No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 501: Brooks v Bryson Match Recap

Episode Date: November 29, 2021

The latest installment of The Match - Brooks v Bryson - has come and gone. We recap everything from the golf itself, the broadcast, the future of the event and why it does (or doesn't) work for the casual and hardcore fan. We also dive into the PGA Tour memo that was sent to players earlier this week and the Tour's response to the pending threat of competition from other leagues.  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. I'm not in. That is better than most. Better than most! another I assume I can speak across the table as well. Mr. DJ Pies, hello, DJ. Greetings, happy Sunday morning. I'm excited to be here, excited to talk match. We got to talk some PGA tour stuff, some news that came out this past week. Thankfully, that came out this past week.

Not a lot else happened this past week in the world of golf. Do you know that many people struggle to find a golf club that bridges between a three wouldn't afford? Oh, that's me. I was just trying to see you. I'm also one of these people and I don't know. I've been doing this ad read for a couple months now and I don't know. I've been doing this ad read for a couple months now and I don't know why I haven't ordered one of these clubs. The Calaways new Apex

utility wood is designed to do exactly that. It offers a higher launch and steeper land angle than a hybrid. And it spins more than a hybrid, but less than a five wood has a very neutral center of gravity. So it's workable. I played around and go with Bryce Butler a couple weeks ago. And he's like smoked a couple of times, like, oh, what is that? Three wood? He's like, no, it's a utility one. I'm like, Jesus, I've been reading the ads. It looks like a three wood.

It is right between a wood and a hybrid. Phil has had it in the bag since late June. Loves it because of the versatility at the 250 yard range, which is pretty helpful for Phil. He's got, you know, his wedges and irons are relatively tight yardage gaps. He can control the trajectory and distance for those longer shots with the Apex UW.

And it frees up space in his bag for the extra wedge that he loves so much. The Apex UW is designed for the tour and is available for everyone. It comes in 17, 19, and 21 degree loft. So take a look at the Apex UW at CalawayGolf.com today. I'm gonna do that. Let's convince him.

Let's hold it. You know, some people they need to hear these ad reads three or four times. That's as far to the business model, right? Let's make a pact. Now that I've heard it, okay, I'm in. Let's make a pact that we're gonna order and together. Okay, let's hold each other responsible.

Sounds good. Are you in or are you out on the match? Are you talking the macro match? Are you talking the micro match? This one we saw this past week. Honestly, honestly, I don't really care. If that, I'm totally ambivalent. It's very fine. I guess I'm in on the idea. If that wasn't on this week, I think that also would have been fine. Did I watch it? Yes. Was it particularly memorable? I wouldn't say so. Was it offensive? No, I wouldn't say that either. It's just very, just okay for me, dog.

I don't know, what are you feeling? So you're not agreeing when they went I called it a few of the most entertaining. No, I thought that was wildly inappropriate to say that. It was outrageous. Outrageous. A slap in the face to the golf season.

That was one of the most unbelievable golf seasons of my lifetime. It was unreal. Here's the lens of which I'm viewing. I don't remember anything that I watched on Friday. The golf sucks. Like that had nothing to do with it. Here's the lens of which I viewed it through.

I can't watch golf on TV without having a second screen going, a monitor, a Twitter or something like that. I don't look up at the screen, all right? It's just so much, even the most exciting golf, I find myself kind of missing what's going on because I'm not entertained by it. And the match, I couldn't look down because I felt I was just kind of hanging on to every word

as to what Phil and Chuck were gonna say next. They were great. So through that lens, I was very much like, I am entertained here. It's different than what we are normally doing. It's a very semantic argument. A lot, no. Like, I watched a lot of golf this past year.

I, some would say too much. I was, I felt like I was banging my head up against the wall by the end of the year. And this was something that is totally different. They, I found a slot with it. We can talk about all the things that were not great about it. One of which being Brooks and Bryson did almost nothing to carry the show.

But listening to like, like talking down to players from like a position of somebody like Phil who has this obviously encyclopedic knowledge, some accurate, some nod of the Game of Golf. I think we could say, or philosophy, I guess, on the Game of Golf, having him be able to pipe down and talk to two of his peers while having like one of the most gifted orders

of all time sitting right next to him. Like I'm just I was just in on all of that interaction. Was it all hilarious? Was it all you know insightful? Not necessarily, but I was just way in on how all of that flowed. Totally. I fully agree with that. I think the you mentioned Brooks and Bryson and I'm not you know, it weirdly turned into kind of like a look how hard I'm not watching this contest, which is turned into kind of like a, look how hard I'm not watching this contest, which is fucking lame. But like it was fine. Did Brooks and Bryson bring anything to the table for me?

Like, absolutely not. And Bryson, actually, I can never get enough of all his, I actually got kind of a kick out of the hole, like Theta wave, Beto wave, Alpha wave, all that stuff. I actually thought it was funny. I love hearing Bryson talk about his process. Like I kind of weirdly do wish we got more of it because I think it always is,

I feel bad for our country, but it's tremendous content whenever he goes off about that stuff. And so having, like you said, having Phil and him go back and forth was great. I think the problem though is it still gets packaged in this, like that could be a four minute video, you know what I mean? And instead, it's just packaged in this like,

yo, I don't need to sit through all the other bullshit to catch those nuggets. It's a constant battle of why does this have to be live versus also like the whole thing is this. It's live bedding. Yeah, exactly. I was gonna, I had that bold faced in my notes like, okay, huge preface, I know this is impossible

because of the day of the live. But man, it probably doesn't need to be live. And more on that later, I'd like to- But if you don't want to gamble on it, record it and like you can kind of zoom through the course. Which is what I did. And honestly, it was fine from that perspective. I got through it pretty quickly.

But like I said, it didn't, like, you know. So a good litmus test. I had the in-laws were in town for Thanksgiving. We had a great time this week. We're all sitting around on Friday with nothing to do. And in my head, I'm like, okay, this seems like what the match is for. Like, they're very tangential golf fans

or kind of into it, kind of not into it. There's no fucking way I was recommending that we watched the match. They would have hated it. Really? Yes. They would have absolutely hated it. We had my parents and my in-laws in town,

like, and six people were kind of glued to the TV. Really? Laughing our ass. Just like Chuck and Phil, it was a Chuck and Phil show. Like, view it through that lens instead of the Brooks First Bryson thing, and it was, like, when Chuck dropped the line, you know, when the match was over and they started doing the long drive stuff and they were throwing out money

and Chuck got, threw out 25k, and Capco was harassing him for only throwing out 25k and chuck on the spot. Just like, yeah, Nebraska blew that lead earlier. Like that, that's what we were there for. We all laughed pretty hard at that. The match was not entertain, you know, that part was not very entertaining. And we can talk some about the diet, the Brooks price and dynamic as well. But I think it entertain, it's like some of the really, the really hardcore fill stuff entertains the hardcore golf fan. I think it entertain, it's like some of the really, like the really hard core Phil stuff entertains the hardcore golf fan.

