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Westwood one Sports presents this special report on the one hundred and fifty third British Open sponsored by Prevagen. Prevagen made for your Brain Approaching Sunset at Royal Port Rush and if Scotti Scheffler.
Keeps this up. The sun will set on this championship. Maybe it already has.
Scheffler one revolution short of equaling a major record score of sixty three. He cards a seven under sixty four in vaults into the lead at ten under par.
Scheffler putt it beautifully today.
He made eight birdies and came so close to finishing with three in a row. Matt Fitzpatrick, the former US Open champion, made eight birdies as well.
He's solo second at nine under one back.
Rory McElroy ways back at three under seven back, but he will play the weekend, which he didn't do in twenty nineteen at his home Open. Notables missing the cut, Brooks Koepka, Colin Morricawa, Patrick Reid. Also Adam Scott at plus nine after he was in contention at the US Open last month.
I'm ted. Emrick Westwood won Sports.
The Open Championship Round two in the books royal Port Rush Golf Club in Northern Ireland, and Scottie Scheffler finds himself the top the leaderboard. No surprise there. Paul Pugmyer Friday Afternoon, Paul, Happy Friday, sir, how are you.
Yeah doing great.
It is Open Championship Week. We love it.
We do, we do, and as I ask you every time you join us when one of these tournaments going on, let's start with the track Royal port Rush Golf Club over in Northern Ireland.
Paul fill us in what should we.
Know, one of the greatest courses in the world. It's in the top top ten of every list. You'll see. One of the things that really stands out in ranking this course is the number of great Irish players who have dozens of great courses to choose from, and consistently they all say that the Royal port Rush is their favorite. You know, the Shane Lowry's, the Paul mcginley's, the Darren Clark's. People like that. They all say, yeah, we love port Rush the most. I think that says an awful lot
about it. The course is built among sand dunes. It is truly a links course. That word gets mess used a lot in America, but this is truly a links course. And the holes wind among the dunes and then greens are capped on top of smaller dunes, which means you get a lot of false sides, false fronts. Really difficult in every way. No three holes in a row are facing the wind the same day. The wind can come
from any direction. The course is on the very top of the island and overlooking the Irish Sea, and it gets wind from every direction. But no three holes, say, face the same direction in a row, and so no matter where the wind is that day, you're going to get it from all sides. It is a great, great test of golf.
So, Paul, I'm reading that Royal poor Rush hosted in fifty one and then not again until twenty nineteen.
So why is that.
That seems like a big gap for a course that everybody seems to love so much.
Yeah, it gets wrapped up in politics, national politics, certainly with the troubles that were going on in Ireland in Northern Ireland. This is in Northern Ireland and just strife between Britain and Ireland, and then internal golf community politics. For the longest time, people only wanted the British Open as it was called then the Open Championship, to only be in Scotland. There was even resistance against taking it to some of the British venues like Royal Saint George's
or Royal Liverpool at toy Lake places like that. So it's politics, both within the golf community and national politics. That's really the reason. And it was a big deal when it went back in twenty nineteen, and it was hugely successful. And now it's just in the road. We're going to see it every few years.
Okay, So let's dig into the leaderboard a little bit and let's start this. Let's just start at the top, because well, you know, it's Scottie, because of course it's Scotty. Once he you know, once he became healthy again after the surgery and the hand injury, and then once he found his form, he's either winning tournaments or has something to say about it.
He carted a sixty four today.
I read that's one shot off the record for a major.
With the Open Championship situation.
I don't know how much you saw, but when I was watching yesterday, he was not driving it well at all, yet he still carted a sixty eight. I mean, it's just wild how he problem solves. But let's start with the leader. What are you seeing so far from the world number one?
Yeah, let's go back to yesterday. You're exactly right. He was all over the park yesterday and didn't have his swing down with the driver, but she was striking his irons well, and really, Scotty's best statistical play is with his irons. He is the best iron player on the planet, straight up. And he was able to stay in the round yesterday with his iron play. Got a little bit of good breaks a couple of times with wayward drives, but so what. Nobody ever wins a major championship without
getting a handful of good breaks. It's just the nature of a major. So he was getting a few yesterday in the Thursday round, and he took advantage of them and was able to sign for sixty eight, in large part because he's really been putting well this week well today for his sixty four, which you're right, is one stroke off the lowest round ever shot in any major, and is the lowest score Scheffler has ever shot in a major. He never went this low in any of
the three majors he's already won. He had his driver working, his iron were working, his putter was working. Obviously. For sixty four. At a place like Port Rush, everything has to work, and it was it was doing that for Scotty today and so shock me, shock mee. Top of the leaderboard Scotty Scheffler. But I want to point out something else. You go down just a couple spots on the leaderboard, second place, Matthew Fitzpatrick, T three, Brian Harmon. What do they all share in common? They are all
major champions. Again, no surprise, port Rush will bring out the best from the best.
Among the top twelve golfers.
