No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 1183: Best Open Championships Draft

Episode Date: July 10, 2026

We conclude our major drafts pods with The Open - as Randy, Soly, TC, DJ and Neil vie to draft the best foursome of Opens in the eyes of our three UK based judges.  Support our Sponsors: Titleist Holderness & Bourne East Sands Golf Co If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Nest⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: No Laying Up’s community of avid golfers. Nest members help us maintain our light commercial interruptions (3 minutes of ads per 90 minutes of content) and receive access to exclusive content, discounts in the pro shop, and an annual member gift. It’s a $90 annual membership, and you can sign up or learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠nolayingup.com/join⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the No Laying Up Newsletter here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://newsletter.nolayingup.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the No Laying Up Podcast channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@NoLayingUpPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. That's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast. Sali here got our fourth and final major championship draft.

We break down exactly what this is if you haven't listened to the prior episodes. We did the Masters PGA Championship at U.S. Open as well. We are drafting the best open championships. We will explain all that when we get to. the meat of it here. The No Languup podcast, of course, brought to you by our friends at Titleist. Guys, the new GTS driver, you've heard me talk about it. I'm looking down at my stats right now on Arcos. It is telling me that I am a better than plus four golfer off the tee right now. I am just negative 0.4 shots off the tea less than a Torpro. That is how well I have driven the golf ball

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have already put new GTS drivers in the bag and why Titleis has been the most played driver brand on the PGA tour for seven straight seasons and counting. I'm telling you, go to Titles.com, find a fitting near you. All I can tell you is that I've had an incredible, incredible experience with this driver. It makes me want to play a lot more golf. And just me saying this makes me want to go hit some balls here

this afternoon. Hopefully it doesn't rain. Go to titles.com, find a fitting near you. Get dialed in off the tea. Let's get to our pod. All right, Dege, fourth one of these we've done. You're the best at explaining what we're doing here. If somebody missed the previous three, can you just go ahead and tell people what we're doing here and how we're doing it? Yeah, basically what we do is everybody drafts the team and then Sallie handpicks the judges and then they tell them what a great job he did at the end. So it's been really successful. You guys are the worst losers. I took some gummies about 30 minutes ago. So I think round three. they'll hit and I'll have something fucking good for you guys today.

Solly, do we have a whole, a whole roster full of foreign simps. We, we have five people lined up as, as we've seen from the past. It's not a guarantee that everyone's going to get to it. So I hope we get all five.

We have some backup judges potentially as well. But yeah, just go ahead and just a lot of, a lot of loser mentality amongst you guys, if I may say, it's just, it's becoming. Have some pride.

It's always going to get us on the eight foot hoop out here at the driveway, just start posterizing us. Mouse in the house. Yeah. No, what we're doing, Sally, is we're drafting. We're going to do four rounds, uh, standard draft. I thought we're doing 30 for the open. Oh, 30 rounds. I'm sorry. You're right. 30 rounds. Uh, and we're going to all pick what we think are our favorite open championships. And we're true. We're going to try to put together a collection that we can be proud of. You can try to cater to the to the judges. You can try to cook your own flavors. That's up to you. But at the end of this, uh, we're going to each have four open.

that we can stand by and say, you know what, based on what was available on the board, these are, these are my four favorites. These are what I, these are what I like. Drilled down on that word favorite. Okay, not best. All right. It's favorite. All right.

And so I want the judges to hear that loud and clear. Okay. It's, it's, it's how you, it's how you pitch a man. You know, what,

what matters, you know, what makes you feel something. Okay. I'm not sure that's helping your case here because I think it, you, their their opinion might vary different very differently from yours and they're going to judge you they should hear the passion in in selections okay that that's that's all i'll say

any other excuses yeah do you guys want to get in before we get going or yeah i'm like wildly unprepared today this is this is this is it for me the open championship is is center of the maze for me it's my favorite major favorite one to watch the history of it and all that and i feel like I'm doing, I'm, I'm offending the RNA. I am offending people like Jim Hartzell that, you know, Wolfie, that love the Open Championship, by how unprepared I am. We're doing this the Monday after the U.S. American Open Championship.

I feel similarly, T.C. That it's weird. The Open has become, I think, my favorite of the majors as well. But that didn't happen until later in life. you know, whereas with the masters, you just have so much more visceral memories to draw on and kind of lore. It's just, it's taken me

a while to catch up on on all the open. So I think that's going to make for an interesting, interesting board here today. Did you hit me between the eyes with something when we were playing Burkdale. I think it was on the first fairway. You're like, do you ever hear about set up talk at the open championship?

Like, what are they are we, are we syringing? the grounds at the open it's like nah man it which i was like man i you know why that's fascinating it's forged by nature yes exactly exactly randy how you feeling oh i feel good tc i was just thinking like i'm not sure there's an amount of prep that i could do where i still wouldn't piss off wolfie or hartsell or any of these you know true open championship knowers so we're going to run our race today and let it fly well i i i i love that strategy as is custom we will go ahead and duck race it for the draft order 30 seconds

i set the draft order in a random order i assume that still won't be good enough for you guys but i will go ahead and start the race that's all i always love seeing what ads pop up on your duck races we got mark clarkley's we got adobe doby creative cloud that's great is there a clear cut you don't have to say what it is is there a clear cut number one for you are you guys sitting on a bona fide number one choice right now this is could be the hardest one i think i think this is the the weirdest wildest of all of them you're coming here comes tc he's coming for the top and it looks like it is going to be mr tc first randy second neal third i am fourth dj fifth i kind of have four of them it's a little bit like the NBA draft this year i feel like it there's a

there's a clear four at the top i'd be happy with any of these four tough one to have the fifth pick uh in that like we're going to have different flavor of simp and uh so i'm not you know i don't think the the tiger simping is going to be quite as effective you're you are just you're refusing to run your own race here you're so obsessed with the judges and what they think just pick the ones that you are your favorites and the best and let it your flavors who cares what other people think of it that's that's that's so i'd be coming i hate what's what's you know you know but how you guys are approaching this sometimes all right go yeah you're up bored yeah all right i'm going 1977 the duel in the sun i mean i think that's the only only way to go

watson nicholas turnberry i mean it's just yeah it's just it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's about it's get him about it he'll he'll he'll he'll start crying when he talks about this one. He's a couple of great men going at it. Great golf course, great weather. And they walked off afterwards arm and arm. Sports and shit. Just, you know, hey, this is, you got the best of me today.

Let's go. Let's go have a beer. Let's go. Let's go reminisce. This is, that's as good as it gets. I fucking hate that. That's, uh, why?

What do you hate about it? 36 holes. You're making a sportsmanship playing? Third place finished, what, 11 back? 10 shots back at Jack. I mean, it's just, it's crazy. It's a dual. And peak aesthetic maybe too.

Peak golf aesthetic. The yellow sweater. No hat, the flowing locks. The puffs of dust coming up from the fairways. It's good shit, Randy. The aesthetics are good. No, no, no, no. I, the, like, oh my God, it's the sportsmanship of it.

That doesn't do anything for me. I feel like I need to watch. Are there documentaries on this? I feel like there should be. Yeah, I'm not, if I've watched it, it's been a decade probably since I have, and I don't really, I couldn't read it back to you. Like, reading it, seeing it just spelled out again

that Watson birdied four of the last six holes to win by one is, I don't know if I knew that. Like, I know it's an epic duel, but I don't think I could have read that back to you. I knew it was a final round six. 65, 65, 65 on the weekend from Watson, 6566 on the weekend from Nicholas. Not good enough. Not good enough. Yeah, Hubert Green was, was one under, Nicholas was 11 under, Watson was 12 under.

Randy, there are only three guys under par. That's got to float your boat. No, it's a good, it's a good pick. It's a safe pick. It's a consensus number one. It has a label the dual decide. I think of any of other, of us would have picked that number one. You'd be yelling simp and talking about how it's over the phone. Because I know Tiger 2000's coming off the board next. We'll have to find out. Brandy is next.

Who's got the second pick? I do. It's not going to be Tiger 2000. It's going to be the Open Championship that I will forever remember. There's one of them. Actually, there's two of them. But I'm picking the one. Let me take you guys back to 1907, Arnaud,

Massey, the first and only Frenchman to win the Open Championship. And it looked like in 1999 we would get a second when John Vandeveld held a five-shot lead going into the final round. He was at even far. Didn't you do a lingo for like three years? You can't pronounce it Arnod, Randy. This is for the listeners. I was going to confuse them. This is a very English-centric podcast. Rainy, I'm glad you're going to Carnus. This is, this was high. I had my big board. Kind of open I get the 300% taking it if you didn't. Yeah.

