U.S. Open preview: Scottie Scheffler v. the field an insane debate … right? | Golf Channel Podcast

In this week’s edition of the Golf Channel Podcast with Rex & Lav, the guys discuss all of the major storylines from Pinehurst No. 2: the course, Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele vs. Rory McIlroy and a few players who could surprise at the year’s third major. #GolfChannelPodcast #GolfChannel #USOpen

Chapters:
0:00: Pinehurst No. 2 is the star of the show
05:00: Scottie vs. the field. Are we really doing this?
14:00: Debating Xander Schauffele and Rory McIlroy’s chances this week
21:00: Players who could pop up and surprise this week at the U.S. Open
25:00: What we are looking forward to Thursday at Pinehurst
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U.S. Open preview: Scottie Scheffler v. the field an insane debate … right? | Golf Channel Podcast
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hello and welcome into this Edition the gols podcast with Rex and lav happy US Open week we are indeed at Pinehurst number two the 124th US Open and yes before anyone asked if you’re watching this on YouTube Rex and I are indeed separated uh by probably 15 feet over the past month we have not yet figured out the technology that allows to do it a single shot so here we are hopefully there are no complaints Rex what is top of Mind as we are uh now less than 24 hours till the opening t-shot here at the year’s third major I think it happened when I was here in 2014 for the Pinehurst open uh I don’t remember back uh to the opens before that this is my fourth open covering in Pinehurst but it it almost after 10 years you forget how cool this place is you did not as you’ve stated numerous times on this podcast humble brag you were here just last month playing the golf course and it was a glorious day but it’s once you get here on property and you see what the USG has done with the golf course and you see how Pinehurst Resort has allowed it to after the redesign right before the 2014 US Open it’s matured uh the wild areas have become more wild the rounded greens have become more rounded all of the classic things we love about this golf course they’re all right there it was funny I was doing a story that we’re gonna post on nbcsports.com golf later tonight Eric Compton who if you remember correctly back to 2014 he finished second here it was a bit of a magical week for a guy who had struggled in his life with a lot of health issues and during the conversation he was he sort of explained to me why this particular venue sort of Suits a player like an Eric Compton and he he threw out Harry hags as a possible example and he said unlike that let’s say vajala last month at the PGA Championship to be fair sorry PGA of America but vahalla and most PGA Championship setups are just Juiced up PGA Tour setups and what you’re doing is you’re just favoring those players that we see pretty much week in and week out on the PGA tour that’s not a bad thing but it’s not quite variety the difference this week is because you have to do everything so well because this golf course is so exacting we can sit here and we’ll have a long conversation about why Scotty Sheffer should be the Run Runaway favorite this week but it does tend itself to sort of recognize a player that’s not on our radar Michael Campbell being a primary example paint Stewart probably isn’t a great example but certainly you go back to what happened here in 2014 Martin ker was playing well and I don’t think anybody would expected him to be to run away with a US Open by eight shots I think that’s the beauty of Pinehurst yeah I want to be very clear that all of the game’s best players are here you have Scotty you have Rory you have big stars like tiger John R is not here we’ll get into him uh in a little bit but the Superstar this week at this 124th US Open is undoubtedly the golf course and what I love about Pinehurst number two and it’s something I don’t think I recognized or realized when when I covered the 2014 US Open here I did not have inside the ropes and so you’re kind of at the mercy of of TV and sort of waiting through the crowds but I think it’s it’s when you see the golf course up close and personable that you realize sort of the intricacies and what makes this such an iconic venue and to me it’s the fear element that has been lost I think in in tournament golf with all the supercharged equipment in in today’s modern game players are essentially bending those golf courses to their will it’s very one-dimensional you’re grabing driver you go find it you hack it on the green and whoever fills it up the most that week tends to win on the PJ tour there’s very little variety there’s very little there’s very few options it’s basically a one-size fitall that is exactly the opposite of what players are going to face here at Pine pineur number two and that’s why I I’m so excited for this major championship there is an unpredictability with with the lies and the sand area there’s an unpredictability with the lies uh in the green surrounds in those tightly moan Bermuda areas there there’s so much variety that you can choose from the clubs that you’re hitting to sort of the outcomes too with with the graininess and sort of the disaster element whether it’s stubbing one whether it’s boning one over the green playing ping pong downhill putts whatever the case may be I I think that is what has that’s enough on Johnson Wagner let’s move on to the rest of the field but I think that’s that’s added such a fact fascinating element to this because it is very rare for today’s best players to have fear introduced and that’s exactly what this US Open does you heard it on Windam Clark on Monday saying that say that the greens are already borderline