Fairway Rollin' - Rory Mcllroy Wins the Tour Championship, Plus Jay Monahan’s PGA Tour Announcements

Episode Date: August 29, 2022

House and Hubbard recap the FedEx Cup Tournament resulting in Rory Mcllroy taking home his third title after going head-to-head with Scottie Scheffler (1:14). Then, they address Jay Monahan’s announcement that confirms structural changes to the PGA Tour, and discuss what this means for the upcoming season, LIV Golf, and future professional athletes (13:52). Hosts: Joe House and Nathan Hubbard Associate Producer: Erika Cervantes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Call me sentimental, but to me, the most joyful moment in sports is the soccer goal. And when that goal happens at the World Cup, well, it's pretty good. I'm Brian Phillips. With the 22 men's World Cup approaching, I'm making a podcast called 22 goals on the Ringer Podcast Network. It's about 22 of the most fire emoji goals in the history of the tournament. We're going to have so much fun. Hello, friends, and welcome to this. golf podcast unlike any other.

Oh yes, my friend, this is Farroway Run! The golf podcast on the Ring of Podcast Network. I am your starter, Joe House. Let's get right into it, my birdie buddies. My accomplice, the PGA tour correspondent on the ground, Nathan Hubbard, is live and on the scene. The FedEx Cup playoffs, the Tour Championship, has just wrapped.

We are going plausibly live moments after Scotty Sheffler got done puking all over himself and Rory McElroy used the grandstands like they were putt putter walls to bounce the golf ball to his great advantage.

I enjoyed it thoroughly. Hi, Nate Dogg. How are you, buddy? The golf gods are real. They're real house. I guess if the script that you turned in before this tournament said Rory coming back from six strokes

on Sunday to win the thing that gets a reject, right? You send it back? Yeah, I mean, this is not only did he win the FedEx Cup, but he also actually shot the lowest aggregate round. He did.

That's right. Played the best, won the tournament. This was a lot of drama. It was a lot of fun. Have fun going to live, Cam Smith. won't miss you. I kind of miss you. Might miss you a little bit.

But listen, I mean, the weirdest thing that I'm looking at right now, Rory was 23rd in shots gained approach today. He was 28th in shots around the green. I mean, yes, Schaeffler was 28th in approach and 23rd and around the green, but it seems like if you just sort of look at those stats, they kind of played the same. the difference is Rory gained four shots putting. Yes. And Scottie lost 1.6 shots.

And that's what happened. That's the difference in this tournament. This was a very, very big choke by Scottie Schaeffler. We first have to say that out loud. The course was not hard today. We saw a little bit of maybe Scotty getting overwhelmed by emotion in the Masters when it took him four putts on that 18. 13th Green. This does not mean that Scottie Sheffler is a choker because he was the best player

coming into this. I just genuinely believe that somewhere between the golf gods and Santa Claus said, we got to take the guy who effectively saved the PGA tour. And we're giving him the title. And House, I don't, I think it's going to take us a while to understand the depth of what Rory carried on his shoulders for the last three weeks, much less, you know, the last three months. We, during the weather delay yesterday, we got a replay of the Tiger event when he won, and the crowd's coming behind him. And that stands as sort of one of probably the biggest moment in the history of the Tour Championship. I really think, and call me if you really believe it's hyperbole, but once all of the cards are turned over and we understand the extent to which Rory has put

the tour on his back in many ways, that the fact that he's been able to play well through all of this and ultimately play as well as he did this week is going to stand as one of the great golf achievements, certainly at the Tour Championship. See, this point that you just made is going to be the line that I will use at which I'm not going to cross.

See, I was prepared to make the joke. And it was going to be a joke. don't want, you know, the haters. Everybody knows my love for Rory, but the, in a sincere way, your point just now undermines the point that one might make that winning the, the no cut, limited field tour championship and not any majors is the ultimate back to our money. When, look, I'm not here to say that. He came out and shot the best aggregate score across the four rounds. He shot the 66. You know, before this round, they, they, because of the weather delay from Saturday into Sunday,

and this is part of the thing with Scotty, that's a little befuddling to me. He was on the golf course today and he was playing the golf course well. He finished his round this morning in a way that looked like he was in supreme control of, his game, his stroke and, you know, the environs. And then it all disappeared in the time between coming out and giving himself the six-shot lead. and, you know, getting out and playing this final round. Now, it was that the broadcasters were saying as Xander and Scotty were coming down the stretch, finishing up the third round portion this morning,

that Rory wanted to be in the final group with Scotty. Now, I don't know if Rory said so when he came in or what, you know, where that information came from, but it required Xander making par on the 18th hole, which is nothing but a birdie hole. I'm sure it played significantly under par over the course of the week. Zander made par and that had the effect of putting Rory

in that final round. And Rory looked at Scotty as like, okay, buddy, let's do it. Let's get it on. And he took him out back and gave it to him, which is wonderful. It's great to see. Yeah, it's hard to believe that Rory stepped up

to the first T, thinking that he could actually win this tournament. I do want to make one point, which is the announcers missed this, but Rory walked off that green, and he walked through the throngs of people. And when he got to the slightly backstage area before he goes into scoring, the first guy who grabbed him and hugged him was Scotty Schaeffler's father, who is an incredibly gregarious human being. But he grabbed Rory and he said, I love you. and that to me was then Rory hugged him and then hugged Scotty's mother and he hugged JT and went back.

