Slip under the covers as Wyndham Clark wins the US Open once again.
The guys discuss Wyndhams recent struggles with the media, recent club changes and putter changes as part of the lead tape chronicles
Dominic picks a horrible horse for a major
We miss Matt
Geography Trivia
Travelers Championship Preview
Transcript
Dominic: Hello and welcome back to Under the Covers, a golf podcast where we deep dive each week in the latest PGA tour winners bag. We are your host once again. It's Dominic and Kevin and Matt is not here. What is going on, Kevin?
Kevin Spisak: nothing, just just missing Matt. You know, Father's Day was just the other day and I I really felt like I needed my son Matt in my arms, but he's still in Scotland.
Dominic: Yeah, we're we're sad over here. But man, he's having a dream trip over there.
Kevin Spisak: and his boy Windom strikes again. Matt's favorite golfer.
Dominic: Matt's Matt's favorite golfer. Quindham Clark wins again his second out of the last four tournaments he's won. he is our US Open champion. That's also his second major. He won a US Open in 2023. had a really hot start. 64, 69, 70, and a 73 for a total of four under, which Debatable. He a lot of people, a lot of the you know, boots on the ground analysts are saying that he had a very easy weekend or sorry, very first two days where he went out early on Thursday and then went late on Friday, and those were quote unquote the easiest conditions that any golfer had played. But not to overshadow, he actually played extremely well. Shinnecock is very hard. We're not discounting his play. but there's a lot of Lot of drama going on with Wyndham Clark. People do not like him at all. No. Yeah, he you know, obviously there's a lot of drama going on with him, kind of bleeding over from Oakmont and he's all up in the news. Everyone's asking him every single question. Well, not every question. They're asking the same question over and over and over, and he's given the same generic answer.
Kevin Spisak: What? That's the first I've ever heard of that.
Dominic: but he still played well, so we have to talk about it. He has won, like I said, two tournaments in the last four. So he won Byron Nelson at T P C Craig Ranch. And so a few weeks ago for the PGA championship, we talked about Aaron Rye, was the first major winner who progressively got better for each round. started at seventy and went down from there. Wyndham is the first player to ever get worse in two different majors. So, whenever he won at 2023 LA Country Club, he went 64, 67, 69, 70. So he in each US Open that he's won, he started hot and then just kind of held people off, which it's still very hard to do. Like that's so much pressure going into it. this US Open this year, he went wire to wire, which again, Shinnecock doing that when the the leaderboard is so jump kind of close together, he really ran away with it. he he tried to make it interesting at the end with Sam Burns, but he ended up holding him off. had a really good kind of What do you what would you call that? His last round he was kinda he was playing it safe and didn't really take too many risks.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and and he was scrambling like extremely well. He hit some rough, you know, T shots and approach shots, but he kept recovering. And you know, that birdie on sixteen has got to be like one of the best birdies of the PJ Tour season, if not the best, considering the pressure and the circumstances. And, you know, he's already overpowered for the day. You know, Sam Burns is hot on his tails, and Sam Burns is, you know, finishing up. You know, be having the you know, rough tee shot way left, you know, D fescue, the broadcast is like, his lie is terrible. You know, being a being strong enough to get through that, get it back in the fair way, and then make what a thirty something footer, you know, for Birdie. Just that shows some some real stones there. you know, and and doing that when every single person in the crowd was so visibly rooting for Scotty, like
Dominic: Huge fist pump.
Kevin Spisak: You've got you know, everyone's on your back constantly like, you know, shouting like get in the bunker when you, you know, hit every shot. And you know, New Yorkers are certainly not the nicest people on earth, you know, so they're letting him have it. And he was able to withstand that. So in in that sense, I definitely gained some respect for Wyndham to be able to, you know, be a fierce competitor enough to you know, hold tight and and keep the lead. I also like hate seeing people, you know, have a huge lead and then like blow it. You know, so you know, no matter who it is, ex unless it's Patrick Reed, you know, that I I don't like to see people blow leads, you know, that like in big fashion. You know, it's like if someone just comes out and like beats you with an epic day, then like whatever. But you know, if if him being up was it seven strokes to start the day.
Dominic: Six strokes. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Or was it six? Six. yeah, it's San no, seven, because he was three over and then Sam Burns was three under. So that's six strokes there. Or no, sorry. Sam Sam Burns wasn't in second. You're right, you're right. So
Dominic: I see what you mean. He was Yeah. He was seven under and then the next closest was one under.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, yep, yeah. so you know, losing that big of a lead, which I don't know, that's just kind of deflating and you know, it's like kicker, you know, Blair Walsh missing it way left, you know, to lose a game. You know, you you just you hate to see that kind of stuff, but it's it's a memorable one. I I love the Vikings.
Dominic: had to had to kick it to Minnesota fans. Yeah. No, I I fully agree 'cause and you were even saying that and you've said a a few tournaments where you'd rather see someone win it rather than somebody lose it. Which I I fully agree with. Like majors are hard and Wyndham played super well and, you know, we'll get
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic: We'll get into him a little bit more in a second, but I wanna go back to where you're saying New York fans, 'cause there that's another thing going on right now, is it's all it's only in Long Island that the the negatives happen, which maybe we need a bigger another big tournament to see like a big tournament not in the Northeast to see if it's all golf fans or just Long Island,
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm.
Dominic: And it wasn't even just only Windem, it like they were yelling at Rory. It was pretty much anyone who would listen. They were yelling get in the bunker and it's like, is that like a by product of the gambling going on where it's like just some drunk idiot has money on you, so he's yelling against you? Or is it just the game growing and people are being annoying?
Kevin Spisak: I think it's a byproduct of like Instagram and TikTok. You know, like everyone wants that like wow thing, like look at this video I just made and I'm gonna give it to Rory, you know, because I'm gonna get all the clicks on TikTok being like, look at what just happened, you know. so everyone's gotta like one up it and then like East Coast people, you know, everyone talks about them just being like brutally aggressive all the time. So it like is this like a perfect storm.
Dominic: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: of you know a a golf a game like golf where you know there's some expectation of you know some level of decorum and then you know they can just be rowdy and start you know really going after the players just for you know getting some laughs from their friends and whatever.
Dominic: Yeah. There's there's a tasteful way to do it. Not just openly yelling. This this is where I have trouble is like when you're yelling at an NFL game or baseball, whatever major sport that there is, you know you hear that a lot, but in those scenarios the players aren't necessarily hearing that one person yell unless they're courtside, you know, like or they're on the sideline and they're yelling at someone super close. Golf is just one of those where you're very close. And you know luckily it hasn't it's not, you know, infesting tennis, but that would be insane. It's super similar. Normally it's very respectful and quiet and you you really don't yell too much, but like is that gonna happen with tennis too?
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I I think it's a thing about the individual co competitor sports, you know, where it's like different at the Ryder Cup because people like have some sort of like national pride that they're going along with, you know, it's a team sport and you know, you're you have like more at stake, you know, for your love of where you're from, you know, than you know, generally just like in golf, you know, you're rooting for specific individuals, not like a whole team or a region or a city, like You don't feel like you've got like a city, you know, supporting you, you know, behind you. You know, you're just kind of on your own picking the guy that you want to win, you know, unless you're that person's like family, you know, but that's a very rare case. you know, and I so I think like some of the buzz of like these Ryder Cup videos, you know, where people are, you know, giving it to, you know, whomever, telling them to get in the bunker, you know, they're just bringing to the rest of the PJ tour just to like get some laughs.
Dominic: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's a a great point about the Ryder Cup, because it's team format, so you're yelling for your team, your country, versus just getting a which like is is all that worth getting twelve thousand likes on a TikTok and then people are think you're a dick? Like it just it the social media world is very strange right now. It's it's weird. so going back to Win Wyndham, it's another thing that I'm conflicted on is
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm.
