No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 578: Scottish Open Recap with KVV

Episode Date: July 11, 2022

Soly and Tron break down Xander Schauffele's win at the Scottish Open with the help of our pal Kevin Van Valkenburg. We take stock of Xander heading into the Open, the setup at the Renaissance Club, Spieth's week, the future of PGA/Euro co-sanctioned events and more. On the back half of the pod we get KVV's take on the LIV saga in light of the uncertainty with the OWGR and his reaction to comments this week from Rory, Graeme McDowell and Billy Horschel. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER (1-800-426-2537) (IL/IN/MI/NJ/PA/WV/WY), 1-800-NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/NH), 888-789-7777/visit http://ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 1-877-770-STOP (7867) (LA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visit OPGR.org (OR), call/text TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA). 21+ (18+ WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/ /NJ/NY/ PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. New customers only. Min. $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See http://draftkings.com/sportsbook for details. 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. That is better than most. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up Podcast. Sully here, back in the Killhouse after a week off, TC, want to thank you and the boys for holding down the fort last week. Delightful, listen, hello, how are we? I'm great, I'm glad you made it back.

I'm very glad to be back. Because you know, you've been flying American been testing I think you're I'm an you may need it you know apologize for they they're pitching a perfect game so far this year for me and we're climbing up in status It's been it's been incredible. It's been so but I hope it continues your plan. No, you do not hope you literally said I cannot wait until you get burned like that was your actual text you said me. So bad or sick guy joining us on the line. Mr. Kevin Van Volkkenberg from ESPN. Hello KVV.

Good morning, fellas. I don't why do you talk about a per game? Now you know that's always kind of the next. I've been tempting fate. It's light you take. It's gonna happen. We all know it. KVV every time he gets an upgrade on him.

Oh, another upgrade. Like I'm not judging American on the strength of their upgrades. We're gonna talk to Shane Bacon about American losing his bag, or BA losing his bag on the way to Edinburgh. Like there's horror stories out there, horror stories. Yeah. I wanna give a shout out to our friends at Callaway Golf, at the Callaway and the St. Andrews links,

they have a strong successful partnership for over a decade. They've been working together to support initiatives such as the St. Andrews Links Jr. Golf Association. And in this run up to the 150th open, they put together a project that's going to showcase that has showcased the talent of the young people in town and engages with the community in a way like we've never seen before. Callaway has traditionally created limited edition tour bags for each of golf's major championships,

both on the men's and women's tours. And so they combines budding artists from two local schools, Modras College and St. Leonard's. They were commissioned by Calaway and St. Andrew's Links to design a St. Andrew's inspired golf bag. There are 10 finalists and ultimately a winner is selected tomorrow. By the time you listen to this,

it may already be selected. So you can go check out the big bag trail on Instagram. Keep your eyes open for the winning bag being revealed Monday, 1 p.m. Eastern. I may know what which one it is, and it is freaking sweet. And you'll also see it on the on the players bags this week. So I still have I still have some sick Callaway head covers from the last old course thing that we got from our friend Chad that I still rock a little bit. It's a fun one fun memory to look back to think about. We met seven years ago this week, Sally. That's insane. I forgot that was the first time we actually hung out. We got some some great stories that we're happy to tell on air and some that may never reach air, but I am sorry that I missed our six A and T time at the castle course,

because I did see KVV recommended the castle course today. That's fine. You know, I wanted to just make sure people got out there and see it, you know, it's just see if they shared Dox view of zero rating out of 10 in Dox book. So it was totally fine. The castle course is totally fine.

It's great. Not, it's not a zero. No, it's, it's, that ratings obnoxious. It castle course is totally fine. It's great. Not a zero. No, it's that ratings obnoxious. It shouldn't have the name. Zero is not a one. Zero is, yeah, it's like this should have never been made, which yeah, it's extreme land. It's not, yeah, whatever. It's very much okay.

It's perfect for like open championship when you need to get around in, which I did at 6 p.m. I've never played it before and I don't think I want to play it just because I want the mystery out there. I think it's more fun that way. Uh, Zander Shafley wins his second start in a row at the Scottish open plus the JP McManus Pro Am. Why does it feel that's just third? So third start. Yeah. If we're counting the pro am, why does it feel like this? I feel, yeah. Why does it feel that it's Mc. Yeah. Why does it feel that it's mic minus programs?

Huge. They don't get world ranking points. We're going to talk some OGR here later. Oh, but why does it feel way quieter? Why does this run feel way quieter than like what Sheffler did this winter? That's a good question. Because I think there's so much other shit going on. I legitimately think it's the spot in the calendar where golf has just been kind of going on for a while.

We're in the major swing and the major is kind of only really the only thing that matter at this point and it's just harder to get excited about. But this is a big win. And I think we do need to, I'm wondering if that changes how we evaluate the injury. Are you, you were labeling this a big dick event? Strength of field this week was 624, like the strongest ever for this Scottish open. That's a big dick event. National open too.

It's a national open with actually good players in it, which is different than your normal national open. KVB, I'm curious to get your take here because I think for me, I really respect and like Xander, I don't know if I get excited about him and I don't know why. I mean, I think some of this comes down to string, like, kind of spot on the calendar and everything else that's going on with live and all that stuff. And then I think some of it comes down to Xander himself, right? I think a huge part of his personality driven. Like also, like if you're comparing it to Shephler, if Xander had one say the PGA and then had backed it up with tumor wins, you'd be like, oh, every win is just another like exclamation point on what a heater this is on. But like,

if you've never done it before and you've sort of been, you know, absent in majors for a while, it just sort of feels like, okay, well, big whoop. Like, none of this is a pretty much to me. I do think, like, Zander's swing to me is like so beautiful and so sort of technically perfect, but his personality is like so kind of boring and just nothing about it really, like, makes me feel anything. Like, there's no way I would never hate Sanders, hopefully, like, but I don't know that I could ever love him because it just doesn't like

inspire emotion one way or another, right? And I maybe that would change if like he won a major and he sort of let some of that emotion go and I'm sure like if he were to win at the old course, it would be completely like a lot of that would spill over. It's obviously worked super hard to, you know, kind of get back to the point where he's winning again if you're what, three year drought

that he didn't win a tournament. So I just, but I just doesn't make me feel anything, right? It's like when you hear a song that just makes you kind of go, eh, whatever. Like I want to feel something lover hate or not just not a difference. I think he does have a better personality than maybe people give him credit for. He's more interesting dude. Like if you if you've heard him in like

long long form interviews, he is interesting. I just don't think his playing style or his demeanor on the course is that exciting. It's almost never musty. It's almost never musty TV. That's not honestly not a knock on him. It's just like he and I think it's feeling like this little run here where he wins, travelers, wins this is kind of helping, I think helping quiet and put an offset a bunch of close calls he's had where, you know, his record was just his winning record was just slightly under what we would expect from him for what he puts together week to week and it feels like this win kind of catches him up on that pace. And it's no longer, you can't really have the knock on on the dozen when enough seven PGA tour wins. Yes, one of them's a team one, but still that's, and I know there's some limited field ones in there and all that stuff. And then seven, but seven tour wins plus the Olympic gold medal. I think changes the conversation around him.

He seems to get it done when he's, when he's in the mix, you know, I'm glad that he like went back. Remember when he was like putting cross handed or was like putting with the arm lock briefly, it was like one of the better putters in the world. And he all of a sudden decided, well, if arm lock is the way to go, then I guess I should do that too. And then completely kind of jammed up his putting

for, you know, a couple of majors, like just trying to find something that wasn't necessary. Like you're, you're already good enough, man, you just need to sort of figure out way to close it. So at least he's back like putting like a normal person, which is quite good. Was that beginning of last year? Or was that the year?

Yeah. I think that was masters last year. Was it? Yeah. It was like it was the right one, Bryce. And you know, Bryce and messed up Roy's game. He messed up Sanders too, apparently. I mean, I feel like that was part of it.

It was like the things that Bryce was doing as making all kinds of people be like, oh, well, I guess if until they outlaw this, like, I'm going to kind of do this. And, you know, so he, you know, I remember it was right before major. He was like, yeah, I'm just going to put, you know, it was right before Tori, I think. Yeah, it was exactly right. It was US Open June, 2021. He started tickering with the arm lock.

But I think Scotty might be a pretty good comp. I mean, obviously there are different ages and everything. But like you said, KVD, I mean, Scotie, you know, had a lot of success last year, but without the wins. And then he knocks off Phoenix, he knocks off API, knocks off match play. I'm still here trying to convince you that Scottie's, Scottie's real and then he wins the Masters and it was like, whoa, he's here. I'm still, yeah, it was me need to convince not Randy.

That's, that's definitely. That's definitely the one. I don't think Randy's convinced yet. He's still not. I think he feels validated by the fact that he missed the cut of the PGA. He couldn't back it up. Yeah, I mean, Scotty's got a second at Colonial T18. It can be open, a T2 at the US Open and then T13 at Travelers, since he's like, you know, kind of become the man. Somebody said a question and like questioning, like, you know, kind of become the man.

Somebody said a question in like questioning, like, you know, is, has Scottie cooled off? Like, are we worried about Scottie? I think, I think we're fine. I am worried about him on Link's golf because it was alarming that he didn't know that St. Andrews was in Scotland as of like, as of like Ryder Cup time. He didn't, he thought it was in Ireland. And so I think it's safe to say he does not have a ton of experience. There's a lot of guys missed the cut this past week. He was one of them. But I

I don't want to say he's going to be in my picks of not to win this week, but I am a little worried that he's not gotten over the curve. I would say at least he didn't think it was the one in New York. True. Right. My 10 year old has decided to call him Scotty Schuffler because he shuffles his feet so much. And she's just getting the point where she wants to drop nicknames on people so she would want me to throw that out there. I kind of like that. I think she fit right in. Schuffler. Yeah. Yeah.

I will say this about Zander today, the, the shot he hit into 16 and we can, we can talk some Renee Saunce Club here. But the shot he hit into 16. That was a big, big, big boy golf shot drawing it into the center of the green, a tough back right pin that he couldn't miss right and an easy two putt to open up the two shot lead. And that's key because Zander tends to give you, he tends to give you that moment back, give you a shot back. And he also had an eight footer for par on 17 that has felt like the putt that he misses every single time. And he makes that one, which ended up setting up the 18th hole that allowed him to play at the way one or two takes iron off of it goes iron iron to the front chips on and then two puts it

when he that's all he had to do to win it. I like to play on 18 going iron and just avoiding the bunkers that all cost to say that that was one of the few times it felt like a real good links course just because you know you could pricey images of Adam Scott at Lidham going through your head of how fast this can turn if you end up in the wrong spot. It's super rare that he I mean he gave those three shots back like six seven and nine. Bogey those two of them are part three so just a couple swings there. And it's like very rarely do you see a guy, give it away, middle around like that, and then bounce right back.

And you know, he came and played the back nine, one under really, really two under, I mean, I don't think 18 is really, like that was a conscious decision to make a Bogey there and take the double out of play. But yeah, just an impressive kind of performance of some grit and resiliency down the stretch, I think.

Well, plus running down Camtron Golly's not easy. And he was 11 shots back of him on day one. And I know you're your flabbergasted by that. I'm blown away. Camtron Golly, Boutro, Sputro, String Golly, she's 61. And they shoot 72, 74 to basically like he's you know top top 20 barely. And then he looks like he's going to fall apart and he should 70 today to finish T six and get back in it.

What a performance for the back door top 10. She's a first round 61 and then still manages to back door a top 10. That's incredible. I just texted you there in a week. He heard that you were talking to the death panels that was getting grown momentum in the Senate. And all of a sudden, he was like, I got to really step it up here. I don't want to get death panels by my, uh, Tron's committee here. At no point did I think he was going to win. Oh gosh. No point was it, you know, it was like, all right, like you're totally relevant here.

What a weird leaderboard for such an amazing field. There are some huge names. I'm wondering if that kind of goes with maybe a muted excitement level around Zander's win. Also just wasn't that exciting today. Like there just wasn't, you know, it felt kind of cluttered broadcast wise and not a great flow to it. And snuck up on him. Tom Kim almost won this tournament and they showed like two of his shots on the back nine. And I think after that, they threw in there that they were using the DP world feed and it was not, they were not at the helm, if you will, of the camera shots. Well, I know Tom Kim's played a lot of Asian tour events as well.

So maybe they're trying to kind of neutralize the Asian tour as well. You could already use the Mr. Kim's family, but we were using the DP world to her feet. Kim is Kim. I think he's what solid would label a manipulator. You literally sent it to our group chat today. Like this is some high level manipulation. And then I go on Twitter and he's like, solid would totally call this guy a manipulator.

Like he literally is. I'm feeding you man. Like yeah, he's risen in the world rankings through Asian tour. How's 50 now? It's insane, right? Now do you see the issue with this? Yeah, I've seen it a little bit. But I mean,

He's a big talent. Flipside, Rasmus, T10. You know, he's doing it. Wow, this is early for down in the leaderboard part of the podcast, but. We haven't talked kitty. I'm a kitty. I'm a played really freaking nice 66 half a half a Mackenzie Hughes bogey on 17 kind of kind of killed him there, but you know, like easily could have been playoff. He I think I'm forever resigned to the he I'll go I'll give Randy this one.

He doesn't pass the eye test for me because his follow through makes it look like every shot he's trying to save one from going right. So even when he's striping it, it looks like he's band-aiding it together. And Kai, he's got a super weird record. He's missed 10 to 15 cuts this year, has two solo second, sorry, now he's missed 10 of 16, has two solo seconds, a T2, a solo second,

and a solo third in his record. Like he is the true microwave man. Good luck trying to pick when he's going to get hot, but when he does get hot, he is, he is flames. I didn't realize it Kurt until today that Kurt was, is from the same hometown as my dear friend Aaron Rodgers. Why? It feels like, you know, we, they're going to be plenty more talk about that.

