No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 275: Farmers Recap, and the World Golf Tour!

Episode Date: January 27, 2020

We react to the tragic Kobe Bryant news, how it affected the golf on Sunday, Leish's win, Tiger, and everything else from a fun week at Torrey Pines.  We also go deep into the rumored Premier Golf League (34:00), how it relates to the PGA Tour, what affect Tiger has on its development, and many other comical elements from the PGL press release.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes. That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Thanks for having me guys. DJ Pie here, as always, we can't get rid of him. Thrilled to be here. Thanks for having me. A very weird day in golf. I don't think we can say in golf in the universe. Yeah, in the sports universe, in the universe in general,

it was Kobe Bryant, died tragically in a helicopter accident today. And I don't know about you guys. I, this is not that relevant, but I'm not a big Kobe fan, and I can't recall ever being hit harder by news. I don't know if it's because I found out, as soon as DJ shared it with us, it was almost as immediately after it was released, and I just felt very involved in it,

and I struggled today. Yeah, it was kind of a shot to the head a little bit. I'm trying to know you were driving when you heard it. I don't know, everything kind of just doesn't totally make sense in the moment. Yeah, I mean, I thought it was a hoax or something at first. And then some of the reports that came out prematurely about his family and other Rick Fox and all that

is just awful. I mean, but like, I guess but I guess the TMZ broke it before they notified his family too. So anyway. Really, I don't know if I heard that today, or just a little bit ago. But I mean, I think use this pod to not think about it. Yeah, I think for sure.

We're going to address it and kind of talk a little bit about how they addressed it on the broadcast and such. But yeah, we're going to try to leave that as much in the dust as we can. But if I can't comment very well on things that happen someday, I comprehended very little today. Yeah, I think it was one of those things for me that I've thought about this with big world events a lot recently, where it seems like everybody, you know, we spend so much time online. That's where a lot of this community sprung up from and, you know, it seems like a lot

of you listening to this, spend a lot of time online as well. And it just seems like everybody's emotions are just running at 200 miles per hour all the time. And everything is almost like pedal to the metal emotionally that when something like this, that's even in another stratosphere. Like it's hard to even feel like you're giving it the weight that it deserves because it feels like people are just

saying the same cliches all the time constantly. And today was definitely one of those days where it just words like, I'm with you. I'm not a huge Kobe fan by any means. Like I didn't watch a ton of basketball when I was a kid and all of those things, but yeah, it's hard to feel like you're even putting it in perspective because you just use the same words constantly all the time.

And so yeah, it was just a very weird feeling all day. And I want to be sympathetic towards having, I do not envy those at all that are in the position of being live on television to talk about this while it's happening, but it was very weird how it all went down on the broadcast and that FALDO went from suggesting that Tiger, the CBS came out and said that Tiger knew about it that Lakava had told him. They said Lakava had, and then they know it then they confirmed. They said, I think they said we don't know if, there was tweets they were sent out, it's like CBS was reporting.

I know Dottie said, like I can confirm Lakava knows. I don't know that she outright said, now Tiger knows. I'd have to see that. Well then Fowdo went as far to suggest that Tiger should take a break from his round and release a statement, like a one minute statement to the camera while he was making the turn. Fowl was incoherent this weekend.

I mean, I can't think of anything that's more absurd. One, he didn't know and two, what? Like it's just, I don't wanna start this from the top. Just ripping CBS, but that's just something that, like I can't fathom how wrong about a situation you could be. And he said that we're lucky in golf, we've only had this happen to pain Stewart, I get the top.

I just don't, yeah, I don't know. I'm with you, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, there's plenty of things to roast CVS about, I'll give them a pass on trying to react to world breaking news in the middle of a golf tournament, which I don't think any of those guys are really, or gals, are really prepared to totally do. The only kind of cheap golf connection I'll make

to the Kobe news is, I'm glad Tiger didn't win today because, you know, say what you want about the Sneed record and some of its kind of manufactured, some of its, it's whatever, but, you know, Tiger has referenced for his entire career, how much it means to get to 83. Like I gotta get to 83 first, I gotta do that, I gotta do that, I gotta do that.

And if that would have happened today, when he couldn't have had the whole day to himself, that would have been really shitty. So I was a big, I was a big Kobe guy. I'm a big Kobe guy. Just like the whole mom, the thing is sick. And there's something about aviation accidents that whether it be playing crashes or helicopter crashes,

like Steve Ray Vaughn, one of my favorite musicians of all time, they're like the finality of it and the suddenness of it that makes it so much more, it's just jarring. Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, and it always seems to happen in the most unexpected of times, too. You know? Yeah, it's a struggle, man. There's no words you can say to make it better, or I don't know.

I think, yeah. It just hit, man. I can't imagine it being someone in sports that I actually looked up to very close. You know what I mean? If I got hit that hard by it, I'm struggling to transition to golf, but I think it's up to very close. You know what I mean? It's just like, if I gotta hit that hard by it, it, yeah, I'm struggling to transition to golf, but I think it's time to do that. Mark Leishman, final round 65 to win by one over John Robbe, Robb finished with a fury by the very first five.

I've under in his last six with a bogey to just miss out by one. Leish putt it his ass off. Like look at, like, he had positive stroke game putting on like 14 of 18 holes today, which is almost impossible to do. And he missed a six footer on the third. I don't know. He did drive it great, which we'll get to at a certain point,

but also just, I tweeted that out mostly just to make fun of Tori Pines and how like, like what are we doing here? You don't even have to, the T-Shots are so inconsequential. It's almost swinging in the opposite direction of the T-Shots being so valuable in so many other courses that now it's like,

oh yeah, I get, it's super narrow, fairway. It's like, it doesn't matter if you hit them. I was surprised. Which is weird, is that being in Lonto, didn't, I didn't know. I thought he was gonna tear it up this way. Is it because the, I genuinely don't know, is it because like the rough is not,

the ball doesn't sit down, is it sit like, is it sit up in that rough or why is it so inconsequential? Cause it seems long enough, it seems. I think it's a common issue. I don't know if it's seen, I don't know. Yeah, a combination of a lot of things in that they're so narrow that everyone's gonna miss them. Like some of the narrowest fairways on tour

and just with the dispersion pattern that comes with a Torpro like averaging whatever it is like 295 or whatever they average off the tee like 26 27 yards is not wide enough to maintain even like the straightest of drivers. And it's also like the playing corridors there are so wide especially with all the tree removal that it's like whether you're a yard offline or like 20 yards offline, it doesn't really matter. So like guys just swing. You can get it up around the frame, just like hit it far.

And actually, and the tiger's benefited, a ton from this in the past, like blowing it further offline into the crowd where it's trampled, go right, go, go, go, go, way right, go, way, way, leash gave us a go way right at one point today. I was like shout out to the cat right there. The shot that leash hit on, I mean shit, some of those puts, that stretched from 10 through 14 or 15.

He had like a 20 foot par save. He had an eight foot par save, a 12 foot par save. But the shot that he hit on, which he made, he won by one, like the point out, oh, totally. But he was gonna win by a lot. And all those puts that he made turn out to be very, very consequential.

The shot that he hit on 14, from the right, to get that on the green. I was listening to that one hole when he was in the right rough. No, like that one was legitimately way, way right. And he was kind of on that upslope and had to get it under those trees. The fact that he got that on the green was on the otherworldly.

He made a 20 footer for par on 12. He made a 20 footer for par on 12. He made a 12 footer for par on 14. He made a 8 footer for par on 15. The one on 14 that you're talking about, I think it was 14, was not to make this a broadcast thing, and I don't know what you do differently, but the broadcast is not capable of showing how hard that was. No.

You got a sense of it that, like, oh my God, how did he sneak that onto the front quadrant? But it's so, like, I don't know what they could do differently that would show just how F'd he was. I think some of that comes back to, we talked about a month ago from, from, uh,

rural Melbourne is just some of the high, the high towers. Yeah. Flat and everything out. Because there's a lot more movement at Tori than it looks like. Yeah. There are a couple of views in number four. They're actually like, dude,'s a lot more movement in Tory than right. Yeah.

They had a couple of views in number four. They're actually like, dude, like that is where it's at right there. Yeah. Those handheld cameras, which you know, they, I'll give, see best credit for that. They use a lot more handhelds, which, I love the handhelds. The handhelds are way better view. Now, it's like they just don't have nearly enough cameras set up elsewhere. I actually don't want to, I mean, we could spend an hour taking down this broadcast as we go,

I don't want it. I actually for once I'm gonna bypass the opportunity to do it. Like it was so bad, I'm with DJ on this. Like it was so bad that it's not even like we're at the job. They are who we thought they were. It's always jarring the first one to do it. It was. Yeah, like maybe it'll be different. The only thing worth discussing is like,

really got rid of Costas and McCord for like, Davis Love. And I like Davis Love, listen, but it would, it's not, he and Justin Leonard are tough scenes. The idea that that was going to change the game is just so indicative of the issue that it's not even worth discussing. I believe Lou Brown called it re-arranging Martini. Cocktail Martini's on the Hindenburg.

Martini olives. Martini olives. Yeah, sorry. In Martini's. Right, yeah, that sounds about right. Sorry Lou, I kind of put you to the... Which, to their credit, or to their credit, or discredit. Martini olives. Yeah, sorry. In Martini. Right. Sounds about right. Sorry, I kind of put you to their credit or to their credit or discredit. Nothing's going to change until Mr. Lance is gone.

Which is the end of this year, correct? Correct. Yeah. So it's going to be like this all year. So we're not going to spend every hour of every episode doing it. Just know that we hate it and you probably hate it too. They missed Rob's eagle yesterday. Yeah, they didn't even address it.

And Rob called about, that was awesome. Like the first highlight they show in his poster on interviews, they're like, all right, they hear her on six. He's like, wait, I made eagle on two. And Daly knows it's like, oh yeah, we weren't on the air yet. It's like, yeah, you actually were.

But that's fine. How many shots did they show at least yesterday? That's another thing. It's like the reason why we scream about them not showing people, this is already after we said, we're not gonna talk about the broadcast, but it is because they didn't show least at all

in round three and he won the fucking golf tournament. Oh. All right, now I'm worked out. Now we can get going. The cat, the cat was impressive this week. I mean, he just like didn't blow any one away, but I mean, the way just we're a little bit rusty. Yeah, it's a little dicey, but like we don't know what we're going to get from him when he teased it up. And he seemed very much in control

and very confident, very cool, very legal, very legal, very cool. The mid-Irns were pornographic. Yeah, it was, I know it's a place is obviously very, very comfortable at, but that was a very encouraging start to the year. And some cold weather too. I mean, that's kind of the issue with him is the back with the cold and sweater weather. Sweater weather. You never know what you're gonna get in a sweater weather. All the delays yesterday too.

