Fairway Rollin' - Brooks Koepka Returns to the PGA Tour! Will Others Follow?

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

Brooks Koepka is back, and so is Fairway Rollin’! House and Nathan return to discuss Brooks coming back to the PGA Tour, what the future of LIV will look like, and make their predictions for the 2026 PGA Tour! (00:00) Welcome to Fairway Rollin’!(01:55) Brooks Koepka returns to the PGA Tour(10:25) What’s next for Bryson DeChambeau and LIV Golf?(25:10) Jon Rahm’s relationship with LIV Golf(31:20) 2026 PGA Tour Preview(33:00) Players most likely to be first-time major winners(41:00) Players that are ready to make the leap this year(49:20) Over/under 5.5 wins for Scottie Scheffler this season?(52:10) Over/under 2.5 wins for Rory McIlroy this season?(53:00) Don’t call it a comeback!(1:01:40) Best season: Theegala, Clark, Fowler, or Homa?(1:08:20) Previewing the Sony Open in Hawaii Hosts: Joe House and Nathan HubbardProducers: Tucker Tashjian and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome to this golf podcast, unlike any other. Oh, yes, my friends, we have done it. This is the 2026 debut of Fairway Rowland. A golf podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network, my birdie buddies, my eagle, enthusiast, my par-saving pals. What a time to be alive. We've done it. We are back. 2026 is upon us.

The PGA tour season is upon us. And we are arriving right on time. I mean, we are here at an absolutely terrific moment in the golf world. I'm joined, as is our way by my incomparable accomplice. Our PGA tour boots on the ground. Nathan Hubbard. It's a two ball, my birdie buddies. The pegs are in the ground, and off we go.

Nate, Doug, I'm here to tell you, you definitely qualified under my returning member policy. I'm very happy to have you back. I'm very happy to be back, Nate, Doug. All it took was $5 million house to a charity that we will mutually decide upon. And we're back, baby. Let's go. how golf is in the best shape it's ever been and this week just in the last two days it's gotten even better let's go it's gotten even better so let's just go ahead with the biggest news the news of the week the news of the world

as it relates to professional golf our guy is he our guy he's kind of our guy he's been on this show he has been on this show yes true story brooks kepka it was announced by the tour that they came up with a pathway for him to return to the tour much sooner than later, in fact, so soon that it's a couple weeks out here. And Brooks Kepka, in his own inimitable fashion, graciously accepted this pathway. They worked out the details of financial penalties. And it looks like my man is ready to perform on the big stage. And that, Nate Dog, is indeed the story to me. Welcome back, Brooks Kepka.

Welcome back to being on primetime. television once again. We missed you for a couple years, buddy. Welcome back to TV. I mean, the irony of all of this is that Brooks Kepka only won four times on the PGA tour. He won five times in majors. Brooks Kepka did not really care about PGA tour events until he left the PGA tour. And it's great to have him back. I think this is the first really big decision of Brian Rollap's tenure. And I think he did it exactly right. I mean, there are so many people who were calling for stiff penalties,

for a flogging, for the, you know, the Game of Thrones shame lady to ring the bell following him everywhere he went. But, you know, this is where the fresh eyes of Brian Rollap really help, because he's got no skin in this game. He's not the guy who has been promising some deal with the Piff, for two years. All he cares about is making golf better. And what makes golf better in this situation? It's bringing back basically the three guys that they have now, maybe four, that they have opened up a path to return, not clear any of the other ones are going to take it. I'm also not

talking about Pat Perez, who today, it appears, has been reinstated and can play the champions tour. Financial penalties not disclosed under a different program. But for Brooks House, this is what you do in any other line of business. If you lose a client to a competitor and they want to come back, you make it easy. Anytime there's a competitive situation, you make it easy for them to come back because then all the other clients who left go, man, I thought this grass was greener. It's not greener. And maybe I should come back to. And that's what Roelap did. He acted quickly and decisively something we have not seen from the tour before. He also used his halo. I mean, honestly, I think Monahan probably would have made the same decision, but we would have critiqued it more.

We would have dissected it more. Brandl probably would have made a bigger deal about it on the golf channel. Probably would have made a bigger stink, right? The players might have a credibility problem. But they basically said, hey, Liv said there are no rules. There are going to be no rules for us. Do we need to increase the field size by one so Brooks can play and this doesn't impact other people? Guess what? We're doing it. And if that means we need to pull one guy off the alternate list so nobody plays solo, guess what?

We're doing it. Like there don't need to be these time old, rigid rules that get in the way. We're trying to win. We're trying to make golf better. And that's the decision that he made. Yeah. I mean, I gave him an A plus to everyone and anyone who would listen yesterday because the breath of fresh air you're describing. To me, we have a rational economic actor at the helm of this enterprise.

It is a for-profit enterprise. It is an enterprise that understands that it's significant. mission is to be entertaining on the television and however you want to call the television the streamings the phones the computers whatever you want to call TV I still call it TV because it's still that's where I'm watching golf I'm watching golf on the TV because I want to see the big green grass out in front of my face but look man he gets that and they are coming up on the renegotiation of all of their rights it's 2026 that deal is 2030 but I bet there's something that's some conversations between now and then and everything you can do to make your product desirable,

interesting, compelling. And that really does start with the best players and the best personalities. Well, it does help quite a bit that in the form of Brooks Kepka, you have a real live personality that has five majors under his belt. Welcome back, baby. I mean, that makes it easy, doesn't it? Look, and let's not get too crazy. I mean, since the six weeks stretch in 2023, when he went T2 at Augusta and won the PGA at Oak Hill, he's only top 20 twice in majors. He's missed three of ten cuts in majors. But for Brooks, that's all he cares about. Remember the full swing episode where Rory woke up and realized he'd been passed by somebody of his own generation in major wins.

Before Rory won the Masters, he was looking at Brooks Kepka. not as much at Scotty Sheffler, which he needs to be looking at now, and I'm sure as we think about 2026, we'll talk about this season. But Kepka's that guy, and he's always been motivated by the majors. Again, yes, he won in Phoenix one time.

Yes, he won a few other PGA tournaments, but he always used those for the big time show. And this is an unmistakable message. I mean, this is an unmistakable message. Live, according to Brooks Kepka, the his generation's current leader in the club, clubhouse, along with Rory, for most majors, Liv was not preparing him in the way that he needed. And I understand he went because he was hurt. I get why he's coming back. It is a major low-ass block

in that Jenga game that just got pulled out. And now the question of course House turns to the other guys. What was so badass about this announcement, and I don't want to overly glaze it. But the time period of 2022 to 2025, which is. is the time period that they gave people who have won majors during that time period can come back. People who won majors before that cannot. And notably, it's the two biggest names that first signed to live. It's Phil Mickelson who won at Kiowa. It's Dustin Johnson who won the fall masters.

Those guys are not eligible. This was a big old middle finger from some combination of the tour and tiger to those guys. But you've got to step back now and say, hey, we got Brooks. That's great. what is in the best interest of golf is for all the best golfers in the world to play each other more than four times a year in these majors. How do we make that happen?

