No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - 960: Power ranking the Masters, Ryder Cup check-in, Vidanta World, Tour/PIF negotiations in DC

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

On this weekend's recap pod we recap a wild playoff in Mexico that saw Brian Campbell defeat Aldrich Potgieter after an incredible bounce to avoid out of bounds off the tee on the second and final playoff hole. Then we offer some early Masters picks as the Tour begins the Florida swing next week and an early guess at the US and Euro Ryder Cup team rosters. For our Back Nine segment tonight we review the latest rumblings on the PIF-PGA Tour meetings, the LPGA Thailand and DP World Tour's Magical Kenya Open, TGL, The Rory - Johnson Wagner beef and more. Support our sponsors: Titleist The Strack BMW Holderness & Bourne Subscribe to the No Laying Up Newsletter here: https://newsletter.nolayingup.com/ Subscribe to the No Laying Up Podcast channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@NoLayingUpPodcast 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. That's better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different? Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the no laying a podcast. Solly here. He thinks he's still on a ski trip. It looks like cause he's got the toke on tonight. TC is back from Montana. Hello, TC. Hello, Solly. Good to be back. Got my winter beard going. Although it's, it's quite nice here in Jack's. It has been, it has been quite nice. It's quite nice in

Brooklyn as well. Cause I saw somebody making some golf swings up on the roof. I'm getting the itch. It's, it's the Dante's world gentlemen. I'm just living in it. Good to be with you. Butidanta. Fidanta. Did not get through the intro without a mispronunciation. Let's go. We have some winners from around the world. Brian Campbell wins in a wild playoff over Alteryx Potgieter. We're going to get to that here shortly. Jacques Kreuswick wins the magical Kenya open. I know TC were following that extremely closely. I'm sure. I can't believe you were traveling during magical Kenya open week. National open were following that extremely closely. I'm sure I can't believe you were traveling during magical Kenya open week,

national open TC is on the road. He's on vacations to national opens this year or this this week, friend of the pod Angel yen wins the Honda LPGA in Thailand. And of course, as we mentioned, Brian Campbell, your winner in Mexico, he trusted his title is Pro V1 X golf ball to his first victory on the PGA Tour He led the field with more than 12 point two strokes gained tee to green almost all of them 11.3 those coming with the Pro V1 X on approach shots and

Around the green that end up being the difference in the tournament as well not to mention the final 68 yard wedge to four feet to set up the playoff winning birdie Kimball is among 77 percent of players who teed up a Pro V1 or Pro V1X in Mexico. More than seven times the nearest competitor also included playoff runner-up Aldridge Potgeeter, who put his new 2025 Pro V1X golf ball in play for the first time this week. Both new 2025 Pro V1 and Pro V1X golf balls are now available in golf shops worldwide. Each new model designed to give golfers more of what they ask for more speed off the tee, more control with the irons and

more spin with the wedges. That tee to green doesn't even count. The playoff. I was going to say, man, that's an interesting stat. Seeing, I mean, he must've been hitting every fairway cause he's getting out driven by like 90 yards and then he bounces off a tree. Unbelievable.

And we were full disclosure. We were like all week planning, like, Hey, we are not going to start the show tonight with the Mexico open. Like we could do some fun things with it. We do have a fun show on hand here. We're going to do some master stuff, some rider cup stuff, all of that, but it was an electric playoff of some kind, I guess. It was a very, very, I got it for it. It was a bad action movie, which I'm a, I'm a huge fan of. It was, it was land of bad. It was con air. It was like, Oh my God, that's not a good action movie. I was even saying though,

TC just kind of like, you know, the plots all over the place and then all the balls kicking out of the trees. TC. I want to read your post earlier. I was cackling on my couch. This playoff feels like watching the shootout at the end of a member guest, Benjamin Salinas hosting the Vedante world jamboree and they're unable to get everyone around 18 green under control hot Carl squirters barkies. It's so sick that that kind of summed it all up for me. It felt like a member guest. It was great. You got the gondola in the background, Yeah, you got the hot air balloons. It felt like kind of a metaverse maybe. Like, is this real? I don't know if this is real Vedanta world, big sign, unbelievable stuff. My takeaway all week was like the Mexico Open is not weird enough. Like it's too, you know,

if you're going to go to an exotic location, it just needs to be way less resorty and weirder. And then it got really weird. It's, if you, yeah, what, if, what, what would you have, I think the odds would have been if somebody would come up and said, Hey, somebody on a playoff, one of these two guys is going to hit it 35 yards out of bounds and it's going to hit a tree and kick back into play. The guy with 161 ball speed, I would not have get a bet would have gotten a lot of money on that one. Honestly, Sally, uh,

that's the kind of thing that would have happened at your Polta pack. Exactly. Exactly. You know, and I missed that place dearly. You had a great, great idea on our slack. You said, uh, the master should not grant a spot to, uh, Brian Campbell. They should grant a spot to whoever wins, live to pull to pack as an olive branch of sorts. Like, I think they had one group of Salinas commercial per commercial break, which was epic. The course doesn't quite do it for me. It's like, it wants to be interesting with some short grass around the greens, but there's nothing going on on the greens. Like there's no slopes. It makes me appreciate Black Desert even more. Black Desert needs to become like a regular season

event, I think. And, but yeah, just, just at all time, like not just the playoff, the last two or three hours of play, there was just some all time bad golf going on. I mean, potgaters like the chipping, that's a problem. It's a big, and then the, the, the shot that he hit, was that the last one in regulation? Where, uh, that was the first playoff hole fairway. Yeah. If you weren't watching, Hey, let's, let's assume not everybody listened to this pod was watching the golf today, but he was in the middle of the fairway, you know, bombed it, he had mid iron in and he, I guess I didn't have the sound on,

but, uh, I guess he, he, he was calling it a mud ball and the broadcast kind of let them down there. They didn't really illustrate the mud on the ball. I guess that flips it way long left, like a duck hook, a mid iron of sorts into that. We're going to give Brian Campbell is his props here at a certain point. I promise. But it was like, I guess a little, it was going to kind of break my heart a little bit to watch somebody like pot Geter who is a British am champ, one on the corn fairy tour, like, you know, got his card at extremely young player, but to just bypass like

very clear holes in his game. If you watch this tournament at all over this past week and have it all covered up by 194 mile an hour ball speed was going to make me pretty sad, honestly. Go look at the, the data golf profiles for both these guys. It's unbelievable. I mean, pocketers off the charts and he's like, he's like inverted on a route strokes gained around the green. It's incredible. I've never seen a skill profile like that. It's unbelievable.

It might be the best thing they had, you know, you, you turn it on today this afternoon. You're like, oh my God, I don't like Aaron Rye, you know, Yeager. You're just like, damn, this is going to be, I'm going to war, I'll punch it in, baby. Okay. Let's, let's lock in. Okay. Right through the, we got so lucky. TC wasn't even going to be on the show this week.

And he's like, I want to talk golf this week. I'm like, damn, this is cool. Let's talk to Mexico. Well, that's because he's been rejuvenated from the mountain air, but it was like the perfect scenario for Grupo Salinas. You had like two NPC guys on opposite ends of the skill spectrum. Like if you're a casual fan, who the fuck is pot heater? You know, it's like well, he played well. I know like, yeah, he's a young like

he's gonna be a stud. He's got a promising future. But like if you're, you know, if you don't watch golf regularly, you're like, and then, you know, Brian Campbell, like, truly, like, you know, could be any player in like PGA tour 2k. I know the answer to this. And I'm in the same boat as you, Neil. But honestly, TC prior to this week, did you know who Brian Campbell was? Like, honestly? Yeah. Yeah. Just cause I saw B Campbell and I was like, dude, I thought he went to live.

No, I did not hand up. Didn't, didn't know who he was. Neil didn't ask. Cause I did not think that you did. Okay. Just with all due respect. And I'd be happy to tell you I didn't. I mean, I'm totally comfortable with that. I think the thing with Pacqueter is it's so, it's incredible that he has such a strength with that ball speed that it covers up, like that it's able to cover up so many other things. Like he's hitting driver off the deck everywhere. He took out his three wood today. So he's hitting four iron from like two 50. I mean, it was crazy. He was number one in strokes gained a tee to green this week, only 30 seconds off the tee, but he didn't have 44 or 54 fairways. Now, again, this is a resort course with wide fairways and a lot of people. I want to go back that resort. That looks like a resort course.

I'd like to play. It looks like a fun course for, you know, we can set you up with some of the, some of the timeshare folks down at Vedanto. It looks, it looks inviting. It looks like if I was on vacation, it's like, yeah, that would be a great, great place to play with my buddies. I'm sorry. Hand up. I was looking at Campbell stats. He did not hit a 44, 54 fairways. He had 29 of 53. So that, that's my bad. I don't know how we got to play one less fairway. Uh, Kim, maybe that counts the playoff or something, but he was third in strokes, getting off the tee, excuse me. But yeah, but that's my point though of like, it's already trending this way. It's already gone. Like the game is going this way and there's no stopping it, but that was just going to be, just going to be tough to be able to just...

Well, you see it like everybody's been saying, oh, you should see these young kids coming up. It's like, well, here's one of them 20 years old. I mean, you know, a strapping young lad, you know, get this kid in the gym and who knows, right? Like he's, you know, he could lose a couple LBs, but he's just prolific off the tee. God, nearly near you're going to body shame him. No, I mean, you know, it's a little like he could. Yeah, he could tighten it up a little bit. Let's be honest. Legally, I can't say tighten. Tight. That's a good call.

I think the like on the flip side, it was so refreshing to see absolute foul balls like the stretch from everybody, not just in the playoff. I mean, I just want to see the ball spin again. I want to see dispersion. Like it was so depressing. Alex Smalley, I think, who's playing great golf, you know, last, last month or so, he was trying to bend one with a three wood around like a, like a stand of trees. And he just couldn't get it to bend.

It was like, I just want to see guys be able to work the ball again and, you know, see, see miss hits get punished. Yeah. Well, now miss hits get bounded back into play. We haven't spent enough time on that to say this tournament was over. Brian Campbell hit it off the planet with 164 ball speed. Oh, be right. When you have the world to the left, by the way, NBC refused to acknowledge that.

Yeager, the worst that line off 18. Some of the worst commentary I've heard in recent memory today. It was just not a man. Just you're not adding anything. Just come on. I need more Kurt Byram or Bones. Just give me more. I mean, let's just.

Yeah, you could just tighten it up. I am just bones like get rid of the booth and have him just out on the course calling it. It's great. But it hits off the trees well right of the car path, hits the car path bounces back into play hits a fairway would to get within 68 yards of the green. And then absolutely stuffed it from there. Puck eater had some nice comments afterwards. Like, yeah, when I saw you got the

balance, like I know how good his wedge game was. And I knew I still probably needed to make four to survive. And he didn't end up doing it. So it's the rubble of the green. 187 career starts for Brian Campbell, both in corn fairy tour and the PGA tour. He did have his card in 2017, but lost it and has not been back since then. I did the math, his career earnings were something like 1.47 million career going into this. That's eight, less than $8,000 per start

over the course of almost decade long career and made $1.2 million this week. These are the stories that are going away, TC. They're changing all the rules and we're never going to get these stories anymore. You know what? Based on the play the last few hours of that broadcast, I'm okay with a few less of those. I will say the two guys that didn't kind of completely gag it coming in were Isaiah Salinda played great golf last few hours, played a great final round, shot 65. And then Joel Damon, 65-65 on the weekend and a couple more putts drop.