We have Fitzpatrick, we have Terrell Hatton, we have Jordan Smith, we have Rory McElroy. And if you go down a little bit, there's Lee Westwood. There's Harry Hall, of course he's a britt his name is Harry Hall. There's Justin Rose, Matthew Jordan, Tommy Fleewood and Aaron Aaron Rye, Matt Wallace. All these golfers are within the top thirty. So you're looking at you know, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
eleven Brits in the top thirty. Uh what does that say to you about just kind of you know their origin and how they can figure out how to play a course like this.
They have they have more experience with it. There's certainly that and I do think that you know, earlier this year Rory McElroy was talking about how it matters where you win. There's no question that everybody wants to put port Rush on their resume, and so I think there's that driving them as well. And then of course the top brit is Matt Fitzpatrick. We've already mentioned he has won a US Open. He has shown that he can survive the rigors of a major championship. You got to take him seriously.
Eight birdies for Fitzpatrick and Scheffler, I mean, Paul, that's tough to wrap your mind around at Nibley, like let alone port Rush, you know, like eighties in one round a golf course that's playing as tough as this is in conditions today the looked wet and cold.
So the conditions were all over the board, which is exactly what you would expect on the north of the island, out hanging over the Irish. They got rained, they got heavy rain, but interestingly other parts of the golf course were not as heavily rained on. And then twenty minutes later they were peeling off the clothes and the sun was shining. There were shadows again. It can move through the seasons very quickly in an afternoon at a place like Royal Port Rush.
All right, we've done about twelve minutes without talking about our guy, Tony, who's looking good.
Cards is seventy round once indeed follows.
Up with a sixty eight today, so three hundred today, four under for the tournament.
He is in the top ten now.
And we'll get to this at the end because I always like to ask you who can actually win the thing?
And when it's.
Scotty at ten under, I don't know if Tony had four hunders get be able to catch him.
But there's a chance I'm going to the Ryder Cup, Paul.
I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it work, and I just so badly would love to watch him in that setting. So double, you know, kind of a two tiered question here, your thoughts on what we've seen from Tony over the first couple of rounds, and then if we expand the topic to what do we need to see from him? And it's getting late early if he wants to make that team, is it still possible?
It's still possible, Yes, it is. Tony Fenow has always been an intuitive, reactive, artistic player, always even as a teenager, and we knew him here in Utah and he was winning the state am at age seventeen. Tony Fenow has been an intuitive, reactive player. He has always been comfortable at the Open Championship because links courses in whether require exactly that, They require the ability to react well and to intuitively feel and execute a shot, and we were
seeing that with Tony. He had an early tea time today. I got up early and watched him, which is one of the things I love most about the Open Championship is the time difference. Get up at five or six in the morning and watch a major championship golf. That's good living. But Tony was just in control. He seemed very, very comfortable this morning. And the thing about his scorecard that stands out, Yeah, his eagle on twelve, the double circle there three on the par five to twelfth hole.
That was really great. But the thing that stands out to me is there's only one square and a lot of pars and so his sixty eight today was solid steady and I love seeing that from Tony. We haven't seen as much of that solid steady play from him this year, but boy, Hattie, he looks comfortable this morning.
And look, we're only thirty six holes into this now, granted the guy is starting to be asked, but really, certainly five shots back, maybe as far as seven for a couple of these players, and I am talking about Rory McElroy. Nobody's totally out of it. Now, maybe they're going to have to chase down Scotty. Scotty's not going to come back to him, and but but maybe somebody can chase him down.
Yeah. See, that's the problem.
Like, for instance, let's say, you know, and I'm not running down any individual golfer, but let's just pick a random Let's say Mattias Schmidt was ten under right, and then you're like, okay, maybe Matias Schmidt, but it's Scotty freaking Scheffler who has you know, And look, Fitzpatrick is there, Harmon's there. To your point, both those guys are major champions. But ultimately, with Scotty being the one on top after two already double digits, what does that do to the
mentality of the other players? You know, it's I always go back to the tiger thing, and when I hear people talk about what it was like when they saw a tiger at the top of the leaderboard, and like wait a second, I got to catch that guy. I got to imagine the players that are underneath Scotty are looking at the fact that it is him with a little bit of a different prison if it was just kind of a random golfer.
Totally they are. And I love your Mattia Schmidt example, because he's a heck a good player, but he has not demonstrated that he can thrive breathing thin air. Well, we know that Scheffler can breathe thin air and be just fine. Fitzpatrick and Harmon again both major winners, we know they can breathe thin air. Tarrell Hatton is absolutely an elite player in this world. Robert McIntyre is scott He's won the Canadian Open, he's won in America, he has won in Europe, and he's won the Scottish Open.
I think he's a guy who has to be taken seriously. But look, you are so right. It is Scotty Scheffler. Everybody knows they're going to have to go reel him in good luck. It can be done, but tough lift to do so.
An interesting story that they kind of became public prior to the start of the first round. Harris English caddy was not allowed entrance in the UK and our guy is top five. You know, he had a great, great round one with a sixty seven, files it up with a seventy today. What sort of commentary is that on the lack of importance of a caddy or is this just a moment in time?
