No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 731: LPGA Check-In and Look Ahead to Solheim Cup

Episode Date: August 24, 2023

Big Randy and Cody are back with another LPGA-focused pod which kicks off with a review of Alexa Pano's first professional win at the co-sanctioned ISPS Handa World Invitational event in Northern Ireland. Then it's on to the upcoming Solheim Cup matches in Spain which are just inside of a month away (34:00). We recorded shortly after European captain Suzann Pettersen announced her captain's picks. We debrief on the European team before moving on to the Americans and the upcoming decisions facing captain Stacy Lewis. We close with some hypothetical head-to-head matchups based on the Rolex rankings. 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 Golf Podcast. My name is Randy. I am joined today by my partner in crime, my radio broadcasting, cohort, compadre, struggling for more words here.

That is Mr. Cody McBride. Cody, how was your return to the States? How of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of

things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of

things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be doing a lot of things. I'm going to be attest to that. But you know, it's been great. Immediately went right back into full kids in school, managing schedules,

a little construction going on in this house. As people have listened to me on other podcasts, the great office project at 2023 continues, took a little time this week to put some shelves up and painted my wife's office, but it's been great, buddy. How are you doing? I'm good. I'm laughing because God, it took me. I honestly didn't start feeling good until like Saturday, Sunday, really. And that was like five, six days after we got home. And I didn't have to deal with three small kids, house projects, the heat and humidity that you're dealing with down in Texas.

You know, I had a much lighter degree of difficulty and was still feeling sorry for myself, but we're doing good now. It's nice to be back home back in some routines. And I know this is a show we're looking forward to. We will get into our run of show, but we're going to be talking a lot of soulheim cup today. Before we jump in, I want to thank our partner and that is title. This episode is brought to you by title. And specifically the Vokey SM nine wedges, the most played wedge on the LPGA PGA tour and across the worldwide tours. One of the biggest keys for players any week will be controlling

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I think you can maybe attest to that. I've been hitting some high floater, some low nippers and just spinners all the round. I think you can maybe attest to that. I've been hitting some high floaters, some low nippers, and just spinners all the round. I think that's what we both were fitted by Bob Bokey, the man himself. We had to, we were given the opportunity to spend some time in his office and seeing him just like going through

his R&D process, looking at what that next wedge is gonna be looking like. It's phenomenal process, truly the best in the business, but I'm so pumped like. I know we talk about this all the time, and this is not part of that read, but I think, me personally, my game is, it's never been better. I think I have incredible control with forgiveness.

I have incredible feel that it's like a new new new found love for the game of golf. I love going to him balls again. I want to go out and play more and more and more. I just got to get out of this heat man. I hear you there. And if you allow me to just plug one of the wedges I have and maybe the most satisfying new ability. I have, I guess, would be the way to phrase it. My 58 degree wedge is in an S grind. And it's never been easier for me to pop the ball out of bunkers. This wedge just slices through the sand. The ball jumps out of the bunkers. I've always struggled to get, you know, that little pop loft on my greenside bunker shot.

So having that wedge in the bag, the turn they are looking for there is that thump. You want to you want to thump the sand. Yeah, you know, I don't always even get the thump. I try, you know, I want the thump. I don't always get it, but even when I don't get it, you know, I can count on that ball getting out. It's just a great tool. I would encourage people to check out the Vokey website, the app, or go to a fitting event

in person near you. We thank Titelis for being a great sponsor of ours. And certainly these LPGA focus podcasts. So, Code Man, we have, as I mentioned, we're going to talk a lot of Sallheim Cup today. We are recording on Tuesday, August 22nd. Team Europe, Captain Patterson just announced her four captains picks. We're going to get into that. I'm going to have you assume the captaincy of Team USA. I want to know your captains picks. We're going to talk about matchups and who didn't make it. That was a part of the 2021 Soulheim Cup, a ton, a ton to talk about.

Before we get there, though, I want to look back and look ahead on the LPGA calendar and Looking back will be the the ISPS Honda world invetational from Northern Ireland, which was played last weekend And of course looking forward to this weekend the women's Canadian open up in Vancouver. How does that sound Cody? I love it, buddy. So pump to talk about this. This is a huge week and golf. Last week was a great, great week. First win for an LPGA rookie. I'm excited to talk about her. I think I had some takes about her early in the year. I'm going to have to go check the record on it though, but let's start Northern Island, man. Yeah, let's do it. The aforementioned rookie, let me ask you this. Well, I should say anybody that didn't catch it, Alexa Pano wins for the first time in her

LP, in her young LPGA tour career. She's just turned 19, actually won on her birthday, crazy, those things work out. She's a rookie on tour this year. Cody, should this be, how big of a deal? Let me ask you this, how big of a deal is this win for both Alexa personally, but also for the game, you know, a 19 year old American winning in a rookie year. It seems like this should be a big deal. It is a big deal. It's a big huge deal for her. I mean, she was did not have a very good rookie year. She was struggling to make points here. She

was more than likely going to go back through a Q series and probably really end up like probably back on Epson tour next year, but this win completely changed it all. I think this is a huge year. In general, for a lot of these rookies, I think specifically when we talk about her and her game, people might remember the name from the Netflix documentary that came out a long, long time ago called the short game. Ten years ago, we had her and Mari Avery were probably the two standouts that we can talk about from that documentary now. And you know, that documentary looked into basically the US kids, I think it's US kids golf association, their national

championship is held every year in Pynars. And when I lived in Pynars every year, basically the end of July to the beginning of August was the absolute madhouse because you had tens of thousands of kids and parents and everybody just come into the village and everything was booked. You couldn't drive everywhere. You couldn't play golf anywhere. But it was great to see you saw the next generation of all these kids. What I remember most about this documentary is the relationship between her and her father. And it was kind of juxtaposed by other parent-child relationships over in the documentary. And you know, at that time, I remember at the time there was a show on ESPN, I think it was called like helicopter dads

or something like that or helicopter parents about, like Pee Wee, football parents, like controlling, managing, doing everything for these kids and you kind of got some of those vibes from watching some of these parents and their child who were playing in the National Championship from the documentary. And I think if people who have followed,

I know it's difficult unless you're like a true golf sicko kind of herd development through the ranks from playing in those national championships to coming and qualified for a drive chip and putt multiple times to playing AJGA and growing and learning and getting more and more repetitions through that to making the decision to turn pro at a very young age. I think most people remember she had the New England Patriots logo on her hat at the time, but that was also her first sponsor that she ever like she that she signed with when

she turned professional. And she's been out there grinding it. She's played in all these different state open. She played on the absent tour. Finally came through last year. This year finally on the LPGA tour, it's crazy to think about the 18 years old at the time. But now 19 just turned 19 on Sunday. Her peers and when we talk about like her peer is not just like a Maurey, but she is still younger than Rose. She has younger than a lot of these other like phenoms that we're talking about that are coming through the ranks of college right now that we were talking about about the US women's amateur or watching an noir or anything else like that. Like she's still younger than them

and now to have her first professional victory. It's just it's awesome. And I still have some weird feelings. I'm not going to say this. I got to dig in because I don't quite know what the relationship is or data still catting for her. I'm going to say it's harmless for now,

but you never actually know. It seems like it's a great pair. They're obviously successful together. He was out there taking pictures of her and everything like could not be more proud of what his daughter accomplished with this first LPGA victory, but I got a dig in report Mo. That's as much as I was hoping to get it. I think you hit on all of my feelings there. I always find it fascinating. The different routes people take to professional

golf. Of course, you said the name Rose Zhang. We have seen her win US Amateurs. We saw her set records at Stanford. She has been, you know, a top ranked amateur and somebody that we've just been dying for them to turn professional and to see how she competes, weekend and week out. And then, yeah, to juxtapose that with Alexa, who turned pro early, chose not to go to college. Besides the US kids golf championships in her background, we didn't get a chance to see her at many amateur events. We did see her at Ann Waw, the first year.

She was the youngest competitor there, but just never quite dominated at the high amateur level or the college level. And she comes out on tour. She earned her card from the ups and tours last year. And like you said, not a whole lot that would lead you to believe that she was going to win last weekend. She told me with the 76.

I mean, I guess that's being generous, like nothing in the season, nothing really in the preceding weeks. I mean, she hadn't had an LPGA start since midland, I believe in mid July. uh, midland, I believe in mid july. But shoots a 60, a Sunday 66 on her 19th birthday to get into a playoff and outlast a couple other women to get that first career victory. It's amazing. Really. And I think what I'm most curious about is just how she responds now, right? What, what it's going to be like the next couple weeks is this truly going to be a flash in the pan for her this season? Or can she start to stack some good weeks on top of each other? And if she does, you know, we'll see her at the CME tour championship. This November, she could really turn this into, I mean, I think it's already a very successful season just by virtue of winning, but she could make it an extremely successful season. And that's what I'm curious to see.

