U.S. Open Day One Journal

Smylie Kaufman and Charlie Hulme recap the first day of play from the 124th U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, from the degree of difficulty that the course posed, to the names who rose to the top of the leaderboard. Smylie and Charlie break down the keys to success for Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay, Ludvig Aberg, Bryson DeChambeau, and Matthieu Pavon, from driving distance to the ability to scramble around the green.

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[Music] H Smiley caufman for 61 wow I’m Smiley Coffman and this is the Smiley Show welcome to a major championship recap Journal edition of the Smiley Show and smiley look at us we’re here on the the Pinehurst Resort pool deck nice boys I got to give a shout out first of all to Joey gesy at the USGA for fielding a uh increasingly uh absurd series of location requests that culminated with us sitting here in the pool deck and I’m really hoping that by the end of this week maybe Saturday night we can take a dip in the pool to end the show yeah the request started at the 18th green then we went to the Grand stands then we went for the parking lot and then we settled for the Lazy River The Lazy River I mean there’s like I it’s not in the frame there’s like a slide back here we get some pretty sick footage off of uh so that’s where we are we’re we’re the the course is right behind us that way and it was man it was a fun day out there I mean it was an interesting day out there so let’s just start with your just takeaways your observations first day of pinus I got some stats on the course you want to start with course difficulty yeah go yeah just right there because it’s interesting so the first three this is courtesy of of our guy Randy robbles with uh Elias Sports who hooked us up with some PJ Championship stats as well but first three us opens at Piner 9905 5 and 14 there were 468 total entries and only four players at the end of the week ended up under par pay Stewart one under in 99 Martin kimer N9 under in 2014 Ricky Fowler one under in 2014 and Eric Compton one under in 2014 uh Michael Campbell when he won and an ‘ 05 famously uh finished at uh at even par so we have that piece and then we’re looking at the leaderboard today and there are 15 players under part today however Justin Ray put out a tweet as always I don’t have it in front of me but just that that if you look at the the day one leader and where the scoring ends up it never goes as deep as you think it is based on that first day and and we saw some water being put on these greens you know overnight this morning uh a little bit of cloud cover today that maybe kept the course softer than maybe we thought we’d see it I’m wondering you know do you think this kind of sets up for them to slowly ramp up the green speeds make it difficult wait till you cut down to ties you know so it’s not a pace of play issue and toughen this thing up going into the weekend yeah to me the green speeds uh and just those runoff areas those are like really close to being very much in play to where golf balls aren’t going to stay but yeah you kind of mentioned the cloud cover a little bit out there kind of kept it softer um to where maybe the balls that would barely roll off uh we’re staying today but to me the thing that’s like so different from 14 to this year it’s how green the fairways are I mean I don’t think the fairways to me are that difficult to hit this year there’s there’s it’s kind of how Donald Ross designs golf courses he gives you room off the te but he’s going to challenge you on the second shots and yes I mean the the native wired grass area uh is very challenging to play out of but it’s it’s kind of you know from the wies I saw today only a couple were non advanceable everything every other time guys got it on the green so saw some good shots out of that stuff yeah so I don’t I wouldn’t call it just this absurd challenge quite yet it’s not quite there I was a little surprised that not see a little bit more guys under par but it’s a very typical golf course that stretch on four six and uh I mean shoot you can make bogey on every hole but uh I mean I was with Bryson today and from where he was playing from it just I mean I saw a six or seven under out of him today and he end up shooting three but still I mean what he’s doing off the te right now is it’s it’s crazy man he I mean through the first like 14 or 15 holes he had he had just hit nine iron in nine iron or less into every single hole and that’s including the par 3es it just was absurd the guy is unbelievable if you’re hitting it that high it should be easier to hold firm and fast screens and and kind of touching on that a little bit looking at some of the stats of that group of five leaders and what they each did well to get where they were you starting with Bryson uh his Strokes gain off the te uh he gained 2.86 Strokes off the T which I think led the entire field and second in that category ludvig obber gained 2.22 Strokes off the T Matthew pavon how he ended up at T4 and three under was had an incredible day putting gained 4.41 Strokes uh putting now if you look at our two leaders r and Patrick Klay and you’re talking about those sort of approaches around the green that was the