Dominic: So Oakman happens and he apologizes and then kinda goes radio silent. You don't really hear from him at all. and then now that he's won or gotten close to winning a few tournaments in a row, now it's all over the news. That's all people want to talk about. And I'm fully on board with you shouldn't be defined by one like one mistake that you do. Like if if you do one thing wrong, that happens. You know, everyone gets everyone deserves a second chance. But like that's where my big butt comes in is with Wyndham, yeah that Oakmont thing was huge, but take that away, I still don't like him on the course. Like he's still yelling. You know, if if I was playing with someone who yelled fuck after every bad shot, was throwing clubs, beating T-boxes, I'm not gonna like that guy.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm.
Dominic: You know what I mean? Like everyone a l I feel like a lot of people are going back and forth on, I like him now because he's winning. It's like, no. He still sucks. You know what I mean? Like he's he seems like a very nice guy, but then he just has these huge outbursts. And that's where the hard thing is, is just because you have outbursts and you say that you have outbursts, does that mean it's excused? Like, there's a lot of people who've played this game that don't have the same outbursts as you. So why are you any different? Is my big question.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I I hear what you're saying, definitely. He certainly wears his emotions on his sleeve. I I think in some ways, like we've all been there. Like I've certainly, you know, shouted F bombs and like I've slammed clubs into the ground. And, you know, every golfer's done that to some point, you know, some level. you know, very good friend of mine is pretty famous for the club slam. you know, I I think with Wyndham, you know, people
Dominic: Yeah. Okay.
Kevin Spisak: i it there's like two camps, you know, they would be against, you know, his behavior, you know, or they would like see a little bit of like commonness between like their own golf game and like just how frustrating golf is. that like maybe you just like don't care that much about it. But then like also the we've got like straight videos of like Jordan Speeth screaming, you know, F bombs, you know, right, right in front of the gallery, like in front of the seats, not just like out in nowheresville. You know, it's like no one goes against Jordan Speeth or says Jordan Speeth is like this tyrant who's, you know, freaking out. But but he's like one of the most vocal people on tour. You know, so why you know, why doesn't Jordan Speeth get that same thing? You know, is it just because he didn't destroy a locker at Oak Oakmont? Like you know, like I don't know, like I I think there's like a bit of the double standard there, you know, towards certain players and you know, I like you me you mentioned earlier, like Sergio Garcia, you know, he has a lot of people who don't like him. I'm certainly in that camp where he's not my favorite golfer and
Dominic: Ha ha
Kevin Spisak: you know, h his antics, you know, seem to me like you know, I call them antics, you know, where someone else might say the same thing about Wyndham. You know, I I don't know. There's there's a lot of like teetering back and forth there, you know, between like what's acceptable and what's not. And I think it just comes down to the person that you know, I I feel like I we've seen so much coverage of him recently. I feel like I'm like lightening up on Windham in the last four or five weeks. I don't think it's because he's winning. I think he just like seems like more normal. where like I feel like during some of the TGL matches, he like still seemed not like great and like I didn't love his camera presence. But I feel like now just in these last couple of weeks, he just I feel like he's kind of owning that people like You know, he's not a fan favorite and he's just like trying to be like a normal guy. I d I don't know. That's at least how I feel right now.
Dominic: Yeah. I think anyone in a TGL format, that's hard to be entertaining. Like that's a that's that's way different. Like I wouldn't even base any of this on TGL, 'cause that's that's a hard it's a very different atmosphere. but yeah, I I agree where maybe I'm being hard on him. but then like where my brain is kind of going is like in it he's handling it well when everyone asks him like
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Dominic: Those really bad interview questions that are just like there to get a get gotcha moment, like those are kind of annoying, but he handles them perfectly. but then like his his common theme is maybe I'm winning them back. So it's just like, well, if I play well, then they'll like me again. It's like, well, sure. But also like show you're changing, which he is, you could argue.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm.
Dominic: So like I guess what we'll have to wait for is if he does have any of those other blow up moments. Like i is he actually learning from it or is that sports psychologist tricking his brain into, you know, taking all that negative energy, making it positive? That's what it takes, that's what it takes. You know, so it's just kind of a weird that's why it's so back and forth. 'Cause he's so he's a genuine dude when he's talking, and then it's I don't know. I think I just need to not look at the past so much.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I you know, I think there's something about like professional athletes and n you know, not viewing them as like saints, you know, to to get to that level, you know, you you have to have like some level of like pretty gigantic ego, you know, just to even like get to the point of like being there because like you know you're good and you have to believe that you're good, you know, like if you have any doubt in your mind, like you'll your play will, you know, feel that. So, you know I think if we met lots of people in in other sports, we would have similar feelings about
Dominic: No, that's a great point. And the last thing I'll say about it is a hilarious comment that I saw that was Wyndham smashed a locker and Tigers smash multiple cars. And how do we view each person? So I'm like, you know, in the grand scheme of things, that's a great point. You know, like that's you someone can argue he he did smash the locker and he owned up to it, but like you could also argue somebody shouldn't have t been taking a picture in a locker room. Like that should have been like a private thing that's handled by the club.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic: Like there's all these different there's so many different ways you can go about it.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, and the the loyal following that Tiger has, you know, amid some of his allegations, you know, it's like e yeah.
Dominic: Yeah, dude. Ooh. Like the whole rig situation, that was just a a cringy watch. But we won't get too far into that. So Wyndham Clark, two time US open champ, two majors under his belt, huge for him, played super well, out lasted a lot of these top dogs. We already went over his bag two weeks ago, three weeks ago, and I I mean, if I had to guess, the only real change that he went through is maybe some more lead tape on his putter. So like
Kevin Spisak: Think that Mm-hmm. Well, hey now, hey now, don't don't gloss over this. That putter, you know, set a PJ to a record for strokes gained in a single tournament. And somebody on this podcast agreed to make a purchase that if Wyndham won again with it, he would buy that putter. So I feel like we're we're rushing past what's in the in Wyndham's bag here. And let's dip under the covers with Windham a little deeper and let's see. When are you buying that putter?
Dominic: We we made that I made that in haste. He was already six strokes in the lead.
Kevin Spisak: No, when I said a month ago that when I when we were talking about flutters, I like, you should check this one out. It's pretty sweet. Then he wins. Then I'm like, if he wins again, you gotta buy it. And you were like, deal. If he wins again, I'll buy it. So then for all the people not in our group chat, I texted Dom and I was like, I was like, all right, fine, it's it's expensive. If he wins, if he if he pulls us out, I'll buy it with you. And then Figured out they don't make it in left handed. So I can't buy it with you. Yeah. Yeah.
Dominic: So we're gonna split it. Yeah, we're gonna split it as we're saying. We we just have to make it instead of a a slightly off center, we just put it dead center of the whole thing and then maybe by two of we just smash together. We make it a double one of those double putters.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. We'll we'll we'll put the the lie angle to be like the same as your putter that got destroyed by American Airlines and then you know, then we can both use it like a shuffleboard putter.
Dominic: I love that idea. Let's do that. I'm in. We we gotta make it a broom putter though. It's my only stipulation. Just kidding, we're not doing that. man, and I'm definitely not hating the lead tape. I actually do want to s like kind of tinker with that. I'm curious how that feels.
Kevin Spisak: Perfect, perfect. All right. All right, fine. Yeah. it yeah. It can change the feeling depending on where you put the tape for sure. He is like a full member of the lead tape chronicles if you follow them on Instagram, like his putter is outrageous with how much, you know, the entire bottom is just coated in lead tape. And then every other club, when you look at like pictures, his driver he's got some like on the bottom up front, you know his irons, he's got in different places, his wedges, he's got some. He is all about the lead tape.
Dominic: Which actually so recently he changed his putting form slightly and he does the Ricky Fowler where he lifts it off the ground slightly before he pulls back. And I wonder if that started because of how much lead tape he had. 'Cause like, when I had my my belly putter, you know, it's a very long ping but it's old, so I needed some weight to kinda counterbalance a little.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm.
