No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 871 - Friday Open Championship Live Show

Episode Date: July 19, 2024

Shane Lowry (-7) leads the 152nd Open Championship through 36 holes at Royal Troon. Daniel Brown and Justin Rose sit two back of Lowry, with former major champions Scottie Scheffler, Jason Day, and Xander Schauffele chasing. We run down the rest of the leaderboard to include some notable missed cuts and have KVV call in to discuss his day around the Postage Stamp. Cheers! 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 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 Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the no laying up live show presented as always by our friends the We have a lot to talk about and you can bring the fiesta anywhere you go this week, this weekend, this month, this year with the all new High Noon Tequila Seltzer Fiesta Pack. The variety 8 pack features two new tequila flavors, blood orange and prickly pear alongside two tequila favorites, grapefruit and lime.

I'm doubling up here because I'm going big can today because Trune brought the big cans today on these players. We have a lot to talk about. Randy's on grapefruit. I know I'm on my blog too, but sorry. That's okay. Listen, that's okay. We're close enough. All are made with real tequila and real juice. Perfect for any fiesta. Find the High Noon Tequila Seltzer Fiesta Pack nearest you at high noonspirits high noon sons up pie man. What is the story of the day from the hundred and whatever open championship? The hundred and fifty second, I believe as much as I want to get to my guy team rose.

I mean that was a hell of a round of golf in the afternoon as much as I want to get to big shop Bob showing resiliency two weeks in a row. I'm going to say Shane Lowry story of the day, not, you know, not a hot take. Uh, but man, he was kind of one of those guys. We didn't think he was going to go away. We thought he was a mutter. They are who we thought they are. They are who we thought they were. I think that's the quote.

Uh, he played great today, man. He played great. A little bit of adversity there on the 11th hole, but he, he didn't get headless, he kept his head about him. Uh, after snapping out a bit of a cameraman, but he didn't get headless. He kept his head about him after snapping on a bit of a camera man, but that was kind of fun. He laughed about it later. He laughed about it afterwards.

It was great, yeah. And just put the pedal down coming in. So loved watching Shane today. He's my story of the day. Randy, what do you got? Well, you know, Dan Brown survives another day. He went out and two over. I think everybody would have thought, okay, it's just going to be a slow bleed, maybe a

precipitous drop. But he hung in there, I believe he came in then and what was it one under par and he finds himself tied for second. So good on him. I'd say broadly speaking. I did not I'm not sure if I saw a shot No, that's not true. I saw Scheffler misses par putt on 18 I'm not sure if I saw a shot live from anybody in the top Seven or above on the leaderboard. They were all playing when I was deep in my dream state. I was remming hard So I just got like a whole morning of just you know There was some good golf in there, but a lot of bad golf, and I actually really enjoyed it

So it was the bad golf that you love because it was conditions It was it was the fight that you've always wanted out of a US Open it happened. It happened at Royal Trin today So that's that's kind of my story of the day was like, that's about as good a conditions as we've seen in an open championship. Since I don't know when usually like the really windy days have come with a lot of rain too, which I mean, listen, it's fun to watch rain golf from time to time, but I just just straight wind is the most entertaining to me it is

and it's it comes less of like a slop luckfest and more of a like no manager golf ball like manage it right now. Manage a really tough opening stretch. Bob McIntyre did not manage a really tough opening stretch, but battled back to make the cut. JT did not manage the opening stretch very well, but he battled back to make the cut as well. Max Holma had battled a tough start to make the cut on the number there at

the very end, which was sick. But Roy McIlroy most certainly did not handle the conditions well, but it was a separator. It was a separator today and that was kind of the story of the conditions were great yesterday, but it was even better today and a little bit of way a little bit of draw drama. It kind of died down there on the back half. But you know, I feel like we didn't get a ton of amazing

moments today just because of the whole day was just kind of just freaking tough. Yeah, bit of a survival test and I think one of the things that I love most about this tournament, I know this is just obvious Lynx golf stuff, but the effective size of the bunkers just gets so much bigger when the wind gets like this too, right? Where you start losing it, you know, you can see it like Max hit a drive on, was it 12 I want to say where it's just as soon as it hit left the face. It was like, Oh, God, God, God. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Because it there's just so much bad stuff that can happen once the ball once you lose

control of the balls, you know, leaves the face and starts moving the wrong direction. It just becomes it's just so tough out there and it can bounce into gorse bushes, it can bounce into those bunkers. It's just, it's so much it's the most exciting type of golf once the ball is, you know, has left the club. Once it gets up in the air, you just truly don't know what's going to happen. It's great. DJ. I thought a perfect example of that was Rom's tee shot on 16 where he's trying to play safe. He's got the iron and it just takes that big initial forward bounce and hits it right into the burn. Like, you don't see that shit anywhere else,

but good links courses. It's really good. Which I still don't really fully understand why Rom wasn't trying to go over the burn. I mean, both guys in his group went over the burn. You know, and in that later window, it became kind of the thing to do was just pound it right over that burn.

I know Tiro Hatton, of course, hates that hole because it's, you know, what good par five in the world? Do you have to hit four iron three one and two? Name one. I can name one right now Tiro. It's number 16. It's a great hole. It's awesome.

It's a great feature that burn. It asks you like, hey, if you're going to lay back on it, how close do you want to get to this so you can still get there and two? How in control of your distances can you be? How much risk do you want to take on? You know, with a it, how close do you want to get to this? So you can still get there and to how in control of your distances can you be how much risk do you want to take on, you know, with a little helping wind, do you want to go over it? It? I got some Tyrell takes that I'm gonna I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm letting seep in here kind of almost like Amsterdam because that dude is just I'm so over

it. I'm way, let's have a little therapy session. I want to get it all out of you today. Sorry. It's just like, yeah. If that guy was American, people would hate him eight times as much as they do. Like if people think that JT is bitchy, look at Tyrrell Hatton, like every single day

and shot of Tyrrell Hatton's days. I feel like that's what I'm going through. It's awful. Yeah, here, here. I can't have you bitching about the setup. The setup is like one of the best we've seen in a major in so long. It is very appropriate. And if you're you bitch about the setup. This setup is like one of the best we've seen in a major in so long, it is very appropriate,

and if you're gonna bitch about this one, he's the only guy I've heard complain about the setup. That should tell you the exact story. That was the only thing I was gonna say, is at least he's consistent. He does bitch about every setup. That's true. Like truly, I can't really, it would be weird

if we got through a major where he wasn't complaining. It feels like he just kind of hits them all. How do you feel about our guy, angels and Demons, Dan Brown leading the field in Strokes Gain putting? Don't know what any of that means. I've never read any of the books still. So he's still from last night. I have not read any of the books, but you know, I was very much, you know, he did the thing yesterday where it happened a lot like late in our show, basically, that he basically he posted six under par and it was very, felt comfortable with that because it was like hey if you're still there tomorrow we'll talk about you then and he's still there and I don't understand how that

guys missed that many cuts in a row as he has I don't understand how go ahead Rainey can we just keep pushing that like let's make that a Saturday thing okay yeah maybe if you had nothing one more day yeah he's currently leading the field in strokes gained off the tee and in strokes gained putting. Good combo. I was gonna say like he, his golf swing, it looks like zero effort. It looks like zero effort.

It looks like tailor-made for Lynx golf. It doesn't look like the timing is gonna get horribly off. If there was a day for it to blow up, it would have been today. I mean, he wasn't necessarily playing in the worst of it, but you know, it was still not easy for that earlier group. So an interesting kind of Todd Hamilton, Ben Curtis storyline to go in there, which is great for the Open Championship. It's this tournament's unique in that regard.

This does not happen at the U.S. Open nearly as often as it does in the Open. And it's going to be really interesting to follow. It's better than just having, you know, more Justin Roses up there. No offense to Team Rose. What was Todd Hamilton? I've listened to your guys's look back at, that was 03? 04.

04. What was he in the world, Soly? Do you remember? 170 something? I wanna say like 82 or something like that, but I can look that up for you. Daniel Brown, 272 in the world, 455 in the data golf rankings, which is quite a Delta there.

Let's say if we're gonna have an off off the wall winner, like let's get super weird. I feel like Dan Brown is sufficient for that. This just team rose count as an off the wall winner. That was even well, I think if you want a major, I think you're disqualified. If you want a major before he's been we didn't really talk about it yesterday. Team Rose has been so bad lately. I mean, he's just missing cuts by a mile. He like the only non cut event he played

I think was a travelers he finished like 68 out of 69 guys or something randomly finished t six at the PGA. It's just like a super weird, really weird year that Team Rose is having. But I'm kind of in, I know KVV is coming in a little bit. I know he was, he's all in on the late career resurgence of Team Rose. So I might have to talk to him about that, get a little juice going.