Yeah, I agree with that. I think the other thing before we move off her because obviously she ended up winning the tournament in that playoff. We there is more to discuss about the playoff and everything else like that. But what this does for her, theoretically, I mean, this is going to free up the rest of her calendar. She's going to get into the Asian swing now, which is huge for her. She can actually plan out where her calendar is going to be. She, Soulheim Cup is not going to happen unless miraculously, like the only way that she could be in this picture is if she won in Canada this week. But I'm not going to bank on that after flights

across Jelle Lague, everything else like that. But it's, it's truly unleashes. She's, what the rest of this year and then securing her card for next year and what, what she can do. She was so posed and like had everything under control, even with one bad shot that you hit in that playoff, like completely wiped a driver as far right as you can possibly go. And I like didn't even face her at all. She's like, yeah, like I can still figure out a way to make four from here. Ends up making five. It's okay. Kept on going with her business. I think her dad was like, I keep saying her dad, like her dad is cadding for. And they worked through everything and he wasn't like overbearing and he, he just, they worked through numbers and then she took complete ownership of the shot and he moved

out of frame and she went through a routine, hit her shot and it was just like she was dialed the entire time. I honestly like, if that's how she usually plays because I haven't seen her like on TV at all, I don't know why she hasn't had success earlier, outside of just getting her legs underneath her on the LPGA tour is, it takes a lot, and it takes time, and we saw that last year, like, you know, my of won this tournament last year,

and she did not have any LPGA status at all. She was playing the LET tour full time and was just riling off victories there. And this is a tournament that is a dead week in the LPGA tour schedule. I think everybody can admit that. Probably the tour would admit that as well. But what this does, and it's a split purse, $3 million a purse total, but that's because it's a coast sanction and it's a split purse, $3 million per total, but that's because it's coast sanctioned with the DP World Tour, the LPGA Tour and the LAT Tour, which I think is awesome. So the winner playing for $1.5 million per, but it might not be that much money, but it's a win's win and they're still getting the same amount of points.

And if an LAT player wins, they're still getting offered, you know, membership into the LPGA tour, Alexis case this time. She gets full points, double points for Soulheim Cup, but really what she was more concerned about is like keeping her card in the total like race of the CME this year. And she got it done. And right wrong, indifferent, wherever it's at on the calendar. At that end of the day, she got the job done. Yeah, all credit to her. And we're talking about the season long race to CME. She jumps up from 130 second on the season prior to her victory to now 38th. And yeah, quite honestly, like pretty comfortable, you know, barring maybe some unforeseen great play from women behind her, like she's gonna make the top 60 and be at that CME tour

championship and you never know what can happen. It really is remarkable and I think coming off the women's AIG, being a little bit of a dead week or an overlooked week, if you will, in women's golf. I don't think her win has gotten the hype or the accolades maybe that it should. And yeah, for that, like I said before, I'm so fascinated to see what these next several weeks haven't store for. And if she can continue. Big, I agree with that with this event as a whole. Like I just said, it's like a tri-sanctioned event.

This is really, really cool what ISPS is doing. And hand is involved. And like, it's right up there with the Aussie open, how it's a tri-sanction event now between the Aussie, PGA of Australia, Asia, whatever it is, and the same on the women's side. And they also have the disabled category in Australia. Same thing with the Scandinavian mixed,

other co-sanction, like this tournament is severely punished based off of where it's at on the calendar, not just people who are going there and competing in it, both on the men's and women's side, but also, you know, it's just, it just, it gets hammered. Anything that tries to go up against the FedEx Cup playoffs, it was simply like the the BMW because no offense like you know this we coming up in Atlanta but it's just it's rich guys getting richer like they already made it they're all into every major next year and like cool you know we just saw Alexa panel like grinding her absolute ass off to make less than a quarter

of a million dollars and this week we're talking about like $75 million getting thrown around in Atlanta. Like it's the differences cannot be greater. Yeah, and I do want to grab on and just underscore the point you're making about this being another example of the DP World Tour and the LET mainly with the LPGA kind of being that third co-sponsoring organization. But they've just figured out a way to bring the women's game and the men's game together for a few weeks each year

unlike the Scandinavian mix where the men are competing directly against the women. This is an event that runs are competing directly against the women. This is an event that runs concurrent. So you have the men's event going on at the same time as the women's event. They have 36 and 54 whole cuts. They bring them down to however many on Sunday and they're all out on the same course together, which is just fabulous. And I think, you know, kudos to the PGA tour and LPGA for figuring out the McGladry team event this December. It's a good start, but you look at weeks like this and I just can't help but think there's so much more specifically the PGA tour could do to try and help elevate women's golf and the eyes of a lot of it's fans

and the eyes of a lot of its fans in the eyes of a lot of casual golf fans who hey come out for a joint PGA LPGA event, there has to be a week that would work on both of those calendars to do something like this. Yeah, not just for spectators, obviously that's most important in the charities that are tied to each event, and everything else like that, but also like television. And when I say, like, you and I are in such firm belief here that the LPGA tour is such a sleeping giant, but people are not presenting it the correct way.

Like what we saw last week in a, this tri-sanctioned event with a playoff with three phenomenal players was a, a, a, a, a, extremely, extremely exciting playoff. It was presented horribly and we have to figure out a way. Broadcast partners have to figure out a way to live in this up.

And it's not difficult. You can take plenty of other examples in professional golf to basketball to football to cricket to rugby to tennis and say these are things that we could take away from this to make the game more exciting to tell some of these stories and to get people actually invested in what's going on because so far like this, this ain't it. And I think case in point last week, like the boys, the rest of the crew were all up, the BMW championship. You mean, Salih or at home, Salih's still on baby watch. And you know, we had Matt Fitzpatrick tweeting about coverage on Sunday morning. And why does Maddie Fitz, who was currently, he was tied for the lead going into, you know, the fun around the BW champions? Because his brother was tied for second

on the men's side of this event. And he tweeted, it literally tagged the main accountant to it was like, oh, I know what you guys are talking about here. This is horrible talking about the teleguest. Unfortunately for him, he didn't realize that it actually wasn't an NBC or anybody else in the Comcast world's production. It was actually a DP world tour production. So I don't know if it's home tour is going to think too highly of that. But yes, we see you. We recognize you. And these girls, like, I think

that's when we talk about other options, whether it's ESPN plus or anything else like that, there's so many little things that you could do to elevate them, their stories and to show fucking exciting golf. Yeah. Amen to that. I think a lot more to come as we get deeper into the calendar. We're hoping to talk to Commissioner Molly Marcusaman. At some point, Cody, I think you and I, maybe we just take an episode towards the end of the year. And, you know, if we could twitch our nose and become commissioner, things we'd love to see, things we think are reasonable stuff like that. But I think just sheepishly, you know, you and I, and maybe you were aware of this, but I follow the women's game a good amount.

You know, I won't say I'm the the most ardent fan. I had no idea this was a co-sanction DP World Tour plus LETLPGA event until it was already underway. Like those are the things that should be celebrated. I, people should know about that, that it's happening. And I may have just missed it, again, severe jet lag coming back from England, but I just wasn't even aware of it until the event was already underway. So I feel like there's a lot more to be done to just show that,

hey, this type of stuff is happening in professional golf. And it's and it's stuff that should be celebrated and, you know, lift it up. So hopefully we'll get there. Big to wrap up this event real quick. We talked about that playoff though and ended up going three holes. It was Alexa panel Esther Hezzlett who's up. We're a big fan of we're a fan of her physio shout out to the team for getting her right. And man, I thought we were so close there. And then the young British star Gabriella Crowley, I think they, well outside of Alexa, I think Esther and Gabriella thought they would put themselves in that position. I also want to have this on the record here and say like all three of them should not, none of them

should have done in that playoff because it was Ryan O'Toole's tournament to win it was she absolutely shitt down her leg on her back nine coming in. She ended up eagling 10, but then got to 13, doubled 13, bogie 15, birdied 16, bogie 17, birdied 18 to get it in the house to shoot a 270, but was like literally on fire. She was leading this event. The majority of the way through wasn't for that double. And those two bogus coming in, it's what have been a completely different story. I love that Georgia or partner was standing by waiting, like not looking as nervous as I was.

