The Draw: 2026 Amundi Evian Championship, Genesis Scottish Open, ISCO Championship

In this episode of The Draw, host Nathan Rarick talks about Haeran Ryu's major win at the Amundi Evian Championship, her second major in just 13 days. 

On the PGA/DP World Tour, Tom Kim ended a winless stretch at the Genesis Scottish Open, moving up in the world rankings and boosting his Presidents Cup outlook. At the ISCO Championship, Steven Fisk earned his second career PGA Tour win in a playoff over Taylor Pendrith.

Nathan then goes on to preview the Corales Puntacana Championship and the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.

The Draw is a Fairway to Green podcast. See all episodes at www.fairwaytogreen.com.

Transcript

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Hello and welcome back to the Draw, a Fairy to Green podcast. And this was another exciting week in the world of golf. We had a repeat major winner again on the women's side. We had a first time or winner who hasn't won a long time back and another playoff at the ISCO

Haeran Ryu Wins Evian Championship

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championship. But we're gonna start with the LPGA and the ladies' European tour event. And Heyron Yu wins another major. It is her second major of the year. She joins Nellie Corda as the only other major this champion this year with a major championship. With winning the Monday Evian Championship, she joins a player of other South Korean golfers that have won two majors in a year, joins Lee Yako and NB Park, who both have done it. One did in 2015, the other did in 2013. So she joins a pretty historic group of golfers, and she's kind of taken the major championship wave by storm over the last two events. She won the women's PG up at Hazeltine. Now she wins this one. She wins this one in playoff, which after the third round, if you'd have said she was going to be in a playoff for the victory, it would have been shocking. She shoots a third round 60 for the lowest score in major tournament history, has a putt for 59, leaves it a couple inches short. The video of her realizing that she left a putt for 59 short is great. Go check that out. She's counting it up and realize, oh man, what did I do? She only made two birdies in her final

Brooke Henderson's Sunday Surge

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round. She made a birdie on the 18th hole to force a player with Brooke Henderson, and then makes a birdie on the first playful to defeat Brook Brooks Henderson, who we have to talk about her Sunday final round. She made three Eagles in her final round on Sunday, including a hole in one and then two Eagles on par fives. And again, it's her second straight top three finish in a major championship. She was right there in Hazeltine with you. She's played really well. She's a foreign major champion. You know, she's gonna be one of the favorites, heading the last one here in a couple weeks. It just was a fantastic tournament on the women's side again. The majors have lived up to the hype. They've had some drama in it. This one going into playoff with the last major champion and Brooke Henderson, like I said, who's won a major championship, has just been great. The the course was great. The the tournament again, it's been another successful major tournament for not just the women's golf, but the game of golf as a whole. So congratulations to you picking up her her second major of the season, second of her career. It's her fifth career victory. It's the first time she's won twice in the same season, and to be your two wins, to be two major championships, is great. I mean, she becomes the first Korean to win this event since Jing Yunko in 2019.