It's iconic. It is the collapse of collapses, of course, Jean Van de Valle. We all know what happened. You can just close your eyes and picture him standing in the berm. Is he going to hit the ball from the water? It truly was the car crash in slow motion. I just, and of course he sank a putt to get himself. into a playoff with Paul Lowry.

Paul Lowry would go on to win the playoff. It just Carnusty was Carnasty. It just is the open that I'm always going to think about and know. And so I think it's a no-brainer for number two, 1999. I think there's something cool about having a tournament somewhere where they haven't had it in a long time. And what, at Carnusti, they hadn't had it there since. 1975.

Tom Watson won in 1975, so 24 years onward from having it there. And Randy, that's one of the things I like about mine, too. It never had the open at Turnberry before. First year they ever had it there. And it was the best one of all time.

I don't think I like that for years. Yeah, that is a good one. Yeah, what I love about your pick, Randy, is what made me think about mine. Exactly. Neil, you want to shout out the Golf Channel Films documentary? I hit it in the bird

hit the bird He took his shoes off and got in Are you kidding me? What's good? What's with this guy? I'll also say John Trapped your all alumnus one of the first ones

Couldn't have been nicer talking to us recounting that day And what episode was that, Randy? Like six, I think. I was in the single one. I was going to say like three or four. Episode one. It was one.

First one. Wasn't it really? Yeah. And then was Bob May, too? Yeah. Yeah. We were on a run of heartbreak major losers there for a quick second. You know, of course, everybody's seen Jean went back and played the hole with, I think, just a pitching wedge, was it?

Or just a nine-ler? Putter. Putter. He just had to make double bogey to win the open. And, yeah, man. I, a lot of human. human condition going on in 1999. So I'm happy to have that one.

Randy, I know you love it that the score that got him into a playoff was plus six. I know that just, you're all about that. Any concerns about three-way playoff? I don't even really remember the playoff. Paul Lowry, not an epic champ.

Yeah, was that kind of a bonus track or something on the end of your, The real album kind of ends. To be completely honest, I'd forgotten Justin Leonard was even part of the playoff. The playoff was anti-climatic. Listen, it was all like we knew Vandeveld wasn't winning the playoff after that 72nd hole. So yeah, it's, yeah, that's kind of like the bonus track at the very end. You can stay and listen to it if you want, but, you know, the party will be wrapped up by then.

Neil, very curious where you're going to go next. Yeah, I'm a little torn here, but I've made my decision. I'm going with the modern duel in the sun. I'm going with 2016. Oh, man. I'm going with Stenson versus Mickelson. This was a seminal one, early days at NLU for us. Guys, we had the poster from this open.

It might have been a Lee-Ribrandske one, but it was in the killhouse right behind the kitchen table for years. And, God, I mean, Stenson shoots 63, Phil 65. The two of them are 11 shots clear. of third place. And I'd say like, it's definitely the highest quality shootout I've ever seen in golf, professional golf. Like it was just back and forth.

Another close call from Mickelson. You guys know I love those. So that, you know, anytime he's involved, especially if he's coming up short, I think it's just good drama. You know,

and like Stenson was a guy that, uh, I found very easy to root for back then. Um, and he just, God, he played so good in that final round. Um, that's it.

You know, any concerns that the modern duel in the sun didn't feature the sun? I don't think the sun was really out that day. I'd have to go back and check the tape on that. Pretty gray. Yeah, the duel in the fog. Great call that. Yeah. Kind of just the last duel.

Fight in the fog. Yeah. We could workshop a name. I mean, I was just rumble in the rain, I think, could have worked. I remember it being called the modern duel in the sun. So that's why I was using that terminology. But it could use enough. I just think it's hard to argue with that not just being an electric

tournament final round was two things here Henrik shot 63 and he had two bogies in that final round which is pretty nuts and second this was before I was full-time and LU and so I actually didn't get to watch hardly any of the weekend as I was an assistant pool manager in Columbus Ohio and it was busy pool day. So unfortunately not i can see randy check it on that oh great another close call for mickles great lefty randy what was your what was your day to day is the assistant pool manager uh just making sure stuff wasn't coming off the rails honestly tc making sure the lifeguards were there making

sure they were doing what they needed to do we were checking chlorine levels in the pool we were making sure nobody had glass near the pool this you know just making sure the kids weren't getting into any shit over in the in the kind of grass area is it's It's just kind of making sure everybody's doing. Everybody's being cool. Just be cool. Did you ever have to insert yourself into the drama? Did you ever have to take the plunge from the lifeguard seat?

No, thank God. Spring into action? No. No, I did not. Were you lifeguarding? No. Assistant managing? No, no, no, no.

I was not a lifeguard. You don't have to come up as a lifeguard to be the assistant pool manager? No, because the manager was the head basketball coach. I was working for. So he kind of helped me out, got me a little summer job. But I was working for bar. The basketball coach was like the general manager, but Barb was the manager of the pool and the lifeguards.

She was a character. So I was technically working for Barb. It was enjoyable. You know, it made me feel old too, because I'm like 30 something sitting in the lifeguard hut, like trying to relate to these high school kids. It was a very surreal point of time. I guess on a personal note for me,

I was still living in San Francisco during this event. And the opens on so early on the West Coast. And so that was like watching this during like breakfast. It was just a thrill. It's like, holy shit. These guys are going at it. You know? And it's like 10 a.m.

It was great. Do you know who finished third in that one? J.B. Holmes. J.B. Holmes. Really? Yeah. I don't even have it pulled up.

He was minus six. Nicholson was 17 under and, and Stenson was 20. Yeah. Yeah, I've etched into my, my memory. It's insane. Do you know who finished below 8th? Tommy. No, he is an Englishman, though.

I don't think you're going to get it. It was like hot for a couple years. Paul Casey. I'm looking at it right now. So he, he ended up having the meats. Oh, beef. Beef. Oh, that's right.

Beef top 10 there. I forgot beef was playing with Mickelson when he, uh, when he hit the moving put. What if he was like Forrest Gump? He was everywhere for a while. 2016's Forrest Gub. Yeah. That's all right. Fine.

I'll simp out for 2000. Tiger Crete completes the career grand slam at the old course. That's the shot you're talking about. Pretty fucking sick. One of the greatest moments in golf, Jack, walking up the fairway for the first time retiring at the old course you know as tigers you know gives them the thumbs up over there on the first tea tiger hits the iron off the tea and just absolutely club twirls a shed out of an 120 yard wide fairway driving par fours just completely transcended the game of golf well completes a career

grand same at the age of 24 yeah i'll take that for for for overall thank you guys for really i mean have fun with that one such a boring watch it was not a boring watch because tiger was electric it was like how much is he going to win by you know and the worst kind of tournaments thankfully we never had those with Phil so it's a great pick it's a great pick it's a great big so solid wasn't there there was i mean i guess yeah he did win it uh ultimately by eight uh but it got a little interesting there no it didn't that was 2005 it got a little bit more interesting that was duval in the bunker all right my pick on the snake here i i my analysts modeled this out. We knew those four were not going to be on the board.

So that's good. We were able to prepare. And it's going to really matter what order I put these in, right? Because they get read into the historical record as first on your sheet. For that reason, I'm going to say, you know, there's a lot of music. It doesn't all have to be happy music. Doesn't all have to be triumphant music. You know, there's a lot of great Elliott Smith records. There's a lot of great the Smith's records. There's a lot of, you know, really sad stuff. Give me unfinished business. Stu Sink, you know, Turnberry, the echoes of the duel in the sun were nothing lasts forever. Everybody's mortal.

You know, you're not turning back the clock. It's going to, it's going to happen. What a horrible bounce with that eight iron on the last hole. What a horrible putt from our guy on the last green. Yeah, Tom Watson. I just, I was an intern at golf week. spending the summer in Orlando renting a house from some guy on Craigslist with him and his pit bull named Hulk and the dog's name was Hulk not the guy's name guy's name was Steve great guy

was a latner too no this is pre is before i moved uh moved in with labner and so i was just like he was not a huge golf guy and i was just waking up it there's one tv in the house he's like yeah man go nuts if you want to watch tv like it's all all yours man uh so i'm waking up at like three, four in the morning to watch the open as, and I just, you know, can't look away. The whole Tom Watts, I can't believe this is going to happen. And then you just get your heart ripped out at the very last minute. I mean, it was seminal, seminal moment. Nothing, nothing else is like, nothing is ever going to touch that one.

But that's never going to happen again, ever. I mean, even Phil, I was thinking about it last night and like Phil, obviously wins when he's 50 at Kiowa, but it's like, Phil's fucking nuking the ball still. like he's kind of in low-key, like the best shape of his life at 50 years old, kind of looking like the tactical dad out there. Whereas Tom Watson looks like an old man. And he's walking up, but he's hitting these Adams hybrids everywhere.

