There will be 60 players competing for the gold, silver and bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics with the first tee time at 5:30 PM CT today, which is 7:30 AM at Kasumigaseki Country Club in Saitama, Japan, 35 miles northeast of Tokyo. The East Course at Kasumigaseki will be playing 7,447 yards and will play as a Par 71 with four par 3’s and 3 par 5’s along with 11 par 4’s. The greens are bentgrass and will be stimpiing at 12-12 1/2, with Zoysia covering the rest of the course and rough at just under 3 inches, but in some spots, up to 9 to 15 inches. It was redesigned by Tom Fazio and his son Logan in 2016 for these Olympic Games.

There are numerous Cypress and Pine trees throughout the course. No.18 is a 500 yard par 4 that looks quite similar to Augusta National’s No.18. The players will drive through a narrow shoot between trees to a narrow fairway and a green guarded by bunkers on each side. What I noticed most about the course are the narrower fairways, and many trees and bunkers and long holes. No.4 is a 237 yard, Par 3. No. 5 is a 640 yard, par 5. No.8 is a 586 yard, par 5. No. 9 is a 521 yard, par 4. No. 14 is a 596 yard, par 5. Nos. 16-18 are potential birdie opportunities with 16 a 203 yard par 3, which is still no bargain, with bunkers guarding the green. No. 17 is a 343 yard, par 4, but has several bunkers in front and on the side of the green. The longer hitters may get aggressive and try to clear the big bunker in front and on the right which is 310 yards out, but it’s a risk-reward shot. Will be an interesting hole on Sunday. No. 18 has the narrow driving area, with the player’s second shot having to clear a lake with a bunker in front of the green right in the center. There is a bunker right and a bunker left. It’s a challenge. This course looks sensational.

Justin Rose won the Gold Medal in the 2016 Olympics at Rio. Henrik Stenson won the silver and Matt Kuchar won the Bronze. None of the three will be competing.

Some big news was Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau withdrawing due to positive COVID tests. But the field is still strong with No.3 in the world Collin Morikawa, fresh off his 149th Open Championship victory at Royal St. George’s, No.4 Justin Thomas, who’s been struggling a little lately but won the Players Championship in March, and No.4 Xander Schauffele, competing. Morikawa and Schauffele have some Japanese heritage, so the Olympics has even added importance for those two. Patrick Reed, world number 12, will be the other American competing. Reed just found out Saturday that he was in, so he’s hustled over to Tokyo to make it to the course. He might have had a chance to see the course yesterday and play a couple of holes, but with the constant testing and restrictions at the Tokyo airport, it may have been difficult. I like the fact that Reed would do anything to play. Says a lot. Reed finished 11th in 2016 at Rio.

If there is a playoff, it would be a 3 hole aggregate with a sudden death playoff to follow if it can’t be decided after aggregate play.

Weather looks a bit questionable. Thursday, 90, hot and rainy in Japan right now, SSW 14, rain chances 70%. Friday, 88, SSE 7, rain chances 60%,. Saturday, 92, ENE 9, rain 30%. Sunday, 89, wind ENE 5. Rain 50%.

TV

Golf Channel all 4 days, Today through Saturday. Today, 5:30 PM-2 AM CT Thursday, 5:30 PM-2 AM CT. Friday, 5:30 PM-2 AM CT, Saturday 5:30 PM-2:30 AM. Not ideal after 10:30 PM, unless you’ve been out carousing on the weekend and are up to watch. Might be worth it. Most likely a tape job.

Odds

Morikawa, 7/1, Xander, 9/1, JT, 11/1, Rory, 12/1. Rory says he’s not patriotic and he’s hesitant to play, so I don’t give him much of a shot. Hideki Matsuyama, 12/1. Home turf. Won the Asia-Pacific Open in 2010 to qualify for the Masters as an amateur in 2011. Masters champion. Hasn’t played competitive golf since testing positive for COVID July 3rd at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. Viktor Hovland, 12/1. Paul Casey, 16/1. Reed, 18/1. Cameron Smith, 20/1. Joaquin Neimann 20/1. Shane Lowry, 25/1. Corey Conners, 25/1. Tommy Fleetwood, 28/1. Sungjae Im, 28/1. Marc Leishman 33/1. Christian Bezuidenhout, 35/1, South African. Garrick Higgo, 45/1, another South African. Si Woo Kim, 50/1. Thomas Pieters 55/1.

Interestingly on Im and Kim, both are South Korean and if they were to medal they would not have to serve the 2 years of mandatory military service required of all South Korean men aged 18-28. While it would be patriotic to serve your country and highly commendable, if you can get out of it and play professional golf for a living, that would be the preferred option.

Winners

Gold- Morikawa

just so good right now. Leads the tour by a wide margin in strokes gained approach and this course requires highly proficient ball striking. If he putts like he did at Royal St. George’s, he’ll win. I like him to do that.

Silver, Hideki

I like him to play well on his home course.

Bronze- Patrick Reed

I know the guy can be controversial, but the fact that he played in the U.S. Open, the Rocket Mortgage, the Open Championship and the 3M and still was amped up to come over and represent the U.S. like he does so well at the Ryder Cup, this year, the 41st edition at Whistling Straits, Sept. 24th-26th, tells me a lot about the guy. I expect Reed to do well.

Instead of talking about Coach Saban and Coach Harsin today and tomorrow, I’m going to talk about all the issues in college football and some possible ideas. If you want to read about Alabama and Auburn, please refer to my May columns as I did extensive pieces on each team. There is too much happening in college football right now and we just need to hit the breaks a little. There is good stuff, but some other stuff is unclear. Here is a look at some of the issues right now and what can be done to help them become positives.