stat where they performed the best Patrick Klay gained 3.81 Strokes around the green Rory gained 2.48 Strokes around the green I thought that was telling where we we spent a lot of the time in the leadup and the preview talking about what types of shots are guys going to hit around the green that’s where you could throw guys for a loop ludvig had a couple of shaky moments there around the green and you know obviously still put up a good score he’s in third at four under but that was where Rory and camp kind of made their money today and it’s interesting to see both of them tied at top the leaderboard at 5 under and you’re going to need days like that to where your short game you know carries you out here and all these players at some point during this tournament are going to need their short games to show up or you ain’t winning and to see Rory who by the way is a very underrated pitcher of the golf ball and and has been a very good putter this year and it’s kind of stalled a little bit with the putter like one round each tournament since the Wells Fargo but other than that the putting things look great this year not as big of a concern like it was last year but I still feel like you’re going to have to iron it out here you’re going to have to be able to I mean when they put these hole locations on the corners of the green and you know you can’t miss on on the short side and you have to aim three or four steps to the left and you know you can’t pull it either you can’t push it depending on which side of the green it’s on it takes total commitment um and then when you get in those positions where you have to get up and down you can’t you can’t waver at all on the decision that you make you have to be fully committed to what you’re doing if you think about outcome at all about you know oh I I I can’t you know I don’t want to end up chipping it over the green or I don’t want to chip it short or I’m worried about contact in this grain you got no chance and and you could see it in the scoring today it was 501 gu I think it was Plus 501 over par today uh we were just doing the finishing the coverage up so there’s obviously you know plenty of players today had that going through their mind a lot and the guys who managed the best Roy mroy Patrick cellay butl of other guys lud Vic striped it uh they were able to you know get up there and and hit committed pick committed targets or pick a committed spot and get up there and execute and and that’s why I feel like this golf course is you know you’re going to have the best players rise to the top because you you can’t be weak in in areas any areas of your game and especially mental the mental game you can’t be weak there either ludig gained 2.91 Strokes approach yeah I mean just you know that was Patrick Klay gained 2.53 Strokes in that category how about our little oneandone picks it was looking like your guy Brooks Kea was going to run away with it early uh love where Bryson’s at he actually he actually lost Strokes to the field putting so maybe if that’s something he works on I enjoyed the tidbit from the coverage where they were talking about his uh using the foresight of the Quad on the on the putt speeds and you were like he needs to hit this one zero 01 mph um but but Brooks today had some had a little little bit shaky coming down the stretch after getting to three under and and this bogey 13 this tickled me so much so he skipped the interview process right Aman Lynch texts him says hey can we do an interview over text and they did a whole interview over text of him explaining hey the reason I didn’t do media it’s not cuz I’m mad at anybody I or mad at myself like I just think people ask boring questions and and this I want I want more of this here’s what I want let’s just skip the interview process entirely because you know what I tend to agree with Brooks on this a little bit we we’ve gotten a little stale with the questions let’s just throw all the players in a group chat just fire questions off and then you know guys are sending gifts to to encapsulate their performance on the day I I want more of this well done aan Lynch and Well Done Brooks kep for being a good sport and doing this that’s the heck of a scoop I didn’t know about that yet that’s I want to see the screenshots of all that it’s great he’s got a full ride up uh on yeah I I I think G rides for golf week I I got have that wrong but a full it’s a like it’s like a Q&A style thing they just did over text while he was at home hanging out with his son and by the way that was uh Claire Rogers poed the great pick of him leaving with his son like carrying him over his his shoulder uh great Father’s Day Vibes uh you ready for another scoop yep give it to me walked with uh the the bombers only group today Jake knap Gordon Sergeant cam young uh shout out to to my guy Thomas Sergeant Gordon younger brother who hit me with this scoop uh cam young arrived on property for the first time 6:45 a.m. this morning just had his third child Happy Father’s Day to you Cam young how about that what and put I I think he was at two or three over last night Tech in the round that’s a pretty dang good round for not having played a practice round out here he was on my flight to Charlotte from the memorial maybe he had to do a U-turn I mean obviously