And it's just like, it was surreal stuff. So give me that one first. That's a no-brainer. And second, I will go, you know, obviously didn't watch this one in person,

but one of the most baller accomplishments ever for one of the most bad. as people in the history of golf. No. God damn. Ben Hogan at Karnusti. Place one open goes over and wins it. I mean, it just says I'm never coming back.

And then he never goes back. The PGA because of it. It's just great. Hogan's Alley, you know, what are you win the U.S. Open in the PGA that year as well, right? Or the masters in the U.S. Masters. Yeah. Yeah, one of the great years in in golf history.

One of the great golf courses in, in the Rhoda. It's just everything lines up there for for just great stuff. And I feel really good on that, on that snake. I feel like I've slingshotted with some momentum there. Shout out to Panmere to.

Exactly. Practice in Panmere. Yeah. Got it like, I think if I remember reading, like his scores got better each day too. Because like essentially never really played links golf. So it's just kind of, you have like a, you got like a week to figure it out. It's a different ball.

Figured it out. Yeah, exactly. A smaller ball, right? And yeah, it's just back when golfers were golfers, you know, they don't make them like that anymore, guys. Golly. I thought I really, that was great. I thought I could get that one on the way back was,

I would have taken that in the first round otherwise. Oh, I thought you had that one. I mean, Tiger Career Grand Slam. I don't know that that was going to be there for you. It wasn't either, but I, you just keep, I don't like drafting next to you. You keep snagging them right out here. 15 pounds.

One of my favorite. This was the rations, right? The rations. The story, we did a little deep, many dive on, on Hogan back in the day. And so he, like, post-car crash, like, still, he needed so much protein. And especially, like, on these, like, 36 whole days, he needed so much food. And, like, he was staying at some bed and breakfast or some hotel. And he got after the, after the round got, like, a pretty measly steak.

from the from the hotel was like not big enough and he like chewed somebody out at the hotel for it and saying you know you need to need more meat and later found out like the entire village had given up their ration they were still in rations from the war the entire village had given up their like ration cards all to pitch in to like get him that stake and he had like go back like hat in hand and just like apologize because he had absolutely no idea on it I'm paraphrasing the story of course but uh Just a moment in time story of like taking the steamboat over to play the Open. And shortly after World War II, one time wins it, hits the farewells all four days. And on the sixth hole at the par five, it's just an awesome, awesome one. So we have the meet. The only man to win the aforementioned Masters, U.S. Open and Open Championship in the same year. how about that and that's what makes the speed god speed was close oh guys there's a ton that could go here i hate when there's one that's just not jumping off the page

um he wants to take oh six so bad he's playing to the judge it yeah what you want sallie i am going to go 1984 oh the great man the great man the great man And Sevy winning at the old course, the iconic fist pump on the 18th green. He wins it by two over Bernard Longer and Tom Watson. God, I mean runner-ups is Watson having the open championship. I might have to dive in on that one. The board also had Fred Couples, Lanny Watkins, Nick Fowdo, Greg Norman, all of those names in the top six of that one.

It was Sevy's second open championship, his fourth, Major birded the 18th hole to win it by two. Watson had bogey the 17th. Yeah, I got a Sevy win on the old course, knowing we got a bunch of European judges as well. I have to have to love my chances grabbing that one. Final round 79 from Ian Baker Finch in the final group. Hate it. Somebody hit it OB at the first? I think so.

No, that was later on. That was in the 90s. Yeah. this was this was young young ibf he was playing like can i ask you why why just the old course doing all the work that one versus 79 per sevi yeah that that's the two i was kind of deciding between and i just feel like the the images are a little stronger uh from the 84 one and yeah the old course you know maybe i might be going working towards a collection of all old course ones for all we know we don't know don't know yet but um can't say yet i uh it's it's hard when you didn't do you do

I didn't live either of these. So it's hard to, you know, I'm kind of going off of what I know about them versus what I experience with them. Like 79 has the coolest cover of any of any record in this collection. So the green pants, you know, the whole deal. Yeah. It's hard to be striking. Yeah. All right.

Neil. Gentlemen, I'm going 2022. The 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews. It was a complete free for all. Cam Smith, the mangy dog, gets it done, starts biting people at the original block party. We had to call Animal Control. Really disappointing one for me with Rory, another close call sets up. I think really, though, sets up the narrative a little bit for Rory's breakthrough at Augusta,

with that being the first one, first close call, and then the two U.S. opens to follow in 24, 23 and 24. I got to just remember being so locked in this tournament. Unbelievable leaderboard. Hovlin's balling out. Cam Young announcing himself that whole season and this kind of being his peace day resistance at the end of the season. Driving the green on 18.

I just had so much fun watching this event. And I thought, I think it's kind of another moment in time during the whole live PGA saga. Camp Smith wins the open and just bounces for live like two weeks later. That's what I'm laughing because this super like, Jamie Weir is one of our judges. He had an infamous call into the live show after that one, just completely desponded that Rory didn't get it done.

And they announced on our show that a bunch of those guys were going to live right after it. And he's going to be one of the judges. Well, I think it's, I think it'll go down as one of my favorites ever because of all the, I mean, the drama, the action is the juice, baby. I mean, positive or negative. I am all about the drama.

Like, I would, of course I had unfinished business on my short. list each like give me give me the nightmares we're not into dreams as gruden says we're in nightmares man we're into killing people's dreams i like those too you know that was a dream for me i know just i had the you know the the the champagne toast at the end there and and cam just absolutely hunting rory down was one of the best final rounds i've ever watched it really was and it was um there's like i think another important thing with these for my favorites there's like they're you you talk about an event and there's an immediate shot and there's an immediate shot and And that putt from behind the road bunker, the roadhole bunker.

It just stands, you're like immediately the first thing you think about it's like, oh, yeah, God, remember when he ripped, like, wrapped it around the, the turn three on 17. Like that was, it was just unbelievable. So that, that, that, that, that, that, I know it's modern and maybe recency bias, but God, that turn. That was good. And ruled. 100%.

Great pick. 100%. 100%. Two picks for the big man. No. Just one. No, T.C.'s on the snake. Oh, T.C.'s first pick.

Sorry. Yeah. T.C.'s sitting there on the snake, which worries me a little bit about, I got to get the one I really want here. He wants Migglesson at Meerafield. Nah, well, I do, but I don't think that's your speed. So I'm going to leave that one. There are a couple I'm looking at. I mean, the one I really want, we're just going to take this one.

The one I really want is, what will this year be the $100,000? 154th playing the open championship guys I'm going back to the ninth playing I'm taking old young excuse me young tom morris's first open championship win this was at presswick he defeated his father old tom morris by three shots uh young tom morris is and still is the youngest open championship the youngest open champion of all time He won this at the age of, I believe, 17. He would tragically die eight years later on Christmas Day, 1875. But before he did that, he would win the Open Championship four times.

The 1868 one, which is the one I'm taking, this would be the first of three straight. And then the 1871 championship, of course, had to be canceled because they didn't have a trophy available. There was nothing to play for it. And so that's kind of a fun wrinkle of history there. So I'm going to 1868, young Tom Morris, defeating his father, old Tom Morris. Just think about that. That's crazy. That's wild.

Ronnie James beating LeBron. He was only 17 at the time. Randy, they don't really know what everybody shot. some sources say old Tom Morris shot 155 other people say you shot 157 young Tom shot 51 54 a final round 49 god just going sub 50 in the final round this was three rounds on the 12 whole presswick course and I do want to mention that they played all three of these rounds in the same day which is great interesting Randy it was a new scoring record 154 the old record was 162 held by Andrew Strath.

Strath bunker. Ever heard of him. Yeah. They, I mean, big, I think the whole deal was if you won three times in a row, you got to keep the belt,

right? And then that, that, that of course, led to the advent of the Claire Juck. That's right. Which I then think he won that one, too.

Didn't he win that one after the year off as well? Yep. So he won in 1872, four straight, all four that he would win in his life. And, yeah, just a fascinating,

Fascinating character. Obviously, we're much removed from this time period, but I hope the judges take into account just how momentous and important these early championships are. I think they always do. I think they always, they always are all over that stuff. I'm going to do it. I'm going to take 2006, the cat.

When I think about the open championship, I think of Turnberry and poofs of dust coming up, I think of 2006 at Hoylake, poofs of dust coming up. Tiger hit one driver all week. He's just hitting that two iron everywhere. Earl had just passed away. Goes toe to toe with DeMarco. Ells was in the mix.

Furek. Bludgeon sweetie bird. You know, Sergio, Hedetto, Tanihara. You know, you had Brett Rumford, the great man up there for a while. Yeah, rummy. Short game. Past hands in the game. You know, Tiger, Tiger, first round is 67.