That's for damn sure. But I was just hoping that that Ryan was going to be able to to close this thing out. Unfortunately, it didn't end up end up happening. Three whole playoff, Gabriela, unfortunately, bad shot, ended up getting knocked out after the first hole. They played the 18th hole three different times. Or was it Esther? I thought Esther got knocked out after the first. Excuse me, right. Esther goes knocked out. Gabrielle and Alexa go back for a second time. Alexa just hits the wipeiest like straight block right drive chips it back out to the fairway. Gabrielle, place smart ends up just a little short right of the green or maybe

even a little bit on. Goes up. Alexa hits a great, you know, third right of the green or maybe even a little bit on, goes up. Alexa hits a great, you know, third shot onto the green, back of the green, ends up missing that putt, but knocks it in for five and then Gabriella, just heartbreak city goes up and makes a mess out of it. Ends up walking away with a five after like a miss two footer. And that's being like pretty jealous or generous. It was probably like a foot and a half just clearly nervy. They go back to the 18th and, you know, Alexa just played that whole phenomenally took a super aggressive

line after her drive found the left side of the fairway. She just flags it and an easy two putt, you know, for to end up winning the tournament. Only other thing I will note, Leona McGuire supporting the tournament in this was in Northern Ireland, but on the island of Ireland, so busy stretch for her. She something to just keep an eye on as we, you know, flight of Vancouver this week, play Portland since NADI, eventually head to Soulheim Cup, not a ton of rest for her, whereas a lot of other players took the week off and are now convening in Canada.

And speaking of Canada, code man, I'm excited for this one. So Canadian women's open starting today, as you're listening to this this weekend, it's at the Shaunasi golf and country club in Vancouver, which they have hosted. I believe four Canadian opens on the men's side. The most recent being in 2011. Shaunohair won in a playoff, but this is going to be the first time they're hosting a women's Canadian open. So new venue for the women.

I will note in 2011, Sean O'Hare, the score to get in a playoff was four under. So some tough condities. I don't remember that tournament, so I don't know if it was weather or course or setup, but I hope it's a good test for the ladies this week. Paul Areto is your defending champion. Her first career, LPGA victory last year. And just for the folks wondering about television coverage, golf channel will be your

home all weekend, six to nine PM Eastern Thursday, six thirty to nine thirty Eastern Friday, and then seven to ten PM, both Saturday and Sunday. Those are Eastern times. You have a strong lean for the Canadian Open this weekend? Well, it's a, it's a women's Canadian Open in the great city of Vancouver. I don't know where else you're gonna look at besides somebody who's won this tournament once as an amateur.

I think she was super, super young at a time twice twice when she turned professional, but that's Lydia Co. She certainly needs it. We haven't seen much of her of late. It's getting to the point of being, I don't know, I think, but we've, at least I've moved beyond a little bit of head scratching. And now just like, okay, what's, what's really going on here? Right. But you know, she's, she's good for one of those. Like she'll be down in the dumps

and all of a sudden randomly finds form again like that. What I know about Sean O'See is that this is a ball striker's paradigm. So they got small greens, they're quick. You gotta be able to hit the putting surfaces, rough his up. I was looking at some of the social stuff that they put out. I love the Canadian open on the men's side.

You know, they've set up the hockey rink in one of the part three. They got the same exact thing going on out there. Honestly, Canadian, Wims, Canadian open looks like a ton of fun. Big, I think that you know, when we talk about like, oh, events that we would like to check out sometime. Yeah. I think this is definitely on the list. It has a very, very long history with tons of traditions tied to it.

This every single year on the LPGA tour, the players themselves rank this as the number one event on the LPGA tour calendar. They do a great job taking care of the players. They do an even better job taking care of the caddies. We know we talked to Shane Codd, Madeline's caddie a couple weeks ago over in London and he was singing praises of this and everything that they do to go just leave some bounds, you know, further than every other tournament when it comes to what the caddies are getting. So I like hearing that stuff and I want to check this thing out sometime. I'm right there with you. And we kind of, damn, we kind of missed the boat not going this year to Vancouver. I mean, talk about the sexiest place they could put this tournament. I guess obviously

Brook Henderson will have throngs and throngs of Canadians following her. The one I wanted to ask you about because the last time we saw our was at at Walton Heath and it was one of the most horrific putting displays. I mean, what do you think? Nelly Corda has done the last two weeks. She, I'm not sure if she can hit the ball much better. She just literally cannot make a putt. And so I have to think that's been a focus for her these last couple weeks since the women's open. She's somebody, especially as you say, it's a ball striker's course. She's somebody, I guess, I have an eye on. Yeah, I was thinking back to that too. And I think one of the things that I think Nelly is severely

punished on, and it's the same thing as Scottie Schaeffler. Their games are very similar this way. They're both not very good putters, but they're not like absolutely horrible is that we watch a ton of nelly puts because she hits so many greens. Par four, she's going to be on par three, she's going to be on a most par five, she can get on and two. So we're seeing a ton of 50, 60 foot leg puts for her, where I think really ballstriking wise, she needs to dial it in a little bit more. But also when you see her pots and what we saw her at Walden Heath by missing by that much, I think honestly she, I hope she went and got like her putter check this could be a line loft thing because for her to look that confident on the green and literally nothing fall as good as those greens were. It's something else has to be missing from here. But what I think she's been doing the last two weeks probably recovering. I would say she probably on your sleep schedule, probably took her next four or five days to get over it. And then I hope she's just been banging putts down there. Yeah. Yeah. I'm excited. I'll be excited to see how Lillia off of her second major, you know, if she keeps the ball striking up, Charlie Hall, I mean,

jeez, this is, I'm kind of looking forward to this. In my mind, I'm almost picturing almost like another founders cup, you know, that's played on a very proper golf course. Ball strikers, you know, come on down. You can't really fake your way around there. That should make for an awesome event this weekend. And again, at least if you're in the United States, some primetime golf to watch, which is cool. Love that. I was super impressed. I know he said Rhino to the last week. She played amazing. She's been rounding back around into form. Just kind of had two bad swings. He got her on

that back nine. If she keeps playing like this, like I think very good things for her. And the other person who like has not had a very good season so far this year. And I think just I know we're going to get to Soulheim Cup picks in a second, finished T6 last week, as a horror munoz, maybe a little bit of red ass in there for not, you know, getting a snub here from Soulheim Cup in her home country. She's basically been in every single Soulheim like publicity and like PR tour that they've done so far and then not even to be like, you're not a pick,

but also you're not an assistant captain or anything else like that. Maybe she gets a little red ass in her and come out firing. Yeah, she might feel a little used. Oh God, I don't even think she would, she probably wasn't even on Captain Peterson's radar. It would be my guess. She's played, she played pretty, pretty bad this year. Currently, I mean, two 50th and Rolex 97th and CME. She's barely made $140,000 this year. And just at one top 10 last week, it's not good. To be fair to her, she is coming back.

So she started a family. She has a child. So she's kind of, you know, she's 35 years old. She's been doing this a while. I think hopefully we see, you know, some flourish for before the end of her career. I think she's had some like medical things going on outside of that too. I can't remember if it's like a thyroid or something else like that, but I remember her talking and struggling with like

a lot of of joint related things. So we'll see. I like seeing her in good form because she's one of like, she's one of my favorite people to watch swing a golf club. That's why. Yeah. I can't argue with that. Well, let's get to the Soulheim. This is, we're about a month, got it, about a month exactly out from the Soulheim Cup. It is going to be taking place in Southern Spain

at Finka Corteson Golf Club. I've heard a lot of things about the course. Many of them interesting to be generous. I hear spectacular views, gorgeous, gorgeous setting. And I've also heard it's an unwocable golf course. I think it's gonna be an absolute bear for the fans that come out and wanna follow these matches from whole to whole. So I'm very curious to see the venue.

We of course are gonna be going over the two of us along with the Schuster Brothers. We're gonna have a full week doing live shows, preview podcasts, tons of social. So really, really looking forward to getting over there. As you said, today, again, recording today, Tuesday, August 22nd, it was a big day. Team Europe has been finalized. Captain Suzanne Pederson has made her four captains picks. Team USA, Stacy Lewis, she will make

her selections early next week after the Canadian open this weekend. Well, yeah, on top of that, Canadian open ends the automatic qualifying period as well for Team USA, which the European team has already passed through that. So I think to set this out, why don't we talk about layout, what this European squad is, who are the auto qualifiers and then give me these captions picks? Yep. So just running them down, you have the top two from the L.E.T. Soulheim Cup Points list.

Number one automatic qualifier from that was Selene Boudier. Number two, Maya Stark. And then they take the next six based off of Rolex ranking. And so we go Charlie Hall, Leonna McGuire, Georgia Hall, Ling Grant, Karloah Sagonda, and Anna Nordquist, who is also an assistant captain. So those are your eight automatic qualifiers there.

And so that left four captains picks. And we got those this morning. I think let's just start here. Madeline Sackstrom, our young hitter, we were beyond thrilled that she has made another Soulheim Cup team. We'll get into kind of the performance and breaking these down.

