No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 1134: Early Masters Stock Watch, Founders Duel, Bryson in South Africa

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

Soly, TC and Randy offer some quick thoughts on Matt Fitzpatrick’s win at the Valspar and some of the other contenders at Innisbrook before we go through our Masters Power Rankings as we’re three weeks away from the first major of the year. From there we react to the NFL Films Chasing Sunday project, other tour news and notes (Jerry Tarde column link), the LPGA Founders Cup duel between Hyo Joo Kim and Nelly Korda, Bryson and Rahm at LIV South Africa, and more Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro + Valspar Recap 22:00 - Masters Power Rankings 41:00 - Chasing Sunday reaction, Tour News & Notes 59:45 - LPGA Founders Cup Recap 1:37:40 - LIV South Africa Join us in our support of the Evans Scholars Foundation: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://nolayingup.com/esf⁠ Support our Sponsors: Titleist Holderness & Bourne Pinehurst 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. Ronnie, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast. Solly here. Got my guy, Mr. T.C.

A lot to talk about tonight, T.C. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. I'm exhausted. I was doing the rhino jive all day, Sally. Another guy that I know was rhino jiving throughout the weekend. Mr. Big Randy is here.

Hello, Big. Hello, guys. Yeah, a little tired, made a quick trip back to Philly, back to Denver. TC, we missed you there. I know. I'm sorry. Got to watch a lot of golf today and excited to talk to you. Thanks for having me on, Sally.

We have a lot to discuss. We got the VALSpar. That's not going to take a lot of time, guys. That was not the best weekend of golf that I've ever watched on the PGA tour. We're going to do a quick Masters power ranking stockwatch. We got to, we're inching up on the Masters. There's going to be plenty of content to come from that one, but I'm curious for a question I have posed to you guys.

Talk about Brooks Kepka's recent form ahead of this major championship that's coming up as well. We're just getting that out of the way. Make sure it's mentioned so we doesn't sneak up on us. Some other tour, odds and ends. Really nice week on the LPGA tour at the founders. A little question in there about what we'd like to see next out of the LPGA tour. Live South Africa, Bryson. A lot of commentary coming from that side of the world this week and a lot more as well.

from around the world. Matt Fitzpatrick wins the Vowspar. Jordan Gumburg wins the Hanan Classic. Bryson wins in South Africa. The Crushers win the team section. Heo John Kim wins the Fortinet Founders Cup. Hannah Green wins the women's Australian PGA. Maddie McCrary wins the Orlando Health Championship. A lot of golf to cover this week. A lot of golf. What about China? Yeah. It was a what about China. There's a lot going on in the DP World Door this week, too. Hey, man. So you know what else has a lot going on? Title of Socials just dropped the new GTS drivers. They are out on their socials and they will be launching on tour this week as well.

So it'll be very curious to see who throws that in the bag. They've been on a run with the GT driver here of late, Cam Young just last week. That's right. He hit the 375-yard drive, of course, with the GT. This is the first look at the new GTS-2, GTS-3 and GTS-4 models that are debuting. PGA Tour LPGA and Corn Ferry Tour. Listen, they market a lot of products through us, a lot of products. But every once in a while, they'll kind of pull you aside and be like this, this one.

All right, this is one we're really, really excited about. And we haven't touched it, haven't hit it, haven't seen it. But the buzz internally, I know at Titleist is really, really high on this driver. And they've never let us astray on any of that. The things they've been most excited about ended up being a lot of our favorites. So Titus continues to be the most played driver on the PGA tour. every player in the top three at the Valspar was playing a GT driver and again still only a week removed from that Cam Young drive at TPC Sawgrass. It is time for GTS. It's going to be a fun week. So stay tuned.

The title of social channels for a lot more information about this big driver rollout that they have coming. At the Valspar, Sung J.M took a two-shot lead into the final round over Brantznetiker and David Lipsky. Sung-Junk today. It was really not good. Three over 74 was not a factor. Snedeker shot 76 fell off the pace, but it was Matt Fitzpatrick, continuing his steady play, made clutch birdie puts on the 15th and the 18th to eke out David Lipsky by a single shot. Happy for Fitz. After all the hooliganism last week, T.C., which I know made you sick to your stomach.

And you were not partaking in there down the final stretch at the players. But happy for Fitz to get back in the winter circle. They looked like he had a lot of angst built up in that put that he drained on 18. really remarkable went bogey free over the last two rounds a whole weekend uh birdied 18 awesome birdie on 18 awesome birdie on 15 that course was baked out by the end of of the day today and like i don't know valspar it wasn't an enjoyable tournament it wasn't a good leaderboard but i just i love that golf course there's always something there tc i'm totally with you there's something there that just makes it a little interesting it's just in these guys heads

like that that that par five that was it the fifth hole um netiker hit hit a kind of a just snap hook three wood off the tea there today guys trying to force it up by the green you know punching out all sorts of like just the larry packard double dog leg on that one on 14 uh just some awkward coming down the stretch. Tough to hold greens. Yeah, just a bizarre. I've played it one time, and I really enjoyed it.

Neil and I played it. And by all accounts, the other course over there, the island course, is supposed to be electric as well. But it's like, it's just the right amount of scruffy and burned out

and kind of shoulder season down there. And I don't know. I wish, like I think one of these years we're going to get a really fascinating. tournament. I thought JT was going to win this week. He didn't. I think he finished in the 30s, but it's awesome victory. He showed a lot of grit coming back after last week. I'm with you. I don't think I love the golf course as much as you do. Like I think it's good,

solid. I like kind of the small green, small corners of the greens that make it just, it's a good, I mean, 11 under par one without conditions. Like that doesn't happen very frequently on the PGA tour. It's usually a dart fest. I just was not feeling the fouls part this week. It was just not a good watch. I'd struggle to keep my attention. I just got to put my hand up when it's time for that. And I was very uninvested with who's going to win it until Fitz like emergent.

I'm like, I want Fitz to win this man. Like with what happened last week and just, you know, how strong his play has been over the last year plus and everything. It just felt like, felt like he should have more PJ tour wins on his resume. And this, this felt like a proper win for him. It was only a, it was his second PGA tour. win if you set aside the u.s open uh meanwhile he's won what five different four or five different masters the nordia masters the indelousia masters the european masters twice the british masters all of that but is this is only his second one here here in harbortown so he's just stacking up uh you know kind

of just very midwestern vacation spots yeah and he put your boy on the clock today he's He tattled on your boy, ADDC. No longer my boy. No longer my boy. I have repudiated ADDC. And I apologize to anyone and everyone for ever having been associated with him. For those that missed it, they were playing together. He had fallen way off.

Adrian had fallen way off the pace. And he was taken at times three minutes to play shots. Fitz just went up ahead. He pulled almost a Ben Crane or Rory Sabatini Ben Crane situation. where he was up at the green and he was putting out by the time that, you know, ADDC had hit his shot back in the fairway. So good on him. I think this is totally like it shouldn't be up to him to do.

I think the group was, were they a whole behind at a certain point? Or they had fallen far enough behind that I don't know why they weren't been told, had been told that they were out of position. But I think a warning at least went out to ADDC after that happened. And just rarely do you see a player take, you know, be such an alpha in that moment. Dude, I'm trying to win this tournament. Like, let's go, dude. Come on.

Like, we're not doing this here. Okay. I'm not going to do the pace of play stuff. We, TC, if you want to do that in just a second, please feel free. I just wanted to jump in here and talk about, I think, why this tournament always outpunches, like, what it is in my mind. And TC, I truly think this goes back to, like, when you and I were out west in 2007, just like watching golf and going. and skiing and generally being shitheads. But that was like when the joke of like John Senden, I finished back to back runner up and

then he would eventually win the tournament. But, but, Holly, to your point, like, it's always been a little bit weirdly difficult of a course. And I'm not smart enough to tell you like exactly why that is. But from when I was paying attention, I referenced that 2007 tournament, Calc won at 10 under. the very next year, Sean O'Hare won at four under in a regular tour event. Like, that's amazing. The year after that, Goosen at 8 under.

And really, up until COVID, we haven't seen a single digit underpar winner since COVID. But before that, it'd be like, yeah, 7, 8 under might win this tournament. And I think for me, it's always just been a change of pace from what I'm used to seeing maybe week to week on the tour. and I do slot it mentally, which is ironic given fits one at Harbor Town and has now one here. But I kind of slot it with Harbor Town in those horses that for whatever reason, they just stand out as kind of different than what a lot of the rest of the schedule is every year. And so it's technical. Yeah.

Yeah. I think there's a lot of spots. I mean, it starts on one. There's a lot of spots where like there's just weird angles. and it takes driver out of guy's hands or the, like the way that the green is angled, it makes the green effectively, you know, eight paces deep, nine paces deep. I'm going to get firm. You can't stop at these corners.

I was going to say they generally do a good job of having it firm. And yeah, it's the ball runs. It's, and then the rough can be a little, you know, can be a little thick. And, you know, if the wing gets, it just, it can combine a lot of, I love T.C. I think that's exactly right. this presents like a little bit of a different challenge to these guys and i i do enjoy that it's such a good piece of land too like you like i think if you dropped anybody who would who had never been there had never heard of it on that piece of land they would they would not guess that they were in

florida right uh like that would be the 20th guess as far as what state they were in and i think it's probably a better watch on thursday and friday than it is on like a saturday like i don't know i I watched a lot of Speets around today. And I was like, man, speech is back. Man, it's just sick. And then he promptly gets to, probably gets to, you know, the snake pit or whatever they call it. And just immediately, like, just fans won. What was, what hole was that?

That was 16. Yeah, just fans won, like fans of three wood, like 40 yards into the lake. I mean, not even fucking close. Nobody is close. Come on, D.C.'s close. I think his close is whole by hole. It's not week to week. It's truly whole by a hole that he's close for.

And then Jordan Smith is up on the leaderboard. It gives me false hope every time he's up there. Because I just see Jordan S. And then I'm like, oh, no, it's Jordan Smith, not Jordan Speed. It's going to be an obvious answer here as I ask it. Who do you think had more birdies this week? Speeth or the winner, Matt Fitzpatrick? Probably Steve.

Yeah, I mean, I would take the speed. Yeah, definitely. He had 16 birdies, Fitz had, uh, had 15 birdies but that's the thing like like like fits i mean fits had had what four bogeys all week yeah which is crazy out there um he was fifth in strokes gained off the t second approach play 42nd in putting yeah like this it's it's not very often that the guy who wins finishes 42nd putting pretty neutral i hope as i've got to say this i want to check to make sure it's true but i you always do just think like fits is such a good putter

is a pretty good putter. He's just not having a good start to the season, putting it so far, but he's hitting the crap out of the ball right now is what has been, you know, quite, quite surprising. But yeah, this, this, I weirdly with speed, this was like, I didn't stress about it at all. This week, I was just kind of like, oh, he's good, oh, he's hot. I got looked up the early morning round, whatever, when he started on Thursday or what, was he morning or afternoon? I forget. And he was 500 through five through five and i was like ah can't wait to see what happens next but had a very strong like even tour socials like had something up there like a speed goes to five under and then quote tweeted

just like he spent he finished at minus two i think they're in on the bit now at this point it was stuff that like shouldn't happen like he had a plot to go to like six under through however many holes and then he and then yeah and then he goes to minus you're like what the fuck it's it's maddening but i love it and i can't get enough of it so uh i'll just point out fits like i obviously playing well uh but but i i mean he shot a 70 in the opening round of the players last week and since then he's been 69 or 68 for 77 consecutive rounds the guy's just playing really steadily good golf it's not like he you know he's thrown in a 63 and then a 72. It's just very consistently good.