Dominic: And I would drag across the floor all the time. So then I started to have it lifted. I wonder if that's why or if that's just one of those kind of head things when you're putting like I need to change something up, so let me just do a slight lift. Like do you know is that lift do anything for like the putter stroke or is it all just a personal preference?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I think certainly something you'd like work on and practice on and you know the it it makes sense to lift it, you know, you're trying to have that like pendulum motion and if you were actually, you know, doing a a straight pendulum motion, like it wouldn't involve your putter hitting the ground, you know. So it's like if you lift a little bit and then you make your stroke, you know, the the bottom of the arc isn't the ground now. You know, so so everyone who doesn't lift is doing some sort of manipulation in their putting stroke to not hit the ground. You know, so it makes clear sense. I I haven't like personally done it a ton or maybe if if I do it's like subconscious, but but yeah, it it's very clear on on the coverage, like you can see him doing it. It almost like looks weird because you're not used to seeing people do that.
Dominic: Yeah. Mm.
Kevin Spisak: so you know, the only other thing to really like talk about on Wyndham's bag, I think, is the two things. The Pro B One X is making another appearance. So it didn't start the season hot, you know, on our ball and club tracker. but there's another win for the Pro B One X. And then now his his drivershaft, the Project X Titan Yellow, that's brand new. You know, like you said, in Wyndham's one in four weeks, two in four weeks. Now the Titan Yellow has won two out of its four first four appearances. so that's the kind of interesting on the driver's shaft. You know, again, it's extra stiff, low launch, low spin, counterbalance. So Windham's whole thing is he just wants to absolutely haul off on his driver and and that's a shaft that can and work for him for that.
Dominic: Yeah, I'm curious how that translates because some people will play differently. Like, for example, Matt, he brought a two iron so he can keep a lot of his t shots low in Scotland. Like I'm curious if if they kind of change shafts at all for like a windy tournament like Shinnekak was supposed to be, or like if it's gonna be the same exact bag for the travelers coming up.
Kevin Spisak: I think it's different, like Shinnecock versus like TPC, Craig Ranch, like I I don't think there would be that much change there, maybe in like a little bit of like technique or like thought process and shot execution. But like Scotland is like, you know, such different playing conditions that you'd maybe change like wedge grinds or you know, change your longer clubs. Stuff like that. you know, I I don't think I don't think he would like change the shaft out to go play like the British Open. We'll we'll find out here in a couple weeks. you know, in July for the for the open. But I wouldn't say that those would be equipment changes that are like common.
Dominic: Okay. That's a great point. Like some people change their grinds based on the kind of grass they're hitting or whatever, like that. So yeah, that that's a good point there. But so because we already went over Wyndham's bag a few weeks ago, I think it'd be fun to go over our very own Kevin's bag. What do you think? Should we look under the covers?
Kevin Spisak: Sure, yeah, let's let's go under the covers with me. Take a dip a little toe and my golf bag. so we'll start with the driver. We've talked about this driver shaft this year, but I got the Dayton Flyers head cover, courtesy of NCR Country Club. so I've got the Ping G440 LST driver, nine degrees and the hazardous smoke green
Dominic: That's cool.
Kevin Spisak: Small batch also nicknamed Hulk the Hulk for its appearance. Yeah, it's purple at the tip and like goes into green. so that's pretty stiff, low launch, low spin. for me as someone who just like overspins the ball a lot, this is very helpful, you know, to not have like those drives like balloon on me and lose a lot of distance. I've tried to Test out like a bunch of different shafts since I got this because it's been a number of years now and I just keep coming back. I can't find anything that can replace it. So really like that there. I got it courtesy of a fantastic deal from Mr. Kenny Riley at the Gimme Golf Club. So any of your golf club equipment needs, definitely hit up Mr. Riley. My next club, St. Louis Blues head cover, got the Strixon ZXI five wood. I did have a three wood for quite a long time, but was just getting some more forgiveness with the added loft of the five wood. And then I've got the Ventis Black 7X Velicor Plus. so again, low launch, low spin. I I you know I could have kept with the hazardous line for sure, with this, you know, but I had an opportunity to get a Ventus for a pretty sweet price and me not rolling in money took that opportunity and and I've really liked it. So got another swaggy shaft at a a good deal. Yeah. I like to wheel and deal with my clubs.
Dominic: So So you have the vent is black and the five wood. If if you had a three wood, would you have the same shaft or did that change when you went more loft?
Kevin Spisak: So so I did be I did have the same shaft in between the two before I got the Hulk shaft. So we'll get there because I took that three wood shaft and I put it in my seven wood. So I made it made it shorter and tiffed it to you know be seven wood playing specs. So G440 max seven woods looking for that high launch, high spin. little more stopping power than like one you know one of the longer irons. and then I had bought the head online for a pretty sick deal in a lefty Facebook group that I'm in. and you know I just had the head and I was like not wanting to spend you know a crap load of money. So took my three wood shaft which is the Ping Tour seventy five X. This is what I was fitted for in my driver when I first got my ping G425 LST in 2021. And then then I I got it in the matching three wood. I was really liking both. Then I I tested the Hulk and I picked up a good amount of ball speed with the Hulk. So then you know kept it. didn't want to necessarily like throw a whole bunch of money at getting The Hulk again for my three wood. It probably could have. At the time, I didn't want to, and then I just kind of like let it roll because I was hitting my three wood pretty good. still, you know, I'm liking the five wood though for some added forgiveness. Seven wood's all about like forgiveness and being kind of a placement club. It's like a good like fairway finder for a short par four as well. really liked having the seven wood in bag.
Dominic: Nice. So going back a little bit. So whenever you said you added some club or you added some speed while using that, does that typically come in because you know the the new title of drivers, they're everyone's saying you instantly add, I don't know, five miles an hour, whatever it is, excuse me. Does that come from kick point? Does that come from headweight? Like what what do you think is really causing some of that like added speed?
Kevin Spisak: It would be a combination of lots of things, you know, depending on your swing. Yeah, it would be like exactly what you mentioned, like the actual like dynamics of the shaft. you know, some of the like more, you know, nicer shafts you're trying to like control the ball more. So, you know, I I'm looking for like a low torque shaft and I think with the hazardous, you know, it's a really stout shaft. So in my opinion, I was just catching the center of the face more often. that could be totally in my head. You know, I I never like confirmed with swing video of at my actual like impact location. you know, it's just testing on the track man and it's what it had, you know, both both my ping tour the the driver's shaft was the sixty five X and then the three would just seventy five X, but with the sixty-five X, they would both have like pretty stiff tips. So that would help, you know, keep the spin down. so yeah, it it would it would just be a collection of tip stiffness mixed with where the kick point is, you know, the the weight certainly contributes to that, you know, what the swing weight is. on on the ping tour I had it, you know, it's sixty five X like I mentioned. This Hulk shaft is the seventy gram. So you know, it's a little heavier. So maybe just with that extra weight I can get a little more, you know, oomph behind it or something. But yeah. Hopefully hopefully that answers it.
Dominic: Nice. Okay. That answered my question. It definitely did, yeah. So what you got for irons? Or do you have something in between?
Kevin Spisak: nothing in between. Yeah, so driver five wood, seven wood irons. They're probably filthy because I haven't cleaned them from last time I went to the range, but another fantastic deal I got on lefty Facebook group. I got the Mizuno JPX Forged Mizuno 925 JPX Forged irons. Got the you know nice red and white and blue ferrels courtesy of the Gimme Golf Club. Thank you, Kenny and Cody. and then on the shafts I've got the KBS C Taper 120 stiff hard stepped. So though so it's like a stiff plus. So like a little bit in between stiff and extra stiff. and so for that, just to keep the flight down a little bit, because again, someone who generally like overspins the ball with it, you know.
Dominic: Ooh.
