The Open Betting Tips and Predictions

Nish: 0:00

Every story has an ending. Does our quest to play the top 100 courses in 10 years have a good ending? I’m Nish and I’m here to guide you through this golfing journey. This is the Top 100 in 10 Golf Podcast Bonus episode, the actual open preview. I’ve got a very special guest in with me today. We’ve got Lee from Harb7Golf. Lee is you probably have seen and heard of him if you’re an avid listener, but lee’s a proper full-on golf nut, a bit of a open obsessive, and I tapped him up because I know he’s uh into his betting. So he’s a self-described poker shark and, more importantly, he knows when to lump on a 66 to 1 outsider. I’m hoping we’re going to get that later.

Nish: 0:53

With a sharp eye for value and a healthy suspicion of the bookies’ favourites. Lee blends gut instinct with golf knowledge and poker table psychology to sniff out the smart money before the odds tumble. He’s not here to tip Rory at nine to two, which is the absolutely obvious thing to do, but he’s going to find a person that nobody’s talking about just yet. So, hi, lee, thanks for joining us.

Lee: 1:18

I know.

Nish: 1:19

Thanks for having me mate, as always, our pleasure. My friend now. You were the og hype man for the niche invitational. You were there filming content for us and, yeah, just generally amplifying it and um, but I’ll ask you about your golf. How’s your golf been in the last few weeks? I’ve been watching a few clips on your your instagram feed, mixed bag yeah, yeah, it’s a strange one, mate, to be honest.

Lee: 1:44

Um, it’s going a lot better than when I came back from the uae. Golf game was in a bad place and I was getting I was getting stuck on my swing so badly that I was striking the ball really bad and it wasn’t enjoyable. Um, so I had a bit of a break six weeks out and then got back to it ready for the niche invitational and I struck the ball really well. In fact, at the niche invitational we hit the driving range and I’ve never struck the ball so well and that alarmed me because I thought, whenever I’ve had a good driving range session, the round never goes well. Uh, but the round was really good. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it massively.

Lee: 2:19

I didn’t shoot a great score, but I just I don’t think I got the breaks and early on, and then I was in my own head a little bit about do I play safe, do I do the right thing? And then the driver ends up in my hand and I’m putting it underneath a tree somewhere. So but yeah, it’s been really enjoyable. I love the day, mate, and since then I’ve had, I’ve had several rounds and things are going all right with the irons, but off the tee, which is normally my stronger point, the ball’s hooking left, which I’ve never had that issue before and I’m not sure how to fix it. So if anyone’s got any tips on how to fix a block hook, then I’m all ears yeah, I do.

Nish: 3:00

I’m the same as you. I always find it’s. For me it’s an immutable law of golf. If I, if I have a good range session before I play, I’m going to be toilet on the golf course.

Lee: 3:10

Yeah, it’s just always the way. What is that about? Like you’re striking the ball so well and then you have a 10 minute break to get to the first team. Yeah, and all of a sudden you don’t know how to.

Nish: 3:19

It’s like you’ve used your quota of good golf up on the driving range so I try and do it the other way around. I’ll kind of like if I hit a couple of good shots I’m done. I mean, you probably noticed I was filming and stuff like that on the day but so I didn’t really utilize the range as much Grass range have to bring up. That was a full-on game changer. But I always think if I’ve hit a couple of good ones, don’t play anymore because I save it up for that course it’s an odd one, isn’t it?

Nish: 3:52

Well, I have to bring something up, I’m afraid, mate, because I have been bragging about it pretty much relentlessly. Since it’s happened and that was a week ago-ish I’ve got a full-on, bona fide hole-in-one with chris I’m glad you brought it up, because I wasn’t sure if you wanted to talk about it today.

Lee: 4:12

Oh mate, I will scream about this from the rooftops yeah, just take me through it, because you’ve had two now I’ve had two now. Yeah, all of the month I think about three feet from the hole off of the tee, so I’d love to know what that feels like.

Nish: 4:28

It was, so I’ll paint a picture for you. So it’s the ninth hole at Reddish Vale, which is my home golf course, and it’s a hole for me that’s always been full of terrible memories. It’s all uphill, it’s the top bit of the course. When you get to the the green and when you get to the next tee you look down on the rest of the course and it’s classic mckenzie design that there’s always a point where you can pretty much see the whole golf course. So this is it your tee off, obviously quite low down. I think we’re probably talking about a 20 to 30 foot elevation increase. So you’re always clubbing up and the debate is always what’s the wind like? Uh, you know, they’re all along the left hand side.

Lee: 5:12

There’s just just crap and it all falls away from the green so if you’re in the highest point as well, it’s quite windy upon that windy up there as well.

Nish: 5:20

Yeah, absolutely so we. We were lucky because the last few weeks have been fantastic in the uk weather-wise, haven’t they? So we? We were lucky because the last few weeks have been fantastic in the uk weather-wise, haven’t they? So we didn’t have much wind. It was quite humid, so the ball was actually flying quite, quite far. But then, yeah, kind of just stood on the tee and chris is doing his classic, like it’s taking a bit of time, like waiting for me to go first. Even even on the signature hole channel I’m I’m down with his game. Now. I’ve understood where he’s doing. Now He’ll always wait for me to tee off first.

Nish: 5:49

He’s got the honour so he should do it. But yeah, sort of stepped up. And yeah, normal debate. Do you hit a seven. If it’s windy Do you hit an eight. Normally Do you hit a nine. And I thought, do you know what I what I’m hitting it? Well, today I’ll hit a nice easy eight.

Nish: 6:07

You stepped up, lined it all up I mean it was a site before that round actually being chris. So it’s quite nice playing at reddishville, me and chris, because we’ll sort of talk about our golf a little bit as we’re going, because we don’t really get a chance when we’re playing the top 100 courses. Yeah, it’s like because you’re taking that course in, so we don’t really ever talk actual golf. And we were were just talking about the benefits of visualization and things like that. I mean I’m big into, like you know, manifesting and all that kind of stuff. You know, put it out there and it’ll happen.

Nish: 6:32

So I did my thing. I always line up with my, get my club and it runs through the ball, pick my target. What I started doing now is I’ll in my mind, mind, I’ll trace the line of the ball as I, as I see it. So it just means I’m saving time, so I’m not then stood, done my aligning and then I’m stood sort of 20 seconds visualizing and wasting time. So, yeah, stood over it and I don’t know what it was. I just kind of thought I feel confident over this t-shot for for whatever reason. Now, confident for me is just I feel like it’s going to go. That’s it, yeah. So clipped it and it was the sweetest sound. I mean, we’ve got the same irons, haven’t we?

Nish: 7:11

we got p790s taylor mason when you hit those, well, they just make an awesome noise and where that t-box is just got a little bit of tree either side so it just echoes a tiny little bit. So it had all everything kind of viscerally that you need for that shot was was there. You hit this ball and it set off exactly as I visualized it and it just had this baby draw on it and it was dead high ball flight. You know, when I got fitted up that was the thing about the irons, it was a really high ball flight I was getting and I’m looking at it and I’m like that looks like it’s absolutely bob on the flag. So it bounces right at the top of the hill and then it disappears. You can’t see the base of the flag. I’m going to tee it off. Uh, it’s bounced and I’m like I mean that’s, it’s not shot off either way. That is about as to the flag, as it can get right.

