No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 1177: Wyndham Clark Wins The 126th U.S. Open

Episode Date: June 22, 2026

Wyndham Clark (-4) claims his second U.S. Open, holding off Sam Burns (-3) and Tom Kim (-1). We break down the entire week at Shinnecock Hills, discuss the biggest winners and disappointments, look ahead to future U.S. Open venues, dive into Hamsterdam, cover some PGA Tour news, and more. Presented by Titleist. Support our sponsors: Titleist - the #1 ball in Golf! High Noon - Sun's Up! Travelers Championship Looking to travel this year, check out East Sands Golf Co.: https://www.eastsandsgolf.co/nlu Join us in our support of the Evans Scholars Foundation: https://nolayingup.com/esf The NLU email newsletter: bi-monthly updates on all things NLU: https://newsletter.nolayingup.com/subscribe Join The No Laying Up Nest: https://nolayingup.com/join Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. Johnny, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up Live show. Sunday, United States Open Recap.

Solly here, joined by, we had to convince him to come on. It was tough. It was a struggle. Mr. T.C., I'm sorry for your loss. sorry for this week. Hello and good evening. Appreciate that. It seems like apology season all of a sudden.

Everybody's into the spirit of the sorries. No, I wish I could have been on with you guys last night, spent the night with the fam, but I am here tonight. Yeah, what a, what a weird day. We'll get into it. DJ Pi is here. Hello, DJ. Solly, hello.

Time to open up some grape, my man. I saved myself one transfusion. And I'm ready to, I'm going to need all. of it tonight, I think. It's going to be a cathartic one, a big one to talk through. We're going to be joined a little later. Big Randy's coming in. Neal's going to come in. We're going to kind of run through a, it's a, you know, not a bullpen game. We're the openers. We're the starting rotation. We'll be bringing in some arms to help us bring it home. The Nulli-A-Podcast.

You saved arms yesterday. That's why you save arms yesterday. You can go big on the finale. We got a full bullpen ready to rock tonight. We did, we did. The Nol-I-I-Gat podcast is brought to you by titles. It's the number one ball at the U.S. Open for 78 consecutive years and counting. Facing one of golf's toughest test this week at Shinnock Hills, 107 players teed up a ProV1 or ProV1X model golf ball, more than six times the total of the next closest brand. And for Wyndham Clark, that's now two U.S. Open titles with its ProV1X,

gained over eight shots teed to green while topping a leaderboard that featured titleless golf ball players in nine of the top 10 places. that makes it 10 wins in the last 10 weeks for ProV1 and ProV1X golf ball players on the PGA tour. Go to Titleist.com and find out what golf ball is right for your game. There is a reason why everyone is playing these golf balls. And if you have not done that, you are falling behind. Titles.com. Dege, take us away. Guys, only the ninth time that we've seen this, a wire, a true wire-to-wire winner of the U.S. Open,

someone who led outright after all four rounds, you probably remember the last. The last one was Martin Kimer at Pinehurst. Some other some other BDPs on that list. Rory did it at congressional. Tiger's done it twice. It's kind of baller. Tony Jacqueline's done it. Ben Hogan's done it.

Jim Barnes has done it. Walter Hagan's done it. And now Wyndham Clark has done it a one shot victory at Shinnock. He's tied for the fourth fastest route to two U.S. Open. Only a sixth U.S. Open. He's won two of them in six starts. That's impressive.

Him Trevino and Brooks Kebka. each won their second U.S. Open in their sixth start. And importantly, because I think it sets the tone for today, he is only the second player in 10 years to hold the 54-hole lead at the U.S. Open and shoot three over or worse. The other one, of course, is Sam Burns last year. So a topical stat there

because I think it sets the table for what we saw. We saw some not good golf today. We saw some great golf from the other groups. Did we see Shinnecock? B. Shinnickok, I want to ask you guys about that. But, Sally, I'll start with you. Just Wyndham Clark, two-time major champion. What's going through your head right now?

The extreme positive side, if I'm bending over backwards here, would be, I mean, what a, it's not an incredible comeback in an adversity story. But it is remarkable to think about where he left, you know, the state of his game, state of his mental state, leaving Oakmont last year to now coming back and winning this year. Like, I thought the guy was done. I never thought we were going to hear from him. Again, flash in the pan, crazy that he had this run. I don't really know what you'd compare it to, but didn't last that long. He's had one great year and was kind of back to being mediocre. I didn't see this comment.

I don't think a lot of people saw this coming back. It's a remarkable, remarkable story in that regard. One of the most bizarre watches ever of just, we talked about this last couple nights of feeling like, I feel like Wyndham Clark gets the most hate. of anyone in professional golf, which doesn't quite match up for me. I get these, not the most likable person,

but I could name a few guys that I think deserve more than he's gotten. Name him, sorry. I think we have named them. I think there's still a difference in like, you know, weird online dislike

and like actively rooting against them in person, which was, I don't know, that part made me a little uncomfortable. like Colin Montgomery did he ever get it that bad like Bryson Reed they've never had been treated like that by fans and I would nominate them as

as much bigger agitators than Wyndham Clark has been certainly not outside of a Rider Cup at just a regular drug play event where people are just saying get in the bunker after you make contact is like I don't know if that's a first but man that's a rare one you don't

see a lot of those yeah that's that's just the part that I'm just like it just made me a little uncomfortable honestly it was just kind of like i'd you know i i'm not rooting for the guy i don't have like a major dislike for him i just have like a sports dislike but it's not an extreme one for me and that part just made the day uncomfortable for me like i was not enjoying that aspect of it um and you know it was interesting it i don't know they just made it for an uncomfortable watch uh honestly today and an uncomfortable win at the same time and uh just knowing that it's got to be somewhat bittersweet

for him with how the entire day went and the energy there and the lack of enthusiasm for it. It's his own doing in a certain way. But I don't know, man, that just, that part just didn't sit great with me. Didn't leave me a good and fuzzy feeling at the end of major championship week. No, I totally agree. Like, I, you know, I kind of despise the guy. But at the same time, like, I don't know, there's a line in golf, right? And I feel like, rarely has that line been crossed by fans.

And now it's happened twice in, you know, what, twice in nine months in the same part of the country there. So yeah, it was almost frustrating for me in that like the New York fans almost made Wyndham look like a sympathetic figure today, which is kind of crazy. And I think that is the most adversity he's probably faced, right? Like that like not of his own doing. And maybe there's something there where, I mean, I think people have never gotten like any shred of accountability for anything. I'm not talking about the locker room thing. I'm not talking about, you know, just one isolated incident here or there. It's just been kind of a, you know, kind of a trend.

But I think also like there's seemingly there where Wyndham wants to be really well liked. Like you can tell he wants to be liked so he doesn't turn heel. And I think that almost pisses people off more, you know, of, you know, when he, when he, when he makes that birdie putt on 16 it's you know Patrick Reed would have could crotch chopped the crowd totally to shut up or all that and yeah and like Windham you know windham's just like it's like it's like he he doesn't want to be the heel at all and but then I don't know but then he's like he's certainly acted like the heel um inadvertently for the last 12 to 24 months yeah it separated almost into two groups or at least what I was watching today because there's the people on site, the very

dumb people, the getting the bunker people who are yelling point blank is just like that, that's dumb and makes golf actively worse. That sucks. Don't think anybody would, anybody who listens to this pod would disagree with that. The rest of it, though, that's just sociologically very fascinating to me, is just how everybody else seemed to feel, which is what Randy was saying last night, what you were saying, Salli, which is like, man, is this out of scale a little bit. Like, why is this unanimously fuck this guy? Like, this is weird. I think it is mob mentality.

And I think it's also what I said last night where I think, I think Wyndham's just, he's just involved in a lot of situations that people don't like. You know, it's like there's, there's the LACC, the big one that looks like it should be off the planet. How does he get away with that? Like, I hate that. Okay. Oh, the wind's blown too much. And now the LACC was a conflicted week

too. Like people were pissed off anyway at LACC. You shot, you know, you know, shoot 60 at pebble beach the tournament gets canceled he's he's running away with t run running away with the title of tpc craig james i think there's just a lot of stuff that is like not his fault that i think people are just like you know what enough is enough fuck this we can't we can't do this come on sam birds and it just made for this very weird uh dynamic that i admittedly it was like if you again i'm not making this personal on windham but i'm like as a sports fan i'm like okay we got we got we got we got good guys and bad guys today that

made today like very fun and i had a good time watching it certainly better than i thought i was going to have entering the day with a six shot lead golf needs villains i just think we need villains who know that they're the villain well we said this last it was like i fun villains are and polarizing people are interesting versus like you know you know all up to one side it is reading joel beles article did it did remind me like it kind of started everything started with some unfortunate tweets uh back in like 2020 when that was uncovered in 2023 was like kind of what started the online role

I think on Wyndham is again the list of things that gets him is not none of it's criminal but it is it is a long you know you can find something in there probably to dislike them if you're looking for it but pick your flavor there's all sorts of flavors yeah

yeah it's a variety there's a lot of on ramps or off ramps I should say for but like the guy went wire to wire and won at Shinnecock Did lose on Thursday. I know he was on the good side of, couldn't even get the sentence out, TC. I know he was on the good side of the draw.

Okay. This happens at golf tournaments. It undoubtedly benefited from it. It contributed to him winning the tournament. It has happened to a lot of golf tournaments before. He survived a lot, a lot. He did not have his best stuff today. He had to play with a massive lead for a really long period of time.

Had so many great moments. The put on 16. The par saved. what he made a par saver on six today he made so many par savers yesterday hit a ton of really excellent the shot he ended a 10 today was excellent excellent excellent golf shot put a ton of spin on that one and made the birdie and he threw a couple shots back for us to make it interesting like you tip your cap to him this was a better day than him winning by six I think that was you know better and honestly from where I'm sitting there's already a US Open champ like it doesn't

winning another one it's a great achievement sure it doesn't change anything it's not like watching i don't know what the comp here would be if it's somebody that hadn't won one that we had to live in a world where that guy's a major champion that would have been sweet that would have been devastating yeah yeah it would have been consolidated i mean now he joins an elite group man two u.s open titles and uh i still don't know what to make of his career or what to make going forward out of any of this but yeah he's got more majors than justin rose does now he's got more majors than i mean fuck a lot of guys we can go down that list if you want to to and it's it's it's wild we're in a world where wendham clark's a two-time major champion the us open

specifically too right is it's always weird where you get you get andy north you get you know rathief gusen you get some of those guys that just it just clicks twice in six years twice and seven years you know whatever it is in a way that it doesn't seem to happen uh at a lot of the other majors and brandle speaking of roteef goose and brandle said two things i i thought were super interesting last night on live from first of all he was talking about shinnecock and He's like, you know, everybody talks about the width and everybody talks about the wind and all that stuff. He's like, according to him, he said, Shinnikok is by far the most iron or the most putter dependent U.S. Open venue. And I think the reason is because so much stress gets put on your putter with missing that many greens and the ball rolling far away and having all those par savers.

And also the lag putting, which is exactly what we saw from Wyndham Clark, not just today, but for the entire tournament. How good did he look? I mean, even going back to yesterday, right, when he, he kind of three-puncting. putts that first hole and looks like, oh, God, maybe he's going to let all the air out of the balloon. And then I think it was it two or three, there's three, the next part four, where he had probably a 90 footer that he hit to that close. So it was like, oh, man, he's like, he's not going anywhere. Like he might, he might give some back, but he's not going to go shoot 80.

And the putter, the putter carried him, man. As much as the ball speed is kind of his, his ticket at the Byron Nelson. I mean, the putter was the thing this week that that absolutely kept him in. it's just like every fucking put looked like it was dead center until maybe at the last minute it dove or something but they all looked so... Made that one on 14 too, yeah.

I know. I know. They always... Bumpy as hell too. Fourth in putting this week. Yeah. Yeah. And we'll get into Shinnecock and break that down to your point though, Deeds.

Like, it is a... It is... There's a ton of variance in the leaderboard defined by putting. I think that's still very different than like a piece of shit putting contest on the PGA tour because there's ton of short game that goes into it and the short game shots are just hard to get super close.

So you end up with those five, six, seven, eight footers that are outside the hole that we just don't see very often on the PJ tour. And that's a special skill. And one that honestly, Scotty, like I feel is kind of a weakness for him. And that kind of came through in certain ways. And that's another way you just tip your cap to him, man. It was a really, really strong performance. Every time it dipped, he came back and responded in some way. Yeah, he's, I don't know. Is this the, is this, does he have more majors in him? Like, what, what do we? What do we do?

This is a bit of a, Sam Stevens is the next Robert Stribb. He's, I don't know if I'm ready to consider that. Okay. So, like, let's get, let's get a little deeper into this show and we could, we could think about that. What was the all shot of the day for him? Because I think that's an interesting question. For me, it was everything on 10. 10.

Like that, that drive was really cool on 10. Like, I think that was showed a lot more. more artistry than I think we've seen from him at least off the tea. And then... It was like a low... If you don't remember what we're talking about, it was the hole where a lot of people are hitting irons. You can tumble an iron down that hill and kind of get down to the same spot.

And you just hit this like bullet drive. We pulled driver and they were like, whoa, pull and drive. And it was like, oh, this is what we're doing. That was a huge shot. Hit it right down to the perfect spot and then just that wedge that was ripping. And yeah, it was just like two perfect golf shots. 174 ball speed on that drive. And he's in the upper 180s.

He launched it at below seven degrees, an apex at 74 feet on 10. That was a sweet shot. And I felt like the A, that showed a lot of commitment to, hey, here's our plan. Here's our, I thought his caddy was awesome all week.

