Fore Play - The Commissioner Has Spoken, and An Astronaut Joins

Episode Date: March 10, 2022

Huge week. Commissioner Jay Monahan spoke, and he spoke firmly. Astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria (00:58:34) joins the show to discuss looking at earth from outer space and collecting a record number of space walking hours. It’s PLAYERS Championship week. Tiger Woods got inducted into the hall of fame. We take some From The Gallery. And Trent opens up about what’s he’s going through.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 Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Foreplay, I'm through my Barstool Sports. Ooh, that was a big moment. I was worried I was going to crack when I say that because of my voice kind of cracky right now. So that was big. I do think I'm going to squeal a few times in the show, so I want you guys to be mentally prepared for that. You can laugh at me, but understand that I kind of ate mild myself so you can't laugh that hard.

We got a big show. Players' Championship Week, one of the biggest weeks the entire year. Commissioner Jay Monaghan sort of, I don't want to say, broke his silence, but he had a lot of anticipation going into this press conference. One of the most unprecedented kind of a few weeks, few months in PGA Tour golf history with obviously an external threat to the PGA Tour. Commissioner takes the stage at the PGA Tour's flagship venue, gives about a 30, 40-40-minute press conference answering questions, opening statement.

And then he also sat down Mike Toriko afterwards for an in-depth interviewer. where he answered a lot of questions. He spoke about Phil Mickelson, about Greg Norman, about the PGA Tour, about so many different things. So we're going to go through some of that. We have the longest and most experienced spacewalking astronaut, I think, in history on this show. It's just a for-play podcast.

You're going to get a breakdown and a preview of the PGA Tour's biggest flagship event. It's Players Championship Week. And then also sprinkled in there, you're going to get the greatest astronaut that has walked space. He holds the record for most hours, spacewalking. Like 60 something hours, this guy is walking. He's spacewalk? 67 hours of just being with no gravity, zero gravity, floating around, looking back at Earth.

I think he goes around the whole entire. Did I hear this right where he goes around the entire Earth in 90 minutes? Because they're going like 17,000 miles an hour. I don't know how quick it was, but it was, I expected it to be months. and it was less than the day, I think. I think it was 90 minutes, dude. Because I think he was like, oh, you're over China. And then like 90 minutes, you're back of China.

He kind of said that. And I was like, what the fuck does that even mean? Could be completely wrong. Anyway, listen to the podcast and then you'll just see if I was wrong or right. His name is. I don't know what, I don't know what the, like, how far, how long, how far around is the world? And then how long does that take? But he's going a certain speed in orbit.

So you need to know how fast he's, going. Space ship Circle the Earth. Oh, wait. Didn't he say he was going? How fast did he say he say he was going? I thought he said. Approximately 90 minutes. Approximately 90 minutes. Wow. There you go. Hot start to the show. Frankie's right. His name is Michael Lopez Allegria. Did I say that right? Because the first time I said it like a normal

dumb American. I was just like, Allegria. And he's like, it's Allegria. It's like saying Greas. He speaks five fucking languages, this guy. He's going up into space with Elon Musk kind of backing him, sending him up in the, What is it that? The Axe 1 or something like that it's called. Frankie has a space shirt on. So do I. Space.

Moon Man. Moon Man. Collaboration with KFC Radio. These things are flying. No pun intended. Unbelievable shirts. Really good quality. A lot of people sometimes like to dock us.

Like, oh, we'll put really good designs on not the quality shirts that they want, blah, blah, blah. These are legit crew necks. It's crew neck season right now. You don't need the hood. It's starting to warm up a little bit,

but it's still chilly. You wear this out, you put this on with jeans, your sweatpants. You're going to look like a million bucks. It's the greatest design that our merch team has come up with for our freaking brand because it's golf and it's the space. And that's everything we talk about. So go to store. Dot bars and sports.

com. Check out our merchase. We've got new hats out there. People are noticing this spring golf tournament themed merchandise that has popped up at PGA super stores and some retail shops. Those are going to be on our website next week. So we're just kind of bringing it with the merch. And yeah, this space thing's unbelievable. Perfect connection.

this show having Mr. Lopez Elegria on the show. He's going up into space with, what is it, like the, one of the, one of the biggest or civilian included crew full. They're not real assigneurs. People that paying going up in a space. They're conducting like some experimental stuff while they're up there. So he talks about that, talks about his history, how he became an astronaut. He speaks five languages.

This guy's just amazing. So stick around for the end of the show. That is that interview. We have the Rory McRoy video. come out. It's doing numbies, numbies, as they say, on the internet. It should. He's the biggest star in the game, especially the biggest star who was currently playing on the PGA tour. No shots to be fired anyone else, but we will get to that part. So Roy McRoy video, he's amazing. He was giving us driving tips. He was like we said on the last show, just as advertised, times 10,

the coolest most, just impressive. He's an impressive human being from start to finish inside and Now, everything about him, personality, his skill set, his perception on the world, the way that he engaged with us. He's just fucking awesome. So the Rory video is killing it. Big thanks to Taylor Made helping us set that up. Shout out to Taylor Made. They just signed, I don't know, maybe the hottest player in the world, Scotty Sheffler. So Scottie Sheffler is now officially a Taylor Made athlete.

He was using, I believe, the irons, the same irons that Tiger Woods uses over at Taylor Made. He's now going to be officially locked in to use Taylor Made irons. the stealth, their woods, all that, officially a Taylor Made athlete. So congratulations to Scottie Sheffler. And you could go to varsuelsports.com slash Taylormade, by the way, to check out TaylorMade and Barstool Golf Gear. The Stealth, you saw in that video with Rory, which, yes, it's cool to see Rory and him engaging with us. Him joke, he made a little quip about Zach Johnson, which was perfect because we got Trent there, and it was while Frankie was hitting. So Trent got a big W.

All that stuff was cool. The coolest part is this driver that Rory McQuarrie is hitting called the New who tailor-made stealth where he hit it 367 he had won 367 yards in front of us i think it carried what 343 truly a remarkable swing to be able to see that in person was mind-blowing i mean rory mackeroi is um he's just got it and we've said it for years but re-watching that video last night i watched it on the tv i watched with my dad he was tearing up watching and of course it's you just can't believe that we were with Rory Macquarie.

It's an amazing video. And the fact that a guy like that, I was just discussing golf clubs with one of my buddies. And he's like, you know, I don't know what to get. Like there's all these great clubs out there. Is the stealth really that good? And at the end of the day,

all you have to really look to is that Rory McElroy, Tiger Woods, Scotty Sheffler. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. And we see the way that they talk about the clubs in that video. Rory Macri McRoy goes, have you guys tried this new stealth driver? It's amazing, isn't it?

Like, who are you going to take? take, who are you going to take that information from? You know what I mean? Some ad on the internet or whatever, or yeah, maybe there's some other tour guys that use other clubs. Or are you going to listen to Rory McRoy, the most thoughtful, he like dives deep into every aspect of the game of golf.

He really just genuinely absorbs it all. And then he releases it out to the world as the beacon. He is our voice for our generation of golfers. That's what Roy McRoy is. And he says that the stealth is an amazing driver. Who are you going to listen to? It's true. And everybody's using it.

There's so many guys on the PGA tour who are not contracted Taylor Made athletes who are using their stuff. Again, Scotty Schaffer was one of them until a couple hours ago when it was announced that he's officially a Taylor Made athlete. They just make the best stuff. The best players are using it, Tiger Woods, who came out there with a broken leg months after a horrific accident returned. He's got the spotlight. He's trying to get as much distance as he can because he can't quite push off the leg. Everybody knows the story. What did he put in the bag?

Taylor made's Delth Driver. So get out there. go get fitted. That is enormous. It's going to help you a lot. And then once you do get fitted, you will see that the tailor-made stealth driver is the best thing that you could possibly have. We love their irons, the P-770s, P-790s as well.

The mill grind three wedges, phenomenal. The spider-X never put it better in my life. So all their stuff's good. The stealth is especially good. Barswellsports.com slash tameramade. Check out Taylor-made and Barstool Golf Gear today. Okay. Players championship.

So I'm going to start by saying this is the biggest purse in PGA Tour history. $20 million purse, $20 million these guys are playing for, I believe it's 144 players in the field. They're playing for $20 million. First place will be $3.6 million. Shout to Dr. Evil. Second place, $2.18 million. Third place, $1.38 million. Fourth is $980.

You go down to the 10th place finisher this week, $545,000. If you finish 36, they're higher. you make over $100,000. And last place is $43,000 this week. $3.6 million is a stunning number. Like, I don't even, what was it last year? I don't even think it was that high last year or anything. I mean, it was probably close.

But for whatever reason, this year they're really, really going for it. And it's like, if you win $3.6 million winning a golf tournament, you're just like, that's a fucking good start. That's a good year right there. That's a good couple of years. So, I mean, this is going to be an insane tournament. So many guys are going to be gunned for that huge. That's a huge check.

Huge. It's enormous. It's as big as it gets. It's the big as it's ever gotten in golf. And if you look at it as all of the pieces coming together here this week for the PGA tour, the PGA tour is Jake taking a giant fuck you victory lap this week, just in general. You can sense it in all the coverage. The last two days since we got back from our trip, I've been glued to live from coverage. Our guy Brando up there just slinging it, all of his wisdom, how articulate he is, all the facts that he brings in. The PGA tour is doing an enormous victory lap this week without. claiming that they're doing a victory lap. They had the press conference with Jay Monaghan,

the interview with Toriko, where he gives very pointed answers. They have the purse. So it's the biggest purse ever. He's talking about how the next 10 years are going to be the best 10 years in the history of the PGA tour, how much money guys can make, how much legacy there is. He used the quote that we're about legacy, not leverage. So direct shot at Phil Mickelson. And then they're doing it all at TBC Sawgrass, highlighting Pete Dye and his, you know, magical work that he did with this golf course and the island green and the stadium course. So all of it has just come together for the PGA tour, which gets shit on a lot. Yet somehow they were able to frame themselves going against Saudi Arabia, which is the reason, I don't say somehow that is the reason going against, you know,

Saudi Arabia and their and their regime and their sport washing efforts. The PGA tour was able to, you know, actually they're able to leverage their own image against them and now look like the best thing in the fucking world. They just have come off like absolute kings. Jay Monaghan said one of his answers when asked by Mike Torrico. So a couple weeks ago at the Honda Classic when all of this was kind of hitting the fan

and guys had finally come out and they were releasing their statements and support and pledging their allegiance to the PGA tour, which was in and of itself very funny. You know, that Tuesday afterwards they had a mandatory players meeting. It was Jay Monaghan and the players in the PGA tour at the Honda Classic.

And Therico asked him, what was the reception after you gave your speech? And he said, I got a round of applause. And then basically didn't say anything after that. So imagine all the players in this room, players only meeting. The commissioner gets up after basically being publicly silent for a long time. And then just delivers this speech very pointed, very direct,

and taking a little bit of victory lap. And the players just give them a round of applause. That is now kind of seeped into this week and been magnified by a million. And the tour is really having thus far, hasn't been a golf shot hit yet. There's going to get some rain, and I'm sure people will be back to bickering pretty soon. But right now, the PGA Tour looks like the best that's ever looked at it's in its fucking career. Yeah, looking back on it now, what a gift the Saudis gave to the PGA Tour.

