Potgieter Prevails in Playoff! | Rocket Classic Tournament Recap | Winner, Highlights & More

The boys are back to recap the Rocket Classic at Detroit Golf Club in Detroit, Michigan. 

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🎤 ABOUT THE SHOW
The Second Cut gets you everything you need in the world of golf on the PGA Tour and more! Tournament previews, storylines for each week, and in-depth players reviews. Hosted by Rick Gehman (@RickRunGood). Joined by Greg DuCharme (@therealGFD), Mark Immelman (mark_immelman), and Patrick McDonald (@pmcdonaldCBS).

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Welcome in. It's the Second Cut Podcast. I'm Rick Gaiman. That right there is Greg Ducharme. And we got bonus golf played in the Motor City. Greg, good to see you, buddy. Good to see you too, Rick. What a week and what a finish. It was rather exciting because I had no clue who was going to win. And this thing, for the guys that were near the top, it was wide open most of the day. 72 holes were not enough. Five playoff holes for a total of 77. It was a log jam all day long. We knew that was going to be the case. We had guys like Michael Thorpe Bjornsson throw his hat into the ring. We had Jackson Suber and Jake Knapp all make runs at this championship. It was a three-man playoff, but none of those names that I have just mentioned were in said playoff. No. You know, one thing that was really interesting was looking at the scores. There was not a lot of score variance. But you just look through this leaderboard. It's three under, five under, five under, five under, four under, six under, four under, five under, five under, four under, three under. Like everybody in the top 10 shot somewhere between three and six under. Not a whole lot of variance. And I think just about every single player that I named, including the winner, is ruining some shots out there. Everybody seemed to be letting opportunities slip throughout this day. And that was honestly more of the story than going out there and taking it. Well, the playoff... was between Chris Kirk, Max Grazerman, and Aldrich Potgeeter. And let's just get right to the champion, Greg. He deserves it. The 20-year-old out of South Africa gets his first PGA Tour victory after a little bit of a rocky start in the final round. Made two bogeys in his first five holes before settling down into this and kind of getting the greens figured out. Yes, very interesting day. You know, gets off to a great start at one, nearly hits it out of bounds at two. And it's not out of bounds, but he can't play it. And so he's got to take it on playable. I thought actually a pretty good bogey there. And then, you know, there were some mistakes, like four was bad. pretty brutal right in front of the green and two on the par five. Can't get that up and down. Um, then five, he's just left to the green and it's kind of like, you know, the weakness, everybody knows the weakness for Pocketer is his short game. Um, he's just left to the green on five. It's like 10 feet by, uh, and it showed up again at, at 15, he hit just a Just a terrible chip. But fortunately, come playoff time, he was able to hit some big ones. He was able to take care of the par fives with the exception of number four. So he took care of the last three par fives. And I'll tell you what, Rick, I love what he does with the driver. It was impressive. He didn't miss a fairway after the 10th hole in regulation anyway. he was striping it and the way he rolls the rock, it's, it's pretty impressive stuff. I think the other thing that I really like about it, well, a lot, I like a lot of stuff, but the, I thought he made some pretty solid, like in game adjustments, Greg. So clearly he, and maybe it's nerves or maybe it's whatever, but you know, you're struggling with kind of distance control on the putting surfaces. He was a little bit nervy on some of those shots out of the gate. And then if you look at the way he played 50, so he played 15 and, three times at the end of regulation and then twice in the playoff. The first two times, he couldn't figure out how to flight one back there into that pin, figures it out in the playoff. The second time, hits it to 17 feet and eventually rolls the putt in. yes which was really nice i it seemed like he played it three different ways yeah um and and that was a lot harder shot than it looked if you just watch the way balls were coming in there if they landed up on top they were skipping over the back and if you played them short there's a a slope there that was crushing it so it was really hard to get it close there there was a really small landing area to get it on the right level on that hole, which was really cool. Grazerman got it right in regulation. Maybe that was in one of the playoff holes. I think it was in one of the playoff holes. First time they played the first time, right? He, he got the landed it just on top of that Ridge and it skipped up and spun. So that was really nice. But look, those are things that pocket or needs. He hits it so long. We talk about this with Bryson and iron play. You end up with almost everything is an in-between shot. If you have 20-yard gaps between your clubs, it's very rare that you have a perfect number. So you have to be able to play a lot of different shots. And he can. He knows how to. I don't think it's as sharp as it can be. But the new set of irons that he put in play this week, the spinnier golf ball seemed to really be making a difference. And they seem to really help them this week. Puts himself on a really short list of international PGA tour winners, uh, before they turned 21. I think it's like Seve, Rory, Tom, Kim, Joaquin, Neiman. Um, I'm missing somebody big in there as well, but it's, it's, I don't think so. Is that the list? Yeah, I think that's the list. It's, it's a who's who, right? I mean, that now there's, Do expectations change when you win this young? You know, I don't know for Pock Eater. It's very interesting. And I know I'm not saying it the way Mark would want me to, but. That's okay. We are trying to. So the Mark situation is he was trying to fly out tonight. but the playoff, he might've missed that flight. So he might be joining us. If we, if we get him, we'll add him, but we'll see if we can get Mark today. So as for his expectations, Aldrich's expectations, I, I think there's a way you could look at this. Like it's a perfect golf course for him and, and he got a win. You know, he lost in a playoff in Mexico, which was a perfect golf course for him. And he nearly got a win. You know, he had a nice finish at, at colonial as well, but he's, He's missed like seven cuts this year on the PGA Tour. So I think there will be an understanding from the golfing public that he's a really, really talented player, but there's still a lot of work to do in his game. And if he gets that done, it becomes very scary for everybody else. But this is still a little, you know, it's not as sharp as, it's not nearly as sharp as it could be. Yeah, it's, you know, there's a lot to be excited about. He's 20. He's, you know, he's a winner now. He is probably the longest guy in professional golf, which is only going to, you know, benefit him in the modern game, right? So there's a lot to be excited about, but there's a lot to be, not that I should have compared him to Gordon Sargent, but like, you know, things, things, things are weird. Things happen. It's so easy to just anoint the guy who wins an hour ago as the next best thing when we've seen so many