- 6/18/2025
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00:00Oh, the hot topics keep flowing here. It's hour number three. The guests keep running through.
00:04Let's have even more fun because we got a recap and we got a preview to do on this show today.
00:09And thank goodness we have the time to do it with a double segment.
00:12Donnie Wrightside going along with Joe Ranieri and welcome in Keith Stewart.
00:15We got a lot of talk about Keith, a monster weekend, which like I loved.
00:20I absolutely loved it. The guy with me on the show today, Joe Ranieri, he did not love it.
00:24But how are you doing today, Keith? That's what's most important for us. How about that?
00:29Donnie, Joe, I'm doing fantastic. I'm in shelter up here at the Travelers, so I can't get wet at this moment.
00:35But if I step outside, chances are I'm going to get rained on.
00:39There you go. Getting rained on was a key on Sunday afternoon because we got to review what happened at the U.S. Open.
00:46I love the U.S. Open. The true test of golf where they tell you par is what the score should be.
00:52One player in the field under par, J.J. Spahn, the reason why he was under par, drained an absolute bomb on the 18th green to clinch the U.S. Open.
01:01You had boots on the ground all week long.
01:04Please tell us what the players were thinking, what the fans were thinking, and how it played out right in front of you for J.J. Spahn winning the U.S. Open.
01:11Well, you know what, Donnie? I can answer those two questions very easily.
01:16I can tell you that the fans, they absolutely loved it.
01:18Pittsburgh showed up. It was pretty strong. There was a great vibe.
01:21It's a really big property.
01:23And a championship like that, when you get people that spread out without, you know, maybe Rory or Bryson at the top of the leaderboard,
01:29you maybe won't hear as many roars, but everybody loved the competition.
01:34Everybody loved, you know, how it all went down.
01:36Of course, they all loved the ending.
01:38Now, did the players like it?
01:39You know, every once in a while, the players don't mind a good challenge.
01:42I will say that.
01:43So I know that they were thinking, you know, hey, if I get past the cut, it's the low 60 in ties in a massive field of 156 players.
01:50They know their game is on point, and they give it a chance over the weekend.
01:54Now, what was the USGA and NBC thinking?
01:57Restarting that thing on a golf course that was saturated?
02:00I mean, that I don't know.
02:01I cannot answer that question.
02:03So it sounds like maybe I'm heading more towards the Joe side.
02:07And I'll say this.
02:08Up front, I was a Burns backer.
02:10I was a Burns backer pre-tournament.
02:12I had him at 80-1.
02:13I was riding him the whole way through.
02:15And the fact of the matter is, is that I'm not going to sit here and complain about the 15th fairway and the temporary water ruling.
02:21I mean, that is what I would call collateral damage.
02:25Executives made the decision to run that tournament during the TV window on Sunday afternoon.
02:29When you do that, you know, I'm a PGA professional.
02:31I ran golf tournaments outdoors my entire life.
02:35When you have a big event like that, and you make a decision to do something when the golf course is not necessarily playable, you know there will be collateral damage.
02:44You don't know who it will be, but you know there will be some out there.
02:47But you make a decision based upon what you believe is the greater good.
02:50They push this thing through for NBC.
02:52Hey, they got the ending of a lifetime.
02:54Congratulations to J.J. Spong.
02:56Congratulations to Robert McIntyre.
02:57I don't want to downplay their efforts whatsoever.
02:59Those guys played the best under the conditions they were given.
03:03But Adam Scott doesn't hit a wedge on the 11th fairway over a green if it's not, if the ground isn't saturated, right?
03:10Sam Burns doesn't make double on the 15th.
03:13And there were other instances that you kept seeing where guys were in the middle of the fairway and they would miss a green because the water's in between the grooves and the ball.
03:20Donnie, you played a lot of golf.
03:21You know what it's like to play out in the rain, right?
03:23We don't play this.
03:24We don't play this on ice in an arena, right?
03:26We don't do this in a gymnasium.
03:28We do it outdoors.
03:30You know, once again, the USGA tried to outsmart everyone.
03:34And in the end, for me, you know, it just didn't have a great feeling.
03:40And yet, Scotty Scheffler, if he made a couple of putts, probably wins that thing going away, doesn't he?
03:46You know, it's funny.
03:47This morning, Scotty was in the press room and he was asked about his US Open and he said, yeah, it was just a couple of putts away.
03:53You know, I mean, I think we all see the same thing.
03:56Scotty is far and above the best player in the world.
03:59He proves it week in and week out.
04:01He won here last year.
04:03You guys remember in a playoff, the one with the protesters that ran out on the green with Tom Kim.
04:07At the end of the day, I mean, you watch him ball striking.
04:11You know, he was frustrated on the range of all things.
04:14And he finished, what, you know, in the top five?
