No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 1092: LPGA Season Wraps Up, Chevron on the Move, Encouraging Broadcast News

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

Randy and Cody recap the Annika and set the stage for the CME Tour Championship this week in Naples. We also recap the season and notable players missing out on this week’s tournament and close with some trivia and reactions to the news about the Chevron's move to a new home and LPGA TV broadcast upgrades for 2026. Join us in our support of the Evans Scholars Foundation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://nolayingup.com/esf⁠ Support our Sponsors: Titleist 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 today. Yeah, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Better than most! Expect anything different? ladies and gentlemen welcome in to the no laying up podcast my name is randy i am joined today by

cody mcbride my good friend my associate and uh we are here on tuesday it is a couple days before the final official event of the 2025 l pga season so what better way to get ready for that than to uh to preview the c m tour championship so first cody welcome what's going on brother. I'm excited. We're, uh, we're at the end. I feel like we, we tied the bow on the PJ tour calendar. We're tying the bow here this week. And then, uh, you know, we got some LET action the next couple of weeks. But then, you know, we can go back, check our predictions big, see how right, how wrong we were on a lot of things. But I'm excited, man. Well, good, good. Yeah, it's been, um, I mean, we joke. It is a long year. You know,

They played tournaments in, what, 11 of the 12 months on the calendar official tournaments. It stretches out a while. I think we're going to get, we're recording before the 2026 schedule has been released, but certainly a lot to look forward to there. I believe that is coming out Wednesday. And like you said, we're going to come back sometime after the Tour Championship to do a season wrap episode where we'll dive into a lot more. But today's episode is mainly going to be focused on the CME. We're going to talk about some of the last women into the field this week. Of course,

it's the top 60 in the season long standings. We're going to discuss some names that did not qualify, maybe who surprises us most. We're going to check in on the awards. I got a little trivia for you, Cody. And then we're going to look ahead a little bit. We do know a couple nuggets on 2026, including an exciting announcement just this morning concerning the broadcast and how those might look different next year. So a nice show here. Before we dive in, though, let's thank our good friends at Titleist, the sponsors of today's episode. Cody, what do we have from them? That's right, big. Lynn Grant won our second LPGA title this week, hitting a field best, 89% of greens and regulation with her Titleist ProV1 golf ball.

Lynn has been playing a Titleist golf ball for over a decade. One of the biggest reasons why is trust. In her words, she loves the consistency of her ProV1 across different playing conditions, and she never has any doubts that it will perform exactly how she expects every time, no matter the situation. That inherent trust is a result of Titleist's commitment to designing and manufacturing the best performing and most consistent golf balls in the game. Every title's golf ball is designed by Titleist R&D and manufactured at Titles

facilities to the tightest tolerances in strictest quality standards. And that consistency that comes to that process is a big part of why 72% of the golf balls played on the LPGA tour this year have been a titleist, not to mention the 77% of the U.S. women's exam and 88% at the NCAA Division I Women's Championship. To find out which golf ball is right for your game, head to title. And by the way, if you want a cool look inside the golf ball manufacturing process, go check out the video that we put out, DJ Neal, Influencer Tour, Northeast Edition.

Come on, go check it out. It's up on our YouTube now. Thanks to Titleist. And let's get into it. All right. Well, very good. Thank you, of course, to Titleist. And yeah, Cody, let's just, let's just jump into it.

The CME Tour Championship. So just as a quick refresher. logistically, this is the top 60 women in the season long standings are in the field this week in Naples, Florida. And unlike, well, I guess like the PGA tour this year, but all 60 women have an equal shot to win the $4 million first prize check. It's an $11 million total purse. So this is one of the biggest paydays on the calendar for the women. Coverage for this week is across three different, four different platforms and stay tuned here because I think this is what we're going to get into when later in the show we talk about next year.

But from 3 to 5 p.m. Eastern on Thursday and Friday, it's on Golf Channel, from 2 to 5 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, it's on CNBC. And then 1 to 4 p.m. Eastern, it's on NBC. And then plus, we should note there is going to be ESPN Plus featured group coverage. all four days. So be sure to check out the telecast. Gino Titicum is your defending champion. And Cody, this tournament, you know, it kind of took me by surprise as I was looking back

over the last several years, but this really is a birdie fest. I mean, Gino won last year at 22 under par. The last four winners of this event, their average score to par is 22.5 under par. So definitely look for a ton of birdies, and it's just going to be who can take it the lowest this week, I think. It's, yep, you got to get on the horse right away. A lot of putts need to be made down at old Tiburon, but big, it is Terry Duffy season course. That's the CEO of CME.

We got a big dinner. Remember a couple years ago, that's the big hubbub of people not showing up to the sponsor's dinner. and the chaos that that cause can't have that happen again. I will say this, massive purse, right? $11 million, $4 million to the winner. That purse has remained the same since 2023. And that is very rare when you look at the totality of the LPGA calendar and how much Terry Duffy and CME does.