Is Fitz on great man trajectory? You guys hand these things out like candy on Halloween. So, I mean, I mean, like in 10 years. He's got a chance because I think he's going to be a part of a lot of European Rider Cup team. So he certainly has a chance. And he'll probably be a great captain. See, this is why you guys have given me shit privately all, all week, basically all months about my dude system here. But like this is that you guys are just giving me a dude.

You guys, no, but I'm not. I'm saying you give your your little bits you give them you give stuff out too easily too fast too quick and you can't reel it in like that's that's the whole point of the dude system is like this is a we're talking about a 10 year great man trajectory every european rider cover is now referred to as a great man all right you guys have not been able to control yourself no there were a lot of great men last year's holly that was not a bit getting out of control that was that was just reality this was this was the only guy in the field this week all four rounds in the 60s I love that's sick. I love it. Right. Are you going to call him a great man? No. No, no. Okay. All right.

Okay. No. Any more Della leaderboard do you want to give us, TC? Zander shot 65 today for a totally non-competitive T4. Remind you of anybody you know? No, not at all. Marco Penge got 71. I was expecting him to kind of go and grab this thing. a good shot into 18 there at the at the finale but uh just missed this spot by a foot or two on some of those holes coming down the stretch uh pretty can you can i ask something on marco can i ask something on on dear marco i think it was hicks today said this guy is like got superstar or he's he he's got the makings of being a star and listen i'm not saying that's wrong i guess i'm coming to you guys did i just totally miss something have i i know i was

on paternity leave, like, it has not come across my desk that Marco Penge is necessarily ticketed for stardom. I was just taken aback by that comment. I think Hicks knew nobody was watching today. He's like, yeah, we could throw that in there. I mean, he won two national opens last year. He won the, he won the Danish and the, what else did he win? The Open to Spain, it's the Spanish Open. And then, actually, and then he won the, what about China last year as well. So I don't know. I don't i think pen he's randy he's really facie he's i talked to him at the uh at the first timers press conference at uh the players he's got he's got just a he's really into fashion okay uh he's long he's got a lot in the tank a lot in the tank uh i think he just needs to figure out how

to dump some of that speed but i think the ceiling is there and yeah okay we'll see how long he can sustain this he's up the 39th in the world okay honestly i i like he's an interesting guy I just when Hicks said that I was like holy shit if I like just like miss something completely so he's a great interview too ready like he's a very likable guy I'm team pinch and he is like he's not a ball speed imposter but he's a ball speed freak I'm not positive how well refined the rest of his game is like I was not I didn't think Valspar was jumping off the page in terms of great locations for him to compete but he just had a kid a couple weeks ago as well and he's just getting back into things and he's just getting back into things. and to see him back playing this well that fast is. I'm team pinch. I don't think he's on Superstar Watch, but I think he's like potential fringe rider cover. Like, I think that's a possibility.

He was last year. Yeah, exactly. So, but I mean, we're talking. Yeah, Randy, you did miss when you were out. He didn't get into several clubs down in the Jupiter Palm Beach area because he refused, because he was wearing athletic shorts. Like, he refused to dress. up for the interview.

Ah, I'm out on him then. Which, no, I think that's, for the interview. Sorry, I thought it was while he was playing. I thought you were going to say while he was playing. I take it back. No, he's just not putting on airs. He just doesn't. He's won the Sunningdale Foresomes with his wife before, which I think is a pretty cool

feather in his cap. That is cool. His stroke, his strokes gain. I'm looking at his PGA tour stats, the stroke gained little chart. And it's like essentially like an arrow pointing to off the T and everything. I think else is very in close. As I say, as I said, I don't know if he's not a ball speed imposter. I don't know what is because it's not looking great, but I believe he can emerge from the group of ball speed.

Imposter is not the right word for him. I think he's a little different than like a pot heater. I don't think, I think he's a more real golfer than like the current form of Alder's pot keeter. He showed a lot today. Like he was grinding and he was getting up and down from some off spots today. So, okay. Yeah, he's got my attention. Yeah, I appreciate that.

T.C. keep going down the leaderboard for us. The 74 today, like, doesn't properly capture how bad Sung Jay was. I mean, he was awful. He was five over through, what, 11 holes. In his defense, every time I looked up to watch the golf today, everybody was just driving it in the crowd down the car paths. And this one's headed towards the crowd for this one's headed towards. And like half the time it was sung,

Jay. It was just a bad golf being played in those final few groups. A lot of commercials too. A lot of commercials. It was, yeah, it was like getting waterboarded. We got Cantlay. We got Speed that ended up finishing T-11. The Bridgeman, P-14. Randy, he remains first in the FedEx Cup.

Wasn't sure if you're aware of that. Good finish for Gary Woodland, T-14 for him. him. Corey Conner's very uncompetitive T-14, 69, 69, 70, 71. Sully, sorry about Snedd. I know you were rooting for him to possibly be a playing captain, the president's cup this year. You were so excited to make that joke tonight. You were like just frothing to make that joke.

I'm sorry for you. The final round 76 just totally ruined that bit that you were going to keep going for weeks probably. But it was random. And it is like, yeah, 40. five-year-old, uh, Brandt Snetiker that I was kind of like, is he still playing? Like is he still playing? You got a sponsor exam.

I forgot he got a sponsor exemption in Memorial last year and finished top 10, uh, but it had not a lot of top tens for brand over the last four years or so. But it was that was a signal of like, man, this might just be an off week for the PGA tour. I think the like the system's working though. Like Brooks teed it up to 18 fienow Tom Kim, uh, JT, speed. Like, like you got a lot of good players teeing up in. you know, in an event like this, trying to, A, they like the course and B, you know, they're trying to get points, right? They're trying to play their way into these, these big events.

So on the back of two signature events, like getting the solid field that they got here is impressive. And it's easy for a lot of these guys to take Houston off two weeks in front of Augusta. And if you want to play Valero lead into it, you can. But so it does fit in the calendar if you don't want too much off time in front of the Masters. but you know it's not like the cognizant which just gets totally depleted of star power of where it is on the schedule this is a tough spot on the schedule but a lot of guys make it work and that is an endorsement of the golf course yeah so i'm worried about lukelandton 78 75 just you know we'll just say that cam davis is really falling off he was plus 10 johnny kefer dFL yeah that was that was kind of a weird one to see so anyway i see i see the rest of my time as far as i've got Dallas for goes. Well, let's talk a little, little stockwatch here, because there was one player in particular, and we'll talk about him separately here that piqued my interest on this. And I'll,

I'm going to explain this. I'll try my best to explain what I'm, what I'm after with this question. But we have less than three weeks until the Masters begins. I want to know who the top five are in your Master's power rankings. And I want them listed in order. If you are actually trying to predict the winner and you have five picks to do it, we're trying to cover the board. If I can pick the winner and I get five picks. What five are you taking? And let's say, let's say in theory, you get more points if, if you think Ludwig's going to win and you pick him first, you would get more points for that as a as a lead into TC's picks here. But I want you, how would you cover the board? Because you got to leave off some somewhat interesting names.

I found this exercise to be a little harder than I thought it would be. You only get five guys. You're doing it to isolate a Zander conversation. I don't necessarily think so. I think there's maybe a more interesting name that may not appear on some list. Or maybe it will appear on some list, but I'm happy to talk about that. But does anybody want to go first on their master's power rankings as it sits here? If you had to try to guess who's going to win three weeks out, you got five guys to cover the board.

How are we doing it? I'll go first. Okay. T.C., you go ahead. I mean Ludwig. I'm going to love big. I thought you might. Do you think he's more likely to win the Masters than Scotty?

Yes. Okay. Okay. You want to keep going? Yeah, please. Yeah, I want to go around the list. I got Scotty next. Okay.

I've got... Wait, wait, wait, wait. After that. Wouldn't Scotty... Or no, are you going one to five or five to one? I'm going one to five. Okay. All right.

Yeah. So I got Ludwig, Bryson, Scotty. Wait, who's second? Bryson or Scotty? Oh, sorry. Sorry, Ludwig, Scotty, Bryson. I'm going to go with the great man, Team Rose. Jesus.

I wondered if she might hit the board. And then I'm going with Lynxmaster Jordan Speed over John Robb. No, Rory either. No, Rory. Interesting. Randy, I'm very curious your direction. All right. I guess one to five here.

I got Scotty. Okay. This was tough. Right? I'm going to take some heat for this. one. I'm going to go Mickelson. It is a lefty.

I'm putting an auction at number two. Yeah. I'm putting an oxhay at number two. I have disease X, X, Zander, at three. I have Rory at four. Listen, again, this is just trying to cover the board. I think Rory, there are questions about the back.

I just need to see it a little bit. But, you know, I think you're here. I put ROM on five. I really struggle with this five. I didn't necessarily want to put ROM, it felt more like an obligation to put about Cam Young. Any any consideration? Yes, heavy consideration. Uh, that that four or five spot, it felt like I needed to have Rory on there. And then I, again, it felt like an obligation to put ROM. I was thinking like,

I need to have like a live guy here. I didn't want to put Bryson. So I put wrong. But Cam Young consideration, T.C. honestly thought about Justin Rose for a little bit as well. Just runs through your list again. What's your five again, Bing? Akshay, Zander, Rory, and Rom. And I'll be honest, Fitsy now is like, I think that's a name I need to remember here in a few weeks. Yeah, I'd be interested in. I mean, Fitz's thing, whole thing right now,

especially he's driving accuracy. And Augusta's just the place where that just doesn't seem to play as much. So his recent play doesn't, you know, he's taking advantage of a good spot on the calendar for golf course style, I think. Has he ever played well there? I can look that up for you. I think moderately, I guess I'd be shocked if he doesn't have at least one top 10 there, right? Or my.

Let's see. He has one top 10, two top tens, 20, 23. He was T10. In 2016, he was T7. So not the best course fit for him. I think it's very reasonable to not have Scotty number one, but I still do. I'm kind of regret. I honestly kind of forgot about the back thing.

I have Rory too. That one fell a little bit like an obligation. Like I definitely am not feeling Rory the same way I was last year. Heading into the Masters when I picked him to win, no big deal. Rom, I'm not moving off that one. I'm not going to forget about Rom. I still think he has an excellent, excellent chance to win. I've got Ludwig at four.

I think there's also an excellent chance that he could win the Masters. And I have Cam Young at five. I am not going to forget about what we saw there. I'm not going to forget about the leap that he has taken. He has a good track record at the Masters, and I think this is the first time we'll see him playing it with the prototype golf ball that has taken his game to an entirely new level.

And I'd be very surprised if he's outside the top five at the end of the week. So my list does not include Zander, and my list does not include Bryson. We're the two hardest ones to leave off. Mine's pretty chalky as it is, but I did go a little past Zander and Bryson to pick to get cam on there.

I think if there's first guy out of mine, I think is Chris Goderup. I think Goddard up is a sneaky great fit for Augusta. So there's a lot of guys that I think can play very, like I'm expecting Bryson to be in the top 10 at the Masters, but I'm not expecting Bryson to win. I think we saw the approach play. by the end of last year's master.

Like through three rounds, like, dude, how's he doing this? Like he is not, like his approach play has been terrible. Like he's putting his ass off. He's driving it like very, very far. But like at some point, you got to get close to the hole and can't rely on this. And that faded really, really hard on that Sunday to the point where I was like, man, unless he's sitting, obviously you can have a great week with the irons and he can hit it a lot better than he did last year.

But I can't get that image out of my head of like, I don't know if you can do that anything remotely like that for four days and win the master. Again, I think he'll be top 10, maybe even top five. But I just am not, I don't see the play this back here in a couple weeks if he does go in to win, but he would not be in my top five. I just think a little bit about like there, I think there's some comps with how Pinehurst played for the U.S. Open a couple years ago. I mean, that Pinehurst ended up being like as bomber friendly as has Wingfoot did, very different way of getting there. Like Augusta does fate. You got to be long.

