No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 706: US Women's Open Preview

Episode Date: July 5, 2023

The 2023 US Women's Open begins tomorrow and we're on location as Pebble Beach hosts a women's major championship for the first time. We start with some thoughts on the course itself and how it presents itself in the context of a US Women's Open. Then it's on to the leading contenders among US women (41:15) and the general lack of momentum for several of the highest-ranked Americans. We also recap the career of Michelle Wie West as she prepares for her final event as a professional (53:15). We close with some of Randy's favorite statistical nuggets headed into the week (1:13:15) and our picks for low Am and who'll hoist the trophy on Sunday evening. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the No Laying Up podcast. My name is Randy. We are live Pebble Beach, California. It's US Women's Open Week.

So exciting. Joining me for the preview this evening and joining me all week. Let me introduce the gang here to my far right, Mr. Tron Carter, TC just into Cali today, how we feeling? Feeling great. Got upgraded both legs on the flight here. Like that. Flute through your beloved Denver.

Today, good to be here. Marine layers got it a little bit gray. But we're hoping that's going to burn off as the week goes along. We are overlooking one of TC's home clubs here. Cypress point. I can't say that, Randy. They take that stuff seriously. Okay. But we are overlaunched. He doesn't want his future invitation to be jeopardized for any reason. Please protect my guy here. That's true. The voice you just heard, Mr. Cody McBride, Cody, how are you doing today, man? Happy Fourth of July.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Happy Fourth of July to you, all of you guys here, and to the listeners out there. I hope everybody had a safe and happy Independence Day. Very proud to say that here. Hopefully there weren't any fireworks troubles. And I hope to get in some festivities

tonight out here. You never know what's going to happen. But my first time at Pebble Beach, seeing the course. First time ever. Yeah. I'd never seen it before. It's awesome. I've spent a little bit of time around these parts, but never got to really experience it. For languages, of course. Of course. My hitters at DLI, but I'm pumped for it a very excited week big and happy to be here with you. Good, good. And last but not least joining us Jordan Perez. Jordan, welcome to Pebble Beach. Glad you are here. How are you doing? Hello. Yeah, it's great to be here. First timer. Got in a little late last night. Yeah, I took in the sides today and excited to shout it up. First impressions, what do you think?

Sick. Just leave it at that adjective. Just sick. Yeah. Do you walk the front, the back, both? Not wholly yet. Okay. Hopped around a lot.

Need some additional context, but sick is my first impression. Let's, yeah, I hard to argue with that. Randy, can I ask you, how does it feel to be back here after the events of, of early, what was that early June? Early May. A lot of people are calling it the May massacre. The wounds are still fresh, TC.

I mean, what an unbelievably awful performance to put on tape. I will stand by the wind being truly, truly just tough. And I hope the women get to experience some of that this week. But yeah, we were coding and I were walking around the course a little bit earlier today and it was like, oh yeah, no, I hit it in that bunker. And oh yeah, I missed like, you know, I missed in the water there and just pointing out all my mistakes. It's still fresh.

So thank you for asking TC. And if people don't know what we're talking about, it's a film room on Pebble Beach, Randy played the course early May and was blessed to be playing with Michelle Wee West there was able to only play nine holes due to obviously she's got kids man. She got you she got to get back to the kiddo take care of it. You you know exactly how that is. You're in the doghouse now as we speak. So uh, but it's uh, man big props to you for hanging it out there and taking everything that comes with it because it truly was an a beating of of the ages. I think my favorite part was seeing Sali and Tron and Ben reacting to my short misput on well a lot of them, but I think five specifically just them feeling my pain.

That meant a lot because I in the moment I didn't see them, you know, kind of living and dying on my chest. And fluff. And fluff. Yeah, don't forget about fluff. That's fluff had to go live in a van to get rid of all the PTSD that he picked up for watching carrying your bag around man. Fluff my caddy. He did reach out after the airing. It was just like he was still beaten himself up about that club choice. I number seven. I said, fluff, it's all right man.

Like we're good. We're good. Should we thank our sponsor? I said, Fluff, it's all right, man. Like, we're good. We're good. Should we thank our sponsor? Yeah, we should. We should want to thank our friends at Titleist and Footjoy. And I want to talk to you guys about Footjoy. The official shoe of No Lang Up, Footjoy is the number one shoe at the US Women's Open.

And honestly, it's the number one shoe at just about every level of Women's Golf. It's the number one shoe on the LPGA, the ladies European Tour at NCA Women's Championships at the Women's Am, the National High School Golf Championships, the list goes on. And a big part of it is that foot joy only makes golf shoes and has for nearly 100 years. And when they make them for women, they make them in more sizes, more styles, and more options than anyone else. And they make them specifically for women with unique elements designed to maximize

their performance and comfort. Players who care about their game, care about what's on their feet, whether it's women men, juniors, professionals, am's, more of those players lace up a pair of foot joys when they get ready to play. So just like Jess Corda, Danielle Kang, games, more of those players lace up a pair of foot joys when they get ready to play. So just like Jess Corda, Danielle Kang, Bronti Law, half of every LPGA tournament field,

we had no laying up or among the nation of players who trust their game to the overwhelming number one shoe and golf foot joy, sincerely thank them for their support. Cody and I got in the, not the food joy, but the title is tour truck today is out at Pebble. Oh boy, we're living living it up T.C. I know you're bummed you're supposed to be there with us, but these tour trucks, I know we say this a lot, and people have seen, they always impress the shit out of me. They're able to put so much stuff in there, be so proficient and efficient with the space that they have available.

It was awesome. We're gonna do it. We got some video of it. All sorts of drawers. It's not like a kidney candy shop. Precise drawers, cut to length, they're like, oh, 46 inch driver. So this drawer, the maximum is 46 inches

just so we can barely, we can get this in because man, these little inches add up everywhere around that truck and they gotta put everything they possibly can in there. Yeah, so check out this, the probably Instagram later this week, we'll have some clips of that, great time there. But guys, it's, I mean, it's Pebble Week. I don't know about you, I've had this week circled for,

like three or four years, right? Yeah, honestly, since it was announced. Yeah. And we are here. The week is here. I think it's going to be an excellent, excellent event. Just to set people straight on coverage, all times Eastern here, but Thursday and Friday,

we are 4 to 6 p.m. on La Coc. The Coc. And then we're going 6 to 11 p.m. on laycock. The cock. And then we're going six to 11 p.m. on USA. And then Saturday and Sunday, three to nine p.m. on NBC. I can get down with that. Yeah. Six hours straight, not tossing us around. It should be a lot of just good, solid prime time golf on the weekend.

It never ceases to amaze me how little they use golf channel to air golf these days. Not for the golf. That's incredible. Golf chance not for the golf. I think just as importantly or also importantly, we have some streaming, which is wonderful. Folks, I would encourage you to check out either uswomen'sopen.com, the new usga mobile app or friends at peacock, they're going to have two feature groups per day. They're going to take an early group and a late group.

And they'll have to cross those three things. Yes. And they've announced the Thursday feature groups. They're going to come on air at 11.50 AM. That must be Pacific time. So I'm guessing 250 PM Eastern time is the group of Jin Young, co Nelly, Korta and Lexi Thompson. And then following them into prime time is Brook Henderson, Rose Zhang and Lydia Co. So if you're curious to watch all or some of their rounds, that will be available via the streaming options. So something I've been banging a drum on, we need more streaming kudos to the USGA and their partners for, for having that option. Are we going to get a commercial free last stanza? Not that I've heard, but I, there're always like super coy about stuff. Sometimes like Rolex has stepped up in the past.

Not sure about that this week. I'm trying to think of the US open. Did, did we have commercial free towards the end? I think we did. All right. Well, I would assume that, you know, Rolex is always a big times sponsor partner of theirs. But, you know, it's one thing that always, uh, I get a kick out of from the USJ Like the purse really isn't even announced yet for this. They always hold these things out for like these kind of big reveals Weak up. Yeah, it makes it feel like it makes you feel special But it also makes you feel like yo, something's coming like some bigs come there to announce it

I thought they're in us. No, it's coming well Maybe by the time a lot of people are listening, you'll be announced, but they're going to announce it on Wednesday, July 5th. So it was 10 million last year. I imagine if they're making a big deal about announcing it, it's going to bump up. So Patrick Cantler is probably going to be pissed.

So pissed. PC is going to be pissed. So yeah, check that out. I do want to say too, we are going to be live every day at the completion of play. Yeah, sorry Cody. You're not telling me. Yeah, you got a lot of work coming your way this weekend.

Live in prime time. Live in prime time, we have, we're going to call the dog house. We have a house here just off a 17 mile drive. So be sure to check us out, Twitter, YouTube, or catch the podcast as it's released the next day. Super excited about that.

And listen, we're not gonna be offended if you can't catch it live. It'll be there for you in the morning. Yeah, it's gonna be so nice. You wanna fire it up, waiting for the golf to come on TV, watch the YouTube video, take a little walk. Walk the dogs, you know.

We came out here, we flew out for it just because we couldn't do, our bodies couldn't handle doing live shows for a West Coast event again from home like I God you want dog house. I don't think our spouses I would rather ask permission to leave then to do that again. Yeah Rowback is is gonna be our our proud sponsor for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then high noon as his custom will also be sponsoring the live show on Sunday.