Tom Kim Ends Drought

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It was just really a great day for South Korea golf because over on the PJ Tour and the DP World Tour, you had Tom Kim, who broke a long win this drought, and just a couple years ago, he was one of the best young players in the game. He had won three times. He was all the way up to 11th in the world, and then kind of struggled since 2023 after that second win at the Shriners Children Open. There have been glimpses here and there. He finished high at the US Open, I think it was third. You know, he played well in TGL, which I guess TGL is not the same as PGO event, but again, he made that hole in one in the TGL event that sent them into a playoff hole. So there have been glimpses of Tom Kim kind of returning to the Tom Kim that made it all the way up to the 11th ranked player in the world. So for him to come back from behind, he started the day a shot behind, and it was Minwoo Lee and Matt Fitzpatrick and Robert McIntyre, three proven winners on the PJ Tour, and so is Tom Kim. But for him to come back and win it and do it in a fashion where he shoot 64, him and Rory McElroy shot the lowest round of the day during the fourth round and gets his fourth grade PJ Tour win. It is for South Korea. It's just really cool. Tom Kim and Heyron Ut, they're sweeping two of the game's prestigious European Championships, and they're the only second Korean duo ever to win on the same weekend. So really cool international winners, really cool for South Korea to have two winners from their home country win in the same weekend at two really big time events in Europe. We're gonna talk about some of the other players on the PJ tour. Rory McElroy looked to be in contention and then just shot a 73 on Saturday, didn't really look himself, wasn't good, kind of played himself out of contention and couldn't really get his way back. And he's still finished in the top ten after a final round 64, like I mentioned before. But you know, he's starting to run in form, especially with a major coming up here in this next couple days. So he'll be one of the favorites over at Royal Burkdale, even though he hasn't played a ton this year. He's played well. He obviously won the Masters and he's played well in other events as well. So that's one to look out for. Matt Fitzpatrick, just another solid week. He was my pick last week. He finished tie three. Kind of a disappointing day for him. He shoots one under, you know, 69. He had a chance, he was in the lead tied, like I said, and never really got it going Sunday. But again, he'll be one of the favorites this week at the open championship. Johnny Kiefer, the Cornferry Tour player there, he finishes tied third, and with that finish, he gets into the Open Championship this week. So that's that's really cool for him. And it was Michael Thorpe Barneson and Victor Perez were the other two last qualifiers from this event to get into the open championship. So good for those guys playing another major. But you know, Tom Kim, again, one of the best young players. He's still only 24 and he has four wins, and he joins a list that includes Hadeki Matsuyama, Roy McElroy, Sergio Garcia, and Adam Scott is the only players born outside the US to have won four times on the PJ tour before the age of 25. So that's that's elite company. All of them are major winners, and Rory obviously is a grand slam winner. Sergio Garcia is one of the best Spanish players ever to play. Adam Scott's arguably the best Australian player to ever play, and Hideki Matsuyama's probably the best Japanese player to ever play the game on the men's side. So Tom Kim joining a pretty exclusive club with that fourth win. And it was really cool because again, he's one of the best characters out there. You saw at TGL his energy and his emotions really show out. You see him at President's Cup when those, you know, those team events that he loves, he gets really going during those. And now, I don't know if he would have been on the President's Cup team, probably just because of his history with it, but he's gonna be on that team now. I think he's all the way up to fifth in the rankings, and him and Cebu Kim form a pretty formal duo in those those pair events. So look for those two players to be paired again out in Medina versus the USA team. So that'll be another fun thing. You see Kim in the international team for the President's Cup, that's always fun. But again, Tom Kim, you know, was all the way up to 32 in the world. I think he fell out of the top 100 in the world at one point. So it's a really cool mini come-ick story. This is gonna be a come-ick story like a Brandt Snedeker who won one of the opposite field events earlier in the year, or someone else like Anthony Kim or anything, but just a young player who kind of took the world by storm at this event a couple years ago, then he wins in like his fourth start on the PJ Tour, wins two more times. It's like, oh, this the sky's the limit, and then really struggles. So good for Tom Kim. He fights back and gets a win.

Playoff at the ISCO Championship

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Over the alternate field event, the ISCO Championship down in Louisville, Kentucky. We had another playoff. And if you listen to the podcast last week, I I mentioned it with Brian that every year, except the first year when Scott Pearcy won by three strokes, it's been the margin of victory has been one or in a playoff. And yet again we had another playoff. The last time this event was in a playoff, it was 2024, and Harry Hall picked up his first career. And this this week it looked like Lucas Glover was going to come out with a victory, and he just he had a tough back nine, similar to last week at the John D. Ruys in contention. He finished T3 there. He shoots a final round 71 on a course where low numbers are easy to get, so that was shocking. He multiple bogeys on the back nine and kind of left the door open for Steven Fisk, who shoots 67 in the final round, and Taylor Pendrith who shot a 65, he set the clubhouse lead. And Fisk had a chance at Birdie the last two holes, didn't make it, so he forced a playoff of Pendrith, and they went back and forth trading pars through the first two playoff holes, and Fisk finally closed the door with a par and Pendrith with a bogey. So for Fisk, this is a second career win. He won the 2025 Sanderson Farm Championship last fall. Just again, it to say you're a two-time winner on the PGA tour is great. Not many people can say that. You have one win, not many people can say you have one win, but then you have two that kind of validates that hey, I can do this. So really cool for him. And again, this this tournament always delivers close finishes. And I I don't know if it's the golf tournament or what it is or the golf course. I know they're playing at a new golf course these last two years, but that weren't the normal ones from the first like seven years of this event. So I don't know if it's that, but there's something in the water in Kentucky that makes this

