KMARK running a little late today and boy is he glad he is. GAGE WOOD (All-Name Team) fires a 19K NO-HITTER in an elimination game at the College World Series. A true disciple of the Iron Temple. This boy doesn’t miss a day on the Arm Farm. Golly, I’m gassed up! Arkansas lives to see another day.

Red Sox trade their best player. Rafael Devers is headed to San Fran because he and the front office got pissed off at each other. This is a disaster for the Sox. Sure, he was signed by the prior GM, he stinks at defense, and he wasn’t the most positive Clubhouse Man this year. But Boston convinced him to play DH, had him locked up for 8 years, and he’s mashing the ball right now. For an organization built by David Ortiz, isn’t it okay to have a permanent lifelong Red Sock crushing balls as the DH? Isn’t that a model that works for you? Sox are in 4th place and won’t make the playoffs for the fourth year in a row.

Desmond Bane was traded for an absolute haul. We’ll have more on this later. To tease, the biggest champions of the Second Apron have always been smaller market teams. They weaponize the taxes against large markets in hopes that talent is redistributed to them. Now, Memphis (and OKC and Minnesota and Indiana) are all tipping the tax scales themselves. How will these teams compete with more expensive rosters? Chew on this till Wedensday.

JJ Spaun: see below.

So far this year I have two Brutal Takes:

1. The Cal Raleigh extension was stupid.

2. JJ Spaun won’t win the US Open.

I was sure that Sam Burns was the Wyndham Clark Clone ready to win a US Open for his only career major. Turns out, JJ Spaun was the Wyndham all along. He could win more majors (ready to be wrong again!), but this is probably the apex of an incredible career.

A 64ft perfect birdie putt on 18 sealed the championship for Spaun. He’s picked himself up off Golf’s mat more times than any recent major winner. A lightly recruited college walk-on who lost status on the Mackenzie Tour (PGA Canada), won it back and qualified for the Korn Ferry (lost status here too), who ultimately bounced up and down on the PGA Tour. Across his professional career, he’s lost tour privileges more times than he’s won tournaments. But this wasn’t a stroke of luck. This wasn’t one hot weekend. That doesn’t happen at Oakmont. Spaun’s game (and this week’s tournament) is what golf is supposed to be. The course provided a penal canvas that gave everybody a chance to win and the best player emerged. Spaun found fairways, nailed clutch putts, and never gave up (even after an opening 40 on the front nine). Oakmont didn’t ask golfers to tee it high and let it fly. It asked them to battle conditions and make consistent pure, linear contact before challenging them with complex and delicate greens.

Where does Spaun go from here? He doesn’t know. The sheer, stunned look in his eyes as the moment set in revealed that this victory was beyond his wildest dreams. Here’s what I’ll take away: in all the other sports I enjoy, people of a geographic location band together to root on a bunch of strangers. That’s awesome. That’s community, family, legacy. All kinds of good stuff. In golf, the people of Oakmont (Pittsburgh), have no such connection to JJ Spaun. Yet, even in the rain, watching the gallery erupt and one man achieve his life’s greatest accomplishment was all consuming. I would’ve loved to be soaked watching that putt drop.

Gullane Links is home to 3 different courses. A long time host of the Scottish Open, Gullane certainly has championship bona fides. That said, it was perhaps my least favorite course.

We played Gullane 1. The Scottish Open plays a composite of courses 1 and 2. Throughout the round, I couldn’t shake that Gullane 1 has at least 4 (if not 6) throwaway holes that don’t warrant hosting a national championship or even a fun round. Combining course 1 and 2 would be the only way to get a true tournament test.

Unlike most Links Golf, Gullane plays up and over and up and over a significant hill. This produces awesome vistas, views all the way to Edinburgh, and a bunch of compromised golf holes. My overwhelming sense of Gullane was that it wasn’t that dissimilar from Hawaii resort golf. You will get every opportunity to enjoy the scenery. The course conditions were largely fantastic and the price tag matched. But if you’re looking for a unique experience, this isn’t the place.

Let’s say some nice things. Gullane’s first tee box is 30 steps from where we enjoyed a fantastic italian dinner. Imagine a beautiful golf course blocks from your town’s favorite coffee shop. Walking off Gullane two blocks from our Airbnb was a treat. Had it not been blowing 40mph, Gullane would be a great tract for vacation kiss and giggle golf with the missus. The two of you can gaze longingly across the ocean and maybe grab a cheap birdie or two.