HOYLAKE — If you are someone who is ready to bury Justin Thomas, who looks at the two-time major winner and sees a golfer who is lost and broken, I get it. Things are not great at the moment. Watching him miss the cut at the Open Championship by a mile, his third missed cut in a major this year, was painful. He looked, in his post-round press conference at Royal Liverpool, like his eyes were welling up with tears when he answered questions about potentially missing the Ryder Cup.

If this isn’t the nadir for Thomas, then heaven help him.

I would, however, like to offer some advice to anyone who believes Thomas is cooked, based on 

There is a good chance he’ll make you feel foolish.

He is going to figure this out, even if he doesn’t seem close to doing so right now.


I believe U.S. Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson should heed that warning as well, just in case he starts to overthink things. American captains have a tendency to overthink, and Thomas is one of the players who helped the United States bury those bad habits in team competition.

Thomas needs to be on the American Ryder Cup team. To leave him home when the Americans go to Rome and try to snap a 30-year losing streak on the road would be a massive mistake.


I know what some of you are thinking: Wasn’t the American task force supposed to blow up the buddy system? Shouldn’t the United States lean into the idea that a meritocracy is the best method for putting together a team?

I’m imploring you, don’t be a prisoner of the moment. This isn’t someone without a body of work to draw on. This is the best TEAM competitor America has produced since Lanny Wadkins. Thomas drives his opponents batty in match play. If he’s on your squad, he’s the best kind of obnoxious. He’s one of Rory McIlroy’s closest friends, and in Ryder Cups, McIlroy wants to strangle him. He is a menace, the closest thing America has to our own Sergio Garcia, the rare player who is the best version of himself when he’s playing for something bigger than himself.

“I want to make the Ryder Cup more than anything,” Thomas said Friday after shooting 71 in Round 2 of The Open. “I'm probably honestly trying too hard to do it. It reminds me a lot of my first or second year on Tour. I tried so hard to make that team for the first time. I'm in a very similar position. I've been trying to make it easy on Zach and get in the top six, but I seem to not want to do that with my golf.”

Is Thomas currently lost? Admittedly, it looked that way on Thursday when he shot 82 and made a mess of 18, taking nine shots to wrap up his final hole.

“Making two doubles and a quad, that's eight-year-old, nine-year-old kind of stuff, not someone who's trying to win a British Open,” Thomas said. “You just can't do stuff like that.”

But there were also signs of stability on Friday, signs that Thomas — even though he had no chance of making the cut — was searching for a feel rather than going through the motions. On the 14th hole, his drive bounded into the right rough, leaving him a buried lie. He took a vicious lash at the ball, then watched it trundle toward the green and stop just short of the surface. His third, a low, running chip with spin, banged off the flag and dropped into the cup for a birdie. The roar from the crowd inspired a weary-but-appreciative smile from Thomas, who tried to take a philosophical approach after the round.

“Everybody has their waves, their kind of momentum and rides and rock bottoms, whatever you want to call it,” Thomas said. “I just keep telling myself, this is it, I'm coming out of it, and I unfortunately have surprised myself a couple times with some bad rounds. It doesn't mean a day's good play like today doesn't get a spark going.”

It’s very possible that Thomas is deep in denial mode. But for now, I’m okay with that. If he needs to lie to himself to boost his confidence, he wouldn’t be the first great player to use that tactic.

“There's nobody that shot 82 that hit some of the quality shots that I did yesterday. It doesn't make sense,” Thomas said. “I'll hit shots like a No. 1 player in the world, and then I'll make a 9 on my last hole of the tournament. I don't know if it's a focus thing or I'm just putting too much pressure on myself or what it is, but when I figure it out, I'll be better for it.”

I’ve heard several rumors this season that Thomas is injured, that he’s been trying to play through pain instead of opting for surgery, but he’s never mentioned it, so I finally got the chance to straight up ask him: Are you healthy?

“I feel fine,” Thomas said. “My wrist was a little sore because I hit it in the fescue and bunkers so many times yesterday, but it's fine.”

What about his diet? Thomas revealed earlier this year that, at the request of his nutritionist, he’d agreed to cut out gluten for a year and dairy for six months. He was frequently feeling fatigued and hoped that might lead to more energy. I was curious: Had that been hard to stick to that approach considering it seemed to coincide with his worst season as a professional?

“Yeah, I wish I felt worse so I could say it was that,” Thomas said.

It’s possible we need to slip Thomas a plate of carbs before the Ryder Cup, but even if that doesn’t happen, I suspect he’s still going to be part of the U.S. team in Rome. Johnson, who is actually rooming with Thomas this week, certainly knows what an asset he’s been on previous American squads.

“Obviously he's a stalwart in that event, right?” Johnson said. “I don't know his record off the top of my head, but I know it's pretty good. Bottom line is, this game is really hard. There's going to be peaks. There's going to be some valleys. Let's hope whatever sort of non-peak he's in, it's short. I know he's got a great team. I love his coaches. I love how he works. He's a worker. Guys with talent like that [who] work and aren't afraid to put their work in the dirt, if you will — not to be cliche — typically find it. It's just a matter of when, not if. He's too darned good. I might be slightly concerned, like I said, as a friend, but I'm not worried about him because I know what he does and I know what he's capable of.”