Aaron Wise's Feel-good Return

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tournament great. I think that makes it really cool for the opposite field events that there's still good golf being played, and you can watch good golf. And one of the feel-good stories was Aaron Wise, who finished T3rd, shoots a disappointing final round when he was in contention, but he's been battling back from some like mental health struggles. He was very open about it. And to see him playing well again, he's played well in the PG tour before. He was a really good player and then stepped away from the game for a couple years and now kind of getting his footing back. So that would have been a really cool story to see if he would want. But you know, he he plays well, gets a T third finish, and he'll be teeing up again this week in the next opposite field event. So again, ISCO Championship, good finish as always, close finish. Steven Fisk now a two-time winner on the PGA

Previews & Picks: Corales Puntacana Championship

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tour. This week, the LPJ Tour, Lazy European Tour are off before they head to Scotland for the scholarship next week, and that clears the way for a two PJ Tour and DP World Tour co-sanction event. So we have we'll start with the opposite field event, and it's the Corales Punta Conta Championship. Last year, Garrett could go one by one, but I don't want to say he didn't win it. He did win it, but Joel Damon, who shot the course record on Saturday, was leading for most of the round on Sunday, and just he choked and he bogeyed the last three holes at a course that you can't do. That is called the devil's elbow for a reason. It's a very hard, difficult closing three-hole stretch. The par three that I think is the 17th hole, it's one of the I think it's in the top ten for hardest par threes on the tour, and then the 18th hole, you have to hit a drive over the bay. I think it's Corrales Bay and over cliffs to land it. And if the wind is blowing, it's gonna be tough. So Joel Damon looked to have his second career win at the Corrales Puticanta championship last year, and he kind of lost it. Garrett Higgo picks up his second career win. He's looking to become the first defending champion of this event. Now, last year it was played in April. This year, obviously, we're in July, so we'll see how the weather and the wind changes for that. I'm very curious to see how different it is, or maybe it's not different at all. Again, I'm not I don't know. I'm not down there, so I don't know the wins and how much they're different from April to July in the Dominican Republic. But again, we'll see. Taylor Pendrith is in the field, Chad Ramey's in the field, both winners on the PJ Tour, Bryce Garnett won this event. He's in the field. My pick for this week is Mackenzie Hughes. He's won three times on the PJ Tour. He's never won this event, but he's played this event twice and has a tied for second finish and a solo third finish. So he plays well at this golf course for whatever reason. He's a really good putter, and that really helps. He has two top ten finishes in his last four starts, top ten finish last week at the ISCO, and I think it was top ten at the Charles Swab Challenge. So he's playing good coming into it. So look for Mackenzie Hughes to pick up his fourth career PJ Tour win this week. I mean, you'll have people like Blaze Brown is in the field. So again, you have some of the younger PJ Tour players in the field as well as they look to earn their way out of the PJ Tour and get that first win. The big turn of the week is the final major on the men's

Open Championship Setup at Royal Birkdale

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side. It is the open championship at Royal Burke Dale Golf Club. This is the site of Jordan Speeth's open championship victory in 17. If you all remember, he had the crazy fast go on it was the 13th hole where it he hit into the driving range, got relief and all that, and I think it was like took him a half hour to finish that hole. And so he has good at this course. Now, whether he plays well, who knows? He's enters the week 51st in the official World Golf ranking, so it's not the same George Speeth that won here 17. But again, course where he's familiar with, where he has good memories, you never know what could happen, especially if the wind and stuff picks up. And from what I'm hearing, it's very hot over there. So the course is very burned out and dry. So I think you're gonna have you're gonna see people struggle to stop the ball in the green. I I think you're gonna see a lot more, I think maybe low running shots or people playing low worm burners to kind of get that roll out. So that's really exciting to see. This field, it's a major field, right? The top 30 in the FedEx Cup rankings are in the field, the top 50 in the official World Golf rankings are all in the field. So that alone, just by that, you know, that it's a star sedent field. I mean, you have Tommy Fleetwood, who's from Southport, England. This is very close to where he grew up. He finished 27th at that event in the 2017 World Championship at Burkdale. You got Matt Fitzpatrick, who finished T4th last week, last year at the Open Championship, who's been one of the best players on the PJ tour. You have Scotty Scheffler, who's the defending champ here, and who missed the cut last week at the Genesis Scottish Open for the first time in 78 tries. So he's fully rested. What does his performance look like after missing his first cut? I think it was in like four years. Woodenham Clark has played really well the last month and a half. Is he a contender here? He kind of surged late last year and got into the got into top five here at the open championship last year. You have Aaron Rye, who won the PJ Championship at Aronimick, who's from England. So again, do do some of these people who grew up in England, the Matt Fitzpatrick, the T R all Hatton, Tommy Feetwood, Aaron Rye, Justin Rose, do they have an advantage of playing? Because they know what this course is going to play like in this condition. I it's got to help. It's not going to hurt. You have Rory McElroy, again, who won the Masters, who's looking to win another open championship. Again, it's the major week never disappoint. It's going to be a fun golf course. The weather's going to be good. I wish it was a little windier because when it's really windy, I think I like that the most instead of hot and burned out. I want to see them hit low shots. I want to see them be creative with the wind and all