So you got to keep an eye on that. It's a great purse. I'm just shocked that there isn't some sort of incremental, you know, stair stepping that we have going on here. Yeah, yeah. That's a good point. I mean, honestly, it might be like we can't increase it. I don't know what the appetite is to increase the purse from Terry Duffy and the folks at CME,

but it's like you can't really get bigger than the majors right now. So they might be up against a bit of a ceiling as it is. but the only i i agree with that thought process the only thing that i'll add to it is when fm came in with the fm championship and their purse is like 4.1 4.2 for a regular season event and that kind of sits it kind of makes this event look a little bit silly now i understand you know it's a the larger purse is only paying out to 60 people and then everybody's getting a minimum as it is anyway just for qualifying for the cme champion but I don't know something to keep your eye on well let's dive into the field and I think to do that

maybe we put a bit of a bow on last week's tournament the onica which was played at pelican country club up around Tampa presented by game you know it's one of those tournaments with like four different names nice nice win for our girl in grant I feel like we've been waiting for that that follow-up LPGA victory for a long time from her it's her second LPGA victory um anything as far as Lynn grant and then uh we did have some player movement we had three players qualified last weekend that got into this weekend CME by the skin of their teeth uh Cody where would you like to start here I first of all it's just dawning on me I'm kind of battling some so people who are watching on the podcast channel this of course

not just an audio-only feed. You can go check it out on the Nolanga podcast channel. If you like a video option, my camera's a little glitchy. So I'm battling through it. We're almost to the end of this season. We're making it happen. Audio should be great, though. But man, this is the Lynn Grant that we believe that we should see week in and week out on the LPGA tour.

And it's so awesome when she has that look in her eyes. She's such a fierce, like, competitor. he played such good golf to end up with a three-shot lead beat a Jen Cup show. But like literally made zero mistakes was just rock solid. And it made the broadcast for people who did turn in. It was one of the rare occasions where I thought that the NBC Golf Channel team was really firing on all cylinders, which is surprising because the winner was, you know, after nine, you know, or Lynn opened up this three-shot lead and the tournament was almost done

but there was so much drama going on between really three players, Natalia, Lucy and like the top 60 and the broadcast did an awesome job of amplifying that and talking through moves and showing emotion. We saw so much emotion from Lucy coming up 18 and just trying to hold on to it.

Natalia hitting a horrible drive on 18, finding the bunker, have to lay up and really like, you know, had to make par. Bogie would have maybe got her to that line, but definitely a par. There was actual ramifications for the shots that you had out there. And the telecast absolutely capitalized on it. So I was excited.

And I'm happy that the finish is what we're talking about coming off of Pelican because going into the week, there was a lot of pro-am talk and Caitlin and Kai and all this. other stuff that we thought was kind of kind of overshadowed the event that didn't end up happening at all well all right a lot there let me let's drill in for a second on lin grant and you're right i you know we've we have not been shy and we've been very bullish on lynn i i think we all enjoy watching her play golf um nice to see her put together a a fantastic week you know four rounds But I guess my question is, you know, you mentioned like, this is the Lynn we want to see week to week.

And as you were saying that, it just popped into my head, like, do you think it's possible for her to harness this week to week? Or is she just going to be a bit inconsistent, you know? I just get the feeling we keep waiting for her to have that consistent greatness, I'll say. and I don't know greatness isn't the right word just consistently a top 10 type player in the world right because I think that's what her talent level is I guess Cody are do you feel good about her being able to harness this and really be this player week to week or is that you know is it like hey we're we're just expecting something that she's never going to be I think she can can get there. I think with Lynn, it is an evolving process of her being comfortable

traveling and being a full-time professional on the LPGA tour. And I think we've seen a couple different iterations of her. And you got to understand, like her career started out as a professional, very, very weird. You know, she went to Q school, qualified right out Arizona State. And then COVID happened. And because she wasn't vaccinated, she couldn't play her full. first season and then that turned into like the next season and then you know all this so folks know really 2023 was her first full LPGA season so you know she is wrapping just her third LPGA full season in 2022 she had her LPGA tour card but because of travel restrictions she was only able to play co-sanction LPGA events that were basically everywhere else outside of north america and she

she maintained her card from only playing like five or six events that year. She played so good there. And obviously she played full time on the LET. She won a couple times there. And, you know, it's just been this evolving thing of like how is she going to be comfortable out here traveling because she's such a creature from home. She loves being home. She loves Sweden.

And the travel and the amount of time that they spend on the road is a lot. But I think where she's at now, you know, she's had her. boyfriend of Pontius on the on her bag she's been he's been catting for her full time now for pretty much since early summer on and I think you've seen her slowly start to be more comfortable in it because so far at least this year is very much boom or bust she missed a lot of cuts and when she would make a cut you're almost guaranteeing a top 20 finish you know outside of that like her highest finish was a T-65 in Boston at the FM championship. But it was just fire and ice really to start, you know,

she had a really great start with that solo third at Hilton to start the year going and then really stumbled trying to get her feet underneath her. But, you know, it's just one of those things where it's like she's trying to get comfortable and not so much comfortable on the golf course, but comfortable on the road. And it's, I think it's fascinating. to see from an outside perspective of somebody who's like, you know, she's still pretty young trying to figure out their legs as a professional. And I'll say she, this being the third time that she has played the Onika,

it's a course in a tournament that has suited her very well. She's gone T15, T5, and now a win. So definitely a place that she enjoys. just looking at her statistical profile this year, you know, her putting is an area that that kind of jumps out at first glance. You know, she's given a half a shot away per round in strokes game putting. And I think the other area, Cody, that has just not maybe materialized as much as I would have expected would be her approach play, her iron play. and, you know, even her performance off the tee has dipped a little bit since that

2003 her first season on the LPGA tour. So I'm with you. It's like she has the tools, I think, to be that top 10 type player. It seems like there's just going to need to be some refinement and a lot of work to just be more consistent week to week, round to round. And like you said, it's going to be very exciting to see these next couple years because I think at least relative to the hype and expectation that I had for, I would probably say the last couple of years have been a bit disappointing. But I could also see her, you know, peeling off two, three wins the next couple years each, you know, she just has that ability. So, yeah, I don't know what is in store for Lynn, but I think women's golf is a lot better when she's playing well and she can be in contention. I agree.

