No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 1056: BMW Championship Happy Hour + Justin Rose

Episode Date: August 13, 2025

Back at Caves for the 2025 version of the BMW Championship. Playoff event No 2, with the top 50 in the FedEx standings hoping to make it into the final 30 spots for East Lake. Join us as we go over some news and notes, the odds sheet to make some picks, and more. 49:10 - Justin Rose interview Presented by FanDuel. Support our sponsors: FanDuel- Official Sportsbook of NLU Rhoback- rhoback.com/nlu for NLU x Erin Hills Oars & Alps- code NLU15 to get 15% off at checkout Join us in our support of the Evans Scholars Foundation: https://nolayingup.com/esf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. Yes. I mean, 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 Happy Hour, No Laying Up podcast, joined by my guys. I'm Sully. I forgot to introduce myself, Mr. Sully, joined by my guys in Baltimore on the ground. C-sweeten it up. Mr. Neil Schuster, Pro M-Day. How we doing? How we feel in?

Fantastic, Sallie. One of my favorite weeks of the year, top 50. in a good mood they're about to make a lot of money uh course looks pristine uh and great to be in baltimore uh fired up fired up joined by his brother on the couch there mr tc hello t ron hello sally we're uh we're actually sitting here in the hotel room neal you'll call this perhaps his favorite hotel in the country earlier i we stayed i stayed here for a night in 2021 we're at the pendry uh in down on the on the on the harbour in baltimore it's a lovely love it spells point yeah it's fantastic i'm just glad to

see you experiencing this, Neil. It does warm my heart. Today's happy hour is presented by Fandall, our go-to for betting all the action as the FedEx Cup playoffs heat up. We're in the home stretch, guys grinding for positioning, chasing East Lake, trying to keep the season alive. Fandall's got all the bets to ride the chaos talking first, second and third round leader bets, finishing position, head-to-head matchups, and a whole lot more. The apps easy to use and the payouts are fast. So download Fandul and make your next PGA tour bet an ace. Must be 21-over and present in Select States.

problem call 1 800 gambler or visit rg dash help.com call 1 888 789 777 or visit ccg.org slash chat in connecticut uh listen we got a little run of show here we're going to debrief their got experience on the ground talk a little bit of caves valley uh you guys got to play the pro every day and experience the golf course i've talked to a lot of guys about the golf course we got some press conference clippings we're going to react to rory and kegan in particular uh we're going to get to our one and done picks and highlight some plays of the week. Check in briefly on the U.S. Am where things stand there, some various news and notes. And at the very end, we have 15-minute interview with Justin Rose. I don't know if you've

heard of him, but he's the guy that won last weekend, but wanted to pipe him in live, couldn't get the timing work, pre-recorded interview, but he brought the heat, man. I'm amazed at how fast I'm becoming a Justin Rose stand. It's honestly kind of shocking. So, he brought the heat last night. They had the M&T Bank Stadium. We're talking. and the pigs getting around last night at the little welcome party and and uh i think you call him diet ball john harbaugh ball light ball light excuse me harbaugh and uh team rose up there just talking about grit and sacrifice and what teams mean to them you know team rose just getting deep on it's more than just him he was it was fantastic he's so emotive and engaging and uh fantastic

haircut i don't know i didn't think i didn't see myself boomeranging on justin rose either but It's just, he's been impressive, man. I was telling Neil, he's got that hair that just goes straight out. It's great hair. And I was saying, like, the higher he gets him in the FedEx Cubs standings or in the world rankings, the higher his hair should get, like, it should just get. But we're out there on the pro am today. One of the coolest things about the program is it literally says team rose on the scoreboard.

You mentioned the word heat there, Neil. What is the weather and temperature like? and anything you want to report or get out in front of potentially. Yeah, yeah, I think so. So it is, I'm happy to report. It is muggy, very muggy. So I thought I was wearing a pair of gray shorts today.

I kind of liked my fit. In about middle or around, I was like, huh, I'm, you know, I'm sweating pretty hard here. So after the round, we got this pro amp picture, and it was kind of like, oh, my God. This is it like 10 a.m. Yeah, I got the picture here, but you can see it on screen. I mean, just a Lucas Gloverson.

situation going on and i don't know i'm like looking off at a distance in this picture i don't know if this one's going on my wall or not but that was waiting at my golf bag after lunch and uh yeah i was like god you mean i was walking around like that like i wet my pants all day i let you a belt too you probably ruined my belt i don't have to air that out it's just really it's a steam room out there and it's it's a hilly course the big piece of land and i was like but but i didn't realize how bad it was like looking down it was kind of blending the grays i was like oh yeah Okay, I might be showing a little, a little moisture here. Dude, I mean, it was nine holes, too.

That's the best. Yeah, that was that was middle of around right. So that's on 18. Glorious Waterfall on 18. Can we go back to that photo? Can you like, can we get a comment on Akshay's shorts as well? I mean, oh my, no, he sticks with the high, the high stuff, man. He's in such good shape.

Like a six inch inseam. It's good stuff. I think like he's just going to like revisit Akshay like six years. And I think Oxsh is going to have like 18 pounds more muscle on him. and he like he just keeps stacking up a little every year uh it's so impressed to see him watch like just chipped the ball and off the tee he shaped it both ways the way just his swing is mesmerizing like how steep he gets and the way he lets his hips go but it was i'll go there next so we had russell henley for the first nine and it was really like nine holes with the wily

veteran no it just he and his caddy like really just kind of hanging out and hitting golf shots wasn't doing a whole lot of extra putting on each hole kind of saving his energy maybe year 14 or whatever it is 12 for him 16 maybe uh and then oxhay's got the track man the whole squad out this coach is out there with him he's probably spent an extra five minutes on every green just putting to every potential uh hole and really going through the yardage book so it was like seeing a young not to say that henley's not not hungry but two different approaches this late in the season feels like henley's just like yeah man i just got to stay stay fray basically, whereas Akshay was just in total grind mode.

So it was like two different generations I felt like. So that was a fun. That could be a reflection of their early week though, too. Maybe Akshay hadn't got to see the greens and Henley had already. Well, that's, yeah. I think that's an interesting wrinkle this week is even the guys who have played this course before from 2021, like I was talking to Russell about a little bit. I was like, do you think it's an advantage or a disadvantage to have seen this course before?

Because the greens are totally different. they're like they're not even remotely the same uh and i like i thought personally the course was far better now than it was in 2021 i thought i think the changes they've made are awesome uh we'll get to some of the specific holes but uh i mean the greens were so so pure today they were they got the the precision airs the the whole the whole set up at they're very firm and uh a lot going on very firm it was like as firm as you could possibly have bent greens fast i should say very fast i And it felt like a lot of putts and balls running away. Like the balls were,

were zipping and moving once they hit the green. They've had a year to, you know, like over a year to grow them in. So they had a full season on them last year where some of the guys were saying last week in Memphis, it was in good shape, but you could tell like the greens hadn't settled yet.

