Fairway Rollin' - Recapping the 2022 Season With Kyle Porter

Episode Date: December 6, 2022

House and Hubbard are joined by CBS Sports golf writer Kyle Porter to recap the most important events from the 2022 season. They also talk about Kyle’s new book, 'Normal Sport 2,' and make bold predictions for the 2023 season. Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Guest: Kyle Porter Associate Producer: Isaiah Blakely Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, this is Rob Harvilla from 60 Songs That Explain the 90s, the world's greatest loopy and perverse and inaccurately named music nostalgia podcast. We're doing 90 songs now because there's too many songs. Pearl Jam, J-Z, Jewel, YouTube, Cher, Hootie. These are just some of the names people yell at me on the internet because we're back. More great songs, more rad special guests, more loopy perversity. Join us once more on 60 Songs That Explain the 90s every Wednesday on Spotify. It is awful unlike any.

Oh, yes, my friends. We've done it. This is a year-ending edition of Fairway Road. Golf podcast on the Ringer podcast network. I am your starter, Joe House, joined by our incomparable accomplice, our PGA tour correspondent boots on the ground. Nathan Hubbard, my birdie buddies, my par saving pals, my eagle enthusiast. What a year it has been unprecedented, which is to say without precedent what's going on

in the world of professional golf. Nate and I cannot conquer this by ourselves. We have to bring in an esteemed guest. Kyle Porter from CBS Sports. You know him and love him from all of his hard work with CBS Sports. he has a book called Normal Sport. He did a version of it last year. He's back this year.

It's bigger and better than ever. It's a compendium of all of the most noteworthy events and then a few events that are probably a little less noteworthy. Seen through the eyes really of golf Twitter, which is the most fun way to consume professional golf. Let's jump right into this, my birdie buddies. This is going to be a three ball. It's going to be some winter golf.

we're playing from the forward T's. It's just a wonderful free-flowing conversation that occasionally touches on some golfing subjects. All right, my birdie buddies, let's get right into this. It has been a year without precedent, an unprecedented year in the world of professional golf. I'm so happy, you really have no idea, how lucky we are to have Kyle Porter,

from CBS Sports. He's been on the pod before, a friend of the program, but he has the second iteration of his book, Normal Sport. So this is Normal Sport, Volume 2. And what he's done is basically capture, reconstruct the entire year's worth of professional golf and its iterations as experienced through Golf Twitter, which is wonderful.

And he really saved our ass because I was talking to Nate, how are we going to set this thing up? And, you know, below and behold, Kyle has the book. It's out in digital form now. So let me welcome you on. Kyle Porter, welcome and thank you. Yeah, I gave you like 430 pages to go through to set this pod up. So you're welcome for that.

That was no work involved there for you. We won't comment on how many of those pages. as we've read. I will say that I have read, you know, some of it. I got into it. And, you know, I like very much the way that even though it's linear, you know, sort of timing wise, you can bounce around some. Yeah, yeah, which is great. Yeah, I kind of wrote it. And this started last year with 2021. I wrote it to where you could kind of pick up anywhere. And it reads a little bit like your, or it should read like your Twitter timeline a little bit of like, oh yeah, I forgot that happened. And then you just start, you just kind of start going from there. So I'm glad that

that's, that, that was kind of the way that it, that it worked for you. This thing has been a massive labor of love for you. Why did you do this? That's a great question. Well, hopefully I saw, like, it's taken a lot out of you. A hundred thousand copies and that's why I did. No, listen, like, I think, you know, part of it is this sort of modern digital landscape. And this is, this is, this is even symbolized by golf Twitter a little bit where it's like somebody will make a great joke or say something really insightful and then it's just gone right it's just gone after like 30 minutes or at most an hour or a day or whatever and it's like i really have a ton of respect for and love the kind of old school like i go back and read uh like for example rick riley's stuff from the 90s uh in sports

illustrated on golf all the time because it's really good and i got i kind of got frustrated that there wasn't like a there was no way to kind of capture like the best stuff from a year and and make an artifact to kind of give to people to, you know, you can obviously read it this year, but my hope is that people 25 years from now will look back and say, okay, what happened in golf in 2022? And they can pick this up and say, okay, here's all the, you know, kind of our tagline was everything that mattered and also a bunch of stuff that probably didn't at all. And that's kind of what the book is supposed to be. It's, hey, here's a ton of stuff that mattered. And here's a bunch of insane stuff that we talked about all year that probably didn't matter at all,

but that was really funny to us. We're going to jump into it in a minute, but I wanted to do two things. In the first place, let you explain to folks. I assume every single person that listens to this podcast follows you avidly and knows exactly what normal sport means, but like my dad, my dad might not follow you. He might not know exactly what we mean by normal sport. And there is a 10% chance to listen to this podcast. So explain like the origin.

of normal sport and how that turned into the first book you did last year 2021. Yeah, I think that, well, the origin of normal sport was actually, I think, Phil of all people, at the U.S. Open in 2020 at Wingfoot. And he was, his ball was kind of up on the lip of a bunker. And he had his foot up on top of a hill. And he was choked down to the, to the steel of his, like his shaft of his club. And you're like, this is, this looks ridiculous. And I think because golf is an outdoor sport, it creates all these really weird, unique situations.

And so normal sport is kind of a tongue-in-cheek way to say that it's like extremely not a normal sport. I mean, we've got, I think a guy you guys are familiar with Mark Hubbard, for example. New father today. Oh, that's awesome. Not new father. Two-X father today. Yeah, but doubled it up. But at the Sanderson this year, he leads after 54 holes.

And he's talking about how he, he accidentally the week before it stabbed himself, his daughter had stabbed him in the foot by knocking a knife off a counter and, and like catching his foot. And you're like, this is, this is absurd. Like this is, I mean, actually, I guess that does happen in other sports because Plaxico shot himself in the leg. But he didn't go out the next week and contend to win a championship. So it's just stuff like that that's like really goofy and inside baseball stuff that I find very amusing.

And I think a lot of other people do as well. Yeah. I wanted to make sure that we mentioned because I didn't know that this connection existed. One of the folks that you dedicated the book to this year, 2022 is our beloved ringer friend and colleague Jonathan Charks who passed away this fall after a super valiant battle against. blood cancer. Talk a little bit about your relationship with sharks. I just didn't know that you guys knew each other.