Like, just keeping him, you know, their plan was awesome. Like they knew where to miss it, what side of the greens to miss it on for the most part. Like most of his, his errors were just execution errors, you know,

down the stretch. I think the um hitting that shot with that much spin from 60 yards from a downhill lie into a green that's that is 30 feet above your head is like remarkable that like you know that took a lot of balls and yeah like he just had a bunch of those wedge shots he had a bunker shot yesterday that was just i think on those other Friday or saturday on 11 that i was like holy shit like yeah he hit that was so much commitment uh to go

to go back that far at that pin. And, like, we saw what happened to Morcawa today, you know, early on with kind of skull and one long. Like, those bunkers aren't easy. The sand's not easy. And I think just generally speaking, like, he played pretty fearlessly when it came to chipping in short game, especially. Like, he was, he was trying to win the golf tournament. And, yeah, I don't know. I think that, but, like, that shot, that steadying shot, even with Scotty making the pot right there.

Like I think if he doesn't make birdie there and Scotty makes birdie, maybe it turns into something different and Scotty feels like there's blood in the water. But yeah, that just that felt like to me. It was like, oh, okay. Like this guy's, he's sticking his nose back in the fight and he's going to, he's going to kind of arrest the stop here. Because like on nine, like I thought that was going to be a for sure bogey or double based on where he was off the tee. I know, and I know like he got lucky with a lot of lies all day, all week.

week and every time bone bones was like this is the worst lie in the history of golf like he might die if he tries to get this like the one on 16 and it's like fuck man like when it's your week it's you know yeah bones was describing that lie i mean bones it knows his shit this is not me challenging that but like from the aerial view looking down at i'm like ah you can see the ball like it sounds like he did hit a remarkable shot out of there like if it as much golf as bones is seen if it surprised him and it it was close to going in the that bunker. Like that could have gone, gone awry for him there. But there was a, yeah, there was a guy. I don't, even after seeing the course, I don't like, I don't wish I could go back in time and be like,

oh, this was a great course fit for Wyndham Clark. I didn't see that, you know, even having seen what we've seen. But once he gets going, you're like, oh, shit, man. Like, he just kind of, kind of knows how to get around. He played really smart. He was, he mean, he hit a lot of bad shots that just didn't end up killing him. And there's something to be said for strategy of that. He didn't make a ton of like super fatal mistakes. Made a lot of mistakes. It just led to bogies.

But none of them were like the you can never make that mistake in a U.S. Open. And it made all the difference, one by one shot. I would shout out the parsay on number four as well, T.C. When he drove it in the fairway bunker. And you mentioned the bunker's quick parenthetical just to say the bunker is one of my MVP's this week. The rocks in the bunkers made for like actual true. hazards where let's rip all those liners out of every bunker. I'm sure no super will have any problem with that.

Let's just let's get these rocks to the surface. We need it. They should give the bunkers the E.J. Marshall plot. Right? 100%. I couldn't agree more. Just hits an absolute clunker out of there. Things are moving quickly.

People are crowding around the ball. He's moving people array. And then I mean, he just chips it out to 15 feet and like that pot was never going to miss. Right. You know, it was like there were so many of those that it just every time it felt like he was, you know, not going to get back up off the mat. I mean, he just hit one of those right in right in the center. And then, yeah, you mentioned 16, the second shot wedging out of the out of the cabbage, but then to another put to pour in the 25 footer from the back of the green.

Like Faxson said, it was one of those two like up over the hill where you got to judge the speed perfectly. And it was, I don't know, he just, he just kept doing it over and over. And it was 17 was almost the, that was the fluke, right? Was the three put there. It's like everything else was no doubters. I just wish 18, you know, had a little bit of that. It's a little tighter up that right side. We could have used a little narrowing there on 18.

That was, I know, I know. What a fascinating spot, though, for like for him to be in every, for the last three years, like all he's been asked about. well, not all, since the Oakmont thing, maybe not. But before that, it was like, so, I mean, that shot at LACC, like, were you trying to do that? Was that like, you know, that was pretty, pretty ugly. Like, you're standing on the tee with the same thing,

got to make a par, wide, fair away. You got room on the right. Like, it's just a, I don't know. I think the wind's coming out of the right. Not the first person to say, but those two U.S. opens echoed in a, in a very, very big way. It did make it harder, too,

that he looks away after the second. shot that didn't jump and it did carry enough to get up onto the green and not you know i think he thought that ball was rolling back and coming up way short uh and that would have made for a tough tough tough tough up and down but uh yeah got it done man got it done we need a spinnier golf ball that's right we need the minimum spin uh do we want to talk sam burns yeah i think real quick too just to your point sally on on shinnock like i think you see You know, I love the course. I thought the setup had its plus and minuses this week.

But I think that the great thing about Chinatuck is that a guy like Tom Kim or J.T. Poston or, you know, Hatten or Zach Blair. Like it's a pretty equitable thing. Like, it's, you know. Favorite accuracy. Yeah, it's not as important as far as bombing the ball. I think it's an iron player's golf course and a thinking man's golf course. And, you know, and that totally bared itself out. nice variety throughout the week in the leaderboard.

To that, I say, you raise your grape to Wyndham Clark. You're your 2026, U.S. Open champion. This is not us signing off for the record. This is us saying. You need to go check out high noon. High noon vodka, vodka, seltzer, vodka iced tea, tequila seltzer, no matter the occasion, high noon has something for you. As mentioned, we are on the transfusions tonight in honor of, you know, I need you to

do this. I need you to pull like an Eagles thing, a Jalen Hurts. thing and just to completely flip and pretend that Wyndham's your boy. But if you're looking for your next pack, I pulled an Eagles thing. Jaylen Hertz is still not my boy, even though I'm a huge Eagles fan. If you're looking for your next pack, check out the high noon tequila Seltzer Fiesta Pack. It comes in an eight pack or a bigger 12 pack if you're looking for an even larger Fiesta.

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We've had to use, do that when we, when we travel to some events to find, to find what we're looking for. But to Mr. Burns. Mr. Burns, excellent. 67 today finishes a three under for the tournament. He had a, he had a good one. This was a good stat I saw.

There's been four players in the U.S. Open history that have failed to convert the 54 whole lead one year and then won the next year. He had a chance to join that crew, illustrious crew. Alex Smith, your guy, T.C., Ballinor, Alex Smith, John McDermott, Bobby Jones, his friends called a Bob. And Payne Stewart was the last one to do it in 1999. Alas, that was not to be. Hot start for Bermuda Burns. Bertie's the first, hits it like inside two feet, hits it inside eight feet. at number three, makes a bomb at number five, which cuts the lead to five, makes another bomb at number eight, which cuts the lead to two. What are you thinking at the turn? Was this, did this feel real to you guys? Did we think that this was a threat or what?

Well, didn't his his, his, his bomb on five cut the lead to, cut the lead to three. I think you said five. I cut it to three. Like that was, that was, that was what it was getting, yeah, it was extremely real. Happened quick, happened fast. I yeah he played an awesome round of golf he has a certain to develop a really strong u.s open record I love how I love how hard and committed he swings at the golf ball he swings hard at it but in a contained way in a very um he just sends it he said he just looks like somebody who's never guiding it only only shot he guided all day was the the birdie put on 17 which we can get to but I mean, you don't, it's a guy you don't want chasing you on a golf course where putting is going to make up a ton of the variance and how this thing is settled.

Like, keep him pouring in birdies all over the place. Like, and you're behind as Wyndham with the lead and you got a lot more holes to play and finish. And that's not working in your favor. Like when you're going backwards, it felt real. It felt really real. And the birdie on 16 was awesome. Stepping up to the, hitting the shot on 17. He just looked like he was absolutely floating out there.

and I said that I think Keith should have got up and hit the putt first on 17. He was inside. It should have been a team effort to try to win this thing. And Keith needed to step up and play out of turn and give Sam the read on that one, give him the best chance. And he had such a good put on 18, man. It was an excellent put. I had the read from Keith on that one, thankfully.

It was needed an ounce more effort and it would have not fallen down the right. side. He's got to just be absolutely kicking himself right now. And I don't know if it makes it better or worse, you know, tonight to know you just hit a great put on 18 and you had that awesome run in you, but still came up one shot short. I'm sure he's heartbroken right now. Solly, that was some, me talking about Tommy shit, just avoiding the three putt there on 15. And that shit happens. You can't do the selective. Leaving the birdie putt, you know, 16 and then 17 was, I mean, that was like, the worst part of the week I saw from him.

That was a bad putt. I think the one that I wish I had, he was fifth and putting today. He had to hit a lot of good putts to get to that point. He was fifth and putting today. You can't say the putt in the week. He's the best putter in the world until he has to make him. And then he's not.

I'm worried the judge is going to throw this case out. And his stats like back that up too, according to Justin Ray. He was fifth and putting today. I'm saying until like until the pump is on. until like it's, yeah, until it's like three holes left, four holes left. I think if there's one shot that I think, I wish he had back today outside of those putts was the second shot into nine, right in the middle of the fairway.

And he's like 180 yards. I mean, it's a tough shot. It's a uphiller, but I think he's got to put a better move on it there if you're trying to put the pressure on Wyndham heading into, you know, 10 and 11 as well. The shot for me is the wedge into 15 that put him in the spot to three putt because he must have had a bad number. It looked like he was trying to take something off the wedge and pulled it a little bit and it got way too deep in that green. And he didn't even come close to hitting his mark.

How far away was he with his first put? He was 51 feet away from 120 yards. Like that's a shot you would not expect him to hit. And that's leads to the three putt. And I mean, three putts were out there. there were a lot of those from Wyndham from a lot of the players in the field. So I don't know. I have a hard time blaming Burns's,

Burns' putter today for the effort he made. I will say big picture on Sam Burns. I watched him play when we were at Pebble this year for the first time in a long time. And I'd just forgotten, I mean, like watching him flight the ball, watching him shape, shot, like he's a very real golfer. And it's taken a while for the performances to kind of stack up in majors.

and I think he got a lot of very valid, you know, stick for not showing up in the majors at all. And he's really changed that since the beginning of 2024. He's turned into like a big game contender. And he's punted some chances away. You know, he's when it, when the lights have gotten bright, he has kind of, he has kind of shriveled. But at the same time, like, we've seen it with Xander. We've seen it with, with other players.

Like, it's kind of what it takes. You got to just like, keep. getting your head knocked in over and over and over until finally it clicks and it's your week so who knows if if he missed his window for for like this really really good golf but i don't know man i i i you will be very much on my short list going into the majors next year i feel like it's it's it's like he's become one of those guys that has has really shown up when when when he needs to so credit to him for that because it was not good early in his in his career yeah i think he uh i think we tend to um i don't know i feel like he gets discounted a little bit myself included

just because he has a bad rider cup record playing with scottie which has been just kind of frustrating of like wait you got two captains picks in here you're one i think he's like one three and two uh is his rider cup record playing a bunch of those with scottie and a bunch of them quite publicly and televised and very poor and marco simone and i feel like i feel like that carries over to into people not taking him as serious uh of a golf as he is. He's 12th ranked data golf player in the world right now. He is one of the best players

in the world and it never, I don't know, it just doesn't doesn't roll off the tongue as somebody around that ranking and maybe it's time that he does. I think I had blacked out until you just said Marco Simone. I think I blacked out when him hitting that shank at the

Ryder Cup as well. I'd never forget that. Add that to the list as well. How about Scotty? this was a this is a weird one man he got in snuck into that last group you know wind him wobbling a little bit and scotty just like could not could not get the jar off the off the cup make any puts and just couldn't couldn't get it going it just seemed like his B game or his C game like you know Neil I think Neil diagnosed it on Monday or Tuesday he stuck I have to check with Neil on that yeah

It was, him missing the green at one was just, and laying back to like 160 was just like, ah, God, this might not be, this might not be here today. It didn't seem like he was primed to, to play offense after that. I was like,

like, I'm a solid, you called it out right in the moment. You were like, man, like, like, Wyndham just.

Wendham just, yeah, he's six shots behind him, very quickly there. And wouldn't have played the golf course better than Scottie did. I honestly, God, this is going to get it feels so fucking stupid,

like us sitting here at home and, and, and criticize the number one player in the world strategy. But I just didn't, I didn't think I saw, I didn't see genius from Scotty in terms of the cerebral player that he is. Some really bad leaves, some questionable strategy decisions in there. I know guys were taking Fairway Woods off 12 today,

but, you know, I had a good shot in there. That one's kind of tough to criticize. But yeah, the first hole. Like you got to step on the gas. Like you laid back to 160 yards. There wasn't that much risk to go right like where Windham did. was kind of luck.

He drove the green today. Yeah, like you could, you had to do that to get at that back left pin. So then he's, the best driver of the golf ball in the world. Right. Yeah,

he takes on the wrist with the second shot. His shot doesn't hold. Wind him from 40 yards closer, gets enough spin to hold it on the back part of that green. And you make bogey there to start. And yeah, it was kind of a quiet little egg laid by Scotty today. Shot 71.

It was, it was not, not great. His floor is remarkably high. Like we say, after all of these tournaments, but it was not a, I don't know, there was just something missing from Scotty and Ted this week, I'd say, of just, I didn't feel like I was watching guys on the right side of the momentum,

you know, train at any point. So I texted you today, but like Ted just seemed like he was so subdued and, and behind the scenes this week. Like, I feel like normally it's Scotty and Ted walking together and, doing this thing, you know, arm and arm. And it just felt like, I don't know, Ted, Ted just felt really sleepy this week. I feel like I need,

this is a me problem for sure. I need a little more buildup for this career grand slam as well. You know, like just sneaking up and taking it today as Wyndham just pooped down his leg would have been, that would have been a little hollow. You know, that will be,

that will be good. Yeah, we need to, we need to, we need to, we need to ramp it up a little bit. I think that would have felt, would have felt a little cheap if he,

if he, if he, just swooped in and stole it today, which again, this is a me problem. But as a, as a fan, part of me wants him to come out and be like, you know what? It just really got to me. This means so much. And I think I just, you know, I changed my strategy and it just messed with me. And instead it's going to be like, ah, what are you going to do? You know, you lose some. You win some. Anyways, we're on to the next. I'm like, ah, I need Rory out here. Just like, I'm dry at everything, man. I'm doing everything I possibly humanly can to win this thing.

