Good afternoon and welcome to Caddyshanks. The nations first and only golf & gambling newsletter, written by people who will definitely never be offered membership at Los Angeles Country Club.

Here's what we've got for ya today:

• Quick Recap: US Open

• WITB: Wyndham Clark

• Early Lines: Travelers Championship

• Golf Shots Heard Round The World

• Tom Watson Open Letter to PGA

• Golf Thing We'd Buy If We Weren't Broke

Quick Recap: US Open

👑 Winner: Wyndham Clark 3.7M

Opinions, opinions, opinions.

There’s been a lot of them flying around about the 2023 U.S. Open, and for good reason.

It was certainly different than your average U.S. Open. We will touch on that a little more down below. For now, let’s give Wyndham Clark his flowers.

Clark started the day tied for the lead with Rickie Fowler and ended up outlasting both him and Rory McIlroy to become champion.

For many golf fans, Clark could be viewed as a disappointing winner. His win had the same vibes as Stewart Cink beating Tom Watson at The 2009 Open. (Circumstances for that one were a little different, yes, but you get the point.)

While Clark certainly isn’t the bad guy this weekend, it seemed that most fans on social media wanted it to come down to Rickie or Rory. This is when we throw the most overused media line of the week at you.

“We might be in Hollywood, but everyone knows Hollywood doesn’t write scripts for Sunday at the U.S. Open.”

So, there was no exclamation point to the Rickie Fowler comeback season (yet) and there was no dramatic Jim Nantz call for Rory McIlroy finally ending his decade long major drought.

There was just Wyndham Clark, the underdog at the top of the leaderboard.

His cohorts struggled, and he ground his way to victory with an even par round.

That’s two wins in the last two months for Wyndham Clark. A designated event and a major.

Not bad for a guy, who, lot long ago, was on the outside looking in. There was even a time where, grieving the loss of his mother, and struggling with poor play, he considered hanging it up. He struggled to qualify for previous U.S. Opens, and when he did qualify, he didn’t compete.

You don’t react to winning like this unless you give every ounce of yourself to the pursuit of major championship greatness. Clark clearly has.

Okay, so was it a good U.S. Open?

It’s been interesting to read the reactions to this weeks major. Here are the three biggest critiques:

1. Many feel that the course didn’t pose enough of a challenge. The U.S. Open is supposed to be the toughest test in golf, and with record low scoring, it’s safe to say it wasn’t tough enough.

   In fact, the USGA shared that this week was the lowest scoring week in U.S. Open history.

2. Then, you had the coverage, which was legitimately poor. Not only did they have a technical issue Saturday, which lead to fans missing Wyndham Clark, a co-leader, tee off on the first hole, but then we all had to put up with Paul Azingers dreadful commentary.

3. The atmosphere at the tournament itself was incredibly low energy for a major. This was rumored to be the case for a few reasons; the course itself isn’t really built for spectators, the membership at LACC bought up like half of the GA tickets to keep lowly normies off the property, and majority of the tickets were hospitality suites. Basically, the U.S. Open this year was a boring, corporate event.

It wasn’t bad, but there’s no doubt last years U.S. Open at The Country Club was way better. LACC is a great golf course, but a mediocre U.S. Open venue.

WITB: Wyndham Clark

After never even making the cuts and going 0-for-2 in previous US Opens, Wyndham Clark is your US Open winner. You probably read that earlier in the newsletter. I have no idea what my cowriter Josey already wrote about! He puts this whole thing together, but he respectfully let’s me cook.

Speaking of cooking, Wyndham Clark now has TWO wins in his last four starts. And just like a world-renowned chef cookin’ up the best of the best flavors in the kitchen in say, a boujee restaurant in Beverly Hills, I need to know what kind of tools Clark has been cheffin with when he went -10 at LACC.

Driver: Titleist TSi3 (9 degrees)

3-Wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (15 degrees)

3-Iron: Titleist T200 (Utility iron as 3-iron)

4-9 Irons: Titleist 620 CB (4-9)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM9 (46 degree, 52 degree, 56 degree)

Wedge (cont.): Vokey Design WedgeWorks (60 degree)

Putter: Odyssey Jailbird Versa

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

Early Lines: Travelers Championship

One week after the U.S. Open, and we’ve got a designated event that features 23 of the top 30 in OWGR. Not a bad week ahead!

Here is the full field for those curious: Full Field

TPC River Highlands is a second shot golf course, so maybe it’s time to pick Mr. Collin Morikawa at +2500.

As always, we will do a deep dive Wednesday for “Doin Lines”.

Golf Shots Heard Round The World

Rickie Fowler: His gesture on 18 told us something his golf game could not.

Rory McIlroy: Another long walk to nowhere.

Gordon Sargent: The low US Amateur at the U.S. Open had a freak putting accident on 18.

Speaking Of Tom Watson

The Major Champion wrote an open letter to the PGA about their proposed merger with PIF / LIV. Click the tweet below to read in its entirety.

Golf Thing We'd Buy If We Weren't Broke

Macklemore founded golf brand (yes, THAT Macklemore) and mega sports apparel brand Adidas have teamed up to release some epic sponsored gear that’ll have you wondering if you might be in the wrong year. Nope. It’s 2023, and it’s almost never been cooler to be a golfer, or even just a fan of the game. And if you have the money, which I DON’T, you can get your hands on the swaggiest swag that’s ever been had on bogeyboys.com where you’ll find their collection with Adidas.

I’m talkin’ track suits, polos, hats, and even this ridiculous retro tote for a cool $550. But since I’ve always been a shoe guy, my favorites are the MC80 Golf Shoes for a NOT TOO BAD $220. Oh wait, yea $220 is a lot. Anyway, Bogey Boys always has cool gear, Adidas is legendary, so what’s not to love?

That's all folks! See you Wednesday where we'll talk Travelers.