No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 601: Fortinet and LIV Chicago Recap

Episode Date: September 19, 2022

Soly and Big Randy are joined by KVV as The Pro, Max Homa, wins again on the PGA Tour as he defends his Fortinet Championship title. We hear from Max on his fifth PGA Tour win and take stock of his rise up the world rankings. We also sympathize with Danny Willett's three putt on the 72nd hole and recap the rest of the notable finishes in the first event of the year on tour. Then it's on to Chicago where Cam Smith wins in his second start as a member of LIV. We look at the tone of recent comments from Phil, LIV's search for a domestic TV partner, Bryson losing a fight with a gallery rope and more. 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+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/LA/MI/NH/NJ/NY/OR/ PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. New customers only. Min. $5 deposit and wager. Bonus issued as four equal free bets. Restrictions apply. See terms at draftkings dot com slash sportsbook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. I'm not in. That is better than most. Better than most. point because they happen with such regularity that I listen, we're going to spend some time unpacking that. Sally here, calling in from the mountain time zone, Big Randy, hello, Mr. Big. Hello, hello, gentlemen.

It's a true pleasure to be here. I feel like it's been a minute. So thank you for having me on your show today. I hate when you do that. KVV from ESPN, the magazine ESPN.com. I probably don't describe you job properly, but he's well known for being on the No-Ling Up podcast quite frequently as well.

But Kevin Van Volkerberg is here, hello KVV. So I appreciate that the magazine lives on here is no longer up, even if it doesn't live on in real life. Magazine always be, he's been the magazine always be near and dear to my heart. I just have to say, you gotta stick the knife in max if when you have the chance because once he has that kid, he's going to be basically impossible to be because the perspective will

be so overflowing. So really, the guys are really wiffin at chances here to take him out when they should because how good is it going to be once perspective kicks in? You know, Kevin, I was listening to the broadcast earlier this week. They were talking about this was a baby moon of sorts for for Max and Lacey they enjoyed a meal at the French laundry yes and so I can't help but think he's probably tapping into a bit of that perspective already I have to think that help propel him I mean getting to have a five thousand dollar meal must make you

feel like you know you're you're really arrived in life. I think the PJ, I heard the PJ tour picked up the bill. So, you know, once, now among the elites and gonna play like it, so. Bad week for the PJ tour, we pick it up more bills. I mean, we got, we got, we're gonna talk about that front. First, we want to give a shout out, of course.

John Rom, last year, led the PJ tour in Stroke's game off the tee in the 21-22 season. He was plus 1.025 off the tee. Also Yucasaso, currently leading the LPGA tour in that Staten Randy trivia question. What do those two have in common? They've never been in my apartment. On top of that, they're both Calaway ambassadors. They Yeah, what you know both a rogue ST drivers

That's what I'm looking at here. Rom uses the 10.5 max LS Which I honestly did not know that he uses the max that's super interesting to me I kind of thought that was more for the DJ pies of the world if you will and in that Listen, not that that's not a dig. I'm transitioning here into saying, we will be having a DJ pie, what's in the bag go live this coming week? I think that comes close to rounding out our entire set here.

Also, Yuka uses the triple diamond nine degree driver. I am using the triple diamond LS as well, and I'm excited, DJ is describing that he now hits a proper ball. Gone is the peely fade with the driver, which we didn't see that necessarily on display at the long drive contest that he did with the LPJ players. That was a tough draw for him. It was an emergency session wet using tennis shoes and listen, he did have a 207 carry. That happened. That's on video. That's going to be out there. That's going to live forever, but we appreciate him being the mark in that contest.

You know, we always said like it's great to have, like for Olympic races, having a very average person go next to the Olympians to give you an idea of how good they are. That was DJ Pie for that video, so shout out to him for that. And also you can go to KelleyGolf.com slash road driver for a lot more information on which road driver is the proper fit for you. Guys, I gotta admit, I got kind of the Sunday

scariest today, a little bit. I don't really feel normal, I drank too much this weekend, I was in Maryland, I was in your neck of the woods, a little bit KVV, and I'm having trouble kind of processing and calming myself down tonight. And the end of that golf tournament, despite the result being exactly what I would have wanted, has me feeling jittery for this podcast.

I'm not ready to fully comprehend what just happened there on the AT toll at Silverado. I never envisioned a scenario in which I would feel bad for Danny Willett. Yet I still kind of felt I was like, ooh, I've seen that happen amongst my three and four-putting Am friends and have done it myself a little bit.

That's not something you usually see from a pro. And so my heart was definitely heavy for Danny in that moment, because that's not a way to myself a little bit. That's not something you usually see from a pro. And so my heart was definitely heavy for Danny and them, well, because that's not a way to lose a golf tournament. Guys, I think we can call it. It was a match play situation and that was truly a Mongolian reversal. I don't know if we'll ever see such a vivid example

of a Mongolian reversal. And for it to happen on the 72nd hole and to decide the tournament, I'm feeling blessed. what an end to. How many times do you think they would have to play that scenario again, for Max to win it on the 18th green before it goes to a playoff?

How many times do they have to do that again for him to chip that in and for Danny Willett to three put that one? Are there, in this scenario, are there memories wiped clean after every thing or do they sure because I think that's the only way that it could happen again because like if it happened like a second time, I think that Danny would be like, Oh, I'm going to make this putt. Like I know, I don't know. Something just sort of like he was totally

under like on. There's no scenario in which he thought Max was going to make that chip. And I think it probably shook him enough to where it was like oh okay well i'm just gonna give this a little more pace and just get it done with it and it was like oh fuck what about a completely loses all tournament now like i think as as long as he could know like and so let's say we play that out three more times and every time he knows that max is gonna make that chip

i think he wins it every other time so it's only that series of events happening that way that allowed him to blow it. And if Randy, I'm going to push back on match play situation because in match play, when he missed the first putt, that would have been it. That would have been the end of the hole. He needed a three putt that for that to go the way that it did.

Max Homas fourth win in 41 starts. This is like, that's Rory's career win rate is 10%. And Max Homa has done as had four of those over the last 41. Randy, I'm sure I know exactly where you're going to go next. Go ahead. Well, that's his fifth career, PGA Tour victory, which ties them with the Immortal Ricky Fowler, one of the best ever play. And I think that's no small feat in and of itself. So, hardy, hardy congratulations to Max while Homa. I will confirm to the listeners the link has been sent. We are going to hopefully keep up the tradition

a long-standing tradition of him calling in to the show after he wins golf tournaments, which I still can't believe this is going to be the fifth one that we've celebrated since he was partying with us at the Web.com tour championship hospitality tent over the weekend after you missed the cut at the Web. Tour Championship in 2018 here in Atlantic Beach and did a podcast with us that week and was there to celebrate getting his pga tour card back after a 2017 season points over the course of an entire season and now wins very, very, very regularly on the PGA tour. I flabbergasted. I'm so happy for Max. The guys put in so much work.

Another PGA tour pro has told me basically, he's like, I think Max's real goal is to be the number one player in the world. He's legitimately on a mission to be the number one player in the world. I'm not necessarily saying that it projects that way, but that is the way he works at his game currently. And man, there's not many guys that win at the clip that he's doing right now. It's looking like an L.U. bot stock at max, like when he was like Apple, you know, like early on, you know, by low and just never sell, just basically hold on to that stock forever. Or it's like, you don't know where you kept the stock. You don't

actually get any return for it. You don't know where you actually it's all in crypto. I have the combination somewhere. I cannot find my keychain or whatever. We're so we're so wealthy on paper on paper. We are wealthy. Yeah. I'm going to put either of you on the spot, Holly, listening to, you know, the four wins and 41 starts statistic.

to the four wins and 41 starts statistic. We've seen that from what we'll call top 10 players in the game, your Rory's, your Tigers, whatnot. I hope Max solidifies himself in that group soon, but my question is, I mean, I'm trying to think of another run that has been like Max's run here. Can you think of anybody that's peeled off, you know, four and 40 or, you know, four and however many? Jason Day in 2016 was it.

