Fairway Rollin' - Fitzpatrick Outduels Scheffler, the State of LIV, and the Zurich Classic

Episode Date: April 22, 2026

House and Nathan break down Matt Fitzpatrick's victory at RBC Heritage before discussing the current situation of LIV and what the future may hold for them. Finally, they close the show by previewing the Zurich Classic (0:00) Welcome to Fairway Rollin’! (2:50) Matt Fitzpatrick beats Scottie Scheffler in a playoff (11:20) Who would you pick ahead of Fitzpatrick at the U.S. Open? (17:28) The state of LIV (26:46) What will the future of golf be? (39:13) Zurich Classic preview The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Producers: Jonathan Frias and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome to this golf program, unlike any other. Oh, yes, my friends, we've done it. We are back. This is Faraway rolling. A golf program on the Ringer podcast network and on Netflix, my birdie buddies, my par-saving pals, my eagle enthusiasts. I'm your starter, Joe House, joined by my incomparable accomplice. Our PGA tour boots on the ground. Nathan Hubbard. It's a two ball. The pegs are in the ground. And off we go.

Nate Dogg, how is your tartan jacket? Man, I wish this tournament wasn't the week after the Masters because the crowds are interesting. Let's put it that way. We're going to have to talk about them. Great word. We're in the USA hat. USA. The crowds are interesting. The chorus is terrific. it gets a great group of people. Like it really is a terrific tournament that is in, I think, probably the worst slot of the season. And so when they redo this schedule and it sounds like, as we'll talk about today, there's already some pieces starting to fall house of the Hawaiian type that they put this somewhere else where we can really dive in and enjoy it.

Because I just feel like we have a hangover postmasters coming. into what is one of the most interesting courses on tour that demands things of players that we don't get at most of the other ones. I don't know. It took me two days to get into this golf tournament. How do you feel about it? Yeah, I totally agree with that with the added element, and we were reminded of this once again, of how important the week after the Masters is to the entire golf industry. The entire golf industry, global golf industry, convenes in Augusta, And stuff happens. People talk to each other.

Business is, is had, you know, forecasts are made. It depends on your perspective. But yes, because this phenomenal golf tournament at this phenomenal venue was second fiddle behind, you know, the news of the week that occurred after we taped last week. Yeah. Which was potentially the imminent demise of the live tour, maybe. sort of kind of. We're going to talk about that in a minute. But let's give Matthew Fitzpatrick a very worthy second time winner of this tournament, his flowers, his tartan jacket, first player from outside the United States to win this tournament multiple times,

fourth Englishman with a multi-win season on the PGA tour alongside Nick Faldo, Luke Donald, and Justin Rose. If you go inside the numbers of what he accomplished, the field average on approach shots from 200 to 225 yards was 44 feet. Matt Fitzpatrick in the playoff. And this is why we say it hit it to 13 feet. It was magnificent by Fitzpatrick who showed enormous Cajonis after choking away the outright win on the 18th hole, just like he did at the players championship. Yeah.

He let Scotty in, but to his credit, they got into the cart. They drove all the way back out to that 18th T-box, and he is his caddy, got his head right. He hit one in the fairway where he had to hit it, not in the waste area, but in the fairway. And then an all-time, what was it, a four-iron or a five-iron? All-time, all-time, legendary. Not as good as Gary Woodlands. Not as good as Gary Woodlands. But an all-timer to clinch the victory.

And if they'd played one more hole, Scottie was going to win that thing. I mean, the hardest thing that we have to do today is appropriately contextualized Matt Fitzpatrick, who is now a top five golfer in the world, who has three wins in five months, who has gone, you know, he's got two wins and a second in the last month. I mean, he is playing terrific golf. But also just, I mean, Schaeffler is inevitable. It's just inevitable. And we'll properly give the flowers to Matt Fitzpatrick, but he just never goes away.

And after that stretch that we talked about where, you know, he finished T12, T24, T22 at the Genesis and API and players, three big tournaments gave us reason to go, I don't know. You know, I don't know how Scott he's going to actually do. He was only 30th on approach this week. And he still darn near came back and snatched his golf tournament. And you felt like once again, even after the Masters, that he left a little bit out there versus what he was capable of. And now you step back and go, oh, right. This is the guy who's won a quarter of the last 17 majors. He also has two seconds.

He's got a third and a fourth in that time. This is unequivocally the best golfer in the world. And it's why Matt Fitzpatrick was so classy in winning. There was this wonderful video that the PGA tour took and that they're doing now of everyone. They're calling it the winner's walk where they just. just stay on the winner post victory, and they record all the things that happen afterwards. He's there on the cart with his wife,

and he says, I wanted a fist pump so bad, but, you know, I didn't want to do that to Scotty. And he compared his own three wins in five months, and he said it's Schaeffler-esque, right? So Scotty is the standard. He's still the standard. He's just, he is inevitable. But, man, are we seeing a display of golf from Matt Fitzpatrick,

who's playing the best golf, I think statistically, not I think, I know statistically, but I think to the eye test, the best golf we've ever seen him play. And that includes the U.S. Open House. It is inarguable. You just go to our boy, Justin Ray, look at his timeline, and you come up with the stats. His approach play ranks on tour. Strokes gained approach.

