No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 1166: 12 US Women’s Open Storylines

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

It’s US Women’s Open week as Riviera plays host to the event for the first time in the 81 year history of the championship. Soly visits with Shannon Rouillard - Sr Director of Championships for the USGA - to talk through the course setup and how it’ll differ from what we typically see when Riv hosts its annual PGA Tour event. Then, Soly is joined by TC, Randy and Cody for the twelve storylines we’re most interested in following this week. Support our Sponsors: Titleist Rhoback Ally If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Nest⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: No Laying Up’s community of avid golfers. Nest members help us maintain our light commercial interruptions (3 minutes of ads per 90 minutes of content) and receive access to exclusive content, discounts in the pro shop, and an annual member gift. It’s a $90 annual membership, and you can sign up or learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠nolayingup.com/join⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the No Laying Up Newsletter here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://newsletter.nolayingup.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the No Laying Up Podcast channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@NoLayingUpPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club today. That's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast. Solly here. Apologies for the AirPods for this intro.

We are ending our trip here in Scotland, headed out west to L.A. to Riviera for the United States Women's Open. That is what today's episode is all about. We're going to preview this. We recorded this a couple weeks ago before we left for Scotland. We're going to be heading out there. Got a lot of fun stuff on tap. We'll have a live show on Friday night.

We're going to be hanging out with our friends from Ally on Thursday night. If you're going to be around, come on out, hang out. Today's episode is going to be presented to you by our friends at Tidelist and the new Tidalist GTS drivers. Every week, the list of players switching to GTS drivers gets longer. Last week's Charles Schwab Challenge on the PJ Doer, 43 of the 15th. titleless drivers in play were the new GTS2, GTS3 or GTS4 models. GTS was also the choice of the NCAA Division I women's champion. Players continue to put their trust in titleless driver performance and technology at the

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I can trust it in any wind, any ball slide. I can bomb it high. I can hit it low. I can draw. I'm absolutely blown away by this driver. They're going to have to pry it for my dead cold hands. It is the best driver I've ever hit and I'm driving it better than I ever have in my entire life. And that is as honest as I can possibly be about it. So go to Titles.com, find a fitting near you. Let's get to the podcast. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast. Solly here.

It is finally, when they said that the U.S. Women's Open was going to Riviera in 2026. I remember that feeling like it was not a real year that we would ever reach. But we have reached it. And we are here to preview this week. Big Randy is here. Hello, Mr. Big. Hello, everybody. Very excited. I'm like you, Sali. I remember being so stoked and thinking, oh, my God, it's so far in the future. And here, here we are.

T.C. is here. Hello, T.C. Buenos Dias. Stoked to get out to L.A. It's going to be awesome. Cody is here. Hello, Cody. Hello. Excited, boys. You know, nothing gets he going quite like the U.S. Women's Open. Well, Randy, you've always had this affinity for RIV. You know, we always obviously talk about RIV every year when it rolls around for the Genesis. You know, every once in a blue moon, you're going to get the year like we got this past year in the winter and we all say that the Genesis should move to a different time of year, blah, blah, blah, blah. What is about RIV

that really captivates you and has you stoked for this week? I just, listen, some of it is silly and I think some of it is serious. I think RIV is just a really cool piece of land, kind of, well, in the Pacific Palisades, but near L.A., Southern California, this very tony country club. But the golf course, man, God, it just every time growing up, you know, it'd roll around in February, the weather where I was is so shitty. And it just looked marvelous all the time on television. And I think it yielded some of the more interesting golf we would see on, I'm speaking now of the PJ tour of the West Coast Swing, always seem to produce really good leaderboards, some iconic holes. Like it's rare for me to be able to remember a lot of

holes from just like annual tour stops, right? Because the courses aren't really the star of the show. And I always thought RIV kind of was the star of the show. And the big cypress trees, the kakuya grass, the Barrancas, like it just felt very foreign to me growing up in the Midwest. And so there's this like mythology in my mind. It's just like, man, it's California cool. And the women have never gotten there. They've never played a U.S. Open. And so I'm really excited as we've seen distances explode on the men's side. I think one of the really cool things about this women's open is, you know, hey, what would rollback or what would RIV look like if we could go back in time like 40, 45 years? And you look at like the driving distances on the PGA tour.

It's kind of what Nelly Court is hitting it right now. I know like maybe the spin rates might not be the same, that there are some differences. But like by and large, I think we get to step back in time and see how this golf course is played in an era that we just don't get to see anymore. And so we know it's going to be a tough test. It's a USGA setup. Like I just think I'm really excited for it. I just think RIV is a great venue and it's going to produce a great test. I hope so at least.

We have an interview. We're going to get to here shortly with Shannon Ruiard, who is the director of championships for the USDA on the women's side. And we're going to detail a lot of this as well. But, T.C., what about June excites you as the agronomist, the resident agronomist here on staff? what's going to be different specific to the June element of this tournament? Yeah, hopefully no June gloom. Hopefully it's

sunny and stuff. I remember watching the 20, was that, 2018 when the USAM there? Doug Gim and Dr. Redmond plan. It was 17. 17. Okay. Yeah, 17. But granted, that was what, late July, early August for the M, but yeah, just the different,

much less moisture, right? Much less like it was just faster and just balls on the ground it was faster so I'm stoked for that I'm stoked I don't know like like Randy said anytime we get to see Riviera really fun to watch two very different styles of play as well like watching the ladies attack this place and I think it's going to be a fascinating set up discussion as you said got the got the interview with Shannon but from the like it's not really a place that you can really run the ball up because of the to eat grass and so like I'll be fascinated to see how they set set stuff up like four I mean I think even like one do they tee off from the regular like one is but by all accounts par four for the men they tee off from the regular tea box for the women and just you know send them out there and then they and then they they basically shorten the two par fives in the back I'm shocked or I'm fascinated to see what like where they play 10 from where they play a whole like like four from that's you know just a brutish par four and like there's just such a wider range

of outcomes or sorry part three like there's such a wider range of outcomes for what these ladies are going to be hitting in to you know i would imagine they probably have it up around 190 195 and i'm just i'm really really excited to see how the ladies attack this place versus what the men do we got into some of that with with shannon as well but cody what do we miss you're always sitting on like a gold mine of information you don't you know you kind of you kind of you sneak up on us and just drop massive bombs on us with a lot of this stuff. Hopefully not massive bombs, but venues matter, boys. And this is a prime example.

I think they announced that we were going to Riviera in 2022. We were at Pine Needles at the time, a classic U.S. Women's Open venue. But there's always been this thing of why not all these others. And shout out to the USGA at the time. They brought in pro medica. Rest and peace to pro medica. But what they did is they elevated the purse and they jumped from $5.5 to $10 million.

And it was a huge jump. And to put women's professional athletics on the platform that's very similar to the men at the time. It's obviously inflated. And now, you know, we're still back to like the 50% mark for major championships. But it was a huge move. And now you have ally that's come in behind Prometica and has continued to invest in not only the venues, the purses, but overall the product. And I think we're going to get to all of that, too. I'm really excited about this because you're right. There's a ton of history at Riviera.

This is the first time that we're going to be able to see it in June. And I'm really, really excited because a huge shout out. Again, the USGA in two years time, we're going to see this end of July and August for the Olympics, both men's and women's. And I can't wait to see. Is this a little taste of what we're going to see then because I think we've always thought about primetime LA is really like the August September window and not where we usually see it on the men's tour. So that's what I'm really fired up about, Sally. Well, let's get to our interview here with Shannon Ruiyard. We had a great discussion on what we can expect here in the coming week and we'll react a little bit in the back half and give you our storylines for the week.

So we see Riviera every winter on the PGA tour in the wintertime. What's it going to look like in June and how it look different for the United States Women's Open? Well, you know, we're going to be on the back end of spring and as we approach summertime and we're anticipating the golf course is going to play a fair bit differently. Hopefully Mother Nature is going to cooperate and provide us a bit more of fast and firm conditions for the upcoming championship. So we're recording this part a couple of weeks out from the championship. What's your weather app look like right now?