She has so much horsepower in that engine of hers. It's truly just about trying to figure out how to hit these little finesse shots. You know, I walked with her this year for a round at the AIG Women's Open. and she hits it a long ways off the team she misses fairways which is fine because she doesn't really get herself in too much trouble but her approach probably what you're you're talking about and her ball striking because she like is hitting full out shots a lot of the times she would be flying greens she would hit high spinning shots that would get caught up in the wind you're just like oh those that's that's where you need to figure out what's going on and then when you got a

balky putter sometimes like it takes a lot you know you can't have too many gaps in the game but you know she works as hard at it as anybody else is like i think that again we put lofty expectations on everyone that's coming out that has a solid everyone that we're excited about in college career but you know i'm right there with you if i said this after the u.s women's open And if you told me that Maya was going to win a major before Lynn, I would have laughed. But that does not mean that I do not believe that Lynn is going to have more major championships under her belt than Maya will when things are done. You mentioned a bit Natalia, Guseva, Lucy Lee. They were two of the three women along with Brooke Matthews that played their way into the CME last week at the Onica.

And unfortunately, losing their top 60 ranking were Jenny Shin, Cassie Porter, and Wei Ling Sue. You know, tough for Jenny Shin. She was kind of right around that top 60 for most of the year. I feel like certainly this back half of the year. But I love, you know, it's wonderful to see Lucy Lee player way in. And Brooke Matthews, she wins the whole. Hole in one. She gets a two-year lease of a Lamborghini, which is a bit crazy. And yeah, I think Guseva is a name that probably people aren't very familiar with. She has not won yet, but she

is somebody that's just been playing consistently better golf over the last, honestly, almost the last two years. And to see that kind of pay off with a birth into the tour championship, certainly a feather in her cap. Yeah, she's really good and still very, very young for being this or second or third year, something like that, full time on the LPGA tour. Awesome to see her battling it out. And like I said, like just needed par, really bogey would have been fine on 18 to get it. I still don't know really.

I hope that there's an evolution in the geopolitical space that at some point in time, like she can be more open about like her story and everything obviously she's from russia she cannot fly the russian flag i i guess in international competitions and to include the lpGA and you know her dad is a a high-ranking official in the russian military um she came over played at florida state and was only there for a couple years before she bounced and turned professional but she has this look that like she can go out there and just like dominate when she wants to i just would i i can't wait really to watch the evolution of her game and and see how if she's able to kind of put it all together yeah she you know she was kind of in the doldrums this

summer uh missed a bunch of cuts in a row in june and july and uh but turned a corner i I honestly starting at the FM championship late August, and parlayed that into a really nice fall finish, did not miss a cut here down the stretch, and obviously played her way into the Tour Championship. So just 22 years old, I think she's somebody to certainly keep an eye out for next year, the year after.

She seems to be on the come up, absolutely. She went from, she jumped from 64. to 57 and you mentioned Lucy just an incredible final round and she was so emotional going through it she ended up shooting a 66 on Sunday that included 10 one putts she made 23 birdies through the week kind of you know it always goes back to when we had her on the podcast and we're just like kind of talking about her evolution of the game and you know a little kid growing up to where she's at now. She feels like she's finally owning that. And I think, you know, it's just little incremental steps, her getting her card, her rookie year and trying to figure out everything that's

going on and now retaining her card. And now this year making it to CME, which is a huge step for somebody in their second season. Uh, I love to see it. Uh, ended up jumping from 71st to 58th. And it was just crazy. She was, riding with every single shot. And I mentioned the broadcast earlier. They did such a good job of describing and painting the picture and brought you into the story to follow her emotions along the way. Congrats to Lucy.

Yeah. And I'll just quickly say Brooke Matthews, someone else who had a great finish to the season, a handful of top 15 finishes, a couple top tens here down the stretch to also. really play her way into the tour championship so good on brook um a couple cool little final pelican notes there uh Alexa Pano not at playing CME this week but she ended up finishing like t 36 and that actually moved her from number 100 on the list to 97 to keep her full status so she does not have to go back to Q series so that's huge uh for Alexa and then you know uh no surprise here. I can't believe more people

didn't see this coming, but Miyu Yamashita just clinched rookie of the year. Didn't really have to do much. Finished 68th, and that's all done and dusted. I mean, she started the year as the 13th ranked player in the world. Who would

have thought that she would have been the rookie of the year? Tug and cheek there. All right, well, let's move on from the Onica and let's turn our attention to the CME and I want to go over some big names that are not qualified for the Tour Championship this year. So big names that are not in the top 60.