Well, I want to be in, but then we get little anecdotes where he's, you know, he's yipping at Sophie Walker, our friend doing radio like blaming her Cody can come in maybe with the with the full report but you know he's sniping her for being too loud and she's like 60 yards away from this guy what's he talking about so I just can't get there with Rose he seems like a big blame the help type of guy yeah exactly you know Rose is very much like, he's still kind of on the same level ish, you know, in terms of what what I

appreciate about him or like about him or don't like about him, whatever that might be. But everybody so many other people in his like peer group dropped so far that it's almost like he has risen up in the rankings of like, I can't find it near, you know, I don't, I find it harder to just hate, to dislike Rose, just because so many other people have done a lot worse things in the last couple of years than he has, right? And I do respect that he stuck around on the main tours

and is still fighting for stuff like this, went out and qualified for this, had the Ryder Cup moment, you know, has had a little bit of a career resurgence and wins on the PGA Tour and could have easily taken the live money. So all that to say, you know, I'm intrigued to have him

involved this weekend. I did. He had a great quote post-round, you know, saying, I just feeling gratitude for being in this spot. You know, he'd taken it for granted the last 15, 16 years. And it's, it is nice to kind of hear him appreciating that, that new perspective. So I don't, I'm like a foot in both camp. I just, I don't know, maybe I'm firmly straddling right now with Team Rose. We also haven't really talked about story of the day. Scotty Scheffler is kind of loitering, I would say, in a major, major way. So just putting that out there. I don't know that we're gonna have any, you know, Scottie's really good, he drives it great,

he hits his irons good, he's really thoughtful, he plays to the right side of the greens. We've had this conversation 35 times already this year, but if there's anything else for anybody to add, please, please by all means. It's pretty much regurgitation. I can't decide if I'm feeling it for him to go out and win it, other than it definitely feels like he's gonna be in the top three.

I just don't know if it feels like he has the gear this week to win it because because honestly back to Lowry not to twist this But for those that you know didn't get to watch the action today He drives it right as a great round going but drives it right on 11 and he ends up in some heather And he takes a long time to play this shot. He looks anxious about it He's wondering if there's a train coming by like he just is is is very uncomfortable steps up and hits it and just I don't know what exactly happened if the you know the the fescue grabbed the shaft and flipped the club head over but it went directly into a gorse bush left of the 11th and it was trouble and drops another one hits it onto the green, but they found the ball in the bushes and it took

20 over 20 minutes before he hit his next shot in terms of finding out the you know where he's gonna drop it Blah blah blah makes double bogey and things could have fallen apart for him there But he birdied 16 and birdied 18 to get in the house with 69 made a bomb putt on 18 to get in the house with 69 and I mean Basically played the equivalent of a round of 67 just with one bad swing. Like he's played really, really, really freaking good golf. It was a very impressive round.

I was more impressed by today's score than I was the 66 yesterday where, you know, he just kind of, you know, made a ton of putts because he just hit it so much better today. He was first in the field right now in a strokes gained approach. I assume that's for today. I don't know if that's, sorry, that's for the championship. So he was fifth in the field today in strokes gained approach. So just impressive shit.

Yeah, no, I was gonna piggyback off that. You know, I'm looking at the leaderboard, I'm like, damn, this is a really good tournament. Because I assume Dan Brown is gonna back up. I honestly assume Rose is gonna back up.. Like there's no way he can avoid bogeys and even doubles for 36 more holes in my opinion. But I'm like, it's gotta be Shane Lowry that backs up. And I just don't have confidence that he's really going to. I feel, I, I'm with you. So I feel like Scottie's got to go hunt a little bit this weekend. Um, I would not count on Shane given too many back. It has to mean something as we're sitting here on Friday, like this dude went out and won one by a lot. Like he's done this five years ago. It's it's, again, we said this last night,

but it's not like, isn't, you know, the travelers where like Shane Lowry, you know, might get overrun by a whole slew of guys that, you know, just pin their ears back and go like this is different style of golf. And he's done this before. And gosh, does it look like he, like there's no part of like the test that real true presents that I would say like, Oh, Shane's blah, blah, blah is going to get exposed here. Like I don't see any of that out there.

It's funny. We were having dinner outside the other night and my neighbor was like taking the trash out and walks by and we started talking about the open and he's like, Oh, who do you like? And I'm naming all these names, all of the people who are packing their suitcase right now. And he's like, yeah, I mean, it's like, it's like probably Shane Lowry, right?

I was like, oh, fuck. So I didn't like, damn it. Like, why didn't I think of that? Like, yeah, of course it's Shane Lowry. He's like, yeah, anyways, I think he's gonna win. And then he walks to his garage. I'm like, God, what am I doing? Idiot. So shout out to Patrick. He nailed that one. Yeah. It's crazy though, looking at Shane Lowry's open championship performance, you know, he he obviously has the win, but he's got five missed cuts in his last eight starts in open championship. So I guess there is, you know, it's maybe not as like automatic as it feels. I don't know. It's very interesting for how like,

it's comfortable. We all feel with him like playing this style, but yet his overall results don't quite tell that same story. So it's one of those that's like very obvious when it goes that way. And also just like completely struggles in anonymity. Right? Where it's like, oh, when he misses the cut and he shoots 76, you just you're like, okay, cool. Don't need to talk about. Yeah. But what about Rory? That Rory, we should be talking about, you know, he's he's kind of one of those guys. But, uh, Randy, what do you I don't mean to blow up your spot, but I know you were kind of saying earlier, maybe Shane Lowry, not totally your guy. I don't know. I'm still trying to kind of decide how I feel about watching him. Seems like he's going to be in our purview a lot this weekend.

I think he kind of makes me happy when I see him on the broadcast, but I'm curious how you feel. Yeah. He's in that weird spot for me where you hear how much people like him and how great of a guy he is but yet he just doesn't quite do that for me and granted if I were Irish, I'm sure he'd be my favorite golfer. So, I understand that that's some of it but yeah, he he just doesn't move the needle

for me per se. So I have a hard time like getting excited when he's in contention. But that's not a knock against him. I like I'm not saying I've never met the guy. I've never talked to the guy. I'm sure he is like an awesome hang. He just I there are a few golfers. I know we all have them. I was gonna say like, who are the guys that do that move the needle for you? Well, it's usually for reasons that are like maybe counterintuitive. But yeah, I don't know when it's all like, oh my god, Shane Lowry, he's such a good guy. Like this guy is

awesome. I'm just like, okay, okay. So yeah, I don't know. I'm struggling with that one a little bit. Dej as well. I really hope this isn't a runaway this weekend. I don't think it will be, but it would be tough if it was for me. Even if it gets up by a lot, it's not like it's turned the TV off. It's over. I don't feel like we're in for a Brian Harmon one from last year because there's just too much out there.

There wasn't a ton out there at Liverpool last year that where you could trip up and if you watch any of it today like There's course there's there's just so much shit that can go very wrong very quickly. So Other names at the top there Billy Horschel tied for fourth He famously I think he shot three under here back in 2016 and round one four under 67 and then shot 85 and round two to miss the cut. Was on the bad side of the draw that one he was in the thick of it of that Friday afternoon weather that that hit in 2016 but. He got hit by the train.

What are you doing here? He had a backwards hat. He was trying to grow the game out there at one point with how much of the rain was going on. We shout out to Twitter for really taking the Nikolai Hoegard joke well today with the backwards hat that he had on Porter Porter got a lot of bites on his today too. So Billy Horschel sitting there t4 did not have that one tied with Dean

Bermester and and Scotty Scheffler. I don't I don't know if I'm taking Billy from this point going forward with the other names that are up there but did not have that one. I hear many people talk about Billy come into this week. No, I don't know. I mean, I guess it's again, it's kind of one of those like, okay, everything becomes clear to me after the fact, Neil's famous quote, but it's, you know, he's a flusher drives it good. Like, okay, you can talk me into that making sense. You know, I don't know if I don't know if you'll be there. This tournament makes sense. Right? Yeah, I don't know if I don't know if he'll be there. This tournament makes sense.

But that's right. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. It's a it's a go. I don't think he'll be there all four days, but he's kind of another one of those guys that, like, if he was, I'd be fascinated to see how he handled it. He's a guy that's been in our lives for a really long time.

