No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 1051: AIG Women's Open Recap + Cam Young's Breakthrough

Episode Date: August 4, 2025

We've got a two part episode tonight with Big Randy and Cody live from Wales after Miya Yamashita wins the AIG Women's Open at Royal Porthcawl. Then in part two, (1:19:15) it's Soly and DJ with a recap of the Wyndham where Cameron Young is - at last - a PGA Tour winner as he blitzed the field with a six shot victory at Sedgefield. We also offer some ServPro Mulligans, look at some notable names missing the PGA Tour Playoffs, IBF's departure from the CBS booth, and an interesting Money in Sport article on the state of the USGA's financials ahead of their next TV contract negotiations for 2027. Join us in our support of the Evans Scholars Foundation: ⁠https://nolayingup.com/esf⁠ Support our Sponsors: Titleist ⁠Holderness & Bourne⁠  ⁠SoFi If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Nest⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: No Laying Up’s community of avid golfers. Nest members help us maintain our light commercial interruptions (3 minutes of ads per 90 minutes of content) and receive access to exclusive content, discounts in the pro shop, and an annual member gift. It’s a $90 annual membership, and you can sign up or learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠nolayingup.com/join⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the No Laying Up Newsletter here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://newsletter.nolayingup.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe to the No Laying Up Podcast channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@NoLayingUpPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. That's better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different? better than most. Expect anything different. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Lang podcast. Solly here. We have our weekly recap coming shortly. We divided this up into two parts. I caught up with the boys over in Wales, Cody and Randy got in at an hour that was not ungodly for them. This was while the final round of the Wyndham

was taking place. Once we finished recording, watched the end of the Wyndham and then caught the, the back half of this episode will be myself and the pie man talking about Cameron Young who is officially a winner on the PGA tour. His week began with a crucial decision to tee up a Pro V1X prototype golf ball for the first time following recent testing sessions with

the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team. The team at Titleist is constantly collecting tour player feedback on golf ball performance. This never-ending process can result in the development of new prototypes, some designed to finely tune specific flight, spin, and field characteristics. This week was the first opportunity for Cam to test the model on site at a tour event and potentially put it in play, which he did after thorough sessions with the titleless team on Tuesday and Wednesday. Cam was getting tight draws. The ball was flying in the perfect window for him. He was seeing tons of control with his off speed shots. Safe to say the results came back very

quickly as he ran away with his first win after four competitive rounds after the move. Cam's full, what's in the bag? Pro V1X prototype golf ball, a GT2 driver, GT3 three wood, GT2 hybrid, a blended set of T200 and T100 and custom 631.CY blades, four Voke SM10 wedges, three F-grinds and a 60 degree K star lob wedge along with the Phantom 9.5 tour prototype putter. One of the coolest bags on tour and titles just posted a full what's in the bag with Cam on their YouTube channel. Go check that out if you want to hear more straight from Cam on his setup. If you have any

further delay, here's our boys from Wales talking AIG women's open back half Wyndham championship with my guy DJ Pi. Enjoy the show. Thank you for tuning in. All right, folks, they're here in their trusty radio booth. If you are hopefully watching this on the YouTube, they've completed their week in Wales, Mr. Big Cody and Mr. Big Randy. Hello, guys. Thank you for calling in on I'm sure a lovely Sunday evening. Well, well, well, sorry. Great to be here on the program. It is a beautiful Sunday evening. Now it didn't start this way, but yeah, I'm pumped big. What about you? Yeah, we're, uh, we're looking out at a, what's going to be a gorgeous Welsh sunset. It was unimaginable this morning. God, it was just pissing rain and blowing some proper condities. But yeah,

sorry, we're going to break it all down. Great to be here. We had a great tournament, great week. As always, we're going to get into it. I was so excited when I flipped the TV on, saw what I saw the ear muff game was, it was out of control. There was a little bit of, a little bit of moisture in the air. The wind absolutely with that first hole was like impossible. I think they had a little graphic that put up there that nobody made birdie for like five and a half hours as I forget who was lining up a birdie putt, but she then she ended up missing it. I think there was maybe one birdie on the opening hole all day. Nobody could keep it off the left side. That first few hours that I watched this morning was what I absolutely love about

golf in general and just absolutely fighting the elements, having to hit proper shots. It was, it was everything guys. I can't even imagine how fun it was in person. Which real quick on that first hole, which makes you think, you know, it's only the first hole this week. It's the 18th, the members. So you want to talk about what would have been a brutal finish for these women. If that were the 18th. Um, which by the way, I will say the right decision. Yeah. I mean, there was just no way to build up any infrastructure down by that green.

So you can't finish a major with like nobody around. And I think the flow when we showed up here on Tuesday and we played in the program, I was like, wait a second, I don't really like it when they change it just because to accommodate hospitality and stuff like that. But the flow of the finish made sense finishing on a par five was electric and I think That flow leading up to that hole knowing that there's potentials for definitely birdies But even really good Eagles out there like it made the finish Interesting now, that's not really the finish that we got me

I'm afraid to say her last thing. We need a quorum. We've been saying it's Holly Yamashita because I think that is the correct way to say her last name. We need a quorum. We've been saying it's Holly Yamashita because I think that is the correct way to say it in Japanese. So we were told Cody was going out literally with her Saturday and they're like, Oh, by the way, Cody, I know we've been saying Yamashita this whole time, but we're actually going to change to Yamashita. It was a total, total mindfuck for us. So we can say it either way. Dude, she was so good. She was nailed.

She's obviously your champion. One by two strokes, 11 under par total over Charlie Hall and Minami Katsu. I, yeah, so where do you want to start? What questions do you want to start? What? What questions you have for us? Well, I think it just starts right off the bat of what we're talking about with what those conditions and you know, you're kind of you know, a little bit of fluctuation leaderboard. She had a tough Saturday. It was like, OK, you know, is this open season? Is she going to end up

giving this away? There's a lot of contenders coming after there are a lot of good scores posted on Saturday. Andrea Lee shooting up the board among some other names. And it was kind of, I guess in my head, I was like, she's still kind of struggling come Sunday, then you look up and she was playing the 17th hole and she hadn't made a bogey yet. And it was in some really, really, really, really hard conditions in the early part of that. And we're watching bogeys on bogeys on bogeys and a

lot of other groups and a lot of putts, a lot of putts were not falling. And it was just kind of like, Oh my gosh. She was like very quietly put together a very, it wasn't an exciting Sunday, but it was just a spectacular performance. And it was a statement. She was the very clear winner. I'll go back to Saturday real quick. Cause you touched on that point. I walked with her that entire round and she had, you know, I think she turned it one over and then picked up two birdies pretty quick. But birdie in the par for 11th, the 11th and the 16th are holes that I'm always going to remember from this week because they play basically directly back into the wind. They're not that long, but they're so hard. The drive is very, very hard. The second shot is hard.

And then when you get there, both greens are completely exposed, like up on kind of high ground. And the wind is just whipping around everywhere. And you have bunkers and long grass and everything all over the place. It's crazy. So when she birdied 11 yesterday, I was like, okay, you know, this is good. And you know, the whole time I'm calling the golf, you know, this is, this is good. You know, the whole time I'm calling the golf and we'll get to a lot of radio later, but I'm thinking, you know, I have to check my notes every single time before I say her name because I'm afraid of messing it up now. And like, in, in the back of my mind, I also have like what TC

calls her all the time, Mama Sita. And I'm like, Oh my, like, this is a disaster. The BBC people are going to be furious here, but yeah, she this is a disaster. The BBC people are gonna be furious here, but yeah, she shot 74 yesterday. The crazy thing about it is that what Miu is known for is bogey avoidance. So today, the only bogey that she had on was 17, which is an extremely difficult golf hole. Like that doesn't surprise me.

She leads LPGA Tour and bogey avoidance. She has the most rounds on the year of without a bogey. Like that's all she does is hit fairways greens and like putz the lights out of it. Well, yeah. And you want to talk about bogey avoidance. I still think the shot of the tournament could have been her par save yesterday on 17 Saturdays round. save yesterday on 17 Saturdays round.

Um, she was scuffling, like Cody said, uh, looked like she was gonna throw up bogeys on 14, 16 and 17. She had really thinned a bunker shot from the, what was it? The front right of that 17th green long. I mean, had like a 40 foot putt from off the green coming through not only the fringe, but the late in the day, you know, those links greens are bumpy. She rammed it right in the heart for par. And I just felt like that was going to be a moment for her. She was so good today. A couple early up and downs to save pars to avoid those bogeys. And then after that, I just thought she was as steady as steady gets. Ended up birdieing the fourth, the eighth, the ninth,

so she goes out in 33. And then it was just a bunch of easy pars until she got to that 17th. Now, Solly, I will quibble just a little bit. You know, I don't think that the very end was as exciting as we wanted to, but Charlie Hall made this an exciting golf tournament. She was charging not only Saturday, she was charging today. When she dropped that birdie on 14, which was unbelievable. I mean, that was like the other really, really difficult par four on this golf course. I believe that got her to within two shots or maybe

even yeah two shots at the time and Yamashita still had to go through that difficult stretch as she was two holes behind. So ultimately Charlie fell off. We're going to get into Charlie but Yamashita man, she had a Yamashita had a long par putt on 13. As Charlie was making birdie, she had a long par putt to keep the lead. And she poured it right in the center. And that was a moment where it looked like the hunt was on. And then from then on out, it just was not. Because Charlie made the back pack.

And I think she also had a six foot tester on 14. Yamashita did to save par. I mean, those were two clutch putts. Um, yeah. So for folks that don't know her, okay. Uh, rookie this year on the LPGA tour, this was her first LPGA tour win. This is her first, obviously major championship, but she'd won 13 times in Japan. All right.

She just turned 24 years old, uh, Saturday of the tournament. She got all 13 of those wins in Japan between 2021 and 2024. And so guys, I do think it's interesting. I'd love to get your opinion. I think she's different than a lot of other 24 year old first time major winners in the sense that yes, she's, she's a new name to us. She's certainly like a new name to most golf women's golf fans in the Western

hemisphere, but she's a star in Japan and she knows how to close golf tournaments. And I just think like everything that's going to come with winning a major championship. I feel like she's dealt with. She certainly has dealt with in Japan by winning at the clip that she has. I don't think this is a situation where it's going to be like, Oh my God, this is totally going to change your life. You know, you're going to get so much media requests and everything. I feel like she's probably been through that for the last three years. And with that being said, it's like, ah, she

looks she looks really good. I mean, when when her putting is on when her driver is on Cody, I know she kind of lost it on Saturday. But I just think that because of that experience in Japan, she's not like some other young first time major winners we might see. Well, it's not like, yeah, she's 24 years old. Her birthday was yesterday. Big deal around these parts that her birthday was yesterday.

Bad round to have on your birthday, but obviously it's great today. And there was cake yesterday when she was done. I almost got cake all over me when I was walking off with her. But she is a rookie on the LPGA Tour, but that's where like all of it ends because she has been absolutely lights out on the LPGA tour, but that's where like all of it ends because she has been absolutely

lights out on the JLPGA. She's been in the top 50 in the world basically since 2022, like outside of her rookie year. You know, she was, she was like 13th or 17th or something like that going into LPGA Q series last fall. And I like, wait a second. What what is that? She ran rough shot over. Yeah, she like she smoked everyone and was like whatever one the whatever the card is I can't even remember the qualifying series Yeah, but I was like why is somebody that's that good like not just top 50 in the world like top 10 Like caliber, why are they even in Q series? I don't understand really what's going on. And then it's tooken her a bit. And we've seen that, you know,

the EY twins have a bunch of success and we saw, you know, other people, these Japanese Saigo, Saigo one. Yeah. You know, and, and it's just been like, wow, you know, we knew her time was coming, but what a place to pull it out. I think she fit the mold. Cody and I spent a lot of time talking about patience. We thought patience was going to be at a premium around Porth call just, you know, because it starts out with such a difficult stretch of holes, you really got to get through those first four holes. Kind of level par is a great

score, right? You don't really want to take chances there. And then the course opens up. It starts with the par five, six, the par five, ninth, the par five, 13th, the seventh, a little par four plays downwind. You kind of turn and there are more scoring opportunities before then getting in back into the teeth of the wind, 14, 15, 16. And I And I thought, you know, unfortunately none of us picked Miyu early in the week, but she certainly displayed the patience and just moving her golf ball around the golf course,

avoiding trouble. The few times that she really was in trouble, I feel like she immediately got back into position and did everything possible to limit the damage, right? No compounding errors. And when you're that good of a putter, I believe she's top 10 in strokes gained on the LPGA tour in putting like she's just, she's limiting the bad holes. She's capping them at bogeys and that proved to be the, the be the winning formula. Porth call guys. I mean, it has specific questions.

You guys got in the detail, detail wise, tighter than I can even imagine in terms of, I saw Randy getting deep in the yardage book multiple times out there. He can relay exactly where, what bunkers are and what where holes are. You guys were incredible in the radio, but I freaking loved how much, how well positioned the bunkers were to where holes are. You guys were incredible on the radio, but I freaking loved

how well positioned the bunkers were to make you think and to make you play strategic golf. Sometimes these really, really good golf courses, one, the more we watch them on the men's side, some of these obstacles get blown over, are obsolete and don't really come into play. And so many of the features get kind of nullified because you're hitting wedges in and just doesn't really matter. But at this scale, this made so much sense. And there was so many other shots even today, of balls trickling into bunkers that like, saw some early tee grabs. And you know, back on the ground people, you

know, on course reporters like that looks great. And from the booth, they're like, Nope, that found the second bunker. And just, again, if you've not played a ton of links golf, you don't know what that feeling is like to try to manipulate the shape of your golf ball so that when it lands, it's not moving towards a landmine like that is hot. That's what we are talking about a lot when it comes to like very real testing golf, you couldn't just play like your little stock shot

wherever you wanted to all over this golf course, you needed to be in control of your golf ball. And again, is that gonna be like mind numbingly exciting golf? No, but like for a golf nerd and nut to watch that on repeat was I mean, that golf course was alive. I know sometimes on the ground experience, you guys might come back and say it was great. And then on TV, we would say, yeah, it didn't come through. I thought it came through really, really well this week.

