U.S. Open Recap

inside the top fifteen and a major champion now. And it's just been a rise and it's something that I think a lot of people that have watched his golf swing over the years and seen how much confidence he has listened. You won't find a more confident golfer than Wyndom Clark. I mean, he rivals Brooks Koepka in confidence and I think that's a massive, massive asset. Someone that he works with on the mental game, Julie Ellien, who's a very very dear friend of mine. She was quoted

as telling him stay cocky on Sunday. Every time that you hear everybody talking about Ricky Fowler's name, stay cocky and play well enough so that they start saying your name. And I think the the Sunday, the performance from Wyndham Clark. Some of the up and downs that he made on the front eight and nine, he could have made anything, and that was one of the I think one of

the things about La Country Club. We saw Dustin Johnson make an eight by just hitting it in a bunker, missed the fairway by maybe five yards on two and ends up making an eight. Wyndham Clark and everybody saw on the eighth pole part five, where you're looking to try and pick up a shot, he hits just a little left and is staring double bogie in the face, takes a hack at it doesn't move it. If it

does move it, it doesn't move it very far. Then hits it over the green and then just hits an unbelievable chip shot. I mean, just if you haven't been there and you haven't played that golf course, TV doesn't do that justice. That was down a massive, massive slope, gets out of there, and then on nine he could have made anything there as well, no green to work with. Somehow makes the downhill ten foot that if you're gonna win a major championship for parr you have to make those.

The up and down on eleven was just rediculous. How good that was because when he hit it over there, I'm thinking, okay, now this is you know, he'd been a little bit shaky on eight, a little bit shaky on nine, and then misses the green left on eleven, and I'm thinking, Okay, He's played so good up until this point. He's made all the putts that he's needed to make through three days, and he just hit an

unbelievable shot. I keep saying unbelievable because that's he just couldn't believe that he could hit it where he did

from that position. And then I think the shot of the tournament fourteen, you know, watching Royal McElroy right in front of him, hits a really good drive and then hits it onto the green in an opening from forty to fifty and the opening that he ran it up is probably five to seven yards wide, and you hit it in the bunker left or you get up on one of those collars like we saw Rory McRoy get up on. I mean, you could make anything. And then hung on down the stretch bogie on fifteen, and then

he just did what he needed to do. And I wouldn't say this. I mean, I'm gonna go on a limb. I think you could see this coming from a player like Wyndham Clark. Like you said, massive, massive amounts of self belief. Some people see that as cocky. Some people see that as arrogant. I've been lucky enough to be around some of the greatest golfers on the planet. They're all cocky, They're all arrogant. You can't get to number one in the world if you don't. Some of them

do it quietly. I think Scotty Schffler does it quietly. But Scotty Scheffler has a tremendous amount of self belief. Rory McElroy, Yeah, probably the most fan favorite player in the game right now. Rory has an incredible amount of self belief, and I think you have to have that as a player. And I think we saw Wyndham Clark reach a lot of the potential that a lot of people thought he had. But I loved his interview afterwards. He said, listen, I think I'm one of the best

players in the world. I've always thought I'm one of the best players in the world. And let me tell you, I would much rather have a player think they're a great player than to have a player question it. So I think it was a great story. A lot of people, and I'll be honest, include myself. I was pulling for Ricky Fowler. I worked with Ricky for a long time, my dad's worked with Ricky for a long time. My dad's now back working with Ricky. I thought it was

a real step forward for Ricky. I thought the way he played Thursday and Friday showed that his game is back. It's back to where he can start winning tournaments, where he can start contending in major championships. Didn't have his best stuff on Sunday. I think part of that is he hasn't been there in a while and it's a big stage and he didn't get off to a great start. But I expect good things from Ricky Fowler going I said to some people that know Ricky well that I

thought Ricky would win before the US Open. He hasn't done that, but he had a legit chance to win the US Open, and I can definitely see a situation to where Ricky Fowler has more chances between now and the end of the year to win major. He's got a chance to win another major at the British and he's got chances to win more tournaments so definitely, I think his game is trending in the right direction. I think it has been a very smart move for him

