Potgieter Prevails in Playoff! | Rocket Classic Tournament Recap | Winner, Highlights & More

The boys are back to recap the Rocket Classic at Detroit Golf Club in Detroit, Michigan.

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0:00 Intro – Rocket Classic Recap
1:15 Final Round Highlights
3:40 Aldrich Potgieter Wins at 20
6:05 Potgieter’s Short Game Woes
9:10 Potgieter’s Shotmaking Adjustments
12:00 Winners Under Age 21
13:40 Potgieter’s Future Outlook
16:59 Mark Immelman on Playoff Drama
18:00 Potgieter vs. Rory McIlroy
20:28 Chris Kirk’s Playoff Miss
21:15 Kirk’s Final Round Review
24:08 Kirk’s FedEx Cup Impact
26:44 Kirk’s Post-Round Thoughts
29:08 Jake Knapp’s Big Week
31:33 Knapp’s Driving & Wedges
33:09 Michael Thorbjornsen Top 5
35:15 Thorbjornsen’s Putting Struggles
38:57 Injuries & Adjustments
41:13 Thorbjornsen at John Deere
42:46 Morikawa’s New Putter
44:50 Is Morikawa Overthinking?
46:33 Morikawa’s Stats Breakdown
48:57 Picks Recap – Ben Griffin
50:51 Rocket Classic Final Thoughts
52:26 Course Redesign Talk
53:06 Outro

🎤 ABOUT THE SHOW
The Second Cut gets you everything you need in the world of golf on the PGA Tour and more! Tournament previews, storylines for each week, and in-depth players reviews. Hosted by Rick Gehman (@RickRunGood). Joined by Greg DuCharme (@therealGFD), Mark Immelman (mark_immelman), and Patrick McDonald (@pmcdonaldCBS).

welcome in it’s the Second Cut podcast i’m Rick Game and that right there is Greg Ducharm and we got bonus golf played in the Motor City greg good to see you buddy
good to see you too Rick what a week and what a finish uh it was rather exciting because I had no clue who was going to win and this thing for the guys that were near the top um it was it was wide open most of the day 72 holes were not enough five playoff holes for a total of 77 it was a log jam all day long we knew that was going to be the case we had guys like Michael Thorp Bjornson throw his hat into the ring we had Jackson Suber and Jake Knap all make runs at this championship it was a three-man playoff but none of those names that I have just mentioned were in said playoff
no you know one thing that was really interesting um was it looking at the scores there there was not a lot of score varants but you just look through this leaderboard it’s three under five under five under five under four under six under four under five under five under four under three under like everybody in the top 10 shot somewhere between three and six under uh not a whole lot of variance and I think just about every single player that I named including the winner uh has is ruining some shots out there everybody seemed to be letting opportunities slip throughout this day and that was honestly more of the story than um than going out there and taking it well the playoff was between Chris Kirk Max Grazerman and Aldrich poter and let’s just get right to the champion Greg he deserves it the 20-year-old out of South South Africa uh gets his first PGA Tour victory after a little bit of a rocky start in the final round made two bogeies in his first five holes before settling down into this and kind of getting the greens figured out
yes um very interesting day you know gets off to a great start at one nearly hits it out of bounds at two uh and it’s not out of bounds but he can’t play it and so he’s got to take it unplayable and makes I thought actually a pretty good bogey there uh and then you know there were some mistakes like four was pretty brutal right in front of the green and two on the par five can’t get that up and down then five he’s just left to the green and it’s kind of like you know the weakness everybody knows the weakness for Pater is his short game
um he’s just left to the green on five hits it like 10 ft by and it showed up again at at 15 he hit just a just a terrible chip but fortunately come playoff time he was able to hit some big ones uh he was able to take care of the par fives with the exception of number four so he took care of the last three par fives and I’ll tell you what Rick I I love the what he does with the driver it was impressive he didn’t miss a fairway after the 10th hole um in regulation anyway he was striping it and the way he rolls the rock it’s it’s pretty impressive stuff
i think the other thing that I really like about it well a lot I like a lot of stuff but the I thought he made some pretty solid like in-game adjustments Greg so clearly he and maybe it’s nerves or maybe it’s whatever but you know he was struggling with kind of distance control on the putting surfaces he was a little bit nervy on some of those shots out of the gate and then if you look at the way he played fif so he played 15 three times you know at the end of regulation and then twice in the playoff the first two times he couldn’t figure out you know how to flight one back there into that into that pin figures it out in the in the playoff uh the second time hits it to 17 ft and eventually rolls the putt in
yes which was really nice i It seemed like he played it three different ways
yeah yeah um and and that was a a lot harder shot than it looked if you just watch the way balls were coming in there if they landed up on top they were skipping over the back and if you played them short there’s a a slope there that was crushing it so it was really hard to get it close there there was a really small landing area to get it on the right level on that hole which was really cool um Grazerman got it right in regulation uh maybe that was in one of the playoff holes i think it was in one of the playoff holes
first time they played