Good, good. That's great to hear. That's awesome to hear. Those bunkers were magnetic, man, like all those slopes around them. They were so drastic, like, and, and I'm thinking about the, the, the 18th hole, the par five finisher, one little feature I love on so many links golf courses is that little catch bunker or almost like, like the one that's 3040 yards short of a green, that is a always a factor because it's dictates where, where you're coming in from is going to have a major effect because you need

to land them short to chase them up in there and like having to like navigate that one. Charlie ended up forcing it right of that bunker and right of another bunker into a little hollow where with the pin tucked right behind that but she was in a hollow, needing to clear another bunker into a little hollow where with the pin tucked right behind that but she was in a hollow needing to clear a bunker to a tightly tucked pin to get up and down on it it was impossible like you just hit it in the wrong spot in your toast and like that's the kind of stuff that I obviously geek out about. I think I agree with everything you said Solly those bunkers that are set back like 30 to 40 yards specifically on the par 5 where

these women play a game where they are trying to run something up I think anybody who plays this golf course unless you're like carrying it 320 plus meaning like if the men's if they ever tried to hold it open here number one they could never do it just because of how Porthcall is set up they can't support that but the golf course wise would just be completely overpowered. But the par five specifically, maybe not so much six. There's there's trouble off the tee box. But really, when I think of nine, I saw a lot of people

that landed their ball and tried to run something up. But there's those pop bunkers that are 20, 30 yard short, gobbling everything up. The same thing on 13. Charlie was in that today and had to play like a 40 yard explosion shot and get it to run up there. And then really the one that that I saw the most balls in that wasn't a par five is that one that's kind of not really in the line of play, but it is because of the way 17 is set up. That one that's short left on 17 because of the way the wind is, everybody's trying to land it so far short cause nothing is going to hold that green. And they're like, yeah, cool. Land it there. But that pop-hugger is right there. You're going to be bound. It's, it's such a wonderful golf course for the scale of the

women's game. I think that's what we're talking about, right? And I think further, what makes it unique is the routing, right? It's not just simply an out and back. So you're, you're kind of getting two wind directions. It goes out and wraps around and then the back nine kind of wraps in on itself. So you're really having to play shots in every type of wind. And yeah, it just, you know, Ian Carter, a good buddy, Ian Carter at the BBC, we were talking about it's fun to watch golf on a golf course like this where the shots

being hit are, I mean, you can envision when was this golf course built, the late 1800s. Like, I'm sure these were the types of shots they were envisioning, you know? It's not just flying it past certain bunkers. It's not hitting wedges high and spinning them back. It was proper golfing your ball out there. And so I think Roy Porthkall was absolutely a star this week. I mean, kudos to the ground staff, the golf course was in fantastic condition. My perception coming into this week was heavily colored by that senior open several years or

three years ago, I think it was where the weather was biblical. And so I was I was kind of expecting like, oh, the weather's gonna suck. I don't know about this golf course. And oh my God, leaving here. I'm like, Royal Porthole is near the top. Like it's the golf course. You watch golf out here. I want to go out and play that golf course. And I thought that's what we thought Tuesday too, after we finished the program. It's like, okay, I've seen it now once. Let me go play it again. I want to hit shots. It just is. It's like, okay, I've seen it now once. Let me go play it again. I want to hit shots. It just is. It's awesome, man.

And I really think they need to bring this this championship back here. They can't be a stranger to port of call. And I want to go pause. First of all, that's a fantastic review, Randy, but I want to pause to on just that, like, the scale, the comment you made there. that's everything in sports. Like the scale has to fit. If you played a baseball game with 250 foot fences, that wouldn't make sense.

And if you played it with 500 foot fences, it wouldn't make sense. If the bases were 95 feet apart, that wouldn't make sense. If they were 85 feet apart, that wouldn't make sense. Like the measurements of the factors, like the base, they have to put a baseballs and humidifiers when they go to course field because like the scale of the game doesn't make sense there. So when we spend as

much time as we do harping on how messed up the scale is in men's golf, like, again, if you play an NBA game on a court that is like 30% too small, like that wouldn't that wouldn't make sense if you shrunk the NFL field down 30% like that that would not be a better product and that these are not perfect analogies for the distance and technology discussion of it. It's just that say like, the scale of how the game is played matters so much. I don't think I don't expect it to be a massive takeaway from people that turned

on golf on television. But it's just because we've gotten so used to what we've what we've watched over the last several decades, that it might not stand out to you. But like on a week like this one, to me, it really does stand out. Yeah. And one of the enduring memories will just be, you know, watching these women hit three woods hybrids into these par fours and their ability to do so. It's crazy. You know, I was joking like, can you imagine? Not because they're overly long, because that's what the whole calls for. Meaning that the majority of par fours, even some, the wind is punishing your T shots so much and others because there's genius crossing bunkers and

hazards that limit where you're hitting your tee shot anyway. So 17 is tough not because of the length of it it's because I don't care who you are your tee shot can only go 210 yards because even you would have to like carry something 290 probably in the air just to have a chance to get over those crossing, you know, there's two bunkers across it. Now the men would probably do that, but that's why is because it, everything kind of is the way that it should be. Right.

And because of that, and Solly, to your point, like what makes Lynx golf so much fun is, you know, like 16, 17, there are holes on the scorecard that say par four, but really you can think of them as par fives and there are holes on the scorecard that say par five and they should be treated more as par fours this week. And it's all dictated by the wind and the conditions. And yeah, it was, it was awesome. Let me, real quick on Yamashita, enduring, what's the lasting moment shot? I mean, is it the putt on 17? Is that the one we're gonna remember?

Is it something else for you guys? I hope I have it right. Was it the, was it 13, the par five, where she drove it in the bunker and then pitched out and made the part, like the par putt that just went in the center of the center of the hole for me when Charlie was making the run I'm just like, Oh, gosh, this Yeah, it's not flipping. Like I, I was kind of rooting for a Charlie Hall

comeback. I feel like for as much as we talk about her, it feels like we're ready. We've seen these runs and majors are ready for her big moment the hunt down to win the edge you women's open it and when that put went in, it was like, okay, I don't think this is happening. Yeah. And I think for me, it'll be the putt on 17. I think just because I was there calling it and trying to not mess up people's names, but also because like, I remember at the time cat on one side of me and then Ian in my ear was like, Oh, that's like the shot that's going to win her this tournament.

Yeah. And I was like, well, yeah, because we were setting it up on radio. I'm like, this is going to be a bogey of best, but like double as a play. I thought she like might drop out of the final group. Like it was, yeah, that was kind of it. I've all right. So we settle that. Should we talk about Charlie Hall? Can we move on? I can, but I want to just pull you pointed this out in the happy hour before we, before we got going, Randy, we have to shout out, this is the 20th, 21st different winner on the LPGA Tour this

year in 20 events. That's not a typo. We had just perfect parody across the LPGA Tour season. There's been zero repeat winners. I was looking around at all the names that have won. And I was like, the winner of the tournament has to come from there. Like this, there's the streak will end this week. Uh, and it did not. I just, that was such, I was so tickled by that on the happy hour that I'm, I'm excited to see how long the streak can go now. Yeah. Well, I guess quickly, maybe I should play,

ask one of my favorite questions. How many career majors do we want to give me? What's, what's our, what's our over under number that we're setting? Like is two and a half, is that, is that a fun, fun line to set? Is one and a half more fair? Like it, there's a lot of talent. Fair for sure. It comes and goes quickly on the LPGA tours we've seen. That's probably where I would set it.

Like not to say that she's, I mean, she's obviously extremely talented, but it's, you know, Nellie is going to have 11 Lottie is going to have more than, more than 11. I don't know how many more, I don't know if we have enough in the models to be, to give me you two more. She works hard. You know, she, she talked about, she spent time after Saturday, after her round, she was on the range, beating balls. Her dad is her coach.

Like, I think it's, this ain't no hobby for me. I think she is somebody that is in the process. I was just struck by her demeanor too today, walking around, like did not give any emotion, looked like a absolute stone cold assassin. And I don't know. I like to dream that like, yeah, come on me, show up out some more majors. Like let's join the party. You know, I'm ready. We need to see some true duels, I think, between some of the world's best. And she's put herself in that category where, you know, hopefully she'll be one of those women at some of these majors to come. So this is her 14th major. She's 24 years old.

Of those 14 majors, she's only missed two cuts. Her lowest finish outside of this win was tied for second last year at the KPMG Women's Championship. This year at the KPM Women's Championship in Frisco, she was tied for sixth. And then outside of that, you know, the two missed cuts, her worst finish has been a 48th. And that was at the Evian, which year over year, she's continued to improve at she went from T48 the first year she qualified for it in 2023, T39 and then this year T14. So I think she is somebody who,

at least on the JLPGA, you know, of the rookie class that came over so far this year from Japan, she is by far the best one. Like she is way ahead of her peers. And I think that's why if you're looking for somebody like who is going to be somebody who could break that line that you guys said theoretically it should be her. But so you're right. There's there's so much that that goes on on the women's game. Yeah.

Yeah. Three. Like you mentioned it three top 10s in her 1414 majors. And it's again, worth pointing out like age 24 on the women's tour is not as young as age 24 on the men's tour. Historically speaking, in terms of, you know, I think we'd be freaking out about the long term future of a 24 year old major winner on the on the men's side. But on the women's side, they

cycle out a lot faster. That's just there. There is, but there, you know, I thought that was the trend really for the last five, eight years, but it's changing. And I think it's changing without people really noticing just because now people are staying in college and the Japanese women and the Koreans are playing their tours longer before they come over and start playing full time on the LPGA tour and start getting into these major championships. So yeah, we always talk about this kind of roof

that is put on the women's game about 30, 31 years old and stuff like that, but even that is starting to trend further back. So it's interesting. I know that's like what we get from living in the era of Lexi and then now, you know, Nellie and looking at her age and stuff like that. But you know, a lot of these people outside of Lydia, they want to play for a long, like longer. Yeah. You know,

I asked the guy who was interpreting for Miu during the trophy ceremony, he's obviously deep into the Japanese golf scene. And I was asking him like, how, when and how do somebody like Miyu and these other Japanese women, like, when do they make the decision to come over to the LPGA tour? And he said, honestly, they're, they're getting more and more. They used to wait a long time because they wanted to be totally sure they wanted to be set. And he was like, the risk there is like, you could get too settled in Japan and, and never really make the leap. But he said with all the success that we've seen certainly in the last couple

of years, these women, he thinks are going to be enticed to come over earlier and earlier in their careers. So I dude, it is a total wave of Japanese women coming into the LPGA tour. And I don't think that's going to stop anytime soon. That comment, when he said it made zero sense to me about like getting comfortable. And I'm like, well, why wouldn't you want to go play for bigger purses and stuff like that? And he's like, no, no, no, like the JLPGA, like the majority of the events are four day events,

but a lot of them are three day events. And because of where they're at, they're in their beds every single night by like three hours after the round is completed on Sunday. And they don't travel to the tournament until Wednesday morning, and they're there in two hours to play whatever program. So for them, it truly is like,

no, I'm gone Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night I'm back home in my bed. So I can see how they could get extremely comfortable and do it, but cheers to them. I'm just going through Miyu's victories on the JLPGA and see who finished runner up to you or to her. Excuse me. So her first win in 2021 Ayaka Fudeway. That's who she beat. Five shots.

Five, five. There are a couple more wins names I don't necessarily recognize right now, but then we get to 2022 Japan LPGA Tour Championship, Miyami Katsu. Then the next one, Chisato Iwai. Then the next one, Aki Iwai. Then the next one, Miyu Sato, Aki Iwai, Ayako Fudoe. Like they're all there. All of these names that we're seeing now, I'm like, holy cow, they've just been developing in Japan and now they're finally coming to take the world over. So homework for all of us time to get deep into the JLPGA. I think that's the big takeaway time to do some prospecting.

I was going to say we've like some of the training you guys got this week on pronunciation and you got, we have to commit. Are we doing like the English version of the pronunciation or the Japanese? Cause we got, we might be doing this for the next decade. We might need to stick to one. We got to reach out to Pooch and see what the... Yeah, Pooch is going to be our North Star on this. Yeah.

Oh, before we get down to the leaderboard, Brandy, if you'll allow me, I want to give a shout to our friends at Holderness and Bourne. I've got the Lawson hoodie on here right now. Stormy day here. I have afforded me a chance to throw a hoodie on here today. Nice and cool. What do you got on there?

I have it's an excellent new polo. Sorry, I guess speaking to the microphone. It's an excellent new polo. It's kind of like the forest the tree print theme makes me feel at home in Denver. I love that they got new colors in the Harwood short as well. They got Ivy and Andover. In those the shorts are very quickly becoming a best seller for the seller for them. They got Ivy and Andover in those. The shorts are very quickly becoming a best seller for them. They're versatile for off the course as well. The Amherst colorway you've heard us talk about, that's the soft purple. There's the Bedford

colorway, which is the soft dusty blue and the Cape colorway is like a faded coral. And then the Maxwell shirt is the iconic peak style. It's great in heat. It's updated with new colors, those new colors we just mentioned. And again, it's not too early to think about cashmere. Cashmere is something they have been experimenting with and rocking, knocking out of the park. If I may say a bunch of their guys, uh, over at the open championship this past month, we're wearing some of that.

Cody and I think could have used cashmere a couple of times out here at Porthcrawl, Porthcrawl this week. Porthcrawl that it can't be the first time that's happened. Oh my god, it's been tough. I need to stop talking. I feel like it should be Porthcrawl. Anyways, nlu10 at hbgolf.com gets you 10% off your first order. And that is that in our Trap Draw discount code. Only ones in the market for Holderness and Born. So hbgolf.com code nlu10 gets you 10%

off your first order. Randy, where do you want to go next? All right. If you're watching along on YouTube, we need to acknowledge Cody and I are in a new location. That is because we had been recording at this area called the Drop, which was in the Fan Village. I think they pulled the cord for the Wi-Fi in the Fan Village. So we wrap it up. Yeah. Yeah. You all need, you don't have to go home, but you gotta get the heck up out of here. We have made our way over to the media center. So that's where we are. Little booth in the back.

I think it's time to talk about Charlie Hall and Charlie made this interesting, right? We talked about that birdie on 14. She got within one of the lead briefly. It was an awesome weekend for Charlie. She went out Saturday and was seven under through her first 13 holes, ended up shooting 66, came out today, Sunday and needed to charge some more. And she did. She played a really clean front nine, which listen, a little uncharacteristic maybe for Charlie. She's not necessarily always known for her patients and bogey avoidance, but that's just what she did. She played the

par threes fabulously should know it. She birdied number five, she birdied number eight, she birdied number 12. She really had it going. And I really think, you know, as I was watching Charlie, like there's not much more fun in golf for me in pro golf than watching Charlie Hall Chase down the lead and that's what she did today Ultimately came up short finished nine under what three shots two shots back I don't think she gave this away by any means she did bogey the 16th and 17th They're difficult golf holes. And I think some of that's just links golf.

