Open Championship Mega Preview | Picks, Storylines, Best Bets

The boys are back to preview The Open The Dunluce Course at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland. 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: 0:01

welcome in this is the second cut podcast this is the mega preview pod for this week's open championship the final major of the calendar year it is going to be storylines it's going to be best bets it's going to be Greg breaking down Windfinder to make sure that we have everything in order. We have a lot to get to. And joining me to do just that, Mark Immelman, is here. Hello, Mark.

SPEAKER_00: 0:34

Hi, boys. I've got my golf fandom at the ready. I'm practicing my coffee for early in the morning. I've got my sweatpants on and my T-shirt. I am ready to watch golf on TV and not have to really work during a broadcast, which is fun.

SPEAKER_01: 0:52

Yeah, welcome to the viewing party for this week. Rounding out our crew for today, Dr. Greg Head. It's Greg Ducharme. Hi, Greg. Gentlemen, I can't wait for this week. We've been just doing so much to get ready for it, and now I'm like Mark. I'm excited to kick back and watch some coffee golf. I really can't wait, and I love this golf course, too. It's going to be so cool. Yeah, we've got... The golf course to talk about. We've got the

SPEAKER_00: 1:24

weather. Yes, Mark. Speaking of loving golf courses, can you guys see the logo on my head?

SPEAKER_01: 1:30

Yeah, so for those who cannot, for those who are just listening on the podcast, Mark is rocking a Muirfield hat. Now, let me be very clear. That is not to be confused with Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio. That's the one over there, Mark.

SPEAKER_00: 1:44

It's the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, yes. Yeah, what a spot. Anyway, I'm in the Lynx golf spirit after being in Scotland last week. I'm a pretty pumped up young man.

SPEAKER_01: 1:56

Oh, we are pumped up as well. What goes well with coffee are snacks and potentially chocolate. And I have an update, gentlemen, because this saga of Greg trying to rank candy bars did not go well for Greg. Okay. No. No, Greg, it did not go well for you. Oh, no. I know. What did you rank number one? Kit Kat? Yes. All right. He ranks number one, Kit Kat. And I made a comment that outside of the United States, there's like hundreds of versions of Kit Kats.

SPEAKER_00: 2:34

Yes, and every– well, you have Cadbury's chocolate. I've just come over there. I ate my sharing chocolate. Cadbury's chocolate is just– I love Hershey's. If I'm ruining a potential sponsorship, I'm sorry. But Cadbury's is just way better. Yeah, and we ate all sorts of stuff last week, everyone on the crew. But Kit Kat, I would say over here if I was ranking, I would go Twix, number one.

SPEAKER_02: 3:00

And

SPEAKER_00: 3:01

I would go, there's an Oreo milk chocolate bar. I think it might be a Hershey's Oreo milk chocolate. I have number two strong. That's me. Okay. Reese's peanut butter cups are the good.

SPEAKER_01: 3:15

You want to know something interesting about Twix? What's that, Greg? There's a left Twix and a right Twix? It's not candy. It's not a candy bar. What is it? It is technically a cookie bar. I don't know if that means anything because it tastes like a candy bar to me, but it's technically a cookie bar. I forget why that was relevant, but I learned that at some point. It's just added to the list of useless information. I'll

SPEAKER_00: 3:47

tell you why. I get you because in the United States, it's essentially chocolate with peanut butter and everything. There's peanut butter in basically every candy bar that you get. where I see what you're saying about the cookie, but you're right, because you're right. There is cookie stuff in there, and a lot of the international chocolates are sort of that way inclined. So I'm feeling you.

SPEAKER_01: 4:07

Well, here's the issue, and I found this out very quickly thanks to Google. Twix is not a candy bar. It is legally, legally a cookie, a cookie bar due to its flour content. So there are actually– because some states and some localities tax candy, they had to come up with a definition for what candy is. And Twix does not fall underneath the candy category because items that contain flour– or require refrigeration are not considered candy. So there's too much flour and Twix for it to be candy. It is a cookie bar. Yes, that's what it was. My tax expertise. Yes. I must have been studying tax codes. Now, this has gone better than I thought because our friend, Peter, who's a listener of the show, he's a member of the Patreon. He lives in Sydney, Australia, gentlemen. And he has sent me over A handful of the options. These are just, I can assure you, these are just some of the options that Kit Kat has available in Sydney. And he asked me to pass these along. So as you can see, we've got regular Kit Kat. We've got the Milky Bar. We've got the Neapolitan, the Gold Rush, a mint flavor, the Chunky.

SPEAKER_00: 5:39

Mint for the win. Mint Aero for the win. That is so good, that one.

SPEAKER_01: 5:43

Is Aero, Mark, is that another type of chocolate?

SPEAKER_00: 5:46

Yes, it is. You get it because Aero, imagine the real, it's not spongy, it's just chocolate, but there's like air bubbles on the inside of it. So it's just plain chocolate. And there's a mint version and there's a white chocolate version too, but the mint one is really nice.

SPEAKER_01: 5:59

Okay, that's good to know. Then there are gooey versions of all of these, Greg. So when I asked you this before and you said, no, no, no, just the original, I couldn't possibly eat anything different. Is there any one of these flavors that has changed in your mind on that? Would you try one of these? Well, yeah, I think I'd try any of them. Wow. I might be swayed here. I mean, these look spectacular. Like the Milky Bar. The Milky Bar looks really good. Yeah, that looks great. Now, I've been accused of being a little vanilla before. So forgive me. I love. I mean, I don't take offense to it because I love vanilla flavor.

SPEAKER_00: 6:45

And I have. Just so you guys, Milo is like a fortified chocolate drink that they give kiddos at night. My wife still drinks it. Milo is really tasty as well. And Milo and a Kit Kat, yeah, I'm circling that one too.

SPEAKER_01: 6:59

Yeah, that's the thing. It's not just the flavors, but it's the collaborations. I think when I was in Australia, I had, it was like Kit Kat and Coca-Cola or like something like that. And, you know, it was very, they do a lot of the collaborations like that. So yeah, it is a, I'm glad to hear, Greg, that you're willing to at least try some of these. Yeah, that opened up my mind. I don't know. Maybe it's the packaging. It's a little different. They got a little different looking logo on there. At least it looks that way to me. I can't believe he sent that to you from Australia. That is incredible. Oh, listen, if things keep going well, I'm going to import a box straight to you and you're going to do a live taste test. on the show and score them we'll have to figure all right that'll be an off-season project yeah yeah that will work on uh all right let's talk a little bit of golf here gentlemen we are headed to royal port rush northern ireland for the third time 1951 max faulkner your champion 2019 shane lowry your champion and mark i'll throw it over here to you first because uh you've got you know link style golf uh flowing through the blood right now when you think If you think of Royal Portrush, you think of what?

SPEAKER_00: 8:13

I think of the fact that I'm somewhat aggravated that I haven't got to see it. But in Northern Ireland, I have been to Royal County Down, which is special. It's just hard as heck. But Portrush is one of those places where everyone you talk to, they use words like unparalleled. You'll hear people say there's every hole is... There's no one hole that's similar to the other. Every hole's got a lot of character. They talk about really undulating greens, small targets. And then, you know, a lot of the Lynx experts I've talked to, and Ian Baker Finch kind of jumps to mind because I love to go to see Lynx golf courses with him because he's got a designer's eye. And, of course, he's won the Open at Royal Berkdown. And so I ask him about it all the time. And he talks about the edging. in the Lynx golf course is how there's no sharp edges. Stuff just rolls away into bunkers and the edges of the greens is a little fall off. Some of them raised, you know, there's always like gentle undulations. And sometimes the fairways look like potato chips a little bit. There's nothing that looks contrived. It's like to use, there's a great picture there. It's like it's forged by nature as the RNA call it. And Port Rush is just that. And of course, as far as designers go, Harry Colt is one of my favorites. You know, he's, Sunningdale is a gem. Went with Muirfield. He's put together some sensational golf courses, including this one. And the way this thing fits with the surroundings, because up there it's dramatic coastline. This is a dramatic golf course and it's very, very cool.

SPEAKER_01: 9:52

Yeah, not a tree to be found out there. And Mother Nature certainly had her way with this one. If you're watching on YouTube, this is Calamity Corner. This is towards the end of the round. That's a long part three that you're looking at from Greenside there. And Greg, you know, this course is one that is... We've seen it twice now, 2019 and, of course, 2025. But before that, it was only that 1951 version. And this is a course that has gone through so many tweaks. It's almost like it's constantly changing in some form or fashion. Martin Ebert has done a variety of work to this course leading up to 2019. And then post-2019, it's always in a state of... I don't want to say transition, but you know what I'm saying. There's always something new happening here. Yes, it kind of gradually evolves. Now, leading into the 2019 Open, there were some pretty dramatic changes. They got rid of two holes, and 17 and 18 were changed. You're looking at a picture of 16 right there, Calamity Corner, which is just fantastic. I think that the best golf courses in the world evolve with the game. They don't ask the game to stay so that they can stay relevant. They evolve with the game to meet the challenges of the best players in the world, if it's a championship golf course. I should say meet the challenges of players... who play the golf course. And this is certainly a championship caliber golf course. And I'm so glad it's a part of the rotation because like Mark said, it, it is dramatic. It's probably a little more elevation. There's probably a little more elevation change than many of the other, uh, links courses in the Rota. Um, you know, any, and Mark also mentioned Harry Cole and he, I was watching the fried egg did a little video on the golf course and they were kind of describing it from an architectural standpoint. And they talked about how it's like a, in this age, they brought in Harry cult to do this. And it was, and not all the links courses were designed by legendary architects like this. So he comes in and what's so cool is there's only like, 62 bunkers on the property where you think about like Royal Lithium in St. Anne's, which has the most in the open Rota. It has 206. This has 62 yet in the press conferences this week, both Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry described Royal Port Rush as well bunkered, which I think is such a testament to, uh, Harry Colt and his design and Martin Ebert and his, his redesigns and upgrades. So very, very impressive golf course. I think the coolest aspect of links golf is the design features really come into play because the, the game is played closer to the ground. And so all of a sudden angles become a little more important and you have some of the boundary holes early on where in order to get the angle, you got to play close to the boundary. And that concept of playing close to the ground brings in design philosophies like that, which I find them so interesting to watch.

