No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 573: Latest LIV developments with Max Homa

Episode Date: June 23, 2022

On the heels of the Brooks Koepka - LIV announcement and Jay Monahan's press conference, we fire up a bonus midweek pod and we're joined by Max Homa to detail his thoughts on Koepka's move, the pending counters from Ponte Vedra, his reasons for staying on the PGA Tour, and the decision process that pros are going through when they get an offer from LIV. 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. Yeah, where am I? Washington DC at the KPMG women's PGA championship GC is in the killhouse Hello TC. It's all I think we should call it an elevated elevated status podcast DJ pies in the kill house as well. Hello, Deach Greetings.

Greetings. Happy to be with my fellow Dick riders tonight to just discuss the news of the day. And lastly here to announce his commitment to the live tour, the 54 tour, as he calls it, Max Homa, hello, Max. What went into this decision? Hi, first off, one of the announce where I'm I'm recording from. I'm actually the antithesis of yours. I'm in the birth house as I'm at home with my pregnant wife, who said I must make more money to support my family. I'm just kidding. I am not a, I'm, I'm aligned with the DJ tour still. So. Oh, still like, as in that might change in the future,

interesting. We'll get into that. But listen, not sure how that's how that works. But through the media, screw it, damn the media media. Media is making a face fake narrative. We've been rocking their gear for a while now. We can confidently say it's some of the best fitting gear we've ever worn. It's rowback. You've heard us talk about it a lot. They were a big sponsor of our live shows this past week. We really appreciate their support.

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anties with code NLU. Let's get going. Let's start at the top. Brooks Keppka commits to live. Max, what's your reaction when you see this? Are you surprised by this? Are you angered by this? What's your reaction when you see Brooks is off to live?

I guess it's like multiple emotions. That's a humongous name. DJ was a huge name, obviously, one of the most transcendent talents like Ever and Golf, but at the same time, he is in the back half of his career, I guess, which seems like that seemed like a theme with the first guys who went, but that was obviously, I think if DJ never went, like, I don't know what, I don't know what would have changed, but it could have been a lot different.

Brooks is still like in the middle of it, but not mad or anything. I mean, he makes the most sense. I know he's got a bunch of injuries going on. And I mean, he really has done incredible things in professional golf and mostly in majors. So it makes some sense. It just was surprising, obviously, because as most people have heard, like, he's been pretty pro tour. That was the surprising part of it. But at this point, I think I finally got in the point where I don't, I don't care who's gone is become like, you know, as Porter, as

poor I've said, like the NBA offseason, like it's, it's honestly entertaining. That one was a big kind of shock, but nothing, I guess, past that. TC, DGE, any reaction to, to Capca leaving? I don't know. I mean, I don't really feel that much about Brooks as it is. I think it, it solidifies the fact that their like third leg Greg strategy is stacking up major winners because I think that probably gets around some of the band stuff that the majors could, you know, could enact. So it kind of, you know, puts the onus on them a little bit more of like, oh, you're actually gonna like we have to remove ourselves a little bit from the casual golf fan or from the hardcore golf fan and think about the casual golf fan of like that person knows who Brooks kept it is, right? And that person knows who Bryson DeChampo is. That's what I was going to say. I think it's, I think it's a very big deal. I mean, I don't think it's a death blow or that it's, you know, the

tipping point or anything like that. But I saw a lot of reaction. It's like, oh, man, he hasn't put on anything this year. Guy is all broken down and he only plays in majors. It's all he cares about. And I almost kind of poo-pooing. Like, I don't root for that guy anyways. Like, get him out of here. And I think the possible outcome would be to basically turn it

into like the guys I like versus the guys I don't like tour. Because I think that just level of polarization is is really, really bad. And golf is kind of only, I don't know, it's, it's, we rail as hard as we can against like the class acts tour and like it's, it's not interesting when every but the only people left are, you know, the guys that you're, oh, I hope everybody can win, you know, it's, it's, you need guys with an edge and it was really fun to watch Bryson have a meltdown at the memorial. And it's really fun to watch Bryson win and Detroit. And it's really fun to watch Brooks, you know, do what he did and watch Brooks, you

know, snap into Brooks mode in a place like Phoenix or something like that. And missing out on that really, really freaking stinks, man. Like it's, I don't want to, uh, I don't want to sweep it under the rug. It's like, I don't like that guy. I don't like that guy. But I still think it is a massive bummer that he's not going to be able to be into her. It's going to suck too to like listen to Brooks crow about like, well, like, like real sports have free agency, like, you know, like, I play real sports.

So golf has free agency, you know, like I play real sports. So golf has free agency now. So I think the interesting thing about the Brooks poll is like, I do think like TC, as you said, a lot of places I go, like random casual people talk about Brooks, Keppka, and he has an enormous name. I guess it doesn't feel like much of a death punch in a way because like self-proclaimed Brooks isn't super chummy with like a lot of the guys that play on tour. And I guess I look at people going at least in its first crop about the

people they would pull with them. Like we were I was joking with another player a couple weeks ago and it was kind of like one of those if Jordan's speed fleas like we all stand on our desk and say oh uh, Oh, Captain, my captain, like, I'm following you. He's just like the guy kind of, like I think he's kind of like the North star. And same obviously with Rory, like I think the interesting thing with Brooks is like, I don't think that he's calling other people saying you should like come or whatever. Like I think he, like, I think why he's been so amazing is he really is about his business and like he gets to tournaments and like does his shit and then gets out and he's worn four

majors and it's amazing. But I think that I think that it's like the attraction of other players like going to, especially in the second wave that will be is like that's where it would get for the tour. It would get kind of scary, is it started like linking people. I don't know, certain players out there, like if you looked at like a lot of the first wave guys were like the European like stars from you know, yes or yes, but like you have you know friends like you know GMAC and Polter and a lot of guys that hang out and it's like this one I guess

isn't, it's a few mongest name. I don't know if it's attracting more people. DJ was an enormous thing, but I think did attract a lot of people just because it solidified the tour. I think that tour is solidified now as a real thing. I don't know, a few of these guys that have gone, like, I just don't see a bunch of guys jumping with them yet,

but I mean, I could be wrong. I don't, I'm only going off of what Brooks has said in like his own press conferences. So maybe he is a little more tight with like some of the other guys. I think what's interesting, you're out of a couple of a couple of things, but people, I think rightly so, I've pointed out the the pip rankings a lot this week and basically said, like, hey, here is the PJ tours own, you know, accounting and own mechanism to figure out like who are the 10 most popular players. And again, no matter whether you like these guys don't like these guys like watching them don you said, which is none of those guys strike me as like, man, if he goes, I'm out guys, you know, but of the six remaining, the six remaining kind of all are, you know, and that's what where

it gets to be a little bit of a weird situation. That's what I was saying earlier this week, which every time this happens, the situation changes. And now, if so and so, just pull a name, I'm just gonna pull a random name, say, Zander Shoffley, let's say he's 100% out right now. Now that Brooks has gone, is he 99 out? Is he 80 out? Is he 50 out?

Every time this happens, it changes the landscape. And now if blah, blah, blah, commit next, now it's a different decision to be made. Even the guys that have been the most staunch guys pro PGA tour eventually may have to make a decision if they're you know if there's only 15 of the top 50 left in the world still playing the PGA tour that's a different decision when it was 40 of the top 50 and it that's the really kind of scary thing about it all. If you, you know, I think we've all said to like the best possible benefit of this is that the tour is forced to get creative and change the things and we're going to get to all that

stuff. And I don't think we're close to that. So I'm still very much in the camp of like, whatever we're about to get is not going to be better for golf fans. And that's just why this whole thing just continues to make me very sad. Yeah, I think also it's, you know, it's easy to think about this from an American perspective. But, you know, thinking about it from like a global perspective of, of, it's no wonder that like a brand in grace or a Louis Ustay's in a Charles Schwarzel or Polter has less loyalty to the PGA tour

when that's not their, you know, that's inherently not their home tour, right? That's where they gravitated too, because that's where the money was biggest and all that. So I think there's a certain level of that. And I think it's kind of the same thing with, you know, Aiman called out GSE and his, you know, that's like one of the big agencies and they seem to be at the forefront of this

with, you know, representing Bryson, representing Louis, Brandon Grace, all those guys, and just looking down their list, it's like you've got, you know, Sam Burns seems solidly PGA tour, but you've got, you know, Neiman's been rumored, I guess he's, he sounds like he's solidly tour now as well. Carlos Ortiz has been rumored. Jason Cocrack, Paul Casey, Sebastian Munoz, Johnny Vegas, C.T. Pan, Grayson Murray, like all those guys are both, you know, mostly international and or, you know, Grayson's kind of his own thing. Or super not international.

I mean, shit, I like, it's like I also see like Lexi Thompson on that list of like, like she's a client of theirs and like, I could see that Saudi's being like, you know what, Lexi, come play with the men, you know yeah it's just something to wear like like he said so I like the calculus does change with every commitment into a certain level I think it's also max on that next round of guys that goes and the third round of guys that goes like I don't think there was anything that was going to stop the first round of guys from going like the money was so big and they're clearly that's clearly what they're about. But there's so many ancillary things

that can be tie-breakers for the second round of guys or third round of guys that go beyond the money, whether it's the schedule being too long in the PGA tour. Like that's why there's not some magic bullet that Monahan can play and just like fix this, it's a combination of factors, right? It's more money, it's a combination of factors, right? It's it's Schedule it's more money. It's you know, maybe it's less perlamp stuff Maybe it's taking care of the younger guys are like creating pathways to get to the tour a little bit easier

You know if you're a stud college player because that's the I think that's the big risk that the tour has is Norman Basically goes and says hey, here's here's 10 million bucks. Here's 15 million bucks to the top five guys in college right now. And he does that for the next five years. That's just allowing the tour to not replenish their coffers. Yeah, I think I try my best not to, like, even when we were talking about playoffs, like a couple of years ago, and how they should restructure the tour championship. And every time I try to like, use an analogy with another sport, it just doesn't flow

because we, you know, it's just, it's too different. It's apples to oranges. But I think what's funny about that, or this analogy is, I saw yesterday the Aaron Judge, who's like, obviously Yankee and he's been playing unbelievable baseball on the best team in baseball. He has to do arbitration right now for his contract, and that is a pretty big knock.