Yeah. So he lives or he lived in Dallas, which is where I live. And so we kind of had some of the same friends and ran in some of the same circles. And we got to know each other several years ago and just kind of kept up. You know, there's not, it's a fairly small like sports media world, but especially when you're in the same city and kind of have some of the same friends and everything. And I just really, I looked up to him a lot just in the way he, and I think everybody saw this in the way he fought cancer, but just in the way he lived his life as a, as a dad, as a husband.

I was able to attend his funeral, which was really sad, but also celebratory in some ways, just over his life. And so yeah, that was, that was something that I really, I really struggled with it a lot this year, honestly. Just being somebody that is. a 30-something sports writer that lives in Dallas and has kids and is a Christian. Like we just shared a lot of the same qualities. And it kind of rocked me a little bit. You know, we weren't best friends, but it just rocked me a little bit in terms of like, man, that that's a, you know, just, it was, it was tough to kind of digest all that.

Because you're like, it could be me. It could be anybody, you know. And so I wanted to mention him in there because I thought his life was one that was well lived and was worth imitating. That's a beautiful gesture. Well, in a lot of ways, this book sort of tracks what happened in the year in golf. Like you said, some of the stuff that mattered, some of the stuff that maybe doesn't matter, but is what makes the sport so unique and weird in the reasons why we fall down rabbit holes on Twitter. But given that this is our year end review and think, again, how. house. Thank goodness for KP. Otherwise, what would we have done?

Really? We had to do some work and we did just board. But here we are. We've had an interesting couple of weeks that even in these last three weeks, there have been some stories that have sort of summed up what's happened in this year, right? You've had you've had Tiger and Rory going after Norman. You've had the consternation and whining about the official world golf rankings. You've had, you've had, you've had, disappointing but not surprising news about the health of Tiger Woods. You've had, did Phil Mickelson, by the way,

chert back at you on Twitter? He did. Yeah. Again, six-time major winner probably made a billion dollars in his career and he's replying to my tweets, which is very normal, very normal stuff. Very normal, normal sport. And then we've had, look,

and then we've had some interesting wins and all that. It's been an unbelievably eventful year in the sport that we love. Taking a breath from 30,000 feet, what mattered this year to you? Well, I think two things. And I think we highlighted these in the book. The first was a year-long theme that kind of wove its way in and out, which was Live, like the establishment of Live.

If you go back to 2021, Bryson was kind of the through line of 2021 in golf. Everything that happened, there was a Bryson component to it, whether it was Rory changing his swing or the Masters and people focused on like all that. in 2022 everything that happened had a component of live to it. I mean, every single thing was laced with what does this mean for Live? What does it mean for the PJ, or all that stuff? So one was that.

And then two, I think because of Liv's introduction and really this sort of, you know, golf is so niche and it really was, I think, fractured in a lot of ways that maybe are obvious, but maybe not so obvious that will become obvious in the future. I just think, and I don't know if everybody agrees with this, but it's my opinion that it really elevated and made the major championships that much more important because it's like we're going to scream and yell and holler about all this other stuff.

And then four weeks out of the year, this is the only thing that matters. And I think that I don't think players are going to get banned from them. I don't think the majors want to kind of get involved in that. And so I just can't, can they? We just saw Cam when the Australian people. I mean, one of the debates we're going to have on this, on this hour is, is what do you make a

Cam? But they can't keep Cam Smith out. Well, it's Cam, but it's also, I mean, think about this. Think about what Augusta National has done internationally in creating the, you know, the Latin American amateur championship and all these different kind of avenues to their majors. They're going to go out and ban somebody like, like, Hadeki didn't go to live. But if he did, are they going to ban Hadeki from from the masters. Like that's just not going to happen. I don't think. And so I think you're right.

I think that I think the majors are going to continue to all these guys to play. And because of that, those four tournaments just become that much more important. I only think one guy is going to be disinvited on a recurring basis. And that's Phil Mickelson. I don't think his invitation is going to be restored. This is your hot take. This has been your hot take.

I don't feel like it's that hot. They're not letting him back to Augusta. What would the thesis be for having him? there. But he's won it multiple times. That's right. Yes. I agree. But he, he, uh, hasn't been a relevant golfer since the PGA championship. You think that you think the tweet at KP was the last draw. I'm sure. I'm sure. I'm sure. I'm sure Frederick, Fred Ridley and company are worried about what Phil Mickelson says to me on Twitter. I, listen, I disagree. I think Phil will be at the, at the Masters, but I do think there's a case to be made that if there, like, if one tournament

banned one person, that that would be it, right? Like, okay. I'll take that. I guess it has, they have the sway to be able to do something like that. I just think, of course. It's not. I just think it would, it would create a lot more problems than it would really solve. Well, that, that goes right to the heart of it, right?

Is it, what, do you want the public face of the, that, um, you know, rogue, enterprise present there for that for the entire week of the masters or is it easier to simply not have him appear and have him say whatever he's going to say and get on with it and then let the tournament be the tournament that that's the reason that I think there's a there's a basis for thinking that that maybe he won't be invited you're talking me into believing like this on like five percent i'm five percent of the way there i think by by april you can give me like 25 percent of the way there all right well uh this this is um an unforeforeman precedented year because, you know, as we sort of experienced it and lived it, it was broken

broken up into kind of like a couple different few pieces. We had the pre-live period that was really dominated by Scotty Sheffler and a cameo by Camp Smith at the players. And then we had this, this furor around our buddy Phil Mickelson lighting himself on fire. And then Tiger showed up at the masters and made the cut at the masters and then live arrived and you know that's kind of the way just timeline wise um you know i i have this organized in my head and it had the effect the arrival of live of putting professional golf in a mainstream conversation that lasted through the balance of the year it was many times the lead item on things like pardon the interruption and and other like sports commentary kinds of shows. And, you know, the ironic thing is it elevated this conversation,

this, this, you know, just generation of interest elevated professional golf into a kind of spotlight that it previously, you know, didn't enjoy for the sustained period that occurred over the balance of this year. We haven't even had the Netflix special yet. Well, that's a, that's a thing to look forward to for next year. But I, you know, my question to Kyle, It feels like it's no longer an existential crisis for the tour, but now we're in what I would characterize as more of like this existential kabuki dance, where, you know, there will be gestures and movements and people will move, you know, one tour will lean forward and one tour will lean backward at the same time.

