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Justin Leonard Breaks Down the US Open at Shinnecock — The Course, the Contenders, and Scottie's Chase for History

Justin Leonard Breaks Down the US Open at Shinnecock — The Course, the Contenders, and Scottie's Chase for History Justin Leonard knows what it takes to win on the biggest stages in golf. The 1997 Open Champion. A three-time Ryder Cup player. The man who hit the putt at Brookline in 1999 that completed one of the greatest comebacks in Ryder Cup history. Now a vice captain for Team USA heading into 2027, Justin joins Trey for a wide-ranging conversation that covers the US Open at Shinnecock, the state of the Ryder Cup, and a few personal stories along the way. Shinnecock — American Links Golf Justin's description of Shinnecock is simple and perfect — American links. Not modeled after anything else. Just itself. He spoke with NBC's Tommy Roy the morning of this interview, and Roy's assessment was equally simple — this place is made for this tournament. The history of Shinnecock and the US Open has not always been smooth. In 2004, the USGA had to water a green between groupings because conditions got out of hand. In 2018, Brooks Koepka shot five over in the first round and still won, before the USGA toned the course down enough on Sunday for Tommy Fleetwood to shoot a 63. Justin's hope is simple — let this be a US Open where the story is the golf course, the difficulty, and the champion, without controversy in between. At Shinnecock, with firm and fast greens, the margin between a fair-but-tough pin placement and an unfair one is a matter of inches. He trusts the USGA and the Shinnecock grounds crew to tiptoe that line successfully. Who Is Built for This After a season everyone expected to be Scotty versus Rory at every major, Justin's pick for Shinnecock might surprise people. If he were a betting man — which he says he is not — he would take the field over either of the top two. Three names stand out: Cameron Young — playing with total confidence right now. Driving the ball beautifully, controlling his irons, putting well, and completely unfazed by results. Justin sees him practicing in Florida regularly and describes someone who keeps putting the work in regardless of outcomes — exactly the temperament Shinnecock demands. Brooks Koepka — the last champion at Shinnecock in 2018, playing his way back into the form that produced five major championships. He says he's hitting the ball as well as ever. If his putting confidence comes around even slightly, he becomes a serious threat. He doesn't need to putt lights out — just make the putts he's supposed to make. Alex Fitzpatrick — the sleeper. Five PGA Tour starts, over three and a half million dollars earned, multiple top tens, and a win at Zurich alongside brother Matt. Justin calls it playing with house money — and notes that a links golf background, which Fitzpatrick has, is a real advantage at Shinnecock given the bouncy conditions and runoff areas around the greens. And one more name worth watching according to Trey — Aaron Rai, statistically the most accurate driver on the PGA Tour over the last three years. At a course where finding the fairway is paramount, that skill set lines up perfectly. Scottie's Grand Slam Chase Scottie Scheffler is one win away from the career grand slam, just as Rory completed his 15 months ago. Justin's read on Scottie's season is nuanced — the bar Scheffler set over the previous three to four years was so high that "what's wrong with him" became a real question, even though he's still having a great year statistically. The pattern Justin identifies — Scottie has had a tendency this season to play a mediocre first round, sometimes a couple over par, then play his way back into contention over the next three days. In a regular tour event that's recoverable. In a major, that first-round deficit becomes much harder to overcome. Justin draws the parallel to Rory's own stretch after winning the 2014 PGA at Valhalla — shooting himself out of contention on Thursdays despite playing great the rest of the week. As for whether Scottie thinks about the Grand Slam itself — Justin's answer is direct. He doesn't think Scottie gives it any thought unless asked in a press conference, and even then he downplays it. The results and accolades aren't what drives him. Family and faith keep him grounded, and his focus stays entirely on the next tournament — which, this week, happens to be the US Open. Team USA and the Ryder Cup Justin is now a vice captain under Jim Furyk heading into the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor. He talks candidly about what it means to support Furyk after a process where Keegan Bradley — a player who could have made the team on merit — was passed over for the captaincy. Justin's own self-assessment is interesting — he sees his slight detachment from the current player pool as a strength for a future captain, someone who can make hard decisions without the complications of weekly friendships on tour. The bigger story is the long-term plan Furyk and his staff are building — not just for 2027, but with an eye toward continuity across 2029, 2031, and 2033. That includes addressing the scheduling disasters of the past — in 2018, the team flew to France immediately after the Tour Championship with no buffer. In 2023, players had five weeks off