Transcript
John Middlecock (0:00)
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John Middlecock (2:11)
The Volume what is going on everybody? John Middlecock three and Out Podcast how are we doing? Hopefully everyone is doing well and probably not as well as JJ Spawn who just won the US Open. JJ Spawn at 120 to 1 on DraftKings before Thursday and he took the first round lead, was 121 to win. So one of my big takeaways or takes coming into this tournament was Cinderella's are dead. I believed it too because of the Xander's, the Rory's, the Schefflers, the Roms, the Brysons. They had just taken over the majors for the last six or seven majors and honestly it hadn't even been that close. And then J.J. spawn, 120 to 1 wins the U.S. open. Very, very cool. Awesome moment for him on really on 17 and 18. It's always cool to see like the underdog bang some like 80 foot putt and like what. How's he going to celebrate? And he's tugging his caddy. So we'll dive into JJ Spawn. The course obviously is a fascinating conversation because do we want chaos? Do we want carnage? I thought I did. And then as a consumer on my couch for the last couple days. So I don't know, is this doing it for me? Do I like some more birdies? Do I like it this difficult? So we'll dive into that. We'll take some of your questions as well. At Golopod is where we do our golf podcast. I think we get some questions about Rory McElroy and his. I don't really know what's going on with Rory, but kind of a bizarre couple months after an incredibly hot start to the year and finally winning the Masters, kind of going the other way somehow. Scottish Eefler still like finished I think in the top 10 at one point in time. It was like a Scottish sheffer a couple putts away from winning this tournament. His floor is incredibly high, but he didn't. And the still photo of him at the end looked like he, he'd had enough, like he just climbed Mount Everest. But you can listen to this podcast if you listen on Collins feed. Make sure you subscribe to three now podcast. We have our own feed, but go low on there as well. Everything goes up on the YouTube channel. You can check that out. We will football podcast coming up this week as well as John Schneider GM for the Seahawks will join us. And we're off and running. But before we talk about any of JJ Spawn's win, you know I got to tell you about my friends, my partners in the official ticketing app of this podcast. Game time. Best ticketing app in America. Just played with golf with my guy Bill Saturday. Guess where he was on Friday night. He was in Las Vegas at the Sphere. He's like, Jon, I've been there like seven times. Seen the Eagles, seen the dead, seen, seen Kenny. Incredible So if you want to go to the sphere, if you want to go to a game, a basketball game. Well, basketball season's ending. Baseball off and running. Just saw my Giants. Buster Posey now runs them trades for Rafael devers. He's got 14 bombs on the season. He's locked up a 10 year contract. No big deal. Posey making moves. 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The course, anytime you go to widely considered the hardest course in America and that's the player saying that that's just not the media or people on the outside. The players are all reiterating this is the hardest course I've ever played. But I truly believed when you factored in the difficulty, my take on the Cinderella was just based on evidence. Ever since the split, we have seen a couple guys rise. Obviously Bryson has, you know, become a dominant, dominant player. He got ejected this week. But Rory, Scotty, Xander, I mean the top guys. And it's not even just the top guys, it's who they're competing with. Down the stretch, right? It was Rory versus Bryson. It's been Scotty versus Morikawa and Ludvig. It's been Scotty versus Rom. It's been, you know, Rory and Xander, Verse Hovland. It's been the top guys all duking it out in the majors for the last couple years. And not since wyndham Clark like 2 years ago have we had like God didn't see that one coming. And even looking back at that one, you saw the picture that went viral from Tron at no laying up, losing his mind in that locker room. But I don't just say things to say them. Like I truly believe, like it's going to be really, really Difficult, given where we're at with technology, given it how far these guys are hitting it and how well the top guys are playing. I mean, Rory's finished in, like, the top seven in the US Open for, like, six straight US Opens and literally finished second the last two. Scotty's on a Tiger, like, run. Listen, say what you want about Bryson. I mean, up until this weekend and really up until Friday, he had been a dominant player in the majors. So it's like, you have some guys. I mean, those three guys, when their careers are over, are going to be known as some of the greatest players of all time. They're in their prime. I mean, Rory's a little older, but they're dominating in these big moments, like, how can you bet against them? And then every once in a while in a sport like this. And this is where it paralleled tennis so perfectly. It's like, and I'm not some huge tennis guy, but for the last 30 years at least, of my life of following sports, when I was young, it was like Agassiz and Sampras. Then it turned into Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, and now it's this crew of, like, Alcatraz and this guy center. And it's just the same guys. Every single Grand Slam are either in the final four or in the finals. And for the most part, if there's a group of three or four of them, two of them are locked to be in the finals. And that's what it felt like golf was going to be like. And then this week happened. And it's one