2024, 127th. 2025, 76th. This year, seventh. Yeah. Greens and Regulation, 24, 107th, 2025, 103rd. This week, second. So there you go. The man's got his ball striking in order,

and he is ball striking his way to victory on the tour at good events. And not even putting that well. I mean, they joked with him this week about how he's gone back to the blade putter because he just, you know, it hadn't been working out great for him. But boy, it put well when he needed it on this first hole of sudden death. Yeah. And, you know, this was one where I feel like Scotty tracked him down. He didn't choke away the lead that he had.

Scotty was firing at pins and Scotty was doing legendary Scotty things. It felt very much. I live bet Scotty when they stood on the 17th T. That's the part three, right? Yes. Yes. Yeah, and got him at plus 320 at that point, which I was like, hey, this is pretty, I'm happy with that number.

Yeah, I mean, I think Fitsy's shooting one under wasn't a bad day. Statistically, he was pretty mediocre in most of the categories except off the T on Sunday, but that weather was legit. Oh, part of what makes the tournament so good. That's it. Like, this is one of the five on tour that I would tell you, you got to go see. Like, if you are a huge golf fan, RBC, heritage is worth seeing because the course is so great and the crowds are intense.

You've got to go to Phoenix. You've got to go to RIV. You know, there's a few others. I really think that the tournament in Hartford is great. River Highlands is a wonderful course to see a tournament on. But this one, this one is something to see. And as you said, like they, first of all, CBS got their shit together this week. And even on that last.

But go ahead. Well, let's talk about it because I noticed that on that putt that Fitzpatrick made to win. They were about to show us the Rory Heel shot. And then somebody in the booth was like, get a shot. Get behind the fucking golf ball. And they did. And we saw a great down the line. It was. It was very good. Very, very impressive. There was much more commentary that I thought was relevant. Anyway, but the complaint I heard was how do we not have Tracer on Scotty's approach shot in the playoff? We saw his body language, but we didn't get the full flight of the ball. got it on a replay. We didn't have it in real time. And those shots are the ones, those 200 plus

yard where the guys actually have long irons in their hand. It's like, you know, all the golf sickers are like, yes, you got to hit driver four iron on an actual part four. Look at that. And your four iron is only going 190 yards. Like basically mine does. Yeah. I mean, I, it was, it's just a great test and you make that turn on 17 to come back up into the wind. And it, It was a really enjoyable golf week that I think probably deserves its own shining moment because it is that fun. And we got a leaderboard that showed all the best guys' house. Here's Siwu Kim finishing third. Here's Morikawa gutting it out again.

Here's Harris English who's quietly snuck up to like 31st in FedEx and is starting to bounce back after he was sort of hanging around the Masters, right? There's Ludwig playing well. Here's Ricky Fowler who is having a really good season and starting to show us some things like Ricky, Ricky's in the mix, right? So they're just all of the guys on that leaderboard on a golf course where you couldn't take it over with your driver. It's exactly what we want to see. And I think it does capture the imagination of the larger sort of sports fan because I was getting incoming from a lot of different sources. People were watching golf late afternoon. NBA playoffs were going on as well.

And I'm not sure what to attribute the fact that eyes were coming to golf at that point. It definitely helps those on CBS. You know, go ahead. Yeah. And I think people after the Masters, just like last year, they get a slightly bit more interested. So they're probably not as worn out as you and I are because it's like we, you know, it's like we got a massive hangover for them. it's like, oh, maybe this is an interesting thing for me to watch.

Well, speaking of massive hangover, great job Matt Fitzpatrick. We look forward to seeing all the great things we'll do for the rest of the season. Yeah, I mean, it's he's in the, I mean, who do you pick ahead of him right now in a one and done U.S. Open draft? Oh, well, I mean, I'm never not picking Scotty at Shinnock. Of course. I'm just saying, are there more than five?

that's a great question because we went through this for the Masters and Matt Fitzpatrick was on my betting card and in my top 10 for the Masters and I lost all of my bets on Matt Fitzpatrick at the Masters. And I would, you know, who the hell knows now what to do with John Rom and Bryson D. Shambot? I don't think you can bet them anymore. Like the prices, you're not going to get value. They should be in the 30 to one range now with all the uncertainty surrounding their future and the way. they performed at the Masters was just hot trash. So you're not going to get the right odds for those guys. They're still going to be, you know, inside of 15 to 1. So I'm not betting you the one of those guys. And those are the guys that were ahead. Go ahead. Yeah. Well, I was just as a Fitsy, Fitsy sold you out.

