up and downs. It was laughable how he was getting up and down on eight, even for bogey on 17 yesterday for bogey after taking on playable. on the ninth hole today after Azinger, who's out to fucking lunch that guy, said that his ball wasn't going to catch a slope, and then it just caught the slope

and went down to like six feet. Then he made par. So yeah, just hats off before we get to any takes, before we do any negativity. If there is going to be any negativity, just unbelievable stuff from Wyndham Clark. The moment for me for him was on 16 when he missed that par put. You could see how much it meant to him.

And from that moment on, I kind of switched of like, holy fuck man like i kind of felt for him and kind of wanted him to pull it off now that it was close now that we were going to get it tight all that uh he was crying afterwards so uh so yeah kudos to win him clark he won the u.s open the the moment for me was on friday afternoon uh we were doing an interview after his round and he was talking about his three goals for the week and i think he said the first one was to enjoy himself on a beautiful golf course the second one is to be cocky and the third one is to remind yourself of the first two And I love that. I thought that was a great way to describe it. And I think when he said be cocky,

we noticed this when we talked to him a month ago, Riggs. The guy has a belief in his game that probably before this year would have been described as a inflated sense of self-belief, right? To believe that you're the best player or one of the best players in the world without having much evidence to prove it. And then now, you know, he's improved his short game a lot. He's always mashed it super far down there and he's kept that confidence. And the most impressive up and down for me was on 11. He hit it left on 11 and went down the hill. It's at the bottom. The grass is burned out there. It's basically a full barren lie. That green runs left from left to right. So he's playing to a down slope. He goes full flop shot, nips it perfectly. It lands short, checks up,

the kind of back up into the hill, and he saves par. I will say he tried to give the tournament away. He did try to give the tournament away. Bogie on 15, Bogie on 16, slice on 18. But that fairway is wide enough to to have a Walmart and Rory for the second straight Sunday when he's really in contention just could not make one put. You got the sense that if he made one put while Clark was going backwards, if he made one putt and it was going off, it would have been over. Yeah, I don't know how my Wi-Fi is because I'm at a Chicago hotel, but my main takeaway is Rory.

And it's all about Window right now because he won and it was all about Ricky leading up to the Sunday because he was in contention. but Rory man just one just one put literally just one and he made a big par put on the back but other than that he was he had set up for par all or Bertie all day so many greens in regulation and then he just all day he can't make a put shoots a 70 and he's just out of it that drives me crazy I was room for Rory so hard I know the whole world was pulling for Ricky but I was a Rory guy I thought it was going to happen it's been nine years since that guy has won a major and he just just continually cannot get it done.

And it's taking years off my life. I'm not mad at the guy. I'm just disappointed that he can't make a putt. Couldn't make one at St. Andrews. Couldn't make one at LACC. And he still hasn't won a major. I know people are talking about Ricky because he's never won a major. At this point, it feels like Roy has never won a major.

It's been so long that it feels like they're going for the same thing. So, yeah, just as a Rory stand, I guess you would put it, I'm just disappointed. Yeah. I mean, with all the names that were involved in this thing, Wyndham Clark coming out of it feels very like Webb Simpson-esque. I've seen that on Twitter a little bit where it's just like, yikes. I just didn't. It was for me and it has nothing to do with Wyndham.

We interviewed him in person at, was that Liberty National that we first laid our eyes on him? Beautiful looking man. Really well put together. Colorado guy. He loves sports. He's an athlete. You heard his caddy saying be an athlete and the fucking announcer shove everything they hear down your fucking throat.

If they hear a caddy say one fuck. thing they just they run with it man being athlete you heard scotty's telling him to be an athlete he's gonna be really hands of here fucking hate it's like we heard it dude we're not this isn't like an extra service where it's like i have like heart of hearing or seeing that you need to explain to me everything that i'm literally watching and hearing um so that was my biggest takeaway was like i was was anybody but wind him for me just as a fan of golf i wanted to see a big name win you wanted a rickie to win you wanted a rory to win you wanted scotty to pull off a heroic comeback on on the back nine when you felt like no one else was going to make birdies and nothing

really happened. No putts went in. Nobody hit these incredible shots. Even when he was in trouble, Wyndham, you thought maybe, oh, he's going to like swing and miss or whiff underneath one of these chip shots because he kept missing greens and he would push it left. And he'd always find himself in a good spot or his chipping would just be so fucking good that you couldn't believe that the ball is going to stop right next to the hole. How many times did you guys watch that and be like, oh, like run out, like in your head, you're not rooting against him like personally, but you kind of are because you want the other guys to win. So how many times did you watch one of his approach shots go towards the hole and be like just keep running out and then they just stop it was like

they had sticky tack on them like if an mb umpire was standing on every single green they'd have to check the fucking ball to make sure that ball was legal because his balls just stopped by the holes it's crazy so shout out to windham clark it's an amazing story man do they let you know that his mother passed away on the 18th hole so that was like they were really going at the heartstrings with that the whole walk up 18 was very emotional i feel very happy for him his family he's a great guy played his fucking dick off. He can hit the ball better than anybody else out there when he's on. It seems it seems like. And yeah, his short game was phenomenal, man. Absolutely phenomenal. Just one of the better displays of chipping that I've ever seen. Like it was it was masterclass.

It was fucking crazy. Yeah. And that's how you that's how you rip the heart out of the rest of a golf tournament, right? Like those up and downs. It's like, dude, this guy should be giving away shots. Ricky was a great example. Throughout the whole tournament, it kind of felt like Ricky was holding on for most of the tournament, and they even were saying that in all the live-frums every night.

They were like, I don't know that Ricky can really keep doing this. And like, he couldn't. He eventually just like couldn't quite keep up. He still finished, I think, fourth or whatever. He's right there. But he just couldn't quite hold on.

And Wyndham Clark just continued to hang on. He continued on eight when he like whiffed on that one and then blades it over the green or smokes it over the green and then gets up it down from that horrific lie. On nine, that spot. You're like, what the hell is you going to do here? And he chips it up into the slow, but it looks like it's going to stop up there. Azinger says it's definitely going to stop up there. It dribbles all the way down to the hole. He makes a swinger from like six feet that he had

to play like a foot outside the hole. Back nine, 11, same deal. If he just catches that a hair thin on 11, like he talked about Dan, or if he catches the hair thick, that is double bogey or very close to double bogey. He nips it up there. I thought it was going in the fucking hole. And then on, what is it, 14 is the par five where he's half. He's half. He's half. He has to stand in the fairway. Rory makes a horrific bogey, even after getting the pretty good break. Wyndham's standing in the fairway,

has to watch the whole thing. Every human on earth that plays golf knows that feeling where you wait for the group in front of you. You got the wood out. You're going to go for the green. You fucking top it or you duff it. You make like double. Wyndham Clark, one of two players all day.

The only other guy was Tommy Fleetwood to hit that green in under regulation in two shots. Tommy shot 63 today. He hits it up there, two putts for birdie so it's like this fucking guy and then he's the only guy in the whole field that bogey's 15 and you're thinking wait a second i've heard that storyline somewhere like of course he's not supposed to win this he's not supposed to win this then he hits it in the lip on 16 misses that put when that putt lips out now rory just hit a great shot you're like rory's somehow

gonna fucking win this thing and then kind of i i think that's sort of like sort of encapsulates the whole thing was that like it ended up being a dud of a last like a couple of holes. It was like by the, they didn't even really have time to like dramatize his chip on 17. It was like Rory had this put there. You're like, is he finally going to make one? He doesn't make it. They cut to wind him. He's already taking the club back. He chips it to an inch. It's dead silent because no one was rooting for him there. So it was like when he chipped it to make an inch on 17, nobody made a noise. And then they were like, wait, what? And then he looked like he fanned that one that carried like 297, by the way, on the 72nd hole into the right side of the fairway, hits it in the front of the

green. Then they do the whole circus, like, pretending like they're at St. Andrews with the Open, where they bring everybody out. People are having takes about that. You're thinking to your head, like, maybe this will be something we can talk about. He's going to three jack after they made him wait, basically, because they're doing some fucking circus after having no fans there all week. And then he lags it up

to like an inch. And again, it was dead silent. Like, imagine like when Tiger lagged it up to like an inch, people went bananas. Like, oh my God, he's actually going to do it. It was like kind of quiet because people finally realized officially roar. He wasn't going to win. Ricky wasn't going to win. And he taps in and you're kind of just left with this like, all right, like, okay, I got, all right, I guess

it like happened. I guess the U.S. Open happened and, and Wyndham Clark won it, and that's really cool for him. And you got the moment where he's crying, his family, his friends are out there. He's big here in Scottsdale. Everybody knows him. He'll be at Isabella's kitchen. So there's a connection, but like, it just kind of was like, the air was sucked out of

it a little bit by what he did. So kudos to him. And it just never, like, we told that to him after he won at Wells Fargo. We were like, it was kind of a boring win. And he was like, thank you. I take that as a compliment that I won in a boring fashion. So, yeah, it was weird. I was really hoping they weren't going to go for the aerial shot when they did everyone

rushing in because I was thinking like, there's just not that many people. Like, please, please don't zoom out. Then they said all of Los Angeles was on leave. There's a lot more people in Los Angeles than the, than the 8,000 or whatever it is, general admission ticket that they sold this week. Yeah, that was, I mean, obviously, we'll get into this, I'm sure, but not a great week for the Los Angeles country clubs policies, which I feel like are pretty under fire.

But also, someone's going to make a montage of all of Rory McElroy's birdie putts from Sunday at St. Andrews and from Sunday of today. Because it's almost like there's like dark magic going on because his speed was pretty good today. There were a lot of putts that just missed a little too high, a little too low. Like, it's incredible that one didn't go in by accident. You know what I mean? where it's like if you roll a ball at a hole with good speed 35 times in a row, one of them's going to catch that fucking white little circle and it never happened. Dude, the only bad putt I thought he really hit was his putt on eight, like his short

birdie putt on eight after he didn't lag it up there stone cold. He had like four feet. He pulled it. He knew it. But you're right. Other than that, it's not like he's putting horrifically. It wasn't like at the open even he was putting in terms of aesthetically, horrifically. yet when they cut to them, it never feels like it's going to go in.

