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00:00This week, the best golfers in the world start their European
00:06vacation. It's the Scottish Open this week before the final
00:10major championship of the year next week at Royal Troon, the
00:14Open Championship in 2024 and then following, we head to
00:18Paris for some Olympic golf as well in a busy time in the
00:23world of golf as we already look forward to 2025's Ryder Cup as
00:27well. We're some big bombshell news this week. Keith Stewart is
00:30here for the next two segments live on this Tuesday on the
00:34early line on SportsGrid. Keith, thank you so much for taking the
00:37time to join us here on TEL. Ben, I love the way you put
00:41that. Good morning on a Tuesday. These guys are on vacation over
00:45in Scotland. It's 57 and raining over there right now. Pack your
00:49umbrella. Honestly, Keith, it's 84 degrees in this SportsGrid
00:53studio in Midtown Manhattan. Fifty-seven and raining doesn't
00:55sound that bad at this moment. But Keith, before we look
00:59forward, let's look back when you were here last week getting
01:02ready for the John Deere Classic, a TPC Deere run. We
01:05asked you some of those early leans on the early line. You
01:08went a little bit deeper down the board and you highlighted
01:11Davis Thompson who won his first PGA Tour event at nearly 30
01:16under par in the Quad Cities featuring a front 929 in his
01:22final round on Sunday. What was it about Thompson's game that
01:25you thought he might be able to break through for his first PGA
01:28Tour career victory last week in the Quad Cities? Well, I'll
01:33tell you what this kid has been a stud since his days at
01:35Georgia. He was the number one ranked amateur player in the
01:38world when he was a senior. He won the NCA regionals a couple
01:41times and now this being his second year out on tour.
01:45Everyone was just waiting for him to win and he was trending
01:48unbelievably ninth at the US Open second at the Rocket
01:51Mortgage and he had been playing so well because the
01:53driver, which had been a weapon for him in college, the kid's
01:566'4 and absolutely, he just rips it off the tee, had been
02:01kind of a problem for him, had plagued him at points in his
02:04professional career, but he's got it figured out right now
02:07and as a result, he can score. There's no doubt. I mean 126
02:11over the weekend. There was no Sunday sweat. I don't care what
02:14the temperature is in that studio. You were calm, cool,
02:16and collected with that bet because we took it to the
02:19window on Sunday. How about this? Let's talk about some
02:22other players there and some young up and coming golfers,
02:24which includes Luke Clanton, who if you watched on Sunday,
02:27shot a minus eight to drop his score to minus 24, which is
02:31tied for a second and a check that's estimated around 712
02:35thousand dollars. Congratulations to the kid, but
02:38oh no, Keith. He's an amateur. He can't dip into that prize
02:42pool. Why can't we say after the tournament? You know what
02:44I'm going pro. I'm taking the 712 and away I go as a 20 year
02:48old with my PGA tour card and and hopefully at that point,
02:51why can't we cast these tickets here? Keith Donnie? You know
02:55there's a million things in golf. I look at every week and
02:57that that slipped by me and I tell you what you're absolutely
03:00right in the day and age of NIL. Why is this kid not getting
03:04paid? It's the most absurd thing I've ever heard of. I
03:07mean, honestly give the kid the check. I mean there are guys
03:10and women making money in college sports that double that
03:14that triple that quadruple that I mean, Brody James. That's
03:17like a t-shirt deal for him. I mean give the kid the 700k. I
03:20mean at least he's proven himself as an athlete.
