Open qualifying makes us wonder: Do we need Golf’s Longest Day 2.0?! | Golf Channel Podcast

In this week’s edition, the guys discuss all of the storylines that came from final qualifying for this month’s Open, including the success of Lee Westwood, and look at why this week’s John Deere Classic boasts its strongest-ever field. #Golf #GolfChannel #GolfChannelPodcast

Chapters:
0:00 — Looking at the top storylines from Open final qualifying
5:30 — ‘Monsoon of credit’ for 52-year-old Lee Westwood getting through
10:00 — Coming in 2026: A one-round, on-site qualifier for The Open?!
14:00 — The transformation of the John Deere field, and why it’s the new norm
21:00 — Rex is off to Scotland early, and we need your listener questions!

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Open qualifying makes us wonder: Do we need Golf’s Longest Day 2.0?! | Golf Channel Podcast https://www.youtube.com/golfchannel?sub_confirmation=1

Hello and welcome into this edition of the Golf Show podcast with Rex and Lab. And Rex, this is all your fault
because on Monday’s edition of Golf Today, you offered that we might want to consider a golf’s longest day 2.0 or British style, however you want to phrase it. And after Tuesday and the excitement that we had across the pond, I don’t know. I think he may have been right. I think I volunteered actually for the Royal Sink ports. There was four qualifiers and I love that golf course. I love that area of England and the idea of how many stories there were in the field. I think I went through it at first. You had Ian Poulter trying to qualify for his first open in a couple years playing with his son Luke which I thought was pretty cool. He’s an amateur. He almost qualified for the US Open at Oakmont. Aean always goes one step further and brought up the dream scenario of a playoff between the palters for that final spot. Like that like I would have never thought about that. Only Eman’s Aean’s mind goes to that. probably GM Grant McDow was in that field as well and trying to get back to Port Rush. He played in the last open that was played there. Certainly, you look at I think he’s 45 years old. You’re not quite sure how many more opens he’ll have, opportunities he’ll have to play and open in his home country, and we all know what that would mean to him at Royal Port Rush. And then just across the board, I mean, we can go through the results. I think Lee Westwood was probably the one that caught my attention the most. But I just think it would be cool. Hopefully our bosses weren’t listening. I mean, it was it would certainly be uh more of an expenditure than golf’s longest day was. What do we have? Nine uh reporters at sites all around the country.
That’s just sites about a month ago. It is. It’s I mean, it’s very similar. This is just a scale down version. It’s 36 holes. It’s four sites. It’s 20 spots overall, five spots at each regardless of I was sort of um confused. It seemed like a lot of the talent was bunched in one site and not really uh dispersed. I think um at least the USJ probably does a little bit better job of of of spaying those out in terms of the number of spots available at each sites uh based on based on the strength and like I think it’s easy to look at some of the strength of some of the qualifiers and and shrug and say you know who who cares about these guys. I would point to what happened just last year at Royal Trune. Both Justin Rose who finished in tie for second at Trun and Daniel Brown who was very much in the mix with 36 holes both came through the 36 hole final qualifier. So these stories can happen and I think they add a lot of flavor uh to the championship. When you look at some of the players though Rex like who got through and live players won three of the four qualifiers. We’ll get to Lee Westwood in a moment but Lucas Herbert uh uh won his qualifier. Dean Burmeister won his qualifier. Keep in mind, these guys just played the Live Golf event in Dallas and had to fly roughly 5,000 miles across the Atlantic to get there. They arrived late on Monday night as it related to uh Lucas Herbert read a story that because the golf course was closed by the time he got in, he grabbed about 30 balls, went down to the beach near Burkedale and was just hitting like eight irons on the beach to to groove his fuels that he thought they thought he found in the final round of the live golf Dallas event. Dean Burmester, meanwhile, shot 64 in the second round of his qualifier. That was the best round of the second round by five shots. Called it one of the best rounds of his life at Royal Singorts. Those are the sorts of stories that are are great because those players probably deserve it. When you look at the live golf rankings, how those guys have played this season, you know, I know they get the one automatic spot um which is new this year both in the US Open uh and the Open Championship. I’ve always probably felt that number is probably more deserving of about three based on the quality of those players. But to see that those guys put in the work, fly across the pond, I know they’re getting ready for next week’s event at Valdama, but they’re so they have to be over there anyway, but to go through the work and and earn their spot to me has to be pretty satisfying.