Like it just doesn't feel like it's going to go in. And you're right. They're dancing around the hole. They roll up there. They're kind of, if it's a left to right or it's breaking right. You're like, this is going to be one of those puts. And it just misses. And that has to be so infuriating for him because as a viewer, today you got it off.

They even called it. One of the things Aisinger called correctly was early on. He's like on the first hole where he had like not that short of like an eagle look, right? they have a pretty good eagle look and he was like if he can make a put early that could be his entire U.S. Open because it feels like when he gets a puck going early, they roll in. And when he doesn't, he gets stuck in this like Rory's not going to make him kind of vibe. And he just was in the Rory's not going to make it kind of vibe all day long. And he said it after. He's like, I didn't have that many close looks. And he really didn't. It wasn't like, I felt like he had a lot of puts where you're like,

oh, he should make this one. But it was enough of him like, you'd like to see. him make it. And the other thing with Rory is like, I thought he made a couple bad decisions. I saw, I can't remember who it was. One of the PJ tour players who tweets a lot was tweeting about Rory's shot on 18 being like, I don't know why he continues to try to cut balls into pins when like he could just hit his like one or two yard draw at that pin when he like needs birdie because the wind was off the left. So it was like he could cut it. He could draw it up into the wind. And every time he tries to do that, it feels like he just, that's just not his shot. And I keep going back to that wedge on whatever, 14 in Memorial, where you hit it in the left bunker, where there's all that water short and right.

And he's like trying to cut this gap wedge in there. It hits it in the left bunker makes boge. And it's like when he's trying to do that stuff. And then the other one was when he didn't go for it on 14, the par five, we ended up making bogey. And again, I'm not down there. I didn't see the lie. I don't want to get Tommy Fleetwood caddied by Dan Rap report here. But it looked like he that he was kind of thinking about going for it.

He was 280 or something like that, about the same distance, Wyndham Clark was. William Clark was obviously in the fairway, Rory was in the rough, but he lays up. And then when you lay up, he's, it's a really tough pin. And by laying up, if you're Cam Smith, I understand laying up. Right. His wedge is a wedge for months. Cam Smith is a wedge and a putter guy. So Cam Smith should lay up because he's going to hit a wedge pretty close and he rolls

every put in the dead center of the hole. Roy McGrath, I feel like if you just play all the numbers in his head, he's not great with the wedges and he hasn't made a fucking thing. So just blast a three wood up there near the green. So you have a short game effort that you can. potentially get really close because you're not making anything. And instead of even having a tap in par, he makes the bogey and then it up being the difference.

So it's easy for us to say Monday morning quarterback. That's what this fucking podcast is. But it just felt like he made a couple bad decisions. He didn't get anything to go in. And still with all of that, he loses by one fucking stroke after all that. Did you see who did go for it on the 14th hole from the left rough today? Who? No.

Mr. Tommy Fleetwood from the rough. Did you see what he did? He hit it on the green and he made he. Oh, he was in the rough. I forgot that he was in the rough. He was in the rough. So I tweeted this, but I went up after, I didn't see his round.

So I went up to Finno after the round. And I was like, I just want to tell you, I saw a Trent tweet. And I was like, I just want to tell you. I thought your decision making was fantastic today. He goes, did you see 14? I go, no. No, he goes, you're pulling my leg. You saw 14, right?

I'm like, no, do you lay up? He goes, no, he hit it in the rough. Hit 5 when I agreed to made Eagle. I go, you learned. He goes, I was thinking about you. I'm like, yeah, yeah. He goes, I'm not even kidding. I'm thinking of myself, that twat probably thinks he's right, right now.

I was dying. Oh, my God, no way. It was so good. You got a piece of that 63. Part of that is you. You're part of that 63. That's unbelievable. Yeah, I would never take credit for it, but, you know,

he did go for it from the left rough and he hit it and he made Eagle. So, yeah, it was a weird U.S. Open, man. It was quirky all week. As everybody knows, we've been part of the Chevy EV family for quite a bit now. Their first ever all-electric Silverado, it's officially Barstow's most valuable truck. I love that commercials for this bad boy during the tournament, you were able to see it in reality or we'll see it driving around with the lights and the look and the fact that it's the Silverado and how iconic that is with the bow tie. It's like a rock.

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It's an amazing, you know, art at this point. It really is art on the inside of these trucks. this Silverado EV is beautiful. It's like it's, you can't believe that they're going to mass produce these things. Even, even accomplishing one build seems like it would be the craziest feed of all time with all the stuff that goes on. I mean, in the back, it's got all these charging ports. Like we plugged in all these lights.

They just had outlets in the back. Everything's just so, everything's so efficient and so exactly what you would want out of a futuristic vehicle. And they're nailing it. So it's the first iteration of it. And they've absolutely nailed it. the Chevrolet, you know, Chevrolet is just the best. They're leading the game.

They've always led the game. Head over to Chevy.com. Okay, do us a favor? Do yourself a favor? Go to Chevy.com right now to learn more. We keep going right by that Asinger quote, and I know we can get into all this and we just keep saying we're going to get into all this and we'll just keep saying that for 45 minutes to an hour.

We're going to get to all this. But that Aisinger quotes, one of the craziest things that's ever happened in sports broadcasting. I mean, that guy is out. out of control. I mean, to, to legitimately say

this ball is going to stop rolling as the ball is continuously rolling. He said it three times. And it was as though that he thought he was going to get away with lying to the people watching what was happening. You know what I mean? Like if it was on the radio,

he'd get away with it. But he was legitimately saying, this ball's going to stop. And we were like, well, no, because we're literally watching it. We're seeing it not stopping. He said it.

I went back and watched the clip. He said it three times. He was, oh, unfortunately, it's just going to hang up right there. And right now it's going to stop rolling out. And it kept rolling. And you could feel Dan Hicks kind of being like, well, well, it might. And I've thought a lot about this because the clip is outrageous. And that's something that is going to get clipped and tweeted every time Azinger is on the call.

But I thought about it. I'm actually okay with an imperfect announcer. Like if you get a moment like that, I'm totally fine with it. Like, what do you, what does everybody want? What is the ideal situation? Like, listen, Trevor Immelman is great and he's kind of perfect. But then you get a guy like Asinger who's kind of out to lunch, doesn't know what's going on.

We'll literally lie to you about what you're seeing. He is saying that is going to stop on the slope and it doesn't and it keeps going and it keeps going. But it gives you a moment. Like when I'm watching golf, I'm the opposite of the people that, that just kill these guys for being out to lunch. What the fuck do I care? I love it. That Aisinger clip, that's the most. that's the most I've laughed at a at a golf announcer in years.

And it's not like it took away from my experience. It was just part of it. So I'm really on the other side of it. I don't want the perfect buttoned up like, all right, nope, that's not going to stop on the slope. That's actually going to go back towards the hole, back towards the hole.

If that happens, we don't talk about it. But Aisinger, who is denying reality as you watch it unfold in front of us. We get a moment from it. Like I'm not so obsessed with a golf broadcast that I, everything has to be perfect from everybody involved is what I'm saying. Yeah.

No, that's a great take because that, that really should apply to a lot of things in life where, like someone messes up or something crazy happens that becomes a Twitter viral moment. And everyone's like, I can't believe this is still happening. How is this guy still working here, right? Like,

there's, there's all these different scenarios in our lives where we're like, I can't believe this person's doing this. But that's what makes it entertaining. Like an Aisinger saying that is what the entertainment, that's part of the product that they're putting on is that we're going to put out this absolute just wild card of a guy that's going to say. And it's almost like he's trying to Tony Romo it.

Like he knows where all these balls are going to go. And he's going to get that information out before it happens. He did it a lot with balls rolling out of the fairway. He's like, oh, that's going to make it all the way to the rough. And then the ball would just stop in the middle of the fairway. He really, I mean, he was like, he was conservatively like, oh for 27 on guessing where balls were going today. on Rory's ball on 17 they were like it's up the left side it's going to be really close and it missed the fairway on the left side of 17 by 50 yards

I mean when they cut I know maybe it hit a tree kick but still the trees aren't on the edge of the fairway like it wasn't even close and you're just sitting there like in and it's a great it's a great point Trent because you're right like if it's johnny miller was that way where it was like half the things he said you were like what the fuck is he talking about, but also that's the beauty of the announcer. If the announcer just makes it dry and just states the facts, it's crazy. But I will say it's, it's almost too far. Like he's almost a parody account. I thought on nine, I was watching an optical illusion. I thought as the ball was trickling and was no farther than seven feet from the hole. And he continued for the third time to say that

it just wasn't going to catch the slope. I thought there was something that I was missing. I thought there was another ridge, another slope. I thought there was, I didn't, right. I just didn't kind of comprehend what was going on. And then it's like they, they just continued to go back to the same shit. And it was to the point where we were, we were all

collectively enjoying making fun of them, going back to the putter story about how Wyndham Clark uses Ricky's putter. And then on 18, as he was getting ready to putt, they said it again for like the fourth time after we had already started making fun of it on on Twitter. And it just was, it was,

It was over the edge brutal, I thought. Just the actual, like, commentary mixed with the saying all of Los Angeles was there when everyone's take was that they just weren't any fans of the whole thing. It's like they were trolling us a little bit, which I would like, but I don't think they were in on it. I think there was one other part of the broadcast that I, so Dan Hicks had, I think, was it, you know, was it Mike Juan in the booth earlier today? Didn't ask him about the fan situation. Crazy. Just did, like, it was weird, man. You know, LACC is a strange place.