the first time right he he got the landed it just on top of that ridge and it skipped up and spun so that was really nice but look those are things that Pater needs he hits it so long this is we talk about this with Bryson and iron play you end up with almost everything is an in between shot
right you have if you have 20 yard gaps between your clubs it’s very rare that you have a perfect number so you have to be able to play a lot of different shots and um and he can he knows how to i don’t think it’s as sharp as it can be but the new set of irons that he put in play this week the spinnier golf ball seem to really be making a difference and they seem to really help him this week puts himself on a really short list of international PGA Tour winners uh before they turn 21 i think it’s like Sevy Rory Tom Kim Wen Neman um I’m missing somebody big in there as well but it it’s it’s
No I don’t think so
is that the list
yeah I think that’s the list
it’s it’s a who’s who right i mean that now does do expectations change when you win this young um you know I I don’t know for Pock Eater it’s an it it’s very interesting and I know I’m not saying it the way Mark would want me to but that’s okay he’ll be he we are trying to So the the Mark the Mark situation is he was trying to fly out tonight uh but the playoff he might have missed that flight so he might be joining us if we if we get him we’ll we’ll add him but we’ll see if we can get Mark tonight so as for his expectations Aldrick’s expectations I I think there’s a way you could look at this like it’s a perfect golf course for him and and he got a win you know he lost in a playoff in Mexico which was a perfect golf course for him and he nearly got a win you know he had a nice finish at at Colonial as well but he’s he’s missed like seven cuts this year on the PGA Tour so I I think there will be an understanding from the uh golfing public that he’s a really really talented player but there’s still a lot of work to do in his game uh and and if he gets that done it it becomes very scary for everybody else but this is still a little you know it it’s not as sharp as it’s not nearly as sharp as it could be
yeah it’s you know there’s a lot to be excited about he’s 20 he’s he’s a winner now he is probably the longest guy in professional golf which is only gonna uh you know benefit him in the modern game right so there’s a lot to be excited about but there’s a lot to be not that I should have compared him to Gordon Sergeant but like you know thing things are weird things happen right like it it’s so easy to just anoint the guy who wins an hour ago as the next best thing when we’ve seen so many times how hard this is yes yes a lot can there there’s a lot that can go wrong i mean he he has missed nine cuts this year nine cuts he he’s made four two of those four he’s ended up in a playoff and he won one so look I I think there’s a lot of good in that um but I I’m not ready to go say the floodgates are going to open at this point you know this is this is not a complete player and I’m also in no mean by no means trying to bash the guy that just won you know I’m extremely impressed i’m just trying to temper the expectations here that like th this was a great week and he’s a great talent but I don’t think he’s the the next Sevy by Steros
yeah well we’ll find out see the thing with this one is you just have to circle back in 20 years to find out whether or not he’s put it on the calendar
yeah I’ll set a reminder for sure um
June 29th 2045 we’ll talk about it again we’ll bring it up like 10,000 episodes from now the the man he uh beat well he beat two men in the playoff but we’ll get to Chris Kirk in a second he exited a little bit earlier than the other two was Max Gaserman who I’ll tell you what for how long Aldrich Pocket is um this Max Graser dude can can keep up with with him pretty darn well uh yeah he kept up there were a couple times it was like “Wait is Pocky going first?”
Yeah you know and and if you look at the stats for the day um I was looking at driving distance all drives
mhm
cuz it’s fun just to see where everybody finished jake Knap actually led he finished fourth one out of the playoff nikolai Hoyard was second he was 24th uh Pock Eater who won was third camp Champ finished tied 19th he was fourth gotup was tied 26 he was fifth graserman was sixth so Grasman on all of his T- shots for the week was 317.6 pock Eater was 321.5 so um absolutely moving it and that was great which is what part of the reason why we were so high on him early in the week rick
u part of the reason was his putting which seemed to return he was second in the field in in strokes game putting yet at the same time it was there were uh plenty of opportunities in the playoff but more importantly great opportunities early on in this like he he nearly drove the green on eight and doesn’t convert the birdie um misses a real close one at two doesn’t make birdie there um and then all the putts in the playoffs He had he had a nine-footer to win the tournament and missed a lot that will sting
the the ones in the playoff in particular maybe the one on 18 in regulation god he was on the pro side of all of them you know what I mean
they were all pretty darn good putts that could have dropped didn’t and that’s the difference out there you know I I was holding a 40 to1 max carerman ticket so obviously I had a rooting interest in this but this is Yeah this is what we talked about earlier in the week is like he drives it so well he putts it so well that’s a very unique combination on the PGA Tour and this is basically the best golf course in the world for that
