No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 891 - Creator Classic Reaction, New East Lake, and our Tour Championship Happy Hour

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

We react as the Creator Classic comes to an end, give our thoughts on the event, and take a look at the East Lake Restoration. We also discuss Jay Monahan's press conference, make some picks for the Tour Championship, and of course, a Beluga Big Board. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Music Better than most! Expect anything different? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up Happy Hour Show, presented as always by our friends at high noon. We already pushed back the high noon Happy Hour Show three hours to accommodate the Creator Classic. It is still not wrapped. We would have pushed it back farther, but we have a premiere tonight at 8 p.m. So we are live while this thing wraps up going to be reacting some to it as well. But I'm joined by my guy, Neil Schuster. Hello, Zahra. How are you? I'm fantastic. I'm so fired up to see our guy, Raj, just stunting right now. God, TC was talking like, man, this is such an opportunity for me.

It's such a come up. And he's just bawling out out and it makes me so happy. I got a lot of thoughts on the Creator Classic, but that just gets me jacked up. TC is here as well. TC, hello. You and me both, Neil. I'm also stoked about Amy Cho's outfit. Her general aesthetic is very much my lane, but Rodger's melting the ball. Now people know what I was up against. You're like an SEC, a bad SEC team that gets their ass beat and like it roots for the teams that beat them

and be like, see, SEC, look, it's just such a hard conference. It's just so tough. It just means more solid. It does. The moment everyone has been waiting has been waiting for is finally here. The high noon pool pack is back, but not for long.

You got to get in there now. There's a reason why we're getting this in on a very timely show like that the Wednesday happy hour Grab a case text the group get your friends to the nearest pool It's only here for summer and that is about to end so it is a time to enjoy lime peach and two limited edition flavors Guava and kiwi I'm on peach tonight guys because I regrettably just found out I'm out of my favorite squava and kiwi Of course the high noon pool pack is made with real vodka and real juice It's a hundred calories is gluten free no added sugar visit high noon spirits.com to find it near you I I think I could go stock up for winter if this thing is going away soon, so

cranberry I love that cranberry that comes out for winter and There's a few others like pear A lot of good stuff. I'm into the winter stuff. Yeah. What's got you so fired up about the creator classic, Neil? I mean, just mainly just Raj. But I think it's a good preview of the course too.

It's nice to get eyes on the back nine of E-Psych. I mean, I got it on the second screen. I got fat Perez out of the back bunker. I don't know. It's like, it feels a little dystopian, but at the same time it's, it makes me laugh and chuckle. Uh, I can run down my, just my, my, my thoughts. Uh, you have a beluga big board for the career classes. I have a beluga big board for later, but a couple of thoughts, I'm not going to lie. I thought it was Blackstone, like private equity that was the sponsor until like today, which because of like Cantlay's sponsorships, I thought

like, oh yeah, I guess maybe they're going to get in the content game. Everybody seems to be getting into golf. You know? We're talking about dystopian. Exactly. But yeah, I think great preview of the Back Nine. I find it entertaining. I don't think the broadcast is doing much for me. The dystopian part is like, oh, how many followers they got? The way they on like calling her Gabby Golf Girl. Can we just call her Gabby?

Like, I don't know. It just feels like they're announcing like a video game username every time she comes on on video. Let's start over to Ron Carter. How do you think I feel now? No, I don't know. All right. Maybe I'll take that one offline.

Big Randy. The three separate Hibachi infomercials is really the biggest issue I have. Some of the food looks fire, but those go on for two to three minutes. It's crazy. I don't know why it surprised me at this point, but the fact that the tour refuses to test something out, like, hey, let's just see how it goes. Let's just invest. It's like, no, let's 150% commercialize this before we even know if it's a thing. They don't even do this for title sponsors. What a coup for Blackstone Grills, man. Unbelievable. Think about that. That's like six or seven CEO interviews for the signature of like this. It just blows my mind how they just are like, they go from zero to 200 on the commercialization

of something. And so yeah, that's just a, I don't know, a thought. Okay. Couple other things. Raj the goat, fat Perez is great. Big nut. Busted Jack, last name Nut. Sorry, I agree. It's a tough combo. I keep thinking Marvin McNutt. No, I never laid eyes on that guy. This guy, Sean Walsh from Good Good. He looks like an NPC, DC. What is that term for a video game term? Non-player character. Non-player character. I didn't realize good good was just stacking up like college golf alums. Like they got some fucking horses in the good, good stable. But I don't know. I think the West, the Brian bros plan or Wesley Brian plan, I almost

just like, I don't know if I like that PG, it's almost like the amateur conversation we were having, Sally. Just to, yeah, this should be amateurs a hundred percent. Yeah. Like I don't know why Wesley Brian has to play. That's my biggest thing. Like Wesley Bryan, he's one of my least favorite people in golf and B, just like zero self-respect. I'm rooting for him to blow one way into the trees in the playoff here. Meanwhile meanwhile I love George. George is like one of my favorite people in golf so uh it's confused me about the the Myrtle Beach qualifier thing too was like filling the the field with half pros and that one just didn't it didn't make sense to me like just if you want like actual do just straight amateur golfers and there should be like an exemption on the line

into a tournament an opposite field event in this thing as well like that would be a good carrot like really uh a really good like way to link YouTube Golf to PGA Tour Golf. This is, I would say zooming out, this is unequivocally a win. Like we're watching golf, like a hundred thousand people are watching it live right now on the PGA Tour YouTube channel on a Wednesday evening.