I don't think the moment got too big for her. I think- How does the moment, she never had hold of the moment. Yeah, that's what I mean. So I, listen, I don't think like, I don't come away like down on Charlie like, ah, she didn't get it done. I come away from like, damn don't come away like down on Charlie like, ah, she didn't get it done.

I come away from like, damn, Charlie gave it a good run, similar honestly to 2023 at the US Open at Pebble Beach. And I guess the question with Charlie is like, is she ever going to get one of these? I feel like, I feel like she needs, I don't know if she needs, like she needs to. Now you're talking to yourself in circles because you're saying that she didn't get it done, but now you're putting the bat back on her. So I'll say this.

Well no, I just think it'd be great if she won one. Of course, it'd be great if everyone won one, but I don't think that's realistic. I think starting the week, Charlie had some virus. She's talked, you know, the last time that she competed was at the Evian. She had to withdraw after the first round because she was fainting on the golf course. She had to withdraw after the first round because she was

fainting on the golf course. She was super sick, had some sort of viral infection, went to the emergency room, was discharged and actually her agent was texting the tournament director asking if Charlie could come finish her first round after hours. So play had concluded and they were trying to get her to be like, no, no, no, I still, I still want to compete. I understand that I like miss my tea time and everything, but like, I want to be in this.

They said, no, no, go home. So she hasn't worked out in three weeks now, which is huge for her. You know, she's somebody who talks a lot about her mental health and how, what it's like living with her ADHD going into this week, we even said this like, Charlie wasn't even in any of these pictures. I think this was an excellent tournament for Charlie Hall. I think this Sunday she made it super exciting, but I don't think that I'm going to put all of that on her

like we did at Walton Heath. Walton Heath, she lost the Golden. Yes, exactly. And I guess that's exactly right. That's the distinction I wanted to make between that week and this week. This is her fourth runner up in a major. So she's been knocking on the door. I think the other thing that I always just appreciate

when coming over here, we saw it at Walton Heath and certainly we saw it at Walton Heath and certainly we saw it this week. She's a big deal, right? I know that's not like breaking news, but it is something to behold in person, seeing how much support she gets in this part of the world and how much people really do pull for her. It's always great to be reminded of that.

So great week for Charlie. Especially a week that started out with Lode fever. There was everybody all they want to do is talk about their news, you know, young Brit star that's out there. And Charlie was like, no, no, no, don't forget about me. And at points in time yesterday, all of a sudden we saw Charlie. We saw Georgia Hall. We saw Bronte law. Everybody be like, wait a second, the British are coming. Did we say Mimi?

Yeah. I mean, it's, it's crazy, but you're right. I, I'm not going to put that on Charlie. I think this is an excellent T2 finish. She was never in contention of this tournament. So I don't feel like it's an actual loss there. Yeah. Um, I do think it does feel like if she is going to win a major, like today was kind of the, the way she is going to win one where she's chasing almost getting the club house and let somebody kind of fall back behind her. So yeah,

I don't know if Sally, anything else stick out to you from watching. She is a needle mover in terms of just the playing style and the mannerisms and the she makes you feel something when you watch her man. I mean the early t-grabs that yeah she went after she was hitting a pitching wedge to a back pen. I'm sorry I don't remember the whole number and I was just watching I like watching her follow through or lack thereof. Yeah I swear on a full swing she I don't know if the club cleared her waste on the way, on the way through, as far as how much she just digs it into the turf and like does not do a full

follow through. And I know you're playing different shots and all that, but it wasn't really even a knockdown shot. It's just she's got such a unique playing style and I swear she's got a bet going with her caddy on how fast she can get the club back in the bag after she hits a tee shot. It's just, I don't know. there's something about it, man. It's, it's fun to watch and it's easy to root for. When she birdied 14, I was in the group directly behind her and then the, the leaders coming up the one group behind me. So I was kind of sandwiched in there in a group that literally

did nothing today. But when she made that on 14, that was the loudest noise I've heard all week. So much so that it like it was I was downwind from it and standing up on the hill. And it like it encapsulated me. And next thing I know, I was like standing there with goosebumps being like, Holy shit, Charlie is going to do it. And everybody around us literally being like cheering and everything rules officials, officials, other media people, you name it, all people inside the ropes doing things that they shouldn't do

because they're like, Holy cow, it's Charlie's time, you know, sucks those two bogeys, but heck of a week for her. Now, the person that I was in, the other person that finished T2, Miyami Katsu, it's crazy to say like, Oh man, she didn't get it done today for somebody who went out and shot 69 and like put together a decent round of golf, all things considered. But like she just, she just didn't have it. So only bogey of the day was at the second hole there just wasn't really as sharp with her irons as she had been this week. But you know, got a birdie at 11 and then it was just like that was it. You know, she grounded, you know, was

grinding her ass off to get it in. Birdie's the 18th to shoot 69 and had a really decent look there for Eagle, but anything that sticks out for you from her? No, just another Japanese woman who has had a bunch of success this week. Well, that's not true. I want to shout out, she just shot a 65 round of the day Saturday, bogey free. That was really, really impressive. The conditions Saturday were ripe. That was a great round of golf that she put together.

I'll say this too, for all the ones that we've talked about so far and how good their world rankings and stuff. Minime is like 102nd in the world or something like that. This is obviously going to leap her way up the leaderboard, but this was the last tournament this week to solidify teams are already set, but to solidify the individual players, the four women who are going to represent each team for the international crown. And it's going to be very interesting if she jumps ahead of Aki Iwai, who's sitting in that fourth spot with this finish. Well, let's just, we can quickly kind of move down the rest of the top 10. I think they're worth calling out in a tie for fourth at seven under par.

You had Korea's A-lim Kim. She had a great round Saturday herself just could not get it going She was playing with Miyu Yamashita today in a tie with her is Rio Takada She was eight under going into the weekend her and Miyu were paired together. They played together Saturday They were vibing their faces off. Rio got caught up more in the conditions on Saturday. She struggled a little bit, shot 74. I guess that's what Miyu shot. They both kind of struggled. Rio though, Sunday, a lot like Minami, just could not mount that charge. And ultimately like, hey, great week for another top five in a

major. I think a lot to take away. I think it's safe to say me who's going to jump her in the LPGA rookie of the year race. But yeah, I think another name that we're going to hear a lot of in the coming years, certainly at major championships. In a tie for six, you had Megan Kang. She was at 600 along with Wei Ling Shu. Don't know a lot about Wei Ling Shu. This was by far her best finish at this championship.

I think it was like her third career top 10 in a major. She's 30 years old. Quite honestly, you know, bit of a, I'm not sure we're going to need to spend a lot of time getting to know her, but that's no disrespect to her. Megan Kang was the one I was expecting a little bit more out of Megan. Megan was playing alongside Charlie today. And I thought that group, that pairing specifically, they could really draft off of each other. And once Charlie got it going, Megan just was not able to go with her. She had bogeyed what Cody the third and the fifth and You know just was stuck in stuck in the mud most of the day

Well from what I saw at least, you know, she was in the group in front of us. She couldn't get off the tee box I mean, there's a bunch of quick lefts There's a couple of flared rights like just really struggling and I don't want to say it was the moment or anything But she just seemed a lot different today than she had been the last three days. Yeah. Tied for eighth Lottie Wode. I don't know whether I'm more impressed with like it feels almost disappointing maybe that she was tied for eighth. I mean she came into the week as the betting favorite which is crazy. Of course she won the Scottish Open last week in her first start as a professional. She had won the Irish open a few weeks before that while still an amateur. She had finished top 10 at the open last year.

She finished tied for third at the Evian. So I think she came here expecting to win this golf tournament. She was just let down, Solly a little bit by her putter and she had a really unfortunate lie on, I think it was Friday. Sorry, I don't have it up right in front of me. Friday, I believe where she triple bogeyed the par four sixteenth and that ultimately I think spelled the end of her. What, anything you picked up on TV or what? I mean, I think Lottie is somebody that's coming and I really like that we could have an English budding superstar on our hands. I think golf is good when the English,

certainly women's golf have a true superstar that might be in the hunt week in and week out. I think there's something to a player's week that you know what like a winning week looks like and this did not look like a winning week for Lottie Wode. It just, yeah, and I'm not, I don't mean to chalk that up as like, oh, she got bad luck or just wasn't her time. It's just like, yeah, it wasn't like the highest quality of play for her and like had some

really bad things happen. The triple bogeys wasn't really knocking down flag sticks, wasn't really draining putts. It just wasn't really all adding up. And she finished t8. Like I honestly walk away like more encouraged. I regret nothing of getting overhyped in that preview. Like I think we're looking at a star with some major leaderboard helium. I think it reminds me of I don't know, I hate to always do the men's comp. But like someone like a john rom who was

like, Hey, was he at his best this week? Nope. What he finished? Like, oh yeah, T7. That's kind of where where I feel like we're at with Lottie. Her her floor is really, really, really high. And it just I never once thought I was watching somebody excel greatly this week. And she finished T8. I'm still all in. I'm not I'm not budging one single bit.

Yeah, I'm right there with you. I think, yeah, I think that's a good spot. She squeezes a lot out of these rounds, even when she doesn't have close to her A game. I can't wait to watch more of her, honestly. Yeah. That sucks like kind of for her, we have this big major layoff now,

because she's so hot and she's playing really, really good golf. And there's still a lot of golf left in the LPGA season. But I just, I think for her sake, I bet she wishes there were a bunch more majors for this year. Yeah. I think there's a lot that she needs to, this schedule has this laid out now. I think it's going to be very good for Lottie, like figuring out how to live her professional life. You know, it's not that many weeks ago that she was still like on campus at FSU doing her own thing. And like, you know, she she doesn't drive a car. So when she comes over to the States, like they have to arrange a driver.

That's why, you know, Dermott, her caddy is that's why they selected him was to kind of help her get around, which I think is like things that we don't think of. But she doesn't have a driver's license. She talked last week, what was she going to do like with her winnings from winning the Scottish? She's like, we'll have to buy a car. But theoretically, I'm buying it, but it's not for me because I can't drive it. So it's for Dermott to drive. That's going to be our American car. So trying to figure out like where she's going to be based out of what's going on. Like there's just a lot, which I think is going to be very refreshing for her that she kind of gets what'll feel

like a whole year under her belt of living normal professional golf life. And then we're going to come back around to start next year and it'll be game busters. But I would expect her to compete in and contend in a lot of tournaments this fall. And like as crazy as it is, just turning professional and accepting her LPGA tour status a couple weeks ago, she is going to be in the running. I'm sure by the time that we get to the CME, which I understand it's not a major championship, but that's a lot of money at stake for them.

She should buy a limousine. If she's just going to be the passenger, I feel like just by a stretch limo, the sprinter van in the back. I hear you speaking of super impressive. Also tied for eighth was our low am our Smith salver award winner this week. And that is Stanford's Paula Martin San Pedro. She went 72 74 70 and then had the round of the day on Sunday with a 68 and she was playing and she played most of her round in the worst conditions. It was, it was a great, great week for her. Um, Lottie won that last year. Paula Martin, she's won every amateur event this summer.

It's ridiculous how good she is. It'll be great to continue to watch her develop. I will say from what I've seen from her, if you're looking at like, who do you, who does she kind of base, you know, who do you compare her to? She's not the longest by any means. And I say that with a little bit of concern because we're, everybody's hyped about Lottie mania and stuff right there, but we went through this a couple of years ago with Rose and Rose also doesn't hit the golf ball that far. So Paul and my team, she needs to figure out how to get her ball speed up a little bit more, because that's what's gonna be holding her back. And that's what Lottie has in spades.

Like her ball speed is way up, she mashes it out there. And I think the rest of the young players that you see, they all have speed numbers that are up. You can't just get away with that anymore on the LPGA tour, but heck of a show from her. The whole time I was sitting there thinking about our friend in Spain who constantly loops on news so I'm sure she's absolutely like just fired up about this finish. Andrea Lee, I'm gonna bounce out of the top 10 real quick because I was with

her all day today. She tried so hard to force things. And I don't think she... I know she's going to learn a lot from this position that she was in. Starting the day, three back, but she just tried to force way too much. And it was glaringly obvious from the moment that I picked her group up that, man man, like when you're, when you're not rock solid and you're trying to force things that pins on links golf that are like, you know, that that sucker pins out there for a reason. Like, don't you dare try to take it on because you're going to end up in that pop bunker right there. That's exactly what happened to her. And it just like, you know, she kept trying to do that time and time and time again. And it

was just not the round that she wanted. And it sucks that she slipped out of the top 10, but what a year in majors for her. I mean, I feel like she is continuing to elevate her game and putting herself like, yeah, exactly just stepping up. And she had so much success as an amateur and not so much so far in her professional career outside of the one win. But man, she just like keeps learning and getting better. Yeah, knocking on the door. Steph Kiriakou was the final one tied for eighth.

I don't want to shortchange her. She had a hole in one, another near hole in one. This week quickly just down the leaderboard in honor of TC, you had Gino Titicum tied for 30th at one over par. You had Lydia Ko and Nelly Korda tied for 36th at three over par. Hometown Porthcol member Darcy Harry finished tied for 40th at five over par alongside of our hitter emeritus, Madeline Saxstrom. Angel Yin was part of that group.

And Yanni Sang, this is the one I want to call out real quick. Yanni Sang, she ended up finishing tie for 63rd plus nine, but this was the first cut on the LPGA tour that she's made since 2018. And while not a full-time player, she's played enough tournaments where, yeah, when you haven't made a cut in almost seven years, it's crazy. She plays L.E.T. access tours. She plays back in Taiwan. Like she goes all over the world to continue to try to grind and get better at golf. And this is somebody that has five major championships under her belt, was number one in the world for 109 weeks at one point. It's amazing. We got to do a podcast sometime with Yanni. Her story is really crazy.

