No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 1178: PGA Tour Announcement Reaction + KPMG Storylines

Episode Date: June 24, 2026

Substantial changes are on the way for the PGA Tour as Brian Rolapp announced a new competitive structure beginning in 2028. Join us as we react to the new two-tiered system, the February-to-August season, the match-play postseason, and more. Plus, we get you ready for the third major of the LPGA season as the best women in the world head to Hazeltine National for the KPMG Women's PGA Championship. Nelly Korda is chasing three in a row, Minjee Lee returns as defending champion, and Lydia Ko looks to complete the career Grand Slam. Presented by Titleist. Support our sponsors: Titleist - the #1 ball in Golf! Rhoback - code NLU for 20% off at https://www.rhoback.com Loch Lomond Whiskies - Official Spirit of The Open Looking to travel this year, check out East Sands Golf Co.: https://www.eastsandsgolf.co/nlu Join us in our support of the Evans Scholars Foundation: https://nolayingup.com/esf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. That's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a Tuesday live edition of the No Laying Up podcast. Solly here joined by our friends.

Mr. TC. Hello, T.C. Hello, Sally. Did anything happen today? I don't know. We're going to get there. I think we're going to get there. We got to all.

evening to talk about this. The czar Icarito, Neil Schuster is here. Hello, Neil. Yeah, greetings. I just got off of bedtime duty. What happened? What's going on, man? Let's get to it. We will get there. Cody is here running the ones and twos. Hello, Cody. Of course. I'm pumped, Sally. I don't know really what happened. I thought this was just going to be KPMG preview, but I'm excited, man. We tricked you. That's how we got you. Tonight's episode, these first few segments presented ad-free, read-free by Titleist. the overwhelming number one ball on the PGA tour and LPGA tour. A little run of show.

We're going to break down the news today that the PGA tour announced about its new competitive structure for 2028. We have an interview we recorded earlier with Maverick-Neeley, who was on the future competitions committee talking, colors in between the lines a little bit behind the scenes. Tony Fienow, Big Ton, is going to join us for a quick hit here on the middle end, back end of this as well. And then stick around. we're going to visit some storylines ahead of the KPMG women's PGA,

mainly one big storyline ahead of this one. As that tease off this coming week at Hazelt team. We thought we were getting a down week after a major championship, but absolutely not, fellas. No, it sounds like Mr. Rolap does what he says he's going to do. He called this date. So, Sally, pretend, let's just start from the beginning. Pretend that I just literally got off work and I don't know what happened.

I don't have social media. This is like he's got his pen or his pencil. I got my pencil. I'm taking notes on this one, guys. I'm ready to go. All right. What was announced today, release and a press release and agreed to. It was voted on yesterday on Monday and communicated to players this morning 8 a.m.

at the Travelers Championship, released in a press release to the media around 9 a.m. this morning and adhered to and spoken to at the press conference at the Travelers by P.J. Tour CEO, Brian Rolap was a. a new competitive structure coming into play for the 2028 season. No more joking around about future schedules, TC. We know things change officially in 2028. It was voted on. It was ratified.

They went through exactly what was agreed on and what was voted on and what is ratified and left a lot of doors open in terms of things that still need to be worked out and gave some dates as to when that is going to be. We'll get to all of that as well. But in essence, there's going to be a new competitive structure on the PJs Tour. starting in 2028 featuring two tracks. We've heard it referenced as track one, track two system. It is now under working titles of championship series and Challenger series.

These two tracks will have separate point systems on the championship series. It will feature around 130 players. Again, the eligibility for this is still to be determined. It will be finalized before. The goal is to finalize it before the 2027 season kicks off. So everybody knows what they're playing for next year in 2027. There's no mid-year update of, oh, here's how we're going to decide this eligibility for 2028. When you tee it up for the first time in 2027, you will know what you've got to do to get into the championship track in 2020.

The expectation being the fields for these championship track events are going to get to around 120 people. There will not be alternates in this. There will be a set number of guys on the championship series eligible for all of the events, excluding the major championships. That's a separate conversation. We'll get there. What about Monday qualifiers, Sally? There will, if you'll, just one more second, I was all, I was right there. The, the, the, a key takeaway here is if you are championship series player, you play championship

series. If you are Challenger series, you play Challenger. And there is no crossover. There is no dipping down to play a different track for the first time on the PGA tour, a player, if you are qualified on the championship series, if you're a qualified top level PGA tour player, and remember, this is 120 to 130 guys. now. This is, this is deeper, you know, that it has been in the past in terms of fully exempt. You will know exactly what events you're qualified for. There will be no, I'm not sure if I'm

getting in that one. You can print your schedule. You can set your schedule at the very beginning of the year. And same goes for the Challenger series. If you're eligible for a Challenger event, you are eligible for all of them is how I understand this. And that that is their, their way of changing up the priority system, ranking system, who's going to get in, who's not going to get in, unsure how many starts you're going to get. You graduate from the Corn Ferry tour. You maybe get in this one. You're right on the line. You don't know how to plan for it. You play well. Now you're in this event. You're playing five weeks in row. All that is going away in the new structure. Simplifying the points. If you are playing for the PGA Tour championship, you are on the championship series, the Challenger series is, to borrow a phrase from Roy McElroy a glorified corn fairy tour.

It's not. It's not. It's not. It kind of is. It's the second tour. It's a second tour. It's going to be under the PGA Tour umbrella. but it is a qualification series for the challenger series, for the top level. There's always been two tours. Always has been. They're saying the quiet part out loud now. On the championship track, they're expecting 23 to 24 events.

That includes the majors, that includes the rider in the President's Cup as well. And there should be around 20 tournaments on the Challenger series. 13 of these challenger events will be opposite championship level of fields. So they're going to be during, you know, probably on, if I had to guess, on Golf Channel, while the championship series events are on network TV. Seven of them will not have a championship series opposite them. They are likely to be higher purses, likely to be higher points in those.

But they'll have the Challenger series will have seven weekends where they are the feature PGA tour product on television under this current plan. Should we pause there? Do we keep going? What happens if your Webb Simpson or? or Jordan Speeth and you're a challenger. You're on the challenger tour, but you want to, let's say you want to play the truest. I really want to play the truest.

I'm a North Carolina guy. No sponsor exemptions, none of them. And I want to clarify, Speeth has needed sponsor exemptions to get into events that have, the previous cutoff was top 50 from the prior year's FedEx Cup. That's how you get in. I think people are still picturing

that we're having a tour of signature events, and we are not. these are 120 person fields, 120 plus person fields, 72-hole stroke play with a 36-hole cut, top 65 in ties. The cutoff line of who's qualifying for this event goes way, way, way down, way down. Like basically, I pulled up the list last week and I don't have it in front of me, but like try to see who, like, number 131 is on the list is who's getting left out of this. And it's not Jordan Speed. Like Jordan Speed has not been the Jordan Speed that we know, but he is definitely. in the top 120 and would be qualified for this series.

It's not just, I mean, so it's 120 and then they're going to fill out the rest with like, it's top 90 or 100, right? So eligibility is still to be determined, but like now you're saying, so for talking and going to 2029, the top at least 90 is what they've said in the press release. The top 90 from the 2028 season will be qualified for the championship series in the next year. So that's more what I'm talking about of like if, Let's say Jordan Speed finished 90. I don't mean to keep picking on George.

I love Jordan. Yeah, it's really unfair. Let's say he finished 92nd. Whatever. He's, you know, there's a fall deal. They'll figure that out.

Kind of last chance kitchen, if you will. But otherwise, he's dipping down to the Challenger's series and he's got to play his way back up, which I think is how it should be. Correct. Perfect.

So it's not that 130, it's like it's not going 130. deep as you would expect it. It's going 90 deep. And then you're adding the guys graduating from the difference pathways. 20 up from the challengers. But that's that's from 28 to 29. So just clarifying that that is the who stays once you're in this championship track.

And again, they have not announced the eligibility for 2028. This is something that they are hoping. They still have to get worked out later this year. I think we'll have said he would hope to have a bigger update on that come toward championship time. But yes, there will be a way of settling who the 130 guys are that will start the 2028 series on the championship track where the cutoff is and who plays on the Challenger level. To your question, on Monday qualifiers, there will be Monday qualifiers on the Challenger series. On that track, there will be Monday qualifiers.

There will not be Monday qualifiers on the championship track. So right now on FedEx Cup standings, which is what I'll go off of, 120 is Jimmy Stanger. So go to 1.30 because again, so the plan is 130 with the expectation field sizes will be around 120. They are not expecting all players to play all events. So it may average, they expect the average to be around 120. Some may have a full 130. Some, you know, maybe small. But 130 is Hank Levyota.

Correct. Right now. It would go Hank Lanai is 131 on the outside looking in PC. Sam Ryder, Chris Kirk, Sammy Valamaki, David Ford, Davis Riley, Eric Van Royen. Basically, yeah, that would be the people that are headlining the Challenger series in terms of the top PJ Tour talent from this year that would be down at that level. Gotcha. I'm more concerned about 28 into 29. I want to make sure we're getting getting enough churn. If you don't play well, you're fucking out of here, man.

The churn is a little light, you know, 25-ish percent, a little bit more than that out of 130, you know, 90 out of the 130, um, returning there, but, I feel like that's a pretty decent. I think that's in line, right? 25 to 30%. Yeah. 25% feels, well, I was thinking 80, 20 was what they would go with to, to, you know, keep, keep guys happy. So I'd say 25% is pretty solid.

I'm comparing that to the churn they've had in the top 50 on the signature events, which has been about, um, what, up to 40%? I think they touched 40% one of the years, but the expected churn there was, uh, 18 out of 50 spots, which is 36%. That's been a higher churn, but this will be, this will go deeper and in a bigger sample size, really, of like, its entire season's quality of play. And you're really just churning out the bottom 40 guys out of this that would go, again, to a challenger, a series of events in the fall that would feature the people that

just barely missed out on qualifying from the challenger. And those that barely missed out on qualifying or keeping their status through the championship series would play between four and six events in the fall. with a point system to try to get in to fill some of those final spots. Again, not yet determined where the DP World Tour qualification comes in. PGA Tour U not announced there. If I had to guess, I would guess the winner of PGA

Tour U goes straight to championships track. That would be pretty in line of being the current one, of being fully exempt when you qualify from PGA Tour U now. I would guess two through whatever. We'll probably go straight to the Challenger series. Somewhat similar to how it is today. But bottom line is,

your golf scores will determine where you play your golf. It will not be sponsor exemptions. It will not be invites. It will not be signing a contract of some kind. Do I think they might carve out some stuff career-wise? Borlau mentioned something about that in there today of like, do I think Tiger is going to have to go to the Challenger series to want to play in some of these events? Probably not.