Like they're quadrupling, like Liv's YouTube numbers on a Wednesday evening. Like it speaks to the very real audience. I don't think it's like aimed at people necessarily like us, but it's really hard to argue with like getting that many people involved in comment section flowing. Some very questionable takes going through the live chat of the PGA Tour, you know, YouTube channel.

Bryson got in there at one point. I don't know. It's a win. PGA Tour should start a message board in line with this as well. Yeah. And just, just let people fire stuff off. Oh my God. This is what we have to do when there's actual engagement. This is, this is tough. It's very strange. The people, like the studio crew that they got on it, no offense to Mark

Immelman, no offense to the other guy., like feels like kind of a whiff as well. Like it just, it feels, you know, kind of out of character or it doesn't really match up with the vibe of this event. Am I wrong there? Well, I'd say it, well, no, you're not, but I think it is interesting. Like there's no mics on players

or no like kind of YouTube personality shining through, right, which kind of is like, if you, again, if I was in charge of this, it would be more about that than like just getting the best golfers out there, right? It seems of is like, again, if I was in charge of this, it would be more about that than like just getting the best golfers out there, right? It seems like they set this up relatively easy. That's not a, you know, I mean, the scores are under par.

Nobody, none of the pros thought they were gonna be under par, the yardage is short pins are in the middle of the greens, like it's friendly, which is smart. Like watching bad golf is not fun. Like it's way better to watch guys make birdies. Tight, tricky little five footer for par here to make the playoff. I think he's into the, no, I think he's into the playoff either way. He might have to go to a chip off.

It would be a chip off. I thought it was top four. Oh, he's, oh yeah, top four. He would be in. Oh god, he drops to minus one. So I guess he's in anyway. So good point TC. But like this is not something we were necessarily specifically screaming for, but like, hey,

PGA Tour like 10 years ago, we were necessarily specifically screaming for, but like, hey, PGA Tour like 10 years ago, we started screaming for like, you should be active. You should be doing shit with your Tuesdays and Wednesdays to promote your tournament. Like this is a massive win in that regard of getting awareness of the golf course, getting awareness on the tournament.

Like look what happens when you open up your doors and let people in on the practice round days that you've wasted for as long as you've been in existence because of the way you view your archaic media deal like this is This has been sitting here waiting for you for a long long time and you finally woke up to it I think I agree Sally a hundred percent definitely a definitely a win some things we do different But I do want to shout out the the the graphics and shot tracer stuff Has been fantastic

so you know I think they could have covered the golf a little better with without the infomercials and a lot of the like on course interviews. Like I'm with you, just mic the mic the players up. And they've, they've lost track of like half the leaders too. Like I don't know where have these guys stand. I'm trying to follow this. Like it's a golf tournament. I would say the answer to your question, Neil's like submixing a bunch of live on course mics It's probably like 10 X is the complication of the broadcast and they're probably trying to keep it

you know again if I was explaining it that would be I'm guessing that's at least part of why it looks the way that it does. But anyways, it's fine I was I'm still curious to see how this plays out I've been curious kind of watching it all afternoon if I was even if I was chasing a one-year-old around for like two hours of it so it turns out golf bet was was all over you know it was properly handicapped with the PGA tour calm you know with George Ryan maybe being seventh Wesley Brian was not a fan of that if you are a follower of his social media channels was very offended by that and it does look like George is gonna miss.

So they may have to apologize. Honestly, big fan of Luke Kwan's game. Shaky start, but I think he's into the playoffs, so there you have it. Let's talk a little bit of Eastlake the week to come. We're gonna, obviously we have a brand new golf course, which we got a preview of here tonight. There's a great YouTube video that the PGA Tour put together With Andrew green kind of talking, you know

Highlighting four or five holes they go through show a bunch of images of what it was before and kind of the thought process Behind each one. It's kind of man. I I've been I've seen pictures of this TC. I've read about it I've I've understood it to be good I think it might be really good in terms of like, especially listening to Andrew Green talk about what he's trying to do here and what he's trying to do with the green shapes and why, you know, East Lake used to have all these really strong angular shapes to the bunkers and to the greens.

And that just slowly went away over time, Charles Jones and bringing like a lot of different elements back into play in this. And we got a little bit of reaction to it, but just kind of getting a preview of it here this back night, it feels like, man, this is about as good of a hope of a renovation, restoration, whatever you want to call it, that you see on the PGA tour in terms of like,

what architecture geeks are going to like. Yeah, I agree. I think I was actually listening to Andrew Green and Brandle go back and forth about trees today on Golf Central. And, you know, some of the trees that they took out were either diseased or invasive. By the looks of it, they did a great job. I've never been a fan of Eastlake. I've made that very clear throughout our 10 years of doing this. I think it's a little bit disingenuous to

make it seem like it was some pure Donald Ross to begin with. I think everybody from Johnny Appleseed, Tom Bendelove to Reese got their mitts on this thing. Eats cut there, T.C. I appreciate that. But no, I mean like shit like 17 what you're seeing here or the old eight now 17 one of the like the most benign dumb par fours in all of golf and watching it on the screen or classic right now, like crazy cool cross bunkering and just short grass around all the greens and contouring.

Yeah. What they did on five or on 15, the par three as well, again, just took that bunker out, made it look a lot more gnarly, even though they made the green bigger. I'm very curious to see how firm it plays this week too. I think guys are going to bitch about that, which is sick. And then just generally the whole on course OB thing as well. Yeah, they got a couple of places with some trees coming out, a couple of holes, especially the 18th. It is out of bounds if you play down the 10th fairway, which might even be the shorter route in I don't know where I forget where the other in course OB is to be found.

