PGA Friday: Who on this board can you really trust besides Scottie?
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Hello and welcome into this edition of the Golf Show Podcast with Rex and Lab. We're here at the 107th PGA Championship. Jonathan Vegas is still your leader by two shots over Matthew Pavon and Matt Fitzpatrick. Siwoo Kim also in the mix after an ace in the second round at Quail Hollow to get within two shots of the lead and find himself in the penultimate grouping on Saturday. Rex, what were your thoughts on Friday at Quail Hollow?

Day one, we had mud balls. We're not going to talk about mud balls tonight. We're done with that. Day two, we had maybe a driver controversy. I'm sure we'll get into it in a moment. But otherwise, it was kind of flat with the lone exception. I will say this, and I think both of us sort of predicted the idea that...

This is not all hope is not lost that there are still plenty of big names lurking. One of the biggest names being Scott Scheffler. He put together what was a grinding, grinding, gritty round of 68 to put himself right back in contention. He's tied for fifth. And you and I were just talking about the idea that right now he's three strokes back. I think you're right. I think effectively he's probably only one or two.

strokes off the lead because you don't see Jonathan Vegas continuing to do what he's been doing so far this week. I'm not saying he's falling off the map. I'm not saying he can't continue to contend, but he has played lights out with the exception of one hole through 36 holes. And it was the final hole of the day. He could have had a four shot lead heading into the weekend and said he double bogeyed the 18th hole as, as many players have done so far this week at Quail Hollow. I, I tried to preach patience and,

and to withhold any sort of judgment looking at the leaderboard at this PGA Championship after the opening round. I'm getting a little bit nervous, Rex, that this one is not going to quite live up to the hype. Keep in mind, we're coming off an epic season.

We were coming in. I guarantee if you ran it back, our podcast on Wednesday, we were amped at the prospect of a Bryson DeChambeau, Scotty Shuffler, Roy McIlroy duel for the ages at Quahog. We still may get a Scotty Bryson. Roy now nine shots back after a 200 round of 69 bogeyed the last two holes. Otherwise, I think he could have been probably more in the mix on Saturday. If you look at this leaderboard, Rex, only two major champions in the

in the top 16 on the leaderboard. One of them is Matt Fitzpatrick, who, to use his own words, has played, quote, rubbish this year and is now going through a swing change. And the other one, I think most notably, the one that's going to get everyone's attention on the leaderboard,

is Scotty Scheffler. Let's start there. Rex with sky shuffle, Scotty, three shots back still does not quite have his best stuff. You look at statistically really the only area in which he's really thriving is around the greens, which, you know, if, if most players are going to miss, let's say six to eight greens around, um, scrambling is imperative, particularly from some of the short areas that have given a lot of these players fits. What have you made of Scotty's, uh,

First two days of work here. Is there anything that leads you believe that he might not be up to task to win this major championship?

No, I mean, let's keep in mind, let's don't be silly about this. In his last start in Dallas, he won by eight strokes without something close to his best game, I would offer. Oh, I don't know about that. I would say on Sunday, at least coming down the stretch, I don't know, either he didn't have his best game or maybe he took the foot off the gas. However it is, you want to point it out. I think, too, when you start breaking down Scottie Scheffler's game, and you're right, I think statistically it's not exactly what we've come to expect, but when most players say I'm not far off,

maybe roll your eyes a little bit. Maybe you are farther off than you think. I think when Scottie Scheffler says he's not that far off, I tend to believe it, pointing out in his post-round press conference that look at the fairways I missed. Outside of the first hole, which was a wayward drive, he's only missing them by a yard or two or getting a bad bounce. I think he has plenty of game right now to have the confidence going into this weekend to do exactly what we thought he was going to do. I'll go back to Tiger Woods when he was in his

prime. This looks a little bit like that because Stuart Sink called Tiger Woods in his prime when he would get in the hunt, he would play prevent defense. By that, he means he's just going to wait for everyone else to fall away. I'm just going to move along. I'm going to shoot my 68. I'm going to wait for you to have a blow up hole. I think he's perfectly fine with that idea.

No, he has plenty of game left in the tank. And beyond that, I would break it down. And I mean, we didn't spend a lot of time talking about Jonathan Vegas last night and we didn't spend a lot. I'm sure we're not going to spend a lot of time talking about him tonight. I don't know that there's many names on that leaderboard that Scottie's going to look at and think to himself, I'm going to have a hard time tracking that guy down. I don't think there's any. And I think, I think conversely in, you know, in, in opposite fashion, the players on the leaderboard have to be thinking, okay,

Scotty now finds himself just three shots off the lead. If you don't believe in Jonathan Vegas and you're, if you believe in Jonathan Vegas, good for you. He's never been in this position before. If he can, if he can stay there or power to him, the lead is probably realistically, uh,

at 600 par in which Scottie would just be one shot back. You know Scottie's not going to falter. He is number one on the PGA Tour in bogey avoidance. So if you are sort of assuming that Scottie is going to plant his flag and if anything, just sort of chip away at the deficit, you're probably thinking if you're one of these chief contenders, I've still got to get to low double digits.