Are you just refreshing every day as to what Southern California weather looks like. Yeah, I mean, I call me a total golf nerd on my on my phone. I have all my all my sites in my weather app so I can go on any given day and look to see what the weather's like in Pacific Palisades and and all of my future sites. So I'm a bit of a golf administrator weather nerd in that regard. But you know, we're we're certainly expecting. a typical win, west, southwest, that will, you know, have an impact on our setup plan and the way the best female players play throughout the week. What, for those that aren't familiar with your background, kind of, how long have you been in charge

of the setup for U.S. Women's Open? And you have a playing history with this championship as well and U.S.GA championships as well. But for the listeners' sake, can you give us a little bit of background on that? Yeah. So I started playing golf when I was 15, played college golf at the first. the University of Oregon. I walked on and earned a full ride my junior year, had a short bent playing professional golf, then went on to become a college golf coach at the University of Oregon. As then I took a turn and came to the USDA, started in the roles department

and moved over into championships in 2012. I've played in eight or nine USGA championships, including a women's Open back in 99. I was fortunate to play a practice round with Julie Inkster, Doddy Pepper, and Nancy Lopez. That was at Old Waverly. Some may recall Julie Inkster won that women's open with a record score, and it was certainly a highlight of my career.

I'll say that. How long have you been working with the USGA and involved with championships and kind of in this role? So I've been in this role. overseeing the Women's Open set up since 2017. So how many years was that? I stopped counting. Is this 10 now, I guess that would be?

It doesn't seem like that. It seems like it was three years ago, but I think time kind of started bending around the 2020 time period. Exactly with COVID in there. Yeah. How would you describe or define, I guess, the test the USGA is trying to administer for the U.S. Women's Open?

Well, let's face it. We are known for wanting to produce the toughest test that players see all year, but also a fair test of golf. We want to test their shopmaking, their mental and physical resolve, as well as their course management. We want to get all their clubs dirty, but yet set up the golf course as the architect intended it to be played, and we have this wonderful opportunity to do so with this George Thomas design, here as well.

How do you set up a golf course to be a hard and solid yet, yet fair test? And I guess as that fair word, have you struggled with that at time? Do you ever think that there's a little bit of a discrepancy maybe with what players think of the word fair and what, you know, I keep calling you test administrators like it's an SAT, but you guys are you guys are the test makers here. We are. I, you know, I think it, yeah, I believe it comes with some experience.

and obviously early on in my career and still to this day, leaning on fellow colleagues that do the same thing that I do, you know, being in and around those individuals, being a part of those conversations, experiencing it, being on putting greens to know what is fair and what that particular demographic is capable of is really important in putting that test together. traditionally you know we've seen rough get grown up for u.s. opens and at time for women's

opens as well yet i would say the best version we've seen of riviera specifically is when the rough is down a little bit but the greens are firm and they're still difficult to hold from the rough how will you balance that and what can we expect with the with the rough and fairway widths uh for you know as we're typically used to seeing them will they be normal normal fairway widths and what are you expecting out of the rough they will we really haven't done much with fairway wits that are different from what the membership plays day in and day out. You know, I will say we did request for the quote, right fairway on hole eight to be widened. Just because I felt like that was the right thing to do, that fairway was about 22 yards wide and

didn't feel like a viable width where the players would have a decision to make off the tea. Again, we want to showcase the architecture of that hole and force the way. player to make a decision as to whether or not they're going to play left or right on that hole. So again, we really didn't do anything different in general with the Fairway Wits from what the membership plays, you know, day in and day out. Can you give me some examples of what you would consider? You know, I like to say this. I like to say the word architecture and strategy can kind of be used hand in hand.

I think some people, you know, cringe or. shutter at the word architecture, but I say that that is, that's a driver of strategy, which is what I think makes golf really interesting. Where do you see the most strategic elements of this golf course coming through? And I'm curious if that means any evolution of T length. And we're going to get to a certain hole, which I know you're going to get, field a lot of questions about there of how will you introduce different strategic elements throughout the four days of the championship?

Well, I think there's, there's certainly within George Thomas's design. more subtleties when it comes to architecture where and what I mean by that is he is asking the player to play a certain type of shot whether that's a cut shot or a draw based on the architecture itself on a particular hole right but then he also introduces opportunities and I'm going to call them options for players to play a whole a variety of different ways right we can talk about the fourth hole where there's an opportunity to play out to the right and allow the ground to take the ball onto the putting green player can also decide to take on the flag as well right he has she has that option and so the notion of that's that the options and the architecture

that he present is sprinkled throughout, you know, every single hole. There are strategic what we call kickplates that are going to help the player, you know, a little bit the right of hole two on the back end of the bunker on 17 on the second shot. There's places everywhere. But ultimately, player has to decide what's going to fit their game based on their strengths and go from there. I hope this question makes sense in my head.

It's going to make sense here, I think. But you obviously have a massive, extensive background of golf knowledge. But from day one of when you started thinking about or working on the Riviera setup to today, what have you learned about Riviera specifically? I'd imagine there's something that has evolved in some way in the process of getting ready for this championship. But I'm just curious, it could be history related or anything about the way certain shots play or the property moves.

What have you learned about Riviera for the last couple of years? Right. Well, to do this championship justice, it starts years in advance, right? And so I have taken the time to read through Jeff Shackleford's definitive history book that he wrote on Riviera, which was excellent and has served an incredible basis for my knowledge about Riviera and George Thomas, what he intended. and obviously the history of the property, et cetera. But also I attended the Genesis event twice over the last several years. And our friends of the PGA tour have been very gracious to have me out. I've been out with them on set up in two different occasions during some practice rounds,

just to again continue to get to know the course, understand what they're trying to achieve. And then also looking back at our own championship. We hosted the 2017 U.S. Amateur at Riviera. And so I have leaned down my colleague, Ben Kimball, who ran that U.S. amateur, and he was gracious enough to share his course information that have all culminated into this set-up plan, certainly where we are today. Which leads me to my question about the 10th hole. We've seen, you know, over the last several decades on the PGA tour, a hole that once was, you know,

a lot of thought went into of how do you want to play it? Do you lay back? And a lot of the Patriotor pros send it at the green now in modern days. What kind of yardage should we expect to play for this championship? Will you be attempting to introduce a little bit of that balance of laying up or going for it? And can we expect a variety of tea boxes to be used on that hole? Yeah. Our primary yardage is at what I'm going to call the Genesis T at 307 yards. but you can likely expect us to use a couple of different keys on that hole to give the players the possibility of giving that green a go. Love to hear that.

Good answer there. So Riviera was about as wet as we've seen it this past year at the Genesis. And I know we're again, we're recording this a couple of weeks out of the championship, but how has that course evolved over the last several months? in terms of firmness and as we're sitting here on May 19th recording this, where are we at as a course condition? Yeah, course conditions have been fantastic. I was there the end of April for Media Day, spent a good amount of time on golf course,

completing our preliminary whole location work and taking our set up team around the course, getting them familiar with it. And that golf course was just in immaculate conditions. The fairways were kite and strong and it looked, the fairways looked like they were literally a carpet. They were beautiful. And we've worked closely with Marshall on a more aggressive top dressing program on the approaches and the putting greens to ensure that we're able to get the firmness and the speed that we're looking to achieve for the championship. That's fantastic. What the last several iterations of the U.S. Women's Open, I would certainly call them successful.

But I'm curious, kind of your an ever-evolving process of setting up this championship and challenging players. What have you learned from recent years in terms of how those championships have gone and how has your kind of philosophy on setting up courses evolved over the years? Yeah. Well, these players continue to prove and show us how good they are, which is. fantastic. And so that also pushes me, right? As their games continue to get better and evolved, I have to stay on my game as well when it comes to setting up a golf course that's going to challenge them appropriately. I mean, if you look at the last couple of years at Lancaster,

that proved to be a really tough test. That was a big golf course on a small footprint. A lot of elevation changes that provided a great challenge. being a William Flynn design. And then obviously last year, we were at Aaron Hills, big golf course, big piece of property, elevation changes as well, which provided a different test of golf, but a USGA test of golf.

What has caused some of the most internal discussion, I guess, in set up meetings or in planning? What are some of the elements that have been the most discussed or most talked about? You know, I would say as my setup philosophy has evolved, I find myself more apt to show players' alternate keys that I'm thinking about to see how they're going to play the hole, right? Whether they prove me right or prove me differently than what I was thinking, right? I didn't use to show quite as many T's early on as I probably do now.

And just observing their play to ensure that come game time on Thursday that we are putting the appropriate test to golf together based on the condition. We know the condition of the golf course is going to be fantastic. But what is Mother Nature going to give us, right? Is the wind going to do a 180? Are we all of a sudden going to get a Santa Ana win coming out of the north? Well, that's going to change the setup plan pretty dramatically compared to a west, southwest wind and making sure that we're paying attention to those things to ensure the proper test for the championship.

