Recap all the action from the course with our 2025 PGA Tour season review, highlighting the biggest surprises, busts & players to watch in 2026!
What makes Ben Griffin the most significant surprise on Tour? What happened to Tony Finau that he became a fade this year? Plus, what players could emerge out of the shadows next season?
Analyst Jake Parry and guest Keith Flemming of the Inside Drive Podcast don’t hold back when breaking down the most-significant risers & fallers in the golf world!
⏰ Time Stamps:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:02:25 News Niblick: PGA Tour News Update
00:02:45 U.S. Walks To 5th Straight Walker Cup Win
00:06:31 Rory McIlroy Wins His Second Irish Open
00:11:11 Adam Scott Back to Traditional Length Putter
00:13:55 2025 PGA Tour Season Review
00:14:14 Biggest Surprises
00:24:23 Biggest Dissappointments
00:38:46 Players To Watch in 2026
00:43:06 2025 Ryder Cup Preview & Odds
00:43:54 U.S. Team Auto Qualifiers
00:47:19 European Team Auto Qualifiers
00:50:20 U.S. Team Captain Team Picks
00:50:52 European Team Captain Team Picks
00:51:38 2025 Ryder Cup Picks & Predictions
00:53:59 Plugs + Outro
🔗 Useful Links:
📺 Want more live shows & clips? Subscribe to our YouTube channel at Youtube.com/@IBT_Media
💻 For written PGA DFS & PGA betting advice, check out our website at https://In-Betweenmedia.com
📻 Catch the show live on 101.5 FM Talk-N West TN: https://talknwesttn.com/
💲 Are you ready to get in the game & flex those parlay legs? Download the Wanna Parlay app for IOS or Android, and get a 100% match bonus when you use the code “IBT” at https://wannaparlay.com/?ref=mdvinzu
✖️ Follow the host of the program on Twitter/X:
📺 Jake Parry (https://twitter.com/Parry_FF)
⛳ Keith Flemming (https://twitter.com/KeithFlemming)
The twenty twenty five season for the PGA Tour has ended. The Ryder Cup is right around the corner. So why don’t we just take a little bit of time, review the season and take a peek forward to the Ryder Cup. Welcome back, everybody. As always, make sure you guys like and subscribe the video. Check out InBetweenMedia.com for all of the written content that we have coming towards you in twenty twenty five. And as always, shout out to one oh one point five FM talking West Tennessee. I’m Jake. As you guys may or may not know, I am taking over the ninth hole from Bowen Connor. for the foreseeable future uh and so I will be hosting this week and again in the foreseeable future joined joining me this week is our friend longtime friend of the program keith fleming you’ll find him on twitter slash x at keith fleming keith how you doing tonight man I’m doing good um Glad to be talking some golf because, you know, with the NFL season starting, I shift a lot of, you know, the stuff that I do in terms of content to football. But those that know me know I love golf. So I always enjoy talking it, and especially this kind of format where we’re not going to be talking data or, you know, trying to get the best plays or values for the week, but actually just talking about the season in general. Like, I love this kind of discussion. Yeah, when I found out that you were going to be joining me for my inaugural full episode, I was like, oh, let’s just do, we’re talking the season. We’re talking the season. Ryder Cup kind of plays right off the season. So it’s a perfect time to get all of this out here. But we do have some other news that we do need to talk about. So let’s get on ready for the news nibbling. So, Keith, this may or may not bode well for the U.S. Ryder Cup team, but the U.S. Walker Cup team secured their fifth straight win this year. It was a seventeen to nine victory, which was their largest margin of victory since their win that kickstarted the streak in twenty seventeen. Nineteen to seven was the winning number that year. The future of golf is really strong and the future of USA golf seems to be even stronger. It’s outrageous. Um, I mean, if you think about like what happened on the PGA tour with the, you know, the live defectors, which however you feel about that, a lot of really talented golfers left. And you would think that there would be this huge vacuum and it feels like the PGA tour has already reloaded and has all these stars. And then I would argue actually this next group that’s coming up, maybe even better because. All these kids are so freaking talented. And, I mean, they were getting their brains beat in day one, which is what’s wild about this. And then they just, like, absolutely opened a can on… The Europeans. And I just, you know, happy for this group of guys. It’s crazy to see a thirty five year old out there with them, you know, quote unquote day trader. It’s like, man, it must be nice to have money. Just get to play and, you know, amateur events while you technically have a job. But really impressive performance. And like there’s four or five guys on this team that I can’t wait to see at the next level. Yeah, I agree entirely with what you said there. It is always funny seeing Stu Hagestad’s name in there. This is fifth consecutive Walker Cup. Perks of, I guess, maintaining amateur status, like you said. But just some really big names coming up through the pipeline there. Two specifically that really stand out to me. Mason Howell and Jackson Koivin. Koivin, for those who don’t know, playing in the Pro Corps right now off to a really hot start over there. In that event, I believe he finished seven or six under on the day. So really great start out of him as an amateur playing in a PGA tour event. But yeah, like you said, it was not looking good to start three to one after the end of, you know, the, the morning four Sims on Saturday. We did reclaim a little bit of a lead, you know, one point lead in the afternoon singles, but even going, you know, through the month Sunday morning four Sims only at one point lead. And then, you know, The US rattled off an eight, one and one showing in their Sunday singles, which was the best showing the USA has ever had in that format since it expanded in two thousand nine to include all ten players. So how do you like to be the one guy that took an L like, you know, that that you got some ribbing because it’s obviously a great situation. You won. But to be the one person did not at least get half a point. I’m sure some people had some fun on that team. Oh, I’m sure that was a, that honor goes to Michael Lasasso playing. And I believe the other young studs coming up hits it. Five thousand yards. Yeah. Like you said, there’s just so much talent throughout both of the teams, too. Like we harped on the USA team here. Obviously, you know, we both live in the US. So, you know, that’s going to stick out in our mind a little bit. But when you have guys like Connor Graham, an eighteen year old playing in his second