How much did Aaron Rodgers influence Kurt? Kiteyama's game. They can't, you know, like seven years apart. Come on. I would say Kurt, Kurt's got, he's got experience in these, in these big, big national opens too. Solo second at the magical Kenya Open 2021. That's huge.

So you want to talk a little speed. I know we got more down the leaderboard that we got to get to. Yeah, we just got to get a shout out. Can't lay like he's definitely not going to win next week. Good bar text me this morning and said can't lose going to win at San Andrews. I'm like, he's absolutely not going to win. Fleetwood 67 67 on the weekend.

Good, good, little revival. You want to acknowledge him, right? Great. Great. Play 73 in the first round kind of fought his way back. I, you know, you, you made fun of his putt on 18 there. I just said it was not going to go in. It was never going to go in. They tried to build up the story that maybe minus five was going to be good enough and he had a putt for it. Listen, I, you know, I'm trying to, he parred both the parfives on the back. If we could have gotten one of those, I think, you know, like,

again, all of us on his team were a little bit worried about the putting, but hopefully it turns around. He was 17th in strokes game putting this week. He had a solid putting week. It's been an issue this year. I think it's good to see it, you know, kind of normal. Is that where do you feel like trying the biggest drop off in his game has been last year just putting? I mean, I haven't paid close attention to it, but it it always strikes me as like, why isn't Tommy Ladd better? Like he, I think he like his driver got pretty, pretty squirrely, I think for a little bit there, but I think it's been mostly the

putting I mean the the iron play seems to be as good as ever. I mean he's having a little bit of a bounce back year. He's plus 1.17 in stroke scheme for the year. His best seasons were 1.7 and 1.9 in 18 and 19. So he's not returned to that level of play. He's actually having statistically one of of his better putting years. But he was a premium premium ball striker, both off the team and with approach. And both of those things just numbers wise have regressed back to like above average, but just barely above average. So yeah, I think I think with him too, there's got to be something where there's probably a lot of these guys too. Like that's why I give it's Patrick a ton of credit.

The guys that have kind of played a split schedule and gone back and forth, and that's not easy, right? And it's totally two totally different styles of golf, or really three totally different styles of golf when you factor in all the other places that the Euro Tour, DP World Tour goes now as well. So, you know, I mean some of that's like, he came into this year, I don't think he had PGA tour card, right? Or he had he had limited status. I don't think

he had full status. That sounds right. And granted, now he's up to 59th in the FedEx cup. And it's, you know, and then, you know, I'm sure there's all sorts of people. They're going to argue he's going to live or whatever. He's been one of the names names to sure. We'll get to that. I don't know. Yeah. I'm I don't know what to believe anymore. I when the speed stuff rumors started to happen this week, I was like, guys, what is going on out here? Secret Tor Pro get the hell out of here.

Get out of here. Got monthly get out of here. I'm going to put a fa to on all the tracker and Legion accounts. They spread every rumor and just get like for a tracker, you know, speed, you know, speed legion, Rory Legion, Rom Legion, get it, get out of here. You guys are a bane of golf. Well, but like golf monthly was the source of that really. They were the ones that they were saying golf monthly reports that speed is now rumored. And it, it, yeah, it obviously was shut down very, very, very quickly. But it's just, it is a product of how live is doing things in both talk some on the back

half of just like throwing these rumors out there to get people talking about it and get players doubting each other and turning on each other. And it's working for the most part. There's some like rumors out there. They're absolutely like there's, there's fire there as well, but there's some that are just total bullshit. Yeah. So continue and go out of leaderboard before we get to spieth.

Jamie Dawson's inciting. Wow. What? Yeah. Got in the open. T six. How about it? He may be a, you may be Ryder Cup, you know, eligible game before this is all set.

The Euro's just, her really scraping the ball of barrel, they're looking for some experience. Jamie Dawson might get a call up. Somebody did send a tweet in. I'm hoping it was joking. Wonder if I was getting worried about the European Ryder Cup team because Jamie Dawson was back.

I'm good to assume that was a very well-crafted joke. If it was it, please reevaluate. Speaking of European rider cup team, Madfitz Patrick in good form, headin' in the next week. This is a week where I feel like it is kind of important to go down the leaderboard because it shows who's in a little bit of form.

Yeah, I want to talk about that with Renee Sans. Like I don't know. I could not call it Renee. Can we just call it Renaissance? I don't want to call it Renee Sans. Isn't it Renee Sans? It is Renee Sans. But I don't want to give him that.

Has it always been Renaissance? This is the first year that I remember anyone actually, I thought it was like a joke that people were saying that like the shotgun start guys saying schedule. Like that, but it's actually it is Renaissance. But for years, it seemed like it was Renaissance. I think it just, just to a very different here. It's Renaissance, but the Scots and the Brits call it Renaissance.

And it's like, I'm not going to do that. Okay. That's fair. It's like Randy and Cisciplunk calling Wimbledon Wimbledon and I'm gonna call it I'm gonna call it the Renaissance Club. Okay. Okay. That works fine I don't feel strong enough either way to to fight you on that, but it is I Don't know and I look back to it Morakawa last year played this course very poorly and then went over one at St. George's. And it's just, it's a links, it's a links course by all technicalities.

It's just not a great one. I don't think, and I don't like the Jason. It's link, it's not quite as, you know, I would call Kings Barnes and Castle Stewart like modern links, but more natural links than this is. And we can talk about some of that. And I think there's more positives to this course that I do want to start with as well.

But to your specific point, I don't put too much stock in it. I really don't. And especially before the old course that is just such a totally different test than any, even any of the other open road of courses, that there's nothing I saw this week that, you know, any of the guys that missed the cut, then playing bad there does not change much of anything for me. So, I'm totally enthused, Kamsmith, 68, 75, 68, 67.

Like probably three of the best rounds of the tournament and then the 75 in there. So like that's good form, finishes T10 besides shooting 75. I mean, that's, that's sweet. I know, I, I need some help. I need you guys to tell me how I should feel about speed because it, it doesn't look like a guy that even finished 10th this week.

I, I don't know how he did it. Uh, I, when he made double after making the birdie on 13 and over and doubled 14. And he, that sums up the entire Jordan's free of experience. But I didn't feel anything when that happened and that's what makes me nervous. I'm wondering if I've resigned myself to this stuff happening at this point,

or if I just wasn't as invested in his performance this week knowing what's on the horizon for this coming week. But I don't know, I don't feel great about it. I don't feel like when he stands over an eight footer that he's gonna make it and that he's getting ready to go, go, ape shit this coming week, which takes a lot for me to say that. I was trying to think back about how we felt when we were there in 15 and it just it felt

there wasn't the scar tissue then right? Like not wasn't we didn't have the scar tissue Jordan didn't have the scar tissue, Greller didn't have the scar tissue. Like that felt like a guy who's going to make every 15 footer and you knew like there's no down inside. Yeah. Yeah. When he made that put on 16 insane

innards on the sort of tie the lead briefly like you felt like God, of course he's going to make that unbelievable double breaking putt because he just does those things. And I just don't have those kind of feelings anymore. I mean, it's possible that he could recapture it. But it's like, that's the difference, you know, over the last few years of like him at Carnegie. Like, I didn't really believe that much at Carnegie and I didn't really believe that much at St. George, but I believed back then, even though he was, you know, finished in the same kind of way of all these, all these majors. It's just, I don't know, he, he, look, the dude can think his way around things and he loves

the kind of golf that it's like an uneven lie. So this ball is going to, you know, I gotta hit this of a cut lie and I gotta try to draw it in there and the wind is gonna do this to it. I have a lot of faith in him to do those kind of things and to like use the sort of brain that you need to do to get your way around the old course. But I don't have a lot of faith in him

like holding all those things together. It just always feels like, I think years ago, I was like, it's like a watching a guy riding a unicycle down a flight of stairs. Like it's amazing as a feat, but you just don't see how it can be sustained forever. Like it's, you know that like there's only two or three people in the world who can do that, but you're, expecting it to crash and burn and sometimes it truly does crash. Well, he doesn't look like he believes he's gonna make an eight footer.

That's the part that gets me. He's quick walking so fast that it's like, dude, that ball's not coming off your putter face right. And it hasn't for a while now, especially when he needs it in major championships. I don't even know exactly how the numbers shake out as far as his whole season putt. He doesn't seem like overall,

it's been an enormous problem. Like the only thing holding him back, like there's plenty of golf shots that go wayward that hold him back also. Yeah, the shot on 14. Oh my God. What the fuck was that? His putting is negative point one to this year, which is the lowest of his entire professional career, as I say that.

But it just, it, it, there's flashes of brilliance throughout it. And it, the exchange with Greller earlier this week on the the par three was at nine or what was that that he's he's saying like there's the short one. It was so there's no way that's going to get this. It was six. I think this isn't going to get there blah, blah, blah. This is not enough club. I'll hit sit.

There's like that's 40 yard short. It's a hundred yard shot. It landspin high. And I just I'm like, dude, how are you? How, yeah, again, how is this sustainable? How do you keep this level of like paranoia or energy up, you know, for 72 holes? And it turns out he doesn't.

It just, it can't be sustainable. It's like when I go to the grocery store and I just pick up a basket and I'm there for four things. And by the end of it, I have, you know, two gallons of milk and like meat, spilling over the top of the basket and mangoes, and I've spent $200 at the grocery store and it's all, I'm like, how am I gonna get this stuff to the checkout, Lane, man?

We got a little more Scott to share to talk, but we are about to turn the page over to of course, the major championship. Major golf means major winnings. Draft King Sportsbook is your place for action during golf's final major in Scotland. New customers can bet just $5 and get $100 in free bets. No matter what winner lose,

Tron, who do you like for next week? Just kidding, we do not have time for that. Walk on gaming. Oh really? I like walkouts. That's interesting. Okay. Yeah, who are you close to taking but are not going to take?

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restrictions apply C show notes for details. So on the Renaissance front, a couple more shout outs. Okay. I Did say well, I am bullish on Waco next week. He finished T16 the pro Max Homa T16 as well kind of stumbled on the back nine today played played that in four over But otherwise was you know right up near top 2, top 3. Most of the day today, you know, just guys that finished outside said at top 40. You just got to feel a little bit like, man, I would feel a little bit deflated if I was those guys. Like Ricky shot 75 today, Rom didn't play well.

Like you made the cut, like you would have been so much better off missing the cut and just hanging out at San Andrews Saturday and Sunday getting a lot of work done. Kind of like what JT's been doing, like what Kat's been doing, you know, instead of like treapsing around at the Renaissance club. Yeah. I thought we were in the midst of a Ricky Renaissance, just because he seemed like he'd been playing better lately. I was kind of getting my hopes up that, you know,

he would find it and just, it's, can't put four rounds together, man. It's having hard enough time putting three rounds in a row together. I'm rooting for him, man. He's, uh, he's, he's down to 124th on the FedExCov. He's like almost the bubble boy. Jesus.

He's got exemptions. He's still exempt, right? Though it doesn't even have a stacked win. I think there's like a career money exemption, I think. Career money you could use also. I think I thought he has another, because he won in 19 on top of another win that stacked an exemption of some kind.

You can stack exemptions and discounts on the PGA tour. Can't stack them in Shopify. So we were talking some about Renaissance this week. And I just had mentioned to you TC that like, I think I'm going to struggle to say out loud what I don't like about it. So I was like, you know what, maybe that's a sign. Maybe that maybe I'm too hard on it.

And I wanted to just start with some things that like do work about it. And this was the first Scottish open that they've had the right conditions, that they've got some wind and a firm golf course. That ball, the first Scottish open in a lot. We're at Renaissance. Yeah. And so we got to see what the golf course is capable of. Obviously, the scores were not nearly as low as they have been in the past. A solid links test. A good, you know, the elements of links golf are all there. Do I think like the design of the holes is great. Do I think the green contouring is very good?

Do I think it exemplifies what I love about Scottish golf and Ling Skolf? No, I do not, but it got, you know, there's the bad bounces. It had guys fighting down shots off, you know, the special turf over there, you know, trying to get them out of the wind and thinking about where to land it and you know, have to, whatever,

think about this bunker because it's super penal. All that was there. You know, the puddings not perfectly, the greens are not perfectly pure and the ball doesn't just roll right in the center of the hole like it does in a lot of PJ tour golf flipped over to the barbersaw after that. It was like, it was jarring to be like, okay, that obviously there's this is such a better style of golf to watch. And I just were saying you're saying the barbersaw is such a better style course. No, it just like seeing the ball, you know, those elements in play, I just hate that it goes to a private, you know, American, Scottish golf course that does not exemplify what makes golf over there very special. But it, it, it's felt like the

close actually part of the problem. So I know I can say, because I think that like the people who want to be part of a private course in that area, or probably don't like some of the quirks or whatever, or they just want to go out and be able to play it a little bit less penal or whatever, you know, the, you know, North America is not exactly what they're looking for. Like, and so that's, I think part of the thing, I think the problem with Renee's, Renee's all is it is not bold enough, like it should be, there should be more quirky things to it, right? Like, I don't know whether Duk fought and got pushed back on by the membership or whatever, but it doesn't seem like he had sort of carte blanche to do whatever he wanted.

And so, some of it is just like a little too subtle for like what, I mean, it's one thing if you're subtle in your mirrorfield, but it's just as in any mirrorfield, baby. Yeah, and it's just as in any mirrorfield, baby. Yeah, and it's in some of the same land. Yeah. It I wouldn't I just don't think the greens are subtle. And they kind of just have the the dope random humps and bumps that frustrate me when I play his courses that they're not really themed and they don't really, you know, the kind of balls end up collecting in all the same spots.

