Fairway Rollin' - Is the PGA Championship Becoming the People's Championship?

Episode Date: May 19, 2026

House and Nathan discuss the afterglow of the PGA Championship, where the identity of this major stands, and the PGA Tour, fans, and players. Then, they react to the latest news about LIV Golf's potential funding or bankruptcy. Plus, the guys preview the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, sharing their favorite contenders and potential long shots to win this weekend at TPC Craig Ranch.(00:00) Welcome to Fairway Rollin’!(01:30) PGA Championship afterglow(15:35) Projecting the 2028 PGA schedule(22:45) The latest on LIV Golf(32:20) Previewing the CJ Cup Byron Nelson(38:25) Long-shot picks at TPC Craig RanchThe Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines.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 program unlike any other. Yes, my friends, we've done it. This is Faraway Roll. A golf program on the Ringer podcast Network and on Netflix. My birdie buddies, my par-saving pals, my eagle enthusiasts. I am your starter Joe House. Join, as is our way, by my incomparable. accomplice, our PGA tour, boots on the ground, Nathan Hubbard.

It's a two ball. We are enjoying the afterglow of the PGA championship. Maybe it's the people's championship. That will be a conversation for the Nate Dog and I. Two pegs in the ground, and away we go. I am one of Mochanui. On July 10th. Maui, you will board my boat and restore the heart of Tifiti.

And here we go. The journey begins. See her light up the night and the ocean chose you. Let's go save the world. I got your back, chosen one. Disney's Moana. Boots Nick. His name is Hay Hey.

His name is Yum Yum when he goes in my tum-tum in theater's July 10th. Nate Dogg. How's your Craig Ranch? Redone. Completely torn up, redone. Renovated. Pissed off members. All the good things.

I mean, the cow pasture has been redone. I'm sure we'll talk about that in a second. But I just want to know how you, here we are Tuesday after a major championship that was, well, I want to know what you think really now. Having gotten through processing, digesting at all, lots of stories about what a nice guy, Aaron Rye is. Was this good? So the interesting thing in the 48 hours or so since the Wanamaker was awarded, there has been a lot of opinions kind of all over the place about levels of enjoyment, about Aronimic as a venue.

And I think a lot of it fits inside of the box of the challenge that the PGA of America has with this championship hosting it in May, which is an identity crisis. What is this championship? What is its signature hallmark vibe? We know what the Masters is. It's the arrival of the golf season. It's the history of the venue. It is, you know, a bucketless item for sports fans across the world

to set foot on those hallowed grounds. We know what the U.S. Open is. That is golf's sternest chance. challenge. It is, you know, intended to to punish in many respects. Who can, can fight off what the USGA has devishly, devilishly imagined and configured. And then the Open Championship, as always, it transports us. We go to a different place. We go to a foreign land. The, the weather is different. They're in coats and stuff at the end of July while the rest of us are baking. And it's the unique history of the venues that they play and, you know, the rarity because of the

rhoda. We get to see, you know, these, these hollow grounds across the pond. But what exactly is the PGA championship? And let me just put it to you, Nathan. To me, it is about the course and the setup being a unique test. And the course actually is a storyline in the way that it is set up, which, by the way, that was the discussion that overtook all of the narratives this week around individual players. It's how Kerry Hague sets this thing up and the kind of test that gets delivered. And when I look at the venues that are going to follow from here, we've got we've got Frisco. We've got PGA Frisco next. So we'll get a peek at that. We've got Olympic club that follows that. Then we got Baltas Ralled. Then we got Congo in our backyards. Then we got the

ocean course back to Kiowa. So there are these unique courses that, where the point isn't the pain like it is at the U.S. Open. It isn't the history and lore and the course that we're all familiar with in the Masters. It isn't that transport. It is this opportunity to take what is ostensibly the best, strongest field in golf and put them to a very unique test. And in that regard, I thought Erronomink did that. I thought it created some constraints. It had something that we won't see it the other three majors in the way that the course was set up, I think, particularly from sort of Fairway in. And I think because of that, sometimes you're going to get Rich Beam, you're going to get Sean McKeel, you're going to get the odd guy who conforms to the test