He finished T-18 at the Masters and opened with a 74. So he played pretty well from there on in. But I'm with you on, we'll talk more about Bryce and and Rom because they were in a very animated, same side of the table, animated conversation on that putting green. live when Rahm went on to win. Like there is a whole lot going on in that world right now. But yeah, I'm with you. You can't, I don't think you can bet those guys right now. So it's Scotty, yeah. Rory.

Rory. Yeah. Always, always Rory. I still think at a U.S. Open, maybe I take Bryson and Ron, but like. Tommy Fleawood. But he's just taking Tommy ahead of Matt Fitzpatrick at this point. Because he's not showing us anything. And Fitz is winning tournaments.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a great conversation. Let Colin Warcawa get healthy. and then I'd like to be back on him because these last two weeks have been really been something. I agree, but one of the things that I think has me take Fitzpatrick

ahead of some of these other guys that we're talking about, including Tommy and Colin, is what he showed us with this crowd. Man, this crowd turned on him, like a rider cup. And by the way, I just got to say it,

we're not showing well. Like, every time we go asshole as a crowd right now against the Europeans, they are stuffing it down our throat. It's just a handful of dopes. It's some, some, some concentration of dopes were vocal enough. There were a lot of dope.

It's dopey. It's dope. It's so dumb. Listen, there's beautiful people at that tournament. It's a sundress fest. But there was some dumbass. And I think we're starting to look really bad. Like, we got to find a way to turn. Like, maybe just be quiet. I don't know.

The silence will freak him out. I mean, it does speak well of the enthusiasm that people have for the rider cup. It's dopey because we got our asses kicked. Like, okay. It was a great push on Sunday. I'm so glad there was almost a historic comeback, but there wasn't because you're a beat our ass soundly for two days. It got such a lead that they could coast home.

So, you know. It's not working. And what's worse is he's enjoying it. All this negative energy only makes him stronger. He was so annoyingly classy afterwards. He gave him the little, he gave him the little ear. thing, you know, when he made the put. But in the conference, he was like, no, no, nobody was out of line. In other words, Beth Page toughen these fuckers because we were so bad. It can never be that bad again.

We just gave them calluses now. And so now they go out there, they're like, oh, you're going to chant at me. Like, come on, man, I've seen a thousand times. They walked through the fire and they will never be burned again. We fucked it up. Maybe so. We're definitely losing in Ireland. And there's no doubt about that, but that mental strength, right? Yes. Like Fitzpatrick for a while was the guy who had the flag in and was taking all the notes and couldn't quite put. He just wasn't the guy who was going to finish tournaments. Well, now he's got three.

He's got some of that godrupism in him. I get that. I will say when you compare the end of the players to the end of this RBC heritage, he did the same thing. He missed his drive right on both of those holes and bogeyed both of the players. of those holes. The thing that separated, you know, this, this event from the players is that, you know, Mr. Cam Young just went ahead and grabbed the golf tournament with the extraordinary par on 18. And we think about the U.S. Open where he was in the bunker and hit that great iron shot. The problem on 18 was not so much the drive because he could play it from there and

played it perfectly well. It's that he choked up on the cross-handed chip after Scottie. It was a hard chip. I mean, it's not like, I mean, it's easy chip under other circumstances, but it's the 72nd hole to win the golf tournament. You've got to chip it close to make a put to win the tournament. I just think when you get these reps like this and it comes out in your favor, and there he is sort of marveling at the fact that he's now won the DP World Tour championship, right? He's won the Valspar, and he's won this in a very short period of time. Like, he's going to build up the belief and the confidence that when you combine it with the skill set is very, very dangerous. I wouldn't even say is going to. I think we're there. We have proof of

concept. And he's through the fire with the baby and all of it. You know, he's in the right place. It's great for golf. How excited are we? We just went through like, how are we going to handicap the US Open? How are we going to handicap the PGA championship? The PGA Championship and Erronomac, I think, do let more guys in. And we're going to have a great time talking about that. We are over the next handful of weeks. But again, what the hell to do with the live guys will be one of the topics of conversation because there was a really now looking back on it, I'm glad that we didn't jump in with kind of immediate reaction because the balance of the week turned out with a lot more information, a lot more thoughtful kind of observation around

what was going on. So the two things that I think are absolutely positively fact are last week marked the moment when Saudi Arabia announced kind of its new updated direction for its vision, right? And the thing for the Piff. The way it was going to spend its money and

how it's going to spend its money. And the other thing that is absolutely positively true is that Ryan French, Monday qualifying, Monday Q, I'm going to mess up his Twitter handle. But an authority, a well-respected person in the Gulf media space,

reported a kind of bombshell thing brewing. So the bombshell thing, I think, was probably just the fact that the Piff direction didn't mention live by name, didn't double down on the commitment. Maybe that was the thing. But here's my single biggest sort of criticism. How is it possible at this point in where Liv stands with that league and what it's hoping to accomplish that these guys are playing defense. How are they playing defense last week?

