 U.S. Open Week is here fresh off a thrilling end, the RBC Canadian Open, including Adam Hadwin getting wrecked, and Nick Taylor nailing a long punch just a couple of days to Brandon Gadoula was tilting in slack by using Ludwig A. Burke or using Taylor over Ludwig A. Burke. Nick Taylor says, no, no, no, no, no, no, we're going to come through and win one for the team. We are heading to the U.S. Open this week. It is at Los Angeles Country Club. We'll hope to duplicate a fun week last week and breaking down this week's events, letting you know, all you need to know about this course, about the field for the U.S. Open and our favorite place over on Fanduul.com. Welcome on into the Heat Check Fantasy podcast powered by Number Fire. That's right here on the Fanduul podcast network and Number Fire.com. My name is Jim Sonness. I am a senior writer and analyst for Number Fire, joined here as always by Brandon Gadoula. He is a senior managing editor of Number Fire.com. You can find Brandon on Twitter at Gadoula 13 and Brandon. Nick Taylor, how could we have ever have doubted him before that thrilling end to the Canadian Open? Well, he shot like an opening round 90 or something. That's I think we could have doubted him for that. But yeah, it would have been would have been nice. Um, for either Tealhattin or Aaron Rye to get the win for your boy. Nick Taylor was was fine for the DFS exposure, but a dominant surge from Nick Taylor with top three T degree numbers, top 10 putting numbers, got him the win. Tommy Fleetwood leading the field and putting. I thought I might end up with like a Tealhattin, Aaron Rye playoff. And I was like, buddy, locked in for your win. That has been sick. But of course, Aaron Rye leads the field T degree, but it's 48th and putting. Hattin putted pretty well. It was still top 15 T degree. And so, you know, it just goes to show how tough this can be sometimes. Well, it's called Aaron Rye, Scotty Rye now on if he's going to lead the field T degree and then give it all back on the green. And speaking of Scotty, he is the favorite for this week at the US Open. We're going to preview this week's event, let you know what you need to know about the course, current form, everything you got to know to get ready to fill out your DFS lineups for this week's event. But first, a reminder to make sure you are subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcast and they'll be DFS shows every weekday there, the solo shot. We also have USC for selective events. And of course, PGA DFS every Tuesday right here on this same feed. Make sure you're subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed wherever you get your podcast. And if you like what you hear, leave us a five star rating on Apple podcasts or on Spotify. Also, for those of you watching YouTube, I'll leave us a thumbs up there if you like what you hear. And we thank you for tuning in as we do live stream these major broadcast. Let's turn our focus now to the US Open for this week. It is at Los Angeles Country Club, the North course. It is 7,000, forwarded in 21 yards in a par 70. And we have not seen this course host a major previously did host the Walker Cup back in 2017, but very few guys in the field were at that event. The top 60 plus ties make the cut after the first two rounds out of 156 golfers in the field. So the cut rules here pretty tough given the field size for sure. As always for a major, you got a lot of guys who might not be on the same tier as like the elite guys in the field, but still very tough to make the cut at the US Open. Important to account for that when filling out for multi entry and things like that. Brandon, as mentioned, we don't have any data on LACC, but you've looked at flyovers, you looked at the course map, the whole layouts and stuff like that. So after digging into that, what stood out to you as far as things we should prioritize for this week? Yeah, so this course is going to play long for a par 70 about 200 yards total longer than the average par 70 on the PGA tour. And, you know, it's going to play tough relative to par. That's that's typical for US Open's past US. The most recent US Open cut lines have been three over, four over, six over, two over and eight over. The past winning scores at US Open have been six under three straight years, 13 under and one over. So like we know relative to par, it's going to play tough. But like what's going to cause it to play tough? Well, first of all, the distance, again, overall, relative to a par 70, it's long, but that's even with some pretty short holes. The 15th is a par three. It's listed at 124. I think it plays like as short as like 85 yards. So like, you know, there's going to be some variance in the in the yards based on how they set things up. The sixth is going to be pretty much the talk of the week. It's a 330 yard par four, which you think, oh, just based on distance, drivable. But if you look at the whole, it's pretty sick. It's a blind tee shot over a tree. If you want to go for the green, it's the smallest green on the property too. And if you miss it, you're going to have kind of a rough time getting up and down. So the decision to lay up or go for it, I think, is going to be really, really intriguing. But if you look at. A hole by hole breakdown, and I have this table up in my article on numberfire.com, if you're going to hole by hole breakdown, compare each hole on the course, just in terms of distance to the average hole on the PGA tour of the same par. We have 10 holes that are at least 10 percent longer than the average. Basically, a lot of those are long par fours, but we also have three really long par threes. One's 228, one's 284, one's 290 on the scorecard. There's a there's a par five over 620 yards. So I think we're we're going to get that question, that age old question of distance versus accuracy. For me, it's going to be distance winning out. I don't think you can really go wrong with strokes off the tee, though, for the for the main reason that if you look at these fairways, they're wide, you're not really going to be, you know, you know, missing fairways, probably not going to be that penal unless you get into the baronca, which is a word we'll hear a lot this week, but the fairways themselves are very undulating. So trying to hit the right spots going to be very important. But that being said, it looks like it's going to be so difficult to do that that accuracy itself is not going to be the determining characteristic off the tee. If you're just hitting your spot, but you're 40 yards back of other golfers who are just, you know, able to bomb it and able to play out of whatever hazard they're in, you're probably going to have a hard time. Again, 10 of the holes. I like to kind of look at that that hole by hole because sometimes it's a few really, really long holes, but everything else is sort of average. This one, there's just a lot of long holes. And so you're going to be at a pretty big disadvantage if you're short off the tee. The greens also look pretty tricky. A lot of undulation just everywhere. I've heard a lot of subtle breaks for this one. So it's probably going to be a pretty big putting test, which there was some way to isolate out like the putting luck and like who's actually reading the greens properly. Basically like maybe something is like where your first miss is, like how far away your first miss is on a putt, something like that. I think we'll get there eventually, but we're not there just yet. But yeah, it's going to be tough. We're going to have like high scores. The cut line is probably going to be over par even with the top 60 just getting through the top 60 and ties. So, you know, it's going to be a tough all-around test. It's a U.S. open. We don't know a lot about the course. What I think we need to elevate is guys with good off the tee play, guys with good approach play and guys who can gain some distance off the tee because that translates throughout the bag. But frankly, just to play the best guys. It's a major like it matters like it really doesn't matter, especially that I think at the U.S. Open where they try to set it up as difficult as possible. And the thing we get every week when it's tough, relative to par, the better golfers have more of an edge. So we know that the bombers get a bump off more. They typically would be for this week. How much do you penalize golfers who are maybe not short, but also not like, you know, gaining off the tee, like Hideki, Mora Kawa, Corey Connors, guys like that, where distance is never rustle-handly. Typically, a guy we adore on the show. How much do you knock those guys down based on the distance at this course? Not as much as I probably would otherwise. I