I think was it all great? No, but like also the Phil and Chuck show entertains the casual fan. And it's a lens into like how much the golf doesn't matter in a lot of these cases. And you know, we're kind of viewing a live podcast between Phil, Chuck, Bryson, and Brooks, you know, with BA kind of facilitating there a little bit. And I don't know, I found that entertaining. I do think they, to their massive credit. First of all, I can't imagine how hard this is.

I think we've said this after every one of these. Like I can't imagine coordinating all these people and agents and sponsors and TV people. And like the fact that they even get it off, the plane off the ground is wildly impressive. And I do think on that front, they've just gotten better and better at exactly what you're describing.

Kind of cutting out the unnecessary parts and making it as efficient as possible of kind of a, you know, it's gotten into a pretty good like motion machine of how it works and how the beats work and when to take commercials and all that stuff. They seem to be getting better and better and better at it, which is both understandable that it took awhile

because it's building something from scratch and also impressive that they did it as fast as they have and it's a crew that's probably only working together once a year. I'm guessing and that part of it's really impressive. I still go back to not a rhetorical question, like, what's the point? It's at day after Thanksgiving, like a hidden, it's a hidden giggle. So, so with that through that lens, more specifically though, is it a, a thing for golf fans?

Is it a thing for casual fans? Is it supposed to hashtag grow the game? Is it supposed to just sell ads and take up space? What, what do you think like, like, what's the point? What are we doing? I think it's to entertain people as an entertaining television product. I totally agree.

And which is where I was tweeting some stuff after just kind of like reaction stuff. I think it's like kind of counterintuitive, but the more seriously you take the golf, the worse it's gonna be. 100% and that should be pretty clear now that they tried to make this. I think they kinda almost like drove the car off the road at the last minute.

I'm like, oh shit, we can't take this seriously. Like this, everybody thinks this is fucking stupid. The whole Bryson Brooks thing of like, yeah, I can't believe the energy from nine months ago didn't carry over to this Thanksgiving thing in Vegas. Like, that's wild. And I think they did loosen up and try to make it a little bit more, like, let's just put on a fun TV product,

which I think is great. I would do that times a hundred, right? And that's where, I think there's just a bunch of little things you can do. Like, Amanda is great. Amanda Baleon is great on CBS. She does a great job with, you know, post-round type stuff. But she's not like a comedian, right? And so putting her out there to like try facilitate all these hilarious moments, that's not her

job. She's not going to be like a natural that and did offer Shane Bacon when they had him out there, right? I think they're both good at starting golf conversations, asking golf questions. But if the whole thing is trying to just yuck it up as much as possible, put a comedian out there, put somebody who's going to actually loosen people up and make people laugh and do stuff that's unpredictable and maybe it's a golf loving comedian

of which I'm sure there are hundreds. Or maybe it's some comedian that has never watched golf that actively hates golf and is pushing back on, like, why did you do that thing with the T? Why did you have to mark your ball? What's going on? Just ask a bunch of dumb questions. I know all that sounds like so counterintuitive,

but if you're trying to entertain people, like this mishmash of both like people who take golf more seriously than anything in their life, mixed with like the Charles Barclays and these kind of like outsiders who are just pointing out how ridiculous of a sport it is constantly would be super entertaining to me. I don't even know if you need that person

because I think having Phil and Chuck just being able to go right into their ears. I should say, sorry, I don't mean to cut you off, but I should say that all depends so dramatically on who the players are. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like if it's Bryson and Brooks and players who are like not gonna be talking,

and maybe that's because they're taking the competition seriously or maybe it's because they're kind of just duds. Like I think that's when you need someone like mixing it up or kind of like stoking the flames. But if you have good players out there, if you had like, like, everybody keeps pointing to this and they haven't really like Re-created it in any way, but like how good was JT because he wasn't out there like but like how good was JT because he wasn't out there like, he was out there just like making jokes and poke in front of these guys. Yeah. He wasn't be like, tell me how awesome you guys are.

Yeah. Man, God, that shot was so awesome. Tell me about it. And it's like, God, I get to watch that fucking 50 weeks a year. Man, I don't need to watch that on the day after Thanksgiving. I was gonna say like, there's enough people that are tuning in that maybe are super casual fans and have played the game enough to know how ridiculously hard it is. They would probably, like that theta wave and all that stuff is like super, totally.

Interesting or like, what the hell are they talking about? Like what is that? I would say to Bryson's credit in both of these that he's done, he has not tried to overdo it, which would have been a, somebody had a talking to with Bryson to be like, hey dude, don't be yourself, because this is not, this is not gonna work.

I know everyone's saying be yourself, don't be yourself. Well, we've also said this before in the past too, that I cannot imagine how hard that would be, like how hard that role where it's like, dude, I just, I'm a world-class golfer and all that, I don't like talk to people while I'm playing. I'm not a world-class entertainer, I play golf. And so all this, like, all right, cameras on, like be funny.

Come on, be funny, it's like, of course, he's got to suck at that. I would suck at that too. I do suck at it and we edit our videos. Exactly. So again, freaking hard. Yeah, I get another point in the column of it should be live.

Yeah, it is hard to like be competing in the same, like with and shit, having those guys chirping in your ear while you're looking at the club had to be really difficult. Be entertaining, stay in your process, do what you're here to do, which is show us how great of golf you are, but like on the spot, quick, unoffensive to anyone and say something witty and say something. And like Brooks did land one good one, which I kind of like, he, after he made birdie on two, like, oh, that's good, Bryson.

I was kind of like, okay, all right, like this might get a little chirpy. Like we might finally get what we were looking for, but now they, I mean, they obviously, it was stuck between, and they've run into this issue with a lot of these, stuck between being serious and being a hit and giggle. And those two guys are, Brooks is not funny,

like, personable or entertaining. Like he's none of those things, right? So if he's not gonna be trash talking heavily against, against Bryson, then I don't know what the role actually is here. Like what, what did this settle? Is there beef over now? Is it like, I asked you a serious question.

Has anybody ever asked them point Blake, like what the beef even is? I think it does. Have we ever discussed it? Or is it just kind of like, yeah, I don't really wanna talk about it. Well, it goes back to Brooks thinking Bryson's just a total nerd.

Brooks just doesn't, is he ever said that? Or is this all just like, this is what I'm saying. It's all just like weird subtext that like everybody's kind of like, yeah, yeah, no, this is the problem. But none of these guys,

I don't think either of them have like been on the record saying like, the tipping, yeah, no, this is the problem. But none of these guys, I don't think either of them have been on the record saying, the tipping, yeah, they fucked this guy because. The abs thing is what like set things in motion, right? Like, Brooks took an extremely personal and Bryson said he didn't have abs, which is so ridiculous when he says it. Goes back to something I said a couple of weeks ago too,

which is like the idea of building a TV product around this sounds even more outrageous. But when you explain the point of like this Bryson Brooks feud to somebody who doesn't follow it or doesn't watch golf, like listen to how absurd you sound after you. So go ahead and say that again. So Bryson was on a Twitch stream and said something about abs. Is that right? Well, it also goes like back in, I forget when this time period was, but Keppka had called Bryson's pace of play

like embarrassing or something like that. He called him out for slow play, which like triggered some harassment probably in that. I don't know. Then they confront each other on the range, remember that happened in one of the playoff events. I think that like Brooks just went. He went up. He went up.