And then just takes control, you know, after the second round, shoot 65 on Friday. And weather was hot. It was dry. It was, DeMarco's mother had just passed away as well, I think. So it was kind of a, you know, it's just an emotional kind of deal. And, yeah, I don't know. I just, that's what I think about, man. I think about Tiger collapsing into Stevie's arms afterwards

and just that golden light. Which one was this for Tiger? How many, was this the third? Yeah, it was third and final. Third. So, yeah, 2000, 2005 and 2006. Quick break here to check in with our friends at Holderness and Bourne. You should go to HBGolf.com and see exactly what I'm talking about when I say they've got some great new summer arrivals.

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for office days it is not required dry cleaning it's easy care it's got great stretch it feels like you're wearing pajamas as well so only discount code on the market n l u 10 gets you 10% off at hbgolf com again hbgolf dot com nl u 10 get you 10% off again only discount code you're gonna find for holdiness and board anywhere. NLU10, HBGolf.com. Back to the pod. Next, we're going to go a lot of different directions. We could go. We could go with the Pimble Crusher, Cal Nagel at St. Andrews in 1960. We could go with, um, go with Arnie in 61. Uh, you know, 60's the important one. Yeah, the first time, you know, Arnie came over was, was 60 and then he wins in 61. So I think that's where we're

going to go is 61. Arney kind of setting the stage for, for the, modern open and uh you know everybody just everybody making the trip over so this was at burkdale um this was 61 you went with 61 yes uh harold henning was the um the uh first round leader uh christie o'connor 1.0 is in the mix but arnie four under wins beats di reese a welshman and by one and they're the only two guys under par, Randy. But I think just from a significance perspective, Arnie going over, there's Gale Force wins on Thursday. The second round was on Thursday.

And then heavy rains washed out both rounds on Friday. So they had to play both the third and fourth rounds on Saturday. So Arney doing it, 36 whole final day, getting it done. Love that. Kind of, you know, don't love. When stuff gets washed out, but I just, I think this was, you know it had to be bad if it was, if it was yeah, not playing during the open. So I just think 61 is, is, you know, that's, that's set in the stage. I love it. TV, TV's coming online, getting the Americans over there playing, setting, yeah, setting the context for what an important championship it is for, for all the American blokes over here.

It's a great pick, T.C. I thought about 05. the cat, obviously. I already simped. Yeah. Simping ain't easy. All right. Where do we want to go now?

The board is open. I'm going to run my race. I am going to run my race, which means I got to get some of San Andrews. I feel like to complete the collection. I need something at St. Andrews. So you know what? We're going to go with another memorable one from my childhood.

1995, Long John Daly gets it done. Constantine Roca, of course, makes the putt from the Valley of Sin to force a playoff. John Daly, who is this guy? This big American smoking the cigarettes. You have the streaker on the green. A lot of just memorable sweatshirt stuff coming from this 1995 open. So yeah, I think it's a good one to put in the collection. Big horny Randy goes with the one that butt cheeks involved.

And I'll say much like my other pick of Jean Vandeveld in 1999, this playoff was pretty anticlimatic. It's also kind of a bonus track. you know you can hang around and and check that out if you want but um the the crux of it is that 72nd hole was was madness it was it was so windy that way that year too like it's a it's a really interesting and fun rewatch that one so i'm glad you took that i was going to have to end up trying to complete the old course set uh but you you snagged that one for me i'm going to have to i'll say this too sorry real quick i think this is the last time uh that we see the old course really challenge the modern golfer and i i don't think that's nothing so i would i would encourage the

judges to take that into consideration the brook making a triple why would that be though i don't what happened before 2000 i don't i'm trying to trying to think exactly the last analog record i like it right yeah to look into that maybe but all right uh god i'm i'm Are you reeling? I'm looking at 21 with Morcawa. What? 23 with Harmon. Let him do.

Absolutely. I'm going with a great man in 1979. Sevy in the cop-hawk. Ah. Out of the parking lot. I should have gone. I don't believe this fell this far. It's his first one.

It's at Litham, which I have a newfound, uh, glowing respect for. I'm going to forgive myself. Okay. Place absolutely brought me to my knees. But yeah, Sydney drives it in the temporary parking lot at 16. Makes birdie from there. Wins the Open at 22 years old.

The first continental European champion in 72 years. Just a swashbuckler arrives on the scene. Become synonymous with with guile and just the open. I mean, it just becomes a great man from that point on. So, yeah, enough said there. I think that's just an easy one. Dege, we saw that picture of him in the clubhouse. It's the coolest shit ever.

Green pants, blue sweater, just leaning on it like Big Randy. I mean, it's all. I love everything about this selection. You know, I'm all set. I was going to snatch it up fast if it was there. I feel like a great pick. I totally bottled this. Yeah, I'm not going to forgive my son.

He's hit at the burn. This is unbelievable. What a specific place in time, too. God, I had you guys cook in there with the Morikawa. You really did. Really did. All right. God, I was probably going to take that one there.

I don't know if this is going to go over great with some of our European judges here, but that's okay. This was a transformative open. This was a really, really good open. Of course, we haven't seen since this day. It was an incredible comeback, incredible moments there on the back night. Incredible names coming down the stretch as well. It did not look like his for most of the, you know, early part of the day.

Then he ends up winning it by three going away. And it's Phil Mickelson at Mearfield in 2013. For all the struggles he had at this tournament for so many years, hitting the ball too high, and he'd never win an open championship. It was comical there for a while of how bad he was. this tournament and everything he did to prepare himself for this tournament and and, uh, and, you know, come from behind and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and,

and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, that was, uh, that was a, that was a, a, a, a, a, super, uh, vivid memory of watching that one in my head, just because the leaders had had so long to go, uh, with Nicholson had already posted 66 at three under, and, and, you're, birdie in the last and the fist bumps and everything and you know present day fill aside it was an an excellent excellent open championship to watch he also just gassed it at marion yeah correct and so that was i mean that's that's a factor there it was such a surprise i remember he was wearing white too yeah he looked good i remember being like damn man good for him i remember being very uh very happy with this win for him yeah just such a uh he's never going to do it holy

shit he did it kind of kind of moment as well shot in the 17 yeah birdie the last two holes birdie four the last six holes at meirfield uh adam scott you know bogeed four in a row uh he had another one that adam scott kind of gave away that we don't really talk about much he was two under after 12 holes birded the next or bogey the next four holes um he still would have needed to play it and you know he entered finishing four back but still just good g yeah yeah that was when i first gained an appreciation from your field Good, yeah, good golf course. Beautiful canvas that week.

All right. My last two here on the snake. I'm a little worried that I don't have anything from the old course. That's concerning. There's an obvious one, somewhat obvious, but it's a little academic. I don't, it's not like I really have some vivid memory of this. It just kind of seems like it'd be a good pick. I can't really do that.

I'm going to do. Yeah, ZJ is what I was talking about. about. No. I'm going to, you know what, I'm going to follow my heartstrings here. I'm going to go a little history and I'm going to go a little sentimentality. With the history, of course, anytime you get a chance to own a piece of the Grand Slam, I think you got to take that. And so I'm going to take 1930, Bob Jones, his friends called a Bob TC. I love Hoylake after our recent, our recent visit there. I had it such a delightful time, great proud people who treat history the right way over there. I just, I, I, just, I, I love it. It's an iconic piece of golf history and at an iconic venue and an iconic golfer. Put Bobby Jones on my list with Tom Watson to sync to a lesser extent as well as Ben Hogan.

I think that's a natural pick. So I can tell by your face. It looked like you were on that one as well. For my last pick, I think this is maybe going to be a strange one. Not the most vivid memories of this one, but a cool one for. kind of the the history of the open give me 2019 Shane Lowry at Royal Port Rush all the all the history that goes all the history that goes back all the history that goes back into going to Royal Port Rush the importance of opening that one back up into the open rhoda rain great man Shane kind of doing it in front not knowing how he's going to be received and he goes and gets it done.

It's just one I don't know. I have a lot of positive memories of it. I loved our trip to Royal Port Rush. I like when they went back to Royal Port Rush and Scotty won. I think that's it. I think that one's going to age well as a turning point for the open going back there. So I think that's an important one. Okay.

Gosh, that I like your Bobby Jones. They went off early because of bad weather. J.B. Holmes. Yeah, J.B. Holmes shot like, It was sick. Yeah, that was awesome. I forgot. They throw that one in for free.

How do I want to round up? What else am I supposed to take? Like Jack, 1970 that I don't literally don't know one shot from? Yeah, why don't we, you could take this one that I, I don't, I'm like triple checking that nobody took your favorite player two years earlier. 2017 at Burkdale.

Yeah. Go get that. Yeah. If we can go back, I shouldn't take it that one. I, uh, yeah, I was prepared for you to take that and I was going to, you know, go historic to try to round it out. Uh, but yeah, I give me, give me speed from the range. You know, the iconic picture with the hybrid down there, uh, getting up and down for

bogey. Go get that. Almost making the ace on 14. Just breaking Matt Coutcher's soul. I was at that one. Uh, and why? watched a lot of that, you know, golf tournament in person. That one is it feels like a steal in round forward.