You should be long at Augusta, but it's not, you can't bypass the approach part of the test with the quadrants they have in those greens. And then the, the, the precision that it requires to get in the right spots on those greens for most of the days. There's some funnel pins, Randy, I know out there. But you just can't bomb it past a lot of trouble at Augusta. Many people are saying the same thing about Steen City.

And he conquered that place this week. I think you can bomb. vomit past a lot of stuff. Solly, can I, can I double click on, how close was Xander to making your top five? I'm a little surprised he's not. And I, and with that, what, what would you want to see between now and, and Masters week? Zander was close. But again, like, I'd just, I'd be, I'd be surprised if he won.

Again, would I be surprised if he finished third? Absolutely not. I'd be very surprised if he wasn't top 10. I just, I'm, I'm looking for, like, a gear to get to to win it and you can debate the the ludwig thing is you know after what we just saw at the players like what what's the what's the hurry to crown him you know a person capable of winning these things but with the great track record and like potential lessons learned and better course fit at augusta than i would think for for the player uh you know then tpc sawgrass

and i still just not quite i mean zander's like returning to a level of play that looks a lot like it looks right before his two major win season in 2024, like 20, whatever, 18 through 2023, he looks about like this guy, and we saw him contend a lot and not win a lot in a lot of major championships. And I feel like that's kind of closer to what he is right now than the 2024 version.

How does that sound? I think that's fair. That's fair. Who the fuck knows, though? Like, he could go out and win it, of course. But I just, I'm not like, I'm not in a rush to take Xander to win the mess. Honestly, guys, first draft I did of this,

I had Brooks in there. Because, so that was my next question was like, what do you do with somebody like Brooks? I mean, Brooks is 35 to 1 right now. Akshay is 40 to 1. Like Brooks is. Can we get right to that before we do that, T.C. I want to give a shout to, of course, the new spring 2026 line is live on HBGolf.com. It's our friends at Holderness and Bourne.

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But back to the question of, I think Brooks has played well enough the last couple of weeks that he's not going to sneak up on anyone. Or I guess we've seen this before where all you need to see is just a little semblance of good play and then realize maybe like Friday afternoon that Brooks Kepka is one of the greatest major championship players. in the history of the game,

definitely in the modern history of the game. Are you buying a potential master's run for Brooks Cup? Is he a serious contender to win the Masters? And do you feel differently than you did at the beginning of the year? Is another question. I know I certainly do. I'll chime in. I definitely

feel differently than I would have back in January. I really like what I've seen. His approach play has been phenomenal. The putting is not great. this week, for instance, you know, if he could figure out the 16th hole on the weekend, he doubled that both Saturday and Sunday.

I mean, he's looking at another top 10 this week. I really like where he is in relation to the next three weeks in Augusta. To me, though, candidly, he's a guy that, like, if we're talking full faith that he can nab a top 10 at the Masters, but I'm not sure if I would be willing to say, like, I definitely believe he could win it this year. When we were putting together the agenda, you were asking about, like, do I see him making a major run?

I think so. I wish I knew how difficult Augusta was kind of going to play this year. I was thinking more like a U.S. Open or an Open Championship, a more, like, difficult test if he's, you know, if he can kind of shine through where PAR is a really good score. But I'm excited. I love having him back and like a part of these events. I didn't realize, I guess, how much I missed him being in the fold.

I just don't think his putting is good enough. That's what concerns me. He seems good enough Tita Green. Like, like Randy, I would feel better about him at Chinnecock. Yeah. Somewhere like that. I did you too. But yeah, like, I don't know.

I think Brooks is like a really interesting, like, would you rather have Brooks or Bob McIntyre? or Brooks or Goderup or Brooks or I mean shit Jacob Bridgman or Mav McNeely like I don't know it's a total toss up but I think I'd take those other guys personally at Augusta yeah but again this is where like we had we this is the guy that elevates in these four events and like on a week to week basis I'm with you on I would take all of those guys over Brooks if they're all teamed up in in Houston this week I'd be like especially Goddrop, who was very much looking forward to get into Houston, as he said in chasing Sunday. I would agree with that. But then again, I just have been that guy too many times. I'm like, what the fuck? How do we forget about Brooks again?

And he's got a good history at Augusta when he's been healthy and when his game's been in decent form. You know, it's not like a tailor-made course form. I'm with you on like the U.S. Open classic Brooks setups would be, I'd be more jazzed about it. But it's interesting. And I just did not think we'd be here this soon. after, you know, his game was in really, really poor form when he came over. And I'm not looking to pull on any like, oh, now he's practicing because he's back on the PGA tour moves.

I don't think it, I think it's just simply like he's healthy. He's getting some confidence back. And I think he's maybe, maybe potentially a little bit more driven than we've seen in recent years. Yeah. I think all that's fair. It's truly like a who can say. I just, I think I would be more surprised if he won the Masters than I would be if he won, even like the Open Championship.

it like i think berkdale fits him to a t so a little shocking i guess i just i mean shouldn't i knew he hadn't played necessarily well in majors for a little while but hasn't top 10 since he won the pGA back in in 2023 so i i think that's a little bit of it solid for me is like i just don't know if he can win necessarily like this first major uh when he's when he's kind of you know if we're going to say he's back a little bit. I expect him to have a good week and I think that could set him up for the remaining majors this year. I think my point overall is in that time period also, like his game worldwide dipped greatly, you know, and that correlates very strong. Like when he was winning majors and being very good in majors, it wasn't like he was a bad PGA tour player.

He just was not like one of the elite top five guys out on tour on a week-to-week basis. And And then he also started, then he began playing bad golf, like straight up bad golf across where he was a below average tour pro for a while there, 24, 25. And, you know, maybe below average tour pro is probably stretching it a little bit. But that's, I'm just saying like just a little, little tip of the scales, a little bit like a little bit of forward momentum. It's not hard to imagine that when the golf gets hard and gets real, like the real golf, he has been the dude that rises. And I'm excited to find out now, man. Like I, you know, we'll see if I don't, if I was him, I just wouldn't be passing out nearly as much advice at the master's this year. You know, you might, you might need those, those strokes at the very end.

So I, uh, none of us mentioned P. Yeah. I mean, P was sold in third last year. That's wild. It's truly out of sight out of mind for me. And I know that's like a me thing. I just, I can't watch all the golf. So I, I just have no idea.

D.C. I'm disappointed. Running rough shot over the D.P. World Tour and going to win the Masters still are very different categories. So I don't, I, again, I don't think P is a serious, serious contender. P, 2018, one it. 2019, T36, 2020, T20201, 20, T-201, 20, 2202, T-35, 2023, T4, T-2. T-12 and in 2020. So I, I don't know. I think he, I'm a little bit worried. He's not playing a whole lot right now. He didn't play in China last week. He's not going to India this week. What's he doing? T-10 and Joeberg. I don't know. He's probably down in the lab. He's probably hanging out down at Carlton Woods at the club. Open tea times this spring. The course is open.

It probably does just bear mentioning. A Brooks win at Augusta would be an awesome just thing for golf and that, you know, that would be his sixth major. That would put him back ahead of Rory. kind of set them up for a little back and forth here like there are some like really fun storylines and you'd be going for the career grand slam one more guy that's one major away from the grand slam so then it would be so nobody's pending the masters obviously jord is still pending the pg a fill with the u.s open of course and uh now scottie with the u.s open and then that would be that would be Brooks with the open almost the full year this is a big year for scotty a shinnacock win would be not only for the Grand Slam, but just like go go win on a proper course. That would be

big for Scotty. Another thing with the Kepka thing, this year feels a little bit open like last year did as well with Scotty. Like there's 2024 did not feel open at all. Last year did feel open because of the Ravioli incident and Rory took advantage of it. And like, I'm curious if somebody can step up and do it because there's no no guarantee that in 27 or 28 that he's going to be in this kind of form leading into the Masters. If we believe this dip. to be to be temporary. I believe, believe his wife was due today as we speak.

I don't know. There's obviously not been any updates as we're recording this as to when their second child to be expected. But that does hope if that, if that what I've been told is true on the due date, does eliminate the pager at Augusta possible situation of, it sounds like the kid will be here before, before the masters.

So don't have that completely verified, but that is what I guess. I guess it would probably be. on him being in Houston, though. Sounds like. He's in the field this week, but you're right. That would be surprising to me either way, unless, you know, maybe they had a kid this weekend.

I haven't told anyone yet also. So who knows? A couple other news and notes around the PGA tour. Josh Carpenter had this stats. Players averaged 4.4 million viewers on Sunday peaked at 7.1 million. That is up from 3.6 million last year. that does not include big data last year. I don't really exactly know how all that works,

but it seemed like there was a viewership spike, and it did not conclude last year on the Sunday as well. There was a playoff, of course, on Monday. Thursday coverage was up from 644 to 874. Friday coverage up over 1.1, almost 1.2 million average viewers on Friday afternoon, which is up from 747,000 in 2025. So good vibes coming out of Pantavidra, I think, helped A little bit last week, honestly, of just good general buzz heading into the players and good setup, good tournament, and then the ratings rewarded it.

So even though the, even though the agronomy team over there says they didn't do anything different just because of the dry weather. The this past Tuesday as well, the tour released chasing Sunday, the video project they were doing with NFL films, extremely fast turnaround from the conclusion of play on Sunday to a Tuesday night release. Did you guys get a chance to watch it? And what was your reaction? I did. I thought it was fantastic. And I think it just, I've said this multiple times now, but it made me just disappointed that how big of a whiff full swing has been

when they've had so much, so much to work with, so much time to edit it. And that's the product we've gotten, whereas this is all we were asking for. I think they're two different things, but I don't think full swing accomplished what it needed to accomplish. And I think this is much more valuable stuff. I think they thought full swing was going to save golf.

And I think it is full swing is meant to win like the algorithm and win on people scrolling the Netflix homepage more than it is to cater to golf fans. And that this was a simple thing. Like this is for golf fans. I mean, it was shared widely across the sports world. And it hasn't done like crazy view numbers. But I think that being a barometer of success for something like this is the wrong way to look at it. It is, and you increase the profiles of four guys on the PGA tour that should have their profiles increased. Like, how great was Siwu Kim in this thing?

I mean, the whole, you know, Joe Griner was incredible in this thing. We're awesome. Was such a good team. And just like I would run through a wall for Joe Griner very clearly just listen to his pop-up speeches and things like that. I mean, Goder up was not, was like, it was an interesting look at a week of a guy that's like, just tired, doesn't have it, was low energy, was not feeling it. And like, yeah, you can be on top of the golf world a month earlier. And then you get there and just like have a week where you're off. And even it was, you know, one of the best tournaments of the year, you're just not in the great headspace.

And like, that was documented. Like, that's real. That was great. I think Goder up, too. There was interesting stuff with Godorup. And I think some of that got yanked and sanitized. out by the request of his agents, which is a shame because like the whole reason to do this is to show the real stuff. And, you know, I think Ricky doing it seems like it's, it's probably more

of a signal to the other players of like, hey, like say yes to this stuff, do it. Like, I don't think Ricky's the most interesting guy at this point in his career, but I think it was a good, like, show face moment for him. And, yeah, so I don't. I don't know. I'd love to see more of these. I thought it was kind of a shot across the bow at both Golf Channel at PGA Tour Studios even of like, you know, hey, we we had to bring in a non-golf entity because they had the credibility and the chops to do this thing. And yeah, I hope they'd do it, you know, I would watch five or six of these a year. It was awesome. Randy, what did you think? Yeah, I largely agree with everything you guys have said. I think, I think, this captured and held my attention far, far, far more than the full swing stuff. So like right off the bat, I found this to be much more interesting. And I think it's like almost the worst version of this. They could have, not version, but like none of the guys were really in contention.