Bryson went up to the caddy, but Brooks goes straight up to Bryson and then, you know, he was stupid. There's a lot of suits. My food is going to shit going on. And then the abs thing happened and Brooks fires back at him, saying like, you know, you're right. I'm too trophy short of a six pack, which was sweet. Like when this was going on, it was kind of flowing.

Like it was nice. It was real. Yeah, but you can't put that in a bottle and then like take it off the shelf nine months later. Exactly. And we called for it so many times when this thing was hot, like the beach hit Torhead. So many opportunities to pair these guys together and just didn't. Yeah. Just like Apple. Let, we'll let it happen on, you know, somebody else's can hand the end of this and it was, it was gone by the time we got there. Well, I think you said something that I totally agree with. It just feels very stuck in the middle, right?

And it's not quite a serious competition. It's not quite a joke. It's kind of just a half measure. It feels very, very much like golf doing what it does best, which is trying to have it every which way without ever doing anything that's actually interesting or different. And that, I don't know, I guess makes sense, but is kind of disappointing.

Let me ask you this. So there's been what, five of these now? Yes. Don't think about this. First thing that comes to mind, what's the most memorable moment for many of these? Tom Brady, hold on. 100%. Right?

And why was that so excited? Because it was so fucking unpredictable. Yeah. Because he split his pants because we had all this context about him sucking beforehand. It was the only thing that felt truly uncontrolled, and everything else is just like, don't worry guys, nothing unpredictable is gonna happen, but trust me, people are still gonna love it.

No, those two things don't coexist together. That's why you need somebody that is more, whether it's an MC, whether it's someone that's going to introduce a little bit of uncertainty and chaos and just... And Phil and Chuck are that though. That's my point is they brought, that was the Phil and Chuck show.

And you can't, golf is almost always gonna be boring, the idea is you shotgun blast all of these opportunities out there in a weekend of golf and like that's why it's the golf is like a highlight show. It's like, well this happened over here, this happened here. If you watch every shot from every player, it's not that interesting usually. PGA Tour live shows that like you get kind of just these somewhat boring rounds of golf and that's exactly what Brooks and I mean Brooks played pretty well. Like who cares? That is like that's the through line too. Unless, and this is a big takeaway I have, you gotta give me some stakes.

Give me something the loser has to do that he doesn't want to do. And I was only semi joking about Bryson doing an ad read for CNN plus, but like something that they don't want to do, like an embarrassing social media video, like something to make me watch to the end of like, oh, now he's gotta, like, you always gotta get a pie to the face or something, like, obviously that'd be a horrifically bad idea, but something at the end that's like,

okay, I wanted to see if that guy had to do that, would be. I think that makes the golf a little bit more interesting. No, I agree. I'm trying to think on the other side, you know, just trying to think about it, you know, from every angle. And I saw a lot of responses and stuff like,

oh, you should see how people, you know, how seriously people took the skins game. And like, that was great. Shout out to Gary Player cheating. But, I'll let you think. I think there was a lot of, it was such a like different time then, because you would see those guys, you know, it was such a different time then, because you would see those guys maybe on Saturdays,

maybe, and then Sundays at the majors, and maybe you watch a little bit of golf here and there, but I get to watch Brooks like 50 times a year if I want to. I've seen more of Bryson this year than I probably am bargaining for. It's this idea of like, oh, we're gonna see him up close and personal for 12 holes. I see this all the time.

I see this guys everywhere. And it has to be something different. You can't try to take that tack to it anymore. Those two just were not the right people for this. And it was pretty obvious. Who are the right people? I mean, I think any combination of, this is not, after know, this is a,

after what you just said, it sounds kind of silly because we see these people all the freaking time, but as you mentioned, JT was excellent at this when he did it. Rory did the tailor-made driving relief thing, but that just was not the same production as this would be. Well, just, he would be interesting. Just, Keith would be interesting in this. Like, I think, Keith would be shocking. I know there's gonna shock some in this. I think beef would be shocking.

I know there's gonna shock some people, but I think he'd be by number one pick of who I'd wanna see. Yeah, I like Steph Curry. I mean, Steph Curry wasn't horribly entertaining, I wouldn't say. But it was interesting. Well, how about the idea of putting people together who like each other? Yeah.

Doesn't that seem like it would spark some better conversation rather than like, oh, check it out. These two guys fucking hate each other. This is gonna be fun to watch. The obvious one that has been indicated won't ever happen is Michael Jordan. Like that is what people would line up to watch that. Yeah.

And I don't think he would necessarily be that funny. He would take it super seriously if he could imagine. But that would be, you know, what you would want to get out of this. But I'm thinking back on watching a lot of playing through over the past year and I will triple down and say, I'm like, yes, that was one of the more entertaining sets of golf I watched all year.

Of course, the drama doesn't compete with the US opens and the majors and a lot of the crazy shit that happened over the winter and all that stuff, but as far as product TV production of golf, absolutely some of the more entertaining golf I watch this year. I don't agree, but I see where you're coming from. I'll fight to the death for your right to say,

say your opinion. Well, thank you. I agree from a production standpoint. That's, I think they're taking advantage of the benefits of doing something like this. That's what I'm getting at. That's what I'm getting. Now that we're five times in, like yeah, it's great.

The racing drones are really cool, seeing the golf holes was very cool. Phil, I don't even know if we've like really said enough about Phil yet. I thought he was fantastic. I thought one of the best comments I saw was from Garrett Morrison from the Friday who said part of why, you know,

Phil's so good in the booth is because he trusts that the audience is actually interested in hearing about golf, which it doesn't seem like anybody else in golf is, they're all humiliated that, like, oh my god, I know this is so embarrassing that we're going to have to make you watch golf, but please just give it a try. My boss just really wants you to give it a try. I don't fucking sucks, but just give it a shot. I think you'll like it, whereas Phil is just like, no, I love golf. Here's what's so interesting about it. Here's what's coming up on this hole.

And I think another beat there is, like just a more interesting golf course would be a help. I think if you've only got two people on the course, which I know there's a billion reasons why they went to Vegas and why they went to the win. And I'm sure there were a lot of people, especially casual fans who watched it and were like, that place looked great.

It was green and I love the waterfalls. Which is fine. And that's, you know, easy to roll your eyes as like, this is a huge golf dork take, but interesting course is help a lot. And you could hear Phil, like Phil did such a good job, especially early, I think it was number two,

the long part four, when he basically predicted like, exactly what's gonna happen. Like to a concerning degree. Is this filled? Yes. But he did such a good job of explaining like this whole fits Brooks because of this, this hole is gonna be tougher

for Bryson because of this. And that gets exponentially better when the golf course is more interesting. When it's not just like, all right Phil, tell us about the fifth and it's like, well, it's a, you know, another four and 60 year part four. They're gonna, hopefully they hit the fairway back to you. It would just get so much better with with other golf courses, which reminds me.

