Hour 3: US Open Champ Wyndham Clark, plus The Athletic’s James Jackson Talks Giannis Trade with Andrew Siciliano

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1:15Our YouTube channel. Subscribe at youtube.com slash Rich Eisen Show and you'll never miss a moment. Now, on with the show. Let's do this. Let's do this. This is the Rich Eisen Show with guest host Andrew Siciliano. The kick is... No good! Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Earlier on the show, 49ers quarterback Mack Jones. Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins. Coming up, two-time U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark. And now, sitting in for Rich, it's Andrew Siciliano.

1:59Now, what a fun show today. What a fun show. Kirk Cousins, Mac Jones were both here. Brendan Soresby's not going to get a supplemental draft. Wow. That just went down. Giannis got traded last night. Oh, by the way, the NBA draft is this evening. You didn't think there was anything to talk about. The NBA draft is this evening. So much for slow June. Ronaldo has two goals. Two goals. Okay. Would have had three, but they used them as a decoy. Would have had the hat trick. Chris Brockman, Michael Dutufo, TJ Jefferson. He has two goals. Wyndham Clark has two U.S. Opens. Look at you. Look at you. Don't look at me.

2:43Look at him. Let's give a round of applause. Let's get a round of applause here. Joining us now on the Rich Eisen Show, your U.S. Open two-time U.S. Open champion, Wyndham Clark. Sir. How the heck are you, Wyndham? I couldn't be better. I mean, you could. You get a third. I mean, that would be better, right? I'm not wrong. Best things come in threes, but I'll take two for right now. But two is pretty good. When they were checking you in, and we appreciate you doing this, I was told you had a cup of something. Are those grapes? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Yes. We have a little Sancerre white grape right now.

3:20Oh, lovely. So cheers. Well, cheers. I will. Hey, you got to celebrate, right? I mean, it's not very often you win the U.S. Open. No, you should keep on celebrating, even on a Tuesday. I'm going to toast you back with black coffee from a Keurig. Nice. Which is like a Sancerre. With some Baileys in there, maybe. Give me like an hour, Wyndham. Okay. You said that after the first Open, it was Screaming Eagle, tip of the cap to Stan Kroenke. What kind of grapes did we crack open this time? Sunday. It was a 95 Sazakaya, so some Italian wine. It's actually my favorite wine. So it was no offense to Screaming Eagle.

4:03That is unbelievable. But this is my favorite. Well, well-deserved. What was that party like? Well, it was in the Hamptons with a bunch of friends. It was at a beach club, which was epic. They had food out there for us, open bar. Everything was flowing, friends, family, some people I didn't even know and um you know we were just passing the cup around everyone was drinking out of it talking about fun moments smiling laughing we ended up playing my brother and I and people played ping pong we got competitive it didn't end until 5 a.m so it was uh quite a night wait a minute did did you play wine pong no my brother first there was a ping pong table in that beach club for some reason my brother's playing people and then everyone's like when you You got to come over and beat your brother.

4:53No one can beat him. So I went over there. I will say some things were against me in that, in the fact that we'd been drinking out of the cup a little bit. It wasn't my peak performance. But we had a lot of fun. And my brother got the best of me, which I hate to even admit. But whatever. That's what brother was for. We're talking to U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark. Not Wyndham Supreme, like Marty Supreme. You were beaten in ping pong. Table tennis. It doesn't happen often, but my brother is kind of my like, you know, kryptonite. Yeah, no, I get it. And hand-eye coordination after that much, after that many grapes, I can imagine would be a thing.

5:32What was it like having your dad Randall there? Because Dan Hicks kept saying during the broadcast, during the final round, like dad's here. Dad flew in from Denver, but he doesn't know that dad is here. And then the cameras and microphones picked it up there. After you won, you're like, oh, wow. Hey, hey, dad. the celebration afterwards with dad how was that oh it was amazing yeah i really didn't know you know my dad hasn't been able to watch me uh win one of my five tournaments and to win that championship on sunday father's day and to have him there in person was amazing and he really did really did catch me off guard and i was just so happy i could share that with him it's a super special moment and then you know the celebration after he was exhausted because he took a red eye so we got him some espresso and he got to drink out of the cup he got to hang with you know my brother was there so and my sister so he got to hang out with all his kids i'm pretty sure he was in uh you know dad heaven it was uh it was pretty cool yeah i mean it is pretty cool it's worth taking a red eye i hate red eyes i take them all the time but you you have to chase it when you land you have to either a take the nap or decide i'm going to stay up the entire time i think watching your son win the U.S.