thing golf tournaments are long. Anyone who's been gambling on golf knows that, you know, when you take a first round lead, you can't just, like, put that guy in stone. It's really hard to fend everyone off, obviously. J.J. spahn played excellent on Thursday on a course that was kicking everyone's ass. You had guys struggling to break, like, 75. He shoots four under par. He doesn't make a bogey, and he's just kind of rolling. And he's had an excellent season. He has multiple seconds. I tried to figure out how much money he had made in his career. It's hard because the PGA app is so delayed. I think give or take, he had about he had made. Now he's 34 years old, and he's been on tour for a while, like 12 or 13 million dollars so far in his career, which obviously for most of society is a lot of money. But relative to golfers, you know, nothing crazy, right? This year, coming into this tournament, he will. He had made like five and a half million dollars after today, which I think the Prize was about $4.3 million. He will have made about $10 million this year, so he won't have doubled how much he has made through the course of his career, but he made about 40% of his career earnings in the last six months. He is on an incredible heater this year, and I'm kicking myself, not because I should have bet on him, but I'll never forget. It was probably like January. I'm in the car when I'm driving around running errands in the morning, I typically will flip around between Coward and the Golf Channel and Colt Nose, who works for CBS and his podcast partner, Sleaze. They have a radio show and Colt was saying, I just played with jj I. It might have been the member guest. It might have been the member member or some tournament at Whisper Rock where all the good players play golf here in Scottsdale. And it's like, I'm telling you, this fucking guy is playing at a really, really high level. Obviously, Colt played on the PGA Tour, played at smu, knows what it looks like. So I was like, God. And then I actually think the next week was the Honda in Hawaii. And JJ played really well. And if you've just watched the season, like he became or he was a revolution, I mean, literally a ball revolution at Sawgrass from winning the players in regulation. Then he goes in the extras on Monday, hits it in the water and gets boat raced. It happens. Finishes second, still makes two and a half million dollars or 2.2 million, probably more money than he'd ever made in a tournament in his life. He only had one career win coming into this season. And then today, you know, you're watching, obviously, it's just a complete bloodbath. You're like, what's the final score going to be? It felt like before the rain came, minus two or three. And he's just like, bogey, bogey, bogey. On the second hole, he hits the pin, it goes back like a hundred yards, gets totally boned. I think on the third hole, hits the rake. I mean, he's just getting bad break after bad break. And you're like, I don't even think he's playing that bad. But relative to the other scores, you're like, it just might not be his day. Listen, you're J.J. spawn. You finished fourth or fifth at the U.S. open. That's an incredible accomplishment. Like, that's a really, really big deal. I would bet if I Pulled up JJ Spawn's Wikipedia right now. He has never finished before today in the top five in a major. No chance. Actually, I would. I would 100% bet against that. Looking today. He has never finished. He has one top 25 in his career in majors, and that was at the Masters in 2022. He hasn't even played in the Masters in 23, 24, he played this year. He finished 37th at the PGA Championship. He did not play in a major in 24. He played in one major in 23, and he missed the cut. He played in two majors in 22, and he missed the cut in one of them. He played in one major in 21 and missed the cut. And just a couple weeks ago at the Memorial, he also missed the cut. So this is a guy that, like, you know, it's the crazy part about golf that any moment you get hot, you get in the right position. In a tournament like the US Open, a lot of stuff, like in any golf tournament, a lot of it's out of your control. And luckily, the course just started ejecting guy after guy. I mean, at one point today, it looked like, Sam Burns is going to win the US Open. Sam Burns going to win the US Open. And then you look up, you're like, did Sam Burns. Where'd he finish? Sam Burns finished tied for seventh. Him and Adam Scott. It felt like one of those two guys was going to win it with like, eight or nine holes left. Adam Scott. Adam Scott shot 79 today. Both those guys shot 79 and 78. And JJ Spawn just kept plugging. He kept plugging. He kept plugging. All of a sudden it's like, God, he's even and everyone's over par. And then he fucking drives the green on 17, hits a shot of his life. Honestly, it reminded me a little bit. If you can remember back to 2020, when Colin Morikawa won the PGA Championship at Harding Park. It's 16 or 17. I think it's 17. Cool course, but it's 17 is a drivable par 4. I mean, if you're playing the tips, you got to hit a perfect drive. And he played that cut. He drove the green, tapped in for eagle, and he won the tournament. I mean, it was the reason he won the tournament. When he drove that. That green on 17, you're like, I texted a buddy immediately. I'm like, if he knocks us in for eagle, it's over. And then he two plus for birdie, and you're like, God, he's in pretty good shape. And Then everyone else is falling apart. Hovland, you know, screws, I guess. Hovland made a good chip on 17, but was still a couple back. You're like, I don't know. He's going to need him to bogey and he'd have to birdie. This is going to be JJ's moment. And then