Because now, like everybody's just coming together, like you said, last week or a couple weeks ago, everybody was pledging their allegiance to the PJ Tour. I mean, we've been doing this podcast for four or five years now. It's a rocky relationship for the most part between the PGA Tour and the players. You just, you never know. And the PIP they tried to make it seem like it. It was better to be on the PGA tour, but they're not really evolving or adapting in the way that the players want them to. And then the Saudis come, the big bad Saudis, and say, we're going to take your players if we just offer them a bunch of money, they're going to jump ship.

And all of a sudden, the PGA tour looks great because everyone outside the golf world and certainly people inside the golf world, but people outside of it, once the Saudis get involved, people are going to start looking and being like, what the fuck's going on over there? Are people actually thinking about jumping to this league? And the players can feel that. I'm sure they all have their own motivations, whatever. reasons they didn't go over to the Saudi League. But a big part of it is perception. And now the PJ Tour has the greatest perception a league can have without having to do anything, really. They just had to not be the Saudis, which is really easy to do.

And if you're them and it's just an easier league to be a part of, like you're saying, Riggs, it's just a great time to be the PJ Tour because they've never looked better. You need someone to fuck up for you to look better, especially when you're in that scenario that the PJ Tour was in. I got something in my eye right now. I'm trying to battle through it. Hold on. Contact is killing me. Better?

A little bit. I mean, putting context in your eyes. I've been doing it since I was like 15 years old. It just never really seeps in that you're just putting plastic in your eyeballs and have. Get glasses, dude. I got to get the LASIC eyes. It looks so much more sophisticated if you had those little glasses going on. I just want to get LASA.

I want to do. I want to just, I want to wake up and just look at the TV and see it. You should get LASIC. I know. I think I'm going to do that. PGA Tour looks amazing. I was... Can you read the ticker on the TV? If you have ESPN on, can you read the ticker that goes across the bottom?

What are you nuts? That was the catalyst for me to get glasses originally. Because I didn't have glasses all the way through college. And then when I got a 9 to 5 job looking at a screen all day, my eyes started to wear down. And when I realized I couldn't read like the batting average of whoever on the bottom of the screen, I was like, oh, I got to go get my eyes checked and I had to get glasses. Yeah, that was the, I told the story before when I picked my buddy up one time, eight years ago or so, who got LASIC, picked him up from the airport,

brought him back to the apartment to hang for a few hours. And he started to take off the bandages and get through. And then a few hours later, he just goes, wait, you guys could read the bottom of this the whole fucking time. No, Frank, you should. I think I really am because they're starting to really bother me recently. But yeah, I'm just jacked up for the for the tour right now. almost like rooting for the golf course. It feels a little weird.

It feels a little naughty to be rooting for the tour. But something about it. We have had, speaking of rocky relationships, we've had a rocky relationship with the tour. Not now. It's great now, but in the past we certainly did. But now it's,

we're all gung-ho on the PGA tour. Just two weeks ago, I was mother effing the PGA tour, and I thought that there should be some sort of competition. And now all of a sudden, like I said, all you need is one epic collapse and the other person just needs to stay still

and not do anything. And they're just the victors. So PGA Tour has just completely, you know, gotten a really good hand. And they got dealt a really good hand. And the Saudis just busted and it's over and they win. PGA Tour wins. It has allowed the PGA Tour too to, for the first time, truly be able to highlight the positives that they do for their players

and for kind of golf in general. Because usually they're just, when you're sort of just taking and defending yourself all the time, you can never really highlight the positives that you do. When somebody bitches about the setup or they bitch about the revenue share or they bitch about media rights or bitch about there's not any transparency. Anytime you're on the defensive when you're on your heels, it's impossible to come off looking like you're awesome and doing a great job. In this scenario where they finally have looked like the good guy

and where Jay Monahan was able to emerge as a clear leader and someone who is befriended by and supported by all the players, it has allowed them to, they were on the defensive for months, trying to get through the Saudi thing. Now that they got through it and everyone's looking at them as the victors, it has allowed them the opportunity to focus on the good that they're doing with the TV contracts, with the ESPN Plus, with livestream, with PGA Tour Live, with the biggest person, the history of golf, with, you know,

throwing more money at events going forward with the severance deals that they have for their members after they play. It has allowed them to highlight all the good, the money that a lot of their events raised for charity. All of that has allowed them to come off, highlight the goods that they do, bring up a couple new things, right? So then people can focus again on those cool new things. Wow, they're throwing $50 million to player impact program that didn't exist before. And you just, again, throw all that into this little soup. And that is a delicious suit for the BGA tour this week.

And it happened to come timing-wise at their flagship event. It was very clear that, you know, Monaghan keeping pretty much his public silence. for these last two weeks was because they wanted to build up and have this week be what it's been so far of like, yep, we're going to be at our home course. We're going to be at our event. That event is called the players. It was created for the players. We do the best thing in the history of golf tours for the players. And bang, here we are. And if you go through Jay Monaghan's entire, you know, yesterday, the day that he had Tuesday at TBC Sawgrass, I mean, I would say he came off like a guy that you do not want to fuck with. He came off like a guy incredibly proud that he thwarted off this attack.

He was, he was, I would almost say cocky without saying it. His answers, he was like, he seemed ready, like ready for anything else that comes armed if he needs it, understands that there might be more attacks, but that he really was in a position of power. He shrugged off the notion of Greg Norman. He was asked by Toriko if he has spoken to Greg Norman, and he said, no. He just, and then he was asked, do you have any intention or would you like to speak to Greg Norman? And he said, no. And then he went on about his own thing. And it reminded me of, you know, a Big West Wing fan, President Josiah Bartlett on that show. And he's running for re-election. And he's obviously the president. It comes off, very presidential. And he's meeting with his advisors. I think it was Joshua

the lineman who said this, meeting with his advisors about the potential, you know, competitors, other candidates from the other side, they're going to run against them. And if he should be responding to some of these attacks as they're going through their primary. And they came up with a great point of these guys look like clowns. If we even engage in debate with them right now, it elevates them to our level and they seem presidential. And if we just ignore them, then we are the only entity that comes off as presidential. And that was what Jay Monaghan reminded me of of like, no, why?

I talked to hit like what were the PGA tour. I'm not even going to entertain that they exist. He actually used the words sometimes of why would I entertain a hypothetical of a tour, another tour that doesn't even exist. And he just shrugged them off without saying, I'm fucking shrugging you off, you little men that couldn't get anything done. And so he had that entire sort of aura around him.

And then, I mean, he just buried Phil Mickelson. I can't tell you how many times he buried Phil Nicholson throughout this entire. thing. But man, is Phil, Phil's image rehab, I don't know how this thing's going to go. I don't know where Phil Mickelson goes from this. He was asked multiple times if he has spoken to Phil Mickelson since Phil's statements a few weeks ago. He said no. So he hasn't had a single word from Phil Nicholson. We had Brando. Do you think that's true? Do you think that's true? Yeah, because he was asked multiple times about it, like very directly. And like, why would he, arm fill with a lie.

Why would Phil be able to come out then in the next couple weeks? It would be like, well, the court commissioner lied. Here's my phone record. Here's my text exchange. Like, why did he lie and say we haven't spoken? Yeah, that's true. I guess, I guess, like, he's probably telling the truth, but there's also

part of me that's like, they had to have had some conversation, even about this tournament this week. Like, hey, like, Jay, just being like, hey, you're not coming, right? Like, just do not show up to this tournament. And also, like, there had been talks of the suspension. I'm not the first person to come up with this idea on Twitter. But, like, they were never going to officially suspend him unless he tried to come back. Like, if you,

if Phil's like, I'm going to come back and I'm going to show up with the players and it's going to be a whole charade and it's going to be crazy. And that's what all the conversation is going to be about. It's not going to be about your flagship event. It's going to be about me showing up to it. If they had had a conversation like, if you decide, if you agree to not come to this tournament, we will not put out any sort of official suspension, but he's basically suspended by not being suspended. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, yes.

And all of his answers about this yesterday were so fascinating to try to read between lines because I think you're right. I think he's suspended without being suspended, but I also think he's kind of suspended himself. And so he didn't put these guys in a position to suspend him because he was asked, Tricco asked him directly. He's like, if Phil Nicholson had told you we wanted to come and play in this event, Was there a stop sign up saying, no, Phil Mickelson, you cannot play in this event?

And he paused for a while and looked and was like, no, there wasn't a stop sign up. Phil Mickelson, the ball is in his court, blah, blah, blah. So it was like he didn't, he didn't say directly that he's suspended. I don't think that he directly had to suspend him. He kept reverencing like Phil Nicholson chose to step away from the game and from this tour. And we totally respect that. and we're totally going to just respect his time away. And when he's ready to come back, he can have that conversation.

The ball is in his court. So it was like he officially suspended himself and I have no problem with that. And I'm not going to put myself as the bad guy that suspended him. But when he's ready to turn, return, he better have a fucking conversation with me. It's basically what he's saying. I'm actually flipping. I think they definitely had a conversation. And what you're saying is right that it's not smart by Monaghan to,

arm Phil with a lie. But like, Phil's not going to, Phil is in such a bad spot right now that he, is he now going to like go to war with the PJ tour about a lie at a press conference because, you know, they actually did have a conversation about him showing up the players and they said he shouldn't. Like, I think there have been 100% conversations happening. And Phil is just so, he's so backed into a corner that he really doesn't have any moves except just to sit there with his tail between his legs. Well, Monaghan didn't have to speak with him. I think he's telling the truth on that. I mean, the PGA Tour isn't just Monaghan. He could have talked to a thousand other people that work underneath Monaghan, a player advisor of the PGA Tour, whatever.

But you're saying it's semantics. I mean, why would he lie? Because, because Phil Nicholson wants to have as much credibility at the end of this as he possibly can. He doesn't want to be looked at as a guy who lost his legacy over this thing that he was trying to gain leverage over. But he's not going to go more right now with the PJs. But he might just be like, hey, this is like kind of stuff I was talking about. They're not trustworthy. they're greedy they're not like they're not they have no communication the players don't know what's going on we don't get to have the same rights that we would have in another turn in another tour whatever he could spin it however way he wants it would kind of make monahan look like a weirdo for just being like

no we never spoke it'd kind of be point why would why would mind give him even the chance to put a point on the board when it's a hundred to nothing right now you know what i mean it's an absolute blowout like don't even let the guy even have a chance so that's to me to me i don't see that i mean his words for word so the reporter asked it sounds the way you're speaking as if he is suspended. Had he wanted to play here this week would he have been welcomed and Monahan said he stepped

away on his own accord and he's asked for time. He's been given that time. We don't comment on disciplinary matters, potential matters or actual matters. But every player is accountable for their actions out here. See that sounds like a guy holding a shotgun

to another guy who was like, I have it. So I'm just going to say I'm going to lie through my teeth today. And you cannot come back at me because you are Phil Mickelson right now and you made a lot of mistakes. Dude, this press conference and everything that he said yesterday was just awesome. It was so different than anything I've ever seen in golf. And we've got to get the body armor here in a second. But you're right.