We have Yucasso, who just had a disaster of a year. I mean, she is not even close. I believe she has lost her game. That is unfortunate. We have Georgia Hall. I talked to her over in Wales earlier this year. she just could not get it going this year. Amy Yang, who won this event a couple years ago,

won a major a couple years ago. She has not been able to qualify. Rose Zhang is not in the top 60 this week. And then the other name that's not in the top 60 is Lily of Voo. So, Cody, I guess of those names or maybe another name, is there one person that most, I don't know, that you're most disappointed that she didn't make the top 60. Who kind of had the most disappointing season in your mind?

I mean, just going off past results, it's not too long ago that Lillia Voo was it. She summited the peak, man. And to watch this kind of fall off has been truly crazy to see. And a lot of its injuries tied in there. But, you know, it's one of those things where it feels like Lillia's always hurt. And we don't know why she's sitting out or what the injury actually is. But she just had a disastrous season. And I give her a ton of credit because she battled.

She played all through the Asian swing. She came back over and played, you know, Onica trying to make it up for it. So I get she was trying to get points to make it to CME the way that she could have. Georgia, I think, is surprising to me. just because yeah she didn't make CME her Rolex ranking is is way down compared to where we usually see her at but big she hasn't played an event since AIG and I don't think I even quite realize cheapishly dang yeah and I don't know if it's you know I think her at some point time I know her and I think she's getting married soon I don't really know what's going on I

I don't know why, you know, and maybe that's a good question to ask of, of, where is Georgia? She's obviously not in Naples this week, but we haven't seen her since July. Yeah. Yeah, I'm right there with you on, you know, I feel like we've talked about Lillia before, but just everything that she's going through, the back injury and kind of trying to rebuild a golf swing around a back injury and trusting not only, that her back won't hurt, but the swing will work. It's just a tough, tough spot for her to be in. Yucasas is the one that's like, I don't know.

I don't know if that's a case of the driver yips, but I mean, she finished 132nd on the CME list this year. And for somebody that's won a couple of U.S. Open, she's only 24 years old. Just a shocking, shocking loss of form there. So I really hope she can find it. I cannot wait until next spring where we don't have to worry about Rose and college in managing schedules anymore. And I know. And hopefully she's healthy too because it, yeah, it was like part college, part battling injuries, just felt like a little bit of a lost year this year for Rose.

I think it's one of those things where it's amazing. great for people to follow what their individual passions are. I just hope it's not at an expense to what she's said that she wants her career to be. And, you know, time will only tell on that. But, you know, it's just, it's just a weird, it's a weird year for her overall. And you're right. There's, there's not just college. There's injuries and everything else like that.

But man, I just hope we see, I hope we see Rose back. yeah yeah amen to that for sure you know the only other name that i'll throw out that just kind of selfishly disappointed we're not going to see her in naples this week is the young spaniard julia lopez ramirez uh she was a rookie this year 22 years old hits the ball a long way and was in decent spot for for most of the year to qualify had some really good results earlier this year, but just did not do as much as she needed to, especially in this Asian swing, the second Asian swing that was just completed. I felt like she had a good opportunity, you know, no cut events. You're over there. She played four of them. And the best finish she

could muster was a tie for 50 in those four events. And just, you know, she just needed one solid week to secure a top 60 as it is she finishes 68th but um you know not i i think i won't call it a great rookie year if you're not in the top 60 but a decent rookie year and i think somebody that i continue to kind of look towards uh certainly next year in the years to come as uh i'm just curious to see how she will grow and mature out here as well yeah and uh you know the last person that's not in this category that that I think deserves a shout out and that's I'm not going to

play a full schedule Lexi in the year that that kind of evolved for her. Retired golfer Lexi Thompson has qualified for the tour championship. She's playing in the tour championship. She finished the year with 12 starts, eight cuts made, two top tens and is

firmly teamed up at CME. Now I kind of understand what she continues to go back because like I never said that I was retired. I'm just stepping away. from doing this and I'm like okay that's that's cool I got to go back and see how many starts because I'm pretty sure last year she only played in 14 events this year she played in 12 so she's only I don't know if her plan is just to shave two a year or what's going on but you know honestly yeah the LPGA had her for 18 starts in 24 okay good good call out there gave six

yeah well that is something yeah uh You know, she only made 14 starts in 2023. So she's, she's kind of been around, you know, to your point, though, it's not like demonstrably different than where she had been the last couple years. And I know that technically she never used the word retired. The LPGA had a big headline with the word retirement in it for her. Certainly many tournaments put on displays that were, would make you think that she was retiring it's just a little bit of a goofy situation i don't listen if she wants to keep playing

that's her prerogative good for her she's obviously playing uh really really good golf uh good enough to get in the tour championship so i i guess at the end of the day i don't have like a massive problem with it i just like to need a little bit no for sure i think that's all that's all part of it and it like it's hard to get past where she's at ranking wise and uh You know, I think she ended up, she had two top tens this year. One of them being at the Meyer and then the other one where they finished second was at the Dow. And I say they because there's a team event, which they're getting equal CME points, which is silly to me. So heavily, heavily anchored there from her Dow championship runner up finish.

Yeah. There are eight, eight LPGA rookies in the top 60 this week. I think they deserve a shout out by name. Jenny Bay had a very good year. The EY twins, Aki and Chasato have both qualified. Ingrid Lindblad is in the field. Rio Takeda Miranda Wang, really nice season. The aforementioned Miyu Yamashita, who has won rookie of the year.