times how hard this is. Yes, yes. There's a lot that can go wrong. He has missed nine cuts this year. Nine cuts. He's made four. Two of those four, he's ended up in a playoff, and he won one. Look, I think there's a lot of good in that, but I'm not ready to go say the floodgates are going to open at this point. This is not a complete player. I've also, by no means, tried to bash the guy that just won. I'm extremely impressed. I'm just trying to temper the expectations here that this was a great week and he's a great talent, but I don't think he's the... The next Savvy Ballesteros. Yeah. Well, we'll find out. See, the thing with this one is you just have to circle back in 20 years to find out whether or not he's the next Savvy Ballesteros. Put it on the calendar. Yeah, I'll set a reminder for sure. June 29th, 2045. We'll talk about it again. We'll bring it up. Like 10,000 episodes from now. The... The man he beat, well, he beat two men in the playoff, but we'll get to Chris Kirk in a second. He exited a little bit earlier than the other two, was Max Grazerman, who I'll tell you what, for how long Aldrich Pocketer is, this Max Grazerman dude can keep up with him pretty darn well. Yeah, he kept up. There were a couple times it was like, wait, is Pocketer going first? Yeah. And if you look at the stats for the day, I was looking at driving distance all drives. Because it's fun just to see where everybody finished. Jake Knapp actually led. He finished fourth, won out of the playoff. Nikolaj Hojgaard was second. He was 24th. Pak Eder, who won, was third. Cam Champ finished tied 19th. He was fourth. Goderup was tied 26th. He was fifth. Grazerman was sixth. So Grazerman, on all of his tee shots... for the week was 317.6. Pocketer was 321.5. So absolutely moving it. And that was great, which is part of the reason why we were so high on him early in the week, Rick. Part of the reason was his putting, which seemed to return. He was second in the field in strokes game putting. Yet at the same time, there were plenty of opportunities in the playoff. But More importantly, great opportunities early on in this. He nearly drove the green on eight and doesn't convert the birdie. Misses a real close one at two. Doesn't make birdie there. And then all the putts in the playoff. He had a nine-footer to win the tournament and missed. A lot that will sting. The ones in the playoff in particular, maybe the one on 18 in regulation, He was on the pro side of all of them. They were all pretty darn good putts that could have dropped, didn't, and that's the difference out there. I was holding a 40-1 Max Grazerman ticket, so obviously I had a rooting interest in this. But this is what we talked about earlier in the week. He drives it so well. He putts it so well. That's a very unique combination on the PGA Tour, and this is basically the best golf course in the world for that. Yeah, and he showed up. You know, he didn't even bring... Another reason why I liked him this week is his iron play has been pretty good the last couple weeks. And it was just okay this week. You know, he gained strokes to the field, but barely. Like, half a shot. He hit 54 greens. Potgeeter hit 62. You know, there was a little bit of a... laps in those middle two rounds in that category that could definitely improve. But I love the way he competes. I love the way he swings it. He's got a great intensity about him. Mark interviewed him after the round. I would not want to interview Max Grazerman in a loser interview. He's a really intense guy. I didn't hear what he said. I didn't have the sound on. I was doing HQ. I saw that Mark was interviewing him. Do you know what he said? What did he say? Basically, it was that this one would sting for a while. Yeah, it really hurts. He gave it some good rolls that didn't go and he'll get back to work in two weeks. But you could you could see it in his face. It was it really bothered him. OK, so I'm trying to remember all of this because I was at the Wyndham Championship. He was the one who coughed it up on Sunday. Yeah, he had a four-shot lead. Four-shot lead like at the turn, right? It was late. Deep. Wouldn't it all start going downhill at like 14? And that was when Kuchar did not finish and basically said something like, I was trying to show Max it was okay to take a breath or something like that. Aaron Rye goes on to win and Matt Kuchar comes out and taps one in the next morning. in six minutes or whatever okay so so now that i'm thinking about that this is a way different result right i mean he coughed up windham this was yeah he had a missed couple missed opportunities but man this was a way better sunday for him in in terms of trying to get a victory well he competed and and there were some moments when it looked like this is going to get away He was going to come to 18 and be two back kind of thing. It was trending that way. And then he made the long putt on 16. It was like, okay, now we got life. Misses the fairway at 17, still makes birdie. Now he's tied for the lead and has a chance to win it in regulation. And no bogeys on the scorecard. He did not cough this up. There were like a couple of, you know, he could have won. I don't know if I'd go as far as to say he should have won. Really, he missed a five-footer at two, and he missed a six-footer and a four-footer. A four-footer at eight. And it's so easy to say either one of those goes and he wins. But then maybe 16 doesn't go in. Yeah, and you could also find, I'm sure you could find those for every guy in the field. You can. Every guy on the leaderboard. Chris Kirk might be an exception. everybody had like kind of agonizing opportunities that they missed. Yeah. And they're even more agonizing because like a par hurts and a Boki is basically ends your tournament immediately. So it is agonizing when you're getting so many great looks and they're just not falling. Well, especially when you look at, and this is part of the reason why they're redoing this golf course, right? I, I think the first time I saw a fairway bunker shot was Pock Eater in the playoff. Oh, dude, I was looking through. I was just clicking through shot link. And how many bunkers did not have a single ball in them all week long? There is no trouble off the tee. Yeah. And so now there's no trouble off the tee. You look at some of these holes like one and one is a wedge in. I mean, let's just look through what Pocketer had. Pocketer had 46 yards into number one. 46 yards. A lot of guys got it up there in that, Nate, 40, 50, 60 yards. You don't convert that. You don't get that up and down. It hurts right out of the rip. Two is a little longer, but you still, you can give yourself a wedge in. Three, Pocketer has 60 yards. You know, you might have 80 yards. Chris Kirk had like 110, I think. Those bunkers are not in play. It's like, got to convert there. Four is a par five. Five's not that long. It's a 130 into six. Seven's a par five. You can hit iron in there. Eight, you could drive it up by the green. I mean, Pocketer, I think he hit iron off that tee, and he had 100 yards in. You could drive, Grazerman drove it up by the green. It's like all these holes you have little flip wedges in or they're par fives. And it's just a killer when you don't convert. And so that's why everybody leaves feeling like they could have won this tournament. Well, we're going to try to add a third man to our playoff here. I see him backstage. Mark, give me a thumbs up if you're if you're right. OK, Mark Immelman is here. Hello, Mark.