Have you ever gone back and looked at, I mean, I think there's some pretty natural parallels to all the shells, wonderful, well, the golf that we're kind of tip tone around here. Have you ever gone back and looked at like just the list of venues that they want to? Can I read some up? Sure. Jockey club. Argentina. Royal Melbourne, Pine Valley, Old Course,

BAMF Springs, Port Marnec, Pebble Beach, Sonnydale, Turnberry, the Country Club, Peach Tree, Mid Ocean, Royal County down, Valley, Bunyan, Pinehurst, Number Two, Wingfoot, the World Golf Village for the love of golf. Go, Cory Cliffs was the last one. I mean, it's just like that's where you get into like, man, does this really have to be live? Because it seems like the idea of just taking two golfers to

unbelievable spots would would get a lot of golfers to tune in on like a Wednesday night. It might not be the day after Thanksgiving, like get as many, you know, casual sports fans to watch as possible. But man, I don't know how we haven't like re-upped that. I was just going to say on the fill note, it's, I tweeted this, but it is amazing to think like, yes, is he on one extreme end of the spectrum in terms of entertainment and ability to communicate that, but like, it is possible to talk about golf the way that Phil talks about golf.

Point one, point two, Nick Fowdo is the color commentator for CBS sports. Like that's their answer to that. So it for that view and it through that lens is very much of like, ah, we are just so deprived. That'll be to eat basis. I'd also say like the commercials are a lot less offensive when the play stops. And I know that's not a realistic option for PG and tour golf. But like everyone was complaining about the commercial load. I was for once totally fine with it, just because it was like, all right,

I got a break. Now I can check my phone, because I've been, it drew me in. I didn't feel like I needed to be on the phone while I'm like, who's gonna say something dumb next? And then, and they take a break, it's like, all right,

that's a lot like how football is, and a lot how basketball is. Your eyes are on the screen. They take a break, and you take a break, whereas golf just feels like one constant break that occasionally something happens just a moment ago. But yeah, well, I think that goes back also to like, you know, when I ask you what's the point, it's like, I mean, it's just to sell ads. Like the whole thing is a fake made up thing on the day after

Thanksgiving, like that's what the DJ tour is too. And that's not entertaining. Yes. Like they don't even try to make the television entertaining. So I, I, I, I, there's just something more to as a golf nerd. The obviously there's a million reasons why this can't happen. Blah blah blah. Players being mic'd up hearing Brooks and Chase talk about how the puts were breaking and here you chase like kind of put his foot down every

now and then I'm like, no, it's not gonna do that. Like, it's first six feet, it's gonna do this. And then, boom, then nail the reads on putts. Just, it draws you in, it brings you something exactly to look for his putt on two, them talking about it going right, and Brooks talked about all the things he was worried about.

And now I'm like, man, I'm really interested to see this. Of golf commentators being like, yeah, it might be right edge, it might be just a little outside. Like that doesn't do anything for me because the camera angles don't give us any of that. And that difference was enormous. I mean, you know, hearing them talk about lies, how stuff is going to jump, little things like that,

or just even what the ball did, it just is, it's not riveting. We say this after every one of these, not every one of those conversations is going to be super interesting, but it just draws you in. It keeps you engaged, and that I think is just a huge huge benefit.

Bryson explaining aim point. It was great. Pretty freaking awesome. Super interesting. That's great. I don't know, my takeaway, Brooks and Bryson's stunk, the golf was not that interesting,

and it hasn't been really interesting in any of them. The audio was kind of all over the place, and bit of a mess, and the golf course stunk and I still enjoyed it. And I came into it very much like, ah, I'm good, I don't need to see this. I kind of have to watch this, but Chuck and Phil were that good.

And to be clear, if it's anybody other than those two, I'd be out on this thing. And that's where I think they're that good. No, that's where I'm worried on the whole like introducing a comedian or introducing someone else's because they're going to go, you know, I didn't fence to anybody. I like their idea, but they're going to go to like, you know, Carlton or Kelly James. They're one of these people that we've seen it fucking 55-golf tournaments over the last

three years. I felt like they went from a million variables. They had two booths for the first one of these for some weird reason and just like slowly trimmed it down to keep it simple. Yeah, they had call-ins to the one last year with, you know, there was some funny moments with Shaq and Kenny and things like that, but this was simple and I don't know. If you have fill in there, you just don't need many other commentators. Yeah. Couple of questions. We got PG-HTACs says, what is the next iteration of the match?

Why must it include LPGA stars? I mean, yeah, that would be phenomenal. I think there's a lot of LPGA players who are probably like more personable and a lot funnier than a lot of the guys. I was still saying it would. I think it would. It's freaking hard. It's freaking hard to entertain.

Totally. That's not the role you would want to get. I also think, I don't know, I'm not trying to oversimplify this, but you've been to and been in LPGA programs. Like they are used to, I don't want to say entertaining, but like they're so much better at the, like all right, two and a half, two hours, two and a half hours with the CEO of the title sponsor, like all right,

time to turn it on. Like they're really, really, really good at that in a way that I have not seen from any of the title sponsor, like all right, time to turn it on. Like they're really, really, really good at that in a way that I have not seen from any of the guys other than maybe Phil. To that, I would also say there's nothing more polar opposite of the spectrum in terms of entertaining these four guys and entertaining the world with mic stones and cameras

because a lot of the really entertaining stuff for that four out, like for those four guys, you can't say on air, honestly. That's the stuff they're actually really good at. I think someone that I mean Daniel Kang would be awesome. I think she would. I think there's a pretty sizable handful of LPJ players who would be awesome at this. I think it would. I think if we're being realistic, like I don't know that they're going to be the headline draw, right? I mean, I think you still need to have a big name from the men's side. I think that's probably just the way that it is

and the way that it is gonna get sold and all of those things. But I think if you're not using, like Brooks and Bryson were so other than the names, like their personality and their golf, everything about it was just so interchangeable that like, yeah, why not experiment with something different and why not try to you know Have some of the people from the LPGA in there it worked when onika and was it kari web that did one with Duval and tiger skins game

Oh, yeah, I think Fred funk was in one of those two, but yeah, why was he in one of those? He put the skirt on remember. There's the whole thing. Yeah That was yeah, that was the source of Tiger's greatest joke. It truly is. Yeah. For those that don't know, the fun guy down to read a putt, Tiger was on the other end and said, what do you think, Tiger?