So you get some kind of weird, you know, weird little little wobbles at times. But the surrounds are like crazy, crazy tight, crazy pure you know bunkers are all redone it's it's there's some there's some cool stuff out there i'll just say i'll say this i think the the biggest um rank that the bmw championship has is just that the fact that they go to a different course every year is it's it's almost maybe a bit

of an unfair advantage to some of these other tournaments because it just it creates this freshness you all i almost feel it with the players where they're kind of locked in in a in a practice round like this it's new to them they're not kind of stuck in a you know year over year routine um and it's a classic like it's vintage faws we met the fog we met the faws on i don't know the back nine um yeah five but big piece of property just kind of created out of you know out of nothing out of just rolling hills and a lot of a lot of land was moved a lot of big saucer bunkers a lot of banked fairways uh yeah flashed bunkers um i think it'll it'll be a fun fun track to watch these pros play i i don't know if it's going to be the birdie fest that it was in 2021

the rough is not very juicy oh it's well that's yeah so maybe it will be not a lot of rough but i do think there's a lot more slope in the greens and a lot more going on yeah so well there's some some hints of some chirpiness uh about you know any holes in particular i've heard some rumblings i think it was from you guys so uh if i could set you up for that we heard that from oh we talked to a couple of pGA tour employees we talked to wg GA folks, we were playing with Mike Hudak, who's like one of the, you know, executive guys at the, you know, on the, on the board at the course, uh, and to a man, they were all like, like, what did you think of five?

Like, I thought that was like, really wanted to know what the course, just one they changed. I think number one and number five were kind of complete, uh, redos. And five's a short part for down the hill, but there's just no reason to hit driver. And it seems like the players don't like unless they bump the, as they go back. I think, I think like one of the. days they'll probably bump the t's up yeah and put the pin on the left it's a little bit like was it

what's the short for it at quill hall of 14 or 15 14 14 14 but like there's actual trouble to get into behind behind the green and short left and and it's this three tier green uh it's in like

auction was hitting a he had 70 yards in and he was aiming like 12 yards away from the pin to use this slope and sling it in right to left It was, I thought when he hit, you know, hit the wedge, I thought he missed his target by 10 yards. And it took a big hop off this, banked off this ridge in the middle of the green and just, you know, shot left and then kind of came back towards the hole. So he had about eight feet from behind the hole. But over the green is dead.

It's a drop off into a, into a penalty area. So I just like, I really, I can't remember the last time I saw a pro aiming away from the flag with, you know, with a lob wedge. and it's like on a 360 yard par four. I'm like, that sign me up for that. So, you know, it's almost like if the pros don't like it, it might mean that I'm going to like it. So help me out just because I'll put myself in the viewer's seat here. You guys are sponsored by BMW.

Of course, you're going to raid about Case Valley. But in fair, as we shadow on Kay's Valley, pretty darn hard in 2021, TC. But you're here to attest that this is the transition made since then is an improvement for what we're going to expect to see from a pro golf tournament. Yeah, it's still about my favorite golf course. or like i think it's a it's a really good members course right it's and i think that was the vibe in 21 but it wasn't a great tournament course i think they had a challenge and yeah it was you know it was just a dart fest and i think um you know the closing stretch is really good

like that that that that part three down the hill 17 like 16s are really awkward par five i think in a good way like it'll challenge the guys to you have a 599 yards yeah and then and then 18 is just you know very similar to um you know i think some other closing holes we've seen prior it's like with with you know big waterfall and all that stuff uh the massive infrastructure all down and but um i like i think it's probably it's up there with shadow creek for fuzz's best waterfall i'd say it's in definitely the top three for power whale quill hollow this one i don't know he didn't no that was necklace but i'm just saying general water features you got to put ball hollow in there uh but no but sally i think

there's yeah like there's just so much more going on with the greens now like like 10 green is i got up there and i was like holy shit this is crazy it was our first hole of the day yeah and i didn't really know what to expect and it was it was like this reverse radan thing and like really really long and skinny uh front left to back right and looking at henley i was like this is different he's like yeah man like this is all dude a whole different golf course uh and so but yeah it's a pretty it's a pretty drastic severe piece of land and so it's a big walk it's very very humid there's not a lot of wind out there um but man it's like five six and seven i thought we're probably it was like my favorite

five six seven eight was probably my favorite stretch yeah on the golf course seven's another medium length par four shorter part four not drivable though new green with like distance controls at a premium and i think neal must have you must have airmailed seven Green's today with a wedge in your hair? I was struggling with my wedges. I hit it great off the T.C. played great. He shot even. You know, it continues to flash. But I want to go back to what you said about. I don't want to talk about me airmailing the wedges. Let's move. I don't. I'm going to deflect. But distance control is important. Distance control is important. Don't be long. You know, don't be above the hole, right? Uh, no, like, are we fluffing a course that we

didn't three, four years ago? I feel like if similar to what we said about quail hollow, Like the fact that we see quail so much, I think is a detriment to quail hollow. But if we haven't seen Quail Hollow in four years and you went back there, you'd be like, oh, actually, you know, like it has some redeeming. I don't, it's not all bad. You know what I'm trying to say? I think that's, again, with the BMW championship, I think that's a real strength of theirs is that they can kind of go and, you know,

show a course and then four or five years later come back to it and show what a few key changes can do for it. So I think it's definitely improved. Is it my favorite course on the PJ tour? No, it's not. but it looks great and I think it'll be a fun pro golf venue. And Quill, like, we like Quail for a PGA tour event, right? It's a good, it's a good PGA tour event.

We just didn't need it for, yeah, for a major. And like, it'll be the same thing with, with, you know, Belle Reeve next year as well. I was like, hey, we haven't seen it since the PGA at one year. Probably a solid venue for a PGA tour event, just not a major championship venue. I think there's, again, two different, two different questions, I think. But I would, I would also just give a shout out to Baltimore in general, It feels like a buzz, towns very, a lot of pride, you know, just with like the Shadi and the Ravens organization rolling out the red carpet. And it feels like the town is fired up to have the event.

And it feels like the club is fired up to have the event. And I, you know, I don't think you can say that about all clubs that, you know, it's a big deal. You had to shut your course down and all that stuff. So it feels like they're, they're fired up to host. Yeah. I mean, it was a scene there in 2021. I mean, the crowds were massive. Like, it was, I remember just that being a very.

very on the ground experience was like I felt like that town really showed out for it. It feels big. Just, I mean, just to go back to 21, I remember that Bryson Cantlay playoff. Like it was yesterday. I mean, that feel, that was epic. I was watching it, I was in a hotel in England, watching it like 2 a.m. I mean, it just wouldn't end. Cantlay is making every freaking put possible.

