No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 1025: J.J. Spaun wins the 2025 U.S. Open

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

J.J. Spaun (-1) claims his first Major Championship at the 2025 United States Open, outlasting Big Bob MacIntyre (+1), who finishes second, and Viktor Hovland (+2) in third. Join us as we run down all of the week's events, talk about the highs and lows, what this win means for J.J., clear through news and notes, plus more. Support our sponsors: High Noon - Sun's Up! Titleist - Titleist GT line Yeti - No Compromises. ServPro - Like it never even happened Travelers Championship Join us in our support of the Evans Scholars Foundation: https://nolayingup.com/esf Newsletter sign up for U.S. Open Mystery Box: subscribe.nolayingup.com/giveaway Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. Johnny, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most expect anything different Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the no laying up live show presented as always by our friends at high noon the Hello Neil greetings to you fellow honorary Yinsers It's good stuff from Mike one good stuff from the USGA fired up to be here. That was awesome TC is here. Hello TC. I am here and I I still cannot believe that Yinser is not a slur It just sounds like it's supposed to say if Mike wants said it then I can say it How about that every time I every time I see it or hear it? I'm just like I shouldn't I probably shouldn't say that DJ pie is here. Hello, pie man. Guys, I don't know what more you could ask for than that. That finished JJ spawn

is your, your 234th man to win a major championship. I love it. I love it. Can't wait to talk about it. I think 10 years ago, me would have been so mad that JJ spawn won a major and I had so much fun today and I leapt out of my chair when he made that putt. I thought that whole day was awesome. Guys, High Noon has new non-carbonated vodka iced tea flavors. The new Vodka Iced Tea Lake Pack introduces two new exciting flavors, green tea and half-and-half alongside the classic original tea and peach flavors.

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competitors gained a titleist driver including both the winner and the runner- up with everything on the line on the 17 T the champ pulled his GT three and hit his drive on the 314 yard par four just under 18 feet setting up to go ahead birdie and on 18 he striped the GT three again right down the middle of the fairway to slam the door. Titleist GT drivers are engineered to deliver total driver performance without sacrifice, faster, longer, straighter and more forgiving across the face than any titleless driver to proceed it with exceptional looks, feel and sound the best way to take advantage of the generational

technology of titles GT line is through a custom fitting at a title is calm to find a fitting near you. Not including the copy. They're not promising that you're going to win the US Open if you do that, but you will find success. If you if you give a title is probably not gonna hurt. You might have to get a make up out of the way. We were both saying definitely missing right here off 18 100%. Nobody's made par from over there. Big Bob playoff. Come on, man.

Unbelievable finish for JJ Spahn. My guy, Scatabow. That it was, Neil. We're gonna we're gonna get to it. We're gonna talk JJ Spahn. Of course, we're gonna talk Sam Burns. We're gonna talk about the drop or no drop on 15. We're gonna get to it. We're gonna talk JJ Spawn. Of course, we're gonna talk Sam Burns. We're gonna talk about the drop or no drop on 15. We're gonna talk Big Shot Bob, of course. We got TC in here to our Oben correspondent. Talk a little Big Shot Bob. We're gonna talk Oakmont.

We've got a dynamic show tonight. We're gonna have some pop-ins and pop-outs. This is kind of a bullpen game. We're gonna try to get try to get two good ones I think from Neil if we can get it get you know through most of the order with Neil. That'd be great We'll let him go. We'll hang with TC. We're gonna bring Randy and at some point solid talk to Michael Kim Guy who actually played Oakmont. We got a little sound from him. We're gonna bring KVV in on the back end Hopefully close this thing out. But but, of course, we have to start

with major champion, JJ Spahn, the lone man under par. I mean, that's what you want out of a US Open. We always like to say, we don't want, nobody, the course is going to be what the course is. We don't care about the winning score. There's something awesome about one guy being under par. I'm just going to say it. I don't know if that fully just transitions me into kind of a meal brain casual golf fan, but I just, I love it. I don't know if that fully just transitions me into kind of a meal brain cat, you know casual golf fan, but I just I love it. Neil, what do you love about it? I just love it when when par is relevant. You know, we always talk about par being irrelevant. I like it that it was at the U.S. Open. It should be relevant. And I think I had a picture, I don't know if Cody, I don't want to call on too early, but of Adam Scott fist pumping a bogey on 11. And I know Adam Scott just, you know, vaporized himself coming down the stretch, but just like a nice low fist pump made like a 15 footer for bogey.

And that that shit is like what I'm going to remember with Oakmont. Just, you know, who can stay alive? Who can, who can keep their wits about them? It was awesome. And it was like, Sally, we've talked about it a bunch when, you know, to test these guys, you almost need mother nature to, you know, you need a basically a perfect storm. And I think we kind of got that. Even though the worst possible, the worst storm. But I'm saying, I think normally you'd be like, oh, it needs to be firm and fast. know the worst possible, the worst storm. But I'm saying, I think normally you'd be like, oh, it needs to be firm and fast. I think just throwing all these variables,

it was sunny and then it was pouring rain and then it was thunder and then they're, oh, halftime, everybody go to the locker room and then come back out. It was just like, it was a true mental examination, which TC, I know you're all about. I loved it. I thought, I just like seeing these guys stressed out. I think I don't want to see it every week, but once a year, for sure.

That's what the U S opens all about. That was awesome. You know, I posted it earlier. I thought the, in this kind of overly optimized data boy world that we live in, sometimes it's really nice to just get so many variables and just a bunch of slop and a bunch of mud and rain. Cool. Let's just see who can get the ball in the hole. Throw all the shit out the window. Throw all your routines and all your little calculations out the window. You just got to hit a golf shot. You got to control

your spin. You got to keep it between the mayonnaise and the mustard. I thought it was a really, really interesting last three hours of watching golf. I loved it. And JJ Spahn, we should mention, surely you've heard by now, three under on the back after starting with five consecutive fives, doinks the flagstick on number two, one of the worst breaks ever. That was such a bad break. Just fighting for his life in that front nine shoots 40 on the front ends up, you know, like you said, Neil, half time refs blew the whistle, you know, go, go regroup, maybe a good half time speech in there.

I don't know about that, but just comes out. He went into the protocol. We were saying he was in the blue tent. Then he passed concussion protocols. Oh, he's back on the field. Here he comes. And he made up like a 40 foot's like, Oh, he's back on the field. Here he comes. And he made up like a 40 footer, like downhill slider to get back well that he just barely touches goes in the hole. And all of

a sudden it was like, Oh, wait, he's like he's back in and truly like looked like a different person after that and just stayed locked in. Bogie 15, which you know, a lot of people did. But birdie 17 with the drive that's all I mentioned off the top just truly one of the one of the best shots you're ever going to see in a major championship. And then steps up, hits two very high quality shots on 18, hits the fairway, hits the green in the right spot, gets a read from Vic, which is a whole other thing.

I had, I shout out to my guy Connor, was in my text. He's like, I've got two different group texts saying that Vic needs to chip this right now because a Vic needs to make it and B he can't give the read to JJ. I was like, I don't know. That feels like overthinking it. But sure enough, JJ gets the read, pours it right in the middle. The golf world goes nuts. So you picked JJ last night. This was never a doubt. This was never a doubt. Solly was like, absolute, just be patient guys. I know it's five straight fives. Just be patient. He's about to hit the afterburners here.

I did not want to talk about any that I said that last night. I wasn't going to bring that up at all. He just played such a freaking good tournament that even when he got put in the blender early on, I was not surprised to see him fight back. Honestly, I just did not think like he doesn't seem to be like what happened at the players was not a choke. It was not a gag. Like he just got the wind wrong in a really difficult spot. And he otherwise might have beaten Rory at a time period when Rory was playing some like truly the best golf anyone in the world.

at a time period when Rory was playing some like truly the best golf anyone in the world. So that night, if they have to play off that night, I think spawn wins. Probably. And it's just he's been a little bit of a punchline. I've been guilty of this as well when it comes to like the Ryder Cup conversations. But like it's he was 164th ranked data golf player in the world at this time last year. And he's 25th now. Like he's very significantly improved his golf. He has just been a true like replacement level player on the PGA Tour for his entire career and he's completely

elevated himself and lifted and separated and just the way he played those first 54 holes just like dude I he made all of like the the US Open putts the par putts that everybody says you have to make and like what people visualize that comes with a successful US Open, he did all of that the entire week. He was second in the field in putting this week, somehow behind Matt Fitzpatrick who finished 11 over par. I don't understand what Fitz had going on this week, but it was just a remarkable performance and he hit so many very, very, very good shots. I'm also a shout out USGA and Oakmont for like 17 being like reachable for everybody and requiring a specific kind of

accuracy and pinpoint nature of that shot with a lot of trouble around it made for really good watching. Spawn is not a bomber but giving him the opportunity to hit a driver and hit the shot like none of the none of the big guns hit that shot against him today and he went out and wanted to do he went out and got it is I'm really really really impressed. Can I just say to I really appreciate I he might be a you know tumultuous see under

under the veneer, but he doesn't freak out and even when he hit the stick on to and things are going really really poorly on the front, he seems like a really humble guy. He keeps his head down. And I just think that's like, I don't know, just it's fun to see a guy like that make a like 80 footer to win the US Open. You know, my Carson's out here. She's like, Oh my God, I can't believe you made that. Like every, it's just like, you're just super happy for him. That's how I felt when, when that putt went in, I was like, hell yeah, man. Like you definitely deserved it. You didn't sneak up on this.

You, you almost blew it, but you stayed in it. And you didn't like, you know, he's not throwing clubs. He's not freaking out. He's not yelling about like, I can't believe this or that. Like you see Hatton doing out there at the end of his round. And you know, I just think he, he kind of plays within himself and, and he's not the most exciting guy by any means. But like you said,

Sally, like most improved player of the year, like sign me up for that award, man. Like maximizing your talent, like shout out to JJ Spahn, full stop. And it's been, you know, what, seven years or so that he's been on tour now. And I think the older, at least the older I get, the more golf I watch, the more I tend to appreciate these guys who just kind of level up their career a little bit every year, a little bit every year, a little bit every year, don't lose their card, kind of hang around and hope for a big payoff like this. And I think that's what we saw. If you look at his data golf, kind of his skill profile or his distribution, last year was his best year by far as a tour player. And this year he has improved his iron play significantly. He's added a bunch of length and he's putting way better.

And it's like, you know, in year eight or whatever of a PGA tour career, it's like, again, it's almost like, I don't know, you don't know that that payoff's gonna come, right? It's, there's little whiffs of the Adam Scott, Justin Rose, man, I'm grinding every week to, you know, for some hopeful payoff that's gonna come, right? There's little whiffs of the Adam Scott, Justin Rose, man, I'm grinding every week to, you know, for some hopeful payoff that's gonna come up. And then you ladder on kind of some of the health stuff

that he was going through and just not quite knowing. One diabetes, that's no joke with the, you know, just being out on the golf course all day long and managing spikes and that sort of thing. And not knowing if it's gonna pay off. And then of course, you know, you get a moment like that going in for a 60-footer to win the US Open. It's just like, it's awesome, man.

It's really, really, really cool. So can I just read this into the record when it comes to rankings of where he sits? Because again, he's been a bit of a punchline. But this is 15 through 30 in the data golf ranking. Been a punchline for you. Correct. Hand up.