SPEAKER_00: 13:17

Yeah. If I may add something real fast, Rick, you see that picture there that we're looking at, and it's intensely Lynx. because a lot of golf courses, the links land is the land that joins, links the ocean to the heathland or the inland area. And this is like on the cliffs over there, on the beaches and stuff. And some like Brookdale, for argument's sakes, you wander between these sand dunes and such. And it's like, Colt fit this golf course in between the dunes. And there's one or two high spots on the golf course. And the beauty about the design too is, Pretty much the golf course sits on like a northeast to a sort of a southwest axis. And the prevailing winds are basically across that. So you've got crosswinds. That's why these bunkers are coming to play so well, just the number of them. And I wanted to build on what Greg said about the two holes that were adjusted. Because there's two golf courses on the premises. And you had this links place that was 16 holes adjusted. A lot of people, the Irish people, called like the best 16-hole course in the world. But then you had these other two holes that sort of didn't fit. And then what Martin Ebert came in and did was basically made two adjustments to make this thing like thoroughly links 18 holes all the way through. So it's a sweet spot, and it's one of my wishes that one day I get to go and see it.

SPEAKER_01: 14:38

Mother Nature– helped build the golf course. Mother nature will certainly help determine the championship. And I will give people a look behind the curtain about a half hour before we started this show. Greg sent a text in the, in the group chat and it said, Hey Rick, do you have wind finder available? And I was like, I can have it available for you, buddy. Like I'll, I'll, I'll pull it up for you. So the big part about not only links golf, but open championships are the, the way that potentially the wind and the weather could play a role. And Greg, I've got wind finder up. I admittedly have no idea where you're going here. So I will, I will follow you wherever you want me to go on this, on this diagram. All right. So where do we have our days? I've got, I'm, I'm set up a Thursday at 11 AM, a 13 mile an hour winds going back out to the sea off the Southeast. Okay. Now, there is a chart. That's great for the direction. There's a chart. Yeah. Are you familiar with the chart that shows Thursday, Friday? Yeah, I'll get it for you. The super forecast or whatever they call it? What do they call this? I'll get it for you. All right. So this is basically the set. The reason why I'm so interested in this is there's been some pictures floating around online about this, and it looks like an AM, PM wave advantage. So the guys that start Thursday morning and play late Friday looks like they may have an advantage. And I totally see where that comes from. Because, okay, yeah, here we go. Yeah. So now we've got to scroll down to Thursday. You just got to... Yep, there we go. Now, if you look over on the right-hand side, 4 o'clock... Well, I guess you can include 1 o'clock, 4 o'clock, 7 o'clock on Friday afternoon is like the lightest wind of the first two days. So guys that are finishing late on Friday, in theory, play with the smallest amount of wind. But there's also these... little droplets down below that, which indicate rain. Now I'm wondering if we're talking about rain, would you rather play in, let's just look at the Gus 14 to 16 mile an hour wind Gus, like you'll see in the morning or seven to eight mile an hour wind Gus with rain, active rainfall. And I'm not sure if, Looking at the earlier part of Thursday, like early Thursday, looks like the heaviest rain. So that would be in the quote-unquote favorable advantage with still 20-mile-an-hour wind gusts, just like we have through the rest of this day. I'm not so sure that there's a wind advantage. So I wanted to get Mark's thoughts on this as well. Mark, what would you rather play in? So hold on. Before we do that, Mark, so Greg, you're saying that you don't think there is as– strong of an advantage either way than what is being perceived. That's correct. And well, I want to hear Mark's thoughts before I go farther.

SPEAKER_00: 17:56

Okay. Well, Greg, you make a point. I'll just add that any coastal golf course, especially a links place, 10 mile an hour is a quiet day. I mean, when, when we talk about 10 miles an hour with a wind in the States, it's a thing, 10 miles an hour over there. It's like, all right, we're playing in perfect weather kind of deal. So if you get up into the fifteens and such, it's, It's enough to bother you. But part of the examination around the Wynn Golf Course, about the Lynx Golf Course, is striking the ball well. And that's why the low ball hitters and stuff and that sort of thing deal with these golf courses well. So I honestly think, despite the rain, I think the weather forecast is good. Because in that northern corner of Ireland, like when I was at County Down, which is brutally hard, when the wind gets to blowing around that place, it's impossible. Because it's just so difficult. So a course like this with the undulations and stuff, I can see if you're getting like 25 mile an hour and such, it could be a handful. But right now, I think unless it's downpours and stuff, we're losing control of the golf clubs. No, I think this is just a nice Lynx tournament. It's going to add to the flavor of it.

SPEAKER_01: 19:03

I do think that Thursday is going to be very difficult. because you have, you know, we'll call that 15 to 20 or 10 to 20 mile an hour winds with the gusts and rain. That's a brutal combo. And that looks like it's going on all day.

SPEAKER_00: 19:19

Yeah. Yeah. That's going to be one of those things where you don't use an umbrella. You have a good rain suit. Yeah. I mean, these guys are equipped for it. Yeah. It's all about attitude. And if you've been listening to the press conferences, when it gets to the weather, you'll hear each and every one of them go. Lynx golf is an attitude. Part of the attitude is like, you're going to get some bad bounces. You're going to get some putts that don't go where they should. You're going to get some wind gusts and stuff, but that's part of the thing. Everyone's going to face the same sort of deal. Yes, I know in these events you can sometimes have wave advantages, but I'm sort of on the fence. I don't think there's that big a glaring wave advantage right now. It remains to be seen what rolls around Thursday because, again, forecasting the weather at the coastline is an impossibility. Yeah, it really is. So, so, so we'll see. I mean, that's cool information, but it's links golf. You wake up in the morning and you deal with what you got and you know that in the blink of an eye, it's likely to change. That's,

SPEAKER_01: 20:15

that's to your point, Mark, that Thursday forecast. I've been checking this like on the hour last, you know, yesterday, there wasn't that much rain in the forecast. And I don't think there was any Friday either. So, Or maybe there was a little fright. But anyway, my point is it's changed already.

SPEAKER_00: 20:35

Bro, I hope it rains hard. I hope it absolutely pounds it down on them because I'm going to be lying on my couch with coffee. in my sweatpants. So I hope it rains hard. I do.

SPEAKER_01: 20:46

Begging for carnage when he's not out there, Mark. I love it. Well, okay, so let's do it like this then. So now, Mark, that we've kind of talked about the weather, we've talked about the link style of play and what to expect. How does this start translating into the types of players, the skill sets, maybe who would be better suited for an open at Royal Port Rush than another guy?

SPEAKER_00: 21:12

Okay, I'm going to preface my take with the fact that I don't know this for certain because I'm operating on other people's information. I've not been to Portrush. I can speak with authority on Lynx Golf. I'll say Lynx Golf, you've got to be a really good iron player. You've got to be a really good lag putter. Although the greens at Port Rush are not that big, but still lag putting with humps and hollows and stuff, if you get some gusty winds, is hard. I'll share a quick story from last week where my spotter from on the course, Craig Capano, made the trip over to Scotland with me. And we played Gullen on the Saturday morning, Gullen number one, the tournament course. And there were certain spots where a whole location you just couldn't get to. And he looked at me and he goes, I see now why fans will clap for a ball to 25, 30 feet at times, because that's just a good shot in the Lynx golf. Where in the States, if you had an event and someone hits it to 25 feet, people are like, oh, whatever, man, come on. Because it's a different style of golf. Well, yeah, the ball gets to moving on the ground, and sometimes 15, 20 feet is the best you can do. So with that being said, I know with Lynx golf, you've got to be a good iron player. You have to strike the ball really flush. You've got to be a really good lag putter and you've got to have a really good attitude. I mean, you've got to be prepared to take the rough and the smooth because you're going to get it all. No one's immune to anything going wrong. And if you can avoid pot bunkers, then you're on the way because a pot bunker, like in the very first call I made last week at Scotland, I joined Ludwig Oberg and he was 300 through seven or something. tries to drive it down eighth. There's a pot bunker right in the middle of the fairway. He covers it, but it rolls back in the bunker. And it's basically, he's blasting out from there. And I said to him, if Ian Baker Fincher was his hole, I'm like, as you know, I mean, these pot bunkers are essentially a stroke penalty. And then he sort of goes, yeah, well, a half a stroke or so. But the reality is, if you're in a pot bunker, the furthest you're advancing the thing, unless you're crazy, is probably 30, 40 yards. So that means you're going to still have yourself a pretty long club into any sort of lengthy par four. You hit that to 30 feet and you're making bogey. Now, I know if you look at all of the data, it'll say, well, you're going to lose three quarters of a stroke or whatever. A putt bunker is a stroke as far as I'm concerned. So if you can avoid the putt bunkers off the tee, then you're on your way. Iron play, lag putting, avoid the putt bunkers and you're on your way.

SPEAKER_01: 23:49

It is a lot of... Like Mark said, Greg, the good vibes, understanding you're going to get bad breaks, realizing it's a 72-hole event. Don't play yourself out of it on Thursday. This is a style of golf that we don't get to see, and some guys are just honestly just not suited for it. Yeah, there's definitely something to that. It takes a little bit of learning around a golf course like this. You got to understand where... Perhaps there's a side that's better than another. Even if it's not a good option, maybe it's better than the other option at your disposal. Similar to a U.S. Open, you've got to understand that you're going to make mistakes. And when they happen, you can't let them get to you too much. So there's definitely a big attitude factor at play here. I think that's why you see... It's kind of surprising to me. I think of all this volatility and weather that comes and goes in the open, and yet the champions are very worthy. Most open champions, it's not their only major, which is just a fascinating thing to me. I've always thought it's the most difficult to predict. I don't know if that's right. I think that there's something very specific you need to have in Lynx golf. And I don't know what the Lynx acumen is, but there are people that have it. And maybe what it is is all-around game. I mean, think back to 2019. Just listen to these names in the top 10 without any stats or anything. You got Lowry, Fleetwood, Finau, Koepka, Westwood, Fowler, Hatton, McIntyre, Willett, Reed. Maybe Danny Willett is... an exception. Um, maybe Patrick Reed is a little bit of a specialist, but I hear those names. I just think these guys are all around solid players. Um, maybe some of them struggle with the putter, but Tita green, these guys are really solid.