Like watching all the balls go left of 17 today. The fairway on 13, like repelled balls and pushed in all the same spots. Watching all the balls go left of 17 today. The fairway on 13 repelled balls and pushed everything into the same spots. And it's just the design of the holes. Again, this is where I'm struggling to explain it very good. The design's just not that interesting. The holes just aren't, oh, I can't wait to see if he covers that bunker or if he gets around to this pin

and uses the slope to kick it on. This is not a whole lot of character. To me, it's the idea of a links course without the soul of a links course. Yes. Right? And you could probably say the same thing about Dun-Dun-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O on Twitter, like when you say any of this, they're like, well, you know what? Like, there's a reason they have it here. Of course, like, I understand that the sponsors won it near Edinburgh. And, you know, like, it's probably more advantageous

from a financial perspective to have it at a private course that's not, you know, garnering a ton of play anyway. Like, it's not like you're, you know, having a bunch of visitor play that's gonna get displaced by it and you're, and you're taking a million dollar loss loss. Like I guess happened to go on a few years ago. But it just seems frustrating to me that they can't move this thing around. I mean, even like do Royal Aberdeen, Castle Stewart, Lock Lomond, and then make this, like kind of make it like a mini-rota, right?

I think for golf fans, of course, which is where we always try to come from on these things, that makes so much sense. And it is just an inevitability of pro golf, that it's infrastructure and all the things that make pro golf not that fun that are going to cause it to go back to Renaissance for a long time. Some of it, too. Like, wouldn't you think, especially with the quote-unquote, strategic alliance and how, you know, if they really did focus on making this an elevated event, making the TV product great, increasing ratings here in the States, wouldn't you think that it's

less about the gate and the on-site spectating and more about the TV product and making money off of that? And I think that would, you know, kind of be the sale or be the sell for, you know, for going to more varied venues and cooler venues and more visually arresting venues. And, you know, and then, and then you can talk about, you know, whether like rolling back the ball, that brings a hell of a lot more interesting venues into the mix, too, you know. Yeah, I'm kind of resigned at this point. I believe it is understood that this is going to run a sauce for another five years. I believe it's it's it's not it's not moving. So I'm and it's literally like the greatest golf country in the world.

And it's just going to not be played on an interesting golf course. And it's it's tough. It's I will say to be fair to the Scott. This course is like 150 times better than last week's Irish open venue. Yes. That's what I'm saying. It's like, it's like, you know, it's like pizza and sex, right? Even bad pizza and bad sex is still like pizza and sex, right?

Like, that's what it's still things golf. Bad things golf and it's not even bad. It's just okay. Like, okay, links golf is still links golf and better to watch than the majority of PGA tour events. Just want to make that very clear. It's it's store brand links golf and better to watch than the majority of PJ Tor events. Just want to make that very good. It's store brand links golf. Yeah.

Again, yeah, I think it's more like knock off than it is store brand. We're talking to a couple guys like this, you know, the seventh hole, tough, eighth hole, tough. 10, not so good. Yeah, there's just some weird shit out there. And then you combine it with this shit that they pulled with the setup on Thursday, Friday. So this got TC worked up. I was talking, well, no, I didn't even,

like, I was kind of tuned out and then couple players, couple caddies who aren't malcontents, they're not guys that are bitching about this in the media. And they're like, hey, TC, look into this, man. I started looking into it. They should, like, because Thursday, Friday should be relative, especially like on a links course where wind is a big factor.

And it should be relatively even between the two. Like you should set it up relatively similarly between. So the guys that play in the AM, get a similar experience as the guys who played in the PM the day before, you know? And it just wasn't that. They shortened up, you know, three or four of the down, or the end of the wind holes by like 200 plus yards total. They demonstrably changed the pin locations

to where, you know, shortened those same holes to where it was, you know, back pen went to all the way to the front, you know, 30 or 40 yard difference there. And it just, I don't know, it just pisses me off when they do that, because it's like it, it, it, not only like, like the draw is one thing, the draw is the draw, right? Like that's links golf and that's golf in general. It's inherently unfair. And I think like, I like that about golf. It sucks

when they exacerbate the draw and they make it more divergent than it needs to be. Yeah, I think in theory, it shouldn't, right. I don't fully subscribe to the Thursday Friday setup thing should be the same, just because, you know, you're gonna get different conditions no matter what. And I think of the issue that they had was the 16th hole on Thursday, like, like, a lot of guys couldn't reach the fairway, which I just wanna acknowledge is sick.

Like, that's sweet. It's truly sick. Especially the way. Hey baby, hey for the walk. And I'm all for that, but make it so that the guys playing the following, I think that they're like, realize they made a mistake and just didn't want to make them, they'd rather not make the mistake two days in a row

than make it like. That's where I have a problem. Like you got to, you know, you got to own the mistake for Thursday, Friday and let the full field get through it. Well, you should like Lady J did. You should hire a forensic account and find out who was to blame for this, who would get the DMs out, you know, get the, the breakout, the Panama papers and see who needs to definitely.

And I know this guy, Mike Stewart, who does a lot of the Euro Tour set up stuff. He's probably the one to blame here. But I don't know how the strategic alliance works. You know, if the PGA tour guys are over there and setting it up as well, I do know that some of the players went into the owner, Jerry Sarvati, or Savarati or something like that. And they were complaining, especially about 16 and 18. And just, you know, and then, you know, he laughed at him. And then he got back down the next day.

And like, all right, you can't laugh at him. If you're going to come back the next day and do exactly what they bitched at you for. You just can't have it, man. What do you guys think KVU? What's your thoughts in reaction on the, you know, the co sanctioned element of the first iteration of this on the of the Scottish open between the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. I mean, I guess I guess I guess for wanting to make it sort of a part of the larger discussion, you want more guys to go over and do that. You want to sort of promote some

sort of global aspect of the PGA Tour, right? And make it feel like it, you know, you're not going to lose points in the points race if you go over and you're part of this. So I like it and encourage it. I didn't know we had not ready to talk about live, but I didn't check and see how our guys who sued to get into it did. Not great. Grace was playing well for a while, and then he kind of fell off, right? I believe so. Yeah, Harding had it was up there on day one, but he felt the fact that they paired them all together. They had already made the pairings probably right and then they added them into that they were added onto the field. Pulitzer was the first time I've ever seen somebody T157 and that was Pulitzer. I think at one point after his round on round one, which was sick,

but I am way, way, way in on the co-sanctioned events. I think the more synergy of these two tours that just makes, obviously paid off drastically for how good this field was, the strongest field they've had. And you said it right there, like if guys can go get points for it, and I know we make fun of the points a lot, but it's super hard to, you know, if you're blah, blah, blah, let's just say, Colin Moorakawa, it's harder to like justify going over

and playing a European Tour event if you're not gonna go compete for the race to divide. And he's a bad example, you know, just name any, you know, Scotty, if you're Scotty Sheffler, like it's just, why do that, right? Why go play a one-off event, you know, andty, if you're Scotty, Sheffler, like, it's just why do that, right? Why go play a one off event, you know, and we've seen guys turn those down for the majority of the time in the past. Now it's like, well, why would I skip that?

Like, it's a big, big money event. There's going to be a lot of world ranking points available and there's FedEx Cup points available. I, that gives me hope for just concurrent things being contested at once. Gives me hope for like a mixed event at some point of like, why can't you have a women's event and a men's event, same tournament, but different point structures going on at the same time.

It works. It was seamless. It was just like this is a DP World guys, a PGA tour guy, and they're all competing together and it just really worked. And I think it, you know, a sign for the strategic alliance going forward will be getting these guys together more often and supporting the DP World Tour,

which has taken a huge hit over the last 10 years. And as more and more guys have gone to play the PGA Tour and it's been harder for them to justify playing those events, this seems like a great way to do that. I hope the Irish open folds into this format as well. If you are like a European player, like you were born in Europe, but you mostly play on the PGA tour, you better get your ass to the Scottish open down this future, right? Because like, there's no reason for you, you know, to not play it. Like it's just even if you're not even in

the British open, like they're you're supporting you're getting potential FedEx cut points and you're supporting the place where you sort of probably came from. I probably played your initial bit of golf on the, you know, so I, I, I think it it would be good for, you know, the Ian Polters and the Grammack Dulles of the next generation, right, to sort of if they're choose to play their most of their golf in the United States. Well, now they have no excuse. You better be getting and, you know, going over there and playing because, you know, there you know, you're not losing ground by doing it.

Weirdly though, isn't it just to kind of play this out a little bit more? Isn't it actually kind of hurting the DP World Tour as well or potentially hurting the DP World Tour as well when you give, you know, some of these guys points for these co-sanction events and they can basically earn their way onto the PGA Tour a little bit easier and end up playing their golf full-time. And I think maybe that's inevitable and what those guys are after anyway. And it's giving them another pathway toward it, plus the cards that they're giving, the 10 cards that they're giving.

It just seems like the Rolex series or these big events seems a bit unsustainable in terms of how weakened their tour has been over over the years that the more chance for crossover, the more official world golf ranking points they can earn in these crossover events. It just seems like what the WGC's maybe should have been is more like what these events all will be and can be. And I just think it, things get so scatter shot in this point of the year with, you know, the European tour is humming a little bit more. And lot of the PGA tour guys are taking time off. It just feels like this. This is potentially a week you can look forward to going forward where it's like we're going to get you know as many of these top players together as we possibly can.

And I don't know I like it. I think it's a good change of pace. I will say, I'm going to raise my hand. I'm going to do this for anybody out there, any pros out there that are playing the bridge open next year that do not want to play the Scottish Open because they don't feel that this is a great prep for Hoylake next year. I'm going to put together a Lynx Golf boot camp of sorts. And we're going to go up to Dornak or we'll go to Northwest of England or we'll do somewhere cool. And I've already talked to Joe and Max about it. They have not told me if they're in or not. But I mean, I'm not sure I'm gonna make another British open field,

but I'm in for this. Yeah, and listen, you know, like we can do it even before British Open, you know, called like we could try to lobby the RNA for a, you know, one spot from this, the best, you know, performer from this. But no, I think, you know, doing four or five days at proper links courses, like Cat and the Rory did. Exactly. I mean, there was some heartworming shit. Heartworming shit going on in the world of golf this week.

People think I'm kidding. Like I will, I'm legitimately legitimately gonna organize this and say, if you're a pro golfer and you wanna sign up and we'll have three or four, non pro golfers on it as well, let's do it and Katty's welcome as well. I love this idea. Pervent.

Yeah, watching the cat and Rory go play it, Bally Bunyan was very much like, man, I could, that's not gonna happen again. Like that was a once in a lifetime thing where those guys are going to go play some links golf together and, you know, I kind of wish that the people had sort of left them alone, right? Like, yeah, you know, you can't, you can't even ever take a golf trip or and people aren't going to swarm you or whatever. I wish I'm going to leave you alone. I don't know, that would be kind of. Just if like, I mean, it's funny to think you, you know,

as Porath tweeted some stuff about back in the, you know, 90s or early 2000s, when he would go with, you know, Amira and Duval and like, all these guys would show up and, you know, there's no social media then. So I'm sure people just couldn't like find them, right? They were, it was much more private world to be able to go do that. Hey, let's go play rural county down and like no one finds out about it until sports illustrated runs in anecdote like two weeks later about it. Like I and then that was actually that was a really interesting thing that that embraced that omira and tiger had last week at the at the program. You see that? Uh-uh. They had a long like a long hug. Somebody filmed it and you know they've, and they've had a fraught relationship over

the last decade or so. And yeah, it was cool to see. I mean, going back to those trips that they used to take, they used to play all sorts of golf, and then they'd go salmon fishing. If they'd do a bunch of salmon on fly, it's just crazy. Yeah, Waterville, I think they did that one of the years. Tiger does have an affinity for for golf in Ireland and Yeah, it's just is what is super wild to just see him

You know at 10 30 at night out there with JT on the old course on Saturday night like that was just that just again this For a year that's been filled with so much like shitty golf news. Just the the fact that those two, you know, Rory and Tiger went out and played in in Western Ireland and then that he's playing at the old course just for fun with the friend of his and a lot of people watching. And you had unbelievable access to just walk the fairways with them. I'm, I, it was extremely jealous of the people that were there to be able to watch that because I had to be quite an incredible. So kind of brings you back to the soul of the game. And Sean Zach had a nice, nice article today just about all the guys like, hit a little anecdote about Luke List playing from under the, like, there was a car between him.

He, he, he pushed his ball to the right on 18 at North Barric and he had to play it under a car to like punch it back in and he didn't get it and then, and he was playing for the course record. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. Which I guess, I guess Trevor And then he was playing for the course record. Oh, really? Yeah. Which I guess Trevor Illman holds the course record. But he ends up making double in shooting like, 65. I hate that. We had a question from Jack Forens. He said, did the coverage day take away

from the Scottish's authenticity? Didn't mind the broadcast, but it felt more like the Wells Fargo than a traditional Euro event. I think that's a product of like CBS. It's a good thing some weeks where I feel like they kind of They make everything feel the same whether it's the Quad cities or Charlotte or the PGH Championship or you know like everything kind of blends in so for some of those events like the like the 3M or Memphis or what like it kind of raises the level of those events to where you know you feel like you're watching

or Memphis or it kind of raises the level of those events to where you feel like you're watching what you watch every week, but then when they do go somewhere different, they do such a poor job of like highlighting the context and the uniqueness of the setting. And I think NBC for granted CBS has thrown a lot more assets at their telecast, it seems like just with cameras and manpower and stuff, but for what NBC's been lacking at that,

the last, you know, say 18 to 24 months, just with budget cuts and stuff, they do do a good job of getting the off-course stuff and getting the high, you know, the high flyovers and just making you feel like you're at that place a little bit more. Well, this is only slightly related, this is in a little bit of a diversion. But when's the last time you guys watched the full 18th hole occur news to you with Peter Ailes, like doing the commentary for Sky? If you haven't done in the little bit of diversion, but when's the last time you guys watched the full 18th hole a Kurnu's to you with Peter Ailes like doing the commentary for Sky. If you haven't done it in a while,

like I just watched it like maybe a week ago and it is so uncannily amazing how Ailes like kind of predicts everything that's gonna happen. Like it is the peak of like someone 99, when it went to Van Develle, to type sorry, I didn't. Van Develle. Like he's, you know, he's saying, Oh, no, don't, don't you drive. How you? You know, it's it way right. I think like, Oh, he's done it now. Oh, he's now.

