Smylie Kaufman Talks U.S. Open Challenges & J.J. Spaun's Victory

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00:00And we are back. Hour number three for our coast to coast here on a Monday. Carver High here with

00:06you. And we start our number three with our good friend Smiley Kaufman. The Smiley Show

00:11right here on Sports Grid coming off of the U.S. Open at Oakmont. Smiley was out there.

00:18Have you dried off yet, Smiley? I guess that has to be the first question. Have you dried off yet?

00:22Well, now that you mention it, I just realized I need to take these shoes that I wore yesterday

00:30out of a bag that I got from the hotel room. There's no telling what they probably smell

00:36like. They're probably still so wet. You have no idea how wet these fairways were. I mean,

00:41it was every single step. It was like I was walking in a puddle. It certainly looked that

00:47way. And I'm actually going to start there. And listen, we're going to give JJ Spawn his

00:50deserved flowers and bouquets in a moment. But obviously, the course itself, as it usually

00:56is with U.S. Open, Smiley, they're kind of the story first, right? What about the course?

01:02And Oakmont was tough. I mean, to have one guy finish under par for the entire week, that's

01:08what they want. They want something like that at a place like this. I did think, though,

01:12Smiley, as much as we love this stuff and we love watching guys hack it up out of big rough

01:19and I like it was tough that they played and they finished yesterday and the kind of conditions

01:26that they were playing in for the final round of a U.S. Open. I thought it was a little too

01:31much. I mean, Sam Burns is hitting out of a pond on one hole. I don't think it would have

01:35mattered if he got the drop or not. I think that Spawn still would have won. But I thought

01:39the conditions were a little over the top, Smiley, in the back nine. And they should have

01:43waited till this morning. They probably should have. I think it was definitely a little past

01:49borderline. And the only comparison that you can possibly make is, OK, let's say this was

01:54a PGA Tour event. What what would the PGA Tour have done with the rule set that they have

01:59on site? And would they have deemed the conditions of the golf course to be playable? I think

02:04I think they probably would have waited a little longer to send the guys out to let the

02:09fairways try to just absorb a little bit of that rain that just came down for I mean,

02:14came down in buckets for like 30 minutes. And of course, I have USGA probably has a prerogative.

02:21They want to finish on Sunday night in primetime. And so so do we as a broadcaster. It isn't

02:28it isn't our decision. They they decide when when to go when not to go. But of course, I was

02:33happy to leave this morning. That's that was nice for me. But I'm with you. I'm with you. I mean,

02:40these guys, Mike, they train every single day to to have an opportunity to be, you know, in the mix

02:47on the back nine of a Sunday. And you hate to see, you know, just the quirkiness of really wet golf

02:53balls and having no control over how far the ball goes or left and right, which I understand is part

03:00of the sport. But when it gets to kind of a point where, you know, guys are literally hit like playing

03:07in conditions that never played in before. That's where I think he got a little dicey for sure.

03:13When guys are in the middle of the fairway, and they're hitting shots with enormous splashes of

03:17water coming out from the ball. That's kind of the telltale sign for me. But all that being said,

03:23Smiley, everyone had to play in the same conditions. And when you had a guy shoot 40 on the front,

03:30who was in the final two pairs and you're thinking, I mean, you were out there with him

03:34and you're thinking, all right, well, we're probably going to be leaning away from JJ here

03:38for the most part, because he's fallen out of it. The holes he played on 17 and 18,

03:43the shots that he made on 17 and 18, including obviously the 60 plus foot bomb putt to finish

03:50it out. I thought the drive on 17, the putt on 18, those are the two shots, Smiley, that won him

03:56the US open. And even the drive on 18, that's a very, very difficult drive at 18 to step up there

04:02and hit it right down the middle of that fairway. It was big time. And of course, like when you're

04:07walking up the fairway, it hadn't been raining. And then, you know, right as we get to his golf ball,

04:12it just starts coming down again. And so now you got this misty fog that's rolling in this,

04:17this rain that, that is basically coming in sideways. And you can't even make out the flagstick

04:22at 18. I'm, I'm looking around for it. I can't even find it, but all you can see is basically

04:27the green and a bunch of people. And he had 202 yards flushes, a six iron left side of the green.