Thomas doesn’t feel like he needs to text his way onto the team, even if that approach has worked on Ryder Cup captains of the past.

“I mean, it's not like I'm going to write [Zach Johnson] a love letter or anything,” Thomas said. “I would like to think that my record is my best argument. I love the team events. I thrive in them. I just enjoy it. Playing with a partner could kind of ease me a little bit, relax me. I don't want to put him in this position. I hate even having to hope for a pick. This is the first time since I first qualified that I've had to rely on a captain's pick, and it's not fun, especially when you're trending the wrong way when other people are trending toward it. But I'm just hoping that I can finish this year out strong and my record speaks for itself.”

It’s dicey territory for a writer to try and analyze a professional golfer’s swing, or even his tactical approach. It feels a bit like a guy who draws stick figures with crayons trying to tell Monet how to paint water lilies, so I wade into this territory carefully and respectfully. But I wonder sometimes if Thomas might benefit from trying to emulate Colin Morikawa more and Tiger Woods a little less.

Yes, Thomas is an artist, and as he has shown, there is no shot shape he can’t picture in his mind, then attempt. He moves the ball with as much creativity as anyone in golf. (Woods and Bubba Watson might have an edge.) But there are times when he feels like Thomas needs a reliable miss, particularly on days when his timing and tempo aren’t perfect.

What if he showed up at the 3M next week and just hit fades?

That might seem like madness, but it’s worked for Morikawa, for Max Homa, and particularly for Scottie Scheffler. Why not experiment for a bit, at least until your tempo and timing return? Thomas’ best friend, Rickie Fowler, has reinvented himself by re-making his swing. What’s the risk in trying to find a stock miss? That creativity and artistry will re-emerge as his confidence does.

Thirty years ago, the American Ryder Cup team went to Europe and won 15-13 at the Belfry. They have been flummoxed trying to figure out how to win overseas ever since.

That’s also the same year — 1993 — Justin Thomas was born. We have been waiting three decades for someone to come along and help break the curse. Thomas, and his fist-pumping, beer-chugging, chest-thumping energy, is an essential part of the team culture. He doesn’t need to play five matches, but he needs to be part of the team, whether he makes the FedExCup playoffs or not. Since making his first international competition in 2017, he’s gone 16-5-3 in Ryder Cups and Presidents Cups. In 2018 when the United States got rolled by the Europeans at Le Golf National, Thomas was one of the only players who didn’t shrink in the moment going 4-1, including beating McIlroy in singles on Sunday.

Early in his career, Thomas received some mild criticism for saying 

he’d rather win a Ryder Cup than win a major.

 It was hard for the American golf establishment to wrap its head around that mentality. Yet this year may be the best chance to fulfill that promise. Yes, he was garbage in the majors and will be the first to concede as much. But the biggest prize, in Thomas’ mind, still remains.

Don’t you want someone like that on the first tee in Italy, staring down McIlroy and Rahm, with an obnoxious but somehow perfect smirk on his face?

Kevin Van Valkenburg is the Editorial Director of No Laying Up

Yes, put Justin Thomas on the Ryder Cup team

HOYLAKE — So much has happened in Rickie Fowler’s life since the Open Championship was last held at Royal Liverpool in 2014, where he finished tied for 2nd.


He played in an Olympics. He added a few tattoos. He got married, and is now a father. He lost his game, hired a different swing coach, spiraled further, then bottomed out. He missed three straight Masters, two U.S. Opens and the Open Championship in a three-year span. He contemplated signing with LIV. He re-hired his old swing coach, they rewired his swing DNA dramatically. This time, something clicked for Fowler. He won a tournament for the first time in four years, climbed the world rankings, and is once again a factor in majors.


“Kind of weird to think how long ago it was,” Fowler said.

One thing, however, has not changed: Fowler still possesses the game’s best poker face. Rarely does he flinch, in good moments or bad. He is stoic and steady when others are quick to throw tantrums. And he needed that stoicism on the 18th hole of his opening round Thursday.

Fowler was standing in the middle of the fairway, 289 yards from the green, and in an ideal position. He’d struggled early in the round, but on the back nine, he was hitting the ball beautifully. He’d just made a birdie on the treacherous 17th, and he stood at 2-under par, tied for 5th place. Another birdie — or perhaps an eagle — would tie a bow on a banner day. Fowler figured he could thread a long iron between the two bunkers in front of the 18th green, and showed little hesitation as he stood over the ball. He drew the club back, and fired a low bullet in the direction of the green.

It was clear, as soon as the ball left the clubface, that a nightmarish result was unfolding. The ball drifted right, then farther right, and Fowler’s expression never changed as it sailed toward the out-of-bounds line that looms all along the right side of the 18th. As soon as it landed in the high grass, on the wrong side of the line, a marshal waved his arms to signal it was a goner.

“Obviously pissed off but nothing I can do about it now. Just had a bit of a hanging lie from the fairway and caught the first one a little low on the face,” Fowler said. “I was obviously trying to hit a low little hot cut and just [made] poor contact.”