The only reason I wouldn't take it is we have a lot of European judges. And I think I've got three American winners in there. And I would have tried to diversify it. But I mean, that was an amazing open championship. And thank you, D.H. I mean, it was great. Totally.

I totally choked. Completely bodily on that one. But I also, you know, I went hard on all the other speeth ones for, for the masters in the US Open. I probably reached on a lot of speed stuff. So that's,

it didn't. that's how deep soli is in the simping that he's simping for all the nationalities of who he's got is his winners that's how deep i'm and winning winning sally gets a sunday 63 from halton lee as part of this one and brandon grace shot the first 62 at major championship history uh on this day and johnny miller was on the call too like that was uh you know johnny no longer has the has the record any more interviewed Mike Tarrico that week in a little trailer didn't even bring a microphone just recorded straight into my phone that was just it was very memorable week played a bunch of westland it was an awesome awesome week it gave me a lot of affinity for the open championship great pick

thank you yeah I was hoping quite as important for geopolitics is mine but it's a nice week man okay I am going to take that 1971 Sanders and nicholas at st. Andrews wait are you skipping me hold on do I get My last pick. You're, no, you're. No, you're. You're third. Sorry.

TC, I got my shoes for brothers. Go ahead. And now I'll give you the last word. Yeah. So, 1970 at St. Andrews. Yeah. Love having the old course again. Uh, love getting Jack in the portfolio.

You know, love, love a blue chip stock like that in there. Uh, honestly, yeah, I've never really seen a shot from this other than Nicholas, tossing his putter like 95 feet in the air. And I've still, every time I see that. highlights. I'm like, where'd that putter land? Like, did that hit somebody? You know, that's, that's a kind of an iconic highlight that you see a lot of. So that comes from this, this tournament. Doug Sanders missed a 30 inch putt. He had a putt to win the open. He misses it. He loses an 18-hole playoff to Nicholas by one. And that after which Jack flings his putter.

And he almost, I think he almost hits Sanders. And then Sanders goes on to say, I think about that putt every day. So you got to love a nightmare like that. So that's, that's, that's good. for my collection uh you got you know triumph of the golden bear agony for uh for a guy like doug sanders give me 1970 at st andrews 70 73 on the weekend from jack got it done brown and ugly baby neels becket magazine told him that that was going to be a an important important collectible if you get your hands on one of these pick it up at the flea market randy do you think we're stroking jack on a rule 1.2b on that putter throw Yes.

Retroactively. Yes. Absolutely. Somebody could have got really hurt. Yeah. That's dangerous. Who just tossed, was it, was it, Tosti that pissed off Morikawa?

Like last week? Threw his wedge way up in the air and Morcawa did not like that. It was at the rig. He was all fucking revved up. Oh yeah. It was all jacked up on the rink. That's right.

Almost dropped gloves. There was a goon out there. You know, what was the selling point for 70 versus is 78 for Jack at St. Andrews. The selling point was the putter throw, honestly. It's like, oh, because I struggle with these, you know, I'm not a, not a historian T.C. So I struggle with some of these ones that I don't have any experience with.

But I'm like, oh, no, I know that clip. I've always kind of wondered what that was from. And so that's, that's, that's where I'm going with it. Yeah. God, you can't make a par on the last and then you almost get hit by Nicholas's putter. That's tough day. I think we've got to take this one away from Jack.

I agree. I like someone in the comments the other day had a segment idea. They said to be or not to be, where Randy just goes through. It says where rule 1.2b should be applied in history. That's incredible. Great, great segment. That's a good one. Okay.

Is it my turn now? Yes, it is. It is. Okay. I didn't think I was going to pick this one. and now digging back in and reading about a little bit this was a wild one and i'm actually happy to have this one right he's taking the concession no we're going to take 2007 podrick harrington at carnusti this is a really just a wild final round

uh so yeah you had the sergio collapse um he he had eventually he gave himself a 10 foot par put on the 72nd hole to win he does not not yet tc this was kind of the the apex of andres romero the argentinian mamba who was just out of his mind this sunday uh before he hit it wildly wildly off this the 17th and ended up making double bogey on 17 and then bogeyed 18 to miss the playoff eventually by one shot podrick was 67 with two doubles randy yeah it's unbelievable Paudrig was kind of coming from nowhere. He started the day, six shots behind Sergio, but by the 14th hole after he made Eagle, Padrig was nine under, and then he comes to the

72nd hole, hits it in the berm twice, manages to make double bogey post seven under, and then Sergio comes in behind him, and we know what happened. Yeah, this was just a wild one. I feel like just a really good golf tournament. Is Padrig, you know, one of the more famous names in the history of golf? Absolutely not. But I think the real ones know that 2007 was a fun open championship. Great pick. I think bonus points.

This was the first open for Rory, who was low am at this tournament too. So a little simping for Rory. I hope the judges take that. Please note. Please note. No, he played on that record. He's not credited, but he was, yeah. He played guitar on that record.

No idea what T.C. is going to do to round this out. I don't either. I could go 1927 to Bob Jones. His friend's called him Bob at the old kind of turned the course of his relationship with the old around. We could go with Trevino. Maybe led to the creation of Augusta National. Yeah, yeah. We could go with Trevino in 70.

at Mirfield against Jacqueline. We don't have any Nick Faldo in here, which feels a little... Hey, Falto. A little off. We don't have any Peter Thompson? We don't have any Peter Thompson. We don't have any Henry Cotton, man.

We could go David Brown. And, you know, they... Is he the roofer? They pulled him off the roof. They cleaned him up. He won the open. A pair of striped trousers and a frock coat. Real ones, though.

He beat Willie Campbell. at Muscleboro Old Links and promptly turned pro afterwards. Gosh, I just, we go with the cat at the old, right? Nobody's picked that yet. I could have two, I could sim my face off. Go to two cats. We go with Darren Clark, a really emotional win in 2011. 2011.

At Royal St. George's. I'm not a Royal St. George's guy, so we're not going to do that, though. We go at 2012. What are you going to go with, T.C.? Adam Scott. What are you going to go with? Adam scotting it against Ernie Lowe's at Lhythm. That was really, really sick.

Get a nightmare in the collection. Come on. I know. I need a nightmare in the collection, which Neil, that's why I'm going 2015, Zach Johnson. Oh my God. Gross.

That was electric. I mean, it was just, you had Brooks basically cursing out the rules official. You got DJ and Sally there together. Just, you know, absolutely.

sending it around town. You had a stoppage of play. You had absolute sweepstakes. You got Mark Leishman and Maddie. They're just doing their thing. You got Oost Hazen. You got Zach Johnson patting down spike marks before it was legal. Speed going for the grand slam.

Yeah. It just had everything, man. And it was, it was a, that was what, a Monday finish too, right? Yeah. Yeah. It was. I mean, that was just a really, like, I made. not have liked how it ended up, but it was fucking electric.

Who was in the playoff? Leash. Leash. Leason and ZJ. Okay. Yeah. Louis. I mean, I know, you know, I know this is painful stuff for everybody.

He had Paul Dunn, played his butt off. Jordan Ebroogie. He played great. He was a low. It was a memorable tournament. That was like the, the rise of golf Twitter was right around. right around that era as well.

And you had an ham in the final group, Paul Dunn. That's, that's pretty incredible. It was just like, it was a, it was a, I don't know, like leash, leashed shot a final round 66. He's leader in the clubhouse coming in. Didn't get a birdie on 18 though. Kind of, you know, you're like, man, like, you got to, if he just birdies 18, it bogied 17,

uh, he kind of, kind of limped in a little bit coming in just the last five or six holes. But yeah, ZJ and ZJ bogeys the road hole and then Bertie's 18. You got, I don't know, it was, there was just a lot going on. You make me want to go back and watch highlights from this one because it was, I know, but it's just so unsatisfying and so unfulfilling when ZJ wins. And you're like, holy shit, ZJ is one of masters and he's one of an open championship at the old course. So it's haunting, but also like, I think there's a, there's a distinct theme with the open of magic postponed or magic canceled between uh even going back to like norman at burkdale and he's just like he'd almost what chopped his arm off with a chainsaw

he's playing great and all that or you know the whole watson thing uh yeah there's just there's just a lot of a lot of heartbreak there i thought about gary player in 19 74 when he dropped the ball out of his pocket. Allegedly. All right. I think you just named 26 open championships in that turn alone. Here are the final rosters. TC has 1977, the duel in the sun, Tom Watson, 2006,

simping for Tiger at Hoylake. 1961, Arnold Palmer at Burkdale, 2015 ZJ at the old course. Interesting collection. Tiger Arnees ZJ. Randy has Paul Lorry, 1999 Carnusti. He has 1868 at Presswick, young Tom. 1995, old course, Jod Daley. In 2007, Patrick Harrington at Carnusty.

