1193: 12 Storylines for the AIG Women's Open

Be the right club. Be the right club today. That's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up Podcast. Solly here. It is time. We are going to be discussing the storylines ahead of the AIG Women's Open, joined by my esteemed colleague, Mr. Big Randy. Hello, Big. Hello, Solly. Good to be here. And good to have one more big, proper Lynx Golf tournament this week. I'm pumped. Absolutely. Cody McBride is here. Hello, Cody. Hello, Solly. Happy to be here. T.C. calling in from a very different time zone, but still in the United States. Hello, T.C. Greetings, guys. Yeah, it's four hours behind. Kind of throwing me for a loop here. So, I'm from Alaska. Alaska. We got some content being captured up there this week. More to come on that one. It is the 50th edition of the AIG Women's Open this week. Royal Lytham in St. Ann's in Northwest England. Hopefully, you guys got a chance to peep our. YouTube video we published ahead of the Open Championship, playing a bunch of courses up in that area. Royal Lytham was heavily featured in that one. Very windy day. We got a Royal Lytham and showed off a lot of the challenge of that golf course. Today's episode, we're going to run through the biggest storylines this week, talk a little bit about some pairings, some course information. We're going to draft some teams ahead of this week as well, make our official picks to win and not to win, which as of me saying this, I've not decided on yet. We are going with a true gut call. I'm going to wait to hear how you guys are feeling on some things, and I'm willing to be influenced a little bit here today. Perfect. But as someone that played Royal Lytham, that felt the challenge of it earlier this year, I can say having a golf ball that performs exactly the way you want it, and one that just fits your game, is an absolute must for the conditions players will be facing this week. There are so many massive dividing line shots, as I would call them, at Royal Lytham. Jamie Kennedy posted a great picture this week. Just the five holes that frame the train lines on the way out. And if you get an unfavorable wind on those holes and you are not in control of how much you can move, you know, moving the ball left to right, you're going to have a bad time, as was evidenced in the what's being called the provisional match between Neil and DJ as well there. But having a golf ball you can control, distance control, fight it up against the wind, ride the wind, know how far it's going to go. You know, whether or not, you know, whichever way you are fighting the wind or riding it, whatever that is. Flattening it down, getting it to stop, all massively important in Lynx golf. It's why more of the best players in the world trust the quality, consistency, and tee-to-green performance of Titleist, the number one ball on the LPGA and the number one ball at this week's AIG Women's Open. Head to Titleist.com, find out what ball is right for your game. You are leaving strokes on the table if you are not playing a Titleist golf ball. I think we can just definitively say that. Yes. Where do you guys want to start? What's got you guys most excited right now? Randy? Well, let's go here. I think it's fitting. The defending champion, she looks poised to, I won't say repeat, but she, somebody's going to have to take this one from her. And of course, I'm talking about Miyu Yamashita. She won last year in a great performance, gutsy performance at Royal Porthcall. And I think her game is rounding into form. And I think she's going to be doing beautifully ahead of this weekend. If I may, I'll give you a few quick stats to back up my case. Let's start with her last four starts. This goes back to the end of, like, mid-June, end of June here. She was T5 last week at the Scottish Open. Nice little warm-up. The week before that, of course, was Evian, where she finished T4. KPMG before that, T12. And the start before that was Inuyama. And the start before that was in Michigan at the Meijer. And she won that one. So, really good form coming in. This is backed up. You know, Data Golf has women's pro rankings now, which is awesome. Miyu is up to fourth in the Data Golf women's rankings. But what I want to note, over her last 40 rounds, her strokes gained per round is up over one per round. So, she was, like, 40 rounds ago, she was plus 1.5. So, she was, like, 40 rounds ago, she was plus 1.43 on her moving average. And now she's plus 2.47. So, playing really good golf. Obviously, the defending champion. And then, guys, this is where I'd love to lean on you a little bit, Solly Tron. It seems like Litham can really test driving accuracy. It feels like, am I off base there? I feel like it tests everything. Yeah. It's accuracy. It's accuracy. Like, it's kind of, it's a really tough one to handicap. Because I think it's driving accuracy on some holes. And then there's some holes where, like, you got to go, go, go. And if you, you know, if you want to hit driver and hit one up there, it's like, all right, I'm going to try to get a little bit, gain something on the field here. Especially those first seven holes and then coming down the stretch as well. So, Randy, like, this one's got me tied up. Knots. And especially knowing, seeing that, like, last time, I think Georgia Hall was 17 under last time. I'm assuming the wind didn't blow. No. Well, let me finish this real quick on Miyu Yamashita. Her, at least on the holes where driving accuracy is at a premium, I want to note that she's second on tour this year in driving accuracy. At 80.15% of fairways hit. And then a couple other. Numbers that I think just speak well to playing in major championships. She has only made seven double bogeys or worse this whole season on the LPGA tour. And she comes in second in bogey avoidance. And then when it, when, you know, if it does come down to putting, she's ninth in putts per round and 14th in putts per green and regulation. So I say all that. I just really like the trend lines. And I feel like she is, she's poised to, to put up a fight this week. Somebody is going to have to come take this title from her. If I was to guess Randy, just based on what we saw at Birkdale with how the rough was there kind of, kind of baked out a little bit. It looks like they have a little bit more chance at some sprinkles throughout the course of this week that, you know, I don't know what exactly has taken place in that part of the world since, since Birkdale. But we saw how big I baked out. It was, it really is like, and there's not a lot of widenesses in the. Women's game, but like kind of the wider, the better, probably out there just because there's so many fairway bunkers that are willing to, to swallow you up. If you are within the boundaries of the course, that of course is what I mean. I do not expect very, very many balls in this tournament to go out of bounds to the right where a lot of those outward holes go, but there's 170 something bunkers. I believe on this course, I've been saying for years that there's 250 and finally somebody was just like, no, dude, there's not 250. I don't know why you keep saying that. I don't know where I got that from, but it is. One of the most heavily bunkered golf courses, uh, anywhere in the world. And it's just, it's not, yeah, it, um, you will have to be accurate, but I just don't know if like fairway accuracy is telling the full story there of like the accuracy is you have to avoid these fairway bunkers. And it's just one of the best bunkered golf courses off the tee that I can, if you just asked me to, I'd have to think about it a little bit more, but if you asked me off top of your head, what's the best fairway bunkered golf course in the world, my answer would be. And I don't know if I, if I thought about it for a long time, I don't know if that's what I would say, but that would be my gut instinct. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like it might, I think, I think it might turn into mid iron, long iron test of a lot of ladies laying back and then trying to kind of take their chances on the second shots. And I think that's where we could see something. Correct me if I'm wrong. I also feel like there's just more, I don't know, with rough and. Gorse and trees and everything. There's just more stuff off the fairways as well. Versus Berkdale was pretty wide open between fairways and, and, you know, 10, 15, 20 yards off the fairways. There's, there's some, but there's just so many little bends and quirks and just, just awkwardness. Like there's just so many things that are just uncomfortable. You get over to that like 10th hole is a, you know, shortish par four, but blind over a hill to your point. Yes. There's gorse and there's like bunkers. There's bunkers up on hills. And, you know, it's just, I don't know, maybe I've seen enough of these AIG women's open to this point of like all this shit that we're worried about. Isn't what they're worried about. And maybe it's, you know, it's going to, going to cause mayhem for them. I don't expect there to be mayhem because it's going to be, I, I, I'm just very excited to watch the precision elements of, of, of the women's game up against this golf course TC, which I know is, is if we're going to our next point, I think one of the top storylines heading into this week. Yeah, that's, I think the chess match of just a firm cerebral golf course versus the most accurate height. version players in the world is fascinating to me based on the forecast it looks like we're going to get a little bit of wind as well um what's the what's the forecast say for for sunday dull and dreary um uh no but i think thursday through saturday at least it looks like there's there's going to be at least 15 miles an hour of wind rhythm's a little bit different in that it's not it's not right it's not right hard up against the coast there's some there's a neighborhood in between it and uh the sea but you're you're kind of coast adjacent so i think you can almost get a false sense of security there and then the wind can really come through some some different tunnels and such so uh that that for me is like this is the ultimate weighties golf test of like it's it's the modern men's game i'll be really curious to see how it plays here in a couple of years but but this one for the ladies i've had this one circled on my calendar for a while and with how firm it is in the uk right now combined with hopefully some wind i think this is this is exactly what we've been wanting to see yeah yeah i that unfortunately doesn't make for like the most interesting conversation in the lead-up other than i'm really fucking excited to watch the golf shots like it's just gonna be a great you know i don't know if that that's not gonna guarantee we're gonna get a great finish but i think like it's gonna be just good viewing thursday to sunday and my number one storyline is that we're gonna get a great finish and we're gonna get a great ending to the week is i want to find out if nelly corda is links tough uh because i i just i this is just admittedly not a thought out take at all but like i they just flashed to an image over this past week at the at the women's scottish had her beanie on and just look like she was in a bad mood and i was just like i just i don't think this is your condition i don't think this is what you're about i it just doesn't seem like uh you know if you're not evian tough it you know if she's you not complaining but just kind of speaking about the evian in a certain way that was like yeah there's bad balance it just it i i understand where she's coming from she's the best golfer and like if it was the fairest test every single time she would win most of the time and like there's elements of luck and weirdness and putting is hard on link screens and it's not pure and true all the time like that plays against her chances of winning and i just want to see if she's able to to clear that hurt from a mental standpoint and get the most out of her game this week because when i watch her play as soon as that beanie goes on i just don't feel like i'm about to watch somebody play super super tough golf and like have you have to claw this thing away from her it just kind of seems like uh she's not nearly the threat that she should be in those conditions is that fair at all randy you're laughing a little bit i've it's i'm nitpicking some has won two majors this year she was tough at riv and won without her a game i get that but uh i just you give me out with them all the descriptions we're making of this golf course it would be the most impressive win of her career i think if she won this week yeah i listen i think there's some merit in there i i don't want to say she's totally not links tough either um we saw her put up a hell of a of a performance a couple years ago at the old course um which is her best open finish to date um a couple years ago as well 2024 you know cody we we would laugh about it she'd throw on those purple rain pants and it seemed like her her strokes gained purple rain pants when the conditions got a little iffy uh we're just astronomical um and so while it wasn't maybe conditions on links golf courses i think she did display some ability to to fight through conditions there um but yeah so i i think listen ultimately this is a championship that somebody of nelly's pedigree like she she should uh she should win one of these in her career and and so i i think until she does uh or until she exhibits a little bit more consistent play at the open championship um it's it's fair to wonder but i i don't want to dismiss it uh her her links ability or her ability to grind uh totally out of hand her her overall record is it's not bad until it at the open right it's not like she's throwing up a bunch of missed cuts right and i'm also kind of buoyed by it seemed like she played relatively well at a what fill me in i didn't see any of the scottish the lady scotch open last week it was awesome crazy hard and and uh both conditions and firmness yes both you had uh winds that that flipped halfway through it was firm it was fast uh and you saw like it yeah it was cold and you saw there's like such a a a lift and separation from basically like three women that were in the field to everyone else and nelly played good like kelly nelly had a really good women's scottish open performances just jenny shin just ran away with it like i i don't think i've seen a golf tournament uh watching all four days that have been that dominant uh in a long long time and i know that's not going to get a ton of coverage out there in the greater golf world but it was so damn impressive but nelly played good last week yeah she had a couple weird like you know i don't want to say bad breaks but ultimately it came down to like her getting used to putting again on some bumpy surfaces that she just struggles with i'm not dismissing her uh i'm not either but i will say i will say this for somebody who grew up in florida plays a lot of u.s-based golf like i think her her record like she has been pretty open about learning to play lynx golf that is very similar to what we hear on the men's side a lot and i think like we could look at it and say yep she she probably should have won the women's open at saint andrews uh i i don't