SPEAKER_00: 26:07

It's please Mark. Mayor or fast to, to the solid player, the all around player too. I was looking at how the, um, how the golf course sits on that sort of that tilted axis. Right. And you get the prevailing wind across a bunch. And from what I've read, only two holes play downwind and one of the path bias plays into the wind. And so to the ball striking and the complete control as well, it's not just, not just trajectory because like, if you playing to land the ball short for argument's sakes, and you're relying on a forward bounce and, If you've got a right-to-left wind and you cut the ball up into a right-to-left wind, it's going to come down softly because the wind and the spin will mitigate each other. And so the ball won't bounce forward as much as what you think. Then the next thing, you've got some awkward chip shot over a hump from 50 feet, you know, and that makes life hard. So it's not just the ball striking, but it's the spin control too. So like you've got some sort of right-to-left wind crooked, hurting a little bit, and then you've got to draw something in there. If you cut one, you're not hitting your target, as simple as that. Or if you overturn one on one of those things and it gets on the wrong side of the green, all of a sudden gets one hop and it sort of tumbles a bit, next thing you're playing from one of those horrid little pot bunkers, which are a lot smaller on this golf course too. They're kind of very much in the cult fashion, like Lhythm, Greg mentioned, Lytham, when I have nightmares about that place, because a lot of the holes are straight and you look down the fairway and these little dots that are sort of, they're just down the sides of the fairways like that. And they're like vacuums, man. They suck balls in there. So to drive the ball in the fairway at Lytham, that's the big challenge. But here you want to control spin so you don't get something tumbling. All of a sudden you're in one of those pot bunkers and then, you know, you're likely making bogey on one or other easy-ish par four.

SPEAKER_01: 27:56

We've alluded to a couple other courses on the road, which I think is a really good time to jump into our, or at least one of our questions from Patreon. We've had such great support over there trying to restart this show and it's much appreciated and you can continue this, but we get some questions over there and I try to pick out ones that are best suited for the conversation and Alex sends this one over. So he's talking about open Rota courses and which one you might take out, which one you might replace it with if you have a favorite. And I pulled, gentlemen here, the... Sorry, me and I screwed that up. I pulled the list of courses that are current or past open Rota venues. And you're seeing them on your screen, everything from Carnoustie, Presswick is where they held... the first bunch of these. So, Greg, let me fire this out to you first. Is there a venue that you'd like to add, swap, remove from the rota, or do you have one that kind of makes you feel the warm and fuzzies? It's hard for me to add one because when it comes to Lynx Golf, golf in Scotland and Ireland, I'm really only familiar with the golf courses in the rota. So it's hard for me to say one should be in that isn't. Maybe Royal County Down, which Mark added, would be the one I'd put in there because I'm somewhat familiar with that place. As for taking one out, my least favorite is probably Royal St. George's. It's the farthest south. It has the least... Elevation change. I think it's the least dramatic, although the fairways are so bumpy. It's just the least interesting of all of them to me. Difficult one to really explain. But, I mean, look at these other ones. Carnoustie might be my favorite. Muirfield. Well, I mean, if we're heading to Muirfield, I might say that one's my favorite.

SPEAKER_00: 30:07

It's the best one. It's designed as brilliant.

SPEAKER_01: 30:11

Lytham and St. Anne's is really cool. Port Rush is just awesome. Troon. Turnberry. I'd like to see them go back to Turnberry. I think that's a really good one as well. I like Lynx Golf. I think the road is pretty solid. We haven't seen Turnberry since 2009. We have not seen Muirfield since 2013. St. George's was obviously 2021 mark. When you look over this list, what stands out to you?

SPEAKER_00: 30:47

Well, Muirfield is great. The way it's designed, because you have the front nine, it travels sort of in one direction, and then the second nine goes around the outside of it and goes in the opposite direction. So you're getting different winds on basically every hole. It's a genius in the design, and being able to do that in Lynxland is especially challenging. And obviously, the view of the Firth of Forth is sensational. I mean, I sat there on a bench and just gazed out at the place for about 15 minutes. I was just overcome by the beauty of it. So Muirfield is great. As far as adding a course, I'd kind of sort of lean to Port Marnock, another one in Ireland. Turnberry is fantastic. It truly is. Taking a course out, I'm sort of with you a little bit on Royal St. George's, but I'm partial to it because my brother made the finals of the British Amateur there. And it's also down in the south and everything else is way north in the United Kingdom. And the British Isles, I would make an argument that the place is built on golf, especially, well, certainly Scotland and Ireland are, you know, as far as sports go. So you've got to sort of have an open that's representative of the British Isles, which is down on the southernmost tip of the countryside. And they're great courses down there, like Royal Sankt Ports and stuff. I mean, that entire list is brilliant. It truly is. Prestwick is a little gem, but it's too small. The whole thing about the Open is it's so big. Some of these courses you'll never get to go to because they just can't handle all of the traffic and the size and the stature and the magnitude of the event. So if I was adding one, I'd add another one in Ireland just to kind of even up the score a little bit.

SPEAKER_01: 32:26

Here's the map. You can see how far south Royal St. George's is by far the most southerly of the Open Rota courses. The most northern, Carnoustie, there it is, just edges out St. Andrews very, very closely there on the map. I want to tackle some of the players via the featured groups that they are in because they're already out. And I think this is a fun way to kind of frame the groups, the players, and the chances for this week. So I'm going to start with game 19 here, gentlemen. And that is, if I can pull it up here. I'm sorry. Game, well, hold on. There it is. 9.58 a.m. local. Xander Shoffley, JJ Spahn, Jon Rahm. Greg, we've got the reigning champion golfer of the year. Our most recent major champion in JJ spawn. And then John Rahm looking to win the event that he called. I think he said it would be the greatest achievement of golfing lifers. I'll get the exact quote, but it was very high praise. It was very high praise. Look, John Rahm has been spectacular. His performance in majors has returned this year. I expect him to be a real factor this week. Xander Shoffley is an interesting case to me. So I want to point out a couple of key statistics from Xander last year to Xander this year. And these are some that I look at as very important major indicators. Not necessarily week to week, but in majors, I pay attention to them. One is scrambling. Last year, Xander was first. This year, he's 166th. One is three-putt avoidance. He was second last year. He's 73rd this year. Another is bogey avoidance. Kind of encapsulates both the other two. He was first last year. He's 130th this year. So where does that come from? Where do the mistakes come from? And unfortunately for Xander, last year he was the most complete player in the game. Now we have a guy that was 10th in strokes gained off the tee. He's now 112th in strokes gained off the tee. 12th in strokes game putt in, 138th in strokes game putt in this year, and 42nd around the green, 99th this year. There are some aspects of Xander's game that are phenomenally strong. He is a fighter. He is gritty. If there's anybody that can play through these kind of things, it would be Xander. But these little mistakes worry me, and they have a tendency of adding up in major championships. He's got two of them. Both of them came last year. Here's that John Rahm quote. He says the Open Championship is, quote, the most prestigious event you can win in golf. He would go on to say there's an order to it, too, because it changes venues. So if you can win it at St. Andrews, I don't think anything in golf can come close to that. That is high praise, Mark, from a man who has a green jacket in his closet.

SPEAKER_00: 35:44

Well, the Europeans are tough. typically in a tilt that way, because as far as television goes, you get more coverage of European tour golf if you're a young European golfer. And, you know, for the longest time, I can't speak for John Rahm. I know this, that, you know, he's very influenced by Seve Ballesteros. And Seve, the Open Championship was it. And Seve was one of those guys who won at Golf's Grandest Cathedral in the old course at St. Andrews. So there's a lot of that involved with that statement over there. But I know this, in terms of, like you say, being a complete golfer and winning on a place where golf is becoming so predictable, the one thing you can't predict as a player is a Lynx Golf Championship. You just never know. So part of being a really good professional golfer is the ability to be adaptable. and to sort of roll with the punches a little bit. And these players know it. If you're playing some soft golf course, it's kind of rinse and repeat a little bit. And if you're hitting the ball on the button, you control distance well. And so you sort of know, okay, I'm going to get myself 12, 13 looks at birdie. Hopefully like six of them are in makeable range there and you can sort of piece something together without your best stuff. nothing is guaranteed around an open golf course, especially in a major like the Open Championship. So it brings into the equation the whole thing about that mental game. And I feel like John Rom, who's a pretty savvy guy, realizes that thing. So it's not just his heritage and the influence of savvy. It's just all these players understanding that once you get over the fact that Lynx Golf is going to treat you kind of nasty at times, You know, you've really got to play the game. I'm looking for a better word than completely. But you've got to be aware. You've got to be adaptable. You've got to have everything for the entire round of golf. And even still, you might make a mistake or two. And that, in a strange way, if you choose to look at it that way, is beautiful. And you look at the list of major championship winners on Lynx Golf Courses. When the mind is clear and they're there, then they do the special things, like Xander did last year at Troon.

SPEAKER_01: 38:00

Major championships abound in that group. I want to put a bow on this group, Greg, with your thoughts on this, because Oliver from the Patreon asked this question, and I kind of like it. He says, would Hideki or JJ Spahn be major champions if they hadn't had a raid delay in the final round of their championship? And I guess the idea is... they were able to reset and regroup and adapt to conditions better than their peers, which I believe is where Oliver is going, where he says, you know, this weather is often influencing this championship. And it got him thinking about that. It's a phenomenal point. Hideki's rain delay was on Saturday in the Masters. But to his point, he came out of that rain delay on fire and won the golf tournament on Saturday. basically hung on on Sunday. And even a charge from, ironically, Xander Shoffley wasn't enough. And for J.J. Spahn, he pretty much said as much in his post-round press conference. Things were not going well, and the rain delay was huge for him. And he came out like a different golfer. So, look, we always say there's no timeouts in golf, but sometimes there are. You just don't get to choose when you call them. And so I would... I would say that it's hard to say there wouldn't be major champions, but I would say that those tournaments would likely have gone differently if it weren't for those rain delays. The infamous quote from Hideki about what he did during that rain delay, sit in his phone. Or sit in his car and scroll on his phone.

