No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 1102: LPGA Season Wrap-Up 2025

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

Randy, Cody and Jordan put a bow on the 2025 LPGA season with a quick review of last week’s Grant Thornton (Way to go LC!!!) and the biggest storylines from the past twelve months in the women’s game including Craig Kessler’s arrival as the new LPGA Tour Commissioner, Nelly’s winless campaign in the year of parity on tour, emerging Japanese players, Jeeno as world #1 and more. From there we hand out some 2025 superlatives, ask for a year-long mulligan, and revisit some of our predictions from the start of the season. Join us in our support of the Evans Scholars Foundation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://nolayingup.com/esf⁠ Support our Sponsors: Titleist ServPro Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro + Grant Thornton thoughts 08:45 - Biggest 2025 LPGA Storylines 48:00 - 2025 Superlatives 1:08:30 - Mulligan of the Year, Picks review 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. I mean, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different? welcome into the No Laying Up podcast. My name is Randy. I am joined today by Jordan Perez and Cody McBride. We are going to put a wrap on the 2025 LPGA season. It is, it's finally here. It's a long season. You know, it starts in January. It ends officially in late November. And then we just had the Grant Thornton Invitational last weekend. But God, what a season it was.

Why don't I introduce my compatriots? That's always a good place to start. Cody, what's going on today? How are you? Where in the world are you? Calling it from the home studio, buddy. Decided to be here. December golf.

Go, Elsie. Pumped. I don't know if it. Does that count as an official and non-official? I don't know, but Elsie got paid in December and that's what I'm talking about. That money's official. Yeah, congrats to Elsie. see she teamed up with Andrew Novak to win the the Grant Thornton also joining us Jordan Perez

Jordan we were just talking you were in Tampa last week for that epic Thursday night football game I imagine you might be back home in Jacksonville now but how are you and where are you gentlemen calling in from the homes dude very excited to be here thrilled to put a bow on this LPGA season just like I need to with all of my Christmas shopping because admittedly it is all very last minute and I hope my gifts arrive on time you just like you just reminded me how little shopping I've done yet and I had that like wave of anxiety rush over me sorry yeah I appreciate that for anybody listening I hope you're well ahead of the shopping game but I have my work cut out for me I got to get on that the next few days um but

That's a different story. As I mentioned, we're going to put a wrap on the LPGA season. We're going to discuss what I think are the biggest stories coming out of 2025, maybe land on a consensus, like what was the story of 2025? We'll go through that. In the next block, we're going to hit some superlatives. What are our favorite moment, least favorite moment. We've got a bunch of superlatives that will be kind of the second block.

And then to round things out, we're going to look back at our predictions that we all made to start the year, see just how off base we were. Or maybe we got some right. Who knows? We should have a bit of confidence in ourselves. So that's the show for you. I appreciate everybody being here. Cody, why don't we start out?

Let's, as we always do, let's thank our good friends at Titleist for being our sponsor of today's episode. That's right. Thank you to our friends at Titleist, the number one ball in golf, and the number one ball on the LPGA, with Titleist accounting for 73% of

all golf balls played on the LPGA this year. The holidays are basically here, but if you're scrambling for last minute gifts, here's a great option that won't have you worried about last minute shipping times, a gift card to tidalist.com. They can use it to stock up on golf balls, make a club or gear purchase they've been considering, and tidalist.com has great features to help you dial in

from the golf ball selector tool to the custom fitting locator to the golf ball customizer. You name it. head to tidalist.com to learn more. All right. Awesome. Thank you very much to Titleist. Yeah, just off the top here, as we mentioned, Lauren Coglin, Andrew Novak.

They win the third playing of this mixed Grant Thornton invitational from Tiburon down in Florida. Runner up was Nellie Cora and Denny McCarthy, Charlie Hull, Michael Brennan, and Jennifer Cupcho and Chris Gotter up. So, guys, did you watch, much of this. I watched just a little. I got to admit, I was not glued to this. Curious if either of you watched more of this and I don't know, any thoughts here as we're now through the third

iteration of this event. Does it, does it have juice? Does it capture your attention? Or is it kind of just washed out this time of year with everything else going on? Yeah, hand up. I also didn't catch very much of this event. I was also delighted to see that Elsie took the dub, but I, I, I, I, I don't know. I certainly have mixed feelings on event. I don't think it's really quite captivated me just yet. It's not really appointment viewing for me as much as I really wanted to be. So yeah. I mean, the one thing I have noticed, you know, if you go back to that first mixed event, just the participation on the men's side specifically, some bigger names I'll say. I think the star quality, if you will, is waning just a bit. That would be. one knit to pick and then just listen it's it's not specific of this event i just don't watch kind of exhibition silly season golf so that's more of a me thing i i have talked to some people that did watch and really enjoyed it um and so i i think it's fine uh you know it it kind of is what it is not hurting anybody yeah it's not hurting anybody that's a good way to put it jp i i think

that's where i knit out i agree with you all I think my, what's glaring now in this most recent iteration is the lack of investment on the PJ tour side compared to the overall investment on the LPGA tour side. In terms of star power, I think it's very clear that the LPGA tour, Grand Thornton pushes a lot more money to their higher ranked players. So I understand Grant Thornton ambassadors are going to be there. But, you know, on the flip side of that, I was excited that you had young stars from the PJs. tour that were coming out and wanted to play. And then, you know, some elder stakes men there. It seems like Billy

will look for opportunities, Wyndham, the same thing. But yeah, Shipley, Planton, Danny McCartney, you know, Gautera, Novak, guys who who I guess it's good exposure for other fans.

It's just weird. I don't really know what to do with it. I don't think it's a bad thing like you said, Jordan. It's not really hurting anything. But if you kind of want it to be kind of have the gravitas of what a Jason Day Lillico grouping is, that needs to be like the standard. And you would expect to have Scotty, Jordan, you name anybody else there that

wants to play. And I will say if, you know, I was thinking of this, like, why are there not more stars there outside of time? People aren't getting paid. So I went to the actual Grant Thornton Invitational website and looked at their corporate partners. And there's so many corporate partners here where I was like, well, why aren't these players just absolutely like getting pegged? Give them the appearance fee up front and then let them go play for whatever purse. But let me count here.

There's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, ten, twenty, thirty. There's 35 corporate sponsors for this event. And big name, big name people. Franklin Templeton, Ritz Carlton, Tito's vodka, Cadillac, Cutwater, Dow, Waste Management, you name it. The list goes on and on. Where'd the money go? What's happening? So I don't know.

They get paid, though, right? Like, based on finish? For sure, they get paid. I think Elsie and Andrew got a million bucks each. And then it's a pretty steep fall off to Cupsow, got her up, got paid out, $380,000 each. which everybody did who finished T2 which there was a pretty big group of them

but you know to a lot of the Florida people it's a it's a local thing they don't really have to travel that far I understand it's down to Tiburon again but LPGA loves going down and playing that course so who knows what the future is well

Lydia Coe and Jason Day did play they just finished tied for DFL which a tough tough finish there it was good i was excited to see just quarterback i don't know how often we're going to see her back next year she hasn't really said if she's going to play a full-time schedule yet she's still very much on maternity leave on the lpGA tour but awesome to see her back out there yeah well um yeah we'll we'll see where that event goes let's dive into the crux of the show like i said this first

block i want to talk about the biggest stories from 2025 when we talk about the LPGA season and I jot it down 10. I can kind of lay them out. I don't know if we need to like rank them 10 to 1, but I am curious as a group where we would land with like a top, you know, top three, certainly what we think is the biggest story. So let me just mention them and then I can get into them.