you know we can go back to one drive there but that whole entire final round she was kind of thrown off and she was paired with jenny shin and at the time i kind of put a little of the blame on jenny because it just got slow in the afternoon and nelly nelly just kind of lost her wits and then tried to press it hard at the end um walton heath uh she was you know hanging around in there and then really that saturday round where we thought that she was just going to put that you know put the gas pedal down she literally could not hit the side of a barn with her putter it was just like what are we doing so we've seen a lot of things that have happened in the last couple of years her play through some you know some conditions last year uh a poor call it was one of those things again where everybody got pretty hyped and then she came out in round one and we're just kind of like okay uh not quite what we expected here so she's growing into it uh i think that she has uh just as good of a shot as any of the other top five uh in the women it's just not the dominating fashion that i think people would would kind of want or maybe expect but i think people would want to see more of her and i think that that's something that i think is going to be something that i think people would want to see more of her and i think that's something that i think might be saying a little too much is it also something where her her biggest advantage like hitting you know her trajectory and hitting those balls that are coming in from really high is less of an advantage on a lynx course as well both with the wind and just with the way things you know kind of interact yeah i i would i would say so i probably from a distance standpoint you know just the firmer the people with lower ball flights are able to do that you know get a lot more run out of their shots comparatively to her i mean it's her drives are still going to run this week and i think it again i don't have to i don't know how to measure this or how to like it you know put this in in something that makes sense but i just feel like she does her most successful tournaments are i don't want to say bailed out by the putter but like she gets really hot for mid-range and over the course of 72 holes she makes birdies from that 10 to 20 foot range like a lot of them she just has so many putts in that range because she's such a good ball striker and her best tournament she makes a lot in that range and it's just hard to roll those in on lynx greens it really is and it just seems like um you know her ability to separate i feel like she just gets kind of thrown more into the pack when greens are are this way and it just doesn't look like i don't think she has the capability of getting as hot as we would see her get on smooth surface at smoother surfaces but um her record overall so two top tens in the in the women's british a t9 in 2019 and that excuse me back in women's british aig women's open in wikipedia it says women's british women's british open well that's a lead into my to my uh gonna be my next storyline of just the massive confusion around a lot of this stuff anyway go ahead sally that plus only two top tens in evian just again those are the two weirdest majors weirdest conditions weirdest bounces weirdest everything four top tens in 18 starts uh between those two events is just that jumps off a little bit compared to the my takeaway but please cody or sorry if i can one quick thing on nelly which i think will be interesting as well she is really good and if you go to the kpmg uh strokes gain stuff on the lpga website she ranks second in strokes gained around the green and i think nelly is a fantastic chipper and pitcher of the golf ball off of like traditional u.s golf courses and i think it'll be really interesting how she goes about And just the decisions she makes should she find herself off of some of these greens um whether you know she's going to try to chip everything whether she'll try to putt some more stuff from off the green i just think that's a interesting aspect of her game and how it'll translate you brought up a distance advantage which is a good point if i wanted to compare who in my mind like the two front runners of this is that's nelly and uh me it's it's hard because you talk about ball flight controlling it into the wind and everything the advantage that nelly has that she can hit a towering seven iron and me who's hitting a five hybrid and that ball is coming in at a steeper descent like and she has figured out how to control how it reacts to the ground how it's going to roll out and like everything that we that we wish nelly would evolve into she has already figured out after playing in you know two or three of these things so it's just kind of uh interesting to compare yeah i feel like nelly wants to play the last night point i'll make wants to play her game on a lynx course instead of like adjusting the game to match the playing styles but again we can revisit that on sunday like i i it that that's what that would be my prediction on what i think would be the takeaway come sunday but i hope i hope i'm wrong i hope i'm just going through the course guide stuff too and i didn't realize they're playing they're playing six as a par for as well uh 490 par five they got back-to-back par fives six and seven and then you've got eight is that that's a hole that i can see the ladies getting a little tripped up on from a spin perspective you know it's kind of an uphill second shot to uh very you know kind of forces the decision off the tee how far you want to lay back and then nine's just a little pocket par three back in the corner there tens the you know drivable four it should it should play downwind and then another par five on 11. so you've got that that stretch from six through uh six through 11 is going to be so volatile all four days i'm like i'm i'm frothing right now i know i'm getting very excited it's gonna be fascinating uh cody storyline number four yeah i just want to uh i was trying to figure a spot to put it in here uh we aig announced that they've raised the purse again uh it is now to 10 million dollars uh i just want to give uh kudos to them for coming in and absolutely putting money straight cash homie where their mouth was when they took this over uh in 2019 the the total purse was 4.5 million dollars and they've continued to invest and extend the deal and just stretch this thing out to not only keep it up with uh everybody else but uh you know where where they feel like they're going to be able to get the money and they're going to be able to get it should be uh in the overall scheme of major championship golf part of that includes extended tv hours and a ton of stuff you can bring kids all the way up to 16 years old you can take them out there for free um it's awesome man and i just i love everything that they're doing uh we'll get to television windows and everything else they expanded it for this year um but it's it's my favorite week of the year and very very fortunate to have gone to a couple of these so i'm just pumped i'll just jump in here and and reiterate a point we made during u.s women's open uh week which is you know i think the usga has put the pedal to the metal with elevating the the u.s women's open and has really put i think pressure on these other majors on the women's side to to raise their game and i see the rna and and this aig women's open as answering that call cody to and in my opinion you know the the women's open the british open and the u.s women's open are kind of the clear top two events on the women's circuit right now which is you know hopefully we get some