And I don't know what the stipulations were that they, the conditions under which they took on this US Open. But did it feel to you guys like the broadcast was doing everything in its power to tell us how, it almost felt like a little propaganda. How many people were there. How great the golf courses. You got the USGA, the CEO of the USDA, who in his pre-tournament, conference talked about how much he's online, how aware he is of Twitter.

He knows that the dominant discourse surrounding this U.S. Open is about the no fans and the LACC policies and you don't ask him a question. You could ask him a softball. You could say, listen, can you explain your decision? And Mike Wan can say, yeah, you know, we wanted to give a good experience. He didn't even touch on it. So for people that didn't see on Twitter, what was the fan situation? You tweeted it out today.

So explain to everybody what the difference was this year than other years. The difference this year was that it wasn't necessarily that there were that. many less bodies on site. It was just all hospitality tents. So there were there were only 22,000 tickets made available to the public, which is a really small number per day. It's usually like, you know, it's a lot more than that. But 14,000 of those 22,000 were hospitality tickets, which are like 500 bucks a pop. They're super expensive. So only nine thousand dollars, only nine thousand tickets were made available for like a grounds pass GA, even those were a couple hundred bucks which is way more expensive only 9,000 of like the actual golf hardos the people who are going to run

to the far corner and sit there all day you know and drink a million beers like there was only 9,000 of those people. Yeah, that's insane. Well, and and your your boy Joel, your boy Joel put out the story where he said of those 9,000 that like 4,500 of them were also bought up by LACC. So Joel Beal, who's golf digest writer, that's why I said Dan's boy, he put out a story. I actually this was so much of the Twitter conversation that I got an unprovoked text from Dave Portnoy today that said, what are your contacts saying about this fan thing? Is anybody admitting to the bribes? Because the story that came out was that LACC had obviously curtailed a lot of what we've talked about. And that of those 9,000 tickets that are remaining, that 4,500 or so of them were bought up by LACC and that they actually tried to buy all of them so that none of them were available to which the USGA, this was put in the story was did not respond to a to request for comment on that front.

So it's like not only was it that this venue isn't great for seeing even if you're on site, not great for seeing that the vast majority of the actual tickets that went out, went to hospitality, which again is not fun. Whoopee. That's all corporate stuff. But that also LACC in their deal was trying to buy up tickets that there essentially wouldn't be like common folk running around doing what fans do at golf tournaments. And that all, I think was very,

are they going to gain from not having fans? What would you gain from not having fans at your own? Like, if you're a member of LACC or you're on like the board of LACC, why would you ever want that to be the case? It's a good question. I don't know, but also these, you know, this is a very stuffy, ritzy place. They don't

allow celebrities to join the club. Like they're literally, if you're a celebrity, you are not allowed to join the club. It's like they're, you know, their policies, which we've talked about a lot of the different policies that went viral as well. Their policy there. We've talked about a lot of these policies and how like a private club. Yes, we are on the forefront of like,

listen to music, ride around a golf cart, shirts untuck, flip flops, barefoot, fun. But we also agree that like a private club and golf, there are some places that like if I go to Augusta, you're damn right. There's a bunch of rules and I'm going to follow those rules. I'm not going to walk around on my cell phone. That's totally fine. And so LACC is like all of those rules that we've ever heard. No putting your shoes on in the parking lot. No being on your cell phone. You have to wear pants. You have to wear a blazer in the clubhouse after 6 p.m. Like all of these rules is kind of their ethos. And so I, you know, I don't think it's that far-fetched to think the reason might be that they don't want a bunch of riff-raft running around on their property.

Dave Portnoy was real, real hard on the golf course this week. He was real hard on the golf course this week. And I almost wanted to talk to him. It felt like a, it felt like a place that wanted to have the prestige of hosting a U.S. Open but didn't want people actually at the golf tournament, which is insane. Because you could tell on TV, you can tell everywhere. I don't know if they realized how bad it would look on TV if they just didn't let anyone cheer or any normal person come in and cheer. And it's just, I know they're going back there in like 15 years. It's just, it's tough. It feels like a place that you just can't go and they don't want you there. Yeah. I, you know, yeah, I think that was kind of the general sentiment. And I agree. It's by, you know,

I think for us, right, like we kind of have our finger on the pulse of normal people and of how golf fans think about it. I don't know that like the board members at LACC have that exact same understanding of sort of the climate and the culture and how it's going to come off and what people were saying on Twitter thinking about the whole thing. Who knows how true it is that they tried to buy up all the tickets that didn't want fans on site or they didn't want that many fans on site or whatever. Regardless, that is what occurred. That is what happened. The fact that Juan, Mike Juan, wasn't grilled up there to some degree when he was on about the fans that it wasn't even brought up was asson i and that was so shocking to me when i heard them up there and didn't answer a single question about the fans

um and then they had the story going around that laccc is on eight billion dollars worth of land value which is the second single most valuable piece of land that's like not developed uh in america behind central park uh and how they have these tax loopholes where they only pay 200 something thousand dollars a year in taxes despite the fact that they're an eight billion to our property valuation. So all of this was going on about LACC. And like Frankie said, what else was going on about LACC was Dave Portnoy? And a lot of people were ripping LACC, especially early on, for just not having the DNA of a U.S. Open of just Thursday.

We tune in. We're jacked up for carnage. We're jacked up to watch guys hack out of the rough break clubs over their leg. Be pissed off because it's impossible to score out there. Have to play almost perfect golf to shoot anything under par. And we get two record, major record. tying 62s from Ricky and Zander back to back. We get record low scoring and people just weren't happy about it right out of the gate.

LACC ended up making a comeback. I know the stat is that the last three U.S. opens before this one, the winner was six under par at all three of them. There were only three players that finished better than six under par this entire week. Wyndham Clark won the whole thing at 10 under par, so it wasn't like it was crazy low. But for a while there, it didn't look like much of a U.S. Open. and especially in the sense that these fairways are just insanely wide and guys could step up, send it, have one-handed finishes on occasion to be on the right side of a fairway at a U.S. Open.

It's just not really how people kind of feel about the U.S. Open. I heard it from a lot of people who would know, which is, which I don't know if they, like, some master account of LACC bought like 4,500 tickets or if they told the people to go buy tickets, but that was definitely percolating throughout here all week. And there are rumors that pretty well sourced rumors that they tried to buy all of them. They didn't want anybody out here. So if you're going to host the U.S. Open, you kind of have to host the entire U.S. Open. But to get to your point, Riggs, yeah, the winning score was 10 under.

It was kind of, it was played this way all week where there were just a lot more birdies and a lot of, there were a lot of bogeys, a normal amount of U.S. Open bogeys. But there were also a lot more birdies. The Rookie Fowler had 18 through the first two holes through the first two rounds, which you're just not used to seeing. I also think that the front nine being so much easier than the back nine, kind of spooked people because everyone was getting off to these starts where Tom Kim shot 29 on the front nine. Austin Eckroat shot 29 on the front nine today. So I think we were just, there was a lot of strangely low scores, but nobody just kept the pedal to the metal all week because the course did have a lot of bite to it, which is part of what makes this so fun to play normally is that

it's hard, yes, but there are birdie chances. And I think we're used to seeing courses where there's maybe one hole that's a birdie chance or maybe in the U.S. Open, maybe two holes, just the part five. LCC, there were a lot, particularly over the first round, where you could rack up the birdies, particularly on the front nine. Yeah, I, I, I, like, didn't hate this golf course. I don't know. The whole week, it wasn't, um, that wasn't like a thing that was constantly on my mind while watching.

It was like, this is so, this is so easy. It's like, I don't know. If you use your brain for a second, you can realize that, like, they didn't have a chance to get the course to dry out. They were, they were talking about the whole entire Thursday. They were saying it was going to be getable. I feel like that's like a normal thing to have happened on a golf course. Is there like one day the conditions are perfect for these.

these guys to go out. I know it's not U.S. Open Carnage, but they were saying, like, throughout the rest of the week, it's not going to be this easy. The back nine, it's going to be really hard to play under par. It's going to play over par. And that's exactly what ended up happening. It was very hard to make birdies coming down the stretch of a U.S. Open. I mean, what more, like, and it was a very different style golf course. I enjoyed watching, I enjoyed watching some of these holes. There was a lot of risk reward. I like a lot of eagle chances. I like guys going for it. Like, I don't know. I thought the front was really fun. And I thought the back was really hard. I never. did it take away from my enjoyment

of it? I don't know. Yeah, I think if it, the way that it started also, you got 262s back to back in the, I think it was the morning wave on Thursday. And you were like, what the hell are we about to get ourselves into? Justin Ray, truly one of the best tweets of the year.

Only two events on the PGA tour this year have had multiple rounds of 62 on Thursday. The United States Open and the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. It's like, when you see 262s, you're going to get spooked out. For the winning score, and that's 8 under to only be 10 under. The course definitely avoided, it avoided a catastrophe like we saw at Aaron Hills where everyone

and their, you know, and their brother was 12 under par. It avoided a catastrophe like Chambers Bay where things just got like they responded by trying to make it too firm. So I think the golf course emerged pretty much unscathed, but between the lack of the fans, I mean, just the lack of the buzz. it's almost in a weird perverse way. It's kind of nice that Rory didn't make one because Dave would have had

more fodder for another tweet being like he just made a put on the 71st hole to tie the U.S. Open, and it sounds like a college way. Yeah. Yeah, you know, I agree with you, Frankie. I really do. I thought it was pretty fun to watch. I thought the golf course itself was incredibly fun

in like a British Open kind of way where the ball would bounce on a lot of these holes and it wasn't even close to finishing yet. They'd have to follow it. It could bounce into some rough into a bar. I thought Wyndham Clark's second shot on eight was a great example of he missed by a foot. I mean, I know he pulled it. I know he was trying to hit it out to the right.

But his ball carries one more foot. He's probably got 50 or 60 footer from the back of the green for Eagle. And instead, he was in a baranka. He whiffed. Then he smoked it over green. Then he had to have an unbelievable up and down for a bogey. So it was like right on the edge right there. I mean, Justin Thomas was like 14 over par for the week.