to go back to my dad. But Harmon, I think my dad brings a tremendous amount of calmness, tremendous amount of stability, a tremendous amount of confidence, and I think they're working on the right stuff. I think his golf swing is working in a really good position. I like the position that he's got at the top of his back swing. I don't see the club as flatt and is kind of laid off, and that change of direction,

that transition. Ricky's got a fairly quick, fast tempo. I think Saturday night, the eighteenth hole was I wouldn't say a turning point, but it's a big two shot swing right Wyndham Clark just flags an iron shot, big club twirl, gonna make birdie. They're playing in the dark, yet another mystery decision by the USGA. We went early on Sunday and they couldn't have gone early on Saturday. I don't

know if that's the USGA choice. I don't know if that's an NBC choice, But I talked to Ricky at his Caddy and he said they were struggling to see. You if you saw Wyndham Clark's interview on Saturday night, he said he thought the lack of light affected Ricky. Ricky three putts and there's two shots swing and it looked very different going into Sunday. But I think Ricky is making the improvements that he needs to make, and I think he's trending in the right direction. I mean,

what can you say about Rory McElroy. I've said this on the pod a number of times. I'm a massive, massive Rory McElroy fan, both on and off the golf course. But I thought the golf he played last week was was pretty solid. He drove the ball very, very well. It looked to me like he had gone back to hitting the high bomb nuke draw. Sometimes Rory moves around, likes to fade it, likes to cut it. I think he plays his best just my opinion. I could be wrong, but I think Rory plays his best when he is

hitting the draw, specifically with the driver. He moved the irons both ways. But when Rory is able to stand up, and we saw that on the first hole, very first first hole, an eighteenth hole, very very wide fairways the eighteenth hole some of the widest fairways I've ever seen for a US Open, and I've been to a lot of them, but I thought some of the drives that Ry McElroy hit all last week we were really impressive. And listen, it's been nine years since he's won a major.

I'm as shocked by that as anybody. But he keeps giving himself chances. But this is now three weeks in a row, Memorial, RBC and the US Open where Ry McElroy is in the last group A Memorial and RBC and doesn't get it done, where everybody is expecting him to win, and then he's in the second to last group.

But I think a lot of people were picking Rory to win that tournament, to win another major championship, to get to five, to break the duck that he's been, the cycle that he's been on of not winning one since two thousand, was it twenty fourteen, I mean, it's just it's crazy. I mean, it's just crazy to think that it's been since Valhalla that Roy McElroy has won a major championship. I think they get harder to win

the longer he goes without winning one. Because the question every week that he plays major championship is he's one of the favorites, but can he get it done? But I think his game is it's made for major championships. It really is. I think he is made for major championships. Yes, he hasn't won a major in nine years, but Roy McElroy is going to have. I think he's going to

have another legit chance at Hoylake. He's won an Open Championship before, so I fully, fully suspect that Rory McElroy will be in the mix come Sunday, late Sunday afternoon at Hoylake for the Open Championship. And listen you can see. I thought Roy looked different last week. I really did.

I think everything that's gone on in the last couple of weeks in golf, it looked like Rory was focusing more on the golf and less on some other suf I saw him finish on Saturday night and come out of scoring and go straight from scoring into locker room. I didn't see him give any interviews. He looked all business last week. He didn't really I didn't see him talking to a lot of people. I didn't see him.

I saw him being very, very focused. I saw Rory last week kind of doing the same thing that Tiger Woods didn't major championships. He didn't talk to anybody, didn't really give a lot of interviews, didn't really answer a lot of questions, and he looked all business last week. And he comes up one show he's got the game right. I mean he is. I mean, he's Rory McElroy. He's to me, he's one of the most dominant players of this generation, and I just love the way he plays golf.

And he's going to win another major championship, if it's not at the Open Championship in a couple two three weeks. He's going to be one of the favorites going into the Masters, He's going to be one of the favorites going into the PGA next year. He's going to be one of the favorites going into the US Open and the Open Championship. So I think we saw some good things from Rory, and we've definitely seen some very very

good golf from Rory of the last three weeks. He's playing his fourth tournament in a row, which he doesn't normally do. It's a designated event on the PGA tour, So there were a lot of players that are playing. They're playing a lot of golf, and it's going to be interesting to see how Hartford plays out. A player that I really really like. I like his game, minwou Lee finished I think tied for fifth. His sister is a major champion. His sister has a great golf swing.