and Victor hin saying that the usj has to be careful because if you get pins too close to the to some of those these ridges and the edges of the greens like it’s it’s going to be a little bit of Goofy Golf Pinehurst number two is already in the heads of the best players and the best caddies and I think that’s a lot of fun as we get ready for the first ball to be struck see after two hours on live from you thought you were talked out you had plenty left in the tank see you had nothing to worry about oh I could have gone I could have gone for many hours that is why I look like a waiter uh at the moment just with a little bit uh of some makeup Rex let’s get into the chief contenders now that we’ve touched on the golf course Scotty Sheffer five wins in his last eight starts uh the prohibitive favorite the overwhel fing favorite at 3 to one odds we have not seen uh odds that low for a player any a major championship since Tiger Woods at the 2009 PJ championship by the way he did not win that one but it was only because of a surprising result this was a question that we posed on NBC sports.com golf on Wednesday Scotty Sheffer or the field on its face that is an absolutely Preposterous statement but what say you Scotty Sheffer with the field uh I went with Scotty sheff I think you ended up taking the field for all the reasons it’s Scotty now it’s Scotty tomorrow it’s Scotty until he proves to me that there’s going to be a hiccup along the way and I say that in as much as I’m also going to circle back around to the golf course and we were kind of breaking it down earlier in the week you when I kind of did our song and dance yesterday on live from on the early show and the idea is you always want to try to identify one thing on a particular golf course that you need to do well to Excel on that golf course and it’s really really hard to do that here for all the reason you just pointed out because it’s going to test every aspect of your game it is interesting I was talking with one statistician whose idea was the most important stat is Fairway accuracy which is weird because this statistician had never used that stat before and I I’ve been working with him for 10 years and he’s never used that specific stat and his argument was even the best ball Strikers I.E Scotty sheffler is going to miss greens just because you can’t be that exact not with a golf ball not with Mother Nature not with wing gust not with greens that are going to be as firm and fast as these are and so everybody’s going to end up missing a green if and that’s going to happen and that’s where the short game comes in and scrambling I’ll go back to 2014 Martin kimer he one putted 49% of his greens that week I’ll say it again he one puted 49% of his greens that week he didn’t finish at 30 under par he finished at nine underpar so you get an idea he was doing a lot of putting from off the greens and knocking it the tap in range and and moving on to the next hole that’s going to be what we’re going to see here it’s going to be that variety where things are going going to get crazy is if you’re in the Fairway by a foot you’re going to end up with a perfect live there’s only two mowing Heights here there’s green length and then there’s everything else so there’s no rough at so to speak so if you’re a foot inside the Fairway you have a perfect lie and you can be I’m not going to say aggressive but you you at least can you can make a run at wherever it is you want to hit the ball that’s not always at the flag a lot of time that’s going to be right at the middle of the green if you’re a foot off the Fairway you could still have a decent lie in that Sandy wild area or you could be absolutely dead like the the margin of error between those two shots could be two or three Strokes depending on how you’re able to recover depending on uh depending on the luck of the draw if you end up in a bad spot if you end up in a bush if you end up in some of that wire grass so that being said I’m going to go back that’s why Scotty Sheffer is not going to win this golf tourament that was the rationale for why Scott Scotty is not gonna win no because he is the one guy that control the variables as he’s proven this year in the last two years really he’s the one that controls the variables better than anybody else and it’s hard to hard to believe watching him play Golf the last few weeks that even if he does get a bad break and we saw it last week he made a seven on number nine on Saturday if I if I remember that correctly and everyone thought oh the door’s open at Memorial and that wasn’t the case at all because he just did what Scotty sheffler does and he he he put the big S which stands for Scotty on his chest and he just kept flying Along on his way to yet another Victory I think that he should still be the easy favorite and that’s why I picked him over the field I’m not as ConEd convinced now as I probably was on Monday before I went out and actually walked the golf course because of all the reasons I just explained yeah I mean there’s certainly an inevitability about Scotty you know I think it’s the safest bet in golf that he’s not going to miss the cut and he’s very likely going to top five uh finish at this US Open you could make certainly a compelling argument that Scotty sheffler could win this golf tournament by a number of shots perhaps not the eight shots that we saw mtin kimer did that seems like a bit of an anomaly keep in mind that Martin ker finished that week at nine underpar and the next best scores with Eric comp and Ricky fer were at one underpar that was probably uh where where most of the field was was targeting but you could make the argument based on Scotty sheffler he is the longest straightest driver of the golf ball he is first on the PGA tour in