04:33And I'm thinking, okay, that's going to be a difficult to putt. And then Victor goes next

04:38and he should have gotten casual water relief. Wasn't granted casual water relief at 18

04:43and then hits it in the exact same spot as JJ. And if you've seen any of the, the interviews with

04:50JJ after just talking about how it felt like it was destiny because his first one at San Antonio,

04:54like the same thing happened to him where Scott Stallings hits a shot out of the bunker and it

05:00goes right past his mark, giving him the exact read that he needed to have. And it's like, well,

05:04this is just destiny. And, um, and the, the wag putt, Mike, it was, it was a very difficult one.

05:10I got right behind the golf ball to see, you know, what exactly he was facing. The speed

05:16was going to be the biggest challenge. I mean, there was about six to seven feet of break,

05:20but the speed I thought was going to be really tough to, to get a gauge on because mainly it was,

05:24it was, you know, you got all this moisture on the green, it's dark, you're putting through this,

05:28uh, goalie in the green and then up over a Ridge. And. You know, luckily vector,

05:33hot would hit the same pup, but still he went up there and it, I mean, hit the part of his life.

05:38Just one of the coolest things I've ever seen in person and probably will ever see a guy to make,

05:44uh, 65 footer on the last hole to win the U S open. Yeah. Uh, and look, he could probably take

05:50that same exact part another 20 times and he probably missed 19 out of the 20. Right. But

05:55he made the one, he made the one, uh, right there. And look, even if he came up this short smile,

06:01he, all he had to do was tap it. He still would have won the U S open, but that's a way to finish,

06:04uh, the way that he did it. And look, I know this kind of feels out of nowhere to a lot of people,

06:09but this was a guy who his game has improved so much this year, lost in the playoff to Rory at

06:16the players. You've seen him move up the rankings this year. Looks like he's probably even going to

06:21get to play in the Ryder cup now because of all those automatic points that he's in the Ryder cup.

06:26What a hell of a life-changing moment for JJ spawn. Oh yeah. Last year he was on the brink of,

06:32you know, missing his car or losing his PJ tour card. And then a year later, he's having a breakout

06:36season. You know, him and Ben Griffin have been the two stars this season as far as just, uh, you

06:42know, breakout stars throwing Andrew Novak in the mix there too. But JJ spawn going second place at the

06:47players. And then first at the U S open, I mean, come on. I mean, that's unbelievable. I mean,

06:51I think any top player in the game would say that would be, you know, a, a really, really good season

06:58for them if they did those two things. And, uh, JJ spawn just out of nowhere has done it this season

07:03and, um, and has had multiple top fives, like you talked about. And, uh, he's, he's always been

07:09solid, Mike. I've played with him on tour multiple times. We always used to get paired together and it

07:13always seemed like to me with his game is that he just never quite believed in himself. Always was

07:17kind of like Eeyore out there always was really down on himself. Did never really look like he was

07:21having a whole lot of fun. Um, and, and the golf kind of gets you that way. It can beat you up.

07:27And I think the overall change in philosophy of just not being so hard on himself and just kind

07:34of going out and, and playing more confidently, that's been the motto for him this year. And then

07:38all of a sudden the talents come out and then a putter that's been locked up in jail for a long

07:42time, uh, has been really good this season. It certainly has. Uh, and we do have to turn the

07:48page quickly, smiley, because we go right into a signature event this week. And, uh, before you

07:53go, I got out just a little bit over a minute left. We go to Cromwell TPC river Island. We've got

07:58the travelers. I mean, let's go. We got Scotty. We got Rory. We got all the big names going right back

08:04at it. Who do you like this week? I like a lot of guys. Uh, I think so many, so many players come to

08:10mind. Cam Young's playing really good golf right now. Uh, he's like the one guy that really pops up

08:16for me. Just, he's just trending. It seems like to a potential win. Uh, I still, I still feel like

08:22Jordan has a good week in him. He's hitting it really well. And if he can just put, you know,

08:29he just, he just has too many like bad moments in a, in, in a tournament. If he can just keep those

08:33away, he's, he's hitting it plenty good enough, uh, to contend. So I really am cheering for him

08:38because I want to see him on this Ryder cup team. And I think he needs a really good week.

08:42My first two clicks this morning, Jordan and Cameron Young. Smiley coughed with the smiley show.

08:48Catch it right here on SportsCrit.

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