But like that to me is the signal and the sort of bellwether of how much golf has changed over the course of the past month. Let's call it months because certainly there's been more happening behind the scenes than we've heard. But where these individuals who, you know, Rory would have been greeted by Poppy under normal circumstances, Instead, he's greeted by the young number one player in the world, Master Winner's father, after he takes down his own son, hugs him because that's the extent of the, you know, just the adoration that I think these guys have for- And the stature, right? The stature. He is, he is the preeminent tour player. There's no arguing it any longer.

That's it. I do want to dispense quickly. There can be no argument that Scotty Sheffler is the number one. He should win Player of the Year, both the Tor player of the year and the PGA of America player of the year. I know that for whatever reason, this peculiar split, is there any reason to think that anybody else can lay claim to Player of the Year? No.

The only thing that you might say is that Scotty Sheffler lost 2.3 shots in round two putting. he lost 1.45 shots in round 3 putting and he lost 1.6 shots putting in round 4 at the 2nd Championship. That's about the only blemish that you can, you know. 11 players shot better than him over the course of the four rounds at this event and we won't belabor trying to reimagine this event.

There is a solution out there. But I like there being a jump ball for this. I would much prefer them just going on and playing and have it be gigantic money and that's it. But we don't need to try and solve for that at the moment. Felt like it mattered today, didn't it though? This is the first time it felt really intense and like this was a big, big tournament. So I love, you know, we've been talking about this through these playoffs because it's kind of a curious thing, but it occupies a great spot on the sports calendar. and we're getting texts from just, you know, not super hardcore golf fans, but casual golf fans.

Because it is the best players in the world playing in an event on Sunday afternoon. It occupies a great spot on the sports calendar. And, you know, they deserve credit for conceiving of something where they have the best players. I mean, the Will's All Tourist win three weeks ago was riveting as well. well. It was. I didn't love the BMW, but I love that's just because you don't love Patrick Campbell. I love seeing Wilmington. You know, I liked

seeing a new golf course and I liked, you know, seeing, yeah, and Zander and Patrick dueling it out. I mean, Scott Stallings, congratulations. Scott Stallings made a boatload of money. Wow. Even though he finished DFL in this event, but God bless him.

He got himself in. And if we look at how the 29 guys ex-Zallatoris actually finished, in terms of how they stacked up, it looks about right in terms of how you think about the year. The only guys who kind of underdelivered for me in terms of how they performed this year were ROM at T-15. Yeah, thank you for blowing our parley.

God, dogged. We told everybody, we told them. But, yeah, and the thing that bums me out about that is that for this event, he actually putt well. He actually gained almost two shots putting. It was off the T where he was not good. It was on approach. He wasn't good.

the back 71s is a kick in the nuts. Not our thing. Come on, man. But that was John Rom's season. John Rom's 21, 22 season was a lot like Justin Thomas's season last year, which is it just, you know, he was always there. He won in Mexico. Great.

But this was not, you know, of the quality and level that he expects. And he's now got plenty of time, he knows, to work. on the game and come back starting in Hawaii if he doesn't play Napa like he did last year and and show up. But other than that, you know, speed's hovering outside the top 10, top 10, but you got Rory, you got Sungjay, Zander, Max, who had a breakout season, JT, that's our top five. Sepstraka, whatever, but I love that Sepp Straka and Tom Hogi can make top 10. There you go. It just says that you can play your way in. That's the meritocracy. That's why we, you know, this version of competitive golf is significant.

It's why it matters. Yes. Guys like Sestraca and Tom Hogi through the course of an entire year played well enough, consistently enough, showed out enough, played enough events to get the points and then played well enough when it mattered to get themselves into this and gigantic paydays with really significant consequences for both of their careers going forward. No, no doubt. And then when you add to that seeing Morikawa at 21st, like this, he shot plus three today.