yeah and it and he showed up you know he didn’t even bring Another reason why I liked him this week is his iron play has been pretty good last couple weeks and it was just okay this week you know he he gained strokes to the field but barely like half a shot he hit 54 greens puck eater hit 62 you know there was a a little bit of a laps in those middle two rounds in that category that could definitely improve but I love the way he competes um I love the way he swings it i I I he’s got a great intensity about him you know I Mark interviewed him after the round i would not want to interview Max Graaserman in a loser interview he He’s a really intense guy
i didn’t hear what he said i didn’t have the sound on i was doing HQ i saw that Mark was interviewing him what do you know what he said what did he say basically it was uh that this one would sting for a while
uh it really hurts he gave it some good roles that didn’t go and um he’ll get back to work in two weeks but you could te you could see it in his face it was it really bothered him okay so I’m trying to remember all of this because I was at the Windom Championship he was the one who coughed it up on Sunday
yeah he had a four shot lead
fourshot lead like at the turn right it was late deep when did it all start going downhill at like 14
and and that was when Cooer That was when Coocher did not finish
and basically said something like “I was trying to show Max it was okay to take a breath or something like that.” Aaron Ry Aaron Ry goes on to win and Matt Coocher comes out and taps one in the next morning in six minutes or whatever okay so so now that I’m thinking about that this is a way different result right i mean he coughed up Windham this was Yeah he had to miss a couple missed opportunities but man this was a a way better Sunday for him in in terms of trying to get a victory well he competed and and there were some moments when it looked like this was going to get away like he was going to come to 18 and be two back kind of thing it was trending that way and then he made the long putt on 16 it was like “Okay now we got now we got life.” Um misses the fairway at 17 still makes birdie now he’s tied for the lead and there’s a chance to win it in regulation um and and no bogeies on the scorecard he did not cough this up there were like a couple of you know he could have won i I don’t know if I’d go as far as to say he should have won really it’s it’s the He missed a five-footer at two and he missed a like a four It was like a sixfooter and a four-footer a four-footer at eight
mhm and it’s so easy to say either one of those goes and he wins but then maybe 16 doesn’t go in
yeah and you could also find I’m sure you could find those for every guy in the field
you can’t every guy on the leaderboard Chris Kirk might be an exception everybody had like kind of agonizing opportunities that they missed
yeah and they’re even more agonizing because like a par hurts and a bokei is basically ends your tournament immediately so it is agonizing when you’re getting so many great looks and they’re just not falling well especially when you look at this is part of the reason why they’re redoing this golf course right i I I think the first time I saw a fairway bunker shot was Pock Eater in the playoff
oh dude i was looking through I was just clicking through shot link and how many bunkers did not have a single ball in them all week long
there just there is no trouble off the tea and so now there’s no trouble off the tea you look at some of these holes like one and one is a wedge in i mean let’s just look through what Pock Eater had pock Eater had 46 yards into number one 46 yard a lot of guys got it up there in that n 40 50 60 yards you don’t convert that you don’t get that up and down it hurts right out of the rip um two is a little longer but you still you can give yourself a wedge in three Pocket has 60 yards you know you might have 80 yards chris Kirk had like 110 i think those bunkers are not in play it’s like gotta convert there four is a par five five’s not that long it’s a 130 into six seven’s a par five you can hit iron in there eight you could drive it up by the green i mean he Pocket I think he hit iron off that T um and he had 100 yards in you could drive Graserman drove it up by the green it’s like all these holes you have little flip wedges in um or they’re par fives and it it’s just a killer when you don’t convert um and so that’s why everybody leaves feeling like they could have won this tournament
well we’re going to try to add a third man to our playoff here i I see him backstage mark give me a thumbs up if you’re if you’re ready okay Markman is here hello Mark did I tell anybody how much I hate playoffs five five holes Mark five of them
didn’t feel like it was going to end either i mean and my guy got knocked out early but I’m the loser interview guy so I had to lurk around here to speak to some guy who was going to eventually bow out um I guess in the end it was an exciting day but man what a day it was was unreal stuff
yeah how do you draw the short straw of having to do the loser interviews uh I think my boss trusts me more than cult okay fair probably and and definitely accurate
and I interviewed for a living and I did one way back in the day with Denny McCarthy and kind of like like Ron Firestone i made him cry this has been my job got to try and get the guy to cry you know
okay sometimes easier said than done well uh the the South African phenom the 20-year-old gets the job done Mark how about that
so proud of him you know he sort of weathered the storm a little bit i was concerned the the the first few holes he looked sort of nervy um the club wasn’t getting released i mean he was blocking balls out to the right hand side because when he swings well everyone thinks he fades the ball but you know he fades the ball if he has to his preferred shot moves from right to left a touch but the first few holes you could see him just not let one go and I had said to Doy I feel like the key to him playing well um is just freedom you know just swinging free i heard Greg talk about you know the golf course now before the changes will happen sort of defenseless if you’re hitting at a certain distance yet he didn’t look like he was in full command but then in the end he he sort of dug in and showed his class to finish this thing off