And I feel like the one time, you know, I always pictured him as, like, oh, man, Billy Horschel, like that's the guy, massive pressure player, like get him on all these teams. And he made that president's cup team and he just really sucked. And so I would love to see another like big stage Horschel moment just to see how it goes.

I was going to say, would love to see Billy under the gun Sunday, trying to win a major, like super twitchy, that would be great theater. I was gonna say would love to see Billy under the gun Sunday trying to win a major like Super twitchy would that would be great theater Billy up in contention the major and Rory trying to do baton flips coming up the 16th fairway and hitting himself in the face was Interesting interesting change of pace there. Listen, it's another major Which means we get to see a lot of coverage of the range and practice rounds and of course saw Forsyte sports GC quads and quad maxes everywhere. For those of you who tuned into our latest film room episode

that launched this week, you saw me and Tron toting them on around during our match at Royal Truin. Listen, I know this kind of golf is like the anti-launch monitor style of golf, but it doesn't mean you can't learn some things out there. I really wanted to take it out there to see what like links wind is actually doing to a ball. Of course, I learned the lesson the hard way that it wasn't hurting

nearly as bad as I thought on the seventh green when I hit eight iron from 125. And it thought I was hitting a 155 shot hit a 165 shot and it went like 15 yards over the green. So I got the launch wrong. I got the wind wrong a little bit. But that was good to just put some data in there to say like, alright, when you know, the winds blowing like this, if I hit a 150 shot, and it only flying blah, blah, blah, it's just a good way to kind of measure the wind.

I thought it was very interesting and figuring out how it spins in the wind and all that stuff was, it's a fun tool. That's what I was gonna say. It's all spin, man. When you play and win like this, it's figuring out how to control your spin. Is it going to get up in balloon?

Is it gonna carry farther? Is it gonna fall out of the sky? It's all I know you've been all over the spin game lately, trying to figure that out all out with your clubs. Trying to get my driver, driver spin up a little bit. So I'm watching for it to be in that 2200 to 2600 range with the new, new title as driver.

So it's been great. Forsyte also just added Royal Troon, or they have Royal Troon, I should say, in their simulator course library. They got the whole details. They got the train tracks, the beach, the water, everything. So right now you can go to Forssight sports comm slash no laying up use promo code nlu at checkout you get 10% off a GC 3 bundle or a GC quad offer valid for us customers now through Monday May

27th 8 a.m. Pacific that does not sound right. I'm guessing that's July 27th 8 a.m. Pacific. That's foresight sports comm slash No, laying out promo code nlu at checkout for 10% off a GC3 bundle or a GC quad. I got a lot of questions in there a couple questions when I put on a call for them of you know, what is the weather there? Like I see people in t shirts, you know, eating ice cream, I see people like in hoodies and all this and I'm even more confused as to what the weather is because calling in live from the media center is our guy, Kevin van Volkerberg. He's all bundled up in his in his beanie. Hello, Kevin. How's your day out there? some of the greatest golfers in the world get absolutely tormented. I had some more beers, it was all going on the

company expense account just, you know, figured why not? Hell yeah, brother. Rock on. What? What? Where did you post up today? What did you What did you see? What was your kind of experience out there like today? So I think you're technically not supposed to do this. But I sort of sat up on the hill right over the postage stamp and just watched

much of the day. And it was so fun to watch especially as that wind really started whipping off the left. It was so fun to watch those guys try to hit these little half draw wedges to hold against that wind and just watch them get blown out to see I mean, Joaquin Neiman was the big sort of one, you know, ended up making an eight, going bunker to bunker to bunker. And then Tom Kim did the same thing a little bit later,

although he didn't, you know, he ended up sort of saving double. It's just such a great hole. You just see these guys and they're so nervous to hit that shot. It's just in their head so much. And you know, it's so rare to see like a hole that is really puts stress on people for being so short. And I just I loved it. It was a great

way to spend a day. A lot of comments about your hat KVV when you were in the little thumbnail before you came in, it almost looked like one of those remember in like the very early 2000s when those like big cat in the hat? Yeah, we're like very famous at like, trashy carnivals and stuff, I didn't know if it was one of those. I didn't know how many beers you had out at the post.

Out at the postage stamp, which. No, how dare you Cody, you put that down for good. You know, you ought to know, come on the damn screen, you ought to know where this hat is from and if you don't, I would be so disappointed. Jamaica? No, I know, I know, I recognize it, but listen, there's not a lot of people out there, especially the audio listeners

They're gonna recognize the hat that you're wearing right now. This is a Glacier Park Pendleton hat Glacier Park puts out these sweet I used to have really cool Head covers with like these I would pay so much money if someone out there has a head cover like this I know they make them but Seamus golf used to make him super fucking cool. They're no longer Available before I could get one. But yeah, I was I got a lot of compliments on the hat today. And a lot of weird looks. So Kev, what was it? What was the variety of shots at the postage stamp today? Was everybody kind of trying to hit the same shot?

Or were some guys coming in high, some guys coming in low? What was the what was the variety? So most people were trying to hit like a little draw that like a mid trajectory draw. But some of the smart ones, you're Tommy Fleetwood was one of these hitting these like, All right, I'm just gonna hit the front like not even the front number, but like 510 yards short of the green and have it sort of kick forward. And that was awesome to see. Rory, I we were sort of

talking in our chat, Tron was like, Oh, this is gonna be appointment viewing. He hit it so high in there higher than any ball I saw today. And I was like, that is so F'd. Yeah, it's, yeah, it's somehow like, kind of it was left of the pin. I mean, I was like, Oh, this is gonna be so sick. He's in the coffin bunker is awesome. And like, it was the one shot that he actually like judges the wind well today, and it sort of held up and then, you know, went 20 feet behind the pin and so there stayed there

So, I mean, it's just cool to see Luke's Glover hit the best shot. I saw hit all day I mean he hit this thick flighted wedge that one hopped and almost went in and stopped two feet away That was by far the way, but all these Scots were around there be like Oh, you know one can hit a green in this wind that they're screwed and yet like there's a bunch of dudes who were Who were actually knew how to play the shot. It was fun to see him play proper golf. It was, I literally, I thought about this today and reached out to get an answer on this question,

but I was like, man, because you watched the same shot on repeat and you watch guys miss it, you know, they're start at five feet left of the pin and you're like, that's toast. That's going too far right. Like that's toast. Every single ball that is an inch right of that pin was running off to the green. As a viewer, you watch a bunch of them and you're like, oh's toast. That's going too far right. Like, that's toast. Every single ball that is an inch right of that pin

was running off to the green. And as a viewer, you watch a bunch of them. And you're like, Oh, of course not. Of course. Like, why don't these guys learn that? And you're like, Oh, wait, they haven't been sitting here watching all these shots all day. I was literally like, why don't it seems like something players should do is have scouts out there on their team, like out like scouting the rest of the course and passing back advice. That's not legal, which I was not surprised to find out that

was not legal. But it was just interesting of, you know, it'd be an interesting wrinkle if you could like figure out a way. Obviously, guys watch on television and stuff to get get some hints. But it was just wow to watch the same guys make the same mistake over and over and over again and underestimate the way they talked about how when you're on the tee, you can't feel the wind nearly as much but even the best players in the world not being able to adjust to that

was just wild to watch today. It feels like instead of rolling the ball back, they should have Zach Johnson on all the part threes just giving guys, making them super unconfident about what club they're about to hit. Well, I mean, trust your gut. I mean, you hit whatever you want, you know, it's great. I mean, I don't think that's getting there,

but I think you do whatever you want to do. I want to read your ROMs quote just because I asked John specifically about the hole and he was like, oh my god, so difficult. I'm not going to do the ROM boys, but like he said it's. No, no, that's that's 90% of what we want to hear. We don't want to hear the answer. People keep telling me if I do the ROM boys, I'm going to be canceled and I'm just not going to let them win. I'm not going to do that. He said, I think it's a testament to what a great design hold is it was what 115 120 yards today. We're all very thankful if we hit the green and we just leave it par that coffin on the left, it makes its presence felt. And with the wind today, you know you have to start it left, but it's just very difficult to do. In my case, I tried to hold a pitching wedge and drive it towards that bunker and the second it got past the grandstands, I was like, yep, that has no chance. Which I thought was like a really cool way to sort of hear him describe like, you know, let me, let me just flight down something and hold it up against this wind

and up. Nope. It's fucked. So. Which I think there's a little, I don't know, not to be the fun police on all the, the architecture takes from players, but you also just can't drop that hole in Ohio, because it doesn't blow that way. The conditions don't work the same way. You need public golf to still be able to go play it every day. There's just a lot of other elements where guys are like, why are we stretching these holes back?