I mean, it's, it's great. It is like the peak of dry English announcing. And he handles it so well in the moment. And just really hearing you say that, no, like that feels to me like a British open when you have a Peter Ailes sort of calling it and understanding like just having a great grasp of the moment and golf and like the crowd, like murmuring and laughing as like Vanneville

is taking off his socks. Like yeah, you can go back and watch the like the crowd like murmuring and laughing as like Van Abel's taking off his socks like it. Yeah, you can go back and watch the like the other the I think it was Trico and Curtis Strange where the and that's fine. Then Trico does a very good job on it, but Ailes is like unbelievable at how well he handled. I don't think anybody's ever been better in a huge moment than in the way he did that. TV. Is it Alice? I was gonna say is that how you pronounce? You're gonna get roasted. Like we let it go another time.

I was like wait, I've been the one who's been pronouncing this for 24. I'm gonna need a of an a's on. No, you guys are 100% right. It's one of those names that I've probably seen yes Like written more than I've heard it spoken aloud and so I don't know my brain just sort of click Which yeah, like like it just feels like like CBS is intent on using the Tools and the the template that they have for any you know for any PGA tour event and applying this here There's no yeah, there's no variables, right?

It just felt, it felt a little sleepy and I don't know if that was just a prod leaderboard or whatnot, but it just felt like this event deserved a little different energy than they brought. And it was just kind of the same jokes, same kind of trying to make each other laugh. Fowlos, Fowlos is gonna get really, really, really loose over the next two

to three months because he, like he has no incentive to give a fuck anymore, right? So he's just going to, like he was talking about the, you know, him winning an Audi for a closest to the pin down in South Africa. They did a big thing with Jordan Smith. He made a hole in one and won a Genesis and they're like, he ever win a card, Nick. And he's like, yeah, I want to Audi Quattro. I drove it all the way up from through bots wanna and then it got delivered it was a great It went out of his great great car great car. Thank you Genesis for sputtering this a bit Yeah, I mean he's gonna get loose shit over the next two or three months just with like you know Needling these guys and really really two months right it's after

I guess like like August I guess You know one of the like Memphis is probably the last event, right? Yeah, yeah You know he's tucked in his retirement out sort of about building a farm in Montana like if they nick like if you want to invite me out You know we can talk we can talk about we can wrap Montana things, you know go up to He built a wilderness club. He built up in Eureiko, which like, almost right on the one there. Canada, want to have you? Yeah, yeah, it's cool. It's a good spot.

It's fine, yeah. Felt it, but built this course down the street from Prairie Dune, that it's, I mean, it's literally, it's like right down the street from Prairie Dune. It's like same kind of, you know, landed and everything like that. They, I think he built it maybe 15, 20 years ago.

It's out of business. They've already, like, it's totally gone, gone back to seed. And it's like, how could you fuck this up so badly? 15 years is pretty quick. That's like, it's like in golf terms. I could be wrong then, like, but it's like, I can't imagine his design career was that,

like, like, goes back that far, right? I wouldn't think so. And then there was another one in Orlando that I think has gone, they built houses on. It was in a Marriott property, which is crazy. Like two golf courses that you've lost already. Before we wrap the Scottish as well, I want to give shout to Max Homa

for giving us a shout out on the broadcast, talking about our North Barric video that inspired him to go play it on Friday. I played 18 holes out there after he finished, you know, playing his first two rounds in Scottish. So how many guys? I'm gonna say this. Yeah. Little Chris Neapig.

I picked Max to win the when the open championship in our ESPN picks this week. Cause why not? You know what? Like somebody's got a, you know, stick it neck out and believe in the lad and I feel like he's he's a good enough player that it's it might be time. You never know. He's been disrespected in the odds too. I mean, for what he's kind of put up and and you know, strokes gain wise, he was he and Kegan and Kegan Bradley were jumping off the page and Corey Connors were jumping off the page as far as Kegan has been a baller for the last three and six months and he's like 130 to 1 to win the like listen

He might not win it, but like it he was the only one that was really Ascieu in the in the models if you will just just strong attention to it We'll talk about we got preview pod coming. I'm so excited. God. I'm so excited guys How many guys stay on site at the Renaissance Club? Like how big is that little hotel they got there? I think a lot of them do. I really don't know though. I thought that was kind of one of the main things

was like there's just not enough lodging in that area and they are able to squeeze in so many people into that. Because I know they've renovated the hotel down at down North Barrett as well, the Marine and Lawn. I think it is, like it was the Royal Marine Hotel down there. But I think, you know, like I know a lot of guys stayed downrett as well, the Marine and Lawn. I think it is, like it was the Royal Marine Hotel down there, but I think, you know, like I know a lot of guys stayed down there as well, and they would walk past the course to dinner every night or whatever,

but yeah, I'm just curious on that note. We're ready to get into little live stuff. I got some questions. I want to throw it with you guys. First, cash app, easiest way to send and spend and save your money. Cash app might be actually the official sponsor of the live segments of our weekly podcast.

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live shows following open championship rounds this week. Have we given up on the UK British Open presented by our majesty? I've been I feel like it's kind of we've made our point. It's no, it's a little bit of like moratorium on it just because I want to keep the focus on St Andrews. I like that. You know, a little bit like not like third leg Greg and on the champion. Counterpoint.

I feel like it's more important than ever with the British PM and resigning, you know, the open championship, the canola re-perola recovery, presented by the government of England. It has to be presented by the Royals. So they're the only, the only, only stable institution in the United Kingdom right now is the Royals. Can you keep politics out of one thing KVV? Oh, come on. You're so woke. I was, I was hoping the Boris Johnson's dance and come at me all the I was hoping against all hope that that curious was going to lose his mind on the royal box today

during the win will find out that would have been awesome. Dutches of Cambridge. He was so very polite to Duchess Kate during the trophy ceremony. I was like, this could give you know, weird here in the second, but no, he was, it was very gracious. I'm going to ask you guys. I want to like to start the conversation this week. You know, we're going to I think do our best not to rehash anything, but there's a lot of some things that happen this week, but there are a couple sentiments going around town, if you will, that I just wanted to have a discussion on. So KVL ask you first, should the tour have banned the players that left the, let's just say PGA

tour for now. Should the PGA tour have banned guys that left for live? Yes or no? I think it is. God. Yes, I think from their perspective, they probably had to do it. After they say, we rattled for a long time, you couldn't do that. And then all the sudden, like, back down from it because then everybody would have gone. So yes. TC. I think so, yes. I just, I don't, you know, I think they painted them like, I think if you're gonna say no, then you gotta look at all their strategic decisions

like KVV said. Like, I mean, they were, you know, I just think back to Jay saying, like, you're either in or out of the boat, you know, in like February and basically saying, like, you know, raising the mission accomplished banner and kind of pump in his fist, we won this thing and how stupid does that look now?

Not great. I just have seen an increasing amount of people saying they shouldn't have banned and they made a big mistake. And I vehemently disagree with that. I think the side that people don't think about is that the bands are protecting the guys that are staying and it would be a disservice to them to allow guys. They would have more guys leaving, I think, if they didn't ban guys and didn't suspend them.

They should have shot a ban them. Yeah. Ban them are not told them they ban them. Uh, so I just have been surprised to start seeing that sentiment and it seems like it just doesn't seem fully baked to me. I think that was their only move to stop this from happening was to say, like, you cannot do both things. You can go, you can leave, but you cannot do both things. And again, we are so freaking early in this too. Oh, there's so much to do.

Like, you know, the legal stuff's just starting to happen and all that, but I think either way it's like the tour, it was a loose, loose. Right. And they may get mega screwed in the legal stuff's just starting to happen and all that. But I think either way, it's like the tour, it was a lose lose. Right. And they make it mega screwed in the legal stuff for all we know. They could, but I think they would have just been make equally as mega screwed if they let guys come and go as they pleased. Yeah. Because then you've got, you know, 75% of the guys in the top 70, like dipping their toe in exactly. And every field then is like driven by the money, right? Like every every good tournament that you have as long as live wants to put up a

Tournament with more money available to like what if they decided to you know put up a tournament opposite a Genesis or opposite of I don't know even the players like it what's the stop guys mean like yeah I'm not gonna play the players because I can make more money in this live thing So I'll come come back next week and play you know, whatever I think you kind of had to I mean, like, yeah, I'm not going to play the players because I can make more money in this live thing. So I'll come back next week and play, you know, whatever. I think you kind of had to. I mean, as we said, I think a lot, like the real, the only way that really could have prevented is they come up with their own live type thing where they were like, Hey, we're going to do this. And this is going to be what the, the, the, in the bad weeks, the off, you know, the guys can do it.

Well, but they just didn't want to get involved in any of that for whatever reason. And that's another thing too is we, I've only know of what live has done and announced what they're going to do, right? What they are actually capable of doing is one, whatever they, you know, if there was, and I get a lot of, I'm going to give this some of Rory's quotes of, you know, bringing Greg to the table or should have been these conversations. It's like, I just can't see. I don't know how people don't see like how insanely personal Norman takes all of this stuff and how they are, they were never going to like work, you know, on good faith. Like

it never, like they are so again, so early in their plans for actually taking over golf. And if they would, if the tour would have shown any weakness on that front, live would have taken advantage of it. I think there would have been an opportunity to talk to the PGL guys. Yeah, so I think that was, you know, because among their investors, I'm sure guys that Rory's tight with or guys that, you know,

any number of these guys are tight with. But yeah, I don't see the, the window, like, they're just it being a wise decision to have a dialogue with third leg Greg And again, we'll get into some of Roy's quotes as well But it sounded like what Keith Pelley had said in the joint press conference as well was like that we had Conversations with the you know the Saudis in general and said you know they they had said they want to get involved with Growing the game and stuff and so we presented with an opportunity to support the challenge tour They were not interested in that.

And it was for a dollar amount that was absolutely minuscule compared to what they're currently doing. Like it's not like you can just up and lift the two however many billions of dollars and that would have easily fit into the golf ecosystem. I do struggle a little bit with Pelley. I know it's like, if you're just listening into this podcast and you haven't heard us talk about live before,

then like go back 47 podcasts and catch up. Yeah, there's a lot of like context and foundational stuff here. But I think with Pelley, one of the things I found troubling with his remarks was, hey, it seems like he's kind of misplayed this. Like I'm not sure from his standpoint if the strategic alliance is necessarily the best thing

Which it sounds like some of the Euro tour guys also fill that way where he basically said hey if you guys want to be a part of the ecosystem and And all this we will certainly talk to you and they didn't but then it makes it feel a little bit more disingenuous for J and the gang to I feel a little bit more disingenuous for Jay and the gang to cite the human rights and the sports washing stuff as part of that when it was fine when when Pelley was accepting a check from them for the Saudi international and for his sponsorship. I think there's a separation that I think Monahan has clear separation from that and he was never involved in the Saudi international, right? And Pelley has been relatively quiet on that

front in terms of, you know, I think, you know, obviously we had them having the relationship with them in the past. And I think there's an interesting conversation to have there. And again, we can get to this after the the Rory comments of just like, there is a difference with what's currently going on with live and the purpose it's serving for the Saudis and like a diversified investment in the tour. Yeah. I want to have a comment between like the Saudi international as one tournament and them, you know, owning the golf calendar. Exactly. And I don't want that to

sound at all like I'm flipping or weakening that like it sounds like very was a flip adjacent at some point. We're gonna again get to all that. But before we get to that, I want to ask this second question. Should the live tour KBV? Should it get OWGR points? So I've listened to all the sort of arguments and, you know, I think DJ laid out a great sort of, you sort of logical reasoning for why it would take to do it.

And the Shack on Starboys and the Friday crew, what obviously put a different kind of thing out. To me, I just don't think that I don't care who goes to your tour. If you're not gonna play 72 whole events, I don't see how you can make the justification that you deserve OWGR points. And I definitely don't think that you should be getting them right away.

You should have to go through the, you were in compliance for a year, and then we apply, and then the people vote on it and make our arguments for it. I don't think that just because Dustin Johnson was one of the great, you know, players of his era, all of a sudden goes over there. Like that's Dustin Johnson's reputation that you're looking at. Maybe not, Dustin Johnson, like, who he is right now. And I still think like if you started up an NBA basketball league and you played three quarters or you played with, you know, only three point shots were counted, would you be like, well, we deserve to have a spot in the NBA playoffs.

Whatever. It's kind of what the NBA playoffs are turning into. Yeah. I just think like, look, if live wants to make some adjustments to that and say, like, okay, you know what, we did this. We're still going to do a shotgun start, but we are going to play 72 whole events. We are going to have a cut. Then I think the argument is much stronger, but I just don't think that the standard for what our OWGR points are. It has been this for however long. And to sort of change that just because a bunch of dudes are chasing, you know, is big purses.

I don't really care if like the 100, the 50 best players in the world are playing and live. If they're not playing what golf has always been, then I don't think it's worth, you know, revisiting that until it changes. But that's, I feel like that's a pretty logical position. And why the world of golf should change just because live has a lot of money and is demanding it seems to, doesn't make a lot of sense to me at the moment. TC?

Yeah, I largely agree. I think, you know, I would say KVV, what about PGA toward China? What about PGA toward China, huh? Uh-huh. No, but I would- People were like, oh, you didn't care when the hero got a spine,

stripped the hero of what I was talking about. I've been lobbying for a ridiculous thing to have anyway. But you know what the hero has? It's 72 holes. No, I've been lobbying for the hero to lose world ranking points for the hero to lose world ranking points for the last, like, four years. That.