What can you tell us about cuckoo you grass? And what that introduces challenge-wise from a setup perspective. I know that probably the best example, the one that sticks out probably the most of the listeners and viewers. eyes is what happens on the fourth hole with kind of a redan style hole but the cuckoo grass short of the green stops balls from rolling up onto and i'm just curious what uh what cuckoo grass presents to you in terms of a challenge uh in setting up this championship yeah well it it's it's interesting right it's a very dense um it can be spongy right and obviously getting the appropriate high to cut um is is paramount to being able to

set up the golf course the way we want it to be able to perform. And we aren't going to be able to dial those things in until we get on site and see what Mother Nature is going to give us and see how the golf course is performing. And then we will make some slight adjustments as needed to help encourage the type of play that we want to see on hopefully fast and firm conditions and the rain stays away. Are there any holes at Riviera that you think are going to play dramatically different for the women compared to what, you know, what fans are used to when watching during the Genesis? Yeah, I would say certainly the eighth hole, I think, is one to keep your eye out on. I mean, you can pretty much name on one hand how many of the professional men play to the right fairway.

I think we're going to find a good segment of the women's open population that will play in that direction. I think the 11th hole while we are playing that very back tee, the setup plan, you know, from playing back there is really going to enhance the architecture and achieve what George Thomas intended. Not only will players be required to hit a strong, powerful tee shot in the fair. way. If they don't, they will likely going to need to make a decision based on the baranka. You know, what does that lie look like in the rough? Can I make this force carry over this baranka or my better off to lay up? And if they lay up, then they're going to have about 200 yards in and making par is going to be a really good score. That whole play is a lot different for the men. obviously 18 is going to be a very strong finishing hole as well as the 15th hole.

So again, we're going to be able to bring the architecture to life through the women's open game. That's super interesting. I hadn't thought of that with 11 because I think some of the criticisms of some women's golf setups can be playing par 5s, two back, and everybody just kind of laying up to the same spot. You might as well make the par three right there. But with a big force carry like that, that's something, you know, that the question is going to be getting a fair way just so you can lay up to the right spot or else you can't lay up to the right spot. That's right. And I was thinking of back on like, oh, it reminds me of hell's half acre hole at Pine Valley.

When I played there, I was like, oh, that hell's half acre is not really in play. Like you don't, you know, you just go right over your second shot. But as soon as you miss, all of a sudden, you're like, oh, this is right where I want to lay up. Now I feel this. And I'm like, oh, gosh, okay, now this is making sense to me. So I'll let you out of here on this question. If we came back, and this is kind of a tricky one, if we came back Monday morning after the championship

and the players were complaining about one specific thing, what would you hope? What would you hope they're complaining about? Hmm. I'm hoping that they're complaining about how exhausted they were after the week was done. But what a worthwhile test of golf it was, as hard as it was.

I here's a here's a new goal I have for you I want you guys to push us that we like we like we like fun I want you to push the set up we're going to be on site we're going to be doing a live show on Friday night from Riviera I want it to have gotten pushed so hard that you have to come do some PR and explain yourself and come on our show Friday night to explain now I don't want that I want the golf to speak for itself all right we've pushed it too far and that's not there's no there's no such thing. There's no such thing. All right. Well, we really appreciate your time. Best of luck with U.S. Women's Open this summer we can't wait to watch. I know. And thank you for spending some time

with us. Thank you. Appreciate the coverage. Take care. I got to admit, I know we did. We just talked about it. I did not think about like using the the back tee on 11 in terms of like what you described there was like I'm so far ahead on par five. I've seen par fives played a certain way for so long that I hadn't even like concepted out the thought that it's supposed to be a three shot hole with an obstacle in your way for the second shot. And I just got I got excited at a whole different way here in some of that stuff. I know. Well, I think you made a really good point about like architecture being somewhat synonymous

with strategy and just how much I hope we see some variability and perhaps some new strategy in play with how to attack these holes. compared to what we see every February on the men's side. And yeah, the 11th is one of them. The 10thal is going to be interesting. You know, she was talking about playing the Genesis T. And at 307 yards, like, I don't think a lot of the women are going to really have the firepower to get close to the green. So seeing where and what distances they want to leave themselves in for a second shot, you know, we know that's such a tricky green, even if you're right by it.

but it's going to be an awesome test of wedge play, I think. Fully expected them to move the tee up and really let them go after it at least one day. And she mentioned 18, you know, that's going to be a tough-ass finisher too. So, yeah, I'm excited. Listen, she could have leaned more into like, let's make the players suffer. I want to see some tears out there for my liking. But I am very encouraged. I'm hopeful that we're going to see a lot of good, good things out there.

The 10th hole, I am equally curious how this is going to go because I think what we have found on the men's side, again, we only have the men kind of reference point here that we've seen play this course a lot is not only does it make sense from Strugg's game perspective, they hit it up as close to the green as possible and figured out from there, but it's such a difficult and challenging green from where you lay up to with the spin rates they have that I'm really curious. curious like how the women are going to fare trying to get to the back right section of a lot of those greens with lower spin rates than we see out of the men and lower descent or I guess less less loft usually the women's game is typically played with. So that's the first thing I go to watch when the Genesis comes on is feature group coverage to go watch that hole and watching it for the women's going to be even more fascinating. And I I want to I'm keen to talk to some players in the early part of the week to figure out kind of how that's going to go and what they're expecting out of that one. Yeah, I think, I think 10 to, like, I bet that front left bunker is a pretty popular spot. You know, that, that'll be, because with the men, too, it's like try to get one long left, right? And kind of work your way back.

I don't know how much of an option that's going to be. But I'll be curious, too, to see, like, there's some really, or in the day, there was some pretty ruthless par fours. I think about a whole, like, two, nine, 15, 18, 18. And I think some of those will play much more like they're they're supposed to play, right? You're coming into 18. Like, I mean, I remember there was that year that they had the crazy playoff. It was like seven guys in the playoff. And 18 was a bear.

It was 450 up the hill, damp, cold. Guys are hitting, you know, hybrids and long irons in there. And I'm really excited to see this course, like these. I think some of these greens were built to accept certain shots like that. And I'm curious to see how they set it up for that stuff. And then even a whole like, I don't know, 16, like, like Randy, you said it earlier with the Cypress trees, eucalyptus trees, all those spooky-ass trees out there. Yes, thank you.

But they're going to have leaves on them, too. You know, so it's a different look than what you get in February. Big shout to our friends at Roeback. They are going to be the sponsors of season 10 of Taurus, which we have been filming. coming here in Scotland here for the past week, week and a half. So many great items to shout out. It's only just dawning on me how many great different hoodies they have. I'm wearing the technical hoodie right now. This is the lightest weight. It's like a sun hoodie basically. A cool breeze comes right through it. It's very refreshing. The Highlands hoodie is just a little bit warmer for

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and their selection online. Great website to go check out. Roeback dot com, R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com. Code N-LU will get you 20% off your first order to the end of this week. That's Roeback-R-H-O-B-A-C-K dot com. Incredible stuff. Thank you to them for their support of our content. Let's get back to the pod. I mean, she mentioned the eighth and like making that it's kind of a split fairway. The PGA guys just really bomb it left, like they don't even think about going right, hearing her talk about bringing in really that option to play down the right side is interesting to me. Which gives you, I mean, reason why for people is coming in on the right-hand side,

you would think that the green is wide open coming from that angle. Like it adds so much more depth coming from over there. You're looking kind of long ways down it instead of the green being shallow from a depth perspective from the left side like it typically would be, you know, but you can get farther down the fairway on the left side. That's why a lot of the PJ tour guys end up taking the left side. but widening that right part to make that an approachable. And that's one of those things that I'm like, all right, we don't, we don't see this on the men's side.

Bomb it close and figure it out from there is usually the strategy. But like, again, the angles might just matter a little bit more for the style of play that the women play. And like if the pin is farther left, why wouldn't you be encouraged to play down the right fairway? And will the, you know, this is not a common test, common thinking exercise that LPJ tour players have to go through. and who's going to have that strategy in play and be able to deploy it and be able to adjust on the flight of different hole locations

and things like that is where I'm getting flashback to 2019 Country Club of Charleston U.S. Women's Open that was like, this is the dream of the style of play that we dream about and talk about all the time that just never comes to fruition on the men's side, but it could magically come together this week.