At the site of the deactivation. Exactly. That's gotta be a tough seed for him, but. And his ball spinning out of the hole. Oh, I don't understand that. I still don't understand that. I don't think I've ever seen that at any point, a ball going, it's like submerging and coming out of the hole. I don't understand that. I still don't understand that. I don't think I've ever seen that at any point, a ball going, it's like submerging

and coming out of it like that. Yeah, it was great to see. I don't think we're gonna see any crazy stuff with the schedule for him. It sounds like he's shutting it down until Riviera. I don't think there's any huge takeaway other than like that was great to see. Everyone that's a few people are bitching about this

and bitching about like them following every one of Tiger steps, like that is totally and reasonably expected. He was in the golf tournament, people wanted to an in-disease Tiger, I don't wanna hear that as a complaint for CBS. Yeah, I agree. Do not misconstrue our issues with them

to have anything to do with the fact they show a lot of Tiger Woods. You guys wanna hear a stat? So Tiger finished T9. have anything to do with the fact they show a lot of Tiger Woods. You guys want to hear a stat? So Tiger finished T9. He's played 360 PGA Tour events and finished in the top 10, 199 times. That's what I was talking about. That's what I was talking about.

That's what I was talking about. That's what I was talking about. That's what I was talking about. That's what I was talking about. That's what I was talking about. That's what I was talking about. That's what I was talking about. That's what I was talking about.

That's what I was talking about. That's what I was talking about. That's what I was talking about. That's what I was talking about. That's what I was talking no. Like imagine, I don't even know how to state it. Like you see these young players and like, oh man, top 10, it's really gonna get a season going. Like that's huge. It's like no, he does it more than half the time. He tees it up. How much, and I wonder how much that's come down even with all the, you know, he had the scandal years.

Does that stash, did you got there? Have how much tax money he has paid just from this week in his career alone? It's a lot of California tax. Like, he's double digit millions of taxes paid just from the farmers insurance his career alone. A lot of California tax. Like, a double digit million tax is paid just from the farmers insurance. Yeah, unbelievable, which is, I want to see somebody compile this

where he would be in the career earnings just at the farmers. I bet he'd be top 150 in the career. Probably, yeah. Above or below, JJ Henry. I bet he'd be top 100, easily top 100, seven time tour winner. JJ's a master lot of money.

As he all goes back to the greatest take of all time, J.J. Henry. I bet it'd be top one, easily top one hundred, seven time tour winner. J.J. is a massive lot of money. As you all goes back to the greatest take of all time, that J.J. Henry is like a predatory lender going from Trond, going into small markets, Reno, Malene, and just fleeting these, hard for just fleeting these poor people out of money. That was the highlight of the PGA show last week, the purple monster.

So two highlights, walking around, purple mombo had a purple shirt underneath his sport coat in a purple pocket square. And then after you guys left on Thursday, I'm walking around. I'm like, was that Jim Caldwell, the former cult's coach? I do a double take. I went I went around that. No, I was Jim Moore. Oh Jim, Jim Caldwell is the one that always had that blank expression. And I did a double take and act like I dropped something and I went back. Sure enough, Jim Carwell, you know, what was his credential?

Probably industry pro or something. We are not gonna break down the PGA show. I've stopped by stop. Going back to Ram, so I was listening on the radio today. Did we get a, I didn't hear one. I know what you're gonna, he's really keeping his emotions in check. I did not get one.

You kind of low-key seem like he was keeping. I actually was gonna do it. Yeah, because it sounded like I thought it was gonna be an absolute fucking melt. I can't wait. I have a tweet ready for whatever it does. It's like, yeah, Rob is really keeping it in in motion and checking in with Ram, he actually stabbed a fan with a broken club shot.

Can we get some of those people from the first responders all over here? Ram just murdered three fans. Huge first responders seen out there this week. Massive first responders seen, which is really cool for Randy and he's a big first person. Yeah, maybe we don't have to get into it.

Can you guys? Some liberty's taken with that flag. That's, there's some interesting stuff around promoting that heavily at a PJ Tour event, but we can talk about that later. Can you guys help me with something here? The broadcast sucks. The course is boring.

The leaderboard bunches. Why is this tournament so entertaining every year? Because the leaderboard is always good. But it always feels like a super ball to me. Is it just because there's no football this week and feels like people are really engaged? It always feels huge. As much as I love Sony, it's essentially

the first big tournament in here. I think all of this is eight kickoffs. I think all of this is the cat. Yeah, you're giving, you're looking for reasons other than the obvious one here, which is just, but it's not there. But that's what I'm saying, it's all residual cat. Okay. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah what I'm saying, it's all residual cat effect.

You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. I'm serious. It's like, it's how people thought that like Wells Fargo was a really premier event because cat played it like three times. And all of a sudden it's like, God, this field fucking stinks. You know, I mean, well, it's gotten better,

but you know what I'm saying? But you know, you got, you got Rob typically plays well. Rory was in the field this week. That was massive. Yeah, Rory, any comment on Rory? I mean, he kind of spit the bit today. I was shocked to see him shoot 69 after starting. Bogey, three have his first four holes.

It's like badly built them too. Yeah. Rory just doesn't strike me as a great Poa guy. I don't know if you see it. He's never had really success on the West Coast, and I feel like I'm about to have an egg on my face, but off top of my head, he's never really match played Harding Park,

but that's all that really is spring in the mind. Play well, Chambers Bay, obviously. Yeah, that was like, that was a different Poah. That was like the Mega Poah. That was the wrong kind of Poah, that was the broccoli Poah. But he doesn't seem like a West Coast swing guy. I mean, Tiger obviously grew up on that guy.

He played well with Riviera. Am I making that? I don't really think he's done a whole lot of Riviera. I think there's an important distinction with Poah. Because I happen to be on the right Poah, I make fucking everything. But then at Pebble, I couldn't get the ball within four feet of the hole.

So I think there's bumpy, soft poa, and then there's the kind of poa that more like the Tori poa that seems firmer. And chose to the course, it's kind of an easy whipping boy, I think. But they spent $14 million on it. So I would hope they made some changes. I think Reese Jones is collecting his paychecks with a ski mask. It's like no bid contracts out to the city of San Diego, but... Oh, yeah.

No, it's San Diego parks. Gotcha. But I liked some of the stuff that they've done. The fairways run into some of the bunkers, some of the new T-boxes. I don't know. It seemed like it was progress, right of the new T-boxes. I don't know. It seemed like it was progress, right? $14 million worth of progress.

Well, yeah, and I know irrigation's expensive and all that. But I mean, when the US open goes there, there's no possible way they don't like cut down some of that rougher on the greens, right? I mean, that is so dumb and so boring. Especially for how, like you said earlier, how wide the corridors are, you could make it extremely, like just firm up the greens and make it extremely how, like you said earlier, how wide the corridors are, you could make it extremely,

like just firm up the greens and make it extremely about, like, you know, cut down all the surrounds. And cool, like if you miss the green, you're gonna have an impossible, well I think 25-yard pitch coming back. I think the thing that all the architecture people always say is, you know, you're on this spectacular site

and you don't really use any of the cliffs, right? Which, who knows, maybe the reasons, like erosion reasons, or I don't really know why. Maybe it's just bad architecture too, but you know, it's not like we're watching earlier, texting or something. Was the snettaker that hit that shadow four? Oh God, he was just like a dead poll hook.

You're looking at it and you're like, do that needs to be in the ocean. And maybe you can't move the green closer, but maybe there's things you can do on softening those, or harshening, whatever you want to say, but to your point, cutting down some of the rough, cutting down some of these catching spots. Like a control mudslide.

Yeah. Just making it so there's more teeth in some of those. It seemed like they did move a couple of them closer to the cliffs, right? They moved the fourth fairway closer to the cliff, but that approach, as soon as the hitty, it was just a dead pull hook. I'm like, from 220 yards, my dude, that has to be whatever is over there, that has to be off the planet. And it just like stopped in the rough. And he just, I don't know if he got, I don't remember if he got

up and down or what, but it looked like, so take the 15th hole. Rom today was in the right rough. And he tries to play the left of the green. And I don't know if this is newer now, but they have actually had fairway, tries to play the left of the green. And I don't know if this is new or not, but they actually had fairway like around the left side of the green. I do not remember. And his ball rolled down the fairway and rolled into the back of a bunker. Instead of stopping and just like ankle deep rough near the green, it rolled to the down sub of the back of a bunker.

And he made a bogey like that was like a deserved. How the way around those greens it should play. And so I got just cramming balls over them and it's stopping two feet over the green. Like it just is so boring and repetitive. It's letting the greens rub a little bit more. More up. There you go. There you go.

Brandt's netacre hits some of the squirrely shots sometimes. He's on that plane with web. Well, so I just picked up on this this past week too. When he puts, he uses what they call a pot stroke It's kind of like a shorter little stroke here watch for that the next Some of his misses though. I feel I feel a certain kinship with him because his tempo so quick Totally. Yeah, dude. I got I got that move that kind of quick. You're coming out of it or you know straight I forget when was it the year Ernie won,

that he played really well at the British Open, and we got to Saturday, and he was total control, and then all of a sudden, yeah, by tempo, exactly, that kind of stuff, you're like, oh my God, this guy does not look comfortable. Yeah, before we continue, I want to talk more to it, before we go, can you guys tell me, what do Madeline, Sags, Strim and Mark Leishman

have in common? Well, they both hoisted trophies this week. I know. They were both toer winners on Sunday. They also have a lot of similarity with regards to the clubs and their golf bags. Oh my God. Sagsdram was the first player on a major worldwide tour

to win with the new Callaway Maverick driver and Leishman quickly followed. Sagsdram who ranked 127th in Driving Accuracy hit all 14 fairways on Sunday. And so did Mark Leachman. They weren't the holes that he was playing. Yeah, like they didn't show those on TV. Yeah, they showed the three.

He did hit 14 fairways, just not the ones he was aiming at. He walked down all 14 fairways. Exactly. He did hit three fairways, of course. He drove it well the rest of the week, just not Sunday. That's what I was going to say. Imagine how well he must have drove it the rest of the week to even be in contentious. And also Madeline hit all 14 fairways on Friday, which is pretty

sick. Made some incredible up and downs over the course of the day with the jaws wedges that both she and Leishman game. Well, I was a little bit worried about Leish coming into 18 flashbacks. I was going to see how it's slowed down. I was going to say, man, that shot doesn't look that hard. How did Kyle Staley spin it off there twice? It was a lot. We had had longer to go and his ball landed on the slope. So it just gave it like the mega juice and then it rolled back.