It's a totally different conversation. But yeah, no, I largely agree. But at the end of the day, it all just comes down to the strength of the guys. I do think if the top, let's say 30 of the top 50 guys in the world are playing on live, then at some point, whether I think it should be the case or not, at some point, like, does it de-legitimize the OWGR to where, you know, like, yeah, it's the,

it's got an asterisk. It's the best players in the world, but, da da da da, you know. And to that, I would say, it did represent the best players in the world until those best players in the world left the competitive golf ecosystem. Like they know that these are the rules for official world golf rankings. And the Oda and what also a key link to all of this is is the major championships are 72 whole tournaments, right?

And they are not shotgun start. They are, you have to deal with these waves, you have to play, you know, in these three sums that take five and half hours and you have to do this in these events throughout the course of a year to show that you are a competitive golfer and can make cuts and can do all these things consistently beating these these fields and consistently beating these top players that include a big ecosystem To get into our tournament to compete and that is where Live falls short of so much of that so like you may think these rules are

Arbitrary or you know that of you know however they come up with 72 holes and blah blah blah, but it makes sense when you view the entire golf landscape all together I get it But there's a few things you could point out there that Like you could point out next week at the Barracuda or the, you know, Al d'Arino, right? Like you've got stable for it. You could point out the match play. That's not, that's not stroke play 72 holes.

You can point out tennis, like 10, you know, ATP, they play three rounds in non majors, they play five rounds in majors. You know, so you could say, all right, we're elevating the majors even more. You know, those are some of the few times that we actually do four rounds. You know, like, it kind of comes back to the cricket comp.

But I would also say, like, there's a difference in like 5% of the events, not being like that, and 0% and, you know, 95% being like this, and 0% at live being like the kind of golf structure. I get it. Like, I'm very much on the side of like, no, I think this is serious golf, and this is inherently unserious golf.

And I'm very much, but really at the end of the day, it's like, all right, who are the gatekeepers, the gatekeepers of the four majors, and then Pellie and Jay Monahan, and then the COO of the European tour, who also does the You know the Federation of International PGA tours or whatever so I think one of the things I've always Loved the most about golf is like you when you go to a tournament you have some skin in the game, right? Like you have to play well to sort of earn some money

You have to play well. You have to grind to help man If I don't play well on Friday like I might be trunks drunk slamming and going home. And obviously that, that doesn't happen in the WGC's like you're getting through either way. But like I always love the cut element of that, right? And like that's why Tiger making 170 cuts in a row, whatever is such an amazing accomplishment. Because he never had that off until you have like that to me, it just doesn't seem quite as real a golf. You have some skin and game, you have some investment, you have to put up your own money and you have to play well to get paid.

And you have to earn your way into the no-cut WGC's. Like you don't have to earn your way into live events. You are offered an upfront amount of money and you go play in it. Like you do not have to earn your way in it. And you don't have, if you play bad, you still get the starts and that is not existing in the competitive golf ecosystem. And I used to pride itself on that so much, right? Like you loved it.

Old guys loved it. Yeah, look, you don't play well. You don't get paid. We're not like those other tournaments, whatever. There's other sports. And I get why, like look around and you see, you know, like the guaranteed contracts and huge signing bonuses and various other sports.

And you think like, hey man, like why can't we get some of that? But like golf really isn't comparable to the money that it generates in terms of like the NFL, the NBA or some of those other stuff. So I guess, you know, they ought to look at more like what tennis is because in reality, like they're bigger than tennis in a lot of ways, but they're not generating the $220 billion TV deal that the NFL is or that, you is or whatever it is. So it's a little bit frustrating to hear some guys be like, well, we deserve to get that paid.

Yeah, but you chose golf. That's a different thing than the NFL, the NBA. I think the ATPs of Rory's reference to before in his interviews, I think the ATPs of really, I need to dig further into how the ATP operates. And from a prize money perspective, from an operations perspective from the you know the ATP 1000 all those little Categories where they have different events going on at the same time do they subsidize? Guys that have a full you know full status like because like like that even like I don't really have a problem if the tour was was gonna Say you know what any start like let's say you're a full member, any start,

you turn up to you get 10K or something like that, just an offset travel expenses or whatever. That's essentially what the play fit, play 1550K, bonus is, you know, you get whatever seven, whatever that math comes out to. And I guess where I just come back to on this is where I feel it's such an unbelievable amount of arrogance to think like one, like you started this league knowing what the OWGR qualifications were.

You know exactly what they are. So you are basically banking on bullying them into changing. And the third being just like, what incentive, what incentive do they have to change? Why, I get the, like the majors would want to have the best possible players and at what point are you not getting the best possible players? But like if you go down the list, Phil Mikkelsen, again, not one of the best players anymore, but he's gonna be playing all these things through 2026, right?

So we're not worried about him. Dustin Johnson in the Masters for Life in the PGA through 25 and the US Open through 26 in the Open through 25. We're good on that for some time being. We're gonna have Dustin there. Keppka in the Masters through 24 in the PGA for life in the US Open through 24 and in the Open through 24. We got three years of runway for Keppka in the majors.

Read Masters for Life, PGA, US Open and Open all through next year. Bryson Masters through 25, US Open through 30 and the other two through 25, like the most competitive players on that tour are going to be in majors for the time being anyway. So that they're even less incentivized to say like, Hey, we should, we need to change our structure here to make sure these guys are getting into our major championships. Yeah. No, I'm going to the vibe of the masters. I wouldn't lift a finger for any of the stuff. You know why? Because the masters elevates the winners. The winners don't

elevate the masters. Like this idea that like, well, the masters, they want to have the best players in the field. I wouldn't give one lick if I were the masters. And be like, oh, well, you know, Patrick Reed or Dustin Johnson might not make it or whatever. And they'll always make it. But like, what what player in live who isn't already like a master champion, would the masters care one bit about if they didn't make it in the field because they dropped out of the top 50 of the top 100? Fred really is paying,

just tailing around being like, oh man, like we're really gonna miss, you know, paparez. Like, you know, who cares? I honestly, no disrespect to paparez, but like that's just, that's how the masters kind of is. It's, it's you win it and you're elevated as a master's champion forever. It's not like, you know, everybody's like dying to see that I think the best players, there's so many people who watch

the masters who are not like us who don't even care at lick about golf. And I think that'll always kind of be true about the masters. Like if you're the PGA championship, maybe I could see that argument for you. Like you want all the best players around, but man, if you're looking for the masters to sort of save you, you should pay attention to the master's history in general of like realizing that it's not, they're not out there, like begging people to come play there. The code red is going to be if one of these guys that we've mentioned, like goes out and wins a major. No, you know, like if DJ or Brooks or anybody who's yet to go goes out and wins a major like that's the biggest deal Because I think otherwise it's you know unless they get the world ranking points in short order

It's gonna be very very hard for any young guy to make this like to make the shift and and be able to elevate their Status to being one of the elite players and unless unless they win a major and I don't know where you guys stand on this I am totally good with DJ and Brooks and Phil and Bryson and Reed playing in these majors. They have earned their spots in these majors. They have qualified for them. And the majors are different than the PGA tour. I think they're like the worst thing of this is the double dipping in the, the threats of suing to say, I want to play on the live tour and play on the PGA tour for money.

When I've turned my, I've screwed over a lot of the current existing PGA tour players by going and leaving and taking my marketing rights out of this ecosystem. And you're, you're, you're literally suing those guys. Yes. You're not suing the tour. You're suing them. That's what, yeah, I, we posted that kind of teaser clip with JT and a lot of people took that way too literally like oh JT

You're not gonna be a plant. You know what name defended in the lawsuit. It's like okay Well, you're missing the idea of what it means to sue the PGA tour like J's like like one of these guys asked Jay Who's paying for these lawsuits? He's like you are the players are paying for this is like coming out of your player It's money that would otherwise be filtered to you know into playing versus for you. So I just I say if you if you're someone who gets falls out of the top 100 or whatever and you have to qualify to get into the British Open, guess what you used to have to do? Even if you won the frickin' thing, like Arnold Palmer had to come over and qualify to be in the British Open. Like, they didn't reserve any spots for anybody. It was basically everyone had to show up two weeks

before and kind of play their way in. So, like, if you're a really good player, if you're Brooks Keppka, and you haven't won an open championship, then what you go over and play, you know, play in the qualifiers, like grind your way into it. You can't beat the 150th player in the world to get into the British Open. Maybe you don't deserve to be there. It'd be a very different conversation if the OWGR changed their criteria to lock these guys out. This was a voluntary move that they've all made for a shit ton of money. And this is a consequence of doing that. And that is very much what I believe.

Yeah. And now, granted, you could argue that they've laid some booby traps along the way. Probably to prevent that. Protect it. Fun way. Which is probably smart. Yeah. But I do think the funniest part about all this is the players like always wanting to elevate themselves into

Fifth major fifth major fifth major and then now it's like hey, we're clearly not a major these guys can't play Telling you Weeks ago declared a major just declared a major and say we're gonna We're gonna recognize it going forward. Oh by what you can't play. Yeah Can we get to Roy's quotes? Can I play him for you guys? Please. All right. Please do.

Look, I wish it hadn't I got that messy. And in hindsight, I think there were probably steps that were missed that wouldn't have made it as messy. But I think in the long term it will make the game better, but right now it's just that there's this disruption that's happening and with disruption comes change and force change. And I think this is just sort of forced the tour's hands a little bit and and they have to adapt and change and I think that's what they're going to have to try to do. Do you think there will have to be peace talks between the three tours at some stage? I think so. I think that needs to happen. There's so much chat about where the money is coming from, and society, and everything else. They sponsor so many other things. They're all over sport. I understand people's reservations with everything, but

at the same time, if these people are serious about investing billions of dollars in the golf, I mean, I think ultimately that's a good thing. All the narrative isn't good, it's splitting the game instead of everyone coming together and I think everyone needs to try to come together a little bit more. Is there a resentment between the players who are on still on the PGA2 and the DP world and the players who have decided to defect. I think defections is a strong word. I understand why guys have went, especially the guys that are sort of in the ladder stages that are career. I mean, if I was in their position, I mean, I seriously have to think about doing the same thing. Like, I understand. Is there a difference of opinion, yes, but I mean, I can argue with you about a certain thing, but I'm still going to like you at the end of it. So there's a difference of opinion, and I would have done things a little bit differently. But I think at this stage,

if you go over and play in a different tour, then go and play in a different tour. And I think this whole having your cake and eating it, type thing is what the resentment resolves within the membership. But for me, I don't resent that. And you want a lot of these guys are my friends and they're still going to be my friends regardless of the decisions they make. So that made some wavelengths around this week. I think it was the first sign of our sweet prince,

caving a little bit. Like vacillating. Weakening a little bit. Didn't want to touch that one on Twitter and I just want to get this in right now because this article I'm sure is out by the time you're listening to this, but Kyle Porter had an X-101 with Rory,

I believe, on Saturday. It comes out on Monday. And Kyle asked him, he said, you did an interview with BBC recently at the JP McManus and it seemed like your tone on everything shifted a little bit from what it had been in the past. Why was that or did it shift in your mind?

And Rory said, I don't think it shifted in terms of the internal dialogue that we've had going on for a while. I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty details of what's going on behind the scenes. In my opinion, there's no room in the world in the golf world for live golf. Let's put it that way. I don't agree with what live is doing. If live went away tomorrow, I'd be super happy. My stance has not softened on that,

but my stance on where the money is coming from is where I've sort of softened because I just look at every other sport and I see the money that's going in there and I can see what benefits that has. It's hard because ultimately, do you want more money being invested in the PGA tour? I think yes, I think that would be great.

And if the guys are willing to do that and scrap the whole live thing. So Yasser Al Remyon, the head of the Piff, he loves golf. Do you think these people around him want to facilitate a meeting with the powers that be, whether it be Keith Pelley or Jay Monahan, probably not because all of a sudden their job is in jeopardy? My stance hasn't softened on live per se. I don't agree with what they're doing in the sport. My stance has maybe softened on the investment side of things or in terms of if there is a way we can play ball and invest in the wider

Golf ecosystem where this can benefit everyone instead of just benefiting 48 guys And that's sort of my whole thing on it. I don't know if that will ever happen But that's basically what I was trying to say in those comments and that BBC interview a few days ago I can't he's just saying like the pGL Oh, right trying to say in those comments in that BBC interview a few days ago. Again, he's just saying like the PGL. Right. Which I guess that's what he's alluding to here. But also like, it's just weird that, you know, I don't know. I just don't, I struggle with like the, the bout face on the source of the money

a little bit. That's because he was so vocal about that start. Like honestly, I read that and I was like, ah, that sports washing working. That's literally when he's like looking around to the other other sports that I have the money coming in and that's saying like, oh well, it's okay because it's going in other places. Like it's inevitable.

It's the wave is coming. Like there's no stoppy and there's no point in having a moral stance on that. And that I thought was a bummer just because it is, there's a certain defeatist attitude about that. And again, that's where I want to have that conversation though of like, there is, in the Twitter world, it is extremely black and white.

It is, if there is a drop of Saudi money involved in anything, you are as guilty as the guys taking the money to go say nice things about them. If you ride in an Uber, that's the same as doing, if you are a PGA Tour sponsor that does business in that country, that's the same. If you wear Nike shoes, that's the same as, you know, going to go be a spokesman for this specific regime.

And I get what he's saying a little bit here in terms of like, you know, if there are, you're not gonna stop a Saudi Arabian investment into FedEx of $250 million, which also FedEx sponsors the FedEx couple. So why should we stop it into the golf? Exactly. We should gladly take that money, but figure out a positive way to employ that money. It sounds to me.