We also, just thinking back to last year even, how they set up 15 and it took the ladies two, three, four, sometimes some of them didn't even learn, like how to play that hole. And don't just gout your one down there. Like, you know, really figure out how to play it and how to get enough spin into this green and where to leave yourself. Because we saw ladies de-greening themselves with puts and chips and all that. I thought that was such a fun test of like, hey, we want to like, A, we want every club in your bag, dirty, she said, which is great. And then B, it's like, like we want to make them think.

And I think that that's, that's the perfect hole to do it on, right? Like, is. Yeah, T.C. I think, you know, 15 and Aaron Hills. And then as we talk about, like, what are they going to do on 10? I think just because we're talking about, it comes down to ball speed. And I just don't know where, how they're going to go about charting some of these fours. And specifically the short four that's, that's 10.

And like, do you hold it all the way back? Do you push it up there as, as, as, close as you can. Well, we see, they're not getting a lot of check on, like, the majority of these pitch shots that we see in the men's side. It's just going to be fascinating. And I'm so pumped to see how it plays out. I think accuracy-wise, too, like, that rough is wide, thick blades of grass. When you don't have as much speed coming through that, I think it puts a premium on being in the fairway there. And then, you know, just moving beyond that, I think, like, the, like, the, We'll see if there's any splits or any wave splits and that sort of thing,

because it could be, you know, marine layer rolls in and it gets really foggy and spooky out there, too. Which could be softer, though. Like that's where I feel like we've seen with some LA, you know, like LCC. I remember that marine layer just kind of made it, made it getable and soft a little bit big. Two quick things. I was on the Genesis Invitational site. They actually have like hole by hole descriptions. And one hole that we have not mentioned, but I just get a kick out of them.

and kind of reinforces why I'm excited to watch the women play it. The ninth, right? Par four, the men usually play it like 458 yards. Well, the description on the Genesis is two crossing bunkers, a shorter one on the right, followed by a longer one on the left, were meant to cut down the width of the fairway. Today's player can remove both bunkers from play simply by hitting driver. And that's not the case.

And so that's what I mean. This course is going to play much more in line with how George Thomas imagined the course should be played, right? It would not be a totally alien type of play to the architect. And that's just super exciting. I'm also fascinated how much variability and length they have on the par threes. What is it? The fourth hole, I think sometimes the men, they stretch it to like 236.

I'll be curious, like, if there's a long-ass par four for the women out here. It just, yeah, I'm excited. It's a fabulous golf course, and I feel like we're going to see it played in an entirely different manner, and that's got me really pumped up. Hearing about sandcapping, too, was like my eyes lit up. I was like, more seeing cap. Real quick on this, to your point, right, here's a spray chart if you're watching on YouTube of every shot during the Genesis this year, like zero balls in that right bunker. Like this one always jumps off the page to be like, I feel like this one needs modernized. I don't know.

this is for a golf course that has put obstacles in the way of the top men's players for so long. I'm like, nine never made sense to me. It is just kind of bomb it and go far right. But to your point, like that right bunker, depending on what T they use, that right bunker is going to force the ladies to the left, but you are going to run out of space if you go too far down the left of that. So I'm going to say top dressing, not seeing capping, top dressing. I was Shannon.

I was like, I was punching the air. Like, hell yeah. It's a very good catch. And I appreciate the gray man George Thomas, clearly in there said, hey, we want to, we want to play it the way that it was intended. There was another great shout out in there for Shaq in his book. Yeah. You know, great resources that clearly she fell back on and is doing the homework, man. It's so good.

I'm so fired up for it. Well, let's get to our top storylines of the week. We do this ahead of the Chevron. We're going to do it here this week as well. Our 12 storylines. Everyone's going to pick three. And we're going to go through each T-C. I'm kicking it to you first.

What is your top storyline heading into the week? I think it's, for me, at least, it's coverage. I think coverage was good last year at Aaron Hills. It was good at Pebble a few years ago. It was good at Lancaster. It's like, I think that's much, that's as much of like how I enjoy the tournament. And I think for having a prime time West Coast venue,

this is such a massive opportunity to showcase what makes women's golf special and why this is interesting to watch. And so for me, like the coverage needs to meet the venue and the challenge at hand. And I think if they do that, then it's a massive, massive opportunity and asset for both the USGA, the LPGA and the women's game at large. So I think in the past, they've given Tommy the toys for this event, a little bit. bit and they've said, all right, you know, you can cook this week. We're going to give you some budget. And I'm excited to hopefully see that materialize on a brilliant canvas.

We're excited to work with Ally Bank this week at the U.S. Women's Open. We're proud to be partnering with them all week. Ally is the perfect partner for a championship like this, given their dedication to women's sports and providing the tools our fans need to manage money and life today. If you're in Los Angeles this week, the championship, we'd also love to see you on Thursday night at the Ally House in Santa Monica. The Ally House is decided to extend the experience of the championship beyond the golf course itself, bringing together fans, partners, creators, and people who deeply care about women's sports for a really fun night around the event.

We're going to be there from 5 to 9 p.m. at 1-212 Santa Monica. Come by, hang out, meet the crew, be part of the atmosphere surrounding, which should be a fantastic week at the U.S. Women's Open. don't forget to RSVP at ally.com slash ally dash house again that's ally.com a l-l-y dot com backslash ally a l-l-y dash house. Big thanks again to ally for supporting the championship, supporting women's sports in such a substantive way and supporting our covers throughout the week as well.

Banking built for life today. Ally bank member FDIC again ally.com back slash ally dash house back to the pod. For those at home, you can watch it on USA from 2 to 7 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, then it does move over to the cock from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. So yes, you do have to. It goes behind a paywall, which sucks, but there is eight hours of coverage on Thursday and Friday. There's also feature group coverages, feature groups that begin at 10 a.m. Eastern Time, which is basically from the jump out there in the morning.

And that coverage is always excellent to watch. So if you want to watch the U.S. Women's Open, You will not be able to see every shot from the morning, but you will be following undoubtedly the biggest name groups in the early part of the day. And then we'll have eight hours of coverage on Thursday and Friday. Then Saturday, we go 5 to 7 on USA and then NBC from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Yeah, we get late night. Prime time at Rube, baby. Sign me the hell up.

Feature groups there as well. And then come Sunday, it's three to eight. It's going to be three to eight on Peacock. So there's a five-hour window. and Peacock, but a five to eight hour window on NBC. So ending a little earlier on that Sunday, but in only three hours of network TV on that Sunday, but feature groups there as well. You know, the one thing I haven't heard, and I think it ties into coverage, and I, God, I'm embarrassed that I don't remember specifically last year. But I know at Pebble Beach, the USGA

started having like real shot link, and you could, like, at least on their website, you could follow somebody's round with with the data i i hope it's the only way i watch golf that's back yeah i i i hope that's back because i it just adds so much being able to really have a lot more stats and visibility into like not only who's playing well but like why they're playing well is is really helpful this could be a matt i mean that week's going to be like a sports sweepstakes between NBA finals Stanley Cup women on in primetime

you know out at RIV you've got you got the memorial on that'll finish before like I hate when the Memorial and U.S. Women's Open finishes collide

like that'll be they'll be separated out a little bit but I still kind of wish the S. Women's Open went later than that but big we did we had shot link at Lancaster and we had it at Aaron Hill

so unless something has changed there's no press release out so far this year, but I completely agree with you. The last time we were in L.A. for a U.S. Open was at LACC. And what I distinctly remember from that NBC production that we had there was just being drowned out by this plane that just made loops and loops and loops. And I understand that there's, you know, there's flight restrictions and everything else like that where we've seen them lean more into drone work in the past.

So I hope that's not an issue there because, again, prime time, California, June, what a better time to show off, hopefully some beautiful scenery. The other thing is that we're recording this a little bit earlier, but we made a big stink about Cara Banks being announced as the host for LPGA major championship coverage. What I'm being told is that she's actually not going to be the host. Dan is back calling women's golf for the U.S. Women's Open. So we'll see if that changes or not.

But that's just what I'm aware of so far. We make a stink. We made a, we're, it's not that we didn't like it. We did not make a stink. Other people, I think they put it up on the pedestal, like it was going to be this massive announcement.

