No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 858 - KPMG Women's PGA Preview

Episode Date: June 19, 2024

Big Randy and Cody have you covered for this look at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club. We start with a quick recap of the last few events on tour, a look at all the contenders and those vying for their second or third major title, as well as some thoughts on the tree-lined course and a ton more. 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 Support our Partners: Yeti - Presenting sponsor of our 2024 LPGA podcast content Titleist - find the golf ball that best fits your game Mizuho Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. Johnny, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different? better than most expect anything different ladies and gentlemen welcome into the no laying up golf podcast my name is randy i'm joined by cody mcbride this is a kpmg women's pga preview welcome into the show and cody good morning. How are you doing? Very good big. You know anything about Sam Amish Washington?

I do not. I do not. I'm hoping to learn something today though. It's an I'm pumped. I'm pumped for Pacific Northwest golf. We never get to see it. It feels like it's an awesome golf course. We're going to talk about something that is near and dear to your heart. And that's big trees golf course. We're going to talk about something that is near and dear to your heart. And that's big trees, baby. I'm excited because this golf course, you want to talk about big trees. Rough. If people haven't, you know, I've been missing that combination on a golf course

for a bit after watching pine hearths and everything else on the East coast. Boy, we're going to get it this week. Can't wait. Yeah. Majestic trees, lush green corridors. I can't wait. I think it's going to be awesome visuals on TV this week. Before we get into all that, though, let's thank our two go-to sponsors. Let's start with Yeti.

What can we tell the folks about Yeti? You know Yeti. We love them. They're presenting sponsor of all of our LPGA content this year. Nobody does it better than Yeti. Whether we're talking about luggage, hard coolers, soft coolers, drink ware, you name it. Anything that I just said, they also have a cool custom tool. You can go in and customize any sort of product that they have on their website. I do that for my little kids. We go through so many different water bottles. They're losing them all the time at school and camps big.

Now I got custom Yeti bottles with their names on it and my phone number. So when people find it, hopefully they're nice and return it back. Yeti products perform when it matters most. Everybody, please head on over to Yeti.com for their complete complete product line and more including some very, very bright, majestic, I would say, summer colors that are just debuting. It looks they're incredible there. But of course, thanks to Yeti getting deeper and deeper into the golf game. And I think, you know, they've been on with us for overall

content for going on like three years now and every single time I pinch myself. Thank you to them and to our great friends at Titleist and the number one golf ball and number one golf ball on the LPGA Tour. Big, I wanna know one question for you. What golf ball do you play and how do you mark that golf ball?

I play a Pro V1 X. So I was fit into the X. The X promotes more spin, which I need. So I've been very happy in the X. You know the way I mark it? I've often thought, you know, is it time to switch up how I mark the golf ball? But I put just a simple red line over the alignment on the side. So I just trace over that alignment line running on the side of the golf ball

with a red line. Um, I feel like that's kind of boring. I've, I've, I've been thinking, you know, do I switch color? What else can I do? You know, I don't know. That's another thing. Why red? I don't know. I guess it's a little distinctive. I don't see many people marking their ball with red. So that helps.

Do you use that alignment aid to help line up your putts or anything? Or is it purely just a spot for you to put your red slash and muck up that golf ball? Yeah, just a place where I can muck up that golf ball. No, I don't use the line for putts. I do sometimes use it on the tee box, but not like it. I'm I'm weird. I kind of put the line perpendicular to like my target. It's probably

the worst way to go about it. But where did you pick that up from? I don't know. I this is where I'm getting in my own head. I don't know why I started doing this. I don't know. I this is where I'm getting in my own head. I don't know why I started doing this. I don't know why, you know, I just need a consistent visual to look at on the tee. I think that's where it comes from. And so whatever I do, I just try to do it every time. But maybe it's not the best way to go about it.

Well, you're coming off of a big 100 hole hike and I could not be any more proud of you for finishing the thing raising a ton of money for a great charity. But do you happen to remember how many golf balls did you go through? Yeah, I do because I got out there and I was like, man, it'd be really cool to do all 100 holes with one golf ball. That did not happen. I was quickly disabused of that.

You know, in the worst way possible to I think it was my third hole of the day. And well, I think it was my third hole of the day. And well, I was, I was still by myself at this point. And I hit one up. Like I said, the third hole in the rough and legitimately just could not find it in the rough. Like it wasn't that. Oh, no. So it's not water or anything. It's just, no, I literally just couldn't find it. Yeah. And then it's like, of the essence, you're out there. You look in, do I walk back to the tee? Like, am I walk back to the tee?

Like am I playing real golf? And that's where it's like, man, you're at a crossroads at that point. And so sheepishly, I just dropped one and I continued on the truly completing the 100 holes was my sole focus. And then I did end up pumping a few more like over this fence at one point. And I feel like another

time I lost one in the shit. So I let's call it like five balls I went through on on my five balls in 100 holes. That's pretty good. But you got to understand there wasn't much. There wasn't much trouble out there at all. I mean, the hidden off property was a big miss for your boy. And I pumped two of them in a row over over the boundary fence. Well, I didn't expect this ad read also be the honesty box. We appreciate you telling the truth here and letting the people know that you're playing by select rules.

But I will say the name of the game that day was just finishing a hundred of calls. That's right. There's not about scores or anything else like that. But you know, I understand you play serious golf. That's right. There's not about scores or anything else like that. But you know, I understand you play serious golf, you hit cups, and that means a lot for you to open up here. Thank you. I know it does feel like a weight lifted off my chest. I'm not proud. I'm not proud of the golf I played that day, but I am proud of the walk and, you know, completing, if you will,

100 holes. Sounds like there's some pretty good durability in those Pro V1 Xs, and that's why I play them too. I need the spin. I need that thing on my woods, my irons, and I like the feel of it around hitting those little short game shots, those little feelers big. And I mark it. I usually put, I have this usually a black marker, but I'll take any marker. I put a dot on both sides of the title of script there, but also something new that the fine folks,

the titleists sent me some new golf balls, some new logo golf balls with the no laying up script, which I absolutely love. And it's like the perfect size. The issue with it now is that I'm so scared about losing these balls anywhere because people are gonna know exactly where they came from. And you know when you're playing golf in the Metroplex down here, there's only one person. It's not like Jack's Beach or anything. I'm sure you feel the same way with some of those

wayward drive balls that they made for us a couple months ago. But I want everybody to head on over to Titleist.com. They can start the fitting process to find what golf ball is best for their game. They got all new sort of alignment stuff going on now too on the new balls. It's awesome. Thank you to Titleist. Thank you to Yeti. Big let's set the stage here. Where are we at in LPGA world as we get ready for this major championship at Sahale? Yeah, I think we're in a good, I mean Cody, we're in a fantastic spot and I say that because our