She had a fantastic season. And then Lottie Wode, who burst onto the scene this summer. And thanks to a win. some really good play. She has qualified. So I think eight, eight rookies, Cody. I mean, that's a fairly significant number. I think it speaks to, we're seeing just such an influx of talent and new names. And, you know, just it really is, I think, an exciting place that the women's game is in

as we look out over the next three, four, five years and even beyond that. I agree. Completely great big. We can't have another, what are the chances of another season like this where we have that many, you know, just single winners? My God. Well, keep that in mind. That's going to come up in the trivia game. I'm going to ask here in just a second. I did want to ask you, though, Cody.

I had the thought, you know, we're talking about here the top 60 qualify for the Tour Championship. I wanted to get your thoughts. Is this field too big? do we need 60 because part of me just looking at the rankings i mean i think there's a real case to be made that i just you look at especially in this bucket of like 40 to 60 like these women had good years right none of them had great years and i just the more i kind of sit and I think you could convince me that the field for the tour championship should be chopped to about, I would say even the top 32, right?

Make it a number that kind of makes sense. And then I think there would just be a bit more emphasis on let's reward the people who had very good seasons. And we could kind of cut some that, you know, who am I? going to pick on here uh you know i just mentioned her but jenny bay right she played 22 events she did not win she has three top tens and that's good for 48th right i'm not sure she should qualify for this tournament where if she strings together four very good days she could be walking home with four million dollars and be the tour champion i what do you think about that okay so i i like where you're going with this. My only question would be, are you looking at the 32 number based off

of a format change or based off of a true rewarding of what the intent of it is? Well, that was going to be another question. I know we discuss this every year. I know where you're going here, right? I think the natural format change would be, you know, you take 32 and is it some sort of matchplay tournament. The more I thought about that, a couple of things. One, we know the T-Mobile matchplay event is going off the calendar. So there's no match-play event. Welcome to a Ramco, though. We're happy to do business with you.

There's no true match-play event on the LPGA schedule that I know of, unless there's going to be one that we don't know. know about that's announced this week um and i do get back to like we're playing for all this money i kind of like the idea of of going head to head woman to woman like let's let's see who's best right like let's create a bracket and let's see who is standing at the end and i think they could reasonably have a claim to like yeah that i deserve to be the tour champion and and win the four million dollars so i do think you can convince me that like 32's a nice number for match play uh if if you want to even take less than that right like 24 and and give some of the top finishers you know buys i i would certainly listen to that but i do think i lean that way yeah okay i i can

meet you there i think the only concern that i have about it and it's not even really not not even really about the CME, is that as all things, when you talk about LPGA and changes, it comes down to their schedule. And the fact that they have so many limited field events, all of October, you have one full field event in November at the Pelican, and then that's it. So it's one of those things where, you know, things have to move around in order for that to happen. because I would say that it's even hard to have one event straight into CME coming off of that long Asian swing because there's people who take Pelican off, you know?

We haven't talked about, you know, Aeon challenge or whatever it is, $100 million, you know, dollars. But like, Gino was leading that. One million dollars. No, 100 million dollars. We're unbelievable. Yeah. Come on, Aon. Just throw it out there.

Gino was leading that. And like, as history has kind of shown, she decided to not play Pelican to protect her lead and then she still got passed and then she ended up getting passed which is it's fine that's the dice that you roll there

but it's just one of those things where yes that would be awesome if we wanted to take CME and reward a proper year end champion cool play 32 you can play 32 stroke play you can play 32 match play that's fine the issue is

is that the LPJ tour has so many other things attached to this week, whether that's Rolex Awards on Monday night. And, you know, they did something on Tuesday night as well. But it's just a lot. And I think what they, they're comfortable in saying, oh, at least if we get the 60 there, that's going to cover the amount of people that we need to fly in for this Monday night season ending gala as it is,

which has nothing to do with competition, right? But again, LPGA silliness at times, not a lot of decisions have to do with competition. Yeah, you're right in that. Any changes would have to come with some downstream or upstream changes to the schedule and kind of how that's thought about. But I do think just from purely like competition, I think 60s too many, especially if it's just a winner take all, you know, everybody starts from the same spot. but you know hey the opportunities out there for a lot of these women it can be truly a

life-changing week for somebody so we we shall see um Cody we've we've kind of touched on awards let me just quickly go through those uh we mentioned meyu yamashita she has clinched the louise suggs rookie of the year award it is an excellent excellent crop of rookies this year uh and she stands out among them. She has a shot to win the player of the year race. It's down to her and Gino. Mew has to win this weekend. Essentially, if she wins, she wins player of the year also.

If she does not win, no matter if Gino finishes runner-up, just the way the math works and the points that you get, Mew has to win to win player of the year. If she does not win, then Gino, is going to be your 2025 player of the year. We mentioned Jennifer Cup Cho. She clinched the $1 million aon risk reward, season long award, I guess. And then the other big one, and this is a big one because it comes with a Hall of Fame

Point, the VAR trophy, currently Gino leads Nelly Corta. And Nellie would have to go very, very low. And I think Gino would have to have a pretty bad week for Nellie to catch. her so I'm pretty comfortable given this one to Gino as well so a chance even though she's only and I say only one twice this year Gino could be both your player of the year and the bar trophy winner which those both come with Hall of Fame points Cody with that said I have eight trivia questions and they all kind of pertain to the CME so can let's see Let's dive in. Are you ready?