Like Mike tried to do it, like everyone has to do it. You could be the best player in the world, and you have to, if you're young, like you have to hit this weird contract thing that like is a huge turn off. Now the thing about MLB is when you do that through it, you make so much freaking money, and you still play on the premier league. And it doesn't seem to matter. But now that

there's another option, like it could possibly matter, I, those links you guys are saying, like, solid you mentioned about how maybe if somebody was a hundred percent out and then someone else goes, maybe it makes them eighty five percent out. I thought, I've talked to DJ about this. Me, not Dustin Johnson. Oh, sorry, sorry. DJ Pie, sorry. I don't want to, don't want to implicate it.

Dennis, Dennis, if Tiger came out and said something, I think it would go a long way. You look at the old story back in the day about when Arnold Palmer walked in that room that Greg Norman was heading for Poole. We don't know the story like there was like another this this was happening years ago and Greg Norman I think was the lead on it and Arnold Palmer essentially walked in or stood up or whatever it was and said we're not leaving and everyone's like cool we're not leaving and we have a

tiger and they don't and I think that means a lot I think that in an odd way that this has been an odd slap in the face to Tiger. He has obviously turned down probably close to a billion dollars to go. I know he has a lot of money, but that's a huge offer. And he said no, not publicly. He literally just, we found out that he said no through Greg Norman. And the only reason that this opportunity is even being presented to professional lawpers is because Tiger Woods.

The money he's put in all of our pockets, this house I'm in is because of Tiger Woods. And I would think that some maybe some more people, like I know the first way people are going to go, it's a lot of money, people are going to go, that's fine. But I think that that trickled down, there's probably a little more thought to like why we're in this position in general. And I think Tiger is a big part of that. And I think that was an interesting part about the Phil thing when he went. Is that Phil kind of, you know, as much as you could say, he, you know,

he made a push for the tour to get better and like that kind of, like is happening in a way from the things he said he did, he did kind of like, I don't know, but the, some of the, I guess, tangents of that, that the crossfire hit some of the players probably in a weird way. And I think Phil is somebody who has met so much the game of golf into the PJ tour. And like, he could have dragged a lot of people with him. I'm sure before whatever that kind of the chaos of everything that went on with him happened,

that might have been maybe a bummer for the live tour because I think he could have probably got a lot of guys. But again, at the end of the day, I think a lot of guys would listen to Tiger as they would have listened to maybe Phil. And I think that is at least that's something I've been thinking. I've learned through this that everyone's very different. But when you see Tiger Woods, like I said, Jordan's Speed, Rory, JT,

like guys that we should be like, I think looking towards as people who are leaders of this game in general with, you know, they're played, but also with what they say off the golf course. That's an interesting aspect of how the trickle down goes. Because like I said, if I heard Tiger got off for $900 million and I got off for 20 and I like left, I would kind of be like, man, you know, that it's just, it's odd.

It's just different. But I don't know. That's a very odd way to look at it. I think you're spot on and what's really weird is the players are in a very strange, unenviable position right now to, Tron, you mentioned, Aime and Lynch's article that he wrote yesterday, I'm not sure if you was something that J said in the player meeting or if it was Aiman kind of editorializing, but he basically said, like that kind of cuts both ways. What players are out there fighting for the tour right now, besides Rory and JT and, you know, Max, honestly, I would put you in that camp as well, doing a podcast like this and kind of discussing it and being firmly, you know,

kind of laying your, your intentions firmly out there is admirable. I had a good, good, good, Scottie was great. But then you get into kind of the like, Mealy mouth, can't lay stuff and like, well, you know, I just, I don't really know what's going to happen. And I think it's just, it's very interesting right now. And kept, I don't want to say this is kind of, and, and for sure. And again, like, hyper rational part of my brain is like, yeah, it's just, it's very interesting right now. And kept, I don't want to say this is kind of it. And, and for sure. And again, like a hyper rational part of my brain is like, yeah, it's probably not a good business decision to just say, like, nope, not interested. I'm out. Like, of course, I was going to shoot you in the foot and Rory probably, you know, if, let's

say this whole thing, like, whatever, the train leaves the station, it gets critical mass. All the best players are there and Rory eventually has to go and, you know, they can get them basically without a six, seven hundred million dollar signing bonus. Then yeah, Rory costs himself a lot of money by saying what he thought. But I also think it's like very much worth just applauding and worth kind of, you know, standing that up as like, like you're saying, Max, like if you are someone who stands for the tour and you're trying to like make it a better and you're trying to fix things that players are upset by, like, man, you got to put some fucking skin in the game. And so just before we move off this real quick, I pulled a bunch of Rory audio from

the press conference today. And I just, I thought this one on Brooks was like particularly relevant. Again, I'll go back to what I said at, uh said at the, I think it was at the U.S. Was it last week or? Am I doing, I don't know. But am I surprised, yes, because of what he said previously. I think that's why I'm surprised that a lot of these guys, because they say one thing and then they do another.

And I don't understand that. And I don't know if that's for legal reasons or if they can't. I have no idea. But it's pretty duplicitous on their part to say one thing and then do another thing. You're talking about something you said two years ago or a week ago. The whole way through. The whole way through in public and private. All of them.

The whole way through. The whole way through. I love that. I, can I just get this out with Capka? What a bitch, man. Like that. Like I've never, I'll take this back. I was the biggest Capka stan.

I invented Capka. I was gonna say, I invented Capka in 2015 and then like, by the end of 2016, I realized, okay, this guy is whatever. Or this guy. But I always, always, always respected his competitive ability. I really did. What he has done in major championships is, I can leave any personal feelings I have

about him at the door to say, just salute tremendous major championship performances, right? And like, that was his legacy in my mind, that he was a great competitor. And like, yeah, like all the douchey stuff he says about golf, not being a real sport, does it bother me? Like, well, yeah, whatever, putting all that aside, like at least respected his competitive nature, to go run and do this, to go play the exhibition series, just take the money.

I knew how much you love money, supposedly he goes around to Ed events with bags and bags of cash in his backpack. And like, so I knew this was a thing, and I knew he was probably gonna end up there. I thought it was gonna be more towards the end of the year, but to be as of a couple weeks ago, telling people in private that you were out on this to go and turn your back on some of the guys that are fighting for the tour like that,

that just, what a bitch, man. It sucks. This one hurts in a different way, not because he's one of my favorite players, it's because like he was one of the competitive dudes that I thought was a real competitive golfer. Now he's not. I think you got to worry if this is going to fracture juke life. It all is. The five down in juke. You know, you got DJ, Kepka, like where, you know, is this going to alienate DB straight

vibe in like Rick? Yeah, where's the shlong? You know, we might need to efforts. Yeah, exactly. From the shlong back. I think going back to your point about tiger, like the fact that, you know, none of this would be possible without him. I would kind of push back on that and say like maybe tiger pro long, the tours success. And maybe this would have happened a lot earlier if not for Tiger where like this isn't inherently irrational business model in a way like the Saudis clearly aren't like they don't just shit about golf right it's it's

it's not about golf it's about something totally different and you know golf is just kind of the pawn in this and so I think it's one of those things to where like I feel like it just kind of the pawn in this. And so I think it's one of those things that we're like, I feel like it's kind of, you're relevant of Tiger on the Saudis end, but it should, which like really, that should engender even more loyalty to Tiger because Tiger gives a shit about golf, it gives a shit about the sport and the game.

And like there's, there's certain, like I thought it was a little bit rich today that like Jay references, that Jay references the sport being bigger than just one entity and then like that. And I think I can point to probably 10 different examples of the tour. A little bit too big for their riches and probably having a little bit too much sway over the game and to the detriment of golf in Australia or the European tour or clapping back at the USGA on rules and regulations and kind of neutering them a little bit. But at the end of the day like I think it's exactly right like the

tours or the sport of golf is bigger than than one entity and when like a country is just trying to buy this whether it's the Saudis or anybody else that sucks right and I don't know like I'm not sure where I was going with that just to say that like I think it's I think Tiger actually like pro long to the party for the tour. Well, especially if you look at like the previous breakaway stuff, right? And you have like the 94 when Norman tried to do this the first time and you know, like what happened in 96 97 to kind of like all of a sudden throw like there was no structural things that changed about the PJ tour, right? But when again, we've referenced this a million times, but in 1994 when when Greg Norm was trying to start the world tour with Rupert Murdock, uh, the guy like really knows how to pick him seems like, uh, but when he was trying to do that and like the tour was facing all this antitrust stuff and FTC stuff and

You know that kind of Tim Finchum kind of went to DC and like made it kind of go away Like they didn't change anything over the next 30 years 20 years at a shitty WGC They just were like yeah, where gosh I wish we had a bunch of money to throw in this bonfire and like a long-come Tiger Woods I was just gonna say throwing this bonfire and like a long comes Tiger Woods. I was just gonna say, we'll get to kind of more Montaghan's presser, but the quote I found interesting was,

if this is an arms race, and if the only weapons here are dollar bills, the PGA Tour can't compete with a foreign monarchy that is spending billions of dollars in an attempt to buy the game of golf. I thought that was one of the best ways I've heard it summarize to this point of like, you know, a foreign monarchy spending billions of dollars

to in an attempt to buy the game of golf was like, yep, that's pretty much what you're up against. I think the interesting thing, and I'm going to use both those points because obviously they aren't anybody, you know, with a ton of money can buy kind of anything. That's kind of the world. We live in unfortunately, you know, money kind of anything that's kind of the world. We live in unfortunately you know money kind of just talks