He could have gotten into contention there, but he finishes T6. So I picked the wrong Hoygard too. I had Rasmus to win this event. Nikolai finished solo eighth. So we may get to some Hoygards later on in the show. I think we will. Aaron Rye cracks me up, man. I just, I watch him play golf and I'm trying to like learn

how he does it this successfully. And I don't think I fully understand it. I really don't. It's just, it's not excelling really in any one part, but he just climbs leaderboards in these like mule events. It's, it's ridiculous. And, uh, I don't know, I just don't know what his skill level actually is, right? He doesn't really do much in any event of import, but if it like,

once it goes down a tier, Aaron Rye is in the mix. My, my, uh, I was thinking about that today. So my take there is he's like the ultimate mechanic. I feel like he, he excels at like discipline. I feel, I look at him. I'm like, he controls like maniacally everything that he can control, like his putting routine, the way he dresses the ball, even his follow through. He's like rock solid. His balance is, you know, really, really good. You know, I feel like that guy is just like all about discipline and process. And I tell you, is that exciting? Do I really want to watch that? I mean, not really, but I kind of respect it from afar. Cause I'm,

I'm kind of the opposite of that. That's kind of how I feel. There's so much going on with it. I think it's, I think it's Matt Fitzpatrick light. It's like, that's a good take. I like that. You know, quite light. I mean, Matt Fitzpatrick won the US. Give him his respect. You're saying like from a process point, Madison's actually one of us. So give him his respect. You're saying like from a process point, point of view, like the way they approach the game seems similar. Yeah. The double ring DJ D I wish DJ was here.

It's for some reason, Aaron, right. This is DJ off more than anyone. He called him like he's like a human graphing calculator. He said it's like today. Is that a TI 83? Yeah, exactly. Well, but no, that goes to the point of like, that a TI 83? Yeah, exactly. Well, but no, that goes to the point of like, yeah, iron covers. Yeah, no, I want to protect my clothes.

I don't care. I don't care how I look. Don't care what it looks like. If it makes me, if it gives me any type of edge, I'm going to do it. You know, I have two gloves. I, you know, something has white pants in Mexico. Yeah. I don't know.

I appreciate it from afar. You know, not, not really like thrilled when I see Aaron Ry's name on the leaderboard, but hey, it is what it is. All right, well, we're going to circle back to a couple other quick hits from around the PGA Tour and golf and whatnot. But I want to get to something else. Before we do that, if you want to hit it, like Aldridge Potgeater, you can go to a brand new landing page at thestacksystem.com

slash nl, you and code no laying up is going to get you 10% off the stack system. We got our guy Neil doing it. Finally, we got it. Yeah. What, any, any updates you can give us on, on what, what you got? Well, I hit my, my baseline a couple of weeks ago and then I didn't get, then it made me do the baseline again. Cause I waited like 10 days. I got sidetracked. We're doing the 10 strain thing too. You know, so I got a lot going on anyway, did the, uh, baseline again. And then today I did my, my first foundational workout up on my roof.

It was like first time it's been over 40 degrees in, I don't know, 20 days. So I took it, I took it up to the roof, man, and just, you know, started swinging out of my shoes on the roof of my apartment. It was actually, it's good. And actually it leads to a decent workout, get some strain in. I'm committed to, I'm ready for golf season. So it's helping me kind of get going, went over to the simulator this week. I'm jonesing to play some golf. You're one of the most disciplined people I know. And if I can do this two times a week and I'm not very disciplined, you can do the stack two times a week and you're going to gain serious, serious club head

speed. You've already got it, but anyone who does this program 30 to 35 minutes, two times a week is all takes once every three days. Some weeks you're going to have three days mixed in there, but if you want very serious gains in your club head speed, which is going to trickle down to every part of your game, the stack system.com slash NLU, and you can use code no laying up for 10% off, tons of other information on there,

a video up on that landing page, kind of documenting the process and how I've upped my club head speed. And I'm committed to being back in. I've been off for like three months with life changes, but I'm going to be back in and the speed's coming back here in the next couple months. So one thing I will say, honestly, the warmup is just like, it's starting to become like,

you know, you do that for any round of golf. Yes, exactly. I'm like, oh, that's, that's just, that just makes a lot of sense. I should just do that every time I play. Totally, totally completely. So, all right, this is the main event for tonight. Eight weeks down of the PGA tour season, there's 23 weeks to go on the PGA Tour regular season, so about a quarter of the way through it. Going to level, set in some things, see where we're at. The Tour is heading to Florida. Now, it means it's time. Once the Tour heads to Florida, it's just time to start thinking about Augusta and also in between the Mexico Open and the Cognizant, it's probably a great time to start getting excited about the first major championship of the year. So we're also on the, you know, we're going to do some Ryder Cup look in check-ins here

after this, but I wanted to go through and we're going to come up with a power ranking, a consensus power ranking. We're each going to go through our individual lists, but a consensus power ranking after this West Coast swing six weeks out from the first major of the year. And here's kind of how I prompted you guys to fill this out was like, list a list of 10 guys in order now but pretend like you're trying to cover the winner in the field, but you got to pretend that somebody could magically come in and say, you only get the top four guys, you

only get the top six guys, you only get the top eight guys. So you got to really come up with, you know, I didn't want six and seven to feel equal on this list. I wanted you to list out who you think are the most likely people. I'd refuse to look at the odds going into this. This was pure no data, eye test, and gut test only going into this.

I'm curious how you guys approached it. You want the consensus? Well, we've got all three people. Do we want to go through our list first and then we can kind of land back want the consensus? Well, got all three people. Do we want to go through our list first and then we can kind of land back on the consensus? I think the consensus is more interesting and then you and then you kind of unwrap it. Okay. With each person. All right. So this is when you averaged out where our rankings ended up. You sent the list and these are each center 10 picks. I did, you know, just like we did the ball knowers

QB rankings that everybody's thanking us for. Disgrace. I actually don't go listen to the trap draw, a true disgrace on the ball knowers. We need to like sign, you know, sign some kind of disclaimer that we don't, you know, we're not in on the bid or something, Neil. I just heard stuff that makes no sense. No bit. Anyway, you get 10 points. So there's three of us. So top top end is 30 points, you know, 10 points for a first place ranking,

nine points for a second place racing ranking and so forth. So guys, no, no shocker. Scotty number one, 30 points, unanimous. No Tom foolery here. I'm hoping you guys get me, join me on number two. Ludwig. Ludwig was not unanimous though. Okay. No.

We'll get to that. 23 points. So he had two, two nine pointers and one, one farther down. We'll dismay you. Xander was third, one point behind Ludwig, 22 points. Fourth was Rory at 19. Rom was fifth at 16. Hedeke sixth at 13. And then big fall off from there. And then we've got Bryson Brooks and Murakawa. They're tied at seventh. And at 10th, any guesses?

I would guess JT. No. Cam Smith. There was 13 or there was 14 total guys that got points. I forgot about Cam Smith. Oops. Cam Smith. Any guesses? No. No. He was, Hatton and Cam were tied at 13th with one point a piece. Joaquin had four points. He was 12th. Zala Torres, 11th and Thomas Fleetwood was 10th.

What? All from one guy. I'm guessing he's got to be. It must have been. They're not even on my freaking list. That's why I didn't want to do a consensus ranking. There's no consensus in this. That's the consensus right there. Yeah. I had Tommy at fifth and I had Joaquin at seventh. He also had a.

Give me your full list. Let's go through your full list. Your list one through 10. This is Scotty Ludwig, Rory Zander, Tommy, Zala Torres, Joaquin Hide Hideki, Colin, Bryson. So no Brooks in that if I... No Brooks, no Rahm. I didn't have Brooks in my top 16. No Rahm?

Wow. I went Rahm at 11th, Cam Smith at 12th, Big Shot Bob at 13th, Jay Day at 14th, Young Tom Kim at 15th, and Hovland at 16th. Help me with the ROM rationale here. I feel like he's too amped for it. He's going to kind of like what happened last year. He just kind of laid an egg. He's going to get up too much for it.

And then he hasn't really been dominating at the live events. He got dusted by Maranque and you know, just hasn't. Before. Yeah. It's really is reotic. A similar course fit to Augusta National. I'd have to know. But I think it's going to have plenty of time to ramp up to pressure. You want my list solid? I'm ready. Yes. I have Scotty Zanderander, Ram, Brooks, Ludwig,

Rory, Hideki, Collin, Tyson, Patton. No, you had Hideki sixth, Rory seventh. I must know. I have my list. It's Rory. Honestly. Yeah, you could change it. Hideki sixth, Rory seventh. Sure. That would change up the consensus rankings, I think too. But Rory seventh from the leader of the of the block party. Yeah, I'm still gonna pick him to win. I actually already put my Wait, you're still picking him to win? Well, yeah, but no, this was an exercise in like, if my life depended on it, not if not if I want to bet money on it and root for it. You asked me like gun to my head. Like in my, there's a, there are five or six guys

I'd probably take before Rory because of the scar tissue. And I'm valuing experience. I'm valuing guys that know how to play in big spots. And I think, you know, kind of going with a little bit more history than, than it seems like you guys had like Ludwig. I love, obviously played awesome last year. He's only been there once. You know, so it's like some of these other guys experience matters in Augusta. Ality's been there once. Think about how much better he's going to be.

Yeah, so sure. Your pick, your pick to win is then it's just the pick you want to win then, right? If you're, if that's, you're going to be your guy to win. My pick to win is like, yeah, but I mean, Scotty's, I guess you're asking me to power rank it, right. And, and I didn't look at the odds or anything. It's just like, if I'm, if I'm trying to, you know, power rank it, I think I'm going with a lot more experience than I am.

Brooks forth is interesting. That's probably a reach. I kind of regret that one, but the other ones I feel pretty good about. So there you have it. I did my Friday T Hovland, Dalla Torres, Adam Scott, and the link master Jordan Spieth. Yeah, I did my Friday and I looked at him like, what am I thinking and then changed everything around today. Mine with Scotty, I got Ludwig number two, almost one at last year and is playing even better golf and has some experience. I have Ram three.

I refuse to forget about him. I don't care if he's not dominating live. He's still finished. He's heard he's finished the top 10 of every live event he's played in. I believe I read that that might've been a bot account that I read that on. But listen, I'd like to see more high end, high end traits. You know, you've you've you've crushed others for coming in top, you know, for, for banking top tens. I mean, he won live UK in July. He won Chicago and it's finished runner up three other times since then.

And what he won the masters two years ago. You want the masters two years ago. Like there's finished runner up three times. People are saying he might not be able to close. I will take my chances. If he's in the hunt Sunday, I'd like to have that name pretty high up on my board. I've, I refuse to forget about Rom, even if he had a tough three kids now,

Sally, you know how that goes. I don't know. He spaced them out a little better than I did, but I got Rory four. I'm not saying that like feels vastly different this year, but I feel more hopeful this year than I have in years past. This is all I able to do that. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that. I'm not sure if I'm going to be ripping people off for drinks and all kinds of scummy private equity stuff, TC. I didn't know what to do with Xander. I got him smack dab in the middle at five, Hideki at six, Bryson at seven. And I regret that. I mean, he just doesn't play. I mean, he doesn't play Augusta well.