But I'd like you like the in course OB TC. Oh, I'm always a fan of in course. Okay, I think it's I actually was total toss up on where he stood on that. It's just like the yellow stakes last week. The yellow lines last week. Yeah. Hey, anything they can do to like, these are the best players in the world. All right, like don't hit it there, right?

I would take in course, like tree removal, but just make it in course OB instead of like planning trees to prevent people going down other holes, right? I'd rather have that airflow and a lot of the, I just firms up golf courses, not necessarily in August, but man, I'll save you. I was going to get, pull some quotes from people on what, from players on what the reaction is to the golf course. I'll save you all that. Everybody's saying it's firm. Xander, it's new, it's firm. Scotty, the greens, since they're new, they're extremely firm. Shane Lowry firm. Every single

person is talking about how firm this golf course is to the point. Like a text I got today was LOL firm in terms of, it doesn't really seem like it's on display here in the creator classic. I know they're playing from an up yardage, but I expect to see some balls bounding on the greens and they're gonna get dialed up throughout the course of the week. So.

Affirm, Michael Creighton. Shout out to him. Can I give you guys a little run through of a couple holes? Again, this is a lot of these images are taken from the PJ Tour YouTube but the eighth hole which was formerly the 17th obviously the hole that Bill Haas had the crazy up and down on some of the highlights here you'll see is they've actually moved this green up closer to the tee a little

bit like closer to in this image that you're seeing and move the tee up that's potentially going to be a drivable par-4 but not only that it kind of reminds me a little bit of the 14th hole at Quail Hollow, except like a way better design because you can see the difference between the August 2023 and the August 2024 image here if you're watching this on YouTube. The bunkers down the right side, like prevent you from just being able to bail out to the right with this drivable shot. If you want to take it on, if you want to get, you know, create an angle to get an easy up and down, you have to take on the water, you got to fit it on if you want to get you know create an angle to get an easy up and down you have to take on the water you got to

fit it between the bunkers and the water and that that's kind of that's an element that's always been missing from that 14th hole at Quail Hollow where it's like yeah bail out to the right all you want whereas this one's asking a more specific question of like hey can you can you thread this if you want to take this on if you want to do this you know if they tuck some of the pins in there does it make more sense to lay back we We'll see. I don't know exactly how it's going to play, but this, this eighth hole is a cool, a cool image. Yeah. I was kind of curious to see if, if, if green kind of did like his rinse and repeat, like same stuff he did at Inverness or Oak Hill or congressional or whatever, but it seems

like he's taken a really unique approach to this course. And yeah, I don't know. It's certainly, really unique approach to this course. And yeah, I don't know, it's certainly like, it's always been a really good piece of land, right? It's you get the big lake in the middle, it didn't really use it effectively. It's just been such a waste until and it's like, cool, like now it looks worth playing. It looks worthwhile now. And it looks worth watching. Like that's the thing too. It was just like Delta watch on repeat. Three more holes I want to look at. the second hole is a par-3 this is a really cool Andrew Green talked about this as well about how they're actually like used to be almost two parts to the screen like a winter green and a summer green and that had gradually shrunk over time and they expanded all this part especially the

part out to the left which created a new back left pin position that you can kind of bound balls down the green and get back to that creates a different look from previously the hole was just like kind of the same shot you'd hit no matter what where the pin was just aimed to the center of the green whereas now there's going to be a lot more elements into that one some cool new bunker shapes and a much better aesthetic into this one you mentioned the 15th hole TC the island green they eliminated that bunker and added like a runoff area long left of that one. We saw some of the creators kind of ending up back down in that spot as well.

And it has made, they've said it makes the shot a little bit more intimidating in terms of not having that bunker there to catch balls that come offline on this one. And just little small things too, like taking away the grandstand behind that one and taking away the trees in the distance there opens up vistas towards other holes and just gives you more connectivity to the property

and better flow of things. In depth perception too. Yeah, I was gonna say that. Like it makes that trickier. Without the bunker, it's almost like there's less of a target to like work it off of, or just a visual guide. So I find it, looking at this picture right here,

I find it much more intimidating without the bunker. 100%, 100%. Guys, real quick too, I'm getting absolutely lit up in the comments. It was John Grisham, the firm, not Michael Crichton. I apologize. That's a fair mix up though. But yeah, I appreciate you.

Listen, again, Memphis just coming at me once again. Sure. Last one, the 18th hole, the one we all know. Some interesting changes on this one. They shifted the pond a little bit more here to be more in play with the layup, especially if you missed the fairway off the tee you've now got more pond to deal with with a layup shot and I was surprised to this to like the green is almost completely flipped now it almost there's two bunkers short left of this

one and the in the kind of cants front right to back left kind of more creating or promoting more of a draw approach whereas we've seen a lot of fades off the downslope into that green in the past with the entry point in the front left. It's now in the front right with some, we're about to see it in the creator classic here for the first time, but I'm guessing the probably more interesting green contour as well. So it's a big shakeup, man, big, big swing. It's got me intrigued. I still obviously think there's better times a year to play in Atlanta than August, but season wraps up here before football season

and that's not gonna change anytime soon. Can't wait, it's gonna be pissed. I mean, bottom line, you know, those guys love this course. Can't wait, Xander, all those guys are gonna be like, oh, they changed it. Oh, it's Xander, the dude that makes all the money on this golf course. Yeah, he's-