He peeled off like five and 12. Like he did, that was absurd. That's a run that we don't really think about and you know, we easily kind of forget about. But I'm sure, yeah, off the top of my head, the guys that aren't, some of the names that make a lot more sense to make it happen, I could probably name, I'm sure Rory's done.

I mean, that's literally Rory, like I said, that's literally Rory's career win rate. But yeah, there's not somebody that's never played on a writer couple or president's cup team that has done that I can think of, because, yeah, KV got it. You got one? I mean, Bryson did it, right? When he won three and that one sort of stretch.

And I don't know if you ever get to five of that stretch, but certainly just in Thomas the Geary 1-5, who I would think probably would have done it. So I mean, I mean, look, is- I know. I consider those guys like, I don't want to put, I don't want to damn Max here, but I those guys major winners. I almost feel like that's a little bit different echelon from where Max has been through this

run. I think so, but like I think that the projection of what used to be how PJ two players used to sort of come up and then turn into major winners is sort of a little bit different. It got a little bit skewed, certainly by Tiger, and then by like, we're in Jordan. Like it used to be like if you were, you know, getting to be 30, you were like a prime contender to like come into your own and be like, okay, this guy is now is gonna win a major, right?

And I don't know that Max is ever, it's not someone I would say would rip off like four or five majors most likely, but he could definitely win a major and at, you know, 29, 30 years old, that's kind of most most likely, but he could definitely win a major and at, you know, 29, 30 years old, that's kind of when most historically, like, players would do it. And so look, is he an outlier, like, you know, a generational player? You know, probably not, but God, who knows? Maybe, I mean, some guys just come into their own when they

get to be in their 30s, right? And so maybe backs is one of those kind of late bloomers who's just like figured it out and figured out more and more how to build and play, you know, great and believe in himself and play great golf and all of a sudden, like, he might end up being the, I mean, imagine if Max rips off three, four wins in this year, which, you know, you win the second term of the year, that's very like possible that you could do. And you never know, like he could definitely get inside the top 10, I mean, over. Guys keep jetting off to live. You never know, he could keep climbing up the rankings

that way too. And people don't like it, F'em. That was the chip he had on his shoulder. He said, in the interview afterward, as he said, you know, I know it's just people on Twitter, but you know, some people have said to me, the only reason I made the president's cup team is because the guys left for live.

And so I was playing with a little more chip on my shoulder. Who do you think said that to Max? Like I always love that's is that like the thing where people are like well I was under the impression that people are saying Steph Curry wasn't a good shooter like who is saying to Max? You know you never would have made the president's cup team if the live guys didn't leave like That's no that who's the bow so oh God. He's Australian guy. He's a troll. Adam's Nick Adams. Yeah. Yeah. He somehow is latched on the max. It's hilarious. I would say it's somebody that has a lot of numbers at the end of their username. That would be my guess is and probably created account in somewhere around June of 2022. Total coincides. Guys,

I'm too guys. I've discovered somebody that I believe went on a run very similar to Max. OK. Would you like to take a guess? It happened end of 2013 into 2015. I thought you were going to say Finau, because he's starting to, that's pretty close over the last one. We'll start working to go.

Was it Jimmy Walker? It was Jimmy Walker. That's that's exactly right. He won for the first time in October of 2013 at the fri's dot com open and then won for the fifth time in March of 2015 at the Valero, Texas open. Five wins in what is that? Certainly less than 18 months, right? About 18 months? I will say this for Max's improvement. He almost has improved by an entire stroke from the 2021 season, in which he won.

He won in that season, right? And this is, I don't know exactly how Data Golf counts the seasons versus years, but he was 0.64 strokes gained in 2021, and he was plus 1.45, that's eight tenths of a shot, which is enormous, that's per round. That's three shots of tournament that he has improved over the last.

He's raising his floor, and on top of that, he's having great peak weeks where he's going out and winning golf tournaments. I think too, this is a little bit outside of my depth, because I don't do a lot of gambling stuff But like when you're the betting favorite and you come into a tournament where everyone expects you to win It doesn't matter how you win if you win again. That's like big boy shit Like you deserve to that's a different mentality of like okay everyone. I'm the defending champ

I'm the betting favorite everyone expects me to come in here If I kind of finish in the top 10, then everyone will think, oh, that's a good thing. Will you win? That's like, okay, I'm the best player here. I'm gonna show up and basically deliver. And he did. And that's what I think he talks a lot about is like, hey, building things on top of one another, right? So I can play well in a major,

even if I have one round that sucks. He said that at the PGA, and ended up finishing in top 10. He played with Tiger at the old course, and so that was probably emotionally overwhelming, so I give him a little bit of a pass there. But now that he has that experience of like, all right, I've been paired with someone who is completely out of my league

in terms of accomplishments and talent. So if he gets paired with Rory at the Masters, it won't seem that overwhelming anymore, right? Because they're already done that with Tiger. So you build those little blocks over time. That's how you get to be a great player as you build things on top one another and you kind of learn from those past experiences.

KVV, I think that's an excellent point, great insight and dovetails with something I was thinking. I'm gonna channel like every youth sports coach I ever had, very cliche, but I do think there's truth to it. The chip in on 18, I think is a great example of as you start putting in the work and really putting in the hours and start believing,

it's just amazing how, you know, anybody could look at that, be like, oh, that's kind of lucky, chipped in. But those things build and, you know, this is where I'm channeling coaches. You create your own luck. And it reminded me so much of, you know, that speed bunker shot from the John Deere,

or any of a number of moments where these really good players seemingly do something fluky or lucky. And it's, you know, it is to a certain extent but it's also like it's you're making your own luck it's a product of the work and the sweat equity and all of that so I I'm the product of the success like you have the success that you've had when you get in that situation you you can play offense. You can be like listening to the, what he said, like Joe and his conversations when they're in contention, he was saying like, you know, that, that Joe had said to him at the Wells Fargo,

like, look around if you don't see the killer on the leaderboard, like you are the killer on paraphrasing, I don't know exactly what it was, but that's how they talk to each other. Like he is carrying himself, like he has to carry his balls in a wheelbarrow. And that he was 100% trying to make that ship. And when you've had as much success as he's had,

you just stop fearing bad things happening to you and you can play offense. You don't have to be, you can't be, you just won't naturally be unsure of yourself in that situation and then it's not as devastating if it doesn't work out in that, you know, in your favor. And I think that frees you up to play some really freaking good golf and to win, like he's out there to

win. He's not out there to just play good golf. He, when he has been in contention, he's won all of these. He is not having like a super close call. Has he? What am I not thinking of one where he's missed by a shot or lost in a playoff? He wins when he gets close. Yeah. This hopefully you'll appreciate this as a Tiger devotee, but the actual chip reminded me of that famous Tiger thing when he and Devall were playing together in the New Zealand Cup where it was like, okay, Devall put him in a tough spot. He had to make the chip or they were gonna lose the match

and it was like he had to land it in the exact right spot and kind of let it trickle into the hole and he absolutely did it. And I was like, oh shit, that was some ballsy stuff. Like you, you tell yourself, I have to make this ship. There is no other kind of option. And sometimes you do it. And so that was a, like I definitely thought about that moment. I was like, God, that was kind of tiger-esque, man.