something happened something happened something happened in there along the way that’s wild also he didn’t mention that also got to hang out with Jackson Jackson Vamp Paris third child third child age like in my brain I’m not Computing that cam young should have his third child by now that’s insane I tell you what I I I watched all three of those guys tea off on 14 and it was like it felt like it was close to a combined 600 mph of ball speed I mean just crushing the golf ball was a fun watch and fun hanging with with some of the VY guys Jackson vampiris Scott limbo it was a good hangout there today at Piner heck yeah that’s a good group to go follow I’m just sitting here trying to catch up here looking at day to gol and some ranks kind of what you all the stuff that you already have but when you’re just with one group all day I’m playing catchup trying to figure out all cuz I had heard on the coverage that Xander sha was like not hitting it well and I wanted to go and see exactly how poorly oh yeah he was 142nd today off of the te and just to give you a reference there’s 156 players and he still managed to shoot he still shot even par that is that’s so good and I felt like every time I looked up he was making you know like an eight-footer for par and it felt like that was that to me was the story of the day out here was just guys that and it was towards the end of your coverage window where Denny McCarthy made that Nery par putt where you were talking about Bryson the same one and then sticks his tongue out just like I am exhausted and I felt like that was really it is that it’s hard to hold these greens they have these little nervy pitch shots you know or whatever they’re going to do they’re going to bump and run it they’re going to putt it and then you’re left with this tester for par and it’s like how many times can you do that before you’re just completely drained stressing out over putts like that oh totally and for him to shoot even par to be that poor off of the T that’s where you kind of look at the setup and say that luck component right like if there was Strokes gain lucky today Xander shley I I for somebody who didn’t get to watch one shot just listening in my ear sounds like he got lucky a lot today because to shoot you can’t shoot even par out there if you’re missing Fairways every hole so if you would have thrown heavy heavy rough out here today if you were hitting it bad off the te probably don’t have a chance to get it on the green so I I don’t know where I stand as far as this like native grass stuff cuz I think from what I’ve seen this week you there’s a lot of advancement it’s a lot of fun but there’s so much luck involved there is and and and I think I mean for me from a fan perspective this is different from a a player perspective where you want have some sort of consistency I like the variability there and you never know what lie you’re going to get and do add some fun into it um but but it it is it’s strange it’s like you see a guy hit it where you think he’s dead and then all of a sudden he has a shot I mean like Bryson and this was the story for a couple guys uh Bryson Xander and Scotty all got very timely Tio relief in places where I thought they were going to drop some shots BR did yeah yeah and uh it was close too I was like like should we those those shotlink Towers they’re they’re becoming more and more in play Air quotes there Scotty didn’t hit a good wow so Scotty so by the way we’re good we’re fading Scotty this week and and I’m not like we’re literally fading Scotty you see his hair his haircut yeah it’s man got the man got a fade and a half uh it’s the Open Championship Jordan Speed haircut it’s the it’s the one one I got a couple times over summer in college where I let my hair grow out too long and way to cut it and then I cut it and I got mocked for like a week for my tan lines I’ve been there I was watching uh the early coverage when they’re he’s hitting balls warming up and I was like caught the corner of my eye I was like whoa what happened there yeah going full dad mode I’m I’m here for that right like exactly you’re you’re mired in it you have no time to get a haircut and you finally decide to get one you’re like just cut it short cuz I’m not going to have time to do this anytime soon again I mean Scotty look at that though just uh pretty incredible that him and Xander both did not have good days off the tea especially playing a group with Rory where you you think you draft off him a little bit yeah uh what was your take away just from the vibes from that group from watching it it looked like um I mean like to me it looked like it was a grind for for Xander for sure and Scotty to a certain extent of just not having his aame where you know the the putting I feel like is is he almost he almost made like a 40-footer to close the day that would have got him to even par so but it just felt like it was a grind for them and it for Rory it just felt like and it was similar for Bryson’s round just felt like they weren’t really stressing out at all you see Rory walk that put in on 18 with like I a foot left to go I love it I mean stepping it it’s it’s just it’s so funny with Rory we it’s like the major where we think you he’s got all the pressure on him all the expectation doesn’t play well and