Kevin Spisak: History of a pretty like steep downswing. so you know, these these shafts were what I got fitted for in a Mizuno fitting. and then I had them in my old irons, got a sick deal on these, popped out the shafts of those, put them in here, and then, you know, away you go. And I I've really liked these. The feel of them is like fantastic, you know, like the slogan, Nothing Feels Like Mizuno. I think that's totally true. I've I've had three different sets of Mizuno irons and have absolutely like loved them all like more than anything else I've played. So big Mizuno advocate. I'm I'm surprised there's not like more people on tour who play Mizuno's but you know they are also not one of the ones who like, you know, self proclaimed they don't like advertise a ton and they don't like pay a ton of players and they're not like in a huge like marketing budget. you know so Mizunas are sick. If if you haven't tried them out, definitely go for it. Get some JPX nine twenty fives or even go like a couple model years older, nine twenty threes, nine twenty-one's. They've got yeah, so they've got the the regular hot metal, they've got the tour, then the forged. they've got like a high launch version, you know, for someone who really needs help getting the ball in the air. I you know, huge Mizuno fan.
Dominic: Give us a zoom in on that.
Kevin Spisak: Azuna, if you're listening, check out my resume. Yeah.
Dominic: You're talking about Hook us up. Yeah, give Kevin a job. No, we're we were talking you just said that they have the best feeling golf and Matt also plays Mizuno Irons. If I remember correctly, they're the two thirty fives. Do you remember off the top of your head?
Kevin Spisak: he's got the two four threes. So yeah. So those have been replaced now. they've got some new stuff out there. There's like the S3s, then the M13s, M15s. It would be like the I believe the M13s would be the replacement for the two four fives. and they look totally different. Matt's clubs are like absolutely beautiful though. they are just phenomenal looking. I those are another example of clubs that they don't make.
Dominic: Two four threes, okay. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Tanded though. So I could never get the two four threes. the set I had before this was the two two threes, which did come lefty. So they did they switched you know between model years to make one lefty and then one not. So even though Ping and Mizuno seem to hate me as a lefty, I still love them.
Dominic: Yep. Yeah, the I never knew I never fully knew when somebody says it's buttery until I hit Matt's eight iron. It it like it's hard to explain, just buttery is the perfect explanation. Once you hit it and like I've hit ones in the middle of the face. Like, you know, it's not every single time, but like nothing felt as cool. And I th he was telling me it's that copper lining on the inside. It's just like a little bit softer, so just f the feel is awesome. I love
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. Yeah, any sort of like vibration control, you know, is gonna help like feel better in your hands. You know, if you think of like hitting a baseball bat, you know, near the handle, you know, you hit a stinger, like that's a lot of vibration that works its way into your hands. So anything any reduction like that, it changes the sound, changes the feel. Mizuno's pretty good at, you know, controlling that. definitely definitely again, huge fan of Mizuno.
Dominic: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So lead us into to your wedges.
Kevin Spisak: So wedges are going through a bit of the change. I did have the Taylor-made high toes copper finish and just switched them out, not loving the switch out. and again, I think it's primarily due to being hated as a lefty, feeling fully discriminated against. But Cleveland RTZs, I've got 50. 54 and 58. So I kept the same loss as my Tailor Maid. I did like the black finish. I I wanted the full face on the fifty-four and fifty-eight like I had on my Tailor Maids. but I place an order and then after I placed the order they came to me and said we're not making those in lefty so you're gonna get the normal grooves which is fine. yeah.
Dominic: I don't even care.
Kevin Spisak: But so the so Cleveland has like some different grind options and for lefties they have like very minimal selection. So these are the mid grinds. They're supposed to be just like your most like run of the mill or like I don't know combination of the lower high grind. so there's like a little bit of grinding off the like trailing edge that would like help you be able to open the face a bit. if you like I think it's their low grind. Maybe I'm saying that backwards. I think it's their low grind would be like more off the back. So someone who like really likes to open it. You want like that knife edge, you know, to really like rip through the ground or rip through a bunker, you'd do that. Or there's one you know, an option that's like a full sole, like the title is Vokey, like F grind. that would be someone who's like really not wanting to like dig in, you know, full shot type of swinger or someone who likes square face shots. so with these ever since I switched this like soft Missouri turf I'm like really digging my wedges in too deep. You know, we have we've such like we have such a wet early golf season that like I feel like I need some relief on either getting through the turf or just more bounce, you know, to be able to like not dig in so much.
Dominic: Mm-hmm.
Kevin Spisak: I've just been like chunking an abnormal amount of wedges and it's like really pissing me off. So you know it this isn't these aren't the wedges I would have ordered, you know, if I had my like pick of the lot. So they are not long for the bag. I did I did skip that I do have another Cleveland wedge that's 46 degree. Yeah, this one's not any like special deal with like grinds or anything, it's just like a
Dominic: Yeah.
Kevin Spisak: Let's a step down from my Mizuno pitching wedge in terms of distance or just bridging the gap between my fifty and my pitching wedge. But so that
Dominic: So what's your real quick, what's your pitching wedge at then? What is it is it
Kevin Spisak: I think my pitching wedge is forty four, forty five degrees. But I I hit it I I hit my pitching wedge in the one forty five yard range and then the forty six degrees like a one thirty club for me. Yeah, so or one thirty five ish if I like r you know, really step on one. But you know, the I think it's a good gap rather than like trying to get like too cute with my pitching wedge. If I was a better player, maybe I'd you know, be
Dominic: okay, nice.
Kevin Spisak: Better with the pitching wedge, but I just like having a a full shot, you know, at at that distance. And then my my 50 is like a 115, 120 club. Yeah. So that brings me to what's replacing those wedges. So just came in the mail today. Haven't hit it yet. Very excited. 54 bokey model year old. So SM10.
Dominic: Okay. Nice. That's a good gap. Ooh. An exclusive. no.
Kevin Spisak: 54 degree, 12 degree bounce, D grind. So what Bokey describes as the player's high bounce wedge. So again, I didn't want to be like digging in, but I do want the versatility to hit some different shots. So there's toe side grinding, heel side grinding, and trailing edge grinding. So I can open up the face and the the leading edge won't like totally go off the ground. so I can you know hit different shots, same with Again, the toe side relief. this should I feel like this should be like a perfect club for what I was saying just now. Like right, I want versatility, but I don't want to just like be slamming the club into the ground all the time. so very excited for this one. had my eyes set on the D grind ever since I was learning from our wedge guru Matt, you know, about all the different wedge grinds and then fun custom one I just purchased off of a a good friend. So if you recall in some of the bags that we've covered, Vokie's K-Star grind, does that sound familiar? Matt has a K-Star. So repeat how do I say common theme of my life is people not making things in left-handed. So
Dominic: yeah.
Kevin Spisak: They don't make the K star in left-handed, at least they didn't. They do now. You can order it from Vokey Wedgeworks, where in the past like for the SM10, you would have to basically like custom order it. and so friend of mine bought it and then he wound up getting a new wedge, so he sold this bad boy to me. So this is a custom made six degree bounce K star. So it only says K.
Dominic: huge.
Kevin Spisak: because it was like custom made to be the K Star. So really wide sole on the K grind and then there's trailing edge heel and toe relief and then a pre worn grind on the leading edge to reduce the amount of digging that it does. So while it's a really low bounce wedge, the like really wide sole and then the trailing or the leading edge grind would help. It not dig too much. So this is like spoken of as like the ultimate bunker wedge. So again, very excited to get it out of the course. friend let me try it out, and he uses a different lie angle than me, so it was a little goofy trying it out. But get gonna get this bad boy bent to my standard lie angle and bring it out on the course here very soon. So
Dominic: Dude, that is cool. So is it was it strictly based on like Matt talking to you about the you know like digging in and using the the bounce and stuff or did you use like the the wedge selector tool on Titalist to kind of choose that?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. a lot lots of things. It started off with when I switched to the when I switched to the Clevelands and just like hitting bad shots. I was like, you know, there's something about like the archer, not the arrow in in some respects for sure. But I just wanted, you know, the arrow to be assisting the archer. so I was hitting bad shots. I was like, what's the deal here? Started looking into like
Dominic: Right.