more kind of feeling feeling that urge to to elevate well just to color in too like for those that aren't familiar you guys have done open uh ag women's open radio for the last several years you're not doing the uh no there will not be ag women's open radio this year but this is a and i've seen up close and personal and just like for as long as you know kind of we've done this podcast and and really honed in on women's golf the venues have been good like they've been going to really good venues this this was not has not if you're unfamiliar with like the history of this tournament this was not always it wasn't even run by the rna until like what 2014 or something like that it's uh i don't know if i have that right but it was not even uh nearly considered on the same level as the open championship for for many many years was not going to venues uh like it has been over the last several years so it's it's on a massive wonderful trajectory which is just an amazing thing for the women's game in general yeah royal st george next year and then sunningdale the year after like i know it's pretty good i'll just plug uh bethann nichols had a piece i think it came out yesterday kind of diving into the the history of the aig women's open this is 50 years this will be 50 years since the first playing in 1976 um and i'd also encourage um if you missed it a couple years ago our nlu episode 885 jordan uh perez walks us through a whole history of of this event and solly to your point like it there was a long time there where they were playing this and it wasn't considered a major which is wild to think about and so yeah the growth of this event specifically over its uh 50 years since inception is just incredible the only events on the lpg calendar that wasn't a major back then you know just major inflation going on here was that the rico days or the weedabix days weedabix weedabix yeah yeah they brought rico in to kind of uh to bolster it you know because they're they're quickly running out of money uh unfortunately the what was it i'm gonna call it paulie they can't well the canadian open uh yeah is you know canadian hoping major status had to die for the to live the the old dumari yes yeah yeah uh summer golf season is here our closets are looking a lot like the roback website the roback lightweight looper short if you have not checked this out yet you are missing out it is exactly what you need for hot weather golf it's like got the comfort of a gym short but it looks like a proper golf short it's got a stretch waistband it's got belt loops real button and fly looks like a normal pair of shorts but it's super lightweight if you got past problems this is the pair of shorts for you they have so many great colors with it as well uh i've been slowly making the transition from the uh from the just the regular looper short into this lightweight short for the summer because it's been fantastic second second we've been trying the roback tailwind polo uh for just about every day where i i reach for this very very much more often than i normally would a polo even i'm just around the house like to wear uh the tailwind polo because it's soft it's clean it's lightweight it's just you throw it on and just immediately feel refreshed and randy's repping one uh right here as well lastly it is swim season the medley swim trunk the liner is fantastic you just it's a pair of shorts basically that you actually want to wear and you can also uh jump in the pool with them the designs are great they got pockets it's just a quality quality piece and it's going to hold up to the to the test of time as well roback.com r-h-o-b-a-c-k.com code nlu will get you 20 off your first order through the end of the week check out roback style laying up r-h-o-b-a-c-k.com code n-l-u i went out of order for this first go around i'm gonna get us back on track here randy so you gotta wait this one out a little bit because no i think this makes a loop yeah earlier i yeah i i didn't really i didn't realize we were going straight to the storylines i was just feeling it out you know here we go but it worked out because i went with the defending champ so i think that that that's good and i know where you're going and i think this is a good one to do next so yeah tell us tell us your next story she's won the two major championships this year we can't even get a mention for hey then you i think it's because you guys are afraid of the pronunciation that i've mastered uh i got i have i have korean gentlemen and my dms on instagram congratulating me on how good and again constantly reminding me to push back on randy's pronunciation there's no r uh in you that's actually a true story uh hey then you is the second favorite on the board plus 12 25 i saw her uh behind of course nelly corda that that means the odds makers think she's got a better chance of winning this championship than gino titicun does which we've also not mentioned gino this far into the episode are we fine to declare hey then you as like officially surpassed gino as a better golfer well it depends on what do they play well i don't know about a better golfer i'd say uh better at performing like finishing on the on top of the leaderboard i think an overall golfer gino's pretty good uh i think gino has major sunday issues that others have been able to eclipse her on but i don't know if you're if you're just overall generalization of a better golfer is there it depends on what what tests they're taking right i think um on the tests they've been taking here of late it seems that perhaps superior but it's all i say it's just a matter of time until we get to the end of the show It's all in sample size, right? is this a fedora five forward looking right or a dude index it's it's that's why that's an interesting question like are we gonna you know two years from now are we gonna look this run from hate on you and wonder you know was this a hot streak and kind of fade back in not into oblivion but we've seen that in the women's game as well people gobbling up majors in a short period of time and kind of fading back into it and uh i just i find that find it interesting of we we've talked a lot about the short major championship span here and this is a totally different style of golf than the previous two majors that she just won but evian was not very long ago kpmg was not very long ago she's extremely extremely hot player right now uh and is one of the is the second biggest favorite uh on the board that's coming into this week and like closer odds than we've seen nelly's plus 750 um normally nelly's been below plus 500 basically for for almost all the major championships this year if i remember right uh and hate on you coming down to almost 10 to 1 kind of at the 12 to 1 number is a lot of respect and it should be she's won the last two majors and i think it would be an absolute stunner to do a clean sweep of the last three majors of the year uh would be remarkable like extremely extremely remarkable and i'd be very surprised if that happened but uh flagging it that's an interesting storyline heading into this one if i mean we could there's two possibilities that we get a three-time major winner in 2026 with the top two ladies in the world and i think that's a good opportunity for us to see if we can get the top two ladies on the board this week that's awesome i will i'll put my name on this i i would have hey ron hey don sorry to the koreans and sally's mentions uh i just blanket apology from now and to the end of time um i mean i think she's better right now she's a better golfer or the results say so um she's the best ball striker on the lpga tour statistically