And then you look at Wyndham Clark's 10 under. So it's like guys were, the Mars. margins were, you know, pretty thin on making birdie versus kind of blowing up. And I think that the 14th hole today was a really good example of like, Wyndham Clark hit the fairway, hit it in the middle of green, had a really good eagle look, Rory hit it left and made a debacle, had a plugged lie, made bogey on that par five. And it was like, if you're that Rory guy all week, like you could shoot a million over, even though it doesn't feel like you were that far off from the other guy.

And that's kind of what's beautiful about a U.S. Open. But I agree they're kind of behind the eight ball from the beginning. There was a very good stat after Friday of like the Thursday morning wave. The average score was like one over ish. Thursday afternoon wave one overish. Friday morning wave one overish. And then the sun came out for the first time. The marine layer burned off for the first time all week.

And it was like three and a half over par or something like that was the scoring average Friday afternoon. And then they started to firm up the course themselves through the tactics that they usually use. They get a little bit spicier pins on Saturday. And then Sunday, the Marine layer came out or burned off about the same time that the guys teed off, the leaders. And it was tough out there. Those guys were shooting around even par was a damn good score for the leaders. And it was great.

The golf capital of the world is Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It is voted America's favorite buddies trip destination. I know the people are listening to this show. Our buddies trip kind of guys. We live for golf trips. We live for golf buddies trips. We kind of built an entire brand around filming buddies trips because that's what you want life to be all about. And this, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, recently voted America's favorite buddies trip destination.

They feature more than 70 golf courses. They got high-end top of 100 courses. They got wide open player-friendly courses. Whatever your budget is, Myrtle Beach has something for you and your buddies. You guys were there a few different times this year, Frankie. Myrtle Beach has become one of my top on my list of places to go. I never thought that I would fall in love with it as much as I did. You know, you never really knew too much about it.

I always thought it was a little touristy or whatever. And then you get there and you realize there is something for literally everyone. If you want the tourist stuff, if you want all the Ferris wheels and the bright lights and the boardwalk, they have that. And then they also have top 100 golf courses. They've got resorts and spas and hotels on the water with like with with overlooked pools overlooking the oeufes. and infinity pools and hot tubs and saunas and spas. It's and for like the price and how to get there. Everything's so easy.

The airport's right there. The golf is phenomenal. Myrtle Beach is, it's one of my top destinations. I'm telling you right now, it is incredible. You will not regret taking a buddy's trip there or a bachelor party there. It's amazing.

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com. Also, if you're the group leader who goes to that website, you organize your buddy's trip, you're eligible to play for free. Just be sure to ask one of the Playgolf Merdle Beach's package partners for more info when you plan your golf trip. If you want to visit Myrtle Beach, play golf, Myrtle Beach is giving away a golf trip for you and three buddies, giving away. All you got to do, you go to www.4Playmerdlebeach.com to enter to win a three-day, three-round golf trip to Myrtle Beach. That's four-playmerdlebeach.com. on the course front there were some pretty spicy quotes from guys about the golf course Brooks Kepka who always has interesting things to say now he said I'm not a huge fan of this

place he said I just think that there's a I'm not a huge fan of blind t shots and I think there's just some spots that matter what you hit the ball just ends up in the same spot I think it would be more fun to play on just a regular round than it would be a U.S. Open there's what two eight under rounds yesterday that just doesn't happen he said that on Friday Victor Holley And Govlin said, you know what, I'm not a big fan of this golf course, to be honest. I think there's some good holes. I don't think there's any great holes. I think there's a few bad holes.

I think number nine is probably the best hole out here, in my opinion. Matthew Fitzpatrick, your guy. He went on to talk a little bit more about the fans, but he also said, yeah, I just think the golf course is interesting to be polite, which is a very funny British way of saying it. There's just too many holes for me where you've got blind T shots and then you've got fairways that don't hold the ball. There's too much slope. I think the greens certainly play better when they're firmer. I definitely think that's the case. They're rolling really well.

Some of the tea shots, I think they're a little bit unfair. You hit a good tee shot, end up in the rough by a foot. And then you're hacking it out. Meanwhile, someone has hit it miles offline the other way, and they've got a shot. So it's not my cup of tea. On the atmosphere, he went on to say, very poor. It's disappointing on the USGA side. This is their defending champion, by the way.

They won a great tournament. But from what I've heard, a lot of members bought tickets, and that's why there's so many less people. hopefully it's not the same for other U.S. Opens going forward. Having said all of that, it's not a U.S. Open unless players are kind of bitching about the course, so I don't really mind that as much. But it wasn't, yeah, if it wasn't bitching the way that it's normally bitching,

it's normally bitching at the USGA. And I think the USGA has been so spooked by the bitching, really, that they err on the side of caution now. Like you said, we've had four U.S. opens in a row now, which we hate that, which we hate, right? There's four U.S. opens in a row. now six under six under six under ten under so the even par thing um seems to not really be an emphasis either they're really bad at their job where they've given up on that so i think they've given up on that

john bowdenhammer who took over from mike davis a couple years ago you know he keeps on saying we want to identify not embarrass the best players i don't know man i feel like for one week a year you can embarrass some of the best players in the world they get paid a ton of money to do this if there's one week a year there's only one tournament where the identity of the tournament is it should be really fucking hard. And it's the U.S. Open. And I talk about this. It's helpful to zoom out of the golf world and get some takes from people like Dave Portnoy, people like Mike Francesa, who are casuals. And that's a word that people in this room that I'm looking at this media center use with a lot of derision, a lot of condescent. Oh, you don't get it. You don't you're talking about.

These casuals are very, very important if we want to grow the sport. And the take from the casuals on Thursday was, fuck this. This isn't the U.S. Open that I'm used to. So that's not for nothing. thing in my opinion. I think they've gotten away from, I mean, it's still hard. And again, it's still identifies the best players. But all of this, you know, we don't want to embarrass the players. It's like, please, man, any bruised egos, trust me, we'll, will, they'll recover quickly. Yeah. I completely agree with you. I completely agree with you. And like, there is a DNA to the Open. There is an identity to the U.S. Open that we all believe in. And the U.S. GA built that identity. And that identity is that it's the golf's toughest fucking test.

It's a battle. Even par is. amazing and that's what they've built and that's what we all enjoy and doesn't have to be perfectly even every year fine but we like when people aren't a million under par at the u.s open it's one week a year this is the way that they play it and i see a lot of people being like well par's just made up it's like a made up it's like a made up antiquated thing all this is made up we're talking about we're talking about it's like a made up and i'm talking about that's not like natural that wasn't god given that's like we all fucking made that shit up and par is the way that we fucking keep score. So, like, of course we made it up and we care about it. That's the way that we decide that on this hole it should take two swings and two puts and you make a four. And that's kind of like what we expect, Dadaia and how well did you do based on what we expect Dadaia?

And if that is harder, those expectations, if PARs harder to achieve, that means like it's tougher. It's fucking tougher. And that's, there's nothing wrong with that. That's how people understand. That's how people consume golf. That's the entertainment product that we have. And so people want that.

don't think they ended up losing side of that at all. I think 10 underwinning out there with fairways that were a billion yards wide, especially the 18th, even though somehow Eric fucking Cole couldn't hit it and make a birdie, which would have got him inside the top 40 and made it some money. He missed the fairway on 18, which is just stunning. That's impressive to do.

Stunning. But anyways, it was very fun golf course to watch. I agree with that. I always enjoy at these tournaments how you start to familiarize yourself with the stretches of the golf course. You know that you can. enter a round with a guy and realize that like these are his couple birdie opportunities.

And then, you know, once the guy gets through the 10th pole, for example, you're like, he better fucking hang on the rest of this round because he's got to play 11 through 18. And there's maybe one or two wed shots in there, but otherwise it's going to be really hard. And you can like start as you watch the tournament all weekend long to really understand how the rounds ebb and flow. And I thought this golf course did a great job of that. I thought when it got really firm this weekend and you saw guys having to play away from flag sticks on certain pins with wedges in their hands.

I thought that was awesome. I thought the 15th hole delivered when guys were trying to hit yesterday on Saturday, this like incredible cut spinner. Like fucking choppy cut shot for the righties into that left slope and get it to take that slope, like watching all of them try to hit that shot was really cool. It was the same shot that Rory hit with that wedge that he had on 14 yesterday. When he hit that unbelievable pitch across there, he basically hit. hit that like 40 yard pitch the same way where he absolutely cut the legs off of it on like a 40

yarder it bounced 10 feet short and then just zipped really hard he made a sick birdie so like that stuff was really really cool i did kind of enjoy the fact that like 18 was a 490 yard uphill par four but it's a huge fairway and guys when they would pan to them there i was like dude they are going to send it here and like rory was just swinging for the fences i thought the first hole when guys stood in that tea they're in the clubhouse even though the like basically in the clubhouse, even though there wasn't that much energy because it was all the hospitality and LACC members right there. Like when they would pipe one and it would just miss that bunker on the left, it just

race another 50 yards down there. They're hitting drives 380. And then they still had to be really clever about the way that they approach that green and they're all dribbling it onto the front right and hoping it got the role. Like that stuff is so much more fun to watch than a soft golf course where they just throw it up in the air. It stops right next to it ballmark. That's just not that entertaining.

So yeah, I agree. I thought it came off great. It was fun to watch. It's just there were no real fans. And there was a bit of a panic on Thursday when people were fucking eight under part. I got to talk about our guy, Joel Damon. So he obviously missed the cut this week. He might even be more ridiculous.

I don't want to say ridiculous. He might even be more Joel Damon than you think he is. I got a text from Emma. So he shot like three over, I think, or four over on Thursday. And I got a text from Emma on Friday. like Joel is playing like some pretty intense tennis right now like before before his round. I was like, what do you mean? She's like he's just he's just playing tennis.