most recent winner last week, Lilia Vu coming back after a two-month absence, you might remember, she had to withdraw from the Chevron back in April was the last time we saw her. It was a back injury and it honestly it seemed not great because it caused her to miss the US Open, which is a big deal. And I was thinking... And she had to pull out of Chevron as well. Or did she finish Chevron? No, she had to withdraw there. Yeah, she withdrew. So essentially taken herself out of two majors. Now I was also just worried because there was just like a little bit of a lack of information around the injury and as we're not seeing her at the US Open, you

know, it's it's coming on two months. It's like, oh geez, how serious is this back injury? But we were both very excited early in the week. Last week it was announced she would make the start up in Michigan for the Meyer and not only did she make the start, Cody, she went and won the damn thing. Which I think is just one, it speaks to her ability and how great of a golfer she is. But then selfishly as a golf fan, I mean, with the year Nellie Korda has been having, we've said all along, like the missing thing here is Lilia Vu being someone to like push Nellie and challengeelly. And so with Lillia winning last week

up in Lightfield Country Club, rolling into the KPMG this week with, she's got to have momentum and feeling good about her game. I just feel like that's such an awesome thing for the women's game. So I think that we start there. And I don't want to short shrift. I mean, the Meyer was an amazing event.

It obviously overshadowed by the US Open last week. So candidly, I really didn't watch much of it. I watched highlights and tried to catch myself up. But three-way playoff, Grace Kim, Lexi Thompson finding form seemingly out of nowhere. And like I said, Lilia Vu all finished at 16 under went into the playoff Lilia prevails awesome week last week anything there that that you'd like to drill down on or or highlight further well I think you know you never really understand where people are out with their injuries this is a professional sport that is notorious for not get

there's no injury reports. There's no nothing like, you don't know who's a hundred percent, who's 90%, who's got legging, fingers, toes, you know, it seems like everybody always has something going on and it's up to the player on what they want to divulge. And I think you hit the nail on the head with Lillia is that we saw this last year after she won Chevron and she took a couple months before she popped back up in June again and then nobody was really expecting

her. She didn't have the best form when she ended up winning the second major of the year at the AIG Women's Open. So we kind of was thinking, oh no, like, you know, there's no news really about the injury. There's no updates at all. We don't know when she's going to tee up next. We thought it was going to be for KPMG. And she even said like, hey, or excuse me, not KPMG, but for the US Women's Open. She even said my goal was to be there for the US Women's Open. I just was not ready. And I pulled some sound bites from her winners press conference and I'm going to roll this into our winning advice brought to you by our friends at Mizuho and listen to her and figure out kind of what's been going on lately. Yeah, I'm very satisfied with this week. My team, I have the

best people around me. They've helped me get to this point. Obviously I was really sad to not be able to defend my title at Chevron and also miss out at the US Women's Open. But I feel like I needed those weeks off to kind of, you know, let my body recover and stop just playing through the pain. And how did you physically feel out there? Did you feel zero effect coming up, all that, or did you feel a hundred percent out there? It's hard to feel a hundred percent but I think I've been 95% and I think obviously I played more than 18 holes today so kind of feeling a little tight but it's all good it's not the same as before. I think this is the most meaningful win because there was a time two months ago where I was just crying

on the range not being sure if I would ever play a tournament again without pain. And you know, like to be here today is just incredible. Just the team I have around me, they've supported me through everything. And I just can't believe that we're in this position today. Definitely wasn't in the mindset of winning. I just happened to win, but I'm very grateful for everything.

Yeah, I mean, the support I've gotten at home from all of my family and friends back at the clubs at home have been so great. It makes me so emotional. I know like some people get emotional even wishing me good luck at this event. And to know that people care and, you know, I just try my best for the people around me

and I'm able to do this because I have them. Now there's a lot that we can unpack there Big and I don't really know where you want to start at but I think, you know, at a time in professional golf, when we talk about the difficulties of the grind, if you want to call it the week to week, you know, we talk a lot about the LPGA tour schedule, and how there's long breaks. And if you happen to miss out on, you know, some of these weeks when there's back to back to back to

back, you know events, when the schedule really starts going, how far behind the eight ball you are. And that's kind of how her season has played out so far. But I think the biggest thing that stands out here is just her overall resiliency to get through this, to realize that eventually there is going to be another side of this injury. But having her sit there and say, I was balling on the range because I never thought I'd be able to swing the golf club again without pain. Her saying this win was the most significant is really quite something given her struggles when she first turned professional, you know, going back on to the Epson Tour, really not knowing if she was going to continue playing professional golf, like really thought about giving up the

game at one point, but stuck with it, earned her tour card again. And then about last year, not only win for the first time on tour, but to win four, three times, four times, excuse me, plus two majors be the overwhelming player of the year. And for her to say last week's Meyer was like the most important meaningful. like the most important meaningful, meaningful. I mean, that that tells you the doubt and kind of the depth of the the injury and really where she was the last couple of months. So that's I mean, wow, that is incredible to hear her say. Yeah, it's also nuts to think about the fact that she is,

you know, the reigning LPGA Tour player of the year, overall most dominant last year, completely, you know, kind of in the shadows so far this year, not only because of the injury, but how Nellie's been playing so far. She's number two in the world. You know, she never dropped below that number two spot as soon as Nellie passed her to get to number one. dropped below that number two spot as soon as Nellie passed her to get to number one. But seeing her back in this position on a course that she wasn't necessarily comfortable with, I mean, the scores out there were deep and you had to, it was a birdie barrage. And it's crazy because we had multiple reports of like, from members out there of how they love this golf course, they can get it super firm, They can get the greens really, really fast. And then they do that because they hope that this event

that they're so proud to host, you know, puts up a firm but difficult test for the best women in the game of professional golf. And then the LPGA kind of gets in there and softens things up and slows things down a little bit, which kind of goes anti this. But overall finish, you get a three-way playoff here with Lillia Lexi and the young Aussie superstar searching for her second win in Grace Kim.

You know, a pretty good finish. But overall, I mean, Lillia, all credit to her, of course, but her mom travels week to week with her, an incredible support system that she has with her, her caddy, obviously a lot of emphasis put on Cole and what he means to her with through all those victories last year. But really the rock to what she's been able to do has been her dad and he's been her swing coach ever since she picked up a golf club, their entire community that they, they live and he works at back in California. It's just kind of incredible to see her give not only praise to them, individual members

of the team, but really calling out like the community on a whole. And I think that's exactly what she stands for and wants to represent as one of the greatest women in professional golf, but also, you know, thanks to Mizuho and winning advice. And if anybody wants to check, get more information from them, you can visit them at MizuhoAmericas.com. You're an expert at just weaving that in. That was good stuff there. Good stuff. Oh, yes, all right. You know, you're trying to make it fit. Of course, of course. Other, I guess, just quickly notable things from last week's Meyer, I mentioned Lexi Thompson was in the playoff. I mean, I just can't figure out her game.