He did last year, but I don't know. I'm 68 for him, man. Come on. Kepka at eight. Don't know what I was thinking there. More cow and nine. And then I putepka at eight. Don't know what I was thinking there. More Cowan nine. And then I put Kamp Smith at 10. It starts to get kind of, you know,

I really don't have a lot of faith in anyone on the back half of that one, sans Hideki, but. I just think you guys got to factor in what's going to happen between now and, you know, now and April 8th, or April 10th. I feel like, I mean, Xander's been hurt. So that maybe I'm stretching a little bit there too, but he's played well at Augusta.

He's had some good, you know, some close finishes. Oh, he's played exceptionally well. That's what I mean. So I feel very comfortable. I know it's chalky, but Scottie Xander is like, I got Xander at four. Yeah. I got no issues with that. I think, I think the top four are like bulletproof.

If he was healthier, I would feel different. I mean, I just don't know what we're going to get out of him. And we're seeing this from Scotty coming back. He only won three straight tournaments without winning. There's a little bit of mystery with Xander's health going into this. You know, I haven't seen him hit a golf shot really yet. I want to see Joaquin bank a top 10 in a major. Anywhere. It's definitely time for some of the whines about not getting into the majors and still get special

invites into them. So, and I'm just hoovering up Zella Torres real estate. I mean, I might be, I'm like the black man. I kind of feel that I had him at 13, you know, he's had, you know, a little bit of success long ago. He's gained some weight, you know, come on. Maybe he rounds into form. That's an interesting bridge into our next topic. We have been slacking on our Ryder Cup check ins. We always like the

always the gut is to do these after a big event, but they don't get the points updated like night of and it's just hard to do on the fly, like after the players are after Bay Hill. So we've thrown in some comments over the last couple weeks about, Hey, it's not looking so great on the fly like after the players or after Bay Hill. So we've thrown in some comments over the last couple of weeks about, hey, it's not looking so great on the US side, looking great on the European side. Wanted to open up to just do a check-in. We usually do this once a quarter of who's on your team

as of right now. This Ryder Cup update is brought to you by our friends at BMW. They are not only the official vehicle of NoLayingUp, but also a worldwide partner of the 2025 Ryder Cup. Looking forward to spending some time with them on site at BethPage later this year to experience They are not only the official vehicle of No Laying Up, but also a worldwide partner of the 2025 Ryder Cup. Looking forward to spending some time with them on site at BethPage later this year to experience the ultimate team competition. So here's what we're going to do.

We're going to make some teams. A lot of listing guys out on tonight's episode, but we're going to list out our Ryder Cup teams for both the US and the European side. Now I asked you guys to divide this out into four categories. This is Stone Cold Locks in this first category. And I made this next category called Odds On But Not Locks, because I think people get way too trigger happy on the word lock and get put too many guys in the category one.

And I'm gonna throw challenge flags if you guys got carried away with that one as well. So Stone Cold Locks, odds on but not locks. Third category is in as of now. Like if you had to make the team right now, who are you putting on it? And then the final category is keeping my eye on as in I could see any of these guys changing

into any of those final spots or if there's an injury that was gonna happen. So I wanna start with the US side and Neil I want you to go first. Starting with the locks. Start with your locks, your stone cold locks. How many are there? Three of them.

OK, good. I kind of broke them up into, you know, you gave me four categories. I got Scottie, Xander, and Colin are my three locks. OK. That's exactly what I have for the three locks. It just feels like Colin's not going anywhere and Scottie and Xander are, you know,

they're clearly the top two. Notable missing from the locks is Cantlay, which, you know, the partner of Xander and been on a lot of these teams, but he has not played great, great golf, not been the full Patrick Cantlay in recent times. So just, that's a noteworthy leave off for the both of us there. He hasn't, he did play well at Genesis. Yes. I mean, he's got T5 at AMEX, T5 at Genesis.

He's not playing bad golf per se, he's not missing. No, 2024 was just not like the Cantlay we've seen. Like it was like almost a full shot back per round, which is not good. Correct, but you know my guy the hammer is gonna step it up if TGL doesn't mess him up first. That's true. All right. Who are your odds on, but not locks, Neil? I have Cantlay, Bryson and JT.

I think JT is continuing to trend. I think with the history of him being kind of the heart and soul, a bit of a glue guy, a bit of an enemy for the, you know, for the other side, how bad everybody knows he wants to be on the team. I feel like he's trending in the right direction and I see him being in that top six. All right. Who else is in as of now? Okay. I was looking at it kind of like- You had to do 12 guys, you would split them into four categories.

Yeah. But like I'm trying to think about who's going to trend towards. I'm not thinking about the Ryder Cup being next week. Is that, is that the correct exercise? Yeah. Yeah. I think it's, you know, if you had to lock the team in now, but it's in September is, is who you would have it. We might have an anti-blow pig. Well, I got, so I've got Sam Burns, Brooks and Daniel Berger. I think Berger is going to start bucking his head. It's good to see him back. And I don't think he's scared. I think he would be a great member of this team. He seems like he gets along with everybody.

I just like watching him play golf. I would love to see him on this team. Okay. Some notable names missing. That's a bit of a reach, but he's kind of climbing up the leaderboard, you know, or the rankings. So I don't know. What do you, what you want me to, let's finish your team here and then keeping your eye on you'll good about this, but there's some history there. I got big tone and then I got Okshay. I want them on the squad. I I'm willing that into existence. I want to see him on the U S rider cup team. And then truly it's, it's, do you want to go with the future or the past? I've got Zala Taurus or Wyndham. I would like to see Zala Taurus. I feel like Wyndham probably, if it, if the rider cup was next week, he put him on the team, but

I just, maybe Zala Taurus can kind of, you know, whip his chicken this year and get onto this, this squad. Did you say Brooke? Did you have Brooks anywhere? Did I miss that? Yeah Brooks was in it was Sam Burns, Brooks and Daniel Berger. Got it and as of now. Which I'm not super excited about Sam Burns but he's really really solid. You know I think Brooks is you know I still think he's a top tier golfer and he'll probably show up at the majors this year and be on this team and he's

he's been a pretty solid member of the team in the past. Yeah I got a lot of theories on that. But I'll give you mine here. And I did this a little differently. So my my I fill out the first 12 within the first three categories and keeping my eye on our guys that I think could could could end up filling out the last spot because the 12th spot is, is tough. It's a bit of a tough scene. Why? That's not I got a bunch of names that-

Yeah, I got theories out the ass. That's tough. No, no, I'll give you my 12 guys. I'll give you my 12 guys and then like, who I think the five or six guys in that could cycle in is what was kind of my thought process here. Stone Cold Locks are Scottie, Xander, and Morikawa, just like you said.

I think odds on, but not locks, are JT, Bryson, Brooks, Cantlay and Spieth. Spieth. Yeah. Wow. I think he's he's better than 50% chance to be on this team. Definitely not a lock. But I think it's it's likely that he will be on this team. So how many how many is that now? That's eight guys. Okay, my remaining four like in as of now, like if we were lining up right now, this is, this is the final four spots I'd fill in.

I got big tone, big ballpark, Beth Page. That's, that's going to happen. Russell Henley, not the most amazing course fit, but solid the president's cup, just all around solid game. I got Zala Torres in for the big ballpark as well. And this is stupid. This is dumb. I think Luke, give me that 12 spot Luke Klan. Do it like, fuck it. Fuck it. Yeah. I mean, it's been like one of the top, I think I saw one of the top 10 players smart and was tweeting about over a certain period of time, you know, but hasn't risen

enough in the world rankings. So I can't believe you put speech in there. I mean, I mean, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it's like, I think it saw one of the top 10 players smarten was tweeting about over a certain period of time. You know, but hasn't risen enough in the world rankings. So I can't believe you put speed in the odds on category. You don't think he's going to, I mean, he's going to, I think solid might be

misunderstanding odds on that's not, it just feels like, I mean, speech got a lot of work to do. I mean, that's going to, there's, he's going to have to, Keegan's going to have to make a cathed pick over a lot of guys that are ahead of him right that's going to, there's, he's going to have to, Keegan's going to have to make a Cathin's pick over a lot of guys that are ahead of him right now in points, you know, and that they have proven to do that a lot in the past. I don't know. Maybe I'm, maybe I'm getting a little, little fired up after the T listen, like everybody, probably most people listening, I would love to see that, but I haven't

seen it yet. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know. That's tough too. I think it's likely that he'll be able to, I think I would not put it, you know, if he plays a bad season, I don't, that's why I didn't have him as a lock. Uh, if he's a bad, bad season, I can see them not taking him. But I think if he's, you know, medium speed, I think they'll probably end up taking again, mostly because like the night, the names I'm keeping my eye on, don't get me very excited here. And I think it kind of defaults to getting more excited. I know it's tough when you're looking down the list and you're seeing,

no offense, Billy Ho, but I feel like Billy Ho might fade. Like you want to see Denny McCarthy. It's like, I like, yeah, I like Denny, but I don't know if I'd even be on the Ryder Cup team. Totally. Not a great course fit. I keep Sahith. I didn't even have, I have Sahith on keeping my eye on, but that's trending in a really bad direction. I got DB straight vibing, keeping an eye on like that's somebody show me something and I'll put you right in like you're you don't have a long way to go there. Akshay gonna need some sustained success. Same with MAV. Akshay's sick. Okay, well, Sam Burns and the blow pig I have on

there only because of Bethpage. I mean, it's been a really tough scene for him and I could not put him on the team right now. But if he starts playing some decent golf, and we start thinking course fit, I could see him making sense there. So TC, how you feeling about the US team? Yeah, I mean, I got the same same locks, Scotty's, Andrew Collin. I am moving the blow pig down. I've got Bryson as my fourth guy. This is me extrapolating into the future of I think what is going to happen the rest of the season. guy. This is me extrapolating into the future of I think what is going to happen the rest of the season. I've got the pat in the hat and can't like that's kind of my those those

those three are kind of my my Odds on but not locks odds on. You had Bryson can't lay and who Bryson can't land Zala Torres Zala Torres. Okay. And then I've got JT I'm bullish on MAV. I think MAV is I would say he's what's fifth in the rankings right now. I'm bullish on MAV. I think MAV is I would say he's what's fifth in the rankings right now. I'm bullish on him. So I've got I've got JT MAV big tone in my next that's in your you're talking in as of now. Yes. Yes. So that's that's nine. And then after that, I've got Clinton, Burger, and I'm kind of, I'm all over the place

with my last one. I'm going to, I'm going to stick with my guy Keegan though. I mean, all he's got to do is like, if he wins a major or if like, if he always got, but I don't know if Keegan goes out and wins a signature event though. Like he won the BMW. Like I have no problem with him being on the squad. Even if he, I know he said he wouldn't pick himself. He wasn't in the top six, but come on, man. That'd be fun. I think Horschel could get hot. Other guys I'm keeping an eye on. I think Horschel could get hot. Sahith, I'm kind of sticking a fork in him at this point. Burns, Akshay, Harris English. He could keep it up. H.E. could keep it up. I regret not having that. People forgetting he was on the Whistling Straits team and Austin Eckrote. I think we're

entering a portion of the schedule that's going to very much suit Eckrote. Did you, sorry, you probably just said J.T. Poston. I didn't have J. JT Poston on there. I didn't have- You said pounds for pound best golfer on the planet, T.C.? I didn't have Spieth on there. Yeah, I mean, Poston, I don't think Beth Page is a great course fit for him,

and I don't think he's going to make it on points. You're not even keeping an eye on Spieth? Not really right now. He's got to show me a lot more. I'm concerned about the health. Yeah. Concerned about, you know. I'm concerned about the health. Yeah. I'm concerned about, you know, I got spooked last week. Yeah.

