John Deere Classic Mega Preview | Picks, Storylines, Best Bets

The boys are back to preview the John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois. It's news, it's storylines, it's best bets! 

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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 Tuesday. I'm looking at my watch. It says five o'clock. It actually says two o'clock. That's how time zones work. But this is the mega preview pod for this week's John Deere classic. We've got news. We've got storylines. We've got best bets. We've got Mark Gimelman. Hello, Mark.

SPEAKER_03: 0:20

Hi, Rick. You know, you were doing that intro so great, and I'm like, yeah, it's five o'clock, and then you ruined it by telling us where you were. You just should have kept going, bro. You were selling the whole thing like a professional.

SPEAKER_01: 0:30

All right, I'll sell it a little bit harder next time and leave my own time out of it. We've got Greg Ducharme. Hello, Greg. As they say, gentlemen, it's five o'clock somewhere. That's right. I'm glad that it's here in what I would consider to be the time zone, which is Eastern Time. So, yeah, fired up about that. Looking forward to the John Deere Classic. Total birdie fest. Can't wait to chop it up with you guys. How did Eastern Time become the time zone? I just think there's the most people in it.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02

Yes, and here's my take two. The two major broadcasting systems, terrestrial, are both based in the east. That's the thing.

SPEAKER_01: 1:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 1:12

That's how I think it is.

SPEAKER_01: 1:14

That's how I think it is too. All right. Well, hold on. I can do this. Population by... Time zones, because I bet you it's close. You think Pacific's pretty big? Well, I mean, California alone has a tenth of the population of the country.

SPEAKER_03: 1:34

This is true. Well, here's what I need to say to you while you're figuring that out, because I live right on the river in Georgia that splits Georgia and Alabama. So if I drive over the river, it's central time. If I stay in Columbus, it's eastern time, right? Okay. And my old boss, Lance Barrow from CBS, used to call central time, because he lives in Fort Worth, he calls it sensible time. So I'm kind of partial to sensible time a little bit, to be really honest with you.

SPEAKER_01: 2:02

Well, I must put my hand up. I am very far off on this. So... Coming in, this is United States population by time zone from the first Google result that I found. I'm not going to vet it. I'm sure it's correct. Coming in fourth place, Mountain Time. 6.7% of the population. Very predictable. Very predictable. This was tough. Pacific Time is third. Only 16%. of the population. The vast majority of that coming from two counties, Los Angeles County and Orange County. A lot of empty land on the West Coast with not a lot of people in it. Out in them hills. Out in them hills. Sensible time.

SPEAKER_03: 2:55

Or

SPEAKER_01: 2:57

central time. Look at this. Coming in second place with 29% of the population living in central time. They get a lot of help. from Texas. They get a lot of help from that looks to be Chicago and kind

SPEAKER_02: 3:13

of, yeah,

SPEAKER_01: 3:14

yeah. Those, those, uh, populated areas in the middle of the map. And then Eastern time, a whopping, a whopping 47% of the population living in Eastern time. Of course, all the major, uh, metropolises on the, on the, on the East coast, they get Florida, they get all the States that are, you know, the big ones. So yeah. Well done. Well, that's why it's the time. I'm not sure if that's a good thing. I'm not sure if I should be proud to live in Eastern time, but it certainly makes things a whole lot easier. There's a lot of conversions for you, Rick. There's not a lot of conversions in my life. I actually just refuse to make them.

SPEAKER_03: 3:58

the cool thing about where I live in the Eastern time zone is we're as far West as you can go. Right. So at this time of the day, I've got a lot of golf playing time. I mean, it stays light for a long time. My buddy's in Florida on the East coast there. It's already kind of dusk ish, you know, in the gloaming and we've still got bright sunshine. So it's one of the benefits of being so close to the sensible time zone.

SPEAKER_01: 4:20

Yeah. That's the thing, depending on where you're at in the time. So it makes a pretty big difference. I mean, Central time goes from basically Chicago to Western Texas, which is that's got to be like a thousand miles. That's a big difference when it comes to daylight. So it matters. Doesn't matter what time it is. Doesn't matter what day it is, because it's always going to be a great week. A what a week cap has now made its way to the second cut. Merch store, of course, secondcutmerch.com. That's embroidered, Mina. Is that correct? I think I heard her say yes. You want to unmute yourself and come in? Is it?

SPEAKER_00: 5:07

Yes, it is embroidered.

SPEAKER_01: 5:09

Thank you very much. I don't know if she knew she could do that. She can come in with just Mike alone. So the recap dad hat, what a week, is available. Not just that, all your hoodies and t-shirts and everything else that you could possibly think of with new additions coming every single day, seemingly. And Greg, this is really a tribute to you because you have now said a phrase so frequently, we have embroidered it on a hat. Well, the funny thing about this, going back to its origins, is I said it very frequently without even realizing it. And I never put a whole lot of thought into my intro. Like, for instance, you say, what's up, everybody? And on Sundays, I was like... What a week. And then somebody noticed it and I guess it became a thing. So I'm glad it's a thing. I can't wait to get that hat and wear it proudly. I don't know if I'll wear it on the air or not, but I will be wearing it.

SPEAKER_00: 6:14

Well, Greg, please don't get one because there's one arriving at your house in just a couple days because it's an early birthday gift.

SPEAKER_01: 6:25

Oh, well, thank you. Yep, the surprise is ruined. I was waiting. I was wondering what you were going to get me. Yes, well, it is on its way. We are going to get to golf at some point here, but I'm noticing a comment here, Mark, in the chat. It is from someone Patrick McDonald.

SPEAKER_03: 6:47

He

SPEAKER_01: 6:48

would like a word about a five-setter this morning with your man going down at Wimbledon.

SPEAKER_03: 6:56

It started last night. Sasha Zverev is my favorite tennis player, followed closely by Yannick Sinner. And when we were at the Canadian Open, that rascal Carlos Alcaraz knocked off Sinner in the final. And Frank Nobileau and I were just absolutely so despondent. And the rest of the crew was over the moon. But I held, you know, Sasha, you know, bowed out early there at the French. And I was holding... Fingers crossed, holding thumbs and stuff for a big run here in Wimbledon. And he was so lethargic. I actually was texting with Patrick this morning because this is the time of the year that Patrick and I pay less attention to golf and way more attention to tennis. And cool thing is next week when I'm in Scotland, it's the second week of Wimbledon. So it's going to be cool. I'll be in the correct time zone, the BST. So... Anyway, so I'm texting with Patrick and he, as usual, is going on about Emma Navarro because he's got such a boy crush. It's a joke, right? And so eventually I'm watching the Sasha game and it's crickets. There's nothing from Patrick. So I figure I've got to send him something. So I'm like, Pulling for Sasha Zverev is like making me want to pull out my hair, and I cannot afford to do that, really. So we had some banter, and then Sasha bowed out, and now I'm kind of sad. But anyway, Sinner is still in, thankfully.

SPEAKER_01: 8:24

Yeah, there's been quite a few upsets already, a couple matches that had to be resumed today after stopping last night. There's a strict curfew, Greg, 11 p.m. local time. Did you know that? Or maybe it's 10 o'clock, but there's a strict curfew at Wimbledon. 11. I did know about the curfew. I couldn't have told you if it was 10 or 11. But look, that's the coolest event in all of tennis, in my opinion, and not close. So I appreciate it. I appreciate the tradition of it. And this weekend, I will probably tune in. I'll probably watch some. Yeah, it's the best. Okay, I guess it's time to talk about golf. Let's get right into it. Let's look back before we look forward. And Mark, I assume this is all thanks to you. But CBS Sports has delivered the most watched final round of the Rocket Classic in five years, 2.8 million viewers, up 13% from last year. This is the thing that I am more interested about because we've talked about this a lot. It's really hard to figure out. What numbers are good? What are bad? Does it include streaming? Does it not? What was it against this time slot last year? What was the weather doing? Who was involved? All those questions. But this one has me interested. Golf on CBS has the most watched season to date since 2018. 3.2 million viewers on average. What is going on? Why are people watching more golf?

UNKNOWN: 9:53

Ugh.

SPEAKER_03: 9:53

Gosh, I don't know. First off, Alex, your question about who on the PGA Tour would be the best or worst tennis player, I'd say Matt Kuchar. I'll just kind of leave that there. Wait, is he

SPEAKER_01: 10:06

the best or the worst?

SPEAKER_03: 10:07

No, he's the best.

SPEAKER_01: 10:08

He's also a good table tennis guy, right?