Minwu's got a great golf swing and he's a really really cool kid. Three four years ago, he would kind of use Dubai as a base when he was on the European Tour and he would hang out at my academy at the L's Club in Dubai, and you know, on Saturdays and Fridays when we would have all our junior junior camps and junior development courses, we'd have a bunch of games and be testing the players, and it

was always cool. My god, Jamie McConnell, who runs my academy out there, who's been on the pod, would send me videos of Min Wu just you know, hanging out with sixteen seventeen year olds, fifteen year old kids, you know, going through skills test and trying to get better. So I thought that was a really cool thing to see. I think He's got a very very bright, bright future, and I think he's a player to watch. Tom Kim lit it up, had it going. I think he's a

player to watch. I think I think the ceiling in the runway for Tom Kim is really really high. But Wyndham Clark is a major champion. And don't be surprised if Wyndam Clark keeps winning golf tournaments. And don't be surprised if Wyndam Clark gets inside the top ten or the top five in the world, because he is legit. He has a legit game, and there is no one that believes that he should be where he is more

than Wyndom Clark. I think the emotion that he he showed and everything that he's gone through with losing his mom. He's a national champion. He played college golf at Oklahoma State and then senior year transferred to Oregon and they won a national championship. So he's doing all of the right things that you need to do to become a great player. And you win a US Open and it puts you in a very very different category. And he

has his first major champion ship. So John Rahm, Brooks Koepka and now, Wyndham Clark, those are your three major champions. Who is going to get the last one? The Open Championship, I think is probably the most wide open of all the tournaments, all the majors, because you just don't know what you're gonna get from a weather standpoint. The golf course will be lynxy. Is it gonna run fast? Is it gonna be hard? Is it? What are you going to get? So I'm really looking forward to getting over

there and checking that out La Country Club. I'm gonna be honest. It did not to me. It's just my opinion. It just didn't feel like a major. It really didn't. It felt like a new tournament on a golf course that no one had really. The golf course looked fantastic on TV, and it looked fantastic in person. There were players that liked it, and there were players that didn't. Brooks,

Matt Fitzpatrick, Victor Hovlin. They weren't big fans. There were other player I'm sure Wyndham Clark's a fan, but I didn't hear en mass players and caddies just raving about the golf course the way that they normally do it at major championships. When we go to great golf courses. It felt flat. I mean, I think if you were looking at social media, there were a lot of people talking about it. It was next to impossible to walk. It was a very, very difficult spectator course to watch.

There were a lot of t boxes that you couldn't get to, there were a lot of green complexes where you weren't necessarily able to get around them, and it just seemed like and I think due to the location right in the middle of Beverly Hills, they'd got two golf courses, but there were a bunch of reports that ticket sales weren't nearly what they normally are, and you

could tell and listen major championships. The fans, in my opinion, play a huge role in major championship golf, and there was a definite subdued, corporate country club kind of feel to last week. And I'm just being honest, I'm just giving my opinion. I played that golf course before, I played it before the Gilhans redesign. It's one of those clubs in America to where there are more rules than you can read. It's very exclusive, and it just didn't have that. Like I said, I just I keep going

back to it. It just it just didn't have that major championship feel to it. And I think the fans not being there in full force like they normally are played a big, big role in that. You just didn't hear all these roars that you normally hear from all over the golf course when somebody does something. You'd hear it occasionally, but yeah, it was the golf course I think was I heard funky from a player, I heard

gimmicky from a player. I heard unique from a player, which is never a good thing when someone says it's unique and they don't back up the reasons why it's unique. So I don't know. I think the I mean they're going back there, I think, but I think they've got to find a way when they do go back there, they've got to find a way to get more fans in. There were just tons of rumors about why there weren't fans there. Did the membership buy up the tickets so

that the golf course didn't get beat up? I mean, you just you just heard a lot of different things. But yeah, it felt to me a little flat. I've been to a lot of US opens, I've been to everyone since gosh, two thousand and I've been to every US Open for the last decade, and I went to a ton before I went to US opens in the eighties. I went to US opens in the nineties. I went to a bunch of US opens in the Tiger Era, and last week was the most subdued and flat that

