Fore Play - A Senator & A Borrelli Wedding Review

Episode Date: July 11, 2023

Senator Ron Johnson, ranking member of the subcommittee investigating the PGA Tour & LIV Golf deal, joins the show. We discuss the upcoming hearing with the Tour, details of the deal between the entities, and the Senator’s role in it all both now and going forward. Before Senator Johnson joins, we breakdown Frankie’s wedding, Dan’s trip to Colombia for a bachelor party, Brooks Koepka publicly throwing teammate Matt Wolff under the bus, the U.S. Women’s Open at Pebble Beach, Sepp Straka winning the iconic John Deere Classic with Dewey on the bag and how good Tommy Fleetwood looked at Wimbledon.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/foreplaypod

Hey, 4Play listeners, you can find us every Tuesday and Thursday on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Oh, Rick! What's that my brother? I've got a buddy who struggles with that shot. A lot. His name's Frankie Burrilli. So the guys actually gave him a nickname of Butter Nives because he's always nice to the cross the green.

Bro, 100. Now you've got to break 90s. We appreciate what you guys do for golf. It's been really cool. Thank you. You're making it cool. I was like, hey, Phil, you only fucking 2999. And he grabs 100.

He's like, yeah, I won 90,000 a lease yesterday. He goes, take 100 and go fuck yourself. What? What are you that different? It's ain't a hobby. Foreplay, presented by Barstool Sports. It is July 11th, 2020, when this show comes out. We got a very big show.

Today, July 11th is a hearing, an early preliminary hearing with the, Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations and two members from the PGA tour. They invited Monahan, Yasser Al-Ramayan, and Greg Norman. Obviously, Monahan took about a month off or whatever it's been for health issues coming back next week. And then scheduling conflicts did not allow the other two in. But you have Jimmy Dunn and the CFO for the PGA tour will be testifying in front of Congress in front of the Senate subcommittee. So we have Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, who I interviewed for about 30 minutes, who is the ranking member of that subcommittee about the entire thing. And we have Frankie's wedding to get to.

Frankie's still doing his wedding stuff. So he's not here, but we can talk about it. We've got some very interesting developments in the golf world. We got a little bit of drama between some live players with Kepka and Wolf and their quotes. We got the U.S. women's open at Pebble Beach. We got our guy, do we? Just out of the clouds, jumps on the bag with Seb Straca and wins a golf tournament by shooting. a million under par on the final round despite doubling the last hole at the John Deere classic.

So we got much to get to, um, hello gentlemen. And we got Trent and Dan Rappaport as well. How are we? I were well. I've survived Columbia. I was waiting for that to be included in sort of the, in sort of the foreplay. Where are they now? I wasn't sure how much you wanted to talk about Columbia. You know what I'm saying. I mean, it's fine. I know if that's one of those things, you know, address. Whatever you guys are considered, whatever the image in your head you guys have of a bachelor party in Columbia is exactly what happened. Um, and we'll leave it at that. But I've now been to a bachelor party in Vegas and Columbia since I joined this podcast, and we're two for two.

So I'm feeling like a pretty mature adult. How are you, Trent? I'm doing great. I did want to say congratulations, just a huge congratulations to SEP Straca and Dewee for their win at the John Deere Classic. That's just a huge win. It's a big trophy to add to your trophy collection. It's the best trophy in sports. I was surprised to see Dewey. I was just, when I saw Dewey, I was stunned. But I mean, he's our guy, so I'm happy for him. And also a huge congratulations to Frankie and Hannah on their wedding for Riggs and I were there. It was a very, very fun and good time. I don't know how much we want to get into it, but just an overall, a great weekend and a great wedding, I thought. Great wedding. Saturday start to finish was a very fun time. It was a Catholic, I believe, wedding. So they had the ceremony at 2.30 or so in

the afternoon done by 3.30 or so. And the reception at Bethpage didn't start until 7 o'clock or so. So we had a little bit of a gap, which turned out to be nice, a bunch of us, Tommy smokes, Kevin, Rudy, me, Trent. Folks, we don't know. Bob Fox, who he was the original producer of Foreplay, which is incredible to think about, was there. And, you know, we don't necessarily get to mingle with them all the time. So we got to have a couple drinks, went to the reception. Dave was there who always is going to drive some very interesting conversations. We were all at table eight together for the most part.

Stu Feiner was there. He wasn't at table eight, but quite the scene at the wedding. Frankie, I will say if you had the over under at four and a half seconds before Frankie would start crying during the ceremony, the under hit in a landslide. Oh, yeah. The second that the organ or whatever it is started playing, just waterworks from him. But a phenomenal wedding. His crew, I will say from back home from whatever it is, Hempstead or whatever part of Long, I want to get all those talents. mixed up. Reminds me a lot of like, I feel like Trent, too, probably my crew from back home, just a lot of like blue collar, big families. They're all from there. They all hang out all the

time. They've all been going to the same couple dive bars their whole lives. So his crew reminds me a ton of my crew from back home and just getting immersed with Frankie's family and Hannes family who were a great time. It was just, it was a blast. They had like a 10 piece band, I think, playing. So the dance floor was going pretty good. People's shirts got ripped off at one point. It was a it was an excellent wedding it was a good time yeah and it was my first long island wedding and i've been hearing about this long island wedding thing basically since i've known frankie because apparently it's this huge thing and i know you know just weddings are a big deal in general there it's a huge celebration there's always a ton of food a ton of drinks all that but i kept hearing about this

long island wedding and in particular the cocktail hour that the cocktail hour was this huge there's just huge thing where there's all this food before you go into the reception and before you have dinner and I actually think despite how much I've heard about it I don't think I heard enough about it because it's an amazing and amazing experience like this cocktail hour there's all at least at the Borelli wedding there was all these different food stations there was a pasta station there was a calomari station there was there was meat and cheese there was all the taco there's all these different ones steak it was insane I just never seen anything quite like it and you're thinking I can't believe that we're going to have to eat another meal after this

And then the dinner was wonderful, but the cocktail hour was the highlight for sure, just because there was so much food and there was so much of it. And like I said, I've been hearing so much about it. So to actually experience it was really something. And if anything, people undersold it. And good thing that we had been briefed on this situation because the cocktail hour at most weddings that you go to is maybe 30 minutes while you're kind of waiting for the wedding party. You come back from taking pictures.

You have a gin and tonic or two outside. it's nice. And then you kind of sit down for the main deal and they hit you with like a five-course meal and you're at the wedding and the toast. You got three drinks in front of you. People were like, no, no, no.

This seven to eight, 30 hour, whatever this is, you need to hammer the food because this is sort of the main attraction. And you walked around and like you said, there's food stations all over the place. It was hot and a little bit muggy. So we were like,

do we want to hit up this pasta? Next thing you know, the pasta and like this tortellini and this fucking pent al-a vodka. And you're loading up on pasta and tacos and, was in steak and it was fucking delicious and it was at beth page black which was really cool for all our beth page in general beth page black was right there which is really cool for all of us people's course probably the first major championship that we had full access to so it's bringing back all kinds of memories frankie found out jeter hit what is 3 000 hit i believe playing like

the 11th hole at beth page black so he's got all the synergy and all the history there so fact that we were doing it there was cool uh and just just an excellent seen Mr. Borelli in his element walking around. Dude, I was going to say I would be remiss if I did not bring up Mr. Brelie because he stole the show. And again, for crying,

whatever over under number you had, the overhit within the first 30 minutes I saw him, like he pretty much cried the whole time so I don't know how that factors into the numbers. But he cried a ton. And then when they do the entrances, you know, how they announced, you know, here's the mother and father of the,

of the groom and they come in, they do their sort of little dance. Mr. Borrelli had, I don't even know how to describe it. It was like a rubber pizza dough and he was throwing it into the air as he entered the reception hall. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Like not an actual pizza dough? Like something, like a prop so he could be. It was a prop.

It was a prop rubber pizza dough. So him and Frankie's mom come in and he's throwing the dough in the air. People are going crazy. Dude, it was so, so, so good. I wish I'd gotten video of it. And Dave, I was right next to Dave while it was happening. He was like, fuck, we should have gotten video that because it was an unbelievable entrance. And then, like Riggs had mentioned before, there's apparently, and people might know about this, I did not know.

When there's professional hockey players at your wedding, it is tradition that people rip their shirts off. Really? Yes. So Matt Martin was there. Brock Nelson was there. Scotty Mayfield was there. And as the night got into the later portion. people's shirts started to be opened.

And Frankie's shirt got opened, all the hockey players, their shirts were open. I saw Scotty Mayfield and Frankie Corner Tommy Smokes and tell him to take his shirt off. Tommy made him stops. He was like, it's a new shirt. I don't want to break the button. So he slowly undid his shirt in the most Tommy Smokes thing ever. And then Mr. Borelli, he got in on the action. And they were lifting people up and people were laying sort of on across people like you see at a concert.

and Mr. Borelli was just clapping his hands, crowd surfing. Those are the two words that I could not think of right there. Okay. Put them together. We got there. So Mr. Borelli just had a performance for the ages. And you know what? I wouldn't have had it any other way. I get that it's Frankie and Hannah's special day and they had a great time.