I don't think I'm going to embarrass you. I think you're going to get a few. I think you might not get a few. But I think these are all good, and I think they're some good tidbits for the listeners. So are you ready? I am ready, big. Okay. Well, let's start here with Gino.

I just mentioned the VAR trophy for the low scoring average. First question, Gino Titicum's current scoring average coming into this week is 68.88. She is trying to become just the third woman in LPGA history with an official scoring average below 69. Can you name the other two women to have completed a season with a scoring average below 69? Nelly. Nellie is not one of them, surprisingly. Okay, I have no clue. So Lydia Coe is the most recent.

in 2022, she finished the year at 68.988, so just below that 69 threshold. And then you've got to go all the way back to 2002, Onika Sorenstam, at 68.7. And I'll note that 68.7, that is the all-time low single-season scoring average on the LPGA tour. And I did a little math. Gino, according to my math, and I got this straight off the LPGA website, so I'm going to throw them under the bus if this is not right. But according to my math, if Gino shoots 25 under or better this week, she'll finish with a slightly lower scoring average than Onica in 2002 and have the lowest season scoring average in LPJ history. and we know 25 under is is in play because the average winning score is 22 and a half under par so something to watch out for there that's right around what she shot last year too she was like 21 she was she was 22 so she'd have to be a bit better than that this year right i love it all right second question we're gonna stay on this subject of geno and the var trophy so last year in 2024 Gino did not play enough rounds to qualify for the VAR trophy.

You have to play like, I think, 60, it's either 60% of all total rounds or 70. It's, it's, she didn't qualify, but she would have had the lowest scoring average. She did win it in 2023, and like I said, she has a great chance to win it in 2025. So the question is, who's the last woman to win the VAR trophy three straight years? These are tough ones I'm starting out with. I apologize. M.B. Ever do it? That's a good guess. It was not M.B.

It was kind of just before M.B. So in between, okay. Not Stacy Lorena Yep Loreno Choa Yep And she actually won it

Four straight years From 2006 to 2009 That's the last time Anybody's won at three straight And again, Gino won't technically win it For a third straight year this year She was hurt at the beginning of 2024 As you'll remember

But came very close To winning it three straight years With her season this year. No wonder Lorena retired then. She's like, there's nothing else to win, guys. Come on. Yeah.

All right. We're going to switch gears a little bit with this next question. There are only two women from last year's season-ending CME top 10. And I think this list is like post-CME Tour Championship tournament. That's the one I could find on the LPGA website. But there are only two women from last season, season-ending CME top 10. who were again in the top 10 this year. Can you name those two women?

Gino. No, not Gino. Because of the injury. Yeah, she was not top 10 because of her injury. Okay, Nelly. But as I say that, let me just double check. You're right. Gino did because she won the CME.

Sorry, there were three women. All right, I'm going to take that back. There are three women. Gino is one of them. She jumped up to fourth after the CME. Okay. And you said Nelly? Yeah.

Yep. That's the second. I think those are the two easy ones. The third one is a little bit trickier. Not Minji. Not Minji. She's Korean. Our dinner partner.

No, it's not our dinner partner. No, it's not Hoytju. Okay, I don't know. It's Sayyung Kim is the only other one. So a turnover of seven names from last year's list to this year's top 10, which is pretty surprising. Wow, that is great. Fourth question, we're getting a bit of stats here. What of the rest of a bed then?

Well, yeah, I guess they're all kind of that. I have played the most events this year in 2025. The CME is going to be my 30th start of the season. Who am I, Cody? The EY twins. Ooh, right country, but not the right player. Oh, okay. So, Japan.

Rio Rio Rio is going to be the only woman to get to 30 official starts this year on the LPGGGDG It's a lot of golf It's a lot of travel That's right

It is It is I mean How many events are there Gosh what I should know this off the top of my head But I mean I want to say what like 34 maybe

Yeah Something like that I'll count him here is after I ask you the next question. All right. Another, who am I? I have the most top tens this year on the LPGA without a win. Do you know who I am?

No. I don't. Do you have a guess of who I am? I have no clue because I feel like big that everybody won an event this year. A lot of, a lot of women won events. is right she has nine top tens and 23 starts going into c m e and she is ijin choy of korea oh okay yeah would have not no chance i would have guessed that yeah uh speaking of top tens three women are tied for the fewest top tens this season while still qualifying for the cm e this week and they

each only had one top 10 this year. Two of the three, their lone top 10 were wins. One only has a top 10 and it's not a win. How many of those three women can you name? Zero of them?

I don't know. Maya? Oh, you're on the right track. The two women with only one top 10, but it is a victory. They are both Swedish, but neither is Maya. Ingrid Ingrid is one

What other sweet one God this is a horrible game big I have no clue Madeline I totally forgot about that Also that seems like it was a long time ago You could have told me that was in 2024 Yeah

Yeah Madeline and Ingrid Their lone top tens this year were both victories and then the one woman who only has one top 10 but is in the field she actually qualifies at number 60 is thailand's padery and a narukarn all right we'll keep moving another who am like harder than you told me it's going to be i know it probably is and i did just count there are 33 events on the calendar this year uh that includes the international crown so 32 kind of quote unquote regular event.