Hand up on this. But mostly you guys, you Europeans say the 15th in the world and down goes Sam Burns, Ben Griffin, Keegan, Terrell Hatton, Hedeke Ludwig, Seewoo Kim, Jordan Spieth, Victor Hovland, Harris English, JJ Spahn, Daniel Berger, Matt McNeely, Robert McIntyre, Denny McCarthy, Harry Hall. Like that's the names. He's like sandwich and expensive zip code he's living in man right. Yeah a lot of the dudes that were real estate at the end of this tournament. You know it's it's we hand up as well. I've not given him the proper respect for the season. He's

had the improvements he's made. Is uh is Tommy Fleetwood ahead of him? We're not doing that tonight Neil. This is this is JJ Spong. This is a celebration. Tommy is seventh. So yes, he's ahead. He's trying his hardest. Appreciate that. T.C. Meikova. I'll call my dogs off. I'm sorry. I think JJ too. It's cool to see. I think he's been upfront about like, man, I was too hard on myself or I was too, my attitude sucked. And like I've had to learn how to play within myself and how to be patient

and be disciplined and all of that. It's cool to see guys mature before your very eyes. I think we've seen that a little bit with Bob McIntyre. Hadn't even been there down the stretch. It was just a cool thing because A, I think you look back at this leaderboard in 10 years and you're like, oh, JJ Spahn, Robert McIntyre, Victor Hovland, Cam Young, Tyrell Hatton, Carlos Ortiz, Rom Scheffler-Burns, Henley Zander-Brooks. Like those are the names down and didn't play out at all like that. It's such a kind of a weird, this one will be a really weird one

to look back on, I think, for so many reasons, because it's one a kind of a weird. This one will be a really weird one to look back on, I think, for so many reasons, because it's one of those majors that just won't get captured correctly with with Wikipedia. But I think also just spawn was doing it when he was like when it was the most real golf ever of Hey, it is dry and fast out here. And he did it when it was the most Slopfest, you know, Calvin Burrell, Kentucky Derby of all time. And it's like he won both legs, which I think is really, really cool too. Like he shot, like you said, he had four birdies on the back nine and I don't know, but yeah, just really cool.

And I think on the Victor front, I think Victor is like, I just worry about his putter because I think Victor and Scotty, like we were robbed of seeing them really, really, really in the mix or at a playoff or battling down the stretch because of both of their putters the last few days. That's, that stings me. I would say Scotty for sure. I actually felt like Victor missed some irons today. Can I like he had some good spots to close the book on JJ before we get down down the

board with those two guys. This is the this is his best finish in a major prior to this was T 35 at the 2018 PGA championship. This was second US Open ever. He wasn't qualified for any of the majors last year He comes out and wins the US Open when I said he was 164th in the rankings as of last year This is who 164th right now is Danny Walker That's unfamiliar that no that's that's good stud look out that's my agencies that's on one of TC's watch list No, he's no he's American. It's on's on one no he's not Christopher Rutan who's Norwegian is right below him he's on T's right it is he sees a friend invented Christopher to tan what was it and it can't read that I don't know okay so I

mean solid your point last year he played in the Myrtle Beach tournament he played in the isco championship he played in the Barracuda where the entire fall series you know and then t3 at Sony Open, I think, is really what started to catapult him. Because otherwise he wouldn't have been into any of the signatures even either. Well, that's what I was going to say too. He has added some length, but I think his game has probably evolved a little bit. But the courses he plays well at, I think are, you know, it's always easy looking back, but it's Sony, it's Honda, which is, you know, very demanding from a ball striking perspective. It's the players played well at the truest

or played decent at the truest played well at colonial. It's a lot of like those types of golf courses where you just keep the ball in front of you and make some putts and you're going to have a chance and you. And it all clicked this week. He's been the 12th best iron player in the world over the last six months. And I saw it right behind Tommy. I think I saw a quote earlier this week of, or maybe it was earlier today, of him saying after the play,

like, yeah, the players, I was nervous. I didn't know if I should be in that position. And he was like, I feel like I've learned it. I love it when guys are like vulnerable about that. Like, yeah, man, I was a little scared, but like, I'm, I'm ready today. I'm ready, you know? And it's like, the more these guys are like honest with themselves about that stuff. I think it, I just admire that. And you know, JJ spawns, not a guy people are chasing down for quotes, uh, but it sounds like if you do chase him down, he's got a lot of good things to say. So, um, I'm fired up for him. That's awesome. So just to kind of add more clarity to it, go back in his stats a little bit, going back

to 2021, like he was significantly below average iron player. And now he's one of the best, like would you say number 12 in the world? Over the last six months, he's 12, just behind Tommy. Which again, I feel like every time we get to these majors, every time we get to these majors as much as it is, you know, bombing it is a prerequisite to a certain level. Like it does always seem like it comes back to the iron play. Novak 63rd, TC, sorry, just to close the book on that. So I feel like the Ryder Cup team's filling up too between Ben Griffin, Spahn, McNeely,

now Burns is on there too, Egan, Novak. It's good to see the midfield start to fill out a little bit. That's right. Let's take the Ryder Cup stuff. We'll do that later. We'll do that later. Big Shot Bob, your solo runner up after a just dynamite post rain delay performance from from the man. Birdie's 14, Birdie's 17. TC, what'd you see from Big Shot Bob? Not much. Yeah, not a whole lot. What we did see was, I don't know, a couple of pretty brilliant shots down the stretch. Clean card on the back.

He didn't have a bogey after number six. He played his last 12 holes and three under par, which I think is pretty strong. Eagle on four was certainly sweet too. I think we did see that one. But I think otherwise, I don't otherwise, I saw some bad facial hair. Randy was saying he needs some sort of a razor. I liked his interview. He said he's been working with his mental coach.

He's another guy just like Spahn that's just had to figure out how to stay within himself and how to get the ball in the hole in big moments. I think Bob's going to get one of these. Maybe not a US Open, but he's going to get a major at some point. I think he's got a flair for the moment. He played really, really well down the stretch when it mattered with the birdie on 17 and then pretty clutch par on 18, too. That was another one. I didn't know what to expect on that 18th tee and like was a seed Uh just could not have been more in the middle of that 18th. It can't ever feel great to uh be a runner up in a major But I gotta think big bobs feeling good You know heading to the airport or heading to the hotel tonight like this great reaction

He's balled out and can we can we confirm was it him on 17 t with the be as good as you look it was okay that that was just you know good stuff you know it came up landed soft but i love i love him talking to his ball dirty that's good stuff from big bob that was gonna be so difficult if bob won today for us to like talk about it because he had i think it's a source that told me about six shots shown in the first 13 holes. Which yeah, it, it, it goes, it's just a weird, weird flow of things, but it's almost like, it's not going to be a forgotten performance. It is going to be a forgotten performance. Cause we didn't see much of any of it all week. Like it, it just kind of grows out of nowhere. When it came to watching on time, I could not have watched more US Open golf this week and I feel like I can't

really tell you anything about that. That's one like there's some criticisms for the broadcast that that one snuck up on everybody, right? It did. No, I want to turn. He's three over and the leaders are probably two under, you know, three under at the time. And it's like, I just, you know, man, I can understand Tommy Roy's like, I just didn't really see big Bob coming guys. I'm sorry about that. 15 other guys in the board. He was truly didn't see that one coming. Honestly, I'm with you, Neil. I'll give them benefit of the doubt on that one. It was random that anybody was going to come, come from that level, but I think it does speak to them. Their entire approach leaves them vulnerable for something like that. And they almost

got caught very red handed today, but I just make the talk about here today. I do think it's one of those things though that I think the best thing about NBC this weekend was that they proved that they are not in the running to get this contract after 2026. Like they're, they're going to get out of the game, I think, based on what they showed us this week. And we can save some, some hamster. I don't know about that TC. I mean, are they going to get out of the golf channel game? Cause that's, well, I think golf, well, golf

channels going over to a versant. That's the spinco and that's going to get anyway. Yeah. We're going to, we can talk about that later. Victor Hovland. That's the case. Victor Hovland solo third after 73 today. That is his fourth, I believe top five in a major. Neil, he's knocking, man. He's knocking. It's a little bit turning into when you expect at least.

He shows up, reminded me a lot of that Valhalla performance last year. Although of course does have a win on the books already this year, but it's been a good, I mean, a pretty decent run since there. T21 at the Masters, T13 at the Heritage, kind of anonymous at the truest, T28 at the PGA, and T25 at the Memorial in the short field there. So, Neil, what would you see from your guy, the cutie, Victor Hovland?

I can't get enough of Vic, man. I just desperately want him to get back in the mix and be able to do what he's doing. And I think that's what he's doing. And I think that's what he's doing. And I think that's what he's doing. So, uh, no, what, what, what'd you see from your guy, the cutie, Victor Hovland? I can't get enough of Vic, man. I want, I just desperately want him to get back in the mix, get back, get back into consistent form. Uh, you know, he's putting the work in some of the quotes I saw about, yeah, it's really not about the outcome. I just want to hit the shots. And like, when I don't hit the shots properly, like I don't like it. And when I do hit him properly, like that's what gets him going. Like the guy's like an artist. He really wants to,

he just really wants to play golf. And I find him so easy to root for. I find his like post-shot commentary. It's not bitchy, but it's, it's, um, demanding of himself. You know, he knows immediately. I just, oh, I got, you know, that's got to go. Yeah, he has it. He has such good face awareness. Like he knows exactly what his ball is doing off the clubface. And I just think he's a really interesting cat. And I love the way lashes at the golf ball. And I was really rooting hard for him. I was rooting hard for Adam Scott today. I just both those guys I'm, you know, a fan of and, uh, I think Victor's, you're right, Deeds knocking on the door,

but I, I, I said it earlier. I felt like there were a few, you know, green light specials that he just didn't, he didn't cap his proximity at TC. I know you said he missed some shorties early, but I felt like his proximity, the hole in the back line. Yeah, the putter looked awful the first four holes or so. It did. Just, but more so late in the round, like there were a few spots where the door was cracked open and he did not, you know, he didn't hit it close enough. Like that's just kind of like what happened. You're like, ah, that was a good shot, but not a great shot.

Neil, very well said about Victor's quotes from yesterday. I do have some quotes from him today that he just got done giving up. So the question, Victor Hovland, three over 73, can he talk us through the round today? It was obviously a grind that goes, yeah, just didn't have it today. Just didn't hit a very good. And I missed way too many short putts. Just didn't make anything.

It was a grind, but happy to battle back at least. And it was a very nice week. Follow up a little bit earlier, obviously about the putt and where we could get to that about if he gave JJ a read or anything and he's like, uh, yeah, that's the U S open for you. What an unbelievable putt. I can't believe I witnessed it. Just live in life knows that he didn't have it. And it's completely okay with that onto the next one Yeah, you can get honest just direct it wants to go see Stonehenge, you know He wants it's like the guy fucking rules man. Yeah, he does one of the few pro golfers is getting legitimately I'm trying to think of like one thing

He's given us that makes him like harder like makes it harder to root for him He doesn't do anything. He has none of the factors that so many of these guys have. He leaves me wanting so much more out of them to avoid spotlight in that but he's just I don't know. He's just really easy for me to to ride for I find him fascinating and I find his swing electric all of it. Like I'm in really, really good good tournament really big missed opportunity today like you're you this this should have been his golf tournament

I think this is it had said three solid days and not a good one today that said even if he you know finishes three shots better he's I mean I know we can replay it and who knows what JJ would have done but but then he's, you know, he's in a playoff. Like he lost by three to JJ. Like it's, you know, it's not like it was one shot here or there. I think the most jarring thing about Victor and maybe this leads to some core setup stuff is he was second in strokes gained short game this week, like strokes gained around the green, which is wild. And to Sally's point too, the other day is like, especially at a course like this, I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point.

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I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. right? One more thing to flag on Victor as well, just really good open championship record. He's played it four times. He missed the cut last year, but before that T12, T4, T13, and it just feels like Portrush would be a good fit if he's keeping some form going. So not a hot take there, but flagging it. Sure. Well, this feels like Victor being back a lot more than Valhalla did. I mean, I can't describe the difference in the tests of these two golf courses

and how much Valhalla lets you get away with and how little Oakmont lets you get away with. So this is like, uh, I I'm, I'm no longer treating Hovland like an unstable compound, uh, to borrow from, from Min Woo Lee. That's how I felt about him basically since the beginning of 2024, but I'm, I'm retiring any of those thoughts. Uh, cause I think big Dick Vic is back. He's a proper player. I hope so, man. This version is he was not proper.