he knocks it in on 18. That my take was humbled by the fact that in golf randoms, especially in the U.S. open, like the Masters, there are going to be people that play well there. But the top dogs in golf, especially now that Rory's won it, Scottie Scheffler is obviously extremely comfortable there. You know, Jon Rahm is extremely comfortable there. Right? Those guys are going to be factors if they're playing well. Bryson has kind of figured that out. The PGA Championship, for the most part, does not play like the US Open. So length is a big factor. And if you look, Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm last year, Xander Schoffley, Victor Hovland, Bryson DeChambeau, I do believe those two tournaments are typically going to be. I might need to change my outlook a little bit for the US Open, because when you get moments like this, and listen, I root for carnage. I do one time a year. I'm cool with it. But then you're watching it, you're like, is this that fun to watch? Like, I respect the shit out of all these guys. I can't even imagine how difficult that course was just to play 18 holes like that wasn't fun for anyone. I mean, it was fun for JJ when he won it, but, I mean, it was. He was probably wanting to shatter clubs. Like, this is going off the rails, right? The rough was outrageously long. The greens are. I think one problem with this course, which again, is known as the hardest course in America, is I heard, I was listening to one of no laying ups post round might have been on Thursday. And one of their guys, Neil, said that, you know, the hard part about this course is like a lot of famous courses, there are different landmarks, and you got a pretty good idea, oh, now they're on this hole. This is the shot you need to hit on this hole. I. Oh, I love this par three. If you go to some of the most famous courses, right, Obviously the Masters were very comfortable with Pebble Beach. We're very comfortable with the layout of the course. Some of the holes at St. Andrews. And then you get to this course, which has the universal respect, number one course in terms of difficulty in America, and all the holes kind of blend together. So from a viewing standpoint, if you've never played there, you're going to 14. Kind of looks like 15, kind of looks like 13. This is another long par three. So that part of the viewing experience isn't that exciting. Besides, you just know if you miss the fairway, we all know you're fucked. And after you've watched a couple days or you're like, this guy's got no chance. This guy's screwed. I don't even need them to break it down. So there's a randomness if you do not hit it straight off the fairway, which on a lot of terms, especially the bastards, doesn't really matter as much. Always factored into the US Open, this one is legitimately impossible. And especially as it got wet, it got even crazier. So there was, and I'm not trying to diminish anything from JJ Spawn's victory, but there was, it felt like a little more randomness with this tournament than typically in the major tournaments. Right. I'm not saying JJ Spawn was not the best player because he had the lowest score, but this thing felt a little wacky. And listen, maybe that's just part of US Opens, but I do think the golf media in general, they're huge on this golf, on the ball rollback. They've beaten that drum ball rollback. You know, two people that do not care about the ball rollback. The players, they don't want it, and the fans don't care. But the media is driving this. Then they love it. And listen, there are like. I do understand if they hit it a little bit shorter, they'd have more options at different courses. True. But the one thing you see is, like, some of these shootouts. The media hated Valhalla last year when Xander won. Guess what? Pretty entertaining for most people because birdies at a course like this are very hard to come by. Which is part par for the course at the US Open. But as just a consumer, you know, the, the, the ending of the tournament is exhilarating. But like, I'd say 60 plus holes of the tournament was kind of like. I mean, I, and I get it. Johnny Miller's taking shots like Bryson DeChambeau. You know why he's watching this tournament this weekend? Because he can't hit a fairway. And part of US Opens hitting the fairway. I get it. But this is an individual sport and it's driven by the stars. And when you're just kicking half the stars out before Saturday, and while Scotty was kind of in the mix, he kind of wasn't. But you know, Rory, who knows? Shooting 75 every day, hucking clubs, shattering tee boxes, it does diminish the experience a little bit. Now, luckily, this is only one time a year and you could argue it's like once every four or five years because of the course. But while I came into this tournament thinking Cinderella's had no chance, dead wrong. And I couldn't wait to watch the course kick the player's ass, I kind of got to take the L on that too. Because I'm watching and I'm like, I'm kind of bored. I'm going to go play golf on Saturday. I consume major golf course tournaments. Like I do NFL football. Like, I love it. And I just, I'm glued to the couch. My wife knows there is the super bowl and then there are four other Super Bowls and they're called the Masters, the pga, the US Open and the British Open. Now, luckily the British Open. So early time we got half our days, you know, on Saturday and Sunday. But this tournament, like, it's a pretty big deal on Saturday and Sunday didn't do that much for me. And I do be interested to see the television ratings foreign. The NBA Finals are here and this is your last chance to bet on the NBA until next season. 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