03:24Absolutely. So maybe his NIL deal now in college will be
03:27better because of his performance at the TPC deer run
03:31John Deere classic. The things that slip by even the most
03:35astute golf fans never get by Donnie right side. He thinks
03:39that my co-host fixates on each and every week always astound
03:44me. Now we go this week to the Scottish Open over across the
03:48pond as all the best in the world get ready to sharpen the
03:52iron for next week at Royal Troon in the 2024 Open
03:56Championship. The reigning champ at the Scottish Open that
03:59would be one Rory McIlroy. He enters this week as the
04:03favorite plus 750. No Scottish Sheffler at the Scottish Open
04:08seems like a misbranding and NIL opportunities. Andrew
04:11Shuffley second best price at plus 850 Colin Morikawa rounds
04:16out the top three at 14 to one keeps some of the best in the
04:20world a part of the Scottish Open. How do you expect them to
04:23fare this week ahead of the Open Championship? I think the
04:27toughest spot for Rory is going to be the press room on
04:30Wednesday when he has to answer questions about the US Open
04:33quite honestly this golf course is set up perfect for him. The
04:36Renaissance Club is now in its sixth edition of the Scottish
04:39Open and it's third year of this co-sanctioned event with
04:41the DP World Tour. The first two years was won by Zander and
04:45then backed up last year by Rory and I tell you what the
04:48weather is always going to play a role over there and I have to
04:51put up that green screen behind me and go all Al Roker on you
04:54guys, but it is raining today out there. It is below 60
04:57degrees and the wind is somewhat blowing. It is going
05:00to rain every day this week there according to the forecast,
05:02but the wind is going to subside and if you don't have
05:05wind over there, these guys are going to go low. I mean Zander
05:08won in his edition in 2022 at seven under par and and guys
05:13have won Bernd Weisgerber won way back in 2018. He won it at
05:1922 under par. So it tells you if you don't get wind at this
05:21place, you can go deep and those two guys Zander and Rory
05:25are the perfect archetype player for what's going to happen
05:27there. You've got to be able to hit all long off the tee.
05:30There's very little penalty for missing the fairway there at
05:33the Renaissance Club and the second thing is you have to be
05:35able to putt and when you go across seas, the greens are
05:38going to be slower. So you have to be able to adjust and you
05:40have to be able to putt from long distance. Sometimes that
05:43might even be off the green and that's something that both
05:45Rory and Zander can do very well. Colin as well, but I
05:49wonder about his length. So as far as the favorites go,
05:52there's a good chance of Rory can you know put the US open
05:55behind him that he wins this thing by five because it's the
05:58perfect golf course for him. We love that long money out here.
06:02Keith. Let's take a look at some of these guys a little bit
06:04farther down in those price points because this is a really
06:06good field for the Scottish open a lot of big names with
06:08some good money behind him. There's no doubt about that and
06:12there's one guy I have my eye on and he won here in 2020 and
06:16he's been a name that everyone's been talking about
06:18on your channel and every other channel for the last couple
06:20weeks and that's Aaron Rye. He started the week yesterday at
06:23the odds drop at plus 5500. He's already dropped down to
06:27plus 4500. He finished what second there at the Rocket
06:30Mortgage. He was top ten again at the John Deere Classic and
06:33the reason for that is that this guy's always been an
06:35incredible ball striker, but guess what he's going to see
06:38John Graham PGA professional and putting coach out there on
06:41tour and he's turned around the putting he gained almost nine
06:44strokes at TPC Deere run and that led him into that top ten
06:48position and contending on Sunday. I love Rye coming back
06:51to a place that he's won and guess what with bad weather the
06:54guy already wears two gloves. He'll be ready for any kind of
06:58situation out there when it comes to the Scottish open
07:02North Berwick Scotland and then we go to the west coast of
07:05Scotland for the 2024 Open Championship at Royal Troon next
07:10week. The final major of this year in golf and we're already
07:15looking forward to 2025 in the Ryder Cup. You bet your bottom
07:19dollar at Beth Page. Keith will talk about it next big news in
07:23the golf world yesterday for the 2025 Ryder Cup out on Long
07:28Island at Beth Page Black on home soil. The captain for the
07:33Americans that is Keegan Bradley. Keith Stewart joins us
07:37once again live right here for a second consecutive segment.