That's pretty cool. What a frickin wild finish for Will at the two, man. He played so well today. The conditions were total shit. It was raining basically all day. He had 17 greens, hit an outrageous shot on 14 from behind a tree, hooked it around to a back left pin and then hold the putt from the fringe for birdie. He did everything in his power to win that golf tournament and he kind of he laughed when

Max hold the chip, but I do wonder how much that would have actually rattled him. Like there's no way you can be fully prepared to needing to make that putt. And even though every golf memory you ever have would tell you like, hey, you need to be prepared for him to hold this. It actually happens you on the 72nd hole has to rattle you in some way. And man, he had four and a half feet coming back.

And I honestly didn't think he'd miss the comebacker, though. That first putt looked difficult, but I did not think he was going to miss the comebacker. And what was he trying to do the the first one was was quick I was just trying to jam it jam it in kind of takes like a little break out of it yeah I mean I was going to one thing I was going to ask you guys like what what what what was the most unlikely event there was at the max chip in or will it three putting from, you know, just under four feet? I mean, I almost think will it's three putt is more unbelievable.

Yeah. I would have to say so. It was a little bit of vibes of like Chambers Bay when it's like DJ hits the green and you think, like, oh, he's gonna make his eagle putt and win. And then like two minutes later, he's two, three putt it and it's like, oh, when speed is the winner. Like, it was like that kind of flip in the terms of like,

whoa, but I want to like just give little bit of a love to Danny Willett, who obviously found his game from the being in the wilderness. Like, we give Willett sort of grief because he was the guy who snatched it from spieth when he should have could have won his fifth straight math. So, you know, and he didn't even snatch it though. That's continued though. He didn't snatch it.

He played really well to get it, but he blew that one. Yeah, 100%. But will it make it on like he snatched it in the sense of like he made an unbelievable birdie on 14, which almost nobody birdies and then like played really well coming in. And so I think will it has been an easy guy to sort of dislike just in this sort of like stupid way

that we choose who to root for or not root for. But like it's it's kind of neat to see him like completely lose it and then find it again over time and sort of get back to the level where you're contending and almost winning PJ tour tournaments. Because that's not like, there's a lot of guys who just lose it and then just never come back.

Well, and it's also, I just never, I guess it was an easy scapegoat after that. Like you said, but it was very much a, I never blamed him necessarily. It just felt like, man, that was just not the result of who should have won that tournament. And it was kind of a slight to him. I mean, Bogey free 67 in that final round.

I remember how well he played to win that championship. But it was an easy scapego, but I always was like, you know, almost just out of angst you blamed him for it. But it was not Stewart-Sink Tom Watson level of like kind of snatching it from somebody. It was easy to blame him and to deflect some of the blame for his beef making a six on 12. Wasn't it a seven? Who's that? Who's the seventh? Who's the seventh? Editing the record. It was a seven. Yeah. Yeah. He won the so he won 2016 Masters. He won 2018 DP World Tour Championship 2019 BMW PGA and then he won the Alfred Dunhill last year

He's fallen 149th in the world though It's I guess I expected him to be higher in the world when I looked that up today But yeah, it's it's like I felt for him in that moment That was the only thing he couldn't do on that putt it three feet seven inches honestly though What I did think about was Max's putt on 18 at Riviera and it was three feet one inch, I think, of like a formality to win it. And I was like, man, we've seen this before where it's not a guarantee that this putt goes in.

And I was still just utterly flabbergasted. I thought it was going to delay our recording up by a lot tonight. That's evident away for that one. From a spectator perspective, it was nice. Those are the stereotypical JV rules in effect. You can win or lose, but under no means do not tie. Do not go overtime.

Pretty good result for the PGA tour though. To have the one guy who's like an up and coming star, you could say maybe if Seheath had won it, that would be a cool outcome too. But like, home is your most in that field, your most kind of recognizable fan favorite type person. And so, you know, he wins and going into the presence cup is first time, like it's just even better for that scenario.

So if we're measuring constantly, like it was just, did we live in the week or did the PJ tour live the win the week? Like, is it pretty good outcome for, you know, at least for the PGA tour in this in this sense that I don't I don't know if you could even say whether it that makes it better than whatever happened in Chicago, but it was a good outcome for the PGA tour that Max won. Good result, but bad bad showing from the tour on a Sunday. They're just not you it's an outdoor sport, okay? We know this and we know that T times have to move

and we know that there's contracts involved, right? But there's just got to be a way to watch your product life in the final round. There's a season opening event. It was a bad, bad showing in terms of not being able to do. There's so many freaking NBC channels. We have to watch the open championship and the US open on USA for some reason. They've put golf on CNBC before. There's places to watch. The NBC has how many channels and NBC has the monopoly basically over men's professional golf and women's professional golf.

And there's nowhere to watch the PGA toward live on television until it came on six in that six-clock window. It just it showed again a flaw that we've been hammering them on for many, many, many years. And the online streaming experience was horrible. It was so bad. There was like a glitch going on where they'd show one shot and go back into a coverage will resume soon, blah, blah, blah. There's just no flow to it.

It's not a realistic option. If they're going to point it towards streaming, they got to figure out so much other shit with how to actually, how that actually works. Cause I mean, obviously we're not pridefully saying, like it's pretty damn easy to flip on YouTube and watch live. And we know why that is, but it also showed how far behind they are on the streaming front.

That's my guess. That's my guess. Why can't golf explore moving to a premier league soccer model, where the action is just always on, and then there's ads that kind of run like at the bottom of the screen or whatever that or I don't know if that's how formula one works because they don't watch it but like it just feels like that should be the future of golf on TV where they are just kind of ever present but they're not like break in the action 60 I mean maybe the kind of people who want to buy time for golf just aren't ready for that yet. But if I were your PJ tour, I would point to soccer, which is a much, much bigger sport than golf and say, look, this is how people consume it and they love it. And they don't find the ads on the screen that are always kind of running intrusive.

Like, they just sort of accepted as part of the product. And I just feel like that would be a better option. And I mean, today was just really tough. And yeah, honestly, if you were trying to, I mean, I bet we were of the 0.3% of people who were trying to flip back and forth between live and the PG tour, like, the fact that live was just constantly running was like a benefit to them.

Like, I was like, okay, well, I'm less interested in the outcome of this because none of it means anything other than the money of it. But at least like the product is always like on. Like, at least I don't have to constantly refresh my computer and be like, oh, why did this glitch up again and say, well, coverage will resume shortly. It literally just did that in one minute ago.

So, yeah, for now, that's how live is, by the way. It's in the recruitment phase. We'll see how long that will last. It's an unfair comparison, too, because they're burning money in a barrel of oil, essentially, but to say to heat their house. You know, that's what it is. And that's not a, I mean, maybe it is a sustainable thing, but it's just not a fair comparison.

I was a little surprised that they did not bump the LPGA. I don't know what it went into that decision. I feel like in the past, I feel like the PGA would have would have gotten preferential treatment on golf channel and then the LPGA goes online or you know just taped a lake coverage so as I enjoyed that we'll talk about later It was it was a good tournament in Portland, but yeah, that was that was surprising solid year points like with all their other networks Just just throw it on you know, I'm sure USA's running like law and order

all day to day. It's not like they're running live programming on their company of networks. Yeah, CMBC, there's not anything. I'm sure it's like Shark Tank all day, right? It's very strange. And I know it's not that easy, like against the same issues we've been complaining about for many, many years, but man, it's just, it is super hard to do. It's a terrible experience to try to watch on your phone. It really is. There's way bet, like Netflix is not a terrible experience to watch on my phone.