think that you're going to be able to catch, if you catch the right slopes, there's probably going to be a lot of rollout, which does tend to sort of mitigate the importance of driving distance. But again, you have these long par-3s, like par-3 scoring is super volatile, and it's going to be long for everyone. But the longer you hit it, the shorter club you get to use, that's just an advantage and there's no way around it. So I think distance throughout the bag is going to be helpful. But yeah, I'm thinking like the Corey Connors, Sung Jae-im, I know Colin Mora Kawa, I believe in a few flyover videos, course overviews, people kind of given the archetypes. I hear Colin Mora Kawa's name and I can see that, even though we don't think of him as a long hitter because he's so precise with his ball striking, but he's also not prohibitively short. And frankly, the more the prohibitively short golfers in this field are just not great golfers overall. So that's kind of where I am. There's only a handful of names of really short guys off the tee that I even like to any capacity, like a Danny McCarthy, Russell Henley, Mora Kawa, I think. These guys are still viable, but that's kind of the way that I'm playing it. And it might play where accuracy is what matters and distance doesn't, but I'd be pretty astonished if a course that plays this long overall and is set up this way is like tailored more toward the more accurate drivers. Yeah, same here. So bumping up distance relative to usual, we want strokes off the tee with emphasis on distance, want overall play and the typical stats grading out well for this week. We'll dive into current form here and outline golfers who have been outstanding recently in just one second. But first, are you looking to have a stake in the US open all weekend long? Well, FanDuel has you covered with the PGA Eagle DFS contest, which is now live. Test your knowledge of the PGA to work by putting together a six-person lineup while staying under the salary cap and using FanDuel's live scoring feature. Follow along as you compete for a share of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars first place, taking over a hundred K. All for just a nine dollar entry fee, whether it's household names like Scotty Sheffler and Brooks Kepka or your favorite underdog. They tee off on Thursday. Plenty of options for you to fill out a lineup as you compete for a first place Thursday will be here before you know it. So submit your lineups on FanDuel today. Eligibility restrictions apply. Go to FanDuel.com or download the FanDuel app for more details. Let's outline some current form here because as mentioned, no course history to dive into for this week. When you look at golfers who have been standing out recently, Brandon, which golfers are going to be the ones who are like the biggest accelerers and are coming in the hottest for this week. The hottest guy on the planet right now, Scotty Sheffler. Everyone just knows Scotty. They're talking about Scotty and they're talking about the putter. But even with the putter, he is the best golfer in the field based on data golf's true stroke scan over the past three months. He's at a three point oh seven from ball striking alone. So driving off the tee and approach. He's at a two point eight nine, which would put him above everyone else. His ball striking number is better than anyone else's total number in that span, which is pretty sick. He's losing an average of point four one strokes per round over the past three months. Now, putting is pretty. Scotty Sheffler's putting coming in is basically the talk of the weekend. For me, like it's not the course. It's not, you know, Rory or the almost caught it off field. But like off course news. It's just like if Scotty Sheffler puts well, there's a good chance he like just runs away with this thing, which we can kind of see it. U.S. opens. The thing about Sheffler is with putting and I've studied this. If you look at putting, it is somewhat random. It's somewhat volatile week to week, but it's not completely random. His putting splits from within 15 feet, which which tell us a lot about expected strokes gain putting, not particularly good right now. This season, he's in the 24th percentile in putting from within 15 feet. So that's the big like caveat with Sheffler this week. Even with that factored in with the bad putting, he's the best player in the field recently. That's why he's the favorite. He deserves to be the favorite. It is what it is. Xander Schoffler is at a 2.5 to he's got five straight top 20s at majors, seven straight top 25s overall, like currently. I don't know what else you want from a golfer. His major record while not having a win is phenomenal. It's as good as it gets. This is one of those things where like it's kind of like a coin flip situation or like a Rorschach test of like, what is it that you're seeing? And we could see Xander Schoffler with like the number one by his name for this U.S. Open or a trophy or whatever like site you use shows that he won. And he go back and look, oh, yeah, seven straight top 25s. He's been top 25 straight majors. Makes sense that he won or you can go the other way and be like, well, hasn't won a major yet. So he's not going to win a major, which I think is always a silly argument to make for golfers because they have to have a first to get, you know, more. And I mean, if Xander is going to get to like 15 or 20, he's got to get one here soon. So I think he's in the running for that now. Big numbers out there. Third is Brooks Kepka. Now here's the thing. This, you know, data golf numbers, they account for other tours, including the live tour, they adjust for field strength. He's at a 2.47. So he's not very far off from from Xander here. Not as much shot link data, of course, over the past three months for him. It's just the two majors and he's putted really, really well in both of those. He was T2 at the Masters when he was fourth in strokes game putting. He won the PGA, of course. He was 14th in putting there. I'm not saying it's all just putting, but the thing with Brooks is when he's in, when he's like locked in in his majors, it feels like he's never missing from eight or 10 feet. Feels like he's never three putting from 40 feet. It just, it's like methodical. And that's kind of the situation we are with Brooks right now. Fourth on the list is John Rahm at a 2.3. Followed by Patrick Cantley at a 2.24. Victor Hovland at a 2.14. Three of the best T-degree golfers in the field. Or, you know, and by extension in the world. But they're also good putters, specifically Rahm, although his numbers have kind of tapered off a bit. And that is to be expected because he's been phenomenal from putts outside of 15 feet this season. But he's still a 70th percentile within 15 feet. So he's golfing really well. And then next after that is Russell Henley at a 2.13. You talked about him not very long off the tee, but one of the best iron players in the world. And I would just kind of flag like, hey, if you if you like calling more a cow this week, maybe part of that's due to like the California narrative or that he played here in the 2017 Walker Cup. But if you like his course fit where you think he's going to be in the right spots off the tee, if he's going to be able to take advantage of his great iron play, and it's not just going to be like a putting competition, you should probably take a look at Russell Henley as well. And then two more names are above a 2.0 stroke skeined over the past three months. One suggested for field strength. One is Teal Hatton, who we both love. He's at a 2.08. The other, Justin Rose, right at a two. We love him as well. They're both golfing really well, not not like particularly long off the tee, but they're not short. So it's a really long list of golfers gaining at least two strokes per round on the field over the past three months. And just for the sake of it, there's a big name that we're all probably waiting to hear on this list. Where is where has he been over the past three months? Where is Wyndham Clark? He is basically at the same level as Rory McElroy at a 1.92. Rory is a 1.93. So Rory does have him here, but, you know, it's very close. And those are the next guys on the list. Is Wyndham Clark at the same level as Rory McElroy or is Rory McElroy at the same level as Wyndham Clark? Like, because I feel like, you know, we can compliment Rory by saying he's at the same level as Wyndham Clark, you know, gets a props to Wyndham. Wyndham Clark right now is if Rory could putt, basically. I like that. I like that. Let's talk about Scottie Schaeffler. You mentioned how good the form is. You mentioned how bad the putting has been, but the numbers