Nish: 8:06

Let’s just see what happens when we get up there. Chris steps up, hits his ball. Same thing right over the flag covering it. Chris, it’s a big ball. So he was like really easy nine iron. And we get up there and we’re thinking right this there’s got to be two golf balls on the green here. Easy, no problem at all. Get up there, you know puffing and panting because you’re pushing your trolley up the hill and there’s only one ball on the green. So you know what? What do we do as a kind of golfers we are.

Nish: 8:33

He just gone long it’s gone long, it’s gone through the fence. Oh no, this is like, oh god, what’s going on here? And then chris sort of just said I don’t know, mate, I think there might be one in the hole, let’s, let’s have a little look. So I did that classic I don’t know, mate, I think there might be one in the hole, let’s have a little look. So I did that classic like I don’t want to look. You go and have a look and tell me what’s going on. So we’re walking up.

Nish: 8:53

So Chris first went to his ball, or the ball that was on the green, sorry, right at the back, and he’s like oh, that’s mine, that’s mine. I was like put her up in the air like all this sort of stuff. You know, just give you exactly how you’d imagine you’d feel after this. Um, even to the extent where, when we were the t off back down the other way on the 10th, the people, the old boys, were walking up the other, the other hole, they were like I take it, one of you got an ace. I was like, yeah, yeah, I mean, how did he guess, you know? And he goes yeah, you’re not supposed to give me to have fun. Well, what are you doing? What?

Lee: 9:40

are you doing? We’ll see you in the bag camera on.

Nish: 9:44

No, following you to the hole, got it, got it. And like now, I think it’s like if I’m playing golf in July, which seems to be the month to do this, that camera has to be on my bag at all times, which just makes sense, doesn’t it?

Lee: 9:56

You’ve got a year to think about it now.

Nish: 9:58

Exactly, that’s it, but how bizarre we were both saying the same thing. It’s really weird that both in July you know it’s within a year. That’s the second within a year, so Chris is. Chris was like saying congratulations through gritted teeth actually, because he’s not had one yet and he’s played golf pretty much all his life, so not that I rub that in.

Lee: 10:18

But it’s a big deal, isn’t it? It’s like people talk about all the sports. Hole-in-one for golf. It’s like hitting a 170 check out at darts 147 in snooker.

Nish: 10:27

So you’ve got.

Lee: 10:28

You know, you’ve got massive accolade twice.

Nish: 10:31

Me and Chris haven’t had a hole-in-one, so both of us hate you. Yeah, well, you know I’m happy one. Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, it was dead funny because I uh obviously popped it on our instagram feed and we’ve got another uh guest of the the podcast, previously the top 100 golf guru, alex, so he’s obviously doing the top 100 as well, and I’d posted the picture on my stories of, like the ball in the cup and he just went you. I was like yeah, yeah, yeah, me, mate. I couldn’t believe it, absolutely incredible. Seeds didn’t reply after that. I thought it was hilarious. But yeah, it’s, you know you go. I mean, I know because he’s come close a couple of times. But yeah, you go through your whole life looking for that, don’t you?

Lee: 11:17

it’s you do, you do. I never even think about it, like quite often in those scenarios you talk about. If I hit the perfect shot, I just assume it’s going to be close somewhere and you expect to see it on the green, and if it’s not, it’s definitely skipped off the green. Or, yeah, had a bad bounce or run out or something.

Nish: 11:33

But yeah, to find it in the hole, mate, that must be pretty magical yeah, we, and we were also saying it was like kind of the way that shot went and it flew, I mean it was perfect, was like baby draw, like that’s what everyone wants Dead high bowl fly, you know, land softly on the green and we said if we had a camera at the other end you probably would have seen it land and then just kind of roll up to the hole and roll in, not kind of oh it’s flying by and it needed the hole to stop it, it was just the pace was absolutely Did you see your pitch mark where it initially landed.

Nish: 12:02

I did yeah yeah yeah, so I’ve got a picture. I mean, the pictures don’t do it justice, do they? But it probably pitched about 15 feet short yeah, I think about 15 feet short and then rolled out into the hole. So I was, just like in classic golf fashion, I topped my next tee shot. So there you go the round was over, popped my next tee shot.

Lee: 12:22

So there you go. The round was over then.

Nish: 12:25

That was one of those things where you just go. You know, get back down to earth, mate. You are still Nish playing golf, so don’t expect it to be. So. There was. There was an ulterior motive for me asking you how your golf went, and that was basically so I could brag about my hole in one. And then when I, when I, when I’ve got the two guys with me, next time I’ll be doing it again. So if you’re listening to both episodes, you’re going to hear the story yet again.

Nish: 12:49

I want to get Chris’s reaction. I want to see how he feels about it now, in the fullness of time Not that I’m competitive, you know. So, lee, we’ve got you here to do the open special and sort of guide us really on where we can expect to put our hard-earned money yeah, or I can tell you where not to put it that’s not me or not to put it. Yeah, I mean, I can give you a whole long list of people who aren’t going to win, so that should be process of elimination.

Nish: 13:15

Probably that’s where your money’s sitting at the moment, exactly exactly now, at the end of this episode, we’ve actually got a real uh, a nice special surprise for all of our listeners. So stick around to the end to find out what it is, uh. But let’s dive in, let’s figure out what’s going on. So the first thing I need to find out from you is you know who is the smart money on and why do you think so?

Lee: 13:38

yeah, um. So obviously I said in the bio I’m not here to give you the obvious five to two tips, but I will say that the obvious money where everyone’s going to be lumping is going to be sitting on scottie scheffler and current world number one. Three wins in his last four starts, which is just ridiculous and then?

Lee: 13:59

um, what is the world’s number one from t to green right now as well, with all of his stats? Everything’s just flying for him. Um, he’s not a lynx specialist, which obviously I do think any lynx course plays into anyone that’s grown up around lynx courses. They tend to have quite an advantage on the get go, but that bloke just seems to be able to play in any condition windy, not windy, long grass, short grass, dry as hell, it doesn’t matter. He seems to have a game for it. So you know it’s one I would stay away from.

Lee: 14:33

There’s just not, there’s no point in, in my opinion, in lumping on Scotty, unless you’ve got loads of money and you don’t care whether you win or lose, you stick it on him and you put it on the nose. It’s that simple. I think he must be about five to one at the moment.

Nish: 14:48

Yeah, it’s remarkable how like consistent he is. You know he’s always there or thereabouts, you know he’s. He’s kind of. I know there’s a lot of people. The world is crying out for the next tiger woods, isn’t it? You know there’s so many people. My dogs just decided to open the door and see and see what’s going on. It’s quite all right, my friend, quite all right. The whole world is crying out for the next Tiger Woods.

Lee: 15:11

Yeah.

Nish: 15:12

You know, once in a lifetime, freakish athlete yeah, you know we’re talking about full dominance, but also in an era when technology is taking its hold and swing analysis and all that kind of thing, you know you can copy tiger woods to swing if you wanted to. I mean, I don’t think it’ll do your body any good. But you know this. This guy is just, he’s come along and he’s, he’s, he’s putting together runs, that. Uh, you know that they’re up there, aren’t they? Yeah they’re the greats of the game they are.