Tiger goes, I think it's a ball. Maybe two balls out. Great job. It worked at the time. At the Rad 24, should the tour allow range finders in shorts? Good discussion during the broadcast. Lefty and agreement on both. Phil did use the platform a little bit to get a couple points in. A lot of 48 inch. Didn't even get off the first team before he was mad about the 48 inch driver, which is interesting though. Like that's

the exact kind of stuff that's also not going to happen on a yep, Sunday afternoon, because it's just like, oh, well, you know, of course there's the rule change. Yeah. Over to seven. I'm go with players not wearing shorts during tour events. I think that. Yeah, I'm fine with. I was very pro like let them wear whatever during practice rounds during tour events. I think you wear pants. It's a pretty classic look. I don't know. I'm kind of with you. It always does throw me off a little bit. I if they made the rule change, I guess I wouldn't really care. But if I would, if I had a vote, I guess I would vote team pants. I also don't have to be out there. So range finders, mixed reviews for them. I didn't hear a lot of players steadfast saying we should have them and Phil was pretty adamant. We should. The only thing I would say is Phil,

like Phil's argument where it's, I mean, it makes complete sense. It speeds up pace of play and you know how hard it is to get a number from the other fairway. All that stuff's like, well, yeah, dude, don't hit in the fucking other fairway then. Like that shouldn't, you shouldn't be like catered to for, you know how hard it is for me to get a number when I get so far off line.

It's like, yeah, that's the point of why pace of play should be enforced. First of all, like you shouldn't get all the time to go find a number. You should have to just figure it out because you hit it two miles offline. But if you're not going to enforce the pace of play and you're going to, you know, these guys are going to take three, four, five, six minutes to like go get a number anyways. And they're going to probably end up getting the right number. Then yeah, I guess it just just end up saving time.

But from like, like, it should be an advantage to hit it in the fairway where you can use your card book. I think it also just doesn't like that. This doesn't, this is not where pace is getting slowed down in professional golf. It happens on the greens. It happens in threesomes and on the greens. That's the only thing that really holds people up. You're almost never, you're getting to your ball a lot and waiting for greens to clear

anyways. So I don't, I don't really think it addresses that much. And John Wood made a great point of like, now, you know, Katie's are going to use this to check the numbers and work they're already doing, which is not helping speed up play. But last one from the match, Liam spur 82. What does it take to get Phil in the commentary box each week? A ton of money.

A ton of money and like a ton of money. Like if you're Phil, like why would why else would you do it? Like it's, I'm sure he gets a thrill out of it, but why wouldn't you if I'm totally guessing here, but if you were Phil, why wouldn't you go to CBS and say like, yeah cool, I'll do it for six weeks a year. If they're gonna say like, no, no, no, we need you for 18. It's like, no, I would literally know. So I just think it's going to be like a ton of cash. I think the PGA ruined a lot of this. He's now eligible for majors for five more years.

Yeah. He said this on Gary Williams' podcast as well, winning the PGA kind of changed his timeline probably on the commentary game, which, listen, was that one of the greatest sporting events we've ever witnessed? Yes. But it might have given us like five more years of FALDO. Sure.

Also, so, yeah, I think that honestly did change things. Like he won a freaking major this past year. He's not necessarily ready to just go straight to the commentary box, but. Do you think his thing would get old? I don't. I don't either. I really don't.

He's got a criticism I've heard, but I agree with you. I think he is, it's not repetitive. Listen, it's fodder. Is all of it right? Do I agree with all of it? No, is some of it just like using a soapbox? Is it kind of ridiculous? You know, is he showing off?

Is he, you know, all of that? But I'm way, like, what are we doing here if we're not in for that? Like, it needs to be in more entertaining, and that guy entertains. So, he gives you a lot to react to, you don't have to, he doesn't, he doesn't, you know what I like about him? He doesn't try that hard to make people like him.

Yeah, in this regard. Like, he knows a lot of this stuff is polarizing and it comes off as, coming off as super cocky is not the greatest vibe, but like, it is also part of being in their tainer, right guys in their tainer. So we've been here a lot from you guys about rowback. We had to get them in our store. We did that. We only issue we run into. We can't keep them in our store. These their hoodies are flying off our shelves. First of all, their performance polos fit so much better than your typical boxy polos. There are four way

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So check them out now. Get your holiday shopping done with roback. European tour, um, the DP world, the dude perfect world. Sorry, the dude, the dude perfect world tour. Uh, they did not go. Let's get it. Because they packed it in after 36 holes due to the on, on a cron. Is that how you say it? Variant and weather that also was introduced and players were bailing on the field. 13 European players pulled out Thursday after Thursday's round at Rand Park Golf Club again as the golfers

scrambled to get home to avoid quarantine. The weather had the final say on Saturday, inclement weather reduced the co-sanction event to 36 holes, thristen the Lawrence one and three spots to the open win out in this 36 hole event. Yeah, that was the only big note that I had. I mean, obviously, you know, another variance and I don't really have anything to weigh in on that. Like that just sucks that for truly everybody involved. Yeah, we're

weird to give away spots in the open for 36 hole tournament was kind of my only big takeaway. I guess it kind of is what it is, but I feel like in July when we're sneaking up on the open championship at the old course, it's going to be a little like, whoa, that got getting feel. Yeah. But the DP world tours pulled out of South Africa will not coast action next week. South African open at the Gary player country club in Sun City. I'm sure he's got some takes on that.

Meanwhile, the Alfred Dunhill championship at Leopard Creek was also effectively canceled due to the COVID, the new COVID-19 variant. So, tell us how to start to this season. Fun, fun vibe, really fun vibe enjoying that. So, last agenda item I have, and we have cleared the remainder of the podcast to discuss this, was a memo that went out from the PGA tour this past week to PGA tour players, highlighting a lot of things. We're gonna read a lot of it.

Dijam gonna call on you to just stop me whenever I'm going too long reading from the memo and you wanna pause and discuss some of the things. But highlights from the memo. FedExCup bonus pool is up to $75 million from $60 million. Explain what that is. The FedExCup bonus pool is all of the bonuses paid out at the end of the year through the FedExCup,

which includes the top 30 to make the tour championship, but as well, the amounts trickle down all the way down to the anyone that finishes in the top 150 outside of the top 30. Those that money is deferred and goes to your pension. Is that the same thing or just it's deferred compensation? Yeah, I think that's right. Cash is paid. The majority of the the winnings are paid in cash to people in the top 30. Comcast business tour, top 10, up to $20 million from $10 million. A lot

of people legitimately don't know what that is. That is literally, literally just the regular season FedEx cup points list. Yes. But a bonus is paid out to those that finish in the top 10, which was $10 million. This past year now it's 20 split up amongst those top 10, I think. Do the popular demand. Two million went to the winner this past year. I think four million now goes. Basically, if you win the regular season, you win four million dollars.

I assume that to be a cross the board increase. Which honestly, of all these increases, that's the one that sounds the stupidest, because you got to call it the Comcast Business top 10, whatever, but probably the one that makes the most sense. It makes a ton of sense. Like, you know, values who has the best season. Yeah.

When a bunch of money, you win more money. That's basically what it is. The player impact program, a mouth highly publicized, which was $40 million this past year, will go up to $50 million split amongst the most impactful 10 players. Official prize money up to $427 million from $367 million.