Like that, that's kind of the year that Morikawa had. He's got some work to do on the game. It looked down this home stretch like his home stretch of the season, I should say. Like his approach game got better, right? On this event, he gained over a stroke on approach. He lost almost two strokes putting. That's more of the Morikawa that we're used to. But this was kind of a Meh Morikawa season.

seems about right for him to finish T-21. Adam Scott, Corey Conner's, you know, K.H. Lee, Seth Takala, and Scott Staling's rounding out the bottom five, that's about what, that makes sense to me. They sort of fought hard to get in, and that's probably what they deserve, right? So this felt like at the end of the day, just about the right combination of rewarding the guys who were there all season and who deserved it, letting a few in who played through the playoffs and were able to advance themselves, playoffs, and then probably, you know, relegated the guys

who had a nice hot streak to make their way in, but probably didn't end up at the top of the board. So it's a weird format. It's a hard nut to crack. But today, it worked. It's just meritocracy. That's it. And in view of our remarkable success on this podcast

of taping the day before, the most significant, the most momentous, the most game-changing events really of the last 50 years. We taped the day before Alan Shipnuck released his excerpt from his book about Phil Mickelson confessing his enormously cynical

ploy to join forces with the Saudis who he openly recognized as a nefarious group. That was in February. we taped the day before that and then we taped just last week and you know we anticipated

last week we said let's try and line up our podcast with Jay Monaghan's presser at the Tour Championship because it is kind of a state of the union moment typically he uses it as a sort of mini referendum on what's going on

and what their plans are and so forth we knew this and yet we missed the timing for his presser. He gives that press conference. It is a sea change in structure and format. He confirms basically what we imagined could have been out there. We talked about it on our podcast. We said, you know, that this is kind of the form and shape of the way it might look. But then he came out. He put a whole bunch of meat on the bones. Yeah, faster than we thought. Yeah. Faster than we thought. Well, because he really didn't have a choice, did he? No, well, he didn't. I mean, Here's the truth. They created a bunch of events that are going to have big paydays that they have not sold the rights and the advertising and the money for. I mean, the thing that was great about today, by the way, was we didn't get a commercial in the back nine.

Fantastic. This is a thing. Again. So great. But the question is just, can that actually continue to happen if they're going to do 20 to $25 million? The answer is yes. Look, the right or the thing. Let's quickly dispense with giving Jay Monaghan a paddle. on the back if that's okay with you if you'll indulge me that i was not doing that go for it i'm here the reason that there is money to be paid for these elevated events is because j monahan and his team negotiated the the most lucrative rights deal in the history of the pGA tour now you can go back and say all of these things led to that and you know he he had the macroeconomics of lives sports were such that, you know, all he had to do was, was, you know, ensure that the, when he woke up, the sun was rising in the east and all of it would fall on his lap. But I, I'm going to say more than that.

I mean, they went out and they negotiated a great deal. And, you know, they have their broadcast partners lined up for these next, what is it, eight years, nine years. Yes. All that money that, that, that they're anticipating is the money that is going to pay the best players coming together more often and giving the predictability. Rory, again, to his credit, put it in exactly the way it needed to be put, there are no other sports where you turn on the channel and wonder, am I going to see the best players playing? Right. I mean, for sure,

regular season NBA, sometimes, you know, the rest stuff, but now they've changed those rules. No, it's just a few. They give you, they give you, they give you, they, you have to have a heads up, right? Yes. So, look, they still have work to do.

There's a reason. There's a reason that Monahan did not announce what elevated events exactly they're going to be or where the supposed international

fall series evaporated. There's a bunch of shit behind the scenes that they're still working out. And that's okay. And you know, you saw what John Rom, he was interviewed yesterday.

He was a little surprised. Seemed a little surprised. He said, Like, what are the Euro guys? It was essentially like, did they think of us? Because I have to go qualify for the Ryder Cup by competing in DP World Tour events. I'm not sure how I'm going to get these events. Well, here's how.

Here's how DP World Tour is going to designate the elevated events as qualifying things. Because they're basically a, they might be behind the corn fairy tour at this point. That's the downside. The only quick aside I'll make with respect to that is. is it is kind of further confirmation, a little bit of validation around the sentiment. Again, it's not the full, you know, out in your face kind of deal, but this quiet resentment that the rest of world players have felt towards the PGA tour. And it was another example where the PGA tour just through, you know, the sheer press of time

and all of the moving parts didn't communicate to their best European players. Now, Rory certainly had an idea, has an idea of how it might all work. But John Rahm is kind of an important player. Was the world number one for a reasonable stretch?

You know, did win? Going to be back there, I think. Yeah. I mean, and so that, and that's why the live guys immediately jumped up. We're like, see, see, here we go.