We really should only be having 110 yard par threes. It's like, well, that's not exactly it either, because we saw it've tried, we saw it even at like LACC, right? It was like the best example where they tried to do that with 15 and guys just like tore it the fuck up. And it's like, yeah, it just does. It's not like a magic bullet. Just like making it really short is, you know, is the answer. It's like, you still need all the conditions and the, you know, topography and the truth to DGIS like it played really benign for the first part of the day. Like it was only the 15th, like ranked hole today in terms. So it's pretty easy. It had, you know, a lot more, uh, you know, pars today. There wasn't nearly as many doubles. There was 18 doubles on, on Thursday and only five, uh, today. So like, but there was a stretch in the middle for about two and a half hours, three hours, where the wind was absolutely bucking. And that was when it made it fun.

And you're right. But so some of the guys got sort of a tough hand there. And some of them got it basically easy, like, hey, just hit it to the bottom of the green and walk away. Which I do to your point, though, Dej, I think there's like principles of holes like this that can be copied more heavily than they are in terms of, you know of the slope and how it feeds off to the part below the green on the right and that coffin bunker, if you go on long left and all that stuff. It won't play the

exact same, but there's different, there's stuff that can be taken from this that, I feel like a lot of par threes in the US are just lazy. They're just like, here's the green, here's bunkers if you miss wide off the mark, but there's nothing really, nothing baiting here of, really good shot here is gonna be birdie. And if you miss the spot, it's gonna be bogey. That's kind of where I think a lot

of the thrill of golf comes from. I would say too, the other thing that Ram said that was kind of cool is he described, if you miss it right, you have a little bit of a backstop there that you can hit it up. And that's what he and McIntyre did. It'll roll back towards. But Tom Kim tried to do that and just boned it right in that's what he and McIntyre did. It'll roll back towards. But like Tom Kim tried to

do that and just boned it right in the coffin bunker and had to go out absolutely backwards. So like, I like that there's that element of it, too. It's like, All right, well, there is a chance for you to recover if you miss. But if you, you know, take on too much, you're screwed. Randy, any comment? He'd that for my guy. We were close. We were close. I hate that for my guy. We were close, we were close. Phil had an awesome shot out of that front right bunker today. He was like, could barely get into,

cause being a lefty, he could barely get into that corner of it. And like, he was struggling with his stance and he had the club like almost like toe, heel up, toe down to try to get it, swiped it up there, hit off the backstop and came running back to the hole, missed like the four footer.

But it was like very, very Phil that golf shot. It sounds like a whole career right there. Yeah. Anybody else interesting you talked to after the round or chat with? Yeah, talked to Rory a little bit. I think he, a little bit of moment of self reflection, he said, I really just couldn't handle the wind.

And if I look back and there were two rounds or the two majors where I just really was non-competitive, it was all because of the wind and if I look back and there were two rounds or the two majors where I just really was non-competitive, it was all because of the wind. Like the wind at Augusta, you know, got me really good on Friday and got me here and I

need to figure out whether, you know, I need to change some things to think about that and I don't know at age thirty-seven or whatever, like if that's a a sudden actual realization that he's gonna go through and like maybe try to figure out different ways to work the ball around in the wind. But that was kind of where he was after the round. So I was questioning my own age there Royce 35

just for the record. Yeah that's when he'll figure it out. That's unlucky 30. That's that's unlucky for Rory though, because like that you know you formulate a game plan going into an open and like wind of course would never factor into that game plan at all. Like you don't that's never that just came comes out of nowhere. There's no way to to prepare for anything like that or expect that coming in unlucky. I mean he hit some shocking golf shots today, like

absolutely shocking golf shots, the one into the sixth grade to six. I don't know if you saw any of that from where you were, Kevin up on the hill, I didn't only saw the your replay of it where you showed I mean, it was 50 yards left or maybe 6070 yards left of where he was a wedge, he had a wedge in to the sixth screen and he hit this thing, I think that, I forget what the total distance was he had in for his next one, but I think it was like 43 yards. It was like left of, the graphic is I believe on our way up to the screen right now, it's

almost like you couldn't hit a ball up there if you tried, much less one of the top three golfers in the world. It just was totally shocking and just, I mean, we've been kind of ragging on Rory for this whole wedge thing and ball flight thing and all this to be like, Phil figured this out, man. Like Phil was this guy that hit the high shots and figured out how to do the open championships.

I know Rory's won one of these, but I just can't believe we're into the mid 30s with Rory's career and we're still talking about not being able to manage ball flights and wins. And like, it's not one of us out there getting blown out the seat. It's one of the best players in the world. the mid thirties with Rory's career and we're still talking about not being able to manage ball flights and wins and like it's not one of us out there getting blown out to see it's one of the best players in the world. It's just kind of you know, maybe maybe his answer I can relate to it so much because

like that is exactly how I feel over some of these shots where I'm just like, alright, cool. Got it. It's a little bit of an uneven like probably going to want to go left a little bit. I got to make sure I make some fuck. I forgot the wind. Oh, that's 30 yards short. I gotta make sure I make some **** I forgot the wind. That's 30 yards short. I forgot about the I forgot to measure the wind **** and maybe maybe he had the wind coming

more this way. He needs a wind guy like maybe maybe he's asked Bryce to borrow a wind guy just to sort of walk around with him on the practice rounds. I don't know. He's like that. I don't know what he hit there but like you can hit a nine iron. You can punch up a nine iron

and like get rid of a lot of the margin for error on a lot of these shots. And it just is wild to, his shot into two today, a wedge in again. I juggle with you guys. Was he trying to hit it like over the wind? Like that's the only explanation because it went as high as you'll ever see a wedge shot

go dead into the, like what did you, what were you expecting out of this? I'm just flab, as somebody that's rooting for this dude, I just am flabbergasted by getting blown out to sea by the wind when obviously other capable players are handling it quite well. I wonder, this is, I would like to hear somebody much, much smarter than me talk about this,

but obviously other players figure it out, so this is not a pass at all. But I wonder how, I wonder if as his career has gone on, sliding the ball down has gotten not like it's a different skill set with this technology. I feel like the better technology gets. I feel like the easier it is to like just launch it high no matter what. Like almost at all costs. And I wonder if it is just like a little tiny bit different

and he just hasn't adjusted. Maybe, again, other players have and he needs to figure it out, not an excuse. But I'm just, I'm trying to make it make sense in my head and looking for anything that can make it kind of track somewhat. I just, I don't know, Kuber blew my mind on this and I should know this as well,

but like when he was caddying for me of, you know, when I'm trying to punch one under the trees or keep it keep it above, you know, below branches, he was like, the height is all going to come from speed, right? So like, the more speed the harder you like you hit the like this four iron, the more up it's likely to go. So like you might be trying to get this way down there. But you'd be surprised the slower you go through the zone on this, the lower it's going to fly and run and it's going to be great. And

I guess what it seems like, does it seem like Rory's throwing off speed at on any of these shots I guess where it seems like, does it seem like Rory's throwing off speed on any of these shots? No, does it seem like he's trying to hit 15,000 RPMs on every single one of these shots? Yeah, it does. And I'm like, that's the part that, you know, you don't have to hit the lowest lofted club

to get it back there. It just seems like a day one lesson. I don't know. I should not be armchair quarterbacking. I, but I don't feel like I'm wrong on this. Like, somebody please tell me I'm wrong here. It just feels very weird to armchair somebody of Rory's talent, but just like I just don't get it.

I blame Perry. I don't know. I think I'm kind of credit for those birdies coming in. I'm exhausted by it's like analyzing Rory. And so even afterwards I was like, can we talk about Shane for like, you know, tell you know, Shane's game really well, why is Shane sort of suited to win a second one? And he was interesting to hear him be like, Oh, Shane's got that squeezy cut that's gonna help him when the wind is here. And he's so creative, you know, not only like around the greens, but just in the way that he shapes shots. And I was almost like, man, like, listen to

yourself. shots. And I was almost like, man, like, listen to yourself. Yeah. Your best friend on tour is like one of the most creative thinkers out there. What if you just spent, you know, a couple weeks with him being like, All right, can you kind of talk me through like how you hit certain shots? And I don't know, it's maybe that future is there for him. But maybe it's that revelation is never coming. Do you have any other? Good.. I was just gonna say how would you grade Roy's major year? I mean it feels weird that it's over but

yeah. I think I'd give it a B minus I would say maybe a B. I think the B is fair. He came so close to winning a really hard one you know that the Valhalla one obviously stuff going on in his personal life, maybe made that a mess. But Augusta is always just going to be sort of the bugaboo in his head. I think it's hard to, you know, one shot away, literally like a solo second. He's the only person, though, who's like major drought is measured in years as opposed to like, oh,

it's you know, it's been you know, six majors or 10 majors since the one one, you know, we're up to 40 majors now, whatever it is, I don't know exactly. Maybe I think it's 39. That's a long, long time. And I just, I don't know, we've talked

about it to death in a lot of ways. Yeah. I got one more thing I want to share with you though. Please. The story that I heard this week. So my guy Gary Player was here this week and he played Presswick. I think this was on Tuesday or Wednesday. And after the round, there was a dinner that Gary was sort of attending. Don't know if he invited himself or not. the you. I'm gonna be amazed if you I don't think I can top that. I don't think you can either. We're gonna let you go. Thank you, Kev, for calling in and enjoy it. Thank you for enjoying the beers up at the Post and Stamp today.