All right. This should be really fun. Scared. TC, we're going to start, we're going to snake it back with you for your European rider cup team. Stone cold locks. Yeah. Stone cold locks.

There's more. There's more on the European side. For sure. Yeah. I got, I've got eight stone cold locks. Oh my God. All right. On the European side. For sure. Yeah. I've got eight stone cold locks. Oh my God. All right. On the European side. Jesus.

Rory, Ludwig, Shane, Tommy, Rom, Sep, Tirell, and Hovland. Sep is a stone cold locks. Sep is an absolute stone. Oh, he clowns you last time too, Sal. You're gonna start over on Sep again? Clown me. We're one clouds you last time to you. So you're going to start over on sep again. Clown me with one and two. You were talking about on the team. Come on. He's a stud. I think that's the stud. I think steps up thoroughbred. I

do too. He's a head out of the ball. Yeah. I think he's a great, great golfer. He's having a good locker room guy. Everybody likes him. Come on. To pair up with. I mean, again, stone cold lock. Nothing could happen between now and the end of the year that Seth wouldn't make the cornerstone. Yeah, I mean, he could get hurt. But not outside of injury. Yeah. Man, that's a lot of locks. I mean, I don't know. What's he at right now? Let me see the European. So let me get this straight. Europe's going to a

different. They're not doing the two rankings list this year. Correct. They're just doing one. So right now it's Rory is miles ahead and Tyrell, Rasmus, Ludwig, Shane Lowry and D-Tree. And then you've got Wallace is seventh. Seph just doesn't like, Seph's going gonna need a pick, but I don't know. I mean, No, I'm not at all.

Sep's what in the world right now? He is, oh, he's 38th in the Ryder Cup standings for Europe. Yeah, that's just cause they don't, they don't count like PGA tour events. Sep in the world is 18th and 21st in the data golf rankings. Yeah. I mean, that's a no brainer pick for me. And then, so, you know, Hovland,

he's got time to get his shit together here. Oh, the Hovland's on this team. Exactly. Right. Especially at a place like, I think he's, they take a flyer on him for sure. Yes. And then next up, like, I don't even have like odds on, I just have like dudes that are on as of right now.

I got Rasmus and Nikolai, both of them on there. And then I've got, I'm down to two spots here between Nicholas Noorgard, Aaron Rye, Big Shot Bob, D-Tree, Mike Wallace, Torbjorn Oleson, Team Rose, Pooj, Rasmus Niergaard-Peterson. And I'll tell you who's not sniffing this team because he's plantle, not good golf team Mathis Patrick. No, Team Rose, I'm still given a little bit of look to but right

now if you made me pick I would go with Nicholas Noorgard and Big Shot Bob, not D-Tree. Interesting. Are you concerned with Nikolai's fall off at all? Am I? Yeah. I mean, you know, he made the cut this week at a national open. That's a good start. I mean, he's fallen back to,

I mean, it was 2023 of the year he made the European Ryder Cup team. He was close to a full shot game player. He's back to like average. He's back to like 0.0. Yeah. He's back to, I mean, it was 2023 of the year he made the European Ryder Cup team. He was close to a full shot game player. He's back to like average. He's back to like 0.0. Uh, yeah, which is a cause for concern, I think. But that he would put me more in the, uh, the, you know, maybe in as of now, course fit is going to be fantastic for him. And that's right. Eighth this week

too. I mean, it's not like he's playing bad. I mean, it's the guy who won it. It is. I did. I did. He lost to that guy. It's just concerned. I'll give you. I have way shorter lock list. I think it's Rory Ludwig, Rom Hatten Fleetwood are your chains. Shane's not on your lock list.

It's not like a stone cold lock. Like it's odds on is very likely he'll be on the team. I have Hovland, Sep, Rasmus and Lowry. on your lock list. It's not like a stone cold lock. Like it's odds on is very likely he'll be on the team. I have Hovland, Sep, Rasmus, and Lowry as like very, very, very good chances of being on. And then in as of now, the final three spots right now, we got Big Shot Bob, I got Harry Hall, which you did not mention. Who's playing fantastic golf and Nikolai is in that 12th spot almost entirely because of

course fit and ignoring, uh, kind of his overall trends. I eyes on fits, Aaron rise, Steven Yeager, Nicholas, nor guard. Yeah. I think Europe's like first, first nine are phenomenal, which is like extremely important, extremely, extremely important. Those final three are gonna be, and then we got the horses in the back. We got all sorts of options. Torbjorn is playing good golf right now.

Continuity matters. You know, that's why I feel like Hovland's just, I know he's not playing great, but he just, he's like, I just feel like he'll be on this team for sure. I think he almost certainly will, but he's so mental that like it could be a disastrous season for him. Like it, in theory, very well could go way off the rails just based on truly the literal quotes he's giving us.

So I do not feel like I'm out on a limb by saying that. But I'd be very surprised he was not on the team. But no, he would definitely be on the team. I know Jaeger is eligible. I don't think they would ever in a million years pick him though. Of course fit though. I mean like again, it's going to be a BSI invitational. But they've said like, Hey, let's, you know, give us, you got to give us DP world tour starts to write. Like you got to come over and contribute a little bit here. That's why

I like, I think if we had two Danes, two Rasmuses on the team and Rasmus, near guard Peterson and Rasmus, Hoygard, that would be tough to beat. And a Nikolai Hoygard. You could get two Hoygards and two Rasmuses. We could have four Danes on the team. What do you, what do you got, Neil? Got Rory Ludwig, Rom as locks. I kind of broke it up into the three, three, three, three. Then I've got a Lowry, Hatton and Hovland TC.

Tommy should be in that group, but I just figured I'd drop them into that third category just to get you in as of now. Super cool. No, I've got Tommy sep and D tree. I feel like D tree is like a good course fit. Super like he's not great off the TZ. I feel like he hits it a long way. I mean, he's, he's a unit.

And then I've got one of the Hoy guards, TCU pick, but we're only taking one Hoy guard, okay? There's a quota on Hoy guards. We're gonna go with Rasmus this year. Okay, so Rasmus is in Big Bob, and then it's kind of between Fitz and Aaron Rye for me in that last spot. Do you go with history?

I feel like continuity matters a lot for Team Europe. So I could see in Fitz, there's a lot of golf left between now and then. But Aaron Rye is like, that'd be a solid pick. I feel like you could pair him with a bunch of different guys. Doesn't seem like he seems like he might fit in well on this team. I would point to course fit with Rye of not being great.

But I honestly wonder, I look at the profiles of these two teams. Like does it serve the U S team to set this up to be a bomber's paradise? Like I do not think in any way it does. I almost certainly that Rory Ludwig. Nope. Rom. Nope. I mean, Hatton and Fleetwood are more on the accurate side than bombers, but Ovelin hits it far. Rasmus hits it very far. Sepp doesn't hit it that far, but, you know, I mean, that's, that's... Sepp hits a heavy ball though. He seems like he hits it far.

He passes my eye test on it. It looks like he hits it far. I don't know. I don't know how well that, you know, how much that's going to make a difference. He's a below average distance guy, but way above average with accuracy. God continues to just drag his name through the mud. TC just not a step guy here. It's like he was like, you know, swing. Unbelievable, man. Team Rose only has two, two, uh, Neil, I'll say this, go back to some of our old pods of who we put on the team in January and February. And you'll laugh.

Like Taylor Montgomery has made multiple Ryder cup teams, I think, because we get Well, then he got the driver yips. Then we get super amped up the early part of the season. And then, you know, I do remember the old pod. I remember you dragging his name through the mud back in 2023. And he went one and two. Like, I feel very justified with that. I was just dancing against Austria or against Valdosta. It's one one and two. Like I feel very justified with that. I was just, I'm not sure if it's a vendetta against,

against Austria or against Valdosta. It's one of the two. He's got a diet coke DC. Um, anyway, so that's our rider cup check in, uh, on the current state of, of the game and the standings. Uh, I do, I literally look at it and I'm like, yeah, let's keep pushing it. Cause more stuff has to materialize here. I'm very glad to not do the Keegan debate tonight. Uh, I do, I literally look at it and I'm like, yeah, let's keep pushing it. Cause more stuff has to materialize here. I'm very glad to not do the Keegan debate tonight. Uh, dude, I'm with you though, on like the Euro squad just looks so much more above the Mendoza line than the U S team.

I got, it's like, yeah, we're all putting big tone on the team. But it's like, I'm not really fired up about big tone being on the squad. Like he's not playing that good. Uh, doesn't feel like, oh man, I got, I, I have a ton of guys to choose from on the, on the U S team. It feels like on the Euro side, I'm like, oh man, yeah, there's like nine guys that I feel like are autos. I'm not sure they have enough hotel rooms for big tones family out there. They might not. What does are tough to find in Farmingdale.

Um, uh, let's get to, uh, the back nine. Yeah. If you will, let's, let's give you a chance, T.C. But those are tough to find in Farmingdale. Let's get to the back nine. If you will. Let's let's give you a chance. TC, I know you've always got notes to clean up from from a PGA tour around around the league. We'll get we'll get into some PGA tour and PIF stuff as well. But anything else on the PGA tour front you want to get to? Yeah, I just wanted to shout out Pocketer's three hundred and twenty three yard driver off the deck that was making the

rounds on social media. It was awesome. What else do we have? We shouted out Isaiah Salinda earlier. He's replaced Justin Suh as like the recent, you know, now Big Ten, but, or, you know, slash ACC, but former Pac 12 or pack 10 stud, uh, amateur Justin Hastings had a strong showing this week and then blades Brown made it. He made his first cut as a pro, I believe. So yeah. Um, but Sally, I was fired up about the group of Salinas exemption situation.

Uh, they had some designated events, uh, exemptions that, you know, this is a national open, right? And it should feel like such, it should feel like a reflection of Mexico. And they have an absolute axe to grind with the Giro Mexicana, which is the Mexican professional tour. And they didn't give really anybody from that tour an exemption. They didn't give Omar Morales, who's by far the best Mexican amateur player right now, an exemption. Because last year they tried to give him an exemption with the caveat that he had to wear all of their stuff. That, you know, he basically had to sign like an NIL deal with group of Salinas

or their shared prosperity across the chest. They're trying to give out this prosperity. Their, their, their ARA thing, which is, is, I don't know, basically they just, they invited some amateurs that probably shouldn't have been there and they passed over some, some, you know, guys, whether that's Roberto Diaz or El Camarón or even guys like if they're saying, hey, we want to give a hand up to more guys, promising professionals in the professional ranks of kind of the Latin American scene. I don't think they did a great job

of that. So from what I've heard, Benjamin and his father, Ricardo, Ben Hamin, Ben Hamin and his father, Ricardo, they have a complete hard on for trying to get into Augusta. And they're just trying to do this as kind of like a prestige play. Hey, to the members of Augusta, just let them in. So much stress in the golf world could be changed if you guys just give out a few more memberships to some powerful international businessmen.