Walker Cup, Luke Poulter, son of PGA Tour legend Ian Poulter out there. There’ll be a thorn on our side and Ryder Cup’s in no time. I can just feel it. Yeah. He’s already beating his dad. And like, I think it was the open qualifiers that they were playing for the open. He performed better than his dad did. So there’s so much talent coming through. Professional golf is in a really, really good spot. Speaking of professional golf being in a really good spot, specifically in a great spot for Rory McIlroy. Rory secured his second Irish Open win, his national home open. He gets to reclaim the hometown hero status. And we’re going to talk about Rory some more later. But man, what a… Honestly, it’s hard to say it’s a life changing year for Rory, but it is in a lot of ways like gets the monkey off of his back by being able to secure the career Grand Slam ends, you know, basically ends twenty twenty five by winning his national open and then gets to go and be arguably the best player on one of the probably going to be most closely contested Ryder Cups in recent history. We hope so. Uh, cause probably if it’s going to be a blow out one for the other, it’s not going our way. Uh, definitely career defining for Rory. Right. Because you know, the career grand slam, uh, I’ll get into why I’m a little disappointed with a big portion of this season for Rory and just a little bit, but. I’m very happy for him. One thing I say about Rory over and over again, I’ve never been the biggest fan of Rory the golfer, but I’m a big fan of the human being he is. He just seems like a genuine person, and I feel like he got a really raw deal with the PGA Live split and just being asked to be the face of that. He did everything the PGA Tour wanted, and it was no surprise. He was livid when it leaked. that, you know, his driver failed when anybody who is like in the game of golf knows that happens all the time with these guys. And it felt personal. Like it felt like it was purposeful that that news broke. And if not for people like Scottie Scheffler, just openly admitting, yeah, my driver failed too. Uh, at the beginning of the week, I think that would have been a much bigger story. So, I mean, what a way to begin and end. you know, quote unquote, your season. And I’m sure he would say that even as big as the Masters win is, I believe he cares more about the Ryder Cup than anything else. So it’s actually a win in a couple of weeks. It is the most important thing to him probably this year. Yeah, one hundred percent. And so keeping in the tune with the rest of our episode, just kind of doing a little recap on what this win kind of was for Rory. It was his fifth professional win in the last calendar year. Not many guys in professional golf history can say that they’ve been able to win five times in a calendar year. This also marked his twentieth career win on the DP World Tour. For those who aren’t familiar with that naming convention used to be the Euro Tour, the European Tour. They all go by so many different names. Second career Irish Open, like I mentioned, and just the way he managed to pull this one off. makes an Eagle on eight team to force a playoff and then makes three straight birdies to win the playoff. Like I get Rory used to have a little bit of that choker, you know, that choker resume hanging off of him, especially in the masters and some of his performances in some majors. But I mean, the guy is nails more often than he isn’t. And this just proved it. Yeah, I think it’s more about expectation. I’ve never considered Rory a choker. I just think he puts too much pressure on himself. It was just like with Augusta. I think he wanted it so bad that it just got to a point where it got in his head and he’s done everything he can and Again, we’ll talk about this a little later. Fake kind of, I think, had a big part in him winning in Augusta this year. So, but if anybody deserves it, it’s him. You know, Scheffler probably will complete a career Grand Slam. After that, good luck finding the next guy that’s going to do it. Like, because, you know, what, sixth in the history of the game and then I mean, it’s the first in twenty years, and there’s not anybody that’s, you know, not Jordan Spieth, who good luck on him winning another major, or Phil Mickelson, good luck on him winning another major that has just won away outside of Sheffield. Obviously, like I said, I’d be shocked if he doesn’t, but I really, it’s hard to think of another guy being able to accomplish this, and we said the same thing about Rory just, you know, six, seven months ago. Yeah, not even to mention just like we talked about with the Walker Cup, just the amount of talent that’s coming into the professional scene. It’s going to get even harder. And sure, you’ve got guys like Brooks who have shown their ability to win at certain majors. Guys like Bryson who can put it all together. We know he’s got the game to win all four majors. It just goes to show how hard winning all of those majors can be. Speaking of a guy who won a major. Adam Scott going away from the broomstick putter that he arguably made famous. He won the masters in as the first player in major history to win using a broomstick style putter, been using it for over a decade as of the PGA BMW championship on the. DP world tour going on currently is using a short putter is going away from labs center shafted offerings to their first heel shafted putter ever making a lot of changes really quickly for a guy who’s had plenty of success with the broomstick. It’s, it feels a little interesting to me. mean this reminds me of like darth vader and you know return of the jedi where he had you know been with the dark side for so long and then he turns back to the force and I think that’s what adam scott’s doing uh I think he also just like in all seriousness realizes the clock’s ticking for him right like he’s getting to an age I know players are able to compete much longer and longer phil mickelson just you know broke the major record for the oldest major but scott’s getting up there in age and he’s got to get it done now and um I’m going to tell you I’ve had a couple of different lab putters those things are incredible and it doesn’t surprise me that he’s giving you know a normal putter a chance because those things are cheat sticks man you don’t have to actually anchor it to really consistently make a very straight and true stroke so I think it’s you know there’s more feel involved when you’re not using a broom and he was a good putter in his career and then just kind of got lost so I’m thinking maybe thinks he can catch the fountain of youth and you know why not try new things right in golf like if you’re not evolving as a golfer you’re usually not getting any better Yeah. And I mean, if anybody’s going