yeah he really did we talked a little bit about his his in-game adjustments and just the ability to um you know kind of like I’m thinking of the shots that he hit on 15 basically three different ways he tried to access that pin on 15 and and really just figured it out as the round went on with especially his distance and his speed control on the putting surfaces so when you when you
Sorry to interrupt you bring up a really good point that I’d love to elaborate on there with with Aldrich because if you just throw the name out here to kind of the folks in the no and the instant answer is going to be well longest driver in the tour he bombs it but I don’t I want people to realize how many shots this guy has because like in the playoff there for argument sakes when Chris Kirk is hitting nine iron now Kirk is not short he’s picked up power over recent years and Aldrich is sort of brushing a 9 iron in there that goes a little shorter than Kirks did that shows you how he has the ability to change speeds and flight the ball and he’s not afraid to go low in there i feel like that’s sort of born of being growing up in Perth a little bit with the windy conditions out there so I mean he’s got a lot of shots he really does and he’ll get ripped for his short game because he plays with that big strong grip but his touch around the green is incredible as well so the boy’s got a lot of shots and and as he continues to grow and mature golly with that that driver that he has which he tells me is his favorite club i mean yeah it better be
well well think about this i know another young man who drove the ball like a wild man power-wise and is a grand slam champion now in Rory and Aldrich is the same sort of gear as off the tea
yeah that’d be my favorite club if I could hit it about 340 yards off the tea as well well we’re going to get to the man that you were with in the playoff here Mark and uh right now because it’s it’s it’s Chris Kirk and I’m going to bounce this over to you first here Greg because uh Chris Kirk got in early and had to sit around and wait sometimes figuratively sometimes literally crisscross applesauce on the driving range and he bowed out of this uh on the 15th hole it’s the par three that back left pin location you think might work perfect for the draw kind of flares one out to the right uh some 56 feet where you start to get more likely to three putt than to make it and he does three jack for for bogey cannot extend uh his his playoff run
well so sorry this this this is sort of inside golf a little bit as it pertains to Kirk um you know when he was waiting for the playoff we’re there on what is the third TE of the tournament and they just put you on the tea and you hit balls down three fairway and he did a bit and then he turned and hit some balls to a green that’s on the other course the south course little wedges underneath trees and then with the wind the way it was blowing on the practice tee it was sort of like into off the left a little bit and then he turned around and hit balls down another fairway I think it was like the second or the fourth
and I’m watching him and he’s sort of hitting balls with a wind sort of over his right shoulder now almost like the approach shot on 18 and I’m like well this is pretty savvy you know he’s preparing himself for the club he’s about to have which he hit really well on the first hole of the playoff but then I asked Mike his caddy I’m like so this is what I’m thinking am I right and he goes yeah well kind of that makes sense but Chris just hates a left to right wind and as soon as they got there on 15 where it’s into him like this and you would think as a drawer of the golf ball he can just turn it into that thing and have the two cancel out it just doesn’t fit for him because you know as he hits it from the inside and the wind’s out here you get a little late with the club face it’s easy for the drawer to start to push the path way to the right hand side which is kind of what he did i mean I watched his legs fire way before they should have on that nine iron and it was a missed strike but it’s sort of inside knowledge here that Chris is not the happiest camper in the world when the wind’s into off the left hand side or off the left
very interesting because on 18 it was off the right
and he hit um two I mean in regulation he hit a beauty in there and he hit a beauty in there in the first playoff fold too i mean two really high quality shots um I loved what Chris Kirk did today i I just I felt like um he was at a disadvantage he’s not short by any means but he is compared to Graserman and Pock Eater uh sorry for the pronunciation mark he’s just a lot shorter than those guys and so he didn’t have quite the pitch and putt par4s that they did and so he had to do it with wedge play and he didn’t make very many mistakes which was very impressive to me so I I loved the way he played this round uh he had the driver on an absolute string it’s just a shame that he had to go out on a on a three putt it it felt like when he missed that putt on 18 in in the playoff he was done there was a different look in his face uh it it looked like he knew that that was it
which was which is strange i I don’t normally see that from guys and it was like “Wow that that face looks very emotional especially for Chris Kirk who doesn’t show very many emotions.”