Like they've mastered it. The quality is incredible. It streams incredible. I can minimize the window. I can do all kinds of things. And it's for it to be super, super, super frustrating to watch is an inhibitor to people of watching your product and that's not a good thing, not a sustainable thing. And the good news is, I mean, the TV deal is up in seven years from now.

So we're right around the corner for them. I'm sure figuring this out because they worked really hard in between these last two deals to really improve the game. I'll be champion. It's too eligible when it gets. I might be too by that time. They might have changed the champion's tour age. Just keep dropping that. It's too eligible when it gets. I might be too by that time. They might have changed the champion's tour age. Just keep dropping that.

Some shout out. Taylor Montgomery, who was Mr. 26 twice last year, finished 26 in the season long race on the corner of the territory and 26 in the corner of the finals, was clipped by Justin Lauer to get the last spot. Last year, he and his first, I believe his first PGA tour started, as rookie here his first PGA tour started. As rookie here on the PGA tour, he shot 800 today

to finish solo third, cash a big check, ton of points. I wouldn't say he's not like secure, secure, done, secured his car for the next year, but what a week to go have at go out and get a shit load of points and just got to get the ball in the hole a few times the rest of the year and you got your card locked up. So he's going to reshuffle in, hopefully, and then get into a lot more tournaments.

I forget when the reshuffle is. But enormous time of the year for a lot of these guys to play very, very good golf. And on that note, of course, shout out to T4 for Justin Lauer, our young hitter, tough final round in the final group, one over a lot of variables, a lot of weather. He grinded it out for that T4.

That's still a ton of points, ton of money, best finish of his career. And we are, we're ecstatic for him. I'm sure he's a little disappointed today, but at the same time, great, great week and a great start to this season. I want to give Justin some love because when I wrote my infamous Justin Thomas Roy McRae column at the PGA, he opted my mentions. I was like, this is so stupid, man. Like this is terrible Well, you know, we'll see how it all plays out and then of course, you know it played out how it did and

I wanted to say like hey, you know just a night. I you were probably right, you know Maybe I should have thought that one through a little bit better, but you know Maybe a professional golfer would have a better perspective in that sense So though KVB. It was a beautiful column you wrote it was changed. Yes. It was fantastic I have not well anyway just some love to Justin Lauer who I you know who was brave enough to kind of chirp back at me and And I never we never carried it forward He never he didn't come back around and be like yeah, what's up now? He just kind of let it be and And that was, you know, classy of him. So, uh, very happy to see his success. Last thing I have is I wasn't really on display today with the rain that

came and balls spinning and the golf course was completely different, but silver out, silver out, I got to give a shout out to how that course has been maintained over the last several years. I flipped it on on Saturday and it was so firm and fast. It was like immediate, you could immediately, as a viewer, have the instinct of like, oh, right, rough front pin, he cannot stop a ball to that pin. Like, he's in trouble here. Like that kind of experience permeated through the TV

and it was so slippery around the greens. The cups were cut really tight. The lipouts were really hard. That's where I was like, I was the, I had a glimmer of hope that, not wanna say hope, I feel bad about that, but glimmer of hope that will it could three jacket? Because if he did hit the high lip, that ball was gonna go pretty far past.

And I don't know, it just seems like a really good strong test of golf. I know it's not the prime time of the year to, you know, for people to watch and be super entertained by it, but it does hold up. It's not a, you know not a dark contest birdie fest. I don't know, I'm not necessarily saying it's that great of a design, but courses with that kind of conditioning are a lot more entertaining to watch than, which is well-documented on this podcast, I think.

And you get to go to the French laundry, apparently, if you play there. That seems like a pretty darn good recruiting tool. I think we have some more golf to talk about before we do that. After three years, not two, but three years, fans are cheering for the return of the President's Cup and drafting sports book and official betting operator of the PGA tour is giving you even more cause for celebration. New customers can place any President's Cup bet of at least $5 and get $100 in free bets guaranteed. And if that was not enough excitement, they're also giving you a shot to play free

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I think my thoughts on a lot of this stuff have been extremely well documented over the last several weeks, months, even years, if you will. I'm gonna start with you, Randy. You've been kind of, I guess, not sitting on the sidelines on this one, but I'm curious to hear exactly where you stand on this. Your interest level to this point has been extremely minimal. I had to force you to watch a shot. I think when we were on Torosos, by kind of like to trick you into it. I'm wondering where you stand on everything after

five events. I have no interest. I have no interest and that's purely a does it bring you utility or not statement? I take away everything and guys, I'm watching LPJA, I'm flipping over, I'm hoping Max and Justin Lauer do well. I can't, it's like having too many fantasy leagues. You're just gonna start ignoring one of your teams, right? It's the natural thing to do. And so I have to tell you, my bandwidth is full.

I don't have room for another full golf league. And I don't wanna go to my computer and bring it up on YouTube. That's not like how I'm set up here at my apartment. So it's a complete non-factor to me. And I just wanna make sure I'm saying that's because of nothing to do with we can go in a million different directions

about he said and where they're getting their funding. This is purely, do I wanna follow another golf league? And no, I don't. I'm good, I'm good. I'm okay. Now with that said, I was trying to check the leaderboard and make sure I at least knew who won coming into this week, but yeah, I'm not doing it.

I can't do it unless something changes. How about you? KVV, where do you fall out? Were you glued this weekend? Definitely not glued, tried to just check in periodically because of I would like to have a general knowledge of the world of golf. I just don't know really, I was trying to think about

as an anticipation of coming on here, what is something positive I could say about live? I don't want to be just the constant contrarian, whatever. And I do think, so, Kepp could give some comment, and we can get into Brooks in a few minutes to love for his kind of just disappearance from the world of golf that matters. But he said something in the press conference

that started the week, whatever, they're treating caddies like human beings. And I thought, you know what, that is a fair commentary of where if you're someone who has a close relationship with your caddy and they sort of matter to you as more than an employee, whatever, it is sort of, I think, a real thing that they're picking up all the travel accommodations

for caddies and that they're paying for them sort of whatever their cut is, I guess, from so that the players don't have to pay out that or whatever. I mean, I think some of that, the way that Caddies have been treated in golf over years, is a little bit tough. Just in terms of like, here's stories of,

I'm like, oh, there's a lightning storm, but the Caddies aren't allowed to come into the clubhouse because they're not considered official enough or whatever. And the Caddies have to sleep three to a room and a red roof in and whatever. I can see, it is kind of a cool thing that live is, obviously they have a ton of money, but they're doing that for the caddies.

When I was in London, I covered the first event at Centurion, decided to write my story from the hotel where all the media was staying. And going on into the night, like the caddies were all there and they were allowed to just basically like just rip and run everything from the bar. Like they could just, it, all the drinks were free, all the food was free, whatever. And I'm so I'm packing away into the night and all this like chorus of like 15 caddies at like midnight in London is singing, don't look back in anger by oasis. Like, and the whole hotel is like filled with this sort of, you know, chorus of thing.

