OverDrive - Weeks on Henderson gaining her stride, the Tour Championship favourites and Bradley's possibility to play at the Ryder Cup

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

TSN Golf Analyst Bob Weeks joined OverDrive to discuss the CPKC Women's Open, Brooke Henderson finding her game in the tournament and the mentality on the course, Aphrodite Deng in the spotlight, Tommy Fleetwood in the hunt at the Tour Championship, Scottie Scheffler's performance, Keegan Bradley's potential to play at the Ryder Cup and more.

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I'm doing very well, just on the shuttle heading out of the Mississauga, beautiful Mississauga Golf and Country Club. Well said, and Brooke Henderson was the star. Best round of the day, five under, sits at five under for the tournament in a T-5, so nice day by her. Yeah, a great day. Something she's been looking for for a while, I think. She's talked about how it was a little bit of a momentum at the end of her round yesterday propelled into today's round and she did i mean she hit a whole bunch of fairways she had a whole bunch of greens the putter has probably been the key for her so far 26 foot yesterday 28 today

she put a new putter in the bag just before the weekend you know how that goes you right the putter will work for a little while hopefully it'll keep working for when i get a new putter it works for about 18 holes and then of course i got to go buy a new one but she's playing she's playing some great golf right now and you can see it you can kind of see it in her emotion and her face that She's super happy right now because it's been a long sort of frustrating year for her. So what did you make of Aphrodite Deng Weeksy? She obviously she turned a lot of heads with a 5 under 66 in her opening round at age 15. She won the U.S. Junior.

Today it doesn't go quite as well. She's had a ton of birdies. Also, you know, a few bogeys and a double and shoots a 73-2 over par to sit at three under, but still tied for 15th. age 15. What have you made of this performance so far? I mean, she's playing some pretty mature golf for a 15-year-old. That's kind of what comes out to me. I mean, yes, she had a bumpy road today, but she fought back. She didn't kind of let it get completely off the handles, as you said.

She's in 15th place. I think that, you know, to watch her play, she doesn't really show any emotion on her face. She's a quick player, really quick player. She hardly waits for the other person to finish marking their ball before she's putting or taking her next shot or something along those lines. So she's got a real enthusiasm for the game. And again, she's smart. She's playing smart golf to the best of her ability. I think today the biggest key was she didn't keep the ball in the fairway off the tee a lot. So she was sort of scrambling out of the rough and trying to play defensive.

She ended up a few bunkers. She missed getting up and down three times. So, again, you know, you sort of lose track of the fact that she's 15. when you watch her play because she is such a mature golfer for her age and in this field. I mean, she's certainly not out of place here. Bob, sir, go back to Brooke. I watched some of that competition this morning, and just off the tee, she looks so confident. And I know when I'm playing while I hit it, I'm like, yeah, that's good.

I just walk off. She was doing that and hitting it a lot better than I do. So do you think that her game, the way she's playing, the confidence she's showing in many moments, including that one, Does she have the ability to kind of push through and make up the rest of the ground for Sunday? Yeah, I mean, there'd be nothing she'd love more, obviously, than to do that. You know, let's not lose sight of the fact it's been a long. She's now two years in without a win. She's struggled for consistency.

She's found, you know, sometimes it's her putter, sometimes it's her iron. Not very often her driver. Like you say, you know, a lot of times she'll tee it off and she'll hit it and pick up the tea right away and go away. there's actually, it's something about that. She knows that she's hit it well, but her eyesight is not good enough that she actually can't pick up where the ball is, so she doesn't know where it's going. She's because I know I hit it well, but I have no idea where it's going, so I'll let my sister, who is her caddy, Brittany, look at it and find it for me.

So there's a little bit of something to that. But yes, I do think she can carry this forward. There's a good crop of players ahead of her right now on the leaderboard, and they're not going to go away. but I think with the crowd behind her that she's using to her advantage now, you know, it can be plus or minus when you've got a big crowd like that following you. If you start to slip, you know, you want to force it a little bit more. That's what Brooke has said in the past.

