No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 927: LPGA Tour Championship Preview

Episode Date: November 21, 2024

Randy and Cody are back with another LPGA pod as we preview this weekend's LPGA Tour Championship. If you enjoyed this episode, consider joining The Nest: No Laying Up’s community of avid golfers. Nest members help us maintain our light commercial interruptions (3 minutes of ads per 90 minutes of content) and receive access to exclusive content, discounts in the pro shop, and an annual member gift. It’s a $90 annual membership, and you can sign up or learn more at nolayingup.com/join Support Our Partners: Yeti Titleist Mizuho Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. Johnny, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome into the No Laying Up Golf podcast. My name is Randy. I'm joined by Cody McBride and we are going to preview the LPGA Tour Championship. Cody, good morning, good afternoon, whatever it may be. Can you believe we're finally

almost to the end of the 2024 season? Feels like we started this long time ago, big, but we finally made it to the end. The tours in Naples. I'm excited. I know you're excited, buddy. Yeah. Yeah. It should be a good event. A lot of storylines we'll get into. Before we do though, let's thank Yeti has been a proud sponsor of all the LPGA and women's golf coverage that we've done this year. And so let's give them a quick shout out. What would we like to feature from you? Well, I'm going to throw this up here right now. We got a new colorway, the King crab collection.

It's an awesome vibrant orange. We got it in hard coolers, soft coolers, drinkware, you name it. You can find all of that on Yeti.com. And again, I'll scroll through this. They have tremendous options, whether, you know, like I said, hard coolers or soft coolers, a very completely different types of cups and tumblers, any type of drinkware you can think of. The holiday gift guide is absolutely poppin'

and there's customizable options for almost every single product that they have. You can get things laser engraved, names, logos, you name it. Please go check them out at yeti.com and we thank them tremendously for supporting our LPGA content. Absolutely, absolutely. Well, we mentioned it is the week

of the CME Tour Championship. It is kicking off today. I want to let people know you can catch that action in a variety of places, as is usually the case. Golf Channel, Peacock, it's going to be on NBC Sunday, final round coverage, but I also want to remind people ESPN plus is going to be doing feature group coverage each day both morning and afternoon. So definitely check out those streams as well.

We have an 11 million dollar purse with 4 million dollars going to the winner a million dollars to second place. I believe everybody in the field is at least guaranteed something like $55,000 for just being there and making it. So Cody, let me quickly put that on the back burner. It's been a minute since you and I have chatted and I think we'd like to use this time a little bit

to catch up on what has happened. The last time you and I had an'd like to use this time a little bit to catch up on what has happened. The last time you and I had an episode like this, the ladies were heading off to the second Asian swing. So it's been a number of weeks. Let's just quickly go through what happened. If anybody has not been following along, you had Rio Takeda winning in Japan. She is Japanese. I believe she's the only winner. I don't think she's an LPGA member and she's the only winner thus that is not at the Tour Championship this week. They then went to Malaysia where Ronning Yin captured her second LPGA title of the year. Then it was Korea with Hannah Green winning for the third time.

And then Ronning Yin won in China, which was her third L.P.J. title. They made their way back stateside to Hawaii. A-Lim Kim, that's a name I haven't heard in a minute. She won there in Hawaii. And then the Annika last week, Nellie won for the seventh time this year. Cody, I got a few things just to touch on throughout those weeks. Do you have anything that you want to highlight or would you rather me just get into mine?

Well, you threw me off a little bit there. I think you went you went finishes from most recent to oldest instead of going to the other way. Yeah, Calla missed that Asian swing. Uh, but I think for me, and I don't know what your highlight is going to be, but Ronnie Yen picking up two wins, obviously winning in her home country. She doesn't get the opportunity to play at home that often when you get that chance, she seized on that, uh, one, that first event to kick off the Asian swing

and then coming right back around two events later in Malaysia to get that second win is just phenomenal. Yeah, I think that's probably the headline, 21 years old, major winner, won the KPMG at Baltus Raw. And if she's starting to kind of stack wins, that's a great thing for her. And I think that's a great thing for the tour. I think beyond that though, I had a few things that didn't involve the winners.

And the first one was Heyron Ru. I just want to point out in her three Asian starts, she went third, third, sixth, and she now leads the LPGA in top tens this year. She has 13 of those in 25 starts. Seven, Cody, seven top three finishes. I just think she probably is having the most under the radar great season, and that's only because she's won once. I believe that was in Boston, but she's 23 years old and honestly, you know, displaying a very, very high level game high floor with so I don't know, Jin Young Ko maybe maybe she's the heir apparent to Jin Young Ko. We shall see. I don't I'm not ready to make that declaration but Heyrons up to six in the world.

