Can Anyone Beat Scottie on Sunday? – 2024 Houston Open Round 3 Recap | The First Cut Podcast

Rick Gehman and Greg DuCharme breakdown a bunched leaderboard after Round 3 of the Houston Open.

0:00 Intro
1:15 The 8-unders: Nick Dunlap, Taylor Moore, Akshay Bhatia
6:14 Tony Finau had a bad moving day
8:38 There are FIVE GUYS tied for the lead
20:34 Can anyone catch Scottie Scheffler?
26:02 Betting Favorites

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ABOUT THE SHOW: The First Cut brings you everything you need to know in the world of professional golf. Nearly every day Rick Gehman, Kyle Porter, Mark Immelman, Greg DuCharme, Sia Nejad and Patrick McDonald bring you the best analysis in the game. From DFS to betting previews, interviews and recaps… everything golf is on the table when you listen to The First Cut.

Freaking first cut golly welcome to the first cup podcast I’m Rick gon and this is your round three recap for this week’s Houston open joining me to break it all down is Greg du charm Greg hey buddy what’s going on Rick exciting day this is a surprisingly

Exciting day in Houston uh lot of ups and downs roller coaster rides near the finish and uh ultimately this leaderboard right now is representative of the PGA Tour season we’ve had so far it could be the name of a and it’s Scotty and the long shots I love

That perfect Scotty and the long shots well let’s jump into it because we have a lot to get to there are 12 golfers who are either tied for the lead or within two shots one of them is the guy who shot the round of the day and that was

Nick Dunlap a 63 to move him to eight underpar for the tornament and Greg this has been kind of a weird year for Don laap obviously he wins the American Express as an ameter turns Pro and it has not been roses since then he has not

Cracked the top 40 but here he is now entering a Sunday very much in the mix yes and he played some really good golf today um you know hit the ball well but the really impressive thing from from uh Nick Dunlap today was those putts from

About 8 to 12 feet he made a pile of those today and that’s really what he did at the American Express as well anytime he was in that mid-range showed off the beautiful putting stroke and it was definitely on form today so we’ve got Nick Dunlap at eight

Under two others at eight under including Taylor Moore talked about this a little bit last night with Patrick Greg the he’s rounding back into form right after the win basically a year ago at last year’s valpar he kind of went through a little bit of a slump at the

End of last year didn’t play well in the playoffs did not play well at the Tour Championship but 2024 has been much better and he had his best finish of the year last week of valbar and now he’s getting another crack at it this time around yeah he hasn’t really been

Missing cuts it hasn’t been a catastrophe but you know he only had before the valpar one finish inside the top 30 and it was at the Sentry which was a T25 and in that short field so over the last couple weeks we’ve seen a big improvement from Taylor Moore and

It’s fun to watch him play he was a little wild off the te today but fortunately this golf course um accepts that more often than not so it worked out well for him he holded a couple of really nice putts and and Taylor Moore is definitely looking good heading into

Tomorrow the third man in the trio at eight underpar is AE batia so he has gone 67 68 and then another 67 on Saturday that is three birdies and an eagle to go with two Bogies on the card I love watching OE Greg you know when even when he’s playing well it looks

Like there’s just so much more talent I mean it’s just Raw Talent on Raw Talent he’s so fun to watch he when he gets it going there’s there’s so much excitement so I love it when he’s in the mix yeah you heard some nice conversations with

This caddy today as well as they were kind of talking it over and he hit a lot of really high quality Iron shots leads the field in Strokes gain approach for the week so far and um executed a number of them beautifully today as well the

One thing with OE is it like you say there’s so much more in the tank it’s these kind of silly mistakes he’ll miss a four-footer he missed a couple of those today um he’ll get around the greens and hit a fat Chip Shot from perfect position and it it just is a

It’s a young player with a little bit of maturing to do but the talent and the upside is extremely high yeah hit it into the water on 16 there’s always a mistake or two lurking but like you said it’s upside and when you talk about you

Know the young guys Ox is like basically one of the youngest guys on the PGA tour right and he just has so much more development I imagine is coming and he took a lot of criticism for turning professional and and not going to play in college and um look we’ll never know