you cited account for that. So let's talk about this from a DFS perspective. Schaeffler does commit at the highest hour at Fandall. It's $12,100. What do you do with Schaeffler for cash games? I assume he's probably a lock there. And then what about for tournaments? How are you handling Schaeffler in your tournament lineups this week? Yeah, cash games, we're talking best process. Play is not really caring about popularity or game theory. I don't know how you don't have Schaeffler here. I still feel silly liking John Rom more than Schaeffler for the PGA just because, to me, Rom's game was more complete due to the putter. Not a whole lot's changed, honestly. Yeah. Rom is second in, like, Tee to Green game or ball striking specifically over the past 50 rounds of guys with relevant recent data behind just Schaeffler and he's a good putter. So for that reason, like, I was drawn more to Rom. But from a DFS standpoint, that Tee to Green game for Schaeffler is really, really nice. So it's weird. But it's one of those things you got to learn to separate this. In DFS, I prefer Schaeffler in the betting market. I prefer Rom because it's a better number. And you're getting a bigger discount in the betting market than you are in daily fantasy. And with Schaeffler, too, even with the bad putting, he's still finishing top five. Yes, that's the scary thing. He lost two strokes putting per round at the memorial and finished third. He lost one stroke putting per round at the Charles Schwab and finished third there. So the putting is accounted for. If he can be neutral, he could win this by three strokes or more. You know, that's kind of the way things great out here. So I would say just don't double count the putting. And that's what you're saying to, you know, we're accounting for the putting, even accounting for the putting. Scottish Schaeffler is the guy for cash games. And it's going to be a great play for tournaments as well. Let's talk about Xander, too, just briefly, because you had mentioned him. His salary is 11 one. And I think that's kind of low. Personally, I know you're more the Xander guy than me on the show. But Schaeffler, like in DFS, you don't need only one player can win and you have six slots. So not every player in the lineup can win. Let's say, epithetically, you guarantee Xander does not win, which has been the case so far in majors. Oh, come on, man. Sorry. Sorry. I was about to compliment him. Calm down. In majors. Backhanded measured compliment, maybe. In majors, Xander, I'm ignoring you. Xander Schaeffler has 10 top 10 finishes and 24 starts. That is a 41 percent top 10 rate. That's bananas. So even if he does not win, even if this trend continues for Xander, he can still be a very good daily fantasy play. And I'd be curious. I don't think you have this date on hands and don't look for it. I'd be curious how many majors he has been in the optimal lineup on FanDuel, the perfect lineup. I feel like it's been a decent number. So you can criticize like if you I don't go this route. If you wanted to criticize Xander for not winning majors, fine. You can do that. You don't have to bet him. But like that does not disqualify him from being a great DFS play because, A, he can win. It's a fact he can win. And B, he's been not seen when he hasn't won in majors. Again, he has six top 5s in majors, 10 top 10s in 24 majors total. Like that's disgusting. So I feel like at 11-1, Xander is a pretty key value this week. Yeah. I don't think he was in either of the optimals this year. The distinction that I would just make, though, is and I'm not saying like how you presented it is wrong, but there's the optimal lineup where you like cherry pick the best plays and then there's the optimal line up where you try to maximize the odds that things happen. And in that regard, like Xander is just good. And I don't like. Look, anyone who's listened to the show for a long time knows I like Xander a lot. And the reason for that is because he's very good relative to perception. And I think if it's another one of those like Rorschach tests, where if you ask like people who were in golf, like is Xander over or underrated, I think you'd hear both arguments. Yeah. But the thing with Xander right now that really stands out to me is that over the past 50 rounds once adjusted for field strength, he is fifth in the field and strokes gained approach. That's one of the things that's always kind of eluded Xander and kind of got me to just take a step back from him because his game was very complete. He just wasn't elided anything. And right now his approach play is phenomenal. He's a great putter. We know that he plays well in majors. The only knock that anyone can really put on Xander is that he quote unquote doesn't win. I think that's unfair to him. He's in contention a lot. And I think that that that counts for something, especially for daily fantasy, where he gets more of an uptick than he does. Sure. Use that argument for betting. If you if you ever if you just want to bet the guys who have already won, feel free. But Xander and 11-1 in DFS is a great value. And there's really no argument against that. Yeah, I agree with that. I think that Xander is a core piece for me this week. Let's just focus now to bookmaker odds and see what they're saying over at Fandral Sportsbook, where Scotty Schaeffler is the favorite to win this week. He is seven to one right now over at Fandral Sportsbook. John Rom is 11 to one. Brooks Kepke follows from 12-1 with Roy McElroy 13 to one. Victor Hovland and Patrick Cantley both 17-1 with Xander Schaeffler 19 to one. Jordan Spieth is 24 to one, followed by Max Homa, 29. Cam Smith is 30 to one. And Tiro Hatten rounds at the top group at 32 to one. Now, Brandon, if people have listened to the heat check before for majors, they know we'll often discuss the value of a balance bill because the guys in the 10,000 range are phenomenal golfers and the high 9,000 range, same thing. We get that this week, too, because Hatten 32 to one to win, but his salary is $9,800. We got Cameron Young in the low 10,000 range, Jason Day, Tony Finau. It's a very good range once again. But we also have these like suns at the top that that everything orbits around in Scotty Schaeffler and John Rom. S-U-N's these these these guys who just have like this gravitational pull around them. So does balance great out well for you this week? Is it typically does at majors or does the presence of Schaeffler, Rob, all to that equation for you? Yeah, I mean, balance sort of wins out. It just depends on how you define balance this week. Because you don't want to just omit guys with the heavy win equity, by which I really mean Schaeffler and Rom for me. But, you know, any of those favorites, really, those guys have elevated win equity. And then things fall off, you know, pretty quickly. And once we get to the end of this segment, and we talk about the guys with the best win odds at low Fandle salaries, they're pretty much non-existent. So it's like a modified, balanced build where I want one of the studs specifically Schaeffler. But I won't, you know, I won't mind if I just have to settle for John Rom or, you know, another name. But I think those two guys are pretty much in their own tier among the high salary golfers, if we don't include Zander in that argument. Which if you want to start a lineup with Zander, that's much more of a balanced build. Point being, I don't want a whole lot to do with the guys in the low 8000 range. It's a tight cut. It's going to be a tough course. Yes, the ones who do get through and finish strongly are going to be really, really great to have in your lineups. The odds of these guys having great performances are just pretty low. So the predictability factor, again, goes back to like, sure, the optimal we could cherry pick. Well, you know, this golfer at 7900 finished 13th and you needed to have him, his odds to finish 13th going to be very low entering the tournament. So I want some balance, but not at the expense of Schaeffler and Rahm and Zander, but also just trying to make sure that I don't have a whole lot of golfers in my lineup who have virtually no shot of winning. Yeah, I think that Zander actually fits well with the balance build, like the balance narrative, because the salary is so low at 11-1. You can go Schaeffler plus Zander and get Tierle Hatton in there and like not have anybody below Mito, so prior to 86 just going to throw out a hypothetical name. Definitely not an exact name. You can make a balanced lineup that has Zander Schaeffler in there. And I think that's where I want to skew this week. But I think the overall build is I want to have exposure to that midrange. And if I go with like the Schaeffler