Kevin Spisak: The specs because like I didn't have a ton of selection options when I bought the Clevelands. You know, I was comparing them to my Tailor Maids. I think I've I've had the Tailor Maids for long enough that the the grooves were a little worn. So I didn't want to necessarily just like keep them. and then I just went down the whole rabbit hole of like Matt's explanations, several friends' explanations. you know, just reading the grind descriptions on. On the Vokey wedge site and and you know, you know, just seeing like you know, what's like right for me. I I'd looked into the Vokey grinds before, you know, when like other people were buying wedges and I would like look into them and be like, This one sounds like your kind of game, but like never really applied that to myself. So then once I started like looking at it for myself, like I really started getting like deep into it, looking at some reviews and you know, watching some like bokey videos and such. so cool stuff. The the wedge world is a whole nother world. I've always been like a putter nerd. but like once you start getting into wedges, you can get like so custom with them depending on what types of shots you like to hit.
Dominic: Definitely. That's cool. Yeah, if you're you're technically a licensed club fitter, so if anybody is asking needed some questions, comments. We have an email address you can send it to under the covers golf at gmail. Maybe we can kinda get some get some online fittings going, that'd be kinda cool.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah, feel free to pick a golf nerd's brain. But so last club in the bag. I've got the coolest head cover that's ever been created by anyone ever. I could not have designed a better one myself if I tried. I got this from Bet Nardy just a couple months ago. They came out with a whole NFL line of products and I didn't love their what they released at first and I just like kind of kept looking, kept looking and then
Dominic: Hey. Ooh.
Kevin Spisak: This one came came available and I snatched it as fast as I could. got the brown stripe. It's got Brownie the Elf on it. if you're not watching on the video. but huge Cleveland Browns fan, you know, Glutton for Punishment and this head cover, I think, is like again the coolest thing that's ever existed. So then my putter talked about it a lot over the weeks. I've got the ping PLD answer D.
Dominic: Yeah, it's sick.
Kevin Spisak: so it is a very common answer style blade, except for it is wider on the sole. so it'd be like a little bit more forgiveness and like higher MOI than a standard blade. So like the off-center hits, I'd have like a little more mass to help me. but I love the feeling of it. There's like pretty deep milling on the face. This is, you know, this is the one basically off the shelf, but But I've got it de lofted to one and a half degrees and 69 degree lie angle. And then on the on the shaft, I've got KBS GPS 120 graphite putter shaft is what GPS stands for. Could have been a trivia question. but the the feeling of the graphite putter shaft feel like also like reduces a lot of the vibration in your hands.
Dominic: Ha ha.
Kevin Spisak: So you get enough feedback that you know like where you hit the ball on the face, but then I feel like it makes those sweet spot hits just like that much better. and I like absolutely fell in love with this putter shaft when I was toying around with Kenny Riley at the Gimme Golf Club's putter. and I felt his and I was just like, This is unreal, like how good this putter feels. And he was like, Yeah, dude, the shaft is like absolutely amazing. So I ran, you know, as fast as I could, took out some money, gave it to him and said, put it in this bad boy. And then I told him to order me one. He hands me the putter on a winter league night. My first ever attempt with the putter nailed a twenty foot eagle putt to win like three hundred and fifty bucks. So the putter like basically paid for itself in one attempt. so huge, huge there.
Dominic: that's crazy.
Kevin Spisak: it did cost more than than that you know but we're we're all good we're calling it a wash you usually don't have any any winnings to account for then the putter grip i just i just switched i'm i'm a a constant switcher of grips i just i like to try new stuff out see what feels good this is something i had on another putter that i took off
Dominic: Ha ha ha. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure.
Kevin Spisak: I guess the fourth different grip I've had on this specific putter. but golf pride tour sensor, so a couple model years old. I had this just in the drawer. I've got a a drawer of grips here right next to me. it's just like, you know, what I want to try. just put this one on. We're gonna see how it feels. I had a Batnardy ostrich leather grip on there for a few weeks that really liked the feeling of. It was just a little bit too skinny for me. I had gotten kind of accustomed to like the the super stroke 2.0 width from my my last grip. It was like made out of like football leather. So I played that one for probably like a year or two and yeah, about two years. And yeah, I really liked it. Just wanted to switch it up for you know whatever reason, but that is
Dominic: I love that one. Yeah, why not?
Kevin Spisak: under the covers for my golf bag. So I gave a lot of detail. Probably didn't care about, but hopefully some golf nerds you know enjoyed hearing my thought process on some of it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Dominic: I care very deeply about it and I hope our listeners do too. I love I love hearing you talk about it 'cause like, you know, it's definitely a passion of yours to to know all the club specs and stuff, and especially when it's your own bag, like it's fun to go through your decision process and the process of like your tinkering, because you're you're a big tinker, which so that's always fun to get pictures texted to me like, Hey, I'm trying this out. I'm like, baby. Love it.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. There was like a stretch where I like really couldn't find a putter that I liked. And it was like, you know, people would make comments to me like, like he switches putters every five days. That's why he sucks at putting. You know, and it's like that's probably like a part of it. But then it's also like part of the fun part of golf for me is trying out new equipment and seeing what works and what doesn't work. And I just like really enjoy testing out new stuff. It's one of the like big enjoyments I get out of golf, you know, on top of the playing and scoring and all that.
Dominic: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Because anybody can go out and practice and try to get better. But it's it's way more fun to be able to do that while tinkering and playing around with all the new technology that there is out today.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. Yeah, for sure.
Dominic: Yeah, I'm excited to speaking of Kenny at Gimme Golf, I'm excited to, you know, get over there in August and test out the Kelly and Co. and maybe get a putter fitting from you to see actually if I if there is anything I can do. I feel like with golf, I've always been less of a tinker. Like I'm I'll just use what I have. Like pretty much everyone that I talk to about golf, they've asked me at one point, do I have extended golf clubs? 'Cause I'm six three or four, whatever it is that day. But like, I've always just used standard length and I've never actually gotten a full fitting in that scenario. So I'm like, did I just adjust or do I actually need longer clubs? You know, like it's so with putting, I'm like, have I just have could I be benefiting from a different shaft, or have I just been adjusting to what I've had?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, potentially. You know, also with being taller, your arms are also longer. So, you know, people say, you know, he's tall, he must have really long clubs. you know, but sometimes like the distance from the ground to your hands can be the same as like a short person with short arms. so so not necessar you don't necessarily always need longer clubs in that, you know, that way.
Dominic: Mm. nice. I like that. I'll I'll use that next time somebody asks.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Be like I've got a seven foot wingspan. Yeah. I bet Wemby's wingspan is probably like eight feet or something. Is it really? Jeez. I thought eight feet was an exaggeration.
Dominic: Call me Wendy. my gosh, I think it's like eight feet four inches or something like that. I I pulled that out of my my hind quarters. I swear it's over eight feet and he's cause he's seven whatever. Well to get a fact check. Jamie looked that up for us. so thank you for sharing, Kevin. going back to PGA tour, I think it's kind of I think we're gonna mesh together
Kevin Spisak: Yeah.
Dominic: kind of more of a US open recap plus our one and duns, 'cause they kind of go hand in hand because we all kind of chose top guys except for one person. so doing a a quick recap. So Matt, not here obviously, but he he rang in Tommy Fleetwood, which is the best of the group, which we don't get to say too often. So it's very fun. and then Kevin, you had Rory. You pre bought him a month ago. And and then I
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha
Dominic: Mistakenly chose Patrick Reed over Scotty Scheffler, which I can't believe I'm saying that out loud. So going over the scores, Tommy Fleetwood ended T11. So with majors, we we double it. So Matt got 22 extra points there. Kevin Rory ended at 32. So he had a total of 64 points. And then Patrick Reed missed the cut, which is my worst choice by far this year.
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha. yeah.