If you look at her results, you know, going back, so she was she was obviously tied for second last week. Her prior four starts before that were all missed cuts. And then the one before that was a tied for third out at the Ford Championship in late March. So it's just it's very boomer bus for Lexi. I have no idea what to expect this week from her. You mentioned Grace Kim.

Grace Kim is somebody that's put herself in some really good positions this year on the LPGA tour and has just come up short. But young Australian, I think her speaking of press, I thought she had a really powerful press conference after that final round, just talking about like, hey, listen, I'm in this spot. I'm up against like two Titans of the women's game and Lexi and Lillia, like, I must be doing something right.

So it was fun to kind of see her take, uh, some real positives from what could be a crushing week going into the final round with a, with a five shot lead and, and coming up short. And then the only other one, Cody, I thought we, we should know, especially ahead of the major, is Allison Corpuz had a really good week and I think is somebody that if she is on form and she seems to be finding form for sure. I feel like Sahali will get into the course

and what type of player it favors, but we saw Allison really, really play well at a tough Pebble Beach setup last year for the US Women's Open. And it's fun to see her kind of really find some form and hopefully bring her A game up to the KPMG this week. Yeah, I completely agree. I mean, she's, I honestly thought the US Women's Open last year was gonna be her like, okay, we figured out how to do this on the professional level.

And we're just gonna start kind of picking everything off. But it's clearly just, winning is so hard. And I don't know like what other evidence we need to prove it besides like watching golf every single week. And you just realize like, man, you know, even when you put yourself in the perfect position, like just getting over that hump is so freaking difficult, man. Yeah. Uh, which somebody that had made winning seem downright easy was of course Nelly

Corda. And I think I said one other interesting, but I lied. I think we need to talk about Nelly missing the cut last week. And after the miss cut at the US Open at Lancaster to miss the cut up in Michigan, that's two straight miss cuts. I don't think there's any cause for concern, Cody, but let me ask you, are we worried or is this just kind of like, hey, she's going to miss some cuts eventually. Her unbelievable hot streak was never going to just keep going and going and going. Yeah, I mean, she's human, right? And I understand that on paper it says two cuts in a row. But I'd even say like, you know, Nellie got, she played one hole wrong at Lancaster and that's what

resulted in it. And she played 71 other holes, or excuse me, I'd say 35 other holes, you know, the way that she should have and outside of that one hole and, and that's golf, right? So you know, either way, it's going to be a cut. Now I was completely shocked. You know, either way it's going to be a cut. Now I was completely shocked. You know, I did not see her, her opening up with a 76. Of course she backed that up with a 67. I don't see anything really too wrong here. Um, you know, even the 76, she started her day out with a double at the very first hole, she went double bogey bogey finally settled out par

par birdie bogey birdie par shoot 39 on her front side in round one. And you know, she's just she's got so much going on. It I think this is okay. It sucks for the people at Meyer who want to see her play on the weekend. And I guess we could probably have that conversation later on and see if, if what is happening in the men's game would also benefit on the women's side. But at the end of the day, I, that's not really how I want to see my golf. You know, she didn't play well, she didn't make enough to make the cut.

And you know, she went home. Now I don't think that that's like ruining her entire season. And I would say like knowing Nellie and the thoughts that she puts into it, she got two extra days to rest, recover and prepare for a major championship that she is thinking about. That truly does matter. So we'll see. Of course, we picked up the win.

I think that that truly the win that mattered at Chevron, extremely disappointed at the second major championship of the year, the US women's open. This is a big week for Nellie Korda and the year that she wants it to shape up to be potentially one of the greatest of all time. And I think that's when we'll really know where we're at with her game. I think that's when we'll really know where we're at with with her game. I think that's extremely well said. We do have some audio clips. I don't know if you have her discussing going back to the US Open and making that 10. And I thought this was a very interesting audio clip from Nellie. I mean, I'm not gonna say that I was happy with the way

I played. I was happy with the way I fought. I fought really really hard to make the cut and I think that was probably the proudest I was of myself actually throughout all the events that I've played this year is how hard I fought after making that you know know, that 10 on that par three. So it reminds me a little bit of what we just heard from Lillia, you know, hearing Nellie talk about what you said, a great season, a historic season already, and for her to single out, like, how she fought mentally, how she stayed in it after making that 10 on her, what, third hole of the US Open, being like the most proud she's been of herself this year. I think that's really cool to hear.

And I think that speaks to just the maturity and her ability to kind of get past what was like, it wrecked her whole week. Like I can't imagine how deflating that is coming in as she did on the run that she had been on with the expectations, not only that she has for herself, but from the outside. And you know, it's the preeminent week on the LPGA tour year in and year out. And to just have it go completely sideways early, could just be the most deflating thing. But awesome to hear that, you know, she stayed in it. She fought to make the cut. She ultimately came up just short.

But kudos to her. I love I love hearing her say that Cody. Yeah, absolutely. And if you go back and like, if you want to dig into her KPMG performance insights, just based off of those, these two events that we're highlighting here, obviously we know that that horrible number that she made on her third hole of that opening round, but it's funny. So we only have data from the two rounds that she played there. She, she gave up 6.3 strokes tee to green. And obviously a lot of that you could focus in on that single par three, but really just

driving the rest of it. She was off of her game. And then you compound that with giving up a little bit over four strokes gained around the green, excuse me, lost around the green compared to the field. it just wasn't good. And then you flip over to Meyer this week and kind of how her game is trying to steady itself out. She's back to gaining almost two and a quarter strokes, tee to green, back positive strokes, game to ground to green. She's positive, of course ground to green. She's positive of course in driving. And then there we have it.

Just her really what her bugaboo was, at Meyer was putting. And I hate to say that, but she gave up three and a half strokes to the field, putting and that's just not gonna help. You know, when we start talking about Sahale, what these big greens that they do have, but they're slick and they got a lot of movement in it. And I'm not talking about

like little short breaks here, real long, slopey breaking putts that she's going to have. So it's going to definitely test her leg putting, but really those, those shorties that we know from time to time pop up and she struggles with. So lest we think that Nellie's game is out of sorts or we're worried, you know, two straight miss cuts, what's this going to do? She had another wonderful clip about, you know, going through this little bit of rough patch in her game. I love when golf humbles me, not to that extent, but I do love when golf humbles me

because sometimes you ride the highs, but it's always in a sense nice to know where you can improve too. I love it. God, I just feel like everybody else should be really, really worried when Nellie starts talking like this, because to your exact point,

she would have left Michigan knowing exactly what she needs to work on. In some of her other press conferences, she talked about, you know, feeling good with her irons. I think she felt good about how she was hitting the ball. She talked about just flying it over the flag and not quite having those distances exactly dialed in. But the putting was the glaring weakness. And now she knows she that's exactly what she needs to work on. Like you said, a couple extra days to prepare. I just feel like weirdly, I love where Nellie is coming into this week. And a lot of that is because of, you know, what she's telling us in these press conferences.

