OverDrive - Collins on Scheffler's win at the Open Championship, his dominance on the course and the comparison to Tiger Woods

Episode Date: July 21, 2025

ESPN Golf Analyst Michael Collins joined OverDrive to discuss Scottie Scheffler winning the Open Championship, inching close to the career grand slam, the comparisons to Tiger Woods' accolades, the entertainment factor on the win, the trajectory to the Ryder Cup and more.

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The station that champions Canadian music. Loud, proud, and all yours. No passports required. Just press play. Tap into Made in Canada now on now an I hear radio.ca or the free I heart radio app We're joined now by ESPN golf analyst. Here's Michael Collins. How you doing Michael? What up boys, but hold up? I'm listening a little bit I got a star with something cuz I got a Vince Carter Raptors Jersey upstairs right now, okay

Like what was that conversation y'all were just having well we're talking about the most valuable athletes in toronto last twenty five years and this is the most complicated athlete probably the history of the city well it was one of the recently yeah well yeah but that's a different story that's uh... that's uh... hockey related thing like vince was so big so popular uh... just the way we are out michael was uh... it was tough man it was tough he quit the way it went out, Michael, was tough, man, it was tough. He quit on the team, demanded out, it was not good.

So, it's complicated. It's complicated, you know? There might be some tax issue stuff. You know? Yeah, there could be some of that too. There might be some money. They, you know what I mean? That's one of those things people don't talk about a lot.

You know, that, especially for American players for American players nowadays It's talked about more back in the day Like nobody really knew about it until you got up there, you know I didn't know about it until I was up there doing stand-up comedy really rano. Yeah big time and then I was like Hey, man, I mean y'all messed up you double tax me We got this to tax thing. I was like with this to no, no, I ain't gonna to check what you thought now Yeah, you know got it all up here. We got Yeah back in the day when athletes didn't understand that they would come up there and be like

Hold up, which you mean I'm getting paid in loonies and toonies and you're taking two types Be like, yo, I'll go all in for y'all for a minute. But man, then you hear about how much money one of your friends is making in a state like Florida or Texas where there's not even a state tax. And yeah, you might get a little rubbed the wrong way. You know what I mean? Well, that's a big conversation. People can love you as much as they want to, but they not going to love you enough to be

paying your bill. Yeah, it's a kind of, believe me, it's a big conversation right now. Right? And you know, it's not only up here. There's other states down there that, you know, California and New York that hit you pretty hard too. So it's not only up here. It's a big conversation, like talking like how good is Scottie Sheffler going to be?

Yo, how about that segue? I like it. Alright, so. Am I not the greatest? not only appear conversation like talking like how good it's got a separate going to be you know how about that they wake up i don't know i'm not the greatest beautiful segment you better you know me asking that you know after after tiger i'm assuming michael you'd have tiger at number one on your list of the other five years where scottie is scotty is he moving towards the second best player the last twenty five years is in a top three top five? Where would he be for you? I think he's now there and the reason that I think he's now there is

Because he now has other golfers talking about him the way that Tigers competitors spoke about him when he was in his heyday and Tigers competitors spoke about him when he was in his heyday. And that's when you want to know when a guy is head and shoulders better than people. It's when they're playing competitors are like, yeah, that dude's game. I don't, he beat me. He beat my A game with his big game and so when he shows up and doesn't make Mistakes or like everyone said last week and if you don't hit the fairways here

You got no chance and then Scotty hit what three fairways on day one and was just like He might have been Rick James and just hit a lager. I'll get a new couch Right didn't matter to him. That's what I'm saying. And then the fact of what he said during his press conference, you know how many athletes are now on the phone with a sports psychologist trying to figure out why they can't get to that mentality. And I've been saying it for a long time.

Like when him and Ted Scott got together and became caddy and player pair, I told you this is gonna be very dangerous. And this also where I give his dad, Scott. Scott Scheffler has been saying this for a long time. I'm not, I was never trying to raise world number one golfer. I was trying to raise for a long time. I was never trying to raise world number one golfer. I was trying to raise a good human being.