then he kind of flies under the radar here and here he is the top of the leaderboard after round one well that was uh one thing that they asked me on the desk live from and the question uh that was asked to me was what’s the most important metric you think this week and I thought about it and this is after I’d seen the golf course and maybe you and I have talked about this as well on the preview pod that I settled in on driving distance and and then I put scrambling next and then iron and scrambling were probably actually more tied but I think driving distance is so important because you can get lucky and from what I saw with Bryson today I just don’t see where he has like a bad day out there because of the advantage that he had over the rest of the field Victor and Max were 40 yards behind him all day 40 yards what happened to Victor by the way bro it’s it was bad today he was uh he got some bad breaks uh U so if we’re talking about guys who didn’t get he was not one of them he got some pretty crummy breaks most of the day um but two-way Miss man uh he with his iron game he he was pulling shots uh to right pins and then uh the opposite way to left so just didn’t have any confidence up there uh yeah and it just you could tell it was it was weighing on him too he was playing quick like he was he was just mentally you could tell he was the uh the motor was really running in the brain trying to figure out you know how it went so wrong so quickly to start the day yeah it’s interesting I mean like we were talking about this in our picks where feels like he’s close then he’s far away maybe he’s just going to take more time with Joe Mayo you know to kind of get back to where they were I mean we’ve seen the flashes where it’s like he’s all the way back but then you see days like today and you wonder maybe there’s more work there to be done and maybe he Peaks at the end of the year like he did last year well uh definitely so and and I I think that’s maybe a testament to like man balla that was uh a lot easier than it was it was really pretty easy one it like I think it was just a point and shooter uh where this week is it’s a it’s a point and shoot but if you you know you don’t shoot well it’s not great uh yeah I mean I mean well it’s just it’s interesting it’s like I think we have a feel for what it could be like the rest of the week you know given today’s conditions but I just think the conditions are going to keep changing over the next three days and that you know maybe tomorrow it won’t get crazy you know fast firm but I think in the weekend like once they make the cut because because there was a pace of play consideration today where like he could have gotten long and bad with a full field but like once you cut it down to 16 ties and you can let those things bake and and I even look even look at the forecast like it looked like there was going to be it was going to be cloudy today and tomorrow but that it it’s fully Sunny Saturday Sunday and that’s where it could get really crispy it definitely can and just driving over here from the 10th hole I saw every every Green was getting watered maybe I don’t know just hand water I wouldn’t say sprinkler so just probably just putting a nice little ding on it just you know just like a couple cocktails we’re not going to have five we’re just going to have like one or two that’s all they’re putting on top of the greens tonight well I I’ll I’ll finish with this I mean you’ve done a lot of talking about golf today and uh a lot of talking to people about talking about golf tomorrow we’ve got uh we’ve got happy hour we got Fridays with smiley tomorrow very much excited for that you’re going to be at the 15th hole is that correct 15th hole 15th hole we’re uh work to be done on getting getting players lined up it’s really difficult to be honest this uh being a major championship trying to get players to swing by uh so we’ll see what we get I’m really excited uh to do it we got some really good things cooking uh in in the microwave for it so excited the biggest thing we’ve got is Big Father’s Day moment for us we might have the first official Anna Carter Walker meeting in person they may Friday surprise they should be big big time Father’s Day moment for both of us so uh I’ll let you go get ready for tomorrow uh and uh eat some dinner man it’s 900 p.m. I didn’t eat lunch had some nice Pizza in that in that media dining area really good a lot of local they had some nice pulled pork I’ll tell you what they’re doing it right here this week thank yeah I got to give big shout out to Pinehurst and the USGA on that front so we appreciate you watching and listening as always to this journal we’re going to be back here recapping play tomorrow night and Saturday night as well and maybe as the the conditions change and the the players at the top of leaderboard change as well so uh stick with us and we’ll be back with another recap tomorrow night see you then you know I listen to this podcast it’s really cool and all of our fans and subscribers but make sure you like And subscribe it’s cool to see what you guys are doing I know golf fans appreciate it but we we do too so please keep it up for all the good people YouTube like And subscribe you guys have some good takes so I’m happy to come on and and shoot the