The 12 team playoff

First of all, I like it. It gives teams like Coastal Carolina and BYU and teams like A&M and Florida, all of which had very good seasons last year, a chance to play for a national championship.

The format is: the 6 highest ranked conference champions and the 6 highest ranked teams as determined by the Selection Committee will play in the playoff.

The top 4 teams, seeds 1-4, get a bye in the first week and the 8 other teams compete in the first round. In the first 4 games, the higher seeded team will play at their home stadium. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be played at bowl games. The National Championship Game will be played at a major bowl site as always i.e. Rose, Sugar, Cotton, Orange, Fiesta, Peach…It gives other teams a shot.

There are questions on playing too many games which may lead to injuries and hurt the quality of play the deeper the playoffs go on. I’d like to see them cut the season down to 10 games, with the SEC playing 8 conference games as usual, 6 within the division, though that could be changed to more East-West games, and 2 out of conference games, maybe a major out of conference game and an easier contest. There would be an SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC and PAC-12 title game, and then commence the playoff. The other conference could figure out how they want to handle their regular seasons, but 10 games would be sufficient.

Nick Saban has said all along that the playoff devalues the bowl games, and it does. But I do think there are teams and players that still like going to bowl games. It is a great experience for the players. I do endorse this 12 team playoff. They’ll need to fine tune it some. Dabo Swinney is not for it. He says his players don’t want it. The 12 game season and 3 or 4 extra games would seem excessive, so a 10 game schedule could rectify those concerns.

Looks like it’ll be 4 teams through 2021 and 2022, but possibly in 2023, we’ll have a 12 team format. With the 10 game regular season, the most a team could play would be 14 to 15 games. That seems reasonable.

NIL

This thing is mind spinning. Bryce Young is reported to have endorsements of up to $1 million coming in. I’m glad the players are getting some compensation, but there needs to be some regulations put back in place to get this thing under control. Young will have a lot of pressure on him to produce with this kind of financial windfall. I read this morning where a high school basketball player is set to make several millions in endorsements before he enters college. That’s out of control. Somebody, really the NCAA, needs to step up, and get off their lazy tails, and do something to control this. I’m OK with athletes getting some compensation, but there needs to be limits on it.

Vaccines

Nick Saban reported that nearly 90 percent of his team is vaccinated. That is really good. The SEC threshold is 80 percent when teams can relax protocols. Kirby Smart reported over 80% on Tuesday. There are 6 out of 14 SEC teams that are reported to be 80% vaccinated. Saban and Smart are big proponents of it. To play football in the fall, the players need to be educated more and they need to get the vaccine as soon as they possibly can with this Delta variant running rampant now.

Bobby Bowden

Some sadder news to report as Bobby Bowden has a terminal medical condition at 91 years old. There were no other specifics on what he actually has contracted. He did have COVID last fall. Jimbo Fisher called him an amazing coach and even better person. Won multiple ACC titles and 2 national championships in 1993 and 1999. Class act all the way. Thoughts and prayers go out to Coach Bowden and his family.

Texas and Oklahoma….

Have been rumored to be attempting to get in the SEC. The Houston Chronicle reported yesterday a decision will come down in the next two weeks. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey had no comment on it.

Not sure about this. I mean you talk about a super conference. I wouldn’t like it for the Big 12. I’ll just reserve judgment on this till there is more concrete evidence. That would be a complicated exit for those schools with TV deals with the Big 12 Network, the Longhorn Network and FOX. I’d rather have them in the Big 12. My daughter goes to TCU and really gets excited for the Texas game. It’s a big rivalry. Obviously, the appeal is financial for those two schools. But both schools, particularly Texas, are loaded. How much is enough.

There’s just a lot going on in college football. Like to talk about football more, the game, the competition, the personalities, coaches and players. Ready for this all this to settle down so we can do that.

Will have team profiles coming up in the next 5 weeks prior to kickoff.

Giannis Antetokounmpo put on a performance for the ages last night in leading his Milwaukee Bucks to their first NBA Championship in 50 years as they defeated the Phoenix Suns in game 6, 105-98.

Giannis, taking Milwaukee fans back to 1971 when Lew Alcindor, soon to be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and the Big O, Oscar Robertson, when they led the franchise to its first and only Lawrence O’Brien Trophy until last night.

Giannis poured in 50 points, pulled down 14 rebounds, and blocked 5 shots, and in an incredible turnaround due to his work at it, he was 17 of 19 from the free throw line. Just remarkable. Giannis was awarded the Bill Russell MVP Finals Trophy. It was as spectacular a performance in a close out game as I’ve ever seen. As good as Michael Jordan in my opinion, in anybody’s opinion who watched the game. The 26 year old native from Athens, Greece was un-guardable, and the Suns led the league in points allowed on defense, so they were a pretty solid defensive team. It was extraordinary.

And he certainly had some help. Jrue Holiday, who came in as a free agent this season from the New Orleans Pelicans, scored only 12 points, but pulled down 9 boards and added 11 assists. And the 31 year old from L.A. is one of the best defensive players you’ll ever see in basketball. Just clutch steal after clutch steal. Devin Booker, the Suns sharpshooter from the University of Kentucky, posted a couple of 40 point games in this series, but with Holliday guarding him, he was 8-of-22 from the field, and 0-for-7 from the 3 point range. He ended up with 19 points, but they were hard earned and he missed a lot of shots. Holliday was spectacular in the postseason. Khris Middleton, the 29 year old who played at Texas A&M converted big shot after big shot and scored 17 last night, including a late mid range shot that was crucial to the victory. He made clutch shot after clutch shot throughout the playoffs. He and Giannis came into the Bucks together, and this was their 8th season together in Milwaukee. There’s been a lot of heartache for both of guys, but they kept on working and believing and it paid off.

