00:00All right, let's bring in Keith Stewart as the PGA Tour rolls on and what a finish it was last week in the BMW Championship on one particular hole, by the way, which really sealed it for Scotty Scheffler.
00:10Good to have you back here on the show, Keith.
00:12And yeah, I mean, it's the old cliche, it's Scotty's world and we're living in it.
00:17I mean, I mean, couldn't be more true about any athlete in the country than Scotty Scheffler.
00:21It's just sort of ridiculous at this point how good he was.
00:24And, you know, sometimes he does it with these highlight reels and big shots.
00:28He did it again last week on 17.
00:30I mean, what is left for Scotty Scheffler at this point?
00:33You know, I mean, we've had these dominant runs for Nicholas and Palmer and Gary Player and Tiger Woods.
00:41And, you know, it's like I'm putting him in that category, maybe not quite, but close to it, right?
00:47Well, you know, Craig, good afternoon here to the Newswire fans.
00:51And I mean, there's two constants right now in my world.
00:54One is Scotty Scheffler wins, and the other thing is, is that it's hot as blazes everywhere we go.
00:59Memphis, Baltimore, now I'm down in Atlanta.
01:01I mean, you can see the sweat on my forehead.
01:03It's crazy.
01:04If you want to put Scotty in perspective, you know, we talked about this after he won the Open Championship.
01:10You know, now that he's starting to accumulate major championships, forget the money and everything for a second,
01:15but like now that he's starting to accumulate major championships,
01:18he's kind of surpassed that Brooks-Rory level of his generation.
01:22And now we're starting to look at him like his next step is getting to like fill status.
01:27And then if he can do that and get to the high single digits,
01:29then you're going to start to talk about the Gary players and the Tom Watsons of the world.
01:33Of course, Tiger, Nicholas, that's another stratosphere.
01:36But the pace that he's on and the rate with which he's winning, I mean, five wins in his last 10 starts,
01:41that's very Tiger-esque.
01:43And the ball striking manner with which he does it is impressive.
01:46Now, the one thing about Scotty is he's been pretty vanilla as he does all this.
01:50It's like death by a thousand paper cuts.
01:52Sunday on 17, that was a signature moment for Scotty.
01:57And, you know, it's tough to remember all of them for Scotty, but we all will remember that one.
02:01Yeah, no, that's very, very true.
02:04And, you know, I still think with the great coverage that the PGA Tour has of these events,
02:09even a little vanilla, we're still seeing so many players play via the apps that they have,
02:16watching each player if you want to.
02:18It's just the technology has increased so much, and it's made it so great.
02:21But there it is.
02:21That's the list this year.
02:23Byron Nelson, then the major of the PGA Championship.
02:26Memorial, then the Open Championship.
02:27Now the BMW Championship.
02:30And I suppose I would ask you this.
02:32Of all of those, you know, seemingly, I think people will probably go back to the Open Championship
02:37as the one that was the biggest of them all.
02:39Do you consider it to be that amongst all his wins this year?
02:42Well, I think at this point, if we're going to track down, let's say, double digits in majors,
02:48all the majors matter.
02:49So let's not discount the PGA, held off John Rahm.
02:53Quail Hollow is certainly a championship test.
02:55But the uniqueness of what happened over at the Open Championship was that that was his highest odds
03:00starting the week of the year.
03:02He was plus 600.
03:03Now, most of the year he was sitting around plus 450 in the majors going in, you know,
03:07plus 300, plus 400 or whatever in the regular signature events, et cetera.
03:11So he goes into that week plus 600, and everyone's trying to downplay the fact that, you know,
03:15like maybe Scottie's not that good on length-style golf.
03:17Well, guess what?
03:18He goes over there and he wins by a couple again.
03:20So I think that's probably the most memorable of the wins because of that, people doubting him.
03:26But at the end of the day, you know, we've spent, you know, like people in our world,
03:30we keep trying to come up with reasons how not to bet Scottie.
03:33And I think for the Tour Championship, the mess that we're building down here
03:37and the fact that the way the format of the tournament is set up this year,
03:40I think that, you know, you got to run with Scottie this week.
03:45Yeah, no, it definitely feels like that at this point with the way that he is playing.