in the proper way. And I do not mind a course where it's not just Schephler v. Bryson to see who can, you know, dot, dot, dot, where there are some other guys in the mix who, if they unlock that puzzle, can have a week where it doesn't fall into their lap. And I really enjoyed the PTI guys discussion on this because I'm never quite sure about their grasp on the golf stuff. But Tony made the point, which is what everybody said. This was not, I stumbled into a win. This was Aaron Rye went out and from holes nine to 18, grabbed it by the throat. Cudos to him. He deserves the trophy. There are all kinds of reasons why he

won that trophy. Course setup was one of them. John Rom and Rory and Scotty not finding a way to punch through and put the pressure on was another. But Aaron Rye won a major. What's the problem? We've had a first time major winner every year for the last 11 years. It happens a lot. It's a thing that you and I need to start thinking about when we think about our bets. Once a year, we got to have a first time winner at on the on the docket uh so that that's fine that's what this tournament is i think that's enough for me whether it's in may or august yeah so i wonder if you were tasked with branding it where i'm kind of landing and i'm not sure maybe tony said this it does feel like it could lean into uh the people's championship because it has that um sort of random quality now when there are there

at venues that are U.S. Open type venues like Bethpage, like Southern Hills, like Oak Hill, like we're going to see coming up here at the Olympic Club and a congressional. Those all hosted U.S. opens.

Then you're having championships that tend to produce winners that are guys that can navigate U.S. Open kind of places. So Justin Thomas at Southern Hills

who Oak Hill was not Brooks it was Brooksie it was Brooks yes brooksie right so not not a surprise there and the same when you say people do you mean peoples as in like the waste management Phoenix Open where we just lean into what by the way the PGA they're doing now which is there tickets that give you free food and non-alcoholic stuff and it's a little bit more of a friendly experience like putting that on steroids and bigger grandstands and more people, or do you mean anybody can qualify and that they open up 10 spots to open and qualify?

How do you think about it being, how would we make it the people's thing? I like that as a concept. It's the execution that to me there's some people who have little pieces of that. It is the combination of the size of the field, the largest field across all of the tours, the largest field of all of the majors by a long shot. And that's because it includes 20 teaching pros. And those 20 teaching pros coming from all over the country, they have their own qualifier.

They always have their qualifier at super cool venues. It was awesome to watch Band and Dunes, to watch these club professionals try and conquer Band and Dunes with the winds blowing and everything like that. So that element all by itself has an inclusive effect, I think, because you're getting all of these random names with these random stories. I mean, it created the legend of Michael Block. Is that a good thing?

I don't know. But it was for certainly the one year, the whole and one that he made was, you know, the most prominent, you know, one of the most prominent outcomes of that event. So that element of it, you know, makes it kind of. of an egalitarian vibe. And then I asked you on Sunday about the democratization effect of, you know, a kind of unknown venue, unexpected kind of set up. The guys were complaining about the bunch leaderboard and the fact that, you know, it tended

to minimize. I think the self-regard was a little out of control for the guys complaining about the setup. I agree. But what it translated into was the guy who is the most accurate off the T over the last three years, it turned out that was a premium. And the guys who couldn't keep the ball in the fairway lost their opportunity to win that championship. So threading a needle where a guy who isn't jumping off the page, he certainly wasn't on any of our cards, he was not a popular betting option.

I think I saw one book said that they had exposure. They had five tickets on him. Again, he played one week earlier to the day. He was in Myrtle Beach, an opposite field event in the final group with my brother. He lost to my brother. And a week later, he wins the PJ. He was on nobody's card. But he passed the test.

He was patient. He didn't try to insist that with his towering ball flight, he could attack pins. you know, the fact that they were pushed to the corners be damned. There are a lot of guys who were complaining about setup because they couldn't do that. And to me, that was indicative of their lack of patience, of their lack of discipline, of them not actually unlocking what this specific tournament was asking of them. We don't see a lot of tournaments like this. And so if every now and then Aaron Rye is the guy who unlocks it, fine.