04:17It's just pretty tough.
04:19Yeah, I mean, Oakmont certainly showed out.
04:21They told you, and we always know it's going to be one of the toughest tests of golf.
04:24They gave that to you.
04:25Outside of the golf itself with J.J. Spohn was tremendous.
04:28I mean, you want to talk about the opening front nine there.
04:30It's like, oh, I just blew my chance.
04:31Probably only time I'm ever going to get to win a major.
04:33And comes back in the second and plays well, extremely well down the stretch.
04:37And all of those elements.
04:38But that's not even what I want to talk about.
04:40Rory McIlroy didn't play well in this tournament.
04:43Coming in, not playing well.
04:45You told us, Keith, right here on this show, like, this guy's one of the favorites.
04:48He will not be on my card here.
04:50But it's not even that.
04:51How did he go from, boy, I finally complete the Grand Slam.
04:54I love everything out here, too.
04:56Don't you dare put that mic in my face.
04:58Matter of fact, I don't even know if I like golf anymore.
05:00What happened to Rory?
05:02Donnie, it's as simple as this.
05:04A grip on your club is like a grip on your world.
05:06And there's obviously something going on behind the scenes.
05:09Because Rory has always managed, within a tournament or two, to get his game back in shape.
05:13It's not the fact that he's changing drivers that's causing him to be short with the media,
05:18to be terse, to be curt with everyone, to be on edge.
05:22I mean, everywhere you see him, even walking around, he's got his head down.
05:25Doesn't want to make eye contact with anything.
05:27That's not Rory.
05:28That's not the Rory that I've seen out here for the last four years.
05:30He is always one to stop and have a conversation with a volunteer or everyone.
05:34So, I really think that there's something going on outside of golf.
05:37And I hope that everything's okay in his world.
05:40But it's obvious to me that if you're not settled in bed,
05:43then you're certainly not going to be settled in a bunker down there at Oakmont
05:46and be able to get up and down.
05:48Because for right now, it seems like he's got a lot on his plate.
05:51And I'm going to fade him again this week here at the Travelers.
05:55I mean, he's a pretty good fit.
05:56The guy, it's driver, wedge, putter this week.
05:58And for all intents and purposes, I'm not sure any of those three will work for him enough
06:03to get across the finish line.
06:06Yeah.
06:07Well, it could be a little personal relationship situation going on there.
06:12Because it feels like it's all above the shoulders, doesn't it, with him?
06:15It can't just be that I won the Masters and I'm done.
06:18There's got to be more to it above the shoulders.
06:21I think that's where the big problem lies with him right now.
06:25There's no doubt about that, Joe.
06:26And I'm not going to even go down that road or speculate.
06:30But, I mean, the way that he played golf to start the year was some of the best golf of his career.
06:35He had a mission.
06:36It was the Masters.
06:38He said he worked hard for six months from October working on specific aspects of his game
06:43just to get ready for Augusta National.
06:45He reached the career grand slam.
06:47It sounds to me like a lot of self-talk when he says,
06:50I'm going to have a tough time getting going after I accomplished that major career goal.
06:55I mean, that guy's never had trouble getting going.
06:57So, I'm with you.
06:59I think it's between the years.
07:01Oh, come on.
07:02Boy, showed its teeth there again.
07:04JJ spawned minus one the victory here for the U.S. Open.
07:07Congratulations on him at $4.3 million in his back pocket.
07:11By the way, Adam Scott, 79.
07:13Sam Burns, 78.
07:14What happened there?
07:15Goodness.
07:16New golf tournament, new week.
07:18We'll talk about that next.
07:21Masters down.
07:22U.S. Open down.
07:23Hey, the British Open coming up here shortly for us.
07:26We'll be able to watch that.
07:27The major championship season certainly in full swing.
07:29But that's not this week.
07:31We have another tournament, and that's good because we have Key Stewart here to talk to us about it.
07:35We're headed to the TPC River Highlands for the Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Connecticut.
07:406,800 yards here.
07:42A $20 million purse.
07:43And, oh, yeah, look at that.
07:44The previous winner, Scotty Scheffler.
07:46The favorite this week, Scotty Scheffler.
07:49Give us a quick preview before we get to the players itself.
07:51How does this golf course lay out for us?
07:54You know, Donnie, it sounds strange to say this, but this is our last signature event of the year, and it's only June.
08:00Now, PGA Tour schedule goes until Labor Day, but this is it.
08:03This is your last $20 million purse.
08:0572 players.
08:0672 holes.
08:07No cut.
08:08And I'll just jump right into it.
08:10TPC River Highlands, we're familiar with this location.
08:13The PGA Tour has been here for years.
08:15Travelers stepped in in 2007, and they absolutely elevated this event on their own before it became a signature event three years ago.
