Previewing the Weekend Ahead at The Open Championship
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00:00heading into the weekend with the Open Championship. We now know who's going to be there and who is not usually with me on golf Wednesdays is our man Keith Stewart from read the line and I love that we get a little quality extra time with Keith this week because of the Open Championship as he joins me now to take a look into the weekend. Keith. Great to see you as always here on coast to coast. I have so many things to try to do this weekend. So I'm excited to see you.
00:30I'm excited to try to get with you here in these next couple of segments. Let's start here because me and you were just talking about this. The cut ended up getting to plus six out here. That's how much the carnage was with this afternoon wave. And it just boggles my mind. Like and I know these are technical things we're talking about. Why do they not stay with the cut like they cut the coverage off at four o'clock east. And there was so many things on the line there. And I know that all they really concern themselves with is who's in
01:00the lead and who's you know their biggest names. But there was drama to be had there. Keith just like yesterday when Brown made that putt to see everybody rip up their Shane Lowry first round leader tickets they stuck around for that drama but they didn't stick around for the cut sweat Carver the cut sweat was so live about an hour ago and Peacock shuts down at 4 p.m. and there were still four guys on the golf course that could have affected the cut line moved it from six to
01:30five and there was all sorts of drama going on. Tommy Morrison had a four foot birdie
01:34putt on the last hole and he misses it. And you know we had Darren Fickhart that needed
01:39the birdie coming down the stretch Masahiro Kawamura. I mean this is just there were so
01:45many people that play DFS and that bet on people that were like Sonjay M was plus six.
01:51He could have been eliminated. Max Homa makes a thirty five footer on the last hole. He
01:54gets the plus six to make it in. Maybe he's not in. I mean there was so much drama. I
01:59was on a three hour live stream on YouTube just covering it because there was no coverage.
02:04It was unbelievable. I mean what a great cut sweat for a major championship and boy I tell
02:08you what talk about carnage. This a.m. p.m. wave had 13 of the top 20 golfers in the official
02:14World Golf Ranking and they got decimated. They got absolutely smashed. Keith me and
02:20Pharrell actually went through it before. I mean when you think about the weekend that
02:24you're going to have here. I want to do this really fast. Brett Keegan Bradley wills out
02:29tourist Tyrell Hatton Tommy Fleetwood Ludwig a bear Bryson to Shambo Victor Hobbs Tony
02:37Finau Rory McIlroy Cam Smith. I mean you can go up. Can you believe what went on here.
02:43I mean you talk about weather every week on Wednesday but you know sometimes you just
02:49don't really know until you get out there how bad it's going to be for one end of the
02:54drawer or the other. The only time I can remember Keith it being this bad in terms
02:58of a draw a.m. p.m. was I guess the players when Cam Smith won a couple of years ago right.
03:03That was a real bad. That was a bad draw. But did you think it was going to be this
03:08bad for the a.m. p.m. splits. Well we talked about the wind on Wednesday. You remember
03:13that I brought up the wind and you were like well what's the big deal. I'm like these guys
03:17they go and they play nine holes on Tuesday. They played nine holes on Wednesday. None
03:21of them played with this new wind. They all use the prevailing wind because that's the
03:25way it was blowing on Tuesday and Wednesday until Wednesday afternoon when it flipped
03:29and then we were on golf Wednesday. It threw all these guys for a loop and it was worse
03:33for this a.m. p.m. wave Rory's wave. I mean you see you could see what it did to McIlroy.
03:38He became a mental midget out there. I mean he couldn't do anything like he completely
03:42it completely. You could see how much it shocked these guys you know. And as a result I mean
03:49could you imagine a world where Ludwig Rory Hadden and Fleetwood all don't make the cut.
03:55Tony Fina was sitting even par he shot 10 over today. Right. It was unbelievable. I
04:00mean how about the guts on Robert McIntyre make it a couple of triples in his first few
04:05holes. How about the 45 on the front nine by J.T. and he still fought to make the cut.
