I miss the green, for example, I'm already upset. When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
And when I find my ball in a bright egg Frida egg, the dreaded Frida egg, fridagggrid egg brid egg lie, I'm about ready to run off of the hump course.
Welcome back to the Friday Golf Podcast. I am your host, Andy Johnson. UH. Today I am joined by Joseph Lamanya. We're going to do a major championship kind of breakdown, a little debrief after major championship season and the men's calendar has wrapped up. So I'm joined by Joseph, who was on the ground for the last two Men's Majors and UH and obviously regularly for us on Friday Golf. I apologize for a slightly late release of this episode.
I had a bunch of travel this week and a couple of things that led to a later release date. But we will be back next week with another pod, and you know we'll be back on the Wednesday schedule. Anyways, today's podcast is brought to you by our friends at Red Rooster. This is kind of a cool thing. One of my favorite places to go play golf in the winter is stream Song. On August thirteenth, they're going to do a raffle, which is a trip to stream Song.
So it's your chance to win the ultimate golf getaway as stream Song Resort in Florida. This is brought to you by Red Rooster, so get ready for the golf experience of a lifetime. From August thirteenth to October thirty, twenty twenty five, you can enter for your chance to win a two night golf getaway at stream Song. Red Rooster is not sending just one winner, but three lucky winners and each can bring a guest, so six people are gonna go to one of the most iconic American
golf resorts. And the trip includes round trip airfare, round trip ground transportation, tune from the airport, two nights at Stream Song's hotel, and three rounds of golf fifty four holes and your meals during the stay which we'll add up as stream Song. So if you want your chance to win, visit redroostergolf dot com between August thirteenth and October thirty first to enter the Straffle. So Red Rooster
they make golf gloves. They are awesome golf clubs. We sent out to all of our Friday golf club members at a golf club last year. It got so much feedback about these. This is the golf club I use all the time. It is is really really a world class glove. So if you're looking for a new place to buy gloves, they are an awesome option. But also enter this this giveaway for your chance to have kind of a triple lifetime down there at a stream song. All right, let's get to Joseph Lamania and let's talk
major season. Joseph, Let's let's get it kicked off. Do you want to start most recent or do you want to start at the start at the Masters or actually the players.
We're not doing that. We're not doing that. I don't care. Maybe let's go in order. We want to start with the Masters.
Yeah, you know you're you're the guests, so you get you get first pick.
Let's start with the Masters. I think there's nothing Rory's win. Obviously one of the best tournaments of the twenty first century. I do think it's the best tournament that I've ever watched. I don't know if I'm just being a victim of recency bias, But that was one of the coolest tournaments,
has to be of the last thirty years. I think the main thing I'll remember from it obviously the ups and downs, Rory dumping the wedge in the water on thirteen, But that iron shot into fifteen one of the coolest iron shots I've ever seen in my life with everything on the line, and I think when you go back to what are the best shots of all time or the best shots of the modern era, that's in the top five. So that iron shot into fifteen I'll remember forever.
You just you know, the moment in time and the way, you know, I was on the ground, and just the way the energy and the atmosphere of the tournament had shifted from after he hits the after he hits the green on twelve, it was like a raucous, like celebratory like we're gett you know. It felt like that, like almost like it was a to turn into a winner's procession down the stretch where every green it was just going to be this huge applause and him just kind
of waltzing to this career Grand Slam. That's what if after he hit the green on twelve, that's kind of what it felt like it was about to become. And obviously the shot on thirteen, the soft bogie on fourteen, and at that moment it was like the it was like shock in the crowd. It was it was dead, it was deflated, and everybody was watching the leaderboards and
you know, reacting to the leader boards. And he obviously you saw him like there was a big weight on fifteen and you saw him in the trees and being there on the ground. It it was kind of what is he going to do. He's got to be laying up, and then he hits this all time shot and it pulls him back together. And obviously, you know, there were there were more ups and downs after that was seventeen eighteen, the web shot that was a really bad web shot,
and then the shot in the playoff. But the I'll never forget that, the way the energy and the crowd shifted with all these different like kind of like ups and downs coming down the stretch. It was. It was
a wild experience to be there. In terms of where it ranks, you know, I think it's gonna It's an interesting aspect of to talk about where it ranks because I think from like from my perspective, The Stenson Mickelson duel was like, I don't know if we're ever going to see it, Like, I don't know if in my lifetime I'm ever gonna see like the sheer level of play between two at the time elite elite players going at it, like clearly the best two players in a tournament,
just duking it out. I don't think I don't think I will ever see a tournament like that in the next like twenty five years, where you just have these two guys that are just clearly playing on a different level and it was just like trading blows like that tournament, it gets underrated, like this tournament was kind of just
like it was. Everything was around Rory in this accomplishment, and you know, it's an interesting question where it where it ranks, you know, because like twenty twenty four at Pinehurst would have to rank really high in that in that you know situation too, because we were saying the same things walking off that and that was more of a duel.
I'm with you on the Stenson Michelson one. That's the other one that comes to mind for me, or the two thousand and eight US Open, like those for me, are the most memorable, but any earlier than that I was a little young, But I think the difference between Pinehurst, the back and forth nature of this one that existed
at Pinehurst, but the way Rose shot up. I also think you got to tell the whole story of the twenty twenty five Masters with Rory's two double bogies on Thursday afternoon and just the entire arc of that tournament. To me, it reached a ceiling much higher than the US Open at Pinehurst, even Rory starting the day shaky on Sunday, the shot on seven like it was just drama packed from start to finish, And I feel like Pinehurst really hit that in the last four holes, but
it wasn't like that all tournament. It wasn't like that all day.
I think I actually know why you're discrediting because this guy, Matthew Pavaugh was in the final group.
I'm not discrediting Pinehurst. That was a great golf tournament, but I think the Masters a little higher.
I think this is just because you're better that Pavon played well.
I got nothing against Matthew Pavong, great player, good player.
Uh what's your second thing about the Uh? About the Masters, I kind of just hit on it.
But I think watching Rory's two double bogies on Thursday afternoon in the whiplash of feeling like the tournament not was over, but it was a massive gut punch to his chances and to then turn around recover the way that he did make another bad swing on thirteen. Resilience the word that got thrown around all week, but it really was a different side Rory than I think we've seen. So I don't know that we're gonna see too many players make two double bogies on a Thursday and win
a major championship. Not many have the birdie making ability to get themselves back in. But I hope people remember the way that tournament started, not just that finish, because it was an incredible display of bouncing back.
Yeah. I think like the thing you I remember talking about Rory's round on Thursday, and it was like he played such great golf outside of those two holes, and it was you know, a lot of people, a lot of people put him, put them, buried them, you know, put the casket underground after that round, saying you know, he's out of it. But like the level of play
he was he was so dialed in that week. You know, you think about like kind of like the the whole tournament and some of the catastrophic mistakes that he made, you know, fifteen on Thursday, chipping from over the green from like a place that you're like, okay, he might make a verdie here, tipping that into the water and making a double from just over the crazy you know, uh, the the double vogie on thirteen in the final round from like a great layup position, you know, just like
trying to take double out of play and making a double. And you think about that tournament, it's like, I mean, he played so well that week. He probably should have won by like six or seven. You know, he was just by far and away the best player of that week. But he made some a couple, you know, huge mistakes that you just can't make, you know, I think, like, I think that's one of the things you're going to
walk away from. And I think I'm sure both of us will have like Scotty's dominance at the Open is one of our things. But you know that Master's performance, it was a playoff, but it was you could also say it was one of the more dominant performances because Rory won in spite of like some serious mistakes that you usually are unable to win golf tournaments with. Yeah.