to stay relevant later into their, you know, professional career as they get, you know, higher up there in age, a guy like Adam Scott, who always keeps himself in phenomenal condition, you know, physically, he’s still got the game. And I think you’re right. I think it’s probably part of it. Like he’s looking for some of that feel to come back into his game. Like one of the prettiest, most robotic golf swings of all time, just incredible. With the broomstick putter, like you said, I’ve tried it out. I’ve tried the lab putters, the center shafted thing. It doesn’t work for me. I think as a golfer, I’m very much a feel player. I do everything against the book in a lot of ways because I know that feel works for me. And I think we may be seeing some of the same with Scott. So that’s a really good call out. All right. Now that we’ve talked a little bit of the news, let’s head on over to talk about the twenty twenty five season. It was a great season for me as a DFS player, as a gambler. I’m sure you had a pretty solid year all the way around as well. But man, were there sure some surprises this year? Who would you say were some of your biggest surprises from the twenty twenty five season? I mean, first and foremost, Brian Campbell won two events this year, which is nuts. And as somebody who has always been a good golfer but never been somebody who hits it a really long way, especially off the tee, seeing him be poke hider head to head in the final round of the Mexico Open, even into a playoff where he was consistently giving up legit sixty to one hundred yards off the tee, just like it almost gave me chills, like because I mean, that is just incredible. Like go out there and play any of your buddies, doesn’t matter the handicap and give them a sixty two hundred yard head start and see how well you do on approaches. So. just incredible. And then again, for him to follow it up and win again, I just like, I couldn’t believe it. I mean, we all could have been millionaires, uh, with the odds that he had in those two events, if we were to just bet them to win on both of them and not even had to put that much money on it. Uh, so, um, good to see the Harkin back. Cause one thing that has stunk in the last few years is you don’t get those crazy odds that, you know, you used to get golf bets to win and Campbell, I think it was like four, fifty to one for the first one and two fifty for the second. Like, I can’t remember the last like a hundred and fifty to one winner before him and he did it twice. So definitely Brian Campbell’s at the top of my list. Yeah, even more so getting both of those wins in playoffs. One at a course very near and dear to my heart with TPC Deer Run. My family’s from right around that area, grew up playing that course as my grandpa worked there on the groundskeeping team after he retired from John Deere, funny enough. So a lot of history with that course. Campbell, also University of Illinois guy. So again, that’s a little bit farther for me. Going down to Champaign is like six hours. But still, just great to see him win. For me, I have another guy who I don’t think anybody expected to have the year that they did. We have to talk about Ben Griffin. I mean, four years ago, the guy was doing mortgages. It’s still on his LinkedIn that he was a mortgage underwriter. And then the dude comes out and just has an incredible season, picks up his first two professional wins on the PGA Tour. One of them, yeah, it was a team event, but still, we count it. And then to go from being out of golf four years to basically… having one of, if not the best seasons and being a near auto qualifier for a Ryder cup team, when entering the season, you were what barely top a hundred in the world. And he finished the year at fifteenth in the world. I mean, he should be in the advertisement for LASIK for sure. It is insane to see the way his season and career took off after getting his eyes done. I mean, like, really, I’m shocked that we haven’t seen some kind of commercial deal on that. He should be making some money off of the fact that then the sunglasses is also a thing like I love about ben griffin I understand it was from the procedure and stuff and then he just got comfortable wearing them but uh it’s a it’s a look and in golf it’s hard to kind of stand out and it to me it makes him stand out because no matter what uh you know the conditions where he’s out there in those uh you know kind of gold tinted shades uh but you Just an incredible game, and he’s somebody I’m very excited to see what he does moving forward because I don’t think this was a fluke. I don’t think he’s on some hot streak. If you look at a lot of the metrics, he’s always been that guy. He just really couldn’t put together consistency, and this year he found that where he was much more consistent week to week. The sky’s the limit, I think, from here for Ben Griffin. Agreed. Yeah. When you look back at like the previous stats that he had kind of always hovered around, you know, thirty fifth to forty fifth in total strokes gained. And then seeing him put it all together this year, really, I think the big key for him was figuring out off the tee. He’s a guy who swings with a lot of passion. He’s really trying. You know, we all heard him overdose on creatine. The man knows what he’s doing to get those gains. Got about that. And he’s trying to get him off the tee, but he was a lot more accurate off the tee. He just had a really strong all-around year. So just a really good story. Another really great story that we got this year, J.J. Spahn winning the U.S. Open. I think… We can’t talk about surprises without talking about kind of what JJ Spahn has gone through in his career and then to not only win on the PGA Tour, but get your first major after being a guy who was making like a thousand dollars on the Canadian tour six years ago. That was one of the more memorable final rounds in a long time. Like you want to talk about being a mutter because it was like the minute it started raining and the conditions got difficult. He went into gear. And I also just admire so much the way he got off to such a slow start on Sunday. And you thought, like, right off the bat, okay, he lost maybe his only chance to win a major. Because if you look at Spahn’s results for his career in majors, I don’t think he ever had, like, a top-forty finish. And then all of a sudden, it’s just, like, win. Very happy for him. And it just, again, in a year that Scheffler won two and Rory won one, Spahn still did, like, maybe the most remarkable thing I can think of, which is had a memorable major victory, like where I will remember this along with Rory at Augusta, like this entire season where you kind of let it off that way. One of the better ones I can remember for the PGA Tour where