Well, maybe don't land it. But leash was brand of jobs wedge. He was but he was closer to that little less. That's like smarter. Yeah. I know this is an ad read, but this is a personal testimonial. There's wedges spin. So much.

I would be scared to hit that shot, but at least might be a little more qualified to handle it than we are. When it came to putting, you guessed it, they're both rolling Odyssey putters. Madeline had the new Stroke Lab black marksman, but it pretty much makes it impossible to put a bad stroke on the ball. And also look like Leish didn't miss a 15 footer. We already talked about that down the stretch. It was pretty good day for the number one driver on major worldwide tours and the number one putter and golf.

Maverick was also the most played cowboy driver across major tours. How about that? This past week. And they won the driver count on the LPG. The cowboy won the driver count on the LPG tour. Real quick, note on Saagstrom. She's she. She was working in 2017. Like her career's off to a very good start. Swedish, you know, not like as a rookie on the Soularm Cup. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I probably goes to show you to just how little depth there is on the European side of the Soularm Cup, but NASA, Hataoka almost went back to back. That is not included within this ad, but yes, for more on the ad. Now we're still on the ad. Visit calaigolf.com for more info.

Anything else from Tori before we move on? We mentioned Tyler and McCumber. Clean card. Six plate with the cat. That was kind of gave a little bit of it back today, but that was a wild, personally. That was a very wild pairing to see Baker. My, of course, my former partner at the web.com junior shootout,

fantasy football, you know, compatriot of ours. And Tyler McCumber who I think maybe last saw upstairs at the kill house when he came over here to do a trap draw. Like, I'm next on the tee. These two guys and tiger fucking woods. They go, that's cool.

That's cool. Pretty much every day it pulled me in the little coffee shop. But McCumber, I mean, pretty cool them to, like, to ignore Tyler McCumber's son of a 10 time tour winner. I'm trying pretty cool of them to, like, the, to ignore, I know. I'm a newcomer. Son of a 10-time tour winner. I'm trying not to do the CVS stuff, but it's like, man, I wonder why nobody knows who these guys are.

It's like, here's a young kid. He's like the opposite of everybody on tour. He loves surfing. He's like a super introspective, smart traveler. Like, really interesting, dude. Playing with Tiger Woods, you have every fucking camera in the world already out there following him and it's like, oh, yeah, we're over here at 17. Apparently he's played pretty well. We're told.

Cool, man. We talked about this a little bit, how, you know what, help, weirdly, I'm so much more engaged in a tournament during CBS week because I'm like, wait, I think I got you moments. I'm a detective. Trying to figure out what the hell is going on in the tournament. Like I have to pull up a leaderboard to be like, oh shit, like Harry Higgs is making a move. Shout out to Harry too.

Wow, he was impressive and he got a lot of, he has a vibe and a half coming down the 18th, anyway, people were loving that. Zach had a, Zach Blair had a decent week, kind of, he's gonna make any punts. He's making punts. He made a punts. He had a super fan following around to shout out to the trouts layer.

Trouts layer. If anybody saw any video, I think Zach was plusin' some of my Instagram but just screaming after every putt. Blair! Blair, let's go! We're gonna try to get him on the trout draw. Me too.

I also shout out to the tour for puttin' Colin Moricawa in the, or as, Moriama. That's all. Moriama says. Also shout out to the tour for putting Colin Morricawa in the or as more yama In a featured pairing like that's like that. That was a cool move for them to put him with Tiger first first Also, I wouldn't give a shout out. I love when they do when they've got two courses first Yeah, it's so much fun to figure out all right these guys all put on the North Core he's on the South. He's got five on on the South.

Yeah, I love prognoste king based on that stuff. Last year, he'd be a super pro. He'd make a bigger field too. Somebody tweeted, I forget who it was, I apologize. Somebody goes, oh, fuck. Azinger's actually good. Just like after watching this week. Oh no, the speed thing is real.

The weekend thing is unfortunately very real. Species now outside the top 50 for the first time in six and a half years, which is, I mean, is that bad? Maybe. So he's probably going to miss match played. I'm going to see. Uh, I don't know. We'll see.

I forget when he does a cut off the week before. Am I? I feel like pebble and LA coming up. Yeah. Got to be pretty. It's top 64 though, right? Yeah Pebble and LA coming up. Yeah. Got to be pretty. It's top 64 though, right? Yeah. It's not, top 50.

He's plummeting, but I'm sure he's plummeting quickly now. Yeah. Yeah. It's not good. And I was so, gosh, I was so excited. I'm like Thursday for I day. Like how speed's got to 400? This, I'm going to be parked on the couch this weekend.

Well, the reason to be optimistic was that his birdie average was still insane and that he was still like birding 20% of the whole top ten on torn birdie average. Just needed to clean up the biggie. Just offsetting it with so many bogies and it just doesn't make sense to have that volatility. So if you're optimistically looking at it, you're saying, oh yeah, just clean it up a little bit and you're fine. But if that continues, obviously, this is going to be the same story every week. Baker shot 78 today

Last thing about Tory for me was this is for sure the most obvious statement of the week Rory hit like four or five shots this week that I'm like, oh my god Nobody else on the planet can do that and look easy And I know the five wood out of the bunk today was absurd. The one yesterday was like, I think it was on 12, 190 into the wind, right up against the lip, he just lifts probably like a seven iron or something. And bursts.

Just lifts it straight up, drops it completely softly, a three feet from the hole. I'm like, this is not the same sport that a lot of these guys are playing. How does this guy not win every single week? Well, it didn't feel like he had his anywhere close to his stuff, but I don't know what that was the biggest week I can remember as far as just Really highlighting what he can do that other people can't do. Yeah, get him on some greens that he knows well

I think we can see it. We're gonna see him. I think he could even have a better year this year than last year I think Riviera in a few weeks is gonna be totally yeah All right, that's gonna be awesome. Are we ready to get to the highlight of this show? World tour baby. Can we talk Dubai for a second? Sure. Yeah, I have that on there after the World tour, but we can talk Dubai if you want. We can... I mean, I feel like it kind of rolled down a little bit too. Sure. Yeah, you got Lucas Herbert, who, you know, a fellow excavator for Patrick Reed. How quickly we forget at this event last year. It was 2019, Dubai.

Way worse than the Reed one. Way worse. And he got pilloried. Yeah. In the Australian media and. But I didn't, I didn't see many. I don't follow. Same two-stroke penalties are we got.

I didn't see a ton of people really floating that around. I'm guessing security wasn't removing a bunch of Reed cheater-y yellers as they were. And her dad was standing there. This week, right? Definitely. They were at removing people that were harassing Mr. Reed from the port.

You, you, you, out of here. So Ryan Palmer ejected somebody on TV this past week. And nobody seemed to get all up in arms about it. Like they did when JT did it at the Honda. Yeah, listen, man, life's not fair. I don't know what you are. I don't know what you are. I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out.

I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out.

I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out.

I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out. I'm just pointing that out. Is it Mike Stone? I believe so, yeah. And there's a full album of acoustic guitar songs about Arnold Palmer. Hello, Arnie. What is your army? So one song is called Thank You, Arnie. Perantacies, where your army remixed, too. I did a double tag.

I sent it to the guys last night. It's another one one week in April. I believe it's called. It's kind of stuck in my head. I did a double tag. I sent it to the guys last night. Another one week in April. I believe it's called. It's kind of stuck in my head. I did not, uh, did not appreciate that. Might need to be a, uh, yeah, might need to change the intro music. Bryson getting put on the clock on the back nine and melting down. Yeah. You guys see the picture of him in front of the enormous Omega watch ad? I was like, trying so hard to come up with it sweet like the European tour added again with their half-picked ideas on how to fight slow play Yeah, bogey the last four holes to shoot 76. How many shots back did he finish? Who told please that's a great question

It was it kind of set up the a great day and then few guys kind of spit the bit Eddie Eddie Papparel Fleetwood didn't play well. Bryce and obviously lit himself on fire. So it was a little bit of a dud down the stretch as far as the actual action goes. But I think you've got to think a lot of these guys are saving their energy for Royal Greens golf club next week. Correct.

The first major of the year, Bryce and did finish four back after Bogeymore last four holes after we put on the clock on the back nine, which is tremendous. But he said he was welcoming the new slow play initiatives. So I'm going over the field list for the Saudi event next week. Brooks, Dustin, Patrick Reed, Oxe, and do not see Bryson's name on that. I thought he was in. I kind of just assumed he was in. I know he definitely played last year and was helping grow the game in the Kingdom last

year. One name that stood out, Sebastian Crampton, he's an American guy, was on the McKenzie tour last year, got a sponsor's exemption, the Saudi event. He graduated from Cal Cal Berkeley in 2019. That just stuck out to me. Like, who? Why? Can we just discuss?

So I think we've touched on it like with Saudi. Like why? What we kind of, I don't know, we talked about it a bit last week. But what we think of, why we're quick to criticize the top players in the game for playing it versus like regular European tour players or other players. Is there a difference in your guys' mind?

I think so for sure. Is there, you know, like a humanist difference? No, probably not, but from a career perspective, I get why. I mean, Auxche is like a good example of someone that's like, man, you got no status anywhere and you got to make something happen. How do you, you know, how do you turn down a opportunity to go possibly do something huge and get status on the Euro tour and just start running downhill? But or a guy like a richy Ramsey or somebody like that who every, every shot

counts, every point counts in the race back to Dubai. But if you're literally just showing up to, you know, as you said, you got the scheme asked on you, just put the fucking money in the bag, let's go. That's what I think is not quite as good. Important to spell out is like the way I try to view it. With my old job, if I was assigned to go to Saudi Arabia on a work trip, I'd be like, yeah, okay, I gotta do that.

But like with this job, if our responsibility was like, hey, you guys can go and just say amazing things about it and collect a big fat paycheck for doing it. Or there's also other things you have the option of doing that are more morally sound, which would you choose? And we would have a decision in that regard, and we would probably, and we would not go. I can spend it, we said.

We actually had that decision last year. The cast doesn't, he said no. And we said no. So I think there is just an important distinction between like Phil going over, growing the game in the kingdom, getting a shitload of money from... Well, no, that's a part of the world

that he's never been before. He wanted to explore it. And he got an extra two days to explore it. Yeah, it's a nice weekend in Rihad, which he hopefully didn't bring his bombs with him. And also the breathtaking views of the Red Sea that Brooks is traveling to go see. So congratulations to them.

Come again. Plus the other thing is, people will house it different than China, or like China's not the one funding the HSBC, like WGC, or the Turkish Airlines open. Like it isn't funded by Erdogan. Like it's funded by a private company, you know? Now we've ready to loop it all in, bring it all together.

