I miss a 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 Friday egg, the dreaded Frida egg, Frida egg, fridagg brid egg Lie, I'm about ready to run off with the hump course.
Welcome back to another Friday Golf podcast. I am your host, Andy Johnson. Uh, we are done with major season. And what a conclusion the Open Championship, the one hundred and fifty third Open Championship at.
Royal Port Rush.
Scottie Scheffler with an absolutely dominating performance, just ran circles around the field. He wins by four shots. He gets to seventeen under, beats Harris English by four, Chris got her up by five, and a host of players at minus eleven by six shots.
You know, Sunday was an interesting day. He obviously had.
A big lead going in and kind of put his foot on the gas right away and and made it really tough for people to come back. I think we're going to talk with Trevor Immelman here, the great Trevor m one for a period about Scotty's dominance. But now he's on He's got his fourth major championship, obviously gets his second of the year, and is ascending the levels of greatness, ascending up the list of the greatest golfers ever,
which you know, it's pretty crazy to think about. This is this run, This is kind of three year run that he's on. How long can it go? The level of play is as high as we've seen since Tiger Woods, and where he gets to is kind of going to be the pervasive question in golf. We obviously have a long time until the next major championship, but he will be going next year for the career Grand Slam at the US Open at Shinnecock, a venue that will surely
set up quite well for his game. He has transformed himself from a bad putter on the PJ Tour by PGA Tour standards to a very good, bordering on elite putter. The putter was really exceptional at Royal Port Rush. It was it was what pushed him to just separating and lifting from the field with his usual exceptional tea degree in game. So Scotti Scheffler is your champion golfer. The year he secures his second major of the year, he's going to be kind of I would I would say
most likely the player of the year. And then when you think about who the best player was in twenty twenty five, I think, you know, when you look at the Majors in totality, we'll we'll probably do a podcast in the near future, you know, kind of talking debriefing
the entire major seasons. That memory, the lasting memory will be Rory at the Masters, but a story kind of one bee will be Scottie Scheffler's ascension up, you know, going from two to four majors, this big time and what it sets up for for next year is fascinating. So we'll get into Scottie in great detail with Trevor here. But thank you guys for the major year coming joining us with for these these recap shows with Trevor. They've been really fun to do and and well we got
our last one here. Maybe we'll have them come back for something else, maybe Ryder, a couple we'll see. But today's podcast and this week this Open Championship coverage is brought to you by Mercedes Benz. Mercedes Benz has been partnered with the Open since twenty eleven, and their partnership is rooted and shared values, commitment to the excellence, and bridging tradition with modern luxury. I think that modern luxury is so apparent with their automobiles. These are elegant machines.
They catch your eye when you're driving down the street. One of the things as a dad that always catches my eye are Mercedes Benz SUVs. They are the perfect companion for golf enthusiasts seeking performance, style and space on the way to the course. I enviously often look at the GLS. It is their kind of flagship, their biggest suv, and it stands out as the pinnacle of the lineup, the suv lineup. Why I always look at the GLS. It's a little bit bigger than my car. I look
at it. I'm like, man, all that space for if I was, you know, going with three buddies to a golf course would be really nice.
All that space.
As a dad of a kid, you know you're going going to various things. You're hitting the road, maybe a weekend away. That space is super nice to have, and you know it comes with that Mercedes Benz performance. The GLS combines power and finesse. It's backed by twelve drivers cy systems nimble handling and cutting edge AI technology as well as their superb craftsmanship. The GLS anticipates your needs, ensuring every journey is as strategic as a championship winning
game plan. I think that's one of the things that stands out about Scottie Scheffler is his game plan. So if you are interested in learning more about the GLS or Mercedes Benz full lineup of SUVs or Sedant, go to MBUSA dot com. Big thanks to Mercedes Benz for coming in and uh and supporting us this week. It's been a big part of the coverage that we've been able to do. So go visit MBUSA dot com and thanks to Mercedes Benz.
Let's get to Trevor a moment.
You guys must have had some some weird hours this week recording the pods and stuff. Take us through that a little bit.
Yeah, I mean that you talked about that at the start of this. You want to know, you want to know what time we're recording podcasts. That's how you want to start this podcast.
I'll find it interesting number one, but I also find it really cool and admirable because you know, there's a lot of fans out there that I want to listen to the fried egg and the shotgun start and don't always realize what it takes to get that in the inbox.
Well, you know, we thank you.
Everybody should be you know, saluting us, because you know, it's really there's not many people. There's not many people that could do this work, right. I'm obviously joking it's like a frontline healthcare worker, you know.
No, but I'm not comparing it to that, Andy, But still, you've got team members all over, You've got guys on site, and then you're in California and PJS in New York. I mean there's some moving pots to that. And as a hardcore golf band, I'm appreciative of it.
Well, you know, it's it's early mornings. I actually have grown to love. People think I'm crazy. I've grown to like love covering the Open on the West Coast. I get up at two to three am and then I just I just lock in, and I think one of the great things about it versus other major championship weeks, like they become others all consumer.
Weeks, like you're you're basically just you.
Know, if you're at home or if you're on site, all you're doing is covering a major And I think the thing that I like about the Open in California is that when like two or three pm rolls around, I've worked a full day and then I get I get to like unplug and hang out with my family, do stuff around the house, and have like some normalcy in life, and then I go to bed really early. Usually when my my my five year old goes to bed, I basically just go to bed at the same time
and then wake up and do it again. But you know, it's funny. I was thinking about this a little bit in the context of the week. My wife and my wife and kid left last night or yesterday, and you know it's funny. I'm you know, just by myself at my house and uh and I found myself.
All I was doing was thinking about golf.
Welcome to my world.
And I think about like what Scott I think, like a lot of things came out with what Scotti said this week about like you know how he he he said, you know, I'm not doing this for other people.
You know, I have this balance.
I you know, I think like one of the things about golf at a high level and for anybody that becomes like a golf sicko is it's all consuming, and I think that's actually for a pro golfer. One of the most challenging aspects of pro golf is the consumption that it takes up in your mind and the I think it's challenging, you know, if you if you flip the question and ask people ask you know a bunch of pro golfers was one of the more challenging aspects
of their job. Besides hitting shots under pressure and playing good golf, it's turning turning it off at night because it it does consume you. And I think like it's one of the things about you know, the commentary that Scotti made about the game that I think it got taken multiple ways, and I think you can interpret it a lot of different ways, but the the reality of.
I think it's a way.
For him to to kind of compartmentalize and get away from the sport a little bit. When this sport like the hardest ask. One of the hardest aspects of it is just what it can do to your mind when you're not playing it.
Yeah.