she's the best ball striker on the lpga tour statistically she's the best ball striker on the lpga tour statistically right now she leads the tour and greens and regulation i i think gino's second by the way you know his second uh hey i i i think i think it's up to gino now to to kind of respond to this i i don't i that's not shade to gino i i think that's more just super bullish on hate on you and there you go what her golf game is right now uh she she is one of these ladies that i think can really pin your ears back and and go make birdies now whether that translates to lynx golf especially if it's breezy and the conditions roll in that's a different question but i i don't think there's anything fluky or you know any like red flashing lights about this where it's like yeah this is a hot couple months and but i'm not buying it i'm i'm i'm very very bullish yeah she's got a solid if unspectacular record on the links like nothing no crazy mcs or anything like that but just you know kind of 20s and 30s played fine last week um randy i'm taking the other side i'm normally the anti not anti but i'm normally the short gino yeah i don't know i think i like gino this week i think it's gonna be a lot about hitting greens i think uh you know i think that she is she is not hot she's elevated her level right now correct but what i will say is that for somebody who's going into her fourth aig women's open she's played in two women's scottishes in the past she missed this year's she did not play last year's she hasn't had uh the best finishes but you're right there's no missed cuts there i do think she has a tremendous advantage if we're still playing the comparison with gino of like gino's carrying uh you know a caravan of of just bad juju right now she got some bad karma with her and i don't know what she's gonna have to do uh to try to shake that but maybe it's on a golf course and nobody would really expect her to win and that's on a links test i i just don't know but i but it's it's so frustrating i think as a as a fan because gino is supposed to be that person and i think we all believe that she is it's just that like i don't even know like what is missing because if you take the sunday like scoring average side out of it it still doesn't really paint a very good clear picture outside of like she doesn't have it's it's the bottle like she is missing it and when she needs it most it's just not there maybe that's why tc loves her so much this week that's kind of his tc's type yeah right it's kind of the same coast she was the low amateur here uh she was i think she was the only amateur missed the cut or to make the cut in uh in 2018 um but she was 15 at the time i think that's kind of count for something as well yeah i can't i can't believe it's already been eight years since that george hall rhythm like that's i don't know that one feels like three years ago to me i don't understand how that was eight years ago and i feel like she played she played pretty played pretty well at merefield which is i think probably the most comparable of the tests for this week that they've played in the in women's road over the last you know however many years since you know the last eight to ten years so just kind of that prim proper you know not not necessarily like the raw rugged links more that that polished links where you've got you know with the like ball on the ground and it's it's really classic design cody what do you got next number seven yeah i just want to uh get it in here as a storyline bookmark it there's something in the air with uh with elsie when it comes to links golf and i think she's really found herself at home up at uh don donald and just loves the women's scottish she played so good there the first two rounds and then you know really the her saturday sunday rounds were not bad at all you just again had had people who just completely lifted and separated there hasn't had the best run of major championships this year with two missed cuts one at the uh kpmg and another one at the evian but very good showing last year uh it was her first made cut in uh four appearances at the aig women's open she finished tied for 13th and i just think that there's something in the air she got that little wall you know that little she got that stutter in her step again big smiles out there i think if there's somebody who's like wait a second you know i i think it i think it's elsie's time guys find some find an odds maker man i mean she's gonna be down there on the sheet odds makers hater i know it's did a lot of disrespect uh recently so if you if you got that feeling cody i might i might check somebody out here i'll join you i mean that'd be a fun fun one to ride out with you but this is gonna be one of mine from when we started and i saw you already had us so she's uh i i love her game for this this test i think it's it's it fits her in the t it's just all about the putter you know that's that's kind of the the main thing but i think that these greens like there's not that much slope in them especially that that more the front nine and now you know i think that that suits her all right i'll ride with you right now she's 75 to 1 in my local book and i can get a little profit boost on it cody so i'll i'll put that in that's worth a little flyer sure that why not randy uh somebody else that we talk about every year but i think it is a storyline it's a worthy storyline is charlie hall you know another shot at not only uh winning her first major championship but uh the aig women's open this one being played in england charlie is of course english um listen i i think everybody kind of knows her near misses but just in case she's she has five major runner-up finishes in her career it's crazy she's got two in the last three years two runner-ups in the last three years here at the open championship uh if anybody saw last week she made some headlines she had a birdie and ended up walking off of that hole with a nine um which was tough but that's the stuff you got to get out of the way at the scottish open you don't want to be doing that at the british open and so you know rainy it's contrived american links with with more slope and some of those greens yes yes um i just think charlie charlie is a fascinating person she is magnetic to watch whether it's in person or on television she plays quick she plays decisively uh there there's so much just in her golf that is good and we say it all the time you know it just feels like she's got to win a major in her career and i think an aig women's open would be the the most forceful the most impactful major that she could win um and so i find myself rooting for it you know i haven't been on the on the ground for both of our runner-ups. There is a palpable electricity on the ground. when charlie is in the hunt and i think that's great for this tournament and i'm hoping she gives it another run this year i think it's played 60 this is her 65th major championship playing a lot of golf for a long time but yeah 13 13 seasons of it right uh in england too yeah you know it's a it's a yeah that would hurt she does not in the last five years does not have any major finishes where she's made the cut and finished worse than 25th place she either misses the cut or top 25 she has no 30th no 40th no 50th last foot since 2021 even she has none she is either like she's missed one two three seven eight cuts and had a withdrawal in there but every time she makes the cut she finishes top 25 it's it's complete hit or miss and even those top 10 she has one t10 this year at the chevron and otherwise uh four runner-ups in a in a third are her top 10 finishes so yeah