And I can't fucking do it. And I just, I don't think we're going to get that same change. from from scotty unfortunately he's not outwardly today was the first time it felt a little bit dispassionate right and yeah it just felt weird and sally i think that that that that start kind of sums it up of like i think if a killer or or someone who's like no like i'm going to step on the neck and send a message here go birdie one and it just felt like oh you know what today might not be my day and credit to him like it seemed like he hung in there without his best stuff but um but it just didn't seem like he could transcend that. Yeah. I mean, I am impressed that he can hit the ball as mediocre as he has for his standard

and still just constantly, you know, be around and not fall off into the 20s, 30s, not do, you know, fall back into kind of Rory, forgettable territory this week, you know, like Scotty just kind of refused to refuse to do that this week. I mean, it was in the final freaking pairing. But no, it just never felt like, and at no point today, I think he was going to be the one that was going to, going to beat him. beat wind him i know we're going down the board a bit can i just shout out tom kim's shot into 18 oh that was an awesome great coming around on tom kim i love this not really i think it's just

no you are you know he's it's burty on 16 too um yeah i mean i don't we don't need him winning majors though that's that's well i mean while we're getting there can i shout out i mean guys we had we had a perfect game. First time in the history of the U.S. of the United States open. Was it been 1206 years, 124 years, something with first guy to ever shoot even par, even par, even par, Keith Mitchell, he did, he did it, man. He did the impossible, he made the impossible possible. You love to see it. This is going to be my Yeti coldest moment of the week. Thank you to Yeti for presenting this week's coldest moment. I think I want to, I'm going to put a calendar reminder in this for next year we have to brand this we have to keep this

going because you know every year they do the question of like hey would you would you take even right now we got we got to we got to rebrand that too like would you take the keith mitchell would you would you take the keith mitcher right now even par every round and we got to maybe we need to ask some players this before the u.s open next year uh get that just get that document and the pressers would you take the keith mitchell right now does that include the 4129 not necessarily but that's a It's definitely a feature of this one and not a bug. But no, congratulations Keith. Best major championship finish of his career, number one in putting this week.

Not usually the strongest suit of his game. And looked great doing it. Gained a lot of fans doing it. Already has a lot of fans. But I cannot imagine what shenanigans he's getting up to on Long Island tonight. But congrats to Keith. That was awesome. When I think of Shinnock in the future, I will think of Keith, that meme of Keith.

for sure from Thursday it was so good and him him loving it too I mean it was just the whole week what a what a what a massive success for Keith we might need to start it might need to be the Keith Mitchell platter you know like the E.J. Marshall if you get if you finish exactly even if you finish exactly even okay yeah you have to shoot even in every round to get the platter or oh yeah for sure 100% and Keith Keith's putter was so irrationally hot today and really all week but today like a few of those puts that didn't go in. I'm thinking, oh, my God, like this could get, like, like, true heat check kind of stuff going on there,

like late in the, late on the front nine, and then he bogeyed 10, comes right back on 11, and then hit some really good ones down the stretch, too. But, yeah, and I don't know, I thought too, like the last thing I guess I'll say about Sam Burns because not to get us off track, that shot that Sam Burns hit into 17 was, was one of the better, like, Ryder Cowan and Sam Burns,

those two shots into 17. Like, that was, that was a, those were golf shots. And I felt like, that was when I realized, like, oh, my God, like that was big time stuff from Sam versus, you know, Sam's a little bit longer than Keith. And Keith, you know, it was, that was a tough pin to get to. Really tough pin. Drinkware, coolers, bags, cooking, cases, storage,

Yeti has it all with plenty of options to customize. Find out more at Yeti.com. you for sponsoring this week's coldest moment. Should we bring in the big guy? Let's get some, let's get some thrills and delights. I know he was thrilled and delighted by a lot of pitches in the bullpen. No, he's good.

It's that time of season, though. You know, it's major championship. You can bring these guys out in the seventh, eighth inning. You know, there is no tomorrow. Randy, how are you, man?

I'm good. Call me Scott Sullivan. I got a rubber arm and I'm ready to go. Love that guy back in the day, Randy. Love that guy. Randy, I hope we didn't study. on too many of your thrills and delights, but I know that the Keith Mitchell, four straight 70s had to be, had to be on your list.

Listen, anytime you can make U.S. Open history twice in the same week for things that are like kind of cool and wacky, that's a massive thrill and a delight. So, no, you guys didn't step on it. You guys set me up well. A lot of my thrills and delights are kind of moving down the leaderboard, obviously not being on site. I don't have a ton of observational ones. So is now a good time?

Can we move down through the board a little bit? What do we think? Now's it great. Why don't you and T.C. do a little co-lab on the down the leaderboard? I would love nothing more. I mean, let's start right here. Joaquin Neiman plays 71 holes, six under par at Chinnecoq Hills, and he's not the U.S. Open champion.

It's unbelievable. The sixth hole, technically round one. He makes an 11. He makes a 9. he gets stroked a little bit a couple shots by the by the big bad USGA for throwing his club he makes an

11 7 over it's absolutely insane all he needed to do was double that hole and we're in a playoff how do you feel about rule 1 dot 2B Randy and this code of conduct stuff are you

can you get down with this yeah and I'd like to see I don't know who whose hands does this ultimately rest in? Is this like one of those things where executive orders just can get out of hand? I'd like to see whoever is in charge of this rule. Let's get really aggressive with it.

Let's start, you know, let's do some, what do they call it when like the courts set the laws, judicial activism or something? I'd like to see that with this new rule. Do you think they should have to explain themselves too? Like the chief referee gets up and says, hey, here's, here's the ruling. You get up in a press conference and you lay out that day's rulings or judgments.

Yeah. I mean, I think it's a step towards the more subjective nature of professional golf, which is, which is a block that I'm, which, you know, I'm on. It's going to take us 20, 20 years to get there big, but that's a good first step, you know. That's right. It's not going to happen overnight. No, it's a grassroots campaign. It's for future generations.

Big. What did you think about, you know, Rory threw his club six years ago. He's thrown his club before he didn't get penalized. You know, are you mad as hell about that? Well, that's a good question. Can we retroactively stroke guys for bad behavior? That would be fascinating. Maybe you hit them like, you know, when the pitchers get one game suspension on a five-day rotation or something.

Maybe like, Rory, what are you, T-48? Take a penalty this year. He will be taking his penalty today from six years ago. From that time when he hucked it in the lake at Dorel, he will be taking the penalty today. He could take it at Travelers next week, but he's not going to be there. I just love the fact that they, like this rule is essentially because of Sergio. And the first guy to get it is, is one of his fellow live guys, you know, just hot heads. It is wild.

Sam Burns, little, little putter toss there on. team. Oh, God. It doesn't go in. Sawif. Same thing. Yeah. Be careful.

You know what? Arnie that chucked the putter up in the air, Jack? I remember watching one of those old turns. It's like, who knows? Who's out of here? Yeah. Big, I know we're, I want to get to the rest of your thrills and delights, but we kind of breeze past all the, all the, all the Wyndham stuff.

Did you have any Wyndham thoughts slash what would his, you know, technically onto the score card? He shot 73 today. I'm curious what your subjective score would be for him today. Let me start with a very honest take. Very impressive. I think they said he took the outright lead at like 709 p.m. Thursday night and to keep it the rest of the way at a place like Shinnecock, I did not think was possible. I truly am impressed with him closing the deal. So I want to get that out of the way. Normally when you loot or scorned from, you know, a store with that sort of stuff, you make the mistake of trying to sell it on eBay or Craigslist or to pawn shop and they'll get you beforehand. But he, I got to, yeah, I got to, I got to get the word out. I don't know if we're doing like a ticker tape parade maybe around Denver, at least like around

Cherry Hills. You know, an exciting one for my adopted hometown. I think they're going to get you on the broadcast interviewing you out there interviewing everybody else associated with Denver. I'm like, can I get a number for that swing coach? I might have to pay him a visit. Subjectively, I thought 73 was somewhat fair. I don't know if I would toggle his score very much. It feels right. 64 would you toggle that one? Yeah, that was coming up TC. I think that's, I mean, that's 67, I think. We got to knock that one up.

Now we're tied with Tom Kim. Yeah. Congratulations to Sam Burns. Yeah. All right. What else thrilled and delighted you, big? So I feel like some of these are going to be a little against what people might think is my brand. But I wanted to shout out three guys who got to the U.S. Open and made the cut starting at local. qualifying. I think that is very impressive and very cool. So

Merrick Fleming, the amateur, was the low out of the three guys. So big props to him. He obviously did local and then sectional. And then the other two guys were Jackson Van Paris and my guy, Spencer Tibbitts. So

just wanted to tip of the cap. When you start at local and make the cut at the U.S. Open, that's big time. Great call. It's a great one. The low-am fight was good, you know, I think lived up to this exciting amateur class that we had. So proud of my guy, Jackson Coyven. You know, he didn't earn a single cent for my team this week, but he went out and had a T-23.

He got a share of low-am with Ryder Cowan. I do wish they would make them play it off or at least chip it off. I hate awarding multiple low-ams, you know, like let's play that one off. well i mean this subjective scoring is hot in the streets right now are you you're the tiebreaker you give it to so you give it it to either of those guys i thought probably callan if i'm being honest you know coivan did his a lot of work today when scoring was easiest so i i would give the tiebreaker to rider here a couple earnest ones gary woodland tied for seventh it's his best result outside of winning at Pebble Beach and you know we've everybody I think knows what he's

gone through 42 years old just tip of the cap to Gary really nice week bit under the radar and then I thought Aaron Rye was another one surprise winner at Aeronemink to come here you know finish T-11 that's just that's that's that's good stuff so tip of the cap to those two gentlemen It's good stuff. I like it. You're spreading it around. Yeah, spreading the love. And then my other one, little Sammy Stevens,

I just wanted to congratulate him. He kind of held that wiki yellow line. He pared in from starting on the 13th hole. If he bogeys any one of those, all of a sudden you're getting wiki yellow for the great man, Justin Rose. Tommy's getting another wiki yellow. My guy, Xander's getting the wiki yellow.

But Sammy Stevens. Yeah, he held it firm. He made it mean a little bit more. So tip of the cap to him. He did not go away like I thought he would. I would have lost the bet on his over-under round today. God, that's great. Our guy Zander just didn't, couldn't get it done.

But the top 50, what is it, top 15th Street? Top 14th. Top 14. The Plandy is alive with the T-11 finish. That's good stuff, big. Not a thrill and delight. I am disappointed in Zander. this is like, I need to remember this of being, yeah, tied for 11.

It's going to look great next year. It's like, oh, man, he had a pretty good week. But it's like, dude, your weekend, you just went away. You were never in it after Friday. And I'm very disappointed in that. You're right. Yeah. Yeah, I got nothing to add.

I agree. My last little thrill on the light and TC jump in here, where else we want to go down the leaderboard. I don't know why. This is a weird thing. But it always just tickles me a little bit when, you know, you get a massive amount of ties as you go down the leaderboard, which makes sense with a big field.

But there's Matt Fitzpatrick solo 22nd at 4-over. You know, outside of the top three and the bottom two guys, everybody else is tied for a number except for Matt Fitzpatrick at 22nd. And he was low-fits. Barely. One shot I have his brother at T-23. Very interesting. Very interesting.

God, that's good. TC, where you want to double back? Who do you know, I give another shout to my guy, J.T. Posting 67 today. I thought he was going to, I thought he was going to get it in the house at like minus two post something and then hope for some carnage there. But immense week for him and he's on a great stretch right now. He'd been struggling with this game all year, won a few weeks ago at the memorial. And then wasn't in the U.S. Open as of two weeks ago. until he won that.

Yeah. System works. Totally. You know, pound for pound best player in the world, I think. So, Sally,

I know that burns your ass, but Hatton T7. Not. It's sure robbery. It doesn't, that means nothing. Remind me to remember that next year, Randy,

that was just stolen valor, Wiki yellow there. Of course. Hadden kept, we can get to it later, hadn't kept Randy out of a skincare video. That's a lovely pick. I think that was a big round

from Hadd today. That really was. uh john perry t-11 i think he's like late 30s like he's 39 or something pGA tour rookie yes um t-11 he's you know he was a walker cupper back in 2007 just the slowest burn of a golf career and just kind of hung around all week man he um it's funny they i had uh mbc on one channel sky on the other uh and like every time mbc goes to commercial sky went straight to john perry like I don't think they showed them once on NBC, not that I remember,

but they were following it very closely on the other side of the pond. Five of the top 16 were English this week. Randy, you're right. Four-way log jam between Rose, Rye, Perry, Fleetwood, T-11 there. None of them were ever.

Let's just be very clear about that. Tommy, You know, what can we say? It didn't really disappoint. What grade are you giving? 70, 71, 70, 71. I thought, you know, he birdied, birdied two and three today. And I'm like, okay, okay, we're doing this thing.