before Rome with no rhythm. For 2027, there are two weeks between the Tour Championship and Adare Manor — which Justin sees as ideal, giving the team time to travel early, acclimate, and build the kind of cohesive atmosphere the European side has mastered for years. The Personal Stories Two moments from Justin's career bookend the conversation. His acceptance speech at the 1997 Open Championship — where he had to pause and compose himself thinking about his parents and coach back home — remains one of the most human moments in major championship history, and Justin says people reference that speech more than any shot he hit that week. And then there's Brookline, 1999. The putt on 17 that clinched the largest comeback in Ryder Cup history. Justin walks through the moment in detail — knowing from the leaderboard that a win on 17 would secure the Cup, the putt breaking right and dropping, and the chaos that followed as his teammates stormed the green before the match was technically over. More than two decades later, it's still the signature moment of his career — and very possibly his calling card if a Ryder Cup captaincy is ever in his future. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nelly Korda's Historic Run, the Ryder Cup Captain's Picks Debate, and the Craziest Tiger Woods Story You Have Never Heard

Nelly Korda's Historic Run, the Ryder Cup Captain's Picks Debate, and the Craziest Tiger Woods Story You Have Never Heard It is mailbag time on Golf Live. Trey and Justin Ray answer your questions — and along the way tell one of the most incredible stories in golf history that somehow does not get told nearly enough. How Dominant Is Nelly Korda's Run, Historically Nelly Korda just won four of her first eight starts in a season — something only one other player has done in the last twenty years. Lorena Ochoa won five of her first eight in 2008, but neither Ochoa nor the previous version of Korda won multiple majors during that stretch the way Korda just did. Justin does not think the run is over. And then there is the historical comparison that puts it all in perspective. The mid-1990s stretch between Annika Sorenstam and Karrie Webb — the "I'm Annika and you're not" or "I'm Karrie Webb and you're not" era — was, in Trey's words, an entirely different level of dominance. For about four years it felt like one of those two players won basically everything. Annika beat Karrie in a playoff during that stretch and that was just how it went for years. Justin's response says it all — you think Scotty and Rory are dominant? This was something else. The Ryder Cup Format Debate A viewer asks the question that comes up every two years — why not just take the top 12 in points and remove captain's picks entirely? Take the politics out of it. Trey appreciates the spirit of the question but pushes back hard. The points are accumulated over a two-year period, and players who earned points eight or nine months ago are not necessarily playing the same golf now. Captain's picks allow for the human element — accounting for who is hot right now, who fits a particular course, who pairs well with whom. Justin agrees but adds the caveat — if you removed picks entirely, the points system would need to be flawless, which it currently is not. Both land in the same place. This is a feel game as much as a stats game, and a great captain has to marry both. Does the Memorial Deserve Major Status Short answer from both Trey and Justin — no, and that is fine. The Memorial is Jack Nicklaus's tournament, has an elite field, a brutal setup, and a course that absolutely feels like a major. But Justin makes the broader point — not everything needs the major label to be great. The Players Championship, the Tour Championship at East Lake, these are all elite events in their own right without needing to borrow the major designation. And credit to the Tour for finally moving the Memorial off the week immediately before the US Open, something Nicklaus himself once called a slight. Why Do the Europeans Dominate the Presidents Cup A great question with a great answer. The perception is that the format favors alternate shot, which should theoretically even things out. But Justin points out the real reason — European players have an entire infrastructure of team competitions outside the Ryder Cup cycle. The Seve Trophy, the Royal Trophy, the Eurasia Cup, and more recently the Hero Cup all give European players reps in match play team formats that American players simply do not get. Trey adds that this is exactly the kind of feeder program Jim Furyk has talked about wanting to build on the US side — so playing these formats does not feel unfamiliar when it actually matters. How Often Do Amateurs Actually Contend at the US Open The last amateur to finish in the top 10 at the US Open was Jim Simons in 1971. Fifty-five years ago. Justin notes that even getting there is the real accomplishment for most amateurs — the 72-hole grind at US Open difficulty without a single blow-up hole is one of the hardest tests in golf, and most of what amateurs take from the experience is the scar tissue and lessons that shape their eventual professional careers. What Are They Most Excited to See at Shinnecock Both Trey and Justin want to see the players struggle — in the best way. The US Open's identity is brutality. Firm, fast, thick rough, and after a wet spring, that