But joining her was Gemma Dryborough of Scotland. And then two interesting ones, Cody, we got a lot to talk about here. You have Emily Christine Pederson from Denmark, and then rounding out the team Caroline head wall from Sweden. And I think those last two particularly were, I don't know if head scratchers, but certainly you can see Suzanne Pederson looking for a type of person, a type of player and really putting her stamp on her team, which I do love to see. I think if we're going to have captains for these teams and you're going to give them

picks, I don't care if they just go, you know, I don't want them to go down the points list or I don't want them to go down the Rolex rankings. Go take the people who you think are going to fit the best who you think are going to show up and You know stick your neck out a little bit And I feel like that's what Suzanne Patterson did today with these captains picks Yeah, I agree. I think you labeled them those last two like Suzanne went out and got that dog them dogs man Because that's exactly what they are their They're phenomenal fierce competitors, Suzanne, talking about Emily describes her as

out of fierce competitor, especially in match play. She has the experience and I know what I'm going to get from her. I can't think of a more competitive player than Caroline. I'm very, or yeah, then Emily, excuse me, and then referring to Caroline. I can't think of a more competitive player than Caroline. I'm very happy to have her on our team.

She compliments the team perfectly with her game and records in the Soul Heimk Cup. What I think of these final two is that this wasn't just Captain Patterson picking them. These were also the rest of the team being like, well, this is who we think should be on the squad with us. Yeah, that's an interesting point

because you take Caroline head wall. She is Swedish. She makes this the fifth Swedish player on of the 12 on this year's team. So shout out, Sweden. They are certainly enjoying a moment on the women's side. And then Emily Christine Patterson, she this will be her third Soulheim cup. She was part of the winning team two years ago into Lido. So she's very familiar with the people that will be her teammates with the captains, with

the assistant captains. And like you said, I think personality wise on and off the course definitely jives with what captain Patterson is all about. Cody, if you'll allow me, I'd love to kind of run through this team a little bit more in depth. I got a ton of stats for you and just jump in whenever you feel like it because don't let me ramble too long. But let's start here back at the top,

Selene Boudier. I'm going to run them down by their current world ranking. Okay. So best down by their current world ranking. Okay. So best to, we'll say worst, right? Relatively worst. At the top, Selene Boudier currently ranked fourth in the world. This will be her third Soulheim Cup team. And she sports a five one and one overall record. She's two and O and singles, two O and one and four sums, one and one in four ball play. Of course, she won the Evion. She followed up winning the Scottish open. She made the quarters of match play. She's playing really the best golf of her pro career recently. I think, you know, a great person to have on the team. Her record speaks for herself. After that is Charlie Hall. She is up to ninth in the world. This will be her sixth

soulheim cup appearance. And she is, I mean, in the vein of like an Ian Polter, right, on the men's side, Charlie has an overall record of 11, 5 and 3. She's 2, 2 and 1 in singles, 5, 1 and 1, Cody and four sums and 4, 2 and 1 and 4 ball. And I'll say this, I mean, this has been the summer of Charlie, right? Runner up at the US Women's Open, the British Open, and playing the best golf of her career. She's an excellent Soul Heim Cup player, has shown to be no matter what. And now here she's going to come in in the best form of her career.

That is certainly a feather in the cap for team Europe. After her is Leonna McGuire currently ranked 14th, this will be her second soulheim cup. She was the star in 2021. She went 401 and just God, she was so much fun to watch. Absolute bulldog. She made the semis earlier this year at the at the match play event at Chateau Creek and is, oh, God, somebody you do not do not want to see in match play. After that's

Georgia Hall. She's ranked 16th. This will be her four soulheim cup. She's seven, five, and one overall. I will note four one in one in foursome. So her and Charlie, if you're looking at ForSums, that's a natural pairing. They both had tons of success. Georgia, of course, was playing awesome this spring. Kind of came back to Earth in the last few months, but appears maybe to be rounding into shape. It'll be interesting to see what kind of Solheim cup

she has this year. Ling Grant is then the next best player in the world, ranked 19th. She is going to be a rookie. The only things to note about her, she is an absolute killer. She made the semi as a match play, which portends well. She's won everywhere. She's ever played. Everything we hear about her is she's a fierce competitor.

I think this will be her first Soul line cup and just get used to seeing her every soulheim cup for the force of the able future. After her Carlotta Segonda ranked 33 in the world, six, this will be her six soulheim cup overall record of seven, eight and four, but I will note three one and one in singles. So kind of that stereotypical tough match play, you know, spaniard runs hot a little bit can be feisty. I think somebody that will fit in well and Captain Petterson's team room. And then we get to Anna Norquist, the, you know, the, I guess the veteran of the group, this will be your eighth Soulheim Cup. She's ranked 37th in the world, sporting an overall record of 14, 10 and three. Just super consistent. She's won three majors.

She has all the experience in the world. She's been like a top 30 player in the world since like 2009, just a model of consistency. And somebody that's shepherd, you know, we talked about Lynn Grant will be a rookie. Well, the other rookie, Swedish rookie will be Maya Stark. She's ranked 40th in the world, super keen to see how she does in a month's time. And then we talked about the captain's pick. I just want to note the world ranking. So Madeline Sackstrom, she's ranked 42nd in the world. This will be her third soulheim cup. She's two and four in her previous two with both of her wins being in singles. So she's two and own singles. I guess the thing to watch out for is how much she's put out

and four sums and four balls. Gemma, Drybera, she will be a rookie. She captured her first LPGA victory last November, I want to say at the Japan classic. We've seen a couple good appearances. She finished eight that Evion a couple of weeks ago, top 40 at the US and British Open this year. And then Emily Christine Peterson, her third team, overall three and four record. But a ton of success. She's won five times on the LET..T. She was the 2020 L.E.T. player the year. She's transitioned now to pretty much being full-time LPGA. I can tell you she's very long.

Okay. She goes with our good buddy, Oli. Oli, Brett. I hope he will be in Spain. But if, you know, if she can put up with Oli, that tells you that she's going to be great in the team. That's a great sense of humor. And I think, you know, on the course, she's got some red ass in her. You know, she wants to win.

She wants to beat the person that she's playing. And that's super important. And then finally, Caroline head wall, she's ranked 120th in the world. This will actually be her fifth soulheim cup. She sports an overall 861 record. Her best format has been ForSums where's three and one are in her career. And just as a bit of background, she was led t player the year way back in 2011. She's won seven times on the Euro tour, but has never fared well in majors.

Actually, just one top 10 and 44 career majors starts. And I think if you're going to pick out, you know, the, the, the, the potential weak link, right? It would be Caroline. And so I think there's going to be a lot of pressure on her. And it'll be curious to see how much Captain Peterson puts her out. And then we go to, okay, the natural question then becomes who, who got left out, right? Who, who has the best case? And this is where I'm curious to get your thoughts, Cody.

who has the best case and this is where I'm curious to get your thoughts Cody. Just going by the Rolex world rankings, Jody Ewer, Chattoff would be the biggest snub. She's currently ranked 51st. But you start digging in, you know, she's played three soul himes. She owns a 361 career record. So it's, you know, it's not that that's everything, but it's not jumping off the page at you. She doesn't, you know, her form this year, it's fine, but she only has one top 10 on the LPGA that was back in February. They're just the more you dig into her resume this year, I just don't think she made the case that you have to take her.

And obviously Captain Patterson did not take her. Yeah, well, she finished T3 at the Dow in July as well. Also represented England in the international crown. This is where I think when we start and I mentioned it earlier about the other teammates, I kind of having a say who wants to be in there. I know that Jody was on the side of Bronte in the team England dynamics when Georgia and Charlie bounced out of there. So I don't want to say that that played a big role in it, but I could see maybe team dynamic wise that playing a part in it,

plus she has a losing record in her previous sole-hime cup appearances. Yes, it's a snub based off rankings, but when you tie everything else in there, it kind of makes a lot of sense team wise. Yeah, that's really interesting about the international crown stuff too. And I think again, pure speculation on our part, but tough to ignore that dynamic. The only other ones I would mention, perhaps feeling like they had a case, Albein, Valenzuela was ranked 68th in the world right now.

She played a ton of team junior events in her career. We saw it at Chevron, she finished tied for fourth, but I think the most memorable part of that Chevron was her decision not to really go for it on the Par 518. She laid know, we thought maybe protecting some money and some points. She did make the quarters at match play back in May at Shadow Creek, but does not have any previous so-hime experience. I don't think, again, when you look at Captain Patterson and the type of just in your face competitor that she is, Albaing doesn't strike me as that person. And so I understand why she isn't on this team. I, again, I think the captain's pick should be used for who the captain wants, obviously.