And so I think if you're in the ROM camp, I think if you're in the Bryson camp, and Bryson gave an interview today in which he was very non-committal about his future with Liv, but it does sound like he's going to play on Live in 26. Well, he's under contract in 26. Of course.

And as we always find out, house, yes, there's a deadline of February 2nd for these guys to decide. But what Rolap really said is you're the only forum having a conversation with. And when you're ready to come back, I'm going to assemble the nights of the roundtable as I see fit. And I'm going to make a decision not that takes six months, not that drags you through the mud, not that publicly shames you, but that gets this thing done. So when you're ready, call us, come to the headquarters.

We'll meet. And within about 48 hours, I'm going to tell the world what our decision is. And you can say yes or no before that and we'll make it easy for you to come back. And that's the message that's out there. And I think all of our attention now turns to those guys. Yeah. So I want to break down sort of the business moment that we are in right now as it relates to live. And I want to first get your reaction to the idea.

See, to me, this notion that like there is this open window and it's open to a certain, here are the eligibility criteria. It applies to the other three guys who won majors. I think that that was a very shrewd, low-cost way of signaling what you just described, which is they can come back anytime. They set the deadline, but, you know, really, whatever. This is the, this is the, this is the, this is the, the basic operating approach to your, your return. Now, I feel like we need to do in terms of the existential, I'm not going to call it a crisis, but the existential moment that Liv is in,

I think we need to treat each of Bryson and John Rom differently. And all due respect to Camp Smith, I don't really care about him. I don't think anybody cares about him. Oh, Australia cares. That's fine. I don't think he cares about golf. And so with all due respect to Mr. Smith, not going to talk about him anymore on today's program.

But I want to start with Bryson because, Because he is, he holds the entire business, the entire business of Live in his hands. And I'm positive that he knows this. I'm positive of it. The interesting. He said as much, he said as much today. So the decision in front of him is, you know, how does he want to cast his fortune, cast his future, who does he want to be?

It could be legacy defining. It could be. or he could just sort of go along year to year honestly he doesn't owe live any kind of responsibility to decide anything that goes much further obviously they want him to decide something that goes longer than that but here's how i break it down it is very very interesting to me that his success really accelerated when he went to live because i don't think that he necessarily loved playing on tour. The tour experience for him, all of the contretemps with Brooks Kepka, his reputation, his,

you know, his short-tempered behavior sometimes. The Brooks-y stuff. Yeah. All of that, he was able to basically redefine himself, create a new identity for himself, the rise of Bryson Deschambeau

on YouTube, I don't think it was a coincidence occurred as he arrived at Live. And the reason for that is because the Live schedule has 14 events on it. That's not that many. And you can over the course of a year, if you're inspired and you're creative and you have some, you know, something to say. He was able to find his voice on YouTube. And so I think it's not as simple as will he come back to the Twitter. and just, you know, bring harmony to the professional golf world.

He has his own thing. He is the most popular golfer in the world, in my opinion. I mean, not what's setting Tiger aside. I think he's more popular than Rory. So that's the conundrum, I think. Look, I think what I would say is you just have to separate the moment in time when he went to live from that success. Because I don't actually think it was live at all that fueled.

the, we're calling it success, but it's really notoriety and public support that he garnered. What I think it was, there was financial success too. I mean, that YouTube channel is a lot of money. But it was YouTube that did that. And it was him investing in that independent platform that did that. Nobody was watching him on Live and then following him on YouTube. And unfortunately for Liv, it didn't work the other way around, which is that people have gotten enough of him on YouTube. but it's not translating over to live. But for me, this guy's whole existence as a golfer changed in that first round at Augusta in 2024. When you just look at his shots gained since then in majors, they've gone up significantly.

He had the T2 at the PGA where he almost won in Kentucky where people just, that's really where people fell back in love with Bryson. You know, he's done a really good job of putting himself in position to win. but I still wonder whether the mental fortitude is there. He was out-foxed by Rory at the Masters. He won that U.S. Open, but Rory kind of handed it to him. I mean, I think you could really go through and say he, with his own unbelievable talent, has put himself in position to win, but he hasn't closed as many times as you would have thought he would.

And so I wonder if in the back of his mind, he has the same set of thinking that Brooks had in coming back, which is this place isn't necessarily preparing me to go win majors. I can do all of the YouTube fun popularity stuff that I want. And that may be what matters most to Bryson. And that may be why he and Brooks fundamentally were always meant to be oil and water. Because Brooks is coming back, I think, because he's healthy, and he knows that all that's left for him to do is win majors.

That's what he wants to do. And being on the PGA tour versus playing all over the world with Live is the best way to prepare for that. I think that's true. I think that's true. The other thing, though, for sure, let's not just dismiss it. He gets to be on television for three and a half hours every Sunday for about however many he wants. If he wants to be on TV 20 times on Sundays, I'm assuming he makes cuts.

And, you know, I admire him going and playing on the DP World Tour four times this fall to really, I think he knew what his plan was to hone the game to get himself in order so that he would arrive early in. season because he's got to qualify his way into the signature events but the grinds you think brison cares about tv well here's the thing here's the thing um i think bryson cares about youtube i don't think he cares about tv he he has demonstrated he's there's proof of concept that he is beyond tv he doesn't need to be on linear tv on sundays and i honestly think there is a a significant difference between the way that bryson and the way that Brooks prepares and their motivation and their approach. And I think that it has worked.

It's worked for Bryson, I would say. Yeah, we don't quibble with Bryson's preparation. I mean, the guy's on the range more than anybody else. But I do think there's the question of competitive reps. I mean, let me ask you this. Do you think that if Bryson could be the most beloved star on YouTube or win another three majors, which would he choose? I think, honestly, he would choose the majors.

I do think he does love. the game and he does love the legacy because that that would put him that would cast him in some some truly rare that the air that rory and and brooks currently occupy right yeah i think he would like from a competitive i i haven't observed and i'm interested if you have i'm all i'm all ears any diminution in what i would characterize as his competitive fire like what he did at port rush The way he came back at Port Rush, he damn near missed the cut at Port Rush. And then he had two outrageously good rounds, outrageously good. And that came on the heels of missing the cut up there in Pittsburgh, which was, you know, a bummer.

Yeah, at Oakmont, a bummer because I picked him. And he was the defending champ. And he was the defending champ. I mean, I think that that was more a reflection of the weirdness of Oakmont. and some of the splits and all that. But yeah, I agree that the competitive fire is there. The question is because he's had this renaissance of being loved, something that clearly mattered to him,

and that his performance was impacted during that time when people were yelling Brooksie at him. There's no doubt about it. His game went sideways, and he struggled. He needs that love. He feeds off that energy. And I think one of the things that, in hindsight, I bet he regrets is he tried to turn some of that crowd energy into negativity directed at Rory

instead of just feeding off it himself solely that round. I mean, he was high-fiving and doing it all, but he had a plan to try to manipulate it and use it like a laser against Rory. And I wonder if the next time that he's in that situation, he's just going to take it in and high-five and go into the bubble that Rory tried to go into. Because I think... Are you talking about it at the U.S. Open? I'm talking about it at Augusta this year. At the gust of this year, okay.