SPEAKER_00: 16:59

Did I tell anybody how much I hate playoffs?

SPEAKER_01: 17:03

Five holes, Mark. Five of them.

SPEAKER_00: 17:06

Didn't feel like it was going to end either. I mean, and my guy got knocked out early, but I'm the loser interview guy, so I had to lurk around. You had to speak to some guy who was going to eventually bow out. I guess in the end it was an exciting day, but, man, what a day. It was unreal stuff. Yeah,

SPEAKER_01: 17:23

how do you draw the short straw of having to do the loser interviews?

SPEAKER_00: 17:28

Uh... I think my boss trusts me more than Colt Nost. Okay, fair, probably, and definitely accurate. And I interview for a living, and I did one way back in the day with Danny McCarthy, and kind of like Ron Firestone, I made him cry. And this has been my job, to try and get the guy to cry. Okay,

SPEAKER_01: 17:51

sometimes easier said than done. Well, the South African phenom, the 20-year-old, Gets the job done, Mark. How about that?

SPEAKER_00: 18:00

So proud of him. You know, he sort of weathered the storm a little bit. I was concerned. The first few holes, he looked sort of nervy. The club wasn't getting released. I mean, he was blocking balls out to the right-hand side because when he swings well, everyone thinks he fades the ball. But, you know, he fades the ball if he has to. His preferred shot moves from right to left a touch. But the first few holes, you could see him just not let one go. And I had said to Dottie, I feel like the key to him playing well is just freedom, you know, just swinging free. I heard Greg talk about, you know, the golf course now before the changes will happen, sort of defenseless if you're hitting at a certain distance. Yet he didn't look like he was in full command. But then in the end, he sort of dug in and showed his class to finish this thing off.

SPEAKER_01: 18:47

Yeah, he really did. We talked a little bit about his in-game adjustments and just the ability to– I'm thinking of the shots that he hit on 15, basically three different ways he tried to access that pin on 15 and really just figured it out as the round went on with especially his distance and his speed control on the putting surfaces. Sorry

SPEAKER_00: 19:09

to interrupt. You bring up a really good point that I'd love to elaborate on there with Aldrich because if you just throw the name out here to the folks in the know and the instant answer is going to be, well, Longest driver in the tour. He bombs it. But I don't, I want people to realize how many shots this guy has. Because like in the playoff there, for argument's sakes, when Chris Kirk is hitting nine iron. Now Kirk is not short. He's picked up power over recent years. And Aldrich is sort of brushing a nine iron in there that goes a little shorter than Kirk's did. That shows you how he has the ability to change speeds and flight the ball. And he's not afraid to go low in there. I feel like that's sort of born of growing up in Perth a little bit with the windy conditions out there. So, I mean, he's got a lot of shots. He really does. And he'll get ripped for his short game because he plays with that big, strong grip. But his touch around the green is incredible as well. So the boy's got a lot of shots. And as he continues to grow and mature, golly, with that driver that he has, which he tells me is his favorite club. Yeah, it better be. Well, think about this. I know another guy. young man who drove the ball like a wild man, power-wise, and is a Grand Slam champion now. In Rory, Ulrich has the same sort of gear as off the tee.