If that was the right decision or the wrong decision but he has definitely started to form his place on the PGA tour and he’s earning and developing a lot of experience at the highest level so things are working out well for o so far he just turned 22 like yeah yeah and

He’s an experienced PGA Tour player yeah an experienced professional I mean he’s played a ton of pro events so it’s yeah it’s it’s gonna be interesting to see what the next five years looks like for oet I’m gonna hit this break early here because those are the three in at eight

Under I want to get to the five Greg Five Guys that are currently tied for the league and give them their du but first we’re going to take a quick break and hear a word from our partners for the last four years I been a prisoner of this hotel ah G sharp I

Believe why are they keeping you here why did they let you live most of my friends are dead my house was seized and burned you must never leave if you do I’ll be waiting they can take away everything but we can’t take away who you are and we’re back Greg we’ve hit the

Eight unders before we get to the nines let’s talk about at least one of the seven under guys so Ry Aaron Ry Max graser and Tony fow are in at seven underpar fow was our overnight leader he played in the final group and this was

Slow out of the gate to put it mildly Bogie’s on one five 5 10 his first birdie did not come until the 13th hole he then got a little bit of a bonus on 16 after hitting it into the water he was able to take a drop and he chipped

It in for birdie but a 10 shot difference from Tony’s Friday 62 to his Saturday 72 drops him eight spots down the leaderboard and in in round two everything was going in for him everything he was pouring it right in the middle and he gets out on the very

First hole and misses a four-footer and there was just no energy from there um you know the the well I think five was also a three putt uh which so all all of a sudden that all that momentum that you’re gaining yesterday yes five was a

Three putt that’s right so you know two kind of errors or mistakes situations where you’d like to make uh you you’d like to make pars and you’d think they very much in play he makes a couple of bogeys doesn’t take advantage of either of the par fivs and ultimately this just

Came down to the putter he I know his iron statistics for the day didn’t look very good but he gathered no momentum on the greens it didn’t he didn’t hit it close per se but he made nothing and he didn’t even really give it a run like it

Wasn’t like they almost went in where there’s hope that oh I just got to keep giving myself looks one of these is going to go in it’s like know kind of hitting bad putts so it was a a very big difference from yesterday of course

Would have been nice if I was on to talk about Tony yesterday I could have pounded my chest a little bit but it’s funny how that works out yeah last night we gave him this one and the Masters already now we have they’re still very much in

Play no he is I mean it’s a the over overused term the log Jam million guys still in this thing Tony fow Two Shots off the lead that leaves us with the five guys tied for the lead Greg and they’ve got a variety of pedigrees let’s

Start with the one that shot the best round of those nine unders and that was David skins so that was a bogey free 65 and skins who you might remember from his T4 at the cognizant earlier this year is putting himself in position again and he’s probably not somebody

That most people know about he’s a he’s a European he’s 42 years old um hasn’t played a lot of PGA Tour events but here he is again for the second time since you know the beginning of the month he’s in the mix yes and you know he played

Some golf on the corn fairy tour quite a bit so he’s been trying to work his way up to the PGA Tour and here he is getting accustomed to um to you know late groupings on on Sunday so it was really cool to see the way he tacked

This round of golf um you know he did actually hit some t- shots that were quite long he he got after a few out there for a guy that’s not a very long hitter But ultimately David skins was really smart and this was a really

Simple round of golf for him I mean you look at where these birdies come from it’s the uh well two of the three par fivs hits a couple close uh 12 and 13 but it was very simple and the thing that he did so well and the

Reason why it’s the best round of the guys at nine under is he didn’t make any of those mistakes corre he didn’t hit it in the water anywhere he kept it in front of him and all of a sudden he shoots a clean five under and all of a

Sudden he’s tied for the lead 15 16 17 and 18 I guess maybe not so much 16 although you can hit into the water there and you know par is on the table it’s a risk reward hold but it caused a lot of trouble yeah for these

Guys I mean the the it was a constant Shuffle like we we’re gonna end the day with five guys tied for first but it was just a constant Shuffle of of of the order of who looked like they were going to have the upper hand going into Sunday

That finishing stretch I I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings right because if if it brings a similar uh style of birdies and Bogies and and good shots and bad shots as it did today it’s going to be it’s going to be one heck of a fun