With a quiet calm, Fowler turned to caddie Ricky Romano and asked for another ball. A more timid man might have chosen to lay back, but Fowler knew what shot he wanted to hit. He wiggled his feet, took aim (once again) for the right side of the green, and drew the club back.

It was not close to landing within bounds.


Watching a professional golfer spray consecutive shots out of bounds can be an uncomfortable thing to witness, and as Fowler dropped again and prepared to take his sixth stroke toward the green, a surreal murmur rippled through the crowd.

Were we witnessing a Tin Cup situation? How many times would he have to attempt this shot?


Mercifully, Fowler’s third attempt landed exactly where he wanted, precisely where he hoped the first one might have gone — his ball landed short of the green but threaded the two pot bunkers, then trickled forward and came to a stop near the back. A gentle lag putt left him with a tap-in for triple bogey, then a long, sobering walk to the scoring tent. His first two long irons had landed no more than 15 yards right of the 18th green, but at Royal Liverpool, that’s about 8 yards too much.

Fowler offered up a weary and wistful smile when asked by reporters to relive his ghastly finish. But he wasn’t interested in criticizing the much-debated internal out-of-bounds line at Royal Liverpool.

“It’s not like they just stuck it in there,” Fowler said. “We know it’s there.”

Those kinds of quirks are part of the reason Fowler loves golf in this part of the world.

“I think it’s fine,” Fowler said. “It’s part of links golf; you get some quirky stuff here and there, and it’s part of it. You’ve got different characteristics. It’s not like they just decided to put that up there. There’s plenty of little boundary walls in different places that come into play, and that’s part of links golf. Do I like it? Right now, probably not, but I think it’s part of links golf with some of the cool different characteristics that are kind of what make it so special.”

Fowler didn’t completely eject himself from the tournament, but it’s rare for anyone to make a triple bogey in a major and go on to win. Only two players — Tiger Woods at the 2000 U.S. Open and Keegan Bradley at the 2011 PGA Championship — have pulled it off. He knows he’ll need to draw on some of the good feelings from 2014 to climb back into contention.

“It’s nice to know that we’ve had success around here,” Fowler said. “Even just from today, I didn’t swing it that well but still managed to get around for a decent round of golf. When you look at overall, 1-over isn’t terrible, but considering the finish it should have been a few shots better.”

Fowler has experienced just about everything on the golf course throughout his career, whether it’s young kids screaming for autographs with the fervor of Beatles fans or grown men following him around dressed, head-to-toe in orange. But Thursday’s round produced a genuine first: He was heckled by an English football fan.

The impetus? Fowler’s decision not to move forward with an investment in Leeds United F.C., which currently plays in the Championship League, the second division of English football.

“Someone called me a coward,” Fowler said, “They were a Leeds fan, and they gave me a hard time for not investing in Leeds. I think he should put his own money behind it if he wants to call me a coward.”

Asked if that was the first time he’d ever been heckled in his career, Fowler thought about it for several seconds and conceded that, yes, it likely was.

“It started with him saying ‘Why didn’t you go through with the investment?’ ” Fowler said. “I was just walking, he called me a coward and I turned around and he was laughing at me. Unfortunately you have to deal with that. I wouldn’t say our fans [in the United States] are any better but I don’t think that’s a position to call someone a coward for not investing in something.”

It was a strange day all around, but also, just another chapter in an eventful decade for Fowler. If he was annoyed, you couldn’t really tell. Who knows what tomorrow might bring?


Kevin Van Valkenburg is the Editorial Director of No Laying Up.

The Unflappable Rickie Fowler

Welcome back to the NLU Mailbag. In this space, we’ll address topics big and small, smart and dumb, irreverent and serious.

A quick reminder: You need to be a member of The Nest to submit a question to the mailbag, but the mailbag itself will be free to read (as long as you behave yourselves). Most of our questions are submitted via our message board, The Refuge, but if you’re not a message board person, please send me an email at kvv@nolayingup.com with your Nest handle and your question. If your question gets picked, we’ll send you a free Nest towel.

CarleyRaeJespenFan: What are your thoughts on people referring to The Open Championship as ‘The British Open’?

This seems like one of those “controversies” that’s not actually real and only meant to juice engagement. For years, NLU has been poking fun at the whole thing by referring to it instead as The Open Championship Presented by Her Majesty the Queen. (Now The King, of course.) But I was surprised to learn that some people take it very seriously. In my Twitter mentions this week, people are literally cursing each other out. One thing people don’t talk about is that an entire generation of Americans grew up watching the “British Open” on ABC and ESPN. That’s literally what the broadcast partners called it for us! That’s what we know it by!

I’m of two minds here: I like to refer to it as The Open Championship. But I also think if it’s going to be viewed as the one, true OPEN, then why exactly are we limited to holding it in England, Scotland or Northern Ireland? I know that’s blasphemy, but it feels like a certain kind of golfing snob wants it both ways. Don’t call it British, but don’t truly share it with the world.

If it’s truly just THE OPEN, then why can’t we hold it in Australia? Or Canada? Or South Africa?

If you don’t want to call The British Open, then consider this my official application to hold the 2030 Open Championship at Tara Iti in New Zealand.

PTM: Outside of the actual golf, what is the most difficult adjustment for American golfers traveling to the The Open? Lodging? Food? Driving on the right side? Schedules?