Can't wait, I really liked it too though I think. Yeah. So. Zander was about the biggest horse for course you could imagine. It's crazy just looking at that and seeing like how bad Reese Jones is at his job and how many jobs,

how many courses he molested over the course of his career. And then you look at Robert Trent Jones Jr. like the whole Jones family, it's just, it's unbelievable. The destruction that they foisted upon our great game. But might single-handedly be responsible for a thriving golf architecture industry, right? I mean, there's an endless amount of work that these guys will get to keep doing. I mean, Andrew Green should go kiss the feet of Reese Jones any opportunity that he gets because there's a

lot of courses that those guys touch that need to be undone and fixed and they're on their way. There's a lot of business out there. A little bit on the tournament here. Really, honestly, there's kind of one big question for this week. Scotty has led going into this tournament, I believe, the last two years, right? This is his third straight year Coming in with the lead doesn't get it done this time It's still only a two shot lead no matter what a season is. Yes or no tc does scottie get it done this week I'm gonna say no Uh, I was dm'ing with somebody today They're saying check out scotty's record even on the courses down south that he's won on

It was all overseeded bermuda or or or basicallyyegrass. And he just has not really played well on Bermuda. He's like the opposite of Bermuda Burns. So I'm going to say no. I think Xander loves this place. I think it's going to set up well for Ludwig. I just think there's guys that are going to come running downhill at him. On TC, I'm right there with you. I say, no, it's his first time. It doesn't seem to play great on his first go around a course. That theory, I don't know if that was yours or whose, but that stuck with me and I noticed it. And Castle Pines was a similar situation. I don't know if he fades big time, but yeah, I'm with you. I think Xander gets it done this week. And just the argument between the two of them, we're just going to be lovexed on Sunday night. I want that to be a bit forever. I don't

know if that was you that said that. You literally did this on the last pod. I was like, yeah, that was me that came up. I want you to do that one forever. Well, I mean, last pod, we were sitting in a freaking car. I had some guy bang on the window trying to get into the, you know, the car. I was like, dude, we're doing something in here. Would you get out of here? So, uh, so, but it was you. Thank you. Sally, great take. I'm in on that take. Yeah. I just worry about Xander or about Scotty's attitude a little bit, right? Like it seems like he's like based on his comments a couple weeks ago at Memphis he's like, he truly feels like he should have a lead commensurate with the lead that he built you know during the regular season, right? And again I would say like just like yeah.

I was thinking on this like the you could the tour could solve so many of the issues around the playoffs if you just got rid of calling it the playoffs There's nothing playoff about it. It's like the end of season stretch Yeah, end of season tour whatever you want to call it doesn't matter but like it's decidedly not a playoff It's just stroke play tournaments like the rest of the season. There is no playoff element to it It's the reason why fans can't wrap their head around it. It's just like the final act You know sure part one part two and part three like the final act, you know, sure. You're part one, part two and part three, like the final act of the drama, you know, something.

Yeah, like I agree with that. That's very, that's very fair. If you're gonna have a playoff, it's gotta be match play, right? This is just not a playoff. And that's why, you know, they, no matter what they do, they can't quite get the right answer in there, but. They should make it a shootout.

You know, like one guy gets eliminated every single hole. A 30 guy horse race. I would watch that. I want to talk about it, but Neil, I think you got a message you want to deliver to the folks before we get to that. I do. Guys, I just want to, I want to shout out Roeback is what I want to do. And I was going to, it was going to be my Beluga Big Board presented by Roeback, but we're going to bump it up here. And there's a reason we're talking about Roeback so much. I was on the road last week and I realized about halfway through the trip that half my suitcase was Roeback. I had the Roeback hoodies, performance tees, they're excellent airline apparel, long sleeve performance t-shirts. I rocked those two days walking around Castle Pines. Fantastic

if you're trying to avoid the sun, but they got some nice breathability to them. I freaking love those long sleeves. The multi-print polo had that in the bag. If you want to jazz things up, the shorts or I'm in the Pro-Am. Of course, the crew necks play well. You can dress them down or dress them up in the evening. TC interviewed Tommy Fleetwood in a rowback crew neck. Very, very classy. And don't forget the bathing suit. So I know you like to go from the pool to the course, but it's great for the hotel hot tub as well. Uh, the Marriott DTC, uh, also row back now has officially licensed college gear.

So like all the big schools, which is great. Just in time for college football season. Uh, so it's a great time to go to robac.com and load up for yourself and for others use code NLU on robac.com for a generous 20% off your first order through the end of the week. That's spelled R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com. That's 20% off all bottoms, Q-zips, hoodies, and more with code NLU. Summer isn't the same without Roeback. Thank you very much, Neil. We have a few more things to get to here. Main one being there was a press conference today

at the tour championship, like there always is from PGA Tour Commissioner, Jay Monahan. It was so bad. It was so bad. It did not go well, TC. It really did not. Off the top, I'll use direct quotes here. He said, during the FedEx Cup fall Cup fall will be piloting a new broadcast approach with the Golf Channel at several events on Thursday We'll show fans a traditional broadcast and on Friday the presentation will adopt new features based on fan feedback

That will then survey fans to test their preferences and that Intel will help us further innovate the broadcasts with our fans more squarely In the driver's seat. A great follow up question to that first question that was asked was from Josh Carpenter asked about NASCAR announcing more commercial free racing and if that was going to be part of the changes I will not do quotes in this next part because what ensued was a word salad that did not come close to answering that very direct question. I can directly answer based on that word, Salad, of absolutely not, there will be no consideration

of less commercials in this because of, that's pretty much what happened there. In the embryonic stage, Salad, we're still evaluating the commercial load. Like straight up, you can survey all the fans you want, that should be the number one thing, a feedback item of change the commercial load, but as we detailed in the sponsorship pod they are locked into a media deal that is not

going to change that anytime soon and they're not showing any willingness to get out of that in any way. Which they voluntarily signed you know three years ago four years ago it was negotiated by the exact same people in power right now. It's just like with every single answer that he gave, it's A, it's word salad, it's arrogant, he's fumbling all over the place. And it's also, it's like, there's show no, like, yeah, you know what? We are so eager to change and evolve,

but no, there's no chance that's ever changing. Like the playoff schedule, right? They're like, oh no, we couldn't possibly not come to Atlanta and Memphis. And we have the BMW championship that rotates around, why would we ever rotate another? Everything is always just like, oh no, we have the best product, it's growing, it's evolving, we have momentum. But you know, no, like we're, we're good on any sort of actual changes. Yeah, it was, we'll get into a couple more funny things there, but the one that really got me today was the quote.