Finish Well what they did with the setup was you know this is a really long golf course we spent a lot of time talking about that earlier in the week and today they set it up as short as it was all week right only 7,300 yards um in its

Setup that might have been I might have that wrong today was 7110 I yeah 71 7 not 73 71 so that was really cool and I love what they did with the setup of uh of 13 making it drivable with that front hole location it was it it create I mean

There’s no bunkers on the hole you look at it on a a map overhead and there’s nothing to that hole but when you look a little closer and you put that whole location in the front there’s Carnage lurking which was really cool and then on 15 the short part three It’s 121

Yards played as the toughest hole on the golf course today today and so that brings a lot of guys into the mix which is where I think these variety of pedigrees come from uh and and isn’t necessarily the bombers Paradise that we thought it would be because of that

Setup today so I enjoyed that and I hope they find a way to do something similar tomorrow co-leader number two let’s go to Stephen Jagger who shot his second consecutive 66 to get in at nine under but Greg it was not without a little a little bit of turbulence uh the front

Nine was awesome Bird’s on two three four and nine he makes the turn at four under TS on another at 12 and jger looks like he’s in full control before uh kind of hitting one pretty wide on on 13 and making bogy there and then struggling for par on uh 14 in

Which he makes another bogey there so he gives two back he’s able to salvage one at 16 the par five coming in uh but man it was it was not without a lot of stress in this round he also hit it in the water at 17 off the T and made par

That’s right had to had to roll in a long one to make par there so this was uh very solid looking phenomenal in those first 12 holes hit his first 12 greens of Regulation and at 13 the driveable par 4 he hits it long right after hitting the cart path and um hits

A chip shot that catches the Ridge and rolls off the green that was the first green he missed he only hit one more for the rest of of the round and um so well that was 12 he hit he hit two more he hit 16 and 18 um so it was a really

Solid ball striking day and then things got a little shaky and and he fell victim to this golf course setup um at 14 he missed a short one after hitting it in the bunker with his second but all in all I’d love what Steph joerger’s

Done I love what he’s doing off the te he’s blasting it out there he has completely changed his game and it’s nice that we’ve now eliminated this question of hey Steven Jagger’s playing really well but what’s the ceiling we’re starting to see some ceiling performances from him yeah um co-leader

Number three Thomas dietr so he shoots a Saturday 67 a couple of birdies early and then it kind of just turns into some pretty steady golf after that I love this guy’s swing and when he has a the the the little like 2ard piercing draw that he

Hit on 18 off the T was just unbelievable and I love it when he kind of gets that gets that swag going he had a run I want to say it was like last fall where he was really in the Mix A Lot 2024 hasn’t been as good to him but

He’s got a couple of decent finishes yeah he played some pretty good golf on the west coast um but you know the funny thing is you watch the swing and it’s Majestic but he’s really like a Scrambler and he’s he’s not the most accurate ball Striker it which is

Strange when you watch his golf swing it kind of reminds me of Harris English where it’s a joy to watch it’s beautiful to watch when he swings but you start looking into some of the numbers and start studying these rounds of golf and a lot more of it comes from short game

And putting so I I like what he’s done on the greens he’s he’s a great putter this seems to be a great Golf Course for him and I know I’m going to really enjoy watching him swing the club all day tomorrow Alejandro tosy is co-leader number four and this was kind of a

Bizarre little day because he is warming up clearly in discomfort whether it is shoulder left shoulder or maybe neck region clearly uncomfortable and it did not stop when play begun because he was first off uncorking himself at some of these drives and immediately grabbing his arm grabbing his shoulder it’s I

Mean he wasn’t he wasn’t leaving anything in the tank if he was if he was injured um he was able to grind through it and shoot a two under 68 Greg but th this was like I was nervous watching him yes and every time he grabbed that

Shoulder it was a low left shot and he hit some wildly left shots I think I got to look this up but it’s like the entire round he missed left off the T and he’s very fortunate to be on a golf course like this um okay that’s not going to

Tell me right there he misses left on one he misses left on three he hits the Fairway on four he hits it on five he misses left on six uh misses left on eight 10 he misses right so we’ve got one right Miss 12 he misses left 13 He