And it just seems like these next couple of years, the future is going to be bright for her. Beyond that, I have Gino Titicum. She also top 10 in her three Asian swing starts. That's six consecutive top tens for her and counting. You have to go back to the women's open at St. Andrews the last time she did not top ten. So again, I think Heyron and I almost said Attaya Heyron and Gino kind of the same deal, just massive, massive amounts of top tens. But still looking for more wins out of both those women. I think they'll

start coming. And then the final one, Cody. I'd say that Gino, she sat out a lot of this season as well and to have the scoring average where she's at, and I will say with an extra million dollars in her pocket now, surprising move sitting out the Pelican to protect that Aon risk reward challenge. But I don't blame her one bit. I think, yeah, hey, if you're guaranteed a million bucks, I will happily sit. The last one I had was just the what I call the curious case of Yuka Sasso. Okay. We remember she won the US women's open. She looked absolutely dominant at Lancaster. And since then in 12 starts, since that second U S women's open that she captured, she has six miss cuts and one top 10. And Cody, it just boggles the mind. Like she, she, obviously when she's on,

she is, I would say probably the best iron player, best player in the world. she's on she is I would say probably the best iron player best player in the world. And she just can't seem to get there week to week right now on the LPGA tours. It's very strange. I don't know what to make of that. Yeah, I don't know either because you don't hear anything of injuries or any crazy changes at all. It just is weird. She's either very, very hot or just not not there at all. It just is weird. She's either very, very hot or just not there at all. Yeah. The only other thing, I guess I lied. I had one more thing. How we feeling

about Lynn Grant? Have you heard anything relative Lynn Grant? And I only asked because her last three starts she's gone T5, T12, T12. I'm hoping maybe some things are starting to click. I know she's been working on a lot of stuff. Any thoughts there with Lynn? No, you're absolutely right in highlighting those finishes. I think she did end up taking quite a bit of time off. So she didn't play the full Asian swing.

And then the tournaments that she did, she showed up prepared, ready to go. So obviously the changes that she's been working on are finally coming in and being grooved. I honestly, she's, she's one of my picks as the favorites this week. I think, you know, it's very, very good when Lynn Grant is firing on all cylinders. It's hard when obviously we have Nellie and Lydia and Lillia and everybody else at the top of the game too. But I think we're just looking at Lynn and maybe this is a not the best expectations to thrust

upon her, but she's a gamer. And I think this is going to be the end of her second year full time on the LPGA tour, really settling in finding what's working out for her. Her brother is still on the bag. Really have the highest of hopes in 2025. Yeah, yeah. I'm right there with you. I think that would be a wonderful thing also. Well, let's turn to the CME Tour Championship. It's 60 women.

I love that they're playing in twosomes all throughout this event. It's the second largest purse in women's golf, only behind the US Women's Open. Amy Yang is your defending champion. She has qualified again. And again, worth mentioning, unlike how they do it on the PGA Tour,

they are starting at scratch this week for the LPGA Tour Championship. So each woman, if you're in the field, everybody has the same shot to capture that $4 million first place prize. And it's a wonderful field. I was just gonna know all 10 of the current Rolex rankings, all of the top 10 are in the field.

We have four rookies, Cody, I wanna highlight. Four rookies have made it. Mao Saigo and Jinhee Im. They are in a tightly contested battle for rookie of the year. That's gonna be decided this week. So a little game within the game there. Saigo currently leads by 66 points.

And then the two other rookies, Gabby Ruffles and Natalia Guseva. I'll get I got to tell you, Guseva is playing some excellent golf. And she's somebody that I don't know a lot about. You mentioned that the anecdote about her family. But yeah, she's somebody that I think we just need to pay attention to going forward because she she obviously is playing really well. And I think it's somebody that could be around for a while. Yeah, absolutely.

It's putting herself in positions finally to win. She had tied for second earlier this year at the Portland Classic, then obviously in Hawaii, which you mentioned. She didn't play in Tampa at the Pelican, which I thought was an interesting decision, but she did play almost, she played at every event on the Asian Swing. an interesting decision, but she did play almost, she played

every event on the agent swing. So maybe she's just a lot going on, wanted to get resettled in before CME and go from there. But you're right, finding form. I'm fascinated by her. I would love to have more information because her dad is a senior member in the Russian government who is responsible for basically the assembly and procurement of their entire weapons system. And I'm not saying, I think the last time we talked about this as well is, I'm not saying that her father's actions

are tied to her at all, but I think it would be a good time to maybe ask her about that. Somebody who would have played at the Olympics if she was allowed to play in the Olympics. Of course, Russia was not allowed to participate in this year's Summer Olympics. So it's just, it's interesting.

And as the curious person that I am, would love to know more about her. I think that's right. It's just fascinating. Like, you know, politics aside, it's she just comes from a very interesting family, obviously, by way of quick background, if people aren't familiar, she attended college at the University of Miami, she was the ACC freshman of the year in 2021, and then set out professionally during the Epson tour in 2023.

Won on that tour to capture an LPGA card for this year. And by doing so, becomes the first Russian woman to earn an LPGA card, which again, I think is really cool in one way and fascinating. So I'm with you. I think she's somebody that would be fun to hear more from her to learn more about her. Because I just don't have a good feel. She's somebody that I'm not sure if I've ever even heard her speak in an interview, you know, we have a podcast, maybe this is a good this is something that you and I should effort for a future episode.

So those are the rookies in the field. Cody, we have five besides the four rookies. We have five other women who are going to be first time participants in this tour championship. And those women are Lauren Coughlin, Lucy Lee, Bailey Tardy, Albain Valenzuela, and Arpacaya Yubel. I'm sure I mispronounced that one. But I have a little trivia, Cody.

I'm gonna put you on the spot here, okay? We're gonna start from easiest to perhaps most difficult. And I'm just gonna ask you some questions about these five women and test your memory and on how they earn their spot into the Tour Championship. So let's start with LC. What was LC's best result or best results this year? The winner of two national opens

could not be more proud for the young lady. Absolutely right. Canada and Scotland, good on Elsie. Of course, she made the Solheim Cup team, just a wonderful season. All right, we're going to get a little harder. That was the softball. Lucy Lee, who I know you've been in Lucy's corner since she earned her card. Great season this year for her. Did she win this year? No. No, that is correct. Over or under the amount of top 10s, 3 and 1 half. Did she have more than 3 and 1 half top 10s or less than 3 and 1 half top 10s?