So in no particular order, these were my idea of the 10 biggest storylines coming out of 2025, at least where we sit right now. Deli Cordigo's Winless, had that on the board as a story. I had the emergence of Japanese stars as a story. I had parody across the LPGA as a story. I had Lottie Wode's historic start to her career as a potential top story. I had our new commissioner, Craig Kessler, was officially hired in May of 2025. I had that as a potential story.

Gino Titicun, winning player of the year on the strength of back-to-back CME Tour Championships. I had that. I have the fall of Lili of Voo as a potential top story. I have Australia's low-key big year as a top story. A dearth of wins by Americans. And then the final one, I had the international. international makeup of the Rolex top 10. So, guys, you tell me, what, Jordan, what catches your fancy there as I list those 10

stories? Where does your mind kind of first go to? I would say, I think we should start off strong here with Craig in and Molly Out. It's interesting. I mean, it feels like in only just a few months of being the LPGA commissioner, it feels like Craig Kessler has done much more than Molly ever did in her few years at the top. I'm just, I'm really impressed by everything he's done so far in the way that he has truly leaned in and is so tapped into the players, has played with them, spoken with them extensively

all across the board and really values these stakeholders. And you got to think, too, I mean, it's a difficult job. You have various constituents who have things that they want, who've experienced a tour at different times throughout their careers. And there's a lot of interests that he really has to accommodate. But I think everyone wants it to grow in some way. And he has big ideas and a big vision. But I really like that he has also asked for the cooperation of the players,

which I think is so key and probably takes a lot of weight off him, honestly. But I think, you know, between. The broadcast changes, no more tape delays. I'm so excited. The Vegas event transforming into the co-sanctioned LET event at Shadow Creek and is now the highest non-major purse, which is crazy. And then Chevron leaving Carlton Woods. I mean, all of that in just a matter of few months is so transformative.

And maybe it doesn't move the needle on like a national sports scale. But if you really love and you embrace the LPGA and you watch the LPGA, these were just, these were massive changes just in a short span of time. And I'm really encouraged by the work that he's done. And I feel like there's nowhere to go but up for this guy. And I'm truly excited. I think to me that was the most that that was the most important story all year. It's hard to argue with that, honestly. I think it's certainly, if not the biggest story.

this year hopefully will be one of the bigger stories as we go forward and and just so people we talked about a little bit but in case you missed some prior episodes uh just before the tour championship the lpj announced uh in partnership with their partners fm golf channel and track man they announced the following initiative starting next year as jordan said all rounds are going to be aired live for the first time ever so there's going to be no taped alive for the first time ever so there's going to be no tape delay rounds that you're right jp that always bugged the shit out of me right when when the LPGA would get bumped from you know a normal slot and they'd throw it on late at night so that's going to be a thing of the past in addition uh they've announced a 50% increase in cameras

which is going to make for expanded coverage of just holes on the course and golf shots around the course. I think this is absolutely, absolutely needed, something we've been banging the drum for, you know, so very excited about that. They're going to have more slow motion cameras, and they say triple the amount of microphones to, again, capture the details of the tournament, the sounds, the slow motion cameras are going to be used to analyze swings, et cetera, et cetera. I think that's a good thing. They're going to use more drone coverage to highlight the venues and the holes. I think that's a good thing. This one's a little broad. I'll be curious what actually comes of this, but one of their bullet points is enhanced storytelling and broadcast walk-in

talks. I think that will be interesting what comes of that, any new features, etc. And then quadruple the trackman shot tracing technology. So again, I think it's just very important. The LPGA broadcasts, I think, are going to start to look, the hope is they're going to begin to feel like any normal week-to-week PGA tour broadcast. And I think that's a great thing for not only the women, but the people putting on these tournaments and us, the fans who want to watch these tournaments. I'm very excited. Cody, I think you're bullish on Craig Kessler's tenure as well. Anything to kind of add here? It seems like not to maybe set you up if you want to go this route too it seems like too he's got some

people around him uh since he's come into the position that are are really taking a look at some strategic aspects of the tour and i would anticipate we did not see any real changes in the structure of the 2026 schedule but i'd be surprised if we didn't see big changes as we get to 2007. Absolutely. Not just people inside the organization that he hired on, but also people on the board, kind of a new, new format, new version of the LPGA board, new advisors that are helping him along, as well as helping the board along as they continue to make changes. Then you're right, I think 2027 is probably going to see when we get our first look at what a revamped LPGA schedule could be, if that's bringing it more global, but more

consistent if that makes any sense like i i think we're getting to the point we're going to lose one of the asian swings just because you don't really need uh both of them and you can figure out what the balance overall is but you're right i'm very high on craig he came in with his four pillars or goals and the the broadcast i think speaks directly to what his second point was and that's overall visibility for the tour and the brand itself. And he was absolutely fighting for airtime on Golf Channel, occasionally NBC, CBS when they buy it, the same thing with ESPN Plus. But this has changed it.

And I'm very excited for what comes. I mean, more cameras, more microphones. Great. More walk and talks, more storytelling. Sounds incredible. I can't wait to see what that actually pans out to be, though. And, you know, we're going to have to wait. Now, luckily for the LPGA tour, we're going to get a first look of it in January,

but not really until March till it heats up again. But I think it's an incredible start. And I think he's making big swings and bringing people who want to invest the money into the best women athletes in the game. And, you know, he's holding them. People have said for a long time, hey, I'm interested in the LPGA tour. and they would never get a call back. Well, Craig's going down the Rolodex now

and is calling people back and said, hey, you said, if I ever needed help, that you would help me. Now it's time to do it. And you see companies, you know, FM, Trackman, and a ton of others actually showing up. Now, the Vegas event, I think there's a lot more to be talked about there.

And I think there's a long way that the LPGA tour could go with co-s sanctioned events. You know, we have the Irish Open that's a co-sanctioned event. We have now the Aramco, Vegas, whatever it's going to be as a co-sanctioned event. I don't understand why they haven't looked and said, well, wait a second here. Like the Australian Open should be a co-sanction event, being that it's back in its March timeframe there. And trying to make it so both tours are working together to where you see, you know, the incredible athletes that play on both sides of it giving some LET players a chance to come over because that's

where, you know, that's where Maya came from. That's where Lynn came from. They had to make their points via LET to jump over and I don't know. I'm just very excited about it. Yeah, I think in my ideal world, the January tournament of champions event would kind of just go away. And if we could, you know, start the year down in the sand belt, somewhere in Australia, right, in January, and then roll that, I'd be fine rolling that into a broader Asian swing, right, February, March. You know, you have the event in Singapore, which is very well regarded, and then come back stateside sometime April-ish, you know, and I think the schedule will make a lot more sense. I almost think they could be set up to do an inverse West Coast swing, which I, I,

I don't know if they will actually do, but I think it would be fun to almost end the event, end the season out west, which goes against their Pelican, the Onica in the Tampa area, and then the Naples Tour Championship. So I think that's wishful thinking on my part, but I will be curious what Craig and the other powers that be,

once they can kind of get their hands on and start to mold the schedule, how it will look in 2027. So, JP, good pick there. I think definitely the new commissioner and the new initiatives that we know about so far, certainly one of the bigger stories coming out of 2025. Cody, could I have you pick a story here that you think is among the top stories? Yeah, I think we'll go to the very top, right?