This was fantastic. Appreciate it. Go get back to your bongo circle. I do. I want to give a shout out to our friends at Mizzouho. They're part of the Mizzouho Financial Group, the 15th largest bank in the world. Mizzouho America is a corporate and investment bank serving corporate and institutional clients. They advise and fund businesses looking to go public,

raise money, expand operations, or connect with large investors. They also have finance large infrastructure projects that promote civic improvement. You may not know the name, Mizuho you likely know many of the name brand companies. Hopefully people know the name by now. We're shouting them out on the reg out here.

So they're also heavily involved in golf, LPGA golf. They of course host the Mizuho Americas Open're also heavily involved in golf, LPGA golf. They of course host the Mizzouho Americas Open at Liberty National. They support our LPGA content, obviously our Open Championship content as well. So big shout out to Mizzouho. For more information, visit Mizzouhoamericas.com. That is again, Mizzouhoamericas.com. We're going to do some coping here in a minute. But I do want to give a couple of shots, a

couple of performances to shout out. Joaquin Nieman, as previously mentioned, made an eight on the eighth hole today, battled back with birdies on 10, 12, 14, 15, and 15. Shot 31 on the back, shot 71 today with an eight, and has played himself into contention. He's an even par. T11 as we go into the weekend on the bad side of the draw. Talk about a guy, Randy, you just don't know what you're going to get. Well, in majors, we knew we weren't going to get anything good. I,

I was getting ready to say, I love seeing this from Joaquin. It's long past time. He puts himself at least in a conversation. Yeah. On the weekend in a major. So hopefully you can keep up the ball striking and, uh, Floyd, the quintuples this weekend. Uh, never a top 10 in a major. So, hopefully you can keep up the ball striking and uh Floyd the quintuples this weekend. Uh never a top ten in a major. Is

that true? No. Jesus. Not really even close. No. And his worst has been last year at the Masters. Yeah. He's been so bad in opens and you figure with the ball flight and keeping it low, um he'd be well suited. So So without as answering as quickly as possible and without looking how old is walking Newman?

24. I looked this up earlier. He's 25. He's 25. That is crazy. It feels like he's 30 by now, but yeah, I would, for a, yeah, still was kind of throwing little jabs in there about not getting into the majors

in his post-draft interview, which was very of course, very eye-rolling as he sits T11 and the one that he qualified for at the Australian Open earlier this year. But I hope he plays well. This was a dude that has really dropped off since going to live and I've not gotten any, the golf world suffers when these guys that have gone over to live have watched their careers kind of go downhill a little bit. And I hope he continues to good play. Speaking of which, John Ram shot a one-under par round today, again on the tougher side of the draw, made back-to-back birdies on the 14th and 15th holes, stepped up and drove into the burn on 16, and made bogey, drove on 404 yards, I think, on 18 into a little cross pop bunker which was sick but hit a great shot in there to 18 had a good look at birdie to get it to back to even par heading

into the weekend but he's sitting there one I hate I don't like where we're at with Rom where I'm shouting him out being t13 at a major going into the weekend but that's a step up from what we've seen from Ron this week this year and it is good to see. Here here as well as well as Dustin Johnson. It's another guy that I would have you know you could have told me he missed the cut. You could have told me he was you know wherever and he's just a guy that's been a little out of sight out of mind and showed up and is playing really good golf 200 today. I don't know if

I've seen him in a shot. I've watched like all of the golf to this point. Yeah, that's a couple of maps. Couple of maps in the shadow pond situation going on. Jason Day up there in the top five. Xander quietly up there in the top five. Today was Xander's off day. He didn't have it early. He was gotten a little tripped up on that front nine

with a couple of those iron shots. I don't know that that's gonna continue. I think he's going to, I'm gonna keep buyback programs, Randy, I'll take more Xander stock if you'll give it to me. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, sure, yeah, sure. Well, my guy Colin right there also at one over.

Right there, Ty Brooks, can't lays in there at one under par. Like he's not been talked about at all. I was gonna say, if you started two under, it's, it's a sneaky, like really good leaderboard. How it's let's do this now then how far back is too far back? Shane's leading at minus seven round and rose at minus five. Nobody else better than minus two. So minus two is five back, but in a tie for fourth,

how far back does anybody have a good forecast for tomorrow? I feel like that's going to influence my answer. I'm sorry to put you on the spot. I don't like people have said kind of more of the same. I know Shane and his post round said, you know, he a single digit under par winner is like, you know, that wouldn't shock him at all. He was he seemed to have the mentality of just like, man, I kind of need to keep it where I'm at here rather than go shoot 6666 or something. Yeah. And Randy, I'm just using the BrokeAss iPhone app, but it's looking like rain coming. I don't know at what level, but some rain possibilities

starting around 2.30 tomorrow and much less wind tomorrow. So kind of more in the single digit winds with gusts in the low teens. And then yeah, some rain, basically all throughout the afternoon and evening starting around 230. So just a wetter day. I don't know, I don't doesn't look like it's necessarily dumping is 0.15 inches a lot of rain. I don't think that's a lot of rain. So just kind of sprinkling but not a ton of wind for tomorrow afternoon. I feel like that brings some guys in. I'll say, I'll

say two over is too far back. I still like the group at one over. I yeah. I'll join. I'll go even just for the sake of conversation. I don't see anybody at plus two. If there was like if if Koepke or Colin or somebody like that was at plus two I would say plus two but I don't see anybody plus two direct shot at Alex for sure I mean plus four today we're not about that he's already he's already on summer vacation to Visby he was not a subtle dog today what do you want me to say it's true no I agree with that I it's more of the strength of you strength of the names at plus one are what give me a little bit more confidence there.

You guys want to do any more coping we want to do? Anybody else we want to kind of big shout to Max for throwing some birdies down down the stretch and letting out the tribal roar there on 18. Yeah, we should do some apologies on the winter picks. That's unbelievable. That might not ever happen again in the history of major championship golf. I mean, all of us picks to win, missing the cut.

That's rare. When I was in Vegas- I mean, nobody's sniffing it either. I was in Vegas a couple of weeks ago. I did a five- five team baseball parlay. Like if all these teams win, I got all five of them wrong, which is like very similar to this. It's just unbelievable.

It's impossible to do again. I have no regrets on picking Rory. I really don't. Yeah, of course I regret it. I kind of regret a little bit. You know, I was telling you guys voting for the leopards eating people's faces party there with With Tommy Fleetwood picking him to win. I I don't know what it you know, what are you gonna say? I feel like I kind of nailed the Ludwig thing at least that I seem to be leading, you know

Kind of a runaway victory in that in that category. But yeah, I don't know what I was thinking with Tommy. I Know a lot of people asking about the status of the open tab. It's not really a block party, but we did run out a section of a bar. We had a tab, but we did not meet our minimum. They are sending me home with four crates of wine. Basically, I had to buy a bunch of wine off of them to reach the minimum.