Lee: 15:43

They are the thing, you know, the only thing he doesn’t have. You know, in regards to what? Poker, poker, sorry, I’ve got poker on the brain what golf purists are looking for is just tiger had that aura, yeah, and that’s irreplaceable, and that really is a once in a lifetime thing. That a player comes along, he’s, like, you know, the michael jordan of the golf world, and it’s that simple. Whereas sc along, he’s, like you know, the michael jordan of the golf world, and it’s that simple. Whereas scotty’s got every attribute and maybe others that tiger perhaps didn’t have, because he just seems like a machine. I mean, tiger was a machine, but there’s something about scotty’s game where I watch him on any course and he’s just, he’s just ridiculous.

Nish: 16:20

He’s just able to just do it, isn’t he? I mean also that the swing doesn’t make any sense because of this that footwork, it’s just.

Lee: 16:26

Yeah, it’s crazy, it’s mine but with that footwork you expect inconsistency somewhere. I mean, how can you have that much consistency in a swing when your feet are moving around that much?

Lee: 16:35

but yeah you know he seems to have it and fair play to him. But, like I said, the only thing for me that isn’t going with scotty is there’s that aura is just missing that thing that those mega fist pumps that tiger had, you know that just fierceness on the golf course and that presence that he brought with him, whereas you know scotty’s an incredible player but I’m not that, you know, buzzing to watch him when on tv. That’s kind of the of the only difference with those two players.

Nish: 17:04

He’s not box office, is he? He’s not. Let’s bring it back to our guy that we all would hope can win, and that’s Rory. Rory is box office, box office, for probably different reasons. It’s skill as well, but also he wears his vulnerability out on the course and that’s highly relatable. I think a lot of people like him for that. I mean I do.

Lee: 17:28

I don’t know if it’s just a Brit thing as well, but I’m just so captivated by Rory. Again, we’re talking about aura. Right, he’s got something. He’s got a presence to him that makes you want to watch him. You know he’s intriguing. There’s always something going on with his game and he, him, um, you know he’s, he’s intriguing, there’s always something going on with this game, um, and he’s always. You know he’s always out there scrapping till the end as well. You know, if it’s not gone well on day one, which you know, in his past, especially in these situations, we’ve seen him have day one disasters, but he’ll keep scrapping until there’s no fight left.

Nish: 17:59

So no, absolutely spot on. So uh, okay, we’ve got, we’ve taken the let’s, we’ve taken the s word out of the equation at scotty.

Lee: 18:07

So yeah, that’s not where I’d be putting my money. So you know, if we’re talking about somebody that’s got home course knowledge yeah, used to links environments, uh, somebody that’s got an incredible golf game I mean, they all have, and it sounds like a dumb comment to make because to be at that level, they are all incredible, but Robert McIntyre, for me, I also. Just there’s something captivating about watching a left hander swing. They make that, they make it look so easy. Yeah he’s not trying.

Nish: 18:38

They’re just elegant, though they’re left easy, it’s great.

Lee: 18:41

But he’s really good around links, courses and, of course, with it being a home course he’s got, you know, I don’t know, maybe there’s something in it having a home advantage. You know, it’s in his nation. He’s going to have a lot of support behind him, a lot of people following him around.

Nish: 19:00

I just think maybe there’s a chance that something could happen this week with him.

Lee: 19:03

Yeah nice guy as well. It’d be a lovely story that one’s a nice guy, but he’s just got great form as well. Um, tied sixth at St Andrews a few years back. It’s just great in windy conditions as well, and we’ve had like a really crazy couple of weeks of mad sunshine, I’d say in the last couple of days. The wind’s really starting to pick up now and I wouldn’t be surprised if it carries on through this week. So if the conditions do continue the way they’ve been for the last couple of days, I think he would well. He’s sitting at about 25 to 1. So if you were to put the bet on now, you’re looking at five places paid on an each way bet. So you’re getting almost the exact same odds as scotty scheffler, but five positions to pay out. So for me, much smarter money would be going on Rob McIntyre. I’m not sure, but can he finish in the top five? Yeah, absolutely.

Nish: 19:55

Yeah, I think top five is definitely realistic for him, isn’t it? I watched a couple of videos about the course and one of the things that kind of kept coming out wasn’t specifically about the course as such, but there’s a lot of people that I’d watched playing Portrush had said that Bob McIntyre had taught them how to play this little low runner or a little like the winds left to right, then play this kind of shape of shot and things like that, and I just think, yeah, I didn’t know you were going to say Bob McIntyre’s name, but it feels like that creativity that he’s got in those conditions because there is home conditions. That’s what he plays in Scotland.

Lee: 20:35

Yeah, yeah, he grew up with it. He grew up with it. He knows it like the back of his hand as well.

Nish: 20:40

Yeah, interesting. That’s an interesting shout-out.

Lee: 20:45

I think that’s great money, a great odds 25 to 1 on somebody that’s, you know, grown up in those conditions. Um, I just think it’s quite good odds. That’s giving you the same odds as scotty scheffler each way if he finishes in the top five. Yeah, that’s, that’s incredible, isn’t it? Sticking a tenner on each way, getting um, getting quarter odds, I think you get and top five paid out. So, yeah, if he’s 25 to 1, you’re essentially going to get. Well, depending on his odds, anywhere between 5 and 8 to 1 you’ll get each way if he lands in the top five. And then, moving on from Robert McIntyre, somebody that was on everyone’s radar for years, disappeared off everybody’s radar and seemed to have a low at the same time as his partner in crime is Justin Thomas. Justin Thomas’ odds, when I checked this morning, were 35 to 1.

Lee: 21:35

This is a guy he’s coming off the back of the RBC Heritage win His stats, short game stats. So his approach approach game stats are in the top 10 on tour so far this year. Um, which is crucial for links golf when we’re talking about, yeah, so his approach game is in sitting in the top 10 on tour so far this year because he’s you know he’s really starting to turn it on his games, coming right back around, and I think that’s crucial. For links golf short game, rounding around the links course is super important. Um, you know, I’ve got the privilege of living down the road from one and I take my little boy sometimes to have a hit around there. And it’s just like when I’m walking from one hole to another and we go through the reference thinking how does anyone hit out of these things? So, you know, obviously you’ve got to get off the tee, well, but if you’re not hitting the greens or you’re landing anywhere in the rough, your game’s got to be incredible to be recovering out of that.

Lee: 22:33

So for somebody like justin thomas, who’s, you know, turning on the style with his short game right now, I think he’s a great shout at 35 to 1 and also a two-time major winner as well. So he’s been there. We know he can do it if he’s in a run in the running. So, again, if we’re talking about getting similar odds to the favorites Rory and Scotty 35 to 1, sticking a tenner each way on that if you’re going to do it for him to finish in the top five, you’ll get quarter odds. Um, sorry, yeah, quarter of the odds, quarter odds, yeah, and if you want to do it for the top eight, you’ll get a fifth of the odds. So even with that, you’re still getting better odds than Scotty. So, yeah, I would say that’s a fantastic option to look at for getting an each-way bet on, just to get a bit of a return, finishing in the top five or top eight.

Nish: 23:22

So who are? Obviously you’ll have checked this out, but who are the top sort of three, four favourites according to the bookies?

Lee: 23:29

Yeah, so you’ve got Scotty’s going to be favourite and then Rory’s going to be second. So they’ll be sitting around five to one, maybe nine to two, something like that, and six to one. Let’s have a quick look right now.