It's kind of nice. It's like, shady billionaire, JP McManus, yes, yes, sad, the lad down and said, son, let me teach you how the world works. It's actually said, you know, McManus is, I don't know if you read much about him, but like nobody really quite understands how he made his billions. And there's various allegations of like, you know, some some, I don't know if misdeeds is the right word, but some, some shady things of what happened to, it wasn't just in horse racing. Oh, it's also like currency trading. Yeah, currency-created trading, but how did you get the money to sort of buy up a bunch of currency? Like, it's a little clear. But, you know,

McManus is someone who's, you know, there has only so many Irish billionaires out there. And here he is in this sort of meeting of all the important people coming together to sort of do charity for golf. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he kind of said, you know, look, you don't like this, I understand, but this is going to happen. This is not going away. The Saudis have more money than you could possibly understand and imagine. So you need to kind of like get right with this one way and either use it to your advantage. I mean, again, this is all speculation.

I have nothing to support this, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if those conversations took place because that's how billionaires work. They understand, you can sit here and have your morality plays or whatever, but the truth is that no human of human rights activist is going to be able to sort of convince the players to walk away from this money. So get right with it on some level and sort of decide how you're going to live with this or not.

And I look, do I need Rory to sort of have the same, you know, stances morally as I do? No, not at all. Like he lives in a much different world than I do. Like I would have no expectation of it. But it is, it did make you feel a little bit like what a homeless Max talking about, like, Rory's like our Harvey Dent out there. Like if we've one person who is like been fighting and fighting and fighting against this, what happens when that one person potentially buckles or softens it up or or is sort of

asked to sort of look at things from a different perspective. Man, like all of a sudden does the whole front collapse in a way. Like, I don't know what Rory's sort of ideal thing of the future would look like for golf. And if maybe he is okay. And look, I'm open to the argument too. I don't know that I believe it after talking to actual like Saudi dissidents about this. But if you are sitting here and saying, Hey, this will have a net positive in the long run

for society in Saudi Arabia. Like it's they're trying to modernize it in a way. They're trying to sort of move away from just fossil fuels. They're trying to sort of advance and to show like, Hey, we're not this kind of backwards, you know, barbaric country. The flip side to that is that, you know, people who are actually, you know, citizens there who not part of the sort of royal ruling

class, basically saying that nothing has changed, just the sort of outward reputation is changing. They still like, you can't talk to people there as a journalist without potentially getting them into ton of trouble. Like, you can't leave the country if you're ever sort of critical of the government in a lot of trouble. You can't leave the country if you're ever critical of the government in a lot of ways. And so, yeah, people want to sit here and make an argument of like, look in the long run, there's bad people everywhere and they all have money and they'll have weapons. And so we have to kind of get to square with this. That's fine. I understand it, but I'm telling you from the perspective of the actual people who in a lot of ways,

what I think often gets overlooked here is like this idea that like the PIF belongs to the royal family. Like it belongs to Saudi Arabia. Like this isn't like money that like the royals have because they're like super special people. It's because Saudi Arabia is on some of the biggest oil deposits in the entire world. And so a lot of ways like the actual people,

the citizens of the country, you feel like you're using like our money instead of like bettering society, you're using it to sort of, you know, clean up your own reputation, right? Like how much better would would things in Riyadh or Jetta B, like if there was public transportation or if there was like widespread healthcare or there was, you know, more jobs or whatever, like all of that money could go to sort of different things. And instead it's being used for sport to sort of... It's a complicated, difficult thing. I don't blame Rory for having an evolving opinion on it and stuff.

I just don't think that the reality of it is what a lot of people are being spread. In a lot of ways, the people who it most affects, they can't talk about it. They can't speak out and then sort of share their opinion on it. And where I differ strongly with Rory here is I think that I have not heard the full context, I've not read the full portal article yet, and I, you know, that I think this is also a reason why he probably hates giving these little interviews is that you can have a two-minute snippet go around, and there may be more context around it. But from what I've heard in that alone, there's a certain niavitt, niavittivite.

Niavittivite, how do you say that? Niavittivite. Niavittite. There it is. It's my Peter A. List for you. And like thinking that, you know, at least, I don't even want to say that in what he's saying, just how it can sound. I have a problem with thinking that like what is currently going on and live was like an option to exist within the ecosystem

Like they had saw the opportunity to buy golf to do this in an extremely aggressive way And I just look at the way that Greg Norman behaves Do you think that that same money or even a significant amount of money would have just Quietly come into the game of golf in some way and not drastically uprooted something. That's exactly going back to what Keith Pellied said. What they had talked about with him is very, very different, both in the size of investment and structure

for what has played out. I just don't think that it's as simple as welcoming this money casually into the game, supports the game, nearly to the extent that he describes it. And if it's good faith, Greg Norman's not involved. Exactly. That's not what we're talking about here. That's not, it was not like there were three options in there and this was one of them.

That's not what's at play. To defend him, I will say, I don't think he's coming at this selfishly from a my bank account purpose. I think there's a little bit of like, man, I'm like a lot of money fine when I'm not getting any of it. But I do think it's more so of the overall health of like professional golf. I got some takes there.

So I think the a KVV, I was gonna say the same thing as far as like this, the timing of that quote coming out, you know, on the back end of spending two or three or four days at a dare man or with JPMorganis, probably down in that, in that Scotch room, or whiskey room, you know, down in the barge, the, you know, drawing room down there, you know, probably drinking bottles of wine

that are worth more than my house. That was not a coincidence. I think they're, they're playing Boron the Floor down there. Like it was probably a damn scene out of succession, you know? But also, I think in a weird way, so, hey, everything that's happening is, whether it's directly or indirectly, it's good for Rory in the long run, right?

Cause he's either gonna get a bigger piece of the pie of the tour stuff, right? Because he's he's either going to get a bigger piece of the pie of the tour stuff, you know, and and Jay, Monahan, and basically employing Rory and JT and Horschl and those guys as the public spokespeople, instead of him being visible and public and doing his own press conferences that aren't a absolute disaster, or CBS appearances or whatnot, like, you know, by employing these guys to to be the public face of the tour, he's given a absolute disaster, or CBS appearances or whatnot. By employing these guys to be the public face of the tour, he's given them more power. And so this is a power play for Rory as well,

to basically say, let's say things aren't going the way that Rory wants him to go. Rory puts his thumb on the scale, create, so some seeds of doubt with the tour and says, hey, I'm wavering, I of waffling a little bit here. You know what? This does look more attractive. That scared the shit out of everybody in Pontavidra.

Which yeah, just to clarify, his statement was cut and drive. Like, yeah, I'm not wavering on live. Like, this is not what's happening here. Just a weakening of the, of the, you know, dollar where the money is coming from. And again, he's got another quote. And he's kind of backseat, like he's kind of backseat driving a little bit too and saying, like, well, you know, dollar where the money is coming from. And again, he's got another quote. And he's kind of backseat, like he's kind of backseat

driving a little bit too and saying, well, you know what? I don't like, yeah, like in hindsight, there's some things that could have done differently. I think that they can do some things differently here moving forward. And it's like he's putting his thumb on the scale. Which I disagree with him though that the torch should sit down with Greg Norman.

Like that is, that's not going anywhere. He smells blood in the water. He is not going to quit at, again, this is extremely personal for him, just look at the captions of his Instagram adding the PGA tour. You like apples? Wouldn't have been talking about the OWGR

of his field in Portland. Like, yo, this dude is not gonna come to the table in good faith and you can't trust him with anything that he would say in that as well. This is not how this battle is gonna be fought. You know, sometimes people say, like if you could go back in time, would you kill Hitler or whatever?

Like if you could go back in time and like, like off out differently, could you just have like Greg Norman's dad give him a hug and tell him like, I'm so proud of you son. Like that could change so many different things on the last two years. I bet Tim Finchim's questioning how he handled things.

Did I do enough to marginalize Greg Norman? Greg Norman is just a shield for it though. Imagine if Greg Norman would have won the masters. Oh my God. Kyle also asked him, why is your stance changed on where the money is coming from? Remember, he had a quote in this, may have been personal versus talking about

the entire industry, yet a quote about, hey, I don't really like where the money is coming from. And Roy said, I said that right before COVID, I said that Bay Hill in 2020, so two and a half years ago, it's changed because I see golf may be different, but I see the money that's going into Formula One, for example, or in the European soccer or a world heavyweight fight. It's just about to be in Saudi Arabia in a few weeks. They're investing heavily in sport.

And I think our sport would benefit from that investment as long as it's done the right way. I don't want them to own golf like they're trying to do, but if they can sort of come in, play nicely in the whole ecosystem, I think that could be a good thing. That, like that all sounds like, yeah, come by. Yeah, that is not the situation at hand. I really don't think it is. And yeah, while we're at it, we'll get the Chinese to, you know, stop stop threatening Taiwan and and and taking taking over little islands all over the South, you know, the South, trying to see. Yeah. So it, uh, I, look, I just keep thinking about it. Like, whatever happens, like, I don't, I, I, I, I, I just think I care when we're in other, but like, I just think it's

important to talk about the issues, like, uphand, like, I know, none of us are going to be like, oh, man, we're not going to watch golf anymore. We're going to cover golf anymore if if lives are to take over. Like golf is a part of all of our lives, right? It's just if we just kind of roll over and let all of this stuff kind of, you know, the narrative be set by the people who I think are kind of disingenuous about some of their approach to this stuff, then I think that's unfair. Like if if in two years, like golf like golf is live is running 20 tournaments a year and like look they're in some ways that's going to suck because I have some moral qualms with it.

But also like that's just how it is going to be. I'm not telling you that it has to change. This half the picture, the, the, the guys have to draw the line. Michael said, Phil Mcs and can't take this money. No, but like at least we're talking about where the money is coming from. Like it is sort of hard for like those 9-11 families to square like we're in this active lawsuit against Saudi Arabia and we want some sort of acknowledgement of you know what's happened here, but here you're willing to spend $34 billion

for these other guys to just get paid to sort of wash your reputation. So I think all of that is important to discuss whether you agree with it or not, whether you wish, you know, there's no like, hey, shut up and stop talking about it in my opinion. Like you want to support live, awesome, go support it. Like I'll peek in it from time to time,

but I'm not kind of like not discuss where all the issues surrounding it. Yeah, no, I think it's, it's what's super not been fun, but it's an obligation. I think we have of, you know, I just don't think that people are gonna, you know, educate themselves on it or care to educate themselves on it enough. And a lot of people I see on my Facebook feed are,

ah, well, they just let them go. Let them play on Facebook. I check in every now and then to see, just to see if anyone's saying, get those birthday wishes. Raise his things on there or whatever, just to remind myself myself about it. But it does feel like Rory, you know, Rory's basically saying, Hey, you haven't gone far

enough with the changes and with the PGA tour. Yeah. Yeah. And like he said, he's referenced the ATP stuff in the past. He's referenced the, you know, some of the PGL, like some of the franchise and like I think there, there's still something there and they could tap into a hell of a lot more money than than is in golf right now But also comes from you know people who don't want to quote unquote on golf, you know, so

Yeah, I think this I think the RNA should have invited Greg to the The dinner there that champ is saying just because as I think you said tell you like it's oh he won't take this personal at all I'm sure this won't become a thing for him right like just you know Go there and tell me he's not gonna do any interviews Whatever don't make him available And I do think like there is an argument to Greg did win two open championships, right? Like why not just have him there as a part of it and giggle and all that stuff? I'm probably you probably could have won it. You should have won a third too. It's yeah, it's new man

Newman GC asked thoughts on RNA disinviting third leg Greg from champion celebration was filled disinvited also. Honestly, it's kind of like dealing with with the refuge sometimes. It's like any act of punishment is might only make things worse here. Like either going to have something, there's somebody here that's going to be causing a lot of disruption and is going to be a problem and is going to poison the well of this event that's going to happen.

Or if you ban them, then you made a martyr out of them and it feels like Gary player at the masters with his dipshit son. Like, you know, I get to see Greg wearing a live hat and, you know, or doing something like that. I think they'd rather fight this battle in the press to just like, all right, we'll take whatever hit. It takes a week before instead of doing the week so we can have our week during and not have him Try to be the story of the live week. He should be like Pete Rose and be like outside the gate

Simon live hats Outside the done vegan I was gonna say live live rent south the whole done vegan and does like a you know Hey, you know how about the the video a Pat Perez on you know the whatever that was the 767 or 777 charter and you're seeing we are the champions should need you whatever you should need it I honestly Greg Fred's quote about you're a grain of sand is one of the most like like devastating dishes. I think I've ever seen a professional golf. Yeah. Who are you? You're a grain of sand.

God Fred. Yeah. Freddie Couples was not not holding back. We talked about that last week a little bit. Yeah. Not down. Would you guys rather do GMAC interview next or the Billy Ho rant? Because we got options here. There's some more content. Let's do GMAC interview first. Because I think, you know, like it, it very much seems like GMAC cares deeply, deeply about what people think about him and his, his kind of lost his mind a little bit. He has, just, he had that example

that went pretty viral of like literally just explaining sports washing. And so now he has taken the, the, it on to like, all right, well, I'm going to give a long extended interviews where I really explain how sports washing works here because he gave an interview, I should, I don't have the source here,

the Irish independent, I believe it was. And it starts out, and I got a lot to read here. I was just thinking, the questions, I was just thinking, I see front pages, front page headlines in the bell fast telegraph saying, I'm proud to help the Saudis. How does that affect you and especially your family living there?

And Graham says, I don't read the Belfast telegraph. Don't even fucking tell me what was on the front. Is that a real paper? What paper was that? Was that a real one? No one reads it anyway. It's okay, listen, fuck.

Like some guy from Amnesty International sent me the quotes, asked me to respond. How am I supposed to respond to Amnesty International? That's called fighting a losing battle. Of course I'm not gonna respond. It's ridiculous. It's just golf. I'm not trying to solve the world's issue.