And Albaing didn't fit the criteria this time around. Yep, I agree with you on that. Just looking back from the 2021 squad to where we're at right now, the only big names that kind of jump out at me. Obviously, Sophia off doing her own things, but Matilda Castran, Nana Kertz, Kertzoff Matteson, and then really Mel Reed. And I think it's just kind of been a really tough two years for Mel. But she is like, when I think of a stalwart on the European sole home, sole home cup squad, I immediately think

to Mel and I think of Leonan, I think of them pumping everybody up and getting everybody fired up. But overall, it's very hard to pull calls in this squad. I think they're so tough. I think when you rack and stack them against the squad that the US is gonna bring over, clearly the European team is like, they are a powerhouse squad. The fact that Maya and Lynn are both rookies on here, they're also undefeated in four sums in in Worldwide play. They have a

world title together already for four sums. It's ridiculous. They've been playing together since they're like, we little girls on the West Coast of Scotland, they're primed. They're excited for this. They're, they're not afraid of playing on the big stage. And I think the youthfulness of this squad that's also coming in absolutely blazing hot. Plus the amazing play from Saline from Charlie the last couple of months, like it's this, this, this team is going to be very, very, very hard to beat. I agree. I a couple of things I want to drill down on. You said Matilda Castan, one of the ones that played in 2021 that will not be a part of 2023. I think that of things I want to drill down on. You said Matilda Castan, one of the ones that played in 2021,

that will not be a part of 2023. I think that's the biggest bummer for me. She went three in one in 2021. And if you remember leading up to the Soulheim Cup, she went over, she won in Finland, that got her L.E. team membership, which then allowed her to be eligible to be picked for the team. She just, her story getting on to that 2021 team was phenomenal.

And I was hopeful that the Sohem couple is going to be a springboard for unfortunately, has not been in good form here for at least 12 months currently sits at 151st in the world ranking. So a bummer for her. But yes, when you look at, okay, the 2021 team came over to US soil and won, okay? And we're gonna take four women off of that team. So Fiya Popov, we're gonna replace with Ling Grant. I think anybody would tell you that's a massive upgrade, okay?

No disrespect to Sofia, certainly in her current form. And then you take Mika Kielde-Castren and you're going to replace her with Maya Stark. I honestly think Maya could have a so long cup a lot like Matilda's 2021, you know, something like three and one where she becomes this, I think she's teetering, bordering on becoming a household name or somebody we really have to pay attention to at the biggest events, but she could have a week like Matilda. And then you replace Nanakerts Madsen with Gemma Drybera. I think that's at worst.

You're kind of making a one-for-one swap there. And then you replace Mel Reed, who, as you said, fiery, you know, heart and soul type of person in the team room replace her with Caroline head wall. And you're getting a lot of that same attitude with a ton of soulheim cup experience. Yeah, it's this on paper, this is a much better group than in 2021. And that group went to Inverness on US soil and got a victory. So it is going to be a tall, tall task for Stacey Lewis and the American squad. Speaking of Stacey Lewis, our captain, Stacey Lewis,

and this squad representing the United States of America, it ain't looking good, Big. I, unfortunately, you can't ask me. Are you that down? Let me, me let me let me jump in. Are you that are you that pessimistic? Well, I mean, it's hard when you look at the European squad and you like, you know, you usually get to like number five really like six, seven, eight and you're like, oh, I can point out some gaps, but you look at the European team and like you're not really seeing gaps until you're into like really 11 or 12 and by saying that there's gaps is that you're taking Madeline who has like an

almost perfect singles record and being like oh well she just can't play for ball of forcems like she can't find a partner eventually somebody will find a partner that the Madeline can play with like if that's the only gap that you're seeing right now, then yeah, we have huge issues because currently in like our auto qualifier spots, our last person who has an automatic seat in there, I don't even want her in that seat. Like I don't want DK or Lexi on this team.

Like they need to evacuate themselves. Unfortunately, that's not really going to happen. So Lexi, as it take me, yeah, take, well, take me through the team. Let's, let's start with who has automatically qualified already. Okay. So the, the four auto qualifiers that we have so far is Liliavu, Nelly Corda, Alison Corpus, and Megan King. Now, the US team is basically takes two players

from the Rolex rankings. Those two players that currently sit at the top of that right now, points wise are gonna be Rosang and Angel Yen. Now, the scary thing about it is that Angel is only separated by Ali Ewing, who is third on that list by a couple points. And this week in Canada is worth double points. But now what I would say is that either, probably both of them are going to make the team either automatic selection by Sunday of this week or by Captain's pick the Monday.

What is that? Like the 28th. So I think both Angel and Ali are sitting pretty good. I think they're going to be okay. Now where it starts, the rest of the list. So as I said, this week's CPKC women's open, Canadian open is the final week to acquire points for the US team. Captain Stacey Lewis she'll announce her three captains picks that she has remaining Monday the 28th. So to get to the remaining auto slots currently, you have Jennifer Cupsho and then in that last two spots,, it's Daniel King and Lexi Thompson. All right. So our top seven currently from the CME list is Lillia,

already qualified, Nelly, already qualified, Allison, already qualified, Megan King, already locked up. Okay. Which I will say, let me jump in here. Very good top four there. I will go to battle with those four for sure and honestly we're I'll throw Jennifer Cupsha like she hasn't had a rock star year, but she's had a deep a pretty solid year She's made points. She continues to go out there grinds out She's playing a lot of events making a ton of cuts

Just hasn't had very many highlights, but also there hasn't been very many low lights at all, very, very solid years so far. Now Jennifer sits in the fifth spot, our sixth and seventh spot, which are currently battling out right now. And this is where this week can really, you know, these are dynamic spots between basically Danielle Kang, Lexi Thompson, who are currently in the six and seven spot versus Andrew Lee, who's playing fucking red hot right now and alley you. And now with a how I broke down the points in this week, the points are worth like a double

plus a little bit more is that that Andrea and or Allie would basically have to take finish in the top 10 and DK and Lexi would basically have to miss the cut. But that's how this leapfrog would happen. Andrea has a much better shot of that. She's only eight points or seven and a half points currently behind Lexi. And I think this is in the cards and why I'm not like sitting here poo-pooing on Lexi.

I think she's a great ambassador for the women's game overall. We just haven't seen anything from Lexi. In order to qualify, nothing all year. And I don't even think this year because I did the research and I went back. All right, so Lexi currently sits seven. Every other cell hunt cup that she's played in before and what she's played in a lot of them, she's always made points, always has.

We started the qualification period for this year's Soul Heim cup that's played next month in Spain at the 2021 Portland Classic. That was September 16th through the 19th, 2021. In 2021, Lexi could have played in five events counting the CME, which she qualified for. She played in all five of them. Her highlight of that was T2 that she made at Pelican, but she made every other cut that year. In 2022, there was 30 events available, 32 counting the Hilton tournament of champions and the CME. She was not in the tournament of champions. She was in the CME.

So if 31 events available, Lexi played in 18 of them. She was second at the drive on and second at the Pelican. She ended up losing in a playoff to Nelly at the Pelican. Second at the founders, T2 at KPMG, T4 Chevron, T5 at the Myers and had four miscuts. That was in 2022. Last year, awesome year for Lexi. I was going to say was playing very good golf, you know, the big highlight was her kind of blowing it down the stretch at KPMG. That's a whole another bug a boo. But was the Lexi that we know and have known very much so this year. So far this year Lexi has been eligible to play in 22 LPGA tour events so far this year. 22. She is played in nine. Her best friend is her best finish so far this year is 22. She has played in nine. Her best friendish, her best friendish so far this year is T31

at the founders. She has six miss cuts. Now, she is playing in this, she is going to Canada and she is playing this week because she knows she has to make points in order to stay on this team. And hope that her game, some hopefully a different game than we saw her a couple weeks ago, I walled in heat shows up, but overall effort outside of like her kind of showing this at the last last minute here, she hasn't shown anything this year. It appears that she does not want to be playing professional golf. I don't know what type of effort she's putting into it at home, but I'm only strictly talking about results that we're seeing when she goes and tees it up. It's not been good big. And I'll say they're totally unsusantuated, of course, but they're, it's interesting the

whispers about, yeah, Lexi, perhaps even already looking to what's next beyond professional golf. Yeah, plenty of talk out there of like Lexi basically the only reason that she's playing still is trying to fulfill a couple sponsor obligations that she still has before she wants to retire from from competitive golf all together. Which honestly, if that's like what would make her happy, God bless her. I think she has had a long career. She's been in the public spotlight for years and years and years. Don't begrudge her that, one Iota.

But in her current form, as you're saying, she's a liability on this US team. It's a very awkward spot if she does auto-qualified, because I wanted to ask you, and maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Sorry, but I think the discussion needs to be if she doesn't auto qualify, she can't get a pick. I don't, I don't think you can use a pick on her. No, yeah. Yeah. Like there's so many other women right now that are playing so much better than Lexi is. You cannot waste a pick on her. And that is wild to say because she's ranked 21st in the world, but that's just slowly plummeting, you know, it's not representative of, oh, she's a top 20 player

in the world right now. No, she's not close to that. Not, not at all big. She's played in five soulheim cups going back to 2013. She has not missed one since 2013. Of course, held every two years. She's playing the total of 19 matches in the Swahim Cup has a record of six, six and seven. She is the queen of tied matches and singles. And they always seem to put her out like in the first three matches. She just goes out and gets half a point. Like she was supposed to be like this killer, man. And she just isn't, it just she doesn't play like that. And I hope it will. Yeah. It's, it's funny when you look at it because Stacey has a very good relationship with Lexi. If she ends up getting

a captain's pick because I do not think that she's going to stay in this last auto-cool spot. It truly is like a charity pick. It's not at all based off game form or really past performances because the Lexi of 2022 is not the Lexi that's playing right now in 2023. It's not good. Other people that I would like to discuss unless you have questions. No, not a question, just a comment. I will say you said she's played on six Soulheim cups. I'll note that Team Europe has won four of those six, right? And whether it's fair or not, I mean, Lexi is kind of the face and has always been one of the better players.