Well, I was seriously impressed with with the comments that he gave those those nuggets that he threw out their pre tournament and it's so interesting on social media as as a wild play, and it's interesting to see how, you know, what side of the equation people fall on. But I thought there was so much nuanced, so many layers to that statement that he gave that that I thought was so cool for a minute for him to take us inside his mind and the way he goes
about things, whether you like it or not. I mean, this guy is he's already great. He's already Hall of Fame. He's already you know. My son asked me last night, I think he's now top ten to ever live, and I was like, I mean, it's we're probably not quite there yet. I would say he's he's he's edging in on top twenty, but at this clip, he's going to be top ten to ever live at some point unless
something crazy happens. And for him to pull back the curtain for a few minutes and just take us inside how he goes about things, I thought was so special. And to understand the different layers of how he goes to think about, how he goes about thinking about his job and his game, and how he wants to improve, how he manages his life, how he manages the pressure and stress of being in the spotlight every time he
pitches up at a golf tournament. I rarely appreciated that as a fan, and I appreciated that as someone who you know, has touched some sort of popularity at different points in my life and figuring out how to deal with that. You know, I'm not quite sure that human beings are perfectly capable of handling such intense fame. I mean, you look at the megastar throughout the years. Gosh, it's
tough to deal with that mentally. And you know, basically, to me, if you had to boil it down to one statement or one point on those few minutes that he gave us, the thing that I took from it was he doesn't his identity is not wrapped up in his golf score. And I can't even begin to tell you how incredibly healthy that is, because I've lived on the other side of that, where you do tie your identity to your golf score, and it's no way to live,
I could promise you. Because this sport is so demanding, so hard. You're isolated and alone in so many different ways that when you start to run down that rabbit hole of tying your identity to your score and where you finished. It's not a fun way to live. And this guy has gone in the complete opposite direction. And I think that's one of the main reasons why he
is just completely unshakable. I mean, this is a dude that was stretching in a jail cell in case he had an opportunity to tear it up in the third round of the PGA or the second round of the PGA, whichever round it was. My memory fails me now, but he is just becoming a flat out assassin. A flat out assassin. He's now four for four converting fifty four hole leads in major championships. He's won his last ten tournaments when he's had a fifty four hole lead. Goy, man,
this dude. I actually put this tweet out yesterday. You know, wherever you sit on the scale of understanding those comments he made, at the very least, maybe we all should take some time trying to understand what he said, because it's it's absolutely working he and I'm not just isolating the success and the great golf, but I'm isolating the moments after he won with his family the way he's handling is his son, the relationship he seems to have
with his parents, the time he takes with the volunteers, taking photos with them and shaking their hand and having a laugh with with all of them, the relationship he has with with Ted, all those kinds of things. It he looks like he's he's so peaceful. It's like that. It's like that book in that movie, The Peaceful Warrior. I don't know if you ever watched watch that or read that book, but I have not. We'll put that on your list. But this dude is he's figured it out, man.
I think in a way.
I was just talking with some friends about this this weekend is and this was like a different conversation. But one of the things he's done. When I started working in the job force, my first job out of college, I worked in an office and I only had access to my work email through a work computer, and at that time, I didn't have a work laptop. So every day I would go, i would leave the office and it was off.
Like nobody could get a hold of me.
Except when I'm in was in the office, And I think about, like how wonderful that was to just like you know, this is part of society, right where like you're constant connectivity and you're never off. And I used to like I had a couple of year window of my life, like very short period of my life where I just left everything at work. And it feels like that's kind of what he's trying to do with his golf game and with his his faith and his family.
You know, that's kind of like, you know what he said, you know, golf comes third after family and faith, and you know, whether you you know, agree how you feel about the commentary. I think there's just such a power when you when you play golf from a place of it not as you said, your life and how you feel is not wrapped up in golf is best played when you when you.
Aren't like.
So tied to the outcome and when it falls down the rank in your in your you know, importance. I've always thought like as somebody who's just played, you know, competitively, as a as like an amateur, like post like kids, golf got easier for me because it's like I got like all these other problems like this is like me
hitting an approach shot left. It's like the least of the things that is bothering me, like you know, and it's like what he's doing by lowering it down his his life priority list is he's getting a mental edge over a lot of competitors that that haven't been able to compartmentalize the sport.
Yeah, you know, to me, he you mentioned those three things. You know, he's mentioned those things. You know, family, family and friends is one group. Let's call it social life. His faith is one bucket, and then his business and get the game of golf is the third bucket. And I think way he's really struck gold in all of that is whichever bucket he's playing in of those three, he's one hundred percent present, And that I think, I
think that's part of the secret. You know, I'm not ashamed to say I've been so consumed by the game at times, particularly when I was playing, that there would be times where you know, I was with my family, but I was still thinking about the game. I was still thinking about how I'm not driving the ball well enough, Am I using the right putter? Should I switch the
shaft in my irons? You know, stuff like that. But he he seems so secure in himself that when he's playing in whichever bucket he is there one hundred percent and he's giving it one hundred percent focus, and then when he moves into the next bucket, he's able to leave the previous side alone for a little while and just be one hundred percent invested in that current space.
It's awesome. And to be twenty nine years old and have it figured out that will already is uh, you got to tip your captain, you really, you really really do.
Yeah.
I think, like, you know, one of the other aspects of it is the consistency of his team, the like the steadiness of it, like same instructor his entire life.
I think there's uh, you.
Know, obviously Ted Scott coming coming on was a big part of it is you know, his parents are around all the time and you know wife, wife, and now kid Ted Scott coming in.
But then you think also about like.
The lack of ego in the team where Randy Smith's been his coach for his whole life, and it's it's like this putting is an issue. Let's bring in another set of eyes and we're going to work with Phil Kenyon and we're going to work there and there it's seemingly you know, no issue. I imagine that sometimes can cause problems when you have multiple voices in your in your you know, coaching room.
Per se.
But you know you can hear him talk about Teddy and and like the preparedness of both of them, like where you know, I think he said something yesterday where it was effectively like listen, I know Ted's done as much, if not more work than me preparing for this tournament. And you know, the consistency of messaging, the pro the long term approach. It's just the totality of how he's gotten to this peak place, at the absolute peak point
of his athleticism and mindset in his career. Right he is like in the middle of his prime, playing as good of golf as we've seen since Tiger Woods.
Yeah, I totally agree with you, and it sort of mirrors everything I was just talking about about those three buckets. You know, he's got these people, He's got Randy, Phil, ted he's got his agent Blake, and once again, just like his family life, it's wholesome. There doesn't seem to be any tension there. None of those guys seem to bring massive egos to the table. That's helpful. All of them understand that Sheeffler is the star. They're not trying
to be the star. You know, many times over the years you've seen caddies or coaches, or psychologists or physios to try to take some of the limelight when a player has success that doesn't happen here. They understand, this guy is the boss, this guy is the stud and they just take care of what their job is. And you know, I can't give Randy enough credit kudo's respect.
You know, the job that he's done with Scotty since he was a young boy, shepherding him through growth, getting stronger, changing equipment through all those phases, and still maintaining this human being's incredible natural gift, God given gift, and aligning that with the supreme work ethic and great mental ability that Scotty has. Randy has done an incredible job with that. And they made a great choice when they bought Phil Kenyan into the team. And Phil is somebody that I
rarely trust. I've worked with him in the past. He has amazing knowledge of putting, and he has the ability to give you the answers to the questions that you have. And the other thing I love about what the two of them have done if we just zoom in on the putting for a second, because the guy just was second in strokes gained and putting at a major championship.
I was thinking about this as like, if he had his C game from tee to green, he still would have contended because of the way he putted.
Absolutely right.
I mean this the way that two.
Years ago you would have been like this is there's no way he would ever contender unless he brings his B plus a game to a game.
The way he puts the ball.
I mean, this is for sure become a weapon now and in twenty twenty five, it's undeniable that you know he's actually become one of the better putters, especially when you throw in the intangible. You know, data can take you so far. It doesn't always take you all the way from an understanding standpoint, but especially when you start to bake in the fact that he's always putting under
pressure because he's always in the hunt. You know, you can kind of fake nice putting when you're hiding in the middle of the field or you're hiding in twentieth position at times and you don't have that real intense pressure where you know you're in the lead and all the focus is on you, and your whole body is shaking while you're hitting these putts. And you know, it's extremely impressive how well he's putted, being in contention pretty much every round that he plays, and the way they've
gone about this with Phil, the patience they've shown. You know, a lot of people like to say it was Rory's idea when he went to the mallet. Actually, when you speak to Scotty and his team and you speak to the guys a tailor made, he had been playing around with that mallet for quite some time, but they just couldn't quite because he was used to putting with a blade.
He was used to the cig being really far forward, like on the top line, and as soon as you start to go to a mallet, that cig starts to slide back a little bit and the putter behaves differently as it should. It's a totally different shape and look.