6:45Open is worth staying up for? I think so. Yeah, I think so as well. Wyndham Clark joining us here on The Rich Eisen Show. Andrew Siciliano sitting in. Wyndham, I got to ask you, two days later, I'm sure you've had one or two, maybe not, quiet moments to try to process the reaction of the crowds and everything you heard. People got kicked out, people openly rooting against you. I don't want this to be the entire story, but you know it is part of the story. Two days later, how do you feel about it? Honestly, I love it. I think it adds to kind of the drama of the tournament. I think I also hopefully won over a lot of the fans, especially the New York fans and other people watching that I kind of battled one of the toughest golf courses and a crowd that was openly against me.

7:35And I don't know, I think, I don't know I think I think it was also something that I really um will lean on in the future of kind of having everything against me and being able to pull through and win you know if you can overcome you know that then you know what can't you do especially in golf so um it was a I look at it as a positive thing you know I try to always turn any sort of negative thing into a positive and that's kind of how I'm looking at it and I thought your answer on the podium and you had plenty of questions, obviously, about this on the podium when you won on Sunday was great as well.

8:10They weren't, you know, they were rooting against me, but maybe they were rooting for Scotty, right? Maybe they're rooting for the career Grand Slam. And that's what I have to, in my head, do is take that negative, turn it into a positive. How difficult is that, though? You've spoken openly about mental health. You've spoken openly about trying to channel negativity into positivity. and you said on the podium Sunday, like my anger issues, I think they're gone. I think they're gone. How do you stay in that moment? Because I'll be honest with you, like the average person can't. Like I was sitting on the couch going like, like, just shut up.

8:48Like I wanted to mute my TV and I'm 2 ,500 miles away. Yeah, I mean, it was it was difficult. I definitely there's some training. You know, I used to be my worst enemy with allowing my negative thoughts to get in my way. And that's even before 23. And as I started working on my mental game, I learned to replace negative thoughts with positive thoughts. And, you know, it doesn't happen right away. You know, the mental game is definitely takes time to train your brain and to get better. And, you know, I've had, what, two and a half years to kind of prepare for a moment like this where I have everything going against me.

9:26And sometimes even your own mind says negative things like, oh, I'm blowing this lead or or whatever. They hate me. Why? Why do they hate me? You know, whatever it is. And then the training kicks in and your brain says, no, you're great. You can do this. You've done this before. You can win. You tell yourself positive things. You you either pray or you breathe and meditate. And then those really help get you through those moments. And that all really, really helped me. And and then, you know, I thought if I could show them kind of kindness and love in the person that I really am, I think I could ultimately win over the crowd.

10:03Which was great. And you did, I think, at the end. I hope certainly you did. And we kept hearing and the great NBC mics were picking this up. Good process. Good process. Good process. There have been many who have suggested that the good process now would just be take these events out of New York like this. You know, if you were, for example, in in Minnesota, you know, the great the Minnesota nice, as you like to call the great fans up there, that it wouldn't have been like that. I mean, you would have heard something, but not like this. What do you say to that? I disagree. I think New York's one of our best cities in the world and especially in the US.

10:40And I think the fans are passionate. They love their city. They love our country. It's a little shock. They're rooting against me. I'm an American boy. I played on the Ryder Cup team. I was in the Olympics. So I love all the same things. But you know what? They're just passionate. And I think tournaments here in the future is necessary. It's a need. Just maybe, hopefully, they start rooting for people or rooting for success than maybe against people. So I think golf needs to always be in New York. I'm with you, man. And you know what? You're keeping it in the fairway here. and that's a horrible golf analogy.