SPEAKER_03: 10:10

Very good. I mean, he's a good tennis player. His father, the family was very much into tennis, and his wife, Sibby, play tennis at Georgia Tech, I believe it is. So there's a lot of tennis in the family. Regarding these ratings, it's been nuts. I mean, we've got these messages over the last few weeks. Travelers had the same thing. And it's just cool to be a part of. I think a lot of it, I think the algorithm of how they measure has changed because I believe they're now counting streaming, which is a big deal because of Paramount. And then And then we've been really lucky with the signature events. And we've had some great champions in the signature events. And so it draws eyeballs and draws attention. And then I think a lot of the– well, I think this is just me. I think it was– it's also part of the fact that I believe a lot of the viewing public are sort of over the whole Live PGA Tour debacle. And now they're realizing that the tour has got some really cool players, some good names, and there's been some sweet storylines. So we've just been lucky to be on the receiving end of that thing and all these great events we've gotten to cover.

SPEAKER_01: 11:20

The signature event portion of this, Greg, I want to mine into a little bit. I think the tour would argue signature events have been a great success. I think I would argue they've been... Good, not great. I think there are still some adjustments that can be made. Give me 80 golfers with a cut to 50, 72 to a cut to 50, whatever. But that's the one thing that I would fix. I think, however, some portion of this is a benefit of the signature events. And the fact that now the non-signature events are getting... statistically stronger fields. We saw the Rocket Classic and the John Deere basically getting some of the best fields they've ever gotten. I think that bleeds a little bit into the viewership as well. I think that's at least one spoke of the wheel. I think it's a really big spoke of the wheel. And you're starting to see in this separation... Well, I'll put it to you this way. A lot of those that are inside golf have... something that they would fix with signature events. And I'm just going to leave myself out of it for right now. But you mentioned a cut that's very common. Some people want more players. I hear those kind of issues taken with signature events all the time. A lot of the players have issues with signature events. They don't necessarily believe in less golfers being a good thing. But when you look at numbers like this, And look, it's mainly for the year, the one you pointed out, Rick. Their best year since 2018 across all CBS events, which both CBS and NBC have signature and non-signature events. So you're seeing a rise on both networks. You're seeing a rise in signature and non-signature events. And I think it's generating more interest in the game in general. And look, I have long wondered, is putting all the guys together really the best thing? Or is it good to have them spread out? You might have gotten a handful of other guys. I'm not even going to name names, but you may have gotten a handful of other guys at the Rocket Classic this past week. But it doesn't necessarily matter because we've gotten to know, you know, you take the Rory's and the Scotty's and the Xander's and the real big heavy hitters. And you mix in some of these other players. And when they play well, now all of a sudden we know who the Ben Griffins are. And I'm saying we as the casual golf fan. Now when Ben Griffin's playing in the Rocket Classic, it's a little more interesting. And it's a great way to develop stars. So look, it's hard for me if I'm in the PGA Tour offices looking at this business. It's hard for me to say, yeah, the signature events need to be fixed. It's hard for me to say we need a cut because it's like, well, why? Does CBS need it? Golf Channel's not going anywhere, right? Golf Channel lives on the PGA Tour. They need the PGA Tour. But CBS, why does CBS care about a cut? They don't want a cut.

SPEAKER_03: 14:47

We kind of do for pace of play.

SPEAKER_01: 14:52

Okay, but you take care of that with 70 players. There's 72 players, right? So you get the same thing. So now you're looking at, well, I'm CBS. I have the coverage for Saturday and Sunday. I'd rather have a greater chance of having bigger name players. I'd rather know who's going to be playing regardless of what time they're playing. From a business standpoint, there's a lot of good that comes from this. And the evidence that I'm seeing is that, hey, the fans like it too. whether it's the fans that are on Twitter or not, this is working. So they've got something really positive going on.

SPEAKER_03: 15:30

I want to add to that a little bit, too, because I was trying to find a list of winners that we had. But, you know, going through the events, Sadecki opened up with a victory in the first one. That was Golf Channel. And then the next one we had, which was the Genesis, and Ludwig won that one. So you've got Oberg, who's drawing eyeballs. And I remember both Scotty and Rory were in the mix because I had them Sunday afternoon. Then the next one was Bay Hill, which Russell won. You had

SPEAKER_01: 16:01

Rory at Pebble before that.

SPEAKER_03: 16:03

Oh, yeah. Shucks, I forgot Rory at Pebble. Yeah, that was what opened the season for him. So we've got Ludwig and Rory. They're on the West Coast. Then Russ wins. And then the players, Rory wins. And then, of course, then we go to... Trueist, am I right?

SPEAKER_01: 16:18

Heritage, RBC Heritage.

SPEAKER_03: 16:20

JT wins over there, and you've got some big names involved.

SPEAKER_01: 16:23

In a playoff.

SPEAKER_03: 16:24

Yeah, exactly. And then you go to Trueist, and we've got Sepp Strucker and a bunch of big names in there. Then from there, I think it was the Memorial, right? And then

SPEAKER_02: 16:32

Scotty wins.

SPEAKER_03: 16:34

And then from there, it's Travelers, which is always popular. And you've got Keegan. you know, vying with Tommy Fleetwood, who is low-key popular. So from our point of view for television ratings, we had those names when you sit in production meetings and go, yeah, these are great storylines. And you've always, with a tour, got a mix of one or two sort of up-and-comers or other names or people that make the storyline interesting. So it's not like Rory v. Scotty every week, but we had that essentially everywhere. in the Masters there for a bit. So I think there should be cuts in every single one of them. But right now, just having cuts in the three main events, which are player events, you know, the Arnold Palmer and the Jack Nicklaus event and the Tiger Woods event, I think cuts there are good. But the cuts add something to it because there's always something to play for. Cut day is a great day on the PGA Tour. I mean, we experienced this last week at the Rocket where... He got a guy like Will Gordon, which was one of the stories of the year. And it became a story because he had to earn a point, a FedExCup point to keep his playing privileges on a major medical. And he's coming down the stretch there and birdies the last two. Then he's got to sit the entire afternoon and wait to see if the cut's going to get to seven under. And the drama of all of that is what entertainment is about. I will argue with people a lot when they start to I want to see more shots. And I'm like, yeah, you do. But then you're going to see a bunch of putting. I want to see stories, you know, because there's a story to everything. And every shot makes someone happy and someone sad. And there you had the ultimate in the drama with Will Gordon. And if there was no cut in that thing, you wouldn't have had that drama. It was one of the stories of the year. So the cuts, a Friday cut is a thing and it must not go away.

SPEAKER_01: 18:28

Preach Reverend Immelman.

SPEAKER_03: 18:30

I'm here.

SPEAKER_01: 18:30

I get to say that this time. All right. Well, it's not just the PGA tour. That's putting up numbers, live golf over 300,000 on both Friday and Saturday on Fox. And they released the note that 50,000 fans in Dallas single day record on Saturday, 20,000 fans. And then Josh Carpenter of SBJ, Greg, who's I mean, he's the ice cream man. He's all the scoops. That's what Patrick McDonald calls him. To his face, it's actually quite funny. Has released the tentative schedule for Live Golf in 2026. No Dallas, which is seemingly a place that they would have leaned into. We'll get to some of the newer places that they're going, but after setting a record in Dallas, they, as of right now, will not play there next year. No, I guess they're not going to play in Dallas. That which is. I don't know, like I understand moving around if it doesn't draw a lot of attention. Perhaps perhaps this was decided before they drew all this attention. I think they can amend it. I guess. I mean, I don't see why not. So that is a curious thing. I doubt they looked at this. and said, yeah, we're not going to go to Dallas. I doubt that because they definitely had good numbers there in person. That's an important thing to lean into when you're a new league. You need to get any traction you can grab. You need to grab onto and dive in deep on. Adelaide isn't going anywhere. They would be foolish to leave that. If you can come up with a couple of good events... Maybe it helps, but I really don't know what the direction is. I will say those numbers are a lot better for them, like four or five times better than what you normally see out of live golf ratings. The problem is a lot of these things are pushing them into the U.S. The metrics are going to push them into the U.S., which... There's a reason for that. There's a reason the PGA Tour is in the U.S., but they want to be global. So I don't know. I'll be very curious to see how much they hold on to that.

SPEAKER_03: 21:04

That's a good point, and I'll just say this, and I'm not being a PGA Tour homer. I've got the T-shirt on, but I'm looking at this objectively. Right now, with the fields that they have, it's not a competition. If you're a golf fan, you'll tune in to maybe see Bryson We'll definitely see Bryson, maybe see Rahm. Joaquin Neiman over here, I'm like, yeah, he's a great player, but really, am I turning on to see him? Phil, perhaps. So the PGA Tour is riddled with stories and great players. So I think the head-to-head contest for the United States market is kind of one-sided. But maybe I'm being myopic here. And I will say this to that schedule, because if memory serves me, this Dallas event last week was played at Merida, right? Correct. And that's a private golf course. So getting onto private places means that your membership have to give it up for a while while they're putting up stands and then for the week and then while they're taking down stands. And I'm not so sure members are up for that sort of thing if they're paying what they are for their golf course. And then I will say this too, because there were two other events in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex. There were CBS events in the CGA Cup, the Byron Nelson, and then of course, Colonial, the Charles Schwab event. And there was a plane flying around the grounds, dragging a live banner in the air, basically saying, yo, golf fans, we're going to be here too in just a few weeks' time. So they were advertising over the top of PGA Tour events for this live event, Dallas. Now, look, more power to you. Do what you got to do. But that sort of speaks to where the market is, where they're like, Hey, fans, we're here too, you know. So we'll go by the PGA Tour thing and sort of guerrilla markets a little bit about what we're doing here in this area of yours.