So, you know, hopefully that the last hole feels like. Why? How much has changed? Yeah, I know, exactly. it both feels like 25 years ago and and is that was kind of the the nadir of brison of like everybody absolutely eating yes that was a big scene afterward right like yeah uh something like that week yeah i i feel like the the 18th hole kind of a shorter par four playing up the hill could have a similar payoff that you get at a traveler's championship like big kind of cauldron a lot of people back in that um in that like that valley a little bit so and just the water feature i mean I mean, it's, it's, uh, it's kind of a made for TV hole, I think. So there's another, uh, I don't know if you remember from last year at, at Castle Pines. There's a big downhill, uh, par three.

There's one like that here as well. Oh, yeah, that was, uh, number three or four. Yeah, that was cool. I mean, it's, it's just a fun golf course. Check this out. Dope, dope head cover we got today. Uh, it's like the old bay, you know, swag did that. kudos to them uh there's some cool merch like they have a dope flag here it's it's a

maryl is very proud of their flag lock on the old base shirt you have on neal is it is it is and this is this is a rowback joint if it is oh that's interesting because it is like you know how much we love roback the chris polos that subtle dog logo the most comfortable hoodies on the planet we've teamed up with roback and aaron hills to give you a shot at a bucket list golf experience uh we're teaming up with roback and a hitos for a chance to win the ultimate golf experience. You and a friend will join two members of the NLU crew for an unforgettable round of championship golf at Aaron Hills. Again, your prize includes one round with two members of the no laying up crew at Aaron Hills, a one-night stay in Aaron Hills world-class cottages, a travel

credit to get you there and a thousand dollars in Roeback gear to look and feel your best on the course. You go to rowback.com slash NLU to enter. Again, that's rowback.com slash NLU to enter. It just takes 30 seconds. You might end up teeing it up with one of us. us at one of the top courses in the world while enjoying the best gear out there. Gosh, you can go nuts with $1,000. Substantial offer. Yeah, the czar's been dialing that one up the last month with with with with, with, with, with, with,

with Roeback and Aaron Hills. There's got no way you dial this up chain. There's no way it's so, because it's so simple. It's robeck.com slash NLU to enter and everything you dial up has is like a scavenger hunt or no, the details. I didn't handle the landing page. The details, though.

The details are what I care about. Is there going to be some sort of disclaimer. Uh, no, well, it will be next spring. timing we're going to have to work with whoever wins on timing but i'm sure dj'll be there it's kind of a home game for him do you guys get any uh get any pointers any tips or anything from uh from the guys you played with today you ask him for any uh any lessons or anything the day we spent with russell henley tc i i still go back to that video just for driver swing thoughts no russell

was like yeah i remember the stuff you told me you're not doing any of it uh but he's like this is a different kind of grass like my shipping was fine today uh talk to henley about um I don't know, the way he sees T shots, he likes to think in quadrants. So he'll be like, kind of try to split the fairway into, I'm trying to play it into this quadrant between these bunkers. It's always fun to hear some, like, especially veterans talk about their, their strategy. But the main thing I got from Russell was he likes to read putts over the ball. You know, he'll basically stand over the ball, try to feel the line, and then he'll line it up, you know, and, but he doesn't really read it from behind the ball. Because I was talking to him about, you know, I'll read it from behind, and then I'll stand up and,

buy some insurance, you know, over, over the ball. I'm like, ah, I feel more in my feet. He's like, well, you should just like start there and then go behind the ball. But he's like, my main read is over the ball, which I thought was also interesting because I don't hear that often. Again, Akshay was pretty locked in. I don't know if we got much, uh, just watching him off the tea. He was working it very substantially both ways. Yeah. Like he, I think on on 18, he hit a big, like he hit a cut on the previous hole. He had a, he had a big draw. it was on on on on uh this is oxhay or on rest that was okay yeah like it was like very artistic golf and then then you get a wedge in his hand and it's it's it's really i mean it's it's a joy to

watch him hit wedges especially off this type of turf where it's you know you're up you're up in the northeast you know mid-atlantic and you've got more of that that you know bent or ryegrass instead of instead of bermuda um it's just yeah just like watching him flight wedges and and he is he is all about the track man like it is i mean he is maniacal about it and uh and yeah he's just he's absolutely dialed for yeah he and his coach we're talking a lot of a lot of data post shots uh from the track man but as the seamsters like to say salli actually's got some loud tools you know just the way he uh that's a good exit velo yeah he it sounds a little different coming off his irons specifically like there's a there's a rifle crack to to his ball striking that's

impressive. I just find, I find him, uh, to be one of my favorite guys to watch hit the golf ball. So, um, he just gets to places in the swing, like angles and leverage points. You're like, I didn't, I didn't know. I wish I could disassociate the upper and lower body in that way. I, I, it's, it's what, whereas other guys like, you know, you watch Russell Henley hit the ball. It's like, oh, I feel like I could, I could do that, you know, maybe not on repeat for 15 years, but it, it feels like a, uh, an easier move to create than what Aksh is pulling off. Akshay is, again, reminder for people not even 24 years old now. He is 29th currently in the FedEx Cup.

He made the Tour Championship last year, finished 26th. And he's right on that line to get in the top 30 here for Eastlake. Somebody that's definitely going to be interesting to follow this week. But back to back at age 22 and age 23 seasons to play to make it to the Tour Championship. Not a lot of guys can say that. There are not very many that have done that before the age of 25. And a lot of respect to him, did it his own way, go to college, grinded.

I mean, he's really, uh, he was, and he was like the man in AJGA, too. Like it's, he's been, kind of drive chip and putt. Yeah. Right. I don't know.

He was. Yeah. Yeah. I think another thing I love about this event and, you know, this maybe he doesn't come through as loudly on the broadcast or social or whatever is just the Evan Scholar's, uh, component of it.

It is so evident and clear like that everything, everything around this, this event is just it coalesces directly towards that it is it is such a focused thing of like no like we we hold this event to raise money for this this charity and uh it's a you know obviously it's a charity near and dear to our hearts uh i got my got my big letter hat on here had had to do it to um had to uh but not like you know evans scholars out there we had a kid in our group uh or i should say young man in our group uh today on the back nine or or on our back nine who was uh he's a caddy at fryer's head um you know they just i don't know just

those just those just just good kids yeah yeah well if you're for those that's past evan scholars uh caddies on our bag yeah jeremy yeah jeremy brewer branding all you know guys that that you know it's done a lot for them in their lives and so they're here to kind of volunteer their time again it's it feels like a cool fraternity like a lifetime thing it's really it's really fun to uh talk shop with them about it yeah there was a uh there was a uh there was a young lady last night that spoke at the pro-am party that she was uh she's a i think a freshman or sophomore at university of maryland yeah um so and caves does a awesome job with it like caves i would say like a shout out caves iranamink we've been there in the past they've they've done a great job with

it and castle pines last year you just it's like coursing through the tournament yeah well there's a good time to plug that we have joined forces with the evans scholars foundation to to create a no laying up scholarship at Miami University that'd be given out every four years and funded in perpetuity. We are in the process of trying to reach our $500,000 goal. We're approaching the $100,000 number in that. A lot of people have asked us over the years, like how they can get involved to help make the golf world a better place.