Average per se of $9.1 million, which is up from $8 million. Player hosted invitations. There's this Riviera Bay Hill and Memorial up to 12 million from 9.3 million worth keeping eye on here. How much these increases are going to impact the top players? WGCs up to 12 million from 10.5 FedEx Cup playoff events up to 15 million from 9.5 million. That's a lot. That is a huge increase. Great. They dropped an event right or did that already happen this year? That there's three there's three events. Okay. They dropped to WGC's, which has happened. The players championship up to $20 million from $15 million. That's so much.

A lot of money. That's so much for the players, David. A lot of money going around. This was expected, highly publicized as well, a new media deal for the PGA tour, starting in 2022, which increased average earnings or increased fees for the PGA tour by an average of $300 million over nine years,

I believe the deal to be. The increase is not $300 million next year. It is kind of, as we mentioned there, it's an average over the next nine or so years. So that's all to say. Expect this train to keep going. Yeah, that was my biggest, I don't know if you want to start kind of the biggest headline or biggest takeaway, but that was it for me for sure.

Was one, I think it's very easy and I think there is some truth, which we can get into this, but I think it's very, very easy for the snap reaction to be like, oh man, PGL, SGL, they're here. They come, they're just like they're funneling more money at these players. Where if you just take two seconds and think about it for a minute, like, yo, the TV deal is going up 300 million dollar on average, 300 million dollars a year. Like that's a brand new 300 million.

It's not like the cost went up all that much, right? It's like, of course, the purses are going to get astronomically bigger. Like where else was that money going to, you know, predominantly go? I think it's interesting how they distributed much, right? It's like, of course, the purses are going to get astronomically bigger. Like, where else was that money going to, you know, predominantly go? I think it's interesting how they distributed it, right? It's very top-heavy towards the biggest events. And I think one thing that was left out of the highlights there was the fact that 30-some million of that money is being taken out of PJ Tour Reserve as well, like essentially taken out of these savings account. And so I think that is an interesting element of this in that, you know, like you said, the TV contract doesn't hit all at once. It's not like they get one big check at the beginning of the thing. It starts with

a small increase. It gets a little bigger in year two, a little bigger in year three, a little bigger in year four. So even with that increase, they still chose to take money out and bolster these a little bit more, which maybe that's the strongest case you can make for kind of some of these competing tours, but other than that, it's like, man, if it got this big in year one, I'm guessing it's gonna get bigger in year two. I'm guessing the purchase are gonna go up in year three.

I'm, and when you read between the lines or just read explicitly a lot of the stuff that Jay Monhan's saying both in his memo and kind of in press conferences over the last couple of years. Yeah, dude, it's going to keep getting bigger and bigger. I think he has said in the past he wants the players to be up to at least 25 million. I think he's, I don't know if you want to get into the memo. We can break it down part by part, but there's a lot more to it.

There is a lot more to it and to your point. So the increases are about 105 million for next year, which sounds enormous. But again, if we're talking about just in the media related space, it being an average of 300. So if we have an increase 100 and 30% of that or so is the pull from the reserves, imagine the other end of this deal. So are there years when the sellers are going to be 400 million more, 450 more? And granted, it's not not all that money. It's funneled directly to it. the tourist accounting is a bit complicated all that but this is all to say like we're on the underside of this increases

as of right now and if a VC 606 had a good tweet this past week showing like a graph of overall payouts on the PJ tour and if you take out 2020 things are it's not as sharp of an increase as you might imagine. Like there have been increases like this over the, over the past several years, I assume their last media deal was kind of incrementally increasing in a somewhat similar way. I haven't seen the graph you're talking about, but I'm guessing that is in relation to purses. Correct. Not all the bonuses as well. The bonuses are where the real money is. Like I think that I think that's where that graph would get a little outrageous.

Correct. Just clarify that that is just as prize fund money on the PGA tour. So, which is almost I'm not going to say getting irrelevant by any stretch, but it's getting drastically, drastically outweighed for the top guys anyways by the the pip, the player sponsorship stuff, all the other invisible money is just getting outrageously laughably big. So all that to say everything we just talked about makes a ton of sense, makes a ton of sense. Money going up, all these things like, you know, ignoring PGL, ignoring external leagues,

all that stuff, like this was going to happen. Maybe they ramped up things just a little bit, pulling from the reserves. A little bit may have been, I'm, that's not an emergency lever, but it's here to say like, right now we don't have the most good will with our, with our players that we could possibly have right now. And I think you, that comes through an allowed way in the memo too. Some of the words. Yeah. That is what I'm getting at. Let's just start right with the beginning of the letter Which says let me start by

Restating what I told our policy board in Houston the PGA tour your tour your boy is stronger than at any time in our history and the game of golf has unprecedented momentum we are just not from a rating standpoint No, not an interest standpoint. No that And ignoring Tiger Woods with that momentum as well. We are positioned to grow faster in the next 10 years than we have at any point in our existence. This doesn't say this, but also let's just ignore Tiger Woods. And we remain laser focused on strengthening our core product and investing in our members. There's going to be a lot of talk about the product.

We don't know what product they're referring to. They're talking about players bank accounts or are they talking about what we watch on Sunday afternoons. Maybe a little bit of both. No, when they are talking to the players, they're talking about that paper. They ain't talking about us. There's nothing in here. I think the very last line of the letter mentions the fans and that is the only time that

that actually happens. But again, this letter to the players financial rewards and other benefits. I'm not reading the whole memo. I'm just going to read a lot of key. Financial rewards and other benefits, not, I'm not reading the whole memo, I'm just going to read a lot of key parts. Financial rewards and other benefits, not just for the top players, but for the entire membership are growing at an extraordinary pace. Yet there seems to be misunderstanding around not just the level of comprehensive earnings for players, but our financial model in general.

Pause. I think this is going to be the most explicit, you know, sub-tweet of Phil. Yeah, both of Phil and also the most subtle kind of acknowledgement of what's going on, you know, external forces. Obviously, never nowhere in this memo does it say PGL or Saudi Gulf League or live under par golf or any of that stuff. That's the strongest I think we're going to get. And it's also somewhat pointed, a sub tweet, if you will, of what, again, Phil said on Gary Williams' podcast about like the tour only pays the players 26% of its revenue, right, which in the tour's defense is just not accurate.

I think Phil takes the total prize fund money. I think it's accurate. It's just not the numbers horrifically missing. I don't think he showed his work. Yeah. He, I think he's taking total prize fund money, which was like 368 million or something the last full season and divides it by their total consolidated revenue of like 1.5 billion.

So he was going around saying 26% of the money goes to tour players blah, blah, blah. That ignores a lot of other stuff. And it all distills down, but there is a line that they boxed and bolted, which we will get to that shows that that 26% is not right. It is important. This is back to the letter. It is important that you fully understand and have transparency into our business as this is your tour, Of course, tour in all capitals for all of this. Our player directors and pack members are a strong and diverse group of leaders of our membership. Our independent directors are savvy business people with valuable insight and experiences.

And tour employees are not only subject matter experts in their respective fields, but also the most dedicated and passionate team and all of sports. A lot of that was I was vibing with until the very last line, which can I ask you question? Sure. Does your phone and computer and all your, let's just say, your, your Apple products? Do they auto capitalize PGA tour? Sometimes they will do it. Sometimes they do it for me too. I do not do that.