11:18But seriously, tip of the cap to you because I think a lot of other people would have not reacted the same way and would have been more like, hey, right back at you. And they would have celebrated that way. Like Randy Moss moon in the crowd at Lambeau. But you did not do that. I got to ask you about this, Wyndham Clark. Obviously, massive news today in the PGA, for the PGA, not until 2028. The championship series and the challenger series, Basically, the top 90 guys are on the top tier. You can get relegated like it's the EPL here. You can lose your card. What do you think of basically turning the PGA Tour on its head in two years?

12:01I think it's the necessary and best changes. You know, I think, what was it, in 2020 or 21, whenever Liv came to be, I think shook up the golf world, and I think for the better of the game. And I think this is one of one of those things. Brian Rolap and his team and the advisory board have done an amazing job looking at the future of golf and saying, OK, we need a plan to make this the best we can possibly make it for the future. And I think this is this is one of the first big steps, you know, having the top players play in all the events or at least most of them and having it be easier for fans to follow.

12:39and then I think the relegation thing is awesome. I think it's obviously worked in soccer and it's going to be great in golf and I think the biggest thing for golf is when people turn on the PGA Tour and they're watching the Champions Series, they know they're watching the best players in the world compete on top courses in major cities and yeah, I think that's the best thing for it and then the match play is going to be a lot of fun. I think the fans are going to love it. It's going to be fun to be going head-to-head against Scotty Shuffler or Rory McIlroy, whoever it is, to try to come down and win the Tour Championship.

13:16And I think that's going to be great for TV. The relegation thing, going back to that, that really is the hook. From the way I see it, hey, tune in Sunday to see if somebody loses their card. Tune in Sunday to see if somebody gets bounced. Like you mentioned with soccer, the drama at the end of an EPL season, if a team can't get a point, if a team can't get a victory at the end of the year, a team at the bottom of the standings or the table, as they call it. I mean, that is the draw because not to make this all about shame, like the shame of your team getting knocked down is is just massive. And that that to me, obviously, match play is a big thing.

13:54But the relegation thing, I don't know that we can overstate how big that is. Yeah, I think it's huge. I mean, the great thing is there's going to be relegation and promotion now in two tours. So you have the champion series, you know, guys are going to be relegated. But then you're also going to see in the challenger series, you know, get promoted. And so it's going to be exciting for fans to see both of those tours grow. So, I mean, it's the same tour, but both those series, you know, you see guys coming up and guys going down. And I think it's just going to be the better for the tour. So now guys are watching, you know, guys win the tour championship and keep their card, but also guys, you know, getting relegated and promoted.

14:35And I just think it's I think it's the best thing for golf. And I think what Brian's done is an amazing thing. And I think golf's in a great place and it's going to continue to be, especially with him at the head of the PGA Tour. Wyndham, got a question from Chris Brockman over here. Yeah, Wyndham. First off, congratulations. You had an amazing tournament going wire to wire. Very happy for you. On Sunday, were you scoreboard watching at all on the front when things got a little close there? And if so, how were you able to stay in the moment and focus on each shot? Yeah, not really. I was trying not to look.

15:09Maybe I saw it once or something. But I really started looking more on the backside, kind of right around 12 because we had six holes left. and I wanted to know, hey, do we need to be more aggressive? Do we need to be conservative and not give anything back, et cetera? And, you know, it's hard to do that. And especially if you're not playing good and you hear groans and people talking about it and they're, you know, rooting against you and whatnot, it's hard not to scoreboard watch and be like, oh, my gosh, my, you know, my lead is dwindling. But I tried to stay as much as I could within myself and focus on what I can control, which is what I'm doing, my game, my process, et cetera.

15:50So I didn't really look to the back nine. How bad was that lie on 12, by the way? On 12, oh, you mean on 16. On 16, I'm sorry, sorry. That's what I was going to ask. That's 16. 16. Bones made me look better than maybe what it was. It was a bad lie. I'm not going to deny that. But I was able to get the club on the back of the ball, which is huge when you're coming out of the rough. If there's tons of grass between it, it's really hard to hit it far. But the fact that I could get to the back of the ball, I knew I was going to be able to hit it out. And that's why we work out in the gym and try to have speed.