You can help that with the no laying up endowed name scholarship. You can go to nolangup.com slash ESF. That's the big fat letters on TC's hat right there, nollingup.com slash ESF. If you're interested in donating directly, if you want to reach out about, about donating other ways, like donor advised funds or any of that, send a note to Casey at no laying up.com. She can help you out there. But it does permeate through the entire event.

And it's helped motivate us to want to want to support it in this way as well. I'll give you awesome stories. Specific number, we're at 92K right now, but I think by the end of next week, Solly, we'll be over the 120K mark, which is exciting. So that's a pretty good dent in the first, what, six months? So I'm fired up. We got, you know, our event season coming up where we're going to, you know,

keep sprinkling some money in the, in the piggy bank. Yeah. I think 11,000 alums of the other than scholars at this point. So it's a lot of, you know, a lot of lives changed. Yeah, that's, that's awesome. All right. Well, let's get to some news and notes from the week or some press, we'll call this press conference clippings section here.

I know you guys were out in the golf course. I don't think you've seen any of this stuff yet. Oh, please. Excited to see it. interesting things, you know, you guys let me get 25 minutes before we got bogged down on Rider Cup stuff. But first of all, Scottie got annoyed getting asked about the Rider Cup this week. He said it's like, I know everybody's excited, but this is ridiculous. I'm trying to prepare for the BMW Championship this week. But I wasn't there, but it felt directed

at me. But if you, I think we have it here. Roy McElroy was asked about being a playing captain at the Ryder Cup. As you try to figure out kind of new goals, I'm curious, is being a Ryder Cup playing captain something that you aspire to? Is that something? No, I've been asked to do that, and I've turned it down. You've already been asked to be the captain? No, I've been, I've, you know, the idea of me being a playing captain sometimes soon coming up has come up and I've shot it down straight away. Yeah, why? because I don't think you can do it.

It's not all about Jersey Mike's subs. Okay. I just want to give you to a shout out. I thought that the Ryder Cup pilot was doing on the Amtrak down from New York yesterday. It was fantastic. So if you're looking for more Ryder Cup content, I really, it was a great catch up for me to know where you guys stand on a lot of things. But, God, what a direct answer from Rory. That was sick.

I'm assuming that's a Dare Manor, like they're saying if you wanted to do it for a dare. yeah i cannot imagine a world where yeah like he said where he would ever want to do that he's busy enough off the course and and uh as it stands like there's no way i would want to take that on while still in the prime but also i mean that's maybe that's some psychological warfare as well i thought the other way i thought he would vote any way you slice it i love it i thought he would yeah it's interesting i thought he would there's been kind of a european like they're kind of trying to goat kegan into going for it uh and i was a little surprised to see him shut it down that hard. But maybe knowing Keegan, that would piss him. I've been doubted my whole life.

And nobody thinks I can do this. Exactly. I think we're at that point in the proceedings because he did, he was asked like just for this on the state of Keegan's game. What do you see from him as a player right now? And he said, I definitely think he's one of the 12 best American players right now. That's why everyone is so interested in such a compelling case. It's going to be I'm just interested as everyone else to see how it all plays out. God, it's great, man. I love, I just love the. That's so good for content. And I just, again, I want to compliment Rory on such a direct, just kind of villainous answer there. It's so sick. If it is head games, awesome. And, and you know what? Just like not missing a beat, being dead straight, honest is sweet too. I'm in.

Yeah. His pressure was good. It's only 15 minutes long if you want to catch the whole thing. There is a good one as well. Kegan was asked that Kigan had a longer press conference. And I'm not going to go through. I'll kind of analyze a little bit of it here. But we do have one kind of overarching clip, though, that I wanted to play here.

Talk, and you brought up these points yourself. But Rory was outlining a case why the guy can't play in Captain at the same time in terms of press conferences, speeches, time-consuming, and flexibility in terms of how many matches you could play, et cetera. How much of that have you considered? And is your list longer than that? I mean, he might be right. We don't know. No one knows.

Yeah, I mean, everybody's telling me to start the year that a player can't be captain and have a good year. And, you know, for me, I feel like this is one of my best years that I've ever had. You know, one of the strangest things, what I've done throughout my entire career is really lean on other people for advice and calling people and asking them, you know, how do you prepare for a major, or what do you do for in the last tea time, or how do you do with the media, How do you deal with corporate obligations? And in this instance, there's no one to call. So nobody knows how this could work.

I certainly have a lot of concerns as well as everybody else, but I have the most incredible vice captains, including Jim Furrick, who's been on like 100 of these teams and been captain a bunch of times. And quite frankly, I'd be leaning on them more than any other captain, maybe ever. anyways, even if I'm not playing. So we're ready for this if it happens. I'm not sure it's going to.

I can truly sit here right now and say, I don't know what's going to happen. I have to look at myself, just like any other player trying to make the team, and I'm 10th in points right now, and that's not sixth. Love it. God, I love it.

Wow. Yeah. Give us your knowledge. He has certainly changed his tune, from, you know, I will not do it unless I call, you know, it's, it's, it's, uh, heightened day. I mean, I've just kind of left, you know, remember that Rory reaction? Remember when somebody asked him about like, yeah, why didn't you shake Patrick

Reed's hand on the range? And he was just like, didn't even have a word, just like made a face it. And that's kind of what I feel to that of like, you don't know, like, it truly doesn't seem like he knows what he's going to do. It doesn't seem like there's a plan. And the whole press conference is all about like him as a player that, that's starting line there about like everyone said i couldn't have a good year if i was going to be a captain i was like i don't know if anybody was saying i don't think that's like the big i don't think it's a big

question here like nobody's doubting that you can it's just like hey are you going to let this story happen are you going to let all this happen and he had some other quotes in there about how like you know the writer couple always felt far off and now it doesn't feel far off almost as if it's rushing up on him and he doesn't feel that prepared for it yeah the whole thing is not none of his presser was about how he has prepared this team or to be a captain for this, it is all about him potentially playing. And I was kind of stunned by it all, honestly. Might not mean anything. Like, again, it might not mean anything. But I just am stud by all this. And I'm kind of just here for it at this point. I'm very curious how this is all going

to play out. Well, it's, it's, uh, because the other fact is, I do think personally, that he is one of the 12 best U.S. players right now. Correct. astronauts are drillers but it's like man is it worth it because like if you do that god you have to play good man how much pressure is that going to be on him it's the best this is awesome i can't i can't uh i can't wait meanwhile we've got you know the the the danish open going on uh across the pond and they've completely set up their their pairings you know their groups this week to you know just on the outside chance that they need a 12th man and they've got everybody everybody, you know, Francesco Molinari is playing with, I think one of the Hoygard, I think Nikolai