We've had a Danny Willett. We've had a, we've had a, we've had a, we've had a. It's the way of golf. It's actually what makes golf interesting in the post-Tiger era, which is, to your point, sometimes Michael Block can be in contention down the stretch. And that could be Aaron Wright. Could be Michael Block. The question is, do we do a good job of telling the stories of those guys who bubble up when they do?

Yeah, so what you don't want is some of what I experience, which was folks looking at the leaderboard and derisively saying, this is the most PGA championship leaderboard possible. It had Maddie Schmidt at the top of it. Alex Smalley as the as the 54 four whole leader. Stephen Jager was up there for a minute or two. And so yes, by the time Sunday arrived, we saw guys like Justin Thomas. He made the push that he made.

Kurt Kittiyama shot the only the second 63 in the history of the PGA championship and one of the eight, you know, of those kinds of rounds. But I would have thought about Kittiyama as Aaron Rye. like he's not a guy who we tell the stories of you you correctly talked about him as as a guy who was going to deliver well but i i think there's a lot of aaron rise after spith shephler rory brooks and a few others i mean that's kind of what live has shown us is that there's a very small group of guys who can really move the needle and even then it's not the guys who think they do from a tv ratings perspective and so the fun of the game is that everybody can play this sport. It's why golf media is so fucking annoying because everybody thinks that they've got a frame of reference to chime in on course setup for a, you know, what is ostensibly the, the hardest field in golf. But it also means that it's accessible for everyone. And so I, I think just not trying to run away from that and finding a way to actually frame and celebrate

that in the context of this tournament is a thing. Now, that's a lot of fucking words. And how you cram that into a brand identity. Well, no, that accessibility is the key, right? That fits people's champion. And if you keep going to venues where people live, which is very good, you know, the Philly crowd got high marks for how they showed out. They showed up in numbers. They didn't stay, you know, well into the evening.

And that's always going to be a perpetual challenge for the PGA championship, which is with that huge field, the guys are playing golf until 830 at night. You may not have tens of thousands waiting around until then, but. I mean, we don't have the ratings back for this just yet. I mean, they're going to come out, you know, probably the second that we stop recording. But last year, Scotty, Scotty's one, ratings were down year over year for that PGA. So it's not like if this had been reversed, it was necessarily a surefire thing, right? And I wonder, let's, I mean, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if this.

comes in five to seven percent ahead. Part of what I think was spoiled, spoiled last year is it's Quail Hollow. We've all seen, like I've had enough of Quill Hollow, respectfully. I mean, they put on a good test, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't need to see any more majors at Quail Hollow. And it's also Charlotte, which is not Philadelphia. So you wonder if, you know, something about the unique attributes of Aronimates, as an unknown quantity plus the Philly market, plus the, you know, the fact that the leaderboard

had all the big names on it. I don't think you're wrong. And so look, we're going to talk a bit today about the, you know, Rolapse vision for the tour going forward. And as that starts to come into focus over the next couple of weeks, honestly, I think we're going to hear a lot in June about what it's ultimately going to look like. But there really is a part of this where every single, person thinks that they could potentially be on tour because we all get to play the courses that they play. We all get to play the equipment that they play. So there is like finding a way to continue to tap into, well, that could be me. And that guy, there is some small sliver in this major, you know, hope. It's the hope that kills you. It's the hope that sells. And being able

to sort of weave that in, I think is not a bad thing. Now, again, the problem is, hey, at the U.S. open, you and I actually could potentially qualify for that if we wanted to today, unless we're a PGA teaching pro, we don't have a way to get into the PGA. As we've sort of been talking through the first half of the season, it seems like 2027 is going to look awfully similar. There will be some events that fall away, but the calendar, the events, you know, where they're situated on the calendar, plus the venues, they seem pretty similar. I'm talking about 2027 to 2026, but 2028 will be the first iteration of what we have come to understand is kind of the revamp schedule and an A tier and a B tier, a premier tier and a

and a less premier tier. Josh Carpenter and Sports Business Journal had some news, some reporting. 16 regular season, so-called track one events. And I bet we could, without too much brain damage, figure out at least a dozen of them. They're basically the signature events that we have right now, right? Yeah. Yeah, the players and travelers and, yes.