We're doing this thing. And then pretty solid on four. Hit a really good chip on five. Thought he was going to make that. Like he had, what, five footer for birdie, six footer for birdie? Misses that one. Eric kind of goes out of the balloon. It doesn't get up and down on seven.

and then, yeah, and then kind of, you know, fritters it away there. So I think if we could have gotten, if we could have gotten through the front nine at, I thought he was going to birdie nine. I think if he could have gotten through the front nine at like minus two, minus one or minus two, which he was well on his way to doing that, then it was going to, like, he was firmly in this thing. And he just, just kind of bungled it there. So, you know, good, good reps before we get to Burkdale, right? He did. A lot of pressure at Burkdale. A lot of pressure.

He's got to win the U.S. Open and the Open at Burkdale. He had credit to him for four good rounds, no stinkers, no clunkers in there. In the tough wave. In the tough wave. Is nothing to sneeze at. It was couldn't help but notice maybe the safety systems kicked in as soon as the air got a little thin up there tc it seemed like the flaps deployed uh the shoots deployed like let's let's get back to safe ground uh but i i don't know like what you've been touting this for what six years seven

years that this was going to happen what what what great are you giving this this effort um great of giving yourself i'm going to give him a c i'm going to have a c minus because i think uh he didn't really do anything exceptionally well he'd Gained strokes in every category. No loud traits this week. But I thought this was really setting up for like, okay, Tommy, like we're going to make some putts today. And we're going to shoot 65 and just post something, 64 and just post something.

And like, I don't know if that's just utterly unrealistic because it was really hard out there. But, but yeah, just kind of, I don't know, disappointed. But at the same time, he played good golf not great golf it's tough one his clothes very sure than his golf yeah i'm just i'm sorry i apologize like in in the spirit of this this didn't happen to me this happened we did this we apologize we're sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry to tommy

for putting this pressure on him gosh the world the world waits with faded breath as we head to burkdale does this change anything for burkdale do you know absolutely not it makes it feel even even more ardent that i think he's going to win burkdale so uh i was a little bit i was a little bummed about sahith today but just one last one last circle in this you said you picked him last year and you said you'd never pick him again if he doesn't win you still picked him for this one and you're going to pick him for burkdale that'd be three strikes can we get you to do a 2026 all right if he doesn't in Berkdale, then I will actually no longer pick him for majors again. Or some other downside risk I'd be open to as well.

You pick him, but you're so confident in it that he's going to win and you can pick him for the future. And if he doesn't do it, yeah, but then you guys, when he does win one, you guys are going to, you guys are going to light my ass up for sure when he wins one and I haven't picked him because you're going to say the T.C. you abandoned him. You're bad guy. You're a fluffer, all this stuff. maybe that's what it's going to take tc it might be one of the situations if you really love them you got to set them free i like that we've tried that turn heel and just say this guy fuck i this guy stinks he can't do it i renounce this guy and then he flips her out and wins and you've been

playing 4d chess the whole time i mean god they'd make a movie about that tc i tell you what guys if he if he doesn't win travelers next week Now is the time. This is the place. Every star, every round, every shot that makes your heart race as legends walk the fairways. Kegan Bradley, Scotty Sheffler,

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Visit travelerschampionship.com. Now is the time. This is the place. Travelers bangs, man. And we need to take down Keegan. We need to take what's rightfully ours, Tommy. all right it's better under the umbrella it's it's coming home uh go that was it that was an unbelievable alley up there tc congratulations uh next up we got to address ludwig

to uh a little 60 66 66 today 76 66 on the weekend they call that the ludwig uh that's stunk man piss me off i was proud of you though you never I'm versified. You tempted you end again going after him this year this week and you, and you refused. So I won't give you a hard time on that one. I've given Ludwig some tough love. And, you know, I think I'm, I think the future is bright. He putted, he putted well today for the week.

He was 39th in putting. Like, putted pretty similar to Tommy. He just, it was just kind of, she got stuck in neutral both Friday and Saturday. So, um, what else? I mean, JT, it was just a really good leaderboard, like tons of, tons of really good players in the top 30 guys. It just like, I think the wheat, the weak got separated from the chaff. Disappointed weekend from Fitz. I was all over Fitz this week, and he faded pretty hard on weekend 74, 73.

I was disappointed by that, but. Ben James, T23, continues his good play. Foxy T23, Sully, anything to say there? Nope, we're all good. You picked Big Shot Bob in the in the in the this or that I believe right. I did I did I think I did and I'll be honest about that. Yeah. Did you guys see Bob's comments yesterday?

No, I missed this. Oh, just I mean some of the whineiest whinjing I've ever heard. Has he lost the is he lost the what are we what are we doing? I mean talking about the setup and how. If this was an open championship, the whole locations were just outrageous. Like, guess what, Bob? It's not an open championship. And you bitch about the open championship.

What if that happens? It's just one thing after another. It's so unbecoming of a Scotsman. Like, of someone, like this. Scotch don't do that. And your dad's a fucking greenkeeper, man. Like, what does your dad think about you? They may have caught him.

Maybe they were they interviewing them during the purge? because in that case, all the testimony needs to be thrown out. That doesn't count. You get to immunity during that hour. That's right. Well, we're talking, we're talking setup. We're talking what's a U.S. Open, what's an open championship? I feel like maybe this is the time to bring in Neeler.

Neil, greetings. Hello. How are you, my man? Bangalang! Turn it up, gentlemen. I'm ready to go. Good being with you. Before we talk set up, I just got to get it out there.

very impressed with windup road win some guys feed off winning on the road and i just think the whole property the whole internet's against you and to just refuse to miss those puts and i just really a ton of respect for him he can call wine whatever he fucking wants you can call grapes you know he can he can he's earned it i'm cool with it and i and i also want to give him credit i thought he handled himself really well in the post round interview with terrico acknowledging that like yeah man people don't didn't like me out here and he just went out and got it done and that's got to feel good man so today um i was locked in and made me feel stuff you know it's like good good sporting event uh of like

is this guy going to choke you know is sam burns's going to do there's a lot of good drama i was a little disappointed in the telecast until that last hour and then i was locked in kids are going bad shit you know i'm trying to cook a steak and i'm just like oh man they're not going to commercial i can't get any time to do anything so it was a good uh it's kind of chaos there at the end. So I wanted to shout that out. And I think he seems to care deeply about self-improvement. I mean, obviously, we've been banged over the head with the sports psychology stuff, but I don't know. He seems really switched on and aware and acknowledged it like, yeah, nobody really likes me out here. And I, you know, I want to give him, give him his flowers for

all of that before we get into the, into this kind of USGA setup stuff. That's well said. The road win is a, it's a good way to put it. Can you do it on the road? Not a lot of guys have to. That's an interesting framing. There's done on both coasts now too. And one other thing, because it was almost that 18th hole was a little bit of deja vu, you know, misses it right and then has a long, laggy two putt, kind of. From LACC, you're saying. From LACC, like his two U.S. Open wins.

And I think there's something to be said for, like, Windham is, I wouldn't consider him like a shotmaker, You know, you're like, oh, he's got all the shit. He just, he is, he's like so comfortable. I'm going to hit my cut. He's going to kind of bend the course to how he plays. And there's a discipline to that that I appreciate as well. It's not super fun to watch. You know, I'm not really rooting for it.

But I definitely respect it. He plays very deliberately, which is a bit frustrating as a viewer. But he's not going to get out of his process. We heard the word process with his caddy probably 95 times. But they have a routine. They're going to stick to it. They don't give a shit. Who's saying what about, you know, bad day to be a locker?

Like, they stayed in it. And to do that over and over and over again and to do that with the lead for four days or three days is really impressive. I got to say, I've got no excuse with my golf now. We have the same mental coach now. And he's when U.S. opens. And I can't get, I can't even break through to plus handicap. This is, I got. It's shameful, really.

That's a great point. Was that the weirdest, like, between that and the swing coach? Like, were they going to call his kids? kindergarten teacher next. The whole thing was... We'll save if we'll have Amsterdam section. Yeah. We'll go. Neil, I wanted to

tap you in for this because there was a great piece that dropped, I think it was last night from Brendan Quinn at the Athletic, sat down with Mike Juan to talk about Shinnecock as a host and kind of the complexities that come with having Shinnecock. There were a couple quotes. This was from Mike Juan.

He said, in our decision process, we put cathedrals at number one. Where do we want to play the U.S. Open? Operations and revenues are not at the top of the list. You could argue that's a terrible way to think, but that's what separates us from a PGA tour stop. I thought that was very, very telling, very interesting and very accurate. And then he was asked how much the USGA is leaving,

because this is all kind of laddering up to, you know, specifically yesterday. Like, man, there's, is there anybody out there? Are these grandstands empty? What's going on? Is anybody going out to the end of Long Island here? What's happening? and Brendan asked him how much the USJ is leaving on the table by playing its biggest event at Shinnecock. Juan said, quote, tens of millions of dollars.

I think this gets very interesting when you talk about what the USGA is, what the point of the USGA is. It's raising money to grow the game. There's no shareholders. There's no dividends being paid. It's how much are you raising in your biggest championship to essentially reinvest into the game. And Juan said, is another quote, if we lived on a diet of Pebble Beach and Pinehurst and Oakland Hills, would we be much better off financially 100%, but I'm not sure the championship would be better. I think this is a fan, like just kind of a fascinating conversation as far as what is the U.S. Open?

Why does it look that way? Especially at a time when it seems like every other major, you could maybe quibble with the Masters, but even I think you have some argument to say the Masters is running towards a balance sheet type of championship as well. But, Neil, what was your reaction to reading this as kind of all the other championships kind of sort of seem to go the other way. I loved it.

I feel like in a world of a lot of short-term thinking and quarterly earnings calls, like I'm kind of craving a leader that says something like this. And especially because they're not going to go to Shinnecock every year. If you want to go to a venue like this every eight to ten years, or it's Shinnecock and then Pebble or Shinnecock and then Pinehurst that's set up for the infrastructure for a modern big-ass event. I think that's perfect. Leaving money on the table, like, that's,

I mean, that's kind of it. And I think it's a place that, you know, being on site makes you appreciate it more. So I'll get that out of the way. But I do think it's a place that casual golf fans should see. It's kind of brown and it's not super green. And it's like, what's the big deal about this place? It's like, no, you should, it should be introduced to the casual golf fan.

and I couldn't agree more with the cathedral thing. It's like they should, the U.S. Open should be going to a diverse set of American golf courses because American golf is diverse. And there's going to be consequences to that. There's going to be logistical issues. And I appreciate that the USGA is saying, you know what? We're going to deal with those issues the best we can, but it matters to us to go to a place like this. And it might not be, you know, on TV.

We talk about some of it, you know, getting your broadcast partner to, you know, make it a better TV experience. if less people are going to be on site. And there's definitely things they could learn about making it, maybe not tee it off at 3.30 yesterday so that, you know, people don't feel the stress of getting home because it's not an easy place to get to. But I just, I think Mike Wants quotes are awesome. And he's super direct.

It's like tens of millions of dollars, left it on the table because we think this is important. And we're going to do this. We're going to mix it up. We're going to go here and then we're going to go to Pebble next year and Oakland Hills and we're going to make, yeah, we need to make money. But I love that they are thinking about this as a set of venues and not just we got to cash in.

Like some of the complaints we've had about the Ryder Cup, we got to cash in now, man. This is the cash cow. This is the opposite of that. And there's going to be consequences to that or things that there's downside to that. And I'm cool dealing with the downside of that. That's where I stand. That was beautifully well said. I think it's, I mean, just the fact that, yeah, we have pine.

Heinhurst mixed in, public access, Pebble, public access. I mean, yeah, they're resorts and it's expensive and it's a totally different experience. But it would be a shame if the game or whatever the modern U.S. Open outgrew that golf course because it's amazing, amazing golf course. Important for American golf history. You know, and it's one of the few places, Randy, where we're going to get that guaranteed wind. Like, you know, we don't have to sit around and wait for the wind like LACC. and that's important for this championship to provide a very different test

for all those watching at home than we see at other PJ tour events and other major championships. And gosh, yeah, I appreciate these comments from Juan, and I appreciate that, you know, I still would love it if it had a better vibe on site. It's not like today we seemed a lot better. You know, people definitely stuck around to the end.

It felt like somebody did send me a video of everybody piling out after Winda made Birdie on 16. But it's a worthwhile exchange for me if the setup, you know, I don't care how much money they make one. And two, if it's a little less of a crowd vibe and we get to watch that golf course, I'm down with it. And it would be a bad, bad, bad sign for this championship if they, like, wouldn't go to this because it's not their biggest moneymaker.

Yeah, I thought that, A, it was I thought the smartest piece of analysis in journalism from anybody the whole week. from Brennan Quinn. Like it was just awesome. I would give the R&A little credit for like, Lhythm and when they eventually hopefully go back to Mearfield as well. It's like, all right, you know,

you got a red line the engine at the Hoy Lakes or if they go to Port Marnik or something like that to make those dollars then to kind of hold you over. I think it's a smart thing for Juan to acknowledge this in the context of the players wanting a big cut of the money, and him basically saying, hey, we're leaving money on the table. It's not all about the money for us either. We're investing, you know, hopefully this is a long-term investment in the quality of the pro game and just the competitive game at large.

But again, like I think it's, yeah, I think the late tea times felt like a weird own goal last night or, you know, yesterday even like we were talking about it Friday and it was like, man, like, why are they going off so, so late tomorrow night? and that just felt like a little bit of a maybe getting too cute with it or like hey like make it make it easy for people to watch golf in person um and then i think lastly just like you can go to these cathedrals um but man like it doesn't it doesn't hit as hard if if your tv product doesn't show it off correctly and can't capture the action and all of that like I'm a little bit worried that that element of it, that they're only getting 40 to 50% of the value of going to a shinnacock because they're not getting just a half decent production on the media side. That sucks. One other thing I'd say about the, sorry, Dee, just on-site experience, I think of, and this might sound like a small thing, but there's no shade out there. And I think that's also a factor.