Yep. I completely agree with you, Big. I'm again, I'm not concerned. The year Nellie's rolling on, this is going to be a big week for that. But every time she tees it up, we say that it's a big week. And it's just one of those things where, yes, golf can be a very, very humbling game, but also she's human. And as much as everybody's out there searching for perfection, she's the first person to say that that's just not obtainable at all. So I'm gonna be comfortable with the results. You can't win them all,

but she's gonna give everything that she possibly can. Well, two more things we can quickly touch on that have happened since since the US open a few weeks back. A couple weeks ago at the ShopRite in New Jersey, LPGA history was made Linnea Strom from Sweden. She became Cody the first person in LPGA history to shoot a Sunday 60. She started her round T 52 and ended up winning. I mean, it's the largest comeback. So a few more just quick stats. It's the biggest comeback by position that that T 52 to winning in LPGA history. And she becomes the seventh woman overall to shoot a 60 on the LPGA Tour.

Just an unbelievable day from Linnea Strom, a cool little, you know, damn, didn't see that coming anywhere, but when she goes out and fires a Sunday 60, you gotta tip your hat, that's pretty amazing. It's truly amazing. And she wasn't, you know, a proud alum from the Arizona State University, not the only Sun Devil to win that weekend as well.

But if you want to take a look at and be like, wait a second, who's Linnea Strong? Where did she kind of come from? Not having the season that she planned so far. I mean, she has eight Mitz cuts on the year. Outside of that, her best finish so far has been a T18 out at LA in the Fur Hills Sari Pak Championship. Just one of those things where, you know, you get a good feeling, you kind of find little lightning and you go out and do it because it's hard to say, you know, even her first round,

she shot 6970 and then back that up with that final round 60. She teed off. I mean, she was in the last group or second to last group or something like that. She was done hours and hours before anyone else. Truly unbelievable stuff. I know. I think she had like a four hour wait. And it just goes back to your point, like winning is unbelievably difficult. Here you are, you know, Ayaka Foodaway, Megan Kang, they were runners up, but certainly they weren't expecting somebody that didn't have a top 10 on the LPGA all year to come out and shoot a 60 and clip them. You know, you just, you just never know where those threats are going to come from. So that was really cool.

Not only that, it's not like they played bad in the final round either. I mean, Hayaka shot 65, Megan shot 66, like Ataya shot a final round 65 to end up losing by two. Like it's just truly like, oh my goodness. I can't believe that happened. Yeah. Yeah. And like you said, not the only Swede to pick up a really cool victory. We'd be remiss not to shout out Lynn Grant, her teammate at Arizona

State, her fellow Swede. She went over and won the Scandinavian Mixed event on the DP World Tour, making history there, becoming, well, she was the first woman to win on the DP World Tour a couple years ago when she won the event, and now becomes the first woman to win twice on the DP World Tour. And she started her round just like Linnea. She started her round, I think, 11 shots back of Sebastian Soderberg. He had, you know, it's tough. He had a little bit of a collapse, but Lynn was right there. She played a flawless final round and put herself in position to win that title, which is, again, I think it's wonderful.

You know, that's her last start. She'll be over here at the KPMG and is somebody that, you know, God, I hope she brings her A game because she is certainly capable of winning this major and many more majors to come. Yep, no, I agree. And you know, it's for her to win that event

twice, to have the final round that she had a devastating finish. I we obviously like, I cannot believe that I saw that kind of, I don't want to call it a collapse, but it was really a collapse on 18 and Lynn end up, you know, coming out with that dub. But it's great to see. And up, you know, coming out with that dub. But it's great to see. And for, you know, I understand a couple of weeks ago, and even when we had Maya on, we were talking about like, wait a second, what's going on with Lynn and Maya this year? Like not the season that we thought with that they're going to come out and play

like gangbusters. Now, you know, Lynn got that dub and Maya is still searching for it, but putting herself in great positions each time. It'll be very, very interesting to see all of that. Why does that matter? Solheim Cup year, Olympic year, all that stuff, deadlines coming through soon. It's truly very fascinating to watch. Absolutely. You mentioned the Olympics, the Olympic standings for the women will be set at the conclusion

of the KPMG. So as of Sunday night, or I guess Monday morning, June 24th, we'll get the final rosters for those Olympic teams. Some real competition with the last spot for Team USA. I believe Megan Kang and Alison Lee both are jockeying for that position. You mentioned Lin and Maya and team Sweden. I believe both of them are set to be on the team, barring an Anna Norquist or something happening this week. Certainly, Japan, South Korea, it's crazy competitive.

We'll see how that ends. Cody, I think this is a good segue into the KPMG. I think, you know, given what we've talked about with Nellie, with Lilia, with Lynne Grant, you know, we saw Yuka Sasso put on a dominant performance the last time we saw her at Lancaster in the US Open. Let's talk about some of the storylines we're most excited for this week.

And I think we can then get into the course and we'll make some picks and predictions, but let's fire it up. I'll start, I mean, not going out on a limb here. I just, going back to Lilia Vu, having her healthy and coming in off of a victory, I just don't think it can be said enough that, you know, last year she was the player and she asserted herself as the best player in the world. Really the best American female playing golf won two majors, was the LPGA player of the year. I mean, just just every accolade well deserved. And then you flip to 2024 and we see Nellie go on this crazy historic run. She's won six times. She won the first major of the year, but we haven't seen them head to head

really. You know, Lillia had to withdraw from Chevron. She didn't play at the US Open. This is going to be the first major since like all of this going on where these two women are going to be competing, you know, hopefully head to head. God, it'd be awesome if it came down the stretch Sunday and they were both in it. But I think just having Lillia healthy and, you know, having the top two players in the world, it's cool that, you know, we're American. It's cool that they're American. I just think we, I want to start there. Like, I can't wait for this week and I hope both ladies play just really good golf. And we can kind of get to see like,

Hey, if they're both playing their best, who's best is better. Yeah. I think there's a couple others that would like a word and be included in that conversation as well. And I probably start, I'd be remiss if I didn't start with Yuka Sasso. I mean, complete dominant performance that she put on at the US Women's Open, clearly in fine form. Somebody who might, you know, hasn't really gone out and like got a ton of dubs so far, but Attiah is playing so good. I think this golf

course sets up perfect for the way that Attiah plays golf. Again, you might as well put everything in the Pacific Northwest and shift it to what that area means, not only for Brooke, but for Canadian golf as all. What I would say was the last defending champion in sorts. Obviously, I'm not taking anything away from Ronny Yen, who truly is the KPMG PGA, women's PGA defending champion this week, who also is finding really good form. But the last time this championship was at Sahale, it was all about Brooke, and it was all about Lydia. And if I was going to pick two, I'm going to go with, or pick one,