Yeah. When he showed up on that last T, really intending to turn it into a mind game with Rory, and Rory just decided he was going to not talk to him and go into a bubble. And you had the wild swings back and forth through those first five, six holes where it looked like Rory had completely given it away. And then before you knew it, Bryson was out of the tournament. Yeah. And completely unaffected. He showed up with, I don't remember how he characterized it, but it was a C-plus game at best.

Fair enough. Fair enough. But the question is, was his overfocus on the crowd and that that thing that he needs? Did it take him out of the focus of his own game? Regardless, the real question that sits there right now is if you're right that Bryson cares about his place in the history of the sport as it is measured by majors, then I think there's a really legitimate chance he's going to come back to the PGA tour. If he cares about his legacy in the history of the sport in terms of popularity, I think there's a chance that Bryson holds out. And he just does, maybe he plays a few live events, maybe he figures out the European tour. Maybe he just does YouTube stuff and shows up as this unicorn at every event because the tournament reps don't

necessarily seem to refine him in that way. It's himself on the range, whack and balls that seems to always get him into or out of shape. Well, on that particular point, let me bounce this off of you. If indeed, Live and the DP World Tour figure out some kind of combination. And it's already the case that Liv has made a significant enough investment in the Asian tour, that its players can go on that tour. They have the TV sort of deals in place. And one of the things, you know, Liv is at the moment here where they're announcing all of their rest of world TV deals. They're on TNT in the UK and Ireland. They're on, you know, Sky Sports.

Like they're announcing all of their rest of world deals. Here's Benny On and Thomas Dietry. Yeah, but how about this? Here's Bryson D. Chambot, the ambassador of the rest of the world. This is the world. This is the guy that went to India and competed in India last year. The first reigning U.S. Open champion in the history of sports. to go to India and compete there.

What if what they're selling him, and we know Scott O'Neill, and he's a smart fellow, what if they're saying, look, buddy, it's the tour is the tour, it's there. What if, in addition to the person that you are, this popular person, this man of the people, you are out here as the ambassador of golf to the rest of the world? That's all they have, House, at this point.

And honestly, they have to turn it into the Bryce and, Deschambo show. Well, John Rom is still there. And he's under contract for another two years. But to keep Bryson, I think that's what they're going to have to do. And let's just be totally candid. If he was worth several hundred million dollars back in the day, this is an existential crisis for Liv because the quality of competition at this point, having invested in some older guys and having not drawn the likes of Johnny Kiefer, who's coming up, we're going to talk about some of these guys that are young and going to break through. Ludwig Oberg, he's staying put. So there's lots of those next generation guys that have not gone to live. So you're stuck

with guys who aren't as good at golf. And so what is the value to live of keeping Bryson? And I think, you know, there are numbers getting thrown around the internet. It is not unreasonable at this point for him to look this league in the eye and say so much of the success of this league hinges on your own personal reputation guys who run the Piff, I got to be worth half a billion dollars. I might be worth a billion dollars and to get into that staring contest for all of the negotiating that has happened or there's been pump fakes around negotiating in golf. That to me is the most interesting negotiation left to happen in golf because Bryson, depending on how you value a man's ego, Bryson might be worth a billion dollars. Oh, I think it's easy and I think he can make the

case. I mean, he in 2000 and 22, the numbers are always murky about what the guys sign for, but I think it's like, it's been underreported based on just sort of the way the winds have sort of blown, the things that I've heard. I mean, I think it starts with a 350. Like, I don't, I don't think. So, you know, we don't know, we're not privy to all of the contract. Like, is there a poison pill thing? Like, if, you know, if he jumps, does he have to give it all back? Like, all kinds of stuff that might have disincentivized him from considering leaving this year anyway. But, you know, for for this year. And the other aspect to this, I know it to be the case that during his time at Liv,

the co-investment by Live in him means that Live essentially has the rights to his catalog, to his YouTube catalog. So I can't just take that and carry with him. And I think he's not happy about it. about that. It's not unlike an artist who wants to keep their catalog from a record label, right? You see some of that, haven't we? Somewhere along the way, House. I can't think of maybe Taylor's, I don't know. But I'll tell you this, the President of the United States right now could make a big impact on where this goes.

They are close, or the Trump family to Bryce and Deshambo, they are close to the Saudis. They also are interested in, you know, the PGA tour visiting lots of their properties. They're going to Duralh this year. Nobody jumps on board with the winner like the President of the United States at this point. And so him weighing in here could make a very big difference in where Bryson ultimately ends up and what happens in the long run. That's sort of fun food for thought, you know, but he has weighed in on this situation before. So keep that card. Keep that card in the background.

But I mean, if you're John Rom right now and you're sitting there after a year in which, your first year on live, you didn't perform the way you wanted, this year, T14 at the Masters, T8 at the PGA, T7 at the U.S. Open, he's one of the games, he's one of the games great students of history. And you know what? That history is perilously close to passing him by. Sometimes I worry for John that he frames himself as a Spanish golfer. But even Sevi had five majors house.

And at this point, he's sitting on two. He's been close at the open in the PGA before, which are the two that he hasn't won. But this is a guy who should be giving Rory McElroy a run for his money as the greatest European golfer ever. And he's really the poster child, I think, of why live for whatever reason doesn't seem to prepare players well. enough for the major. So he has to, look, he's got to get the driving accuracy and the putting dialed in, but that's what slipped in these competitive reps. And he subtly is the most interesting thermometer for me around what guys actually want to do.

Because to your point, Bryson could probably do without the PGA tour just because of the guy that he is and the mental, strange, delicate flower that he is. John has not performed the way we expected, and I think if he's honest with himself, he's got to know that. So his decision in many ways really, I think, has lived in the balance even more. So I would say this. I don't think because the duration of his contract runs longer than Bryson's, that he's going to do anything out in front of Bryson. I think it would be economically perilous for him. Like the deal that he cut with, with Liv, I think that they would take however much of their agreements.

I believe that they, I believe that they would attend. Like University of Washington with their quarterback. You want to leave? Okay. With this one, we're going to put our foot down. Yep. Yeah. So, and I'm going to push back a tiny bit on the observation you made around the lack of preparation.

I think it took him that first year on Live to, like, figure it out, to, to, to, to settle down because, you know, the bill of goods that it seems like he was sold, it depends on which reporting you believe, was that his jump over was going to be the accelerant, was going to be the thing that brought the entire co-enterprice back together, the investment by the Saudis in the PGA tour was going to be galvanized by Ram's jump over. That didn't happen. And then it was kind of haywire for, for Rom. his first year and you could see it, but he was injured. He had the withdrawal from the U.S. Open.

He took some shots for having clearly been unethful about his thinking on the time. But the way he performed last year, I mean, I think pretty much every guy on tour would say, I'll take that. It wasn't a win, but he stood up in the T on the 16th hole of the PGA championship at Quail Hollow with an iron in his hands and thought, you know what, I'm going to try and win. I'm hitting this at the pin. Now, he hit in the water, but he was like,

I have a chance to win this golf tournament, and I'm going to go for it, and he did. And I think that, you know, it's a good trade that he made in that respect. Like, I think things calmed down a little bit. His life calmed down a little bit. He got back into some routine. And I honestly think he's live for the majors this year.