I mean, all of the trying to read between the lines and all this and it could just be some antics. I mean, if Jay Monaghan, I don't think there's any way that he would just lie. No, I have not spoken to Finn, because of him. if he's directly spoken to him. But I think the point is still the exact same. If he's spoken to, you know, the disciplinary board, basically, and they said to Phil, or the disciplinary board sent a message to Phil's agent being like, you know, Phil Mickelson is not welcome to players championship.

Then, you know, Monehant can still go up there, claim that he didn't lie and that he's not spoken to Phil. Yet it was very clear from the tour's perspective of like, if you show up, you will be arrested at TBC's all-grap. It sure seems that way. It really does seem that way. Real quick, body armor, they are body armor light. Okay, it's the low-coury sports drink, hydrating your active lifestyle. Body armor light is the low-coury sports drink that's unlike any other.

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all the flavors. We love body armor. So, yeah, Phil Mickelson, I don't, Do you think he releases anything this week or no? No. Yeah, I could see him saying like how the players means so much to him and it's sad the way that this has gone and he's still taking time. I could totally see a statement coming from him.

I mean, he's not the kind of person that always does those Tiger Woods, you know, quote cards. I could see him. He usually gives a lot more in interviews, which he won't be granted that opportunity, I don't think, because he's just good, I don't know where Phil is right now. Also, where's Greg Norman right now? If you had to picture where Greg Norman is right now, where would you say? I picture Dr. Evil's lair. I picture him hanging upside down held from his feet, like in a cave.

Shirt off, fires burning on his chest. I see just like red flames going around. Mad at him because it didn't work. He's just getting lowered into just like boiling water or something. And he's kind of just sitting there being like, well, I fucked up. Yeah. You think the Saudis got them? Is that what you're saying?

That's just what I picture. I just picture it's a movie scene, almost like an Indiana Jones setting. You know what I mean? Are you picturing what I'm picturing? Yeah. Okay. You got to hope that he didn't make outlandish promises

when he was named to the commissioner. You know? You got to hope that he wasn't like, I can land all the big fish. All we got to do is put this money out there. No big deal. We'll be running up and run in no time. And then it just didn't work out.

Yeah, your visual is probably more right. it sucks because he was a great interview and he's a led one of the best it's just unfortunate that it's got an absolute hammercock but it's unfortunate that he just went this route i think and i still want to say this after all that's come out i still think the intentions the intentions of these guys from the beginning weren't the worst things in the world it's just who they partnered with you understand what i'm saying like the intentions of trying to create a competitive world in in sport has been around forever. Just because it's now happening

the PGA Tour does not mean it's the first time that this has ever happened. The XFL was a thing. I mean, I don't know if it's ever happened in baseball, but like it does, there's other leagues

all around the world and all other sports. It's just these guys just partnered with the wrong people. Like you're allowed to try and create leverage. That's not a wrong thing. If Greg Norman,

I don't think that his intentions from the beginning were horrific, but staying with it after everything that's come out, after everything that we'll see. He knew. Right. I mean, yes, if you want to look at like, if you want to look at that deep, like, he didn't sign up to be the commissioner and then was like, what's going on over here? Like, that's not, that's not what's going on. No, I know, but just for me as a viewer that didn't know that much about it, like, I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt of like just trying to create something that is leverage for players to try and create another tour and other opportunities for golfers to make more money or do whatever it is. I don't think that's the worst thing in the world. It's so I, I don't know. I don't think like Greg Norman is like we're not, I don't want to just say Greg.

Norman's like a Saudi regime guy and just be like that guy's fucking, he's, we're not just going to start putting murders on his name because of what he did with this golf event. You know what I'm saying? It would, it would, we're not putting Greg Norman in jail because of this. It went so poorly for them that it wouldn't surprise me if Greg Norman was a double agent for the PJ tour. That they set him up and told him, set this up and then we are going to, it actually is all about leverage, but it's just, it's ours and not yours.

Because that's how poorly it went. It went horrific. It just went really bad. So, Frankie, to that point, and I know what you mean, and we've talked a lot on the show about justifications for it or are they right to some degree. And the amount of interest that they clearly had from a lot of big names in golf means that there were some legitimate reasons, at least what the players believe, to start another league and not even necessarily direct competitor league,

but something else, maybe team-oriented, which we've talked about, team formats how cool that would be. We get so hyped up during the Riter Cup, President's Cup, that there should be more team stuff. So clearly there is like a desire from a lot of top players for something different or a different format or different revenue shares or whatever. I do think that ultimately, and a lot of the talking heads did a good job of highlighting this enough is that, you know, the Saudi regime has done so many horrific atrocities and that anyone that would believe that they are in it just to grow the game of golf, that these guys over there just love golf and want to grow the game of golf.

Everyone knows that you don't believe that. Greg, Norman doesn't believe that. Phil Mickelson doesn't believe that. Nobody. So then what is their other reason to do it? It is sport washing. It is literally to raise their image around the globe as we just have normal Western-type stuff that goes on over here to hide a lot of the horrific atrocities that actually go on over there.

and then if you are a willing pawn for that, you're only doing that so that you can get rich, aka you are willingly just taking horrific blood money and painting that picture up against Greg Norman and up against Phil Mickelson. And Brandel did a phenomenal job of this last night because he was asked directly by Rich Lerner of, hey, Phil Nicholson, what did he really do wrong?

Like tell me, you know, he wanted to create leverage and that created the PIP program and he got a few other players that he recruited to really come in and showcase and talk about some of the things they wish the tour did better. What do you really do wrong? And then Brano went on this sort of essay saying what I just said. And when you, you know, remember that show that we had after Phil delivered the statements of how they're, they're bad motherfuckers and they will literally kill people for being gay.

And our whole take was like, we're comparing fucking disagreements over a golf league to that. Like, you can't be in a position where you're comparing differences around golf and golf broadcast to that. And ultimately, if there's a few big names that looked like all they wanted to do was commit their allegiance to that, it could be really hard to clear your name from that, I think. Absolutely. I couldn't agree more. I wonder what Greg. I wonder how people will perceive Greg Norman going forward. That would be interesting.

I know. And he, he's always had kind of a weird. Yeah. You know, public image, right? Like he did try to kind of create another league in like, what was it? The early 90s show. He's like the shark and he was Australian, different, cocky and all that. True.

There is a part of me that he doesn't even care. He's just like, yeah, it didn't work. I agree with that. I agree with that. I mean, he also is like he's boys. He's boys with, you know, the presidents, right? Like he's got that story about him and like President Clinton at the time. And so he's just been kind of through all kinds of stuff.

He's got a hammer, you know, he's good-looking guys, got a lot of star power. He just might be on his yacht, not give it a fuck. Now, how far do you think the PGA tour goes now with re-evaluating, like, who they partner with and where they go? Like, they played the HB, uh, it was it, the HBSC, HSBC, H-S-B-S-B-C? They play that in China. Like, Rory Macquarie Warned that golf tournament. They're just, I mean, they don't have the greatest human rights in the country of China. It's just as simple as that.

Like, where do we draw the line on where we just accept what, like, the morals of the country that you're playing golf in. Like why? You know what I mean? To me, if I'm a Greg Norman and I'm not trying to defend the guy. I'm just saying like, at what point do you say like, well, where do we draw the line on us just trying to make a business out of something, right? You guys partner with China. If you're going to stand up for everything that they do to their people, I mean, it's an extremely poor country with the most money and revenue coming in ever of all time. Like, where are you going to draw the lines on human rights and what people are doing? Yes, I think they're both horrific to the people. They're bad human rights. They have horrific human rights. what's the word I'm looking for? Record.

God, fuck. But the point I'm trying to make is where do you draw the line? Okay? That's my point. I agree. I agree. And it's, you know, there was such intense opposition to this, unlike whenever they've played in China.

And they didn't, they've forever done an entire, or not forever, but for a while, done, you know, an Asian swing out there. They've promoted their big events in China. They haven't been able to go for a few years with COVID and all that. But when they do potentially go back there and look, guys like guys that partner with Nike and their track record and history of sweatshops and how Nike's created. Like there's been that point made of like how come we're just okay with that and nobody ever brings that up yet that player is able to criticize publicly a potential partnership with Saudi Arabia.

Like where do you draw that line? Where will be going forward? And, you know, do you have to just only partner with people? people and entities that have a perfect, flawless history and how far do you go back, right? I mean, do you say you're not going to play in PJ Tor events in America because America has a horrible slavery record? Like, you could, like, how far back do you go? Where do you draw that line? I don't want to say it gets, like, tricky because I think putting like, you know, human rights and humanitarian records and history are so much more important than golf tournaments. But it'll be

fascinating to see where people draw the line and, and how much. much kind of the public fervor gets going again because that's what happened with this. And ultimately, I think against a lot of odds, the PGA tour thwarted the attack. I mean, it doesn't feel like that long ago where this thing had some pretty serious momentum. I mean, it really felt like they were going to get some big players. They were going to kind of come up with some cool concepts. And then again, a lot of the talking heads and a lot of the articles and social media just hammered, you know, that contrast between golf tournaments and horrific atrocities to the point where

the PGA Tour was victorious, held on to the allegiance, a lot of the players. And again, is having, I think, public opinion-wise, like the best week of the history of the PGTor. I agree. We'll see. We will see. It'll be interesting. Okay. Rory.

We talked about having Rory on the show or on YouTube, which was extremely cool. Go watch it. Go watch it. Rory had a Rory still this week. was asked and was incredibly honest about, you know, PJ Tour. He asked to give a report card on how Monaghan has done. He gave him a raving review, but still was honest like he always is and said, I think transparency and maybe not being as closed of a shop would be an improvement.

I've always felt that a few of the bans and suspensions, I think that should all be announced. I've always said that, which I think is true. I agree with that. I think everybody agrees with that. And really a lot of the points that have been made and were discussed over the last year or so have been around gambling. I mean, if you're going to gamble on the PGA tour on professional golf, and they do not

disclose a lot of things, they do not disclose disciplinary stuff. They do not disclose rules and fractions all the time. They do not disclose like injuries. They don't disclose a lot of things. And Dave was talking about this when he was ranting about the Calvin Ridley situation where He was like, almost nobody has any information that everybody can't get because there's 45 beat reporters on every single team. You have all the information you know every single player,

how every bone in their body is feeling. On the PGA tour, you get kind of none of it. So if anything, I think it probably focuses and is going to affect mostly people that are into gambling and gambling around golf. And again, Monaghan had a very Monaghan-like response and just said, if that's something that a member of our board feels strongly about, rest assured it's a conversation we'll have with our player advisory council and ultimately our board that's the way the system works it's a criticism that has been lobbied against the pj tour through the

years and i think i've always had to be open to evolving and to kind of put some context to his tone he fake suspended roy right before that and said i would just say effective immediately roy mackroy is suspended so clearly he and rory have a great relationship um but point being rory honest awesome cool you should go watch our video and he did make some good points about transparency should be a little better on PJ Tor. Yeah, they've always, they've just, it's always been weird. It's always just felt weird in terms of their transparency with suspensions and all that. Like, things would happen and, you know, a guy would go away for a while.