so it's just she she lets you know exactly where her golf game stands like she's either gonna go chase it or yeah you she's probably missing the cut and won't be involved at all you know we mentioned you know it's an english uh major it's uh you know expecting a firm heart you know gotta be precise with your shots she loves the big moments she loves tough golf courses she loves a challenge she likes being the chaser like why why not charlie i mean i don't know what else you're kind of looking for here but it seems like she has to be like overwhelmingly the local favorite as well i just don't know and for most people to like kind of crumble having that pressure uh on them charlie is a person who's like no she'll love it she'll be out there yucking it up with all the locals and everything else like that big this could be the time this could be it from your mouth to god's ears uh it'd be sensational um she did miss the cut here in 2018 which as we know means who knows who absolutely who knows what it means with with charlie hall it could be too focused you know her best mate was winning that week her her head was somewhere else you know she's a uh i don't know if she was named godmother or something like that to georgia's kid but uh she gotta have some good vibes going i just saw she's in the youtube game now has her own youtube channel uh there's a lot there's just so many her and tommy similarities here hopefully the finish is a little bit different it's just a lot going on another one does she have the bottle i think it's a fair question yeah i mean she's i wish i could place a bet to her for either either finish second or miss the cut because that's that's the two options that i think are gonna happen this week but she's plus you know plus three thousand thirty to one heading this i think i don't know i think that's fair it's fair to say she's being slept on a little bit and i think like the difference between good and great in golf usually comes down to the details having everything dialed and more and more for the guys and the girls out on tour that means how they sleep we have partnered with lagoon because the idea is simple if you custom fit your clubs why wouldn't you custom fit your pillow you go to lagoon sleep.com slash nlu you take a two-minute quiz and they match you to the exact pillow that fits how you sleep every pillow is adjustable i took a bunch of fill out of my otter pillow in there to get properly adjusted with my neck and how i'm comfortable sleeping you can dial it in exactly how you want it stop trying to spend the first five holes you know loosening up if you're serious about those marginal gains start with the eight hours before your round uh it's got me going to bed earlier i look forward to going to bed and laying my head on the lagoon pillow you can go to lagoon sleep.com slash nlu code nlu will get you 15 off nest members check out your custom lagoon code in your profile for additional savings as well you might as you need a nice pillow if you're an adult and you're going to lay your head on something for six seven eight hours a night why wouldn't it be quality i did the twenty dollar amazon pillows for way too long and i slept like absolute crap so don't do it just go to lagoon sleep.com slash nlu amen i spent years sleeping on uncomfortable pillows and i i've truthfully this is the best pillow i've owned uh my sister and brother-in-law just ordered some unsolicited got a message oh my god these are great so so a hundred percent if you're in the market for a pillow if you're not sleeping you're going to not satisfied with your pillow please check them out i'm a side sleeper i've got the tool and one and then i got the also i'm traveling with my my lagoon travel pillow as well because that that that's what kills me is the the inconsistency when you go to a hotel um no especially over in the uk yeah it's it's like stripping out a variable basically just like charlie hall you these lagoon pillows dessert are are going to get slept on uh i got one guys it's in a lagoon pillow or a pick i got a good pillow and a pick and i shouldn't have burned this one before uh before we went you know we're going to draft some teams here but lottie woad was on a heck of a heater just a couple of months ago uh she's now the ninth favorite on the board i'm seeing at 32 to one she she won uh what did she win earlier this year she won in cincinnati soli yeah i i was taking it in with my own eyes she won in cincinnati she missed the short putt uh for a win that was opposite which major was that opposite was that opposite pga or opposite it was opposite us open is why we probably didn't cover that one very much but uh has never finished outside the top 10 at aig women's open in her two starts she was low amateur two years ago uh she finished top 10 last year just kind of feels like she's sliding a little under the radar i'm going to keep trying to be ahead of this call of i think i've picked her to win a major this year i'm going to keep trying to be ahead of picking lottie woad uh to do some damage and uh i'm i'll be one to be one of the first players who score i've checked come thursday morning tc last round gosh she sounds like i would man like if we came down to it and it was like lottie versus haydon versus lc or something like that that would be that would be epic i think i've i think lottie is going to be in the mix one way or another my my last one is whether whether or not the sky sports slash world feed will be on peacock that for me personally that is one of the biggest storylines of the week is will i be able to to watch the proper feed of all of this and something that's that's a little bit more suited to just the whole field instead of whoever nbc is deciding to produce against if it's a fantastic if it costs them 25 extra to do that it's probably the answer is probably no then uh tcm unfortunately but uh but some of the you know they mail some of this in too right it might just be like world feed straight onto our tv yeah a decent part of it like i don't think i don't think nbc makes a big investment in this one i could be wrong there which like the little i caught of the the scottish last week and cody and sally you guys both both shouted this out the social on the pod last week was just how how not complicated it is to golf throw up some drone shots do some picture and picture stuff like it's i mean the world feeds doing all this stuff on a weekly basis we can't even get nbc and golf channel to do the bare minimum so i think the hope for me is that the golf the golf channel stuff's actually been better than the nbc stuff on some tournaments this year so hopefully that that kind of continues and what there's two hours two hours each day on nbc but otherwise it's still a golf channel production four to eight eastern on thursday friday uh on golf channel 8 a.m to 2 p.m uh on usa that's thursday friday for rounds one and two saturday sunday you'll find on usa from 7 a.m to 12 p.m and the 2 p.m uh eastern will be on nbc on the network tv so uh should fit in nice not really you know going up against early round espn plus coverage of of the rocket classic like watch a little watch watch some links golf this week people come on if you're this far into this episode you're gonna be you're gonna be doing that i have a feeling but cody storyline 11 of 12 big week final major of the year sully but it's also a big week for team europe in the solheim cup solheim cup of course couple months away in amsterdam i guess netherlands outside of amsterdam we're gonna be there but this is the final week of auto qualifying for anna norquist and the european