rough is going to be nasty. Scottie Scheffler made a scouting trip to Shinnecock recently and called it a brutal test. Justin puts Shinnecock in the same tier as Oakmont and Pebble Beach as venues that simply feel like the US Open in a way few other courses do. And the history backs it up — the last time the Open was at Shinnecock in 2018, Brooks Koepka won at one over par, and since then no major winner in the men's game has shot worse than 73 in a first round. Brooks shot 75 and did not care. The Tiger Woods Story You Have Never Heard And then the story that closes the show. Justin's favorite US Open memory is personal — his first event on the road in 2010 at Pebble Beach, riding a golf cart with Trey behind Tiger and Phil, and meeting Chris Berman for the first time (who immediately christened him "Justin Time, better than Dustin Time" after Dustin Johnson's collapse that Sunday). But Trey's story is the one that will stop you in your tracks. At the 2000 US Open at Pebble Beach — the tournament where Tiger Woods won by 15 strokes, with second place at three over par, one of the most dominant performances in the history of major championship golf — the second round had to be finished Saturday morning after being suspended. The night before, Stevie Williams had taken balls out of Tiger's bag so Tiger could practice putt on the hotel room carpet. He forgot to put them back. Tiger steps to the 18th tee. Pumps a drive into the ocean. Stevie reaches into the bag. There is exactly one ball left. If that ball goes into the ocean, Tiger cannot finish his round. He is disqualified. They cannot get another set of those balls — it was an experimental Nike ball that was not even available for sale at the Pebble Beach pro shop. The greatest performance in the history of major championship golf simply does not happen. Stevie had a choice. Tell Tiger this is the last ball — and risk rattling him — or say nothing and trust him. He said nothing. Tiger called for driver. Stevie, from behind him, was just hoping to find land. It found land. The rest is history. Twelve strokes under par. Fifteen shots clear of second place. And it all came down to one golf ball that almost went in the Pacific Ocean on a Saturday morning nobody was watching. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Where Rory and Scottie's Games Actually Stand Heading Into the US Open at Shinnecock

Where Rory and Scottie's Games Actually Stand Heading Into the US Open at Shinnecock For most of this year the storyline has been simple. Scotty versus Rory. Rory versus Scotty. The two best players in the world, trading the top of leaderboards, building toward another major showdown. But the numbers tell a more complicated story. And as both players prepare for Shinnecock — one of the most demanding tests in golf — Trey and Justin Ray break down exactly where each game actually stands right now. The Baseline Start here. Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy are one and two on the PGA Tour in Strokes Gained Tee to Green. The bar for both of them is so high that the questions about their games right now are minimal by any normal standard. But minimal does not mean nonexistent — and heading into a US Open at a course as brutal as Shinnecock, even small things matter. Rory — The One Crack Rory has finished outside the top 20 on the PGA Tour exactly once all season. That alone tells you how dominant this year has been. But there is one number worth watching. Last season Rory was a top 10 putter in Strokes Gained on the PGA Tour. This season he is merely above average — somewhere in the mid-60s in the strokes gained putting rankings. That gap matters because of history. During Rory's major drought, the putts that used to drop simply stopped dropping — at the US Open at LACC, at Pinehurst, the four, five, six footers he used to make routinely started missing. Right before he won the Masters last year, his putting became a genuine superpower again. This season it has not been that. Not bad. Just not the superpower it was. Scottie — Top 20 in Everything, One Win Here is the number that should reframe how people think about Scottie Scheffler's season. He is currently top 20 on the PGA Tour in every single Strokes Gained category — including putting, the one area that used to be his actual weakness. For three straight seasons he has led the tour in Strokes Gained Approach, and this year he is still 17th — which, when you think about it, means there are only sixteen players on the entire PGA Tour who hit their irons better than Scottie Scheffler right now. That is remarkable on its own. He leads the tour in scoring average, birdie average, and Strokes Gained Total. He has six straight top-15 finishes. By every meaningful statistical measure, Scottie Scheffler is playing some of the best golf on the PGA Tour this season. And he has one win. That gap — between being statistically the best player on tour and having a single victory to show for it — is the central tension of his season. Is he having a worse year than last year? The numbers suggest the opposite might actually be true. The Ted Scott Moment One small storyline worth addressing. Earlier in the season there was a moment that got attention — Scottie appeared visibly frustrated during a discussion about wind conditions, with comments directed in his caddie Ted Scott's general direction. It