She came in the booth, Solly, and was very open and talked through it all. And I'm like, Randy was in there with her asking her great questions. And that was the first thing that jumped out. She tried everything and what started with like as a hip injury, a couple hip injuries. And then all of a sudden while she was trying to recover from that, she just randomly gets the putting yips and then it's gone through it all from, you know, hand low, bull sides, claw, reverse claw, long putters, short putters, sides, how, like you name it. She went through it all. And now she's out there putting left-handed, uh, in a major

championship makes, makes the cut there. I can't believe you skipped over LC, man. No, can I, can I run through Yanni just so people have a grasp of this? So she won the women's PGA in 2008 and 2011 won the Chevron in 2010. When the women's British open in 2010 and 2011 also won the Chevron in 2010, won the Women's British Open in 2010 and 2011. Also in that little four-year time period, she finished second at the Women's British in 2008. She finished second at the Chevron and finished third at the Chevron, which was of course the A&A at Mission Hills. Quick fun fact, I believe the youngest

male or female to get to five major championships. She won her last major in 2011, which was 14 years ago, and she is 36. So that was 22 years old. I believe you're right then. So since then she went in major. She's gone T 50, T 59, T 26, T 48, cut T 19, cut, cut, cut T 35, T 30, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, T 13, cut T 59, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut 19 cut, cut, cut T 35 T 30 cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, T 13 cut T 59 cut T 36 T 31 cut, cut, cut, cut T 30 cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut T 63 this week. I asked her like, Why didn't you just quit? Like just, like just walk away. And she's like, truly I love this game and I love just trying to get better. And so yeah,

I think we got to chase her down for a podcast. It was unbelievable. I did. I skipped pass LC. LC I'm so sorry. She battled her ass off this weekend. She ended up tied for 13th, two under par. She was in a group with, among others, Minji Lee and our new best friend, Hoi Ju Kim. We saw her dinner. She's so nice. She's great. We didn't know if she'd like, you know, we played with her Tuesday in the pro-am and then we saw her at dinner. What was that? Friday night. We were like, ah, she's not going to say like, she's not going to let's, be cool. And Rory White just, oh, hi, hi. And then I'm going over and talking to her, she's the best.

Love that, we've been trying to get through with H.J. for a long time. I think that's a huge development. That should be the proudest thing you guys should come home with. I will say the one thing about Elsie, you know, Rocky's start, 75 in the opening round, and like was not feeling at all, but

absolutely played like a woman on fire, like really proper golf in the toughest conditions. You know, I talk about waves, Sully, I know you always talk about waves, right? Over two strokes difference between splits. It was crazy. Yeah, she's grinding. I can't wait. I think she's found form. I can't wait to see what else he does the rest of this calendar year. Cody, I was going to say, I think this is a good thing that we've somewhat skim past LC an hour in of a T 13 finish. That's a good thing in terms of our respect for LC's game. That's massive respect. Sorry, Cody. Last thing I was going to ask you, is there anybody that you kind of saw in person for the first time this week that you want to shout out? Just like, oh, I wasn't familiar with their game. Or I was kind of curious what they would, you know, how they would go about things.

Well, I mean, it's first time we've seen Lottie up close and personal. I didn't see her that much last year at St. Andrews. I was thinking Mimi Rhodes is somebody for me. Yeah, for sure. Impressed with her game. She's a super into horses. I know Neil will probably get down with that. I think she actually studied like equestrian science at school. She didn't play college golf anywhere. It's fascinating actually. I don't know. Wait, I thought she was at Wake Forest.

Oh, you're right. I'm thinking of the local girl that's actually from here. Darcy. Darcy Hair. Excuse me. May I call her right there? We can clean that up later. But I'll say this is that when situations get tough, it's always funny that kind of the same type of people always are lingering around there. And like, again, this week that was Lynn Grant. She didn't play the best on the weekend, but like put herself in position through 36 holes and then just slowly faded away. And I don't know if that's a, a getting used to it or whatnot, but like she was always there, super impressed with the big Swede and an orc list. Like coming in low Swede, she fell way back today.

Let's start the, will she pick herself for the Solheim next year conversation right now? I'm already turning the back half of this episode. That part at least. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to flip on that. I think she should actually pick herself a hundred percent. There So that part of these, yeah. Yeah. I'm going to flip on that. I think she should actually pick herself a hundred percent. There we go. On this side. We're good.

There we go. Well, I think it's Mimi for me. You know, I, we had shouted her out. I remember in an earlier podcast after she reeled off those three straight Ellie T wins and just wasn't familiar. It was a true situation of like, I'm not familiar with your game. And she came into the radio booth was, was really nice. And just watching her hit golf shots. I think I'm really excited to track her progress on the LAP. I'm curious if she's

going to try to make that jump over to the LPGA at some point. And certainly somebody to kind of at least keep on the radar or Solheim Cup, you know, especially if she keeps having major L.E.T. success. Solly, as we kind of wrap, Porthcall, I should note the future venues for this championship. Next year, they are heading to Royal Lithom and St. Anne's. They announced in 2027, they're going to Royal St. George's, but in terms specifically next year at Royal Litham, I believe that's a golf course you've played. Like what do you, how do you think it will work for an AIG Women's Open?

Rainey, it's a golf course. I've been lucky enough to play twice. The last time was in 2019. And honestly, man, I think about that golf course so frequently. It's one of those I just sticks out. I can't exactly tell you why. Like just for example, like Birkdale just down the road, totally fine golf course, excellent championship golf course. I don't think about that place a lot, but I think about Lidham all the time. Just how the quaint little property that it sits in, the way the front nine just runs all the way up along these train tracks making its way out to this tiny little par three in the corner. I think there's something like 252 bunkers at

Royal Latham that all have that magnetic feel to them like the whole thing is all bunker avoidance. It starts with the par three, which I know it just has to absolutely tickle you. And the final four holes all kind of zigzag in all these different directions. So like you're gonna get a tricky wind in some way down the stretch. If it was famously Adam Scott could not hold on

to his three shot lead, four shot lead, whatever it was in those final holes in 2012 when Ernie L's ended up winning. It didn't scream to me like the men's game has truly outgrown this I think for maybe for financial reasons the the open is not currently going there. I know there was talk at some point I don't know where things ended up leaving off of that course making some adjustments of some kind to be able to continue to host the men's game

but there's been some awesome open championships that have been held at Royal Lytham. You might remember Ian Woosnum awesome open championships that have been held at Royal Latham. You might remember Ian Woosnum accidentally with 15 clubs that was at Latham. And yeah, why that actually happened was they didn't reach for driver on the opening hole because it was a par three and he got to the second hole and realized he had two drivers in the bag. And there's just it's a really, really good golf course. And I think it's the exact we

talked about this with Porthcall of like example of a golf course women should go to where the scale makes sense. And if the men aren't going to go there, they should play it a course where they can bring some of these features alive. I think lithium is going to have all that plus with kind of the open championship history behind it as well.

I think that's going to be most view for any golf fan next year. Oh my God. Like honestly could not have made me more excited for next year. Like I'm just thinking of like, it just feels like we talked a lot about scale here at Porth call. It seems like we're going to have that maybe the same dynamic next year. I just have fun mix of not pretty simple holes and some really, really

challenging holes and, uh, gosh, it's just, it's awesome. I it's worth mentioning, you know, this is the rap for the major season in golf. And obviously in women's golf, just, I, I think we spent a couple of minutes, just a quick look back on what happened this year, uh, your winners, the Chevron was Mal Sigo in a playoff, kind of that hectic, crazy playoff. I believe it was four women in that. The United States women's open, Maya Stark kind of came from nowhere that week. You know, I don't think she was among the names that we were thinking, but man, she played great golf. The

KPMG, Minji Lee survived the up, the greens, the conditions there. Evian was bonkers. Grace Kim, of course, absolutely stealing that from Gino. And then here at Porthcol Mio Yamashita just slammed the door, got it done. So my question, Sali, I'll start with you. Of those, I suspect this might be an easy answer, but what's, what's maybe the most memorable thing you're going to take from these five major championships this year? I mean, it's not only Grace Kim's finish, but it was, it was officially acknowledging the Avian as a major and an apology of I was not familiar enough with your game because it does create some exciting moments. I know it has been kind of, you know, players skipping it and all of this.

But as I look back on it, how often we've ended up with really exciting, close majors and you know, Chevron's falling off the way that it has from Mission Hills on to into Carlton Woods, I think is also what's helped elevate Evian. And that was just an awesome frickin tournament and a memorable finish that I won't forget anytime soon. Yeah, tough, tough to argue. I think that's probably a unanimous choice. Cody, can I ask you, were there? Did you

have like a disappointment at any of the majors? Like, if we kind of go to the flip side what will stand out to you I guess yeah Chevron stinks okay and what the only thing that could make Chevron better is if you had like a five-for-one playoff for the for the win and then everybody plays like a dog on the floor what It was a bad playoff. What are we doing? Like there's five people and it's just one hole. Yeah. Yeah. It's horrible. The broadcast is horrible. Chevron stinks. Okay. That's it. I'm moving on. US Women's Open. I thought Erin Hills was good. I did too. I thought it was really good.

I like that. You know, obviously we're huge fans of Maya. Probably a fluke win. You know, honestly, she's she has a lot of changes coming up. I know that for a fact. But played her ass off in a place that we all love. Grace Kim and everything. I'm right there with you guys. I don't know. I think these events, we say this every year

that the AIG Women's Open is our favorite week of the year, but that's just because there's a lot else that goes into it, um, for us, but you know, there's no bigger disappointment when you look at it now than the Chevron for me. I just don't, I don't know what we're supposed to do with it anymore. I listen, I'm going to fluff this tournament and I promise nobody's making me say this, but every single player I talked to was raving

about how the players are treated in the setup here. Like I think, I think the open and the U S open are like the cut above those, those are the two tournaments on the calendar. And then, you know, depending on maybe where KPMG goes, Evian, we really want to go like it is, it is rising and then yeah. I want to take, I want to take Randy on a baby moon next year. Just to do that. That would be great.

Sorry, God. Well, let's, let's use this for our serve pro mulligan. And I'm going to ask it, you know, if, if you could grant somebody, something, a mulligan from these five majors this year, Sally, what, what direction are you going? You listed a couple options in there, not listed on their area. Jutanekarn's chip at the chef.

I didn't even remember that. Green side with total. I, all she had to do was hit the ball on the green and she's going to win that tournament. We didn't have to watch that playoff that Cody hated that we all hated. Just chip it onto the green. That's all she had to do, rushed it. It was just the biggest mulligan I can imagine, honestly,

in a women's majors, going back to IK Kim missing the 18 inch putt to win the U.S. women's open. I mean, it was just an unthinkable error. And I honestly had forgotten all about it until you we started writing all this out and revisiting that. And I was thankful for that. I know that is easily the mulligan of the year. She gas. Yeah, she gassed that God I was thinking more like running in right had that I think eagle putt and blew it

right? Had that, I think Eagle putt and blew it what 15 feet by it seemed, missed the purdy. Oh my God. I, yeah. Area Cody, what would be your mulligan? I mean, I, I, again, I think maybe it's just recency bias a little bit here, but Evian and, and how all that played out. If Gino could make Grace have to take a, have to hit that chip again. Like there's no way that was, that was one in, that was one in a hundred, truly. And I think that's just like the shot of the year.

The fact that that happened and listening to her and how that played out, how she's like, you know, basically didn't say anything to her caddy. Her caddy didn't say anything back to her. She walked up on the green and like figured out where to land it at. They never talked about yardages. They never talked about wedges. He just stood there holding the golf bag and she's like, yep, give me, give me that wedge

and hit it and hit her spot. And she's like, yeah, that's it. And it went in. I said, or make it. That's yeah, that's incredible. Um, I might use my mulligan. I might give it to the PGA of America. Just like, do you guys want another go at Frisco?

The setup, just everything about that tournament was tough. Uh, I don't know. I don't even know if it's a setup thing. I think they need to like give them a mulligan for further scheduling. Yeah, everything. Right. That's what I mean. June further scheduling. Yeah, everything. Right. That's what I mean. June in Texas.

I, and I guess more like set up, like maybe we put a couple more concession stands out there. I don't know. Can we invite some more people out? It just, that was, that was tough. So that's some work to do. I had a 2027, man. That's not going to go over very well at all with anybody.

If it goes like that again. No. So if you need something, uh, like make, sorry, let me, I can do it. Serve pros. The number one brand and cleanup and restoration is known for making any mess like it never even happened. Thanks to server with other over 2,200 locations nationwide. They're faster to any size disaster.

Visit serve pro.com or call 1-800-Serve-Pro today. What were you going to say? I don't know man. If you need something. We can get you guys out of here soon. Did you need to make something? Yeah, I don't know where. Dude, best week, but God, you get to the Sunday night of this week and I am just ready to pass out. Randy wants us

to grade the top three players in the world. I will say this, breaking news, he has Nelly on here at the top of the list. Nelly is no longer the number one player in the world when we wake up tomorrow morning. Geno Tiddle has surpassed her and will be the number one world in the Rolex rankings. Of course that that's brought to you by her T 30 finish this week, Nellie coming in T 36. They're just, you know, stellar performances, but I will say, you know, outside of the cut at the U S women's open, you know, you know, should have won Evian. She didn't lose it. She got it taken away. Yeah. I will, I will say that grace firmly ripped it out of her hands and then played really good at the KPMG.

Probably should have gave Minji more run there, but overall good year and we got a new number one. So how would you grade Nellie Korda's major year? And just for folks for reference, she went t 14 t 2 t 19 t 43 t 36. T14, T2, T19, T43, T36. C plus, the T2 is doing a lot of work there. I mean, she kind of was not really a factor in anything else. And wasn't really even a factor that much in that one.

I never felt like she was gonna win that one. Which again, is an unfair like, you know, level to hold somebody, but this was a step back year for Nelly in major championships compared to last year. Really curious the rest of the year for her, whether she can win, what it looks like honestly from now till the tour championship. What fascinates me real quick before we move off of it is really how, how fast Gino has taken that number one spot away from Nelly by only winning it a couple of times after Nelly's crazy year

last year. I think that just shows how consistently in the top five and the top 10 and every single tournament that Gino tees up in that she is. And Nellie either, you know, like she's cold. I think a C plus is for her majors this year is very generous. It's a disappointment all around so far. And there's rightfully a lot of golf left this year, but no wins on the season for somebody who we saw a bunch from last year. Like she's just, she doesn't really have it right now. And you can look at the putting and say, Oh, her putting numbers

are better, but she's not making the putts when she needs them most. That's God. Couldn't say it better myself. Yeah. Well, let's wrap the week, Cody. I think it's obviously been a long week. We've mentioned it's our favorite week of the year. No hyperbole. The work that we are allowed to do, that we get to do with the Open Radio crew is, I mean, it's such a privilege and more so the people that we get to work with. It's it's just the best crew to come in and get to spend a week with. They are so uplifting of each other. They have a great time. Yeah. I don't know. I'm

going to get a little sappy here. Like it just, I'm sorry when we have to go back home and this week is over. Yeah. It goes by so fast too. Funny sitting here on Sunday night. Cause I'm like Friday morning after waking up pretty early and like, wow, I got to go walk 36 holes today and do this again. It's, it's a long week. It's such a fulfilling week though. And we give them shout outs a lot. You know, we did this last weekend or last year, excuse me, St. Andrews and the year before, but uh, Tebby who runs everything and it is second in command, Ollie, they're so good. The rest of the people on the production team.