This story is funny, so many different layers, but let's start with how good of a player Harris English is. He is absolutely a top tier player. He's a writer cupper, He's a president's cupper. You don't get to those events by accident. He has had an absolutely rock solid career on the PGA Tour four years now. He hasn't broken through and a major yet, but in many ways that's kind of surprising. His swing is one of the most
repeatable swings on the PGA tour. It is It is Adam Scott esque in both it's it's mechanical function and its rhythm and so very very reliable. And so it means that this thing with his caddy is I don't I'm not surprised at all that he's able to do just fine because he is. He has such a repeatable swing. The thing about the caddy that's so funny to me is hello, everybody, we've known about Port Rush being on the calendar for a few years. Now, you're only dealing
with the visa issues the week before. I don't get it. This was this was six months AGO's problem and but for whatever reason, they didn't deal with it, and so here we are.
Paul, Kegan Bradley might give you no choice but to just the fact that he's going to be on the Ryder Cup. You know, like he's just playing high level golf. He's right now T twelve three hundred parr along with Rory.
I know, I know. Well, look if you get if he gets in on points, he gets in on points. It is still my view, as we have discussed that being the Ryder Cup captain is a lifetime event and it is consumptive. But uh, he has he added he's been adding assistant captains, so he's been preparing for this potentiality. We'll see how it plays out. That you're right, he is playing high level golf right now, and go Keegan. I congratulate you for it. Look, Kegan's another one. He
has won a major championship. He know, we all know that he can close the deal, and so got to take him seriously.
All right, Paul, before we find out what's on the show tomorrow and get the latest with the local golf scene, I've got one more question here. I'm happy to report that I set the over under on my club breaks this year at one point five and I am still I'm still under because I have not broken a club yet. It is my goal not to do that. There have been a couple of throws. Okay, I'm not gonna lie,
but nothing is broken. I bring that up because I've told you before, I've had more than a few people on a golf course say, yeah, you kind of look like Wyndham Clark.
Well maybe it's not just looks.
Maybe we both need to work on not damaging things and not throwing things and not throwing clubs and such. But a ban by Oakmont for damaging the locker after a disappointing performance at the US Open, and they're gonna host another Open, it's not until twenty thirty three.
He has the ability to appeal, and.
He's an Open champ, so I would imagine he's going to try to figure this out one way or the other. Just give me your thoughts on this story that Oakmont Country Club his banned Wyndham Clark after he damaged to locker following last month's US Open.
I'm okay with it. What he did was so childish and just just so wrong, and then his reaction to it was tone deaf. He had an opportunity, this moment has passed, that he had an opportunity to own it, to go to Oakmont to make reparations, both with the facility, the physical facility itself and the people. Oakmont is a cathedral, Oakmont stands almost alone. Is such an impactful facility and golf course in the history of the game. I'm okay with Oakmont saying no, that doesn't happen here. You are
not welcome here anymore. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out when the US opened was back there in a few years, because you're right, every reason to expect that Wyndham Clark otherwise would be in the field. I think there are things yet to play ount on this. Maybe they're just trying to get his attention and say, hey, dude, you have to respond to this better. I can't believe the people around him haven't grabbed him by the neck
and said get this right. But whatever, and then otherwise, when it comes to launching a club now and then Spence, always throw them horizontally like a helicopter wrote, rather than vertically. And that way you don't get the vibrations in the shaft and you won't break them if you're throwing them horizontally.
Excellent advice, Paul, excellent advice. I will take that to heart. And you know it's too bad because he's such an entertaining player when right.
He's a great player. Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah.
I hopefully you can figure it out.
But yeah, he's got to get a grip on this, no question.
All right.
Latest on the local golf scene, what's coming up on the program tomorrow before I set you loose.
We will be teeing up the women's State Am that starts Monday at Wassatch Lake Course. And then there's another really fun thing going on this next week that will also be teeing up. The National High School Championship is being played at Pinehurst in North Carolina. And this is so fun. The number one high school team in the nation Corner Canyon right here in the Salt Lake Valley. And this is an event that the Skyline High School
team who's won a few years ago. They won it twice when Simon Kaan and Tyson Shelley were both on that really great Skyline team. So we're going to be tea and all that up. The Utah golf scene has a bunch happening and it's really fun to see Paul.
Thank you sir for the time. Have a great show tomorrow and enjoy the rest of the Open Championship and we'll chat zoom.
Thank you so much, Spence, We'll see it.
Augmi are the one hundred and fifty third Open Championship going on right now at the Royal port Rush Golf Club in port Rush, Northern Ireland, and through two rounds, Scottie Scheffler, the world number one, is your leader of ten hunder par. Britain's on Matt Fitzpatrick is loone and
second nine under. Brian Harmon is at eight under. A couple of notables before we break Terrell Hatton, Harris English five under par are very own Tony final four under par as is let's see Nikolai Hoyguard and then Keegan Bradley, Rory McElroy, Sam Burns three hundred par so was Lee Westwood,