Right. And that's been the success that Norman has had in luring international players. away and it appears that as we first reported on the back of the RIV tournament when Neiman won and was, you know, mobbed by a number of the Spanish-speaking players, including his mentor Sergio Garcia, who seems to be somewhere between Yoda and the emperor, if you're into the Star Wars metaphor, in terms of controlling how Neiman thinks, it appears that Sergio is going to be

the guy who won Neiman out of the room even from last week. The big meeting in Wilmington, where supposedly all the guys in there were in, we had heard that Neiman was gone as far away. February. As February. Yeah. And it now appears that the headlines tomorrow will be that a few international players and a couple of who gives a shit Americans are going to go to live. But let's Let's be clear about something. You should care about the players who are going to live because they are some of the youngest and best players in the world. Norman has a victory on his hands this week. The question I want to ask you, House, is, does it really matter?

Is it a big win for them? Well, it is... It's a win, but is it a big win. The Camp Smith part to me is the most significant. and we've talked about it for a while. We have the players champ, the defending Tiger Woods sponsored Riviera Genesis champ and the Open champion.

One of those guys is both those things, moving to live. It's kind of a big deal. It's a big deal. I mean, Mito Pereira was about to win the PGA championship. He won the first 71 holes. He won the first 71. If he made par, he wins.

He wins the PGA championship. We got a lot of those. stories in golf. Well, no, but I mean, he's that caliber of player. He's a young player. He was a darling as a potential rookie of the year for a while. I mean, you know, he made a lot of... Rocco mediate almost when the

U.S. O'N. No, no, but that's different. No, Mito Pereira is an up-and-coming player. He's an international player. Yes. Sounds like Mito's staying for now, by the way. Well, that's, is that right? We... Well, let's do it. Let's do it. Because there are

either six names or seven names. Alan Shipnuck reported last week there are seven. He had hard information. And then the intervening event of the tour announcing its fairly radical resizing and restructuring of its approach and definitely resizing the cash money. Yes. And then there was rumors that it was maybe only six. So is it six or is it seven? And what are the names?

Well, let's be clear about who it's not. It's not Cam Young. Cam Young, probably the best young American guy on tour this year, call me. Well, he's winning rookie of the year. It's not even close. So Cam Young, who definitely had a incredibly, probably the most impressive rookie campaign without a win that we've seen in a very, very long time, walked off the course today and said, look, I considered it seriously.

I like their fresh approach. But effectively, if I'm sort of summarizing what he said, He said, the meeting last week convinced me that at my age, I care about these team events, meaning the President's Cup, meaning the Rider Cup. I think that the tour is moving in a direction. I wish that it happened, all of this had happened at a different stage in my career because it's clear that he thinks if he was 35, he would have said yes to this. But that at this age that he's at, there's enough in front of him and the tour just introduced a platform that's meaningful enough that he's staying. So, Cam Young stays. He did also mention the uncertainty around the participant.

participation in the majors. Nobody knows that answer yet. That's right. Nobody knows that answer yet. Although I think if you really play the chess match out, the majors only benefit from being the one place where the live guys and the PGA tour guys play. You and I agree with that for sure. You and I are a lot of chance.

They're going to step. I would go that far. I wouldn't go that far because I, I, the one, what's their motivation and incentive to block it? The one event that has the ability to remind everybody of this. Masses don't give a fuck. There you go. And you don't start talking shit about the green jackets and expect that you can do so with impunity. They just want to remind Norman that he lost a six-shot lead and that he could never win there and just to rub it in.

So what would be interesting to me? That's some bitter-ass shit. They're ballers. What do you want? What do you want to do with the Masters? That's the OG right there. I want to play the course. They own a corner.

I mean, that's their corner. Like, that's the juiciest thing to me in, in terms of anticipating next year. What is the Masters going to do? Because they can invite, you know, their standard practice was to invite all past champions. Several of the past champions have made a decision to go play on the alternative tour. They do have a history of excluding people who deserve to be there. So you might be right in that regard. They disinvited Phil.

They said, it's okay if you don't come this year, big boy. They didn't let people of color and women into the club until well past the time. So they definitely have not always been on the cutting edge of, but they have a history of flexing. That's a different calculus. That's a different calculus. Here's the thing.

It is the masters who might just flex for the pettiness of it, for the bitterness. for the reminder of who's in chargeness of it. Yes. Yes. That's all I'm saying. I still think they want the best players in the world there. It's really hard at this time. Look, they could invite Cam Smith and tell the other guys stay home. They could invite Cam Smith.

Special exemption because we say so. I would love that. It's not even, they wouldn't call it an exemption. They would say we send out our invitations. And some players were invited. and some players were not invited. It's an imitational. It's a pure invitational. Sergio stay home.

Phil stay home. Schwartzel stay home. Bryson. Bryson stay home. DJ and Cam. Please come participate. Why would they let DJ? But not at Schwartzell.

He won the most interesting masters, possibly, well, among the most interesting. Just curious, interesting. I'm looking at this. they are i'm sorry to interrupt the broad the tournament just added the broadcast is still going on behind us who is the man in a peach shirt with a white belt and giant long jesus hair in this photo that roy

just took with the with the fedex cup somebody in his entourage we need to track that down i'm sorry for interrupting it's not now horan i can tell you that i don't i don't know no this this person has no style now horon at least has a sense of style wait till you see this i'm going to grab a screen shout and send it to you.