You know, one of the things that Liv did effectively, I thought, was every week that there was a prominent tour event, they came up, they had a headline, they did something, you know, the lawsuit provided the vehicle for that, which is why I think, even though I believe the merits of the lawsuit are now completely, uh, uh, been debunked, um, the lawsuit can persist. Uh, and they'll, they'll use it again as a way of generating headlines, um, to, to make sure that eyeballs are on the live concept and product. But, um, do you agree with the characterization about as we enter into 2023 that we're no longer in this place where the tour feels crisis, but it certainly, I mean, we know from the hero, all of the participants

at the hero just now down in the Bahamas got together in a room and for two hours, plus talk to Jay Monahan by Zoom and some other, you know, important figures in the PGA tour. Do you agree that the crisis has been sort of mitigated? and now we're kind of in this cage match mode? Well, it's weird because I do agree that the crisis has been mitigated. And yet I also think that Liv made more inroads in 2022 than I ever would have thought. And so it's almost like both sides are probably happy with where they're at maybe. And I don't know if maybe they wouldn't, I don't know what they would say in private,

but that is kind of the way it seems, you know, to your point about, people talking about it all the time. I mean, my gauge for this is like when I take my kids to go swimming at the neighborhood pool, what are people asking me about stuff? Because my friends and, you know, acquaintances know that I cover golf. And they don't ask me about the third round of the Canadian Open, right? They ask me every time I went about live. And I'm sure you guys got a ton of questions too.

And it's just, it's interesting. and I think it's somewhat exciting to talk about, but it's also such a short-term gain for golf that in the long-term could become, as many people pointed out, boxing. You know, I was thinking about, think about how few, how few, like, regular season NBA fans there are.

I'm not talking about playoffs and off-season and drama, but like regular season. And now take that down to golf and think about how few there are for golf. And it's like, man, what we're doing, what we're talking about here is, is a, is a fracturing of the regular season of golf. It's not the majors. It's not the masters.

It's none of that stuff. It's the regular season. And the further or the more you fracture that down, the fewer people are available to watch your events and your product, the less money there is eventually. And that just spirals into, into nothing, you know. And I think that's what is being missed in the long term by people who are fans of it in the short term. I know Nate's going to pick this up, but let me,

interrupt because that last point you made is really fascinating to me. I haven't had the chance yet to listen to Harry Higgs on the No Laying Up Pod. But I think what you're talking about in terms of the money that's available to support this entertainment product, it feels like to me it's being reallocated that we're going to have a shuffling of the dollars and the focus will be on events that have most of the best players together most of the time. And the rest, the impact is going to be felt most prominently on people like the Harry Higgs of the world who previously had maybe a more sort of predictable.

I mean, Harry, a guy like Harry Higgs. Yeah. Can make a living at golf by, you know, grinding and competing as hard as he can. If those dollars are changed and we're not talking about 42 regular tour events, you know, over the course of a calendar year and said we're really talking about 20 events or so. What happens to the guys that populated the fields in those 20 events that are now being sort of, you know, becoming second class citizens? That's part of the existential sort of that that's more of a crisis.

Did it have a second baby today, you mean? I didn't say anything. I said no such thing. Well, I mean, I think to that point, Liv would argue well, we're growing the pie overall. And it's like, I don't know. a man may maybe i guess i i don't i think i think my point is i don't know how how much bigger the pie gets it's more just like you're splitting it up differently and the pj true doesn't feel the effect of that for for probably a long time because they just signed the new tv deal with cbsnbc and

and espn i think for i think it's 2022 to 2030 so they've got that in place which is unbelievable timing for them given when i mean if if if that's that deal wasn't until 2024. It might look a lot different based on sort of the way I think things are kind of like reshaping. Now, does Liv even get enough eyeballs there to take away substantially from the PJ Tour's market? I don't know. Maybe not.

It doesn't seem like it right now. But I guess my overall point is like, Liv is arguing, hey, we're growing the pie overall. I would say, no, you're not. You're just making it worse for everybody because now everything's really. allocated and all of a sudden the money the two the pjah truer is is lessen for guys like like harry higgs and mark hubbard the guys and even the top players like it's going up right now because because they sign that tv deal that but but nobody's taking the long-term view of 15 20 years from now in a tigerless pjutor world like what that's going to be like and and that's i don't know that

was a lot of what i kind of wrote about in the book well i'd i'd say that the guys who are filling out the dance card who are not drawing eyeballs are still making pretty good money for hitting a stupid white ball around and doing all the ridiculous things that come to light in your book. So I wouldn't say you'll get, you know, if you're a corn fairy tour player, you know the old joke. Like what's the difference between cornfairy tour and a large pepperoni pizza? And it's that the large pepperoni pizza can feed a family of four, right? So the the guys on the big tour, I think broadly speaking, you're doing just fine. But it does speak to like where we go from here. Because. The story for me this year was the animosity. There are multiple ways to start a breakaway business or a competitor, and they really fall largely into two buckets. One is ego-driven antagonism where you really poke the bear right in the eyes. And the other is, you know, a little bit more of a graceful, respectful, quiet, we're going to go do our thing. Maybe there's a way for us to partner, so on and so forth. We definitely got the full Greg Norman experience this year.

And I wonder if you have thoughts on, you know, the Rory Tiger statement that was pretty definitive in the past week or so that Greg's got to go. We really are in this sort of World War I trench warfare thing, aren't we? Where the guys are just dug in and it feels like there's very little progress that can be made until there's a, dramatic shift in dynamic. It's not at all clear to me that Norman had to be that antagonistic to start this. And in fact, that maybe it was sort of short term. You know, when you start a company, a standard business, you always say that like there's some people who are just the booster rockets on the space shuttle that can only get you part of the way into orbit. And then they burn out and they fall back. And another rocket lights and takes the payload into space. Yeah. And I just wonder,

do you think that Greg Norman is one of those booster rockets? Or is he the shuttle? that's going to take this thing all the way from here. I can't imagine him being, although I read a quote from him today that said he's not going anywhere. I don't, I think he's the booster rocket. I can't imagine him being the CEO of Liv for the next five years. Maybe I'm wrong about that. Maybe he is that guy. I think the thing, you know, you mentioned the Tiger Rory stuff and clearly they don't like Norman. And I think Norman is just he he's just a not a reasonable person you know like he just comes off as very unreasonable Rory had some stuff on him in a good interview with Paul Kimmage on the

independent where he just is like I mean to use a Rory word duplicitous seeming and I think but I think the interesting part about all this is Rory and Tiger and all these guys keep using this word of compromise there's got to be compromised Greg's area so we can I don't the tiger got pushed on this at the hero and he didn't have an answer it's like what does compromise mean and he and he didn't really say anything I mean he said some just words but they didn't really mean a lot and I don't I don't know what compromise even looks like like what the live just spent 800 million dollars on their league in 2022 they get are they going to compromise with the PJ tour and if so what does that look like PJ tour is in a position where

if they compromise with Liv, which again, I don't even know what that means. Does that mean not banning players and like raising the minimum that they, tournaments that they have to play to 18? It's got to mean some player overlap

between the two. Right? I just, yeah, I guess I guess that's what it could mean. It's all give by the tour. What compromise? It's all given by the tour.