Well, and going back to what would that be Oak Hill? Probably like, when he goes on runs, he goes on serious runs, you know, like it's, there is the one kind of weird fluke here and there, but like that the last couple times, like, yeah, to your point, I like I think he's back to he's raised that floor back hopefully to a much more recognizable place. Like nobody, there's not a lot of other golfers. I almost say nobody. I mean, because Scotty does this too. But I feel like Victor will enter like a flow state more than a lot of other golfers where he hit the way he swings it and

Like especially with his iron play. He just knows it when he hits it. Perfect. He's doing exactly what he visualized You can just see it where I don't see that from other guys quite as much I don't know if I'm explaining that properly But I know what you're saying Neil like he just gets a lot of his good space a little bit like that, too Like he's chasing a feel as well. Yeah, if he has a feel, he's going to just lean into it and see see where it takes him.

Well, I think I have a feeling I know where it is going to take him here. I'm assuming probably already on his way. That's the 2025 Travelers Championship, the Northeast one and only PGA Tour signature event I cannot promise it's going to surpass the excitement of last year's thrilling finale. Scotty Scheffler broke away from a loaded leaderboard, three straight birdies in the back nine during the final round led to a dramatic one hole

playoff with Tom Kim winning him his sixth PGA Tour victory of the year. I laugh every time I read that. Will Scotty repeat his champion? I probably, Probably so. We're going to find out though on this Sunday. Come watch as the world's best PGA Tour players try to dethrone him. All of them competing all four days at TPC River Highlands. It begins June 19th, runs through June 22nd. For tickets and information, visit TravelersChampionship.com to see the greats,

including Scotty Scheffler, Roy McElroy, Xander Schauffele, Ludwig Oberg, and all the rest. We should put Hovland's name in that as well. The Travelers Championship, there is only one. T.C., that was one of your faves to go to when you lived up there, wasn't it? Yeah. Good call, of course, to go watch. Yeah. Good stuff. It's like the anti-TPC course. I think it's an old school track. Yeah, there's just interesting. It's a great finishing stretch. If you get into a playoff, it's going to go on and on and on on that 18th hole.

18 used to be a much better hole back in the day, kind of like 18 at Phoenix. And now it's just a little bit one note, but man, the three or four prior to it are freaking awesome. There's some really good holes in that front nine too. And train tracks on the golf course. Always love train tracks. Of course. Well, TC, you mentioned some course setup stuff. Let's go to Oakmont next.

I want to frame it this way. We're coming back to Oakmont in 2033. Right? So what do we need to write in the notebook? What do we need to remember when we're doing our preview podcast, you know, 2033 happy hour for the US Open? What do we need to be remembering about what we just watched?

It is that hard. The last two that we've watched have been soft. And like there's been one guy that's beaten one under par in either of those two US Opens. So if it gets firm, our guest is going to talk to a little bit about that here shortly as well. If we get a decent spring leading up to it, 13 inches of rain in the last like, four weeks, something like that. Like the most in, what did Mike

Walton say, the most in Allegheny County history, like it's hard to describe how much rain they've gotten and still one person broke par. And it took a 64-foot putt on the last hole. It's going to be with a different golf ball too when they come back. It is that serious of a test. It is one of the golf's truest, most proper tests, maybe the hardest golf course still in the world. So I will not forget that part of it for next time around. Neil, what's in your notebook? I would, I can't remember the last time that a major turned into an, just an

unexpected free for all and, and NBC was probably this morning, like, Oh, we got four guys, the last two groups. That's all we got to focus on. And it just turned into it, like a complete melee, like it's just a cage fight. It was crazy. And, and like pair that with the last four before this major winners, Bryson, Xander, Scotty, and Rory, basically the top four in the world.

We were probably due for one of these, right? Like a no shade at JJ Spahn because he played the best golf and he got it done. But like, that's not the name any of us were thinking as like, you know, you ask Wednesday, like what if JJ Spahn was like, man, that would be kind of not an exciting tournament. But I love to get a US open like this, just a total melee veterans, first timers, journeyman, scataboo, just all kinds of characters involved.

Big Bob, you know, Cam Young's flashing. It just does Victor have it. There was just so many. It was a true mystery. It was a true mystery all the way. Honestly, until like, I guess like 16 until seven till he hit that drive on 17. It was a true mystery, I think. And I just think that like it there were no horses involved really. It was just a bunch of question marks like it was a dog fight. Just a bunch of dogs in the mud man and I thought that was awesome. Well that's kind of what I kind of what I was gonna say is we did kind of flag this

I feel like on the preview which is with the way that this is going to be set up this is going to bring a lot of playing styles into the mix. And that obviously became very, very, very true. And I think that would be like what I would write in circle in my notebook is very, very hard does not mean that does not correlate with the world rankings necessarily, right? It is just a wildly different test than we see 99% of weeks on the PGA tour.

And that means you're probably gonna see a different leaderboard than you would see or you to see a different leaderboard than you would see or you could see a different leaderboard than you would see 99% of Which is not that different from like Lee Jansen won two of these Andy North's won two of these like there's there's a lot of not fluky but like very unique US Open winners. Yeah, I know. And it seems like we're almost just getting back

to that era more than we are leaving it which is which is very exciting uh Go ahead. I don't We'll see I we're due for some conditions for a us open We have not had any since shinnecock and we're going back to shinnecock I I hope we get some condities there because that's where I think you just got some conditions Different conditions. Yeah, yeah. Oakmont is unique in that it doesn't, it just has a higher floor of not needing conditions behind it to produce a really proper test.

And I think I fear we're back. We can very easily by Pebble. I think you got to get silly with Pebble to make it play really hard. And that's where you just end up with kind of some of these, some of these blender tournaments that I just don't think are great tests. Like I it's been hard to articulate why I think Oakmont is a really good test. It has a lot of characteristics of golf courses. I don't like, uh, but it has enough width in the fairways and enough size of the

greens, enough contouring around the greens and enough TPC sawgrass like punishments, which I think are some of the best punishments you get for offline shots instead of like wing foot, like punishments where it's a uniform punishment no matter where you hit it and it stood up really really well man I'm really glad it did because it just produced an excellent championship. I think. My big takeaways will be I don't think they have to go as nuts with the rough around the greens I'd like to see a little bit more variety around the greens in certain spots. I thought the setup was marvelous overall though. It's a change up. I want to see something different than what we see week to week and really the PGA championships

turned into something relatively unserious as far as major championship tests go. So I like seeing these guys push to the limits of their ability. And Randy and I talk about it jokingly all the time, but like that was a psychological examination. That was guys having to reach within themselves and battle themselves and their demons and, you know, just a lot of tension in the hands and conditions and all of that. I think the other thing I loved was, and I hope that we get this with a rollback, it doesn't sound like they've completely nailed the golf ball yet. I want to see the golf ball spin more. And I think what we got to see today for the last two or three hours of that tournament was the guys not in control of their golf ball completely because you know it was spinning

more or it was knuckling or like there was more variance right and that's that's been one of my biggest pet peeves about pro golf and tell you brought up Pebble Beach like when Woodland won there was no variance whatsoever it was like hit it really freaking hard and it just you just very low spin and get it to just run out as far as possible and then find it and hit again. And there's there, you know, like, I think that works on links golf for the most part, because there, there's stuff in play, there's those pop bunkers and everything, but I don't think that works as much in American golf. And so I just, it was really, really refreshing today to see, you know, spin

and total control of your golf ball get rewarded and true accuracy get rewarded. Like even Spawn's drive on 18, just having that trusty cut that he knew, like that's a really hard tee shot. And he stepped up there and he just, you know, he just mastered the moment. I love that instead of, you know, trying to get it down there as far as possible, because having a wedge in your hand is different than having, you know, a four iron in your hand. Wedge in your hand regardless of it's fairway or rough. That's really well said. And those bunkers are really penal. That's exactly what I was going to say. That was a big highlight of the week too. That was

my biggest takeaway from playing there was the bunkers were true hazards. You were maybe getting 120 yards max out of it. We saw it today with Adam Scott on three pretty early on and continued the rest of the day. It wasn't just the bunkers too. It was all the surrounds of the bunkers He saw it was happening on 17 and him I don't know who who or what he's mad at there Like is he mad that it didn't like his shitty drive didn't get all the way down into the bunker where it would have been Easy shot the gas rough right like yeah, I'm like that was such an awesome challenge I haven't seen fairway bunkers like that like in

Non links golf maybe ever and it just played really well, I thought. I think we need a massive Gil Hans shout out. Like this is maybe one of the best renovations we've seen from any of the courses he's done prior to a major. We talked about green expansion leading up into this. How great were some of the pin positions in a bunch of the spots, especially that second hole

made for great viewing the whole time. The ditch restoration, the ditches played fucking phenomenally all week. Awesome. Awesome variance on those. And the rough, rough again I'm not a huge rough fan that's as that's as good as I think rough can play it felt like you deserve to be in the rough when you were in it you deserved some of the luck that maybe came with the good or the bad lies I it was way more bad than good in there and

to the point the what they did with the bunkers made it truly like when a ball got in there, you're like, oh, there's bogey, fuck, there's bogey. Yeah, you never play the ball the right way anywhere else. It's true. And Sally, I think we saw the very, like the least of what Gil did, right? Cause I think a lot of those little pockets and shelves on the greens that he created or brought back,

I think would have played magnificently, you know, like that whole location on three today with firm greens. Guys were making quads and quintuple bogeys. So yeah, it was, I don't know. I think the USGA did a great job with the hand that they were dealt this year. Well, Neil, your pitch count's getting up there. So we're gonna bring in the lefty here in a minute, start them warming up.

Before we get you out of here, I wanna know two things. What's gonna be your lasting memory of this week? And two, what's going on with these mystery boxes? The czar's gone crazy, I'm hearing. He's giving it all away. A lasting memory, I called it out earlier, but the Adam Scott fist pump in the bogey. I don't know why I just got such a kick out of that, but I think honestly, it's going to be Randy's proper test index. I don't want to steal my, the big guy's thunder, but this, I think this is the proper test of our generation. Uh, and, and I know, and I feel confident calling Oakmont,

the home of the proper test. And I think that's awesome. I'm glad it exists. I don't want all PGA Tour events to look like that. I don't want all majors to look like that, but I just love it that in Western Pennsylvania, they are not scared to test these guys. They're not scared of a proper test. And for what some of these guys like to embarrass some of them.

Yeah, you might shoot in the 80s. There might be more guys in the 80s than in the 60s. You might destroy a locker. I just thought Randy's explanation of the PTI was brill, absolutely brill. And yes, we have a mystery box. Sign up for our newsletter, subscribe.nolayingup.com forward slash giveaway. I've got a whole bag of goodies from an office clean out. I got some good stuff in there. I got some portable speakers.

I got some golf balls. I got all kinds of good stuff. So sign up. I'm going to select a random winner from new subscribers and current subscribers to the newsletter. Subscribe. No letting up. Dot com.

You know, I forward slash giveaway. You know, I had to get in a, an ad on the way out guys. Well, Neil, good to a good to have you go, go rest up. We got a big video shoot this week. I'll see you tomorrow. I think we're going to see a big shot Bob tomorrow. I had to get in an ad on the way out guys well Neil good to good to have you go go rest up We got a big video shoot this week. I'll see you're gonna see a way shot Bob tomorrow Yeah, exciting stuff. All right good stuff guys. Thank you Neil can't wait TC watch take us down the leaderboard here cuz I Stories here as we as we get into it. I would love it. Uh, what cam young Cody pop in here for this cam young

Yes, sir. You think what do you uh, You know pretty pretty clean round today I think he was he was sniffing around for a little bit there and then kind of stalled out Into the front nine there and then you know just needed needed one or two more birdies like like on 12 or on on On 16 to kind of get it in gear. He was mad as hell in his press conference. Yeah, just couldn't get anything going. He's like, I hit the ball way too good to not make any of those putts. And then obviously- Which is crazy because he was two and a half or two, almost three shots gained on putting today. I think it's one of those things where...