it seemed like every week it was a good event. And I love it when you get these guys that come out of nowhere to win majors. Like, yes, I want to see the Shefflers and the Rorys and the dominant guys win. But it’s also nice to remember that that’s what makes golf great is there’s nobody playing defense. You know, nobody’s going to stop you but yourself. And occasionally, you know, a guy like JJ Spahn goes out and beat the best guys in the world and picks up a major win. Yeah. I mean, that putt is going to be in commercials, montages for decades to come that putt just to make that putt and basically know you just won the U S open pouring rain, a triple breaker, essentially downhill at Oakmont of all places. It just truly a really special victory. Any other, any other guys that you have as big surprises? I mean, a little bit again, I think it’s fair to include Rory here for Augusta, like, because it just, it had got to the point where it was like the road runner, you know, and the coyote where it seemed like every time you would think that Rory would come into Augusta playing well, or, you know, he’d be in contention, say, on Sunday, and he’d just kind of falter. And I did, I kind of gave up on it, because you know how with golf being such a mental sport, the longer it goes, the more it’s in your head, the more you’re thinking about it, and then just the harder it is to play good golf, because this is the hardest game in the world anyway. And then when you’re, you know, again, putting these heavy expectations on yourself, which I think that’s what Rory was, he wanted to win so bad for, you know, to be just the next guy. Again, that’s an immortal list of guys that have won all four majors. And then also just the way he kept coming back, like it was the roller coaster of all roller coasters. There was at least three times I thought he had won the tournament and then lost the tournament. It just I can’t ever remember. that kind of back nine ever. Yeah. And just to know, like even how the, the event started for him, like he was even par after round one, shoot six under day two comes out, shoots another six under on Saturday. And like you said, there were so many times where I was like, Oh, he’s done. It’s over. This is the Rory blow-up we’ve all been waiting for. But then he would just hit shots that it’s like, yep, there’s Rory again. He’s sticking it to three feet, hooking seven irons around trees, just doing absolutely insane things, and then be able to even have all of the pressure of a playoff on your shoulders and being able to win in a playoff against Justin Rose, who’s one of his best friends off the course outside of golf. You know, they are very good friends. They were, you know, Rosie was super happy that if anybody beat him, he was happy that it was Rory. So agreed to, I mean, he’d been chasing the win at Augusta forever. He’s needed this to complete the career grand slam since twenty fifteen was his first opportunity to play there to complete it. And it’s, you know, it evaded him forever. And then to get that win certainly, certainly qualifies. I have just a couple other guys that had some surprising seasons for me. Don’t need to go too in-depth with them. Sepp Straka, able to pull off two wins. I always kind of refuse to admit that Sepp Straka is a real person. Whenever I look, I feel like he’s either at the top of the leaderboard or at the bottom. But he put together a really solid season. His first wins since shout out to Sep Straka as well. And then one of my personal favorites, you want to talk about a guy who puts his passion into his golf swing, Ryan Fox from New Zealand, able to come out and get two PGA Tour wins, his first two wins as well in his career. You know, you can’t, nobody can say they expected Ryan Fox to win twice this year. Besides, I don’t even think Foxy would tell you that he thought he was going to win twice on his wife. Wouldn’t even tell you that she’s this year. Yeah. So just a couple other guys that I wanted to shout out, but now we have to talk about some of the disappointments that happened this year. There were a few guys that came to mind for me immediately, but I want to hear what you have. So this is going to probably be, make some people upset and they won’t understand it. But let me try to explain it. I think Rory belongs on this list because he won three times. He completed the career grand slam and then he just kind of went away and Sheffler had this incredible, right? Like season. And I feel like that Rory cost golf fans, maybe the rivalry between, of our lifetime, where if he could just played the way he did the first few months, the rest of the season and Scheffler was playing the way he played, you know, kind of from that point on, I just can’t imagine how many Sundays we would have got with these two guys mixing it up. And Look, I get it. Rory has made a ton of money. Obviously, he’s won all four majors. Like, what else is there left to prove? But for me, what is left to prove for Rory, especially if he wants to be considered one of the greatest players of all time, is just he can’t relax or like take his foot off the gas. Yep. every time he does something great and that’s kind of what it feels like you know he won those four majors and bunches and then I remember what was it like two years later uh you know he got injured kicking soccer ball like right before the open championship I’m thinking you’re roy mackerel what are you doing like where is the killer instinct like why are you risking something like this and I do I feel like he kind of packed his tenon because the rest of the season didn’t really mean that much to him he just won the event probably that you know would say means the most other than the Masters and individual and then obviously like we said the Ryder cups coming up so it’s almost like now he’s gearing his game for that second season but I just I hate that we missed the chance of the Roy McIlroy that we saw the first four months of the golf season and the Scotty Sheffer we basically saw all year uh you know once he got healthy like going head to head Yeah, I agree. It’s, it was always interesting to me, like looking at scoreboards throughout the year, it never seemed like Scotty and Rory were on at the same time. Like they were like perfect ebbs and flows of each other. Whereas like when Scotty was struggling, Rory was having arguably one of the best stretches of his career. When Rory started to go through some struggles, I think those really started, you know, kind of at the PGA, you know, misses the cut in his next start at the RBC. And then it took him a while to kind of find his iron swing again, you know, started to come back for him, obviously, you know, still had some good finishes, but like you said, like just kind