I think they'll probably figure out something along those lines. But what's gone, TC, which I know is going to make you happy, 300 cut, you know, made 300, Cut exemption. Career money list exemption. Like this is a massive upheaval. This is a huge, go eat your heart out on the Challenger's tour with that stuff. I'm fine if those guys want to.

It also makes those, it's a, it's a, it's a bit of a elevating factor for them. Exactly. Like it gives, like let's say Ricky or Jordan to keep picking on Jordan. They do get relegated.

It's like that's a big name that's now playing in. And I think they missed an opportunity to do like, uh, legacy and leverage as the two fears. So on the leverage tour, you know, you got Jordan and Rick, like got big names that have had a tough season. I think that's, that's kind of a feature. And then maybe like some generational guys.

Totally. That are eligible because of their career stats. That feels right to me. And then, Sally, you know, I know you got a lot more to go through, but one other thing I loved is a battlefield promotion. That is the one exception here, baby. You went two of those leverage events, two of those. So those challengers, you're going to the big leagues, baby.

That's exactly how it should be. It's a great, great little wrinkle in things. I think that's the only in-season promotion that looks like it would be, would be possible. And again, it's not a one-in, one-out system, like kind of, kind of fluid number up on that championship series there. And then there's not going to be alternates for these events. Like if, if you're a championship level player and you do not, you decide not to go to a tournament,

your spot will not be filled. It is not, there's no list of alternates. If you are on championship track, you are eligible for the tournament, and that's it. And if you're a challenger, you are not eligible to be in that tournament. The only, uh, thinking through it, Sally, the only exemption I would think through that is majors, right? If a challenge, they, they don't control the field for majors. If a challenger gets in and wins the U.S. open, I assume they would be, like, they would

move up to the championship series. I would certainly hope so. Um, that, that, that again is just goes in that category of like, they have not ironed out the point system. They have not ironed up. the points of the championship at championship level they haven't ironed it out at the at the challenger level they have not figured out qualification eligibility all of that the devil's going to be in the details with a lot of that stuff um and medical we'll be able to stretch out these episodes and make five

more of these to to break all that down when it comes like i you know it's weird you know to not to divert here but it's like it's weird hearing the as much competence as we heard today and the clear communication the plan the rollout plan of getting this information out there just speaking clearly given a four-page press release with exactly what has been identified. I'm like, dude, I just, and it helps that they basically create a system that almost exactly mirrors what I said out loud

probably a year or two ago of where I thought this thing was going to a championship level track ending in matchplay. I have a lot of faith in them. Weirdly, all of a sudden, I have a ton of faith in them figuring out the eligibility. I just feel like they're on the right scent in terms of their incentives in making this as appealing as it possibly can be,

for fans with the main incentive there, obviously being the big media rights deal, the next go-around is where the urgency comes from to get this right in 2028. Solly, very interactive show tonight. I'm going to show our first question up here from Colin underscore C medical cards. Did he touch anything there on that? I don't know if he mentioned that specifically. Yeah, he said, somebody asked me a question. He said, we don't know what we're going to do with major medicals, minor medicals,

that sort of thing. Yeah. I think that's one of many questions that is outstanding. And that's where like, I feel like the previous, well, I don't think they would have gotten to this point. But I just appreciate this. This is an update. Like this is, you know, this is exactly where we are in the process and we're going to update you on what we've been able to put behind us and what we still have to do. I think previously they would have been apprehensive to go out there and put somebody out there to put Jay out there candidly to speak on this clearly and communicate it clearly. not leave people wondering what the heck's going on. I don't think anybody left this press conference today wondering what the heck is going on.

It seemed like an organization that is just is on a path. They're doing it and they're getting shit done. Still a lot of major questions to answer. I would say the word competence jumped out to me as well. I mean, Rollap continues to just reek of competence for me since December. He's laid out his own checkpoints and milestones and he's hit him. And I'm impressed by that. But I don't think these changes.

they don't strike me as radical. They strike me as clarity. And you said it earlier, TC saying the quiet part out loud. Some of it's just like, let's make this just a lot more like organized and clear. And I think clarity is what pro golf has been missing with you go back, you know, three, four years ago. Even before the live stuff, it was like, we're doing invitationals. And then it was signature events and just like new titles to like make every tournament kind of try to feel like it was the same. But then, oh, no, we got to make Genesis feel a little bit more special.

So we're going to come up with, well, that's a host tournament. You know what I mean? And that's different than these other ones. And then the WGCs years and years ago, same idea. So I just think this is a lot more clear. And yes, but they haven't. I don't think they backed themselves into a corner there. Like, roll up.

He's not scared to be like, we haven't figured that out yet. We will let you know. And that's all I want to hear. It's like, yeah, that's a good question. I'll get back to you. That's great. I feel like we've been talking about this for six or seven years now, not just the, you know, hey, what would the ideal thing look like? And it's like there was two tours when it was WGCs and invitationals and the playoffs and that sort of thing.

And then there was kind of a tour for everybody else. And it was, I think for a long time, we've just said, hey, let's just codify this. Yeah. Let's just segment it and make it clear to understand. And no, it got more convoluted for a while there. Right. But I'm saying this, this, yeah, this, they did this. Totally.

It's just, it's a whole new, how many years did we spend yelling into these microphones about change, change, change, change, do this? And then all of a sudden, man, it is like, it is turning is happening. I feel like at the very end when they trotted Jay Monaghan out there for it, for whatever that was, that little speech at the end there. We'll get there. I felt like it was just like PTSD and it was like the ghost of Christmas past. Well, listen, I mean, honestly, I kind of felt like trotting tiger out. to with the opening statements was like straight up unnecessary having him there but like I don't know to walk like it like it just I mean a little bit like you man oh we got to kind of address the elephant in the room a little bit here like I'm glad he

you know looks better and I'm glad he's you know it seems like he's doing better but it just doesn't didn't feel like the setting for like tiger's first appearance like let let's that that that that was a miss for me uh you know but otherwise I thought like the actual information, the work that they've done over the last six to nine months, feels like it's pretty competent. Why don't we take now as a chance here? We have a lot more discussed of this and a lot more to break down. But I did speak earlier with Maverick McNeely from the FCC.

He was on the range here at Traveler. So there's a little bit of background noise in this. But about 13 minutes here, just caught up with him, asked a bunch of questions. He helps color in between the lines on a lot of this stuff. I know there's some more stuff we want to break down before we move on this topic. But if you can go ahead, play. Here's my conversation with Mavvri,

you're familiar. All right, Mav, what can you tell us about what this process was like with the announcements we just heard today from the PGA tour? Tell you what, you're adding to the stack of Zoom calls I've been a part of, that's for sure. But it's been really interesting, really eye-opening. It's been really fascinating to dig deep into the business and what really drives things and what people really want and, you know, kind of look at the PGA tour and the blank sheet of paper

and say if we could write this thing from the start, what would it? look like and it's been really fascinating to hear perspectives from everyone in the business media partners you know from fans from sponsors and of course players because we're going to be the ones putting the keys in the ground and competing out here so it's been fun to meld all those perspectives together and put together a proposal that we're we're really excited about what did you guys walk away from answer-wise in terms of what is what what does drive the tour what what people want to see and and how it led you to what was announced today. It's a simple, kind of a boring answer,

but it's really got to be the best competition. And I'm a hockey guy. So for me, the Four Nations faceoff was like a guiding light for me. It was something that people kind of weren't so sure about, but the fact that the players bought in and the players thought it was the most important thing they were playing for in that moment, made it must watch television. My heart rate was at 160, that entire game.

So that's kind of how we looked at it is if we deliver the best product, the best competitions, you know, the reason that PJ Tour has been successful, especially these last five years, is we've been putting on the best golf tournaments in the landscape professional golf. And that's what we have to double down on. You know, if we have, if we get the competitive part right, everything else will follow. Can you tell me what the conversations were like around matchplay? It's something us fans have long beckoned for, kind of seeing the conclusion to that. you know, getting behind the scenes learning why some people don't like match play, I'm sure it was an interesting process to you, but how we led to the, you know,

the moment today of announcing that match play will be incorporated the postseason. So, yeah, we haven't decided the details on the postseason, but the things we're trying to balance is, you know, one, we're an individual sport. So it's a little different and so much more volatile than a one and done type of situation that you see in other sports. That said, I would say our postseason has a lot of room for improvement relative to other sports and we want to balance rewarding season and celebrating season long excellence which is something that's baked in the network of our tour but the

match play excitement I mean when you tee off and match play against another guy you're essentially both in contention and it's the same type of feelings as trying to to win a tournament on Sunday so that's I think what leads to all the excitement I think the way we're looking at it is we want to find a way to in those three weeks have some way to to celebrate and reward the players that have had their incredible seven, eight months of golf and reward that season long performance,

and then create some sort of event. We're looking at roughly two weeks of this new tour championship that will be something completely different and another trophy that we aspire to win and an event that we hope grows into something that's really unique and special. And the ability to go to golf courses that we normally would never see

in a professional golf circuit is really exciting. The smaller footprint of match play. And I doubt it'll be a one and done type of thing, but you're going to see some really intense head-to-head competition that'll come down to a shot at the very end, which is what we all want. So I think we're going to hopefully find a good balance between season-long performance,

the right amount of volatility and excitement. What can you tell us about those golf courses? There was an ESPN article that mentioned a few golf. course is Pine Valley, Cypress Point, Seminole, things like that. Is that, you know, something that's realistic for fans to expect of where you think this will end up? And why does that fit this structure and not fit a normal PGA tour structure? I'll tell you what, if they'll have us, we'll sign, we'll sign tomorrow. I would be so excited.

And I think, one, it would be a very cool, unique format and, you know, extremely premium type of event to bring to those places. So I think the tour could bring a lot. But that said, you know, when the venue is a story that elevates everything about a tournament. And if we can go to a place like that, I know those conversations haven't started yet. But I sure hope so. And if the whole golf world is asking for it, that'll help us too. So, you know, spread the word far and wide. We want to go play those places and put them on TV and have some really high value, exciting golf coming down the stretch.

That'd be a lot of fun. Man, I don't know who would possibly be against that. What, this is big change. With big change, some stuff falls out the bottom. Some, you know, this system will not be perfect. In your mind, kind of what in this new structure, comparing to the PJ tour of today into this new structure, what is something that might change that is a little bit uncomfortable

or a little bit regrettable, maybe not the right word, but something that might be a difficult adjustment for both fans and for players alike. You know, I think quite honestly the most question, We've had are about the Challenger series, the formerly known to track two, the viability of those events. But I'm really confident about it because we always talk about how deep professional golf is. And you've got 130-ish guys filling the fields up in the championship series. And the next 144 of really good players, a lot of household names there.

