00:00We'll start with Scottie.
00:00Well, I want to just kind of run through Scottie Sheffield in the U.S. Open.
00:04So he first played as a professional.
00:07He qualified as an amateur.
00:09But in 2021, his first one, he finished T7.
00:132022, finished his second.
00:152023 at L.A., finished his third.
00:17Pinehurst, surprising.
00:18I think we all expect him to play well.
00:20Finished 41st.
00:21Then last year, finished his T7.
00:23But what that tells you is that, you know, it's not surprising.
00:26Like, Scottie contends just about any place he goes.
00:29But it feels like U.S. Opens are designed for Scottie Sheffield.
00:33It feels like it rewards patience.
00:35It rewards a good discipline.
00:37And that is exactly what Scottie Sheffield has, you know, made his bread on,
00:43on the PGA Tour and these major championships.
00:46So when I think about a place like this that might frustrate people
00:50that aren't equipped to be able to first execute the shots, number one,
00:54but then also have the discipline and the course management to be able to hit to
00:59certain spots, I think that is what Scottie Sheffield is going to be able to
01:04hopefully be able to do.
01:05Because, you know, of course, the storyline for him this week is the Grand Slam,
01:08potential winning on his 30th birthday on Sunday.
01:13But a couple things that I want to, like, point out to you from a statistical standpoint
01:16that I find interesting for Scottie is that his bogey avoidance is first.
01:23The one thing that I think that you'll love and I think people don't realize about his putting this year
01:27is that he's 17th in putting.
01:29But you look at it, you're like, huh, where is the reason why he's so much higher this year?
01:35Dude, it's his bonus putting.
01:36It's the putts outside of 25 feet.
01:39He's made 17 putts this year outside of 25 feet.
01:44And really in his career, he's only done that, like, one time
01:47where he's actually made more than 17 putts outside of 25 feet.
01:51The last two years, he didn't even get to 17.
01:53And we're already at the U.S. Open.
01:55So it tells you that he's holding a lot more putts from further away.
01:58But also his proximity this year is the one thing that you point to that you're like, huh.
02:04Like, his iron game has been off and we're like, but it's not that off
02:09because he actually leads the PGA Tour in greens and regulation.
02:12So you're like, gah, like, I wish I could, like, be tough on the guy.
02:17But he leads the tour to hitting the green in regulation, which is an impressive thing to do.
02:21But his proximity from a feet standpoint, he's like five feet further away than he typically averages.
02:27And then also his wedge game is a little bit off as I throw my stuff again.
02:30You're doing good just, like, getting rid of all your research.
02:32But what I want to ask you is with Scotty and knowing that it's really his – it's his first,
02:40I guess –
02:41is this his first crack at the career grand slam because he won the Open the last major of 2025?
02:46So what are your expectations knowing that he's an accurate driver of the golf ball?
02:52His iron game, of course, he's going to find a lot of greens.
02:56The putting is sure up, and he's third in scrambling.
03:00It's like, why isn't Scotty going to win this week?
03:04So this is an interesting one because we've done a lot of talking about this crisis we're having with Scotty
03:11Scheffler
03:12while looking at stats and saying, wait a second, this guy's one of the best players on tour this season.
03:17We just hold him to so much of a higher standard.
03:19We hold him to the highest standard really of anyone since Prime Tiger Woods, right?
03:22So it's a little bit unfair to him.
03:24There has been a lot of talk in the past couple months, and from smart people, not just like people
03:29on the internet like randos,
03:30about the differences in his swings and, you know, swing width, arm width, things like that, and particularly off the
03:38tee.
03:38And that's one where maybe I'd throw it back to you, too, just to like –
03:42Why don't you say that the off the tee wouldn't be quite as big of a deal this week because
03:45he's going to find 70% of his fairways at worst.
03:49Sure, but I think – and this is why I asked the question of Wyndham, and this is why I'm
03:52just curious to see how it plays out
03:54because, again, let's go back one major and look at what Scotty did early at a randos so well.
03:59He didn't – you know, he played it really smart.
04:01He was, you know, bunting little 280-yard, 270-yard drivers and laying in the correct place,
04:07and then he didn't do that as much on Friday and beyond and wasn't, you know, obviously did not win
04:11that major.
04:12But I think that there are a lot of holes out here where he has the length to take a
04:17more aggressive line,
04:18but it requires, like, a lot of precision and, you know, landing in a narrow area.
04:23Now, I'm not saying –
04:24It's such a second-shot golf course, though.
04:25So, like, I'm – I think every bit of this test is about iron control
04:29and then ability to be able to get up and down around the green.
04:32I think – and I think I agree with all that.
04:35I just – I guess I think back to the frustration with some of the lies he found off the
04:40fairway at Pinehurst in 2024.
04:42And this is very different, but, you know, we just talked about Fesky.
04:44Like, you could pull a good line and be lucky or you could just be completely boned and have to
04:47chip it out.
04:48And so I think that, you know, like a lot of guys, I think the same thing of Rory.
04:53He recently was talking about his swing mechanics and how he prefer – I know he's a draw to the
04:58golf ball,
04:59but he preferred to hit, like, a cut off the tee, but his miss is further out in the toe
05:02and so goes left.
05:03And so it's one thing if, like, you hit a draw normally and then you draw it a little bit
05:08further
05:08and you can kind of shut down the right side of the golf course.
05:10If you have a two-way miss out here, that's where I'm curious to see how much guys get penalized.
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