You're going to be blown away. I don't know who this person is. Anyway, you probably know who it is. Back to the sea change in the tour, these next live players. The PGA tour won last week. Does it matter? Does Live win this week really? I mean, Cam Smith is a win, but what I'm asking you is to eyeballs and fan interest

and ticket sales and advertise all the stuff that would make live something other than the passion play and vanity project of the Saudi government and Greg Norman, does it advance the cause to turning it into a business or not? It does. Sure, it does. I just don't think they give a shit about that. I mean, we know for sure it was an important element. None of those considerations you just mentioned. Tickets, advertising, broadcast rights, none of those things were factors in this. inaugural season. House. House. Bryson DeCambeau is posting

to his Instagram from the Savannah minor league baseball team game. And nobody's watching. You know why? Because he's fallen off the radar. Yeah, because they play, they play once a month. Exactly. But what I'm saying is, are we now going to

see three or four years, because I promise you the Saudis are going to stay and support this for three or four years at least, but are we going to watch an aberrition? If this is it, if nobody else Who Matters goes. And one thing we should talk about is that the battle that is left to be decided

that we heard nothing about this week is what happens to the best young players coming out of college. That's right. Yes. The 18th, like there's still a big open question mark about that after Live signed two of the best guys. And the tour seems to

have acknowledged. They are creating a kind of infrastructure where... We just didn't hear the detail. Right. There is going to be cash available, a kind of subsidy, a kind of, you know, we recognize the position that you're in, the challenge of the economics. We're going to bring you along and make it feasible, economically feasible. But the whole point of Phil going, his resentment over not controlling his digital rights, his resentment over not being able to build out his brand, which, you know, as we've said,

like there are some parts of Phil's argument that we're right. Bryson DeShambeau, who basically wants to be Charlie DeMilleo instead of Bryson DeCambo. I don't know who that is, but I'm sure he's a wildly popular TikTok person. She, first of all, is the most followed person on TikTok. See what I said? I have no idea. How would I know? Well, my point is

if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to see it, does it fucking make a noise? And right now, it does not appear that fills or Bryson's or any of the guys who's jumped, causes are being advanced by this because they have no eyeballs on it. So I'm asking you. What do you think the causes are? What would you say is Bryson Deschambeau's cause? No, no, no.

Other than the giant paycheck. What causes? The point is I don't think that Cam Smith and Joaquin Neiman and Mark Leashman and Cameron, I never won a tournament. I just made a lot of money as a journeyman, Tringale, move enough eyeballs over there such that Bryson can build a brand that matters outside of golf.

No chance. Zero percent chance. So that means that live will be a failure. Well, who knows? What if next year, when they have 14 events or whatever they've announced, they move to stroke events with cuts and, you know, come up with cuts.

and, you know, come up with a method by which official world golf ranking points become more palatable and give the guys a way to qualify. I don't think they got enough of the guys. I don't think they got enough guys. You think this is the end of it? I don't.

Okay. Well, that's going to be the question. My question to you was, does or do the defections that are going to be announced tomorrow change the game in terms of attention and eyeballs? And I don't think that they do. I think that it's painful.

It's a deep, near-bone cut to lose Cam Smith and to a lesser extent, walking Neiman. But I don't think it changes where we will focus our attention week in, week out. Because right now, we have talked for hours' house about Live on this podcast. Not once have we talked seriously about the competition at an event.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Who cares? I'm watching fewer Bryson-Dashambo Instagram posts, enough to see him at the Savannah baseball game. I'm not like, it just, they're coming out of our mind because none of these guys are Tiger Woods.

None of them are Tiger Woods. And what we learned and the reason that Rory deserves the trophy and the reason that he got it from the golf gods is because Rory, along with Tiger Woods himself, understood that none of these guys are bigger than the game in the way that Tiger was and that they are stronger together. And that's, I think,

the chink in the live armor, unless, as you say, they're able to lure some of these 20-something great guys who all were at the top of this leaderboard by the end of the season away. They didn't do it yet. It's stronger together in genuine competition. That element is crucial. That element is vital. So talk about that. That's where the drama comes from, right? What we watch today, Rory coming back from six strokes, that catches the sporting public's attention. The Twitter timeline fills up. Our text threads fill up because. people are like, hey, there's golf on, there really isn't anything else on. It is the best players in the world. And they're competing.

And the stakes matter. So you think shifting the format and live could change the way we feel about those events? Possibly. Possibly. I'm not prepared to like kind of rule any of it out because of the infinite resources. I think we would have said no until they got Cam and Neiman. Yeah. Because they didn't have the young guys who mattered.