Bobby Portis, the 26 year old who played collegiately at Arkansas, was a key factor in the Bucks winning last night and in the series. He had 16 points with crucial bucket after crucial bucket. He was tremendous in helping his team win it all.

Coach Mike Buddenholzer was facing a lot of scrutiny when the playoffs started. Many were saying he would get fired if the Bucks didn’t do well. Whether that meant making it to the Finals is unknown, but I would say so. He did a terrific job coaching the team in the postseason. His team faced a 2-0 deficit to Brooklyn in the conference semis and came back and won in 6 games. Brooklyn with Kevin Durant, James Hardin and Kyrie Irving. Irving was hurt during the series, but it was still a very good team and a tremendous comeback. They had to defeat a highly talented Atlanta Hawks team in games 5 and 6 without Giannis, who hyperextended his knee in game 4 ,and they did. They just kept getting better and better every series and by the end of the Hawks series they looked like the best team in the NBA.

The Vegas people and gamblers were betting on the Suns, by a pretty substantial margin. But Giannis and the Bucks were not going to be denied. It’s very hard to repeat in any sport, so they just need to enjoy this victory for a while, and then lock in come September and see if they can repeat. It’s not unprecedented and with Giannis and the players around him, it’s attainable. That was one of the first things Giannis said last night, let’s do it again. The Tampa Bay Lightning just did it in hockey and the Tampa Bay Bucs bring Tim Brady and all 21 other starters back to their 2021 team, which is unheard of and extraordinary, so they’ve got a shot to win back to back Super Bowls this one coming up in Super Bowl 56 to be played at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, a 5 billon dollar state of the art football mausoleum. The Bucs and Brady won Super Bowl 55 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. The LA Dodgers are loaded, so we’ll see about them. the competition is fierce in MLB this season.

The Bucks, if they can keep their nucleus together, certainly have the material to repeat. And they are going to keep their group together. Was really refreshing to have a different 2 teams playing for the NBA Championship and the series was phenomenal. Good job NBA, like college football and the NFL, for pulling it off in a beyond challenging year. Quite a worthy champion in Giannis and the Bucks.

Prediction for the 3M Open

The defending champion is former Alabama player Michael Thompson, who put on a putting clinic last year in landing the title in Minneapolis-St. Paul. The Twin Cities course is a par 71 and tips at 7,431 yards. The greens are bentgrass and they will be stimping at 12 1/2 feet. The rough will be 3 1/2 inches.

Weather, Hot. High 89 Thursday, 96 Friday, 92 Saturday, 95 Sunday. So it’ll be a battle of attrition at TPC Twin Cities. Wind 9-12 throughout the weekend, but no rain.

TV, Thursday-Friday, 1:30-5:30 PM CT, Golf Channel. Saturday-Sunday, 12-2 PM CT Golf Channel, 2-5 PM CT, CBS.

Odds

Dustin Johnson, 15-2, Louis Oosthuizen, 15-1, Tony Finau, 16-1, Patrick Reed, 19-1, Sergio Garcia, 29-1, Matthew Wolff, 20-1, Bubba, 31-1,. Rickie Fowler, 44-1. Dylan Fritteli, 44-1, Maverick McNeely, 44-1.

Coilin Morikawa was iron at the 149th Open Championship last Sunday in winning his 2nd major championship in less than a year after his victory at the PGA Championship last August at Harding Park in San Francisco. His ball striking was superb and his putting Sunday even better. He was not going to be denied. At 24 years old, the Cal-Berkeley economics major graduate, has the golfing world captivated with his phenomenal ability to close in majors, at least in these 2 so far. There doesn’t look like there’s much stopping Morikawa from winning more majors. How many? I’d put him at 6 or 7 before he’s done. Maybe 9 or 10. He’s that good if he doesn’t lose focus.

Winner this week

I’m going to take the 36 year old from Seattle, Washington by way of Baylor School in Chattanooga and Vanderbilt University. He has 2 top 5’s in a row. He didn’t play in the Open last week but competed in the Barbasol in Kentucky and was one shot short of making the playoff which Seamus Power won. So, I’ll take him to get over the top and earn his first victory on tour.

Luke List

Darkhorse

Give me the 27 year old from Mountain Brook, Alabama by way of the University of Alabama. He was a Monday qualifier. His uncle, Bama Golf, believes in him and so do I. I’ll take,

Tom “T Love” Lovelady

Winner at the Amundi-Evian Championship

The fourth major on the Women’s Tour, the LPGA. Patty Tavatanakit won the first, the ANA Inspiration in early April in California. Yuka Sasso won the U.S, Women’s Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, and Nelly Korda won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club. The fifth major will be the AIG Women’s Open at Carnoustie Aug. 19th-22nd. The defending champion there is Sophia Popov. Temperatures will be a little warmer in Evian les-Baines, France with highs in the 80’s and some rain possible Saturday and Sunday, Wind 5-6 MPH each day, so minimal. The Evian Resort Club course is 6,523 yards and a par 71. Really nice course.

TV, Thursday, 4-6 AM CT, Golf Channel, 8:30-10:30 AM CT, Golf Channel. Friday, 4-6 AM CT, Golf Channel, 8:30-10:30 AM CT, Golf Channel. Saturday, 4:30-7:30 AM CT, Golf Channel. 7:30-10 AM CT CNBC. Sunday, 4:30-7:30 AM CT, Golf Channel, 7:30-10 AM CT CNBC.

I’ll take the defending champion from 2019, the major was not held last year due to COVID. The 26 year old from Seoul South Korea. She’s won 3 times already this year with her latest victory at the Volunteers of America Classic in Houston on July 1-4. There are some excellent players with Jessica and Nelly Korda, hard to pick against Nelly, and the Jutanugarn sisters, Ariya and big sister Moriya. They just won a 2 team event last week on tour. Lexi Thompson and Danielle Kang aren’t playing as they are getting ready to compete in the Olympics two weeks from yesterday in Japan for the United States. But Brook Henderson, Lydia Ko and many other stellar players are playing.