And by default, should be one of the leaders of Team USA. And I think, you know, perhaps team performance reflects a bit on her as well. Now, before I get into possible captains picks here, I would like to point out that our 2021 roster is going to look a little bit similar, uh, names up there basically outside of a little bit of a fat on the bottom. Right. So 2021 US Soulheim Cup team, course Danielle Kang,

she will make this year's team on points. It's going to be very, very difficult for Andrea or Ali to leapfrog her, but basically a locked Danielle will make this team. Ali Ewing, she was on the 2021 squad. She is outside looking in right now. More than likely, based off reason form, I would say she's a candidate for a captain's selection. I'm not saying my, my candidate yet, but I was saying she is definitely in the running. Austin Irons, she was on the 21 squad. Obviously not going to be on this squad. Retired assistant coach now at Texas A&M.

Lexi just discussed her Jessica Corda. She will not be playing this year. She's still up there on points. And honestly, I don't know how she's healing or where she's at right now in the recovery process, but if there was a potential wild card captains pick out there, if she decided to tee it up, it wouldn't surprise me, but I just don't think that that's really going to happen. Megan Kang was on that team. She made this year's team on points as well as Nellie. She made this year's team on points as well as Nelly. She made this year's team on points as well. The two Rolex selectees from the 2021 squad, was that solace, not good,

has not had a very good last couple of years. She's not anywhere close to being in the running for points this year or for Captain's pick. I just do not see that happening. And then of course, the second one, Rolex pick for the 2021 Scott was Jennifer Cupsho. She made this year's team on points. Captain's picks, Brittany Althamari,

Mina Haragai, and Yolimi No, nowhere close to any of the standings for this year. Captain's picks just didn't work out the way that we thought that they were going to be. So big, where we start not here with potential captains picks, I have mentioned your name a couple times. Before we get there, let me just note, before we get there, let me just note that in the US's favor this year, you have Lily Avue, the number one ranked player in the world, awesome addition to the squad. You have Alison Corpus, ranked number eight in the world, major champion. That's an awesome addition to the squad. And then you have

Rose Zhang, who won in her pro debut, three top tens and majors fell off at the British Open a couple of weeks ago, but she's an awesome addition to the squad. So I will say, you know, you have three new faces right there that really are among whether you believe Rose is kind of a top 10 talent in the world, even though she's ranked

31st right now. I mean, you could make a case that you're injecting three of the top 10 players in the world onto this team USA squad. Yeah, you could. And the four that you just mentioned would have made our international crown team a hell of a lot better because the squad that we put up at the international crown of Nelly Lexi, Lillian, DK, Cheriseld didn't do anything. True. Again, Lexi seems to be a comment thread through some of that. And Danielle, who I don't want heard a, I mean, she's been in awful form the last four, five, six weeks. There's not a ton that you're excited about there going into Spain. We have a month to change that. But yeah, she's, I don't want to say dead

weight, but she's certainly, she's, you don't feel good about DK necessarily. No, but she is going to be there. So I think we, we, we, we, we can hope, I guess, and see where Lexi shakes out on this list and how they play this year, or this week in Canada, but DK is going to be on that team. It's almost impossible for somebody to knock her out. Yeah. All right. So I talked about the Rolex and where the Rolex rankings come into this. So you get the top two that are not a part of the CME list or excuse me, the Soulheim qualification list for the LPGA players. Currently our Rose and Angel Yinn, I believe that both of them will make this team on points coming in third on that list,

number 34 in the world, and currently number nine in the overall point solheim point solace is alley you I believe that she will be captain's pick big what do you have to say about that? I think you have to you know it's not the most exciting pick necessarily, but Ali has Soulheim experience, which is, in my opinion, better than not having Soulheim experience, especially when you're going over to Europe for the event. And then if you just look at the last few weeks, you know, we saw

at the British Open holding the 36 whole lead stumbled on the weekend, but still, you know, tied for six, a great week for her. She had finished tied for ninth the week before that at the Scottish and 11th place finish at Pebble Beach at the US Women's Open. So there are some good performances there. Again, I think you don't need, you shouldn't need an alley-ewing to go out and get you four points. And I don't think she will go out and get you four points and I don't think she will go out and get

you four points. But I think it's, I agree that she should be on this team. I agree that she will be a captain's pick. I guess I have no issue with her being included. Yeah. Good. I'm glad that we agree on that. I thought you're going to start poking holes in there. But, yeah, clearly, and so many that we did not feel as a fit to win a Cavalier skill at the women's the women's oven, but I agree should be on this team and more than likely we'll get one of the first captains pick of the three. My next one, you know, has kind of had a shaky year so far after an awesome year last year. We talk about her a lot as maybe being Rose Zhang before anybody knew who Rose Zhang was her last recent events. She of course had a T20 at the US Women's Open T9 at the Scottish Open T9 at the AIG

Women's Open. She has never played in a soul hind cup before, but she is a two-time winner of the junior soulheim cup and a one-time winner of the junior writer cup. That is Andrea Lee. Yeah. So Andrea, I'll say this. I think Andrea, her resume suggests she needs a captain's pick. So I won't fault Stacy for making her a captain's pick. I expect her to be a captain's pick. I guess my only qualms or reservations with Andrea.

Let's say she gets a Sunday singles match against a Caroline head wall or an Emily Christine Peterson or, you know, a Carlota, Segonda. I fair or not, I think of Andrea being very quiet. Nothing to back this up, but you know, you could read maybe timid into that. She's had enormous amateur success, so I'm not sure if that's fair, but that's the way she comes across to me sometimes. And in a so high environment on European soil, I worry about her her Cody, but having said all that, it gets pretty bleak for the Americans pretty quickly when you start talking about Captain's picks. So I honestly, I'm not sure who should replace her. I don't think there is anybody that should replace her. I just worry about her, her temperament and how she'll do come next month.

I see where you're going there. I also think that that quiet, you know, kind of, if you describe it as timid demeanor, could also drive a competitor absolutely crazy when they're like looking for reactions out of people and somebody's just like deadpan the entire time. Like I don't think she gets intimidated easily. I think she just doesn't show a lot of emotion. And I think that's maybe where you're getting that from. But again, as you said,

where else do you want us to go here? Because there's just not a lot of depth that you can pull out currently. I know. And if it's purely personality based, you know, the opposite in how I perceive that Andrea's personality would probably be somebody like Marina Alex, who's ranked 71st in the world. But then you look at her recent form and it's not great. You know, see, she somebody I'd like to think of though will show up and kind of play her best golf, but I just, I couldn't, I couldn't make a straight face argument for going Marina over Andrea. So I'm in lockstep agreement with you.

I think Andrea will be a captain's pick and should be a captain's pick. I mean, if you want to talk Marina, she, she hasn't made very many cuts to she's big, let alone like decent performances. And that's the problem. Yeah, that's why it's like, I like, if she was kind of on the upswing and was banking some top 10s recently, I could muster that case a lot better than I can. I guess the only thing, you know, going from Marina as well, she was on the 2019 Soulheim Cup team, went one, one and two, you know, so it wasn't not great, but she came away with two points, which certainly isn't terrible. But yeah, there's just not enough in her play this year, especially of late for me to put her on the team as a captain's pick.

Yeah. And that's kind of where we're at with these 11 and 12th like these these final two picks. It's it's difficult, man, because there's just a lot of wild though. Let me jump in though, which is wild because again, if and I know Rolex rankings aren't the B all end all, but Andrea being 43rd in the world, I mean, that would slot in as what the ninth best on the European side 10th best. I mean, we're talking about somebody in that Madeline's axiom, Maya Stark and a Nordquist range. But yeah, I don't have the same confidence that I would in an an Nordquist or a Maya Stark, for instance.

Not at all, not nearly. Now, where you settled out with Andrea Lee is kind of where I settled out with this next person who I wanted to pick. I wanted this to be my final pick. Unfortunately, there's a lot of the same descriptors that you used I used when going through this in my head. Now, I think the word deserved gets thrown around a lot, but like she's done an awful lot

this year, then the points that she's accrued actually like demonstrate. And I think that's Cheyenne Knight. She's put herself in position at a very, very, very strong March and April. She won last month. She did not give full points for that because it was a team event. She just doesn't seem to be like the killer that we want. Somebody in that 12 spot to be, and that's why she is not on my team.