distance from the Fairway in other words he is when he misses a fairway he’s doing so just slightly in other words he does not have the wild Mists that can really get you in trouble at Piner so that’s number one so he’s most likely hit the Fairway and if he and if he misses he’s likely to be just a couple of feet off obviously we know about his prowess with his iron play yes everyone is going to be missing greens uh with these upside down serial bold shaped greens these Dome greens however you want to describe it however Scotty sheer is the best bet to hit them and especially in some of these small smaller shallow areas that you have on these Donald Ross greens he controls his distance control better than anyone and so that respect certainly leans in Scotty sheffler’s favor as well again if players miss the green well Scotty shuffler has that handled as well he’s a top five Scrambler on the PGA tour and the putting the putting had that had been a liability for so long for at least until March I think has been if if not turned into an outright strength I think it’s certainly been neutralized to to now you don’t have sort of the same level of concern when Scotty Sheffer is standing over an8 foot putt like no this this one’s probably not going to go in he proved again and again in the clutch moments at at the at the Memorial tournament specifically on 16 making par and then the four foot save on 18 to win by one shot over K morawa that he is a different player certainly more confident putting wise that said so there’s the argument for why skot shord could win this golf turn five six shot right right like he is he playing the best he’s got the most confidence he’s he’s the best at the moment he has the best head space he’s sort of the perfect on course comportment for a US Open however you did a great job of outlining exactly why this is a different US Open test because of the randomness because of the variety because of the bad breaks that can happen uh it’s easy to see a player uh make a huge number a double or a triple not by necessarily even hitting bad shots but just sort of an inopportune runoff into a really bad spot let’s say you get a divot uh around the greens and you’re just sort of Sky me and all of a sudden you make a six again Sky Sher is I think the best equipped to overcome that but I just think the sheer Randomness that Pinehurst presents leads me to believe that one of the other 155 players uh I think it’s worth pointing out the level of anxiety that you had before going on live from today because you were worried that two hours without there’s there were really no interviews today the USGA press conference and I don’t know how much we ran on that you were worried about it and I keep coming back to the idea that you are a professional all time maybe even I I I dare to say top five gas bagger in the game right now and yet somehow you were worried about filling two hours of airtime because had I not hit the mute button on you you would have kept just plowing through and giving reasons why Scotty’s either going to win or not win this US Open I agree with you on that front and I don’t know again if you would have asked me a week ago I said it was Scotty today Scotty tomorrow Scotty always simply because of what he’s done and what we know about this golf course we get here though and we know that weird stuff can happen we know that on this particular golf course that if you get the bounce if you does if you don’t get the lie in one of those Sandy areas that it can lead to something bad and and it can lead to something really big very very quickly that sends you PL plummeting down the leaderboard but man you have to look get his body of work and I just don’t see a crack in the armor he does everything well as I just pointed out driving accuracy is the one stat that’s going to stand out so is approach so is scrambling so is putting like all of the things we can point to there’s a reason why he’s world number one by a mile right now and it’s all of those stats let’s say we get to Sunday afternoon and somehow some way the the bad breaks have just accumulated Sky Sher is not winning this golf tournament so if not sky then whom let’s throw out two names how about the reigning PJ Champion the player who last month knocked off his first major championship in Xander chafl or Rory mroy who 10 years removed from his last major championship but in this tournament in the US Open five consecutive top 10 finishes including last year at lsac where he finished as a shop behind wam Clark which of those two players Rex do you have the most confidence in this week of Pinehurst oh I’d have to say just because of what he did and look this is a recency biased and you’re getting kind of blinded by the moment and certainly Rory is playing well enough I know he’s been a little up and down over the last few weeks I felt like and we talked about this I felt like there was some clarity I felt like there was a lightness to him yesterday when he spoke with the media that we haven’t seen in the last few weeks and we can touch on probably the reason behind that what whatever is going on in his personal life but Xander I think he proved to everyone if most importantly proved to himself that he has the game to not only contend in major championships which which he had done but to win major championships against a charging Bryson D Shambo against a on a really really difficult golf course you still want to see it back to back but I I would lean towards Xander I think the category that we had in our punch shot on NBC sports.com was if not and this is going to be a fun category going forward if not Scotty then who and I actually went with more CWA for the reasons I just kind of painted when you look at his iron play his long