DJ DJ Pihowski what you said earlier about how you know they need more players out kind of who our pro tour to be more outspoken. Big reason I've been like this has just been weighing on me and like I really wanted to get on here to at least talk about it because it's been just bugging me is I think the top part about that is that we don't all get press conferences every week like three guys do. I actually was hoping and waiting to get one the last couple weeks obviously playing a little bit better but still not in that like upper upper echelon. It's like I still don't get

major press conferences and I do little interviews here and there but I haven't really been like saying a ton. I've been saying that I don't love what's going on I've obviously been using like social media here and there to joke around about it. It's been kind of tough to help like if you know I want the PJ toward a succeed I very much enjoy my time out here it's hard to get your voice heard time out here. It's hard to get your voice heard because I'm not going to waste some like deep thought on like a small article to like the local newspaper, which is more of what I mean, honestly, I do. And you know, you want to, you want to be like a Rory if you're, if you're a line, you know, in thought with him, but we don't get the opportunity. I feel really bad for Rory. He should not have to do this week in a week out. He's doing an amazing job. It scares me in a way because it's all the

big Batman fans out there like me. He's kind of our Harvey Dent right now and he shouldn't have to keep sticking his neck out. If anything ever came out, no one's perfect and it's tough for him to keep having to say this over and over and over again. And keep, I mean, I'm sure he's friends with Brooks. Like, they live down by each other. They're both elite golfers. They've been around each other a lot. Like, he shouldn't have to talk shit about him. And like, they're kind of pushing him

to say something bad about him. And that's not his job. I think we could all help, but the problem is we're not all in a position to do so. But like, the things I would say and why I've been wanting to have, like at least be able to have my voice heard a little bit is, I look back and I know it probably gets over

talk about, you know, by me, probably, and about me. But when I had the shitty, like, go of golf, I can like pinpoint my rock bottom, at least the one that like I pictured the clearest, and I can remember sitting in this shit hole hotel at an Adam's Torvent in the middle of Brownville, Texas, which ironically was San Burns' first never professional golf tournament,

which is kind of cool. But I remember sitting in there, and I barely was watching TV. I was sitting on my bed and just thinking about what's going on. I remember being in my first round, and everybody out there, it's an Adam's for Vince. It's an awesome, great run tournament,

but most of those guys are either getting ready for Q-score just trying to make a few bucks. And I was talking to somebody, he said he was worked in the car barn at some course down the road, and he asked me what I did. And I literally was like two weeks ago, I was playing on the PJ tour.

Like this is, you know, and it was like a humbling feeling, and it sucked. So I remember, I bring that up because when I sit in that hotel room thinking, and like, just like reminiscing and, and then dreaming, I dreamed about a lot of things, dreamed about, you know, playing on the PJ tour,

I dreamed about competing, contending, battling Rory McAroy, Justin Thomas, like, playing with Tiger Woods. Like, I dreamed of a lot of that. I dreamt of like climbing up the world ranking. I dreamt of winning the FedEx Cup. I dreamt of Presidents' cups and Ryder' cups. And I know money comes with a lot of that, but I never dreamt of money. And I mean that sincerely. Like that was never like the motivating factor. Like, that was never like the motivating factor. And I think that is a big part of this whole thing.

You can buy a tour for sure, but you can't buy like my goals and my dreams. And I think a lot of guys do have that. And I think that is the power of these top guys right now. And I hope it stays just selfishly for myself. The funny part is that all this goes to shit and the live tour works and all that. Like, I make a lot more money. Like, that's the, that's the, like in my current set, like mindset, that's like the downside. But I love, like, I love playing the tournament every year, the Genesis.

I love playing API, Zenith by Masterede Mastercard at Bay Hill. I love those tournaments. They mean a lot to me. I enjoyed watching them growing up. I enjoy playing in them now. Like, I don't know. That's why I want the tour to succeed mostly is just because I really enjoy a lot of that. And for me, and I don't think I'm alone. Like, I think a lot of these guys, like, there's this argument now that it's playing for money or playing for trophies, and I call bullshit, because we play for a lot of fucking money also. So I don't know.

I think that they're going to be guys go, it's boatloads of cash, like boatloads. I'm thinkable cash, but I do think that like, for the last year and a half, but I mean, last year, I thought I had a chance to make the Ryder Cup got fit for the clothes. I can picture myself in those clothes looking in the mirror knowing I was not gonna make that team with that point because I was playing too shitty and saying all right, I'm gonna be on this

president's cup team, but I just don't know if there's an amount of money at this moment that would this week get me to quit golf or quit the PJ tour so I could go and I would not get to play the president's cup. That's what wakes me up from morning. That's why I practice when it's 110 out here in Arizona. That is what gets me and I don't think that I'm alone there.

I think that is the beauty of professional golf. For a lot of the guys on tour, I think that they're aligned in that. Have the fireballs fit you for uniforms? Can I say the crushers? To be quite honest, I was seeing fireballs as just for uniforms to say the crushers. To be quite honest, I was team fireballs, like this hot edge shit on the range. I can definitely say after that, Max Holma, not a bitch. I can definitely say that.

Now you take the money, bro. Come on. Max, question for you. Like, how do you, how do you square up? Because I think there is a legitimate, there's definitely legitimacy to the guys who say, hey, like the tour, you know, like, I mean, this should've been percolating for two and a half, three years more than that, even have not argued, you know, Monahan kind of sat on his, sat on his hands a little bit for a couple of years, didn't do a whole lot. Now it's at fever pitch and they're,

and they're starting to move quickly to their credit, But it took a couple of years. How do you square the guys that seem to be doing stuff and sitting on the fence to kind of create leverage or to get the most out of the PGA tour and kind of force the tour to, you know, step up to the plate financially and really take care of, and kind of bring the conversation to the forefront of like, yo, the best players are seemingly underpaid. And the 120th guy on the money list is radically, radically overpaid, but they all count the same. Like bringing that conversation to the forefront. How do you

square those two things? And at what point do those guys need to stop trying to create leverage and get off defense and, you know, be vocal about supporting the tour? Yeah. To answer the latter part, I don't know when you would stop. I think that could be and get off the fence and be vocal about supporting the tour. Yeah, to answer the latter part, I don't know when you would stop. I think that could be a tough crossroads at some point for people. However, for the first part,

I appreciate all the guys who, anybody on the board on the pack, like I appreciate these people speaking out. Because whether your opinions align with mine or not, like I do a preach on any topic, I appreciate the people going out of their way to take time out of their lives and their family's lives to try and in their opinion like better the tour. Looking 20, 20 hindsight, I hate doing it because it's so it's so easy to say, you know, for me to say that like monahan and the tour could

have been doing something like obviously now like now, like, yeah, obviously, like, I'm not saying that they, that they probably should have. I don't, I don't want to like dwell on it. It's nice to see them do something today. Today was the biggest news we've gotten in a long time that was a positive for the PJ tour. But yeah, I'm not going to like bash him for maybe

waiting too long or not maybe for waiting too long. But also as a player, just myself individually, I was with in Hawaii, they do a dinner one night at the century. And I was talking to Rosper Lynn and Monahan, and they were like, why don't you, they're like, you seem opinionated and probably annoying. Why don't you become a member of the pack?

And I was like, honestly, I think when I'd get in those rooms, I'd be a little intimidated and just sit on my hands and not say anything. So I'm very proud of the guys who do get in there and say anything really like it's impressive. So I think we can all at some point look ourselves in the mirror a little bit and say like what are we doing to better whatever opinion we have, whatever whatever view point we have towards where the torch should go. But I will say that like in the last month because of all this, like I have started talking a lot more with the, you know,

any patterns of the world, film or burger, monahan, and trying to at least be in the nose so I can be more informed than then if I'm going to give them a opinion, it's not just made up. Like I asked them questions, I try and be a little bit more.

So I guess, you know, at some point you gotta look yourself in the mirror and say if you want some of the change, like you can't just assume that Jay mononna-Hans is going to do it. Like, not because he doesn't want to just maybe hasn't heard your, your, your, your side of it. And it's like, you know, I, I don't think we should all just be like relying on one person, same thing with this one entity thing. Like, he, he, he also isn't like the end all be all. Like, we can be doing stuff. And I know like kids and Charlie Hoffman and Strills drills and Jordan like and James Hawn, like a lot of the guys I'll talk to about

this stuff here and there like they're out there doing stuff and I'm impressed by them. As a noted PJ Tord dick rider as I know I've I've mentioned in the past. I will I thought it was interesting in the J monahan presser today. He almost got a little not indignant, but he got a question kind of a tiny bit to this effect, like, hey, like why, you know, what the hell, bro, like you guys, why didn't you guys just like give them all this money in the first place? And like, you could do all this stuff today. Like, why didn't you do it three years ago?

And he was kind of like, I mean, the, the very, very long story short was kind of like, you know, this stuff takes so long to do. And like, we have been working on it for so long. We had to finalize the media deal first, which pumps all the cash, like, to be able to juice all these purses. Like, that's where it all comes from. And number two, like, we already were planning to bump up purses. Like, this is just a wildly expedited timeline to do so. And so and they're probably running leaner than they would like with with reserves. And it's unsolved. Yeah, it's unsolved yet.

And that's how it goes. And I think they're out over their skis. And like, I don't know if we want to save this to kind of when we start talking about structural stuff, but like what they're announcing today are these events that are not even sold yet. So for all the like, man, they could have just done this the whole time. It's like, well, maybe, but also like, let's see how it actually shakes out.

Feels a lot like just telling somebody to get better at putting. It's like, it is a process. Like, like, you know, it's not like I can just like snap my fingers and like just go figure it out. Like it takes some time. I would say that like from talking to these guys, like Jay's doing a lot more work than we all like understand. And I think it's really easy to like point a finger

at him because he's the frontman. But like, like, that's, it feels a little unfair. Again, that's why like the 2020 hindsight games tough because maybe he has been doing a lot of stuff and, and live, just did it faster or maybe like whatever. Like, there's just so much that could have gone on and I think even if Jay did the most perfect job 10 years ago still paid people would go because it's a lot of money like I don't we you can't fight this this much money is not real like it's not a real amount of money like it's absurd so yeah like I just I don't know the finger pointing at Jay is tough me. I just think it's a lot harder job than I would ever really understand. And I try to give him a lot of the benefit of the doubt on that one. It's a tough position to be.

And you look at, you know, any commissioner, like at some point, you're going to get bashed. And he's had to go through COVID and then this. And it's, that's tough, man. That's a lot. It also assumes a lot of the criticism, assumes that he has unilateral executive power to do all of these things.