And so they had been playing around with it for a little while, but the patients they showed between going to the mallet bleeding in the claw grip to a point now to where he's just so comfortable with all of it and the stroke and the tempo and the alignment. I mean, he's getting to a point now to where
it kind of looks automatic when he puts. It doesn't look like he's getting over these putts and rarely trying hard, rarely thinking a lot, like just being burdened by thought of, you know, let me get the shaft up, let me make my shirt groups doing this and make sure the potter HiT's not going back inside what have you. He just seems to be into the pott, into the line, into the feel of it, and he's just rolling the ball beautifully. So once again there you know, that combination,
that part of the team. They've done such a brilliant job.
Yeah, I you know, I hadn't thought about the idea of like the putting in the context of when he's putting every week, because it's so true. You see, it's so often like you see these great you have these great putting performances, or you have these great putters, and it comes Sunday and it just like they stop falling, you know, or it's you know, the putter goes cold and and it's totally a different feel, totally different mindset.
I think, like just from like the eye test, right, I it's he's a guy that when he gets inside of fifteen feet now you kind of expect it to go in or it's going to scare the hole. And that that to me is like the it's like you always think about like different putters, is like, am I am?
I scared?
It's going in, like from almost anywhere. And I think that's like that ten to twenty foot er. I feel like he makes a couple of them around And obviously he gives himself so many looks.
That's the other thing. But you know his ability to.
People talk about his strategy a lot. Oh, he's like so smart. Look at the targets he hits.
He plays too. I think what goes under the radar with his strategy and this is.
I think it's showing in his putting now, which didn't before, probably because of confidence you know, in there, but his commitment to targets I think doesn't get talked about maybe enough.
When you watch.
It's like, yeah, I know that I should play there's this backpin on this narrow green, and I should play ten ten feet left of this pin that's tucked on the right side. I know I should play there. But it to me, what is fascinating. Is it feels like he is one hunder committed because so many people pick a target and then the next challenge you pick the right target becomes can I commit to hitting it to that target and not subconsciously knowing that I can bail
out twenty five feet short left of this target? And that's like, you know, really like the safe place of miss.
Like what what.
Boggles my mind when I when I really think about it, is that, like how often he is able to not only pick the right target, but then one hundred percent commit to these extraordinarily difficult shots that he is hitting to the right target when there's like a very small margin of error right, And I think this is where putting, you know, so much of putting becomes Okay, I'm set up right, I've picked my line, and now I'm committing to it and not having this you know, golfers just
know where they can bail out and where they they can play away and avoid risk. And with his show, but like he hits to these targets that are just in every time it's pin high. It's just unbelievable to me.
Yeah, a couple things that you know, while we talk about the putting, and earlier you mentioned he seems to be making you know, two to three twenty thirty foot is around at least in twenty twenty five, I saw the stat he was fifty nine or sixty three from ten feeting in this week. You know, you get a guy that hits the ball that accurately with that amount of control, and then he's only missed four putts from ten feeting in the whole week. There's just no way
you're going to get anywhere near him. I mean, he's going to blow the field away every single time that happens. And to me, what I'm really starting to see, and I've seen this from McElroy in the last maybe eighteen months or so as well, when you start to see a player that's really good at something. So both of those guys are really great ball strikers, and both of them,
ironically at times have not been great putters. And you see the differences between how they go about putting and how they go about the long game, which is their
ultimate strength. And in both those cases, with Macroy and Scheffler, you're starting to see now a similar routine, a similar timing standpoint, a similar clarity of thought, when they put as they do when they hit the ball, and so all of a sudden, those things are starting to meld together beautifully, and they're looking so comfortable on the greens.
And you know, that's a tough spot for any of their competitors to have to deal with, because the both of them have turned what was their weakness into a strength. And when you talk about the commitment of the target picking and the strategy and that kind of stuff, you know, I've been really, really lucky throughout my career to spend quite a bit of time with Jack and with Tiger. And the one thing that those too greats and legends always talk about when you talk to them about the
game of golf is discipline. And Scotty shows that discipline the same way that those two guys did, an uncanny ability to know when to play smart or safe, but also when it's time to put your foot on the gas and show how much better you are than the rest of the field. And that's a beautiful thing to me. And that's why I can see him slowly but surely. I know it's early. I know life happens, I know
injuries happen. I know that better than anybody, I see him slowly but surely starting to edge his way to their level. I'm talking about Tiger and Jack, and the thing that really jumped out to me a perfect example of what we're talking about. Two holes two, part three. So it's six right where they play back away from the ocean on Saturday, a beautiful, beautiful little path three there with the green that has like this finger in
the back right. And on Saturday, all the leaders were hitting a really nice shot to thirty eight or forty feet short where the fat part of the green is because it's got these fall offs on both sides, and you're really just trying to get it up on the deck. And if you get out there with a par you're doing good. You're perfectly happy. You've got seven, which is a reachable par five, and you've just had vibes. It's
a drivable part four. And Shepler stands up and he's got the lead and he HiT's like an off pace ten yard fade into this back finger and you're just thinking, gosh, like no one else is really he either got that shot or has the guts in that moment to take on that shot because of the risk involved. But it was a moment to where he was like, yeah, I got the shot, and I have no problem hitting it
right here. And it just made me think back to some of the things that Jack has said to me when when I spent time with him, was he would never take on a shot unless he felt like he could pull it off eight out of ten times. But if he did feel like he could pull it off eight out of ten times, he was going to go for it, and he was going to trust his ability
and the work that he had put in. And that was a great moment there where where I just sat back in my chair at home and I was like, Gali, this guy is he's got something that the others don't have. And the other spot was on the other nine on sixteen, which is an extremely demanding Part three.
The way you played that hole, oh week, go, it's silly.
He played that hole under par. You know, it's a two three four one. You see some guys hitting hitting hybrids and lumber and seven woods in there, and he's hit it inside of twenty feet every single day.
I mean, he effectively picked up five shots on the field on that hole.
Yeah, all week, And I just I I think something that you've seen.
I saw a graft that was going around from day to golf yesterday where it's just basically like at Major's, Scottie just elevates to a different level and it's like the thing about this whole situation, and this was so similar with Tiger. The harder of the golf course is or the heart of the shot, and the sixteenth was an encapsulation of this. That's the hardest shot on that golf course.
Is the sixteenth hole.
Yeah, the sixteenth t shot, the sixth the whole location on sixth that you talk about another like ten out of ten shot. Now, I will just put a caveat both. Those are like perfect stock go to Scottie shots. They're fades like but extraordinarily high difficulty shots.
And those those are.
Just the moments he's going to separate more than any other way.
Yep.
It's why actually, like the Craig Ranch win, that he blew out the field on a golf course that's like super unpenal might be his most impressive victory of the year because it was a golf course where he doesn't just like lift and separate. It's why Memorial seemingly every year he plays it, he's going to be in the
mix because it's extremely demanding golf course. The more demanding that you the questions that are being asked the just the more he's going to separate because he is at such as I mean, it's just like the level of play is out of this world with irons.
The iron play is just it's astounding.
You know, well you you, you know, while we're on the comparison and we're talking about Rory at the same time, when you think about Rory's game, you know, where does he rarely step up and separate himself. It's off the tee and it's with long iron, so it's basically from two hundred yards out to three forty or whatever. He hits his driver right. What did he do on the weekend? At sixteen? He missed the green to the right both times. And this is either the best of the second best
long iron player in the game. So just start to consider how much Scotty separated himself from Rory just at sixteen where he hits it inside of twenty feet both times, and Rory missed the green to the right. Two brilliant up and downs. But still when you miss the green to the right there. I mean, it's luck of the drawer. What's it a lie? You're going to get? How far
down the bank that ball is going to roll? And Scotty's just flying these hot cuts in there, you know, landing the ball within a couple of yards of where he's picturing it. Ah, it's fun to watch, man, It's so much fun to watch. And the fact that he's just twenty nine and you know, hopefully we we got another decade of watching him. It's it's gonna be a real fun ride.
The Yeah, I there's a lot there.