04:10I mean there was so much great golf drama this afternoon. If you're into this stuff
04:14I mean it was absolutely fantastic. And now look at this leaderboard inside the top 19.
04:21Let's just name a right. You've got Zander. You've got Scheffler. You've got Cantley.
04:25Oh how about DJ. You want Brooks and you want big bad John Rahm. The Spaniard is fully live
04:33for the weekend. Yeah. You're not kidding. And you talk about the guys who had to fight
04:38through the bad conditions in that a.m. p.m. wave. You mentioned Bobby Mack who looked like
04:45he basically just wanted to go get a pint after that third or fourth hole. I mean he was done.
04:49He wanted nothing to do with it anymore but he fought his way back. Neiman after that ace hole
04:55where what he shoot a nine. Do you have a nine on that par three or an eight. I think it was an
05:00eight. He had a plus five on the par three and then ends up with four birdies on the back to
05:06get himself back to where he's sitting right now. Rahm was very gutsy although I don't understand
05:11Keith. Why did Rahm hit iron on the par 5 16th. Why didn't he just try to blast it over that thing.
05:17That was surprising to me. Again that goes back to my earlier point in my point from Wednesday.
05:23They have no idea how to deal with that new wind. They had not practiced it. And the only guy the
05:27only guy that was there was Lowry because he hadn't seen the golf course in a long time since
05:31true and 16. So he was like you know what I'm going to get over there a month ago. And guess
05:35what. When he showed up a month ago which way was the wind blowing south southeast the same
05:39wind that they were getting the same way they're going to get tomorrow. And I know we got to talk
05:42about the weather for tomorrow. Guess what. It's going to lay down and then all of a sudden these
05:47guys are going to start going deep because you could tell the guys at the top of the board they
05:51are playing very very well. The wind that we expect tomorrow is in the single digits out of
05:56the same direction but it's going to really not affect these guys. We might get a little bit of
06:00rain for the leaders later in the afternoon like that 2 to 4 p.m. range. It might get a little
06:05bit nasty as far as wet weather goes but the wind is not going to be nearly as bad. And I think
06:10you're going to see a lot of low scoring. Pay attention to the early people. I bet that they
06:15can go low and put some pressure on these guys. I'm with you Keith. I was going to say that to
06:20you. I think we have to start looking at some guys now. I don't know if to win outright is
06:25in the cards for any of these guys plus one or further back at this point. But when you talk
06:30about jumping in live placements, T5s, T10s, T20s for some other guys, I think you're right. There
06:36could be some very low rounds early in the morning and when we come back we will look at these two
06:42rounds here Saturday and Sunday. The Irish Bear has himself a lead and I know he's got a two-shot lead
06:48on Brown. He's got a two-shot lead on Justin Rhodes. You know who I'm concerned about Keith
06:53as a ticket holder for the Irish Bear. He's sitting five shots back and he wasn't part of the bad wave
06:59and he kind of just parred his way and nicely just moved his way through and that's Scotty
07:05Scheffler. So when we come back I want to hear do you think Scheffler is going to make his move up
07:10the board potentially on Saturday and give the Bear a little bit of a problem. Only 10 players
07:16are under par as we head into the weekend. The Irish Bear is seven under. He's got a two-shot
07:21lead on Brown and Justin Rhodes which I cannot believe Justin Rhodes has played this well.
07:25Billy Ho, the Dean, Dean Burmeister, Scotty Scheffler, Corey Connors, Jason Day, Zander and
07:30Gantlay. What is your number in terms of down the board of where you think people are still alive to
07:38win this tournament outright? You know people always ask me that question Carver and I look
07:43at it in a different way. As a player and as a PGA coach you know I look at it more like what do I
07:48think the winning score is going to be and I think the winning score is going to be around 11 or 12.
07:53So if that's the case who on that scoreboard whatever their score is can get to that number.