You know, like they almost had the worst luck with who they picked this year. And so I think that's a good sign. Like I think it can only get better as you nab a couple guys that might be top 10 or more in contention. I totally agree with you. Like I still, even though Hard Knocks has been around forever, it's still a fabulous. Like, I still really enjoy watching it. And I just think it's kind of a gold standard. And for them to bring this immediately into golf and to show what they're capable of, I do.

I think it's great. I think, like you said, a little bit of a. of a shot across the bow and and kind of makes me wonder like what the hell have we been doing all these last several years guys um so yeah i'm i thought it was all good i went searching for the first uh mention in my in my notes and documents of everything of like when it was the first time i said like doing NFL sounds of the game and release it on tuesday 2021 was the first year that i found in my notes of like bringing this to the forefront of like radically like out of I think we mentioned this guy four or five years prior even to that I'm sure

sound effects and like like this is all we've been asking for you don't have to doll it up you don't have to overproduce it nobody's trying to cancel anyone like we just want to see substantive conversations and like really golfy stuff yeah and it is a big project like don't like it's a huge team if you look at the credits afterwards of like and be able to turn that around on a tuesday I don't want to act like you could do this every single weekend. It's simple. It's not. But you could change the scale and scope of it. Like, you know, if you wanted to do a Saturday version and get somebody in the last two groups at waste management and like get, you know, get the capture that atmosphere.

But you mentioned Hard Knocks, Randy. Hard Knocks does an amazing job of making you invested in characters that you didn't previously care about. Like the fight for the 53rd spot on the roster. Like you would, you're all I would lay down my life for that guy. I hope he makes the team. And like three weeks later, you kind of forget about the guy. But during the series, you're invested. For a sport that needs to sell their characters, like this is a no-brainer.

Like, continuing to invest in stuff like that is going to pay dividends. And we'll get some of this on the LPJ side, too. Like there's just very clear efforts being made to give you reasons to root for these players. Like, I followed Seawu Kim for almost a decade. And I'm like, why don't I root harder for Seawu Kim? Like, that is just such a delightful dude. I think a full swing succeeded at anything. I think it did cross over a little bit and make you root for certain guys if you were a total casual, like a Joel Damon.

Yeah. There's some good stuff in there. Yeah. Yeah. But I don't know. It just, it just leaves me wanting of like, I don't think it had to be an either or, right? Like, I don't think it has to be just for the casual non-golf fan or just for the core fans. Like, I feel like they've spent the better part of three or four years filming for,

full swing and I can't imagine all the good stuff that's just sitting there collecting dust on the cutting room floor and I know that they filmed it for us for that specific reason but again it just feels like man like I don't know I'm just thankful to the tour for finally doing something for core fans instead of instead of just dangling shiny objects over to people who don't give a shit about golf which I get it we got to we got to get them in the boat but you got to keep some people in the boat too yeah I mean just thinking like the combo with Joe and Akshay on 17T of just pitching wedge versus nine iron and just here in the back and forth of what that looks like.

Imagine that in the final group, if they get one of these in the final group of the players. And like if they had JJ Spawn, his conversation on the Monday playoff last year of, you know, we had that like that just is a clip that's going to live forever, man, of one of your core championship.

So good on them for that one. You want to run down any other notes here? T. Sano Rory released his champion's dinner menu. I know that's got to be had to get, I'm sure you put that under the magnifying glass this week. A lot of people tagging me in on this. Listen, the wine list is awesome. And, you know, perhaps the Rory can put what he wants on his menu. I was a little bit disappointed.

I'll say, I thought the, uh, what had you disappointed? Just not adventurous enough, a little safe. Yeah, I don't know. Like the mains, I think had me disappointed. Like, I don't know, I like the local flavor with the peach and ricotta flap bread. Rockshram. Shrimp tempera fine. Bacon wrapped dates.

That was a shout out to his mom. I like that. Grilled elk sliders. I wonder if he served him Scotty style. You know, that's fine. He said he was eating a lot of elk last year. Yellowfin tuna carpaccio.

It's a delightful dish, right? That's a, you know, Daniel Ballude or ever up in New York. Then like the, the filet. That's just where it kind of threw me a little bit of like, I think we can do better.

I think we can get a better, a better, more flavorful cut in there. And seared salmon. Like, it's just, I don't know. I guess it's just a very Irish dish there. I'm sure the Vidalia onion rings will be great. The Irish champ and all of that. And then sticky toffee pudding, always good. Can't go wrong.

I know Rory loves Chateau de Kemp. Both, you know, he had a great white burgundy in there and then a 1990 first growth, Bordeaux. feet Ross child so all good it just feels very very safe Randy is all okay so but it's again it makes him happy that's yeah that's all that matters I would happily eat this meal for the record I looked at the main I was like that sounds good I would really enjoy that meal totally it's solid not not much lettuce on there I know that that's good but like the people I just thought that some of the people who are like this is the best one ever I'm like no this isn't even fucking

close. Are you saying people performative online, TC? No way. Decki, ROM, I mean, there's, there's been some really good ones. Brainy, I put this in here for you. TGL Championship is this coming. I didn't realize it's the best of three. It is Monday and Tuesday. By vaunted Juplix golf club. You cannot kill them. You didn't realize the finals formats, Holly. What's wrong? I thought it would. And it's a double header on Tuesday. Well, if it goes to a game three, if game three is a double header on Tuesday. But Jude pulled off the upset of Boston

Covenile Tuesday. Rory stunk. He was really bad. I did not think they had a shit. He didn't want to play the triple header or whatever. He might have been taking a little bit of a dive. We do lose Akshay to the to the hero in the Open. And that means kids will be back for the

championship. So I don't feel great about our chances. But hey, chip in a chair, man. We just cannot kill these guys. It's it was entertaining again, man. It really was. once they got hot and the hammer strategy with like your season on the line at the very end. Randy, I know it's not for you.

I'm doing what I said I would never do, which is try to convince anyone that it's worth watching. But, you know, there's been a couple weird like payoff moments late in the season. So I don't. I'm happy for you. Thank you.

I'm happy for you. It's been, Randy, I mean, they're, they're clearly like putting their thumb on the scale as far. All right. Solly,

did you see the ball hop out of the bunker to? Listen, that's my biggest beef with the whole thing is how bad the tech not like how bad the gameplay is. I will continue to say that. It just looks like, and I swear I've played Nintendo 64 games that have like better looking screen and gameplay and like just a like the ball is like dimpleless and there's there's there's there's grandstands without people in it. Like it looks terrible and they did not improve that part of it. And I think they got to get that right. They got to fix the delay from the ball hitting the screen and get going. and it's not it's not perfect randy i'd never said it was okay so don't don't you don't you put those

words in my uh la gc is currently minus 140 a win group links plus plus 120 again is ladc tg l staph just call the hotline just do it uh is is is tommy is tommy gonna play tommy's in the lineup yes so tommy saw hith and i'm assuming team rose i believe that to be the case it's collins banged up it's locked up He's locked up. Yes, it is official lineup. I have it here. Rose, Tommy and Scyth.

That's right. It's Max, Tom Kim and Kisner. So there was an article that was going around a little bit on the webs this week. Money in Sport article diving into a little bit diving into the PGA tour kind of financial situation. I'll just read the beginning of the article. It says after 30 committee meetings, the PGA. Tours future competition committee still hasn't resolved with the 2027 schedule will look like. This analysis reveals why the economics don't support the Tours ambitions.

And this article says by analyzing nonprofit disclosures, media markets, revenue trends, and sponsor longevity for the 20 tournaments that publish financials. We identify which events can thrive in a restructured tour and which cannot the finding. Fewer than seven tournaments currently meet the criteria for sustainable signature events. this was getting circulated in the in the the the bot part of the world as well as on the as on the uh the journal the journal yeah as well as the journalistic side i reached out to a lot of different people uh on this sunday of like just for a reaction on this and a lot of different walks of uh of you know people that work on the by side uh you know and that are involved in pGA tour events

uh people that work for uh with the tour people that used to work with the tour like hey just he'd check this one. What's going on here? And the answer was pretty unanimous of like, yeah, this is horribly incomplete. This is not very good analysis at all. It's a wild conclusion to reach without looking at the top level finances of the PGA tour at all as well, just kind of looking at individual 990s of individual events, which there's weird accounting in professional golf and how media rights deals work and all that stuff is like you couldn't project what the model looks like just by looking at individual tournament 990s. It might be an unsustainable model, to my knowledge.

I do, I could not, I would be very surprised of some very serious people got involved the tour and built an unsustainable model. But if that is, whatever the case is, the conclusions reached in this, in this article, were bad. It was, it was tough. And we've cited money and sport in the past that I kind of maybe regret doing that because I was kind of trusting them a bit more than, than I do now after having read that, read that one.

Yeah, it's not very well sourced. I'll say that. Yeah. I mean, what did Denny Cash have to say? Well, I'm bringing this up because it is an idea for a future Denny Cash episode. If there, if, please reach out to me. You can always reach out solid, no laying up.com. If you're ever curious for the next kind of finances tackle that we'll do in that world because those episodes have been well received.

Is this you telling Denny to reach out to you or? Potentially. Yeah, I haven't heard from Denny since the latest episode went out. But, you know, Denny's of course worked at this part of the world. He could tell us exactly how this stuff works. It is complicated. It's very complicated, but at the same time, the tour has an overarching massive media deal that helps fund a lot of purses. And it's not like, it made it sound like the tour is reaching into their coffers to top up all these tournaments.

And that's just, it's not that, it's a lot more complicated than it's not that, not that simple. So anyways. Anything else on the tour side, T.C. Jerry Tarty had an outrageous, outrageous column over a golf digest. There's just the, there's some doozies in there. His mission, you know, quote, his message was consistent and strong. And I'm rooting for him, but I wish he played golf. My first impression is that he should dress about.

Who's he talking about Brian Rollout? Armani it up a little bit, although I think he likes playing the role of scrappy every man who will outwork you to the end zone. That was his reputation at the NFL where he was known for his intelligence, strategic vision and relentless pursuit of ever higher media rights. he's analytical patient and unemotional. And it's like, all right, like all that's true, but I wish the guy dressed better because it's like,

it's one of the most outrageous. Just go read it. It's funny. We can link it in the show notes here as well. Otherwise, I saw Wyndham parted ways with his longtime caddy John Ellis. You know, so we'll see kind of which direction he goes from here.

And then, yeah, just looking ahead to Houston. Scotty, like you said, T ended up this week. Mason Howell is in the field. I'm a sponsor exemption as well. So I'm curious to see him, you know, playing at Memorial Park, which, as you all know, slaps. The first of two times we'll get to the Memorial Park. Yeah. Now women go in there.

All he doesn't like Memorial Park. Well, I'm struggling to marry last year's result, which was just bomb it anywhere. Chris Goderup saying in chasing Zadak and hit it anywhere at Houston with its slapping T.C. I think it did before the overseed though. Maybe they've adjusted their overseed program this year. Maybe. Maybe the greens will be more, more spicy. We'll get back to that overseed there here in a second.

We talk LPGA. We can. Now is the time, though, to visit Pinehurst Resort at the cradle of American Golf. Pinehurst is more than fame number two, an anchor site for the U.S. Open. It is Tom Doak's Masterful number 10. four historic hotels and newly built luxury cottages at Pinehurst number eight, the one-of-a-kind titleless shop at Pinehurst in the new Peter Millar shop, a trio of dynamic dining experiences in Station 21, plate, and the upcoming wiregrass.

Pinehurst blends timeless charm with the very best in the game today. Visit Pinehurst.com to plan your stay. T.C., we're at Pinehurst a year ago this week, although it was popping up on my phone. And I was just a little gutted, man. I miss Pinehurst in spring. It was always such a great trip that we did. done there. Pioneers.com to Plainters Day.