was not a great look in the moment, but in context it is the kind of thing that happens over a long season between two people who spend more time together than almost anyone in professional sports — and now have every shot captured on PGA Tour Live and broadcast cameras. Not every player-caddie relationship could survive that level of scrutiny. This one will be fine. What It All Means for Shinnecock Shinnecock does not forgive small weaknesses. It is one of the purest tests in golf — firm, fast, long rough, demanding every part of a player's game. For Rory, the putting question becomes magnified on greens that punish anything less than precise speed and read. For Scottie, the question is whether a season of statistical dominance finally converts into the kind of week that produces a trophy — specifically, the one major that would complete his career grand slam, just as Rory completed his a year ago. Both players are building toward this. The numbers say both of them are playing magnificent golf. Shinnecock will be the place where the small gaps — Rory's putting, Scottie's conversion rate — either close completely or become the story of the championship. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nelly Korda vs Charlie Hull — The Rivalry Women's Golf Has Been Waiting For

Nelly Korda Has Never Had a True Rival. Charlie Hull Might Be It. Nelly Korda just won her fourth major championship — the youngest American to do so since Mickey Wright in 1960. She is the first player since Inbee Park in 2013 to win the first two majors of the season, and the first American to do that in forty years. By any measure this was one of the great weeks of her career. And yet the moment that may matter most for the future of women's golf did not happen on the leaderboard at all. It happened in the gap between first and second place — and the player standing in that gap was Charlie Hull. Justin Ray and Trey break down why this Riviera finish might have been the beginning of something much bigger than one tournament. The Performance That Defined the Week Nelly Korda missed fairways constantly over the final three rounds at Riviera — by her own caddie's standards, this was far from her cleanest ball-striking week. And yet she got up and down 20 times out of 22 opportunities over those three rounds. Justin calls it potentially one of the best scrambling performances at any major, men's or women's, ever. The mental maturity on display — missing a fairway, accepting it, executing the recovery without any visible frustration — is what separated this win from her earlier ones. This was not Nelly dominating a course that fit her game perfectly. This was Nelly managing a brutally difficult golf course with her short game and her mind, and that is a different kind of impressive. Charlie Hull's Statement While Korda was grinding out pars, Charlie Hull was doing something historic of her own — tying the record for the lowest closing 36 holes ever shot at a US Women's Open. 65-67 on the weekend. And on the final hole, with no one else making birdies at 18 all day, Hull birdied to apply maximum pressure. Here is the number that should stop you. Charlie Hull now has five runner-up finishes in major championships. The only player in LPGA history with more without a win is Ayako Okamoto, a generation ago, with six. Most of the time that kind of number carries the weight of heartbreak — think Colin Montgomerie, think peak prime Rory before his major win. But that is not how this feels with Charlie Hull. There is no sense of when will this ever happen. There is a sense that it is simply a matter of time. Part of that is her personality. Charlie Hull does not put up with slow play. She is a firebrand. Her quotes before both Saturday and Sunday were essentially the same sentiment — let's go for it, whatever happens happens. And then she went out and lit up the golf course both days. If she had completed the comeback and won, her celebration would have been a moment women's golf would be talking about for years. The Moment That Almost Was Korda's putt on the final hole — the one that would have forced a playoff with Hull and Gabby Lopez — lipped in instead of out. Her reaction afterward suggested she genuinely thought she had missed it. For a moment, the door was open. Hull was right there. And the LPGA was one shot away from a playoff between the best player in America and one of the most electric players in the world, on one of the best golf courses anywhere, in primetime. Does Nelly Korda Finally Have Her Rival This is the question that matters most going forward. Nelly Korda has been the best player in the world for stretches now, but she has never really had a defined rival — someone the sport naturally measures her against, head to head, on the biggest stages. Jin Young Ko has been that in the world ranking sense at times, but not in head-to-head moments on major Sundays. Charlie Hull already has a piece of history with Korda — she beat her in singles at the 2024 Solheim Cup. Now add a major Sunday at Riviera where Hull pushed Korda to the very edge. The pieces are there for something the LPGA has been missing — the best player in America and one of the best players in Europe, squaring off multiple times a year on the sport's biggest stages, with genuine stakes every time. Gabby Lopez Should Not Be Forgotten It is worth noting that Gabby Lopez was very much part of this story too — a veteran in her thirties who has restructured her entire season around peaking for majors, and who made a clutch birdie on the final hole to stay in contention. If Korda's putt does not go in, this becomes a three-way playoff between three of the most dynamic and different personalities in the sport. What Comes Next The Solheim Cup is in Amsterdam later this year. If Korda and Hull end up on opposite teams again, after everything that just happened at Riviera, that is appointment viewing. The LPGA has to be thrilled with how this tournament played out — not just for the ratings of one Sunday, but for what it might mean for the next several years of the sport. Korda vs Hull. This might just be getting started. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Golf's Longest Day — The Purest Meritocracy in Sports

Golf's Longest Day — The Purest Meritocracy in Sports There is no other day like it in professional sports. On Golf's Longest Day, US Open qualifying happens simultaneously across the entire country. Major champions. PGA Tour winners. High schoolers with an algebra final a month behind them. All of them tee it up on the same golf course, playing for the same spots, with one rule that determines everything — shoot the number, and you are in. Miss it, and you are not. Nothing else matters. Trey Wingo and Justin Ray break down everything that happened — the stories, the surprises, and why this day might be the most beautiful thing in all of sports. The Pure Meritocracy This is the thing that separates golf from every other sport. You do not give a sixteen-year-old a wild card to play Rafael Nadal in the first round of the French Open. It does not happen. But on Golf's Longest Day, a teenager with a low enough handicap can tee it up alongside Sergio Garcia, Graham McDowell, and Max Homa — and if he shoots the number and they do not, he is going to the US Open and they are not. Justin Ray's analogy says it best — it is like walking into Lifetime Fitness, finding fifty guys playing pickup basketball, and discovering that whoever wins king of the mountain gets the twelfth spot on the bench for game four of the NBA Finals. It sounds absurd. It is absurd. And it is exactly what makes this day so great. Who Got In JB Holmes qualified for his first US Open since 2019 — Justin admits he did not even realize Holmes was still playing professionally. Graham McDowell, the 2010 US Open champion, qualified despite a difficult stretch on LIV. Billy Horschel fought his way in while coming back from injury. Neil Shipley, one of the most charismatic young players in the game, qualified again. And then there is the story of the day. Miles Russell, a high schooler, qualified for the US Open — with Charlie Woods on his bag. Tiger Woods' son, caddying for a fellow high schooler at a US Open qualifier. Logan Riley, a rising sophomore at Auburn, made the putt to win the national championship for Auburn — and five days later qualified for the US Open, calling it the best week of his life. Ben Coles won on the Corn Ferry Tour on Sunday in South Carolina, sprinted to catch his flight, landed exhausted, and qualified the next day — calling it the craziest 24 hours of his life. Who Did Not Get In Denny McCarthy — arguably the best putter on the PGA Tour for the last five or six years — did not qualify. Blades Brown, who recently earned special temporary PGA Tour membership, is sitting as an alternate. Max Homa, one of the most beloved players in the game, did not make it. Sergio Garcia, Abraham Ancer, Eugenio Chacarra, and Cam Davis and Taylor Pendrith — both hoping to make Presidents Cup cases — all missed out. Tony Finau, who had played in 33 consecutive majors, did not qualify either, though his reaction was pure class — he simply shifted his focus to qualifying for the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale instead. The Logistics Nobody Thinks About Where you choose to play your qualifier matters. The site closest to the Memorial Tournament traditionally draws the strongest field — players finishing up at Muirfield Village on Sunday can get there easily. Dallas drew a massive field this year, partly because of the international airport, which is exactly how Graham McDowell pulled off the logistics of playing in Spain on LIV one day and qualifying in Texas the next. Some players choose their site based purely on logistics. Others choose based on which golf course best fits their game statistically. It is an entire strategic layer most fans never think about. The Broadcast Challenge Covering Golf's Longest Day might be the hardest live television assignment in sports. A hundred-plus players, balls in the air everywhere, simultaneously, across multiple states — and you cannot send a full production crew to ten different sites. NBC's coverage, back on the air for this event after years away, used field producers jumping from location to location with one or two fixed cameras at each site. Trey compares it to draft day three — chaotic, scrambling, and somehow always delivering great stories anyway. Why It Matters There is no other sport where this could happen. Not basketball. Not tennis. Not football. Golf's Longest Day is pure, simple, and completely fair — and it produces some of the best stories of the entire year. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.