SPEAKER_01: 22:55

Let me bounce this back to you one more time, Mark, real quick here, because in between Singapore and Augusta National is a brand new event in South Africa. And we don't have any information about what city or what golf course, but this is going to be Live Golf's first foray into an event being held in South Africa. How do you think that is going to be received?

SPEAKER_03: 23:15

from what we've heard, this is conjecture, this is a rumor. So don't quote me, anybody on social. What we've heard is it's not going ahead. That's just, again, that's rumor. And rumor amounts to nothing. So right now, I don't think there's anything etched in stone. It would be a lot of sense to go there because you've got a South African team. It would make a lot of sense to go because the South African market as starved for global sport, just like Australia is. And it's a great place to go and play that time of the year because that time it's kind of late fall. So the golf courses will be great over there. So I don't know, but I've, I've heard rumblings that that event's not happening. So we'll see what happens in 2026.

SPEAKER_01: 24:01

All right. Yeah. Maybe that's when they go back to Dallas. There you go. The schedule that was released via SBJ was, yeah, it was tentative. It was like, hey, we're pretty sure about this, but definitely some things could change. So we'll keep an eye on that. TPC Deer Run this week. John Deere Classic. And Greg, I'll use this as a bit of context here, but I could not believe... the betting board when I saw it, because there are 14 golfers between 25 to one and 35 to one, which, you know, odds aside, it is almost like Vegas just said, all these guys can win it. Good luck. Is that, is that the way you view this field? Um, yes, in a lot of ways, you know, we've gotten used to, but just go back and look at my betting cards. Okay. And there's a, there are some very similar, uh, that I very clearly have when a certain someone is playing. And when he's not playing, things get much more wide open. And so I look at the top of this, and you have Jason Day in there, who's probably the biggest name player. He's a former world number one. I don't think there's another former world number one in this field. I didn't see... At least nobody's jumped out. I doubt it, but that was a nice, it was a fun challenge that made me start scrolling through the list. Yeah. So you, you know, that's a really strong caliber of player in Jason Day. But you have someone like Ben Griffin, who's been playing maybe a little better. And I'm not looking at the official odds. I'm looking at the DraftKings prices because I'm on rickrungood.com. You got Ben Griffin, who's been just incredibly consistent and steady and could win any week. JT Poston, who's won here before Danny McCarthy, who has three straight top tens here. So you're kind of in this level. Davis Thompson, who's hitting it really well and is the defending champion. Sibu Kim, Jake Knapp, right? Like a lot of these guys, just they're not in a place where they're dominant, but they are very much capable of winning an event amongst this field. They're at the top of the field. And it's a little harder to separate them amongst... amongst that group. It's interesting, Mark, because we've seen TPC deer run, um, offer up a lot of scoring opportunities. And I think when you get that, like all these guys can go low, right? Some of the things that we see separate at major championships at, at the Memorial at events like that are more difficult golf courses, allow the better players to figure it out. So when you get a situation where all these guys can go low and a golf course that is going to, uh, make that possible, There are a lot of guys who could win this thing.

SPEAKER_03: 27:00

Yeah, there really are. To me, this golf course, you get this this time of the year when you have golf courses that are in the Midwest where it's now summertime and you get afternoon thunderstorms and stuff, and all of a sudden you'll have some thunderstorm cell that dumps a bunch of water on the golf course, and it changes personality in the space of about two hours. And when courses are soft and the greens are receptive, and then two, the greens are good because the greens last week were tremendous. The greens at John Deere are always great. You would think the turf conditions there would be good, given who the tournament sponsor is. And the greens are sensational. So when you've got a receptive golf course where a guy who's hitting the ball well and hitting it his distance, if he gets comfortable numbers, they're going to hit 25 feet and then all day long because they're hitting the ball the right distance and they'll be sort of 25 feet left and right. Lots of birdie attempts. Then you have reachable par fives. Um, so it's always going to be a bit of a bonanza. Um, and we've seen some crazy scores over the last few years. Davis Thompson, I think was 28 last year. Um, uh, Sepp Strucker, who I had the year before double bogeyed the last for 64 in the final round. And I think he went to the turn in like 29 or something like that. Um, so it's, It is what it is, but you know the examination, and you know, okay, I've got to hit it irons well, and I've got to putt. And if you do that, you too can get yourself a PGA Tour trophy, and a well-respected one, I'll say that too, because John Deere have just re-upped their sponsorship, and this tournament's been around for a while. And the fans from the Quad Cities show up en masse. They love that place over there. They call it the Fifth Major. And so it's always fun to go to, and it's a great event to call, certainly.

SPEAKER_01: 28:44

You too can get yourself a PGA Tour trophy. I like that. Alex in the chat asked if Zach Johnson ever got near the top of the official World Golf rankings. Greg, do you want to take a stab at what Zach Johnson's best OWGR rank ever was? My guess would be fifth. Okay. Mark, do you like that? Would you take better, worse, or would you like to stay the same for fifth? A little

SPEAKER_03: 29:10

worse. A little worse than that, I believe.

SPEAKER_01: 29:12

A little worse is right. Sixth is correct. Very good. I also looked up a couple others. Ricky Fowler got to fourth in the world. That was the closest I could find. I thought maybe, I don't know what Kuchar got to.

SPEAKER_03: 29:27

Hey, Sing is Master McDonald. Patrick, that is, is watching slash listening. Slacking off somewhere.

SPEAKER_01: 29:35

Yeah, shouldn't he be working right now?

SPEAKER_03: 29:36

He should be working.

SPEAKER_01: 29:37

You would think. Well, I guess he is working.

SPEAKER_03: 29:40

Well, in honor of him being a fan, we've got to give a nod to Russell Henley, who's now, what, seventh in the world golf rankings? Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 29:49

Is that true? He's been top ten all year.

SPEAKER_03: 29:53

He's sixth. Oh, sixth. Pardon me. Well, I was actually just with his trainer slash physio earlier this afternoon, and And Russell's got the week off and he goes abroad for the open and he goes, yeah, Russell, man. How about that? What a great year. I'm like, yeah, he just shows up every time he plays. It's incredible.

SPEAKER_01: 30:13

It is incredible. You know who else has been incredible? This Ben Griffin guy who I'm convinced if his name was Griff Griffins, we would be anointing him. The greatest player in the world.

SPEAKER_03: 30:26

You know what? We can change that, Rick, because every great golfer who had a nickname, that nickname was given to him by a member of the media. The great white shark, the golden bear. Well, Tiger was his dad. But yeah, we can call him Griff Griffin. Why not?

SPEAKER_01: 30:43

Griff Griffin. I think it's sick. Listen, he's playing like he deserves a nickname. I'll tell you that.

SPEAKER_03: 30:53

Last week on the air, I called Thor Bjornsson Thor a few times, trying to get it to stick.

SPEAKER_01: 31:00

I like it. You know what's amazing about Ben Griffin? Rick, we talk about this a lot. Mark will love this too. If you look at his strokes gained numbers. Mark loves this. Just for you, Mark. We really like to see two straight weeks. It's very impressive if you've got two straight weeks gaining strokes in every category. That's extremely impressive. And rather rare. Right. It does not happen very often. So Ben Griffin, in his last six events... has lost strokes one time in one category. It was 1.75 strokes around the green at the travelers where he finished tied 14th. This is, this is the top 10 player of the world kind of consistency. Look at all that green. It's a lot of green. That's what like, I mean, Scotty Shuffler doesn't even look like that.

SPEAKER_03: 32:02

No boy.

SPEAKER_01: 32:03

You know, it doesn't, it, it, This kind of thing doesn't happen. And it's six weeks in a row. And there's two majors in that stretch. You know, this is legit.

SPEAKER_03: 32:15

I need to say this too. Not strokes gain, but if you're looking at data, he is sneaky long. Ben Griffin hits it a ton off the tee. And the cool thing about his game is he sort of just hits a draw. You know, he's not trying to fashion certain shots. He hits the tee balls hard. He draws his irons. He's got a lot of moxie, man. He's not afraid of anybody when he plays. He's impressive. Truly is.

SPEAKER_01: 32:43

He said real quick on that, Mark. He said that if he was going to be on that Ryder Cup team, he wanted to go there saying, yeah, you can put me up against Rory McIlroy on Sunday and I'll be confident. And he's there. He's there right now. Whatever... Example it is. I agree with you, Mark. I don't think he's afraid of anybody. That's a good place to be in.