My second thing is also I guess influence from being on the ground at the US Open at Pinehurst and and that Masters is it's just kind of the the Bryson rivalry with Rory, and you know, it's set up this you know, Saturday afternoon, it sets up this this Bryson Rory you know, final pairing on Sunday, and it's like, okay, you know what's going to happen. The start that Rory got off on got off to with, you know, whole
one was kind of a disaster. Uh, you know, and uh and you know the way that you know Bryson Birdie's two and it's like, oh my god, he just like flipped the whole thing. He's gonna win. And then it comes back Rory Bertie's three kind of gets back
on on the horse. But but overall, I'll never forget watching the two on the practice screen and it's like Rory McElroy putting just like around the green like you would before you play around right like where he's like hitting putts and it's just like there's no devices out there. He's he's hitting putts like different different lengths and like
a a really just like normal putting practice routine. And then you have Bryson out there with like his ruler and he's got like a track, he's got like he's measuring stuff, and he's hitting these putts based off of like how far back on the ruler he's going to like random places. And I just thought it was, like, it's these polar opposite personalities. Obviously, Bryson has been a you know, they play on different tours. Bryce has been a flat ship player for the Live tour. Rory's like,
you know, flagship player for the PGA Tour. And they have just these two very drastically different approaches to the game. So different personalities, different tours, different approaches to the game, and I think like you could probably say they genuinely see the world differentely, right, So you have these just like two polar opposites, and it's, you know, honestly, you know, one of my hopes for twenty twenty six, can we
continue to get this rivalry delivering more. Obviously the fallout, Bryson says Rory didn't talk to me all round, you know, and it's clear between some of the things that Bryson said he had that jab at Rory. I'm sure that Rory didn't appreciate during the match in Vegas last year, you know, I'm sure that Bryson didn't appreciate Rory kind of just iceing them all Master Sunday. But you know, that's what your job is, to go into the ring
and win a golf tournament. And I think there's like this great kind of icy rivalry that I don't think they're sending each other Christmas cards, and it's like something we want. This is what we want in golf. And my hope is that we get more of this. And we've gotten it at a Major two years in a row. Could we get a thirty third of this?
I feel like often in golf rivalries get overstated. Maybe there's not genuine disdain there, or they match up so infrequently that it's not even a true rivalry. I think Rory and Bryson is a legitimate rivalry and that there is a little bit of dislike there. I don't know if they're spending a ton of time thinking about each other, but I don't think they're pleased to be paired together, or maybe they are because they enjoy the rivalry of it,
but I don't think they like each other. So the other part of it is that their skill sets are connected. They're two of the longest hitters in golf. So when you get a major championship setup that's favorable to distance, like we could actually see them matched up again, which you know, it's just increases the chances that that rivalry could come to a head versus if their skill sets
were completely opposite. So I don't know that it's unlikely we'll ever see them in a final group in a Major again, but the chances aren't zero.
Yeah, I think, you know, like there is. It doesn't seem to be. They aren't friends, yeah, fair, And I think like that's the thing is, like you they talked to Rory after the Open about Scotty and I couldn't be happier from He's he's a great person, you know, is what he said, And like that's not like the basis for a great rivalry is when there's like mutual admiration for the other one. From like a personal standpoint,
I grew up a Bulls fan. The Bulls Nick's rivalry, the Bulls Pacers rivalries, and the nineties were and the you know, we're just like rooted in the Bulls and Pistons obviously in the earliest or early nineties they're rooted in. This is just general dislike for each other like that, you know, there there is like a level to that. And it's like, I don't think no matter who it is, there's going to be that like kind of contentious rivalry
with Scotty because like Scott, he's just generally likable. He does doesn't do anything that's going to like upset people. But where Rory, you know, we'll we'll speak his mind in press conferences and you know, and and kind of tell you. You know, he's authentic, he'll tell you how he feels about things. And Bryson, you know, kind of being Bryson will will rub people certain ways. And I think, like you know, you think about it as like Bryson's
ascendants and ability to play Augusta. Obviously that opens that up every year as a potential. I think next year, if you want to circle another one where it could happen ironom Innk I think will set up very well for for long hitters next year, So like a Bryson Rory ironom Innk duel could be something that you look.
At that would be that would be incorrect just getting them in the final group again this year. You're right, like that that should be one of the lasting takeaways the excitement everyone had on Saturday night seeing them paired together. But if we get them again every time in the future, now that's going to be appointment viewing, even if it's not a major. But I don't know what other tournament you could get it at the Ryder Cup.
But Ryder Cup. Yeah, yeah, that's you know, I don't know. I might put somebody else against against Rory. You know, I might put Andrew Novak. You think you know he went toe to toe with him on Oakman on Sunday, So see the Rory killer. All right, let's move on to the PGA. What is one of your takeaways from the PGA Championship.
We've seen it with Scottie before the late Saturday afternoon charge where he finished eagle birdie, par birdie birdie to just completely grab the tournament. I can remember I was in a wedding that Saturday night, so I had to be like looking at my phone and tracking that Saturday evening and had it recorded, and that tournament was so wrap up for grabs. I could not believe looking back at my phone and then seeing how quickly the tournament
had changed. And this is what Scotty does. He's done it at Players in the past, He's done it at the Masters, unlike anybody else in the modern era besides Tiger, taking a tournament that's in doubt and just grabbing it and showing that nobody else really has a chance and no one else really did have a chance from then on in. He stumbled a little on Sunday, but that Saturday afternoon charge, I think that's just something at this
point that we've come to expect with Scotty. He did it at Memorial this year, like all right, the tournament kind of hanging in the balance late Saturday afternoon, it's Scotty's. So that's what I'll always remember from the PGA.
Yeah, you know, to that point with Scotty, I think like you could make a lot of cross sport references and just you know, if you're watching the NBA, it's that, you know, kind of like third quarter run where a super duper star just you know, he'll he'll take over and score you know, twelve points in four minutes and
it's just like whoa, Like what just happened? And the lead opens up and it feels like a golf you know, you see this all the time, and I think like with Scotty, it is a like it's a the ability to rise to a certain moment and right when that tournament is you know, is gettible, you know. And and the way he did it too on like the hardest holes on the golf course, you know, where like sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, we're brutal holes and you know, to to to do
it where he just took took control. Obviously the fourteen, fourteen and fifteen were the gettible holes on that back nine, but like to just sees control and do it you know where. I think that's like one of the things you see from Scotty and maybe one of like the marks of greatness is you know, his ability to hit shots close on holes where nobody hits shots close all day.
It's like, well, nobody said it close to this all day and it's like, oh, then Scotty hits it to twelve feet and rolls a putt in you know, it is he has just this knack to make extraordinarily difficult shots look routine, and he is he operates. I think, I think the irons are just I don't think enough gets talked about and I don't really love that expression, but like his iron dominance does not get talked about enough. How good the irons are, Like how generational the iron
talent is. I mean, you think about five years ago before we were in the Scotty era, like the excitement about Colin Morikawa and how he was, you know, replicating Scotty, or the excitement about will Z l Trus's iron play, and it's you know, Scotty is just just in a different stratosphere. And when you hit great iron shots, great approach shots, it's it's like hard to play bad golf.
He's also leading the tour this year. Strokes ginned off to Tea like you could make the argument that Scotty's driving ability is not talked about enough. Like so I think that again, two years ago, all anybody said, correctly was if Scotty ever learned how to put average, is gonna win everything. And to your point, now we are seeing, especially on the most demanding setups where he can separate himself. Tea to green, that's what's happening. He learned how to
put a little bit. He's killing everybody.
Yeah, yeah, it's it's I like the call out of that, that ability to just kind of like burst out right, like the ability to like in a blink of an eye put a tournament away. My big thing was was actually from Sunday. You know, I think that what he did on Saturday set him up to have this wonderful cushion.
And we haven't really seen Scottie Scheffler out of sorts tea to green in a in a big moment, and we saw it for nine holes on Sunday, and I thought, like, you know, when we look back on his career, one of the things that I will always remember is that Sunday at Quail Hollow because that was a moment where he could have like given one away. And once you give one away, I think that winning them gets a lot more difficult because there's way more doubt in your head.
