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00:00And we are back for El Coast to Coast on a Wednesday, and yes, it is a Golf Wednesday on C2C.
00:07I know we had no Prime Minister last hour.
00:09We're still going to do the picks later on, and we always have Keith Stewart from Read the Line every Wednesday,
00:15as this week he comes to us from just a little bit south of us, the city of brotherly love, the Philadelphia Cricket Club,
00:22as we get ready for the truest championship formerly known as the Wells Fargo,
00:28usually taken at Quail Hollow, but this year in Philly.
00:32Keith, it's good to see you as always. How are you?
00:34Mike, good afternoon on a Golf Wednesday, and you're going to have to wait a week if you want to see me at Quail Hollow.
00:39I'm down here at the Wissahickon course, Philly Cricket Country Club. Let's get after it.
00:45The Wissahickon. Listen, I'm only going to spend one minute on this.
00:49We had a feeling that Scotty might do that last week, but I thought he would run away.
00:54253? 31 under? I mean, geez.
00:57I mean, did he have to also go in it? Did he take their money out of their lockers afterwards, too, Keith?
01:02Like, honestly, Scotty, give everybody a break down there.
01:05Mike, he had 40 scoring chances. You know, that's like birdie putts or opportunities inside of 20 feet.
01:11He had 29 birdies, three eagles. I mean, a partridge and a pear tree.
01:15What do you want from the guy? 31 under, and he limped in on the last two holes. Unbelievable.
01:20But what's interesting to me about Scotty, and the one thing I want to bring up, is that why isn't he here?
01:25Now, generally, here's the thing, and think about this going into next week, right?
01:29Consider this much. This is the one signature event this time of year that he always seems to skip.
01:34Now, what's interesting about that is that I get that he's skipping it again this year,
01:38but in previous years, it's been at Quail Hollow. The only time he's ever played Quail Hollow was the 2022 President's Cup.
01:45So, just food for thought for next week, but I'm surprised after 31 under that he isn't here to try to rack up a couple more FedEx points.
01:53You know, he needs him.
01:55Oh, he needs him. I'm sure that he does.
01:56All right, let's get to this place now, Keith, because this is a rare week for us.
02:01Usually, whatever event we're at other than majors, we've got lots of course history.
02:05We know the place very well. That is not the case here with the Philadelphia Country Cricket Club,
02:11where we're going to be for the truest.
02:13Now, it is a signature event. There's a lot of money on the line, but we don't know this place at all.
02:18Keith, tell me about this place. You've been there now.
02:20Mike, well, I'll tell you what. The course has history, just not history with the PGA Tour.
02:251922, AW Tillinghast Design.
02:28Now, around New York City, you're talking about places like Beth Page Black.
02:32You're talking about Wingfoot. But here's the thing.
02:34Those are big, brawny, and you've got to love the green complexes.
02:38Well, that's the only thing that transitions over to this place.
02:41It's a little short, par 70, 7,100 yards.
02:44You look at the front nine, there's only one hole over 440, and that's a par 5.
02:48I think this thing is going to be a scoring fest.
02:50Just looking at it, it's soft already, and we expect, I won't ruin it for you yet,
02:55but we do expect some wet weather.
02:57But it is soft already. These guys are already talking about it.
03:00I asked Rory this morning at his press conference, I said,
03:02hey, how are you going to attack this place? Positionally, or are you going to let the shaft
03:06out of the driver? And he said, well, you know, Keith, it's interesting.
03:08They've got these cross bunkers on some of these soft dog legs where I can definitely
03:12carry them at about 310, and it puts me in perfect position.
03:15Oh, so at 310, he's not worried about anything, all the troubles behind him.
03:19So guys like him, Wyndham, right? Ludwig, all of these guys that are super bombers,
03:24they're going to have an advantage. Another Keith's key.
03:26The one skill that translates when you have a new venue, and there's 72 guys in the field,
03:31so we have 72 rookies here at the Wissahickon course. That is putting. It translates all the
03:36time. If you're a good putter, not only can you control your speed, but you can read greens,
03:40and they're new greens to everybody. It's a Tillinghast design, like I mentioned,
03:43the green complex. It's going to be complex, right? They're going to be tough to read.
03:48It's going to be tough to make a lot of putts. So, so far, driver, putter, and then guess what?
03:52This place has 118 bunkers, Carver. 118. 60 around the green. So if you don't pick some guys
04:00that can bomb it, putt it, and have a little bit of sand acumen, then you're going to be sorry.
04:06Yeah, I saw that Rory response, Keith, made the rounds a lot this morning, all throughout social
04:11media, and he basically did say, you know, I'm just like, he mentioned, didn't he mention Oak Hill,
04:16I believe, Oakmont, or I forget where he mentioned that. Oak Hill. He said, Oak Hill, he said,
04:21I'm just, you know, just bomb it out there, and we'll figure it out on the second shot.
04:25That seems to be what his strategy is going to. Now, not everybody can do that, Keith.
04:29Not everybody can just bomb it out there and figure it out on the second shot.
04:34Yeah, but the last time I checked, there's only a need for one winner, right? So all of your guys,
04:38your Henleys, your Morikawas, all those guys that hit it 280, 285, they're going to be landing
04:43where all those fairway bunkers are. The longer guys I mentioned earlier, maybe Burns,
04:47Wyndham, Ludwig, all those guys, they're going to be past all that stuff. And, you know,
04:51they talked about in the golf course superintendents report, they said, oh, three inches of rough.
04:55It's May in Philly, New Jersey, New York. There's no grass out here. There's no rough. These guys,
05:00the ball's basically, it's freewheeling with the driver. That's where I would start to build my
05:05betting card.
05:07What's the deal with the weather? You made a little reference there. What's going on with
05:11the weather over the next four days?
05:12I don't want to ruin your mood, but it's been soft to begin with. Today's been an absolutely
05:17gorgeous day for the Creator Classic. We'll get them out of here because starting tomorrow
05:21afternoon, we're going to get a storm system between Thursday around 4 or 5 p.m. and Friday
05:274 or 5 p.m. That 24-hour window, we're looking at about an inch and a half of rain if we get what
05:32is forecasted. And that's only going to make this place softer for the 72 guys for the weekend.
05:36You think 31 under was low? I think there'll be multiple guys in the 20s.
05:42Competing for this thing by the time Sunday wraps up.
05:45And I guess that's why, Keith, they're doing threesomes, obviously, with the 72 because of
05:51the weather tomorrow. Is that why they're sending them out on split T's and threes?
05:55That's why they're sending them out on split T's and threes. I'm not quite sure why they're
05:59doing it later and not earlier. You'd have to call Jay on the jet for that one. I don't know.
06:05I really don't.
06:06I'm not. Jay lost my number. He's not going to answer, receive it. He's not going to take any
06:10of my calls anymore. He's not taking mine.
06:14And then we're going to get into your card after the break. As usual, I love when we're
06:18reading the same mail. Could be a good week for Patrick Cantlay, Keith. I like hearing
06:23that, maybe. Tell me about Pat.
06:26All right. Real quickly, not a lot of heat around him. Everyone's talking about Rory and
06:32Xander and those guys, kind of JT. Everyone in the press conferences today, all three of those
06:36guys spoke. All three of them mentioned a mindset where they were preparing themselves.
06:41Well, for what? You'd be ready for this week if you were going on Thursday, but they're
06:45talking about quail hollow. I kind of think Patrick slips in there and in the mid Atlantic,
06:50well, we'll get to it in the outrights, but he's a really nice fit here and he's had a ton
06:53of success in the past.