Nish: 23:42

What are your thoughts on our boy Rory, because it sort of seemed like the fairy tale scenario for him that he’s not won a major for many, many years. Yeah, port Rush, irish boy, local boy.

Lee: 24:01

Yeah.

Nish: 24:02

He’s going to turn up, or was it shot at 61 or something when he was a teenager? Yeah, it was all building for that. But yeah, I mean what. You know what? What do you think of? As he won the masters and, and he’s the?

Lee: 24:13

thing is mate on it on his day. But you know, when we talk about scotty right, we talk about the consistency. We thought rory would be the next tiger woods and it just hasn’t turned out that way for him. He’s. He’s an unbelievable player and, like I said, he’s got that aura. I want to follow him around when I’m at live tournaments and I’m watching the pros play. He’s the one I’d want to follow around if I didn’t want to get stuck behind 3,000 people. But when it comes to delivering on the day, it’s a coin toss for him, isn’t it? So, like I said, I think what was it a couple of years ago in the open, on day one he had an absolute disaster and he does have that in the bag.

Lee: 24:51

Very, very seldom would you see someone like scotty or even bryson right now, the form bryson’s in. You don’t see them having meltdowns and disasters. Or also rory’s getting over that issue that you know we’ll probably never experience. The pressures of being on a sund, you know three foot putt to win something and then blowing it We’ll probably never experience those pressures, but you can only imagine it’s massive. And to have done that a couple of times in the last couple of years and blown his chance to have obviously won big tournaments. To have obviously won big tournaments, regardless whether he’s gone on to win other tournaments from then.

Lee: 25:26

Things like that must sit fresh in his mind and impact his, his confidence in going out onto those courses. I think we’re wrong. I expect these guys go out there and believe they’re going to win, every time they go out there, someone of rawish caliber. But these sorts of things they must sit in their mind and haunt them and they’re the sort of things that make me wonder can they get on top of them early doors, thinking about what it’s, before they’re actually even out there on day three and day four? So I always find with rory, my heart says yes, he can do it, but my brain always says like they’re on the side of caution and like, like I said, I’m not. I’m not one to be picking the favorites. I spent too much of my youth doing that.

Lee: 26:03

I’ll go with the favourites and then watching them watching them just about make the cut and, you know, not quite get anywhere in the end. And then you’ve got like a 40, 40 to 160 to one sitting in the top five and I’m sitting there thinking, you know, that’s obviously a better option to go five, ten quid each way on a bet like that, yeah, and then I then only have to finish in the top five or top eight, depending on what odds you want to go with or what finishing positions you want to go with, then picking the favorite who’s rarely going to come in on the nose, yeah, in a field of anywhere between 50 and 80 players I feel like you got a bettering experience with doing something like that as well, because, yeah, you could probably, you know, write it off in your head a little bit more and just go.

Nish: 26:46

Well, you know, just took a tenner on on somebody who’s a 40 to one shot, fine yeah, I’m not anything back from it, that’s it. But if it’s coming in, you’re like it’s gonna happen it’s gonna happen.

Lee: 26:55

You know, what I found as well is, if I really want rory to do well, like I want him to do well this week, I really do I don’t want to put any money on it because I don’t want to sit there like stressing going don’t mess this up, rory yeah, it’s like much better to just let all that go, don’t worry about that, and then just enjoy watching him play, and then there’s more chance of him winning if my money’s not on him as well absolutely it’s like.

Nish: 27:17

It’s like the driving range mate exactly the same thing now, obviously, last time the open was at portrush, another local boy uh won it. That was Shane Lowry. Yeah, so what’s his and I must admit I’m ignorant about this, I don’t really know, um what, what’s going on with him at the minute, but what’s his form looking like going into the into the tournament? And I think they’ve made a few changes. I think it’s two or three holes have actually changed completely now, yeah, from from what it was when he won. But he was like six shots ahead, wasn’t he going into the last round?

Lee: 27:51

he was yeah, he’s just a steady golfer. I mean, yeah, he’s playing. He’s playing well. Um, let’s have a look where he’s sitting right now, and so he’s about 11th favorite with the bookies. His odds according to this with um ladbrokes are about 22 to 1 right so he’s sitting around.

Lee: 28:09

There’s like a cluster of players that I put in the same category. There’s shane, lowry, tyrell hatton, um aberg at the moment. You know that guy was bordering on going into the, the elite cluster with your mackleroy’s, the Shambos and um Shefflers, but you know he’s having a bit of a bit of a time. But yeah, you know they are all sitting around, that kind of Lowry. You know I’d say they’re all top 10 players but they’re all kind of sitting just outside that top three, aren’t they? And Shane’s still there, like he’s playing well at the moment and definitely, you definitely got tournament wins under his belt and you know at any point he could play out of his skin and win a major competition. So you know there’s a chance that he could do it. But once again you wouldn’t say, oh yeah, he’s my favourite, he’s definitely going to win.

Nish: 29:04

So we’re saying, out of the sort of Brits we’re probably thinking, bob McIntyre is your smart money.

Lee: 29:13

Yeah, purely financially. You know, if you were to ask how he’s going to fare if there was no odds and we weren’t even talking about the betting side of it and we were just like, where do we think people are going to finish, I’d probably go rory shane, rob, um, but we’re talking about odds. And if mcintyre is sitting, what did I say was about 35 to 1. Yeah, um, 25 to 1 maybe. Oh, do you know, actually it’s 25 to 1. I’ll tell you for why I so. I did a bit of research a couple of weeks ago into into this and rob mcintyre was sitting at 50 to 1.

Lee: 29:48

Oh, wow there’s obviously been a massive influx in bets come in on robert mcintyre for him to drop to 25 to 1 and I’m talking massive, that’s a massive swing, yeah. So you know, maybe there’s someone out there thinking along the similar lines of. You know, home course understands links golf really well, in pretty good form, and you know, maybe it’s time for Rob to have a high finish.

Nish: 30:15

I mean it’d be great that, wouldn’t it? It’d be great for him to win it anyway. But yeah, I think nice guy to boot makes a nice story there, doesn’t it? Now, I mentioned I’d watched quite a few videos of the actual course. Nice guy to boot Makes a nice story there, doesn’t it it does, now, I mentioned I’d watched quite a few videos of the actual course over the last couple of nights. Now it looks tough. We’ve got to play it at some point. It looks like a tough, tough course that. Yeah. So I’m interested to see what your thoughts are on some big characters in golf, and this isn’t based on any form, it’s not based on any odds or anything that I’ve looked at. It’s just it’s names that I think you know. Let’s maybe chat about what we think they’re going to actually end up doing. And I’ll start with a guy that you have already actually mentioned. That’s Bryson DeChambeau. Okay, you know, obviously his stock has risen so high, hasn’t it? Because he interacts with everybody.

Nish: 31:08

Yeah, opinions totally changed on him, okay I wasn’t, wasn’t a big fan of his, and then yeah we, uh, we invited.

Lee: 31:15

Uh, sorry, that’s all right, that’s bryson he’s got a video.

Nish: 31:21

He’s on the podcast. It’s great, yes bryson he’s. He’s interacting with everybody. It’s great.

Lee: 31:26

I think, similar to you, Nish, I was never really a big fan of his. I’m trying to think back to why. I think for me he was just so loud in the face of golf.