And I thought, you know, that's kind of cool. Like, if you're a caddy, I could see that being sort of a cool thing. So I just want to start that off by saying, like, I do appreciate if as we're sort of, they're the way the caddies are being treated within the live unit is probably a net positive thing. That said, like, I just don't care about the golf. I can't bring myself to feel anything about it that any of it really matters. Like I haven't bothered a lot by this idea that like, whoa, you can't possibly keep these guys out of the world golf rankings when

there's 48 of the best players in the world. Guess what? It is not 48 best players in the world. It's probably 10 or 12 or 15, but there is a lot of garbage that is playing in that sort of group of people. And so like God bless like Peter Uline, like I've been rooting for him for a lot of years because I do think like it must have been tough to tough relatively, but like have people saying these applications that years would be great, but that he's not a PGA tour player. He's a 4a player like he's a sort of a he's shown Repeatedly over time that he's not good enough to play in the PGA tour So you're telling me that I'm supposed to get excited about Cam Smith and Dustin Johnson who are among the best players in the world beating Peter You line?

Why like I wouldn't get excited about LeBron James like dunking on some college kid. I would be like, I would like to see them play against better competition. And so, guys like Bryson and guys like Brooks and who are supposed to be great have just regressed. They're all kind of like, I thought they were supposed to go out and like kick ass and dubby dominant in this stuff. They're the best players in the world. And they're kind of not.

They're just sort of showing that they're either not sharp enough to win these things. Like of course, Cam Smith is going to be good in this format because Cam Smith is really good and DJ's been really good for freaking 15 years. But where's all the rest of it? Like Henrik Stenson is winning a live tournament and you're supposed to tell me that like, that's a credit to your league. That's a detriment to your league. That is not someone who was like one of the best golfers in the world. So like, he was dialed in enough to win this tournament

amongst these like collection of chuckle fox like, okay, great. Like, that doesn't really make me want to tune in as a viewer, as a fan of sport. It kind of dawned on me a little bit this week. My reaction, I flipped on a little bit on Saturday and just saw Cam Smith and Dustin Johnson at the top of the leaderboard. And I got more upset than I have in previous iterations of this at the thought and the fact that those guys are not gonna be competing against Rory

and Sheffler anymore. Like they're competing against Peter Uline now. Like what a shame. What a waste of your talent and your ability to play golf to go and compete against, like you said, not the top players in the world. There are a lot, I don't want to say a lot. There are some very, very, very good players. No one is doubting the ability of Cameron Smith.

It's just kind of sucks that he doesn't want to compete anymore against the best players in the world. Like, the decision is, like, Chase Capka finished ninth this week in a live golf event. That's another one. Yeah. Chase Capka's best ever season in Strokes game is minus 1.24 worldwide. Like he's not even not even close to being PGA tour average. Not not not not anyone to say average.

And I'm close to being like eligible. There's probably three four 500 players that are better than Chaps Capca like in general. Maybe and he finished ninth. So what does it mean that Cam Smith won this week and beat this field of a few good players, but like, obviously no depth and, you know, kind of top, top heavy, but also there was only what I got the number here. There was 21 top 100 players in the field.

And that's per data golf round. I'm not using a world golf ranking because they're kind of falling off on world golf ranking and data golf counts the results and live golf events. It just really pissed me off to think like the people that are really rooting for this thing. Like there's no possible way that it makes sense to have these two guys with this much talent, not competing against the best players in the world in the same competitions. It just, it makes no sense to me.

I don't know why it took that long for it to really click, but maybe just, just, there's been so much going on in the Rocky Waters and it's hard to see things settling, that now it feels like it's settled. This is basically what the same field is what we had in the prior event. Half as many people watching this one, horrible golf course and just weird shit going on everywhere, super loud music playing. Guys were heckling. Peter Uline as he was about standing over his shot on 17 and bragging about the fact they made them. They got him to back off the shot

as he's hitting over the water there on 17. It was just like, dude, this is not it. It's not it and And I can't understand the, I guess I do understand the true contrarians that just want to watch the world burn that are really rooting for this. But there's no possible way you can swear by this as being like a very good product as of now. And I want to talk about the future of it. But as it stands right now, if you can't see how that damaging this all is to your P and Tor this week and the PGA tour this week and this this too many events like it's it's not going to be good in the long term for golf. I really don't think so. Yeah, as you're talking, KVV we mentioned soccer earlier. It's you know, I think back to like

when Landon Donovan came back stateside from the Premier League, right? And US soccer fans were giving him a ton of shit because it's like, that's the best league in the world. That's where you need to be playing. And he came back and he had reasons to come back. And just like guys have reasons to go to live. And people can like live. Like I said, I just don't have space

to follow a golf league like that. But for our British friends or for the people overseas, take a guy like Harry Kane, the England national team captain right now, great footballer. What if my FC Cincinnati soccer team goes out and signs him this off season? He's like, well, it's a lot of money. And there are some good players in the MLS.

It could be up and coming. It's another option for me to go play. They would they would be apoplectic, right? The whole thing is we want to create an environment where the best in the world are competing against each other as often as possible because as fans, that's that's I mean, that's all you care about, right? That's that's why we watch sports right? That's why we watch sports, a large reason why we watch sports. So, yeah, it's just a point while taken on the bifurcation.

I don't think it's good right now. So I am curious where you wanna go about the future because KVV, to your point about like treating caddies better, like that's the type of stuff that the PJ Tour should latch onto, and they can self correct, and that's's better, that's the type of stuff that the PJ Tour should latch onto, and they can self-correct, and that's where golf, the PJ Tour specifically can get a lot better for having this competition,

and I'm really curious if what will come of all of that. One thing to that though, I try to always view this through, I would consider myself an NFL fan, I'm a fan of the NFL, I don't follow it super, super closely, but like I flip it on on Sundays and have it on and what not. What you said there about kind of praising how live has treated caties is like my parallel to that would be like, that's like me finding out, you know, this rival football league treats the assistant coaches really well.

And like they sleep more comfortably at night. Like, that's definitely not why I watch football. It's to be entertained by the product. And so while we are friends with a lot of caddies in the world of golf, do we want them to be treated better? Yes, through that lens, absolutely. But as a golf fan, does it matter how well the caddies get treated to the actual product?

I would definitely argue not. So that's where they're really stretching thin a line of, I guess, the entertainment value of golf, right? And they're really stretching it out and extracting the greed out of that, to a product that already wasn't that entertaining and making it now less entertaining. And I'll go back to what I said in the very beginning

of a huge reason why I was against this in the beginning and still remain it. Like, it would be a different conversation if there was a chance of them getting everybody. If this truly was the future of golf and everyone was going to end up there competing in this format with teams, 48 guys, easier to keep track of, peak weeks, I don't have a million events that I need to follow. Everyone's all in the golf course at the same time, and there's actual franchises we care about, trades, all that stuff.

Over time, that would be more and more interesting, right? If you were able to get past the moral dilemma of the situation, and if there's actual, if there's actual some runway for the league, that could be interesting, but we know, unless there's a huge change in what a lot of people have said, we know at best we are destined for this fracture golf world. That is where it's like, guys, see around the corner for this.

There's no situation where this ends up being the future of golf because they're not going to get all the top players. So what's KBV? I know you really loved what Mikkelson had to say speaking of being fractured. So if you didn't sketch it, Phil's finally he's, he's crawled out from under his shell of, or he's become a bit less lobotomized of late and is starting to speak again to the media in a way that isn't, you know, completely bland. And he said, oh, this week, you know, that I, the PGA tour and live need to work

together. I think I need, you need, despite being one of the people who's suing the PGA tour and it basically like drew up, you know, plans to try to sort of, you know, undermine the whole PGA tour. He's now saying we want to, and I struck me when I heard that as like, okay, can I read it? Just a little bit.