But i’ll take the South Korean.

Jin-young Ko

Tomorrow

Saban

Friday

Harsin

I’ll have the other coaches and their teams in my team profiles for 2021 in the upcoming 5 weeks leading up to kickoff.

This week I’m going to be doing some capsules on the coaches from SEC Media Days. Not a ton of stuff as I will be writing on each team, players, coaches, schedule, and prospects for the teams’ respective 2021 seasons in upcoming columns on each SEC team in the upcoming weeks. I’ll go a lot more in-depth in those pieces, so expect those starting Monday of next week. I wrote in-depth pieces on Alabama and Auburn in May, so if you want to go back to my May columns on the Crimson Tide and Tigers, you can find them there. I will obviously be writing more about S and Bryan in these Media Day pieces, but will write brief summaries of the other coaches and their comments with more extensive coverage coming up in these next 5-6 weeks leading up to kickoff of the 2021 season.

The SEC Media Days is a spectacle. Five hundred sportswriters throughout the Southeast with all 14 coaches building their teams up for the 2021 season. Yesterday Dan Mullen talked about his Gators, O waxed about his LSU Tigers, and new South Carolina Coach Shane Beamer, who came from Oklahoma where he was assistant head coach and tight ends coach and a key recruiter for LIncoln Riley, gave an optimistic speech on his South Carolina program. He’s a highly optimistic type. He’s going to get quite a welcome in the SEC. Beamer is longtime Virginia Tech legendary coach Frank Beamer’s son.

One last note. My man, Bama’ Golf’s nephew, Tom Lovelady, known as “T Love” to family and friends, has qualified for the 3M Open in Minneapolis this week on the PGA Tour. Great stuff for T Love and Bama Golf and his wife, Mary, whose sister is Tom’s mother, and for the whole family. We’ll be pulling for T Love here in B’ham. Bama told me last night he believes in him, Tom has the talent, and can do well on tour. I agree. Will have a preview of the 3M and the Amundi Evian Championship, the third major on the LPGA Tour tomorrow after S and the coaches from tomorrow capsules. The Evian is being played in Evian-les Bains France. Evian-les Bains is in the central part of France, about 6 hours southeast of Paris. Pretty cool course and a good field though Lexi Thompson and Danielle Kang will not be playing as they prepare for the Olympics in Japan in 2 weeks. Those Olympics look a little tenuous right now as COVID is rampant in Japan and athletes are dropping out due to positive tests. Hoping Japan can pull it off.

Here are Dan Mullen, Ed Orgeron and Shane Beamer.

Dan Mullen, Florida

Emory Jones takes over at quarterback for Dan Mullen this year as he tries to replace the large shoes of Kyle Trask, who led the Gators to an 8-2 mark last season and took the Crimson Tide to the wire in the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta. Then, their great tight end Kyle Pitts and others opted out of the Cotton Bowl and Trask had no help as the Gators got blasted by an Oklahoma team that was on fire and is primed for a huge 2021 with quarterback Spencer Rattler and a slew of talent returning. Mullen will turn to Jones this season. Jones is a stellar dual threat. He has super wheels, and is a prolific passer as well. He’s thrown for 7 touchdowns against only 1 int in his career. He gives them excellent talent under center. Mullen likes his playmakers and the o line looks big and physical. He’ll have a good offense. His defense was suspect last season, but so were a lot of defenses as the COViD layoff without any spring practice and all the disruptions during the fall had the defenses way behind the offenses. But he has good talent on that side of the ball and defensive coordinator Todd Grantham wants to not to have to blitz so much and send 4 or 5 and not leave his cornerbacks on an island guarding the talented receivers in the SEC. Mullen sees his defense having the personnel to do that this season. After games against Florida Atlantic and South Florida at home Sept. 4th and Sept. 11th, Florida will host the Crimson Tide in a huge 2:30 PM CT tilt on CBS, Saturday, Sept. 18th. Wow, what a blockbustuh. Games at LSU, Saturday, 10-16, versus Georgia at Cocktail Central in Jacksonville, 10-30, will be tremendous tests to see if the Gators can win the East and reach the SEC Championship Game. When I first heard about the 12 team playoff, I was a little skeptical, but the more I thought about it the more I loved it. Great teams like Florida, Georgia and LSU could make the playoff if it were expanded to 12 teams if they didn’t qualify by winning the SEC Championship Game. Texas A&M is, of course, another. So is Auburn if Harsin can get that program going again and playing the way Auburn is capable of playing with the talent they can attract down there. It just makes it a lot more exciting for college football. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey is one of the principal architects of the 12 teams and anything Commissioner Sankey sets out to do, I support. The guy is one of the sharpest pencils in the box in college football. If there is a 12 team playoff, it won’t happen until at least 2023. The 4 team playoff is going to be in place for the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Here’s hoping they make this 12 team playoff a reality.

Florida will have a younger team this season, but Mullen has recruited well, so the expectations are high as usual under Mullen. He had an interesting comment on the Alabama game saying he wishes the league didn’t have permanent cross division rivals, and could play other teams from the west more often. He’d like to see Florida play an Alabama more than once every 10 years. I like that idea. Florida’s permanent cross divisional opponent is LSU. I’d like to see Sankey look into that idea by Coach Mullen. The Gators will have a good squad this year, but the question is can they win their big games. Alabama is a colossal challenge. Georgia is loaded and LSU is loaded with talent if O can get them playing good football again. The Cocktail gig is always one that usually decides the East. One last thing, Mullen can really ride a wakeboard. There is a video of him on one in a lake where he’s doing 360’s, it’s amazing. The guy’s an athlete.