Yeah. Just, you know, just very, very ambitious, ambitious folks. They're trying to, trying to kind of buy their way in. They're trying to share prosperity, man. It's a, that's a, that's not a nine to five. That's 24 seven. Yeah. And then they, I know they, they, they invited the, the USAM champ, which good on them, Jozele

Ballester, but he, I know that that he's with he's a GSE guy So there's some kind of some leverage there. I think Grupo Salinas very Ingratuated with GSE as well But all I'll say is I just want this thing to feel more like a national open right like make it make it feel like Mexican golf the celebration of that not not just some, you know, bizarre dystopian timeshare resort with all sorts of circus antics going on. Like take it to a real golf course and a real, I don't know, like a place where real people play golf, I guess. Chipotle back. That's this.

What's back? We never knew how good we had it. Watch it DJ and Phil and all these guys played Chipotle back, which we can do in a couple of months as live is going to Chipotle back. I will give a big dub to live for truly. You know, that's what I love about that tournament was like it was it was in Mexico City and like the stories that you hear from outside the golf course and everything like dude, yeah, you're in it like you're in a real city. Imagine pot heater at Chipotle.

Oh my God. When is that? That's that's April 25th. Yeah, you're in it. Like you're in a real city. Imagine pot-geater at Chipotle. Oh my God. When is that? That's that's April 25th to 27th. Yeah. Late April. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I don't know. Doesn't work. But the joke stands. I'm just, you know, they they've got to grudge with with some of the Mexican guys that didn't join their their little ARA thing here.

And I guess I guess Ben Hamin had a booth hit on Saturday that I totally missed. I need somebody to send me that. I saw it again, I didn't have the sound on. We have the sound machines going and a lot of naps while I'm getting to watch some golf. Anyway, that pretty much ties it off on that front. We've got Cognizant this week.

I saw it, Lynxmaster, George and his wife, Annie, are expecting their third child. You can welcome them to the club when the time is right. Big to do, made about Koala Carl signing with Sunday Red. I like Koala Carl. Good dude, I don't know if it rose to the level of revolutionary or some of the other things that it was glossed.

And then, uh, sorry, I'm, I'm, I was bummed to see this. The tour NFT program was winding down. No one's more bummed than Phil. 20 Bill. It was, I honestly forgot about the NFT thing. Was it eight Bill or 20? 20. Remembering where this thing started with like Phil trying to explain that the PGA tour

was sitting on $20 billion of NFTs. Uh, and that was like the genesis of live. Like one of the reasons he's going to live that in the app were of course the reasons he was going to live. Like it was a true blast for the past from 2021 of just the Phil meltdown that led us to where we are. Yeah, this was, this was a, a email from player partnerships with the PGA tour out to server certified agents and managers. I know his mom would have gotten it.

Alex Molly, Alex Molly. This week players will be receiving their final NFT participation and or pro rata payments. The participation payment was based on final 23 FedEx cup standings and the pro rata was determined based on individual player FedEx cup standings and the pro rata was determined based on individual player sales in 2024. This is the final payment of the NFT program as both DraftKings and Autograph have sunset their respective NFT businesses. Gosh, you just hate it. We had so much hope for NFTs. Shout out to Richard Karn.

He was all over this one. It was early. For the record, that's a joke. There was no NFTs held in this household. That we know of. And then last thing I wanted to shout out, just on the PGA Tour ecosystem standpoint before we get to

this past week's meetings, the Argentina Open is this week down at Jockey Club. And I wish it was televised because it would be great, great theater. T.C., I'm springing this on you, but you want to bring us home with our final sponsor check-in of the evening. Happily. H&B, our friends at Holderness & Born.

Back for more on the NLU podcast in 2025. And Rossell, you're wearing the Wallace hoodie. I'm wearing the cashmere sweater. I busted this out. I was wearing it on the slope. I was wearing the Wallace hoodie out on the slopes. Their spring stuff just launched on hbgolf.com. They've got some fresh color stories. Fusion, deep teal, citron. Neil, I think citen is a money color for you. Kind of reminiscent of some of those wildly good outfits of like the 1970s and 1980s, guys playing in the masters and stuff like that.

Love Saganandar. I'm a big fan of the new t-shirts they came out with. Yeah. Yeah. Those are great. Tilly, their first quarter zip hoodie, versatile for on or off course. Their aeration line, which is awesome. One of the t-shirts is also aeration. I was wearing the black Wallace all week this week and then

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Hbgolf.com, check it out. Anything else happen in the PGA Tour news? Anything else? This is the second hole of the back nine. The first hole was our odds and ends from Vedanta. It's a really meaty par 5 here. Yeah. Or is it just that 600 yard par 5 where you just

hit the driver driver at Vedanta that you don't put a lot of thought into here? Could go either way. Yeah. Maybe as long as that flight from DC out to steamboat, right? Yasser, Jay, Adam Scott, Tiger, DT all met in the oval office for- Was Yasser there in person? Yes. I believe Yasser was there in person. He was supposed to speak at their conference in Miami and he sent that to fly up and do this.

And they went in with high hopes from what I was told. They were even to the point of, Hey, that's possible that something like really tangible gets announced today. We're going to do a deal, baby. And based on all the conversations I've had, plus there was a name in the Lynch column that very much intimated that it did not go well based on what I've heard. It went horribly. All the option here is to laugh. We've got to hammer out a few deal points, TC. Just a couple little that, we're just stuck on

the goal line here, it seems like, you know? Yeah, not good. Yeah, so I think Yasser seems very, very attached to the concept of live continuing on as a integral part of the golf landscape. And that seems to be at odds with how that was on the other side of the table, view it. And yeah, so. Not only are you telling us what's going to happen, right?

Like they're telling us the world is going to unify. Like they have said this and the official statement that was released Thursday from the White House is we have just concluded a constructive working session at the White House with President Trump and H.E. Yasser Al-Rumayan. Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, we have initiated a discussion about the reunification of golf. We are committed to moving as quickly as possible and will share additional details as appropriate. We share a passion for the game and the importance of reunification.

Most importantly, we all want the best players in the world playing together more often and are committed to doing all we can to deliver that outcome for our fans." That's the official statement. Initiated is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. I thought that was initiated about two years ago. No, I don't understand. People keep saying that, but I don't understand the confusion here.

They said they'd be done by December 31, 2023, and here we are in February 2025, and they're starting discussions. What's off about this timeline? I don't see any, I see no issues with what's currently going on. There's some serious, like, you know, you can spiral into not, I don't want to say conspiracy land, but like, uh, war gaming mode with like, you know,

DT is probably thinking he's going to push push this thing over the goal line. And it's just like, no, good enough weapons. You might have to hit them with a 10% discount on the next fighter jet shipment. You know, like we, we, you know, we're going to have to get MBS involved. I mean, this could, you look at what happened like Eric Adams, like he might wheel and deal like some geopolitical thing with Saudi Arabia to try to, you know, unite the golf world. Like that's not out of, I don't, is that out? Like, I feel like that would, you know, years ago,

you'd be like, what are you talking about, Neil? It's like, that seems very realistic right now, which is outrageous. Anything seems realistic because like I truly, how many years into this cannot tell you what the fuck Yasser wants? Like what, what, what, what do you want? Like Yasser wants to belong to Augusta. Like just in the RNA TC. Just let them in at this point. I mean, they've spent over $5 billion on this. What could they have bought in golf with $5 billion? They could have bought a lot of things. I mean, how many golf resorts could they have bought? How much would Pebble use? Like you could, like where all the people play, you could and all the businessmen want to go play. You could have owned all of that for $5 billion. Instead,

you just made, all you've done is made a bunch of professional golfers richer. That's all you've done with this. And they're just willing to see this all the way to completion or I don't. I'm well, no, but the I'm trying to make sense of money to play it out to like, okay, cool, look, things stay separate, you could pump another. And like, yeah, you could bleed the PGA tour dry. And let's say it's just it's totally flailing. And then you take over and it's like, what what's the reward is I mean look at the ratings right now it's not like you're gonna get some like I

still don't see it ever being a positive for them you know what I mean as far as like a money making operation. No that's where I'm at because it's it's all right well they're losing money hand over fist okay well they don't seem to care about that okay nobody's watching okay but they also don't seem to be caring about that so they're just gonna keep going until they get what they want but I just can't I thought what they wanted was a seat at the table amongst the ecosystem. They want more than one or two seats though, right? And I think that's where like, I don't know, like I have a tough time thinking, man, like Jay goes back to the SGS investors and says, Hey, like, we totally misread the room on how close this thing was. Like how does that conversation? The SSG.

Oh yeah. SSG. Because the luck of this is that Trump got elected and is willing to direct the Department of Justice to look the other way on the very clear antitrust issues of bringing this all together. Like the holdup was supposed to be the antitrust stuff and getting it through the DOJ. And now it's like, oh no, things aren't going great. And you can see them all going to that meeting, being like, this is it. You have everything like everything played out last three months as the ball out. We thought it would.

And yeah, he's like, Jay flies directly back up the steamboat. It's so sick. I don't know, man. And it's it's very much like I've heard the great find that, that the tour and, and SSG are saying, Hey, like next step is we're using this full year to align, you know, all of the personnel and the workforce at the global home and under PGH or enterprises, we're going to, we're going to keep trimming the fat there. We're going to right size this thing. We're going to right size purse sizes as soon as this thing, you know, they're spending

money hand over fist on purse sizes and that's not sustainable either. It's not like the PGA Tour is making a great margin at this point here. They've been totally blood dry by all this. And then, you know, the whole thing with Jay, I think with the, you know, Jay being named chairman of the board or whatever, CEO of enterprises. As I understand it, as soon as a deal gets signed, he is out or he is out at the end of this year, 12-31-2025, and he gets his $40 million, you know, golden parachute. What I would say is if I was one of the mules out there, I would sue, I would absolutely sue and be a plaintiff because you know, that's like, this is the antitrust thing. Like the Taurus said, we want to wind down live and take a competitor off the board.

That hasn't changed one bit, you know? I don't know the legalese about all this too, but like, I guess I don't fully buy that the tour is getting bled dry by the purse sizes because it it's a lot. But it's if I remember right, when they added the signature events, it only added like $54 million to things which like if you're talking about a $40 million golden parachute, I'm like, well, hey, guys, there's a pretty easy answer here to, you know, to fund these

increases in purses. I don't think the tour's gonna go broke over adding 50, 60 million bucks. But I don't think it's something that like the SSG guys are thrilled about tossing in probably a billion dollars. I feel like we've drained the rainy day fund from, from the COVID days, Sally, when we, when we had that big surplus. Plus you think NBC and, and CBS are signing up for the same rights deal that they signed in 2020 with the ratings have gone and everything. I mean,

that's the other thing. It's like, Hey, you got to look at the cliff after 2029 or 2030. So I just want to say though, this strikes me as like, yeah, take the, take the, whether it makes there's any ROI at the end of the rainbow. Probably not. Right. This is basically though, turning into kind of just like egos and personalities. And with DT getting involved, he doesn't like to, like, he wants to look like the savior of golf. And now he's got, we got the press release out that it's initiated. I feel like Yasser is saying, Ooh, I could get a little bit more here.