SPEAKER_00: 39:43

You know, if I could respond to that real fast. We live in such a hypothetical world. And we all feel like we can predict golf, which you can't. It just isn't real. And that's sort of a hypothetical. I want to say anyone who's won a tournament has had something that's gone right. You know, when you win a 72-year-old event, it's not just all skill and decision-making and stuff. There's been breaks that have gone your way. And there have been players that you don't even know about that have had three or four lip-outs that if they go in, they're winning the tournament just because they weren't necessarily covered on TV. So, yeah, that's just glaring. And, yeah, I was on the call at Amen Corner when Adeki stopped on the right side of 11th. and marked the ball and then didn't got to sort of remark it. So he had a better line, a very wet area. And then he stuck a seven iron to about 10 feet to back hole location. You could not have done that if they'd kept on playing, but it's kind of rub of the green. It just is what it is.

SPEAKER_01: 40:39

It is. And I, I love the hypothetical game, but, uh, I, I, yes, there are shots that never even get to television or never get anywhere that, um, We can play the what-if game for every golfer in the field. How about the what-if game for game 20, 10.09 a.m. local time? And this is a big boy group, Marcus. They all are because that's why I'm showing them. Shane Lowry, the winner the last time we were here at Royal Portrush. Colin Morikawa, he's got a claret jug. And Scotty Scheffler, hmm, number one player in the world. What do you make of game number 20?

SPEAKER_00: 41:17

What if Scotty just decides to give up golf because it starts getting in the way of his family and his friends, like he said in the press conference this morning? I mean, yeah, I was fascinated by his comments. He seems like he's just trying to put stuff into perspective. He's talking about embracing Lynx golf. I would say of the three here, Shane is the most accomplished Lynx golfer. Colin... He won down at Royal St. George's where you can have some lucky breaks because balls will go down the middle of the fairway and end up in bad spots. And Scheffler, you would figure he's going to win one at some stage. But if I was looking at this group and I was going to be a betting man, it's going to wreck Greg the wrong way. But I'd bet Lowry in this group if I was.

UNKNOWN: 42:04

Wow.

SPEAKER_01: 42:05

Does that rub you the wrong way, Greg? Well, no. Here, I would say it's... The least likely major, the most difficult to predict for Scotty Scheffler specifically. So I understand where Mark's coming from with that. Links is a totally different test. But at the same time, I was thinking of what Mark was saying earlier in his description of what links golf requires. And all I could think about, I was seeing that headshot all the way on the right-hand side of that screen in my head after every comment he made. I know that Shane Lowry and Colin Morikawa are capable of that too. But watching Scotty Scheffler, what was the tournament? This is going to bother me. It was not the Scottish Open. There was a tournament earlier this year, Scotty was playing, where a lot of guys landed it short of the green. and bouncing it up. And I could not get over how often he landed it 10, 15 yards short of the green, and it still ended up flag high. There is nobody better at getting that distance right. And it hit me earlier this year that it's not about landing it the right distance for him. He can do that. He can also get the total distance right. he can control his spin as well as anybody. He can move the ball up and down as well as anybody. You look at short game. I mean, he's pretty complete, but I'll give you my one concern and why what Mark's comments don't rub me the wrong way. You look at his last six trips to Lynx golf, whether it was the Scottish open or the open championship, just including those two, he's lost strokes, putting in all six. Now, he's having his best putting season of his entire career this year, 22nd on the PGA Tour, but he did struggle last week, losing nearly a shot and a half to the field on the greens. So, yeah, I worry about Scottie in one way, one way only, and it's what happens on the greens with him.

SPEAKER_00: 44:24

One more thing about Scottie to me, and I'm building on Greg's observation about how he hits it. He is... he is so predictable, I think he has a problem with unpredictability. You know, he plays it off and he looks like he's not getting frustrated, but underneath that veneer, he is burning hot. Because when he hits the ball a whole high every single time, when over here you get a bounce that goes in the wrong direction, he's like, how on earth now I've got to deal with that? And then you're more fighting the battle of trying to deal with that than you're just going about hitting the shots that you should. So I think when he sort of comes to grips with the fact that Even someone as reliable as him, Teeter Green, is going to get stuff that doesn't go right. And you're like, well, dang. Well, gosh darn it. Whatever you're going to say, you just keep on playing. That's when he's going to unlock the magic that's required to win one of these.

SPEAKER_01: 45:15

Yeah, it doesn't happen often because things rarely go wrong for him. But when they do, he does run very, very hot. And you can see it immediately. It doesn't happen very often.

SPEAKER_00: 45:26

They're not like Wyndham Clark blow-ups or anything, but his chili burns pretty hot at times. Yeah,

SPEAKER_01: 45:32

well, there are very few Wyndham Clark-like blow-ups. Let's get to the afternoon. 2.59 p.m. local time. Look at this group. It's Game 45. It's Jordan Spieth. It's Ludwig Oberg. It's Victor Hovland. And, Greg, we've got a pair of Scandinavians and one of the most accomplished Open Championship players in this field.

UNKNOWN: 45:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 45:55

Fascinating group. Absolutely fascinating. Last time we saw Jordan Spieth, he was withdrawing from the Travelers Championship because of a scap. His words. Injury. His scap. Yeah. I mean, it's basically like a stiff neck, even though the scap's not in your neck. They're connected. They affect one another. So that's bothering him. Ludwig Oberg has been hitting the ball so much better recently He's been an absolute stripe show. I really like where his game is trending. And the same is true for Victor Hovland. I'm very bullish on Victor Hovland this week. Now, you might look at this and say, well, is this a bad tee time? It might turn out to be. I'm not worried about it personally. I think that anybody who wins this tournament is going to have to play through some difficult weather. I don't think there's an easy wave to be in, but Perhaps one ends up easier than another, but I don't think there's an easy wave. So whoever wins is going to have to play through some difficult conditions. And I think these players right now are... There's something that they haven't achieved yet this year, but everything about their game is trending in the direction of achieving those things. It's one of my favorite groups on the entire board. Yeah, I think the prediction market... on this, Mark, would be quite bullish on all three of these guys. Their odds, according to Vegas, Hovland and Ludwig are both 30-1. Jordan's beat is 55-1, but I think there is a general positivity around all three of these players right now.

SPEAKER_00: 47:29

Yeah, well, Jordan, I think, is playing with the freedom of having now the little baby born, Sully. And so that concerns out of the way, so now he can just go ahead and play a little swing-free golf. And he's at his best when he's free swinging. Ludwig... He was like Jekyll and Hyde last week. He went from sublime to ridiculous in front of my eyes on Saturday afternoon. I mean, he couldn't miss. And all of a sudden, he plays three holes and five over. It was fascinating. And it's almost like all of a sudden, when he missed a shot, he missed two in a row, which you can't afford to do. Like, he was looking unreal. He was way under. He was tied for the lead. He hits it close on 12 and three putts from like 15 feet. Then the next hole on 13, kind of... hits a weak tee shot, sort of mishits one, then tugs a five iron into out of bounds. Just ridiculous sort of college golfer stuff in a way. So I'm high on Ludwig, but there's a little something missing there right now. And so of the bunch, in a strange way, I'm kind of leaning towards Victor in this. because he looked very easy with himself. There were a lot of smiles last week. He plays links golf well. He's one of those ball strikers, especially with the irons that we talk about. And this could be a sneaky week for a Victor Hovland, I believe.

SPEAKER_01: 48:47

That's the 2.59 p.m. local time group. I'll give you one more here, gentlemen, and it is none other than the 3.10. This is Rory McIlroy. It's Justin Thomas. It's Tommy Fleetwood. Mark, this is a group late in the day that, of course, everybody's going to have eyes on.

SPEAKER_00: 49:08

The winner is going to come out of this group. I'm saying it now. And it's going to be a battle between Fleetwood and Rory. Fleetwood plays his golf course so well. I think last week... He didn't have his best stuff, but it was kind of a week where if you're not playing well, it's not a bad deal to just sort of get your reps in, hit some shots, kind of test the golf swing, low stress, save your energy for the big week, the Open Championship week. So I love Tommy because of the way he hits his irons around this golf course. Rory and everything I've seen from last week, he's got the two iron in the bag that is a rocket. And I feel like it's going to really stand him in good stead around this place so he doesn't force the issue. Because the strange thing, remember the last time we were here, how the ball hit out of bounds that essentially cost him the tournament off the first hole was with a long iron off the first. But he's got this two iron right now that is like so reliable and it goes a ton. And all the video I've seen of him in practice, he's swinging like the guy that I watched at Pebble Beach. It's not flat out. For a little while here after the Masters, he was like swinging for the fences on everything again. Where I'm watching in practice, it's measured, it's balanced, it's kind of three-quarter speed, the ball flight's controlled. I'm loving what I'm seeing there. And then there's JT. Gosh, I mean, the unpredictability is rampant because if he putts well, the driver misbehaves. If the driver goes well, he puts poorly. So I'm kind of out on Justin Thomas a little bit, but then he's likely to prove me wrong.

SPEAKER_01: 50:45

Yeah, he's Jekyll and Hyde every single week. The Rory McIlroy 2019, if you don't remember, if you weren't watching, the anticipation of Rory going back to Royal Portrush and Portrush hosting the Open for the first time since 1951, and for Rory to stand on the first tee and hit one OB... He then took an unplayable up by the green. He walked off the first green with an eight. And the world was spinning very, very fast. And he battled back. He battled back, Greg. He missed the cut by a stroke. I think he shot a 65 on Friday. But there is certainly, I would imagine, some revenge in the back of Rory's mind. I would think so. In fact, that's what I wrote down. Rory's revenge at Royal port rush. Whoa. Royal rush. We'll just shorten it. Yeah. Yeah. So I really liked that. Look, he, he made a quad and he made a double triple and a quad in that first round. It wasn't just that opening tee shot that got him. But Rory talked about something quite interesting that he wasn't prepared for that moment. Now in 2019, he was a, very accomplished um you know four-time major champion he said to shane lowry before the tournament that this would be the biggest tournament of his entire life i think rory understands that and and now that he's getting still in his prime a second pass at it he will know how to handle those emotions and then which is a huge deal um maybe a bigger deal than the Mark made about the golf swing, which are a huge deal as well. But understanding how to control that is crucial in its importance. Then you listen to what Mark says about the golf swing and that viewpoint. That's massive. Then the numbers start to back that up. We're starting to see some really good play now in the U.S. Open, aside from the first round. The Travelers, he finished tied sixth, finished tied second. Last week as well, things are definitely trending in the right direction. This is a guy where heading into the U.S. Open, I questioned the focus. I questioned... his ability to flip the switch, so to speak. And what I'm noticing now looking at these last three weeks is this, this wasn't a switch that was flipped, right? He's put in the work. He's put in the work since the U S open to get ready for this. And I like Mark. I think he's ready for the challenge ahead. 50 to one for Justin Thomas, 28 to one for Tommy Fleetwood. And the man with the second shortest odds is, the sixth man to ever complete the career Grand Slam, the man from Northern Ireland, that is Rory McIlroy, second to only Scotty Scheffler in the odds market. Gentlemen, I am going to now take us to the grid, which is our opportunity to put some official wagers on the line. If you've never seen it before, it's matchups, it's finishing positions, it's two separate outrights. And if producer Mina is ready, She can fire that grid off right now. There we go. Good job. Good timing. All right. Match-ups. Let's start there. Mark. Oh, look at you. What'd you find?