They know that this, you know, PIF report is coming out. They know that it's not going to say anything about Live. Why are they all on their back foot responding to the golf world's reaction to a story that couldn't necessarily bite down hard on anything? I believe it to be the case for sure. that 2026 was a proof of concept year. The mandate for Scott O'Neill when he was hired was find commercial support for this tour. So he had 2025 and 26 to find sponsors, investments, media partners, things that start to make this look more and more viable. That was the mandate the

day that he was hired. That's not new news. So why are they in this position that there is? another self-induced, unforced error is the takeaway for me. Well, I think the answer is because in the grand scheme of the PIF and all of the money that it allocates and puts to work, live as a fly on an elephant's ass. And so their priority is not to give the comms down through the ranks of what they are cutting and what they are keeping. Their priority is to the macro decision-making and strategy that they're going to set, which is much bigger. and so what happened, I think pretty obviously, is they decided that this is not something they're going to fund past this year.

And I do think that there's a lot of credible reporting that suggests that there were a lot of conversations about whether they were going to continue to fund it through this year. Now, Scott O'Neill is a smart guy and is used to having to turn businesses into media things, and he's going to be out there. He got a lot of shit online,

but he did say directly, hey, now I guess this interview's been taken down, but he did say directly, yeah, we're going to have to go raise money. That's business. That's what we're going to have to do. We're going to figure it out. But I think that at this point now, it seems like the direction of travel is that the Saudis are not going to fund this past this year. It's going to be on these guys to figure out whether they can go get funding to keep it going. But that is a kneecapping situation for the guys on this tour and for the proposition. Because if you are, an up-and-coming golfer now, there is just an enormous amount of instability and uncertainty in what's happening at Liv. And that is why we saw the animated conversations between Bryson and Rom. That is why, as we now know, that Bryson's representatives appear to have spent some of Masters Week having conversations about what it looks like if he leaves Liv. And by the way, it makes perfect sense. They've tried to do this for a set of years. It's not working. It has not capital. It has not capital. the public imagination and worse than that they're losing players who are coming back to the to the

original league because they weren't being prepared properly for the things they care about that's the truth and you come out of the mat in the majors and you see what are the masters and you see what happened with bryson and you just can't think anything else other than and even rome's performance and just go it isn't the same thing that's why pat's back that's why brooks is back that's why brooks is playing in the fucking zirut classic this week because he can cares enough about and believes that this is the place that's going to prepare him for the major. So I think you're right that there was a lot of reaction about the imminent death. But I do think death might be imminent.

I mean, Scott's going to have to pull a rabbit out of a hat. He may do it because he's done that many times in his life and in his career with a hand that he's been dealt like this. But I don't think there's any doubt that the Saudis have decided we don't love losing money. We definitely don't love losing money and looking bad and getting sort of made fun of. That's not fun. And the only reason I'm doing this is so that Yasser can maybe get into Augusta. Like, I'm out if I'm the Saudis. I understand the decision.

That's rational decision making. Yeah. And that to me is the most salient point, which is why are we taking this kick to our nuts, you know, several times a year? What's the point to this? why were we allowing ourselves to be humiliated in this way? We're on television that nobody watches. The first number of events are abroad in locales where it's impossible to watch in real time in the biggest market in the world and generate that interest. Why should we take this and pay full freight?

And the outset, we've said this multiple times on this show, it was a marketing ploy. Well, if you're a marketing ploy, it's just a finance project. It's a project. It's not a genuine sports league in the way we think about it. It's not a business proposition. There was no business plan. It's not something where they arrived with a media partner hand in hand saying, this is the rational way that we intend to generate interest in this thing.

They just showed up, ran their mouths a whole bunch. Greg Norman said a whole bunch of crazy-ass stuff. Phil said a whole bunch of crazy-ass stuff. it did do the thing. And Brian Rolap was on McAfee, was it today or yesterday, saying, look, man, the arrival of Liv was a good thing. That competition focused the attention on the Tor product. And there were some ways the Tor product could improve.

So we welcome the competition. We welcome the fresh eyes. And Liv deserves credit for that. But it was never, even at the very, very earliest, anything other than a curiosity because they didn't demonstrate, you know, a legit sound. Viable model. Reason for us to be interested.

Exactly. Right. Yeah. And our assumption was that in the early days, they were trying to buy access, which they were. But that patience clearly has run out because they're not getting the access that they wanted. I mean, they already had the sort of proximity to Trump and the influence that way.