Misses left 14 he misses left 16 he’s on the left Edge that’s the one that rolled up against the the the cut 17 barely on the left side and 18 he missed left so one one right one right miss everything else was left everything was left and fortunately the golf course allowed for

It because his his iron play was fine he he gave himself tons of opportunities he made some really nice putts some long ones um it was it was an exciting round of golf for him and he’s he’s fiery he got into a little tussle with Tony Fe

Now it seemed hard to know what was going on there but seem like there was some tension it looked or the way that they were describing it as their their both of their balls came Str us very close to one another and I guess they were trying to decide who was

Away presumably because they each wanted the read from the other one but it was not as cordial or like ah you know I’ll go or you go or let’s like it seemed it was a it was a long conversation and then it happened there was another situation where there were similar distances not

As close and according to John Wood feno said it it’s you and walked away and he was like seriously so there was some tension there with Tony feno I know right how could you get under Tony’s skin that had that had to play a role with Tony’s performance today

Interesting I’d be shocked if it didn’t because you’re never Alejandro is f he seems like he’s fiery this is only his 12 start on tour think he’s fiery he’s like he’s like that dude on tour right now right so I would imagine he’s comfortable in that kind of environment

And Tony is not right not at all he’s probably never been in a situation like that um cuz how could you how could you get into a tle Tony Fen out what like what could you have done to make this so bad uh so very interesting but

Ultimately it was a a great round of golf for Alejandro tosy and he’s been fun to watch so far hopefully he gets that neck cleared up and we can see some of these blasting t-shots get into the Fairway instead of the left side of the

Hole Yeah it was like uh it was like a bar fight and that’s where Alejandro thrives and Tony fow was was like well what am I I got to go home right right uh I will say I was impressed obviously he was injured obviously things were

Like not going well he hit the green on number two which is a par three proceeded to putt it off the green Greg and make double and I thought there was I I thought his hand was hovering over the eject button right like I thought

This with I’m like the guy’s hurt he has just putted it off the green and made double like I mean he had four straight shots with putter on on the second Hall of the day for him to get one of them right back to have it back under par by

The turn to keep himself in this thing I I was impressed by it yeah and and I don’t think he made oh he made one more bogey at 15 um where he got pretty lucky that it it stayed up uh so yeah all in all it was really solid performance to

To get five more birdies out of it shoot under par get himself in a tie for the lead I I’m right there with you Rick that was impressive the man that I’ve saved the fifth and final co-leader is the favorite it’s the number one player in

The world it’s Scotty Sheffer who made a bunch of birdies in round number three eight in total he had two Bogies and a very uh bizarre double that he made on 15 we we’ll get to that in in just a second but uh even when things go wrong

For Scotty Greg they’re good enough I mean he is just masterful on some of these approach shots I mean he was knocking stuff just stoned dead and you know the first two rounds he really wasn’t it was not a great Scotty Sheffer like performance with the irons over the

First two rounds and in round three he they was back this is where he is Dom ated the PGA Tour over the last couple of years and he did it again today it just looks like every shot is going right at it uh and there were a number

Of these cut shots which is the go-to shot that seemed to fit perfectly into his shape today um even the bogey made at four like he he hit that ball right at the flag it catches a ridge um and goes down a little sale and he says

After s such a good shot and so you could tell he was really feeling it with the golf swing today and then 15 um well so 13 the other bogey there’s no iron shot he drives it up left to the green chips it over the green ends up

Making bogey um but at 15 that Ball’s what four feet from the hole when it lands yeah so if you if you didn’t get a chance to tune in today 15 is a diabolical little par three as Greg mentioned played the as the hardest hole

On the golf course it’s 121 yards I mean it is I mean I would hit like maybe a gap wedge or a pitcher wedge imagine what these guys are you know what I mean like it is just a a very short hole but um everything wants to funnel off and if

It funnels fast enough and it funnels hard enough it will get down to the water this this little kind of Creek type situation that that short and left yes so Scotty hit a shot that lands it bounces short of the pin when it starts to put the spin on and maybe it spins

Maybe it doesn’t yeah it’s like five feet from the cup I mean it is about to be just another dialed Scotty shot spins a little bit too much starts running down the front of the green falls off the green starts picking up steam doesn’t stop in the rough gets through