I think, like we talked about after the Masters, I think what's interesting about the two of them and I hope, like you know, we've had some great major duels over the last few years, you know, Bryson and Rory at Pinehurst, you know Phil and and Stenson, Brooks and Phil at at Kiwa. Like I think one of the hopes would be for you know, I think Rory probably had his
big game. I think he's like rounding into form into like like where if he had had a month more of playing at this level, you might have seen that duel happen.
But like what I.
Noted, what you note, like what was unmistakable about this event. When you watch Rory, who who had his probably be game, he would have been contending if Scotty's not there right, would have really been contending late on a Sunday. But like what you saw was just the looks that Rory was consistently having at Port Rush were ten feet further away than the looks that Scotty consistently got, you know, and and you know that that's the iron plays just
at this incredible level. I think after the Masters we talked about like the shot on the shot on fifteen that Rory hit at the Masters is probably a shot that only he could hit because of his his his natural propensity to draw a golf ball, and that was a shot Scotty had a similar shot, couldn't hit it on Sunday at the Masters. But likewise, that shot on sixteen just it is one of the hardest shots in golf.
But it's also that that.
Shape is a perfect fade yeah shape, And that's a shot where you know, because his stock shot and this is like just one of those nerdy things about golf. What he sees is that shot and it makes it a little bit more comfortable. But what both of them can do. And it's like these two have separated themselves very extensively in the owgr I mean the distance between Rory and Xander, the distance between Scotty and Rory is huge. The distance between Rory and Xander is now huge. But Xander,
you could throw in this bucket too. These three guys, they hit draws and fades with approach shots all the time. M hm, Paul McGinley on Live from Mask Scotty, you know, are you Are you hitting shots both ways like all the time. It just depends, you know, off the t I don't think Scotty really moves the ball both ways.
I think that's probably like the one thing is that wind off the left gave him trouble all week, and he went on Sunday, you know, talk about adjustments, went to three wood so he could turn it a little bit more on.
Those you'll draw the three wood.
Yeah, so on those holes with that off the left, he seemed to hit threewood a lot yesterday. But with Scotty he said, yeah, I'm I'm Dick. The shot shape is dictated by the situation. I'm comfortable hitting both shapes. Rory comfortable hitting both shapes. Xander comfortable hitting both shapes.
Where has Bryson gotten in trouble this year is when the draw is just drawing too much because that's his shape, right, Like you think about it, the pervasive thought in golf instruction, especially like with juniors and like how to maximize your best tomorrow is just play one shape and own it. Just play one shape and own it. One of the things that was resounding to me yesterday was the long
term approach. I think if you try and play and try and learn how to hit both shapes, you are sacrificed, sacrificing how good you might be in a month or six months, you know, because you're gonna you're gonna own your one shape and that's I hit a fade. Well, I'm just gonna hit a fade every single time. But the thing that like players like Scotty and I, you know,
their natural gifts and talent are undeniable. But by hitting all the shapes, hitting both ways, with with the with the approach shots, they've unlocked a ceiling that is in a different stratosphere because they can get to whole locations. And we saw this all weekend with Scotty just taking on whole location nobody else was taking on, as you alluded to, and that was just such a long term view of like where we're getting to. You know, we
are trying, and I think that's the thing. One of the other things that I keep going back to is Scottie talking about what Randy Smith used to say to him as a kid, We're trying to build the best golfer at twenty five. We're not trying to be the best at seventeen. And I feel like this, like instant gratification and culture were in the idea of like maximizing who you are tomorrow you lose sight of where you want to be. And now you see Scotty Scheffler aged twenty nine as good as we've seen.
Yeah, I mean it goes back to what we were talking about earlier, the patients and the intelligence and brilliance that that partnership has shown of the last I mean, what's it. What is he twenty nine? I don't know when he started with Randy. He's probably just a teenager or maybe even before that, So you know we're talking more than a decade. Just so smart the way they've gone about it, and I totally agree with you if
you're wanting to improve your game. You know, anybody that's out there listening to this at whatever level, or even young pros trying to solidify their place on a tour somewhere. Yes, you need to own one shot and you can get to a particular place and have success if you own one shot. But with these two guys, I mean we're talking about elite, elite level, and it's the reason that they've been able to separate themselves. And you throw Xander
into that bucket as well. You're right, Bryson. We don't see many fades from We see mainly draws, and then on the other side of the spectrum, with a guy like Moricauo, who's had a lot of success, you see only fades and you see hardly any draws. But these two or three guys, Xander to a slightly lesser extent because he has been bugged by this injury in twenty five so we haven't quite seen him at full stride yet,
but those three, for sure, they have that ability. And it's not just the working of the ball with Scotty that I found so impressive. And you go back to the Scottish Open as we were finishing off that broadcast, and you know he turned out another top ten.
Almost last in the field and putting.
Yeah, I mean just with like his d game. It felt like no disrespect to any of the others that played well, but he was just like in second gear and he hadn't really hadn't rarely put his foot on the gas at all. I actually said to Jim Nantz, I said to him, you know, this is going to be so interesting. You're observe him this week and you foreshaded to the Open. It's really the only question mark I still have left with Scheffler. Okay, his green side bunker play can be a little bit shaky at times.
You know, we've seen him in a couple of shanks out of green side bunkers. I mean, you look at the stats. He's seventy fifth on tour, which is not terrible at all. He's still the road gaining strokes. I mean, he's middle of the road. But when you compared to the others where he's like number one or two in every category, the green side bunker play is something. But what I said was, you know, can he conquer links
golf and can he figure that out? Because he has this mindset where and you guys have this this bit about it where you know he wants everything to be fair. You know, when he hits a ball down the middle, he wants it to finish down the middle. He doesn't like it if it lands on a knoll and kicks into the first cut on the left. Like to him,
that's it's very hard to process that. And here is you know, he comes to a a famous golf course, an iconic golf course at Royal Port Rush, and he's moving the ball both ways, he's taking speed off, he's heating little chip shots with the irons. I mean, think
about the shot he hit into number one yesterday. You know, you are in that moment, so so so nervous about the next four hours and what could possibly unfoldw and playing with a big lead is not easy because at that point it's yours to lose, and when you lose one, that's all everybody's going to talk about. It's much easier coming from behind because in a certain sense, it's just foot on the gas, hope to get on a run,
Hope that the leader falls down and stumbles somehow. When you're going out there protecting a big lead or playing with a big lead. Gosh that the heat is even more intense. And he steps up on the first hole out of the first cut with the whole locations cut just off of a ridge, and he hits a little half chippy cut nine iron that gets the correct trajectory to skip up the ridge into that shoulder on the right and feed down to a foot. I mean, how do you play.
Against this guy, especially he did that right after his playing partners nearest competitor stuffed it in there like four feet.
I mean, I'm sitting you know, I wasn't quite like you on your schedule, waking up at two am to watch you. I was over at Port Rush Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I got home Thursday night and so I was setting my alarm for seven am here on the East Coast and then I would watch from then. And you know, I'm sitting there watching this first hole of the day and he hits that shot. He manufactures that shot, and I'm like, gosh, these guys have got no chance, and
it's quite quite funny, you know. I had a little fun on social media when he started to get things going on Friday. So I posted something on x at around around noon Eastern on Friday, where I was like the engravers already put the s on the cleric jug. Gosh, the comments were hilarious. I mean people were offended that I could have that take and have that opinion. But
you could just start to see it. When he gets into this flow, in this zone, you're gonna need like something extremely untoward happened for him not to win, like food poisoning, like jamming his wrist on a root or something like that. His back's gonna have to go out something like that when he gets into that zone and that flow.
Hard to well it.