Now, oh, so we're not, I'm like, okay, a little reversal there. Do you know who I'm gonna go with? Somebody who has found a little bit of form as a late. The natural selection, shout out my guy, Darwin. The natural selection would be Alison Lee, I think. Is that what you're going? That is correct. Now, Alison Lee was on the Soul Heimcup 2019. Does not have a good record. Okay, it was one, three, and one, not not very good. Single, she ended up

getting, you know, beat out. She lost in four sums with Michelle. I don't know if that's necessarily an indictment on Michelle or on Allison. Who can know on there and then had played two four ball matches, lost both of them. One with Angela Stanford, the other one with Brittany, Lysik, Linsikum. Again, it's hard to tell. I can't remember exactly what happened in the 2019 Soulhyme Cup. I don't even think I was in America watching it on TV. Yeah.

But hey, that's on me, right? Reason why I say that, though, is that she has a depth of high level match play experience. Again, I know it's not much, but when you have to go back and look at records from junior Solheim junior writer cup, she was on the 2014 or excuse me, Curtis cup, she was on the 2014 Espirito Santo trophy winner. She played high, high, high level competitive golf all through her amateur career to include multiple AGA-GA championships in college.

She won the 2014 PAC-12 championship. She won the North and South Amateur, which could be one of the hardest match play brackets to make it through. Now, I'm not comfortable with this. This is the best that I can do that big. And that's where I'm going to leave it. best that I can do that big. And that's where I'm gonna leave it. Let me just say, you've made as good of a case as you can make. I'm not comfortable with it either. And I went along with two safe

by the number of captains picks. And so I'm gonna go off the board with this final slot for team USA. Are you ready? Yes. Ryan O'Toole. That's who I was. Okay. So listen, I was stuck there. Can I make the case for the people? Yes, I would love to hear this because I'm pretty sure she's missed six casters here, but go ahead. Yeah, it's nothing. It's not, listen, if you're looking for like a recent form or winning big time tournaments, that's not the case I'm making for Ryan, okay? The case centers

around one, she has played in a slime cup before, way back in 2011. Okay, I will note that she went to oh and two. All right, she halved her singles match with Caroline head wall. She won a four sums match with Morgan Pressell and then won with Stacy Lewis a four ball match and then halved a four ball match with Christina Kim. All that's besides a point. Okay, I will say, hey, two, oh and two undefeated

soulheim cup record. All right. If I'm if I'm trying to make the best case possible, the other things I will point to, all right. We just saw in Northern Ireland. So taking a very hyper recent result. Okay. She should have won that tournament.

You talked about earlier her back, not in her closing stretch. I mean, she really gave that away. But where I think this pick hinges is in psychological warfare. Okay. Ryan is partners with Georgia Hall. Okay, I don't really know the dynamic of that relationship, but if I'm Captain Lewis, I'm bringing Ryan along and I'm putting her out there early in the week against Georgia. If I believe I'm an underdog and if I believe I need to create my own luck and I need to somehow find a spark, find an edge, you know, get inside the head of the European squad, it goes through Ryan O'Tool. And I would absolutely love for Stacey Lewis to have that kind of mindset with this last

captain's pick. Yeah. I walked down that path. And when we were talking about early results, I wanted to get there too. And she does have a little bit of soul, high cup experience. And it would be hilarious to see them match up against, she's against each other, meaning her and Georgia. Now, the other thing is that Ryan is very, very close to Angela Stanford. She's close to Stacey. They're basically, you know, Ryan being a little bit younger than them, but that's who she

kind of grew up with on the LPJ tour, both Captain and assisting Captain's here. She is very close friends with Morgan and played forever with Natalie. Now I don't know if from a Captain's point of view, if they're looking at something and like they want to weigh their personal relationships in with somebody, I think that's the right thing. I think that's the right thing. I think that's the right thing. I think that's the right thing. I think that's the right thing. I think that's the right thing.

I think that's the right thing. I think that's the right thing. I think that's the right thing. I think that's the right thing. I think that's the right thing. I think that's the right thing. I don't think Stacy has her mind made up because it's almost impossible because honestly, this could completely change if Lexi is still in that seat. Well, let's game that out. Okay. Let's say, I mean, I thought we were making these picks

with the assumption that Lexi was an automatic qualifier, But we walked ourselves into it. So think about how I don't want to use the term weak, but like not confident we are with basically the bottom five of this team. Right. And then you say, hey, why are you feeling so bullish about the European squad? Because Rolex

ranking wise, that doesn't match up with what you're saying. But just them, their demeanor, how they act and conduct themselves on the golf course, when you see them grinding and trying to make these puts and willing the ball in the hole, you see it on the European side. I don't see it from the bottom five of the US team. No, I don't either. And that's why I just come back to a Ryan O'Tool who if she can't get motivated to go again, I would match her up against Georgia and singles. I would throw her out there. But even if she's not playing Georgia specifically, the motivation for Ryan would, I would believe in that as a catalyst more so than anything Allison Lee has done. And no

disrespect to Allison, but it's like, if you're not banging down the door and showing me why you deserve a captain's pick, then you leave it open for me to go off, you know, to kind of make a wild card pick like this. Yeah, but I don't see it. Nobody is really banging down any door, big. The only people banging down doors is Lillia and Allison and like the rest of the European squad, Selene. it's the summer of Charlie, that there just hasn't been a ton of movement on the US side. All right, so what, how, so your best prediction then is Lexi is not qualified.

Correct. And in that case, is it Andrea that's gonna jumper into that auto qualification spot? Andrea would jump her leaving, uh, Allie, Allison, and then we can, we can hash it out, whether that's Ryan, uh, Cheyenne, uh, yeah, like, again, not a lot of, lot of just the fire in the bellies, not there for me at the moment. No, honestly, I don't think it needs to go beyond Marina, Ryan, or Shayan for that last spot. Yeah. You know, it's again, no disrespect, like Sarah Schmell's old things of that nature. Mina Haragai, I just don't not see in it. Well, then you're the captain for the US who you

got to make this election. Or is it Lexi and a captain's pick? I mean, I cannot get on board with that, but maybe that's the way Stacey goes. But what would that add to this team? What possibly could Lexi in current form add to this team? Because what are you gonna, you're gonna sit her until singles and then what? You know, she just doesn't have it right now. Yeah. Or I guess who, I don't know if I talked into Ryan, who, would you take Cheyenne?

I would probably take Ryan over Cheyenne just based off of last week's performance. But Cheyenne, I think, very much deserves to be in this conversation. If she has a big week, and I think that would go a long way. Yeah. All right, I'm going to put in Ryan O'Toole as our 12th pick, because one, I think it's, again, psychological warfare.

It's just what I'm here for in something like the Soulheim Cup. But let me go through, let me stack these teams one to 12 and just compare them. And you give me your, your first instinct, who you taken in a singles match, okay? So start at the top. Stacy should pick herself. I thought about that too. I'm not, not kidding. I've thought about that too.

I hate it. No, wouldn't at all. All right. So number one on the Europe team, Celine Boudier versus number one on the American team, Lillia Vue. I think advantage US. Yes, US. Yeah, I'll go US.

Okay. Number two on team Europe, Charlie Hall versus number two on team USA, Nelly Corta. I think in a vacuum on paper, I think Nelly's the easy answer, but considering form and confidence, I'm taking Charlie advantage team euro for me. Charlie. Number three, Lyona McGuire versus the three hole for Team USA, Alison Corpus. This is a fast, this might be my, by most fascinating matchup because I see a lot of similarities in these women. And as much as this pains me to say,

Code Man, I think I lean Alison, advantage USA. It's just gonna say Alison as well, based off of current form, but also I think that Allison is very like a quiet and has a like a steady demeanor, but I think there's something burning deep inside of her that she just refuses to give up. Next is Georgia Hall versus Megan Tang. Like I'm pretty similar here.

It's when I struggle with, I think I'm going to take Georgia. I slight lean team hero, but this one is about as close to a toss up as it gets. Yep. I would go with you on the toss up there. The only reason why I say Megan is because she is made for these team events. Georgia, you could say the exact same thing as long as it's a partner side of it. I don't know about singles wise, I would probably lean mega.

Okay. I'll note you in. I'm gonna say. Next one, this is where you start to get into the depth of my, in my opinion, for Team Europe. Ling Grant versus Jennifer Cupcho. I think this is a strong Euro-advantaged here. Yup.

Ling Grant grant 100%. Next up, Carlota, Segonda against Danielle Kang. I think based on form, based on the soil I'm being in Spain, I'm pretty comfortable saying advantage team Europe. And Carlota is just going to slow play the shit out of her. It's going to drive DK crazy. Exactly right. Okay. And the seven hole and an orquist versus Andrea Lee. Anon orquist is a three time major winner. I don't care about her form this year. I think it's a pretty good advantage to team Euro. Yes, the only thing they could change that is when once we get out there,

we actually see these green complexes and see if she can run a putter up or if shipping will be involved. That's a great call. In the eighth hole, Maya Stark versus Rose Zang, this is another fascinating one. I think Rose is going to be tired. She has another fascinating one. I think Rose is gonna be tired. She has to be tired. I think slight, slight edge to team Europe, which might sound crazy. Yeah, it sounds crazy.

