00:00Our number on the full effect right here on the early line, the sports grid network and my goodness, the topics from over the weekend, they are going to keep flowing all show long and it starts with the US Open.
00:10We previewed all last week on site boots on the ground. Our guy Keith was there, Joe, and my goodness, it did not disappoint if you were expecting carnage, which meant all week long we were shown like, why are there 50 guys out here each with a lawnmower trying to take down this rough year?
00:25Is it that serious? Is it that deep? We even saw guys walk up with a golf ball all over the course and just drop it in the rough and the ball disappeared.
00:33You saw that all weekend long, which what the expectations were, yes, it was going to be tough.
00:38How many guys would finish under par where it turns out Joe Ranieri, only one guy finished under par and that was JJ Spahn at a minus one.
00:45And to finish under par, he had to drop a 60 plus foot putt on the final hole to clinch the US Open.
00:52An amazing performance, as you see there. Final score, minus one. Pre-tournament odds, 120 to one.
00:59Pre-Sunday odds, plus 330 to one. His first major title, we heard it all week long.
01:04JJ Spahn talking just a few short months ago, a year ago, maybe I should give the sport up.
01:09I'm really struggling with this. He's the US Open champion, Joe Ranieri.
01:15Yeah, what does that tell you about the state of golf right now in the PGA Tour?
01:20Oh, please, Donnie. You do not get to be US Open champion by shooting 40 on the front nine.
01:28Unless, of course, everybody else behind you is shooting 50, which is exactly what it felt like watching yesterday.
01:35This was Muni golf at best. And I don't even, I feel like I'm degrading Muni golf watching that yesterday.
01:43And the sad part of all of this is that if Scotty Scheffler would have made a handful of putts throughout the week,
01:51he wins this thing by eight strokes. It's not even remotely close.
01:56The days of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and domination by a handful of guys is long gone, Donnie.
02:05Now you get champions, US Open champions that shoot 40 on the front nine here on a Sunday. Unbelievable.
02:13If I gave you the over-under, Joe, not on majors continuing to be won by JJ Spahn,
02:19tournaments won by JJ Spahn after winning the US Open.
02:22I'll give you two full years on the PGA Tour.
02:25Does JJ Spahn win a golf tournament, not a major, just a tournament over the next two years?
02:30I have some advice for JJ Spahn. Take your check and your trophy and retire and absolutely retire
02:40because you will never live up to what you just won ever. So enjoy yourself.
02:47And listen, he's had a nice little run, right? He lost in the, in a playoff to McElroy at the players.
02:52Yeah.
02:53I think he won one other tournament. I mean, come on, Donnie. This is a Hail Mary of all Hail Marys.
02:59Congratulations, JJ Spahn. You still had to go out and win it, but that was gross, US Open. Absolutely gross.
03:06It's the People's Championship, which means anybody can rise to the occasion and take down a superstar icon
03:13and walk away with a big time check at $4.3 million.
03:17Now, also, you saw that round yesterday. Coming down the stretch, the reins came in.
03:21You sat off the golf course for an hour and a half. It seemed like there was 15 people tied at plus one here.
03:26Spahn was the only one to be able to get over the hump.
03:29But I want to bring up this equation as well. Like, starting these tournaments, like, hey, Scotty Scheffler plus 220,
03:34and everybody else is 10 to 1 or behind him here.
03:36Like, Scotty Scheffler was still lurking on Sunday. And you're right. You're talking, we're not saying, like, hey, Joe,
03:41boy, if he made some of those 25-foot putts, we would have been okay with Scheffler.
03:44He was missing routine putts left and right when you figure this is the type of tournament he just outgrinds everybody on a Sunday.
03:51Oh, he's five shots back. Yeah, but he's not going to make any mistakes. And everybody else will.
03:55Everybody was making mistakes, including Scheffler, who just couldn't get the flat stick together, but still had a chance coming down the stretch.
04:02But it was Spahn playing some good golf on 16, 17, and 18. And as you saw, that bomb putt on 18 to clinch it.
04:08No better feeling than that, because the shocking part was, not that he wasn't going to win the tournament.
04:12Go ahead, he's going to lag putt here, just needs a two-putt. Can anybody still catch him at this point?
04:16Drains that putt from a long way out. But you know what I also love about the U.S. Open, and particularly other majors?
04:20He makes that, which means he won the tournament. The other guy still had the putt out on the green, which was Victor Hovland.
04:25They still had a group behind him here. It was almost, like, anticlimactic. Like, just leave the course.
04:29Can you imagine the NBA? Hey, we won the game. It's like, hey, hold on, hold on.
04:33These two guards got to get their shots up here with the final 30 seconds. Let's wait for them here.
04:36But J.J. Spawn champion, U.S. Open champion, over a pretty deep field here.
04:42Yeah. Well, here's the deal. They should have made Sam Burns and Adam Scott have to keep playing another 18 holes
04:50after that absolutely embarrassing performance on a Sunday at the U.S. Open.
04:5778 and 79 is what you got from the final group at the U.S. Open.
05:02Yeah, that's some tremendous golf, USGA. That was pretty impressive.
05:07That was gross, Donnie, on so many levels.
05:09I'll tell you the one thing that does pique my interest, because I'm playing a little bit of golf in my past.
05:14It's like, all right, you understand, like, there is going to be tough golf courses, and the U.S. Open always does ramp it up.
05:20But some things that are a little bit unfair, like the worst case scenario, we've all golfed before.
05:24You have some rain on a course with a lot of rough.
05:26Like, you are just in danger because, number one, the U.S. Open is hard enough to guide the fairways,
05:31but now you're not even getting run in the fairways, and you're getting a heavier rough, which compounds it.
05:35But I think we can all agree on this.
05:37When you're golfing, good country clubs, PGA Tour tracks, hey, I'm coming up on a par 3.
05:43Ooh, that's a long one. That's 192. All right, let me get ready for this one.
05:47Or, all right, it's 178. I can deal with that.
05:49Or how about a 120, 125, or 130? Let me see if I can get this close.
05:53When you have, like, 300-yard par 3s, think about that to the common person.
05:57A 300-yard par 3, like most people are playing that as a par 4.
06:03That's when I start to think it does get a little bit crazy.
06:07Well, it's the U.S. Open. It's supposed to be that crazy.
06:11And, oh, by the way, next year is at Shinnecock.
06:14Good luck. Oh, that's good.
06:15Oh, five over might win next year at Shinnecock.
06:19So, and this crop of players, my goodness.
06:22I mean, the Roms, the Rorys of the world, and Scheffler, who missed, I believe it was
06:30four or five putts inside three feet this week.
06:34Absolutely gross.
06:35He makes a handful of those, and we're having a totally different conversation about this
06:40open here.
06:41The good news is, Scheffler was at least putting for birdie on every hole down the stretch.
06:47Can't say the same about some of these other guys, including the guy who shot 40 on the front
06:52nine and one.
06:53How about that?
06:54$4.3 million, JJ Spawn.
06:56And by the way, when you talk Shinnecock Hills, I remember there were times where that golf
06:59course got so tough.
07:00They had to water the greens in between each group that got up there because of how unfair
07:05it was.
07:05Bring the carnage there at the U.S. Open.
07:08Shinnecock Hills heading back to the New York City area.
07:11So it'd be a lively crowd at that point.
07:12But a U.S. Open champion has been crowned as JJ Spawn.
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