No, I haven't done that in. Listen, was there a time when I did that in my tax messages? Yes, I'm sure that there was. But now it totally auto-corrects. And I wanna make sure, I mean, we need to investigate that. Make sure that the PJ Tours is not pulling the string with Apple behind the scenes.

If you write in, if you're phoned on the auto-corrects, PJ Tours, please, join the conversation. Back to the letter. And all of them work for you, but for that work to be optimized and efficient, your input and direction needs to come from an understanding of what we're doing and why. Basically, you better check yourself before you wreck yourself

as kind of what the vibe I'm getting here. You don't know what you're talking about. Come find out. In 2022, we are forecasting PGA tour consolidated revenue at $1.522 billion. Which guessing is all tours? For clarification, the term consolidated encompasses all of our business operations across all of our tours and the TPC network.

Why mail models? Dynamite drop in money. That broadcast in school has really paid off. The majority, approximately 85% of consolidated revenue is tournament related, primarily sponsored driven and domestic and international media revenue. The remaining 15% of our revenues are from the TPC network, corporate and retail licensing and investments. In 2022, we are forecasting 716 million in operating expenses required to generate the 1.522

billion in revenue. These are primarily tournament-related expenses, 30%. Employee expenses supporting revenue and business operations, 25%, and TPC network expenses, 19%. Additional costs are associated with delivering our domestic and international media operations interest, depreciation, amrization, taxes, and charity payments. And you reaction to that. I don't think so. I mean, I think it's all... I mean, I think you can say...

A lot of this letter is like, we need to really help you understand what's going on here and it's just kind of like, debits and credits. It is. But I think it's pretty straightforward. But you can look at employee expenses of 25% like saying like, do we need that many people generating all this revenue as a question that I feel like a lot of tour players are asking? Sure. I don't know if it's a lot.

A few tour players are asking. And you could read that and say TBC Network expenses are 19% of all the expenses. What the hell is it? But there's also revenue that comes in related to TPC, the TBC network. It also is providing practice facilities for a lot of the players.

And host venues for tournaments. Yeah, I think, yeah, I think the TBC Network's probably pretty net, net positive for the tour. There's not a lot to see. Waterfall licensing fees, things, things of that nature. Not a lot to see in that. So back to the letter.

So the tour is forecasting 1.5, to 2 billion in revenue and subtracting 716 million expenses, which leaves 806 million available for allocations to players. That's the big number. 806, instead of the 368, that's total price, fund money, right? Right. Which is a, that's a big ass difference. Yes. Huge difference. Yes. In addition, the 2022 forecast includes a withdrawal of 32 million from our reserves to further fund player earnings, which will bring us to 838 million in total player allocations.

Of that, 838 million, 685 million comes in the form of comprehensive earnings, which is official prize money, except the majors, those persons are paid not paid by the tour and are not recognized as revenue nor as an allocation on their books. All bonus programs, which include FedExCup, Comcast Business Tour Top 10, play 15 bonus. Play 15 bonus is a $50,000 bonus to anyone who plays 15 events, which seems like pennies and all of this conversation. And the player impacts program and funding for the cuts plan on official prize money and player benefit programs,

health insurance, disability, insurance and daycare. Did you read the thing about, I think, Golf, we had about the tour's daycare program? I have not read it. I only saw the poll quote. I got a, I got the tab open. I need to read the whole story, but I only saw the one thing about the daycare,

the lady who was overseeing the daycare was working with some kids about like, all right, let's make dinner and they were all looking for, one of the kids was looking for a phone to call room service Which is just again, that's one one quote wildly out of context, but it's in baby life pretty hard That's not the latest just a glaver Back to quoting so this next part

There's an additional 153 million of player allocations in the 2022 consolidated forecast generated from official marketing partners and corporate marketing partners that is paid directly to players as endorsements. Approximately 60% of this revenue is generated from a peril and equipment companies in the remaining 40% is generated from our other official marketing partners and corporate marketing partners. We have established a goal for the player partnerships team to double the amount generated by the latter category and other new initiatives over the next two years. So this part is kind of confusing to me. It is.

Let's finish the rest of the letter and then we'll. Okay. Here is the key number you need to know. This is from the letter. This is like bolded out in a box in the letter. Here is the key number you need to know. 55% of the tours revenues will be directed back to players in 2022. And that's the 838 million divided by the

1.522 billion. So, so, uh, do you want to start with the, you know, the official marketing partners, corporate marketing partners? Let's do that. So can you help explain that to me because I'm still kind of confused on it? So I think the way I understand this is what the tour is doing here is basically piggybacking on a lot of the deals that it's doing with a lot of their official marketing partners, which is, I don't know that all of these are specifically official marketing partners, but the idea is like the aons of the world and RBCs and grant thortons and optums and companies like that that you see on the broadcast all the time, even though they're not necessarily

like a title sponsor. I think what they're doing is they're going to a lot of those companies and saying, hey, optum, if you want to be an official marketing partner, here's what's gonna cost and broken out in that cost is now a line item like you need to spend X amount of money sponsoring PJ tour players. And I'm using Optimus as an example because I'm assuming that that's like the Rory McElroy

Optum deal is a part of this. And so I don't know how necessarily that works out with equipment companies. If the equipment companies are doing their own deals with players already anyways, I mean, Calloway pays to sponsor John Rom. I don't, I don't know how necessarily the tours involved in that unless it's part of Caloise spend with the PGA tour to get on telecasts or on digital stuff. Maybe they break out part of that further towards players. I don't totally know how that part works, but with the official marketing partners, I think that's the understanding. And think that's why you see You know Ricky Fowler Dect out in grant Thornton stuff. I think that's why you see all the RBC guys

I think that's why you see you know a lot of a lot of these instances where where these same companies who sponsor the tour are also sponsoring players and That basically just that amount of money is so much bigger than I thought it was. Way bigger. $153 million, expecting to double over the next couple years is astronomical. I mean, when you get to that, we're talking around $300 million, isn't that roughly the size of the total years

purse a couple years ago? And this is all, this is what kind of what I'm getting at and like that's, I'm not saying it's like illegal, but like that's all the like, dark money that like, nobody thinks about it. So, and I think it's wildly worth pointing out when we're having all these PGL, SGL conversations, right? Yeah, no, it, but also to me, just not knowing enough

about it feels a little bit like, kind of taking a little bit of credit for players own marketability. Yeah, I was thinking about that. The only thing I would say there is, I mean, these players are for the most part very smart and as well as their are their teams. Like if they were getting a better deal elsewhere, it seems like they would have no problem like saying no to the tour stuff, right? I mean, it's, I don't think it's hurting anything, certainly, but it's, it just, yeah, it does feel,

it's just weird. It's a weird situation and it kind of feels like we keep coming back to the same realization, which is whether it's because of the tours, tax structure or whatever, they just kind of are existing as this entity that needs to constantly figure out creative ways to funnel giant amounts of money to players