He was third for the week, by the way, Cody, which if I would have told you our guy is going to earn almost eight shots on the field with the flat stick this week, I think we would have... A, I don't know that I would have seen it coming, even though it's been a month and a half now, but B, yeah, I don't know that we would have believed it. I think we would have taken that. He's mad as hell about the greens too and the amount of water that was on him. I know that he was trying to chip up on, I can't remember what hole it was and there was water

pooling behind it and he's like, no, I want to hit my shot and use it as like a backstop. You can't hit that shot. We got to get people out here to squeegee and tile it down. It was kind of the reverse burns, right? Yeah. Burns didn't want to hit it, which they should have made him. My opinion. Yeah. It's a, I don't know.

You know, he's got to win a tournament one of these days. It's kind of like your guy. You know, we say that all the time about, so I'm like, you feel like golf, gambling, Twitter. He's got to win a tournament one of these days. People are still doing this every single week But he was really stinky like I honestly was concerned after I did that video shoot with him I'm like man

He's like not good anymore And he's been playing awesome the last three months his putters completely turned around and he's in a good headspace So, I don't know, you know, he's a big game hunter. So one of these days it's got a turn for him I mean a day spawn wins. How good is his seem to fit the travelers next week, right? Yeah, maybe worth a little nuggy. He shot 59 of the travelers last year. Right. Fine. But yeah, that'd be too many 59s. There's a lot of 50s for sure. Yeah. Again, it's a serious like no fluke finish T4 to US Open.

And they have the eighth best round of the day today, like in that Sunday and all those conditions. That's another great sign for Team USA. If that guy gets his ass in gear leading up into this fall, it's a very, very, very good course fit. So. very good course fit. So, solid. That's his that's his 17th major. And really, since the start of 2022. That is his see, 15th major. And he has Wikipedia yellow in six of those 15. Oh, yeah. It's a lot of pretty

strong. Why top fives? So yeah, that pretends something. So you hate Tyrell Hatton. Done. Just get just get the fuck out of here. Misses a putt on the first hole by a cup and a half and it's just it hits something. It hits something in the line and you're allowed to move anything out of your line. You're allowed to repair your line. These flabbergasted at the US Open that a putt missed by a cup and a half and blames it on the greens out. Like, I don't think he actually means it. I think he's just, that's just his mechanism to... If he was American, you would hate this guy, TC.

I need you to hold him. I played with him a few years ago. I really enjoyed my time with him. He's like, he's like, I don't know. I like him. He's just like a... I don't know. I like him.

I like him. I like him. I like him. I like him. I like him. I like ago. I really enjoyed my time with him. He's like he's he's like I don't know. I like it. It's just like Yeah, he said it you said earlier on TC or on slack TC and it's very hard to argue characters. Welcome Yeah, you know, I don't I don't have to necessarily I don't have to like them But we do need it for the counterbalance of of the universe

So like he needed to be on that TV screen today. It may, it did make it more interesting. Yeah. He shot 72 today. Like not a bad round. He was right in the mix to two bogeys at the end, 17 and 18. They kind of, and it cost him, but he was bad. I would cost him, you know, I mean, he hit his iron demon though.

Is he, you know, is he fourth and iron play all week. So Carlos Ortiz Sally got a great tweet Which is like yeah like chaos is like super fun And this is this whole sweepstakes thing is awesome with the US open until like Carlos Ortiz fucking weird Which he did not thankfully D for which what like his best finish in a major prior to this was what like T50 something. I think he played seven. I think he played nine.

Yeah exactly. He did hit the ball awesome. Like he looks like extremely committed to hitting the ball and swinging hard. Like he played a very nice tournament. I don't mean to downplay it but but it was very felt a little bit random Rom kind of Rom t7 he kind of fluffed fluffed things with those with those three late birdies there at the end But all pretty weathered today everything. Yeah. Yeah Scotty You know, what do we do with Scotty here? I

Mean I you know, it's community pots. I kind of was like when we were playing the remember this round on Sunday game back on Thursday, I think Scotty's, Scotty's opening round was the one that I was, was looking at the opening 73 that felt like it probably should have been, should have been much better. And yeah, man, wish we could have had a couple back. I mean, to your point earlier, TC still lost by five. So it's not like it was necessarily a shot here or shot there, but he still did even without, I don't know, that was what?

Is C minus game something? I was going to say he hit his iron well today, like still like on the weekend, but he wasn't in gear the first two days. T-degreene either. And for how far back he finished, I mean, it was still like I would like to see what happens on this tee shot on on the 72nd hole of the tournament. Like, I'm not out of it yet. You know, and that's just I don't know.

It's fun to have a guy like that. Yeah. One of the first times we've seen him have to play in like conditions and I thought he held up pretty good. He's obviously was bitchy about the putt, you know, putting in and water on the greens and things like that. But he was able to control like irons and wedges

into these greens a lot better. He's just not hitting his spots. What did he bitch about? I didn't see that. I was just a little, I saw the quote that he said it Somebody asked about the conditions. He said it's an outdoor sport. I know meaning hot about the the The casual water like okay. Yeah, that probably brings us to Sam Burns Well, so yeah real quick on that front too

I thought I saw JT was like it looks unplayable out there right now and like it wasn't unplayable It was it was playable and they played in it in JJ spawn shot Under par on the back like he shot what 32 on the back? So it was it was extremely playable for the record as quote was this course of looking a little questionable to play right now Okay Borderline on play and then but then he afterward, he had a reply to that too. Is this a part in the live show where we take a break and talk about the 2008 US Open? Don't even like or Sam Burns knows. All right, Sam Burn. Let's talk Sam Burns. I think

I think 78 didn't feel like a 78 right in the mix. And then everybody's going to talk about the double ruling denial there, which again, these are the same rules officials that we have like week to week. Like PGA Tour guys also do stuff for the USGA during this tournament. Yeah, I don't know if there's not a, it's not entirely a cadre of just big bad mean USGA rules officials that get held in the cooler all, you know, for 51 weeks a year, and then only let out to give very hard rulings. It is a lot. They also write the rules. Right. So just to set it up a little bit, we're on the 15th hole, Sam Burns asks for relief from I want to say casual water, temporary water.

What's the new word? The fairway on 15 tilts severely left to right and he drives it literally all the way over on the edge of the right fairway. The lowest possible point of the 15th fairway is important context, I believe. But the word, it is called temporary water now and not casual water. I believe. And he's taking practice swings. You can see a big massive splash of water just below the surface that he's trying to get relief from. Calls a rules official.

They say no. Waits. A couple more practice swings. It's still going. Calls for a second opinion. That second rules official comes over, looks at the same thing, gives the exact same ruling pretty quickly it seemed like, at least from the TV. He kind of locks in, tries to hit a shot, hits a pretty nasty pull that almost

looked like a mud ball that kind of wounded Duck left and ends up making a double. And I mean, that was kind of Sayonara at that point. But Cody, you have the video from Porter the location. Okay. I feel like Johnson Wagner out here, but just wanted to show where Sam Burns' stance and ball was whenever he hit into the 15th hole here. So here we go. Okay. This is Sam Burns Burns stance in the 15. You can see a little bit of water where his stance is, but the real water is right here where the ball would have been.

A ton of water right there. Again, this could be half an hour later. Like you said, it's all important. Everything drains down to that. No, no, this could be half an hour later. Like you said, Sally important context. Everything drains down to that. No, this one, the one that he did earlier. The first one was worse. The first video was worse. But I think that this was part of the test that Sam Burns needed to pass. He had a clunky, terrible golf shot. And then he was just like stick a fork in him after that. And like this was the short answer part of the USGA test and and he failed it. He failed it with with just

like didn't even didn't even write anything down on the test. If if if that is how the temporary water rule works, any tournament in the history of my career that I've ever played in that has had temporary water, I think I need to with with like like retroactively withdraw if I've ever taken temporary water relief I've taken it from is it throw your entire career into question potentially. Yeah potentially, how I I True I saw that video and I was just like I truly do not understand this rule and I still don't think I do if that's Not temporary water. Okay. I know it know you got a visible water on the surface, whereas ball was, I do not know how that was not visible water on the surface.

I mean, it very clearly affected the shot. I just don't know why we have that rule if that is not how it's interpreted. It just takes more water. I think I'm gonna, I don't know, I'm gonna fence it here, I guess, because I did try to read the rule. So I'm with you where like when I first saw it, I was like, oh shit, like, that's kind of the rule I've played my whole life. Maybe I misunderstood it. I tried to read the rule. I'm trying like it's very hard to pick up in a rule book just how that's supposed to be enforced, which is where I'm kind of also like, you know, shout out to the what is it Unify Showcase Govern. I forget what the A is. Advance. But it's kind of where I'm like, dude,

there's two rules officials that were literally standing right there that got called in independently and both immediately came to the same ruling. I'm like, they probably have a better view of it than I do. So I'm with you, Sally, that I'm like, maybe I woefully misunderstood this. I don't think you I think it would be impossible to not attribute 99% of the flight of that golf ball to the water. I think it's bad. There was a little bit of water on like under the golf ball under

the blades of grass. And I think I think that was karma for Burns refusing to play earlier on before the delay. Which I guess to your point TC again I'm not standing there so who knows maybe this is what he was trying to do and he just got I don't not even mud balled water balled I don't know what you do you would call it but maybe you make the case that like he obviously knows the waters there maybe he tried to hit a different shot maybe you don't try to hit a different shot. Maybe you don't try to force the same thing whole high and

hit it left in the shit like taking on those bunkers and in that horrible rough where he left one in the right. Like maybe you just play something in the fairway that if you if you don't know what the ball is going to do and you can't predict it like maybe that's not the time to try to you know force force the game. I don't know. That's all very armchair from, you know, watching on TV. Which indeed, maybe if we, you know, there's, there's supposed to be commentators that can tell us what's going on, that, you know, that they didn't really have much

to say on this situation either. It was a little disappointing to not have, I mean, I know they were trying to get some of the rules officials in there where the but it seemed like if I'm in apologies, if I am misremembering or didn't notice like a second callback, but they brought in the the rules official who was kind of like, clarifying things into the, you know, into the broadcast. And they were like, Hey, it looks like he's looking for a second opinion. What's he looking for? And they're like, Well, you know, he's got water. And so

he's looking for a second opinion. Like, all right, thanks. And then there was no after that, there was no like, so can you explain this rule? Why did he not get relief? Or why should, why should he have to force, like, why did he have to hit that shot? You know, a lot of people at home are probably confused. I don't know that they really did that justice. So then of course everybody kind of loses their mind. And I think that's how a lot of this stuff ends up spiraling.

I just struggle with the whole, like the golf course is wet thing. Like I pride myself on being like a generational mutter. And then when it stops raining, I start playing like shit. But like those tea boxes were soaked, like, you know, like water was coming off of the tea boxes. Like that's just that it fucking rained a lot. And that's that's the deal. And you got to deal with it. And you got to, you got to adjust

your game plan and you got to adjust your shop making. I think it is the deal. But it's also written in the rules that if you're balling your stance is in temporary water, you get to move it like that's where I'm like, but I don't nobody knows water was high enough that we're out there. Yeah, exactly. I trust those two rules officials. The karma thing really quick is that you guys know from being inside the ropes at enough of these events, like there's so many people following each group.

It's very clear that Sam, somebody told that group, hey, we don't know if they're going to blow it now, but it's getting worse. Be prepared to seek shelter. Like he wasn't just out there delaying and delaying, like sitting there for like 10 minutes. Like he clearly was delaying. He was going fiddling with his glove, wiping things down, just waiting for it because they obviously were told that. But quick quote from you guys from Sam Burns on 15, the ruling, can you go through what you saw? Said, yeah, that fairway slopes left to right. That's kind of the low part of the fairway there. When I walked into it, clearly you could see water coming up.

Took practice swings and it's just water splashing every single time. Called the rules official over. They disagreed. I looked at it again. I thought maybe I should get a second opinion here. That rules official also disagreed. At the end of the day, it's not up to me. It's up to the rules official.

That's kind of that. Good. That's a good answer from him. I mean, I was high road. Yeah, yeah, I appreciate that from Sam. I don't think you can place a bunch of weight and then wait for the water to come up to like, it's got to just be. I think the wordings like in your stance, if there's water, like a natural science, like a neutral,. If you're in your stance and there's water showing out the sides, which looks like that from Porter, when Porter was doing it, I don't know. I go back and watch it. I didn't see that at all in Porter's.