We're like, okay, that's cool, a consistent voice. And now one major end, it appears that we might be losing a little bit, the consistency that was promised. We've seen the USGA not only with the purse increase, but they are very obviously putting resources into the broadcast. And like this will be the best women's golf broadcast this year. Uh, and, and hopefully, yeah, through drones and shot tracers and everything else, like the

venue really pops. It's awesome. It's awesome. I love it. This is the way every major should be. I understand financial concerns and, and things that you got to think through. but they crush it. It's an opportunity.

Real quick. I know we do this almost every time we talk about the U.S. Women's Open, but I just want to read the future venues into the record once more. Next year is Inverness. 28 is Oakmont. 29 is Pioneers, number two. 2030's Interlock and Country Club. That's just been redone.

That's going to be a fantastic venue. Oakland Hills in 31. LACC. in 32. Chicago Golf Club, 33. Marion in 34 Pebble in 35 the women at Shinnock in 36

Oak Hill in 37 and Oakmont in 38 Jesus good that's really good oh my God I don't know what's the worst

what's the worst of those maybe Oakland Hills and I just haven't seen that in a long time I don't know Gilry did that that's the only one that I'm kind of like okay that's really people might not know interlocking up in Minnesota, like, Saul, you and I,

the one time I played it was with you, like I was quite taken by it. I think that's a wonderful venue. Yeah, that's. Yeah, you jumped at the opportunity to play a private course up there when we went up to the seven, eight years ago.

So for the second, we're getting a pine hearse double again. This is gonna be the second time. Last time was 2014, except for this time, they're flip-flopping. Women go first. Women are going first, which is gonna be sweet.

So you're right, T.C. It's a bangers only coming up for the US Women's Open. Cody, what's top of mind for you? Yes, I, listen, when we threw out these assignments and everything, of course I could go Nelly, I could lead off with her. There's a lot going there. But I think that there is, there's no person active women's player right now who has had more success in the city of Los Angeles than Hannah Green.

She is a two times winner of the L.A. championship at different venues. venues each time. I think when I was going through this thought process of like, what do they play that's kind of similar to RIV, but not? We got some Northeast venues. And I kept going back to like, okay, so like firm, difficult greens, shot making, but you got to hit it in the fair way. I kept going back to Wilshire and people who have been consistent at Wilshire.

And Hannah Green and the year that she's putting together so far, that's who jumped out, you know, off the screen at me. She's up to sixth in the world. She has four wins so far this year, HSBC Women's. She won the J.M. Eagle, LA, open earlier this year, the Australian Women's PGA and the Women's Australian Open. One major under her belt, she took T7, already has a top 10 at Chevron earlier this year,

and is like really, really good at U.S. Women's Open. So this will be her eighth total. She's never missed a cut. She always talks about how she likes firm, difficult tests. She leans heavily on her putter. She's third in stroke stream putting for the year. And third in total strokes gained. I mean, if it was, if we're looking for somebody

and the LPGA tour this year is we got multiple, you know, women winning multiple events. And we have like two or three of them that are kind of bubbling up. I want to go with Hannah. Only challenge. Like I had there, no Wiki Yellow. in any U.S. Women's Open starts. I'm very sold on the L.A. tie and the style of golf that

Wilshire has required and like the very, very clear horse for course that she is for that one. I'm buying all that and buying all the year. And the made cuts mean something. And I also just like, I don't know how much you guys weigh prior experience at a specific tournament. I mean, it's a different golf course every time. 100%. But there is something to the U.S. Women's Open test that it's like, I look at Nellie's record in this tournament.

And I know she finished second last year, but I'm kind of like, yeah, this tournament's gotten in your head at times as well. So it's a tough thing to weigh as well. But again, as you mentioned, we're recording this early. It's May 20th as we're recording this as we're getting ready to travel for tourist sauce. We don't have odds in front of us here. But I would think, Hannah's going to be in the top six, seven on the odd sheet, eight, top eight, something around there. And I think she should be. I think that's a good one to get in an early round like this.

Especially if it's dry. Yeah. Yeah. Randy. I'm going to go a little opposite direction, maybe not the most uplifting. But like what has happened to Yucca Saso? I think if anybody kind of casually follows the women's game, you would not be wrong to think Yuka is one of the best young players in the world.

She's a two-time U.S. Open winner. She won in 2021 at Olympic Club. She won in 2024 at Lancaster. And guys, since that U.S. Open win at Lancaster, her game has fallen off a cliff in a stunning way. I went through and just to kind of paint the full picture. Again, 24 years old, a really interesting thing where her U.S. Open victories are her only LPGA victories, kind of an on hell Cabrera situation going on. But she's falling all the way down to 315th in the world at the moment.

In the 42 events since winning the U.S. open in 2024, 42 times she's teed it up on the LPGA tour. She has not won. She has a lone top 10, which happened in the fall of 2024. So she has not top 10 since the fall of 2024. She has 25 miscuts to, I'll give her 17 cuts, but a large handful of those are no-cut Asian swing events. So that 17 looks and sounds better than it actually is.

And so like what actually is going on with her? It's not necessarily the putting yips. I don't even think it's the driver yips. Her approach play, if we're going by the KPMG performance insights on the LPGA tour site, guys, she can't, her iron play has totally disappeared, which is very, very concerning given like, my enduring memories of both of her wins was her stellar iron play at Olympic and at Lancaster.

This year, she's strokes gained approach. She's minus one and a half shots per round. Last year, she was over two shots lost per round in strokes gained approach. And just to give you a sense of when she does, like her driver's not great. She's she's hitting 61% of her fairways and just 54% of her greens and regulation. Her greens and regulation percentage from the fairway is, I say just 64%. That ranks 150th on the LPGA tour this season. I'm going to need you to stop, okay?

The Yucasso was like one of my favorite players and I need to stop this, okay? She famously was the one that had molded her swing. after Rory, you know, very similar type swing. But man, she is just fighting it. I wish, you know, I went hunting for like what's wrong with Yucasso's game type stories. There's really not a lot out there. So it's just a, it's a sad story at the moment. I'd be fascinated to learn more about what her thoughts are and maybe stuff she's working on, any flaws that she's found. But don't expect Yucasso to be involved this week.

She has just kind of completely lost her game. Very sad. She looked like the future too. That was the thing of, you know, kind of waiting for someone to take the reins from a bomber perspective as far as top players in the world, like just has

massive amounts of athleticism and one, those U.S. Women's Open with just a combination of power and grace. Like it was so impressive. It really was. It just easy to kind of forget about her in between some of those. But I just never made sense to me.

How she was able to accomplish that and fall off this hard? Because it did just look like a golf swing that was going to last 20 years. However, 2024, that win, the U.S. Women's Open win there, also came completely out of nowhere. It did. It's not like she had the best form leading into it. She made the cut at the Chevron that year, finished like 30th, if I remember, but like was not at all a discussion point. had a good 2023 season as big you're saying but yeah it's it's a sad story and somebody should do some digging on it uh we see her a lot it's just weird because she always seems so cheerful and and ready to go um but clearly something is going on i'm going to go like quite literally in the

complete opposite direction uh and can't believe this fell uh to me obviously i think this is a courtesy Is this a draft? This is a draft? It's a storyline draft. Nellie Corta. It's time. It's time. Had a good showing at the U.S.

Women's Open last year after a memorable for the wrong reasons showing at Lancaster in 2024. Her best season by far. Big expectations rolling into that one. And she shot roughly a good jillion and missed the cut by a mile. I think what did she make on that one part three? Did you make a 10? 10 or 11, I think. Yeah.

in honor of and it was like her second hole of the championship right it was Thursday morning oh god that was such a let down yeah it happened quick and it has contributed to the narrative that she has struggled in this golf tournament to the point where I do frequently forget that she finished second to my stark last year in Aaron Hills but uh Aaron Hills was a great great fit for Nellie um and I think this is going to be a more challenging fit I do not say that as in I think you write off Nellie she's capable of playing this golf course. It just, it's going to be a precision test. I think distance is going to be an advantage in some spots just based on the conversation with Shannon and using some of these back team markers, I think is going to be a helpful thing for Nellie.

But man, it is, it is time. The chevrons are, we've said, kind of can feel like cheapish majors in terms of, you know, winning at Memorial Park and winning it at Houston. It's not the same. I don't think we have to be embarrassed to say that. we can still say they're majors, but it's just not the same as winning a USGA test. Exactly. This is like this is a different level of test in championship and it's going to be mentally very challenging, both with the expectations that come in for Nelly and the actual test that's going to get laid out. And it just feels like a very big spot. There's nothing more, how do I say this? Like this is a massive opportunity for elevation of the women's game.