Well, he doesn't have the quality of confidence. competition at Liv that I think he was expecting. And so he will be a very important bellwether of where things go. But I think you're probably right, which is that this, this Bryson thing is going to play itself out. The talks are clearly ongoing, according to Bryson. He's not going to, he's not going to opt into the PGA tour by February 2nd. Let's be clear. He's not. No. No. So he, but there's going to be a conversation. And depending on how those things go, you know, you may soften the position of Liv. And to your point, you could see a lot of deal-making in 2026, related to the European tour, related to actually picking it back up between Rollap and O'Neill and the parties involved

about how they're going to do something because the players now are creating the tectonic plate shifting that's going to force some decision-making. It's not just up to the negotiators themselves. Let's remind everyone, and you can do this better than I can. But Scott O'Neill and Brian Rolup go back a little bit. They have, you know, they were, did they go to school together? Was that, is that the connection? They've been friendly for a long time. Guys who've been in sports organizations in very senior levels,

they know each other in all kinds of ways. Yeah. And have supported each other, like, you know, been publicly supportive of each other. They're both good guys in their endeavors. So there's, there are, you know, for sure, um, those two guys are capable of doing a business deal that helps both enterprises. And they, I, I trust both of them. If, If there needs to be an exit ramp, if there needs to be a nuanced way of, you know, saving some face, I think I would trust those two guys to work that out and figure it out. Go ahead. Yeah.

It's just that right now, I don't think RELAP is interested in any of that. What he did this week is turn the screw as hard as he possibly can because it's going to be a forcing function. It is the first time since Phil left that the tour has been on straight off. offense. Well, I would say that the signature events and the increase in the purses and all of that also looked like offense to me, but I understand the point you're making. It felt like defense at the time, right? It was reactionary. It wasn't them. Fair enough. It stanched the bleeding, but it didn't then put their opponent into a corner. And that's what they did this week. And so the reaction is going to be fun to see.

Speaking of fun to see, it's the beginning of the 2026 PGA tour season. Let's you and I, as is our way, try and do some prognosticating, some handicapping, some forecasting. How is this you're going to play out? I have a handful of categories for us just to make sure that we talk about some guys and some situations, some stuff that we'd like to see. We're not going to go too crazy with this. you know, we want to talk about guys that are sort of on the precipice who can make

the leap. We've got a whole bunch of candidates for don't call it a comeback. I mean, there are both like veteran players and guys, you know, veteran, super veteran players. You know, a lot of guys that missed the bark last season that could come back.

Look, he's on my, I'm staring at his name right now. I see his name. And then, you know, I want to do break out or break dance. And by break dance, I that poor Australian girl at the Olympics who basically, you know, made a mockery of the whole thing. We want the breakout guys, not the break dance guys. So we didn't have a handful of categories here. But let me start with this.

Each of the last 11 years, we have had a first time major winner, each of the past 11. I think that that tradition will continue. I don't think all four majors this upcoming season are going to. to be won by repeat customers. And so I just want to go through some names with you. These are the low-hanging fruit. These are the most obvious. Who am I missing would be my question to you.

Players most likely to win their first major. Obviously, Tommy Fleetwood, everybody's cup of tea at the end of the season. The FedEx Cup winner showed a propensity for winning on the biggest stage after losing on big stages a whole bunch of times in a row where we really felt the agony of defeat. does he turn that into a launch pad to just burn down 2026? Victor Hovland, who had, by his standards, a real questionable kind of season. He was really a man hard in search of because he underwent a swing change and didn't see the results.

He won on tour last year with the swing that he said, I have no idea which way the ball is going to go. That's kind of badass. but what if he's what if he's found it uh cam young i have on this list uh sure the best performer on uh at the rider cup the best u s performer in my humble uh opinion estimation he rose to the moment it was a question going in he is the most uh i don't know what the word is he's the quietest how about we'll be polite we'll be polite because it's the beginning of the year we don't have to be And then I have Robert McIntyre on this list as well. And maybe that's maybe I'm over it.

Like I could put Tyrell Hatton, you know, as well. But McIntyre, to me, distinguished himself. Of those four guys, what do you like? And who am I missing? Yeah, I like Tommy and Cam the best. I think both of those guys statistically are playing the best golf of their career. And they both got their first win on tour, but that wasn't it. Right.

the form continued. In Cam Young's case, he won at Wyndham, but then he followed that up in the playoffs with a fifth, 11th, fourth, ninth, fifth. Like the first 10 events of the year, including the Masters last year, he missed six cuts. It seemed like he was toast.

But then he's such a great putter, and we saw that in the Ryder Cup, right, that the approach play has turned around and complimented that game. Is he through that scarc tissue? That's the same question we're asking of Tommy Fleetwood, who followed the tour championship win with a win in India, a second and a T3 in the closing stretches of the DP World Tour.

So he's second total in shots gains, sixth on approach, 20th in putting. He's second in putting over 25 feet and fourth in approach putting. So he's just going to be around the hoop and he's great from long distance. The question is just has he broken through? I think that the way that both of those guys followed up their first signature wins with more success is an indication. And by the way, yeah, both great in the Ryder Cup, is an indication that those are the guys who are ready.

I get nervous about Victor because I think Victor is such a tinkerer, but he also was third at the U.S. Open. He could have won that tournament that day for sure. There's one guy that I would add to the list. And that is that every year we've got two guys who seem to break out and come from the mule pack into contention. And last year, it was JJ Spawn, U.S. Open winner. Love him.

Who had, you know, who in 2024, he was 98th in FedEx Cup, and it only made 16 of 28 cuts. The next year, he not only won the U.S. Open, but he followed that up. He was outside the top 25, just once in nine starts, right? He had three top tens, a runner up. He really feels like a guy who's there to stay. But his compatriot in the breakthrough category from 2020. was Ben Griffin. And Ben won in New Orleans, and we thought, eh, maybe.

Yeah, nice, nice story, nice story. He got two more quality wins at Charles Schwab and in Napa. He was second at the Memorial, right? He had nine other top 15s after that win in New Orleans. And so suddenly a guy who doesn't hit the ball that far is eighth in the world. He's third in Bertie's ninth in bogey avoidance. He doesn't do anything statistically great, but he's around the hoop. And he feels like a guy who, if he continues this form,

He could be in that category. That said, I think you're right. It's Tommy and Cam. All eyes on those guys. The excuses are gone. Have they broken through that mental scar tissue in a way that it can carry into the majors? I like your Ben Griffin inclusion because I subscribe to the notion that if you go into one of these international competitions and are able to keep your head in those situations, like that has a mysterious effect on your. your psyche, your psychological, like how you, your own self-esteem as a competitor.

And I liken it to some of the USA basketball players, you know, different times. You've seen, you know, guys who've been participated in the Olympics and have come out of the Olympics saying, I just learned so much from that experience and, you know, that kind of thing. This is obviously different. But I'm interested, I'm going to put you on the spot, Which tournament does Tommy win? We have, you know, Masters is the Masters. The PGA Championship is at Aronamank this year. Outside of Philadelphia, it's going to be incredible crowds.

The U.S. Open at Shinakak, where Tommy shot is 62 on Sunday. Was that the score? 62, 63. Yeah. And then the Open championship this year at Royal Burkdale, Jordan Spee's stomping grounds. Yeah, to me, it's Shinnock.