He misses the cut. He comes back and he's like rubbing his arm. He's like, dude, my arm is so sore from playing tennis. I'm like, yeah. If you don't know how to play tennis, that's going to be tough for you. We got after it on Friday night. He came out with me and my friends on Saturday night. He was pretty banged up.

And something he said cracked me up. like he's like people think that I'm this like crazy drinker he's like I have like three or four beers and I'm like oh this golf guy goes crazy he's like I don't drink like a normal person just the standards for golf professionals are so low that everyone thinks I'm this like crazy degenerate because I'm willing to have three beverages after around so it's an absolute beauty I think he sat on the couch and watched his first father's day I think he sat on the couch and watch the final round with my dad they've become like boys so he is just he's as good he's as good as they get is is it the perfect attitude to milk

for peak performance, probably not, but there's no rule in life that says that you need to milk every single ounce of achievement out of your body. Do we do that? Do we do that? Absolutely not. Joel is, I would venture to guess Joel is, if not the happiest, top three happiest people on the PGA tour. And he has this attitude

where he's like, I don't give a shit. You know, he told me that guys were trying to talk to him this week about the merger and stuff. And he goes, respectfully, I just don't want to hear it. I just don't care. I'm going to show up to the best. tournaments that I can get into play my best and that's it and it's great and I'm going to make enough money to so that my family can be comfortable forever and that's it and that's his whole attitude and it's it's so aspirational I can't even begin to tell you I saw on Twitter I think it was Captain cons was like responding to a Dante tweet where he I guess Dante was one of the casual

golf fans watching this week and he saw Rory hit one like 388 and he's like how is that like possible like how is this guy doing it that he's 5 foot 10 he's like 165 pounds whatever he's looks like he's a child out there, right? And he's fucking dropping bombs. And then Captain Kahn's wrote, it's really just physics. And they've just figured it out more than us. And when he wrote that, you think of a guy like Joel. And he's like, he's no, and we talked about this last show. Like he these guys are no different like, cute like, like, um, like creatures than us are human beings. When you think about the physics side of it, like they just have figured out how to have like a pendulum better than us. and like, get a ball to go higher and further than us.

It has no other reason. There's no other, like, reasoning as to why they were able to do that, aside from they just figured it out and we didn't, right? Like, it's not like Spider-Man where you literally have something from another world inside you. It's not even like basketball where the guy's like six, seven and can jump. Right. Okay, I'm never going to be this guy. Joel was like at the table with us and he was like me and my, you know, friends who work in real estate.

He's just, he's just one of us. But it, that, the idea that like, they just figured out. like the science and like the physics behind hitting the ball and like we're able to kind of practice that and hone that in when like we all just don't know how to do that. So we're never going to get better. We're never going to reach that level. I was actually talking to another athlete, a guy that's made it to, you know, professional leagues.

And he was saying like it's also about getting to the point where you have a like you get your feet wet enough where now you can play in that league. Like for it was like MLB. It was this guy was talking about like single A, double a, triple A. and the MLB where it's like, you don't like just learn how to become an MLB or like when you're like a child. You're just like you get to the single A and then like now you're there. And now like because you've been given that opportunity because you made it to that point, you were sick in high school. Like now like you know how to face single A pitching.

And now once you get to double A like now after like a week or two of that, like now you know how to do that. Now you're just a single a double A player. You know what I mean? So like now you have that it's very it's all just obvious things to state like your progression in life and your progression and your progression and skill and your progression and your progression. in sports, but it makes you think where it's like a Wyndham Clark now. Like that guy can just win golf tournaments now because he's just done it. He's just been there. He knows now what it takes to just send the ball into the, into the sky, have it drop in

the middle of the fairway, send the ball into the middle of the sky, have it drop in the middle of the green and make two puts and then win the U.S. open. Like this guy knows now what to do. He didn't know what to do two months ago, three months ago, four months ago. So it's an interesting thing where it's like experience all like really gets you to that spot and like a guy like Joel you see him at the bar and you're like how does that guy hit the ball better than me and it's just like he's just been doing it he's just out there he knows how to do it now

like he has that experience he that comes fucking second nature to him he can close his eyes into golf well better than you can because he's just been doing it you know what i mean he's got these beer belly he's got this fucking he doesn't look like an athlete but he is it's amazing it really is amazing it makes you think so much you see these guys in real life you're like how how is that possible. Yeah, it's not some freakish, God-given, you know, athletic body that you can't achieve. They got the same body that we have, basically, like some of these guys, not all of them, but Ryan Harmon's like three foot seven. Right. They got the same body, but they've just figured it out. They have a natural ability combined with probably an insane work ethic towards the game,

combined with like understanding and building proper mechanics that allow them to like just hit it straight in the right distance and have really good touch. they just shoot good scores. That's like what it is. Saying a preposterously, like saying a number like three foot seven is just always going to be funny. But probably, I mean, it's three foot. But at the end of the day, like genetics definitely come into it, right? Like you look at a fucking LeBron James and his son. Like his son is just LeBron James's son and now he's a fucking freak athlete.

Like that's there's obviously you have a step up when you just are like in the genetic lottery and you just win. You know what I mean? There's no denying that. Rory has something in there that allows him to unlock that pendulum. You don't think. You don't think there's something. Because if not, then, like, is it just, is it just like winning the lottery? You just like figured it out.

You just won. Like, oh, I just know I'd hit. I know how to hit seven degrees up on a golf ball and swing 100 and fucking. What's funny is like 20 ball speed. To that point, like there are people that believe like Phil Mickelson is the most gifted golfer of all time, but Tiger Woods just outworked him. Right. Like there's people that that believe like Gary players talked to.

thought about how like I had to work 10 times harder to everybody else because I didn't have what they have like I didn't have the ability that Jack Nicholas had or that Arnold Palmer had. He's like he said it before. He's like, I just don't have that. I'm smaller and I just didn't, I don't possess it. Like, Patrick Harrington has made that point of like, I'm not like these guys. I have to, I'm not like naturally supposed to be here hitting these golf shots, but I like outworked and out thought people to win three major championships. I think that I 100% believe what you're saying like there are people that can go out there like Anthony Kim I feel like when he was in like he just kind of rolled out of bed and was like yeah I'm one of the best golfers in the world and then there's

probably when he was playing against Padra Carrington at that time the podrick Carrington is winning three majors like if Padra Carrington took the same exact approach that Anthony Kim took like I think he'd be a five handicap at fucking Mesa country club when like get you know getting getting 10 shots from Joel Damon and instead he's a three-time major winner and so I you know there's but I think you're right like a guy like Rory do, he could just step up there, pull out of club, and just do it the right way. And obviously, if he works harder, he can get a little, you know, he can get better and whatever. But, but yeah, the genetics and hand-eye coordination and athleticism, being able to rip your hips through like that. I don't know, I don't know if it's transferable to other sports.

Like, I don't think Rory is very good to other sports. You know what I mean? Phil, I guess Phil is a good athlete. But, you know, there are some bodies where you're like, right, this guy could have gone pro in baseball or basketball or football. I don't know. With golf, I just, I don't think that Rory McElroy, there definitely is something innate to it, but I think it's hyper specific. It's probably has to do with the hand eyes, like something to do with hand eye coordination

and with, I guess, like speed and coil effect. But I don't, I don't think that Rory would be like running down the wing of an English Premier League team if he wasn't playing golf. Yeah. It's mental too, man. Yeah, definitely. Just what I just said about Wyndham. Like, shout out to that guy for now, like possessing what it takes to be able to

mentally win in golf, which is whatever percentage they say that is, it's a high percentage and what you have to do to win a major championship, all the stuff you had to go through. He was literally crumbling as he was coming down, making bogey, slicing balls on 18. And he still just overcame that. Imagine what's going on mentally in his head standing over the right side, standing over the ball on the right side of the fairway in 18 being like, I have to hit this ball onto the green and Dupat to win. And if I don't do that, which is still really hard to do.

I'm just going to have to go to a playoff against Rory fucking Macaroi and probably lose like this. I have to finish this right now. And that takes fucking something that you really can't be taught and you can't study it. You just got to battle through it, which goes back to my original point for bringing this up. So I was talking about getting through all the stages of A, double A, triple A. It's like you're just in it now. Now you're there and you got to just figure it out from right there. And at the end of the day, that's who you are now.

Like you come out the other side. Some guys meet a Pereira and some guys Windham Clark. And this guy happened to Windham Clark. And it's fucking awesome. So shout out to Wyndham Clark. What an amazing achievement. It is funny how in sports like it's pretty easy for us to be like they overplay the the words, the cliches of experience and having been there before.

And then you look at like how many times is it when's the last time a first time, you know, participant won the Masters? was it like Fuzzy Zeller in like the fucking 70s or something. And it's like these things just matter and you have to look like if Wyndham Clark doesn't get the job done and wins at Quail Hollow at the Wells Fargo month and a half ago, whenever that was, then like there's probably no chance that he's able to get it done at the USO. But he's able to draw and like, I did it. I was there. I know these feelings. I was able to pull it off.

And that probably came from not being able to pull it off from times when he didn't do it correctly, which he has said. He's like, man, my mental game was a nightmare. I was hard of myself. I learned to like how, you know, figure it out. He was very fiery out there. And instead, he looked, you know, under control. Even when things were fucking falling apart, he was able to save a stroke here or there. And bang, he ends up winning by one stroke.

So it's nuts how mental golf is. Even Wyndham Clark, we were talking about Rory. We're talking about three foot seven Brian Harmon. But Wyndham Clark's not the biggest guy in the world. And he sends it. When I walked by, it was Del Rey and Rob were having a long drive contest on the range on Wednesday afternoon. And Wyndham Clark walked by and poked his head in a little bit.