And he'd be like, is he suspended? Did he do something? Like, Dustin Johnson was like that where it was like, what, what's going on? I don't understand. And it's, yeah, you're right with the gambling front. I actually hadn't thought about that. That's a, that's a huge part of it. But just as a fan, like I would just like to know what's going on in the least.

league that I follow. And it's really as simple as that. Now, after reading those comments and seeing the way they think about transparency, do you think Monaghan would ever lie about having spoken to Phil Mickelson and saying that he didn't? That's different. That's different. I wouldn't say. But it's just a transparency thing. It's just like these, like, you want to just know what's going on. Why would he ever just come out and say they didn't speak to him? But I don't think that the, yeah, I mean, I literally like what they're talking about, suspect, like is Phil suspended, have you spoken to him, what is actually going on? And he would just say, no, we don't, we haven't spoken yet. That would be a little bit more of like the hiding of what's going on that

Rory's kind of talking about. I guess for me, a lot of it is contextual. And when you're taking this victory lap, when like you said, Frankie, you're up 100 or nothing, why would you risk giving up a major? Why would you risk giving up like a 50 point fucking touchdown or something? Like you just, you're dominating. You don't need to do that. So I, yeah, but they haven't been transparent. It has to transpoint just always felt fucking weird. Like, why are they hiding it? What's the, what's the point? I guess is to protect the players so much and to protect like their image of the tour, right? Because the tour has such a clean image. We've talked a lot of times about how the sponsors that really come into the tour are like financial companies that don't get into edgy type stuff, right? They're like clean,

clean image. Everything's perfect. You're going to have a great retirement fun and life smooth and we don't really get into weird different stuff. And so just, you know, disclosing the fact that fucking maybe a guy sneaking into a porter potty like ripping a joint they just don't disclose that yeah boy i'd like to see all release those records at some point i want to see who's been suspended over the years like you're right that they how is that never gotten out right because there's got to be like at the end of the day it's a professional sport and we see how professional sports are it's it's kind of the wild west not so much anymore maybe with social media and all that it still is but like when sports leagues, when professional people who get paid a lot of money all congregate and sort of

just interact with each other, crazy shit happens. And I would love to know what's been going on for decades at the PJ tour that they haven't been telling us. Same. And I want to know what people have actually been suspended for. Like I bet there's a bunch of them that are preposterous. Ones we wouldn't expect. Yeah, like really crazy ones. I would love to see those.

And to speak to the sort of kind of. contradictory nature of it. When asked about the PIP program, Monahan said, if you look out in the future, we want our athletes to be more ubiquitous in mainstream media in the mainstream consciousness. And the way to do that is to get behind their tour

and continue to promote and build it. But to use the NBA, who does probably the best job of this, is like, you need to lean in and highlight the fact that people are people and they have fuckups, they have drama, you have 100 and you have 200 people out on the PGA tour that are interacting week to week they're not going to like each other i mean we you know we got whatever four or five of us we go on a trip where we film golf we all get along great we're good friends by like day three or four we fucking hate each other we want to like rip each other's throats out so now you're putting all these people out there that are literally direct professional competitors there's got to be crazy shit in the netflix documentary i'm sure we'll do a great job of it um but it does seem contradictory to have that statement about you know

growing the ubiquitous, ubiquitous mainstream media consciousness of professional golfers, but then hiding that any of them are normal people, basically, and have normal imperfections. Right. Like a big part of professional sports outside of golf is the theater of the off season or the theater of everything else that's going on.

Like, yeah, people like everything that goes on on the court or on the field or, you know, whatever sport it is. But it's the stuff outside of that. And it can be positive. It can be negative. you don't really know. When you allow those things to get out and you highlight them, you don't know what you're going to get, really.

But what ends up happening is it drums up a ton of interest. And you just, whether or not you like that, where the interest is coming from, interest is interest at the end of the day and more eyeballs are a good thing. And a sport like golf could use a few more eyeballs. So something like this would go a long way. Def court, court, field, rink, pitch.

I couldn't think of the other one. I think that I mean got way more than I did I think that's it court field course pitch rank track

track track that was the good one track track is there a different word to like F1 all the time for cricket is it a cricket field might be pitch they might use pitch as well that's a great word

it's a pitch because it actually is pitched in the middle, correct? Oh, I don't know. Is that true? Yeah, if you look at a soccer field, like a European soccer field for sure, is pitched in the middle so that all the water drains off the sides. Oh, wow. My high school football field is pitched. I see.

It's raised in the middle, almost like a mini roof. Now, I could be a thousand percent wrong on that. You had to have heard that somewhere. There's no way your brain just thought of that. I'm putting them together myself because I know it's called a pitch, and I know that they say if you go and sit in the first row of a soccer game, let's say you go to like Liverpool or whatever, and you go sit in the first row,

you cannot see the other side because it's so, the mound gets so high in the middle. Does that make the players run faster going towards the sideline? I don't know. I think it's so gradual. Is that a stupid question? It's such a big field. I think it's so gradually you can't even tell, you know what I mean?

I wonder if you're right Imagine I'm so wrong on this Imagine it's a flat field It's not a flat field I know that No my football field in high school Wasn't flat for that same reason You have a drainage system under the field

And when it rains You can like we used Before that I was there when they made the transition And before that It would rain for like an hour And be like all right The game's delayed for an hour And then after that

It would rain for a whole night And we wouldn't have to delay anything Because it would just drain out it was perfect. I wonder if that's why they called a pitch, though. Some interesting information here. So first thing that I kind of read is cricket fields often have inconsistent sizes. However, they all tend to be circular diameter of 50 yards.

The size is perfect for hosting a soccer match. Cricket was originally way more popular than soccer. Once soccer became incredibly popular, they basically picked up what they did in cricket. The pitch got its name because before every game, cricket players had to pitch the stumps to set up the playing area. Eventually, pitching the stumps got shortened to the pitch. Now, what is pitching the stumps?

Now, that can't be true. Cricket can't be an earlier game than soccer. I think cricket goes back like thousands of years. I mean, I think cricket's been around. More than soccer, you get a fucking ball and feet and cleats. that's got to be more I mean come on but think about this like cricket right like yeah but you're whacking a little ball and stumps and like you know you could be doing that almost anywhere that's why all it feels different like you you think 200 years ago there was like a big net that they were kicking a

soccer ball into that seems like that's not but soccer was so I mean all you need it like your argument work your argument works for wrestling where it's just like two guys and they were just like let's come on soccer is so much more available to so many more people in cricket you serious it's a ball. You can play it, you can hit it up against a fucking garbage can. I know enough about what I don't know and I know that you making claims like that seem outrageous. Bro, the cricket fucking bat is a lot more intricate than a fucking soccer ball. I'm looking outside right now. There's a stick outside. That's a bat. We're going to get to the bottom of this. We're going to get to the bottom of Roman first.

People are going to be mad listening to this. Roman could help you get to the bottom if you know what I mean. You go to get Roman.com slash four. Get your first month to twice for just $5. look roman's about lasting longer all right thinking about soccer the pitch whatever these crazy conversations who knows what you try to think about when you're trying to last longer it doesn't always work the folks at roman which is an online men's health company they've changed the game with roman swipes did you find anything yet frankie are you researching it yes yeah i've got there's more fans of soccer than cricket by a billion yeah didn't you well yeah that's what

they were saying was that once soccer got bigger you know they had to anyway Anyways, getting bigger, Roman can ship swipes to you. Stay and bigger. I don't know if they do that. Stay and stay in bigger. Yeah, for longer. Ship swipes to you in discreet, unmarked packaging. Each swipes bag gets small enough to hide in your wallet whenever you need it.

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That is get Roman.com slash four. I really need to learn what pitch the stumps, What the hell does that mean? Is that... I don't... What are the stumps? I know nothing about cricket. I don't know much either.

I know when we're in Australia, there was cricket on TV and I was like, holy shit. They love cricket here. And they did. The match was going on for four days. They just go on forever. Frankie seems deep in a Google... Kind of deep in the Google game, too. It's hard to really find this answer.

I wish... See you on the pitch. Sackerelson. once say that you thought that the highest paid player in the world was a cricket player? Yeah, I said that to Dave Portnoy once. And Dave's the only person that you can't just say random things to because he'll just, he'll kind of sit there. Yep.

Look out the window of the Uber and then be like, wait, what? And then you're dead. And then you're dead. I remember saying like, man, like something came across my phone where it was like cricket. This guy made a new contract for like $160 million. and whatever and I was like man you know I actually heard I was looking at my phone and the Uber I'm like you know I actually heard that cricket players on average get paid the most money and than any other sport and then I kept talking I'm like it's just crazy over there like they just fucking they they just

play cricket and we just don't and he's like wait what was that and we we dove in and I was just wrong by a long shot you know there were there were a lot of things that I had to then have on my side for it to be somewhat correct where it was like the amount of games they played played for how much they get paid it was like top 10 this one guy made like 200 million dollars he only played like 10 games a year you know what i mean it's something like that yeah you're you're in the web and you're once you get into the semantics it's it's either it's just black and white like you know soccer players yes or no yeah yeah somebody what's up doc us on the pitch because the only thing i keep finding is they called soccer field the pitch because it came from cricket but

they don't say where cricket got the thing from and i'm in middle of a show i can't be reading all day long So anyways, we need to figure that out. We'll figure it out later. If somebody does come up with it on this show, just hollered out. And we'll probably get diverted and talk about that. Tiger Woods, Hall of Fame induction ceremony is going on tonight. We're recording midday. If it really is crazy, we're going to kind of come back and do 10 or so more minutes on it and react to it.

It's, I didn't, you know, Hall of Fame induction ceremony, I think of really just not that big of a deal. Like an award show or something. It's kind of like if you're, it's just for people that are there and into it. and if you're not that into it, then it's no extra thing. But more, I'm hearing them talk about this thing on live from coverage. Sounds like it could be quite the scene. He's going to have his daughter, Sam, is going to introduce him. I think, again, they're expecting, like, the biggest players in the world

are going to, like, come to this thing and be sitting there and, like, clapping. And who knows what's going to happen at this ceremony? Tiger's mom's going to be there. His entire inner circle is going to be there. It is just, it is weird in general that golf inducts people into the, Hall of Fame while they're just still playing. I find that, I mean, I find that just kind of bizarre, but I guess they don't really have any other way to do it because guys just keep playing, some guys could just keep playing

forever. And if, you know, so I, I don't know, it's bizarre. They change, not that long ago, they changed the minimum age from 50 to 45. Tiger's 46. So like the second that he turned 45 last year, he got, it was announced he's going to get inducted into Hall of Fame. He's had to make, and he made this statement when he was hosting at Riviera. He was like, yeah, it is a little bit bizarre.

It's mixed emotions because on one hand, I'm reflecting on this, this career that I've had. I think it's pretty good. And people were kind of honoring me and it's nice. But he's like, on the other hand, I'm geared up to come out and fucking win tournament. So I, you know, it's a little, the whole thing is just a, I don't know. It's a little bit of weird feeling. I don't like.