Tommy feels destined to win a U.S. Open just because of the quality of the ball striking and that putting that I just spoke about, which is that you're not going to get six footers in U.S. opens. You're going to get those longer 20 to 30 footers. And Tommy's great from that distance. He just is. And so if there's one where he's going to thrive, that's the one. But I do think it was a long time coming for him. And interestingly, his European compatriot in Rory McElroy, is going to have to show us that he doesn't have the let down either.

I think he started to with that Irish Open win and the way he played, obviously, at the Ryder Cup. But both of those guys seem to have busted through that gristle that was keeping them from breaking through a ceiling. And I think unequivocally, those are the two guys with the highest ceiling this year because of what they were able to accomplish at the end of last year. So if Tommy wins the U.S. Open, which one could,

Kameon could also win the U.S. you could say the same answer for both. I mean, you know, the only one of them has to win. Cam Young could win the U.S. Open. I could really see Cam Young win in a PGA championship. Okay, sure. Because that feels like it can align with his game. You know, there's birdies that are in, in, easier to come by with the setups of late.

And generally speaking, the way that he hits the ball off the T, it seems to, it seems to fit that. But that said, House, when you think majors, the moment that I think of above, of all else is St. Andrews. And Cam Young made that eagle on 18. He did. And almost won that darn tournament. So to me, since that time, you know, he's had that sort of dip in his game and now the comeback.

But I think his game translates. And it's just going to be, can he propel himself after really being the man at the Rider Cup and coming off the win at Windham when, you know, prior to Windham, I don't think he's on the team. I mean, it was getting close. Let's put it that way. And so I think that this is a, he and Tommy are the guys to watch this year. Okay.

Well, we've been talking insuperlatives about superlative players for about 45 minutes now. Let's go sort of under the hood a little bit here. I want to talk about players that are ready to make the leap. And I'm not going to start with my own list. I'm interested in your list. I want to begin with Nathan Hubbard under the. hood, you know, pushing things around a little bit. Who are we going to see?

What supercharger is going to emerge? I'm botching this automobile analogy. I'm trying, though. I'm trying. You can see me. Nitrous. Yeah. I mean, the answer is it's our most recent ballfroger, isn't it?

It's the guy who drained the put to finally give those ball frogs a win in the TGL. It's Michael Thor Bjornson, I think. Yeah, okay. Great. He's the first name. I mean, I got about six or six. seven that I think we've got to pay attention to. But in the first nine starts last year, he missed six cuts. He was a non-factor in the other three. But in his last 16 starts, he missed only

one cut. He had seven top 15s, including four top fives. He was seventh off the T last year, but 120th in putting. And then fast forward to the RSM, that last event of the fall, he finished T-7, losing shots on approach and putting. On tour, he was first in Greens and Regulation, first in total driving first in ball striking in his last 10 measured rounds he gained shots putting in half of them so i think he started to figure it out and he showed it to us at that tgl event draining the big putts to win so he's been in contention in a number of places he was that chosen boy coming out of stanford it felt like there was a lot of talk about him and the way we were talking about ludwig it took him a while to figure it out on tour but i i think the players see it which is why you saw him show up at

the tgl and i think the statistics are backing it up. So Thor Bjoranson is the first guy. Okay. I wonder how far down the list you have to go to find this guy's name. I think Matt McCarty is sort of hanging around, you know, in a place. I was what captured my interest in him, and I have him in a finishing position, you know, trying to make some money at this Sony Open in Hawaii. Three straight top 15s to end the year. And the thing that has my interest that piqued, my curiosity is the ball striking, which is like, you know, not really going out on a limb.

You have any feelings? Was he on your list at all? He wasn't on my list because I've been focusing on some other guys. But I think in particular as we look at Hawaii, which our buddy, Justin Ray, tells us there's a major premium on putting at this event versus others. And I watched Thomas shoot a 59, I guess, at that course. He certainly broke 60. I watched him do that at this course, and it's because he was making putts.

Matt McCarty has been around and hanging on leaderboards. He's statistically playing as good golf as he ever has. You know, he played T4 in Canada last year. Like he has been hanging around leaderboards. He hasn't quite gotten it across the line. But he's a guy who could break out. I mean, I'll tell you this, though. I mean, the reason that McCarty didn't rise up is because we've got this.

crop of other guys who seem to be just at that goal line if they can figure out the putter and they're starting to Thor Bjornson is one. The other is Rico Hoey. Oh, I knew when you said the putting, I knew it was going to be Rico. He had a great fall. He switched to that broomstick putter. Seven starts in the fall. Four of seven, he topped ten. He finished second in Utah. He's third off the tee. Eighth in approach. Second tea to green and greens and regulation. But a hundred-eighthieth and putting. He loses almost a stroke per round with the flat stick. He just is happy Gilmore, basically. Awful from every distance. It's not like there's some part of statistically it's the

problem, but he's still first in Eagles, fourth in birdies. And so I think that at some point, there's enough attention on him statistically that the right coaches are going to get to him and he's going to figure out that flat stick. He's a guy who's just mediocre putting away from a win on tour. I know a guy on your list for sure because you've been high on him for a while. You've been calling our attention to him based on the combination of his performance on the DP World Tour, but also on the major stages. And that's Marco Penji. I know he's on your list. Here's my question. He might be on a doctor's list too right now. He's going to miss the Sony because it seems some virus he's gotten Dubai since November? What? I don't I don't like that. The other thing

that's curious and I wonder if it shakes your confidence in him at all is he switched clubs he was a mazuno guy and now he's a pxg guy yeah does that give you any pause it does i don't love guys who tinker with their equipment but he a guy had three wins on the european tour last year the almost won the scottish open when he played with the big boys yeah he struggled a bit with his accuracy off the tea and and that's really what has been the problem and so I don't mind the equipment change. If he starts to feel more comfortable off the tea, this guy's deadly.

I mean, he's a great putter. I just will say he just turned down, according to a lot of reports, a ton of money to go to live. I don't think that is what the virus was about. But he seems pretty committed and excited to come compete on the PGA tour. So I don't love the equipment change, but I do think he has that deficiency in the game that is just one step from being able to compete.

with the big boys in the big tournaments. Okay. Who else did you have? You know, we're going to talk about some of the guys who are on tour for the first time. I've got the number one player on the corned ferry tour, Johnny Kiefer. Okay. See his name all a lot. Player of the year, won twice last year. It didn't seem to translate much when he came up to the tour.

He missed the cut in both Canada and Mexico. But by the end of the year at RSM, he finished T7. He is an excellent putter, excellent, excellent. excellent, excellent putter. And that's why I'm really interested in him this week. And we'll talk about that later on in Hawaii. The driving accuracy has been a little bit of a challenge for him. But remember, Scotty Sheffler was that guy coming up. This is not Scottie Sheffler by any stretch. But it's worth paying attention. There are really good players on the Corn Ferry Tour. They learn how to go out and make birdies. And, you know, in this early stretch of the season, you remember the famous John Rom quote at the MX piece of shit putting contest. Like a lot of these early events, are a piece of shit putting contests. And so I'm interested to see how Johnny Kiefer comes out of the gate with a couple of tournaments that are going to rely on the flat stick. I don't know how we can talk about who's going to potentially break through

without talking about the kid that basically did last year. And that's Jackson Coyven from Auburn. Okay. And he was T-11, T-6, T-5, T-4 in his last pro tournaments. He's in contention in all of those things. He's the number one amateur at Auburn. he's probably already a top 25 player on tour and he's just 20 years old. He's one to watch because we don't have a lot of guys over the age.