07:59Can Rahmit plus one shoot 12 under for the weekend? Can he do that? Well I think he can on that golf
08:05course if the wind lays down. Or is it more like is it Scheffler sitting there what at two under
08:11who's five back but he could definitely shoot 10 under for the weekend and then he could surpass
08:16Sugar Shane. So I tend to look at it more that way. What's the target score and where do I need
08:21to get to in order to where I think that I'll be in a playoff or I might win outright. Who do you
08:26think can get there then? Oh I definitely think Scheffler can get there and I think that one of
08:32the two boys right the two pals Xander or Gantlay are going to continue to put together a very very
08:38very good weekend. So I think that those two but they're both under par. Rahmit has looked great.
08:46I'm very interested to see where Rahmit takes this from here but I think he's just a little
08:50bit too far back. So I'm not sure that he can shoot 12 or 13 under for the weekend between those
08:5636 holes. But I do think that Gantlay the way that he struck the ball today and the way that he putted
09:01and you know playing in all of that weather I think that there's a chance. I think that when
09:06you're looking at guys like Daniel Brown and Justin Rose they had to qualify to be there.
09:10Right Billy Ho the last time he was this deep in a major was like the 2013 U.S. Open at Marion.
09:16So like there's these guys are going to start to fall away and as they do and these thoroughbreds
09:21keep pushing forward like Xander and Patrick maybe even Colin. But remember Colin to get to that
09:25number to even to get to 10 he's got to be 11 under for the weekend. I think that's going to be
09:29a stretch for even someone at his talent level. So I'm still going to go with the two guys on the
09:34buddy trip which is Xander and Gantlay and I definitely like Scottie's chances. At this point
09:40he struck the ball good enough to do it and he just hasn't putted that great. And if he just
09:45continues on the pace that he's on Shane will have to continue to putt over his ceiling and
09:52I'm not sure that that can happen. Yeah I was going to bring him up next with you obviously
09:56the Irish bear. You know we've had some situations this year where he has played well going into
10:02Sunday with a chance to win. Some final groups he's been in some leads going into Sunday. Of
10:08course he's won the Open Championship before at Royal Portrush. Do you think I heard you just say
10:15about the putting we're not sure. What are we saying here 50 percent 40 percent. Do you give
10:20the Irish bear to get this done on Sunday despite some really good competition trailing him.
10:27I would say 40 percent in my mind. I think 40 is a fair number because his ball striking is there
10:33and is it's actually the equivalent of where Sheffler's at right now. We know he's the best
10:37ball striker in the world. So I think that the two of them can keep up with what I think that
10:41sugar Shane can keep up with Sheffler for the weekend from a ball striking perspective. I mean
10:46look at what he went through on the 11th hole today when he made the double and the 20 minute
10:49delay and everything and he came right back. He played one of the toughest holes of the day the
10:5312th hole back into the wind and he made that par and even said it himself. He said that was key for
10:58me. And then he finished very strong. He feels really good about his ball striking. He always
11:02questions his putting and he's made a lot of feet of putts in the first two days. I wonder if he can
11:08maintain that level of closure with the flat stick. I have to give you one shot. You got about
11:16a minute left here. Are you taking. It sounds like to me I think you're leaning Scottie. It kind of
11:22sounds that way. Are you saying Scottie gets his first claret job. Give me one name you would take
11:27right now to win on Sunday. Scottie Sheffler. It just reminds me of what he did and what it just
11:35reminds me of what he did at the players. You know all the question marks coming into the week.
11:39Would you fade Scottie would you not. And his last his last tournament he won. He found a way to win
11:44at Travelers and everyone was worried about the T41 at Pioneers but they forgot how he won at
11:48Travelers. This guy is still he's won six out of eight times. How can we go against them right now.
11:54The numbers like plus 330. He started the week at plus 460. He went off at plus 550 and with 36 holes
12:02to go at plus 330. There actually might be some value there considering where he started the week.