Yeah. I think, I think you should, if you are the PJ or if you're the, if you're the hall for the whole, if you're saying like, what judge each situation by the guy. as opposed to just when they're 45 they can go in. Like, I agree with you. Inducting Tiger Woods right now feels weird. It feels like we're, it's something's over,

but nothing's over. We're just beginning a new part of it. I like celebrating a guy while he's still in the mix, aka still alive. I think we as human beings are very strange, and it's just, it's natural to just celebrate someone after they have passed. But like,

we do it so, we go so crazy when like a celebrity passes away or like someone you know what i mean like uh like prince when he when he passed away for two months all you saw were like prince stuff like how come that didn't happen while he was you know right before he died like he could have seen all that stuff i hate the fact that they never get to see this stuff so i'm not trying to be morbid like tiger but at least he gets to fucking like he's still a player he still gets to like be a part of this mix it's not like they're going to do all this stuff 30 years from now when like he doesn't even care about it he cares about it very much charlie cares about

very much his daughter cares about very much it's like they're just in it right now they're in that world. I think we should take when we have the opportunity to just do it. It also seems like for a guy like Tiger, and this is my perception, not his, like, we knew he was going to the hall, you know, from the jump. So it's like, the hall is a big deal seemingly to a bigger deal to guys who just get in or they're like, this is the highlight of my career. I can't believe I'm in the Hall of Fame. Holy shit, this is amazing. And for Tiger, I think he won't say this and he won't express this emotion. But he's just kind of like, yeah, I mean, I'm Tiger Woods. of course I'm going into the golf hall of thing.

Like, what are you crazy? Yeah, the main thing I don't like about it. What are you crazy? Frank, yeah, makes me think I just can't. Dude, yesterday I was flying back. 10 times. Dude, I was flying back and go to this little pub at the airport. And I'm trying to, I'm like eating healthy.

I get like a lemonade and a water and like a chicken Caesar salad. The waiter comes right by. He's like, when the salad sees like, you like any like salt pepper with that? And I was just, I legit like almost fell off my chair. And he just looked at me. And I was just like, it was like he had no clue and it was perfect. And I just was like, I'm sorry, man. God.

No. What are you crazy? I'm driving. It's so good. Trette is this is an inside joke that you just don't know anything about, which is okay. I know. It's fine. It's that guy.

It's Conner. I love that guy. I love that guy. He's so, he's unlike anyone I've ever met. He's just, he's so funny. He's so funny. And in a way that I've never met. The way that he's.

starts the laugh right after he says it is the most it's the most contagious thing i've ever been around you just he could say anything laugh and then you laugh he literally say anything and i mean i'll just retell it for all the listeners that said it but basically he was he was at this restaurant and the guy comes over and goes crushed red pepper sir and he goes what are you nuts i'm driving and just like did his little laugh after the waiter fucking lost it almost fucking drop the pepper. Like, it's the whole thing is just,

it's a, it's a home run 10 times out of 10. He says it now over everything. If you hit a bad drive, he goes, what are you crazy? I'm driving. It's like,

it doesn't make any sense. It's just, uh, yeah, I'm going to beat that one way into the ground. Like, I'm going to fucking dig all the way down and fucking bury that thing deep.

So Tiger Woods, the, the main issue that I have and with it being weird is I don't want this to be and come off. like, oh, Tiger, you had a great, career, man. What's clap for that career that you had? That was lovely. Say off into the sunset, man, we're going to parade you around and celebrate you and kiss your feet awesome job. It's like,

no, no, he's like going to wear the black and the red shirt and he's going to come out and like try to dust you next month. Like what? So that that dichotomy of the whole thing, I think makes it a little bit weird. I do agree with you, Frankie. It's like almost the, the alive funeral episode, you know, or it's like you want to, why do you have funeral for somebody to tell them how great they and how much you loved them after they're so weird it's so weird that we do that it's like we wait for yeah we wait for people to die it'd be like how much we loved them so you kind of translate that to this i agree on that front so yeah it's i don't know i hope it'll be cool tonight i imagine you know you and me are theatrics guys so when they go through the theatrics and tigers up there

and his daughter and they're pan into the crowd and and then you've got like the number one ranked player in the world and a lot of the best studs in the history of the game or they're clapping and I think it's going to be pretty fucking cool. So congratulations, Tiger Woods. He deserves it, you know, I would say, deserves to be in the Hall of Fame for sure. Lane is another one, bowling lane. And a table, ping pong table. That's it.

Now we're getting a little crazy. Wow, that's it. That's the only ones. A pool, I guess. What would that be? Oh, yeah, pool. Pool is a big one. I guess we are getting crazy now.

Yeah. that's a little ridiculous felt for fucking well now you're just doing failure you're just not now I got a table in front you didn't know I guess you said tape

you're just saying anything yeah I love lap you're just looking at things and saying the carpet for like downstairs knee hockey okay should we throw with the interview

and then we'll do a little bit of from the gallery after the interview does that work for you guys that'd be fantastic yeah absolutely So here we have, man.

We're going to go to space. We've got the record holder, spacewalking, savant legend, 60 plus hours, I believe was the number. We did this interview a few weeks ago, so again, a couple of our stats could be wrong. Frankie was right within 90 minutes. But we're going to throw it to the first astronaut who has ever been on the show, Michael Lopez Allegria. All right, folks, we're joined by a guest, unlike any that we've had before and one that I think all three of us are extremely. giddy to talk to. Michael Lopez Allegria, is that right? Allegria, like Sangria.

Allegria. You are incredibly impressive. You are pentolingual, which means you speak five different languages. I believe you hold the NASA record for the most time spent spacewalking of any American. So, first of all, welcome to the show. I imagine you know nothing about us. I hope you know nothing about us. I hesitate to say that I know very little about you. Apologies. Okay, no, that's quite okay. We do a golf podcast where we spin off the planet, no pun intended, talking about, you know, space and the things that we're quite interested in.

So I'm going to start with, you know, how and why did you get into, you know, science, space, becoming an astronaut because to us, that is, you know, a childhood dream that almost no one ever realizes. Yeah, so I grew up, I was 11 when we landed on the moon for the first. first time. And I have to say that that was a pretty impactful moment for me, even as a kid. You know, I was at the beach with my family. And I saw how these adults that were strangers were like hugging each other. And it just seemed like an important thing. And then I always kind of leaned toward the math and science side when I was in school, you know, better at that than English and other things like that. And I sort of tumble-weeded my way into space. I went to the Naval Academy, thought I wanted to be a submariner, ended up being an aviator. As an aviator, I studied

engineering at the Academy and wanted to combine those two aviation and engineering. That's what test pilots do. Turns out a lot of original test pilots were astronauts, I should say, original astronauts were test pilots. And then sort of the whole dream that I had had as a kid was reborn. And I just kind of followed a a fairly well-beaten path to NASA. Wow. That's incredible. How, you know, were you intimidated getting into kind of that path, you know, arriving and becoming part of, you know, NASA, where you're going to chase your dreams? Were you intimidated getting there?

Yeah, 100%. I mean, it's a pretty impressive organization to join. I mean, I think in terms of a brand, it's kind of the gold standard really around the world, right? And to be in the astronaut office is pretty overwhelming at the beginning. And it still is, I think. I mean, I'm not in the Corps anymore, but for the 20 years I was there, it was always very much a privilege. And it's humbling and super gratifying, as you can imagine. Yeah, because there's, you know, I assume at that point, especially kind of early on, you know,

arrival and figuring out, I imagine there's quite a few really impressive peers of yours, along with yourself and there's very few of you that will truly become kind of what you became. So kind of looking around the room, was it, you know, was it usually sizing people up or you, you know, is it really competitive? Is it intense from a competitive standpoint? You know, it's funny because the, you would think it'd be very competitive, but we're all, at least in my day, we're all very much part of a team. And, you know, it wasn't really a race to see who would be first or anything like that. We all, there are people from different walks of like. We had pilots. We had engineers. We had scientists. We had medical doctors. Even had a veterinarian.

And we all kind of bonded together. I hate to use this word, but almost like a fraternity. You know, obviously we had women too. But it was a very enjoyable and tight, tight knit group of people. And never felt that kind of. of elbowing out of the way. What was your biggest, what was your biggest struggle to becoming the astronaut or overcoming a fear? Was there any specific thing that you had to overcome to get over that hump? I mean, honestly, the hardest part is getting selected, right? Because there's a bunch of people that are qualified for it.

I don't know the numbers when I was selected. I know the last selection had 18,000 applicants for 12 slots. So it's pretty, pretty thin funnel, right? And the last part is a, they call it an interview, but you come down to NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston for about a week. And they do a lot of medical tests and a one hour interview. So the one hour is you with 12 people on the selection board, eight of whom are astronauts and four who are managers. And they just say, okay, Frankie, start high school and tell me about yourself. And you'll start talking.

And you say, well, I played golf and I said, what's your handicapped? You know, what's your favorite club? And it's very relaxed and super easy. You know, having set on the selection board on the other side, a couple times, first thing that we all ask each other when a person leaves a room is what I want to spend six months in space with Frankie. So it's much more about, you know, how you came across. I don't know. I'll let you know by the end of the podcast.

So that's what they're looking for in that process. they say, tell me about yourself, you're testing or seeing if you would be able to hang out with that person for long stretches of time? Yeah, it's very much a soft science. I mean, by the point that you get to the final 100, everybody's qualified. I mean, everybody can take all the tests and pass all the physicals and all that. And then it's really, am I going to be able to get along with this person? Because honestly, the most important skill is being able to work on a team. I mean, even if the crew is small, you're working with a team on the ground that's, you know, hundreds or thousands of people. So that's the hard part. What are the qualifications to being a NASA

astronaut? You hear all these things like you have to be the smartest, you have to be the strongest, you have to be the most mentally tough. What are the actual qualifications? I'll tell you what they are. You have to have a bachelor's degree in a STEM field. You have to have three years of equivalent work experience. If you have an advanced degree, it can count toward that experience. And you have to be able to pass a physical. Now, the physical is, you know, it's not easy. for sure. But you don't have to be Superman, you just have to be healthy. So they don't really care how fast you can run 100 meters. They care how long you're going to live because you're going to put a lot of their investment in training you and they don't want to die 10 years into

it, right? So they're really concerned more about health than fitness. Now, you don't want to be a couch potato either, but you know, you don't have to be an athlete. We don't have any of the things that he listed, by the way. No. No for three. O for three. So we had on a kind of a doctor earlier who was describing and going through kind of the mental approach to the game of golf and ultimately to kind of executing under pressure. I'm curious, you know, how rigorous and how hard do you guys work to simulate the real pressures and conditions that you're going to face in outer space? Like how close can you truly come to trying to mimic that environment so that when you are up there, you've in theory, kind of been there before? We do a lot of simulations.

You know, I would not hesitate to say that the most dangerous part of the spaceflight is the launch, which lasts like nine minutes. That's it. And the second most dangerous part is the reentry, which lasts 30 minutes. So we spent a preponderate amount of our time doing simulations and that kind of thing. And, you know, at some point, it just becomes muscle memory. You know, you're really, you're not even having to think. You just, you just do.