Well, mission accomplished, dad. You know how many parents right now that have their kids in some kind of travel sport and they've gone all in on one sport for their kid? You know how many parents don't wanna hear something like that, right? Because they're like, I gotta go all in for this kid for him to have the best chance. And then you're like, are you creating a good athlete or are you trying to create a good

person? Because a lot of times it looks like you're going for the athlete. And so you look at Scottie Scheffler's dad, Scott, and his mom and their family. And that family dynamic is why he has a baseline that puts him in a place that a lot of other athletes, not just golfers, but athletes can't get to. And he's the greatest compartmentalizer of life since tiger except when it comes to like all of his stuff away he's the most vanilla do you know what I mean? Yeah it's crazy. That's the one thing I feel bad for the tour is cuz they're like yo we got our guy man it's gonna be awesome he gonna represent he like nah I'm not I'm really, I don't want to do that.

You know, hey man, let's go do some of these off course things. Nah, nah, I'm good. I'm all right. Be like, um, you're gonna help us promote a little bit? Nah, I'm just gonna win. I'll be, I'm fine with that. I'm gonna win and I'm gonna hang out with my family. So when you look at him, and obviously he's had an incredible run and he's obviously found his game. Why is he going to be able to continue this dominance? Like we saw, maybe not quite with Tiger, but we've seen other players drop off and thinking of Spieth and Rory.

Why is he different? Because and he said this in the press conference that he had and he's said it before, golf is not the end all be be-all for him. You know what I mean? If you remember in that presser he also said I don't know why these tournaments mean so much to me why I want to win them so badly but they're not the end-all be-all and you know what the rest of the golfing world the professional golfers thought to themselves well We wish you figure it out and then stop

He ain't there right he's not he's a dude who loves he loves getting up going to work and Then when he gets to the place where he's going to compete he loves the competing And it doesn't matter whether it's for free at the Olympics or whether it's for $20 million at the tour championship. He just wants to win. And he even said, and after I win, it's awesome for three minutes, but then it's like, meh, all right, what are we doing for dinner tonight?

And then what's next? I'm gonna go, I wanna just go back to the grind. Man, let me do all my work. And try to maintain and be good. Where other guys are fiddling and fixing, and I'm gonna change this a little bit, change that. Scottie not doing it. So when you say like, oh, you know, how about the run he was on? No, no, it's the run he is on.

He is not doing anything that would make someone go, oh, yeah, he's working on tweaking his iron game just a little bit or wants to do something different with his driver or three-word and stuff. And when you see a guy who's not doing that, you need to be very afraid of the future because he's not changing what he's doing. And that means the results aren't changing anytime soon. What do you think it means for golf though with what

you're talking about with extracurricular stuff? Like is it good? Is it bad? It's a double-edged sword. It's good for Scottie. And the reason it's good for Scottie is because golf is coming back to a good place where it's getting popular slowly but surely again. If you remember, like there was a huge drop off when this big PGA Tour live fight all started happening. People were like, you know what? Forget that.

I'm tired. Like millionaires fighting with billionaires? Yeah, I'm good. I don't need none of them. I'll go play golf, right, with my boys at a Muni for 68 bucks and hopefully get a free hot dog that ain't been there for four days. When you got a guy like Scotty Cameron, when you got a guy like Scotty Scheffler, he's now dominating in a fact where people are like, I might need to check this dude out. Like, I ain't watch golf in a minute. So let me turn on golf and see if I can see what this dude is really all about.