Nellie, probably not the year that we thought was going to happen. Spoiler, definitely not the year the three of us thought was she was going to have, as we'll get to in our prediction. but yeah I mean I don't know big it's just a lot of golf not a lot of like great golf pretty consistent though still just never really had a week where it was her week it was weird I don't really know how else to say because it's not like if you look at the stats and everything it's not like she really played that poorly just didn't line up she didn't win and that's both shocking and disappointing and maybe that's just golf you know i i i totally agree with you though like

especially when you take into account one of our other you know big stories the parody that was happening on the lpGA tour right the amount of different winners we had for nelly courta to not be in that mix is it yeah it's it's shocking her to so she won the whole season now uh 2025 she does not win obviously it's coming off the heels of 24 where she won seven times. To Cody's point, she did finish top three, seven times this year. Nellie did. And I think she was like second and strokes gained for the year. So she played good golf, very good golf even. And she was in the mix a lot and just couldn't get over the hump. But I definitely think that's one of the big stories of 2025. I think that's a good poll.

did either one of you feel like all of this like nelly hysteria over her not winning started feeling like an existential crisis at some point yeah it kind of does to me i think more so at the majors right i i feel like uh as we got later into the year maybe the the women's open which is the last major yeah there's something about just like man what's you know i i feel like we there is the tendency to kind of tie nellie's on course results to maybe trying to have that speak to her broader, I don't know, just well-being or outlook. Is that kind of what you were thinking, JP? I kind of meant more on like an LPGA level scale because it feels like, to me at least, that the sentiment was, were cooked until Craig Kessler came in the picture. But that's personally

how I was feeling. Or I observed rather, I wasn't really feeling that. Yeah. Well, I think. from our American standpoint, we certainly have a bias for American players. And she was the one that's like, hey, Nelly, face of the LPGA, historic 2024. Like, let's build on this. We got a great thing going. And for that to revert to no wins and to kind of give away that momentum, I certainly agree with you there, JP. Like I'll just, let's let's just talk about the parity because I do think that was one of the bigger issues. I'll throw that one out. I mean, just to put some facts to it. So I think it was the first, what, 24, 25 events. Anyway, from the season

beginning in January until into October when Gino Titicum finally became the first woman to win twice, we had a new winner every week of the tour. And I think it's kind of a novelty for a while. And then as it goes and goes and through all the majors, and it's like, I don't think this is actually a good thing meyu yamashita ended up winning a second event on the on the Asian swing late in the fall so gino and meo were the only two women to win multiple times this year there were 11 first time winners on the lb pga tour this season four of your five major champions it was the first major they had won in their careers like it's it's don't get me wrong it's great for the women individually I just think if we're going to attract

wider audiences and I think I think there has to be a center of gravity in women's golf a kind of standard set or a standard bear and then it's fun to watch everybody else try to chase that great player and so JP kind of getting back to what you said I think we were thinking Nellie would be that that kind of standard bear and let's try to watch all these young stars catch and compete with Nellie and we just didn't get that and I think that's yeah I I don't think that's great for the LPGA tour to have this much parody. It's not great. I also think it exposes one of the big things that we're kind of flirting around here.

And the reason why JP got that feeling when, you know, Nellie wasn't performing or winning, I would say, and everybody felt like there was crisis at hand is frankly because nobody else is invested in anybody other, you know, no other stories. and you know parody at the same time could expose the breadth and depth of how great this talent is and how incredible that streak was and instead it became more like well shoot like there's no one here to really root for there's no depth and you don't really have a rooting favorite because it's such a roll of a dice and you know we this deserves a lot

more discussion around it because i think we could go deep into how the lpj tour sets up the courses that they that they're hosting these events at to actually make their best players shine to create separation uh between these like the fact that we have the data that we have now and we're going to get more of it that should make it very evident to them because they set it up for this to happen this is their doing And I don't know if there's a full realization of that yet. That's a great point. And something that candidly, I don't know the answer to, Cody.

Like I would love to talk to somebody that could get us a definitive answer to that question around course setups and how they think that plays into what we saw this year. And if they are setting up courses to maximize the top end talent on tour. But it's all, yeah, points. very well taken. I think it all feeds into that for sure. All right, why don't we go around? I'll be curious, you know, we don't have to, again, don't have to go through all 10, but JP, what would be another pick of yours as far as top of mind story? The full emergence of the Jaffity stars, you know, we saw this coming for years and it feels like they have truly definitively stamped the LPGA and they're here and they're not going away. Japan won two out of the five majors. They won nine events,

more than the Americans, which I think we'll probably get into a little bit later. But, you know, as we enter kind of this new era and we're seeing so much dominance over there, you know, I think Craig Castler alluded to this last month in his press conference that there's a potential for an Asian major. And I would just love to see more interest served on that. side because it's very clear that the development of golfers in Japan is very much starting to outpace what's going on stateside. And I don't want to speak maybe all for all of the Western world because I don't know if that's necessarily true. But they they've just truly taken over. That's huge. And I kind of wonder something I was wrestling in my mind that I don't quite know

if I have the answer to, you know, if the roles were reversed, I mean, would we think Western players would fare the same in Japan? And I've wrestled with that question a lot. I'm not quite sure. And so thinking about that and trying to like, you know, tangle myself up of that mental exercise just makes me think like, I don't, I don't quite know, you know, but, you know, a rookie of the year is from Japan. Maybe Yamashta just was dominant. Her, AIG Women's Open win was incredible and beat some incredible players to get there. And, you know, the EYE twins, sorry, I don't know if I pronounced their name right, but had high hopes for them.

They were incredible coming out of the JLPGA and in Q series. And they were dominant this year as well. So I very encouraged. I think that was a big word salad about how exciting the talent is over from Japan. But I think the tour has a duty to kind of. support this and truly let them shine and I guess in other words let them cook I don't think there's any way Americans would be as successful in the JLPGA as we see Japanese players having success on the LPGA I just think the cultural barriers would be a lot it'd be fascinating though

to your point and I totally agree the the emergence of kind of Japan as a as a golfing force on the women's side is definitely a big takeaway of 2025. You mentioned that the two major victories, they had five first-time winners on the LPGA this year. They have seven women currently ranked in the top 30 of the Rolex rankings as of recording. Yeah, they are here and they are a force to be reckoned with, I think, for the foreseeable future. Absolutely. No mention of Rio, Nasa, obviously the rounding out the top 20 names that are in that pool.

Thank you, Cody. There is another country that also had two major championships this year. That's Australia. And that's coming from a lot smaller pool of players. Now, Japan is bringing, you know, just rolling in numbers. Australia's a much smaller sample size, but throw still packing a harder punch. So, yes, I agree. I don't know if you elevate the HSBC or what.

That's always been known as Asia's major anyway. Maybe there's some more funding that goes in there or actual recognition of it being some form of major championship. But I agree. I just think that as we look at access to courses and money and everything, like we have to embrace the global nature of the LPGA tour. This is exactly what the men are fighting for. They're trying to expand their reach and everything.

And it is a gift to the LPGA tour that for some reason is not really captured, I think, the way that a lot of people expect them to be able to do it. And I know there's time zones and broadcast schedules and everything else that are issues before you even get to languages and things like that. But it is possible. And I think the LPGA tour is in a great spot to throw as many ideas as they possibly can at the wall to see what sticks. Yeah, you mentioned Australia.