Like he, that he has the ultimate control of all of the per strings and is sitting on this enormous pile of cash and just refusing it to give the players. Like it's just, it's not nearly as simple as people want to try to make it in 280 characters, I think. I think that's the thing that I get to is as far as a That that's sushi. That's the sushi dinner. You were talking about its century, right? Well, I so I like yeah, a that's a tough conversation to have with, especially the 50 through 125 when

barbarians are not yet at the gate. And, you know, they're like, wait, like, why would we blow up the apple cart that we're living a high on the hog on when it doesn't like, they're seemingly not, you know, yeah, we can see around the corner, but they can't. But also some of it too is just like, like, yeah, like it's, it takes a much more educated and informed and active membership base to understand this stuff. And now it seems like, I mean, it seems like it's probably the most educated PGH4 membership of all time, right? Like that actually understands what the levers of power and who reports to who versus, you know, say six months ago, or a year ago or two years ago, right? I don't know, I truly don't know when I'm gonna be able

to get this in otherwise. So you mentioned putting practice and I tried to get it right in after that. But if you are not, if you're getting, my question is, are you getting the most out of your golf practice? Most golfers are not getting the most out of that. And that's for three reasons.

You don't have a plan. You put too much emphasis on what happened getting the most out of that, and that's for three reasons. You don't have a plan. You put too much emphasis on what happened in the most recent round, and you misjudge the areas of your game that needs work. Golf Blueprint will help you with all of that. They'll be doing all sorts of research, research on heart rate, random, verse block, all kinds of stuff that I can't explain to you to keep improving their practice plans. They work to create a practice plan that is customized for your game and what you need to improve on.

All this info is at golf blueprint.com, explained it way better than I can. It's made for all levels of game and member guest season is coming up here. Of course, they've really done a great job of improving players in that three to 15 handy cap range. They've got multiple membership tiers, so you can go to golf blueprint.com, use code NOU 20 for 20% off your first month. DJ is just team been keeping up on our cards. You know, we're working on it.

We're kind of hot. How does shit here right now? And we've got some stuff going on. So we're, you know, we're, we're getting there. But I think the late summer is going to be a really big time for her. With that, you guys want to get into just some of the stuff that was announced today that was voted on by the policy board and Monahan's press or Max, do you have a question?

Can I just add one thing before we get it out because I think that like to your point about your segue segue like this might be last time I get to say another interesting wrinkle to this whole thing like I said before we get into like the nuts and bolts of what's going on about the players leaving and I think the players having the power to say no is what or clear up to like two things the funny part to me and I know it's just Twitter and I know it's stupid or whatever but a lot of people are like will joke about with the or bash me and just essentially say and not just me other people say all you're just jealous people have not entertaining off. I got an email every week to register for their golf tournament. We all have the option. I didn't want to see the number that was thrown at me. I think it's hard to say no to. As you said, the players are in a weird spot, the tours and weird spot. That is a hard, that's a hard pass.

I don't know what amount of money it would be. That's going to be a hard pass. Guaranteed money on golf has never been a thing. It's different. And I want to, the reason I bring this up is I think that like the people go around obviously, like you're like little circle, I think they influence you. And there's, in my opinion, there's no, I'm not looking at people going and staying as right or wrong. There's two different things to me. I have my opinion and then my wife has her opinion and then Joe, my daddy has his opinion

and I feel very fortunate that my opinions are being reciprocated by those two people. My wife, when she hears about all this money that's being handed out and she didn't grow up giving one shit about the PJ tour. She does not care about the Genesis invitation. She doesn't care about that. She cares about me being happy. But when she hears about all that money,

it's like, man, that's crazy. Like why would we not do that? Like, you know, we, you play golf and you make money. Like that's a part of it. And then to be able to like tell her like, hey, like presence cut means a lot to me. And this tour, like the tournaments that I get to play and competing to be the best player out here means a lot to me and this tour, like the tournaments that I get to play and competing to be the best player out here means a lot to me and her being able to just snap be like, oh, that's great. Like, whatever makes you happy, like, that's the important thing. I think that's been cool for me. Joe has been really, really helpful in this because I think the part that does not get talked about is these caddies on that live tour making a ton of money.

And that's a big game changer. And a lot of people, I would say mostly everybody on tour is very close with their caddy. Obviously, you're with them a lot, but I think a lot of them are friends, like really good friends. And Joe is one of my best friends. And to be able to hear him tell me, like, hey, wherever you go, I go, has been a really big boost to me. And like, I think there's only a couple of people that could say, hey, I want you to go,

like, I want you to go and where you'll make more money. And like, them too would be like the ones and like to have people align with your viewpoints in that that are close to you. Like, that's been awesome. And I just wanted to point that out about them too, especially Joe in this case, because I think that that's not getting talked about.

It is, again, it is okay. Am I opinion to go? It's okay to do that. If you want to make more money, like, that's kind getting talked about. It is, again, it is okay in my opinion to go. It's okay to do that. If you wanna make more money, like that's kind of the thing. Like that's a great route to do it. If you want to sit here and try to make presidents cup, that's also like a right way to do it. But it would be hard if you were having people telling you,

you know, go, don't go, go, don't go that are in or in or in or circle. It's been badass to have Joe telling me, I want to play where the best players play and I want you to go prove That you're the best player like let's go take that Challenge on and I know you know a lot of people especially in this little group no Joe really well And even I was like a little surprise that he didn't even have like an anchoring to go. And I thought that was cool. And I also, I'll tell a story in different time, but he French-treated a different caddy last week that did go who was bragging about it. He had sauce of course.

Damn yeah. I mean, I mean, like it's cool too that you like, you don't even want to know the number because it, hey, it doesn't matter to you and be like it's going to model your thoughts or whatever and see like, you see a guy like Abe Ansar who's 20 in the world and has one PGA tour. When you have how many in the last two years, three? Yeah. Yeah, like, of course they would want you. And plus all your social stuff, plus your personality,

you know, and all that. And it's like, all right, like I would imagine your years is probably in that neighborhood, if not higher than that. And, but the fact that, so anybody's saying that, oh, you haven't gotten an offer or they don't want you as fucking insane.

I think everybody on tour, like they would go with right now. Like that's the thing. So that's why I don't knock these guys for going. That is a hard no. Like that's a tough one. I have chosen not to put myself in that position and that's made this a lot easier.

But to see here and think that these guys aren't somewhat jealous in a way of what you're hearing. Like it definitely a thing. I just like, I don't know. It's a weirdest part about this going on right now. It's like you are seeing people being paid ungodly amounts of money to play golf. And at this point in time, world ranking wise,

like a lot of those guys are not like in the same like current form as some of the best golfers. So it's like, it's tough. Like you could, I'm really impressed by, I imagine some of those top guys have gotten dumbed figures thrown out, thrown at them and to not take it as pretty impressive if that's, you know, because they're proving that that's like, not what they care about the most in this game at the moment, but the guys who have gone,

like, it, it, it, it makes it crazy in a sense. It's just like that's what's like fragmenting this whole thing is like I learned that some like that that people like. They just like our opinions are so different. It's kind of like politics. Like you can argue with somebody and realize man like we just see the world differently. And it's it's it's okay. It's just that's what's the kind of the leading points of all this news is like I feel like you you you see how people take this information a little bit differently and like what

what it is that like interests them and like that's I think for so long like in sports I always would argue that people only play this game to win like championships, but at the same time, like how many people like Abe answered to that point is an amazing golfer. Like he sort of probably won more. He's played better than me for those two years, and I've happened to win a few more. And it's like that, that doesn't like maybe the championship's thing is just, is not as big of a focal point or he'll get that on the other tour. It's just everyone is so different, man. That's what I've really learned through this, which is being kind of cool because in a way, because it would be weird if we all thought

the exact same. It's funny even on that front to just look at the media who has kind of chosen sides. And like, obviously, it's very clear where we all stand and kind of what we're rooting for. But on the other side of it, it's like Clay Travis, Steven A. Smith, Colin Cowherd, who are like, yeah, like, this is bullshit. These guys need to take this money. It's like, yo, are any of you going to watch any of these golf tournaments?

It's like, well, no, I mean, like probably not. Like, we're just parachuting about about, like, it's not. It's Colin. It's all this like rock. So you were for what's that? Colin said that Tiger barely played tour events. He only played majors and some Euro events. Totally. Yeah. That 81 versus spot. 82 versus 14. Yeah, it all just turns into this massive proxy war for whether you care about money or whether you don't care about money and why you work and all these things. It's really cool conversation.

Let's go. I have a question for you, Max. Let's say the situation would have been different with the people around you and let's say you were taking a $100 million offer from Liv. Let's say you've said yes. Would you be a little ashamed? Like, would you be prideful about it? Like on social media, would you be super excited about it? Or would you, like, deep down have, like, some shame in, in, in how that decision played out? Paul, I'm just going to the cat privately. Yeah, I have to apologize to the cat. I wouldn't be loud about it. Like I wouldn't be like bragging about it.

I don't think. My point kind of being like you're jovial social media, like attitude, like the, the you would, you would experience hostility towards you in a lot of ways. Like and that has to be like a factor in the decision. I would think for some of these people, like you're,

you're turning a lot of people against you. That's what I was gonna say. Just reading like no offense to A-banser, I don't know him at all. I greatly enjoyed his podcast appearance and it seems like he got just millions and millions and millions of dollars. But yeah, like his little statement

that he posted on Twitter was like somebody died. Or it's just like guys I know you're not gonna like this, but like I really had to think long and hard about it and I've chosen to I've chosen to go to live It was I know you guys are mad. I know you guys are mad, but I'm gonna do it It was like a death now for his career He was basically saying like hey, like I you know this is gonna give me more time to like Invest in my in my, in my mezcal, like foundation and all this. And like, there wasn't anything

about, like, how this is going to help his golf game or. Because nobody can say that part with a straight face. Nobody can say, like, they all try to say, you know, whether it was, it was Taylor and his presser or it was Kevin Knott, I mean, like, no, no, no, no, no, like the biggest issue facing pro golf is just bad draws. And this gets rid of it with these shotgun starts. Like, it's, that's what I'm excited about. And it's like, oh, my God, like, dude, how can any of you do this with a straight face? It's such bullshit. That's what, so I mean, sorry, like, like, I think going back to the guys that we were talking about, like props to certain guys, like, same thing with Ram. I to the guys that we were talking about, like, props to certain guys, like same thing with ROM.

I mean, dude, we didn't mention him earlier, but like, he threw out that $400 million number. I don't think that was out of nowhere. Like, I think that's what, I think that's what ROM was offered. And he was just like, fuck it. No, like I'm out, you know. And, you know, especially him being the Steve Lloyd guy and, well, especially Nicholson being Lloyd's, you know, especially him being the Steve Lloyd guy and especially michaelson being always, you know, agent or boy, being michaelson's agent. And then like I'm worried that some chain my code is just what's true. And what's happening with commercial real estate is the butcher shop price of meats to all this. I mean, all this stuff. The butcher needs to needs to get paid.