And then really the people that we get so used to hearing call open radio, which we're all huge fans of open radio. We get to do that with them. I mean the great Ian Carter and cat down. They're so good. They're so good at what they do. I mean, all these people are. Yeah. I feel like such an imposter. No, you guys, I would think you guys would sound like imposters, but you sound concerningly good when we listen to you on the radio. Honestly, I would expect more goof ups, more errors, more silliness. And you guys are remarkably professional. I want to hear you mess up more often. I leave every year. I'm like, damn, Cody, have you like been secretly working like 10 to 12

tournaments, like calling golf out on the course? Like truly I'm not just fluffing you. Like I'm flabbergasted by how naturally it comes to you. It's really good. Well, thank you. But I'm going to run down the leaderboard real quick of everybody. So I already mentioned Ian cat. We got, of course, the lovely Sophie Walker. I think you might've heard her as well. She was pulling

double shifts. Solly, she did radio in the mornings and she was doing golf channel in the afternoon. So, uh, you know, she's huge fan. Come on. Uh, we love her. She's come on the program a couple of times and will more in the future. Richard Kaufman, who we heard last week at Scotland at the Scottish open there. He's usually does a ton of TV. He was over on the radio team. Flick, who's an L. E. T. player, Felicity Johnson. I'm always like, should we just call her? Everybody calls her flick. Now, you know, not playing full time anymore, but she's like a legit rules official. So she's one of the prime rules officials on the L.E.T. and we're going to see a lot more from her. Sue, Marcus, you know, Marcus remains the goat. Like Marcus, the best. Michelle, Alison, and then everybody else in the back of the

trailer. I feel like we need to shout them out. I know. Because I'm in awe of the work they do. I think they have some social content of just how the radio production works. But between the actual production, the audio, so Jack, Joe, Al, Karen, Colin, Rick, Abby, like watching them work and it's such a high frenzied, high stress environment. They're trying to patch in sounds from all over the golf course. It really is amazing. They might not sound good. Yes. It's truly mind blowing, but we love it. I absolutely love this week. It's incredible that we get the opportunity to do it and, and, you know, call golf for

the best damn women in the world at a major championship that means so much. Like I literally walked up the 18th hole with the leader today and I was like, Holy shit, like what a world man. This is sweet. Yeah. Yeah. Do we need to tell the story though of for Allison Nicholas? For sure. Who, by the way, 1997 US Open winner, she won the, uh, the open before it was considered a major. Weetabix. So early, I think it was Thursday and Friday, she kept saying, and Sully, I'm going to, I want your reaction when you hear this, but on the radio, you know, BBC going out all across England, whatever.

Uh, she was saying so-and-so really nutted that drive. So-and-so nutted that one. What they had no idea when Cody finally said he was like, you guys know that kind of means something different, at least in the States, right? To see the look on or Allison Nicholas's face when she realized what, you know, what that means for perhaps folks listening in the States on, I think it was going out over serious and well, oh my God, they were, they were dying laughing. That was probably the moment of the week, I think amongst the radio team.

But I guess the term would be more in line with like, like hit it on the screws. Like exactly. And that's obviously how she meant it. But I feel like they got to pass. I wouldn't have thought anything of it. If it's a, now that you pointed out, maybe I would, but I wouldn't have thought anything of it having heard that radio. Well, she was, she was a bit mortified, but then she, she took it in, in great

spirit. There was another one today. I thought too. Oh, she snuck in pocket rocket. Talking about me. You. And again, I'm like, God, you could take that a different way. I feel like, but, uh, it is apt for me. She has diminutive. I mean, she's under five foot. That's amazing. Under five foot. And, uh, yeah, I, I'll give it to her. A two time major champion. That's just like out there cutting it up with us and Allison. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just incredible. But favorite week of

the year can't wait are ready for next year. I think we got a very deserving champion here as we get ready to leave Wales. What'd you think of Wales? Uh, Wales was great. I had a great time in Wales. It was, um, I like culturally, to be honest, I don't know if we got to see as much to like really differentiate it from other places we go, but the golf was great. Porthcall, you and I got to go down to Pennard. Shout out our buddy Ian showed us around there. Um, yeah, fun little links course. And I was just saying, I think every single person we met, not only at the golf course, but I'm thinking of like dinners, like just wonderful people. So big fan of whales.

Speaking of dinners, Randy, of course, wanted to sample the local fair. So we, we, we checked out a, a five guys. There was a KFC night. And we ate at the local pub. And we got some steaks, which I know you can't get steaks in Texas. Hard work and press, man. You don't get to the working hours or time. Have you guys had dinner tonight? It's 9 40,

no, we got to go get to dinner. Sorry. Okay. Let's get you out of here. Yeah. Let's get you out of here. I know you and DJ here are going to talk Windham and, and put a bow on that. So God, I hope he brings it home. Cody's guy as we're recording this has a nine shot lead with five holes remaining and Cody is still sweating. I think he's gonna be fine.

And I'm guessing this next part you're gonna hear is myself and Dej recapping his triumphant first victory. But congratulations to you guys on a fantastic week. We greatly enjoy and appreciate you guys representing us over there. And you guys do such an awesome job and we know you love it. But I'm always envious of this week. I want to I'm ready to get out of Florida in the summer and you guys come on over next year. Maybe next year. Thank you guys you are dismissed and have a great evening. Cheers. All right. As

mentioned, welcoming into the show for the Wyndham Championship recap portion. Mr. DJ Pi. Hello, Pi Man. How are you? Hello, Soli. Great to be with you to talk about the Wyndham Championship and I'm sure a couple other things. I'm sure we're going to get to all kinds of other things in the world of men's pro golf. We've got a couple of news and notes to get to kind of some downstream effect of what we just witnessed at the Wyndham, which is what what happened at the Wyndham. Cameron Young is a PGA Tour winner. We are living in a world where Cameron Young is a PGA Tour champion, which I think is a better world to live in. I don't know who would be against that. I think everybody, you know,

long, long, long, long, long time coming now in his 94th start. They mentioned it many times on the broadcast, seven runners up in that stretch. And I thought you were going to say they mentioned many times that he's the thousandth PGA Tour winner. Dating back to Prestwick. First open ship you a chip. So those are the Dean Beeman years. I don't think that was a finch of a year. Yeah, Cameron Young was your winner. Took a five shot lead into the final round, ended up winning by six over Mac Meisner. So not a ton of drama. I would say honestly, not an ounce of drama at the Wyndham Championship. Sometimes life be like that, but still a lot to watch with who gets into the playoffs, who doesn't get into the playoffs. Jackson Coyvon making a run. with who gets into the playoffs, who doesn't get into the playoffs. Jackson Coyvon making a run. You know, Nico Hetcheverria was there, and then he was very much not there.

So kind of a fun kind of game within the game, I think, at the Wyndham Championship. But the headline that we need to start with is Cameron Young is a PJ Tour winner. I don't think this is going to shock anybody. You know, I know he kind of had his trials and tribulations, some some very serious putting woes. And let me just go ahead and tell you the putting woes are over. Our guy is rolling the rock. He ended up I think he came into this week top 10 on the PGA Tour

in strokes, gained putting absolutely blew the field away in strokes, gained putting this week on the way to to this victory. It honestly the numbers were even much gaudier before a couple three putts to to kind of close it out when he had like an eight shot lead. So take that for what you will. But it was a dominant performance on the greens as it kind of has been for him, you know, at least compared to his former self all of all of this year. I mean, you go back, you can just look at it. If you go back to the masters, which he missed the cut this past year, he lost almost two shots around in the masters. He's just green, green, green, green, green, green, green.

He was down at the open championships, which as we know, can be kind of a weird putting week as it is, but yeah, Cameron young weaponized putter was not something I thought we were going to be discussing in 2025 because he was a ball striker when he ascended towards the top of the game. He, if you remember, he got as high as 13th in the official world golf rankings. He got his highest. He got his highest seventh in the data golf rankings. That makes me feel better. In April of 2023, he was long, he was accurate, relatively speaking, and it has been the accuracy off the tee that's taken him down a peg. And the approach play has, has come down to huge peg, but yeah, he's gaining half a shot around on the greens, which is, uh, again, if, if,

if he hits the ball, anything like he did this week and rolls it like that, he's back to being a top 10 player in the world faster than we could have imagined. I mentioned it seven runner-ups, two third places, 12 top fives and 22 top tens. Also of note DJ, I hope I'm not stepping on any of your stats. Top fives in every major except the masters where he has a T seven and he's finished in the top 10 and two of his four starts in that event. It's gaudy, man. I put a couple of percentages on it just to try to like contextualize it. Uh, he's made almost 80% of his cuts.

Like I know he feels like this like big feast or famine type of guy about 80% of the time he makes the cut, 40% of the time he finishes in the top 25 and 25% of the time he's finished in the top 10. Like it's been really, really, really good golf. And I know it's taken a dip kind of back half of last year and a little bit early part of this year, but it's. But it's

just, it's good to see it. It's good to see it clicking, man. And it's, I don't know, we're going to get into kind of some of the downstream effects and what does this mean and how many wins and rider cup and all of that stuff. But I think you can't win, you know, you can't win 10 times till you win the first one. And so it's, it's been very fun to see him, see him break through. You want, you wanted to talk about it. I didn't want to talk about it. You're making me you're making me address it here tonight. But it I mean, yeah, sleeping on a five shot leads

kind of that danger zone of that lead, you don't really want to sleep on bogey the first hole and then just reeled off five straight birdies and it was site almost. I kept waiting for the lead to get to 10. I don't think it ever officially got to 10. I missed it if it did. Because I was on the line for a sec, but it was it nine shot. It's just true. Just what is everybody else doing here? Like this is led the field and putting as you mentioned, and it was even better than then it felt better than it ended up being on the way. So I think I'm going to get to the Ryder Cup stuff. No, no, no. Give me one more second. I think on the on the runners up because, you know, seven is a lot.

And I think you could gloss him, you know, oh, my God, this guy, he can't get the big hit. Guy can't win the big one, et cetera. And runners in scoring position, not not solid. It hasn't. I don't think he's really gotten his doors blown off in that position very often. Some of them, I think, have been a little back door. Some of them have just been, you know, got beat by somebody playing really, really well.

But, you know, I, today was a good test, you know, five shot lead and like, let's see, does he, does he let the moment get too big? Does he start moving too fast? It's a golf course where people can go crazy low and can spook you a little bit coming from behind. But I mean, it's not like, uh, I don't know, I wasn't really expecting him to kind of come in and spit the bit.

And I don't know that he's had these like big Sunday scaries that would maybe go along with someone, uh, you know, that has that profile. I think he's just been playing really good golf and has gotten beat by, by guys more often than not. And I don't know if that tracks with your, your impression of it. Yes and no. um, you know, I just pulled up, of course the great pressure tool on data golf, which listen, that's the merging of the eye test and the data right here.

Right. It's a, it is not passing the eye test on the Sundays. Well, let's look at the data. And he has been, when he is enters the final round in the top five, he has a scoring average over 70 in 19. He's had 19 chances at that scoring average over 70 over a shot lower than he does in normal rounds of golf. So reason to say he's had some final round struggles and there's been some opportunities he's had get away going into how you would expect the final round to go. You would expect him to have over three wins to this point. He's he has to it counts corn fairy in this as well. So you let at least one win

in total get away by kind of playing poor final rounds in previous chances he's had. Which I guess my point is it's not the same as letting seven get away. You know, it's not like those seven runners up. It's not like he came in with a three shot lead and blew them all. It's it's been a lot, it's been a mix of different stuff and much like your guy, big tone, you know, half the battles putting yourself in the situation. So it's been fun to see him slam the door today. To your point, we can look at each of those runner ups individually. He had an unbelievably good final round at the open championship ever heard of it to go from T third to second. at the open championship ever heard of it to go from T third to second really good drive on 18 really good final round at last year's foul spar had a solid whatever one at Sanderson farms kind

of not so good at Genesis in 2022 bad at rocket mortgage 2022 and another bad one you know on the corn fairy tour as well so what did you have a kind of like a comp for for him you know, on the corn fairy tour as well. So what did you have a kind of like a comp for for him? You know, I was thinking about guys, you know, who took a while to break through. I was doing all this research, the tour, the tour, I shot it to the tour, they roll out a new stats, stats tool this week, which was really helpful. You can kind of export a lot of guys careers and manipulate the data in some fun ways and stuff. And so the CBS crew, they stepped on my toes. I was, I was all fired up cause I was like, Oh my God, this is 94th start. David Duvall 93rd start. This is so great. They are,

they also had seven runner up finishes when he broke through also playing the ACC. This is going to be my big point today. And then of course, as, as they mentioned, not only did Duval win that first one, he then won three in a row. And I think it was over the next 33 starts. He had another 10 wins in addition to that first one. So that's kind of one of those. It's like, it can't be said enough. Like, that's one of the greatest heaters ever that we should be bringing up at any chance that we get. And B, I'm like, OK, I don't think it's going to be quite like that. I did have another comp.

If you'll allow me, please. A guy who was also a rookie of the year, much like Cameron Young, he won his first event, I believe in his 74th start instead of 94th, and he didn't win again for quite a while. He only had one win in his first 143 starts. He had four runners up before his first win. And he had already played on a team USA as well before winning. You have an idea of who I am talking about. What kind of timeframe we talking? He was the 2010 rookie of the year. Ricardo Flower?

Ricky Fowler. Yeah. Ricky Fowler. And I, I don't know. I know it's not really the same tools package, but, uh, that's interesting exactly the same hype package. And I know a lot of Ricky's early success wasn't totally in the majors. It was a lot of other events, but I don't know. That's kind of where my, that's where my mind went early as, as kind of a, uh, somewhat of a comp. Ricky's gone on to win what? six times, seven times since then. So I don't know.

I let me actually put it there. I think Ricky's won six times. Are you as a career for Cameron Young, you think it more than that? You think less than that? I'm not going to get caught up in the moment. And I think if this was like a ball striking, it was a good ball striking week. It was just a crazy good putting week. I think I'd feel different about projecting it to be

higher. Like I don't know how hot that, I wish I knew the answer to this as he made wide sweeping changes in his putting as he truly found something. I looked good. And that's of course, listen, that's why you got to go to the two, the tournaments and ask these questions yourself. I understand that there's going to be something in the presser. Cause it's very interesting. We're recording this before his presser is out, unfortunately, but there's probably something in there. But no, I think that's, that's a lot of wins. Um, it took my guy, big tone,

a long time to make it that far. And that's, that's part of it. I think. Yeah. Well, we'll see about that. Another comp I had was max, uh, similar, you know see about that. Another comp I had was Max. Similar, you know, similar age, I think Max was about that same like 28 and a half years old when he won his first one. That was a 69th start, went on to win, I think, six times and I think it was 91 starts after that. So rough, almost 100 starts, he won six times.