And so I would say that that prepares you very well. The harder part is, you know, they don't, you can't really simulate the emotional part. And being in space is a, it's an overwhelming experience. I mean, the first time that you are in microgravity, meaning floating, and looking out the window at the earth as you go around it, once every 90 minutes, you know, at 17,000 miles an hour, it's pretty impactful. And no amount of training can prepare you for that. I mean, I had colleagues that we had imagery.

We talked about experiences, all that stuff. But until you see it for the first time with your own eyes, you really, you're not ready. 67 hours and 40 minutes you were spacewalking. It's a NASA record. I mean, did it ever, in the 67th hour and 40th minute, did it still feel like the first minute that you went out there? I mean, did you ever get used to it? Well, you get used to it, but it never gets old. I mean, it is, it's the most amazing experience I can imagine. I mean, being in space is amazing period, but being on a spacewalk, it magnifies it by a factor of 10.

It's just, you know, you're a human satellite, you're literally holding on to this vehicle going as fast as I just said with your two fingers, watching the earth below you at 250 miles. And at the same time, you're not really paying attention to any of that. You're just trying to get to the next work site to get your job done and remember the torque settings on your pistol grip tool. You know what I mean? It's really this weird mix of emotions between wanting to be successful for the team. You're at the tip of the spear.

And yet being in this environment that is like no other anybody has ever experienced. It's pretty special. Has it ever hit you that not only are you a stat leader? on earth that you're the, you know, you have the most cumulative EVA time, but also in the universe. Like we don't know anyone else that's been in space, space walking longer than you. You're just, the universe is like league leader. Right. There should be an asterisk that says, you know, as far as we know. As far as we know. Talk me through the first time you saw Earth from outer space. Is it, is it happening?

gradually, you know, throughout the entire launch? Are you kind of looking out the window? Or is there a moment when you kind of get through, like you said, those nine minutes or that threshold that's really dangerous and you look out and you're able to, for the first time, take in like, holy cow, I'm looking at planet Earth from somewhere else? At my first mission, I was a flight engineer. This is on the space shuttle Columbia. And so as result, I'm sort of, you know, the pilot and commander are up in front of me and I'm in between them a little bit back, like I'm in the back seat, you know, so I don't really have a great view out the window. And basically, the shuttle is kind of pointed up for most of that

asset. So all you see is sky anyway. And so we get to main engine cut off and, you know, things start like our seatbel start to float in front of our face. And you get out strapped and people tend to get a little ill on their first in space. It's called space motion sickness or part of space adaptation sickness. Not a big deal for most people, but you want to be careful. So you sort of keep your head, you know, fixed to your shoulders. And I got, I unstrap my seat and there's some overhead windows. So these are the forward windows. And then there's overhead windows.

So I kind of went up and just went on my back. And at that point, now the windows facing the earth. And I mean, you just, wow, that's all you can say. So now with that, so you're the VP of Axiom Space and you're the flight commander of this upcoming. mission. It's the first fully private orbital space mission in human history. So you're going to be leading an entirely civilian crew into the international space station for the first time ever. It's a groundbreaking mission. Talk to us a little bit about that. So you're just taking regular people that aren't, I mean, what are the qualifications to be able to go up to the international

space station? Is it, are you going to be taking a bunch of Frankie Riggs and Trents up there? Like, how does this work? Yeah, so this is a good way for you to bypass all that NASA selection process. Perfect. So let me back up and say the goal of Vax and the company is to build a commercial space station. So the ISS, the international space station, amazing vehicle. I spent seven months up there, help build it. But it's a machine and it's going to wear out one day. And right now, none of the five agencies that are partners in it are interested in building a follow-on government platform.

So what this company wants to do is build a commercial platform. and instead of NASA sending its astronauts to the ISS, they can send it to our commercial space station once the ISS is de-orbited. And that'll save NASA a bunch of money, instead of owning the infrastructure, they can just buy it as a service. So in order to prepare for that,

we're launching these precursor missions to the ISS with fully private crews to, in one part, you know, get used to working with each other with NASA and the other four agencies, and also to stimulate demand because we don't want the government to be our only customer when we're a commercial space station. We want to have private companies and private citizens come visit. So my three crewmates, one American, one Canadian, one Israeli are all, I mean, a couple of them have some high performance jet time, but they're not what I would call their reason that they're flying is not because of that background. It's because

they're all very successful businessmen. And unfortunately, right now, the price to go to space is very high. It's in the tens of millions of dollars for this kind of mission. But once we go there, we're not going to be like, this is not orbital tourism. This is no kidding work. These guys have been training for four or five months. We have a giant suite of experiments that each of them has organized with research institutions from around the globe. And it'll look just like a NASA astronaut mission, except it'll be privately funded by these guys. True Bill, one of our favorite apps.

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Download this a few months ago. And it just gives you like a report all the time. I did show how much I spend on Chipotle. I'm not going to change anything about that because I love Chipotle. And I convince myself in my brain that it's decently healthy. while still being delicious. But the point being, it gives you a full report. You can go down really easily look at expenses, things that you're paying for that are obviously warranted and legitimate. And then stuff that clearly has a red flag, you might want to cancel it. It just makes it

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I go straight to the movies. Like, I mean, where is the, wow, he says, what, where, where is the, is the few? This is the few. But here's my question, though, right? We're all not going to be around when all this happens. But like, is the future of space that, like, are we, is it going to be so, are we, is it going to be so like approachable or doable that we're going to be able to just do that, like, as passengers, we can just go up there for months, years at a time.

I'm talking hundreds of years, 200 years, thousands of years. Is space going to become another city? I think, you know, the phrase you're looking for is democratization of space. And that's kind of a buzzword for what we're trying to do. Now, I'll be the first to say that, you know, having to pay tens of millions of dollars to fly there is not democratic yet. But that's kind of how commercial aviation was back in the 20s and 30s, right? You only very, very well see people could fly and now people get on Southwest Airlines, you know, to go to somebody's birthday party without even thinking about it.

So we think that the cost profile will come down as well. Hard to know what the timescale will be, but I am very confident that one day the world will be, just as you describe it, where people can move space. Now, whether we colonize, that's a whole different question. Colonizing another planet is pretty tough. I mean, obviously, the first one we talked about is a moon, which obviously is not a planet, but it's pretty nearby.

It's a couple of days. no atmosphere, so very cold or very warm, depending on which, you know, if you're in sunlight or insulation or in shadow. So it's got a lot of problems. There's obviously you can't grow stuff there. So I don't know if that's really colonizing it because we'd be bringing things.

We wouldn't be able to sort of in situ grow food or things like that. Now it might be able to get oxygen out of some water ice that they find on the poles. But we'll see. That's what NASA wants to do next. go check that out. Mars would be next. Problem is Mars is like at least with today's chemical propulsion, it's a long way, it's six to eight months to get there. And you talk about a long supply

chain, it would be difficult. So ideally, we find a planet like Earth, you know, one of these things in what they call the Goldilocks zone. So it's not too near the sun, not too far away. It has, you know, liquid water. It has an atmosphere that protects it from radiation. There's 20 or 30 different, very specific criteria characteristics that the earth has that, you know, we're looking for places like that, but if we find it's going to be super far away. So I don't think that colonization is going to happen anytime soon, but I do think that flying to lower orbit will be something that people can achieve, you know, within a century. I can't imagine having your your viewpoint on this earth and this planet. I sometimes forget and remind myself, unfortunately,

with my own anxiety that we are on a planet. We're in space. I think about Mars and Jupiter. I'm like, oh, those are planets. And I forget to think that we're on one. And when you're in space, you probably, it's got to be such an amazing view, especially now with everything that's going on in the world,

with wars. And it's just like, you have to look at the world. Your perspective on this earth has to be so much different than ours because we just don't see it like that. We don't see it in our hands. When I go to the next town over,

it takes me an hour to get there. the Earth feels so very big, it feels so important. And I just, I wish I had that viewpoint, that perspective. Did you feel a shift in perspective when you did this? Or did you feel relatively the same, sort of you had the same viewpoint on everything? Or when you went up there, looked back at the Earth. Did you feel any different in terms of your perspective? Yeah, it's a good question, Trent.

I would say that almost every astronaut that's flown has this overview effect, as they call it. So you see the Earth in a perspective that's different. going around it pretty often and seeing a different swath of it every time. You don't see the lines between countries and you don't see famine or hunger or war or sickness. And it seems like a very peaceful place. And yet when you look away from it, it looks stark and cold and frightening. And so it does give you the sense that, first of all, we need to protect that planet. We need to be more careful about how we use its resources.

but also, why can't we just get along better? You know, I mean, it's, it seems so silly. But when you're up there, it just feels like we ought to understand, we ought to learn a better way to just be friends instead of, you know, fighting all the time and having these conflicts at the end of the day. When you compare it to the enormity of the universe, you know, we're all in the same family. You know, we can bicker if you want, but we've got to take care of each other. ain't that the truth are you are you paying a good amount of attention to the james web telescope here

a little bit i mean as a nasa guy you know how could you not it's pretty exciting yeah we had eric smith on a month or so ago who's a program scientist and um and just hearing you kind of talk about um you know the goldilocks zone and finding these planets i imagined something like that would be pretty exciting to see what they find up there yeah i mean as space science is a whole different piece of NASA and something that human, that astronauts who are involved in human spaceflight don't really, you know, we're right now, we haven't, we only go about 250 miles away. And the telescope itself is at the Lagrange point and the things is looking at are light years away. So it's kind of a different scale. But yeah, it's, um, everybody is watching that

thing with bated breath. And I mean, as impressive as Hubble was, this is supposed to be much, much nor so. So it's funny, right? We're talking about, you know, the telescope, the James Webb Telescope and the difference in light years away and Mars. And I'm curious, you know, when you've done these spacewalks with which nobody's done it more, when you, you know, when you guys go up, I think later this month, and you talk about different research projects, you know, what are some of those key and clutch like research projects or, you know, pieces of information, revelation? that you were able to acquire from spacewalks, you know, like, what are you accomplishing or what have you accomplished? That's much more on a, on a, you know, really important to kind of your guys' mission and what you were up there for that we might not necessarily see as guys that are just like, oh, yeah,

is there a, is there, is their life on, you know, that planet 100,000 light years away? What kind of, what important things, you know, in those spacewalk, spacewalk, which has done that have, that have really kind of been milestones for, for you and your work. Yeah, so first thing to talk about the, the ISS is basically a laboratory, right? The reason it's there is to take advantage of the microgravity environment and to be able to do experiments that can remove gravity from the equation and with gravity comes sedimentation and convection and buoyancy and things like that and understand, you know, physics at a much more fundamental level. A lot of the experimentation is in the life sciences. So there have been backsliping

vaccines that we've been able to improve based on how things change in space. We look at things like protein crystals, which are when you start thinking about how medications work, they generally have to attach themselves to molecules. And if you can design the molecule so that it fits like a puzzle piece, you know, that's something you can grow protein crystals in space better than on earth because as a crystal grows on earth, it gets its own. weight and it starts to sag in like a snowflake, right? But these things are in microgravity, they're much more perfect. Now, all that said, that all happens inside the vehicle. Outside the vehicle, it's purely operational. We're not doing hardly any experiments. I mean, we do some

installation of some experiments that are interesting because they're exposed to the vacuum of space or exposed to, you know, at that velocity, even though it's just a tiny bit of atmosphere, There are impacts. We also see micrometeorite orbital debris, little pieces flex of paint, something as big as a screw could ruin your day if it hits you going at those velocities. So we do some of that experimentation, but for the most part, we're out there to turn wrenches.