I think 10. Call that dope course. Piner's X. The disease. I think the, uh, that one's only going to keep getting better as it keeps growing in. And then I'm,

we're, we're going up later this year to see number 11 as well. Uh, the new core Crenshaw joint, which just looks intimate and spectacular. As far. So. Randy,

you want to take us on a little play by play, uh, from the founders. this past weekend? Yeah, sure. Founders, listen, important event on the LPGA tour. It honors the original 13 founding members.

We've talked about it in years past, but I really dig the idea behind this tournament. I think it should be one of the bigger week-to-week events on this tour, and they finally got back to a course that I think was worthy of hosting this event. If you'll remember a few years back, they were up in the Northeast, Montclair Country Club. And then they lost that and they were out in Arizona last year, and that stunk. Went to what Mountain Ridge, too, I think.

They were Mountain Ridge before Montclair. Yeah. So I want to talk about Sharon Heights, but let's do a little play-by-play. Jiu Kim won the tournament and it ended up being a duel. Her and Nelly Korda, Jiu entered the day five shots. up on Nelly. They were playing together in the final group. Nelly went on a run in the in the first nine both she and Hyju bogeed the second but then Nelly ripped off birdies on three five six seven and nine and then got one on ten and at that point we had a tie ball game because Huyju was just kind of spinning

her wheels she made a couple birdies on the front nine but then bogeed eight And so, guys, we get to 13, and this is kind of where I want to really pick up the play-by-play. If anybody wasn't watching, wild, wild turn of events. 13 is a part three, kind of almost a bowl, like definitely a feeder pin off of a back bowl just beyond the pin. And it was playing, I think, like 187, they were saying on TV. And so it was, you know, the women were hitting mid-irons to hybrid. I think Joju hit, I don't know if it was a wood or a hybrid, but she kind of tugged it and it ended up going long and it ran up the bank and then all the way to the 14th T-box. So she didn't get any of the slope advantage kind of funneling it back to the pin.

It left her in a very, very tricky spot where she took a lob wedge and was having to contend with that same downhill that she failed to use off the T. She hits this little flopper wedge on the green. This thing has speed. I think, guys, it's going off the green, right? Like, it's bogey at best. But it hits the middle of the flagstick, ricochets to about four or five feet, and she's able to make that par putt. And in hindsight, I think this is where she wins the tournament

because she would go on. On 14, Nelly hits it inside of her. It's a par four. or Kyoju has, what are we going to call it, sally 25 feet for birdie with some break and she cans it and Nellie misses her putt. And so between the huge break off the flagstick on 13 and then making the birdie on 14,

she would never relinquish this lead. Nellie tried to run her down. She did run her down. Yeah. Well, she had run her down. But after that she didn't, right? Or am I missing? Oh, I mean, yeah.

I feel like she did. She just forgot to make the two footer. Well, then we get to 17 where Nelly is trailing by just a single shot again. And again, Kho was in a tough spot, but gets up and down. Long of the green, over a hill, tons of rough behind the ball. Pitches up tight. Like, it was an awesome show. Yeah.

Nellie ends up missing like an foot and a half. maybe two foot put. It was three to four probably. I mean, she was out. She was out away from H.J. It was two. I think it was probably three.

It was probably, yeah. Okay. I'll be two. It won't give me. Just put a coin on it. Yeah. No,

but it was certainly a putt that she needs to make. And so she drops a shot there. She falls two shots behind with that bogey. The 18th is a par five. Kim hits it into the bunker, which kind of takes it. you know, is a big door opening. Up against the.

Where she's kind of got to splash out. Didia Shook took, what, three shots to get out of that bunker earlier? So you're thinking like Nelly, like you have the firepower to get home and two, like maybe make Eagle. Like this is, okay, we got a chance now. And then Nellie follows her up with a fairway wood right into that same bunker. And I was like, Jesus Christ, what are we doing here? It was, it wasn't driver. No, it was.

No, it was three wood. It was three wood pernelli. Yeah. Yeah, it felt like driver probably easily gets past that, I would think. It probably like lands where the, you know, it's like, I'm sure, I don't know what she was thinking, honestly. It's probably landing like where the bunker is, but yeah, it would have rolled out a ton. Nellie gets out. She's further back away from the lip.

So she hits out, hits her third, just behind the green. and she's like barely, barely on the fringe. She ends up chipping, has to make it, does not make it. So H.J., she's splashed out. She's, what, on the grid. She ends up having the two putt from about five and a half feet. She does miss the first one, just to keep things a little interesting. But taps in for a bogey, wins by a stroke.

She finishes 16 under, Nelly 15 under. But guys, we got a fun duel. I think that's the big takeaway. The golf course, I think there are three big takeaways for me. One, we got a fun duel between two, like, world-class players. Obviously, Nelly being involved is always great for everybody. I thought the golf course was a really good surprise, and I want to ask you guys about the golf course and your reactions.

And then it was a real first look at this enhanced LPGA tour broadcast. And I think it's indisputable that it's a better production than what we've seen the last, I mean, several years in these week-to-week events, right? Better cameras, more cameras, drones that really showed the scale, the slopes of Sharon Heights Golf Club. A lot more trackman. You know, they have a partnership with trackman. So a lot more tracers, some ball data, ball speed, apex heights. They were flashing some heat maps of the green. They're sick late in the day, kind of showing the slopes there.

We don't even get that on PGA tour broadcasts. Yeah. So, yeah, So, yeah, Sally, I'll throw it back to you. Do we want to start with Sharon Heights, the broadcast? Yeah, I think it all works together. One afternoon on the LPG. It all works together. It was in prime time.

It was Drew and our Slack said it great. It makes me want to play golf. Like, it did. It brought everything alive. So what I don't like about watching LPGA tour, sometimes is it can be it can feel like a putting contest where you're just watching putts on repeat and you're just watching shots in the fairway from the from behind the green you know and it's just like there's no there's no context for any of the shots there's no

story building of how the holes are playing and combining the drones with some handheld cameras and some firmness in the golf course I get it was a fun golf course combined with new angles and watching it was like watching a duel on it was great of every shot there was a you know, an advantage to playing certain parts of the fairway. It wasn't a brilliant golf course, but there was just some wrinkles in it that made it all interesting and sprinkling in a little bit

of drone footage just to show how dramatic the landscape is and what you're playing over and how, like, just the intention of detail and all those bunkers, how firm it played. It just, it looked like somebody gave a shit, man, and I do not walk away from watching LPGA tour. That's always been asking for.

Right? And it's like, you were capable of this. And I know FM has really stepped up to improve the coverage. And we had a great interview with Craig Kessel for the LPJ Tour Commissioner this past week. And they were saying a lot of great things. I was nervous about, you know, about how good it would look this early on. And it's not groundbreaking. It's not like this jumps the LPJ tour straight to the top of must-see TV.

But it levels the playing field better. It just, you're not watching a serious dip in quality now of an actual telecast. gets me it's way easier to get invested in the a storyline unfolding just little things like they got little like player intros that pop up now and it was three fun facts about nellie that i never heard before it's just like her coffee order her superstition um and i forget what the other one was but it was just like oh favorite lobby which is needle pointing needle point yeah there we go and like i'm like oh okay that's that's a little extra layer on things they i'm rambling here but they did a great interview and on Friday and documenting like her her journey to get to the LPGA tour like they paused the

golf for a little too long and just interviewed her for like 10 straight minutes like they could have done a little bit of both um be a picky but it was it was just they got player caddy combos they got like the boom my guys are getting aggressive out there and i like do get in trouble like go mess them things up do some things differently i feel like they are um they're they're on a i'm i'm I feel like they're really backing up all the things they said of this thing's going to be dramatically improved and I'm excited about it. T.C.

Yeah, I thought. Sorry, I took up like eight things there, TC. Oh, that's all right. I was jazzed. Oh, it's, it's, I mean, shit, when have we ever had this problem before an LPGA broadcast? I think the drone stuff brought that course to life

with all the, you know, the ninth hole's great. There's like, I don't know, I thought the setup was good. like they made him hit really like real shots down the stretch which isn't always the case in an l pga event the greens were firm the place firmed up like crazy tea shots were all interesting on it because yeah there was no yeah there was no intermediate cut it just went straight from like of you know 10 percent grade fairway so like start lines were super important off the tea and shaping

you know shaping the ball into slopes was was important ball was you know like i felt like we were watching the ball run out a lot like the ball was on the ground whether it was you know and and like great penultimate hole 17th hole there um going back like even like huger had a really good up and down or like really good par put i think on 16 to kind of like walked it in and like it was it was a producer's dream in that it was a duel there was two players that were involved from like say young kim made a little bit of noise but like otherwise it was it was a it was a two horse race for the better part of the day from, you know, for 12 or 12 to 14 holes. Yeah.

It was like, they got preempted a little bit by the old's, the Kolo Guard. They went to a playoff and then they gave us a little tease and then they went back to the playoff, you know, when Alker won. But I thought, yeah, I mean, all this stuff you said, Sally. And yeah, it's just like a dream of like Nelly charging, you know, damn near Bertie's six or seven holes in a row, like even on what was that eight, eight or nine. Like she didn't like, she didn't birdie it, but she had a good look. And then, yeah, and then like it wasn't great golf down the stretch, but it was really

entertaining, interesting golf and it was topsy-turvy. But man, I just wish, like, I feel like we're getting more emphasis and more oomph on the production value, but it still feels like the same talent. If you close your eyes, commentary. Same exact broadcast as years prior. So I was going to say a couple nits to pick, I guess. Oh, let me start here.

Salli, I think you made a great point about, like, this event last year was at a nondescript desert course. And you would have tuned in and you would have seen just, okay, hit fairway, hit green, ball's not really moving. And this is the credit to the golf course. T.C., like you said, the ball was spent, the ball was moving on the ground. much more so than your typical LPGA kind of week-to-week venue, I think, produces. And so you just inherently have interest there. The slopes, working balls back to the pins. If you miss the slope, you know, you're kind of working away.

Fantastic. I'm with you. Like just on that note, too, like the club clearly supported the tournament. Like club in the surrounding area, good crowds. Um, recent renovation of the club. Like I think they spent $23 million. It shows like it's a cool spot, cool trees, cool. Like that's what like when I tune into prime time golf,

felt like you were in NorCal like that's what I want to see. Like there was a sense of place and it, it kind of transported me there versus. And like that's the thing. Like give me, give me prime time, you know, LPGA golf, you know, there in from six to nine p.m. or seven to 10 p.m. if we get later in the year. Like, give me that more often on, on interesting golf courses that, that the men can't go to. Like, sign me up.