I don't know, again, that's the same Ricky number, but it feels, that was an interesting one. But it is interesting to how it is, how the Pete and the modern PGA tour works and that it's he's kind of launched himself into the signature event cycle relatively quickly. And you're playing against, you know, not only playing against the best fields, but a lot of your starts, what 15 or so of your starts are against Scotty and a lot of other guys all at the same time, like you're not playing that

many windings throughout the course of a year. It's like bagging a victory. As we've seen with our guy, Tommy can be a little bit, it can be difficult when you know, you're it. It's just like, again, I hate to boil everything down to a math equation, but that's just the math. Like you put 10 of the top 11 players in the world that are usually in these fields. Like it's a lot harder to win them all that it's hard to win them. Yeah. Mac Meisner just not as hard to beat as Scotty Scheffler. I'm sorry to say it, but, um, so that's, that's an interesting

kind of dynamic that is, I don't know, maybe changes the way we kind of dole out victories. It's not going to stop us from getting carried away, but maybe it should. No, it's a good point. It's a really good point. And then I mean, I think that brings me to my last comp, which was the fellow Wake Forest guy, Zell Torres. And I know he's got injuries and stuff, but it's a similar thing. I think his first win was start number 56. And he had four runners up, three three of those rep majors. So again, that's kind of the, a little bit more of the profile that we're talking about. And again, he's had plenty, plenty, plenty of like hardships to, uh, you know, to, to quell that win number two. But, uh, yeah,

there's a reason why they don't just stack up like crazy when you're playing nothing but really big events. Bear with me on this one. I would say the guys like Zala Torres and Cameron Young, huge, huge expected weighted on base averages. Just the battered ball luck has not been there. Whereas like Nick Taylor, look, he might not be hitting the ball as hard, but he's playing Brewers baseball. Those bloops are finding gaps at all the right times. That'd be the way I'd compare them is like, who do I think it like, do I think Zala Torres and Cameron Young are bigger talents than someone like Nick Taylor? Yes. Have they gotten the results that

five win Nick Taylor has? No, it's on maybe a little unfair to Nick Taylor. He got gotten the wins. Like, you know, that, that means something, but you know, again, projecting out going forward, who's, whose tools do I like more? I take the other two guys. If it's all towards is going to be healthy. Baseball savant is love and camera. A lot of red, a lot of red on baseball. Loud tools, as our guy, Randy would say. Where do you want to go next?

Do you want to get our money? Right. You want to take this straight into the Ryder Cup? Let's just do it. Yeah, let's do it. I want to show some humility here. OK, so just so don't make me regret that. Okay. I think we need to have a pretty serious conversation here about about a Cameron Young that is absolutely filling up the jug with the putter. who said Beth Page is one of his favorite golf courses on planet Earth, who won, of course, the New York State Open in record fashion at this golf course. Going to have even more hometown support than our guy Keegan potentially. I don't know, man. We're starting to get into that territory if you're Team USA. A lot of the things that I was saying maybe in February, March, April, worrying about

that bottom six, worrying about that bottom three, bottom two, I'm getting less and less and less worried as this has taken shape. And I think there's going to be some pretty hardcore decisions that need to be made by El Capitan as far as who to leave off. I'm not saying this one win gets Cameron Young onto the team, but man, Cam Young that's beaten down the door is going to be very loud and very, very hard to leave off. And it's going to make taking yourself as a playing captain based on winning at the Travelers and then missing a bunch of cuts and not playing very good golf look very bad. And so as someone who roots for the content, which I think is how all of yourself as a playing captain based on winning at the travelers and then missing a bunch of cuts and not playing very good golf

look very bad. And so as someone who roots for the content, which I think is how all of this started in the first place, very funny situation for TVS to find itself in. Very funny. Very, very funny. Avoidable. Would you say it was an avoidable situation?

That's I think well, that's kind of what I was trying to talk into a long time ago is like, okay, well, maybe this isn't the right situation. If Keegan's like even in the conversation, maybe we should just anyways, we don't have to re litigate that. But what say you? Because I think a you know, we've got our top six right now. Scotty Zander, JJ Spawn, Russell Henley, Bryson DeChambeau, Harris English. This has not been updated yet, but none of that will change obviously. And then our next six are JT Morikawa, Ben Griffin, Keegan Bradley, Mav McNeely,

Brian Harmon. That's our 12 right there. That leaves Andrew Novak, Patrick Cantlay, Sam Burns, Wyndham Clark, Lucas Glover, Daniel Berger, Cam Young, Chris Gotterup all on the outside looking in as far as the rankings go. So what did you see today from Cameron Young? Are you breaking, you know, are you pushing it any farther than I, my controversial stance of like the guy who smashes the ball and is making all the putts could be a good team fit.

Are you going to go any more concrete than that? Or where are you at? One that took great humility to come back to the table in the way you have. First of all, and I appreciate that I will not I will not be spiking the football at this current moment. But I just I want to, again, just walk going back to what I think team USA should be doing should be taking the 12 guys you think are going to give you the best chance to win.

People think I say, I just want my guys there. If you're my guy, that means I think you're one of the 12 guys that gives you the best chance to win, right? You can look at past data to show you all kinds of things, but does that mean you're gonna play great? No, it doesn't. Can that give you an indication of who's played the best golf?

Like I think we can get caught up saying, so-and- so is so hot. Ben Griffin's so hot. He's way better candidate than Spieth. Well, okay. Well, he should have better strokes, gain numbers than Spieth if that's the case. And that's not always the case. That's why I always bring the strokes, gain stuff into it. So I'll go back to what Keegan said after he won travelers, like winning, this changes things. And I said at the time that absolutely should not.

Like if Tommy steps up and hits a pitching wedge to a foot on 18, that shouldn't decide your Ryder Cup fate, obviously, like, it should come down to how well does it project out that you will play and how do you fit into the team and how that will play out that should determine your can to see for the team. Again, my stance has been, hey, you are the captain, like having to decide between yourself and seven other guys, maybe they're playing really good golf, probably just best to remove

yourself from that spot. And it looked pretty easy. If you knock the door down and make it on points, sure, go ahead and play. But if you're going to have to make this now decision where he's not his best finish since he won as a T 30, and he missed the cut this week. I always go to wonder like, all right, if that week changed everything, you played great golf that week, but more recently you missed a cut,

why would I value the week farther away than more than this one? That's a little simplistic view of it, but that's why that first week should not have changed, that winning week should not have changed things in the beginning. So to keep that consistency, I don't think one win for Cameron Young changes all of that.

I think if Cameron Young sprints through the finish of the playoffs, that's a different, and we only have two playoff events before they make the final call. I think if he top 10s in these next two, I'm gonna be probably calling for him to be a part of that team, and I think a lot of people will. And if he beats Keegan again the next couple weeks

and Keegan takes himself over to him in that spot, pretty difficult spot to be in, man, that I just don't think we need to be making that decision coming down to the wire. Or just worry about captaining is again where I've always been. So I don't, again, I keep like trying to trying to make people like say the name of who you're leaving off of this list right now, which is, and you were going off top six in the Ryder Cup points, right? So assuming those six are locked in, if I just name seven

guys, I named JT, I named Morikawa, I named Ben Griffin who finished T11 this week as well. We have now Keegan, we have Cantlay still out there, we have Gutterup, and we have Cameron Young. Like that's seven names right there. So you're leaving one of those at home right now. And I haven't even mentioned Spieth, who again, would be the 12th best American over the last six months as well, and has a lot of Ryder Cup experience, and is viewed as part of the core of that. So that's eight. So you got to leave two of those names at home. For a lot of people, that answer is going to be Spieth. Again, I'm not even going to make, we're getting pretty late in the game for Spieth. I would have thought the play would be better to this point where he would have

knocked down the door to make it obvious he should be on the team. I'm still kind of on the fence on that one. And I think there's probably six better names as it currently stands, but- I think every putt that Cameron Young makes is, is a bad thing for Jordan Spieth is kind of how I felt watching today. It's like, ah, that's it's getting harder and harder to, I agree to justify it. And again, so leave Spieth out of this part. Cause we still are at seven with Spieth involved there. And I like the Cantlay and the Morikawa situation gets pretty interesting. Did I even say Cantlay? I don't even know if I said Cantlay in there. I think Cantlay makes it eight, doesn't it? JT, Morikawa, Griffin, Keegan, Cantlay. Okay. Maybe he wasn't there. Got her up. Cameron

Young. That was seven. Which also does include Sam Burns. Also does include Wyndham Clark, who's playing better golf. Matt McNeely, who's like quietly still really good and feels like a consistent, safe choice with a high floor. Yeah, man. I know. What did... Godref didn't play this week, right?

He did not play this week. Interesting playoffs for him coming up here. I know he was the Lynx master, but then kind of backed it up again. It's just a it's getting fun. It's getting really fun. Right now, I'm trying to win or just for content. No, just purely for content. Purely for content. Yeah, I feel like I've all the cynicism and everything. I may have lost any kind of rooting interest for this other than just I'm getting close. The contest.

Honestly. Do you have a gut feel right now of who you're, who you're leaving off in that list? Who I'm leaving off of. I think they will leave off. Both if they're different. I'm worried it's a one of God or upper Griffin, which Ben Griffin's got me sold. I don't know if you listened to the pod from your in this past week.

And she's backing it up. Like he truly believes he's one of the best players in the world. I I'm not wanting to argue with him at this point. It's again, doesn't, it doesn't like, hasn't blown the doors off of the news. Just been really, really solid. And I think would make up a good part of the bottom part of this team. Goddare up again.

I don't know. I kind of challenged him to like prove it at TPC twin cities. And he did. Uh, and I think the gotter up thing, we might work itself out in the next couple of weeks. I think if he has two top 15 finishes, he's going to be there. I think they would, they would not be able to keep them off. Man, that's, that's fun, man. That's really fun stuff. And then I mean, of course, I just feel like that FedEx, like, who knows what will happen with Spieth, but that just feels like a weird golf course where he could go shoot 61 or something in the first round. And, you know, it's like that with a bunch

of hearts and minds, it's just, it's going to be really hard. And to your point, and I fully understand what you're saying. It's getting to the point where you're starting to get enough guys above the threshold where picking yourself is tough. It's tough, man. God, I thought this would feel so much better than it does. One, and part of the reason why I was like, I think Spieth is better than 50% chance to make this team as well was like, yeah, I mean, the names you guys were pounding me with like Andrew Novak several months ago. Like, yeah, I just think speeds can outplay Andrew Novak.

I'll say the rankings. I know he missed the custom suite. But again, I was a captain. I think we're going for heart. We're picking Novak, but that's neither here nor there. If I could make have 12 Andrew Novak on the team, we'd go win at Beth Page. But no, I think it's getting harder and harder for Spieth. I think it's going to take a pretty big miracle, honestly, for him, unless we're talking about leaving one of Morikawa and Cantlay off. I mean, Cantlay is interesting. I'm kind of surprised he didn't play this week. I guess maybe he's just getting ready for a big stretch to try to cement it in the playoffs and has typically played really well in those types of events. So I

don't know. It's a man. I just don't know how it can't always been your best player for the last five and two. Yeah. I have two and one in Ryder cups. Yeah. I love the idea of, of leaving him off. I love the, you know, the concept of that, but like, God, dude, I don't know how you could do that. You know that that's borderline kind of ridiculous, right? I, yeah. I know I get the call for fresh blood and I get the call for like, you know, tear down the boys club. Again, I don't know what that means, but like speeds and JT were both not on the most recent us team, which was a president's cup team. Like this alleged boys, neither of those guys got,

I mean, speech was out with surgery, but JT did not get picked for the president's cup team last year. Like I don't, I don't, I, I, again, I struggle with the boys club related stuff, but it, I, I guess I knew blood for the sake of new blood, even if they're not playing better golf and some of these big names would not be where my, my head turns. But, um, I mean, the, the KEL and more Cal stuff is interesting because they're both kind of trending the wrong

direction. The Morikawa drop off has been more, more severe than the Cantlay drop off, which has not been very severe. He just like has not been one of the 12 best Americans over the last three months or so. But it's also getting to that point where like, I don't know if you want to let the status of your team ride so much on these next few weeks. Like I hope the picture is bigger than just like how hot were you? Because we're again, still these next couple weeks are still going to be over a month out from the tournament. So you got to still project out like, hey, who do I think is going to be my dog in New

York in late September? That's where I'm like one hot week from Cameron Young doesn't quite get me there and it's still an uphill battle over the next couple of weeks. Sure. I don't know that it's been one hot week. I mean, I know he hasn't played great in like late June, July, but nobody has talked about him for this team until to until this week. At least Oakmont for sure. Like top five at Oakmont helped, I think, at least kind of reignite the conversation. But I think what's really hard about this conversation, and you could take it either way,

you can either give Team USA no benefit of the doubt, which is probably closer to where I land, or you can give them all the benefit of the doubt. And it's either like, the thing we love about Europe, and we say this, eventually the conversation always comes around to to this is maybe they're just better at talking about it, but they'll come on podcasts and they'll say we had this pairing dialed in April. We had this pairing dialed in June. These guys have been secretly training together in our private facility for months.

These guys are secretly childhood best friends. That's why we put them together. We sent them to Macau together with their wives to get to know each other better. God, none of that. If the US is doing all that stuff, none of it's leaking out. And the more that Keegan is kind of like, you know, barreling down trying to play really good golf, which again, I don't fault him at all. He's in one of the better stretches of his career. He's trying to maximize what he can do on the golf course, and he's trying really hard to make the team on merit. He's trying to win tournaments and stack up a bunch of money.

So I don't totally blame him. He's in a very different position than Luke Donald is in. But even considering that, very different position than Luke Donald is in. But even considering that, it still feels like Luke Donald is delegating all kinds of stuff to all kinds of people to make all of these other things happen. And that's why I think when we start to roll our eyes at like the duties of the captain, you have no idea what the demands are. It's like, I don't really, I don't get this huge sense that there's a lot going on behind

the scenes on that front. And if there is, then that's it's almost like all every one of those things that's happening is another tick in the column of like, print off the standings and yeah, right. You know, it's like, I don't I don't know. So that's why that's a very long winded way of saying that part of me would almost feel better if they were like, I don't care what happens the next three weeks. Here's the team. We think these are the best pairings. We think these are the people who are going to gel the best.