So yeah, not real happy with the Belfast telegraph. For my family to read that shit, it's unfair. It's unfair. Yet, when you can't explain something to Amnesty International, sorry, in quote, when you can't explain something to them, why would that be? As I put my bride and wind her story, why would that be, Graham?

Why would that be? Why would you not be able to explain that? Or when an Amnesty International is reaching out to you to explain something, maybe start there. Yeah, why can't you explain it to them though, huh? Explain that. Then he also says, yeah, it was very difficult. You know, there were a lot of pros and there were a lot of cons.

You had to make peace with the negative side of things. The hardest thing for me the last three or four weeks is what Brian is mentioning, the negative fallout and being linked to comments where all you're trying to do is say the right things and do the right thing for a golf organization that are giving us a phenomenal opportunity. All the tenuous links to things that these guys

have allegedly done, when we know the links are, like I say, tenuous at best. It doesn't mean everyone in Saudi Arabia is a bad person. You know what I'm saying? And quote. And quote. No, see, I think what people are saying is that chopping up a journalist with a bone salt,

those are the bad people. I don't think a lot of people are really upset about the citizens of Saudi Arabia. And Graham, I don't know if I would call that link tenuous. I don't know if I would do that because, I believe it was live, skyped, or facetimed into MBS while it happened. So I don't know if I would use the word tenuous

and emphasize it twice in that answer. So that's probably why you keep getting questions about this. Continuing on, these guys are running a very, very lucrative golf product, which is being phenomenally well staged, taking great care of the players and the players are loving it. And so many good things are happening. But the negative negativity doesn't make you proud of yourself every day. You wake up. Hopefully the narrative will change to golf soon and we can get on with it. Oh, man.

It doesn't make you proud of yourself every day. What a, yeah, I graduated from my college. I could feed on the college. Like, oh my god, stop saying the quiet part. Now, wow. And then he started throwing a pity party after this. He's like, you know what, like, I'm just gonna grin and bear it.

Like, I'm not gonna come and play these events unless they want me to come and play these events unless they ask me to. Which I at least respect that part of it. But then he said, it's been very difficult, like I say, London especially to see my name linked to the type of things that people have said. It's hurtful. I get it.

It's people's opinions. It's not like I didn't expect it, you know. But I think I'm a reasonably smart person who tries to say smart things and the right things. But there's an inevitability to all this where you end up in a hole because there is no right answer. There is no right answer to a lot of the questions you're being asked.

Why might that be? By the way, it all sounds about 10% more interesting and smarter probably coming out of his mouth with his accents. Yes, sure. If I could do a better gram Northern Ireland accent, I would hear chime in at this point, but I don't, you know,

didn't wanna go to wait into those water to do some of the audio of it. So you can read, you can actually hear the audio. He's also all over the place. He's like, that's the whole have your cake and eat it situation. If I'm ever never allowed to play another golf turn on the European tour, I'd be surprised. No, I will be disappointed, but I won't be surprised. It is difficult because this is such a competitive threat to the biggest tours in the world, the PGA Tour and the European Tour.

It's a competitive threat to the biggest tours in the world, the PGA Tour and the European Tour. It's a competitive threat. They obviously don't believe in their product well enough to be able to give the players the choice because they feel like if they do give the players the choice, they're going to lose 48 of the best players in the world straight away. And to that is some of the product stuff. Yeah, you're right on the money. Like the you're forcing the tours hand to to improve. They're trying to improve. They're trying to catch up.

They've you know, they're playing there. They certainly are playing catch up. Like, yeah, I think he's got a that's a valid point there. It is, but it's also explaining exactly why they're banning people. Totally. Yeah. He also says it says a lot about how financially lucrative this is. And there's obviously a lot of good things about the opportunity and 14 events in the

team element. All the things that are different from the 72 whole slog that we play weekend, week out. It is a fantastic slog, though. The PGA tour is the best tour in the world. Okay. We all want to coexist, but we know that at the minute, there's no way that can possibly happen. You take the top 48 players in the world for 14 weeks a year. It's pretty tough for the PGA tour. And the European tour to be able to suck that up and be able to have their product operate at the same level. Yeah, again, probably explaining why there's a lot of backlash

from your peers, a lot of these things. Is there a question? Is there a feeling? Have you sold your soul to the devil? Of course, people are going to have that opinion. Question again, do you feel a little bit of guilt inside that look, I really couldn't turn it down. Graham said, I've played golf all over the world

for, you know, countries that if you dug deep enough, you might think, what am I doing playing golf there? You could have that conversation so many times and so many ways over the last 20 years. And the questioning is the moral thing, low hanging fruit, he goes, we've been all over the Middle East and all over Asia, this has just been completely blown out of proportion.

And then continues on and structure. Yeah, and those are like individual events that you can either show up for or not. Right. And then just continues on and show. Yeah, those are like individual events that you can either show up for or not. Right. And you have the option to do that. You also chose to do. Like it's not like it any of this has been forced on you in any way.

I'm going to tell you some of what's going on here. This is a person who spent 20 years interviewing athletes. All right. Graham has spent a lot of time being pretty charming and pretty engaging with journalists. And he was thought of someone who was like, you know, who's a good quote? Like I got to write a Rory story. Who can I go to?

Let me go to Graham. He'll play ball. Yeah, he'll play ball. Spinajarn was always sort of polite, friendly, whatever. And I think he feels like I promise you, he feel the part of the reason he feels hurt is he feels like there should be some sort of like, you know, investment in that, like that he has put in good time with a lot of journalists and he has gotten used to having a reputation

as a good guy as a smart quote. And now he is wounded because that has flipped in some ways. It's to see negative things written about him is sting's worse than if you're someone who has been sort of, you know, like this Patrick Green would never give this interview, right? Because he doesn't like, he's not gonna feel like, hey, man, the expectation was that like, you liked me, right? You guys were, we're sort of friendly with me for all this time. And, you know, I feel in some ways for Graham in the larger macro sense, because he, I think, thought he could sort of talk his way through some of this.

Yes. He's the guy who was willing to kind of engage of, like, hey, the Koshogi thing, we all know that was sort of a principal. And you know, it's okay. And DJ, you know, wasn't going to sit here and use that words or talk about it. Like, Graham was trying to sort of have it both ways, right?

To say, like, hey, you know, we're proud to help. He, I think he thought that people would be like, you know what, Graham makes some good points on this stuff. Like he, yeah, I understand, like, I might not agree with this, but at least, and so, you know, to see like, Aime and Dragon around, I think is probably really sort of stung in a ways, because he's never been dragged like this in his career. And so he's kind of like working through this as a like a therapist in some ways, you know, stuff and to see his hometown paper, how dare the the Belfast paper ripped me like that. So my family has to read that.

Well, you know, that's what happens when like athletes make, you know, money for. Yes, that's what they've bought your words. Like that's why like the more you say, like that's why Phil stands up there and looks like an idiot not saying anything because they've bought his words. Like that's what the money's for. And Graham said in there, he's like, I wish I would have just gotten in a press conference like the Brooks Patrick, uh, the Perez, the Perez one, you know, I literally am leaving out so much stuff, but there's still a lot to get to here because he does not

stop going. When asked about his legacy, McDowell said, in the short term, it's tainted because the narrative is so negative. Eventually, that narrative will have to change. How many top players are going to have to play in this thing and create a product to where you guys will start talking about the golf? A lot. Like, that's, again, explaining sports watching. And then he goes, I get it.

The amount of shit that's been written about me the last six weeks, it's something I've never had to deal with in my golfing career before. Question, it's the price. You've used the word hurt. And he says, of course, it hurts my feelings. Like I said, I wish I kept my mouth shut and London. I'm gonna talk a lot in this interview, that's not.

But I'm just going there, trying to do my job for an organization, the live golf organization that are trying to sell a story. They are trying to change the narrative to what is the narrative that we want to take, which is that it's about the golf and it's about a new, just a new product for the fans. Trying to sell a story. But I mean, we're so focused on, you know, the negativity surrounding the Saudi Arabian regime.

And quote, Hey, why can't we just talk about how much money we're making? Like, that's the real story here, guys. And then he gets on, he starts talking about how shitty he's played the last few years, and how he's, you know, it's, it's ground him down to where he's tired of being, you know, outside of top 125 on the PGA tour and, not at all. So he's basically like, yo, I'm not good enough to grind out there anymore. So like, I'm just going to cash my chips in now, man. Yeah.

So it, that was, every was every single thing in this, a company to his could be answered by, yeah, that's what the money is for. Yes. Like you, you feel your feelings are hurt? That's what the money is for. Like you feel like your reputation has been like harmed or whatever, people at home and belf has to read negative things about you.

That's what the money is for. Like you chose to take the money and I don't begregi for taking the money. Like, go get paid, go never have your kids have to worry about anything ever again. But you don't, the idea that like, there weren't like strings attached to the money or there wasn't like, we're going to be critical of it. Or that, or that his status as a major winner and a nice guy is going to supersede. But you know what? This is a super negative toxic conversation. I'm about to wait into here. You know what?

I'm a good guy. People are definitely going to understand that I can run circles around these people. Totally. Yeah. I would love to sit down and have a debate with him. I would look at his list and I would love to hear him sort of say, you know, here's here's why I think Greg, you know, excuse me, Graham, you're not really thinking through

the other sides of this. And here's some of the people I've talked to and have a full, like, look, if you wanted to have like an actual debate about it, I'd be totally up for it. But I don't think he's like doing any of that. And that's okay. Like he doesn't have to. That's what the money is for again. He can be whatever he wants to be.

So I just feel like there's some of it that complaining to me is sort of a little bit hollow because you got paid for a reason and it was to take a lot of crap so that Saudi Arabia doesn't have to take as much crap so that you're a shield for a lot of this stuff. Yeah, what did you think this outsized amount of money was for? It's like not for your current golf talent. You don't have to explain that to us. Of course, I'm not my career's on the downside. And, you know, it was a great lucrative opportunity.

Like, you don't have to explain that part to us. Like, we get that part. Just like, you don't have to also try to explain to us what the money is for, because we can see what it's for. So, last thing I have was Billy Hoad. Do you want to listen to that part? Yeah, let's do it. Do it.

There's a lot of guys that are hypocrites that aren't telling the truth that are lying about some things that I just I can't stand to sit here anymore and be diplomatic about it as I have been in the past. I don't fault anyone for going to play the div-live tour. I don't have any ill will for anyone going to play the live tour. I don't have any ill will for anyone going to play the live tour. I have ill will towards the comments that they made. Comments saying that Jay Monahan doesn't listen to the PJ tour. The PJ tour doesn't listen to us. Jay Monahan and everyone at headquarters is the PJ tour. They work tirelessly for us to, for us to reap the financial rewards and have all the opportunities we have.

At the same time, I am one of 200 plus members of the PGA Tour. I am the PGA Tour. Just as 200 or 100 members of PGA Tour. So when you take in shots at the PGA Tour, you're taking, and Jay Mahnheim, you're just not taking shots at them, you're taking shots at us. And to say that, they don't listen,

is a complete force that really is. They can't listen. If they listen to everything, every 200 plus players on the PGA Tour said, our tour would be a complete mess. We wouldn't even have a tour. And so it's ridiculous to hear some of these comments, some of these guys made saying, well, this allows me to play less terms.

I've played 30, 35 weeks a year. No one's forced you to play that many events. The PJ Tourist says 15 events, men on, you, if you all you have to do is play 15 events, if you keep your card in those 15 events, then that's fine. You don't have to put, if you want to play it better, or you want to play more,

so you get a chance to win the FedEx Cup, so be it. So be it. No one's made you play that first player of event to go to miss family obligations No one has we are yes, we're independent contracts We do sign a contract with the pj tour that requires us to meet certain requirements of the pj tour But we can we have the opportunity to make our schedule So to say that we have to play x amount of events and they don't have time off no one makes you I'm on the road for five weeks. I've not seen my family for three weeks.

I haven't seen it for three weeks. Wasn't the US open. Then it seemed in Germany. I stayed over here for London for a week. I'm not seeing this week. I'm not seeing that week for the next week. So five weeks. But that is my, that's what my wife and I decided. That's what when we laid our schedule out, it just worked that way. I made that decision to not see my wife and kids for five weeks. Am I crying about it? No. I understand. I'm living my dream, trying to play golf professionally

and support my family financially. And so I'm just tired of these comments. Like, go play your lift tour and forget about the PJ tour. You didn't want to support the PJ tour going forward. Don't tell me you're going to play live when they go to 14 events and then go play 15 events on a PJ tour and playing 29. That's not a

smallest schedule. We're not playing less. You love saying PJ tour. I said a lot to word in there. Good on Billy though. This was. I lifted the FOTWAP. Yeah. That was he. I did not expect it to come from Billy in terms of the one of the best just lay it out there and speak directly and fire it up and throw some emotion behind it, but that was hard to disagree with much of anything he said in there.

He was so excited to get that chance to see you off on that. I mean, he's that's like a I've been practicing this in the rearview mirror that my car on the way to the course thing. Soon as somebody asked me anything I'm going in on this. way to the course thing. As soon as somebody asks me anything, I'm going in on this. I mean, it's kind of like getting the chance to, you know, Max was talking about that on our pod, like getting the chance to stick up for your colleagues and your tour a little bit, right? Like, you know, taking matters in your own hands. No, I give him credit.

I mean, I think he's, you know, he's the true, he's the one true, you know, town cryer out there. Like he better be sounding the alarm. He better be calling people out. But yeah, I thought it was a good and passionate defense. And you know, certainly some direct fire at Papper has there. That's about all I've got for this past week on the live front. Anything else we didn't get to? Hearing word that the the rich harvest farms location like the like some of the greens

are just straight up dead. Which is sick. Sick. And then the Boston event. I'm curious on that one. That's such a bad course. Yeah, it doesn't seem to bother them so far with the quality of the course. I mean, last like watching it last week, I actually, like, it wasn't like the TV product

was fine. It wasn't horrible. Like, now granted, it's like, it's all played in a vacuum. And it doesn't actually mean anything outside of the money, right? But like, I don't, you know, like, there's some good things to glean from it. Just to not be entirely negative about it. The fan experience for people is good, right? It is sort of enjoyable for them.