And John Rom literally goes, you keep walking. You get out of here. He hits it. He hits it. Like, they just know he hits it a mile. He is a, and he's not a big fucking guy. So that,

that kind of stuff, it does make you realize, Frankie, to your boy's point, like they just figured out physics better than we have just figured out physics. And Matthew Fitzpatrick, who Dan Rapport happens to be a friend of,

he picked up how much distance last year by just grinding really hard on, physics basically like learning that I'm just going to do physics better to hit the ball farther and he's a fucking tiny guy frankly thought he's the only guy at door that he could beat up at beth page before i knew what brian harmon was i think brian harman will take a shotgun out he's a hunter and he'll fucking end your life i've had nothing against brian harmon he's a leftie i should love him i just something about him man i just every time i see him at these tournaments i just i don't know i get the i get weird vibes like we wouldn't gel i don't think me and brian would gel i don't think me and brian would gel i don't something about it. He looks like short people. You've been hard on short people. No, he looks like Mur from, from, uh, from the impractical jokers. And that, that really just makes me think he just can't get down on the golf course.

But I know he can. I know he can. He's good. He's a kid. He's so good. Yeah. He's one of kisses boys. I'm sure he'd be a great guy to hang out with.

He's a guy that really, really makes me think that I'm just pathetic on the golf course. Like if Brian Harmon can go out there and contend from 73, 73, 74. 400 yards at a U.S. Open where J.T. shooting 14 over. It's like, what physically does he possess that I can't at least get closer up that on a fucking 6,500 yard course we play, I can shoot, I can make pars. Like, how fucking hard could that be? These guys are shooting 10 under at this impossible golf course where there's rough and there's barancas and all kinds of shit.

And it's like, it's just impressive how good these guys are. It's impressive. of the mental kind of just perseverance it takes to get through that and the ups and downs. It's amazing how, you know, Thursday, Friday, we're all talking about how easy it is and people are pitching and it's not our U.S. Open. And then coming down the stretch, bogeys all over the place, it's like two guys in contention at, you know, 9-100 par or 10-under-par. Nobody else is, you know, really much better than four or 500 par.

So, yeah, it's just hard out there. The U.S. Open ended up being the U.S. Open. and yeah, the guys that aren't huge people, but hit the ball really far. I find those guys really impressive. Working out is tough. That's one of the main themes of this show is how difficult it is for us.

Finding a workout program that sticks is even tougher. How do you get in that routine? How do you stick to that routine? You probably know Peloton as the people who make the bikes. You've seen them. But guess what? They also make the Peloton tread, Peloton Rower, and even the Peloton app,

which you can now access for free. It's got classes like yoga, strength training, cardio boxing, all that can be done whenever, wherever, perfect to bring with you during the summer months

when you're out and about Peloton's classes. Don't feel like regular workout classes. They feel like entertainment. They're fun, exhilarating, laugh out loud, hilarious, make you want to come back to them

over and over again. In fact, you'll be craving your workouts. It's content that rivals the best talk shows, podcast, and live shows. Frankie's got a lot of experience

with the bike, but now you can do all kinds of other stuff outside of the bike. Yeah, the app's amazing. You can go on a walk and do the walking. They have a bunch of walks that you wouldn't realize how much of a workout you can get from some of these walks that you follow through with these things. It's a walk.

It's a jog. It's a run. It's a sprint. I do the full body strength with the Jermaine Johnson. This guy beats the shit out of me, but it's a lot of fun. I would never actually work out those things if he wasn't doing his 20-minute full body workout. Some of the things on my body, some of the muscles on my body have never even moved in ways like that. So it gets you moving.

It makes you feel healthy. I've got a lot of life events coming up, obviously, wedding and vacations. And like, you got to tighten things up. You got to get healthy. You got to make sure that your heart's pumping. And Peloton for me has been huge because, like, I don't have the time to go out and get a trainer and all this stuff. It's right there. It's all in my house.

We do the podcasts in the next room and I'm ready to go. I like getting the sweat in there. You go right in my own shower. I feel very comfortable at my own home. And, yeah, it's been a blessing to have Peloton in our house. If you're ready to give it a try, get started and download. the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier or paid subscription.

Paid membership start at $12.99 per month. Do you know what else is impressive? I watched a guy on the plane today. We're out here for the Barstall Classic. We're in Illinois. Chicago, the Glenn Club tomorrow should be a lot of fun. I watched a guy crush a crossword puzzle, like a New York Times crossword puzzle in legitimately four minutes today on the plane.

He fucking just looked at whatever word was there and wrote. in his his guess and never even look back it was just from left to right top to bottom and I looked I legitimately said something I said that was insane I looked at him I said that was insane like are those are those correct he goes yeah I do these every single day I don't miss the day do crosswords are not easy I got so much I got so I want I got so jealous of him that I downloaded an app on the plane I just started playing crosswords and I was just staring at empty boxes being like I can't even think of a single word. Like you have to know other languages sometimes.

Like the Washington Post one that I did was like a French. It was like a French friend. And I have to like know a French word. It was like a three letter word that started with an A. It was like I he or something like that. How would anyone know that? It's insane. You know what I mean?

I was writing in like ass. I don't even know. I don't know any of these words. So that on the same level of Wyndham Clark's. professional athletic capabilities and his achievements. I want to shout out the guy and see Ford B coming from JFK today. That was so impressive on the crossword front. Oh, my God.

That is really impressive. I'm not, I also think crossword puzzle type brain is a trained skill to a degree. You learn a lot of like the tendencies and all that, but you still have to just know stuff. And then you realize, how, like, quirky your answer can be, right? Like, sometimes it'll be like, you think, like, there's no way it's that. But then, like, you check, like, what the word ended up being and it was.

And you're like, like, oh, man, it was easier than you thought. Like, they almost like try and make you, like you're not going to put this in as your answer. You know, I mean. You won't. You won't. It was like a, oh, it was like a snowman's joint. I wrote like wooden elbow, but really it was like cold fingers or something like that. I was like, what are you talking about? It's, it's, I, it's, I, it's, I, it's, I. I'm deep in the crossword game right now. How many did you get in the crossword puzzle? Oh my God. Out of how I don't even know how many like possible answers it could have been.

Like what was it 90 or something like that? I probably got like seven or eight. I mean, that was horrible. It was horrible. It feels like it's really bad. I don't think I could fucking get in here. It is so hard. A couple guys.

We got to talk about Rory. I know we went through the putting and all that. But curious is kind of where we think Rory is in general. Roy's had a weird, weird, I guess 14 months now. Obviously, all the live stuff, everybody knows about that. Last year with his run at the Masters, where he almost won the Masters, and then he should have won the Open. It looked like he's going to win the 150th Open at St. Andrews.

He hit all 18 greens in regulation of the final round, I think, still shot a couple under because he was able to two putt a few times for birdies, but lost. End up finishing like third because both the cams overtook him. Then he still came through, prevailed one at Eastlake. He won the FedEx Cup and the whole deal. He was the PGA toward Darling. Then he came out and won at the beginning of the year. I think he won in like Dubai, right?

So he won at the beginning of the year. He thinking, here we go, Rory. And then, man, he missed the cut in brutal fashion at the players. He missed the cut at the Masters. Didn't he miss the cut of the Masters? Missed the cut at the Masters. And it was like, what the fuck is going on? And then what did he do with the PGA?

Did he play okay? He had like nothing. He had like his swing was terrible and he finished seven. Okay. So that's what I thought. I played pretty well. Pretty solid finish of PGA. And then all of a sudden it was like, here we are again.

We're in a tournament where Roy Malgroy, it looked like he was going to be the guy. He had a great opening round. This is his kind of course wide open fairways. He's going to absolutely just smoke drivers all over the place, which he did. And yet the exact same issue comes up short with the putts. It's been nine fucking years since this guy's won a major championship. which is unbelievable. I think he was 25 years old the last time he won a major.

That's crazy. He's a 25-year-old kid the last time that he won a major championship. He was in that purple Nike shirt after they kind of finished in the dark when they hit up. And now here we are nine years later. He hasn't won a major. He's won the FedEx Cup a couple times. He won the Players Championship. He's had big moments, but he's also had crazy, like bad golf moments.

He had the quadruple bogey, I think it was. us to start at Royal Port Rush when they're in North Ireland, which was insane with all the hype there. He had the devastating like loss last year at the 150th, which you're like, this is obviously going to be Rory's. He had this one with the devastation. So what an interesting career for a guy. And what an interesting spot that I would say for a guy that is just so, he seems so normal for a superstar. He seems so aware of everything. He seems self-aware. he seems almost too aware, right? Like you almost want to be detached from everything

in order to just go out there and have the blinders on and be like, I'm going to be, man, hit golf ball, win tournament. Instead, he's kind of thinking about everything and he's aware of everything. So yeah, just kind of a note of like, what an interesting spot we are with probably the biggest superstar that we have in the game.

He had an edge this week. I will say that. I asked him on Friday, I think it was. I was like, you know, there's a statistic. It's kind of a funny statistic that you have, not won a tournament with a winning score was single digits under par. And he was, he knew that statistic. And he goes, well, actually, if I shot single digits under par at congressional,

I still would have won. And if I shot single digits under par at Kiowa, I still would have won. Because he won, I think both those by eight shots. I was like, fair enough. And then he kind of gave me this look like, you're better than that. I think last week was freeing for him away. I love that. I love that you're in there.