And all the attention was on them for the majority of the night. But there was a good portion of Mr. Borelli where he was just the superstar. And he deserves it because he's a legend. Yep. The speeches were very solid. and it was very a little bit, it was an interesting dichotomy with the, you know,

both speeches essentially chirped Frankie for being an Islander fan and not, you know, a Ranger fan. And then there was just a whole table of New York Islanders. That's right. So as they're like chirping and like booing the Islanders and cheering the Rangers, there's just a whole table of Islander players. So that was a great sort of.

You also do realize why Frankie is, the way that he is if you're at that wedding because he really is surrounded by all ranger fans his his wife is a ranger fan she comes from a ranger family all of his friends the table that was going crazy on the opposite side there was a of the islanders there was a table going crazy and it was all of his hometown buddies who are rangers fans they all rangers they're from long island why are they all ranger fans i have no idea how it works yeah balls balls is like a rangers guy right and he's a long island guy yeah huge so yeah i that's a long island guy yeah huge so yeah i that's actually a good point. I don't know why they're all Rangers fans. I don't know that there's a ton of

rhyme or reason to it. I think it's sort of, yeah, it seems pretty convoluted. Maybe the, the parents of these children grew up in the city and then you move out to Long Island and then you, I don't know. I have no idea. But again, I, you sort of can see into the mind of Frankie Borelli where he feels trapped in his Islander fandom because everywhere he goes are Ranger fans. So he feels like he has to really express himself as an Islanders fan. And that's why he's so crazy. Yeah, you do get it. You do get it. And you feel, you see why he senses that the whole world is against him at all times is because he's surrounded by it, which was beautiful.

I was, you know, Dave said, he's like, I cannot believe during those speeches that Frankie restrained himself. Like what those people had the mic and all the attention on them and were touting the Rangers and chirping the islanders. And he somehow sat silent. I cannot believe he didn't charge the stage, take the mics and, and lose his mind. So credit to him for showing a lot of restraint. Him and Hannah were awesome going around and talking to everyone and doing the hole where you're basically a politician. You go by every table and shake every hand and thank everybody. They're excellent at that.

And then things started to get a little bit wild later in the night, which was great. There were flip cup games that we were involved in. And then the Borrellys, I believe it was the Borrellys, made like 100, I believe, that they delivered, pre-delivered. I mean, they made 100 personal sized pizzas. and at the very end of the night, as things wound down at 1 a.m., they just all of a sudden had 100 personal-sized pizzas that people grabbed, housed, and then went to bed. So it couldn't go out. I missed that because right after you guys ducked out, like Trent.

I was going to say, because as a 34-year-old man living a 75-year-old man's life, I left at like 1130, 1145. When the band was winding down and I was like, I'm going to get out of here. I didn't realize that there were going to be personal pan pizzas handed out. I might have stuck around for a few more minutes. There was like from the midnight to 1 a.m. hour, there were cigars and then hat-sized pizzas, like those little pizza hut ones that you get at the airport or like a hockey game, you know. And that hit the spot. And then we had a shuttle ride back for 12 or 15 people, however many.

And it turned into a pure sing-along. Like no music on the actual speakers, just sing-along. I believe, like it was, I think like Frankie's might have been handled. or Frankie's uncle or somebody really got it going and he picked the first couple songs. And then Frankie threw it to Hannah and she did build me up buttercup. And it was just a whole sing-along on the shuttle. That was a banger. That was kind of the last one that I remember.

And then we got back to the hotel, lights out and it was over. So it went extremely, extremely well. It was a great wedding. And yeah, congratulations. Yeah, congratulations to them. Phenomenal wedding. I know it's a big event. It's a lot of pressure, especially when there's people in attendance.

who have platforms who can talk about what the wedding is like and things that they like, things that they didn't like. It was a great wedding. It was a great night. Everybody had a really good time. Unfortunately for a big guy like me, it was a hot day, but we're mostly inside. But having to wear a suit on a hot day was tough. But that's a personal problem.

That's not their problem. First thing I texted Trent in the morning, I went and got coffee at like 11 a.m. And I was like, we're in trouble today. It is humid and hot. And we kind of got lucky. Like the one time, one or two times we were outside. It was pretty windy. So it wasn't horrific.

And then the church, you never know a church. Sometimes the AC can stink and you could just sit there and like sweat. We were in there for about an hour or so. AC was great. And then obviously inside the reception, I thought AC was fine. So we ended up getting by okay, but I was panicking going into that day as well. So yeah, great wedding. All right.

This is a show that really a pretty American show. We've got an elected official from the United States of America, one of the more powerful folks that decides the future of this country that's been here for what 250 some odd years. Chevy is another thing that I think of when I think of American companies trusted. Chevy is a trusted brand with innovation and scale. Chevrolet has been trusted with transportation needs for at least 100 years. They've always been there for you before.

Who better to take you into the next phase of electric vehicles than Chevy? They got hybrids and all electrics and they've been selling, by the way, Tran, if you know this, I've been selling hybrids and all electrics for over. a decade. That's longer than I would have thought because it feels like this whole, this EV movement it's really taken off now and Chevy is, they're at the forefront of it. So I'm not surprising in the sense that they've always been on the cutting edge of the next best thing.

No, Chevy is, they're the ones. They've got these EVs. There's stations popping up everywhere. I think on a full charge, you can go 400 miles, which is unbelievable to where they've gotten the technology to be. And we've seen a couple of these machines and they are pristine. they're unbelievable and yeah Chevy just knows how to do it. I just went to Chevy.com and they've got right when you go to their site they got this

silver auto this thing's all EV now trench just talked about it goes zero to 60 I think in under 4.5 seconds they got this Chevy silverado with the bow tie right in the front there and it's in like this this valley in the mountains yeah like tall pine trees and it's like on this rugged road with grass growing around it and it just looks as bad ass and cool as I imagine a piece of machinery built by humans can possibly look. So I heavily implore everyone listening to go to Chevy.com slash electric. You can learn more at Chevy.com slash electric, the bowtie, EVs trusted brand like Chevy. Go to Chevy.com slash electric.

A few logistical things to get to. We got new merchandise. So the summer merchandise is coming out today. Got some gear on. I got this polo on from Unreal. and then we've got one of the newer items that I that I really am going to highlight here for the folks go to store.orgal sports.com

get yourself some gear. We got these shorts, boys. Oh, yeah. This is a pretty short that I'm holding right here from Unreal that have a little Barstool Cross T logo right there. I like that. That's classy.

Make sure people can see this shirt. Oh, yeah. Beautiful Transfusion logo. If you're looking on YouTube, it's the transfusion logo on a nice light blue pattern with a white shirt. we got this one boys that says barstool golf i don't know if these are that's like the covid molecule on there i don't know what exactly that is uh it's a fidget spinner it is it's nice second it is

certainly better than the first example what it was but it's beautiful shirt little barstool golf script there and then this one where we do the uh i like when they do this it's got the uh miniature Little logos all over it. Oh, I really like those. Yeah. These are all class. Frankie likes to wear these a lot. So, anyway, store.

dot barsall sports.com. I don't know if this hat's going to be on there yet. I think it might be. It's got like a little pattern or anything. A lot of cool stuff. Go check out store dot barstlesworts. com for play. That's kind of our brand.

And then, okay, we're going to jump into a little bit of golf chatter. Shout out to me. I went five for five last week at the John Deere Classic on the gambling show. Holy shit. Minahan. Five for, technically me and Kirk got talked into Eric Cole, who was our guy. We've been riding him all year.

Kirk had him on his list, so I said, sure, I'll take it. So technically on the bets that I placed five or six. But I got Aberg, good old Ludwig, top 20 plus 138 hit. The Yeagermeister, top 20 plus 188 hit. Brandon Todd, top 30. He almost won the tournament plus 150 hit. Grayson Murray, top 40, who's been dominating on the Corn Ferry tour, plus 300 hit. and then Adam Shank or is it Adam shank?

Yeah. Adam Shank versus Adam Hadwin round one. I had Shank winning that. He won in a landslide. That was plus 110. And then Eric Cole missed top 21 plus 155. So massive week on the golf gambling show. And then the biggest news that we touched on at the top is that also a big teal gang member,

Scep Straca gets the win. I have a great text from Dewey. I text Dewey last night. Just a standard way to go. Congrats. A bunch of exclamation points. text you back this morning. He goes, wait, what the fuck just happened?

What a weak kid. I'm sitting in Pyners watching my kid play golf to getting a phone call and winning a tour event six days later. Let's fucking go. I didn't even know that that happened. I didn't know that that occurred in that fashion. So it sounds like Dewey was literally just hanging in Pyners. His kid, Alex, I believe is his name,

who's an unbelievable young player, plays at Piner's tournaments all the time. Dewey supports him. Dewey's whole Instagram channel has basically become a stand account for his kids, which I love playing golf, which is so wholesome. And so he was clearly just there hanging, it sounds like. And then six days ago, it gets a text because Sepp's part of the Till gang and part of that crew. Caddies for him, shoot 62 in the final round and wins the golf tournament.