Golf is a sport that it preys on your insecurities and your anxiety, and for Scotty Scheffler to to play the front nine he played to have John Ram catch him on the back nine and to have him go from hitting it just just horrendously. It was about as bad as I've ever seen him hit the ball, to clicking in finding something and then playing a nearly flawless back nine to win the tournament. Put pressure back on
John Rahm, who you know. It's like these these majors are hinging on so many moments, and that major, like the major moment. One of them I will remember is that the lipout rom had on thirteen where he hit an incredibly great putt and an insanely great putt and it's just, you know, if that ball is going two percent slower, it goes in and then he doesn't burdy the short part four, doesn't burdy the part five, and
so over again. But Scotty being able to gather himself, collect himself and fix the pro problem on the fly, that's another just sign of greatness, you know, that's the self reliance. Not you know, we see so many guys run to the range, and obviously Scotty works with Randy Smith all the time. But when you know, when you reach the level of being able to fix something on course, that is self reliance and self and that's just another aspect of just understanding and greatness.
It's kind of crazy that you're talking about him having one of the most uncharacteristically poor nine hole stretches of his career and he won the tournament by five.
Yeah, that it's I think that. I think the PGA at quil Hollow leaderboard is like more misrepresentative of the event than any like that's gonna be one where you look back on it and John Rahm, I think, what do he finished like seventh? It's like such such an absurd like he finished second in my mind, you know, give it because he came down the stretch and said, I'm trying to win this tournament and made some made some mistakes that that cost him, you know, finishing second fair fair.
I think to your point about him on the range, I think one thing from this year and I'm curious if you agree. But Scotty seems to be we hear so often about players that they always need to be working on something like that they get bored and they almost have to fix their mind on some kind of change, And Scotty seems to fall in love with routine and simplicity. About as much as anybody to where that doesn't feel like as much of a risk that he's going to
always need to be changing something like Tiger did. And I think even Rory has struggled with motivation at times. I don't really worry about Scotty struggling in that same way. And that kind of makes me think that his dominance could persist beyond a lot of players who maybe their attention spans are a little bit different, or they do want to they want to be making changes all the time.
Do you agree with that, Andy, Yeah, I think the simplicity of Golf Forum, I think, like you look at him and there is like there are other signs that point to this as well. It's the you know, he had that truck forever that Jim Dance bought, but he had that same truck forever when he's worth tens of
millions of dollars. It's the idea that, you know, I think his faith builds some consistency in his life like that he does, you know, you know, like he's very devoted to that and that builds consistency in his life. I I would I would agree with that. I think one of the harder things the more underrated hard thing about tour life is if you're a curious person, the routine of going to these same places, these same courses over like twelve to fifteen twenty years of your life
becomes a little mundane. It's like, well, I'm in this suburb like and you have to come up with ways to retain your interest. And I think, where are you going with this?
It seems like a backhanded compliment.
It's not a backhanded compliment.
Well, I'm just saying you Scotty's not curious.
Well, I think he's still young in his career, right, I think like this is this is one of the things that the underrated aspects of golf and maybe why we don't see a lot of careers that are great for ten plus years is there has to be hyper competitiveness. There has to be extraordinary, very discipline. There has to
be a drive to want to be great. There has to be you have to be in it for like the right reasons to have an extended career in golf, especially now with how much money they make, It's very easy. We've seen it. I mean, let's look at live Let's look at who lives spent a bunch of money on and most of them got their big check and have
kind of checked out. And I think this is this is an interesting, uh you know, piece of golf that my maybe doesn't get discussed enough is the redundancy of the sport, going and working every day on your game to see like the most marginal gains. You're talking about devoting hundreds of hours in a year to chipping in an effort to gain a tenth of a shot, be tenth of a shot better this year than last year. It's a wild pursuit.
And to your point, we know what next year's schedule looks like, and we're gonna know what the next year's schedule looks. It's the same golf courses, the same events, are going to be signature hotels, same hotels, and Scotty seems to be one of the few people who doesn't have any issue with that, just shows up, shows up to Craig Ranch and wins comfortably.
Yeah, it's kind of a it's wild. What's your second thing?
Mudballs? Mudballs at the PGA Championship. I feel like now that we're a little bit removed, it's easy to forget about that. But that was a big talking point for the first couple of days. Police were out the fair police were out, Scotty and Xander both having some trouble on sixteen attributed that to mudballs. You had some players coming out and saying you just got to learn how to deal with it. I think, especially older players or players who are no longer active, saying, hey, mudballs are
part of the sport. Other guys complaining about it. Not throwing an asterisk on the championship necessarily, but having a real problem with having to navigate playing championship golf with some mud. Speith was really upset about it. Talked about how the Masters you're not allowed to talk about it. So it kind of brought mud balls to the forefront of the conversation and sort of signaled where people stand on that issue.
I mean, water boys, sure in the fairway was a big theme of two major championships, obviously Oakmont.
It is.
I think like one of the things that got stoked this fire too, is like Kevin Kissner's commentary at the US Open about like, you know, listen on the PGA Tour, we can just get the ball in our hand and move it to a dry spot and hit it from there. I think it's one of the things that sets majors apart.
It's one of the things that's you know, in the identity the famous you know, Daniel Berger walking up to the score of the first t at the Asters and asking if they're playing ball, lift clean in place, and then'll be like no, I think, you know, golf is
an is an unfair sport. It's inherently unfair and and I get I think the position of the pros and Scottie talked about this after one of the round, like we work our our entire lives incredibly hard to control the ball, and the mudball, you know, creates a situation where we have no control over it. That's part of golf. Like, you know, bunkers used to not be raked, you know, I think like the CB McDonald line was the you know, the best kind of bunker is like one that looks
like a herd of elephants ran through it. And I think that you know, over time, this is this is you know, a tournament player perspective is like this idea of fairness should come through. The more I miss the the you know, more I'm penalized the you know, that type of concept which I can I can relate to I but like there is like a nature part of golf, just like life, is how you overcome the unexpected speed bumps in your round, and that was something that mudballs
presented and it'll be hopefully. I mean, we don't want tournaments where mudballs happen, you know, everybody wants these to have great weather where you get that kind of firm playing surface and the ball bounces and the fairways are much much more you know, demanding. But when it does happen, it provides a nice little added element of chance and excitement to a telecast when when you know, the softness of a golf course makes it a little bit less unpredictable.
Another thing I think you're hitting on. There's a clear difference in how players play in major championships than in regular tour golf, Like that is born out statistically, and there's a lot of conversation about why does that exist, Like what what is the difference? Why do some players play awesome golf on the PGA Tour on live but then they can't their game doesn't translate to major championships. I think a part of it is comfort and just
how routine oriented. All of these golfers are showing up to the same courses, like you've mentioned, showing up to the same hotels, their bodies being on the same clock every single week, and major championships just provide a level of discomfort between. Yes, obviously the pressure, but also other variables like mudballs that you wouldn't be playing in regular tour golf, harder setups, all of those things. I think it's being thrown out of the comfort of your routine.
And that's a big lesson for me. Not necessarily specific to one of these majors, not one of a big two takeaway from one of these majors, but I think that's been more clear after watching all four of these this year and seeing some of those golfers, the usual suspects who show up week in and week out and tour golf and their game doesn't translate to a major.
It is a piece of major where you hear these guys talk about majors and so many of them are trying to make them feel like just another week, and you see a lot of puzzling why doesn't this guy play well in majors? And it's different, but also the heightened expectations and weight of them, there's only four of them.