In my experience, it’s the quality of the Guinness, which makes you want to drink 10 of them and then you wake up the next morning fighting the time change and a hangover. But that’s a media answer. My answer for the golfers is mostly the fact that they’re outside their comfort zone, and very few of them are able to embrace the unfairness of links golf. Sometimes you’re going to get bad bounces and sometimes you’re going to be on the shit side of the draw. American golfers struggle when they don’t have control because they’re so used to hitting the ball high and making it stop quickly. I think lodging and food, they have figured out ways to bring a piece of home with them, but on the course, you still have to mentally commit to hitting certain shots 150 yards knowing they’ll bounce another 30 yards, and as soon as the ball lands, you have no control of the outcome.

VinnyCal75: Are there any venues that have either never hosted an Open or haven’t for a really long time that could potentially do so within the next 10-15 years?

I appreciate the spirit of this question, but the only real answer is Turnberry, which hasn’t hosted an Open since 2009 when Stewart Cink edged out Tom Watson in a playoff. Turnberry hasn’t been officially removed from the rotation, but it seems clear the R&A isn’t going back as long as the Trump Organization continues to own the property. (By the way, that’s not my politics talking, that’s the R&A, which has made its stance clear repeatedly, including again this week.) While Turnberry was the venue for one of the greatest final round duels in golf history, Watson and Nicklaus in 1977, it’s only been the host four times, and the remoteness of the property makes it a tough sell for fans to get to.

In a world where the ball didn’t go 350 yards, it’s kind of fun to think about playing the Open at Prestwick, where the tournament originated in 1860 and was played 24 times between then and 1925, but even if you gave modern players hickory golf clubs and asked them to attack the 6,500-yard layout, it doesn’t have the land available for all the corporate tents, grandstands and hospitality that are required to host. There is a certain irony to the fact that Prestwick stopped hosting the Open because too many people came out to watch Scottish hero Macdonald Smith try to win the 1925 Open, and the crowds were deemed unruly, 

as Golf Digest detailed in this enjoyable look back.

I’m of the belief that if Royal Portrush can host the Open, then Royal County Down should be considered. I know it has logistical challenges, like a lack of lodging nearby, but it’s arguably the greatest golf course in the world. You’d think there would be a way to make it work and still draw thousands of fans. It has, after all, hosted the Senior Open Championship three times. A man can dream.

It does seem criminal that Wales has never hosted an Open, and maybe Royal Porthcrawl deserves future consideration.

Drewski: If you can go back in time to see any British Open in person, which would you choose and why? Watson at Turnberry in 77 feels like an obvious choice, but to see Tiger’s dominance at St. Andrew’s in 2000 or the Phil/Stenson match would be hard to pass up as well.

I gave this some serious thought and ultimately I landed on a bit of a dark horse — 

 The reason? It was Lee Trevino’s second straight Claret Jug and represented a moment when he was arguably the best golfer on the planet, and certainly the most creative.

My dad always admired Jack Nicklaus, but he loved Trevino, whose humble upbringings and charm were more relatable to a working-class guy from Montana. Watching a video of Trevino thinking his way around links courses, shaping shots that modern players can’t even fathom, seems like golf nerd nirvana.

TheEyeTest: KVV (and maybe some help from the Merch Czar as he’s the course/band comp GOAT), which classic British rock bands would you associate with each of the courses on the Open Rota? Is the Old Course the Beatles or the Stones? If one course could be the Sex Pistols, which course would it be?

Great question, and exactly the kind of weird shit we are into here at the NLU Mailbag. I love music but also know my strengths so I enlisted my man D.J. to help with this one as Neil was off creating content. Some initial thoughts…

 — The Rolling Stones. Imagine the opening riff of Gimme Shelter beginning to play just as Jean Van de Velde puts his tee in the ground on the 72nd hole, and this immediately makes sense. An element of danger hangs in the air, of madness and mayhem. No course, and no moment, has ever embodied the lyrics “It’s just a shot away” more than that one.


 — The Beatles. This one feels like a cheat, considering there is a long and winding road in the middle of the course. I once suggested that Yesterday was the best song comp for The Old Course, considering the way it flows together, one piece connected seamlessly to the next, suggests (in the cheesiest, best way) that art is guided not just by people but something spiritual and ethereal. Both song and course invoke nostalgia, the longing for something that's already (mostly) gone. Each creation story feels like the happiest of accidents. A course that was once played in the opposite direction has something in common with a song that was about Scramble Eggs before it became something bigger. It's arguably too short for modern standards, but also maybe not. But it goes beyond Yesterday too. The Old Course is at its most interesting when the weather kicks in, when the wind makes you do experimental, provocative stuff. Also, it would be cooler if they played it with clubs made of Norwegian wood. Much like the Beatles, TOC is as endlessly simple or complicated as you want to make it.


 – Blur: People who seem to know what they are talking about tell me it's really good and perfectly crafted, but I've never really taken the time to dive in. Like a lot of people, I kind of only know the Adam Scott meltdown. Woooohooooooo!


 – Fleetwood Mac: Hitters only. Tournaments that stand the test of time. So much greater than the sum of its parts. Controversial relationship to white lines.