SPEAKER_00: 54:16

I'm going super linksy this week. And Port Rush is one of those places that not a lot of people go to unless you're from the area or a tourist. And so I'm loving the fact that Larry was in here a couple weeks before the time. He went and played a number of other Lynx courses to get in the mood for this sort of stuff, where Jon Rahm was playing in a very windy Valderrama. So it's like a quick mindset shift. Now, he's capable of anything. But Lowry, the place that he's won, a groundswell of Irish support, the short game he has, he's a lovely iron player. I feel like I'm lacking him over Jon Rahm, plus 165.

SPEAKER_01: 54:55

Yeah, very good number there. Plus 165. You drive into town, you see a 30-foot mural of Shane Lowry and the Claret Jug. That's certainly worth some motivation. Speaking of numbers, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that Sepp Straka was plus 110 over Colin Morikawa. Colin is... I think he is confused. I am very confused. I don't know what to expect out of him, but I know that Sepp Straka never misses the center of the club face after a little bit of a mini slump. It's starting to play a lot better golf. I think the way he hits it is going to work very well around Port Rush. I'm going to pick on Colin a little bit here and take Sepp Straka at plus 110. Mr. Greg Head, what matchup did you find? I'm sorry. It's Dr. Greg Head. Yes, thank you, sir. I didn't want to short you your official title. All of my intensive schooling on this. All right, I got Sam Burns, who is the dog. He's at minus 105, to Corey Connors. Now, Corey Connors coming off an injury at the U.S. Open, finished tied 47th at the Travelers. We haven't seen him since. I'm sure that his wrist is better, but... still not overly excited about where we are with Corey Connors. So I like where we are with Sam Burns. Conversely, I think that he is definitely rated out very well. His iron play has been a whole lot better. Not the best week in Scotland last week, but I'm also thinking a Sam Burns playing really well at the US Open this year. And he got into contention last year at the Open as well before absolutely disappearing on Sunday. I think he's learned from that. So what that told me, what Royal Troon told me was Sam Burns capable of playing Lynx golf, capable of playing major championship golf. And I think he's built on that this year with the US Open. So I like Burns over Connors.

SPEAKER_00: 56:57

Just for the record, Corey played last week. And Scotland finished a couple under, I believe it was.

SPEAKER_01: 57:03

Oh, I think that's what I meant when I said tied 47th. Because he didn't play the Travelers. Tied 47th at the Scottish. That's right, Mark. And seemingly came out unscathed. No worse for the wear there. Finishing positions. Greg, I'll bounce it right back to you first here. And you are continuing to back up. a man who has paid off the last couple of weeks. Yes, that would be Matt Fitzpatrick. I like him for a top 30. I believe that the Open Championship at... royal port rush is his best ever finish and it was it was a tied 20th in 2019 so he accomplished the feat then but what i really like is the way that he's hitting the ball it's very clear to me that matt fitzpatrick has found something with his golf swing you're seeing it great improvement in the numbers off the tee and approaching the green his short game has been very good the last couple of weeks as well so i like the direction matt fitzpatrick's heading in and i think this number is a little you know wasn't wasn't a much longer number for top 20 so i i think i think it was plus 160 for a top 20 so i went to plus 120 for a for a top 30 give a little extra little extra cushion here a little extra cushion for mr fitzpatrick mark uh your finishing position is actually top 40 for this week who is the golfer please

SPEAKER_00: 58:31

Well, maybe I'm affecting the Vegas line because I see he's down to plus 125 now. Yeah, you're

SPEAKER_01: 58:39

moving the line. You're a market

SPEAKER_00: 58:40

mover. Maybe I'm a victim of the moment too, but I talked about him in the last show we were on. Nikolaj Hojgaard just looked really, really good. I know I'm high on the Hojgaards right now. Top 40 for this dude, the way he's playing, the way he hits it. gosh plus 130 i was all over that although i did and to continue the local knowledge thing i took a long look at tom mckibben plus 120 for a top 40 as well um he's i like his game he's a talented kid sort of guided by darren clark and rory mackler so mckibben top 40 but nicolai plus 130 is a good idea

SPEAKER_01: 59:17

yeah tom mckibben also uh grew up in the same town as Rory McIlroy did. He plays on Live Golf now. He's coming off two consecutive top five finishes on Live Golf in Dallas and at Valderrama. I went with Cam Smith to miss the cut. Plus 115. He has missed four consecutive cuts at major championships. So that's one at every major he has missed. The play around the world has been a bit uninspiring. It is, as you can imagine... incredibly reliant on him being the best putter on the planet. And even when he does that, it's not particularly great. So I'm going to go with Cam Smith to miss the cut here. I tried this, though, Greg, with Brooks Koepka at the U.S. Open, and that did not work out very well. But I'm going to try to get Cam Smith. I'll have my eye on him. It makes total sense, Rick. He's got a claret jug. But he won it at St. Andrews, which is a totally different test because the fairways are so much wider. And you can understand why that would play into his hands. Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:26

Let's be honest. Rory gave that a little bit to him too,

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:28

though. There was a couple of Rory and Victor, but hard St. Andrews to death and just watch the cams run past them. It's brutal. Two separate winners here. And we've got, oh, we've got a variety of, we've got six different golfers everywhere from four and a half to one to a hundred to one. So let's do this. Let's do this. Let's start with the shortest and work our way up. Greg, give me your shortest golfer. Surprise, surprise. Scott Schaeffler. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:02

Unbrand.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:04

Yeah. Yeah. Unapologetically. I just, I believe, look, last week I've struggled with this. I'm like, well, he can't putt in links golf. So I don't like Scotty this week. Well, He still finished inside the top 10 finishes inside the top 10 every single week. And if he happens to break a streak of six of six poor putting weeks in a row on links golf this week, he will win. He is by far. the best ball striker in the game. This is really what gets me. When we get into the fantasy portion of this, Rick, all of the guys I'm interested in this week, it's all-around play. It's tee-to-green play. And there is no one even close to as good tee-to-green as Scotty Scheffler. How could I not have him in this spot? So I'm rolling with it. Greg always says it doesn't matter what the odds are. It's the one that ends up winning, and it's hard to argue with that. He's cashed a lot of these Scotty Scheffler wagers over the last two years. Mark, you're checking in next with the second shortest golfer, please.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:15

Also very much on brand, I guess. I'm talking about him, Rory McIlroy. He just looks different. He looks like the golfer I saw earlier this year. When I talked with him last week in Scotland, he had a relaxed air about him. Again, the golf ball striking was tremendous. He putts links greens pretty well, which is strange because ordinarily he used to get a bit frustrated with the whole thing, but he looks like he's in a good place. And, you know, whereas golf can be really nasty at times, we've been in a year now when one of the greatest golf achievements in anyone's life was achieved by McElroy. and it almost was snatched away at the last minute. Now he's going back to Port Rush, and I feel like it's going to be the finest hour, and it's going to be to Greg's thing, redemption at the Rush for Rory. So let's go.

SPEAKER_01: 1:03:08

Seven and a half to one for Rory McIlroy to get the job done. And I think we're all going to start with our, with our anchor here. And I'm going to Xander Shoffley, who is a man that I just cannot quit. I see the way that he's been driving it, which is much better. I like the way that he can work it in a variety of directions. He's got to fix the putter. He's usually a very good putter, but when you get to a major championship, Xander is as close to Scotty Scheffler as we can get when it comes to a top 10 lock. So I suspect Xander is going to be back in the mix again. This week, which is why I clicked his name at 25 to 1. Now, our second golfers are a little bit abstract. They're a little bit off the board for what we normally go with. Mark, your second outright is our fourth shortest golfer. Who is it?

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:56

Well, when this show used to be the first cut and it wasn't so good, and we did a preview late last year about who was going to win events this year, and... Greg essentially picked Scotty for every event that he picked. I was like, at Port Rush, Fleetwood's going to win. And so I had to go back to the well. He's been really solid this year. Yeah, he fumbled the Travelers Championship badly to give Keegan the victory. But Tommy is comfortable. He's playing solid golf. He's a wonderful iron player. I feel like Tommy gets it done at a place where he finished runner-up the last time we played here.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:34

He's got three top 10s, including that runner-up finish at Opens in his last five starts. Four top 12s, if you go back one more year, to Cardinousti. Tommy Fleetwood is 28-1. Greg, didn't you also pick J.J. Spahn to win the Open or something like that? No, no, I wish. It was Robert McIntyre. I believe, if I'm not mistaken, Mark will love this. Scotty, Scotty, Scotty. scotty was at least two of the two of the first three and mcintyre was for sure the open he's not on my card yes that was okay i remember talking about it at the u.s open thinking okay well if he wins this that okay that's that was why i was thinking it was it was jj spot i'm up next because i've got the 50 to 1 golfer it's justin thomas i have i have been twisted into a pretzel between he and Colin Murakawa I've been shaking around and stirred and now up is down and down is up and black is white white is black and I don't know what's happening but Justin Thomas is gain strokes with the putter in 10 straight I don't know why his Lynx history is so bad I think it should be better I think he has a mental thing at major championships but I've learned that the four weeks in between majors allows me enough time to heal and get back on Justin Thomas so here I am again 50 50 to 1, JT, and I'm sure he will be gone on Friday evening.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:03

You're like that guy that I sent you the clip that was sent to me about betting someone.