without being able to just like physically write them a check. Right? And it just, I think I made the illusion last time it just feels like an erector set where you just like keep bolting on more and more and more and more and more stuff and you kind of half said this joke when we were getting started talking about this, but Like all this is great, man. This all makes so much sense and it's such a an attractive Idea for like a player if I'm a play if I'm number 35 in the world, 35 in the FedExCub, whatever,

and I'm reading all of this, I'm like, wow, cool, that sounds great. As a fan, I'm like, yo, pause. Like, I don't give a shit about any of this stuff, man. Like, this is not addressing any of the things that we're talking about. And I don't know what, like, none of this makes me wanna watch. In fact, it like actively makes me wanna not watch most

of the time, because most of it has to be paid for with ads and all kinds of uncreative, you know, bolt-ons to the broadcast. Just a lot of, a lot going on here, one being, and I, I agree with the tour's strategy here in terms of like, we need to get this message out to our players, right? And it's, it's surprising that a lot of this stuff in this letter, they feel like needs to be communicated. It's surprising this isn't part of an annual process of some kind to be like,

hey, here is exactly what's coming in, exactly what's going out, here's where the rest of the money's going. I would have thought this information would have been, maybe it is readily available, and maybe they're just kind of tired of like, hey, you guys are saying some things in public that are just not accurate,

like do you actually understand what's going on here? Right. I think it's, well, I you actually understand what's going on here? Right. I think it's, well, I think a lot of it too is probably, you know, if they were to just spell this all out, I mean, this stuff is gonna get leaked to, you know, idiots like us. And I think it is helpful to, you know, at least have a written understanding

of kind of how it breaks down. I mean, I think that's certainly not bad thing for anybody. No, and I think it just, it can be a little slippery slope here, though. Not so much. Players know how much they're getting paid, right? But it also is very hard line information that's also like, okay, well, we're going to pay triple that.

So what's your answer to that? It's very much like, oh, fuck. All right, it's a lot of money, but then also we're talking about a potential competitor here that this is very clearly a, the reasoning for publishing this or why, the reasoning for this getting to players is like there are outside threats. It's very clear. They don't mention the outside threats in it, but it's inherently obvious within the letter.

So is that money really? It's hard to, it's hard to imagine when you see how much money is spelled out money really kind of hard to imagine when you see how much money is spelled out here, it's hard to imagine like more money potentially being out there. But that's the thing is when you look at, I know these are just kind of like models in a slide deck right now, but like all this is great.

Everything that the tour spelled out is unbelievable. What an extraordinary amount of money. Until you like look at the PGL model and it's like, oh no, if you're a top 48 guy, like, no, no, it's still astronomically more money over here. And I'm sure on the Saudi side, I know they haven't like made any commitments or whatever, but it's like by all accounts, like, no, that's an even bigger amount of money over there. And so I'm with you in that, I don't think the biggest bullet in their chamber is just like, if it's a money race,

like they're gonna lose. Even as outrageous of an amount of money as this is, if it all comes down to money, they're gonna lose. I think the strongest case is more like stability and, I guess history, I know that sounds lame to say, but I think it's a thing. I think they know they would lose the money, but also to be like, hey, like, there's still a shitload of money here.

Like it's not a shortfall of money. And also user imagination on what's gonna happen the next eight, nine years. Yes, it's gonna continue to trend up. And a lot of stuff in there is a little bit kind of funny of like, yeah, we have savvy business people's valuable insight and experiences, but like at the same time,

like for all the beefs we have with the PGA tour, it's hard to say like that they're not incredible, like incredible at getting money from corporate sponsors and funneling it to players. Think about it. Without having people watch the product. Think about the fact that in two recessions, the tour has not only not lost one event, they just keep adding events. It's incredible. And it's just like, it's a mind blowing money making machine.

For the players, yes. And look, I don't think any of this is going to address a lot of the beef we have as fans, but I don't know. A very interesting fodder for conversation, if you will. Like the RSM, I think it was the RSM, right? That was against the Charles Schwab Cup Championship. Yeah. The RSM got out drawn. The ratings were

worse for the PGA Tour event that they were for the champion's Tour event. That's a show effect. None of this seems to matter at all. Yeah. Which is, I'm sure that'll just go on for all of history and there will never be a reckoning with that. Interesting question we got from W. Perbaugh. He said, with how much money that has been added to the tour in the last couple of years, when does the cat get passed for career earnings on course and who does it? That's a really good question. DJ has a shot. I think if the money gets really absurd, Rory is younger and could potentially, more a Cala makes a lot of sense.

I think that would be my long horse. Tigers at 120 and DJs at 72.6. So he needs another, what, 48 million dollars to pass the cat of cat never earns another dollar. Right. Jerry won the FedEx, which was another 15. 48 is basically Jordan Spe speed's career to date, which DJ could easily have,

especially if the money's going up the way that it is. That does not include FedEx cup bonuses or anything like that. So that's what I was gonna say is like, I mean, of course the cat is, he's never gonna catch what the cat made off course, but DJ's like total compensation is already obviously well, well, well, well beyond that.

120. Yeah. Right. And so what I'm saying is like all, even if he doesn't pass him in on course, earning like his off course is just about to like hit the hockey stick growth here with all these bonuses and stuff. Yeah. So, and it's not accounting for inflation, all that stuff. And blah, blah, blah. But

that's about it. We have for a golf related stuff. A little bit shorter show this week. We do have episode seven coming up of Tour of Saus this Wednesday at 9 p.m. Eastern. What do you want to tell us about that? Going to Boyne Highlands up near Patoski, Michigan. It's a very special place to big Randy. It's a heavily Randy focused episode. And yeah, hopefully people enjoy it. The NoLang approach up is humming. That's at store.noLangup.com. The holiday promo is continuing through this Tuesday.

The 30th at midnight, there's 15% off. All orders over $150 with the code BFC M150. Of course, Friday, Saturday, Saturday, Monday. There you go. Talk Friday, Cyber Money 150. And of course, Nest members get 20% off of all orders. We recommend getting in there as soon as possible. Inventory is getting a little scarce.

We're excited about the new strap collection, the Holderness and Born Fall collection, new sticker sheets, and much more. Again, store.nolangup.com. Holiday promo ends Tuesday, the 30th at midnight. And also on the podcast for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving episode is traditionally one of our most underlistened two episodes. So I will give a little shout out to Tony Jacqueline episode.

I cannot imagine that you would not enjoy listening to that on a lengthy drive that you may have. He was a total menace. That was a joy to spend the day with him. Heard people out. It's great. He does. He just goes name by name and just starts calling people out. So one and this on this last question from Edmack 2020. More majors. Brooks or more a calla man. Oh God, that's really hard. For fun, I'll say more calla because

that's what I would be rooting for. I'm gonna say Brooks. I'm gonna say, he's got the land, he's got the land grab, and he might not be done winning him. It's a literal two in the hand, which one of the Bush situation. All right, Pymann, thank you very much for joining today, and we will see you guys again here shortly. Cheers.

Give it a big club. Be the right club today. Yes! Be the right club! That's better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different.