 – The Kinks: Weird, conceptual, not nearly as charming and polished as its more famous contemporaries, but I dare you to not enjoy it. Also probably Wes Anderson's favorite venue.


 – Led Zeppelin: Big, bold. Feels like if Tolkein was a bad ass. Total sensory overload.


 – U2: Undeniably world class, but takes itself laughably seriously.


 – The Verve: Cool catalogue, but most people probably just want to hear one song. Also, I could see Phil somehow parlaying his near-miss in 2016 into 

 – Oasis: Things have gotten... complicated. But my god are they still glorious. I feel like we'll eventually see 59-year-old Liam taking one more run on stage and it'll be a great reminder of what once was. But it will also ultimately be a heartbreaking reminder of mortality. Also you could convince me Stew Cink is the "Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds" of Tour players. (A compliment!)


 – Pink Floyd: Often overshadowed, but a complicated, modern, intense puzzle to be solved. Also feels like JS is 1-2 swing thoughts away from a Syd Barrett experience.


Blakehall: Who is the most likely to get a bad haircut (that gets turned into a bigger deal than it should be) this year?

Considering that Talor Gooch accidentally joined LIV, I think he would be my candidate to accidentally end up with a bad haircut the way Jordan Spieth did when he accidentally threw away his chance to win back-to-back Opens by going all Sampson in 2018 and trimming his locks before the final round at Carnoustie. We’ve had our fun with Gooch this year, but he’s actually a very nice guy who keeps wading into various controversies almost by accident. You actually have to be playing well to be considered for this question, since no one cares if someone gets a bad haircut and doesn’t play the weekend, and Gooch had the game to contend even if he does show up on Sunday with David Beckham’s infamous cornrows or Boris Johnson’s blow-dried bed head.

Scottyrp4: Given how insane this year has been in golf, who is the most intriguing Open champion?

I feel like we talk about Rory McIlroy too much in this space, but he still feels like the answer. If he doesn’t win this week, he’ll be looking at a decade drought in majors. If he does pull it off, suddenly he’s the most intriguing player in golf again.

But let’s remove Rory for a minute and look elsewhere. A Rickie Fowler victory would feel like a prophecy surprisingly fulfilled at the end of a novel when you least expect it. A Patrick Reed victory would give LIV even more credibility because, unlike Brooks Koepka, Reed would fully embrace LIV as one of the reasons why he reached golf’s pinnacle.

KVV Mailbag: The Open? Names, Venues and British Rock Bands

Show Notes is a weekly summary of what went down on the Sunday edition of the No Laying Up podcast. Want the TLDR and every reason to listen? A recap of the recap, if you will! Words and research by Jordan Perez.


Rory McIlroy wins the Scottish Open?! Soly and D.J. dive into the elusively spectated Scottish Open, with two different perspectives

 – while D.J did his damndest to catch a tape-delayed broadcast spoiler-free, Soly was glued to the CBS Sports App – and conducted a play-by-play for those who missed out. (5:44) A drama-filled final round began with McIlroy’s 54-hole lead being spoiled by a plucky Robert MacIntyre, who starts his back nine with an eagle on the 10th hole and finishes his round with the clubhouse lead. A rollercoaster 37 on the front nine against howling winds almost triggered ANOTHER Rory heartbreak before a 37-foot birdie on No. 14 kicks off one of the best stretches of his career, including two epic back-to-back birdies to win it all.


(15:18)  Why do we hate Re-NAY-saunce? (25:50) Should we expect the same “proper wind” at Royal Liverpool?


(34:00) D.J. and Soly dedicate some valuable time to Hamsterdam re: the impossibly difficult-to-consume coverage this week. And putting the – let’s not forget — the Barbasol into confusing context. Does

it matter, given that the PGA Tour may very well not exist? Will any of this exist? We’re not sure. The boys work through their current mixed investment in men’s professional golf.

(43:30) Fear not – the co-sanctioned event does prompt some Ryder Cup team building! And of course, Soly makes it a point to call ROOKIE Ludvig old. Could Team USA be as fun as Team Europe? The captain’s picks are looking 

(1:02:26) Time to unpack MORE uncomfortable feelings about the Senate hearings. It’s a situation that’s a) super dystopian and b) leaving us golf fans feeling more and more powerless. Jordan Spieth and Xander Schauffele all spoke out following the hearings – and all the drama is making the sitch feel more and more bleak. Since Tuesday’s hearing, in response to an inquiry from the DOJ, the PGA Tour and PIF dropped the clause that prevented each side from poaching players.

(1:11:36) In only her third start in the United States, Linn Grant wins the Dana Open! She won by three shots over U.S. Women’s Open champ Allisen Corpuz. With five LET wins under her belt, it’s no surprise Grant won quickly stateside. Digesting Lydia Ko’s slew of penalties from playing preferred lies, where she went out in 42 on the front nine. And Nelly Korda wins an Aramco Team Series – because the fragmentation of professional golf doesn’t end on the men’s side. Sigh.

(1:15:00) Steph Curry wins the American Century Championship, closing out the dub with a sick eagle on 18. TC requests the boys air out some ire regarding Annika’s participation in a celebrity tournament. Spoiler alert: They do not.