I've been to. And if I'm honest, it's probably my least favorite one that I've been to in my entire you know life. Now, I'm a massive LA guy. I used to live in LA. I know a lot of people don't like Los Angeles. Traffic's terrible, but I spent almost three years in LA and it's one of my favorite places in the world. It was a great host town. There were, you know, all the manufacturers, a bunch of the organizations. Everybody was having parties. I mean La Beverly Hills.

I mean it showed out. I mean it was great. I mean there was a bunch of stuff to do. Food's great, the ViBe's great, the weather's great. But in my opinion, the golf course and the week just felt something felt different. Maybe maybe it changes the next time they go back there. Maybe the golf course changes. I don't know, but it did feel a little bit, like I said, I just keep saying the same word flat and subdued. And it was an interesting It was an

interesting week, but everybody's playing the same golf course. And I think it was a big boy golf course, but it was also it was a small golf course for certain players. I think one of the things I did like about L A c C As a major championship venue is we saw a big mix of different types of games on the on the leader boards, right, I mean, we saw a guy like Brian Harmon, who listen, Brian gets it done very differently than Rory McElroy and Wyndham

Clark gets it done right, you know. And so I think we I saw the golf course you could play it maybe different ways, but it did seem like if you hit the ball a yard offline, you could be making X. And I don't know if that's a great test. And then there were just some holes, especially on the back nine, that you know, it's like they can't you know, they weren't, you know, the thirteenth hole, the fourteenth tee,

you know, there were no spectators out there. There were no spectators around really the fifteenth green, which is this tiny little green, and you know they played it at eighty something yards brooks Keepka may double on an eighty something yard part three and four putted. I thought that was kind of cool. It was fun to watch the best players in the world control a little eighty ninety one hundred yard web shot. I think one of the things that was that everybody was trying to figure out

is do you tee it up? You tee up a lob wedge from Ady Art. If you do it tends to add more spin, the ball goes further, So I think club selection, I think that part of it was fun. But the eighteenth hole, for a finishing hole, it had one of the widest fairways I've ever seen for a major championship. And I mean, I think the jury's out on whether it's good, whether that's bad. Early in the week we get the news that the PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan is taking a step back from the PJ

Tour due to health reasons. I heared as many people last week. There were as many rumors last week that Jay was very, very ill as there were that there was nothing wrong with him. And this was just is this the way out for j I don't think I've ever I've been around professional golf pretty much my entire life. You know, my dad played the PGA Tour when I was young. I'm told that I was on the PGA Tour two weeks after I was born, in the back of the station wagon, and pretty much the majority of

my life. I'm fifty four years old, I've been involved with professional golf at some level, and really for the last fifteen years, it's been the major part of my life. And I've never seen a time where an entire sport organization, whatever you want to call it. You had everybody there last week, and literally, to a man, no one has any idea what's going on in professional golf. They don't know if this merger is going to happen. They don't

know what's going to happen with Live. They don't know if players who turn down live contracts are going to get money. And not only do the players not know, the agents don't know either. The manufacturers don't know. No one knows what's going on in professional golf right now. Maybe Jimmy Dunn knows, maybe Ed Early knows. Yeah, Sir Jay I guess they know, but I just don't know anyone else that I've been able to talk to that

isn't in the dark like everyone else. So I think it's a very very interesting time because nobody knows what's going on right now in professional golf. I thought the week from a PGA tour versus live standpoint, I really didn't see a lot of animosity or you know, people really talking about it. I just see everybody was just

kind of saying, hey, we don't know. And you would talk to somebody and you would say to somebody on the range, hey have you heard anything, and they'd say, no, I haven't heard anything, and somebody would ask, hey have you heard that? And then I think one of the things that's frustrating right now for everyone involved is right now everything is just a rumor. Everything you hear right now in professional golf, and for everybody listening, those of us that are inside the sport right now, I don't