Please. I've been chomping at the bin. I'm gonna do a little bit of fact reading here for the most part, just to set the scene in case you guys haven't. Because basically, you can dive too quickly into this and not really understand what's going on. And I've been through this exercise already this weekend, and it's a good to just come, take a full view of it.

We actually had a conversation at the PGA show this year, like, guys, why is nobody talking, I've not heard anyone, I've not seen any reports, and we've kind of had internal discussions about this world tour for a while. I think we were kind of agreed. Like maybe we should talk about it this week on the pod.

Like, hey guys, this is going on, and all of a sudden then Shackleford drops this bomb on Thursday. Which shall it to Shackleford for a few? Yeah, great scoop. And it's impressive reporting. So multiple sources have confirmed a Jeff Shackleford.com. And after years of attempting to commence the World Golf

Group's vision with a 2020 start date, organizers are making another fervent bid to lure top players away from the PGA in European tours with plans to start in 2022 or 2023. The concept was first revealed by Reuters in 2018 has alternatively been known as the World Golf Tour or Tour de Force, which seems like that's out. But it seems like already as well, they've been rebred.

It's literally the dumbest name I've ever heard in my life. But it's so dumb that it's great. Maybe. We could have that debate, too. What would you prefer? World Golf Series or Tour de Force? World Golf Series. Oh, could have that debate. Seriously, but. What would you prefer? World golf series or tour de force? World golf series. Oh, no, they're not out of here.

The premier golf league. Premier golf league is great. PGL, Philip George Landis. It's big Randy's real name, PGL. So we, Tron got emailed a Q&A for the PGL. Which why did I get that? We don't know, but we're gonna read. They're journalists.

A lot of those answers. the Q&A is unbelievable. The answers to this, it's like, it is like written as Tron would write, like the answers to it. So we may have to. There's no background. I guess who's asking these questions? I got it from just comms.

And it's like, it's an official email address and it's got the premiere golf league with their three T's logo there. But further to the official statement issued to the media yesterday evening, please find attached an interview transcript which clarifies key information relating to the premiere golf league and its objectives. Signed to the comms team. We're going to get to a lot of it.

There's no part of it lists who's asking the questions, who's answering the questions, who this whole press release is coming from. So we just needed absolutely point out the ridiculousness of that upfront. That all of these answers that we're going to be like reading from and quoting, go in eyes wide open that literally we have no idea who these people are. It could be the soft bank guy in Japan.

It could be the crown prince, the MBS. I'm picturing it as somebody hacked into Bezos' phone, it could have been, it could have come straight from Jeff Bezos. I'm picturing somebody that I have to talk muffled, like with the Mike Vick thing. It's like, whoa, so the world for, the world for, it's kind of like club, I've read it in the kind of the club pro guy voice. He could be involved. He loved.

So, Steini of all people was the only agent willing to go on record with Shackleford. Well, do I want to get some of the details out on what this is first? That's what this is going to, I believe, unveil it shortly. Two other well-known player representatives confirmed that the concept had serious legitimacy and that players were considering the proposal. Three other agents contacted, declined a comment. Four players with knowledge of the proposal would only confirm details fearful of fines for discussing a potential PGA tour competitor, which is a big element of this, which we'll discuss. The original concept presented by the group featured an 18 event schedule from January to September, with 48 player fields vying for $10 million each week,

highlighted by a season ending team championship. We'll get into the team element of that as well. The World Golf Group's current proposal has since been adjusted after feedback from players is now aiming for 10 events. So this was in the Shack of Hard Report. This was not in the, what they listed out. They still had everything as 18 events. Correct. The group is retaining a Formula 1 style team component complete with managers and potential

drama surrounding players who are signed benched or released from Franchises those franchises offered to a group of mega star players who could retain ownership past their playing days Will be capable of generating equity value between 350 million and 750 million dollars along with 4% of the idea where that number came from No idea World series groups lobbying efforts was a major topic during this week's PJ tour player meeting from the Farmer's Insurance Open. Commissioner Jay Monhan flew in from Ponte Vigia Beach

headquarters in Gage and substantial discussion with players about the pitfalls of the concept. Couple of things about that. To call it a, that makes it sound like it was a meeting about the, whatever the hell this is called, the tour de force for lack of a different name. That's not true. It was a player meeting that they have every year.

Which he, I think, always or almost always attends. And based on everything that we heard, there was one question asked, shout out to Justin Rose. And so it was basically they got through the player meeting where they're talking about pensions and exemptions and starts and whatever and then there was a Q&A portion at the end Or one player Justin has brought it up monahan gave one answer and that was the end So this there's gonna be some like I kind of makes it sound like holy shit the players are meeting about this I need to hop on the jet and fly in that not necessarily yes commissioner

What can you tell me about this world golf sir? Will I have to give up my partnership with Morgan Stanley? Sources say defectors would face complications related to the releases necessary to play in non-PGA Torbents and loss of eligibility in the Taurus lucrative pension program among other matters. Do you want to detail us on what that is? Just the releases that are needed for PGA Tour members to play in other events. Yeah. So as it's written right now in the PGA Tour handbook, basically says, not basically, literally says, no PGA Tour member shall participate in any other golf

tournament or event on a date when a PGA Tour co-sponsored tournament or event for which such member is exempt is scheduled. And so what that means is, you know, if you are a member of the PGA Tour and someone wants you to go play in their, you know, any, literally any event. Think of the match. Yeah, the match is a good example of something that like that was going on, although that wasn't technically on the same date, but still it's an outside PGA tour, you know, outside the PGA tour event. So they needed to have it sanctioned by the PGA tour. Officially, Tiger and Phil had to have releases sign. I'm sure there was a substantial seven-figure amount of money that changed hands in order for the match organizers to make that like copacetic

with the PJ tour, but yeah, basically it's the PJ tour's defense so that, you know, and it's not just something like this doesn't pop up. It's anything that affects their media rights, right? They're engaging in any competition. Yeah, outside of the PJ tour, basically the tour owns those media rights, which again, that's wildly inconvenient

for other media folks, but of course, it makes sense for me, PGA tour perspective, why they would do that. If you're the tour, you want to own these rights, these rights are worth the entire tour to you. That's what your value is. Right? I mean, it's not a ridiculous that the tour would kind of flex this muscle. No, no, no, no, totally.

But at the same time, the tour also signs releases to go play. That's what I was gonna say. That's how he wrote. So, yes, for sure. So, I think the way it's written in the handbook, players basically can lobby for up to like three releases per year, probably not gonna get 18 releases.

I wouldn't think. Or 10, I wouldn't think that's probably gonna happen. But yeah, right now that's why you, you know, if you're Bryson, you can go play in Dubai. It's because usually the tour will cut a deal. I'm like, okay, if you're skipping this event, you probably gotta play it next year, or if you're, you know, those kinds of things.

Cooture in Singapore. Cooture in Singapore is another good one. But yeah, I mean, that goes all the way to, you know, if you were doing a hypothetical web-based competition series, like, yeah, the tour might have some feelings about that as well. Even if you're on the corn fairy tour. Exactly, really.

Yeah, so yeah, it all makes sense when you drill down into it, but that's why. Financing is believed to come from a combination of sources, including Tokyo-based soft bank and private equity investment from several regions including the United States and the Middle East. That's not concerning at all. Each eight month season will begin in January. Compresiv 18 events 10 of which will be played in the US. Others airing during US prime time. Again, this is different than what the PGL questionnaire talks about. And then that news dip broke today. Shout out to Evan Priest, could scoop there about the, like the Australian Open, Singapore Open, the Dunhill,

few other events are in negotiations with where I don't know how you would, I mean, I guess I'm pretty much for the heart of the heart. I'm not sure how you have a 48 person national open. That's very much brilliant. Yeah. Yeah, play hard very much trillion. Yeah. Yeah, play hard, Jason Day and Adam Scott. Rather than the traditional board,

there will be three days of stroke play competition, 54-holes tournament, no cut. With the quote, you don't send the world's best players home early. That was sick. It's like a press release, but there's also these little jabs sprinkled throughout these little like editorial lines. I'm spoiling it. Some of that. The first two days we'll have a shotgun start to fit with a five hour broadcast window. So no slow air.

This is like a direct quote. So no slow air. And each final day we'll go to a two T start to maintain the traditional back nine climax. So let's say they're at the downhill. Could you imagine going like, all right, cool. You get to go off number one. You have to you have to tee off on the road hole. It's not the downhill links. It's a different different tournament. Oh, it's the South

Africa. Yeah. Okay. But so they literally had to start at the downhill links at the old course. What's his name had to finish on the road hole? Well, the the Danish guy, the Lucas Bayergaard had to hit like a two-iron or something into 17 to finish on the road hole, which I don't I don't really know how I feel about that. Well, we'll get into it. Go ahead, keep going. All right, we can start working into this document too. It kind of reads like a manifesto, more so-

Yeah, that's a great word. I miss that each final day will go to a 2T start to maintain the traditional back nine climax. Totally. Like 2T start on Sunday or on the final round is kind of diabolical too. Well, they do, I mean, they do that. So they just, yeah, but the field's bigger. Oh, with the 48 person field, right?

Yeah. All right, so, I have this idea, I don't know how much this we wanna read, but, Stron is our representative PGL expert. Here, I'm just gonna ask you some questions from this document. I'm just read the interview transcript that from this documentary. Just read the interview transcript

that imagining that you came up with this. So, what is the league? Sally, I'm so, so glad you asked. This is not a direct quote. It's a new improved format, devised in consultation with though, actually I thought this was interesting. Devised in consultation with those who fund the sport at the highest professional level.

So that would imply that they have partnerships lined up with sponsors, you know, large multinational corporations who are already deeply involved in golf or have been in the past. Designed simply to be the best product golf is capable of producing. And then so, individual and team league format, only the best playing, it's the best each week, which I think a lot of what I'm paraphrasing here, but a lot of the criticism has been, doesn't this just equate to like more WGC's?

Yeah, it's like the WG, it's like even a light WGC, it's less inclusive than the WGC's. Because WG's at least like bring, if I may say, a lot of undeserving international players to the bottom of the middle of the interview, a lot of WGC's, but it is a world golf event in that regard. So why do you hate the Japan tour so much? I just go look at the bottom of the WGC leaderboards. It's a great tradition. This is like, trims the fat of that even.

And it's like at least. So 48 players competing to win the individual world championship, which if it's not a belt on the aisle, 12 teams of four competing to win the team world championship and a compelling lead format that will generate the strongest possible seasonal narrative, which going back to the, I don't know how they form these teams, would there be a draft, that'd be kind of sick?