SPEAKER_03: 33:12

And to the people in the chat who are asking about him taking a week off, he's taking next week off. He's not playing the Scottish Open.

SPEAKER_01: 33:20

He's going to play some other type of league now. He's got a member guest.

SPEAKER_03: 33:27

Well, he's going over to the United Kingdom. He's going to play a little Lynx stuff before the Open Championship.

SPEAKER_01: 33:33

Why not? Why not, Ben Griffiths? Somebody in the chat said he's printing money. I'd be out there every week too. It's like, yeah, I'd be out there every week too. It's a good– it is a good point. Let's pod through for a second, Mina, because I've got a question from Ryan. This comes from Patreon. So these are our questions, a way to support the show. And this one is from Ryan. And he says, Luke Clanton– with a T. That's his words, not mine. Luke Clanton. And Carson Young both struck it great here last year, averaging over 1.48. I'm assuming that's strokes gained on approach. He says, with all the stat nerds nowadays, which is offensive, is there such a thing as being an under-the-radar ball striker anymore? And if so, do any guys come to mind? Now, Mark, I hope you're reaching for your phone. because Mark Immelman, who is not a stat nerd, keeps a note on his phone, something called underrated flushers, I think it's called, and he updates it as the year goes on. So are there any under-the-radar ball strikers that come to mind for you, Mark?

SPEAKER_03: 34:46

Hold on here a second.

SPEAKER_01: 34:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 34:49

Okay. Keegan? Bradley?

SPEAKER_01: 34:51

Wow. Okay.

UNKNOWN: 34:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 34:52

Nate Lashley.

SPEAKER_01: 34:55

Wow, was not expecting that.

SPEAKER_03: 34:58

Yeah. Nick Taylor.

SPEAKER_01: 34:59

Okay. Yep, totally get it. Hold on, can I stop you, Mark? What has to happen for a guy to get on this list? Is it a sound? Is it you see him hit a shot over a tree like the Michael Thorpe-Bjornsson story? What has to happen to get added to this list?

SPEAKER_03: 35:16

No, it's how reliable the ball strike is. These dudes don't miss the center of the club face very often. It's the sound of the strike. And then it's the pattern of the golf ball. Well, you know, nowadays with a less spinny ball, everyone hits something that's kind of geometric and it's flat and it doesn't spin up or knuckle or anything like that. These guys just hit the ball really solidly all of the time and they hit whatever they need to. So Nick Taylor, Johnny Vegas, he is a flusher.

SPEAKER_01: 35:48

He's a big dude too. Lucas Glover.

SPEAKER_03: 35:50

G-lover, but everyone knows he

SPEAKER_01: 35:52

flushes. And this is a great place for him. A lot of success around Deer Run.

SPEAKER_03: 35:56

Thought about him. Shane Lowry. You wouldn't think so when you watch him sort of swing, but he can flush. He really can.

SPEAKER_01: 36:04

That feels like it's developed really well over the last couple of years. I don't remember him five years ago being as just absolute, yeah, nut-nut as he does now.

SPEAKER_03: 36:18

Okay. Well, yeah, look, you got to have a good short game to win, but you don't win on windy links golf courses. If you don't hit the ball on the button every single time, because when you're playing in heavy winds, if you miss striking balls, you're going to see a rear end. And look, he's grown up in the windiest of spots where he's played. So, so Lowry or old timer boo weekly. Gosh, he never, ever missed, ever missed

SPEAKER_01: 36:43

this. This list predates the iPhone. How old is this

SPEAKER_03: 36:45

list? Well, it's as old as me. Okay. I mean, Alex Norrin was on

SPEAKER_01: 36:51

here. Is old Tom on there or just young?

SPEAKER_03: 36:54

Never saw him hit. I missed him by a few weeks. Anyway, so yeah, I add to this list. I actually haven't really lately. Thor Bjornsson, well, he's going to go on there pretty soon. That I have no doubt.

SPEAKER_01: 37:09

Well, when someone... gets added, let us know. Ryan would very much like to hear as well. Greg, that's going to be tough to beat. Is there anybody under the radar that you might consider a flusher that others might not know about? No. So I am a stat nerd. I look through the entire field every week. I look at all their stats every single week. Go ahead, Mark, and then I'll finish.

SPEAKER_03: 37:45

Find your stat there. There's one I missed. This is going to surprise people. And I don't know what the numbers show up because someone's like, is this data or just the eye test? This is just my eye and ear test. I confirm stuff with Rick afterwards. And most times I'm right, right, Rick?

SPEAKER_01: 38:00

Yes, you are.

SPEAKER_03: 38:01

Tom Kim.

SPEAKER_01: 38:05

I hope that he went on the list correctly. When he went on the list last year, I hope.

SPEAKER_03: 38:11

Man, that Tom Kim can hit an iron. This was from Wyndham a few years ago. Okay. And I called him to that victory.

SPEAKER_02: 38:18

He

SPEAKER_03: 38:19

had a three iron on the par 3 12th when everyone else was hitting like five and six irons. that this thing, when it left the face, was painting the flag. Nearly went in, landed by the flag, rolled up the hill, came back to, like, tapping range. Then he stuffed another one on, like, 14 from 200-something-plus. Tom Kim can really flush. He can.

SPEAKER_01: 38:40

Yeah. I think it was a two-iron he hit at Quail Hollow in the President's Cup.

SPEAKER_03: 38:46

Yeah, on the 9th, 18th.

SPEAKER_01: 38:47

Yeah. Yeah, awesome. So here's my thing with this, Rick. I look through all these guys every single week. I put out some of my favorites on Twitter every week. If there's one thing that happens to me that people give me a hard time for, it's that I'm too chalky. I'm not looking at projected ownership when I do this. Normally, it's not out yet. I think that they know. I think people know who the flushers are at least for at least because of all the data nerds like like me yes and listen there are a spot for the data nerds indeed um okay very cool well i'll tell you what we've got a couple more questions but i'll get to them uh later they're probably better for the fantasy segment anyway so greg and i'll take a couple of those uh at the other side allow us to discuss more golfers from this week by looking at the grid mina release the grid and If you're paying attention, if you're watching on YouTube, our photos have changed, Mark. We got caught in a screen grab the other day during a Strokes Gain sphincter segment.

SPEAKER_03: 40:12

Rick, you need to figure out a way on Rick Run Good to add that data metric in there. You cannot tell me that when some guy... I don't know, we'll call him Joe Pro, who's never been in the final group or at least never had a cadre of CBS camera people and announcers show up with his group when they just show up and bring their best. No, man, these folks wilt like it's summertime and 150 degrees outside. So there's something to be said for the sphincter tightening factor.

SPEAKER_01: 40:44

I will find a way to get the sphincter stats into the database. Actually, so Mina created this graphic and she doesn't even know that this was producer Josh's photo. So Josh sent me this screen grab because he thought it was funny. And then I guess Mina just saw it in the folder and thought it was funny and she rolled with it. So yes, it is Josh who hit me up with that photo, which I thought was pretty good. Okay. Okay. Matchups, finishing positions, two separate outrights. Greg, look at you, you little dog, going against the defending champion in a matchup. What do you got? Last week, I went against the defending champ of the week before in Keegan. Now I'm applying my rule again. This time I'm going against the defending champ, Davis Thompson. I'm going with Kevin Yu over Davis Thompson at minus 105. Now, Kevin Yu is a flusher. I'm not going to say an underrated flusher, but this guy can really hit it. He's a

SPEAKER_03: 41:46

long man. He hits it a long

SPEAKER_01: 41:50

way. Yeah, which I don't necessarily think you need here, but it doesn't hurt anywhere. So he's got some power. He's an elite driver of the ball, an elite pedigree. Problem is he's not a very good putter, but he has not lost strokes putt-in in three out of the last four weeks. There's only been one other time in his whole career he did that. That was in early 2024. He had back-to-back top six finishes in that stretch. So he's figuring something out on the greens. Davis Thompson, also a flusher, has not been putting very well at all. He's been struggling on the greens all season. And it was a lot better last year when he won. So I think there's a little downtick for Davis Thompson with the putter. It would take something special to figure it out. I think you's got it figured out. So I'm, I'm rolling with him. Kevin, you minus one Oh five over the defending champion, Davis Thompson, Mark and I have the same golfer in our matchups. I've got him winning. Mark has him losing, but we don't have the same matchup. Mark, what'd you find?

SPEAKER_03: 43:02

Well, as long as, um, My guy beats your guy, and your guy beats Keith Mitchell. We're good, huh?

SPEAKER_01: 43:07

There's a path to this. That's correct. You can both be right.