The funny, the funny part about all that too is like, obviously, the rooster mills been like insanity. I only know through like, I don't know what anybody is doing except one person as Taylor. And everything else is, I found out at the US Open is straight up rumor. Like you don't know anything really unless you talk to the person, even if you probably have maybe, like they might not, like as we already said about Brooks, like maybe you still don't even know. But it was funny because Ron plays a practice round we're on the putting green rob plays a practice round

with not and michaelson and a lot of people looked we're looking on like oh boy and while we are out on the course uh heard a little birdie say roms real interested and i was like damn like that would be a humongous domino in this whole thing. And then I get off the golf course, finish practice and I get on my phone and I see this press conference. And I'm like, yeah, this just proves, like, honestly, nobody knows anything. It's all rumored because you eviscerated the idea. And it was just like shocking to see somebody who, I think the entire morning wave of that practice day thought, all right, see you wrong.

You're playing with two guys on it. Phil Mickelson, one of his like close buddies, you know, mentor, like you just think this has to mean something and you find out it meant nothing. And I guess all the rumor stuff is just like it's it's almost exhausting. And it was very almost like sobering to go to the US open and and and actually start to see that like, I know nothing. I followed him this week. He didn't end up playing with Nah that day.

It was just him and Phil. And he wanted to talk about all the little stuff with me in front of Phil. He's like, what do you think about all this stuff? And I was like, yeah, I mean, we should probably go walk over here because of what I have to say, might get me a little trouble with this other guy, but his kind of stance on everything was that was a that was a big win for the tour I would have to say you were sitting really bad shots, too, right?

So I kept hitting horrible like we would talk for a couple of minutes and need step up and hit a horrible shot And I felt I like try to walk away He'd like come seek me out again. Like here's another thing that I haven't thought about You guys want to get into some of the stuff that came out today? New schedule stuff, new, new format, I kind of want to get or Max's reaction to some of this. We should on a couple of live things real quick. Sure.

Like that. I mean, good, good, no longer a captain. The crushers, I think the crushers have a crisis getting, getting getting the shambles as a captain now. The crush. I'm sorry. Torque, Torque, TORC, TORC, TORC, out the new, I think Tana Torch Torch. Yeah. Yeah. Torch Torch. Torch out the new. I think Tana Hara is now their captain. Yeah. They're going in a different

direction, which I respect. I think it's a little early of the season, but you know, I get it. Can we shit on Ogletree a little bit too? Like, you imagine getting dumped after one event. Can you imagine being so entitled about like, man, I just can't, I can't get anywhere to play. This is bullshit. I should be able to get all these starts. I should be able to get these starts and you go sign up and you get 125 grand for the last place and potentially ban for life for the PJ tour. That's awesome. I, I wouldn't dunk too hard though, because I'm pretty sure he's guaranteed Asian tour starts now that I think they're just going to funnel him there to make a bunch of money there. So, What even then is just like, you know, wait a bet on yourself, man,

chicken shit. I put the Saudis or our ally. I think I learned that from him. That's true. Yeah, he encouraged you to do your research on that fruit. Anything else? No, that was just, I just wanna get the glass off. I feel like you just had to get that logo three

and move out there. I, I, one other thing to note is more a coward, definitively stated that he is not going to live. He is happy with the PGA tour. And quote, the media was spreading around rumors about, you know, that he was potentially going. So it sounds like the media is actually just the pumpkin ridge GM out there telling a lot of people that's literally the only person that I think we've heard that.

We've seen there's been so many people have reached out, like the pumpkin GM told me, blah, blah, blah, blah, or whatever. That may be a lie too for all we know. It could be perpetrated by live, whatnot. Pumpkin GM might turn into a pumpkin by the time it's all over. It's possible.

So it was good that Colin definitively stated, I think he could have definitively stated it before that, when he was asked about it at the US Open, he could have been much more definitive about it. But and we had, you know, tweeted out like every single source we've ever heard has said, Colin is not doing it. Like I don't know where all these rumors are coming from, but I also think the media is not quite to blame for for that rumor flying around for obsidian Excel guys. No, you know, not, I don't think anybody from Excel is gone.

I don't think anybody like team was seems to be relatively standing strong. There may be a few defections here and there team was namely, you know, I think wolf's been rumored big dig Rick. But you know, I think otherwise it's like, you know what, like not even team Rose is gone. It's true. The funniest part about the Wolf rumors is they weren't rumors who was just in their ads.

Yeah. I wasn't even a real rumor. I came playing the media for that one. I was just straight up at it. You know, like, her like Bubba was in their stuff and he's just hurt right now. Right. I think the more concerning the one with Colin is the serial. That's like, it's super concerning.

I used to have a, when I stole the ID obviously from somebody else, but my old tweet at the, when the giants were playing the doggers, I would remember I used to tweet, not because he actually does it, but I would say, you know, Hunter Pence pours the milk in before the cereal as like a complete nutter disc. And now I find out that one of my like Favorite guys on tour is also in that bag So that was that was concerning. That's tough for you

Yeah, the cow bears man, we can't get you brave It's also one of those fake things that people get really riled up about but no one really actually cares about the But that's the best part of life. That's true. Yeah. That's true. The conversation's been a little too serious lately. So I'm, I mean,

it keeps me alive. I'm very old. So I think before we talk schedule, because I think this is going to lead right into it is the Euro Tours position and all this. I think, you know, this probably dovetails with some of the international events stuff that we're going to talk about with the 23 schedule and the fall series and all that stuff, but he'll be, I guess,

he's supposed to come out tomorrow. We heard through some sources that I guess they're going to throw the ban hammer down, which means that they're going to align more closely with the PGA tour. And you know, as soon as balls go in there tomorrow, or I guess, you know, either tomorrow or next week with live, I guess they're going to, you know, it sounds like, you know, tomorrow or next week with live I guess they're gonna you know it sounds like you know or that's a big bluff and because I tend to think that that Pellies best option is to align with the Saudis where you know like they're both shitty options are gonna be relegated to the kids table either way but at least I guess you guess the strategic alliance allows them to keep the rider cup and kind of keep things going on that level.

But I just think Pelley's position in all this is really, really interesting. Yeah, and this is one that I'm not as up to speed on or I've thought about enough as to what should or could or will happen in this regard. I'm kind of just waiting for this one to play out. They're on different ground than the PGA Tour is definitely. And yeah, it was reported that they were mulling over options from both. And then I don't know how accurate that was

because they had stated that Keith was not at Centurion Club. And I was a sick detonation. Yeah, I don't know exactly what's going to happen, but it seems like there was at least a glimpse into that that might happen, the possibility of the Saudis. But basically, on everyone I've talked to since then, it does not seem to be the case. So I think, can I play some more Rory audio?

Sure. All right, this is Rory being asked about the European tour. I would like to see, like I've always, I've always advocated for something where the tours work more closely together or we create some sort of world tour model or ATP model where there's different events going on in different areas of the world,

but they're all governed under one umbrella. So, I mean, I'd like to see, I'd like to see the PGA tour and the European tour start to work more closely together and maybe try to forge a path to where all the biggest golf events in the world are under the same umbrella. You see that, definitely. I think it's hard to say at this point, but I would like to think that it's a possibility. Only context, I think I would give to that is like, Roy's been in policy board meetings for like five hours today.

So I don't think that that was like a... Out of nowhere. Out of nowhere answer. So I think it's a very compelling, you know, I think we were all talking about that this week, like this idea. If the tour and the Euro tour somehow kind of merged together and you could basically have license to kind of blow up the system truly and create like a real world tour that had takes the best events from both tours and has proper feeder systems and all that stuff. I think

it starts to actually get like very, very compelling. Good for fans and players alike and you can unlock like global corporate ad spend versus just North America or just Europe. Yeah. In national opens. But for like lift up the national opens people. It's like like that's where I'm at with these with these three, you know, I mean, sorry, let's just go through the the proposals here. Yeah.

Starting at the end of the 2022 23 season, only the top 70 players in the FedEx Cup points will qualify for the first playoff tournament, the FedEx St. Jude championship. The top 50 in the standings will move onward to the BMW championship one week later and the traditional top 30 players going on to the tour championship at East Lake. And in addition, the 50 players you qualify for the BMW championship will earn births into a lucrative three event series to be held overseas in the fall of 2023. Those events are expected to be staged in Asia, Europe, in the Middle East, in consecutive weeks with purses of at least $20 million each.

Max, any thought what are your initial thoughts on when you hear that? I loved it. It was great. Like I mentioned before, for like a month now, I feel like every news dump is like been negative for the PJ tour. And obviously, someone like pushing for it for the tour to succeed. Like it was just like hard to like the only thing that we got that that that was said like prior to this was that you know some guys might get suspended and like that doesn't make me feel

like that much better like you know like I mentioned before like one of my closest buddies Taylor that means we aren't playing golf anymore together until the majors. So it's like that wasn't like good news. This at least was like it felt like a well thought out Strategic move that like I think if you're on the fence at the moment like that would keep you from jumping. I like the idea of I mean the purse the upping of some of these purses is insanity how much more money it is They're obviously trying to do their best to filter more money to the top guys while also keeping the competitive nature of the PJ tour like the same. So kind of, you know, if you're someone like me, like that's kind of best of both worlds, I thought that a lot of a lot of what he proposed was obviously well thought out also, you know, I know that they had to like vote on this through the pack and the board and like it's that's tough because you're getting some guys on that are not the top guys, you know, and that that's a tough. That's a tough decision to make, but the fact that it was made, you know, I don't know, I was impressed with it. They they showed some some form of like innovation.

I don't know. I think it's better for like, you know, obviously. I think it's better for like, you know, obviously, it's not perfect all the way down the list, but I do think that and what we've got going on right this moment, I think it was what they needed to do. Max, is it true that like guys just talking about that discussion within the membership and kind of like Jay selling the rank and file guys on this? Like do you feel like guys want to bet on themselves for where, you know, the guy that's 90, if they're 100 on the money list, this year feels like he's got a bright future ahead of him. Once they're fine giving up a little bit of the pie now, or a little bit of stability, or a little bit of certainty,

for a bigger up, a, for a bigger upside, and then b, to make sure that that pie keeps going, versus having the same amount of a pie that could evaporate if they don't make these changes. I think so I can't speak for everybody but the guys that you know I've talked to or know whatever like I know they have they have that that on themselves mentality. Again, if someone were to offer that person 20 million dollars a good or different tour like I don't know if that would be the same thing you know or if they would be the same thing.