Three playoff events, which is akin to what we already have. And then your four majors, and that's 23 events right there for your premier. players and if indeed they hold to what roll app described back in March at the players, which is fields of 120, which is the stated goal and competitions with a cut, it seemed like they're moving away from the no cut construct. Yeah. That works for me.

I can live with this. Yeah, I can too. The question is, how do you move from track two to track one? And how do we make sure that Chris Goderup can break through? how do you make sure that Blades Brown or whoever it is has an opportunity to accelerate themselves through good play and merit play into those competitions. And as long as they do that, then it becomes about where they're going to host these events. And that's the other part of the reporting, right? They're looking at cities like San Francisco and we've heard about Seattle

and we've heard about Boston and maybe Nashville and Philly for sure, possibly Denver. I'm not exactly sure where Chicago is in that mix. I think they probably think about Olympic Club as being a place where, or not Olympic Club, Olympia Fields is being a place where they come back frequently with the playoffs. But DC too, I mean, I guess with Congo there in the rotation, perhaps that's how they think about it. But I, if they move these things back to major markets, the only other thing I'll say is, I'll be disappointed if we don't get a Vegas tournament. and it may be that the market just can't hold it, but Vegas should have what Phoenix is,

and there are plenty of courses there that could set it up. And as you think about destination events, if we're really going to move this into Premier, as they're calling it, track one things. But that said, I think it's a lot more important that they hit Philly and New York and a few of these other places than Vegas. Well, I don't know.

The Vegas element, the appeal of it is, you could get some great crowds. I mean, you could, you know, really, you know, try and design it and engineer it so that it's falling on a point in the calendar where it's not incredibly hot in Vegas. And maybe it would sort of run, I don't know, would you have tent poles of Phoenix in the first part of the season? Exactly.

And Vegas at the back part of the season, I don't, I'm not sure. Or even link them for crying out loud. But if you and I could take some guys go play 18 in the morning, and then go see the leaders tea off at 1.50 or 1 o'clock in the afternoon. And I can have plenty of time. I can sleep in after being at the tables all day. I mean, that's all you know, all evening, all night, yes, dinner to the tables. That's a one way to spend a day.

The experiential part of this, I think, is important because if there is a takeaway from live, it's that those on-site events can be better. They really can. And it's the one thing I tip my hat to live. They eventized with great. success. They get crowds out and then they treat those crowds with, you know, with respect. They're paying customers. And not just respect, but they also actually service them. Like if we want to increase the or justify the existing prize pool of money, like the purses, you can put some food and

beverage out there. You can actually try to, you know, there are lots of these tournaments. I mean, lots of these tournaments where you can go five holes and not see a bathroom, not see a stand that's serving food and beverage. And if they are serving food and beverage, it's like apples, you know, poo-poo sandwiches and like, you know, Mickelope whatever's. Like you could premium up a lot of the onsite here. And I, again, I think, I think some of the handcuffing that's happened is the way that these tournaments are set up and the charitable components and on and on and on. But I think the tour's got to grab this by the you know what's

and turn this into an event where you go, you know you've got a front row seat somewhere on that course. That's the unique thing about this sport. We talk about all the time. But that you're also willing to pay for it. Food and beverage and merchandise and the like is just an obvious, obvious layout. Hey, hey, my birdie buddies.