11, 12 under par to realistically win this call. So we can talk about the changing conditions. If you want, they're expecting 25 on our Gus, uh,

On Saturday, the greens, because of the sub air system are already pretty firm. I'll be curious to see if some of the crosswinds that you may have in those type of gusts, if that leads to a little bit more errant drives than we've seen, because, you know, there's just not enough rollout in which there's not a huge penalty for any sort of errant tee shot. And so that could all factor into it. But I think Scotty is right where he wants to play his last five holes. Rex,

on Friday in two under par. That includes a short, I think it was like a four foot miss on 17. I was out there. The trajectory with which he hit that shot was so different than his two playing competitors, Xander Shoffley and

and Masters champion Roy McIlroy, it was so high and stopped so quickly. It was the only way to leave himself in the absolute perfect spot. He was not bailing out right. He was not going safe, you know, long and right of the pin. He went right at it, even with all the water left of the green. Sky Shuffle, I think, is very comfortable with his game. I think, you know, playing, I think in the third to last group,

alongside Max Homa, I think he'll be very, very cushy. Who did you write for NBCSports.com slash golf Friday night that you wanted to get into? That was a very good professional transition, they would say. I wrote Max Homa because he is always entertaining. He's always...

He always gives you plenty to write about. And that was certainly the case today. And Max has been an interesting study in my mind because the struggles, his ups and downs are so well documented. He doesn't leave any ambiguity. There is nothing to guess when it comes to Max Homer. He's going to tell you exactly what he's going through, exactly what he's feeling. So I felt compelled to write it. And I will say the professional golfers, PGA Tour golfers specifically, they don't like to leave anything to chance.

specifically going into major championships. They like to have everything lined up exactly like they want in the run-up. Max Homa is the exact opposite. If you look at where he is now versus, and this kind of goes back to the fall when you had his split with his longtime swing coach, Mark Blackburn, picks up a new swing coach. They start doing different things that I won't say that are dramatically different, but certainly it is something of an overhaul when it comes to this swing. Just a few weeks ago, his caddie, Joe Greiner,

split to go work for Colin Morikawa. He had to pick up a new caddy that was on the back. And then last week at the Philly Cricket Club during the Truist Championship, he decided to switch drivers. Those are three big things to change going into a major championship. And for him to play well today, and he played really well on a golf course where he has had success before. He's won here. I was taken by his confidence. He is not a player, even when he's playing well,

that just exudes sort of that Rory McIlroy dominant alpha male confidence. He sort of is understated a little bit, got the slump shoulders going on sometimes. He's a little bit self-deprecating, little self-deprecating. I think that's why he's popular among the fans. I think that's why he's popular on social media, but there was a little of that today as he kind of looked back two things here, as he looked back to,

And these are his words, not mine. I'm a really good golfer. Being able to play from where I was putting myself with my driver over the last few months. Just the fact that I was able to give myself any kind of opportunity. He pointed, finished dive for 12th just a few weeks ago at the Masters. Now he called that smoke and mirrors because you can get away with a little bit more at a gust off the tee than you can anywhere else. This week, he just feels like he called it his old swing. Something that feels familiar. Feels like he's dropping it in the slot. I thought it was interesting. He was asking.

He picked up almost five miles an hour this week with his driver's ball speed, which is pretty unheard of from a week-to-week jump. But he just said that there was just something that felt comfortable. It loosened him up, and he was able to be aggressive. And you factor all that into the idea that I'll go back to. He's had success here. He's a good pick who you and I never would have talked about.