SPEAKER_01: 20:28

That'd be my favorite club. If I could hit it about 40 yards off the tee as well. Well, we're going to get to the man that you were with in the playoff here, Mark. And, uh, right now, because it's, it's, it's Chris Kirk and I'm going to bounce this over you first here, Greg, because, uh, Chris Kirk got in early and had to sit around and wait sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally crisscross applesauce on the driving range. And he bowed out of this, uh, on the 15th hole. It's the par three, that back left pin location you think might work perfect for the draw kind of flares one out to the right uh some 56 feet where you start to get more likely to three putt than to make it and he does three jack for for bogey that cannot extend uh his his playoff run

SPEAKER_00: 21:16

well no so sorry this this is this is sort of inside golf a little bit as it pertains to kirk um you know when he was waiting for the playoff We're there on what is the third tee of the tournament. And they just put you on the tee and you hit balls down three fairway. And he did a bit and then he turned and hit some balls to a green that's on the other course, the south course, little wedges underneath trees. And then with the wind, the way it was blowing on the practice tee, it was sort of like into off the left a little bit. And then he turned around and hit balls down another fairway. I think it was like the second or the fourth. And I'm watching him, and he's sort of hitting balls with the wind sort of over his right shoulder, almost like the approach shot on 18. And I'm like, well, this is pretty savvy. You know, he's preparing himself for the club he's about to have, which he hit really well in the first hole of the playoff. But then I asked Mike, his caddie, I'm like, so this is what I'm thinking. Am I right? And he goes, yeah, well, kind of. That makes sense. But Chris just hates a left-to-right wind. And as soon as they got there on 15, where it's like into him like this, and you would think as a drawer of the golf ball, you can just turn it into that thing and have the two cancel out. It just doesn't fit for him because, you know, as he hits it from the inside, the wind's out here, you're a little late with the club face. It's easy for the drawer to start to push the path way to the right-hand side, which is kind of what he did. I mean, I watched his legs fire way before they should have on that nine iron, and it was a missed strike. But it's sort of inside knowledge here that Chris is not the happiest camper in the world when the wind's into off the left-hand side or off the left.

SPEAKER_01: 22:56

Very interesting. Because on 18, it was off the right. And he hit two. I mean, in regulation, he hit a beauty in there. And he hit a beauty in there in the first playoff fold, too. I mean, two really high-quality shots. I loved what Chris Kirk did today. I just I felt like he was at a disadvantage. He's not short by any means, but he is compared to Grazerman and Pocketer. Sorry for the pronunciation, Mark. He's just a lot shorter than those guys. And so he didn't have quite the pitch and putt par fours that they did. And so he had to do it with wedge play and he didn't make very many mistakes. which was very impressive to me. So I loved the way he played this round. He had the driver on an absolute string. It's just a shame that he had to go out on a three putt. It felt like when he missed that putt on 18 in the playoff, he was done. There was a different look in his face. It looked like he knew that that was it.

SPEAKER_03: 24:08

Yeah,

SPEAKER_01: 24:09

which is strange. I don't normally see that from guys. And it was like, wow, that face looks very emotional, especially for Chris Kirk, who doesn't show very many emotions. a gritty, a gritty final round there. So 33, 34, 67 for, for Chris Kirk, just the one blemish on the card market. I will point out he will get credit. There was a couple of questions about this. He gets T2 credit. Doesn't matter where you finish in the playoff. He and Max Grazerman will split second place.

SPEAKER_00: 24:41

Yeah. You know, it's a guy who hasn't had his best stuff, but I remember, I don't know if it was this show or someone else where he, I sort of picked him on Friday evening just because of the player that he is and how decorated he is and just how mentally savvy he is and how he approaches the game, despite having these bombers that he's lining up against. And he said something to me when he was waiting for the potential playoff. And it was like, hey, Chris, how are you doing? Nice to watch you play. And he goes, man, it was fun. And he goes, I just hope I get some extra golf.

UNKNOWN: 25:17

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00: 25:18

And the way he said it was like, yikes, it's so good to be back in this position again. And I've been grinding so hard and now I'm here and I played so solidly there in the final round. Maybe I left one or two out there, but I just hope I get an extra go. And then it's amazing in these playoffs where at this level, if you have a shot and you don't take it, it's not often that you'll get another chance. And when he hit that nine iron into 18, in the playoff, that shot was one of the better shots I've seen this year. The way it was struck, the way it turned, the way it was controlled distance-wise. And then to just miss that putt, I thought he'd won the thing with that shot and he was going to make the putt. And then when he missed, you almost got the sense that, hold on, this was the chance now. Because now you're going into holes where it's the par three, but then you've got 16, which is playing into a breeze a little bit, so it's playing longer. And then 14 is downwind, and you've got Guys hitting nine iron in there where Chris went in with a hybrid club during regulation. So he's picked up playing great. I think he's obviously disappointed now. In my interview with him, he said as much. But I think when everything sort of clears out in the wash, he's going to go, all right, I'm back. Game's good. Nice way to– I've climbed the points ranking. I've almost booked myself a place in the playoff. Now it's time to make some hay toward the end of the season.