More. Ooh, no. No? Sorry, she had three top 10s this year. I thought she had four because she has a bucket load of top 20s though. Yeah. Yeah. Do you happen to know her best result? It was a runner up. Do you know what event it was? Oh man. No, I do not.

Cody truly wasn't prepped for any of this. Uh, it was at, it was at the Walmart in Arkansas. Good. I was going to say the Irish Open and I was like, I don't even prepped for any of this. It was at the Walmart in Arkansas. Good, I was gonna say the Irish Open. I was like, I don't even think that's an LBJ tour. All right, Bailey Tardy. Oh yeah. Did you win this year? Of course.

Do you have to remember? Early spring, spring Asian swing. I think she won the Japan event. Ooh, close. She won the Blue Bay in China. Yup, yup. How many other top tens besides the wind do you think Bailey Tardy had this year? Zero. Two actually shot somewhat recently Malaysia

and the Anika last week. So Bailey Tardy somebody I feel like if she gets hot, she can make birdies and bunches. She is a very much dark horse this week at at the Tour Championship. All right, Albain Valenzuela we know she made the European Solheim Cup team. Did she win this year? No, not on the LPGA Tour. That's correct. I'm going to say over under let's use the same line as Lucy Lee three and a half over under top 10s. use the same line as Lucy Lee three and a half over under top 10s. Why didn't she finish at AIG? I'll just go under.

That's right. That's right. She like Lucy only had three, I say only she had three top 10s. She also had a runner up in, if you know where she was runner up, I'm going to be so impressed. It was early in the season. No, I have no clue where. Asian or United States? Asian. Okay.

I don't know. How about Singapore? No, Thailand. Okay. All right. The last one, Arpacaya Yubal. Did she win this year? No, she did not. What was her best result by CME points? Oh, I know she has like two or three top tens. I'll go T5.

She finished fifth at the US Women's Open. That earned her the most CME points this year. Very good. She has four top tens on the year. Yeah, there you go, Cody. Thanks for playing my very fun. How did they make the tour championship game? With that, you tell me who would you and maybe they're the same question. Who do you think will win? And maybe who would you like to see win either from a personal standpoint or just a good storyline? I think I would I think both I'll say this and that's Nelly Korda I think to capped the year off with a win at the CME the the largest purse that they have the year on the LPGA tour

that's outside of non-major world, I think it would be phenomenal. She's had an awesome, awesome year. I know we talked about the issues that she had during the summer and really moving into fall and having an injury and everything else like that, but I think overall for the betterment of the LPGA tour, I think it's great if you have a superstar who clearly takes the reins and carries the rest of the tour forward. Now, my heart tells me like, you know, I thought

LC was completely exhausted. Post Solheim, we talked to her at the NIT, she was still kind of hung over from everything that went on through the summer and the fall. And did not expect her to play as well as she did in Tampa. And I think she's somebody that like, okay, yeah, there's a lot of money on the line down here at Naples. Like, let's go. She has somehow found a way through hard work

and like, you know, figuring out her game plan to take what she used to constantly be shooting even par and now like her even par is a 68 on a golf course. And that puts her in a really good spot to have good days and get, you know, quite a few under and on her bad day, she's still going to fire a couple under or if not even if it's really, really bad. So my heart would say LC, everything else, come on Nelly. I'm right there with you. I don't disagree with any of that. I would just say too with Nelly specifically, she has finished inside the top 10 here the

last three years. And those are all seasons where, I remember, I remember we're gonna get to it, but in our season preview, you know, Nellie's 2023 was very frustrating. And it had us wondering, like, one of the questions in our preview show was, is Nellie gonna win this year? And she, you know, she finished T5 at the CME in 2021.

I think she was like T10 and 22 and then T8 last year. And so, yeah, it just seems like, man, if Nellie's in form, like you can almost bank on, she's gonna be right around that top three. It's just a matter of, you know, maybe if she's making enough putts or if somebody else gets hot. So I think I'm with you.

Eight wins in 16 starts. I mean, that is a dominant, dominant season. And I think, although this is where I want to go next with our discussion. I mean, I think ultimately 2024 is the year of Nelly just because of the amount of wins she has. But Cody, is there a case to be made if I offered you Nelly season or Lydia Coe's season, which one are you choosing? And just so people know, Lydia Coe has won three times on the LPGA tour, including the British Open at St. Andrews, which I think is a very big deal. And then on top of that, won an Olympic gold medal.

And of course, Cincinnati, don't leave your hometown event out of there. I would say, yeah, that's a great question. I mean, we could cut it up a million different ways. I would say that if you look at it, and also what needs to be shouted out is that by those victories, Lydia also secured her entry into the LPGA Hall of Fame. I still would go with Nellie.

She does not have the major performances that she wanted or expected. And I think that the reason and why it's so fascinating to play the game of them side by side is that, so they both finished the year with major championship. I would say the way that Lydia started the year is that we thought Lydia was going to have the season that Nellie ended up having.