And again, I understand like part of the deal here is like, you just got to kind of stand up and say things and, but the entertainment value of the PGA Tour has never been stronger that's a direct quote. Are you sure about that? Like there was a Tiger Woods like Philip Mickelson era that I'm pretty sure was pretty darn entertaining and like just a few years ago it was much more entertaining when you had Bryson and Brooks and Dustin Johnson and you go all the best players in the world playing on the same tour.

I'd consider that more entertaining and if it's never been more entertaining then why are the ratings dipping the way they are? There's a lot of ratings talk in there. He pulled a full Livbot move blaming the Nielsen ratings at one point. What about the app? And it was just... What about China? What about caffeine TV?

Yeah, they need to do a deal with caffeine TV, I think. Another section he was asked directly by Adam Shupak specifically, a very specific question, like, how many times have you sat face to face in the same room as them, being the PIF? And can you explain why it's taking longer than you initially originally thought? He did not answer that question.

Well, he started by saying, I understand the question. And then he did not answer it. How many times they have met face to face but he said we do have the right people at the table with the right mindset. So the conversations are complex, they're going to take time and they will continue to take time. We have not agreed to a deadline. I don't think we want to restrict ourselves in that way. We want to achieve the best and right outcome at the right

time. Quick reminder here that this thing all started with a deadline that came from you of December 31st, 2023. Nobody asked you for that deadline. That was what came when you announced this on June 6th. I think I find this extremely, extremely fair to hold them accountable on like a deadline of some, when you come out and say there's a deadline, it just passes and then tries to try to pull

the smarter than you card of like, yeah, it's complex. I guess we're not on're on any deadline here is like okay well then you lied about there being a deadline there were supposed to be no promise under deliver sorry there were supposed to be no poaching of players that obviously happened although I look back at this somebody I saw somebody's note on this I didn't double check this myself but the June 6 CNBC interview Yasser said three weeks this whole thing would be done and that obviously has not happened. So I think if injected with truth serum I think you know if he could speak on it I'm sure

he would love to say like we have them bent over a barrel. I don't believe this to be true but I think they think that they are in a stronger position as of now and they believe that and maybe they're right on this that Liv is gonna eventually not renew these contracts and stop wanting to spend this money and they're gonna be at a better position to negotiate the whole thing. That's best case scenario if you are extremely optimistic,

which I don't think they get the benefit of the doubt on any of that anymore. But I think that that's, if I was to guess as to what their actual, if they could say something, they would say that. Yeah, I think that's right. One thing just relevant context Wesley Bryan just blew it down 10 fairway tc in the playoff. Is that that

counts? Is that out of bounds? No it looks like they're gonna let him do it. No like that's ridiculous. He just aimed down and fairway. He did it on purpose? Looks like it. What a scumbag. Raj is up now he's got three wood. All right. I hope Raj plays this the right. Yeah. It looks like he's aiming down the right way. Sorry. I know this is probably bad for the podcast listeners, but I got to check my... See something, say something.

No, sorry. That's my biggest... Not fear. I mean, I guess it's a good thing if the PGA Tour ends up on top of all this, but is it really a good thing if the same like morons and dunces are in charge of everything? Like SSG needs to come in, clear some shit out. Cause I feel like they may well win this thing, but it's not by any fault or credit to Jay Monahan and what he's done. Like we're five years into this thing now and he's, 95% of the moves that he's made have been wrongheaded and clumsy and they've waited him out.

That's the only, like his only win has just been time and patience, I guess, right? Yeah, and the damage is still massive. Yeah, and the game's withering away. Massive from, it's going to take a while to come back. And it should have been an opportunity, right? To like, if you wanted to be a change maker to do the, to, to force hard decisions and everything just gets like couched. I, I, I, I might steal that from Monahan though on just, I understand your question.

Yeah. That's, it's a good way to vamp just like by myself some time. You know, I understand your question. Uh's a good way to vamp, just like buy myself some time. I understand your question and then just talk about something else. It's just, yeah. I just don't know how anybody- How did you meet? How many times have you met? I'm not sure how anybody could watch that press conference, either the prepared portion or the questions and think, man, that's my leader. That's my quarterback. That's the guy that's going to get this shit done for us. It somehow gets worse and worse and worse every time. Claire Rogers did a J. Monahan

bingo card. This guy, Rob Slater said, Jesus, this reads like a freshman year marketing student. Tony P in DC. That's my guy. Tony P's my guy. You know this. They've made FedEx cups, starting strokes a proper noun. Like they're they're capitalizing that now. At least it's not in all caps. That's that's a that's a you know, that's evolution from them. And then he's got Tyler, the creator, Dennis, just just sitting right there next to him and he and Jay just looks over at him anytime.

Any time I learn Anytime. Tyler, the stick man. Anytime he gets anything as far as like a technical question or something about any sort of, you know, status. This was our little surprise for you, Cody. We got Jay Monte and sit next to Photoshopped image of Tyler the Creed. It's truly unbelievable. It's like the guys he's got like Tyler creators, like his security blanket up there.