I react to the actual, I would never forget for the listeners sake. He says the PGA tour for the last 20 or 30 years have had all the best players in the world. That will never be the case again. Live golf is here to stay in this type of divisive talk is doing nobody good. The best solution is for us to come together. I think that the world of professional golf has a need for the old historical history of the game product and the PGA tour provides. And I think that live provides a really cool updated feel that is attracting a lot of younger crowd. And that's being proven in the people that are watching and the age of the people that are watching.

I think both are needed for the game of golf. Both are good for the game of golf, the inclusion of live golf in the ecosystem of the golf world is necessary. As soon as that happens and we all start working together, that's gonna be a really positive thing for everyone. Great. Here's what I think of to that.

What incentive does the PGA tour have to work with live? I get what this incentive is for live to get this because they are drowning in their own sort of hubris in thinking that all this stuff was just going to work out. They'd never be able to suspend them. The world golf ranking stuff would be able to, they all are sort of kind of, I don't want to say panicking, but they're definitely like concerned that it isn't gone as quite as smoothly as they wanted. Unless like the PGA tour, the, the, here's the incentive for the PGA tour is that you'll stop sort of committing like trying to steal our players, I guess would be the only reason that the PGA tour would sort of want to say, okay, like, but how is that going to benefit

the PGA tour in any way? I just feel like it's like a terrorist basically saying, oh, you know, we'll stop coming and attacking you if you kind of, you know, work with us or whatever. Like, that's not, that's not like a reasonable position. You don't have, you're not arguing from a position of strength. You're arguing from trying to like scare us into this. And so I don't really grasp, like Greg Norman can write as many like Wall Street Journal op-eds as he wants

that are, you know, obviously not written by him, but some, you know, sort of PR executive or whatever. And the Wall Street Journal can run them sort of ridiculously without even bothering a fact check, like his whole thing about the OWJR is dominated by the PGA tour, which is just factually totally incorrect, but is like on par for the Wellesley Generals editorial page, just run that. And so, I just don't understand, like, why would someone at the PGA tour hear that and be like, you know what, they're right,

we do need to work things out. I'd be like, you know what, man, like do your thing, peace out. And if it works out for you and the OWGR stuff, like, then you're gonna obviously be around. But if you're not, you know, then I don't know that it is. I don't know that a live is gonna exist for the other 20 years because guys are gonna just go there

and not be able to compete in majors. So I just, it struck me as like a move of naked desperation to already go from being like, we're gonna destroy you to being like, oh, actually, I think we need to work this out. Like, nah, man, I'm good if I'm the PGA tour. I wouldn't, we figured this out, we've gotten ways to sort of pay our players more money.

I just, there's not really, I really am curious as to what the incentive would be at this point. I think we are only beginning to understand the, the, the, live is gonna test and, you know, in, by and part, this public investment fund of Saudi Arabia, it's gonna test the limits of what they're able to buy. It is going, it and you know in by and part these public investment fund of Saudi Arabia is going to test the limits of what they're able to buy. It is going it is already started.

It's been happening for months. This full on media purchase. I'm not saying that they're paying off, you know, the Wall Street Journal, the right hit pieces on Jay Monahan necessarily. That's not my point, but I'm saying they are going to buy any piece of media to try to sway public opinion on this, right? It is just a full like the way that they cover their own events is very clearly from a propaganda standpoint of, you know, filming the way they put media together and as far as

filming the fans and creating this atmosphere and distracting, I don't want to say distracting, but adding so many other things to this tournament, so many reasons to go. Like they have a Jason Derulo concert either tonight or Saturday night. That is in itself going to track people to it. And then, but as a de facto way, they can also point to be like, look how many people we have at this tournament on this one hole, right? It's all this huge, enormous PR push to sell that, like every one of the players quotes, every one of Norman's quotes is just talking so much about this atmosphere.

Every interview talks about the atmosphere. I get, you know, I've gotten a lot of reports from listeners that have gone and been like, look, I mean, yeah, there was like one or two holes that were really bumping. There was a fair amount of people out there, but it's all kind of just one huge facade for how lit all of Liv Golf is.

And I just think we're so far from ever seeing the end of that. Like they're going to keep doing this. It's very clear that they're trying everything they can from a PR perspective. Op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, that blew my freaking mind. Like I just don't, I did not, I don't know the world journalism like you did, like you do KVV, but that on top of what was clearly a hit piece on Monahan, which we can talk about in his private jet travel was just like, oh my god, we're so early in this. And it's not going to be fun.

It's really not going to be fun. I, you know, there is, from a very journalistic standpoint, there is, I think, an interesting thing to talk about, like, should a quote unquote nonprofit be letting a, its CEO, president, whatever, have free use of a private jet that's, but like the board can sort of easily at the nonprofit kind of say to Jay, like, Hey, you shouldn't be spending this money on whatever. Like there, there are ways, if the players were sort of upset about this, there are certainly ways for Jay to have that privilege stripped from him or to lose his job.

If the, his, their unhappy performance, like this idea of like contrasting it with Oh the PGA tour says it lives all about money, but actually the PGA tour is all about money Like it just seemed like a total non-sequitur to me and I just don't quite yeah It was funny to kind of read in the end of like the thing that he went to Keppka's wedding and then Keppka had probably already signed with live or like a week later was like gone like that was sort of some laughs in that. But I it didn't strike me as a particularly like attempt to see the the broader picture fairly right. It just didn't seem like you know we got some you know whether it was from I don't know it was a FOIA request or we got someone to leak us some some information and we're we totally think this is a way to

kind of like put a little dig and a little life into this. I don't know, like is the Wall Street Journal writing about like how much the public investment fund of Saudi Arabia has like cleared out entire like tribes of people to sort of build, you know, their cities in Neom or build some of these golf courses where they're starting to build them. Are they? As a Washington general written recently about, you know, the massive punishment that the kingdom is going after, you know, critics on Twitter or whatever, that they're kidnapping people here and there. Like, there's some larger kind of context that I think, if you wrote about all of that,

like here, the messy world of golf, I think that would make a lot more sense to me. But I just sort of be like, oh, let's just needle. Jay Monahan a little bit struck me. It's like, wow, that that's kind of. I don't know where that came from, I guess. And I don't say this. Like I say, this is a someone who like man, FOIA request or like inside information, like, all that stuff is good because I better to have more information. But there's just, it just seemed kind of like weirdly not framed in a way that was like, you know, I think fair to be honest to the tour.

And I'm not saying it's just any kind of like, you know, rider for the tour. I just, it just doesn't mean that doesn't have any. Well, Jay Monahan's private jet. He really didn't have a lot to do with live golf being able to pay Brooks kept a $100 million. Does it? That's where I think it is, is it a horrible optic? Yes, in this vein that, you know,

that Jay Monahan is using the private jet with approval from the board for personal travel. Is that like a bad optic? Yes, but also, hey, is the PGA Tour a big business or is it not, right? Because big business has efficiencies in private jet travel. CEOs are expected to be places.

At a moment's notice, they're expected, like Jay is on the road so much. The article said he flew back and forth between Pontavigia and Augusta four times during that week. Like that is the life of a commissioner, especially when spread out with so many global sponsors. You need to be at the drop of a hat, wherever you need to be.

You can do two things in one day when you have private jet travel. That's just the reality of big business. That's not unique to the PGA tour. And it is such a, it's a great headline. It's perfect. All the private jet stuff, everywhere on Twitter and social media does fantastic.

Corporate spending, throwing that bucket, that's gonna get people riled up, right? It's no one, there's not much sympathy for any of those things amongst the general public. That's where it was just like, man, what, what, no, at no point in this article, are you tying in why this is so relevant to the current world of golf?