I saw it in the divot. I saw it in Sam's divot after the fact. That's the other part is the ball sitting in temporary water. I would also look at the grass there and say that that's water on top of that surface. I don't know. If you take the practice wing and you also see all the water fly, you're not even taking a divot to get it.

It's clearly resting on top of the surface of it. That's not part of what went into the ruling, I don't think. But again, I don't know why the rule exists at all if that is not included, if that lie is not included in it. I think there's going to be hella eloquent rules officials who are going to explain this thing to the bejesus belt after this tournament. So I don't know. I'm kind of a little bit of a where did it cross.

Two different PGA Tour players that were like that wouldn't have been casual water in a PGA Tour event. And I felt I was like, okay, when I saw the TV version and then seeing like Porter's version of it, I'm like, Whoa, holy shit, man, like that is so much water. Like, I don't know. I'm not there in person to see it. Calls your entire career into question. Totally. Yeah. It would be sick if you had a Wikipedia page that we could just go in and be like DQ

on all of them retroactively. T-Sneak, yeah. A couple more. Who else we got? Ben Griffin, Solly, it continues T10. Ben Griffin just continues to flash. Russell Henley. That would have been in our Randy, like what does this person need to do to get an a I gotta Think you would have thought Ben Griffin, you know top ten I think that would have been an a for Ben Griffin this week. Amen. Amen

One or better this week. I said the one tough round three round three and really just one tough stretch finishing stretch there in round three Russ Henley T10 just really steady golf. 70, 72, 71. He lost strokes off the tee for the week, hit his irons well, just really solid across the board once he got off the tee. Some signs of life from Xander, T12.

Has the app been updated, Solly? It hadn't as of Friday, but I'll check right now. There could be a Johnny pop. There could be an explainer of God, I got deep on the Johnny pop. So we can take that offline. Maybe the latest news. He did an interview at the PJ Championship May 16. That's the latest news in the app. Unfortunately, I was hoping there'd be a rules explainer in there. That would be good content for the Xander app.

Here's why. Here's why you didn't get relief. Brooks hung around more than I thought he was going to. Good round today. Chris Kirk, T12. I don't think I saw him hit a single shot this week. Bez, T12. Bez finished tied with Adam Scott this week. It's been a bad time with Adam Scott last night. What else we got? RNP Rasmus, Neirgaard Peterson, T12 will take that 74 today. Bad double on nine. Overall didn't didn't putt it great wasn't great off the tee. But we got it. We got to like what we saw out of RNP this week after Put him on the team four to six weeks ago, and he follows it up with this sick congratulations, thank you, and I guess I guess LD and

McGinley were glazing him a little bit on on sky coverage too, so Yeah, Tristan Lawrence t12 and then Adam Scott I'm gonna five today for Tristan Lawrence could have used that yesterday in my predictions in the envelope Alas any any thoughts on Adam Scott and his his 79 today? I I Didn't know I knew it wasn't a guarantee that he was gonna go kick the door down and get it done But man, I didn't really see 79 either. That was that was a bummer. I down and get it done. But man, I didn't really see 79 either.

That was that was a bummer. I think it's maybe a little bit misleading. Like from 14 onward, he kind of just hit the skids. He was what five over on his last five. So I did not have the same vibes coming out of the delay that JJ spawn had. Yeah. He was one standing on 14 t and I do think you know, Adam Scott is t 12 and Murray McElroy is the next name on the board. And I think it gets washed over a little bit how much Adam Scott has done

on the PGA tour front from a pack board member, CEO search committee, all of that. And he's done it with a plum and he's done it with just, you know, a happy heart. And, you know, I don't know, I'll just say that. Like he's been in a shitload of meetings over the last two, three, four years since this shitstorm started. And he's just been steady Eddie and he's done it with a smile on his face.

And he seems like everybody in the golf world likes him, both PGA Tour guys and Liv guys, despite him being in that role. And I think that's a pretty, pretty admirable thing. So, yeah, it kind of goes to some of what we were saying yesterday, just even about like grinding hard and trying to put himself in more positions, which a lot of people were, I saw some, some flack that I was treating him like he was 65 years old. I was like, well, he, he will be the second oldest US Open winner ever.

And it's with 125th US. Like, I think I've got some stable ground. He and the game's gotten younger than ever. Yeah. But my point stands that he doesn't really need to be doing that stuff. And he really doesn't need to be doing all the business stuff and the back end stuff that you're referencing. So full agreement there.

TC, I did want to talk to you, of course, Father's Day today. You were watching the G with your young son, Freddy. I was curious if he had any takes. Anything that came out of his mouth that really surprised you guys? He was in on, out on. What do you think of the course? What were his thoughts? He was rooting for Burns all day.

It's just weird. I don't know where that came from. Yeah, he was like, man, it's really wet out there. He had his PJs or areas in his PJ Junior League yesterday. Shout out to the 31,000 out of the Valley course at TPC. So it didn't play great. So he made about Oakmont of PJ Junior League. It's like he had a 15 footer for birdie that he made. That was kind of the lone highlight. But I think he's hooked, man.

I think he's certainly wasn't one of those like, you know, US opens that I thought it was gonna be where it's dusty and you know, the layers of people out there and all of that. Like that didn't really come to fruition at least the last two days, just due to weather and NBC and variety of factors, but he really liked it. It's just one of those things where like his frame of

reference right now is like, JJ spawns a top three player in the world. What would that have been for us as kids? Like what result would it have been? I guess like Cory? I remember when Steve Jones won the US. Yeah, yeah. I was like, I guess like Cory, I remember when Steve Jones won the US. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, who the fuck's this guy right about the same age. Yeah. God, that's a really good question. Yeah. But yeah, eight years old,

legitimately won two of them. But he was like, Oh my God, this guy is one of the greatest players that ever lived for two years. I think was eight years old, like 94 that would have been 94, 95 kind of for us. So Randy submitting john houston into the record. That's an Alzheimer. That's a good question. So yeah, that was kind of his his mo but yeah, he just he's like, Hey, can we go to the range this week? Yeah, let's go to the range this week. Like it's cool. So um, you know, he was bummed about Rory, although

Rory shot 67 today. Strong, you know, strong performance from him. He's playing travelers this week, I guess. Flying home and then going back up to travelers on Tuesday. I don't think we need to talk a bunch of Rory tonight. I think everybody's I think we've belabored that and everybody's got some Rory fatigue. Foxy, Sally, anything you want to say there? Another great week. I love it. He's my guy.. Foxy, Sally, anything you want to say there? Another great week. I love it.

He's my guy. Big Foxy fan. Yeah. 19. Well, we're over to the Foxhole. Good to have you. Victor Perez, Grillo, both T19, Morikawa and Reid. Similar weeks.

Morikawa, Reid, Spieth, all tied at plus eight. My giraffe call was two strokes off. I thought she's with top 15 He finished two shots outside the top 15 Signs of life signs of life continued the pulse continues. Yeah Do you see anything else? Oh, we had a Tom Kim sighting down the stretch T33 there we had a JT post another made cut for him to major Keegan made the cut as well you know played played well 74 today but he's trending trending well. We give a shout out to Leish 77 today but I think I really hope Leish plays Port Rush hope he

can qualify in there because I think he's playing some really good golf right now. Andrew Novak 717372 after Sally buried him in the opening round. Yeah, and I think he's got a rib injury going solid. So you know just just what do you just give him past Aaron? When we start talking about Aaron rye for the Ryder Cup team for team. You know, I don't think we're even close to that yet. Okay, they're about the same. He and Keegan are like the same rank stroke, strokes game on the US side. So I just figured you would want to apply that.

Yeah. I don't think Aaron has any, you know, Ryder Cup experience or anything like that either. He's not, he's also not, not going to be there anyway. Uh, and then I think Chris got her up, earned a shout out for me. T 23 74 today, but, uh, you know, plus eight overall couple of bookends 69s around two and three Goddard's a proper player. I think he's a Elite elite elite iron player and I'm looking looking for more out of him over the over the the remainder of this year I'll shout out Nick Taylor weirdly. I feel like that's I was

Looking at this. I'm like,'m like oh it's gotta be his best performance in a in a major and I think I was right he has had a horrific major record never finished better than t29 with a ton of miscuts so good for him. Deegh do you have any any concerns Any concerns about the Rasmus bet? Yeah, a little bit. I may have bet on the wrong Rasmus. I have Rasmus Hoygard. TC's got all other Rasmuses. In all future. Exactly. I wasn't totally familiar with RNP and his profile I don't think when I when I made that bet but I think you know Rasmus Hoygard out I'll still dance with the one that that brought me I think he's still giving me as good a chance as any other Question on on god up real real quick TC

Is this is he an elite elite iron player in the same vein that Ryan Gerard is one of the hottest players in the world? Gerard had a pretty pretty good. Well, he Brian Gerard was one of the hottest players in the world Uh, no, I'll tell you who got was one of the hottest players in the world. No, I'll tell you who Goddard reminds me of. Somebody said it in the comments and I wholeheartedly agree. Brooks Koepka. I think he's like just physique and they're both Nike guys, but just generally speaking, he's got kind of that same, he's a little bit more wayward off the tee, I think.

But I don't know, I think he's got kind of that same mentality of like he's a fucking athlete. And you know, he's kind of a bulldog, so. Just for the listeners at home that don't have the numbers in front of them, he's 100th in strokes gain approach over the last six months. Again, that's fine. I don't think he's played his best golf.

I'm just saying like, Again, just if somebody's listening and thinks he's a top 10 iron Like, just saying, like, again, a top 10 iron player just just stating that just reading it into the record. Yeah, we don't know by what metric can't be better than your metrics, than what your stats have been thus far in your career. Well, TC, we'll get you out of here. We'll keep this this third chair rotation going before we do anything to say about the the

Wyndham Clark of it all we had a Some reporting from the desk of Tron Carter about a couple of historic lockers They look like historic lockers. I don't actually know what these lockers are Destroyed in the Oakmont Clubhouse. Just just a tough look for the 2023 champion Any any additional thoughts here? No, I mean, I don't know. We did it out. It was pretty cut and dry. Like, I guess the guy that whose locker it is not happy. A lot of Oakmont members not happy. USGA people not happy. Caddies and players like heard

from a lot of them not happy. This is not a new thing. I'm told he, you know, there may have been some other damage this week as well. Away from Oakmont. And I think after what happened at Quail Hollow, where he, you know, basically like endangered a volunteer. And then I guess he was freaking out on the range on Monday and Tuesday, this week, dressing down USGA volunteers. And then, you know, he had his outburst on Saturday before this thing. It's like the whole thing is just like, dude, just grow up, man. Like, just grow up and like, like you're at you're

at one of the oldest, coolest golf courses in the entire country, if not the entire world. And you go in and you're a guest of the place. Like even if you're playing in the the the national champion or national championship and you're a guest of the place, this place has opened their doors, the best players in the world and shut down their golf course for months at a time from their membership. And you go in and like, they have like one of the coolest locker rooms I've ever been in anywhere of it's the original stuff. Like Bobby Jones changed his shoes on those benches and they've got little storage things like

from during prohibition where like you could you could keep your booze in there like it's it's a it's a it's like a living museum and so for him to go in there and do that and then leave it like do that is one thing to leave it like that on the back end just shows a complete lack of care and consideration of like not even trying to oh you know what I'm sorry or whatever so I think that's just you know based on a lot of things I think that's just that you know, based on a lot of things, I think that's just, that tells you what you need to know about him. And I don't really care what he's going through on or off the golf course. Like if that's the state of mind that you're in, just don't show up for the US Open, man. If you can't, if you can't handle

what's going on inside the ropes and leave that inside the ropes, then like, you know, go get right, then go get right. Go get yourself right and work with a sports psychologist or whatever. Obviously, mental health is an important thing, but otherwise, don't rock up. It's just as simple as that. Yeah. I almost feel like tantrums at the US Open are like the least welcome of any tournament ever. Like if you don't come into that week knowing it's going to be hard as fuck and that you need to be able to take things thrown at you and take it in stride and

battle back like that being the whole point. You're a champion of this event. Like you should know that. I know LACC was not difficult, but like that's what this event is supposed to do to you. That's where like that's the part where I'm like dude, something's not right event is supposed to do to you. That's where like, that's the part where I'm like, dude, something's not right here. Something's really not right. I'm with you on like, you probably shouldn't be here if you're in this state of mind and you're acting this way.