The rough and goes into the water I mean the difference the difference is is inches between him being um five feet for birdie or having to drop and eventually end up making a boogie yeah the he probably landed it like five yards short of where he ideally wanted

To yeah you don’t want to land it short of the green or uh short of the pin excuse me but it was not as bad of a shot as it it was like an A minus execution and an F result he was with uh um joerger and to

And toast oh no not toasty he was with joerger and Ry today and he definitely hit the best shot of the three and made the worst score of the three so that kind of that was kind of uh disappointing yeah ry’s also came down the hill but stayed in the rough right

And his came down the hill on the left where Scotties came down the hill straight on so and Jagger hit a terrible shot and made par who because he missed it to the right I mean it’s so funny you kind of got to bail out right on 120

Yard hole so needless to say that even if things go slight just slightly better for Scotty between four and 15 that might be three shots yeah I I think that’s uh fair and look Four’s four is just tough he missed that green yesterday too and hit a great

Shot ended up chipping in so if you consider I think 13 is much more getable he drives it to the right in perfect position and hits his pit shot over the green there um I think it’s it’s very very easily could have made birdie there you with the with a typical Scotty

Sheffler shot so things went wrong for him on a number of occasions and he still finds himself in a tie for the lead just tells you how how much Firepower this guy has yeah truly sick stuff well um so let’s zoom out a little bit nine under par that’s five at the

Lead three in at eight under another four at seven under nobody in at six three golfers in at five under par so you’re talking about 12 golfers at seven under par or better so let’s see what Vegas has to say about this we’ll get the betting odds here Josh and I we’re

Going to see a very short number and we do next to Scotty sheffer’s name that is plus 140 to win the Houston open Stephen Jagger gets the nod with the second shortest odds six and a half to one Thomas diet seven and a half then this is kind of interesting Taylor Moore who

Is one shot back and AE batia who is one shot back have the next short aides at 12 to1 better than toasty at tied for the lead at 14 better than David skins who’s tied for the lead and 16 to one and then Tony fow if you think he can

Rebound after a 10 shot swing and maybe he goes I don’t know nine in the other direction he’s 20 to one Greg so um my betting card for the week has Scotty and Tony on it so I mean I I’m a big believer in if one of your

Guys at the beginning of the week has themselves in the mix it’s probably worth staying there if one of them Scotty sheffler that helps SI s pretty similar odds today to what Scotty sheffler had at the beginning of the week as well not far off so I think it’s very likely that

Scotty sheffler wins extremely likely one round to go he is absolutely the best player uh in in the mix here and I I don’t even think he needs his best stuff to his Bame will beat some of these other players aame I I really do believe that and I I don’t say that

Lightly there’s no one else in the game who I could say that about comfortably so it’s Scotty we saw him cough up like three pretty boneheaded strokes and is shot a 66 and like no no problem I mean I’m I’m yeah and that doesn’t even bring up yesterday the boneheaded mistakes yeah

Like I mean he’s hit three balls in the water Scotty shuffler has hit three balls in the water over the last two rounds he’s missed in Houston yeah and he’s missed uh a two you know he had three putts from seven feet on 18 yesterday like this

Is I’m I’m fairly certain Scotty’s gonna win this Josh ask if uh if he hit any in the water at Saw Grass I don’t think he did I don’t think he did at Bay Hill either I don’t remember amazing if you were required to bet somebody tonight

That was not named Scotty Sheffer I think that um I think Taylor Moore is kind of interesting at 12 to one yeah he is I I think uh Jagger is interesting he’s been knocking on the door could be ready to go but I’d go feno this is an awful day for feno let’s

See uh let’s look at the tea times for tomorrow let’s see who’s playing with who so uh what are they doing here oh are they’re going off oh they’re going off one and 10 okay so final group is Scotty Jagger David skins penultimate group toasty dietre

Dunlap uh Taylor Moore OE Max graser so feno is getting Ry and Aaron Ry at 9:00 a.m. Pacific so that’s 12 Eastern which I think is a good group for him getting off a little bit early um couple groups couple groups ahead of them which is which is

Nice I I I really think it’s between Sheffer and feno I love what Jagger’s been doing too but you got to go beat Scotty sheffler Is available at the real gfd and you can find me at Rick run good this has been the first cut we’ll catch you next Time