So for Rio to play 30 of the 32 events is really, really something. And she played the international crown. Yep. All right, two questions left here. My Rolex World Ranking reached a season worst number 399 in late February of 2025. It currently sits at 112th, the best of the year for me. That 287 spot move is the largest of any player in the CME field this year. Who am I?

February. Yelimi. Oh, that's a good guess. I think that would have been more like 2024. Okay. That's the only one I got. Yeah, this is a tough one. This is Brooke Matthews, which goes to show this, the season that she's.

she had and how she really has turned it on throughout the year. Her world ranking has gone up 287 spots. So good. Yeah. All right. Last question. Gino and Miyu Yamashita each have two wins this season, which are the most on the LPGA tour. There's only one other year in LPGA history where the season wins leader had just two wins. Do you know? that year? No. I don't. It was the COVID year, 2020,

when Daniel Kang and Say Young Kim each had two wins. Dang. Which I think speaks to how crazy this year is. You mentioned a little bit earlier, but just the amount of winners and nobody really winning a lot is

pretty crazy. I was going to this is going to throw out like 98 or something like that you know try to pick one of those rare onica bad years yeah yeah no it's crazy like looking back through history how dominant you know the top of the LPGA was in terms of the amount of wins most years but really recently i feel like you know aside from nellie's seven wins last year not nearly as dominant as as some of the seasons certainly going back through the history. Well, who do you got this week, Big?

It's tough to pick against Gino, honestly. I mean, that's kind of where I'm leaning. I feel like it'd be a very Nelly thing to do to maybe win this week, right? Get her first win of the season. Cash the Big Check. But my official pick is going to be Gino. I know that's a pretty lazy pick,

but she plays really well here. and she just is a top 10 machine like her floor is is i feel like you know 8th 9th 10th place yeah for sure just because i like a little bit of spice to life and see what happens but i would love to see me just sweeping it cool rookie give me that player of the year award yeah that that'd be a nice statement for her to make for sure i will say this i know we had a good discussion about the 60 player field for this week, but it does seem to, like the cream rises to the top this week. And even, you know, do you know, last year, Amy Yang played so good that one year. I think she just whooped everyone's butt. But there's a reason why Lydia

Jin Young, you know, Jin Young basically owns this golf course, but they all play good. And then if you like you go back and look at people who have like finished runner up, not. You know, it's done it a couple times, Angel, you know, Nellie and Jess, Lexi. Like, it's a, it's a good, it's a really good spot to have the season ending tournament at. It's, yeah, I think you're exactly right. We haven't really had a winner that's like out of nowhere, right? And I'd be pretty shocked if we had one this week. Yeah, it seems like it could be.

Me, you, honestly, it could be any of those Japanese women. It could be Gino. I'm really curious to see how Lynn, you know, if she kind of keeps playing well, she hasn't had like the best results in her couple years at Tiburon, but gosh, she's got to be flying high with a lot of confidence. So, yeah, it's... Absolutely.

It's going to be a good one. All right. Well, Cody, let's... Yeah, sorry, go ahead. News, brother. No, let's talk some news, man. There's a couple of things shaken out there. There are.

We don't have the full 2026 schedule, but we did get one big nugget. And that was the official announcement that the Chevron Championship is moving officially from Carlton Woods to Memorial Park Golf Course. That's, of course, where the PGA Tour plays their event each year. Cody, this feels like a massive, massive step forward for this event. Do you agree? 100%. I feel like we've actually talked about this before a couple different times of getting it somewhere. If you want the city to be included and have it available and open to more people, you had to get it out of the woodlands. The woodlands has a lot going on. Their marathon weekend was

never a good time to schedule a major championship there. I love Memorial Park. It's going to be a couple weeks after the men are there. And, you know, I think it should be a lot easier infrastructure-wise. I don't know how they'll do like the, you know, cost sharing or something like that, but it won't have to take too much of the bill down from the men and just kind of change some banners. And we've talked about it at length of having it something joint there where if your Memorial Park, you know, the PGA Tour event ticket is also good for one day at the Chevron or something. something like that just to get more people out there and have this feeling.

But this golf course is awesome. I think it's going to be a great test for the best women in the game. And it's always in such good shape with very difficult greens. It's such a good short game test that the women are not going to be able to overpower like the men do. It's truly like, I'm so excited to go back to Houston again next spring. yeah it you know listen the folks up at carlton woods it i'm sure you love your club that's great it just it was not a good viewing experience like that course just did not pop at all and for the first major of the year for any major year after year right it just i don't think

it ever rose to the occasion of meeting what a what a major championship venue should be and so I'm like you. I'm excited for the move to Memorial Park. Like having watched the PGA event there now for a couple of years, it's a much more interesting golf course. I think it's going to be a better spectating experience. I think it's going to be a better viewing experience. And I'm excited to see which of the women really can plot their way around there

and who kind of excels there, right? It's going to be a new test for all the women. So I'm like you. This was such a massively neat. needed change and kudos to Chevron and the tournament organizers and new commission Craig Kessler for kind of forcing and making this move. I think it's just wonderful. Not only that, but like the fact that Houston and Memorial Park literally is like their home

of the municipal golf in Houston. And the fact that next spring, they're going to crown a major championship. on that golf course that any of these other little girls that are out there in PGA Junior League or just getting lessons, you know, it's a cool spot. They got a double-decker driving range and tons of kids out there all the time

that they can see their heroes out there being crowd and a major champion on the same golf course that they're like learning at. It's just going to be so cool. Yeah. Yeah. Well said. The other big piece of news that just dropped this morning

and this one candidly has me very excited. too. Let me just walk through this. So there's an announcement today that the tour put out. FM, the commercial property insurer, who also puts on the FM championship, they have made an investment alongside both Trackman and the Golf Channel to greatly enhance the broadcast quality of the North American LPGA events for 2026. Cody, let me run through what this announcement, the specific enhancements that they mentioned are going to be. So first and foremost, every round of every tournament is going to be broadcast live on either Golf Channel or CMBC, two Versaunt properties.