I'm going to go with Brooke here, because she talked about it last time. One of the things that she credited to her success there is just how much at home she felt, that it truly reminded her of the majority of golf courses that she grew up playing at home in Canada. And this is a pretty big ballpark. They're not gonna stretch it out quite as far as it was at the US Women's Open,

but we got very narrow fairways. We have thick, rough, and it's truly one of the most claustrophobic golf courses that we're gonna see on the men's or women's side all year long. I mean, there's just these massive, massive pine trees and everything else that you can think of that just kind of suffocate you from every

T box. And you have big putting surfaces that are pinch majority from back to front with big long slopes. They're going to be quick. And in doing some research for this, I went back and watch and I'll start here big. What was the first memory that you have of Sahali? Oh gosh, like truth be told, it's honestly like highlights of Davis Love up there. And I say highlights because I don't know where I was in my life. I don't know what I was doing that specific

week. But I don't think I really watched the event. So this is a bit of a blind spot as a course for me, because admit, I didn't, the 2016 women's KPMG, I didn't see that one either. So Holly's weird, it's like, I'll see pictures of it, and it's so striking, the tall, you know, fir trees and pines and evergreens out there. It's really a visual of a course that we just don't see a lot of, certainly for major championships. But I don't have a deep reservoir of memories, Cody. I'm kind of coming in a little bit fresh this year, I feel like.

Let me ask you here before we have to go back and edit this whole thing. Did Davis not win? What event do you think Davis loved? Well, I don't know. I guess that plays into my point. I feel like we need to keep this. Who won? It does feel like it would be a Davis love course. But I'll go back and say the first big event that

that Sahale Country Club hosted, of course, was the 1998 PGA Championship. Okay, so that's one of the 1998 PGA. That's the one I'm thinking of. Was it VJ? I want to say either VJ. It was. Okay. All right. So VJ ended up winning there, played a pretty good final round. And I went back and again, you can watch all this stuff on YouTube, but like watching the highlights from VJ's final round there, he was the person who ended up taking second to him. He was in the final group with him, which is, you know, a great short game master from Wisconsin.

And I'll say that his highest finish that he ever had in a major, but watching the greens and watching how VJ putted them. And then going back to, to 2016, the last time they hope that the, or the first time they hosted the KPMG women's PGA championship there, that, that Brooke one beat Lydia in a playoff, man, they turned the greens up. And it was like kind of scraggly and some bare spots and, you know, mowing lines that weren't quite the same. You know, they didn't match up all over the place in 1998. Well, all of that was fixed by 2016. And oh my goodness. And then, you know, being on YouTube and

everything else. So one of the he's not in good good anymore. But Luke Kwan went and did a video last fall, I think. And I watched his round around Sahale and I was like, oh my goodness. It was, even he said, it was like, it's the most claustrophobic I've ever felt on a golf course. You have to be able to work the golf. If you plan on hit driver, which is why Brooke was so successful there is that she hit her at the time 48 inch driver, 19 year old Brooke Henderson both ways she could work it right to left and left to right. and part par threes and picked up a couple strokes on par fours, but truly put on a driving display. Like she was able to move her driver everywhere. And I don't think that there's a lot of people currently in the modern game that have that can move their driver both ways, quite like Brooke was able to, because I don't even know if Brooke can still do that. Now you can play, if you're gonna stick to one predominantly,

golf shot, you can, you're just not gonna be able to get the ball around some of these big dog legs because the trees are so freaking massive, man. It's like you are lining every single one of these fairways. It blew my mind. It's just crazy to look at. But there, you know, fairways, a mixture of rye and poanna out there,

and then they have poanna putting surfaces that look so slick and, like I said, not crazy, like sharp breaking putts that we saw last week at Pinehurst, how there's all these like little tiny movements all over the different plateaus and sections of each green. They're all long drawn out slopes. And that's kind of the golf that I grew up playing. And that's what I love watching people putt on. But man, there's such a

big difference from watching that tape from 1998 to 2016 to last year. And I'm like, holy cow, Sahali grew up. And they've made some you know course improvements overtime they just they redid all of their bunkers not only like resanding putting new bottoms in them to improve drainage and everything else but they moved bunkers around specifically to match the women's game and they took everything and plotter maps from the 2016 championship and were like, oh, okay, well, you know, most golf courses are built with the men's game in mind. Well, we want this to be stand up and P the predominant women's championship

course. So we're going to put them where we think that it would be, you know, hazards need to be put. And I think that's like the coolest thing because I can't remember any other big club ever doing that specifically focused on the women's game. That's really cool. And just just hearing you describe the type of course and the type of play that will be tested this

week. It really fits in well, I think, with what we've seen recently at the KPMG with, you know, last year we were at Baltus Raw, which is, you know, kind of big sprawling. Certainly, you know, talking about the putting, I felt like we saw a lot of just like broad slopes, you know, you have these big greens and you're trying to navigate both the speed and kind of the big broad slopes of them. And then the year before, you know, when they were at Congressional, another just kind of big ballpark again with those big sloping greens. I think as you said, the cool thing this year is it seems like we're going to have that type of putting challenge with like a totally different look off the tee. And so as I look at the KPMG performance insights,

you know, who's the best on the LPGA tour this year shots gained off the tee. There's a surprising woman first, which would be Alexa Pano. I never would have guessed that, but right behind- Really? Yeah. Oh, man. Listen, if people ever doubt how Alexa Pano is so good and like where she truly makes everything up

on the golf course, Titleist does an awesome job of how they do their, not just social media, but some of the YouTube stuff that they do. They have a couple driver specific videos with Alexa and they have a couple practice round videos. I encourage everyone to go watch those because not only you're going to understand who she is a little bit better, but you're going to understand how she thinks around getting off the tee because it's crazy to see. And for her to be number one, not surprised who's in number two, outside of the fact that she's not number one in Nelly Corda, makes a lot of sense. Yeah. If like getting off the tee is at a premium, it's cool.

Right there in third place this season is Charlie Hall. You have Lynn Grant in fifth, Yuka Sasso in eighth on the season, Strokes gained off the tee. And then Brooke Henderson, I believe, what is she, tenth? So it's like some of these names that we would talk about anyways, it's, man, if that's really where kind of the competition's going to be fought and ultimately decided, God, sign me up. If Brooke and Yuka and Lynn and Charlie and Nellie,

that's awesome. And then obviously you're gonna have to layer on. I do have something to report. Yeah. We might have some issues here and I don't wanna go completely into Tropicent land but British Airways lost Charlie's bag. So she doesn't have her golf clubs right now.

And I don't know if the Taylor made trucks there. I'm sure she could find some, you know, I'm sure they'll get her clubs somehow. But honestly, for somebody, the last time that Charlie teed it up was at the US Women's Open. She's notorious for being a homebody. All she wants to do is be at home. If she, outside of like the, a couple of LET events that she picks up, she's not going to be, she's not gonna be on the road for three weeks at a time.

She plays two tournaments in a row and then comes home. But she's been home for a long time and has been putting in a ton of work, of course, not just fitness wise big. I see what you've been watching, but also on her golf game. All right. And I had such high hopes for Charlie. I I'm begging, please British Airways.