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Quick disclaimer, you 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 1-88-78-9-77-7-7 or visit ccpg.org slash chat. Some news over the course of the last handful of days. On the business front, two items dropping. One, they've pushed out that they're trying to raise $250 million. And that part of the lure, part of the business plan includes a feature that is a pretty dramatic departure from the business plan, the business approach that we'd heard as recently

as like February, which is there's a pathway to profitability here that isn't being measured in years. It's being measured in months. And if you get your $250 million in, lo and behold, we could see some profitability out of whatever the slim down version of that tour looks like in as quickly as 20 months. Now, the starting point to that is how in the absence of some kind of rights arrangement and it maybe I'm crazy, it feels like there has to be U.S. media of some sort to generate the kind of eyeballs necessary unless they reduce purses.

so much that the guys are willing to play for, I don't know, a million bucks, $900,000, those are the purses? When you raise money, whether you're doing it for an existing business, whether you're doing it for a public company, an existing private company, or a startup, you do two things. One is you make a deck and a presentation that talks about this amazing opportunity, and it's a sales pitch. The second thing that you do, which is way more important if they like your sales pitch, is you put together a model, an actual Excel-based model that builds up how the business's cash is going to be generated over time. At the end of the day, that's how that model is going, that business is going to be valued. What are all the revenues that come in? What are all the costs? And in each line, there is an assumption about how much food and beverage are we going to generate? Are there U.S. media rights, what's the value of the team, all of these things, on and on and on and on.

There's probably in models like this, there can be hundreds, hundreds and hundreds of inputs. Each one of those is made up, and it's usually rooted in something that becomes believable so that an outside investor looks at those assumptions in the model and says, yes, I can believe those assumptions, and therefore I can believe that the cash flows are going to be this, and therefore I will value those cash flows at this amount. happy to invest $250 million at something, you know, reasonable. But if you do not believe those assumptions, the entire Jenga tower comes crashing down. And so in this era of Claude helping people make these models and, you know, it's going to come down to, I can make a model that says, you know,

our podcast is, is, should raise $250 million to keep going, which I know. Do that. His eyes get big. Do it now. But the question is, will the podcast, actually believe that and turn it into checks for House and Hubbard. And the answer is, well, we'll find out. But for the purposes of live, the answer is, can any outside investor reasonably believe the assumptions that go into that? And if so, then great, they'll raise the capital. There are definitely some assets that live, as we've talked about. But I am with you that unless you get U.S. media interest, it's going to be really, really hard to do. And my suspicion is that a lot of the quote unquote profitability is tied to the growth in the value of these team businesses, right, that are going to be paper wealth.

But it's the way that teams owners today can sort of justify losing money when they buy an arena and a team because they believe that the value of these franchises just accrues over time so that if in a given year we lost a hundred, hundred million dollars, who cares because the value of the team is going up by half a billion every year. And that's how they think about it. And I suspect that that's going to be a big part of the pitch, which comes down to House, this question of whether team golf ever really was the right idea. Team golf not rooted in country, because that we've seen work in the President's Cup and the Ryder Cup, but team golf not tied to countries. Is that a thing that anybody cares about? And I think you and I both would resoundingly say. Well, no, but, you know, even inside of the live box over the life, the four-year life of this thing,

they have pivoted to a national identity thesis for several of these teams. They have a Spanish team. They have, you know, with Sergio and David Puzh and others, I'm going to get this wrong. They have a South African team. But not wrong. Yeah. Right. have an Australian team, you know, that's Mark Leishman and Lucas Harebear and Cam Smith.

Right. Like, they have gone in that direction. The challenge I have is, you know, the individual, the value ascribable to those teams has to come from somewhere. Like, NFL teams, NBA teams, they have a national rights deal. And all those franchises share in the upward push of the national rights that the leagues are selling to these marketing, I mean, to the networks and to streamers. Who are you selling this thing to that's going to have an impact on the intrinsic value of those teams? It's the same conundrum. Like the value of the teams is nothing.

It's just the guys. It's like Bryson's worth something. And, you know, there's a market value ascribable to Bryson. And, you know, the people that put clothes on his back, like, you know, his Reebok shoes and, you know, whatever other entities that market themselves by way of his hat and his shirt. Okay, that all kind of makes sense to me. And if he wants to share that with his other teammates, then there's a value associated with that team. But without the underpinning of eyeballs, you know, paying attention to the product writ large, I don't see how the Oklahoma City team led by Taylor Gooch and with your boy, Graham McDowell,

what the fuck is that worth? How could it be worth more than 10 bucks? Who's interested in that? I think that's going to be the problem that a lot of people have. This spring, denim gets a softer, lighter update. Introducing Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg, a new fit that moves with you. It's everything you want denim to feel like for summer. Easy, breathable, and effortlessly cool.