squad so they take uh eight people automatically qualified and then captain norquist gets four captains picks they do it a little bit different than team usa they take two of the top point earners from the ladies european tour right now that would be charlie timberlini and then they work off the rolex rankings for the next six auto qualifiers currently that would be lottie woad my stark celine boutier esther henselite carlota and lynn grant is in that last spot uh like i said she's gonna have four captains picks that's that's not going to be for a couple more weeks i would say this no matter what i think uh points or no points and lynn is definitely on the verge potentially of of getting kicked out of that last spot but lynn's going to be on the team uh there's there's really no other way around it so uh the people who are on that kind of outside looking in rolex ranking wise nana kurtz mattson she's 63rd in the world leona uh solheim stalwart she's 79th uh and then the other two that are closest on uh overall can either go ladies european tour or rolex but really the one to watch out is helen she currently has 132 points on the ladies european tour list and that is only one point behind uh chiara tambler tamburlini right now so a very good chance that helen's going to get in there on auto points um it's going to be interesting i would say either way i would expect helen bream to get a captain's pick just because she's so young uh she hits the ball so far and has so much of a career ahead of her but team europe has been known to to ride with people who you never would really expect to make that list um so it'll it'll be very very interesting but there is some room in here for uh upwards momentum for some god randy where were we tipped off about helen brain i mean that was you know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know years ago yeah she's like 14 years old beating up all the european amateur events i think she's she's still a teenager just six i think i want to say she's six two or six three hits the absolute shit out of the ball uh i hope she's at the solheim cup a little bit of a dearth of of you know back-end european talent at the moment i i'm looking at you know ingrid linblad not playing good golf i'll say this uh ingrid's very interesting she won last year on a rookie season on the lpga tour she did not qualify for this event of course this is one of the silly things about the aig women's open that their final qualifiers actually was on monday so yesterday she also missed out on that so she is currently not in the aig women's open she doesn't have any room at all there but again young swede uh expect her to get picked what about uh how do we feel about leona because it seems like bernardus could be kind of on the ground distance not as big of a deal um i think she played well relatively well last week showed a little bit of form like i think that's one that you can see captain saying hey i need to see something out of you um rhythm should be a you know good one for her to just stay in the mix and i don't think she's gonna win but you know do her her usual hit fairways you know hit greens make a ton of pars and just kind of be be a dog um i don't know i think i think she's like the heart of soul yeah yeah right i think she's gonna be there i don't think you can leave her off just with her past soulheim performances but you're right tt8 last week at the scottish uh her other team real good week was at the aramco uh in in las vegas earlier this year well she still thought that that aramco event was going to be a big deal but was a match play event that's why you know if if they played the soulheim cup there it could just be an lc and leona duel man it was just keep it going does uh lofas chikara have a chance i think she does just based off of recent form i it's this is also one of those things that's very interesting i don't really know um that we've just seen time and time again team europe is so personality based and i don't know if she has a chance to do that i don't know if she has a chance to do that i don't know if she has a has been able to bridge the gap uh it's her first year playing on the lpga tour to a lot of you know to the captains assistant captains everything else like that um so i don't know it truly it's a it's up in the air right now tc i think uh lopez ramirez maybe has a a little better shot in my opinion but yeah we we shall see randy bring us home uh i oh randy real quick i just wanted to say this i i mentioned you know a lot of team europe stuff team usa still has a couple weeks the automatic points cut off after the uh canadians women open so that's you know a couple weeks to play here but uh still kind of going down the same same timelines sorry about that no that's all right uh my last storyline you know we we were all a bit tickled ryan fox coming out of seemingly nowhere to win the men's open a few weeks back just curious you know is is there a is there a um analogous woman out there that that could do the same i i was just poking around um so so to set the stage ryan fox 39 years old uh went into that open championship i think ranked 53rd in the world had a couple pga tour wins uh and then that was the extent of it had some european tour wins i was trying to find there's not like a clean example maybe the best example would be uh a few years back when ash buhi won at muirfield uh she she was probably the most ryan fox like but i do think you know i i had three names that kind of fit that mold they're not perfect um tc you're gonna hate this one carlotta saganda was was somebody that is a little bit in that mold somewhat similar resumes and then gabby lopez uh who's ranked a lot higher in the women's rolex rankings at the moment but a somewhat similar type profile uh i would maybe look at those women if we're going to have any uh similarities between this year's men's open and the women's open all right those are our 12 storylines ahead of this week's aig women's open a little championship info courtesy of my friend big randy at no laying up uh this is the sixth women's open at royal liverman st anne's georgia hall won at 17 under in 2018 katrina matthew won at three under in 2009 uh sherry steinhauer won in 2006 at minus seven annika sorenstam won at minus 10 in 2003 sherry steinhauer won again when it wasn't a major uh back in 1998 golf course par 71 as tc mentioned uh some weather looks just like good steady sturdy wind nothing crazy nothing you gotta you know change plans for i think you know nothing's gonna affect the course setup or anything like that but pretty pretty decent constant wind you don't need a ton of wind at live them for it to have a pretty decent size effect on things they'll dirt they'll definitely get it easier than we did tc but um as as it happens with most opens but um you know there's gonna be some some good links golf to be played this week this is still forged by nature is that right we this is certifiably for allegedly allegedly yeah uh also interesting sherry sherry steinhauer also won one of the dumari a so she kind of netted us um also you know they were beating up royal litham and st anne's there in the uh early to late you know the decade of the 2000s they were they were going there every three years yeah um if you're not familiar with rhythm again go go watch our video one and two it's the it's the only course on the road it starts with a par three and it's awesome it's a great great little hole and the finish is just fantastic as well uh the last four holes all change directions so no matter which direction the wind blows you're gonna get some sort of weird challenge