Yeah, so Sepp, it's a big weekend for the European Rider Cup kind of bubble. We were told, I made a video about this that I think is going up today. So yesterday when this comes out. But Ludwig, obviously a top five finish his first one. I think there's a lot of guys who want him on that team. He's so young. He's so good. he's only getting better. Sep, let us not forget. It's Austrian. You know, and people forget because

Jesus. So he, yeah, he grew up in Vienna. I know his story. I know of step a little bit. He grew up in Vienna. He moved to, I believe, Valdosta, Georgia at the age of 14. So he like, that sounds like it's not in Georgia, to be frank. He found he very much grew up. Yeah, V-A-L-D-O-S-T-A. He very, so he very much grew up in Austria. His German's perfect too, but he speaks English like, like, like, someone from Georgia. He's got like a Southern draw. And he's like violently addicted to Diet Coke. I remember I watched, he was playing with one tournament. And I watch, they were first off. And I think I counted 11 Diet Coke during the round. So he, yeah, I don't know if he's kicked that habit a little bit. But he's up to 27 in the world. And yeah, I think he might be the, I think he might be the first guy with

like a pretty significant Southern accent to play on the European Ryder Cup team. I don't know that that's ever happened before. Right. Because when I hear him talk, I'm like, oh, he sounds like Tiller. Like when I talk to Hillary, that's how his steps sounds. So that's very, that'll be very interesting to watch. He went to, he went to Georgia. Like he's, he's, he's as kind of as, from the age of 14 until now, he's as American as you could possibly be. But he's probably, you know, he's 27 years old.

He's 27 in the world. He's probably going to make the team. He's got a really good chance or something. There's definitely not 12 guys ranked higher than him. How long and at what age? Like, what's the perfect amount for you to develop an accent? Like, if I moved to Boston, now I'm not going to end up with a Boston accent, but it sounds like if you move to a place with an

accent, Georgia, when you're 14, that's where you can develop an accent. Well, I think it's different when you are, when it's like you're moving to a place where you don't speak the language because you're like very, you're very intent on sounding like other people. That's a very good point. Like you could go, you could move to Boston and they would understand you fine. He, he's, that's more important. He's got to learn the language. So I feel like if you're a foreign country, you're going to pick it up quicker. I agree with that. I will say when I went to college, and would come home, my friends would be like, you have acquired a Boston accent. Really?

Yeah. You just, and I don't think it's strong. Like, I don't think people back in Boston would notice it or they would think you still talk like you're from Missouri, which they did. But I think you pick up a little bit of a twang. Even when I lived in Chicago for like three years, I was like 13 to 16 years old or whatever I was, I came back and like, you would just say things a little bit differently if people would be like, he's now talking like you're from Chicago. So I think I can pick it up a little bit older.

but obviously when you're younger, you're always more susceptible of change. I got to go, fellas. I got to go. All right. Big stuff coming. Sorry, guys. Dan's getting on an airplane. Yep.

See you guys. Have a safe airplane ride, Dan. Yeah, boys. I'm very, I love where I'm from. I'm very proud of where I'm from. But I have always been a little bitter that I'm from an area that has no accent. Like the Midwest, and I know Chicago has a very particular accent, and there's, there's pockets. But I feel like I'm from a part of the country where I'm just,

I just sound like a person with no accent. Same. I think we both are. I think like Missouri and Iowa don't really. We almost talk like the most normal English-American people can possibly talk. I will say, I think that's better than, like, I think Long Island gets a bad rap for their, for their, I mean, we're going to hype up their weddings and how cool their format is, which is true. I don't know that people look at the Long Island accent is a particularly appealing accent in general. That's probably right.

I mean, I live out there now, so I hear it a good amount. It's actually, it turns into white noise, but I could see that. I just find it interesting. Like for me and for you, if you go a little north of me, Minnesota has an accent. It starts getting Canadian. It starts, right. It's North Dakota, Minnesota, you start getting, you know, towards Canada. And then south, you know, further than Missouri, but southeast, you get a very, you know, Georgia and Alabama and all those.

It's very endearing. It is charming. Yeah. We're just, I'm right in the pocket of the country where I have no accent. It's just, it's pretty interesting to me. Even the Minnesota, Wisconsin, those are endearing too. I love those. Nice Canadian type accents. And yeah, we don't have, but I would say like Pacific Northwest probably don't really have much of an accent either, right? Like they're pretty, they speak largely pretty normal. I think Cali is more chill bro like lexicon than it is accents, I think. But I think you're right about that. But yeah, this.

Southern one, I think is the dream. I, you know, we've always thought, you meet a nice, sweet gal with a sound accent. You're just like, oh, what a darling. Or you just want to take care of her for the rest of your life. The gold standard for me, at least, is Irish, an Irish accent. I think, or Scottish, but Irish is just fun. Irish is fun, just like British is fun. You're instantly funnier than everyone in the room who has an American accent, even if

it's a Southern or a Boston. an accent like Irish, Scottish, UK accents, those people are 25% funnier right off the bat. Yeah, they got the dream. And then like a good British accent or a good Australian accent, you come over here and see the United States of America. I mean, you're, you know, you go from a six to a nine right away, no matter what. So must be nice. Um, I saw to, uh, Dewey said that, uh, what is it, Cusco Willa? Is that the spot? Yeah, that's a spot. Cusca Willa was turned up last night he sent me the video of of them that I think they probably

sent to Cep of them going nuts down there. So always cool to kind of see someone who's pretty close to the inner circle getting the win. And then especially an event as important to this show as the John Deer Classic. And then, you know, if I'm doing a little bit of math, I think Sep took home

1.3. Caddy gets around 10% or so. So Dewey made at least 100 grand plus on a sixth day turnaround going over there and getting the bag for Cep. Kiz not playing his best stretch of golf. So we'll see where that whole thing goes.

But credit to Dewey, I'm sure Kis is just as happy for him as anybody. So credit to Dewey get a nice paycheck. I texted Tilly. I was just like, I texted him, congrats on that. He's fucking fired up,

man. And when that circle, you're right, when that circle does well, the Deweys, the Tilleries. And I think Tim is his short game coach too, right? Yeah,

yeah, I think so. That's right. So that whole circle, man, those are our guys. You can't get closer to us than that. And yeah,

Tiller was fired up. He said that my big moments coming next. So that whole crew, he's the best. He immediately turned it on me. I'm trying to say, hey, John, this is fucking awesome. Man, one of your guys just won a tournament that I love. And it's a big, big tournament's a big thing to win on the PJ tour. And he immediately was like, your moments coming next.

I'm like, dude, let's talk about Scep Straca winning the John Deere Classic. But I do want to break 90, but let's talk about that for a second. So you're right. That whole circle, we fucking love those guys. also a southern accent circle it really tillery has such a great accent when he is yeah bro when he is teaching me things it just goes in my ear smoother it's like a smooth it's there's like stiff drinks strong drinks drinks that burn that ones that hurt that are harsh a tillery accent is just smooth going in the ears so it's a circle that has a lot of those accents yeah what tim's what ls you guy too so like

there's a lot of, or at least Louisiana somewhere, I think maybe even does, or he does Mississippi State. So I think he's like Mississippi State help that he's done a bunch. So he's from that area. So he's even more Southern accent than the rest of them. So yeah, that crew is just the best. We love them. So congrats to them. This episode is brought to you by FX's justified city primeval based on the bestselling Elmore Leonard novels. Timothy Oliphant is back as Marshall Raylan Givens. His hair is. grayer and his hat is dirtier. Trent, you love this show, don't you? You love this series? Yeah, so I've recently started my justified journey. I have not made my way all the way through,

but it's not going to take long because it's a fantastic show. It really is. Great lead actor, great story, great everything. So yeah, no, I'm very excited for this whole new thing. Yeah, you were saying, you were saying this is a great show. Everybody's always looking for a new show. I don't know how much time we spend scrolling through TV channels, through different apps, for something great. I believe that FX's justified city primeval, which premieres July 18th on FX, stream on Hulu, is your next option. His hair is grayer, like I said, his hat is dirtier while balancing life as a U.S. Marshal and part-time father, a chance encounter sends him to Detroit, where he crosses paths with the Oklahoma Wildman, a violent sociopath, and his powerful defense

attorney who finds herself caught between cop and criminal. FX's justified city primeval, years July 18th on FX, stream on Hulu. U.S. women's open at Pebble Beach. I was very into this. Saturday was tough to be in because we had the Borrelli wedding and all that. But Thursday, Friday, I was watching it a ton. Yesterday, final round, I watched a good amount as well.

It was tough flipping back and forth between the, trying to pay attention between the John Tier Classic and the finale. And the finale, kind of got away from us a little bit at Pebble with Allison Corpoo's going nuts and just dominated. and getting to 10 under. She had like a four-shot lead, I believe, at some point, ended up finishing at 9 under. But the women at Pebble was insanely cool.