We think these are the best course fit. We think all of these things and like we're just going to lock it in because we have a plan and we're going to go with it. And it kind of maybe that's happening. And again, I do not know. Pick whichever you want to be an optimist or pessimist. I think it's I'm going to lean towards pessimists and they're, they're truly going to wait until the uniform fitting deadline

to decide who it is. And they're going to be like that guy fucking birdie 18, man. Gotta have them. You gotta have them. I feel the exact same way. Dej, I wish, I feel like again, if I was tracing all of this madness back for me with this event, it goes back to like 2014 and task force and like the idea of unlocking what Europe does. I think my moving to Europe tweet said, Hey, I'm headed to Europe for 18 months to go learn the European rider cup ways. I think I literally said that because it was like, I'm so curious to see if these talented

American group can understand that this team event is different than how they're doing it. And like 10 years later from that, more than that, I don't feel like it's changed in some ways, but I don't think it's changed from a macro perspective of like, we get it now. How could you believe that after what happened with Zach Johnson? Like it completely, whatever it felt like they had figured out in 2021, it seemed like they punted right back in 2023. They're going to try something new this time. It's Zany. It's a current player and now we might pick himself is all just got me like,

I less enthusiastic about their chances to win or my less enthusiastic about me caring if they win or not. Like I think I'm going to be more likely to just be entertained by the event overall than I am like gung ho about their chances of winning. Cause again, all of this could also be all of this rider cup content we do could also just be like, yeah, the home team wins every time. Also, it doesn't really matter. So it's possible. It's possible. Man. I don't know. It's going to be so right now. Do you think Keegan is going to pick himself? Gosh, it's so hard not to be like, like prisoner of the moment, but again, go back to those,

what was it? Four for three spots, essentially. Is that what you're saying? It was Keegan, Cantlay, Gauterup and Cameron Young. Maybe that was two spots. I forget. You get to cut one. You just have to cut, yeah. Get to cut two, I think of those four, essentially Like, I don't see how he ends up being in on that. If that really becomes a four for two between Cantlay, Keegan, Gauterup, and Cameron Young, and I had to bet money on it, I would be shocked if he's one of the two that are in on that group.

Does that mean, like, he may have already decided? And, like, going back to everything I just said over the last five minutes, maybe he's like super tight with Scotty Scheffler now and Scottie's like, we're going to play together every round and we have a plan and we're going to go for it. I'll put the team on my back. Let's do it. I'll only play for you coach Bradley. Uh, maybe that's going on behind the scenes, but in the absence of that, in the absence of that, I don't see how that can, I don't know how that can happen. And I think he ends up looking like a hero if he passes on himself too, you know, like I don't know, imagine he, he passes on Chris Goddard up and he's out there

just waving his pin flags around and hyping everybody up and it's gold chains flying all over the place. He's driving at 400 yards and making like, it looked like a genius. So it's, it's the ultimate spot, man. It's really, it's really interesting. I cannot wait to see what happens. And, and if, if he doesn't pick himself and it goes wrong, he's now put it again, put himself in a very avoidable spot of like, of just, everyone's going to be screaming now you should have picked himself and that would have saved everything just like JT should have never been picked in Rome, even though

the U S was down for nothing before he got a chance to hit a golf ball. like just everyone's going to be screaming how he should have picked himself and that would have saved everything. Just like JT should have never been picked in Rome, even though the U S was down for nothing before he got a chance to hit a golf ball. Yeah, it's interesting. I, I think he's already decided to pick himself. I think that was clear when they changed the captain's agreement and it was clear by his comments after travelers. And I think right now he's got to be sitting there saying, Oh shit, I don't know. Now, maybe I read that much more as like, let's just, it's a pure Justin case. Like this is where we're leaving the option open rather than like, we're absolutely doing this, but who knows? Yeah,

we shall see. We'll give a shout out to our friends at SoFi, the ultimate finance app for sponsoring today's SoFi Get Your Money Right moment. You can go to SoFi.com slash nlu to learn more about how you can get your money right with SoFi Plus. And if you want to nominate somebody for the next Get Your Money Right moment, let us know in the comments. DJ, who got their money right?

I have no idea what you're going to come up with here today. Yeah, you know what? We're going to go with a deep, a deep pull. We could a lot of directions that we could go with. If we could go with Mac Meisner, great finish, you know, second place for him. I've got a big, big check. Got to be the biggest of the year for him. Eight hundred and ninety three thousand eight hundred dollars to be exact.

Congratulations. But actually, we're going to go back to last year's wind. We're going to zoom out, you know, just like you're checking your financial statements, you know, you don't want to just look at it kind of like the day of let's zoom out. How have we been doing over the last 12 months? You know how's the portfolio performing and I want to go back to the Wyndham last year and this player that I'm talking about. Entered last year's Wyndham championship number 127 in the FedEx Cup and

there's a little bit of romanticism that I'm going out here. I still tend to fall back on number 127 in the FedEx Cup and there's a little bit of romanticism that I'm going out here. I still tend to fall back on the days where like if you don't finish top 125 at Wyndham, you're out of a job. Obviously, that's not really how it works anymore. They got the FedEx Cup fall. You're kind of just playing to get your way into the playoffs, but neither here. They say that was that juice was missed this week. I agree. Yeah. I agree.

But this player entered last year's Wyndham number 127 in the FedExCup. So essentially on the outside looking in, it's not going great. He ended up finishing T3 at the Wyndham, the last event before the playoffs, which got him to 98th in the FedExCup. So didn't make the playoffs, but got himself to a good spot going into the FedExCup fall. He was 96th after the FedExC Cup fall, thanks to that big finish. So he was not in the signature events going into this year. He was not into any of the majors, I don't think, except for the PGA, thanks to his

world ranking and his spot. But because he was in the top 125, he was into the players where, as you may be piecing together, he finished solo second losing in a playoff. That bumped his world ranking up to number 125. Let me check here. Going into the starting the year, he started the year at the Sony Open because he was not into Kapalu or the first signature event. He was one hundred and fifteenth in the world played really well at Sony to kind of ratchet up and get into pebble kind of a swing five next ten whatever sort of situation. Like I mentioned he got into the players finished solo second that rocketed him up to number 25 in the world, which got him into the Masters and more importantly, got him into the US Open, which he won.

Of course, we're talking about JJ Spahn, who has this year on the golf course made $10.1 million plus what I believe is going to be a $2.4 million bonus for the Comcast business tour top 10, where he's number eight. And I was just kind of compiling like here's money. I think that he just kind of got in the cash machine and hoovered up just due to like events that he kind of got into after this Windham finish. Pebble, he won 100 grand there. Genesis, he won 100 grand there. Bay Hill, he got into 125 grand. Masters, He won 100 grand there. Genesis. He won 100 grand there. Bay Hill. He got into 125 grand Masters. He won 52 grand.

Heritage. He won 65 truest. Forgot about that one. He won 270 grand there. US Open 4.1 million. Might want to hang on to that one. Travelers. I forgot about that. He won 360 grand at the Travelers and then the open, which, of course, got into after all of this as well. 138 grand. So that's five point five million dollars just at events that he like definitely wasn't going to be into without some serious, serious, serious play also played well at at Sony. What did he finish?

T3 I believe at Sony as well and T2 at the cognizant. So even before that players finish like like he did set himself up. Well, he was going to have a nice year, but because he got into that players on the back of his performance in the fall, that's really what rocketed him up and got him into all of these other fields, particularly the US Open didn't have to qualify, didn't have to do any of that stuff and ended up winning his first major. So how's that? I think that's a good linear. Let's trace it back to the Wyndham championship. Shout out to JJ Spahn, just, just hoovering up all the money. Good for him. And also going to be on the Ryder Cup because of all this as well. It was outside the top 125 going

to, I did not know that. I thought you were going Ben Griffin originally with that, but- I thought about him. He got a look. I think he got into this year. I forget what he was, 63rd or something like that coming into this year. I'd have to check that. But we were joking beforehand. I was really looking for I went back quite a ways. I was really looking for this great story at the Wyndham championship. Like, man, this guy was he was number whatever, and he got to number 101 at the Wyndham and he saved his job. And then the next year he won three times.

And like that, that just doesn't happen, man. It's a lot of like, it's a lot of like, yeah, that guy kept his card and then he finished 92nd the next year. And like, what, what a story, you know, I know is much more of how pro golf is that, uh, that the JJ spawn story. But, uh, yeah, the Wyndham, I think, I think we always kind of do the same thing where we sort of convince ourselves like, Oh, it's do or die, man, playing for pink slips. These guys are playing for their jobs. And it's like, it just doesn't, it doesn't ever seem like it really delivers on, on that type of juice. But

you delivered with that segment, though. Thank you. Thank our friends at SoFi, the all in one finance app for sponsoring the get your money, right? Segment, you can go to sofi.com slash NLU to learn more about how you can get your money, right? SoFi plus. And again, let us know in the comments if you want to nominate for someone for a future get your money right moment. We're getting some historical ones with that. We're gonna have a lot of fun with that segment. That was one I'm already enjoying. Anything else for the kind of movement or anything of note in particular from the Wyndham?

Yeah, I mentioned, you know, there was some movement going on. Maddie Schmid, birdies his last three holes. That was a little bit of a confusing one. It's weird, right? Where you get to these, the CBS guys are doing the best job they possibly can with it, where it's like, he absolutely needs this one. And then we'll see, you know, it's not, there's very few definitive putts that are just like, he just made that putt and he's definitely going to, you know, Memphis. But Maddy Schmid birdies the last three to get the last spot. He entered the week number 70 held on to number

70. Thanks to that finish on Sunday. Chris Kirk, quietly really nice year for Chris Kirk moves from number 73 to number 61 with a T5 finish. So he is into the playoffs. Davis Thompson tough finish for him. I remember how bullish I was on Davis Thompson. That was you and me doing that podcast after the John Deere last year. I was like, this guy's gonna win 10 times. Maybe, we'll see.

Well, a lot of time left, but I didn't love the finish today. Three putts, the last hole to finish 71st. Joe Lunardi, first man out, tough for him. Couple of notables outside the top 70. Both Hoygards are outside the top 70. Going to have to talk to TC about that one. Keith Mitchell, he's outside the top 70, which means tough chance to move into the top 50, which means it's a tough chance of getting a spot at Pebble, which I know is kind of what he likes to build the season around.

Your guy Bez outside the top 70 quietly. I feel like he's played really good golf over the last couple of years, but will not be going to the playoffs. Adam Scott missing the playoffs, Joel Damon missing the playoffs, Tom Kim missing the playoffs. Any comment there just on a macro level? Your guy seems like he's kind of fallen off a little bit. You know, I did all I could to carry him in that old shop video. The title is posted this past week. Um, you know, made the 60 footer on the second hole, but, uh, no,

it's not been a good year for, for my guy, uh, on a lot of fronts and we're working on some things we're, we're built, we're going to build back better. I like it. We need to, you and I think are going to maybe do like a pod at some point, just looking at a couple, like let's zoom in on some guys, little mini dives on what happened in 2025. And Tom Kim's one I would like to dive into. What are we, is it a, is this a swing thing?

Are we pressing? Is it just kind of that age? Is it almost like a sophomore slump type of vibe? I don't know, but maybe look for some more Intel there soon. I don't want to distill it, be a little too simple to just say it's chasing speed, but yeah, it's iron plays taking a dip, driving, you know, distances is still below average

and not nearly as accurate as it was. I mean, he was like pinpoint accuracy when he came out. And now he's closer to tour average and accuracy, which you just kind of can't, his whole thing was just being way more accurate than everyone else. Certain golf courses he can compete on and he took advantage of a lot of them. And now even though he's not been nearly the same guy getting the ball in the hole,

unfortunately, this was a season to forget. It's only two top 20 finishes all year and 22 starts, 23 starts. Austin Ekerholt not going to the playoffs after two wins last year. Max Homa, of course, missed the cut this week and is putting this season behind him, which I'm sure he's ready to do. I think he's got another one on the way and probably ready to kick up his feet and reset a little bit. Max is exempt through 2028 for anyone wondering is he's outside the top 100, but that will not matter to him.

Sahith, obviously dealing with injuries all year, he will not be, uh, going to the playoffs. And I, I put this one in there, just, I think this is really fun. Mac Hootcher, he's still got the fall to, to figure this out. This would be the first time he's ever finished outside of the top one 25 since the FedEx Cup playoffs started. He's currently number one 26 and that's, I bet he gets it. I bet he's going to go get it. He's going to go get it. And that's just something to follow. Like that's one for the psychos only, but like, my God is that impressive, man. So impressed. Never been outside the top. Never been outside

the one 25 and, uh, yeah, weirdly rooting for him to, to go get it, to keep that streak alive. Cause that's all right. That's shocking, man. Let's, let's play it. Matt Kutcher career earnings. Oh, I think I just looked it up. Is it like, I'm not going to look, but I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it.

I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it.

I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going to look at it. I'm going was suspiciously close. I didn't, but I understand where you're coming from. I think I cheated that one.

Yeah, that's about it. As far as kind of movers and shakers, we mentioned on the top, Jackson Coyvan, top five finish. He's now at three straight finishes around the top 10, top 11 on the PJ tour. He is of course spending another year at Auburn and deferring that PJ tour U card for one final year of college

golf, which is, which is admirable and cool. And I hope he continues to dominate and can kind of get the best of both worlds going. But just want to throw this out there again. I not, I do not believe in printing off the strokes game over the last three months and putting them on the water cup team. 12th best American over the last three months has been Jackson. We're talking, sorry guys. Now we're talking. Sorry guys. You're all gone.

Yeah. You guys are too close together. We're going with the Koyvid. You guys want fresh blood? Here we go. It's pretty darn real. Of course, impossible to have missed this. If you watch the Wyndham, this was Ian Baker Finch's last tournament with CBS.

We talked a little bit about this announcement when it came out last week, but what's your reaction to how it was covered today and to IBF saying farewell? I am with what you guys said last week. I was listening to you and Bacon last week and I couldn't agree more that like the older I get, the more I appreciate the consistency of voices. And I think you made the point that, you know, I didn't think I was going to miss Malpy and Coke when they went away. And now when they come back, I'm like, Oh my gosh, that is what's, that's what's missing is just a little bit of a familiar voice.