They won two majors. That was kind of why the low-key had a nice year for Australia. And you throw on top of that, they won the International Crown, the team event on the calendar this year. It was a good year for Australia. Now, they're not as deep, right? It's Minji, it's Hannah Green, it's Grace Kim, Steph Kariaku, I think is ranked 40th in the Rolex rankings, and then it's a pretty big drop off to the rest of Australia.

Women's Golf. I think we all thought Gabby Ruffles would kind of be a top 50 player, but she had a disappointing season this year. Yeah, if Australia, man, if they could produce a few more young, talented players, they, that's, they're they, they, they, they saw success in 2025 for sure. Cody, I think what kind of plays in and Jordan as well to all of this was, you know, we're three Americans. We obviously have whatever biases we have. right naturally or you know i i think we try to keep an open mind but i do think it's a bit of a problem uh this shocked me and i don't even think i realized this until prepping for our episode today um let me just ask you guys how how many different american women won l pj

events in 2025 do you guys know off the top of your head four I'm counting official? Yeah, official, I guess. So I'm not counting L.C. at the Grand Thornton. I believe four. It was only three. Well, it started out hot. I mean, Yulimi and in February.

Right. They went back to back. Yalimi and Angel won on the first Asian swing. So from March through the end of the year, March through November, only Jennifer Cupchow. She won the shop right in June. She was the only American player to win a tournament on the LPGA this season. And I just think that's a little bit of at least stateside, right? That just doesn't help promote a ton of interest, maybe.

It's just a higher barrier. And I think that plays into, we talked about Nellie in the disappointing season. And she had, and I think it just leads us here to Lily Avous and just quickly kind of putting some facts to the awful 2025 she experienced, you know, she came into the year ranked fifth in the world. She had just finished tied for second at the, at St. Andrews, at the AIG Women's Open in 2024. Guys, she made three cuts in full field events in 2025 and her best finish. runner-up at the Ford Championship. That was early in the year. She missed four out of the five cuts in the majors.

The one that she did make, the Chevron, she finished DFL at 78th. She had more rounds on the year at 77 or worse than rounds in the 60s. And I think this is the big worry. She's 28 years old, which, again, like in women's golf terms, it's certainly a lot different than the age on the men's side. but more so she's trying to fight back through a pretty severe back injury and I just I don't know I'm worried I think we're at a real crossroads with with lily voo and and it's just a shame like I don't know what else to say about except like it sucks and I think it's a shame for everybody

involved it's such a weird thing because she's been pretty vocal about I'm not going to play if I'm still hurt and I'm I'm fine. That's why I'm playing. But then the performance is so far gone that you're like, well, there has to be something there. Right. Yeah. Like what is it then?

I mean, it feels like after she lost a playoff at the Ford, he just completely disappeared. Yeah. Like I barely thought about her. Like to the point where, you know, I'm not saying this is the case. But, you know, if you were to tell me, hey, in two, three years, is Lily Voo is going to be out of golf. Like, I think that's in the realm of possibility now.

Just based on her play, right? Like, something's got to change. She can't stack seasons like she had in 2025. Like, that's, she's not going to do that for a while. Nobody can sustain that. I would have called that alarmist last year if you were saying that. But now I am completely on board with that. Yeah.

I think the last big thing. So apologies to Lottie Wode. I'm not sure her. It was a historic start to her professional career. I don't think that's going to maybe make our cut. I think the other big story is just, and she salvaged it late, is Gino Titicum. And, you know, she wins player of the year this year.

She wins the Vair trophy. She goes back to back winning the CME Tour Championship. She's 22 years old. You know, she makes 18 and 19 cuts. She 14 top 10s, three wins. She also won the Saudi Ladies International on L.A.T. early in the year, you know, the one kind of knock on her continues to be she doesn't have a major. And her results specifically at the U.S. Open and the Open Championship aren't like great, great. But I think Gino just being number one in the world, having such a high floor.

And again, like, I felt this way last year. You know, I was like, gosh, I think she set herself up for a monster 2025. I think the same way where it's like there's a monster 2026 out there also for Gino. It's just going to be whether she really wins enough or if it's just more top tens. And, you know, she just has herself in contention a lot. But I think Gino and the performance she put together all year is, is, would kind of be the last storyline that I would put forth as, as belonging among the top stories.

So that's, uh, hold on, big. What? If you disagree, tell me. No disagreement on my end. Agree with you. You know, she, she should have won the Evian. Yes. Choked.

Chokes it away. the C word really for sure I mean grace I mean great if grace doesn't hit the miraculous shots but she should have never been in that situation in the first place that's fair

but guys if she won honestly I think we'd be having an entirely different conversation because we'd just be like she won the Evian like is she really a killer that would be the conversation I mean George come on that too yes but I think I think we've learned a lot

from the Evian in the last two years. You know, the Evian. We're all super high on the Evian now. Evian kind of, kind of balls. Yeah, kind of. You know, because it sets itself up for this, this crazy finishes. That you have this, where we know Gino just couldn't pull it together

and Grays came storming out of nowhere. It was just wild. Yeah. I think the other thing is that I don't know how Gino needs to get really, really comfortable continuing to answer the questions about majors. And she still, I think, is in the mode

where she's like, can brush it off and think that that's going to make it go away. It's not going to go away. It's just like, it's just mounting now. And I think that it doesn't matter how many wins that you have. And she did win a lot more than you think just because of some LAT wins and things like that.

I think that, like, she has such a vacancy in her overall schedule, in her resume, that I am like, I'm sitting here trying to talk my way through this without sounding like Sully because I think that he turns into like the Gino Hater. But like, that's kind of where I'm at now, is how many times can we give somebody an award just for like, you know, doing one better than everyone else on a tour? she set the all single season scoring record no one does that easily

on these easy ass LPGA setups that's the problem I think we have to practice maybe a tad bit more patience here she's still doing some generational stuff she is I think that's what makes her fast name she's so good

that's right we're yes Jordan we agree with you I think she's all of this right I think she's generation I think she's amazing. I think she's one of the best talents we've seen in women's golf in years and years. And also, Cody, to your point, she has a gaping hole on her resume thus far. And 22 years old, listen, that's young, but we've seen other young superstars on the LPGA tour. You know, it's not that young where we shouldn't just brush aside her major performances.

So I think that's what makes her so fascinating. is it's like it's really a roar sart roar shark test of like i think you can look at gino and you can see whatever you want to see um and i to me that makes her very interesting i agree with you big i think she's way more interesting without a major than she will be with one i'm not here to fade gino though i'm not here to fade her take i think so yeah it's like just one major i agree with you she needs like a lot of majors to flip that paradigm. I mean, is Charlie more interesting without one

than she is now? Are you? Low key, I think maybe. Yeah. Really? Well, just like all the near misses always, you know, kind of always the bride's main, never the bride. I do think there's some because we're still thinking about it. We don't have an answer

for us. It, none of it adds up. True. No, okay. I hear you guys there. I think, you know, when we talk about Gino results, lack of results, the age immediately gets thrown out there. We just spent a good portion of this podcast already talking about Japan. And then we talked about like the lack of winners on the U.S. side and like we're all the U.S. players because they're in college. And like there's there's competing paths here that are working on the global women's stage when it comes to golf is that we have. in Mew and the rest of these absolute stars coming from Japan who have played very, very, very high-level amateur golf into their late teens and then turn professional and start playing JLPGA at their multiple layer system of that tour.