Lee: 31:39

If you know what I mean.

Lee: 31:40

There was just something about him where I was like I found him a bit arrogant.

Lee: 31:45

But also what now you know, when you get a bit older you start to realise that you’ve got narrative pushed in your face all the time and the media obviously love it because it gets them so much attention when they’re reporting on somebody and showing that side of them all the time.

Lee: 32:01

But what we’ve seen in Bryson is a massive change, not necessarily in character. He’s still a larger than life sort of guy. You know he still wears his heart on his sleeve and believes in his philosophies and will, you know, insist in the way that he’s doing things and not be deviated by what anyone’s opinions are. But you’ve seen like a bit of a soft change to his mannerisms and his behaviors in general when it comes to realizing people’s opinions of him, and it seems to have had a really positive effect, I’d say, especially in the last five years. There’s been a real character change with bryson de chambeau and I find him fascinating now, like he’s really interested to watch some of his social media stuff. I think it’s really interesting as well when he was doing the, you know the whole challenge over his house.

Lee: 32:49

I’m watching that, thinking this is fantastic content. Like my little boy sat watching that on youtube and he was like this is amazing yeah, we’re definitely not going to try that because we’ll have no windows left, definitely prone to a fin and a shank, absolutely absolutely, but yeah, it’s the neighbor’s windows you need to watch out for mate that’s, that’s the that’s the one for

Lee: 33:11

me as a golfer though I, he’s fascinating to watch because his drives are so long and they’re so like. They put him into positions that no other golfers, other than a very small amount like rory can obviously hit monster drives, and there’s a couple of other players on the tour that can hit these monster drives. But he takes these drives to a different dimension. But also with his game, with his mega drives, they can leave him in such difficult positions that he’s got to have extra kind of talents and skills to get out of some of the problems he finds himself in and some of the miracle shots he pulls off. Just fascinating to watch, and he’s really entertaining, I think it was.

Nish: 33:53

I think, initially, the thing that turned me off Bryson was this whole kind of he was trying to break golf, wasn’t he? He was trying to, like, crack a code and it’s like this is a way to get the wheel sort of thing.

Nish: 34:07

Like yeah, wasn’t he? He was trying to like crack a code and it’s like this is a way to Almost reinvent the wheel, sort of thing. Yeah, it seemed like it wasn’t. We’re brought up on a diet of Seve, of Jose Maria Alathemal, people like that who are like they’ve got that magic in their hands and it’s like this artistry of golf and I mean we still do it. Now the Europeans, I mean I’ll probably close the book on how many times the Europeans are going to mention Seve at the Ryder Cup. You know, do it for him, do it for him. There’s got to come a point where you break away from that. But I think that’s ingrained in our psyche so much. And we talk about Bob McIntyre like he looks like such an elegant player. Nobody elegant player, yeah, you know, nobody would describe.

Lee: 34:50

Bryson’s swing or or players as elegant, it’s just incredibly effective. Yeah, but it’s brute.

Nish: 34:53

But it’s pretty accurate, yeah, but what I find interesting about that was and this is how I felt about it and and I think I’m sure a lot of other people did as well but what I find fascinating about that is that we’re all looking for a way to just get good scores. Like I look at my swing, I look at the video and I go, oh, that’s awful. However, if I’d have filmed that hole it I don’t wish to bring it up again, but I will if I’d have filmed that hole in one swing I know, mate, a couple of weeks ago, couldn’t believe it. Let me tell you the story that, um, if I broke it down, I’d look at it and I’d go that’s a terrible swing. That’s not something that I want to associate myself, as that’s what the swing looks like, and yet it was incredibly effective. And just words.

Nish: 35:35

And I find it interesting that he’s almost given people some of the formula of how to break golf or how to do better at golf. I mean a couple of things that he said. You know, everyone should go out there and play from the forward tees at some point in their life. Yeah, because get used to scoring, get used to getting yourself into a position where you’re shooting for birdies and eagles and things like that. Get used to it, because you’re not going to do it from the yellows. You need to be on the forward tees, things like you. He’s got his iron shafts all the same length. He’s like I don’t have to change anything in my swing, it’s just the loft of the club.

Nish: 36:10

The thing he was talking about was grip width and thickness of your grip on your golf clubs, and this is actually something John Daly pulled up as well. And he said yeah, the number one thing that if amateurs changed is the thickness of their grip. They would improve straight away. Now, fascinatingly, bryson says it’s your grip thickness and you can improve it. And he’s like oh yeah, the scientist, blah, blah, blah, whatever. John daly says it. And john daly’s like again, this kind of mythical character engulfers’t, he plays barefoot, just wild thing. Yeah, like he’s basically your hero to recreational golf, yeah, but he says it and everyone’s like oh yeah, yeah, okay. Well, john daly said that you know it kind of, so it’s interesting, but I find it’s. There is that softening to his persona now and and it isn’t he’s not doing anything different like I see him doing these videos when he’s doing longest drive and he’s like pumped american but again those opinions and the negative narrative was coming.

Lee: 37:12

You know, seven, eight, nine, ten years ago, when he first kind of came onto the scene and made a big impact and it was all all we were seeing was the science behind bryson’s mind and why he does what he does.

Lee: 37:23

Yeah, but now you’re seeing like it’s been, it’s been broken down now and there’s been so much coverage and he’s obviously more prevalent on um on his platforms instagram, youtube and things like that people are seeing actually he’s a really cool guy and he’s he’s trying to benefit himself and others. He’s not just keeping it all to himself. He’s like this is what I’m doing, this is’s not just keeping it all to himself. He’s like this is what I’m doing, this is why this is the benefits from it and all the rest of it. But what I will say is um, you’re absolutely spot on about that change, because I was at my local golf course a couple of weeks ago and there was a young lad talking to another young lad on the putting green and he said he was going to play around from the front tees because bryson said it was a good idea.

Lee: 38:05

So the in the power of the influence of influential people is there 100. And to hear a young he must be in like 18, 19 say he’s going to play the front tees because bryson said it was a good idea. So there’s no stigma for that kid around the fact that it would be cast as the women’s tees. They’re just called red tees now, aren’t they? That’s it Absolutely right and he’s prepared to do it because he saw that Bryson said it was a good idea to improve your game.

Nish: 38:34

Yeah, in my opinion, he’s probably the biggest character in golf at the minute, and even little things like you see him, he’ll be at tournaments and he’ll make sure that he’s there for an hour signing stuff for fans, you know, and he’ll prioritize the young fans who are there, because they’re the future of the game. Now, what do you want from the people that are at the top of the game? And that is to grow it, to keep it interesting, to keep it exciting for young people, to grow it, to keep it interesting, to keep it exciting for young people. And he’s doing all of that. And the fact that he’s opened his life up, basically on social media I mean YouTube, is he’s just, he’s all over it, isn’t he Absolutely all over it? There’s always something and he’s got an opinion about everything and it’s yeah, it’s great to see. I’ll be fascinated to see how he gets on. Actually, because, having had a look at the is in play and you need to consider whether you’re going to fly it or not. But they want the pros to feel that as well. Yes, of course, if you’re a 350 carry kind of driver, then there’s nothing that they can do that’s going to take that out the equation it’s just down to. Can you be accurate or not, but on average, if the normal tour pro is kind of driving, carrying it 300 yards, you move that tee back 50 yards. You suddenly brought it into play and there’s a bit more tactics involved in in what’s going on and I found that fascinating as a as a thing to do for a golf course. What I also found interesting was they’ve obviously started getting all the grandstands and things like that up.