I thought Mike Wan made a great point when he was on the broadcast, I think, where he's like, you know, we're making history this week, but like this ain't it. We're coming back here every five to 10 years, which will be really, really cool. Insane to think that all the history at Pebble from this point or up to this point was just purely men, very deserving and long overdue, that now the women were out there as cool hearing,

like the Nelly Quarters of the world. And like a lot of them are like I've never played Pebble Beach before, which, you know, because we get like Jordan Spieth almost falls off the cliff on eight every year they're playing at Pebble Beach, even if it's not a major championship. And the women, you know, a good amount of them had never played it before. None of them had ever

played it before in competition in a major championship in the U.S. Open. So to have it there and have it play, you know, I was texted with Kirk a little bit. He was making fun of me for it. But I thought watching the women play it was actually more interesting in a lot of spots than watching the men play it because the women

had such interesting shots into a lot of the greens. Like, you know, we watch on the, on the eighth hole, for example, which is the most iconic, one of the more iconic parforers in the world. I think Nicholas called it the best second shot in the history or in the world at golf. You know, like those guys, if they hit a good layup out there off the tee because you can't hit driver, you got to punch something out there, 220, 30 yards, whatever it is. And if they've got between, 190 and 220 in like those guys are hitting like seven iron or something that's not you know like for them whatever uh the women had like a fucking seven wood in their hand hitting it over this gorge to a green that's impossible where if you flare it right at all you're going back to the drop zone which a bunch of

them had to do if you if you go left and bail out left it's really hard to make pa you're probably just signing up for a bogey so they had to step up and like hit these these hybrids or really long irons in And it was the same thing coming down on 18. It was like watching Charlie Hull coming down the stretch and her interacted with her caddy and being under the tree. She had 263, I believe it was. And she was like, can I hit this draw from under this tree and get there where like those guys are a lot of those guys.

I think Brooks hit like a three iron or something, which is still a hell of a shot. But like those types of moments and those types of shots that they had to hit into a lot of these greens and even the cliff on six like they hit a good drive out there. And then, you know, we've watched DJ, I remember, and I think it was the AT&T. I don't think it was the US open, but DJ hit like three iron, like seven iron on that hole onto the green and made like an easy birdie. And the women are standing down there, they've got like a three wood in their hand having to get it up over that cliff. Right. To a real shot.

It's a fucking golf shot. Right. I was just like, this is sick watching them have to hit that. And it was same on 10. I think it was Leona McGuire. I watched yesterday hit a hybrid into the 10th hole where you. You know, again, it sets up similar to the eighth green where there's a bunker on the left. Nobody on earth could get up and down from that bunker green side left.

The whole Pacific Ocean is on the right. The slope of the fairway is left to right. So to step up and hit a shot with a hybrid or a long eye on your hand at one of those pins are in the middle of that green and risk that, you know, an open club face on a left to right lie is going to send it into the ocean. You make double. And she just hit this hybrid that was on a fucking string from like 180. into the wind or whatever it was. And I was like, that is a golf shot 12th hole. Like they were hitting hybrids and long irons into the 12th hole,

which you got to cover that bunker and somehow get it to Lance off. So it was just really, really cool. I thought to watch. It was more interesting shot by shot to watch the women play it. It was a little bit of a bummer that she ran away with it. We talked about like boring golf is winning golf. And she just got it done at the end, which robbed it a little bit of like a huge put at the end,

which she deserved. It doesn't take anything away from her. but it was really, really cool to see them out there at Pebble. It was awesome. Yeah, it's just a different look. I mean, you watch the men's game and it's just bomb it, bomb and hit a fucking flip wedge. And it's great to watch. I mean, it's, it's entertaining.

It's crazy to watch those guys do that. But it is, it's just a different game when you watch the women's game. And, dude, Pebble, I mean, it always delivers. Always, always, always. Just flipping your TV on and seeing Pebble Beach, you're like, oh, I'm going to sit down and watch this. Like, it's, there's, it's one of the few properties on earth where, it is the star. I mean, the women being there, obviously, it's a big deal. First time out there, that's a huge deal. And having it be at Pebble is just a game changer. You just watch it.

I'm going to watch golf at Pebble Beach. It doesn't matter what it is. They could live stream the first T or the seventh T or any of them, pretty much any of them. And I would watch them. So having a big event out there for the women's game was just the cherry on top. It made me think like, Oh, on what? Like, what planet are they going to host a major championship in like Houston? Like, you know, I'm sure there's plenty of beautiful golf courses,

but you're getting me to turn on the television. You know, I got fucking. These women playing Pebble Beach, where they're playing Oakmont, they're playing Wingfoot or Shencock or Pioneer's number two. Like, I'm in. I'm in. And Pebble's the king of that in terms of photogenic on TV and all that.

And so that combination of waves crashing. You're 100% right. turning it on no matter who's playing. I'm watching that and the fact that it was the best women in the world out there. Roseang, another great showing. She didn't get it done, but I think she's finished top 10 or 15 and the only two majors that she's played in so far. She was the betting favorite going in. She turned pro like a couple of coffee ago won her first start. So she continues to dominate Michelle Wee and Onica coming down the stretch on Friday playing the 18th pole. I'm glad it ended well with Michelle We made a nice put and Mike Juan came out there and gave them.

them flowers and they were both with their husbands. And it was beautiful. But it was a shit show because both of them were a thousand over par. Onica hits one left. Doesn't re-tee takes a drop that she's adamant about, which people were like, that's a pretty sketchy drop. She's taken tight where the other players had to like play up in front of her because she's doing it. Again, you're not going to make the cut.

You know, part of that argument is like she's a competitor down the stretch. She's trying to do it right. Fight for that good. The other one's like, dude, hit another one off the tee right after you sniping into the fucking ocean go make your double have a beautiful celebration like it doesn't matter so that part of it was a little bit rocky and made me i was laughing like this is everyone wants this to be so ceremonious and the coverage refuses to cut away from them because the coverage is like we've been planning all week for this friday afternoon they had meetings about it for sure oh coming down the most iconic hole in the world

and no matter what they're at it's going to be beautiful because it's ceremonial as it should be and it was a shit show. So it was like it was a little bit tough. Luckily, Michelle, we made like a 30 footer for PARs. I should get up and down from an incredible like plug Friday egg lie. Made a nice put a little bit of a wrap the bow, put a bow on the whole thing, which I thought was great. So I thought it was a little bit of a miss, ironically, that the two of them were in the same group because I thought it took like, kind of took away from each one of them a little bit where the camera was like focusing on like. her career was great, but like her career was great and a little bit better, but she was a big figure and you're kind of like, oh, it's one of my focused on a little bit. So that was that part I thought like was a good idea. But actually as it played out was a little bit, it was a little weird for me at the end. Yeah, on paper that makes sense. You think visually are like you're going to watch these two, uh, walk down 18. Um, but you're right. If you split them up, you kind of give each one their moment as opposed to having like dueling. Um, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's.

It was a bit odd for sure. So that part was a little odd, I thought, but also kind of beautiful. Like, you got to take it for what it is and which it was. And, like, you know, it was interesting hearing them talk about, like, Onica's career is literally like about as much winning as you could possibly do. And then Michelle Wee's career is almost the exact opposite. It's like about as big of a superstar and hype as you can have. Incredible impact on the game.

She now, like, hosts and his ambassador for her own tournament and on tour, but only won like a handful of times. and won the one major, which was at Pioneer's number two, which is my favorite course. And it was the week after the men, the first time they'd done that. So very, very iconic. But like, she was playing at PJ Tor events when she was like 14 and missed the cut by one, I think. So it's like she had all this hype, clearly didn't get, do as much winning as she would have liked. Yet she's this iconic figure in the game.

She was insanely popular and famous and got these millions and millions of dollars contracts at a young age. So the two of them kind of coming out, it was overall beautiful. but I thought the thing, it was like, it just could have gone a little more perfectly, I thought. For sure. And it just kind of made me chuckle. It's hard to like perfectly choreograph. There's my Chipotle.

It's hard to chore perfectly like choreograph that stuff. It's rare that you're going to get like a Derek Jeter sendoff where you hit the game winner and it's people are going crazy. Life is very, very rarely. It's far more like missing the cut by a billion strokes and kind of limp into the finish. That's reality for it. So it was kind of perfect in that way. And you get, you know, you always see the clip of Nicholas making the birdie putt.

I think it was on the, at his final hole at the old course. And like they don't show that he probably doubled like six holes getting up to that point. And so, and which, which is fine. That's like you want the moment. And Michelle, we will always have that moment of that put, which is, which was beautiful. Onica will always have her and her husband out there. I'll get on the 18th grade. So it was overall beautiful, but it wouldn't be the right show if we didn't

talk about a little bit of the part that was imperfect, which made me laugh throughout the whole thing. A couple more things I want to get to before we throw it to Senator Johnson, who the thing I will say about the Senator Johnson interview too is that we have tried on this show many times, I think, to understand and articulate the PGA tour versus the live golf situation in like a rational understanding way. And it always dives into like emotional, opinionated, kind of like disastrous choppy discussion where we want to kill each other and we claim that the other person is like a human rights violator. And like this with him was was just he is a polished senator who every point that I brought up and everything that we discussed just in a very rational way was able to tie it to bigger picture and kind of just explain how he understands it and explain what he is kind of hoping to get out of it. And largely his takeaway is that like, it's too early.