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:08

Yes. And I did it again. I did it again. I'm the cartoon character that steps on the rake. It comes up. It smacks him in the face. He turns around. He steps on it again. It's just over and over and over again. You can't help us. Maybe one time it won't.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:23

One of these times. But Rick, you're a smart guy and you're a data guy. So there's got to be something behind this argument. So I really need to know, despite the emotion, why are you making this pick?

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:34

Yeah. Okay. So it's a huge improvement with the putter. He has putted statistically a lot better over the last two months. And at his best, he's obviously an elite putter. He's played, he's played well enough. The 22nd, the Scottish, the ninth at the travelers. Basically, if it hasn't been, if it hasn't been a major, he's been awesome. Right? So these are his last five or six non-majors runner up at Valspar. He won the heritage. He finished second at Philly cricket, 31st at Memorial ninth at travelers, 22nd at the Scottish. That's a great run. It's just the majors that have given him trouble.

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:13

All right, well, this is just a major this week.

SPEAKER_01: 1:07:17

One of these times, Lucy is not going to pull the ball away from Charlie Brown. She's going to let him kick that football, and I think it might be this time. He is a two-time major champion. Yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:31

look, I'm wearing the T-shirt. Yeah, there you go. How about that?

SPEAKER_01: 1:07:36

Feels like a million years ago, which also was also Mito Pereira-aided. Greg, round this out here with the longest outright on our board. It is 100 to one. Who is it? All right. If you're rolling your eyes because Scotty's on my board, maybe this is a little a little redemption here. OK, I every major run a analysis that I come up with, which is the trends of the last five winners of said major. Now, the key is with this, all five have to meet these criteria. So I dig deep trying to find what they all have in common. And it's harder than you might think. But I found it. So I'm going to walk you through this. Humor me. And you'll see why I get to the longest player on our board. Okay. The last five winners of the Open Championship gained.756 strokes total in the year of their win leading into the Open. Before the Open. There are 51 players in this field on just the PGA Tour, Euro Tour, and Live Tour that meet this criteria. So we've already hammered out half the field. Yeah, more. More than half. Some of them just because they're Champions Tour

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:55

players. Is Fleetwood on that list? Please tell me he's on there.

SPEAKER_01: 1:08:58

It has to be, right?

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_01: 1:09:00

I believe Fleetwood made it pretty far in this.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:03

Okay, cool. That's what I wanted to say. All right,

SPEAKER_01: 1:09:05

carrying on. Three or more top tens in the year of their win leading into it. So nothing counts after the win. Now we're down to 38 players. And where's Tommy? I'm looking. Tommy Fleetwood's still in the mix. I'll keep you updated as we go. You have all of these written down. And what'd you do? Cross them off as you went? No. No, they're separate. You rewrote the list every time? Yes. Oh, my God.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:35

This is a labor of loving. I love you. I

SPEAKER_01: 1:09:39

love doing it. All right. Now, the next one. They all had at least one top five. Rick, I rewrote almost the entire list. Only two players were removed. That only knocked out two guys? Yes. Three or more top 10s, one or more top fives. Only knocked out two. We got 36 players left. Obviously, Tommy Fleetwood's still one of them. Now we start to get some chunk plays here. They all had, all five of the last Open champions, had at least two major top 10s in their career before their win. Now we're down to 22 of them. Yes, Tommy Fleetwood still in the mix. Now they also had a top 20. or they were a rookie in the Open Championship before their win. Now, there's only one rookie. It's Colin Morikawa. So that's why I threw that caveat in there. But either way, 19 guys still apply. 19 guys still apply. All right. So now at this point, I'm a little worried. I'm like, there's going to be like 18 guys who can win this. This isn't very interesting. But now we get into the stats. Okay. Now, the last five Open champions had gained at least 1.834 strokes off the tee in at least one of their last five events before the Open. Okay. Down to 16, guys. Wow, I thought that would have knocked out more guys. Yeah, 1.8 is pretty good. This one, Approach Play knocked out quite a few. 4.449 or more in one event of their last five leading in. Now we're down to 11, guys. That is what knocked out... No, that knocked out Fleetwood. That knocked him out. Yeah, that knocked out Fleetwood and a number of others. Now we go around the green. 1.55 or more strokes around the green in their last five events before the open. Now that knocked out one. So now we're down to 10. I'm like, oh my gosh, this is not going to go very well. Interestingly, The last five Open champions had gained at least 5.029 strokes putting in one or more of their last five events leading in. That knocked out eight of them. There were two players left. One of them is Robert McIntyre. I kid you not. And you just knocked out Scotty Scheffler as well, bro. Scotty Scheffler got knocked out as well. So Robert McIntyre was one, but the caveat is I was doing this during the Scottish open his, he would have been knocked out on the approach. McIntyre would have been knocked out on approach. It was the only thing that changed in this. He would have been knocked out on approach. If, uh, if, uh, you know, the fifth event before, if the Scottish was counted, he would have been knocked out on approach. Let's just say it that way. So the only man that survived all of these trends in the entire field was Ryder cup. Captain Keegan Bradley, who's a hundred to one. Now this gets even better. I put this on a, on X and I, Look, it's not an opinion piece, right? These are pure numbers. It's just fun for me. Oh, you probably got skewered on X. Well, not as bad as you'd think. But one person was like, what Open champion has missed their last five cuts in Open championships? I knew that was going to be the issue. So Keegan's missed his last five cuts at Open. I knew that was going to be the issue. Yep. And I knew that as well. And I was ready for this. Do you know how many open championship cuts Shane Lowry had missed before winning in 2019 right here at Royal Port Rush? I was going to say, I'll guess five. No. Four. Pretty darn close. So I call it a wash. Keegan Bradley is going to win the Open this

SPEAKER_00: 1:13:44

week. Greg, that's not pure facts. That's opinion, then, if you like comparing four and five and saying it's the same

SPEAKER_01: 1:13:49

thing. Well, no, it wasn't in the trends. So now at that point, we're outside. Yes, because Keegan has a top 20 in an Open. That was part of the trends. But there was no recency attachment to that. Let me, what is one of the trends going to be? Has not missed five cuts in the open. Four is okay. Five's not. You'd think that most guys would survive that. Keegan would not have survived that. No, no. But he survived. He survived.

SPEAKER_00: 1:14:16

I want to be you when I grow up. Will you help me with my bets in the future? Because I kind of just go... Mark,

SPEAKER_01: 1:14:24

I'm not sure which one works better. I'm willing to help, but I don't know how much this really helps. Do you have the final 10 that qualified for this? List off the final 10 that made it deep into this. We got Scotty, Rom, Hatton, Reed, Patrick, that is, Morikawa, Henley, Cantlay, Keegan, Jordan Spieth, Robert McIntyre. All right, there you go.

SPEAKER_00: 1:14:59

So Rory didn't win an Open in the last five years or whatever you're looking.

SPEAKER_01: 1:15:05

No, I lost Rory in the approach play. He hasn't gained 4.449 or more on approach in his last five events. That's where I lost Rory. That's where we lost Rory, Mark. Where did we lose you in that whole thing? Yeah. Because I was working real hard to keep up. Well done, Greg.

SPEAKER_00: 1:15:32

Bravo.

SPEAKER_01: 1:15:33

That is Keegan Bradley, Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood, Xander Shoffley, Scotty Scheffler, Rory McIlroy are the official outrights for this week. We're not done. We're not done. Greg and I are going to do fantasy stuff here. But Mark, before we let you go, we're excited for you to be able to just kick back, relax, feet up, sip your coffee, watch your golf, root for rain, root for wind, all that fun stuff. Hell, you might even root for a playoff. You might be feeling frisky enough to do that. Any final thoughts before we get you out of here?

SPEAKER_00: 1:16:10

Yeah. I mean, if I'm in front of the TV long enough, we should do like a live tweet, like tweet announcing. The group of us.

SPEAKER_01: 1:16:18

I've got some ideas for some watch-along stuff that we might have to investigate in the

SPEAKER_00: 1:16:23

future. The second cat's got a next handle. We can sort of live tweet and put commentary up there.

SPEAKER_01: 1:16:28

All right. Listen, I like it. All right. Well, we're going to get you out of here, but we're going round by round this week, so we're going to talk very, very soon. Mark, thank you very much, brother.

SPEAKER_00: 1:16:37

All right, you boys. Take care. Nice to see you.