I think this is a big deal. One, we can get away from some of the events that were only shown on tape delay. I think that's a good thing. Two, I think the LPGA tour is trying to work. towards a much more consistent, not only broadcast window week to week, but so fans know where this broadcast is going to be, right? It's either going to be on Golf Channel and it sounds like they're going to utilize CNBC on occasion when there are conflicts with the PGA tour. But that's the first big benefit. The second that they cite, there's going to be a 50%

increase in the number of cameras that the television broadcast utilizes. This is tremendous, right? How many times have we bemoaned kind of the sparse coverage of a tournament, especially on Thursday and Friday? The third thing they cite is going to be an increase in slow motion cameras as well as more microphones across the golf course, just to better be able to pick up sound and the slow motion cameras are just going to add another element to the broadcast. The fourth thing they cite, an increase in drone cameras to enhance the venues and various shots. The fifth thing, a heightened focus on athlete storytelling with enhanced content and production. I think that's always a good thing. And then honestly, last but certainly not

least, a quadrupling of shot tracing capabilities from the 2025 season, thanks specifically to Trackman being much more involved in broadcast. Cody, I read this press release and I do feel like, like this is a lot of the stuff that we've been bemoaning over the last several years, right? Like, I think for really the first time, this is the most exciting piece of news that the LPGA week to week there's going to be real investment in the broadcast of course the proof is going to be in the pudding we'll see next year but uh i've never seen a press release like this that has gotten me this excited about the the television viewing product no i'm right there with you and massive kudos to the the l pga staff but uh specifically craigman i i remember

talking to him this summer after he was announced and he talked about those four pillars that he wanted to put into place as soon as he got into the seat and that was you know trust with the players and fans uh increased visibility building fans not just having them watching and having a little bit but truly like rooting on for the players in the league and then you know stabilizing the lpj tour for their financial future you want to talk about visibility and building fans this is exactly what needed to change And I'm so happy that they have a passionate and energetic sponsor in FM who just came on board two years ago for a tournament of their own and having their second year going and then saying we like this so much. We love this product so much.

We want to do everything possible with trackman, with golf channel, with Versaunt and everybody else to bring that out to the massives. It's huge. It's so big. And I'm just happy that, you know, it's finally going to happen that next year we're not just sitting around wondering and waiting for what is it. Just complaining, right? Just just complaining in the same manner that. And listen, I know we would both feel bad about like how much we would complain. But at the same time, we would always say it's like, I mean, it's right.

Like these broadcasts are woefully behind. the standard that we see on the men's side. And so I just think this is such, I know I'm repeating myself here, but this is such a needed improvement and such a needed initiative to start elevating the week-to-week broadcasts, right? We get fabulous broadcasts with the U.S. Women's Open,

but sometimes it has felt hard to be a fan of the LPGA tour. And I think this initiative, initiative specifically is meant to like ease that right it it needs to be fun to be a fan of the l pGA tour and i think this this hopefully will go a long way like i said that the proof will be in the pudding and and we'll see next year but um we just haven't had an announcement like this in a long time with respect to the to the broadcast so super exciting yeah and this obviously is a a press release that the l pg j tour put out obviously all the equities involved in it had a say, but I'm very curious to see what this does on the NBC Golf Channel side.

It's the crew that we are traditionally used to hearing and seeing going to say the same because specifically mentioned in here is a heightened focus on storytelling and walk and talks and things like that. And I would love, you know, I have a master of respect for the crew that is there now. But if you have a company that's investing in it, and a tour that is saying we desperately want this for growth, there needs to be some things that change on the talent side there as well. And I'm very, you know, just excited to see what comes out of it.

Yeah. I mean, just a shot, a shot of life, right, with a personality or two. Not even, I don't know if you, I mean, I have some thoughts about some specific people. I just think much like the broadcast itself, I think that the sounds of it can get a little stale week to week. And so it's a great point how the talent, whether we'll see any changes there, or maybe this allows the talent to really flourish, right? Maybe this puts them all in a better spot to be able to put on a much better broadcast. So, yeah, we will see. But kudos, kudos to the tour, kudos to FM, Trackman, Golf Channel.

I know we've bagged on this so much. So I do really, really want to express how exciting this news was. I cannot wait to see the product next year. Calendar is going to come out tomorrow. We'll, you know, take a probably a week or two to digest it and see what the you know i can't wait to see somebody's going to do like the little google earth uh social real of talking about how long they fly and distances and everything else like that uh we'll wait for that to flush itself out and then uh we'll be back around with some season

ending thoughts wrap up our predictions for the year cover the schedule and and get pumped about 2026 sounds good man always enjoy chatting with you thank you everybody for listening watching Enjoy the CME Tour Championship this weekend, and as always, cheers and crack on.