If there's anybody out there that listens to British Airways, Charlie, why are you flying British Airways? Okay. I don't even know. Can be a get her all the way to Seattle. Who is in there? Can we get her a Delta or United? It seems like on the LPGA tour, they're throwing these Delta sponsorships around.

Come on, help a girl out. What's going on here? I know. God, that's a great point. We'll have to keep tabs on the status of Charlie's bag. We talked about venues, past venues. I will say obviously this year we're at this awesome golf course, the Holly Country Club talked about how great of it is not only for a club, but KPMG and the PGA of America's investment and everything to make this fit

specifically for the women's professional game. Next year, we got to figure out something on this calendar because next year is going to be the first time that the women get a look at the East corset fields ranch, just a couple miles north of me, big fella. And if we're playing planning on playing this, you know, women's PGA championship in the middle of June where it's at now, oh my goodness. We cannot do this. So I hope they move this. This got to go somewhere in, in early May. Please, it's got to be in early May or late in the fall,

which I don't know what's going to go on there, but it'll be very, very interesting. And I'm sure they have the dates, being how big the hotel and everything, I'm sure they're zoned out somewhere. I just didn't look for it. After that, 2026, we're going to go to Hazelteen. 2027, we're back at Congressional. And then they don't have anything else posted yet

on venues except for 2031, they're back, of course, home of the PGA of America, Fields Ranch, the East Coast there. So it'll be very, very interesting to see is Baltistral gonna get another look because we know the relationship with the PGA of America. They really like Baltistral. Is Sahale gonna get another look because we know the relationship with the PGA of America. They really like baltistral is Sahale going to get another look. Like I think there's a lot of other courses.

The biggest thing that we got to figure out here again on the LPGA side and the overall scheduling of things is we got to figure out how this is going to work. Like I feel like the KPMG women's PGA, the U S women's open and the AIG Women's Open, they're all just bouncing around. And it's like, we're giving extreme preference to the Olympics. And I understand that they're setting, you know, Olympic schedules are out 10, 12 years in advance.

How could we can't figure out the year to year calendar, guys? I know. What's going on. I know. Cause last year you'll remember it was back to back the KPMG and the US women's open. Yeah. I'd like to see them get some more stability and kind of carve out spots on the calendar for these bigger events. Cody, you know, something as you were talking about Brooke and, and you know, what she did here in 2016,

this kind of dovetails into something I find interesting. We have a lot of the preeminent golfers right now on the LPGA tour have two major victories. And so if you go back to 2016, these are the women that currently are sitting on two major championships. You have Nellie Korda. She just got there earlier this year. You have Lilia Vu. She won her two last year. You have Brooke Henderson.

She's got two total. You got Minji Lee. She's got two total. Yuka Saso just won her second. Jin Young Ko has two total. Lydia Ko has two total. It's just an incredible kind of bunch up that we have now with these women sitting on two majors. And I think that's something fascinating. Out of that cohort,

will we see one of those women break free and win that third major this week? I just thought it was interesting. All these young names and I mean, even like Brooke and Lydia who've been around forever, they're still quite young. Just find it interesting, you know, when you look at the whole, nobody's really honestly, since like Embi Park, you know, Embi Park won what she won six majors, but in that void, since she's kind of taken a step back and is now out of the game and starting a family, we have a lot of women jockeying for position here.

And so I think it is really cool, you know, if Yuka were to win a third or Minji Lee, it's like there is some standing that I think, you know, you and I care about, and it's kind of fun to talk about the women's game in these terms. So I just found it interesting. We kind of have a big two major club, and maybe somebody joins that two major club.

You talked about Ronning Yin. She certainly could. Alison Corpuz certainly could. Maybe Atayah Titicum wins too before any of these other win three. I just think there's a lot a lot of directions we could go right now in the women's game. Yeah, it's truly who could say but again, I just go back to

like man how lucky we are to talk about like so many really really good players finding awesome form at the right time of year right now and with Nelly clearly on top, Lillia back. I mean, it's so much. We haven't even talked about Lydia. Still one point away. I think I got to go back and check here, but I'm pretty sure the last time this event was played here, somebody else needed to clinch Hall of Fame point two. And I don't know if they quite got it done, but just just crazy craziness altogether big 156 players in this field big tournament lots of tee times. Of course we got eight players that have qualified true professionals out there LPGA professional

staff through the core bridge financial. They're throwing their money out there still. So we'll see how the those eight professionals stack up against the best players in the women's game. But I'm excited. You got some, like, what are we doing television-wise? Yeah, so broadcast schedule. Anybody that hasn't seen that yet, Thursday and Friday, these are all Eastern United States times, Thursday and Friday from four to six PM. Peacock is going to be the place to watch. And then from six to 10 PM Eastern on Golf Channel. Again, that's Thursday and Friday. And then on Saturday, it's going to be really one to eight on Peacock with a three to six PM window on NBC.

And then Sunday, 12 to 7 PM on Peacock with a three to 7 PM window on NBC. So Cody, this is something I wanna talk about. We don't- Let's go, what is that with this TV schedule? Well, we don't have to belabor the point, but I really do think, you know, you compare the TV schedule

for the women's PGA, compare it to what we had for the men's PGA, where it was truly wall to wall. And I get that, you know, the men's PGA, CBS and ESPN had the rights for the women's PGA, it's NBC with Golf Channel. But I just feel like there should be a bit more of a burden or an initiative on the part of the PGA of America as a national organization for both female and male professionals. For them to put on their championship and to have really quite a disparity in the broadcasting of those two championships, I just feel like it's a little off.

And I wish we could see more of an effort to at least get to where the men's PGA championship has been, which is, again, there were over 250 hours of coverage. You had dedicated, you know, featured holes, featured groups. Shit, we're on an alt cast on ESPN, you know? There just is so many more ways to engage with the men's PGA championship. And I just think it's not great that the women's PGA championship is not being pushed to at least be on the same type of broadcast platform as the men's. Again, because it's a national organization, I would say the same thing about the USGA. And to their credit, I feel like they're making the men's championship and the women's championship

much more commensurate in how they're broadcast and presented. And I just don't quite see that yet with the PGA. Yeah, you know, I agree with you there, Big. The one thing that I would say, let's see, Saturday. So I was shocked when you said Saturday is 1 to 8 Eastern Peacock, 3 to 6 NBC. There is on Saturday that 6 to 8 p.m. there's a golf channel slot that we didn't get the notes. But, you know, why aren't we taking advantage of West Coast, some prime time options here? Why are we constantly like, what's the point of putting it on NBC for the three hours? And then we're sliding it over to the golf channel.