You know, it's if he has I think it's like boils down to at this point because of the level that the tee to Green game is effectively at every week. It boils down to does he have two good putting rounds? If he puts well twice, it's kind of curtains. Yeah, And you saw it on Saturday, you know, on the
Shotgut Start. We were talking on Saturday night about this and you just aart like, you know, you're trying to make the case of like who could do something, and it's you know, you get to a point where I said to Brendan I said, if he shoots even par, does anybody get to fourteen?
Because I think, like, what was crazy?
One of the crazy things that happened this weekend was like people like got their knives out for the golf course because this was happening. There was no wind and this golf course like you're sitting at a point where you know there's no wind and on we're talking on
Saturday night, is can anybody get to fourteen? And the resounding like the the the agreement was, no, nobody's going to get to fourteen, and they didn't and they didn't, And like the golf course was, it was such a good It was such a good fit whether it was windy or not windy. It was such a good fit for Scottie because of the demand that the Green Greens placed on the approach shots. I thought, I was curious you were that was Was that your first time out there?
No? I worked.
I worked the previous open there for Golf Channel, so that was the second time I've been there.
You never played there in an open? But where where where do you kind of what do you think? What are your overall thoughts of the venue and where it kind of sits with it with other roto venues.
I thoroughly enjoy it. I think it's awesome. I think it asks many different questions. You have holes moving in all directions, dog leg rights, dog leg lefts. You have straight holes.
You have.
Greens predominantly perched up with fall offs on the side. Not too many pot bunkers, but they are extremely well placed. You've got a couple times where out of bounds really comes into play. Think about one, you think about four, you think about eighteen. Not so much because you can just gear back and it doesn't really bring it into play over the back of five didn't really present itself as much of an issue for these guys this week.
And you know, the holes in different directions all the time, and so the way the wind switches on you and how you have to deal with that is changing and keeping you on your toes. Now, did we have a lot of wind, No, but we had We had ten miles an hour for the most part throughout the week, which is enough to cause some havoc and create some doubt. I think it's a brilliant venue for spectators, a lot
of great viewing spots. It's so picturesque and beautiful and the aerial shots are amazing, particularly when the sun peaks out, and I think it's a marvelous venue. I rarely do. I thoroughly enjoyed both times being there. The people, the people are so into it, you know, in that Port Rush Bush Mills area. It's it's great.
I love it.
It's a delightful area. It's beautiful, and uh yeah, the people are great too. It's it's it's a I think that it's it's funny because, like I think, people too often. I think there were some analytics that people fell in love with. But if you watch the golf and watch the shots, like the guy you think about Rory with his B game, he was effectively bunched in with other great players playing great. You know, your Harris English is
your Fitzpatricks. And then you had Scotti Scheffler, the best player in the world, playing at an extremely high level, and he's able to just push up, get away. And I think a venue should allow you to get away from the field. I mean, that's what you want in terms of like if you're talking about a championship test, right, you want the ability to these players, you know, excel and I think you know that's I I'm curious when
it'll go back there. But uh, if you get if you got that wind blown twenty five instead of fifteen, I mean that you get those middle stretch holes and that's all you can all you can ask for out of a golf course and what it can do to you,
you know, it'll it'll be you know. I think the other thing that uh stood out is you know, obviously and I think this is going to be like kind of a something that all these guys have to deal with in the future, is they're going to have to answer questions about Scotty.
You know.
I think that's like one of the happening for your generation. It was answering questions about Tiger. And it's not only that you're getting your ass kicked by the guy all week, but then you get done with your week and you have to answer questions about him. And I thought, you know, we talked about this after the PGA, but Jordan Speith kind of hit the nail on the head. I'm sure you saw this. Yeah, I'll read this here. He doesn't care to be a superstar. He's not transcending the game
like Tiger did. He's not bringing it to non golf audience. Necessarily. He doesn't want to go do the stuff that a lot of us go do corporately, anything like that. He just wants to get away from the game and separate the two because I know that he at one time he felt like it was too much and that he was taking it with him. And whenever he made that switch, I don't know what it was. But he has hobbies, he always he's always with his family, They're always doing stuff.
I think it's more so the difference of personality from any other superstar that you've seen in the modern era. And I would say, yeah, and he says and maybe in any sport. I totally agree with this. I don't think anybody is like him.
M yep. I mean, it's exactly what we spoke about earlier. He's just, you know, and let's be real, you know, he's a human being. And I can confident it confidently say that any human being is going to face adversity at some point in their life, you know, whether it be in your work, with your family, you know, nobody is exempt from that. But he just seems to have everything in such a good place right now. And I totally agree with what Jordan says there, He's not And
Scotty tried to tell us this on Wednesday. I mean, he's not doing this for the fame. He's not doing this for the notoriety. He's doing this because he loves the game. It's a it's a way for him to provide for his family. And then most importantly in that zone is he loves to compete. He loves to compete. And the opportunity for him to play in the biggest championships, on the biggest stages, at the best venues and test himself and test the work that he has done throughout
his life. He gets a serious kick out of that. And gosh, you know it's it must be awesome to have your life simplified to that extent. It must be quite freeing.
I think, like everybody, every human deals with like the disease and more the disease of wanting more.
For him.
I'd love to know the the you know, potential dollar figure of money right now that he's leaving on the table by keeping his as as speech alluded to his corporate sponsor responsibility very low. I mean, you're talking about probably tens of millions of dollars a year that he is passing on for sure, to keep this simplicity. He understands what he needs to put in, what he needs to put in at home for this recipe, this, you know,
this cocktail that he has created. I don't I don't think that people and I hope people talk about this more. He is leaving so much money on the table. And there you're gonna say, oh, he makes so much money on the golf course. Sure, but this is his peak earning window and he is bypassing know, tens of millions of dollars a year to have this sort of balance and that that's also it's disciplined in a different form. We've talked about his discipline on his golf on the
golf course, discipline with his process of practicing. This is a this is a different This might be the hardest discipline that he's exercising is passing up heaps of money.
In order to keep the balance.
It's it's a It's an incredible long range view because if he keeps competing and playing at this level, he will make you know, as he ascends that list, he will his his earnings down the line of being a top eight player or top five player of all time will far surpass if he cashes in for the next three years and his game dips.
Totally agree. It is great discipline and he's it's great clarity. You know, he's figured out that this is the formula that is going to help him play his best golf week in and week out, and he's not budgeting from that. You know, we do need to be honest though and state that players in this era now have that option because of the amount of money that they play for week in and week out, the bonus structures through the
PGA Tour, wherever you play. Really they now have that option because if you have the ability that Scotty or Rory or Xander, any of these big dogs have, you know you're going to be making a lot, so you can start to cut down on some of the other stuff, Whereas previous generations weren't always afforded that or weren't afforded that same situation, so you had to think a little more outside the box from you know, ways to generate income.
But it's like a it's like a perfect storm for him, where the way that professional golf is currently structured suits his personality and his idea to a tee where he can keep the main thing the main thing, and that is maintaining and improving this incredible level of play. And if he does that, the amount of money that he's going to make and has made is is it's unfathomable rarely for normal people. And I hope that doesn't sound bad, but it's just where he's at.
Let's talk about Don Sky stuff. Now that we've hit the hour mark here.
Hey, I thought he's a has to be boring And we just spoke about him for an hour and no problem, and we could probably do another hour and no problem.
So I thought this.
You know, it's actually similar like a couple of last year Nelly corn A discourse was like she needs to do more for the women's game off the course, and and I always used to say, you know, what she just needs to do is just keep winning. That's the best thing she can do. And you know, there's a lot of talk and I I mean, I'm I'm someone that probably over the you know, I wish we got a little bit more. I think we're getting more from
Scheffler every week. He's getting more comfortable, he's talking more, we're learning more about him. But like the best thing, you know, the if he just keeps winning, it just gets more and more interesting, you know, in terms of the historical context in the mountain he's climbing.