That's the, that's the recipe at least four weeks a year. I think to Randy's point, like all this beefed up coverage wouldn't have hit the same if they were at a dog shit course in Arizona again. I think this enhanced production deserves an infusion of energy into the broadcast, into the people. on the broadcast and I and I thought there was kind of a starkness to wow I'm seeing this this whole new broadcast but if I close my eyes it sounds like every old you know I like guys Morgan Pressel is not it for me and I don't necessarily want to like pick on her but I just don't think she does a great job I think she's pretty flat and monotone I don't think she like builds energy for the viewer I and I don't even think she

gives that great of insights most of the time. I think it's pretty just stock. Like, oh, yeah, no, like you said kind of what we were all thinking. I would switch that chair up if I were in charge of the broadcast. I just wish we could marry this production with like a refreshed team of talent and bring those things together. And then let's really, kind of set sale on a new chapter in televising women's golf. And I'm sure there are contracts. And so I would love to touch on the interview that you did with Craig Kessler because I think some of this stuff ties in there, just any kind of thoughts after the episode ran and anything that's been in your head. But that's one thing that sticks out. And then two, because it was a

duel, and the good news is we're going to be back at this course for the founders, at least for the next two years. I would like to see just a little bit more like flyovers. Talk to me about what these holes are. You know, where are the best places to like fit your drive? Where the good deal is from live. Have a have a player. Live has done this where they have a player voice over the hole and talk about the strategy that goes into it. Like do that. Do you don't need to be original here. Do that idea. Like that's a great you want to get your player personalities out there and a little bit of course documentation there like hell yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like the the commentary feels like a bad impression of a pro golf broadcast it feels like the

bare minimum to me and i feel like yeah like Morgan like there were like a dozen times today where like what she said was just like flat out wrong the ball ended up in a different place that like i don't know if that's not showing up on her monitor or whatever but it's just and then i think like the with grant and morgan and karen in the booth it just feels like one plus one plus one equals like one and a half i feel like karen it's not the best version of karen because she doesn't really know what her role is there you know like there's there's just too many too much going on so yeah all that to say like i would mel read or yeah just we need some just a rethink on the commentary so yeah so i what do you would can we well yeah i'd like to i'm just going to

throw out like it's clear from talking to Craig both you know on the air and off the air and like talking to chat like they've put a lot of ideas into play very quickly uh they've made a lot they've taken a lot of action very quickly and i'm like they're listening like they're listening to feedback so like you you mentioned the commentary change there but like what else would you put on your list of like if they're listening to to uh you know what people are saying of what they want uh out of l pGA tour golf what what what what's next up on your list like What do you go into next to say, like, let's tackle this? I'm really curious how they're able to handle showing more players across a golf course.

I think that's one thing that I did not necessarily get answered. And they did not need to. Again, this was a duel all day today. But I think in the past where we've seen LPGA broadcast struggle is like they have a very small amount of cameras. out there. And so I think there will be a time, hopefully sooner than later, where it's like, hey, this is a wide open tournament. We got players making charges. Like, let's show a lot of golf shots from across the golf course. And not just you're like, this is the tower shot of a ball landing, or we cut to somebody making the birdie putt, right? Like, I want to see, I want to see more

building the drama showing us what's going on in the tournament. That would be one thing. I am really curious. I don't have a great answer except for like maybe the NFL films people can come out once or twice a year. But like I know Craig, as he mentioned in your in your podcast with him, Sali, which everybody should listen to if you missed the podcast that you and Cody did with Craig. I thought he was great. But I know one of his pillars is we.

have to tell the stories of these athletes we have to get people invested in who they're seeing on the television screen and so um just flashing the little like facts about people today like yeah that's that's a nice thing but i'm just curious what maybe they have in mind to those ends is it and i'll say like a big part of it's like just get the boom mics get the player caddy convo like pick up audio on the golf course, I think goes a long way. So we'll be curious what that entails. And then I just think the big thing for me that is going to play a big role in all of this is, I hope it's next year. They're going to have to really, really, really remake the schedule and rethink the schedule. And I think that's the elephant in the room right now is like, what is that going to look like?

And right now they're playing tournaments January to Thanksgiving in November. And it's like that's too long of a season. I'm really, I can't wait to see what this reimagined schedule and season looks like, I guess would be my overarching thing. Yeah, I think my stuff is mainly around setup, which we saw a better setup this week. And some of that's because they're on a good golf course, but also they did allow it to dry out. And they did put pins in.

Like on Thursday, I remember firing it up and seeing the pin on, it was the ninth hole like tucked right behind this bunker. I was like, whoa, that's different. Like, you know, they got to hit a shot to get it back there. And I feel like it's definitely allowed for more separation this week,

like on the leaderboard. And, you know, what, 15, 16, 17, 17,000, par. like it was out there like there were plenty of birdies out there but there were consequences and bogies to be had as well which is you know it just felt consequential i think on the the schedule front randy that's where i go to immediately and i know this is easier said than done but you know i think the west coast thing this time of year is is a no-brainer like i keep coming back to like chambers bay and like watching you know like granted that would have to be later in the year but like watching

the US AM at Chambers Bay a couple years ago or the US women's AM at Chambers Bay is awesome right like give give me that or I don't know I watched like the Western intercollegiate at Pasa tempo give me like a LPGA match play made for TV at Pasa Tampo you know golf sickos would I mean that'd be awesome yeah and like I feel like you're you know you're kind of leaning in on like all right it's it's like it's kind of appointment viewing right you you know you're kind of have proven to people. I think there's a lot of like and I know it's like it's it's easier said than done up east with a lot of country clubs. It's a it's a shorter season and like they don't want to host pro golf men or women, right? It's just they don't want to give up their courses. So I think

some of these having some like founders that bounce around a little bit is awesome. I think they should go to the park in in West Palm. I think that place would be killer for it. Like you do like you start the season there. You have a big Florida event there. A lot of ladies live in that area anyway. Weather's this time of year would play fast and firm and like that. That place was made for this style of golf. Yeah. And I don't know. I mean, I think the high in the sky would be, I think that they should throw up a Hail Mary and say, all right, once out of the next five to ten years, PGA tour, let us let us let us. Let us. come host a ladies event at TBC Sawgrass.

Yeah. I know that that gets complicated with Optum and Comcast business and Morgan Stanley are the proud partners and figure it out. Figure it out, guys. Do piggyback the weeks or something if you have. I'll just make the point. Sawgrass and Augusta are the only two courses in golf that we get to see the men that we don't see the women at.

And I, yeah, those are two courses. love to see the women. I think, Sally, I missed one thing, and this has been like, they have to, they have to have better, one, we got to do a better website and we got to do a better app. Like, I cannot tell you how frustrated I am opening the LPJ app, and it asks me to either sign in and continue as a guest every single time.

Like Craig, Chad, if you're listening, that is fucking ridiculous. Like, fix that tomorrow. Just take me to the main page. I know we're on the right path with Trackman and being able to collect better information, but we just got to be able to tell, we got to have the stats available, the data available to tell better stories of what's actually happening. Because I think that's, you can only get so far talking about the human interest stuff.

At some point you've got to marry it with like, okay, what's their skill or what's their weakness? What do we have to get better at? Like we have to very objectively know what we're watching. Really perfect example today. Nellie had, Nellie had she made one, two, three, four, five. She made six birdies and had 32 puts.

I would love to be able to dig a little bit deeper into that. Yeah, right, right. And I get that they're doing the KPMG, but it's still just like caddy's eye and stuff. Like they have to have shot link data. Don't get about something. Gun the putts. You know, it's one thing for all the balls and play.

I use the shot link or, you know, the caddy data for teas and greens and everything works fine, but just being able to whatever. That, yeah, maybe, maybe I'll put that on my list. And I would just say, continuing to zoom in on, on just making the broadcast more and more intimate. Like, I did great jobs with player caddy combos and low handheld cameras in fairways to show off layers and things, but just the more you can make it zoom in there. I want players telling camera crews to back up, all right?

Like the guy, the guy got like on the green filming Nelly when she was stayed on the sprinkler on whatever hole that was. Like I was like, what is that camera guy? That guy was getting in there. Oh, he's documenting. She's staying on the sprinkler head. Like, I want to see them keep getting aggressive and keep leaning into ways you can make things a little bit different and just do not be afraid to try a single thing.

just the way their social is already changed a lot of just like the way they introduced us to natasha andrewan this week was super interesting her press con like a little 45 second mashup of her press conference they did of just the weird crazy shit she was saying all over the place was just like oh okay this person's got personality might you know i might be a little you know this might be a little like young for for my generation but like all right this is an easy person to root for um keep keep doing that and they're going to continue to approve. So great first step and help. Obviously, the venues in the schedule is paramount,

like way more important than anything else. And I feel like next week we're going to have a, we're going to have a step back next week at the Arizona event. But then very curious to see how they set up Shadow Creek in a few weeks. Shadow Creek is sweet. And that place can be so hard the last couple years. Yeah, I know. back to the golf

Hijo Kim winning with so much less in the tool category than Nelly Korda has of like watching Nelly backspin one and the part of 317th with like a nine iron and I know Jiu kind of pulled it and hit a hot at a hot Carl

but like it's wouldn't even close to be able to hold that green gets it up and down just to watch Nellie 3 putt it like watching it seemed like she had so many bad shots and she shoots like 17 under par and wins it Like it's just a really wildly impressive scrambling ability and short game. I don't think, like, I swear she was not anywhere off from 141 or 142 ball speed on any drivers I saw today.

It's the exact same, like almost every single time. And I just have so much respect for it because it's just, she's so scrappy and so tough and just not someone I would want to be locked into a duel with. I was joking with my wife was watching with me. And I was like, God, I wish we had like live loop data. on hōju because i swear like her heart rate wouldn't get above 80 like she just cody and i got to do the pro am at the aig women's open last year and she is like just so chill so even keeled and i think her personality reflects in her golf game soli to your point where it's just so steady so

consistent like when she's on she she's just like she's just flushing it She's hitting it properly and then she's got a good enough short game. You know, when she's making putts, it's like, yeah, she's a top 10 player in the world. Like that's the formula. She just doesn't seem to get bothered by anything. And so even when you have Nelly mounting this charge and, you know, Nellie can do some things with the ball and in the clubs that she can't. It's just, Jou went about her business, got a great break on 13. and parlayed it into a win.

I love the contrast, I guess, a little bit. I thought that's partly what made this dual interesting. Was like you had a real contrast in playing style, personality and popularity for an American audience. Thank you. What did you guys make of Gino? Just final round 73. T.C., I'm glad you asked.

I was pissed at Gino. You know, I was, I was settling in. I knew I was watching this final round. I was looking forward to it. I, I perused my, you know, here in Colorado. I saw Gina was even money to finish top five. I said, oh my God, give me that all day. And she goes out and shoots a freaking 73.

Oh, he did her first two holes. Send her some DMs, big. I know. I think it was just, it seemed like just slop. She just seemed not on it. just sloppy i think that the question we want to see gino answer is when the ball rolls a lot on the ground can she be the best player in the world or does she need it soft and scoreable and yeah i i think this was an interesting data point to that nTC people seem to be coming around

well that brings me to our to our next question um we have we're about one month out from the first major of the year. Of course, there's five majors on the women's side. I couldn't figure out a non-confusing way to word this one as well. But like you get to name, you try to pick the major winners for this year. We're not going to try to match them up with the actual majors, all right? But if you had to pick five players to win majors this year. And if you, you know, if one of your, your players wins multiple majors, that that counts as well. But you get five players to cover the board on the LPGA tour this season. Or like, assume that there's a different winner for everyone. Who would your five major winners be if you had to try to pick to get as many points as possible for this year randy i'll start with

you all right i mean i guess i'd be shocked if i got to take gino and i got to take nelly yeah i'm just putting those two on the board um and i think every heck it's a little interesting i think hannah green is somebody and i know tc we're going to mention she won the australian women's pga her third win in in three starts across both the l pga and the lete i only think Hannah gets more interesting because they're going back to Hazeltine, which is where she won her women's KPMG, PGA championship. So yeah, give me, give me Hannah Green. I think she's been knocking at the door for the last couple of years. She has leveled up her game. And I'll just say, let me just make a sidebar. Talking about H.J. and now like this exercise, this is where

I get frustrated with the lack of stats. Like, it just, it would be so much more compelling if we had a treasure trove of just real stats that we could date a boy yeah um so give me hannah uh i'm gonna take i always feel good about minji lee winning a major that was my fourth and then for my fifth i was thinking i i need a japanese player uh i'm gonna go with one of the ys and i pick chasato e y for my fifth tc what's your fun yeah all right I'm going to go. Did you prepare this or do you need time? No, no, I did.

