TPC River Highlands is not a tricky handicap by any means, especially coming off the US Open at Oakmont last week. This course is strictly a short to middle iron test and players will have to make a ton of birdies with easy scoring conditions.

Historically at TPC River Highlands, 35% of second shots will come from 100-150 yards. Over the last 75 rounds, here are the top 10 players from this distance:

 I unfortunately fear that I am not ready to give up on the belief that Daniel Berger will win a golf tournament in 2025. I took a break at the U.S. Open after he broke my heart on a significant investment at the Memorial, but I’m ready to be hurt again on a golf course where Berger has already recorded two top-15 finishes in four appearances. The ball-striking returned for him at the U.S. Open, as he gained over a stroke in both approach and off the tee. His comp course history ranks with the best of them, and I have always felt that Berger’s second act breakthrough would come on an accuracy off the tee, wedges and putting course. Now that everyone is off him, let’s catch a number.

It’s that time of the year where you are running out of the top tier options. If you still have a couple elites, you are doing something wrong!

I was tempted to pick Keegan Bradley for the BMW Championship, but then I thought at that time of the year, he will be more focused on the Ryder Cup.

You can’t go wrong with picking Keegan Bradley at the Travelers Championship based on his course history and love for this event, being from the New England area.

Of the players in the field, he ranks 6th in strokes gained per round at TPC River Highlands. He won this event back in 2023 and has a bunch of other impressive finishes.

Keegan is playing some of the best golf of his career. In his last three tournaments, he has posted a T33 at the US Open, T7 at the Memorial, and a T8 at the PGA Championship. Keegan’s accuracy off-the-tee and his ability to spike on approach fit what the course will ask from players this week.

If you aren’t familiar, you play Keegan on Northeast golf courses!

Depending on your pool size, Keegan might be pretty popular. If you need a pivot, I like Sepp Straka and Russell Henley too.

Two weeks ago, I checked off an experience from my golf bucket list, playing the behemoth golf course, Bethpage Black. 

Bethpage Black has always had a special place in my heart since I attended my first ever professional golf tournament there back at the 2019 PGA Championship, where Brooks Koepka won his second Wanamaker Trophy. 

I had the luxury of getting accepted into a week-long student volunteer program through the Penn State Sports Business Club. For most of the week, I was stationed at one of the corporate hospitality tents on the first hole. I scanned people’s tickets into the tent and made sure no one was trying to sneak in. Unfortunately, I had to be that guy. 

However, I would work half the day at the tent and the other half walking around the course and watching the golf. So, a pretty good trade-off if you ask me. 

Overall, the week was a great experience and I met a ton of friends through the program, many of whom I have the pleasure of calling a close friend to this day.

I remember walking off the property on Sunday thinking to myself two things:

1. I need to attend another professional golf tournament or do the same student volunteer program at another PGA Championship (turns out it was at the 2021 Ryder Cup which is another story that I will write about as we get closer to the raucous event). 

2. I want to go through the Bethpage Black experience: getting up early, grabbing a tee time, and playing at a championship level golf course. 

Six years later, I can finally cross Bethpage Black off my bucket list. 

Spencer, who is my roommate, and I have been saying since we moved to New York City three years ago that we need to make a Bethpage Black trip. Spencer and I have known each since we were toddlers and were playing partners on our high school golf team. 

We picked a day last summer to plan to do the whole camping out at Bethpage in your car experience, but we called it off due to forecasted inclement weather. So this summer, we made it our mission to play. ISN colleague and host of the Tap In Birdie show, Brian Kirschner, advised us to get there before 5am on a weekday so we would for certain be able to claim an open tee time.

Since we don’t have a car living in NYC, we decided to take the LIRR to Farmingdale and book a cheap hotel the night before. 

These were the timestamps at Bethpage as we got our tee-time:

• 4:15am - got parking spot 21

• 4:30am - they started handing out tickets

• 4:40am - got in line at the pro shop

• 4:55am - grabbed the 8:50 am tee time

The parking lot camping out situation was pretty neat. When we arrived, there were multiple RVs stationed. By 4:30am nearly everyone in the parking lot were outside of their cars socializing. We were next to this guy from Brooklyn that has been coming to Bethpage Black for 30+ years. He was your typical golf guy that loves to talk strangers ears off about all his best rounds at Bethpage.

We had essentially four hours to kill before we attempted to hit the fairway on the first hole. With time, we walked around the clubhouse, did some fathers day shopping in the pro shop, strolled around the property, grabbed breakfast, hit the range, hit some putts, and watched some groups begin their journey on the first tee. 