SPEAKER_03: 43:10

That's right. Yeah, I'm going with Andrew Putnam over Kevin Roy. Both guys, and if you look at my card here, you'll see there's a lot of carryover from last week because I feel like the conditions underfoot are very much the same. The rough conditions between these golf courses are very much the same. The layout varies some. This is a lot more undulating, but still the examination is there. You've got to have good irons and you have to putt well. And Andrew Putnam, he was very much in contention. Final group Saturday in Detroit. And then on Sunday, he was alongside Chris Kirk, who I had. And Andrew was just kind of lurking around the show there, not very long, but hitting the ball on the green every single time. And when he's inside 20 feet, he's lethal. So I'm playing with a lot of confidence right now. And then we had a really cool interaction with him because he's a lovely guy. The playoff, we took a big selfie of our group out there on the 18th fairway and Dottie and I posted it. And Andrew comments, he goes, we like it when we see you guys out there with us. And that was so cool because more often than not, someone is kind of moaning about the fact that there's camera people around and there's announcers talking and all sorts of stuff where Andrew's like, man, we look forward to having you out there. And I look forward, Andrew, to calling you on the weekend here when you beat Kevin Roy because that's going to make it even sweeter.

SPEAKER_01: 44:35

Andrew, if Mark Immelman's around, you're getting a payday, my friend. You should be very happy to see him out there calling the shots. Andrew Putnam, Kevin Roy. I've gone Kevin Roy over Keith Mitchell. So yeah, let's just, you know, let's just figure this out. Let's thread this needle. We can all find victory here. Kevin Roy, very quietly putting together some good finishes. T18 at the Canadian Open. T8 last week at the Rocket Classic and the ball striking metrics, Greg, that the nerdy stuff are just absolutely off the charts for Mr. Roy. Now, I did not look at the grid. And I'm certain Mark didn't look at the grid. I think he just texted his pick. Is that true, Mark?

SPEAKER_03: 45:17

No, I emailed with your wife. Oh,

SPEAKER_01: 45:20

boy. Okay. So Mark emails a bit. So we are very much simpatico this week. Our grids are very, very similar. So, Greg, I'm going to give you first crack here at the finishing position market. What'd you find? I'm going flush flush with Lucas Glover. Top 20. Plus 175. Now, Glover last two weeks has really hit it nicely. I think this is a great fit for him. I like when the course gets a little shorter for Lucas. His accuracy is phenomenal. I think he's seventh on tour in driving accuracy, and he's always great with the irons. The really cool thing about Lucas Glover is in his last four trips to TPC Deer Run, he's gained strokes putting. So I think he's pretty comfortable on these greens. And while he hasn't been putting great, I also wouldn't say it's been atrociously bad. I think it's there. So it's enough for me to think that when he gets on a course he's comfortable with, we could see him fill it up a little bit this week. Lucas Glover has played here a lot, dating back to 2002. Not every year, but darn near every year. Winner here in 2021. 2019, that was a T10. This event was not played in 2020. And in the last two years, 23rd and 6th. So absolutely feels it when he shows up in the Quad Cities. Mark, you and I found the same golfer. You picked him to finish inside the top 40. I one-upped you, said let's do top 30. But you and I are both quite high on whom, please?

SPEAKER_03: 46:55

Tristan Lawrence. And remember how I said that this week I spent a lot of time watching tennis and not golf? Well, when Mina asked me for my picks, I essentially just looked at the top 40s. I didn't look anywhere else. If I had seen Tristan Lawrence top 30 like your number, I would have went there too because he's just that reliable. He's playing with a lot of confidence after the big finish at the US Open. He was in the mix last week again. So I got him a top 40 plus 105, which is like stealing in my opinion. And I'm inclined to say your bet may be better.

SPEAKER_01: 47:28

Yeah, there are a couple of guys who are playing very quietly, very good golf. 12th at the US Open, 8th in Detroit. He finished fourth at a DP World Tour event at the end of May. It's plus 105 for top 40, plus 180 for top 30. on Tristan Lawrence. So maybe also, you know, there, there's a real thing of like, Hey, I saw my buddy do it, or I don't know if they're friends or not, but I saw my countrymen do it. Mark. Now I've got, I've beaten that guy before I could do it.

SPEAKER_03: 47:59

No doubt. You know, when you see your homie win and you're like, well, shucks, if he does it, I can do it. They play different games naturally. You know, Aldrich kind of smashes it some. Tristan's not short, but he's very, very accurate. And he's pretty sound around the greens. But the thing that struck me watching him play a little bit was he makes very smart decisions and he's not going to beat himself. And so I'm liking our picks this week with him.

SPEAKER_01: 48:26

All right, we'll make sure he's favorited in the PGA Tour app so we can keep an eye on him all week long. Two separate winners. Let's go, Greg, with your first winner, please. You're doubling down on somebody who's already been on your grid. Yes, doubling down. I'll keep it quick on Kevin Yu. I think there's such high upside with his ball striking, and I like what I'm seeing with him on the greens. So I think that leads to a really good chance of popping off and winning one. 35 to 1 for Mr. Hugh falls into that category of like, here's everybody. And so does your first outright here. Mark, who is it?

SPEAKER_03: 49:06

I believe everyone on my grid finished inside the top 10 last week in Detroit. I believe. So my first pick is Jake Knapp, who made it look so easy last week. The guy is swinging it as well as what I've seen him swing. When I was talking with him on the range, he just seems cool with life. All he's got to do is just make a few putts because he flushes and he's not underrated. Everyone knows it. He is good. It's time now to prove that first victory wasn't a fluke. He's going to prove it this week with a win.

SPEAKER_01: 49:44

Does everything cool. Makes everything look cool. Does Jake nap 35 to one? I went just a touch longer, but ton of guys did the 40 to one range as well. Ryan Gerard. I'm just going to be around when he stops losing five strokes putting, right? He's just like, I'm just, I'm going to find it. And maybe it's this week. Maybe it's not. We'll try again next week, but he is knocking the cover off the golf ball. So I'm going to roll with Mr. Gerard here at 40 to one. And now if I could combine the, him, Greg Gerard with your second outright, uh, we would have ourselves quite the player. Who is it? Yeah. Uh, Scotty Scheffler would be looking over his shoulder. If he did that, uh, it's Denny McCarthy. So I, I love Denny McCarthy. I have a little theory here at, uh, at TPC deer run. Okay. The field hits on average over 70% of the greens. Um, uh, The winners have hit about 77% of the greens. So, like, not a huge difference. There's, I mean, when Dylan Fratelli won here, he was 60th in strokes gain approach. Davis Thompson was 29th last year when he won. I think the real, there's a strength, like, I believe everybody can hit it well here. And there's an opportunity to really separate yourself on and around the greens. I mean, it's very strange. And it's just based on data. So I apologize, Mark. But three out of the last five winners have been top five in strokes gained around the green and putting, which is a very... Interesting category. Three out of the five in both around the green and putting. I normally lean way heavier to iron play in events like this. And I still am. You can see from my betting card. But I'm just getting the sense that Danny McCarthy is going to see an uptick in his ball striking on a golf course like this. And I think you'll see Danny McCarthy putt like Danny McCarthy. Quick napkin math tells me that the average then is about 50 greens in regulations and the winner's average is about 55 greens in regulations. So it's about five. Not a huge difference. Not a huge difference. That is Danny McCarthy, 28 to one. Kevin, you 35 to one for the Greg head. Now, Mark, you've done it. You've infiltrated my brain. You did it on Sunday night. I can't stop thinking about him. I can't stop looking at him. Can't stop tweeting about him. So he absolutely made the final spot in my outright card. And you promised us that he would on Sunday for you as well. And you have lived up to your word. Round this out here with our outright.

SPEAKER_03: 52:32

Before I do that, I have to give some love to Chris Kirk. Okay. Because... There's one of the boys out of that Georgia house. We had Davis Thompson. We've had Chris. We've had Seb Stryker. They all stay in this house, and someone seems to win. So I thought about Chris Kirk, but I remembered to say I was going to bet Michael Thorbjornsson, and I'm going to do it. I actually misspoke in the last show where I said he finished third. He actually finished runner-up, and he birdied the 18th hole. I was watching some of the footage earlier this morning. No, yesterday, whenever it was. He hit driver and a wedge to a back left hole location, water on the left, about 15 feet behind the hole, long and left. And I was like, this kid is not only good, he's brave. Because he was playing to win. He was in the mix last week, had a quick start, fell away, but then finished real strong. So he showed me a little something. It's time for Thor Bjornsson, Thor, to do the trick. And he's playing well, and he's going to a place where he's played well before.

SPEAKER_01: 53:38

I'm ready. I'm ready. Let's do it. Let's just do it now. Let's not wait any longer. Let's do it now. Michael Thorpe Bjornsson, 30-1. Jake Knapp, 35. Kevin Yu, 35. Danny McCarthy, 28. Ryan Gerrard, 40-1. Rounds out our grid and our outrights for the week. Mr. Immelman? This is where we part ways and continue the show doing some fantasy stuff. But I want to give you any final thoughts, anything that you need to get off your chest, anything that we've missed before I let you out of here.