I did. I'm just, Randy's in my head now. Yeah, we got Hannah Green. She got her husband, Jared, on the bag. She's, she's winning everything in sight, but I don't know if we're going.

I don't know. I think Lidim is going to be really interesting. I think Lidom's going to be a fascinating, fascinating test. It's like one of the tournaments I'm most excited for this year. But I'm going to go with Angel Yinn. Okay.

I think she wins Hazeltine. Interesting. course for her. Solly, we played with her at hasten, and I just can't get that out of my head of like, she's just, she's just, Taylor made it for that course. I've got Minji as well. I think Minji wins something like Riviera. I've got Lottie Wode.

Lottie's going to win a major. Would love it. I wouldn't be shocked if she won't a couple. Gave her consideration. I've got Rio Takeda, winning a major. And then I've got Miu Yamashia. as well. So I've got two, two Japanese. No, no, no, Gino. No, Nellie, no Gino. Interesting. Good on you, T.C.

truly, because I, I thought I was, when I saw Sally's question, I'm like, why don't we just make it three? Well, I'll take Nellie and Gino, but good on you for, for bucking that. And I thought about Lydia or, but I don't know, I don't know where Lydia's heads at, right? She feels like she's, yeah, it feels like she's kind of got one foot out the door. The one I struggle with it and Sally, I know I'll set you up here for your five, but One, like picking the right Japanese woman, and then Ronnie Yin, I didn't know what to do with because she hasn't been playing great golf. But, Sally, give us your five. Who do you have?

Well, yeah, I don't have a Japanese woman that feels off, but it was mostly because I couldn't decide on which one to pick. I've got Gino. I got Nellet Chevron. That was going to be my thing of like the overseas, though, and it being, you know, it played, played well for distance on the men's side last year. It makes me think this could be a gas pedal event for Nelly. I think that this should be circled on her calendar. Like it should be a very, very, very good course fit for her. I got Hannah as well.

I got Minji Lee and I got Lottie Wode. So mine is a makeup between your two lists. This was a little harder to do than I thought it would be. I thought I was going to get a little further down the board. But I pretty much on it that I think Genome wins one this year. The Nelly Chevron matchup is what, if Nelly doesn't win Chevron, I think that one could miss quite easily. And then it's hard not to not to picture Hannah Green winning.

one. And people maybe sleeping a little bit on Lottie Wode, just a little bit, just been a little quiet lately. And then Menji, just a fourth major is a lot. That'd be a lot. But I just, there's just, once it gets into that hard U.S. Women's Open, hard KAPMG Women's PGA, live them. And then we've seen her have success, of course, at Evian as well. Like, it's just hard not to take her to win one. I'm fascinated to see how they set up Riviera, because you got the Kakuya, around the greens. You can't run it up. Like that, you know, the fourth hole. Like, how are they going to set that up? How far up are they going to move the T's? Otherwise, nobody's going to hold the green.

I bought Minji at Riviera. That was the one I was kind of like when it gets tough. I like Minji. I think we're, we're probably all missing. And I don't know who it is, but like not having a Korean winner feels like a very big miss. I absolutely. you know i know i'm not going out of limb but certainly a korean women could win at least one major this year there's only there's only two korean women in the top 10 in the world right now which is is it hey is it hioju and haydon ru uh hiyu and say young kim oh say young okay edons 13 interesting she slipped yeah okay yeah i mean there's only four in the top 20 there's twice as many Japanese ladies. So I also really wanted to pick Charlie Hall, but like I until she I just to actually

win one, I'm going to have to see. Yeah, I was headed that way and I looked at it. I was like, I don't think so. I just I just don't got a lot of runner-ups, but not consistent major performance. Stali, I really like this segment. I think in maybe before Chevron, uh, we need another segment like this. Picking five, like let's throw five would be first time major winners on the board. then we can prospect a bit does rose zang win a l pga event this year i i i'll say she does that's hard to say yes to that right now she's we're coming up on two years since she's won one one we just got to get school we got to get the school stuff out of the way and then i got to i got to talk to some people figure out if she's like healthy there are some things we got to figure out there but yeah i'm in randy

you know it hurt me to not not pick lynn grant to win a major this year a Swedish i know that was the other kind of country right now i'm just seeing the n o you right i want to go put these in the the nl u record last year you predicted a win in five a major and five worldwide wins for gno uh she won three times last year um hold on are you count the lady saudi no she won four she won four times but no major you were you got was a grace kim chip in from that being exactly right That was a great call. Yeah. Thank you.

You're exactly right. All right. We're going to get canceled online for waiting an hour and 40 minutes to get to T.C.'s favorite event, live South Africa. Bryson DeShambo beat John Rom in a one whole playoff. Just what a moment, one of the most profound moments in golf history. I was reading about it online this morning. Just a truly outrage just never seen before. We'll get to the tweets to go through.

The golf tournament, it was a very good finish this morning. It was very, very, very wet. I didn't get to watch much until they got, I watched the 18th hole and then into the playoff. But people were very, a certain group of people were extremely jazzed up about getting Bryson Rahm this morning. And, you know, Ram, one of your quote-unquote dudes got beat by Bryson, who was allegedly not a dude, in your opinion.

He's not yet. been officially crowned dude correct once you're a dude can you fall out of dudedom so that was another thing we haven't been like gone through it's like a it's it's kind of how I'm viewing this is when you put somebody in the dude category it's a year it's at least a year long commitment like you you are committing to like that from that point

that person is going to be here a year from now still being like a dude in these tournaments rom is rom hasn't run has been there for like seven years no he doesn't like he doesn't he doesn't He's the buoy. Like, everybody says that about him. He's the buoy.

He doesn't, like, have serious dips in his play. He's, uh, he's a dude. He's just always there. I, but like,

he's won recently. Like, Rom's still, Rom is, do you, do you agree that Rom's a better golfer than Bryson? Yeah. I mean,

it's a similar thing. It's a side conversation for, from South Africa stuff. But yes. Yeah. I don't know. You just, there's certain that,

yeah, I don't know. But some of it comes back to like, you're essentially making the same argument that i make for tommy sometimes absolutely i'm not john rome has won two major championships tc i'm saying over the last the last couple of years rham hasn't won much he hasn't won much since he's gone to live correct like he hasn't even won much on live which is crazy i know he's still like there he's still playing very consistent golf

worldwide like he's still the floor is extremely high with rome he doesn't that part does not go away is my overall point of why he's dude uh anyway i think i don't know i just i think brison's bryson's ceiling needs to be recognized it's extremely high bryson is a very very high ceiling so okay i i think i think i think zander's next up in nomination before bryson is is is a is a point that we can table that conversation we'll get there two times u s open i i kind of think you're underselling bryson one's a covid one at winged foot like that's a The other one was like mono and mono against Rory at Hinehurst on a fantastic. Bright and Zander won two majors that year.

So read the tweets. Read the tweets. The tweets were from the early part of the week. Arlo White had a tweet that says, if you could shape your opinions with a broad view of the wider world and not a myopic and self-serving obsession with a single nation's dominance of an entire sport, then it's just obvious that tournaments like this are, fantastic for capital G golf and for a country like South Africa.

That was from Arlo White. Luke LV was very online this week. He said, I'm never acknowledging another person who says live golf is meaningless. The league is doing more to grow the game globally than anything or anyone else right now. And all your hate towards it won't change that fact. Change is happening in real time. He would also go on to say probably an unpopular opinion,

but it would be great of Golf Channel had a one-hour highlight. light show to recap the day's play at Live Golf. Essentially when the event is in a hard time zone for North America or those who complain, they can't watch some of their favorite players anymore. Yeah, that I'm sure they're going to get right around to that one. He also said, if you've been an advocate for a United Global Tour like me, listen to the joy and emotion Burmie Golf speaks with. If you still believe all the best golf in the world should only play in America,

then unfollow me now. You are the problem. It's a shame that like Liv refuses to go. to Chile, right? Like they, they refuse to go to Waco's home country. They refuse to go to Argentina. They refuse to go to. You've got to get to New Orleans, man.

Various corners of the world. The world's golf tour. You know, it's totally underserved. I'll say the same, it's the same conversation after Adelaide. It is very clear that there is a market for this level of golf in South Africa. They had massive crowds this week, 100,000 people. uh, there like the report, you know, the, the vibe was incredible. People were seriously into it.

It's still the same conversation to me. It is not, here's what, here's the part that gets where, where I'm at on this is like, for everything that anyone involved with this league has to make it about the PGA tour. Like everything they do has to be about the PGA tour. Like you're missing like, just, just every comment about it is just laced with like, you guys are idiots for missing out on this. There's no awareness, no awareness at all that we have given this a shot. We have looked into it.

We've watched it from afar, from a competitive golf. It's not why I love golf. Like, it's not a competitive enough product that it's where my interest goes in golf. That's why I think Briseon should not be playing there. That's why I think Bryson should not be playing there. I don't think Cam Smith should be playing there. Neiman, Hatton. Those guys belong on the best golf tour in the world.

That's what I like about golf, like the most competition. Some people like music while you're playing it. They like, you know, big, it's a concert tour. They have concerts at every one of the, like, it's a great outdoor event. It's great for people to attend. Every report I've ever heard from people that go to the events say that they're fun. I don't get to go to, I don't travel the world to go into golf tournaments. I watch a lot of them on television.

I have no interest in the television product of this, of this. That's still the same. Like, you can, two of these things can be true. It's great to bring some of these events, bring some of these really top-level players to these locations. That was always an option. in a different world. They didn't do that until they were contracted

with Saudi Prince money to go to these places. Some guys do go play Africa's major or the Joe group open. But I mean, yeah, I don't disagree. I think that there's good weeks on Live and then I think the bad weeks are like really bad. Really bad.

And this was like, was like, this was a good week for Liv. Like this is again, a micro thing. I said the same thing about Adelaide. Micro. Like is that event a good thing for the golf world? Like of course. It is.

Macro, was it worth blowing up the entire professional golf world for this? Is it worth to have ROM maybe missing a writer cup which we can again get to? Is it worth him not being on,

you know, playing the players? Absolutely not. Like, of course it's not. But that it's not that much more complicated than that. And it, a lot of the sentiment this week was like,

wow, the PJ tour missed the boat. Like they really missed the boat. Like not taking this thing worldwide, not taking it global. It's like, very clearly, like extremely clearly, the corporate interests for the PGA tour are in America,

like extremely clearly. Like, it is not in the PGA tour's best benefit, like from a selling standpoint and dollar making standpoint to take their tour on the road and to like operate these massive events at a loss in all these locations like Live is doing. Live is a very different model.

They have unlimited funding from a Saudi prince. And it's not a real business. So they can afford to do this and make this big scene about at all and make us feel like we're all missing out on it. And like it's just not a real thing. It was never a real thing. It wasn't a real thing for Ron. Rom never went to these places until he was contracted and had to do it. Like there's a reason for that. I'm like I don't know how else to say that. And nothing that happens on live is going to change like the facts of the matter. God, I love when you get riled up about this. And I just like to, I don't know, it's happening.

They'd be far better off to just throw it a bunch of money to national opens and putting standing up a massive could be so much better i know like yeah like that's where i think the dp world tour should just call them up and say hey we will bring your money into the ecosystem and give you an off ramp here for live and so i just don't think you like the crushers either they who's my team smash oh so it was smash but you need to retake the quiz i might need not i thought that was tgl is there a is there a live quiz too oh yeah yeah yeah but i mean the but Like this was right there for the Southern Guards. Some of the, some of the, like I read through all the press conference transcripts this week.