And our job is to fill those fields and figure out what the eligibility looks like so that those are identifying the best players coming up and through. There's a lot of excitement and figure out who the best players are in the game to fill the championship series. So I'm really optimistic about that. I think there's a big demand and we've got to, you know, I think the best part about this. I mentioned before is that the schedule predictability for players is something that only the smallest portion of our membership, 30 to 50 players max have had to start any given season. And now that's something we're offering to the 130-ish players in the championship series and a huge portion of the Challenger series. So I think that's a benefit to this system that hasn't been talked about enough is that we're for a long time.

The majority of our membership is the only membership in sports that didn't know where we were playing when we started in January 1st. So it's a long way of saying I think the most questions are around track two, but I'm really confident in the product. to put forward. What, have you faced any headwinds, you know, from folks kind of in that Challenger series bucket in terms of this new structure and do you feel like, I guess, how have you guys gone about informing them of how and why this system could potentially benefit them? So we, one of the things I asked the tour staff and FCC early on was we need to go member by member, cohort by cohort through the membership and make sure that life is improving for

just about everybody. And so you look at the top 50. It'll be very, very similar to what you see today. Playing in majors, signature events would be very much like playing in this championship series. But then you get 51 through 130, which now is playing in a mix of signature events and some regular events and a couple majors here and there. All of a sudden, their whole schedule is essentially signature events in this championship series. Then you've got this cohort of players that are conditional on the PGA tour and you know, they have full status on the corn fairy tour, but they're bouncing back and forth. There was a point earlier this year where there were 25 dual commits between the corn ferry event and the PGA tour event that given week.

So that's just a really difficult place to be. Do you want to spend the season on the corn fairy tour and maybe increase your chances of getting your PJ tour card or do you want to focus on a PGA tour, forego your corn fairy starts and play a limited alternate life type schedule. And then we're also elevating a huge portion of those Corn Ferry Tour players into this Challenger series. They're playing for, as at a minimum, $4 million, predictable schedule, and I think a lot better chance

of proving yourself and earning your way up into the championship series. So going cohort by cohort, I think we're improving the lives and the predictability and honestly, the ability to make your way to the kind of of a sport through good play. There's a lot of, you know, questions that Brian took today that he did not have answers to. There's obviously quite a lot of work to be done.

What's the biggest priority from where you sit and kind of what's the take us a little bit to the structure of how these things are discussed and decided on in the process and how that looks like with the FCC? Yes, we have a roadmap laid out. And there's things you want to get done before the September board meeting and the November board meeting. And we just have that roadmap laid out, I would say eligibility and, and, and, and, And the Challenger series is probably top of mind for everybody,

as well as the playoff structure. So we'll have a meeting dedicated to the playoffs. It'll probably be some questions. Go back to management. They're going to do some work, some research, crunch some numbers. Kirsten Burgess has really been grinding on all things, eligibility for us and giving us the answers we need.

And then come back and hopefully put something forward to the board in September. that answers those questions. But it's been a very systematic process and kind of picking off things as we go. And like I said, I think figuring out how to bring the best players into the Challenger series as efficiently as possible, as predictably as possible,

and letting them figure out who is going to play their way into the championship series is the most important question. Do you get the sense that both players in the FCC and PJ Tour players in general have a great deal of trust with this administration, you know, this new leadership of the PGA tour and the vision and the direction things are headed, communication and things like that? Absolutely. I think we're bordering on repetitive in terms of these player meetings, but I think that's

far better than the alternative of spring something we've never heard of or never knew about. And I think one of the smartest things Brian Dunn is, Brian's done is stress testing a lot of our ideas out in the golf world and seeing what the reaction is going to be like instead of handing everyone a solution and saying this is how it's going to be. We say, what does everyone think of this? This is what we're thinking. Do you have any questions, try and pull holes in it? And that's really what the process has been like within the FCC and the player directors,

you know, giving that information and stress testing with the PAC, stress testing with the media and golf fans and sponsors. So I've really enjoyed hearing everyone's perspectives. Last two questions I got for you. How far along are broadcast partners in all of this? I mean, there's this stuff been presented to them, And are they on board with this plan for 2020? Or is that still to be worked out?

So broadcast partners were the first ones we went to at the start of this process. It was during the Black Desert Championship Bank of Utah in the fall where all current and possible future broadcast partners laid out the things that they find the most valuable in the PJ tour and the things that they would like to see. And then like a blank sheet type of what would be most valuable to use. So we really took those and took a lot of the common theme. that we heard from everybody. And those were the main, you know, kind of the foundation for what we tried to build here. So we're really confident that we've delivered on just about everything that they've asked for. And now it's Brian and the management team to go job to go back to them and say, well, this is what you wanted.

Now let's get to work on putting a deal together. This last one might be a little too far down the line. But I'm curious, with 2028 specifically being an Olympics year, how was that tying into everything? If I was to look at things, I'm maybe a little concerned on just the overall crunch of scheduling in 23, 24 events in a tight window. Plus, I'm curious where the Olympics counts in that and how you guys are going about scheduling around that. Yeah, we, you know, we're already incorporating one of the Cups, the President's Cup or the Ryder Cup every year. Olympics obviously throws another wrench into it. But I'd be surprised if the Olympics counted for our FedEx Cup or our points race here.

I think that's especially it's something that's so few of the championship series members will be a part of that it would be hard to justify awarding points or incorporating that into our season. But, you know, it's going to be a lot more golf into a condensed window, but something we've been asking for is an offseason. So, and that said, I do look forward to playing every week. and knowing when we're going to play, take some of that load off us as well. And, you know, again, we've balanced, we've incorporated off weeks. We're not mandating anyone to play. And, you know, we still have one of the best purposes of our job, which is that we get to pick our schedule.

So I'm really excited about it. But, yeah, honestly, I can't wait for 2028. And hopefully I play well enough to be in that championship series. But either way, big golf is going to get us where we need to go. We really appreciate you color and in between the lines here and providing some background info on the process and everything. And congratulations. I cut it.

I'm sorry. I had a great sign off with it. I'm sorry. I figured it didn't tell me there was going to be closing. I just figured interviews over. Let's let's move on. All right. Appreciate,

Sally. Sally, what was the sign off? Big, I don't know. I just felt like a classy host. Probably cheers and crack on. Yeah, exactly.

Play well this week, Matt. Yeah. It's hot here. It's really hot here. Touch 94 today, T.C. that means summer has arrived. Roeback, they've got you covered. You can shop all polos,

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great, great peace. This episode is also presented by Locke Lomon Whiskey is the official spirit of the Open and the proud Scotch Whiskey partner of No Laying Up with the Open just a few weeks away. Golf's most anticipated stretch of the summer is officially here. As players prepare for the challenge of Lengs

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Learn more at lock-Lomanwiskeys.com or ask for Lockloman at your preferred spirits retailer. It's been fun watching TC become a Scotch guy. Totally unexpected, especially in the summer. Tidotron. Yeah, I don't know, man. That Lockwoman 12, it's my jam. Where do you guys want to go next? Do you want to react to what Mav just said,

or should we get through the rest of the list here? Well, I mean, just shout out to Mav. That was well articulated. And I think sincere excitement and feels like good process from the FCC, not the Federal Communications Commission, but the player board putting all this together. Which they have needed, the tour has needed clear communicators,

among the players as to what's going on. And I couldn't even get through a question. He was just so ready to answer it. Like it was just really, really impressive. And kind of everything we would have hoped for, you know, and imagined Mav to be as a leader, just knowing him all these years that we have, getting in this leadership role and handling it with as much,

you know, seriousness and care as he appears to have was, I think, great, appreciate the time. His point about every cohort, like their lives or their, at least their year, like their preview of their year being more clear, I think is really, is a really salient point. Like if you're a, if you're a guy who's bouncing back and forth between Corn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour,

if you're in that hundred and, you know, 128 to 155 range, like you have so much more clarity now on what your year is going to look like, what you need to accomplish, you don't have to track two different points lists, all of that. And then I imagine that'll that'll then carry down because there's a bunch of guys on corn ferry tour, Sally, that, you know, I think that probably the top third of the corn ferry tour bumps up now to, you know, in 28 or 29. I'm not sure what they're going to do with the corn fairy tour. I would imagine that they would just integrate PGA Tour Americas into the bottom half of that. And then with corned ferry tour, like, I think looking at it, usual purse on corn and ferry tours

a million bucks it's 1.5 million you're looking at four million dollar plus purses for uh you know challenger track so big you know big bump up more sustainable for a wider swath of guys and then hey if you're one of the guys that's that's not on track too you're hungry you know maybe corn Ferry Tour ingests the Latino America stuff down in South America as well as Canada, and that's more of a seasonal kind of track thing going around. So everything just feels more coherent. And that's even before considering the fall as well with the national opens and just kind of turning the silly season into something that's actually fun and interesting again instead of just like shittier.

Solly, can I say one thing that jumped out to me was his answer at the end, answer about the condensed schedule. And he said, you know, everybody keeps saying they want an off season. Well, there's a consequence to that. There's going to be a lot of stacked golf. Like there's going to, that means we have to condense the schedule being that they want to play from what February to August. So a big change here.

And if we talk about like, you know, what's the biggest loss? Like for me, it's, it's what I understand. But golf in January, you know, I live in a cold weather climate like the nostalgia of Hawaii. Which saying it out loud, we've not said. The season will run for February to August is what was clearly communicated today. Yeah. And so I think you're going to, you may get some players with pushback. And we'll go through it.

I think there's potential for there to be a, you know, championship event before the open. And then after, you know, like there's going to be these stretches of three or four, like really packed weeks for these guys. And it's like, hey, there's only so much time in the year. We've got to do that. I think, I think Mav had a good answer. And the fact that they're not dictating that they have to play in all of them. There's no more peer pressure, I guess you could call it. You can still pick your schedule.