iron play is Sublime I mean it’s it’s elite you look at his scrambling he is I think tied for 11th on tour this year in scrambling and the one stat that I pointed out about that we know about Martin kimer the last winner here at Pinehurst Colin is third on the PGA tour this year in one putt percentage 44% of his greens he is one putting that’s 49% of what Martin kimer did I like that scenario and he’s playing really really well right now since I know you were listening to live from colore cow was actually my pick to win uh this golf tournament very accurate driver of the golf ball Sublime iron player a vastly improved chipper and pitcher of the golf ball this was a player who for the majority of his career was right around 100 in Strokes gain total he’s now excuse me Strokes gains are around the green he is now firmly inside at the top 25 I like the way he’s trending uh specifically since the Masters Tournament he was in the mix there he was in the mix uh in the final group at the PJ Championship as well and Rex with with two major championships he knocked those off in short order uh before the age of 25 I’m not sure k morawa loves being in sort of the shadow of Scotty sheffler’s recent dominance to me I’ve I’ve sort of picked up on a little bit of edge uh to K morawa I think last week even at the M Memorial Tournament could add even further fuel I do like him back to the original question that was posed uh I I too like Xander chofay this week the completeness of his game historically actually the the major championship in which sander chofay has fared the best is the US Open I think he took Everyone by surprise at Aaron Hills back in 2017 but he has a sort of all-around game as well as sort of the plotting demeanor he’s not he doesn’t quite pack the same explosiveness as a Roy mroy I think Xander will be firmly in the mix again I think Rory is a is a very curious one though obviously you look at the the love life and we’re not going to get into that the the lightness that he now seems to have but there was a very spirited debate of course it happened off camera uh what strategy should Roy marroy employ this week because Roy mroy with a driver in his hands it’s the most feared weapon in golf aggression or sort of seizing uh opportunities is not really the the name of the game at Piner everyone says it’s either a second Shot Golf Course or even a third Shot Golf Course what strategy you think is best for Rory to bring out the best in his game this week the at the US Open the driver as we all know when it comes to Roy Ma Roy is the the best weapon in his bag when he’s driving the ball well that’s when he gets that stride about him and you know he he’s feeling good about himself he’s feeling himself that’s usually when he plays his best golf that’s almost always when he plays his best golf however I will revisit what Bryson D Shambo said earlier this week when he was asked about his strategy for this golf course and he made it clear he’s probably going to dial back that that driver game that length game that that he is really good at as well because he pointed out you can drive the ball 350 yards you can run out 40 yards which I again thought that was another fascinating conversation and be next to the Green in an awful spot or you can be 180 yards back in the middle of the Fairway in a much more advantageous spot this is not a normal setup you don’t historically and this goes back to pretty much the beginnings of the game and this I did this in a story a few years ago and I was trying to do the Moneyball them trying to come out like what’s what’s on base percentage like what is golf’s magic stats and I kept coming back to the idea that it’s just distance it’s it’s always been that way everyone wants to make this out to be a modern problem it’s not the closer you are to the game the E the close yard of the hole the easier it is to score in this particular case though I feel like that that’s only going to get you into more and more trouble dory’s point and he pointed this out in his press conference he’s good at other things his wedge play has improved dramatically over the last few years he has been a bit of a streaky putter but I feel like he’s more consistent now working with Brad Faxon than he has been the last few years so it’s not as though you’re taking the one weapon out of his hands that he has but you’re taking the best weapon his driver out of his hands I do think he’s done a good job over the past half decade or so or sort of of sort of shedding the perception of Roy mcy as a golfer who who who just bombs it who could only win on long and soft uh golf courses I mean five consecutive top 10s in golf’s toughest Majors on a variety of different tracks uh whether it was uh hble Beach whether it was LCC uh whether it was uh Wingfoot I mean those are vastly different tests and he has performed admirably uh in all of those yes he has had varying level of success I I I think obviously LCC last year was his best opportunity to win but he also was just a couple shots behind Matt Fitzpatrick heading into that final round at the Country Club as well as a at a tournament in which the winning part winning total ended up being six under par to me the thing that scares me about Roy this week is the Precision with his approach play that is something that he has worked very hard this year to sort of correct he had the left miss going uh he said he was fighting two swings I don’t quite think that the the level of precision that is going to be required to hitting in these very small shelves uh is is quite up to stuff with Roy mroy this week but we shall see even though Rex you and I are not gambling experts and even though we do not have really a betting strategy with mbcp sports.com Golf and sort of the