What extension? I mean, what does Liv have to offer back to the tour in the way of other than the players? The players. It's the players. It's the players. playing in the Ryder Cup. That, that to me has been the most interesting. Like, there was so much

animosity that Norman fueled. It was, it was Rom and Rory going back to Europe during some of the down periods post-presidents' Cup that seemed to have them step back and go, oh, wait a minute, I like some of these guys. I like some of this tradition. This has been Norman ginning up the animosity, not so much the players. How do we find a way to do some things together and preserve some of those traditions. I just don't know that the guys on the U.S. side on the PGA tour side are going to ever make that compromise with Norman because of the bridges that he just absolutely set on fire. And that makes sense also, Nate, because think about Norman. What Ryder Cup tradition does he have? What relationships did he exactly right, precisely the point. So those guys have a unique perspective.

And I think, you know, some instinct for trying to find a bridge to maintain, you know, the, the, historical, the legitimacy, the legacy of the Ryder Cup that Greg Norman can't relate to. So I think, you know, we're on to something here. But, KP, has it worked? Like, has it worked? Like, that listening to Rom, there's a little bit of resentment about the relationship between the PGA Tour and Europe, isn't there? Like, Rom still isn't totally sure what he's got to do to get on the team. Yeah, there's some.

Tom has been interesting because Rory is just full bore PJ tour. And ROM is more like, wait a second. I think this is the side I want to be on, but what am I getting myself into here? Why do I have to play 17 events? Hovlin. Yeah. Hovlin too.

Hovlin said that. I can't remember his exact wording, but he effectively was saying what Rom was saying, which is like, man, I got to play 17 events. And then I got to play four more on. the euro tour or whatever i can't remember the number five more on the euro tour to qualify for the rider cup on that side all of a sudden i'm playing like half the year that's not what i that's not what i want and i think i think the two the pj tour is you know like i've made this point they

they should be able to because they are partners now with the european tour like figure out a compromise for those guys that is that's like the baseline like that's easy, right? It would be different if you were still separated. They have the strategic alliance. They own part of European tour productions. Like, figure something out for the ROMs and hobbons. Like, those guys are super important. That seems like an easy fix. So yeah, I don't, I don't know. You know, the other part of it is like, what is the, you know, two things. One, the European tour is still allowing guys to play because of the lawsuit hasn't been decided in court yet.

So then would they just say like, well, I guess you can be on the Ryder Cup team as well. And then the PGA of America is just like its own thing. And like they don't really have, I mean, they're not banning players from playing the PJ championship. Would they be open to players playing the Ryder Cup? I don't know. Maybe. Like I think that part of it is going to be interesting as well. So, you know, I think all of this speaks to the fact that it would be weird if you had six organizations leading the NFL.

or if you had seven organizations in charge of the NBA, and that's what you get here in golf is you've got six, seven different organizations that have equal amounts of power that are all incentivized to make their own decisions for their own organization. And it creates such a mess when everybody's kind of looking around like, what are you guys going to do? And what are you going to do? And I think that's one unique problem that golf has that other sports don't.

I like you putting it that way because it makes me think of like mafia families. And what Rory and Tiger did was effectively put the hit out on Norman. And I do think he goes, and I'd be surprised if he survives all of 2023 as the commissioner of Liv. But what 20203 portends in terms of Live? Live had the benefit last year of being a new thing, a genuine disruptor. Now it has to produce a product that is interesting, an entertainment product that captures people's eyes. I do think they will figure out how to be on some form of linear television as opposed to a YouTube streaming kind of a vehicle. And in the United States, I mean, because they're on linear TV and other parts of the world.

But now the task is really in front of them to produce an interesting entertainment product that captures enough eyes to make it a viable enough enterprise to incentivize the PGA tour to come up with some kind of a compromise, some kind of bending. And the two things we have in front of us as, you know, maybe three things. We will see the live events, you know, because they fall, they've announced their calendar. And the first one I think is in March. Is that right? I think that's right it might be February yeah but those events

will will you know occur they will be on what I I'm anticipating there they will have some form of TV deal in place and you know we the two significant

PGA tour kind of moments are on the one hand the players and I guess we're going to have the players without Camp Smith although that's that's that seems like a very weird thing. And then the Masters were really set the tone for how 2023 might play out because the master's invitations will come out between the time that this podcast goes live, you know, this week and then, you know, into the first half of January. And I think we'll have a lot of answers as to what that field will consist of.

But, you know, a pathway to any, not a reconciliation, but how Live and PGA tour are going to operate side by side potentially, right? Yeah, it is. First event, well, the first event listed, by the way, is end of February at Myakoba. So the PGA Tour ends at Mycoba and Liv starts at Maya Coba, which is hilarious. But yeah, look, I'm of the opinion, I was arguing with somebody who's pretty dialed into PGA Tour stuff this weekend. I'm of the opinion that the PGA Tour should not abandon anybody and instead should have just raised their minimum tournaments played requirements. requirement for so the PJA tour has a minimum tournaments played requirement for players that play on other tours currently. So it would it would look at a Adrian Moranck, for example, who just won

on the European tour or on the DP World Tour, whatever it's called, and say, hey, you play on another tour. So the minimum number of tournaments you have to play on the PJA Tour is 15 to maintain a PGA tour card. That's what they say for players whose home tour is a different tour. I don't, I guess my thinking is like, why didn't you just raise that to, I mean, and effectively they did with the elevated events, but raise it to 17 or 18 and say, hey, you want to play 34, because the live schedule is going to be 14 events. You want to play 34 times or whatever it is throughout the year. Good luck.

Go get them. Nobody's going to do that. Brooks Kefka is going to play 34 times to maintain his PJTruer card. That's not happening, you know. And so you avoid all this other junk. But then you get into like, well, Phil's got a lifetime exemption and then Cam won the players last year. And there's just a whole lot of other things that you get into there. But I agree with you.

I think the Masters is going to set the tone, lead the way, especially as it relates to the other major championships. I don't know that anybody's going to go against what they do. But I don't, I think it's going to be kind of business as usual. It's going to be former champions. It's going to be guys like Brooks and Kansas. that have won majors in the last five years and all that stuff, but it's not going to be your kind of Lee Westwoods that usually get in on a top 50 of the OWGR or something like that.