That'd be phenomenal. Yeah, this is where I want to stop it right here. It's like they are close to a lot of good ideas in a lot of this. Yeah, so, okay. There's a lot of different directions that we can go here. And you guys, I'll say a bunch of stuff

and you guys picture which direction you want to go. This feels like the Commissioner Fred Davehawk. 100%. And so that was gonna be my first point. It's a one-eighth baked idea. It's an even a half baked idea. So I think that it's, I think a lot of this is just politics because I think it is totally fully baked. Like if they've

been working on it for six years or eight years or whatever and they've approached all these people, they have all this financing allegedly. I do think there's a billion dollars sitting in a bank account. Like they have it fully, they have a billion dollars fully set aside liquid. Like I do think it is fully based. Trans-associates in Switzerland. But I think when you issue a completely unbi-line, unnamed press release like this, you can literally say anything you want.

So let's take all this with a grain of salt that maybe some of this stuff might come true, but also if it doesn't, nobody's gonna care, what are you gonna do? It's not, like we can just say whatever we want to drum up excitement about it. Just look at the name change. There's been three names change. Exactly. Exactly.

So that's, I would say a knock. There's a lot of knocks. There's a lot of knocks, but also there's, candidly like a lot of things I kind of like about it. And you tell me if you don't like any of these things. I love the team aspect. He is no. Okay, well, the way to do it.

All right, we'll circle back to that. I love 54 holes instead of 72 holes. Sure. I think that's fine. Yeah. I love a four month off season. Yep. I think that's great.

I kind of low key love the shotgun starts. I think it's like chaos in that this is bullshit. He had to start on the hardest hole is a storyline every week. I think that's kind of low-key love the shotgun starts. I think it's like chaos in that this is bullshit. He had to start on the hardest hole is a storyline every week. I think that's kind of fun. Thinking about the telecast, there would literally always be all the players are on the course at all times. There's always going to be somebody doing something. The best thing about a shotgun start would be if they had the chaos of the finish.

If they go off in two sums, they're stacking six groups. They'd have a B. They have an A and a B group. On par 5, I'm the longest par 4. They go off in two sums, they're stacking six groups. They have an A and a B group on par five. I just did not know how long it's far for. But that would be, if they found a network partner, which I don't understand the network part of it yet, whoever's broadcasting this has to be able to show all the drama all at once in multiple locations.

Oh my God, no. Like the current partners cannot. But you're also not on air, you're on air nine hours. You're on the air for three days Five hours Very tight. Yeah, I'm just saying like in the moments like figure like maybe it's a quad box thing I don't know exactly how you do it But I want to preface all of this with like you could just throw out anything you can say anything you want about this But what they put in their weird fucking release was basically like digital coverage

of every single group watch any player you want. Like a red zone at all times. Yeah, so it's like of course, you're probably just hucking them from the cheap seats, trying to drum up interest at this point, but if that's true, sick. I'm in. Another thing I like, I think 48 players,

you, this sounds incredibly cold to the bulk of the PJ tour, but you're quote unquote trimming the fat, right? I think Aiman Lynch wrote a really good piece for golf week. The way he put it was, you know, each week or each of these 18 weeks, you're kind of getting rid of the inconvenience of having to go through these other players who might be having to have a hot week that week. So I think having 48 players would lead to,

like the PJ Tour always talks so much about trying to create rivalries, right? And how hard that is when you have, oh shit. Like, Andrew Landry, you weren't supposed to play well this week. Like, we were supposed to be Phil versus, you know, whatever. Because as much as you subsidize the purses, if one of the guys that's not generating the interest wins, that's kind of a fly in the ointment, right?

I think, I thought Amiman's closing quote was great. If the rumbling about a breakaway tour effort persists, the tour might just have to consider that the cost of appeasing its antsy thoroughbreds is thinning the herd of workhorses also cluttering the track each week. So I think that's good. I think the other, Aiman had another good, he had another good

line, which was like, this was going to be the exact stat I was going to go look up, which was the hundredth ranked player on the PGH1 money list last year. Carlos Ortiz made how much money do you think? 1.2 million dollars for finishing one hundredth. Compare that to the ATP and you make like almost double what that that player makes in the ATP. And so that's, I don't think we expressly said this, but that's the point of all of this is that the top players in the game are subsidizing the lesser players in the game. Which it seems like Roy's just said that.

Which I think everybody agrees, that's massively true. And we've been making that point on repeat, because like, I've used this analogy a lot of times. For some reason, the same guy always becomes the brunt of this joke. But like when Rory and William McGurt both tie for eight, they both walk away with the same amount of money. Yeah. Despite the fact that one of them, William McGurt, of course,

puts butts in the seats. Come on, guys, I'm just going to go. We're all, we're all separately googling the stimulus to try to pick out other bad examples. I'm, well, I'm googling the ATP money list because it seems like, all right, no, no back joke of it. Career earnings, what would you say? Career earnings are $37,000,000. Okay. I don't feel like falling.

Fetter $129,000, $1,120, but you know, so, so looking at it that way. All more than that. Exactly. And, and they've, and they've all've all kind of split up the pot over the last 15 years. Three players playing at the same time in the same generation have all earned more than the greatest player to ever play sport. For some context, San Chris 43 million. So it seemed like, obviously things really took off, Agacy 31 million. So the next closest to Nadal at 120

is Andy Murray at 61 million. So those guys have made all of them at least twice as much as the next closest guy. Yeah, and it's just, so like if I'm asking you this, what value did Charlie Hoffman and Patrick Rogers provide to the tour this week and to Farmers and to the event this week? What?

I guess it was hundreds of thousands of dollars according to the tour this week and to farmers and to the event this week. What guess was hundreds of thousands of dollars according to the they both made $181,000. I did not see one Patrick Gratreshot and they may have shown but I did not see one. And that's not a slight to those guys. No, no, yeah. Like they're obviously very like worthy players, but like the way we've talked like this is a culmination of so many things we've talked about over the course of years on this podcast all like coming together and that if Eventually these harsh realities get faced that this is just a weird entertainment business Then like why are all the like why is Tom Hogi walking away with $307,000?

Yeah, who's creating the value? Yeah, like why I get that he finished fifth and like that's the way this whole thing works Is like this ultimate meritocracy if you both roll the ball and your pay is based on your performance but like that's not how a lot of sports work. And it's cool you know there's there's two points here I think there it's cool in that there is the the whole under like the entire underdog component of golf right that that you know you've got a bunch of davids it's not it's not just all galaus. So I have a theory on this too, that let's, again, massive leap of faith,

but let's assume that everything goes down exactly the way they outline it in this weird press release. Suddenly the majors turn into this awesome, like elitists versus the quote unquote underdogs. The monsters are returning to the world. Yeah, seriously, how cool that, like it all kind of makes the majors better, right? You have these 48 guys roll into, you know,

wing foot this year, and you have this whole, you have 110 other players with chips on their shoulder. Spits. You don't have to fuck these guys, man. Like, you know what I mean? I just, I don't know, I think that's, I think that's kind of a cool aspect of it. The other thing with the tour,

talking to some guys this week about it, is it is significant that these guys have to cover their own expenses. For a lot of guys that's significant. Yeah, so granted, if you are Carlos Ortiz and you're making 1.1 million, after you pay your caddy and you pay taxes and you pay, I'm not crying poor for him, but it's not 1.2 cash in the bank. You're probably spending $150,000 to $200,000 between travel and swing coach and all that stuff. What I hear people say is like,

their take home is one third of what's reported on their PGA tour pay, especially now that the, that a lot of the equipment money and apparel deals have dried up for those guys outside of the top 15 to 20. And to be clear, take home, I mean on that, is after taxes, after expenses, after paying swing coach, trainer, caddy, all the bonus for the caddy, all the tips and the log, everything, like you write off, it's like, yeah, you take home like one third of it. You have swing coach? I need swing coach. So I agree with that.

But like, whose problem is that? No, it was, I mean, it's just the way that it's structured. It's worth acknowledging. It's worth acknowledging. It's worth acknowledging. It's worth acknowledging. Like, I didn't know it before last week that every pro that makes you us hoping it's 10 grand.

Yeah, to the phrase. You miss the cut. Yeah, you miss the cut, which, you know, seems like, all right, cool. You know, trim the fat a little bit, because I do think there are way too many PGA tour cards. There's way too many guys in some of these fields which to shackle for its point to is like again The way and why this all works this way is like the PGA tours mandate their actual responsibility on the executive level is to provide playing Opportunities for tour members. So like their executive pay is at least that aspect of their pay is

Based on how many like the literal number of starts that are made over the course of a year on PGA tour. Hence the reach around season, hence 156 players, and hence 47 events or whatever it is. So that's why. But, of course, all that makes sense. But what I keep coming back to is,

I don't give a fuck. No, I agree about that. I agree on my problem. You don't have to tell me that. So next week too, there's 12 guys on major medicals or minor medicals next week in Phoenix. So that's a good example too. And I'm not even riding for this idea. I just think it's really fun and really interesting

to talk about. But I think what's super fascinating is when you really start, like there was a line again in the weird ghostwritten press release. We need to go back to that, because if we wrote it, it would be like that. Yeah, I thought I was getting punked at first. There's a line in there that explicitly says,

if you were gonna blow up, if you were gonna restart golf, it wouldn't look the way that it does today. And I'm like, yeah, no, that's totally true. It's like, why does it exist the current way it does? So one of the things, when you start talking about major medicals and like, well, how do you decide whether this guy's in the field or this guy got in because of this and this exemption leads to this

and this guy's got this many left on his medical and this plus this plus this, it's like, man, it would be a lot easier to explain to somebody if there was just 48 guys who got in and nobody else. Mm-hmm. That makes so much more sense. And so I think, again, there was another very stupid line in there that was talking about, like, you know,

we're grown, of course, there was grow the game stuff in there and it's easy to roll your eyes at it, but when you really start thinking about it, I'm curious what you guys think because I have my own answer, but like does something like this is it good for the sport? If this, again, assume everything goes through the way that they spell it out,

is it good for the sport? Because I am gonna get on the block that I think it actually is, even though there are major reservations, and we have no idea whether this is all being funded by an MBS or some weird saudi collective or whatever, but just from it, if it happened, would more people watch golf?

Even if it doesn't happen, it is a great thought exercise. It is gonna force the issue. It's either gonna give leverage to the players as this new rights deal gets signed, which that's kinda sick as far as I'm out of this. Like, Monane has this thing basically sitting on his desk. And which the tour hasn't announced yet,

which you got to wonder, like it was reported by this port's business journal that this TV deal was done, but it hasn't been announced announced yet. And we've got to wonder if this is like a huge contingency being built in this contract. Because I thought it would be sick if CBS said to $700 billion contract

and then all the players left. Yeah, that would be kind of sick. I've thought it's likely in the next three years, assuming the TV deal were to go down as planned, that the PGA tour buys the European tour. You figure out a way to unify the Rolex series and the FedEx cup and all that and make it essentially like the ATP 100 of like that elite series. Before we even get there though, like why is that the goal or why is that good? Why things have got it? Yeah, I think you've got a beautiful thought exercise here.