If you're on that championship track, you can play in as many or as little as you'd like, it sounds like. So I think that's a pretty good compromise for those guys. Yeah, the devil's going to be in the details there. I think it obviously Rory has telegraphed that he's not going to play in all of these. He's not playing all of them now. But his participation in a lot of the top guys' participation is going to be really, really, really important to the success of this and driving the commercial interest and the

fan interest of it as well. And I'll be, that is an outstanding question I have is, you know, how do you line these things up with major championships? The intel I had heard on it was a couple things that were a little bit like, oh, that sounds tough. Like there's potentially a championship event before and after the Masters, which I think might be, you know, could be Cadillac, Masters Heritage, if I was guessing what that might be. And also an event before and after the open, which I kind of got excited about the potential of that being, you know, does that mean Scotland, Open Championship,

Ireland? I don't think so. But I don't know how else you're doing three championship level events with, you know, international flight in between those. 28, we could be looking at boom, supersonic is going to have their new jet. be certified. Yeah. So anyway, so those are definitely some questions that that are outstanding. A couple other things get through. On like on those details, I think the devil is in the details, but I have so much more confidence in this regime getting those details right. Like I think Rolaps said that from the beginning. Like he called it the tax code today. He's like,

hey, like, you know, the FedEx Cup points list or whatever the points list is shouldn't look like the tax code. And it should be clearly understandable. And I think that if they set that up correctly, you know, guys, guys are going to have to make a choice. Hey, I either want to be eligible, you know, or kind of in the running for this season long thing that they're going to throw, I would imagine they, you know, like a big point of compromise is going to have to be, if the tour championship is going to match play, we're going to have to do a big portion of this is like a regular season championship of the bonus money. and these guys are motivated by money as they should be, right? So if guys want to skip four or five of these things,

it could demonstrably hurt their chances, as it should. That is good point, PC. They may have the ability to, I don't know, align incentives to get these guys showing up more. I mean, you talk, I'm always shocked when we've, you know,

done photo shoots and you're talking to a player off camera and it's like, what are your goals for you here? It's always like FedEx Cup or, you know, like win the FedEx Cup. And it's like, as a fan, I don't care about that. But it's telling that the players, that's on their goals list a lot. You know what I mean? Because it's big money.

And roll up today in his, in his remarks, right, much of it was the remarks or the answers afterwards, but he was basically saying that he, you know, like he was positioning that regular season crown as the most impressive accomplishment in golf for that year, which, you know, you can disagree with that all you want. But if he's if he's putting that out there into the world, that's how they're, that's how they're going to try to position this to the membership. And then the TV thing is like,

or the match play thing is going to be like, hey, like we're going to grow this into something really fucking prestigious. But in the meantime, the fans are going to be excited about it. Yeah, let's talk about the match play. I mean,

that's, that is the most exciting news and we, we haven't really touched on it yet. So again, how I understand this in TC, maybe I'll correct me on some of this, but, you know,

basically, I'll just compare it. to how the schedule is now, but basically like the regular season now runs through Wyndham, and then you enter into three playoff events as it stands now, slowly whittling down to 30 players. The Wyndham Championship, not Wyndham Clark. Correct. After the, what would be, you know, I guess the final regular season event or final season event, whatever that might be, the top 90 players, the qualifiers for next year, would go into a,

the final championship stroke play event of the year, whatever that might be, whatever the title. It's going to be one of these Challenger level events, but that is where the title will be decided for the regular season champion and the big money payout. Like that's the big. Sorry, that'd be one of these championship track events,

not Challenger. Correct. What did I say? Do I say Challenger? It would essentially be like BMW, it would essentially be like what Memphis is now, like the first playoff stop. But you end that event.

with a points champion for the year. And I kind of compare that more to like Premier League of like, you know, you just play the season and whoever has the most points is. And it could be pretty anticlimactic. You know, Scotty goes out, balls out all year, dominates. Like there's no, and I hope it is, it's like, hey. And that's okay, I think. Yeah, don't give me any gimmicky shit at the end.

You know, like, that's just the fact is, like, there was a dominant golfer this year. He's going to win the season and he should. Yeah. And then from there, they've said the tour championship will begin rotating between prestigious courses, many of which have not hosted a PGA tour event. They've teased out that this would be potentially extremely prestigious events

that have not been able to host, you know, big hospitality or get big grandstands up. It would basically be, again, matchplay, which the format of the match play has not been agreed upon, ratified other than, you know, what was in the press release today was there doing match play in the postseason. But the actual format of it, whether it's pool play, whether it's sudden death, whatever it is,

has not been announced. We've heard some rumblings of what that might look like, but it would be some sort of match play that would culminate and conclude with made for TV golf on some of these, a wide range of courses. There was an ESPN article that,

you know, teased out Seminole and Pine Valley and somewhere else. It was kind of, that was not official statement from the tour. Cyprus. Yeah, in Cyprus. Those were kind of like dream lists, I think, included in there.

But that would be the conclusion. And that would be, and again, I don't know how to, is that the champion of the PGA tour? Like I'm assuming there's going to be a sponsored title of this. Another question related, don't know what happens with FedEx at the end of their deal at the end of next year. Because it doesn't sound like they are signed on or I don't, and we don't know as of now whether or not they will be continuing or what the name of that will be. but after you've awarded that points champion, after that 90-person event, it goes into match play from there.

And the PJ tour season will conclude with Made for TV matches in some capacity all the way through over the coming weeks after that, with a rotation of prestigious courses hosting them. That, my friends, is a big, big, big, big, big change. That is the biggest fly-the-banner moment of today. I think of we have called for matchplay finale. I have said this many, many, many times over the recent weeks of like,

I've felt silly trying to convince people that the end of the PGA tour season could be really, really cool. I think this is the first step in that direction. There's trepidation, there's fear around matchplay, and I think it can be totally reimagined to be something that's very cool at the end of the year. And it looks like that's where we're heading to at least try that, and I could not be more excited about that. Making match play, I don't know, like, I'm cool with fencing.

it off. Like what I've always hated is it's just they parachute in with WGC match play for a week and then we're back. There's no flow to it. Something that we've been watching for the last two weeks where it's just like for two weeks there's just matches going on. I can tune into golf throughout the week on. I just yeah,

it gets me excited. That's like it's like hey this is it's almost like this is match play season in golf and that's a cool concept to me. Yeah, we're talking Walker Cup style courses. Curtis Cup style courses you don't have to worry about distance uh or scores like hey these guys are going to go shoot 62 some of them aren't going to have score you know scores on the score card for

that hole because they may have picked up or lost the hole or whatever uh i don't know if it's a great thing for the tour that that that espion floated the cypress pine valley seminal thing if they haven't had those conversations yet per mav those those kinds of places normally don't like being used as as fodder or leveraged. They told us Pine Valley, but we're getting TPC Boston. And you're going to like it, okay. But I think there's enough of those places out there that, you know, even if it takes them a year or two to prove the concept that they can, they can certainly do that.

I mean, shit, go to go to Eastward Ho. Go to Chambers Bay. Like, you know, there's so many of these places. And she, like, everybody always says they should, they should do this abandon. And they should do that up in it. There's a million reasons why they can't do most things abandoned. They could do that abandon. They totally could.

A few things they could do it. You can do a composite course across different, you know, you can start on abandoned and then pick up on Pacific over there. And you could do all kinds of amazing shit. The course, this is where the questions start a little bit. And I appreciate them, you know, declaring we're doing match play. But one, the, you know, you might have set the bar high with, with floating those courses. And two, the players. are all the players bought into match play?

I can see some guys being a little bit. This is gimmick. You know, that's the big change. So, you know, like Mav was saying about the hockey stuff that he was watching, like you can see the players bought into this new concept. I wonder if the whole PGA, the top, top end of the PGA tour is going to buy into this concept. I hope they do. But I think at the end of the day, you're still giving them, hey, here.

All right, so your quote unquote, Wyndham Championship is going to, you're going to whittle it down. from 130 or whatever to 90. So there's drama there plus who wins the tournament. And there's drama in the, you know, stroke play finale being 90, who gets into whatever they decide for match play, 8, 16, 32. So you've got that drama. You've also got who actually wins the tournament as well. And then I think with match play, there's other ways to do it as well to where it's like,

it's not winner go home to where, you know, you do a loser bracket or you do pool play first and then you do, you know, and then guys can climb back in or just because I think also if it's the end of the year thing, they've also got, like you still have to play off. Like you could still play off to figure out what the actual places are. Like if you're going to finish ninth place, you know, all right, you got to play a ninth place match between ninth and tenth. And guys are still playing for call it 100 grand, 150 grand, right? Like that's still something worth playing for. Something else that I can't help but think of.

What if this is the chance to maybe get back to Hawaii? Like you could do Koppelua as, you know, as your great match play course. Yeah, it does give them options to markets wise. If the hospitality footprint's small, that's a good, good call out, T. I would be very surprised if that was the case, just because financially there was reasons to get away from there and sending all the equipment and all the tour people there and all of that. No, I know.

I'm just saying just generally just throw out everything you know about the point is that. About why a police can host. Yeah, you can legitimately start dreaming with some of these places. Like I think it, again, they're saying this shit out loud. Like we are planning to go to some of these cathedrals. And, you know, make us, you got to make a splash. with this thing. This cannot be a formality.

This cannot be a go through the motions thing and like a tackle on silly season thing. Like this should be, it has a chance to be very cool. I have a lot of faith in that. I have a lot of, weirdly have a lot of personal investment into wanting to see that succeed. A question for you too.

Who gets boned? I think that might be the question. Who's getting boned? I don't love match for. No, no. In this whole structure. I just mean like zooming back out. I ignore. I ignore players for this. I do not think players are getting boned in this in any way. I do think, like the Canadian opens, the Byron Nelson's, the Schwab's, you know, Colonials of that are like,

kind of just seems stuck between the two tracks. And I'd argue that it might be good for them, like a Zurich or a Byron Nelson. It's like they're probably, but they were at like $10 million purses. Now it's like, all right, guys, we'll give you a break. It's $4 million now. And you still get the charity component in a small market. A lot of these places that are, A lot of those tournaments are sponsored by companies that are looking for a hosting situation, right? But they don't get Speeth and Sheffler now, like at Byron. That's the, you either pay 30 to have Speeth and Sheffler there, or you pay four and don't get them. And there's not really an option in between those is that, that to me, is sticking out as the worst fallout most unanswered question.

There was always going to be fallout from this. And this is like, you know, a casualty of that. and I don't know what's going to happen with a lot of these Canadian Open stuck between like are we a national open? It has a bunch of Canadians in the field or now no longer has the top players or you know, how do you feel out that field if it's a challenger? How do you feel up that field when it's a, you know, a championship event? What happens to Scottish Open, you know,

Scotts is the one for me that's most, you know, up in the air. Confusing. So that is going to be interesting how they navigate. There will be some ripping of the Band-Aid off there. There will be some unfortunate fallouts from that, I think. but worth noting here, they haven't said this part out loud, they have,

of the 15, there's going to be 15 championship track events plus the players, just like special events, like PGA tour events. There's going to be 15 of those. 10 of those have been lined up already. You can kind of guess what those kind of 10 are.

Five are to be determined, either be filled by existing events or new markets. So as I see it, Neil, there's those five events that are open. I think there is an opportunity for a lot of those, you know, challenger or second track events, smaller events now, medium events now, to pony up the money and get on that championship track if they want to.

And I think if I was to read between the lines here, the tour is giving them the first opportunity to do that. If not, they are planning to go to different markets. They listed off a bunch of markets in there and included what Boston, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. And again, I just point out, like, when you put this stuff in a press release, when you put the names of cities in there and you put like this is like

pretty far along once you put it to that point like if you weren't a bit of a sales tactic yeah very much so that that I think is like one of the the fallouts of this but I you know again I think I'm I'm overall very excited in general about about changes today who gets boned

maybe Patrick Cantley is getting bones somehow he abstained from voting on it maybe you know He didn't vote against it. He just abstained. I believe that Sean Zock reported that. I'm not seeing that anywhere. I don't know if he was the only one that reported that.