Like a Nelly Cordo, fourth major championship win at Riviera is going to. to be especially memorable. Like everyone remembers Michelle Wee winning the U.S. Women's Open because it was at Pinehurst. Like when they go to these massive venues, like a top level player winning it, like probably not in the same way. And when there's actual good coverage of it too. Yeah. It's not in the same way because tools are there. Her career has not really, you know, evolved passes. Like Allison Corpus, one going away at Pebble Beach. That was a massive spot for the women's game, you know, going to Pelham Beach for the first time at the U.S. Women's Open. But it, it wasn't a star winning it.

at a star venue to the point to the you know that's going to get past just the normal golf ecosystem I think so I hope it happens I really do hope it happens this week for her and I think it's obviously a great opportunity so real quick good news bad news on nelly bad news I guess just some of her comments coming out of Cincinnati I think she was really fighting her swing maybe for the first time in a while this year certainly uh searching for something spent a lot of time on the range at Cincinnati. Good news for her. She'll have a couple weeks off and plenty of time to get things worked out, you would think,

heading into Riviera. So we'll be interesting if she does have it ironed out. Rives also, it's not the easiest place to put. And I know it's probably easier to put on Poena in June versus February. But a lot of slope in those greens. And, you know, she, yeah, some scar tissue building up on that. front as much as everybody wants to kind of wash it away you can you can miss short putts and still win the chevron we're gonna put that to the test that a u.s.

unless it gets really hard to putt that could work in the benefit you know and everybody's missed some so and we don't we won't know till we till we see the course there but tc real quick again tc i will be one of those that tries to to brush it away we see an awful lot of nelly putts she is not as bad of a putter as people make her route to be i'm just saying coming back to the west coast that was you know she i'm assuming that was poena there as well at um up at sharon heights you know that sort of thing so she's kind of got that old mickleson thing going where like the overall putting it's like yeah he's a good putter but also over some of those two three footers at a u.s open you're like oh god he could absolutely miss this

speedy yeah well i i think it's one of those things and obviously uh I think there's a big difference between watching Nellie put some of those puts. And this is not an intentional drive-by on it, but watching Lexi put some of those putts. Oh, yeah. Don't think those are two of the same things. Horrible putter. Like, Nellie's not in that boat.

Okay. Is Lexi playing this week or is she decided to be retired this week? Well, she's got to get in via special exemption. And as, again, we're recording on May 20th, they have not given it to her. so unless they come through with a special exemption yeah why would you waste a special exemption on on a retired player with no no connection to the course my wife gets so mad when i'm watching uh coverage and they say lex she's like didn't she retire didn't she do a big farewell thing i'm like yeah she did get her on the pod yeah tc i got to do it to him does gino have the bottle can she

buckle down and get one of these things very uneven record in the U.S. Women's Open. She was T6 and 24, T24 and 22, and then two cuts, 23 and 25. Really well-rounded golf game, and it could be too hard. She doesn't necessarily play great when ships her down. Now she played well at Founders on a really, on a tough, on a difficult golf course there. Which was a good. No, different, same course, different name though. Mazuho America's open a mountain ridge. No, I know. That's what I'm saying.

It was a, no, not the founders, not the founders. Oh, so, sorry. Sorry, Missouri. Yeah. Yeah, okay. Same golf course. Yeah. Yeah, you did catch me there.

God, that shook me. It's okay. He's got his fence up. I agree with you, though. I want to think, I maybe hope that we learn something about her there. Because I mean, between this, like there's, there's two major. there's two majors in the women's game to me that are above the other ones. The AIG women's open and U.S. Women's Open.

And I think that, yeah, we just need to see it in those two a little bit more often. I don't, you know, you tend to play well every year at Evian. Kind of a shockingly poor record at Chevron. But like, let's see it when the chips are down. Like I think Nellie needs a true foil. She needs a true challenger. And I think Gino, Gino has all. all the tools and all the all the capability to to be that it's just a matter of like doing it

do they you guys with better memories than i that i have have they dueled have they gone had like what is the best example of a time where they've the stars have aligned for them to like be up there at the same time a great question because it's it's kind of a scotty rom situation and you know pre i mean obviously we know about the ron live thing but like those two like had to were very very clear one, two, and still, you know, for a long, a very, a fairly, you know, long period of time. And we had some memories from them. They played twice against each other in the Ryder Cup. Like, you know, we got the PJ Championship last year. They were kind of doing a little bit. They were just involved. And I just feel like they never end up scrapping together. It feels like,

I don't know. It feels like they miss each other a lot for whatever reason. So they do. I don't think there is a great example. Is there? I don't have to think on that a little bit more. I mean, kind of. I mean, Gino had the lead at Chevron in 2024. Nellie, you know, ran her ass down. But I don't know if it was actually like a head to head. That's probably as close as we as we could get. Outside of like, you know, all of Gino's CME wins, Nellie usually puts her, you know, pokes her head up there for a little bit. But she's just so good in Naples. It's, it's hard. Cody, next up. Yeah, I'm going to go just kind of drafting off T.C. here with Gino and kind of the resurgence of a young Ronning Yin. I mean, I think for somebody who already has a major championship under her belt, the KPMG Women's PGA that she won at Baltistrawl, kind of showing like signs of life again. And it's got me fired up. For a long time, she battled some injuries. Then she had some putting things going on. But guys, I think like when we're looking for. names who were kind of always there ronnie was there for such a long time and it feels like she's she's kind of getting close to being back i yeah i think she's very close to being like i i i love the hannah green call out earlier coda and i think ronanning yin is another one that's like could absolutely win i i know that's not like going out on a limb but she's just playing really really good

golfably and she she's a great ball striker i think putting was was her bugaboo and she seems to you know i don't think we'll confuse her for a great putter anytime soon uh but if she can make some putts you know enough putts then i yeah i think a course like riviera should suit her especially with the way she's playing now T4 last year at Aaron Hills again very different tests but it's played well in this championship T2 at the Chevron this year kind of quietly with everything Nellie had going on. Fourth ranked data golf player in the world. That's not nothing. I don't have to tell you that.

I, yeah, she would not be sneaking up on us this go-round for running you. Mr. Big. So I Sorry, I was just looking up running real quick. Even Mountain Ridge, you know, she had a runner up at the Missouho, not the founders. And at Kroger in Cincinnati at Makativa, that course had some fire to a two. Yeah, she shot a Sunday 66 and finished fours. So I think there's a lot there to like with running.

My pick, we talked about Nelly. I think it's a great point that like some venues just scream for a worthy champion. And I'm not saying Nelly wouldn't be worthy at Riviera. I think the last time this really happened on the women's side was Lydia Coe winning at St. Andrews at the AIG Women's Open a couple years ago. And that was, I mean, she has won the Evian and she has won the Chevron. but that Women's Open was like the first of these elevated majors, let's call them, for Lydia. And she has not won a U.S. Women's Open. And I think at this point, Lydia, it's just a matter of like how good of a legacy she's going to leave.

And I think adding any U.S. Women's Open would be incredible, but winning at a place like Riviera would be very special as well. well. She's only had two top tens in her career at U.S. Women's Open. So again, kind of a curious, like, man, I thought she would play better in this championship. We've seen some signs of life this year. Like she's by no means retired. She's by no means has like a foot out the door. I think winning these signature events, right? She's won the Olympics. She has the British Open. This is a big championship i think for her lasting place among the grades of the game and so i i just think it's a worthy thing to watch this week he is uh she's got in her last 16 major starts she's got one one top 15 and that was the win at st andrews i'm glad i was getting ready to do a sports

radio take the without the numbers to support a tc of like dude i just don't know if she has that gear, right? You know, that like, can she flip the, you know, that, that winning gear? I think she can finish T8 relatively easily this week. But I, statement I can, of course, regret later on, do not feel like she is threatening to win this week. That's just not the gut feel I get from Lydia's whole vibe right now. I don't know if she's playing possum or not, but yeah. Yeah. I understand what you're saying, Sally. I don't think that's unfair by any means. I picked her to win the Chevron and she missed the cut. So I'm going to sit.