SPEAKER_01: 26:44

Yeah, played well at Oakmont, and then obviously a great finish here in Detroit. All three of these guys, Greg, get some pretty significant bumps in the FedExCup standings, and this is the time of year where you better get it because we're running out of events here. So Chris Kirk goes from 101 to 67, Grazerman goes 64th to 48th, and Aldrich goes 73rd to 36th. Obviously, getting into the playoffs is one thing, but top 50 gets you into the signature events, and then top 30 is... Now anybody has a chance because if you get yourself de-selected, you're starting at even par. Yeah, no more handicap for Scotty Scheffler like you'd see in those commercials. And he needs it. That guy stinks. Yeah, he needs all the help he can get. It's a really big deal because now 70, if you're 70th, I feel like you have a legitimate chance at winning the Tour Championship. I mean, you've got to play great, but you Why not? You know, why, why can't you do that? So, um, it's a really, really cool thing. And all you got to do is survive in advance. So these guys now have positioned themselves where they'd be in the playoffs if it ended today. Um, but they have some, some summer golf coming up. And I think for Chris Kirk, that means there's a number of really good spots for him. I like his game at, um, At 3M, for instance, his game could suit Windham if he has to play there. I think he could play really well on golf courses like that. Grazerman, I feel like he can play anywhere. Pocketer, we'll see. It doesn't seem like it right now, but it's obviously a developing talent, and it wouldn't surprise me if he showed the game to compete on You know, in an open championship, for instance. So we'll see how that all plays out. But yeah, big moves for these guys this week. And he certainly gets the longer leash, considering the fact that the win gets him the added benefits of sponsors, or excuse me, exemptions and everything else that comes along with winning on the PGA Tour. This was a three-man playoff, but at one point, it looks like it might be a nine-man playoff. I want to hit a couple of the guys that just missed out on this, and we're going to start with Jake Knapp here, Mark. Yes?

SPEAKER_00: 29:08

I've just got to get someone at my hotel room door. Give me two texts.

SPEAKER_01: 29:11

All right. No problem. He's muted. I don't know. Maybe he ordered DoorDash. I don't know what's going on. But Mark is going to his hotel room door. Jake Knapp here, Greg. A easy 68 because Jake Knapp doesn't do anything difficult, man. This is smooth and cool. And he gave himself a lot of opportunities coming down the home stretch. Could not get himself into the playoff falls. Just one shot short. Well, first things first, he shot 72 in the opening round and got himself within one of a playoff. I couldn't be more impressed with that. The way he finished round three, going birdie, birdie, birdie to close, is just sensational stuff. And following up a good round with another one, it was excellent. The big difference between Sunday and Sunday, And Friday, when he shot 61, was with the wedge play. Because just like Friday, he drove it beautifully. And a lot of those opportunities came from long, really long tee shots that found the fairway. But with his wedge play, he wasn't able to get those close today. Perhaps it had something to do with the little firmer golf course, some different hole locations. That all comes into play. But you're sitting there on a lot of these holes that you're not taking advantage of. Like number one, for instance, you're inside of 30 yards away from the flag and don't get it up and down. That's a killer. On three, you're right up there 50 yards away. Don't get it up and down. for a birdie that's a that's a killer uh and and so those kind of things really hurt the bogeys of course at 9 and 11 hurt as well um but yeah jake knapp fought really hard and ended up putting together all things considered a really great tournament yeah speaking of the bombers mark how about jake knapp who was number one in driving distance this week that's all drives uh not so shabby in the short game categories either. 11 out of 14 in terms of scrambling. That was 14th best. And then gained two strokes with the putter. 31st in putting. So a complete game here from Jake Knapp.

SPEAKER_00: 31:33

Jake Knapp is a baller. I mean, he's just so easy going too. I had a conversation with him on the range prior to Saturday's round. He's just so easy, man. He's not phased about stuff. He just plays golf. And today in warm-ups, he was hitting drives that were launching at 196 miles an hour. Okay? So the guy's got gears. It is unreal how hard he hits it with that languid pass of his. But he's strong. He's fast. He's got all these things. But those numbers sort of belie stuff a little bit here because I want to build on Greg's point about the stuff around the greens. Where he's driven the ball to a place where he could throw it on the green on a par four. But then this beautifully languid, silky sort of long golf swing that gathers and speeds up and then slows down. When he's got shorter shots in that sort of 30, 40, 50-yard range, it's not like the length of the backswing changes very much. He sort of swings back and then almost slows down a little bit through the ball. And more often than not, you'll see him hit balls will come up 10, 15, 20 feet short. And if he's putting well, that's okay. But if you're not making putts in the final round, you're squandering opportunities. But all that being said, you've got to hand it to, again, him because he was sort of in the movie, then out of the movie, and all of a sudden he's hit eight iron to about 15 feet on the 71st hole. Make that your title for the lead. So he showed some moxie to hang in there, and I'm surprised to say that, look, I'm a fan. I am a fan of Jake Knapp, the guy and the golfer.

SPEAKER_01: 33:09

Yeah, he's fun to watch. He shot the course record earlier this week. He is certainly getting comfortable doing that. How about Michael Thor Bjornsson? That is a name, Greg, we have not spoke a lot about. And he was one of the guys to come up through PGA Tour U. So he's got his exempt status through this year, through 2025, for being number one in last year's PGA Tour U. It has not been a great year for him. A lot of inconsistencies, but he goes out, he shoots a 67 on Sunday, finishes at 21 under par, which is a tie for fourth. He played great, which was nice to see because he hasn't played great very often. But again, on a, on a golf course, that's perfect for his game. He steps up and delivers. The problem is he just like, it seems like everybody else in this tournament, maybe even pocket or who wins. There's just these mistakes that have got to eat at you. Like the, you know, he three putts nine and he three putts 12 and eight. He had a, I would say a doable up and down from the back edge of the green. So those are the kind of disappointing mistakes you just can't afford to make. But there weren't very many guys that made as many birdies as him today. He made, what, eight birdies? He made eight birdies today. Four on the front, four on the back. It's a lot. So the point is a lot of really good golf in a really consistent way. roundabout way. Every area of his game this week was very good. And I think he should be really proud. Hopefully he can take this, build a little momentum into the remaining summer events as well. Yeah, it's not his best finish of the year, Mark. He had a T2 in Punta Cana, but it is only... I'm going to throw out the Zurich Classic. It's only his second top 30 of the year.