Yeah, to Sean for reporting that. Yeah, he had some good tidbits, some good details. So I'd be very curious to see what Patrick didn't like about this. After, you know, nine months of meetings and deliberations and everything, I wouldn't be thrilled if I was one of his colleagues on the committee. A solid question regarding the, schedule for the challengers.

So I was going to go. Those are going to be Challenger series 20 events and are they opposite field? Like tell me the details there. 13 of the events are going to be conducted opposite championship track events. So again, that's where I'm picturing championship track events are on CBS or NBC. I would guess the Challenger events either different time zone or would be on golf channel or something like that, a different channel. the stream of platform. And champions tour is getting boned.

So is LPGA tour. Yeah. We got to find some channels for all this golf. Yeah, yeah. I think there's going to be some upset olds. There's that. I think it lets. 7 of them.

Sorry, go ahead. So say seven of them would be during off weeks during championship. There would be no championship event. That would be on network TV, CBS, NBC or whatever that may be. ESPN could be in the fold as well into this new deal. Again, we're talking 2028 only and then kind of looking into the future as well that, you know, we're testing the model here and how it all sorts out with channels is not a, there's no long-term solution to that as of now.

Yeah. So the ending of the, the ending of the Challenger track, we don't really know what that looks like. Is that a Challenger championship? Is that a season-long race? How do we know where were the 20 names that are going to eventually move up? Where are those coming from? I guess it's just money list. Yeah, they'll have their own point system on the challenger.

So separate point system for championship than Challenger. And yeah, it'll be top 20 from that tour. We'll make it. So then a question I have, 20 events. I mean, you got to find 20 sponsors, 20 markets willing to pay $4 million or, you know, or whatever. When you got what? 40-ish, 45 events? on the schedule right now.

Yeah, but I guess the point, the point is with less flexibility on sponsor invite, with less ability for those markets to kind of get a little added value, hey, I got, you know, CJ, Byron Nelson, hey, I, get, get, let us bring Jeffler and, and Speeth, right? Like, that is a, yeah, you're not getting any of those guys now. Yeah. So it's, you know, that, that'll, I, I'm wondering if the PGA tour sales team

is going to get boned. For sure. That's what that was more to sell. You know, it's funny. But that's a harder. That's a hard sale. Neil, when you talk about the Byron Nelson event?

Yeah, Schephler and Jordan are huge polls there, but also Siwu and Tom Kemp. And that's what that sponsor really cares about when like we have a massive Korean American population in Dallas. That sponsor is going to be the one that's like, what the hell, man? Like,

yeah, we just signed up for this. This is not going how we thought. But I will say they, PJ Tour has. found sponsors at $4 million for opposite field events. That's essentially what Challenger tour events are opposite field events, and there's a lot of them.

So look, if there's one thing I don't doubt, it's the PGA Tour's ability to sell, and they can sell. And, you know, it's still $4 million for a lot of these companies that they would be shopping this to is a rounding error. So, I don't want to hear any moaning from the mules. Yeah, $24 million persons.

and you're, you make, you know, you get into that, what is it going to be top 200 now? Like somebody in the comments earlier was talking about how this is shrinking. This is growing exponentially. Oh, God. I think about 120 and probably another 120.

That's like 240 golfers all playing for at least, you know, a million dollar winners purse, like on these challengers, right? Or I don't know what the winner would give it. $4 million. Like that feels like a big leap for a lot of these guys that were at 150.

Like, you know, that's, you have four million bucks in those. And then you've got, I mean, some of these fall events, as it stands right now are six, seven, eight million dollars. So, and from what I've heard,

this guy, Drove, Provade, the, the chief commercial officer that, that Rollout brought over from the tour is an absolute savage.

Just, just a menace. Like, Neil, he could sell a ketchup popcicle woman and white gloves. I love it. Like right now, Jack Johnson's number 200 on the list on the FedExman. Hell yeah.

Luke Donald's 203, Charlie Hoffman, 202. And I would say that these might be some of the guys that would be, like, you know, getting a sponsor invite or a career, a career, like, resume qualification. You know what I'm trying to say. Yeah. Kind of fixes the problem with the champs tour, too, about 50 being too old and constantly going back, like should there be 47, like, when should they be able to start going and playing out there? Well, now they have their own, like, they should have plenty of opportunities, which

will draw crowds. I know. I think there is something to be said for that. Like, there will be big old names in the challenger field, which is, you know, maybe they could sell on that, that point. Luxury old. And a big question, too, of just what's the entry point now for the live guys don't want to come back. This is not answered. Not answered yet. And you work your way up to Challenger. I mean,

could you imagine winning two Corn Ferry Tour events and then you win two Challenger events in the same year and you do the full thing all the way up in the same season? You want to give a little boost to your new sponsors of the Challenger tour? Bryson, go get down there. Go find your two events to win, man. And Rob might be there with you. Go, yeah, it's going to be a race to two wins down there.

As soon as you guys get to two, you can come on up to the championship track. Cody, Cody, one thing, Tom Kim wise, Tom Kim finished 94th last year in the FedEx Cup. So maybe, you know, come 2029, he's playing the CJ Cup, baby. Well, in the fall. He'll just be developed by the NTC. So hopefully he's, you know, improved his spot a little bit. So I think from what I've heard, they plan to announce around February next year what the actual schedule is for 2028, which is earlier than we've seen in the past. But they will have eligible, again, as mentioned, they'll have eligibility figured out before the end of this year.

So when everyone starts the year, they will know. And then, you know, at some point early in the season next year, they'll be able to announce what the actual schedule is. We won't be changing the tour championship format six months ahead of time. under this administration, I don't believe so. So, like question. Where does this leave the DP World Tour and the Alliance? So one takeaway that was also in there is there's post, after the postseason, into the fall, there's going to be opportunities for championship series players to play in an international series of events that are co-sanctioned with the DP World Tour, which is including national opens.

So I'm assuming the Australian Open with the new partnership there. We'll go straight to the list of this one. And I don't know exactly what other national opens would take place here. Does the Scottish get moved here? You know, does the Irish end up here? But this is, it'll be, I would guess, bigger purses. These are co-section with DB World Tour bigger than the Challenger purses with some incentive for challenger, excuse me, I'm going to do this a million times,

with some incentive for championship players to play in those. Don't know exactly what that would be. I don't think they're going to the $20 million purse level of the, of the championship track. But that's one link here with the DP World Tour. And again, he was asked, roll up was asked about this today, but it is not worked out in terms of DP World Tour cards.

I do not see a world, maybe the top guy on the DP World Tour goes straight to the championship track. But I would guess the DP World Tour access would go again through the Challenger series in the next year. Could be wrong on that. Maybe it's more than one guy.

Maybe it's five guys. Maybe I don't know. But that is not clearly communicated yet how the DP World Tour is going to be, how it's going to feed the Challenger in Championship Series. I think the, thinking about other pathways, like he said, they're still going to do Q school. PGA Tour U, I think it's more interesting and more important than ever, you know, depending upon which tour you get spit out onto.

And I think, you know, like this could be a great opportunity for, I think it's, it's a awesome opportunity to onboard guys quicker into the ecosystem, right? Like, all right, like, these guys go into Challenger events and they're a little bit less deep and they just, and they can just, you know, rise to the top. And it's like a one-year thing instead of the Corn Ferry Tour, then regular PGA tour, then you work your way up into signature events. It feels like it's a little bit more expedited in a good way. But you're still eating what you kill.

It's not, there's no shortcuts. Yeah. Last thing I think I have here, and we've got to get to a couple other things here, but Rory did issue a statement today. He said today's announcement is a positive step for professional golf. As more details emerge, it is encouraging to see the PGA tour reaffirming the importance of meritocracy and creating a structure that will serve both players and fans well into the future.

I've always been proud to compete around the world and the collaboration between the PGA Tour and DP World Tour is one founded in the betterment of the game globally. The commitment to elevate some of these historic international tournaments and national opens is incredibly important for the game and something I'm very supportive of. Over the last few years, golf has faced a period of uncertainty

and division which has not been in the best interests of the players or the fans of the game. Today, we are putting the fans first, and I'm excited about the future of our sport. Quite different than the statement he made this past week at the U.S. Open about this, but did Roy get back down?

Did we get a talking to, do we think, since last week into this week? Yeah, I think Roy regretted what he said last week, for sure. I think Rory also, like, wanting the good old days back. It's like, all right, cool. You want, like, the purses from the good old days back, too? I mean, or even, like, all right, the good old days pre-live. Like, how many events did Rory play on the PGA tour?

He played 19 events. And he played nearly every single one of them is something that was going to be a track one championship tour event, with the exception of maybe the RBC Canadian Open. So, yeah, a different phase of his career, though. No, but like this, this feels like the, this feels like just the best DNA of the tour coming on. And, you know, I guess the only big concern I have is that they get too starry-eyed for these big markets. And they kind of lose some of that foothold in, you know, places like, we'll see it this week. Hartford and, you know, Connecticut, like, there's not a whole lot of other professional sports going to Connecticut.

And these people turn out and it's an awesome, awesome atmosphere. Same thing. I mean, the John Deere's great, too. Like, there's a dozen different examples of that. But, you know, I think they can, I think they can channel some of that. I hope we get a couple surprises on what is a championship event and what's a challenger event, too. So what you guys saw? I bet Rory just said, like, yeah, maybe I went a little hard.

Maybe I agree with Randy. You know, I still appreciate that Rory is going to say what's on his mind. It might, you know, sometimes he maybe. It's from the hip a little too quick, but I'm sure for the people that invested as many hours as so like Mav had, that was probably pretty frustrating, you know, thing right before the big announcement in there. But good to see the statement in support of it here today. So we have a lot of time to discuss a lot of the fall out here. Hopefully that was good background information and answered some frequently asked questions about that. I caught up with Tony Fienow today a little bit.

Just asked him about it. He, you will see very quickly here. he was not up on the news. So some of this was new to him. We talked a little bit about that, about travelers, about his current state of his game. We're going to check in here with Big Ton, and then after that we're going to get into some storylines

ahead of this week's KPMG Women's PGA. So here's my guy, my guy, Big Ton. Big news in the golf world today, Tony. How up to speed are you on things? And kind of what's your reaction to what was announced today by the PGA tour? Yeah, I just kind of got. briefed by my manager actually about some of the some of the ins and outs of what got released this morning but yeah i mean a lot of it you know we've we've had a couple of player meetings i think brian

rolap has done a great job of just being like transparent with all the players um and updating us with what they're thinking what's being passed and and so i think a lot of us kind of knew that they're you know it was going to be a two-tier tour if you will um but yeah like overall nothing so nothing surprising me just that it's now fully steamrolling, you know, down the hill with the Challenger series and then also the championship series. I think it was interesting to see that they're, you know, they're both going to have cuts and both like full-filled events. You know, you got 120 in the championship series, and you got 144 to 156 in the Challenger series.