They, and they just haven't been able to turn it into legitimacy. And I don't put that at the fee of Saudis, by the way. I think you've got to put that at the feet of Norman. I think there was a moment in which if they had closed Rom sooner, closed one or two more players, that the whole Jenga thing comes down. So this was close. But now, interestingly, House, with those changes, and now we got these $20 million purses, elevated events,

is that a viable business model? And that's what our friend Brian Rolap is having to grapple with and figure out. The tour responded defensively, and the changes that it's very clear he's going to start rolling out here. I think we're going to hear about a lot of this stuff in June, but that are starting to leak out about Hawaii are examples of where I think they're starting to say, hey, we got to get our own house in order and make sure that with the talent cost, what it is, that we actually have a viable business because unlike the Saudis, you know, the strategic sports group is not going to wait five years. and burn big amounts of money and allow that to happen. They're going to be much, they're going to demand a lot more discipline. That's the most important aspect of it. The investors in this tour will not permit, will not tolerate any more sort of, you know,

beating around. We need to see the efficiencies. It needs to be viable. What do you mean? What? Efficiencies. You don't like efficiencies? Yeah, I like efficiencies.

I mean, that's why we're not playing in Hawaii anymore because it costs too much. money. It's really expensive to have two events in Hawaii. I, the nostalgia in me, you know, I'm sad. I love watching Hawaii. It was appointment viewing at the beginning of the year. It always marked a moment in the sports calendar, in the life calendar. You know, it's the holidays. We had Christmas. We have New Year's and now it's the century. And let's look at golf in Hawaii. It's fucking great. Sign me up. I'm sorry to see it go. I would love for somebody. I said this already and and I can't patent the idea. I want somebody to give me credit. Somebody, a big streamer, somebody with a whole bunch of money could come in here and eventize two

events in Hawaii and make the cost element a lot more palatable. And, you know, I think the players by and large like it. The players certainly traveled for the century. The Euro guys didn't because it messed up. It interfered with, you know, the commencement of the DP World tour stuff and those events in Dubai and so forth. But it was always, they were good fields. Yeah. I'll tell you as a guy who lives in the Pacific Palisades, that I have a fear that the sort of double combo of the fires in Lahai that just blew out the town and were just awful, combined with the water crisis that they had where there was that fight with the golf course owners over water rights. And so the course dried out, so they had to cancel. I, I, I, I,

I'm a little bit worried about whether the sort of underlying instability there and the town not coming back from a tourist standpoint. Did that contribute here? But I think you're right. Like, it was something that a lot of people really looked forward to, and there must be a way to take one of these events that happens at Tahoe or these sort of celebrity proams and turn it into even a match, right, in December. If they do that at Capulua could be something that we'd like to see. because it was one of those reminders in the dead of East Coast winter growing up that there is sunshine ahead and that if we can just get through these next couple of months, we're going to get to swing the club.

We're going to be, yeah. Very important to us on the East Coast. Yeah, yeah, it is. But the reporting suggests that they may yet find a way to do a senior tour event at Capulua. And I will say the craziest thing is, I know, but it keeps contacts, right? And the senior tour is the PGA tour, speaking of SSG, the private equity. Like that was, it felt like on the cutting block potentially two years ago when they were looking at the economics of all of the properties that the PGA tour owns. And I do wonder out loud about the fact that Tiger Woods will not be joining the senior PGA tour this upcoming kind of summer.

It seemed like that was potentially in the cards if he could have physically got himself right. and he was headed in that direction, man, I don't know. There's a cost-benefit rationale there that will be really interesting in paying attention to in terms of that. If the math doesn't work, yeah. If the math doesn't work with Scotty there, I don't get how it works with Zach Johnson there. But it's not, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a smaller audience. It's a small, smaller viewership. So how does it, how do the economics work?

Well, you don't have to spend as much money on the television, but we're right, exactly. But these changes are now starting to leak out. And I think some of the things that I suspect the CEO of the PGA Tour, Brian Rolab, had intended to announce at the players where you and I were in person. But he had a sort of suspiciously broad and less specific set of things, although I thought he acquitted himself very well on stage. we just didn't get as much substance as we thought we might. And as we were being set up to think we might, I think he's starting to now nail those things in. And he's going to start putting stakes in the ground

and making some declarations. And I think that I can tell you that amongst the players on the tour in this moment, what they just want is certainty now. They want to know what they're hitting from a target perspective. And I don't mean what pins they're aiming at. But they want to know what the competition is going to look like. What is their schedule? look like how are they planning? You got a bunch of guys who literally plan their families around

the PGA tour schedule. We joke about Scotty and Meredith having the baby 10 days before the master's, but there's planning that goes into these things. And we know a lot of guys. You know, I felt like the most important thing that Rollab shared with us in mid-March was the fact that most of the events will be 120 player events because that's a pretty sizable difference from the signature events as are competed right now. And what the prevailing sort of thought was about what the fields might look like on the PGA A tour going forward. If you have letting 120 guys in, that's accommodating, right? You get pretty far down the list in terms of, and that preserves one of the things that we like,

that we say that we like, which is guys coming out of left field from nowhere and, showing, you know, the ability to participate. Our guy, Yelamarajou. Yes. Like, that's a story that might not have happened, you know, in a closer, you know, 80-person kind of field deal. You mean, like, say, Tony Fienow, who shot one under on Sunday and still finished 11 over par and lost by five in an 82 guy tournament.

