No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 188: Sony Open Recap

Episode Date: January 14, 2019

Soly, DJ, and Big Randy recap Matt Kuchar’s win at the Sony Open, but spend the majority of the time breaking down the bizarre story that surfaced this weekend regarding the drama around Kuchar’s caddie... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 188: Sony Open Recap appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yeah. That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast, DJ Pie to my left, Big Randy across the table.

We set out some questions like we usually do when recording wrap-up podcasts or whatever. And about 90% of the people here just were really itching to talk about Matt Kutcher's foreshot win here at the Sony Open in Hawaii. It just has really polarized Twitter and has really gotten people, you know, calling people names and putting into question people's journalistic integrity. What do you guys think of the controversial win? It was an impressive win. It wasn't a positive win.

It got just balled down the stretch. Yeah, no doubt. First of all, I think we might need to change the Jay-Z intro music from... It is not officially Jay-Z intro music. That's true. Jay-Z inspired intro music to the song I believe he was quoting, which was 30-something, but he kind of misquoted it, which is very on-brand to this quote-a-song for Cooture. Did he think that was going gonna be cool quoting Jay-Z

on the 18th green? For sure. For sure. It's kind of an, you know, you gotta, we're living in the live under par era here. Nothing gets the kids fired up quite like Jay-Z. Well, it's a little cheeky in a, yeah. A lot of people are saying the Statue of Limitations

is up on the Justin Heuber story from the America's Cup on the Koocher quote, but can't let that one go just yet. Maybe if you, someday if you meet us in person, maybe we'll tell you that, that would, that what's behind that bleep, which is bleep for reason. I think that's in that, when we put up the end, the end of you paywall, that's going to be the only thing behind it. I'm sad to see the end of the the rolping SCN. He brought the rolping swing is over.

It was a big moment there on Sunday when the when the whales started breaching. That was that was pretty much rolping Bingo. Literally bucking their heads. Yeah, that was Bingo. I big Randy called out from the couch. I'd never seen him get so excited. Except for when Jimmy Buffett came up. Oh, exactly. Yeah, fins to the right, right?

Are you, are you? You want to clarify this? Who's one? Is there a clarify? Yeah, I'm a huge parent head. Once in my first show, Riverbent Cincinnati 97. I don't know why in this started, but Randy does this stupid thing where he'll just pick things

that I'm a fake fan of and he'll tweet about him. And like Murphy Brown was one of them. He just kept tweeting about how I was obsessed with Murphy Brown. And I think finally, I finally got him back. This is a good one. It's a good performance, I don't think people know if it's true or false.

There was a lot of people, that was kind of the goal. There was a lot of people who were like, yeah, doesn't surprise me at all. I was like, oh, some guy Twitter said he's lost respect for me. See, a Randy. Yeah, I'm going to jail cell. Well, to answer your question though, why I do it? Because way that I'm gonna get it. I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put it in a way that I'm gonna put I don't know where to start with this. This is going to be the Coocher, Cadi, Myacoba story. We're going to try to lay it out all the facts we know,

try to separate the conjecture from the facts, which it's mostly conjecture at this point. Correct. He did win in Mexico. That's a fact. He did win that, correct. He received almost $1.3 million for that, which, correct.

First, I'm hearing of this. That is a huge personal. That's a huge person on the PGA tour. I had no idea they had that kind of money for that event. Um, Tom L2 can was his caddy correctly. We have confirmed that. Tom Gillis went to Twitter and took to social media to social media and alleged that Matt Cooture paid his caddy $3,000 after winning the myocoba this fall. Aleg, alleged this as it was like a very open secret amongst players and caddies and all of that.

It was, you know, he, it wasn't like he heard it from one person, was kind of the vibe he gave off. He did say that he, I wrote it here, he is, he does not have it directly, but he has it from somebody who has talked to the caddy directly, which is Here say but By this it yes, it is But so we did you know we did a little crowd sourcing on this asked a few people around and there's appears to be we are not confirming or denying

Whether smoke there's fire to this a lot of people are of the belief that this happened Matt Kutcher was asked about it. He said, that's not a story. It wasn't 10%, it wasn't 3,000. It's not a story. And that's the quote. Again, lots on Packier. Brand old took to social media to argue that $3,000 was fair pay for a week of cating for a victory.

Which is a very strange hill to die. Yeah, that was a bizarre one. Respect Braindels' right to his opinion, but don't agree with that. You might be too deep in the Adam Smith and some of the other, you know. The more free market economist. The invisible hand is bucket-a-tetic off-chain right now. So I can understand why a lot of people that are more in the public eye than Tom Gillis would not

want to comment on this story. So breaking it down a little bit, I think just to give people some background in the way that I at least I understand caddy arrangements could of course be wrong, but kind of depends on what you pay. You usually pay a caddy of flat fee for the week. And then there's some kind of it's not like an automatic 10% of your earnings go straight to your caddy. Now usually a very caddy of flat fee for the week. And then there's some kind of, it's not like an automatic 10% of your earnings go straight to your caddy. Now usually,

very old way of thinking about that. Yes. When money was not what the money is. Correct. Now a normal structure is either like a 10, 8, 6 agreement or a 10, 7, 5 meaning you paid 10% of a win to a caddy or either eight or 7% for a top 10 or five or six percent for any other cash finish. And kind of depends on what the flat fee is or basically it's everybody sets their own rates and there's not like a set

agreement, I guess, for anyone. So. And I think the biggest disconnect here is in what Brando was saying is a 10 percent of a win that that is the rate for your your normal caddy, which I agree with your guy or gal who's out there every week traveling around, leaving their family at home like blah, blah, blah. Nobody, I don't think, nobody is saying that 10% to a local catty is a given or, you know. Some people think that it's sure or anything like that.

Some people listening are like, oh, well, if you're gonna pay your own caddy 10%, you might as well pay this guy 10%, which again, this is a private matter. I would not, I agree with private. Brandyl's argument of like, it's not in the police report though. There is kind of a built-in,

like somebody you pay somebody who is going on the road with you and riding out all these stops with you. Like when you win, like that is a bonus for that person for going through that. So I don't necessarily think Kutcher should have written this guy a check for a hundred and thirty thousand dollars And I think that's there's but there's a big gap between a hundred and thirty thousand dollars and three thousand dollars Which is a legend which is all that kutra clarified for the record he said it wasn't ten percent and it wasn't three thousand Maybe it's two thousand. Oh, that's a good that's a good point

So yeah, there's a lot to kind of unpack here. If this is true, that 3000, I think that's pretty bad look. I think that's pretty horrific. I think if it's true, don't know if it's true. I want to stress that repeatedly here. Allegedly. This is very alleged and nobody has gotten confirmation on this. If it's true, my assumption would be that they made an arrangement a legend and nobody has gotten confirmation on this.

If it's true, my assumption would be that they made an arrangement before the week. They said something like, I'm gonna pay you X no matter what and I'll pay you Y if we win. And, you know, the caddy was probably, if again, if this is true. And that was the arrangement. The caddy probably said, cool, that sounds great.

Let's go do it. And then after the fact everyone was kind of like, oh, well, you really should have gotten more than that. Ba, ba, ba, ba. That kind of seems like the most likely scenario if this is true. Agreed or disagree? Yeah.

I agree. I think it, I honestly have no idea how these things look usually go, but I do know it's a normal thing that if you have a local caddy, it's not just a gear. I know Sergio won in somewhere. Yeah, with like someone from the CBS career. Yeah, with somebody. And it was somebody that read no plots for them.

And I think it was even made public that he did not pay that caddy 10%, which the question is, yeah, what did hashtag Chad get when he won with Wesley Bryant on the bag? I think he got 10%. That is a good question. We might have to go to the source on that one, but I think it, first of all,

because there is, the toothpaste is out of the tube. I think you're like, I wouldn't, we wouldn't really even mention this if it wasn't already too late. I mean, it's, people are talking about this. Which kind of sucks. If it, I mean, not kind of, it really sucks. If it's, if it's not true.