of that killer that we saw on Sunday at Augusta wasn’t, didn’t have the same look in his eyes. So I get where you’re coming from. Like, obviously, like I mentioned, you know, five professional wins this, you know, this calendar year, obviously, you know, winning the masters top seven at the open to top at the U S open, like still at a really solid season all the way around, but I can totally understand where he comes to mind. Uh, one guy for me that, uh, have two two guys who kind of stuck out as major disappointments for me one was less surprising um that being max homa you know he we saw him struggling towards the end of twenty twenty four um as he was going through some swing changes uh you know caddy change just everything was changing um I I don’t want to blame it on this but ever since his child was born his game has not been the same and I’m, you know, whether that has something to do with it. But I mean, if you look, there’s a very distinct point, even in twenty twenty four after the PGA championship where the dude just he would miss parts of his game. Parts of his game would be there. He’d have good week, great weeks with the irons, great weeks with the putter, fine weeks off the tee and around the green, but just like couldn’t put it together. And I was really hopeful, you know, going through, you know, an equipment change, coaching changes that we’d see. some of the old Max Homa. I do think, you know, he’s trending in the right direction, but I mean, the dude had just two finishes inside the top twelve all year. He had eight missed cuts, career high, it feels like, over the last five years at least. Nine finishes outside the top thirty, and like… even when he was playing well, like at the John Deere at the masters, his two best tournaments of the year, it’s not like he was really in contention for either of those. Whereas like, you know, we’re, if we’re talking about Max Homa, what was that? Twenty, twenty three is a top ten golfer in the world and in the official world golf rankings. And like you legitimately thought there was a stretch there where Max Homa can win any event that he enters. He’s got the game to do it. And we just saw that kind of completely disappear. And yeah, like I said, his swing starting to look better. He’s looking a lot less stuck. The irons are starting to come around the drivers coming around. So hopefully he can, you know, trend back towards being Max Holman, but yeah, Man, was he disappointing this year. Most likable guy on tour, too, which is what stinks. He’s just awesome. Everything about Max Homa that I’ve learned and that he’s shown us in public, he’s just an easy guy to root for. I’m with you. For me, everybody on the live tour, except for Bryson and Majors, I am going to take a victory lap on. One of the reasons I did, I kind of… wondered if the live guys were making the right decision was you just can’t tell me reps don’t matter we we’ve seen this week one in the nfl you know like where it seemed like the teams that did not play in the preseason looked the sloppiest and when you go from playing four round events against really deep fields to three round events where you’re basically doing a shotgun And it is this weaker feels like, I know it’s a lot of good players in it, but it’s just, it is overall, it’s a weaker field. There’s like probably guys every week that really have a chance to win. I think it just does you a disservice, you know, when you play in these majors. And, again, Bryson deserves a ton of kudos because he has figured out how to go to, like, another level from going to the Lift Tour, which, I mean, like, I would love a study on that. I don’t understand how he is literally the only outlier. And there’s so many good golfers. You look at guys like Jon Rahm. Cam Smith had just won a major. Like, both of them had just won majors, went to Lift Tour, and they have not fared well in the majors since. Like… And even the guys that have a really good track record. Again, Kepka’s another one that he, you know, barely missed winning the Masters, came right back, won the PGA Championship. Then since then, he’s done nothing. So, like, those guys on the Live Tour, for sure. Jon Rahm also gets a special double mention because he was right there and he blew it. Like, I’m not saying he could have won. The PGA because Scheffler was so good, but he had a chance to post a score and to really put pressure on him. And maybe this just says more about Scheffler’s game because Rom was, you know, almost like a sports car or something. He was redlining. Yep. you know, that entire front side and just going bananas. But then what happens? Like, he started leaking oil all over the back nine, and next thing you know, it was over. So I want more from him. And it’s, again, while I’m disappointed he left, I’m disappointed in a lot of those guys. And it’s made me like Bryson even more because for whatever reason, he’s figured out that equation. Everybody else hasn’t. Yeah. And I will say, like, Rahm’s – comparatively is still performing solid in the majors. But like you said, like, there’s just not, it’s like I was talking about with, uh, I already forgot who, um, but like when they’re in contention, they’re not really in contention. They’re just, they’re putting up scores and it’s like, oh, their name’s near the top. But Bryson at the open, right. We’re like incredible performance after that first round, but he never had a chance to win that event. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Knowing like watching him go out and start with the seventy eight and then go sixty five, sixty eight, sixty four. Like obviously figured it got everything back in line after being that out of whack, which with that golf swing feels like it can. And once it happens, it doesn’t doesn’t. Either doesn’t take a little bit or takes a lot. But yeah, I fully agree with you there. Another likable guy who had a pretty disappointing season, Tony Finau. Again, a guy who I felt like contended week after week was always a chance to win. And then four top fifteens, five missed cuts, ten finishes outside of the top thirty. Just all around unfortunate season for him. If he can ever figure the putter out and just get out of his own head. with it he’ll have a he’ll have a chance but I think also with all the off the course stuff that’s going on regarding you know the the lawsuit that he’s dealing with currently and just everything associated with that like it’s hard to see Finau get back to Finau right now well you said that you know having a child you know had kind of a direct correlation with Max Homa freaking Finau brought seven kids on tour with him so you can only imagine just week to week. Like I know, and it’s, it’s, I’m very happy for him. Like he talks about on full swing, it’s what