So yeah, in huge, I know we said it again, but huge thank you to Rowback. They've been a great partner of ours. They're making this week possible for us. They're support not only to us, but our coverage of women's golf. And they're support of women's golf and the athletes that they sponsor goes a long, long, long way. So, yeah, LC, man, it's just, it's bummer that she's not here, but man,

I really am appreciative of them because we started doing all these live shows really full time. You know, we dipped our toe in it last year, but to do it really at the same level that we do the men's majors this week is absolutely huge. And it's something that women's golf definitely deserves. And I'm happy that we have a rowback on board

to make it all possible. Amen, rowback.com. I'll even give them a plug, rowback.com, check them out. Lots of good stuff. We'll have much more to say about that as the week goes on. And we got we got office hours that went up last Friday. If you haven't watched that yet, it's really, there's some awesome historical footage of Mary and Holland's playing Pebble Beach way back in the day. She had something to do with this place behind it. She did Wolfie

and Neil really, really chopped it up about history of the Oswamans open. We've got a KVV Ben Hôteling. Co-Lab. Co-Lab coming. We got plenty of written stuff coming from Jordan Perez and KVV and maybe even Randy and the crew, some co-biling stuff, maybe coming up too. So lots, lots, lots coming from, from Pebble this week. And I think we start there, guys. Mindji Lee is the defending US Open Champion.

She won last year at Pine Needles, a tournament record, 13 under par performance. Pebble Beach hosting a US Women's open for the first time in its history, a big deal to get the women to, you know, one of the most, if not the most iconic course in the States is a big deal. But let's, let's start here. You know, when I say Pebble Beach, we'll go around TC. What do you think of when you hear the word Pebble Beach? I think of an under realized routing. I knew you was going to start with,

with you know, it's just a day for the inward holes. Jack Neville said he wanted to maximize the holes along the ocean, which like he didn't do because he, like some of them run just parallel to the ocean. That's not the best way to utilize the ocean sometimes. No, I mean it's the stretch from six through ten is like

Top three best stretches of golf in the world and stuff that you could never even make up like Number six up the you know that cliff and the I mean the pictures that you see of that and then you see it in person for the first time It's like whoa holy shit, this is crazy. And then seven, the pocket size, par three and eight kind of defies belief. I think nine and ten are both awesome as well. Nine, you know, nine, especially, I think nine. Nine. Nine. Nine. Nine. Nine. Nine. Nine. Nine. Nine. Nine. Nine. Nine. Nine. Nine. All. Especially with that new T box. I'm excited to see the ladies. ladies. We'll get to what I'm excited about, but yeah, Pebble Beach, and then, yeah, and then conversely,

I think about like, one, two, five, 15, and 16. Like, there's just some manholes too. Yeah, I think that's fair. Cody, what do you conjure up when you hear Pebble Beach? I think championship golf course, and I know that we harp on courses that we get to see every single year, but the US open belongs at Pebble Beach,

and it's really, really cool that this is the first playing of, you know, actually, it's fucking shocking. Not cool, it's shocking that this is the first playing of the US women's open. It is kind of crazy. Like when you think about it, but it's cool that we're finally here. Right. They've had two women's amps. Correct. Prior. I do think to Cody, to your point, it's one thing to

see a course. I feel like pebble presents completely differently for US open, US women's open that does for the Pelvic Program. That has nothing to do with time of year. At 100% is set up and what they're able to do to the golf course itself. Yeah. And shutting it down to Torres Plays for a while. Like, that's the other thing.

I don't think people realize how much money it costs to have a tournament here just because you shut down Torres Plays like every 10 minutes they're making like another like $6,000 or something. It's crazy between the hotel and the greens fees. Jordan, you're you're slightly younger than us. I should say a lot younger than us. You know, you're in your youth curious from your perspective what comes to mind when you hear Pebble Beach? Oh, well, now that the beat of sweat from the back of my head is completely evaporated,

yeah, I mean, maybe in the sense of recency, I think of the Rose Ang 63, which we can touch on a little more later. That was epic despite it being totally unseen. I actually watched Tiger at Pebble in 2000, like literally the other day in prep. I was for context. I was three years old when that happened. So just not consciously perceiving that, sorry. But no, that was epic. And yeah, I mean, just of like the short span of time that I've like actually consumed golf, I mean, yeah, you think of championship golf, you think of seven,

I mean, you just think of like breathtaking sights and yeah, I don't know. I, I, it's just, it, it, it's, it it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's it's Yeah, I just I so look forward to the weekend. I hope we get an iconic moment or two Jordan I think context is the perfect the contextualized perfect word for it like we've seen Bill Murray hit these shots Seemingly hundreds of times In the bar and Rogers like you know Peter Monotti, like, can we not see like Chris Solomon? Chris Solomon. Yeah, exactly. Big Randy. Big Randy. Yeah, yeah, exactly. The world's seen more of Big Randy playing.

Yeah. So I think it's, you know, it's about damn time that we've seen Jin Young Co and Nelly Corda and Brooke Anderson hit these things. shots, you know, yeah, amen to that. Well, TC, you mentioned they have hosted a couple US women's Am's curious Curious of the if we go around, I think Jordan gave us one of them. Pebble has hosted five US open. So I'll give you a tiger in 2000. Can we name the years and the winners of the other four US opens at Pebble? Tom Watson, 1982. Yes. That's like, I've watched, that's like one of my favorite ones to watch just because it was it was pretty gnarly. That's the iconic chip in on 17. Yep. That's that's one. That was the second one played at pebble.

Come on. Somebody's got to get the reason one. Mr. Of course. Gary Woodland. Yeah. Gary Woodland won in 2019. Yeah, Gary Woodland won in 2019. That was 2019. Mm-hmm. I didn't notice there was a PGA held here as well. Gene Whitler, like, shut down his leg. Shot like 76 or 76. I was so excited for that. Yeah.

Come on, there's an iconic shot also on 17. First US Open. Mr. Nixless. I don't know what year it was. 62. Oh, 1972. So they were on a, and then I know kite was in said 92. Yeah. They're on an every 10 year cycle. And then the cat, obviously 2000, and then they went turn to the century 2000. And there was one more. Yeah, they stayed on the 10 year cycle. So I'll give you the year 2010.

Do you remember who won? Graham McDowell. Yes, Jordan. I was just looking at you because I'm like, you're old enough now. You would have, you would have at least been old enough to G Mac. I can't believe that. For that pink shirt, right? Yes.

Yeah. God, that doesn't even. With theifist color in the world without looking if anybody can name me the runner up from 2010. I'll be so impressed. Nationality. Probably give it away. Yeah, I think it might give it away. I thought you know this. Why are you typing it out? Well, I want to make sure I'm right. French. Thomas Levet.

No, good guess. French. Oh, Victor Dubu-San. No. Didn't make a splash until, uh, yeah, until, uh, Gregory have Ray. No way. No way. Yeah, you said French. Gregory have Ray. Oh, no way. No way.

Yeah, you said French, we still want to get it. I think as the other thing we should mention, of course, it is the first US women's open at Pebble, which I think it makes it a little tricky to kind of handicap, you know, we think it's a harder shit. Yeah, we don't have prior knowledge of at least how they like to set it up for the women. We don't have any of that. We do. Jordan, you mentioned Rose Zang shot a 63 here in college.

I believe you were saying they set up the course. What a little over 6100 yards for that event. 61 56. It was playing 353 yards shorter than Then it will this week. Yep. Yeah. In September, I don't know if that matters or not. Like dry or too. But I would assume that yeah, it would be a little bit drier.

And she talked about that a little bit in her press conference today that, you know, it seemed like everything was so easy that day. And she was just seeing it all. I couldn't believe that she ended up firing that number. But also like when she came back out here for this, we can start playing practice around. She's like, oh, this is, the length is a lot different here. Mm-hmm.

I can tell you it's gonna be a par 72. It's gonna be a 36, 36. I know you love that, Randy. I do love that. T-C, I absolutely do love that. As Jordan, as she said, it's going to be set up about 6500 yards. Give her take some each day. And I think it's really curious what, you know, what we think the winning score is going to be. And I think to speculate on that, we got to talk

a little bit about the weather. T.C. Have you been diving into the to the apps at all? I, you know, what Greg, I have been on the apps. I think we're going to get a little change of we've got kind of the June gloom thing going on here mid week. Wednesday, Thursday, probably through Friday. It should start clearing up a little bit Thursday and to Friday. As far as partly cloudy, but the clouds are just kind of receding down to the coast and we're on the coast here. And then Saturday, there's kind of a reversal. It gets a little bit warmer and a little bit sunnier, I think. And hopefully windier as well.

We're told like that. I did. I tracked down Beth Major, the head of comms for the USDA, who's just wonderful. I want to give her a shout out. And I said, Beth, will we have the wind that I had to suffer through a media day. And she said, Randy, it looks like it's going to blow a little bit Friday and Saturday. I feel like the players

are getting lulled into a false sense of security here early in the week. We're hoping it blows a little bit come the weekend. So fingers crossed, I think we need at least a day or two with the wind up to really get the full pebble experience. I think though, it's also, it's going to be such an interesting test for the ladies because versus some of the recent major championships, like a congressional or, you know, KPMG Women's PGA, it's all like there's massive greens, big openings in the front. These are tiny greens.

Like these are some of the smallest greens that I've ever played, that they'll have ever played. And they get bumpy, like late afternoon stuff like that. So we were talking about it earlier, like there's definitely, like we were talking about it in the context of how it affects Lexi or someone who's not a great lag putter or who's not, you know, and it's like, you're going to have a bunch

of like three or four foot pots that break four cups in my bobble. Yeah. Yeah. Which it's like, it's not good for the psyche, right? And then there's one thing. There's deep rough right off the greens. There's deep rough all around the bunkers. There's like 14, we were talking about earlier.

There's a crazy deep bunker front left there that like it could take you two shots to get out of. You know, there's just a lot of different variables that you don't see a whole lot of other places. Like pebble is almost in certain spots and almost feels like a muni, and I say that in like kind of an endearing way where there's bunkers in the middle of the rough.