If it's totally not true, it really sucks. That's right. I mean, I was, you know, imagine how, you know, Randy, think about how you're feeling with everybody thinking you're a big Jimmy Buffett guy. Imagine that, even, I would say, even on a greater scale, you know? Well, some would say. Imagine what kusha must be going through

if this is not true. This is where it gets awkward, like, we play a role in that then. I mean, exactly. We're laying out all the facts though. Somebody's gonna have to go talk to the catty, right? I mean, some real journalist is gonna have to talk to the catty and I mean, everyone is also having this conversation about it.

I don't feel bad talking about it at this point because Cooters commented on it. And if Cooters has paid him $3,000 and then lied about it, also a really, really bad look. So I tend to believe him. I don't, I think there is probably something to this. It might have been 3K, might have been 6K. I have no idea. I think there is definitely the Cadi is probably likely feeling stiff in some way, whether

that's justified. If they had an agreement going to the week that we don't know any of those details. Now I do know that it also has been discussed that he has a reputation for this and a lot of different other facets of life, which again cannot confirm or deny, but it is kind of like a, I guess a known thing, which I didn't really know until this past weekend,

but in talking to a lot of people, they kind of say similar things. Yeah, it's so hard. I don't want to waffle and I don't want to be the guy who's on the fence or not going to say anything, but it's like, fuck, man, if you don't know, it's so hard to say one way or the other or what's going on. And I mean, all of us have heard a million golf rumors and you hear the ones that you know are fake and they spread to everybody and they spread to every golf fan and

Again, like I don't know this it honestly does seem kind of believable to me just based on Based on kind of everything we've heard and everyone we've talked to and whatever but I've also seen it goes so far and so fast The other way so quickly that it's like it's just not it's not really even worth the other way so quickly that it's like, it's just not, it's not really even worth, it's not worth going in on, yeah, it's how Twitter took that. It's so you know anything, yeah, exactly. That quote unquote news are those tweets and like just ran with it and it has, it has been a public execution

of Kuch, but I think it was, which again, if we find that it is true, I'll be the first one roasting. I could, that would be the most fun firing squad to be in. But guys, seems like there's a couple more steps that there's gotta be more to this story. Well, so a couple of questions then. What amount would appease you? Like, what amount could Couture have paid the Catti L2CAN?

What minimum amount would appease you? And then two, I think obviously Kuture's perception in the game and the image he's built plays a huge role in this story, being a story with that I think, you know, his career earnings being something like 45 million, that plays a little bit of a role as well. It plays a lot of bit of a role. Yeah, yeah.

So, you know, I don't know the answers to those questions. I think if he had ripped him off a check for $30,000, there's no chance of the story. $25,50. And there's got to just be something that, first of all, the difference between first and second places, what, $600,000, $500,000. So if that guy saved you one, I think you won by one.

If that guy gave you, saved you one shot and he made you an extra half a million dollars, like ripping them off like 2.5% of your winning check doesn't seem at all, not, especially when you know that it would change that guy's life. Like, I'm not saying that's a minimum amount, but I'd be like, yeah, that seems like a totally fair amount to pay somebody.

What do you think? Yeah, I agree. I'm just thinking of maybe the most analogous situations in my life. And it'd probably be sitting down at like a blackjack table where I think if I want a hand of $100, which I don't know if I ever have the worst luck in blackjack. Yeah, flipping the dealer, you know, two fives, ten bucks on that is it would seem like, you know, no big deal. Yeah, something you should do. And that's, you know, that's off a hundred bucks to somebody whose checking count is not

quite as flush as Mr. Couture. I will say this too. Close, you're the CFO. Yeah, I will say this too, is that I like stories like this because I think golf needs more drama. I'm sure Kutcher doesn't like it and kind of sucks for him to have this aired in public. Kind of. Yeah.

But as somebody who is dying for a reason to tune into the Sony Open on a Saturday or Sunday is just looking for storylines, people to root for, root against. Anything to make the sport a little bit more interesting on a personal level, I think, is good in a macro sense in a weird way. You know who loves this story, the chaos theory. For sure. Yes, this is the ultimate chaos theory. I don't even know if we could have done a podcast tonight if this didn't come out.

There's not that much to talk about with the sodium, but we did get a question from Lord Michael D. Who is the worst tipper out of the NLU crew? I don't really know your guys tipping habits. Really? You sound pretty generous with your 10% of your winnings on the blackjack table. Listen, I'm sure I have under-tipped at some point. I know I don't do a good job at hotels. I feel like one of my big resolutions in 2019 is to tip the room that the people who clean

your room just leave a bill for them at the end of the stay. That's honestly something I didn't even know was a thing until recently. I know that this is a thing, but I don't know people that do this. I've never come with you in that. As a former hotel. That's how you do it. Well, and that's what I was going to say. There are certain things where if you've ever worked in the service industry, I think you

just become really attuned to certain things. Being a cart guy at a golf course, it's like, gosh, you just appreciate even if it's two bucks from a guy, like, hey, thanks, man. It means a lot. And so I try to be conscious of that, now that I'm somewhat on the other side. I would say, I can fall in the sword as the worst tipper if you guys want, just because we didn't want to say it. Jesus, you're a cheap ass. Not as a credit card. Not on a credit card. I will happily over-tip on a credit card for the exact reason you said because I've

worked in our store. I'm a millennial. It doesn't carry cash. I never, ever have cash. I always, always, always, always forget to get cash. And so I'll take it for that. And I'm right there with you. They've been, and that's why I say it's like,

I'm for sure I'm not perfect. And I feel like someone that's like, I literally don't have the cash on me. I feel so bad. I try to talk to some of the, the cart guys at Tim Aquana. I'm like, you guys need Venmo for the vlog. I've, I've Venmoed people as a tip for my dude. I don't have any cash, but I, like,

I would love to give you something that can I Venmo you. What about, yeah, totally. Yeah have any cash, but I would love to give you something to Venmo you what about yeah totally Sweet what about take out like do you guys tip when you take out ever or if you go somewhere? I do you do a trouble 10% 20% what is it small? Just let them know you're thinking about it. Okay, you know It's usually around 10% for me. Maybe sometimes let you know it, it depends. What about like a sandwich shop, like a $10 sandwich? Are you tipping it like, suddenly rounds? I think I leave them on one block. Cause it gives you that option on the screen,

it's like 15, 20 or 25%, it's like, wait a second here. Like, I don't know about that. Maybe I'd rather send the crown. Yeah. No, I'm the same way, but I talk to people like, no, I never tip on takeout, but I don't know, I'd usually do slightly less than 10% maybe or something like that. So this is kind of ties about on this issue a little bit.

And again, like, I don't have a ton else to say other than like, if it's true, I would love to weigh in more, but until we know more, it's so hard to, it's hard to like show the, what are you gonna say? Until we have a receipt, until we have, we're not gonna have that, let's be honest. So it is gonna be a story until Kutcher come, unfortunately until he comes out and shows here's the payment that I made.

Or until someone talks to the caddy and he can say, yeah, this is what I got. A quick break because we need to talk about Halloween's new Apex Irons, which are redefining players' irons, unmatched field. We've got to redefining, we need to do it. Let me stop you right there, Charlie. I got one question about these fixed irons.

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which is what I was looking for because the X-forge go crazy far and I'm looking for the Apex pros to get a little closer. There's a big gap between the previous Apex pros I had in the X-forge, but these go a lot further. You can see, you're an Apex pro or you're an Apex. I play Apex pros I had in the X4, but these go a lot further. You can see, are you an Apex pro?