O, LSU

I love hearing O. He’s the kind of a guy you’d like to go out and play a round of golf, go fishing with or go get a beer with after work. He’s an engaging, entertaining guy. He recruits so well in Baaton Rouge. His 2021 class was ranked 4th in the country, Alabama was No.1 and has the highest rated recruiting class of all time with its 2021 haul. But O did well in 2021 and this 2022 class is 4th overall and there is a massive amount of talent in Louisiana this year, and O’s in recruiting wars with the other SEC schools for many marquee players in his home state. O said he won’t get’em all, but he plans on getting most of them. His 2 quarterbacks, Myles Brennan and Max Johnson, are battling it out to be the No.1 QB for the opener at UCLA on Saturday, Sept. 4th at 7:30 PM CT on FOX. Brennan played in just 3 games last season before getting hurt and threw for 11 TDs, so he’s a veteran talent. He’s a senior. Johnson, a sophomore, is a 4 star lefty who played a good bit last season and showed plenty of promise. The team went 5-5 last season, and didn’t play in a bowl game because of COVID issues, but had a huge upset of Florida at the Swamp as a double digit underdog and derailed the Gators’ undefeated season and hopes at the time, of playing in the playoff. It was the best game of the regular season, a 37-34 Tiguh victory. Then they finished off the season defeating Ole Miss at Tiguh Stadium, 53-48. They have a lot of talented players returning. He has a lot of new coaches. He has a new offensive coordinator in Jake Peetz, who came over from the Carolina Panthers, where he was the quarterbacks coach, and was recommended to O by former LSU stellar offensive coordinator “Joe Bradi” as O calls him. Brady is now the OC for the Panthers, and O sees Peetz as the next Brady. They’ll run the same offensive schemes as they did under Brady. On defense, O hired Daronte Jones as his defensive coordinator. Jones comes to the Tiguhs from the Minnesota Vikings where he was defensive backs coach under stellar defensive mind, head coach Mike Zimmer. O likes Jones to solidify his secondary and his entire defense in general which struggled last season. O is high on his offensive line with a lot of players returning who opted out last season. The line is led by left tackle Austin Deculus. Deculus is 6’6”, 331, and the line is equally big and physical beside him. O is high on his running backs, Tyrion Davis-Price and John Emory Jr. He thinks Kayshon Boutte is his next stud at wide receiver and there are some other young guys on the perimeter he’s also excited about. On defense, he thinks he has the best 2 cornerbacks in the country in the great Derek Stingley Jr and Eli Ricks. His dline and linebackers are big and talented. He’s got his kicker and his punter back and Stingley will return punts and provide electricity there and take it to the house ability, and Emory Jr and Trey Palmer, another potential stellar receiver, will return kicks.

The UCLA game is quite a start to the season. The Bruins are ready to take a step forward nationally and will really be charged up to take down the Bengal Tigers, so that’ll be major test on Saturday, Sept. 4th at 7:30 PM CT on FOX. At Mississippi State on Saturday, Sept. 25th, Auburn at home, Sat. Oct. 2nd, @Ole Miss, Sat, Oct. 23rd, @ the Crimson Tide, Sat. Nov. 5th and versus Texas A&M at Tiguh Stadium Sat. Nov. 27 will be wars. So O has his work cut out for him, but he has plenty of horses.

Shane Beamer, South Carolina

Beamer mentioned so many people when he started talking even several of the SEC Network commentators, it was a little different from usual. You gotta give the guy credit, he’s highly ambitious. He brought in several transfers this season and has the 19th ranked recruiting class in 2022, so he’s quite a recruiter. Sophomore Luke Doty is listed as his starter at QB. Doty played behind the departed Collin Hill last season, and completed 43 of 71, 61%, for 405 yards, 2 TDs and 3 Ints. So not a lot to go on. Kevin Harris is a 1,000+ yard returning running back. Beamer says he’ll need some other guys behind Harris to help him out, so he can have Harris fresh for the 4th quarter. Beamer will have a veteran offensive line with juniors and seniors. OrTre Smith is a talented receiver and Nick Muse is a stellar tight end. Defense has several transfers on it.

Key games include @ Georgia Saturday, Sept. 18th at 6 PM CT on ESPN, Kentucky at home, Saturday, 9-25, @ A&M, Sat,. 10-23, Florida at home, Saturday, 11-5, Auburn, Saturday, Nov. 20th at home and Clemson at home, Saturday, Nov. 27. This is the second year in row the Gamecocks have played Auburn at home. Some sort of kink in the schedule most likely caused by the unusual 2020 season.

It’ll be a challenge for Beamer in year 1 in the SEC. He’s a pumped up guy though and looks like a good recruiter, so he could make the Gamecocks a relevant force in the SEC in the future. Could be a solid team in the conference this season but only win 4 or 5 games due to the level of talent he’ll be facing.

Today, Kirby Smart, Josh Huepel, UT, Mark Stoops, Kentucky, and Kiff.

The last major of this year, the 149th Open Championship, will commence early tomorrow morning central and eastern time at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England. This will be the 15th time the course, which is 90 minutes southeast of London on the English southeastern coastline, has hosted the Open. Most recent winners are Greg Norman in 1993, Ben Curtis in 2003 and 42 year old, at the time, Darren Clarke in 2011.

With the Open not being held last year due to COVID concerns in England, Shane Lowry is the defending champion from 2019. The Irishman won the 148th Open on his semi home turf at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland. He’s from mainland Ireland.