No, it is. And this kind of hearkens back the way the RNA and New Year’s GA as well have created these pathways. So the Scottish Open next week will have X number of spots available in the three yeah the international final qualifiers and they do that over the course of essentially the last year since the last open championship. So, it doesn’t hold as much sway as maybe they used to with these final qualifiers. But, I remember being at Golf Week magazine years ago and Brad Faxton making the trip over to try to do the Monday before qualifier essentially before the Open Championship and just kind of following him around for a couple of days and it became sort of this pilgrimage for a lot of tour players. If you weren’t already qualified, you just kind of came over anyway and if you qualified, great. And if not, you probably spent some days in the UK and Scotland playing golf, hanging out and exploring that side of the world. I I just think there’s there’s a romanticized feel to it. The idea that you are, and you’re right, I the live guys deserve a monsoon of credit here because going from Dallas to wherever like this uh drinking game, uh going from Dallas to wherever it is they went to, whether if that was Dundon or or Royal Sink Ports or any of the qualifying sites, it it’s not a small task. It’s not an easy ask for these guys. I think it shows the importance of what this means to a Dean Brew Master or Elite Westwood to to make the trip to make the effort and to qualify for the open championship. Yeah, West is an interesting one um because he has not played an open championship, has not played a major championship since 2022. Said he really didn’t have the desire to do so and he only committed to play in this final qualifier about a week ago u while getting ready for the live golf at Dallas event. decided why not. Um he showed at least a little bit of form in recent weeks. Shot 62 in the final round of the the Liv event um in DC, ended up finishing inside the top 10, but other than that, I mean, he’s like 42nd on live. He’s he’s sort of um just just a midling performer on that circuit. But he decides to sign up, plays the Liv Dallas event, flies across the pond. He said he uh got in late Monday night, only walked the golf course because he’d never been to Dundon Links before. Got one and a half hours of sleep, played 36 holes, and shot seven under uh to to pace the field. Again, there hadn’t been many signs that this was coming. Um but the fact that he even tried and did it, I think is really impressive. And now I think when you when you sort of fast forward to the open championship, who knows? You know, one of his best performances at the Open Championship came just six years ago at Royal Port Rush uh when he finished in a tie for fourth. The Open, as we know, is the major that is friendliest to the old-timers because you can play the go you can play the ball along the ground. You wouldn’t say
I think Augusta might be
No, I don’t think in I don’t think in recent years just because of the added length like you you really have to bo you might be able to scrape it by and and make the cut like Bernhard Langanger has has tried to do over the past couple years but the open championship whether it’s Tom Watson whether it’s Greg Norman whether it’s Darren Clark and even Lee Westwood just a couple years ago Phil Mickelson Hendrickk Sens like all of these guys would seemingly be past their athletic primes and yet they’ve still been very competitive. Justin Rose uh just a year ago. It’s it sort of neutralizes uh the field just because it’s a different style of play. And so, you know, who who knows? I wouldn’t be totally shocked if Lee West could turn back the clock and be somewhat competitive through two or three rounds in a couple of weeks. And I think a lot of the live guys are starting to, let’s call it the Neman effect where we went out of his way to play non-live events to get world ranking points to to keep his name relative in the ecosystem of golf despite his status on live golf. And I think a lot of these players have noticed that and seen that. And that’s why you probably end up with those players gravitating over on the Monday before the Monday after an event in Dallas just to give it a shot because you really never know. You’re right. In the case of Lee Westwood, he’s played the Open Championship enough. He has that institutional knowledge. I don’t know that anybody would be surprised if he gets himself in the mix at Port Rush. Uh, a couple other stories I want to highlight from golf’s longest day 2.0 British style. Uh, amateur Richard Teter, I believe that’s how you pronounce his name, doubled his last hole. Apparently, there was some sort of like rules controversy about where uh, his ball ended up. Ended up making double bogey to fall into a playoff. Then in a pretty magical moment, holes out for Eagle in the playoff uh to get through on the first playoff hole. Uh good for Richard uh Teter, the first player from Estonia to ever play in the Open Championship. I also heard an interview with Justin Walters um who is now uh entered into his first Open Championship since 2014. uh two nights prior to the qualifier. He said that he spent all night looking at a picture on his bedroom wall of his experience uh at the Open Championship. Um he was crying afterward an interview uh with the Open folks called it a shining star after a couple of difficult years. These are the sort of stories Rex that we could be telling on Golf Channel or verse in sports or whatever it’s going to be called in a couple years time. I don’t think your partner in crime, Aean, appreciated it. I like you did. You seem to have embraced it a little bit more than he had. I I just got a sneer out of Aean.