Nish: 40:21

But when you look at a lot of the wholesome teas as classic link, I mean it’s not such a classic links course in that it’s flat. You know, I lived here in the sort of the gulf coast south port. They’re all quite flat courses. Um, some of them are actually relatively featureless because you know you play them and there’s nothing to see for miles around. But you’re sort of within the hole but there is a lot of undulation, there’s a lot of hills and mounds and things like that. There’s a lot of blind t-shots, blind approach shots, things like that. I think that’s going to really be a test, classic phrase test of all around golf. Of course that’s what it’s supposed to be, but I, I think, I think your long drivers, I think are probably gonna probably have to dial it back a little bit, it seems, because these landing spots seem really, really narrow. You know, when you look at St Andrews, whenever somebody is playing that on the telly, you can spray it a bit there, can’t you, because you just got big, wide, rolling fairways.

Lee: 41:23

I didn’t get the impression that you were getting that from um port rush no, it seemed you’re not getting up there and and of course I, like I said, if you are going to miss the fairway at somewhere like port rush, you’re going to be in deep trouble. It’s pretty. They’re pretty unforgiving. Links courses in general are unforgiving. But yeah, you’re talking about an open course, an open classic course, that would be one I feel.

Nish: 41:53

I feel like it’s fairer, though, than what they were doing at the the us open just recently at oakmont. That felt like like With how crazy that was oh yeah, I mean that’s what they were doing with the rough. I mean, it was just like To be fair. It gave us a good tournament. The end result was one person finished under par and he won the tournament. So you could argue that it had its effects and things like that.

Nish: 42:19

But yeah, I mean I don’t know, I still feelris feels the opposite to me, to be honest, harbs on this because he always feels that, no, it needs to be the toughest it can be. I want to see these people really struggling, and that’s what it, that’s what it should be well.

Lee: 42:33

Well, let’s be honest, mate. One person finishing under par on a golf course at their level, compared to what we’re used to, seeing them finish 15, 25, 23 under yeah, that sort of thing, yeah, that is the golf course fighting back, without a doubt, yeah, it really was, but that that’s a subtle change. There’s many ways to make it harder, right? So we’ve in the past, we’ve talked about shortening the holes. We’ve talked about changing the golf balls so that the impact or pressure on impact is reduced on the golf ball, so they can’t go as far. We talked about all these different things, but never once did it cross my mind that just making the rough a bit longer would cause them so many problems. And it was incredible. It was incredible to watch multiple elite players doing air shots straight underneath the ball. Yeah, I mean Sitting so proud on the grass but yet buried so deep. How many times did we see a club go underneath the ball?

Lee: 43:30

and it even not move or just pop out a little bit. You’re just like, wow, that’s one of my normal shots out of my ruck, so to see them do it kind of felt fair.

Nish: 43:40

Well, all the memes of you know, one one of us kind of thing kept coming up, didn’t they?

Lee: 43:44

and yeah, absolutely yeah it was fascinating to watch, though, and I I do like the idea of having it evened up. But you know, I like seeing people shoot 22 under. I like seeing them excel in their field of expertise and proving you know why they are so damn good at what they do, and I like the longer holes and courses that we’ve got now, and the players have got to come to the, to the tee box, being able to hit the ball 350 yards. You know that these are things that didn’t exist 25 years ago. Tiger was obviously a freak of nature that could hit the ball long, had incredible iron play, incredible short play and was just a demon with the putter. So we’re talking about like the odd elite person will come along and light it up based on what’s in front of them. Now we’ve, now you’ve got to be somebody that can hit the ball just out out of sight, far yeah, stratospheric really yeah.

Lee: 44:42

And now you’ve got to have the most insane short game to hold the greens. These days, like some of the greens, when the balls are landing on them like again the us open, the balls were just vanishing off the greens. It’s like so many problems there but these guys have got to have so many kind of tweaks to their game that they perhaps didn’t need to be so concerned about 20 plus years ago. Yeah, golf’s just evolving and it is getting harder, but these guys are just finding quicker ways, quicker solutions, I guess, to figuring out these problems.

Nish: 45:13

It’s interesting actually just talking talking through the, the characteristics of the course. So, again, another video I watched was about talking about the greens, actually, and something I didn’t know. I’ve obviously taken it into account now. But so, on a links course, the, the greens at port rush are like carpet. Yeah, there is, they’re just as smooth as you like.

Nish: 45:36

One thing that was interesting that came up was that the grass is longer and that’s because it’s right next to the coast and it needs to be a bit.

Nish: 45:43

And it needs to be a bit. The plant needs to be a bit more resilient to the being buffeted by the wind, okay, which means that you don’t get as much break. So you can probably go for the hole a little bit more. And I remember a friend of mine who was a member at burkdale and he said you know, from long range putts, the tip I can give you is just go for the hole, okay, don’t try and overcomplicate it, don’t try and overread anything like that. Just go for the hole and try and get your pace right, because things will generally tend to feed in and it’s not going to break as much, which I found fascinating because you’ve got quite a lot of people who have all the attributes of the long game and actually the guy we mentioned right at the top of the episode. That was Scotty Scheffler. You know he does have his moments with his putter but if he’s going to find more putting-friendly conditions, you know that’s certainly something that might work in his favour.

Lee: 46:35

Yeah or not, in my opinion, because he’s so good with his putter that if the conditions make it easier, does that bring the rest of the players interesting? Yeah yeah, yeah everyone into the mix with their putting a bit more. Yeah, whereas you know, before he was just so good with the putter, he’s kind of out on his own, really, with his putting stats um does that bring everyone else more into play?

Lee: 47:01

because they’ve got less break to worry about and they’re finding it easier to find the pace and speed of their putts I mean it’s going to be, it’s going to be fascinating.

Nish: 47:08

They’ve got they’ve got a par three. I think it’s the 16th um, I don’t remember what it’s called. However, it’s a par three. That’s 205 yard carry, full-on ravine on the right hand side. You’ve got a safe play on the left, but you know, obviously par three, these guys are looking at getting it close and all that kind of thing.

Nish: 47:26

I think that’s going to be a tough, tough hole for them to play. And I think there was another one, the 14th, I think. I want to say where maybe it’s not the 14th, maybe it’s the fifth, I think it’s the fifth. Actually, your drive and there’s two bunkers pretty much right where the landing zone is, and then the whole turns to the right. So you’re really good, good at distance control with the wind, who knows. And then the green is all kind of like right at the end of the, the property, I suppose, where the golf course and it just all falls away to a beach. So interesting to see if anybody ends up playing, playing from the beach at any point. I don’t know if there’s any round stakes on there.

Lee: 48:05

Just out of curiosity, talking about the putting as well. What’s your opinion? Do you think it’s more important to be better at finding the line or the pace? Pace every time.

Nish: 48:18

Let’s say you could only pick one yeah pace every time. Yeah, I think you can, unless it’s I mean line is one of those weird things, isn’t it like? I think most people can can read a good putt. There’s very few people that you look at. Everyone has their little moments in a round where you really completely misread it and or you see somebody else puts it and you go oh, I saw that as a right to left and that’s gone the other way around, like it. I think that’s quite rare.

