00:00All right, welcome back in Newswire here on the Sports Grid Network.
00:07It is a huge week here as we've got the All-Star break going on.
00:11We got a home run derby tonight, All-Star game tomorrow, and then the second half of
00:16the Major League Baseball season will resume here towards the weekend, but we got something
00:21else pretty big happening this weekend, and it is the final major of the season here,
00:26the Open Championship, and nobody knows it better than Keith Stewart here joining us
00:31on the Sports Grid Network, and Keith, before we dive into what we're going to see this
00:37week with the Open Championship, I got to get your thoughts on what we just watched
00:41yesterday at the Scottish Open.
00:43Robert McIntyre, maybe one of the best feel-good stories so far, and just unbelievable to become
00:50only the second Scot, I think, to actually win the country's own Open Championship, but
00:56the way it happened was truly magnificent with the free drop that he got on the 16th
01:03hole down two strokes.
01:05What were you thinking when that happened?
01:09I don't know if I could say that on the network, and good morning on a Monday there, Joe, but
01:13when you say a feel-good story, right, a feel-good story was his dad on the bag when he won the
01:20RBC Canadian Open for his first ever PGA Tour win, and then this guy goes to Scotland.
01:25He has been very vocal about this, that he wants to win his national championship.
01:29He was robbed by Rory a year ago with an amazing birdie, which was, I guess, plaque-deserving.
01:34I mean, we hand out trophies for everything, we might as well make plaques, right?
01:38So he gets it stolen last year.
01:41Now we come to this year, and I am riding the kid.
01:45I'm riding Ludwig Obert, right, and we are watching this thing play out, and as it looked
01:49like it, it didn't look like it was Obert's tournament to win.
01:51It looked like Adam Scott's turn to win, and what a nice preview for the 152nd Open
01:57Championship coming.
01:58And then Robert McIntyre heads over into the weeds, and the next thing you know, he's standing
02:04on a sprinkler head, which I guess in some sense makes sense, because that grass was
02:09so tall, I guess it's getting watered all the time?
02:12I don't know.
02:13Then this guy, not only does he get a free drop, but he starts taking practice swings
02:17in the hay, which I'm not sure that you are allowed to do anyway.
02:20I mean, don't quote me on it.
02:22I've only been a PGA professional that's won five awards for over 20 years, but I'm pretty
02:28sure when you go into the hay, you don't get to go in with a sickle, right, in order just
02:31to then suddenly find the drop, make eagle—now, I don't want to take anything away from the
02:36fact that it is a rule, he was standing on the sprinkler head, and he did get relief,
02:44and he finished 3-3-3 to win his national championship.
02:47I think that's fantastic.
02:49But for everyone else that's watching this, that always tunes into golf for a fantastic
02:54finish like that, when there's something a little finicky, it always seems to add to
02:59the conversation come Monday.
03:01And I tell you, it doesn't sit well with me, but if you're Carver, who had Bobby Mack at
03:0750-1, I know that he and I are going to argue about this on Wednesday, and I'll be hearing
03:12about it all week, as well as you two.
03:14Yep.
03:16It was, as soon as he made that—he got the drop, and then he makes the eagle, I'm like,
03:21it's no point watching it, it's over.
03:23I don't care what happens from here, the golf guards are over his shoulder here at this
03:27point, and kudos to him for getting it done.
03:31But you mentioned A-Berg had collapsed there.
03:33There were some guys that weren't great in this tournament that are heading into the
03:37Open Championship, but when you look at the odds board, it starts at the top with you
03:42know who, Scotty Scheffler, who took this tournament off.
03:47Good thing, bad thing, do you think, for him, and is he bettable at this price?
03:52Well, he's proven that he's bettable at pretty much any price, because, what, he's won six
03:58of his last eight tournaments.
04:00He didn't show up there at Pinehurst, which does give us all a little bit of pause, but
04:04at the end of the day, I don't throw much stock at all into last week.
04:07Last week, everyone was asking, you know, should Scotty be here or whatever, and I was
04:11just happy he wasn't, because then it makes the betting market so much more fun.
04:14When he's there at the top of the board, he's difficult to fade, especially what's going
04:18to be a ball-striking test this week.
04:20If we got to get into the Open Championship now, we got to start talking about the weather,
04:24and we are going to have a proper mess on our hands come the end of this week.
04:27Now, the wind isn't going to be anything crazy, Joe, but it's the type of rain where you and
04:31I love to watch golf from the bar and not play in it, let me tell you, because it's
04:35going to rain all four days, Thursday through Sunday, and it's going to be that, like, nuisance-style
04:41rain, just, like, persistent rain all day long.
04:42I don't think that, at this point, we know that there's going to be a wave advantage
04:46for A.M., P.M., or P.M., A.M., but when it comes down to it, Sheffler's going to have
04:50to go out with the rest of these guys, and he's going to have to battle the elements,
04:54and since he's the best ball-striker in the world, I think you could pretty much put him
04:57at any price right around there at 4, 5, 6 to—I mean, we can get 6 to 1, it'd be great,
05:02but right around 5 to 1 where he sits now, I mean, I think it's fair.
05:05I also think that Rory did enough last week in his little recovery from what happened
05:10there from his putting at Pinehurst to show us that, you know what, Troon could be a real
05:15opportunity for him to get off that 10-year slide in the major championships.
05:19He's sitting at 8 to 1, and as a favorite—and I don't say this very often, Joe.
05:24I am not a huge Rory fan when it comes to big tournaments, but he looks pretty good.
05:29His T4 there at Scotland, it looked like he had plenty in the tank to go, and that he
05:33was just rounding himself into shape for what's going to be a true test this week for the
05:37Open Championship out there on the West Coast of Scotland.
05:40The guy that I'm going to be real interested in is Bryson, right?
05:46His worst finish in any of the three majors this year has been 6th at the Masters.
05:51Is he a top 10 play here?
05:53What do we do with him in this one?
05:56I'm not quite sure if you could get top 10 odds that are going to be worth it for you.
06:00Top 5, certainly.
06:01I mean, he's one of only two guys that can finish all four majors in the top 10 this
06:05year, Xander being the other one.
06:07So Bryson's definitely a play.
06:09Here's what troubles me about him.
06:10When you go over there, you have actually got to put the ball on the planet somewhere,
06:14right?
06:15He's got the ocean, he's got the Firth of Clyde to the right of him going out, and on
06:19coming in, I mean, there's gorse bushes everywhere.
06:22So this is not wiregrass over there.
06:24They have had a very mild spring over there, and it's been very wet.
06:28Everyone's talking about the rough, all the caddies I've spoken to, other media members
06:31that are over there that said, Keith, it is thick over here, you're going to have to hit
06:34the fairway.
06:36Bryson can game plan, and he can club down off the tee, so he can definitely find the
06:39fairway.
06:40And one of my other keys is definitely lag putting, of which he is one of the best in
06:44the field, best in the world at.
06:46So I do like Bryson to be competitive, for sure.
06:49There's no doubt about that.
06:50But as far as winning, he's going to have to find that fairway as well as everyone else.
06:55To me, if it ain't Brogan, I think he's the best-lived golfer at the end of the tournament.
07:03He's going to be worth a sprinkle here, because I don't know anybody else on that tour playing
07:07as good as he is.
07:09But of course, Keith will be here all week on the SportsGrid Network.
07:12Plenty more coming up on the Open Championship.
07:15We appreciate you, Keith.
07:16Enjoy the week, man.
07:17Our newswire will close out next week.
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