I am just your average weekend bogey golfer so my goal was to try and break 100. I told myself that I wouldn’t let my play ruin the day. I wanted to take in the experience and course as much as I could. 

I was surprised that I wasn’t that nervous on the first tee. I had some jitters, but more jitters of excitement instead of being nervous. Another one of my goals was to either hit the 1st or 18th fairway. Unfortunately, I went way right off the tee on the first hole, which has been a common theme of my golf game this year. 

I am not going to give a hole by hole breakdown of my round, but I will give a couple of highlights and key takeaways from playing the course. 

My favorite hole on the property is one of Bethpage Black’s signature holes, the par 5 4th. I actually hit a decently well tee shot, but it just snuck into the left rough. I had a terrible lie and had to just take my medicine. My next shot I tried getting cute and skulled it into the fairway bunker. Long story short, I had a 10 foot putt to save bogey that I did not save. The hole was the coolest on property with crazy views from every point on the hole. 

I’ll fast forward to the 18th hole where I did in fact hit the fairway on the right hand side. I ended the day on a high note. After mishitting two shots, I had a 30ish yard chip shot to try and get an up and down bogey save. Instead, from just short of the green, I holed the chip for par, with the couple of fans watching going wild. It was a great way to end a tough round. 

It was really cool to walk the property and play the course. As we do at ISN, we handicap golf courses and tell you how the course is going to play. After playing Bethpage Black, it is clear why Brooks Koepka and the elite ball strikers play well at this course. The course is long and the thick rough makes it tough to hack around. The green complexes weren’t tricky at all and were pretty straight forward, which surprised me a lot. 

I ended up shooting a 106, but playing Bethpage Black was never about the score but doing the entire experience. The course definitely will test your mental game, especially carrying your bag on one of the toughest walks in golf. I highly recommend anyone getting to the parking lot early to get the entire Bethpage Black experience.

It was definitely a long day, but worth the trip to one of the marquee golf courses in the country, especially if you can go with family or a close friend.

All in all, Bethpage Black holds a special place in my heart. I am not sure I would be where I am at writing this newsletter for ISN if I didn’t see a GroupMe message in the Penn State Sports Business Club chat about the opportunity to volunteer at the 2019 PGA Championship.

That week led to attending the 2021 Ryder Cup for the entire week. The Ryder Cup sparked a serious passion for doing something in the golf space, that then convinced me to start posting golf content on Twitter.

Bethpage, I will be back to play your other courses on property, hopefully in a match again Brian Kirschner and friends.

The Black course, I will be back for vengeance to break 100.

One of, if not, the main storylines of the week was what the winning score at this year’s US Open at Oakmont would be.

In 2016, Dustin Johnson won Oakmont at -4, but it was a week in which the course got some rain throughout the week. Back in 2007, Angel Cabrera won at +5, fending off runner-ups Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk, who both finished at +6. 

There was a viral video in the golf media this week, in which a handful of golfers at the US Open were asked if they would take even par as their final score this week. The majority of players agreed, happily taking the even par score. 

The 5 inch rough and the firm and fast undulating Oakmont greens gave players fits all week. We got moments of the two best players in the world, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIIroy, voicing their frustrations, even seeing McIlroy toss some clubs around the grounds.

If you didn’t like watching this type of golf this weekend, I am not sure what to tell you. This is the USGA’s identity to try and challenge the best players in the world, which is extremely difficult to do due to modern technology and this new era of golf.

As Andy mentioned two weeks ago in our newsletter, it’s not great TV to watch players shoot -20 in birdiefests. Having different scoring conditions and giving the players different tests is what I want to see. I hope many feel the same. 

JJ Spaun 🤝 Collin Morikawa

JJ Spaun’s final round on Sunday was a tale of two nines. He shot a 40 on the front nine, bogeying 5 of the first 6 holes. The weather delay really allowed him to reset, in which he carded a 3-under 32 on the back nine. 

JJ Spaun hit the shot of his life on the 17th, the drivable 314-yard uphill par 4, that he put to 17 feet from off the tee.

This gave similar vibes to Colllin Moirkawa at the 2020 PGA Championship in which he also hit a dart with driver on a short par 4 16th, putting it to just 7 feet and making the eagle putt to propel him to his first major championship at Harding Park.

Obviously, the iconic shot that everyone will remember will be Spaun’s incredible 64-foot birdie putt to win the championship on the 18th, but the tee shot at 17 should also not be forgotten.