Just some outrageous stuff in there from all corners. I know the crushers went off on rollback various things. Bryson was started crying. He had all sorts of, you just, yeah, just a lot going on. It seems for him personally. No, but no details there. he paused for a group hug with the crushers behind the green there

I mean the Schwartzel couldn't hit a driver down the stretch and just they like the Southern guards just completely bottled it they choked down their legs they're probably drinking their brandy and brandy and Coke tonight

Bryson shot in the playoff was absurd it dropped out of muddy like 320 yards out of the rough hit it under the ground of they're at altitude but it was an insane insane shot um i i think gosh looking elsewhere uh david poohs playing good golf right now another like t six for him uh randy your guy bon honor bon lehari it's just so weird to see like bond and parles howl and then like bryson it's i just just just just and then paul case he's just

there mickleson was back this week uh just kind of unseremsority Blandi T12. Pretty good week for my crush or from my for my for my for my for my for my cleaks. Yeah, they got cleaks, uh, solo sixth this week just ahead of the high flyers beat riper beat the aces beat smash. You know, range goats are kind of all over the place. Korean golf club is just the drags this year. They were DFL by nine. But, um, but yeah, just some, some truly outrageous stuff as far as the, uh, as far as the press conferences. Like, They're just feeding these guys red meat. Yeah.

The paid live, actual media people asking Bryson, like, how does it feel? Could you believe you're the most popular player in the world right now? It's like, okay. Maybe. Yeah, maybe that maybe. It, the, do, can we do the rollback stuff? Like, Brianson was, I don't know what he was asked about it, but he would go on to say, If you want to say that a driver back in 2009 is worse now, I would actually disagree with you on that.

I think they're relatively the same and not much has changed. You can't change it that much with the rules being the way they are. That's so false. That's so incredibly false. The forgiveness on the drivers, like the title of street. It's so much more forgiving than even the TSR was. Like that's documented through robot testing too. Like that's that's crazy.

Crazy false. And somebody that claims to be a physics major or physics physicist, like wouldn't know that, of course. Because I think it's a lot more than, it's a lot more of the athletic ability and not being as afraid to go after shots or swing harder or be more aggressive. Let the athletes be athletes and let's go have some fun. Again, try to marry those two things. Like you literally said aloud, not being afraid to go after shots. The equipment's giving you free permission to wail on as hard as you can. Let's go have some fun.

Brightson, what if my idea of fun is different? Like, why do we assume a uniform definition of fun? That's what I never understand. Here's where I'm about to blow by top, though. This is the worst part of all of it. He said, what are the bodies of golf trying to accomplish? Are they trying to preserve the traditions in history of the game? Or are they trying to grow the game?

Because those are two different things. They can cross over in some facets in some regard. But when you're trying to preserve the traditions, and say history of the game, yeah, you're going to want to go back to a golf ball that's going shorter because players are more athletic. Yeah, you're going to want to shrink the heads. You're going to want to do this or that. But if you want to grow the game, that's not how you get kids to hit the golf ball farther and enjoy it and want to be a part of this game. They're at a bit of a crossroads right now and they have to answer those questions.

What do these governing bodies really want? If they can answer that, then we can start moving in that direction. But right now, they have to answer that question before us players can get involved, because if they want something different, well, us players may want to make it easier for others like I do. Solly, are you saying that the governing bodies have not, in fact, answered that question? Oh, my God, Bryson, they have answered this question so many possible ways. In 2002, the joint statement of principles, the RNA and USGA said any further significant increases in hitting distances at the highest level are undesirable. Okay? Question answered. Now, if you really want to get specific on this,

and I'll try to get through this as fast as I possibly can, Bryson, the Distance Insights Project, February 4th, 2020, the USGA also said, we believe that this continuing cycle of increases is undesirable and detrimental to golf's long-term future for two main reasons. First, the inherent strategic challenge presented by many golf courses can be compromised, especially when those courses

have not or cannot become long enough to keep up with increases in the hitting distances of the golfers who play from the longest T's. Increased hitting distance can lead to a reduction in the very, variety, length, and creativity of shot types needed on such courses and to holes, more often being overpowered by distance as well as to an increased emphasis on the importance of distance at the expense of accuracy and other skills. This can begin to undermine the core principles that the challenge of golf is about using a broad range of skills and making risk reward judgments during a round.

The result is also that an increasing number of such golf courses, both widely renowned and less well-known, are at risk of becoming less challenging or ultimately obsolete for those who play from their longest tease serious loss for the game. Would you like me to continue? That is, that is, could that be any more clear? Could that be any more clear? Second, the overall trend of golf courses becoming longer has its own adverse consequences that ultimately affect golfers at all levels of the game as a whole.

Expanding existing golf courses and building longer new ones often require significant capital investment and higher annual operating costs. Overall, the trend towards longer golf courses puts golf at odds with the growing societal concerns about the use of water, chemicals and other resources, pressures for developmental restrictions and alternate turn to land use, and the need to mitigate the long-term effects of changing climate and natural environment. We just need to answer these questions. Was this the second week in a row that the crushers have gone off on rollback?

Or was this all the stuff from like a week ago? I thought this was all just this week. Okay, okay. Maybe it was. I did see Bryson, he got asked, you spoke about the drivable part fours. I know recently you spoke about the ninth hole at Cyprus point being one of your favorite risk reward holes in all of golf.

Bryson said, yeah, it is. Question, I know you potentially have a golf project brewing in California. How much do you think about golf course architecture outside of being a professional golfer and playing golf? How much do you actually think about golf course design? Bryson, you have asked some of the most incredible questions this week. I really appreciate your questions. All three in the front have been amazing.

Everybody has been great too. They've done a great job. Yes, I love the drivable part of floors. And I am dabbling in some architecture and design. I've already designed a few. you waiting for them to get done. I quite honestly think about having two, potentially three drivable holes on each course. I think part threes are too long nowadays. I think it would be so cool to have a 40 or a 50 yard part three. Why don't we have that out here? It blows my mind. I think one of

the most brilliant things the USGA did at LACC was have that 55 yard part three. It was like 97. I forgot what hole it was, 15 or something like that. But it was such a brilliant, brilliant design for that. for that 55-yard shot. I think golf courses should be more like that. There should be at least one hole that's super short that really makes you think. There's consequences to bad wet shots. Rice and you need to go down to Lacumbrae down in, there's a 66-yard par three down in Argentina.

Also, he says, I think that would also speed up play. I think the game has gotten really long. We don't necessarily need that. I wonder why the game has gotten so long. You need to make the greens a little quirkier and more unique and the shots a little more quirky and unique. That's what can make golf really fun. As I'm thinking about design moving forward in the future, there's some really cool tricks up my sleeve that I want to apply or try on the golf course when I'm designing. Very excited for that.

But yeah, there will always be drivable par fours on every golf course that I design. So, this sounds like a pace of play nightmare. Having wildly tricked up par threes that you just can't get the ball in the hole on. Why is nobody doing this? That's a question the USDA needs to answer. They got it. Again, and you want to talk about grow the game. Just again, a reminder.

I believe I have these stats right between 2003 and 2018, golf saw a decline of over 6.8 million players and more than 1,200 course closures in that time. COVID brought it back. It was not, it is not big drivers and the ball going far that is making golf thrive. That is just, it was in decline. I think every single year from 2009 all the way to 2019. If I remember that, I couldn't find the exact stat on that.

if I remember right. So again, just a complete false narrative of everything Bryson's getting into. But, uh, golf needs, you know, golf needs its version of pickleball.

Is what I think. Just siphon off a bunch of people. Yeah, whatever that is, just go do it. Supposed to be that. And have a great time. And that's awesome.

And if that's what you dig, then more power to you. And then like, can we shrink the game and have golf, be golf for those that, like golf. Bryson also had another one. There was a question.

It's very emotionally draining your profession, your sport. It's day one of four. Your finish on 18 was electric. What happens now with the rest of your day? How do you decompress? What are the things you do to go through to know that you can do it all again tomorrow, Friday, Saturday, Sunday? Yeah, great question.

Personally, for me, I'll go sign some autographs that actually re-energizes me. It makes me feel really good about what we're doing here. That gives me a little bit of life to go practice for a good 30 minutes. And hopefully I figure out the driver real quick. That, da, da, da, once we get treated, actually the spa here is unbelievable. So I go into the salt tub and there's like a magnesium tub, just crazy. That helps me relax quite a bit and I get treatment from our team. You can call him a physio.

He's not really a physio. But Ryan treats me and he makes me feel a lot better. And then I'll go relax. I'll probably go watch Pirates of the Caribbean or something tonight. I was watching that last night. So that was fun. All right, we've got a Chris Pratt reference. This Chris Pratt quote about,

do I want to be somebody else or do I, like, I don't know what I want to be anymore, 2022. I mean, just go read the transcripts. They're insane from this week. On the DP World Tour, American Jordan Gumberg wins the What About China, Hanan Classic by one over Jorge Campillo. It was a fun. I didn't watch it.

of it, but the pictures of the golf course were insane. There were some, actually some really cool holes out there. But you got 90 seconds to get whatever you want in from this one. The bullet, Marcus Armage, starting to round into form. Adrian Otagway with his third top 10 in a row. Tough Sunday for Oklahoma State alum Bo Jin. He totally bottled it. He was kind of in the driver's seat here.

Randy, a caddy fell in the water. I did see that. Yeah. DJ said he was like, man, you were a week early. I was like, damn. Keita Nakajima, straight whiffed one. Like he just straight whiffed the shot out of the fairway. It was crazy.

There were underwater. He was trying to pull off of it. There was a noise. And like he tried to like, did it count as a joke or no? I don't know if it ended up counting. But like it looked as close to a real shot as it possibly could have been. There was some underwater bunkers. I did not understand that over.

Yeah, that was kind of crazy. They were marked. Like I couldn't. tell if they were actual hazards or if they got in a bunch of rain or whatever. And then, yeah, it's DLF week this week. So P is not in the field, unfortunately. At some point, we're going to have, it's going to have to be reflected in his Fedora 5 ranking. And then Akshay is making the trip and David Pooch is in the field as well.

So, and then, Sally, just a couple other various notes I had. Did you guys see the Jerry Kelly back injury video? I'm going to start. I have been nominated to start doing that when I have to withdraw with back in Truce. That was great. The drugs just weren't strong enough. You know, he was just gutted to have to leave the Kolo Guard.

Sali, you were quite chuffed by this one. Blocky's son. Poodie cuts. He's what entered. Was it a Monday cue or a section? I don't know. I just saw he was in a tournament. He goes by his TikTok channel,

Pooty Cuts, Block. I did get a kick out of that. The potential great man, Harry Hall, it was with his absolute boys. He flew one of his childhood best friends over for the Peeky Blinders premiere in NYC. Just a great aesthetic from him. I love that.

New York. What else we got? We got, guys, I went down to High Grove, crazy Gil, Gilhance, Jim Wagner joint down in, kind of west of Lake Okeechobee, south of Seabring. Crazy. Kind of like Innesbrooky and that like, you're like, whoa, I'm in Florida. This is like playing on the south edge of the Lake Wales, Sand Ridge.

Yeah, like through the orange groves and stuff. It was very, very good. So I would anticipate that one hitting the rankings list here in the next you know, 8 to 12 months. Thank you, T.C. That is going to move us towards wrapping. We have PJ Tours off

to Houston this week. LPJ Tours mentioned is head to Arizona for the Ford Championship. DPP World Tour is off to DLF for the Hero Indian Open. Live is off until the Masters. Get this one. Corn Ferry Tours back in the States for the Club Car Championship at the Landings Golf and Athletic Club.

That is up there for most good words. Most words in a tournament in professional golf. So Jen, did not expect us to go two hours tonight, but as always a treat chatting with you for TC and Randy. Thank you, everyone, for tune in. We got a fun master's pod coming up for you this coming Tuesday. And then we'll, of course, have another recap pod coming up this coming Sunday night. Thank you very much for tuning in, and we'll see you next week.

Cheers. Crack on.