Or if they would stay that course. Like, obviously, that's a whole different ballgame. But I don't know. I think that mostly everybody I think understands that the fact that for this to continue moving forward, it's not you have to take a step back. It's just that you're going to have

to play a lot better golf, I guess, to reap all these benefits. And I think what kind of, the point that's, I guess, somewhat important is, we hear all the time how it's a razor-thin margin between the mini-tour and the corn-fairy-tour and it's a razor-thin margin between the corn-fairy-tour and the PJ-tour.

Well, think about the 90th guy on the money list. How small do you think that gap is to the top 50? Like if we're gonna go with that equation, like it's pretty damn small. So it takes a year, maybe two years to like pop off and figure out how to get into this little, like kind of where you're getting all these benefits of what Monahan proposed today going forward.

So I imagine that a lot of the guys do have that, you know, kind of fight in them to say, hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make this happen for myself. And if you don't, again, I don't think you're not really essentially getting punted. It's not better for you, but I don't think it's like catastrophically worse. I could be wrong, but it feels like it's, it's, it's a slight setback with the opportunity for a big pot of gold at the end, I guess. Must to keep the party going as well. We didn't really talk about like the other, the other half of this, right, which is if you are outside that top 70 and you don't make the playoffs, then you're, you're basically going

into the fall events, which are not FedEx cup events, but you're, you're playing almost like a mini series where you're trying to kind of get into that top one 25. So top 55. It's like extended corn ferry finals basically, like a student up corn ferry finals. It would probably throw the corn ferry finals graduates into that as well. I think so. Yeah, don't have a time. Yeah, I'm not 100% sure about that one though, because I think at least from what I've heard, I might not roll well first on this. Before I've heard, like, if you finish 71, you still stay at 71 and like you can't lose your stuff,

we have more opportunity to play and better your number for the next season. But like, I wouldn't change your status that much. You would have more opportunity to play for money and then it would give those corporate guys a few extra starts to make some money. So I think there's some parts to that that aren't bad. My whole beef with the tour,

if I was commissioner for a day type thing, my beef with it for basically a year and a half now has been that we don't have a off season. And that being addressed is good, and it also should present more opportunity for guys to have a hard time getting into events, to get into a few more. And like that's not bad.

Like again, it's not great, but I don't think it's that bad. It's not going to be received perfectly. But I think once people get to see that like, if you took the entirety of it, it makes sense. Um, but yeah, like I don't know. At some point, like the, the, the, the super seasons we've had the last two years are joke. Like you don't, you don't get to rest. Like I, I, whether you want to go on vacation or like I've wanted to play like the Australian tour events or the those three big ones like or Literally anything like you can't do it right now like nobody can not not the

125th guy not the one guy like you have to play a lot and it's it's it's I'm not saying it's exhausting What was me? I'm saying it's exhausting in the fact that you don't have like a life like my wife supposed to give birth early November That's when the fall starts, like this next year, which is still gonna be a thing. Like I have to figure out what events I'm gonna skip and how that's gonna affect my season. How hard it is, you start the year on.

Yeah, and it's like, dude, like it's not rockets, and people have pointed out like, if you have a good fall, you typically have a good season. And I've never had a good fall until this year and look at this, I'm having a good season. Like, it matters so much. And it's like you can't sit there and just think like, unless you're a Rory who can come out and play like one,

two events, win one of them. And like, it doesn't matter. Like, for most guys, you need more starts and opportunity or a more condensed schedule so that your good starts go a lot further. But if you're not getting into every event, like look at Bo Haasler. Bo Haasler's played awesome this year. And he was an alternate this week or a more condensed schedule so that your good starts go a lot further. But if you're not getting into every event, like, look at Bo Hauser. Bo Hauser has played awesome this year.

And he was an alternate this week to get into the travelers. Like, it's such a grind because nowadays, everyone has to play everything. And I think in this way, at least you would have some events, maybe that you could just like get to play and like get maybe a rhythm. I could be totally off on this, but like, to me, part of that does sound okay. Also, it's kind of like, not just taking time off of,

working on your swing or doing a swing change or something like that, not having the anxiety of falling behind or like you're in quicksand. Even bigger, dude, I hurt my shoulder last year at the BMW and had two weeks off until whatever fortenet, I think was my next event, maybe two and a half weeks off. And then I never had a chance to like, like do anything about it. It was like a constant like season long, like so we're still working on it.

Like it's not some major thing, but it's has never had time, but like I could just sit down for a couple weeks. And then this year at Bay Hill, I hurt my hand, and I was freaking out because I was like, man, I'm having a good season already. Like, when can I fix this? Like, when, like, if I need to go see a doctor, like, when do I go do that?

Because if that doctor says I, you know, something bad that I don't want to hear, like, do I wear it? And like, just keep dealing with it until note, like, there's no time when. Like, there's no eventual time. Do I wear it and like just keep dealing with it until? Note like there's no time when like there's no eventual time I could go get something done so then I'm gonna have to make a decision as to when I'm going to fix that and like what events I'm gonna skip to do that and it's like that's that's tough man like you need some time off and the thing about these like proposed

Big money like just money grabs no FedEx cup points no world ranking just money that like people are kind of laughing at because it's just like the live thing. You don't have to play in those like you can decide not to play in those it does not hurt your standing in any regard and I think that is that's good like that's a very good option. Well, there's also, you know, these fall events to play in. Like, I think that's a good thing overall because the biggest gripe that I totally get of the guys who've gone to the lift or saying that they don't need to play as much, that is a big deal. Like, people have family, people have other interests

outside of golf. That's a big deal. Only having to play, even if you do all the Euro stuff, playing 19, 20 events a year, that's a lot better than kind of not being forced, but being pushed to play like 30 something events. Like it's too much. Like it's just, you're supposed to play this game to like 45 or 50 years old. Like hell no, if I'm playing in 35 events a year.

Like no, thank you. Like I don't know if I could sustain it physically or mentally. So it's like having some downtime, a condensed schedule where it's a little bit more of a sprint unless I'm just like a never-ending marathon. I think I think once this starts to get back to being like this becomes more of a mainstream thing. I think everyone will understand that like the macro bird's-eye view of this is good. Like there's obviously going to be things at suck, like, not perfect for everybody.

And I am very sympathetic of that. And like, I just don't know what else they could do in this exact instance to deal with what's happening. And that's where I'm at too, is I think everybody saw this as a bit of a like, oh, the tour is gonna do something big and bold and crazy and blow things up and change it. And you know, this is such a like key moment for pro golf and really what it feels like is that we just got like revamped WGC's and Max, I'm happy for you happy for you and your colleagues. You guys are going to make a ton more money. As a golf fan, I don't really feel much of anything. I total shrug. I mean, yeah, I guess maybe some of

that fall stuff will be kind of cool. If like somebody can kind of play their way in and if they go to very cool golf courses in the fall, which I don't think we should give them any shred of the benefit of the doubt that they will do. Yeah, maybe those could be cool, but other than that, it just kind of feels like we're doing, we're doing the WGC's thing over again and we're running that playbook back. And from a like PJ tour dick rider perspective, I'm like, yeah, this makes perfect sense, man. I see why you did it. Seems like it's going to keep the members happy.

Seems like you're addressing some of the issues from a golf fan perspective. I'm like, yeah, cool, man, like I, I, that's fair. But I think the January, the August, I think the January to August for the fans is better. Like DJ, you and I have talked about that. Totally. Like, totally. The season should start in January. It feels like it starts. You, you don't dilute the product as much. And I think that could be,

that could be the part. I don't think that these like money grab events are going to attract more viewers by any means. But it's like, I do think that the consolidated season, like the FedEx kept season, I think that's more interesting person because I think when you start a season and play like forever, and then you have this weird like two week break, three week break, I just don't think that does it for anyway.

I'm a big fan of golf. And like that, that's also been the, my problem is like, it's hard to get up for events when it feels like we're never, we never get a chance to breathe as a fan. And I think that it, a lot of people are looking at it in that viewpoint that, that you mentioned that, oh, well, these events still aren't going to interest me. Like, why would I care? It's like, I don't think that you have to.

I think that the actual season will be much more interesting now. I do think there's a certain sense of like, like, I think it's a good thing to invest in the shit that's already good. Like, Genesis, API, memorial, match plays sick. I wish group of Salinas would hop in the boat here and do some stuff. Mexico wise, but I mean, because it's kind of like one of those things, we're like, there's, there's kind of two tours already, right? There's kind of the, the majors, invitations, WGCs,

pick off a few tournaments here, there, like kind of the Rory DJ tour. And then there's like that everybody else tour, right? And you've, you've kind of been straddling both of those a little bit, but I think one of the things that they'll need to do as well is, you know, if they kind of solidify that, a little bit more of like, hey, we've got the, you know, the majors plus the invitations plus these three tournaments

and the fall kind of thing, then there needs to be a little bit more connectivity between the corn fairy tour and that 70 to 125 in there because I feel like, you know, that's where I get a little disappointed if it's like, all right, you're just recycling the 70 to 125 guys and they don't really leave the pot. They don't really leave the pool at all. It's like, hey, let's get a little bit more churn going

because then you're encouraging, you know, a little bit more interest from the younger guys. Like you're keeping them in the boat, you know, of, hey, you're closer to these riches, if you play well instead of the, you know, kind of the zalatoris, the hang of like, you know, hey, man, you're gonna have to work extra hard to be a part of the system here, you know?

Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, I feel like we saw this months ago in terms of what, how this was gonna play out for golf fans, exactly what you said, Dijas, all this makes sense. In wartime, does it make sense to make sure that you know, nail down as many of players as you can to stay on this tour?

Like, does all of that make sense of signing up, in purses and everything they've done? Of course, it makes sense. Does it end up with like a better product for us? Maybe, like maybe, like I kind of can get down with like, hey, these are the big events, like these are the events they were going to matter. And we've weed out weeded out a lot that don't matter.