I mean, and Aean’s going to be just sitting in a studio uh kicking to to us hardworking correspondents will be putting in two golf’s longest days uh potentially in the span of a month. Uh Rex, there’s something else as it relates to the qualifier that was also announced by the RNA. Doesn’t take effect until next year, but I’m curious your thoughts on this. They announced this sort of one round on-site qualifier on Monday of open championship week. It’s going to be contested at Royal Burkedale. It’s going to be one spot. It’s going to be 12 guys, 18 holes again on Monday of championship week. Just essentially think of a Monday qualifier on the PJ tour. That is what it’s going to be to get into a major championship. You think this is gimmicky? You think this is cool?
Uh, I think it’s cool. Well, I I’m not when it comes to the Open Championship, as you pointed out, it’s all about the tradition. So, this seems a little bit different, but what this boils down to is creating more content, right? What they’re doing is they’re sort of answering the fans requests for more golf. They want to see more competition, and they’ve kind of done that in in this day and age of modern media and what every league is trying to do. I think you and I had a long conversation about the in tournament, uh, I mean, the inseason tournament in the NBA, they they essentially just created content out of Yeah. the the WNBA just did the same exact thing. Uh you look at what the hockey did with the Four Nations this year. I mean, that was pretty cool. I’m not a hockey fan, but I think a lot of people sort of gravitated to that. So, I I think this is their golf answer to that, which I’m all I’m all for. Anytime you can create more content, anytime you can create more opportunities for fans to enjoy the game, absolutely. There is an element in my mind, however, this is the chromagin coming out of me that this is the oldest championship, major championship in golf. And to just plop something like this down out of thin air, I’m sure it’s going to work. I’m sure it’s going to be entertaining. I’m not quite sure this is the right venue for it. Yeah. Mark Darbin, the new chief executive of the RNA, said he’s essentially just trying to create more live golf experiences for fans who are going to be attending the Open. So, you’re going to have this 18hole qualifier on Monday. There’s also something um they used to do this I remember certainly like a legends cup like a four a fourhole type thing um for fans to enjoy potentially on Tuesday as well. It certainly is ironic that the PGA Tour is largely doing away with Monday qualifiers to sort of cater to the members and making sure that they’re getting spots in the field while major championships, the oldest major championship
is adding essentially a Monday qualifier to get guys in the field. Like that’s a little bit different. Uh that’s a little bit suspect. I’m a little bit curious too, Rex, how it’s going to work in terms of how you’re going to fill out that field of 12 because in theory that’s a much easier route. A, it’s just 18 holes instead of 36 and you just have to beat 11 other guys whereas Lee Westwood type is is playing in a field of let’s call it a hundred and having to grab one of the five spots. I would think that the field of 12 would be rounded out by using the reserve list. Yeah, the alternate
at these at these qualifiers, right? Like so if you couldn’t play for instance at Dun Donald Lynx and you were one of the top three who did not get through uh that way, I think you would then be in this qualifier um this this 12 for one qualifier on Monday. You can’t have a situation, I would think, where you’re qualifying twice for the open. In other words, like a David Pooch, right, who did not get through his qualifier after second round 78. You can’t fail in that qualifier and then put him into the Monday qualifier the week of. That would be inherently unfair. I would think, again, details have not yet been released on this for from the RNA. I would think they would take the reserve list from the qualifier and then put them in this 12 for one.