It's a very interesting collection, Randy. Neil, 2016 at Trune with Stenson, 22 at the Old Course with Cameron Smith. 1979 at Lhythm with Sevy and 1970 at the old course. It's just a balance collection. I love it. Really simple. Could be Neil's. Could be Neil's week.

Could be a top three finish. I have Tiger 2000 at the old course career grand slam. Don't need to say anything more about that. Boring. 84 at the old course, Sevi, the iconic. Fis pump that is still his logo,

still his logo to this day. You're talking iconic green pants. Everyone's going to remember the iconic image of 70. He hit it from the car park. 2013 at Mearfield, Mickelson in 2017. Go get that, Jordan Speeat at Burkdale. DJ has 2009,

Turnberry, Stuart Sink, unfinished business, 1953 at Karnusti with Ben Hogan, 1930, Robert Jones at Hoy Lake for the career or the season-long grants, slam in 2019 port rush Shane Lowry so a double boogie they have bottled it yeah I disagree disagree that was a boring oh he's simping to to Jamie we're there which is just one of five there's a lot of judges on this so I'm simpin I think it's I think it's historically important

you know congratulations on taking Zach Johnson TC it was a little lecture you were there was it not an electric week it was you got you got brooks saying like i'm not gonna i don't give a fuck who you are like i'm not i'm not gonna hit my ball till it stops oscillating you got sally sleeping until 3 p.m. missed it that tea time i didn't sleep till 3 i slept till 10 a.m okay and wipe it on the apps i uh no i did sleep i think i did wake up at 2 p.m i think you're right uh we had at 6 a m tea time i think i woke up at 2 p.m. we did drink for 15 hours that day if I remember right, what it was like to be young. That's going to do it for this part.

Let's reconvene here in a couple of weeks once our judges have had a chance to rate our drafts. All right, we're back before we get to our finale here and the votes. Do you want to shout up, we have a new video up on our YouTube channel, Northwest England trip documenting. If you're looking to get hype for the Open Championship next week, go ahead and check that out. It is out now.

Also, if you are looking to plan a trip of your own, Hit up our friends at East Sands Golf. You can go to Eastsandgolf.com slash NLU. Nick and Haley are awesome resources. You know, if you're a beginner planning a trip, if you're an expert planning a trip, no matter what A list courses, B list courses, C list courses,

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that's a little bit more soul, stuff you may not have heard of, stuff that you may have heard of, but thought was, you know, just like the whole gamut. They're great. They're pros. And they're really personable. And kind of just fit with our ethos of exploration and adventure. I was getting ready to plan a trip for with my dad for next year. And I was like, man, where are I starting? I was like, you know what? I know exactly where I'm going to start planning this trip. So east sandsgolf.com. slash NLU. I promise. And tell them we sent you, and I promise you will have a great experience with them. We've had nothing

but great feedback on that one. Nest members get $500 off per person, off any trip. I believe that's capped at eight people per trip, but another benefit for Nest members as well. So before we get the results, how do you guys feel like you did? T.C., where do you think you finished in all of this?

I think I probably finished second or third. I, you know, I dip my toe into simping a little bit. It felt good. It was beneath you. Randy, where do you think you finished? I'll be pissed if I didn't win. I'm looking to win one of these. I got fun opens, very disappointed.

This is my best effort yet. I love my squad. Don't remember the whole squad, but love it. Okay. Dege, what do you think? How do you think you did? Yeah, you just reminded me of the team that I picked, and I think I definitely won.

You know, I forgot how good it was. You gave it. Sally, how do you feel? I already know the results, right? I think my results are pretty apt. I feel very comfortable with where I ended up on this one. So, not need for the delay. Why don't we get to our first judge?

This is Jamie Kennedy from Golf Digest. Proud Scott, an open championship connoisseur. Gentlemen, lads, how are we doing? It's an honor to be a judge here on the Open Championship. Don't call it the British Open Draft. What am I looking for? I want history. I want draft.

I want conditions. So let's get into it. In fifth place, we have TC. TC, you came in unprepared, and in your own words, you bottled it. You meant to be a lover of links, and you got exposed by the elements here, okay? Jewel in the Sun, first round, easy pick, no questions there. 2006 in the second round, come on. And then 61 and Arne is a great story, but you tried to sell me with Harold Henning and Di Reespe.

in contention, so you lost me there. Solid pick in 2015 in the final round. Actually, my second open I ever worked at and where I met a young Dennis Pihouski for the first time. But ultimately, T.C., not enough to make up for a distinct lack of preparation.

Do better, lad. Come on. Next up is Sully. Sully, thank you for the invitation to do this. Thank you for the Venmo payment to skew the votes. But it didn't work. This feels like a win. 2000 in the first round

iconic achievement but was it an iconic open? Not really the drama and conditions that I'm looking for in the first round. 84 and Sevee was great, good shout, forgotten by many the iconic celebration. Not many people know Sevee actually had that tattoo on his arm

with the celebration from the 18th screen so there you go. 2013 in Muirfield and Mickelson turned into a bit of a pillow fight over the weekend. Phil finished well but not one that I think about ever you did get 2017 in the final round I'll give you credit there the quintessential Jordan speed experience but ultimately just not enough juice and not enough drama for me there so I'm lucky

solly you're fourth so let's get to the podium in third place is my guy Neil Neil great to see you in the Scottish Highlands good to see you at Shinnecock you got Stenson Mickelson in the first round modern take on an old classic and jewel in the sun you guys were trying to remember what it was nicknamed. Let me help you out. A few people tried to call it High Noon at Trune. Others called it the jewel of the suns because it was Mickelson versus Stenson. Both of those are lame, but not a lame pick, Neil. Well done. Good solid pick at the first one here. 2022 in round two was a good pick, but you had me worried you were going to stay modern, just play the modern hits. You started talking about Harmon and Moracawa. You were going to lose me.

But in the third round, you trusted your process, you settled into yourself, and you got seviatlytham, and you got Nicholas at the old course. Well done. Good lot of high-level golf in there, a lot of high-level stuff, some good international influence, and a real collection of excellence there. So third place for you, Neil, add-a-boy. Okay, runner-up, drum roll, please. It's going to Big Randy.

Randy, tough to hear that you couldn't get the day off of Pool Duty to watch the Open Championship in 2016. but as you say you ran your race here you drafted out of gut and feel and i respect the hell out of that 1999 first round absolute banger worthy of the first pick give me carnagey give me conditions give me the meltdowns i'm not prepared it's rewarded for it won't dock you for pronouncing paul lorry is paul lowry but great pick all the same love love to see young tom and presswick in there don't feel like any open collections complete without young tommy a wild week and a wild thing at the old course in 95.

Yes, please. And then Carnusty in the final round for 2007. Great battle of two guys looking for their first major. Sergio slumped over his putter on the 18th green. Really solid collection start to finish, Randy. Fine, fine work. Thank you. And so, my winner,

tip of the cap, goes to DJ. Nearly no notes, DJ. You forgot about Spieth in 2017 in the fourth round, but otherwise, a perfect collection of albums. A couple of modern classics, a couple of old final records there that stand up to the test of time. 2009 underrated by many but not by me.

Turnberry, so it never fails to provide drama. A true what if moment in golf history. 1953, arguably the greatest open victory ever. Hogan, post-crash, won and done, had to qualify, play a different ball, walk off birdie on the last hole to win the third leg of the Grand Slam. Yes, sir. 1930, Bobby Jones, halfway to the Grand Slam himself. at Hoylake, another legend.

Love to see that in the collection. And then rounding out with a feel-good hit and Shane Lowry at Port Rush. My favorite open venue. That was true. Good weather all week. That's true. We had the crowds. We had the Wii 63 there from Lowry on Saturday.

Good scenes. So ultimately, guys, listen, if you invited me to a marathon open party, ultimately, I'm going to be picking up some tenants and I'm going to be heading to DJs. Four different venues. Highs, lows, histories, meltdowns, excellent.

No notes, DJ. So my winner and champion drafter of the year, DJ Pihouski. I just, I disagree. That's so good. I thought his overview of mine is better than Madys. Neil, I'll give you, I'll give you the last word. I want, there's some hanging, hanging chats here. This is bullshit.

I think the American, the American mind can't comprehend my list, I think is what's going on. You see it, you see some real worldliness from Jamie. he sees what I'm doing it gets properly rewarded i just i never got this far in my dreams i love it a lot of inconsistency there you know uh randy gets gets gets lauded for drafting on gut and feel i get docked for being unprepared and going on gut and feel i don't i don't see that my favorite part of all of this is the tc getting the mirror held up to him just every time's like i think i want I think I got this. I think I got this and just getting bodied.