plus Schaeffler build, I can still get two guys in that midrange who I feel pretty good about. Now, is it going to get as high as Fina at 10-3? Maybe not, but I can still get exposure to that range without sacrificing a lot elsewhere. So honestly, to me, I feel like the presence of Schaeffler and Rom does not negate a balanced approach. It just alters the way I do. It's kind of what you were saying at the top where it's kind of the path you get to balance. I can get there and still feel good about it. The question that I have, though, is does that mean we're overlooking the guys right below Rom and Schaeffler? So we've got Brooks Kepke at 11-9. You mentioned that when Kepke's on, he's on and he goes nuts. And he seems like he's on right now. Rory McRoy has looked a lot better the past couple of weeks. He's 11-7. Patrick Cantley has been phenomenal for, feels like, decades now. He's 11-5. Victor Hauvin coming off a win recently. He's 11-3. Are we overlooking that second tier? If we go Schaeffler or Rom, then Schaeffler then fill out the rest. Yes, because we're always overlooking somebody in these fields, these majors. It's the only way that it can work. And if you're focused a lot on, well, I need to get some Cantley, need to get some Rory, then you're probably overlooking Schaeffler. And for us, it sounds like Rom, who we have in that tier. I think Rom's an interesting case where maybe people view him outside of the Schaeffler tier, maybe more in the Kepke Rory tier. I don't know yet, a little early to say. But yeah, we are overlooking them because you have to overlook some people in a major. And I'll just spoil what I would say at the end of the show anyway. The thing that was really standing out to me during all of this is we're talking to Schaeffler, we're talking Rom. Brooks could go out and win again. Rory wouldn't astonish anyone if he won. Cantley, I think, would astonish some people just because, again, he gets unfairly treated, but his major record is trending up. His performance, his stats right now, phenomenal. So yeah, we are overlooking them, but I don't think there's any way where you cannot, unless we're saying play everyone, we've got to overlook somebody. So I think that's just kind of where that where that tier is. Yeah, I think the one guy there who I. I want to make sure I get in. Who do you have the most fear not having? Well, most fear of not having is Brooks, but that's a different discussion. The guy I most actively want to get to in like single entry format specifically, because in single entry, the mindset is I can't really fade Schaeffler and Rom in single entry. And I don't really want to. And like if I have three single entry lineups, probably going to have Schaeffler and Rom, you know, in two of those. But I kind of want to get Rory in there for single entry lineups because I feel like he's going to get glossed over. And that's justifiable because Schaeffler's T-degree game is on another planet right now. He is neutral with his putter. He could torch the field. John Rom is a good putter and also has a great T-degree game. And I think that's going to allow Rory to kind of slip into the radar. He's looked a lot better recently. This is a course that where his distance can kind of shine and relative to the studs. I mean, it's not like Schaeffler and Rom are both long off the tee. Like Schaeffler longer than used to be to like that's been trending up as well. But like Rory is still like the guy there. So I feel like if I'm going to buy into Rory, quote, unquote, buy low. I did use him last week, too. So this is not really just like buying low. But like I feel like if I have like a quote, unquote, conviction play for single entry where I want to make sure I get there because I don't think others will. I think Rory might want to be in that guy. I think that's fair. Pulling up fanshare sports.com right now really looks like Schaeffler is getting a lot of buzz, which is deserved. And then there's some other names like Brooks and Hovland who kind of jump out. But that everyone else in that tier, more or less the same. That's not to say any of them are an afterthought, which is pretty much what you tend to get at majors, maybe by like by Thursday. One or two of the guys in like the 10, five and uprange come in at a really, really low draft percentage. But, you know, nobody's really sneaking up on us in this range. It's more trying to find that leverage, like you said. And I think unless you go really, really heavy at Schaeffler, you're not going to get leverage, but you can probably get leverage on almost anyone else there. So this is the most fascinating tier always for majors is which of these guys are you kind of locking yourself into. One thing you could try to do is have a really small pool if you're like multi-entering, even like 10 or more lineups. And you're like, there's like these four value plays that like I'm going to rotate them in, have it really tight and then mix in the studs, you could try to do that and try to hit the guys who finish one, two at the top. That's viable. So a lot more risky, you know, in a lot of senses than trying to attach your lineups to a Schaeffler and like Schaeffler, Zander, and then rotate in more of the less certain guys. But a lot of ways to play it, if I had to kind of have an answer to someone other than Schaeffler, Rahman, Zander, who I'm wanting to play, who I think might go a little bit overlooked, all things considered, probably would be Hovland. OK. And looking at the fan share tags, the guy who like got my interest most was Rahm, the fact that the gap between him and Brooks and Schaeffler was as large as it is. It's not huge, but there is a gap. So I would say the person like when I circle back Wednesday night, finalizing lineups, the person I want to check out first in terms of like projected roster rates is John Rahm. My assumption is that by then, Rahm will have separated from Rory. And that's why I've been fixating on Rory here is I think Rory will be less popular than Rahm. But if it's close, I think I would just get to Rahm. So that's that's what I want to check is where Rahm settles in. I think Rahm will be more popular than Rory, but that's what I want to look at. Let's say. Let's go eleven thousand and up so that we include Colin Moorakawa in this. Sure. So it's Moorakawa, Zander, Victor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, Rory McElroy, Brooks Kepka, John Rahm, Scotty Schaeffler. Are there any names on that list? If you, like you said, checking things out Wednesday night, you're like, nobody's playing this guy. Is there anyone you're low enough on where you wouldn't jump there? I included Moorakawa specifically because he might be that guy, but it sounds like we're good with everyone from Zander up to the point that, like, if we think we get leverage, I would play Cantlay, right? I'm not as high in Hovland personally. OK. So I would answer Moorakawa personally. Cantlay, I need to be pretty low because I do feel good about the other guys. So that's good. And I would also say with Zander, it would take a lot to scare me off. So I kind of rephrase the question in that way. For Zander, take a lot to scare me off. For Schaeffler, take a lot to scare me off. I think for those two, I'd need a higher number to be like, even for, you know, monthly entry, I'm a little wary. But I think it's a better way to better way to phrase it. Yeah. So in terms of like, probably not going to get there, Moorakawa is one, Hovland two, Cantlay three is the way I rank them as far as like the guys I'm least likely to use. Most likely to use is Schaeffler and Schaeffler just because like I don't see any reason to not use them personally. Which gulfers odds have shifted most notably of late? Scotty Schaeffler shortened from seven and a half to six and a half briefly, but it's now back to seven. Zander 20 to 19. And I pulled these like, you know, I can I pull major stuff a little bit early. But I think the Monday into Tuesday stuff is probably most notable. The really recent reactions to your hat in 34 to 32. Justin Thomas, 48 to 43. Ricky Fowler, 55 to 46. The Fowler one is interesting. What do you think is light of that? His salary is 95. So I think that from a DFS perspective, he's probably good regardless. Is it just the overall form being as good as it is for Ricky? Is leading the interest here? Yeah, he's sort of back in a lot of senses. Really like complete game for Ricky right now. So you're past 50 rounds for Ricky. Getting almost a full shot per round and approach, which puts him ninth. He is 50th in distance, 30th in potting. It's the right profile for him to contend. I'm not saying like contend, contend. Yeah, yeah. I wouldn't