The greens are shrunken. Yeah, I totally agree. I think it's, I feel the exact same way. I, again, it's just, it's a wonderful venue. So having said all that, you think that this favor, like this is clearly going to be a ball striking test. I think you're gonna have to hit greens. I mean, like, it's not a length test.

You gotta be long enough, because I think otherwise, like, you know, nine and 10, I think eight, nine and 10 are gonna beat the shit out of people if you're not long enough. 14 same thing. Like you're not going to be able to just hit driver wedge, you know, like, like, you're going to be hitting a lot of mid-Irns or going to be hitting a lot of thoughtful layup shots to get, you know, on the part, part five. Yeah, I think it's going to be iron players paradise.

And then you can fake it for a round or two, but you know, I think if you're missing greens, you're your S.O.L. around here. So we have to peg a winning score, Jordan. What's your prediction for a winning score? We will hold you to this too. So no pressure and some context. Last year that 1300 by Minji of Pine Needles. Like that was obviously high.

We could argue again, it was the hash. It was obviously high. We could argue again. It was the hash set up. But I honestly that number and playing here is a part 72. If the win doesn't get up, like I think that you could see that number again. All right. So you got four par fives. You've got number five, which is going to play what? 305 yards. I'm curious to see if they bring that up to make it drivable. We watch a lot of restaurants and quite a few groups. Nobody nobody is even attempting to be aggressive. No, I know. I'd have to bring up the tea like a lot. A lot. Yeah. And I don't I don't even know if there is a tea to do that with. But I don't know. It's just one of those things too. We're like, I just don't know if you can make

it's just really hard to make pots around here. Right. Yeah. It's hard one of those things too, where like I just don't know if you can make, it's just really hard to make pots around here. Right, right. Yeah. It's hard to get the ball in the hole. It's just weird. I know. So here's a stat for you. The US women's opens that have been held in California

have had an average winning score of 4.25 under par. I was gonna say six if the wind doesn't blow I've had an average winning score of 4.25 under par. I was gonna say six if the win doesn't blow, two if the win blows. So that's why I was gonna throw out a guess of like five under. Cause I think the win hopefully will blow one day, maybe an afternoon, Friday afternoon into Saturday, but I don't think it's gonna be like sustained nasty wind. And I do think like they were over cautious last year at Pine Needles, with the greens and the

firmness and all that. There's no risk of them losing this golf course. No, it's like the highs are in the high fifties and low sixties, and it's cool. I like that six number. I know that that might seem like maybe it's, it's too low. But like I see people going out and getting it. We've seen this in the women's major so far this year that we get pretty low numbers on Thursday and Friday. A lot of that has weather to tie into it. But I mean, the distance that we're playing here, the lack of wind really until the weekend, I think, I think we'll think we'll see something right about five or six. What did Woodland win at? Woodland won at, I want to say, he was super low because it was like,

it was no wind, it was dry, it was storm yeah, I think that was my least favorite of the opens held it Heible woodland wanted 13 under 13 under and but they were playing it as part 70. Yep, so You know, that's for the women that be 21 Yeah, I mean it just comes down to you three of the, I guess three of the four par. Five is a be reachable for the longest hitters. I think they're setting up 14 at like five 40. 40, which I think nobody's going to, it's like, it's going to be one.

No, it's going to be divot central. It's going to be playing, you know, playing the lottery. If you land in a divot for your, for your third, 18s, all the pinnacle where the pin is. Yeah, like two, you can go get six is weird. You can go get it. But the wind, the wind's also out of the Southwest all week, I think as well.

Like what little wind there is, there's still seven, eight, nine miles an hour. Yeah. We walked the sixth today, Cody and I did with Anna Davis and she, I mean, she essentially got there in two. Yeah. So I think six could probably be a scoring opportunity. What TC you've mentioned a bunch, anything else that excites you specifically holds or

shots? You laid the girl up. You got a letter finish it. Come on. What's the winning score? I'm going to be doing it. No, six was my OG number. Okay. I feel it because if, I mean, if the wind's not picking up, I think someone could get

pretty explosive and sustain that going into Sunday. So I feel safe with six. Yeah, I'm still a six. Nobody's going on the limb. Well, originally I was going to say nine, but the more I think about it, I just, I think that's way too much. Very, very comfy at six. I'm keen to see the ladies play like again, like they don't, there's not as much spin on the

wedges, right? There's not like the, the, the, the, the poigning gets bouncy, like weirdly, that first bounce, you know, they're kind of trampolines almost that knocks some of the spin off. A lot of these greens are elevated. Like it's going to play different than it does for men out here. I think it's going to be a fascinating case study. It's also going to test their little short chip shots, you know, their ability to, to kind their little short chip shots.

Their ability to kind of open up the wedge and have a lot of touch around the greens, which yeah, again, I'm not sure they get tested one because they're so damn accurate. And so if it's not like a course that's really tough for them, I just wonder who kind of has that shot consistently in their bag around the greens. Not in. Now you're kind of you're kind of bringing me back to like, all right, they're not going to miss that many fair way. I tell you who like weirdly I think has a lot of that creativity in their

shots. Brooke Anderson. Just kind of, you know, like, doesn't like golf swing, plays golf. Yeah. I don't know. There's just, I think Danielle Kang's got some of that too. People, I think, like, that's a big indicator for me of like, people who have played well in California for, on weird grass, sticky grass. Karen Stubbles, I was texting with her. Karen was saying that her theory is to people that have been successful on

USGA setups tend to play better at this one so different than last year. These are two Completely opposite. I mean even going back to like amateur days. Yeah, just because the way they set it up is somewhat different than what a ton of them see week to week. But I was thinking about that earlier. Like, like, like, like, Jordan, we were talking about Saki Baba. I'm like, can I glean that much from Saki Baba playing well at Chambers Bay on what's really

the complete opposite golf course? True. You know, and so I think there's, there's, there are some total outliers there that you know But that's why I look at like I look at like Olympic club. That's what that's the one I got the one. I'm like all right whoever played ball Olympic club has a leg up here That's why I'm like Megan Kang Megan Kang and I like you Yeah, we'll get there

I had before I Jordan sorry before I forgot to come back to you T, TC, I'd asked you any other favorite shots or things that you're super excited for in terms of the course? Yeah, I mean, we talked about that stretch from, you know, six to nine, six to ten. I think that's awesome. Loki, I think the shot up the hill on 11 is cool too. You want to talk about one of those weird wedges or short irons up there. I don't know. It's like the second shot into eight and the second shot over the cliff into six.

Those are two of the coolest shots in golf and to see how players manage those. And then, you know, seven, I love a good short part three. And this is probably, you know, one of the best one or two short part threes in the world. Yeah. And then yeah, just seeing, seeing too, like, is distance really an advantage, you know, is the high, like, high, fairway woods, like a Nelly three wood, that's a massive advantage out there on a whole like a Nelly three wood. That's a massive advantage out there

on a hole like 18 or a hole like two. So yeah, that's kind of what I'm looking for, but I think the most underrated holes out here, three and four, I think those are fascinating holes. Three is a gray one, the severe dog like left off the tee. And then four is totally dependent upon where the pin is and everything. And then four of the short. But like three, yeah, three is just so fun.

And like, you can rip of like that green slope so, so much back to front. You can rip a wedge off that, off that green. And that's like kind of get caught with your hand in the cookie jar a little bit. Isn't four the smallest green? Four is, yeah. I mean, it's up there. It's tiny.

And it looks tinier from the fairway than it really is, too. As Randy can attest. I was on the struggle was on four, and surprisingly. I found that front bunker. I don't think many, I don't think many womenurprisingly. I found that like front bunker. I don't think many, I don't think many women are gonna be in that bunker this week, but God help them if they are, I guess. Cody, let's, I kind of touched on,

I mean, we talked about the expanded coverage. We got some streaming options this week. I did want to just take a little bit of time to talk about what I think is a very real and very worthwhile effort from the USGA to continue to elevate this tournament. Can you kind of talk about why it's important and some of the other things that we're gonna see this week along those lines?

Yeah, I think that their efforts to not only elevate the women's game at the professional level, but overall at every single level, like they're clearly just leading the charge on that from pursesis to television coverage to access to golf and everything else that goes into it and what the USGA does, which is a great thing. I think the one thing that sticks out to me big time this week is access to shot link and having shot link data enabled to context. Yes. It's a big way for context. I had context what we're actually saying and knowing that like, wow, like look at these numbers and this person's, you know,

strokes game data actually matches up with what we believe we're seeing from the eye test. Or she's really good from 75 yards, she's dog shit from 95 yards. And that's a huge, huge investment. And I think that should not, that needs to be praised and shot it out as much as we possibly can because they could have easily continued and not had that available. And the tournament went on and it would have been great, but man, it's going to add so much more to this championship. And for the women to look back on and be like, oh shit, like there's things that I clearly

am very successful at, things that I need to improve on. And just makes our lives a hell of a lot easier and hopefully gives the viewers way better insight into what they're actually seeing. For instance, just to drive the point home, Nelly courta missed the cut at Baltic Raw. We're all golf fans. We all watched and followed that tournament. Can anybody tell me like what part of her game specifically caused her to miss the cut? I think everything gets washed out and you just look at it like, all right, cool, miss cut because you can't, there's no ability to watch her full round. And the stats that are provided don't give you the context of like, oh, well, she was driving the ball,

but her approach play was dog shit or, you know, her putting was awful. We're going to get that this week. And that's, and you know what, Randy, thanks to a large army of volunteers. We were monitoring the volunteers today. We, we checked in the leader over here and made sure that they were, you know, a pet talk that they were taking care of. I want to unionize him. He started doing it.