Like, can the PJ Tour not pay its players because they're spending too much money on J's private jet travel? No, the, like the, the, the tours 2019 expenses on travel alone and they're filing were like $21 million. That sounds like a ton of money to any one individual listening to this and myself alone, but that's big business.

That's a drop in the bucket. So what if Jay is saving a little bit of money, you know, here and there flying commercial? I don't even know what the other alternative is that maybe you save a million dollars. I know that, again, that sounds like a lot of money, but just you know. You tell me that like, Jay, my hand being like

flying Southwest, like an A-Lit Southwest person is gonna keep John Rom from going to live. I would love to hear that argument, because I don't think it holds up. I'm not sure that anyone could actually credibly make that. Well, and it's also, if the headline is different than like, what the crux of the argument was, basically, is that their tax filings just don't disclose

that he uses the jet for personal, you know, whatever trips, whatever it would be, to Montana or whatever it would be, which is just, I think, a totally different thing than like, hey, they're spending way too much money doing this. Like, should he be reimbursing the tour for personal travel? Maybe, probably, I don't know necessarily how all nonprofits work. Does it sound horrible? Yes, like, is it unnecessary attention at a time like this? Yes, it's probably not great But as long as it the perspective on how much of a drop in the bucket this is I think is important to this Randy my off one any of this You see any any issues? No, no, no, no, I don't I don't see any any issues. It's great red meat as you said I think

The only thing I'll add is is KVV, I was struck by the same thought you were about, I think the perception, and it's a fair one, right? That live has gained a lot of momentum over these, however many months, they've obviously poached a number of players, they have a schedule. But then it's like, okay, well, what's next, right? And we read the headlines that they're searching for a TV deal for next year, which by the way, I can't believe Bayzos and Amazon, you know, passed on that. But it's like,

Bayzos, the guy called his phone hacked allegedly by the sound. I didn't want to get broadcast their golf tournament. Now, might they end up on like a, you know, Fox Sports FS1 type thing? Yeah, maybe, right? And when I look at a tournament like this in Chicago, you know, I think people had a great time. I sell pictures of folks tailgating. I'm sure people loved and go into the concert.

To me, what's really interesting and I think the same problem exists with the PGA tour is, okay, how do we convert these people into actual fans of the game of golf? Because at the end of the day, I think that's what is important over a long horizon, right?

It's, you know, I'm picturing, okay, we're the fourth or the fifth year back at Rich Harvest Farms. You know, are we just running the same playbook? Is it the same 48 guys and Michelson's now maybe still playing? He's retired, DJ isn't playing that well. He's in his mid 40s.

You know, to me, the whole crux still remains on, you know, the only way I see live really being successful in the long run is they're going to have to keep snatching the best talent in the world. That will see. That's going to play out over a number of years. But just from like a, I don't know, momentum standpoint. Yeah, it's great and they've gotten it up and running and they're doing some good things from all reports but man, I don't see one year from now, two years from now, they still have a lot of work to do

to really build a foundation here. And I guess I remain a little skeptical about that. And I do think at the end of the day, if you're not making people fans of golf, right, then what are you doing? You're just kind of throwing parties in different cities, however many weeks a year. And yeah, you can do that for a while, but man, I think that's going to get stale after

a number of seasons as well. It's like golf is the Trojan horse here, right? And like, your perspective on that is exactly why I don't think we're going to enjoy this, right? But yet, that's why we keep emphasizing what the purpose of this league is. Again, for sports-washing purposes, this huge party that they're throwing is the goal. It is not for the betterment of the game of golf. They are hijacking the game of golf to serve their purpose, which is to make it more normalized for Western businesses to

want to do business in Saudi Arabia as they try to diversify from fossil fuels. That is the name of the game, right? So if golf goes to, goes to get, you know, if professional golf gets spoiled along the way and they spend billions of dollars doing it, they're fine to do that. They don't care about this. But some people that, you know, myself, I would include in this, that care a little bit about the future of golf

and the future of professional golf, don't necessarily love it when it gets hijacked for these purposes, right? And again, the exchange rate here is not like you giving me a super entertaining golf product. professional golf, don't necessarily love it when it gets hijacked for these purposes, right? And again, the exchange rate here is not like you giving me a super entertaining golf product. It would be a different conversation if you were, but I know that's not really your goal no matter how many times you say it, and how many times you trick the players who

are getting paid handsomely to say it. In saying it, that does not mean it is effective on a viewer as I can only speak for myself. Again, if you have a different, as a listener, if you have a different experience, please, you know, continue to enjoy it, but that is definitely an interesting thing. And I think, yeah, no, real quick to, you know, I was set a lot of words, but I guess my point is KVB to, you know these quasi-exhibitions bolted on to what would be a competitive PGA tour schedule. And so from that standpoint it's like I think I agree with you KVV and that I think the impetus is almost

weirdly shifting to live to where it's like, yeah, you guys might want to really try to work with the PGA tour, because I think it allows both organizations to really find a good equilibrium. But to your point as well earlier, I don't know why the PGA tour would ever want to play ball at this point, unless things materially change,

which they can over the next, however many months or couple years. Greg Norman specifically said this week, we have no interest in sitting down with them to be honest because our product is working. But to that point, it's, yeah, it may be too far past. There's a couple of things like, again, why would the PGA tour want to work with it?

Especially so much is devoted to the sort of basically trolling of the PGA tour. We're going to overrun you. We're gonna kill you. Well, like this, you know this and it goes it's not just at the highest level It's now trickled down to like these knuckleheads that they're inviting to live press conferences to ask these questions And so there's like some you know person says to cam smith how many of Rory's tears would have fit in the You know the the clear at jug this week or whatever and's tears would have fit in the, you know, the, the Claire joke this week or whatever and that and Wolf and Phil kind of laugh and, you know, like that person, that's, look, I understand that like media can seem sort

of haughty and out of touch sometimes and certainly like I've worked my whole life in it. But like that kind of stuff or like asking which was the last week, someone said to Harold Varner, like, you know, did you feel like in the PJ tour, you were in the sunken place, whatever, the sort of reference to get out, like fuck that shit, man. Like, how is any of that benefiting anyone? Like, it's just, it's such a trolling exercise, and it's why it's all, keep joking, like, it's to let's go Brandon tour. Like so much of it is based on just like, own in somebody in somebody man like we're gonna stick it to you so hard and I I kind of wish that OW. Jar would say

Hey, you know what? We're gonna call your bluff here if you guys want to look here's the rules and the standards So we're gonna put out a statement says if you guys Play 72 holes and you have a feeder tour and you have ways for sort of people to lose their cards up Then we're happy to give you world ranking points. We that's been the standard for everyone else We're not gonna change that just based on some new startup tour But these we would love to to award you with a world-golf ranking points Here's the standards once you're in compliance for a year will be happy to sort of have that conversation

And I think that would sort of like shift the impetus back to live to be like, all right, are you, you know, what do you really care about in this sense? Is it really 54 holes a golf? No, I don't think they're really married to that other than it's their dumb name. Like I think that, you know, they should sort of say that. And then we could sort of stop having this conversation about like whether they need to work together or not. Because like then the impetus would be on live. Like, hey man, these have always been the standard from however long the World Golf rankings have, or tell them, you know what, you're welcome to walk through sectionals

and US open. Like, the act like there's no way for them to get into majors. I don't know, like if you still have your PGA Tour of America card, maybe go enter the PGA Tour professionals thing and try to get in like, oh my, you're resty, did. Like, there are ways for you to get into majors.