Or you're an Apex? I play Apex. Yeah, I play the regular Apex. Look, I don't have a lot of strength in my game. My iron's plays pretty good. And since I've gotten the Apex irons, I, yeah, it's only gotten better. It tungsten waiting in each iron,

fine tunes the launch, trajectory, delivers tremendous control. You can see perfection in every shot with the new apex and apex pro at your local golf retailer or visit calaway golf dot com slash apex 2019. See what makes cal away the number one irons and golf. Let's get back to the action. Anyways, what I was going to say was, you know, we've, we talked to a player last year. We had played a golf course, it's all in our playing,

and we got a caddy who was like, oh, so and so player. High profile player was here last week, and I caddy for him. And we're like, oh, cool, that must've been fun. He's like, yeah, he's fucking cheap, though, man. Like, he really stiffed me. And we're like, oh, man, that's a bummer.

Like, that sucks. And we talked to the guy later. And we're like, how much, like, that guy said you stiffed him. Like, how much did you give him? And he's a bummer, that sucks. And we talked to the guy later, and we're like, how much, that guy said you stiffed him, how much did you give him? He's like, no, what? I gave him $200. Yeah.

And so the point being this sliding scale can get kind of out of control with celebrities. I'm not saying that's the case. There's a track record with Coocher, who knows? Blah blah blah. But a lot of these people can have unfair context projected on them as well. You've made $45 million, you should be giving me a thousand on this sandwich.

For sure, sometimes you can never win. Which, yeah, especially when you're whole, again, I'm not throwing a pity party for Cooture, but your whole life is literally like everybody knows how much money you make and is probably expecting something that's anybody that works for you in any way and is serving you, probably expects more than a normal tip blah blah blah. So I will say this last thing and it's kind

of a non-sequitur, but one of the best lessons I learned working at a golf course a few years back up in Michigan, the pro, you know, he comps some guys rounds. The first thing he would do the next day is he'd ask the back staff, hey, did that guy take care of you? If they didn't, if you're getting a free round of golf and then you don't take care of the caddy or the back staff, it's like, yeah, he's not getting comps. Ever since you told that story, I'm super conscious. I'm thinking back, man, I hope I've covered every day. And that's, you know, as we've been fortunate enough to have some comp golf here and there,

it's the one thing I'm like, God, you gotta take care of the backstaff and all the other service staff if you're getting free golf because that's, you know, that's- And when in doubt, round up, like I still- I still work in the car barn and and I rip can name the members by name that were good for a five spot every time. And like the guys that when they would drink and win, they would slide you a 20. And like when they won, men's like,

they slide you a hundred bucks. I can name those guys. God, that makes me miss where he got a golf ball. 15. So spot on. Yeah. And you, well, you can recognize their car pulling in and it'd be like a race to the trunk.

Yeah, which we probably thought we were all like super sly, but they could probably see right through it. Oh, this guy's kissing my ass. Oh God, I do not want to see tape of me and how I was treating like how much ass I was kissing. Can you re-connect it in any way? Yeah, Mr. Smith. Let's just say, Mr. Smith, how are you? Yeah, beautiful day. You know what, feeling pretty good.

I see you're playing Mr. Jones tonight. That should. I think you should be OK. I just watch it. Between you and me. Yeah, between you and me. OK. We'll get you set up on a card or better be here.

Yeah. You need anything else? Can I get you get those cleaned up for you or anything? Or are you good? What would you ever inquire about the families? Hey house missus Smith. How are the kids? Now that's I don't know about that. That might be a bridge too far. We I like to keep it less I keep it professional. I'd always make sure I'd point out that I got some wet towels on the extra wet towels in the car For just in case they needed them. Did you ever daydream? We had this one guy When we were in college who was like a

notorious like 20 bucks every time. One time I found like a full dozen golf balls brand new in the back of his car and like, hey you know we'll call Mr. Smith. Hey Mr. Smith, you forgot golf, I said, yeah, I keep him. He was a drug dealer. And so yeah, well myself and the other car guys, how you say, have these day dreams, like, dude, what if he like asks us like coming his helicopter with us? He's like, you know what, hey, you want to like, you know, you build these like fantasies,

like he's totally gonna like, you know, offer us a chopper ride or something. Oh man, rest in peace, Riviera, because the guys that rolled through there, we would find, like some guys like, were legitimately high profile bookies. And you'd find like betting sheets and left in the card, and you're like, we'll just turn a night to it, throw them away, I don't see anything that's coming through here, but... Well, Rest in peace to, yeah, the Oak Club of Genoa as well, which is

kind of a segue into... Yes. Look at this piece. A professional segue way. Oh, just a piece that we were talking about a lot this week, Wall Street Journal posted it. It was a piece by Candice Taylor, was the writer. I'm not familiar with her work, but it was kind of fun when outsiders dive into golf and kind of take a harsh look at it, but you probably saw it going around, Twitter or elsewhere.

And basically the gist of it was kind of what happens when golf courses, like when so many of these gated community golf courses were built in the late 90s, early 2000s, mid 90s, whatever, and just what happens to those places when the golf course closes. We kind of ended last week's podcast, I know by kind of poking fun at the whole quote,

golf is growing, hashtag growing and thriving from the commission of the PJ, which we were making. I think I made kind of an offhand comment on like, yeah, cool. How many, how many courses closed last year versus how many opened? And Randy, what was the number was about in the article? Yeah, they quoted the National Golf foundation said they were more than 200 course closures nationwide and only about 15 new courses open. So, yeah, the answer to the book. Which is tough.

Yeah, but anyways, I just thought this was like a super interesting, super interesting story. You can find if you just Google Wall Street Journal golf home owners or check Twitter or whatever. Yeah, the articles called golf homeowners find themselves in a hole. And the crux of it was when these golf courses go, like they get people to sign out of these houses by basically also kind of packaging up a golf membership with the HOA or with the whatever. And when that golf course goes belly up,

basically the property values completely go through the floor. And there's just so many courses like that, especially here in Florida. There's so many of these semi-retirement communities that just are in such a fucking weird spot right now. And it's just kind of a fascinating topic. Yeah, well, it's a little chicken and egg too. I was going to say not only...

Sometimes the course closes first, but also as the article talks about, you know, these people can't resell their homes. They know, you know, the, of course, it kind of talks about millennials, whatever. Millennials don't want to buy these homes and pay, you know, X above what the home should be for this golf membership. And so sometimes, you know, these people just stop, they can't sell their home. And so they're like, well, I'm going to stop paying my country club membership. And then the course, so it's this whole, you know, circular, it's not good. The, you know,

us millennials are, we're in the game. Are we in the next, to the boomers? This is kind of the shrink the dream. I was going to shrink the game wet dream. Are we in the nest? Like should these golf courses be closing? So I think where it gets complex is, I was talking to somebody on Twitter about it. And it's like as a golfer and a hardcore golfer and kind of a snooty hipster-y kind of golfer self-admitted, I'm not gonna shed a tear for losing any of these kind of horrible golf courses

that I probably wouldn't go play anyways or haven't gone and played. However, the fact that these things going down are going to take so many good genuine people's life savings and home equity and all this stuff is just going to take a fucking bath Because of a lot of this stuff and it's like well, okay, you know, we're not rooting for that You're not rooting for that, but it's like well, you know, you it's like some like diehard Welcome to the party pal Pals being going on for 11 years. Yeah, exactly and it's like somebody said the same thing You know if you buy a house next to a forest and the forest gets chopped down like you know You shouldn't have bought that house or whatever and it, I don't know, I don't have any answers.