And IBF has definitely become one of those. I think that, I don't know, it'd be easy to take pot shots and say the farewells over the top and yada, yada, yada. But I also don't think anybody's faking that. I think people absolutely love that guy. And that came through from the whole team, which is really cool. And he just seems like a, I don't know, he just seems like a truly gentle, kind, nice guy. He's always like, I don't know if you've ever run into him, but whenever we visited the booth, he's been nothing but hospitable and warm and open to us, which man, if I had said all of, you know, if I ran into the guys who had been shitting all over my CVS product for years and years, I don't know that I could

guarantee that I would react the same way. But man, he's, he's been great. And so you talk to any of the people on that CBS team, they rave about him. And I'm glad he's going out on his terms and seems like he's going to be doing golf course design stuff, maybe as a little bit of a side project. And so I hope he, hope he soaks up his retirement and absolutely loves it. That's a, it's a great career. Do you even one up that a little bit? Deege, he, I forget what podcast he was on, but someone had sent it to me that somebody asked him what podcast he listens to. And he mentioned our pod and mentioned, yeah, those guys like to have a go at us from time to time.

But he said something I don't want to over paraphrase, but something that I walked away from that feeling like, oh, he was seeking out the feedback. He was very respectful of the way he almost said it, of had an ear to the street as to what people were saying. And like, again, I don't want to, like overly claim credit for CBS's turnaround. But like, a big part of their massive turnaround was they were

listening to a lot of the feedback and made active changes and how they were doing things. And now like, honestly, I think they overdid the stuff a little bit today? Yeah, kind of overshadowed Cameron Young's triumph there at the very end. But they earned the benefit of the doubt with me so much for how they've handled golf over the last several years. And, you know, a previous iteration of CBS that would have been eye rolling, but this was like, all right, man, this guy

has clearly had a massive impact on a lot of these people that have worked with them. And yeah, I think we'll miss them more than we realize. And I, since. And yeah, I think we'll miss them more than we realize. Yeah. Since Trevor came along, I think he's, you know, I think this is again, kind of unfair comment in general, but I just, I think working with Faldo as a color analyst was made everyone else's job a lot harder. And I think Trevor makes that job a lot easier for everyone to the point where like I probably didn't appreciate Ian enough during the Fouto years because of how hard Fouto made that job. And now that like he's with somebody that's quite competent in the color commentator chair, his ability

to deliver on a moment shines through a lot better. So yeah. And I think it's interesting too, like the, you know, just looking ahead to next year, I feel like CBS has done a great job with adding Colt and adding Amanda and adding Trevor, obviously, is probably the biggest example, but they haven't really missed, I don't think, on a higher. And I'd be very curious who they put kind of in that chair as the... It almost feels like he's like the third guy with Frank Nobolo as well. And so, I don't know, it'd be interesting.

Like, I guess where I'm going is I think injecting Trevor and youth and a little bit of like a lot of passion and hard work and somebody who like really shows up and is walking the range and getting all kinds of stuff like has only added a ton of energy to the broadcast. And I feel like they have a chance to do that with now another like permanent member of the team. And I think you've seen how much better everybody on the team has gotten just through having Trevor there and seems like you can kind of do the same thing. You know, by adding someone to that, to that IBF chair as well. So I don't know who that is. But it's I'm sure they'll they'll, you know, find the right person.

Yeah, he's done a lot of 17 holes for a lot of years. So best of luck to you. And if you are still a listener, I wouldn't wouldn't blame you if you're not. Rory McIlroy, skipping the FedEx St. Jude this coming week. Why does Rory hate the kids? That's the headline for sure. Man, I, I don't know. I don't know. I'm kind of shocked honestly, if I'm trying to come up with a headline here, if I was a PJ tour and I changed the format and if anybody has missed this, it's like, you now no longer have an

advantage when you get to Eastlake. You could go win the first two playoff events by 35 strokes each and the playing field is equal once you get to Eastlake. I kind of feel like the headline is like Rory's the only player skipping St. Jude. Like the fact that Scotty is showing up, the fact that some of these other guys are showing up to the 150 degree weather and playing three weeks in a row and doing all that is like kind of feels like a massive victory for the PGA Tour. So I do not blame Rory at all if he just needs another week of rest and get his head right and get ready to go try to win a get in that cash booth again and try to grab a bunch of dollar bills in a couple of weeks.

win a, you know, get in that cash booth again and try to grab a bunch of dollar bills in a couple of weeks. Yeah. Can you help me get there as to why the tour did this this year? Why you couldn't just do finish the year out with how you thought people thought the year was going to go, which is have starting strokes at the tour championship. I get that they survey people and people hated it. I don't get and there's obviously going to be a different format next year. This is clearly a bridge year, but I don't get why you wouldn't have just written

it out. Like I this can't be a good thing for FedEx is like your money sponsor and Rory's not going to be there this week. And it's because of the policy change you made for the tour championship. I this just seems like an own goal that nobody was really asking for. I don't I don't think I don't think this format is a better way of crowning the champion either. I would say this is some projection on, on my part, but to me, it kind of smells

of just making decisions by committee. And I feel like maybe it's one of those downstream effects of the players over the last four or five years, since a lot of the live stuff started popping off and they started redrawing some lines and figuring out how they were going to make changes. I think you heard one constant refrain from the players, which is like, we need to have a seat at the table. We need to make more decisions. We need to be involved, yada, yada, yada.

Because I think both of us know some of the options that were on the table for the tour championship and they seem a hell of a lot better than this. Whether it was whittling stuff down in some sort of bracket play or some sort of like even like stroke play matches or getting to a final on Sunday where you only have four guys in the field and those are the four guys playing for the FedEx cup. You know, I think there were a lot of ideas that from somebody who thinks about it constantly for years and years and years and does all the modeling and talks

to all the sponsors and talks to the TV networks and talks to all these, has all these conversations, I think you can come up with a really good idea. The problem is then they go to the players who have three meetings a year or you're randomly catching somebody in between hitting a seven iron and an eight iron on the range. And there's like, no, I don't like that idea. And you have to like give an outsized amount of weight to those players because they are constantly like, I didn't go to live. And now I want more of a seat at the table. And I feel like it's almost like perverse incentives of rewarding. You know, it's like, also if you're, if you're six through 30, yeah, let's, let's throw balls out and let's play. If you're one through five, now we got 25 guys that like this idea and five that don't. Yeah. Uh, yet it's, you know, obviously that's been a snippet, I guess, a, uh, a somewhat of a glimpse into what are the tours, a lot of the tours problems have been over

the years being that the majority of players on the tour are not the best players. Yeah. And so I don't know, I hope that's not unfair, but like that's certainly what it reeks of to me is just like, I know there are a lot of like very interesting ideas on the table that I think fans would have been like really into. And it just seems like they didn't have the players support or they didn't have the network support or I don't know what the situation would have been, but somebody along the line was not into it and my guess would be the players. Yeah, it just seems funny, again,

very unfair to compare to football. But it's like, this is how we're gonna do the Super Bowl this year and then it's gonna be really different for the rest of the future. But this year- I know it's week six, but we're actually gonna have to change the amount of wild card teams here. Just year, I know it's week six, but like we're actually going to have to change the amount of wildcard teams here. If we're going to just go with us, it's not that big a deal. Just play good golf.

You know, it won't even matter. I saw this awful announcing kind of picked up on a tweet that came from Money and Sport, which is diving into some USGA financial statements, just noting that USGA is bracing for a soft market when it comes to their next television contract for their events, including the US Open in 2027. Gets into a little bit of the math behind it of, you know, Fox obviously wrecking the market in the previous cycle and not being a player in this next one. Just to see the USGA kind of officially account for that.

And the trickle down effect that might have overall in the game of golf in the U S is something that I think it's going to be interesting to follow here is just seems like MBC is kind of playing a little bit of hardball with them at this point. They, they exclusive negotiating window that NBC had to re up their deal has passed. And now it is an open market, but I, from where I'm sitting, I don't think the NBC, I don't think the NBC, I don't think NBC made a mistake in, in kind of letting this go to the point where they

think they can get a better deal than the previous deal, even though they stole it for pennies on the dollar from Fox. I think the USJ is, is, would be kidding themselves that they thought the market was anything like it was back in the early 2010s, whenever this was negotiated into what it is now. Yeah, I agree with that. I think it's a couple of things and I certainly won't pretend to be super duper well versed in this whole topic. I'm sure everybody should just go read the the Money in Sport newsletter, which I'm sure has spent much more time thinking about this. But I think what's interesting about a topic like this is when it's a one off,

not a one off week, but you know, the all the USGA championships package is, is a bigger package, but you're kind of doing it for the one big swing with the US open and maybe the US women's open. But along with that comes, you know, the US am and some of these other ones that they've televised over the last couple of years. It's so different than thinking about the PGA tour, Tour rights deal, right? Just based on like a pure inventory standpoint and the amount of critical mass you can get. And the reason it makes sense for CBS and NBC is because like, man, you're going to pre-sell all my ads and I've got this time on Sunday afternoon where there's not, it's

not really prime time. There's not a ton of other competition. You're just going to kind of fill up this inventory with something that's super reliable and it's going to be pretty much the same sized package every week. Like, man, that, that sounds pretty good. Whereas this is of course going to be much more like it's one or two weeks a year and you need to pay this astronomical amount. It's just where the, I, man, I have to think that economics on something like that start to get a little wobbly. I don't know how again, like you said, Fox kind of screwed up the market for everybody

else. Like there's only so many people that this is going to make sense for at these numbers. Right. And when you don't have, yeah. So I will be watching this with interest because I don't know really what's going to happen. But to your point, it's like the thing that kind of will get lost is like all the different ways that it'll affect the USGA and golf in the United States and things they're able to do or not do based on, you know, kind of what comes through with that TV deal. I don't really give a fuck if the purse for the US Open changes necessarily. But it's like when you start talking about affecting the USGS bottom line in like a very significant way is where it kind of becomes like, that's a bigger deal

than people probably realize. It's very funny. I've included a link to the money in sport sub stack newsletter in the show notes if you're interested, but the variant that the government, there's a significant deficiency found in the internal controls of the USGA. And this is a collision of my previous job. Like I was literally an auditor where I would, you know, every error I would find would end up with a significant deficiency noted in there. So I'm picking through all the language of the, you know, from a sample of five procurement transaction, there was no evidence that management

performs a lot of good information in this newsletter about how the USGA costs have trend, trended in a lot of ways. And, you know, obviously the building of the Pinehurst campus was more than double cost of what they were expecting it to be. And just something to keep an eye on here as a- And who knows how the equipment change stuff affects anything like, and that's where I'm kind of like, man, who knows? It might be something, it might be nothing, but it's, it's worth, uh, very much keeping an eye on. Might need to send you on a rotation out to far Hills, get the bankers boxes out,

you know, get a little tropical, tropical smoothie for lunch. And just now we're working through the night, man. Let's keep going. Tough transition from my last rotation, uh, from Amsterdam to far Hills. That'd be a, that'd be a tough one, but transition from my last rotation from Amsterdam to Far Hills. That'd be a tough one. But Far Hills is beautiful. Talk to me. Last thing I had, you played a little tournament golf this past week. I believe you had a good time doing it. I did very little tournament golf. It was, it was 17 holes at the beloved sandbox at sand valley.

The, as many people listening know, especially those in the United States, like every state has its own golf association who usually puts on a myriad of different tournaments, the state and the state match play, the, you know, things like that. And the Wisconsin state golf association is awesome at mixing in some like truly fun experiences for people. And so they have a Wisconsin par three championship that they have at the sandbox at sand valley every year. I'm like, well, you know, the holes are like 60 yards. Like, I don't, you know, how the greens are big. Like, I don't know how to, how to, you know, how to, you know, how to get the green, how to get the green. And then I'm like, well, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm

like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, Oh, oh, no. Oh, man. I'm like, well, you know, the holes are like 60 yards. Like, you know, how the greens are big. Like, I don't know how hard could it be super hard, really, really, really, really hard. It was so fun. Shouts of my guy, Thomas, who set up the golf course. He just like, he's out there trying to make it pretty much as hard as possible. Just just pins like, you know, a step off of these ridges with just like a death bunkers here and runoffs there.

It's like it was great, man. It was really, really fun concept for a tournament. It's so good. It was awesome. And so there's like the other cool part about it is like there's just players have kind of all skill levels out there. You know, there's guys who are really grinding. The winner shot three under.

Shout out to him, which is like really freaking good golf. I shot 10 over, which was whole high pie. 10 over. Yeah. And you know what? Honestly, I was pretty, pretty proud of that because I had Russell Westbrook on two and three, the triple double to to get out of the gates. And so to get it in five over after that was a little bit of a feat. But it was great, man. I bring all of that up

to say two things. One, we're going to have a video of every shot so people can judge for themselves whether it was as hard as I was making it look. And two, just if you have a local golf association who's not doing these sorts of things, I would strongly encourage them to do them. If you have a golf course that works for it, if they have the staff to put it on, Rob Jansen and his whole squad makes this a... They do a great job with the state am and all of the big tournaments as well, but they also work in a lot of really fun stuff.

It's just great to... I'm an eight handicap. Like it's, it's, I'm not out there trying to break par, but it's like, it is still fun to go get the WSJ T's and get a pin sheet and play with the official, you know, T markers and have the right flags. Like, yeah, it's, it's awesome. So, uh, to do that in a way that was just a very low, like the best way I could describe it is it was like an official golf tournament, hitting cups, playing by the rules, but also it felt

so low stakes and so fun and we had a great time. So shout out to Kurt and Garth, who are my great playing partners who we had a great time with and yeah, look for that video sometime in the next couple of weeks. Love it. I'm envious. sometime in the next couple of weeks. Love it. I'm envious. That sounds like a lot of fun. Come play next year. See if you can get a special exemption.

I would love that. I'm on my way to being an eight handicap also. So I think, yeah, they're letting you in. I think I should be able to get in if I am. I agree. Cool. Anything else before we wrap for the week? Link the episode this week, but a lot of golf to cover.

No, that's it. I'm excited to go back and listen to the portion on the women's open. Watch ended up watching a lot of that this week. My son is taken to getting up at about 5 a.m. So enjoying the hats and I did see you're up early on Slack. This early. I was like, oh man, that can't be good. No. So that's it, man. Ready for ready for another week. It's playoff time, baby. You'll see me and big Randy on the happy hour this week and we got all kinds of other content stuff in the barn and other things coming out. So things are good.

We'll have a little deep dive into the state of men's pro golf with a guest. That episode will be out Tuesday evening as well and as mentioned the happy hour will be live after every Sunday of each of the playoff events. We have happy hours every Wednesday and live live shows presented by high noon. The conclusion of play of all three of the playoff events that are ahead. So look forward to the playoffs. Thank you everyone for tuning in and we will see you

here next week. Cheers. Cheers.