And I honestly, I think about like, anytime I've ever like taken a swipe at something like something at the ground and like done damage, I'm like, fuck, all right, I got to go repair it. Like your instinct is like, I got to fix this. If I accidentally like bumped into somebody's locker and dented it, I gotta go repair it. Your instinct is like, I gotta fix this. If I accidentally bumped into somebody's locker and dented it, I'd be in there with a plunger trying to suction the dent out of it and leave it better than you found it.

It's just so completely ridiculous to leave any golf course, much less a member's club anywhere. If you go do that, you just, literally the name of the game is you're supposed to leave the place better than you found it, and dude, that you just like literally the name of the game is you're supposed to leave the place better than you found it and dude that's just undefendable it's like truly some of the worst behavior I've seen from a pro yeah and from a from a recent past champ as well of it's like dude just yeah just be better you know so it was it was very interesting to get aggregated

by this happens once you know a couple times a year, two or three times a year, the nuclear boys and all the Zaire golf and all that stuff, to get aggregated by them. And then your mentions just turn into like an absolute cesspool. It's just crazy. Might be worried for our society, TC.

It's the stuff out there. Well, listen, we'll get you out of here to go deal with that. Hey, will you get Randy all riled up about? Of course. I thought the broadcast stunk and I thought that they did not do a good job of, they could have front loaded a bunch of commercials during and right after the rain delay. They got way behind.

The commentary is pretty rudderless. And I don't even think it's any of the guys in the booths fault. I think they're all just not being set up for success. They had some good drone tracers today and yesterday, but overall I think that was not Tommy Roy's best performance and I think he needs to be kind of called to account. Well, TC, thanks for being here all week.

Shout out to just an outstanding week at the US Open. I know you enjoyed it and good having you here. So enjoy the rest of your weekend. We will catch you next time. Soly, who are we going to hear from next? Yeah, we were going to try to tie this up live, but figured it was going to be a lot of moving parts of the show anyway. So we caught up our good friend, Michael Kim. He had great thoughts on Oakmont on, on, on the X, the everything app all week long, he's a great follow there and just want to talk with somebody who experienced Oakmont this week, uh, and just asking a couple of questions about a little five minute hit here, uh, but our, our, our friend of the program, Michael Kim. All right.

Four days at Oakmont, not, not two days, four days made cut, played the weekend. What's the test of Oakmont, not two days, four days, made cut, played the weekend. What's the test of Oakmont like? We've been talking about it all week, but this is going to sound a lot different and hopefully a lot better coming from your mouth. It's just really hard. The crazy thing about it, the golf course is about as easy as I think other than like maybe like if they cut the rough or something. But as US Open Oakmont goes, it was as easy of a golf course, easy condition that I could have, we could have had like fairways were rolling. We didn't get any mud balls.

Greens were in general really soft the entire week. I could, you know, especially today on Sunday, you could land it near the pen and stop it. If it was firm, like I can't imagine playing this place. Leading up, like I would ask some of the guys that played in 2007 and 16, like, you know, what their experiences were. And in 2007, when it was firm, like, it, you'd be asking about them, like Adam Scott, and it's like, they're recounting like four stories, like, oh,

my gosh, like, the first green was unhittable, like, on 10, they'd hit like six and five iron still go run through the fairway. So it was an unbelievable test. Like weirdly enough, you felt like you could still like make a few birdies here and there if you hit the shots, if you hit the correct shots, like you, I mean, you had wedges in here and there. So it never felt, just felt like a really hard, hard test, but it never felt like impossible.

What's something that maybe doesn't show up on TV that you experienced something about Oakmont that, you know, kind of stands out, uh, that you'll remember if you're starting away for the next us open at Oakmont, something you'll remember. Think, um, just the like one in 10, I think think stand out because I feel like I don't see that many like front to back greens in the severity that that it is front to back. Just even like a 60 year like I would hit in the rough and I'd punch out and I would have these I had this like 60 yard wet shot on the first hole and I have no idea like whether to cut it or like so far short I'm trying to land it.

And then like, all right, if I hit this too hard, it could easily go over the green. Just one in 10, I think stand out the most because those front to back greens and how severe it is, is something I feel like I don't see. I haven't seen in any other golf course. Where does Oakmont rank in terms of hardest golf courses you've played? I mean, it's easily number one. Like I said, just the fact that the greens were soft and it was like this. Like, you know, I played in 2013 I played Marion. But it's kind of that funny like Zach Johnson like feels manipulated like, like, I don't

know if I got like the true Marion experience like they moved fairways like closer to OB like I don't know if I truly played Marion the way it was designed. But Oakmont, it's, you know, that quote, like we can host the US Open like next week if we wanted. Like it's like a legit thing. Like it's the hardest golf course I've played. The rank probably goes like year 2013, Merian. And actually this year at Muirfield Village,

that was really hard past. It was windy. 12 is still the hardest hole in the world. So those three are the ones that really come to mind. What was your, I don't wanna say low light, cuz for us it's usually that's a high, those are highlights for us. What was your welcome to the US Open? What was your worst US Open like, this is the US? So what was your worst US open?

Like, ah, this is the term and I'm playing your worst moment this week. Like Saturday, I was on 14 and I was trying to, you know, those bunkers, those lips are really they're not gradual. They they they what do you call, they're really aggressive in the front part. And I was trying to, I was trying to get, I was trying to hit the front edge of the green.

I had like 90 yards to the front. I felt like I could squeeze like a sandwich up there and I caught it a little thin and it just shot into the bank, plugged, which actually is lucky that it was plugged, but I was like, oh my gosh, I might make triple if I don't get careful. But somehow I came away with a bogey, but that one. And the a decent hit a really nice tee shot on one. And hit I chunked like a wedge and I had like a 30 yard chip and I just played the speed of the slope completely wrong blew it by like 35 feet almost went off the green. So those two those two

yeah I'll remember. Those moments were definitely out there. We watched pretty much everybody do that this week, but appreciate your time as always. Congrats on the week, made cut. It's just a heck of a test to watch and appreciate you dropping some knowledge on us tonight. You got it.

Good stuff, Salih. Thanks to Michael Kim for hopping on. I love a couple things I to take away from that. The war stories about 07 is good stuff, like just Kim describing people's faces just getting pale, and talking about how hard that was that week. That's great. Then two, I love, I'm going to add this in my notebook of cliches,

and I know our next guest is gonna join me here is That club. I mean they can host us open tomorrow Like that's I think Oakmont that might be the only place on earth where that's actually true but I do love that as a as a you know, just golf cliche, so The guy there's a big difference. Sorry. Just a big difference exactly What he said about Marion about like needing to take I've played Marion and didn't walk away being like, Oh my God, that's the hardest golf course I've ever played. And I think what one or two over one at Marion, like what he said there about like what they have to do to that golf course to

get it ready. And it feels artificial during that tournament week. And that's the thing about Oakmont. It's like, no, this place just is born for the United States open. That is what this, this place should not exist if not for this tournament, I honestly believe that. Well, speaking of a guy that's born for the United States Open, let's bring in my guy, Big Randy, who I know, I know had a good day today. Big, how would you sum it up, man? What was

what was the glee that you were feeling on that back nine post rain delay? You guys, you guys have seen or well DJ, I know you have, you've seen the movie Boondock Saints when Willem Dafoe, when the bullets are flying and he's just... There was a firefight. Oh my God, when we were just seeing carnage out the ass.

God, that was good guys. I know Neil hit on it, but man, that's a US Open. That is a US Open that we got today. I don't hit on it, but man, that's a US Open. That is a US Open that we got today. I don't know how you can't like that. I was extremely happy. This weird freedom of like, other than like Hatton, nobody I'm rooting against and also nobody I'm really writing for that I just truly felt like, just fuck me up man. I'm just going to enjoy the shit out of this. Yeah. Man, coming up through the years

when like Mickelson was the guy rooting down, like that, that put some miles on you, man. Like I got scar tissue, but I'm exactly, I'm with you, Solly. Today, I'm just like, nah, come on. Let's bring it on, boys. Get out there and play. Condities are what they are.

I don't know, this is maybe a hard question to answer, but what do you ascribe it to Randy? How much was conditions? How much was Oakmont? How much was the field? How much was? The situation, you know what I mean? Like how do you kind of divvy up that pie? I honestly think we're probably looking at You know, I I think a lot of it was fourth round of a US Open and and Oakmont being specifically just a very difficult test. I mean, I shudder to think, I truly think had we gotten a great spring and this course was firm and played exactly how they would have wanted it. I mean, I don't know. You guys tell me what do you think the winning scores would have been? I truly think it could have been another Angel Cabrera, like five over winning it.

Yeah. Um, I mean, I think we saw that in the final group. We talked about it at the end of the show yesterday. Uh, the, the two prior 54 hole leaders at Oakmont, uh, one had shot 80, one had shot 76. You have Sam Burns now shooting a 78. So like over the last three opens at Oakmont, the average of the 54-hole leader in round four is 78. I just think when you combine the pressure

of trying to win a major with a course that can just, God, you get a little bit offline and then you start to lose confidence. It just, you can see guys in a blender. And I, to me, like, I do love that. I do love watching guys in a blender. I mean, you saw JJ spawn in a blender before the rain delay. And I know you guys have talked about it,

but like, man, it's so impressive what he was able to do, regroup, take some time, and then come back out afterwards and win the tournament. I think the only thing on that that I'll repeat myself from, if you haven't been listening all week, is that can be pretty boring for the first 54 holes, where you're just flying all over the golf course and it's kind of hard to tell what's what,

and just watching guys punch out is not, on a Thursday or Friday, is not that exciting. But man, once the context locks in and you know it's like it's, well it started out as it's going to be one of these four guys, then all of a sudden it was it's going to be one of these 12 guys. And once those shots like feel like they actually have context to the larger tournament, man, it's hard to beat. That is like, it's just, I had a blast watching every shot. Whether it was great, whether it was punching out, whether it was right on the edge. I mean, it was just, it was fantastic, man.

Yeah, I know. It was, I don't know. This is like the third Oakmont US Open now that I can like really experience and remember and know. And I'm so glad it exists. I'm so glad it's an anchor site. I cannot wait till 2033. Uh I I I mentioned yesterday too like Shinnecock like to me those are the two

where you we can get golf like this and it just like that's the only time we we really get it. So II just really loved it. Well, Randy, you know, a segment we always do on these major Sundays is uh the surf pro mulligan., Randy, you know, a segment we always do on these major Sundays is the Surf Pro Mulligan, you know, Surf Pro, of course, the number one brand in cleanup and restorations known for making any mess like it never even happened. Let's make it like an award tonight. What do you what do you want to award the Surf Pro Mulligan to? I mean, I it's

it's the rain delay, right? But it's it's what JJ spawn did. It was his ability to use that break to his advantage to erase the front 940 and and to make that like it never even happened to, you know, to to use the tagline. I wanted to draw this comparison. I know there are some tennis fans listening. I don't know if anybody was deep in the French open coverage of the last few weeks, but Andre Agassi tells a story when he won the French open in 1999. He was getting blitzed through two sets. I mean, I think he lost the first two sets in like 47 minutes to Andre Medvedev. And this rain delay came, right. And he tells the full story. You can YouTube it.

It's, it's, he obviously is going to tell it better than I can, but he goes into the locker room, his coach, Brad Gilbert's in there. And Brad just starts like tearing the paint off the walls. And he, and as Andre says, like, this was very out of character for Brad Gilbert to yell at me like this. And Agassi, something clicked for him during that delay. Like without that rain delay, Andre Agassi does not win the French Open. And I truly believe without the rain delay today, JJ Spahn is not the US Open champion.