Uh a gritty a gritty final round there so 33 3467 for for Chris Kirk just the one blemish on the card mark and I will point out uh he will get credit there was a couple questions about this he gets T2 credit doesn’t matter where you finish in the playoff he and Max Gaserman uh will split second place
yeah um you know it’s a guy who hasn’t had his best stuff but I remember I don’t know if it was this show or someone else where I sort of picked him on Friday evening just because of the player that he is and how decorated he is and just how mentally savvy he is and how he approaches the game despite having these bombers that he’s lining up against and he said something to me when he was waiting for the potential playoff and it was like “Hey Chris how are you doing nice to watch you play.” And he goes “Man it was fun.” And he goes “I just hope I get some extra golf.” And and the way he said it was like “Yes it’s so good to be back in this position again and I’ve been grinding so hard and now I’m here and I played so solidly there in the final round maybe I left one or two out there but I just hope I get an extra go.” And then it’s amazing in these playoffs where at this level if you have a shot and you don’t take it it’s not often that you’ll get another chance and when he hit that nine iron into 18 um in the playoff that that shot was one of the better shots I’ve seen this year the way it was struck the way he turned the way it was controlled distance-wise and then to just miss that putt I I I thought he’d won the thing with that shot and he was going to make the putt and then when he missed you almost got the sense that hold on this was the chance now because now you’re going into holes where it’s the par three but then you got 16 which is playing into a breeze a little bit so it’s playing longer and then 14 is downwind and you got guys hitting nine iron in there where Chris went in with a hybrid club during regulation so he’s picked up playing um I think he’s obviously disappointed now in my interview with him he said he said as much but I think when everything sort of clears out in the wash he’s gonna go “All right I’m back game’s good nice way to I’ve climbed the the the points ranking i’ve almost booked myself a place in the playoff nice time to make some hay toward the end of the season.” Yeah played well at Oakmont and then obviously a great finish here in Detroit uh all three of these guys Greg get some pretty significant bumps in the FedEx Cup standings and this is the time of year where you better you better get it because we’re running out of events here so Chris Kirk goes from 101 to 67 greaserman goes 64th to 48th and Aldrich goes 73rd to 36th obviously uh getting into the playoffs is one thing but top 50 gets you into the signature events and then top 30 is now anybody has a chance because if you get yourself diesel like you’re starting at even par yeah no more handicap for Scotty Sheffler like you can see in those commercials
and he need and he needs it that guy stinks yeah he needs all the help he can get it’s a really big deal because now 70 if you’re 70th you I feel like you have a legitimate chance at at winning the tour championship you know i mean you got to play great but you why not you know why why can’t you do that so um it’s a really really cool thing and all you got to do is survive and advance so these guys now have positioned themselves where they’d be in the playoffs if it ended today um but they have some some golf coming up and I think for Chris Kirk that that means there’s a number of really good spots for him i like his game at um that at 3M for instance his game could suit Windham if he has to play there i I think he could play really well on golf courses like that graser can I I feel like he can play anywhere
um Pock Eater we’ll see doesn’t seem like it right now but it’s obviously a developing talent and it wouldn’t surprise me if he um showed the game to compete on you know in an open championship for instance so we’ll see how that all plays out but um yeah big moves for these guys this week and he certainly gets the longer leash considering the fact that the win gets him the added benefits of uh sponsor or excuse me exemptions and and everything else that gets uh that comes along with winning on the PGA Tour this was a three-man playoff but at one point it looked like it might be a nine-man playoff i want to hit a couple of the guys that just missed out on this and we’re going to start with Jake Knap here mark yes
I’ve just got to get someone at my hotel room door give me two text
all right no problem we will we’ll Yeah he’s muted i don’t know maybe he ordered Door Dash i don’t know what’s going on but Mark is going to his uh hotel room door jake Knap here greg a easy 68 cuz Jake Nap doesn’t do anything difficult man this is smooth and cool and he gave himself a lot of opportunities coming down the home stretch could not get himself into the playoff falls just one shot short
well first things first um he shot 72 in the opening round and got himself within one of a playoff i I couldn’t be more impressed with that the way he finished round three going birdie birdie birdie to close is just um sensational stuff and following up a good round with another one it was it was excellent the big difference between Sunday and um and Friday when he shot 61 was with the wedge play because just like Friday he drove he drove it beautifully and a lot of those opportunities came from long really long T- shots that found the fairway but with his wedge play he wasn’t able to get those close today perhaps it had something to do with the little firmer golf course you know some different hole locations that all comes into play but you’re sitting there on on a lot of these holes that you’re not taking advantage of like number one for instance you’re inside of 30 yards away from the flag and don’t get it up and down that’s a that’s a killer um on three you’re right up there 50 yards away don’t get it up and down for a birdie that’s a that’s a killer uh and and so those kind of things really hurt the bogeies of course at nine and 11 hurt as well um but yeah Jake Knap fought really hard and ended up putting together all things considered a really great tournament