Yeah, I mean the European tour legitimately loses money for three straight years and they have a rider cup year and it funds the next three years, which they lose money. Two years. No, like for their home Ryder Cup. They only need to get it. Oh yeah, that's true. The home ones are the ones that make money off of. So like, 2018, they made money during the black,

they're gonna lose money the next three years, and then 2020, like, so I don't know if I'm assuming overall that nets out near zero or somewhere near there where they can stay close. My whole thing would just be like, I think that would be good for the game because it would be a unifying factor of like the dot,

you know, it does wonder what happens to the next 100 players. A question that not all people could care to be as good. The other thing that we talk about often DJs is there's, it seems like there's a lot more similarities between a corn fairy event and kind of the bottom half of the PGA tour schedule versus the bottom half the PGA tour schedule and say, you know, the majors and memorial players and you know some of those top tier events. Yeah, the schedule feels like it's getting very bifurcated. Yeah. So, you know, what's the what's to say that that the fall series and some of those other events like they're already kind of a de facto developmental series feeding in. The other news from the player advisory council meeting was

I guess they're going to the the tours devising a new world ranking system. They're on world ranking system. Yeah, because they're getting screwed from the official world golf ranking system. Yeah. Hmm. Hmm. I'm just going to leave that there. Hmm. The out Nord. Absolutely. Keep his cart. No, you don't. So, to answer your question, is this good for the game of golf? It depends, there's layers to that question, because I think you asked it two different ways. I think this will lead to more people watching golf.

Yes. I don't necessarily think it's good for the game of golf. Why not? I think this is like, I don't know what the PGA toward becomes after this, but it's already like the brink of not that watchable. The way it's spelled out here, it becomes a feeder tour for this PGL, which is an incredibly jarring,

bold claim to make. But PGA tour is kind of just like run away and money making machine. Do I think this is going create like drama and really cool, they're gonna nail all the details that are gonna make this important and good? Like no. So that, it's not, this is not gonna be like

the world tour of amazing, wonderful golf courses with you know, perfect architecture. It's gonna be like events in like all the most boring locations with follow-money. It's like, there's gonna be events in Saudi Arabia, there's gonna be events in Singapore, there's gonna be middle, like events in the middle of the night,

like it's not gonna be something that, you know, as much as it is Monday and week to week on tour, there's like a built-in history with so many of these places, like how many times have we seen guys make putts on the 18th green at Tory Pines, like guys part of the reason you tune in every week. And so losing all that tradition for a glorified WGC tour and the WGCs have soo,

over the years, no, like I am not in on that. Where I think you ask about the team aspect, like trying to do individual and team complete disaster. I think that is an absolute disaster. This has to be the the champions league of golf. And this is like T20 in cricket. Like this is totally separate. This is just teams and you only are playing match play.

But the champions league, they also, they play those teams playing the, or sorry, the champions league and then there's like the, you know, Euro final, right? Like there's different cups that you can play for. It's different. I'm just saying this has to be a totally separate league and format and a totally different vibe

other than going and watching an individual's play stroke play. So I think that's something you were touching on there is a massively important thing to point out, which is that there's an idealistic version of how this can shake out, and there's idealistic version of how this can shake out, and there's a realistic version of how this can shake out. And I think that the idealistic version is awesome.

And I think it shakes out, I think if they, like you said, they nail all the details. I think that would be an extremely compelling product. And I think it would get a lot more people to watch, and I think you could solve a lot of the issues that golf has. I think you could create more stars. I think people would get paid, quote, unquote, fairly. You know what I mean by that? And I think that would be great.

The realistic version. The realistic version. Like, I have no confidence that anybody in the world is going to be able to talk to like this group of people and nail it. The closest thing. I do think though, like, beyond the money, a guy like Rory or a guy like Tiger, how enthused he was after playing role model, that seems like a really smart way for them to sweeten it for these guys by saying, hey, we are going to go to a variety of really architecturally

significant courses that I think that would be where your skill level will be. Yeah, John. It's weaker. Yeah. I think the best version, if we go back to the idealistic version, is something you brought up, John, which is if the Euro Tour and the PGA Tour merged, and you basically allowed them to kind of bifurcate themselves in this way,

where you almost have like a organized way of doing this exact thing, where it's like, let's, yes, let's take the best events from the PGA Tour and the best events from the Euro tour and create a separate series These guys are gonna get paid more blah blah blah. I think that Makes more sense or seems more realistic to me, but of course that Hasn't like even been talked about so it's kind of pulling that out of thinner going back to the team thing too So let's say let's say guy gets hurt How does that work? I mean I've mean, I've so many questions like procedurally

about how this would work where I almost feel like, all right, instead of doing teams of four, do teams of six and make it like high school at college golf to where you got six guys playing, you count four, you got five guys playing, count four, you know, that. And then it can't be overstated how awesome I think, maybe disagree solid, but I don't think it can be overstated how awesome, I think, maybe disagree solid, but I don't think it can be overstated

how awesome the team aspect could be. And this is where I think the team in individual, I think totally works. If you have, okay, if Rory McElroy is your captain, quote unquote, and he has to decide which players he wants on his team, how is that not convincing? That's amazing.

Every week. That just, I'm saying just make a team. I love the team part, but I hate trying to be half in, half out. But I mean, you have to play your own ball, so why not just... It's almost like a byproduct. Like you keep track of... No, you're playing an individual stroke play tournament, and then also like the team...

Oh yeah, who's winning the tournament? Oh, Roy's winning. How's this team doing? I don't really know. That's a lot to ask people to keep track of. If you're going to have everyone on the course at the same time, and everyone finishing at the lot to ask people to keep track of. Like, if you're gonna have everyone on the course at the same time and everyone finishing at the same time, trying to keep track of like, oh yeah, he was winning the team aspect

and their team is blah, blah, blah on this team. But we'll worry, what is that? Like, that is all. They're doing college golf. Although, I mean, no, no, no, no, they don't. Not like that, they do. It comes down to match play. No, every tournament other than the NCAA championship is.

Why, exactly. I know, but like that's not on television. This is made for television. The college golf is compelling at the end. Some of it is, going back to Formula One, which you're like, hey, I don't want to. But Formula One is probably the closest approximation is where you have the constructors series where you got Ferrari

and Mercedes and all that. Like they all have the teams and then you get points based on finishes and all that, which would be funny if they had like a cowboy. Literally, that was one of my ideas, like the equipment companies owned the teams. Yeah. No, but, but like, that was, that was a really interesting part of, all the press releases too, was, you know, they would be equity stakes from some of the players where one of my things is, it seems like there's some players that are very, very keen on this stuff that just want to grab the bag and run with the money like Phil. Well, I was going to say not to put two and two together too much, but Phil's not shalons

about appearing in Saudi Arabia and soft banks, you know, association with both of these things kind of seems like an interesting coincidence, doesn't it? in Saudi Arabia and soft banks, you know, association with both of these things, kind of seems like an interesting coincidence, doesn't it? Well, and I think my thing would be like, why other than Phil delivering short-term eyeballs, like I don't think it would be valuable to have Phil own a team as he's turning 50 and these games are roading.

I think he'd be so loose as an owner of An owner, yeah, but not as a player. Like the elements to think about like, look, if we have a draft right now, how much content could we get out of, I know. We had a draft right now. Who are you taking? Who's going number one off the board?

Like think about it. Answer. Rory. He's in his 30s, like you want him for life or you want Rob. You want JT? Five extra years is a lot. Like what are you taking? Like it's a real question. For sure. Yeah. And then and then and then more.

And some of these like some of these teams develop distinct identities. Yeah. Yeah. Like all of like that. They get this guy because they play their home matches are at Torrey Pines. So Phil, Phil would be like Al Davis. Swing maybe. He'd be he'd be drafting the guy that runs a 4-2-40. And you know, this is what I'm talking about. No home stadium and like home fans and like Tiger owns a team. Like that could be a 10 event part of,

so this is where I ultimately think this is all gonna end up is there has to be, for a lot of reasons, I'm not saying I would want this, but the tour needs to be involved in this. And that sounds like sacrilegious, based on all our feedback, but I have a hard time seeing all these guys quit the tour and just be done with the PGA tour.

I just don't believe that's gonna happen, whether I'd be sick if they did that, but from what it sounds like the tour is gonna flex the muscles and I believe one of the phrases that I've read is take legal action against those that would potentially be leaving the tour. I don't know what that means to your pension. One of their points in this,

it was in Appendix A, the additional questions. After the press conference ended. Yeah, let's see. Sorry, we just did a lot of time to get to these. I read that too. It was like, yeah, our tour players' pensionions being threatened is like, no, they've earned it. It's basically deferring come.

Yeah, it is. Which I understand. I don't know. There's complications within that. And to the point being, all of this comes down to Tiger Woods. If they don't have Tiger, they do not have any of this. I would agree. I think.

I think. If you're a young player or Tiger, they do not have any of this. I would agree. I think, I think, like, how, if you're a young player or something, how do you, but so, how do you go out on the cliff by yourself? That's why I think it makes sense for Stonight to be actually the one commenting because he's just floating in me like, yo, let's get this out in the room and take everybody's temperature on it.

Let's get it out in the open so, yeah, it can make an educated decision. To your point, I don't think it's, there's a decision to be made if there's no tiger, because I don't think there's money is there without tiger. That's pretty true too. So, to tell me this,

Tiger would just have to the 2019 president's cup team run by the PGA tour. I do think within the next year, he's like, okay, thanks to our, I'm done. Thanks for the 120 million and all the other, like, Nana, I'm good. Without, as far as I know, tigers never made demands of the tour

to change anything, any part of the structure. It seems like Roy's held a lot more vocal than Tiger about the way that the money gets to be up in the current structure. And for good reason, has he spoke out about that publicly? And he said it, like, is his quote yesterday? I thought it was like, hey, you know,

I'm a traditionalist. I like the PGA tour. It's home for me. Like I have a hard time thinking we're just going to go up and totally up end the game. But at the same time, there are structural changes that need to be made with regard to the top players. Yeah, so that's where I think it's going to end up

with the players negotiating with the tour to get their way on some things. So I agree with everything you said. However, however, how old is Tiger? 44, right? Like are you really making a seismic decision on what the next 50 years of professional golf are going to be like based on the next five years that he's going to play professional golf? It's he may or some saying like, okay, I agree.