I totally understand why they did this. I'm eager to learn more about it. And I was like, that makes a lot of sense. This is the main takeaway. That's good. And you had, in the group chat, you had, you said, you know, I've got this guy who's going to do the show and you would ask to do it by yourself, which we all agreed to. Because if you bring all of us into an interview like that, it's going to devolve into stupid

questions. And we're all going to be like, but this, but this happened. that happens. So, and you've got a little bit of a background in politics for people that don't know when you originally got hired, it was to blog about politics. So you're very interested in that world. And so you doing that by yourself, I think is going to make it far more clearer for the listener, which is good. I think so. I think so. And it was good. And it was, it was, it was cool to hear him, uh, it was cool to hear him talk about this situation as from a basically a business and a business in America related to government, which it's not supposed to really be affected by government situation.

And I was like, we're so close to this that every week we change our opinion. We fight about this part of it, what that guy said. And his stance largely on it again was like, well, we have a business that does about one and a quarter of billion dollars in assets. We have another that has $600 billion in assets. One was essentially threatening the other. And one found an incredible opportunity it sounds like for them to improve their chances of survive actually lock up their chances of survival and inflow a bunch of cash and not get essentially run out of the building and of course they took that we're looking forward to learning more about that deal i was like that makes a lot of fucking sense mr sempir so dude i've been thinking about this whole deal and how it went

down a lot and what i've realized the biggest lesson that i learned is that the social issues tied to this entire thing are obviously important. But what you'll also find is that the powers of B will use that fighting between both sides to just make a move when people aren't paying attention. And that has honestly been my biggest takeaway. And if you look at life like that, it's a little bit like, it's a little pessimistic, which I don't love to be. But this fighting about like the social issues that are important that things are happening

to people that we don't want to happen. But while that fighting and that fighting gets red hot and people are at each other's fucking throw. and they're like, but you aren't thinking of other people. While that's going on, the people in these rooms are just making moves and they're watching the chaos outside and they're like, but we're just going to do what we want to do because they're distracted. Yep.

Yep. It's incredible. Largely what he said and I threw a bunch of questions at him. I, you know, this was something I was excited to hear about like the Senate, the Senate sort of stance on like what all is going on. So it was a, me and Bush were texting afterwards. It's a fascinating conversation. Hearing from him was such a bigger picture, more polished understanding of this situation

and approach on this situation than I think we've ever delivered on the show. So I think it's a sitting United States senator from Wisconsin. So that part is very cool. So I think people are going to enjoy the conversation. The hearing is today when people are listening to this. So I'm sure tidbits will be coming out. I'm going to be watching it. I'm excited to kind of see what happens and see what they grow with these.

So it is interesting in that Monahan. not there. Yasser Al-Ramayans not there and Greg Norman's not there but Jimmy Dunn's there and the C.O. of the PGA Tour is there. I believe it is Ron Price. Is that guy's name? So they'll be there testifying in front of this subcommittee of senators kind of, you know, trying to explain more of what the framework, what the deal is going to look like and all that. So it'll be fascinating to pay attention. Lucy nicotine nicotine, nicotine, nicotine, we're doing all kinds of pronunciation stuff, but Lucy, nicotine gum, pouches and breakers all have three things in common. No tobacco, powerful nicotine and delicious flavors. Lucy's breakers are nicotine pouches, which post up in your lip, they chill there, releasing sweet, sweet nicotine. Dan Rappaport happens to delve in this world more than the rest of us, and he raves about this stuff and the fact that obviously you get the nicotine, you get the

experience, but no tobacco, which could be very problematic for people. Yeah, no, this is the way to go. If you're trying to go this way, you need that little nicotine fix, but you don't want to involve the tobacco and all the side effects of that. Lucy's got you covered. They're the ones the go to. You break it with your teeth to release nicotine way faster than other pouches. Breakers have something that no other pouches do, a little capsule inside each one. Lucy pouches, on the other hand, are heftier than other nicotine pouches and they don't get all wet and slippery in their gum. It tastes and feels like normal gum. That's true. We've actually tried this, even though we don't delve into this world potentially as much as other people.

We did try the gum. The gum's fantastic. Normal gum had a nicotine. kick. Here comes the fine print. Lucy products are only for adults of legal age, and every order is age verified. Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical. Visit lucy. Go. Use the promo code for Play to get 20% off your first order. That's one word for Play, F-O-R-E-P-L-A-Y, for 20% off your first order. Shipping is always free, and there's a 30-day refund policy if you change your mind. That's L-U-C-Y-D-C-O.C-O.C-O. promo code 4 play for 20% off and always free shipping. This Brooks Kepka, Matt Wolf thing I'm going to talk about real quick.

Brooks Kepka, this I think is actually the juice that you're looking for if you're a live golf enthusiast. If you're going to go the team golf route, this is what Formula One is built on, baby. This is like those fucking drivers are at each other's throats. One of the key elements to that entire business is that you got two drivers driving the same fucking car. And if one of them does better than the other, they can't play. anybody because they got the same car and that part of the Netflix drama and the show is what is what drives so much of the intrigue and with the live golf you're going to try to get it this is what you're looking for this is what like the NBA does great job at it's like marketing this type

of drama among teammates and for Brooks Kepp could come out and say he goes I mean when you quit on your round you give up and stuff like that that's not competing I'm not a big fan of that you don't work hard it's very tough to even have a team dynamic when you've got one guy that won't work. One guy is not going to give any effort. He's going to quit on the course, break clubs, gets down, bad body language. It's very tough.

I've basically given up on him a lot of talent, but I mean, that's talent wasted, which is as brutal, scathing of a review of someone as a teammate that I could, I've ever heard. I think of my life. And listen, we've spent a little bit of time with each of these guys, Brooks and Matt Wolfe.

And, you know, I could have predicted that these, these two probably aren't going to get along all that well. Like we would spend time with Matt Wolfe at Taylor Made Media Day. Really sweet guy, really nice guy. Just kind of like, what was he would, he would go back to where he went to college and he would like hang with his buddy. OSU?

Do you go to Oklahoma? Yeah, he went to Oklahoma State. And he was like, he's just got kind of a different vibe to him. Not probably the most unlike, like we met a lot of professional golfers. He's in a category kind of on his own. And then you've got Brooks who is just this man's man who's like, I want to win. I've got five majors. Like, I'm going to, all the talent that I have, even if it's not the most in the world,

I'm going to squeeze out every single bit of it. And I'm going to work hard. And I'm going to go play these different tours. And I'm going to come back. I'm going to put all these trophies in my trophy case. The fact that those two guys aren't necessarily getting along is not the most surprising thing in the world. I will say it's tough for Matt Wolfe to learn about all these things through the media. And I think he has said that where you got your guy coming at you, not in a sit down, not behind closed doors.

but going to he's so fed up that he's saying this to the media and then you got to find out you know i feel for matt wolf but i can see both sides of it yeah it's very i think everybody had a sad reaction when you saw matt wolf's like instead of fighting fire with fire he was just like that makes me sad that i heard and that's matt wolf's personality he's also a guy who you know he took a little bit of time off during his bj tour career he's like i just got to get my head on straight and like you know it's hard that tie that harshness that comes from learning the way a person feels about you through the media. That's just not great.

And yeah, he's not going to fight it. He's just going to be like, that sucks, man. I wish that it didn't happen. Dude, the word he used is heartbreaking. He goes to hear through the media that our team leader has given up on me is heartbreaking. And that's just.

And he means a dude and have a reaction to the word heartbreaking and not be like, oh. Yeah. No, but you're right at, you know, if you're talking about from a bird's eye view and an entertainment, standpoint, yeah, dude, this is what you want. You want people being like, I've given up on my teammate because he's not putting forth the effort that we think is acceptable. So this is the way that it is. Yeah, if I'm in my Senator Johnson big picture, you know, chair, this is great. I mean, it's, you know, this is great. I'm removing myself from how sad it is. And this is what you want. This is the Jews headlines team dynamics, people in fighting like that's awesome. But just the term heartbreaking, Matt Wolf. I love Matt Wolf. He's been so sweet with us. You played a whole blindhold folded with us. to hear that he's heartbroken to find out via the media was just so sad, so sad. It was.

And then we got golfers at Wimbledon. The spring break clue. They're all over the place. They're posting, you know, geared up at Wimbledon. But no matter what they do, our guy Tommy Fleetwood takes the cake. Nobody's ever looked more like a king. Like they're supposed to be at Wimbledon than Tommy Fleetwood at Wimbledon with the hair and the look and the beard and the outfit and the hat. just an absolute king at Wimbledon, I thought.

Yeah, seeing Tommy Flewold just makes me so happy, just knowing how great of a guy he is. And yeah, that outfit was a 100 out of 10. If you're going to Wimbledon, you got a dress. I know people were giving Jordan Spee shit for the wrinkly suit. Like, again, we just had the wedding this weekend, and I'm tweeting out pictures of me and Frankie or all of us at the event. And people are like, oh, nice suit car salesman.

And I want to make one thing clear. I don't care about suits. Like I'm I wanted to support my friend at his wedding. I wanted to go and show up and go to those events and not look like an insane person. You got to wear a suit. So I have one suit that's maybe not the greatest suit in the world. But it's like I'm also not a suit connoisseur. I'm not, I'm not there like, oh, I want the Italian cut.