It wouldn't be volunteers then. I know. But he had to, he was, like, you people don't realize the power you have in this room. This, this tournament will not get underway without, trying to go all f***ing hard. I was like, easy, man, they're out there doing,

doing God's work. They'll be fine. They're getting us back. They'll be appreciated. I know. I do want to shout out, it's, it is the shot link it is shot link We saw the PGA shot link truck in the in the compound, but they're calling it the usga shot cast

And it's powered by Cisco this week, so I did want to shout out Cisco for helping make that investment Absolutely Cisco's great. They invest in in this shot cast They also invest in occasional down the leaderboard segments presented by TC. Hopefully they invested in some faster Wi-Fi speeds to media center because that was top at LACC. So that shot link or the shot cast stuff will be available online and also through the aforementioned the USG app. And I do want to play. I know it's going to sound like we're carrying water for the USGA.

I promise they have nothing to do with us being here. They didn't pay it? No, they didn't pay me. I don't know if they paid any of you guys. I don't know. But I know you're keeping all the money. Their new championship app is cool because it houses every single USGA championship within the same app.

So this week isn't the only week that it's useful. You can turn on the other championships. I'd like to see improvement. I think they're working on this, but for next year of like, it's tough to get the whole by whole stuff and it doesn't, you gotta click through multiple times. It's better on the app than it is on the website.

But USJ's like doing a very good job. I'm very pleased with what I've seen from them. The private event at LACC, not with St. Andy. The fact that we finally have like streaming options to watch featured group is so fucking cool. Yeah, so it's like, Hey, Rose Zang, I've heard a lot about her. I'm very curious. Like you can watch all of Rose Zang's round, which we take for granted on the men's side, but it's, it's vitally important. I think it's wonderful. So yeah. The court cutting kids can now watch Rose Zang.

There you go. The younger generation speaking of a court cutting, we did a walk and talk with Anna Davis today and we're, you know, yuckin' it up about everything, mostly her golf game. And then Randi asked like a question about like, oh, have you ever like, do you watch any of the other majors or do you watch, you know, any of the pebble beach events, a proam or anything else like that? She was like, no, I've never seen this course on TV before. Ever.

I've never seen it. You see, she didn't know like, she didn't know 18 was 18. She's, no, she didn't know seven was like, we're like, oh, well, this is like a really cool like, whole like really, really famous, all she's like, oh, yeah, that's cool, but it's like only like 100 yards. Like, what's the big deal?

Kind of sick. I was like, wow. So we started asking her like, well, what do you, was it the same thing in Augusta? Yeah, she'd never watched a master before she played in law. She's like, it's just not my,

like, that's just not my thing. I'm like, well, what do you watch? Like, what do you, what do you do? Like, how's it like, do you watch Bravo? Yeah, you like Bravo. And it went completely over her head. She has like no clue what it is. She's like, are you in the scantiful?

She's like, I don't know man like I watch Netflix And it's just like how would she she's like 17. Yeah 17. She's going to Clemson next no Sorry, that's not good. It's not good. I'm not sure Clemson would have been good either So T.C. Clemson's a lot better no burn. We won't get into that though I know you feel me Jordan you're you're a Florida gator some hate I sure Clemson would have been good either, though, T.C. Clemson's a lot better in Auburn. We won't get into that though. I know you feel me Jordan, you're a Florida gator. There's some hate. There's some hate.

Next topic, I want to talk about the American women. Huh. And I want to frame the discussion. Rose Zang is your betting favorite this week. Which is so damning. That's my whole thing is, should she be? You know, it's her second major as a professional, her third event as a professional. She holds the course record. She's really

freaking good. But like net like that should piss Nelly Corde off, right? It should piss her off, but it's Rose Zang's fifth US women's open. That was a, so that's that's the craziest part. I was looking through some stats earlier, like Michelle, we west. This is her, what, she's 33 years old. She's played in 18 US opens. Oh, she started early. Yeah.

Lexi's 28. Guess how many US women's up? Like, you could tell me Lexi's played in 23 US. I don't believe it. Are we sure Lexi Thompson's 28? She's 20. I mean, how many 14 17 in a row? What? That's 17. She's 28 years old. She's played 17 US women's opens. Not only that, guess how many onicus played in? Oh, onica probably 30, I'll say 32, 17.

Same as like what? Onica is the oldest player in the field. Oh, I guess she retired. Yeah, they're a lot of times when she was retired. So Michelle, we West 33 years old. This is our 18th US Open. That's the most of anybody in the field this week. That's incredible.

There's there's only three players in the field older than 39 That's an unbelievable stat. That's crazy. That's an unbelievable stat And so and like one of those is what the US senior women's open champ who probably gets in right and then one of them's on a cut Yeah, I'm not sure who the like that like I mean 40 year old 41 year old for two year like nobody there's not any it's crazy. That's yeah that that really drove home to me just the the the difference in when we talk about like a women's golf career a woman's golf career and a man's golf career. Yeah, they're so different.

So anyway, you're right about Roseau. It might be your fifth US open, but I don't, I don't know if the bedding favorite lines up there, um, you're right. Should that light of fire under the others, you would think it would, but like, I don't think do you think Nelly is not in the best form? Lexi's not in the best form cup show. Shit, Lillia is not in the best form? Lexi is not in the best form? Cup show. She really is not in the best form since long Chevron. Yeah. She's like, has some injury stuff going on, which I get.

Who would you bet on if outside of Rose, who's like, who in your mind should be the second American favorite? Like with form coming in or like overall? Just overall, I mean, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, We'd probably say Jennifer Cup Show. But Cup Show plays super well on, I know she's got the Augusta, like she played well at Augusta, but otherwise it's like Chevron and Shoprite, like flat golf courses.

She won the mission hill. She won the mission hill. Yeah, like it's not, it's like there's not any like, like other than a Ronnamink, I think she had a top 10 in a Ronnamink in 2020. There's not anything impressive on that resume as far as, as far as interesting thoughtful golf courses. I do think this should be a tournament in a course that Danielle Kang should play really well.

Yeah, but I don't, she's got a lot of things to do. You want to talk about USGA like Bonafide? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. But she's always got so much going on. You never know. I would love to know if Nelly feels any pro, or just like any like, like are you a killer?

Yes. Like fuck you attitude towards Rose. I would love to know that. We'll never get it out of her,. I would love to know that. We'll never get it out of her, but I would love to know. And not having that attitude means like, nothing personally. It truly is like, this is a competition. Yeah, you know, and you want to be like,

what the fuck, man? It's a compliment almost. This girl is, this is her third event as a as a professional like what the fuck you guys talking about I'm nelly fucking quarter here and I don't think that like At least I haven't seen that I just think I haven't either that's what concerns me at large the the US women Needed like have a little bit more pride To like you like run down the odds sheet and it's there's like three or four of them in the top 20 on the I know. I mean, like, like who would you say is other than than Rose?

Who would you put your money on this week? That's an American. Yeah. Yes. To win. God, you know what? Just to talk that. That's the distinction that gets me a little bit away. Because I know is like, if I can make a top 10 bed, I'm making love that bet. I just I'm gonna happen at some point.

I know. Let me let me delight TC for a moment. Megan Kang is leading in most strokes, gain total per round in majors in 2023 at 3.06. And that's no different from 2022. She's like, she's been, she shows up. She got a lot of yellow on that, on that Wikipedia page. And they're in like the real majors, not the fake majors. She shows up.

God, I wish it was Angel. And there's something to be said to. Yeah, I think Angel. Angel's wanted to look out for it too, I think. But I think there's something to be said for Megan as well think angels want to look out for it too I think but I think there's something to be said for Megan as well like Megan's put a lot in New England Yeah, Pebble is almost like a New England style golf course. It's true small greens Donald Rossi style stuff like Oh, you know, yeah, some some weird some weird angelations and some weird elevation changes and everything I was thinking about this the whole flight out. Megan Kang's last three US women's opens.

She finished fifth in 2020. She finished tied for fourth in 2021, tied for eighth in 2022. Yeah, she shows up in the US women's clothes. Different persons for sure. I just don't think that like, I don't know if Megan Kang in the year 2023 as we sit here as like capable

of closing out the US women's world. But that's the craziest part is we're sitting here talking about who the best American golfer is. And we're talking about Megan Kang over and over and over again. Or like who the best American golfer is for this week. And it's, it's kind of depressing, right? Yes, it is. It is.

Like we were removed Rose. Yeah. Because I do think rose is the whether she should be the favorite or not, but rose absolutely deserves to be in the conversation. But yeah, it's, I think Liliavu, Cody, you mentioned there is some injury stuff there. I'm not willing to. Disorder. We'll set her aside for now, because I think she's got killer tendencies. Like, you're not guilty of not having pride. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.

But the others, yeah, you gotta start to wonder. I do like Angel. You said Angel Yen. Angel's somebody that she's been in good form. But also, like you said, it's always me and Angel. I know. Are you gonna make a catastrophic

and too volatile, man? You could shoot 82. There's only people that were missing I know you're gonna make a catastrophic 82 the only people that were missing that are currently in top 50 Allison corpus Just don't see it there shy and night so consistent but again, I don't cannot close. Oh, I don't see it You're a player. Um, how are you? Don't mean is from Monterey. I imagine she's played here a lot. Yeah. Just quarters on the shelf. Andrew, or Andrew Lee, but she just doesn't have it this year. Yeah, that's which is weird. I mean, you're right. It's, it's Megan Kim. Yeah, if you don't like Nelly, it's gotta be Megan.