So he brings eyeballs back. Now the flip side of that, the other side, the other side of that sword, as you were saying, is it good or bad? The bad news is, the other dudes who aren't winning like Scotty is, they were doing all that extracurricular stuff like helping promote the tour. And if they stop doing that, then all then the tour is going to look around and go, hey, man, like, you know, all these signature events that y'all bitched

about and complained and now we got these things with no cut so you guys at the top can get your bags too of cash and do it? Well, you're not doing anything to promote nothing. And so by not promoting it, how are we bringing sponsors? Like how are they getting value for their dollars? And if they're not, then guess what happens to your money? It goes down too. Because now sponsors are like,

maybe instead of five million I give you two. And sponsors are not like standing in line being like, oh I'll go five million in here. Like we don't live in that world anymore. And so golf has to be, professional golf, has to be very careful. It's a very thin and dangerous line that they are walking right now because it's like some guys like George Speed even said, you know,

when Scottie Shepard stopped doing all that off course stuff, look at his success. And other guys were like, maybe I should do that too. And like, well, be careful. Like if you're part of that crew that wanted to get all of this extra stuff because you didn't get the bag to leave the tour Then you still got to do that extra stuff to make The big sponsors happy so that they keep sending checks With Michael Collins now we turn the page over to the Ryder Cup now that the majors are over You know, we got the FedEx race and all that but the Ryder Cup in New York

Call Scheffler is the face of that like is how big of a moment is this for him? You know as kind of the face of American golf but up in New York where I would think it's you know Bradley's gonna be a forefront. There's gonna be other guys Bryson's gonna be on the team yes yes Scotty this is the thing too Scotty doesn't have to be the face of the Ryder Cup right this is Keegan's show that's the thing so Keegan is gonna be the show and then we heard yesterday that Bryson's on the team regardless which is a really smart move too, because he's so beloved, period, around golf and outside of golf as well. So, for Scottie, first we'll say for Scottie. For Scottie, after what happened at the last Ryder Cup,

seeing how emotional he was about it, I expect Scottie to perform even better than he did last time and probably have more input on, hey listen, I'll play with whoever you need me to play with and we'll make it work, right? I think this is not a buddy's trip. Like this is a business trip to as much fun

and as crazy it is for New York. This team does not want the European team. And this is gonna get played a lot when we get close to the Ryder Cup. People forget. Go back and hit your YouTube and go see what Rory said after they won last time when he was in that winning presser and he was like adamant about we're going to New York and we're gonna win there too. Like oh really? Oh okay and you thought you had a little beef with LaCava before? Also a Connecticut guy close to New York? Bruh. Okay this is what's been so awesome about the Ryder Cup. It's the only event

like it there's nothing. There's nothing that compares to the energy and wildness of the Ryder Cup. And I think both teams are going to be extremely motivated. I think the danger, the only thing that I'm nervous about is a little bit of if the crowd goes a little overboard and is like, hey, we wanna be inside the ropes and affecting outcomes. And I'm hoping that that doesn't happen. But as a Philadelphia Eagles fan, it's like, well, I've been there, done that. Like I've seen this before.

Sorry, not sorry. Let me see that ring real quick. So, but yeah, I just expect Scotty to have a better Ryder Cup than he did last time. But I believe Keegan is the face of this team. And I'm hopeful that as someone who is named captain right now, that when he, he's going to play on the team, he's gonna play on the team he has to play on the team but in playing on the team then he cannot be captain so what the PGA of America needs to do is to promise Keegan that he will be a Ryder Cup captain in the future so that he can focus on playing

and then someone else can step in and be the captain. Well, we've got a month and a half, I guess, give or take to figure that out. It's going to be a front stretch run to get down to Long Island. Thank you for this, Michael. Really appreciate it. Yeah! I mean come on. Can I just tell y'all how much I miss Canada right now being in Florida and just... Come on up man, we're waiting for you. I know man, I'm like Avenue en Bloor, Bathurst and Field, like coming to hang... those are

like, this is my, it's my top three cities in the whole world and I miss it I'm not gonna lie man I miss it well get back up and when you do let us know we'll catch up appreciate you doing this I know you know some golf yeah we got him we'll hook you up all day man We'll hook you up all day man. We'll hook you up. No problem. Thanks Michael. Thanks for having me fellas. You got it Michael Collins of ESPN. The biggest songs in the world. You've heard them countless times. Now learn the details of how they came to be. Join Ruby Carr for Encore, the stories behind the songs you love. New interviews and newly unearthed archive footage make for a fascinating weekly deep

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