he wants and that’s great, but his golf game is suffering. How would it not like you’re going from not having to be responsible for seven kids, you know, day in and day out while you’re trying to win tournaments to where you are. So, um, I think ravioli deserves a special mention on this list. Cause if not for ravioli, Scotty Scheffler, I think would have won the masters, uh, as well. And Rory wouldn’t have completed, uh, his career grand slam. And again, this is no disrespect to Rory, but if he would have played the way he did on the back nine, and we know Scottie Scheffler would have been in contention because he was just in such bad form going into Augusta, and yet somehow he still managed to basically finish top five because that’s what he does. I just don’t believe Scheffler would have allowed Rory to have the mistakes he did and then come back from him. Like, he would have closed that door almost immediately. So how dare you, Ravioli? And then Jordan Spieth, man. Yep. I just – I don’t understand. I can’t ever remember a golfer reaching the heights that he did and then just falling off the face of the planet. Like, he’s just broken. And if you watch him play golf and listen to him play golf, you just – you can see it. Like, this dude is broken inside, and he doubts himself. And I don’t mean this in, like, a bad way. I’m saying he’s broken inside that he’s just – he’s constantly – overanalyzing overthinking worrying about too much stuff and I knew that he would have a hard time racking up majors because he was relying so much on the putter and I mean let’s be honest like nobody makes putts for forever that’s just golf but I never thought he would like just become such a mess t to green uh and what’s crazy now is those metrics are actually better than ever And yet he still can’t put together a good year. So like, I don’t know where he goes from here, but he is lost. I almost feel like he’s a guy who has to kind of take that Wyndham Clark approach. And, you know, I’ve spoke ill will on Wyndham Clark’s golf game more times than I can count. But I mean, it seemed like when he started working with a sports psychologist, like it really did help him figure a lot of things out. It really feels like. speed needs that. Like ever since he, he, you know, I, it’s been well documented at this point that like his game really started to go downhill when he really started to chase distance really, you know, was trying to be one of the longer guys for a guy that that’s his size. He didn’t go the Bryson route of doing it by, you know, drinking protein shakes every second of the day, working out twelve hours a day and, you know, putting on overdose and creatine. Yeah, he didn’t do it with that route. He tried to do through swing changes and even like watching him swing a golf club used to look so effortless. And now it’s like he gets to the top and then there’s the pause and, you know, the the wrist flex and it’s just it looks so uncomfortable. Yeah. And I like you said, like it’s so mental. Like you can tell he’s prepared to hit a bad shot, but every, every, every caddy that you talk to when they talk about how to talk about to a player on tour, it’s you tell them what to do, not what not to do. And then you hear Rory over the ball. He’s like, well, I don’t want to go short. I don’t want to go right. I can’t really go long left. So short left is where I want to be. But to do that, I got to start the fade over there. Really fate. It’s like, dude, you are in, you are preparing to hit the bad shot. Yep. You’re not and he’s never like what Scotty does so well. Scotty hits a bad shot out of his head. He just gets to the ball and prepares for the next shot. It’s like speed is ruminating on the bad shot for ten minutes after he hits it. Yeah, I agree. And if you want to win the eighteen open or seventeen excuse me I would say that you know he’s never recovered from twelve at augusta uh when he definitely should have won back-to-back masters but uh he did win that open and seventeen so I can’t say that but uh the open is returning you know to royal work now next year so Maybe it’ll, you know, get some good feelings going. I mean, even at Augusta, though, to your point, like a place that he owned, even his results there in the last couple of years have really fallen off where like I think for the first like six, seven Masters appearances, average finish was like six. It was insane. Yeah, he debuted at the Masters in twenty fourteen, tied for second, one in fifteen, tied second and sixteen, tied eleventh and seventeen, third and eighteen. Like the dude owned it forever. And like he’s had some good finishes over the last five years. He’s got a tied for third and tied for fourth. He’s also got two missed cuts in there, which like just wasn’t wasn’t happening to early career speed. So another guy who’s just really fun to watch. So I hope he does kind of bounce back. But. Much like Tony Finau right now, I really don’t see the path to it if things continue the way they are. All righty here. So to get back to, you know, we’re doing the, what do they call it? The feedback sandwich. We started with something good. We talked about a little bad. Let’s talk about a little good here. Who are a couple of guys don’t have to go too in depth on them. Who are a couple of guys that you’re really looking forward to seeing what they do in twenty twenty six? I mean, you said it, Jackson, going like I watched him when he was fourteen. playing an event, an AJGA event with one of my best friend’s sons who was sixteen at the time. I had no idea who he was. He shot a bogey for sixty-seven and it looked like it was nothing. And I’ve never seen somebody just dominate a golf course the way he did. I even asked his dad. I said, has he played this course before? No, he didn’t get time to play a practice round. So first round on the course, bogey for sixty seven. And it should have been like a sixty four. He’s just like I think he has the best chance to be like the next. I don’t want to say Scheffler because that’s that’s too good at this point now. But like the next speed or, you know, guy that just comes on immediately and Yep. And wins. And it wouldn’t surprise me if he wins a major in the first year or two, he’s on tour. Just, I can’t wait to see, you know, what he’s got coming in the future. And then Ludwig Oberg is the other guy that I just, I got, I’m going to give him a mulligan for the injury. It definitely played a factor. And I’m excited to see if he can get back to the guy we saw two years ago, because if he can, with how young he is and just his talent and swinging everything, don’t be surprised if he kind of, you know, wiggles his way into the conversation of, you know, who’s the best golfer on the planet right now. Yeah, a hundred