SPEAKER_00: 35:15

Yeah, okay. I'm going to bet this guy at the John Deere, just so you're ready for this. Okay. First off, I think I've mentioned to you guys I caught up with his new caddy, JJ, and JJ worked for Murakawa. Right. And JJ was, like, very happy I've made the move. Nothing against Colin, very happy I've made the move. And so I was scheduled to call Kirk. And six runs in one direction and seven, the par fives running like this. And there's probably about 30 feet of rough between the two entries, 40 feet maybe. And I'm looking at Thor Bjornsson here and Kirk over here. And Thor Bjornsson hits the six iron from 200, whatever it is, over that tree short of the par five to about 15 feet. And I looked at my guy on the course. I'm like, Craig, we've got to move to this guy. And Craig's like, I'm cool. You know, he loves Thor. So we go over there, and he makes the two-putt birdie, then sort of pulls a wedge a little bit and makes that soft bogey on eight. And we're hanging around. Now, all of a sudden, first assignment's making birdie. So I'm waiting to get moved back. And my producer says to me, he goes, just hang with Thor for a little bit. So Thor Bjornsson, birdie's 10. We show that. It's a good six iron to 11. He makes par 12. He blows one way right, like way, way right. And he's got this lie in the rough, kind of matted down. And in front of him, there's a hardwood tree that's, it looked 60 feet high when I stood 40 yards from it. And Thorbjornsen's got like about 180 yards to the pin and about 165 or so to the front of the green. And this cat winds up there with nine iron. And it's this bull that takes off like a homesick angel. straight over the top of this tree onto the middle of the green. And I sort of shook my head. I was like, holy cow. And JJ walks past me. And I'm like, your previous guy couldn't do that. And he goes, no, we would have sliced it around the tree there. So what I'm trying to say there from this brush I had with Michael on the golf course, he has got tools. He really does. But he's got to figure out what's happening on the greens. I don't care how well you hit it. You cannot out hit anything. a bad putter, and I've said that countless times. Now, he is a guy who's going to win. Now, if he just wants to finish 25th, 30th, 15th on the odd occasion, hit a great putt average, by all means, but that's not who he is. He's a winner. So he's going to have to iron that stuff out. He's hired JJ for better green reading, but he's got to iron that stuff out because what I saw was he squandered strokes on the greens when I was working.

SPEAKER_01: 38:07

You know, one other thing, Rick, I know last year he struggled with some injury towards the end of the year. Like at the RSM, he was just coming back from a knee surgery. Well, Greg, he just withdrew before the tournament started last week, didn't he? Was that last week? Recently, you're right. I don't know what it was, but because you brought that up, it triggered that memory. So, you know, I wonder with him if there's been some health issues. I don't know that for sure. I know there was early in the year. I don't know if they've lingered or if they stunted his performance with his ball striking because, you know, I don't think it's been as good as it could be to Mark's point. And, of course, the putting's got to get cleaned up too.

SPEAKER_00: 38:57

Greg, he also does not. Everything gets hit full speed. because he's got a bit of a shot club face at the top. He's the prototypical modern player. Six foot two, lean, strong, fast, face closed. Then from there, you're rotating like a banshee to make sure you don't hit a left. When he slows down to hit the sort of soft, you know, that ease one under the wind kind of shot, he doesn't have that just yet either. He's got to learn that sort of stuff. Almost like a young JT. You know, when Jimmy Johnson took Justin Thomas aside and said, you're going to learn how to wedge properly. and stop going full bar with short clubs, JT turned into a major champion. I forecast the same thing for Thorbjörnsson. Wow. Mark the time. He's got to be able to do those Justin Thomas-esque wedges after you've whipped the thing down there 330 off the tee.

SPEAKER_01: 39:52

I like that. Also, Mark, I'll tell you what. There's something happening here, and it backs up what you're saying. Because... The odds are out for the John Deere Classic. Michael Thorpe Bjornsson, who has literally shown little signs of life on the PGA Tour, has the third shortest odds to win this golf tournament.

SPEAKER_00: 40:15

Well, you guys didn't know Moonlight is an odds maker for Vegas.

SPEAKER_01: 40:20

Yeah, apparently you do. You're setting the lines. He is shorter than Jake Knapp. He's shorter than Ryan Gerrard, Michael Kim, Aldrich. He's shorter than Mark Hubbard and Alex– I mean everybody. He's shorter than everybody but Ben Griffin and Jason Day. So there is clearly some momentum here.

SPEAKER_00: 40:39

Well, I've had the luxury of having a group of him and– Oh, gosh, who was the other one? Luke Clanton. A couple of years ago, maybe, final round, where they both made a run at the title. And I remember watching Thor Bjornsson, and I was like, the guy just looks so regal. He's tall in the way he swings it and the way he hits it, where Clanton was kind of gritty and blue-collar and stuff. And I think Clanton finished runner-up, and Thor was about third. So he's got good course history there, so maybe that's part of it.