content providing for the people I have come to understand that there are a lot of people who listen to this podcast who would love some tips they would love for you to pick some players if you have some sort of office pool if you’d love to shed a few of your uh hard-earned dollars on some players this week give the folks at home some names of players who could pop up and surprise not necessarily to win the golf tournament you can throw those out there too but how about top five or top 10 as well this would have been cool for us to talk about before we actually started the Pod so I could have pulled up the odds because I I’m gonna gas bag a little bit here because you threw this one at me uh I was actually just texting or Snapchatting with one of my son’s friends who was asking exactly that he has an office pool and he wanted to know who I would pick and I’m like well Scotty let’s let’s not be silly about it but after Scotty it was some combination I put Scotty is not a good bet necessarily it’s not 3 to one’s a terrible bet at 3 to one you do not necessarily want to be spending your hard earned cash on that so go a little bit further I’m not necessarily looking for I do actually I have two I do so I’m glad I actually was was doing something on Snapchat that’s helping me with my career right now uh Tommy Fleetwood is plus 3500 and that’s a pretty good number for a player that’s playing well I’ll go back to the PGA Championship he made the cut on the number had to make Eagle on the 36 hole just to make it to the weekend and played really really well and two weeks later in Canada I sort of talked to him about the idea of what did you take from that and and it’s funny we always sort of focus on the top five players on Sunday and either you win or you lose and how did you how did that impact your play making the cut like that and then having a decent weekend and posting what otherwise you would look at a year from now and be like oh it’s a non-descript top 15 whatever the case may be it can give a player a ton of confidence I think that’s what it did with Tommy Fleetwood and all the things that we just sat here and talked about Tommy Fleetwood does pretty well he’s he’s a good driver of the golf ball at least right now he seems to have fought his way out of some swing issues and he’s a really good iron player it just kind of depends on he has a good putting week uh the second one of those and this is even better and I think I’m probably stealing this player from you is is Willie Z your boy will zalot Torres he is plus 6,500 and it’s all going depend on the putter when it comes to Willie and we’ve seen him get really really hot and win in Memphis and then we’ve seen him struggle and certainly since he’s come back from injury he’s been a little inconsistent on that front but I think this golf course is going to mitigate a little bit the really really good Putters from the middle of the pack guys and I think that’s good for Willie z uh I’m with you on the Tommy Fleetwood train uh at 45 to1 you don’t like Willie Z you no I I like I like Tommy Fleetwood a lot keep in mind he almost stole that 2018 Us open at shinicok uh with a great weekend round uh that year I I think I specifically think his number at 45 to1 is very very appetizing I like cam Smith he was a player who I pointed out in our punch shot at NBC sports.com golf he has been been seemingly a little bit quiet in the major championship since his move to live golf he actually has three top 10 in his last five major starts maybe not in the best form I think that’s uh I think that’s what you’re seeing with his number here at 50 to1 he’s coming off at final round 80 uh at the Liv golf Houston event uh on Sunday but to me he still has the best pair of hands at least top five Pair of Hands uh in in golf and this is a great opportunity for him to showcase some of those short game skills couple other names that I will throw out there Matt Fitzpatrick has come into form former US Open Champion as well sah theala uh love the creativity and Imagination he has shown he’s also popped up in a couple of major championships this year and if you want to go really really deep probably not to win the golf tournament at least we hope not to win the golf tournament but potentially top 10 this week I like Russell Henley a supreme iron player as well as Denny McCarthy who if you if I had a 10-footer uh in which I would either live or die I think I would have Denny McCarthy putting that one for me you can get Georgia homerism there if you’re asking around 100 to one or lower Rex how about some final thoughts what are you most looking forward to see obviously we’ll be doing the mini pods after each and every tournament round those are just 15 to 20 minutes in length fingers cross on that but how about Thursday for Thursday’s opening round I know you will be on site bright and early because they’ve been calling you shops around here in the media center this is a direct response to what happened with the Scotty shler incident at the PJ Championship he will be on the ground I I mean 5 AM 5:30 am making sure absolutely nothing happens you’re have plenty of time to ponder this you’ll have plenty of the opening round to digest it’s what you look forward to seeing I want to see how the golf course plays the USGA spoke John Bowen Hammer who’s their coo uh chief of tournament operations and it’s it’s fun to talk to the USGA this particular week because look it’s a microscope here I I made the mistake of tweeting out a picture of them watering not real greens practice greens yesterday and I was kind of amazed how X sort of blew up on this topic in a very very weird way I think my my my caption to that photo was nothing nothing but going to see a lot of this this week not because I feel