Hoygard and Christopher Rytan, who would be a great fit to play with Victor Hovland, you know, uh, they're just, it's, they're, they're playing eight dimensional chess, you know, yeah. And either, either, either, either, either, either, either, either, either, either Kegan's playing checkers or he's playing 45 dimensional chess. And I have a feeling I know the answer to that, but based on his language, I don't think he's playing five dimensional chess. It felt like, Oh, man, I'm, I, I'm not prepared for the test. What's that game that all the, all the, all the, uh, it's like Moncala, but it's like a little, uh, majo, no, no, Mahjong. He's playing Mahjong.

He's not even playing checkers or nothing. He's played backgammon is really, he, another quote, again, they talked about this a lot, but another quote he in there says, I've been saying all year, you can't expect to be on the team unless you're in the top six. But he keeps saying this as if like he does, he's not the person in charge of making the captain's picks as well. I don't know. I know we've covered it a lot. We're going to continue to cover it all the way down to the wire because this is a big

ass week. There are a few guys. We should have mentioned this on the Ryder Cup roundtable. There are a few guys on the U.S. side that can't play their way into the sixth spot. They would have to win and need some help. Facebook. If Harris English top tens, like it doesn't.

Andrew Novak could win, but if Harris English essentially top tens, he still wouldn't jump into the sixth spot as well. Like the Novak Mav, Brian Harmon Group can technically still play their way on. And Kagan can play his way on with a win, but would still need a little bit of help from the guys above him as well. So should have mentioned that a round table. It should be a second shot golf course this week, I think. Like it's, you know, there's a few holes, especially in the back that the driver's a big deal.

But otherwise, it's like proximate to the hole with irons, I think. Yeah. And which should should suit a guy like a Harris English or can't lay. I will say, because I wasn't on the Ryder Cup pod with you guys, but if you pressed me, I'd say, Keegan should not play, but I want them to is where I'm at. You know what? Like, there's enough depth in this 12, I guess 10 to 15 ranked player. It's such a kind of a bunched up group of like, man, you could, you know, I'd kind of be happy

with any of those guys that it's like, it's hard. But then again, like you guys said on that pod, personally, like he's probably never going to get another look i mean you know what i mean just like can we just promise him it's officially a dare manner if he doesn't do it this time let's just guarantee him a spot mortgage like that's what tc does with his fantasy baseball they did it with his fantasy baseball picks last year he mortgaged all of them like just and now you're harvest or what if they promised him a president's cup spot you know as a as a play in the last one he did play i know but yeah we'll give you one more of those just just what if they said hey you know and sally you're

going to jump through the screen at me after this but if you're not captain this year you can be captain in a dare manner, although I think Tiger wants to be captain's in a dare manner. Too late to change the captain's right. Yeah, you're the captain. You're supposed to be. But to your point, Sali, it doesn't feel like he's done a whole lot of strategic work on, you know, yeah.

Half the battle might just be getting hand out of these 12 guys to show up and play Napa. Which seems like it's going to happen. Scotty talked about that today. Yeah, he's going to hold him out. I asked Russell if he thought that Bryson would come and hang out. He's like, he started laugh. He's like, I hope he does. He's like, that would be sweet. He's like, he should.

That would be really good for the team if he did. I was like, good. Okay. I think you would. That would grow the GDP of golf, which is another goal of his, he said, on the Pat McAfee show this week. I'm going to get a lot of run out of that one. Let's get to picks for the week. We have, we're getting near the end of our one and duns. Who did you save TC? Who do you like as your pick to win this? I think you're one of the only ones, maybe the only one that has hit any of these all year long. No, I hit Rory at the Masters. Okay, you did. That's right. Yeah. I've got it saved. I hit...

He hit two and he hit Keegan at Trafflers. Yeah. And he hit Mingie Lee. And I hit Minji the same week. Oh my God. The Vision Fund. Let's go. I got Cantley.

You know, I've kind of had him saved. He's had kind of a quiet year. You know, a few other guys that I, you know, like I've already used Scotty. I've already used Ludwig. I think it's a great course for Ludwig. already used you know Rory Tommy obviously

like this should be a great great fit for Tommy but you know I think even I think next week's an even better fit for him see was explaining me in the car earlier he's like Tommy's gonna win tour championship oh and every I'm gonna catch so much shit from people a bunch of heat for it because it's a limited field

the 30 man field so it'll have an asterisk on it's your own words like you're not catching shit from yourself at this point no i'm just i'm just you know predicting what the what the haters are going to say so no yeah i've got can't lay obviously one here four years ago um you know it's hammer time baby he's a he's a second shot you know he's an iron player and uh i don't know i just i feel like this this place suits him i took uh i took cam young uh and it's almost me trying to ride the hot hand yeah a little bit

And I'd like to see him, uh, ride some momentum into Bethpage. I want him to be on the squad and, and, uh, yeah, give me Cam Young this week. Randy's got Cam Young as well. Does he? Yeah. Randy's a believer as well. That is his pick for the one. He's plus 3,000.

Of course, odds subject to change, courtesy of fan duel. But, uh, I'm just, I can't tell if I'm like reverse jingsing at this point or if I truly believe this because I'm just blanket all my plays this week. Give me Keegan. Like just, I think it, it would be. hilarious if he won. You're kind of Constanza and yourself. I think so.

I think so. Again, it's never been about doubting Kagan as a player. It's doubting this situation. But I feel like we're just trending towards that he's just going to go out and win this thing plus $4,000 and just solve it right then and there and be forced to pick himself. He's the defending champ. He is the defending champ. I know, I'll be at a different golf course. But I think I think the Kagan stuff like when it when it's obvious, it's obvious.

like i think i picked him in our in our in our draft at the beginning of the year of for for travelers and it hit look at that yeah you know dj is also on this uh because he is equally as uh as entertained by this thought of it potentially happening uh that is his one and done pick uh as well but and if he does it what i still hope he picks himself because it just it just the the take again you know like let's go man just give me all the all all all all all all the hot takes now until the end of September.

Sully, you know, I had sat on this one for our, you know, kind of mashup parlay. I took Kagan for that top 20 in times. I assume you would have. You took Harry Hall. I took Harry Hall top 20 because I'm also kind of

playing, I want to see this play out for the Europeans as well. I want to at least try to, even if it's just us faking the narrative, I want us to go down the path of like you guys are screwing over Harry Hall in favor of the boys club. Neil, will you get on board with that with me? Like, I think that could be really fun. We got to, this is what Europe does, like they do like a boys club.