be astonished though, because his like, this is different than Ricky in recent years. His game is back and it's sort of leveled off in a good sense. But, you know, we cite data golf a lot. If you go to their query, click on Ricky Fowler's name and look at his trend. It's like a, it's just like a big dip where it went down, stayed down, and now it's like back up in a big way. So I like Fowler. I think he's one of the better plays of the week. He's been doing good stuff in good tournaments. I know he missed the cut at the PGA championship. Didn't pot well, didn't hit the irons well. There, but he's putted well and hit the irons well everywhere else. So I'm good with that. You mentioned Justin Thomas shorting 40, 8 to 43. I would say if you like Thomas, I bet him I would not play him in DFS. I agree. That's a much better route for buying in the end. Yeah, it's one of those where tying a line up to someone who could have it click, that's scarier than just a ticket on someone who could have it click. I'd agree. Which golfers are you talking about? I'd agree. Which golfers odds have lengthened since the past couple of days? That to me says the non-bombers aren't getting love in the betting market. Because Morikawa and Connors are guys we highlighted a bit earlier on as being guys who were not super long off the tee. I think that kind of just makes sense. It doesn't really translate to a lot for DFS for me. But it seems like the betting market is saying that the bombers are probably the not selling out for bombers. But like, that's probably the way we want to skew for this week. Which lowers would you consider? Well, so we don't like to mess around necessarily with completely different lineup constructions. I do. So like something that's just completely outside like your player pool, would you consider like a shorter hitters lineup? Precision stack? Yeah. I think that there is always merit to that when there is uncertainty. Like there was a U.S. Open a couple of years ago where the just outside of the fairway seemed pretty penal. Yeah, yeah. But like it seemed like it was really bad. But then the like winning lineup was like Bryce Ndishambo, Matthew Wolf, like these guys who were not accurate, but were just torching it. So like there is credence to archetype stacks. I don't think I'll get there this week. I'm very willing to do that in general. I don't think I'll get there this week, though. Yeah, I could say like correlating pieces together. Like, you know, Justin Rose, who's not super long off the tee, but is precise. Maybe you go more Cowan, you're the top. I hand me because of that. You know, you're not actively seeking out guys who are that, but like bumping up guys who are precise. Maybe you do that. I won't get there personally, but I can see the thought process there. Yeah, winged foot. That was when Bryson won at six under. Wolf was second at even and Louie was two over. But yeah, Bryson led the field tee to green, led the field in distance. Wolf was second tee to green, sixth in distance. Yeah. So it's one of those, but I just I'd be surprised if like the short hitters run away with this kind of thing. So it's worth a shot. I won't get there, but I get what you're saying. Which lower salary golfers have odds to stand out to you? Yeah, it's not a very long list. And I'm like double checking stuff, but there's not a whole lot of names between like 70 and. One 30 in the first place. In terms of the betting odds, you look confused. I got a slack message. Sorry. Classic. So the best, the best win odds on Fandall Sportsbook among golfers with salaries of 9000 or lower. Wyndham Clark, 85 to one at 8800. Sahith Tagala and Denny McCarthy are one 100 to one each. Figala is 9000 McCarthy salary, 8700. Mito Perez, 110 to one at 8600. Men movies, 130 to one at 8400. Harris English, 160 to one to win at 8900. And then two guys at 180 to one. Phil Meckleson, who's salary is 9000. Kurt Kitayama, whose salary is 8700. So again, if this part of your process going to be a bit of a tough week, although I don't really mind any of these names to the point that I would argue with anyone. I think Phil is probably the name that I would argue. People out of. But what do I know? It seems like Phil's back. Seems like Phil's got his he's got a swag back. Can your model account for like Twitter thumbs being like fatigued? Like I feel like he's been he's been firing awesome tweets. And I don't know, like, will his thumbs have like the strength to, you know, excel? Maybe maybe that's what's maybe that's why people aren't into like Max Homa, I guess. But also just while I'm here with like the the California stuff. Yeah, Max Homa, you know, Calla Marcala, Zander, all these guys from like California. I'm not saying every every course in California is has poa greens. But this course has bent grass greens. So it's I'm not saying it's completely different to the point that like they may as well not even be from California or anything like that show up. But it is. It is one factor that's a bit different than a lot of the California courses. I want to talk about Kitty, I'm a briefly because you mentioned him his one odds hundred eighty one eighty seven hundred dollars. So he's not like a someone who has super high win equity. But he is a guy who has at times had really good distance. The form is aggressively up and down. He did, though, finish fourth at the PGA championship. You know, eighty seven hundred dollars. If we're emphasizing distance, Kitty, I'm at times has that any interest for you this week, because I I couldn't talk myself into it. Did you know I didn't get there. But yeah, very volatile game, one of the one the Arnold Palmer Invitational designated event, good event gained across the board. They're not actually too much with with off the tee. But some of that assuredly due to penalties off the tee put it well, hit the irons well, which he can do. He can put it together again. It's like the perfect example of. Well, Kurt Kiteyama gained some distance on the field, hit his irons well, putted well. He finished 18, he needed him for like he's in the optimal lineup. You should have played more value plays. The odds that he does that not very high. And this is not a case against only play the obvious plays only play guys with salaries of like eighty eight and above or something like that. That's not it. It's just like every time we get to these majors, you settle into like the balance build makes more sense. And there's always just due to sheer volume of the amount of guys with salaries like eighty five and lower. Some of them are bound to get through there and play well. That's how it works. But for me to build lineups around someone with so many question marks, it's a bit of a hard sell this week at eighty seven. Yeah, you say, you know, not I'm not saying only use guys eighty six or higher. I might not use anybody below eighty six, though. Yeah, I think I would consider Min Woo Lee at eighty four. Because he's got some good distance. Adrian Moranke has been a three ball deity for me recently. So huge into him might might give him a look. But in general, I'm not going to be going below eighty six very often, at least based on the way this field breaks down personally. Weather for this week in Los Angeles, you'll be shocked to hear it's great. The wind speeds do not get above seven miles per hour. This is awesome. No objections. We are good to go and play things straight up there. So let's dive in now to our player picks for the U.S. Open. Let's begin things off in the upper range, Brandon. When you look at the guys with salaries above 10,000 on Fandall, who stands up most to you after accounting for salary? Everything else. We know it's Scotty Shuffler. It could only be Scotty Shuffler. He's the best process play. Even with the putter being what it is, easily leads the field in strokes, gain, ball striking. I don't remember if I cited this on this show or covering the spread. I can never keep it. Keep it straight. But over the past 50 rounds, he's gaining 2.8 strokes with his ball striking, which is more than anyone else is gaining total. If he actually had positive putting in that sample, he would be even farther out ahead for an extra 100 on John Rom in terms of salary. That's just not a big enough gap. Like process wise, to prefer anyone to Scotty Shuffler at the top of the board, game theory is different, betting is different. But DFS, Fandall, these salaries, Shuffler is the most logical play of the week. For cash games, I agree. Shuffler will be the first player in our head to head this week. I will feel great about that. I will not question it. It's the I think that he and Xander like the free squares for cash games this