Dominic: And he was at eighty-two, so I got a total of 164 points. Which the last two weeks, Kevin has closed the gap, folks. We knew it was coming. I called it a while ago, and I hate that I'm right. which I guess I should have used all my my power on choosing better players instead of predicting that. So total scores. I'm at five thirty eight. Kevin's at six one. So he is way too close for comfort. And then yep, then
Kevin Spisak: yeah. 63 away. That's that's just one week. And and you you glossed over a very important fact of your your your specific worst pick of the season. It's the worst pick of any of the three of us for the entire season by a lot. You got 164 points for Patrick Reed. The next closest was Matt with Sanjay with 120.
Dominic: yeah, easily.
Kevin Spisak: So an additional forty-four slots, you know, because we double majors. So Matt's pick was theoretically worse because 120, you know, was not doubled. But for the purposes of our point scoring, the worst pick of the season.
Dominic: Dang. You you gotta factor it in though. You know, like majors are double, you gotta factor in the risk there, which I did not do. And like that was something that I was gonna say in I forget which episode we talked about it, but that's just that yet another comparison with Scotty Scheffler and Patrick Mahomes is like in in the moment it it makes sense to bet against him. You're just like, yeah, totally. I'm not I'm I'm gonna choose this. It's gonna be so right. It's risky, but I'm gonna be right. And then once you do it and you're wrong, it's like, why in the hell would I bet against this guy? There's no reason to do that.
Kevin Spisak: Why would you pick Patrick Reed over Scotty Shep?
Dominic: 'Cause like, you know, as I said in the in the previous, I'm like, I'd rather save him later on, but that's literally the exact opposite of what I've been doing all year is trying to not say I'm saving him for later. Like I I should've just done it, had a had a fun weekend and not really cried at all. But here we are. And
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, you got one more major and and the playoffs where you can still use them though.
Dominic: Mm-hmm. I'm curious what we're gonna do for playoffs. Maybe you do like a a one point five for our picks or something like that. We'll see where we're at. I'm sure it's gonna be down to the wire unless you just take a commanding lead in this next couple weeks.
Kevin Spisak: I I'm kind of running out of guys. When I was looking at our next week's pick, I'm running out of top people. I need to I need to start saving some.
Dominic: Mm-hmm. Yeah, we'll we'll get into our our upcoming picks in just a little bit, but wanted to kinda go through some of these players and you know, see if there's anything that is is worth noting. So Keith Mitchell, we've talked about a couple times, cashmere Keith. And on Thursday, such a wild like feeling of emotion for this man. He started off the first nine, he had a six over forty one. And then ended with a twenty nine back nine. So he had he ended up even on the day, went plus six, minus six, and he literally was even par every day of the weekend and ended up T four, which is insane.
Kevin Spisak: Ha ha Isn't that incredible? Isn't he the first guy ever to do that? Like all 70s. Azuno guy.
Dominic: I think so, yeah. So it's like in big Mizuno guy. In no other tournament would that fly. But of course Shinnikok baby. we never even talked about we were talking about some some behavioral issues with Wyndham Clark. We didn't even bring up Joaquin Neiman. The man on sixth hole in round one, he had two bad T shots and went OB
Kevin Spisak: Mm, mm-hmm.
Dominic: And he threw a club. and then he didn't realize it, but he ended up having he had a five on the hole. One, two, three. No. He would have
Kevin Spisak: N no, it was it was seven over, so he he would he would have had a five over without the penalty.
Dominic: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. I I mixed that up in my head. So he would have been plus five, and then he finishes the round, and then the they're signing the scorecard, a referee comes up and says, Hey, by the way, we're enacting it was rule one point two B as per USGA. The act was determined to be serious misconduct, so they gave him a two stroke penalty, which that sucks because I think it I think I heard somewhere if he didn't have that two stroke penalty, he would be under par on the weekend. And he would have been yeah, third place. That's right. Unreal scenario for that guy.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Having a seven over par hole in a major and still finishing top ten is absurd. You know, if it's a you know, ifs and buts, you know, whatever, but with one better swing on you know one of those first T shots, and let's say he makes just a bogey, like if he has a plus one instead of a plus seven, he wins the tournament. You know, like you you never know what's gonna actually happen afterwards, but like shout out to Joaquin Neiman for keeping his composure after that and still going out and balling out and playing amazing for the rest of the tournament. You know, he I I think he kind of owned up to it pretty well in the press conference after to just be like, yeah, you know, I'm in I'm embarrassed how I acted.
Dominic: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Unreally.
Kevin Spisak: I deserve the penalty. I'll take it and move on and learn something from it. You know, rather than being like, that rules official is a jackass, you know, he was unfair. There's guys throwing clubs all the time, you know, John Robb's kicking his club down the fairway. Like he didn't like point the finger at anyone else. He just owned up to it. And, you know, more respect to him there for that.
Dominic: Yeah. Yeah, it's impressive. So going over his scores quick, he had a so par seventy with Shinnikok. He had eight over. So that one hole was most of his score. So eight over on on Thursday. And then he fired off a five under. Then f Saturday went two over, and then Sunday fired off a four under. So just such a roller coaster for him as well. Like it's it's insane. So I was saying roller coaster for Keith Mitchell, but He ended up even every day. Joaquin literally was a roller coaster of scores. Bonkers. He had seven birdies on Friday.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Shinnikok will do that to you.
Dominic: yeah. Yeah, and then what I kept noticing too, and I don't know if you felt the same way, but besides Wyndham, I feel like every time I looked at the score, like it it just seemed like I was watching a different golf tournament. Like that's how often these this leaderboard kept shifting. And I think that just kind of speaks to the kind of bunch leaderboard, but it was there's a lot of flack. I feel like we've we talk about this every week, how everyone just has something negative to say about these golf tournaments. But I I had fun watching it. It was great time.
Kevin Spisak: Totally. I thought this US Open was awesome. I'm sure the US GA was freaking out after Friday when there was like a whole slew of people who were under par and you know, Shinnecock is known for being, you know, the tournament where you gotta be over par. in in the U US Open in general, you know, it's kinda like that. But I thought it was awesome. You know, I I wish that someone would have been maybe a little more competitive with Wyndham throughout. You know, but just the nature of Shinnecock, you never knew if Wyndham was gonna fire off his own 77 or you know, something like that. Like there I feel like there was a good amount of drama in in somewhat of a blowout win. You know, he obviously only won by one, but there was there's plenty of intrigue.
Dominic: Mm. Yeah the Course played differently and the greens were definitely different with the approaches, but I feel like the greens were still hard to read. the speed was a little bit hard to kind of judge, so it almost seemed like if you were chipping from the green or from off the green, then you almost had a better chance because of the greens were so much softer. Like you still had to make the putt. Like there wasn't there was a few long putts, but there was really wasn't that many. It was a lot of lags. So like It was still pretty difficult. It was just the guys who were under, they played well, you know? Like it seemed like now real just real quick, it seemed like when p somebody missed a putt, it was because there's a six inch circle around the hole that was like pressed in more because it always cut so hard at the end and just cut under the hole. It was crazy.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Did you see sorry, you go. Mm-hmm. Yeah. did you see Colin Morikawa's answer in the press conference about his wedges? Yeah, he said, you know, so they had gotten a whole bunch of rain like before the tournament, like early in the week.
Dominic: I did not know.
Kevin Spisak: And he said he was hitting a bunch of chip shots and he was like really digging in. So then he changed all of his wedges to like fix that. And then the course firmed up and then his wedges started like bouncing off the ground. So he he was like set up before the tournament with you know his wedges set up, you know, for Shinikok, switched them, and then you know, he like still wound up playing pretty well in, you know, overall. amid that, but he had to like switch to mid tournament back to his original wedges. Mm-hmm.
Dominic: Gosh. That would suck, man. I think everyone was thinking that same thing too. Like everything was just different from what they expected. Poor guy. Cause he had a couple he had a couple bladed wedges from the bunker.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. sweet, speaking of bladed wedges, wasn't it like Dustin Johnson that made like a quad bogey and he like rocketed one like way over the green?