She won the tournament of champions. They both went to the drive on in Bradenton. It was Nellie's hometown event. Everybody out there was pulling for Nellie. Nellie was down deep in that final round and Lydia had it locked up and Nelly fired her way back into it on that back nine to get herself into a playoff. And then you saw the differences in their two golf games and the straight power from

Nelly versus just an accuracy display from Lydia and Nellie ended up taking her down. And it really, it kind of set Lydia back on the start of her year. You know, she had a top five in, I think it was China, I think it was, or excuse me, at the Blue Bay. But everything else was like, she didn't really play that well. She had, you know, missed the cut at the U.S. Women's Open, the same major that Nellie ended up missing the cut at, and then really turned the corner and started rounding it in. But I will say, outside of those wins that she does have, Nellie's year has been

dominant. And it's hard to disagree or have somebody, um, unless Lydia picked up more majors. I think that's the only way. And I know this is, this is silly because I think we played this game, you know, we played this on the PGA tour all the time. It's like, oh yeah, you know, Scotty won all these events, but like, you know, look at the guy who's got more majors. It is kind of the closest we get to like that bar room debate though, that you can have in golf where it's such an individual sport.

You know, you can't argue like, Hey, my team is better than your team or, you know, this players, you can of course argue who's the better player, but I feel like the player of the year race is kind of like the one fun golf debate. Almost like argue an MVP, right. In other leagues. What are your thoughts on it? Well, I was gonna ask you I'm gonna pivot right back to you What if Lydia wins this week at the Tour Championship? I Obviously Nelly has wrapped up player of the year

We should mention that it is a point system on the LPGA tour based on finished position throughout the year and Nelly has clinched that. So Nelly is your player of the year. I do think though, if Lydia wins's winning a gold medal. Like I just feel like those three. I mean, I guess the Chevron would you'd have to slot above the tour championship just by virtue of it being a major. If it was a staggered star, I'll flip it back to you. If it was a staggered start at the CME, like it is at the FedEx Cup finals, and obviously they're, you know, the top,

one and two in the world right now, or excuse me, not one and two. Lilia's still number two. I think Lydia is five or maybe six, but. Four or five, right? Check that while you. Well, I think Roning's four. Roning's third, I was just looking.

Okay. Anyway, I would say if it was a stager start and one of them did not win, I think that is more damning than the fact that the CMA is a 60 woman horse race. And it's like, yeah, go out and get it. And I think that kind of adds to your creed and stuff, even though it's a limited field event,

like it's the 60s best players on the LPGA tour, proven by the season that they've had. At a very, you know, Tiburon's a respectable golf course, and you have to make birdies, and that's LPGA Tour special, man. They're gonna set it up, it's gonna be a birdie fest, and you just kinda strap in go go out and get it. If she ends up winning CME, I will meet you there and say that it is a tie. But I understand the

weight that you are putting on obviously the Olympic victory as well as winning the women's open at St. Andrews because it is a monumental event. And I think that's- And the fashion that you wanted. I mean, she literally shouldn't have. It's so funny because we're gonna talk about slow play later in this. Nellie should have won that tournament. Well, and that's what I was gonna say.

So I will shout out the LPGA Tour podcast. Their most recent episode had Nelly Cordo on it. And one of the questions they asked Nelly was, you know, if you could have a mulligan, what would it be? And she, you know, no hesitation, that 16th drive that I hit out of bounds in the final round of the open. And that I just think like, that was the tournament she really, really, really, really wanted and cemented everything. And instead Lydia, you know, we saw Lydia play phenomenal golf that that whole Sunday, her approach shot into 17 as the rain had picked up. I believe she hit a three wood in there. Like Lydia went and won that tournament. And

I do think, you know, as we get further and further away from 2024, I do think we'll remember it more for what Lydia did than what Nellie has done. I think history will look back at, hey, Lydia at St. Andrews, that's a big deal. Lydia capturing gold and completing the set of medals. Lydia earning her way into the Hall of Fame. When I take that lens, right, like what's going to be the more historical relevance? I do think it's Lydia, which is crazy because, you know, Nellie had that historic run of five straight wins and five starts and, you know, she's matched some of the LPGA's all-time

best with the amount of wins this year. you know, she's matched some of the LPGA's all time best with the amount of wins this year. It's... I do think you need to put a little bit of weight, and I understand this is very a pro Nelly stance, but like, I think there needs to be more weight put behind the match play tournament because of like how grueling of a test it is

to make your way through that bracket. Takes an awful lot. And I think at that point in time where she was at on this historic run, everybody was still like, Oh, my goodness, like, obviously, after, you know, she went to Arizona and played the, you know, the inaugural four championship and blew everybody away. And you're like, well, okay, so normal Nellie, she takes likes taking time off, and she's gonna go back and no no she's in a rental car

You know upset because she can't stop it in and out because they're they're closed too late Because she's got to make it up to Vegas to prepare again. I mean, it's just a lot But yeah, it's if you think about the the change that was kind of what happened on that final nine at St. Andrews. Obviously the double, she also bogeyed 17 and you mentioned Lydia shot into 17. She missed that putt. She ended up birdieing 18 to get to 700. But she ended up like after that world class hybrid into 17, she she did not make that putt. And obviously ended up with a two stroke victory over GI and Lillia, but that's the tournament

will be remembered for Lydia Ko. And probably lucky for Nelly Korda that it's not going to be remembered for the tournament that Nelly lost. Because outside of that one swing, and even that one swing was just a somewhat lapse in concentration at the time because it was slow play. And I'm okay saying that. She was in a tough grouping with somebody who I I respect and you know, I'm close to and it just was not not a good spot for Nelly to be in when she's trying obviously nervy trying to bring home a major championship at St. Andrews and Lydia went out and got it done. Yeah, it's just crazy. You have the whole world left on 16T and to miss it right out of bounds is

all right. Last thing, we'll wrap up this conversation. It's been very good. I think we're going to meet in the middle here, Cody. Is the point system a good thing or would you rather it be voted on by a collection of media and players for player of the year? I think it is a good thing. It's right up there with getting into the LPGA hall of fame. You know what the number is? You know what each, you know, when, how they're weighted and you, you accumulate your points and it's strictly based off finishes for, you know, player of the year.