Several players opted out of this year’s Open for a variety of reasons. Bubba Watson, though vaccinated, was exposed to a person with COVID and decided not to make the trip. Zach Johnson has COVID and is out. Hideki Matsuyama contracted the virus a little while back and cited inability to get ready for the Open as a reason not to compete. Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim are concentrating on the Olympics, because if they medal in Japan, they would get out of mandatory military service in their home country of South Korea. So some bigger names are out.

But Jon Rahm, the most recent U.S. Open champion at Torrey Pines and a guy who is setting the golf world on fire, leads the field. Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Rory McIlory, Collin Morikawa, Viktor Hovland, Phil, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, and Jordan Spieth are several of the superstars in the field. It’s loaded and they’re going to be tested by Royal St. George’s where author Ian Flemming set a scene of his James Bond thriller ,Goldfinger in which Bond outlasts the villain Goldfinger on what was called St. Marks, but it was actually Royal St. George’s. Goldfinger was cheating away, but Bond figured out a way to get around that and won the match. Classic movie.

Key holes on the course include, the 1st, which is a 442 yard par 4, with the left side of the fairway protected by a trio of bunkers, a lot of bunkers on this course. Also, there is a ridge. No.3 is a 239 par 3. No bunkers but there is usually a headwind making it very difficult to find the green at times, depending on the wind speed. It’s a two tiered green that is 40 yards wide. Big green, but difficult to putt. No.4 is a 496 yard par 4 that has what is called an enormous “Himalayan” bunker. You’ve got to see it to believe it. Very intimidating presence off the tee. If a player runs over the green on his second shot, he can go out of bounds.

The toughest 3 hole stretch is 13 through 15. No.13 is a 457 yard par 4, with 2 bunkers on each side of the fairway off the tee. The ‘Razorback” green is guarded by 2 bunkers that can really attract golf balls. No.14 is a 545 yard par 5 that has a ditch running across it on the second shot and out of bounds on the right. Dustin Johnson was tied with Darren Clarke in 2011, and laced a tee shot, but hit his second shot out of bounds and his chances of winning were denied. No. 15 is a 493 yard par 4. There are 5 bunkers in the fairway and 3 around the green. James Bond hit it to two inches on this hole on his second shot.

No. 18 is a 456 yard, par 4 where driving is critical and bunkers guard the green. Excellent finishing hole.

RSG is known for its fiery fairways, fast greens, and rough this year that is above the knees and thick as a concrete step. Jack Nicklaus, after shooting an 83 on it, said famously in 1981, that “the Open gets worse the farther South you travel.”

Some of the players don’t like the layout, and the COVID situation with players only able to be with their 3 man team in a hotel or a residence and only self catering, no grocery store, no restaurant and no pub bothers some of them. Keegan Bradley doesn’t have a problem with it. He says it’s his usual Open, play, go back to the hotel, get ready for the next day. It’s not like these guys are on Iwo Jima. They get to play for the Claret Jug, over $2 million for the winner, and exemptions for the next 5 Masters, U.S, Opens, and PGAs and an exemption into the Open Championship till age 60. That’s a pretty good deal. They need to tough it out. It’s not that tough to do for a week.

Weather

Thursday, 70, sunny, winds North 10 to 20.

Friday, 69, sunny, winds NNE 15

Saturday, Sunny, Winds NNE 14

Sunday, Sunny, wind NE 5-10.

Good weather with wind being a factor some. Could change on the English coast with rain coming in. Right now, looks good.

TV, All times Central

Thursday-Friday, 12:30 AM-3 AM , Peacock, NBC Streaming service. 3 AM-2 PM Golf Channel. 2-3 PM Peacock.

Saturday, 4-6 AM, Golf Channel. 6 AM-2PM NBC.

Sunday, 3-6 AM, Golf Channel. 6 AM-1 PM, NBC.

Odds of winning Open

Jon Rahm, 8/1

Brooks Koepka, 16/1

Xander Schauffele, 18/1

Justin Thomas, 18/1

Jordan Spieth, 18/1

Rory, 22/1

Dustin, 25/1

Louis Oosthuizen 30/1

Viktor Hovland, provided he doesn’t get sand in his eye like he did at the U.S. and quit, 30/1

Patrick Cantlay, 33/1

Patrick Reed 33/1

Tyrrell Hatton, 33/1

Shane Lowry, 35/1

Collin Morikawa, 35/1

Tommy Fleetwood, 35/1

Bryson DeChambeau, 35/1

Matt Fitzpatrick, 40/1

Paul Casey, 40/1

Scottie Scheffler, 45/1

Lee Westwood, 47/1

Tony Finau, 50/1

The always unfolding soap opera that is called Bryson DeChambeau has a new twist. He changed caddies last week going from his longtime caddie, Tim Turner, to a younger Brian Zeigler, who is swing coach guru Chris Cuomo’s right hand man. Cuomo mentors DeChambeau. Golf Channel’s Brandle Chamblee said to be DeChambeau’s caddie you have to be a meteorologist, mathematician, and therapist among other things. The guy’s complex. GC’s Justin Leonard was pointing out with DeChambeau and Zeigler on the course on camera, that Zeigler was spinning around a contraption that looked like a large yoyo. Justin said it’s called a B T Meter which measures wind chill, wind speed, humidity and barometric pressure. Leonard said it’s used for long range shooting, Kite flying and hunting, but golf is not listed as one of its uses.

What a guy. This controversy with Brooks Koepka could be settling down now. Hoping it will.

Winner

I’m going to take the 38 year old from Mossel Bay, South Africa. He finished tied for second with Koepka at the PGA Championship behind Phil, and second to Jon Rahm at the U.S, Open. He’s leading the tour in strokes gained putting and he’s always been an excellent ball striker. I’ll go with the 2010 Open Champion from St. Andrews.