I don't think there's a guy over the age of 26 in the top like 25 of the world right now. So there's there's really like a dearth of young guys. Now again, the official world golf rankings have a huge set of problems. But I don't think there's a guy on Liv who belongs in there either. So it's Jackson who clearly had the stones. He decided to stay at Auburn, but he's going to be a pro during this season, and he's going to have accumulated enough points that we're going to see him. And I think based on what we've already seen, this is the kid who could come through

and get a win as a rookie or even an amateur on tour this year. We have a bunch of guys that I want to touch on when we do our comeback conversation, but we're not going to go through the debut of the Fairway role in season without talking about Scotty Sheffler and Rory McElroy. And the way that I want to pose it to you, and you can feel free to add somebody if you feel like you want to. I'm going to pose it to you in terms of wins on tour in the 2026 season. And obviously it can include majors,

but I'm just going to put, you know, I've seen some numbers. And I've heard some opinions expressed. Scotty Sheffler wins in 2026. I'll set the number at five and a half. Are you going over or under five and a half wins for Scotty this upcoming season? He had six last year. Seven the previous year. Including the PJ in the open.

He was first overall in shots gain, first on approach, second off the T, 22nd in putting. He only had three finishes outside the top 10. And those were a 25th in Phoenix, a 20th at the players, and an 11th at the API. Like he just had an unreal season and I think all eyes this year are on Shinnock. I think Tommy could win, but I think Scotty Sheffler's coming for Shinnock this year. So my answer is his career grand slam. It is.

And my answer is over. I just don't see any reason why it's going to stop. And I think when you compare him to Rory, which I think is the crux of your question, I think we saw from Rory a pretty significant postmaster's hangover. he came out of that funk for whatever reason. Like, I think he's just in a different place and he's mostly just focused on the majors. But listen, he came out of that funk

and had six top tens. He won the Irish Open. Right. Two seconds, you know, and then stepped up in the Rider Cup. But, like, I harken back to it earlier. You remember that full swing episode? Like, all of a sudden, Brooks was right there at five. Well, guess what? Scotty's right there at four.

Scottie is not far behind. behind. And if this pace keeps up, you know, I mean, there are, I think for all of the celebration of Rory last year, by one measurement of career, and that is major wins, Rory has underperformed, right? He's not even a top 10 player of all time if we look at it that way, right? There's guys like Hogan and Watson and Arnie and player and yeah, Phil Mickelson, who are ahead of him. And so I think that Rory's real focus for now, and I think probably for the rest of his career at this point, based on the way he got that master's win and the pain and suffering that he had to go through, which Shuffler has not had. He's kind of been the golden child since he came up off the KFT.

I think Rory's focus is not going to be on winning on the PGA tour. I think it's going to be purely about preparation for the majors, because I think that's all that matters to him. I don't think Scottie Schaeffler can stop. I think he has to go out and try to win every single week. We know that to be the case because he did that in California right before the Rider Cup. Why did any of us think that he would use that for anything other than just going out and winning the golf tournament? I mean

everybody else would have just slapped it around. Scotty couldn't help himself. Yeah, couldn't help himself. So let's go back to Rory over under for Rory wins this season. I'll set it at two and a half based on what you're saying. Boy.

Non-major wins. Non-major wins. would take the under. Overall, overall, I'll take the over. Now, does that, we'll, we'll include world events as well, because he does compete, you know, on DP World Tour. And every year he wins. Every year he wins a DP World Tour event. Yes, yeah, yeah. Okay. So three wins worldwide for Rory, this upcoming season. You're, you're taking the over two and a half. We'll say, yeah. I do think we're going to see him less frequently. One DP World Tour win and one more major. That's three.

I think that's the way to think about it. Can't say that it's not going to happen. Okay, let's get into this. Don't call it a comeback because this one has too many names in it. Oh, Lord. And I want to make sure that we give out a handful of selections here for this beautiful Sony Open, perhaps the last event in Hawaii, at least for the time being, we need a giant. It's going to be a while.

We need a supporter. We need somebody to step up and say, you know what, Hawaii is a crucial element. And I mean, I'm right here to, you know, do whatever I can to help support this. But we'll talk about that in the context of the Sony Open. I mean, I just have a list here. You have, you have Jordan on this list. I have Sahith on this list. I have Lyndon Clark on this list.

I have Sandra on this list. I have Colin Warackawa on this list. Yes. And we already mentioned Hovland. I kind of have Ricky, but not really, because Ricky's, you know, he performed pretty well at the end of the season, like enough to where it was like not implausible to have a conversation about Ricky and or Jordan making the rider cup. Yeah, when we had those conversations, uh, as the summer wore on at the end of the year last year. So, um, you, you, you choose who

you want to talk about here first. Well, there's only one other that I'd add to that list. And that's Justin Thomas, who had the microdicectomy in the off season. I don't like back in hip pain. It is super reminiscent of his idol and buddy tiger's situation in some ways. Justin's a small guy in stature, not, not Cajonis, but, you know, he finally got that win in 2025 that he'd been looking for too. And he was so awesome last year inside of 125 yards. He just got those wedges dialed in the best possible way. He was top five in putting average, second and birdie or better. Like, it's all there. He's eighth and three putt of one. It's all there. He just has to get the ball striking right. And I think that pain has been in the way. So, so he's the one.

But for me, I mean, look, let's just start it. Let's start with Xander because since we're talking about injuries, and then we'll move to the guys who seem to be injured in between the ears, not in the body. But Zander had two majors in 2024. He just didn't seem like the same guy in 2025. It came on a bit at the end. He got that win in the fall in Japan, which is important to him. He always seems to sort of step up and win those things that sort of resonate with his heart.

But the problem is that the dip in his play wasn't because his oblique was messed up and it was affecting his swing. He was 139th in putting last year. And you said it from the beginning out of the gate. And we kept trying to chalk it up to rust when he came back. But it wasn't rust. Something was wrong. Yes, he was T8 in the Scottish T7 at the open. And that seemed like we were starting to see some form.

But after this year in which we thought, phew, he's broken through, right? He's gotten through that scar tissue that Cam Young and Tommy Fleetwood, we think, maybe busted through by winning those two majors finally. We expected a lot more of them last year, and it just didn't come through. So Zander, to me, is the most interesting because he is, he's two majors in right now. He's in the conversation, and he's certainly got the game for it. I will be most interested to see how Zander responds after an offseason in which certainly the injury bug is no longer the experience.

excuse. Okay. I'm surprised that you chose Zander, but if we're going to do the guys that were injured, we'll come back to Colin Orakawa. But I let's come back to Colin. We have to include Jordan Speeth because he was really like, you know, just off the hand injury, just off the hand surgery. Where do you, what are your fortunes for Jordan this upcoming season? Look, I, let me give you the

glass half full. Glass half full. The glass half full is he's going to sneak into all these elevated events. The shots game numbers were quietly creeping up at the end of 2025. And I was starting to feel really good. And then he showed up at the Hero World Challenge. And he just stunk. Everything was terrible. Now that's kind of a hit and giggle.