think anybody really has any idea what's going on. So very very interesting times. I hope Jay Monahan's doing well. The last thing that that you would want for someone like Jay, with everything that he's been through, Jay's had a tough go Jay had to deal with COVID and try and figure out how to navigate that, and then Jay had to try and figure out how to navigate this live situation. What I will say is that's why Jay Monahan gets paid the money that he gets paid,

and he gets paid an enormous amount of money. Jay Monahan gets paid that money and has use of the PGA tours private jet and flies everywhere private and is it the Sun Valley Illuminaate business illuminat conference every summer. And so I did hear people saying last week, you know, he's been through a tough time, and he has. He's

been through a very tough time. But but when you're the commissioner of a major sports organization like the PGA Tour and everything that's happening, there's a price you pay for the salary that you're going to make. And I'm sure that he has had a lot of sleepless nights and is trying to navigate this and and do what's best for the game of golf, at least I hope. So I don't believe that Jay's doing anything sinister in the same way that I don't think the Saudi's are

doing anything sinister. I mean, you can call me naive, you can call me dom, you can call me you know, drinking the kool aid. But I think everybody's trying to figure this thing out and they're trying to make the best of a really tough situation. So I wish Jay monahana speedy recovery. I think the big question is is will we see j Monahan back as the PGA Tour commissioner.

I did talk to a lot of players last week and caddies that said it seemed like they had they had lost confidence, that they didn't have the confidence in the leadership at the PGA Tour that they used to have, and I could see that. I could definitely see that.

But it's very very interesting times. And like I said, I there's a Live event next week in Spain which I'll be going to on Saturday, and it will be interesting to get back into the Live ecosystem because since this announcement's happened, all the Live guys and everybody associated with Live that normally travels has you know, we've had some off weeks, so it will be interesting to get back inside the Live ecosystem and just see if there's

any answers, see if there's any more. I mean, right now, I think there are more questions than there are answers. But it is my hope that in the coming weeks and months that everybody can try and find some common ground and try and figure out a way to move forward. And is their coexistence. I mean, I've heard it so many rumors that Lives dead. I don't see that. I think Live could change and morph and move into a

different configuration. But you know, when you've got Rory McElroy talking at the RBC Canadian Open about at some point there'll be some sort of team element to the PGA Tour down the line, I mean that is that what happens to Live I don't know, and I don't think anyone knows. But what I do know is I don't think anybody really knows what's going on right now in

professional golf. But what I do know is the performance last week from Wyndham Clark was it was very very impressive and I think he has a very very bright future and I think his runway can be very very long.

He hits the golf ball with speed and I think he will take an enormous amount of confidence getting it done under the conditions with Basically you can argue that he is one of the to me right now, Rory John Rahm on the PGA Tour, Rory John ram, Scotti, Scheffler, they're kind of the gold standard on the PGA Tour. And you know, for Wyndam Clark to stare Rory McElroy down and come out on top, you have to play

some great golf to do that. And if you're going to do that a major championship, you have to dig deep mentally, you have to have a big heart. And yeah, very very impressive from Wyndham Clark. And don't be surprised, Like I said earlier, do not be surprised if you start seeing this guy win on a fairly fairly regular basis, and he is going to have chances to win more

majors because he has big, big time game. Uh So, like I said, I'm excited going to Valderrama on uh live a great, great old You know, it's an iconic golf course on the European Tour. There have been Ryder Cups there. I was there with Tiger in the early

two thousands. I can't remember I was like, oh, two thousand and two thousand and one, I think he won a WGC in a playoff with Miguel an Hellhamenez and I was with him that week, and I still have unbelievable memories of watching Tiger Woods in kind of the glory days of the back in the day Tiger Woods.

So yeah, I just I remember he won and we got in a car and Steve Williams and I and Tiger were all going out to dinner, and we were driving out in the car and it was dark and it was just a sea of flash photography as we were driving out. I guess that's what being famous must feel like. I sure, as I wouldn't know, but it's it's a cool golf course. I'm excited for a bunch of the guys that have never seen it to see it, and it should be interesting and then another major championship

not far away. I want to thank everybody for listening, rate, review, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Son of a Butch comes to you every Wednesday, and we'll see you next week.