So we're all the trades, you know, electrician, mechanic, hydrop plumber, you know, we collect fluid, connect fluid lines, we do a lot of stuff that is basically construction work. It's not, it's generally not scientific. That's fascinating hearing about just the molecules and the different, you know, potential kind of medical and scientific breakthroughs because that's, you know, people want to latch on to the sexiness of trying to find, you know, aliens all the time. But I imagine there's been some really important work that's gone on up there that we might not even consider. Yeah, we don't do, well, to my knowledge, we do any experimentation looking for aliens on ISS. They do some of it on Earth.

You know, there's some, an outfit called a search for extraterrestrial intelligent life. And, you know, I personally think that it's unlikely that we're the only intelligent life in the universe. I also think that given how big the universe it is, it's unlikely we'll ever meet those folks. I mean, it's just too big. But, yeah, it's an interesting pursuit, for sure. Is there anything we as the people of Earth should be looking for? as a regular citizens, should we be worrying about space on a day-to-day basis? Or should we just be living our life on this planet? We're born and then we die. Like should Trent Riggs and I be like

actively like engaging with something, looking for something, I don't know, like paying attention to something that's going on that NASA is doing, that space is, that that's happening in space? I mean, you could ask that question about anything, right? I don't think you should, you know, live your life on a couch. You should pay attention to what's going on. I think, Personally, I think space is interesting, but geopolitics is interesting. Major League Baseball is interesting. I think you got to spread yourself out a little bit to keep up with what's going on. But, you know, I think there will be increased access to space, just like we were talking about before.

And, you know, who knows one day you guys might be there. So, yeah, it's just, you know, I just space right now is like when you almost like search it in a dark room on a laptop, Like, what's going on out there? Like, it's kind of like not sexy to like learn about how vast and how much of a vacuum space is and how scary it might look and how crazy and how far it goes. So, yeah, I'm very excited that one day and we probably won't be here, but one day that it's going to get to the point where it's like, yeah, it's just that thing that we go up to. It takes a couple hours to get there and we get to have fun and you come back down and we get to see Earth from a different perspective. I think it's going to change the world. Yeah, I think so, too.

Riggs mentioned it off the top during your intro and you're such an impressive human being that we didn't really talk about it. Five languages. How? I was born in Spain. My father was Spanish, although he only spoke English at home. He refused and he had a terrible Spanish accent. But I studied in high school and of course I had a lot of family there. I spent a summer there. I had family visit me. So that came pretty quickly. my former wife was from Switzerland from the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Coincidentally, I had decided to try to learn French before I met her, but of course, the best way to learn language is have your partner be a native speaker.

Island Russian, because I flew on the Soyuz, which is a Russian launch vehicle back in 2006, and I had to learn how to operate in that language and took a lot of it. I mean, I wouldn't say Spanish or French are necessarily easy, but by comparison, they were to Russian. And then finally, my mother, on the mother's side, I said my father is Spanish. My mother is from Italy, her parents are from Italy. She was born in the U.S., but I just felt an affinity for Italian, and I started just learning that. In fact, I would say that's a half, so I'm not quite a quadrilingual. I mean, quintalegal.

and I'm still learning the Italian one. Just for fun. That breaks my brain more than space. I mean, when you're having a conversation, are you actively thinking about what language to speak in or no, because your native tongue is not, like you just learn the other ones? Like, are you actively being like,

I have to speak in English right now, and then like you can just turn it into French or you just turn it into Spanish? Pretty natural that if you speak English, I'll speak English too. But it's interesting because there are idioms into different languages. And if you know those idioms, you want to use it in the language you're currently speaking,

but I might not exist in that language. And then you kind of, it's like you're going down a one, you're going down a dead end alley and you can't turn around. You have to turn out, I guess. You can't get out without. I only speak one language I can barely speak it. I mean, I can't imagine. I'm as normal as it, like as regular as a person as you can get.

And I took Spanish in high school and I failed out of it. And I was just like, all right, that's it for me. I just know one language. And you've got, you know five. And that is just like, do you think everyone is capable of learning five languages or does it take a certain type of brain? Well, first, I think if you, as a kid, everybody is capable of learning multiple languages. I think the older you get, the heart it gets. And I think some people learn languages in a different way than others.

Some people, I'm somebody who likes to understand grammar and structure and that kind of thing. And other people can just hear it. And if they hear it enough, they can begin to speak it. You can see different programs, different teaching applications will use those different techniques. But yeah, I think it's something that the younger you are when you start, the better. You guys are still young. We're just sorry. We just got done talking.

These guys are turning. Riggs is 35. Riggs, Tren will be 40 in the blink of an eye. I'm 32. I'm going to be 32 enough. Yeah, he's overdoing it a little bit. He started panic because he's like 28, 29. He's panicking and then he's going to be 30 and he's freaking out about it.

So he's projecting a little bit. But so I believe you guys is it last time I looked at what, March 30th or so we're going up. March 30th at 246 p.m. Eastern Daylight time. Stay tuned. There will be broadcast by NASA and SpaceX and Axiom all on our YouTube channels. And it should be some good coverage. We'll dock to the ISS. The current plan is about eight hours later, and it will spend eight or nine days aboard doing these experiments.

There'll be lots of interactive communications with educational school, educational organization, schools and stuff like that, as well, some press stuff. And, yeah, so there should be ample ways to follow the mission, but actionspace.com is a good place to go. So the ISS, I mean, you spent, what, six, eight months there before? right. I saw my last mission, yeah. Will that be kind of a moment for you when you return or just all business? It's kind of like going back to your hometown. It's different.

It's a lot bigger than it was when I was there. It's probably more than twice as big, a lot more modules. But it'll be interesting to be back up there. And I'm looking forward to kind of the sights and smells and sounds. That's an incredible experience of returning somewhere that just no human being can really truly grasp what that must be like. So that's really cool. We wish you, obviously, great luck. We really appreciate you taking the time.

Our minds are nowhere near where yours is. So you kind of sharing the experiences and your perspective. It's just really cool for us. So we appreciate it. Hey, all the best to you guys. I appreciate this time and good luck with this in the future. Thank you. Thank you for everything.

Really appreciate it. All right, awesome interview. First astronaut ever. Big thanks to everybody for listening. Big thanks to him taking time out of his day to come talk to us morons. From the gallery. We're going to do a little From the Gallery. We got a couple submissions.

It's been a long time. So I wanted to get to From the Galleries. Remember, you can just email for Play at Barstolesports.com. Title it from the gallery. We'll read it. If it's good, we'll debate it on the show. This is brought to you by Truly Hard Seltzer. Been supporters of the Barstow Classic since it's inception, delicious,

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four truly punch hard seltzers, two truly hard, extra hard seltzer with 8% alcohol. My favorite flavor forever has been the. wild berry. It's just kind of one of my OGs, one of my go-toes. You throw one of those in front of me. I have to enjoy it. I can't help it. It's that good. They got low sugar. Every truly contains only one gram of sugar. All cans have under 110 calories. Find truly hard seltzer near you at www.truly hardseltzer.com. Again, that's truly hardseltzer.com. Love you. Truly. Thanks for supporting us. Connor says, in light of the dad by classic buddies trip, I have a question regarding the vibe of the trip. For what it sounds like, everyone on the trip is having

drinks and the travel between venues, plan ahead as someone that doesn't drink. What's your viewpoint of bringing someone like myself on a golf trip? I would feel awkward being the sober one each night while my buddies ripped transfusions all day. The only way I'd feel comfortable if I was the D.D., I'll just say our guy, Josh, who we love to death, who puts the whole thing together, who is our king on this trip and in a lot of parts of our life because he's the most generous guy ever,

not really a drinker, doesn't really drink much at all. And he literally puts the whole trip together. And he's not awkward at all. He has a fantastic time. He'll have a cocktail here and there. but again, just not really a drinker. Whereas I would say a lot of other ones on the trip, during the trip, are big drinkers. And we're especially social drinkers.

And it's one of those where you're feeding off each other. I mean, you roll up at 8, 8.30 in the morning, you got a 9 a.m. tea time. One guy's already got like a double transfusion. He's doing the whole, I got to reactivate the system. You're like, all right, I'll have one. And then it just kind of keeps going, keeps going, keeps going. But there are definitely a handful of people on the trip who don't drink much. And I wouldn't say they're awkward at all.

I think it's just different strokes or different folks. So I wouldn't worry about that at all. That's my personal opinion. I'm one of those guys. I really don't drink that much anymore. And the biggest hurdle you have to get over is the thought process he's going through right now, is you just got to go. And then what you find out is that nobody cares. Like you think it's going to be the biggest deal in the world.

Everybody's going to be like, what a loser. That guy's not drinking. And then they're going to force drinks down your throat. But if you just don't drink or you don't have a drink in your hand or if someone offer you something just like, oh, I'll just take a water or whatever, it's, Nobody cares. The only person who cares is the person who's thinking about it. So to that guy, what I would say, just go.

And I guarantee you will be surprised by the reaction or lack thereof from the guys that are on the trip. Yeah, well said. No one, I don't know. I'm not actively looking at who's drinking anything on that. I don't know. Couldn't care. I played five hours with a Spanish Bay. I don't know what other guys drank.

I honestly couldn't tell you. No clue. I had a power in one transfusion. And I'll say it's a little. more like young 20s-ish where I feel like there may have been a vibe or social vibe of like but you're when people are young like immature morons or you're kind of like oh you're not drinking but at this point I mean now we're we're all late 20s to mid 30s and on this credit nobody gives a fuck if you're drinking or not nobody's going to like pressure just nobody cares so I would say

that's a complete non-factor um Trent again not not a big drinker does or drink much at all has a fantastic time on the trip nobody else cares everybody's like oh good for you hell I'm going to have a double transfusion. Let's go. And our boy Josh, exact same way. David said this last weekend, I played by home course with some friends. This is a whole and one debate who really recently had gotten into golf, never played it. So I decided to play from the T's that are shorter than regular play.

We played it from about 6,000 yards. 16th tolls of Part 3 at normally plays 105 to 120, but we played it at 78 yards this day. Hit my shot really close, almost dunked it. The next day I played a Part 3 course with my wife. Seventh hole on that part 3 course was 165 yards. it just got me thinking, why wouldn't that hole in one on one on the par three course with a seven iron from 165 count as a legit hole in one, whereas my shot from 78 yards on a full course, essentially a pitch shot would have counted. And I think it's an excellent point because, you know, there just are different holes and vibes. And it got me thinking about the seventh hole at Pable Beach.