The bright spots are that he's been pretty consistently good with the driver accuracy. And that is what befelled him for a long time. Like he just couldn't get off the tea. but everything for the most part statistically has just been pretty average and the question is where did it go can it come back there just aren't a ton of answers when your best finish after a season was a solo fourth i mean there's just a ton of guys who played better than that last year i'm interested to see him come back after an off season that's been quiet after the focus where he kind of had the whole fall to figure it out i i want to be optimistic because jordan spieth at one point in time was the best golfer in the world and he he He was going to go out and win eight, nine, ten majors. And I just, it is one of the maddening things about this sport that it comes and it goes. And it does that at some period of time for every single golfer that we've talked about today with one exception. And that's Scotty Schaeffler.

They have experienced it coming and going. And for Jordan, the tide is out, can it come back in? Okay. Well, it goes and it might come back. let's talk about that in the context of Colin Warcawa then. Because it was a very curious season for him. His numbers, his stroke gain numbers are very much in line with what he's produced in seasons where he's had, you know, the highest performance.

Now, he hasn't won on tour for a minute now. And last season he had two seconds where his. his best finishes. Yeah. Century and API. Okay. And the lasting, the lasting memory, the lasting image for us was him and Harris English at the Ryder Cup. Just being a liability.

Yeah. And he's the most curious of all the big name golfers to come back. Because again, here's a guy with two major championships. You know, won that incredible PGA with that with the par four drive. won the open and you just did it go. The thing that it's different than the Jordan situation because Colin has been consistently racking up top 25s. Like that's not been his problem.

It's not like the game just evacuated him. It's just that he hasn't been able to get it over the hump and he's just been consistently pretty good, not great. And the shots gained trailed off as the season went on. So he's under a pretty big microscope, I think. as we head into 2026 because we got a President's Cup team. And I think if you were to pick the players today, I'm not sure you put Morikawa on that team in this moment.

Interesting. Okay. Well, I mean, you know, he was in a winless drought up into the 20203-Zo-W-Zo win. And now we would say he's kind of in another winless drought, even though the underlying numbers are there. I do wonder if we hear stories, This is what will make me, what will encourage me is if we hear stories about Colin having great time off during, you know, the break and like a reset button in terms of his mental approach and because he was just a tiny bit too ornery last year. It didn't really seem like it went with his personality. And it left us wondering, what is his personality?

Like, you know, we've seen a decent version of him on full swing. He's a thoughtful guy. Yes, he is. He's his own harshest critic. We'd like him to get out of his own way a little bit, but the back and forth with the press was unbecoming. My hope is that that was a signal of his internal competitive fire and that he's known that he wasn't playing up to speed,

not playing as well as he ought to be. And it's pissing him off. And he just let it bubble out into his interaction with the, and that hopefully with a little bit of time off in reflection that he'll find ways to not answer the gotcha questions with with frustration and to channel it into to work on the game because look he's a beautiful golfer he he's got uh you know i just i want him to stop losing you money house is really what i want i stopped betting him um i mean you should we we are going to do a preview of the sony open uh and

the way we're going to get there is I'm going to give you a choice between these three guys. Who has the best season on the comeback list? Actually, it's going to be four guys. Who's going to have the best season of these four guys in 2026? Okay. Sahith Tagala. Yeah. Wyndham Clark.

Yeah. Ricky Fowler. Max Homa. Who's going to have the best season in 2026 of those four? All of them have, you know, different kind of peaks that they could they could reach. Man, is that a hard question that I wish you'd prepped me for? I mean, look, the, the, the, the head says Max Homa.

Well, okay, fair, fair. Because of all those guys, he is the most talented. More talented than Ricky? I think so. Okay. At this moment in his career, I just think he is. The eyes say that. Ricky Fowler was playing the best of all those guys at the end of the year.

He was playing awesome. Yeah. The heart says Sahith because Sehith wants this more than anybody else. And so I sort of want it for him. Well, he has the natural talent and he's the youngest. And he was hurt, by the way. I mean, we should have put him in the hurt category. He tried to battle through it.

He never really, you know, he wasn't able to cabin it up. Yeah. And then I think, I think Windham, Windham, bears the sort of risk, again, of being the guy who peaked and just wasn't able to sustain it, right? The full swing episode about his relationship with his mental coach, and when you juxtapose that, speaking of guys who bickered with the press, I mean, he really struggled this past year and I think wasn't, didn't show up as the best version of himself. Now, he's also a guy who can name that and seems to have been given the emotional tools

to be reflective and take ownership of that. I'm most interested to watch Wyndham Clark this year. But if I am, you know, my eyes tell me it's Ricky just based on what I saw at the end of the season, I just, it's going to stun me if Max Homa plays like the hundred, only plays like the 100th Betts golfer in the world. Okay. All of that, though, is to say there's one guy who wasn't on your list.

Oh. And when I look at the odds board for Hawaii, there is a guy who's plus 450 to top 20. Okay. And it's top 10 Tony Fee now. And maybe Tony has hit the threshold that, you know, I probably hit at some point, which is you have too many kids,

and it's just like inversely proportional to golf success, like or inversely correlated to golf success. And he just hit the whatever the threshold is for him. and the game fell off a cliff. But like he's top 10 Tony is plus 450 to top 20 in Hawaii where there's a big bot. There is a lot of junk in the trunk of this tournament. And so if he can't do it here, if he's not going to figure it out this year, I guess it means that he's a man of faith and a man of family and that those things

come ahead of golf always and the rest of his life gets in ways that he's just not going to be what we always thought he would add up to. I will be stunned if we don't see better golf out of Tony Fienow. year and I I think if you're if you're going to lose money on Tony Fienow betting you should do it at plus 450 to top 20 in this tournament yeah I'm done losing money on Tony Fee now I'm not going to do it he needs he if he puts together a sustained run where it's time to go ahead and reinvest again then I won't get those odds again though is all I don't I don't care yeah you're done you're done they could be they could be plus 4500 I don't care like it it it is enough I mean let me ask you to

guess where he finished just on the on the data golf the DG that they're ranking where do you think he is right now oh 120 no sir is it worse oh much worse 176 not that bad okay in between in between 154th uh yeah right now he's ranked now but he is ranked ahead of of uh brooks kebka and see to gala so he's got that go for him yeah but uh let let's we've been And we've been tough stretch for some of these guys, man. Yeah, well, golf is hard. Golf is hard. How about that?

You know who's not in the field this week? My guy, Joel Damon, excellent, excellent golfer, you know, does not have the starts guaranteed this year. Like, and they're just, this is a very important year for everybody who doesn't have their card wrapped up because they're great like Rory and Scotty. We are likely going to have fewer events in 2027. We are likely going to have fewer golfers in 2027. And that's why the breakthrough guys, the JJ spawn Ben Griffin moments, if you do that in 2026, you're probably going to elongate your career by three to five years. And the guys who don't manage to do that may lose their jobs at this point.