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You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. Well, that's a nice lead-in to the other reported news of this week, which is that Live is preparing itself for a U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. And that certainly lines up with a set of professionals that they've hired for the purpose

of helping them reimagine themselves and go into the marketplace. The Ducera team that's leading the bid is rife with restructuring people. I know them. I've worked with them extensively. I love them. They are extraordinary at what they do. Alex Partners is another restructuring-based firm that will certainly take a look inside the model and we'll look at operations and efficiencies and that kind of thing.

And then the two guys who were put on the board a couple weeks ago, John Zimm and Gene Carlin, those are veteran restructuring guys. Those are guys who go into distress situations and either help the distressed entity find a pathway through in an out-of-court kind of restructuring, which is exactly what this is, or they file Chapter 11 because Chapter 11 in the U.S. is a very favorable venue. for taking things like giant contracts that you owe to folks and figuring out how to rewrite those contracts and using the force of law in the United States of America to potentially rewrite those contracts. So not shocking news that they're considering that as a possibility. And this could be

very well a scenario where an investor insists that this enterprise go through Chapter 11 as a way of shedding itself from whatever inefficiencies are in the model, most prominently guaranteed contracts to players in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and then starting fresh, which is exactly the point of Chapter 11. So TBD as usual when it comes to the live, right? Yeah, but that feels like a big scary word in bankruptcy, but it's the restructuring is exactly what they will need to do. To your point, I think it's why we heard the rumors of them using the four. Merser stuff with the Middle East War as a rationale for canceling contracts. The other way to do that is go through bankruptcy and, you know, escape your creditors.

There you go. That's it. We're hoping that we don't have to escape any creditors this week down at TPC Craig Ranch. The CJ Cup is being competed at the TPC Craig Ranch. This is the Byron Nelson, better known as, in McKinney, Texas. Nice moment on the tour calendar for all of us to catch our collective breath and go to a venue where I know a lot of guys will be excited to go to a birdie fest. No, they just had their brains beaten in by a confounding test at the PGA championship at Aronamink, where the combination of the way the weather behaved throughout each day, the way that the golf course organically changed throughout each day. that ain't what you're going to find down here at TPC Craig Ranch. Now, there is weather in the forecast, and so that does create some variance. There is the potential for thunderstorms and rain, and it goes through the balance of the week.

So there is always that kind of potential impact on this. But historically, the floor here is 23 under, and it goes all the way up into the low 30s. This is a venue where guys come in, They take a breath and they go out and just try and go as low as they can. We have a bunch of the Texas boys in the field. And by that, I mean, of course, Scotty Sheffler, who won this event by eight strokes last year, our guy, Jordan Speath. And then if you're going to talk about Texas, you've got to talk about Siwu Kim, who absolutely loves competing in this event and loves this venue and has a great track record here as well. Other names, you know, some good ones here.

Brooksie's going to come play at this one. That's a good thing coming off of, you know, a decent showing at the PGA championship, right? You're trying to talk me into this being something other than a corned ferry tour event with Scotty Sheffler and a few guest appearances. Sungjay, Sung Jay was at the top of a leaderboard for, you know, for a couple rounds recently.

I mean, this is why we follow, though, right? This is why you pay attention to the events that happen in some of those off weeks because you start to look at who has got some momentum, who has stood out a little bit in these previous tournaments, who should I be paying attention to? So this is one to pay attention to. I mean, these are the shortest odds at a PGA tournament

in like a decade for Scotty. I mean, it's crazy. Would you put a win bet on him? No, he's plus 150, which is, you know, just insane. and you can read things from our pals like Ryan Noon or Jason Sobel or Pat Mayo about how unprecedented that price is. You certainly understand it because, you know, the combination of Scotty's comfort at this particular venue plus the trend line for him, his performance. I mean, he didn't play poorly at Aronimic. He putted poorly and he putted poorly for two rounds.