I didn't say I won. I said I came in second or third. Okay. Well, we'll see if how that works out. Stoop to simping T.C. Yeah, you didn't even have, you don't even have the team you want. And you're not going to finish.

I don't bottled it on this. I got the wrong SEV. I feel like TC's chasing speed. You don't, you don't have a SEVE. You don't have any. 2019 was such a miss by the pie man. That's disappointing.

Yeah. Well, I know. That's, that's, that's an unbook. coming yeah nobody's sticking around for dessert citizen of the world just said it's his favorite open venue in the world i don't i don't know i've just i don't have to pick my sides on that one all right

we're going to the radio voice of ian carter next is my guy fascinating this is a lengthy one he goes he he got into this very very into this but this is mr carter hey guys uh well thank you very much indeed for asking me to do this what an onerous task but what an honor as well to try and judge favorite open championships, the greatest championship of them all in my book. And I have to say, I mean, when Cody asked me to do this, he said, you know, don't worry about being hard on the guys. And I can't be hard. I wrote a long list. And you got every single one of them. So then I wrote a short list.

And I went with My Four. And my four were 1977, the jewel in the sun, obviously, obviously. Obviously. 1984 and Seve's victory at St. Andrews. 1970, Jack Nicholas's victory at St. Andrews. And 1999 for the Open Championship that really sums up the championship. The heartbreak and the glory with Jean van der Velts, capitulation on the last.

and of course Paul Laurie coming through with brilliant golf coming from 10 shots behind that closing 67 some amazing ball striking in that but the drama of course

of Vandeveld stays in everyone's mind so judging this very very difficult there's no doubt about that but a judge has to be a judge and so with those four I had to immediately eliminate someone because there's five of you and one of you didn't get any

of those four. So DJ, I'm sorry. You had some good choices, some very good choices, but they didn't match up with me, so I'm afraid you're in last place. I just have to pay that. 2009, Stuart Sink,

beating Tom Watson. I mean, that, it can't go down as one of my favorite opens because I think I'd have been commentating on the greatest sport story of all time if Tom Watson had made that put, but he didn't make that put. And he left me with the most anticlimactic piece of commentary I've ever done just saying I didn't know where else to go with that.

And you knew he was never going to win the playoff. But you couldn't actually say he'd lost it because the playoff was still to come. It's like Ian's got unfinished business. Yeah. So great open, very memorable. You're quite right to highlight Ben Hogan. All the stories around 1953 at Karnoosti make that one of the great. Bobby Jones, his achievement.

and laying the foundations, I think, for being the great figure that he became in the game of golf. And, you know, Sully made the point, you know, maybe that was where we got the reputation and the standing to be able to launch something like the Masters. And Shane Lowry's victory in 2019, got to give you kudos for that. That was an incredible open championship for all sorts of reasons, sporting, golfing. and politically, and it's amazing that Port Rush was such a success then and is now so firmly re-established on the open rotor. So the legacy of that is really, really strong, but I'm afraid, Dege, you came like. Apologies for that. So let's get into it. Let's next get to T.C. T.C., quite rightly, you went for the jewel in the sun. It would be number one, I think, for

everybody. And I think the only reason you get any credit for this is you didn't squander the opportunity after you won the duck race and you took that. So credit to you there, but it's slightly tempered. I think everybody would have gone for that. Tiger at Hoylake, yeah, it was a command performance, but it, well, it just doesn't go down as one of my all-time favorites. There was very little jeopardy on it. He was so much in, in control. All credit to him for that.

Can't take that away from Tiger Woods and a lot of emotion about it. as well but not quite there i think arnie in 1961 at burkdale was a great choice uh that laid the bedrock for the championship as it is today the fact that arnie came over the fact that he he he won the fact that he then got the voice that said the biggest stars don't need to shouldn't have to qualify for the open you know there was so much historical resonance to that victory 2015 zach johnson st andrews it was electric st andrews i mean I don't like it either, but it was electric. Let the man speak.

Otherwise, an incredible and dramatic open championship. I finished behind that. He hated all those. Randy is the next one we come to. Quite rightly, you went for 1999, as I detailed before. I do have to be hard on you here, though, big. When you talk about Arno Massey, you don't call him Arnod. When you talk about Paul Lorry, you don't call him Paul Lowry.

It's kind of my brand. Yeah. Just saying. Just saying. Young Tom Morris, you got that one right. The Tiger Woods of his day, if you talk to the historians. You're absolutely right to highlight him. I'm glad you mentioned John Daly at St. Andrews as well, but you called him Constantine a rocca. It's rocker. And he was the star, wasn't he? Hulling through the Valley of Sin. I was actually standing next to John Daly. I just interviewed him while he was walking up the 18th Rocker. he thought he'd won. He was hugging his wife. And when the roar went up, we just heard it of rocker going into the hole with that extraordinary put through the Valley of Sin after duffing the initial chip. Well, I remember Daly just dropping his wife and saying, I got a go. And off he went and won the playoff. A great open. And I think you're right to say that it was the last time at an old course had really tested the world's best. And Solly was absolutely right. Very, very windy week and a classic open championship as it was in 2007 at carnoosey with portrick harrington's

victory there all sorts of dramas coming down the stretch but you know it's a tough school this and i'm afraid randy you find yourself in third place so that brings us down to the last two and it's between neal and it's between sully let's look at solie's choices tiger the grand slam career Grand Slam with an extraordinary performance at the very height of his powers, all sorts of imagery, with a handing of the baton of greatness between Nicholas and Woods that week and the way that Woods played was certainly extraordinary. But it lacked jeopardy to make it an all-time great in this very, very tough school. 84-sevy, it's on my short list.

just the cast list on that leaderboard. Tom Watson on the 71st going through the back of the green when he was working out which club to use. Just pure open drama. Great names up there. And Seve coming through and providing that iconic image of the fist pump that lives with us to this day. So great choice.

Phil Mickelson, decent choice. Great open. 2013. Fantastic golf course. Baked out Muirfee. field. Yeah, one of the greats, no doubt about it in the list. But the one I really enjoyed in your choices was Jordan Speeith. The way that he closed out that victory after all the dramas on the 13th, nearly holding one on the 14th, Eagle on the 15th, birdies on 16, 17, just left

Matt Coucher for dead, closed it out brilliantly. And with such personality, and for me, Birkdale is probably the best golf course in England. So I'm a big, big fan of that open championship. So those are solid choices. Let's get to Neals. Stenson versus Mickelson. You said a modern day jewel in the sun, but quite rightly was pointed out it wasn't sunny. What it was was the jewel of the suns, Mickelson and Stenson. And as you say, Stenson was so easy to pull for it in those days. as was Phil Mickelson. He had loads of fans. I remember being in a curry house earlier in the week. A curry house. He got up after he'd had his dinner. He was in there. And the whole restaurant stood up and applauded as Mickelson departed. Hugely popular figure. The two of them just traded it blow for blow. Classic stuff. Brilliant golf course.

Great open championship. Pulled clear of the rest. Fantastic. This victory at St Andrews was sensational and a heartbreaker for McElroy. He was coveting a St Andrews open perhaps as much as a Master's Green Jacket because he'd missed the 2015 through a freak football injury. And this was McElroy's time, sharing the lead going into the final round with Hovlin. They were four clear of the field. Hovlin went backwards, but here came Cam Smith and here came Cam Young and McElroy just couldn't buy a put. all the way around. Smith certainly could. Great, great win, in and amongst the tumult of the game at the time and then off to live. So it kind of summed up the times as well. It was at St Andrews.

So well worth being on that list. But this was the clincher for me, 1970, Jack Nicholas, St. Andrews, beating Doug Sanders. Sanders had that put for victory on the 72nd Green. He didn't take it. He thought he saw a pebble on the, pebble on the line and he bent down and then saw it was just an imperfection and he didn't set himself properly again and he missed that three-footer maybe it was fraction less so tough Nicholas to come in on the playoff Nicholas well clear in the playoff on the back nine then reeled back in by Sanders all on the line on the 18th and then Nicholas peeling off his sweater to widen his shoulders and unleash a 360 yards drive through the back of the green

360 yards in 1970 look at the footage look at the size of that drive ahead amazing great drama gets it up and down flings the putter in the air iconic images could have heard somebody guys I can't believe it took you so long

to get to that open championship it was on my list and it's on Neil's list as well and that edge is it for Neil Neil is my winner sorry Solly you've not done it this time Neil has done it. Zach Johnson would have would have mashed down that imperfection.

It makes me that that's so vindicating. I mean, a lot of volatility for Deegg. It's huge. Love where I'm at here. Love where I'm at. Yeah, Deed. So going into this final round, Neil would be tentatively in first place. Randy in second.