And so it's a very interesting, ever more intense year than we've probably ever had in the history of the tour. because we don't know what changes are going to be made. But what we just found out from the commissioner is from the CEO of the tour is he's going to make decisive changes for what he thinks is best for the sport. Everybody else can F off. He is not approaching it that way, but like that's the truth. And he's going to do what he thinks is best for the game. And he has signaled to us that scarcity is a thing. And so, you know, look, you got Pat Mahomes is, is, you know,

is a superstar in the NFL, you still need to make way for the second string offensive linemen. You need other guys to have a sport. But I do think that it's going to be harder than ever for guys like Sahith, for guys like Tony, for guys who don't have the automatic exemptions to keep their card next year. And that pressure is going to be ratcheted up. Well, that's going to be a theme of these shows going forward. And you and I will have the chance to go ahead and do some speculation around the 2027 schedule because that really this is going to be the underlying theme and we probably would have done a little bit more on that today except for we had to get through the existential moment between the two tours with brooks kepka's return to the pga tour which is

phenomenal let's return at least for one more time to hawai to honolulu to the waili country club the sony open um very very very quickly sony uh is this is the the last year for them under contract in in hawai and there is um rampant speculation that the tour will not be in hawaii at the beginning of 2027 that the season is going to start later they're not going to start in january it might start in february um and you know there is not right now at this moment the century folks who have sponsored the event for past champions of the previous year, those folks have said, we're kind of fine with having this event anywhere you want us to be. Yeah, it doesn't have to be Capulua.

It does not have to be Capulua. So that's, that's a, it's a bummer for all of us who romanticize golf in Hawaii at the beginning of the season. Listen, we're shooting a lot of tournaments in the head. We shot Napa in the head. We shot Jackson, Mississippi and the chicken trophy. we took a skull it right out. I mean, Sanderson gone.

So we're going to kill a lot of tournaments. You know, the flip side is, hey, man, when Brooks Kepka comes back this year, Tori Pines is going to feel like a big-ass tournament. Phoenix is going to feel like a big-ass tournament. Those are going to be fun. So I get it. But, yeah, we're going to start,

these things are going to start dropping like flies. So, hey, we've got to appreciate it while they're out in the islands while we can. I'm going to throw some names at you. We're contractually obligated if we talk about. the Sony at while I have to talk about with that we have four top 10 players um Russell Henley J J J Spahn Robert McIntyre and Ben Griffin are all there yes you just mentioned Hadeki he's not in the top 10 but Hadeki is there conjecturally obligated to mention him um kind of have to mention Kegan and we've gone this whole show without

mentioning Captain Kegan who in terms of his play in 2025 had one of the very best seasons of his entire career, even with the 100-pound gorilla on his shoulders of, you know, trying to manage a rider cup, a successful rider cup of Beth Page Black. And to me, the way he performed at the Skins game, I have to tell you, it really caught my attention. He's just not out there to F around. I know that I'm overdoing it. But, you know, the fire, the juices were flowing. I can make funny for this, but I'm going to pay. how Tom Lee because he made a hole in one on a simulator at sawgrass 17 so i i there's there's silly reasons to tap into and this this sort of uh this vacuum of golf over the last few months has us

having to look more back towards history but i think you're right i mean i think he can kegan really benefited from all the crowd support last year in the same way that um bryson now does the same thing it's hard to not take that energy and do really well with it and man you know we're just always going to remember that that win at Hartford, at least I am. I just thought that was just kind of a magical, magical moment. But I think now with the burden of the Ryder Cup off his back, assuming he sort of made peace with it, he could play well. The flip side is, Keegan Bradley doesn't ever seem to make peace with anything. Like Keegan Bradley is his fire. Is haunted. Yes. He allows himself to be haunted. So it will be interesting to see how he comes

out of the gate and whether not having the captaincy is a relief or whether he walks around like the sort of guilty, you know, guilty kid for the next, for the next season. See, I think that he curried so much favor with his compatriots on tour that he has created for himself kind of a status. You know, he really took the bullet as much as, as then he chose not to play himself. I think that will forever be regardless. and respected as I think it will too as I really do I think that that might uh propel him so um top 10s top 20s got to do something with russell henley got to get him in there uh you know he won in 2013 tied for 11 or better for the past five years got to play keegan um keegan loves this place uh

three the past uh four years um he's been in contention on on a sunday at this venue um nico it's Tavaria last year's runner-up. I like the way that he played. He came in off a heater in the fall, but, you know, worth a look. Hadecki, you have to have some exposure to Hadecki on your card this week. Tell me a couple guys that you have in mind that you have focus on. Well, J-Rays stats for us. Most birdies are better per round of the Sony Open since 2020.

10 rounds played minimum. Harry Hall is number one with 5.17. First round leader last year. He's the best putter on tour, led the tour in total putting, putting average, birdie or better conversion. He's also got the most, you know, again, he's got the most birdies are better since 2020. He's 35 to 1 this week to win. He's plus 410 to top 10.

He tied for 10th last year. That was the start of his season. By the end of the season, he'd made his way all the way into the tour championship. And there was some conversation like, are we going to sneak him on to the Ryder Cup? Exactly. They couldn't bump anybody on the Euro side. But on a course in which, you know, the tour average, in shots gained is like 33% this week.

It's like 38%. So in a course that demands great putting, Harry Hall is one of them for sure. Give me one more. Let me give you, I mean, I gave you Tony Fienau at plus 450 to top 20 because what the hell. I talked to you about Johnny Kiefer at plus 280 to top 20 because, again, he's an excellent putter

and his accuracy won't hurt him here. The last one for me is Houtung Lee, who's coming over from the DP World Tour. driving accuracy will be less of an issue here. Remember, where the last times we saw him, he was T4 at the Open. He was T8 at the DP World Tour Championship. He made a hole in one on the simulator at PGA Tour headquarters last week. Okay, okay.

And any top 10 in the last two events that we saw, and he put very, very well in those events. He's plus 320 to top 20 this week. I think he's ready to come on and make a little bit of a splash on tour this year. Yeah, the only other guy I'll add, this is for our boy, Pat Mayo. Aaron Rye, because of his success on comparable courses, including, like, Wyndham and I think colonial. He has your combination of accuracy, sound irons, and you don't, he's like, he's a budget player, right? So a top 20 on Aaron Rye is all you're kind of looking at here.

But I do have him quietly. We've seen some, like, little glimmers. He wouldn't shock me if he makes it onto our breakout list as things sort of shake out this season. He's up to 23rd in the world rankings for Christ sakes. House. We had a big year ahead, buddy. I can't wait. Buddy, we did it.

We are officially back. And we are really just, you know, out there on the range, learning some looking for truth in the dirt. my friends we are going to be on Netflix here in a couple weeks this face and the face of Nathan Hubbard and we are going to try to be do do try to do our very best here with all the birdie buddies the eagle enthusiasts the par saving pals to reveal our truth we by way of this digging in the dirt um it's an exciting year it's an exciting time to be in professional golf my friends it's too cold to be outside

playing golf but if you're able to get Not here in L.A. baby! If you're able to get yourself to a simulator, please let him straight in there.