And so we'll be taking that home and kind of going through that over the next couple of years As we you know debrief, maybe they do a little employee party this weekend or something, you know, bring employees a little employee appreciation We got the rooms open, you know Saturday Sunday, so maybe bring your family's BYOB type of situation Just come come through It I was going off pure like nothing makes sense here It Rory has to bounce back from this one Randy you tried to talk me off it before we started and I Didn't follow didn't follow it. So Yeah, I tried to get cute with Tom Kim. Listen, was that necessary? No, it wasn't necessary

Probably to learn my lesson there. I don't know whether we're coping here with JT shot 45 on the front nine today and then he flipped around and made three birdies on the back shot two under on the back nine to comfortably make the cut stunting on all the haters out there but it was not handling the front nine win very well but did battle back to at least make it to the weekend which it looked like people were very much dancing on the grave very soon that he was going to miss the cut. But at least battle backing

and with him and Bob McIntyre had some very, very, very bad front nines, but at least made it through to the weekend. Sure. I don't know that he's going to see it that way, but you know, I think that's the draw yet again. God, that was brutal, man. That's tough. I said a lot of things about JT. I didn't say he was gonna go run away and like, hide and just win this thing by a million. I said it would have been fun to watch him in contention. So I'll just correct the record on that. But I hate to I mean, alright, I put

together a little thing here for you guys. I'm we're just gonna go through the last two years of majors. I'm gonna tell you what he shot in round one and you guys have to predict what he shot in round two. Okay, we're just gonna go through the last two years of majors. I'm gonna tell you what he shot in round one and you guys have to predict what he shot in round two. Oh God. Okay, we're gonna start with the twenty twenty three Masters. He opens with a seventy two under at Augusta National twenty twenty three Masters.

You said twenty twenty three Masters seventy seven seventy eight. He misses the cut. He twenty twenty three PGA opens with 72. Lower. 73. 73. He doesn't finish his T65. Yeah, we can play a little higher or lower. Yeah. 2023 US Open starts with the 73. Always good at US Open 73. 80. Yeah, you'll take that. 81.one exactly right hangs

up a Tim Brown like your boy big tone today MC twenty twenty-three open championship. He owns he opens with an eighty-two. I think we we don't lower lower lower that seventy-one. I think you're saying that lower he should he shot seventy-one and missed the cut twenty twenty-four Masters opens with an even par seventy. 76. Yeah, I will say even higher. 78. 79 misses the cut. 2024 PGA Championship opens with a 69. Yeah, he went way high again, didn't he? 74. 74. 76.

Under 67 he finished T8 how quickly we forget. 24. US Open. He opens with a 77 at Piners number 2. Lower. Yeah, he shot 74 on day 2. 74 on day 2 misses the cut and this week of course 68-78. T38 I believe. At least. I guess I guess what you take away from that is I don't know what you

take away from that sort of situation with JT. That's what we've been saying. It does not last seventy-four days. It does not last seventy-four days. That's what we've been saying. That's what we've been saying. That's what we've been saying.

That's what we've been saying. That's what we've been saying. That's what we've been saying. That's what we've been saying. That's what we've been saying. That's what we've been saying. That's what we've been saying. That's what we've been saying.

That's what we've been saying. That's what we've been saying. That's what we've been saying. That's what we've been saying. That's what we've been saying. That's what we've been saying. That's what we've been saying. That's what we've been saying. I guess what you take away from that is I don't know what you take away from that sort of situation with JT. That's what we've been saying. It does not last 72 holes with him. As you're pointing out, it does not last 36 holes with him.

He was, again, that image that Cody put up there, he was at 83 yards short on the fifth green today, the par three into the win. Yeah, that's not good. I mean, clearly like ballooned. I assume it to be a five wood, uh, the apex at 121 feet, but it was like 80 yards short, it went 131 yards, uh, off the tee on, on a 215 yard hole. God, I just, that's another one. I just feel so deeply in my Scottish golf experience. These guys aren't supposed to

be doing, man. We're not supposed to be seeing those shots. Yeah, I don't know exactly what to make of it other than it's better than last year at least. But Tommy Fleetwood, we're coping with that one as well. He will not be around for the weekend. He shot 75 today, finished at plus nine right there alongside Ludwig and Bryson. It's unbelievable how much we talk about a guy that's never won on the BGA Tour. I love it.

Do we just state that? I feel like every time we talk about Tommy, we just need a disclaimer. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Listen, you guys heard me apologize. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna wear this one forever. We're gonna flush it bad decision by me and I'm gonna I'm gonna do better in the future. One guy I wanna ask you guys about and Randy, I'm

particularly curious to to see which side of the line you're gonna fall on here. Sahith Tagala plus fourteen T one forty-three. Guy plays really bad golf at times guys, and I'm not going to say stinks. Uh, but you know, another one of those guys that I'm just like, I always make the joke to you guys. Like all my favorite players just seem to stink, possibly never more true than right now.

Uh, saw it is one of my favorite players and I see rounds and weeks like this. I'm just like, man, what am I? What am I doing? Who are like? Who are these guys that I'm getting behind? You know, I've just my heart's winning the day, not my head. And I feel like my head has seen some very, very bad golf from saw it and I just want to, I need you guys to stay for the record here. Where, where you kind of fall out on this. Is this some sort of, you know, white squall event here?

Solly, I, cause it seems like it went over, it went down pretty comfortably. There's a little, a little seems like it went over it went down pretty comfortably is a little a little bit how it feels right now. I don't I'm never gonna argue for saw his consistency. He's just fun. He's fun and I will root for him. He's accomplished a lot. He's one like I he's my favorite, probably my favorite golfer to watch in contention. I just I love the dude. I get I will not argue for the consistency and it's definitely not been there in majors. It's it's unfortunate He's missed miss cut the last two open championships, you know, he teach 12 at the PGA this year

But that was a PGA tour like setup But yeah, he's gotten exposed a fair amount on on the bigger boys setups, but I'll continue right for my boy I'm like you abandoning him here at this moment Not as my guy. He's my guy and I will not, I will never leave him. Unless he turns his feet or Rory or any of your other guys. In which case we'll fall back on the data. No, I'm just- We'll wait to hear what DataGolf tells us to think of that.

Wait, I'm just getting word that DataGolf's telling me I should abandon SawHit, but I will not. The eye test and my heart test says I love that guy. I would lay down my life for his. I like him. Yeah, he just doesn't seem like a serious threat in majors. We got to do something about the consistency. Fair classification. Is he he's an unserious golfer to begin with.

I mean, he's just a thrill ride, but he is an unserious golfer. The guy I was going to bring up while we're here is Victor Hovland. Like weird major season, three missed cuts and a solo third, which could have been a playoff at the PGA. Like just, I don't know. The betting has- Disappointing.

I'm looking for some coping. The betting houses have to have cleaned up on Hovland after his his fall last year. There had to be some outrageous future major bets on on him. Yeah, this that is not not what I saw coming big. And the the victory lap after Valhalla too like it was oh he solved it all like he's back with Joe Mayo. It's all solved was like, you know, that was an incredible week played great.

But that was clearly a very, very, very different golf course than what normal major championships are going to be like. And yeah, I missed cuts and all the other ones make a lot more sense. It's he's just got a long ways to go, man. I mean, if, again, reading KVV's pieces, like, does that seem like somebody that is can like flip the switch back to their old golf swing and be that guy immediately? Like I'm still worried about his path.

I really am. Yeah. Yeah. So it's fair. Yeah. It's like, right. So miss the cut, you know, like them don't like them. I don't care, but it'd be more fun if the U S open champ were still playing

well and involved this week. It wasn't a fun meltdown, you know? Like there is a fun Bryson playing bad like entertainment viewing at some point, but that was not this. It was just like, ah, dude, I'd rather be around for the weekend for sure. And Ludwig as well as the other big one we haven't mentioned yet.

I'd say Ludwig has elevated his game to the point where it deserves a mention and some scrutiny for when he does miss the cut, right? I know it was his first open championship, his first go around the majors, but that would be disrespectful to him to not call him out during the coping section of this. So couldn't couldn't say it any better for your guy Big Toe and shooting 81. What an unbecoming number for such a world class player.

Do you hear what happened? Or I don't know if this was last I saw this video floating around, but I don't know if it was last night or the night before they jet lagged. They were up at 245 ordered room service, ordered pizza into the room. I think his wife posted on Instagram or whatever. But I don't know if that was last night or not. But that you know, traveling that big fit. Can Netflix nailed this? Can he win with the family? Everybody's asking that question. I'm worried about it.

But I wonder my my armchair analysis with Ludwig would just I'm not asking it. Everyone's asking that question. I'm worried about it but I wonder my my armchair analysis with Ludwig would just be he's gotta be tired. You know, this last 1214 months has been so much and I know the knee's gonna get cleaned up at the you know II

cut him II don't know. I hate cutting anybody's slack but I feel like there are some things with Ludwig that you could tell me it's playing a factor. Yeah, it's fair. I just, I wish he was around playing as well. So, went sport too. Like I was thinking about a couple of things

like watching the Wimbledon final, but it's just so weird that, you know, watching something like tennis, which I parachute into that, you know, watching something like tennis, which I parachute into for, you know, two hours a year, is just like, man, how do they, they just seem to nail. Like it's just always the big dogs. Just every, the higher seed just always wins. And it's just, it's really funny to have a major

where it's just like, you know, all these guys going home after 36 holes. It's like, what a great slash terrible sport. I know. Well, I see people advocating for this to bring qualifying back to this. Like everybody should travel over there and still have to qualify as like.