percent. He’s one of the few golfers that I truly do feel needs to just slow down a little bit. I appreciate the speed of his game, but it feels like it backfires on him more frequently than it helps him. But yeah, both of those names are definitely guys to watch. I have a few here, Luke Clanton, one of the best college golfers, probably of all time had a really great, resume playing on tour as an amateur turns pro definitely disappointed a little bit think he needs to uh stop the navy seal workouts at four a.m that he’s been doing but uh you want to talk about a guy with like a crazy good story like parents are blue collar workers his sister went to a different college with where she was getting better scholarships so that her family could have more money to put towards his career as a prof as a golfer because they she knew everybody in his family knew how talented he is Just one of my favorite personalities on tour as well, being able to see him through all the YouTube golf and stuff that he plays. Just a really good story, a guy I really want to see take off. I want to see Akshay Bhatia take the next step. I think he’s also a guy, dude, what, turned pro at sixteen? He’s so young still. Yeah, it feels like he’s been around forever and he’s like twenty-four, twenty-three. Great lefty swing. Figured out the putter a lot. Switching to the broomstick this year. Has the game to be a week-to-week presence on tour. He started to show it this year. I want to see him continue to show that moving forward. And then last up, Bud Colley. Probably a random call-out for a lot of people, but dude started the year outside the top . . . in the official world golf rankings ends the season. Fifty-fifth in the OWGR as he continues to work his, you know, work his way back from injury. He’s just proof that like hard work and talent, like we’ll start to pay off for a lot of people, even with the adversity and everything that he went through after that car accident and the injuries that have, you know, limited his performance as a player, just a lot of promise in his game would love to see him just come out. And I’m not expecting him to dominate twenty twenty six by any means, but a win, a couple runner-up finishes, I’d have so much fun watching that and betting on it, honestly. Yeah, he’s one of my favorite stories this year that I forget to mention when you talk about biggest surprises. It was shocking to see him come back and just pick up like he left off like no time had passed, when in reality it had been like four and a half years. Yeah, just a crazy, fun player to root for. But It’s that time where we get to talk about what we alluded to at the very, very beginning. We get to head on over and talk about the writer cup. Everybody’s not, I shouldn’t say everybody’s golf nerds favorite event. When we get the chance to watch it specifically from the United States and Europe, sorry, other parts of the world, you guys can have the Olympics. This one’s right. That’s right. But yeah, we have the writer cup the odds are officially out currently the united states is the favorite currently coming off the board at uh minus one forty five uh to win europe to win it plus one fifty and plus eleven hundred to a tie if you’re feeling spicy but We got to talk about these rosters because I think the rosters, I mean, that’s what everybody talks about for a good chunk of the season. This player is so close to getting an auto qualifying status. Who isn’t? Who’s in? Who’s out? So let’s start off by talking about the U.S. auto qualifiers. We have Scotty Scheffler, J.J. Spahn, Xander Shoffley, Russell Henley, Harris English, and Bryson DeChambeau. I think we both know the elephant in the room of this roster. Who had Harris English as an auto qualifier on their bingo card? Definitely not me, and I’m a huge UGA fan, as you could see. Harris English, much like we talked about with Foxy, probably not expecting to win twice. I doubt Harris English thought he was going to be an auto qual for this Ryder Cup team. In my mind, probably… he’s the weak spot on the roster. He’s the, you know, especially when you consider the format of the Ryder cup, being that there is match play, you do need so much of that high scoring potential English to me has always felt like, you know, a consistent, he’s kind of a boring golfer. Like, I think he’ll be good for foursomes though. I really do. Like, I think he’s got the game to potentially be a strong foursome player. And I wouldn’t be surprised if at the most he plays three times, the two foursomes matches in the singles. Yeah. another probably surprising name for a lot of people, as we alluded to earlier, JJ spawn, I doubt anybody thought he was going to be an auto qualifier, but I mean, we can, we can knock these guys all that we want to and say like, we didn’t expect him to be auto qualifiers. Like, They auto qualified for a reason. Their twenty twenty twenty twenty five performance not only had the highs, it had the consistency. That’s that’s where you get this auto qualifying status. Like it’s no it’s not a surprise to anybody, I think, to see Scotty there, see Xander there, Henley, maybe. But we all know Russell Henley’s game, you know, again, a great year, though, too. I think it’s like eleven top tens or something ridiculous. Just. Again, the epitome of consistency, Russell Henley was this year. Had a couple blow-up events, but he’s like Scotty Scheffler if he didn’t have the high-end upside of Scotty Scheffler. Just consistently there. I think Bryson maybe surprises people just because there’s so few opportunities for the live players to earn points to auto-qualify. So for him to be able to auto-qualify, I think it’s huge for the team. Yeah. you want to talk about a guy who can fire up the entire squad off a single swing, even like we’ve seen the juice this guy can bring. Like when he, you know, driving over the water, putting it pin high on a par four, that’s a three shot hole for any other player in the world. Could you imagine that crowd? Yeah. I mean, with the Bryson, say Rory singles match or Bryson Rom, like he’s the guy I’d be sending out first on Sunday singles. Really? I don’t think it matters what the situation is like. That place is going to lose their mind. It’s going to be a great atmosphere anyway, but. Like, what a face turn Bryson’s made in the last few years with golf fans, and they’re going to be going nuts for him. I have no doubt about that. You know, the New York guys. Yeah, just an absolute tone setter. Heading on over to the European auto qualifier side, we have Rory McIlroy, Robert McIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Rasmus Hojgaard, and Terrell Hatton. Obviously we expected Rory to be here. Most of us probably expected Fleetwood to be here. I don’t think anybody