So you got a lot of cards up for grabs, which I think is a great thing for the tour. What's been the sentiment? I know that's just the news just a couple hours old and whatnot, but from other players you've talked to and just the general vibe around the tour, does there seem to be a general satisfaction in the direction of where things are headed? Yeah, generally, I think it's been really positive, generally speaking. I have talked to some tour guys that aren't extremely happy about it. But I would say generally speaking, most guys are pretty happy with the changes

and looking forward to it. I know I am. I thought that this is a, it's the right amount of guys for the tour. I think 120 guys was the right amount. You know, we're playing like this week and the travelers and just signature events in the past have only been 70 to, you know, 85 guys. And I just don't think that that's enough guys with the amount of depth that we have in the game of golf now. I think that surely we can have fields up to 100 to 120 players in these fields. And so I think they got that right. And then you're also able now to go down the list again,

and you got more than 360 to 400 cards now, official PJ Tour cards where guys can actually make their schedule. So I think those are a couple of things that they cleaned up and that they got right. What's the reaction, your reaction, I guess, to match play? You know, kind of a postseason with match play, a totally different possibility of crowning a champion at the end of the year.

You know, it's been heavily debated over the years and now it's finally getting put into action. What's the general sentiment around match play? Yeah, I mean, I didn't hear that. I don't know if that's like an official thing, but if it... Oh, they said it. It's in the press release. Yeah, I'm going to hold them to that now that they said that.

Okay. Well, I'm just hearing that from you. So I'm actually, I'm a little shocked. I'm a little shocked. You know, we play stroke play throughout the season for the playoffs to come down to match play. I can't say I'm in full agreement with that just because stroke play has been such a huge is everything in our game. You know, we, we.

So you just have the full set of info here before you say there, there is going to be a one final tournament that awards the season long winner point in the points race. One final stroke play tournament event. And then from there, it will go into match play in a postseason. The format of that is not announced yet, but a postseason match play tournament that will be an additional champion is kind of what the, what, what was announced today. Also, almost like, almost like two different champions. Yeah, yeah. Oh, okay.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know exactly the format, but I know that we play so much stroke play, and we're, like, designed to play stroke play. I'm a huge fan of matchplay. I don't believe that the FedEx Cup should come down to matchplay, because if it's a season-long race, you want the guy that's played the most consistently throughout the season to win. But I also understand from a fan's perspective how cool matchplay can be. It's just so much easier to follow.

Like, look, these are the two guys competing for the FedEx Cup. You know, these are the final eight guys. So I totally understand that from a fans' perspective and just for the game in general. FedEx Cup playoffs is tricky, you know, even for us sometimes. We don't know, like, do I need to finish fifth to get into the BMW? Do I need to finish 18th? And so there's so many different things going on. Will it simplify it?

Like match play will 100% simplify that. But as from a player's perspective, you know, stroke, play is still, I think, the king of the game. And I think we got to try and try and keep the FedEx Cup to that is just my personal opinion. Sure. No, that I understand that completely. Transitioning a little bit to this week, TPC River Highlands Travelers Championship, you've had some success here. Most recently, you had a T5 here in 2024, but your record here is kind of mixed. How does this golf course fit your eye? What do you, when you get to this golf course every year, what's, you know, what, what thoughts is a trigger from a strategy standpoint for you?

Yeah, I love this place. I think this golf course is so fun. Like, I think that's the word that comes to mind. Anytime I show up here at TPC River Highlands, like, I think it's one of the funnest tests that we have on tour. And it's one of the greatest risk-reward tests, especially on the back nine. I think once you get the whole number 10, so much character on the golf course, you know, you've got to avoid a tree on the T-shot, small green, 11 straight downhill part three. It's most likely going to have a wedge in your hand, but it's like it's a scoreable shot. You know, 12's got great character. And then you got 13. a hole if you hit the fair way you can make an eagle. If you don't, you're going to struggle to make par. But there's just so much character on this golf course. And I just think it's one of the funest courses that we play. And I really, really love it. You know, I think it's, it's not a golf course where it matters which way you shape it. You can hit a cut. You can hit a draw and play it just fine. This week we're going to be dealing with, you know, we've had a couple inches of rain already this week. So the golf is going to be extremely soft, which means it's probably going to be scoreable.

And so you're going to have to make some birdies. But I've fared pretty well when you've had to make birdies on this golf course. So hopefully that's the case this week. We always hear players every year dating back for as long as I can remember players rave about this championship in this tournament. And what is it from a player's perspective that sets travelers apart in a way that I don't hear other tournaments be described the same way as I do this one? Yeah, I think their attention to detail and just listening to the players.

They do an incredible job of just hospitality, all the little things. The food is incredible. They do a great job with family events. They've got two or three family events going out throughout the week here that is unlike any other tournament. I mean, like last night, they invited all the players to go to the Post Malone concert, stay in the Traveler Suite. And so, like, they just, they really pay attention, I think, to details. and if we give feedback to the Travelers Championship,

it will probably be implemented next year. And so, like, we love that as players. We feel special throughout this week. And then it's the fans and the golf course. You know, like I mentioned, the golf course is extremely fun. And then you have great fan support. And so it really just makes for an incredible tournament all the way around. The reason I ask that is the question that's on everyone's mind,

your lifestyle, how do you do this? with six kids. How do you travel on the road with six kids, keep up with everything? How does your wife have the time to make the TikToks that she's making and all this? Like you guys let us in on your life and it's great entertainment, but I got three young ones and I'm going crazy over here. How are you doing it with six, man? Well, I'm happy you brought my wife up. I wouldn't be able to do it without her, you know, it's, but it's like it's organized chaos. As you know, you've got three kids. It really is that. It's, I always say it's a traveling circus. You know, I've got six kids and, you know, me and my wife, and then we usually have a nanny with us, and also a tutor during school, during the

year. So it's, it's like a nine-person traveling circus. And it's a whole, it's a whole thing. But, but man, I wouldn't have it any other way, man. It's so fun to have them out, me doing my thing and still being able to go home to my kids, you know, every week just about, it doesn't get any better, you know, but it's, that doesn't mean it's easy. but it's I've got a supportive wife I think that makes it all work and uh but yeah we've got you know a bunch of a bunch of craziness but uh I've always you know I'm the third of 10 and so I you know chaos is like I thrive in chaos just because my my life has been that way my whole life so does that mean you might have more than six is that was that what I heard there you're three of 10

six I think six is a good number for me six is a good number for me what take us into the status of your game last couple of seasons have not been, you know, the phenow that we've known for, for a lot of the most recent years. What, what, what, what, what, what, how do you see your kind of path to getting back to, uh, the top level we've seen you perform at? Yeah, that's a great way of putting it. That's exactly right. Yeah, I've been a little disappointed in, um, in the game over the last, really 18 months, just not getting a lot out of it, results wise. Um, but, you know, it's, you go through ebbs and flows throughout your career. I've got to try and continue to stay patient with myself. You know, I feel like I'm putting the work in. Um, you know,

I've been working with Como now for about 18 months, and a lot of things that we're working on, I think it's starting to come to fruition. I'm hitting it better off the T, which is a place that I've struggled with over the last, you know, while I haven't had great results. So I feel like I'm doing some good things, and I just haven't been able to quite put it together. But in this game, as we know, you know, things can happen fast. And I do feel like I'm on the doorstep of some really nice golf. And, you know, I have to continue to stay hopeful and up the.

You know, the game can, the game can beat you up if you allow it to. It can make you bitter. You know, we know that about this game. But, you know, that's one thing that I try to keep is just a positive attitude and a positive outlook that I know that things can happen on any given week. And it could be a week on any given week. And that can start a snowball effect in the opposite, you know, opposite direction. So I'm staying optimistic about about the game. Although I haven't had the results to really back up that. you know, the game is there. I do believe that I'm on the verge of playing some nice golf. I've had some better finishes over the last month. And again, I've actually never driven the ball better than I am right now, far and straight, which is a great combo. I've learned that that works on any golf course throughout the world. And so if I can continue driving it well, you know, I think the other parts of the game will follow suit and hopefully start to get some better finishes. Love that.

You know I'll be rooting for it. That left me with some warm and fuzzy feeling. So I appreciate you spend a little time with us in a busy week. Best of luck this week. And we'll catch up down the road. Thanks, Tony. Talk soon. Thanks, Holly.

It's my guy, man. Just supposed to be in a good mood. Seems like you left. Except for his match play takes. Yeah. You left 10 in the tank there. Solly. I can't believe you didn't follow up with who the malcontents were.

Some of these guys don't like these two tracks. Obviously not, but you've got to ask, right? No, come on, come on. All right, you guys ready to get into KPMG women's PGA. Real quick. We buried the Monaghan. Oh, we did. We can talk about it on Sunday.

It was extremely minor. But yeah, Montaghan got upset a few words. The tour also announced that Brian Rolap will be the next commissioner of the PGA tour, which I was kind of surprised. I didn't know that role was going to continue. I guess I probably, you know, I didn't. not thought once about that, that there was going to be a new PGA tour commissioner,

but he will now be the CEO of the PJA Tour and the commissioner. I'd have to dig a little deeper to understand the difference between the two. I mean, I think it's just the way they had to get him into the organization. And, you know, Jay wasn't leaving. But I guess to his credit,

he stepped aside and he's been just kind of in the background for the last, I don't know, year. I think, you know what, what I will give them credit for is, I know that was forced and I know your takes on on jay and but like there this has been very undramatic Brian rollaps arrival at the tour there has not been any drama or or palace intrigue amongst

those two and so I think this was kind of a stick to landing moment and and that's that's kind of the end of it right he's going to sail off from the sunset now totally I think uh yeah Joe Gorder said as much he said hey I'm you know been the corporate role a long time and this is one of those like the smoothest transitions I've ever seen. And by all accounts, by everybody, you know, at the tour, Jay's been very supportive and helpful in the transition. I just, I felt like it was a weird time and place for it. Like, I think maybe do that at the tour championship at the end of the season.

And I'm just blown away that Jay lasted 10 years in the role. It's truly, it's truly a credit to him and just hockey Jay just, just fight. his way out of the corner constantly and, you know, 10 years and 150 plus million dollars, it's, uh, we've, we're, you know, we're in a better place now. So it was, it, it was a nice reminder to be thankful for what we have in the leadership role that we have now when he got back up there and spoke because it was just, you know, it was just like a bad reminder of a lot of those players press conferences.