week, and then you go from there for tournaments. I have Rory here, but I think I want to make it Rory Rom hybrid and kind of check back on roster rates on those two guys on Wednesday night, because both those guys have the ability to win this event. I don't think they are as far as as far from chef for his perception when they are at the top of their games. And Rory has surged back here recently. Obviously, he couldn't close things out either the past two weeks, but he was in the hunt in both those as well. Seven seventh ninth, he's had tremendous driving. He does benefit from distance here as well. So he still has some issues around the green. You know, it's kind of going to happen. Irons not super consistent, but I think he's interesting. And then with Rom, it's primarily just seeing the fan show tags being pretty low on him. He obviously has distance to the Irons at the Memorial where he talked about Sheffler at the Memorial, but Rom also lost 1.2 strokes putting there within his 16th per round, I should say, and his approach was phenomenal. So I kind of want to get a read on which those guys will be flying further under the radar. And I think they both make a lot of sense. So that's that's to me. The number two player pick is judging sentiment between Rory and Rom and deciding which one I want to buy low on. But for cash games, it's Sheffler. I'll be on Sheffler for tournaments, too. But, you know, want to make sure I get to those guys as well. Who else do you like here in this upper range? So we we we can circle back to this, but we finally got T times before a show ends, which is nice. I already got my three balls in for the week. I only got four this week. Just pointing at a 52 total. I think the one to watch is going to be Rory McElroy, Hideki Matsuyama and Brooks Kepka. It's pretty fun. That's going to be I did that Rory at plus 150 in that, I think. That's going to be one of Rory's in that one. With everything going on and Hideki just like hanging out. Rory plus 150, what could go wrong, right? Yeah. Is the end or have been wrong? Boy, I like that speaking of. If I'm not going with Xander is my like other cash game anchor and I'm trying to get a little bit different. And even with that, like I like Victor Hovland this week. It's it's one of those situations where I trust the long term data a lot. But it seems like Hovland is turning a corner in a lot of areas to the point where his game is so stable right now. He's also, you know, every time we sort of get to a major. The answer to distance or accuracy is both if you can get it. And like Xander has that ROM tends to have it. Hovland has it. So that's what's always appealing with with Victor Hovland. Top 10 ball striker over the past 50 rounds in the field. The around the green play is obviously, you know, still a bit of an issue. But even with that, he's been playing well at majors fourth at the open, seventh at the Masters, second at the PGA championship in his past three major starts. You know, the wedges could be what they could be his undoing. I get I get that it's still a small part of the game. It's a volatile part of the game. And if Victor Hovland, you know, does what, frankly, Scottie Schaeffler can do and just lead the field to the green. Like Hovland's a good putter, too. People might not realize that because this short game with like the wedges is a bit of a red flag. But I think Hovland at eleven three deserves a lot of attention. Cash games, I really want to start Schaeffler and Xander tournaments. I think Hovland is the name that I'm really, really looking to offer this week to try to differentiate a bit if he winds up actually being. Somewhat not chalky. Yeah, I mean, as mentioned before, I'm not as high at Hovland. That's just because this range is so good and primarily because Xander Schaeffler is right there at eleven one. So because you hate Xander and we'll never talk about him on the show, you despise him, you will never give him credit. You're constantly belittling him. I have to like console him in our group text to let him know. They're like, no, it's, you know, just let him be, let him be. I'll talk about him here as my second player pick. Schaeffler, again, eleven one. He's not a bomber, but he's also not losing distance. A lot of distance to the studs off the tee. The irons on another level right now, as you've alluded to, really picking up there. And the short game is is sharp as well. Schaeffler finished 18th or better in six straight majors. He hasn't won one yet, but he's constantly lurking. And at some point, variance will break in his favor and he will win a major. And again, even if he doesn't, he can still be a great DFS player. So at eleven one, I have a hard time not being on Xander, regardless of format. So Xander will be in our head to head. You mentioned you want to Schaeffler, Xander starts. So we will at best have a four before because I will be doing the exact same thing, not just to block you, but also because I think that's right the right way to play things for this week. So to me, Xander Schaeffler, eleven one, a tournament and cash game staple for me. When I got one of you, I'm pretty happy. Moving to the mid range, who stands out to you there? So data golf has like everything that you would ever want. But I just wanted to clarify this with Xander. Um, his fourth round performance. When he started inside the top ten. He's played point four, three strokes better than expected. And overall, just like disregarding his starting position for the fourth round point five, one better than expected. So he's good and it's not that he jokes. It's just he's not for Rory for me. Please don't. Well, actually, I guess the master or maybe he obliterated that. So, you know, if we were, well, we'll talk about that later. What? Let's talk to your hand. He is probably, I think you made the case where like it's either Xander or Hatton, the most under salary golfer relative to like expectation. But I like Hatton. It sounds like we might be trying to sort of a three V three. There's also one value play we both love. So, um, it's been, it's been tough. And I just, I am thankful that we've quit. Refusing to cut, like talk about the same golfer here. And then we just kind of do it more organically for other golfers. We like, because it's really hard not to have to go ahead. And it's like the top play in the 9000 range. Just if you look at his game, he's basically like a Xander or a Cantley where there's nothing in his profile that's bad over the past 50 rounds. He is no worse than 26th in any of the four strokes gain stats. And the 26th is in around the green play, which is the least important. 46th in distance, gaining about six and a half yards on the world average golfer, he's also accurate. Like I wouldn't be as honest if, if he were to come out and break through and win this thing again, I've kind of said it, I wouldn't be surprised if we get a first time major winner here, um, just given the course. But he's going to be one of my favorite DFS plays the week. That's for sure. Yeah. I mean, like, I know we can overlap, but like, I don't think I could have found a different route to go here. And it's not like to say anything negative about the rest of this range because like they're justifiable plays. Like Bryson, um, looked pretty good at the PGA championship. He's 98, you can definitely go there. I like, I think, you know, Justin Rose, Ricky Fowler, we'll talk about them in a second, you could justify them too. But Hatton, I think it's kind of a standout here. 98 is too low. Even before you account for what he did last week, like if we had just looked at this on Friday and they're like, oh, I probably want to be on Hatton 98. Now you add in another week of great output. And a not terrible field. I think that is definitely a boost up for Hatton there. The ball striking is elite, but also brings a short game. You look at his performance in recent majors, it is kind of spotty, but he hasn't been bad. So I like that the distance for Hatton's been getting better recently too. So I find nothing wrong with Hatton. I feel like we are just filling out our cash. It's only realizing because I can't get duped and way behind to you. So I can't get duped. My goal, my goal every week now is just to try to figure out your lineup and play the same thing. I'm telling you, I'm going to play. So that I get a lot that hard, but hey, pushes are great for your boy right now. Yeah, you're just playing defense. You're you're in high school basketball with no shot clock. And that's that's how we're playing right now. Yeah, who else is like in the mid range besides his own defense? I like Ricky Fowler again. We already talked about him. Top 10 