Alex Myers, Golf Digest Senior Writer

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That's BirdDogs.com slash MLB promo code Baseball for a free hat. I'm doing great, Zach. I'm excited to get this thing going. We've been talking about it all week.

Let's get it going. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's kind of crazy because last week, obviously, we were talking about how it seemed to blindside all these guys. And I would say a week later, I'm most struck by how little it seems like they all still know. I mean, you know, no one seems to have any real concrete answers. You know, there's definitely a lot of maybe disappointment, some anger.

I mean, Jon Rahm said he feels betrayed by the management of the PGA Tour, so certainly he was one of the players who was most vocally ticked off about it. But, you know, I think a lot of these guys still don't know exactly what's going to happen. And that's because nobody really knows. I mean, we kind of treated this like, oh, they're going to merge. It's a done deal. I mean, there's a lot to get done for this to even happen. You know, the Department of Justice is investigating this. You've got a lot of senators speaking up and kind of questioning this alliance. So this merger partnership, whatever you want to call it, there's a long way to go for it to actually happen. And clearly the players are still a little bit in the dark. Yeah, and I think when people hear the word merger, it's like, oh, they're all going to work together. Just a private investment fund is going to be funding the PGA Tour.

So you kind of look at it from there. I read Alan Shipnuck's article as well, and it gave the live golf side of it where they don't think live golf is going anywhere, where last week I would have thought for sure that was the end of live golf. Exactly. I mean, each day you hear something different. You hear that, you know, Greg Norman told his staff, live golf staying, and you've heard Greg Norman is gone, live golf is gone. You've heard, well, it's Jay Monahan's decision. And you hear, well, no, it's actually, you know, the PIF leader, Ramayan, his decision, even though the tour has the 51 percent controlling interest. It's kind of wild. I mean, you know, could there be, you know, no more live, but some kind of team aspect that gets folded in is kind of part of the deal.

There's so many different options. And again, from day to day, you kind of hear different things. So they have to evaluate all these things. You know, the tour was going to have to evaluate the team concept and how to fit it in to begin with. But now you have these other legal aspects that have to be figured out as well. But, you know, Monahan did say in that initial press conference that you mentioned the team aspect a few times. You would think that would be part of the deal that the Saudi government PIF fund would not want to just lose that entirely because, you know, they kind of thought that was their way to shake this up and do something different. Because otherwise, it's like, well, it's just going to be the PGA Tour funded by different groups.

So, yeah, it's a weird situation right now, for sure. Alex Myers here with us, Senior Writer Golf Digest. Before the Masters, everyone was talking about Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler. Brooks Koepka played really well for three days and then lost on the fourth day. We all know Koepka ended up to go on and win the PGA Championship and hoist another Wanamaker trophy. Is right now heading into the U.S. Open, is Brooks Koepka the most feared golfer? You know, he is if he's playing, if he's up on that leaderboard, I'd say for sure.

But, you know, Scottie Scheffler, it's kind of crazy. He's moved down to six to one. You don't really see guys that low at a major championship, especially, you know, since Tiger. I mean, maybe, you know, I remember Dustin Johnson before he fell down the stairs at that Masters was going to be four to one. But you just don't see it that much.

And there's good reason for it, Zach. I mean, this guy has 16 consecutive top 12 finishes. I know they keep pumping the streak that it's top 20 or top 25, but they are top 12 finishes.

13 of those are top 10. Of course, he won the players. You know, his stats from T to green, his strokes gained. Only Tiger in 2006 had a better season than what Scottie Scheffler's putting together. Now, on the flip side, of course, the putter has been pretty bad. And we saw at the memorial when he had this historic performance from T to green, gaining 20 shots in the field and then losing nine shots just on the greens. He still finished one shot out of a playoff. Had he had an average putting week, he would have won by seven shots. So I just think the way he's hitting it right now is so superior to everyone else. And then you throw in the fact that he's got a great short game, a very creative short game, which is going to be required around Los Angeles Country Club.

He deserves to be the favorite and a pretty solid paper. But that being said, I mean, Brooks and Rom, of course, make up the rest of this big three that's emerged. I mean, Rory is kind of fallen by the wayside in recent weeks, even when he plays well the past couple of weeks.

He doesn't do anything on Sunday. And, you know, because of that, a big three has really emerged here and they've won the biggest three events of the year so far. Alex Myers, how much do you think with him being the face of the PGA Tour and he was carrying the flag with what transpired and how much he knew and didn't know and when he found out about that, how much of it is mental right now with Rory? No, I think a lot of it's mental for sure. It's been a long year for him. You know, he finally had kind of taken a little step back. It's possible maybe he had had hints of this. You know, he said he didn't know about the actual deal until the night before or that morning of when Jimmy Dunn, his friend, called him.