So I think she's comfortable with the game right now. And in a lot of ways, this may be the best golf she's played all season. So, I mean, you've witnessed two rounds there. We're at the halfway point. In terms of how that course plays, in terms of how the field of players looks, could you make a forecast for the weekend? You know, it's pretty tough right now. I will say that QI, who's at the top of the leaderboard right now,

is coming off a win last week, and she doesn't seem to be letting up. And there's sort of a big bunch of players right now. This is, of course, I think, where, you know, if you don't, if you slide just a little bit, I think you can get yourself in big trouble. So if you start missing fairways, if you start getting it into bunkers and things like that, I think it's often tough to try and play catch-up on this course, I guess.

Now, Brooke did it today, but that's, you know, the best round of the day. She's moved herself back into contention. I think that the leaders are probably amongst the top 20 or so that are on the leaderboard at this moment. But this is a course that I think is going to show its teeth even more as it dries out a little bit. There may be a little rain for Sunday for what we're hearing, but it was soft to start with.

It's getting firmer as we go through the week and could be tough. But I think you're going to see some pretty good scoring here from the guys, from the people you expect. Let's put it that way. So the men's tour, obviously, Bob down in Atlanta at the Tour championship. And breaking news, Scotty Sheffler looks somewhat human today. Only shot one under par 69. And so it is Russell Henley and Tommy Fleetwood.

Top 10 Tommy, second place Tommy, who share the 36-hole lead. I mean, we probably asked this question to you, like, I don't know how many times, Bob, over the years. But can Tommy actually get it done on the U.S. soil for the first time in his career after his illustrious history not winning on the PGA tour? Well, this is event number 164 of his PGA tour career. So to say he's overdue might be the understay. Yeah, I think the other 29 guys in the field would love to see Tommy win one other than obviously maybe themselves or something.

But Tommy Flew was a super popular guy. He's had his chances. Look, he had a chance to win that playoff that Nick Taylor eventually won at the RBC Canadian open a couple of years ago. He had a chance in Memphis a couple weeks ago and you could just kind of see him coming unglued down the stretch. So there's things that are in his golf bag and there's things that are in his head that have been keeping him from winning. on the tour, and I think that at one point it's going to happen. He's too good a golfer, and maybe this is the week. It would be kind of fitting, right?

The guy who hasn't won in 164 starts, but he's now he's your FedEx Cup champion. I think it would be kind of neat. Third and fourth in the last two playoff events. So some good stuff for Tommy Fleet, where the only time they're not going to like him is probably in a couple of weeks on the opposition for the Ryder Cup team. I would say that Scotty Sheffler gave it one of the best two-handed

sand slammers I've ever seen. Man, he took his club and just dug it into the sand today. I'm very unexpected to see Scotty Shepler doing that, but it goes to show you a little bit about what a perfectionist he is with his golf swing and his golf game. And I wish I could shoot a one under and be upset about it. You know, that would be a really good feeling to have, I think. But I don't think he's gone away, and he's five back.

He was four back with one round to go last week, and he won. So don't count them out yet. And, Bob, that's where I want to take you. So, you know, they've got some separation a little bit on that leaderboard. But, you know, we saw a minus seven today, a minus eight, I believe. Does it, is it too late for some of those guys or maybe minus three, minus four, knowing the way the course is playing? Yeah, you'd have to put together two really spectacular rounds.

It's not out of possibility, I guess, but, you know, I think you're going to look at some of those guys at the top. I mean, Russell Hanley might be the most underrated PG-2 player there is right now. The guys won once in either get nine top. 10s this year. And I mean, he's in the top 10 in the world, and I don't know if a lot of people really know a lot about him. So he's a guy to watch. Obviously, Tommy Fleetwood, as we talked about, you can go down the list here. I mean, there's not really any weak names in there, but I do think, you know, at some point, you're going to have to realize that, okay, I'm

eight back. How am I going to make that up unless I'm Scotty Sheffler? I think I'd love to see sort of maybe, you know, Schaeffler and Henley and Fleetwood and a few of those guys who were up there battle it down the stretch. You give us a good finish to the season because that would be a nice conclusion for this event. And I'm sure Scotty Schaeffler

sitting there going, I wish I had my 10 strokes from that starting strokes thing that they used to go with last year. So, you know, the new format I think is proving and it's only probably going to be a temporary one, but without those starting strokes, I think it's a much better competition. You've had lead changes. You've had a lot

more people closer to the lead. So we'll see what happens as we get to Saturday and Sunday. But I think it's going to be a dog fight down the stretch. These guys are pretty good. Well, I'm glad you brought up the new format. So where are you on that? I mean, I guess I could be converted either way. But I didn't like the carryover thing because it just too much work to remember how it was.