He putted pretty well, you know, definitely putted well on Thursday. put it fine on Friday, but Saturday and Sunday were an abject putting disaster. Well, we don't think that's going to be an issue, although these are all brand new greens. They're bent grass. So that element of it should suit. But you always get some unexpected, quirky, firm kind of stuff, and maybe they're not as predictable. I'm not sure. Yeah.

The report from the ground is that the members do not like this redesign because T to green. I mean, they look pretty good. And the eyelines are nice and the sight lines are good and the bunkers have been redone. And all that seems to look pretty good. The rough is down this week. It's not going to play as much of a factor as it has in years past. Although, to your point, Scotty, at 31 under, I mean, that's why they tore this thing up. They needed to turn this into more of a test.

But in order to do that, what they've done is they've put a lot of crazy and in some cases, according to the members, silly slopes on the greens. And so, in the best case scenario, this is going to be a course where if the bent grass holds and is a little smoother, it does reward good shots because you're going to have to avoid the goofy parts of the green. In the worst case scenario, you're going to have kind of silly putting contest stuff if they throw the pins in the wrong places. I have a sense that they're going to want this thing to show well. They're going to want to have it contrasted with the Ronomink. They're going to want to make sure that the couple of guys who are recognizable have the ability to go low if their swings are working. And I mean, that's why you've got Brooks and Siwu and Scotty together in a group.

Interestingly, that they put Jordan on the opposite side of the draw by himself. But maybe that's just the moment that we're in. I hope Jordan takes it personally and goes out and wins. But I think that this is going to be, you're not going to get to 31 under this week, that's for sure. But I still think, you know, I'm looking at guys who have been putting decently well because it feels like that's going to be the real test this week. Yeah, the model says you want to be able to put guys in that are strong off the T, okay? I mean, a bunch of big hitters for sure.

That makes sense. You want guys that are good between 125 yards and 175 yards on approach. That ball striking, you want guys with demonstrated. success on bank grass, but if you can do an extra filter and say, you know, do a new greens kind of filter, I guess that's

possible because there's always a, there's a renovation or two each season that we see out there. We'll give a shout out to Lanny Watkins, the Watkins design group, so we'll see if Lanny was up to the test here. Part of what they did includes, you know, tightening up the fairways. And so

beyond the obvious guys, I see this name appearing in two or three lists. And it's Michael Brennan, who is north of 50 to one on the board. And he putted quite well the last time he was in Texas. It was at Memorial Park in Houston. It was best putting performance since Utah. But the thing about Brennan is he hits a ton and he can be accurate.

We talked about two guys that I think actually have the shortest odds of the guys. interested in right now, but Stephen Yeager plus 230 to top 20. He's a streaky player. He was T-18 at the PGA last week. This year he's been T-7 at Valspar. He was T-5 at Farmers. He had his second best putting performance of the year last week. So I think you kind of want to ride that guy while he's well he's hot. And then Blades Brown, who's also plus 230 for a top 20. He was T-9 at Myrtle. He was third in Puerto Rico. He has been all over the Corn Ferry Tour leaderboards. He at a second to loom, a third at the club car championship. He is now top 10 on the corn fairy tour points list, but he has bigger things in mind,

which is that if he finishes solo 21st or better this week, he gets special temporary membership on the PGA tour. And so I like him for a top 20 because this kid seems to be playing very well on the big tour, and this is a moment for him in a field that is more like a corn fairy tour event than normal. Yeah, except for the names that we're seeing, you know, the forecasts here are guys that have some success on tour. I have to tell the story that Ryan Noon included in his notes. And I absolutely positively am definitely betting Bo Hostler this week because sure, the Texas Longhorn thing, I got it, that's fine. But this is an absolutely incredible bit that he included.

did you know that that that bohosser went on an ayahuasca retreat in in costa rica and that he started a coffee business i mean did did he connect with his spirit animal aaron rogers i wonder if they if they did the iawasca together uh this is next level shit and i'm just going to bet hossler yeah like let's get him on the show. Why can't we have Bo Hosseler on to come tell the tale of what led him on this journey, what he experienced, what he found? Why coffee? Great coffee in Costa Rica, but, you know, was it something about the psychedelics that clicked in his brain that made him, uh, in any event, his last start was at Myrtle. He finished T3. He had a 64 down there. He's got, you know, it was his third T-25 or better finish the season.