And then when it's time to come over, they usually first get exposed due to world rankings into majors and then they get their cart or they come through Q-Series. the U.S. and really even European-based players now, that's no longer how it's set up. So Lottie is like our young star, right? Lottie's 22. Right. Yeah. You know?

And if we look at overall, like, is our career timeline shifting because of that? Are people staying on the LPGA tour longer because they're getting to the tour longer, even, you know, longer than they were years past? And it's just very interesting to see what the actual trajectory of it's going to be. And the money is getting better, which I think would compel people to want to stick around longer, right? Like the big thing is always, you know, what are these women, the pressures or the timeliness of starting a family, right?

That's always the big consideration. And I think maybe, this is where it's like, Jordan, please check me on all. of this. But it feels like, I don't know, if the purses are going up and certainly the big events and the CME at the end of the year, like, I feel like women are going to want to maybe stick around and try to extend their careers a little bit because they can make more money. Well, there's two sides of that too, right? Stick around because they can make more money, but also more money means that and the way that the tour and everything else is advanced is that there's more opportunity for on-site child care

and for people to help support you on the road and you can have way more moms that are out there traveling and it's not like an immediate career ender. And just as a societal shift, we're having kids later. Yeah. Yeah. You know,

there's an absolute like superstar right now that nobody's, I don't know why they haven't realized it, but she's pregnant. Nobody's like has broken this. And I'm not going to say who it is. Way for that to actual. wait for that to actually happen. But like, I don't think her career is over.

Yeah. You know, I think she's going to come back stronger and better. And it's like a new lease on life, which I am very, very excited about. But I don't know. It's just very interesting because we saw this recently in the most reason, like Q series that's going on, you know, that just wrapped up. And some of the girls who, like very young players who decided to. just turned professional because they made it into final stage and say, yeah, I was committed to Stanford or Auburn or whatever else,

but no, I'm going to go get this now. There's just more autonomy available now, especially now, yes, on the collegiate side where you can finish out a college career and there might be an LPGA card waiting on the other side, or you might get ups and tors status and you don't have to go through Q school at all. And that's also an important piece of this too, because for so long, women had to decide, am I going to finish my college career?

Do I finish this while trying to make it playing professionally? No, I can stick around here. I can get an education and then I can try and focus completely on my professional call of career if that's what they want. And that's also a massive piece of this new autonomy. I agree. And I'm happy that the LBJ tour is making changes

to provide access based off of, of stellar performance in collegiate, you know, in college golf. But I also think if we looked at, we could play the last eight to ten years of college, the best college golfers and see what their professional records turned out to be where they're at now. I love this game. And it is a very, very, very small group of women who have been successful on the professional stage.

And I think every single one of them invested a ton into, college golf and they wanted the team dynamic and get a degree and everything, but I think that burnt them out and set them up probably for not the amount of success that they kind of probably expected. Yeah. And to Jordan's point, you know, it seems like the college route is not near the, you know, it's not setting up American women for success like the JLPGA. or even the Korean LPGA seems to be setting up the best of the best over there to come on to the LPGA and experience real success. But I think this is something we definitely have to keep an eye on over the coming years

because I do think there's absolutely something there. All right. Well, I love that discussion, guys. Thank you. I think those are certainly the big stories from this golf season. Let's move into some superlatives for the 2025 season. So my first category I asked everybody to come with their favorite moment of the year. We're going to start it on a high note.

Cody, can I put you on the spot? What was your favorite moment from the 2025 season? So many to choose from. I'm going pretty early in the year. I'm not going to run down the list that I have. I don't want to pull a T.C. here. But it's got to be the five-way playoff for this Chevron, right? I mean, and just kind of the chaos that ensued from there.

It was truly like, what is happening here? Mental. Can we just talk about it a little bit? Like, just to refresh folks, it really started with Area Jutanagan and just the flub chip on the 72nd hole in regulation at the Chevron. All she needs is a par to win it in regulation. She flubs her third. she chips her fourth past the hole misses the par putt makes bogey

and Cody to your point that opens up the five person playoff at the Chevron and then the playoff was wild playoff was very wild you had aria there Lindy Duncan our close personal friend now Randy

Hoiju Kim and Ronnie Yin and then Mao Sego who ended up you know the only person to make Bertie on the very getable par five there as they all just tried to launch it into the grand stance and get a good bounce off of it. It was, it was, it was wild. I mean, Ronnie put herself in the best position and then

three putted. But Mal came out. She's the only person that made the putt, so good honor. Ronnie had, I don't know, generously 10 feet could not have been more than 10 feet for Eagle and three putted. Yeah. Oh, God. That was tough. stuff. Yeah, that was all just psychotic. That's, that's a great one, Cody. Jordan, what was your moment of the year? Oh, so glad Cody didn't take it because I'm claiming dibs on Grace Kim going Eagle, Birdie Eagle. This was mine. Oh, so sorry. No, no, no, no. I mean, it's great. Yeah, I figured somebody was going to have this one too. Your gracious host and letting us both of us go first. But yeah, the eagle birdie eagle sequence to force gino into the playoff chipping in on the first

playoff hole and then winning on the second that was exhilarating and grace is an interesting case because we saw her flashing at kpmg and then she got it done at the evion and i she's just been a fun player to watch over the past few years and i don't know i i know i said we would probably have a different discussion about the Evian, etc. and all our feelings about the Evian. But like you said, Cody, the Evian is changing. The Evian is putting a really nice spotlight

on players that are legit AF. The Evian might be the people most disappointed that the Chevron is moving from the Woodlands. I think that was the best thing that Evian had going for it.

Yeah, that was my moment of the year too, Jordan. Just an insane insane stretch there and I just think that Grace Kim chip you know oh to to what am I trying to say to stay alive in a playoff at a major like that is that is one of the most unbelievable shots given the circumstances in all of my golf viewing life you know like that's right up there with like Larry Mai's chippie you know any any huge shot from any big tournament, Grace Kim's chip deserves to be alongside of it. Just crazy. Big, I had a couple other honorable mentions now. Oh, please cleared off of it. Okay, I think these are all pretty close to

our hearts and NLU as a whole, but Madeline and L.C. battle in Vegas, straight matchplay, mono and mono. Like, oh my goodness, like what, we couldn't have, we could have never dreamed that that would have ever happened. You know, our kids are fighting. Exactly. and then like just the catty dynamic and like hearing the the mics were hot and hearing like everything that Shane was saying and I was like oh my goodness I'm rooting for Madeline Elsie don't like I oh it just I didn't know what I wanted the result to be I just wanted it to be over um Maya you know coming from Maya had a horrible year I don't know how she won a major championship. I don't know how she won at Aaron Hills, but like her and, you know, the

caddy going back and forth and how high they were and then like two weeks later it fires him. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Jeff. Yeah, it's not funny. Yeah, I'm sorry. That was my winning, obviously, up there. And then I'm going to get to our second one. The next category that you said you wanted us to introduce the least favorite moment of the year. Yeah, we were so far ahead of this. So this is one of my favorite and also my least favorite. We're so far ahead of this that who in the right mind thought that it would be a good idea to host a major championship in North Texas at the end of June. It was my favorite because we were so far ahead of it than anyone else. It was my least favorite because I was on site. That's the KPMG Women's Open.