yeah speaking of the Bombers Mark how about Jake Knap who was number one in driving distance this week that’s all drives uh not so shabby in the short game categories either 11 out of 14 in terms of scrambling that was uh 14th best is that a 14th best and then gained two strokes with the putter 31st in putting so a complete game here from Jake Knap jake Knap is a baller i mean I was He’s just so easy going to I had a conversation with him on the range prior to um Saturday’s round he’s just so easy man he’s not phased about stuff he just plays golf and today in warm-ups he was hitting drives that were launching at 196 miles an hour okay so the guy’s got gears he is unreal how hard he hits it with that languid pass but he’s strong he’s fast he’s got all these things but those numbers sort of bely stuff a little bit here because I want to build on Greg’s point about the stuff around the greens where he’s driven the ball to a place where he could throw it on the green on the par four but then this beautifully languid silk silky sort of long golf swing that gathers and speeds up and then slows down when he’s got shorter shots in that sort of 30 40 50 yard range change it’s not like the length of the back swing changes very much he sort of swings back and then almost slows down a little bit through the ball and more often than not you’ll see him hit balls will come up 10 15 20 feet short and when he’s putting well that’s okay but if you’re not making putts in the final round you’re squandering opportunities but all that being said you got to hand it to again him because he was sort of in the movie then out of the movie then all of a sudden he said eight iron to about 15 feet on the 71st hole make that you’re tired for the lead so he showed some moxy to hang in there and and I suffice to say that look I’m a fan i I am a fan of Jake Knap the guy and the golfer
yeah he’s um he’s fun to watch he set the shot the course record earlier this week he is certainly getting comfortable doing that how about Michael Thor Bjornson uh that is a name Greg we have not spoke a lot about this year and he was uh one of the guys to come up through PGA Tour U so he’s got his exempt status through this year through 2025 for being number one in last year’s PGA Tour U it has not been a great year for him a lot of inconsistencies but he goes out he shoots a 67 on Sunday finishes at uh 21 under par which is a tied for fourth
he played great which was nice to see because he hasn’t played great very often but um again on a on a golf course that’s perfect for his game he steps up and delivers the problem is he just like it seems like everybody else in this tournament maybe even Pater who who wins there’s just these mistakes that have got to eat at you like the you know he three putts nine and he three putts 12 and eight he had a I would say a doable up and down from the back edge of the green so those are the kind of disappointing mistakes you just can’t afford to make but there weren’t very many guys that made as many birdies as him today um he made what eight birdies made eight birdies today
those were
four on the four on the front four on the back
it’s uh it’s a lot so point is a lot of really good golf in a really consistent roundabout way you know every area of his game this week was very good um and and I think he should be really proud hopefully he can take this build a little momentum into the remaining summer events as well yeah it’s not his best finish of the year mark he had a T2 in Punaana but it is only I’m going to throw out the Zurich Classic it’s only his second top 330 of the year yeah um okay i’m going to bet this guy the John Deere just saying just just so you’re ready for this
okay um first off I think I mentioned to you guys I caught up with his new caddy uh JJ and JJ worked for Marawa
right
and JJ was like very happy I’ve made the move nothing against Colin very happy I’ve made the move and so I was scheduled to call Kirk and six runs in one direction then seven the power five is running like this and there’s probably about ah 30 feet of rough between the two in trees 40 feet maybe and I’m looking at Thor Böson here and Kirk over here and Thor Bjöson hits the sixiron from 200 whatever it is over that tree short of the par five to about 15 feet and I looked at my guy on the course i’m like Craig we got to move to this guy and Craig’s like I’m cool you know he loves Thor so we go over there and he makes the two putt birdie then you know sort of pulls a wedge a little bit and makes that soft bogey on eight and we’re hanging around now all of a sudden first assignment is making birdie so I’m waiting to get moved back and my producer says to me he goes “Just hang with Thor for a little bit.” So Thor Bjönson bird’s 10 we show that it’s a good six iron to 11 he makes power 12 he blows one way right like way way right and he’s got this lie in the rough kind of matted down and in front of him there’s a hardwood tree that’s it looked 60 feet high when I stood 40 yards from it and Thorbjunson’s got like about 180 yards to the pin and about 165 or so to the front of the green and this cat winds up there with nine iron and it’s this bowl that takes off like a homesick angel straight over the top of this tree onto the middle of the green and I sort of shook my head and I was like “Holy cow.” And JJ walks past me and I’m like “Your previous guy couldn’t do that.” And he goes “No we would have sliced it around the tree there.” So what I’m trying to say there from this brush I had with Michael on the golf course he has got tools he really does but he’s got to figure out what’s happening on the greens i don’t care how well you hit it you cannot out hit a bad putter and I’ve said that countless times now he is a guy who’s going to win now if he just wants to finish 25th 30th 15th on the odd occasion hit a great putt average by all means but that’s not who he is he’s a winner so he’s going to have to iron that stuff out he’s hired JJ for better green reading but he’s got to iron that stuff out because what I saw was he squandered strokes on the greens when I was working
you know um one other thing Rick um I know last year he struggled with some injury towards the end of the year like at the RSM he was just coming back from a a knee surgery
well Greg he just withdrew before the tournament started last week didn’t he was that last week
uh recently you’re right i don’t know if it
I mean I don’t know what it was but I you know it’s because you brought that up it triggered that that that memory so you know I wonder with him if there’s been some health issues i don’t know that for sure um I know there was early in the year i don’t know if they’ve lingered or if they stunted his performance with his ball striking because you know I I don’t think it’s been as good as it could be to Mark’s point um and of course putting got to get cleaned up too