No, I don't think I mean, there was nothing based on his form. I know he finished T12 at the Masters. There was not a whole lot of confidence emanating from from Max Homa's results that you would think that this sort of performance was coming around the corner. Like I think back to last fall, I covered the BMW championship in Colorado and Max was at that time sort of like a questionable candidate.

maybe even an unlikely captain's pick for the President's Cup. Remember, like he was slumping so hard throughout the summer that like Jim Fury can't possibly put this guy on the team. And that week he drove it everywhere to the point that there was actually starting to be some whispers like this guy has got the driver yips. Like this guy is is totally, totally lost. And to see where he is now based on his work with his new swing coach,

John Scott Rattan, who was out at a congressional. They've clearly done some good work. And to your point, Rex, like Homo went to John Scott Rattan two and a half weeks ago and said, this is how I want to swing the club. This is what feels most comfortable to me. They built sort of the model of Max Homo swing around that.

trying to get him more comfortable. It is clearly paid off. He is driving the ball exceptionally well at Quail Hollow. 2019 winner here, so he clearly enjoys the place, enjoys the sight lines, has good vibes. But I think the driver transformation in particular, it's just really hard to play elite level golf

If you're spraying it everywhere and, and maximum has never been one of the longest hitters on the PGA tour. So if you're average medium length and you're crooked, that's a really bad combination. That's a bad place to play from.

And I love the line that he used. He said he, quote unquote, felt broken trying to find his swing. And you're right. It was an interesting conversation that you want to swing, sit your swing coach down and tell him, look, this is the way I want it to feel. And to give his swing coach credit, he said that fine, that'll be the model going forward. And that is what led to the driver change last week where they had created driver Kovacoff. And I reached out to one of the reps this afternoon that sort of adjusted to the miss. It was allowing him to play more for a miss than it was allowing him to play more freely.

allowing him to play the way he wanted to off the tee box. And now he went back to something that he was more familiar with, something with a draw bias. And interesting, he likes to play a fade. And that is a good combination for him. And that's what we've seen through the first two rounds. I would also lump Max Homa, Rex in one of these final groups on Saturday with Matt Fitzpatrick, who has gone down a similar line, calling his recent play rubbish. Matt Fitzpatrick got you down to 85th.

The official World Golf ranking is best finished this season is 22nd. He no longer works with Mike Walker, which is notable because he has been with him since he was a teenager. Now actually working if Maxoma left Mark Blackburn, Mark Blackburn has now picked up a new client in Matt Fitzpatrick.

He has been at least trending, at least in Matt Fitzpatrick's mind over these past couple of weeks. Seems to have really made some good progress, likes the processes they have going. His approach play this week has been outstanding. And I know when he won the major championship a couple of years ago at the U.S. Open and much was made of his physical transformation,

getting more speed, you know, really increasing at 10, 15 mile an hour ball speed, which is unheard of, particularly for a player of that stature. He has always been a great iron player and very tidy on and around the greens. And that was sort of the part of his game that Matt Fitzpatrick's game has deserted him over the past couple of years during this slump. It's great to see that return. He sounds at least Rex Fitzpatrick.

Full of confidence. This is going to be a very telling weekend for both of these players who are in the midst of a little bit of a rebirth, a reclamation project, trying to bring themselves out. How much faith, how much trust are you going to have in your rebuilt golf swing when it's blowing 25 mile an hour on a cross when you're trying to win a major championship? I think it's going to be very interesting to find out.

And Matt Fitzpatrick has a brilliant mind when it comes to golf. We've talked a lot in the past about how he has tracked pretty much every shot he's ever hit ever since college going forward into the professional ranks. And he went back to when he started feeling a little bit better with his swing, when he started feeling a little bit more comfortable. And he talked about Hilton Head, where if you just look at the stats, it didn't seem like he played all that well, but he was quick to point out he finished dead last in the field.

and putting. He said, I've probably never done that in my life. And he still was able to finish middle of the pack. And Hilton had that. And he's strange and twisted in PGA tour way was a move was motivation. It was a way to give him a little bounce in a step. Good little nugget here from our friend, Randy Robles of the Elias sports Bureau. The last time Rex was the PGA championship had only two or fewer major winners among the top 10 and ties after 36 holes. Any guesses?

Why, yes, it was right here at Quail Hollow Club in 2017. Remember, that leaderboard was a little bit dodgy for Justin Thomas, saved the day, won his first major championship back in 2017.

In 2017. All right, let's get to Rory who looked like he was going to make a little bit of a run. He was four under for the day. Looked like he was cooking a little bit. Instead, a couple of late mistakes on 17, really sloppy bogey there. Looks like it was going to be an easy up and down. Instead missed about a three or four footer rimming one out on 18. Probably got fortunate not to go in the Creek at a wild hook there.

off the tee, hit the roof of the grandstand, kicked down near the creek, instead was just outside, almost flubbed his pitch shot near the bunker, into the bunker, and then walks off with back-to-back bogeys. Now nine shots back after just a 69. What do you make of Rory's week so far as he looked to win his second major championship of the year?