Preview & Picks: The Open Championship

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that. It's it's going to be fun. Again, it it's it's tough to pick a winner when there are so many great players in this event. Again, if I had to again, I'm not a betting man. Do not put money on any of the picks that Brian or I ever do, because we're hardly ever right. Rory McEroy's gonna be up there for me. I I don't know if he's my pick. My pick. It's it's always tough with these major championships. But I am going to go with Victor Hofflin, and that may surprise some people, but he's from Europe. He knows how to play in in these lynxy style conditions. I know he grew up in Norway, so it's not exactly England, but still, it should be a course and style of golf he knows, and he's played really well as of late. He had that win against Scotty at the trailers championship in a playoff. And when you can stare down the world number one and the best player in golf and beat him in a playoff, that says a lot about you. He has he in his last four stars, he hasn't finished lower or then T13. So again, he's playing really well outside of the win. It just it may again, we've we've talked about this before. Like, who's the best player without a major championship? There's a lot of people you can say Ludwig Oberg, you could say Tyrell, and you could say Patrick Cantley, you can say Victor Hovlin, you could say Tommy Fleetwood, and all of those are good answers. I don't know which one of those is the correct answer, but I know Victor Hovlin is one of the best players without one, and it's time, and this is one of the courses that I think sets up well for him. He's improved his short game, improved his putting. We know his ball striking, and if his drivers cooperate, he's gonna hit it long enough, and with the way it's gonna roll out, his advantage of not being one or disadvantage of being one of the non-big hitters, I don't think that's gonna really come into play because of how dry it's gonna be, the ball's gonna roll out. So I think Victor Hovlin, he's my pick to win this week again. It should be a fascinating golf tournament. We have lots of storylines. Is the local Englishman gonna win? Is Rory gonna win another open championship? Does Scotty go back to back? No one's gone back to back at the open championship since Patrick Harrington did in 2007-2008. Is he gonna do it? Is he gonna kind of get off that schneid? He hasn't won since the American Express earlier in February over in California. Again, it Scotty's still Scotty. We understand that he hasn't won like he has in other years, but I think that's just the game of golf has grown and there's parody in it. And again, like Brian had mentioned before, that's good for the game of golf. We don't need Scotty winning every week or every other week or whatever it is. So again, look look for Victor Hovlin. He's my pick at the Open Championship. Mackenzie Hughes, my pick at uh the Corrales Punta Conta Championship. No LPGA or lazy European tour events this week. They'll be next week. Uh keeping an eye out on our Instagram and our website, Ferry to Green. On Instagram, I will have uh daily recaps of each of these rounds. As soon as the uh last putt drops in the hole, I'll be writing a recap for that day. Um so go check those out on our website, and then as always, check out our preview articles and recap articles on the Ferry to Green. And uh we'll be back next week. We'll preview the tournaments happening next week, and we'll review this last men's major championship of the year, which is wild to say that we've gone through all four. You had Rory go back to back at the Masters, you had Aaron Rye come kind of out of nowhere to win the PJ Championship, you had Wyndham Clark kind of put his stamp on a really good two-month stretch of his season, win his second career US Open. And now who's gonna be that last person to win their first career major, you know, become a multiple time P major winner, who knows? But you know, you get that Claire Juggy to be called champion golfer of the year for the next whole year. So it should be really cool. Uh again, check check us out on Ingram and our website and enjoy the golf this week.