SPEAKER_03: 54:11

Yes, I'm not sure what night it is, Saturday or Sunday, but John Deere always put on a very cool concert. And this year is the Zac Brown Band and Dierks Bentley. So if it's Sunday, I'm not going to see you

SPEAKER_01: 54:25

guys. So I love you. All right. We love you. Safe travels. Are you going to shoot? Do you have a favorite firework that you're going to shoot off on the 4th?

SPEAKER_03: 54:37

No, sir. It's tomorrow, isn't

SPEAKER_01: 54:39

it? Friday. No,

SPEAKER_03: 54:39

Friday. No, it's Tuesday. It's on Friday. Forgive me. It's that time of the year. We're nearly at the end.

SPEAKER_01: 54:47

All good. All right, Mark. Thank you very much. We will see you soon and enjoy the concert no matter what day it is. And I'm sure we'll talk to you.

SPEAKER_03: 54:54

You guys take care.

SPEAKER_01: 54:55

See you, buddy. Thanks, Mark. All right, Mr. Greggers. I actually when I asked when I asked Mark that I I didn't know if I could name a firework. So maybe a Roman Roman candle. All right. Yeah. Yep. I was thinking about that, too. Like, are there commonly known fireworks? As soon as I asked him, I was like, what is he going to say? Yeah. Oh, I like the blah, blah, blah. Sprinkler? Or no, not sprinkler. Sparkler. Sparkler? Yeah, that's not a firework, though. Your kids can play with those. Do you let your kids play with sparklers? No. Well, they actually have. No, you can hold them. Yeah, you can hold them. I wasn't there though. He, I assume is playing in the Jimmy John's invitational. I believe he is team old guys and they're playing at true blue in Pauly's Island. I don't, none of that makes sense to me, Greg. I looked it up on the internet. I couldn't find anything. So I think we'll just say good luck, Ryan. I have played true blue. I went to college down there and went to Jimmy John's a lot. So it makes sense. I don't know anything about the event, but true blue is a great golf course. And that will be a blast. They keep it in great shape. It's hard, hard track. Kind of, if I remember correctly, not the 18th hole is not dissimilar to the 18th hole here at TPC deer run. So water left of the green should be pretty cool. Synergies. Synergies, indeed. Before we go through the tiers, I ask you for a golfer that you cannot live without. We dub him the golfer of the week. We put his face and name on a graphic, and I will reveal it as soon as you say his name. His name has already been said tonight. It is Denny McCarthy. There he is. Yes. This is Denny's time, I believe. I did hear... that he's staying in the quote-unquote trophy house. So maybe not just Georgia guys. How many guys can they fit in that house? I believe I heard seven. Oh, of course they win so often. That's like half the field. We'll get the seven best guys, and we'll see. One of them can stay. But it's the same house. I guess Denny's staying there this year. I don't know if that's 100% true. It has nothing to do with why he's the golfer of the week. I outlined this before. Look, I just think that you separate yourself on the greens here. And you have, well, you at least have the opportunity to do that. You have the opportunity to separate yourself with driving accuracy here. Denny, I believe, can do that. I like where his game is. He hit it well at the Travelers. I think it's time for him. I don't think you're going to find a guy with a better three-year run at TPC Deer Run. than Denny, who is T6, T6, T7 over the course of the last three years, as you can imagine, during that stretch. Putted the lights out, but to your point, was very strong off the tee in all three of those years. I agree. I think it's a good setup for him. You know, could this be, are there any parallels to Zach Johnson or Steve Stricker, who had great success here at this event? Possibly. The other thing that I want to point out here is that he is on DraftKings$9,900, Greg. So he is just obviously just out of the 10K group. Are you finding yourself skipping the 10K range when building lineups and starting with Denny? Absolutely open to that. I'd love to get Ben Griffin on a team too. Yeah. And I think you can get both of those guys on a team. Well, we'll see when we get to the six, but if I could build something with Ben Griffin, Danny McCarthy, and load up on sevens, I'm thrilled with that. Thrilled with it. Yeah, the 6K range is a little bit ugly after that. Okay, well, we'll continue. Let's just go to Ben Griffin because we talked about it a little bit, but what he's doing right now, is stupid good. This is the most expensive he's ever been, but he is going to be the favorite in this field. Let me phrase this kind of a different way. Is there anything to be worried about? What's the case we make against Ben Griffin this week? He withdraws? Really, I can't think of anything else. He can make birdies. He can go play on, you know, he plays well on golf courses where you got to make a ton of birdies, like the Rocket Classic last week. He plays well on courses where birdies are hard to come by, like the Memorial and the U.S. Open. I mean, he's done all this in the last six weeks. And he's pretty darn good before that. So, look, this is, I mean, is he tired? I mean, I'm grasping at things here because there's nothing statistically that you would be worried about. Right. And I agree with you. I agree with you. It's just like he's answered every question, right? It's it's easy courses. It's hard courses. It is. Oh, he's playing a lot of golf. Is he going to be tired? It doesn't matter. He has just answered every question. So it's hard to think that that's going to stop. Anytime soon, and now he's getting one of the weaker fields as the favorite. Yeah, it's just, I don't know, seems to be really good at just keeping the process, right? You know, you see guys that win and, you know, the job's done. I don't think he thinks the job is done. I think there's a lot more stuff he wants to do. Yeah, it feels that way. You know, he said, what was it, at the U.S. Open, like, bring it on. Bring on the rain. His attitude is in that kind of place. And it gives me the sense that he just wants to compete. He loves competing. And, you know, I remember this thing. I think this was Brooks Koepka. Brooks Koepka talked about this. When he first started playing professional golf, his eyes were always on the cut line. His goal was to make the cut, and he always finished... On Friday, he was always around the cut line. Then he started thinking about, I want to finish top 10. And he was always finishing around... He was always in the hunt for that top 10 spot. And then he started thinking about winning, and he put himself in contention to win tournaments all of a sudden when he shifted his mindset. Ben Griffin's mindset is about winning trophies right now. And that's why I think you can... You could watch him. If you were backing him last week at the Rocket, you might have felt disappointed. Maybe the same at the Travelers. But it's a T-14 and a T-13. That's the disappointing week from his perspective right now. It's incredible. The third man that made your 9K range is Lucas Glover. And I want to turn this a little bit into a conversation about something that I referenced earlier. But the course history for Glover is complete and good and better recently. Is this a golf course that you care a lot about course history? Where do we rank this on how much you care about it this week? I'd like to know that you haven't missed the cut every time you've been there. Okay. I'd like to know in the case of Lucas Glover, like, is there a sign? I'm not just looking at course history. Like course history is important here or not important. I really, when I looked at Lucas Glover, it's what, okay. He's not putting great, but how does he putt here? Right. You know? Okay. Well, he's putted pretty well. Last four, Last four trips here, he's putted pretty well, and it hasn't been bad for the last six. So I look at that as he knows how to putt these greens now. I don't think I could find, and maybe I'll go look at this for my newsletter or something, but that is 4, 8, 12... 16, 20, 22 rounds. I'm going back to 2017, 22 rounds where he's like a pretty significant positive putter for him. I bet you, I can't find another 22 rounds on any golf course where he's putted that well. No chance. It just, it doesn't, he struggles. He struggles with it from time to time. And it, it, It's very strange, but I'm looking at his putting stats. It's like he lost 1.92 at the Travelers, 2.81 at the U.S. Open, 2.16 at the Memorial, gained 0.71 at the Charles Schwab. And I'm like, it's not bad. Right. For Lucas. Right. It's all relative. Yeah, it's relative. When you combine that with his course history, putting. If that makes sense. The AK range. We've talked about Kevin, you a lot that he made your list. I want to mine on Chris Kirk a little bit because I was a little bit surprised here and I never really know what to do in these types of situations. So Chris Kirk objectively playing very well in his last two, the T12, the U S open. And of course he gets into the playoff in Detroit. You are not at all concerned about the quote heat of the moment, the quote hangover effect, the, you know, whatever else you want to call a guy who gets close to the top of the mountain and does not prevail. Yeah, I, I, uh, this is a feel thing for me, which I hate this answer, right? Sometimes it really worries me. It doesn't in the case of Chris Kirk, because he, it's like, it's almost like he just started climbing the mountain again. at the U S open. And then he goes to rocket and plays great. It's like something just started to click. He feels like he's playing well now for the first time after missing two cuts in a row, tied 55th at the PGA 42nd at the truest. Like there was a while where he wasn't playing very well. And all of a sudden he starts to, and, and this still feels like only being only two weeks into it, like a pretty new journey. And I like his fingerprint as a player. He striped the driver and he was very accurate off the tee last week. Accuracy is important here. There can be some pretty good separation from hitting fairways versus not. So I just I like what I'm seeing with the metrics. And I think he knows how to handle that. Chris Kirk will be graced with the presence of Michael Kim and JT Poston for the first two rounds. That is the three ball that goes out on Thursday together. I'll pull up Kevin Yu's profile here, Greg. I think Kevin Yu, a lot for you, is like Ryan Gerrard for me, which is I don't have a lot of questions about how he's going to get to the putting surface. Then questions start a little bit. Yes, that is very true. The good thing is, now look, you could see with his ball striking, it's like, you know, it's been better before in his career, but we know what he is as a player. Um, we know how good he can be TD green. And I think he's showing signs that he's in a fine place with his golf swing. He was third at the Canadian open 25th at the travelers, but I love what he's done with his putting. I mean, two of his four best career, two of his four career, best putting tournaments happened in the last four weeks. And he was, he was, he gained 0.0 strokes, put in at, uh, the travelers dead, even to the field.