Totally. Explain that, please explain that to me. Like Rom has to earn it. Rose fucking did it. Yeah, this tournament would be better off if Rom went out and shot seventy-six at the qualifier didn't make it in. That is that is a take that if somebody put a ballot in front

of me like I would vote for. I want to I want to be clear. That is a sick idea and I would vote for it but I just I don't think it's we gotta pick our spots in these committees Randy and I just I don't think that one's that one just doesn't have the public support to get, to get by. I got, I got some weird ideas. I don't know if we're quite there yet,

or we can get to them later in the show. Do we know, do we have official data on what the scoring disparity is between the waves, Solly, I'm putting you on the spot here. I can get that for you quite quickly, actually. It, for round two, it ended at 1.9 shots harder in the afternoon wave. And there's kind of how it works at the open is there's not like two waves like it's just all everybody goes off the first tee and it's so it's just you know that's kind of a rough generalization

of like front half and back half and all that. There's all these like internal little waves basically within there which it was pretty obvious who was in like the worst of it, at the worst spot on the golf course. But later in the day, you teed off, you averaged 4.3 shots over par. And earlier in the day was 2.4 shots over par. That's courtesy of Data Golf as well. Yesterday's split was within 0.1 shots, so it was incredibly close. And today was much, much more dramatic. was incredibly close. And today was much, much more dramatic. Okay, a couple of questions we got. Potta Coffee says whose play most resembled it services getting back online after an outage? I wish I had squeezed this earlier.

Big shot, big shot, Bob. Big shot, Bob. Yeah. That was a recency bias for me. He was toast. He drove it into the right fescue on I believe the sixth hole. He was eight over through four. Fourth hole was it? Yeah, fourth hole. No sprinkler heads in the fescue and it dramatically affected the way he played the rest of that hole. Been crazy if that would have happened last week.

It may have defined the outcome of the event last week, but there's no sprinkler heads in the Fescue at Royal Troon. And yeah, he was making a complete mess of it, but made five birdies coming in to finish that. What's he at? I can't, my screen is too small. He's plus five. It's T54. It's a credit to him. Huge credit. Danny D3493, how much more different with the OWGRB if at least half of PGA tour setups and courses were eliminated and changed to this sort of through the bags skills setup feels like a lot of ball speed imposters are getting exposed. Hashtag thrilling hashtag aspirational. This might have been from Tron Carter NLU the more I actually read that. It's all the hashtag. It would have been a hashtag blow pig on there. Yeah. I can think of him specifically,

but I'm curious what other ball speed imposters got exposed. I don't, I mean, Rory maybe, but I don't know. Like beyond that, I'm like, eh, I don't know that any, like I think Ludwig's like good. I think Victor Hoffman's good. I think Bryson's good. I don't know if it was really like guys getting exposed I think they just didn't play good. I

Think the question is just kind of like, you know We view like somebody like Brian Harmon through a particular window and it's kind of an upset when he wins a major yet If half the golf courses look like this setup golf as a whole would look a lot different, you know it's The driving distance skill is so heavily emphasized on PGA tour courses that it becomes the guys that become stars because they win more on that door and a lot of the majors are driving distance importance. And so those guys end up winning a lot

of the majors as well. And it just, if a lot of a lot more golf looked like this, it would be more parody and it I don't like positive. That's the greatest thing in the world for this, the star power entertainment part of the game. It'd be better for like the golf like nuance appreciators I think but I think golf as a marketing vehicle trends in a very different direction than that. It's a complicated answer to say. I think it would look quite different. I think guys like the Kevin Kisner's I mean not his current phase of golf

but like say five years ago would have very different careers if the golf looked more like this and less like the other style. So Shane Lowry might be considered a top 10 player. And they would figure it out, right? I mean, that's kind of the same thing with Bryson's comments earlier this week about not figuring out the wind and ball things or Rory's really, I if we're playing different stuff they're gonna figure it out they're literally not just the best golfers on the planet because of like

they score really low it's also because of their brains and I think it's just so catered to the normal not just PJ Tour but I can say live to like I don't think like Valderrama was the best setup for these guys coming over I think there's a ton that they could do there too to set their players up to better compete at a major championship. But I don't know in the year 2024 if that really matters. To the true golf historians and everything, winning this major matters. But to a lot of the guys are just out there playing for money. And there's other places where they can get bigger checks and focus their game on to make sure that they're

primed ready to go then. And that stinks to say. No, I totally agree. Cody and I look like we're getting ready to go fake each other's deaths, by the way, with these outfits and hats. But the I don't know easy. This is not even meant as a cheap shot. I'm just like, throwing it out there. Like Shane Lowry made a special trip to come over here and see the golf course for an extra day. I thought he said it brilliantly on TV, which was like, man, once these major weeks starts, they go really fast and picture that for someone like Rory, right? Who has so many demands on their time who everybody's constantly reaching out at his shirt sleeve, trying to get him to, you know, give a nugget here, a nugget there, look this way or do a sponsored thing

or answer this question. To try to do all of your prep inside of that same window, compare that to Shane Lowry going there when the golf course is closed, there's no fans, there's no sponsors, there's no anybody there and you can just take 45 minutes on each hole if you want to really break it down. And again, not a cheap it's not funny.

Like Big Tone's jet lag, like get the fuck out of here, man. Like you're not going to win. Like, are we serious? I was on the must not have been too jelic because they really hit up church on Tuesday night. So he had plenty of time to to reacclimate himself. But isn't it funny how close Shane and Rory are that Shane takes that week off and is like, yep, I'm going to go play this

and do my prep and probably he's out there with buddies and everything and he's charting things around. But honestly, he's out there probably just having a really good time trying to get some early work done. And Rory had the exact same week off and is like, I'm going to go to New York City by myself, surround myself by tall buildings, concrete, and just try to suffocate these thoughts and feelings away like dude go have fun with your boy like go go do that and and then when KV comes in and he hearing what Rory said about Shane like yeah dude like embrace that not turning this back into a Rory thing just trying to show the difference here

agree and I guess I don't know I guess the other side of that coin is like if Rory comes out and plays great, then everybody's saying like, Oh, he just, he got away from the game. That's what he needed. He's like, these guys need to get away and they need to unplug. They need to be human beings. So if we know anything about Rory, he'll have the complete opposite approach next year, right?

And I'll come over and play a month of, of Lynx golf. But I think it, I don't know on the other side, you can, if you play these courses at the wrong speed, right? If it's not like game speed yet tournament speed yet you can get like these guys that play practice runs in the wrong wind, you know, ended up like not being able to figure out their strategy around the golf course. So there's some of that like I've heard guys talk about that with Augusta like dude, I

don't when I make the advanced trips like I don't like to put the greens because they're not tournament speed and they break different when you don't learn them in that time period. I think that's smart. But I also think, Trune, you tell me if you feel the same way, I was watching you hit the tee shots, you were actually hitting them, but like it feels like a very tee shot golf course. And like the tee shots are not going to change golf courses in different conditions. It's much more about like what these guys look uncomfortable with is like holding it up against the wind on a lot of these T boxes rather than like trying to learn like I don't think he's out there with this greens book trying to chart all the greens. I think he's just like, I need to feel really comfortable on 11 and 14 and all of you know, all these different tee shots he's hitting.

I think if I could, I think a pro would answer that in this way. Maybe it's the wrong approach, but I think a pro would say like, Hey, the, the ball striking stuff, like the launching, the cut, the cut spin, the draw spin I need up against all that. Like I do all that on the range. Like that happens on the range. And I use time out on the golf course to get used to chipping around the greens, how balls are reacting on the greens and to putt, putt to different pet positions. Like that's how they optimize their time out there. Again, I'm not saying that's right or wrong, but you just don't see guys grind out on the golf courses because in theory, like your shot shapes and all that, you just want to get as optimized as possible to go out there and adjust. And, you know, again, maybe if you can simulate the exact wind you're going to get in the tournament, that's great. But it's kind of it can be difficult to do that. But, man, I when you're going through that, Sal, the one thing that stuck out and I was like, yep, that's great, but it's kind of, it can be difficult to do that. But man, I, when you're going through that, it's all the one thing that's stuck out.