SPEAKER_01: 1:16:39

Thanks, Mark. All right. Mr. Ducharme, we've got a little bit more work to do. We're going to do the fantasy aspects of the show now. I had to do this a couple of weeks ago, and I'm going to ask again. Can I have 30 seconds to run to the restroom? Yes, you can. So, Mina, give me a thumbs up if we're ready to do a quick 30-second intermission. She will mute us and play some background music. All right, she's ready to go. Thank you. Now you can drop your line. And we're back. Is that my line? Yes. Okay. That's on the back of a t-shirt of mine. Yes, it is. Second Cut t-shirt. Yes, which is available at secondcutmerch.com. Very good job, Greg, for getting that in there. There's hats. There's bucket caps. There's quarter zips. I think there might even be... No, I don't think there's a beanie. You know what I've been seeing a lot of are the golf towels. Everybody can send it over the golf towels, which is very, very good and very, very fun. Okay. I'm resetting here. I'm getting my outlines in order. And we are now going to enter the fantasy portion of the show. So the way that we do this is I asked Greg to highlight a handful of golfers in each one of the tiers and then come up with a golfer of the week. Now, you'll note, Greg, there is a 5K range this week because Scotty Scheffler is over$14,000 on DraftKings. So that gave us another set of names that we got to look at. Yes, it's a deep field. It's fascinating. I think the 6K range is very deep as well. The 5K range has some names that are quite interesting. Look, I mean, even the fall off from the pricing this week is just fascinating. It's basically like DraftKings is saying, hey, do whatever you want. It's almost like there's no pricing. It's fascinating to me. I think that's why one of the reasons why DFS and majors is just so good because it still doesn't make it easy. It doesn't. It feels like there's a lot more combinations. The idea of trying to decide whether to go up and spend the$14,000 on Scotty or build some pretty, pretty strong lineups if you skip out on Scotty makes for an interesting conversation. So let's... Let's start with your golfer of the week. And Mina, fire it up there. But Greg, we've talked a lot about this guy. I'll just tell you, it's Keegan Bradley. Trends aside, what do you see from Keegan that makes him the man that you cannot live without this week? Yeah, so the trends is fun and all that, right? But now we got a really... decide if we're going to use this or not. Because like I said, the trend, they're fun. I like to see what it spits out. It gives me something extra to root for, something to share with you all. But now we get to the serious stuff. So consider this from a fantasy perspective. Keegan Bradley is in the$6,000 range, right? He is 6,700 on DraftKings. At the same time on the PGA Tour, he is fourth in strokes gain TD Green. Fourth on the PGA Tour, Strokes Gay and TD Green. He finished tied eighth at the PGA Championship just earlier this year. So I think that he has a game that is very capable of competing and contending in majors because his TD Green play is so strong. Usually that comes from great driving, great approach play. It still does. But the kicker is this year he's 10th. He is 10th in strokes gained around the green. This is exactly the type of complete player that I'm looking for. And, of course, my attention is pulled his way initially because of the trend. That's probably why he gets elevated to the golfer of the week. Also the price. Yeah. All those things in combination make him my golfer of the week. The price is really intriguing. You've got a major champion, a guy who won two starts ago, a guy who has three top eight finishes in his last five starts, a man that's had a really good... His major record's pretty strong. He missed the cut at the Masters this year, and he missed the cut at the Open last year. So it's back-to-back, but they were nine months apart. And outside of that, it's been a really good stretch of me, even major championships for him. I am concerned about the five missed cuts in a row. I am, but I, the price does make this really interesting. Yeah. And I get that you, and you should be, you absolutely should be. But the thing that kicked me over the edge was one, it's possible, right? Shane Lowry just showed that it's possible that you can struggle and come out of it and have a, you know, one of the best weeks of your life. So now that's in my mind. Now, why would Keegan break that trend? Because there are other people I'll discard because of poor record and links golf. One, he's played well in links golf before. So early in his career, especially. And two, he says, and I think a lot of the data says he's playing the best golf of his life. Strangely, this is a different Keegan Bradley than we've seen in the last five years. He's simply better. So I think that there's a lot of value to be gained with Keegan.$6,700. Keegan Bradley will allow you to make any lineup that you want. Certainly will not be a detriment or a handcuff to anything there. Let's start with the big boys now. And there are four golfers over 10,000. As mentioned, Scotty Scheffler goes all the way up to 14,200. Rory McIlroy is there, Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau. You have found me too. I'll spoil it. There's Scotty Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, as you can imagine. But let's talk first about Scotty Scheffler and your willingness to spend the big price tag here. Yeah, I think a lot of it has to do with how strong the field is, how strong the 6K and 7K range is. I think that really opens up a lot of opportunity. And if you put price aside and just looked for your favorite golfers, I wonder if you took out, like, all right, we're not going to put Scotty Scheffler and Rahm and Bryson on the same team, but I'm going to pick... four, five, six guys, I think you'd get pretty close with the price because the six and seven K range is so strong. So it doesn't feel like a big jump to me. It doesn't feel like I'm sacrificing a whole lot on the other end of a lineup. And again, He just pays off. This guy just pays off. If we see Scotty Scheffler gain two strokes putting this week, that's a big jump from what he's done in links golf before, and I think he ends up winning if that's the result. It has been four months since he has not finished inside the top 10. He has finished inside the top 25 of every event that he's played this year. I feel like I have to keep saying that because it's jarring. And remember, we complained about his slow start to the year. He still can't putt all that well. And he's not the killer that Tiger was, but this is as good as it gets in our era. It's spectacular. In fantasy football, there's a saying that Some we like certain guys are matchup proof. It doesn't matter if they're going to go up against the number one defense. You play them no matter what. I tend to be in that camp with Scotty Scheffler. Scotty Scheffler is matchup proof. Golf course just doesn't matter. Yeah, I don't think it matters. And even though, look, Xander Shoffley's record at Open Championships before winning last year was also... While he's very good at majors like Scottie, I would argue that Xander's open record was the worst of his major championships before winning the open championship. Wouldn't surprise me at all. With a win this week, Scottie Scheffler's open championship record looks a whole lot better. You're damn right it does. You're damn right it does. Well, the Rory McIlroy train rolls on. A couple thousand dollars cheaper. Rory McIlroy finishes T2 at the Scottish Open, sixth at the Travelers Championship. All of a sudden, this dude is putting the lights out. And Greg, talk about getting back. There's this intersection of getting to the right place at the right time. And Rory McIlroy at Portrush in 2019 wasn't the right time. It was the right place, it wasn't the right time. And now I feel like we are getting Rory back in the right place at the right time again. Yeah, it kind of strangely does feel like that. Take all the narratives out of it, Rick. Let's look at numbers like we're going to the rest of the way. He... lost 0.1 strokes off the tee at the Scottish Open. Other than that, he's gained strokes across the board in every category for two straight weeks. And I would argue that the ball striking is lagging behind his potential. The putting is sensational. We know he can do it in Lynx golf as well. There's a revenge factor. There's a, I'm having a second go at this. I know what this is going to be like when I get on the first tee and I know how to get ready for it. It's a scary thing for Rory McIlroy. So I would probably lean slightly Scotty Scheffler over Rory McIlroy, but it's two weeks ago would have been a big difference right now. It's pretty darn close for me, Rick. Yeah. It's, it's also not a, It's not like a nervous thing going back to Port Rush. It's like, oh, this time it's almost ceremonial. It's almost a victory lap. I'm back here in the year that I completed the career Grand Slam. Let me show out. But I don't think he's looking at it that way. I think he's looking at this like revenge. And look, I see where you're coming from. But his attitude has not... There has been no... celebratory factor in golf for him after the Zurich Classic. None. It's been like scandals and frustrated and skipping the media. It's been crazy, but I think he's got his mind in the right place now. It's calm, but it's determined. I didn't expect to see that. It's been fun. It's been a fun roller coaster. The 9K range, obviously a ton of talent. I've got three names from you here, and I'm going to start you off with a man that you were picking to win this event a year ago. And all of a sudden, I think things still line up very well for Mr. Robert McIntyre. Yes, and they lined up well last week. Now, a lot of you are probably saying, well, he let me down last week because he was very popular and finished tied 65th. I think going back to the Scottish Open was a really big deal for Robert McIntyre. Like a bigger deal than going back to the Canadian Open as the defending champion the year before. I think it was a big deal, and he did not handle it well. So I... I give him a little pass on that. I'm a little worried that he struggled off the tee so much. But I do think he can correct that because he was driving it so well going into that. I have to think it was, you know, he just wasn't ready. And I think he'll be ready this week. He had gained strokes off the tee in the four events leading into that. It was five of six leading into that. His approach play was in a very similar category. He was putting very well. heading into the Scottish Open last week. I think all those things show their colors this week at a place where he finished tied sixth in 2019. That was going to be my next sentence. So he has never missed a cut in five starts at the Open. His best finish is here in 2019. It was a T6. Trending indeed, I believe, is the way that we would describe Victor Hovland, who actually... It's in the$8,000. Yep. So I am going to come back to him, and I'm going to go to the other man that I should have gone with here, who is Ludwig Oberg. Let me share that screen. He is$9,100. Greg, you're actually playing together. Same group. I've been generally concerned with Ludwig this year, and it's almost in its entirety. He got sick early, then won, then it was... Or won and then got sick. Got sick and then won. Got sick and then won. Yeah. And then I missed the cut at the players in the Valero, and it was just kind of not very good, not very well-rounded. And because so many of the struggles were with short game and putting, I was like, well, maybe he's just not as good as we thought. Yeah. I know he won at Torrey Pines this year. I'm not saying he's not good. Maybe he's not as good as we thought because we all thought very highly of him. Okay, so that was in my mind. But I'm looking at this guy now and looking at this ball striking, and it's this guy that we saw last week finish tie eighth at the Scottish Open with that little struggle period that Mark mentioned earlier. This is the guy that we all thought was so good. And that's what it looks like to me. He was better on the greens last week, much. He was better around the greens last week as well. I think that Ludwig Oberg is ready to put together a really solid performance on a golf course where you have to hit the ball really well. I think he's ready to do that here. This is going to be major championship number eight. This is going to be the second lap, so to speak, because he'll have played every major championship before. twice when he gets through this week. It feels like he's been around a lot longer than that. It's shockingly only his eighth major, which is crazy. It does. He's played great at the Masters. He's missed his only cut in the Open. I can't see him missing the cut this week. I think he's hitting the ball too well for that to happen. Let me try this again. Hitting the ball too well might be a way to describe Victor Hovland, who has now gained strokes on approach in every event dating back to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He has put together gains of seven plus at the Scottish Open, eight plus at the Travelers. That was only three rounds. Six plus at the US Open. Greg, Victor Hovland checks in at a mere 8,300 bucks. And in a way, I think the big concern with him is, well, there's a little concern with him off the tee. But I think when you're hitting your irons like that, I think it's a sign that the golf swing, there's confidence in the golf swing somewhere. And I think he pulls it out this week. Around the green, any struggles, any technique that he may struggle with can be minimized this week. It's almost like, well, at