So solid to your point, like, what does he want? He probably, yeah, wants another seat. He wants a, maybe a couple, couple more points on the, uh, the valuation, right. Of, of how much, you know, the IEP's gonna- Or he wants a bigger seat than, than SSG, right? Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, you have to, I don't know. It's just now it feels like, Oh, cool. Like, yeah, I think I think here is here is the irrational actor at work. Yes. Yes. Right. That's what it comes down to, honestly, is he doesn't want he wants to save face. He does not want to shut like shutter live. Like, he doesn't want to go to the Ritz Carlton rehab. He'd rather

for an all expenses paid vacation. So as long as he can last, I think Liv is likely to last in some form. He doesn't want it to be diminished. He doesn't want it to be an offshoot. That's where I'm like, been trying to like, I feel better about struggling to piece the puzzle together over the last year of like, yeah, the tour is saying this and Liv is saying this. It's like, well, because they're clearly on still on different pages of all this. And there isn't this. I don't know, so many people have thrown out this. Oh, well, I mean, the live guys should be able to come back and play PGA Tour events like well, live stacks all their

events against the biggest PGA Tour events like that doesn't going to resolve itself anytime soon. And guys aren't going to be able to play 14 live events and 15 PGA Tour events and four majors like that. So, and Eamon's column was interesting because he basically defined it down to four guys that are competitive and commercially relevant. Yeah. I thought that was really well put to you, Sully.

And that is Rom, Brooks, Bryson, was Cam Smith the fourth? And Cam Smith. Yeah. And then he had Neiman, not quite like commercially relevant. And then he had DJ and Phil as commercially relevant, but not competitive. And then he was like, kind of everybody else is just like, you know, whatever you can argue.

But then like, you know, Sergio and some other guys could get in on, you know, kind of exemptions, top 50 career money list and stuff like that, but they're not really commercially relevant or competitive anymore. So it's that that's the thing. What is what is getting like reunifying the golf world look like that's essentially what it looks like is four or five of those guys showing back up to tournaments like the players or, you know, Bay Hill. Yeah, which like is like the question is, if I look at that list, Bryson, do I think like Bryson wants to come back to PGA tour right now? I don't like I think he's probably someone that live has benefited, not just financially, but like, personally, I think that makes a lot of sense.

not just financially, but like personally, I think that makes a lot of sense. Do you think Ram would like to come back right now? Yes, I do. I'm sure that the bots will love that. But I think Ram would love to come back. Brooks, I think, would like to come back. And Kamsmith, I would say no, probably. I don't. He seems to like the lifestyle change of this. But so that's only two of those four that I think you could. Where I'm going with that was is the tour's next play a move to just get the four guys you want? Like is that-

You run the risk of pissing off Tiger and the other guys that stayed and all of that. My thing is they sent out that statement on February 6th, which was like, Hey, we went to the White House. We had a great meeting. We're closer than ever getting back together. And that all that optimism, enthusiasm has gone out the door. And then now it's like, how much longer does it have to take for us to be bleeding this into 2026? And then we're talking about re-unifying in 27 or re-unifying in 28. Because it's the same thing that we've heard about the schedule, right? Oh, the schedule is going to be totally different.

Just wait, 2026 is going to be totally different. Just wait, 2026 is going to be totally different. Oh, I think 2026, like reunification of how we're maybe picturing is already off the table. I think it's already too late for that. I mean, I would say 2027 is the earliest, which would mean almost five full years of... So, Salih though, when you say like the tour going to get like Brooks, let's use Brooks as an example. You think like his

four year contract up at the end of this year, like, they can't just offer him a contract. That's what the tour can't do. Like, how would you do that? That I don't know the answer to. But if it's a enterprises can do more stuff than Yeah, PGA tour it will give you equity back in this. It might not be equal to

your equity in smash GC, which I'm sure is worth so much money. You know, he might have to pay like that's what we don't know what those, those live contracts look like. You might have to pay a massive penalty. You want a TGL team? Hmm. Hmm. That that's where it's like, you know, if y'all, sirs that hard to work with now, what this would also do is it reignites another war where Yasser can throw more money at other guys. He starts picking off young guys and that it's that is where Yasser's still got the tour by the balls of like

you got to do something or else I can buy I bought John Rahm I could buy the next guy if I wanted to. Or I could buy I could buy this great golf course and host because I think that's the that's the other big failing that Yasser's made at least from a consumer standpoint, two thirds of the golf courses have sucked. Like he's lacked taste. Right. And that's, I think that's a big piece is like he hasn't made a commercially relevant thing versus I think if now that Jay can't play the card of you can't work with these guys because they're trying to work with them. That's out the

window. He could probably sign up more and better golf courses than he could at first first blush. So and make it more of a global tour and say, All right, cool. gloves are off like we're going, you know, so I don't know because that then you know, Adelaide is kind of the model, right? You've got the you know, Liv's new CEO Scott O'Neill. He's, he's been saying all kinds of things. So I know we didn't hear about that. Yeah. He, he had a, he had an interview with Aussie golf digest. He said, I've had the

privilege of having a couple of conversations with Liz Moore, who's the interim LPGA tour commissioner. She's going to join me in Miami. And we're going to talk a little bit about how we might contribute to the women's game with Liv's introduction. We'd like to take all the good that we've learned and put that into practice if the women's game is one that we want to enter. Which, God, why didn't they do that three or four years ago? That to me is the ultimate chess move for Piff and Liv. Man, hey, we're promoting the women's game. We're promoting equity amongst genders here with all that, like that that feels like a very powerful story for them to be telling, you know, like, hey, we're putting our

money where our mouth is. Yeah. And that's where I'm like, you called a chess game. I'm like, is that what they're playing? Like, I, again, like, what is that? What does that win look like for them? I mean, they could do that for the same price as like a John Rollo. No, totally. I economically that would make a ton of sense. And it would make more sense on the women's side. Why not? But like, that's right. I can't figure out what they want. I do not think their end goal is to host is to spend billions of

dollars on a golf league that no one is watching. But that's just it's where they that's like Neil said, it's the irrational actor at work of we can't figure you out, man. Doesn't make sense. Which I'm glad that the LPGA is actually meeting with them as well, because I think that that is, it's time for the PGA tour and you know, some of the, and DP world tour to kind of step up and say, hey, we're gonna like, like Jace sold them out to dry

when they did their, their media rights deal. And they tethered that onto the PGA tour one. I know that's where they could actually add value if they put them on Fox Sports and you actually watch, you know, women's golf during a realistic time. LPGA presented by the PIF, like, you know, next to this corporate sponsor, you know? Yeah. So all could have been avoided with a meeting

four or five years ago. Next up, a hole three of the back nine, which make it hole 12, Honda LPGA Thailand. Angel Yin, friend of the pod, wins by one of a rookie, Aki Iwa, who shot 11 under 61 in the final round. Made bogey on 17 as well. I believe she was a sponsor's exemption.

Made eagle on 18 though. Made bogey on 17 as well. I believe she was a sponsor's exemption. Made eagle on 18 though. Made eagle on 18. Gino Titticum finished in third place. Six back of second place. So it was a total two horse race. Patty T and Moria Jutanagarin finished tied for fourth in Thailand as well. There's an aim point picture that's circulating.

Solly of A-Lim Kim. And I did, and I saw Meg Adkins tweeted the video of it. It's a lot less egregious of the video. It was like a two second Alam Kim, you know, stood over, you know, aim pointed a putt that was not 18 inches. It was incredibly, incredibly short and should not be aimed pointed, but it was extremely quick and she got done a little dirty by. There are problems with aim point.

That was a bad instance of it. I know you don't. I mean, it took her like three seconds to do that whole thing. I heard there was some bad backstopping. That I didn't, I didn't catch a lot, a lot of this. He's got sources in Thailand. He's got sources down in South America. He's got sources everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. Angel. I'm watching you, Angel. You know, you got to clean, clean some things up. Well, we're pumped for Angel winning 28 under par overnight in Thailand. Didn't get to watch a lot of this one, but still just an incredibly talented player that waiting for, waiting for her distance

to take over women's golf. Like I feel like it can and should at some point, maybe this is the year that it happens. Angel kind of feels like big tone. Hmm. A little bit, right? That's interesting. How many career wins is this for Angel now? Gotta be like four. Let's see. She has this is only her second win. She won the Buick LPGA Shanghai. She loves playing in Asia in the fall of 2023. In a playoff over Lillia Vue. This is her second second win. She lost of course in a playoff over Lillia Vu. This is her second win. She lost, of course, in a playoff to Lillia Vu in the Chevron in 2023.

So that's what a lot of people may know her from. And from some of our videos and podcasts way back in the day, it's been five or six years now since we played with her at Hazel Teen. Gosh, for the KPMG Women's PGA in 2019, I think it was. So that's still on our YouTube channel. Yeah. Ladies are heading to Singapore this week. Good course, Sentosa.

And then you guys catch the Q and A that Gabby Herzeg did with Rose? I did not. I did not. It was very, she had some very pointed, pointed words to the outgoing commissioner, just about communication and some interesting stuff about balancing coursework

at Stanford. Like she's taking, I think, 20, 22 credit hours this semester, which is seems like a lot anywhere, much less at Stanford. So but yeah. And then I think LPGA is in Asia for gosh, next week. And then I think they're back late March kind of started up. So. Another national open this week, TC on the DP world tour,

hole 13, the magical Kenya open. Why do you love this tournament so much? I mean, you flip it on and you got the, you got the, you got wildlife. It's kind of a short funky golf course. It's always dried out. I don't know. It's just, it's wildlife. It's kind of a short funky golf course. It's always dried out. I don't know. It's just, it's like, that's, it's kind of the romantic nature of the DP world tour and watching the year of tour growing up of like, like where are they? This is cool.

I'll watch a few minutes. So yeah. Uh, crew, Cruiswick, I think is the name. Uh, he won by two over Englishman John Perry, who absolutely cleaning up in Africa over his last six months. One in Mauritius, which is not technically Africa off the coast of Africa at the end of last year, then finished T2 at the Dunhill down in South Africa. I think the EP World Tour is heading back down to South Africa this next week. They announced another tournament actually. They had a TBA

on the schedule. The Mission Hills Haiku What About China Championship on Hainan Island in China. So now they'll be back to back in China at the end of April. It'll be a, it'll be a, what about China doubleheader. The Haiku What About China Championship. We've been hit with a what about China a nice free that rolls off the tongue. TC. It's been two or three years since we've been earnestly hit with a, what about China? I forgot. I honestly kind of forgot about that. You're one when Catherine Ron Price was just getting, what about China?