I think the way people pose questions to him is very important. It's interesting what he decides to bite on and and and then dive in a couple more layers and give us a little bit more. But if you ask questions just on the top layer, he's just not going to give you much. I mean, you've got to find a way to dig in there a little bit. Otherwise he's just going to give you, you know, a lot of nothing.
I think there's comfort with Like the other aspect of that long response he gave early in the week was the question came from Doug ferguson, who's you know, the AP Golf writer who's at almost every tournament, who is at almost every single press conference. These players give different
answers to people that are comfortable with who are asking. Sometimes, like you can see a player light up because somebody is asking the person who's asking the question, they want to help out and give an answer to, you know, And I think like he laughed about like Dougs, you know, or later in the week he said something like Doug's always asking to make questions and dumb questions, you know, like it is saying that from like a spot of respect, right,
Like there is part of that is the familiarity. And you know there's been so much about golf media and players this year. But you know it's a double edged sword, right. You build up comfort with players, relationships with players, and then you lose some of your objectivity. Right, It's just
like a natural human nature thing. But building the relationship, as we saw with the question that Doug asked, you know, that got that great a great response, like a you know, whether you agreed with the response or disagreed with the response, that's what the response you want out of athletes. You want them to give you how they're really feeling is because of.
A relationship, you know.
So I think that's the other undercard, but transitioning. You know, Scotty Shuffler is on the Ryder Cup team, you tweeted one of the stars of the of the Link season, unexpected star of the Links season. Although he has a great golf pedigree, like this guy did not just come out of nowhere.
The best player in college golf.
Two years ago, Chris got her up wins the Scottish finished his third last.
Week at the Open.
He was not on anybody's Ryder Cup bingo card and you tweeted yesterday got her up to the Ryder Cup.
I thought it had a nice ring to it.
It does every now and then.
I like to throw a wrench in there, just to see where from the waters, see what people's thought processes, where their minds are at.
I talked to PJ a lot about this.
There's nothing better than going online, dropping something in, leaving the app for a while and then coming back and just see what people said. I like to just drop in and acxit the situation.
I'll tell you what my comments are. Like a full contact sport, Andy, It's you know, I need to like put body armor on and just be ready wrap myself up in bubble wrap before I open that app up, because the responses are quite something. To be honest with you, I've kind of become immune to it, really really since the I was keptain of the international team for the President's Cup and things kicked off leading up to that.
It's been a wild ride for a few years. But you know, it's such an interesting thing when you are in a position to try and put a team together leading up to one of these massive events and weighing up the data which has become a huge part of it with the eye test, and trying to figure out, you know, would you rather have a player with pet degree or would you rather have a player that's hot right now? And we still got a couple months to go,
so it's a little bit of time. But like you say, he he has been a great player at every level that he's played at and he got that win on the PGA Tour. Now it was an opposite event last year in Myrtle Beach. That's fine, but still he gets the win on tour, which is a huge stepping stone. And in the last really two and a half months, his results have been really solid and he's been playing he's been showing signs of really that he's found a little something. In the last two weeks he's just blown
through that gate and played brilliant golf. You can't deny. I mean, he took down McElroy and an extremely strong field in Scotland and then he backed it up. It would have been easy for him to go to the Open and be like, Okay, you know, I just got this huge win. I'm going to have a few extra guinness every night and enjoy this week. I believe it was his first Open. We may need to check that was it, but no, he kept things rolling, man, and
he was a part of the story through Sunday. And at that age you look at the gifts that he has. He's an incredible driver of the ball with immense power, and in the last few months he started to really putt well around Bethpage Black seems like a pretty decent fit to me. But the American team is as great as what they are. I mean, they kick out butts every time we play against him in the President's Cup.
So I have a ton of respect for them and what they can do as great as what they are, and they they've got some they got some issues at this point trying to put this team together because they have a number of players knocking on the door, rookies and stalwarts. But then they've got a captain that is not sure if he's playing or not playing. And in my opinion, he is for sure one of the top eight American golfers in the world, and he should be playing.
But I just know from my experience captaining one of those teams in the President's Cup, Guly it it would be so hard to be captain all of those responsibilities and then play at the same time. So they have an interesting next couple months ahead and a lot of decisions to make as to how they're going to put their squad of twelve together. They're going to be good regardless. They're going to be good regardless, and they're going to have the home crowd just going nuts being in their corner.
But a lot of very very big decisions to make for Keegan and his backroom staff here over the next couple months.
Yeah, obviously it's a major but like with the Ryder Cup, it becomes so much of the implications at this time of year of finishes and who who makes this team, and it's it's a you know, one of the more compelling aspects of a Ryder Cup year is that.
Like who's playing on a team. I think like.
Historically, if you want to just do some context, like one of the things I've I've learned over the years, Like one of the things I think that when you look at a player's career, you look at the international team, how many, how long the span of international team competitions they played in is is like a great marker of the player because you know they're in the top bucket of players if you're playing in these things and you start to see like, you know, I think like undertone
for Keegan Bradley, he's going to go twenty twelve to twenty twenty five if he play, assuming he plays on this team, like it does show like the the the lengthy period of relevance the guy's had in the sport. Oh yeah, Like well he might know he's not gonna be like a first name Hall ballot Hall of Fame player, but like you when you zoom out and say, god, this guy played, you know you've played with effectively like
two generations, three generations of golfers in Ryder Cups. He played with Phil Micholson and he's going to be playing this year with somebody who's twenty four to twenty five years old in a Ryder Cup.
I don't know how he doesn't play.
He has to play.
If you're putting, if you're putting a team together for this venue, and you look at Keegan's skill set, he's one of the the When you combine distance and accuracy, he's one of the best drivers of the bull in the game. And you add his passion and how he gets up for moments like that, his ability to get the crowd going on home soil, how well he's played, the fact that he's won. You won a huge event just a few weeks ago at the Travelers. I don't know how he doesn't play. It's just it's such a
difficult spot for him to be in. Ah. Yeah, it's gonna be fun for us to watch here over the next couple of months as things start to shake out. It's it's a much less turbulent over on the European side.
The Europeans side, I think they effectively, especially with Maddy.
Fits playing so well.
Yeah, I think they effectively have like one spot available.
I just don't see the team changing much from It's.
Like the one spot's like which hoy guard do you take? You know, which is not a bad spot, especially with their course fit. You illuminated to the like course fit and got her up and you're talking, I think you finished first and Strokes gained off the tee at Oakmont, did he Yeah, he was super impressive that week.
And if you look at the analytics of.
Familiar it was fifth at the Open off the team.
Fifth of the Open.
You know, you're talking about a guy who's like sat toe to toe in three tournaments in the last two months with Rory McElroy.
And outperformed him off the tee.
And I think when you start to get in these team competitions, and I'm really curious your perspective on this as someone who's captained the team seen the analytics, how do you weigh specific skill sets, particularly when you get in a team competition with where you're playing, you're not playing your individual ball I imagine for alternate shot and even best ball. When you have outlier players that can you know, Chris, he can dominate a golf course with his driver.
Does that get bumped up?
Is particularly in an alternate shot format where you know you compare like I think one of the things that with this team and the course fit, I'll never forget.
Jeff Ogilvie was on.
Before the PGA there a few years ago and he goes, Listen, this tournament is going to be won by one of the one of the unicorns of the sport that can just hit towering iron shots and hits the ball very far. He's like, I'm thinking Brooks, DJ, Rory, and he laid this out before and then you watch the event and it's Brooks and DJ and then Rory was playing with his sea Gabe and finished.
The top ten that week.
It was like, you know, you had this awful week and then you look at the leaderboard at that end of the tournament, it's like, oh, you finished eighth because of the golf courses. But you know the idea of like getting those shots off the tee that yield those short approaches to elevated targets.
You know, got her up. You might not be a guy that you consider alternate shot, but it's like, oh, well, you know we could give Russell Henley the opportunity or someone of that ILK or Callum more Kaua or Jk's right on to play from from Chris gotterr Up's t shots on you know, nine holes, seven holes, probably eight holes, right.