And at the end of the end of the year, like we aren't going to talk about who won the Cognizant or who won the Byron Nelson, you know, but we are going to tell maybe we will talk about who won the Byron Nelson because of the dominance of
on a course that's very hard to separate. But at the end of the year, what is going to be talked about are the are the majors, the Ryder Cup, maybe the player sneaks in, you know, even riv like this great event on the PGA Tour does not really have relevance after you know, at the end of the year, it's kind of, oh who won it? Riv like that, that's it's not talked about it, you know, nothing on
tour really has talked about. And that's like maybe one of the tour's biggest problems is nothing at the end of the year feels like it is like a a seminal moment on on tour, you know, or on in the world of men's pro golf.
And I think a lot of that's routine.
Is you ready for mine? Here go I have here, I've got I've got Ben Griffin. Wow, Okay, this was this was just like the the Ben Griffin season. This is the part of the Ben Griffin season. Him and Andrew Novak when when the Zurich a couple of weeks before this, he finishes t eight at the PGA. It was a super impressive performance from him. And then he goes and he wins the next week at Charles Schwab.
He finished his second at Memorial. Should have probably won that golf tournament had it, could have put it away on Saturday, but you know, kind of got like a five or six shot lead and then and then all of a sudden, Scotty comes up, you know, speaking of another Scotty kind of performance the way kind of put put that tournament to bad. But like it had a good duel with Scotty, genuinely good duel with Scotty. That
was a good tournament. But and then finish his tenth at the at the US Open, and it's like, you know, I think, like we these are the types of runs for a young player that build confidence and and create you know, a I'm not saying a star, but how somebody becomes a household name. It's not one performance. It is stacking performances over a concentrated time period and him doing that, this might be the best he ever plays
in his life, and that's that's fine. But he was a genuine, like big time story and one of the five best players in the world for a six to eight week period in golf, and I think like the PGA was where this this run really started to take hold.
You're right. I mean when we got to Memorial and he was leading, you were making the joke and many others like, is Ben Griffin the best player in the world, And he kind of was not. He wasn't better than Scotti, but he kind of was like playing at a level over a short period of time, not sustained, but a short period of time that matched up with just about anybody.
So I do think this is the year that Ben Griffin became a legitimate PGA Tour player, right, he became I'm not going to use the word star, but when we look at the Ryder Cup this year, he's one of the Americans you have the most confidence in, which is both at testament to his game and some of the weakness of the back end of Team USA. But Ben Griffin is not doing this in a fluky way. He's picked up a lot of speed. He's an excellent driver of the golf ball now. He gains shots with
his irons basically every week. So the ball striking is stay. Yeah, this is a story of a steady assent and a player who's twenty nine kind of peaking at the right time, and we could see a really good two to three year run. Maybe I'd be surprised if it lasts much longer than that, but.
I think it's important. You know, the Ben Griffin ilk, the Ben Griffin run here feels very like Max homa E in terms of the age range. Sure, like how they got there like a slow burn. And and this is the thing about pro golfers and men's pro golf in particular, is there are these different buckets of players. You have your generational guys that are that are going to burn hot and for a long time. And that's Rory McElroy right now, Scott do you think I mean Scotty.
We'll see what Scotty's in year five, right, Rory's in year He's approaching twenty years being like the top fifteen player in the world. It's wild, you know, and like golf thrives when you have the twenty year guys because we're where superstars are built in this sport is over because it's you know, what we're seeing from a dominant standpoint from Scotty is is building his star very rapidly. But what what where superstars are built is stacking three to four win seasons like to two to five win
seasons over ten plus years, you know. And I think like, so you have those like twenty twenty year guys, you have like your ten year guys, five year guys, two to three year guys where they're top fifteen players, and they're different levels of players in that sphere. But being a top ten player for two to three years, it's like you are like a you know, top twenty player for two to three years. You are absolutely like a bona fide like great player. And there aren't many of those.
And a great question is, like cam Ben Griffin be one of those guys.
And I think the Ryder coup will be a strong whitmus test.
He's assuming he make a team.
Assuming he makes that team, he's in good position to make it as of now.
It'll be I that's you know, undertone of the whole year and all these majors. Is the Ryder Cup. All right, let's take a quick break and talk about our partner, Maui Nui. Right now, Maui Nui is offering a free twelve pack of their jerky sticks with your first order of seventy nine dollars or more. If you remember, Mali Nui is our partner. They make the healthiest red meat
you'll ever eat. It's one hundred percent wild roast, a wild harvest and stress free process that delivers the highest protein to calorie ratio up to fifty three percent more than grass head beef. This is Venison. Their sugar free pepper stick, for example, packs ten grams of protein at just fifty five calories. These are ideal snacks for your golf bag. I you know, one of the crazes in
health right now is protein. Protein. Protein. This is a great way to get lean, healthy protein and they taste great. So if you're interested in getting some really healthy protein, I would recommend their sticks. I'd recommend their ground, their ground Venison product. Their medallions are great for your for dinners.
Go do Maui Nui Venison dot com. That's Maui Nui m a u I n Ui Venison dot com slash egg to grab yours, so that right now they're offering that free twelve pack of jerky sticks with your first order of seventy nine dollars or more at Maui Nui Venison dot com. All right, let's get back to Joseph Lemania. Let's move on to the US Open.
Big takeaway for me was course setup and how far we've come to where players weren't even complaining that much about the setup despite it being a pretty gimmicky setup, and y I think that I'm always going to remember what that setup looked like, the length of the rough, how much better it was to be in bunkers than to be in the rough, and players not even really complaining about it, kind of accepting it as part of
the Oakmont test. There was frustration, but I feel like we've come a long way from five to six years ago when players were very quick to skewer the USGA for any setup that they didn't love. There were a few complaints this year, but it was a ridiculous setup, and I think a point in time where hopefully most people can realize how far equipment has come that to protect a golf course, to protect the concept of par, you have to do something as ridiculous as the setup
was at Oakmont this year. And if that golf course had stayed firm and fast for all four days, which it did not rained, it would have been completely out of control on the weekend and it would have been fun for people who like carnage, but it would not
have been a particularly attractive golf tournament to watch. It still wasn't with the rain, but I really hope we can appreciate the lengths that golf course has to go to these days to even try and protect the concept of par, and that was on full display at Oakmont.
Yeah, I and I ye know, I think like protecting par when you I think the other takeaway I had about setup that week was when when you when you try and protect par and that's your your core kind of goal, you then kind of restrict the ability for great players to play great agree And I think that's that's where I had a issue with the Oakmont setup was I didn't feel like if somebody played a great round that they could actually score, like have a great score,
because it was impossible to keep balls on certain fairways. You know, you saw this with like the with the back nine, and I'm all for hard holes, I'm all for challenging the best players in the world. But you saw the back nine. You could see guys get going with ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, and then you get to fourteen and you could get another one there, and then you get to fifteen and it's, oh, you just can't hit this fairway. And it's five hundred five hundred yard
part four and the fairway's unhittable. So you're either in this like crazy thick rough just off the fairway on the right and you're making a bogey probably unless you unless you get up and down super good lie, or you hit it left in the bunker and you're gonna make a boge there. And it was just like a speed bump. It was just effectively like a restrictor plate versus you know what five hundred plus yard par fours
are great at doing. Generally, if the fairway's hit, a ble is sussing out who's playing really well, because the player that's playing really well can hit the drive in the fairway and then they can separate themselves with a long iron from the fairway, you know, to a challenging green. Maybe they make a birdie there and and this is
a hole that routine leaves bogie. But the way that hole was set up was I think if I remember correctly offhand, it was like the fairways getting being hit by like twenty five percent of the field.
It was low.
It was low, and it's like, okay, this is silly. This is the idea, the idea of a test that's not passable. You know, you're you're almost getting luck key, you know, and you know I do want to be you know clear here. The way you had to hit that Pharaweh was hitting a draw into the fairaway, which
can'ts left or right for a righty. Now you had to hit a draw into like a five yard pocket, which just just not I so like to me, that was the other, you know, beyond like the technology takeaway, the other the other thing that was firmed up for me. And you saw this with like the pure chaos on Sunday. I'll do this one first. The Chaos on Sunday where you have basically twenty players that could win in the last hour. That is a product. It's great for television.
