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00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid. We've got Brady Cannon in the house talking some golf here as we bring Brady in and reminder to take off my glasses as we start the segment. Okay, now they're off.
00:11Hey Brady, great to have you back here on Newswire and you know naturally we're going to, I want to get to the Genesis here a lot. So let's just do a quick recap of the Phoenix Open.
00:19Thomas Dietry, big time long shot, ends up coming through, wins the tournament. Hopefully for him it's a start of some good things this season. I know that you've liked him at different points last season, so I wonder maybe if this is a jumping point for him.
00:33Yeah, he's been a guy that I've been high on here for about a year and a half or so, Craig, and good for him that he finally kicked the door down. This guy has been around for a long time, at least for a few years on the PGA Tour and long before that on the DP World Tour, and he had never had a win in his career.
00:52This is his first professional victory, and he'd come close a number of times. He's done well here at Torrey Pines. You know, he did well at the PGA Championship last year, and yeah, just my dumb luck, right? I've already, this is a very young season. What are we, seven tournaments in or so far in 2025? I bet on him twice already, but of course I wasn't on him last week, but good for Thomas Dietry.
01:16That's the way it goes, but good for him, and he blew the field away. So, you know, I expect more things to come from this guy. He was a guy, again, that I was saying is going to win soon. Unfortunately, I just was not around for the week that he did.
01:30Yeah, no, I know. I remember you mentioning him a ton last year, so there it is. He gets the win. So this week, we're at the Genesis Open. It's a huge tournament, big money at stake, and no surprise that Scottie Scheffler is the favorite, but maybe the bigger surprise is the way that Rory McIlroy has been playing has put him in the two spot in terms of the odds over on FanDuel. He's plus 650 now. I know that you've been on Morikawa. He is 16-1, Justin Thomas, 18-1.
01:54Oberg, another name I remember from last season, too, at 22-1, and Hideki Matsuyama is 22-1. I know that a lot of the discussion, of course, because it is still Tiger Woods, you know, mentioned that Tiger Woods not playing in this tournament, still not mentally ready to go after the passing of his mother.
02:10So, Scottie the favorite, Rory 6-1, and I feel like, I don't know if Rory's going to win this thing, but I know how golf works a little bit, Brady, not as much as you, and I like to ride the hot hand, so I kind of feel like all bets are in play for Rory this week, too.
02:26I don't disagree with you. Everything should set up very well for him, and by the way, the weather's pretty nasty. I've spoken with a couple of friends of mine in the area. It's kind of a consistent drizzle right now, and because you're so close to the ocean, that will feel and accumulate even more so.
02:42I mean, it's possible they could not even finish the round today if you get some collection of puddles and whatnot on the greens, but I think the overall story here is we're going to have some weather. It looks like it's going to clear up a little bit beginning tomorrow morning, and we might be in the clear, you know, midday Friday through the weekend.
03:00So, if we can get through today, I think we're going to be okay, but it's going to be a soft golf course. It's going to be chilly. There's going to be some wind. I think it's going to play extremely difficult. The rough has been grown out since we were here just three weeks ago. Of course, they had to move this because of the fires and Pacific Palisades where we normally play this tournament at Riviera Country Club.
03:22We're back at Torrey Pines. So, the rough has been grown out since we were here a few weeks ago when Harris English won. This is going to play extremely difficult. Torrey Pines has held a couple of U.S. opens before in 2021 and 2008, most recently 2021 when John Rahm won it, but the point is here, guys like Rory McIlroy, the best players in the world, they're all here.
03:46But the best of the best, I think, are going to have an advantage, and especially Rory because he hits it so far. You know, this golf course is nearly 7,800 yards. It is an absolute mammoth of a golf course, and so you're going to have to hit it long, and you're going to have to hit it straight. You don't want to be a short hitter and find yourself in the rough all day long, or it is going to be a real slog.
04:09So, yeah, Rory makes a ton of sense here because of the game that he brings to the table, Craig, and I don't disagree with you writing the hot hand, but I also don't want to be a prisoner of the moment and say, oh, my gosh, Rory's red hot. He's going to win here again this week.
04:23So, I stayed off of him. My shortest shots were Morikawa, who's not the longest guy in the field, but he's deadly accurate, and then Ludwig Oberg, who you mentioned. I did grab him at 25 to 1. He is long, and he is straight. He's done well here in the past, and I think he's healthy.
04:42You remember he got out to a great start here a few weeks ago, and then he caught the flu bug, had to withdraw from Pebble Beach. He's had about 10 days, a couple weeks to recover, so I think he's back 100% and ready to go.
04:55All right, fair enough. Now, we'll check out, of course, all of the players on the tour this week. Rory, four starts on the south course has been fantastic, as we've talked about. So, going through some of the potential names that you like to win the Open, I know that you've alluded to a few of them.
05:11I'm always into these long shots here. I know another name, too, that kind of caught my eye here on your list, Brady, is Tommy Fleetwood, because I know that at different points last year, he's come really close to winning some big events. Is this the week he does it?
05:25I sure hope so. I mean, I love the guy. I think he's very entertaining. He has yet to win a tournament on the PGA Tour, believe it or not, and this is a top 15 player in the world. But I like him here, Craig, because he typically plays his best. His best major has been US Opens.
05:41He's a very good player on difficult golf courses and the conditions. A guy from England, right? He ought to be used to the rain and the fog and the wind, and he hits it very straight. Total driving was probably the statistic I leaned on most this week, hitting it long and straight.
05:58And Tommy Fleetwood is one of the best in the world at that. He's got a very good short game. His irons are spot on. He does everything very, very well. And we've seen his odds. There's a lot of people interested in Tommy Fleetwood this week for, I think, all the reasons above that he plays difficult conditions and golf courses very, very well.
06:18So I think Fleetwood makes a lot of sense. I got him at 47 to 1. I've seen him as low as about 30 to 1. So yeah, you know, Rory, you talk about a European guy, Fleetwood. I also went with some California kids, Maverick McNeely, Akshay Bhatia, and Colin Murakawa. I think they're familiar with the Polanna Greens putting surface, the conditions. So I think guys that are familiar with these elements are going to have an advantage this week.
06:45All right. Well, Brady, good luck. We'll also read your column over at golf.com. Thanks again for coming on. Good luck with all the picks this week. I'll be watching for sure.
06:52Let's hit another one at Torrey Pines, my friend.