Yeah, it would be nice to have a little bit more variety. I think we're going to get it. Yeah, I agree. And so that part of it at least provides some solace. I don't know that there's anything just to finish the live thought to provide those guys solace because the worst thing in business, and you can speak to this more intelligently than I, is to have your fate written for you when you are going to market. You are already in the most difficult, challenging kind of position and environment,

which is a smaller pie of media rights money out there because the NFL, and Rollap said this himself, his own self out of his own mouth back in March. If the NFL goes to market early and snatches up more of the $30 to $35 billion pie, then that means there's less for everybody else. And a small startup like Live, who has no demonstrated track record of success, in U.S. media. I don't know about, you know, what the European media right situation looks like, but they are in relationships that are distributor relationships.

They don't have media rights to sell because there's nothing to sell. And that's the single hardest hill to climb, in my opinion. I think you're right. So it's going to be, it's going to instantly open up these conversations around who are they going to bring back and how. Yeah. Because I do think it's very likely a year from now that Bryson and or Rom are back in some capacity. And there's going to be the egos to get around. And it sounds like Bryson is threatened to just do his YouTube shit and show up for the majors.

But that's not serious. That's not serious. What we're seeing is that's not serious. And I think, but outside of those guys, there's only a few others who I think the tour feels like they need to bring back in. all the attention turns back to the collegiate ranks and the the jackson covens and the guys who are you know five a seven college tournaments i mean that that's that's as much a story for me this week house as anything is blades brown on the on the corn fairy tour now and the pGA tour has had some serious leads as a teenager jackson coivens won five a seven at auburn i mean these there are some very very

very bright lights coming out of the junior golf ranks at the moment. And they're going to come up just in time in a moment in which I think, you know, we have a decent chance of all the best golfers playing in one place so that they can, what we wanted and why Liv didn't quite work is we wanted to compare golfers on the same venues to their historical predecessors, to the future players. Give us that sense of both tradition but also continuity and comparison. And there are some guys who I want to see how they play, Riv. I want to see how they hit it against Bryson and his prime, right?

I want to have those moments where you've got the young up-and-coming guy going head to head with the man of the moment. Because that gives us so much historical context 20 years from now. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of why Jacob Bridgman, I think, resonated the way he did with Riviera, a name that folks hadn't heard, had accomplished a couple of things. But that to me really speaks to what I believe to be the most fascinating open questions as the PGA tour figures out its own, you know, sort of pathway. Because the two things that you just mentioned there, opportunities for college kids, well, where are they going? They're not going into the 120 player fields that are competing for the biggest money.

So that's the PGAB events, right? There's pathway events that you'll be able, I mean, pathway accomplishment, you know, the way that they have the PGA tour, you guys with, you know, the ability to jump over. And, you know, the corn ferry tour, like the relegation piece of this. And I hope they use that word. I really do because you see people who are fans of European soccer and especially the English Premier League. And this past weekend, the relegation stuff, you know, was, I was hearing it in the background. I'm not a super sicko soccer person, but I just adore the idea that, you know, it's the ultimate meritocracy.

If you stink, then you have to go bye-bye and going by-bye really sucks. Yeah, it sucks. You only eat what you kill, so you better start killing or else you're not going to eat. And that's the fun part of this sport. It's why we like the cut cam idea and there needs to be more focus on that. It's why we love the Wyndham at the end of the year when guys are just desperately trying to keep their cards, that sort of iconic moment of Justin Thomas almost chipping in to make the playoffs. He didn't lose his card, but it changed, you know, he changes trajectory.

It really, it did and it continues to. So I, look, there are a lot of very, very important questions about the future of golf that I think are going to be answered over the next couple months and you and I are going to be talking about them every week. So it's going to be fun. Can't wait. Can't wait. Hey, hey, my birdie buddies, Fairway Rowland is presented by My Fandul, golf fans. The PGA season is in full swing as the world's best navigate these hollowed fairways. Fandall is here to bring you closer to every career defining moment. Van Duel's round betting markets let you join the whole by whole action like round leader,

birdie counts, finishing position, and more. No need to wait until Sunday for a big win. You think you know how it's all going to go down? Combine your top 10 finishers. into a parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. We are in New Orleans this week, the outstanding Zurich Classic. Look at these combinations that you might do

for a couple of interesting top tens. You could put Houtung Lee and Jordan Smith. Two guys, proof of concept-wise, been playing well this year. Aaron Ryan's Sihith Tagala, both very sneaky here. Nate Dogg likes Michael Torborsen and Carl Phillips and how are you going to leave out the Fitzpatrick brothers,

both those guys have wins on their respective tours this season. So are you ready to play your game? That is Fandul.com slash rolling R-O-L-L-L-I-N to bet the PGA tour with America's number one sportsbook. Every swing can be a winner with Fandul and official partner of the PGA. Quick disclaimer must be 21 plus in select states or 18 plus in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or in Connecticut call 1-88-78-9-77-77 or visit CCPG.org slash chat.