(1:15:40) Vincent Norrman claimed his first PGA Tour victory in 23 starts at the Barbasol Championship after defeating Nathan Kimsey in a playoff–and Soly reminds us of him staking his claim in his Norrman fandom in early 2021.

, where he played ten top-100 public golf courses in 

 (34:00) The primer for the Open *deserves* way better coverage! Especially with Rory McIlroy in contention. Tape delays excite nobody, and jumping through hoops to figure out how to watch it live is discouraging, especially to casual fans.

(30:44) Almost hesitantly, Soly is DONE with profane Tyrell Hatton! The pseudo-hot-mic shtick isn’t cute to him anymore. The f-bombs and middle fingers to various golf holes, conditions and everything but himself should be totally retired. Bad, bad look for the kids.

“This dude just wants it really badly, we all want it for him really badly, and I don’t think that’s always a good thing for him.” -Soly, on the internet’s crush on Rory (14:20)

“Lotta talk on this podcast and others about Rory being more of a thrower than a pitcher, a lot of conversation about him being a daft American golfer these days – I just wanna say, that’s not the guy we saw today! So for all the haters and losers, of which there are many, I would encourage you to do what I did and track down some illegal stream replay of that back nine.” -D.J. (19:08)

“Alright dude, I don’t need you yelling ‘f**k you’ at the hole when you miss a 40-foot putt when the wind is whipping 30 miles an hour.” -Soly (30:59)

“Man, I’m not watching f***in’ senate hearings and the Barbasol. We’ve got too much f***in’ shit on me – I can’t breathe.” - D.J. (38:10)

D.J.: “Feet were a little sore just from a lot of walking. Had a toenail that still doesn’t look great – it’s touch and go whether he’s going to hang on or not.”

Soly: “I think you should send that toenail to the Wisconsin Golf Hall of Fame.” (1:26:19)

@DPWorldTour: Cinematic Rory approach into 18

PGA Tour, LIV Golf drop poaching players clause

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NLU Podcast, Episode 715: 2023 Scottish Open Recap Show Notes

I’d like to start by addressing the headline on which many have focused: This week’s 25 and 24 match play loss to my friend 

Those numbers are jarring and I make no excuses for them – although you can’t get beaten that badly unless you sign up for a match of historic proportions. That’s what we did this week – attempting to (and succeeding in!) playing the top 10 public golf courses in Wisconsin over a stretch of just under 40 hours.

You may be asking yourself how this came together and what on earth the point of this feat was, which are both great questions. This golf marathon started as the brainchild of Rob Jansen, the Executive Director of the fantastic Wisconsin State Golf Association. Rob tries to one-up himself each year by using his tourism budget to perform different feats that show the rest of the world what a fantastic golf state we have here in Wisconsin. In fact, the golf is so good that the state 

contains 10 of the country’s top 100 public golf courses

, a perfect framework for this challenge.


In the past, the WSGA has done a lot to show off the breadth and depth of Wisconsin public golf, but one thing Rob and the crew wanted to focus on this year was just how accessible they are in a short amount of time. With high concentrations of great golf around Kohler and Sand Valley, he wondered how quickly we could cross off the top 10 and started to build out an itinerary. Stephen and I were happy to be the guinea pigs.

I actually laughed out loud the first time I saw the itinerary spelled out. While it was all technically 

, any small speed bump (a slow group in front of us, a road construction delay, a long Culver’s wait, etc.) would cause a domino effect that could derail an entire day.


Somehow, thanks to Rob disarming various landmines along the way, we avoided any of those and finished with daylight to spare at Erin Hills.

For those interested in the blow-by-blow, Stephen and I ran through the whole trip on his local golf radio show, 

For the visually-inclined: We were so lucky to be joined on the trip by the uber-talented duo of 

, who not only captured all the stills contained here but will also be producing a short film for the WSGA, chronicling the journey and showing off each course in much more detail. Look for that sometime in the next few months.

After meeting in Kohler on Saturday night and having exactly two (2) Old Fashioneds, this was the itinerary Rob had put together (with plenty of help from all the participating courses). Stephen and I decided the best competition would be a 180-hole match for a cold beer. I was disappointed to not get the match to the final course, but credit to my opponent for some excellent golf.


4:50 a.m.: Balls in the air at Whistling Straits (Irish Course). We needed to be off the Straits Course before the first public tee time at 7 a.m., so we played in carts for 1 hour, 46 minutes.

6:50 a.m.: First off at Whistling Straits (Straits Course). Walked in 2:46 and finished No. 18 as the first public group of the day was walking off 9 green.

9:45 a.m.: 15-minute drive to Blackwolf Run for a 10 a.m. tee time at The River Course. This was our longest round of the trip as we ran into a full golf course of public play after about 3 holes. Rode in 3:46.

2:20 p.m.: Tee time on Blackwolf Run’s Meadow Valleys course. Rode in 3:28. (FWIW, Stephen shot even par and put me 18 down with 108 to play. High-level golf is being played by him at this point.)

5:50 p.m.: 10-minute drive to The Bull at Pinehurst Farms. Public play had mostly cleared out by this point and we were able to fly around in carts in 2 hours.