Crazy. TC started calling Tyler Dennis, whose chief chief competitions officer, I think that's the title of the PGA. Dennis, I think he's really good at what he does. Like, I think I think like he's far more qualified to be the commissioner than Jay Monahan is at this point. But TC started calling him Tyler the Creator. It's so funny. I don't know why. We had to let everyone in on that one. No, no, now he doesn't even call him Tyler. He just, in black, just the creator. There was a question there. Tyler the Creator was asked about suspensions for players coming

back. He confirmed, if you weren't a tour member you are suspended for a year, which I still don't know if I understand that one, but he would not get into details for those that are or were tour members. He wouldn't get into details, but he said there are guidelines around that. Double secret for me. There are guidelines around that. It's a double secret for me. It's like, man. There are guidelines. I don't know if that was the, again, I don't know if that was the question of are there

guidelines? Like, what are they? What is the status of this? But again, if I'm, benefit of the doubt here would be like, yeah, we're not going to like say out loud what the punishments are because if we have the chance to bring them back into the fold immediately, we're probably going to take that. Right. If that, that would be. Back to the deadline thing. Don't set it. Don't set your own deadline.

True. For that one, yeah. Well, they've already announced suspension and definitely for all those guys. But I think if they were given an opportunity for one fell swoop, you guys can get back in right now if you want. Will you do it? And the guys said, yes, I think they would take them back. I think that if I was to boil it down, the issue is like, yeah, you don't want to say don't divulge too many details. I think that was on Claire Rogers is bingo card, or I'm not going to go into details. Sure. Don't go into details, but it would just be like, it would be nice to see some action. Like there's no proof of the pudding either. So it's like, you don't get any outline of what you're trying to do. And there's no like signs of like, oh, you guys are trying to innovate this.

It's just not, it's missing on both sides, which sucks. The question, Pete D's comments, sort of the question is, is this your handwriting? Obviously a shout out to- I like this one from- John Sterling, what? No, what's the Clippers owner guy? What was his name?

Donald Sterling. Donald Sterling, not John Sterling This is from Poppy nuts I've been not very online friend who thought that Pat and fat Perez were the same person Anything else he did make comments you basically said out loud that it would be best I'm paraphrasing this part of best for the golf world to get all the best players playing together again Which was kind of clipped and put everywhere, but I was and that's Yeah, that was a big big big takeaway of this whole thing, but man It was just it was it was frustrating to hear it all and see it all today

I feel like we've done our absolute best to like give them the benefit of the doubt of at a lot of turns in terms of like still treating the tournaments like they're a Big deal and like trying our best to bring optimism to every single week and show that we do and like tabling the criticisms because we know people don't want to hear that every single week but like it just was so let us shit on them this week yeah well it's just like frustrating to on that front of like dude this this can't continue this way for any longer than it already has like we need to get this shit done and we need to get the control back. And then he glances at Andy Bissett,

who's in charge of Travelers Insurance, and he kind of looks at him like, oh, see, he's smiling right now. Corporate sponsors are clearly very happy, and Tru is just signed back up, and we have a fully sponsored schedule and all that. But I don't know, I just have such a problem with even just, like, I just don't know why he's in his role at all and how he continues to get away with this. He's probably going to fly back to Steamboat tonight after the Creator Classic

or maybe tomorrow afternoon, go rip some lips up in Northern Colorado. And then like, it's basically like, cool, I'll see you guys at Sentry. I do a quick hit there. And then otherwise, I'll be there for the press conference of players. And that's the next time that the media will talk to them. Is it the fucking players in March? Like it's ridiculous. The lack of public availability is starting to become... But Neil, it's all about the fans though. Fan forward, focused. It's all about the fans. Yeah. Anyways, to a much more joyous topic. It's time. People have been waiting for this one. Also, just another plug here in about 22 minutes, we are going to be debuting our

film of The Old Course Reversed, our trip around the old course in reverse. It's right there in the title, presented by Yeti.i if you guys roll roll straight from this show 665 of you watching live roll right into it with us for the premiere at 8 it's gonna be a fantastic evening of a double feature from NLU tonight if you will a double creation from a cut from some of your favorite creators if you will Neil why don't you take us do let's do a Beluga's big board tell us the history of this the Belugas Big Board, and what you got for us. Well, just an update on the Creator Classic. I think three of the four in the sudden death

went down 10 fairways. Disgusting. Just so you know, Roger did not. He was in the rough, but he's punched up to about 50 yards from the green. All right, so at the AT&T, we did our range, live from the driving range shows, and we're looking to fill some, fill some time.

I'm not gonna lie. So we went 70 to dial. I'm not going to lie. Uh, so we went 70 to one. I just said, here's my power ranking. Here's how I think it's going to, he's going to shake out. And so, you know what? Easier. I've only done it once prior. No, I don't think we had the first, that was the first. So God, this is a great graphic too. Uh, Cody, uh, got some, uh, Mel Kuyper vibes, Todd, Todd, Todd, Todd great graphic too, Cody. Black shirt user, slow. Got some Mel Kuiper vibes. Todd, Todd, Todd, Todd, great agility. All right, so we'll start.

Do you want me to go straight from 30 to one, Solly? It's your board. I'll do it 10 slot like. Increments. Yes, and then you guys, we can take a breath. You guys can comment and then we'll go on. So it's starting at 30, Matthew Pavon, happy to be here. Is this how they're going to finish? Is this, what is the Belugas big board? You got to tell us more about this. How they're going to finish.