And I don't know. That to me is what it's going to look like, but I guess that could change, you know, between now and the first week in April. Well, we talked about how the last year of chaos brought a lot of the golf conversation sort of into the mainstream, not all the way there. And the concern with Liv is

when you siphon off players, you take a very small nut and you cut it into pieces, right? And that you actually dilute the overall audience on the game. We've got this Netflix thing coming. I know for a fact that our guy, Joel Damon,

is one of the stars and will be a breakout guy coming out of it in the sort of every man component of it. But do you think, as you think about 2023, is golf going to get bigger? as this controversy goes on

and as the attention on it happens or is it fundamentally going to get smaller and that the critiques of what Liv is actually doing are they going to be proven correct? Well, when I think about the Netflix thing, you obviously run to the F1 comparison and I think about my relationship with F1 as somebody who didn't even really know about it,

got into it from the drive to survive stuff, and that was fun and my wife and I enjoy watching it, but I don't know that it made me a day-to-day week-to-week fan. And maybe I do know people that it has made a fan of F-1. So maybe that happens a little bit with golf. I'm just unconvinced that it's going to happen in a meaningful, like in meaningful numbers. But I don't know.

I could be wrong about that. There might be the ratings for the Masters, my double next year. Who knows? Maybe if Joel Damon's leading, they will. I want to talk some about the book because this year, 2022, you rounded up some beloved pals to make contributions to write chapters, to make their observations directly, whereas you handled the entire laboring war in 2021. Obviously, I know that that was deliberate, right? For sure. I, I, Yeah, I didn't want to do it again by myself. I have a ton of people in my world that I just love and respect their work.

And I wanted to kind of create a team around it. And it made it honestly like no matter how many books we sell or whatever, it just made it a lot more fun. Like we just spent, I spent time trying to like, you guys know, Brendan Porath of Friday, Shuggan, stuff. I basically just spent time trying to write sentences that would make him laugh, which is hard to do. And it made the product better, right?

because we're just like trying to make stuff for each other. And then all of a sudden you have something that you show to everybody else. So that was deliberate. And it was something that I'm really glad that I did because it made the whole thing a lot more fun. Yeah. And it feels like it's repeatable in that way. I mean, the group of folks that you pulled in are naturally journalists in the same way that you are. But also just because of the nature of golf and, you know, the way that modern media

around golf exists. The only way really for us to experience it, at least I'm maybe speaking for myself and why this book resonates so much with me. I can't sit down and watch golf. I don't sit down and put on golf for hours, you know, and just sit in front of the TV.

I'm sitting with my computer open and consuming golf through the shared experience of golf Twitter, which is all of these folks who have chimed in and made contributions to the book. And that's the way that I experienced the year. So going back and reliving the year through those eyes through that prism makes a ton of sense. And it's very enjoyable. I'm going to get through all 400 and, what is it, 50 pages of this. 30. Yeah. 430 between now and, you know, the beginning of next golf season, because it really does set up, I think, you know, all of the big

moving pieces. And by the way, this will go into, I'm going to do on Instagram. I'm going to make a few little, you know, holiday suggestions. This is absolutely on my list, buddy. That's awesome. I love this thing. I love it. But in terms of like the stories that your friends wrote, give me like a highlight, give me some one thing that sort of stands out for you from 2022.

That's different from all that we've, we've been, you know, talking through for the last half hour. Well, I think it is funny because you, you, you start thinking about 2022 and so many fun and interesting things happened. And yet, whenever you and I talk or you guys and I talk, whenever I have conversations with other golf writers or friends or whoever, it immediately goes right to live. We're not talking about Scotty Schaeffler,

holding out on the third hole of the masters in the final round. We're not talking about anything else. We're talking about live. And that's just unfortunately or fortunately the reality of it. But I think to answer your question, Joel Beale, who writes for a golf digest, and I think is one of the best long-form writers in sports, not just golf. He wrote about the Open and going to Scotland.

He had been there before, but this was his first time to kind of, I think it was this first time to go cover the open. And he opens with a scene from the grave of old Tom Morris and young Tom Morris in St. Andrews. And he just, he did a great job of, like, weaving that through the entire chapter. it's really compelling. Everybody loves, I think, reading and hearing about St. Andrews and the romance of the old course and all that stuff.

And he did a, I thought he did a unique, great job with it. And I was really just proud of him for the way he kind of wrote through that, wrote about Rory, wrote about Cam. I was jealous that he got to write that chapter because that was, you know,

one of the most compelling weeks, I think, of the entire year, of the last couple of years. So that, that to me was one of the highlights of the entire book and he did a tremendous job with it. What are the big takeaways from the season for like lasting memory moments? I've got, I got two that really stand out from this season.

And you talked about Sheffler in the final round. Sheffler on the 18th green in the final round was one that I just can't get out of my head because he was so composed and so wonderful that whole week on the golf course. And on that 18th green, he just, he was so human, right? He'd been sort of just on this absolute tear, and we just saw how hard a sport it was. That was the first one for me. And then, man, I just am never going to forget Tiger's tears coming up 18 on St. Andrews,

going across the bridge as Max waited behind and let Tiger go and sort of what that moment was like when, you know, we all kind of understood everybody who's been close enough to the game, people who've seen him up close and walking. You know, he's just, he's telling you. it's not going to be the same. And he hadn't been sandbagged. He's telling you, I just don't have it in the leg anymore. And you could see he knew that.

Those were the two big moments. We had other stuff, the President's Cup and the rise of Tom Kim, and we had Rory sort of getting back up on that horse. And, you know, off course, certainly all the drama. Is there anything else from a just moment that when you think back on this past year will stand out for you? There's a lot. I think the highlights, I would throw in.

probably Cam's back nine at TPC Sawgrass was was crazy. I think he won putted the last 10 holes with $3 million on the line and the player's championship and the balance. I thought Sheffler, I agree with you about the way he ended there. And I wrote about this in the book. Sheffler's not this like, you know, mid-2000s conquering hero that Tiger was.

He's a very, he's a very balanced down-to-earth person. And so it was almost fitting the way that it ended. It almost showed us human sight. And then him crying in the presser. That was, you know, I went to all the majors this year. That was the most shocking moment of the entire, or not him crying in the press or him talking in the presser about crying that morning.