I would think so too because, and I tend to agree with you, you can’t get two bites at the apple in this particular case. But what you would end up with is a player like a David Poo who knows where he is on the alternate list and knows that he would be one of those 12 to to get an access access to that 18 holeer. So you wouldn’t go to final local qualifying. So you would do away with the stories that we just spent 10 minutes talking about how much we we love. So that is a bit of an odd situation because otherwise you’re sort of opening it up to cronyism for lack of a better term. How else you going to fill out the field? Like that’s in my mind that’s the fairest best way to do it. Essentially you’re just taking the alternate list and picking off the top 12 guys.
Yeah. So you actually you actually don’t want to get into the field for the final qualifier because it would be much be much more difficult to play 36 holes in Canada top five. Again, this does not happen until next year. Um but I’m sure it’s something that you and I will both be covering next year at Royal Burkedale. Let’s turn our attention Rex to the PJ tours John Deere Classic two weeks ahead uh of the season’s final major Aldrick Potgeer last week’s win at the Rocket Classic uh is in the field. Anything else stand out to you that you sort of have your uh eyes and ears on?
The sort of the idea behind the John Deere, it was always sort of that last chance. We we were talking about qualifying from the Open, but there was always that that idea that the guy could win on Sunday and then the mad scramble starts for the passport and trying to get over to the Open Championship before the Scottish Open sort of took over that that week before the Open Championship. But I still think there’s an element to that for a lot of players. Keep in mind the Scottish Open is only essentially half a PGA Tour field. The other half of the field is DP World Tour. So there is sort of that romant element where you the John Deere Classic. It’s sort of your last dish effort, but it’s also the other half of that I would watch this week that I’m looking forward to is what we touched on on Monday on when I was on golf today with you and Aean. Just the idea of how important the numbers are now. They’ve always been there. We’ve always kept an eye on the bubbles, whether if it’s 125 or top 30 for the tour championship or whatever the case may be. But this year they seem so extra uh ex exaggerated because you end up with the guy who’s going to finish 101 is going to end up losing his job essentially on some level. Like there’s elements of this. There’s varying degrees of it. Whereas in for decades and decades before this year if you finished 101st you probably felt pretty decent season. I I think as a result you’re seeing players scrambling a lot. I was taken as I was kind of looking down the leaderboard on Sunday last week at the Rocket Classic how many starts a lot of these guys have. Like for a lot of these guys, it’s their 18th, 19th start of the season, and there’s still golf to be played. So even before you get to the fall or the playoffs, you’re looking at guys who are going to end up playing maybe 25 times. And that to me is outrageous. And it’s all about because of how important these numbers are. Top 50 to make sure you qualify for next year’s signature events, top 100 just to keep your job, top 70 just to get inside the playoffs. And I think it’s so condensed now, it feels like a pressure cooker. And I think players are starting to show that. Yeah, the the deer certainly taken on a a bit of a transformation in recent years. As you mentioned, it used to be sort of that last ditch effort. Um that now has sort of been uh granted to the Scottish Open with the three spots available to the top finishers not already eligible for the Open Championship. There’s no direct way for players, let’s say you win the deer to get into the Open. Now, there’s still other perks, right? like you’re going to be um in the signature events, you’re going to be in the Masters, there’s plenty to play for, but I do think it’s now become sort of a FedEx Cup cruncher. And I think that’s sort of the the the interesting shift that we’ve seen because you and I have talked endlessly on this podcast about this sleepy summer stretch and and what do these tournaments mean? The fields usually aren’t that good and and that sort of shifting in this first year that we’ve seen since the goal pulse have been moved from top 125 uh to top 100. We had Andrew Layman on Tuesday’s golf today. He’s the tournament director for the John Deere. Three years ago, the John Deere Classic had the worst field strength of schedule-wise of any tournament on the PGA Tour. This year, the John Deere Classic has its strongest field uh in its history, at least in the OGR era. That is largely because there is just five events uh remaining on the regular season schedule for the PJ tour. And so players like Ricky Fowler, who’s just inside the top 70 and trying to make sure he’s exempt for the playoffs or get inside the top 50, make sure he’s exempt for the uh signature events next year so he doesn’t have to get the sponsor exemptions that were so uh scrutinized this year. He’s a player who’s teeding up for the first time. You have a player like Max Homo who would never a couple years ago would have even considered playing the John Deere Classic. instead. Now he’s 122 in the FedEx Cup. And although um he is exempt on the PJ tour for a couple more years because of his resume, he still wrecks in a situation where he wants to get inside that top 70 as well. So I think there’s a trickle down effect. We’ve already seen uh tournaments like the 3M Open which is being played the week after the Open Championship. So, the penultimate regular season event on the PG tour already boasting about its field with 30 of the top 80 uh in the world already signed up uh for that tournament. And so, you know, where whereas these were sort of lost tournaments before um easy to easy to dismiss, um they’re certainly getting a boost in relevance just because of the new structure of the PJ tour. And I think overall that’s a great thing for the tour.