If they don't have tiger, they don't have anything. Okay, well then what happens after tiger retires? Why don't they just do it then? Like this is, there are issues you're gonna have to face eventually here. Right. I think they're trying to cash in on the tiger woods part of it.

No, I agree totally. But you know what I'm saying? Like that, if anything that kind of just like kicks the can down the road to have to be dealt with later. Yeah. So I just don't know if they're thinking that far ahead. But if anything that kind of just like kicks the can down the road to have to be dealt with later. Yeah. So I just don't know if they're thinking that far ahead. But point being, it does seem like you're going to have to make some changes so that,

okay, if it doesn't happen this time, like how do we make sure it doesn't happen 10 years from now? I think that was Roy's point on, you know, hopefully this helps push the PJ tour forward. Now as a golf fan, what I'm not lobbying for here is like, man, hopefully the PGA Tour just embraces appearance fees and then everybody will be happy because that doesn't fix any of the holes in the market here. You know what I mean?

That doesn't fix why it's boring to watch golf. It doesn't fix why there's no rivalries. It doesn't fix any of that shit. It puts more money in Roy's pocket. Nobody loves Roy more than me. But I can't say I felt like super warm and fuzzy when he won $15 million at East Lake. That didn't really change my worldview all that much.

This was an interesting quote in here. Multi-national blue chip brands want to reach golf's valuable fan base, but some have walked away, and others have failed to engage, unable to justify the return on investment. These brands want to be associated with the best, but too often struggle to work out where the best will play, which is totally true. Like imagine being a title sponsor

in the tour and you don't know how to jump that and then tired doesn't show up at your event for 15 years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. And that's where I keep coming back to the tour, like needing to be involved with this because it is as it reads now one or the other, right? You can't grab the league, the team league, and the PGA tour, you can't be a part of both of them. So, if the tour, do I trust the tour, like get all the details of this, right? No, but let's stream for a second.

I think that is an important thing. Like the reason that this conversation is even happening is because of the tour shortcomings and some of the things, because of how shitty CBS has been, like all that stuff comes back to a while we're even having this conversation. I totally agree. Now, so with it, so this is very separate from the match for me because the match felt like a one-time thing that like, hey, let's do this weird random thing. And I felt like the tour came in and neutered it a little bit, which I don't

think is necessarily the case here. I think what the players have so much bargaining power here, it's like, hey, no, we want to start this big grab bag of money thing. It is 10 events. Like we already have opposite field events, like give us like 10 team weeks a year. It's yeah, maybe I struggle with that though, because like Zurich is, is the good. No, no, like not like team like me and you are partners like, Hey, no, team Tiger is playing team like fill this week.

But doesn't that just feel like it's gonna turn into like a shitty A on risk reward thing that is like so manufactured? It sounds like the WWE, WWE, like I see what you're going, I see where you're going, but it just feels like such a half measure that's not like it would get fucked up in like the marketing department, right? Where it would just turn into, it almost seems like a national team

going to play in a friendly, like a sock, like, you know, the US is going to play Costa Rica just to warm up for the gold club or for you. But I think we would just make fun of that as like, well, it's just an exhibition that's like made up for TV, like why do I'm not gonna care about this? You know what I mean, like it feels like they have to go,

I don't know, without overstating it, like it does feel kind of like a watershed moment where it's like, you got to decide which side you're going to be on because I don't think you can half-ass the fixes that are being exposed here. So, alright, I don't think you can throw a marketing at it. I don't think you can, I don't know, man, it's very, very, very complex. Alright, so I've got a few questions for you guys. Who would your 12 owners be? That is three different pod guess ups. That's a big one.

Are we saying, let's just lean in. Are we saying players are owners? Yeah, I would assume it's former players are owners or celebrities are owners. I mean, I would think, I would think Ty and Tiger, Phil, Ernie. I don't think it would have to be players. I think there's, I think the owner, well, so, okay, serious point. But one, I just want to try to make sure we get all things we're supposed to talk about

here. But like, a massive difference in this new league would be the fact that, you know, we kind of jab all the time at player run organization. This would be an owner run organization. And so there would be a lot of the world's best players who would be in a very, very different spot than they're in right now, which is where the boss, like where the the union we make the rules, do everything to make us happy versus, oh shit, MBS is the owner. And he wants me to go do this, like, I don't want to do that.

It's like, well, tough shit, man. You signed up. You gotta go play all 18 events. But even if you're an equity owner, you're still, it's still a certain percentage. It's a, you're not a majority. Owner, owner, basically, instead of a player, basically. Which is a massive difference. What, does this help?

Okay, well, I'm MBS. Sir, Mr. McElroy, I'll be like signing you for it to a four year, $100 million dollar deal to play for our team. But, do you be interested in that? No, I get you for it to a four year, $100 million dollar deal to play for our team But don't you be interested in that? No, I get it But it's 10 events a year, 10 team events a year Oh, do you imagine free agency? That's what I'm saying. It'd be awesome Like, so I don't think you're getting any of the excitement of what we're talking about here with an individual and a team aspect of it

Like kind of Formula One with a stroke play event like I don't think that's what it is. I don't think you're getting that I just yeah, I don't know. I'm struggling is. I don't think you're getting that. I just, yeah, I don't know. I'm struggling to grasp why you're not into that because I think, I mean, it's as long as you're always playing your own ball anyways, like, you're always going to know who shot the low school. It's fascinating how an individual winner every week. Inform your one when the two got, like,

when Sebastian Vettel and Louis Hamilton, or, you know, whomever are like, you have two guys on the same team going at it for a win. Like, they're still competing just as hard and crazy or shit even happens because of that. Which I didn't realize as I was reading the handbook this week that there's also an expressed line in there

that a player shall not have any financial interest either direct or indirect in the performance or winnings of another player in any event. So minuses are a classic. Minuses are a classic. But yeah, that's kind of an interesting, you know, just another reason the tour is probably not going to stop on it tomorrow. It would be like how like this 48 is it's purely objectives? It purely, I think it would have to be a draft. How do guys like can like let's say somebody just plays

like absolute shit, would they get relegated? And then do they go back crawling to the tour with their real tail between their legs? Like, yeah, that's the wildest part to me. And I would assume, so again, was deep in the handbook this week, but I think the tour has, I read a lot. I might be mistaken here, but I thought they had a one year, like a one year kind of like sit out period.

If you've given up your membership, and you want to come back, I'll double check that, but I think it basically says like, you can't just walk back in, you've got to wait like a 12 month period. I've got the name of the tour. It's the core test tour. You burn the boats once you jump over to the tour,

you burn the boats. I would think that would be the tour's main defense in this, in this right is like if changing a change to the handbook that's like if you give up your if you give up your membership like you're out you're out you won't like I don't know you got to go through your cut off. It's just amazing to me that the this somewhat exists out there with WGC's. Like, hey, let's do something to get the players no cut and get the top players more money. And they're still gonna go, potentially, go outside of this whole realm for a different golf league. I thought it was a good example of like,

okay, who was that created to benefit? It was created to benefit the players. Yeah. Then you basically sacrifice making it interesting for the fans. Yes. And that's what creates this whole vacuum, right? Yes.

And whereas, like, for that 900th time, I know they're pipe dreaming here, but if everything went according to what they've laid out, like, yeah, it kind of is interesting for the fan and good for the players. So it's, that seems like a, I don't know, it seems like the best compromise. And if one of the most interesting parts was there's a flex on the FedEx Cup being convoluted in here in this Q&A. There's a flex on the fact that the tortos don't pay taxes. Which the lie, I believe is first off, we're going to pay taxes. Again, we don't know where that money's coming from and it could be deeply,

darkly disturbing places. You plan to launch the league in January of 2020, 2022. Will you succeed? We were told you can't take on the establishment and win, but we aren't taking on the establishment. We intend to work with it. Yeah, that was a tense moment of the press conference. Who told you you couldn't take on the establishment?

Ooh, fuck said that. No, and then they said, 20% of this will be owned by a foundation that they're going to set up. And they also said that they will pay taxes because they trust the government to distribute that money properly. They should be profitable. That's going to be a hugely popular amongst the world's best golfers. The very liberal leaning.

Exactly. PGA Tour locker room. But it said, did we best to sign off on this? We've also created a foundation that should generate approximately 300 million in dividends in a lump sum of 2 billion by 2028. Part of this will go back into the game. The rest will support charitable causes in perpetuity. So they said, the PGA Tour has had and should continue to have a tremendous charitable impact. At one point, they're like, yeah,

we're basically gonna funnel money back to these organizations that already exist, both amateur golf and professional golf, which would lead me to believe like, yeah, they're gonna provide welfare to the PGA tour. Another popular locker room, charitable organization. I love it.

Well, top players really leave their existing tours to join. There are a number of reasons we believe they will, the first being money. Also the last one question for you guys. Was the Greg Norman thing back in the early 90s, like 94? Was that a ger, was the, are the WGC's a directories all of that? More or less. I mean, I don't, because they say they, they kind of, they kind of, it's his idea with like the mustache in the glasses on. Oh, yeah. Yeah. This was the new tour. I think

that was Finchim's idea. I don't know. I could definitely be wrong about this, but the grossly oversimplified version is I think Greg Norma was kind of floating something very similar to this and Finchim was like, yeah, we're definitely not doing that, but here's the WGC instead. Have you spoken to the players? Are they supportive? Apologies, we aren't in any position to discuss with the players. Next question, please. So no players have committed.

Unfortunately, we can't discuss it this stage. But yeah, I thought it was interesting, Shaq in his column said, he's had access to documents, he looked at him and he's like, I was blown away at how cogent and well thought out. And I guess this, the rain group is pretty well thought of. Yeah, I mean, it's like legitimately the document reads, like I'm not joking when it's like something we would type up,

like more of a parody, but it's kind of, it seems like a middle finger document. I'm like, no, no, I'm not joking when it's like something we would type up, like, more of a parody, but it's kind of, like, it seems like a middle finger document. I'm like, no, no, we're not messing around. Like, we're gonna be other stuff, the actual outlines of what- That's what I'm saying. This is real. I clearly, this is very, very real thing. I think it just all goes back to, like, one decision point. It's like, is Tiger Woods gonna middle finger the tour?

Like, I think the whole thing is contingent 100% on that. And I don't think he will, I could be wrong. I don't if he's offered an ownership stake in this and that's why I can only picture this happening with the tour coming to the table, either saying like either, you know, I don't even know if this is a desire of a lot of players, but I think one of the things that is very appealing to us

to of this for the top players is the appearance fee money, like getting paid off the top, which the tour has mechanisms in place to be able to do that. They like to say that you don't, they don't pay, you can't get paid appearance fees on tour, but that's not really the case. Like RBC is funneling money to players, you know, through sponsorship to play in their events and hashtag team RBC. There's stuff that goes on at a lot of events, like that could name.