I mean, maybe not great for television because they couldn't even keep up with how many players. I mean, Bob mca tire head, Like no shots shown of him all day Sunday, and it's like all of a sudden, he's playing eighteen. It's like, wait, this guy might win.
And his bawn was like dropped from coverage. Yes, made a few bogies early, but.
But this is all product of Okay, we're trying to protect par and in by doing that, what we're doing is we are jeopardizing the merits of a championship because we're not allowing great players to to separate with with skill, you know, the you know, Scotty was in the mix. He obviously had a bad week on the greens which held him back. But the idea of of of what he did at quill Hollow I don't think was really available at what he did at quill Hollow and Port
Rush wasn't really available at Oakmont. The ability for like just a dominant player to take over in a moment, you know, because the the golf course just did not allow you to consistently play well.
And in defense of the USGA, that's what you had, that's the way you had to set the golf course up. If you cared about protecting par, maybe you shouldn't.
Right, they cared about it.
I agree.
All the entire media day was about it. The entire pre tournament chat that they had was about par.
I'm with you, and you just can't both care about par and put on a golf tournament that is reasonable at Oakmont, right, And this is intuitive. This is a golf course that was built one hundred and twenty years ago that has been lengthened. The greens haven't been significantly expanded, and they've been turned way up, and the rough's been grown way up. Like we're just out of scale.
So you know, one of the things that frustrated me is like the rhetoric of why it was set up that way was this is what phones would have won it.
Yeah, I don't know if that's true.
And like what I would say back to that is this guy built one of the greatest golf courses in the world in an era where the ball went like two hundred and thirty yards, so a the fairways were wider when he built it than they are now. The ball went shorter, so misses were less wide, so fairways were very findable in this era. I just believe that that Phones would understand skill and want to present something
that rewarded deeply rewarded skill. And to me, like one of my big takeaways with the weather and with the presentation, this tournament was a complete.
Fluke, close to a fluke. I mean, Jada Spawn's a great player, but Sunday was complete chaos.
It was it was complete like we don't really know like Jadaspawn won, and I want to be respectful, he won the tournament, he had an incredible finish, but we walk away from that week having no clue who played best that week.
Yeah, it's a tough way of framing. I don't know if I would fully go we don't know who played best, but I agree like some of the shots to hit on Sunday were horrendous and normally you cannot get away with doing that at a major championship unless you're doing something magical. The rest of the tournament, he wasn't really, it was just a lot of water between the club
face and the ball. Yet, things coming down to what kind of lives you got in the rough Again to your point about what Phones have wanted this, Phones wouldn't have wanted players hoping their balls ended up in the bunker versus ending up in the rough, and that was a lot of the championship.
He would have gone with furrowed rakes. Honestly, the setup would have been better with furrowed.
Rakes would have been pretty cool.
I would love it would be amazing is if they if they could go to that furrowed And for people that don't know what the furrowed rake are, Oakmont used to use these like large time rakes, So like the large time would create these like rivets in the bunkers. So your ball would maybe sit up on one of the high points and have like a lie that you would be accustomed to today in a bunker, or it might sit down and it would act as almost like
a buried lie, and it was all chance. I would be fascinated with Oakmont go with very low rough that that not low rough, but like manageable rough that that entices players to take risks when they're out of position, hitting into these crazy greens that are well protected with bunkers, that are complete chants, and that they are desperately trying
to stay out of bunkers. I think this is one of the underrated parts of the Open Championship is how much players fear the pop bunkers because of the penalty that they exact, and in American golf, one of the issues with the US Open, I think has become that bunkers are so routine, they're so matter of fact, easy, predictable places to dump balls for pros. I mean, they
are so good out at bunkers and at Oakmont. If you reverse that dynamic where the rough was like, okay, I might have a good chance here, but I also could get in a lot of trouble. Coupled with the bunkers being completely terrifying, would be a fascinating golf tournament.
The other part you could maybe restore would be that rough aprons aren't keeping balls out of bunkers, that there would be an element. I mean, it was crazy to look at bunkers arounds, fairway bunkers where there's these massive, massive tufts of rough preventing balls playing as buffers from
balls going into bunkers. I think the counter argument to your point, Andy is if you cut the rough down not too I know you're not saying cut it all the way down, but like, if it's not firm then golfers are going to be able to kind of spray it just because it's going to play so wide versus an Open Championship, which is reliably firm. But that's just a difficulty of hosting a tournament in Pittsburgh. It's going to rain.
Yeah, I think that's you know, an int it is going to rain. It's historically rain there, it's historically been soft. Would the Bunkers provide some of that fear of spring?
And I think that'd be a cool set up.
All right, I guess what's your second thing? At the US Open, we kind of hit on it.
Just the chaos of Sunday and seeing Sam Burns shot on fifteen way left, Adam Scott playing poorly. That was a crapshoot, and JJ sponds putt on eighteen really salvage what was otherwise a really bad golf tournament. I feel like people are look going to look back on this somewhat favorably because how cool that moment was. If JJ spawn doesn't make that putt, that's like one of the most forgettable majors in the last fifteen years.
It's uh, I mean the putt was amazing. I try not to cheer, and I like threw my hands up. I was like, I could not cheer when that putt. And I think that's like one of my other takeaways is I think watching somebody achieve something that is, you know, a true surprise is an amazing thing. I mean it just JJ Spawn's you know, career coming into this. He had played so few major championships, you know, and he
had had such poor results in major championships. You're talking about playing five five PGA championships, missing two cuts in the best finish was T thirty five, only have played had played two mass you know, T twenty three and the fiftieth he had played. This was his second US Open, and then because he won this US Open, he played his first Open championship. You know, you're talking about a very inexperienced this. This was a win that came out
of nowhere. Where it ends up, like whether it's a complete flute where it like lands, is like totally dependent on what what does the next five years of JJ Spahn's career look like. And I think that that's like just a Kapelli aspect of this is, you know, the setup in the way the championship was approached if if we're at Oakmont in ten years and we look back and JJ Spawns won ten more times, they're going to be really confident in the setup and what the way
they approached that tournament. Now, if in ten years we look back and JJ Spawn's won one more time, is does that like lead to questions about how we presented the golf course.
Which is a little results oriented in that Victor Hovlin was right in that tournament too and could have won, and we wouldn't be talking about a flukey winner at all.
So I think there's a lot of names. There are a lot of names, you know. I think if Bob McIntire JJ Spawn wins, it's you know, oh, that.
Is that is pretty disrespectful to Bob McIntyre. Those are not and those golfers are not in the same class. Jjspawn's great, He's not on Bob McIntyre's.
Level, all right. The Open last fature of the year.
Biggest takeaway for me. Scotty Scheffler is so much better than everybody else right now, and that was clear before the Open Championship. But nobody's close to Scotty. If he has his B plus game, there's no one that can even really compete with his B plus game. I think can Bryson can, But we don't know how consistently they're necessarily going to show up and put in an A level performance at a major. If Scotty's got his A
minus A game, nobody can keep up with him. And he was even a little shaky from he hit some uncharacteristically poor shots during this Open Championship, still blew the field out, and some of that's a little bit of a flukey putting week. He was second in putting for the week, which you can't always expect with Scotty. But if he has this potter figured out even a little bit, nobody can keep up with his A game.
I would I would say that he he had his his A plus game or A game this week. And I think, like I think, what's interesting or what I think with Scotty the his floor is so high. I think we see his B game more than we see any other player's B game. And what's what really is the variable because of the consistency from Tea to Green, is the putter and the putter if he's at if he's at zero in terms of putting, if he's field
average at putting. It's his B game. At Oakmont we saw probably a C plus game because the putter was cold, and and at at Port Rush his putter was hot. I mean I said this to somebody, but the reality of him at at Port Rush was he could have had his maybe the worst week we've seen him hit the ball te to green and he probably would have won because of how well he putt it.