And yeah, it takes all the fun and argument and everything out of it. And people tried to do that. And just like we are doing now, I just don't really think it's as close as. As people might think it is because of the weight behind, even in this discussion where it's, oh yeah, she won. She won a major championship at St. Andrews, and we're supposed to like just saying that is like ads, you know, 100 bonus points to it. But I do think it does. I think it does.

I think that's where the sterile points, they don't capture stuff like that. Yeah. And maybe that's for the better. I don't know. But I guess the better question is as a great on the RNA, the women's open venues are phenomenal and are just continuing to get better. And, you know, going back to August when we did the deep dive on the history of the championship and we did bix and all the other locations that they had played this at. What other venues would you put that weight to? Or is it just reserved for St. Andrews?

I thought Muirfield was that when Ash Butte High won at Muirfield a couple years ago. I think that's an important site, but probably just behind St. Andrews because of, I mean, listen, St. Andrews is, everybody knows St. Andrews. And maybe that diminishes as we go forward to your point with the RNA, they're going to get to St. Andrews with more regularity. And I think that was, at least this year, kind of what still made it very special is that this was only the third time

that the women have played an Open there. And you look at Lorraine Ochoa, Stacey Lewis, who doesn't, you know, Stacey's not gonna make the Hall of Fame as a player, but a very important person in the game of women's golf. I still think it had that like, hey, this is a big deal that the Open is at St. Andrews.

Is there any event, obviously we have to, we're kicking out Chevron, we're kicking out the Evian. So basically the US Women's Open and KPMG Women's PGA Championship, any of those venues obviously will never carry the weight of a St. Andrews. I don't think so. Based off of their stature in the game, you're like, wow, but they got it done at a, you know, a Pinehurst number two. And I think for a long time, we give Michelle Wee West

massive amounts of credit for winning her major championship on Pinehurst number two. Yeah. I was going to say Pinehurst comes to mind in the US. The women have never been to, I'm trying to think of just like other historic venues, like the women have never been to Shinnecock, for instance, that, you know, I just don't, for me, Shinnecock doesn't quite carry the same cachet, I guess, as a finer.

The same way I would say that, personal feelings aside, I don't feel that Alison Corpuz win at Pebble is like, but it was at Pebble. I'm like, yeah, it was at Pebble. Yeah, yeah. It was the first time they played at Pebble, but it's like, yeah, Pebble, you know. Ronnie, yeah, cool, it was at Baltimore.

And Baltimore has a phenomenal major championship, you know, history. And we can do it outside of 2016 and everything else. But like, where it's at, the stature in the game, I just don't think that for US-based locations, because on the flip side, what a course that matters so much to the women's game is Lancaster. Yeah. And there's there's hardly any weight attached to that. So it's always interesting when you when you look at it and you try

to weigh it. But I would be fascinated if you know, why isn't Shinnecock on there? I think next year it go into Aaron Hills for the first time is is phenomenal. You know, and I can't wait so excited for that. I know. I'm just looking, you know, the women have played Oakmont. Oakmont's kind of like Shinnecock. I feel like in that upper echelon of US Open venue, Paula Kremer won there in 2010.

Would love to see the women get back there. But then the elephant- What about Marion? Yeah, yeah. I don't believe they've ever played Marion. Like isn't that Marion's rub always is like, oh, it's the distance of the man. And there's a little bit of like, you know, infrastructure concerns and everything. But like, OK, like, why isn't the US women's open?

It seemed perfect. I know. And I was just going to acknowledge the elephant in the room, right? The big one missing on the women's side is Augusta. And of course, they have the amateur now. But you know that I would put Augusta is maybe on par with St. Andrews, right? In terms of the nature of like, hey, you win there, that kind of just means more. So, maybe that'll change one day. Is that I am very, very happy that we're having this conversation

and able to discuss the compare and contrast between Lydia Ko's season and Nelly Korda's season, because there's not a lot of times that we've had two players like this really elevate themselves and lift and shift and get to this point. And that's not like, you know, there's a couple other people who won multiple times. We talked about Roning, Yen, multiple winners. We talked about Hannah Green, you know, which, you know, she didn't win like chump events by any means, but this year has just been

phenomenal and not saying anything about taking away from from Lillia's run last year, two major championships is phenomenal, but that was kind of it. Yeah, yeah. And disappointing for her not, you know, kind of gets her out of the gate and just isn't really ready to follow up on that. So, all right, Cody, love that debate. Why don't we, one of our other partners, what do we have for Titleist today? Yes, Big, a quick gift idea from our friends at Titleist.

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I know we love doing it. Cody, they announced the 2025 schedule. All right. I won't run through every date. It's available on the LPGA website if folks want to take a gander. But I did ask you any initial thoughts, good, bad, surprising. Otherwise, as you look over the schedule, what leaps out to you? Well, I think the first thing that jumped out to me was International Crown is back.