And so, man, I serve pro mulligan, like I think to his credit, JJ Spahn used the delay and whatever he did, you know, I hope we get a fuller story. And he really walks us through his time spent back in the locker room or wherever he went. But I think, I think like, you know, tennis folks remember that weather delay in 99 at Roland Garros. I think we'll always kind of remember the weather delay here in 2025 at Oakmont as like that played a big part for JJ Spahn and kudos to him because it wasn't like it crowned him. I think he used it to, you know, whatever he did, it worked.

So well, there you go. So shout out to serve pro over 2200 locations nationwide faster to any size disaster US open size disaster. Uh visit serve pro dot if you've gone out in forty and you're like what? Six seven off the lead. Give serve pro. Give him a call. 1-800-Serve-Pro-Visit-Serve-Pro.com Uh today. Solid, where you wanna go next? I I'm curious to get Randy's take on this. We played this game Friday night and forgive me if we did any of this last

night, Randy. I never can keep my brain straight when we do US Open weeks. But just can go quickly. We don't have to do all these but we did Oakmont versus other recent and future US Open venues and I just want your your pick Oakmont or you fill in the blank. Not to ruin the game. It's Oakmont. It's all of them. Number one. This is, yeah, yeah, yeah. Over Pebble Beach? I mean, easy. Okay. Shinnecock?

If they lose the greens at Shinnecock, we have a conversation. But I don't think that's going to happen again. That happens. Pinehurst was super fun last year. I think it, as I said yesterday, it's a nice counterbalance to what Oakmont offers. But if it's just like, Hey man, you get one us open, I'm taking Oakmont. It's not gonna be Brookline. It's not gonna be Tory. It's not gonna be wing foot. It's not gonna be Aaron Hill's or chambers then

Marian. I think Michael made a great point. I thought he said it better than I could. They had to trick up the golf course. I appreciated how hard it played, but I do understand like that was a bit of an artificial test rib we haven't seen in us open, but I know it's one of your favorite courses, so that might be interesting. Yeah.

Um, anyways, uh, Oakland Hills and LACC I don't even think are getting nominated so that's a quick game but no I appreciate the conviction with that that answer. I just think I don't know it's become synonymous with what I like believe the US Open should be. I think it's Oakmont. Well a lot of the reason is because of the high scores, the carnage, which you reflected beautifully like a true scholar in your proper test index that we've been talking about all week. Final check, big guy.

How did we do? I don't think we're one dotting anymore. No, we're not one dotting. It was a hell of a run. Good sweat. We final tally was only one round in the 80s today Which brings our week total to 32 Counterbalance that with 36 rounds in the 80s. That's a PTI this year at 0.89 It's gonna look strong though amongst you know, this this couple decades run in this era in this era if you're one dot

That's oh again just to reiterate the 2007 Oakmont US Open had a PTI of seven and a half. You don't realize when you're in the good old days. That's a lesson, right? Well, let's linger on it then a little bit. Let's get specific. You're you're known for your your thrills and delights your thrills and deals. Uh what did what did you have from today? I I mentioned the final group.

You know, I was a bit early. I was one day early on uh the final group putting up a over 150 final score but yeah man something about that burn 78. A lot of our today would have they they were one day early. They would have placed into that final round. Yeah, that is that's comfort food for me, man.

So that that was thrilling and delighting. Um I feel bad. I'm going to reiterate some stuff but it was a total examination. TC called it. Um I thought Sam Burns whether he should have gotten a drop should not have gotten a drop. I think if you want to be a US Open champion, like you got to make bogey there at worst, put it behind you and go hit some shots down the stretch. He completely folded. I'm sorry that happened

to Sam Burns, but whoever it would have been like that was delightful for me. Tyrell got, you know, was in the blender a little bit. Yeah, I, and I like those rules officials like sticking up for themselves. So I obviously I'm gonna come down on that side. I don't think that's, you know, shocking to anybody, but that was, that was thrilling and delighting. And my last thrill and delighting.

And my last Thrill and Delight guys, I know it is a US Open. I think it is cool. You look at the top 12, it's a big top 12, and Ties, you have nine different countries represented on that leaderboard. And I, you know, I think that's great for the global game of golf. It's a global game. That's right. Yeah. Well said. What did you think of the coverage? TC was poking at us to get you all riled up, to get you mad as hell.

I don't know if that's going to happen or not, but we haven't really talked a lot of coverage yet. I would say, I mean, as soon as they went to 2008 Tiger at Tori, it was like, oh my god, I miss Johnny and Roger I just immediately that stood out to me. I Poor kids. I don't think his is very good. I truly don't think his says Much that isn't quite obvious I Didn't think it was his best week. I think they just

have too many voices. I'm truly at a loss how they can't zero in on like one person did you we were talking about in slack like if you have brando in that chair love him or hate him he's gonna have like super strong opinions. He's gonna stuff to think about and react to I thought it would have been a much more interesting broadcast with him involved and if it's a lot of stuff to think about and react to. I thought it would have been a much more interesting broadcast with him involved. And if it's not Brandon, like who else could that be? I don't know, but I just think we got to have somebody, um, given us a bit more.

And man, you just, I don't know. I miss Johnny Miller on a Sunday at Oakmont. I just thought it was, it was very apparent. They have not really filled that. Yeah. I just thought it was very apparent. They have not really filled that. Yeah, I feel a little bad for NBC in that I don't think there's an heir apparent to, there hasn't been really. Aizinger was a guy for a while and that- Well, he's left-handed and he's playing on Liv. That's the big shame of it. That's exactly right. And I don't know if that was a dynasty plan that didn't quite work out the way that they thought it was going to.

But it's tough, man. And what kind of hit me today, and this isn't a shot at Kisner even, is that US Open chair, and maybe this is just the Johnny Miller of it all, and the legacy of that, and all the memories I have of watching that, which all kind of came flooding back, both with with the 63 and then literally having them on the broadcast and all the flashbacks. And it was a lot of reminders of how much I loved Johnny

this week. But that lead chair for the US Open should be one of the biggest seats in the game. Absolutely. And absolutely. Gisner has played. He's played what? Four PGA Tour events in the last two months. It's like this is not his full-time job. And so of course it's not gonna feel like

it's his full-time job, because it's not. And so that's just more of an NBC problem, I think, than it is a Kizner problem. He doesn't have the reps, he doesn't have the, certainly doesn't have kind of the gravitas of the guy who shot 63 at Oakmont and is willing to talk about it and draw on personal, you know, it's just, it's a tough fit. And I don't

know if it's because, like you said, Phil is not available or they didn't kind of, Brandel doesn't want it. Maybe I don't know what the deal is, but it just, it feels like a really tough fit. And that kind of felt like a bummer today. It's hard because his is like, is really good at talking about golf and has a great personality and has, is dynamic. Like he's a really interesting person in interviews and off that. It is not in the tech to TV role. Like NBC is a different thing than what Kiz is really good at.

I think in terms of what he could bring to something, he just would be, he'd be good at an alt stream or like you should be watching, you know, watching golf with just two random pros just shooting the shit more than like I know I wish it's like give him a bourbon I want to hear what you really think I just never I felt like we never got what gives anything he like I have to think he had stuff he really wanted to say or I would hope like I just thought it was all watered down and very vanilla well that oh wait flashback was just interesting of how many less voices there were and how there was a booth and there was a bunch of on the ground guys and granted we're watching the super cut of all of it but you just felt like I just don't when I'm watching NBC I

don't feel in the moment I just feel like it's like sensory blitzkrieg a little bit of it just kind of it's so scattershot on where they're going they're not following the flow of around and like Johnny would just bottom line like it's gonna be this like this is the problem this is if he doesn't make this putt here it's gonna be JJ spawn or like I just never felt the gravity of the moments prior to any shots maybe after like after JJ hit that shot on 17 sure, but like they were in like they were in commercial for Bob playing the 18th hole and it it just I don't know that I think you're exactly right. Yeah, I don't have like a great

class all for it, but it's not right. Well, and I think the other weird decision was when the rain delay came. Not that you have to like, you can eventually cut to like a replay or whatever. I thought it was weird that we didn't get maybe everybody or we didn't have like the experts just talking about this year's tournament. They were so quick to just like get away from this year in Oakmont, which to your point, Sally, like this is the national championship. I'm struggling to think of like another sport where they would just quickly cut

to a whole different year, like without any like, Hey, this is what's going on, man, maybe this is good. Check this out. If electricity went out at an NBA finals or like the, you know, they had a pyrotechnics issue, like the halftime show is the show of those things. They go to that and talk about everything. It's right. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I, I thought that was tough. I also, I'm not,

this is critique without knowing a solution, but it, it, I wish there was a way to hammer home some of the slopes on the greens better for people like myself that have never truly been there. Like, I, I don't know what the answer is necessarily, but I still don't think I have a great appreciation for what makes these greens so difficult. Besides just the speed, right? We can see the speed usually. Well, and I think that's what it was a little lacking there. I think that's what would really help. And this is, I'm trying not to say this, you know, talking out of both sides of my mouth, but the, for all the stuff that

everybody, like for all the shit that everybody throws, it's like show more shots, show more shots, show more shots, show more shots. When you get to a course like this, and I'm like, man, I haven't seen it in seven years, you know, whatever, nine years. Yeah, it's like you actually can like slow down and give me some context a little bit is actually what I need more. I think when we get to pebble and sawgrass and RIV and these courses that I know, like the back of my hand, I'm like, oh, just show me all the shots. I know what number two is. I know what number 12 is. I know what 15 is. Whereas here I'm like, that's why TC and I were talking about the featured

groups, which I thought were awesome, because it's like, all right, I can settle in. And I can see from shot to shot from hole to hole, what's stressing these guys out and what happens when you missed a fairway and what that consequence looks like rather than like, oh, you saw that one five minutes ago, we're going to come back later and you're going to maybe remember it or maybe not because you're maybe looking at your phone because, you know, who knows but it's a yeah, then I think that's a wonderful point DJ.

I think that that ancillary stuff would work a lot better Thursday, Friday is what is and if you're having trouble kind of fitting it in. Hey, you were given a weather delay like show us like walk us through the back nine talks, talk to us exactly the chat like I just feel like there's missed opportunity there and I will shut out I was watching the Scheffler feature group like they they got his whole conversation with the rules official in 15 when Scotty was like are you all blowing the horn soon because if you are I don't want to hit this shot but like if this is the way it's gonna be then let's play I'm happy to hit it I just need to know and it was like a whole like five minute conversation, which, you know, you're not getting on the main telecast. Yeah, I do want to shout out I thought Bones and even Smiley, like Bones is like, just a plus like he just makes you

tells you what to look out for on a shot, what the elements of it are, and all that. And it just builds anticipation every time. And I think Smiley has gotten in really good in his on course role as well. I think he's just kind of followed the bones model and those guys when they get down there we get out of the booth and all the noise going on there and down with people that have looked at the lie and all the considerations. I think that's kind of where I get dug in on anticipation of a shot and I think that's good content. I think going back to the the Kisner thing just for a second, a couple commenters flagging this that Kisner is the assistant captain, I believe, for the Ryder Cup. So with him doing that, I don't know what happens with that chair. I don't know if they've made a decision on that or what the game plan is there. But I don't think I'm a voting member

of this body, but Team Brandle all the way for me. Honestly, I don't know, I would, this is not sourced at all, this is me thinking about it for half of a second. I wonder if they've pulled Brandle out of that spot because of the anti-LIV stuff and like, being unable to cover the LIV golfers in competition. That would be totally fair.

That would be a decision I would understand. One thing on that, they made a big thing last year at Pinehurst about having the two separate crews and Brando was absolutely a part of that. So you think that that feedback coming from at least US Open Pinehurst till now is what changed that decision, Sully? I don't I don't know. I really don't know. Cause it's an interesting thought as I think Brando's kind of toned down. He used to be a lot harsh and by no means is he moving away from the same talking points. But I think it is something when you look at Ryder Cup with kids being out, John Wood who is on the call again, he's out, you know, what, what are they going to do?