I mean, if you get a hole in one of the seventh hole at Pellow Beach, everyone's counting it. Obviously, it'd be the most epic hole in one that you could have. you're overlooking Stillwater Cove. It's maybe the most famous part three in golf or one of the top four or five. It would be great. But it was for us a 60 degree sandwich when we played it the other day, 56 degree. I think I had a 56 degree sandwich in the other day. Whereas on some part three courses that you play, especially, I mean, I think like the seventh or eighth hole at the preserve at Band of Dunes is like uphill, you know, 135.

Usually plays into a stiff wind. Like I think I've hit seven iron in that hole before, but you're telling me that wouldn't count. But like this other one would count. So I'm not I don't think that we should blanket statement say that a par three course whole one one doesn't count. I think it just depends on the nature of it. It's all about what you have to say after. Unfortunately for us, we've had ours at the cradle and they say like if they say, hey, do you have a hole in one? I say, oh, my God, where?

And I say, oh, that par three course at the cradle, immediately it just puts something, some dirty taste in your mouth, you know? Yeah. Just a dirty old piece of meat in your. mouth and it's just like, ah, get that out of here. If you're saying, it's like,

oh, yeah, I did a fucking banning dunes. Like, oh shit. Right. All right. Maybe it's,

pebble beach, hole seven, ever heard of it? Yeah. I can't even hit a fucking green on that hole. In our cradle shots right up to tell people, it was like 72 yards off a mat. And they're like,

oh, all right, dude. And whereas, you know, if you're at, again, if you're at band and it was a striped like eight iron on a shot playing 158.

And you purited at the, flag into the wind and it goes in. You're like, you're counting that not as a whole on one. So it does. It just depends what you have to say after. I think is what it comes down. It sucks. It's not great because you and I could just claim for a, yep. Still a hole in one though. We played the whole and one shot. I would also say there's no hole in one in the world that doesn't come with something after. Like, have you ever heard someone say, oh, do you ever have a whole on one? They go, yep. And then the conversation just fucking ends. Right. You know? Like, you're telling me you asked me that question and then you

didn't want to hear about it. Really? You know, that would be psychotic. So it's just like, it's so positive. It's almost like an arc where it's like, yeah,

I do have a whole one, but this is where it's at. And it just comes right back down to earth, crashing hard. So, you know, if it's at any other legitimate 18 whole course, it just kind of stays high

and then you just, you just exit that conversation on a high note. I think for us, we kind of bring people down to like, oh, okay, that's cute. Yeah, we do. I think you're right. You're right.

So yeah, it depends on the conversation after. All right, I'm excited for the players championship this week. Trent, Danny, you got something? Yeah, before we go, I heard what you guys said at the beginning of the show last week, or this last week. I love you guys too. I appreciate the shout out. You know, that's kind of nice. And I also wanted to give a little just, I know, Frankie, I know you got to go, but just wanted to say, like, appreciate everybody reaching out to me saying that you guys, catalyst for that being like, I love you, Trent.

and I appreciate that. Everyone was very nice. I just want to say that it's been a very weird four months. I don't know how much we want to get into it. But I want to give people just like a look into it a little bit because obviously I'm missing videos now. I miss like a podcast. I miss the kingdom video because of this. Basically what I want to say is that for like the last four months I felt weird.

I woke up like one morning and I like my head hurt and I was a little off balance. Obviously scary. So then for the next, honestly, for the next like three months, I've just been getting as many tests as you possibly can get going to as many doctors as you can. And everything is totally normal. And that's great. That's the best news you can have. The flip side of that is I still feel weird. And then just kind of recently I've been stressing myself out about it.

So I kind of had a freak out. That's why I didn't go to the Dad Body Classic. That's why I didn't do the Bob does sports video. And that's, I'm actually back in Iowa right now. So I'm just kind of laying low. And I know that's a lot. It's a lot of information to throw out people. But what I want to say to you guys is I appreciate the support.

I appreciate all the fans, all the listeners. It's kind of a, it's just a weird time for me right now. That's really the only way I can describe it. And you guys know all about it because I've been going through it for a few months. But that's a very brief description of what's going on. And it's probably going to make people think crazy shit. But like, I don't know what else to say. Yeah, no, I think that I'm glad that you said it because, you know, it is something that you're going through.

And we're a very open book podcast when it comes to. that stuff and I think people care about you and love you and we all like obviously missed you on the show. I think everyone who just heard you give that kind of description in the beginning just now probably all just took a collective sigh of relief as you finished off that sentence because it sounded like you were about to say you just like are dying, which you're not. And we're all very, very happy that it's not something serious. I've been texting with you like crazy trying to figure this thing out. Like you go from test to test to test, MRAs, MRVs, the whole fucking thing. this guy's trying to figure out why he has these feelings and it's like it's a i mean you can even

go deeper it's like a physical thing that you're feeling it's like a headache almost where it's not like you're not like going insane it's actually like a physical feeling that he's feeling he can't go to sleep so i feel horrible for trent because he doesn't know what the fuck it is and we're trying to get him to like we're trying to find like the answer for you and you're trying to find the answer every single day it's got to be fucking infuriating so um it's kind of a crazy trip that you you're on and I'm glad that, you know, you're, you're addressing it, which is great. Because, like, to not be able to sleep and to not be able to, like, think clearly or to not be able to, like, you're in balance.

Like, I remember Trent would text me and be like, dude, it feels like the ground is literally moving. Like, I can't imagine living like that from day to day. So you have to get this thing figured out where, you know, you don't have to be stressing out that you're missing anything. You need to figure your shit out because at the end of the day, it's just a fucking golf podcast. You can't be feeling like you're walking off the edge of the earth every time you step on the fucking concrete.

So we're going to figure this thing out, though. There's no doubt about that. Yeah. And I, yeah, sorry, my mic died and I had to, I had to switch places. But so I probably sound different here. But yeah, it's just, it's been a very strange thing. And I wasn't sure if I was going to talk about it because like this is a golf podcast. And like you said, we are an open book.

And I, but I just, it's, I don't have an answer. So it's, it's very strange to me. And I do, I like want to bring people and say, yeah, this is why I've been missing things, but I'm going to recover from it. I'm going to be back. But you're right. It's, yeah, I haven't really been sleeping. Yeah, the balance stuff is still weird.

Got this weird sort of pulsating going on in the back of my head. And I don't want to do really a what's up doc with this because that's going to scare me. I like had to take Google off of my phone basically because I just keep looking things up. But I guess if, but if you know about any of this shit, let me know. But it's, yeah, it's a shitty time. It's a weird thing to talk about. It's not something I ever wanted to talk about, but it's been going on for so long that It's like, fuck, man.

Like I got to, I'm going to be missing stuff. People are going to be wondering what's going on. So, yeah, that's kind of where I'm at. Hopefully things get a little bit better. I'm hoping to be able to travel and stuff when we have to. But right now I'm just trying to lay low and just feel better. Well, look, we still love you, Trent, since Tuesday when we said that we love you. I saw a lot of people, you know, tweeting at you messaging you.

Yes, we missed the shit out of you in videos in podcasts. But guess what? in a month or six months or whatever, we're still going to be doing this shit. We're going to be doing this stuff forever. What else are we going to be doing? You're going to be there. You're going to be a part of it. And, you know, when you've had to tell us, like, hey, I really think I can miss this and

you're always very apologetic for it. Like, man, you got nothing to apologize for. Like literally nothing in the world, your health, feeling good about yourself every day when you wake up is a billion times more important than what we do. And luckily, we've built something again that I think is going to stay around forever. You're going to be a huge part of it. We just want you to feel better. I want you to be in the best shape, the best, you know, headspace you can possibly be in.

So don't apologize for anything. It's totally up to you, like how much you want to talk about it. I'm glad. I bet it felt good to get that shit off your chest a little bit. But that's all going to be totally up to you. So however much you want to talk about stuff, don't want to talk about stuff. You just let us know anything you got to miss. Great.

Anything you're a part of even better. And everybody's rooting for you. Yeah. Trent Ryan, Trent Ryan is the podcast. He's the heart and soul of this fucking brand. You are who we are. You're the glue guy. We love you.

You're not going fucking anywhere. You're just going to figure this out. We're all going to be by your side. And we're just going to fucking do this thing. It's no problem. You're back in Iowa. You're out of that fucking hellhole in New York City. I'm glad that you're out of that place.

That place is an absolute nightmare right now. Just get out of that place. Go breathe some fresh air. Let's figure this thing out. You're back on the grass. We're going to get you hitting fucking irons. The worst part about this whole thing is that you were playing the best golf you've ever played. So you need to, like, you are striping.

stealth iron. So right now you need to like bottle that up. Hearing them. Figure out how to figure this out and then come back to the golf course because boy, did we need you against Bob does sports. Well, that's the other thing too is you'll see in the Max Home match when it comes out on the 15th. And I was going through all that.

I was in the middle of it. That's like month three of it at that point. And it's I played some of the best golf of my life. I hit some of the best putts, some of the best shots. So there's times when I'm just like, I feel normal. And then there's other times where I do not feel normal and I don't know what's going on. And that is the shit that freaks me out. I'm trying to get figured out. Bottom line, I cannot reiterate this enough that you guys have been so great. You've been so supportive.

Every time I'm kind of like, I don't know if I can do this. I might miss this. You guys have been like, just do it. Your health is priority number one. And I really, really appreciate that. That goes a very long way. It makes me feel great. And just hopefully that we are now, we're going to get on the track to making this all better. And then we can just get back to it because we've got, this is such a fun brand and a fun podcast to be a part of. Like we have, we're doing so many cool trips and I want to do breaking 90 and I want to do, I want to help Frankie with fixing Frankie.

And it's just, we just got to get this thing out of the way so we can get back to full go. And I think we'll get there. But again, I really appreciate everything you guys have done for me. And shout out to the listeners for all the support because it's been great. Well, I love it.

I love that you're not in New York. Like Frankie said, you're back in Iowa. That's where you should be. I think you're going to get right. I know you're going to get right. Everybody's obsessed with you. People throwing bras and shit at you for a reason.

So everybody, you know, supports the hell out of you. Keep grinding. Keep doing whatever you need to do to get right. Don't worry about us in any way, shape, or form. Be a part of everything that you can be a part of. And we're going to get it straight and everything's going to be great. Fuck yeah. Love it.

Fuck yeah. All right. What a show, boys. You get a little bit of everything on this show. We have an astronaut on the show. Now, I got to go deal with my fucking floors that are, I got floor issues going on. So I got to rush get in a house

that thought it was supposed to be fun. I got to get a saddle that goes from one room to another room. I don't even know what that means. Saddle didn't fit yesterday and they're there and they're there and now knocking on the door. It's like a,

it's like a family guy episode where or something where they ring the doorbell and if you don't rush to the doorbell, they get back in the car and they leave. It's like, I was taking a fucking shit. It's fucking crazy, dude. It's fucking infuriating. Everybody enjoy the players championship.

Good luck with your floors. We'll be back. on Tuesday like we always are. Hit it hard. Hit it hard. Hit it hard.