That was tough. That was tough. I think if we're, it depends on how far back we want to go. TCE you mentioned we want to go back, uh, the last three years. So 15 majors. You can honestly just throw 20, 23 completely out the door. She was trying to rebuild her swing. She went from one swing coach back to original swing coach, 20, 24 midway through.

That's where we can really start to look at it. And then I would agree with you and be like last. year we let a lot of stuff like get away um no top tens last year lowest major finish was at the kpmg movement open yeah and then t 26 at aaron hills like not terrible but your generational player anymore yeah she is and she like clearly has cemented her spot uh in you know the history of women's professional golf this would be as we talk about you know they career grand slam and you have to get four of the five this is a prime opportunity uh and you're right big it would be it would be perfect for it i just don't know if that's going to be possible at

rift because you know to echo sally i just don't know if the signs have really been there she strikes me as somebody that's going to have to hit fairways at rive i don't think she wants to spend a lot of time trying to hit approaches from the rough just because she's not one of the longest players, you know. But if she's driving the ball well and, and I feel like, yeah, she's just, she's kind of find some of that short game magic. She did went on the old, at the old course in epic fashion. It was just a, that was such a scrappy, just thinking of that three wood, she hit into 17 and yeah, creative way she went around it. But like, I have that image in my head of like, yeah, she could put a scrappy thing together at Riv, but also the form is just

kind of, I don't know. And the form didn't really support that one either. I'm all over the plays with Lydia. I just don't feel threatened. I feel safe. I feel very safe and I feel unthreatened about Lydia at the moment. I hope I go and regret that because that would be one of the best possible stories this week. So Lottie Wode, guys, she's fresh off a win at the Queen City Championship in peak form. I think it maybe it's just for me and the, you know, what have you done for me lately and the fast-moving nature of weekly content? Like, kind of easy to forget. She took over the world and she won the Scottish last year. I think she was the favorite going into the AIG Women's Open just the following week she finished t3 at the evion right

before the Scottish like Lottie as a as established pro has not been in our lives very long and like this you know especially coming off this win this is a prime opportunity for her it's a there's potentially a little bit of scar tissue around rosang of rolling right into being a professional winning right away and like getting a lot of pressure thrown on you that I think has made us just a little, make me personally at least a little gun shy and anointing Lottie. But I am, this will be one of the first three or four names I'm checking on the leaderboard come Thursday morning or whenever she tees off of how she's doing out there because she's 22 years old, I think it is, and is still kind of her first go around as professional in this

major championship. And I'm really excited to see what she is able to put together this week. And I think she's a massive threat to win this week. Co-sign. Yeah. Yeah. Just so impressed. She had an awful, awful couple rounds at Mountain Ridge when 80-77 was like, I don't know if she was DFL, but she was close to DFL.

And then one week later, it goes to Cincinnati and wins. Man, if she figured something out and quite clearly she did, yeah, I co-sign as well, Sully. I just love her competitiveness. You know, I think she's somebody, it's a little bit more rare in the women's game to like really see that. I feel like not many women wear that type of emotion, like on their sleeve like Lottie can. And I really like that about her.

So yeah, certainly somebody that would be awesome to be in contention and I think has the game to win. I walk two rounds with her at Chevron. she hit almost every single fairway and missed almost every single green and got up and down from everywhere and literally looking back on it that sunday night i'm like wow lot he finished in the top 10 like she played horrible and then see her go up to mountain ridge and and i was like okay well there's something here but she in order to like win and cincy i don't i don't know what it is but she is she's a dynamic player. And I understand the ease in trying to compare her to Rose. They're so different in how they go about things, though. And I would say if there is like a young star that you can get behind, Lottie's definitely it, man. She has the firepower. She has an incredible short game. She puts the lights out of it. Again, it was just the ball striking. And at least from watching it last week, like you got that figured out. Like, I think that's a pretty good recipe to get around RIV. I think the putting's big. And like, that's, I think the putting's big. Like, that's, I

I think that's one of the reasons. I don't think there's that many great putters at the top of the game in the women's side of things. And I think that's why some of this stuff ebbs and flows a little bit from a major championship perspective. Like, getting these majors and, you know, it just like that, that can abandon you quicker than the ball striking, I think. So.

Good point. All right. Let's round it out. Our final four storylines. I'm going to the Japanese ladies. I just think they've had a quiet, start to the year. Lingering or loitering, T.C. They've been lingering. They might have been lounging, honestly. Not even. But, you know, we had two, we had two Japanese winners in 2024 of the five

majors, Mao won last year. And I think between the EY twins, you know, Furway, you've got Rio Takeda. Like, there's, there's just, you've got a Japanese owner of Riviera. This is, like, a big media market. I just, I feel like the, like, everything's coalescing there. And they tend to be very, you know, like very technical, accurate players. I mean, shit, there's how many of them in the one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. There's 11 of them in the top 51 right now. which that's pretty remarkable.

I got to see. I feel like I'm giving myself a 20% chance to win here. I know. Seven in the top 25. I don't know how picking storylines turned into a draft. And our success is going to be based out of them. I agree with you, T.C. I had this as a storyline for the Chevron.

They let me down, man. But again, it's just one of those things where it's like, they're always simmering. They're always there. ready to go they're so damn good and the depth is truly unbelievable they played really well at pebble years ago too i feel like that's i don't know just another thing that's like accuracy um you know you got to kind of hit greens you're not going to scramble your way around certain places so cody oh real quick i got to see chizzy eY a little bit in cincinnati god she's got a good move

she's swaggy and tc i was going to see chizzy i was going to going to say the biggest sunglasses. Yeah. Definitely swaggy. She had this like all red driver that like matched her outfit. Yeah. I don't know why. I just came away so like I've seen her before,

but just seeing her up close. I was very taken by Chizzy EY. Yeah. And obviously very different tests. Rio Takeda played very well at the US Women's Open last year. I think her game's built for. built for the big stage. Mr. Cody, man.

I'm going to go, you know, we talked about Cinderella stories in L.A. and how great it would be from a historical perspective. But I'm going to go with a local here. Somebody who jumps up and down as a true big game hunter, has never been able to cross the finish line and a major, but has top tens and all of them, 27 years old, L.A. resident and loves Rivera, Angel. We're always talking.

She got that dog, man. And if there's somebody who, like, you know she's going to be fired up for this, I just, if there was a dream scenario, Angel, come on, man. This might not be fair to Angel, but I think it, I don't think it's unfair. If it's a real strategy test, that's where I'm like, is Angel our best bet if it's, you know, if it's a real strategy test. Sometimes I think she just likes to pin her ears back and just hit the shots. Sometimes we think things are going to be a real big strategy test.

They end up being pin your ears back and go get it, though, Randy. So I'd be surprised if this played that way, but it has happened before. The reason why I say that, too, is that she, you know, has had success at the Chevron, obviously a different golf course, Memorial Park was a different golf course, top 10 there to start the year, which truly you had to hit the, shots you had to think your way through it you couldn't just throw whatever you wanted out there and i know we've fallen back a lot um mountain ridge but another t10 there at the missouho america's open she is capable if she is patient and actually lets it develop in front of her

instead of just like see flag go for flag hit golf shot all right last two big randy uh okay i pulled something interesting out about U.S. Women's Open, or I think it's interesting, your mileage may vary here, about U.S. Women's Opens that have been contested in the state of California. So by my count, I think I have this right, this will be the fifth U.S. Women's Open contested in the state of California. And I think there's something interesting with the winners of these events in California, but I have to throw out the very first California U.S. Women's Open, which was down in San Diego at San Diego Country Club won by Mickey Wright. Mickey Wright won everything.

So just ignore that. I'm going to pretend like that didn't happen. The next U.S. Women's Open in California was in Sacramento and a woman named Janet Alex won the event. The interesting thing about Janet Alex and where this ties into subsequent California, winners is that U.S. Open was the only victory of her career, Janet Alex. She won one time on the LPJ tour, and it was that U.S. Women's Open. So then we fast forward to 2016. Interestingly, it was the next time we got back to California. That was in San Martin, kind of more

northern at Cortevale. Brittany Lang won that event. Cordovaal. I don't want you to get canceled. Okay, thank you. This U.S. Women's Open win by Brittany Lang. It was her second LPGA victory, but it would be her final LPGA victory. I'm sorry, I gave flashbacks. That was the Diane Murphy, to our winner, Beth Lang,

and then the memes that were going around of, it's Britney, bitch, and the music started. That's very good. That's very good. And then you fast forward to 2021, Yucasso. we've talked about her she has two l pga wins they're both u.s women's opens and then 2023 alison corpus won at pebble beach

she has one l pga tour victory it was the women's open at pebble beach and so i guess what i'm saying is the women that have won in california have not been prolific winners either before that event or after that event And so I don't know, you know, obviously that's not like correlation or cause it. Or what is it? It's not causation. It's more correlation. But if that trend continues, we could be due for kind of an out of nowhere winner that is, you know, maybe a won and done. So just an interesting history there with this event in California and the women that have won it.