Yeah. That's the other thing. Like I almost feel like the Aussies are like the next closest to the Americans of like, all right, you got Minji, you got Gina Kim, you got, you know, like, like, you know, Lydia's a Kiwi, right? Like those are like, I think of them as, all right, they're, you know, they're, they're very much thought of as, you know, kind of, all right, they're, they're, you know, they're Western culture like all that. And it's like, you

know, even like bringing the, the, the, the, the Brits in, right? Like, Charlie whole that cliff comes way too quick for the Brits. George's, George is not playing well. Yeah, we saw that at the international crowd. Like it's, it's, you know, have zero bottom in it. And let's not let the Canadian skate. They have literally, I mean, broken then who? Yeah, no disrespect to, you know, Elizabeth Socle or whatever, but not do all the disrespect from Randy.

I feel like I've gotten this totally off track. You very much. But it's a great like thought exercise of like, wow, like what where the hell we out with American golf right now. And it just goes back to like what I think we started hitting that at Chevron was like, I want to see some compete from Nelly. I want to see, I want to see a little red ass from her. So every now and again, you know, I want to feel this

mean something. Fucking Zander Shoffley. Yeah. Yeah, you know what? I'll win three or four LPGA events a year, but you know what? Like when the chips are down, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm going to be a 12 or 16 to one. I'm not, I'm not a favorite.

Yeah. I'm not a front runner. That's fair. The one American woman who I think comfortably we can say will not win, but it's still worthy of discussion is Michelle Wewest. This is gonna be her last event. How you're gonna say Lexi? Well, which one you guys wrote hard for Lexi or at,

for KPMG? You know it wasn't me. I don't think it was me. No, I buried her and then she came back and shoved it in my face Remember I was tweeting about her and then she came back and made the cut But that almost like actually actually that was Impressive from Lexi But also ten times more fresh. Like it makes her so frustrating where it's like just, just get her on the way. It's exactly a little bit. Exactly.

I don't wanna like completely derail this topic again, but the fact that it's like such random luck with those five, seven footers here. I think that honestly plays into Lexi's hand. If everybody's missing him. Yeah, it's not gonna fuck with her as much. It's such a head. She's also not a good shipper.

True. It's a Christmas and crease. She's a supreme ball striker when she's on, though. But... I'm gonna have to do some more of this. She's gonna stick out in the morning. Biggest divots this week. Oh, it just pelt everywhere.

You could convince me either way there, Cody, where if if nobody's a good putter, then yeah, she's going to be totally average and it's not going to cost her, but he seen we were talking. She's going to have a ton of those three, four, five footers coming back. And you have to, you have to put those in the back of the hole. Yeah. You can't, you can't baby a man on the poa. Like, and that's not like a bad putter. It's gonna baby a man. Yeah. It would not surprise me if Lexi's top 10

in front of the leaderboard, but. For sure. I think that's like, that's like an easy pick to make though. It's like, oh, Lexi's gonna like ho homer way around. Like the first two days, have a good third round. Like all of a sudden be like, oh, look, another top 10. Yeah.

Well, Michelle, we, Michelle, we west, her career is coming to a close this week. I suspect it will come Friday afternoon. Hopefully it will come Sunday afternoon. I think it's a worthy discussion. I, not to, you know, write checks that he maybe can't cash. I think KVV's planning to write something on Michelle at some point this week too, but I want to walk you guys if you'll allow me.

I don't walk you through some of Michelle's career just to put into perspective. I, it certainly was lost on me. And I think it's lost on a lot of people how big of a deal she was as an amateur and the way she broke onto the scene. So she used to make really cool key at car commercials.

Really? No, they were horrible. Well, that's what I remember. So at age 12, at age 12, she wins the Hawaiian state open, women's open at age 12. Okay, we know people have won state opens before. She won by 13 shots as a 12-year-old. Imagine being, you know, some Hawaiian lady in her 20s or 30s getting both raised by a 12-year-old.

She then goes on, again, at age 12, the youngest to ever qualify at that time, the youngest to ever qualify for an LPGA event, 12 years old, at 13, at 13 years old. She not only made the cut at the Kraft Nibisco, which was a major at that time, she played in the final group on Sunday at 13. She won the USGA amateurs, the women's amateur publics at age 13, later that year, made the cut at the US women's open at 13.

At 14 years old, she played in the Sony open on the PGA tour, almost made the cut shot a 68 in round two She missed the cup by one stroke as a 14-year-old girl on the PGA tour She bettered the 36 whole score of 47 men including four major winners At 15 she entered the US amateur pub links the men and became the first female to qualify for a USGA national men's tournament. Tying for first place in the 36 hole qualifier, she then made the top 64 in stroke play at the US Am Publinks, and she lost in the quarter finals to eventual champion Clay Ogden.

Again, that says a 15 year old girl. So it's like, not only she the first woman, she's also 15. Yeah. At 16. So in 2006, at the age of 16, she was metalist and US open men's US open local qualifying, though she didn't get out of sectionals. She finally gets to the LPGA. And it's like, she's had this incredible career before she was an LPGA member, which didn't come until 2019. She did win her in her in her rookie year. She went three oh and one in the Soulheim Cup in 2009. She goes on, we know to win the US Open at Pinehurst in 2014, but she ends her LPGA career with just five titles including the one major So I think it's a really interesting discussion and I think it's fair

Like when we consider her career is it fair to like is it a disappointment? How many years were a wash due to injury? The wrist injury came Let me check, because there were injuries. I think, when you look at the totality of her career, yes, it's a disappointment. But I think there's different types of disappointment. There's disappointment of like, were you a flop?

Or were you just like hurt and things just didn't break your way? And in her case, I think like, she made a massive impact, like outsized versus her achievements on paper, but also so many of her achievements aren't stuff that you can really quantify, exact.

The risk injuries really started in 2007. So when she was like 18 still, 17, eight. So that basically casts a shadow over her entire professional career, right? And that's always in the background that affects how much you can practice that affects, you know, how many tournaments you can tee it up and that affects what type of grass you're playing on all that stuff. Jordan, as somebody who we've established year three years old in 2000. So you kind of missed Michelle Mania. I'm really curious what your perception of Michelle is. Should probably establish this again.

I didn't grow up watching golf. So I kind of knew who Michelle was on the periphery, but just never really engaged or understood what Michelle Mania was. But actually, one of my college professors wrote a book about Michelle Wee, shadowed to Eric Adelson, he wrote the making and unmaking of a golf phenom Michelle Wee.

And it basically covered Michelle's career. I think this was before she won the US Women's Open. And I read that book and I was like, it was like reading about like a mythical figure in a lot of senses. And so like when I read like about the craft nipisco and her mom was making cut at the Sony Open, I was like, this actually happened, that is just crazy. And like, yeah, like I, you know,

when I think of her, I'm like, wow, like it, she just, you know, burned out too soon. And it's kind of ashamed to like look back and see that that's what happened to somebody, especially someone who was breaking so many barriers. But I also think it's kind of an interesting case study, right? Because Michelle and I think she brought this up in her pressur today.

She didn't grow up in the age of like social media, NIL, like all of these asks of up and coming players, players especially like Rose Ang, and all these demands they have to meet. So I wonder like just how much the Michelle Mania would have been if these types of things were around then. And to some extent, I also feel like we haven't really learned from the way we treated Michelle Mania in some senses, but I'm not gonna go off on a tangent

about that. Yeah, it goes, I can see that perspective of it, but I also, her parents have been a very driving force in her life, and I think it's one of those things where, her dad put her in a lot of situations that I don't think I would be comfortable putting like my little girls in. So I understand that the media was overly harsh on her at times, but at the same time, I think it goes like kind of both ways.

Right. There's totally any core responsibility. Do you think there was like looking back at everything? I guess two-part question. Do you think the focus was too much on breaking barriers both age and gender and not enough on just, hey, just be as successful as you possibly can, dominate women's golf first and then go towards that.

I would argue that she would have had much less of an impact and be just another, like probably be viewed more as a washout or a flop a little bit. If she hadn't have done that stuff early on, like almost make the cut of the Sony Open, that sort of thing. And then be like, is there something we're going on to where she's so long off the tee,

she was so dominant in that area of the game, so straight, you know, as far as long irons and driver and all that, where the PGA, like these shorter PGA tour courses actually set up better for her as well. Yeah, you could sign me up for that like all day long. And I think like not just, you know, almost made the kind of PGA tour event, but she played in like multiple Asian tour events and D.P. world or like high level, you know, men's amateur tournament.

For sure. Like she played and made cuts and like everything. And tours all over the world outside of the PGA tour. But you're right. I think her impact would not be as great without pushing those boundaries and trying to tear down those barriers to play in men's events, specifically like I look back and I distinctly remember her runs during US open qualifying. I distinctly like remember watching late night golf channel

and watching the Sony Open and that mania that it was. And I think that's like, I think that was just a sign of the 2000s where everybody's pushed to try to break down a lot of these barriers and say, hey, where just golfers here, man. And I think the other thing is we were in the height of tiger mania. Yeah. And so I think that thinking was we've just seen this young phenom burst onto the

scene on the men's side. And it was like, oh my God, well, here we have it on the women's side. And like not on like the social media side, but sports center was fucking huge. So Michelle, we's crossing over. She's on sports center. I can still think back to... She's one of the first... Or Neil Everett or whomever it was.