Congratulations to Min G. But what an absolutely miserable. week. I took my girls out there with me for two days. I had them on property. And we could not be outside for more than like an hour before they're like, Daddy, can we just please get more ice cream or something? It's just so hot.

It was bad. Oh, God. Yeah. The conditions, the scoring was so hard that I was like, oh, this could be sick. But even by the end, I was like, no, this is just a horrible setting for a major. Like, this does not feel like a major. does not look like a major.

Good call there. Jordan, I'm going to go next just because literally I had for my least favorite moment, this is going to contradict Codies. I had the mess at Chevron on the 18th in the playoff as I like I do like how just messy it was, right? I feel like I'm contradicting my own self here a little bit. But specifically Ronnie missing that eagle putt on the first playoff hole. because I was so jacked for her to win another major I you know that three wood she hit in was so good um blow the put like seven feet past miss the car I was like oh my god what a deflating finish that was

to the tournament so I'll quickly kind of add that the Chevron was my least favorite jp what was your least favorite moment of the year I this is one's kind of simple but I'm still mourning the lost of a regular season match play event, even though I am excited for the co-sanctioned LAT event in Vegas, I still can't help but wish there was some way to incorporate a regular season match play event. And I hope there will be at some point. Yeah. Yeah. Honorable mention, I wrote this one down. They don't call me a retired golfer almost winning the Dow with their partner I was like first of all I probably shouldn't have been watching that tournament no offense to the great people at the Dow but just you know not an event that jumps off the calendar at me

and then when it was started to get close towards the end and then they went to a playoff I was like oh man like what what is going on and those points are carrying her so far she Lexi's more likely going to make the Solheim Cup on points she doesn't need that many you know additional high finishes. That's how much the Dow, even though it's like worth a little bit less, is carrying her on. Yeah. Well, and like, it's just not a great year for American women either. You know, she's, yeah, to your point, she's, oh. All right. Moving on. Next category. I have favorite first time winner. I'm curious because like I said, they were 11 this year. I'm wondering if we all maybe pick the same one.

I don't think we did. Maybe I'll start. I'll start. I haven't started a category yet. I chose Miyu Yamashita. She won for the first time at the AIG Women's Open. I honestly, Cody and I, we talked about it a lot on our shows that week. But just to kind of refresh people's memory, you know, she and.

Rio? I get confused if it was Rio or Mao. I think it was her and Rio kind of separated themselves through two rounds at Porthcall. And then in round three, with conditions, it started to really get close again. It was a fabulous tournament. But on her 17th hole in that third round, Miu made just a long, like 40-foot par saver, which Cody and I both flagged as like, man, if she wins that tournament, we have to remember. remember this put that she just made. You know, the flagstick was in it, like, banged off the flag stick, went in the hole. That was just a monster putt. And then her down the stretch on Sunday, she had a couple more just unbelievable par saves. She did, I thought it was just a gutsy, gutsy performance. And really my first experience with her getting to watch her in a pressure-packed situation like that. Like, I just came away from that week so, so impressed with Mew.

I love the duel with Charlie Hall there. You know, she stared her down in Charlie's backyard. So Mew is my pick for favorite first time winner on the strength of that AIG performance. And that's where I'm like, gosh, are we all going to pick that? But curious where you guys went. Cody, what did you have for this one? That's hard. I think we're so invested in that week big that it's difficult for us to look past it.

I'm usually biased, of course, of course. I also think that she's such a good ball striker and just puts the lights out of it. And she's super swaggy, man. I've never seen New Balance look as good as it does on Miu. Her kit that she has, it's awesome. She always has such a big smile. And then as soon as she like goes to tee her ball up and get ready to play that hole, she's so locked in that you're like, whoa, she meets business.

You know, it makes sense. All of her success she had in Japan. Pan, early call on her for rookie of the year. Of course that was going to happen. She's going to have just an incredible career. And I think the fact that we got to see her like up close and personal and like her dealing with the nerves with everybody on that property, literally trying to pull Charlie along was just so, so cool to see.

What do you got, JP? This is an easy answer for me. It's Lottie, which maybe feels a little bit predictable. but I think Lottie bouncing back after a kind of a disappointing, I don't think it was an overall disappointing performance whatsoever, but a disappointing Saturday, a final round at Anwa was tremendous. And I think when she won the Irish Open, people were kind of like, yeah, okay, yeah, go Lottie. And then when she won the Scottish people were like, oh, she won by three shots, this girl can play.

And then kind of parlayed that into a good. finish at the AIG. And yeah, I, I was, I had a lot of Lottie stock all year. I've made that very abundantly clear. And I think, I think she's kind of adjusted pretty well in the LPGA. I think, you know, it's still been a little bit of a challenge. I think there was an expectation for her to kind of went out similar to how there were those expectations of Rose a few years ago. but I'd say she's probably adjusted just as well as anybody, truthfully, probably even better. The Irish win was probably not what she expected and then being as tired as she was and living, like coming off that high to her first major as a, you know, true, well, actually,

did she play the U.S. Women's Open as a professional or as an amateur still? That would have been an amateur, yeah, her first. Right. Yeah. So she shows up to the Emmy on as a. as a Evian was still an amateur and like. And almost won. Yeah. And I think that's where it was like, holy cow, like this is, this is it.

You know, she's trying to chase down points to, to lock up her car and everything. And you're like, you don't need to do it anymore. Like, you're, you're set. And you hit the nail on the head on the Scottish. She was so tired that week at the AIG. You know, we got to spend some time around turning it. You're just like, man, I wish. I wish we could give her something to like freshen her step up a little bit.

And it was like everything was just so much media attention and coming right at her. It was just like, oh, my goodness, like Lottie's either going to beat everybody here by 10 or she's going to miss the cut. And finishing top 10 there is like it truly incredible because the spotlight was on her so much. I mean, more than really Charlie because Charlie hadn't really been playing that well up to that point. Yeah. And that kind of goes with what I just wanted to say about Lottie is what I love most about Lottie is on the course. I love how she wears her emotions outwardly on her sleeve. I love, you know, she is one of the few women that like really like when things aren't going that well for her. Like she's pissed, you know? Like I like that. Show me, show me that you're pissed. Show me it matters a lot to you, right? I think she's got a. ton of compete, and I think it means a lot to her, and I think she's a ton of fun to watch. So, JP, I'm glad you pick Lottie. That's very deserving there.

On the flip side, a little bit on the flip side, most disappointing season, JP, we'll start with you. Who did you have for most disappointing season? We talked about this a little bit before we hit record, but I'm just tied between Lillia and Nelly. And I think kind of going back to our predictions for the year, we kind of kind of forecast Lully of falling outside the top 10, but we didn't really predict just how steep her decline would be.

But Nellie is the bigger surprise more than anything. I think it's, you know, for how well she did play, I mean, statistically she's kind of right up there with Gino, to be honest with you. For how well she did play, it's a bit of a head scratcher that there wasn't a win that came out of any of them. but yeah just remains a head scratcher but and just just disappointing guys just truly disappointing yeah no that's fair i totally agree with you uh cody who did you have for most disappointing season i echo everything that she said there's another american that i'll throw on there just

because you know she always seems to just be there and she finally broke through a couple years ago and got that win, but that's Megan Kang. Just kind of going through a little bit of a funk and somebody who you're definitely looking at for next year as we get ready for Solheim Cup that hopefully she finds form again and starts competing and consistently, you know, just stacking up those top 10 finishes.