16:32Not just to hit it far, but to be able to hack it out of the thick rough. Yeah, Bones made it sound like the worst live all the time. Yeah, the broadcast, Bones didn't do you any favors. Have you gone back and re-watched it at all? No, I haven't had time. I've been either celebrating or doing interviews and press conferences, etc. I mean, that is as big a first world problem. For sure. Of all. Yeah. I've been partying and doing interviews too much. We'd be remiss because we're kind of a football show here, Wyndham. If we didn't ask you about your Denver Broncos, any anxiety here about a Bo Nix week one return?

17:11how you're feeling about the coming season? Yeah, I mean, we made some incredible moves in the offseason. I think getting Waddle was huge. I liked our draft. You know, our team last year I thought was good enough to win it. Unfortunately, Bo got hurt. I think that was the difference from us being in the championship. And you never know in one game we could have potentially beat the Seahawks. Yeah, I'm a little concerned about Bo. I mean, obviously his ankle is a huge question, but I also know the guy's resilient. I mean, he got beat down at Auburn. He came to Oregon where I graduated from and had an amazing year, and he's done amazing in the NFL for our team.

17:51So if he's healthy, I think we can be back in a championship game hopefully. So I'm pumped. I'm friends with a lot of guys on the team and the ownership and the coaches, et cetera. So I have to be optimistic about it. You've got to be optimistic. It's the middle of the summer. Everyone's optimistic about their team. I'm trying to think, like, what could the Broncos do to celebrate you? Like, in Seattle, you know, blow the horn. I'm sorry, in Minnesota, in Seattle, they do – what do they do? They do something, right? Or something? Yeah, look, every team's got their thing. Cleveland, they break the guitar, right?

18:28Like, could Denver have you ride in on the horse? Like, what could the Broncos do? I was thinking I get to put on a uniform and maybe do like the first kickoff or, you know, run a couple of routes. Okay. That's what I was thinking. Do you have a leg? I mean, yeah, I can maybe kick it 30, 40 yards. It would be like one of those squib kicks. Could you kick a 30-yard field goal? Oh, 100%. I'll prove it. I'll post it and send it to you. Okay. This is a bit. Or I could be the water boy and I'll carry around the U.S. Open trophy with water. There you go. I like that. Yeah. You like that? We don't want to do something demeaning like your little kid that runs out there and like picks up the tee after the kickoff and then runs it back.

19:12You're not that guy. So we got to do something. I like the field goal. Yeah. I like the field goal. Water boys. Hopefully it's when we're up like, you know, 31 to 3 and there's five minutes left. I don't want the pressure, even though I handled the pressure this weekend. I don't want the pressure of missing a field goal and having the Denver fans hate me. I don't want any more hate in my life, right? Yeah, right. It's the preseason, man. It doesn't matter. Although Sean Payton takes the preseason pretty seriously. I've done some Sean Payton preseason games over the years where he's coaching the fourth quarter as if it's January.

19:47Well, that's why the guy's goaded. That's why he's won championships and is going to take us to one this next year. There you go. All right, Wyndham, I'm going to raise my coffee mug one more time. Let's see that sense there. There it is. Cheers. All right, man. Congratulations. Congrats, Wyndham. Appreciate it. That was awesome, dude. Two-time U.S. Open champion, Wyndham Clark. Pretty great. He was great. He had such a phenomenal turnout. Handles it the right way. Yeah. And he's doing it with class. I don't know that I would take that. I mean, I don't know that I – I take that back. I think I would show that level of class, but it would be hard.

20:26It would be hard. It would be difficult. I mean, you've seen Rory chirp back at guys and other players, you know, kind of let it get in their head. And in that tournament where people are just constantly yelling, you know, get in the bunker and cheering when you miss short putts, like that's tough. I hope there was a moment in that party where he just yelled out a, you know what, to the world. Def him, yeah, for sure. He earned it. He did. A SoFi personal loan is here to help you achieve something once thought impossible, and that is overcoming high-interest credit card debt. Walk the tightrope of your finances with one low fixed-rate monthly payment.