And he's putting well. I mean, he's not all the way back. 203, he had 11 top 20s. But, you know, we're looking to channel the Texas bit a little bit here. And let me see what we can get, Hosler. I'm just saying play a top 20 on Hoster. We don't have to go crazy. But I have to have Hostler, and I really want to speak to the man.

I want to hear about this life-changing, mind-altering experience. And I love the guys diversifying. You can get plus 230 for a top 20. $2.30. Same prices as your guy, Jaeger. I mean, that's a pretty good price. Oh, Hostler, you're my guy. Let's go. Let's go longer.

Let's look at Eric Van Royan, who finished a distant second, but still second place here last year. He's been struggling, but he's made his last four cuts. He's plus 400 to top 20. And I believe this is a horse for courses. He shows up. He plays really well at the now defunctive end in Tahoe. Decently, you know, he showed up in Minneapolis before.

But this, I think, he's a guy who has courses that he likes. This one I could see being one. Austin Eckro, plus 360 for a top 10. He's coming in T10, T6, T19, and his last three. really like what I'm seeing from him. He has a second place finish at this venue. And there you go. So Paul Peterson, who's plus 550 to top 20.

He was T-11 at Myrtle. He at T-5 did Puerto Rico, which had a similar field here. He was T-7 last week on the KFT. I think he's hovering under the radar screen. Takumi Kanaia, who's plus 4.30 for a top 20, finished tied for fifth here last year. So, again, another sort of bet the horse for the course kind of play with some pretty long odds to top 20

in a field that has a ton of junk in the trunk. And then for me, the last one house is Max Grazerman, who is playing pretty good golf. He's plus 420 to top 10. On a leaderboard for a minute. He's coming in T-38, T-31, T-14 at the PGA last week. So that tells me he's sort of starting to march forward, and I like a top 10 or a top 20 on Grazeman this week.

I'm playing a pure top 20. This is my last pick of the week. I love those names and I'm going to be doing it's a top 10 top 20 it's a finishing position kind of week I just want to grab myself a little bit of Maddie Schmidt because what he

showed us over the course of Sunday that was a legit push I was reminded of you know he's a certain vintage he's kind of a class he gets lumped in with a lot of guys because we don't know him this is the same as Marco Penji who at

some point will win on tour and they're they fit the same kind of class to me as Ryan Fox, which are these international names. The U.S. market isn't very familiar with them. They haven't been playing a ton of U.S. golf. But Maddie Schmidt available for top 20 at plus 240, that feels like a mispricing to me. So I'm playing some Schmidt.

It's just a pure form play. Please don't miss the cut, Maddie Schmidt. That's my request. Having said those nice things about. Anybody else? You know there are things that I can't speak of on this podcast. So we should wrap it there. Maybe we can talk about those things when we get to our next podcast.

You know how we do it, Bertie Buddies, Parsay and Pals, Eagle Enthusiast. We'll be back next week, maybe sooner than that if something unspeakable and unexpected happens, you can't rule it out. But we're not going to speak of it at the moment. It is prime golf season, although we've got weather coming, both down at TPC Craig Ranch and here in the Mid-Atlantic. So I'm going to be dodging thunderbolts and raindrops, but I promise you I'm playing golf.

And I promise all of you that when I throw that peg in the ground, I'm going to try and hit it straight out there, and I hope you do the same. Must be 21 years older, older, and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino, or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler or 1-800 My Reset, M-Y-R-E-S-E-T.

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