Oh, Josh, Holly hearing. I hope Captain Ron is enjoying his retirement. I do too. That guy, man, he, he, talking about a company man to just taken, just, just taking a barrel fire. Unbelievable stuff. Jay's out fly fishing. Yeah. Unbelievable guys. The 14th hole Sunday night pods are not great timing for, uh, for TGL. It feels like this was a month ago, but there was a triple header on Monday at the TGL on Presidents Day. I was cringing when I looked

at the schedule that I saw three matches on that Monday and one on Tuesday. I was like, guys, this is a two hour thing once a week. Like that's what you got. Guys, Monday was a banger. Listen, I was watching it at lunchtime out on the slopes at hell roaring saloon. It was awesome. I mean, Atlanta drive beat LA GC six to five in the, in a shootout in the first match, JT chipped in to send it to a playoff. And they, in the, the, the overtime is great by the way, like penalty kicks three closest to pin contest from like a 45 yard pitch,

Tommy hold one. And LA still ended up losing that one. Atlanta drive, got the win out of that one. They put the new hammer rules into play where each team gets three hammers to throw at any time that they want immediate impact like it helped Atlanta come back and it helped make that match really close and exciting and like, I can't I I I have my jukeblinks hat right here and I am a massive jukeblinks fan like you don't really actually know it's gonna take a long time if it ever happens for people to actually care about who wins and loses, but like you want close

competition and matches and like those, all of the matches on Monday had it. Atlanta came back to play that after that they played the Bay, the Bay beat them. And they were just too tired. They were, you know, they were playing back to back. It's a back to back was tough. I tried to warn you guys about the Bay. And the Bay is a problem. And then the Bay flipped over and beat the ball frauds five, four on Monday night as well. So ratings were just okay, about 500K per, you know, but obviously with the daytime stuff and the holiday, that was not unexpected, I guess. But I don't know. It's kind of a- It's pretty stuff when nothing else is on, except for maybe an NBA game or two. Like sign me up. Yeah. It's truly for me, the same thing, like great backgrounds. I'm not like,

I wouldn't say I'm feeling the electricity quite as much, but it's very inoffensive, unoffensive, whatever the proper term is there, a harmless, fun, great stuff. But listen, I don't know if I needed Monday and Tuesday. It was like, Oh, it's on again. Like, okay. You know, it was a dud. I mean, yeah, like New York just frickin' stopped my duplinks team, which I'm starting to get a little worried about. Well, do kids are extremely unhappy with the technology

again. It's a problem. It's rigged against us. I'm starting to believe that. I mean, I'm sure it's not. It's rigged against the small market teams. And he's not believing the ball flight. He's not believing the you know, he's like, man, I hit that one. Captain, that one good.

You know, which so yeah, duplinks is not looking great. And I'm not. Do you guys do you care at all about who wins any of these matches? Like even fake care? I'm like kind of a bit. I like to see Tom Kim lose. Okay. Because he's so insufferable in these things. Like so over the top. Yeah, I think it kind of comes down to the matchup, Sully. Like it's, it just kind of, I'm with TC. Like I kind of just, it's more like which individuals are playing. Because you don't really know there's four guys, but only three are playing.

So you almost need to see who turns up for what team. Like I don't, I don't know. I don't feel like I'm rooting very hard for LA, uh, the Bay TC. I'm with you. My heart's in the Bay. Which, I mean, what's going on in LA. They, they signed big tone. So we've got a double header tomorrow night, Monday night, LA versus New York.

Big tone signed to a one. See, I think this is good though. So we've got a double header tomorrow night, Monday night, LA versus New York, big tone signed to a one match. I think this is good though. They should do more of this. Like just, yeah, man, just decided to sign like any means possible. There's no, there's no rules to who's on your team during the season. You can just bring in ringers anytime you want. It's great.

It's typical Dodgers way of doing it. Just throwing money at a guy for one week when you got a little schedule complication. The small market teams have no shot to compete with something like that. It's just really unfair. It's a big... We got Boston versus Atlanta in the nightcap. And then Tuesday night, we've got the Bay versus Jupiter. So that's a huge one. So 5 o'clock PM is LA versus New York. It's Finao Morikawa-, Sahith against Cam Young, Fitzpatrick and Ricky Fowler. We, I'm going to need LA juicy in that one. We need New York to get taken back down a peg. And then the ball frauds. We've got Rory versus Cantlay.

Yeah. We got Keegan, Hideki and Rory against JT Horschel and Cantlay. So that should be a fun match. Are you feeling the second wind for TGL? Like it kind of, I kind of thought I kind of thought it was gonna Peter out there. And man, I was just very surprised to, it seemed like it had some very serious juice on that. I don't know. I'm not really, it's not, I'm not setting my DVR. I don't know. Do people set DVRs anymore? I don't know if those exist, but I'm not, I could, you know, if I, if I'm home tomorrow night, yeah, maybe, but I could also probably fire up a movie. I, I think the playoff pictures coming into, you know, coming into, to a view here, that's going to get interesting. And

then, you know, we've got the playoffs look ahead to, I'm, I'm still in, I've been pretty steadfast on it, despite my, my incredulousness at some of the technology and some of the actual golf course design, which by the way, Tiger did a golf course architecture contest. He like entered a golf digest contest way back in the day and he designed like the sickest hole. When he was like 11 years old. Yeah.

Yeah. They should, they should put that hole in. They should absolute. There's so much. Oh, they can improve so much. The whole designs could be so much more interesting. The gameplay can be so much more interesting. Technology could be better. Like they are improving. I mean, the hammer change mid season was like very legitimately fun change for the entertainment. I actually, I have faith that they will. There's no reason not to. I mean, other than tiger being sponsored or investor

in full swing, which is a massive problem. But I would say all that's what you just said, Sally is true though. Like they are, I think it's a solid foundation for, but there's some things to clean up for lasting. There's going to be a season two. There's going to be a season three. Like it's, there's something, it's a real product, I guess. All right. I'm skipping a hole because Neil said he's quitting after 90 minutes and I want to make sure I want to make sure we get this one in. But I got a great DM from a guy, Joe Weiss or Weiss.

I don't know how to say it. He said, just played on the winter package in St. Andrews, having pints with the guys. This is a great question. I'm going to make you guys guess it and if you're watching on YouTube, I want to see in the comments, I want to see your guess on this answer. Before we give you our answers, pause it after I ask this and put your answer in. His question was, what do you think are fair odds on Spieth winning another major in his life? So I'm gonna put you guys on the spot with that question.

I'll tell you what my answer was and then I have a little surprise for you. God, I'm, you know, I'm so freaking bad at these questions. I know you are. It's just why as soon as I knew you were gonna be on the pod. Does it have to be, can it be a senior major? It cannot be a senior major. That's a great question.

It cannot be a senior major. You see, that's good tech, interview technique. That's like the Google strategy. You start asking qualifiers by time, by time, by time. Odds of him winning another major in his life. I'm at a great bar question. First of all, I'll say plus 120. Okay. Really? Yeah. That feels Okay. Really? Yeah.

That feels too optimistic to me. Wow. I would say I was going to go like between 500 and 1000. Wow. I'm gonna say I'll say plus 500. Okay. My answer was plus 300. And I actually reached out to the folks at Fandool and asked them to run this.

They can't actually open this market. Market is not open, but odds of speed. Because it would be indefinitely. Well, no, they said over 20 years, they said it for over the next 20 years. Their odds were minus 250. Really? He will win another major. Okay. And that makes my Nellie Korda winning 11 majors seem a lot better. Absolutely not. What are you talking about?

I don't know. She's the number one golfer in the world. We're talking about winning one more major. Oli, can you have them do it for Fleetwood? I should have to do that next. So I mean, minus 200. Well, I thought about this a little bit more after, you know, kind of being put on the spot the same way that I put you guys on the spot, but is let's, I don't know what is, is current way that I put you guys on the spot, but is let's I don't know what his his current Masters odds are, I'm guessing like 30 to 135 to one something like that. If you play that out over 80 more majors, like that's about two and a half, you know, one to two and a half that you would win one. It's assuming

the same chances of winning all of them. And there's any back. Yeah. And if he comes back, if he comes back and plays better. Yeah. So I was kind of with you on the plus side, but the more I thought about it, it was more on the minds of the Augusta. That's like Augusta and the British Open are kind of, you know, equalizers there as well. Yeah. PGA is a little bit of a, I mean, I can't imagine something more fun though than playing St. Andrews going into like the Dunvegan and having some pines and just arguing over, he's going to fucking win a major. You got gotta give me odds. So I just, I think his odds to win another major are probably much lower than his odds

to win the career grand slam. Right. Much, yeah. You'd pay a higher price for that. Yes, it's much more likely that he wins another major than the career grand slam. Correct. Yes, yeah. Because you'd have so many less shots at it and it's still just as competitive.

And the PGA just doesn't suit him as well either. Yeah. Huh? That well, that's a good explanation. So that our friends at FanDuel, do they have they don't do? No, this was a total side thing. I asked. They won't do it for like, what's the time limit? You're gonna throw it into an NFT.

2020 20 years was their time. Oh, I'm saying what did they tell you what their like time horizon is on like how long out they'll do a bet? Because they'll do like Super Bowl futures for the same season. Yeah, I don't know. I literally was like, just, you know, this isn't official, but just give me like a number of what you would in theory set it at. And I was just surprised by all that process.

So anyways, thought that was a fun one. Very fun. All right. Next up, we have a Lucas Glover, Johnson Wagner, Rory McIlroy situation. I'm going to start with Johnson Wagner's original comments on this. I think this happened the week before and we did not cover this last week, but. Oh, so you're just going to blow right through the 90 minutes, aren't you? Well, you can leave. You said you're leaving at 90 minutes. Well, what do you want me to do? You're welcome to leave, Neil. I'll stick around.

Very quick ones after this. But originally, Johnson Wagner said this on Golf Channel. The fact that he's saying that we've all... So Rory had some comments like, we've all benefited. We've all made... I make a lot more money now than I did in 2019. Blah, blah, blah. Johnson said the fact that he's saying that we've all benefited. He's just seeing things from a finite perspective from his perspective. You know, who hasn't benefited since all these things have gone on the sponsors who pay all the bills, TV is down. Everything is down yet. They're being asked to pay more money.

So good for you. I'm glad you're making more money than you were in 19, which was a ton of money. Also he's telling everyone to get over it. Rory has said a lot of things over the past couple of seasons that have rubbed a lot of players the wrong way. Now he wants everyone to get over it. He's pushing for a small world tour. He's trying to get his way in every way. I'm a huge fan of Rory, but he's angering me right now.

Those are the original comments. Rory has said a lot of things. Yeah, those are original comments. You guys want to react to that part before we get to the next part, or you want to keep going? I don't think there's, I find nothing wrong with that. I think that is, is, is very spot on from from Johnson.

Well said. Yeah. The only nitpick I would give is like, I feel like it is a comment from Rory on like, yeah, we've all benefited he meant like all the players have benefited. And of all people that have had like a very fan first approach to this, I think I would classify Rory in that camp. And I do not think Rory is ignorant to the fact that a lot of other people are upset about all this stuff. You know, it's kind of isolating one comment of Rory's.

That'd be my one reaction to that. I do think Johnson's acknowledging that like Rory doesn't have a ton of supporters in that locker room. That is spot on. Like that is, that's all accurate and all that. So Wagner addressed comments he made on golf channel. I think this is copied from golf week, but that apparently didn't sit well with McElroy or his team. He was asked by host Taylor Zarzar.