08:23If you want to tackle this place, let's go right into Keith's Keys.
08:26Number one, you got to score, right?
08:28The last three years since it turned into a signature event, the average winning score is 21 under par.
08:32Two guys finished at 22 last year, Scotty and Tom Kim, and, you know, Scotty ended up pulling it out with another birdie in the first hole of the sudden death playoff.
08:42But you got to be able to score here.
08:44Number two is that you got to be a good wedge player.
08:46You got to have proximity to the hole.
08:48If you want to get to 22, 23 under par, you got to create 30, 32, 36 legitimate birdie chances.
08:54That means you're hitting wedges from 125 to 150 inside 20 feet, and you got to start making some putts.
09:01So you got to look for those wedge guys that can really, really lock in on the radar.
09:05And the last thing is, is that you mentioned this in the opening right there.
09:08This is a par 70 layout.
09:11The scorecard has missed a couple par fives, and they add in a couple par fours.
09:15Par four scoring is the secret to the par 70 guys, right?
09:19When you take away the par fives, some guys, you know, they make the lunch money on those par fives week in and week out.
09:25You take two of them away, and it does make a big difference.
09:28Make sure when you're building out your DFS lineups and your betting cards this week that you're looking for guys
09:34and that you model for guys that are great when they have to score on par fours and some difficult par threes.
09:44Can you put it on any of the guys that did the cut last week?
09:47I'm sorry, Joe, you broke up there.
09:52Something about the guys and the cut?
09:55No, some of the guys that did it, are you going to focus on some of the guys that made the cut last week coming into this?
10:02Some of the guys that absolutely blew up.
10:06Oh, you know what, Joe?
10:07I'm going with recent form.
10:08You know, we've talked about this a lot in my world, you know, the golf betting industry.
10:13This week you jump in and off shows, and for me, I'm going with the guys that have the hot hand.
10:18This is no longer a case where, like, hey, I need to decompress after the U.S. Open.
10:23There's $20 million on the line and $3.6 million for first.
10:26I'm going after the birdie makers this week.
10:29So if it's a guy like Robert McIntyre who won last year at the RBC Canadian Open
10:33on a very similar style golf course, Hamilton Golf and Country Club,
10:36and he comes here and he's in great form, the putter's working, I'm going down that road.
10:40The guys that didn't make the cut, I have no interest there.
10:44I'm sure some of them will do fine because they're world-class players,
10:47but give me Sam Burns who's gotten burned two weeks in a row.
10:50Give me Robert McIntyre.
10:52Give me Victor Hovland.
10:54Awesome stuff here.
10:55And also take a look at the top of that leaderboard.
10:57It is Scotty Sheffler, the 3-1 price here.
10:58So the early leans on the early line coming up.
11:00But before we get that, Keith, heat and humidity is on deck for us here in the Northeast.
11:06We're talking about mid-90s temperatures this weekend.
11:10How could that affect the golf course?
11:11And also, does that play into somebody who might be able to be a little bit bigger off the tee,
11:15get loosened up out there?
11:16How's that work?
11:17Well, what it works in favor of is scoring,
11:20which is they already the template for what you need here, Donnie.
11:23It poured all day here yesterday.
11:25You know, we live up here in the Northeast, and I tell you what,
11:27it's been raining since it seems like, I don't know, the Masters, right?
11:31It's been raining forever.
11:32And this place is soft.
11:34It is absolutely lush.
11:36You know, I'm not going to sit here and say that the rough is like Oakmont,
11:39but the rough is going to play a factor.
11:40You won't be able to control spinning trajectory from there.
11:44And what will happen is that you're just not going to get the proximity you need
11:48in order to make all of those birdies.
11:50For me, the weather this week, we're going to get rain again on Thursday night.
11:53This place is going to play soft.
11:56Scotty Sheffler, that favorite here, Rory McIlroy,
11:58even after a tough week there at the Open at a 12-1 price,
12:02the end of Schauffler, 16-1, Morikawa at 18-1.
12:04Those guys at 20-1 or under here at the FanDuel Sportsbook.
12:08Who's knocking this tournament down, Keith?
12:10Who is it?
12:11All right, the early leans are Richter Hovland.
12:14I love him to be hot, to stay hot, right?
12:16The app game is really good.
12:17And you know what?
12:18The putter is going to happen.
12:20I mean, he gained 14 strokes tee to green last week, guys.
12:22Second guy, Nick Taylor, the Canadian.
12:24I'm going to the deep number, plus 10,000, 100-1,
12:28fourth at the Memorial, 13th up there at RBC Canada.
12:32The guy's great on short golf courses.
12:34Take Nick.
12:35There you go.
12:36Keith Stewart, the man with the plan, our PGA program.
12:40Thank you for joining us.
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