Well, you just mentioned, you know, kill what you eat. Let's talk about eating because this week is in New Orleans. We're talking to Zurich Classic, the TPC, Louisiana. It is a true sort of break from the high drama. high stakes, best players in the world moments of the previous two weeks, the Masters and RBC Heritage. This thing has, I think, achieved the correct, like, self-awareness. I think they know exactly who they are.

There's walk-up music. You know, the guys enjoy it. They talk about how good the food is. They talk about how well they're treated. They're going for fun. We get this moment where we're breaking. up, you know, 72 holes stroke play on tour, and we're getting a different way of looking at the guys perform, which is also welcome a couple times over the course of the year.

It's why I loved the matchplay. I understood why I'm the calendar and the menu and on TV rights and all of that, why it didn't work out. But I would love for that to make its way back in. And God bless him, Rolap did say that they're looking at matchplay kinds of concepts in the playoff tour championship structure, perhaps, you know, at the end of year. So I'm here for that. But you get these incredible combinations. I mean, the Fitzpatrick brothers. You get to see Matt Fitzpatrick come out.

His brother just won two weeks ago. On DP World Tour. Yeah, DP World Tour. Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin get to come in and defend. They're available at this. This really is the tournament that unleashed Ben Griffin. Yeah. Yeah.

And he went. I mean, for a minute there, we were talking. on this program last year about the idea of Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin both making the Ryder Cup and would they be a formidable team because there's a deep long-lasting friendship that preceded them showing up and winning that golf tournament. We were like maybe that would be something that would carry over. Novak couldn't get across the goal line for the Ryder Cup team. No, but the year before we saw Rory and Shane, right? We saw Roy and Shane play extraordinarily well and carry that chemistry into the Ryder Cup.

I didn't know that Brooks Kepka and Shane and Oliver were friends. I didn't know that they were. I'm not sure they are. I think marriage of convenience. Yeah. Shotgun marriage. Shane and Brooks's catty are friendly.

That's for sure. That's great. And Brooks, to your point, I mean, this is it. This is what's great about Brooks just swallowing his pride and saying, no, no, I'm ready to earn it because he's playing great. But Brooks needs this, man. Brooks wins this golf tournament. He gets into all the remaining signature events.

He gets a two-year exemption. Shane Lowry cares about this tournament because he's won it before and come close another couple of times. Shane Lowry, as we know, loves to eat. Like, he likes this event. I'm all in on this. Like, watch Brooks Kepka this week. It is fascinating because you don't often see rivals, rider cup rivals, together in this way, right? Exactly.

You're not going to see this again. This is a very sort of special unique thing. Brooks didn't play at Beth Page. But he's a rider cover. He would if we drafted guys today. Like there's no doubt that with his ball striking this year, he would be a captain's pick. Yes. But I mean, the last time that Shane won this event, Rory carried his ass for four days.

And Shane was upfront and direct about it and was almost giddy and his gratitude. But there are a few ghosts. that still hang around this event. It's going to be interesting to see Brooks, who's really struggled with the putter, and Shane, who has not performed his best in the clutch. We saw it multiple times. We saw Tough Master Sunday.

We saw a pretty tough player Sunday from him. So it's going to be interesting to see these guys in their chemistry. Brooks and his sort of steely, you know, stubbornness, Shane and his firing. How does that pairing work? It's going to be fun. Well, I am interested, you know,

for the rest of world that is preparing for the President's Cup this upcoming September. You are seeing some pairings here, some early, like, let's just go ahead and give it a run kind of things. And Jeff Ogilby, captain of the rest of world, the international side in this 2026 President's Cup, is playing in this event with Cam Davis, who has played in in President's Cups before. but I think so that he can be there, like I see some comedy, McKenzie Hughes and Taylor Pendrith. Okay, well, those are two Canadians

and they've competed together in the, on the international side. Who else am I missing? You know, I was actually pretty surprised to see how Tongley, well, for Eric Van Royan and Christian Bezudin hood are playing.

The bees are playing together. Two of our South African guys are playing. And that's a sneaky pairing to watch for sure. I was surprised to see how Tong Lee playing with Jordan Smith, except that I think that's actually a group that we got to pay a lot of attention to this week. Like Jordan Smith quietly was T-13 at RSM. He's fourth at Valspar. Like, there's something going on there.