If he had spoken with McElroy, Wagner said, I'm going to say no comment on that. I have not physically spoken to him. Actually, I can't say no comment if I'm commenting. He emailed me Thursday night and we've traded a couple of correspondences, but I have not heard back from him since the first one. I think his agent reached out to someone higher up

at Golf Channel and like, you know, I guess I'm, the thing I said at the end of my rant was he's angry me. That's the only thing I'm sorry for. The rest of it, I stand by completely because I guess in this position, I need to take the emotions out of it a little better. And I'm going to the rest of it. I stand by completely because I guess in this position, I need to take the emotions out of it a little better. And I'm going to try to do that going forward.

Super cool of Sean to reach out to two Johnson's bosses at Golf Channel. Yeah, I don't know if that rose to the level of needing a reach out in that regard unless they've again kind of unless it was like, all right, dude, you're kind of isolating this one section of what I've said here, like maybe look at the bigger picture here, but still like, kind of, unless it was like, all right, dude, you're kind of isolating this one section of what I've said here. Like maybe look at the bigger picture here, but still like kind of within the bounds of, of fair golf commentary of a shitty, uh, yeah.

Well, I can statement from Johnson. Wagner was also very well said. Uh, yeah. And like if Johnson emailed him, like just, just let Rory, just let Rory respond or just pick up the phone, dog. I guess Rory emailed first is what it sounded like. That Rory had emailed. I don't know.

It still just going to turn it, end up turning into something that is, doesn't need to be as, as probably as big as it does. But I just don't think Roy needs to get his agent involved. Just keep it on a player to player basis, you know? Yeah. And also don't really like, I'm just again, going back through to what Johnson originally said, man. It's like, kind of, it's kind of spot on. Like,

well then he's, I guess then he and Lucas Glover talking about how, you know, okay, Roy wants to build this world tour. Like, I don't know if the, the opposite or the old school look, I guess is what we kind of got this week at, you know, Vedanta. You get Vedanta's world if the mules have it their way, you know, where it's like, if we go back to the old way, you're not getting all the best players in the same spot. They're all playing a mishmash of different tournaments. So like, I don't think that's a winning formula.

It's funny. I largely agree with Rory as far as like there needs to be less events that everything's bloated. Like I agree with a lot of the stuff. I just, I just think that, you know, him, him saying that everybody should like what's going on because they're making more money is, is, you know, there's less, there's less starts. Like, should there be less starts?

Yeah, probably. But you know, if I'm one of the guys who's losing my starts, I probably don't love that, you know, and for good reason, right? So I don't know if I'm Rory, like I just say, fuck it, like, I'm just going to team up with the DP world tour, call up Yasser and say, Hey, let's just like, why don't you just take over the DP world tour and make a true true world tour. Tc. Investors. That's what he should have done two or three years ago.

Yeah. Again, what does he want? Second to last hole, Penultimate Hole. We did a little podcast this past week called Courses You Want to Play in 2025. This is a longer list than we're gonna get to in 2025, but people seem way into it. What's kind of, what's the most surprising feedback

or kind of messages you guys have gotten on this one? So many invites. It's just crazy. Emails, DMs, texts, people I haven't heard from forever. A lot of Welsh people reaching out and really pissed at me that I said St. Anadoc is in Wales. It's not. It's in Cornwall.

And I pissed off the, I'm going to piss them off again. The Cornwallians, the Cornwallers. I don't know. And then a lot of people from Moortown reaching out and a lot of people from all Woodley saying, Hey, you got to come see us too. So all sorts of cool stuff to see, but I appreciate everybody. Uh, and I apologize for all my pronunciations, just a blanket. Yeah. I mean, really, truly like heartwarming, a lot of the invites. It's like, you know, it's awesome. And, uh, a little stressful. I want to make sure I get, I got to, basically what it made me get stressed out was I had to figure out my schedule.

Like we, three of us, the, the NLU squad, I need to know where I'm going to be because it's like, Hey, come play. And it's like, ah, you know, you don't want to be like, yeah, sure. And then I don't know what week I could play. I don't know when I'm going to be out of town. So we need to figure that out guys so that we can, I can act on some of those. Now TC couple things that stuck out to me. Kenyatta was bought by Escalante.

So I'd still love the play there. Uh, and, and, you know, hang out with Terry hot, but, uh, it takes a little bit of the charm and mystery out of it that it's not like just owned by some guy and you, you know, you gotta call a guy who connects you with a guy and you get the course to yourself, but it still sounds like a very interesting place I'd like to see people demanding. Demanding a mea culpa from TC for saying that Glen Falls country club is near Cooperstown TC. It's north of Saratoga. Leather stocking is near all of upstate New York is just like, just not in,

not in the Cooperstown area falls in leather stocking. I need to see both of them. People were just fuming about the HTC. Yeah. Yes, I mean, Sally, we've got like, we got like six or seven invites to Marion. Got all, it's great. Like we gotta choose who's gonna take us. Listen, it is C-suite out here.

Unbelievable. It's all, this was the worst year ever for me to do this pod. It's like, hey, you wanna come? Yeah, dude, I just don't know if I'm gonna be able to do that. Like it's adding, it's tripling, quadrupling down on my FOMO of getting unseated to places. But heartwarming to hear from so many people in the golf community that can help make a lot of these things happen. We'll bring you the content from them. That's that's kind of the format that we can keep iterating on, you know, get some others involved topics or different, different sandboxes. We act on anything, you know, that's, that's, it's exciting. Yeah. Yeah. Bob Parsons. If you're listening, get them out to the bad little nine. Possibly

you. The white oak stuff has been the most fascinating to hear from people that have gotten to play that course. North of Jack's is talk to somebody who's played it. Oh, I've gotten so many emails of just like, Oh yeah, the friend of a blah, blah, blah. Here's what's happened. Like, you know, this was before this happened though. And now you can't get out there and they do like 17 rounds a year. And, and it's, it's a die course. You're talking about the die course, not the old nine hole or the die course. Yeah. So it's, it's all very interesting. But all right, final final hole TC put this on here. I'm so glad you did. Because I got emailed the live media guide. And for some reason, I was at my computer and

I just I read through it. And I get they ask every player on it like a bunch of questions. And I got so captivated reading all of the live players favorite holes in golf, like so many votes for number 12 at Augusta. I need to go through and just like tally up all the votes for all the holes. Big grid. Yeah, I might need to do that. And the one that stuck out to me the most was Brooks Koepke said his favorite hole in golf is the 18th at Royal Greens in Jeddah or King Abdullah Economic City as it should be called. And I know he's won there I think multiple times, but it's one of the most preposterous

answers to any question ever made. I pulled these straight off the club website, the honorable company. If you're watching on YouTube, we're putting a couple images of the hole up there. It looks like the 18th hole of every course on the DP World Tour, by the way, just every single one has a par five that looks like it was designed by European tour, like golf design. That would make a lot of sense. It is a hole with a water, a fairway and a green like there's just absolutely nothing unique about this hole at all. But it's

I gotta think that Brooks maybe maybe he did this Q and A while he was at Royal greens. And it was like, I don't know, man. That one, that one right there. Yeah, that's good. That's the best. Maybe just didn't feel like doing the Q and A. That's the best one.

So that's gonna do it for this week's pod. If you do not want to miss a single piece of NLU content, one of the easiest ways to keep up is to sign up for the weekly digest. So every Tuesday, a weekly roundup of content hits your inbox along with some fun behind the scenes content and weekly reader responses section. Also our longer forum Friday newsletter is going to be ramping up as well. We have some content exclusively for newsletter subscribers in the next few weeks. You can sign up for both at newsletter.nolayingup.com. Do that.

It's always pleasant stuff that's hitting your inbox in there and we greatly appreciate it. Do a lot of work on the newsletter. A lot of good stuff happening on that side of the house. And listen, we might have a special Strap Boys podcast next Sunday. And we're asking, we're going to be, we're sourcing some voicemails, guys. We want to do a little mailbag episode. And we've updated the listener line. It used to be exclusively the Trap Trial Listener Line. We now have two

mailboxes. Call 1-833-330-8725 and press 1 for the NLU voice mailbox. If you'd like DJ, the big man and I to answer your question. Maybe we will, maybe we won't, but that's one eight three three three three zero eight seven two five. Press one for the NLU press one box. There's instructions. Once you get there, you press. And if you want to leave something for the ball knowers, press two. That was exciting. Oh yeah. We should set up a separate ball knowers. No, no, it's well, the trap draws to NLU pods one. So what else we got? We got a KVV narrative pod on Calvin Pete is dropping this week. You know, he's been working hard on that

one. I cannot wait to listen to that one. Sounds like he character lived an absolutely fascinating life. And KV's talked to a lot of people that knew him and, and bringing his story to life. So and if you're a newsletter subscriber, you know, we do have a pro shop promo going on spend $75 in the pro shop get a free foot joy winner beanie. TC one of your favorite products in the pro shop right now is subtle and you branding but nice warm beam I gave one of my father in in the pro shop right now is the subtle NLU branding, but nice, warm beam. I gave one to my father-in-law. He complimented, he said, this is a good quality

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So you got some time. Yeah. And then that's store.nolayingup.com. Get involved. We've got some roosts that are starting to get active in parts of the country where the weather is cooperating. We had the NYC Roost Kickoff Party at Gowanus Golf Club.

Am I saying that right, Neil? You are. That's the neighborhood simulator that I'm a member at. I've been grinding at. So yeah, NYC, the Royal and Ancient Company of Dishonorable Golfers, the NYC chapter, got together for a little kickoff party. We did a little close to the pin, little raffles. Fun. It was really fun. Uh, God, they got to buy. I get my schedule dialed. We got the shepherd open the majors

at Marine park this year. You could go double crook. I know I got my staff here. I'll show you. Or your staff. Sorry. Not your crook. My shepherd, my shepherd's open staff still have my favorite trophy. Trying to get that back this year. Also TC signed up for the, I'm getting in the season long match play in the New York roost as well. But lake effect, Western New York, our newest roost. They're doing some stuff in the snow. We got fresh coast flock doing the same thing. Big plex had a big event this weekend. Palmetto Golf Society down in South Carolina. They had an event yesterday as well. And then you got the Dry Heat Golf Club. That's southwest, like Arizona and Mexico. They're hosting their Roost major on March 9th. If you want to know

if there's space in these events, if you want to plan your schedule out or find a Roost, you can do so at events.nolayingup.com. Get involved people. And just one more plug for the newsletter. Just go sign up for the newsletter. We're going to be doing more kind of exclusive content to the newsletter. That'll be the just as social media gets more and more fragmented. It's the best way to keep up with NLU. Neil, how can people sign up for the newsletter? Newsletter.nolayingup.com. Cool, love it. All right, that's gonna do it for our show this week. Thanks everybody for tuning in.

For TC, Neil, H&B, the stack, BMW, Titleist, who else am I forgetting in there? I think that's a little bit. Ben Hamin. Ben Hamin, Salinas. Yeah, Grupo Salinas. Grupo Salinas. And all of our listeners and all of our staff and all of it. Ben Hamin. Ben Hamin Salinas. Yeah, Grupo Salinas. Grupo Salinas.

And all of our listeners and all of our staff and all of our team. Thanks so much for listening. We'll see you back here next week. Cheers.