I'm so excited because we were at Harding Park last year when it came back for the first time in four years, five years, something like that. Yeah, it was since pre-COVID, I believe. It was a ton of fun, even though we were only there early week. I think honestly, that's what kind of made it fun because we were there early week. I think honestly that's what kind of made it fun because we were there early week and mixed it up and everything and then got home and like it was a really good television viewing event because I think there were so many matches going on

that they didn't have to show like every shot they were able to mix in highlights and using a little bit of tape delay and everything else like that to tell the picture. And I'm so excited because of course we were lucky and using a little bit of tape delay and everything else like that to tell the picture. And I'm so excited because, of course, we were lucky to go to BMW a couple years ago for the BMW Women's International. And they just they they show out and I can know I'm envisioning what it is going to look

like and the fan club support for Team Korea there and it's just gonna be awesome that Sides in directly after the BMW event. So they're gonna be in Korea for two weeks I noticed Hawaii is off of the calendar for next year. So I don't know what no no Hawaii is at the start of the second Asian swing really maybe yeah, I must have flown past it then They're gonna go Hawaii into Asian swing. Really? Maybe I must have flown past it then. They're gonna go Hawaii into Shanghai and then Korea and et cetera, et cetera. Cognizant is out as a presenting sponsor of the founders. So the founders is moving not only where it's at

in the schedule, but also courses. It's gonna, you know, I think what the drive on was last year and founders are just kind of merging into one. And that's where it's going to be at down in Braintown again. Ford is back. I was concerned about that. A new tournament that comes on only for a year, but excited to see them sign on for a second year back in Arizona. And then my only real confusion on it is for the second year in a row now, we still don't have a non-major event in Texas. And Texas in the LPGA Tour has been going on for a long, long time.

And you would think with the amount of men's professional events that we hold in the state, that they would figure out a way to get an LPGA Tour event back here. Yeah, two majors in Texas, the Chevron of course, and then the KPMG is heading to Fields Ranch in Frisco. Listen, this is where the Chevron gets awkward too. We just don't need two majors in Texas in my opinion. No disrespect to Texas. Cody, I know you're proud. I mean, it's one year. One year that this is happening.

But they're going to, you know, the Fields Ranch is going to be somewhat of an anchor site going forward. It's just, it is what it is. A couple other new events, I guess, to highlight. The Black Desert Championship is going to be the first weekend in May. That's going to be out in Ivan's Utah. That's a new one. And then the Riviera Maya Open is a new one in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. You mentioned the founders. Listen, I don't think there's any way around Cognizant leaving that tournament. I this is a black, I believe this is a black mark on Molly's leadership.

Um, to, to leave the Northeast, they, they had a great run of golf courses up there. Upper Montclair, the most recent to take it to Bradenton and it's Superbowl weekend too. Like the founders is supposed to be, you know, like LPGA, this is your history. I would think this is one of the more special, important non-major events of the whole entire year. It just doesn't feel like that at all. I think that's a massive, massive strike against Mali.

The other thing I was going to mention, the stretch leading into the U S women's open where they go Utah over to New Jersey, down to Mexico, up to Wisconsin, that feels just a bit convoluted to me, and then they're going to go from Japan, the second Asian swing at the end of the year, they're going to go Japan, no, no week off right at the end of the year, they're going to go Japan, no week off right to the Onika in Tampa. And so, I mean, nobody's going to play that Japanese event. It's going to be a ton of JLPGA women, which, you know, great opportunity for them, but just seems like, what are we really doing here? Do you like this schedule more? Is it like a big improvement? To me, it's like it just seems, I don't know.

It seems like a lot more of the same. The thing they tout Cody in the press release, I will say, the total purse size is growing. Molly Marcuse-Mong, LPGA Commissioner, quoted the 2024 season was another year of historic growth for the LPGA tour and with the 2025 schedule we will continue to improve on that growth. They're going to have a total prize fund of $131 million, which is an increase of over $62 million in just four years. So that's up approximately 90% from 2021. And I think there's a little discussion to be had here where I wanna be very clear, great for the women, great for the golfers, their ability to earn more money,

fabulous. At some point though, we have to talk about all this money going into purses. And as a fan of the LPGA tour, as a viewer, as somebody that tries to follow, I really don't see any type of investment or I don't see any type of equitable increase in the broadcast or the presentation of this product. And to me, that's where these purse increases and planning your flag there, it starts to feel a little hollow after a while. Like, hey, there are some big issues with the tour and I don't think we can just keep

papering over everything with purse increases. Yes. I will give them one bone is the LPGA Tour investing in their own additional coverage as well. So they're paying, you know, they're continuing to have ESPN plus coverage just like they will this week. I think they're gonna do it for three or four events as well next year, but you're right. They continue to struggle with the broadcast partner. And I don't think

it's necessarily the broadcast partner. I think it goes back again to the look and feel and that the little nuances that you can do to make sure that the events that are elevated feel elevated versus the run of the mill, normal week to week LPGA tour event. And I think that is where you struggle. They do not struggle at the US Women's Open because of additional investment that's done via the USGA. But every other event, there is this struggle. And for people who turn it on,

you know, it's tough. It's really, it's hard to be a fan. It's hard to drive people there, especially when some of these rounds are taking them five hours, five and a half hours, almost six hours. You know? Yeah, we're gonna talk about that. I just, it's frustrating.