I just thought it was a really complex, interesting article and something that's kind of, I think it happened a lot more than less over the next five years. Well, I think it's just kind of really, without having done a full study of it, like it's indicative of what was being built in the US basically from World War II,

like through the 90s before kind of this somewhat of a Renaissance period was, it was just golf courses were built to sell homes and it's about the bubbles bursting, basically on that and people are kind of figuring out that that's not the most fun golf courses to play. And once people's eyes are open to different other styles of golf courses,

you start to like, oh yeah, it's not that fun to be like in either someone's yard on the left or someone's yard on the right and you can't walk the course because it's weaving through this neighborhood and blah, blah, blah. And yeah, I mean, listen, I walked, I went and checked out old Riviera Country Club and Dublin when I was back home for Christmas

and it is a neighborhood now. It's been closed for four years and I was on Google Maps like Google it is a neighborhood now. It's been closed for four years and I was on Google Maps, like Google Earth with a historic image, trying to figure out where I was standing. Like it's totally gone and I hated it. But I started to look at it. I was like, look at how many kids are out in the street playing

and like how many people will grow up on this, like it's a better use of land to build houses than play golf on it. Let's be honest, we love golf, but like it is a infinitely better use of land to let people live on it than us like to play play golf on it. Let's be honest, we love golf, but it is a infinitely better use of land to let people live on it than us like to play a sport on it. And I think that's the whole shrink the game mindset a little bit, is let's not artificially prop these things up.

If there's better use, if it's not working, it's not working. And that's where I think where an article like this gets kind of tough for me is that, this is like anything else in every other industry is far more complicated than this one probably, but people can kind of use it as a straw man argument for whatever they want, they can assign whatever meaning

to it that they want. And the article even does that a little bit where it's like, you know, millennials are not playing golf, so that's why these things are closing. It's like, well, no, millennials, like, they're not going to buy a $500,000 house in like a gated community in the suburbs. You know, like, that's not really on the rise right there. So that's to your point.

It's kind of like chicken and egg. And it's the same thing where, you know, you get the total opposite end of the spectrum is, well, if there was more with an angles, then this place wouldn't have closed. I'm like, well, I don't know if that's necessarily true either. It's like, yeah, that's a very small number of people feel that way, or even would recognize that they feel that way. Anyways, I think a good project for 2019,

if we can, would just be to take a really deep dive look at a subject like this, because it's fascinating. It's kind of like the biggest threat to golf in general. It's like how many of these people that live on these houses or live in these houses on these courses? When the course goes away and I look at my own hometown as a perfect example of this, my hometown course closed and now the people that lived on that course,

are they driving 30 miles to go play golf somewhere else? Like, yeah, maybe, but are they playing as much as they did before? Definitely not. So it's like when you look at the number of rounds played versus the number of people playing them and stuff, it's, I don't know, there's some pretty scary numbers that would definitely indicate the inverse of

the inverse of growing and thriving. Yeah, it is. I think we could do a whole podcast on on this it and that is a great idea dj i would love to explore and i think golf is a bubble i mean i think we joke around about tiger was the best thing and the worst thing for the game golf like he he is now killing the game he's an exploding star yeah which is my favorite take right now will have all of the mass and energy internally. It's the big thing. Once you reach a certain point, then it starts contracting back in on itself. Well, but I don't think it

is a coincidence that the success of the newest courses that are being built are all in places that are, I don't want to say all, but mostly in places that are pretty remote, like they are lands that are not being encroached by houses. And, I mean, just naturally, like, what happened with Rivera was neighborhoods were built all around it. And essentially, there was this big block of homes or a big block of grass where they could put homes. And so the value of the land skyrocketed because of what was developed all around it. And as cities expand and get closer to these of what was developed all around it. And as cities expand

and get closer to these golf courses and develop all around them, the value of that land is just going to go way up. As in terms of the land the actual golf course sits on, especially if it's not related to the development around it. And that's kind of like what prices these golf courses out to get the point where it just doesn't make sense to play golf there anymore. And that's kind of the courses that are going to start dying off. And we just need to build in more remote places. That's I think like the finances of golf just don't stop working at that point. Yeah.

And that's where I think, you know, the people I'm riding the hardest for, you know, just in the kind of little mini Twitter ecosystem, the people who are, you know, just stop tying golf to housing developments like that's, yeah, that's stopped tying golf to housing developments. That's just not going to work. Which is obviously easier said than done if you don't have any skin in the development game. It's probably a pretty easy way to make money in 1997. Yeah.

No, I was just going to say final thought is to your point about building in remote places, like we've seen at sweetens and countless other places, if it's good enough, people will find it, people will go. I think it's good enough a small number of people will go find it. Which hopefully that means a sustainable amount of people. But I think it kind of goes back to what we have here with Jack's beach being like a unicorn and that land is valuable that it sits on.

The houses could go there easily and you can walk it for $17 during the week, and the city has done an amazing job renovating it, and so far a great job maintaining it. Like, that is like the rarity and the unicorn in golf. And like, Tron's article that he wrote in issue two of the golfers journal was just titled, it's the munis stupid, like figure out these munis.

And coincidentally enough, a a year later like this one opens up. Well, that's what's different too is I don't I certainly don't have a balance sheet in front of me although it would probably public information and we should be looking this stuff up probably. But when it's a municipal golf course and it's not set up as you know with an owner like hey I need to make a big ass profit on this. Right. Or I need to make X amount to make this worthwhile. And it's really more of a break even or even a small loss or whatever where the city can kind of say, hey, this is

a cost that we pay in order to provide value to the citizens. I mean, that's just such a, yeah, such a wonderful different model. Then all of these places that are talked about in this article, none of these are municipal golf courses that we're talking about here. And that's exactly what I was going to say. You know, these municipalities have to on a certain level operate as a business, of course, but you know, at a certain level and really I think at an important level, they don't have to operate as businesses. And so if you get leadership in place where, you know, the folks in charge, I think about like the winter park course. I've got how valuable must that land be? Look at the Chicago project, too.

The Tiger Woods. It's the kind of this weird public-private partnership thing, and I'm sure there's a million hornets nests of issues that could pop up. But the municipality is well-governed. And then a good place fiscally, and they don't need to sell off assets like that, then yes, they can, you know, have a nice golf course that benefits everybody. And yeah, it's very, it's a multi-facet problem.

It's fascinating. I love talking about it. Are we ready to go to Bullet, too, that we had later? So now do we talk about Andrew Putnam? Yeah, I was just going to say Andrew Putnam made $2.4 million last year and I guess he tied for fourth at the HSBC in the fall. This is the first time here. First of all, but I also just wanted to note that prime time golf is the best. It's awesome. I went out and played golf today and made a home with time to spare before

the coverage even started and that's gone now. I mean, West Coast golf is still good. We lost it. Can you guys get excited for the desert classic next week? Honestly, short answer no. Long answer, yes, because of things like the Fred X Cup. Yeah, and like, having like a tiny amount of skin in the game, I think is super fun. I had a ton of fun watching web tours back today. I had a ton of fun watching that.

So talk about that. So maybe, I don't know, maybe, but I guess short answers. If I missed it, it probably also would be fine. Can you tell me who won last year? Well, I think I'm making out my schedule. I just looked as John wrong. I'm making out my schedule like a tour pro now. I need to take my weeks off. I need my rest. I need my energy to peak it was John wrong. I'm making out my schedule like a Torporo. Now, I need my weeks off, I need my rest,

I need my energy to peak at the right levels. Well, we've got a big cup of weeks coming up after. I was gonna say, I mean, the full X series is lifting the lid on the Custer Cup or European subcompetition in Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi, I'm kind of jacked for. That'd be fun for me. Oh, that's a good tournament like opposite. Or a more exciting tournament, I think, then. I used be a doby. I'm kind of jack for it. That'd be fun for me. That's a good tournament like opposite or a more exciting tournament I think than.

I used to get excited about this tournament when it always used to be Michelson's in the old debut. Yeah. And now it's like, yeah. They don't have a sponsor. The field is always kind of the way. If I'm a, if again, if I'm an actual Tor Pro and making out my schedule, this is an easy one to skip, I think just with the Pro Am format and it just seems a bit like it's lost its way.