It sounds too simple, but it's like, man, there's no trees and there's, I think they do themselves a favor if it wasn't all, everything that's covered is either the merchandise tent or the hospitality stuff that's, you know, a badge. If they just had some tents that were just like open that you can stand under, I think it'd make a big difference because it, I think by 5 or 6 p.m., people are like, y'all, I'm hot, it's dusty, uh, that train horn's going off. And I don't want to miss that train to New York. It's like some, I think like simple stuff like that. is, you know, probably would help because that was definitely a factor. I think that is spot on having been to a couple of, I mean, Aaron Hills is like that too, right? That's just odd, man. At the women's up. I'm like, man. How many trees are out here? Three?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I think what I really like about this, and I maybe am oversimplifying some of this a little bit. I get that some of these entities are businesses that need to make money for their members or for their mandate or whatever. But at the end of the day, like this, this to me felt like the point is to crown a worthy golf champion. And TC,

you said it as we're going through the leaderboard. I could hear it in your voice almost just like, man, there's a lot of different players, a lot of good players, you know? And it's just a proper championship rather than just like,

well, no, I know we can't technically host the best championship here, but this is the best for a hospital lab, but this is the best for parking. But this is the best for, well,

the founders, want to put a tent here and but and it's like you just get the tail wagging the dogs so often at these championships that you need someone like the usGA to to be like man are the point of what we're doing is to host championships and to identify who is the best golfer in the world this week over four days above all yeah and that that has to it's just it sounds so silly when you break it down to the studs like that that that every tournament isn't that way because that's kind of the whole point, but it's just gotten so out of whack that to hear those quotes, they almost sound like radical when in reality, it's like, well, isn't that what all four

these things are are supposed to be? And to give the master's credit, I mean, I think they've been that way for, you know, 70 years now or whatever as well. So it's not, it's not just them, but it's, yeah, it was just very, very refreshing. And he called out like Wingfoot, Marion Riviera as well is like, hey, these are more limited field places. Limited spectator. Yeah, like, or yeah, sorry. And then I think like Oakland Hills, I'm getting more and more excited to see that just because, you know, it's like, hey, we haven't seen it in forever.

It's been renovated and those fans are going to turn up for it, I think, in Michigan, but in that Midwestern way, not in the fuckhead New York way. No offense, Neil. Well, and I'm curious just our route to, getting there through the next two venues, which are, they're going to almost certainly narrow the fairways and grow the rough for those. And we'll see how that goes. And I'm curious just to, I've never been to Oakland Hills.

I don't know anything about it. But I'd be curious before you get there, if that is a, you know, this was such a celebration of not narrowing fairways and growing the rough. And I thought it was a very watchable tournament for four days. And I kind of don't want to see them retreat backwards into that. but they have a lot of venues coming up that support that. I would push back though slightly. And what I mean by that is I think similar to mixing it up with like a Pebble,

Pebble Beach and a Chinnecock or Pinehurst and Chinnecock as far as like the ability to host a modern tournament. I think having a U.S. Open that is about Thickruff mixed it, like a variety because that's part of American golf. Do you know what I mean? It might not be the type of golf that you want to watch. or it might not be super different than what you see on the PJ tour. But I think it's important. And I'm okay with, I just don't want it to be that way every year.

And I think that's so like Pebble Beach, if that's the test next year, I think I'm okay with that. Because we got the wide fairways and they let Shinnock be Shinnock this week. I think the diversity of venue is a feature and not a bug. Because I wouldn't want them to play it at Shinnock every year, personally. And you don't want to try to import Shinnock. Yeah, exactly.

You got to let Pebble Beach be Pebble Beach. And it's like, yo, it's going to be. be, yeah, ringed with high rough around the greens. And that, oh, man, it might not be our style or what we love to see. But it is a tough test. And it is what it is. And I think that's, that needs to be celebrated too. Neil, I think from a cathedral perspective, too, it's just really interesting to see.

I don't know, they, I, I drive with Boddenhammer and Juan's definition of cathedrals. Because going out through, there's no, there's no venue, like, there's no openings to be spoken for until 2043. And then you've got 2043, 2046, 2048 are the next three through 2015. Those are the only three that haven't been awarded yet. You know they're cooking on 2067 already. And you know what's not anywhere to be found on this list? Tori Pines, Beth Page State Park, Bethpage Black.

Because I don't view those as even a sanctuary, a miniature sanctuary. those are those are those aren't even sniffing cathedral status i love that randy's loving this well a little too public for tc i did no give me i mean i think aaron hills could be a cathedral i was going to ask is it i i i appreciate the usGA like being about something at its core especially in relation to uh the lack of action i think on the equipment and where the pro game has gone over the last 20 plus years. So I'm glad that they're standing for something. I was just though thinking, T.C., I brought up that same like future venues list. I don't know if I love them being this locked in to not a big cohort of golf courses for the next 16 years. You know,

Neil, I thought you said it really well. American golf is a lot of things. And I don't know. I guess I was just sitting here thinking like are there some new places we could go right but we're not going to have that opportunity in the next 17 years 16 years whatever it is and I think that's a little bit of a shame if I'm being honest it's just so funny that it's a great point and I think it's so funny that

when we get 20 years out how that stretch of essentially 2015 and 2017 going to we're trying Chambers Bay we're trying Aaron Hills and a chambers bed you had the weird greens and Aaron Hills, the wind didn't blow and we're going to get 20 years out and be like, you know, they tried it and it was a disaster.

And thank God that they just decided to go to these eight courses over and over and over. Because I'm with you, Randy. Like I like the push and pull, but I do wish there was a little more slack in the rope for maybe we could, maybe we could work in one in 2046. Maybe.

I have a little joker card in there. Yeah, maybe. 20, 30, 31. We're going to let you know. I would love to go back to Chambers. I think Chambers is like, I think it's, I think there's a place for that in, you know. Seems like it.

The more especially we talk about West Coast finishers or, you know, finishing the season on the, on, in prime time or any of that stuff. Yeah, I agree. Guys, guys, quickly, what's your, what's your favorite U.S. Open venue right now? What's, what's number one? With a little more wiregrass,

I think it's Pinehurst number two. like just slightly like just put some more sprigs out there in the in the native area i just really i like pinehurst and i think shin a cock's up there for me i was going to say i think those two are neck and neck for me as well i might catch me on the wrong catch me by the day it's probably a coin flip right now it's shin a cock i think because i i don't know people i think are going to there's a lot of people that maybe didn't have a great time this week but i really had a blast watching it especially yesterday and today I thought it just, it played fantastic.

And I think the winner changed the tone, the feeling tone for a lot of people, for what was otherwise like a really interesting week. I'm really stoked to see Marion again. I feel like I, you know, never been there. I've never stepped foot on side. I don't feel like I understand it all that well. I'm like, I'm stoked for that. I think Oakmont and Wingfoot for me have kind of gone, like they're,

they're they're i'm selling those and i think i'm buying the other shenicocks the pinehurst i really like brookline i think the country club was awesome uh that one's that one's a riser in my book and then i'm really excited for inverness too i think inverness in 2045 sign me up man i hope i'm still a lot that's so far away 19 years i'll be that's what how far is the ball going to go that I'll be 59 years old. I'm probably a product of the same thing I say when I go play links golf, whatever I've played most recent. England, Scotland, Ireland, Heathland, or whatever is my favorite.

Like Chinnecock, I think, is, rises number one for me of. And again, I keep coming back to this. Just like the fact that you can almost guarantee wind is such a riser. It is like a complete, it works so well with the width, with the shape of the greens, with the shots that are required. Like anytime you saw somebody trying to ride a wind into a green this week.

And it wasn't even the most firm week it could have been. It got rejected like every time. And that to me, I know I'm a massive nerd about this stuff, but just watching the different shots required and the different questions being asked of guys and the creativity and just, you know, the constant, constant pressure it put on you from beginning to end in different ways makes it a really enjoyable Thursday to Sunday watch. watching Oakmont is kind of, it's a good golf course,

but it's kind of the same thing of what is going to punish you, and it's kind of predictable in that way. And I like this the best. Pinehurst, I think, you said this well, Neil,

like more punishment off the fairway, I think needs to be, you know, I know they planned it stuff for that US Open. It still didn't punish people enough, but this just had a little more. You know what I like it?

It's kind of a, you know, roll the dice if you hit it in there. because it goads guys into trying to hit like heroic shots, but it was, it was just not quite enough. It feels 2080 right now instead of like 40, 60 or 50. Yeah.

This just had such a good blend of punishment for bad shots and just some really good, like stopping points. Are you hot now? Boom. Number seven. All right. Here we go. You're hot now.

10. Oh, and 11 back to back. Oh, now the wind changed. Now, you know, 16's reachable. And it was a complete three shot hole early on. It just has so many elements of open championship golf that I love all in it to the point where, yeah, I will, I'll remember this one. This was a solid week of golf, despite it not being like the winner and the drama we were hoping for at the end.

This is this top of the list for me. I think you're, I think Shinnock's the best like American championship golf course. Yeah. Your, your point about guys trying to ride the wind, the shot that sticks out is, I think it was Keith Mitchell in the 10. 10. Yeah, God, he tried to hit that draw. And it just, yeah, exactly right. He tried to hit draw, riding the wind and just, you know, lacrosse bounce over the back, you know, which for him, he's kind of right in at that point. And that was kind of the end of his run a little bit.

He battled his way in, but it was like he wasn't going to be a threat after that. There's certain spots where, like, guys are making five as they're walking into their second shot, you know, it's like, no, you've made the wrong decision. You don't realize it yet. Joe Pescihole. That's the good stuff. But several too, also just off the face, tracer slightly out, like Tom Kim's shot on 17 today,

where the tracer went off, I was like, nope, that's not it. You are this far, too far right, and I know that has no shot. Like that, I don't know. That part is like, it just, it was good, man. It wasn't like the dream, everything.

I know it was softer Thursday and Friday than we'd hoped. It was not perfect, but it's like B, B plus overall. set up and playability grade for me for the for the week and with the hand they were dealt I can't I don't think I can realistically ask for more out of the golf course to the point where I'm I'm just on top of like them losing a bunch of money to do it it's like a tip of the cap. 100% crescent the crescendo worked now I got to ask I got to ask the uh you know set up doions

in here. T.C. Randy how do we feel? It still feels a little bit on to me. Yeah, it's a bit under. Yeah. I mean, like, all right, like, I loved it today where you're getting some more of those shots that it's totally borderline whether they're going to stay on the green or they're bleeding out so much more than you ever imagined they could or would. I just felt like it was pretty, it was pretty green. And some of that might be just poa greens and trying to keep those things alive instead of, you know, but it just, it just felt a little too much. manipulated on the side of like we have to be extra cautious. Instead of just like, hey, like this is what, this is what nature is given us.

Um, like I thought, you know, it was just softer even on the weekend than I expected it to be. It was still very, very hard. But like, I don't know. I think this is like, Randy, I know I'm speaking for you a little bit here, but like this is the one place that like puts the fucking fear of God into these guys. And I just want that to be at the forefront. run a little bit more, even final round today. Yeah. I think that's where I am.

I think they could have pushed things a little bit more. Again, we don't have to relitigate everything. I understand what they were concerned about. It just felt a little under overall. Still a very good test. Still a very difficult golf course. But I think TC, you're right. Like this, when it's at its best, this is as good of a test as we are going to get

in the professional game and we had the chance we we got pretty close but we didn't get all the way there i think that's totally fair i think it was like very like in the in the gray area where i feel a little weird to even critique it of on the soft end like you know i ordered my steak you know medium and it came out medium medium rare you know whatever that probably not a big deal all i'll totally totally i'll eat it all right knowledge that i did ask for i could have This is well done. Yeah, maybe slightly, yeah, medium well, like medium, medium, well, whatever that would be.

Medium plus, yeah, it's not exactly what I ordered, but this is totally fine and I didn't want to get food poisoning. You know, I didn't want to get sick. That's kind of where I'm at least this weekend we did not see balls backing up anymore. And it wasn't a controller spinner. You spin it off the green, except for spots where it made sense on like on false fronts and things like that. Directly into the wind.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, I still, finally at least shots that were moving in the wrong direction when they got on the green got rejected. And that's, okay, I'm like, okay, now we're watching your, you're playing position golf and the strategic leaves and everything is just way more interesting than point and shoot golf. And we're back to point and shoot golf. And I would like, you know, I go back to Bowdenhammer talking about the 15th club. I thought it was tested this weekend. You know, you watch these guys walking off 18. They're just, I look more mental exhaustion.

And I think that's what's so cool is that the T shots don't, you're like, oh, he can kind of wide-ass fairways. Like some of the shots don't look that hard. And I really appreciate, it's like, you're like,

man, that guy looks worn out. You know, like if you're a casual golf and you're, I remember myself in 2018 out there. I was like, this place doesn't look that hard. You know,

like that's a, how do you miss that fairway? And then the more you get into this course, the more you're like, God, no, the run out and you just, you,

I don't know, there's such a, there's layers to this place that. that's what makes it a cathedral. And I thought they tested the 15th club. I think like a lot of things in society, Neil, though,

there's a bit of like, okay, maybe they tested it, but we got great inflation going on. I don't think we're testing the 15th club like we used to test the 15th club. I don't think these young guys really know what, like, you know,

some of these setups were under Mike Davis. Yeah, we're jumping rope without the rope. There's nobody pissed off coming up. coming out, you know, they might be, they might be exhausted, they might be fatigue, but if you're not pissing anybody off openly, maybe Bob McIntyre

excluding. It's always pissed off, though. I'm just not sure we're testing it to the degree I would like to see. One thing I will say to this, though, scoring-wise, which is not the most important thing to me, but we have a golf ball that goes a mile.