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21:41The Rich Eisen Show podcast.

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22:26And we're still doing it every day because the future isn't some far-off concept. It's already here. Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. Rich Eisen here and summer's here too. And that means it's travel season. My favorite summer trip last year was to Sao Paulo, Brazil. With so many fans traveling for the Los Angeles against Kansas City game, they got to see how lively the city is. I love the culture and the amazing food that I'm still craving. Those memories remind everyone that it's that time of year to plan a little getaway. And that's why summer has a way of turning weekends into big events.

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23:49back of the rich heisen show hi andrew siciliano sitting in for rich we just did the tv bit with jay billis getting ready for the nba draft you know talking about guys like jimmy chitwood and teen wolf sydney dean coolidge saw james jackson from the athletic here on one of my cameras he's joining us now live on the show kind of nodding and laughing what's up james how you doing i'm doing well man how about yourself what up james i'm pretty good man great week great great great great week to be in south florida yeah nothing going on let's get to south florida we'll get to the draft in a second um you are a florida guy i am right um you kind of wrote your piece on the athletic today from the buck side of it inevitable disappointing they got their championship we'll do that in a sec miami gets kachuk gets yannis um we're a football show gets malik willis as well um take this from the heat perspective good deal or bad because you got two you know you got bam and yannis but then but then what they have it's a great deal of my opinion honestly they've been they've wanted yannis for a few years like a lot of teams have wanted them but Miami has obviously been looking for a big whale so to speak for a while and Jimmy Butler was here for a while obviously but in terms of like a trade acquisition that established championship piece a person who can bring that level of prestige to the franchise Pat Riley said last year that he was not giving up that he was not going to retire that he was still going to stay at it of having one last window of contention for the heat and to your point Andrew yes they have two guys in Bama Giannis who thrive closer to the paint but they also have two guys who can operate as offensive hubs, high post action.

25:32They can get smart cutters, smart shooters, get a lot of people just to get easy baskets because on one hand, Bam Adebayo, score of 83 points in the game a couple of months ago. Yana Sanadokunpo, one of the most efficient scorers of all time. So you're going to find a way to be able to make that work. But to your point of concern, though, it's shooting that I'm more concerned about than just mere depth because they have a lot of frontcourt pieces. Nikolai Jovic, Bobby Portis, Andrew Wiggins, if they can figure that out as well but you're gonna have to get shooters and people that can get the ball out of the honest and bam hands for easy shots yeah james you mentioned wiggins he's a free agent piece here build be pat riley be eric spolstra here build the rest of this team where do you think they go love for them to look at some shooting if you can get creative with guys like chris middleton who got bought out from washington last year ended up going to the mavericks duncan robinson played for the heat for a few years he has a partial guarantee with the pistons where the red i think he's on to hook first 16 million next year and only 2 million of that is guaranteed if they can find some shooters to go along with not even just a potent defense because Davion Mitchell at the point of attack and Norman Powell if they can figure that out figure that out Pella Larson too honestly a very good championship level role player who can slash he's tall he does a little bit of everything he does whatever it is that Spohle's going to need and so to your point I think it's less simply about what specific pieces they need and it's more about trusting the stability that he already had.

26:54They have shown over the recent years, Caleb Martin, Max Strews, again, before I mentioned, Duncan Robinson, players who you can just maximize with smaller investments. Even a player like Drew Smith, honestly, he's going to be their fourth guard now, but he's really active on defense, makes great hustle plays. So if they're able to get some guards around the perimeter, you can have a pretty strong starting lineup of Bam Adebayo, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Andrew Wiggins, Norman Powell, again, if they figured that out, Davion Mitchell with some shooters. Nikolaj Jovic, he had a pretty rough year last year, but he's a good catch-and-shoot option, and he's honestly a really committed player who really gets hard on himself when he's not performing up for his teammates because he loves his teammates.