Yeah, I think the only positive from where we sit is we tend to follow the really the young guys and the rookies a lot closer probably and all of them will get into this field. That makes it fun. Maybe you have young promising type guy kind of flash for a week and get a win. Yeah, it's one of those. I'm going to let the leaderboard develop. I'm going to make a delayed decision. I'm going to be very non-committal this Saturday afternoon, maybe even Sunday. That's exactly right. I hope you check in the app to see how some of those rookie guys are doing, but they're not showing those guys on TV for the most part. Out of the coverage was really solid

from what I watched the Sony, just the whole Hawaii vibe. I think they nail it pretty well. And just kind of, they don't rush things. They just kind of let things develop. And this was a much different animal to kind of cover this event than Capelua, obviously. But I just always enjoy watching the Hawaii stretch. So yeah, this week I thought was awesome.

I mean, it was. Wildlife is just a fun little golf course? Sure, they looked great. It looked awesome. They looked fantastic. I mean, the changes Dough Kiz made to the golf course seemed super fun. Seventeen, I know they, I think, softened the green a little bit more.

I think a lot of guys complained that the redan was a little too redanny last year, but I've had a play to awesome. It was cool to see all the greens play really firm. It's cool to see just a different kind of defense. I guess it's kind of neutralized on 18 when you put that fucking grain stain on it. Like a half of a step off the back of the green. But it was like a wrestling ring.

Like guys are bouncing off the ropes and going back into play. I thought a comfy approach, yeah. I thought the green last year at Y-17 green. I thought it actually kind of, I didn't want to side with the players on that, but I thought like good, there was no difference between good and great shots. Like you had a great shot, it still like runs through. And I know people say, well, you're hitting the wrong shot. I don't think there was like an opportunity to some of those pins to use the slope to get it anywhere

close to it. It was cool last year, kind of, you know, first time being battle tested for these guys. It was cool to see guys fire directly at the pin and get ejected. That was sweet. But there wasn't really an option to get around that. There wasn't like you play it to the right and it's going to take it down. It just, it was, well, I think it was a lot of you play it to the right and it takes a slope down to, to 12 feet.

Whereas if you hit it at the pin, it might roll out to 30 feet. So I don't know that it was gonna take the slope and roll to six inches. But. But again, no one's saying that you should be able to hit it close on a part three. I kind of like that aspect of, having guys position themselves past the pin

to get back to a pin, I think that's something that guys should have to go through more often than they do on the PGA tour, but agree. Man, I just kind of like, I'm wondering if wireless, some people were tweeting in like, is why I outdated golf course for the PGA tour. I'm kind of like, it might be like the only golf course style for the PGA tour short. There's really no par-fives.

I mean, I know they have two on the card, but like, they're not like real par-fives, so the bombers don't have an advantage on those holes. Everyone can get to them. It's, yeah, it's driver wedge, but everything's driver wedge for these guys. So like having some of these really tough angles where you can't just take driver around the corner and hold the fairway.

JT does that thing on 14 every year where he tries to cut around the corner, but like they come in on the broadcast today that you didn't want to do that because you on Sunday because the pin was on the left side. And if you miss left, you just simply can't get towards a pin. I'm like, man, how often do you talk about that with a T shot on the PGA tour? And like at wildlife, the angles matter. Like they actually do, which is just a rarity on the on.

Well, and obviously they'd matter a lot more when the greens are firm, too, correct. And yeah, it's just it's, I don't know, it was a cool juxtaposition after last week too. I think we would all, if we had 45 wild eyes, we would get sick of that too. So it is cool to see variants and it's cool to see different setups and different, it's just, yeah. It's cool. Hawaii is great. You're right.

It's very, it's underrated. It's easy to think of it as kind of a throwaway, kind of puff to start the year, but yeah, it's genuinely pretty fun. And 22 under winning, I don't care about that. I, that never crossed my mind once. Followed as much as today. Like, oh, these guys are going to go too low.

The ball just goes too far. The guys are gonna, too low scores. It's how it's gonna, it's got to play out all year. I mean, the cup was, the cup was what? It was minus one under one under like what else you want? One guy that was one off of that made his season daily. You're looking at the second day. Jordan's beef. Are we worried about Jordan's beef? One question we had written in was from Clay O'Neill.

Does speed ever win again? I love Twitter. I love it. Can I go on record say yes? Oh, yeah, we were really to go on record. Wow. I mean, we're I'm a little worried. I'm a little worried. Yeah, it's not a little different. Nothing's not good. He was grindin' Friday. I was phone to watch him grind, fun to watch him make some late birdies, try to try to, him grind, fun to watch him make some late birdies, try to give one last grasp to make in the cut.

Some of the things he said, Thursday was, made me a little weird. So I'm paraphrasing this a little bit, but it was along the lines of that he was kind of faking it for a while. And that when parts of his game were great, he didn't know why they were great. And when they stopped being great, he didn't know why they were great.

And when they stopped being great, he didn't know how to get it back there. So then in my, I'm saying, I can very much say, I was like, whoa, you're speaking my language. I know, I hadn't thought of it that way. I'm like, yeah, I don't know how I, if I ever do things good, how I do them good.

But so the faking it, he didn't, I don't think he said that word up to kind of my own word, but that kind of made, that's kind of describing faking it to me. And you don't really know, it kind of seemed that way because he was not projected to be what he became very, very quickly.

No one looked at it, like there was rumors that Nike or somebody, I don't know, I don't wanna miss quote that, but again, some kind of rumor, like they looked at his track man stats and were like, no, you're not, you're not for us. So like he just didn't, he didn't wow people, he didn't blow people away with his, you know, basic stats and how he hit the ball and whatnot. And he came out in one three majors very, very quickly.

Listen, you know what, track man doesn't measure? Hard. Isn't that right, Randy? For sure. Uh, so it seems like you got some stats on his putting for the week. I think he was he's struggling around one. But yeah, round one, he was 136th in the field and putting he lost 2.8 shots on the field. And actually Friday, he put it better.

So I don't I, you know, it's not a big issue, but it's a small sample size. Yeah, two days, maybe the smallest sample size. But yeah, it's not it's I small sample size. Two days, maybe the smallest sample size, but yeah, it's not. I don't know. I was talking, did a golfers journal podcast with Jeff Ogleby and he was talking about kind of how different the game was when he was first on tour when he was young and the idea of he was almost like condescending when people didn't know what was going out there swinging.

He's like, I don't get how you guys are not in tune with your golf swing. Like it's, it's easy. You just swing it on plane and like, you know, it's, it's simple. And he's like, as soon as that went away, I just golf became so unfun. And as soon as I had to start thinking about, like it's easy, paraphrasing him, but he's like, it's, it's really easy really easy to fake it and play damage control. Like, that's most of what you're doing. He's like, but the top 10 guys in the world are the only guys who are not doing that.

And those are the only guys who are swinging completely free. They're not playing swing. They're not worried about where it's going to go. They're just playing golf. And it is so fun when you're playing like that. And for most of your career, it is not like that. And that's what a lot of those like, speed quotes, that's kind of what that reminded me of.

And not that he's, you know, at some point, where golf is, it was a drudgery or whatever. But like, I don't think it's totally ridiculous to say that 2015, like, yeah, maybe that's as good as it gets. And that's, that's gonna be, you know, you're gonna be, which I think we were searching that. Searching for that for the rest of your career. And of course, you'll have moments where you find it, but it might not be at that level for that length of time.

I think it's some, I don't know, it's some length we were saying that in 2015, though, like that we, you can't just expect guys to, to, to, I hope no, check the tape on that. Well, I've predicted eight meters for him. I do know that in four green jackets, which, you know what, I'm not backing down from that. You can win five more majors, I've predicted eight meters for him. I do know that in four green jackets, which, you know what, I'm not backing down from that. You can win five more majors, I think for sure. Oh, you know, how is he? Can I say I'm not really worried about him?