I don't think he does sound like a boys club. He's outplayed all of these guys and he's not going to get picked. Jamie said it out loud. What's that? By what metrics? Like, by all of them. He's the 18th ranked data golf player in the world. Like, he's straight up stunting on these fools weekend and week out and he's not going to make this team.

And I, so I think he tops 20s and we're going to ride this storyline all the way to the finish. We're going to do all we can. And then Neil's got Ben Griffin top 20s. Yeah, so we got that parallel. Which feels like, you know, kind of an ETF play at this point. Yeah, like that's, sign me up for that one. Solly's also got Keegan first round leader plus 300. He's got Keegan top 10 plus 280.

Just, you know, all sorts of fun stuff there. Also, not sure if I've hit a pick this year. So I don't know if, maybe everybody should be shorting Keegan. I've got some Euro plays. I'm all over the place. I got Rasmus, near guard Peterson for top five. over in his national open. He's plus 280.

I got Blandi for top 10 in ties at live Indianapolis. Sure. I know nothing about the course. I got Eugenio, Chikara, low Spanner at the Danish Open. I got Matt Wallace, top UK and Ireland at the Danish Open.

And I got Christopher Ritand and Ludwig, each to top five plus ties. So that's a, that's a, you know, intercontinental. I got, I picked a couple fun ones for both. you. Solly,

I'm doing it. I'm going Sungjay M. Top rest of the world region play for plus 600. I'm always wrong on Sung Jay. I'm going back to the well, baby.

You know, he played here, he played well four years ago here. Of course, he'll probably, you know, not be in the top 30 because I picked them

and then next week he'll play great at the Tour championship. T.C., I've got Tommy Fleetwood as top bloke, another region play. Now that's top. That means like top UK, UK, plus 150, just UK.

Yeah, I don't think it includes Ireland. I might have to confirm that. Top English, yes. And then to any two, I've got Rory, Zander, or Tommy, any two of those guys in the top five for plus 300. I feel like that, you know, Zander's been a little quiet, but it might be time for him to, he's too good not to just show up, you know, go go be like, guys, don't forget. good about me. It's a tough season.

Speaking of another guy that I think people have forgotten about a little bit, he's had a really quiet year after he won the first event in the year out in Hawaii is Hidaki. And I think Hadeki, like this should be a good course for him. Like he's won't, you know, this course kind of reminds me of

it's not as technical and demanding as like a Mirfield village. But I think from a, from an iron play perspective, kind of reminds me of that. And I could see Hideki, like he played really well at FedEx, St. Judy. He shut 65, final round. Like, he's just had a string of top 20s here of late and, like, playing a solid if unspectacular

golf. I could see him getting a hot putter and kind of riding it this week. I want to give a shout to our friends at Oars and Alps. Man needs more sun. That's right. This is your formal invitation to spend less time behind your screens, more time outside with friends in the sun. It's good for your physical and mental health. It makes us happier. You can do it on a golf course. You can do it anywhere. I lathered up this morning. and went and hit some balls. It was miserable. It was too hot, but it felt good to get a little bit of sun on me. At Ors and Alps, they make sunscreen for men more specifically. You can count on them for hardworking formulas. They're good for your skin. None of the tropical sense. You're not going to

smell like a pinia calotta. It's lightweight, non-greasy, non-sticky. It doesn't give you that white cast or chalky residue. It's easy to use, travel friendly for reapplying on the go. They got great hands-free formats. The sprays are, it's so important to have a good spray radius. It's literally unsafe to have a sunscreen that does not have a good spray radius. And some of the cheap ones do do not. Keeps your hands clean so you don't have to worry about any glandular issues. Go outside. Get some sunshine. It's free. And with oars and alps, you can stay out as long as you want. Use code NLU 15 to get 15% off oars and alps, suncare and skin care today. My skin, despite living in Florida, is probably the best it's been. I have not gotten a sunburn, not one single time this summer

because I'd lather up every single time I go outside. Use it today. I use the, you know, I got this I got this, you know, I get these mesh-backed hats. Okay. So I'm starting to get this little, this little spot in the back of my head where the sun comes through. Don't get a stucing tan going. I'm starting to get one. My wife's making fun of me a lot. But you were using the spray today?

Yeah. Saw you actually reapplied after. Yeah, I've done as well. As I get older, I'm definitely not the kid anymore because I'm a lot more thoughtful about my sunscreen application. Truly no reason to mess with it ever. Like truly. Check in on the U.S.am. It is going on right now at Olympic Club.

It's going to be live tonight, 6 to 7 on Peacock and 7 to 9 on golf channel. It's going to be great evening viewing. The times are a little different every single night this week. But after you're done watching BMW, it is going to be great evening viewing throughout the weekend into the evenings. A couple highlights. Oklahoma State Jr. Preston Stout was the medalist. I think he's probably on, he's getting ready to tee off right now. I don't have the live score updates here as we go.

He's off at about half an hour. He was really impressive in stroke play. It's a couple other noteworthy names. Luke Poulter is on to stroke play. Jackson Coyven. He's the 15th seed. John Daly, the second, the 26th seed. Miles Russell is the third seed.

And you just go and look at it again at the stroke play of this and realizing how many guys are playing in the USAM and only 64 making it to match play is some really impressive golf. Anything else stick out to UTC on some guys that are up there or any other guys that did not make it. I think Luke Polter against Nile Shields-Donigan. They're tied through eight right now. Nile's a friend of the program.

Christian Moss from South Africa. He made it through. He's down at the moment. Got John Daly the second. You mentioned him earlier. Tommy Morrison is in there, the tall bloke from Dallas, plays at the University of Texas. Billy Davis, Anna Davis's brother. He's four up right now through 12.

Read Grazerman, Max Grazerman's brother. God, the guy's been just running amok in the Metropolitan Golf Association this year, winning everything. The Grazerman family is just doing big things right now. What else? We got Luke Colton, friend of the program as well, one up through 12. And, you know, trying to get those Walker Cup spots, too. I think that, you know, you got a few of those still hanging out there. Then Cohen Troilio, he's played well in the US AM in the past.

made it through a couple times. I think the match play, he's currently three up over Frankie Harris. So, yeah, it's going to be good, like really good prime time viewing here, you know,

that might be what I'm going to be doing after this. Exactly. Take a load off. I'm excited to watch. A couple other news and notes before we get to our Justin Rose interview. Big ratings for the FedEx St. Jude. I think it was 3.6 million up from like 2.1 million a year ago. 2024 was down a fair amount from they were in the kind of low three.

before that but big turnout for a really exciting end of that tournament and into playoff as well so yeah i was i was off uh just because i wasn't on a pot i was at my in-law's place and i flipped it on when those guys were like 14 15 and father-in-law mother-in-law not into golf they sat down like it kind of got locked in i don't know it was a bit of a magnetic finish there with like because it was it was they kind of understood the tommy situation and and i think i think it was kind of a universal like oh no he's not going to do that again is he so i i forgot to tell this on the pod sunday but i um my wife on sunday morning was asking like what what what's the situation with to and i was i looked at it i was like he's up by two and she's like oh over who i was like

scotty and she goes poor to like before it even happened uh it was so it was it was really tough but it wasn't but it wasn't scotty it was team rose i know colonel tannington here he comes we're going to get to over will you team roe team roe is the guy she tells you not to worry about. We're going to get that. NBC has signed an extension as expected with the USGA to keep U.S. open and other U.S.GA events as well. I'm sure it's Versaunt as well. No, but it's combo play.