Yeah. So that's really what you do is you really start to understand the golf course and the challenge that that's going to present. How many part threes, how many par fives do they fall on the odds or the evens when you're talking about alternate shot, and then you start to dial in your pairings in that way to where they can compliment each other, and then that model
fits into the golf course as perfectly as possible. And really, when it comes to match play, if you've got a guy that's a great driver, they're pretty much always going to be in the hole. And in match play I find that so important. You know, you just don't want to gift your opponent easy wins on a hole. And when you've got a group of great drivers of the ball on a course that is long and demanding, it's a huge advantage to have. And I think that's what
he could provide. I think, you know, it's still touch and go whether he gets put on this team. You have to weigh up the rookie aspect as well. You know how much pressure he's played under in his short professional career so far, how he's handled those things. They'll be looking at all this type of stuff and then weighing that up amongst the players that are around him, and you know who's going to be able to team up well with who and managing the locker room and
all those different kinds of things. But we're just performance in the last couple of weeks and his skills set matching with Beth Page from the tee, and the fact that you know, this is a new Jersey guy. He's going to be playing up in his part of the world, so to speak, could be could be quite fun and it's it's a nice option for them to have that they probably didn't think they were going to have four or five months ago.
He's up to twenty second in points now after being you know, effectively nowhere near that two weeks ago. He moved up nineteen spots just signed the Open performance, so the Scottish probably moved him up about twenty spots too now, I mean before.
The Scottish Open he was like I think I'm going to say, was between eighty five and ninetieth and the FedEx Cup, and all of a sudden in two weeks he's he's looking to go all the way to the Tour Championship.
Yeah, he's so he's moved itself way up. I think, like something to note just I always think about this. The last time the US had held a Ryder Cup, Whistling straight one of the somewhat surprised selections on the team was a rookie, a rookie Ryder Cupper who had never.
Yet to win. Scotty Scotty Scheffler.
Turns out, turns out that Steve Stricken knew what he was doing with that pick.
I got brought up yesterday. Actually, I don't know if you saw this quote. I think I have this here, John Rahm, Uh, I don't.
I didn't. I didn't pull this out.
But John ram got asked about Scottie and he brought up if everybody remembers Rob was Rob was the European star that Ryder cup.
I think he was four and oh or three.
Oh one going into Sunday singles and you know they they did the pairings. I remember this Rom was. I think he was third out. I remember because I went out. I was like, this is you know from can this is the way that the Euros come back, you know, Rom.
They put a bunch of points on the board.
So Rom it was thought that Scotty was like the sacrificial lamb, and I think he was five up through five.
That's exactly right, and John that that is still living renfree in John's mind. I mean he brought yesterday I saw that you know, you go, he still remembers that day, and they've had they've had great battles through the years at major championships, and but that moment still sticks out to John.
I it maybe.
Yeah, something I was I was watching. He effectively said like, yeah, I mean, like look what he did to me in the Ryder Cup a couple of years ago.
But like something I was thinking about when Rom was finishing yesterday and Bryson was finishing around the same time. You know, it's a bummer that we only have the opportunity of these duels with Rom and Bryson right now, and you know, to a lesser extent Brooks, when they're at these four majors, you just don't have the chance to get a lot of duels. And I just think about this week I thought was the smallest chatter about Live PGA Tour reunification at a major since the whole split.
It feels to be like they're very much kind of two ships operating with their own set of set of directions and plans. And it was it that was one of the things I have thought about with the Scotty ascension. It has occurred coincidentally when Rom like these are just guys that might have been, that could have moments where Scotty maybe doesn't close out a fifty four hole lead.
I'm not saying this is not saying that he but these are players that could answer the bell, the top contenders to answer the bell and go take one to Scotty along with Rory and Xander and Colin Morrikawa and these other other elite players in the game. But it just sucks that we're just limited to four events a year for those those occurrences to happen because the probability of these guys playing at their best is just limited.
At the same time, Yeah, yeah, but you know, it is what it is now it is.
I mean, look, they got they got some paperwork to you.
Those players, those players made a decision to go play on tour, and the way it's worked out, we only get to see him up against each other at the Majors, and in a certain respect, it's heightened the intensity of the Majors even more. Bryson has absolutely found a way to be in the hunt at pretty much all of them. Yeah, and it seems like he's raised the level of his game.
Not quite so much for John. I mean, he showed signs this year, definitely playing better than what he did in twenty twenty four, but still not quite at the point to where you feel like he's going to be challenging those top guys for the minute.
I you know, everybody makes decisions, but we talked a lot about the mentality of Scheffler, the approach to the game, the long range, you know, kind of implications of the decisions he's made. Owning how you get to come into a major championship, I think is a very important thing.
And I think that that's one of probably maybe the thing that that Rom didn't consider, was how a move and not being able to set up your schedule exactly how you want to prep for a major championship can reduce, you know, your ability and you never you don't know these things, like I think for Bryson, this schedule, the way that Live setup has been great for him, you know,
but but for John I don't think it's clicked. And you look at you know, these guys were kind of running running in a dead heat when he left or Live, and at this point it is, you know, I think, you know, it's got to be tough for Rom to answer questions about about Scottie being and Skotty.
Being at a different level, when when he left for Live he probably felt he was at at the same level.
Yeah, I'd say that's fair. I would say that's fair. And by the way, I'm not dodging you at all. I mean, I'm not going to dive deep in. But yeah, we did did get some paperwork and we're rarely happy that we did at awgr So you know, we'll see how things unfold. But you go back to Rahm here Strokes gained off the tee. He was fifteenth on approach. He was pretty much even for the field at seventy third, so he was neutral on approach and then fifty first
in putting. So just really middle of the pack in a couple of very important areas. And it just hasn't quite found it that special source over the last at the majors, over the last twelve months.
I mean, I think it's probably across all of it he hasn't he has. It's not like he's been racking up wins. I think, like you know, when you look at lives, Joaquin Neeman's kind of been like the guy that you're like, oh, look at all the winds he's got, you know, and uh, but it's hard.
Golf's hard. It's it.
The other aspect of it is that the majors now for John rom carry way more weight than before he left, you know, because of the you know what, you can say like media should pay more attention to the live tour, but the reality is like it they operate in a state of semi irrerelevance for the rest of the year except for four majors. So it naturally just raises the expectation,
the level and the importance of these events. And we just you know, I think like that's where for Scotty it feels like it's just another week.
Yeah. I think that's a very good point. And you know, it's tricky because when you get to the majors, everything
is heightened. But for some of these players, like you mentioned Nieman, the pressure is is like exponentially more because in a certain way, he gets to these four big ones and it's like he's trying to prove to everybody that he is at that level of let's call it a top ten, top fifteen, top twenty player in the world, and major championships are on such an edge knife edge anyway, and when you start to heap extra pressure onto that,
it's a tough world to live in. And so you can kind of see him battling that when he comes to the Major Championships and you know, then he finished two over and he walks up the green and you know, you can see the frustration. On eighteen ends up missing the cup by a shot. I can't believe the cut went to one. Oh. I mean, the wind is completely laid down, and guys all of a sudden made a few birdies and now he's sitting on the couch for
the weekend. And you know, unfortunately for him, the unimpressive play at the Major Championships is is what people think about when when you bring his name up.
And I just want to be uh, be clear here, that's that's what all the money was for. These are things that might not have been considered you when they made the decision, but at the end of the day,
that's what the money is for. That's you sign you sign up for this, and you know, part of part of the ramifications for for going over there was that you know, you, all of a sudden, we're going to be evaluated and whether it's fair or unfair evaluated, and your career was going to be hinging on how you play four weeks a year and more so than any other player, than any player that's playing on the PGA Tour.
And whether that's fair or unfair, that's what all the money, part of what all the money was for, you know, And.