Yeah. Of course. And I don't have, you know, everybody can look at the stats on PJ.com. I will say his putting, you know, just in 2019, which is a small sample size, his, his putting is, you you know shots gained ranked 60 second and Where he's like a bomb double is off the tee. He's 206 shot gain off the tee Historically, that's been Mary where he's been very good. I just think in a more macro sense. I think And this is kind of me talking out of my ass a little bit, but a guy like him, when it has been so good for so long to start a career, you know, these

these values are going to happen. And I think it's almost, I think he's the type of guy, or I hope he's the type of guy who, you know, a couple more performances like this or, you know, this, this bad play continues on. It's just going to motivate him that much more. I almost look like, I feel like this is going to be more of a catalyst firm to flourish. I don't know when that's going to be, but I'm not really worried about him. I hope so. I'm very unabashed about saying he's the, I'm the very, very short list of players who will make me tune in and drop what I'm doing

to watch right now. Yeah, he sounded more confident as a week went along. But that's his play doesn't concern me as much as some of his quotes, where it's just kind of like feeling uncomfortable over the ball and like how that really lack of comfort that was creeping in it's kind of ooh that's not doesn't sound like a guy who's close and like I've been in a lab and

working on this and I'm close I just need the reps blah blah which is kind of we make fun of that speak but that is more much more reassuring. Well I was gonna say maybe he's just being too honest like he could say that you know you might never know that he's just, yeah. Well, I think, yeah, the other thing to think is he's, he's 25. Yeah. So, I mean, if he was, if he was 37 saying this, and he's got a career of scar tissue and all this stuff behind him, it's like, okay, maybe that's one thing, but yeah, he'll, I think he'll figure it out. Like I still need to go in the masters. Oh, yeah. That's what I'm going to say. It's kind of a big like litmus test is, you know, we're saying, uh, just sitting at the bar at the other night.

It's like, okay, well, he hasn't, look, he hasn't played very much and maybe, you know, he got married and maybe he's just been kind of kind of put in a way and relaxing for a while and trying to reset and, and he's got some rust and blah, blah, blah. But like, when a gust to get here, if he, I think if he misses the cut at the Masters, that's, oh yeah. We can sound some a lot of it. Yeah, that'll be interesting. We'll have a panic button ready.

You got to watch a little bit of the web coverage today. A lot bit of the web. A lot bit. Tell us what you saw. Well, first of all, shout out to the whole crew on the production crew on the web.com tour telecast. It's always fun to watch. But yeah, they did.

I mean, the one thing I think we've been screaming for as fans is like, why don't people make up players? Like this is such a, it seems like such a no-brainer. You don't even have to take it live. Just mic these guys up, do a post-produced show at the end of the week of all the best audio, blah, blah, blah. And for whatever reason this has never happened, the reason everybody points to is like, oh, the players, they're just not into it. blah blah blah.

I'm like, well, I'm not into not watching it. So make them get into it. Maybe you should make them get into it. That's what the money for. That's what the money for. So anyways, a huge shout out to Dan Glott and the president of the, of the, uh, Trump, Troncitor, Troncitor Dan Glott. Uh, and the whole crew on that, and the people at golf channel, the people at, of the, uh, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tron, Tr, Tr, Tron, Tr, Tron, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr, Tr five minutes and I was like, this is already,

this is already gonna keep me longer than any telecast last year would have. And it's so cool, I think the crystallization of it is it's so cool to hear the pre-shot talk and to hear him say, okay, my left boundary is this, my right boundary is the peak of that chimney on that house. My run out is this blah, blah, blah, layout, exactly in great detail what he's trying to do and then see if he can do it.

And you know, as a viewer, you know exactly what he was trying to do. You know if he, if he did it or if he missed or if he pushed it or if he pulled it or if he chunked it or if he flushed it or whatever. And it just got to just makes it so much cooler. And it, it's put into perspective, again, consistent with what we said about the match. Do not expect these players mic'd up for the stories to just be incredible and it just be like

all this incredible dialogue that goes on in the middle of around. I can count on one hand the most the interesting things I've heard players say during around. Like it just doesn't, it doesn't happen. But what you will hear is that what you just mentioned and how different that is than an announcer, like guessing what he's gonna try to, well, he's just trying to hit the center of the green

on this one to, no, the guy talking about the clips that I saw, I was like, is it, I think he's gonna jump out of this line? Yes. The caddies like, or didn't see, they would, they didn't agree on it, what not, I was like, oh, that's kind of interesting. Super interesting.

They're playing the same grass all week and they haven't figured it out yet. And that's where you look at, what not, I was like, oh, that's kind of interesting. Super interesting. They're playing the same grass all week and they haven't figured it out. Yeah, look at, you know, today we're recording this on Sunday. Today was the first round of the tournament and it's really like, you got to be a pretty big golf fan to get jacked up for round one, web.com tour telecast. And that is nobody's fault.

That's just, I mean, that's the nature of the product. And it's like, dude, you got to do everything you can to,. I'm as big a golf fan as I know, and you got to work pretty hard to like keep me, keep me engaged on these things. And that, to me, is like such a no-brainer of, of a way to do it. So I'm shout out to all of them that made it happen. They got Rico Hoey tomorrow, another friend of the pod who's gonna be mic'd up tomorrow, it's gonna be, it's just, it's so cool. And I think a couple of things, I think the match is a huge,

we kinda have to like, dab them for, that's kinda what we said going into, it's similar to the Fox US Open stuff, where it's like golf is so reflexive, where it's not going to change unless something else changes. Unless something makes it change. Something like the match is showing fans like, hey, it's technically very possible to

mic players up. We just have chose not to do it. Which makes fans get pissed about that. I think it's awesome that the match happened just for that reason because it pushes things ahead. But I think to your point, what I don't want to happen in what I think they kind of missed on if there was one critique,

and obviously it's the first time they've done it. So this is a very soft critique. But it's not the stuff after the shot that I want to hear. Like I don't want to hear them be like, oh, that was great. You can tell if it was a good shot or not. What I want to hear is the stuff before the shot. And so there was a lot of times where they're like

cutting to him while he's over the ball. And I'm like, well, I really would rather here, like where is he trying to hit this or what's he trying to do? And so hopefully more of that going forward. For myself and any other listeners, is this something they'll do throughout the year? Or is this a test over a few weeks?

I was trading some messages with our man and the booth Craig Perks about this and he said they're hoping to do it every round. Oh. Definitely first two rounds and then it's kind of just subject to player availability, which is a hard job and getting a player to agree to that every single day is a tough ask. However, for any web players or any PGA tour players that listen to this, I spoke a bit with Matt McNeely about it today.

He said, I'm paraphrasing this a bit, but the wire was no problem at all. It only crosses mine when he was walking up in the fairway and he may have to relieve himself in the bushes at one point. It says, guys that say it's a distraction, that's BS. I had fun with it today. So again, the question, the question that people will say is like, why would players want to do this?

Why would they want to, like, first of all, why would you want to do anything? It's like, why would anybody want to come on this podcast? Why would you want to talk to the media at all? It's like what you can do for your own branding and giving people exposure, like giving your sponsors exposure and all of the things that would come with miking yourself up could be tremendous.

And any agents that would potentially shut this down is probably what prevents it from happening at the biggest level. And I'm here to say like that would be a giant mistake. Well, I think that, you know, the example that we used when we're talking about in the context of the match and other players playing the match or like playing things similar to the match in these other exhibitions, even maybe like at the expense of a PJ tour event. The way I think of this and maybe this is a little cynical is I think of like the best kind of like quote unquote, Mike Dup moment of the past couple of years was probably the spieth go get that. Yeah. And it's something

that is so easy to package package up into a little like like, do you think we could go get that? Or the Augusta conversation on 13? Well, no, we didn't hear that because the broadcast didn't show it. But no, go get that. And it's just something that's so small and so, like, it's easy to package it up into a little video or a little gift or a little whatever.