It was, again, disappointing off the tee, and you and I touched on it. I pointed out that he has a case of the lefts going on. You kind of touched on the idea that he probably hasn't had a lot of time to practice since winning the Masters. He's been busy. Went home to England, went to Northern Ireland, played the team event a few weeks ago with his friend Shane Lowry. There are a lot of things that we probably speculated about. The one that probably landed it, though, came late this afternoon when XM Radio reported that he actually had a driver that was deemed nonconforming on Tuesday earlier this week.

You have to assume we didn't have any details. Rory declined to talk to the media afterwards. You would assume that's the same driver that he had been using all along. That was his gamer and that whatever he has now is some sort of backup. That at least fills in some gaps for me. And I want to be very, very clear about this because our friend Jason Sobel on XM Radio tweeted this, which I've warned him about numerous times in the past, and he is getting attacked on social media for it. It is really, really important to point out this happens quite a bit.

you know, at the professional level. I'll go back just a few years ago. It happened in Santa Shafla at the Open Championship. You can have a driver that would test conforming in the morning and then you practice, you play a round of golf and you test it in the afternoon and it can be non-conforming. Too hot. Too hot. The face is too thin. And there's a reason behind that. It's because the speed that these players swing the golf club, it's going to create a lot more friction. It's going to create a lot more wear and tear on the club face. It's called creep performance.

when they start to get a little bit too thin. Manufacturers aren't going to create club faces that are too thick because that is not going to be the distance they're looking at. So by design, every PGA Tour player wants a club face that is as close to the legal limit as possible. So this happens a lot in the professional game. We're only talking about this now because it's Rory, and the one thing that stands out that you and I talked about last night is what's holding him back this week seems to be that driver that was so prolific at Augusta Nash.

I mean, the stats are obviously brutal. He's hit through two rounds, just 10 of 28 fairways for a player who prides himself on his driving. That's not going to get his name nearly last the field.

in driving accuracy. I know the rough is not overly penal. I know it's not overly thick. You can certainly advance it on the greens, but he's just not putting himself in position a to attack. I think that's why you've seen him be a little bit more defensive. It's very interesting because I think, I think to a layman, you would just say, well, look, you know, you know, your exact specs, like just build me another one and then I'll go out and play. And it sounds simple, but there's probably some psychological, um,

factor to it. Like, is this a little bit different? I'm not comfortable with this. I don't have any reps with this one. So like I can, I can sort of see it both ways. I don't have a strong take on it, but it's clear that,

that his driving accuracy has really suffered this week. He has not been particularly sharp with his iron play, as well as hit just eight greens in regulation on Friday, and just like was the story on Thursday, not filling it up on the greens. We're not making excuses for Rory for his poor play. We don't have an explanation from him on how much this actually factors. He has actually not talked to the media either of the first two days after shooting a 74-point.

on Thursday or 69 on Friday. Potentially he will meet with us on Saturday. It would have a couple more answers. The player that I wrote Rex about on NBC sports.com slash golf on Friday night was Bryson DeChambeau. I went out and watched Bryson for 12 holes on Friday. And as I was walking around, I was the only reporter out there. I thought to myself, I'm not sure I've ever seen a more impressive driving display on

I've seen Tiger Woods play golf. I've seen Greg Norman play golf. I've seen Dustin Johnson play golf. I've seen Roy Mackler play golf. I've seen Adam Scott play golf. All of the great drivers that you think of over the last 20 and 25 years. Not sure if I've ever seen anything like that.

Like Bryson. I mean, 357 down the middle, 40 yards past Gary Woodland and Victor Hovland, who are not short by any stretch of the imagination on the third hole. On 16, he had a 359-yard moonshot.

that carried the right edge of the, of the, of excuse me, the left edge of the right bunker smack dab in the middle of the fairway. Brennan little, uh, the caddy for Gary Woodland, uh, turned to Greg Bodine during the round, who's a looper for Bryson and said, I'm not sure I've ever seen someone drive it as well. Dana Dahlquist, Bryson swing coach said legitimately in his lifetime, he's never seen anything like it. He is putting himself in such a,

advantageous positions that to me, he is a very scary name on that leaderboard and a tie for 17th, just five shots back of Jonathan Vegas, just two shots back of Scotty Scheffler. If he can tighten up his iron play just a little bit, just a little bit cleaner. I think Bryson is very much poised to make a run here at Quail Hollow.