It's kind of amazing, too. They're supposedly great friends. And even Rory was kept in the dark here. But I think that also means he did have some kind of inclination that something was happening.

Maybe it wouldn't be a straight up merger or partnership. But he must have known something was coming down. I can't imagine that he wouldn't have had any sort of inclination about that.

But yeah, I mean, it's possible that bothered him. Certainly answering the questions week after week, kind of taking the brunt of the hits for the PGA Tour and kind of being the good soldier and getting out there. It was a long year for him. And, you know, we saw the stress when he didn't win the Open. He kind of disappeared. He did come back. He won the Tour Championship. But then when he didn't win the Masters this year, he didn't even make the cut. He just went off and disappeared. He didn't play in that next event.

He skipped it. He kind of took a $3 million hit even. You know, you've got to wonder if maybe something personally is happening as well behind the scenes.

But certainly I think all the live talk and everything else has played a little bit of a role for sure in his struggles right now. Preview in the U.S. Open with Alex Meyer, senior writer from Golf Digest. These three guys, I feel like, are always talked about a lot.

And they end up not winning the major championship. Victor Hovland, Patrick Cantley, our guy, and then Max Homa as well. Plus $1,000 for Hovland, plus $1,400 for Cantley, and then Homa sitting there at plus $1,600. Who do you like the most out of those three? I thought you were going to throw Xander in there too. Yeah, Shoffley's also another one at plus $1,800. You're not wrong on that.

Yeah, I definitely like Xander of those guys. I know you're a Cantley guy, but did you see the stat from Justin Ray? I mean, 25 career majors, he's never been within five shots of the lead going into the final round.

I'm not a Cantley guy going into the U.S. Open, if I'm being honest with you. Okay, fine. But you used to bet him. You like to bet him. Oh, I'm very fickle. I love to bet him.

And then this year I've been in and out, in and out, and now I'm out again. Gotcha. Okay, well I am out because I see this stat, and that is one of the most stunning stats for a guy. He's number four in the world still. I mean, he's always in the top five.

He never even sniffs at the majors. It's just one of the craziest things ever. He's kind of like the basketball version of James Harden. Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, he's got all the stats, he looks great, and then the big game comes and, you know, where does he go?

So, you know, I'm off him right now. Haaland is very interesting. He has proven himself, like Xander did a few years back with all those close calls. Haaland, the last three majors, has played, you know, incredible golf, and think about the different tests that he's done well at. When it comes to Augusta and at the Open, and then, of course, at the PGA, I just think, you know, I think he could contend, of course, this week, but this course doesn't, you know, let him bring out his biggest strength, which I think is his driver. And, you know, this course, it's a lot wider than a typical U.S. Open course. It's going to look a lot different for people tuning in and expecting to see those narrow fairways and the thick rough around it. I mean, certainly the rough is going to play a factor, but it's a Bermuda rough. It looks a little different. And the fairways are just going to be incredibly wide for a U.S. Open. And that being said, you have to be in the correct spot or your second shots become a lot more difficult.

So it still does, you know, it still does reward driving. But I just think, you know, he's going to win where it's a real driver test, and I don't think this place is that place. So of those guys, again, you know, and Max Holm, of course, is the big story that everybody wants to see happen.

It would be fantastic. But he's like Canley. I mean, the guy just doesn't do anything in the majors. Now, he hasn't been a great player for that long, so he hasn't had that big of a sample size.

And you would think this would be the place. He has the course record here, 61 at the 2013 Pac-10 championship. But yeah, I mean, this is a big week for him because I think if he doesn't play well this week at the major, then it really starts to weigh on him.

I like Zander, Zander of those guys. It kind of feels like with Canley and then also Max Holm, we've talked about them potentially winning for such a long time. They're getting into Rickie Fowler territory where it's okay. Rickie was that guy for years, and now no one ever talks about Rickie Fowler than his pants.

Yeah, no, that's certainly true. And Zander was kind of in that ballpark as well, but now Zander with last year's little spurt where he won the three tournaments. I know one of them was with Canley, but he won the three tournaments, including the Scottish Open, which was almost like a major.

I think it was 14 to 15. Didn't he win the Travelers too? Yes, and he went on a hot street class summer, and he went from four career wins to seven career wins, just like that. He did an interview with me, and then he started winning. That's what happened. Is that what happened? Yeah, he came on with us. They said it's time to start winning, and then he started to do that. He won me some money, and he turned it around. Haven't heard from him since. Didn't get any cut as well, so bad job out of him.