Lee: 48:41

I did one at your invitation I put one with a break which I was convinced was left to right, and it went 20 foot in the wrong direction. Yeah, yeah, I was like.

Nish: 48:49

We’ll take notes right now, yeah, exactly that’s it.

Nish: 48:52

I think pace is one thing that gives you confidence in your putting, because if you know you’re always going to drop it within a, let’s say, a bin lid, within a three foot radius of the hole, yeah, you’re. You’re giving yourself more two putt chances the whole time and you’re never going to lose confidence. You can. I think if you can, you can pass off a misread really easily. You just go oh well, I didn’t quite get the break right, yeah, but when you don’t get the pace right we’ve all done it, haven’t we? You get a really long put putt and I’ve not hit it. Like, I’ve just not hit that putt, and it’s the most frustrating thing in the world, isn’t it?

Lee: 49:29

And you leave it halfway. There you go. Top tip for the viewers from 218 Handicappers yeah, pace 17.1 actually you better know how to do it as well.

Nish: 49:39

Yeah, exactly. Let us know how to do it as well. Yeah, exactly, exactly, right, right Now. It would be remiss of me to not ask you. You know, who do you think is the real outsider in all of this? This is for you, like you’re cheeky two quid, yeah, maybe a fiver if you’re feeling a bit flush, but who’s your real outsider?

Lee: 49:58

I’ve got three picks for you. Ooh nice, I’ve got three picks for you. Ooh nice, I’ve got three picks for you. So the first pick I’m going to give you is purely because I saw the odds and my eyes lit up. I was like I find that surprising. So Wyndham Clark, if I say the name Wyndham Clark and I’m guessing you’ve not looked at the odds or anything, right? Nope.

Nish: 50:18

So if I said Wyndham Clark, where would you, just off the top of your head, think he’s likely to finish wyndham clark?

Lee: 50:33

I think he’s, he’s, probably he’s probably in a top 15 to 20 position, I would say, yeah, that’s right. If you’re talking about a player that you instantly think, no matter what the tournament on the pga would be, you would probably put him in the top 15 to 20 finishes, and let’s say, 30 of the time they’re going to finish in the top 10. So if I were to tell you that his odds for this are 75 to 1, okay, right, yeah, now don’t get me wrong he’s.

Lee: 50:56

He’s had a. I think he’s had quite a turbulent time. I remember watching back to when the um documentary on Netflix full swing first came out, yeah, and Wyndham was just, he was flying but just couldn’t quite get over the over the line, wasn’t? He was really struggling to just, you know, finish on that final Sunday and then we got to see that he was seeing, you know, some sort of mental therapist to kind of help him, and that really improved his game. And then, I think since the second season of that, I saw a bit of a decline in him not making some cuts, not finishing as high as he’s used to. And then 2023, he goes and wins the Open, which is fantastic. So one thing I want to see that’s helping straight away.

Nish: 51:43

I can’t remember what course it was that you won the Open at then, so where would that have been?

Lee: 51:47

It tells you straight away, though, that he’s got the minerals, if you like to get across the line.

Nish: 51:54

And by all accounts, he’s also got the strength to break a few lockers. So you know that could be an interesting thing to have.

Lee: 52:03

It was held at the Los Angeles Country Club.

Nish: 52:06

Yeah, big Morimakoroi, yeah, interesting, that was a tough course, that one.

Lee: 52:11

It was, and he finished 10 under par.

Nish: 52:13

Yeah, it was pretty impressive. He was on fire that day, wasn’t he? That weekend, wasn’t he?

Lee: 52:17

Yeah, and he played so well, so consistent. Some attributes about his game. Again, played so well, so consistent. Um, you know some attributes about his game. Again, he’s a solid putter. So if, if these greens are working into the favor of people that are solid putters and enhancing their putting ability, again I think that firmly works in his favor. Um, the odds are reflecting, obviously, the the decline of his recent finishes in his last few tours last year of tournaments, I guess. But when I watch him play you can, you can see. You can see his class. He’s gonna bounce back. He’s one of those players I think’s gonna bounce back. Probably would have been nicer to see some better finishes in some of his previous tournaments, but seeing 75-1 and knowing that that guy’s capable of winning a massive event such as the Open, I think that’s great odds to stick a couple of quid each way.

Nish: 53:13

Great, we’ve got Wyndham Clark. That’s a good one.

Lee: 53:16

The next one was somebody that I watch play, because whenever the PGA’s not on, I do like to watch the DP World Tour and especially got to see a lot of it over in Dubai while I was over there as well. Um, so, rasmus Heugard, so he, he was incredible on the DP World Tour. I mean a couple of wins on there and just watching him play absolutely fantastic. He’s a big hitter as well and he’s got such a pure strike of the ball, um, and he’s got pretty good um percentages when it comes to greens in regulation as well. So you know what, when we’re talking about, one of the most important things around a course like port rush is hitting the greens in regulation.

Lee: 54:02

Yeah, if he’s somebody that does that consistently, I think he’ll put himself in with a shout, finishing in the top 10. Now again, um, he’s 80 to 1. He’s not someone I think’s going to go and win it. No, but to give yourself, if you gave yourself one fifth odds at 80 to 1 and stuck a tenner each way on that, he’s just got to finish in the top eight, then I think he’s the sort of person that’s got something about him that on his day I think something could happen. He could make something happen.

Nish: 54:34

That’s what you’re hoping for, aren’t you? You put yourself in the position and then the day just hits you right and you’ve got a chance Interesting.

Lee: 54:41

Okay, the, and you’ve got a chance Right, interesting, okay, okay. And then third one is a player called Matthew Jordan.

Nish: 54:47

Matthew Jordan. Yeah, okay.

Lee: 54:49

Matthew Jordan’s currently sat at 150 to 1. Wowza, okay, he’s a player that’s grown up playing Lynx golf from the Wirral, so he knows what it’s like to play in these conditions. He’s well versed with it, and uh very well at Hoy Lake.

Lee: 55:08

Yeah, finishing it. Well, he’s finishing the top 10. Top 10. Yeah, yeah, so you know he can definitely. He can definitely do it. He’s proven he can finish in the top 10. It was a couple of years ago, but we’re talking about just going from the odds. So if we’re going for one-fifth odds got to finish in the top eight, 150 to one Make sense, doesn’t it? Forget about it. And if you wake up the next morning you’ve got 50 quid sat in your bank account.

Nish: 55:35

What a lovely story. Yeah, that’d be nice, wouldn’t it?

Lee: 55:39

It’ll make up for all the other losses I’ve had.

Nish: 55:48

Or 30 pounds sat in your bank account. Happy days, yeah, yeah, exactly right, exactly right, right. I’m liking that. That’s good. I think we’ve got a good, good rundown of of where our our money could potentially go.

Nish: 55:53

Um, so while I’ve got you on harb, you might as well listen to this as well, because somebody might tap you up for a for a tip here. So obviously we’ve listened to telly’s tips for for where to tips, for where to put your money. So we said at the start that we’ve got a special surprise for all of our listeners. So we’ve given you a bit of an insider guide into some of the betting and what we’ve said is that if you head over to our YouTube channel, there’s a live recording of this episode. So you find that video, subscribe to our channel and you just comment the word open in the comments as a listener of the podcast.