Yeah. I had, obviously, Nellie, Lillia, very deserving for different reasons. I was thinking those two. But I sell it on somebody that I've mentioned on a few pods throughout the year, but has just totally lost her game. And that's Yucca Saso, the two-time U.S. Women's Open champion just has had a disastrous 2025.

She only made five cuts, no top tens. She did not have a round in the 60s since her first round at the Ford Championship in March. So she's gone months now without a round. a competitive round in the 60s, just seems completely, completely lost. I don't know if it's, I fear it might be like the driver yips,

which seems like the worst thing that could happen. But somebody to keep an eye on. She definitely has to write the ship. I hope she writes the ship. But yeah, Yucasso, hugely, hugely disappointing season to me. All right, we'll go, we can move quickly here if we want, but just curious, the next superlative, The best tournament non-major division.

And you could take this from like you love the leaderboard, you love the winner, you just love the atmosphere. Very curious what you guys have here. Cody, if you don't mind, I'll start with you. What was the best 2025 tournament non-major division? I get fired up for this event. I think they had a perfect, you could not say, a better champion this year, but that's the Canadian Women's Open.

the fact that Brooke continues to ball out when it seems like all the pressure in the world is on her shoulders that week. Part-time tournament hose, part-time, you know, the only thing really for LPGA tour in Canada going on and she still can go out and, you know, beats MNG by one the year that MNG's had. It's just incredible.

They do such a good job branding, everything about it. It's awesome. Yeah, that's a great pick. Very well-run tournament. One, I think, I know I would, we would love to just see someday in person. JP, what did you have, your favorite tournament non-major? I kind of want to go with the Mizzouho just because it felt like everything truly shifted at that point. It felt like Gino was just going to run away with the year completely and nothing was really going to stop her at that point.

that she really established a shift between her and Nellie and going back to kind of that existential crisis that I highlighted. I think that's around the time when I started to observe that. But I pointing it out specifically kind of for this year would say the Mizzouho. Good one. Cody, you kind of mentioned it. I had my runner up was the HSBC, the Singapore event in early in the year, kind of the quote-unquote Asia's major.

I think they just do a really good job marketing that event. It's a good field. The telecast was very, very good. But just because of the matchplay final being Madeline and Lauren Coughlin, like that was my favorite non-major this year. I think Shadow Creek is such an interesting course. I think it's a great matchplay course. Jordan, I'm like you.

It's a shame that matchplay seems to be going away. I wish it would come back for the Tour Championship. that's another discussion but my vote yeah madeline versus loren in the finals of the match play event that was as good as it gets for me honestly as good as it'll ever get for me well said our final superlative is uh let me just this one's kind of based on our our good friends at serve pro we'll make this the surf pro mulligan of the year okay if you could give one woman one shot to do over again i'm curious where we would go and quickly uh serve pro they're the number one brand and cleanup and restoration they're known for making any mess like it never even

happened with over 2,200 locations nationwide they're faster at any size disaster call 1-800 serve pro or visit surfpro dot com serve pro s e r v p r o serve pro today we hope you don't need them but when you do give them a call they're the best in the business j p i'll start with you what was your what was your serve pro mulligan of the year with what what uh due over are you granting or wanting to grant? I really want to apologize for having a little too much Ayaka food away stock. Not a bad year by any means. There was a pretty steady decline, but really just not the year that we were looking for from her.

Wait, are you giving a mulligan to yourself or to Ayaka? Well, I'm giving them a mulligan, both of us, essentially, you know, just was another. non-factor in the majors. I said, and we'll probably get into this, that she would win the U.S. Women's Open. Horrible pick on my part. I'm sorry, guys. I'd like to do that one over.

If I told you last year when we were recording, hey, five Japanese women are going to win on the LPGA tour, you know, what kind of odds could I have gotten that Ayaka would not be one of those? Right. I feel like JP would have lost a lot of money. Cody, what's your Mulligan this year? I think just being caught up completely right in the high of Nellie and expecting that that's just going to continue to turn over year after year

and not only that but like we're going to compound on it like what are we doing man like just slow your roll a little bit so I apologize for getting way over my skis on that it's really brave Cody another one where it's like man I'm you know I'm right there with you I don't think we were wrong like we yes we ended up being wrong, but I think the process was right. I don't feel bad about how we arrived there, Cody. I wouldn't beat yourself up too much. My mulligan, I took this more as like, you know, if I was Gino, I'd be like, Grace, you have to hit that chip shot again. Like, I literally I think Grace could have, I don't know what, at least 100 balls. She probably hits that again if she has 500

her balls. I'm curious how many more attempts it would take her to hit that little chip in for Bertie on the playoff hole at the Evian. That came to mind and then I know I mentioned it, but Ronnie's eagle put on the playoff at Chevron.

Like, we just you know it's a fast put, Ronnie. We just got to cozy that one up at worst. So those were my two individual mulligans that I wish I could grant to players. So selfless. using them giving them out to the player i know well because all right so i i was going to say speaking

of serve pro mulligans let's get into our predictions here to to kind of end the episode um it's well thank you to surf pro of course yeah of course of course surfpro com 180 serve pro guys uh our major winner predictions um let's just dive in here the chevron cody and jp Cody, you had Nellie, J.P., you had L.C., I had Gino. Of course, Mal Saga won it, so none of us got that. U.S. Women's Open. None of us had Maya. I had Yucasas. So that was terrible. Cody had Gino.

JP was on her Ayaka Food Away bandwagon there. The KPMG, though, I wanted to say, TC and I both had Minji Lee winning at the KPMG at the beginning of year. So, yeah, credit to us, blind squirrels, find a nut. Cody had Lydia, JP, you had Nellie. We all kind of had Lydia, Nellie, Gino in some form or fashion throughout the year. The Evian, I had Ling Grant. Cody, you had Lauren Coglin, JP, you had Minji Lee. Of course, it was Grace Kim there.

And then at the AIG, you guys both had Charlie Hall. Great pick. She finished tied for second. And I had Nelly, of course, it was Miu Yamashita that won the AIG. So we didn't do that well in our major predictions. Our player of the year predictions, JP and Cody, you guys both went with Nelly and went with Gino. I'm going to have to pat myself on the back for that one.

No, feel free to jump in and congratulate me. That's like. I thought this was an interesting category. I kind of asked you guys to name a first-time winner, who we thought would be a first-time winner in 2025. Cody, Miu Yamashita, fly the banner. you nailed that one jp you had me you yamashita fly the banner i will give jp credit uh she gave us some other names natasha un who did not win but i love the the aggressive play there ingrid lindblad

who did win jp you you identified a second one congratulations and you also had thrown out gabby ruffles gabby did not have a good year but uh i appreciate you sticking your neck out there scare money don't make money that's right i had two that i went with i had rio takata which she did win early in the year part of the japanese contingent and then i thought austin kim was going to get a win this year i was i was bullish on austin kim which she had a good year but she did not win so i missed that one guys rookie of the year prediction all three of us had me yu yamashita congrats to us you know we took the house uh we took the the betting favorite and she came through for us i asked us to predict the next LPGA commissioner.

JP and I settled on Alex Baldwin over from the corn fairy. Cody, you threw out Alexander Armis, the LET commissioner. I don't think Craig Kessler, that was not a name on any of our radar. So we kind of missed that one. Another fun one here.