That's sort of thing. But going back to context as well of like, all right, you want people to respect how good women's golfers are. Cool. Here's a, here's a 15 year old women's golf routine and up in a PGA tour event and we'll make it in the cut. Like that's like, that's more powerful than going out and win two majors as a woman, like for better or worse, right? Like in the general average person. Yeah, I think that's exactly right. But on the flip side, like not going through those reps and getting fine-tuning the elements of your game, weaken, weak out on the LPGA, or, you know, like, I know a lot of this was before she could like policy will high-play weaken can week out on the LPG

ads or but yeah all the special exemption stuff that she had you know but like but you know basically that stuff takes a lot out of the tank right and that's a lot less time that you can spend on working on your wedges and working on your putting all that like I think that's the other thing like not only was it injuries she she's a bad putter. Well, not just that. I'm going to, I'm going to take that, I'm going to take that a step back and like, this is not, this is no offense at all to anybody within the lead better family. But like, what a horrible, horrible matchup. Like, she should have bailed on lead better 10 years prior than she actually did. And like I think they kept trying to go back to those, you know, super early teenage Michelle swing feels

and like just trying to bomb things and that's not the game that you needed to play on the LPJ tour. I disagree with you like dial her back. Yeah, for sure. And like you see her body just starting to wear down from there. And if you look at like comparing one, you know, female phenomenon to another, there's a reason why Lydia didn't go out

and try to play in all these men's events. She's like, no, I'm gonna go compete against the best players that I am. And she crushed it as a teenager. Like, oh my goodness, how good was Lydia co-like? But comparing contrast, how much more transcendent is. Well, that's why I was going. I was going, like I think at the end of the day,

if you look at like those, even up till like, till now like Michelle Wee, and maybe it's because she's American and maybe because she's a Nike athlete, and maybe because of everything else that comes with it, like it's Michelle Wee, you know? But I think she is a Nike athlete because she was pushing those, you know, it's

like everything goes hand in hand there. And just to underscore like how times have changed, you know, Michelle signed with Nike two two big deals with Nike and was Sony when when she was 15 years old, that were, you know, reportedly paying her more than $10 million a year. So when we talk about, I think the original and I have. Exactly. So when we talk about Rose Zhang

and Rose having one of the most decorated amateur careers, like Michelle didn't get that because she chose to take the money and she just started competing in men's events. She started taking a bunch of, you know, as many sponsors as exemptions as she could to play on the LPGA tour. It just, you know, it's a bit unfortunate because had she come along now with NIL in place like a framework there. Yeah, I mean, but also like on the flip side Michelle then like shows to go back and go to Stanford. She ruled at Stanford as an 18.

Like Michelle's fucking cool. Like I've spent time with her probably a handful of times. I know you guys have as well. And it's like she's just fun to be around. She's like I think a lot of people don't really get that because sometimes like she gets a little clammed up on camera and like she's very good at giving like the traditional media like jargon answers and stuff,

but like she's fucking hilarious. And when I look at all of this and we're talking about like, oh my goodness, 12 year old Michelle, we qualifying for this and like all of that stuff leading up to now, like we're really lucky. Like Michelle, we as normal as fuck, it's such a credit. And like, like she would not be as normal as she was,

like compared to other people who are thrown in that spotlight who have stunted growth because of it, stunted maturity because of it. And she's like as normalist can be living her best life in a happy marriage with a great little kid and like is moving on to the next stage in her career with all of this framework of like years of years and years of hard work. I think it's only 33.

That's just fucking 33. You know? Like your answer, is it a disappointment? Like competitive-wise, like probably, did we expect her to win more like big events? Like yeah, I wouldn't expect her to be the best player of all time in the day. Oh my God, how crazy is that?

Yeah, one major five LPJ events, like that's probably a disappointment. But also like, all right, let's say she wins 12 LPJ, two or events and three majors. It's probably still feels like a disappointment because the expectations were so big. I think that's right. Versus like, I think when you look at the totality

of everything and how, how much of an impact that she's had and how you know how bright her future is and whatever she chooses to do moving forward. It feels like a massive success because it could have turned out so so so poorly. We haven't had a I don't think I mean, we haven't had a female golfer come close to the crossover mainstream appeal of Michelle. We have we since then. I mean, I think that's kind of what we're all in a weird way, like searching for, hoping for, I think as much as we all love Rose, like Rose isn't there yet. Like, it would take something extraordinary from Rose. Think about how weird it would be and like, Grana, we wouldn't be having this conversation if she didn't win a USG event.

We wouldn't be sitting here at the US open and like this, this wouldn't be her farewell or whatever. But like, think about it. If Michelle had no one in North Carolina, in was that 2014? Like, like, think about how much more hollow, like that's how much majors mean. Yeah, I know.

They totally define a career, whereas like it feels like, you know what, she got her major, she got a US open, like that feels, that feels right, whereas if she hadn't, you'd be feeling, you'd be wanting a lot more. And even if she had like an Evion or a craft, you know, back in the day, a craft Episcopal or a Demoria

or whatever, you know, it's, yeah, it's, I'm glad it's a US. It's not gonna stick. No offense to Canada again. Very quickly, I want to pose this question. What numbers wouldn't have been a disappointment? Well, I think that's the crazy thing, right? Like, there's no context.

There's like no context for like, like, Tiger 180 two times, right? It's like, you know, 14 majors or 15 majors now, right? It's like, what? I think I think I can... There's no relativity here. Unless she hit like double digit majors, I think we will always we're gonna be Disappointed in the results god those risks and just looking at Wikipedia the risk injuries is completely derailed

Everything that she had going on 2006 T3 at Chevron T3 at US open T5 and women's PGA T26 at the British, 2007, doesn't play in Chevron, Dynastore, withdraws from the US Open, 84th at the PGA Championship in Missycut at the British, 2008, only major that you played in was the US Open, she missed the cut there, 2009, Chevron, T67, doesn't play in US Open, T misle cut there 2009. Chevron T67 doesn't play in US Open T23 at PGA championship T11 at the British and like really just never got it back. All the way leading up and even form in 2012, 2013 and then 2014 comes out second at Chevron, A&A, Dinosaur, whatever we want to call it now.

Winds the US open. This is PGA Championship, withdraws from the Evion and then misses the cut at the British. I mean, that's six, seven, eight years of, and she's like, she's doing school at that time and she's got all this other stuff going on. Like her career arc, to looks more like on the men's side more like a

Steve Stricker or a Matt Koocher somebody that like had some early success was really really highly touted player coming up through you know whether it's the college ranks or the amateur ranks gets hurt you hurt pretty early on in their pro career, goes through the freaking wilderness and then comes back through it and has some success. Like, that's the context for it, you know? It sucks, look at you. But then you think about all the shit that she did

before she turned 15. She packed that whole arc in like 24 years. Yeah, while playing like three years of professional golf healthy. Her world ranking at the end of 2008 was 238th in the world. Wow. So for her not to just walk away right then,

and say, fuck this, like this, like why would I keep doing this to myself? She had a lot of money. More money than I know it to do with. I want to have a normal life and all that. And she can't hold with you. She had a lot of money. More money than I know it to do with. I want to have a normal life and all that. And she kept old with you. She was about a 2008. We're talking about, hey, why didn't she just walk away?

How old would she have been then? She was born in 89. So she would have been 19. It's, it's, it's, why didn't she just walk away 19 years old? No, it's stupid. You've accomplished everything. It's, it's crazy.

It's crazy. And then she has like a resurgence and almost this like come back and by 2014 wins her major. Got the tabletop so bad. You know what, in like 17 years she should just come back out and start cleaning up to it on a computer.

He's just crushing. Oh man. So yeah, I mean, you'll, you'll hear a lot about Michelle, we west on the, on the broadcast, I think, certainly Friday. And I hope people realize, I, I don't know, looking into her career and just refreshing myself on everything she did and accomplished and didn't accomplish. It just makes it like, yeah, we should be fucking talking about her Friday. It should be the lead story. It's got a lot more grace than I think people we ever cried for. Absolutely. Yeah.

All right, well with that, I think we get into some picks. Hell yeah. I found some good, just to set up, I found some good statistical niggies around US open winners. So if you'll allow me, in no particular order, all right? Since 1991, so we're talking,

what is that, 30 some years, only two women have successfully defended their US open title. That was onica in 96 she won 95 96 and that would be very curious to know what the venues were. I don't have that available, but then Cari Webb did it in 2001 defending her 2000 title. Okay. So chances, you know, it's gonna be, if Minjee's to repeat, she's gonna be entering some rare air. And you do it on two radically different golf courses.

Correct. The average Rolex ranking, since the Rolex rankings debuted in 2006, the average Rolex ranking of the US open winner is 22. 16 of the last 17 winners have ranked 42nd or better. What? I live Kim is probably the outlier.

He lived as the outlier. She was ranked 94th when she won in 2020. I feel like 2020 is an outlier as well because it was, you know, kind of a damp. It was COVID. They played it in like what December early December and Houston. So the average winner is ranked 22. Do you guys want to guess who Cody don't look it up? Who is ranked currently 20 second in the world. T.C., you're going to hate it. You're going to hate it.

Jennifer Cupcho. That's exactly right. Jennifer Cupcho. How cool would that be for her to win for J. Monane? Exactly. Being credible and everything he's going through right now. That's exactly right. The distribution of winners by World Rank

against since 2006, we mentioned Alim Kim's the only winner ranked above 50th in the world. She was ranked 94th. Rankings one through 10, there've been six winners. Rankings 11 through 20, there've been six winners. Rankings 21 through 30, there've been zero winners. Which is weird, because I just

told you the average Rolex ranking is 22. Obviously, that's an average. Rankings 31 through 40 have produced three winners. And then rankings 41 through 50 has produced one winner. So chances are we're looking at somebody in the top 20, but not necessarily top five, but not necessarily top five feels like a Megan Kang special. Am I right? Because only two women have won the US Open rank number one in the Rolex rankings. That's onica in in B Park. Okay. Now this is where we would need solid a jump in and tell us why the the Rolex rankings are bullshit My last fun staff for you and a lot of these I want to shout out Amy Mills had a piece up on LPGA dot com with a lot of these stats the last two US women

Opens in California Which was Cardavale in 2016 for Kenya, which was Card of L in 2016, court of all, court of all in 2016. Shout to fries electronics big in the Olympic club in 2021. They were both won by the 40th ranked player in the world. Brittany Lang in 2016 and Yucas Haso in 2021. Cody's going to look it up, but this is a tough guess. Off the top of your head, do you know who's ranked number 40th in the world right now? She is a major winner. Korean. Yes. Say on cam. That's exactly right.