8:00 p.m.: Pack up the van, stop at Culver’s and KwikTrip, and eventually make our way toward Sand Valley.

12:10 a.m.: Arrive at Sand Valley, shower, unpack, lay out clothes and fall asleep by 12:40 a.m.



Wake up, stretch, drive to Mammoth Dunes. This was the low point for me. Pure anxiety about the lack of sleep and the 6-mile run/walk ahead of us.


4:40 a.m.: On the tee at Mammoth Dunes (walking only), teeing off with glow balls to buy extra time and doing a good bit of running between shots. Like Whistling Straits, we needed to be done with Mammoth and off Sand Valley before the first public tee time at 6:50 a.m. Our caddies Rose and Sawyer knew what they were signing up for and embraced the assignment. We ran/walked around Mammoth Dunes in an hour and 43 minutes. Somehow I shot 76. Mammoth is so fun.

6:30 a.m.: Off Sand Valley with Rose and Sawyer for a leisurely 2:23 stroll.

9 a.m.: 50-minute drive to SentryWorld in Stevens Point. The golf course is closed on Mondays, so we had the place to ourselves. Because they just got done hosting the U.S. Senior Open, it still took an hour and 45 minutes. Unbelievable rough.

11:52 a.m.: Rob decides we have built in an extra “8 minutes” to take a shower, which may have been what made the rest of the day possible.

12:00 p.m.: 1:15 minute drive to Lawsonia for a 1:30 p.m. tee time on the Links Course. Even at this point of the day, I can’t stress to you how much fun Lawsonia was. It was blowing 20 and the place was completely burned out and firm. It looked like the freaking “Duel in the Sun” out there. Hitting pitching wedges from 160 and watching the ball bounce around all over the place. What a golf course. We whipped around in carts in 2:12. Stephen closed me out with an excellent up and down from the bunker on 12.


3:45 p.m.: Coffees and a 90-minute drive to Erin Hills.


5:30 p.m.: On the tee at Erin with our guy Dominic Cotroneo (from 

) on the bag. The hands had totally disappeared at this point. I made doubles from 55 yards and 105 yards respectively on Nos. 2 and 4. But a gallery of friendlies (and some double Fescue Rescues) began showing up at the turn and I somehow made three birdies and shot 35 on the final nine. Insanity.


Final putts hit the hole just before 8:30 p.m.

As you can imagine, we didn’t have much time to look around at each place, so please take these for what you will.

 Such a phenomenal collection of golf holes, 1 to 18. One of the biggest hikes around (and a tough place to finish), but it’s one of those places where golf really feels like a “sport” in the best way. Great facility, great people, great cocktails. The 2025 U.S. Women’s Open is going to rule.

 Every time you walk around there, it somehow feels like you’re simultaneously in quintessential rural Wisconsin 

 on a different planet. Snobs will happily remind you that it doesn’t play like a true links, which is true. But there are also few cooler places to spend a gorgeous day chasing your golf ball. Par 3s quickly suss out who is up for the task.

I don’t know what it is about the place, it just warms my heart to no end. The entire front nine just goes so hard and seeing what Langford and Moreau shaped with rudimentary equipment blows my mind every time I’m there. Unbelievable scale to the place and as mentioned above, the conditions made you feel like you were playing some under-the-radar Scotland gem.

Are you going to shoot your low score of the season out there? Probably. But it’s also about as much fun as you can have playing golf. Unbelievable walk (or run).


More of the same. Great chances to score, horrible places to miss. Everything you’d expect out of Coore & Crenshaw, including some really fun par 5s.

First time out there (and it was before 5 a.m. when we teed off), but I really enjoyed it. It’s not much tamer than its more famous neighbor and you have to golf your ball to keep it in play. But even without the lake, it does a great job of creating a really unique feeling for southern Wisconsin.

We whipped through this one quickly, but it would have been great to settle in and enjoy the day at an awesome property. Playing the week after a senior major was a wake-up call difficulty-wise and had me playing defense trying to hit fairways and avoiding the gnarly rough.

I need to play it again since this is where we ran out of gas for the first time on Day 1. So take this ranking for what you will. I played bad and drove it all over the place, so it was tough to get too much of a feel for the place. Navigating the trees as vertical hazards on Nos. 9 and 10 would have had Randy swooning.

I really loved the back nine of MV, particularly the finishing stretch of 16, 17, 18, which were all totally different, but brought out the best parts of the property. Also have to shout out Stephen here, who shot 72 at MV and put me 18 down with 108 to play.

Immaculate condition and featured some of the most dramatic shots of the trip. But no question it’s a brute, especially as the fifth round of the day.

- To the surprise of no one, I played my best golf of the year while not thinking about anything. See the ball, hit the ball, find it and hit it again. It was crazy what a good rhythm you can get in while playing fast. And I think some of the time deadlines created a forced pressure that made for increased focus and higher stakes with each shot. In other words, I have no idea how people play good and slow competitive golf. It’s so impressive.

