It was an incredible week at the Open Championship for our community of subscribers, most notably KaiserRose who shipped the 200 SE. Take a look at our recap video of all the impressive DFS lineups our subscribers had.

TPC Twin Cities is not a bomb and gauge golf course or a putting contest, but it still gets grouped in those categories. Rather, TPC Twin Cities is a solid test of accuracy where small misses are fine but big misses are a huge problem (that’s the benefit of penalty strokes) and a great golf course for elite approach players. As expected, many of the best players in the field are taking a much-needed break after the final major championship for the year in order to re-charge for the FedEx Cup playoffs, but for reasons unbeknownst to me, Scottie Scheffler is teeing it up in Blaine, Minnesota for the first time in his career, and I would expect him to open up in the +250 to +350 range, given the strength of the rest of the field. 

Speaking to the underrated nature of how this golf course tests skill, let’s take a look at the skill separation slope the last few years:

• 2025: 0.99 (EASIEST scoring conditions)

• 2024: 1.02

• 2023: 0.94

• 2022: 1.15 (HARDEST scoring conditions)

• 2021: 0.86

• VG: 0.99

The golf course has separated skill at a Tour average level, and in the year that it actually played over par when Tony Finau won, it really provided a strong test. So while the architecture of the golf course is very vanilla, TPC Twin Cities doesn’t really deserve to be in the same category of a TPC Craig Ranch, Detroit Golf Club, or even TPC River Highlands, in terms of the challenge it poses for pro golfers.

It’s a golf course that REALLY neutralizes distance, and distance and putting are really the two skills that matter the least at TPC Twin Cities. It is an execution test, but it’s also a pretty predictable event if you know what to pay attention to: approach play above all, driving accuracy, and oddly, short game has been REALLY predictive at this golf course despite it featuring such a high greens in regulation percentage.

In the modern era, where golfers have so much control over their golf ball, I guess I’ve come to the conclusion that water can serve a real purpose in pro golf at penalizing misses. Even if it’s paint by numbers, even if it’s target golf, you still need it at times to combat modern equipment, and TPC Twin Cities is a good example of a course that would not be remotely as interesting as it is now without its hazards.

To read the rest of Andy’s preview article, click here.

I sound like a broken record but my struggles in OAD continued at the Open Championship. I picked Jon Rahm who faltered over the weekend to finish T46, winning $51,707 dollars.

This week for the 3M Open, I am picking Max Homa.

Max Homa has struggled for the last few seasons, however, I am trying to pick someone that has won in his career. Homa has made his last five cuts and most notably finishing solo 2nd at the John Deere Classic. His putter has been red hot over the last two months and has been trending well with his irons. I bet Homa at 50-1 in the without Scheffler market too. I believe Homa plays well and puts himself back in contention.

2026 OAD Total: $10.9 million

It was certainly an eventful weekend in Southport, England at Royal Birkdale for the Open Championship. I have a lot of thoughts of what transpired so let’s waste no time and dive right in. 

Ryan Fox Shocks The Golf World

For the average professional golf fan, Ryan Fox is nowhere near a household name or a guy that anyone had on their radar to become this year's Champion Golfer of the Year. 

Ryan Fox started seriously playing golf when he was 17 years old. He grinded his way through the Aussie Tour in his 20s, earned his DP World Tour card when he turned 30 and then made his way to the PGA Tour at 37. Two and a half years later, he is sipping red wine out of the Claret Jug with a sea of photographers capturing the scene. 

It was an incredible back nine finish for Fox as he finished the final six holes -3:

• 13th Hole: Birdie

• 14th Hole: Birdie 

• 15th Hole: Bogey

• 16th Hole: Birdie

• 17th Hole: Par 

• 18th Hole: Birdie 

The final four holes were some of the most exciting finishing holes of a major championship, and it wasn’t easy as the scorecard indicates.

On the 15th hole, he drew a terrible lie in one of the greenside pot bunkers. He had to take his medicine from the bunker and it was an impressive bogey save. Then on 16, he put his approach to 10 feet and quickly sunk his birdie putt to erase the dropped shot on the 15th.

On the 17th hole, Fox put his drive into a fairway bunker and had to scramble to save par. He did have a 9 foot look for birdie but failed to take a one stroke lead on Cam Young, who had been sitting in the clubhouse for close to two hours at that point in the day. 

The 18th hole was the hardest hole all week and when Fox stepped onto the tee box, only four players birdied the hole. It is arguably the toughest tee shot on the property, and Fox got up there and hit the best drive of his week. He put his approach shot to 11 feet, then wasted no time to convert the putt for the win. 

Fox didn’t have any fear of the moment, battled some adversity with some difficult escape shots from pot bunkers, and was the deserved champion of this tournament. It shouldn’t be forgotten that he played the round of his life and shot 62 on Saturday to put himself in this position to make a push for the Claret Jug. 

On the biggest stages in golf, I love to analyze the body languages of golfers. Some are built for the moment and some are still trying to get there. At times, I saw Burns was a little fearful and nervous. You saw Si Woo’s body language start to quiver when he was missing fairways which resulted in him having pressure par saves. 

Fox’s demeanor stayed very steady and he could have mentally put himself out of this tournament, but with the pace that Fox plays at, he doesn’t overthink. He gets up to his ball and hits it. 