He one by four.
He was he was dominant on the on the greens, which is just you know, I don't think you're obviously putting to the most variable skill you know, one week to the next. Is It's why you don't see the top putter at the top, you know, the top the ball striking steady, it's consistent, you can rely on it week in week out, which is why he's he's there plus like the short game. But you know, I think from from my standpoint with Scotty, the dominance really showed
in his in his approach to the final round. He went out and was going to step on people's throats. Also tactically I thought it was it was brilliant. Where the one place he was getting in trouble that week was was when the wind was off his left with the driver. He's hitting three woods on those holes to just have a club that he can hold up against that wind, and and then you know, just not giving away shots. The saves on on on six or on seven or six and seven were.
Remarkable, crazy and again with I felt like he was the potter didn't. It wasn't fluky. It's not like putts were banging the back of the cup and going in. Scotty looked really comfortable on those greens, and I do think it was a glimpse of essentially not I don't want to say invoke prime Tiger, but I think it was a look at like this is about as good as golf gets in twenty twenty five. I don't think you can play on I don't think anybody else can play on that level.
Yeah, he In the next couple of years, they are going to be It's it's must see TV. I think Scotty lacks a little bit of the jois, the suaveness, the presence that the gravitational pull of a lot of superstars, But the on play dominance or the en course dominance can make up for a lot of that over the next couple of years. If he stacks a few of these. I think gang to two multiple, well, multiple major season was a big hurdle. All the greats have had multiple
major seasons and getting that second major, it's amazing. What you know, there's so few majors. What multi win seasons do to your legacy, because it's the difference between three and four is is huge. And now he's set up for the you know, potential career Grand Slam at Shinnakok. It's a golf course that if you made a golf course in the lab for Scotti Scheffler at Shinnecock Hills, Like.
This was the year Scotty went from this guy's really good. Comparisons to Tiger seem reasonable. But who knows too this is going to be a top ten player of all time. And I do feel confident that it is much more likely than not Scotty Scheffler will be a top ten player of all time.
Well, I mean, like a footnote on the year is is what what does this year look like? If he doesn't have the hand injury.
That probably wins another one.
You think he wins the Masters.
Oh, I just meant another tournament. I don't know about the Masters.
It might win one or two more tournaments, and he got off to a slow start and and was just not what we were accustomed to seeing from Scotty on a stretch of tournaments that he usually dominates. You know, the Scottsdale you know that that swing there.
Yeah, he's got he's got multiple players championships in an Olympics and like multiple memorials. It's it's crazy what his resume looks.
Like now, well that you know, there's one. You could also say this this era dominance, like you know, doctor,
this is a little bit Devil's advocate. This has been very very pro Scotty podcast here, I think, you know, but if you're you know, and part of this is, you know, like I get Sean Martin, friend of the pod, was like you you got to stop mentioning the open like at this point, like you you're looking for reasons like why something might not happen because it feels like you're going there, like you know, part of the interest
is is is what why it might not happen? You know, But Scotty's run has happened when you know, they went to these smaller field signature events in response to Live so the fields are small that he's beating. And I'm not saying, but what this does is it reduces the number of players that could just have like an out of body experience for a week. You know, they're basically
is half the size. And then you took substantial amount of stars from the tour that could, you know, when they're when they have their A game, be somebody that stands in and takes down Scotty. And I think, like, I don't listen, I don't think this is this is a factor that would prohibit Scotty from being an all timer, right, But I do think this is a factor that would say, hey, maybe he wouldn't have as many wins here.
I actually kind of disagree. My counter would be that's true. But also five years ago we didn't put all the best players in the world in signature events either, and Scotty's dominating those and when he goes to major championships, he's winning by four or five shots as well. You can throw go ahead, throw Bryson rom Nieman, throw some of those guys in signature event fields. Maybe they pick off one or two over the last couple of years,
but Scotty's still an Olympian. I think he'd still have the same number of players, championships and memorials, Like I think his resume would look just about the same. So it's a good point. It's fair. Maybe Bryson he has that upside that he could pick off a win that Scotty grabbed, but I don't think his resume looks a whole lot different without these lift guys.
My big question may be Rom.
Everyone, but he doesn't want to He doesn't even want to live.
I think he's I think there's the deterioration is the other piece of this with what's happened to so many of the big names that have gone over that's gone over there, and how they their games just really deteriorated.
And the question I guess on Ram, which maybe we don't have time to get into, but is that a function of going to live or was he not one of these like what is the state of John Ram?
He had a disappointing year this year in majors it was fine, he got in the mix of the PGA, but is John rom going to be somebody that two years from now has that staying power and he's racking up top fives in major championships right to what extent do you attribute the deterioration and performance to going to live versus John Rahm's overall quality as a golfer.
All right, well, let's let's get into we I had you pull up disappointing players. I have some disappointing players real quick. By second thing about the Open? Was Chris Godder up? Just the run he was on? What was your second thing? It's still fresh in everybody's mind.
Just it's really hard to coordinate the global golf calendar, but getting big golf tournaments in somebody's home country is extremely important, and the scenes of Rory McElroy I will never ever forget. You know, maybe when Hindeki Matsuyama is a great player, like you, make an effort to get a strong field in Japan like we Maybe when John Rahm is a great player, you have to make some
kind of effort to elevate the Spanish Open. But again, that requires a lot of coordination from different tours, from major from governing bodies. But I think there should be a concerted effort to recreate those kinds of scenes because it was something special and I think the legends of the game deserve to be celebrated that way.
I think that's a that's an interesting point. And if you if you think about the new PGA Tour CEO Brian rollapp his experience with the NFL and making a global sport. You know, you could look at if if Ludwig, you know, ascends to an elite level, how do we get one event in Sweden? Because what that's going to do is it's going to attract a fan base of of PGA Tour viewers that you might not have gotten, you know, but it's it's I think like the level of player that that presents is so rare that you
could make it an exception. I think that's that's a good idea. What let's do disappointing players, then we'll do impressive. We had. The other category I had was impressive non winners. Who is your most disappointing major championship? Season four?
I gotta go with Brooks Kopka. I think, you know, we gotta somebody who's won a bunch of major championships, who for the first time in his career, missed cut in three or four majors, did finish T. Twelve at the US Open. It was kind of a factor early, but then that wasn't kind of bombed out, and not all missed cuts are equal. Brooks missed these cuts by a lot. He missed by six shots at the Open, eight shots at the PGA finished. I believe Bogie quad
to miss the cut at the Masters. That's so cut to miss too, It's not yeah, not, it's pretty hard to miss. So at this point, Brooks is pretty far removed from any impressive performances in major championships. It's just tough to look at his body of work, some of the injuries he's been through. I don't know what his competitive career looks like. I never want to doubt Brooks Kopka, but there's a chance we're kind of done.
Well. I believe the rumors are that his contracts up with Live. What does the next year look like for Brooks?
It's a great question.
He's obviously the twenty twenty three peach. He's exempt in majors for the foreseeable future. I would imagine if he does not, if he doesn't play on Live, there will be a return to the PGA Tour. I'm I'm very curious what that will look like. And you know how they could he be the player that they build the pathway back for in terms of this is what you
you do Brooks. He's a fascinating character in the in the history of golf, just because of the dominance in majors and then the the mediocrity given his his level of talent and skill set in in regular events. We've really never seen anything like it. And I still think I still think he can pick off another one, but I think the the days of him being a consistent force or probably probably over, and I think like a lot of it goes to, you know, injuries and everything.
Like when you think back to twenty eighteen, twenty seventeen, twenty sixteen time period, he was the top of the top in terms of driving a golf ball, and I don't think he's there anymore. And this is the difference between being a top ten driver of the golf ball and a top forty driver of the golf ball. If you slip down to thirty five, that's a huge difference.