Damn, I'm impressed. You just kind of lurking there. Yeah. She's like treading water kind of. So we got a lot of little statistical nuggies there. We'll see which one, if any, uh, bear bear fruit this weekend. I asked everybody to prepare a top 10. I'm looking for kind of an outside, you know, actually, it doesn't have to be a long shot. Just somebody who you feel is like, this is a lock for a top 10. I want to talk about low 10. I want to talk about

low M. I want to talk about who won't win. And then I want to go around with our winners. So let's start with the top 10. I'll go first. I, I, I'm not feeling good about this after our previous discussion, but I took Angel Yen. I like the form. I, I, you know, Callie vibes. I hope that she can be a top 10. I hope she contends. Hell, I hope she wins. I think it'd be a wonderful story. Great winner. Perfect. Great one for me, Ler. Jordan. Mina Haragai isn't contending. What are we doing? What are we doing? Another true home game. Yeah. I mean, she's got to have a little bit of a chip on her

shoulder from last year All that local knowledge really doesn't hurt at all She was talking about how it was easier to pick targets this week because of the TV towers and the grandstands I don't know. I mean possibly backstopping as well Although it's tough to backstop here because there's so much rust between the green and the grandstand Mead is not in the mix. I don't know what we're doing. Okay Cody Yeah, I'm a very safe pick here, but post-match play my my selectee has gone tied for seventh has one In event in the great state of Michigan and then how to absolute horrible weekend at KPMG, finished T11, that is the pride of Ireland.

Oh, the only hole. With a little rest. Should, should, you know, if you feel like such a good fit here. Okay. Again, somebody that I wanna know, Leona, like, can you be a consistent killer? You've killed before

She she displays that Intensity that I like Uh, I think top 10 lock this week. I think she just has everything I'm looking for in a tough course Kind of she's played well on like kind of lush r rye, bluegrass before, which similar to this, I think Celine Boutier. I think good pick. Top 10 great wedge player. Yeah.

Just, you know, like, it doesn't really have any weaknesses in her game. It isn't the longest player, but I don't think you have to be here. You gotta just gotta be long enough. Yeah, I like that. I like that. A lot of good top 10, You can talk to me into a lot

of different people for a top 10, which is always, you know, that's fun. Low Am. Cody, why don't you kick us off for your low Am pick? Well, it's hard. I think I'm going to, we've talked about her a little bit already. It's hard. It's hard for me. I mean, I was going to default here to Jordan a little bit, but I was going to let Jordan go last because she's she's going to stunt on all of us. I think there's a lot of great amateurs that are in this event. Obviously, uh, it couldn't could name off. There's like 40. I could name off a lot of them. Maybe too many of our beings. How many of them are actually here? 28, thank you. 28.

28. We got to spend, again, we got to spend some time with Anna Davis today and like talk about her winning the anwa and her not really being prepared for that for everything that came with it and her rolling into the events that came with the anwa win last year and her showing up at you. She played in the US Open last year of Pine needles and like played absolutely horrible and she's like what I was like what you know what were you expecting to do and she's like I thought I was gonna show up like fuck yeah you know I am like let's let's let's do this thing and she's like I wasn't prepared at all. I had so much expectations that I put on myself

that I just couldn't do anything. And she's like, I realized through last summer and I wrote down goals and started this year out completely new and I finally freed myself up. And you saw that how she performed the week prior to Annollywa, one another major junior event. She didn't play her best at the Anwa, but she's had a incredible spring in summer so far.

She is my lock for low-am, because at the end of the day, what I know about her so far is that she doesn't give a shit, man. She has zero expectations, and she's just gonna go out there and send it. And like, if that's good enough, that's good enough. And she also kind of concerns me that she's doing goal setting and things like that. She also told us that the bucket might make an appearance back.

Is it too windy here? Well, she's a little worried about the wind, but she also is like, hey, it's like a feeling when she's feeling it. It's like the tan will help. Exactly, exactly. It's like the Eddie surf help. Exactly, exactly. It's like the Eddie surf competition. T.C. who you got?

I was gonna say Anna, but you know what? I'll change it up. I'm gonna go with Angela Zhang. She's 14 years old. T.C. has been deep in the research here. I got some concerning intel that she played in the drive. She won the drive ship in putt, but that was when she was like seven or eight years old. And she was out driving everybody by 30 yards.

She wasn't in the eight years. So she's back to back. She's won the Washington State Women's Am two years in a row, 13 years old and 14 years old. She won the US, the USGA 4 ball this year, up at the home course. So a little bit of a home course advantage there. I feel like the grass types and everything are probably a little bit reminiscent

of the Seattle Bellevue area. But no, she just seems like it's so disconcerting Jordan to do research and be on like, age AGA's website. And that happened to me like six or seven times today. Like, you know, or like I'm texting, you know, college coaches, like, you know, I'm like, I'm thinking about coach Dowling at Michigan. I'm like, Monet Chun, I haven't seen anything of hers

since she lost, you Chun, I haven't seen anything of hers since she lost, you know, 15 and whatever to Saki Bava, Chandler's Bay or whatever, but, but yeah, that's my, you know, I'm a big big in a Davis guy, but James my, my girl, this and out on Saki Bava, the fit is, I just don't think it's a course fit for some. Yeah, we don't like the fit. We don't like the fit. The threads will be on the way. We like the drip, but we don't like the fit.

Yeah. Biggie, who you got? I was gonna go, Anna. You know, I think she certainly, you can go, all change, man. You know what, you know. You don't see me getting to talk to her today, but no, I'm gonna go, I'm not going there. I'm going,

I actually don't have a good feel at all for this, so I just want to shout out the oldest amateur in the field. Chrissy Carmen. Oh, I thought she was called Migglyacho. No, I thought no. She's having a love rate. She won the US Women's Mid Am in 2022. That's how she's in this event. She's a mother. She has children, which I think is cool.

Shout out to Amy Olson, by the way. Of course. She has seven months pregnant, unbelievable. She played collegially at Oregon State. Okay. She graduated. I want to say in 2016. So she's like late 20s, just barely older than Amelia. And yeah, I don't know how she's going to do this. There's her first US open. One shock me if she shot a couple high scores and packed it Friday. But I think it's a cool story. And I think, you know, the type of story

that the US open is all about. So when I didn't know, I figured I'll default and give her a shout out. So one thing, one thing on the amateur front, Ingrid Lynn Brad, the number one amateur in the world, according to the world amateur golf ranking. As of like three weeks ago, just because rose decided to

calm down hold on. Sorry, so she was number two before. Sorry. I don't think she even won. You know, I think she's jumped from like four to two post NCAA, you know, Jordan night. Are you up today on the Wacker anyway? Finished T 11 last year at the US women's open. Anyway, finish T11 last year at the US women's open. Lead, I believe was leading it. Like through like 40 something holes, right? Doesn't get into the field this year.

I think if you finish taught, I think if you're the low-am and you make the cut, like the prerequisite is you have to make the cut. But if you're the low-am, you make the cup, you should get into next year. I agree. Juno, because a incentivizes staying amateur, which I think is important, especially as, as you know, both in the men's and the women's game, probably more so in the men's game, but that should just be like, like, hey, like that's not taking anything off the

table. They they had three or four more people come in late over the last day or two that they've given spots to in the field. It's like, I'd like to see Ingrid Lynn Blad in the field. That's good for the game. Right. I feel like that might have been a little bit

of an oversight to us. They were like, dulling out all these special expressions. Seems like that one would kind of make sense. Also, we searched for a while to see like, where she actually tried to play qualifying. I stopped halfway through. Did you find something Jordan?

No. Yeah, I was. I'm sure she did try to qualify. That's the other thing. Like women, the women's qualifying is a little bit walkier, right? Cause there's not two levels. It's just 36 holes straight out.

Yeah. So, you know, there's something there. And I's just 36 holes straight out. Yeah. So, you know, there's something there. I'm just, I don't know. I'm feeling like there's not enough suites in the field either. We're like two hours into this thing. We haven't even talked about Lincoln. I know, I know, we're gonna get to Lynn.

I also want to shut out. So earlier this year, there is a member of this family of prideful, very proud family that comes from the great state of Utah. They reside in Arizona now. A brother of theirs, some call him P. I'm not talking about Patrick Reed. I'm talking about Preston. My guy Preston summer haze, qualified and played in the US open at LACC.

Now his sister, who also is a proud son devil. G. Fork's up. All right. Qualified. And this playing in her first US women's open here. That is gray summer haze of the proud summer haze family from Utah. Want to give them a shout out. It's good. You'll stay on the Christmas card list.

Thank you. Nobody reps harder for the summer aze family. And Cody, it's unbelievable. Jordan, please. Jordan for those. And to get us, please. Yes. Is deep, deep, deep in the amateur golf scene. Jordan, just drop all kinds of knowledge on us, please.

We're going to begin. All right. Um, let's go back to the ingrid conversation a little bit. Um, this is a problem I inherently have with Wagger as I have a couple of problems with Wagger, but we won't get into all of them. Oh, take, take any shots you want. Yes. The McCormack Medal is awarded in August, after the US women's open.