UNKNOWN: 1:07:39

Um,

SPEAKER_01: 1:07:40

this is a much better looking profile than ever at any other point in his career. So short window, but I think he may have found something with the putter and that could, that's the kind of thing that leads to a win. And yeah, the spike ability is, is something that some of these guys don't even have. So I'm, I'm cool with it too. We're going to get to the seven K range, but I got two things I want to, um, get to first here. So Jordan has a question from the chat, which I think is kind of interesting. Uh, says, are you buying into strokes gained caddy narrative with Thorpes, which is a variation of Thorpe Bjornsson variation Thor. He has opted for Thorpes first tournament with JJ referring to Jack of it, calm or caddies, uh, old caddy, was amazing. Now, we have seen a little bit of the caddy bump. Joe Greiner, Justin Thomas, JJ Jakovic, Michael Thorby-Orenson. Real or feels, Greg? Jeez, I feel like it's a little early. I trust what Mark says. And I know he came in tied second here last year. I know what the hype was about him as a player. If you came out and told me that Michael Thorpe Bjornsson is feeling healthy for the first time since May, now I would say, okay, that's real. So you're saying this kind of like sudden change is not really for any reason, which makes you nervous? Yeah, like he putted great last week. Um, he has been hitting it better. There are other things that make me say, Hey, this is really good, but it, it feels like way too big of a jump in the odds for me. Like you were, it was third, the third favorite. And now that, and now that things have settled, um, I mean, he's the fourth fit. I mean, he's got the third shortest odds cause it's Ben Griffin and then Jason day and Danny McCarthy are the same. And then Thor Bjornsson is with the next group of guys. So it is, I mean, yeah, I'm, It's really a weird situation. In an era where it takes oddsmakers and the public a little bit longer to believe, they believe Michael Thorpe runs in immediately. Is that just because he finished tied fourth last week? And maybe because he finished T-second last year? Where's Clanton? Clanton. 35-1. All right. So just in the next group. Yeah. It just feels a little strong for me. That's all I'm saying. Now, there's a lot that I like. There is. It's a viable option. If you wanted to go Michael Thorpe-Bjornsson over Lucas Glover, they're$100 apart. Or Michael Thorpe-Bjornsson over Chris Kirk, I could see the reasoning behind it. The other question is not necessarily from me. It's from Chris, who says, hey, guys, I want to see what you think about Nico Echevarria to finish inside the top 20. So this would have fit for Mark's. You know, Mark was looking at this, trying to get guys to finish top 10. Last week, Nico finished T6. He did it. It was all right. He lost strokes off the tee and gained throughout the bag. Is this a profile that moves the needle for you, Greggers? Well, I'll tell you what. I studied his final round on Sunday. I remember we were talking about how so many guys made mistakes that they were ruined. I'm not sure anybody hit it better than Nico into the greens. He had... 13 feet for birdie on every single hole. Just couldn't get any of them to drop. No, it wasn't like he was missing eight footers. It wasn't the Scotty Scheffler with seven three putts like the U.S. Open or Colin Murakawa losing five strokes putting in a day. But he just had so many opportunities. After seeing that and seeing that He hit it pretty good at the PGA, pretty good at the Byron Nelson. I think there could be something there for a top 20. I am not opposed to it. He makes me a little nervous in general, but I'm not opposed to it at all. Okay, let's continue through your tiers, and this is... We've got a handful of names here because this is almost as far as you would like to go down the board. Let's start with Mark Hubbard here who checks in at$7,700. Yeah, I love what I'm seeing from Mark Hubbard. I feel like this is the time of year for him to really start excelling. When you look at what he's done off the tee, he's played a lot of non-measured events, but you're talking about gaining strokes in four out of his last six off the tee. The ones that he lost, he barely lost. It's four out of the last five approaching the green. And his putting has been phenomenal. Six in a row, he's gained strokes putting in six events in a row. So he is not at the level of consistency of a Ben Griffin, but this profile is starting to take some shades of that, where it's across the board performance for a number of weeks in a row. US Open being an exception. He too has played well here in the past. Um, Lee Hodges is next and he was shot out of a cannon last week. I think he was, uh, yeah, he was very much in the mix after 36 holes. He picked up four strokes in round one, 1.6 in round two, did not have as good of a weekend, but still ended up finishing in a tie for 34th. Yeah, this is, um, this is three straight weeks off the tee and approaching the green gaining over a shot, which is phenomenal. Uh, it's a lot a lot of weeks in a row gaining strokes, ball striking. So he's been striking his irons really well this year. The putter was cold for a while. In the last two weeks, it's gotten a lot better. He gained nearly four strokes at the Canadian Open and just under a shot at the Rocket Classic last week. I really like this combo, and I like this kind of golf course for him as well. You look at his record here, and it's a little underwhelming, but I think it's still a pretty good fit if we can get that putter rocking this week. You and I are in line on this man, Kevin Roy, who checks in at$7,400. A profile, Greg, that is getting greener by the minute. Yeah, it's like dark green. Dark green. So tied eighth at the Rocket Classic, tied 18th at the RBC Canadian Open, like you mentioned. Hasn't missed a cut since the Zurich Classic, which was clearly his partner's fault. Clearly. Whoever that was. So, yeah, I am loving what I'm seeing with these ball striking metrics. They're just... And the putting is not bad at all either. So this is a very high floor play at 7,400. And I don't think it'll be chalk. Maybe it will be. Kevin Roy, I could give you a thousand guesses. You probably won't get to this because I don't think I would. Played with Trevor Cohn. Yeah, I never would have gotten there. You could have given me... A lot. How many, how many, okay. If I said, um, if I gave you like a Mr. Beast challenge. Okay. And I said, um, you've got eight hours. We're going to do it on live stream. Eight hours. You have to name as many professional golfers as you can. And for everyone, I'll give you a hundred bucks. How many do you think you could name? And I'm going to say they have to have played in a PGA Tour event, a DP World Tour event, Korn Ferry, like five or six of the major tours. A major? Sure. So have you qualified for a U.S.? You have a lot of guys. You probably know a lot of guys who have qualified for U.S. Opens. Yeah. Yeah. You could get there pretty easily. The hard thing about a challenge like that. Yeah. Oh, that sucks. No, like just like, no, I spring it on you one day. You have a pen and paper. That's what you have. I could fill up a couple of sheets of paper for sure. Do you think now, how would you do it? Would you think of the OWGR? Would you go alphabetically? Would you, what would

SPEAKER_02: 1:16:47

you

SPEAKER_01: 1:16:47

do? Uh, well, a mix of both.

UNKNOWN: 1:16:53

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01: 1:16:54

I would be a mix of both. Like I might start a column that's alphabetical, but see, sometimes if I do that, I get hung up like, Oh, uh, who's the, uh, it's Anders, um, uh, Albert, uh, uh, and then I'm off track.