I think people don't value what being like an elite skill and how hard it is to keep yourself at that elite level, in particular with the driver, and.
How strong of a signal good driving is right, you go look at Chris goddrupstats and when he started to win and what his driving performance looked like coming into those wins. Like that's generally going to tell you the state of a player swing.
Yeah, I would agree with that. I all right, Uh mine my most disappointings Calin Morikawa. Listen, like the year started and it was is more car Kawa A part of this discussion with Rory Scottie Bryson at the top of the game is in Xander obviously, and I think Xander Xander would be it just gets a pass because of the injury. He's just getting a pass from me. You know, I'm not gonna grade this, but it this year it wasn't great though, Like never thought he was
gonna win a tournament. Calin Markala. You just expected way more from him, and uh, you know he has one in a couple of years. You look at his majors and he won the PGA with like you talk about a tournament that it was completely up for grabs on Sunday and he hit You know, I was stuck at a golf architect and it got the discussion of the sixteenth or seventeenth at at Harding Park was its driving or seventeen the reachable, the reachable part four.
I believe that's sixteen.
I think it was sixty. Yeah, it came up and it was like, oh, Morcow hit this iconic shot, you know, the part four created it. And the architect said, I think that just was like a player. He was the one player that that shot fit perfectly. Everybody was in
between driver three would and Morikawa. It was a perfect stock driver cut like perfect golf golf hole for him, and he hit it to like a couple of feet And you think about that, It's like it gives him two majors, Like how would we think about Kla Moricow if he had one major? How would we you know? And all this happened in a period of time when there really weren't many fans, and you think about it.
It's just listen, I'm like the biggest column. More I was, you know, out of no out of college, out of college. I was. I thought, Mark, how you know, Matt wolf Holind and morcowa. I was always saying, more Cow is the best of the three of them. You know, we look back now, I think it's more Cow has had the best career by far Victor Holin, you know where they go the next five years and Wolf we I
think we know where he's at. But you know that that markow Holin debate will be interesting the next five years. But for him, like you know, no wins in a couple of years, he was on like a crazy trajectory.
His Open championship record is kind of ridiculous now win, miss cut, missed cut, T sixteen, missed cut, it's kind of crazy.
I uh yeah, I I think he's a really good player, but he's not a superstar, if that makes sense.
And I will say that's one of my biggest scenes I will always remember from this year is watching him struggle on the range at Royal Port Rush after his first round. It is one of the biggest struggle sessions I've ever seen out of a professional golfer. And Colin looks like he's not in a good spot right now. So I'm with you. I think I would take Colins next five years over Collins, but we'll.
See what who else do you have on your disappointing.
Less similar within a similar vein actually to Colin Justin Thomas finished T thirty six, missed cut, miss cut t thirty four. He has one top thirty finish in a major championship in his last fourteen major starts, one top thirty finish. And I think similarly to what you're saying with Colin about the two majors, and how would we think about him differently if he didn't grab Harding Park, How would we think about Thomas differently if he didn't win that at Southern Hills. That was kind of a
fluky golf tournament. He was way out of the tournament, comes roaring back like makes a bunch of birdies, Meadow has to melt down for Justin to win. And other than that, since then, it's been really stinky in major championships. So we've been talking about Justin Thomas return to form this year. Nothing to show for it in majors. He won at the RBC Heritage, which I don't know how much stock you put in that. I don't have a lot of confidence in Justin. At beth Page on a
golf course, you got to keep driver in play. So sort of a successful year, I guess there's certain lens you could look at it being a successful year. But I think in terms of the things you and I would value most major championship performance very far from a successful year.
Yeah. You look at JT's best performances too, and they aren't at golf courses where you would say it's the most demand. T de Green set up. He has the second place finish at the Amex, which is one of the least demanding setups. T six at Phoenix. He always plays well at Phoenix. That's a this golf course that's like a notorious horses for courses. T ten at riv or T nine at riv good good finish there to Oh yeah, Tory, it was Tory good point. I forgot
about that. And then and then you had Valspar second place finish at Valspar fairly fairly demand, but like it's like middle of the road. But if you look at where, like you know, golf courses that really demand a lot from you T to Green, You've got you know, Pebble Beach pro Am T forty eight and that's not, you know, super demanding, but that is a major championship golf course
Pebble Beach. Obviously, you you need to be in the right positions the century where you have a lot of uneven lies and hitting to targets that are up and down. He finishes T twenty six at the Players, it's a T thirty three, Arnold Palmer T thirty six, the Masters,
T thirty six. We go to you know, Philly Cricket Club was a little bit of a spray it fest and he finishes second there, like where it was okay to miss Fairways Memorial, a golf course in his peak, like when he was playing his best golf was great for him. This year is the T thirty one. You know, it's to me feels like when we get the more demanding setups, that's where he's really struggling. And it's a a lot to do with the driver.
Yeah, I was gonna say he can't. He can't really hit driver. I think that's the common denominator and all those right, you can hit a lot of less than driver. At the RBC Heritage where he won, somebody's p die golf courses, just in general, the way his designs have stood up, MX, Sawgrass, RBC Heritage, Hilton Head can kind of get away with hitting some irons off teas.
Yeah, all right, an effort to move a little bit quicker here. I've got Joaquin Neeman on my list. I don't know if you had him.
I didn't only because I don't. I don't expect a ton from him in majors at this point. But it's a good pick.
He's he won five times on live. He's been dominant. But you know, and obviously I think some of this is just expectations, but some of it's a game, and it's an indictment on live. You know, he's won five times on this tour. He's earned more money playing on live than Sky Scheffler's earned, you know, on the PGA. On the PGA Tour, you know, he's won five times.
I don't want to like the wind is a win, you know, but you look at some of the people he's being, you know, one of the in Virginia, he beats uh Lahiri and McDowell, Graham McDowell was doing broadcasting at the Open last week. He beat Bubba Watson, you know, his runner up, and uh, you know, obviously he had some where. You know, he beat Brooks at in Singapore,
and he beat Bryson in Mexico City. But then you go to the majors and it's just like, okay, so this guy's just dominating, dominating live and it's T twenty ninety eight miscut, miss cut, and I just I don't know. I it's just it's just such a juxtaposition in terms of what he's doing on the live tour and how and the performances in majors. And my last one was was Patrick Cantley three miss cuts the Sheerherd Majors. You know, he he was a top ten player for a very
long time. And I just wonder if we're if we're in the era now of Patrick Cantley being the top thirty, top forty guy and that's just where we're at.
That would be hard to believe. I just view him as two different golfers, Like he's a PGA Tour. He's a top eight player on the PGA Tour, and when we get to majors, he's kind of a pumpkin.
But he has been a top eight player this year on tour.
No, I think he'll probably get back there, but yeah, we'll see.
My other playoffs point playoffs is Pete Pete can't lay time. Yeah, good caves to Valley.
Brings out his best. Uh. Yeah. My other disappoint was Tommy Fleetwood. I think you can make a case that Tommy Fleetwood's a top five to six player in the world right now, still has absolutely nothing to show for it, and having one of the best years of his career, still hasn't won. Choked away the Travelers there his major performance is T twenty one, T forty one, MC, and T sixteen. This is Tommy Fleetwood's first year without a top five in a major since twenty twenty one. All
the way through the bag, Tommy Fleetwood's good. He flushes it like this is a player who should be in the mix at a major. I see you laughing. You're probably coming back with Tommy Fleetwood's just overrated, But this should be a golfer who's a top considered a top ten player, and I think it's kind of hard to consider him that right now.
I was not going to come back with that. I was going to come back with I think that Travelers, Yeah, is like lasting scar tissue.
I think you're right.
That is, when you see somebody of his talent that hasn't gotten it done on the PGA Tour, there's a level of doubt that has to be rattling around in that brain. And what happened at Travelers the way it happened has to have accentuated that doubt, and I just think it's going to be a minute until he gets back. I think that's that's just something that's going to shake him a lot.
