Bama Golf and Brownie were doin work last week as both successfully predicted that Jon Rahm would win the 121st U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.

Rahm was iron with 22 foot birdie putts on both 17 AND 18. Amazing stuff by the Rahminator. Bama and Brownie were strong for predicting him. Good job fellas. At an Open where there were players imploding, see DeChambeau among others, Rahm was not going to be denied. He was resilient coming back from COVID quarantine and kept believing in himself and won for his infant son on Father’s Day. Good stuff by Bama and Brownie, too. Both were happy fathers on Sunday for a variety of reasons. Both have done tremendous jobs as fathers and they’re both stellar sports minds. Great job, fellas.

Women’s PGA Championship

The 67th KPMG Women’s PGA Championship should be fascinating as the top 156 players in the world, and 99 of the top 100, descend on the Highlands Course at Atlanta Athletic Club starting Thursday. Coverage Thursday is by Golf Channel from 10 AM-2 PM CT. Peacock continues coverage from 4-6 PM CT Thursday.

Friday, Golf Channel has coverage from 10 AM-2 PM CT and Peacock takes over from 4-6 PM CT. Saturday, Peacock has it from 9 AM-12 PM CT and NBC takes over from 12-3 PM CT. Sunday, Peacock has it from 11 AM-2 PM CT, and NBC has the riveting final round coverage from 2-5 PM CT.

The Highlands Course, where Keegan Bradley won the men’s PGA Championship in 2011, the 93rd edition, will be playing as a par 72, playing at 6,800+ yard course, so very long. Weather looks good. 81 Thursday, winds ESE 12. Friday, 86, Wind E 8 MPH. Saturday, 86, wind SE 8. Sunday 84, Wind SE 8. Slight chance of isolated T-storms Sunday, but not any rain Thursday-Saturday, and looks promising Sunday. Maybe a little humid and warm, but doable for these young ladies. Very good forecast overall.

Winner

There are a lot of candidates. Lexi Thompson was so good at the U.S. Open before falling apart on the last 5 holes. Felt bad for her. She’ll be ready in Atlanta. Danielle Kang is another who’s playing well. Inbee Park is always a factor. Lydia Ko has been playing well. The Jutanugarn sisters, Moriya and Ariya, always play well. Ariya won at Shoal Creek in the 2018 U.S. Open. Brooke Henderson is always a factor. South Korea’s Yuka Saso won this year’s U.S. Open at Olympic and is playing with a lot of confidence. Twenty eight year old Jessica Korda is a superb player, who won in January.

But, I’m going to take Jessica’s little sister. This 22 year old young lady from Bradenton, Florida, just won last week at the Meiijer LPGA Classic, shooting 25 under par to win by two shots, She also won in late February at the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio. She’s already won 5 times on the LPGA Tour. I know it’s hard to go back to back in tournaments, but I also believe in momentum, and this young lady has it. Give me,

Nelly Korda

We face the Stanford Cardinal tonight at 6 on ESPN in an elimination game in the College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha.

The questions are who will we start, who are they going to start and can we hit the dadgum baseball tonight and make something happen on the bases. Defense is always critical as well.

I like Christian Little to start for us. CL is a hoss and has superb stuff. He pitched exceptionally well against Ole Miss in the SEC Tournament and deserves to be out there. Our team needs him out there. Christian was spectacular in 6 innings against Ole Miss before leaving the game in the 7th with a minor forearm issue. But our coaches were just being careful with him. I like Patrick Reilly as well, and Patrick is a tremendous competitor, but I’d give the nod to Christian tonight. He reminds me a lot of Kumar two years ago. He’s made for this. Christian is 3-1 with a 5.02 ERA with 16 walks and 44 K’s in 37 innings pitched. Patrick is 4-2, 4.89 with 24 walks and 52 K’s in 42 innings. I just prefer Christian with Patrick in the pen ready to go, if necessary.

Jack pitched such a terrific game Monday Night that it was too bad it was wasted by our anemic hitting. N.C. State had a couple of good arms, no doubt, but we gotta do better than that. We need to make something happen on the bases, too, if our bats aren’t clicking tonight.

I’m predicting Stanford will start sophomore left hander Quinn Mathews. He’s 5-2 with a 6.02 ERA with 32 walks and 55 K’s. They’ve already used their 2 best starting pitchers, so this may be a bullpen game for Stanford if Mathews isn’t effective.

They hit .284 as a team, their team ERA is 4.61 and they are fielding at a .979 clip, so they’re good on defense and pretty strong with the bats. Their leading hitter is rightfielder Christian Robinson, who hits .321 with 8 homers and 48 RBIs. Centerfielder Brock Jones hits .302 with 17 homers and 59 RBI’s and was 3 for 5 Monday against Zona with a homer, a double and 5 RBIs in a 14-5 victory which knocked Arizona out of the Series. Third baseman Drew Bowser hits .303 with 7 homers and 41 RBIs and was also 3 for 5 Monday against Zona with a double and 2 RBIs. So they’ve got some hitting. They lost their first game last Saturday to N.C. State, 10-4.

So our guys, Enrique, Carter, Dom, Javy, Isaiah, Troy LaNeve or Jack Bulger, whomever starts against the lefty, Parker Noland and C.J. Rodriguez are going to need to bear down tonight at the plate and help our pitchers out. Nick Maldonado and Luke Murphy will be available out of the bullpen.

The perfect scenario would be for Christian or Patrick to go 7 or 8 and for us to close it with Luke and Nick with a minimal amount of pitches thrown by each pitcher. But we’ve got to hit and make something happen on the bases if we expect to make it to Friday versus N.C. State. We’ve got it in us, we’re still hitting .294 as a team, so we need to show America the real Vanderbilt at the plate tonight. Have to pitch and defend well as always.

Anchor Down. Let’s get the job done tonight and advance to Friday. Major challenge. I see our guys being up to the challenge.