USA with Versa. I believe that's my Versant characters. My equity investors at Versaunt and also bought the block party. They're going to roll that in. And also, no, Scotty is without Caddy Ted Scott again this week. We're hoping everything's all right with Ted, but he will not be on the bag. At least I believe for the beginning of this week,

and I don't know if throughout the week as well, but that is something of note. But we're going to play you out here with our conversation with Justin Rose. It was fantastic. We appreciated his time in a very, very busy week. And everyone else enjoyed the BMW championship this week. We'll be live on Sunday to recap it all, of course, and you guys enjoy your week out in Baltimore.

Well, I don't want to start with this. When you're in contention in a big tournament, like, of course, you were this past week in Memphis. What do you feel? I can tell you what it looks like to me, as a viewer, what you feel like when you're in that situation. But in your words, what is it like for you in those situations? It's a great question because you don't want to say you don't feel,

I feel alive is probably the best way to say it. Of course, I have nerves. I have energy. I'm controlling my emotions. I'm aware of the energy and the excitement. and you know, maybe even like the hands are going and those sorts of things. But I feel like that's what, I feel ready for it. I feel like this is what it's all about.

I feel like this is where I want to be. And I think that's where my maybe my experience and the things I've achieved in the past have allowed me to get to the point of not having to kind of think deeper than actually just competing in the moment. And I would say that the biggest thing I've learned is that I would say almost in the last three years, I haven't been in contention a ton, you know, and the times I have been in contention has been in major championships on the back nine. And I've actually surprised myself of how good I felt and how calm I felt, especially Augusta. I felt like I was truly in a different place on the back nine on Sunday. And to kind of have, to be able to tap into that when you need it

most without having had that be a routine for me has been, that's been like the reassuring part of knowing as I'm getting older in my career or getting further down the lane in my career, that part of my game is still there, which is awesome. So it's just about, hey, like working on all the other elements that allow, you know, that kind of create the chances to win. But making parts, listen, making parts on the 18th green, obviously I had one in regulation that just slipped by and the first one slipped by, but really making parts down the stretch, I should say, is an incredible feeling and one that I hope I get a chance to do more and more and more. That's what it feels like what I'm watching. It looks like somebody that wants

the ball is on offense, is not afraid of messing up, and just, you look like you want to birdie every hole, man. It looks like every putt's going to go in the middle of the hole. And, you know, I listen, Rider Cup time, I'm not necessarily rooting for that. I'm an American. And it's the worst feeling to be on the other side of that. When Justin Rose gets the hot putter going, it is the worst thing in the world to be on the other side of that. Yeah, but I've had my fair share in my career. I'd say, you know, I was probably a pretty elite ball strike, I would say for, let's say, let's call it, 2010 through 2018 or 2017, and really the putting was the one area that was kind of stopping me relentlessly winning, you know, and I think it's

kind of interesting. If I look back at it now, you know, if I've had a little bit more of the mentality I have with the putter nowadays a decade ago, it could have been spectacularly fun, but, you know, sometimes that's the way golf is. You can't have all things at once, and maybe as you get older, you need to find different weapons and different ways of getting the job done when, you know, maybe the physical side's not quite as easy. But there's nothing like making parts down the stretch. But, yeah, I mean, you allude to the Ryder Cup. And I think for me, yeah, Rome was also a big kind of confidence

builder in terms of making parts when it counted and making one in front of the whole team there on the, you know, on the Friday was, yeah, it's a special feeling that you kind of live and die with the potter, don't you? It's like it's the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle. So of late, That's been fun for me. You were, and again, I felt that on the back nine at Augusta, especially. It just felt like you were, you were there to thrive in that moment. You were so incredibly close to golf immortality in that moment in April, the green jacket. You lost in a playoff before.

Another incredibly close call, 10 birdies on Sunday. Yet in that moment, I didn't feel like I saw any despair from you. You handled that so unbelievably well. It, like, jumped off the screen to me in that moment. How were you able to do that in that moment, knowing how close you were? to it. And was there any despair at any point after Augusta this year? Yeah, it's, you know, it felt like deja vu. I'm not going to lie, when I was on the side of the green watching Rory about to tap in, it kind of felt like, you know, watching Sergio back in 2017. It's like,

oh, my God, I've been here before. This is, it's sort of, it punctuated how, how, it almost, you know, not so much this time round, but it punctuated the previous one more so for me. But, you know, I was aware of obviously what it meant to Rory, what a big achievement it was in the game of golf for everybody, you know, to watch a guy complete a grand slam. I think just as a fan of golf, you know, I just, I guess I was just aware of the gravity of the moment, I suppose. That's all I can say. I mean, you know, you're happy for him, but, you know, obviously it's sort of, you always, you know, you have your own emotions to handle as well in the moment. But yeah, listen, I don't know why I was able to handle it. the way I did, but it just felt the natural way to handle it. So yeah, I didn't feel like I did anything crazy. I just shook the guy's hand and gave him a hug. Do you know what I mean? So, but yeah, obviously in the aftermath, maybe, like I said, maybe it kind of dragged up a bit of the 2017 disappointment and Sony didn't play very well for the next couple months. But you think you're okay, but maybe there's a little bit more processing that's required than just, you know,

shrugging it off completely. This is maybe a little deeper question than you're, you know, used to in a quick 15 minute day i know you're running around doing a lot of press involved here but every time you come up on the leaderboard every time you have a great result we end up you know as media and as podcasters saying the same thing is credit to justin rose because a lot of people especially the europeans in his kind of age bracket you know they they saw the live opportunity they took it they went for that uh and it seemed like and you obviously did not go for that i feel like it you know there's a world where that potentially could have made sense for you And your words, why didn't you?