I'm worried if he'll ever get fully back from it. To be completely honest, that was bad.
It was hard. It was hard to watch.
It's thirty four like we'll see. But this year there should have been a little bit more hope he plays well at the Ryder Cup, because otherwise this is a sort of lost year when he was striping it.
Most impressive non winners.
Do me just list him off or go through them all? I don't know how uh I sump.
We both have Harris English on or less.
Have Harris English only player besides Scott. He'd have two top twos in a major this year, also has a win to his name earlier in the year at Tory Pines. I think of all the Americans we mentioned Ben Griffin potentially being a good Ryder Copper, I'd put Harris English very high on my list.
He should play a lot too.
Yeah, Like, how many Americans would you feel better about? I would feel way better about Harris English than Justin Thomas right now. Not even close.
Yeah, I mean, listen, he's he's been he's been awesome this year. And it's not just that he's been you know, not just the T twos and in the win he's been good. He's been consistently good all year, you know. And uh, I just I Harris English and yeah, obviously, like he overcame like a pretty gnarly injury and I think a lot of people thought that he was going to be involved with one one Ryder Cup and never back.
And he's had like he's a sneaky had a really really good career on the PGA Tour, like a sneaky, like pretty pretty stout career. I mean, he's got six wins, he's got a lot of like he's been just he's been relevant for a long time.
Feels almost a little Billy Horsell like like kind of that level of relevant for ten to twelve years, some legitimately big wins and a lot of consistent ball striking.
Yeah.
Yeah, So another I had a shout out Matt Fitzpatrick. I think his recent resurgence. This was the sixth player in the world a couple of years ago major Champion won the US Opening.
I think he predicted he got to he would get to number one. This feels like redemption for you coming.
I don't know if I said number one, definitely said top five. I might have said number one. Matt Fitzpatrick was on an awesome trajectory and I kind of lost some faith over the last couple of years when the ball striking really plummeted. He's had some injuries, but to see him with two top tens in a major this year, legitimate chance of winning the Open Championship, a player who's been down in the dumps a little bit the last couple of years. Now I think, I mean he's the
favorite this week at the Window. Not that that's the biggest tournament in the world, but met Fitzpatrick is close to being fully back now up to ranked fortieth in the world. Pretty exciting next twelve months for him if you can continue on this trajectory.
I mean, he plummeted head bad. And this is one of the things that makes golf great is like you see, guys that it golf is fleeting, having it, having the formula, having the belief and having the right feel and your
golf swing is a fleeting aspect. And it's I always think that that players get get more compelling when they go through something, and Matt Fitzpatrick to me, is a more interesting golfer for the you know, human interest piece because we saw him go from you know, top of top of his career in short in fairly short order to the to near the bottom of his career with like where he got to you know, he was he was baddy, I mean he went. It's hard to go from six in the world to eighty fifth in the
world like he was. And you know, just now coming back, I just I love when players have kind of these these ups and downs. I think that you know, Justin Thomas has gotten way more compelling and I think like when he talks there's a lot more substance to it now that he's he's gone through some struggles in his career and just come back, Like, I think he's just more you know that It's it's great to see when these guys come back from from struggles.
And all due respect to Matt Fitzpatrick, He's not Dustin Johnson. He doesn't have the physical talent that you know, he can just step back up out there. And like when you see Matt Fitzpatrick in person, it's it's kind of shocking that that's a top ten player in the world
or top ten caliber player in the world. So I just think that's probably with a player like that a little bit more likely that when their game dips, they have a harder time recovering and they don't have the physical talent that some of these top guys in the world have. So to see him do it, that's that's just sheer hard work.
I've got Aryl Hatton all right. I think, like a couple of years ago, we wondered, is TERRYL. Hatton just like a PGA Tour player who or DP World Tour player who plays well. This year, I thought he had two pretty good chances to win majors. Obviously he was very in the mix of the US Open, could have won that. And then I think at the Open Championship through thirty six holes, he was one of the guys that you circled as like, this guy could win this tournament.
A couple of things didn't go, you know, he didn't have the weekend he was looking at. But I think, like you know, Terrell Hatten's turned himself into from a guy that turned into pumpkin at major championships to a guy that is on your your kind of first page of favorites at every type of major venue. And he's done this. This is one of the few players that I think since going to Live has gotten better.
He was in the mix of pinehers last year too.
Yeah, that's I just think he's been He's turned himself into a really nice major championship player and it was in you know, this is one of the hard things with the majors is the sample size. It's so small, but early in his career it just wasn't happening, and that can be some of it sometimes, Like I think, like we make so much of some of this stuff, but like sometimes you know, having everything clicking for an
individual week is really hard to do with golf. It's really hard to get everything work and the right like the way you need it to work to contend deep into these majors for certain weeks. But Terrell hadden't I
think found something in the majors. And then my last one is Ben Griffin, who we talked about earlier to top tens kind of out of nowhere, and I think, like from my standpoint, like what makes me most high on Ben Griffin is the fact that he has played well at the most some of the most demanding setups in golf.
My last one is Bobby McIntyre. Two top tens this year and a real chance of winning the US Openly. I think he might be at the top of my list of this golfer could win a major and it would surprise people who don't pay that much attention to golf. But he's one of the most likely legit great player. Now he's won twice. You won the Scottish last year and the Canadian. Now he's taken his game to enough level with major championship performance. Really good driver of the
golf ball. Twenty eight years old. I think that's somebody who next year is pretty primed to make a run in a major championship late. So really impressive step forward for Bobby this year.
Another person in the vein of Harris English where you thought he might be a one and done Ryer cupper, and now it looks like he might be a fixture on the team for years to come.
Could be one of their best players this year.
All right, Joseph An any lasting major thoughts that you need to get out, get off I.
Don't think so. I mean, it's pretty incredible to reflect on this year that Rory McElroy completed the career Grand Slam, Scotty Scheffler, potential all time great, won twice. Like, it was a pretty incredible major championship season. So I think just appreciation for getting to watch, especially Scotty in what feels like his prime and that it doesn't feel like it's going anywhere soon. I think, what would you put the odds that he wins a major at least one next year. I think it's very.
High, probably even money at least. Yeah, I uh, it's it's you know, next year sets up great for him. You know. Birkdale is is allouded for its fairness. Shinnecock Hills, I think is like pretty similar to port Rush, uh with with how you know the targets and the rejecting nature of a lot of the greens and just the you know, the conditions that you're going to play in
the topography. And then obviously Augusta National is great and I think, I mean, you know, we could talk them blue in the face, like what are the best best teeter green player in the world and where it doesn't work for you. You know, yeah, I I I think going into next year. You know the Scottie, like, does he The list of players that have won BOLTI Majors in multiple seasons is very small. I think it's like Tiger Jack and Ben Hogan.
That's a cool thing to keep an eye on. You know.
If he went to multiple and he's at six, I mean, then it's like giddy up, you know, where are we going? I think he turns thirty on at the US Open next year, maybe Sunday. I think Sunday. I saw that the Sunday of the US Open next year is his thirtieth birthday and he could complete the Grand Slam that day.
Oh early storyline. That is some catnep for next year, right there.
Birthday career, Grand Slam, birthday, boy thirty birthday, third big birthday too, you know, Landmark Birthday. So all right, Joseph, thank you for all your on the ground coverage. You went to two majors this year, and everybody can read your stuff. On Wednesday, I think you've got you got a Q and a coming soon, got a Q.
And a coming with a golfer who's involved in a big scene at last year's Windham Championship. So excited about that.
Is that going up today or Thursday morning? Yeah, Thursday morning, so when most people will be listening to that, it will be available. Thank you and we'll talk soon.
Thanks for having.
Andy, Thank you for listening to another edition of Friday Golf Podcast. Big thanks to PJ. Clark for editing and producing this podcast, and we will be back next week