Not two weeks, they do Harbor Countdown. Yeah, that's true. I could name names of events that do it but to predict how many job the information I won't. But like it happens, but like that's one thing that could like spring out of this. Like no, no, if you're in this whatever Q rating, like you can get a million bucks to show up at a time.

And that is kind of goes back to what I was saying earlier. It's like, I think that would solve the problem for the players, but I think it would just kick the can down the road on a lot of other stuff. And I think golf would, the telecast wouldn't change. The fan experience wouldn't change. The, it wouldn't be more star players. People would have more money in their bank account. That would be the only thing that would fix.

Yeah. So a lot of the talk in their, not in this transcript, but in the other outline that they released was talking about the actual televised product, right? They seem set on like, no, no, we're gonna make this more entertaining. And granted, they'd have to go negotiate. Yeah, that's what I was gonna say.

They would have to figure out a, like A, they'd have to figure out like a domestic media partner assuming that the tour locks up its media rights. Like who is willing to, who's gonna go shell out equal or greater value for, you know, televised golf. And then internationally, I think that was like a big thing that, you know, the tour wrapping up their discovery stuff

and kind of putting all of their international rights into one deal is a lot different than going in and negotiating individually with every single country, which is what the tour you have to do. So, and what you would think this new group would have to do. So, I don't know, man, it's, there's so much to,

we could talk a lot of for three hours. There's so much to, there's part one to get into. And then, you know, like, let's say most of the events are in prime time in the US, like, you know, maybe there's less of them and there's, but it's a cleaner broadcast. You have to, you know, like, that's,

that's appealing, right? To sponsors and to, I hope that would be the fallout of it. Like, I, I, I can't help but think that what's gonna be, kind of like Dubai this week, which is not great for US viewers, but like, if there's an event in the Middle East, like those times don't line up very great for the US. There's events in Asia. I had a fucking golf fans outside the US.

I know. I know, but I'm saying like this would suck for fans. It is telling though that a lot of those golf fans live in Europe and you see how much wind the European tours is sucking. Right now as far as financially, you know? Like there's a reason that the PGAours, the worldwide leader and golf, one thing I was thinking about would just be, I don't know why nobody's tried this. So the bad little nine out in Scottsdale, like the shout outs of the troops, Bob Parsons, could you imagine watching, let's say it was a team event even of like,

you know, every year they switched it up a little bit and they do two or three events of, you know, hey, like, just in this team of rethinking everything, go send like Tiger and Ricky and JT, go play that course. You got like 60 yard wedge shots to the craziest crown greens that you've ever seen, like seeing Bacon or Zach or those guys' videos

of playing that course. Like I think that would be so much more fascinating to watch on TV. It's like it just, all right, we do this once every four years. We go to the bad little nine. Sure. There's a ton, again, a ton to like about this, but I just net out at like, okay,

the power the tour has in this scenario is very, very, very real, if you ask me. Oh yeah. And like, I just don't, I can't picture, you know, 50-50 if you're deciding right now if this happens or not, with the deciding factor being the tour players are going to nuke their PGA tour status, I don't think that they will. Yeah, that's an interesting way to put it. I guess if it was 50-50, I would probably say no, it's not going to happen as well. Yeah. All right. Who do you think that the players first, like with one foot out the door are?

Right? I feel like Phil's turning into like a diet version of Gary Player. Minus the, you know, unsavory. Yeah, I knew you. Yeah, if Tiger said no, I think Phil would try to be the ringleader. I mean, like, it's like, it's like, it's a little brison Patrick Reed, which I think right? There's a very real scenario here, too, where, you know, to your point, I know what you're saying in like a macro sense, like if they don't have Tiger, they don't have it. But what's to stop if they had a couple guys, like, and they've been working on it for

this long and they have the money lying around in a bank account, like, they might very well make a push at it, right? So there could be this weird splintered thing where you have fill and Brooks and Bryson and Patrick Reed and like, and then you have a bunch of weird guys from like the, you know, number 65 in the world and like, you have this group of misfits that go give it a shot and then like the private equity money dries up or something and then these guys are just like

Hank, soft bank makes one too many bad bad. So we were just like hung out in the wind. I don't, so there's one million. The one aspect to this we haven't talked about is the power of the tour players now have, especially the top ones, with the reported dollar amount increase in media money that's coming in. Like the power they have to go to them, like, yo, where is that money going?

Because I would like some of that and I deserve some of that and should get some of that. I don't mean just like paying, adding more money to purses, which the purses are definitely going to go up. But I did think it was extra million bucks. Like, it wasn't a cool, I don't think it was a coincidence. Like I think PGA toward media or the player championship media is next week correct. Why did they, why did they announce the purse increase this past week? Why didn't they just write to media day?

Like I think that's what that out there, you know, it kind of counters some of that, I think 2.7 million. One of the things I thought was interesting in their release, again, we could talk about this for five more hours. Believe me, we will. But, you know, referencing breaking away from the PGA of America back in the 60s to form the, like to film a PGA first thing I thought of. I was like, man, I guess this kind of has happened before. Yeah. And then they talked about English primarily, they talked about ATP, they talked about cricket, like World Series cricket, and how, you know, kind of the shorter matches and all that.

So, and that's where I think, if I was betting, you know, after hearing myself talk about it for an hour and a half now, and crystallizing thoughts a little bit more, I could see it if it gets kicked down the road, like happening in a post-tiger world where he doesn't hold all the cards. A more dialed back version of it potentially.

But I just don't know if all the money. Because really, even to make it fair for, like based on the principles or the philosophy that they're using, cool, I give tiger 20% of this and then the other team owners get 2%. Well, so if you want something that tiger can do into his later years that doesn't necessarily involve like playing a lot of golf, how much do you like being the captain?

A captain slash owner of one of these teams that goes on, please match, play not short play. But that's where it's at. Well, to your point though, like what you just said, I don't know if the money's there in a post-higur world. Okay, do you think it's there to subsidize fucking Scott Brown and like those guys? No. Apparently, on the PGA tour I think it is.

In 20 years from now, you think like the, the money's going way up. Like I don't know how. After reading that no mercy, no malice newsletter that about FedEx. Yeah, so like FedEx has their own issues. But, but, but even basically, all right, so going back to the question earlier

about who are the 12 owners, you have, or captains, or whomever. So Tigers essentially subsidizing those 11 other guys, too. You have the same problem just on a lesser scale. Well, like think about his team. Like let's say his team is the, whatever, the cats. I really hope they don't go with team names.

I was thinking about that. Oh, that'd be awesome. Oh God, that would be so painful. How much merchandise would the cat sell? Like think about, they could be the most valuable franchise right off the bat. He would have an ownership at the stake in this. He could sign Frank's the mascot.

He could get, you know, you know, you sign Rory to whatever contract he wanted to or all these things. I think it, God, let me dream about a league with teams and trades and free agent signings and cuts and the drama that goes with all that. We the cats trade the rights too. You're shizzle. That'd be amazing.

So, I mean, yeah, well, again, before we go further down a wormhole in this, like do you guys have anything else? We need, that needs to be added now. I think we're gonna have several discussions on this. Yeah, I think there's a, there's a separate discussion about what, what would you do from a,

from a media side of things? There's a separate discussion about, yeah, like all the fun stuff you could do around it. A separate discussion about the reasons behind this and why it exists and why the what the Torah specifically failed on that have kind of created the conditions for this. But going back, I think it's a thought exercise overall. I think either way, I think it's good for the golf fan regardless of what happens. Like, Rory seems like a pretty well measured dude.

He's not going to jump into this if it seems like a pretty well measured dude. Like he's not gonna jump into this if it seems like an absolute shit idea, even if there's a big pile of money in the short term. You know, it's, because that's not gonna serve his long, like he takes a long view, it's not gonna serve his long-term interests. Yeah, I had a extensive conversation with him about this

a couple weeks ago. I'm not gonna share the details of it of course, but it is definitely, definitely decidedly not like, hey, here's a big stack of money, I'm going to run do this. Like, there was a ton of thought and consideration. But bottom line is it's forcing, the conversation is a good thing for golf fans.

Yeah, I think, right? For sure, the question of like, hey, if you were to take golf away right now and rebuild it, it wouldn't look like it is, is like fascinating. Like, it's absolutely like a million times true. I can guarantee if you were to start over, like sorry Tom Hogi to make you subject to this, like you wouldn't walk away with $300,000 a week.

Like that's the way, like it's not the way it would end up being. Moving forward, once that new TV deal goes into place, once those details, you know, assuming that happens, it's going to be really interesting to see if the purse is go up, like how that money gets distributed out to the person, how that extra money gets distributed out, do the purses go up proportionally from 400 million to 700 million? It just seems like it's going to be exactly percent. Exactly. All the problems.

Or, you know, the FedEx cup goes up that much or like, or do, or do you make it more lopsided towards winners at the top five? Yeah. Like, how do you, you know, because all the FedEx the FedEx cup is just a scheme to distribute massive amounts of money. Yeah, you know, we will see. I can't wait to see more that comes out week by week. The now that it's out there, there's nothing to stop. Well, it's great for us because like golf channel can't run with this stuff.

Be a partner with PJ tour and like it is really just just gonna exist in the ether still for the most part, because the tour is gonna try to keep us on. Until a player, until a player, like commits, right? I hope that I wonder if players will get asked about it in press conferences. And go on back, I mean, we're already what, right? Going back to the whole TV deal thing.

I can't figure out like CBS crime pour all the time. Well, yeah, we gotta do all these commercials because it's just not profitable to broadcast this because the ratings are down. Cool, why are you offering up 70% more on the next TV deal? We would have been fine with you going away. You don't have to pay for this. Sub-discussion, so.

All right, I think we're good to wrap it up that. We have another interview coming later this week. Part two of discussion with Brad Faxon. I talked about it last week at the PGA show. More on putting and just another great poop story and a lot to cover with Fax. I could, we might do like any of these throughout the course of the year.

He is just an Alzheimer. Just the Fax. Just the Fax. So gentlemen, thank you for coming over tonight. I'm, it was fun, spirited discussion. I can't wait to circle back on the draft. Hey. Psych for the Saudi event.

I was gonna say enjoy the fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun PGA is off this week. They are going down to the Vic open and the Australian open. And of course, we have, as the brands call it, the green of show and grass. I don't know anybody yet. They actually cause it that, but apparently they keep saying that they do. All right, well, crack on, cheers. Thank you for tuning in,

and we'll see you guys again at this time next week. Cheers. Give it a right club. Be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different?

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