Okay. Yeah. Is this with strokes or without strokes? This is how the FedEx cup finishes. Yeah. This is my, this is my prediction, my power ranking, right? I got Matthew Pavon in the 30 spot. I think, Hey, great season. Happy to have you. I just don't, don't think he didn't seem like he was vibing out at Castle Pines. I got Tom Hoagy. He told us in the pro MTC, he's quote, playing like shit. So like, and then he played pretty well out there. I think this is all gravy. Chris Kirk, Taylor Pendreth. No, Hoagy told us, quote, I'm going to make a ton of money over the next couple of years. And then you guys can put me out to pasture. Yeah, but he also said he's been playing awful.

And so I'm just going to say- Beware the- I think Hoagie finishes top. All right, let me get through my big board and then you can comment. Yeah, come on, TC. All right. And then we got Chris Kirk at 28th, Taylor Pendrith at 27th, Big Bob McIntyre at 26th, Tony Finau at 25. I feel like Tony might have some things on his mind.

Justin Thomas at 24. Christian Bezeidenhout at 23. This is supposed to be 22, but in my document it says 23. Sahith Thagala at 22. They might tie. I didn't really take ties into account. So you got to just rank them. Sahith doesn't seem like the wrist is doing well. I got him at 22, Sep Straka at 21. Comments TC. Uh, well you have Sahe at T23. Uh, yeah, but I meant that to be 22. Uh, I think you're sleeping on Sep a little bit. I think that's fair. I actually struggled with that one. But he's not,

he kind of starting at the bottom. So, you know, it's hard with the strokes to really make any like massive plays. Tony's my guy that like, I feel like might fall down the leader. Like one of these guys that starts with strokes is just going to go backwards. It's like which one though? Who? All right. So, Sally, will you run us through the strokes again? Sure. So we can level set there. I will pull up PJ to our leaderboard Scotty starting at 10 under par, Xander starting at 8 under par, Hideki at 7, Keegan at 6, Ludwig at 5. I'm loading I also have the creator classic eating up bandwidth. Sam Burns, Cantlay, Morikawa, Wyndham, Clark and Rory are all at minus four. Big Tone,

Shane Lowry, Adam Scott, Sung J and Sahith at minus three, T11. Akshay, Big Shot, Bob, Victor, Russell Henley, Ben On all at minus two, T16, Taylor Pendreth, Sepp Straka, Matthew Bivon, Billy Horschel, Tommy Fleetwood, T21, Christian Bezade, Justin Thomas, Tom Hogy, Aaron Rye, Chris Kirk, all at even T26. So I'm fading Big Tone and I'm fading Big Bob. Otherwise, you know, and Sahith, I'm fading Sahith. I don't think he's vibing too hard right now. So that's my 30 to 21. Would you like me to continue? Please. I would. Cody, please turn the page for me. 20, Victor Hovland. Don't really love where Vic's at, but when you think that, then he's going to pop up and do

something crazy. But I got him at 20. I got Aaron Rye at 19, Adam Scott at 18. I think Adam Scott might be a little tired. I got Sung J at 17. You're bullish on Rye. Let him get through it, TC. We have standards. I'm fading Sung J. I got Shane Lowry at 16, Russell Henley at right at 15. He's kind of the benchmark. This is kind of his career. He's just going to come in.

He's the mean. Yeah, he is the mean. Russell Henley at 15, Ben Ahn at 14, Billy Ho at 13. So I'm feeling something big out of Billy Ho. I know he's a former FedEx Cup champ. I've got Akshay at 12 and I've got Sam Burns at 11. I'm fading Burns a little bit as well. Bermuda Burns, on firm Bermuda. I know. I know that's that one I struggled with a little bit, but, and he played well last week,

so that's, that's a risky one, but I'm sticking with it. All right. Let's bring us home here. I think Horschel could, could,el could play well, make the president's cup team. That's kind of what I was thinking, TC. I think he's going to, I think where I have him is projecting high for him. So maybe not high enough. All right. I'm fading Hideki. Back seems to be bugging him. A weird golfer, as Solly says. He's at 10. I've got Rory at nine. I think Rory doesn't really want to be here. So I don't see him jumping out to a hot start. I've got Sam Burns twice, so that's tough. I got him at eight and I also had him at 11. So that's on me.

Who are you missing? I don't know. We'll have to figure it out after. Did this happen at Pebble too? I think it did happen at Pebble. Yeah. It's hard. You're trying to work the leaderboard and then you move a few guys around, you copy and paste. So we'll figure that out at the end. I got more call at seven, can't lay at six Keegan at five, Windham at four, Scotty at three, Ludwig at two and Xander to win the FedEx cup.

Windham spelled wrong as well. And they're just, okay. Fair enough. I, you know, listen, I was, I thought this was just going to be my own little Google sheet and then I decided to screenshot it. So here it is. Uh, but yeah, you guys have to figure out who I'm missing. That's on you. If you want to, did you have Shane Lowry in there? I had Lowry in there. Yeah. I have no idea who I'm missing. I'm kind of pro Sung Jay. I think Sung Jay is going to flash this week. Hometown event for him. The home game models are off the times when I when I feel like he's going to play well. Got the wave got on the bag, though. Yeah, I'm bullish on Xander.

I just feel like he's yeah, two two strokes is nothing. He's got he's played so freaking good this year and he's just kind of automatic on like it doesn't there any course doesn't matter. Guy just shows up every week. So it's going to bother the hell out of me. Who's missing. I know I'm going to spend a lot of time. You got it figured out Cody.