We have 460cc drivers. The widest fairways ever played in a U.S. Open, and they soaked the greens for Thursday, Friday, three guys broke par. Like, that speaks to Shennecock, I think, though. I mean, like, and the guys might stink. I think the toughest part on this. They didn't link to it.

The thing that I'm blown away with these guys is, like, how hard it looked like it was to put out there. Because, like, the, I mean, the greens are going every which way, because they didn't mow them a whole lot and they didn't, I don't think they've rolled them at all. And so the greens were. just bumpy and kind of, you know, it's just that poa that like, I just don't think it's the best surface for like that. Like if I had one knock on Shinnock, it would be having poa greens instead of fescue or something like that, right? I'll tell the horse. Go ahead, dude, sorry. No, I think

that's fair. And that's why I was kind of scratching my head yesterday trying to figure out how to say it. But I'm like, how can nobody make putts, but Wyndham cannot miss is just, I was going to I'm like, man, okay, but one half of my, my brain is just like, oh, this is an arbitrary. This is completely arbitrary. Nothing matters. I'm like, but if Wyndham's making all of them, like, I don't think he's just playing blackjack here. Like, I think it's got to be some skill involved.

Not only, what's so jarring is it's not only that he, everything, every time he was over a put by this afternoon, I was like, that's going in. So I'm like, and everybody else, I'm like, Scott is not making that. Like, no way he's making that. And his pindoms, for me, his whole putter, his putter's uncomfortable, his, his cross-handed, long putter center shaft. It's just all of it. I'm like, man, he just keeps making it. It was so impressive.

And I just glad his caddies not lining him up anymore, though, because that was on the That was on the list as well with a micro-fences. You know what I think is interesting about the scoring? under par, yes, I grant, you know, three guys compared to, what, do we have two in 2004. But if you look at the guys better than two over par, in 2004, you had three guys better than two over par for the week. In 2018, you had three guys, no, excuse me, four over par, you could even do. There were just a lot more guys in that even one over, two over than we've seen in the last. iterations here at Chinnecock.

And that, and that's where I, the point I was making there was they had 26 yard wide fairways on average. They lost one of the greens and they did not have, technology's changed a lot in 22 years. I think we're seeing eye to eye here. It's just, if, if you just move that cursor a little bit from breaking par to one, two over par, you start to see where it's a lot more. And I'm, I'm saying this more of like a thankful, like I don't, I don't think the USGA, the USDA could, they could flip a switch. If they wanted the scores to just be higher, they could. And I don't think that that is like the case for like making the best golf tournament.

It's unique nature of the challenge, I think, is a lot more of what this regime is about. And I celebrate that because you could narrow these fairways and the scores would just go straight up. Like you could add more rough there and more festive and the scores would go up. You could play it firmer than they did. And the scores would go up. And it just doesn't seem like they're, they're, everybody we talked to Bowdenhammer, Jeff Hall, everybody is talking about the variety of skills needed.

And I think that is a better representation of what American golf should be than just artificially inflating scores. To your point of going to a variety of courses, Neil, and representing American golf, like I think it would not be a great thing if it was narrow, fairways, thick rough, in just a hack-out contest. Because nobody likes to play that style of golf.

And I just don't think that's the best test of skill. I would say pragmatically. Randy, I was, I mentioned it last night on the pod, but, you know, I was standing up on 12T for probably two hours yesterday. And I expected the carnage to be on 11. And it was, I was surprised, it was on 10. And I think 10 is the star of this year. 10 was my favorite hole. It was, I felt like the lynch pin of the tournament.

And I thought, I think going into the week 11, 7 and 11, but 11 on the back nine was getting all of the buzz of like, this is the shortest part five in the world. you know, and there really weren't any train wrecks there. I mean, there were a lot of bogeys. If you missed the green, it was like a 3.71 scoring average. And if you hit the green, it was, I don't know, I think like a, like right around part, like, you know, two putt or maybe just under three. But there weren't a lot of double bogeys. Nobody was playing ping pong. We didn't see the train wrecks from behind that green. And I thought, so I just want to give a shout out to 10. And I guess, the reason I brought this up is, I think, the USGA was conscious of that. It's like let's not let's let's let's let these holes get out of control. Yeah. Because that's that's not really it's kind of fun for the highlight reel, but it's,

it's not really good for the tournament. And I, you know, I could agree with them on that. Yeah. Hardest toll was two. Second hardest was four. Third hardest was 10. Uh, fourth hardest was seven. And then six was the fifth. Oh, was that all week? All week. keep you to live yeah yeah so i thought it was interesting two guys shot in the 80s yesterday and shot in the 60s today peter euline shot 8066 and james nicholas shot 82 69 kind of keep mitchell like it but over the course of the weekend for listeners sake uh for reference future u.s open venues pebble beach next year wing foot 2028 pinehurst 2029 marion 2030 potentially with rolled back equipment of some kind.

2031, Riviera country club, 2032 back at Pebble, 23 back at Oakmont, 34 at Oakland Hills, 35 back at Pinehurst, Shinnecock again in 2036, 10 years from now. Is that too long to go between Shenckx?

It feels right. Yeah, I feel like if you get a 10-ish course rotation, I feel like we're in a good spot. It feels like we don't have a 10-ish rotation. We go to Pebble and Pinehurst twice. Well, it's a private course. And maybe one of the most private. And that's like...

Yeah. How did you vote on it? Say again? How did you vote on it? Don't start with that. No, I mean, it feels like going to a black tie dinner or something like that. Like, it's not something, it's a special occasion. And I think to note that 2036 is going to be cool because they're going to do the back-to-back men's and women's opens.

Yeah. Which I think will be really neat. I would just shout out the whole anchorststress. though. I think it's great that they do have a Pinehurst and Pebble that are courses that can, you know, double up, right? It's like you're going to get two Pinehurst for one Chinnecock. But if we can, I like that it takes pressure off the private clubs, not even, not even Chinatock, but you talk about like, it's such a burden on like, Randy, like Kenwood Country Club hosting the LPGA. It sucks, man. Like they, they, they, you lose your course for a month and it's like,

It's a massive. Oh my God. Like for those people that pay good money to be a member at a club, it's, you know, like. I wouldn't compare a men's U.S. Open to a women's weekly LPGA event. I don't think it was that big of a burden for Kenwood. Well, my point being, though, it's still an inconvenience. And you know the politics of a club to say, I'd say getting Shinnecock once a decade is a, is a win for everybody, is the point I'm trying to make. Yeah.

It's just such a, like, when, all right, the USGA's stated. strategy is to go to these cathedrals of the game and then you go over to the in like so all right there's no chance to get weird or no chance to to get some off the wall short term stuff in there like oh they just built this golf course it's sick and then and then you're like all right maybe the pga of america needs to be that and it's it's just a pj frisco yeah friscoe olympic club baltz's roll congressional keowa southern hills beth page black friscoe frisco again Oak Hill. And it just feels like a less good version. Like there's no personalities or joad to there.

And God, it's feeling like sloppy seconds. It's sloppy thirds. Yeah. The non-denominational. The mega church is as a worst. I will be very curious what they do with Pebble next year. 2019 did not go great. And they're going to have to,

they're going to have to push it man they're going to really have to push it it's got to be a lot firmer than it was last go around we can talk about that when it becomes time so uh cody i think we have a giveaway uh does that sound right yeah i knew uh we're starting around that corner into hamsterdam i'm feeling it i feeling the direction that we're going so before we go down there i wanted to be positive here for a second and give something away randy of course you're always coming in with with your with your teas and d's thrills and delights uh tonight's first giveaway that it was hashtag thrill So let's see who it is. Thank you, everyone.

That tunes into the live shows here. We're not done. We're not done. We're just taking a quick break here to give away, give away some goodies to Jeb Fox 1826. Email, Cody. Jebby. Please clap.

In plain your prize. High energy, Foxy. That's right. I saw a guy Richmond Houston there in the, scrolling through the chat. Shout up to Straped West Texas. Yeah, exactly. We're going to have another one of the

From Midland. Richmond, Houston, from Midland. Yeah. You guys want to do Hamsterdam? Yes. It's time. Solly, do it, baby. Do it.

All right, let me just say up front, I am allotting my time. If anybody wants my time, I am, I am allotting it. I'm seating. Is that indifference? Is that indifference, Randy? Or is it is? I just can't. Yeah.

It's like, they are who we thought they were. Yeah. We're good here. Yeah, a lot of it feels pointless just because you get to the realization that until there's a change at the very top of NBC, this is how they're going to present the national championship. And so I tried this on Friday. I had a little outing with my daughter at school, and I tried to record the U.S. soccer game and just come back and watch it without on repeat. I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it with social media.

and it's like there's just something to watching a live sporting event. Like there's a certain thrill that comes with being a sports fan of watching a live sporting event. Even knowing that what I was watching happened 30 minutes ago in the soccer game, I was like, I'm just fast forwarding. Let's just get caught up and then you experience it with everybody else on social media and you're up to date on it. And then you think back to the golf and you're just like, like the majority of what I'm watching is on tape, is on delay.

it's on TiVo, it's on rewind. It's not presented with any urgency of a live sporting event. And they almost got caught with their pants down with Sam Burns. They totally forgot about them Saturday. I think they had John Wood out with him today. And we didn't hear from them for hours, it felt like. So Lowell, we've mentioned this before, but you can tell when NBC has shots on tape

because they're walking reporters, their on-course reporters, don't carry monitors with them like the CBS ones do. So when you cut to a tape shot on CBS, you at least get, you know, Colt Nost has seen the shot or whatever, but he's watching live, and he's not on course anymore. Dottie is watching live on a screen of what's being broadcast. It's a replay of the shot, and she provides her on-course commentary in it.

Sometimes you can tell that they've seen the result of the shot and they give away that. Anyways, but that point in saying, like you can just tell at what they're showing on replay and sometimes they're four or five, six minutes behind all these things, which I get. That happens with live sport. And, you know, there's a lot of air traffic control that goes into getting the shots out. But it has spiraled to a point where you just don't even feel like you're watching a live sporting event. They are in way too much control of deciding what we see and what the narrative is. And it, I don't know how to phrase this of like all the Sam Burns shots we didn't see are just like lost to history.

No human will ever see them. Like they're not posted online somewhere. They're not in, you know, some every shot, anything. They just are completely decided by somebody else that you don't need to see this. You don't need to have experienced it. And they're just bad at telling the story as it's happening to the point where you have to do extra work it feels like to stay up on the tournament while it's going on. Like if somebody's making a run, you have to. to be like up on it with a different device or all of a sudden somebody pops up on 17 and is in the

golf tournament and it uh it's not going to change they're very clearly you know just going to I don't know who they're producing it for it seems to be it's like it's for the casuals and the and the boomers that watch four tournaments a year is what it the US Open broadcast feels like it's like but it uh I I I this isn't even about the comment it is just a total production note of just it is really lacking and I'm trying not to get more upset about it than I am and uh I mean my wife's texting me from the other room I'm just like dude there's no graphics I don't know what what these people putting for like I don't know what's going on in the golf tournament right now and I think a lot of people walk away from US opens like frustrated with the golf course or the experience

or having watched it in part because we are getting peacock blocked uh by so much of what's going just the funnel that everything has to go through NBC. And we felt this way about CBS for a long time. Things changed when Sellers Shy took over there. And I don't feel that same anxiety now when I watch it. And I don't think anything's going to change on the NBC front unless they start taking it completely differently from a serious standpoint. And they don't seem to care.

Could I, the word that came up for me today, especially early on where a lot of the setup happens, Sali is that NBC broadcast does not feel intimate. And I think there's a lot of old, like golf, like watching golf in person, the best thing like wrote about in our newsletter today, like watching that round from Zach Blair on Friday, I felt very intimate where like the best golf viewing is like, man, you're watching somebody grind and, you know,

slay the dragon basically over a long period of time. You feel embedded with them. And I think a good golf telecast can do that. But I think the biggest issue that NBC has, I don't think it's commercials. I think it's too many voices. I honestly think because I just don't know who the, which fucking booth pair is going to come on next.

Is it going to be Terry Gannon? Is it going to be? And no offense to any of these people. But like, oh, then Toreko's back, you know? And it's like,

oh, man, you know, like I love Toreco. Why don't you just stick around? It's just, there's like 12 of them. It's like a food court.

T. It's like a food truck, uh, and I'm, and I'm, I can't enjoy any of it because I'm trying, I honestly, I think it's like,

noise. I'm trying to figure out who's talking. And I think that is the biggest own goal. It's not intimate. It's just like a bunch of voices and nobody, there's no consistency. And then everyone's trying to get a word in. And I struggle with that. And I think that if you took that away, I can live with the, honestly, I can live with the commercials. I understand, you know, there needs to be a commercial load. We can talk about that next. But my biggest issue is the own goal of like at the top at NBC, make some fucking decisions, hurt some feelings and let some people go. because it's like they don't want to make a decision. We don't want to hurt kids' feelings.

Well, we're going to keep Furek over here and just tease you with that. But then he's not going to be. It's like, what are we doing? There's literally like 15 people announcing the golf for no reason. They had Smiley and Bones in the final group today. I know. It's too much. And then they're not showing us half of Scottie's tee shots.

I had a friend that reached out on text today. I was talking about the old Vince Gully broadcasts, how he would just do them all solo. and there's no throwing it around. It's just, it is one, you're there with one person who's watching it with you. And the comparison he was making was like, why couldn't that be Tariqo?