Unless Piat and at the, the, the kid from Oklahoma State by way of South America that we always forget his name. Let's just call him the kid. That's fine. I find it chilling that Cameron Young confessed to considering it as thoroughly as he did. I find it somewhat chilling. His father is a PGA professional at one of the preeminent clubs in the United States of America. So a person who has relationships inside and outside the tour who has been raised on the kind of competitive golf meritocracy.

Ultimately, the meritocracy is what carried the day. But it sounds like it was a pretty effing close call. And that's what I find mildly chilling. Look, Eugenio Chakara is the guy that we always forget. I'm sorry, sorry, Mr. Chakara. Now, listen, you bring up a good point. I'm just asking, because I don't know the answer to this really. And so much of the stuff that we've heard from the older guys has been smokescreen bullshit about, oh, it's the format, it's growing the game, blah, when it really was about the money.

Only about the money. And even in Cam Young's comments today, he said, I thought they had a fresh approach, which, well, but, you know, you wonder if you are 23 or you're, you know, Eugenio Chikara, and you're really good at golf right now, but you also, you know, you're the number two amateur in the world, but you also look around and say there's been a lot of guys who were number one, number two amateurs in the world who didn't go on to crush it on the PGA tour. And somebody's offering me $100 million. Like, that is a not easy decision to make when you're a kid. I understand. You know who the perfect vehicle for this is, the point you're making, Matthew Wolf. He took a look at himself in the mirror. He recognized. recognized the challenge, the significant duress that he experienced as a result of trying to compete in a meritocracy. And somebody offered him a way out that changes his life, that takes the anxiety and pressure that he experienced. It was a career-altering anxiety experience that he had. I mean, you know, what was his trajectory on tour? I agree.

I think that's a slightly different scenario. I know. I understand. I admitted mental health issues. And this was an easier path for him. But this kid, we're talking to, if you're talking about the 22 and 23 year old kids who have proof of concept success on tour, right? Guaranteed money. It is a very compelling proposition.

Like, yeah, Cam Young, does he think that he can go beat everybody's ass on the live tour? I bet he thinks he could win often enough or finish in the top five often enough to grab a couple million bucks each time it goes out. But isn't it wild that with all the success he had this year at not just in the majors, but events that mattered. St. Andrews. That's right. That he still came away. I mean, that tells you that we're probably going to be in this struggle for a while. I agree.

But I do think that as much as this week will be, you know, there will be headlines around Liv and the signings. That it feels like not the PGA tour, but that Rory and Tiger and the top 25 players minus Neiman did enough this week to batten down the hatches to the point where. If you really do the math, if you are excited by competition, you look at that and go, I can make just as much money on the PGA tour as I can via Live. And on the PGA tour, that's a better platform for me to sell my brand. Now, time will tell. But it feels like they made a very big set of decisions that still have a lot to play out and a lot of logistics to figure out.

And we'll see if they actually fucking deliver it because this tour has a history of putting out press releases and not executing. matter. But, but, but and and to your credit, uh, your Twitter thread, um, immediately on the heels of the announcement, captured a sentiment that I think is important to, to reemphasize, which is the player empowerment aspect of this. Now, you, you made the point of, of juxtaposing Phil against, uh, tiger. And that was very sound. But one of the observations you made was the creator class and the empowerment of, of, of creators, the folks responsible for the content, stepping up and taking control over their destiny. So I have, maybe I'm naive,

but I think the idea that Tiger and Rory led this change and that they so quickly were able to have a kind of infrastructure that makes sense, with money that makes sense, I think it's not going to be another instance of a hollow PGA tour press release because these guys are invested. And in fact, I would go so far as to say they are investors. And that's the way that the top 20. Now, the thing that will be super interesting for us is who goes in and goes out and how

do you qualify for these events? And please, dear God, don't make these no-cut events. Please let their, you can have economic incentives for, you know, 20th place. But please, let me let's have cuts. We have to have a traditional proper competition with proper consequences. The money is the one thing, but there have to be consequences to playing competent golf. But I think, you know, if these guys are in charge and remain as engaged, and there's no reason to think that their interests will ebb, we now have, to your point, in terms of the realization of the power they have from their platform. They're on TV potentially 25 times next year.

On TV, on linear regular old TV, on linear cable. And Liv is on the fucking YouTube. So best of luck, B-Dog, go ahead, Bryson. You know, take that check. Enjoy it. Have a great life. He could definitely go do the long drive competitions if his Saudi contract permits it. and maybe that's a way to catch eyeballs and maybe that's a way to have a fulfilling life.

I like watching competitive golf that best players compete and I like watching it on television where I don't have to get my computer and wonder how the Wi-Fi is going to behave on a YouTube broadcast. And even with all of the grumblings that we have about how the broadcasts are presented and so forth. It's still big time. It's big time, bro. Show me the big time. Some dumb dummies are going to sign the rights and there'll be a more accessible way to watch the live stuff.