Um, and telling his wife, like I didn't, I didn't know if I. Yeah, I didn't know if I had what it takes when a major. And it's like, man, like that is, I mean, that's just a writer's dream to get stuff like that and for him to be that vulnerable. So that, that part stood out in conjunction. with him for putting the last. PGA was kind of weird. I thought J.T.

hit some spectacular shots. I don't know if there was a real. Collapse was just tough to watch. Yeah, I don't know if there was a real, like, moment there. I thought,

I thought this, you know, the U.S. open, and I wrote about this in the book, it was the most, to me, it was the most contentious week of the year.

It was the week where everybody's popping off. Rory actually just disclosed to Paul Kimmage of the independent that, that, COVID that well no this was uh that was a British that was the week that Sergio like sent him a text telling him to like shut up about live and oh wow Rory popped back at him so like I think what you saw was actually behind the scenes even what was like super contentious and then to me the meekest guy in golf which is Matt Fitzpatrick and I don't I don't mean meek in a

in a negative sense I just think he's like incredibly hardworking doesn't say a whole lot he just about his business. I thought it was fitting that he was the one that won the U.S. Open and did it with a closing kick that was that was incredible. He got up and down from 225 yards on the 16th hole there for Bertie to kind of put it away. And then the shot on 18 out of the sand. Yeah.

That'll get the highlight reels. So I don't know. Those are some of the things that stand out. I think we reflected on like Rory not winning the open was and Cam winning it because it became this like, and I don't really agree at this, but this like good versus evil thing. And that was kind of weird, but Rory handled everything very gracefully,

but then he's in tears afterwards as he kind of rides away on a golf car with his wife. And I don't know, again, like the moments that stand out to me really are from the major championships throughout the year. Yeah, well, I want to pick up on that. Because to me, Rory won the year as a professional golfer from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, right up to this moment that we're taping,

his legacy, his stature in the game, his, the way that history will look back on Rory McElroy and the contributions to the game that he made in, in this year as the most eloquent spokesperson for a version of professional golf that, you know, resonates with sports fans like me. But I was very curious by the way that, you and the fellow authors

tackled the sort of player of the year conundrum. And, you know, you're trying to slice and dice between, it's, it was really just between Scotty Schaeffler and Camp Smith. I mean, you know, shouts to Will Zalotaurus,

shouts to Matt Fitzpatrick didn't even make your top five, but shouts to Matt Fitzpatrick. Who am I forgetting? Shouts to Zander. JT. Shouts to Zander. Although Zander, just didn't do enough in the majors to really enter the conversation. I mean, that's the problem.

But if you're going between Cam Smith and Scotty Sheffler, I think we have a genuinely interesting kind of conversation as we sit here today. If we're going to be open-minded about, you know, what Cam Smith did this latter portion of the year, winning both in Chicago and an Australian, adding that in, layering that into the performance he had throughout the whole calendar year. What do you think? I think you're right.

It was a two-horse race. I had Fitzpatrick in my top five. Other people didn't so that he got voted out of the final top five. Rory was a distant third, I thought, even though he had a great year to those two guys. You know, I think for me, when we voted, Cam Smith had not won in Australia yet. And statistically, I mean, Schaeffler was just, he was unbelievable. I mean, he had like, I think 13 top tens in PGA tour events. he nearly won the U.S. Open.

He was better overall in the major championships, even though they both won one. And so he was, there were people on our team that voted for Kim Smith or that had him listed as their number one guy. And I don't, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Narrowly for me, it was Sheffler.

Although, I think Shepler not winning the second half of the year, heard him a little bit. You know, his last one was at the Masters, which is crazy to think about. I mean, he had, he went, from number 14 Super Bowl weekend to number one in the world, like a month later or six weeks later and then wins the Masters.

And it was like one of the great 10 week stretches in golf history. But then he doesn't win the rest of the year, which was kind of, kind of odd. But he was still in it a lot. Like it wasn't like he was missing cuts. He was just top 10, top 10, you know, T8, all that stuff. So for me, it was narrowly shuffler, but I could be talked to into Camp Smith, too. House, what do you think the answer is? Cam Smith.

So that, yeah, I mean, that makes it a very, I mean, that is, it was the biggest get by a mile and a half. I mean, Brooks Kepka just fell out of the top 50. DJ is great and still playing, but you, you know he's, he's getting near the end. There really isn't anybody else. I mean, Bryson DeChambo two years ago is the only guy that we talked about. We probably would take 50% of every pod and talk about Bryson DeShambo. He popped up in my Instagram feed the other day.

And the only thing I remarked was, wow, he's lost some weight and he's pretty ripped. But like, this guy must be just absolutely devastated at the loss of his brand. So it really is Cam, who is the one that I think probably is propping up the legitimacy of that thing in terms of these World Golf Ranking arguments, in terms of the majors and they're tact. it's fascinating that that was Norman's biggest coup. I totally agree with that, K.P. Yeah, it was. And I think, you know, DJ was a great face of it for a little bit

because he's not going to get entangled in geopolitical conversations. No. He just wanted the money. And by the way, he won all the money this year. Pat Perez, what a call. Just such a great. DJ just doesn't have time for that. but in terms of in terms of in house mentioned this at the very beginning and i totally agree with

it that the thing that live did best i don't know if it was intentional or not is that they were in the news every single week every week it was something it was either a mid-tier player or they got a new course that they're going to or something and they just rode that it wasn't a tidal wave it was just like constant it just wore you down it wore you out and i think cam was kind of the centerpiece of all of that because I think Cam is is for them could be a bridge from where they were to where they're trying to go. Absolutely. Like I don't know if DJ is a bridge.

I don't know if Phil, Phil's on his own planet. But I don't know if those guys can be a bridge. Cam, it's like, hey, I just want to major. I'm in the next five years of majors.

Look at what I did. I don't know if he's saying this, but Liv is saying, look at what Cam did. You could be that guy too. Patrick Cantley wins the Masters. Could he go to live? Maybe.

I don't know. But I think that's the way that live is kind of viewing camps. What are you hearing on that front? Have we got any other, now that the World Challenge is done, have we got any other, I mean, we got the PNC, Tiger and his son will hopefully be the story. Are there any other big defections we're going to hear about before Maui? No, I don't think before Maui. Cantley and Zander seem.

Yeah. Which I don't know why they're always like a package deal. It's like when we talk about the Ryder Cup or the President's Cup or anything, it's like, well, they're together. It's like, well, do they have to be? Or like, what's, because they drink wine with their spouses and nap, but doesn't like, they're not. We did it with Jordan and JT.