Is that not a back, you know, out there? out there yeah true I don't know what Gary didn't make the work the weekend yeah I don't know yeah it's not it's not good I don't think he like solves it but like I think his familiarity of the voice it gives us some gravitas I think but we can play this all night yeah big we'll we'll get you out of here unless you got anything else, but I was curious, give me a moment, give me a visual that you're going to draw from. What's the lasting memory of this week at Oakmont?

I mean, Spawn breaking down years is is pretty spawn just like hitting the golf shots he needed to hit and rolling in that putt and the emotion overtaking him. It was just it was a great ending for a week that I've I greatly enjoyed. Well Big, thanks for crunching the numbers all week man. It was great having you in the quants working on the PTI and Uh, you know, I I look forward to it at our next our next major Appreciate it boys. Thanks for all you do It's the weirdest us open week that we you and I didn't argue about setup at all this week

And uh, it's I miss it. I kind of miss it a little bit. I hate seeing you so happy Well, I think maybe another feather in the cap of opem. Like, is this the one place that can bring us together? So you know what that you stands for? Unify, man. Unifying the game. Let's swap that third seat. We got one more one more guy to come in here and close this game out. KVV the big right hander. Greg, Greg. Comes marching in. Closer. in comes marching in when closer. Uh, don't eat guys. Thanks so much for having me. Kev, great to see you. Congratulations on what I understand was the rare, gross and net father child's parent child, uh,

victory today at the club. Congratulations on that. That sounds like a great way to start the day. Thank you, Deid. You know, I was going to slip that into the end, so thanks for just putting it in at the beginning. We're looking change. I've just hit him with the fastball right away. Like, Hey, he's going to, he's going to sneak some sentimental bullshit in about his kid at the end. No DJ is going to bring it up. Yeah. No, no. I just thought I have a couple takeaways here. And one is going to be my coldest moment of the week. But my big overall

takeaways, I feel like, you know, we didn't get a linger enough on Adam Scott. Is this the end of like Adam Scott contending in majors and kind of a bummer of a way for it to go out? Didn't drive it really very well all day. I just was kind of out of position a lot and I just, I wanted so badly for this to be his moment in the sun. You know, DG, we talked about this a few times, like this week, the Adam Scott fits in really well with the Oakmont history of champions. And I look, maybe JJ spawn will grow on me. And that list, you know, Hogan, you know, Johnny Miller, you know,

and Sunday's part three, we were not very far along in the tournament as of last night. There was like three tournaments today, I think. I think that's right. On the Adam Scott front, I would say two things. One, gets to play the Masters forever. That's a golf course that's been kind to the grizzled veterans. And two, he's played the Open really well.

And I know he certainly doesn't have a lifetime exemption there, but he has played really well there. It know he doesn't, you know, certainly doesn't have a lifetime exemption there, but, uh, he has played really well there. It's the same thing we say, you know, mitigates distance a little bit, although he's like the fucking longest player in the world now based on some of those ball speeds we were seeing today, but a place where he could maybe hang around. Is it going to happen again at the U S open? Who knows? You know, that, that feels like, you know, it feels

like probably a last best chance. Just if you're playing the odds, but who knows the game is still in good shape. I mean, it's not like he's he's getting put out to pasture. It just things tend to go off a cliff when you when you. This is my ball knowers side talking here,

but I always think of it as like when you come up close it's kind of like losing the Super Bowl. It's like just to get back into that position you have have to go through so much shit. And that's like, you know, that whatever is training camp, it's like the build up to the next major, right? And then the first few, like the first half of the season is like the first two rounds and the playoffs are the third round solid, right? And then it's like the Super Bowl is the fourth round. When you fall short of that, man,

you don't start at like the fourth quarter, you start all the way at the bottom again. And if you're 44 or 45 years old, that's a much tougher climb than it was. And so just getting yourself in position. But I don't want to linger too long on because I want to talk some little bit of shit about one of our guys here for our call this moment, dude. Well, thank you for bringing that up. And thank you to our friends at Yeti for serving up this week's coldest moment. KBV, what do you got?

So I want to set the stage here because our guy Terrell Hatten, you guys talked a little bit about him, was really, I thought the dude who was going to win the Open. And on 16, he absolutely flags a four iron right there, and it's probably a 10- footer. He's got that putt to tie for the lead of the US Open, and he just misses that putt and act like he'd been stabbed in the gut. All right, and then he goes up to 17 and hits, just smokes his driver and rings down and picks up his tea like there was nothing, like, oh, that's gonna be just fine. And it bounces and lands on the down slope of the bunker and gets stuck there. I got to play Oakmont way back in 2016, the day after the DJ won,

and one of my biggest takeaways was like the grass around those bunkers almost feels like the thickness of steel wool. And so when the ball doesn't go all the way down into the bunker, it's so freaking hard to like hit those shots off of a downslope to any kind of elevated green. And I knew as soon as that happened, I was like, Oh, I'm not that good at golf, but I know that he is F because I've had this shot.

I don't think Tiger Woods or Seve could have like hit a good shot there almost. Uh, but of course he, he just kind of bunts that ship in that goes across the bunker there into the other side and in a rage, of course, like takes two swipes at the downslope there. Like somehow it was, it was the lies fault that when someone else hit it there, I was trying to think in my head, like who, who could the English blame for this? If it wasn't Terrell Hatton's, you know, it was just, it was just Megan Merkel's fault. Was this probably the American's fault?

Probably, probably Brookline. Yeah, probably Brookline. I don't know. Kevin Gates. Diego Maradona, famous English villain. But I think I've come up with a way to parse the Hatton discussion. He makes bogey there, of course. One of only two people, he was the third person in the top 25 to make bogey on Seventeen. Ryan Fox, Jordan Spieth, and Terrell Hatton. Foxy, of course, and Spieth were not in contention at all in the US Open, but you know Hatton was literally could have birdied there and literally been tied with with Bob McIntyre going to the final. But I've come over the way I think to parse the Hatton

discussion. All right, so I want to see if you'll get get on board with me on this. Hatton as a person is kind of a delight. He's a great quote, he's thoughtful. He's funny. He's a bloke. Haddon, the character, the man who puts on this mask to play good golf, that guy is something else. TC dropped the C word earlier this week when he was talking about Shane Lowry and he talked in a very global sense, not in an American sense of that word. Very global sense of that word. He also dropped the B word when talking about Rory. So I've been trying to come up with what I think

the Hatton character should be. What as the sort of, you know, editorial director, I feel like our house style should be consistent on this. So I wanted to, you know, it has to be some sort of like English insult. And so I wanted to kind of throw some terms at you. I was thinking wanker, all right? First of all, I feel like that's a pretty standard British insult. I think Ted Lasso kind of made

that too popular. And also there's kind of like a lovingness to it or whatever. So I don't know the wanker fits. I could go with knob because I think that's a really great British insult too. But I don't think that's quite right either. Um, I thought really close about numpty. That's a great, he's such a numpty. But I don't know that I think you have to be English to pull that one off. I'm not sure that Americans do do that. This is also true of this next one.

Muppet, like you love it when Ian Poulter says, I'm such a muppet. And that definitely could be, but I feel like muppets deep down have a good heart. Ultimately, I think I've decided that I'm gonna go with, is Terrell Hatton is a pratt. He is an insufferable pratt. I think that this just can stick around with him. Again, I like talking to Terrell Hatton.

I think he's nearly I don't know if you guys probably didn't see the reaction, but he was doing an interview after the round. And JJ Spahn made the putt literally while he was talking and he was like well that's just a fabulous ending that's just lovely and I was like man I want to hate Terrell Hatton, but I feel like the guy Terrell Hatton is kind of enjoyable. The golfer is a pratt. He is an insufferable pratt. That is a great great take. Do you not dislike him as as a person and my dislike has nothing to do with live with him at all. Like, literally, I didn't even die. As you know, it's me. No, no, I know. Just to confuse the two. I just his on

course behavior just is the biggest turnoff. A Pratt is you can have like four great ones and we can go with that tosser. Tosser is a good one. Tosser is a good one. Yes. I thought you were gonna go with our English listeners or Irish listeners will help us a little bit, but I feel like Pratt insufferable Pratt is a pretty good that and also I'm looking forward to him on the writer cup team because he might either commit a murder in Bethpage or get murdered at Bethpage. There's only kind of two options on the table. Every writer cup needs a main character and

I'm excited for Terrell Hatton's turn to be the main character. Well said KVV. That was a shout out to our friends at Yeti. That was the Yeti coldest. I think I might give it to to KVV for coming with just a dossier of of British slang terms. I think that's you know KVV might earn my coldest moment. Yeti's halfway through five drops to get you ready for summer. Check out the Coast to Coast collection

featuring plenty of red, white, and blue, or the Hondo Beach Chair, which is something we all love. I also love the Trailhead Camp Chair. I cannot shout that one enough. Awesome, awesome product. Be sure to check out their full line at yeti.com. Guys, what do we have left? What do we have left in the notebooks?

Anything else that we gotta get into the record here? Don't have a lot, man. This is a lot of takes, a lot of shows. It's been a long week. I'm still like, I keep checking Twitter and just be like, oh my God, JJ spawned one in the US Open. Imagine saying that to start the year. Uh, and he, and he, he fricking earned it, man. I think I'm still going to wake

up tomorrow and just be like, wait, who won that? Oh my God. JJ spawn won the US open. Here we go. It is, it is again, like a, uh, you know, not his fault that our, our poison brains just think about things and organize things this way, but it is going to be weird to look back on 2025 and be like, man, the year Rory won the career Grand Slam. Unbelievable Scotty, of course, one number three on his way to getting to 27 majors. That was

that was nuts. Royal Port Rush. I'm sure something amazing is gonna happen. Who won that? Yeah, JJ Spawn won the US over there. Yeah. Huh. Okay. Yeah. That was no one none of the none of our trivia teams got that one right. Next question. You know, it's kind of one of those which is, which is weirdly captivating and interesting to, you know, have been a party to this week. But KVV, thanks for for hopping on anything else from you.

No, I just I was I'm going to Port Rush in a couple weeks or I guess a month, but I'm very excited to sort of see that one and in person. So if you're you know, if you're out there and you you want to, you know, reach out to me and just to tell me what's what's the good shit to see there, I would love to have you do that. And yeah, I think it would be fun to be back on site. I think we're going to do another kind of narrative pod from there and stuff. Set the bar pretty high at the Masters. So I'm not sure we can pull vault over that one. But you know, we'll try and do something fun.

Absolutely. No, no. Yeah, no doubt about that. KVV decidedly not a pratt. We greatly appreciate you, my friend. Just a gross net champion with my daughter and the father son thing. Yeah, what happened? What happened? I don't know. Is it good to win the gross and the net? That's I don't know. I mean, it's you can't win money for both I learned because I was you when you win the gross, they immediately like bounce you from the net earnings. But yeah, it

was I we would have finished if they would have let us compete in the father son division, we would have finished fourth or fifth, I believe. So I was pretty excited about that too. I was like, we're taking names, man. My girl's like, she's smacking it off the tee and hitting great. She chipped in once and I just lifted her up in the air like frigging Mufasa and Lion King.

It was pretty sweet. So. Well, guys, I think that's gonna do it for for us open week. We've got another big one with travelers this week KPMG LPGA this week as well. But guys, a lot of women's PGA KPMG will get to their PGA. Sorry about that. Thank you for the for the correction there. A good a good golf tournament either way. And it's going to be interesting to see Frisco and how that ends up this week. But guys, a lot of shows, a lot of pods, a lot of words, a lot of takes, a lot of graphics. Shout out to Cody, a lot of social stuff. Shout out to Matt for that one.

Thank you to everybody who has been tuning in, making these the most fun weeks of the year. Shout out to our friends at High Noon, Titleist, Travelers, Yeti, ServPro year shout out to our friends at high noon Titleist travelers yeti surf pro shout out to Kevin Gates and the two phones And guys will be back at Oakmont in 2033 cannot cannot get here soon enough can't watch you guys before then I promise. Yeah, I think we'll be back before that We'll be back for that crack on