Louis Oosthuizen

Sleeper

I like this 22 year old fellow countryman of Louis, this one from Johannesburg, He won on the PGA Tour at the Palmetto Championship in South Carolina in June, and has won 3 times on the Euro Tour in the past year at the Open de Portugal in Sept. 2020, the Gran Canaria Lopesan Open this past April, and the Canary Islands Championship in May. So for my darkhorse, give me

Garrick Higgo

The Americans and Nationals lock horns tonight at 7 at Coors Field in Denver for what could be a hitting extravaganza at the almost mile high Coors Field in the 91st Major League All Star Game.

Coors Field seats 50,144 fans and sits at 5,200 feet. Five thousand two hundred eighty feet is a mile, so there will be balls traveling in this stadium. This is the best All Star Game. It’s patriotic and fun. I don’t really watch the Pro Bowl anymore and don’t watch the NBA All Star game. It’s out of control lack of defense with scores like 155-150. Pretty much a joke of a game.

But this is fun and entertaining. Pete Alonso of the Mets winning the home run derby the Orioles Trey Mancini, was superb. Mancini has just come back from colon cancer. It’s an amazing story. He’s an All Star a year after his treatment for cancer. Quite a moving story.

Fox will televise tonight with Joe, Smoltzie, Tom Verducci and Ken Rosenthal providing the coverage. I’m expecting several long balls, though the arms are excellent on both sides. The velo will be mid to high 90’s much of the night if not all of it, so the hitters will have to catch up with guys like Gerrit Cole (Yankees), Arolidis Chapman (Yankees), Walker Buehler (Dodgers) and Josh Hader (Brewers). Another amazing story is this phenom Japanese outfielder/pitcher for the American League, Shohei Ohtani of the LA Angels. Ohtani is hitting .279 and leads the major leagues in homers with 33 and has 70 Ribbies. He’s third in RBIs behing only Vlad Guerrero Jr. of the Blue Jays (73) and Rafeal Devers of the BOSox (72). He’s also 4-1 with a 3.21 ERA. This guy’s a phenom.

Prediction

I’ll take the senior circuit to break a 7 game losing streak against the juniors. The National League gets it done in an electric hitting spectacle.

NL 8, AL 7

MVP

I’ll take my man from the Pittsburgh Pirates by way of Vanderbilt University who is starting in centerfield for the National League and hitting 8th. He’s a hitter’s hitter. He hits .302 with 16 homers and 51 Ribeyes and is an excellent defensive outfielder. I’ll take my man….

Bryan Reynolds

Jon Rahm is tuning up for Major victory number 2 this week as he plays in the 49th Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick, Scotland.

What a year the 121st U.S. Open Champion has had. He finished tied for 5th at the Masters, tied for 8th at the PGA Championship, he was leading the Memorial by 6 strokes after Saturday’s round when he was informed that he tested positive for the Cornavirus, and had to withdraw. An emotional Rahm complied and had to quarantine for 10 days before 2 negative tests allowed him to get back to practicing on Saturday, six days before the U.S. started. He used that time wisely and sank a 21 foot putt on 17 at Torrey Pines for birdie and the winning putt from 20 feet on 18 to defeat Louis Oosthuizen by a shot and capture his first major championship.

Rahm is the 7-1 favorite at Scotland and the 9-1 favorite at the 149th Open Championship next week at Royal St. George’s in Sandwich, England on the eastern central coast of England. Rory is 11-1 next week, followed by, Dustin Johnson at 12-1, Koepka at 14-1, Spieth at 18-1, DeChambeau at 20-1, Schauffele at 20-1, Justin Thomas at 22-1, Louis at 25-1, and Collin Morikawa at 28-1.

Interestingly in the field next week, the highest earning players not to win the Open, are Adam Scott, Sergio Garcia, Rickie Fowler and Matt Kuchar. Garcia is at 500-1, and Fowler is 600-1.

For this week’s warm up for the Open, Schauffele and Morikawa are 12-1, Rory is 14-1 and JT is 16-1. Tyrrell Hatton is 22-1 and Matthew Fitzpatrick is 28-1. Young Americans Will Zalatoris and Sam Burns are at 40-1, and South African Branden Grace is at 41-1.

So, a very nice field this week.

The Renaissance Club is a 7,293 yard, par 71. No.2 is a 493 yard par 4, No.3 is a 600 yard, par 5, No. 10 is a 594 yard, par 5, No.15 is a 488 yard, par 4, No.17 is a 203 yard, par 3, and No. 18 is a 483 yard, par 4. Like the Open Championship next week, there are a lot of circular deep bunkers on the course. It’s tremendous preparation for Royal St. George’s, which should really test the players next week. The last Open Championship at Royal St. George’s, the 140th played in 2011, was won by Darren Clarke at -5. Dustin and Phil finished tied for 2nd at -2.

Key tee times tomorrow are,

2 AM CT, Schauffele, Hatton and Tommy Fleetwood

2:10 AM CT, Lee Westwood, Robert MacIntyre, Collin Morikawa

2:20 AM CT, Billy Horschel, Danny Willett, Matthew Fitzpatrick

2:30 AM CT, Henrik Stenson, Graeme McDowell, Matthias Schwab, former Vanderbilt player who’s done pretty well on Euro Tour.

7 AM CT, more reasonable for watching, Rory, Rahm, Justin T.

7:10 AM CT, Martin Kaymer, Will Zalatoris, Victor Perez.

The defending champion is Aaron Rai from England. He won the Scottish at the Renaissance Club last October, 2020. Rickie Fowler won in 2015, Justin Rose in 2014, Phil in 2013 before his Open Championship victory the next week at Muirfield, the 142nd edition, Martin Kaymer won in 2009 and Graeme McDowell won in 2008. Fowler, Rose and Mickelson are not in the field while Kaymer and McDowell are.