greg he also does not everything gets hit full speed because he’s got a bit of a shot club face at the top he’s the prototypical modern player 6’2 lean strong fast face closed then from there you’re rotating like a banshee to make sure you don’t hit a left when he slows down to hit the sort of soft you know that ease one under the wind kind of shot he doesn’t have that just yet either he’s got to learn that sort of stuff almost like a young JT you know when Jimmy Johnson took Justin Thomas aside and said “You got to learn how to wedge properly and stop going full bar with short clubs.” JT turned into a major champion i forecast the same thing for Thorson wow mark the time well and he’s got to be able to get those those Justin Thomasesque wedges after you’ve whipped a thing down there 330 off the tea
uh I like that also Mark i mean I’ll tell you what there’s something happening here and it backs up what you’re saying because the odds are out for the John Deere Classic michael Thor Michael Thorbjornson
who has literally shown little signs of life on the PGA Tour has the third shortest odds to win this golf tournament
well you guys you guys didn’t know Moonlight is a oddsmaker for Vegas yeah apparently you do you’re setting the lines he is shorter he is shorter than Jake Knap he’s shorter than Ryan Gerard Michael Kim Aldrich he’s shorter than Mark Huburn and Alex i mean everybody he’s shorter than everybody but Ben Griffin and Jason Day so so there there is clearly some momentum here well I I’ve had the luxury of having a group of him and um oh gosh who was the other one um Luke Clinton
few couple years ago maybe final round where they both made a run at the title and I remember watching um Thor Bjönson and I was like the guy just looks so regal you know he’s tall in the way he swings it and the way he hits it where Clanton was kind of gritty and blue collar and stuff and I think Clanton finished runner up and and Thor was about third so he’s got good course history there so maybe that’s part of it okay well uh it has now has my full attention We’ve got the the three-way playoff thor Bjornson and Jake Knap T4 T4 just a couple of notables and I’ll throw them out there if you guys uh want to take the bait feel free but Color Oracala shot a 68 he finished T8 hideki Matsuyama had himself a nice week he finished T13 patrick Kentlay T32 those were kind of the bigger names leading into the week i can move us on or we can talk about anything else from this week’s Rocket Classic if you’d like one thing on Morawa
sure
yes go ahead
um new putter after round one
yes
he he lost 4.6 strokes putting in round one
good reason to put a new one in play
yes
uh mid tournament cuz he’s not going to get much worse than that gain strokes the next three days
yep
um so that could be a that could be a sign of life maybe we see Morau with the mallet for the rest of the year you know what i hate these guys get it all man he is playing a oneofone prototype that is basically a spider face and like shape but the back of it is like the Odyssey 7S which is like my favorite putter of all like I would I would pay any amount of money for this putter if it was made available and of course Colin Morau is the only one that exists well maybe he puts it up for sale in a couple weeks there’s no guarantee well you know the story right he he actually admitted to our Amanda after Saturday’s round he’s got he travels with like a few like four or five
he Yeah he’s done that for a while I think yeah like if one misbehaves he kicks the thing out um so it might be on the market here pretty soon
i just have to wait i do want to say this about Colin because I was concerned that I was starting to see things and I was losing my mind a little bit because I remember taking odds with you guys a bunch of times where everyone looks well Kyle Porter especially where he’d be like Colin striking it great you know he’s third in strokes gain approach and I’m like Kyle he’s not hitting it with flip you know as far as he’s concerned and I I heard him talking to Amanda going you know the numbers are belying the way I’m hitting it he goes “I love to see the ball fading and right now it’s not fading but I’m just kind of riding the wave a little bit.” So I guess statistically he’s good but the real news is he doesn’t think he’s completely there with his golf swing just yet he’s working really hard it’s not doing what he wants it to do yet still which is a I guess emblematic of what a great striker he is he’s still able to put up some some good statistical numbers with the iron game i think he’s dangerously close to going down the Victor Havlin rabbit hole and he’s not built like Victor to be able to handle that
no I I I I will disagree there because Victor as a golf coach you basically know you got about 48 hours to make a difference else you’re out there it’s like a carousel where Colin was assessing us then he tried Blackburn which didn’t last very long
and then went back to Rick so he’s a he’s almost more like Jordan Speed where he’s sticking his course a little bit um
he’s been with Sassy now since he was seven yeah but if Rick Smith
if I’m reading the tea leaves a little bit I wouldn’t want to be Rick right now i I think he’s on the hot seat but I still don’t see like Vic is bouncing around between golf teachers like it’s like he’s changing clothes
yeah i just I just think that um I don’t think Collins view of his own game is reality like I think I don’t think what he necessarily like he’s not a great narrator he did this he did this at Brooklyn too where it’s like oh yeah I’m you know I I can’t swing it’s it’s drawing and it’s trying to fade and I’m I’m leading the US Open after 54 holes or whatever it is he just gets he gets into these weird like I don’t think he’s a very reliable narrator of his own game he’s a victim of his own success i mean how old was he when he won his first major championship
oh god i mean he won two of his first eight didn’t he
yeah i mean he won basically everything he played in and he was unbeatable and he was a top at that stage what four or five player in the world
now once you’ve been there think of Jordan Spin’s not the first one when you’ve been up there on the top of Mount Everest to golf now you’re down the other side and you’re trying to find your way back up there because you know you’re like I’ve played well i’ve done this before
he’s the fifth ranked player in the world Mark he’s not on the side he’s just he just hasn’t won and he’s going crazy it’s driving him insane but but you see the thing is he’s calling card is the ball striker