Like, but the difference with golf is that he has the on course eyes and ears. And as long as you have a, you know, an analyst, the lead analyst who's not really telling you much, then like, how is that not, I don't know, that just seems very possible. I couldn't get that out of my head of how nice it would be. And just a thought experiment, who knows if that's even possible.

possible or not, but how nice it would be to just hang with Toriko on every shot. And it's like, occasionally he's throwing it down to like, hey, Smiley, I need some eyes and ears on like, what, what's he facing here? And you're just, you're just hanging in one place. I think would just make you feel a lot less, uh, stimulation overload like you're like you're feeling, you know, because it always like, it has the feeling of, you know, when you watch golf long enough, maybe there's an honest problem who watches it for 12 hours a day. But when you, you watch the changeover, you know, And it's like, oh, now we're on USA.

And now we're on, oh, are we back over to Peacock? Or now we're on. That's how it feels when they throw to the different booths. It's like, wait, did the window end? Is what's going on? Is who's on it now? You know, and I just think a long-winded way of saying, I'm with you. It feels like the audio quad box.

And I've sworn off the quad box. It's too much for me. But it's like I got too, there's just too many people trying to get a word in. And I just don't think, I think that is, you could solve a lot of problems with that. And it just feels like there's no decision making on that. It just feels so unnecessary. I don't get it.

Just scattered. Yeah. I think the, I mean, going back to the cut on Friday, they didn't have a graphic for the cut. They didn't know what the cut was going to be. They didn't know what the guys on the course, whether they were in or out. They, yeah, they're,

I thought the preview montage or segment they did today to, to set up the golf tournament that was basically celebrating. To K-shaped economy. Generational wealth and privilege, I think, was weird. Really, really bizarre. And yeah, to your point, I think it feels a lot like when Lance Barrow was doing a Riviera broadcast and Spieth almost wins and we don't see it until, you know,

like we don't see him hit a shot until the 72nd hole of his tournament. It was a 71st hole in 2015, and I remember it like it was yesterday. I remember it. That was the reason we wrote that thing. That was like the whole thing. I think, yeah, it's cluttered. I thought the call in today from the swing coach was both like bizarre and poorly timed. And I mean, Sally, like we were going nuts there for, they did that, that weird segment.

and then they went to commercial and then they came back and showed like three shots and then they went back to commercial and that whole thing it and and just generally speaking like they're following close-ups of the ball on the ground without showing any context of where it's going or what slope it's going down it's just straight zoomed in it's like all of the details are just like there's no pride in it at all and i think with kisner too like i mean we saw it you yesterday shot of the entire golf tournament and he just, Randy, you said it last night, he just

like utterly fails to even not even meet the moment. No, I know. There was no attempt. To even just recognize that this is a moment. What's even more frustrating about that, TC, is I think it was on 10 today. When they, like, they did have the tools

that some of those overhead drone shots were awesome, like the bird's eye view just straight down. Same thing on 11. But the shot on 10 where it's like, Here's, we're going to take two seconds. Here's the drone shot to show you what these guys are working with and what they're scared about, you know, with going long. And then here's a pulled back shot of them hitting off the down slope to that uphill green. It was awesome.

And it's just like, man, I watched golf for seven hours today. And I can point out like 25 seconds of that. The good moment stand out. You're like, oh, man, there it is. And on the opposite side of that, it must have taken them. A, they didn't set up 16 at all. It must have taken them two and a half hours for Kisner to realize that 16, like, wasn't getable today. That was the best.

It's playing like it's 750 yards into the fucking wind. And he's like, oh, yeah, he's not going for it. Yeah, he's 340 yards out, my man, into the wind. Like, of course he's not going for it. That ball didn't roll out much. I don't think he. That was after Burns is drive on 16. I don't think he's going to be able to get home.

I don't know if he's going to be able to go. for it. I bought in. He didn't get much rollout. They come back. He's like, he's got 3.44 in. It's dead into it. But that, like, but part of that's not even Kisner's fault. No, they didn't show. They haven't, they haven't set it up. And like, it's just subtle stuff like that that, man, it's like, I feel like Tommy Roy both had like in the past, we've, we've, we've kind of, uh, given Tommy Roy a free pass at certain places. We're like, when, when he gets the toys, he's done a better job with him. I felt like he had all the toys this week and he didn't do shit with him. them. He had too many toys.

There's, there's, or too many people in the play pin. I don't know. Well, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, you know, I, you know, lay my steak here with the rest of these boys. Uh, and kind of jumping on Neil's line here. It was in 20, 23 when Juan was on Twitter and everybody was freaking out about the commercial load and he's like, listen, I hear you. I got to 21.

That was, uh, we'll fix this. Yeah. He came back around, though, leading into. where we're at LACC. He also brought it up again and he promised I think it was going to be a 30% reduction or something like that in commercial load. It got a little bit better, but we were just drowned out

by that plane that just kept circling and circling and circling. You couldn't get it away. It got better at Pinehurst. And it got better last year. And this year, even though it feels like there's still a ton, which there are a ton, there is less than last year. So, Bravo for them, for the US,

continuing to push NBC for everything that they have. Neil, I don't understand. We talked about this a little bit last night with the sheer amount of people that come through the booth when the characters of this show that they're trying to produce are on the field. It's the players and the caddies. And you, as the broadcast team,

you put three walking announcers out there. Why the hell would you jam up a small little shack on the 18th hole with more people that are trying to talk over talk of the characters in the story. I don't understand that one bit. The only guy I want to hear from it. Is the guy that's standing right there? I know.

They're right there. They're right there watching it. Just let me hear that guy. And they, yeah, that like makes you, like the whole point of watching golf is to like feel invested in someone's round.

I don't need to just see the highlights. Like the made puts from other people. Like what did Sawheith do today? Anybody have any fucking idea? Like, I had no idea. Like what did anybody else do? You should have got it.

After me, yeah, if we made double at four, they dropped them. Yeah, and then we saw his putt on 18. That was about it. At one point, Sally, Tommy. When things got going good there, like,

where are we out with picture and picture? What happened to that? Like, what happened to the split screen of like, you know, Tom, the, you know, burns putting while Wyndham's doing whatever.

Like, set this, get, take me there. Like, take me there as to what's going on and, and feel like the energy of the moment versus just like the,

you sequencing it out. for me just feels so antiquated. That's the word I would come back to is, man, just not feel representative of how the sports world is moving. Cody, that's such a good point on like the characters in the show, especially bones and smile, because a lot

of times you can, if you're, we watch as much golf as we do, and you can see bones, like when they have the big drone shot, you're like, oh, there's bones. He's, he is a character. And it's like, and being out there walking, you know, you're next to him. And he's always always got his hand on

He's ready at all times. He's just waiting for him to go to him. And it's like, just fucking go to him more, man. He's ready. He's so good. Give him the fucking Mike. Last thing I would say about this, because I know we'll start going in circles, is the biggest miss and the biggest L that they have right now is they're missing.

Like they built their whole broadcast for decades around Johnny, Roger, Gary Koch, all these, like, these very recognizable guys. And when you're not letting the dudes on the ground cook, Like, you can still, Neil, I'm sure Roger Moppe is out there this week. I'm sure if you followed him around, everybody on property is go, hey, Raj, Raj, Raj, Raj. And when you're not letting John Wood and Bones and Smiley, like, become those guys, then you're just shooting yourself in the foot for, you know, not only for the audience, but also just for the longevity of your team. And so, yeah, all a long way of coming back around to just like, you guys don't need a break. You know what I mean?

Like, they're ready at all time. If you're out there, you see it. They're on it. They're looking at every lie. And it's just like, they just, sometimes you go a hole or two and you don't hear from bones. I just don't understand it. There's so many funny spots too.

Sorry to my to that real quick. That point, Neil, on, that's when they get behind and they don't even let the on course guys call the shots on delay. Like that's, you don't hear from them because they get way behind and they never catch up. Not delay. It's, uh, you know, my only broadcast experience is doing radio for the BBC. And when you're going through your training for radio, you call a lot of recorded shots.

And they'll straight up tell you like, hey, this is going on tape, but you got to call it like it's the real deal. And you're like, okay, here I am because you're going to call it like it's actually live. And then all of a sudden, like 30 seconds later, they're going to, they might surprise you and actually play that on the air. And you're like, oh my goodness, is this me right now? But it completely freaks you out. It's part of their training process. They have the ability to do that on TV as well. Like, I don't understand why instead of just going that and then you throw it back to the booth and they're pontificating and talking all over all these things that are delayed, like the guys on course can still call those shots.

I don't really get it. And the last point that I'll make is that I feel like live from and Golf Channel as a whole really found their stride at the U.S. Open when we went back in like, you know, I know that he's not, you know, Wagner is not with NBC anymore, but like recreating the shots of Pinehurst and recreate, you know, smiley was recreating the shots from the trees last year and like i feel like live from just wasn't really a story this week at all i know my from was good this week i watched a lot of it the last few nights good it's good to hear and dj i think like your point about uh and i i don't know a i think mcginley and rich and brandle have a great chemistry going both on and off booth like even just some of the social stuff they're putting out today while making it's great watching Come on.

It's a hawker, you know. But I think, Deed, you had a good point last night about Torrico and how good he was in that interview yesterday. And I thought he set Windham up for success post round today. Like, I want more Toriko, I think, just generally. And I think Hicks really needs a running mate. And I don't think,

I think Tariko can just dig it out of the dirt and almost be that guy. Like, all right, if you don't have a running mate or if Kizner's not going to be the guy, then like just put Tariko in the booth and let him run the show. and just toss it back and forth and have five on-course commentators out there and just toss it back and forth to them and have him be the conductor.

Because even I think, like Sally, they get behind and then it almost feels like Tommy Roy doesn't know how to get out of it because like there was a spot today where Tommy had missed his par puttut on seven. And you can see Zander getting ready ready to hit his. They came back to Xander like 20 minutes later. And by that point, Tommy was already like on eight green. And they had just showed Tommy almost having the exact same putt as

Xander. And it's there's just no, I don't know, there's, there's just no flow to it. And I truly, it's like they, and like we're not TV producers. I talk to a lot of TV producers, like, are like people in this industry who work for other entities, not. in golf in golf whatever and like all of them are pretty critical of NBC and so I think it's pretty funny that Kisner of all people got up after the masters and said the shit that he said and man like if you were going to take that same tack to to to NBC if let's say Trevor or um you know like i don't know nance or somebody like that were to get up and do the same thing like they would they could have a fucking field day with mcc

yeah what do you think move on yeah i think that's probably hey cathartic though gentlemen good stuff that's right well it's coming back for the open the catharsis of golf it's like it's sacrilegious right going to these cathedrals and about how about the tea time commercial tc i know you like that's not good tea time commercial the open oh god that was that was unbelievable i thought i was i thought i was holy It's yeah, I don't know. It's tough. God, I feel so fucking old and lame, but I'm like, we're taking like the decorum and the like civility of the open and we're just farting on it as people are just yelling getting the bunker at Windham. I'm like, maybe these things are related just a little bit. I don't, I don't know, guys.

And then we're getting the knights like these commercial straight down the middle. It's tough. It's tough. Solly, what do we got left, man? I feel like we're landing the plane here. You want to talk about that major, the Wyndham, how many majors conversation? It's two hours later now. Two-time U.S. Open winner.

Neil, how many majors? What do you think? Over under two and a half. I think he wins a PGA championship. I'm going to say three. I forgot about the PGA. I just feel like, you know, based on some of his, he just gets hot, man.

and he hits it a long way. The game sets up well when he gets hot and I think he can get hot of the PGA. It's pretty compelling. If he plays like this, why not a Masters? You know what I mean?

It's kind of wide open off the T and black putting and he did get a tie for fourth at the British last year, but he hadn't done shit outside the US open. I'd be surprised if he got another one. I'm going to go under. I don't mean that it's disrespect.

He is an earned two-time major champion. I'm just pulling up the list here. Earned of both. Look, more majors than Adam Scott, Justin Rose, Jason Day, Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed, Hideki Matsuyama, Cam Smith. I mean, there's a lot of guys. Davis loved the third. He's got more majors than Davis loved the third. And two other siggies, you know.

He won a pebble. I know that was a three-round tournament. But then the one at Wells Fargo was impressive, too. He just, he has a knack for holding, holding the field off. I remember that when at Wells Fargo was impressive. He just, like, refused to collapse. And that there's something to be said for that. Fred Couples, Craig Stadler, Lanny Watkins.

He's got more majors than Lanny Watkins now. Tom Weiskoff. It's wild. Ken Venturi. I'd like to see him win the players. He had a hit in T2 in 2024. I know. That's the thing.

It's like, he was D.C. queued in 2019. It was canceled in 2020. Cut, cut in 21 and 22. T2 and 24. WD in 25, T-42 this year. That would gain immense respect for me

if you won it as tactical of a test as that. It also might become a major. So, yeah, who knows? Same amount of majors is Xander, Bryson, John Rom, Justin Thomas, Colin Warcawa,

Dustin Johnson. Zach Johnson Kimer Bubba Jose Maria Oathobel Marco Mira John Daley

Greg Norman Bernard Longer Curtis Strange Fuzzy Zeller Johnny Miller same amount of majors as Johnny Miller I can keep

Ted Ray I keep going like it's insane his Wikipedia profile is now updated to nickname Dub Mr. Grape

in the also his picture on Wikipedia just another one of those little micro offenses there's a lot of those on Wikipedia you ever see the Sevi one with that shirtless guy in the background that's good you got to look it up anything else from US Open

you guys want to move on to a little bit just a tiny bit of PGA tour related stuff we have ahead of this coming week I think so I think so only other thing sally shame on P for missing the cut

I'm still mad he's got to play more not getting enough reps and guys I can't I'll just I'll get out in front of it I cannot believe that I have to do a getting ready video I just didn't see that I thought I was sitting pretty on Friday

I cannot believe this I mean what a fucking disgrace Randy had a guy in his team that wasn't even eligible and he beat I mean, you know what, shame on you, Jordan Spieth. Shame on you Ludwig. Just shame on everybody. It's a, it's a travesty.

