Scottish Open Picks & PGA Headlines Talk with Smylie Kaufman

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00:00All right, hour number three, Pharrell Coast to Coast here on a Tuesday.

00:05Of course, as we get ready this week for the Scottish Open,

00:08PGA Tour going to be heading across the pond.

00:11It's actually a DP World Tour event, technically.

00:14Then, of course, next week you have the Open Championship at Portrush,

00:17which is going to be outstanding.

00:19Always good to have Smiley Kaufman back with us.

00:22You can check out the Smiley Show, of course, right here on Sports Grid.

00:26New episodes multiple times a week.

00:28In fact, if you watched the last episode of the Smiley Show like I did,

00:32you would have known that Smiley Shot, which you shoot a 56.

00:36Is that your home course where you shot a 56, Smiley?

00:41No, no, no.

00:41Man, it's a course called Highland Park downtown here in Birmingham.

00:46It's not the most difficult golf course in the world, Mike.

00:49It's, I think, 5,900 yards, par 70.

00:53Many players have broken 60 on just this random day.

00:57And when I was a junior or senior in college, somehow shot 14 under.

01:01But it's an easy track.

01:03I went out there and shot 64 the other day.

01:05And I'm not the same player that I used to be.

01:09I thought Charlie had the best question for you.

01:11Was this college Smiley, PGA Tour Smiley?

01:14Which Smiley was this?

01:16So it was college Smiley that got the 56.

01:18It was.

01:19It was.

01:20Let's start with this.

01:23You know, I know this has been kind of a dead,

01:25this is usually a dead period in the calendar for the PGA Tour, right?

01:29You have these events like the Rocket in Detroit and the John Deere.

01:33They're a TPC Deere run.

01:35But if you're a diehard Smiley and you're watching every week,

01:39like these have been exciting finishes and exciting tournaments.

01:44I mean, three-man playoff in Detroit, another playoff this week, both Sundays.

01:49You had 10-plus guys within two or three shots of the lead, it seemed like,

01:54going into the back nine.

01:55I know the names weren't big, Smiley, but the golf watching was outstanding.

02:01Yeah, you can even throw in after the Open Championship

02:04when they go play in Minnesota at the 3M.

02:06That's another week, too, where the golf scores typically get up to close to 20 under par.

02:11Actually, shockingly, the scores didn't get to 20 under par at the John Deere.

02:15Actually, it was a little firmer than it typically is.

02:17The year before, Davis Thompson won at 28 under par.

02:21So to only see the guys get to 18 was a little bit of a surprise,

02:24especially with the cut that was at 5 under, which is, I would say, it's on the high side.

02:29So I was a little surprised to see maybe a Max homily not get to that 19, 20 under par and get the win.

02:35So I know we were all kind of rooting for Max to get it done,

02:38and it ended up being an exciting finish with Griot being in the playoff

02:42and then Brian Campbell, two-time winner now.

02:45Two-time winner, Brian Campbell now this year.

02:48And it's funny because Keith Stewart, who you know, comes on with us, too,

02:51on Wednesdays before the tournaments, and me and him were kind of talking about this last week.

02:56Like, isn't this kind of what the PGA Tour envisioned

02:59when they set up this kind of new system of top 50, top 75, top 100, keeping cards?

03:06Like, they've now made these tournaments in July and in August heading into the playoff bigger events,

03:14and you're going to see bigger names probably in the 3M and the Wyndham

03:18because now that crunch to be inside of those numbers,

03:22you're going to see more names show up at these places.

03:24You definitely will.

03:25I mean, Max Holm was the best example.

03:26He's 124 in the FedEx Cup going into the week, jumps 24 spots just outside the top 100.

03:32And if you remember, top 100 is what gets you into, you know, having a card for the following year.

03:39That's what keeps your job.

03:40But top 70 is what makes the playoffs.

03:43And it used to be, when I was playing on tour, top 125 made the playoffs.

03:46So like you're saying, it definitely has brought some more players playing later in the summer

03:52at some of these events that typically they would be skipping.

03:55We now head to the time on the calendar, Smiley, where we cross the pond for all of the big players, of course.

04:03And I'm with you.

04:04It is the best.

04:05I absolutely love these two weeks.

04:07You head to the Renaissance Club for the Scottish Open, which is always a fun tournament,

04:11which, by the way, the field this week is a major quality signature event type of field

04:17with the guys who are going to be there and then right into the Open Championship next week.