And I think you’re you’re probably going to see this become the new norm. I was talking with the tournament director at the Windham Championship a few days ago just about the idea of hit that event, Mark Brazzle’s event, has turned into a deacto playoff event. The idea that guys show up that week looking specifically to making sure I get in the top 70 to make it to the next event. So technically, it’s not a playoff event, but what guys have turned it into because of that participation. And you’re right, like when the 3M opened and the John Deere and the Windham can point specifically to this and I think you referred to it in the podcast on Sunday as sort of the second story, the story of the second season because once we get past the major championships, all the attention is going to turn to the playoffs and where you are on that points list on the varying degrees of it. And those these tournaments are uniquely positioned and they’re going to benefit for this with better fields. It’s certainly going to be interesting too because the deer has always been synonymous with like the youth movement and Claire Peterson who is Andrew Layman’s uh predecessor as tournament director of the deer always made it a priority to invite like these young rising stars and they’ve done it again this year um with a with a Jackson Kven who’s a top ranked amateur in the world. Ben James is a great player out of Virginia. Michael Assasso is the reigning NCAA champion. Uh Preston Summers just turned pro. like they’ve they’ve made it a point to give those guys sponsor exemptions. Well, I think when you look at at the players who would potentially be fighting for their uh PJ tour livelihoods, I wonder if that ethos is is going to shift and to just acknowledge the changing landscape of the PGA Tour that that yeah, do the do the young guys um do they do they deserve probably not a right, but do they warrant consideration for these spots to get them some experience before they eventually jump to the big time? Sure. I I certainly think that’s possible, but I I do wonder in coming years if if the deer will evolve and and make it more so about giving these guys legitimate opportunities to log another start, especially with just so few uh regular season starts remaining. I think that’s going to be interesting to watch as well. Rex, you are about to head to Scotland. you are covering the Scottish Open as a Golf Central reporter leaving in a couple of days. What are you most looking forward to before we catch back up again on Sunday?
Uh it’s going to be three weeks over there. So, one week in Scotland, then of course the open in Northern Ireland and work my family’s taking a bit of a vacation in Ireland afterwards. So, we’ve done this the last couple of years and I I can’t wait. Like, it’s just you and I both talk about it all the time. It’s my favorite time of the year on the golf calendar because everything is new and different and you and I get to play a little bit of golf and it’s just an enjoyable experience. I love the Scottish Open as sort of the backdrop to getting ready for the Open Championship. Certainly what uh Bobby McIntyre did last year was really cool. What Rory did the year before. So, it’s always fun to do this. You sound absolutely terrible. Uh I look forward to sharing uh house with you. Undoubtedly
out there. Undoubtedly, I will get sick over the next week and a half. It will also be the return of Bunkmate.
Rex’s wife will be joining us across the pond. Looking forward to that. Rex and I will be back. He’ll be he’ll be doing the show at like 11:00 uh local time, PM, uh from Scotland on Sunday night. But if you guys have any questions for the Sunday night show, I know we only got to three of the five last week. We’ll get to the two that we didn’t have as well as any additional ones. plenty of time to get to those on Sunday. Please send it our way. All right, thank you for listening. Thanks for support. You guys know the drill. In the meantime, mbcports.com/golf for all latest news, notes, and updates. Talk to you guys on Sunday night. Have a great Fourth of July for those of you listening in the States.