But just going back to 30,000 feet house, it feels like if the reports are correct and if what we're hearing mumbled from the players is correct. It feels like we'll have a week of Cam Smith and Waki Neiman. the President's Cup is the next really big moment where we have to figure out who exactly is going to play that event. Poor Trevor Emelman. Did you see his interview? I think it was with the subpar guys.

It was with Colt Nost. I can't remember the other dude. No offense. I mean, I enjoy that podcast very much. Slees. Trevor basically got on there and said, I'm fucked. Because I have,

I'm not going to be able to pull a team together. In fact, I'm going to check these odds right now. Let's see what odds make you get. Should we hammer? Yeah, I think you're going to have to lay a ton of juice. I saw minus 3.30 at one point for the U.S. team. Let's see what they're... Here's the thing.

The risk that we're running is like, what if Thomas is like, you know what? I don't need this this year. I need the break. Like, we're going to win. I'm going to bow out to make the competition more friendly and interesting. But you know what? Does that really change it? Like our top 20...

Or like two or three guys. at our top 20. No, I know. Listen, I was terrified of the international team until a week ago. When Abe answer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But suddenly the President's Cup team does not look very good. So we got this moment where there's going to be, well, you know, that's just going to be part of the circus and poop and the punch bowl that we have to deal with because as fans, again, the product has been diluted.

Greg Norman, you won. you're the only fucking guy who won. The rest of us lost. It's minus $5.50 right now. Oh, God. Stay away. So you want to win $100. You have to.

We got to go. Let's borrow $5.5 million from Bill Simmons. Let's see if Bill Simmons will lend us $5.5 million. It's minus $5.50. You did this on the Masters and apparently he agreed to it, but you didn't get paid. Anyway, we didn't let me the money. We couldn't get it executed. Anyway, that's going to be the first time where we're,

like, wow, all right, as fans, this totally sucks. But it's not really going to elevate the pressure to put, you know, these players in the same place more than four times a year in the majors, because it's just going to, it's just going to suck. The next time is if one of these guys, and of the people on the list, there's only a very small sub segment who could possibly be. And it's led by Cam Smith. It's maybe Brooks, maybe DJ, maybe Neiman, I guess, if one of them actually wins a major. At that point, I think that's the... Bryson could win a major. Sure, sure. I mean, I'm on record as saying

that I don't think Bryson or Brooks will ever win another major, but it's not inconceivable. Okay. And the audience knows what to do when you say that, but I think that that is probably the next time, there will be real pressure because I'm just not sure that there's going to be a compelling enough product on the other side. Nor am I sure

that they diluted the PGA tour enough to make fans of the PGA tour go, you know, what, this isn't good enough. What we saw coming down the back night on East Lake did not involve a single player going over to live. And I have to tell you, it was great. So in that regard, it doesn't feel like Live One today in the big picture. The next time that it happens is if Cam Smith, Neiman, whatever, if they come back and say, I'm still one of the best players in the world, look at me down the stretch of a major and capture the title, that would be the next time when you

and I as golf fans who are not riding for the PGA tour. We are riding for the best possible golf as frequently as possible between the best players. That's what we ride for. If we get a signal that we're missing something that matters over on the live tour, that's probably the next time. And buddy, that's not till April. Yep. That's exactly right. Well, there is, I'm not prepared to discount and eliminate in toto some kind of way for Cam Smith to defend his players championship title. It seems very unlikely. It seems extremely unlikely, but it's weird. It's weird for him to not go, go defend his title. I mean, it's going to be weird. To me, that's less weird. By the way, Hedekhi also confirmed that he's staying just so you know. So, I mean, that was the, that was humongous. The two guys we

talked about most prominently and got the most hot air out of us were Hadecki and Camp Smith because of the game-changing potential. Tiger and Rory probably are going to do 65 corporate events in Japan over the next year and we're going to pretend like we don't know what that's about. What do you think happened with Harold Varner? Very quick aside. Well, you and I were at Game 6 in Boston together sitting behind him. High noon Harold. Watching him absolutely destroy White Claw. Oh, it was White Clause. It weren't high-noons.

Maybe they were high-nunes, actually. I think you're right. I thought that's what we did. You're right. They were high-noons. We knew at the time what we found out this week, which is that he was committed. And yes, there were stories that Jordan had talked him out of it and all this nonsense. Again, for Harold Varner, I kind of understand it.

Never won a tournament in the U.S. You know, won on the crazy bomb put at the Saudi event. That's his one win. Yep. feels like, you know, for him, I sort of get it, right? Yes, yes, yes. And Godspeed, Harold Varner. Like, if they're writing you the check, I get it.