Me and DJ tied for third. In TC, I believe that makes all the fifth. So, but we got our work cut out for us. Yeah, it's kind of a 6380 Rory McElroy start there for me. But last, last judge we have is our friend Jamie Weir from Sky Sports. I did edit this for time. He went for a long time. As did our friend Mr. Ian Carter.

But here's Jamie Weir to round out our final judge here. Jens, superb draft, thoroughly entertaining, compelling, persuasive arguments. Very pleasantly surprised that, No point was the prefix British used before open. It is the open, the greatest major, the oldest, golf in its purest form. I have my own list of 15 elite opens. 14 of those 15 were drafted. I'll come on to when you're missing a bit.

But great work. Let's start with TC then. 1997, Jewel and the Sun, 10 of the 10. It is the best. Shocked, if I'm honest, that TC went so conventional and Route 1, half expected him to be a contrarian and extol the virtues of Champagne Tony Lima in 64 or Jack Black becoming the first man to break the 300 barrier at Sandwich in 1904 but there you go.

2006, Tiger at Hoyleg, another great pick, surprised it lasted until 10th. 61, Arnie, magnificent, the start of the open becoming global, thanks to Arney. And 2015, Zach Johnson, you did win me over with some of the arguments. The Monday finished, the number of players in contention, but a bit meh. And I will say I would have lost money that of the five of you, the one who is an honorary adopted European, would be the only one to have drafted four American champions of our major. So that is a shame. On the Randy, a thread of tragedy and heartbreak running through these selections, which I think fits with the big man's general demeanor and world view. 1999, not sure I've drafted the second overall, but very memorable.

I did docky points for butchering the pronunciation of Arno Massey, and even more inexplicably, also butchering the pronunciation of Paul Lorry. 1868, young Tom versus Old Tom, magnificent choice. Hats off for you being the only one to go for a 19th century open. Without Tom Senior and Junior, there is no Jack or Tiger. So thank you, Randy. Thank you, no, thank you, Jane. They're acknowledging their existence.

95, John Daly at the Old Course, a good open, not a great open, feels like a photograph of someone with 19th hole and an arrow pointing to his arsehole painted in his back doing a lot of the heavy lifting here. And 2007, Podrig at Kornusti. I'd say not even Podrig's best open triumph. Berkdale the following year, more memorable. Also, all your picks, Scottish courses, more variety required. On to Neil, 2016, the modern day jewel in the sun or the jewel of the suns. Of the Sunsend Sun versus Mickleson, if you like.

The most thrilling final day I can remember. The golf was outrageous. Great choice. 2022, the 150th Open, remarkable open. First major since the inaugural live event. Palpable tension in the air. I was told to go fuck myself when I asked Claire for an interview. He has subsequently reached out and apologized. I have to clarify that.

But shows just how everyone was on edge that week. Final day, 64 to win it. So much going on. A crazy week. 1979, Sevi at Lhythm, the green trousers. The photo up on his tippy toes like Elvis. the car park, Seve's second best open triumph, but an epic one. And 1970, Jack at the Old Course, amazed that only one of you drafted a Jack

win and that it took until the fourth round to do so. You've got Nicholas Trevino, Jacqueline in the mix at St Andrews, Doug Sanders missing the Tiddler. Worth drafting this open for Doug Sanders, drip alone. Head to two in purple for the final round. Head to two in mustard for the 18-hole playoff. On to Sully, 2000. Tiger at the Old Court. completing the career slam at the home of golf in the Millennium Open. What more can you say?

84 SEVI at the old course again. Of course it's the greatest, the most iconic of SEVE's three. The Navy Schlazinger jumper, the fist pump. The leaderboard was outrageous by Astero's Langer, Watson, Cupples, Faldo, Norman Trevino. Speaking of whom, this was also the open where SEVE hit the purest three-an you'll ever see off a downslope and Trevino said, touch a class, baby.

Maybe. Touch the class from you, Solly, just amazed that this wasn't picked off in the first round. 2013, Philip Muirfield, an astounding victory. 2017, speech of Burkdale. Several memorable moments, but all in one, mad, three-hole stretch. Not a lot else going on. And on to DJ, finally.

2009, Watson, the ultimate sporting heartbreak, never mind golfing, the greatest links player of all time. Some of the best stories ever written have the saddest endings. And then you had the two calendar slams, 1953 Hogan played one open, one one open. Bobby Jones in 1930, the year of what they call the impossible grand slam for the romanticism, a great choice.

2019, Shane at Royal Port Rush, exemplary choice, DJ. And I can hear the other one groaning right now. I was praying that one of you had the broader geopolitical intelligence to remove the stars, bangled spectacles for just one second and appreciate what a hugely significant moment this was for Northern Ireland, a country which continues to emerge from a troubled past. We opened our arms to the world, everyone left having fallen in love with the place. Yes, we did. Yes, the golf course,

which is spectacular, arguably second only to Turnbury from a purely aesthetical viewpoint, but more importantly, with the people who are warm and welcoming and want to showcase our wee country to This was seismic. That's all before a ball had even been struck. Then we get to the tournament itself. The home hero starts with a quadruple bogey. He gets put on this incredible rally on Friday. Electric buzz around the place as he makes this late afternoon charge

just to try and make the cut to agonizing miss out by a stroke. In his place, against all the odds, another Irishman emerges like a phoenix from the flames, stunning 63 on Saturday from Shane before the entire island. descends on Port Rush on Sunday to cheer him home. A 68 year wait for the open to return to Ireland, and an Irishman wins it. You cannot write that.

A magical week, the repercussions of which will be felt in Northern Ireland for decades to come. And a magnificent choice, DJ. Do not allow yourself to be gaslit by these uneducated Philistine telling me double boogie the last. What utter nonsense. But great. choices. You can all hold your heads high. In some ways, you're all winners. There are no losers.

But in another more realistic way, Randy is the loser. He's fit by some distance, in fact, very close between fourth and first. But in fourth, TC, a list of superstars, sadly, dragged down by Zach Johnson. We heard that before. Disappointing to have four American winners. Third, Sully got off to a flyer. The first two were 10 out of 10 picks. Would have liked to have seen a bit more variety and a nod towards history with your other two. The runaway 36 whole leader but got stuck in neutral over the weekend. And just in second I've got DJ, historical heft with Jones and Hogan, the ability to see the bigger picture and the power of sport by going for 2019 and the ultimate

heartbreak story. But by a nose, I've got Neil edging it, just a bit of everything, eclectic, balanced roster, nod to the legends of the game with Jack and Seve, one wild week, the hundred 150th open and the second greatest head-to-head jewel the championship has ever seen. Really enjoy the listen, fellas. And needless to say, T.C. All 153 opens will pale into insignificance when Southport's most beloved son, Tommy Fleetwood, lifts that claret jug in front of that iconic Art Deco clubhouse in just over a week's time.

Just sad. I won't see any of you boys there. God, what a performance. That was a lecture. That was incredible. That guy at the pro. Or the pro, man. I'd love it.

Final standings, Neil Schuster, you are champion drafter of the year. Average finished 1.67. DJ, you are second place. Average finished 2.67. I finished third, even 3.0. Randy, just a smidge over an average finish of third place, T.C. a 4th, 4th, and a 5th consensus, last place finisher in Mr. That's right.

That's right. I just, I didn't like the first pick. I didn't, you know, I didn't deserve that. I like, I like picking out of the middle there, not the, not the, I think it was. You got to play the course as it is, T.C. The duck race that got you. Bad side of the draw. It is forged by nature.

Forged by nature. Forged by the ducks of nature. I feel great about that. You know, Jamie now, a well-rounded team. I just really happy with our process. And the whole team, you know, it takes a village over here at Tsar Enterprises. We're happy with that. think I get you if I take 1970 Jack instead of 2013 Phil that seems to be the one that that cost me a lot.

And I think I would have liked my chances a lot more if that was the case. But that seemed to be the one that got away from me. But listen, you let me have to savvy. I need it. Right my politicians to reconsider Ian's last place vote there. But it's tough. You know, it's a tough. It's a tough one.

You know, I was flying high, winning the PJ Championship. And I don't think I, I don't think I, I don't think I. I think I underestimated just how hard it was going to be to get back to the top of the mountain there. That second place finish really stinks. Now I understand how Nicholas has felt so many times. So that's going to do it. Well, well,

congratulations. That's going to do it. We will have a ton of content next week for the Open Championship. Of course, join us on Monday for our preview episode. We'll have a kickoff episode on Wednesday, live coverage after every round of the Open Championship Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoon. Our time, which is great, we'll be up for some coffee golf as well.

So make sure you join us. subscribe here to the Nodlangup podcast YouTube channel if you're watching there or wherever you get your podcasts and we'll see you back here next week crack on