Dominic: Geez. Well, we can Well, that was his first one, he tried to play it like right over the hill and it was just a tiny bit too short, rolled back into the bunker, and then he bladed it over. It was just it was a back and forth. Poor guy. 'Cause that was really the start of his downfall was that quad. 'Cause I think he had two bogeys and then the quad and that just completely flipped him Uno reverse card on the scoreboard. That stunk.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Yeah, he was looking good before that. Yeah.
Dominic: That's one of those I texted. I was like, is this a twenty twenty leaderboard right now? Like DJ's on top, Windham. Like what is happening right now? and John Rahm, first bogey fear round at Shinnikok in seven hundred and fifty rounds.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, Justin Rose up there, yeah. Damn. That's impressive.
Dominic: Yeah, he didn't have a bogey all Thursday. And I think he had one on Friday. I think is what it was.
Kevin Spisak: Wait. What? You sure? Didn't he miss the cut? yeah, okay. He went sixty-eight seventy-eight. Damn. geez. I d yeah.
Dominic: Did you really? Sixty-eight seventy-eight is actually crazy. My goodness. Yeah, ten ten stroke swing. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Wild stuff. Yeah, overall. I really enjoyed it. I think there's some some hardos out there that always find something wrong, but love seeing Shinikok. That place looks incredible. I hope to get there one day.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, so his Friday was rough. So okay, bogey free round Thursday. I see what you're saying.
Dominic: but I think that kind of leads us into the travelers.
Kevin Spisak: I've got one more thing about Shinnikok. again, we always talk about hardest holes on tour. We got two new additions into the top ten of the hardest holes so far of the season. So number two, became the seventh hardest hole, you know, with in respect to par at par three, two hundred and fifty two yards.
Dominic: yeah.
Kevin Spisak: at 0.326 shots over par on average. And then number four became the eighth hardest hole at 0.315 over par for par four 476 yards. So two front nine holes beat people up. that knocked out Torrey Pines number 12 and Memorial Park number 14.
Dominic: Ooh, okay.
Kevin Spisak: Honorable mention, Shinnecock number ten is thirteenth.
Dominic: Dang. That's where that's Wyndham's birdie. His his kinda snowball birdie on ten on that final round. Dang, good for him.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. So yeah, that's all I got for Shinekock and US Open. It was a fun week to watch. I really enjoyed it.
Dominic: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I was glad I was able to watch a good amount of it too. But yeah, so coming up is the Travelers Championship TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut. So short flight for some of these guys. it's another SIGI, so limited field, no cuts. Huge for me to kind of bounce back and not not get cut. so another par seventy, but this is a much shorter course. So sixty eight hundred yards, and it's actually one of the shortest on tour. Which is very interesting. So a few weeks in a row that don't actually reward bombers per se. So it'll be very interesting to see how this goes. in my in my research. I don't know too too much about this course again. Matt is our our course expert, but seems to be rewarding a lot of the mid iron and wedge shots. and then if you can kind of get hot on the green with your putter, then you will most likely be on top of that leader. So it'll be pretty interesting to see Keegan being a Northeast guy, he loves his course. He's won two of the last three years. it was him in 23, Scotty won in 24, and then Keegan again in 25. So he seems to be the hot hand. I think Wyndham has won here before as well. So I mean, you know, some of these guys, they could be eating this course up. So we'll see, especially with how the conditions are. I think it's been raining in Boston lately. So maybe up in that area it's kinda might be a little soft, so we'll see.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, probably gonna have some pretty tight shots in there. I think my only experience with this course was like maybe playing it on the track, man. I I just had to do some research and dig in, but some pretty low scores through history. yeah, Keegan winning in twenty-three at twenty-three under, Scotty at twenty-two under two years ago, and then Keegan in fifteen under last year. so we should expect a lot of birdies. some you know hot rounds but you want to go into some trivia because it's it's always about that that course that week
Dominic: Heck yeah, let's do trivia and then we'll choose our our one and done picks.
Kevin Spisak: So travelers championship. I guess travelers insurance. There's lots of insurance sponsored golf tournaments. Cromwell, Connecticut. this this week's trivia question. It's gonna be a bit of a diversion from some of the past trivia questions. Not gonna be necessarily tournament or golf related, but a little geography to quiz old Dominic here. So Cromwell, Connecticut was founded basically like a bazillion years ago. in like sixteen hundreds, it was called something else. Native American land, English settlers came there. The eastern border of Cromwell is outlined by the Connecticut River. So our trivia question is around the Connecticut River. Everyone's everyone's favorite river.
Dominic: Jesus.
Kevin Spisak: as always if you get it right, I'll chug a beer. I'll I'll give I'll give you like a little bit of wiggle room because kind of an obscure question, but if you get it, I don't know, Matt's not here to you know make you chug, so if you get it way off, then you're gonna have to chug a beer. So Connecticut River real golf talk here. It it starts on the southern border of Quebec, Canada.
Dominic: Okay, fair.
Kevin Spisak: then where is the outflow of the Ket Connecticut River?
Dominic: Cat.
Kevin Spisak: That's our that's our trivia question.
Dominic: Okay, so starts in Quebec. trying to think. So there's Vermont, New Hampshire. The northeast is always my my weak point. I mean it wouldn't be like Connecticut, right? Is it gonna be Rhode Island?
Kevin Spisak: It's it's another body of water is the the answer I'm looking for is yeah. So I'll I'll give you a hint. It is the name of a body of water where freshwater and salt water meet.
Dominic: gotcha.
Kevin Spisak: This is a fantastic question.
Dominic: I I should know this. Like I've seen it and I've seen a documentary on it. But I don't remember Why does Chesapeake Bay throw get into my head?
Kevin Spisak: That would be in Maryland. So is is that
Dominic: I think that'd be too low. I keep thinking of like where Dave Portnoy where he like vacations in like Nantucket.
Kevin Spisak: Mm-hmm. That would be northeast of here.
Dominic: I'll just I'll just choose Chesapeake 'cause I don't have another guess.
Kevin Spisak: Okay. So it's it's the Long Island Sound. So yeah. The the Long Island Sound, i if you look at it on the map, is like that body of water that's in between Long Island and the state of Connecticut.
Dominic: Interesting, okay.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, so the river apparently produces seventy percent of the fresh water in the Long Island Sound. So you got a blend of of sea salt water and fresh water. So I don't know. I wanted yeah, you are you are within like the stratosphere, I guess, but Chesapeake Bay still a couple hundred miles away, different type of body of water.
Dominic: That's pretty cool. Was I way off? Would you count that? I gave two I gave two surroundings. We'll we'll wait for Matt to get back next week and then he can decide and then I can just chug two beers next week.
Kevin Spisak: All right. That sounds good. But yeah, I wanted to take us on a different course, you know, for trivia. But yes.
Dominic: Pun intended, I like it. Alright, so with that, who actually I almost skip Matt. So Matt's not here, and he didn't send in his one and done pick. So as per section thirty four, article B, we are choosing for him. And we collectively decided to choose Matt's third favorite player, and that's Shane Lowry. And I hope he's listening right now. Because this is my Matt Couture. And Shane's gonna win. That's gonna be the best part.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, I think Shane is a nicer pick. Even though Matt Couture wound up playing well, Matt was going for blood. Shane Shane Lowry, I don't think, is going for blood.
Dominic: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, which he did I mean, Matt Couture, he knew that he won the memorial before. And like he was like top fifteen of the the previous tournament. Yeah, that I mean it's twenty eighteen, it's not bad. But anyways, who d who do you have for the Travelers Championship?
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, but like a million years ago, like I think I think it's Matt Week here on the pod 'cause I'm gonna go with another one of his favorite golfers and pick Colin Morikawa.
Dominic: He's been in form lately. He's been doing really well.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, ever since his like injury coming back, he's been playing pretty good. Without that wedge debacle, he may have done better at the US Open.
Dominic: Yeah, and his Yeah, he's got that that new dad strength too. Congrats to him. So I was gonna go with Keegan. just for, you know, essentially home course. He's won multiple times recently. But I'm gonna go with a little bit more of a hot hand here. I'm gonna go with Sam Burns. Cause like we've been we've been we've been kind of put talking about hot putters and if you can kind of
Kevin Spisak: Okay, okay.