But we knew watching that that was happening in the same way that we knew that when Jason Cochrack flew an iron into the goddamn parking lot in Hartford, and he didn't pick up the ball. He got in his car and drove off. He never played another event. He was going to live. Like, all of the rumors that you and I have heard for almost a year now, being plugged in in ways that we're fortunate to be

because we do this and we know people, all this shit. Like almost every time we've heard this person is going. The answer has been actually, they are going, in fact, and the Cam Young save, I think, because he was thinking about it seriously. The Cam Young save will be an unheralded, massive move for the PGA tour.

I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. I couldn't agree more. bring an eyeballs. Cam Young, Cam Smith and Neiman, you go, hmm. So this is not over. We have complete confidence that Zander and Cantlay are off the table because there was, you know, some, some, as you said, six weeks ago. Yeah, for now. For now. For now. For now. One last point. Shout out to the Flagstick on 18 that basically gave home another million bucks by knocking his totally sculled Joe House Nathan Hubbard bunker shot down. to a four foot or three footer that he could knock in. You know what?

You make your own luck at this level. Max Homa shot one of the, the, in the aggregate. He was definitely, was he top five in the aggregate, top 10 in the aggregate? Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So he earned it.

Like, look, look at where's Homa? Unequivocally earned it. There are 265. Rory shot 263. No. Sung J 264. Max Epping Homa 265. Collect that check, big boy.

Here's what I want to tell you. Go make more babies. Oh, wait. He has to have his first baby. Yeah, you can't. It doesn't work that way. Yeah. Nine women can't make a baby in a month, buddy.

But only Nick Cannon. That's the only Nick Cannon could do that. That's not how it works. That's nine men. Yeah. So now we, you know, we have this long, wonderful, fruitful off season. 18 days. Where he steps up to the tea in Napa.

We'll be there. watching him try to defend his title in 18 days. We have a zombie season in front of us. It's less zombie, thanks to the announcements about these elevated events and bigger money. I am still very, very intrigued to see who is going to be this year's SEP Strachow, who's going to be this year's Scott Stallings,

who in one of the most pivotal transitional years in the history of sport, not that it's like as big a deal as the NFL, I just mean like there has, have not been this many big, changing pivotal years. Where we see... There just haven't been. You're right.

No. But who is going to actually take advantage of what got protected through all this? The one thing that got protected through all this was the meritocracy. This is an amazing opportunity this coming season for players to play well and move into a position in their careers that's going to benefit them forever from here. So keep your eye, not just on the Rorries, not just on the guys who may be saved. of the tour maybe are the sort of brand names, but there are going to be a handful of guys who make life and career-changing money but results over the course of the year. And it's

going to start again in 18 days. How's. Well, and we have three additional circus acts in front of us. There are still on the live calendar three final events, including... That's exactly right. we're to get the Benny Hill music going. And the finale down at Dural, Trump D. I'm sure the D will be there. He'll have his whole crew, just like they were at Bedminster. He could drive his car all over the golf course again. He wants to drive up to the green and tell the boys what a good job they're doing.

Tell everybody where the spies are and who they work for. That's right. That's right. Assuming he's not otherwise occupied. Nate Dogg, it has been a hell of a run. And we're not here to say that it's over. We are going to catch our breath a little bit here at Fairway Rowland. But we will continue rolling into the fall as circumstances warrant and dictate.

Thanks everybody for coming along for the ride. You can check us out both on the Twitter machine. we will have, you know, relevant golf observations. And if circumstances warrant, we'll jump right on this thing. President's Cup, baby. The hottest takes. We are back for the President's Cup. That's, for sure, we can say with certainty.

You think Luca Doncha could play the President's Cup? No, he's from Europe. He's, yeah, that's right. What great international athletes that don't play golf could we sign up? This is great. Let's think about this. That's, yeah, well, right, yes. He's available.

who is I don't want to hazard any guesses. There's got to be some like enormously successful soccer players. I think there's a surprise President's Cup announcement coming.

I don't know what it is. What would it be? That it's canceled. Oh, no, no, no. That costs the tour money. This is the tourist thing. It costs money. I will say this.

There's never been anything less interesting than when like Washington won the Super Bowl in the SCAB lockout football year. That's kind of what this is. It's like watching the stabs play. Still counts. Flags fly forever.

That did they do. Amen. All right, Nate Dog, we did it. Birdie buddies, eagle enthusiast, Parsaving Pals. Thank you as always for listening. We'll be back sometime in the next handful of weeks. In the meantime, fall golf is about to be upon.

It's still hot outside, but my gosh, it's so wonderful. The nights are getting a little bit cooler. And football is out there. please root for your best teams. Enjoy what's coming up on that calendar. We'll be doing some more of this golf stuff before you know it. But in the meantime, please, let's all hit them straight up there.