SPEAKER_01: 41:13

Okay, well, it now has my full attention. We've got the three-way playoff. Thor Bjornsson and Jake Knapp, T4, T4. Just a couple of notables, and I'll throw them out there. If you guys want to take the bait, feel free. But Colin Morikawa shot a 68. He finished T8. Hideki Matsuyama had himself a nice week. He finished T13. Patrick Cantlay, T32. Those were kind of the bigger names leading into the week. I can... Move us on or we can talk about anything else from this week's Rocket Classic if you'd like. One thing on Morikawa. Sure. Go ahead. New putter after round one. Yes. He lost 4.6 strokes putting in round one. Good reason to put a new one in play mid-tournament because it's not going to get much worse than that. Gained strokes the next three days. So that could be a sign of life. Maybe we see Morikawa with the mallet for the rest of the year. You know what I hate? These guys get it all, man. He is playing a one-of-one prototype that is basically a spider face and shape, but the back of it is like the Odyssey 7S, which is my favorite putter. I would... pay any amount of money for this putter if it was made available. And of course, Colibor account is the only one that exists. Well, maybe he puts it up for sale in a couple of weeks. There's no guarantee.

SPEAKER_00: 42:46

Well, you know the story, right? He actually admitted to Amanda after Saturday's round, he travels with like a few, like four or five.

SPEAKER_01: 42:55

Yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 42:55

he's done that for a while, I think. Like if one misbehaves, he kicks the thing out. So it might be on the market. You're pretty safe. I just have to wait. I do want to say this about Colin because I was concerned that I was starting to see things and I was losing my mind a little bit because I remember taking odds with you guys a bunch of times where everyone looks, well, Kyle Porter especially, where he'd be like, Colin's striking it great. You know, he's third in strokes gain approach. And I'm like, Kyle, he's not hitting it with flip, you know, as far as he's concerned. And I heard him talking to Amanda going, you know, the numbers are belying the way I'm hitting it. He goes, I love to see the ball fading, and right now it's not fading, but I'm just kind of riding the wave a little bit. So I guess statistically he's good, but the real news is he doesn't think he's completely there with his golf swing just yet. He's working really hard. It's not doing what he wants it to do, yet still, which is, I guess, emblematic of what a great striker he is, he's still able to put up some good statistical numbers with the iron game.

SPEAKER_01: 44:00

I think he's dangerously close to going down the Victor Hovland rabbit hole. And he's not built like Victor to be able to handle that.

SPEAKER_00: 44:09

No, I would disagree there because Victor, as a golf coach, you basically know you've got about 48 hours to make a difference as you're out there. It's like a carousel. Where Colin was assessing us, then he tried Blackburn, which didn't last very long. And then he went back to Rick. So he's almost more like Jordan Spieth where he's sticking his course a little bit. He's been with

SPEAKER_01: 44:32

Sessing now since he was seven.

SPEAKER_00: 44:34

Yeah, but if I'm reading the tea leaves a little bit, I wouldn't want to be Rick right now. I think he's on the hot seat. But I still don't see– like Vic is bouncing around between golf teachers like he's changing clothes.

SPEAKER_01: 44:50

Yeah, I just think that– I don't think Colin's view of his own game is reality. I don't think what he necessarily... He's not a great narrator. He did this at Brookline too, where it's like, oh yeah, I can't swing. It's drawing and it's trying to fade and I'm leading the US Open after 54 holes or whatever it is. He just gets into these weird... I don't think he's a very reliable narrator of his own game.

SPEAKER_00: 45:19

He's a victim of his own success. I mean, how old was he when he won his first major championship?

SPEAKER_01: 45:25

Oh,

SPEAKER_00: 45:25

God. I mean, he won

SPEAKER_01: 45:26

two of his first eight, didn't he?

SPEAKER_00: 45:27

Yeah. I mean, he won basically everything he played in. And he was unbeatable. And he was a top, at that stage, what, four or five player in the world. Yeah. Now, once you've been there, think of Jordan Spieth. Colin's not the first one. When you've been up there on the top of Mount Everest to golf, now you're down the other side and you're trying to find your way back up there because you know, you're like, I've played well. I've done this before. He's the

SPEAKER_01: 45:52

fifth-ranked player in the world, Mark. He's not on the side. He just hasn't won, and he's going crazy. It's driving him insane.

SPEAKER_00: 46:00

But you see, the thing is, his calling card is the ball strike. Yeah. It's the ability to play the game ugly. And if you have to, we'll get to Scotty Scheffler. He can play ugly golf and win. You know, he can make it look kind of ugh. But then there are times when he strikes it great, where Collins– It's pretty, man, and the ball's struck right all the time, and it's through the window he wants in all these sort of pro terms. He's playing a bit of ugly golf right now because the ball's drawing and he doesn't like it, but he's turning it into scores, which is the most important statistic there is.