03:50And, you know, I guess I just didn't realize this stat, Keith,
03:53so I'm going to go over it here with you, just how dominant Tiger Woods is.
03:56I mean, I suppose I forgot that.
03:59He has been the world number one, Scottie has, for 118 straight weeks.
04:04Tiger Woods, 281 weeks in a row?
04:09I guess I didn't realize that.
04:12I got to walk back what I said a little bit earlier.
04:14You're right.
04:14He still has got a long way to go until he catches him.
04:17I mean, real quickly, Craig, in our world, in the betting world,
04:21Tiger used to go to events and he would be even money against the field.
04:25He went into Bay Hill in 2008.
04:27He was minus 110.
04:28He was going into majors at plus 150, plus 100.
04:31Scottie's plus 150 this week, plus 175 against 29 other guys.
04:36We're talking about full field events and Tiger was minus 110 going to a place
04:40where he, you know, where he had won a couple of times.
04:42You know, pump the brakes on the Tiger comparisons a little bit.
04:45But you know what?
04:46From a ball striking perspective, Scottie is really, really impressive.
04:50And that's what really suits Eastlake this week.
04:52And, you know, live golf for all that it is,
04:56kind of showed us what this week is all about here at the Tour Championship.
05:00Joaquin Neiman won five times on the live tour this year.
05:04Yet, Jon Rahm was the player of the year on points.
05:07How that happens, Craig, will need a whole other show.
05:09I have no idea.
05:10But Scottie Scheffler is no doubt the season leader in points in everything, right?
05:15But if he doesn't win this week, he's not the FedEx Cup champion.
05:18So there's a little bit of drama brewing there.
05:20And I think that it weighs on all of these guys at the top of the list
05:24that they really want to break through, no more so than Scottie.
05:29And I have good news to report.
05:30His caddy, his man under the straps, Ted Scott, is back with him.
05:35Yeah, no, that's huge news.
05:37And not that it mattered last week, with all due respect to Ted.
05:40But let me show you the odds here, Keith, to win the PGA Tour Championship.
05:44And these are as short as we've gotten.
05:46You mentioned Tiger with Scottie.
05:48Plus 150.
05:49I mean, that's as low as it gets.
05:51And I know we're just, like, trying to find someone else.
05:53So we threw some names here on the board.
05:55I mean, Justin Thomas, that's new to the field here, being as short as 25 to 1.
06:00I see that.
06:00I mean, Oberg does have his weeks.
06:03You know, Tommy Fleetwood at this point, I'm going to shake his hand and root for him.
06:06But, you know, in the end, it's kind of hard to land on him.
06:09No disrespect to Tommy Fleetwood.
06:11What do you make of those odds?
06:13Well, I think that you really have to look at the golf course, right?
06:16What are the keys to playing well here at Eastlake Golf Club?
06:18You've got to keep the ball in the fairway.
06:20You've got to stay out of the Bermuda Triangle.
06:22The Bermuda Grass Rough is going to chew guys up.
06:25If you look at the strokes game career leaders here, you're talking about guys like Tommy Fleetwood,
06:29Colin Morikawa, Russell Henley, the guys that are very, very accurate off the tee.
06:34You've got to have to be able to score.
06:35Vegas at the over-under for the final score at 17.5.
06:38And then I also think that you've got to be a good, like, where are you going to score?
06:42How about on those par threes and fours?
06:44For the third week in a row, we have a par 70 contest.
06:47So, all of those factors lean on Scotty.
06:50If I was going to go another way, I would go with the accuracy guys.
06:53Maybe not Fleetwood, but a Henley or a Colin Morikawa or somebody like that breaking through for a huge win.
06:58That might be something I would look at.
07:01All right.
07:01Great stuff as always.
07:02Keith, try to stay cool.
07:03Of course, I'm here in South Florida.
07:05I feel your heat pain.
07:07Believe me, every day here.
07:08It doesn't end.
07:09Thanks again for coming on.
07:11Oh, absolutely, Craig.
07:12Love it on Tuesdays.
07:13I'll see you in a couple weeks.
07:14You know, all these Ryder Cup guys are going to go to the Pro Court Championship.
07:18It's going to be exciting.
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