It just reaches a point of frustration for me when, I don't know, from my vantage point, I know everything's a lot more difficult than it is in my mind, but ShotLink, and they finally have updated the website. Do I think it's as good as it could be? No, probably not. You know, the schedule feels a bit convoluted. I don't know.

It just seems like as a product, right? As a entertainment product in my situation as a viewer, again, it's great that we've had a 90% increase in purses, but at some point, I really want to see some type of investment into what the LPGA is, and I just do not get that sense. the LPGA is. And I just do not get that sense. As you said, I see that from the USGA. The US Women's Open is fabulous. It's it's one of the it's the best event probably from from top to bottom. It feels like a major championship. The RNA has is upping its investment that the the's open, feels like a big event.

But we got a long way to go on the week to week stuff. And I think, you know, going back to like the founders cup, right? It just underscores, God, we're lacking in a lot of areas. So we'll get into more of that later. I think as we do a season recap episode, we can take a broader, more macro look at the tour and talk about what we don't like, what we would fix, things like that. But you mentioned slow play, and that has reared its ugly head in a very public fashion recently.

The third round of the Onika in Tampa, one of the groups, the Charlie Hall group took five hours and 38 minutes and that's certainly not Charlie Hall's fault. Bethann Nichols wrote up a piece in Golf Week recently quoting Nelly and Lexi Thompson. I want to read you a couple of those quotes. Lexi said on the slow play, I don't really know why it's gotten worse, but it has, unfortunately. Nellie said, I personally think it's a pretty big issue. I think it's not good for the fans

that come out and watch us. If it was me personally, I would be very, very annoyed watching for five hours, over five hours, five hours and 40 minutes, close to six. I just think it really drags the game down. I think it really, really needs to change. Charlie on her Instagram went so far as to say, hey, if it was up to me, if you got three bad times on that third bad time, they would take your LPGA tour

card away. I mean, Cody, these are three of the most recognizable women in the sport publicly declaring this a big problem. Do you think anything will change? I doubt anything will change. And I will say then, it's so fucked to me. I know. Oh, messed up.

Good on good on Charlie for being as vocal as she has been about this, good on Nellie and Lexi for answering it. And maybe the shocking thing there really was Lexi. I think Lexi, if she wants to figure out what her legacy and future kind of looks like as she winds down her full-time playing career, is actually addressing things like this and figuring out solutions and going back

to the tour and trying to make it work. But the reason why I don't think anything is going to happen is because frankly, the LPGA tour does not like making hard decisions. And the reason why, And the reason why, like Nellie has talked very openly about it of like, it is so slow here that I am constantly like, you know, you can't be locked in the entire time. So her and her caddy, Jason find different ways to be distracted when they need to be distracted to take their mind somewhere else. Because what is happening in like, in front of of them while they're waiting to hit their shot takes so freaking long. And I'll say this, unless they change their policy and start being, I don't know why golf is the way that it is, but publish the fines then.

If you're not gonna go to strokes, publish them. I'm sorry, but Carlota Saganda, you are agent alpha in this whole thing. You are the slowest person on this tour. You gum everything up. And this week, this week, a 60 woman field, she is in the first group off the very first tee. Thursday morning.

Yeah. You know, so Nellie who I understand Nellie and Charlie, they are in, you know, they're in the premier tee time slots at every event they go to for Thursday and Friday. And then most of the time based off of their play, they're playing in the final couple groups on Saturday and Sunday. So they're at the back of this train week in and week out and Nellie is gonna be there this entire week. Nellie's gonna be on the last out of the last group on

Thursday and Friday. You know and it just it just is gonna it creates a thing where you're like man the the women who are out there who are playing this slow, and this happens on the PGA Tour as well, like they're damaging your superstars. And your superstars are the ones that are saying, this gotta change, man. I just don't think they're gonna do anything about it. Your most recognizable player, let me read this again.

It really drags the game down. I think it really, really needs to change. Like that should be blaring red lights, siren going off at HQ. Like we gotta do something about that. And I think beyond that, you know, coming out of that discussion where I was just talking about like,

what is the LPGA doing to improve the product? You know, as I sense people are getting more and more frustrated, turned off from the men's game. They're looking for other outlets. God, it just seems like the LPGA has such a chance to differentiate itself in a couple of ways. One of those being pace of play. Imagine if the LPGA this off season said, we are going to be the change we want to see.

We're going to implement the most stringent pace of play policy of any professional tour. We are going to have every competitive round be under four and a half hours or whatever the benchmark is. That they would clearly separate themselves from the other, you know, from men's golf. It would be so welcomed from every golf fan the world over. And I think there are a few things like that, like the broadcasts, it just kills me that

they're not using these broadcasts as incubators to just try any new thing. How can we evolve the golf broadcast? Again, I think you and I, that's a great kind of season recap off season episode that we'll get into. But this pace of play thing, man, it doesn't really hit home for me a lot of times watching on TV because you're going to cut you're going to, you know, you're going from one shot to the next. But when you're when your best player comes out and says it's dragging the game down, like, everybody needs to pay attention to that. So I'm

for sure kudos to Nelly for saying it. Yep, not only that, but I mean, the broadcast partners, they were over, I think they went over their time slot by 52 minutes. Yeah, with no delays. Just last weekend. Third round, you know, this is post-cut. Yeah, so I mean, it's one of those things where, right,

we are hard on NBC Golf Channel. And there's changes coming. We don't know what the changes are actually going to be. But obviously, there's big concast news of Golf Channel. They're getting spun off, spun off to something else. But I think this is something that like, this kills the broadcast and the broadcast people know it like slow play is also what's in inhibiting their ability to tell stories and predict things. And that's why we get to the commercial blocks that we have where it's, you know, routine every 12 minutes, you get a three minute commercial. And I think it's you know, it affects the

women's action more because they just run it basically just off a clock method, it seems like instead of the men's where they know when they can, you know, based off of rounds and how the groups are moving across, they figure out where they can split it in. The other thing outside of pace of play. You didn't really touch on it too much on the recap podcast, but Caitlin Clark at the Pelican. Awesome. Awesome.