in iron play, 30th in approach play, 50th in the field and distance on, you know, roughly again, six and a half yards. On the world average golfer in terms of his average drive. I guess probably one thing I should just sprinkle in here with all the talk about driving distance like. Ranks for driving distance are very misleading because it's not usually a huge gap. So just keep that in mind. Really, all you have to do is make sure that golfers are basically really long sort of average or like really short. That's kind of how you need to break it down. But Fowler has the distance and the accuracy with the driver right now. Great irons, really good short game, great salary of 9500. I think he just makes a ton of sense. The only like knocks for him, of course, the major performance in his career and not a whole lot of recent majors. But did miss the cut at the 2023 PGA. That was his first championship major since the 2022 PGA when he was T23. So like, I'm not going to knock him too much for that. Just because the form has been bad, but he is trending up. And that's a good salary for him. And I think if you look at Ricky, when he was struggling, his major performance then wasn't terrible. So it's not like he cracks under pressure or anything. I wouldn't think maybe that's just me. But so I've seen nothing to really concern me too much with Rick. He's actually the default name that comes up when you pull up the pressure tool on data golf. Is it? Yeah, it's Ricky. That's pretty funny. I mean, but like. Maybe it's because he hasn't really been in contention enough recently to like qualify as crumbling. But, you know, I don't know. There's nothing that's too concerning for me. And I meant pressure more so isn't like big events more so than like five. I'm not. I didn't even mean like, oh, he's dreadful. It's just it's funny that he's the name because he's played almost to expectation like in the fourth round. Yeah. But, you know, it is what it is with Ricky. So I could have gone Ricky here. I decided to go Justin Rose because I do like Ricky a lot. And but I want to talk Rose, too. Now, Rose isn't long off the tee, but his distance is actually creeping up a bit, which is weird. Given his age, his distance has been on the ascent. And it's better than it was before. He's above average, too, in that regard. So like, again, you talk about ranks being bad. They may underrate what Rose is doing in terms of distance right now. And if he can have decent distance, I think he could contend here. He's a great approach player. Obviously, the short game is very good. If you look at the past six months, he's at one point eight four true strokes game per round, according to data golf, which is a bananas number for a guy with a salary of 97. So I don't want to be like crazy. How guys who are not long off the tee, but I think Rose can be an exception at 97. Any thoughts for you on Justin Rose this week? Yeah, I like him. He's an other to consider for me on in my helper on number fire. I just wanted to to try to get something tangible here. And I think they found one. So you think of one of the longer drivers. And again, this is from data golf past 50 rounds. Rose 1.79 yards gained per drive on the world average. Tony Fiena 6.78. So basically five yards there, which sure that adds up, but it's also not substantial difference in rankings there. Eighty first for Rose in this field, forty third for Finau. Again, I'm not saying five yards is nothing, not saying that Justin Rose hits it just as far as Tony Fiena. Anything like that. It's just always interesting when it comes to driving distance. For sure. We didn't talk about Finau 10 three. Any thoughts for you there? I think I'm fine. Yeah, my model always likes him because he's just good long term. The luster is always off on Finau at this point because, you know, I can't win even though he's proven that to be incorrect. I think that if you go balanced, like more like more balanced Finau is the name that I think I'm not saying the name that I'm really trying to get to. But I like prefer Hatton at salary to Finau. I think you both honestly, if you go like if you go like, I know you don't like Rory, you hate Rory, you despise him, you want to throw him in the lake. If you go like Rory, Zander, I think you can get to a lineup where you have Hatton and Finau in there. You can go Hovland. I mean, I'd go Hovland, Zander, Finau, Hatton. You have four potential winners there, eighty seven fifty for two other golfers. I think you can make that work. Yeah, that's like a that's another modified. I mean, maybe that's just a balanced build for some people, but. I'd rather go Rory. Anyway, yeah, I know you would. I understand that. I I've heard that. I actually listened to what you say. I was just giving another example. We could meet in the middle and say, Patrick, can't lay for this hypothetical. No, um, let's go down to the value plays. Our final overlap is Wyndham Clarks. You tell me why you like Wyndham Clark. I'll tell you why he will win and we'll go for there. Big hitter got to be the best value play of the week. And by value, I just mean below nine thousand. Yeah. Gains like over thirteen yards per drive on the world average golfer top fifteen approach play over the past fifty rounds, top thirty putter. That's like distance off the tee. Irons putting that's a pretty good combo for the US Open. So again, another guy you can knock for a major history. But guess what? He's in very different form than he ever has been at a certain point. That has to overtake the past results whenever you weren't as good a golf. Yeah. And if you look at so data, golf has their own like world golf rankings. They're not the WGRs, but like they're, you know, they're owned to like quantify recent form, overall form. Wyndham Clark, thirty second in the world golf rankings. He is twelfth in data golf rankings. And his salary is eighty eight. Like maybe you disagree with that. That's fine. But like he probably shouldn't be eighty eight. He's got the distance. He mentioned he won the Wells Fargo by gaining two point three five strokes per round on approach. What? What? Last week, twenty three point six yards per drive above the field. He's a thirteen point nine yards per drive. Long in the field, the past six months at data golf. Now, like you said, he has not done in a major. His best finish is seventy fifth. But I really don't care given his current form, given what he's done in elevated fields, he's been he won one of those. So like I think that there is enough there to say Wyndham Clark is a great play at eighty eight. So Wyndham Clark, our top value play for both of us. Who else do you like in the value tier this week? I'm going to go kind of against everything here. But Danny McCarthy. Bet me. Sorry, I'll let you finish. Go ahead. Bet you what? Danny versus Mito. No. Why? I like Mito. Fine. My model likes Mito, too. He's not your he's not your player pick and I'll give you a hundred dollars in salary here. Come on. Get out of here with the hundred dollars in salary. I can't stand it when you do that. McCarthy is actually a plus Teter Green. Lately, plus in each of the individual Teter Green stats as well, which you probably wouldn't expect. And of course, one of the best putters that we have on tour. Ninety seventh percentile putting from within fifteen feet this season. T seven at last year's U.S. Open at T twenty nine at this year's PGA. The two most recent majors he's had. Solo second of a memorial losing to Holland in a playoff like probably easily could have won that. I mean, Holland deserve to win it, too, without good. His Teter Green game was too. But like again, we want distance. Even if someone is a little bit short, it's not like the end of the world if the game is complete. I think the salary is right for Denny. And I kind of like him as of I play this week. So you mentioned that Denny lost in the playoff at the memorial. Yeah. But, you know, if it is third in the Washington, D.C. Live event, I'll let me tell you a prayer, man. Me to prayer. Who won that one? I have no idea. Could not tell you. You know, I'll look it up. I'm a little rusty on my. Yeah, but me to finish 43rd of the Masters, which is not great, but terrible short game there. You finished 18th at the PGA championship, despite terrible putting there. And he's had some good finishes in the live of live events recently, as mentioned, third in D.C. What else could you possibly need? He's got the distance to hang at this course as well. Salary for me to prayer, eighty six hundred dollars. I was another in the Masters. That did not go great. But I'm back in Me to prayer, eighty six hundred dollars. I think there is enough there to justify going