Dominic: You know, his approach game is pretty good at Shinnecock. So I if you can just get on the green, I think he can roll some good putts in. So I'm gonna I'm gonna see what Sam Burns can do for me.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. Hot final round of the US Open. Bring it into Connecticut. Not a far trip from Shinnecock to get to TPC River Highlands.
Dominic: Mm-hmm. And he's hungry. He's hungry. He's narrowly lost three weeks in a row. So like I think he's due for one. And I think Wyndham's had too much of the grape lately. So I think he's gonna be a little slower, who knows?
Kevin Spisak: Nice. We did not talk about the new did you see the new PJ Tour announcement? Okay. Sorry to totally divert, but just like thinking of the signature events and stuff with how the PJ Tour season comes. That made me think of it.
Dominic: I did. I was gonna bring that up. Very exciting. my goodness. I'm pretty excited. It looks fun. So you want me to just do a quick overview real quick? So they're splitting it up, kinda like what Matt had brought up before. he he writes a good sub stack article every week if you want to go look at it, widths and angles. But so there's gonna be two tours essentially. So there's a championship series and then a challenger series. so there's gonna be twenty million dollar minimum
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, yep, yeah.
Dominic: purse for these the championship series and that's gonna be running from February to August and then roughly 120 players per event but then there's also gonna be a regulation which is gonna be crazy. So end of the season top ninety players stay and whoever's below that I think it's the bottom twenty will get relegated into the challenger series. So championship is almost is basically tour A Challengers tour B. and then they're holding a regular season winner, and then there's gonna be a match play tour championship. So they're giving the people what they want. We're seeing one one v one match play for the tour championship. That's gonna be incredible to watch. and then they're also gonna like kind of visit some courses they haven't really been to before. So I'm really hoping we can maybe see some like
Kevin Spisak: yeah.
Dominic: some more Pinehurst courses potentially. there's gotta be some that I just don't know off the top of my head. Like I would want to see them play Pasa Tiempo. I don't know if there's been a PGA event out there. I know there's a lot of college kind of tournaments, but that'd be really cool. But yeah, so then there's also a little bit more fall golf coming in. There's an international tour and then there's also what they're gonna call last chance tour. So it's essentially a final opportunity to get back into the championship series. I don't it's not in in my notes here, but I if I remember correctly, it's there's an extra 20 spots that'll be opened in that last chance section. So that'll be I'm very interested to see how this works. complete switch up from what the PGA tour normally is, but it should be pretty fun.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, they're like almost like reverting back to some of the stuff from like the pre-live changes and the signature events. which yeah, I think is what everyone actually wants. And then they really listen to the fans, you know, with our desire for match play. You know, we don't have any match play events right now and the playoffs, you know, being match play. Like we we love it in the Ryder Cup. You know, match play is like the most like other competitive sports where it's like one v one, you know Clear winner, clear loser versus like playing against the field. so I am like beyond excited for these new changes. And then I think the like championship and challenger series is gonna give a lot more like opportunity to the like mid-tier golfers, you know, who are like kind of fighting to be on the PJ tour, live out like their dream as a professional golfer, you know, and have a chance to compete every week, you know, on top of you know, some of the other like professional tours out there, but you know, I think these are really good changes. Again, very, very excited to see where this goes. Kind of a a bummer that we have to wait a little bit for it and then it's not gonna be in effect next year. You know, but obviously all this stuff takes a long time to like plan and you know, they've got schedules already prepared for next season. so it makes sense, but you know, I I'd love to see this as fast as possible.
Dominic: My biggest question is how is it gonna be with T V? So with all these deals and and cable providers and ESPN and golf channel, is it gonna be similar to like the Myrtle Beach classic that was going on where not too many people are watching while there's another full fledged signature event going on? Like, is it gonna are they gonna go back and forth? Are you gonna do a double screen? Like is it gonna show Are they gonna show the the challenger series or is it only gonna be championship series that we get to watch? So like all that I'm I'm sure that's gonna more unfold in the next year and a half or so. So, yeah, Brian Rolat making some big changes, man.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. I think the like Challenger series will it'll be like bigger than say like the Myrtle Beach one because there'll be like some more recognizable names in there. yeah, that's at least my first thought. but the like championship championship series events, a twenty million dollar purse is like, you know, huge. that's gonna be wild. You know, 120 players with a cut. You know, it's like kind of the more traditional format.
Dominic: That's crazy.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. And then like the relegation system, like you were mentioning, there's gonna be some like real drama at the end of the season for guys that like we know their names. They maybe played in a handful of tournaments we know, maybe made a flash in a major or something, you know, but they're trying to fight to get to that next spot, you know, secure their or you know, or vice versa in the championship series, guys trying to fight to stay in that. you know, ninety who get to stay, you know, and lock up their spot for the next year. There'll there'll certainly be some like added drama in the PJ tour season, you know, I think for everyone.
Dominic: Yeah. Do you know is it based off FedEx points or is it world ranking points?
Kevin Spisak: it'll be like their points for the PGA tour, not World Golf Ranking. Because like World Golf Ranking would include, you know, DP World Tour guys or, you know, other tours.
Dominic: okay gosh. Yeah. If the season ended right now, Billy Horsch will be the last person based off FedEx Cup rankings. And then
Kevin Spisak: Like he w he would be the ninetieth player.
Dominic: Yep. Billy Horst will be the ninetieth, and then I'll just have to cut around this fuck.
Kevin Spisak: It's like so wild that like 30 people will get relegated. That's crazy.
Dominic: my gosh, dude. So Grio, Dumonde Chassar, Denny McCarthy, Marco Penge, Rasmus Hoysgar. I know. Chandler Phillips. D can you see a common friend? Joel Damon wouldn't make it. Chandler Phillips. Lucas Glover. He's a he's a name that
Kevin Spisak: These are all Matt's boys. This is this is Matt's whole one and done schedule.
Dominic: kinda goes around. Johnny Vegas. All these guys would would be relegated. at if it ended today. My guy Matt Couture, poor guy. Garrett Higgo
Kevin Spisak: He's not poor. Pay your caddy, Matt.
Dominic: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but we had we had just said so correction, Challenger series is twenty events compared to the champions twenty three or twenty four. and then a four million dollar minimum purse for the the challenger series as well. So like still some opportunity to make money and be a professional golfer, but it's just definitely it's it's a different animal now. Like it'll be it'll be very interesting to see what happens.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah, for sure. you know, I'm sure we all have like a few courses that come to mind that we'd love to see an event, you know, get to be played at. It'll be exciting to see when they start getting announced.
Dominic: Yeah, we'll have to maybe in the next couple of weeks we can do like our top five that we want to see or something like that.
Kevin Spisak: Yeah. You know, like coming up we've got the John Deere Classic and I heard from someone that like they're like contemplating like that this could be the last year of it or, you know, next year could be the last year of it. Maybe maybe with the news, you know, today maybe now some people feel like it's more secure 'cause that might be a Challenger series event or something like that.
Dominic: Really? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, beautiful. I think we're excited to see that. I did want to say for next episode we're gonna have a guest on. And that'll be a lot of fun. So iTarget Golf out of Florida. It's a high tech lighting systems and interactive driving range. So that'll be fun to kind of talk about that and just different different avenues of of growing the game. for you know different ways to practice and s essentially and different ways to grow your game is what we're kind of talking about today. So that'll be a fun little episode slash interview. so stay tuned for that. And then travelers championship coming up, TPC River Highlands. anything else, Kev?
Kevin Spisak: No, I think that's it for the week. Excited to see how Connecticut goes. You know, hopefully can build on some some tough conditions and some good play at the US Open and You know, see lots of birdies this week.
Dominic: Yeah, brother. Alright. Follow us. Spotify, Apple, YouTube at Underthecovers Golf. See you next week.