And I just the way the world works and I hate talking about like millennial tech stuff, but you love it. We live in such a world that it's such like bite sized, yeah, disposable content, that that is the only stuff that has the chance of like crossing over into something big. And that stuff, if you're mic'd up, like the chances of that stuff happening are, they happen every day, where players are saying fun things, or fun things are happening, or people are holding out or whatever.

And just when you're mic'd up, the chances of capturing something like that, and having something go ashrinked viral, is so much greater. And hopefully people recognize the upside. Yeah, I watch so far. Outweighs the downside. Like we spoke about earlier,

people are entertained by personality, yeah, whether rooting for, rooting against. I mean, that's the lesson you take from any of the major sports and the mic'd up stuff only would enhance that for professional golf. It's such an out-brainer. Dude, I watched Baker Mayfield.

It's like 11 minutes and whatever the sound effects thing they do on NFL, which is like something we've, it's like, all right, at the worst case scenario with these guys, mic him up and get permission after the round or the next week to make a highlight film. I think you can go back to 2014, we've said this on this podcast, how something kind of sound effects show has not come about.

It is my name, I mean. I watch Baker Mayfee. If you can get a microphone on a quarterback and he can get his ass leveled for an entire game and the mic stays there and you can still hear every word he's saying and you can have this highlight of at the end of the day of him. What he says to his teammates after a touchdown, how they celebrate, like, are you kidding me? Imagine that, like, after the players,

like, how cool that would be. This is like your flagship event. I know you wanna treat it like a major, but Mike will play her up for the players and make a highlight tape of it afterwards. Like, I watched that and we celebrate the hell out of that. Like, it's an absolute layup, but if they haven't,

and maybe this is the first domino to fall to make this actually a reality. So. Yeah, well, that's, I mean, the web tour is always where they kind of test this stuff out. So hopefully that, hopefully it means, that's, I mean, the web tour is always where they kind of test this stuff out, so hopefully that, hopefully it means, you know, the problem is that it probably means that we're going to see this on the PJ tour in 2029.

Well, there's a tweet, a great tweet we got from Mash and Elle. He said, this is a great way for Mav McNeely to increase his brand awareness, a great way for us viewers to finally get more in on the action and a great way for the tours to stop being the puret and pussies they are and see an F-bomb here there will not hurt your brand, we all win. It's like, yeah, you're exactly right. I know it's this corporate of a sportage you'll find,

but I don't even mind, I mean, I know we're saying this, but I wouldn't even mind if they like, whitewashed the audio. If you wanna run it through a producer and that's gonna like make more guys do it open to doing this, but I wouldn't even mind if they like whitewashed the audio. If you want to run it through a producer and that's going to like make more guys do it open to doing this like fine. That's a concession I will make because eventually by making that concession now I think you'll eventually get to a point where it's kind of unfiltered later down the road, but let's just start with something and they are starting with something so kudos to them.

All right, you ready for a few questions and we'll wrap this. Sure. Sure. Yeah. Lightning bolt, lightning bolt says, explain the MDF for those not familiar. I actually get this question kind of a decent amount. Do you guys know how it works? Make-cut did not finish, right?

Yeah, how does it work? I know there's, you, it's a secondary cut, but I don't know the exact number. You got to be in the top whatever after the third round or else, you know, they pay it out, but you don't get to play the fourth. Good. I'm glad that you didn't know the answer because that justifies using this.

But I don't know if it varies tournament to tournament to position. I think it's more than 70 guys make the cut. One more than 78 guys. 78 guys make the cut. Okay. That's what I think I said a second cut to limited to top 70 and tie. So you can still get money. You still get FedEx.

Got points, but you don't play on Sunday. It's basically the kind of expedite play on. So it's always that 78, 70, 78 to 70 and ties. So it could go from that's what I was unsure to 77 or 80 to 77 or whatever it is. But yeah, that's basically to kind of, yeah, you still, you still get the points and everything, but you don't play on something. That's like, you guys don't have to go home, but you gotta get that.

Yeah, get that. I'm out of here. Which kind of kind of dinged me on, uh, cam champ on the, the FredEx cup got MDF to this week. Oh, poor guy. We really feel bad for you. Uh, Jared's garnered it too. Also shout out to Neil's team. Jared Smith, see and why after watching Big Randy's amazing made putt to win 96 dollars, what's the largest pot someone has won on a whole? Also, what format were you playing to win 96 dollars on a whole? That was Wolf Hammer. And I can say for me, that was the most I've ever won on a whole.

How nervous were you standing over that? I mean, very nervous to answer the question. I knew I was nervous. I mean, I told you guys, like, as soon as I went along, I'm like, I know this is gonna come down to whether I can make like a three or four foot putt. Like, you bet on yourself. Absolutely, it's gonna come down to it.

And so it's just like waiting for it to get there. Okay, okay, okay. And then, you know, the moment arrived, I will say, coming off the face of the putt, I thought that I thought it was not going to go in. It was. We all fought that. It was it was a miracle that it lived in on the low side. It kind of looked like the space jam putt where they got the magnet underneath the green and ash dragging it around. Yeah. Oh, God. People are many people who

were slide to the Instagram DMs to wonder if you've already abandoned the tabletop putting. You got a lesson from Michelle, we? Right. I'd like to clarify that. I haven't abandoned it. Not by any means. I actually, I don't think I- You're gonna say testing.

Well, I haven't fully embraced it yet. I need to have a good, you know, playing world famer is not the right environment. I don't think to bust out a completely new putting technique. So I want to have like- How many different grips did you use there in there? Like four. I will- I will- The defense rests. Yeah. Pudding technique, so I want to have like how many different grips did you use there in that like four? I will defense rest. Yeah, I want to go play a comfy, you know, 18 at Jack's Beach and really, you know, test it out for a full round Okay, the the the answer what's the largest pot you guys have seen on one hole or largest exchange on one hole? The first one that came to mind for me was when on that same hole I was gonna

Tim Aquana. Yeah, the next our second 18 of the day. That's probably for me was when on that same hole, I was going to Tim Aquana. Yeah, the next, our second 18 of the day, that's probably for me the most. What was that one? It was like 196, I think. Who lost that one? You made the putt to no blood. Oh, that's right. I missed the putt.

Yeah. I made a $216 putt or something like that. But I've seen Steve Weakroff shoot 65 at Tim Aquana and lose $450 on one hole because he went alone on a par three and two people made birdie against him. He lost 10 dots for $5 dots, which if you go alone, it triples it, makes it $15 dots and you gotta pay each person.

So he lost 150 to each person. So it was $450 and he was stunned by how much. I was like dude, I like made him sign a waiver before he went alone and he didn't listen and he got Dottie Peppered. So that's the most I've seen on one hole is 450. And the guy shut 65. It was one.

It was glorious. Well, the hammer can ask really quickly. It gets out of control. If you go alone in those last, that's what big ups to Randy for going alone. But once the dot value goes up in those last three holes. It's like strongly advised not to go alone But you were the only guy to hit the green you were wolf. I did not go alone after I hit I I went alone after seeing all you guys miss the green and not in the greatest of spots

Yeah, so it was like okay, I either got a now or never to bet on myself And I canned it, you know, I rocked it. Oh, I just laughed. You're reaction after that, but if you guys haven't seen it, go to Twitter. It's on our on our Twitter feed. It's it's definitely worth your time. Jack Bergsdram asks, if someone asked me to tend the flag now, can I tell them to go to hell?

So I'll kind of made it, I don't know if this was, just because you were amongst friends. We can go public confidentiality, but yeah, Solid was kind of... Experiment. I think he's kind of sniffing around the hell the leap of flag stick in idea. Listen, I've been struggling with putting a little bit lately.