04:22Let's start with the Scottish, of course.

04:24What do you think of this field?

04:26I mean, seeing Scotty playing it, Rory's there, Xander, all the heavy hitters.

04:30You got to be excited for this one.

04:33100%.

04:33You said eight out of the top 10 players in the world are here this week.

04:36And it's a golf course that I think is different.

04:40It's a Tom Doak design.

04:42I would say that driving the golf ball is going to be important.

04:45It typically plays firm, which most of the golf does play firm over there.

04:49But you typically get a good amount of wedges on this golf course.

04:53And when you go look at past results on who's played well at this place, going back four

04:58or five years ago, Xander Schauffele was a really, really good player at this place, has

05:03won at this golf course, finished second place as well.

05:06But really, over the last couple of years, it's been Robert McIntyre.

05:10I mean, he has been an absolute killer here, winning last year, finishing second the year

05:15before.

05:16Colin Morikawa also has had some good success here.

05:19But if you've kept up with the news, Mike, he's got a new man on the bag this week, old

05:24Billy Foster.

05:24He's been on many, many tour players' bags.

05:28He's back out of retirement and caddying for Colin Morikawa this week.

05:32You know, we kind of talked about that a few weeks ago with Colin and switching around

05:38the caddies again.

05:39And I think it is interesting because Billy seems like the absolute opposite of what a

05:45guy who would be working with Colin Morikawa.

05:47Couldn't you see his Billy just, I was saying this yesterday, just pull a glove, just hit

05:51the four.

05:52Just hit the four.

05:52That's exactly right.

05:54And maybe that's what, and maybe, Smiley, that's what Colin needs here.

05:58And he'll do this for the next two weeks and maybe that gets something going for him.

06:03I still feel like Colin Morikawa is probably one of the hardest guys to caddy for because

06:06he plays the game a little differently with his irons.

06:09He really relies on, he's one of the best at hitting his numbers with his irons, but he

06:14does it in a different way by adding and taking off a lot of spin.

06:19You know, he's a player that can hit a four iron 190 yards and just by, just by spitting

06:23the golf ball with a fade and it's an old school way of playing and it's a ton of feel

06:28involved.

06:29And I think it's very difficult to caddy for, for somebody who's never really known how he

06:35typically likes to play.

06:36So it'll be interesting how they see, how they do week one, but many times you'll see

06:41a new caddy get on the back and, and voila, they end up winning the golf tournament.

06:47What do you like this week at the Scottish?

06:49You know what, it's interesting because, you know, I keep going back to the well thinking

06:54that, that Tommy Fleetwood's eventually going to win on the PGA tour.

06:58And wouldn't it make sense that it was a technically a DP world tour, PGA tour aligned golf tournament,

07:04one that's not in the States, one that's over a season and maybe a little bit more comfortable.

07:10He'll have, you know, all the support that you could ever imagine.

07:13He's had four top tens of this place, Mike, and he's playing as good as golf of anybody.

07:18When you go look at his results this year, Tommy, to me, it's hard to bet on him to win,

07:23but I feel like if he's ever going to win and win this year, this seems like a really,

07:28really good week for him potentially to contend.

07:31But then you also have Scotty Sheffler, right?

07:33He's obviously the favorite, a heavy favorite and, and rightfully so.

07:38He's had nine straight top tens.

07:40I mean, it's just, it's just stupid.

07:41Yeah.

07:43And he's kind of changed it up this year, right?

07:45I know last year, maybe the last two years, he didn't play the Scottish before leading into the open championship.

07:51So he's kind of changing up his routine this year, getting that week before in, I've kind of got my eye on somebody.

07:57It feels like this is a good spot for Sam Burns this week, Smiley.

08:01Like it feels like, and he's played good here and he's played good the last month and a half, two months.

08:07Like it feels like he's been knocking on the door.

08:10I really like that mainly because I think his biggest skills and assets are his driving of the golf ball and his putting.

08:17And you, you have a good week driving out here and you get some wedges in and firm turf.

08:21I think that means something to a lot of players.

08:24I think he'll, he'll hit it better off a firmer turf than he would off a softer turf.

08:29Smiley will be part of it next week.

08:31The open championship.

08:33He's heading over there this weekend, getting excited.

08:37Royal port rush, Smiley Kaufman.

08:40Check out the Smiley show right here on sports.

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