it’s it’s it’s the ability to play the game ugly and if you have to we’ll get to Scotty Sheffller he can play ugly golf and win you know he can make it look kind of but then there are times when he strikes it great where Collins it’s pretty man and the ball’s struck right all the time and it’s the through the window he wants and all these sort of pro terms um he’s playing a bit of ugly golf right now because the ball’s drawing and he doesn’t like it but you know he’s turning into scores which is the most important statistic there is
he he did hit 62 of 72 greens in regulation this week he was third in proximity to the hole i
I just want to shake him Greg and I just want to say you are like the one of the greatest golfers in the world knock it off knock it off
yeah you like Mark talks about the importance of the putting all the time and I think what you say about winning ugly is is critical because you may not like it but the truth is you’re beating the field with your ball striking but you can’t just beat the field with your ball striking you know like you always say you need to putt at the US Open he TA Green he gained basically the same amount of strokes as as JJ Spawn who won it was it was 16.15 for Colin Ta Green and 1630 for JJ Spawn total but Colin lost eight strokes putted it’s like I just I from my vantage point we need to prioritize we’re we’re doing all right even though you don’t like it we just gota like the the key to you can win the way you’re hitting it even if it’s not exactly what you like i also still see a lot of fades unless shot tracker is wrong i I can’t think of a single draw I’ve seen him hit so there’s just I mean I I get that you’re picky and you want to be the best you can be and I totally appreciate that but I just think what he’s doing now Ty Green is good enough to win it’s just time to go do it so driving himself crazy
driving himself crazy indeed he’s got a couple of big ones uh coming up though we’ll see how it goes here are our picks from this past week we had some good ones here but nothing that uh really did the trick ben Griffin wins for Greg over Keegan Bradley ben Griffin continues his great run of golf it was another just another top 15 for Ben uh T13 to be exact greg this dude is a machine he never gets tired he just does it all
yeah not surprised to hear he’s playing the John Deere he’s going to play them all he’s going to play them all the rest of the way
yeah you lock him in for a T15 or better next week too um it’s really incredible
i asked him about it he goes “I’m not playing Scotland.” But but then he quickly follows he goes “But I’m going over there early to play Little Lings Golf before.”
Yeah so you might as well just play it
yeah he’s got a member guest at a different place in Ireland uh he So he’s incredible um I I figured it would be a lot for Keegan it was really the reliability of Ben Griffin and the win the week before for Keegan that sent me down that path i’m I’m just really frustrated that I don’t have Grazerman anywhere on this card um
you know he was in my fantasy plays i I loved him i looked and I’m like I didn’t I didn’t put I didn’t work him in here what am I doing
yeah we spent
He should have been in one of my outrights even though he lost i would have felt better about that red X
yeah well Mark had him but it was in the matchup which still pays just as well because it was an easy one over Davis Thompson who finished T34 so no sweat there mark
wasn’t an indictment of Davis who played well it was just Max and something about Max at this time of the year plays well um you know I think he’s Watch for him at 3:00 a.m um I don’t know if he’s playing John Deere but but he’s he’s the kind of guy that in these sorts of golf courses you know our late summer swing on the PGA Tour that he has a whole lot of fun um the rest of my card was a Well that’s okay i had I had a perfect grid if perfect is uh four red X’s so uh it’s all it’s all good there at least you guys got the the matchups the matchups in there um any final 3M open or Oh gosh I’m not ready to do 3M open we’re not there yet right
any final Rocket Classic thoughts next week’s the John Deere but we’ll we’ll get to that next week anything for this week
i’ll say this if you ever wanted proof that firm and windy is the only way you defend golf courses against PGA Tour pros you got it today you got it this afternoon um and it was amazing to me how because the golf course is getting chopped up and rebuilt from tomorrow morning it’s like the rules staff just went “Okay there’s your golf course we’re just going to let this thing go.” And there were some spots today on some of those greens where it was firm and it was Mac Dresman said to me he goes in in the interview he goes “At the end of the day 70s something holes the greens were really crispy sort of difficult and stuff.” So it it was challenging out there and in the end I feel like it it was actually pretty entertaining i’m I’m looking forward to seeing what the uh what the rating is to tomorrow morning um what else did I see i saw I saw Aaron Weise made the cut which is very cool yes
nice to see Aaron Weise back playing some golf tournaments playing well he finished at 10 under par i saw that that was pretty cool what else anything uh one other thing i checked out the double digits after two days everybody in the inside the top 12 was D was at double digits after two days
these log jams you just you could shoot low numbers but everybody does you you can’t get behind in these kind of things
so did I lose more wine to you
no we never had a wine bet on it but I looked at it because I know we had that discussion and I was quite frankly a little nervous that somebody was going to go crazy but I think that firm those firm and fast conditions you talked about Mark really played in um in my favor on that one yeah they did if if it was going to be soft and there were going to be guys because what was low today i don’t think it was that low it wasn’t
seven seven under early very early yeah
yeah there were two seven unders
higs and Ashe they were they were done they were at home by the time Mark got on air yeah tell you that uh all right gents well listen we’ll be back next week it’s it’s John Deere Classic and we’ve got the Tuesday show the Friday show Sunday show to get you all up to date on everything that you need for now big thanks producer Mina she does all the hard work behind the scenes that’s Greg Ducharm it’s Mark Gimmel i’m Rick Ga this is the second cut we’ll catch you next time