What if Corpus wins again? She'd be like the female Lee Jansen and it'll be won a few times. PGA Toro. You'd have you'd have Yucca and Allison two wins, both opens. Yeah, that'd be wild. And that's, yeah, that would somewhat mirror a kind of Payne Stewart won, what, in 90, or I guess Ernie L's one, that's not a good comp. 94, 97 was Ernie, which was bookended by Lee Jansen wins or on either side of that one.

And then Payne was 99, 91. That was like most of the U.S. opens of the 90s were those three. Or, I mean, Allison, maybe Andy North. Only won three times on the PGA tour. Two of them were U.S. opens, right? He's eaten off that, Rady. He is still on the airwaves off those two U.S. Open victories. Last up for me, H.J. Kim, 30 years old,

obviously had an incredible start to the year. Has not had the strongest history in this event. She was running out back in 2018. Missed the cut last year at Aaron Hills. But again, this feels like it could be a good venue for her. that you know the big brawny u.s women's open that we saw at aaron hills is is quite different than this one uh if it is if it does end up being technical skiing um openings in a fair amount of these greens she's got kind of a lower ball flight and lower spin uh but just is just so freaking good at putting the ball in

the hole uh not overthinking it of of um you know even if it's not the most impressive uh arc to the to the shots and shot shaping it just she's so efficient and uh it just feels like this should this should be a nice spot for her uh to to pick off a what is kind of a a weak major championship resume compared to uh the success she's had elsewhere she won her first ever major start in 2014 at the evion has made 50 starts in majors since then without winning another major championship um it's got to be in her head i think at this point uh but i'm i'm very keen to see if she can uh she can be a tender this year. That is our top 12 storylines. Let's get to our picks to win and then we are going to get out of here. Cody, I'm going to start with you. Who's going to win the United States

Women's Open? Nelly quarter. I'm just going to ride right behind you as fast as possible. I mean, I think Nelly is going to win. T.C. do we have, or do you have the bottle? I think Mingji Lee is going to win. You always think Mingji Lee is going to win. I know. I do I was just thinking about like, God, I haven't heard anything. She was off to such a good start earlier this season. Is she helping? Well, that was my concern. Like, she withdrew at the, at the LA Open.

She's also won at Wilshire. But I think she had food poisoning. So, I think, you know, I think she's, she's going to be just fine. It's a bad chicken wings to see her. And she really hasn't played since Chevron. You know, at least states. So I don't, I don't know. I don't, you know, kind of a question mark.

But man, I just think of a course like this. I'm, holy shit, man, geez, like Taylor made for it, right? Just tea to green monster and, you know, it can be pretty streaky with the putter. But her putter's definitely gotten better over the last two or three years. So it would be your second U.S. Women's Open. It's your fourth major. You know, it's, yeah. I don't know.

I think there's a lot of women that, like, their resumes look light. I think Minji's resume almost looks better than you would expect on the major front and not as strong on the, just the week-to-week LPGA tour stuff. Like she's almost got kind of that Brooks thing going. Very curious.

I'm going to pick Nelly. No, I'm not going to pick Nelly. You can do it. I think I'm going to come back around too and be like, okay, Nelly, but I'll follow you. Nellie also will not win. God, the more. Brian, I, I, I'm going to pick Ronning Yen.

Okay. I just, yeah, got great form. Yeah, give me Ronning Yen. Who will not win? I'll say Lydia. Lydia, Charlie. Charlie won't win. I'll put, I'll go out.

Gino will not win. Hoiju hasn't, well, she went back home and played a Korean event and whipped everyone post-chevron, but hasn't played anything else just like Minji. I said I was going to go Nelly and then somebody else. I pumped her up, Hannah, but I also did that at Chevron as well. I think it would just be super cool. But I just, I hate to dog on Gino. But it's kind of, we're at the point now.

We're like, we've looked at the stats. We've seen the performances. Like, you just kind of got to do it. Everybody seems to be coming around. Until you do it. You're just kind of, it is what it is. Yeah. DC was alone on this island.

he was the only one on this island. I was the only one brave enough to ask the questions. Which I think is a huge compliment because she's so fucking good. And it does it does, like if it's going to happen Virginia, I'd be surprised if it was

this week, right? I think she's going to win majors. This one doesn't jump off the page as like the best opportunity for her. Yeah, like Hazeltine would seem like a better better fit or, you know. Or Evian. She plays Evian really well and should have won it last year. Like I think that, you

know kind of suits her pretty style i know it's not the same evion kind of slaps though it does it does slaps but yeah still it's fourth i think i'll go out play this sunday night uh i think riv might be a little too much golf course for meyu yamashita i'll take her not to win too all right we haven't mentioned lcccc yet all strikers golf course we jinxed a shit out i know i got burned at Chevron. I was, I was really impressed. I was really impressed.

She missed the cut at McAtewa, but I thought she battled nicely. Like she, she kind of, I don't think she had it, and she tried to get herself back into it. So, you know,

some grit there after a bad start. That was a very Ryan Rusillo take. I actually walked away from McAteeva being more impressed with Lord Coglin after she missed the cut. If you ask L.C. If you ask L.C., outside of the wind in Vegas, she's not really happy with how the ball striking and putting is going this year.

You know, it's, it's, she's in an interesting spot. Can I throw a little sleeper play out for Patty Tavitantaniket? Nice Chevron. Hasn't played great kind of since then, but had a decent little start to the year as won a major championship before. And has that a little bit of a return to form. She's just, She's a little down the board outside that top 30.

I was going to say we haven't mentioned the defending champions name. It was a bolt from the blue last year. Maya Stark. Cody, any faith in Maya doing it again this year? Oh, there wasn't any faith going into Aaron Hills for her either. It was going to be one of my storylines, but I didn't want to, you know, Maya is in such an interesting spot. She won the U.S. Women's Open last year.

she finished out the year with like six miscuts barely made i think two or three actual cuts uh so far this year it's been different she's only missed one cut best finish coming off last week in Cincinnati but there's a lot uh a lot going on there uh outside of like getting the the golf ball in the hole um but you never know i mean she she's again she played good in california we have no history to fall back on here. So I just don't know if this, if this test is going to be it for Maya. But somebody, I'll take another run at another suite here. I do think that this kind of like, I could see Lynn doing something. Oh, God. Oh, we're getting hurt by this. Just quit. We just quit this. No, I agree. I am, I am on that. But if you like, you know, showtime lights, you know, it's just,

I can, I can kind of see it happening. could see the sweet mea orton grin i could see her playing well before those other two honestly uh i think that like i think an amateur is going to make make noise this week whether it's asterisk or you know whomever i think it's i think there's there's plenty of them in the field there's playing them and go to school out in california and play on these grass types uh between USC UCLA Stanford uh cal i just think there's and it's and it seems like the kind of course where if you just do the ball striking and you just you know you just hit it where your caddy tells you to hit it you're gonna like I think that's what a lot of the amateurs do like on both sides of the game I think it's like all right like play disciplined

golf and just hit your spots and it adds up to something larger I'm going to move us towards wrapping here we are going to be live we're going to be on site for a couple days of the golf tournament and we'll be going live from somewhere, I believe, on site Friday night after play wraps around cut time. So it'll be late on the East Coast time, but come join us. Or if you're not, you know, on the East Coast, please come join us on the No Layup podcast YouTube channel. We'll be live on the everything app. Kind of give you a halfway update and our experience on the ground for a week we're really, really, really excited for as well. We'll be live on Sunday night, of course.

Afterplay concludes. We'll be recapping the end of the tournament as well as the end of the memorial. and all our typical live show stuff that we do. So no longer a podcast, YouTube channel, please subscribe there. Or you can follow us, or you can listen on the podcast or wherever you get your shows. So thank you everyone for tuning in. Thanks to Shannon Ruiard for joining us as well. Everyone enjoy the United States Women's Open this week.

We will see you on Friday night. Crack on. Cheers.