like the USGA has Juiced up the golf course not because I feel like winham Clark as winham Clark said that it’s it’s too close to the edge right now just because it’s going be really really hot it’s going to be around 100 degrees at least tomorrow in the next day there’s going to be a lot of humidity in the air there’s going to be a hot wind blowing across this golf course they’re going to have to water the greens and it has nothing to do with whether or not they either made a mistake or didn’t make a mistake with the setup grass just needs water if it’s going to live when it’s really really hot that’s the only point I was trying to make but when it comes to the idea and this goes back to the old saying that they’re not trying to embarrass the world’s best golfers they’re trying to identify them and that’s a that’s a very lofty statement and it’s something that we all will look forward to at this particular Championship on this golf course it can go either way really fast so I think by noon tomorrow Thursday we’ll have an idea of okay how close to the Sun is the usj willing to fly with this one because this is a staple venue we’re going to be coming back here for a really long time I think it’s 14 times in the next 25 years for various championships they’ve done a lot of work to this particular facility to make sure it’s a really good Us open venue and it is but if you fly too close to the Sun if you get it too close to the edge and players start complaining I’ll be curious to see how they dial it back I I mean I would be shocked if there are errors in the setup made for Thursday’s opening rounde I do think the scoring will be at its best uh on Thursday again keep in mind a quote unquote exceptional score is 66 67 68 this is a brutally difficult golf course I’d be shocked if there is an error I think you make a great point about the anchor site in in the US over the past couple years under Mike Juan under John Bowden Hamber under Jeff Hall have done a great job of recognizing the past mistakes from Chambers Bay and pushing those greens too far or shinok and getting those to be a little bit too unplayable they’re very cognizant of making those same mistakes again to your point they’re not trying to embarrass the players or push them to the breaking point they’re trying to provide a complete examination but the reality of the situation is as an anchor site you you do not want to have a stain on this golf course and that can happen with just one screw up on one of these whole locations it I think back to the US Women’s Open in the 12th hole in that opening round the scoring average on the par three 12th hole was over four for that opening round it was too penal for the very best players in the world and as a result you had a situation where I think eight or nine of the top 10 players in the world ended up missing the cut that was not providing the best most complete examination they were not identifying the best players that week I think they’ll be very uh hesitant to push this too far knowing that they’re going to be coming back so frequently you don’t want the tournament to be defined by one or two mistakes like we’ve seen so often in the past well and that’s a really good point I have so much trust in the usgaa now the the association has evolved it’s matured whatever it is you want to call it over the last few years certainly with Mike Wan being in charge you and I both had a gloriously fun time during the press conference today because we made a bet about how long his opening comments were going to be and I believe your over under number was mine was six and a half you took I I believe hook I took five and a yeah uh I did take the under and in case anyone is curious he blew through that by almost double it was 12 it was almost 13 minutes so like one of the we’ve ever seen a lot of funny a lot of funny stories a lot of Jabs at the media in the crowd uh so I have a lot of trust in the organization the reason I’m curious to see how tomorrow evolves and by again by noon we should have a better idea is because this particular Golf Course under these conditions already is very close to the razor’s Edge we’re already seeing we started on Monday when I I walked this golf course on Monday you could see balls well hit shots rolling off or around or into bunkers or whatever the case may be it would not take a lot it’s only going to take a little nudge to this get this golf course at least in the players’s eyes too far over the edge they won’t do it but you’re always curious to see Golf Course obviously has got to be the start of the show uh on Thursday there is the Premier grouping uh going off like roughly one o’clock Eastern time on Thursday uh with Scotty sheffler Xander shawley Roy mroy that’ll obviously be at the center of attention as well we haven’t even touched Rex hopefully we’ll get to them later on in this tournament week Bryce Des Shambo I think is a very polarizing pick uh this week at the US Open and he’s going to adapt the unique challenges here Brooks kka five-time major Champion US Open bully curious to see his form after being outside the top 25 in his last three major championships as well all of those players will certainly be on my radar for Thursday’s opening round all right that is going to do it for this edition of the Golf Channel podcast with Rex and lab as mentioned you guys can rely on our mini podcast after each and every tournament round we will try to upload those as quickly as possible possible following the completion of play on Thursday Friday and Saturday before the full pod as uh as usual on Sunday afternoon make sure to catch rex hoger on live from the US Open each and every night as well thanks for listening thanks for the support we talk to you guys on Thursday night