The Wingo Network

Is the NFL Giving Fans Too Much Football? Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. Andrew Brandt joins Trey Wingo to talk about one of the biggest questions around the NFL: can the league ever become too big? Trey starts with the idea of scarcity. Part of what made the NFL so powerful is that fans had to wait for it. Sunday mattered. Monday night mattered. One game a week made the product feel special. But now the NFL is everywhere. There are games all day Sunday, including early international games. Monday Night Football. Thursday Night Football. Thanksgiving games. A Black Friday game. Christmas games. Saturday games late in the season. And now even Thanksgiving Eve is becoming part of the NFL calendar. So Trey asks the real question: is the NFL messing with the formula that made it so valuable? America’s Addiction Trey says football is not America’s pastime anymore. It is America’s national addiction. Andrew says he would like to think the NFL could eventually go too far, but the evidence still says no. The league has survived concerns over protests, concussions, politics, sports betting and oversaturation, and the appetite for football is still massive. Trey brings up Mark Cuban’s old warning that “pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.” Andrew’s response is simple: the hogs are not close to getting slaughtered. Schedule Overload The conversation gets into whether fans will keep planning every other day of the week around NFL games. Trey points out that players like Jason Kelce have talked about what makes football special: you only get one game a week, and everyone builds toward it. Andrew admits that even he has had moments where it felt like there was too much football, especially around Thanksgiving and Christmas. But whether that feeling becomes universal is still the question. Cowboys Value and the Next Sale From there, Trey and Andrew connect the schedule conversation back to franchise value. After the Seahawks sold for nearly $10 billion, Trey asks what the Dallas Cowboys could be worth. If Seattle is worth almost $10 billion, is America’s Team worth $20 billion? Andrew explains that some franchises may never actually hit the open market, including the Cowboys, Patriots, Bengals, 49ers and Eagles, because they are family-controlled teams. Still, the larger point is clear: NFL ownership has become one of the most valuable assets in sports. Green Bay and the NFL’s Secret Sauce The conversation ends with one of the most interesting parts of the NFL business model: Green Bay. Trey points out that the Packers play in the smallest market in major American professional sports, yet they are able to compete because the NFL shares revenue equally across teams. Andrew calls it “corporate socialism.” The league’s owners are extremely capitalist in almost every other business sense, but the NFL works because every team gets an equal share of the national revenue. That is why Green Bay can compete with New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami. It is also why NFL franchise values keep climbing. The question is whether the league can keep adding more games, more windows and more money without damaging what made the product special in the first place. For now, the answer still seems to be yes. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Who Actually Fits Royal Birkdale? | Mailbag Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. Golf Live wraps the episode with an Open Championship mailbag from Royal Birkdale. Trey Wingo and Justin Ray answer viewer questions on which players benefit most from the firm and fast setup, whether this year’s major venues have been fair, what to make of Scottie Scheffler’s season, and which non-obvious Open winner would create the best story. They also get into Tom Kim’s future, the state of the DP World Tour and why Birkdale may not reward the same players we usually expect at a major. Who Benefits Most at Birkdale? The first big question is about fit. With Royal Birkdale playing firm and fast, Trey thinks almost everybody is in play. Distance does not carry the same advantage when the ball is running this much, and the shortest players in the field may have a better chance than usual. Justin points to accurate players who can control their ball flight: Russell Henley, Collin Morikawa and Tom Kim. Those players may not have the same extra gear off the tee, but this setup can narrow that gap. On the other side, Justin is staying away from Cameron Young because of how much he has struggled on the greens. Have the Major Setups Been Good? Trey and Justin also discuss the major setups this year. Justin thinks they have been strong overall. Everyone is going to complain about the U.S. Open setup, but he thought the USGA did a good job with what it had. Trey agrees. He thought the courses have generally been difficult but fair, and he expects Royal Birkdale to create its own kind of test because of the weather and firm conditions. There will be strange bounces. There will be shots that make players wonder how the ball ended up there. But that is part of the Open. Is Scottie’s Season a Failure Without Another Major? The answer from both Trey and Justin is no. Scottie Scheffler has set the bar so high that anything short of constant winning starts to feel disappointing, but Justin says he is still statistically elite across the board. He compares it to Nelly Korda’s season after her seven-win run: still excellent, even if the wins do not come as easily. Trey’s point is that Scottie’s hold on world No. 1 is still massive. It would take a huge drop from him and a huge leap from someone else to change that. The Best Open Storylines The mailbag also looks at which non-obvious Open winner would create the best story. Tommy Fleetwood winning in England would be huge. Justin Rose would be emotional. Robert MacIntyre winning would have a Scottish-conquers-England feel. Jon Rahm remains fascinating. And Bryson DeChambeau trying to avoid missing the cut in all four majors is another storyline to watch. There are a lot of ways this week could get interesting. Tom Kim and the DP World Tour Trey and Justin also talk about Tom Kim’s future after his Scottish Open win. Kim turned pro at 15, won early on the PGA Tour and became a Presidents Cup star before hitting a rough stretch. Now, he may be coming out of it. The episode closes with a bigger DP World Tour discussion. Justin says the tour still has strong events ahead, especially with the national opens and late-season championship run. A strong European tour is good for the entire golf world. And at Royal Birkdale, the mailbag question is pretty simple: Who actually fits the test? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Bryson DeChambeau Answers Nick Faldo’s “Zero Strategy” Criticism Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. Bryson DeChambeau finally gave The Open Championship something extra to talk about. After missing the cut in the first three majors of the year, Bryson opened at Royal Birkdale with a three-under 67. That round put him within striking distance of the lead, but the bigger story was what came before it. Sir Nick Faldo, a six-time major champion and three-time Open Championship winner, was asked about Bryson’s struggles in majors this season and did not hold back. Faldo said Bryson has “zero clue of strategy,” arguing that links golf cannot simply be attacked with power. At The Open, especially on a firm and fast course like Royal Birkdale, players have to think their way around the golf course. They have to understand where the ball will bounce, where it can run, where the bad misses are, and how to keep it on the short grass. Faldo’s point was that Bryson cannot just bomb driver and expect links golf to reward him. Bryson clearly heard it. After his round, Bryson talked about being “incredibly strategic,” staying focused, and placing the ball in the right areas. Trey Wingo breaks down why that response mattered, why the pettiness is good for the tournament, and why Bryson’s opening round gave The Open a much-needed storyline. But Trey also explains why the question is not fully answered yet. Bryson played well, but he still missed a lot of fairways. On a links course, that matters. At Royal Birkdale, the ball can take hard bounces, run into rough, find bad angles, or leave a player blocked out. One day, the bounces work. The next day, the same misses can turn a three-under round into a three-over round. That is what makes Bryson’s week so interesting. Did he actually find the right strategy for links golf? Or did Thursday’s round work because the bounces went his way? Trey also gets into why Bryson remains one of the most compelling players in golf. He is a two-time U.S. Open champion, one of the most powerful players in the world, and never afraid to respond when he feels criticized. After being a non-factor in the first three majors of the year, Bryson suddenly gave the final major of the season a little edge. The rest of the Round 1 leaderboard is just as interesting. Jackson Suber opened with a surprise 65. Collin Morikawa stayed in the mix on a course that should suit his iron game. Scottie Scheffler bounced back after a missed cut and sits within reach. Rory McIlroy had an up-and-down putting day. Xander Schauffele had a rough finish. Justin Rose, one of the sentimental favorites at Royal Birkdale, put himself in a difficult spot with a disappointing opening round. The Open is firm, fast, and already full of storylines. Bryson vs. Faldo. Power vs. strategy. And one last chance this year to win a major championship. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Week Golf Reminded Everyone How Hard This Game Is Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. Golf had one of those weeks where the only real takeaway was simple: this game is hard. Scottie Scheffler missed the cut at the Scottish Open. Nelly Korda missed the cut at the Evian Championship. And according to Justin Ray, it was the first time the reigning men’s world No. 1 and women’s world No. 1 both missed the cut in the same week. Trey’s reaction was pretty simple. If you had told him that was going to happen, he would have said there was no chance. But that is golf. Scottie and Nelly Both Miss Nelly’s missed cut at Evian added another strange chapter to a tournament Justin had already called unpredictable. Even without Nelly, Evian still delivered. Brooke Henderson made six eagles for the week, including three on Sunday to get into a playoff. Hyo Joo Kim shot 60 on Saturday. The week had plenty going on. For Scottie, Justin is not worried. He did not embarrass himself at the Scottish Open. He just did not make enough birdies, hit only ten greens in regulation on Friday, and never saw enough putts fall. The bigger point is that even the best players in the world can have one week where they just do not get to the weekend. The Tiger Cut Streak Reminder Scottie’s missed cut also ended his streak at 78 straight cuts made. That led Trey and Justin right back to Tiger Woods. Trey makes the point that Scottie’s streak was impressive, but it still was not the same as Tiger’s 142 consecutive cuts made. To even get close, Scottie would have needed 64 more. And Justin adds another reminder: Scottie’s top-25 streak lasted almost two years. Tiger had one that lasted six. That is why Trey keeps saying people need to be careful with the Scottie-Tiger comparisons. This is not about taking anything away from Scottie. It is about remembering how absurd Tiger’s prime really was. If you did not see it live, Trey says, you missed something you will probably never see again. Tom Kim Gets Back The other big story of the week was Tom Kim winning the Scottish Open. Trey and Justin talk about how quickly Tom burst onto the scene. He became the youngest two-time PGA Tour winner since Tiger Woods, then the youngest three-time winner since Tiger. He became a Presidents Cup star, brought real energy to the International Team, and then went through a stretch where things just got harder. That is what made this win matter. Justin points to the Dallas U.S. Open qualifier as a possible turning point. Tom lit it up against a strong field, then contended at Shinnecock, then won in Scotland. His short game looked great, his confidence looked back, and his game may be trending at the right time. Trey sees it as a good sign for golf. Tom Kim has too much talent and too much personality not to matter. And after a difficult stretch, he looks like a player who could start showing up again a lot more often. The Lesson Rory McIlroy hit one bad shot at the Scottish Open and told himself he was terrible at golf. Trey’s response: you do not get to say that. But that is the point. Scottie can miss a cut. Nelly can miss a cut. Rory can feel lost after one swing. Tom Kim can go from rising star to struggling and back again. This game makes everybody doubt themselves eventually. Even the best in the world. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Andrew Brandt Explains the NFL Money Machine Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. Andrew Brandt joins Trey Wingo to break down why NFL money keeps getting bigger and why team valuations are reaching numbers that used to seem impossible. Trey starts with the sale of the Seattle Seahawks for $9.6 billion. The number itself is massive, but what stood out even more was how quickly NFL franchise values have exploded. The Washington Commanders sold for more than $6 billion just a few years earlier. Before that, the Carolina Panthers sold for $2.27 billion and the Denver Broncos sold for $4.6 billion. Andrew explains why the NFL finally opened the door to private equity and what that actually means. These investors are not controlling coaches, players, concessions or football decisions. They are mostly putting money into the system because NFL ownership has become one of the most valuable assets in sports. The conversation also gets into fractional team sales with the Bills, Raiders, Eagles and Giants. Andrew points out that the Giants selling 10 percent for $1 billion implies a $10 billion valuation, even without a full team sale. From there, Trey and Andrew discuss the bigger question: where does the money stop? The NFL has survived concerns around concussions, politics, protests and oversaturation, and Andrew says there still does not seem to be any real threat to the league’s dominance. The league has long-term media deals, an owner-friendly CBA, and a fan base that keeps watching. Then the conversation shifts to tech money and media rights. Trey points out that 90 of the top 100 rated TV shows last year were NFL games, and that traditional networks cannot really exist without the NFL. But companies like Apple, Google, YouTube and Amazon operate differently. They do not need the NFL the same way legacy networks do, but if they decide they want it, they have the money to drive the price even higher. Andrew explains how quickly streaming-only NFL games have become normal and why the next media rights cycle could change the entire sports television business. This is the NFL money machine: franchise values, private equity, streaming, tech companies and media rights all pushing the league into a financial universe of its own. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Matt Fitzpatrick Might Be Built for Royal Birkdale Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. Golf Live continues its Open Championship preview with a closer look at Royal Birkdale, the history of champions there, and the players Trey Wingo and Justin Ray trust most this week. Royal Birkdale may not always get talked about like St. Andrews, Carnoustie or Muirfield, but the winner’s list says plenty. Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson, Mark O’Meara, Padraig Harrington and Jordan Spieth have all won Opens there. As Trey puts it, Birkdale produces real major champions. The History at Birkdale Trey and Justin go through the names that have won at Royal Birkdale and why the course has a habit of finding elite players. There is also the strange history. Mark O’Meara beat Brian Watts in a playoff in 1998. Ian Baker-Finch won there in 1991 before his game unraveled years later. And Jordan Spieth’s 2017 win became one of the most chaotic masterpieces of his career, complete with the wild miss, the long ruling and the “go get that” eagle putt. Birkdale does not always look like the most famous course in the Open rota, but it has created plenty of memorable Open moments. Experience Matters at the Open Justin brings one of the biggest stats of the segment: over the last 15 years, Open Championship winners have averaged their 38th career major start at the time of victory. That is higher than the Masters, PGA Championship and U.S. Open. The point is simple: experience matters at the Open. Playing links golf, handling the schedule, accepting bad breaks and staying patient all matter more this week than they might at other majors. That is why Trey keeps coming back to mental strength. At Birkdale, players are going to get bad bounces. They are going to end up in spots that feel unfair. The winner has to be able to absorb that and keep going. Why Fitzpatrick Makes Sense Justin’s pick to win is Matt Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick has rebuilt his approach game in a massive way, going from 127th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained approach a few years ago to first this season. Justin compares that improvement to the way Fitzpatrick added speed and power before winning the U.S. Open. Trey agrees with the pick. For Trey, Fitzpatrick’s biggest edge is how cerebral he is. He takes notes, studies everything and approaches the game with a level of preparation that fits this kind of course. If Birkdale requires discipline, patience and problem-solving, Fitzpatrick checks a lot of boxes. The Other Picks Justin also likes Russell Henley for a top-five finish. Henley is accurate, controls his ball flight and could benefit from firm conditions that reduce the gap between him and longer hitters. Min Woo Lee is Justin’s top-ten pick. He finished second at the Scottish Open, has shown stronger ball-striking this season and tends to get hot in bunches. Trey also likes Collin Morikawa, who has already won an Open at Royal St. George’s and knows how to handle a quirky links setup. His other pick is Justin Rose, partly because of the story. Rose first became known at Royal Birkdale in 1998 as a 17-year-old amateur, and winning the Open there now would be a full-circle moment. At Royal Birkdale, the best pick may not be the loudest name. It may be the player built for the test. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Andrew Brandt Explains Why Sports Business Has Never Been Bigger Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. Andrew Brandt joins Trey Wingo for a wide-ranging conversation on the business of sports, the NFL’s financial power, media rights, franchise valuations, league ownership and the behind-the-scenes stories that shaped his career. Brandt spent years as an agent, worked in the Green Bay Packers front office, became one of ESPN’s most trusted sports business voices, and now has a new book out called Smarter About Sports. Why Sports Business Is Everywhere Trey opens with the idea that 2026 has become the year of sports business. Andrew explains why the business side is no longer a niche part of sports coverage. Media deals, salary caps, ownership structures, franchise sales and private equity now shape almost everything fans see. They discuss the NBA tripling its media revenue, why the NFL may reopen its own media deals, and how the league’s next rights package could climb even higher. The NFL Money Machine Andrew and Trey break down the massive rise in NFL franchise values and what it says about the league’s power. They talk about the Seahawks sale, private equity entering the NFL, why team valuations keep climbing, and why past threats to the league’s dominance have not slowed it down. Trey also asks whether the NFL risks pushing too far by adding more games across more days of the week. Media Rights and Streaming The conversation also looks at the future of television. Traditional networks need the NFL. Tech companies like Apple, Amazon, Google and YouTube can afford to chase live sports in a completely different way. Andrew and Trey discuss what that could mean for the next era of sports media. Green Bay, Favre and Rodgers Andrew shares stories from his time with the Packers, including what it was like managing the transition from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers. He explains how difficult those years were inside the building and why the team eventually knew it was time to move forward. Stories From Inside Sports The interview also includes Andrew’s stories about Ricky Williams and Master P, the undrafted free agent who misunderstood a signing bonus, Daniel Snyder, stadium deals, LIV Golf, the World Cup and why sports business keeps getting bigger. This is a conversation about money, power, media and the decisions behind the games fans watch every week. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Royal Birkdale Is Firm, Fast and Wide Open Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. The Open Championship is here, and Royal Birkdale already looks like it is going to have a huge say in who wins. Trey Wingo and Justin Ray start this Golf Live breakout by talking about why the Open has become their favorite major. The history, the links golf, the global feel, the old venues — all of it makes this week feel different. And this year, the golf course itself may be the biggest story. Royal Birkdale Is Already Running Justin is on site in Liverpool and says he has never been at an Open Championship on a Tuesday where the fairways looked this brown. The course is firm, fast and already running. Trey compares it to Muirfield in 2013, when the conditions were so dry that Tiger Woods hit a five-iron from 290 yards and watched it run over the green. That is the kind of setup this could become. Why That Changes Everything When the course plays this firm, power does not mean the same thing. Trey and Justin explain why these conditions could bring more players into the mix. Bombers may have to throttle back. Accurate players who can control their ball flight may suddenly have a bigger edge. The shorter guys are not automatically behind if the ball is running like this. That is why this Open feels so open. The Bounces Will Matter Royal Birkdale is also going to ask players to live with some uncertainty. Balls are going to run out. Good shots may end up in bad spots. Bad shots may catch a break. Trey says players hate that kind of vagary, but Justin points out that for fans, it adds to the drama. At a course like this, one bounce can change a hole. One big number can change a championship. Why Birkdale Is So Interesting Royal Birkdale may not have the instant signature identity of St. Andrews or Carnoustie, but it has plenty going on. Justin points to the dunes that frame the holes, the changes to the fifth, the new green on seven and the straightened 18th hole bringing more bunkers into play. It is a course that is going to ask a lot of questions. And if the forecast stays calm, scoring might be there. But that does not mean this place will be easy. At Royal Birkdale, the winner may not be the guy who overpowers the course. It may be the guy who handles it best when Birkdale bites back. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Open Championship Preview: Royal Birkdale, Final Picks, Scottie Scheffler, Nelly Korda and Mailbag Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. Golf Live is back for Open Championship week. Trey Wingo is in California after surviving the American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe. Justin Ray is in Liverpool getting ready for the Open at Royal Birkdale. Naturally, the show starts with a missing rental car key fob, European ice issues, Bucky’s, and why the Open Championship has become the favorite major for both of them. Then it gets to the real point: Royal Birkdale, firm and fast conditions, and the final men’s major of the year. The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale Trey and Justin break down why this Open feels especially wide open. Royal Birkdale is already firm, brown and running fast. Justin says he has never been to an Open on a Tuesday where the fairways looked this brown. Trey compares it to Muirfield in 2013, when Tiger Woods hit a five-iron from 290 yards and watched it run over the green. That kind of setup changes everything. Bombers do not have the same advantage. Accurate drivers and elite ball-strikers come back into the mix. The rub of the green matters. Bad bounces are coming. And whoever wins will need the patience to survive the chaos. Final Picks for the Open Justin is looking past the obvious Rory and Scottie answers and lands on Matt Fitzpatrick as his winner. Fitzpatrick has completely rebuilt his approach play, going from 127th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained approach a few years ago to first this season. Justin also likes Russell Henley for a top-five finish and Min Woo Lee for a top-ten finish. Trey also picks Matt Fitzpatrick, largely because of how cerebral and mentally strong he is. If Royal Birkdale gets unpredictable, Trey trusts Fitzpatrick’s ability to stay disciplined and think his way around the golf course. Trey also likes Collin Morikawa, who has already won an Open on a quirky links setup, and Justin Rose, whose Open Championship story began at Royal Birkdale in 1998 when he holed out on 18 as a 17-year-old amateur. Scottie Scheffler and Nelly Korda Miss the Cut The show also gets into a wild week across golf: Scottie Scheffler missed the cut at the Scottish Open and Nelly Korda missed the cut at the Evian Championship. Justin notes that it is the first time the reigning men’s world No. 1 and women’s world No. 1 both missed the cut in the same week. Evian still delivered its usual chaos, with Brooke Henderson making six eagles for the week and three on Sunday alone. For Scottie, Trey and Justin are not worried. Statistically, he is still elite across the board. But the missed cut did bring up another reminder of how absurd Tiger Woods’ 142-cut streak really was. Tom Kim Gets Back in the Winner’s Circle Tom Kim winning the Scottish Open was another major topic. Trey and Justin talk about how quickly Kim arrived, how hard the game pushed back, and why this win could matter going forward. He was the youngest two-time and three-time PGA Tour winner since Tiger Woods, then hit a difficult stretch. Now, after contending at the US Open and winning in Scotland, his game looks like it is trending again. For a player with that much talent and personality, that is good news for golf. Mailbag The episode wraps with your questions. Trey and Justin answer who benefits most from Royal Birkdale’s firm conditions, whether the major setups have been good this year, whether Scottie’s season would be a failure without another major, and which non-mainstream Open winner would create the best story. They also get into Tom Kim’s ceiling, the future of the DP World Tour, and whether it has become more entertaining than the PGA Tour in certain weeks. Plus, Trey shares what it was actually like playing competitive golf at the American Century Championship, why Steve Young wanted to leave after one tee shot, and why a six-foot par putt in a celebrity event can suddenly feel like the biggest putt in the world. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is It Put Up or Shut Up Time for Jordan Spieth? Plus Early Open Championship Picks | Mailbag Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. Golf Live mailbag is back. Trey Wingo and Justin Ray answer your questions this week on Jordan Spieth, Justin Rose, early Open Championship picks, Sergio Garcia missing the field, US Open setups, dream courses and why Justin somehow has not played golf yet this year. Duncan is also back from paternity leave, which means the disembodied voice has officially returned. Jordan Spieth and Sponsor Exemptions The first question gets right to it. If sponsor exemptions are going away, what does that mean for Jordan Spieth? Trey’s answer: play better and stop hitting it crooked. Justin’s answer is basically the same. If the PGA Tour is leaning harder into meritocracy, even someone as accomplished and popular as Spieth cannot just be a famous name and expect to get into events. At some point, it becomes put up or shut up. Trey also points out the stat that still feels hard to believe: Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson have both won majors more recently than Jordan Spieth has won on the PGA Tour. Where Is Justin Rose’s Game? Justin Rose came out hot this year, but the bigger point is where his focus is now. Justin Ray says Rose’s best weeks are still coming in the events he cares about most. Third at the Masters. Top ten at the PGA. Tied for 11th at the US Open. He is gearing everything toward the biggest championships because, at this stage of his career, those are the weeks that matter. Trey compares it to the veteran mindset. The majors, the old courses, the events with history. That is where the energy comes from. Early Open Championship Picks The mailbag then turns to Royal Birkdale. Justin starts with Scottie Scheffler. Everyone keeps asking what is wrong with him because he only has one win this year, but statistically he is still almost exactly where he was at this point last season. Trey brings up Rory McIlroy, who has only one Open Championship win, back at Hoylake in 2014. If Rory is going to keep chasing the second leg of a double career grand slam, this is another real opportunity. Matt Fitzpatrick also gets mentioned as a strong fit because Birkdale is not only about power. It is about avoiding the right trouble, managing the bunkers and playing smart. And then there is Jon Rahm. A strong Scottish Open week could send him right back up the Open odds board. Sergio Garcia Missing the Open The biggest surprise non-qualifier? Sergio Garcia. Justin says it first, and Trey agrees immediately. Sergio has played the Open Championship 26 times, with ten top-ten finishes and two runner-up finishes. For a generation of golf fans, he has always been part of this championship. For European players, the Open is different. It is their championship. And with Seve Ballesteros as Sergio’s idol, never winning it is probably going to stick with him more than anything else. US Open Setups and Bad Breaks One viewer was tired of “tricked up” US Open courses, where good shots can roll away and bad misses sometimes get better breaks. Trey gets the frustration, but he is fine with the US Open making players suffer a little. There are plenty of weeks where the PGA Tour sets up for low scores. The US Open is supposed to be different. Justin’s view is simple: you cannot please everybody. Some of the bad breaks, good breaks and strange bounces are part of what makes the US Open unique. The One Course Question One course for the rest of your life turned into about 30 answers, which feels right. Trey loves links golf, but if he had to play one course forever, he wants something fun. Cabot Cliffs is near the top of his list. He also mentions Lanai, Pinehurst No. 4 and Pinehurst No. 10. Justin refuses to pick something he has not played, so Augusta is out for now. He considers Carnoustie, Pebble Beach and Kapalua, then lands on Pebble because of the balance of beauty, shot-making and fun. Why Justin Has Not Played Golf This Year Finally, the question everyone needed answered: how has Justin Ray not played golf yet this year? His answer: business building, young family, too many jobs and Dallas heat. Trey’s answer: because Justin has 74 jobs. Justin takes the L, but he does have rounds planned during his upcoming UK trip, including Formby. Trey, meanwhile, is headed to the American Century Championship in Tahoe, where his goal is simple: enjoy the weekend and not hurt anyone. Low bar. Clear it first. Then reassess. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nelly Korda Is Still the Story. But Evian Is the Wild Card. Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. The Evian Championship is the fourth major of the LPGA season, but it is not the last one. And even after everything that happened at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, the conversation still starts in the same place. Nelly Korda. She is still the main story. The only question is whether Evian lets this week play out the way everyone expects. The Nelly Standard Justin Ray puts it in perspective right away. An eighth-place finish at a major somehow felt like a letdown for Nelly Korda. That says everything about the level she has been playing at. Through the first three majors of the season, Nelly has gained more than 46 strokes total. That is 16 more than anyone else. Gabby Lopez is second, and the gap is still massive. So yes, Nelly is the favorite. She is still the player everyone is chasing. And if you are asking which of the final two majors she is more likely to win, Justin still leans toward the AIG Women’s Open. Not because Nelly cannot win Evian. Because Evian has a way of turning normal Sundays into something completely different. Why Evian Is the Wild Card Justin went back and watched highlights from last year’s Evian Championship, which he admits is a perfectly normal thing for a person to do on a summer Sunday night. And honestly, he had a point. Last year’s finish was insane. Jeeno Thitikul had a 98.6 percent win probability standing on the 18th tee. Grace Kim made eagle in her group. Jeeno missed an eight-footer that would have won it outright. Then they went to a playoff. On the first playoff hole, Grace hit her approach into the water, took a drop, then holed out from off the green for birdie. Jeeno made her birdie putt to extend it. Then Grace came back and made eagle on 18 to win her first major. Eagle. Birdie from the water. Eagle. That is why this tournament is so hard to predict. It is beautiful. It is dramatic. And it has created enough Sunday chaos that Justin thinks it may be the hardest women’s major to forecast. Who Could Pop This Week Trey asks Justin for a name that could make sense if Evian gives us another unusual outcome. Justin points first to big-name players who could bounce back after missing the cut at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Charley Hull. Minjee Lee. Hannah Green. Players with enough talent to win anywhere if the week turns their way. Then there is Miyu Yamashita, the reigning AIG Women’s Open champion. She is 4-foot-11, does not overpower golf courses, and does incredible work in and around the greens. If you have never watched her play, Justin says she is worth your time. Lottie Woad is another name to watch, even if Justin admits that is not exactly a deep cut. She is fourth in the world and nearly won this event as an amateur last year. Gabby Lopez also deserves attention. She has built her schedule around the majors and has been one of the best major performers this season. Lauren Coughlin’s ball striking continues to show up too, even if the putting has come back down a little. That is the thing about Evian. It does not always give you the obvious answer. The Four-Major Question Then Trey gets to the bigger question. If Nelly wins the final two majors of the season, she would have four major championships in the same year. But because the LPGA has five majors, what do we actually call that? Justin’s answer is careful, because golf history is not as fixed as people sometimes think. The definition of a major has changed over time, especially in the women’s game. The du Maurier Championship used to be a major. The Titleholders Championship used to be a major. Evian became a major in 2013. Even on the men’s side, Jack Nicklaus was once described during a Masters broadcast as going for his 20th major because they were including his two U.S. Amateur wins. The point is simple: golf history changes. The labels change. The way we talk about records changes. So if Nelly wins four majors in a five-major season, maybe it is not a clean single-season Grand Slam. But it would still be one of the greatest major seasons the sport has ever seen. What Counts as a Major Anyway? Trey makes the point that there is no official bylaw that permanently defines what a major is. There is no article, code, paragraph or governing-body rule that says these are the majors forever and nothing can ever change. A lot of it is history. A lot of it is perception. A lot of it is what the golf world decides to value. That is what makes the Nelly conversation so interesting. If she wins Evian and the AIG Women’s Open, the label may be complicated. The achievement would not be. Four majors in one season is four majors in one season. But first comes Evian. And at Evian, nothing ever feels guaranteed. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Scottish Open Is Giving Golf What It Has Been Missing Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. The Scottish Open has always been one of the best lead-ins to the Open Championship. Rory McIlroy’s shot into 18. Robert MacIntyre winning his national open. Phil Mickelson using it as a springboard before winning at Muirfield in 2013. But this year feels a little different. Because this year, the Scottish Open has something golf fans have wanted since the sport split apart: a field that actually brings everybody back together. Everybody in the Same Place Justin Ray put it perfectly. This is the most excited he has ever been for the word co-sanctioned. Because with the Scottish Open co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour and DP World Tour, the field gets a lot more interesting. Jon Rahm is there. Tyrrell Hatton is there. Patrick Reed is there. Rory McIlroy is there. Chris Gotterup is defending. And suddenly, this feels like more than just the week before the Open Championship. It feels like golf looking the way it is supposed to look. Trey’s point is simple. Whatever happens next with LIV, the PGA Tour, the DP World Tour or the future structure of the sport, this is what fans want. The best players competing against the best players. That part does not need to be complicated. Why the Scottish Open Works National opens just feel different. The US Open. The Italian Open. The Spanish Open. The Scottish Open. There is a pride and energy around those events that you cannot fake. The crowd cares differently. The players feel it differently. And when Robert MacIntyre nearly won in 2023, then came back and won his national open in 2024, it reminded everyone why this tournament matters. The Scottish Open is not a major. But when the field is this strong and the Open Championship is sitting right behind it, the week has real weight. Justin also makes the point that this tournament has quietly delivered year after year. Aaron Rai beating Tommy Fleetwood in a playoff. Min Woo Lee beating Matt Fitzpatrick in a playoff. Xander Schauffele winning by one. Rory beating MacIntyre by one. MacIntyre winning by one. Gotterup beating Rory and Marco Penge by two. As Justin says, it has been banger after banger. The Rahm Factor Jon Rahm is one of the biggest reasons this field matters. Justin brings up a wild stat: Rahm is still third on the PGA Tour in wins in the 2020s, behind only Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler, even though he has been gone for more than two years. That is the reminder. Rahm has not disappeared as a player. We just do not see him in this kind of setting as often anymore. So when he does show up against Rory, Hatton, Reed, Gotterup and the rest of this field, it gives the week a different kind of edge. This is the part golf has been missing. What It Means for the Open Trey asks the question everyone asks this time of year: how much does the Scottish Open actually tell us about the Open Championship? Justin says there is some correlation, but it is not perfect. Sometimes it is just hot players staying hot. Sometimes the conditions line up. Sometimes they do not. Phil Mickelson won the Scottish Open in 2013 and then won the Open Championship the next week. Chris Gotterup won the Scottish Open last year and played well at the Open. So it can matter. It is not a guarantee, but it gives us clues. And this year, with the kind of field that is showing up, those clues are a lot more interesting. The Phil Mickelson Conversation The Scottish Open also brought the conversation back to Phil Mickelson. In 2013, Phil won the Scottish Open, then went on to win the Open Championship at Muirfield. For a player who never got the US Open, that Open title became one of the defining wins of his career. Trey and Justin talk about how strange it is to look at where Phil’s story is now compared to where it was just a few years ago. After winning the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah and becoming the oldest major champion ever, Phil had a very different place in the sport. He was still not Tiger, but he had become something like golf’s cool uncle. The Wanamaker Trophy. The jokes. The “hit bombs” persona. The whole thing worked. And then it changed fast. The LIV fallout, the gambling stories, the reported allegations and everything else around him have completely reshaped the way people talk about Phil. Trey is clear that none of the alleged behavior is being excused. Justin’s word for the whole thing is simple: sad. Maybe there is another chapter eventually. But right now, it is hard to know what that would even look like. Why This Week Matters That is why this Scottish Open feels bigger than usual. It has Rory. It has Rahm. It has Hatton. It has Reed. It has Gotterup defending. It has a national open crowd. It has the Open Championship waiting on the other side. For one week, golf gets closer to what everyone has been asking for. The best players. Same field. Same tournament. That is what we wanted. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Chris Gotterup Is Suddenly in Scottie and Rory Territory Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. Chris Gotterup just won again. And the list he is now on is almost hard to believe. Since mid-May of 2024, the players with the most wins on the PGA Tour are Scottie Scheffler with ten, Rory McIlroy with five, and Chris Gotterup with five. That is the conversation now. Not whether Gotterup can have a nice career. Not whether he can occasionally pop up on the leaderboard. Whether he has become one of the most dangerous American players in golf. And after another final-round charge at the John Deere, Trey Wingo and Justin Ray are starting to look at Gotterup differently. The List That Changes the Conversation Justin puts the number in perspective right away. One year ago, Gotterup was heading into the Scottish Open as a one-time PGA Tour winner. Now he has five PGA Tour wins. The company matters. Scottie. Rory. Gotterup. That does not mean he is Scottie Scheffler or Rory McIlroy. It does mean the résumé is changing quickly. And the way he is winning might be even more impressive than the total itself. There have been four times this season where a player has won on the PGA Tour with a final round of 64 or lower. Three of them belong to Chris Gotterup. The other was Wyndham Clark shooting 60 in Dallas. Justin could not find another modern-era example of a player winning three PGA Tour events in one season with a final round of 64 or lower. That is not normal Sunday golf. That is a player who can go nuclear when the tournament is there to be taken. Why Gotterup’s Ceiling Looks Different Now The obvious part of Gotterup’s game is the power. He is excellent off the tee and that has always been the starting point of the conversation. But Justin points out the part that makes the ceiling feel real — he is also a top-30 putter this season in strokes gained. That combination is why this is no longer just a “hot player” conversation. He has won on different kinds of golf courses, in different environments, with different asks. The Scottish Open is not Phoenix. Phoenix is not the John Deere. That matters. He is not proving he can only win one specific type of event. Trey asks the bigger question: is this a guy you now have to think about as a major championship factor for the next decade? Justin’s answer is pretty clear. He would be surprised if Gotterup does not pick off a major in the next few years. He already had a strong Open Championship last year. He now returns to the Scottish Open as a defending champion. And if this version of Gotterup shows up overseas, he is going to be a problem. The PGA Tour’s New Gotterup Problem The conversation gets more complicated when Trey brings up the PGA Tour’s new two-track future — the working-title Championship Series and Challenger Series. Gotterup just won the John Deere. The event clearly matters to him. But if the John Deere eventually becomes part of the Challenger side of the new structure, what happens if Gotterup is a Championship Series player and still wants to go back? What happens if Scottie Scheffler wants to play the Byron Nelson? Or Colonial? What happens when the biggest names in the sport want to support events that mean something to them, but their presence takes a spot from a player trying to earn his way up? That is the issue Trey had not fully considered until a friend brought it up. If a top player drops down for one week and takes a spot, and someone else misses a chance to move into the Championship Series because of it, that becomes a real problem. Justin thinks there will have to be some kind of middle ground. Maybe a once-a-year exemption. Maybe a past champion rule. Maybe a compensatory points system. Nobody has the exact answer yet. But this is the kind of detail that will decide whether the new structure works. Rigid in the vision. Flexible in the details. This is one of the details. Max Homa and Lucas Glover Deserve a Mention The John Deere also gave Trey and Justin two other stories worth noting. Lucas Glover nearly won again in his mid-40s and led the field tee to green. Trey has said it before and says it again here — years from now, Lucas Glover as PGA Tour commissioner would not shock him. The way he thinks about the game, the way he talks about structure, and the way he carries himself all point in that direction. Then there is Max Homa, who finally looked more like Max Homa again. Justin noticed it on the back nine Sunday. The walk. The expression. The look of a player who believed he was going to make the next one. For a guy who has been grinding through a difficult stretch, that is not a small thing. Trey puts it simply: it looked like Max was playing golf again, not playing golf swing. The Morikawa Reminder Colin Morikawa also enters the conversation after Trey sat down with him at the Travelers. The line that stuck: until you win all of them. That is the goal stated without fully stating the goal. Justin brings the numbers behind why Morikawa can talk that way. He leads the PGA Tour in strokes gained approach this season. A few years ago, he led the tour in average proximity from 125 to 150, 150 to 175, and 175 to 200 yards — what Justin calls the iron play triple crown. When Morikawa is in full flight, the only real debate is whether he or Scottie Scheffler is the best approach player in the men’s game. He already has a PGA Championship. He already has an Open Championship. If the game is getting healthy again, nobody should be surprised if he shows up overseas and posts one of those rounds that changes a tournament. The Open Championship Build Begins Trey and Justin also start the show with a reminder of why this stretch of the golf calendar is different. The Scottish Open comes first. Then the Open Championship. The history, the links golf, the weather, the early mornings, the coffee, the entire experience of going overseas for the oldest major in the sport. For Trey, the Open Championship is still his favorite major. Justin is right there with him. And now Gotterup enters that stretch as one of the most fascinating players in the sport. Five wins since last May. A Scottish Open title defense coming. A major ceiling that suddenly feels much more real. Scottie. Rory. Gotterup. That is the list. And that is why the conversation has changed. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Xander Schauffele — Two Majors, a Gold Medal His Dad Slept With, and What Comes Next Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. Xander Schauffele sat down with Trey Wingo at the Travelers Championship for a conversation that goes well beyond what most golf interviews cover. Two majors. Ten consecutive top-15 finishes at the US Open — a streak only Jack Nicklaus has exceeded in the history of the championship. A gold medal his parents still have because it means more to his family than it could ever mean to a trophy case. And an honest assessment of where his game is, where it is going, and why his time will come. The US Open Streak — Badge of Honor or Badge of Frustration? Ten US Opens. Ten top-15 finishes. The only player in the history of the US Open with a longer consecutive top-15 streak is Jack Nicklaus. Xander found out about this stat recently — he is not on social media and has not been since the 2020 Masters, which he says has helped him live longer. His wife has Instagram. He gets screen recordings from the group chat when something is funny. That is the extent of it. His honest reaction to the streak — a mix of both. Having his name on a list with those names is something he is not complaining about. Objectively it is remarkable. Personally it would be nice to be a little closer to the lead. Be a little more a part of the mix. But his answer on where that leaves him is the line that defines the whole conversation — my time will come. He is going to keep paying it forward and he genuinely enjoys what he calls the psycho challenge of trying to play good golf on really hard golf courses. Shinnecock — What Actually Happened Xander's honest assessment of his week at Shinnecock is refreshingly direct. He felt like he could never get anything going. Leaving putts short. Not making birdies. Running out of holes. He tried to stay patient and let the golf come to him and it just never did. He was not playing good enough and he knows it. What he does know is that his game is built for US Open setups. The risk management, the course management, the discipline of knowing when to be aggressive and when to lay back — that is the kind of golf he enjoys and the kind of golf US Opens reward. His caddy Austin has become exceptional at analyzing risk in major championship settings, understanding exactly what score is needed on any given hole across any given round. The example that sticks — on 13 at Shinnecock coming off two doubles, Austin told him to hit driver when Xander had a four-iron in his hand. He hit it to a foot and made birdie. Small moments, big decisions, trusted relationships. US Opens are war. That is his word for it. Mental war first, physical war second — dinner at 10 PM, up at 3:30 AM for a restart, grinding for four days on courses designed to punish you for every small mistake. And that is exactly why winning one feels so validating. The difficulty is the point. The New PGA Tour Structure Xander has been paying attention to what Rolapp announced and his overall reaction is genuinely positive — but the thing he keeps coming back to is not the match play or the iconic courses or the regular season champion. It is the certainty. The last four years of his career have been all over the place in terms of knowing what events are happening, who the sponsors are, where the schedule is going, how the points system works. The points structure changed every year. The playoff format kept evolving. There was no stable foundation to plan around. The new structure — whatever the working titles end up being — gives players a framework that is supposed to be set for generations. He knows what he is playing for. He knows what it looks like. He knows what the path is from February through the playoffs. For a player who is a creature of habit, that matters enormously. His take on the core philosophy — Brian Rolapp used the phrase "you eat what you kill" in the meetings. Xander loves that framing. If you want to play professional golf and you are not ready for that kind of language, professional golf is probably not for you. Play bad, make zero dollars. That is how it has always worked at the highest level and the new structure just makes it more explicit and more honest about what the meritocracy actually looks like. He also loves the match play concept — thinks Brian's background in the NFL means he understands what fan interaction looks like and if match play is done at the right venues it could be genuinely incredible for the sport. And when the subject of Pine Valley, Seminole, and Cypress Point came up in the press conference — those whispers are real and he is excited about them. Harry Higgs — The Most Heartwarming Story of the US Open Xander had a moment at Shinnecock that had nothing to do with his own round. Harry Higgs made the cut. The Big Rig — who had not made a single cut all year, had made zero dollars on the PGA Tour in 2026, and was fighting his way back from losing his tour card — made the cut at the US Open at Shinnecock Hills. Xander gave him a huge hug. They are both new dads. Their kids were born not far apart. He knows Harry is super happy at home right now and super unhappy with his golf. Seeing him make the cut and make some money and get back on the horse — Xander hopes that is the beginning of the comeback. That one moment was one of the more heartwarming things of the entire week for him. The Gold Medal — The Real Story This is the part of the conversation that stays with you long after the interview is over. Xander's father was his swing coach until Xander was about 30 years old. Before that — before any of this — his dad trained to be a decathlete in Germany. He trained hard, worked toward competing in the Olympics, and got in a terrible accident that ended all of it. Everything he had learned, everything his coaches had taught him, all the wisdom and discipline and mental preparation that goes into being an elite Olympic-level athlete — he poured all of it into Xander's brain from the time he was a young kid. When Xander won the gold medal in Tokyo it was at the COVID Olympics — no crowds, no spectators, almost no one allowed in. His caddy and his dad. Those were the two people with him. That was it. His dad slept with the gold medal the night they won. Xander does not have the gold medal. His parents have it. And the way he says that — the tone, the matter-of-factness of it, the quiet pride — tells you everything about what that moment meant and still means to his family. His dad gave his Olympic dream to his son. His son gave him the gold medal back. Two majors. A PGA Championship. An Open Championship. A gold medal. And a US Open streak that only Jack Nicklaus has beaten. Xander Schauffele is 33 years old. His time will come. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Everything Happening in Golf — Gotterup Wins, Phil's Fall From Grace, Scottish Open, and the Evian | GOLF LIVE Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. This episode is sponsored by Quince. Free shipping and 365-day returns at Quince.com/wingo Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. A massive week in golf. Chris Gotterup goes nuclear at the John Deere. The Scottish Open brings together the best players in the world for the first time in years. Phil Mickelson's story takes another turn nobody wanted to see. And Nelly Korda heads to France chasing history at the Evian Championship. Trey Wingo and Justin Ray break down all of it. Chris Gotterup Wins the John Deere — Again Chris Gotterup shot a final round 62 to win the John Deere Classic. His third win of the season. His fifth PGA Tour win overall. And the numbers around how he wins are almost impossible to believe. Four times this season a player has won on the PGA Tour shooting a final round of 64 or lower. Three of those four wins belong to Gotterup. The other one was Wyndham Clark shooting 60 at the Byron Nelson. Nobody else in the modern era — as far back as Justin Ray could research, which gets sketchy pre-Arnold Palmer — has won three tournaments in a single PGA Tour season with a final round of 64 or lower. He has the ability to go nuclear hot on a Sunday and that is exactly what separates elite closers from everyone else. Since May 2024 — the only players with more PGA Tour wins than Chris Gotterup's five are Scotty Scheffler with 10 and Rory McIlroy with five. He is in that company now. Not close to that company. In it. Justin makes the career arc point that deserves to be heard — a year ago heading into the Scottish Open, Gotterup had one PGA Tour win from an alternate field event. Now he has five wins, is nearly certain to make the Presidents Cup team, and is being talked about in the same breath as the best American players of his generation. When Colin Morikawa turns 30 Gotterup becomes the best American player in his twenties. That conversation is happening now. Also worth noting from the John Deere — Lucas Glover led the field in strokes gained tee to green in his mid-forties against a field of players half his age. Nearly won. Trey still believes Lucas Glover could be PGA Tour commissioner someday. The way he thinks, the way he communicates, the way he approaches everything — the seeds are there. Max Homa also showed signs of life — that look on his face when he knows he is going to make a putt came back for the first time in a while. The Scottish Open — Everyone Is Playing This year's Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club is co-sanctioned by both the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour. And that means something that has not been true for most of the last four years — the best players in the world are all in the same field at the same time. Jon Rahm is in. Tyrrell Hatton is in. Patrick Reed is in. DP World Tour stalwarts who have been playing separately from their PGA Tour peers for over two years are back in the same tournament. Justin calls it the most excited he has ever been for the word co-sanctioned. This is what everyone who loves golf has been waiting for — the best competing against the best, even if it is not a major. Justin traces the history of Scottish Open winners in the 2020s — Aaron Rai, Minwoo Lee, Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, Robert McIntyre winning his own national open, Chris Gotterup last year. Banger after banger. The correlation between playing well at the Scottish Open and playing well the following week at the Open Championship is real — Phil Mickelson won both in 2013, Gotterup was top five last year before going on to compete at the Open. The weather dependency makes it imperfect, but it is a genuine tell for who is in form heading into Royal Birkdale. Justin's early Open Championship picks lean toward the chalk — after surprising winners in recent years he thinks the big names are due. Scotty Scheffler statistically is almost exactly where he was a year ago when he won two majors. Rory has been exceptional at the Scottish Open three years running — first, fourth, second, 42 under par across those three years, 12 shots better than anyone else. Royal Birkdale is one of the harder Open Championship venues to predict given the weather and draw dependency but both Trey and Justin are high on the world number one finding a way. Phil Mickelson — The Sad Reality This is the conversation nobody wanted to have but both Trey and Justin felt they had to have honestly. Phil Mickelson is not at the Open Championship this year. He is not at most events. And the reasons — the gambling issues, the conduct allegations, the banishment from multiple exclusive clubs in Southern California — have created a situation that is simply heartbreaking when you step back and look at the full picture of who Phil Mickelson was supposed to be. 45 wins on the PGA Tour. Six major championships. Three quarters of the career grand slam. The oldest major champion in golf history when he won the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island — a win that came on one of the toughest courses in major rotation against what was arguably the deepest field any major had ever seen. He was supposed to be the next great ambassador of the game. The Ryder Cup captain. The guy who would sit next to Jim Nantz for decades. The honorary starter at Augusta for as long as he could swing a club. All of that feels gone now. The gambling issues that led to his banishment from multiple Southern California clubs. The conduct allegations that have dominated the headlines in recent weeks. The withdrawal from the Open Championship — not because of injury or scheduling, but because of a situation he does not want to have to address publicly. Trey is not excusing any of the alleged behavior. Neither is Justin. But both of them acknowledge the genuine sadness of watching a player of this magnitude — a player who gave the game so much, who connected with fans in ways Tiger never could, who at 50 was still out there competing at the highest level — reduced to this. The same year he won the 2021 PGA Championship, Justin notes, his son was born. Five years later the contrast could not be more stark. The question of whether there is another chapter to be written — neither Trey nor Justin can see it from where they are sitting right now. For there to be another chapter something fundamental has to be addressed and neither of them is sure Phil is willing or ready to do that. Whatever life he envisioned for himself feels like it is not the one he is living. Nelly Korda at the Evian — The Most Unpredictable Major Nelly Korda arrives at the Evian Championship in France as the overwhelming favorite for the third consecutive major. And the Evian is the worst possible place to be an overwhelming favorite. The history of this tournament over the last several years has produced some of the most random and chaotic outcomes in women's major championship golf. Last year Gino Titicaka stood on the 18th tee with a 98.6 percent win probability. Grace Kim, playing in her group, made eagle. Titicaka missed an eight-footer for birdie that would have won it outright. They went to a playoff where Kim then holed out from 20 yards off the green after hitting into a water hazard. Then Kim made another eagle on the 18th hole to win. Eagle, birdie from the water, eagle on 18. Impossible. And yet. That is the Evian Championship. That is what Nelly Korda is walking into. Justin's numbers on Nelly through three majors this season are staggering — over 46 strokes gained total, 16 more than anyone else in the field. Gabby Lopez is second with 30. Nelly is in a different stratosphere. And yet Justin leans toward the AIG Women's Open at Royal Lytham as the more likely venue for her third major win simply because the Evian generates so much randomness that the best player does not always win. The broader discussion — if Nelly wins four of the five LPGA majors this season does that constitute a grand slam? Trey and Justin dig into the history of what counts as a major, noting that the definition has always been malleable. The De Maurier Championship was a major. The Titleholders Championship was a major. Jack Nicklaus was chasing his 20th major in the 1986 Masters broadcast because they were counting US Amateurs. None of this is set in stone. Four majors in a single season without the fifth would be an outlier achievement that deserves its own framing — not quite a grand slam, but something historically significant in a way that stands on its own terms. Your Questions Duncan returns from paternity leave to read the questions — baby is healthy, all colors and shapes have been experienced. Duncan is back. Four questions this week — what the new PGA Tour structure means for Jordan Spieth and sponsor exemptions, where Justin Rose's game is and why he keeps peaking for the majors, early Open Championship predictions and horses for the course, and favorite courses played this year including Justin's admission that he has not played a single round of golf in 2026 despite being the Tiger Woods of golf researchers. Trey meanwhile is headed to the American Century Celebrity Pro-Am at Lake Tahoe. He has been told the show does not air bad shots to protect the celebrities. He wrote back — that is fine, go ahead. He has no issues with any of that whatsoever. Very small goals. Try not to hurt anyone. Put the bar low enough to clear it. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Colin Morikawa on Augusta, Tiger, and Why Two Majors Is Just the Beginning Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. This episode is sponsored by Quince. Free shipping and 365-day returns at Quince.com/wingo Colin Morikawa is 29 years old. He has two major championships. He was the first player since Tiger Woods to win a major and a WGC event before the age of 25. And when Trey Wingo asked him what comes next — what is enough — his answer was immediate and unambiguous. More. The answer is always more. This is the full conversation. What the Travelers Does Right Morikawa opens by explaining what he genuinely loves about the Travelers Championship — and it has nothing to do with the course rating or the purse size. Pizza and ice cream on the range. Umbrellas and chairs for caddies. The dining room stays open late. The family atmosphere. Coming off the grind of the US Open at Shinnecock, this is the week players actually look forward to. He uses the same line Trey has heard from every player he spoke to at TPC River Highlands — the Travelers knows who it is and embraces it. Like Harbour Town the week after the Masters. A breather. A welcome one. Shinnecock and the USGA His take on how the USGA set up Shinnecock is clean and direct. Show a fan the final score without showing them a single shot — five under par wins by two strokes, three players finish under par — and they would call it a great US Open. That is the test. The USGA passed it. He remembers the era when setups were getting out of hand — watering greens between groups at the 2004 US Open, courses pushed past difficult into genuinely unfair. That era is over. They have found their identity and they are executing it well. The Wyndham Clark Situation Morikawa's reaction to the crowd behavior at Shinnecock toward Wyndham Clark is measured but pointed. It did not add up. He is an American playing on American soil. He has won the US Open before. Morikawa spent significant time with Wyndham on the Olympic team and calls him a fantastic guy. He understands that sports fans need someone to root against — but the level of hostility at Shinnecock surprised him. He gives Wyndham full credit for playing through it and calls his performance amazing under the circumstances. He also adds something worth noting about Wyndham's putter — he cannot think of another player who has putted this well over this long a stretch and had it make this dramatic a difference in their results. Eleven under at the Byron Nelson when everyone was watching Scotty and Si Woo Kim. Two US Opens. An extended hot streak that has made him nearly unbeatable when the putter is on. The New PGA Tour Structure Morikawa read the Rolapp announcement and his single favorite element is simple — when you have a PGA Tour card you know exactly where you are playing. The uncertainty ends. The waiting game ends. Whether Championship Series or Challenger Series every player knows what they are competing for and against whom. That is a fundamental improvement over what exists now. He loves the regular season champion concept for the same reason. A player can dominate for five months and lose the FedEx Cup in one bad week. That disconnect has always bothered him. Acknowledging the regular season champion separately from the playoff format is the right call. And when the conversation turns to Pine Valley, Seminole, and Cypress Point as potential tour championship venues — his eyes light up. That is the juice. That is the buzz. People get excited about courses they have never seen. The Walker Cup at Cypress Point a few years ago was appointment viewing. Bandon Dunes for the US Amateur generated the same energy. Those courses create moments that traditional tour venues cannot. He loves everything about it. Playing Augusta on a Bad Back This is the most revealing part of the conversation. Morikawa played Augusta National this year with a back injury that made him uncertain about every step he took. Not the swinging — the walking. Every time he moved he did not know if something was going to give out. He never considered withdrawing. He wanted to compete. He wanted to find a way. Augusta suited him oddly well given the circumstances — the slopes let him work around the golf course in a way that minimized the physical demands. He managed it hole by hole. And then on the 12th hole in the final round, after grinding and surviving and saying nothing about what he was dealing with, he turned to his caddy and said four words. Let's do something special. Every putt started dropping. Birdies started coming. The mental battle he had been fighting all week turned in his favor in a single stretch of holes. He calls it more mental than physical — and says sometimes you just find a way. That is the competitor he is and has always been. The Tiger Comparison First player since Tiger Woods to win a major and a WGC event before the age of 25. When Trey puts that in front of him — what does it mean to hear your name in that sentence? It means you are doing something right. He is careful not to overweight it. Early in his career he admits he cared too much about living in that comparison, about staying in that realm. When he had a few bad tournaments it felt like something was wrong because the bar he had set for himself was impossibly high. Mark O'Meara's advice recalibrated him — mellow out the bottoms, enjoy the highs, stay present in the moments. Now when he hears the Tiger comparison it motivates him rather than pressuring him. He wants a long career. He believes he can keep competing at the highest level. And he feels like he is just getting started. What Comes Next More majors. Starred and highlighted in his calendar. He knows it takes a great week, the right bounces, the right conditions, the shots falling at the right moments. He gives himself a chance on Sunday and trusts that the results will follow. He cannot be picky about which majors yet. That changes when he has won all of them. Until then — every one is on the list. Pebble Beach 2027 for the US Open is circled. He won there in 2019. He knows what that golf course demands when the USGA sets it up for a major versus how it plays for the Pro Am. Completely different. Firmer. Faster. Rougher. He is not concerned about the scoring numbers at the Pro Am — that is a different test. The 2027 US Open test is one he has solved before. He wants to solve it again. Two majors. A bad back at Augusta. A Tiger comparison. A long career ahead. And an answer to the question of what is enough that never changes. More. Always more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is Rory McIlroy Getting Special Treatment? And What Is Actually Wrong With Bryson DeChambeau? | Mailbag This episode is sponsored by Quince. Free shipping and 365-day returns at Quince.com/wingo It is your time on Golf Live. Seven questions this week — and two of them generated the most honest and most entertaining exchanges of the entire episode. Victor Hovland Wins. The Norwegian Fans Made It a Party. The first question out of the gate — what did you make of Hovland's win and the Norwegian fans bringing World Cup energy to TPC River Highlands? Trey's answer is simple. He loved every second of it. The World Cup has been about two things this summer — Americans seeing their country through fresh eyes, and the kind of passionate fandom that makes sports feel genuinely alive. The Norwegians brought that to a PGA Tour event on a Sunday afternoon in Connecticut and it was unlike anything the Travelers has seen before. Justin adds — the Tartan Army drank all the beer in Boston, the Norwegians took over the Travelers, and somehow all of these foreign fans descending on American venues have generated almost zero incidents. Just pure joy. That is what the World Cup is doing to this country right now. How Can Sponsors Justify $20 Million Without Getting Exemptions? A sharp question that Trey actually put directly to Brian Rolapp after the press conference. Rolapp's answer was clean and Trey thought it was perfect — there is no other sport where you bring in someone off the street to compete in a championship event because a sponsor asked nicely. The Yankees do not let a local fan bat cleanup in a playoff game. The NBA does not let a Smoothie King contest winner take a free throw in a tie game in February. The best 120 players in the world competing every week is what sponsors are actually buying. That is worth more than one local exemption ever was. Justin adds — sponsors are going to need to get creative about what the relationship looks like going forward. More hospitality access, more player interaction, more experiences that money cannot buy in the traditional sense. The exemption era is over. The creativity era is beginning. When Does Patrick Reed Come Back? Next season. Full time. Trey has no doubt. Reed has won multiple times on the DP World Tour this year, earned his card before February, and pared down his schedule to focus on the events that matter most. He is playing his way back into being the player who won the 2018 Masters and challenged the best players in the world every time he showed up. Justin adds the detail that stuck with him most from Reed's return — Reed said his favorite feeling in the world is being on the driving range on Sunday before the final tee time and watching everyone else slowly leave until it is just him and the player he is paired with in the final group. That is a competitor who missed competing. Justin would not be surprised to see Reed win on the PGA Tour in 2027. Trey's closing line — whether you like him or not, golf needs villains as much as it needs heroes. Just do not root against him the way the Long Island crowd rooted against Wyndham Clark at the US Open. That is not the way to go. What Is Actually Wrong With Bryson DeChambeau? Three consecutive missed cuts in major championships. First time in his career. And Trey has a very specific theory about why. Bryson is being pulled in too many directions at once. LIV obligations. A YouTube channel making close to seven figures a year. Business partnerships. Public persona management. And somewhere buried underneath all of that — a competitive golfer who won two US Opens and was one of the most compelling players in the world when he was locked in on being exactly that. Trey references something a golf pro once told him — you are the best multitasker I have ever seen and it is killing your golf game. That is Bryson right now but at a much higher level. He even floated the idea publicly of just quitting competitive golf and doing YouTube and the majors. Trey's response — not if you keep missing the cuts, you are not. You are just going to be a YouTuber full time. To be the best at something you have to be willing to sacrifice everything else and shut it all down. Bryson has not made that choice yet. Until he does the results are going to reflect it. Justin agrees — the proof is in the pudding. Three consecutive major missed cuts is not a sample size problem. It is a clarity problem. With clarity will come a more familiar and more dangerous Bryson DeChambeau. It is on him to figure out what he wants to be. Dustin Johnson Misses the Open Championship For the first time since 2009 Dustin Johnson will not play in the Open Championship. The streak is over. Trey's take — his career is exactly where he wants it to be. When DJ signed with LIV he was more honest about his motivations than almost anyone else who made that move. He did not talk about growing the game or building something new. He said plainly — I came here to play less golf and they are going to pay me a lot of money to do it. Two majors. Countless PGA Tour wins. A massive payday. And now a lifestyle that prioritizes everything outside of competitive golf. That is a choice and it is his to make. Justin adds the historical context — one top ten in a major in the last four seasons. Peak DJ was a force and a genuinely captivating character. The grounded club at the PGA Championship. Literally throwing up on himself at Pebble Beach with the lead. The missed putt at Chambers Bay. The win at Oakmont amidst a rules controversy. That version of Dustin Johnson was must-watch golf. The current version has decided something else matters more. And that is completely fine. Eugenio Chacarra Wins the Italian Open First — Katrina nails the pronunciation. Chef's kiss. Trey loves it. And he loves this story. Chacarra was a stud at Oklahoma State with all the hype in the world coming out of college. Things did not go the way he planned on the LIV Tour. He made the decision to leave the guaranteed money and go dig it out of the dirt on the DP World Tour. And he won. He is now third in the Race to Dubai standings behind only Patrick Cantlay and Rory McIlroy. He is going to be on the PGA Tour next year. Justin makes the point that resonates most — you always think you can do it. You do not actually believe it until you do it. Chacarra did it. That is the whole story. Trey draws the parallel to Anthony Kim — not about the circumstances but about the spirit. Putting yourself back in the arena and finding out whether you still have it. Some guys do. Chacarra does. Is the PGA Tour Creating a Double Standard for Rory McIlroy? The final question. The best exchange of the mailbag. And the one that perfectly bookends the entire episode's conversation about how the new PGA Tour structure is actually going to work in practice. Rory McIlroy is not meeting his 15-event minimum this year. The PGA Tour appears set to grant him an exemption. Is that the right call or is it a double standard? Trey — it is not a double standard. When you have done what Rory McIlroy has done for this sport, for this tour, and for this game, the rules bend differently. He is one of six players to complete the career grand slam. He is halfway to doing it a second time. It is just different. Justin — I think it is a double standard. And I totally agree with it. Period. That is the Jimmy Johnson rule stated as clearly as it will ever be stated. You will not be treated the same as everyone else if you are more valuable to the entity than everyone else. That is not unfair. That is just how sports work at the highest level. And the new PGA Tour is going to operate exactly the same way regardless of what any press release says about universal standards and meritocracy. The rules are rigid on the vision. Flexible on the details. And for Rory McIlroy, the details will always find a way. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We Were on the Ground at the Travelers When the New PGA Tour Was Announced. Here Is What We Learned. This episode is sponsored by Quince. Free shipping and 365-day returns at Quince.com/wingo Last Tuesday at TPC River Highlands, Brian Rolapp held the most significant press conference in PGA Tour history in years. Tiger Woods made a surprise cameo to introduce everything. And Trey Wingo was in the room. What followed over the next several days was something most media covering this story did not have — real access to real players on the ground at the Travelers Championship, asking them directly what they actually think about the new structure, what concerns them, what excites them, and what they believe will and will not actually hold up when the details get filled in over the next 18 months. This is that report. What Brian Rolapp Said — And What It Actually Means The broad strokes of the announcement are by now well known. Championship Tour. Challenger Tour. 120-man fields. Mandatory cuts. No sponsors exemptions. A regular season champion. Match play playoffs at Pine Valley, Cypress Point, and Seminole. A Last Chance Series in the fall. International events through the DP World Tour partnership. What Trey heard on the ground in the days after the announcement is something different from the press release version of this story. Players understand the broad vision. They believe in it. But the details — and specifically who the details will and will not apply to — is where the real conversation is happening. The Jimmy Johnson Rule Brian Rolapp ended his press conference with a line Trey keeps coming back to — rigid on the vision, flexible on the details. Trey's translation of what that actually means in practice is what he calls the Jimmy Johnson rule. When Jimmy Johnson was the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys he said it plainly — I will treat everybody fairly but I will not treat everybody the same. The more you can do for me the more leeway you get. Rory McIlroy is not meeting his 15-event minimum this year. The PGA Tour is doing nothing about it. Not a word. Because penalizing Rory McIlroy does not do the PGA Tour any favors. That is the Jimmy Johnson rule in action. If Tiger Woods wants to come back and play three events and has not qualified for any of them in the traditional sense — you think the PGA Tour is going to say no? How quickly will there be a new rule that says if you have won 13 majors and 75 PGA Tour events you are granted an exemption? That is just how this is going to work. Justin puts it plainly — not to be cynical, but that is how the world works. If you are more valuable to an entity you will be treated differently than your peers. That is the Jimmy Johnson rule. And it applies here. The Scotty Scheffler Problem The single most interesting specific tension that kept coming up in conversations at the Travelers — the new structure says if you are on the Championship Tour you cannot dip down and play Challenger Series events. Scotty Scheffler is the world number one. He has been genuinely loyal to events like the Byron Nelson and Colonial in Texas — his home market, tournaments that matter to him personally, events where his presence means something real to the community. Under the 2028 structure as currently written, if those events land on the Challenger tier, Scotty cannot play them. Trey does not believe for one second that is actually going to happen. The rules will bend. A workaround will be found. The PGA Tour is not going to tell the world number one player that he cannot play his home tournament. It just is not. Justin traces the parallel back to the pathways created for Brooks Koepka's return — oddly specific criteria that seemed arbitrary until you understood they were designed to facilitate a specific outcome. The rules in this new structure will be similarly malleable when the situation demands it. Lucas Glover — The Insider View Lucas Glover has been inside the process for six to eight months as a member of the Player Advisory Council. He was in the meetings when the framework looked nothing like what was announced on Tuesday. He watched Rolapp evolve the concept through player feedback and honest conversation. His overall read — genuine support for the vision, real concerns about the personal side of the lockout from lower-tier events, and confidence that the details will get worked out in the 18-month runway before 2028 goes live. His specific concern mirrors the Scotty problem. He lives in West Palm Beach. If Cognizant becomes a Challenger Series event it is 20 minutes from his house. He cannot play it under the current framework. He understands the commercial logic. He accepts it. But the tough part is the personal side — the relationships with tournament directors, the loyalty to events that gave players their first opportunities. Once it was explained to him what the sponsors are being asked to invest, it made sense commercially. It still stings personally. Chris Gotterup — The John Deere Question Chris Gotterup won twice in the first three events of the 2026 season. He is on the Championship Tour by any measure. The John Deere Classic is the tournament that kickstarted his career — the event that gave him a chance before he had any standing to ask for one. Under the new structure if the John Deere lands on the Challenger tier he cannot go back and play it. His answer when Trey asked him directly — you cannot think too deep into it. You are programmed to show up where you need to be and play the best golf you can. But the tough part is knowing Andy and Nathan from the John Deere on a personal level from years of coming through there. That is the relationship that makes the commercial logic feel complicated even when you understand why it exists. What Two Tiers Actually Means — Justin's Take Justin reframes the entire debate with a historical lens. The two-tier system is not new. It has always existed — it just was not called that. Twenty years ago the tier one tournaments were the ones Tiger played. The tier two tournaments were the ones he skipped. Arnold Palmer did not play every week. The stars have always dictated where the premium events were by choosing to show up or not. The new structure is simply a more honest and more clearly defined version of something that has always been true. And it opens the door to genuine rotation — maybe one year the Byron Nelson is a signature event and the Colonial is not. Maybe the next year it flips. That kind of flexibility could actually serve more communities and more tournaments over time than the current locked-in model does. The Bottom Line The vision is real and it is compelling. The details are going to bend in the direction of whoever matters most to the PGA Tour in any given situation. That is not a criticism of the new structure — it is just an honest read of how sports leagues operate when the stakes are this high and the personalities involved are this valuable. Rigid on the vision. Flexible on the details. And if you are Tiger Woods or Scotty Scheffler or Rory McIlroy, the details will always find a way to accommodate you. That is what Trey learned being on the ground at the Travelers when all of this was announced. And that is the story nobody else is telling right now. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Haeran Ryu Wins the KPMG — And the Women's Game Just Had Its Best Week of the Season This episode is sponsored by Quince. Free shipping and 365-day returns at Quince.com/wingo Before the first shot was hit at Hazeltine National this week, the KPMG Women's PGA Championship made history. The purse was announced at $13 million — the largest in the history of women's golf. The last time this championship was held at Hazeltine in 2019, the purse was under $4 million. KPMG has more than tripled their investment in seven years. That is not a footnote. That is a statement about where women's golf is headed and who is leading the charge in getting it there. Haeran Ryu Wins Haeran Ryu is one of the best ball strikers in women's golf and has been for years. She held the 54-hole lead at the Chevron Championship in both 2024 and 2025 at Carlton Woods and did not close either time. The heartbreak was real and it was public. This week at Hazeltine she closed. Justin calls it inevitable — a player of her caliber, with that kind of ball striking and that track record of contending, was always going to break through eventually. This was the week. The grounds crew at Hazeltine deserve their own mention. On Justin's drive from the hotel to the golf course on Sunday morning he could not see out the windshield through the rain. He was convinced the round would be pushed to Monday. An hour later they were back on the golf course. An unbelievable performance by the crew that made the championship possible. What Happened to Nelly Nelly Korda came to Hazeltine trying to become the fifth woman in LPGA history to win three majors in the same season. She finished tied for eighth. Justin points out immediately — tied for eighth is her worst stroke play finish of 2026. And it is still better than the way Scotty Scheffler has played this year. That is where Nelly Korda is right now. The honest statistical assessment — over the course of the weekend Nelly had approximately 14 opportunities from 80 to 130 yards from the fairway and made two birdies. Her scoring clubs were not converting at the level that has defined her 2026 season. She got within two shots heading into the back nine on Sunday and could not make the birdie she needed on the next par five. Small tweaks. No overhaul needed. The three-peat is on hold — not off the table. Justin's take on where she is most likely to win a third major — the AIG Women's Open at Royal Lytham and St Annes rather than the Evian Championship. Evian generates unpredictable outcomes by nature. It is a blast to watch but the best player does not always win. Ask Gino Titicaka last year when Grace Kim came from nowhere to win her first major. Lytham sets up better for a player of Nelly's caliber and course management. The bunkers at Lytham are everywhere and they punish poor decisions — exactly the kind of test that rewards Nelly's all-around game. The Surrounding Stories Brooke Henderson — ten-year anniversary of winning a major championship as an 18-year-old. Not yet 30. Performing at an elite level again. One of the best stories of the week. Davy Weber — about to become a first-time mother. Essentially doubled her entire career earnings with a $750,000 check this week. Now in position to potentially make the Solheim Cup team for Team Europe in her native Netherlands. A week ago that was completely off the radar. Charlie Hull, Hannah Green, and Minjee Lee all missed the cut — surprising given their form and track records at this venue and at this point in the season. Golf is a long season. Bad weeks happen to great players. Four probable Solheim Cup players finished in the top eight — Alice and Lee, Alison Corpus, Austin Kim, and Nelly. The depth of women's golf right now is real and this leaderboard proved it. What Comes Next Two majors remain on the LPGA schedule. The Evian Championship in France is just weeks away. Then the AIG Women's Open at Royal Lytham and St Annes. Nelly Korda has two more chances to become the fifth woman in history to win three majors in the same season. The three-peat is on hold. It is not over. The stretch of women's golf from mid-July through the end of August — Evian, Women's Scottish Open, Women's Open — is as compelling a run of championships as any in professional golf right now. The purses are growing. The fields are deep. The finishes are dramatic. And the best player in the world still has unfinished business. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Critics Say the Travelers Championship Is Trash. The Leaderboard Says Otherwise. This episode is sponsored by Quince. Free shipping and 365-day returns at Quince.com/wingo Every year the Travelers Championship delivers something nobody sees coming. And every year a certain corner of golf media decides it is not a real tournament. This week Trey and Justin push back on that take — hard. The History of Wild Finishes Let's start with what TPC River Highlands has actually produced over the last fifteen years. Kevin Streelman with seven consecutive birdies in 2014 to win out of nowhere. Jordan Spieth holing out from the bunker on 18 in 2017 — a month before winning the Open Championship. Dustin Johnson winning one of the first events back after COVID. Harris English and Kramer Hickok going eight playoff holes. Sahith Theegala almost getting his first PGA Tour win before Xander Schauffele clipped him. Keegan Bradley setting a scoring record. The Scotty Scheffler and Tom Kim playoff. Keegan Bradley again last year, breaking Tommy Fleetwood's heart on the last hole. And now Victor Hovland winning his eighth career PGA Tour title in a playoff over Scotty Scheffler — both players hitting unbelievable approach shots on the first playoff hole, Hovland making birdie, Scotty's putt slipping out. In a week that also featured Norwegian World Cup fans creating a miniature Ryder Cup atmosphere in the stands that nobody saw coming. Scotty Scheffler shot a 60 in one round this week and did not win. That is the Travelers Championship. That is what this tournament does. The Leaderboard Argument The criticism of the Travelers tends to center on the golf course itself — the layout, the scoring, the birdie-fest nature of TPC River Highlands. Trey's counterargument is simple and direct. Look at the leaderboard from Sunday. Victor Hovland. Scotty Scheffler. Colin Morikawa. Matt Fitzpatrick. Wyndham Clark. Akshay Bhatia. Corey Conners. Alex Fitzpatrick. JJ Spaun. Robert MacIntyre. Ben Griffin. Name a tournament on the PGA Tour where you would not immediately sign up for that leaderboard. The score to par does not change who is on it. The architectural concerns do not change what those names mean to a golf fan watching on Sunday afternoon. For comparison — the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am regularly produces similar scoring ranges. Nobody is calling Pebble Beach trash. The criticism of the Travelers is about the course layout specifically, and that is a legitimate architectural opinion. What it is not is a reason to call the tournament bad. What the Travelers Actually Is Trey talked to players on-site this week — Lucas Glover, Chris Gotterup, Colin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele among others. Every single one of them said the same thing. The Travelers understands what it is. And more importantly it understands what it is not. It is not the US Open. It is not the Players Championship. It is not Arnie's event or Jack's event. It is the week after the US Open — a deliberate breather on the schedule where players can reset, families can come out, and the golf can be genuinely fun without being punishing. The Celtics do not play the Knicks every week in the NBA. The Chiefs and Bills do not meet every single Sunday in the NFL. Sometimes you get a breather. The question is whether you embrace it or fight against it. The Travelers embraced it. That is why it works. Chris Gotterup put it best — we are spoiled every week, but the Travelers goes one step further. Courtesy cars for caddies. Food on the range. The dining room stays open late so players and their families can eat after a long day. Small things that compound into a week that feels genuinely welcoming. That is what the Travelers does. That is why players keep coming back. The Scotty Scheffler Question Scotty forced a playoff with a par putt on 18 that had every Golf Live viewer convinced the drought was finally over. 13 straight events without a win. Two under his belt for the season heading into the Open Championship. And then Hovland made his birdie on the first playoff hole and Scotty's almost identical putt just slipped out. Justin's read on where Scotty actually is — do not panic. His putting numbers at the Travelers were exceptional and continue to improve, now 12th on the PGA Tour in strokes gained putting. His iron play ranked sixth in the field last week in strokes gained approach and third in greens in regulation. He leads the PGA Tour in strokes gained total and scoring average. He is gaining strokes in every facet of the game. The putts are not falling in the moments that count. They are going to start. Justin would not be surprised to see Scotty win both the Scottish Open and the Open Championship heading into the playoffs. The gap between him and Rory at number two in the world rankings is roughly the same as the gap between Rory and Bud Cauley at number three. He is not going anywhere. The drought is a math problem that is about to solve itself. The Alex Fitzpatrick ATM Update Since winning the Zurich Classic with his brother Matt in April outside New Orleans, Alex Fitzpatrick has been on one of the most remarkable money-making runs in recent PGA Tour history. T9 at the Cadillac for $500,000. Fourth at the Travelers for $960,000. T6 at the Memorial for $730,000. Top 25 at the US Open for another significant check. $623,000 at the Travelers this week. He is now inside the top 60 in the world and top 17 in the FedEx Cup standings. Justin notes he is drifting toward automatic qualifying at the majors. Trey's take — if he keeps this up, there is no way he is not on the Ryder Cup team at Adare Manor in 2027. The conversation that seemed premature two months ago is now entirely appropriate. Justin gives the overall rookie of the year edge narrowly to Chris Ratan given his PGA Tour win, but calls it a genuinely interesting race heading into the back half of the season. The Bottom Line The Travelers Championship is not a perfect golf course. Nobody is arguing that. But perfect golf courses do not guarantee great tournaments. Great tournaments are built on great fields, great finishes, and a genuine identity that players and fans both buy into. The Travelers has all three. And this week delivered another chapter in a fifteen-year run of memorable Sundays at TPC River Highlands. Trash? The leaderboard says otherwise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Chris Gotterup Was Given His First Chance at the John Deere. The New PGA Tour May Take That Away. This episode is sponsored by Quince. Free shipping and 365-day returns at Quince.com/wingo Chris Gotterup won at the Sony Open. He won at the Waste Management Open. He has five PGA Tour wins on his resume, he is building toward a Presidents Cup roster spot, and he has his eyes firmly set on a major championship at Royal Birkdale next month. He is one of the most interesting young players on the PGA Tour right now. And he sat down with Trey Wingo at the Travelers Championship this week to talk about all of it — including the new PGA Tour structure and exactly what the hard part is going to be for guys like him. His First Two US Opens — Oakmont and Shinnecock Gotterup made the cut at both of his first two US Open appearances. Oakmont last year. Shinnecock this year. He played a strong Friday round at both to stay in the tournament over the weekend. Not the result he wanted at either, but he takes something real from both weeks — when it mattered on Friday, he showed up. On which course he found more difficult — his answer is specific and revealing. Shinnecock hurts him more than Oakmont because Shinnecock does not reward distance the way Oakmont does. Distance is his biggest weapon — his version of Thor's hammer, as Trey puts it. Shinnecock takes it out of his hands in a way that Oakmont does not. He believes he would have a better chance of winning at Oakmont if he played it more. That is a level of self-awareness about his own game that most players his age do not have. What the Travelers Does Better Than Almost Anyone Gotterup is effusive about what the Travelers Championship does for players and their teams. Courtesy cars for caddies. Food on the range. The dining room stays open late. Small things that compound into a week that feels genuinely welcoming rather than just professionally managed. But the thing he comes back to most is what the Travelers did for him early in his career — they gave him a sponsor exemption when he came out of school. That is a debt he takes seriously. He comes back every year in part because of what this tournament did for him before he had any standing to ask for anything. He cites Patrick Cantley as another example of the same loyalty loop — the Travelers invested in him early and he has kept coming back ever since. Nathan Groob and Andy Bassett have built something real there and Gotterup is one of the players who notices it. The New PGA Tour and the Hard Part This is where the interview gets most honest. Trey asks Gotterup directly — the new PGA Tour structure says if you are on the Championship Series you cannot dip down and play Challenger Series events. The John Deere Classic kickstarted his career. If it lands on the Challenger tier in 2028 he will not be able to go back and play it. How does he feel about that? His answer is measured and genuine. He knows Andy and Nathan from the John Deere on a personal level — the same way he knows the Travelers staff. Those relationships are real. That would be the tough part. Not the competitive logic of it. Not the commercial argument. The personal side. The loyalty he feels toward the people and events that gave him a chance before he was someone who could demand a spot in any field. He accepts the commercial rationale — if John Deere wants to become a signature event and pony up the investment, the question goes away. And he understands that the tour cannot always accommodate every player's personal preferences when the economics of the new structure demand field protection for sponsors investing $20 million or more. But he is honest — at the end of the day you kinda just have to be selfish and do what you are told in some sense. Don't Think. Just Play. Trey asks about the mental side of the game — are players too focused on clubhead speed, spin rate, and swing mechanics at the expense of feel? Gotterup's answer is direct and clear — if he is thinking about his swing, he is toast. He has worked with the same coach for 15 years. He trusts his preparation during the Monday through Wednesday work window. On the course, it is all feel. He is trying to feel the shot, believe in the shot, understand the shot. Trackman numbers are useful for dialing in distances when he moves from one dramatically different environment to another — Waste Management to San Diego, for example. Beyond that, he is not interested in technical analysis when it is time to play. He also makes a point worth sitting with — the best weeks are not always when you feel great. Sometimes you grind out a top ten when nothing is clicking and that builds more momentum than a week when everything feels easy. The weeks where you feel calm and unbeatable do not last as long as you want them to. You chase that feeling by staying in contention long enough for the competitive instincts to kick in. Presidents Cup, Ryder Cup, and Team Event Goals Gotterup was in the Ryder Cup conversation at the end of last season after his strong overseas run. He is honest — two great weeks overseas against two years of consistency from other players does not automatically earn a spot. He was not sure he would have picked himself either. But he used it as motivation heading into this season and he is more comfortable now with the Presidents Cup conversation happening in real time. His simple answer on what team events mean to him — every player he talks to says the same thing. The team events are the best thing they have ever been a part of. You win one of those with your friends, with the guys you have grown up competing against, and it is unlike anything else in professional sports. That is the goal for this year. What a Major Would Mean Five wins. Two US Open cuts made. A career built one step at a time from the first sponsor exemption at the Travelers to two wins in the first three events of the 2026 season. What is the next step? Gotterup is clear-eyed about it. A major. Not because it would define his career or diminish what he has already done, but because it is the obvious next progression for a player who has been systematically checking boxes. He feels like he can travel and compete at most courses. He has gotten himself in the mix at majors. Royal Birkdale at the Open Championship is in about 20 days. He is not going to predict it or promise it. He is going to keep doing what he has been doing and see what happens. At 26 years old with two wins this season and genuine major championship aspirations — something very good is coming for Chris Gotterup. This conversation suggests he is more ready for it than most people realize. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Victor Hovland Wins. Nelly Misses Her Three-Peat. Players React to the New PGA Tour. Another week in golf delivered everything — a wild finish at the Travelers Championship, Nelly Korda falling just short of making LPGA history at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, and players on-site at TPC River Highlands giving their honest takes on what the new PGA Tour structure actually means for them. Trey Wingo is at the Travelers. Justin Ray just finished a two-week road trip covering the US Open and the KPMG. Here is everything that happened. Victor Hovland Wins at the Travelers — Again, It Delivered The Travelers Championship has built a remarkable track record of memorable finishes over the last fifteen years. Kevin Streelman with seven consecutive birdies in 2014. Jordan Spieth holing out from the bunker in 2017. Harris English and Kramer Hickok in an eight-hole playoff. The Scotty Scheffler and Tom Kim playoff. Keegan Bradley breaking Tommy Fleetwood's heart last year. And now Victor Hovland making birdie on the first playoff hole while Scotty Scheffler's almost identical putt slipped out. Hovland wins his eighth career PGA Tour title in a week that also featured one of the most electric atmospheres in recent tournament memory — Norwegian World Cup fans bringing Ryder Cup-level energy to TPC River Highlands, singing in the stands, waving flags, and creating an environment that reminded everyone why live golf is unlike anything else in sports. Scotty Scheffler goes 13 straight events without a win. His underlying numbers are still extraordinary — he leads the PGA Tour in strokes gained total, scoring average, and birdie average, and his putting has moved up to 12th on tour, which is genuinely alarming for his competitors. Justin's read is simple — the putts are not falling at the moments that count, but they are going to start. He would not be surprised to see Scotty win both the Scottish Open and the Open Championship. His iron play is returning to form, ranking sixth in the field last week in strokes gained approach. The drought is not a crisis. It is a math problem that is about to solve itself. Alex Fitzpatrick continues to be the most remarkable money-making story of the season. Since winning the Zurich Classic with his brother Matt in April, Fitzpatrick has made the cut in every event, piled up multiple top tens, and earned his way into the top 17 on the FedEx Cup list playing in a fraction of the events most players have entered. Justin and Trey agree — Ryder Cup conversation is now entirely appropriate and Fitzpatrick is drifting toward automatic qualifying at the majors. The ATM is open and it does not appear to be closing anytime soon. The Fried Egg Podcast Takes on the Travelers Trey addresses a recent Fried Egg Podcast episode that was critical of the Travelers Championship — specifically the course layout, the scoring, and the overall quality of TPC River Highlands as a venue. He has a lot of respect for Andy and Brendan and what the Fried Egg has built in the golf media space, and he disagrees with them strongly. His argument — look at the leaderboard from Sunday. Victor Hovland, Scotty Scheffler, Colin Morikawa, Matt Fitzpatrick, Wyndham Clark, Akshay Bhatia, Corey Conners, Alex Fitzpatrick, JJ Spaun, Robert MacIntyre, Ben Griffin. That is a top ten you sign up for at any tournament on the planet regardless of the course. And for every birdie fest concern, he points directly at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am — same scoring range, same depth of field issues, nobody criticizing Pebble Beach. Justin adds the experiential layer — being there as a fan in his early career, the sight lines on the back nine are exceptional, the fan experience is one of the best on tour, and the players love it because the Travelers understand exactly what they are and what they are not. Every player Trey spoke to on-site last week said the same thing — this is fun for us, they treat us well, and we enjoy coming here. What Players Actually Think About the New PGA Tour Trey had access to multiple players on-site at the Travelers including Lucas Glover, Chris Gotterup, Colin Morikawa, and Xander Schauffele. The conversations all pointed in the same direction — genuine support for the broad vision, honest concerns about specific details, and trust that the flexibility Rolapp has promised will show up in the execution. The specific concern that kept coming up — if you are on the Championship Tour, you cannot dip down and play Challenger Series events. That means players like Scotty Scheffler, who has been loyal to events like the Byron Nelson and Colonial in Texas, cannot play at those events if they land on the Challenger tier. Chris Gotterup, whose career was launched at the John Deere Classic, raises the same concern — it stinks personally, but once it was explained commercially, it makes sense. The sponsors investing $20 million or more deserve field protection. Trey's take — rigid on the vision, flexible on the details, and the Jimmy Johnson rule applies. The more you can do for the tour, the more leeway you get. Rory McIlroy is not meeting his 15-event minimum this year. The PGA Tour is doing nothing about it. That is not a double standard — that is smart business. Justin's take — it is absolutely a double standard. And he totally agrees with it. Nelly Korda at the KPMG — Tied for Eighth Nelly Korda came to Hazeltine trying to become the fifth woman in LPGA history to win three majors in the same season. She finished tied for eighth. Justin points out immediately — tied for eighth is her worst stroke play result of 2026. That is where she is right now. That is not a disaster. That is a temporary blip for the most dominant player in women's golf. The winner was Hyeon Ju Yu — one of the best ball strikers on the LPGA Tour for several years who had held 54-hole leads at Chevron in both 2024 and 2025 without closing. She closed this time. A great story and a deserved win. Brooke Henderson was near the top of the leaderboard for much of the week — ten-year anniversary of winning a major as an 18-year-old, not yet 30, doing it again. Davy Weber, about to become a mother for the first time, essentially doubled her career earnings with a $750,000 check courtesy of the record $13 million KPMG purse. Charlie Hull missed the cut, which surprised Justin given how well she played at Riviera. Hannah Green and Minjee Lee also missed. Golf is a long season and bad weeks happen even to great players. On Nelly's path to a third major — Justin leans toward the AIG Women's Open at Royal Lytham over the Evian Championship. Evian generates unpredictable outcomes by nature, not always revealing the best player in the field. Lytham should suit Nelly better given her ball striking and course management. She had opportunities with her wedge game at Hazeltine — 14 times between 80 and 130 yards from the fairway over the weekend, she made two birdies. Small tweaks. No overhaul needed. Your Questions Seven questions from the Golf Live community this week — covering the Norwegian fan energy at the Travelers, whether no sponsors exemptions is fair to tournament partners, when Patrick Reed returns to the PGA Tour full-time, what is wrong with Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson missing the Open Championship for the first time since 2009, Eugenio Chacarra winning the Italian Open, and whether the PGA Tour is right to grant Rory McIlroy an exemption from the 15-event minimum. The Rory question gets the most direct answer of the week. Trey — it is not a double standard, it is just different when you have done what Rory has done. Justin — it is absolutely a double standard. I totally agree with it. Period. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Lucas Glover Is on the Player Advisory Council That Shaped the New PGA Tour. Here Is What He Thinks. Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/WINGO #squarepod #sponsored Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. Everyone has been reacting to Brian Rolapp's PGA Tour announcement. Lucas Glover has been helping shape it for months. As a member of the Player Advisory Council, Glover has been part of the process from the beginning, giving player feedback as the structure evolved. That makes his perspective different from almost anyone else's. The PAC and the Process Glover credits Rolapp for listening. Rather than arriving with all the answers, Rolapp leaned on players, media partners, and golf people to refine the plan. Glover says players genuinely had a hand in shaping the final product rather than simply being informed of it. No Sponsor Exemptions This was one of Glover's favorite parts of the announcement. He believes sponsor exemptions have little place in the new structure. The Championship Tour should be earned, not given away. If you are one of the best players in the world, you qualify. If not, you play your way in. Pine Valley, Seminole, and Cypress Point The possibility of championship events at iconic venues like Pine Valley, Seminole, and Cypress Point immediately caught Glover's attention. These are legendary courses golf fans rarely see on television. Bringing them back into the spotlight is a major part of Rolapp's vision. The Championship Tour Lockout Glover's biggest concern involves Championship Tour players being unable to drop down and play Challenger Tour events. That means players may no longer be able to support local tournaments they care deeply about if those events fall on the Challenger schedule. He understands the business reasoning but admits it will be difficult for some players and communities. The Regular Season Champion Glover strongly supports crowning a regular season champion before the playoffs begin. He points to players building huge leads during the year only to lose everything because of one poor playoff week. The best player over six months deserves recognition separate from the postseason. The Last Chance Series Glover calls the Last Chance Series a brilliant idea. Players fighting for their status creates immediate drama and clear stakes. He believes fans and broadcasters will quickly embrace it. LIV Players Returning Glover says there has always been a path back for LIV players willing to fulfill the requirements. He believes the PGA Tour should focus on putting the best product possible in front of fans, regardless of personal feelings. His favorite take? "Tyrrell Hatton should always have a live microphone." Fan Behavior at Shinnecock Glover believes fans can cheer and boo within reason, but once behavior becomes personal or affects play, the line has been crossed. His model is Augusta National: cross the line and your badge is gone. College Football and NIL Glover admits he is a huge supporter of Dabo Swinney and worries college athletics have become almost impossible to govern effectively. He supports players being compensated but believes NIL quickly evolved into something very different than originally intended. The AimPoint Debate Glover still does not use AimPoint and remains frustrated by how slowly it is often performed on television. His issue, he says, has always been pace of play rather than the method itself. What He Still Wants Despite two U.S. Open titles and a long career, Glover says he is not done. His goal is simple: earn his place on the Championship Tour at age 47 when the new system begins in 2028. He wants back in the Masters. He believes he can still win. And perhaps more than anything, he wants to prove he still belongs on golf's biggest stage. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Match Play Is Coming Back to the PGA Tour. Your Questions on What That Actually Means. The fan questions this week are dominated by one thing — the Brian Rolapp press conference and everything that came out of it. Trey and Justin Ray answer seven of your best questions, and the energy in this segment matches the energy in that press conference room. Because when you mention match play returning to the PGA Tour and the possibility of Pine Valley, Cypress Point, and Seminole hosting championship events — golf fans have a lot to say. What Are You Most Excited About From the Rolapp Announcement Trey's answer is immediate and clear — the meritocracy. No sponsors exemptions. Mandatory cuts. Full fields. The entire structure of the new PGA Tour is built around one question: are you good enough? Can you play well enough to earn your spot? That is the thing that resonates most beyond all the structural details and format changes. Justin's answer is twofold. First — the Friday cut is back. The cut sweat is back. 120-man fields with a mandatory cut heading into the weekend is what professional golf should look like every single week. And then he read that the playoffs might go to Seminole and Pine Valley and everything else became secondary. Those two names on the same page as PGA Tour championship events is a different level of excitement entirely. Match Play Is Coming Back — What Does That Actually Mean This is the question the thumbnail is built around and for good reason. Match play is the purest form of golf. Head to head. One player against one player. Every hole matters. The format creates moments that stroke play cannot — a journeyman can beat the world number one if the putts fall at the right moment. That unpredictability is appointment viewing. Trey uses the Nick O'Hearn example — a left-handed Australian player who somehow beat Tiger Woods twice in the World Match Play Championship. Some things just happen in match play that cannot happen anywhere else. That is the beauty of it and that is exactly why the PGA Tour is bringing it back for the playoff format. Justin's caveat — as a television product, match play has its challenges. Fewer golfers means fewer shots to show. The broadcast has to work harder to keep viewers engaged when the story is two players rather than a full leaderboard. But the format is the purest expression of the game and both Trey and Justin are fully for it coming back at the highest level. Pine Valley. Cypress Point. Seminole. What Other Courses Could Be Next This is the question that generated the most excitement in the segment. Trey's immediate answer — Chicago Golf Club. One of the most underrated courses in the entire country, a place that does not get the same reverence as National or Shinnecock or Friars Head despite being every bit as historic and demanding. Trey has had the opportunity to play it and makes clear it deserves a PGA Tour event. Justin's answer — the Pacific Northwest. Chambers Bay, which has matured significantly since hosting the 2015 US Open, and Sahali, which hosted the Women's PGA Championship a few years ago. The Pacific Northwest is a beautiful part of the country with exceptional golf courses that the PGA Tour has not visited in years. Getting back out there would be a genuine gift for golf fans in that region. Both of them also mention Bandon Dunes — the US Amateur held there a few years ago was incredible theater, picture-perfect weather and a setting unlike anything else in American golf. Gamble Sands is another name that comes up. The Pacific Northwest has options and the PGA Tour would be smart to explore them. What Did Rolapp Say That You Are Still Waiting on an Answer For Five of the fifteen Championship Tour signature events have not yet been announced. The medical exemption structure is still being worked out — how does a player like Justin Thomas, coming back from back surgery, navigate the new system? The Korn Ferry Tour's future role has not been defined. The FedEx Cup sponsorship situation beyond next season is unresolved. And the specific cities and venues for the match play playoff rotation have not been confirmed beyond the hallowed-ground names dropped at the press conference. Rolapp's answer to all of this — 2027 is a runway year. More details at the Tour Championship. Drip drip drip of information, as Rory McIlroy described it earlier in the season. Trey notes this is entirely intentional — keep people interested, keep the conversation going, give them enough to be excited without giving everything away at once. Very much the NFL model that Rolapp rode to success before arriving at the PGA Tour. Gino Titicaka's Game Heading Into the KPMG Justin's assessment — one of the most intriguing athletes in professional sports right now. She compares to Xander Schauffele on the men's side — a player whose game fits perfectly for major championship conditions who has not yet broken through with the big win. She was the 36-hole leader at last year's KPMG and could not make a putt on the weekend. She has won twice this season. She is only 22 years old. The major breakthrough feels inevitable. Could be this week at Hazeltine. The Boorish Fan Behavior at Shinnecock Trey and Justin both address it directly and both land in the same place — it went too far. Eamon Lynch of the Golf Channel made the point that this specific behavior pattern tends to be a Long Island phenomenon rather than a New York phenomenon broadly. Beth Page Black at the Ryder Cup. Now Shinnecock. There is a pattern and it is not a good one. Justin adds an interesting theory — the access to trains meant more people could drink freely without worrying about driving, which may have contributed to things getting out of hand. But the core message is simple. You can root for whoever you want. You can dislike a player. You can cheer for your guy. But screaming at someone to miss and hoping out loud that shots go in bunkers — that is not golf fan behavior, that is something else. And the people who got kicked out deserved to get kicked out. The silver lining — Wyndham Clark handled it perfectly. Joking with his caddy every time one person clapped. Winning anyway. And in doing so he made more fans than he lost. Did the USGA Mismanage the Shinnecock Setup Both Trey and Justin push back on the mismanagement narrative. The USGA set up the course based on weather forecasts that predicted 45 to 50 mile per hour gusts Thursday afternoon. Those gusts never fully materialized. They protected the course accordingly, and when they realized over the weekend that the weather had changed, they tightened the screws — and by Saturday afternoon there were no greens at Shinnecock. There were browns. Justin's closing stat — how many players finished the US Open at Shinnecock under par? Three. That is the test. That is the US Open. You can debate the Thursday and Friday setup all you want, but when only three players finish under par at a major championship, the golf course won. And that is exactly what a US Open at Shinnecock is supposed to do. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Wyndham Clark — I Loved Silencing the Crowd. The Full Post-Win Interview. Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/WINGO #squarepod #sponsored Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. Two days after winning his second US Open at Shinnecock Hills, Wyndham Clark sat down with Trey Wingo for a full in-person conversation. No press conference setting. No rushed post-round questions. Just an honest, wide-ranging interview with a two-time US Open champion who has a lot to say about what the last week — and the last year — actually looked like from the inside. The Second One Justifies the First When Wyndham won his first US Open at LACC in 2023, people celebrated it. And then he played poorly in 2025 and the narrative shifted. It was a fluke. He got lucky. Maybe the first one does not really count. He heard all of it. And he carried it to Shinnecock. Trey references the Max Homa line — the second one justifies the first. Wyndham agrees without hesitation. Now winning twice, with Scotty Scheffler in his group chasing the career grand slam and Sam Burns charging from behind on Sunday — nobody can call it a fluke anymore. The second US Open does not just validate the first. It reframes everything. The Crowd Wyndham was genuinely surprised by the level of it. He expected Oakmont questions. He gets those every week and they have become white noise — almost funny at this point. But the actual behavior at Shinnecock was something different. Cheering when his ball went in the bunker. Cheering when he missed a putt. Not clapping when he did something good. Wanting his ball to roll off the green. He says he has never experienced anything like that outside of a Ryder Cup. The American part surprised him most. The week before at the RBC Canadian Open he wore a Jack Hughes USA jersey and chirped the Canadians about winning the gold medal in hockey. He figured New Yorkers who love their country would look at that and think — this guy is one of us. Instead the hostility was real and it was sustained. And then comes the line that defines the entire weekend. I loved silencing the crowd. Not tolerated it. Not survived it. Loved it. He played other sports growing up. He knows what it feels like to be at the free throw line with everyone booing against you and drain both free throws anyway. That is who he is competitively. And at Shinnecock on Sunday, that competitive wiring was the difference between fumbling a six-stroke lead and closing it out. He also notes — after the tournament, doing media runs at the New York Stock Exchange, so many people came up to apologize. Manhattan people, he says, are not Long Island people. He is a West Coast guy. He is pleading the fifth on the full Long Island situation. But the apologies were real. Holding the Lead for 72 Hours Wyndham took the outright lead at approximately 7 PM Friday evening and never gave it back. Trey asks what the most impressive thing he did across those four days was — and Wyndham's answer is not about the golf shots. It is about the mental game. He says if he was not as seasoned a player, if he did not have the confidence he has built recently, he thinks he might have fumbled it. Having the fans against him on Sunday while not playing his best ball and carrying a six-stroke lead — that is a pressure cocktail that breaks a lot of players. He had blinders on. He kept his head. And he credits the mental work he has done over the last year for making that possible. Sam Burns Pulling Within One Wyndham did not love seeing it. He knew someone was going to get close — he was a couple over on the front nine and made what he calls a dumb bogey on eight. His caddy told him on 12 that they still had a three-shot lead. And then from 12 onward he became fully leaderboard aware — do we need to be aggressive, do we need to be conservative, what does this hole demand? When it got to one shot on 16, he made a decision. He could have chipped out and played for bogey. That still would have left him with 240 to 250 yards in on a hard hole where bogey is easily possible. He decided to go for it. Not because he thought he would make birdie. Because laying up still left a dangerous shot. And then the wind caught the putt on 16 and it just kept going and going until it dropped. The Putter Wyndham traces the hot stretch back specifically to the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head — where he switched to a longer and heavier putter. He could feel it on the putting green immediately. The eight footers for birdie and the ten footers for par that he had been missing all year started falling. It peaked at the CJ Byron Nelson where he shot 11-under 60 on Sunday. And it never came back down. His description of the 16th hole birdie putt at Shinnecock is perfect — he was not trying to make it. It was downhill, significantly, with wind helping it toward the hole. He thought he left it short. It just kept going. He says the hole has been big for about two months. And for two months, that has been enough. Mental Health and Therapy This is the most revealing exchange in the entire conversation. Trey asks directly — how much did going through therapy and working on his mental health help him deal with the pressure of Sunday at Shinnecock? Wyndham's answer is striking and honest. Dealing with the aftermath of the Oakmont locker room incident — the embarrassment, the shame, the very public fallout — was significantly harder than dealing with a hostile gallery at the US Open. The crowd on Sunday was fun. It was a competitive challenge he could rise to. The shame of a public mistake and having to sit with it, work through it in therapy, and come out the other side — that was the real test. And once he got through it, he felt like he could handle almost anything golf was going to throw at him. The Oakmont Incident He has said it multiple times. He made a mistake. He is hoping people have some forgiveness. And then he says the line that frames the entire interview — that was definitely my worst moment. I just came off one of my best moments. He hopes people look at both and decide that one bad moment does not define who someone is. Trey's take — winning is the ultimate deodorant. As long as you keep winning, the narrative changes. And with two US Opens now on the resume, the locker room moment is becoming a footnote to a career that is still being written. Consistency Going Forward His major championship record outside the two wins has been uneven — wins, cuts, a T26, a T4. Wyndham is honest about why. His ball striking got off in 2025. He has done significant work with his new coach Pat to fix it. The first two rounds at Shinnecock showed what that work looks like when it clicks. The weekend was managed with the putter and the short game. But the ball striking foundation is what he believes is going to make him consistently dangerous at major championships going forward. The Custom Leaderboard Trey shows Wyndham a custom Masters leaderboard the Wingo Network built — same leaderboard, names replaced by descriptors. Rory was "Grand Slammer going for the Masters repeat." Scotty was "Should have gotten relief at Oakmont." And Wyndham was "US Open Champ, dislikes lockers." Wyndham's reaction — at least they put US Open Champ first. And then, hearing his new Shinnecock descriptor, he says simply: I love that. Hates lockers. He can laugh about it now. That is the clearest sign of all that the work is done. What Comes Next Not yet 30 years old. Two US Opens. Five PGA Tour wins since 2023. A putter that has been the hottest in professional golf for two months. A mental foundation built through real therapy work. And a competitive fire that genuinely enjoyed winning with a hostile crowd rooting against him. Wyndham Clark is not done. This conversation makes that very clear. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nelly Korda Goes for Three Straight Majors at the KPMG Women's PGA Championship Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/WINGO #squarepod #sponsored Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. While the PGA Tour was making headlines at the Travelers Championship, Justin Ray was at Hazeltine National in Minnesota for the KPMG Women's PGA Championship — and the story there starts and ends with one player. Nelly Korda is going for her third consecutive major championship of the season. She won the Chevron Championship. She won the US Women's Open at Riviera. Now she arrives at Hazeltine as the overwhelming favorite to do something only four women in history have ever done — win three majors in the same season. And based on everything Justin Ray has seen on the ground this week, the conditions at Hazeltine and the state of Nelly's game, she is going to be very difficult to beat. The Numbers Are Almost Impossible to Comprehend Nelly Korda has played eight stroke play events this season. She has been beaten by a combined ten players across all eight of those events. That is not a typo. Ten players total, across eight tournaments, have finished ahead of her. She is gaining nearly four strokes per round on the field — a number Justin describes as peak Tiger territory in terms of dominance over your peers. The comparison is not hyperbole. At his most dominant, Tiger Woods was gaining roughly four strokes per round on the field. Nelly Korda is doing that right now on the LPGA Tour. She has four wins, three runner-up finishes, and a tied for eighth as her only result outside the top two all season. The one week where something went slightly sideways — and she was still inside the top ten. What Three Straight Majors Would Mean If Nelly Korda wins at Hazeltine she joins an extraordinarily small group. Only four women in LPGA history have won three majors in the same season. The names on that list are some of the greatest players the sport has ever produced. Adding her name to it would be one of the defining achievements of her career — and she still has two more majors left on the schedule after this one. The conversation about a calendar slam — all five LPGA majors in one season — is premature, but it is no longer absurd. Justin is not ready to put her on full slam watch yet, noting that the Evian Championship has its own unpredictable character and the Women's Open Championship adds a different set of variables. But three in a row is entirely within reach, and the way she has played this season, she deserves to be the heavy favorite every time she tees it up. The $13 Million Purse This week's KPMG Women's PGA Championship carries a purse of $13 million — the largest in the history of women's golf. The last time the KPMG was held at Hazeltine in 2019, the purse was just under $4 million. KPMG has more than tripled their investment in this championship over seven years, and Justin makes sure to note that credit is due — this kind of financial commitment is what grows the sport and attracts the best players in the world to compete at the highest level. The shot-by-shot data presence at this championship is also the strongest it has ever been, with KPMG introducing new statistical infrastructure through the broadcast. For someone like Justin Ray, who lives and breathes golf analytics, this is a significant development for how the women's game gets covered and understood. Who Can Beat Her Justin names three players worth watching if you are looking beyond Nelly. Gino Titicaka — one of the most intriguing athletes in professional sports right now according to Justin. She has been world number one, she has five or six top-five major finishes, she is only 22 years old, and she still has not broken through with a major championship victory. She was the 36-hole leader at last year's KPMG and could not make a putt on the weekend. She is the Xander Schauffele of the LPGA — a player whose game is perfectly suited for major championship conditions, and it feels inevitable that it happens eventually. Could be this week. Charlie Hull — five major runner-up finishes and no wins, but nobody who watches her play gets the feeling of heartbreak. The sense of inevitability around Hull is real. She would be probably the most popular winner at Hazeltine behind Nelly herself, and after what she did at Riviera — shooting 65-67 on the weekend and still losing — she has proven she can play at this level under maximum pressure. Hannah Green — the defending KPMG champion from when it was last held at Hazeltine in 2019 knows this course. She has four worldwide wins this season and is playing arguably the best golf of her career. She is the name Justin circles as a genuine threat to Nelly this week. Minjee Lee — the defending champion from last year's KPMG in Frisco. One of the most consistent and exceptional ball strikers on the LPGA Tour, particularly when the tests get toughest. Worth keeping an eye on. Mio Yamashida — the reigning AIG Women's Open champion just beat Lottie Wode in a playoff last week and is in excellent form. Justin's one question mark is whether her length is sufficient at Hazeltine, noting she is exceptionally skilled from tee to green and around the greens but may face a distance disadvantage on a course this demanding. Better suited for softer links-style conditions than a big demanding American layout. The State of the LPGA Trey and Justin both agree — LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler has to be thrilled with where the tour is right now. The US Women's Open at Riviera was one of the best major championships Justin has covered — Nelly holding off Charlie Hull and Gabby Lopez in primetime on a world-class golf course. The KPMG purse at $13 million signals sponsor commitment. The rivalries are building. The storylines are compelling. And Nelly Korda going for three straight majors at one of the game's great venues on a weekend that already has the Travelers Championship and the World Cup competing for sports attention — women's golf is holding its own. The Bottom Line Nelly Korda arrives at Hazeltine as the most dominant player in golf right now — men's or women's. The numbers say so. The results say so. And if she wins her third consecutive major championship this weekend, the conversation about where she fits in the history of the sport is going to get very interesting very quickly. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Wyndham Clark Won the US Open. Here Is What the Numbers Actually Say About How He Did It. Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/WINGO #squarepod #sponsored Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. Wyndham Clark is a two-time US Open champion. Wire to wire at Shinnecock Hills. Six-stroke lead heading into Sunday. The entire gallery rooting against him. Scottie Scheffler in his group chasing the career grand slam on his 30th birthday. And Wyndham Clark won anyway. But the how matters as much as the what. Justin Ray, the Tiger Woods of golf researchers, breaks down the full statistical picture of what Wyndham Clark actually did at Shinnecock — and what it tells us about who he is as a player going forward. The Lead That Never Moved Wyndham Clark took the outright lead at approximately 7 PM Friday evening. He held it for essentially 72 hours without ever being caught. Nobody tied him. Nobody passed him. The closest anyone got was Sam Burns pulling within one with a birdie on 16 Sunday before missing looks at birdie on 17 and 18. In terms of historical company, players to hold a multi-stroke lead after rounds one, two, and three of a US Open — Willie Anderson 1903, Jim Barnes 1921, Tony Jacklin 1970, Rory McIlroy 2011, Martin Kaymer 2014. Every single one of them won. Now add Wyndham Clark 2026. The Putting Numbers This win was built almost entirely on the putter. Since the Masters ended in April, no player on the PGA Tour has a better strokes gained putting average than Wyndham Clark. He entered Shinnecock on the hottest putting streak in professional golf and never cooled off. On the weekend specifically — only 20 of 36 greens in regulation over rounds three and four. That is the fewest greens hit by a US Open winner over the final two rounds since Martin Kaymer at Pinehurst in 2014. He was not hitting it close. He was not attacking flags. He was managing the golf course, missing in the right spots, and making every par putt that needed to fall. Nine par putts on the weekend between four and fourteen feet — and he made them all when it mattered. The signature moment — the approach on 16 from 274 yards. The field average from that distance at Shinnecock was approximately 62 feet of proximity to the hole. Clark hit it inside three feet and made the eagle putt. That one shot, Justin says, encapsulates everything about who Wyndham Clark is at his best. When the moment is biggest, the execution is sharpest. The Bi-Coastal Club One of Justin Ray's signature deep-dive stats from the week — Wyndham Clark is now one of only three men to win US Opens on both the East Coast and the West Coast. Billy Casper won at Olympic Club and Winged Foot. Tiger Woods won at Pebble Beach, Bethpage Black, and Torrey Pines. Wyndham Clark won at LACC in 2023 and Shinnecock in 2026. That is the company he is in. Not as a talking point. As a fact. How We Look at Wyndham Clark Now Since Clark won his first PGA Tour event, only Scotty Scheffler and Rory McIlroy have more PGA Tour wins than he does in that span — and Wyndham now has five. He is the only player in PGA Tour history to win twice with a final round score of 60 or better. He beat the field average on Thursday at Shinnecock by more than nine strokes — something you see maybe once a season in major championship golf across the entire men's game. Justin's honest assessment — high ceiling, lower floor than a Scheffler or a McIlroy. He does not consistently contend in majors. He either wins or disappears. But the ceiling is genuinely elite, he is not yet 30 years old, and the Andy North comparison does not hold up. Andy North won two US Opens and faded. Wyndham Clark's trajectory looks nothing like that. He is going to win more Ryder Cups. He is going to be on more major leaderboards. And the next time he gets hot with that putter at a US Open setup — the field should be worried. Sam Burns and the Chasers Sam Burns shot the best round of the final day — a 67 that got him within one at one point before missing birdie looks on 17 and 18. For the second straight year he has put himself in position to win a US Open and come just short. Justin believes he gets in the winner's circle before the end of this season. The scar tissue from these near-misses makes great players better, and Sam Burns is a great player. Xander Schauffele finished tied for 11th — his tenth consecutive top-15 finish at a US Open. Jack Nicklaus is the only player with a longer such streak. Xander has won a PGA Championship and an Open Championship. The US Open feels like a matter of time. And Scotty Scheffler — the grand slam bid will have to wait, but statistically his game is almost identical to where it was a year ago when he won two majors. A fraction off in the moments that count. He will be back. The Bottom Line The numbers tell a story that the scoreboard alone does not fully capture. Wyndham Clark did not dominate Shinnecock with his ball striking. He managed it. He grinded. He made every putt that needed to fall. And he held his composure for 72 hours while the crowd rooted against him and the world number one chased him down. That is not luck. That is a two-time US Open champion doing exactly what two-time US Open champions do. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brian Rolapp Just Revealed the Future of the PGA Tour. Here Is the Full Breakdown. Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/WINGO #squarepod #sponsored Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. This is the moment golf fans have been waiting for. Brian Rolapp, the PGA Tour CEO and soon-to-be commissioner, held his long-anticipated press conference at the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands today and laid out what professional golf is going to look like beginning in 2028. Trey Wingo was in the room. This is the full reaction and breakdown. The Two-Tour Structure Starting in 2028 the PGA Tour splits into two distinct tiers. The Championship Tour is the top level — the best players in the world competing against each other in 120-man fields with mandatory cuts every week and minimum purses of $20 million per event. No sponsors exemptions. Full stop. If you want to be on the Championship Tour you earn it. Nobody is handing you a spot because a title sponsor asked nicely. The Challenger Tour is the developmental level — legitimate, well-funded, and meaningfully different from what the Korn Ferry Tour has been. Minimum purses of $4 million per event. And the pathway up is clearly defined — win twice on the Challenger Tour and you automatically move up to the Championship Tour. No waiting. No politics. Two wins and you are promoted. The meritocracy angle is the thing that resonates most with Trey. Brian Rolapp made it explicit — the PGA Tour will decide who the best players are. Nobody else. When asked about pushback on eliminating sponsors exemptions, Rolapp's answer was simple. Do sponsors decide who plays in the NFL playoffs? Do they decide who makes the NBA Finals? No. The best players earn their way in. That is how it is going to work here too. The Regular Season Champion One of the more creative structural changes — the PGA Tour will now crown a regular season champion at the end of the February through August stretch, separate from and before the playoff format begins. This mirrors how every other major professional sport works. The NFL MVP is a regular season award. The NBA MVP is a regular season award. Baseball does the same. The best player over the course of the full season gets recognized for it, and then the postseason is its own separate competition with its own separate drama. This also solves a long-standing problem with the FedEx Cup — a points system so complicated that even people who work inside it need a computer to figure out where players stand. Brian Rolapp acknowledged this directly and said they are going to make the regular season standings simple and clear, so every fan knows exactly where their favorite player is and what they need to do to win. Match Play Playoffs After the regular season champion is crowned, the playoffs begin — and they will be played in match play format. This is the detail that got the loudest reaction in the room and on this show. Match play is the purest form of the game. Head to head. One player against one player. Every hole matters. The format creates moments that stroke play simply cannot — a journeyman player can beat the world number one on any given day if the putts fall at the right time. That unpredictability is exactly what makes it appointment viewing, and the PGA Tour is betting on it. The playoffs will rotate through some of the most hallowed courses in the country — and here is where the press conference went from interesting to genuinely electric. Rolapp mentioned Pine Valley. Cypress Point. Seminole. Courses that the PGA Tour has not visited in years, or ever. Courses that golf fans know by name and reputation but rarely get to see on television. Trey describes the moment he read those names in the press release as an immediate stop-everything moment. Justin Ray says if they actually get to Pine Valley and Seminole, it is a different level of excitement entirely. The Last Chance Series and International Events The season does not fully stop in August. After the regular season and playoffs conclude, the fall features two distinct additions. The Last Chance Series — a handful of events in the September through January window where players fight to keep their spot on the Championship Tour. This is built-in drama of the best kind. Players competing for their professional livelihood to stay at the highest level of the sport. Great for television. Great for engagement. Great for the sport. And international events — working with the DP World Tour to bring the strongest possible fields to national opens around the world. The Australian Open, potentially a Spanish Open at Valderrama, an Italian Open in Rome. Trey makes a point that is impossible to ignore — you cannot hear a PGA Tour CEO talk about international national opens without connecting it directly to what Scott O'Neill has been pitching to LIV Golf investors as their primary selling point. The PGA Tour just said we are going there too. That was not accidental. What We Still Don't Know Brian Rolapp was clear that not everything is settled yet. Five of the fifteen Championship Tour signature events have not yet been announced. The medical exemption structure has not been fully worked out — how does a player like Justin Thomas, coming back from back surgery, fit into this new system? The Korn Ferry Tour's future role has not been defined. The FedEx Cup sponsorship runs through the end of next season, and what replaces it or how it evolves is still an open question. And the specific cities and venues beyond the announced hallowed-ground courses have not been confirmed. Rolapp's framing of all of this — we want to be rigid on the vision and flexible on the details. And 2027 is a runway year to prepare for everything that changes in 2028. He will address more specifics at the Tour Championship later this season. Again, not accidental. Why This Matters The Rory McIlroy "glorified Korn Ferry tour" comment has been the loudest criticism of the two-track model since it was first floated. Rolapp addressed it directly — a minimum $4 million purse on the Challenger Tour is four times what the Korn Ferry Tour currently offers. The field strength will be significantly stronger. This is not a development league in the traditional sense. It is a legitimate second tier with a clear and meritocratic path to the top. The EPL parallel is real and Trey makes it explicitly — promotion and relegation, a regular season champion, a separate playoff format, the best clubs playing each other most of the time. The PGA Tour is taking the best of football's scarcity model and the best of soccer's structural clarity and building something new. Whether it works depends on the details still to come. But the vision, as Brian Rolapp laid it out today at the Travelers Championship, is the most compelling thing professional golf has put forward in years. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brendan Sorsby Tried to Use the NFL as an Escape Hatch. Roger Goodell Said No. Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/WINGO #squarepod #sponsored Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. This is the latest chapter in the Brendan Sorsby saga — and it may be the most important one yet. For those catching up — Brendan Sorsby is a college quarterback who started at Indiana, transferred to Cincinnati, and then had his entire world unravel when the full scope of his gambling problem became public. We are not talking about a few casual bets. We are talking about thousands of bets placed on his own team, on teammates, on other sports, using intermediaries to avoid detection, potentially violating state criminal law. A sustained, systematic pattern of behavior that broke every rule in place to protect the integrity of athletic competition. The NCAA banned him. A judge in Lubbock, Texas — home of Texas Tech — granted him an injunction to play anyway. The NCAA appealed. The injunction was overturned. Sorsby then tried a different escape route — the NFL supplemental draft. Enter the league, get drafted, collect a paycheck, and sidestep the consequences of everything that happened in college. Roger Goodell and the NFL just said no. The league announced it will not hold a supplemental draft this summer. A letter was sent to Sorsby and all 32 teams. Brendan Sorsby's only path to the NFL is now the 2027 Annual Draft — and even that is far from guaranteed given everything the league knows about what he did. Why the NFL Was Right The NFL's position on gambling is about as clear as anything in professional sports. The rules have been explicit since the league became formally intertwined with legal sports betting after the Supreme Court opened that door. Bet on any NFL game — minimum one year suspension. Bet on your own team — minimum two years. Share inside information — minimum one year. Use someone else to place a bet — minimum one year. Fix a game — lifetime ban. Now look at what Sorsby did. Thousands of bets. On his own team. Using intermediaries to place them. At three different universities. The NFL looked at that record and made a simple determination — this is not someone who gets to use our league as an escape hatch from the consequences of his actions. The line between the NFL's business relationships with sports books and casinos and its players actually gambling is not a gray area. It is one of the clearest lines in professional sports. And the NFL has been consistent about enforcing it. The league's association with legal sports gambling actually makes it smarter about detecting unusual betting patterns — that is one of the arguments for having it, as Trey explains. When a match gets fixed or something irregular happens, the betting data shows it. The NFL is not going to let someone with Sorsby's record walk through the front door and compromise that integrity infrastructure. Jeffrey Kessler Is Wrong on Both Counts Sorsby's attorney Jeffrey Kessler went to ESPN immediately after the announcement and declared that the NFL's decision is — quote — a violation of the CBA and the law. He is wrong on both counts. Let Trey explain why. First — Brendan Sorsby is not an NFL player. He is not a member of the NFL Players Association. The CBA governs the relationship between the NFL and its players. Sorsby has no standing under the CBA because he has no relationship with the league as a player. You cannot invoke a collective bargaining agreement that does not apply to you. Second — the CBA gives the NFL complete and total autonomy over whether to hold a supplemental draft in any given year. It is entirely the league's discretion. It is not mandatory. It is not guaranteed. The league has not held a supplemental draft since 2019. They were not planning to hold one this year before Sorsby filed his petition three business days before the deadline, without supporting documentation, and only after abandoning his litigation against the NCAA. The NFL's letter makes all of this explicit. So Jeffrey Kessler's argument is that the NFL violated a CBA that does not apply to his client by exercising a discretion that the CBA explicitly grants them. That is not a legal argument. That is a press release. And then comes the part that makes this argument even more confusing — if your goal is to get your client drafted by the NFL, threatening to sue the NFL is a spectacularly counterproductive opening move. Even if Kessler somehow found legal footing — which he will not — all the NFL has to do is not draft him. Proving that amounts to collusion would be nearly impossible. The NFL does not need to give anyone a reason for not selecting them in a draft. The Deflate Gate Precedent Trey makes the legal argument with the clearest possible parallel — Deflate Gate. Whether or not Tom Brady and the Patriots actually deflated those footballs — and Trey believes they did, given that the equipment manager's nickname was literally The Deflator — does not matter for the legal question. The Patriots and Brady mounted a legitimate scientific argument about PSI changes due to weather conditions. It was a real argument. And it did not matter. The reason Brady served his four-game suspension had nothing to do with whether balls were actually deflated. It had everything to do with a single clause in the CBA — the one that grants Roger Goodell the authority to adjudicate matters of competitive integrity. Brady and the NFLPA had agreed to that clause. The court upheld it. The suspension stood. The Sorsby situation is legally identical. The CBA grants the NFL complete discretion over the supplemental draft. There is no appeal. There is no workaround. There is no legal theory that overrides it. Commissioner Bigfoot put his foot down and the law is on his side. What Comes Next Sorsby now needs to find somewhere to play football to keep his skills sharp and his professional prospects alive. The CFL is a possibility. There may be other options. But the NFL in 2026 is not one of them. The 2027 NFL Draft is theoretically available to him — but the league will be watching everything between now and then. His gambling history, his pattern of attempting to avoid consequences through litigation rather than accountability, and his attorney's opening move of threatening to sue the league he wants to play in — none of that is going to make the conversation any easier when 2027 arrives. Trey makes something clear that is worth repeating. He is not rooting against Brendan Sorsby as a person. He genuinely hopes Sorsby gets the help he needs and addresses the gambling problem that has derailed his career. If he does the work, demonstrates real accountability, and earns his way into the NFL through the proper process — fine. But the idea that he can circumvent consequences by jumping from one venue to the next, finding the most favorable judge available, and threatening to sue anyone who tries to enforce a rule — that approach was always going to hit a wall eventually. Roger Goodell is that wall. Commissioner Bigfoot has spoken. And those are straight facts, homie. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Everything That Just Happened in Golf — Live From the Travelers Championship Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/WINGO #squarepod #sponsored Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. This is Golf Live coming to you live from TPC River Highlands at the Travelers Championship — one of the best weeks on the PGA Tour calendar, and this year it happened to fall in the middle of the biggest week in professional golf in years. Trey Wingo is on-site at the Travelers. Justin Ray, the Tiger Woods of golf researchers, is at Hazeltine National for the KPMG Women's PGA Championship. Between the two of them, every major story in golf this week is covered. Here is everything that happened. The PGA Tour Revealed Its Future Brian Rolapp, the PGA Tour CEO and soon-to-be commissioner as Jay Monahan officially retires, held his much-anticipated press conference at the Travelers Championship this morning. The broad outlines of what the PGA Tour will look like beginning in 2028 are now public, and the reaction from Trey and Justin is genuinely positive. Here is the structure. There will be a Championship Tour — the best players in the world competing in 120-man fields with mandatory cuts, no sponsors exemptions, and minimum purses of $20 million per event. And there will be a Challenger Tour — a legitimate developmental circuit with minimum purses of $4 million per event and a clear pathway to the Championship Tour with two wins. The season runs February through August, with a regular season champion crowned at the end of that stretch — mirroring the MVP model in the NFL, NBA, and MLB. Then a separate playoff format, played in match play at some of the most hallowed courses in the country. The two things that generated the most excitement in the press conference room and on this show — no sponsors exemptions, period. And the possibility of championship events at Pine Valley, Cypress Point, and Seminole. When Rolapp mentioned those names, Trey says, every person in that room leaned forward at the same time. Trey had a chance to speak with Rolapp briefly after the press conference and asked directly about the pushback on sponsors exemptions. Rolapp's response — do sponsors decide who plays in the NFL playoffs or the NBA Finals? No. The PGA Tour will decide who the best players are. Nobody else. Trey describes it as one of the clearest and most compelling answers he has heard from tour leadership in years. There is also a Last Chance Series coming in the fall — a handful of events between September and January where players fight to keep their spot on the Championship Tour. Built-in drama. Built-in stakes. Built-in television. And in the fall, a series of international events working in partnership with the DP World Tour — national opens, marquee global venues, the strongest fields those events have ever seen. Trey notes that this announcement was clearly pointed at LIV Golf, which has been pitching international opens to investors as its primary selling point. The PGA Tour just said — we are going there too. Brian's closing line from the press conference may be the best summary of how he has approached this entire process: we want to be rigid on the vision and flexible on the details. And 2027 is essentially a runway year to get ready for 2028 when everything really changes. Jim Furyk, the US Ryder Cup captain, also stopped by the Golf Live set at the Travelers — a reminder of why being on-site matters. Some moments you cannot plan. Wyndham Clark Wins the US Open — The Data Breakdown Wyndham Clark is a two-time US Open champion. Wire to wire at Shinnecock Hills, holding a lead for essentially 72 hours, holding off Scottie Scheffler on his 30th birthday with the entire gallery rooting against him. Justin Ray puts the performance in full statistical context. Since Wyndham Clark won at LACC in 2023, only Scotty Scheffler and Rory McIlroy have more PGA Tour wins than Wyndham Clark. He is the only player in PGA Tour history to win twice with a final round score of 60 or better. He beat the field average on Thursday by more than nine strokes — something you see maybe once a season in major championship golf. And he did all of this while hitting only 20 of 36 greens in regulation over the weekend, leaning almost entirely on his short game and his putter, making nine par putts between four and fourteen feet when they absolutely had to fall. Justin's honest assessment of Wyndham going forward — high ceiling, lower floor than a Scotty Scheffler or a Rory McIlroy. He does not consistently contend. He either wins or disappears. But the ceiling is real, he is not yet 30 years old, and Justin would not be surprised to see him on more Ryder Cup teams and more major leaderboards before his career is over. The Andy North comparison does not hold up. Wyndham Clark's ceiling is significantly higher than a two-time US Open champion who wins and then fades. On the crowd behavior — both Trey and Justin address it directly. It was ugly. It was over the line. And the fact that Wyndham Clark responded the way he did — joking with his caddy about it, saying things like "hey, someone likes us" every time a single person clapped — made both of them bigger fans of him as a person and as a competitor. You add 72 hours of leading plus a hostile gallery plus Scotty Scheffler in your group chasing history, and Wyndham Clark handled all of it. That tells you something real about who this guy is. On Sam Burns — two straight years of being right there at the US Open and coming up just short. Justin believes he gets in the winner's circle before the end of this season. He is built for major championships and the scar tissue of these near-misses is going to make him better. Nelly Korda Goes for Three in a Row at the KPMG Justin Ray is on the ground at Hazeltine National for the KPMG Women's PGA Championship — and the story starts and ends with Nelly Korda going for her third consecutive major championship of the season. If she wins, she would become just the fifth woman in history to win three majors in the same season. She has already been beaten by a combined ten players across eight stroke play events this year. She is gaining nearly four strokes per round on the field, which Justin describes as peak Tiger territory in terms of dominance over your peers. The purse this week is $13 million — the largest in the history of women's golf, up from just under $4 million the last time the KPMG was held at Hazeltine in 2019. Credit to KPMG for that investment. Players to watch beyond Nelly — Gino Titicaka, who Justin compares to Xander Schauffele on the men's side, is one of the most intriguing athletes in professional sports right now. She has achieved almost everything without breaking through in a major. Charlie Hull feels inevitable. Hannah Green has already won at Hazeltine and has four worldwide wins this season. And Minjee Lee is the defending champion. The Travelers Championship Preview TPC River Highlands is a different animal from Shinnecock Hills. This is a birdie fest. A party. A week where the load lightens after the brutality of the US Open and players remember what it feels like to make a putt that actually goes in. Jim Furyk shot a 58 here — one of only two sub-60 rounds in PGA Tour history. Patrick Cantlay has averaged more than five birdies per round here over the last five years, the most of any player. Putting tends to be the separator here in recent years. Trey also notes something he genuinely appreciates about the Travelers — this event has leaned into its identity as the week after the US Open rather than fighting it. It's a party. The crowds are great. Something wild always seems to happen on Sunday at TPC River Highlands. And the Travelers has also become the place where big-name amateurs tend to make their professional debuts, which gives the week its own kind of energy and relevance. Your Questions Seven questions from the Golf Live community — covering what Trey and Justin are most excited about from the Rolapp announcement, which courses they would love to see the tour visit beyond Pine Valley and Cypress Point, the return of match play in the playoffs, what questions still do not have answers from today's press conference, Gino Titicaka's game heading into the KPMG, how Wyndham Clark was treated at Shinnecock and how he handled it, and the USGA's course setup debate at Shinnecock — did they get it right or did they mismanage it? Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The World Cup Is Bringing Out the Best in America Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/WINGO #squarepod #sponsored Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. For two weeks, the World Cup has done something nothing else in America has managed to do lately. It has brought the entire world to our doorstep, and the entire world is falling in love with what they found. Trey is joined by Mark Donaldson — a native Scotsman, longtime ESPN broadcaster, and now an American citizen who has been living this World Cup from every angle imaginable. Native Scot. American by choice. And right now, the best person on earth to explain what is actually happening in cities across this country. The Tartan Army Takeover Scotland beat Haiti 1-0 in their opening match — their first World Cup win since 1990, only the fifth in their entire history. And the Scottish fans who made the trip did not just show up. They took over. Ten thousand of them descended on Boston and Providence, bagpipes and all. They packed Fenway Park for a Red Sox game mid-tournament and sang for nine straight innings without stopping. They drained bars dry across the city. They quadrupled the entire region's average St. Patrick's Day beer consumption — in the most Irish city in America, on a random Tuesday in June. And in the middle of all that chaos — zero arrests. Compare that to Scotland's trip to Germany for the Euros two years ago, where 200,000 fans traveled across three cities and also produced zero arrests. This isn't luck. It's who they are. Mark even points to something most people would never notice — city workers in Boston commenting on how thoroughly the Scots cleaned up after themselves. Tidy as they came. A Fresh Look at America Here's the part that hits hardest. Mark has lived in America since 2010. He remembers a time when this country was universally seen, by outsiders, as the best place in the world to be. That perception has shifted in recent years. But for two weeks this summer, something has changed. Fans from forty-eight different nations have arrived, and they are falling in love with this country in real time — the food, the energy, the openness, the sheer scale of everything. Quesadillas the size of your head. Biscuits and gravy. Chipotle treated like a religious experience. Mark's message is simple and it's the whole point of this conversation — don't let this be a two-week moment we look back on fondly. Let it be a wake-up call to keep building on what we clearly still have. The US Team Is Real Mark watched the United States' opening match at a neighbor's watch party, fully expecting to be polite about it. Instead, he says it might be the best first half of soccer he has ever seen — better than what he saw out of Germany. The U.S. is favorably positioned heading into the knockout rounds, and Mark believes a quarterfinal run is realistic if the team can replicate that level of play. The World Cup at Large Trey and Mark also get into the bigger tournament picture — Messi, still magic even though he no longer moves like he used to. Mbappé as the most dangerous player in the field right now, followed by Harry Kane and Erling Haaland. France as the favorite to win it all, given their strength and depth heading into the brutal heat and humidity that will define the knockout stage. A breakout teenager on Morocco's midfield. And one incredible story out of Cape Verde, where a player with Irish roots was scouted and recruited entirely through LinkedIn messages — and is now keeping clean sheets against Spain on the world's biggest stage. Why This Matters Strip away the trophy, the brackets, and the predictions, and what's left is the simplest part of the whole story. People from forty-eight countries showed up in America this summer with flags, instruments, and an unstoppable amount of joy — and for a little while, that joy was contagious. Sports does that. It always has. The World Cup is just proving it all over again, right here, right now. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Wyndham Clark Won the US Open With the Entire Gallery Rooting Against Him. Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/WINGO #squarepod #sponsored Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. The 126th US Open at Shinnecock Hills is over. And Wyndham Clark is a two-time US Open champion. He came in with a six-stroke lead. The entire crowd was rooting against him. The number one player in the world was in his final group trying to complete the career grand slam on his 30th birthday. And Wyndham Clark won anyway. Here is the full story. How It Played Out Clark started Sunday the way nobody wanted — going out in a three-over 38 on the front nine, suddenly making this interesting in a way the six-stroke lead suggested it would not be. But then the back nine happened. He birdied 16 with a remarkable putt from 30 feet after driving it left and finding a way to put his approach on the back of the green. That birdie pushed his lead back to two. He gave one back with a bogey on 17 that let Sam Burns pull within one — the most drama of the entire final round. Then on 18, from 52 feet, Wyndham Clark two-putted to close it out. Not unlike 2023 at LACC, where he was about 60 feet away and two-putted to win then too. Big moments, big putts, big composure. The Historical Context Since the first Masters in 1934, 14 players have led a major by six or more strokes heading into the final round. Thirteen of the previous 13 won. The only exception was Greg Norman's epic collapse at the 1996 Masters, when Nick Faldo — the world number one at the time — ran him down. Scotty Scheffler is the world number one right now. The parallel was not lost on anyone. Clark also had a multi-stroke lead after all three of the first rounds — a club that includes Willie Anderson in 1903, Jim Barnes in 1921, Tony Jacklin in 1970, Rory McIlroy in 2011, and Martin Kaymer in 2014. All of them won. Now so does Wyndham Clark. And one more stat courtesy of Justin Ray — the greatest golf researcher in the sport — Wyndham Clark is now one of only three men to win US Opens on both the East Coast and the West Coast. Billy Casper. Tiger Woods. Wyndham Clark. How Do We Look at Wyndham Clark Now This is the real question Trey is asking throughout the video. Clark is not a player who consistently contends at majors. He either wins or he is a non-factor. There is almost no middle ground. And yet he has now won two of the toughest tests in golf — both US Opens — in the last four years, at two of the most demanding venues on the US Open rotation. He has as many majors as Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, and Xander Schauffele. And he won Sunday with a hostile gallery, a charging world number one, and a golf course that was fighting back after the USGA tightened the screws over the weekend. That putter has been historically hot since the CJ Byron Nelson, where he shot an 11-under 60 on Sunday to beat Scotty Scheffler and Si Woo Kim. If that putter stays this white hot — and there is no reason yet to think it will not — Wyndham Clark is going to be very difficult to beat for a long time. And the question of whether we have seen the best of him is genuinely open. The Locker Room Question A year ago at Oakmont, Wyndham Clark destroyed a locker after a bad round. He was photographed. He was banned from Oakmont. He went on an apology tour. He addressed it at the Byron Nelson and again multiple times this week. Some people forgave him. Some did not. But it is hard to argue that a two-time US Open champion who wins on a course where the entire crowd is against him, in the toughest test in golf, under maximum pressure — it is hard to argue that the locker room moment should define him. It should not. He earned the right to be referred to as a two-time US Open champion. That is what he is. The Father's Day Moment One of the most emotional storylines of the entire week had nothing to do with birdies or bogeys. Wyndham Clark's mother passed away from breast cancer when he was in college. His father showed up at Shinnecock on Sunday and did not tell Wyndham he was there. Wyndham had no idea. When he sank the winning putt on 18 and turned around and saw his dad — on Father's Day — the reaction was everything. Scottie Scheffler Today was Scottie Scheffler's 30th birthday. The gallery serenaded him walking up 18. He was in the final group. He was trying to become the seventh man to complete the career grand slam on his first attempt — something three of the six previous grand slam completers did. He made some birdies. He could not make the putts that mattered most. It is not a disaster. His game is marginally off from where it was a year ago when he won two majors. Statistically almost identical. Just a fraction short in the moments that count. He is still the world number one. He will still retain that ranking after finishing inside the top five today. He has the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale next month, where he will defend his title and have another shot at a win. But he has now gone 12 straight tournaments without a win — by far the longest drought of his career since he became a major champion. And the grand slam will have to wait. The Other Stories Sam Burns came within one with a birdie on 16 before missing looks at birdie on 17 and 18. For the second straight year, Sam Burns has put himself in position to win a US Open and come up just short. He is built for this. He will be back. Xander Schauffele finished tied for 11th — his 10th consecutive top-15 finish at a US Open. The only longer streak in US Open history is Jack Nicklaus. He has won a PGA Championship and an Open Championship. The US Open feels inevitable for him. Miles Russell, the 17-year-old who qualified with Charlie Woods on his bag, walked up 18 on Father's Day with his own dad carrying his bag — a surprise he arranged mid-round after asking the USGA if it was allowed. They said yes. His dad had no idea. That is the kind of moment that makes the US Open what it is. Keith Mitchell shot 70-70-70-70 — the first player in US Open history to shoot four straight rounds of level par. One of those 70s included a 41 on the front and a 29 on the back. Also a US Open first. Perfectly consistent on the scorecard. Absolutely chaotic in reality. And the fans — some of them crossed a line. People were shouting at Wyndham Clark, openly rooting for him to miss, and a few got kicked out. The point Trey makes is simple — root for whoever you want, but do not be that person. The players are under enough pressure without someone screaming at them to choke. It is not a good look. Do not be that guy. The Bottom Line Wyndham Clark is a two-time US Open champion. He won at one of the most demanding venues in the sport, with the crowd against him, the world number one in his group, and a golf course that was fighting back. The putter was white hot when it needed to be. The composure held when it mattered most. How we look at Wyndham Clark going forward has to change. Because if that putter stays this hot, we may not have seen the best of him yet. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Wyndham Clark Leads the US Open by Six. Only One Person Is Hunting Him Down. Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/WINGO #squarepod #sponsored Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. Going into Sunday’s final round at the US Open at Shinnecock Hills, one thing is clear. Wyndham Clark is in control. Six strokes. One round left. And the most dominant stretch of putting anyone has seen on the PGA Tour in years still very much intact. But Scottie Scheffler gave us exactly what we needed on Saturday. And Sunday just got a lot more interesting. The Wyndham Clark Situation Let’s start with the numbers because they are staggering. Wyndham Clark is seven under par — the best 36-hole score ever recorded at a US Open at Shinnecock. He maintained that lead through a Saturday where the USGA tightened the screws significantly, averaging about a shot and a half higher scoring than Friday. Clark birdied 16 with a ridiculous second shot from 273 yards to make eagle, then bogeyed 18 to finish even par on the day. He heads into Sunday with a six-stroke lead. Here is the historical context. Since the first Masters in 1934, there have been 13 previous instances of players leading a major by six or more strokes heading into the final round. Twelve of them won. The only one who didn’t was Greg Norman, who held a six-stroke lead at the 1996 Masters and lost to Nick Faldo. And the symbolism runs even deeper — Norman lost to the world number one player at the time. The world number one heading into Sunday’s final round at Shinnecock is Scottie Scheffler. Every other historical marker points to a Wyndham Clark victory lap. Players to lead the US Open by multiple strokes after rounds one, two, and three: Willie Anderson in 1903 — won. Jim Barnes in 1921 — won. Tony Jacklin in 1970 — won. Rory McIlroy in 2011 — won. Martin Kaymer in 2014 — won. Wyndham Clark in 2026 is in that company. The largest final-round comeback in US Open history is seven strokes — Arnold Palmer chasing down Ben Hogan at Cherry Hills in 1960. That is the only data point that keeps Sunday from being a formality. The Bi-Coastal Club One more thing worth noting about what Wyndham Clark is trying to accomplish, courtesy of Justin Ray — who Trey calls the greatest golf researcher in the history of the sport for good reason. If Clark wins Sunday, he joins Billy Casper and Tiger Woods as the only men to win US Opens on both the East Coast and the West Coast. Casper won at Olympic Club and Winged Foot. Tiger won at Pebble Beach and Bethpage Black and Torrey Pines. Clark won at LACC in 2023. Shinnecock is the East Coast. The bi-coastal US Open champion club has exactly two members right now. Here Comes Scottie Now for the reason Sunday is worth watching. Scottie Scheffler has been quietly grinding all week without the iron play that has defined his best golf. But on Saturday, something clicked. His strokes gained approach by round this week tells the story — 103rd in round one, 29th in round two, first in round three. He was the best approach player in the entire field on Saturday. He birdied three straight holes on the back nine — the longest birdie run he has ever had at a US Open. He chipped in from off the green on 14, and the reaction — from him, from the crowd, from everyone watching — was electric. It was the most emotion we have seen from Scottie Scheffler in weeks. Only two players shot under par on Saturday. Emiliano Grillo with a 67 and Scottie Scheffler with a 69. Wyndham Clark shot even par 70. Scottie played himself into the final group on Sunday, which matters more than it might seem — 23 of the last 30 major winners on the men’s side have come out of the final group. This is also Scottie’s first attempt to complete the career grand slam. Of the six men who have done it — Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and Rory McIlroy — three did it on their first try. Two took three attempts. Rory, the famous outlier, needed 11. The history says if you are going to do this, you tend to do it sooner rather than later. The Rest of the Field Matt Fitzpatrick faded down the stretch on Saturday. Xander Schauffele, whose US Open record is historically remarkable, could not get under par. Colin Morikawa made a brief charge before stumbling. And then there is Sam Stevens — who has made over ten and a half million dollars on the PGA Tour, which Trey acknowledges he was not aware of before this week — hanging around in the mix. But the honest truth is this is Wyndham Clark, Scottie Scheffler, and the golf course on Sunday. What We Need Trey makes the point directly — if Wyndham Clark goes wire to wire without being challenged, this is a Martin Kaymer at Pinehurst moment. A comfortable drive down the Autobahn. The US Open deserves more than that. Shinnecock deserves more than that. What we need is a charge. What we need is a chip-in, a putt that drops, a moment where the six-stroke lead suddenly feels fragile. Arnold Palmer did it to Ben Hogan in 1960. Johnny Miller did it at Oakmont in 1973. The US Open has a history of producing those moments when the course is right and the right player catches fire. The course is right. And Scottie Scheffler just reminded everyone on Saturday that he might be that player. Sunday at Shinnecock. Father’s Day. Six strokes. One round. One grand slam on the line. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Wyndham Clark Is Running Away With the US Open at Shinnecock — Day Two Recap Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/WINGO #squarepod #sponsored Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. Through two rounds at the US Open at Shinnecock Hills, one man is separating himself from the field in a way nobody saw coming. Wyndham Clark is seven under par — the best 36-hole score ever recorded at a US Open at Shinnecock Hills. The previous best was six under, shared by Shingo Mariyama and Phil Mickelson in 2004. Neither of them won that week. Retief Goosen did. That history matters. Because Shinnecock has a way of finding you over the weekend. Wyndham Clark Is on Another Level The numbers from Wyndham Clark's last four tournaments before this week are almost impossible to believe. A scoring average of 66.6. Fifty-nine under par. Birdie or better on 31 percent of holes played. And the best strokes gained putting average on the PGA Tour since the Masters — by a wide margin. He stormed back at the CJ Byron Nelson with an 11-under 60 in the final round to win, beating Scotty Scheffler in the process, and then added a third place and an 11th place in his next two starts before arriving at Shinnecock on the hottest putting streak in professional golf. His four-stroke lead heading into the weekend is significant in one direction and slightly fragile in another. Twenty-eight of the last 30 US Open champions were within three strokes of the lead after 36 holes. Nobody is currently within three strokes of Wyndham Clark. The one exception in recent memory — Brooks Koepka in 2018, starting five over and winning at Shinnecock. And the last time someone held a four-stroke 36-hole lead at Shinnecock, it was Dustin Johnson in 2018, who promptly shot 77 on Saturday and lost. So the lead is real. And Shinnecock is real. Both things are true at the same time. The Redemption Arc What makes Wyndham Clark's position even more compelling is the context surrounding it. A year ago at Oakmont, Clark destroyed a locker after a bad round — was photographed doing it, and was subsequently banned from Oakmont. It was a moment that defined his public perception for the worst possible reasons. Since then, he has openly acknowledged it, apologized in his victory speech at the Byron Nelson, and talked about trying to win back fans who wrote him off after that incident. Now he is standing at seven under par at Shinnecock, four strokes clear of the field, holding the best 36-hole score in US Open history at this venue. If Wyndham Clark wins this weekend, the locker room story becomes a footnote. Two US Open wins in four years changes how everyone looks at him as a player and as a person. The Chasers Right behind Clark at three under par sits Xander Schauffele. This is his 10th US Open. In the previous nine he has never finished outside the top 15 — a streak only Jack Nicklaus has exceeded in the history of this championship. On Friday alone, Schauffele hit 16 of 18 greens in regulation. It was the 13th time he has hit 16 or more greens in a single major championship round since 2020. The next closest player in that category since 2019 is Jon Rahm — with six. Schauffele has more than doubled that total. Matt Fitzpatrick is also right there at three under — one of Trey's pre-tournament picks alongside Xander Schauffele. Three wins already this season, a US Open title at Brookline in 2022, and a track record of playing his best on old-school classic golf courses. Shinnecock fits that profile perfectly and Fitzpatrick has positioned himself exactly where he needs to be heading into the weekend. Colin Morikawa sits alone at two under. A two-time major champion who won the PGA Championship in 2020 and the Open Championship in 2021, Morikawa is one of the finest iron players in the game — a skill set that maps perfectly onto Shinnecock's demands. He is quietly right in this tournament. Rory McIlroy had a bizarre back nine on Friday — three straight bogeys, a couple of birdies, then a double to limp in. He is still in contention, still capable of making a charge over the weekend. And should Rory find a way to win, it would be his seventh major championship — tying Harry Vardon's all-time record for most majors won by a European player. It would also put him three-quarters of the way to completing a second career grand slam, having already won back-to-back Masters titles in 2025 and 2026. Scotty Scheffler sits at even par — not the position he wanted, but not a fatal one at this course on this weekend. This is his first opportunity to become the seventh man to complete the career grand slam, joining Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and Rory McIlroy. Of the previous six, three completed it on their first attempt. Two took three tries. Rory took 11. Scotty is still in it — but he is going to need to find something over the weekend that has been missing from his game for much of this season. The LIV Report Card And then there is the story that the thumbnail tells directly. Every LIV Golf player missed the cut at the 2026 US Open. Every single one. Jon Rahm — destroyer of worlds, 2021 US Open champion at Torrey Pines, 2023 Masters champion — played a brilliant first round and then fell apart with a six-over second round to miss the cut. The competitive fire that showed up at the PGA Championship at Aronimink, the glimpses of the old Rahm, all of it disappeared on Friday. Cameron Smith, the 2022 Open Champion, was never a factor. And then there is Bryson DeChambeau. Bryson has now missed the cut in all three majors this year. It is the first time in his career that has happened across three straight majors. For a two-time US Open champion — 2020 at Winged Foot and 2024 at Pinehurst with that incredible bunker shot on 18 to beat Rory by a stroke — this is a stunning stretch of results at the biggest events of the year. The timing could not be worse for LIV Golf. Scott O'Neill is out trying to raise money and attract investors to a league whose two marquee stars — Rahm and Bryson — just missed the cut at the US Open. And the news coming out simultaneously is that PIF, the Saudi Public Investment Fund, may be shifting from investment to loan structure for their continued LIV funding, which means they want their money back. When your calling cards are struggling this visibly on the biggest stage in golf, that is a very difficult pitch to make. The Harry Higgs Story One more story worth celebrating before the weekend begins. Harry Higgs — cult hero, shirt-ripper at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, beloved by everyone who follows this sport — entered this week having made zero cuts and earned zero dollars in six PGA Tour starts this season. He had lost his tour status, gone back to the Corn Ferry Tour to fight his way back, and arrived at Shinnecock as one of the biggest long shots in the field. He made the cut. He is playing the weekend at the US Open. Whatever happens from here, that alone is worth rooting for. What to Watch This Weekend Can Wyndham Clark hold off a golf course that has swallowed four-stroke leaders before? Will Xander Schauffele finally win the one major his game was built for? Can Fitzpatrick add a second US Open title? Does Rory make a charge toward history? Can Scotty find the gear he needs to join six legends? And will Harry Higgs somehow make this weekend even more memorable? Shinnecock is about to bare its teeth. The weekend starts now. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When Does Tiger Woods Actually Return? Plus Your Best US Open Questions Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. Katrina is back with seven of your best questions heading into Shinnecock, and Trey and Justin Ray get into all of them. The Biggest X-Factor at Shinnecock Wind, greens, or fescue? Justin's answer is all three together, but if forced to choose, he leans toward wind given the exposed nature of the course and a forecast that could shift quickly between the morning and afternoon waves. Trey agrees it's the full cocktail — sand-based soil means Thursday's rain won't soften anything, and once the wind picks up, the greens will only get faster. Adam Scott's Streak Adam Scott is playing his 100th consecutive major championship. To catch Jack Nicklaus's all-time record of 146 consecutive major starts, Scott would need to play every single major until the 2039 Masters. It's not happening — but reaching 100 alongside Nicklaus on that particular list is remarkable on its own. Bryson's New Driver Bryson DeChambeau is rolling out a prototype TaylorMade driver built specifically for the US Open. Trey calls it on-brand but not particularly wise — "Bryson being Bryson," for better or worse. Justin offers the counterpoint — Bryson already missed the cut in both of this year's first two majors, his first back-to-back missed major cuts since 2017, so some experimentation may be justified. He also notes that equipment tinkering happens across the entire field every week — Bryson just gets more attention for it. The Rory vs Rolapp Schedule Debate Rory McIlroy has criticized incoming PGA Tour commissioner Brian Rolapp's two-track schedule model, warning it risks turning some events into "glorified Korn Ferry events." Trey's read is that this is a deliberate feeder system, pointing to Aaron Rai's win at a smaller event before his PGA Championship breakthrough as proof the model can still produce major champions. Justin agrees Rory isn't wrong, just blunt, and calls the tradeoff simply the cost of doing business if the tour wants more star-studded marquee events. And when both Rory and Jack Nicklaus — two men who rarely agree on tour politics — push back on the same changes, does that mean something? Trey sees it as two very different generational perspectives reaching a similar conclusion. Justin's framing is simpler — seismic change always produces strong opinions from powerful people with a real stake in the outcome. That's expected, not necessarily a red flag. Tiger's Timeline Tiger Woods is back in the US following rehab. Both Trey and Justin decline to speculate on a competitive return timeline, and for good reason — right now, the only thing that matters is Tiger's health and wellbeing as a person. The golf can wait. Farah O'Keefe's Perfect Curtis Cup Farah O'Keefe went a perfect 5-0 at the Curtis Cup — only the fourth player in the event's history, dating back to 1932, to accomplish that. Solheim Cup captain Stacy Lewis came close to the feat herself nearly two decades ago. It caps an extraordinary year for O'Keefe, who also contended deep into the weekend at the Chevron Championship and performed well at the NCAA Championships. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Bud Cauley Nearly Died in 2018. He Just Won His First PGA Tour Event. Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. In the noise of US Open week, one story almost slipped through the cracks — and Trey and Justin refused to let that happen. Bud Cauley won his first PGA Tour title at the RBC Canadian Open over the weekend. A three-time All-American at Alabama who once ran in the same circles as Justin Thomas as a top professional prospect, Cauley spent the better part of a decade unable to break through at the highest level. And then in 2018, at the Memorial Tournament, he was involved in a near-fatal car accident — a collapsed lung among a list of severe injuries, with a recovery process that was anything but smooth. CBS's broadcast mentioned that Cauley had openly discussed with family and friends what he might do next if his playing career was simply over. He stuck with it. And on Sunday, he broke through. A Year of Comeback Stories This isn't an isolated moment in golf this season. Justin draws the direct comparison to Gary Woodland's emotional comeback win earlier this year following his own serious health battle. Between Woodland and Cauley, professional golf has delivered two of the most genuinely human stories of the year — moments that go far beyond shot-making and get into something much more meaningful. A Word for the Canadian Open Beyond Cauley's personal story, credit goes to the tournament itself. The Canadian Open has built a real identity — the popular "penalty box" short par-3 hole, Nick Taylor's iconic playoff win a few years back, and a history that includes one of the rarest feats in golf. Only Lee Trevino and Tiger Woods have ever completed the unofficial triple crown of winning the US Open, the Open Championship, and the Canadian Open in the same calendar year. It remains, in Trey's words, one of the most underrated events on tour — and this year it produced a champion and a story worthy of far more attention than it's gotten. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Six Men Have Completed the Career Grand Slam. Scotty Scheffler Is Going for Seven. Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. Jack Nicklaus. Gary Player. Gene Sarazen. Ben Hogan. Tiger Woods. Rory McIlroy. Six men in the history of golf have won all four professional majors. Scotty Scheffler has the Masters, the PGA Championship, and the Open Championship. The US Open is the only piece missing — and that's strange on its face, because everything about Scotty's game, the iron play especially, seems built for exactly this tournament. Where Scotty's Game Actually Stands Scotty still leads the PGA Tour in greens in regulation, so the idea that his irons have abandoned him isn't accurate. But what was an untouchable superpower has become merely very good. He's dropped more than 100 spots in average proximity to the hole, and less than 22 percent of his fairway approach shots are landing inside 15 feet this season — 148th out of 152 players on tour. Despite that, he still leads the PGA Tour in strokes gained total, scoring average, and birdie average, and has become a legitimately good putter — a top-20 putter on tour, which would have been almost unthinkable a few years ago. The takeaway, in Brandel Chamblee's words — he's not unbeatable anymore, but he's still the man to beat. Since 2020, Scheffler is 129 under par in majors; the next closest player isn't within 50 shots of that mark. History suggests players who complete the grand slam tend to do it quickly — three of the six did it on their first attempt, including Tiger in 2000. Rory is the outlier, needing eleven tries. Phil Mickelson, Sam Snead, and Arnold Palmer all retired without ever completing theirs. Why Shinnecock Might Not Care About a Slow Start Scotty has had a pattern this season of struggling out of the gate in majors before grinding back into contention. But Shinnecock might neutralize that concern entirely. Brooks Koepka opened with a 75 in 2018 and still won. Dustin Johnson, the best player in the world that year, blew a four-shot 36-hole lead — the first player in nearly a century to do that at a US Open — and still wasn't out of contention afterward. This course is a marathon. Pars feel like birdies. Survival matters more than a hot start. One staggering number puts it all in context — of 654 players who have started a US Open at Shinnecock, only three have ever finished under par. The Picks — Without Scotty and Rory With the top two taken off the board as the presumed favorites, Trey and Justin each name three players who could make real noise this week. Justin's picks: John Rahm, whose LIV form has been dominant and translated directly into a tied-for-second finish at the PGA Championship, with an excellent US Open record and the best bogey-avoidance mark in the field since 2009. Xander Schauffele, the all-time leader in US Open scoring average with nine consecutive top-15 finishes — a streak only Jack Nicklaus has topped since World War II. And Chris Gotterup, a two-time winner this season whose power off the tee fits a US Open landscape that increasingly rewards distance. Trey's picks: Xander Schauffele for the same reasons. Matt Fitzpatrick, who has three wins this season and already has a US Open title on an old-school, brutal course — Brookline in 2022, where he also won his US Amateur. And Cam Young, the Long Island native who broke through with his first PGA Tour win last year and was a standout for Team USA at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage. And one fun, purely historical nugget — the last three US Opens at Shinnecock were each won by the player ranked ninth in the world at the time. This week's ninth-ranked player in the world is reigning US Open champion JJ Spaun. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Shinnecock Has a History of Chaos at the US Open. Here Is Why This Year Looks Different. Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. Shinnecock Hills hosts the US Open for the first time since 2018, and its history with this championship has not always gone smoothly. In 2004, conditions got so severe the USGA had to water a green between groupings — something that had never happened before. In 2018, Phil Mickelson putted a moving ball on the 13th green in one of the most controversial moments in major championship history, and the USGA had to soften the course before the final round, allowing Tommy Fleetwood to shoot a 63 that tied the lowest round ever played at a US Open. Justin Ray is on the ground this week, and his read is encouraging. After years of hard lessons, the setup discussions he's witnessed give him real confidence that this championship gets remembered for the golf, not for controversy. The Numbers That Define Shinnecock The statistics from 2018 explain exactly why this course is considered the purest test in the sport. Players hitting approach shots from the rough averaged 67 feet of proximity to the hole — 22 feet worse than the tour average. Scrambling from the greenside rough that year happened at just a 23 percent clip. Miss the green here, and you are very likely walking away with a bogey. And yet the fairways themselves were actually generous — a 71 percent hit rate in 2018, an astronomically high number for a US Open. The fairways have reportedly been widened even further this year. The message from the USGA seems clear — given how far players hit it now, give them room to find the fairway, but make the penalty for missing genuinely severe. Since 1980, only two US Open winners across any major have shot 75 or higher in the first round and still won — and both happened at Shinnecock. Brooks Koepka in 2018, and Raymond Floyd in 1986, when the field's first-round scoring average was a staggering 78. The Weather Factor After a wet, cold spring across the Northeast, conditions are drying out and getting quick heading into the week. Some rain is forecasted for Thursday, but given the sand-based soil that defines true links-style turf, it likely will not be enough to soften the speed out of these greens — especially if the wind picks up. The Bottom Line This is a course built specifically for this tournament. Justin's assessment, after walking the grounds for several days, is that the USGA has earned every lesson from past Shinnecock US Opens and is putting that experience to use. Expect a true, complete, and very long examination — one that reveals the best player in the field by Sunday. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Everything You Need to Know Before the US Open at Shinnecock Head to cozyearth.com and use code WINGO for an exclusive 20% off. Trey and Justin Ray get you fully ready for the third major of the year. Trey joins from Grand Rapids, Michigan, fresh off a second-place finish in the Meijer LPGA Classic Pro-Am, and Justin is on the ground at Shinnecock Hills as the US Open returns there for the first time since 2018. Big News for the Show Before any golf talk, there's a major announcement. Justin Ray has been named the lead analytics advisor for Team USA at the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor, working alongside Hunter Stewart under captain Jim Furyk. This comes off the back of real results — Justin's work with the US Solheim Cup team produced the first-ever alternate shot session sweep in 2023 in Spain, and a decisive win in 2024 outside Washington DC. Justin Leonard first reached out about the idea, and four minutes later Jim Furyk called. A 90-minute presentation followed, and the decision came together quickly. The goal now — help Team USA end a 34-year drought without a Ryder Cup win on foreign soil. Shinnecock's Conditions Shinnecock has a complicated history with the US Open — a green that had to be watered between groupings in 2004, the infamous Phil Mickelson moving-ball putt in 2018, a course that had to be toned down before the final round that year so Tommy Fleetwood could shoot a record-tying 63. This time, conditions on the ground look different. A wet, cold spring has the course playing a little dry and quick heading into tournament week, and the sand-based soil means even Thursday's forecasted rain likely won't soften the brutal test that's coming. Scotty's Chase for History Six men have ever completed the career grand slam — Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and Rory McIlroy. Scotty Scheffler is going for the US Open piece that would make him the seventh. Despite a statistically strong season, his proximity numbers have slipped — he's dropped over 100 spots in average approach distance, and less than 22 percent of his fairway approaches are landing inside 15 feet, ranking 148th of 152 players on tour. And yet he still leads the PGA Tour in strokes gained total, scoring average, and birdie average, and is now a legitimately good putter for the first time in his career. As Brandel Chamblee put it — he might not be unbeatable anymore, but he's still the man to beat. The Predictions With Scotty and Rory taken off the board as the obvious favorites, Trey and Justin each name three players who could make noise at Shinnecock — covering names like John Rahm, Xander Schauffele, Matt Fitzpatrick, Cam Young, and Chris Gotterup, with the full reasoning behind each pick. The Bud Cauley Story A story almost lost in US Open week deserves the spotlight — Bud Cauley's first career PGA Tour win at the RBC Canadian Open, six years removed from a near-fatal car crash that left his playing future, and his life, in real doubt. Your Questions And to close it out, seven of your questions — covering the biggest X-factor at Shinnecock, Adam Scott's record major streak, Bryson's new driver experiment, the Rory-versus-Rolapp schedule debate, Tiger's return timeline, and a historic perfect performance at the Curtis Cup. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Justin Leonard on the Ryder Cup Plan for 2027 — and Why He Wants to Be a Captain Someday Justin Leonard is now a vice captain for Team USA under Jim Furyk heading into the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor. In this conversation he opens up about why he took the job, what he and Furyk are building for the long term, and his own ambitions to lead Team USA someday. Why Justin Took the Job When Jim Furyk called and asked Justin to be a vice captain, there was no hesitation. The two have been friends for roughly forty years, dating back to a junior golf tournament in Dallas when they were kids. They've played countless practice rounds together over the years, and Justin describes it simply — it's an honor to serve him and do whatever he asks to help Team USA. This comes in the wake of a difficult situation for Keegan Bradley, who was passed over for the captaincy despite being a player who, under almost any other captain, would have made the team on merit. Justin's read on that situation is generous and clear-eyed — Keegan was put in a genuinely tough position, and if anyone else had been captain, Keegan likely makes that team and could have been the difference-maker, both at this past Ryder Cup and potentially in Rome before that. Why Detachment Could Be an Advantage Justin offers a thoughtful self-assessment of what he could bring as a future captain. He describes himself as not a particularly emotional person — more black and white, steady, comfortable getting into the details. He sees his slight distance from the current player pool — built through his broadcast work with NBC and Golf Channel, and his role as a President's Cup assistant in 2024 — as a genuine strength rather than a weakness. When hard decisions need to be made, that detachment helps. The closer relationships and day-to-day camaraderie, he says, are exactly what vice captains and assistants are for. His own leadership style would be quieter — setting a vision and trusting the team to embrace it. He sees Jim Furyk operating the same way. The Long-Term Plan — 2027, 2029, 2031, 2033 This is not just about Adare Manor. Furyk and his staff are explicitly thinking in terms of continuity across multiple Ryder Cup cycles — building a blueprint that gets handed off from captain to captain rather than starting from scratch every two years. Part of that includes connecting the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup more deliberately, using the team match play experience and success from one to inform the other. Everything is being evaluated — travel schedules, when the team arrives in Ireland, analytics support, coordination with the PGA of America. Justin is candid that this kind of long-range planning is new to him, having not been deeply involved in these conversations before, but he's encouraged by what he's seeing take shape. Learning From Past Mistakes Trey and Justin dig into the logistical failures of recent Ryder Cups. In 2018, the team flew to France immediately after the Tour Championship — the same week Tiger Woods won for the first time in over five years — arriving with, in Trey's words, the tank already empty. Going into Rome, the team had five weeks off beforehand with no competitive rhythm, and a number of players hadn't played in that stretch. For 2027, there are two weeks between the Tour Championship and Adare Manor — which Justin sees as ideal. Players are used to having two weeks off; nobody is being asked to squeeze in an extra tournament. It also creates room to travel to Ireland earlier and actually acclimate, rather than arriving Monday night and teeing off days later with no time to adjust. Justin points to what the European side has done successfully for years — going over early, staying together as a group, getting away for a few days to play golf and bond before the matches begin. That's the atmosphere Team USA is trying to build. Not ten or eleven days in the same hotel room, but a structure that balances togetherness with the reality that, ultimately, this is a business trip with one goal — winning on foreign soil. The Goal Justin is direct about where this is heading. He wants to be involved with Team USA for years to come, in whatever capacity is needed. But he's equally direct that the captaincy is something he genuinely wants — hopefully, at some point, that's part of the path. Given his history with Furyk, his self-described temperament, and the long-term planning he's now part of, this conversation reads less like a one-off vice captain assignment and more like the early chapters of a much longer story with Team USA. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Justin Leonard Breaks Down the US Open at Shinnecock — The Course, the Contenders, and Scottie's Chase for History Justin Leonard knows what it takes to win on the biggest stages in golf. The 1997 Open Champion. A three-time Ryder Cup player. The man who hit the putt at Brookline in 1999 that completed one of the greatest comebacks in Ryder Cup history. Now a vice captain for Team USA heading into 2027, Justin joins Trey for a wide-ranging conversation that covers the US Open at Shinnecock, the state of the Ryder Cup, and a few personal stories along the way. Shinnecock — American Links Golf Justin's description of Shinnecock is simple and perfect — American links. Not modeled after anything else. Just itself. He spoke with NBC's Tommy Roy the morning of this interview, and Roy's assessment was equally simple — this place is made for this tournament. The history of Shinnecock and the US Open has not always been smooth. In 2004, the USGA had to water a green between groupings because conditions got out of hand. In 2018, Brooks Koepka shot five over in the first round and still won, before the USGA toned the course down enough on Sunday for Tommy Fleetwood to shoot a 63. Justin's hope is simple — let this be a US Open where the story is the golf course, the difficulty, and the champion, without controversy in between. At Shinnecock, with firm and fast greens, the margin between a fair-but-tough pin placement and an unfair one is a matter of inches. He trusts the USGA and the Shinnecock grounds crew to tiptoe that line successfully. Who Is Built for This After a season everyone expected to be Scotty versus Rory at every major, Justin's pick for Shinnecock might surprise people. If he were a betting man — which he says he is not — he would take the field over either of the top two. Three names stand out: Cameron Young — playing with total confidence right now. Driving the ball beautifully, controlling his irons, putting well, and completely unfazed by results. Justin sees him practicing in Florida regularly and describes someone who keeps putting the work in regardless of outcomes — exactly the temperament Shinnecock demands. Brooks Koepka — the last champion at Shinnecock in 2018, playing his way back into the form that produced five major championships. He says he's hitting the ball as well as ever. If his putting confidence comes around even slightly, he becomes a serious threat. He doesn't need to putt lights out — just make the putts he's supposed to make. Alex Fitzpatrick — the sleeper. Five PGA Tour starts, over three and a half million dollars earned, multiple top tens, and a win at Zurich alongside brother Matt. Justin calls it playing with house money — and notes that a links golf background, which Fitzpatrick has, is a real advantage at Shinnecock given the bouncy conditions and runoff areas around the greens. And one more name worth watching according to Trey — Aaron Rai, statistically the most accurate driver on the PGA Tour over the last three years. At a course where finding the fairway is paramount, that skill set lines up perfectly. Scottie's Grand Slam Chase Scottie Scheffler is one win away from the career grand slam, just as Rory completed his 15 months ago. Justin's read on Scottie's season is nuanced — the bar Scheffler set over the previous three to four years was so high that "what's wrong with him" became a real question, even though he's still having a great year statistically. The pattern Justin identifies — Scottie has had a tendency this season to play a mediocre first round, sometimes a couple over par, then play his way back into contention over the next three days. In a regular tour event that's recoverable. In a major, that first-round deficit becomes much harder to overcome. Justin draws the parallel to Rory's own stretch after winning the 2014 PGA at Valhalla — shooting himself out of contention on Thursdays despite playing great the rest of the week. As for whether Scottie thinks about the Grand Slam itself — Justin's answer is direct. He doesn't think Scottie gives it any thought unless asked in a press conference, and even then he downplays it. The results and accolades aren't what drives him. Family and faith keep him grounded, and his focus stays entirely on the next tournament — which, this week, happens to be the US Open. Team USA and the Ryder Cup Justin is now a vice captain under Jim Furyk heading into the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor. He talks candidly about what it means to support Furyk after a process where Keegan Bradley — a player who could have made the team on merit — was passed over for the captaincy. Justin's own self-assessment is interesting — he sees his slight detachment from the current player pool as a strength for a future captain, someone who can make hard decisions without the complications of weekly friendships on tour. The bigger story is the long-term plan Furyk and his staff are building — not just for 2027, but with an eye toward continuity across 2029, 2031, and 2033. That includes addressing the scheduling disasters of the past — in 2018, the team flew to France immediately after the Tour Championship with no buffer. In 2023, players had five weeks off before Rome with no rhythm. For 2027, there are two weeks between the Tour Championship and Adare Manor — which Justin sees as ideal, giving the team time to travel early, acclimate, and build the kind of cohesive atmosphere the European side has mastered for years. The Personal Stories Two moments from Justin's career bookend the conversation. His acceptance speech at the 1997 Open Championship — where he had to pause and compose himself thinking about his parents and coach back home — remains one of the most human moments in major championship history, and Justin says people reference that speech more than any shot he hit that week. And then there's Brookline, 1999. The putt on 17 that clinched the largest comeback in Ryder Cup history. Justin walks through the moment in detail — knowing from the leaderboard that a win on 17 would secure the Cup, the putt breaking right and dropping, and the chaos that followed as his teammates stormed the green before the match was technically over. More than two decades later, it's still the signature moment of his career — and very possibly his calling card if a Ryder Cup captaincy is ever in his future. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nelly Korda's Historic Run, the Ryder Cup Captain's Picks Debate, and the Craziest Tiger Woods Story You Have Never Heard It is mailbag time on Golf Live. Trey and Justin Ray answer your questions — and along the way tell one of the most incredible stories in golf history that somehow does not get told nearly enough. How Dominant Is Nelly Korda's Run, Historically Nelly Korda just won four of her first eight starts in a season — something only one other player has done in the last twenty years. Lorena Ochoa won five of her first eight in 2008, but neither Ochoa nor the previous version of Korda won multiple majors during that stretch the way Korda just did. Justin does not think the run is over. And then there is the historical comparison that puts it all in perspective. The mid-1990s stretch between Annika Sorenstam and Karrie Webb — the "I'm Annika and you're not" or "I'm Karrie Webb and you're not" era — was, in Trey's words, an entirely different level of dominance. For about four years it felt like one of those two players won basically everything. Annika beat Karrie in a playoff during that stretch and that was just how it went for years. Justin's response says it all — you think Scotty and Rory are dominant? This was something else. The Ryder Cup Format Debate A viewer asks the question that comes up every two years — why not just take the top 12 in points and remove captain's picks entirely? Take the politics out of it. Trey appreciates the spirit of the question but pushes back hard. The points are accumulated over a two-year period, and players who earned points eight or nine months ago are not necessarily playing the same golf now. Captain's picks allow for the human element — accounting for who is hot right now, who fits a particular course, who pairs well with whom. Justin agrees but adds the caveat — if you removed picks entirely, the points system would need to be flawless, which it currently is not. Both land in the same place. This is a feel game as much as a stats game, and a great captain has to marry both. Does the Memorial Deserve Major Status Short answer from both Trey and Justin — no, and that is fine. The Memorial is Jack Nicklaus's tournament, has an elite field, a brutal setup, and a course that absolutely feels like a major. But Justin makes the broader point — not everything needs the major label to be great. The Players Championship, the Tour Championship at East Lake, these are all elite events in their own right without needing to borrow the major designation. And credit to the Tour for finally moving the Memorial off the week immediately before the US Open, something Nicklaus himself once called a slight. Why Do the Europeans Dominate the Presidents Cup A great question with a great answer. The perception is that the format favors alternate shot, which should theoretically even things out. But Justin points out the real reason — European players have an entire infrastructure of team competitions outside the Ryder Cup cycle. The Seve Trophy, the Royal Trophy, the Eurasia Cup, and more recently the Hero Cup all give European players reps in match play team formats that American players simply do not get. Trey adds that this is exactly the kind of feeder program Jim Furyk has talked about wanting to build on the US side — so playing these formats does not feel unfamiliar when it actually matters. How Often Do Amateurs Actually Contend at the US Open The last amateur to finish in the top 10 at the US Open was Jim Simons in 1971. Fifty-five years ago. Justin notes that even getting there is the real accomplishment for most amateurs — the 72-hole grind at US Open difficulty without a single blow-up hole is one of the hardest tests in golf, and most of what amateurs take from the experience is the scar tissue and lessons that shape their eventual professional careers. What Are They Most Excited to See at Shinnecock Both Trey and Justin want to see the players struggle — in the best way. The US Open's identity is brutality. Firm, fast, thick rough, and after a wet spring, that rough is going to be nasty. Scottie Scheffler made a scouting trip to Shinnecock recently and called it a brutal test. Justin puts Shinnecock in the same tier as Oakmont and Pebble Beach as venues that simply feel like the US Open in a way few other courses do. And the history backs it up — the last time the Open was at Shinnecock in 2018, Brooks Koepka won at one over par, and since then no major winner in the men's game has shot worse than 73 in a first round. Brooks shot 75 and did not care. The Tiger Woods Story You Have Never Heard And then the story that closes the show. Justin's favorite US Open memory is personal — his first event on the road in 2010 at Pebble Beach, riding a golf cart with Trey behind Tiger and Phil, and meeting Chris Berman for the first time (who immediately christened him "Justin Time, better than Dustin Time" after Dustin Johnson's collapse that Sunday). But Trey's story is the one that will stop you in your tracks. At the 2000 US Open at Pebble Beach — the tournament where Tiger Woods won by 15 strokes, with second place at three over par, one of the most dominant performances in the history of major championship golf — the second round had to be finished Saturday morning after being suspended. The night before, Stevie Williams had taken balls out of Tiger's bag so Tiger could practice putt on the hotel room carpet. He forgot to put them back. Tiger steps to the 18th tee. Pumps a drive into the ocean. Stevie reaches into the bag. There is exactly one ball left. If that ball goes into the ocean, Tiger cannot finish his round. He is disqualified. They cannot get another set of those balls — it was an experimental Nike ball that was not even available for sale at the Pebble Beach pro shop. The greatest performance in the history of major championship golf simply does not happen. Stevie had a choice. Tell Tiger this is the last ball — and risk rattling him — or say nothing and trust him. He said nothing. Tiger called for driver. Stevie, from behind him, was just hoping to find land. It found land. The rest is history. Twelve strokes under par. Fifteen shots clear of second place. And it all came down to one golf ball that almost went in the Pacific Ocean on a Saturday morning nobody was watching. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Where Rory and Scottie's Games Actually Stand Heading Into the US Open at Shinnecock For most of this year the storyline has been simple. Scotty versus Rory. Rory versus Scotty. The two best players in the world, trading the top of leaderboards, building toward another major showdown. But the numbers tell a more complicated story. And as both players prepare for Shinnecock — one of the most demanding tests in golf — Trey and Justin Ray break down exactly where each game actually stands right now. The Baseline Start here. Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are one and two on the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained Tee to Green. The bar for both of them is so high that the questions about their games right now are minimal by any normal standard. But minimal does not mean nonexistent — and heading into a US Open at a course as brutal as Shinnecock, even small things matter. Rory — The One Crack Rory has finished outside the top 20 on the PGA Tour exactly once all season. That alone tells you how dominant this year has been. But there is one number worth watching. Last season Rory was a top 10 putter in Strokes Gained on the PGA Tour. This season he is merely above average — somewhere in the mid-60s in the strokes gained putting rankings. That gap matters because of history. During Rory's major drought, the putts that used to drop simply stopped dropping — at the US Open at LACC, at Pinehurst, the four, five, six footers he used to make routinely started missing. Right before he won the Masters last year, his putting became a genuine superpower again. This season it has not been that. Not bad. Just not the superpower it was. Scottie — Top 20 in Everything, One Win Here is the number that should reframe how people think about Scottie Scheffler's season. He is currently top 20 on the PGA Tour in every single Strokes Gained category — including putting, the one area that used to be his actual weakness. For three straight seasons he has led the tour in Strokes Gained Approach, and this year he is still 17th — which, when you think about it, means there are only sixteen players on the entire PGA Tour who hit their irons better than Scottie Scheffler right now. That is remarkable on its own. He leads the tour in scoring average, birdie average, and Strokes Gained Total. He has six straight top-15 finishes. By every meaningful statistical measure, Scottie Scheffler is playing some of the best golf on the PGA Tour this season. And he has one win. That gap — between being statistically the best player on tour and having a single victory to show for it — is the central tension of his season. Is he having a worse year than last year? The numbers suggest the opposite might actually be true. The Ted Scott Moment One small storyline worth addressing. Earlier in the season there was a moment that got attention — Scottie appeared visibly frustrated during a discussion about wind conditions, with comments directed in his caddie Ted Scott's general direction. It was not a great look in the moment, but in context it is the kind of thing that happens over a long season between two people who spend more time together than almost anyone in professional sports — and now have every shot captured on PGA Tour Live and broadcast cameras. Not every player-caddie relationship could survive that level of scrutiny. This one will be fine. What It All Means for Shinnecock Shinnecock does not forgive small weaknesses. It is one of the purest tests in golf — firm, fast, long rough, demanding every part of a player's game. For Rory, the putting question becomes magnified on greens that punish anything less than precise speed and read. For Scottie, the question is whether a season of statistical dominance finally converts into the kind of week that produces a trophy — specifically, the one major that would complete his career grand slam, just as Rory completed his a year ago. Both players are building toward this. The numbers say both of them are playing magnificent golf. Shinnecock will be the place where the small gaps — Rory's putting, Scottie's conversion rate — either close completely or become the story of the championship. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nelly Korda Has Never Had a True Rival. Charlie Hull Might Be It. Nelly Korda just won her fourth major championship — the youngest American to do so since Mickey Wright in 1960. She is the first player since Inbee Park in 2013 to win the first two majors of the season, and the first American to do that in forty years. By any measure this was one of the great weeks of her career. And yet the moment that may matter most for the future of women's golf did not happen on the leaderboard at all. It happened in the gap between first and second place — and the player standing in that gap was Charlie Hull. Justin Ray and Trey break down why this Riviera finish might have been the beginning of something much bigger than one tournament. The Performance That Defined the Week Nelly Korda missed fairways constantly over the final three rounds at Riviera — by her own caddie's standards, this was far from her cleanest ball-striking week. And yet she got up and down 20 times out of 22 opportunities over those three rounds. Justin calls it potentially one of the best scrambling performances at any major, men's or women's, ever. The mental maturity on display — missing a fairway, accepting it, executing the recovery without any visible frustration — is what separated this win from her earlier ones. This was not Nelly dominating a course that fit her game perfectly. This was Nelly managing a brutally difficult golf course with her short game and her mind, and that is a different kind of impressive. Charlie Hull's Statement While Korda was grinding out pars, Charlie Hull was doing something historic of her own — tying the record for the lowest closing 36 holes ever shot at a US Women's Open. 65-67 on the weekend. And on the final hole, with no one else making birdies at 18 all day, Hull birdied to apply maximum pressure. Here is the number that should stop you. Charlie Hull now has five runner-up finishes in major championships. The only player in LPGA history with more without a win is Ayako Okamoto, a generation ago, with six. Most of the time that kind of number carries the weight of heartbreak — think Colin Montgomerie, think peak prime Rory before his major win. But that is not how this feels with Charlie Hull. There is no sense of when will this ever happen. There is a sense that it is simply a matter of time. Part of that is her personality. Charlie Hull does not put up with slow play. She is a firebrand. Her quotes before both Saturday and Sunday were essentially the same sentiment — let's go for it, whatever happens happens. And then she went out and lit up the golf course both days. If she had completed the comeback and won, her celebration would have been a moment women's golf would be talking about for years. The Moment That Almost Was Korda's putt on the final hole — the one that would have forced a playoff with Hull and Gabby Lopez — lipped in instead of out. Her reaction afterward suggested she genuinely thought she had missed it. For a moment, the door was open. Hull was right there. And the LPGA was one shot away from a playoff between the best player in America and one of the most electric players in the world, on one of the best golf courses anywhere, in primetime. Does Nelly Korda Finally Have Her Rival This is the question that matters most going forward. Nelly Korda has been the best player in the world for stretches now, but she has never really had a defined rival — someone the sport naturally measures her against, head to head, on the biggest stages. Jin Young Ko has been that in the world ranking sense at times, but not in head-to-head moments on major Sundays. Charlie Hull already has a piece of history with Korda — she beat her in singles at the 2024 Solheim Cup. Now add a major Sunday at Riviera where Hull pushed Korda to the very edge. The pieces are there for something the LPGA has been missing — the best player in America and one of the best players in Europe, squaring off multiple times a year on the sport's biggest stages, with genuine stakes every time. Gabby Lopez Should Not Be Forgotten It is worth noting that Gabby Lopez was very much part of this story too — a veteran in her thirties who has restructured her entire season around peaking for majors, and who made a clutch birdie on the final hole to stay in contention. If Korda's putt does not go in, this becomes a three-way playoff between three of the most dynamic and different personalities in the sport. What Comes Next The Solheim Cup is in Amsterdam later this year. If Korda and Hull end up on opposite teams again, after everything that just happened at Riviera, that is appointment viewing. The LPGA has to be thrilled with how this tournament played out — not just for the ratings of one Sunday, but for what it might mean for the next several years of the sport. Korda vs Hull. This might just be getting started. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Golf's Longest Day — The Purest Meritocracy in Sports There is no other day like it in professional sports. On Golf's Longest Day, US Open qualifying happens simultaneously across the entire country. Major champions. PGA Tour winners. High schoolers with an algebra final a month behind them. All of them tee it up on the same golf course, playing for the same spots, with one rule that determines everything — shoot the number, and you are in. Miss it, and you are not. Nothing else matters. Trey Wingo and Justin Ray break down everything that happened — the stories, the surprises, and why this day might be the most beautiful thing in all of sports. The Pure Meritocracy This is the thing that separates golf from every other sport. You do not give a sixteen-year-old a wild card to play Rafael Nadal in the first round of the French Open. It does not happen. But on Golf's Longest Day, a teenager with a low enough handicap can tee it up alongside Sergio Garcia, Graham McDowell, and Max Homa — and if he shoots the number and they do not, he is going to the US Open and they are not. Justin Ray's analogy says it best — it is like walking into Lifetime Fitness, finding fifty guys playing pickup basketball, and discovering that whoever wins king of the mountain gets the twelfth spot on the bench for game four of the NBA Finals. It sounds absurd. It is absurd. And it is exactly what makes this day so great. Who Got In JB Holmes qualified for his first US Open since 2019 — Justin admits he did not even realize Holmes was still playing professionally. Graham McDowell, the 2010 US Open champion, qualified despite a difficult stretch on LIV. Billy Horschel fought his way in while coming back from injury. Neil Shipley, one of the most charismatic young players in the game, qualified again. And then there is the story of the day. Miles Russell, a high schooler, qualified for the US Open — with Charlie Woods on his bag. Tiger Woods' son, caddying for a fellow high schooler at a US Open qualifier. Logan Riley, a rising sophomore at Auburn, made the putt to win the national championship for Auburn — and five days later qualified for the US Open, calling it the best week of his life. Ben Coles won on the Corn Ferry Tour on Sunday in South Carolina, sprinted to catch his flight, landed exhausted, and qualified the next day — calling it the craziest 24 hours of his life. Who Did Not Get In Denny McCarthy — arguably the best putter on the PGA Tour for the last five or six years — did not qualify. Blades Brown, who recently earned special temporary PGA Tour membership, is sitting as an alternate. Max Homa, one of the most beloved players in the game, did not make it. Sergio Garcia, Abraham Ancer, Eugenio Chacarra, and Cam Davis and Taylor Pendrith — both hoping to make Presidents Cup cases — all missed out. Tony Finau, who had played in 33 consecutive majors, did not qualify either, though his reaction was pure class — he simply shifted his focus to qualifying for the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale instead. The Logistics Nobody Thinks About Where you choose to play your qualifier matters. The site closest to the Memorial Tournament traditionally draws the strongest field — players finishing up at Muirfield Village on Sunday can get there easily. Dallas drew a massive field this year, partly because of the international airport, which is exactly how Graham McDowell pulled off the logistics of playing in Spain on LIV one day and qualifying in Texas the next. Some players choose their site based purely on logistics. Others choose based on which golf course best fits their game statistically. It is an entire strategic layer most fans never think about. The Broadcast Challenge Covering Golf's Longest Day might be the hardest live television assignment in sports. A hundred-plus players, balls in the air everywhere, simultaneously, across multiple states — and you cannot send a full production crew to ten different sites. NBC's coverage, back on the air for this event after years away, used field producers jumping from location to location with one or two fixed cameras at each site. Trey compares it to draft day three — chaotic, scrambling, and somehow always delivering great stories anyway. Why It Matters There is no other sport where this could happen. Not basketball. Not tennis. Not football. Golf's Longest Day is pure, simple, and completely fair — and it produces some of the best stories of the entire year. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Tim Legler on Why the NBA Is in the Healthiest Place It Has Been in Years Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. The NBA Finals are at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks have not won a championship in fifty-three years. Victor Wembanyama is making his Finals debut. Jalen Brunson is playing the best basketball of his life. And the ratings for the first two games are up ninety percent from a year ago. The league is healthy. And Tim Legler — one of the most respected analysts in the business, someone who has been inside the NBA for thirty years as a player, broadcaster, and analyst — is here to explain exactly why. And to be honest about the things that are not working too. The ratings story Last year's NBA Finals were a ratings disaster. Every single game except game seven was outrated by the NFL's Hall of Fame preseason game — a game where no starters play and nobody actually watches on purpose. That is how bad it was. This year is completely different. Knicks versus Spurs. New York versus the most fascinating young player the league has produced in a generation. The biggest media market in the country finally has a team worth watching on the biggest stage. Ratings up ninety percent through two games. The league needed this. It got it. The ticket price problem Here is the other side of that story. A pair of courtside seats for game three at MSG was going for approximately three hundred thousand dollars on the secondary market. Three hundred thousand dollars. For one game. Tim Legler's answer — a finance major who went to Wharton after his NBA career — is supply and demand. One hundred and one. The demand exists because the moment is real. The city has waited fifty-three years. If you want to be in that building you are going to pay for the privilege. But Josh Hart said it publicly and he was right — it is unfortunate for the die-hard fans who have waited their whole lives for this and cannot get into the building because the market has priced them out. Both things are true simultaneously. The media deal — year one growing pains The new NBA media landscape brought Amazon and NBC in while Turner moved out. The result in year one — fans confused about where to find the games they want. Legler heard it everywhere. Airport layovers. Restaurant meals. People stopping him. Where is the game tonight? His take — it is a year one problem not a permanent one. The content is all there. You just have to work a little harder to find it. Year two will be smoother. Change is hard. The landscape of entertainment has changed across the board and the NBA is not exempt from that adjustment period. But here is what matters — the Finals are delivering. And a two month run of great playoff basketball can make up for a lot of regular season frustration. That is the NBA's great advantage. It always has this in its pocket starting April fifteenth. The best players on earth playing as hard as they can. Desperate to win. Nothing in sports quite matches it at its best. And right now it is at its best. The Spurs dynasty — the luckiest team in sports LeBron James said it — the San Antonio Spurs are the luckiest team he has ever seen. David Robinson. Tim Duncan. Kawhi Leonard. Victor Wembanyama. How does one franchise keep landing in the right place at exactly the right moment? Legler's answer — you cannot whiff on those picks. When circumstances put you in position to draft generational talent you have to hit. The Spurs have hit every single time. And it is not just the talent. It is the character they draft. The maturity. The leadership. Wembanyama pauses for ten seconds before answering a question because he wants to give you something real. That is who he is. That is who the Spurs draft. And Mitch Johnson — replacing Greg Popovich, one of the greatest coaches in NBA history — has been impressive in ways nobody quite expected. His communication. His leadership instincts. His ability to know when to push and when to support. The Spurs are going to be very good for a very long time. Where the league goes from here The regular season is still a problem. Load management. Tanking. Stars missing games. Fans paying to watch their team and finding out their player is resting. The league knows it. They are working on it. Some of it is almost impossible to solve because it is a mentality not a rule. But the direction is right. The young stars are arriving — Wemby, Cooper Flagg, and a new generation that is going to carry this league for the next decade. The business is strong. The Finals are electric. And for the first time in a few years the NBA heading into its offseason with real momentum. Tim Legler on why the league is in the healthiest place it has been in years. And what still needs to get fixed. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Pick That Got Away — Sean Payton on Almost Drafting Patrick Mahomes Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order. In the 2017 NFL Draft the New Orleans Saints had two players circled at their pick. Two names. Two possibilities. And when the pick before Buffalo came off the board Sean Payton and his staff knew immediately — they were getting one of them. One of them was Marshon Lattimore. The other was Patrick Mahomes. What happened next is one of the most extraordinary stories in NFL draft history. And Sean Payton is telling it in full for the first time. Here is the scene. The Saints are in their draft room. Drew Brees is there — the first time he has ever been in a draft room — taking a group on a tour, planning to stay for the first round. Jordan Spieth and Ryan Palmer are there with their caddies and their yardage books because the golf tournament was in town. The first round is moving. Kansas City is picking at twenty-seven. The Saints are sitting with two names in the circle waiting to see which one falls to them. And then Buffalo makes a trade. The moment Kansas City traded up Sean Payton knew. He did not need reports. He did not need a tip. He looked at the trade and he knew immediately what a move like that meant. A team does not trade up like that for a running back. A team does not trade up like that for a linebacker. A team trades up like that for a quarterback. Three words. Said out loud in the Saints draft room. There goes Mahomes. Drew Brees was standing right there. Payton pulled him aside. Told him this thing could go in a direction. Brees understood. It was 2017 — it was not going to impact him immediately. But everyone in that room understood what had just happened. Kansas City had just changed the NFL. The Saints ended up with Lattimore. And Alvin Kamara in the third round. And Trey Hendrickson. And Alex Anzalone. Lattimore won Defensive Rookie of the Year. Kamara won Offensive Rookie of the Year. The Saints could not pay all of them. It was one of the greatest drafts in franchise history. By the time 2017 arrived the Super Bowl roster from 2009 had been almost completely turned over — Drew Brees and maybe one or two others were the only holdovers. The 2017 draft rebuilt the Saints the same way the 2006 draft had built them the first time. But the Mahomes question will always be there. What if Kansas City had not traded up? What if Payton had gotten to make that decision — Mahomes or Lattimore with Drew Brees still in the building? What does the NFL look like if Patrick Mahomes spends his career in New Orleans? What does it look like for Buffalo — the team that made the trade with Kansas City — who has watched Mahomes eliminate them from the playoffs more times than any fan base wants to count? These are the questions that never get answered. The picks that got away never do. But now at least the full story of how close it actually was — two names in the circle, one trade, three words said out loud in a room with Drew Brees and Jordan Spieth watching — is on the record. There goes Mahomes. And those are straight facts, homie. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jordan. Kobe. LeBron. Who Is Next? Tim Legler on Cooper Flagg Wemby and Luka. Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/WINGO #squarepod #sponsored Every era of the NBA has had a face. A player so dominant, so compelling, so must-watch that the whole league rises around them. When that player is at their peak the Finals ratings set records. The casual fan tunes in. The cultural conversation follows. Jordan gave the league six championships and a global brand that still prints money thirty years later. Kobe gave it obsession and Mamba mentality and a Los Angeles dynasty that defined a generation of basketball fans. LeBron gave it two decades of dominance across four franchises and a level of sustained excellence that may never be replicated. And then — since 2018 — the throne has been empty. The Warriors run was extraordinary but it was a team story not a face story. The bubble Finals happened in a vacuum. The ratings dipped. The casual fan drifted. The NBA has been searching for its next face ever since. Right now there are three candidates. And Tim Legler — one of the most respected analysts in the business — breaks down the case for each one. Where they are. What they have done. What they still have to prove. And which one he thinks gets there. Cooper Flagg Only the second player since Michael Jordan to lead his team in points rebounds assists and steals as a rookie. That stat alone tells you everything about the completeness of his game. Legler says everything you need to be the face of the NBA is already there — the competitive nature, the all-around game, the media presence. He is built for the moment. The challenge is circumstance. He is on a team in complete transition. New coach. Roster questions. He is not going to walk into a situation where winning is easy or immediate. The face of the NBA needs to win. It is going to take time to build the right team around him. But the talent and the intangibles are not in question. Cooper Flagg has everything. Victor Wembanyama Every game Legler watched Wemby play last year there was at least one moment where he thought — that is the only person on earth who could have done what he just did. Seven feet five. Handles like a guard. Shoots from anywhere. Blocks shots from angles that should be physically impossible. The intrigue is unlike anything the NBA has had since Shaquille O'Neal walked into the league — and even that comparison undersells how unique Wemby actually is. The challenge is comfort. He is twenty-two. He is foreign-born. He is introspective and thoughtful and takes ten seconds before answering a question because he wants to give you something real. That quality is admirable. But the face of the NBA has to connect with a national audience that does not yet feel like it knows him. That trust and openness will come. Legler believes it comes in the next two to three years as he gets more comfortable and more accessible. When it does — and the talent is already there — this thing could be over very quickly. Wemby becomes the face and nobody debates it. Luka Doncic He has been to a Finals. He has done extraordinary things in Los Angeles. He is one of the most skilled offensive players the league has ever produced. The case for Luka is real and it has been real for several years now. The challenge is winning. Oklahoma City is not going anywhere. San Antonio is not going anywhere. The Western Conference is loaded with young talent that is only going to get better. The Lakers are navigating the post-LeBron era and nobody knows exactly what that team looks like in two or three years. Luka needs to win big. Win deep into the playoffs. Win a championship. The face of the NBA cannot just be a great player — it has to be a great player who wins. And that chapter for Luka is still being written. The bigger picture The NBA is in a fascinating moment. The ratings for these Finals are up ninety percent from last year. The next generation is arriving in real time — Wemby in his first Finals, Flagg finishing a historic rookie season, Luka entering his prime. The casual fan is coming back. The cultural conversation is shifting back toward basketball. But the league is always better — always more must-watch, always more culturally relevant — when there is one name above all the others. One face on the poster. One player that even someone who does not follow basketball closely knows and cares about. Jordan had it for a decade. Kobe had it for a decade. LeBron had it for two decades. The throne is ready. Three players are standing right next to it. Tim Legler on which one sits down first. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Patrick Mahomes Just Became the First Half Billion Dollar Player in NFL History Go to https://kachava.com and use code WINGO for 15% off your first order On June 9th the Kansas City Chiefs reset the NFL landscape. Again. Patrick Mahomes signed a new contract extension that adds two years to his deal — keeping him in Kansas City through 2033 — and brings the total value of his contract to $504.75 million. With incentives, he can earn up to $522 million. The new money in this deal is $239 million, and the average annual value comes out to $64 million per year, a new record for the highest annual salary in NFL history. He is now, officially, the first half billion dollar player the NFL has ever had. This is the third time the Chiefs and Mahomes have reset the quarterback market — and all three times have come under GM Brett Veach. Since 2022, Kansas City has now committed $689 million in new money to Patrick Mahomes. Why It Is Still a Bargain Half a billion dollars sounds absurd until you put it next to the other number the Chiefs just signed off on — a $3.3 billion stadium deal, including a new $300 million practice facility, on what has been described as a team-friendly arrangement with the state of Kansas. That stadium deal does not happen without Patrick Mahomes. Five Super Bowl appearances. Three championships. Three-time Super Bowl MVP. Two-time regular season MVP. The Chiefs went from one Super Bowl win in 1970 to a fifty-year drought before Mahomes arrived and changed everything. Compare half a billion dollars to $3.3 billion and the math works out fine for Kansas City. What This Means for the Roster Contract extensions like this are not just about paying the quarterback — they are roster construction tools. By extending Mahomes further into the future, the Chiefs create salary cap flexibility right now. This is the same approach that allowed them to completely rebuild their offensive line after the Super Bowl LV loss to Tampa Bay — trading for Joe Thuney, drafting Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith, and turning a weakness into a strength. Expect a similar response now. The Chiefs have been connected to a potential trade for Jawaan Taylor given their depth at tackle, and the front office’s entire approach is built around keeping Mahomes healthy and surrounding him with talent. All indications are that he will be ready for Week One — Monday Night Football against the Denver Broncos. The Second Wave Trey draws the comparison directly to the New England Patriots dynasty — which was really two separate runs held together by Brady, Belichick, and Robert Kraft. The first wave of this Chiefs dynasty was Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and Tyreek Hill. The second wave is being built right now — Mahomes, Rashee Rice, Xavier Worthy, and a young core of defensive talent including this year’s draft picks out of Clemson and the cornerback room. This past season was the first time since Mahomes became the starter in 2018 that the Chiefs did not reach the AFC Championship Game — derailed by the knee injury he suffered in December at Arrowhead. Every other year, at minimum the AFC title game. The Chiefs are betting half a billion dollars that this was a blip, not the end of an era. The Competition: The AFC is loaded. Bo Nix and the Broncos won the AFC West last season. Justin Herbert and the Chargers are knocking on the door. Josh Allen and the Bills are still chasing their first breakthrough past Mahomes. Joe Burrow and the Bengals remain dangerous. And now Drake May and the Patriots — fresh off acquiring AJ Brown — are entering the conversation as well. The Chiefs know exactly what they are up against. And their answer is to make sure the foundation of everything — Patrick Mahomes — is locked in, motivated, and set up for as long as possible to keep this dynasty’s second chapter alive. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.