I love that you're in there. I like to get into it with the guys a little bit. I like the JT. I hate your questions. I love that. part of it. I'm not scared of them. But anyways, you know, I think last week was a little bit, was, was kind of freeing for him because it was a reminder in kind of a, it was a tough way to learn the lesson. He learned it the hard way that you're just not as important as you, as you might

have thought you once were when it comes to this tour. Because he put all of this effort and all of this time and it weighed on him heavily for a long time. And then when it came time to make the actual deal, he wasn't even in the room. And he found out the same. time as everyone else. And so I think that's to him. He's thinking, all right, this is out of my hands now. I'm a golfer. I'm going to go out there and play golf because whether I want this to happen or not is out of my hands. It's in Jimmy Dunn and Ed Hurley and Jay Monahan's hands. And I'm a player. And that was made abundantly clear to me last week. I like that he didn't do a press conference this week. You don't have to. You don't have to. You don't have to be the guy there answering the questions with

the microphone because it didn't really matter in the end. You said all those things and it just didn't matter they made the deal anyway so go out there smash driver give yourself chances this was his 19th top 10 since he last won a major 19 well that's my biggest takeaway from this is that the whole entire rory thing to me is just one big like i wish it was better it's it's all what could have been and it's similar to tiger going on what that 11 year drought of winning majors where like you only have a certain amount of these guys in your lifetime and rory was one of them he had four majors the guy was fucking the prince of the PGA tour he was ugly as shit and got really hot and really jacked it's the ball a mile and now poured a bucket over Megan Markle people forget that bucket of water over a bucket yeah the ice was that the ice bucket challenge he did the ice bucket challenge he was on her balcony poured a fucking bucket of water over me what i'm saying like it's just like it's just like it's just what could have been and i hate that i love history i love watching the best of the best i didn't get to see jordan i didn't get to see tiger at his prime it's like you don't get this many people that come around that often.

And you talk about nine years that it's been of a drought and how many, how many top 10 finishes were 19, 19 of them. It's like you're talking about, you're talking about a guy that maybe could have done it all. And I know it's crazy to say a guy that has four, like could have won 16 or 17, but he's always been there.

It's like you can't not. He's there every, every tournament. That's kind of part of like he's a prisoner of his own success because if he wasn't up there, we wouldn't be talking about how I can't win a major and it's so sad. He's got 19 top tens in the last nine years of majors.

It's averaging over two a year. You ready for this? He should have won. This one he should have won. Since he won, he's got fourth, ninth, 10th, fifth, seventh, fourth, fifth, fifth, fifth, fifth, eighth, eighth, eighth, fifth, eighth, eighth, fifth, third, seventh second. I mean, and we talk about this a lot on this show that when you finish seventh in a major, that's legitimately one or two strokes throughout the weak difference from the guy that ended up winning, right? That's one misread put. That's one lip out on Thursday. That's one driver that somehow

ran through the fairway. Now it's in the rough. You got to lay up and then you make a four instead of a three. It's minuscule differences between the winner. You didn't finish in 67th. You didn't miss the cut. You didn't finish in 35th. You're finishing in 5th and 2nd and 4th and 7th. These are are one or two strokes each time with a guy with the ability to win four majors at a rapid pace and like hit the ball 380 yards like this is it's not like we're saying oh you can't pin that on him you can't say that he he would have won it's like well no but i could say that he had a pretty damn good chance he had a pretty damn good chance. If you were to tell him at the end of his career rory you're going to be in the top 10 in like 27 majors how many do you think you're going to

win. And he's going to, what do you think his answer would be at the beginning of his career? He'd probably be like, holy fuck, I think I'm going to win 15 of them. I think I'm going to win 12 of them. I just look this up. Justin Rose, who is significantly older than Rory, has 20 major top tens in his entire career. Wow. So Rory's had basically Justin Rose's whole career in the majors as far as top 10 goes since he will last won a major. And now next year, or the next major is at Hoy Lake, which I believe is. Yeah, he won there. So that's, and then if he doesn't win there, it's 10 years. I don't know. He had a quote that hit. He had a quote that kind of hit me today for the press conference. I was just looking at the transcript. He said, let me just find this real quick.

They were basically asking him like, you know, we stand up here and we ask you all these questions about heartbreak and he's a tiring talking about heartbreak. And he said, it is. But at the same time, when I do finally win this major, it's going to be really, really sweet. I would go through 100 Sundays like this to get my hands on another major championship. It's like being an islander's fan. This is what I say all the time. I'm like, yeah, it's horrific for a long time. But honestly, part of sports, you know, part of the happiness is all the years of sadness

you had. That's like what drives. I mean, the blues went through it. You went your whole entire life without watching a Stanley Cup championship. And it wouldn't have been the same had you just been like a Vegas Golden Knights fan where it's like you just got introduced to the sport and you just win the championship the first year. You can't say it's the same.

It's not. There's something that gets, something becomes ingrained in you with all the years of sadness and loss where it's like it makes you more eager to finally have that win. It makes you more hungry. You want it. A hundred percent. I mean, we were resigned as St. Louis Blues fans to all agreeing that we were never going to win the Stanley Cup. Never.

They had a year where they were the President's Cup champions. Then they lost to the San Jose Sharks where that fucking defenseman in our team threw the puck into our own net, our own defensemen, through the puck. through the puck into our own net. They had so many years in the early 2010s when they were one of the best teams in the West and they just never got past the first round of the second. I lost the Blackhawks all the fucking time. And there was just no way. And then the year where they're the worst team in the NHL in January 7th, they win the Stanley Cup.

So it is that much sweeter. I agree with that. It's going to be great when Rory wins it. It's such a bummer that he didn't win at St. Andrews last year because that that makes up for a lot. that one is so iconic 150th at the old course he becomes the guy it's like the one venue and majors that is we would all agree is probably like better than winning the masters because of what all comes with it the fact that it's at the old course and it's so iconic and the whole deal um but he's gonna get it he's gonna win another major he's gonna win the masters at some point i think we all agree with that and and if he if he does i mean he then joins the pantheon he's one of like six players all time to win the career grand slam but boy when he doesn't get it done and the fact of the masters only rolls around once every year and you're right like these are you don't get that many chances think about how excited we get for major weeks because they're so rare and like he is trying to win those majors he's trying to win one and that's like

going to end the questions and and he just can't get it done and every time you don't get it done it makes the next one that much harder i thought today i really thought going in today was going to be the day that he gets a hot putter you know if you think about like you just said dude over 20 hours of playing competitive golf, right? Like four rounds. They're about five-ish hours years over whenever. 20 hours of playing competitive golf. It's like he needed two

more puts to just roll instead of grazing the edge to go into the hole and he just wins. If he hits the shot that Tommy Fleetwood hit one swing today on the 14th instead of the shot that he hit, like he ends up winning by two instead of losing by one. It's like it's so

insane how thin the margin is and yet he hasn't got over the hump. So it's almost part of the chase is beautiful. It's like the fact that Rory still has this storyline is kind of beautiful. The fact that he's almost this like empathetic character that's like the richest fucking guy in golf or used to be before Liv came around, that he's got everything. He's got the great family that he's a normal grounded person. He's got great, got great parents. He's got a cool little accent. He's from Northern Ireland. And yet he's this empathetic figure because he just can't win the thing that he wants to win the

most. And it's at nine years soon to be 10 if he doesn't win the open. You're right. It's like, he might as well have not won a major at that point. It's been so long. The exclusive ticketing partner of Barstool Sports, we're talking about game time created by fans for fans. Game Time is the ticketing app that makes it easier than ever to score last minute deals to tickets for sports, concert, shows. They guarantee the lowest price.

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Use the redeem code for. Another guy with all. the with all the chances and we're waiting for him to to climb that mountain and get over that hurdle is Ricky Fowler. He took obviously golf Twitter by Storm Ricky slick dick Rick, big dick Rick was back. He looked like he was an absolute fucking machine out there like nothing was affecting him. He was amazing. He was wearing black on black.

He looked good. His sunglasses he was wearing all even at like eight o'clock at night. He was wearing sunglasses on Saturday. It was insane. That was one. but another guy where it's like how many more chances is that guy going to have to go wire to wire at the U.S. open and have the whole entire world behind him and he's going to have a chance above all these guys to win. That's a guy that's going to look back at these scenarios and be like, fuck, man, is it ever going to happen for me?

Is Ricky Fowler an all time just not get it done guy? Like, is that, are we ready to say that? I mean, this was his chance, dude. This was it. This was Ricky's time. I know. The thing I, like I say, I do think now, Ricky is going to win a major.

I would have never said a year ago. I'm like, dude, he's done. It's fucking over. Ricky had his chance. He's not the guy. I still are going in today. I just wasn't convinced. Like, it just didn't feel like he was getting a couple of breaks, a couple of good

bounces. He'd making 70 footers. It was like, I don't know that he's quite ready yet. I think soon Ricky's going to actually be ready to win some big tournaments. I think he's going to win a major championship in the next couple of years. I hope to God he does. It's crazy how popular that guy is. I get it.

by all accounts he's the nicest human being in the world he's never done anything with for play ever he did say hi to us briefly he said he didn't know where his golf bag was he walked by us he was on his phone and he goes my catty has my golf bag and we were like ha ha we were laughing oh shit there's alan chipnuck oh dan can't hear oh man shipnuck hey ship can't hear us oh no he can't hear damn he took dan's headphones oh dan's out to lunch he can't hear oh and now dan's gone It didn't work out that great, did it? One of the things I wanted to say about Ricky is the color orange, he's just got to do away with it. All right, we've entered a new era of Ricky and I just, I know that it's his brand,

but you're not Tiger Woods. You don't have to stick to it, right? It doesn't have a winning pedigree attached to it. It doesn't have that thing. In my life, orange just means losers, specifically the islanders have always been orange. The Mets are orange. The Knicks are orange. They're just not, it's not a winning color.

You can't win a major in. right orange he has orange all over him on sundays it's too much you got to ditch the color it's something about it we got to cleanse ricky all right we said that he had to be slick dick rick we said that he had to be big dick rick you have to wear all black you got to just go all in you're no longer the childish kid i know he doesn't wear the full thing anymore he doesn't go orange and orange he just had a little subtle i like the subtle i like no i think you just got to get rid of the color it's a losing color it's a losing color it's a cream single orange you can't win in it You can't win an orange.

What if he's got a black on black and just an orange Puma cat? I don't hate that. It's just when your brand is that type of orange. Okay. From personal experience, it's college. It's the whole, you know,

it's a little, I know, but for my personal experience, I'm, listen, he can do whatever he wants. Obviously, I'm saying from my personal experience.