Weather

Thursday, 64, partly sunny, wind S 8 MPH.

Friday, 61, 50% chance of showers, wind NE 8.

Saturday, 63, 59% showers, wind ENE 9.

Sunday, 64, Light rain, 80%, wind, ESE 9.

TV

All on Golf Channel, all times Central

Thursday, 6:30 AM-12 PM.

Friday, 6:30 AM-12 PM.

Saturday, 6 AM-11:30 AM.

Sunday, 6-11:30 AM.

Winner

I’m going to go out on a limb and pick the 2008 champion, the 41 year old from Portrush Northern Ireland, by way of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He’a won 4 times on the PGA Tour, including the 100th U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 2010, and has won 11 times on the European Tour with his last victory coming at the Saudi International in February of 2020. Just want to go with somebody different who is highly capable in Scotland on his semi-native soli. Give me,

Graeme McDowell

The Milwaukee Bucks play for their first NBA Championship since 1971, while the Phoenix Suns are playing for their first ever NBA title.

The Bucks are most likely missing superstar center Giannis Antetokounmpo for game 1 tonight, as he hyperextended his knee in game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals. He was not available for games 5 and 6, but the Bucks were very impressive despite his absence winning at home and at Atlanta to close out that series in 6.

The Suns have been steamrolling the West and defeated the LA Clippers, though the Clippers were without their often injured superstar Kawhi Leonard, so it was easier for the Suns in the Western Conference Finals.

Here is the TV schedule for the Finals. All times Central.

Tonight, Game 1, @ 8, ABC, Milwaukee @Phoenix

Thursday, Game 2, 8 PM, ABC, Milwaukee @ Phoenix

Sunday, July 11th, Game 3, 7 PM , ABC, Phoenix @ Milwaukee

Wednesday, July 14th, Game 4, 8 PM, ABC Phoenix @ Milwaukee

Saturday, July 17th, Game 5 (if necessary) 8 PM, ABC, Milwaukee @ Phoenix

Tuesday, July 20th, Game 6 (if necessary), 8 PM, ABC, Phoenix @ Milwaukee

Thursday, July 22nd, Game 7 (if necessary), 8 PM, ABC, Milwaukee @ Phoenix

Final Analysis and Prediction

I contend that the Bucks are playing better basketball without Giannis. If he plays, great, but their passing, their shooting, their ball-handling and their free throw shooting is much better. Giannis misses a lot of big shots in the clutch and he’s a terrible free throw shooter at 53% in the playoffs. He turns it over at the exact wrong time in a game as well, usually late when the game is on the line. Six foot seven forward Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez (7’0’, 280) and point guard Jrue Holliday are more than capable of carrying this team in Giannis’s absence. My man, Skip Bayliss of Fox Sports “Undisputed” show which he’s a co-commentator along with Shannon Sharpe, said the Bucs looked like a better team without Giannis against Atlanta, but that was in a vacuum. I’ll take it a step farther than my Vanderbilt brethren and say there’s no vacuum at all. The team is clearly better without him. I’m not saying they won’t take him back, but I don’t see them needing him. Middleton, Lopez and Holliday are superstars, and Pat Connaughton, P.J. Tucker, Bobby Portis, and Jeff Teague are excellent support players who contribute quite well to the effort of winning big games. C Paul, DeAndre Ayton (6’11”, 250) and Devin Booker are super players for the Suns, but I like this Bucks team better. Michigan State coach Tom Izzo has said to win a national championship you need 3 NBA players on your team as starters. The same holds true for professional basketball, you need 3 superstars to win it all. The Bucks have that, and 4 when Giannis gets back. But they’re playing so well without him. Middleton averages 24 per game, Holliday 17 and 6 1/2 assists and Lopez is a monster on the boards, blocking shots and hitting key three points shots, and slamming it home on alley oops. I also like the Bucks’ support group on the floor. Giannis is an excellent talent, but he seems to mess up team chemistry. I like the Bucks to win the Lawrence O’Brien Trophy with or without Giannis.

Bucks in 6

Finals MVP, Khris Middleton

Not our year this year, but close to being. Corbs had a really emotional press conference, it was pretty powerful. He was very emotional when talking about what Kumar meant to him and the team, what a team guy he always was, just incredibly dedicated to his team. Didn’t finish the way he wanted to, but did so much for the program and won it all for us 2 years ago. He said that Carter Young was probably 50% and played through a lot of pain from his dislocated left shoulder at the end of the season. Said he’s an awesome kid and a great competitor with awesome parents who have raised him well. Enrique was playing hurt and battled through it, and Tate couldn’t throw due to an arm injury, and could only hit.

He also gave State a lot of credit. Just was their year this year. Will be excited to see Jack, Kumar, Nick M. Luke M and anybody else who goes to the big leagues if those guys all decide to go to MLB.
We have a good group returning next season, and a really good recruiting class coming in, so we’ve got a shot to be in Omaha next year and, once there, have another shot at winning it all.
A lot to be proud of with this group. Corbs said the wear and the tear of the season, the emotion of winning the Regional and the Super Regional and the grueling games in the CWS, may have taken a toll of us in the championship series.
Regardless, proud of these guys for their dedication to Vanderbilt Baseball and Vanderbilt University. They will be remembered with great fondness and have left an indelible legacy at VU. Congratulations, guys, on an awesome season. You gave Vandy Nation a lot to be proud of. Proud of you and appreciate you so much.
We’ll be back, I/m sure of that. Football getting more commits and Stack kicking tail in recruiting in 2021 and 2022. More on Clark and Stack coming up in the next couple of weeks. Happy 4th, have a fun, relaxing long weekend. God Bless and Anchor Down!