Jordan and JT are the same way, aren't they? That's true. That's that's their package deal. Totally fair. But I think they are the, I think Can'tlay especially is the most like, huh, what, what's, you know, what's going on there? But I don't, he seems to me like the, the most. I don't, contentious isn't the right word,

but he just, I think, asked the most questions behind the scenes of the PJ tour, maybe the most dubious about, like, the way the PGA tour operates or does things or whatever. So that obviously doesn't mean he's going to go to live, but it does mean, I think,

that there are some questions there about, like, what his future looks like. I respect it. At least he's, at least he's being honest about, like, where he is. He's not like, I'm never going. He's like, I could go someday. maybe I never will but I'm not going to tell you like I appreciate him like surfacing the process instead of some of the lies that we're told before no there's plenty of fair criticism of the tour

I mean yes yes I want to make sure I'm going to ask both of you guys for a bold prediction for 2023 but I want to make sure before we move on that we pour a little bit out for bryson de chambot because um we really did for for the latter half of 2020 and and virtually all of 2021, revel in the experiment that he put himself through. And we, he was just, he's the Lindsay Lohan of golf. Yeah, that's, you know, it's, it's got to be close to that, something like that. The thing that we, we constantly wondered about is how is it, why is it that there

isn't somebody in his corner that can get through to him and help him with the messaging. And the recent revelation about from him out of his own mouth that he considered it a mistake to have undertaken all of the dietary things and what he pursued in terms of speed, when he put his body through, the price that he paid, that all of that was a mistake. I, because I'm a glass half full kind of person, I'm inclined to cast him as a somewhat tragic figure in the sense that his father, who just passed away, was laboring through the health crisis that he'd been dealing with for, you know, a decade, maybe, you know, more, but maybe it was more acute over the last handful of years.

I'm willing to give Bryson the benefit of the doubt because of his instinct to be an innovator, his instinct to think about doing things outside the box. And, you know, I'm, for whatever reason, willing to overlook all of the self-defeating public persona stuff. But I don't think that we're going to see him competing the way that we did back in 2020. And, you know, when he was healthy for that. short period of time, I'm worried we'll never see him compete at that level again. Yeah.

So pouring a little out. I think that's fair. And he, I mean, he's the high king of content, right? Like, he is the high king of content creation, unintentional, intentional, all of it. Like, he's, he's, you know, he's a real character in a sport that has lacked them over the last 10 years. Yeah. You know? And I think the tour, you know, like, I think that, I think that's like the tour will miss having a character.

I will miss covering a character like that on the PGA tour. So it's crazy. They've gotten nothing out of the Brooks versus Bryson thing on Live. Nothing. It felt like it ran its course, like when they did their match thing last Thanksgiving. Yeah. It just, they just have not, those guys have not been front and center. It's like they disappeared.

Well, remember, remember how hurt Brooks has been. And one of the, I think, Kyle, did you write this? In the book, it's an awesome observation. The motivation for Brooks, a singular motivation for a singular player, is him looking himself in the mirror and knowing how hurt he's been over the last three years. Now, we don't know how hurt he's been, but he knows how hurt he's been. And it's, it's been significant enough, those injuries that maybe he doesn't think. that he's capable, physically capable of competing week in, week out at the level that he had

attained. And that's why that paycheck from Liv was so attractive. And it's why he cried when he won an event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. You get what I'm saying? Well, and I think he has a little, I think you're, I didn't write that part, but I do agree with it. And I think, I think, I think Joel wrote that part possibly, but I think there's some shame from him. I think he's ashamed a little bit about like, hey, I basically said either to myself, definitely publicly, but probably also to himself, I'm never going to be this guy. He took the money. And then he became that guy.

And I think he got a little push into it by those injuries. But regardless, I think he's pretty ashamed of that decision. And he tries to hide it. And most of the time, he does hide it. But sometimes it kind of comes out a little bit. All right. Time for some bold bold predictions. It's December of 2022.

We're looking forward to 2023. We don't have any resolution at all as to who's going to play in the biggest events in golf. We have our suspicions. We have guesses between the television. I mean, NBC just completely revamped. All of the folks that we've come to sort of know and live with in the way of his television presentation. we don't know for sure who's going to compete in the biggest events. And anything across the board,

give us a prediction, KP, one bold prediction for 2023. Yeah, I'll go. I could probably come up with another one if you guys want to go also. But I'm going to say Matt Fitzpatrick becomes the number one player in the world. Whoa. Okay.

So if you, and how soon? I'll say by next summer. I think he's going to have a monstrous spring. if you look at his statistical trajectory, it's, it's unbelievable. I mean, if you get on data golf, his strokes gained over the last 11 years, he's improved it every single year. That is, that does not happen.

And granted, it was pretty bad starting out. This was back in college or in his amateur days. It was below average. But every single year, he adds something. He adds something. He adds something. He added distance. He added speed training.

He added strokes gained off the T. And he is just such a complete player now. I wasn't a believer before, really before the U.S. Open. And then that week, regardless of whether he won or not, I was like, I am, I am in. Like, he is, he's a, he's a professional. And I think he can become the number one player of the world. Okay. I like it.

Nate, do you have one? Well, I was going to say the same thing for Morikawa. Oh, I think he. The resurgence in return. I think it's a binary outcome for Morikawa. It's been 2022, he was my most disappointing golfer. Oh. because it just, it hasn't been there.

And I don't think it's been for lack of working, right? But there were times where he was coming in, hitting shots that were opposite of what he's normally done. This is, I think, you know, this is the chosen one. Max Homo would tell you this guy is the best ball striker that he'd seen since Tiger. And I just, there are only one of two ways to go. And I love Colin Warcawa. I think he's going to win a major and then some this year.

mine is the following and this fits a lot of of what folks have come to understand about me on this podcast rory mackereloy is going to win the masters here we go 223 i'm i'm saying it right now thank you for saying something big i'm happy what is that i'm very brave what do you mean no that would be an enormous enormous golf story it would be the biggest and especially after the pathos of being so close at the 150th competing of the Open Championship at St. Andrews tasting it on the back nine and having it snatched away by the villain.