I don't know it'll be. It'll be as it keeps going. You know.
Obviously contracts are are running up, but uh, and some players will be kind of who knows what they're doing next year as soon as that. But you know, other players like John you know he's got three more years over there at the Minuteum.
Yeah, I don't really know, to be honest with you, not too many people know exactly what is in these guys contracts and how many years. I mean, you hear chatter about it, but I don't really know too much about that. So we'll have to see how things unfold.
Any any other party thoughts from the open English? How about Harris English? What a year now?
You talk talk about a guy that's on the Ryder Cup team. Harris will be there and he deserves to be there. He is extremely talented, beautiful game, classy, classy game, classy looking player and swing and love it everything about him. Great guy, and they are two runner ups in majors. I mean the PGA Championship was a little bit of a backdoor, but still we must.
Come out of the door.
To me, in my mind, I have that as a genre runner up. No matter what the results say. In my mind, I will always think of that as a genre runner runner up.
Yeah, I hear you. I mean it was.
It was.
It was a fun just thinking back to the PGA Championship was a really fun last hour or so, you know, once they got to fourteen and the driverball paw four and the way things played out between Rahm and Scheffler and a few other guys from you know, fourteen and fifteen, which are your two opportunities, and then you're sort of hanging on down sixteen seventeen eighteen. It was in my
mind it was an exciting, brilliant last hour. And all the major championships this year I thought were just spectacular. You know, you think about the roller coaster at the Masters with all that history on the line, and then you think about that last hour of the PGA Championship.
And with like Scotty, you know, the story of twenty twenty four. Then he has the hand thing that wasn't really in form earlier in the year. It's like, oh, he's back, He's back to form.
Yeah, I mean people people were wondering, you know. That was another another famous Twitter debate or ex debate I got into with a legend of the game, whether Scotty would win or not before the Ryder Cup. That's gotten a lot of play over the last few months.
But no, one the receis didn't turn out good for that legend of the game.
No it didn't. But you know, the PGA Championship was fun and exciting. The last hour of the US Open was just about as dramatic as it can get with the weather and then the standing water and the ball is just like squirting all over the place. And then you get JJ making a seventy something footer on the last hole that was quite something as the sun is setting, basically, and then we get Scotty putting an exclamation point on the season at the Open, and now three legs into
the Grand Slam. And by the way, you know, he's clearly shown that he understands Augusta National and knows exactly how to play that golf course. But I would struggle to think of another major where he could separate himself more than the US.
Open at Shinnecock.
Well, look at all of their venues over the next decade. Yeah, when you have that sort of precision and discipline and control over your ball, the US Open is where it's at. And so that's gonna be a fun ride for us. And uh, you know, my my overriding thought is I'm a little I'm a little sad. I'm a little sad the majors are over. I don't like it's been a great year for major championships.
I liked the August and more than this, you know, where you have the Open end too, August. I think the PGA in August, the you know, like the idea of majors going.
From April to August a little bit more.
I think I've said this before, but like the fact that it's over, It's like, the nice thing is we've got some some great events.
We've got the Walker Cup.
Yeah, it's gonna be great at Cypress Point.
Yeah, at Cypre's Point, We've got the We've got the Ryder Cup. I mean, we've got no more net Tour Championship.
We got.
That's a positive. What are you gonna make fun of now?
I don't know.
Oh, you guys are gonna have to cook something else up now.
I mean.
When you live in the content game, when you when you make content for a living, you're not always rooting for the the rational outcome. You know, sometimes you know it named things like uh like having a handicapped season and tournament or the best thing for the content business.
You know. Now you're gonna have to dream something else up.
But why you like it? I like, you haven't Patrick Reid around? You know I missed him a little bit. Is that he was good for the content game. He was good for my job.
Yeah he is, he is. But this year, this year has gone so fast. I mean, I can't believe it. At CBS, we only have two events left, you know, we have the three M this weekend and then the window and we're golf season is done. It feels like it feels like yesterday we were starting at the Farmers and Tory Pines. It has gone so fast.
Well, I you know I've said this before on this podcast. It's my belief is life gets faster every year of your life because it becomes less of a percentage of your life. So when you're ten, one year is ten percent of your life, so it feels very long. But when you're you know, thirty three, it's you know whatever, three percent of your life.
Right, It's just.
It's flown by, and we got some good golf. We've got some good golf. With the playoffs come in, I think it's going to be very interesting. You know. Now, it's quite cutthroat really when you think about you've gotta be top hundred, you gotta be top seventy seventy, get in the playoffs, and then you've got to be top five, which gives these guys the signature events next year. So it's that's a pretty tough gig and then right, awesome.
I'd love what you know, it's the idea of I think, like if you made the tour even more cutthroat, slightly more cutthroat, what it's done for the John Deere's, the three Ms, the Rockets, the you know, the American Express, the the value. I mean, you just see more big names playing these events than ever before.
Yeah, I agree with you. The tour took a lot of heat when they made these changes. And it's really played out that they were. They were quite correct with the advent of the signature events and creating these cutoffs. All the other tournaments have had stronger fields, and you're right, John Deere had best field that's head in a long time. At Detroit had a great field. And then you look at the Scottish Chaupmin where you had nineteen of the top twenty five in the world playing the Scottish opin.
It's pretty cool.
Yeah, the Detroit might go down as the term of the year with Pockater getting it done.
You know, that's right. It was great, great for great for South Africa.
That's right.
So it's a shotgun start favorite there. All right, Well, hey, enjoy enjoy Plaine this weekend.
Yeah, I will. I'm looking forward to it. I'm going up Friday morning. And you know, we start to see, like we just touched on it different side of the spectrum because in the next two weeks you're going to see guys really jostling for those cutoffs.
And I mean Max Holmeer was playing the Barracuda this week.
Yeah, credit to him, man, he's playing. He's playing whenever he can play, and he's out there and fighting. I've been there. It's not easy, and you know, gives your ego a little bit of a knock. But I have a ton of respect for him getting out there and grinding it out. That's what you gotta do. And the beauty about our sport is we were just talking about
Chris got her up. I mean, Chris got her up two weeks ago was thinking about how he's going to keep his card, and now he's thinking about getting into the Tour Championship and making the Ryder Cup team so it can turn on a dime and hopefully for Max that happens.
I think he's playing Minnesota, got her up.
That course suits him too.
Good course to drive it well, good course to.
Tee it high and let it fly.
All right, Trevor, we'll talk again at some point. This has been delightful having you on for all the majors, so thank you for joining us. It's been been really fun chatting going deep on each of these majors, and we'll talk soon. But enjoy your time in Minneapolis and a little time off. I'm sure you're gonna be playing a lot of golf.
Yeah, I'm hoping to be playing a lot of golf right off to the window. I've got closed to five months off. So a few other things I'm involved in which take up some of my time.
But get through some paperwork.
Got to get through some paperwork and hopefully some time on the range and we can play golf soon together.
Well we should, We got we gotta play. Yeah, go figure out when we're going to be in the same place.
Yeah, love to all right, talk to you soon, Trevor.
All right, Andy cheers, all right, that does it.
Thanks again for coming along with these majors. I can't wait for twenty twenty six as majors. But we've got a lot of big events coming up. I was this week, actually I was at Walker Cup media day. That's going to be a spectacle. There's only twelve hours of television coverage for that event, but we will do some big stuff for that. We'll have a video about the golf course.
That's Ciper's point this year and excited for that. You know you got the playoffs, you get the Race to Dubai, and you know you got the Women's Open coming up at Royal Force Call. Lots of good events coming up, and of course you have the Ryder Cup this fall that will kind of dominate the August into September discourse. So big thanks to Trevor for coming on giving us his time this major season, and also huge thanks to PJ for producing, editing, getting this podcast, keeping us on
the rails. We will be back next week and thanks thanks for a great major season. I really appreciate you guys coming along with us.