And I was like, yep, that's what everybody says every year when we get ready for the master's time. And obviously they, you know, they get certain opportunities to go out and play practice rounds and it's more important to go out and, and figure out how to hit all the short game shots and everything, but they're not putting too much emphasis on green speeds because they know they're going to get super faster from Tuesday to Wednesday and then by the time Thursday morning shows up you have that type of golf and then we finish the year here where it's like those green speeds don't fucking matter they didn't matter today they

didn't matter last week or a month ago it's about how you get your golf ball around this golf course and I love the fact that we start each major year at Augusta where everything is as pristine and what you could say optimized as it possibly could be and then end up here and the ball's on the ground and you're just throwing like everything's chance. It's so cool. Yeah that's well said. I like that. Yeah. It's the best. I mean, it's a totally different examination. Psychological, physical, it's a spiritual examination too, Randy, if you'll allow that. I mean, it's the best kind.

Truly, I know it's kind of a bit, but like 100% sincerity, that's what I want to see. I think that's golf. We got a couple questions in here. One from Morris Bubba. He said, the Thursday morning, Friday afternoon, T times were a five shot penalty. Quite accurate, but can this be made more fair? num one chess fan and this might be Neil

Schuster said, is this a true test that isn't necessarily identifying the best players? I'm going to disagree with the sentiment of both of those to say, the term tournament's about as fair as they can make it. And part of the deal here is that the conditions are going to vary. And that's, I'm a big fair police guy if there is one, but now this is the beauty of this tournament. Like you just hope you get the right side of the draw. You handle the bad conditions when they come.

Uh, I don't know what you do to make it more fair other than like call play this afternoon, which would have been a disgrace. So there's nothing else you can really do. Well, I- It's funny when they say in the question here, they said the best player, I guess, is this the best test to test the best player? And like their title at the end of the day is like,

you become the champion golfer of the year. And that just means you get the ball in the hole on the fewest strokes possible. Like, fuck yeah, this might be the most punchable, like I really take truly like how you mentally handle yourself on the golf course should be as important as how well you hit a driver. Yes. Right. Like that is that is a fucking skill. It's the same as reading a green is a skill. It's the same as judging the

wind is a skill. It's the same as an iron play is a skill. It's the same as judging the wind is a skill. It's the same as an iron play is a skill. It's the same as chipping is a skill. Like all of that stuff should add up to the game. And as soon as people get in there with like, this should all be a simulation, you should be able to take all your balls out of divots in the fairway, you should be able to do it like, get the fuck out of here, man. That's not how the game works. There's a ton of like little nuance and luck within like a

certain range. I think about this too, a lot of times with the Reds, Randy, where it's like, they lost the game 3-2. Like the ref, the up blue three calls in the zone, there were two strikeouts he missed and Ellie got rung up on a pitch four inches outside. And then like, like 30 minutes later, you're like, Yeah, but they also fucking stink, man. Like if they were a better team, they would have just won the game by four runs. And it's like that with golf too. I lived out, God, I lived

out on seven, I looked down on 11, looked down on 15, I shot 78. Like, if those putts all went in, I would have shot 67. It's like, no, dude, you stunk. Like, like, think about the things that you're actually in control of with. I don't know. That's part of like, it's a very, it's still kind of a ball don't lie situation with this golf. I mean, I know you can- For sure.

End up on the wrong side of the draw, but the draw did not make Rory shoot 78 over par this week. It's like he stunk and the draw made him worse on top of that stinking. I mean, you saw Rosie shot 68 where the people around him, the scoring average was 76.1. Yes. So it's possible. I hate the take two because it's like when it works for people it's like, oh man golf it's just like life, you know,

it's not fair. It reveals a lot and then it's like, oh no we got to make it, you know, for everybody. Yeah, I have floated an idea though going back to the the original question, you know, like when there's a big disparity I wouldn't be opposed to putting a panel of like five judges on each hole and just making it a subjective score, you know So they made a five here, but how did they make it? You know, maybe we adjust that down to like a four point four Maybe it's it's up to a five point three. Like I would listen to to that. I gotta flesh it out a little bit though. I would say about that, Randy, I feel like there should be a game where, an alternate game of scoring,

where if you hit the fairway and you hit the green on a par four, and you make a four, that's a three and a half. But if you miss one of those, but you make a four, that's a four. You gain a half shot on people

if you play the whole properly instead of scrambling for the four. There's something there. There's something to that. Randy, I'm going to get this with with our editorial director KVV. But I think a written piece we might need to do maybe it's around like the playoffs or something where there's not much going on. We can. I think you should go follow a guy for 18 holes and you should say like his objective score. He did shoot 66 but his subjective score was 69 and a half. And let me explain why.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I would read the shit out of that, that sounds great. We haven't talked about the blow pig at all, but got this question from J.E. Nowak is what, 83. Why do we only ever hear about sports psychologists when a player is winning and doing well? Wyndham Clark has played horse shit since people put his success down to Julie Elion Yeah, I mean still what a major it's some other like big events

Which is you know, which is harder to do than not blow up at other places. So but yes, it is it's not good I will say this like I at one point of my very, very, very non-distinctive amateur career, I felt like I had mental golf figured out. And it is not something, it is just like practicing like regular golf and that you have to like maintain the exercises that you're doing.

It's not a solved thing, right? It can be, and you can convince yourself pretty quickly, you've solved mental golf and like, pretty easily revert back sometimes make it worse. Like I played way worse after I felt like I had it figured out that I was, you know, then then, you know, the bad play that I needed the mental help on. And it can snowball like really, really quickly. And you start like you, it's almost everybody gets in

those phases on the golf course, too, where you're like, I know I'm being a bitch right now. I want to snap out of it and I can't, which makes it five times worse. And yeah, he has been humbled very, very quickly. He shot 80 today. He finished at plus 16. He's headed to the Olympics here in a couple weeks and a lot of people are quite upset about that. But he qualified for it. He earned it. But it's, it's it's been a tough go for him since this winter when he was playing really, really freaking good golf. Did you see those Olympics headshots, by the way? Those are sick.

It's like little passport photos. Yeah, those are great. We talk about like time away all the time, Dej, and it's funny because if you go back and look at like a headshot of Windham, so this picture that I have up right right now and you look at his shirt and his hat, it looks a hell of a lot different right now than it does prior to the US Open. And I think the biggest thing, it's not so much like time away and we joke about time away all the time and opportunities to practice or anything else because they have these media and partner obligations.

But honestly, you forget about the fact that like they're also running small businesses and there's a ton of other things, no matter how many people you have hired there to support you, everything else, it's just more time. And that, that eats into somebody when they're going through their own, uh, highs or lows on the mental side of life, let alone their golf game. And I could, I just couldn't imagine. Yeah. We see that in Max right now too.

I mean, Max last year compared to this year, I mean, it was so cool to watch him make that putt on 18, but it's just such a fickle, fickle place to be. Yeah. It's also too, we can kind of slag off some of these, setups and all this stuff, but it just seems like these pro golfers, when you get on, even a really tough setup

can be made without the conditions can be made to look quite simple. But as soon as you get kind of behind the eight ball with one facet of your game, it's still relatively tough in a lot of this. There could be an oh shit for a lot of it. It's gonna find a way to expose you if you're off on a lot of, and even one category.

If your driving accuracy is off. Yeah, it's, it's not that that the line between the good play and the really bad play isn't probably as, as far off as we think it could be. So Winnem is also finished top 10 his last two starts as well, just for what that's worth. I don't say I don't know if it's a terminal illness that he's battling. Any other shout outs we want to give before we go I

Had I had one if you if you'll allow me. I just wanted to shout out a gurry. He was sake Not for shooting in 91 honestly, but for just signing the scorecard. I feel like it would have been so easy for him to Walk off the course WD like screw this man but he signed for it and good for him to walk off the course, WD, like screw this man. But he signed for it and good for him. A 91's also nuts in a major. You should get the letter maybe about coming back. A tough shout out to my guy Kazuma Kabore who we met at the Asia Pacific Amateur.

He went out 35 today but made, looks like four bogeys and a triple on the back to miss the cut by one. He shot 76 today, finished it plus seven, but I was hoping he would make it to the weekend. All right, that is going to do us for Friday. We have made it through the early, early, early ass wakeups of the week. I am excited, of course, for round three Open Championship. We will be live right here, courtesy of our friends at high noon after the completion of round three and of course, after the completion of round four. Shout out to high noon. Shout out to Mizuho.

Shout out to Forsyte. Cody running the ones and twos. Jordan, behind the scenes, running the socials. DJ Pi, Big Randy, signing off. Thank you everyone for tuning in. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Cheers.