out of it awesome 18th green right in front of the clubhouse uh you know where gary player allegedly approved his lie behind the green in 1974 all that stuff a lot of history there man it's just a really fun fun golf course so some pairings to watch say on kim rio takita and takeda uh and yuna iraqi iraqi uh i knew i was gonna mess that up i had it when i typed it out welcome to the party pal they're at 809 uh hyoju i'm good with the koreans i'm not as good with the japanese players hyoju kim this is 809 local correct uh hyoju kim minji lee mouse saigo at 820 local lottie woad aki ey and andrea lee 831 local uh lydia ko nelly korda hate on you 842 local so it'll be a lot of golf having already been played probably by the time we wake up on thursday morning gabby lopez chizzy ey and celine boudier they're 1253 local running in nasa hataoka and jennifer cupcho are at 104 miu yamashita uh gino titikun and lauren coglin at 115 great pairing for lauren there that one yeah um and then charlie hall hannah green and brooke henderson will be at 126 local time so uh we did let's time let's do our draft now we did uh a duck an offline duck race randy won the first slot i got second cody third tc fourth we can move through this somewhat quickly here we got to pick make our picks to win and and not to win as well so randy big spot number one on the board here are you taking god uh this is a little bit more of a decision than i thought it would be i'm gonna go with the defending champ miu yamashita yeah i am i just i i guy there's something about nelly she just can throw in a miscut every now and again a little bit more variance in my opinion than than me you so give me give me more of the sure thing i'm gonna play both sides of the coin i'm gonna say i told you so either way i can have an i told you so if i take nelly right here uh despite my speech earlier uh i think she's gonna top 15 this tournament almost certainly so i'll take nelly if you're gonna if you're gonna hand me uh that one on a platter i'll take that might look terrible sunday we'll see truly going with my heart here i want it to happen come on charlie charlie charlie hall third overall pick tc i'm gonna go with lc whoa round one okay we should have put some stakes on this and then how many rounds we're going five rounds five rounds uh give me lottie damn it that's why i knew i shouldn't have hyped her so much cody oh man this puts me in a tough tough tough spot uh you know what somebody she knocking on the door a bunch eventually somebody's got to let her in brooke henderson jeez you guys are leaving both hayden and gino to me in this spot i'll take hayden you gee i'll take the top two players on the board if you're gonna give them to me but that's my goodness kind of nice um on the snake randy yeah on the snake cody do i go with our close personal friend jojo kim uh perhaps ron and yin gino here and i downplayed her a little bit but give me gino i i do i do like rooting for her so i'll take gino with one and i'll take her good friend ronnie yin with my other pick okay i was hoping ronnie would fall to me all right i will take uh i'll take jojo kim i don't like that pick at all why did i do that all right cody you don't like it no i think that's good majors man she just really isn't i'll switch if you want a good golf course for her that's that's my pick gonna be uh who else do we got i'll take the bridesmaid from last week a-link kim's oh i like that she's playing some really good golf tc on the snake god so many different ways we can go crazy crazy uh give me i think players not even in the field give me aki ey okay good pick and then for the second one i think you're bound to take her sister that would be provocative uh befuddles me that she's not a good links player but i think that turns around this week and i'm just gonna take a take a flyer give me hannah green she has a terrible record in this event she played it's all good last week but i just i like it doesn't make sense to me um i thought about gabby but yeah give me her gabby lopez cody takes gabby lopez i am going to take say young kim okay um big , gosh i think i have to take lydia ko so give me lydia okay and then i want to go off the board a little bit with my last pick who is a little bit of a deeper sleeper um you know who i'm gonna take i'm gonna take the the winner from last week's got a show but i'm gonna take jenny shin love it love it right ahead i'm gonna take jenny shin i'm gonna take jenny shin um i am going to take i'm choking here give me ina yoon i love my team cody final two final pick i'll go with uh nasa for me okay tc i will do give me aria jatanigarn okay you know it's crazy that mingy i mean mingy lee's playing awful golf uh yeah not even a hundred to one or yeah i know it's insane he had a bad season man yeah really bad yeah all right so randy's team mio yamashita juno titicoon ronnie yin lydia ko jenny shin i've got nelly korda hate a lot of me jenny shin i've got nelly korda hate a lot of me hiyoju kim se young kim and ina yoon cody's got charlie hall brooke henderson alim kim gabby lopez nasa hataoka tc's got lauren coglin lottie woad aki ey hannah green and aria jatanigarn so uh let's get it on record who will win and who will not win randy i'm starting with you but this would be sick if i pick nelly after uh not taking your number one uh i think i'm bound oh god can she really repeat sure why not give me miyamashita i i really just really like her game who won't spend 15 years since we had somebody who won this championship twice and that was in back-to-back years that was yanni uh we've had 15 different winners since so it's a lot of uh history is not saying uh that's gonna happen but nothing is impossible big yeah i even though she's on my team i am quite confident gino is not gonna win okay cody charlie charlie wins i love it i love the god i love it cody who won't uh i don't think hey then's gonna win okay all right okay tc i'll go lauren wins charlie does not win oh it's you know kind of kind of flipping the fleetwood thing on its head here a little bit yeah i'm i'm taking lottie woad to win and nelly will not win wow despite her being on my team and me taking i feel like we're all trying to we're trying to will a lot of stuff pretty close to the sun here yeah yeah we are going to be live uh on sunday afternoon uh the aig women's open wraps up at 2 p.m eastern time but we're going to go live around 6 p.m eastern at the conclusion of the rocket mortgage over on the pga tour um you can find us there here on the no laying up podcast youtube channel uh we have another episode out on the trap draw this week things were out on and if you happen to miss it last week the things that are sick uh episode is in your queue as well if you uh looking for some more podcast content to get you through uh the this week you flip me on you flip me on diplomatic community i've been i've been thinking about a long route on that now is that is that i think so we're settled okay so um yeah solly i i only had one note angel yin i must be dealing with some type of injury she's the only top 25 player not at litham this week uh like i said if you want a history of this event check out our podcast episode 885 or bethann nichols had a real nice piece on um golf golfweek.com golfweek.com there we go amen to that thank you everyone for tuning in enjoy the aig women's open this week we'll see you live here on sunday evening cheers kroger has everything you need to get back to it keep busy routines running smoothly with proven quality at affordable prices from our exclusive brands creamy 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