This goes back to when he won the U.S. Open at Wingfoot, and I think you and I were both there. I asked Xander Schauffele, is he redefining the game? And Xander kind of stumbled a little bit, but got around to the idea that, yes, certainly what he's doing off the tee is redefining the game. Now, he hasn't broken it over his knee, which I think was my next line that I used in that particular game story, because he hasn't won.

every major or every event he's been in. But you're right. When he is doing what he's doing today, it's a weapon that I would say only maybe one other player in the game can come close to, and that's Rory McIlroy. And we just had a long talk about somehow the driver that was so prolific at Augusta just isn't this week. I did find it interesting. I spoke with someone from Bryson's camp that you mentioned his iron play. And this goes back to not this year's Masters, but last year's Masters. You remember our good friend, our colleague, Todd Lewis,

reporting about the bulge-faced irons that he put in play that week. And there was a lot of talk and a lot of conversation about it. We all know how much Bryson likes to tinker. The irons that he has in his bag right now are the exact same irons that he put in play at that Masters. There's no backup set. It's one of one. Keep this in mind. They're continuing to try to refine it and give him what he wants. There was a moment...

at the Masters just last month where he needed to bend a wedge. And it's a pretty straightforward process for the professionals in the truck. However, if it's one of one, and I spoke with the rep who was supposed to be doing the bending, there's a lot of pressure on you, don't break this.

Because there is no backup. You only get one chance at it. So you watch him, and we know how much he's on the leading edge, and we know how much he's trying to be as scientific and matter-of-fact about this. Keep an eye on the irons because it seems to me he's not close to what he wants, and these are still the same irons he had over a year ago. Yeah, like it's just –

Everything seems to be coalescing for Bryson this weekend because the temperatures are going to be hot. The ball is going to be flying even further. The fairways and greens are going to be firming up after the four inches of rain that we had. The rough that hasn't been touched in six days is going to continue to grow. If you're a player of Bryson's power, if you're a player of Bryson's strength, you want the rough.

to be as long and as thick as possible because it only maximizes your advantage. He can gouge it out. He can advance it further higher and stop a quicker,

than almost all of his peers. And so all of that works in Bryson's favor. He made a couple of untidy mistakes late in his round. Couldn't get up and down short of two after a so-so pitch shot on nine. Had a bad break. The ball appeared to bounce from the fairway into the rough, into sort of a dodgy line. Wasn't able to get that one up and down either. But

If he continued to drive the ball as he has done over these previous two days, leading the field and driving distance, I still like Bryson to factor heavily in this golf tournament. All right, let's wrap it up with this, Rex. What are you most looking forward to seeing on Saturday at Quail Hollow?

I mean, Scotty Scheffler, how does he take the next step? Because as you pointed out correctly, like you look at the leaderboard, it doesn't feel like a major championship leaderboard with that lone exception. And he's going to be the one that sets the tone. If he goes out early and starts making birdies, I think you'll start to see the other players get

I don't want to say panicky, but certainly you want to keep pace. You don't want to let him get ahead like he did in Dallas, where he was just going to walk away from the field. There's other names up there that are interesting. Bryson is good. I think Jon Rahm could have a good round tomorrow. I think Tony Finau could turn it around and have a good round tomorrow. But I think Scottie is going to set the tone.

I don't disagree with that. I'm curious to see how Michael Fjord Bjornsson, the young standout from Stanford, acquits himself in major championship contention for the first time. An absolute bomber. Tons of game. Curious to see how he stands up and what could either turn into an absolute slugfest or a little bit of a shootout. The scoring was certainly better on Friday than it was on Thursday. Does

Does Kerry Hague sort of make the golf course either easier with the wind gusts that we were expecting? I think that'll be fun to watch as well. I watched because he was, he was in Bryson's group for the first two rounds here. Victor Hovland is always,

is always interesting viewing. He came in the house at two under chipped in for birdie on his last hole of the day. He's a two under par. PGA championship has been his kindest major over the past couple of years as he's sort of going through these swing changes and trying to find his way back home. He has been awful, awful,

around the greens, positively awful. I'm talking like semi skulls, get a couple of flubs. He botched what should have been a very straightforward bunker shot. Like we're, we're talking three, four or five shots. He has thrown away to the field to this point. If Victor Hovland can get cooking with his approach play, I still think there's something there where he could once again, factor at the PGA championship. All right.

That is going to do it for this edition of the Golf Show Podcast with Rex and Lav. You guys know the drill. NBCSports.com slash golf for all the latest news, notes, and updates. Rex and I will be back on Saturday night for another edition, another mini-pod in which we will try to go 15 to 20 minutes as opposed to this 25-minute edition. But I digress. Go catch Rex on live from the PGA Championship on Friday and Saturday night as well. Thanks for listening. Thanks for the support. Talk to you guys Saturday night.

That rundown is 20 minutes heavy. This Father's Day helped Dad be all he can be with a gift from the Home Depot. Because he's not just Dad, he's the handyman of the house, the plumber in a pinch, and the emergency mechanic.

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