I don't think these are like diehard golf fans, and that's okay. Like maybe golf should find ways to appeal to that sort of crowd that really just wants to roll out there and be like, all right, we're here for four hours. We know where DJ and filler are gonna be. We know what we can drink, $5 beers or whatever. We know we can sort of enjoy this. Like, I think if you're on site, it's actually a pretty good experience.

And all those people will come away being like, yeah, who cares man? What's wrong with the lift tour? And you know what? Good for them. I don't, I'm a bit grudge them that. I think it's going to be interesting when some of these places in there. I mean, what is the experience going to be like in in Rihad or whatever play or the Jedi when they play though, that's, that's got to, I am kind of fascinated by that. I actually would love to cover that because they could be really interesting. I don't know how to be allowed in or out of the country, but your phone's going to get Pegasus on it. If you go to Jedi, I would not do that.

Or, or next year when it's, you know, it's the eighth event of the year and these guys are when it does flip to now we're no longer in recruitment phase. Now we're going to get our money's worth out of this. That's when it's going to get interesting. Right now, the answer to every question the players are asking of them. The answer is yes. Can my wife come do this? Can we do this?

Can we do this? Yes to everything. There's any idea that they're flowing in, like they can get turned around very quickly. They're not a static organization. And objectively, they have gotten a lot right. The whole thing has run way smoother than I would have given them credit for going into the first event. I mean, they've gotten even if that one to event two, like cleaning a bunch of the leaderboards looked a lot better. The everything just flowed a lot better. And there's dude, like the podium is an

incredible idea, great idea. Objectively, if it wasn't, you know, if we didn't have a lot better. The everything just flowed a lot better. And there's, dude, like the podium is an incredible idea, great idea. Objectively, if it wasn't, you know, if we didn't have a lot of issues with Norman, like him tossing out beers to fans, like, who is not having fun with that? Like, all of that works. I think it, where I still just like net out is that at best, we're, again, I always fall back on this. At best, we're going to get a fracture golf world because of like where the money comes from and like, what, what it is they're doing. And so it's hard to like

get super amp about like these golf exhibitions. That's the same reason I don't watch the American Century championship. I got just because golf is being played doesn't make it an interesting golf event for me. What I enjoy out of watching golf. So if you increase the least interesting thing like on TV every year, if you are a caddy, live has been like the greatest thing to come around in a log. Because I don't think I shared this last time we were talking about the night that I was like writing my last live story from London,

I was in the hotel where all the caddies were staying. And the bar was like totally like, you know, open bar for all of caddies who had all their expenses paid and a lot of their families like, you know, their wives brought in whatever. And they were like just, you know, pulling full bottles off there and drinking, you know, expensive bottles of wine. And they were all like, this is like midnight. And I'm sitting here trying to file it. It's actually a great scene in which I did put in the story. They're all singing like, don't look back and anger by oasis. And so the whole bar is like just full of caddies like singing. And

I'm just like, man, how could you not want to be a part of this if you were a caddy? If you didn't have any moral qualms with it because like, this is a much better than staying two to room doing a red roof in to try to sort of scrape together, you know, a budget to get to the next city, whatever, and hope that your player makes the cut. Like I, I, they're, the caddies that got to be cheering with other caddies, like, dude, convince your player to go because this is an absolute, like, you know, smorgasborg of free shit to grab onto. Well, and straight up, like, if I was a player that wasn't one of the most competitive players in the world, this would be an incredible, it looks fun.

It looks legitimately fun, like team golf, and this entire concept, there is so many positives to it. Like for them, individually, like why wouldn't you wanna go do this? I think it's hard, you're gonna get harder and harder for guys to not go do it. Like A-Bancer, Carlos Ortiz, like that makes all the sense in the world, it really does.

I think at some point some Australian guys are gonna go, like because that's the other thing, like the PJ Tours fucked golf in Australia, right? With just as far as the way that things are scheduled and the way it's tough for those guys to get back now and there's been some other factors, but like guys that aren't from the US don't have as much allegiance to the PJ Tour. And like Hideki's a big name that's rumored out there.

And I think Hadecki's probably the rare case where like he means a lot more to live than he means to the PGA tour, right? Because he means a lot to the PGA tour. Because I feel like the tour doesn't, like the tour doesn't do a great job of monetizing in Japan and monetizing. Who knows how much they're bringing in

and international rights though, just based off him, though. That's where it's like hard to divide. I think Luzin Hadecki would be a weirdly devastating blow to them, not necessarily for fans, but monetarily. It seems I don't know what that amount is, but there's got to be a reason why there's 10 Japanese media at every event that he's at and that there's money in that for for those media organizations and The number that I heard this week for for Hedecky that they're offering him to come is would I mean it's like what what Rory was sort of being dangled 400 nuts. Yeah

really Yeah, I mean, I don't who knows what whether that's just part of the rumor real or whatever, but like, you know, if you could say to Hadecki, like, hey, come and then put together a whole Japanese team of, you know, your four guys, like, that's where, like, I do think the team element of this stuff has real legs. Like that could be super fun if you had like a team of guys that were like, hey, these, I love rooting for these dudes or some of the names are dumb, obviously, but like, I mean, every, all the names are dumb. Yeah. Every third week, if on, like, let's say you go back in time and the, you know,

the PGL stuff had happened, right? And you could have had like, oh, Rory and GT and Tiger have a, have a team that they're putting together. And, you know, whoever that forth is going to be like, there would be real like fun invested sort of in like rooting against them or rooting for them or that sort of, you know, hey, you're playing up against your own teammate this week, but next week you guys like, you know, some of what Taylor Guch said was like freaking ridiculous, but there is sort of an element of like the team stuff would be cool. I'm a huge believer in the team stuff and have been since we talked to Andy and the PGO guys initially. Like, I think it's a no-brainer.

I still, yeah, I struggled to marry, you know, my thoughts on live, not being very competitive or, you know, OWGR, all that stuff with also my belief in the PGL, but I think it, that's a conversation we are not having currently. I'd have to think that one through in terms of how a full on landscape change would look in make sense. But how many Japanese guys you think there are in the top 100 in the world right now?

Five, seven. How many can you name? That's not to this. This is, you need to pull the mic one where you're like I will not I will not answer This Jay my you know, too, you know, it's not an excuse me. Oh, it's maybe to come. I am how many women's golfers? You name I will not dinner that's a ton of hara Ton of hearts not okay On a horse one ninety nine who else quickly

Recruit who yeahya Hoshino. Kazuki Higa. Yuki Inamori, Shuga, Imihara, Takumi Kanaya, Riyosuke, Kino Shita, and then Hedaki, obviously. But. Some manipulation going on. But we're gonna do our preview, Pobbal. Just ask you this.

KVV, does Tiger Wave from the Spulkin Bridge this week? I don't think so. I think he doesn't like the finality of things. Right. I think that there's not going to be like, hey, I'm going to put my foot up on the edge of the bridge, take my hat off and wave, because I think he probably wants to sort of entertain the idea of like doing this if he feels good, like here and there. You know, I might not play. Yeah, I feel good. He might not be great at the St Andrews when he's 52 or whatever. And next time it comes around, but he might also want to reserve the right to play.

I don't think he's going to like shut the door. And he also doesn't want to ask answer 100 questions afterwards about, oh, is this it? Were you done retired? Like, you know, there's all those speaking of more dumb rumors, there's dumb rumours that he's going to like have a retirement press conference afterwards. I cannot imagine anything that Tiger would want to do less than have a retirement press conference in St. Andrews and sort of answer all the questions from like, you know, and completely to track from the championship. Maybe if like he's just driven the green and he has a three shot

lead, he can't a reput from there. Yeah, let's go. But like, I could see then maybe a little wave of like, Hey, this is it. I don't need to play anymore. I'm good. I'm done. But other than that, like, no way. Yeah, it would be the ultimate RIP cat. I think there's a good chance.

This is last open at the old course, a very good chance, but I also don't think he'll do the wave. And I remember watching him finish up on, I think it was Saturday, which was his round two, or maybe it was, it was when they actually went out and played Friday watching finish up at the old course in 2015, thinking like this might be it, we might not ever see him here again. Sure enough, almost, you know, never saw him there again, but I think it's a very good chance to this last one.

Did he just get totally suited on this Ireland trip and at the pro-am? I mean, he looked kind of like shit the last couple of days. I know he looked so stiff. I'm just happy. I know he looks so stiff. I know he looks so stiff. I know he looks so stiff. I know he looks so stiff.

I know he looks so stiff. I know he looks so stiff. I know he looks so stiff. I know he looks so stiff. I know he looks so stiff. I know he looks so stiff. I know he looks so stiff. I know he looks so stiff.

I know he looks so stiff. I know he looks so stiff. I know he looks so stiff. I know he looks so stiff. I know everybody's on everything. So like maybe he's just gonna do a bunch of blood spinning on like Monday and his whole, you know, each of each regimen or whatever he does is kick some back in the gear, you know, for this week or whatever. I don't know. I, what I think too though, like the idea of him never playing the old course again, it also still strikes me as a little bit much because like, what if like Charlie wins a USM like when he's 18,

that five years from now or seven years from now, whatever, and he decides, hey, you know what, like, I want to play in the, I want to play at St. Andrews with Charlie. Well, I think that's different though. Like, it would be just like close the door, right? Like, maybe I just don't think Tiger closes doors like that. Right? You might say, yeah, you know, whatever.

Like, I'm, he might, he'll tell a day to of like, he's not a serial model? Right. You might say, yeah, you know, whatever. Like I'm he might, he'll tell a idea too of like he's not a serial model golfer. He's never been one, you know, he says that stuff. But like things change. Tiger's changed a lot in terms of his personality over the course of the last 20 years. Like he might, when he's 55, be like, yeah, you know what? I kind of want to just go out there and have fun. Like I'm not obviously not going to win. But like Tom Watson did it, Jack did it. I'm going to do it just for fun. Like maybe the USJ will pair me with Charlie or maybe the RNA will pair me with Charlie.

Who knows? I mean, shit, maybe he goes and plays the Dunhill with Charlie one of these years. Yeah. Part of the time. It got, I'm so excited. It looks so, like, it's dialed. It looks so firm.

Like, guys, crispy. Talking, like, talking to the guys, they're like, dude, it's like, I can't even describe how firm it is Like guys are getting within 50 yards of the green on 17 I mean guys are hitting five irons into 18. It's crazy All right, we got to save some stuff for the preview because we got so much to talk about it's gonna be one of the great great weeks of Since we've been covering golf. This is gonna be one of the great ones

I've never been more. I don't know if I've ever been more excited for a for a golf tournament than this one. And for the cock, too, it's going to be all over the car. Let's not throw a cold wet blanket on this thing right now. TC. KVB, who do you think? Who's your pick? He said Max. I mean, I did say Max. Yeah, I want to speak with that. Like a Max. appreciate sling scolves, a great iron player, good putter. You don't have to drive it like unbelievable at the old course. Like I feel like just be a great ball striker and use your creative thinking mind.

I mean, I can't Smith would be my backup just because he's playing really well lately. And it's a course that suits really, I think, well for him. But yeah, who's your pick not to win? I, something's missing with Rob. So I'm going to say Rob's on going to win. Come, like, you know, just whether it's temperament or whether it's just, you know, finding the putting stroke again or whatever, like he, I thought every we all thought he was

going to kind of be been asked to kick her this year and it just hasn't been there. And so I'm not sure, you know, it's got to figure it out, got to figure out something to get back to where he was because he's too good of a player to be not really contending like this. Well, I can't wait. I'm sorry, we're not there, bud, to go out till three o'clock in the morning again like we did the last time, but we'll have to make plans to do that in 2027. By by the way, Barbosol. Yes. Traymonax wins. Traymonax.

Birdies the last to win. I won over. So glad we could get that in. Kevin Strylman and then Mark Hubbard, Hurley Long, Vince Waley, and our guy Adam Spenson finished solo sixth. I do want to give a shout out to Justin Lauer. Shot 66, 66 on the weekend to finish T8. How about that? He managed to close us out with a going down the leaderboard, KVV.

He's an absolute expert. He's class X. You know, Justin, he and I got into it on Twitter way back during when I wrote the GT, uh, I really call him and, uh, and look, hey, he was right. So, shout out to you, Justin. Like, hopefully one day you'll be great enough that I'll be able to write you off in a major.

I love it. I give it just I think it is. I obviously this is the first time on since GT was on, but just want to say thanks to GT for not dragging me around the room in the pod. And I was very, very classy, very kind. It was, you know, may not know my name, but he did say how

much he appreciated me, uh, basically taking my medicine and saying, you know, I couldn't figure out if he had sort of said, he, we said, I wish I would have handled that differently if I had known it was him. He rode that column. He'd met like, he would have been more playful and funny about it. Very many would have liked, dunked me in a toilet and laughed at me or whatever, but either way, it would have been fine because you know you're owed that when someone writes a call about you and you get to kind of be playful and return so that's that's all part of the game. Well somebody should should dunk him in a toilet for the hat that he wore today. Yesterday. Yesterday with the cat. That was tough. It was bad. It's tough. Looked in

see. Oh, it was at the old course hat. Yeah. Not good. I'm not going to go there. I'm not going to be critical of him for a while. Clearly, I just need to be all pro JT from now on. All right, KVV. Thanks for joining again, man. Enjoy a great week and we'll be back with live shows all week and back with the preview podcast out early in part of the week as well. Cheers everyone have a great week. Better than most.