Oh, you got one of your guys. T.C. I think this was Tom. Here's why. No, no, no. I tried to switch Tommy. I had Tommy at 11 and I wanted to get them into the top 10 at eight because I was going to do a backdoor top 10 for Tommy, which is projecting him high TC. And I moved from 22.

So that's my fault. That's on me. But I did intend to put them at eight. And now I remember this because I was mixing and matching. I had them up there outside the top 10 and just didn't feel right. Next time I'm going to have, I got to add like measure twice, cut once here to his checklist of things that he's got going on, but very good.

I think TC there's TIO situation going on at the creator classic. None other than PJ tour member, Wesley Bryant. Yeah. So Wesley just blew it into the grandstands. Yeah. So far left. What is after playing down 10? Like truly and then he's not taking full relief here. He's got his foot on a wire as well. I don't know if that chip's gonna make it. I don't think it is. Why don't we

get our get our plays in here? Our Fandle Packs of the Week? Sorry, Solly, you're right. Of course these odds are of course subject to change over the course of this week but TC what is your one, your one and only, your single solo one pick of the week for Fandel? I only have one actually, Solly, just one. I don't even know if I'd like it but I I have one. I have Keegan Bradley to win. And this is like, I don't think it's gonna happen, but I think there's value here. He's playing well right now. He's, it's plus 4,000. So he's 40 to one.

He's what? I think he's starting to like minus five. So he's like five shots back. He's won on Bermuda before PGA championship at a pretty similar kind of course and setup at- He's minus six, just four back. Minus six, so he's only four back. Obviously coming in hot.

And I think he's got a chip on his shoulder trying to be, trying to play his way into one of those automatic spots on the Ryder Cup. And listen, I know it's- Or on the President's Cup. No, on the Ryder Cup next year too. But it doesn't count towards that. I know. But if you won the FedEx Cup and they didn't let you onto the president, that wouldn't be an automatic spot. Yeah. No, I know. But it would, it would bolster his resume, right? He's the captain. He gets to it doesn't need to bolster his resume. No, for the for the PR purposes for the public. Right. So that's all. I think Keegan's riding the high right now. And I think there's value there.

That's a heavy play, TC. It's a heavy play. I like that. I'm setting my heart aside. I'm piggling my head, Neil. Well, it's similar to kind of how Horschel just kind of, you know, barnstormed his way to the FedEx Cup. like got hot in Boston, I think, and won that Northern Trust. And then he just kind of kept it going right into a. Yeah. Keegan Keegan's won at Arana Mink before on a Donald Ross course. He's, you know, played a lot of those up, up in New England, super fast greens. I think with a, just a matchup play. You know, it's weird. You can't parlay this week. I, you know, it's like, yeah, Xander to win is like minus two 30.

That didn't feel right. I'm going, I'm fading saw his, I hate doing it to my guy, but I'm taking Okshay over saw his minus one 15 for just an eight. And then I'm going to go to the next round. I'm going to go to the next round. I'm going to go to the next round. I'm going to go to the next round. I'm going to go to the next round. I'm going to go to the next round. I'm going to go to the next round. I'm going to go to the next round. I'm going, I'm fading Sahith. I hate doing it to my guy,

but I'm taking Akshay over Sahith minus 115 for just an 18-hole match bet round one. I feel like Akshay is trending and I feel like Sahith needs to probably shut it down. So kind of an easy play, but it felt like with some intel from last week, I feel very good about this one. Akshay is also probably inspired by the creator classic. Yeah, I think that's probably true. He might be out there roaming around the gallery TC. I don't know how often or if when the next time is gonna be where we can get Ludwig Oberg

to win a golf tournament at plus 1800. I know he's five shots back, but five shots over 72 holes is not that many. It a firm golf course a guy hits it high. I think he's you know He he's just kind of he's a force I think he gets involved very early in tournaments and I think he can wipe out deficits very quickly and at some point He's gonna bust through on a weekend, right? He's not gonna do this every single weekend that he's in contention So I got Ludwig to win the Tour Championship at plus 1800. Just

five back, Scotty at unease. Like I'm getting involved with that one. That's my pick of the week. I like that one too. God, Keegan or Ludwig. I mean, obviously it's easier to root for Ludwig, but both heady plays. That's going to do it for our happy hour show. In just 10 short minutes, we're going to watch you at the end of the the creator classic which I thought was gonna be over 50 minutes ago It's still is still going on as we go to wrap this Here in just ten minutes if you're watching this live head to our YouTube channel stay on our YouTube channel should say Subscribe do all that stuff and watch our film on the old course in reverse one of the if I may say so about Our guy DJ pie with some of his best work ever. It was just a really, really, really freaking special

opportunity to do it. And I think people are gonna really enjoy this film and it's a big swing for us. And we greatly appreciate Yeti's support and everybody's support watching it. This was our creator classic that we filmed at the Old Cross in April. I would also say watch,

tomorrow we'll have all 18 holes of the reversible routing film room up as well. And yeah, that's kind of a little dessert portion to the film tonight. And as Neil would say, help us out, smash that like button and smash that subscribe button. We're trying to get those subscribers up there. So help us out there. This was TC wanted us to show off Matt Couture's dance moves from the tour championship from 2019 But simpler times man five years ago. This is pre else who can I think was that pre else you can? Okay, it was just pre pre windham, you know all that stuff Anyways, thank you everyone for tuning in. We'll see you back. We'll be live on Sunday night reacting to the tour championship

we have another pod coming out Friday on LPGA and Solheim Cup reaction all that good stuff, but Like subscribe follow us wherever you get your content. We appreciate you tuning in on this Wednesday evening. Take care and crack on bangalang In tonight