It was. Thank you, T.C. All right, you guys ready now to get into the KPMG women's PGA. It will be at TC's favorite course. Hazeltine this week. We're going to talk about some of the top storylines going into this week. You usually do a little draft of these, but I'm making an executive decision off the top that nobody gets to claim Nellie for this.

Come on. You got to at least let me take a victory laugh. We've hit a couple checkpoints on the road to 11. It's a group storyline that we're all going to tackle. here it is the head storyline going into the week. She'll be going for her third major in a row. She enters as the plus 350 favorite here at Hazeltine. Had a great chance to win the 2019.

KPMG Women's PGA at Hazeltine made an unfortunate bogey on the par 515th hole that prevented that from happening. Yeah, go ahead. Neil, take your victory lap here. We haven't had a chance to talk Nelly with you since winning major number four. Do you want to increase the over-under of majors for her? She knows the deal. I mean, she seems to be a way.

aware of at this point. And it's a long road, but we're making steady progress. We get five shots at it on the LPGA that factored into that number. So I feel, I feel really good about where we're at. I mean, she's, yeah, she's gotten it done in a big way that, you know, other than that, putts just, man, I keep seeing highlights of that. I'm like, how did that go in? I don't ever want to see the highlight again.

I can't. It makes me uncomfortable. Yeah, but, you know, like you obviously U.S. Women's Open, Nellie spoke on how important, how much she wanted to win that one. But to win it at RIV, too, I just thought that was a, kind of a statement win I've been looking for from Nellie. Because you could have some qualms with the Chevron and kind of where that tournament's at, that the U.S. Women's Open win felt like an arrival.

It felt like we, that felt like getting the monkey off the back a little bit. It felt like a true validation of things. So hopefully that, you know, kind of bust the door down and we'll see this week. Yeah, it should be a golf course that tease up very well for her. It would be over 6,700 yards. It plays kind of like a Bombers Paradise when the men play it typically, at least is how the US Rider Cup team sets it up.

And as mentioned, she does have a great record at this event or at this course. Granted, it was seven years ago, but she's a much better player now than she was in 2019. She was struggling to get off the major snide at that point. and at several disappointing moments, you know, down the stretch of major championships. And that one kind of stuck out. We were there, Marie and I were there in person and saw that one. And it was a really great opportunity for Hannah Green won the 2019 one. Those two will be teeing it up together at 617 Eastern off the first hole on Thursday morning with Say Young Kim.

Cody, what do you think of her chances this week? Very good, obviously. I don't know. if people that do not follow, they have to be following this now. It's hard to look past her. She's clearly leaps and bounds the best player in the women's game. She's positive. You know, we can sit here in nickel and dime her putting,

but she still has very good positive strokes gain putting. She sometimes is a victim of we just watch an awful lot of her playing golf. And sometimes those misses sneak up. but Neil, to your point, I think if you had asked Nellie about it now, like, it doesn't really matter how it looked. The putt went in. So if you go back to 2019, she had an amazing chance to win this tournament. She ended up finishing third.

She finished at six under par. Hannah Green won that at nine under. So that's kind of for people getting ready for this week. That's where you can put a marker there is that I think it's going to be between probably 10 to 12 under is where we're going to finish. I don't know who else. We're going to run through some names there who can try to knock it off her, but she's gotten a couple weeks off. She seems very, very prepared.

She seems in a great spot mentally. I just don't know how you look past Nellie Corder. That's a great set. It's a great, great set. It's almost like too good lining up for her, honestly. I mean, Gino not in the best of the weather like last time. Pretty good, if I remember right. It wasn't overly wet.

I know they had some rain this week. Players have been called off the course, at least once I know for thunderstorms so far, so far this week. It was a little overcast from what I remember, but not overly wet from what I remember either. Yeah, I saw the rain today. Like it was a big, big storm rolled through this afternoon. But yeah, I don't know.

I mean, I think it'd be the best thing possible. Three majors heading into the FEO. All right. Which one's first? Evian and then the Women's Open, right? We have three majors coming up in the next month for the LPJ tour, which is crazy. So obviously this week, KPMG, Evian, and then there's a week in between Evian and the AIG Women's Open. That's the Scottish Open, LCs tournament.

So hope another good run there. But, Sully, I don't know. Do you have anything that says anti-Nelly here? No. The only thing that, yeah, that's the only thing that, yeah, that, that's, that's, where I'm like, well, you know, it's too good to be true. Whenever, yeah, whenever it's very obvious, the person never wins, you know, but I would struggle to come up with a reason why she wouldn't.

I mean, not to, you know, I think everybody involved with this event would, there's not going to be any nelly proofing going on. I don't know exactly what you can or can't do to help her win or prevent her from winning, but there wouldn't be anything that would be, you know, about saying shenanigans are going to come into play with setup or anything like that, but people are going to want her to win. It's going to be a great, great, great storyline. God, I can't believe.

I'm kind of blown away by the schedule you just laid out there. That basically, yeah, we're going Evian Open Championship on the men's side. And then AIG Women's Open is extremely tight. Coming just off the U.S. Women's Open as well. I knew the crunch was bad. I didn't know it was that bad. But no, I am going to be very, very, I'll be watching from the jump man i will be watching from the morning she'll be i'm i would have to assume there's feature

group coverage starts early on thursday real feature group coverage they're doing two feature groups each wave not just one two feature groups each wave uh helps offset a challenging tv schedule i think is is fair to describe it as uh for those wondering Thursday and friday 11 a m to 3 p.m on golf channel uh then a three hour break and then six to eight p. on Golf Channel. The hydration hydration break. Saturday,

they will be 10 to 12 a. 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Peacock and NBC Sportsnet. 12 to 3 on NBC and then 3 to 5 for the finale on Saturday flipping over to golf channel and peacock. Yeah.

And then Sunday will be 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Peacock slash NBC Sports Network. and 1 to 4 p.m. on NBC. So it'll be done by 3 p.m. local time on Sunday to get in the TV window. Travelers is an NBC event this year, further complicating things and really, really mucking things up. So, yeah. And I'm sure they're going to play threesomes off. Oh, they have to.

Split teams. Nothing says major in elevating the women's game like that. And pro-ins. Yeah. Very cool. You know, props to KPMG, $13 million purse this week. That was huge. A million dollars higher than the women's U.S. Open,

which it's crazy to see how much that's grown over the last four or five years even. Just, you know, tripled from what was already the basically the largest in the game. Yeah, I remember when we went in like 19, they were touting, you know, I think it was like four and a half million bucks or something like that. And they were touting how big that was. and now they're 13 million. It really is a massive, massive, massive increase. Now, it is, you know, it's not KPMG's fault. We say this every year. Like they, you know, I'm not positive exactly how it works out, but basically KPMG's got to pay to get this thing on the air,

on network TV for as many hours as they do. It's, it's very much a NBC is not, not, clearly not interested in investing anything beyond what they're required to, into this actual event in terms of weekend coverage. So not their fault. They're doing absolutely everything they can to elevate this event. And people came out. Minnesota last time there was, there was some nice crowds.

This was, you know, golf market. Yeah, really good golf market. And, you know, again,

not the most exciting golf course ever. But the women, the women absolutely love going to places the men play at. If you ask any of them, they talk about it pretty much in every, every interview they do. And, you know,

it's a far cry from Riviera, but it is a recognizable golf course that I think people will tune into watching. That should be a goal for the LPGA, generally speaking, and the women's game generally is they should turn it on his head and like the men should want to go to golf courses the women go to. Roll back. I think it's starting to happen a little bit. We got Sunningdale next year. You know, we had, you know, there's there's been some other, I think Lancaster was a good one. Like there's been some other examples of like, oh, like they should have a men's tour event there, you know? So more of that, please.

And like like Hazeltine, it's fine. It's, it's very, very, it's just fine, right? Like, but they had that proposal on the table to redo it. Uh, in the PGA of America, I think shot it down. Carrie Hagan company, which I just don't understand at all. I guess, you know, good is, is going to get in the way of, you know, like mediocre. is going to get in the way of good or great here. But it's, you know, it's always in good shape. And there's some pretty beastly par fours and par fives out there. So it should be way, you know,

good crowds. The weather, yeah, it's a little wet so far, but it's definitely going to be more tolerable than it was last year in North Texas. That's for sure. Yeah. So yeah, I'm excited. You mentioned featured groups and I don't know if we're going to go through the groups or not, but that's like from 9 in the morning till 8 at night. And I just want to shout that out because it's also a thing that KPMG, I think they brought in T-Mobile to help pay for that. It's going to be available on the championship website. So KPMG, women's PGA Championship.com,

their YouTube page as well as the PGA Championship app. So there's plenty of, you have to search it out, which sucks as a golf fan. But at least Nellie, Hannah, say, Young, like, they put all the big names in these feature groups. So you can watch them. That will be, that is a massive bonus. Yeah, there'll be, I was mentioned, Nelly, Hannah-Hanna, and Say Young Kim. There'll be Lydia, Lydia Co., Brooke Henderson, Lottie Wode at 906 that morning.

Mao Seigo, Patty T. and Lauren Coglin will be at 928. Gina Kim, Haydan, Yu, and Joju Kim at 939. Big spot for Gina Kim in that pairing. In the afternoon wave, Minji Lee, Amy Yang, Ronnie Yin, will be off at 231. on hole 10. Charlie Hall, Gino Titakun, and Gabby Lopez off 642, or 242, off the 10th hole on Thursday. So, all right, we kind of got off track on storylines. T.C., what's another storyline that you want to nominate? I was going to go with Hannah Green, and if she can defend at this course from, because she's had a great year thus far. But I'm going to switch that. I'm going to go with Lottie Wode after her missing that short put to win and to send it to a playoff.

last week or just two days ago at at at the mire in michigan and i mean there's a really short putt roller coaster she holds out for birdie from the green side bunker on 17 and then misses a put from it has been said to be inside two feet it looked like it might have been over two feet to me but it was a short put it was in the nelly corda u.s women's open range maybe even shorter than that and missed it and went to a playoff and lost in a playoff it depends on which caddy's doing the get the measurement yeah for that group right um but no i think like lottie's got a really good major record for for a young player um you know she's fin like she she she played well at evion last year she played well at chevron this year um she's played well at the women's open 25 and 26 and 24

and i think uh this is like a big this is a big golf course this feels like a like a major championship venue you got to hit your driver well you got to grind it out i've gotten the sense that lottie plays really well on difficult courses as well um and so i think this this should be a very good opportunity for her this week to kind of announce herself as not only a star here in the states but maybe a challenger in nelly so 22 to 1 she's she's definitely one of the favorites this week so that's a good one agree one thing on lottie too at tc you mentioned past major championship And the crazy thing about it is that, so she played the U.S. Women's Open last year. That was her last event as an amateur.