back to him once again. Who won the D.C. live event? Harold Varner, which I actually I did know that. Like, I know he won recently. I just didn't realize that they hadn't played since that event. I don't think I tried to be one of the like the last chance qualifiers for the US Open or no. What did he try to do? Want to like the qualifying events of the US Open or no? Who H.E. three. I don't know. He should have. I miss him. But I mean, there's no big issue. Any of us could do that. Sure. And no concerns with me to there losing to a champion. So I like me to a lot. You mentioned he was another to consider for you, I believe. Correct. Yeah. He's a great ball striker. One of those names where we're always going to remember his meltdown at the PGA championship. But again, it's like, had he won that, can guarantee you a side would not be 8600 right now. The betting odds would be shorter. Stuff like that really does impact things. But the reality is the stats are great. And, you know, if you can bounce back from blowing the PGA championship to finish third at live DC, I think that he's he's got to figure out. That's exactly. Pressure was the exact same for both events. So, you know, I get it for sure. OK, win picks for this week at the US Open. I still need to make up a lot of ground here because Rory. I didn't have a rose last week. Couldn't quite get the job done there. I had to sweat bullets with you and Hatton based on the odds at FanDuel Sportsbook right now. Who are your win picks for the US Open? John Rahm at 11 to one and Zander Schroff late 19 to one. I am shocked to hear this. No one saw this coming. I think they're both good picks. Thank you. I think the thought process around Rahm is stellar. I think Zander is also undervalued in 19 to one. So if you would not pick them, I would have considered them. But I'm not in a position where I can block you because I am playing catch up. So I need to find someone else. Are you playing catch up in both the head to head and the betting competition? Oh, yes. And I lost the NFL head to head against you. I lost. I've lost a lot recently. I'm fully open to being, you know, we don't hide here on the heat check. This is this is payback from when. But how long ago was. Oh, the one where you didn't use Zander at the last event and I beat you because of it. Because he equaled the his final hold. That was two years ago. Probably, yeah. Oh, yeah, I bet some hard times out here. Yeah, I didn't even. How far behind am I now to you? I don't think we did the tour championship last year where I just didn't log it because it was already decided. It's 14 to nine. OK, that's doable. This season, you still have plenty of time to make it up. We're good. OK, Winpix. Consideration set for me does include Brooks at 12. I think that's actually kind of interesting. I think we're at 13 is a consideration for me, too. Would be in line with what we discussed the entire show. So that would be a deviation from usual. Talk about something we discussed in the entire show. There are three names that are on the board that I would just be like whenever they if they're out ahead by four shots on Sunday, it's like, of course, they did that. And it's the three favorite. It's it's Scottie Schaffer, John Rahman, Brooks Kepka. Like those are some of the most no brainer. Like, well, of course, like this this guy is doing this. I don't really feel it with anyone else to like run away with it. But Brooks is very scary. Is what I'm getting at. Do I have time to make another coffee before? Yeah, probably. Um, so I'm deciding, do I do two bombs or one? Is that right in Windham Clark for you? Well, he's one of the two bombs. Yeah, I know that. Windham Clark is eighty five to one. Me too. Pereira is still a hundred and ten. No, he's oh, he did. No, he's still a hundred and ten. The funny short, no hundred. I thought there are dozens of us out here. Don't step here. Me too, Pereira. Um, Rory, thirteen to one. Me too, Pereira, a hundred and ten to one. Oh, I do win them Clark. I already have that type 10 for you. I think with with me too, it's harder to quantify his form. And I think that's a positive for a long shot. So don't make that face. We're we're live. People can see the faces of disgust you make at me. Usually they can't. Yeah, they can see. Again, I think he's a father contempt. I should have gone Windham and Me too. No, I'm doing Rory. Sticking with the thought process of we're getting a discount on Rory. Had a good couple of good events in a row, has a distance to obliterate this field. So I say this is someone who. Both really appreciates Roy McElroy for like who he is based on the fact that he has more or less, he's had the PGA tour on his back for a couple of years now and is also I always respect like people who are prodigies and have. You know, really nothing to point. Yeah, like have context for life and everything. Yeah. And I like that's the first part of it. And the second part is I don't bet or like make decisions based off of this. But if Rory, Schaeffler, Rom and Brooks are all like six shots ahead of the lead on Sunday, do you think Rory is going to win? Well, no, because there'll already be six shots ahead to begin with. No, it's like those four guys are it's like basically a four man race. It's not really a fair question because his odds are longer than them at 13 to one. I'm like, I'm being honest. I just like it's so tough because I sit here and say it's silly to knock Xander for like not winning. It's silly to do this and that I just like. It's almost like I need to see it from Rory before I can believe it. And that goes counter to everything that I say about like everyone else. I hope he wins one soon. I just hope it's not this week. Well, don't wait because Mito's already locked up. So I hope to wait, which is OK. You know, there's no shame in losing to me to Pereira. Just like there's no shame in losing to HV3. So OK, you know, John Rom, 11 to 1 and Xander Schauffler, 19 to 1. I have Rory McElroy, 13 to 1 and Mito Pereira, 110 to 1 to win a four this week. Any final thoughts for you before we close up shop for the U.S. Open? As usual, we kind of overlooked the live tour guys other than Brooks. Cam Smith, 10, 9. I don't think he does enough for me relative to Xander or Holland, if you want to lump them in together, Dustin Johnson. I mentioned Bryson as being a consideration if you want to pivot off Hatton, but I don't feel the need to do that. So like you have Hatton and Rose. I think a decky I'd rather play. I might even rather play Sungee in than Bryson. Tommy Fleetwood, even. Like so, again, it's maybe that's just the easiest angle to differentiate is to sprinkle in some of them. Some of those names, walking evens, 95. But that's, I think, the only thing that we didn't really cover. That and like the long shots and amateurs. But, you know, the true long shots, I should say, I would say, give long consideration to roster construction because I agree with Brandon where we probably want to be at lowest. I can get 84 with Min Woo Lee, maybe because the distance angle there. But the, even the irons are not ideal. So be mindful of going too hard on value plays. Keep in mind the cut rules for this week, only top 60 plus ties. Make it there 160 or 156 in the field. So a lot of guys we talked about will miss the cuts, especially if we follow the form from the PGA championship for us. So just keep that in mind. It's a volatile event, stuff like that. Don't want to go too hard of value plays and don't want to. Do you be mindful of the cut rules, too? Yeah, as Gordon, Gordon Sargent is minimum salary. He is second in the World Amateur Golf rankings. If anyone wants to get, you know, into that conversation. Is he related to Logan Sargent? I don't know who that is. He is a Formula One driver from America. I should have guessed that. Yeah, you should have. All right, that is all that we have here for today on the Heat Check Fantasy podcast. But a reminder to make sure you're subscribed both to the FanDuel YouTube page to get all of our covering the spread podcast and the solo shot that is there every weekday as well. And also check out the Number Fire Daily Fantasy podcast feed for our PGA DFS podcast, MLB and USC for the big events as well. Brandon, if people have questions for you on Twitter, where can they find you there? I'm on Twitter, you know it. You can do all the 13 GDULA13. Just you and Phil out there tweeting up a storm. Yep. Knew it. I'm on Twitter at Jim Sonnis, J-I-M-S-A-N-N-E-S. Want to thank you all for tuning in this week. Good luck to you with the US Open. Enjoy the Gulf. We'll talk to you once again next week. This has been the Heat Check Fantasy podcast powered by Number Fire.