Oakmont, You know, he gained seven and a half strokes around the green at Oakmont. But what is... Oakmont takes away the technique struggles in a way because you have so much rough. So it's like a different kind of shot around the greens. This is a different kind of shot too. But the difference is you have the option to putt here if you want. You have the option to hit a eight iron here. I think it asks for more creativity and less technique. And I think that's a good thing for Victor Hovland. He took the putting option... Every time at St. Andrews. Yeah. And was in the final group on Sunday with Rory McIlroy. I don't know if you can do that here. I don't think you can do it every time. But I think it isn't. I think you will sometimes be able to use the like you said, I think it's it's not wedge off a tight lie. There's just going to be a lot of a lot of options. Yeah. Maybe it's a five wood or, or, uh, you know, another, a wood, a three wood. If he's carrying a long iron or something, maybe it's a seven iron. There's those options are a good thing. Cause all of a sudden you can go someone hitting the ball, like Victor Hovland, go hit 13 greens. And now you got five greens that you missed and you put three of them. You chip one with a seven iron and the other's in a bunker. And it's like, well, That area that I tend to struggle with is not really in play. That can happen very quickly for a Victor Hovland. I think it bodes well for him. Also in this$8,000 range is Terrell Hatton. He's$8,900. He played well at the U.S. Open, and he has made all three cuts in major championships this year. When you see the bearded man in the Legion 13 shirt not named Jon Rahm, what do you see? I see somebody who's very ready for major championship golf. Another one of those guys that's very well-rounded. I love the way... Look, he shows this in live events too, although they're a little harder, a little more challenging for me to quantify. But they're quantifiable when you also do this in majors, right? Yeah. That means this is what he is. He's a well-rounded player. He's a great driver of the ball. He's a great iron player. He's got a very solid short game, and he can put lights out at times as well. I think that's part of the reason why he finished tied sixth here in 2019. It is an all-around test, and I think Victor Hovland meets the all-around challenge. He missed the cut at the Open in 2021, and he has only missed one cut at majors since then. A lot of really solid play at the Big Four every single year. So that's Scotty Rory up top, McIntyre, Ludwig, Hatton, Hovland, and now we're going to get to a lot more names here because there are just more options in the 7K range, the 6K range, and the 5K range. Let's start with the one non-American that you have In this group coming out of the 7K range, it's Matt Fitzpatrick, Greg. We talked about it a little bit earlier, but this is a stat profile that I'm sure you love to see. Yes, and I'm sure you do too, Rick. It's T to green, so approach off the T and around the greens. In his last three events, he's gained points. significant strokes to the field in all of them. The putter at the Rocket Classic and at the Travelers wasn't great, but he bounced back in a big way coming over to Lynx Golf. Again, this is his... Royal Port Rush was his best ever finish in the Open Championship. And I think you're starting to see a guy with a golf swing that he's figured it out. I love where we are with Matt Fitzpatrick. Yeah, the... The season-long slump seems to have come to an end. Finished T8 at the PGA Championship. He's actually made the cut in all three majors and his results getting progressively better over his last three starts. The newest dad in professional golf, at least as far as I'm aware, is Jordan Spieth, who is checking in at$7,700. It seems, Greg, like that... The scap is behind him. That was nearly a month ago at this point. Yes. And so I think that's a good thing. I think he's had some nice time with his family. But ultimately, this is the most complete that I've ever seen Jordan Spieth with his game. I mean, it's right up there with... 2015, 2017. It's not as electric, but every area is clicking on all cylinders. From tee to green anyway, the putter's been a little cool. And that's the big difference. That's why you haven't seen Jordan win the way he did in 15, 16, 17. But you are seeing a guy that's extremely reliable with the driver in his hands. His iron play has been very solid and very reliable. The short game that kind of left him last year, shockingly, is back in full force this year. Because of his open record, I don't necessarily care if it's traditional short game, if he's going to putt, if it's going to go the Hovland route. He has the ability to get up and down from a lot of places that a lot of guys can't. I love Spieth this week. He was almost If we had seen him more recently than W. Dean from the Travelers, he had a possibility of being my golfer of the week. Has never missed a cut at an Open. In fact, his first Open in 2013 was his worst Open, T44. He's got one, two, three, four, five top tens. Since then, obviously, the victory at Birkdale. That's where we're headed back to next year. And if you look at just a pure strokes gained record, It's like him and Xander Shoffley are the two best open championship players in this field. Let me get you to a man who has a victory this year and a very big one, a signature event back in March. It was the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and he gave it a good run at the Travelers as well. Russell Henley is next on your list. This guy is just so reliable. He plays hard golf courses so well, and his stat profile is phenomenal. This is a top 10 golfer in the world who finished fifth at the Memorial, tied 10th at the U.S. Open, tied second at the Travelers, and is in the$7,000 price range. Why? Why? He, what did he finish here in the open last year? And he was top 10 in the open last year too. Fifth. Fifth. Yeah. So why is he 7,900? I don't know that to be honest with you. Also when I, so I've been, you know, tinkering with like the shot shape and like the advanced stuff. And he, he hits it low. He hits it solid. He hits it straight. He like, I just tell you what, there's, there's, There's a lot of sneaky good stuff for Russell right now. Yeah. Now, if I look and see projected ownership is out of control on Russell Henley, I'm fine with going to Fitzpatrick or Spieth a little below if I can get a bump there. Those three to me, they're$79,000,$78,000,$77,000. I gave you the three most expensive 7K guys. They're almost interchangeable to me, but I could not leave out a top 10 player in the world playing very well, get headed to a major and be in the$7,000 price range. It's ludicrous. He's also like, uh, I don't, I, I don't want to call him a dog because everybody calls him a dog and he's actually a Georgia bulldog. What's a better, what else can I call him? He's like a, he's a tough guy. I don't know. He's a grinder. Uh, He's a gamer. He's a gamer. Russell gamer. Henley is exactly what he is. And as I transitioned to your, your last golfer in this range, Greg, look at how buttoned up the, the. the shirt is, the polo is on Russell Henley's because we're going to go to the exact opposite end of the spectrum here because Sam Burns is letting it fly. That is the deep V, not a single button being sniffed. He is$7,400. Greg, I'm thinking about the collapse on Sunday at the US Open. What are you thinking about? Yeah. Well, the collapse is definitely a factor. But that collapse at the US Open was much, much better than the collapse on Sunday at the Open last year. I think there's a little, this is getting better and better. The other thing I'd like to mention is at 7,400, we don't need a winner here. The winner's either coming from way above this position or way below this position. I love where Sam Burns is with his game. I think he's proven to himself that he belongs in the contest in major championships. If you're watching on YouTube right now, there's a lot of green with his off-the-tee performances and his approach performances, his putting performances. This is another guy that's over the last month or so has really turned into a complete player. 7,400 bucks. He, again, I'm glad Greg mentioned it. You don't need him to win the golf tournament. The 6K range, I'm going to skip Keegan. We have spent a lot of oxygen on Keegan Bradley. He's the golfer of the week. He's the trend play. He's the 100-to-1 shot. So we're going to go with the Canadian at$6,500. That has not missed a cut since the Byron Nelson. Of course, I'm talking about Taylor Pendrith. Taylor Pendrith has shown me something in that stretch, Rick, because he hasn't been hitting it great. His iron play has taken a little dip to where it normally is for him for about three weeks there, yet he's still able to to make these cuts and finish inside the top 40 and perform at a reasonable clip. And this is another guy at 6,500. I feel like his performance on big time golf courses has warranted a, this is an underprice in my opinion. He's an elite driver of the golf ball. We know how important that is in major championships. You look at his short game, and he's gained strokes in every event since the CJ Cup, Byron Nelson. That's a lot of events with solid short game. Four in a row with the putter, and he finished tied 13th at the Scottish Open, if you're wondering if he can handle Lynx golf. Yeah, he always impresses me. He kind of finds a way to play well on courses that you don't think you would always play well. And a really, really strong skill set for somebody who's won on the PGA Tour who does not have a lot of chatter about him. Now, finally, we're going to get to this 5K range. And this is a lot of the bottom half of this 5K range are the open qualifiers, the past champions. The top half of the range are some of these diamonds in the rough, guys that might be playing really well on the DP World Tour. And I think that's what we've got here in Christopher Riet in the Norwegian, who I'm sure we talked about at some point last week. We did. We talked about him right here in this spot. I believe he was in the 6K range last week, and he finished tied 13th. So all the same reasons apply. He's been hitting the ball really well. So the Sudol Open was in May. It was basically right after the PGA Championship. He's finished outside the top 15 in one event, which was the Italian Open. He finished tied 46th. It's five top 15s in his last six events would be the number with a win in there at the Sudol Open. It's a pretty darn good record, Rick. Yeah, and he also has the runner-up finish two starts prior to that win. And also, he mashes it off the tee. And he's pretty well-rounded in general. Has a sound short game to go along with it. Yeah, he is... Very, very good. I think there's also a connection. I can't remember what... I don't want to say that because I thought it was a college connection, but I don't remember what it is anymore. I'll have to look that up. And then finally, the last man here, Greg. He's$5,700. You've probably heard the name before, but you might not have thought about him in a while. Who is it? It's Haotong Li. I thought about Haotong Li last week and... Wisely passed. I wanted to get a little lower than 5,900. I thought there was some value somewhere here on the board. I wasn't sure where it is. I think it's with Haotong Li. He missed the cut last week, but he did finish tied fourth at the Sudol Open, tied second at the Turkish Airlines Open. He had a couple of other top tens a little earlier on in the season on the DP World Tour. A lot of his work has come from really solid ball striking, And I'll add the putter hasn't been bad either. So things have looked pretty good for how Tong Lee, um, he has a spotty record in the open where he's missed his last three cuts, but he's, he did finish third here, uh, third in the open in 2017 when Jordan Spieth won. What was the major that how Tong shot like the course record and then went to the driving range for like six hours? I don't, believe it was royal birkdale 2017 open was it i think i think so he was like leading leading the tournament yes that's exactly what it was 2017 uso yeah he was leading the golf tournament uh i don't remember if it was through however many rounds it was but yeah then he had like the early tea time and he just stayed just stayed and hit false like by that and then and then imploded But you know what I liked about that? He was like, I always do this. Yeah. And he was like, what else was I going to do? Was I just going to go home and like, I was going to either go home and hit golf balls or something or like just stay here and hit golf balls. Right. So I like, I like this answer. Yeah. He took it well. Good dude. Greg, we are now nearly two hours into this show. Is there anything possibly else you think we should cover right now? Or should we just come back at the conclusion of the opening round every day the rest of the week? I think we come back at the conclusion of every day the rest of the week. That's exactly what we were going to do as soon as possible. Probably it ends up being... usually like a half hour after the round is concluded. But if we can go sooner, we'll go sooner. When coverage ends or when the final putt drops, we'll be here round one, round two, round three, round four for major championships. Hit the subscribe button. Make sure you're tuned in. If you can share this with your friends, that'd be great. Anything you can do to support goes a long way. For now, big thanks, Producer Mina. She does all the hard work behind the scenes. Greg Ducharme, Mark Gimmelman, who we've said goodbye to already. I'm Rick Gaiman. This has been The Second Cut. Catch you next time.

UNKNOWN: 1:48:52

Thank you.