SPEAKER_01: 46:33

He did hit 62 of 72 greens in regulation this week. He was third in proximity to the hole. I just want to shake him, Greg, and I just want to say you are, like, One of the greatest golfers in the world. Knock it off. Knock it off. Yeah. Mark talks about the importance of the putting all the time. And I think what you say about winning ugly is critical. Because you may not like it, but the truth is you're beating the field with your ball striking. But You can't just beat the field with your ball striking. You know, like you always say, you need to putt. At the U.S. Open, Tita Green, he gained basically the same amount of strokes as J.J. Spahn, who won. It was 16.15 for Colin Tita Green and 16.30 for J.J. Spahn total. But Colin lost eight strokes putted. It's like I just I from my vantage point, we need to prioritize. We're we're doing all right, even though you don't like it. We just got to like the key to you can win the way you're hitting it, even if it's not exactly what you like. I also still see a lot of fades unless shot track trackers wrong. I can't think of a single draw. I've seen him hit. So there's just, I mean, I get that you're picky and you want to be the best you can be. And I totally appreciate that. But I just think what he's doing now, TD Green is good enough to win. It's just time to go do it. So driving himself crazy. Driving himself crazy. Indeed. He's got a couple of big ones coming up, though. We'll see how it goes. Here are our picks from this past week. We had some good ones here, but nothing that really did the trick. Ben Griffin wins for Greg over Keegan Bradley. Ben Griffin continues his great run of golf. It was another, just another, top 15 for Ben. T13 to be exact. Greg, this dude is a machine. He never gets tired. He just does it all. Yeah, not surprised to hear he's playing the John Deere. He's going to play them all. He's going to play them all the rest of the way. Yeah, you lock him in for it. T15 or better next week too. It's really incredible.

SPEAKER_00: 48:57

I asked him about it. He goes, I'm not playing Scotland, but then he quickly follows. He goes, but I'm going over there early to play a little links golf.

SPEAKER_02: 49:06

Yeah. So you might as well just play it.

SPEAKER_01: 49:09

Yeah. He's got a member guest at a different place in Ireland. So he's incredible. I figured it would be a lot for Keegan. It was brilliant. Really, the reliability of Ben Griffin and the win the week before for Keegan that sent me down that path. I'm just really frustrated that I don't have Grazerman anywhere on this card. He was in my fantasy plays. I loved him. I looked and I'm like, I didn't work him in here. What am I doing? He should have been in one of my outrights, even though he lost. I would have felt better about that red X. Yeah, well, Mark had him, but it was in the matchup, which still pays just as well because it was an easy one over Davis Thompson, who finished T34. So no

SPEAKER_00: 49:55

sweat there, Mark. Wasn't an indictment of Davis who played well. It was just Max and something about Max at this time of the year plays well. You know, I think he's watch for him at 3M. I don't know if he's playing John Deere, but he's the kind of guy that in these sorts of golf courses, our late summer swing on the PGA Tour, that he has a whole lot of fun. The rest of my card was abhorrent, but anyway. Well, that's

SPEAKER_01: 50:24

okay. I had a perfect grid if perfect is for red Xs, so it's all good there. At least you guys got the matchups in there. Any final... 3M Open. Gosh, I'm not ready to do 3M Open. We're not there yet, Rick. Any final Rocket Classic thoughts? Next week's the John Deere, but we'll get to that next week. Anything for this week?

SPEAKER_00: 50:51

I'll say this. If you ever wanted proof that firm and windy is the only way you defend golf courses against PGA Tour pros, you got it today. You got it this afternoon. And it was amazing to me how because... The golf course is getting chopped up and rebuilt from tomorrow morning. It's like the rules staff just went, okay, there's your golf course. We're just going to let this thing go. And there were some spots today on some of those greens where it was firm and it was– Mac Dresman said to me, he goes, in the interview, he goes, at the end of the day, 70-something holes, the greens were really crispy, sort of difficult and stuff. So it was challenging out there, and in the end, I feel like It was actually pretty entertaining. I'm looking forward to seeing what the rating is to tomorrow morning.

SPEAKER_01: 51:43

What else did I see? I saw Aaron Wise made the cut, which is very cool. Yes. Nice to see Aaron Wise back playing some golf tournaments, playing well. He finished at 10 under par. I saw that. That was pretty cool. What else? Anything? One other thing. I checked out the double digits after two days. Everybody inside the top 12 was at double digits after two days. These log jams, you could shoot low numbers, but you can't get behind in these kind of things.

SPEAKER_00: 52:24

Did I lose more wine to you?

SPEAKER_01: 52:26

No, we never had a wine bet on it. But I looked at it because I know we had that discussion, and I was, quite frankly, a little nervous that somebody was going to go crazy. But I think those firm and fast conditions you talked about, Mark, really played in my favor on that

SPEAKER_00: 52:42

one. Yeah, they did. If it was going to be soft and they were going to be guys– because what was low today? I don't think it was that low. It wasn't–

SPEAKER_01: 52:50

Seven under early. Very early, yeah. Yeah, there were two seven unders. Higgs and– Akshay. Yeah. They were done. They were at home by the time Mark got on air.

SPEAKER_02: 53:04

Tell you that.

SPEAKER_01: 53:06

All right, gents. Well, listen, we'll be back next week. It's John Deere Classic, and we've got the Tuesday show, the Friday show, Sunday show to get you all up to date on everything that you need for now. Big thanks, producer Mina. She does all the hard work behind the scenes. That's great. It's Mark Gimelman. I'm Rick Gaiman. This is The Second Cut. We'll catch you next time.

UNKNOWN: 53:28

Thank you.