Awesome. Awesome. Get Caitlin out there as much as she wants to come to the LPGA tour as much time as she wants to spend with Nellie or anyone else out there, let her do it. Figure out a way to put it on social. I don't really care. It's growing the game and it's crossing over to other sports.

And just the crossover is massive and Kaila doesn't because she's passionate about golf and she's clearly very much into the LPGA Tour now she was there because of game bridge but I also think the little things that we beat up Molly for all the time. Another one of those shine through last week. And that was obviously in a very joking manner, the LPGA social team ended up going back and checking their Instagram DMs and they had completely ignored an Instagram DM

from Caitlin Clark three years ago when Caitlin was still in college asking if she could get one of the tie dye LPGA, Michelle B. West awareness hoodies. And they completely left her unread. And I don't know when they finally put two and two together, I'm guessing when they went and like tagged her in a story and went back in to like see if she had accepted

or read it or something like that and realize that they had a missed message in there from her. They finally they're able to get her a hoodie but like little things like that if you have somebody who is proactively reaching out and wants to be involved, you got to be able to have smart enough people around you to step up and be like, Yeah, oh, this is an amazing opportunity here. We need to take full advantage of it.

Cody, the last thing, this is a little fraught for two guys to discuss, but I just want to ask, did it news of Nellie is going to be in the new Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue? My question is, is simply this, did that news surprise you? Because it surprised me. I think of her as a very private kind of controlling, her and her team like to control everything. Did it surprise you as well? Yeah, absolutely surprised me. But I'm going to flip it on the other end and surprise me in a good way. I think that again, we are asking a lot of Nelly Korda and one of the things that, you know, obviously she had to agree to this as well.

It's something that she was very comfortable about it. So yeah, go do it. Is it gonna bring increased exposure to the LPJ tour? Yeah. Could there potentially be some like exposure of things that probably aren't the best about like just the way she goes about playing golf? Are there going to be more people that are in there because she's the hot chick that swings the club? Yeah, probably. But that is increased exposure. And as long as people are adults about this whole thing, yeah, good honor.

Yeah, I will plug the LPGA tour podcast. Nelly kind of talks about that decision and what it was like to be on that Sports Illustrated shoot for anybody that wants to learn more from her. But I'm like you, I it was surprising. And then the more I was like, good for her, you know, she obviously that's something she want to do then then, then more power to her. So this is obviously we're, we're a long ways off from, I think it was now Natalie goal was like posing in max.

Amazing. You know, and I think I saw the online, there's an online site of this where people were trying to, to put that on Nelly and I don't see that at all. I mean, this is sports illustrated. That this is, I think, this is Sports Illustrated. I think this is a very good thing. And it's not overtly sexual in the way that people are trying to make it out to be. I think that's right.

And Natalie Golbis, one thing that Nellie did say, she was in the SI swimsuit issue as well. She's the last female golfer to appear in that. So I know there are going to be a number of other athletes from a number of different sports. So I think it is good for just visibility and perhaps some recognition for Nellie to be included in in that. Cody, we will wrap there. Enjoy the CME Tour Championship. On the way out, I want to thank

our third and final sponsor, Mizuho. They're a top global corporate and investment bank. They're a powerhouse in Japan, but the Americas is the fastest growing region for Mizuho globally. They do a ton to support women's sports. They are the title sponsor for the event in New York or New Jersey, I should say, at Liberty National. They're the 15th largest bank in the world. They're a corporate and investment bank serving corporate and institutional clients. They advise and fund businesses looking to go public,

raise money, expand operations, or connect with large investors. For more information, visit www.MizzouhoAmericas.com. We thank them for also being a wonderful sponsor of our LPGA content. And with that, Cody, enjoy the CME Tour Championship and you and I will get back together, I think in December, maybe right before Grant Thornton would be a good time for us to chat again. Love it. Thank you to Mizuho. Thank you to Titleist. Thank you to Yeti. And I want to

give a quick shout out. You mentioned the Mizuho Americas Open. They won one of the Golden Driver. That's a big year long award that the LPGA tour puts out Congratulations to the entire Mizzouho Americus team, I think they want it for the social category there, but yeah big stuff. Thank you to everybody I'm pumped. It's kind of be interesting because I think when we come back next month We're not to pull out some receipts and see how far off you were on some of these takes. I'm excited Yeah, that's exactly right pull out some receipts and see how far off you were on some of these takes. I'm excited. Yeah, that's exactly right.

We asked a lot of questions back in January at the start of the year, and we get to figure out just how wrong and who was the most wrong on a lot of them. So, all right, Cody, always a pleasure. Cheers. Cheers, buddy.