SPEAKER_02: 1:17:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 1:17:13

Whereas if I was just like Oberg, um, okay, let's go Scheffler. Maybe that would work better for me. Oh, well, maybe there are some, so maybe it'd be, maybe I'd have to do columns like an alphabetical column guys. I know column, uh, best players in the world, major winners, fantasy favorites. Oh, nice. Like see, I, I tend to be like, okay, Kevin, that's a common name. How many Kevins can I name? Roy Streelman. Yes. Kisner. Kisner. Right. Yeah. You go in historical. Historical too. Absolutely. Old Tom. Young Tom. Yeah. Now you got like major championships. Willie Anderson. Yeah. Yeah. If I could stay calm and think it would be a lot. Eight hours is a lot of time. You think like a thousand I think would be like an incredible number. I think 500 would be a ton. It's so hard to say. Yeah. Like I know a lot of professional golfers, but I don't know how many of that is and how many you could get. Like, yeah, you could recall in the moment. Oh, right. Right. Well, under pressure. Yeah. Okay. Where did I leave off? Okay. So Mark and I were big on Tristan Lawrence, and it looks like you are going to join us and make it a clean sweep. Yeah, I really like Tristan Lawrence. At 7,300, this seems like he's a little undervalued. I like the way he drives the ball. It was the suit all open that you mentioned earlier, the DP World Tour event, that he played great in. But this is a guy that I was very high on after... he qualified for the PGA tour from the DP world tour last year. I thought he was going to have a big year, like maybe a Matthew Pavone kind of year coming over to the PGA tour. And it did not happen. But lately that talent is starting to shine through seemingly out of nowhere with the U S open, but he answered the bell at the rocket classic. So like I'm, I'm believing my instincts from January and, And maybe now I'm reconsidering. Maybe this is just the time of year for him. Remember, he gave it a pretty darn good run at the Open Championship last year as well. It was the back nine Sunday. If you were like a fan, if you cared who won the major championships, you might have been worried that he was actually going to win. Yeah, I remember thinking like, Holy crap. Is he going to win this thing? Yeah. Yes. Like through 11 on the back nine Sunday. Yeah. Yeah. Like I'm, I'm preparing for that. Like pod of Tristan Lawrence is the open. He was. Yeah. Like, what do we know about this guy? Yeah. Um, here's the name that doesn't pop up often and hasn't popped up in quite some time. It's Chan Kim who is, You've seen enough, Greg. Miscut, miscut, miscut, miscut, miscut. T19, that's all you need to see. Yeah, I love Chan Kim. Yeah. Okay, I love Chan Kim. Gainer all the way across the board and is a flusher by nature. An absolute flusher. And what I really like is what he's done on the greens. It plagued him a little bit earlier in the season. But it's been better of late. He's gained strokes putting in his last three. Of course, some of those were parts of miscuts. But it's also four out of his last five. So I think he may have found something on the greens. And now his ball striking level is going to come back. He's going to put it all together this week. And you're going to say, miscut, miscut, miscut. T19 wins. Maybe, maybe T five. You would, you, I think you would take a T 19 again. Just like, give me that 7,000 flat. Yes, absolutely. And I think you're going to see it again. I think he's going to parlay it into a, another top 30 or so. Now the six K range is a problem. There are a lot of tough names. Kyle Stanley's in this field. Did you see that? Yeah. Um, Wait, can I say one thing before we go to the 6K range? You can say more than one thing if you want. It's just one. Max Holma is 7,000 flat in this field.

SPEAKER_03: 1:21:56

I

SPEAKER_01: 1:21:57

know. And he didn't make my list. It's bad for Max. And this is where it doesn't really matter who you're playing against. You know, it's just the game. He's fighting the game. And you're not going to beat anybody fighting the game. He's fighting himself. Yeah, he's not beating himself right now. So it's tough. 6K range, I got one name from you. And quite honestly, it is the name that I also have starred and I have also circled here. It is Chris Ventura. And I'm with you here, brother. This is about as frisky as I want to get. Yeah, it looks pretty good. Two out of the last three weeks, he's gained both off the tee and approaching the green. Tied 34th at the rocket and hit it great. He's sprinkled in some good putting. Look, I'm not making a very strong case here because there's not a strong case to be made. But I do believe in the talent. You've talked a lot about this with Chris Ventura as well. So he's more of an unknown. And I'd rather go with more of an unknown than like Luke List, who's right below him, who is an unknown. We know what we're going to get when it comes to that. Or Adam Svedson. You might think, well, he's underpriced. We kind of know what you're going to get. I don't know what I'm going to get with Chris Ventura, and I'm kind of okay with that. Agreed. Just give me raw talent, and I'll take it. I'll go to battle with that. I think I struck a nerve with Mina. She doesn't usually chime in on... pod related things. Unmute yourself, please, Mina. And you want to go at this challenge of naming golfers? I mean, for a hundred bucks a golfer, yeah, I want to. You know, it's like out of your bank account too, right?

SPEAKER_00: 1:23:47

Well, you got to find someone else to fund it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:23:49

What if it was a dollar a name? How many do you think you could name? I

SPEAKER_00: 1:23:53

could probably, I think I could hit a thousand. No, you could not. Is that a lot? A thousand? A thousand? Yeah. You guys missed Kevin Yu. Okay. Yeah, find me 999 more. All right, we should try it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:24:12

Just to give you an idea, Mina, there are 200 players, about 200 players on the PGA Tour. So you need to name like five generations of them. Currently.

SPEAKER_00: 1:24:22

Well, young and old, Tom Morris, that counts as two.

SPEAKER_01: 1:24:26

That's two. Fact. I set the line for Mina at 68 and a half. She's done a lot. I mean, she's done a lot of graphics, but I think,

SPEAKER_00: 1:24:36

I think even a half golfers.

SPEAKER_01: 1:24:39

Yes. You have to come up with them off the top of your head. Not just like, not just like when I read a leaderboard and you're like, Oh, I've heard of that guy.

SPEAKER_00: 1:24:45

Okay. You got

SPEAKER_01: 1:24:46

to name them. You got to pick them out and name

SPEAKER_00: 1:24:49

them.

SPEAKER_01: 1:24:52

Spelling.

SPEAKER_00: 1:24:54

Do I need to spell? No, I'll

SPEAKER_01: 1:24:55

spell them. You just have to say them. I'll type them.

SPEAKER_00: 1:24:57

All right, I'm in. Let's do it.$68.50, easy. This is easy money. I don't want to have to spell Pearson Cootie, but I can say it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:25:07

I'll give you$3 a name if you can get to$68.50. You get nothing on the under, and if you go over, I'll give you$3 a name. This is going to be a walk in the park. But you don't get eight hours. You don't get eight hours.

SPEAKER_00: 1:25:26

Why? What about my nap? I got to get a nap. And you also,

SPEAKER_01: 1:25:31

it's going to be in like six months because I don't want you studying for it. I want you to forget. Oh, you got to forget about it. I want her to forget about it. And then like in December when we're struggling for, we're not doing it tonight.

SPEAKER_00: 1:25:43

I don't have any plans. Are we canceling that round? We can talk about this later. I

SPEAKER_01: 1:25:48

got plans. I got things to do. Greg's line, I think, is like 10 times. I think the line's like 600. It's just such a big number. I know, but I'm giving you eight hours. I go for a long time on this, and I'm like, this is a lot. How many is it? 150. 150. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, you'll be demoralized. Yeah, yeah. So you just got to go. Don't count. You know what would be a good idea for trivia? You know, a Stump the Schwab. Yes. You pick a stat category. In Greens of Regulation, there are 185 golfers. Name them. Name them. just go the other thing is so if i there's a lot of variations of this if i just showed you headshots of golfers i think you could name like 1200 oh that would be a big number yeah because you'll you'll know dylan fratelli but that might not be a name that you recall right but there's another way to build your list. Like who, who are the recent winners of every event? Every. Yeah. Start going through events.

UNKNOWN: 1:27:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 1:27:18

Right. I'd have that. That's the way to do it. Like, I like your Kevin thing. Oh, is there, are there any other Dylan's Dylan? Woo. Only other one I could. And then when that gets you, Brandon will, then that gets you Brandon. Kevin, you, Which gets you Kevin Yu. Or maybe Brandon Matthews. Yeah. You just keep chaining them together. Oh, Brendan Dijon. Brendan Todd. Oh, I think she beat you to that one. Wow. Just got sniped on Brendan. Todd Saunders.

SPEAKER_00: 1:27:55

You can still move my line. I

SPEAKER_01: 1:27:58

don't know. I think it's a good line. I like the line. Okay. Okay. This is... We'll figure this out. This will be a thing. 68 and a half. You think she's got it? It's not... I have no doubt she knows more than that. She knows way more than that. But it's not a I heard of that guy game. It is I have to say their name game. Yeah. Or sit and write them down. Yeah. Not an easy thing to do. It's going to be so hard. I almost want to do it just to test myself. Okay, well, don't do it without us having you on camera. And I'll type in all the names and keep it straight because it would be great content. So don't do it without me. I won't, I promise. But we'll figure out a way to do it. All right. Anything else? I think that's it, Rick. I'm looking forward to it. We are going to do a Friday show. I will admit it'll probably be tight. It's the 4th. We'll probably get people out of here pretty early. But the plan is for right now to still do a Friday show. It'll be Mark and I. And then we're going to do, of course, the Sunday show as usual. So we're wishing everybody a happy and safe 4th. Don't be the guy who blows off your fingers, please. There's going to be thousands of people who do it this year. Don't blow off. Your fingers, please. Watch the professionals do the fireworks. Yes. You don't need to set them off yourself. Thank you. That's great advice from the Greg head, Mr. Ducharme. That's Gregors. You can find him at The Real GFD. You can find me at Rick Run Good, producer Mina. She's behind the scenes studying her golfers. This has been The Second Cut. We'll catch you next time.