My Wisconsin Golf Marathon

It’s not every day when you see a little girl walking alongside some of the best female golfers in the world. Being that person has been quite a blast this week at Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Throughout the week, I have found much inspiration from all the great players in this field. Coming here and seeing the female golfers that I have watched on TV for many years is a dream I thought would never come true.

 stripe beautifully straight drives that split the fairway. Or, when getting to watch the stunning wedge game of many players on the famous 7th hole here at Pebble. Or, even witnessing Nelly Korda’s never changing tempo on her outstanding iron shots.

Pebble is a truly one-of-a-kind place and I would never change anything about this extraordinary event. Getting to be here with my dad is one of the biggest gifts I could’ve gotten. Being at one of the most prestigious golf venues in the world is a plus too.

Growing up around golf means I have watched so many highlights of the greatest moments in the history of this game. Whether it’s watching Tiger hole out for eagle or a chip-in from Gary Woodland, Pebble Beach has some fantastic shots within its lengthy résumé. Also, having an amazing dad who is just as addicted to golf as I am means he’ll be willing to tell me stories about golf moments that I will never, ever forget.

What I pictured Pebble Beach to be before I got here is the description you normally hear: "Oh yeah, the greens are small, the wind is strong, and the views are great." That description 

 underestimates the actual green size. When my dad and I were watching Lydia Ko in her practice round, he even said, “Wow, those greens really 

 small.” Being it his first time at Pebble Beach, he was surprised too. And he 

hard on every shot they stand over is really inspirational. 

 the 18th fairway, you could see the determination in her eyes.


Most importantly, this week has taught me that all great players hit bad shots and they just have to accept it. Dwelling on the bad ones will only continue them. Being a golf lover means I watched a lot on TV. But they don’t show everything, they only show great shots. That leads everybody to set really high expectations for themselves. Even though we aren’t professionals, we can still have an expectation.

Keegan Van Valkenburg, age 11, lives in Baltimore. She’ll be in 6th grade in the fall.

Little KVV: Reflections from the U.S. Women's Open

PEBBLE BEACH — Charley Hull stood on the 18th tee at Pebble Beach fully aware she needed a miracle. She’d been stomping on the accelerator all day, making birdie after birdie, flying up the leaderboard, but Allisen Corpuz — a few groups behind her — was still in command of the U.S. Women’s Open. If she wanted any chance at her first major championship, it was time to get extremely bold.


Hull teed up her ball, got one last nod from her caddie, and ripped a drive with everything left in her tank. It started a few yards right of the big cypress tree in 18 fairway and began to draw.


“Is that good?” Hull said, looking back at her caddie Adam Woodward.

“I think it’s perfect,” Woodward said.

It looked perfect from 270 yards away, but when Hull and Woodward reached the ball, they found it was anything but perfect. It was nestled a few feet from the roots of the cypress. She’d have to stand essentially under the branches of the tree. Hull, one of the game’s most colorful personalities, turned to Woodward with a smile.

"You know the saying: ‘Shy kids don't get sweets,’” she said. “I'm down three, have to go for it, right?"


They pulled 3 wood. Hull, who frequently has trouble staying focused on the course, steeled herself for the moment. She wiggled her feet, took two final looks at the green, and uncorked a laser. For a brief moment, it looked reminiscent of Tiger Woods’ famous 3 wood in 2010 on Saturday of the U.S. Open. Hull quickly ducked down beneath the branches before she took off running to watch the ball pierce through the air in the direction of the green. You could hear a gasp from the crowd while the ball was still in the air.

It wasn’t meant to be. The ball curved left, and trundled into the left bunker. Hull slashed a bunker shot to 10 feet, but her birdie putt missed by a few inches. “I thought I had my putt on the last, but I don't know, it was a good try. Just died on me.”

An electric run — a final round 66 — had come to an end.


“I’m not playing for second place,” Hull said, when asked about the decision. Did she even remotely hesitate? She laughed. “No. At home, I always play the aggressive shot. It’s paid off once in a while.”

Paying off this time would have meant a coveted first major title. And it’s not for a lack of trying. The 27-year-old has won twice on the LPGA, made five Solheim Cup teams and represented her country in the Olympics. A major is the one thing that has eluded her. But her best damn try came in the form of a final round 66.

Two missed cuts entering the week, including one at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, provided a much-needed wake up call. She spent the week preceding the U.S. Women’s Open and its practice rounds diligently working with her swing coach: “Taking it back more closely. A bit more around my body. Adding more compression to the golf ball.”

But before she even said anything, a whole round of body language completely gave the overthinking away. She fidgets in her pre-shot routine, taking various looks before committing to whatever given shot. A lack of hesitation on the gutsy tee shot on 18 proved quite the juxtaposition. But really, that’s the most sincere version of herself.


The fire began early in her round on No. 2, the 518-yard par 5, when she holed a 3-foot eagle putt after hitting a 278-yard drive and a 241-yard approach shot.

“If I want something, I’ll go and get it,” Hull said.


It was go time. She’d play the next four holes in 3-under, and became Allisen Corpuz’s biggest threat to her own first major championship.

“I quite enjoy chasing someone because you got to make birdies and you got to make a move up that leaderboard,” Hull said.


One eagle and six birdies made Hull the scariest person in the field. The round had Corpuz’s caddie looking over his shoulder after his player made the turn. “I saw people were making a push,” he said, referring to Hull.

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