Bobby Mac’s "WOW”

Bobby Mac posted one of the best rounds of the week on Sunday, firing a final round 2-under 68. MacIntyre held the clubhouse lead at +1, putting pressure on the rest of the field to go out and beat that score. 

MacIntyre needed Spaun to three-putt the 72nd hole to force a playoff, but Spaun decided to just make his 64 footer and end the tournament with a two-stroke victory over Bobby.

NBC captured Bobby Mac’s classy and relatable reaction: “WOW”. 

ONE OF US!

Andy’s Updated Ryder Cup Rankings

Okay, as everyone knows, 2025 is a Ryder Cup year. Yet not just is it a Ryder Cup year, it’s also a Ryder Cup year at Bethpage: a golf course very special to me, and even more pertinent to my ISN colleague, Brian Kirschner, who lives just a 5 iron away. In fact, Bethpage was how our friendship began. The first time we ever met, I stayed in his childhood bedroom before we woke up at 4:30 AM the following morning to tackle the Black course. 

To share my excitement about my favorite event coming home to New York, I wanted to create a monthly Ryder Cup power ranking for the next nine months leading into the event. On the first week of every month, I will track my projected team, based on who I believe is most likely and should be at Bethpage. I am now taking into account the automatic qualifiers, so if they have a Q next to their name, this means they are qualified for the team at this moment in time. Each month I will move players up and down accordingly, and it should be a fun way for everyone to track how the teams stack up as we near the September festivities. Hope you enjoy. 

*Writer’s Note: I have Keegan Bradley at 13 because he has already told us that unless he qualifies on points, he’s not picking himself. So unless Keegan qualifies, it’s a moot point to put him on the team amongst the other picks. For what it’s worth, if we were just purely ranking the best American golfers right now, I would put him at #10, right behind Jordan Spieth and ahead of Patrick Reed. 

June 

United States 

1. Q: Scottie Scheffler (Last Month: 1)

2. Q: Xander Schauffele (Last Month: 2)

3. Q: J.J. Spaun (Last Month: N/A)

4. Q: Bryson DeChambeau (Last Month: 3)

5. Q: Justin Thomas (Last Month: 4)

6. Q: Collin Morikawa (Last Month: 5)

7. Patrick Cantlay (Last Month: 7)

8. Russell Henley (Last Month: 6)

9. Sam Burns (Last Month: 11)

10. Jordan Spieth (Last Month: 9)

11. Daniel Berger (Last Month: 8)

12. Ben Griffin (Last Month: N/A)

The Bubble 

13. Keegan Bradley (Last Month: 13)

14. Brooks Koepka (Last Month: 14)

15. Maverick McNealy (Last Month: 15)

16. Tony Finau (Last Month: 12)

17. Cameron Young (Last Month: N/A)

18. Patrick Reed (Last Month: 10)

19. Harris English (Last Month: 14)

20. Akshay Bhatia (Last Month: 16)

Newly on the Team: J.J. Spaun, Ben Griffin

Newly Off the Team: Tony Finau, Patrick Reed 

Newly on the Bubble: Brooks Koepka, Cameron Young, Patrick Reed

Newly off the Bubble: Davis Thompson, Denny McCarthy, Wyndham Clark 

Europe 

1. Q: Rory McIlroy (Last Month: 1)

2. Q: Tyrrell Hatton (Last Month: 2)

3. Q: Shane Lowry (Last Month: 3)

4. Q: Robert MacIntyre (Last Month: 4)

5. Q: Sepp Straka (Last Month: 5)

6. Q: Rasmus Højgaard (Last Month: 6)

7. Jon Rahm (Last Month: 7)

8. Ludvig Aberg (Last Month: 8)

9. Tommy Fleetwood (Last Month: 9)

10. Viktor Hovland (Last Month: 10)

11. Aaron Rai (Last Month: 12)

12. Matt Fitzpatrick (Last Month: 13)

The Bubble 

13. Justin Rose (Last Month: 6)

14. Harry Hall (Last Month: N/A)

15. Rasmus Neergaard-Peterson (Last Month: 20)

16. Thomas Detry (Last Month: 17)

17. Alex Noren (Last Month: 15)

18. David Puig (Last Month: 16)

19. Thorbjorn Olesen (Last Month: 19)

20. Matt Wallace Last Month: N/A)

Newly on the Team: Matt Fitzpatrick

Newly off the Team: Justin Rose 

Newly on the Bubble: Justin Rose, Harry Hall

Newly off the Bubble: Sergio Garcia, Stephan Jaeger