This was fun to go back and listen to and track. I asked which players would be moving out of the top 10 at the end of the year and then asked you to predict which players would be moving into the top 10. And so, J.P., we'll start with you. You correctly identified two players who did, in fact, move out of the top 10. That is Celine Boudier and Lili Avu. Congrats to you. You were bullish on Rose Zang and Jin Yongko moving in,

which I'm sorry to report neither of those two women did in fact move into the top 10. Cody, I got to congratulate you. You had four women moving out of the top 10. And I believe they all did. Lilia, Celine, you had Hannah Green and Ayaka Food Away, all moving out. And then in their place, you got Minji Lee. You had Ling Grant, although she won, she did not move into the top 10. And then you also had Rose and Jun Yonko, who did not.

I had three women moving out who actually did lilia and selene i had charlie hall i was kind of bearish on charlie charlie is still in the top 10 so i missed on that one i had mingie lee coming into the top 10 i had lc who was close at times but not as of today and then ling grant i was all in on lynn grant as well um and then kind of our final big prediction piece uh players to make a big leap in the Rolex rankings. And I kind of let us all define how we, how we would define big leap. JP, I want to give you props to this. You were all over the Japanese emergence this year. You had Miyu Yamashita, even though she was ranked 13th in the world last year, you're like, she's going to have a big season. And guess what? She's ranked fourth today. That's a great call.

And you also called out the EY twins, specifically. You said the twins are going to have a big year. And they both did. So kudos to you, J.P. And your third call was Jenny Bay, who also had a great rookie season. She made the CME. She went from 310th in the world to 87th. So I think just a full round of applause for JP on this. I'm like go play the lottery.

I did not expect to be this right. I had Austin Kim, who she went from 151st to 44th as of today. So I feel good about that. I missed, you know, beyond. Pagdanan is somebody that I'm always going to root for, and I'm just not sure if it's going to happen for her. She went from 119th in the world. She's down to 235th in the world.

So that was a mega miss on my part. And then the last name I called out, and I'm so excited about this one, is Helen Bream, who hasn't really moved much in the world ranking. She is up from 98th to 84th in the world, but she has earned her LPGA tour card for next year through Q series. so she's a young german hits the shit out of the ball i'm she'll move up quick now sure yep yep

yeah and then cody i saved you uh i don't mean to pick on you but your your three calls all went in the wrong direction uh you had lyn grant who you know she did win so kudos but she went from 21st in the world uh when we recorded at the beginning of the year she's now 28 so a slight drop you had patty tavataniquit who was 25th and she's down to 56 that's tough and And then you had Gabby Ruffles, who went from 48 to now 95th. So I'm sorry to kind of rehash these, but not your best calls there. No. We will, I thought about doing predictions now, but I think we're going to save.

We'll obviously, you know, make a fool of ourselves. We'll have a 2026 kickoff episode of some kind where we'll do all our predictions. So, yeah, got a kick out of kind of kind of looking back on. obviously very high on Nelly that that's shown through uh you know tough one there um i and this is where i like i do feel a little sheepish as like i was banging the drum for gino and it's like yeah you can look at it one way and i was like yeah i was i was kind of right she had a big year but like also no major breakthrough so i i don't know i feel like maybe partial credit on gino um no full credit it was contingent on her being healthy big honestly yeah and i mean it's

like the easiest call ever right like i'm not going out on a limb but jp i thought your call on the japanese especially the twins and and you were steadfast that me you was going to win a big tournament that that was an impressive call so kudos kudos to you guys i think i think we end it here um the 2026 season's going to be here before we know it it starts in late january the tournament of champions in orlando uh but before we go i wanted to we made mention uh the lpgians handed out, as it were, 31 new tour cards. They took the top 25 in ties from the Q series finals that happened a couple weeks ago. So, congrats to all 31 of those women.

I had a couple women. Helen Bream was one, the German 20 years old. So, so curious to watch her play more golf next year, stateside. But I wanted to highlight a couple other names. Kiara Tamburlini earned her card. She's a three-time L-E-T winner. She had a couple good major finishes last year. She's somebody that, you know, keep an eye on.

Mimi Rhodes. Cody, we got to see a bunch of her at the AIG. 23-year-old English woman. She was the L-E-T rookie of the year. She finished second in the order of merit over there. She won three times. I think she's going to be a strong addition to the LPGA. And then J.P., one name, Kokona Sakurai, of Japan,

who I know nothing about, but just looking at her. profile. She's 21 years old and she's won five times on the JLPGA. So if we're talking about, you know, more young Japanese talent coming to the LPGA tour, I think Kokona Sakurai is a name we should just keep an eye out on. I think she'll, she'll be on some leaderboards. But JP, I was going to ask, of any of the remaining women, you are our amateur expert, any of that catch your eye that you're most excited have earned their tour card. I'd say probably to Mimi Rhodes and Lainey Fry. I think they're really interesting because neither one of them was considered the best player

on their collegiate team. So Mimi went to Wake Forest and she was a part of that winning team at the NCAAs with Rachel Keene, Lauren Malsh, and Laney went to Kentucky around the time that Jensen Castle had won the U.S. women's amateur. But it's interesting because I noticed both of them have, in some ways, I think Mimi much more quicker assent than Laney. Both of them have chipped away pretty quickly at their professional careers. Mimi was overshadowed a lot by Rachel Keene, who was an incredible amateur in her own right. But after Mimi played in the Curtis Cup, she just kind of went on a tear in her professional career, got her LAT card.

won three times in a row and ended up winning rookie of the year this year I think she could be an interesting pick for Solheim if she can keep up

the momentum and they want a little bit more young blood I would be really excited to see that and as far as Laney Fry goes Laney's interesting because not only does she

bomb the ball she works with Ted Scott that she's been working with Ted Scott ever since she was an amateur she was actually under consideration for the last Curtis Cup

but didn't get picked for the team. But surprisingly, or probably to many, she holds some of the all-time scoring records at the University of Kentucky. But like I said, was pretty overshadowed by a lot of the Jensen Castle hype. And I hand up. I don't think I appropriately rated Lainey Fry at the time

when she was an amateur. I mean, she was around. She was playing Anwa. She was playing some great golf. So it's great to see her earn her card. her and Mimi earned their cards both in different ways with Mimi winning at or getting in at Q Series, getting into one of those last two spots. And Lainey with her performance on the Epsontore and got right into that top 15 to get her card literally came down to the wire at the Epsontore championship.

So congrats to them both. I'm super stoked to see how they fare this year on the LPGA. Yeah, yeah. An interesting crop, if you will. You know, some names returning, Ryan O'Toole, Perine Delacore, you know, some veterans, and then you mix in some rookies, some young faces, should be a nice addition of talent next year. Where did the time go? I didn't know Ryan O'Toole was 38. I know, right? It's, yeah, it's kind of crazy. I think we call that an episode, though. We put a bow on 2024. it was it was an interesting season it was a great season it was a frustrating season it was all of that and yeah i look forward to flipping the calendar and seeing what 2026 holds jp thank you cody thank you he just had to run and grab his little girls from the bus after school so he is not in the studio but jp have a great holiday season and uh look forward to being back in

2026 and previewing the start of the season it's going to be here before we know it it's not much of an off season go catch up on your christmas shopping now that we're done yes yes thank you uh i needed that anxiety thank you all for listening thank you uh to title us thank you to serve pro and as far as women's golf go we will catch you guys in the new year cheers cheers