Oh, I want the newest trends that are in and suit wear. I just want to wear something that people aren't going to be like, why did that homeless guy come to the wedding? So that's where I'm at with suits. So when people are like, oh, nice suit, I'm like, dude. you're making fun of me for something that I don't care about. But anyway. Yeah. And you know, and you made a good point too.

We're about, I'm about seven and a half years in. You're almost 10 years into a full non-suit life. That's like what we've signed up for. That's what we've built a career around is never wearing a suit. Dude, I remember, and this is true. I remember when I first started my first blog, like when I was just pretty much doing it for myself and like 10 of my friends, I remember thinking like one of the bed. rocks of wanting to get into this line of work is that I can wear a hoodie and jeans every single

day. Like what I looked at the job. I looked into the sky and I was thinking about jobs and I was like, what's the one where I can wear a hoodie and jeans pretty much every day? And blogging just happened to be one of those jobs. And I've been lucky enough. I've gotten enough bounces where I've been doing this thing for almost 10 years. So yeah, I don't have not like that well versed in suits and fancy dressing up clothes. That's just the way that it is. I mean, either. And I, you know, I thought about because of the high profile nature of the wedding and that, like, we're probably going to be in photos that Dave Portnoy is going to put out and he's going to make a TikTok video. He doesn't really know how to make and the whole deal. I actually considered like six months ago. I was like, I should go to, uh, the suit store, whatever that means. And like, I should get a suit or two so that I'm ready for this occasion and any other occasion that may pop up. And then life just occurs. And then it's like Friday. I'm getting. ready to pack and go to the wedding.

And I'm like, well, I've got the same two options that I've had for seven years or whatever it's been. And this is just kind of what I'm going to go with. And I'm going to try to, should I iron it? And I'm like, half the time I iron stuff, I put it on the wrong setting and it just burns a hole through it. So I can't risk that. And then I tried to put it in the, uh, in the bathroom while I shower to steam it. And I put it too low.

So water came underneath outside the shower at the bottom of my shirt got soaked. So I had to blow dry. So it was a shit show trying to go. go there. So it's like, this is just not what we do. The fact that we, like you said, like, I want to check the box where it's like he was respectful. Yep. The way he dressed. And then outside of that, like if I could show a little bit of style, but I haven't put in the effort. So here we are is kind of what I went with. Uh, and that's, that's just how we appear. The thing too, we're living in such a world where if you go all the way, the other way, people are like, what's this? Who the fuck does this

guy think he is? Oh. Where in a, wearing like a velvet suit to the wedding. Like, no, no, no. I'm just going to the suit that I've had for a couple years now I'm just going to wear this I know people are probably going to shit on it if they see it but I know that just being there supporting your friend that's all you need to do and everything else is just whatever so I thought you look great Trent I thought you looked good as well I really did thank you thank you thank you uh and um and then we got the Scottish open the Genesis Scottish open this week which the biggest takeaway from this every year is that we got to say Renaissance not Renaissance uh this is that the renaissance club, I believe, in Scotland,

in the, um, kind of in the, is it in the North Barric area? I think it is. It's somewhere near North Barrick. Uh, I remember because this year, last year,

on Friday, Max Homer made the cut and then went and played North Barrett in the evening because you could play until like 11 o'clock at night. So we get our first, this is sort of where we start to dip our toes into links golf. Next week is the British Open championship at Hoy Lake. Uh, this week, a bunch of guys go over there.

I think I saw the betting favorite is Scotty Sheffler and then Rory McElroy. I think of Tommy Fleetwood's playing. Ricky Fowler's playing. Dude, I think Tommy, I mean, that's what I was going to say while we were talking about. We kind of got off on a little bit of a suit rant. But Tommy Fleetwood, that is a guy. Everything's kind of trending in that direction, right? He played so well at the U.S. Open.

He's been in the mix pretty much all year. British Open for Tommy Fleetwood, that feels pretty. good to me. Yeah, I love that choice. I love that choice. He was so close in the playoff. He's been playing well. He hits the ball, great, slower green. So a guy who's such a ball striker that you're thinking make put, it's Henrik Stenson comes to mind when he won the British Open of just striking the shit of his ball. So yeah, I like that choice a lot. I'm really hyped up to get into British Open next week to watch some links golf this week. We did the whole Scotland trip last year. I love links golf. I love.

different it is. It's shot for shot. We're just talking about how cool it was to watch the women at Pebble and how it's different. This is like shot for shot as fun to watch actual golf shots as it gets outside of the drama and the stakes and the, in the situation, like just the actual golf shots, the bounces, the pot bunkers, all how different it is for what we watch. We watch weekend and week out. We get back-to-back weeks of it here. So very exciting stuff. All right. I think that's all we got. So reminder to go to storeup, barcelports.com, hit that foreplay tab. Check out our new line. We got all kinds of good stuff, including shorts to have a logo on it. We got a video coming out Thursday night, Foreplay YouTube channel.

That's Dave Portnoy versus Jersey Cherry and a very intense grudge match. And then we've got an interview right now with a sitting United States senator from the state of Wisconsin. Senator Ron Johnson will be back on Thursday. Hit it hard. Hit it hard. All right. This one's simple for me. This is the Lynx Golf app.

at its core, you always want to play golf with other people, but that's just not necessarily always an option. Maybe you sneak out in the morning. You've gotten available window before a meeting. You want to go out and play, but you would like to have a little bit of competition. Maybe you do it in the evening. Maybe on a Saturday morning you just can't get your friend group together.

People got kids. They've got lives. You got whatever. Links golf out. Super easy to use. Clean look. It's the first ever app of its kind to offer real golf leagues from your phone. Fantasy League meets reality in the golf world for a limited time.

there is full, free access, great for all golfers, no matter of your level of normalized scoring based on index, whole handicaps and course difficulties. Trent, you can play with different folks in different states, have matches against them, have lees against them. You don't have to necessarily be with them in person and still get a little

competitive edge. This is genius. This is a genius idea. It's all the things that you said, you want a little bit of competition, but people got lives and everyone's, they might even live in the same state, but you just got to you want to connect with them you grew up playing golf with them but you know life

happens and this app can still bring everybody together on the golf course i it's a really really awesome awesome app idea i really think so it keeps friends and family members and former teammates colleagues you know um together connected but it also keeps you know pro athletes youtube golfers folks that you might follow connected as well where you can play different courses still have matches so links golf that made it easy for golfers who have never been able to play in a competitive league or local course because they can now play at their own time from separate courses. They use the rating system and all that to match it up, make it fair and see who wins. You don't have to play versus your friend at the same time.

You can have seven different days is what it is to complete a match. You don't have to use the app when you're playing so you can just fill in the scorecard post round. I know some people don't like to be on their phones the whole time. The app is great to use. It's a side match with a buddy in different states. You can have a match against people that you're playing in real life. If you do have friends, congratulations to you. And you can also have a side match app.

afterwards when you plug in the scores. So download the links golf app on app store or Google play to set up a league and start playing for this golf season. For more information, go to www. www.linksgolf app.com. Again, go download the links golf app on app store or Google Play right now. All right, ladies and gentlemen, incredibly special guests today. We are joined for the very first time by a member of the United States Senate. He's from the great golf state of Wisconsin, which has I believe 10 of the top 100 ranked golf courses in the country. He is the ranking member of the permanent subcommittee on investigations. Senator Ron Johnson, welcome to the show.

Glad to be here, and you're right, we've got some great golf courses in Wisconsin. Oh, it's beautiful. There's several of our favorites. We're actually going there in a few months, and I'm pretty excited. But we've got some pretty serious matters to discuss today. You have invited the senior kind of officials from PJ,

tour from the PIF and from Livgolf, only a few from the PGA tour actually showing up, but we'll get to that to testify in front of the subcommittee. My first question is why. Well, I did join in the invitations, but I did not join in the initial request for information, and I want to join in the majority's memo that they'll put out probably before the hearing, primarily because I think it's too early for Congress to really even get involved. from my standpoint, these should be private negotiations. And negotiations can be delicate. And I love the game of golf.

I want to see that the breach healed between the PGA tour and lives. And I'm just afraid that Congress's involvement on a pretty sure basis may screw everything up. Yeah, you set something very interesting. You know, you said you're an accountant, you're a numbers guy by trade, that if you look at Congress and it's, trillions of dollars in debt versus the PGA tour, which is, I think, a billion in a quarter or so in assets, you sort of said, who are you guys to tell a business like that, how to manage their finances and what decisions to make? Well, that's certainly one aspect of it. We can't get our own much larger house in order. But again, there's not even a deal to really

review or evaluate yet. There's the outlines of a deal. The only thing that is definitive right now is the lawsuits have been dropped and they can't be brought back up again. And if you're a fan of professional golf, you have to recognize that, you know, what Liv represented was an existential threat to the PGA tour. One of the ways it threatened the tour was just bleed them dry with legal fees. So that's a real accomplishment for the PGA tour and probably for Liv from the standpoint that they don't have to go through discovery now, which is probably why they agreed to just drop the lawsuits. It was kind of mutually assured destruction. Do you think that, does that concern you at all?