And why are you kind of on the path that you're on? Yeah, I mean, it is a big question. Obviously, yeah, I had the opportunity. And a lot of my friends have gone over there. And I, you know, I harbor no ill feeling for guys who have made that decision at certain times of their career. But I just felt like I had more to give. I felt like I had more to give myself. I felt like I needed to believe in the 12-year-old me that wanted to win major championships and chase my dreams.

and, you know, Liv didn't offer me that at all. You know, didn't offer the opportunity to continue to play in majors. And, you know, at the time, I'm still not really guaranteed to be in majors forevermore. You know, it's definitely, you've got to earn your way in this game. And that's what I kind of like about it is that there's nothing given out here. You've got to earn everything. And I just felt like I needed that challenge. I needed that environment to keep pushing me.

And I didn't really have any business believing I could win a major again. But I truly do believe I can have that. sort of Indian summer to my career and um for me that's way more valuable than let's just say trying to put a financial reward to it it's sort of uh it's like I said it's just the goal my golfing dreams it's my it's the 12 year old me I think just trying it's almost like having a rhetorical question you know a conversation with the 12 year old me and justifying why I would have made that move I would have thought he would have probably not been too happy with it so uh but yeah I think listen I think with where I'm trending I'm pretty happy with where I'm at and I think that

the dream is still alive that's where I think, again, from an outsider's perspective, we see how well you guys have done in earnings over the course of a career. And I've always said out loud, I mean, I just wonder at what point is it about more than making money? And you just kind of described it right there. And I think that's kind of what a lot of sports fans want to hear from the athletes that they end up watching and cheering for. But it seemed like you got the moment or a massive moment, which is making that putt on Friday at Rome, you know, alongside Robert McIntyre with the whole team watching there,

the pointing, did it feel especially rewarding in that moment to have bet on yourself to say, here, I still want to pursue that. And it just felt like everything had kind of culminated into that moment right there. Yeah, absolutely. And I feel like if, you know, if the decisions I'd made prior to that Ryder Cup, if that was the moment to justify it, that was still worth it for me, 100%. You know, even if, like, didn't achieve anything else in the game of golf, that's still, like, for me, a top five moment when I'm, when I've hung up my clubs and I'm

looking back at my career and I think the moments that have made me feel the most elated and the best and, you know, having accomplished the most and challenged myself the most, that one is going to be, you know, probably up there in the top five. So that's his, at the end of the day, when we look back at all we've got is our memories, you know what I mean. So I feel like that's what we're chasing. There was, you know, we saw a little bit of dip in your play from the, between the masters in your kind of recent form. I know there's been some, some kind of injury stuff. Can you got to give us kind of an outlay of the timeline and what you owe your recent kind of return to form to? Is it strictly health-based? Are you doing anything specifically

that's different? This is not Rider Cup research question. I'm wondering what we're going to what we're going to be up against here in a month and a half or so. No, I mean, I wish I could blame it on some type of injury. I've actually been feeling great. There actually has been no injury whatsoever. It's just been maybe like I said, potential more of a lag effect postmasters, maybe more mental fatigue from that than I maybe gave myself credit for or didn't maybe work through well enough. I definitely started driving the ball poorly, I'd say, right through that stretch. And obviously playing some of the toughest golf that we play all year with Memorial, U.S. Open tournaments like that. You just can't get away with any type of bad golf. I just felt like those types of tournaments

came at a tough time for me. And then, but I felt like I had a nice three-week reset, you know, went back home to the UK prior to Scottish Open and the Open and sort of just had time to reset, maybe, you know, do some, you know, physical training, get, get the body feeling good again, you know, just from a, not from an injury point of view, but from an improvement point of view. Sometimes you're just maintaining your treading water on tour. So it's sometimes nice to have that chunk of time where you can make gains. And I felt like I had a really good reset, came out, played some really good golf. And it's been really nice to carry it over. Because obviously links golf as well. You can kind of, you can kind of think sometimes it's a very

different style of golf and maybe the way you're playing can work well with links, but still not sort of carry through to other types of tournaments. But it was really nice for me. I feel like to having felt like my game it turned a corner to feel like it's turned a corner on all types of surfaces and venues. So yeah. But yeah, no excuses really for a poor middle of the year. Final two questions here. Europe has not won on U.S. soil, not one much on U.S. soil in the last two decades. Everybody remembers Medina. You don't have to remind us of that. But do you feel like Europe has to approach an American Rider Cup differently than a European one? Obviously, we're going to be a Bethpage here in a couple weeks. Do you feel like the team needs to approach this one differently

than maybe you did in Rome? 100%. Yeah, I feel like, you know, obviously the U.S. team having won on the European soil either for a long, long time. I think home course advantage has been a really massive thing. And I think it's part set up, you know, we can sort of begin to really tailor the course to the way we think the profile of our players, you know, what suits our players the best. But at that, you know, we're talking very marginal gains there with that. I don't think that drives the result massively. Clearly, crowd and energy is probably the biggest, the biggest factor here.

And obviously, I think that New York's going to be that 5x, potentially. You know, we don't quite know what to expect walking into New York. I think it's a writer cup that's been hyped for a decade as soon as we knew that there was going to be a writer cup played in New York. We're always like, whoa, that's going to be huge. That's going to be a big one. So from that point of view, we need to come in. I just think being fully aware of what to expect and fully aware of how challenging it might be and fully committed to what we're going to have to face and what we're going to have to do and how solid, you know, the solidarity is going to be required to get through that experience. But listen, at the end of the day, there's no, there's no secret to how we are going to win or how what we've got to do to win.

It's just going to be about mental discipline and execution. And that's going to be incredibly hard. But that's the challenge ahead of the team. All right. Last one. This is too easy because you can get out of here by avoiding this one quickly, which is give us something. Give us something about the upcoming writer. Give me some kind of hint as to who you might be playing with.

Something that's going on behind the scenes. You can be as vague as you want to. But just give us some kind of little nugget here to have some things. fun with? I don't know. I mean, obviously, I think, I think Luke and his team have wanted me on the team just because I offer that sort of experience for a potential rookie. The way the team's looking, though, it could quite possibly be the same 12 guys that were in Rome. I think that the way the team is shaping up, which might sort of free me up to have, you know, a completely different role, I would say, in New York. So that's the only, that's about as far forward as I've got for

you know what i mean i think um that's fair yeah but listen i think you know the what i do like about the team is most of us that have going to have been there before um and if there's only one or two new guys you know that's quite an easy adjustment to sort of get them under the wing and and try to get them as comfortable as possible rather than dealing with four or five you know new faces to the team so i think that's definitely one of the strengths that europe might have at the moment or one of the you know bits of reassurance that we haven't like i said that for me personally and he might give me all sorts of different options within the team. That makes a lot of sense.

Well, we really appreciate your time. No, it's always a busy week after a win and with the playoff push, but appreciate your time. Justin, congratulations on the win last week. And I look forward to watching. Fandul, the official sports book of No Laying Up must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. Gambling problems call 1-800 gambler or visit RGhelp.com.

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