Bad job, Zander. But yeah, the seven wins, the multiple close calls and majors. I like him this week. He's certainly in my top five guys. But again, it's so hard to go against this big three right now, and especially Shepler.

It's so boring, but he's definitely my number one guy this week. But I would have Zander in there. I would have Jordan Spieth in there.

I actually got him at 33 to 1 the other day, which was kind of crazy. I think, again, we're talking about a course that doesn't penalize you for the wayward miss as much as maybe other places. I think that helps him when he does get out of position. There's no one better at recovery shots, and no one has a more magical short game.

He's kind of the modern Nicholson, and we know he won at Chambers Bay, which was another non-traditional US Open setup. So I kind of really like Jordan Spieth this week. What about Morikawa at plus 2,500?

So Morikawa, man, and I've seen him even in the 30s. I'm getting very tempted to do a last minute on him. The question to me is this back spasm thing. I mean, he's two off the lead at the Memorial going into Sunday and he pulls out. That to me is you've got to be in bad shape to do that when you have a chance to win a tournament that big. So I'm still a little worried about that.

It seems like the kind of thing that isn't bothering him as much day to day, but it can pop up on him. And as a result, you've seen him slide down really far with the odds. So he's close. Three, four weeks ago, he definitely was in my top five.

I had him circle, but he's kind of a last minute for me. Another guy who slipped on the board, by the way, Justin Thomas. I mean, oh, my God, 50 to one. I bet him I couldn't resist. You know, he's had crazy struggles.

But, you know, we know he's a two time major champ, plus the players. We know when he gets going how high he can get. I'm just hoping that I'm buying low a little and then he kind of figures it out this week.

But there's certain guys when you see the number, you just kind of have to jump at it. And for me, Justin Thomas was the guy this week. And the only other deeper guy that I like was Joaquin Neiman, who, of course, another live guy. He won a little down the road at another George Thomas design Riviera.

He went wire to wire. I think that was just last year. And everybody's kind of forgotten about him because obviously he went to the live tour. And, you know, we have the PGA as well.

So but yeah. But, you know, he was a top twenty five guy and ninety to one, eighty to one. I think that's kind of a crazy number for a guy as talented as him. I also saw that two other bigger names, Hideki Matsuyama and Bryson DeChambeau at forty to one where I'm looking at. Any intrigue there on either of them?

Yeah. You know, Bryson interests me for sure. Again, though, I don't know if this U.S. Open is going to play to his strength as much as Wingfoot. And obviously when he won and he kind of just bombed it out there as far as he could and, you know, he could wedge it in.

You can't do that as much here, because even if you have shorter shots to the green, if you are playing from the wrong angle, you are going to get burned. So I don't like him as much just because of the venue. But I do like where he's heading. I've heard the way he's talking, too, is he thinks he's very close to reaching his peak ball striking, which he actually admits came before he put on all the weight. And that's why you've seen him kind of take it off.

His experiment certainly wasn't a failure. He won a major, but obviously he had all those injuries and, you know, he wasn't as consistent. I think he's getting back. And who knows this whole if this merger partnership goes through, maybe, you know, he he'll feel a little better, kind of welcome back by the crowds and everything else. You know, he's kind of a he's a very he's a big thinker. And I think kind of gets to him that he he was kind of this big star. And now, you know, last year I remember following around at Brookline and there was hardly anybody following him. I mean, all the juice was was kind of gone from him.

So I think he's getting close. I don't like him this week, but I think, you know, he's getting back to being one of the elite players soon. Alex Myers, if you had to pick, do you have a PGA guy or live guy winning this week?

Oh, man. Well, I guess I'll just lean with the PGA just because Scheffler is such a favorite. And I like Spieth and I like Xander.

But again, I like Neiman. How can you not like Brooks with what he's done? I think, you know, too many people say, ah, you can't win back to back majors. I mean, he already did it once. And, you know, once you win the first, it's not like that's on your head the next time you tee it up. So it's a close call, Zach. But I'll go with the PGA tour still to win this one and go to go one up this year in the majors in this battle between the tours. And if golf had a script and I was the scriptwriter, Phil, Phil would finally get in the U.S. Open, especially with the aftermath of live golf and the PGA tour and the merger. That would be the perfect script this week for the casual golf fan like me to see Phil win. That would. Hollywood ending, Zach. L.A. Country Club.

I mean, hey, that would be a heck of a story. No doubt about it. Alex Myers, senior writer, golf guy. I just appreciate the time as always. Thank you. You got it, man. Enjoy it. Take care. Thanks.