Because to me, you know, that was one of the key sort of points that they harped on. I believe it was June 6th. When Yasser Al-Ramai and J. Monaghan met together. They were on CNBC and they said, you know, one of the key points to this deal is all legislation is being dropped. To some, that could be a little bit concerning that they said, rather than us go through litigation, rather than us, have everyone dig into the books, into the messaging, into, you know, any potential stifling of competition. A key point to us making a deal is we're going to drop all lawsuits. Well, to me, it's a rational choice. I'm a business guy. I avoided lawyers in the judicial process like a plague in business. And so any business people that come to their sense and

decide to mutually agree to end their legal suits, I think it's a pretty rational decision in general. Again, let's just lay out the basic facts. The PGA Tour is the premier, is the premier, premier tour of golf. I mean, most of the top players play in their tournaments week in and week out. They operate based on market disciplines. They've got to have an attracting enough product to attract audience at the tournaments, viewership on TV, so they can get the media deals, and then sponsorship of the actual tournaments. So it's a market disciplined business. All of a sudden, the public investment fund, Saudi Arabia, enters the fray. They want a foothold in golf. They want to have a seat at the table,

and they're willing to spend whatever it takes to get that seat at the table. And so it's not a fair fight. The PG8, it's net worth is, I think, a little less than $1.5 billion. The PIF has estimated assets somewhere between 6 and 700 billion. So they're more than 400 times larger in the PGA. And if they want in into a sport like golf, which is a global sport, they're going to be in it. So that's the reality the PGA was facing and what they in the end had to face up too. So one of the phrases that you and Senator Blumenthal, who is the chairman of the subcommittee, have used, is Saudi takeover. It said he released part of his statement was our goal is to uncover the facts about what went into the PGA Tours deal with the Saudi Public Investment Fund and what the Saudi takeover means for the future of this cherished American institution and our national interests.

So how, you know, on a larger scale, the United States of America and moral and ethical standpoints and where we stand versus where other regimes stand, how concerning is it and how much do you guys factor in? just general Saudi involvement and take over in big institutions in our country. Well, I don't believe that's the word I've ever used. He may have written it. Maybe I signed on the letter where he used that word. First of all, we don't have a deal yet. When you take a look at the framework, again, the only thing definitive is the lawsuits are now dropped. They can't be brought back up again.

They're supposed to be maintaining a certain confidentiality, but the five-page framework agreement was, I think, leaked the day it was turned over to us. Other than that, it's all nebulous. It's all amorphous. It's all up in the air. And I don't think in any way shape or form, this is going to be an easy deal to consummate, and they may not succeed by the end of December, and then all bets are off. So you can't, based on the framework, say that this is a Saudi takeover of golf.

They certainly obtained a seat at the table. But it looks to me like the PGA was pretty successful, again, at any of the lawsuits, which was, again, could have bled them dry. But they maintain control over golf, professional golf, the structure of its tournaments. They even maintain voting control over the new for-profit entity. The Piff would get to the chairmanship, a seat at the table. And that's maybe all that the Saudis ever really wanted. This might have been accomplished in a less painful way.

But again, until you actually have a deal, there's really nothing to comment on. and I would rather let these parties try and work out something for the good of the game. I don't doubt that everybody in the midst of these negotiations loves the game of golf, probably wants to succeed long-term in the future. Now they may have different visions of what that looks like, but I mean, let's face it, Greg Norman loves the game of golf. You know, the players that accepted the Piffs offer and went over to live, I think they love the game of golf.

They maybe didn't think they were being compensated properly on the PGA tour. And that's a problem with every professional sport. How do you adequately compensate the stars in relationship to what I would call journeyman players seeking the top? How do you do that and try and keep everybody satisfied? Well, it's probably an impossible task. But it's one that obviously the advent of live put on display in terms of being. BGA. So you've mentioned a lot, a lot of the theme that I've gathered so far, right, is that this has just been pretty much announced. We don't know a lot of the details. So tomorrow,

um, who will be testifying and you'll be asking questions too will be Ron Price, who's the chief operating officer, the PGA tour, Jimmy Dunn, these sort of, they architected the deal. It sounds like, um, Yasser Al-Ramai and Greg Norman, Jay Monaghan will not be there, but, you know, down the road, um, I imagine they will be at some point. What is, what is your goal then to find out to discover tomorrow that will give you more of a sense of whether or not this will, you know, go through, be blocked, whatever that might be. Well, again, if it were up to me, I wouldn't be holding the hearing. I'd let the parties negotiate a deal that then maybe consider taking a look at it.

You know, Congress does have a role to play when it comes to sports in general and a sports relationship to the Sherman and Clayton antitrustans. It's a very confused mess right now. And courts have actually asked Congress to get involved in and try and straighten it out. But, again, the chairman called the hearing. I'm the ranking member. I have responsibility to, you know, certainly be as constructive as possible in my role. And so I will certainly give the PGA every opportunity to lay out the predicament it was in

and tell the public, you know, what its perspective is in, you know, the current negotiations. You know, I understand, you know, maybe it wouldn't, it wasn't your call, but you'll be there. Now that you are, right, this has been a, I would say a relatively difficult time to get mergers and acquisitions through. We've seen a few blocked relatively recently. This would be, and another term that was used was a cherished organization, you know, the PJ Tour and it's kind of cultural reverence. relevance in the United States. So, you know, from, from that standpoint, now that that you're in it, you are going to be there, whether you call there or not, you know, what, what would you like

specifically to try to pull out of it, if anything, or are you just not concerned that much? No, listen, the PGA is going to have a good opportunity to explain the position it found itself in, you know, why it acted the way it did over the last couple of years. And in the end, why the two parties got together and, you know, ended the mutually assured destruction and what their goals are going to be moving forward. I think it'll be very hopefully informative. Again, I don't think Congress should be involved at this stage, but I'm highly interested in the subject. I mean, I've been reading all I can. I've gotten up to speed. I'm not a lawyer, but I've looked at, you know, the antitrust laws as applies to sports. So I find this extremely

interesting is I think you do, as your listeners do, I just don't think, again, it's generally the subcommittee, the purpose of subcommittee investigation is investigating some kind of wrongdoing. And I don't see anything wrong with the PGA tour trying to negotiate its survival. And I also think we're probably premature holding a hearing when we're laying to bear just the different actions that have occurred during the course of negotiation that is not yet complete. Again, my biggest concern is, as I read the framework, I think the PGA ended up in about as good a position as it could have been expected to end up with total control over the tournaments and golf and even the for-profit entity, Saudi Arabia got a seat at the table. I don't know how they could have really, from the PGA Tour standpoint, ended up in a better position. I hope our hearing doesn't blow up these negotiations that we're in the midst of or that they are in the midst of.

Do you feel like this hearing was called largely because of how high profile this case became? Well, it's obviously a high profile case. Like I say, I've got a great deal of interest in this. I mean, I was shocked when the deal was announced. I certainly did not like to see players that I really enjoy watching playing that I respect at each other's throats. And I thought that was terrible for the game. So, you know, I'm hoping that everybody can repair the breach and we can continue to enjoy golf for the great game it is both playing and in watching. As just a citizen, as somebody who finds, you know, you're United States Senator, incredibly powerful position.

here you are going to a hearing. What's your process for a hearing like that? What, you know, how, how deep are you reading? How much are you getting memos? Are you doing a mix of both? What's your process going into a hearing like this? Well, we've had, we all have staff and the PGA has given us, you know, literally a couple thousand pages of documents.

I think Liv has given us even more in terms of pages, you know, how much is actually relevant to, it's a fraction of that. And so staff sifts through. those thousands of pages of documents, highlights the important ones. In the meantime, I read everything I possibly can on the subject and just get up to speed on it and then develop my own line of questioning, what I'm particularly interested in. I've got to write an opening statement, which I'm still working on, and just kind of lay out my thoughts. How fast can you read? So I feel like you guys get thousands and thousands of documents and then make decisions upon them.

I often wish I would have taken the Evan Wood speed reading course. I comprehend what I read, so I take my time to make sure I understand it. Is there any desire for you to understand the PGA Tour and Jay Monaghan in specific sort of 180-degree turn from invoking the attacks on 9-11 and the moral high ground and saying that the PGA tour players will never have to apologize for where they play golf to a year later sitting next to the same folks that he said. folks, players would have to apologize for and cutting a deal. I think I already understand it. I don't think it takes a rocket science to understand the position the PGA was in. Sort of the human reaction to try and lash out and try and, again, you're fighting for survival

bad point in time. But, you know, live didn't go away. They had their first season. They were able to poach, you know, some top players. and then they went to court and the legal bills were mounting and the PGA won some

parts of the lawsuit for example the PIF was not granted immunity from discovery and that might have been what triggered the Saudis willingness to sit down and basically end the mutually sure destruction as well so

again, that's what it takes to do a deal. People have to realize it's in their best interest to stop the lawsuits. And again, I really don't doubt that everybody involved in this negotiation does love the game of golf. They may have different perspectives on how they view the future for golf, how top players ought to be compensated, how many tournaments they need to play in for the good of the game, for the good of themselves. It's a very complex situation. Running a PGA tour outside of, you know, live showing up was difficult enough.