Yeah, I mean, you sit there and try to figure out. It's like coded. What does this guy score? Is it eight under, nine under? I can't figure it out. Or, you know, like if you were yesterday, if you were Russell Hanley and you shot 61 and you're still five shots back at the lead or something along those lines, it would be kind of a kick in the teeth.

Now, from what I've heard talking to some people in the last couple of weeks, you know, this is a temporary format. They're going to come up with something different next year, something that is not starting strokes but might give an advantage to, say, the top four players who finish at the FedEx Cup. There's a lot of minds thinking on this and that might be a bit of a problem because of that. But I think by this time next year, you'll see a different kind of format. Maybe match play.

TV doesn't love match play because it can in quickly or can be with two players who aren't, say, let's say, marquee players. So they'll figure something out, and hopefully they'll have it in place before next year. Hey, Bob, you talk about the pressure on Tommy Fleetwood to finally get it over the line. But if I'm sort of handicapped in this field, it feels like nobody is more stressed at the Tour Championship than Keegan Bradley. who's, what, he's at minus six, he's seven shots off the lead, but he's sort of like the guy under the microscope

because he is the Ryder Cup captain for the United States. He sits in 11th place in the Ryder Cup standings. Of course, the first six guys in those standings get automatic bids to the team, and it's the captain's job to pick the next six. And he has called, you know, the decision whether or not he should be a playing captain or just a captain and pick six guys, not including himself, the biggest decision of his life. What do you make of all the hand-wringing here,

and how do you think it's going to turn out? Well, yeah, it's, look, he's in an awkward place. And most of the guys who are in that first top six and some of the ones that are, you know, more or less locks for the rest of it are saying, you know, you've got to have him on that team. One, he's playing great. And two, he is like a feisty guy that goes well in these kind of competition. That's probably why they named him as the captain.

on the other side is I think it's too big a job to be the captain and to play on this team. I mean, I know Tiger did it at the President's Cup a few years ago, but the last guy in the Reader Cup was with Arnold Palmer right back in the 60s. So it's a big job. Now, he's got a pretty good group of assistant captains, including Jim Furik, who has been a captain before, which is always good. But I don't know. I think this, he's going to have a hard time turning this down just because I think the other players

see him as an asset more as a player than as a captain. So, you know, we'll find out next week when he makes his picks. And I'd be surprised if he didn't pick himself. Bob, whose decision? Is that solely his decision? Or is that kind of a group choice with maybe some of the other assistant coaches? At the end of the day, it's totally up to him. But I can assure you he's going over it with all sorts of people.

And, I mean, you know, he's looking at it with his captain's assistant. He's looking at it through the analytics department. The guys, they have deep research on all their players. And, you know, sometimes it's someone, if someone, you pick someone who pairs up, they might not be the best player, but they pair well. I mean, you know, Scotty Sheffler and Sam Burns are great friends, and they play great golf together. So that might be a reason why Sam Burns gets picked other than the fact that he's had a pretty good season.

But those are the kind of decisions that have to be made. But it's totally up to Keegan Bradley at the end of the day. He's the guy who's got to make the phone call. And I guess he's going to call himself and tell him when he's on the team. I don't know, but I'd be surprised if he wasn't among the six-named guys. And it wouldn't hurt for him to have a good finish this week that would boost him up a little bit. Bob, thanks very much. Appreciate it.

Okay, take care. Bob Weeks, Golf Town, Canada, CSN, golf analyst covering the CPKC. 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 dive. Stream Encore, the stories behind the songs you love on IHeart Radio, or wherever you get your podcasts.