Make it make sense, please, because it does not. And I just I just feel like, hold on, so help me. I'm a dummy. What do we mean here? Okay, so the Macquarimac Medal is awarded if you're the number one amateur in the world. So Rose won it three years in a row. Every year she would play the US Women's Open by proxy. If we awarded it at a smarter time, Ingrid Lindblad would be in this field.

And not to say that we need to move the award for Ingrid Lindblad would be in this field. And not to say that we need to move the word for Ingrid Lindblad, but like, what are we doing here? Like, if we're gonna sit around and say, yeah, you can, you can have this honor of playing this event, but only if you hold out for like another year. It's just like, it's just a weird, weird wrinkle. After August is a weird thing too, of like, I guess that's before the Curtis Cup, but

Like why not just do it in December or why not do it after the college season but before The women's open and all that right? Yeah, I agree. Oh, there's a deer outside the window That's what big was big on the drive-back is like a man I'm worried they got deer all over the place. I think I'm going to get worried for the rental car. Our house is just being surrounded by deer as we speak. So I guess they heard that we're going to have a fourth of July barbecue that that's going to be the chef. No, like I do think I'm with you. I think there's

something to be said, especially in the women's game, for if you do want to, like, if you want to play, because seemingly all these ladies play SEC, SEC women's. It's nuts. Mostly. Yeah. Like the thought of all these or packed 12 or SEC, it's like, or there's a few at big 12 schools as well, but like LSU, South Carolina, Florida, like there's just, it's crazy to think of,

especially like all these Europeans, you know, Arkansas, that just, that's just parachute into like the most like, you know, southern places. And it's like, there's something to be said for, like if somebody like Ingrid Limblad plays really well at, at Ann Waw and really well at the US women's open and like, why shouldn't she be in this field?

Right? And I don't know. It just, it feels self-defeating almost that, that they're not taking that into account a little bit. Yeah. Or even just hand her a special exemption. Like she's the number one player in the world. Yeah, and do we want the US open? Just giving out handouts. They're doing that with Onika. I Know They do it over onica Randy. I'm proud of Rose Whitting. They were gonna do it with Rose. I

Know I'm not saying it's great. I Would say because- It was so good and so Lynn Blad, like, she couldn't make his big of a name because Rose is soaking up all, you know, the sun, right? Was it Ingrid? She's going into her junior year or senior year? It's her senior or it's a fifth. Yeah, it's wild. I think that's a big gap.

It needs something needs to be done there, but also I think that this probably is gonna be one of those weird one year oversights. These are gonna be fun. They gotta make qualifying less variable or... They gotta put the U in USGA. Yeah, true. Or we gotta get a little bit more strategic

with the handouts. Anyway, Jordan, I'm sorry, go ahead. You're totally good. No, it's just, are we marketing the future? I'm not so sure anymore. Exactly. And the future. The future is very near, right?

Like it's like, all right, like on the men's side, you've got these guys that their careers are going till 40, 45, whereas on the men's side, you've got these guys that their careers are going till 40, 45, whereas on the women's side, it's like, no, like you got to strike all the irons hot. And these are probably the stars that are going to be in the next four, five, six years, right? Better introduce them quickly. Yeah, a reminder, she's won 10 times in her college career already. Yeah, it's just, yeah. Can I just say I like Ingrid as, as an idea. I respect that she's out there playing good golf. I don't need to watch her actually play. Her game doesn't do anything for me.

I'm sorry. I completely disagree with you. I get down with that. You know how old she is too. She's older than Ludwig. She's 23. Oh, well, that's, yeah, up there with Ludwig. She might be retired by the time she turns bro. True. Jordan, please go ahead. Anywho. Yeah, Lohan, Lohan's interesting, and I was kind of making this point to Cody earlier that the US women's open is sort of interesting and that it really reveals just how little

the talent gap is. In that, these ames really know how to play, right? There's 28 of them in this field this year. And it's like, you could really put them against anyone. And it's like, they would have someone of a chance, right? And so, I don't know, we've got a lot of talent in the ampoule, the sheer. I think a lot of the hype is around Amari Avery. I think Amari has a lot of great momentum, but TC almost gaslit me into changing this

pick, but I'm going to... Top accusation, have, buddy. I'm doubling down on Saki Baba, okay? Saki Baba plays incredibly well in the United States. I think when the stakes are high, she's just on it. I see her making the cut, you know, and again, like... Love the West Coast. Maybe it's not top 10, maybe it's not leading the event

after two days or whatnot, but it's making cut for sure. Okay. All right, that's fair. Respectable. All right, let's give me a name that won't win. Positively absolutely will not win this golf tournament. TC. Jennifer Kupchow. That's a good one. And Lexi. And Lexi, of course. Yeah, Lexi for sure. I get I'll add, I think you can add a couple. I don't think Lilyavoo is going to win. Unfortunately, that pains me to say, I'm going to say Lydia Kose not going to win either. Take her away. Jordan, who's who's absolutely not going to win. Yeah, mine was Lydia. She's cooked. I fear in 2023. Damn. Really?

I don't know how this week is supposed to convince me of anything. I mean, when the highs are high for Lydia, co, they're high. They're high. But there's not anything resembling. No, nothing. And when the lows are low, they are just rock bottom. And so. Was Lydia's like resurgence last year, just a fluke here? Right? Like I just, I have a hard time believing

that she's going to look at it. We haven't only heard strenuously saying no, it wasn't. Like I think she has, she started out this year with a win. I get it. She was at the Saudi international ladies. She's been struggling. She's been working on things. I do not like we, you cannot be out on Lydia Cole. Do you know what? Damn good. Do you want to be really helpful to contextualize this whole conversation?

Stats. Some build out comprehensive stats. Hey, men, Randy. Who else didn't give a pick to not win? Code man. I did. I was on the Lexi train. Oh, come on. That's a deep. That's a deep. Well, you can't lay it won't you also send that.

I know. But that's a bonus. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's, you know, one for me. One for you. Okay. Hold on.

I'll go back. What do you want me to go from top 10? Yeah. Or 20. I hate to say this, but she was my pick to win a KPMG, but like a tie something's going on there. I don't quite know what it is. I don't think she's not seeing this thing. It's also been great. No, but like there's no, there's no top end. There's some back. She hasn't back to or something. Yeah. I'm hoping there was some bad clubhouse food at Balty.

That's true. Maybe got her. I didn't put that into my equation there. The other thing who's like ascended very quickly at the beginning of this year, but also like I think maybe like touch the sun a little too soon. George Hall. Like, oh, she was on a heater, but now we're, yeah, we're back to nobody's mentioned. Jin Young co positively or negatively.

Just you wait. I can't counter out. All right. I said, I won't, I won't front run anything. All right. Everybody has gotten their hate out of the way. Saddled. All right.

Let's pick our winners. Jordan. Who's going to win the tournament? If you get this wrong, you're, you're not invited back next year, by the way, so no pressure. Sorry, everybody. I'm going to say the favorite. Look, she played a lot of golf lately. Has the course record?

I mean, look. Course records matter. Course records matter. Context matters. Our favorite word of the day. Also, I think she respects the challenge of this setup. This is her fifth US women's open. She knows, you know, there are adjustments, but there's not that many adjustments to make. And I think interestingly, like the one thing that really got in her way, I liberty national was her

potting and she cleaned it up really nicely at Balter Soul. It may not matter here. It may not matter. If everybody stinks, nobody stinks. And when she set the course record, she hit 18 of 18 greens. That is bonkers. So I don't know. I think she looks comfortable. I'm rolling Rose. All right, I dig it. Who wants to go next? I'll go next. TC. I think Rose is going to be in the mix. I think we're going to see a duel or a trio of...

I think something we rarely get on the LPGA tour of the best players playing well down the stretch. I think we're going to see Rose. I think you lost me with that. Okay. Megan Kang rose and who? I think I think Minjee is going to play well. Thank you. However, however, I think Juni Youngco is going to win. Yes. Wow. Yes. So we heard you. When did she get here? We heard she was here. She got here last Tuesday.

Checked in on Tuesday. Played like almost every day. I think Ginny Unco is a bad bitch and I think people forgot about that. I think completely agree. T.C., I could not be in the same car. I want to take this ride with you, dog. All right, I won't ride there.

Let's ride. You're talking all that shit about, going back to back winners and oh this is completely different than pine needles. Minji's completely out. I do not think so my man. If you look at form, I'm saying that Minji and Jin Young, this is the exact same thing that happened at the founders cup. We're going to play off. Oh my god. That would be wonderful. I thought you were reading my notes, man I thought you got a whole my share doc, but I'm right there with dog that's it at the end of the day Minji Lee is gonna go back to back here. Wow. All right, so we're on opposite ends of the same bus. I had to

Let me just say JyK has played a part in in me I think it's fair to question. J.Y.K. needs some real majors. Yes. Yeah. It's time. Certainly love all that. I'm going to go back with, listen, she wanted Olympic. She found something at Mizzouho finish time for seventh was runner up after a little day charge at KPMG. She is in top form. Talk about this for like three hours today. I'm going Yucasazo. All right. Just to reiterate, we are live

after the completion of play every day, every round this week, it's going to be wonderful. Check your local listings between Peacock, USA and NBC. They're streaming of feature groups online. There's there's shot casts. There's going to be stats. I am so looking forward to this tournament. Guys, let's have a week. Let's pomped. Thanks to Titles. Thanks to Fujoi and we're going to see you next time. Live here from the doghouse, man. Thanks to Robac. Look forward to it. That's it.

And USGA mixed up the length on the part 3s. There's a lot that could go wrong where like they could all play 100 all play three of the four to play 170 yards every day. Make sure we give variety in the part three. Thank you. Be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most.

Better than most. Better than most.