I left it in for a couple of birdie putts, and it gave you a little sum to aim for, and it gave you a little bit sense of confidence that it's going to hit that stick and stay in. So the effects are going to be minimal. Let's just be honest, but I tried it and I didn't die, so I will probably try it again. I'm a fan of the downhill 30 footers. Yeah, I think it makes sense. I would take issue with whatever his language was

there and calling someone names because of it. I think it's fine. But his point, the annoying thing now is when you're on the green, do you want to enter out? Like that is annoying. Bryson had a good one. I don't know if it was this, I think it was this week. I don't know if it was this week or last week.

When he had like, he had a lag put to, you know, six inches or foot or something. And the broadcast is kind of like when the mics are hot, but then they transition away. So you can still hear what's going on, but you're seeing like a leaderboard or something. And you could hear Bryce and say, okay, can you put the flags back in? And you could, you couldn't see the look that whoever's caddy gave him, but all you could hear was him, yo, no, no, no, I'm just kidding.

No, no, no, no, guys, it was a joke. Guys, hey, no, no, no, guys, come on, I was just kidding. I was just kidding. Yeah, and it was funny to just, a, like, okay, baby, he's got a set to heaver about it. It'd be like, people don't think he has a set to heaver about it, which was kind of a funny little moment. Brice, by the way, Mike the player. about it, it'd be like people don't think he has a sense of humor about it, which was kind of a funny little moment. Right.

By the way, Mike the player. Yeah. Joe Watson 23, Cameron champ is looking more human as the fields get stronger. What do you expect from him this season? Could he contend for a major or is that a stretch? First of all, he's like top 10 in the FedEx cup. Like I don't think, yeah, I'm definitely not as stressed. Getting weaker and the whole point is like the tour sets up so incredibly well for a player of his style.

And we haven't even like really got that stretch of the other. I mean, Capulua, yeah, you guys hit a 400 yards out there, but I don't think it's like a bomber's paradise out there. No, it's kind of a misconception. Yeah, Zach Johnson's one out there. Like, it's not that that, no, I'm not concerned at all with Cam Champ. He's gonna, he's gonna do just fine on the PJ tour. Ryan Moss, what's the biggest mistake

or regret for no laying up the last couple of years? Anything you would change? It's a good question. It is a good question. I'd say there's been a lot of learning moments. There's definitely things you know, you've written, you just learn like, all right, well, we can't go down that alley because one,

it's just not the right platform for it or two, that's not our area of expertise. And like, I've learned a million of those lessons and it leads to just saying less things to be honest. But I don't know if we, I don't know if we would openly admit to like what our biggest regret is. I feel like I might put this behind the paper. Yeah, I might put us in legal trouble. It's on our Patreon page, which we don't have, by the way.

Gosh, I don't know, that's a really good question. It might be, is it, I feel like that deserves a better answer than I'm going to be able to give. Okay, yeah. We can table the spot here. We can. I did not prep you guys for that question, so I forgot. We can, we can table that one for, for another day. There's plenty we would change. Yeah, I would give maybe a cheesy answer, but you know, I think we, I, we should have bet on ourselves and jumped in earlier, maybe full time, but I don't know. That's kind of a bad idea. We might have started up though.

All right. I don't know. I don't have a good answer. It's a good question. One big regret of the past years, I would have stayed at that hotel in Cullen for about two days. Yeah, the, yeah. I always want to call it the dolphin hotel, but it's not a dolphin.

I don't think that's the royal Cullen hotel or something. Yeah, I think so. JR Watkins says, how do you guys only have 17,000 followers on YouTube? It's a good question. Hey listeners, there's a lot more than that than listening to this podcast. Go subscribe to our YouTube channel. We do a lot of stuff on there. So our sauce is almost done. Tuesday we are posting the final

episode. Yeah. And we have a special treat on Wednesday, which will be the debut of No Lying Up's Wild World of Golf. I can't explain it to people, but I just I've never been more confident than something that people will enjoy. And I think that what's going to be really, really fun about this is, I mean, we can let pull back the curtain a little bit. I mean, it's built out. It's a nine-hole match.

It's built out pretty much exactly like a telecast, like a broadcast. It's pretty lengthy. It's about an hour or so. So carve out some time. But we're going to put it live at 8 o'clock on Wednesday night. And which Wednesday is what the 16th. And I think the way YouTube works, we're going to do like a YouTube premiere. So it's going to go live exactly at 8 o'clock, Eastern Standard time. And there's a chat room. You can, you can join while you're watching it live while everybody's watching it live for the first time. And I think this, my favorite thing about knowing

up is that the fans are all way, as a group, just like way smarter and funnier and more clever and more well-read and just have better jokes than any of us. For sure. So, being in the chat room while people are just live roasting, everything is the most fun. It really is. So, so, so fun.

And there, trust me, there is a lot to roast. And we're going to, while the growth of golf. We're going to do a live show that leads into the premiere just because we are that excited about it And we want to do a lot of these in the future and so yes eight o'clock PM Eastern time on Wednesday January 16th and let's go launch them. All right last one from push daddy. What is your favorite shot in golf? So is he saying like what like your favorite shot to play like your favorite like your favorite like type of shot or your favorite like the second shot at X course? Both both who I was thinking of mine of like type of shot, but my favorite shot to play is one that I just put in the bag last year, a little tip from Luke Guthrie, friend of the program.

Basically anything inside kind of like 60 yards, when you have the wind blowing in, it's kind of almost like a tennis drop shot with a pitching wedge. You just kind of cut straight across it and try to basically like to hop it. And it's gonna, into the wind, it's gonna spin like crazy and just stopping it right

because the whole is, oh, it's like the craftiest, most fun shot. I couldn't hit any wedges in Scotland. So that was extremely useful. We've seen useful shots at it. Big Randy. Is it a three foot left or right foot? I think my favorite type of shot to hit is a downhill running pit shot.

So a lot that we saw in Scotland, I'm thinking of you. You're telling it to you, right? Exactly. Where are you gonna bone me on that cold? Well, yeah, it's a little creativity, it's kind of seeing, having a feel for how much it's gonna run,

where to play it, and then just getting to watch it develop. I think that's my favorite. The first thought that came to mind was having a mid to long iron into a back left pin where there's trouble left and just slinging a draw in there. You have room right, but just seeing how how balls of you want to get with it.

Kind of like just the sixth whole Tim Aquana. That approach is always drawing into that par five, just slinging a five or four. That was 16 year old DJ's favorite shot. Yeah, and 31 year old DJ has extreme anxiety about that shot. I'll say again, is it 13 at Jack's Beach would be right up your alley or is it 14, the par three? Yeah, 14.

If they put that flag back left. Definitely. Update on the birdies, birdie every whole at Jack's Beach bet, Tron actually birdied that one the other day. Yeah, he banged a couple. That's a big one. That's a big one. That's an easy front pin.

That was a nice day. It was a good day to get it. So the way we decided, He run like a 40 footer in the fridge too. Yeah, I guess for the people the way we decided to do it is, you just have to do it in 2019. You have to birdie every whole jack speech. There's no handicapping or anything.

It's just, Exactly. We're going to buy some poster board and we're going to have a track where people cross off the numbers or the holes as they do it. And then if you don't do it, you owe $100 to the pot. And any money in the pot at the end of the year will just all gone part of your- have a dinner and drinks or whatever. You're scummy. You're making me have to eagle the pot.

And then we added the soli. That's right. The soliodendum. It's all the us to eagle all the pie. It's gross. So, all right, that was longer than we were playing to go. It's usually how these things go, but I hope everyone has a good week and working on a little longer form podcast that should be out in the coming weeks. It sounds exciting.

It sounds exciting. This should be exciting. It's gonna be fun. And we're gonna keep cranking these things out. In meanwhile, get to the YouTube channel. Subscribe, watch the videos as we wrap Taurusau. Strap is coming back. Strap is coming back. Wild World of Golf. Wild World of Golf. Wednesday, 8pm. Let's do it. YouTube.com slash Be the right club today. Yes! That's better than most. How about in?

That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different.