Do you think the ironers should get rid of the orange of blue? Sometimes I think about it. I think there's just a curse with the blue and the orange, those Mets, man, no matter what those fucking Mets do. And I love it because I'm a Yankees fan, but no matter what those Mets do,

They're just constant losers, suffering, pain. They got billions of dollars in there with their new owner. And it's still, they get Verlander Scherzer. They're 22 games back of the fucking playoffs. It's just something always happens with that color, man. It just, it just always happens. It's not, it's not, it's not that blue. It's not that Yankee blue.

It's not, it's not that dark, like, rich winning color. It's orange. I don't know. And I love the Islander's logo. Don't get me wrong. I sleep in Islanders orange. I love the, the, you know, the U. the color scheme. I think it's great.

I don't know who did a full rebrand and I haven't necessarily won, but I think it really did like rejuvenate them is the international president's cup team. Remember a few years ago before the Melbourne one when they came out with that black like shield, the black and gold like the Vegas night? Trevor Emelman was behind that whole thing. That was a huge rebrand that I think worked out. So that is kind of like maybe the Ricky route. He's doing it better.

He's doing it better. But he is. I'm just trying to find something obviously to like, hopefully. on that. I mean, at the end of the day, he just, I don't know. I always root for him, but there's something about the same way that I like watching guys go after history, I think I need that on the losing side also. I think I need every generation to have that guy that just can't get it done. And like, if it has to be Ricky Fowler, I'm willing to have him be in that spot. I know that he probably won't end up being it.

I think he probably will end up winning. Everything we talked about in this show today is about experience and about once you're there. You know what it takes. This guy just almost went wire to wire. I mean, he shot 62. He almost broke all these records at the U.S. Open. He was dialed in from Thursday to Sunday.

He never really faltered. He faltered a little bit on Sunday, but that was expected. Like, he played really well. He stuck with it. He grinded his fucking dick off. I think this guy learned a lot of things this week. And going forward, he's going to be in a ton more, majors he's going to be in the mix more but if you had to ask me at the end of my at the end of my

watching golf career like are you willing to just slot ricky into like he never got it done i think i'm willing to do that it's a storyline man it is if we're in the storyline business ricky fowler not getting a majors just like that's a storyline you know it'd be a great storyline if he finally got it but he could be that career guy where it's like you just can't do he's kind of adam scott he's kind of adam scott he's handsome yeah he's very marketable he won the players championship and it's can he get that major been close right he's got the action he's good we want it we want it bad but he just might not do it it it's just it just it just might be his path i hey you put my foot to the fire there i don't know that i disagree with you i think i might

have to slot him and like like if i had to take a 10 000 like 15 year bet does rickie win a major or not I think after my whole spiel and how jacked up I was, I think I might have to go, no, I just don't. I don't know, man. I don't know. I don't know with Ricky. I want him to. I want him to so badly.

There's so many good players out there just didn't. It wasn't tight today. He fired a 75. He still finished tied for fifth, so he's got a top five in a major. He's come on his way back. He was ranked so low. They reiterated that. He's playing much, much, much better.

He's won the player's championship before. He's won at Phoenix, which is a crazy environment and the whole deal. He's played well in Rider Cups. But I don't know. It's 50-50 for me. I'm going to say it's a big point of time. Him and Zander in the same boat, too, because Zander's always been the guy where going into a major, you're like, that guy's going to win.

He's going to get one soon. And obviously him with 62 right on top of Rikis, you're like, holy shit, this is Zander's time. And then he just fell off the planet, man. But he goes 62, like, and then he didn't go under 70 for the three days. He went 62, 70, 75, 75, 70. something it's just he never ever was under 70 73 72 he finished three under for the tournament tied for 10 so he gets he creeps into a top 10 but yeah that that was very surprising because he is

the major championship pick it feels like maybe a couple years ago going to the masters he was everybody's pick maybe it was like 2019 or something I I can't remember but a few years ago it felt like he was the guy he was the pick he's a smooth cool customer uh I'm looking at zander now he's got one two three four five, six, seven PGA Tour wins. Ricky, I think,'s got five. He's 29 years old. How old's Ricky Fowler? Ricky Fowler is, let's see 33?

34. So, Zander's going to, by the time, next five years, he's going to have another handful of wins. Probably is going to have 10, 12 wins or whatever, total. But, yeah, I, I'm bummed that those guys faded. I'm bummed that Ricky faded. I'd like to see him up there. I'd like to see him get one done.

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A bunch of Barstall classics this week. You guys, we got four, two in Chicago, two in Nashville. I think is the Nashville bar opening up this week? I think it's opening up on Friday. So it'll be after the second round of the Barstall Classic in Nashville. Yeah, we're pumped. Trend and I are here in Chicago and then we're going to Nashville. Should be good.

The Glenn Club tomorrow, which is the site of our corn fairy event, which we're really jacked up about. I've heard through the people that are there right now, one Justin Mancini, who runs a lot of the stuff behind the scenes of the Barstool Classic, said that the course is looking fantastic. And for him, I mean, we go to some really cool golf courses on the Barstow Classic. We have a really good list of clubs and places that are notable and very well kept.

For him to like make exception to be like, this place is looking mint was like, that really made me think like we're about to see a really, really good golf course tomorrow. I played it a week ago. Oh, you did. That's where your Skokie challenges? We went up there and did a practice round on Friday before.

We played Skokie on Saturday, Sunday, and then my brother and then drove up. We met at Glen Cup. We played like 12 or 13 holes, and then we ran out of time because we could. We could only get a late afternoon tea time. It is an extremely fun course off the tea. It's a fantastic golf course in great, great shape. It's got really interesting greens. I think you guys are going to love it.

I'm really excited to cover it because I think watching those guys, they can, they can, really get some balls out there off the tee. There's some really fun fairways with some slope that could get some run that you could see some absolute bombs. Once we get to the corn fair tour, you'll probably see some tomorrow too at the classic. But Glenn Club's a great spot. Obviously, Nashville's really sweet. So how about this other little nugget of information that next on the clock on the U.S.

Open is Pinehurst. The next year at this time, the U.S. Open will be at Pinehurst number two. obviously we've got a lot of connections there we filmed a ton of videos there i go there all the time i have a place there um so yeah i was texting with patry a little bit yeah like how about you guys are just on the clock they were all out there last week kind of scoping it out taking notes on what's going on so um the very next u s open will be at pyhurst which is absolutely crazy to think about and as if having a u.s open isn't enough stress for a golf course after seeing the backlash and all of the jokes that were made on lac cc's behalf it's like even more pressure is on

Pinehurst, which is like the home of American golf right now to really, to really nail this one with fans and the experience and the coverage, like just everything has to be better than it was this week. So they're going to get a little bit of a benefit of like people are going to be like, this is what are U.S. Open supposed to be just by it being Pioneer. Like they're going to already be up a couple points, right? Like people are just going to be like, thank God. Like older guys sitting in their couch wanting carnage.

They're like fucking Pioneers is back. Like let's go. of a ball is even in the air yet. They're already winning. Just, and I have every, you know, I have all the confidence in the world that Pineers will get it done. You're going to see the carnage. You're going to see all the Turtleback Greens, the Donald Ross shit.

So it's going to be, it's going to be incredible. It's going to be an incredible U.S. Open. Definitely some people that are good friends of mine at Pioneers that were probably enjoying some of the negative talk about. Yeah, because they know that like, they get a free pass by just being, like, Pioneers is always going to be Pioneer. So it's almost like you're rooting for them to just keep. keep like going down in the rankings and you're going up just just by standing where you are.

I'm looking it up right now to kind of get a feel for relative to par and scoring. So the 99 U.S. Open, there have been three U.S. opens at Piedhurst. The 1999 U.S. Open, Payne Stewart, obviously won with a par put on the 72nd O. He was the only player under par. He was one under for the week. Michael Campbell was not under par. I think he was even par where he won in 2005. and then there were two players, there were three players under par in 2014,

which is when the course Piner's number two was the most recent iteration where they have the wispy sandy areas and not the rough. Martin Kimer won by eight. He was nine under par. And then Eric Compton, remember that story? And Ricky Fowler were tied at one under par. So there's only been three players that have ever finished, four players that have ever finished under par in a U.S.

Open at Piner. So we like that going into that. Yeah, for sure. And they've got a year to prepare. know what to do. They know the way these guys are playing. Now you watch, they just don't, I mean, they made so many comments about how these guys just hit it way too straight and way too long now that like golf courses don't even how to handle them. So it'll be fun to see how Pioneers is able to maneuver around that because regardless of what kind of restoration make to your golf course, these guys might

just be able to hit it beyond and around everything you do. So that was another thing that I was looking up when I'm glad you mentioned that. When we were talking about it earlier, I looked it up and like, there's also just a part of it that there's an evolution of the game and people just get better at the game. And the game just that's just what it is. And I looked like the winning scores of the British Open in the 1920s were almost all over part. I think in like 1920, it was like nine over and then like four over and then two over. And literally the last decade, it's like 18 under, 15 under, 16 under is what wins the British Open. So at some level, it's like the game just moves this way or this way on the curve where people just get better at it.

These guys are so refined now. They've got full swing launch monitors. They've got all the perfect equipment. They've got Taylor made equipment. The agronomy, as much as it makes the golf course is harder because they add length and thick rough and all that. And also the greens roll so perfectly that the guys make a lot of putts. So yeah, people just get better. I think at this point, if a golf course can hold one player in the whole field to being double digits underpont,

It's pretty goddamn impressive. So yeah, LACC held up pretty nicely, I would say. All right. Big week, a lot going on, obviously, in our world. What are U.S. Open? I love the U.S. Open. Last up, we got one major. We got the Open Championship at Hoy Lake, which is Liverpool.

Roy McElroy won there. Tiger Woods won there. So that's like three or four weeks away. Travelers Championship, Connecticut, up in our neck of the woods, where we started, we're a tournament. We've been to a few different times. Great event. So we'll talk about that more.

on Thursday. Thank you everybody for listening. Good job, USGA. You ended up getting it right. Hit it hard. Hit it hard.