But yeah, the three no cut cash grab events are, yeah, that's not what golf fans are necessarily asking for. They are asking for the stars to stay, I think, but, you know, yeah, it's not going to be a huge wind windfall for the fan who I don't think. But what I would love free idea, they won't probably do this. But I think they should is if it's 50 guys, it is not tied to points. It's not, I don't know who knows. I mean, I'm sure there'll be Buku, World Rankings and all that stuff.

But oh, no, no, there's not. There's not. There's not. Really? Yeah, no, there's no, there's no implication at all. It's just a free ride. Like here's $60 million for three weeks up for grabs. Well, Max, that makes it even better than what I was going to say is like get really fucking wild with the production stuff. Mike guys up, like get a cool venue, like get as loose as possible, like get cameras in there, like crazy.

Like those, you have to do something. Make it like make it like the test bed. Yeah, you got to do something to differentiate those events and make them, like make me care at all. Otherwise, literally it is just a live event. So unless you can, like, unless you can differentiate it on the media side, production side, like coverage side, then I, yeah, I'm not totally sure why I'd watch. Can I wear the tour hat for just one second?

I'm on the tour guy. We don't care. Okay, we don't, we don't, we don't, we don't, we're not going to do any of that stuff. To play the, I'll play the player side really quick, DJ to that point, I actually, I do think I know who knows truly who knows situation. But I, players are more inclined to do wonky shit when my like world ranking and my FedEx cup thing aren't like on the line. Like you, you're going to tell me to wear a mic and I not have to think about what I'm going to say, not because I say bad stuff, just because

maybe there's some stuff I am not proud of how much I swear all the time and little things and now I'm thinking about this thing on me but I'm also playing the Attornament that if I don't play well and I miss the cut that knocks me down on everything and my hopes and dreams are not based off of unfortunately your Entertainment like it's hard for me to be sold on okay go out there and entertain the fans because that is not like that is not what I've been like Bread to do now if it was a lot less like in Intrusive I would probably be more inclined but like anything that's not like our status quo sadly is just like It's not of interest to the players and I'm not just talking with me. I'm just like using the grand scheme. I've seen it happen

I play with the dude who wore a mic at a tournament. He played horrible the first day. And after he mentioned, he said, I just couldn't stop thinking about like that everyone could hear what I was saying, just in case. Like, even though he is the nicest, never says a bad thing person, it's something. But if I'm playing in an event where it kind of like, doesn't matter as much, way more inclined to do anything to make it fun.

Because I think we all do want it to be entertaining. But everyone on tour is a selfish motherfucker. That is part of it. I've never had a team man. I play golf. That's what I do for me. Like that's why we all play and it's just this is like the cold hard shitty truth. The backside is that we do want to entertain everybody and we want that to be like a part of the the journey of professional golf, but for front of everyone's brain is not that you're telling me to go play golf because if I don't play well, I lose out on whatever my hopes and dreams are of that week. I just don't think you can get players behind all the wonky stuff. Unless, and hopefully in this case, people are more into doing that. And you use the lib tour a little bit. I mean, shoot, they did interviews on the first tee.

Like, we would never do that in a tour event, like ever. And like, I'm not saying they was way more interesting, but you could just see that people are a little bit more flexible. And I'm hoping that that turns into the case, but that's a way different cell when, or it's apples or oranges, if you're like comparing that to playing like the Genesis invitation where it's like, you know, it's more of like a locked-in thing.

Like, I don't know. I think that's what I'm saying. I think that's what I'm saying. It's shitty to say and admit, but like, that's just how everyone thinks. I think it's very... Flip side, though. If it's a $20 million purse, and you're playing for,

you know, like FedExCop was, and you're playing for like you know like FedEx cop was like you're playing for that year end bonus right you're trying to get to Eastlake and I know this other shit tied to it as far as major appearances and players and all that stuff but you know $20 million per so that's what four million to the winner. Three and a half four and a half. Three and a half three and a half. So you know it's like it's essentially the players purse from this year. Yeah, three and a half. Yeah.

So, yeah, it's like, it's essentially the players purse from this year. Yeah. Some of it, a lot of what some of these guys play for is the money. And so when you ask them to do the wonky shit in an event where there's a $29 purse, I could see some push back there as well. Sure. Sure, but I just think there's better incentive to do it. Like you will get more guys to do it.

Like, as some, like talking about me now, like I want all of that, like I said, I'm a fan of like the game. Go. If I obviously listen to you guys all the time, like I want to do more of that stuff, but right when I saw the dude have the mic and just talk about how not great it was, I'm like, man, like, I kind of just got to keep doing the things I've been doing, you know, like you just, it's like a fear factor of it. Especially if, you know, the guy you're playing against isn't wearing a mic or your competitors. Yeah. Like, nobody's going to like willingly put themselves at a disadvantage like for the altruistic, you know, feelings of the fan.

But at the same time, like, I just, like the tour needs to also be like held accountable or called out or whatever for, like, you can't go and press conferences and on CBS and shit on like, this isn't real golf that they're playing this is just exhibitions like okay well how are you going to keep on the PJ tour exhibitions like all right well there has to be exhibitions for a lot less money. There has to be some some point to why why this stuff can we get a fucking cut cam on Fridays like good God. Like give me a cut cam. Like, like, that is the most obvious layup idea. Like follow a couple guys on the cut. Like, it's so easy. Get rid of TPC Craig Ranch as well.

Sure. Okay. There. I never even played there. Can we talk about some of the purse increases as I think that might have been the biggest news of the day if you well and were. That was insane. Almost an hour to half into this. But century is up to 15 million from 8.2 Genesis up to 20 million from 12 million. We're like 35 players. Correct. Yeah. Hell yeah. Bayhill up to 20 million from 12 million. Players up to 25 from 20. Match play up to 20 from 12 FedEx St. Jude up to 20 million from 15 million BMW up to 20 million from 15 million total increase Max. Can you guess what the total increase was? Live tour or live Roman numeral. Correct. 53.8 million which

if you rounded it rounds to. Dimitri to live. Max is kicking in the extra. And I for the joke I might and I hate that we have to bury this this far into the pod because it's definitely these people on Twitter are not listening, probably not listening to pod period and not listening, you know, this far in God, I've never read so many Phil was right the whole time tweets in the did today. I'm not telling him so. We should all be thanking him for what I read the day.

What in the world would we be thanking Phil for on this day? And was he right? Not for lining our pockets. I don't know, man. It's crazy that that feels like five years ago. But I believe his head was in the right place. I again, I think I just that when the figures were not correct, it's hard to, it's hard to feel like a lot of credibility in it. And to be clear, he is saying that the tourist, yeah, the tour is sitting on 20

billion dollars of digital assets. And he said the tour had a fund, a slush fund, or a reserve fund of $800 million, which is just not accurate. Like I went to the source on this one to understand exactly how the reserve fund works. The reserve fund was around $300 million prior to the pandemic hitting. And if the pandemic, if they weren't allowed

to return to golf because of the pandemic, it would have been dwindled under $100 million. But through the event, they were able to put on, they were able to get it to around $250, only wouldle it down about $50 million to subsidize all the crazy pandemic year of 2020. And like a reserve fund is in place specifically for things like that, for external factors that would threaten the towards ability to make payrolls, be able to pay players, all this kind of thing. So the idea that Phil was trying to put out into the media that a lot of people are regurgitating

was that the tour is sitting on just piles and piles of cash and refusing to pay the players that cash. And totally ignoring all of the underlying factors as to why player purse increases are going up at the rate they are, why, you know, I do have questions as to why it took, you know, why this, why right now, there are all of a sudden throwing this out there,

but I think an important point that we made earlier on was like, this isn't even necessarily sold yet, and they're only dipping into the reserve fund for maybe a third of this $54 million increase, and it just, very quick decisions from a lot of people to say like, oh, they're just there was the money was just sitting there. Now all of a sudden it comes out, how convenient. And it's just not the case.

It's just not, Dej. And to that point, again, this is kind of touching on what I said earlier, but Jay Monahan, like if he would have screamed this even louder, we would have like bagged him for being too like ghosts and talking too much about money and, and just taking away from the competitiveness of, of the tour and all of this stuff. But like, he flat out fucking said this, like, it's, it's been saying this for like 18 months now, just since they've signed the TV deal, like, yo, purses are about to fucking skyrocket like we are on it purses about to go way way way up. So you've mentioned this a million times they got an influx of

700 million dollars more per year in the in the TV deal which I know is averaged right and which is like smooth dial which is smoothed out and kind of like averaged over the life of the whatever it is nine year TV deal. So it probably starts as a little bit of an increase and then slowly moves up to a really big increase. But that's the other thing is like you're not going to just nuke these these purses immediately. And then if some extraneous thing happens, if let's say the Saudi is trying to take over the game of golf, you have to suddenly like bring purses down. Like is that going to be a good signal to the membership? No. So you got it like, I think they were already doing this in like their long range planning. And like he said today, and we're

very much like taking him at his word and probably given him too much benefit out. But this basically just moved up the timeline. And what they had to do to move up the timeline was to basically put out some unsolved events and kind of like an IOU, like, you know, we hope that these are going to be there. But, you know, check back with us when we release this schedule. We could be looking at the velocity global. For sure. You know, October, you know, this is a big, a big six months for work. God, is that work days music? They're going to step on sponsor every head. So just look back in. One third of the increase comes from title sponsors. One third comes from

feature stuff they have to sell. One third comes from reserves. And also, you're going to treat your reserves differently. When like the feature of your tour is at risk, then you would have right two or three years prior, when when the reserves are for something completely different? And those are rough estimates on those thirds. They don't know exactly how that's gonna shake out, right? But that's like an estimation of how they're planning to fund it.

And yeah, I mean, if the average annual revenue from the previous deal to the current deal for the, just for the media rights went from 400 to 700 million. Like, there's gonna be money there. There's gonna be more, like, persons are gonna go even more nuts than this. This is the beginning.