The thing about Rose, what's confusing of late is, I mean, you saw, you walked your entire round with her, some very weird mishits, like a little wiperite, some weird pull left, did not put the wedges. Yeah, did not put the ball very good. Bad distance control, like knowing Rose, I'm sure she was right back at home, like grind your tail off the last two weeks. I don't think she's going to have those issues

showing up in Spain, but also from spending time around Maya and like seeing how pumped up she gets and like her like she doesn't get enough credit for being the ball striker that she is. And she can actually like put the lights out of it. It's it's a tough matchup. I just because I have to, I'm going to go rose here. Love it. In the nine hole Madeline Sackstrom versus Angel Yinn. This is a hard one for me, but I give the advantage to Angel based on form this year. She just has her best has showed up in the biggest events. And if that happens at the Soulheim, I think it's a pretty good

advantage for team US at here straight fire from angel. I can't wait to be drinking to keel as sodas with her when the soul thing's done. I'm a driver of versus alley you in the 10 hole. You could say this is a bit of a toss up. I don't have any reason to lean. One way or another. Yeah, except I want to believe in her like Scottish heritage match play, right? I'm going to buy into just some old stereotypes. She seemed more American when we talked to her

a couple of weeks ago than anything. She did. She did. Yeah, that's have anything she did. She did. Yeah, that's a, it's a tough, it's a, uh, it's a split. I guess we'll wait and see what Ali shows up like the Ali that's like making a birdies around or the one that's like struggling to make the par. Mark, that is a toss up for both of us. 11th Emily Christine Peterson versus Allison Lee.

Boy, I like Emily. I don't think form if you want to play that card, we'll look there. I think the event, the time, the space knowing who she's playing for being in captain's pick, her caddy who she currently has on the bag used to be Suzanne's caddy. They have a very, very close relationship and I don't want to say, you know, we do it all. We're doing it

all for the gipper, but I think being put in that spot means an awful lot to Emily. I think she'll show up and perform. Couldn't have said it better myself. And then last but not least, Caroline headwall and we'll say Ryan O'Toole, I'm going to for a lot of the same reasons. I'm going to give the advantage to team Europe just because for Caroline, this is going to mean a ton to be on the team. She's going to want to play her best for Captain Peterson to justify the pick. So I'll go slight lean to team Europe there. It's hard to go against any of the Swedes, but I agree with you on that one. Plus, I don't know if you remember this, but when we were, Gary member of the Thursday or Friday,

we're sitting down having our coffee and churros, I think behind the sixth green and Caroline came rolling through and made that birdie putt right in front of us and let out the loudest fist bump yellow. She was so jacked up about it. I was like, oh my goodness, man. It's like round one. You got to calm yourself here. But I could not imagine seeing that in person for, you know, three days straight. It gets me so fired up to watch this. Amen. So just quickly going through first impressions, I mean, we see two strong Americans, I won't even say we see one strong American advantage and that's Lillia Vu.

And then we both like Angel Yen over Madeline and we both like Alison Corpus over Lyona. And other than that, it's all Leanne's strong to team Euro to at worst some toss ups with rose and Maya and and Gemma Gemma and Allie Ewing. It's hard not to see a world where the European squad is not closing out that Sunday winning the sole hind cup for the third time in a row. It's tough. And the only same and grace that we have is that for some, you know, to get back to opposite years as a writer cup, we got another Soulheim Cup next year. So we'll see. I'm not saying we're, uh, we're caching this one in and just waiting and building for next year, but I think this is going to be a tough, tough year for Team Yosat.

I agree. We're going to save our official predictions for week of. Let's close the show, Cody. Quick Epson tour update. They have six events left on the Epson tour, the Epson tour of course being the equivalent to the Corn Ferry tour, what that is to the PGA tour. It is the feeder tour for the LPGA. Just a couple of things to call out. Gabby ruffles recently won for the third time this year on the Epson tour. She has clenched

her tour card for 2024. There is no battlefield promotion, unfortunately, but we're going to see Gabby get some sponsors exemptions the rest of this year. And I cannot wait to see your weekend and week out next year. Gabby's in the field this weekend Canada people that want to get excited and say, Hey, what's up with the battlefield promotion? I understand that's just not that I remember they came back. They ran the numbers and it just didn't make sense. There's not that many people that get in based off of where they slot in in their categories. And to that, I would say you probably need to fix the categories that they're

slotting into. Then if you want a battlefield say you probably need to fix the categories that they're slotting into then if you want a battlefield promotion like thing to work out. But Gabby in the field this week in Canada, excited to see her plan the big stage. I'll say last week's winner, Zhao Wen Yin of China. She want a

shortened event up in Oregon. They were dealing with wildfires and hazardous air conditions. It was her third Epson tour win. And I only, this kind of tickled me. She is an LPGA member, okay? But she couldn't go to Northern Ireland because she had visa issues.

So instead of just taking the week off, she went out to Oregon, she played in the Epson tour event. She ends up winning. It's her third Epson, her third career Epson Tour victory, but she does not have to worry about getting a card. She already has her card. It was sort of a one off because of these issues.

And so that leaves us, as I said, six events left in the Epson Tour season. This week, they're up in Idaho at the Circling Raven Championship, Jillian Hollis is looking to defend her title. A couple names to call out as far as looking very good to clinch their cards for next year. Natasha Andrea Un has all but wrapped up a card. It's not official, but she's gonna have a card.

And then the other one, Jenny Bay, you might remember her from Anwash, she was University of Georgia product. She is one for the second time and just six starts since coming out onto Epson tour after finishing her collegiate career. She appears to be headed for the LPGA next season, which is cool.

And there's a real fight going on. Sixth through 13th place on the Epson tour, the top 10 received their card. So six through 13th place is currently separated by only about $12,000. So be sure to check out the Epson results. These remaining six weeks should be very exciting coming down to their tour championship here in a couple months. Humped the other person that we always kind of talk about and like we wonder,

like, where's this phenom? What's actually happening up here? Speaking of sponsors, exemptions, along with a slew of Canadian professionals and amateurs that are got into the field this week, but also a Geonaclomente also in an LPJ event up in Canada. So excited to see what happens there. Big week for the LPJ tour, big week for Soulheim Cup and what this means for Team USA. Congratulations to everybody who made the European squad, but not be more excited about that.

Get out to Spain in a couple of weeks. Biggie, thank you so much for setting up a couple penthouse apartments for us. We're going to be living large and I guess having a hard walk there, but I'm sure, you know, the wine and the cheese and the meats and everything else that goes along with the top is action that we're gonna be having. It's gonna be well worth it. Yeah, amen.

I'm looking forward to some siestas, maybe during the day, some fiestas during the evening, some of those long, long Spanish dinners. It's gonna be a great time. Quick note, we are going to be as far as LPGA focused. We're gonna be off next week, but we will have another podcast Thursday

after Labor Day. I am actually gonna be traveling to Cincinnati. I'm gonna be at the Kroger Queen City Championship there at Kenwood Country Club, open to do at least one or two player interviews. So hopefully we'll have some of those for you that week. And then yeah, we're going to be pretty much right into Soulheim Cup co-band.

So awesome, awesome show today. Can't wait to see what happens in Canada. And we'll keep an eye out for those captains picks early next week. So pump biggie. Also, one closing note, we missed it, but congratulations to Megan Skollfield from, you know, I think she's a Floridian, but plays it Auburn ended up winning the US women's amateur at Bel Air. Bel Air looked great. We missed it because we were overseas the entire time, but ended up beating Latana

Stone. Name should sound familiar to a lot of people in the finals there, beat her four to three, but congratulations to them. And, you know, this week, I think it's Waverly in Portland, or the US Senior Women's Am, the course looks absolutely like crazy, so, so good. I'm so excited to watch that. So we don't get in trouble.

Is it, I thought it was old wavryly down in Mississippi. No, no, no, it's in Portland. It is. Okay. All right. Let me see. Yeah, wavryly country club, Portland. Okay.

Not to be confused with old wavryly in Mississippi. No, I have a state. It's too hot. Don't nobody come south right now to play golf. Take it from me. I'm struggling to get out there and hit balls I don't even want to I don't even want to put my office right now because the AC doesn't go low enough, but That's what we get big

We will we'll get out of here. Thank you all for listening. Thanks to titleists Enjoy the Canadian open this week and we will be back soon to talk more wins, golf. Cheers. Cheers. Get the right club. Be the right club today. Yes. Be the right club. That is better than most. How about in?

That is better than most. Better than most.