Well, that's what I mean. The channel. So they're not finishing in prime time. On Sunday. and I guess my question to you would... I feel like they should is they must feel like they can get better ratings maybe if they go in that traditional like three to seven window. You know it's kind of more of an East Coast finishing time. I was curious your thoughts on that and whether that's a mistake. Well, of course it's a mistake, but I'm sure there's Olympics or something else going on that I'm trying to pull up right now on my old TV guide here to, to

figure out, give somebody the benefit of the doubt here at least. Um, because this is, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me, Biggie. Uh, but I don't know. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, Biggie. But I don't know, again, this is kind of case in point of somebody who has all the rights for everything, but like, what's the point of holding all those rights if you're just gonna do stuff half-assed? I'm not saying this is 100% on NBC. I still think a lot of the, like the buck should,

this needs to go to the PGA of America. And I harp on this every year, and I understand, we're only to go to the PGA of America. And I harp on this every year. And I understand we're only 10 years into the PGA of America investment into this event. And it's come a long way. We talked about the 2016 playing of this championship. The last time he was at Sahale and the purse there, the total prize fund in 2016 was $3.5 million.

They haven't announced officially what the prize fund is going to be this year, but last year is $10 million. So I assume it's going to be at least that or a little bit more. We'll see where it goes there. But winner's share for Brooke when she won $525,000 last year, of course, Ronnie had taken, I think, a million plus home. She had to pay the landlord. That's good.

She did. She did. Great to see. But, you know, with growth in prize funds, there's also an extreme, you know, if companies that are putting that type of money out, there also needs to be a change in the media rights because I guarantee you at some point in time, all this money via investment in purses is going to catch up with the LPGA tour and it's going to put Molly in a very difficult position to finally have to make those hard decisions because the way they're currently going about overall brand exposure is not equal at all to the amount of financial investment that these companies and thank God these companies are putting the money up there but it has to find a balance sometime.

And from the fans perspective, right, it's, listen, the purse is becoming, again, more commensurate between male and female in something like the PGA Championship and the US Open where it's these national bodies that serve both men and women. I absolutely love that and I think it's crucial. But eventually, you're exactly right where this purse increase, you know, from a fan's perspective, it's like, that's wonderful, but like, where's the increase broadcast option? Or, you know, where can we get better access

to watch these events? You know, at a certain point, they're really gonna have to start focusing on the viewer and the fan and building it that way as well. I think that's really well said about like those things should go hand in hand. And I think right now we're seeing, you know, far heavier emphasis put on the purses, which again is great for the competitors. It's, it's wonderful for a lot of reasons, but at some point we've got to talk

about the broadcast and how these events, not only, you know, the majors, but certainly week to week are presented. Just to close out a couple of these notes here, I went up and I pulled the old TV guide up and I was right. So the the US Summer Olympic time trial start immediately after NBC's coverage on Sunday. That's why they're getting bumped over to the channel. Or excuse me, they're not're getting bumped over to the channel or excuse me they're not even getting bumped over it this is going to be very interesting because if they do not say

something happens and they do not finish play by 7 p.m. Eastern on NBC what's NBC going to do because we know I mean the Olympics is it for them yeah and are they going to ride and finish this tournament out or are they going to, you know, something else happens? And I know this year, we got in a big fuss Twitter complaint last year because we were promised these commercial free hours paid by Calaway or something like that. And that actually didn't even come to fruition. We got commercial three, like 37 minutes or some crap like that. So

we'll see. I'm just prepared to be pelted by commercials. I understand people got bills to pay and everything else like that, but I don't know what, what, where are our streaming options? Where are, you know, just put it on the website somewhere. Why can't, why can't I watch this thing on KPMG, KPMG, women's PGA championship.com. We're constantly jumping through hoops for a partner that seems, you know, we obviously know they care a lot about women's game. But trying to figure out how the financials of it makes sense for them seems to be like priority number one. Yeah. And again, just to put a fine point on it, back last month at Valhalla, you could watch, granted this was streaming plus

regular cable television, but Thursday and Friday, it went from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. So it's blanket coverage of the entire day that you can watch of this major championship. With betting shows, with our shows, with you, Nick. We're getting less than half of that on the women's side. And I think that's kind of what we need to start. You know, there needs to be more. So I had hope obviously we're, well, we didn't really sign a deal to be completely honest. We basically volunteered to do the LPGA streaming option

on ESPN plus on select tournaments. And the fact that this wasn't on the schedule that they sent over to us, it kind of gave me hope. I was like, oh wait a second, they must have figured some other streaming option out to or you know whether that's Golf Channel or USA or whatever, NBC, one of NBC's channel is gonna carry a lot more of this golf tournament because we're not gonna have an ESPN Plus option. Well, that doesn't look like the case from the schedule that you laid out.

No, no. Just to finish up on the schedule, we will have a happy hour NLU live show tomorrow afternoon. We will be, that's kind of going to be a split between KPMG and the Travelers Championship over on the PGA Tour. But then Friday night, you and I, I believe Solly, you know, we were not to air her out.

We were really hoping Jane Park, and she was trying to work on a friend to join her Friday night. That is not gonna be the case anymore. So I apologize in advance. It's gonna be me and you, Cody. I think Solly is gonna join us. We may, we're gonna work on some guests

to lighten the mood around there, but folks can check us out at the end of coverage 10 p.m. Eastern Friday night. And then also Sunday at the conclusion of play, we're gonna go live reacting of course to the KPMG, the Travelers and everything going on in the world of golf. So that's the broadcast schedule. I say we end this with some official picks.

What do you say? I love it, buddy. All right, give me can I put a caveat in here? Real quick? I want an asterisk just like a gooch asterisk that we put into men's majors on a asterisk put in here that says strictly for in the fine print. This is all subject to when Charlie Hall gets her golf bag. I think that's I think that's well said. I think that's well said. Thank you. All right, let's start here. Let's go. Do

you have a surprise miss cut? I will lead us off. I'll give you a second to think about it. I'm going to take Jin Young Co as a surprise miss cut. And I say that because, um, I, if I look at her driving performance this year, she's losing half a shot per round, uh, off the tee. And I just feel like, man, if you're a little bit wild, if you're spraying the ball, it's not a good recipe around Sahale. So I'm going to take Jen Young Co as my surprise miss cut this week, Cody. I actually agree with that. And, uh, you, you kind of hit the nail on the head there. I think there is, there's such a premium around here for driving

accuracy. And I'm going to go somebody who, you know, I know TC had very, very high hopes and she's playing really, really good, almost got a dub couple of weeks ago. My surprise miss cuts going to come from, I hate to say the 16th ranked player in the world, somebody who needs to get in that top 15 by the end of this week, that's Megan Kang. There's major Olympic implications here. She needs to get in the top 15 in order to get that last spot for Team USA. There's a lot riding on it. I just don't think really course match here, which is, I

don't know. Now I'm seeing, now I'm trying to talk myself out of it because of, you know, she played so good in Canada and in Portland last year, and those are kind of, there's a lot more breathing room there, but kind of the same versions of this golf course. Now I'm going to stick with it. Megan can I'm sorry. Love you working that out in real time. All right. How about a surprise? We'll call it a surprise top 10 and you know your definition of surprise might vary but again looking at the stats, somebody that I think profiles really well, and it's not just my heart speaking Cody, but if you look at what Madeline Sagstrom does really

well, it's hit the ball off the tee and putt. And if she can, the big thing with Madeline and Lord knows I've watched so much of her golf in person, trying to follow on the broadcast, even just like dissecting her scorecards, she has a real problem avoiding the doubles and triples and the blow up holes. And so I really do worry about that at Sahale, right?