Nish: 56:31

We’ll give you two entries into the draw to win a £10 free bet on us. So I’ll give you a little bit of a tease and seize. So I’ll do this at like three times speed. So it’s all very, very quick. It’s a funny story about this, actually. So I was listening to the radio the other day and my lad aaron goes. He’s only eight but he kind of there was a thing about a competition and then all of a sudden they go into the whole t’s and c’s and they were talking, obviously talking pretty quickly, and he went. Oh my goodness, that person can talk really really fast, can’t they? I?

Nish: 57:04

thought oh yeah, yeah, I mean yeah. I don’t want to break his heart and say they just record it normal speed mate and speed it up. But anyway, whatever, you know it’s fine. So I’ll try and do it as quick as I can, but the cutoffs is going to be midnight on tuesday, the 15th of july. So, um, once we’ve got all the people who have subscribed and we’ve got all the people who’ve left a comment, we’ll do a random draw and we’ll probably ask Lita to do that for us. And remember, if you listen to the podcast, you pop open in there, then you get two entries and then we’ll let you know and on Wednesday we’ll be able to place that £10 bet for you.

Nish: 57:40

So all the very best. Now I’m going to leave a little link in the description of the episode, obviously, so it’s easier to get to the youtube video, as it takes a little bit of work out, but I think we’ve got a really good flavor for what we can expect at the open. I mean, I think we’re all. We all want the romantic Rory McIlroy story, don’t we? Yeah, we do. You know that would be. Do you think he? Do you think he needs let’s say he wins this Open? Do you think he needs to carry on playing?

Lee: 58:22

I think, if you look back, when rory started winning, he was younger. I think he probably thought, and we all thought, like we said before tiger woods, yeah, he was going to become the next tiger woods. Right, and don’t get me wrong, it’s perhaps a bit too late for him to stake a claim. But the difference between him and tiger is he’s gonna. He’s gonna have the physicality and the the body to keep playing through till. He’s probably to have the physicality and the body to keep playing through till he’s probably in his late 50s, 60s, yeah, at that level, at that level. So I think there’s still time for him to really stake his claim for one of the best ever players to play golf. And I still feel like there’s more to come from Laurie. I really do, and I think, if he wins it, I think it’s just going to spur him on to his next goal surely be to try and get back and topple Scotty for the top spot. That’s probably what he wants.

Nish: 59:17

I was talking to Chris about this the other day because the Masters win came out of nowhere and we didn’t know. Nobody really expected that. Uh, I think everything was geared towards the open. That’s going to be his next major, so it’s kind of thrown, thrown a bit of a curveball and he has been very spiky and prickly and things like that, since that’s the sort of stuff that’s given me the inclination or the opinion, maybe, that, yeah, he just wants to reduce that a little bit. I mean, look, he takes a lot of flack from people because he has put himself out there particularly to be this figurehead of the PGA Tour. He got kind of sold at the river a little bit, but I wonder if the Ryder Cup is going to come around at just the right time for him just to rediscover that little. What is it? The little competitive sprinkling that you need?

Lee: 1:00:04

um, especially something spicy happens. Yeah, that spark of knowing they’re hungry for something. Yeah, they’re hungry for the win. They want to, they want to be there, be part of it. You’re not wrong. Like you know him disappearing off and not doing interviews, the tournament where he lost to Bryson on the final hole and then he obviously didn’t interview again and just disappeared. Things like that perhaps do feed into that narrative of is he kind of losing interest and does he just want to finish it off, get an open win and disappear? But I don’t know.

Lee: 1:00:37

I think when you’re born with so much talent, like these guys are, they want to be the best, they want to be the top dog and it can just all he’s done all his life just think about, like when we have, we can have multiple bad rounds and you go out there and hit a hole in one and all of a sudden I bet you can’t wait to get out there again, can?

Nish: 1:00:53

you. I mean less of the multiple bad rounds, you are right, but less of the multiple I was talking about me then, but I love it.

Nish: 1:01:01

Well, look, thank you for today, lee. I think I’ll pop your handle on the screen again, but look, please give Harb7Golfer a follow. He’s on Instagram. He’s also on YouTube. Lee’s actually putting some really, really good content out there and I think sometimes in amongst all the big boys it gets a little bit forgotten that there are some some of the smaller guys who probably put in that equal quality of content. So if I can ask you, one thing to do as a listener, as a viewer, is just drop a follow, and it is. I promise you it is, entertaining. I’m not giving you any kind of well they might be a bit confused.

Lee: 1:01:39

Nish, I appreciate the? Um the positive comments, but they might be a bit confused when they? I appreciate the um the positive comments, but they might be a bit confused when they jump onto my Instagram and my YouTube. Because, off the back of the Nish Invitational, one of the players who, um, just happened to be my best friend for years and years, was looking to get back into fitness after a little while out of fitness and uh, said I want to do a challenge and I want you to do it with me. So, bearing in mind I was hung over to hell. Off the back of the niche invitation on Sunday, he said starting Monday, we’re going to do 100 push-ups every day for 100 days, and I thought there’s no better way for me to remain accountable than to be posting it on my social media. So, in amongst every day, posting me doing 100 push-ups and they are sped up, so don’t worry, it’s less than a minute’s content every time.

Lee: 1:02:29

Um there are snippets of golf put here and there, but you know, if anyone wants to see an old old man in pain every day doing 100 push-ups, feel free to jump on and watch that, because I’m sure some people are getting a kick out of it and to be fair, I do have to say that kind of stuff is we’re talking about bryson before.

Nish: 1:02:46

That’s the sort of stuff that’s relatable. We’re all in that same boat, you know, we’re all. We’re all getting on a bit. I’m 45 now.

Lee: 1:02:53

If nothing else, what am I on day 15 now? So I’ve done 1500 push-ups in the last 15 days and I feel great it’s weird.

Lee: 1:03:02

I mean, I’ve always been really fit all my life and I’ve always got out there, played around a goal, felt great afterwards. But since moving out to Dubai, my life changed a lot. And then, coming back, I’ve not actually been in the gym for nearly two years, which is a first for me, but it’s a long time to be out of exercise. But I have found that since I’ve been doing this challenge, um it’s, I feel great, I feel healthier, I feel happier and, uh, come, come off the golf course on, uh, what we play on friday. And I felt great for the first time first time in ages.

Nish: 1:03:37

So, yeah, I think that, again, that’s that’s, that’s what you’re putting it out there for, aren’t you holding yourself accountable? But also, yeah if there’s one person off the back of that that just picks up and goes, you know what I’m going to do. That as well. That’s a good idea. That’s only good for them. So it’s great.

Lee: 1:03:50

If anyone does want to give it a go, make sure you drop me a comment or leave me a tag or something, so I know you’re doing it and I’ll drop you a like 100, 100.

Nish: 1:04:01

Well, thanks mate really appreciate your time. Yeah, you’ve just been cut off. I don’t know what’s happened. Something something happened. I can’t hear you anymore. Lots of, lots of static, all sorts of things. But thanks for coming on today, mate. Really appreciate it. No worries, nish, anytime next time on the top 100 in 10 golf podcast we’ll preview the next course we’re playing, and that’s Hindhead Golf Club, where we’ve got an extremely interesting story of how it all came about.