else would have predicted the other four guys to be here. Not to say that they’re bad golfers. McIntyre, when he’s on, one of the best putters in the world. you know, get that man on a link style course and watch some magic happen. Rosie’s Rosie. He’s having a career bounce back. Like a lot of, you know, you want to talk about a guy who can stay, stay relevant later, late in their forties, you know, approaching fifty. Hodge guard, the first ever twin to play in a Masters after his brother play or in a, in a Ryder Cup after his brother was on the last iteration of the team. And then Hatton, also a live player who auto, you know, was able to auto qualify, you know, we’re just talking the auto qualifiers I do think the united states has the advantage but I’m not gonna lie and say that I’m not a little bit intimidated by some of the names there because when it comes to the european team like the us team feels like a bunch of very consistent golfers who can put up very consistent performances The European team has that in Fleetwood. They have that in rows, but the other guys, Rory McIntyre, host guard Hatton, those feel like guys where if they can get hot, they’re going to get on a roll and they can be scary. The experience to like the Europeans have so much experience. Like they have their new generation of Poulter’s and, you know, Montgomery’s and Faldo’s like they’ve been doing this now for three decades to where Rory’s been on the team for forever. Hatton’s now been on three or four. Lowry, same deal. Hovland, I think, has been on the last two. Fitzpatrick’s been on the last couple. Rahm’s been on them for the last five or six. I do think the experience matters, but at the end of the day, I think Keegan sacrificing himself gives the Americans a chance. When I think otherwise, I would have not… I don’t think I would have thought that had a chance if Keegan would have picked himself. I think by him making the ultimate sacrifice, all those other guys that were captain’s picks are going to be ready to run through a wall. And it’s like the ultimate sacrifice, right? Like, you know how much it means to him because we all watched his disappointment, you know, on full swing when he didn’t get picked for the last one. And he kind of got screwed by be giving the captain because he ended up playing well enough to absolutely either, you know, just miss a top sticker. He would have definitely been. a captain’s pick and I thought he was going to pick himself, but after hearing what he said and just like hearing the calls to like Sam burns and stuff, I think he gave the United States the best chance to win. I agree. Yeah. That was one of the questions I wanted to ask you about the captain’s pick. So the United States team captain picks, I’ll run through them quickly here. Justin Thomas, Colin Morikawa, Ben Griffin, cam young, Sam burns and Patrick can’t lay. I think Keegan should have picked him. I would have totally understood if he did pick himself is what I should say, because he absolutely deserves to be on this team. I can’t think of a guy that I want to be captain more than Keegan Bradley though. Like I would run through a brick wall for that guy after seeing him on full swing. So I fully appreciate his sacrifice on the captain’s pick side of things too. You already named a couple of them, but on the European side, Shane Lowry, Sepp Straka, Ludwig O’Bear, Victor Hovland, Matt Fitzpatrick, John Rahm. I was going to ask you if you think anybody was snubbed from the European side. I mean, Harry hall definitely deserved to, I think, make the team. And he was probably the hottest guy, uh, you know, outside of maybe Rory and a few others, but it’s hard to argue with the six guys that you just read off. Like that is a really strong captain pick like six pack. Like I liked the guys on the Americans chose, but I mean, you could argue the six captain place for Europe is stronger than the six automatic qualifiers. I agree. All right, we are approaching the end of the show here. So I’m going to run through a couple of the top bets that are out right now. All of these odds are available on DraftKings. I’m just going to kind of rapid fire, throw you on the hot seat. Top European team scorer. Who do you think? Give me Hatton, plus eight hundred. He usually plays well in these things. And you said he gets really hot. Awesome. Great pick. He is also my favorite of the not John Rob Roy McIlroy tier heading onto the U S side. Are we, are we going away from the chalk of Scotty here? Are we just riding Scotty at plus two hundred? It’s hard to not pick Scotty at plus two hundred, but I do really like cam young at six plus sixteen hundred. Like I think cam is Got the talent to be one of the best players in the world. And he seems to kind of have figured out his game. I’m excited to see him mix it up. He’s a real competitive dude, has a great history and match play for like the WGC. Uh, I think that’s a good value too, but anytime you get plus odds on Scotty, it seems like lately just take them. I agree. All right. Day one winner. Are we going USA, Europe tie? I probably go tie. The foursome winner is my favorite play for day one. The Europeans just always dominated. You’re getting plus one sixty odds like that. That looks really appealing to me. I agree. I think I also wouldn’t be surprised to see a tie after day one. My favorite of the actual the remaining plays here. Honestly, I think it’s USA day to winner at plus one ten. I like it’s, I would pick day three singles winner as the USA, but that’s minus money. We don’t, well, let’s have a little fun while we’re at it. I’ll take the day one winners, the USA plus one, and then who do you think takes it all? We team Europe, USA, you know, what had been crunch? I’ll say, uh, I got a good feeling about this, and I have a good feeling about it for the U.S., but I’m not betting that. If I was betting on a winner for this event, I would bet on the Europeans, but I don’t want to do that because I want to be able to root for the U.S. wholeheartedly when it comes to the entire event. Well, I bet the Europeans or U.S. maybe for the day or whatever, do props, absolutely, but I’m not going to bet against America to win the whole thing. You love to see it. Guys, that has been another week of the Nineteenth Hole. Keith, thank you so much for coming on, man. It was a pleasure getting to recap the season. Look forward to the Ryder Cup with you. Look forward to having you on the show again. But this has been the Nineteenth Hole. Make sure you guys like the video. If you like the video, subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already. Go check out Keith’s work. Again, you can find him on Twitter slash X at Keith Fleming with two Ms. And we will see you all when we see you next.