She could drive the ball flawlessly for, you know, minus the par threes, let's call it 13 holes, right? But she could hit a squirrely one out of nowhere. I say all that though, she's, I haven't crunched all the numbers, but just a cursory glance through the KPMG performance websites page, she's among the top rated if you combine strokes gained off the tee with strokes gained putting. She's gaining nearly a stroke per round on the greens.

And so I just think that combination could be a beautiful match for the venue this week. Of course, I'm always rooting for Madeline. She holds a spot near and dear to our heart at NLU. She's somebody that we support. So I hope this is a great week for her. And I think she qualifies as what would be a surprise top 10. I mean, 38th in the world. I don't know if we would go crazy surprised.

Yeah, thanks. But no, I agree with you. I mean, course match wise, it truly makes sense. I'm gonna go, there's no data that's telling me that this is a smart thing. This is truly an eye testing. All right. All right. Now, this player has won.

If I told you that this player won an event this year, has played in eight other events and either has missed the cut or withdrew and six of those eight events. You would not say that there is any form or anything coming in here. And I'm talking about the lovely Bailey Tardy. All right. Since her win at the Blue Bay LPGA, she has a lot. She has six or excuse me, five miss cuts, actually six miss cuts and one withdrawal. She pulled out of the Jam Eagle LA Championship. Her only finish that she had is a tie for 34th at the Mizzouho America's Open. But what I like and if we're really talking about like driving here, she is really good off the tee. She's 21st,

according to KPMG performance insights, 21st for strokes getting off the tee. It kind of matches up. She's, you know, in the top 50 for total strokes getting tee to green. Her total strokes gained are not good. She's in 91st, but really what her true bugaboo is is around the green and putting. But I think this is one of those courses, just like we saw not so much at Lancaster, but kind of like Vahalla, where because there's so much thick rough around these greens, you're really just chopping it out and like every shot is kind of the same. There's not a lot of tightly mown areas or anything else like that, which I think aids somebody like her. And as long as, you know, these are big greens, get them on the green,

she can putt, you know, she's just got to get hot. And when she gets hot, there's truly nothing that's going to stop her. And like, that's kind of how she played last year at the US Women's Open, when she had that major glove through three rounds and then life kind of came crashing down. But I wanted to get really, really far out there and make some, you know, make a pick that's really, hey, shock the world here. And this is what I'm riding with. So come on, Bailey.

I love it. I mean, that's way more of a guts here pick than I gave you. Well, then let's get to our winner pick. This is honestly, you know, for the first time, it's not just an automatic Nelly pick for me, Cody. And you mentioned earlier, like, Atayah Titicum, I think is... Oh, I was going there too, buddy. Like hard to ignore. I honestly think Yuka Sasso is gonna be right there.

I think Lynn Grant is gonna be right there. I hope Lynn Grant is right there. But I am gonna come back to Nellie. I just, I love. Wait. I know, I know. I really tried to talk myself into all these different directions,

but I'm coming back to Nellie I'm coming back to I'm riding with her. I'm riding with where she is mentally We heard those clips earlier in the episode. I Just I don't know. I want this like I'm just openly rooting for this already historic season Like you said to turn into like one of the greatest of all time. And I think certainly another major if not two is going to be key to that. And so I hope it's this week I'm picking Nelly.

All right, well, wait, wait to get out there and change change it up. Of course, I got my my my year long Nelly prediction as it is I'm very firmly uncomfortable in the Nelly bucket. I mean, I know you're long Nelly prediction as it is. I'm very firmly and comfortable in the Nelly bucket. I mean, I know you're the one that's trying to make a brownie get back on Nelly's side here. So that makes sense. Of course, Nelly, you know, she is clearly the favorite at this event. And I would say, you know, it's nice to see Lillia back.

Supposedly being healthy, winning last week. I just don't know how long, you know, we also said that earlier this year about Angel and Angel played awesome at match play and then was like, it takes time, you know? It takes time to build those reps back in and you know, it's kind of like your first round of golf coming out of winter break, you're like, oh my goodness,

like I haven't lost anything. I played so good. And then all of a sudden you got a bad month here. Not saying, of course not wishing that for Lillia, but I think if you want to talk about current form, somebody who else struggled with an injury, kept her out for a long time in the beginning of the season. Of course, I'm talking about a tie at itical. First event back was Chevron. She ended up taking 12th there in the eight events that she's actually played. She's only missed a cut one time. Her highest finish so far this year has been that

12th of first week back at the Chevron. She's coming off of a T8 at Myers, a solo fourth at ShopRite and tied for six at the US Women's Open. I don't know where else you can look right here outside of the train that is Nellie out, you know, a tie is it and a win is coming. Why not this week? She drives a ball really, really good. She hits greens. And again, it's just that putter and she seems to have found something with that putter. She she she's she's coming like she's still just 21 years old. She won, I believe she won the VAR trophy last year, but she led the LPGA in top tens by a mile in 2023. And as you just said, once she's gotten back and with her feet underneath her this season,

she's a top 10 machine. Like it's really, really incredible, the golf that she plays. And I think like she is going to force her way into the conversation with Nellie and Lillia and all these other women we speak of. I would love it if Attaya broke through this week. That's a fantastic pick. I want the safe route with Nellie, but she is a force to be reckoned with. So Cody, I can't wait, man. This not only, you know, prime time, like I said, some new visuals of Sahale for me, just a different looking golf course

than what we typically see even at major championships. I think this is gonna be a really, really fun, exciting week and I'm looking forward to sharing it with you and the rest of the audience as we get going here. Yeah, I agree buddy. I'm pumped. Big Trees get me fired up and man, it's just such a different look.

I'm really, really excited for it. And you know, excited to watch a lot of commercials probably, but we'll have it. Come check us out. We'll be back tomorrow afternoon. Happy hour show Friday evening could be a late night potentially for us. Big we got, we might have to work on some timing here. I don't know if we can stay all the way to that 10 o'clock Eastern, but we'll see. And then of course we'll be back on Sunday for the big live show presented by high noon. Thank you to Yeti. Thank you to our friends at Titleist.

And of course, thank you to Mizuho Americas for our winning advice segment. Anything else before we get out of here, buddy? Nope, thanks everybody listening and enjoy the week. Cheers. Be the right club today. Yes! Yeah!

Yeah! Yeah, man, that's better than most. How about in? of today.