I'm sure challenging enough. And then all of a sudden you have, you know, an entity that wants a foothold that wants to say and how professional golf is managed with virtually unlimited resources or willing to spend, you know, way outspend you. That's a real challenge. So, I mean, I can kind of understand what the,

the management of the PG-2 was going through. I also understand why they had to keep these negotiations very closely held. I think, you know, there's a lot of uproar from players initially. I think just as you read accounts, some of them have calmed down a little bit as they kind of realized, yeah, you couldn't really tell like a dozen players, not tell the rest of us. So, again, they're in the midst of a negotiation. And I think this has, you know, this will not. be easy to conclude. Let's put it this way.

You know, especially now it's been made public and there are people attack you from all sides. So I hope they can come to agreement. I hope they can repair the breach. A few things on that. I think, you know, there's, you've said a few times, you know, you believe that everyone involved is just loves the game of golf. And I think that that, there's quite a few people that are involved in golf that have followed all of this, that need to kind of be brought along a little bit to believe that the Saudis just purely love the game of golf. I didn't say purely.

But there are multiple objectives from other people, too. I mean, they all love the game of golf, but let's face it, players want to make as absolute much money as they can playing as few tournaments as possible. I don't know there's any doubt that the Saudis are trying to repair their image throughout the world. I'd like to think that Saudis are sincere in trying to modernize their culture. You'll give more freedom to women, for example. That's going to be a process.

So there are multiple objectives here. But I think one thing they have in common amongst different perspectives and different objectives, I think people at least involved in the negotiations love the game of golf. So I guess that I would say, you know, we've mentioned a few different times that the PGA tour, I think we can all understand, was in when you have one and a quarter, one and a half billion in assets, you're going up against PIF, which has six or 700 billion in assets, not a fair fight.

There's not that much they could do. They did all that. could. I think, you know, people's point would then be the reason the hearing was called, the reason that the Senate can't get involved is because you guys can't actually do something at some point, right? If the tour can't necessarily defend themselves because they're up against just a behemoth that at the end of the day is going to win, they're going to pay people too much it's going to end their business. You guys could. So my question then would be at some point, when does or where does the Senate, your guys subcommittee, have the power to potentially step in and

say, you know what, like the United States of America, the way that we operate here, the way that we try to think about things from a moral and ethical standpoint, on top of a rational business standpoint, we can now implement X power. How could it get to that point? Well, let's review the entire situation. Why does Saudi Arabia have $6 to $700 billion in a public investment fund? it's because we all use oil and we all drive cars. So we are responsible for filling up that public investment fund to the tune to $6,700 billion. I mean, do we expect the Saudis to take that money and then just burn it? No, they're going to take that money and they're going to invest it.

Now, in general, in general, it is good for foreigners to invest in America. That means our economy is doing well. It means that we have a stable political situation. And we encourage investment. I mean, that's what creates jobs. We need investment in this country, you know, both domestic and foreign investment. I would much rather have the Saudis modernize, respect human rights, and invest in America, then cozy up to China or Russia at this point in time, start trading their oil in Chinese currency,

as opposed to the petrodollary. So again, you can isolate and put the entire burden of, you know, the Saudi's human rights abuses on the PGA and expect them to show that full burden. But then that just denies the fact that, I mean, we're the ones that use the oil that fill up the PIF that give them the financial wherewithal to invest in all kinds of businesses in the U.S. not just PGA. And I realize PGA is a highly visible, you know, entity, but they're deep salary investments and all kinds of American businesses. Are we going to ask all those American businesses to divest, you know, not accept those investments and watch the value of those stocks plummet?

So again, we have a global integrated economy. And I think we need to understand how it's not just the P.E. Eiji is dealing with Saudis. We all are when we use oil. It's quite interesting for us because we do, you know, we have viewed this in a bit of a silo, right? We're a golf podcast. That's what we do. We talk about golf forever and to have someone who's in your position who, you know, has been an elected official who understands kind of the larger game being played and the larger influence and that golf is just a little part of it, I think for our audience is, um, is incredibly interesting and probably gives everybody much more

perspective on the entire situation, which is very important. Do you have any sense of when you might get actually Jay Monaghan, Yasser Al-Ramein, and Greg Norman in the same room? Well, first of all, Jay Monaghan sounds like he's returning to the tour. You know, obviously he had health issues probably dealing with the stress of the situation. You know, I'm a human being. I have a sympathy for that. You can understand the stress he was under over the last two years and then just the

added stress of this announcement. And he knew full well what was going to be raining down on him, just announcing this, can't even call it a deal yet, just a framework of a deal. And quite honestly, one that really relieved the PGA of a huge liability in terms of these lawsuits. So, you know, there's no way that I know of that we can compel testimony from Greg Norman or anybody involved with the PIF. The PGA is coming involuntarily. that's for their credit. And again, I hope to be constructive in giving them an opportunity to relay their perspective and tell the American public, the global public, what they were faced with and why they felt they had to do what they did.

From what I've understood and from what we've heard, this could take a year plus before this has ever resolved at all. Do you feel like this might be that long, at least? I think the framework suggests that all bets are off if they don't come to an agreement by the end of this year. And again, holding hearings, having this framework put up against public scrutiny the way it's been, you know, as it has had to endure, I think it makes it less likely that you're actually going to end up with a deal. And I think that'd be unfortunate. Yeah. I think it makes more and more sense why it was kept so quiet. And, you know, it almost was perplexing to me and to all of us that they announced it at all. You know, do you wonder why they, it seemed, it seemed kind of rushed a little bit to announce it.

Did you get that sense at all? I think it was very important for the PGA to announce that they no longer had legal liability. And I'm sure they also had to file those dismissals in court and those would be public records. So they probably didn't have a choice as to whether or not to go public. because, again, the court motions, those judicial filings would probably be made public. But again, I'm not an attorney, but that would be what I assume. Well, Senator, like I said, this has been enormous in our world for the last year and a half. It did become an incredibly public story in early June when it was announced so much

so that, you know, we were all of a sudden on primetime shows talking about it because golf became part of the forefront. And I think that kind of what you've said multiple times about ultimately, if this goes through and all the actors involved are truly good actors that want the best for the game of golf. There'll be a ton of money infused into it. There'll be the infighting between Liv and the PGA tour will be over. And I think that, you know, we can all hope that this will, at the end of the day, be a fantastic thing for golf. And we want it to be a fantastic thing for golf because golf is such a great sport.

Again, we talked earlier, you know, you're a good golfer. I'm, uh, it'd be more of a duff ride, say. 15 handicap. But golf has a handicap system that allows us to compete in an enjoyable fashion. And golf is a game to watch because we're all golfers. I mean, we can we can epithize with a pro that's trying to hold on to a one-shot lead or that has to execute a difficult shot or singing a crucial put. You know, we celebrate in their successes and we, you know, we feel awful for them when they fail.

It's just, it is a great, great sport. It's a meritocracy. You know, every golfer, you know, rises or falls on his own or her own. And so it's just a great game. And you want to see golf, it's fun to watch any golf, you know, at any level. It's fun to watch. But you certainly enjoy watching golf played at the absolute highest level. And you'd like it to be able to play at the highest level with the best competitors as often as

possible. And that's in the end, what I'm hoping will be accomplished through all this is we repair the breach and professional golf at the highest level continues because it's a fabulous sport. I mean, you go back to Francis Wemette, the greatest game ever played, and golf just keeps getting better. It's very interesting. You know, we've talked about golf and it's, and it's, as a, as an entity and as, you know, it's not as big as the NFL. It doesn't have as big of a market cap as the NBA. But three of the top four highest earning athletes in the history of the world are golfers. It goes Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicholas. And so for some reason and probably a lot of the reasons that you just outlined, golf is insanely influential in our

culture, in our world. It's so individualistic. It levels the playing field. And it's individualistic in the sense that you are out there alone. It's you that hits the shots. You don't get to rely on a team. you can't have a bad game and hope your goalie bails you out, you have to just either be out there and hit the shots or when you inevitably fail, which even the best golfers of all time fail, 80, 90% of the time, you know, you see how you handle yourself in failure. You see if you have the humility to handle it well and bounce back. And so I found that very interesting that even though golf isn't as influential by the market cap in the United States, you know, a lot of the biggest figures in the history of golf have become the richest and, and, more influential figures in our society. So I find that very interesting. Well, you know, any end of game scenarios is exciting. You know, and team sports can be really exciting. But there's something in particular about golf where it comes down those last couple holes. And as a golfer, you know the pressure that's on that golfer. And you know, you've got to stay relaxed and you've got to have a soft grip. I mean, you've got to hit, you know, a perfect shot.

and you just knows how difficult it is. And then when you see these guys like Wyndham Clark, when the U.S. Open, you see all the pressure released once that final putt goes in. There's just nothing else in sports like it, quite honestly. I think that's one of the reasons that pros probably, the ones who succeed as Nicholas and as, you know, R.E. Palmer did and Tyre Woods did. It's just unique.

It's a unique type of winning. It really is. It really is. Well, I appreciate the information and the insight. It's really helped. It's helped me. I think it's going to help a lot of folks that are listening and we've got a long road to go. But I think tomorrow, hopefully we'll get some more information. And we know you're an insanely busy person with an important schedule. So Senator Johnson, we appreciate the time. I appreciate this opportunity. It's a fun topic.

Thank you.