This is, right. So, all right, one question I have on that is like, if they're hitting up title sponsors for more money, such a lot more money, the new TV deal, all that ratings are kind of staying the same, it's not going down. Like, are we gonna hit with even more commercials? I can't imagine we're getting less. I don't think. Yeah, probably not getting less there. Big. And none of this is like, oh, guys, it's about to get

really good for the fans. That's the really good. No, like that's that's the concern too of like, all right. Like is this just some self-fulfilling prophecy or just pushing it off to where like, like it becomes even less watchable and we get to the point where in three or four years like the ratings have declined so much that like there's no hope. I mean like we had we used to have Steve Jobs and Johnny Cash and what was it? Now we have no jobs, no cash, no hope. That no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, You know, lift it like basically making it to where like max like your proper player like the fact like like I would imagine that if you went down to to Australia to go play in those events one year out of five or two years out of five like you would come back a better player right like you're, Cam Smith, Jason Day, Mark Leishman, like there's been, like, you know, been wooly, like there's playing

a good player is coming from Australia. And I think it's like a very like vibrant golf market. And the more the PGA tour has connectivity into that market, the better it is for the game. You know, where like if they schedule these, these fall events out to where it can give a lift to stuff that's not necessarily part of the PGA tour, like give a lift to the Australian open not necessarily part of the PGA tour. Like,

give a lift to the Australian open or to just a little bit more connectivity with like the worldwide golf ecosystem, even if it's not specifically PGA tour events. That's sick, but I just don't think they give a shit about that at all. I think they're they're unsold events and it's going to be like, what's that? Like Qatar, sick, man. Let's do it. And like we need to get this shit sold like right now. And but based on everything, you know, if we hear about Australian golf, like it's just hard to get anybody to put up the cash to actually do. It's the same thing with like having like a proper Irish open or having a, you know, why they don't go to a lot of like these

great golf courses is like, I don't know. It's going to, it's very depressing conversation. And I agree with you in the, in the spirit of it, I just don't think that's going to happen. It sounds like holding out no hope. CJ Cup for the Zozo or something like that. And like it'll alternate every year. And then something will be in the UK or in Spain or Portugal. And then something will be, you know, or like, you know, maybe they roll up the BMW went worth and the BMW international. And that's like, a BMW thing. It's in Germany, but it like moves around Europe or something. But like, I guess where I'm at is like, they should care about the product a little bit more because not caring about the product is what

got him into this mess in the first place a little bit too. But it's also like a 20-year war, right? Like it's not like you're just like come out with, you know, it's not like everybody watched for, you know, the president's cup of royal Melbourne and then was like, Oh man, I like really understands strategic golf. Like I'm in. I want to watch it every week. It's like one step. But then you just go back to, you know, the same, the same shit. And it just, it would take such a long time to actually like change the viewing public's mind away from, you know, green is good and thick rough. And that's how you really challenge these players, fast greens and thick rough, baby. And like just nobody, I don't think it is in anybody's like immediate best interest

to like work on any of that shit. So it's so similar to the same stuff we've gotten. I've got as well as like, all right, like, does this, like, like, how much does, does elevating these other events that are already elevated? We can't elevate it. I'm already pulverized. Uh, how much does that diminish these other events that are already elevated? We can't elevate it. I'm already pull over. I'm already pull over. How much does that diminish the rest of the tour schedule?

Right? Like, is there, like, you know, how pissed your current sponsor is gonna be? How pissed your, you know, how much does it feel like the haves and the have nots? How much do people tune in more for those big events? It's just like what we've been talking about with the majors as far as, you know,

the majors in the post live world now are to be the only time that there's any connectivity between live and the PGA tour. And by the way, like we haven't even talked about like the legal element of this where if there's, you know, lawsuits start flying back and forth or when live gets denied, their world golf ranking points, the, you know, then they sue for restraint of trade or antitrust or whatever. And then there's an injunction and all these lives guys can come back and play in the PGA tour events until there is a verdict, you know, like it just seems like, you know, that's a whole nother Ken of worms, but like, like, this FedEx feel diminished, right?

Where there's a, there's a season ending FedEx thing. And then I don't think it'd be them because like I think the FedEx Cup like does get better if it's not just golf all the time. And if it is a true like January to August, you know, maybe like the more condense. Yeah, maybe you could convince me it might be a little more interesting. Maybe it won't be. I don't know. But I think the people that would get owned are like the, you know, travelers in John Deere and Charles Schwab and, you know, farmers and people like that that are kind of in that like next year that's not the elevated. It's possible though that that will that actually could

work in the inverse because although it's more money, it's not more points and since it's a more consolidated season, you actually could have more likelihood of the top guys playing more of those events because it's more money, it's not more points, and since it's a more consolidated season, you actually could have more likelihood of the top guys playing more of those events, because it's not like the purse for the Genesis went up 8 million, but the points also went up like 2x. Like they didn't change, so you still need to make points.

And as much as this money thing is like shocking and like pretty incredible for like the top guys to get more cash, you still have to, if you want to have a great season to make toward championship, you still have to play golf. And I think you might actually have a better likelihood of snagging more people at more of those events, because they'll be a little less concerned about their schedule. schedule. So going back on that isn't there more like I think so WGC's Genesis API Memorial currently get it's 50 more points to the so it's 500 it's like and it's 50 more points and then the majors get another 50 so it's 51500 and then 300 for some of the other events. But, you know, so there is like another, there's like a 10% bump for these.

Like I would assume they would probably mirror a little bit where they would weight those even a little bit heavier than they currently. They typically don't. And I think, I mean, again, I don't know this, but like from the past, how they've done those bigger events is those bigger events are to, in a way, filter more money to the top guys.

They don't really care to give them more points. They're trying to keep the playing field as far as points go, as level as they can. The benefit you have of getting into that event is that you got into that event and have the opportunity to make whatever, any points. I remember my rookie year, like, you know, playing the John Deer and realizing I got, like I got less money, but like not a crazy amount of less points to go, going to like an event like Puerto Rico,

like the few island tour events or island events on tour, they have so little points compared to the rest of the season that those ones are are like Joe is the one who kind of figured out he's like, we shouldn't be playing in these even if we need a start like for the most part because he's like, you have to top 10 to make an appropriate amount like a good amount of points. And he's like, if we're in between like a three, four week stretch that ain't it. Like it's not strategically smart.

So the whole time I've been out on this tour, like even the bigger events have never felt like they've kicked you in the nuts by how many points they are. So I doubt that those are gonna go up because the players aren't asking for more points. They're not asking to make the torch championship easier the top guys, they're just asking for more money like in a way.

So. Like if the whole FedEx cup and the torch championship is just a distribution model for money and the tour is trying to compensate the top 10, 15, 20 players more, wouldn't you want to make it? You know, the devil's advocate side would say you would want to make it easier for those players. Like, you would want to make it more of a closed loop so that there's less interlopers invading the torch championship. But there would be because you're getting into those bigger events, like they're going to get like harder to get

into, I would imagine. So you're going to have more of those top guys playing in the events that some guys can't get into, you know what I mean? So like they're going to get into bigger events and have more just just a straight up numbers game, like more opportunity. Whereas like that's the hardest part about coming off the cornferers, you just literally have less golf tournaments to play in. Yeah. All I'm saying is like, they could juice it up even more

and make it more. Yeah, if they want, I'm just saying, again, not knowing, but like, they haven't done that yet. Like, in my time on this tour, like, whatever, nine years, they haven't seen that big jump. There's, yeah, there's a few more points, 50 more points for the invitations. And obviously there's another year exemption,

but like they haven't made it a gregis. Like they haven't been like, oh, the John Deere purses, whatever, half or a third, so we're only gonna give you like a hundred to win. Like they have, if it's a full field event, they've been like trying to keep it as, I don't know, as like a Democrat, I guess, yeah, as Democrat as possible. I mean, so Max, like, you're a master card guy, so I apologize for this analogy, but it's almost like the tour needs to give out to two different cards, right? They need to give out like a centurion card and like a platinum card or like a black card and a centurion card

Or like all right, you either have your top 70 card or you have your your 125 card, which kind of sounds like what they're gonna do So I have they like like all this is already voted on done and dusted like or this is being presented to the pack and In the larger membership has to vote on it in the larger membership has to vote on it, or the PAC still has to vote on it, like, where are we currently at? This is already... My understanding was the policy board voted on this today. Yeah, I don't think they were rolling anything out that wasn't voted on yet. Okay. That's all. Yeah, this is delivered. Yeah, I think the other thing to think about is like this is something to wear this buys them time and then because I thought it was interesting where Jay said today like he, you know, he hasn't talked to still hasn't talked, are they, is this buying them time to blow up the entire structure eventually? But just, you know, buying them the time they need

to do that? Or is it like, hey, this is the structure for the for the long term? Jay talked about the tax benefits and all that in his pressur today. But yeah, I think he said today, like, I mean, who knows? But this is the structure that I foresee going forward for a long time, which again is, I guess, to be expected, but I don't know. I'm out of gas. He looked like, I think Jay's out of gas too. Jay looked like he's aged like 15 years in the last. You know where you can get gas? At least oil.

You take the money, bro. You take the money, bro. Go on. All right, let's save a little of money that we got to still get into on the recap pod this week. But that's about the empty empty of my tank of just another god. Yeah, it's good. It'll probably be another one of these next week for all we know as well. So I am seeing in the notes here, Monahan, what keep his wedding. The Doug Ferguson tweeted that today. The money was a kept his wedding.

That's sick. That might be the coolest news. I did not know that. That is unbelievable. Well, Tora, you know, I think Lutakris played the tour championship a couple of years ago. So it might be a mutual friend of that. Do Lutakris just did the member guest concert at Silverleaf a couple weeks ago. He's been getting around the golf course. Are you playing member guest season? Evening member guest lineup? But honestly, we play a little too much golf right now

that member guest. Joe is on one more member guest. I think it's at Rancho Santa Fe Country Club. I think this will be his third or fourth of the season. It's had a tough first few goes. So we're looking for a strong finish to the major season. It's a good thing Monahan didn't go to DJs, what I mean. It's true. But I'd be on the black list.

More to come on that one. But, hey, Max, thank you very, very much for sharing your perspective on this and spending the time chatting through all this and put yourself out there, man. We're, yeah, it's been great. Thank you very much and we will definitely have you back soon. Thank you for providing me a platform to rant and just jabber on forever. Appreciate you for that.

Big reigning is waiting on me at the bar downstairs. I got a roll, guys, but cheers. Have everybody have a great night. Thank you everyone for listening. Cheers. But cheers, have everybody have a great night. Thank you everyone for listening. Thanks. Give it a big thumbs up. Be the right club today. Yes. Be the right club.

That's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Better than most.