The villain. Not really a villain. You know, the competitor, the lead face of the competitive alternative tour. And then he comes in and he gets over the demon, gets over the hump. and you know that's that's it what's the path is it is it him going into sunday with like a four stroke lead is it him uh closing out a narrow win over morikawa and zander is it how does he

how does he do it he does it the exact same way that he almost did it this past year where he felt no pressure whatsoever on sunday went out and shot whatever he shot 63 or 64 yeah i think i think it's a come from behind i don't think it's him in the final group although we have seen a kind of mental maturation out of him at a final group maturation, even in the last half decade where he feels, he's showing psychologically, you know, he's projecting more comfort and more confidence. He still was, and, you know, he has been very gracious about not blaming Victor Hovland, who is his running mate for the, in that last group at the Open Championship, but there just was no electricity whatsoever occurring between them. And he was, he was on a grind. I like

it the Rory that is the conquering Rory is the Rory that has a fire and you can see it emanating from him. He, you can see the flame surrounding, you know, there's an aura. Yeah, I think it, it almost would be like what Cam did to him, right? Where it's like you're in, you're in third or fourth going into the final round. You shoot a, what a camp shoot, 66 or 67 in the final round. Right. To beat him. The leader kind of stalls out a little bit. I think that I think I could see that. I could also see him doing what Sheffler did, which is you're up five or whatever it was going into Sunday. That's how he won, you know, most of his first, not specifically that, but that was the kind of the method that he won his first couple majors.

So that'd be amazing. I would love to cover it. I'd love to write about it. I just, it's, it's hard to still believe after what, it'll be nine years, you know, that he wouldn't have won a major by that time. House, I have one other, I have one other thing that I just need to tell you is my prediction. for next year. Let's hear it. I think some portion of the players, and therefore all the players are going to boycott the Riter Cup. I think that's going to be. When you say boycott, what does that mean? I think that they're going, there's going to, this is where the sort of live or they enter out

stuff is going to come to a head, particularly on the European side. There will be an effort to exclude guys like Sergio. Rom and Rory ultimately are going to have a problem with that. And there's going to be, I think that they may, for this year, there may not be a Ryder Cup. Maybe they'll just go and, you know, take a, take a couple of YouTubers to a golf course and they'll just play and live stream it, but that there's going to be some effort by the players to maybe take over that brand and turn it into what they want. I just, at, the sneaky most sweeping under the rug move of all time was Tom Kim and Max Homa making the President's Cup something that we sort of thought was interesting and fun instead of saying this thing is a joke without Cam Smith. And the Ryder

Cup, it's just not going to be possible because I think there's too much history and heritage on that side. And the animosity and the issues won't get paved over. And I think some of the players may just say, we're going to, we're going to grab back control. So that's my, that's my prediction. Nate, I love it. And this is going to be fascinating because we'll get to talk about this through all of 2023. I'll put it to KP. The PGA of America is the governing body. They own that property. They're going to do everything within their power to accommodate

whatever the European players want. They want the best European players possible to mount a competitive team against the U.S. So I actually think that we'll see extraordinary accommodation out of the PGA of America. They were the first

after Phil lit himself on fire to go on record and saying, we want Phil to come defend his championship. You know, we want the him, at the PGA championship at Southern Hills and Phil declined. I could actually see a path in which everybody was just invited to the Rider Cup, no matter what, you know, and it was, it was weird because Trevor, Trevor,

and Willem brought this up at the president's cup. He, he kind of went to the PGA tour and was like, why can't, why can't Louis Ustays him play in the president's cup? He's a, he's not a, he resigned his membership. And you're, you don't have to be a PJ to remember to play in the president's cup. you can be on the Asian tour, the Sunshine Tour, or whatever.

And the PJ Tour said, well, he, he broke his, like, marketing agreement with, I don't know, some, like, just obscure rule or whatever. And it was like, that just seems heady, I guess. I don't, I don't know. I kind of made that argument in the book, but I could see the, I could see the writer cup being like the unifying thing in golf, or it's like, hey, you play on live, you play wherever. although that might be bad for the euros, right? If Sergio and Rory don't like each other now or whatever,

that might be a, their like team chemistry that's been lauded over the last 20 years might just go up into flames. I think that would be, I think that would be interesting. House, I've been wondering this whole time, is that a Juan Dixon jersey behind you there?

No, no, no. That's, that's, it's a DC. It's one of their city unies. It's the year 2021. So that's why it says DC 21. But it would be, it would be, obviously I have a lot of affinity for Juan Dixon. I have some of his stuff downstairs, memorabilia-wise.

But this, this I'm featuring. Now, I should bring my, my, my Elvin Hayes game worn up here. That would, that probably, except for I don't know. Daniel Gafford, Jersey. Well, he's the only guy on that team who plays any defense. But, you know, look, that's, that's another podcast for another day. K.P, where can folks find normal sport volume? 2.

Yes, normal sport volume 2, a normal sport.com. So you go there. We've got digital. We've got Shane Bacon did the audio. We've got hardcover. We got all kinds. We got last year's edition. Is the hard cover out?

It will be out by the time this podcast comes out. We're launching, I'm basically getting off this podcast and then we're launching the site. Well, you're going to be one of the first purchasers of the hard cover. And one of the thing I want to talk about offline, how can we take volume one and turn it into a hard cover? I can print it and put it in a binder.

I know. Somebody did that last year. Somebody printed it like kinkos and put in like three ring bindered it. And so they actually technically have the first hardcover of Morals. Look, I'm a dude. I'm old. I like to hold things. If it's the book, I want to hold the book.

I want to open the book. I want to be able to read it on the airplane in my hands. You know what I mean? Yeah. Let's make that happen with volume one. For sure. A normal sport.com. I appreciate you guys.

Let me come on here. and talk about it, recap the year. I'm always down to do that, whether there's a book or not. So thanks for having me and we'll do it again. Kyle Porter, you have a standing invitation at all times. We look forward to kayaking 23 together with you and all of golf Twitter. Let's go for it. Thanks, buddy.

All right, my par saving pals, there we have it. Amazing experience with our pal, Kyle Porter. Thank God for Nathan Hubbard, our P. J-A-Torp correspondent on the ground. My birdie buddies, happy holidays to everybody. Keep your eyes peeled. I gave a little bit of a hint. I think on the Instagram I'm going to do a little bit more of here.

Here are some things from the golfing world that you might be interested in, that your loved ones, if they're looking for gift suggestions, you can go on on on my Instagram. I'll have some stuff that I've liked over the course of the year. Of course, the normal sport volume two will be at the top of that list because it's really, really a very cool book. If you need a bookbook, you can buy it in hard copy or you can get electronically and read it

on any of your devices. My birdie buddies, we shall be back. It will be sooner than you expect in January, a fairway rolling. We'll be back covering all of the existential crises, the kubuki dance,

however you want to say it going on in the world of golf. In the meantime, please enjoy your holidays. And if you're in a place where it's warm enough to throw a peg in the ground, go ahead and do so. And if you do, please, let's have them straight out there.