And Rodvig kind of stole some cash. I think it's the biggest. And Rory. Yeah, and Rory. Fuck, man. Yeah. Yeah, it was a bit of an ass kicking. 503,000.

Randy was fourth with just over a million T.C. barely ahead of Randy, just over a million as well. I was second. Even would have said him ahead of me. Yeah. I look so when Rory, after Thursday's round I was sitting so pretty I'm like oh, Rory's going to win this thing

like fuck Yeah DJ are you gonna do Big time Oh sorry I don't want to cut you off there Redemption A lot of redemption arcs A lot of people have been asking about Neil's skin care routine

Is all I'm gonna say Yeah is it gonna be a skin care video or like a Yeah that's what it is the bet Or well we keep saying get ready I got to look at some I gotta get a template here. I haven't seen a lot of these getting ready videos. But you know what? You guys know know if I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it right. Okay. And I'm going to bring the heat. Okay. I think you should do a timeline on it, but I'm going to give you some goods.

All right. Skin care is good, but I also would I would be down for like a Tony P style. Uh, what I do, you know, before like a how I get ready for a night in the big city sort of sort of video. I don't have many of those these days. How I get, how I get ready to play a top 100 golf? Of course. You guys are dirtbags. I hate this. All right. Moving on just a little bit.

We're going to have some news. It sounds like coming up this week, just about the future of PGA tour schedule and all that. We meant to get to this Wednesday. Didn't fit into our kickoff show, but Rory had some comments earlier in the week about the FCC. That's the future competitions committee, not the,

not the whatever they are. Yeah. And I was asked about it. Here's what he said in his presser. I think it was to lead to a little bit of conversation on the back half of this. An event like last week, the Canadian Open potentially going to one of these track twos. And like track two is a glorified corn fairy event.

Like that's what track two is going to be. So I don't think the Canadian Open should be one of those. And yeah, I just think there's going to be certain events that, you know, might lose their stature if a sponsor doesn't pony up $30 million. So that's the tough thing. But I, look, I'm not in those rooms. I don't know, I play my schedule and I'll continue to play my schedule, which is getting less and less as years go on.

So, yeah, I, it's a, it's funny. Like, I think as they've done all this work, you start to realize that like the way the tour was before Liv came along was actually pretty good. You know, it was a pretty good structure and everything sort of worked pretty well. Live created this false economy where we had to up prize funds and had to, cut fields and try to support the top players and all that stuff, which I think needed to happen because that was the only way to retain talent at the time. But now that Liv looks like it's less of a threat, you know, I think that as I said, that the old ways of the PJ tour weren't actually

that bad. I think that goes hand in hand with him coming out this week. He's not playing the travelers, which means he will miss three of the eight signature events this year as well. It won't seem in the States till the BMW. Which, to his credit, or in fairness to him, I think he's telegraphed that like pretty heavily. I think he's been he's been pretty clear on like what his, what his priorities are and what he's going to be doing going forward. Nothing like having one of your biggest stars preemptively put a bullet in this horse that they're going to be trotting out next week.

And that you're going to sell your TV rights against. And also one of the guys that helped ostensibly create, do this, the ideas that they're seemingly pitching to the membership. It just makes me wonder, like, who he's been hanging out with lately. It seems like it kind of vacillates in the wind a little bit. I think the other thing is like a five, you know, four, five, six million dollar event. On track two, like that's far larger than a corn ferry tour purse by, you know, 400, 500%. It's far larger than a lot of the DP World Tour events as well.

And if anything, like maybe that's just kind of a right sizing of there like, Rory, there already has been a track one and a track two for a long time. And I don't know. I think with Canada, like maybe that's a special case, but also like I think Roy took a, you know, It took an appearance fee to go up there last year and totally mailed it in in the second round. Maybe if Canada wants to be a track one event, then like, A, they should go to a better golf course. Or B, like, figure out a place in the fall to really stage all these national opens and tie him into something globally. He's right in the very early part of like there are going to be a couple tournaments that are kind of stuck in the middle of these two things. and maybe you don't want to put money up to go up to track one

and are too prestigious or represent something else that doesn't make sense for them to fall into track two. And he's not wrong with that part. But like, yeah, I don't get the dig, I guess, or the point of saying it's a glorified corn fairy event. Like it is a, it's a complete change of the system. The track one events are not the signature events. Like that's such a big,

distinction that I don't think people have fully wrapped their heads around is like you're adding 40 more guys to these fields and now you're going down to like 121 start and you're not literally but like what the 121st player is what starts the field at a track two events like it is a glorified corn fairy event but like that uh I don't get the point of saying that out loud I don't get the point of like put you know I thought you're just felt like a weird stray it was like why you going yeah why we want so hard right now yeah but it's also just like well okay that it's the second level of the pga tour what's it's supposed like there's going to be a championship level of the pga tour that's going to look totally different and i think where where i get a little frustrated with this

is all right so we had this tour it was great for everybody live comes along and where i was like ready to follow rory to into battle on all of that was it felt like him his priorities and a lot of people that he was working with, their priority was the fans. Like, we need to create a better product. How many times do we hear about talk about the product in that time period of like, all right, the stars get back together more often. We're going to play in these events.

We're going to limit the field. So we're guaranteed it's a better product if we're all there on the weekend, blah, blah, blah. And I was kind of like, yeah, okay, I can get behind this. Like, that's pretty exciting change in there. Now that Liv is less of a threat in his words or in other words, likely going away, reverting back to like, oh, I just kind of want to be able to pick my own schedule and kind of do what I want to do now is a lot harder battle cry.

It's harder to galvanize fans and myself personally that get super excited about that. Sure, you, I guess, earn the right to play wherever you want. But like, you got me jazzed up about this idea of everybody's going to play in the same events and on this championship track and these kind of like can't miss events. And like that enthusiasm going away is just kind of a bummer to the point where like you kind of led the tour down this path. And I know you haven't been on the board since 2023 or whatever that was. And a lot has happened since then. But I don't know.

It kind of just, it's a weird vibe of like you got all this equity. You got more money than you could ever imagine, you know, coming to you from the PGA tour. And this equity value was so great that it's like, I don't really get why you're kind of throw and digs the PGA tour one and just not seemingly very interested in pursuing this. And you're right. Later half of your career and you maybe aren't going to take PJ tour golf as seriously, but it's a bummer as a fan.

Like I want to be able to enjoy as much of the PGA tour as I possibly can. I mean he's going to play six. He's played six PGA tour events this year outside of the majors and he'll play another two. So he's well short of the member requirement even of like he's not like and he's earned that right. Right. If he wants to go play more DP World Tour, I know he's moving to London. at least part of the year. More power to them, but I just don't think that,

like I think with not playing a full schedule in the PGA tour, you also forfeit some of your ability to dictate, here's what the schedule looks like. Yeah, I think that's fair. I think in fairness or in simping to Rory a little bit, I for sure understand his, I understand him being extremely burned out by this over the last, considering the last five,

five years that he's been through. It's probably not the best for what role app needs right now or what the other, the bulk of the membership needs right now, but him throwing up his hands and saying, I don't care, do whatever you want to do. I'm only going to play seven events is, I understand where that comes from. Yeah, I don't think of regimen for that part of it at all. It also just kind of lays in pretty sharp relief to what we were saying about the USGA and like, man, it seems like this all started from the point of like, let's identify who the best golfer is and what's the mechanism to just host golf tournaments. And now it's just coming off another major and diving right back into that stuff, it's just like, reminds you how unfun a lot of the week to week business of pro golf stuff

has gotten. And how out of scale some of the, like, are we trying to crown the best champion? Are we trying to really like create equity value for the for the stakeholders in between the ropes? is like it's just a much less fun conversation than even the Wyndham Clark stuff. And what did we have on, you know, what happened this week at the U.S. Open in between the ropes? Let's talk about Wyndham Clark's driver. That sounds a lot more fun than this stuff. There better be some damn good ideas or proposals from Rollap this week on, hey, we're going to these venues in 2028 or this is what we're thinking.

thinking for playoffs and for a tour championship? Like bring us some, bring us some good ideas, guys. I think we're, yeah, sounds like we're getting news Tuesday, it sounds like is, and if that's the case, we're planning to do a show Tuesday night reacting to things. And we'll be previewing a little KPMG women's PGA and we'll hopefully get some, a voice or two in there from the stakeholder side to help us break it down as well. So look forward, look forward to that. Can I just say, I don't think this was your intent at all, Sali.

I just want to do double click on the nuance of what Rory said is not the best for business ahead of whatever news is coming. But also I'm like really glad he's speaking his mind and is up there saying what's on his mind. I just want to drive home that point. Like it's interesting. And so I really appreciate that about Rory, who has not always talked to the media when I've wanted him to talk to the media. when I wanted him to talk to the media. So I very much am appreciating that he's up there speaking his mind. I can get down with that.

I just don't find it productive. The tour's not going back to how it was. So what are you trying to accomplish by saying that when it can be kind of sabotaging and bad for morale? I think is where I'm a little confused. The hard part is. I don't know if he's trying to accomplish anything, except for he just feels free to tell you how he feels and speak his mind which just feels like roll-ups more of that roll-app's not the one that fucked you over me right there's you as a

a prop and a you know a pain sponge for everybody else it was it was monahan and that whole cabal and honestly like good on rory like if i want rory to do whatever rory needs to do to win one majors. Yeah. That's what matters in the long run. That's what we talked about after the masters of like, hey, you know, Rory's going to play a worldwide schedule, but he's only going to turn up here a handful of times a year. I'm okay with that because I think it's more valuable for the game for him to be, you know, fresh and competing at the top of his game and not burning himself out. Yeah. It just runs, it runs counter to me, the feeling like I'm trying to trying to convince myself that I care who wins the PGA tour title.

You know what I mean? Or like would be a champion of all of this golf that we watch all year long. When he kind of seems uninterested in playing in that is kind of, well, that kind of, that takes it down a notch so quickly of like, oh, if Scottie wins it, it's like, yeah, well, Roy didn't even really try to win it. It's like, ah, that, then what is this competition that they're rolling out is that's the part that hurts. Man, which I think just goes back to like the beginning of the whole live conversation is

the separation of the schedule like this. this and making days like today ultimately like more important and Sundays, you know, that are non-track one or lower track one or track one or track 1.2b or whatever, just like are going to start to feel pretty fucking arbitrary if they're not careful. And if they, if they screw it up. Yeah. You know, and that's where I think there's, again, probably some of Rory's frustration is like, oh, man, they did have a pretty good thing going.

But it's a bit like the setup this week. You know, I understand, I understand how we got into this situation. I just, you know, I don't have to like everything about it. But it's, it all made sense along the way. And then you get to the point like this where it's like, ah, it would actually be nice to go back to just the farmer's insurance open. It's like, well, they left. You don't have them anymore.

You know, I don't know what to tell you. So that times 35 tournaments is, yeah, it's just kind of picking up all the pieces. now also one one random bit of info rollback related uh heard from a few people that probably kind of part of the genesis of the the rollback announcement this week was like scotty going absolutely apeshit on one in the us GA a few weeks ago when they kind of presented everything so interesting uh interesting context for today yeah yeah What do you think? I think that about does it.

That about does it for me. I feel like I've expended a lot of energy here this week. Open up some great part of the week. I feel like these weeks are tough not being, like, it's like it would be really tough to be on site for this one. Like, Neil, you can speak to that. It's not the easiest place to go cover a golf tournament and get out to. It's hard to get to.

there's very frustrated there's a lot i don't jive with out in that part of long island but once you're on site it you know it's a pleasant it was uh i had a i had a good two days out at chenicoc i enjoyed my time on site but i feel like and then i feel like covering it from home it's like all right i'm locked in i'm watching golf 10 12 hours a day you know it's almost like method acting like i feel like i'm more at chenicoc than i am physically here then I walk in the other room like my kids are there and they're like why are you in a bad mood?

Well, because this guy I don't like playing really well. Leave it at the office, too. If I was up at Shinnecock, it would be very, you know, distinct work,

you know, the work life balance gets very muddied on a week like this. Yeah. So, all right, I'm going to move us to wrapping. I think,

I think that was the sign here. Thank you guys for spending your Sunday evening with us. If you don't mind, please subscribe to the No Laying Up podcast YouTube channel. If you're watching this live or wherever you get your podcast, we do. If you're new to the show for whatever reason, we do a lot of content around a lot of these majors. And are you running another winner? We have another winner coming here from Cody for a gift card to the No Laying Up Pro shop. Thank you to all 5,000 of you sticking around watching this live.

BZiggs, 7 email Cody at No layingup.com. to claim your prize. Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there. And thank you to our friends, of course, at Tidalist, High Noon, Travelers and Yeti. Anything I'm forgetting, guys. Go Tommy this week. You're going down, Kegan.

Go, Tommy. Get your revenge on Kegan. Neil will look forward to the getting ready with me video. As soon as you can get to that, thank you very much. And thank you everyone for tune in. We'll see you back here. We'll have a live show. We have the KPMG Women's PGA coming up this week as well as the Travelers. We'll have a live show on Sunday night to recap both of those.

And on our Tuesday episode, we'll be talking KPMG Women's PGA there as well as Nellie goes for three major championships in a row this week at Hazeltie. So tune in then and we'll see you then. Thank you everyone for watching. And everyone have a great night. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cool.

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