07:41Keith. There was some reporting around who the captain would
07:44potentially be for the United States in the 2025 Ryder Cup on
07:49home soil. Maybe one known as the big cat Eldrick Tiger
07:53Woods. He's not the captain. It's Keegan Bradley. What was
07:57your reaction to the news that Bradley will lead in the
08:00captaincy for the US in 2025? Well, Ben, I sit in an
08:05interesting position. Um when I was out in Valhalla, I was the
08:08betting lead for the PGA of America. So, uh I'm behind the
08:12curtain a little bit. It was not going to be Tiger. Uh Tiger
08:15had turned it down on several occasions. They they were
08:18holding out hope but at the end of the day, I don't think Beth
08:21Page that setting and all that's going on in his world
08:24right now. That becomes a positive situation for him. I
08:27know that all of golf Twitter wants Tiger to be the captain
08:30but at the end of the day, is he really the best choice? I
08:33mean, we know that Zach Johnson wasn't the best choice in Rome
08:36but you know, an unproven entity like Tiger and what he
08:40did as a playing captain at the President's Cup down in 2019 in
08:44Australia. I don't feel that that applies as much. The
08:46microscope on the Ryder Cup runs far deeper than it does
08:49for the President's Cup and I think that Tiger in New York
08:52Tiger as a road captain would be would be a much better fit
08:55for me as they go over to Ireland in 2027. Keith, I love
09:00the Ryder Cup. I just think it's a sensational playing
09:03field stage and for a while six out of seven wins there for
09:06team Europe and then you take a look at the last four have been
09:08split and home court advantage. Should we say home course
09:12advantage makes a lot of sense in those last four. Let me ask
09:15you this question about the playing field itself. Live
09:17golfers, PGA tour golfers or is there going to be any people
09:21left out because they play on the live golf tour as opposed
09:23to the PGA tour? Well, Donnie, I think that this decision to
09:27take Keegan sets a lot of precedence by the PGA of
09:30America. Number one, everyone gets this confused. The PGA of
09:34America is not the PGA tour. So the group that I am a member of
09:38the PGA of America, they run the US side of the Ryder Cup.
09:41They are making decisions based upon what they feel is best for
09:44team USA. Remember, Brooks earned a spot on that team back
09:48in Rome for last fall and he was on the live tour and
09:53captain Zach Johnson took him with him. So at the end of the
09:56day, I think that this bodes very well for the Brysons and
09:59the Brooks of the world. I mean, you want to talk about
10:01live controversy. This should have been Phil's team. This was
10:05Phil's team. He was going to go to New York and captain them at
10:08Beth Page Black and probably against somebody like Ian
10:11Poulter and could you imagine the theater that that would
10:14have created out on Long Island and we don't get that right now
10:17because of the dispute between the live tour and the PGA tour.
10:21Well, I think the PGA of America is saying you know what
10:24it's we're all sick of this. We are going to pick the person
10:27who we think is going to put the best team chemistry together
10:30who is going to take this thing like Herb Brooks in 1980 and go
10:33after that European juggernaut and it's going to make it our
10:37time. It's no longer their time. No more six out of seven.
10:41This is our time, Donny. Wow. Keith Stewart might need to be
10:45in that locker room with Keegan Bradley as well. So,
10:49Keith, there's an idea about who is not the captain, right?
10:52We mentioned Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson but Keegan
10:55Bradley, his Twitter bio is the people's golfer. What will
11:00Keegan Bradley bring to Team USA as its captain for the 2025
11:04Ryder Cup? Well, I think Keegan Bradley is going to bring to the
11:08team is a little bit of unsettledness. You know, you
11:11ever watch Keegan Bradley play? He's very fidgety. He is very
11:14in-your-face and he is an incredible ball striker. I
11:17think he's going to put these guys on edge and that's what we
11:20need. The boys club is officially disbanded. This is
11:23not going to happen again and I am super excited about this.
11:26Everyone on Twitter complained after Rome. We don't like the
11:29way the PGA of America does this. We don't like this. We
11:32don't like this. They have done something completely outside
11:34the box and now everyone's complaining again that this guy
11:37isn't good enough. As far as I'm concerned, Keegan Bradley
11:40plays golf with Michael Jordan all the time. How about three
11:42guys that are out of work right now? Coach K, Nick Saban, and
11:45Bill Belichick. Put them in the locker room instead of a bunch
11:48of guys that are, you know, Davis love disciples. I am sick
11:52of all that. I can't stand it anymore. I want guys that are
11:55going to absolutely go in there and want to just run up and
11:58down the the fairway at Bethpage Black with no shirt on
12:02wrapped in an American flag like Jim Craig did back in 1980.
12:06This is what we need in order to get the job done. Not just
12:09at Bethpage Black, but when we go to Ireland in a couple more
12:12years. I love the change in trajectory here by my
12:15association. Team USA, a minus money favorite to win the 2025
12:21Ryder Cup. That's next September, two Septembers at
12:25minus 145. What a raucous environment and atmosphere it
12:30is going to be on Long Island at Bethpage Black. Keith Stewart,
12:34we appreciate the time. Double duty on this Tuesday here on
12:37the early line.