So he and Houtang have a very interesting combination. I just didn't think, I didn't expect Jordan Smith. I thought Houtang might play, as you said, with a President's Cup player. I just think at this point, Houtung's probably on the team. So maybe he's just trying to get his status locked up. Could be, could be. I want to go way down.

Just call out to everybody's attention. This is not a week where it's a multiple unit. You're outlaying, you know, giant. This is not a normal week. You can't really handicap this with any accuracy. I just want to note that Billy Horshaw and Tom Hogi are available at 65 to 1. You have to have a ticket on those two guys.

I just think you do. was the one that jumped out at me how far down the board they were yeah exactly Portial has won here twice once solo and once as as a team it does are a classic and Hogi has a demonstrated very well-accomplished resume on Pete Dye courses and this is they're going from a Pete Dye course at RBC Heritage to a Pete Dye course but Hogi look up Hogi's numbers at the players championship at TPC Sawgrass and then feel free to extrapolate to this. Just not this past year.

Well, but that's, you know, this thing is so weird. It's its own weird animal. It's 65 to 1. You got to have that ticket, that's all. Yeah. I mean, look, coming in, the Fitzpatrick brothers both coming in basically with a win. I mean, you know, we, I think we've talked enough about Matt, but like his last four majors, dude, T8 at the PGA, T-38 at the U.S. Open, T-4 at the British Open. And T-18 at the Masters, like, he's coming, man.

Like, and now with the iron play the way it is, I, we need to reevaluate how we think about him at these last three majors of the year because I think he's, he sure feels like he's ready to win one. And if Alex is actually playing well, Alex punched way above his weight a few years ago when they played here, way above his weight. For sure, for sure. Like, we saw some of that documented, but he, um, he, um, he, um, these guys feel like the prohibited favorites

even if they're sort of tied with Brooks and Lowry on the board. There's a few other things that I'm interested in. You know, we've been waiting for Carl Phillips to jump up. Okay. I love that pairing. Yeah, him playing with Thor Bjoranson is very, very interesting. There's a couple, you know, Aaron Rye and Sahith, Tagalog, Saif is absolutely back.

Aaron Rye looked like he was playing really good golf at Augusta. And so that to me feels like a pairing to look at it 22 to 1 for sure. This is a hard tournament because they do best ball, then they do alternate shot. Right. And so you have one day where with best ball somebody shoots 12 under, they'll shoot a 58 easily on this course. And then the next day they shoot, you know, three over because somebody's hooking it into the fucking gaiters. And the weather can jump up a little bit on you at this.

Or they're not, you know, they're not, they don't both don't normally play the same ball. And so one guy has to make a compromise and the feel gets off. And so it's not the easiest thing to bet on. But I do think you've, you've nailed a few of the people that we've really got to look at. I'm going to, this is my parting thought on this. 40 to one, I see Austin Smotherman and Andrew Putnam. I love it. You know, Smotherman, another guy who played well at the players,

a guy who's showing a little bit of something. I like the direction he's headed in this season. And those are the kind of pairings that you see like, oh, these guys finished top five, you know, where did they come from? Well, you know, there's a, there's a relationship there that makes some sense. So yeah, that's my, my, any other guys you're looking at? I think, I think that's the list. I wouldn't, I wouldn't spend too much time on this one because you just can't, even with all of the attention we've been paying to some of the smaller events, momentum here just gets blown up by two things. it gets blown up by the alternate shot format, and then it gets blown up by Bourbon Street.

And you just don't know. Our momentum would get blown up by Bourbon Street, that's for sure. We have to get down to this one time just to check it out. It's fantastic. I mean, I did it one year. I was at Jazz Fest and rolled in at five in the morning as Davis Love was getting on the bus to go out to the course. And he was like, what the hell are you guys doing?

I was like, oh, we're not playing golf. We're going to bed. That's the kind of vibe. So if you can just stay awake, there's a whole lot of fun to be had. Well, we are here to keep you awake, my birdie buddies, my par saving pals, because we have momentum into the PGA championship,

which quite sneakily is right around the corner. We are just a handful of weeks away from the PGA championship. Your good buddies here at Fairway Rolling, we'll be getting those previews underway, and we'll get some guests in here to help us start getting our heads around the Philadelphia golf scene, what Aronimink in particular might portend in terms of the challenge. We'll revisit some of the history of tournaments at Aronimic

because we've had great players play there and great outcomes. You know, if you don't have a Justin Rose ticket, don't wait, go get it right now because that man loves Aronimic. But we'll get our birdie buddies ready in every which way. I hope you're getting ready, all of you, to throw a peg in the ground. It is officially golf season. The Masters is in our rearview mirror. If you're able to do that, my only request, please.

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