That mentality is something that every weekend golfer should take. When I have a million swing thoughts running through my head, sometimes I just tell myself don’t think just hit the ball.

Right Message, Wrong Messenger

My biggest FOMO moment of the entire tournament was not being able to watch the Bryson DeChambeau penalty saga live. I was down at the Jersey shore on a golf trip with one of my best friends and his college group of guys. 

When we got back from our round, we turned on the Open Championship coverage to see Bryson in the R&A rules tent, trying to plead his case on why he didn’t bend the rules. I was able to continue to hear the TV analysts cover what all transpired and show a replay of Bryson driving out with an official to the spot on the 5th where he was stomping the fescue to improve the club path to his golf ball. 

I do believe Bryson was trying to improve his situation and it didn’t look good on how intentional and forceful he was walking around his golf ball. However, I do err on the side that it rarely ever gets called in professional golf. It’s like many rules in the NBA where a play might be a foul or a travel, but the refs never call it. There was a moment where Clark was also improving his lie at Oakmont, but ultimately didn’t get called for it. 

What made this even a bigger headline was Rory’s comments the next day on Bryson, calling Bryson performative and mentioning that he held everyone hostage on the grounds for making a scene about the penalty. 

When I first heard Rory’s comments, I was stunned how honest he was.I have many qualms with Rory, but what he said about Bryson and the entire situation was absolutely true. It was ridiculous that he made a whole scene about the two shot penalty, making officials drive him back out to the 5th to go through his actions again. On top of that, Bryson and the R&A officials talked for an additional 30 minutes before Bryson accepted and was deemed the two shot penalty. 

And what was even crazier, reported by Geoff Shackleford, that Bryson wanted to call the President to get him out of getting a two shot penalty. Bryson was acting like Tiger after he called Trump to get him out of his DUI.

Bryson asking for this request, going back out to the 5th to argue with officials for an even longer discussion that held up tee times being finalized and volunteers not being able to leave, was performative. I do love what Bryson is doing with growing the game through YouTube golf, but his antics can get annoying and just too much at times, which is why many people dislike Bryson. 

Nevertheless, Rory is not the right person to be calling out Bryson. Rory is also an attention seeker in general, who is also as selfish as Bryson is. Rory has had his questionable moments at the Ryder Cup when he charged Bones after the day 2 matches in Italy, taking a fans phone at the Players and walking away with it, and the scene after Pinehurst when he drove out of the parking lot escaping the media. I can go on and on about other Rory moments but you get the point. 

Needless to say, the continued Bryson and Rory beef and them being both attention seekers is great for golf and drove even more storylines to this golf tournament. The Bryson penalty saga, parlayed with Rory’s comments was the best content this week and we need more of this in the future. 

Let’s get Bryson back on the PGA Tour playing more with Rory. Yet, I am not sure either want to be on the PGA Tour. Future newsletter topic about Rory and his relationship with the PGA Tour coming soon!

The Pendulum has swung on reliefs in golf

Outside of Fox’s incredible 18th hole, the hole that caused the most drama was Scottie Scheffler’s 17th hole, which was the final par 5. 

Scheffler threw a fit after he hit his drive took an errant bounce into the fescue. He decided to play hero ball and hit a 3 wood over the mound in front of him. His first shot went WAY WAY left of his target. It ended up, or we think it ended up, left of the hospitality tent in an array of bushes.

Scheffler and Ted Scott called over a rules official to figure out what kind of relief they might be able to get or if Scheffler would have to play his provisional hit. While talking to the rules official, Scheffler was able to get TIO (temporary immovable obstruction) relief (aka a free drop) even though he didn’t find his ball. 

After the round, Scheffler was asked about the conversation with the rules official:

The last couple sentences from Scheffler says it all: 

“I stopped them. They had guys pointing from up there, like it landed right here, and I just kind of hauled up there, and I was like, guys, get out of there, stop, do not find the ball. Fortunately it was my security guy that I've had for a few years here. His name is Brucey. And then Woody was up there as well. So both those guys are pretty -- I know them quite well, so when I said, please don't look for the ball, they got out of there.”

I am not a golf rules expert and I certainly won’t act like I am, but from Scheffler’s answer, it seemed like Scheffler learned that it was more advantageous to not actually find his ball because he would be able to get TIO relief and drop his ball in a better spot. 

I believe, and many others agree, that it’s ridiculous that Scheffler was awarded a free drop without locating his ball. The official knew the direction of where the ball was going and assumed it was either in the bush or could be under the grandstand. I don’t understand this golf rule that even though you can’t find your ball, you get a free drop. 

Scheffler didn’t break the rules like Bryson allegedly did. This has been a problem forever because of all the grandstands that are placed at these golf tournaments. This is just tournament golf. 

What’s a way that players should be properly punished for hitting bad golf shots? We need internal out of bounds. If you have internal out of bounds around these fairway grandstands, players then don’t have the freedom to try and pull off these crazy shots, knowing at worse they hit a grandstand and get a free drop. Essentially, there is very minimal penalty here. This takes away the ethos of the game of golf. 

We have to start properly penalizing bad golf shots not only in these major championships, but on the PGA Tour too. The answer is internal OB. I would love to hear if anyone else has any other solutions to solve this issue.