She went over and she won the Women's Irish Open. The following week, she went to Evian. And you mentioned her a great result there. And everybody had lot of fever. Obviously, she played well there, but she did not win. Followed that up with an incredible performance with a ton of pressure at the AIG Women's Open. She's a big, big time player. And even though it's her first KPMG women's PGA she's ever playing in, I truly don't think it matters to her.

Like, she loves hard stuff. And she's such a good name to call out this week. Totally. And you know, you know who sponsors the women's Irish Open, Sali? KPMG. KPMG. So the KPMG sweep. She's a monster for sponsor.

Everybody's been using that phrase all over the golf world. Neil, what do you got? Charlie Hull what are we doing are we gonna get one you know based on some some social content sounds like she had a relaxing week at home

that hat was outrageous total recharge looks like she went to the races TC I mean you know Charlie gets a lot of run she gets a lot of you know attention and she's played good golf but it just hasn't really gotten it done

Is Charlie Tommy? Am I off base on that Cody? Well, she wins a lot more than Tommy does, TC. I'm just kidding. She actually doesn't win that much. No, she's very good. I'm right. Like, that's my feeling. I'm not as up to date on the women's game as

you are, Cody. So I'm, I just think she puts her head, big tournament. So I was like, oh, Charlie Hall. And then, like, early rounds, you're like, oh, she's up on the top first page of the leaderboard. And then just doesn't get it done. She does have difficulty closing major championships. But she does put herself She gets there.

And I think that it's one of those things where it's just, you know, it eventually will happen. She has won this year. She won in Saudi early in the year, of course, coming off and awesome finish at the U.S. Women's Open. You mentioned time off. That's how she plays. She doesn't like being on the road. Even though they're in Michigan right now, she will not change her clock. She remains on London time, whatever that is.

So she can still talk to family and friends and keeps that normal sleep cycle, unless she has a morning tea time, that obviously throws that off quite a bit. That's sweet. But, you know, it is getting to the point. And Big and I talk about this all the time with her because sometimes she's just like right in the mix

and you're like, oh, it's going to happen. And other times you're like, it's a complete no-show here. I said that for a long time, I think her first, when she finally breaks through on a major, it's going to be out of AIG Women's Open. I just don't know if big, long,

brawny, you know, Parkling course like this is. Well, didn't she call a Rottomaker favorite course in the world? Yeah, but you have to understand. If you go back and watch that whole reel, people are calling out some crazy courses as their favorites. Well, she's plus 3,000 on the odds run down here. So, you know,

a good amount of names ahead of her. But I think she gets a lot more attention than most of the names ahead of her except for Nelly. So that's why I'm calling her out. For the LPJ tour, they need somebody who can go head to head, toe to toe to with Nellie in their biggest weeks. And we thought that was going to be Gino.

That's clearly not Gino. And we really want it to be Charlie because it comes with a lot of other attention and she's just naturally like a quote machine. She'll give it to you. And that would be Chad and Craig and everybody at the tour's, like ultimate dream is to have them, those two battling it out all the time.

just don't know if Charlie's there yet. Yeah. I mean, Charlie's 30. She's got to get there soon. Similar conversation, D.C. I do respect, I do respect the, no, no, long, he's got like four or five more years in his front. I do respect Greenwich meantime, her just staying on.

Yeah, I know. I like that. I was sick. I like that a lot. Cody, what do you got? Yeah. You talked about last week's event, Lottie. a bogey in the 70 second hole to get into a playoff.

The playoff that she was with was with Miyu Yamashda, who eventually, of course, beat Lottie in that playoff. She is phenomenal. She burst on the scene. You know, it was the easiest rookie pick I ever had last year, going into our preseason picks for the year because she was a rookie on the LPJ tour. That's because she's coming over from Japan

where she, like, literally won everything. She followed that up last year. She won the AIG Women's Open. She won another event to start this season. When she gets hot, you have to watch out because she hits every fairway. She hits almost every green and she is just a putting machine. So very easy to go off a little bit of recency bias. But Mew would be a very deserving to get another major championship under her belt.

The second person that I want to shout out here and I'm going to do a double. TC's going to hate this. There's something going on with Gabby Lopez. uh she has completely chan transformed her game she's always been a really good ball striker she's had a horrible short game and she signed up she's been working with the chipmunk man joe mail so she's got uh hidden hidden hidden little nippy spinners and everything and they've been at it for the last two and a half three months and you see her popping up all the time on leaderboards now super impressed with how she was at the u.s women's open outside of pace to play things but hey there's rules officials that are there to take care of that tc Um, but watch out for her. I think she's somebody who could like literally take it pretty deep this weekend. She's getting steep with the chipmunk. Are there women's, uh, like women's PGA pros?

Yeah. Yeah. I think there's four or five. We need a female blocky as well. A storyline to watch. We'll look into that. Will we get a, a female blocky? Uh, mine is very simple and brief.

Gino, are we going to finally do something? I was stunned to see that she's not second favorite on the board anymore. I mean, I know she's not been playing well, but she's plus 1,500. Ronnie Yin is the second favorite at plus 1,300. I mean, it just kind of set this one for every major of like, dude, yeah, we're going to not going to forget to talk about you in these, but like we need to see something. It's kind of got to be, got to be now. Evian should play well for her.

I mean, obviously should have won that last year, but it will be one of the first scores. I go to check. I say that, but I honestly, like, forgot about her at the U.S. Women's Open. And somebody,

like mentioned her, you know, halfway through Thursday. And I was like, oh, yeah, I completely just didn't, didn't think once about you, once the tournament started.

And for one of the top three players in the world, that's kind of, that's kind of damning. So it's time to see something. We say it for every major. We say it on every recap, every major. But I'm not going to lose track of her,

but I'm very keen to see if you're actually going to be a challenger to Nellie. Everybody's coming. around. I was I was taking flack last year for for calling it out. You know, she's young. She's da-da-da-da-da-da. And it's like, no, you got to shit or get off the pot, you know?

Yeah. I've been on your side on this one. You can check my record on that one. I remain suspicious. The question, is Lexi playing or is she retired? She's retired this week. Oh, she's hurt? She's hurt. Yes, but I don't think she

qualified. She not made the eligibility list for this one. But she did. She was in the field. They're supposed to be in the field last week in Michigan, and she unfortunately had to withdraw there. Just a little bit of information on Gino. She has won twice this year. People tend to forget about that.

She missed the cut at the Chevron. Finished T28 at U.S. Women's Open was never even in the conversation, as Sully said. And then missed the cut last week. And last week, hopefully we hit rock bottom. She ended up having 36 putts in the first round. It's the most three putts she's ever recorded in any professional event. She was negative 2.11 strokes gain putting.

Just not good at all. So it was a short week for her, but who knows? You got to talk about her because she does win, but I just, again, I don't know. I think back to Evian last year all the time. and is that as close as she's going to get for a bit. And truly, there has to be scar tissue now. Like she's done it too many times. You can't touch the oven that many times without like realizing,

oh man, this is, this something's going on. All right, let's do it. Picks to win. Is this going to be, I mean, I'm going to pick Nellie. Yeah. You know who I'm picking. Yeah. I got a vested interest.

You got several years before we love to ask you that. I need it, Nellie. on uh cody you picking nelly yeah it's got to be nelly quarter i'll read randy's into the record as well uh let's see here randy said quote win nelly not to win gino and charlie he said i'm really excited for this week i hope the course sets up and plays similar to what we saw in 2019 where anything under par each day was a great score i'll also say that um somebody shot 65. I think Nasa shot 65 in the final round.

Mel, well, Mel shot 66, I think it was to get up into like a tie for third, I think with Nellie, if I remember right. He says, I'm fascinated to see how Nellie continues to deal with the spotlight as it's only gotten bigger and brighter since winning the U.S. Women's Open. I was so impressed by her patience in L.A.,

letting the rounds come to her and never forcing anything. That's a fabulous major recipe. More broadly, it's been a long time since we've seen someone male or female go for a third consecutive major in a calendar season. Jordan Speeth in 2015. So I would like for us to appreciate what we get to watch this weekend. These are the good times.

Let's go. Love it. Who's your pick? My pick is... My pick is Lynn Grant. Oh, you quit this. I did. I did quit this.

But she's starting to show some form, and I think this is a perfect golf course for her. okay and i'd also like to shout out elsie at 150 to one that's absolutely disrespectful is she really yeah at least on fandel 150 to one that's crazy i don't get on get on that Jesus yeah should be a good golf course for her if i remember right uh and if if lynn doesn't win then uh i like hannah green one pick to win it's one pick to win you cannot you cannot have two names you cannot go with hannah green we'll go with hannah green no you said lind grant that was your pick and then we'll go with gino not to win i'll go gino not to win as well i like gino and charl i'll do

gino and charlie with big i'll write that out that's mean i'll go gno only not to win uh lynn tc you don't have to hear me uh say this the chorus has missed the cut at both uh majors so far this year her best finish is a tied for 10th all the way back in february um form momentum she played great at the dowel Just greater the doubt with a teammate. Love seeing. Okay. Okay.

I'm trying to find if if my local book here will offer women's odds here. Oh, they do. Okay, I'm going to find more Coglin. I think that's going to be about do it for tonight. This was a lot. Crammed into one episode. Kind of took a Sunday episode and just made it a Tuesday episode here.

Appreciate all 1,400 of you still watching this live here on you. YouTube, hit that like button. If you don't mind doing it, hit the subscribe button on the low-laying-up podcast, YouTube channel, or wherever you get your podcast. We got video podcasts well on Spotify. If you prefer video, you can find the video versions of those there. And coming soon to Apple. A lot of people have been asking it.

We're in the pipeline. A decade late to the party, Cody. I understand Apple, you know, we're very well aware that they just rolled out video. Unfortunately, they're going by hosting providers. So we're in the stack. we're just not at the front. So it'll eventually come. It's on. Cody's on it. Just believe it. He's always on it.

Long list of thank you's tonight to the three of you for spending your Tuesday night here as well. Everyone that's here watching are friends at Titleist Roeback and Locke Lomond, Matt McNeely for the time, Tony Fienow for the time. And I think that'll about do it. So thank you everyone for tuning in. We'll be back Sunday live recapping, KPMG Women's PGA and Tremband. travelers, and then a little downtime, a little downtime for a lot of the crew. So thank you for tuning in.

We'll see you back here on Sunday. Cheers. Bangalang! Hey, Ontario. Did you know the province has moved to an enhanced recycling system? You can now recycle the same materials no matter where you are across the province. You can also recycle more than ever before, including coffee cups, frozen juice containers, ice cream tops, and black plastic containers, to name a few.

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