This idea that you've been shut out is actually not accurate. Maybe it's true the masters, but the masters could also invite you. They can invite whoever they want. You just still want to have the cushy like, oh, we're allowed to get in automatically based on where the top 50 players in the world. Well you're no longer playing those kind of tournaments that were sort of qualifying into those things. And if you want to change that format, great.

We'll be happy to sort of agree with that. I don't think that if they play the same kind of format that they should be shut out, I think that would be unfair, but they're not doing that. And two, just with, you know, if you're gonna take Glee and ribbing the tour whenever possible, which listen, that's fine.

I really, I don't care about that. But when I read people like, Louie used to say it and it came Smith, oh, I'm so disappointed I can't play in the president's cup. You know, I, that's such a, I'm like, yo, shut up, shut up. Like, you, you do not, you do not get

to play the victim there. Like, you know, you got to pick one side or the other. Would you guys be okay with like guys like Polter or Westwood being Ryder Cup captains in the future? I kind of was thinking about this today. I think I would be okay with that. Like, they're not players, there's no sort of qualifications. Like, I think I would, you know, they were long time

supporters of the European tour. You know, I think I would, you know, they were long time supporters of the European tour. You know, I think I would sort of come to that kind of like agreement of like, Hey, if you, these, I don't want to have the Ryder Cup play out over the next 10, 15 years and have you and Polter never get to be a captain. Like maybe that's selfish of me because of just something I want, but I think I would be more okay with that than playing in the, uh, they've thought about this. It's weird. And I don't with that than playing in the, uh, they've thought about this. It's weird.

And I, I don't have a ton worked up in, uh, I don't have, I don't think I, I don't have a strong leg to stand on to say that live players should not be involved in the writer cup. Other than the European tour is the European team, right? It is, you know, similar to the president's cup, which is a PGA tour event, like it is directly correlated with the Ryder Cup, right? Whereas the PGA of America obviously runs from the US side, the Ryder Cup. So what, honestly, my question for the US side would be like, why, you know, what standing would the, you know, the PGA of America have to say that these guys cannot participate in

the Ryder Cup? I think it's a lot more complicated on the European side, but they've been able to soothe their way into European tour events to this point. Does that change anything for them? I don't know if there's really any or that many players on the European side that they would want on the team. And Rory referenced it as such, but that one is still a little shaky to me. And I think, you know, we had this conversation three months ago or so to say, like, hey, if you decided now, would live players would be in, would they be involved in at Marco Simone? I said, at the time and I, I'm not

as confident that they will be, but it still seems like with a year's run time that there's a chance that these guys could be involved with that event about a year from now. I don't, I don't have any answer to that, but it just seems like that's a possibility. More so than it is like them getting OWGR points, which I do not think is a possibility. I would not be offended if that's how Team Europe, you know, if they wanna pick a guy like Polter to be their captain, God bless them, you know. It's end of the day, I look at the Ryder Cup

like an exhibition and the beauty of good exhibition or a good sporting event is like give the two squads autonomy to operate how they want to operate. And if you know, if Europe wants to bring in some live guys to be on the squad, God bless you. I got one more thing to say on the Westwood front. He had a tweet on Monday that really, it stuck in me a little bit. There's a post, a blog post written by Alistair Tate, who I believe is

worked in golf media for quite some time. He mentioned that 75 times, I think, in the article. And it basically is making the point of like the European tour mess this up greatly. Like what are we doing here with what happened to be a WPGA and you know, some guys not feeling welcome and blah, blah, blah, blah and all the hostility. And Lee quotes, retweets it saying, excellent Alistair, a piece based on the facts, makes a change from the emotional, biased, rubbish, certain people are currently spouting. It's like, dude, your words are purchased here.

That is the literal definition of the bias here. You are the one being paid in all of this, so you do not get to determine who is biased in these situations, right? And calling the idea that all of us in the media that are critical of this thing are the biased ones and he who is biased in these situations, right? And calling the idea that all of us in the media that are critical of this thing are the biased ones and he who is getting paid by this leak is not the biased one frustrates me to no end.

It's like the idea that I deep down would love live if I could get past my bias and undying love for the PGA tour and the ecosystem of professional golf, frustrates me to no end. It is very much an objective way of, I'm objectively aware of what I like NAM rooting for. There's a difference between that and bias. I do not have nearly the financial interest.

Indirectly do I have a financial interest in the current ecosystem of golf? Sure, we do, like we do, but you know how much easier it would have been to sell out to live and take the money that way, like you have done, Lee, like do you see what the issue is in this and why it is super frustrating, all this stuff about the divisive talk

and pretending like it's coming from somewhere other than yourselves, that shit is really starting to wear on me this far into it. And so many. Yeah, it's really, it's super important to remember, I think, and there's a really good story in the times today about how the, you remember, I think, and there's a really good story in the times today about how the internet,

a Russian agency of bots, like functions and creates divisiveness and stuff. And you're totally naive if you don't think that that has happened here through the same kind of tactics with Saudi Arabia. Like they're just, they're flooding, social media all the time with that kind of stuff, basically being like, oh, all these critics are biased,

they're all sellouts, they're the losers, you don't get it. Like so much of that is fake engagement. And I think it's just important to remember, I need to remember it too when I'm like, it's proven that it works, right? It's proven that it can mess with elections and mess with social issues or whatever. Like I think that's the kind of shout out to Randy's guy, Mark Zuckerberg.

Like we're just sort of... And Cheryl. Let's not leave Cheryl. And let's not leave the... We're just sort of understanding about how much disinformation and nonsense can people posing as real people when they're just literally like paid people in Riyada, whatever in a giant like cafe or whatever kind of pecking out stuff all the time to kind of throw garbage into the discourse. Like there's so much of that and you know, Russia's been doing it for a long time and

Saudi Arabia is like got in on it. It was like yeah, that's great. And so be careful out there when you're arguing about because they're often just not real people. What a world that golf finds itself in, right? Like sleepy old golf. That's what I like bottom line for me is just man, this is all very, very strange and dumb and fascinating. And I just, yeah, I'm like fascinating and I just,

yeah, I'm like every time I think, okay, there are clear cut sides, but then you think about another aspect and it's like, none of it really makes sense at all to me. It would have made me laugh so hard to think about like the PGA tour being framed as like some woke liberal losers. Exactly, exactly.

Like, wait, did I wake up? Am I taking crazy pills? Like, what is going on? I also just want to say, like, I was giving back to the thing. If the Wall Street Journal is suddenly going to be looking into CEOs like manipulation of the tax code, I'm all for that. Right.

I don't think that that's a beat that they're actually looking to pick up, but if it is, hey, let's do it. It's, yeah, I'm just like, oh my God, what is going on? I still think we have some more live to talk, but I do got to tell a quick story. I was in a hotel in DC this week. I was, of course, of course,

wearing a rowback hoodie when I walked in. Saw somebody else wearing a rowback hoodie in this hotel in DC. He came around to me and was like, hey, I'm wearing this because of you. The rowback effect is extremely real. They're performance polos. They fit so much better than your typical boxy polos.

And their performance Q-zips are a game changer. They're soft. They are perfect for fall. Fall is here, guys. It is officially rowback SCN, if I may say. Perfect for fall mornings and fall evenings. They are so versatile, you can wear them on the golf course. You can wear them off the golf courses.

And I don't need to tell you about the hoodies, because Randy and I, you can't see this right now. We're wearing the same matching hoodie, right? We didn't even want to change. We didn't even care to change. We're in the same blue hoodie, and I don't need to tell you about the hoodies because Randy and I, right, now you can't see this right now, we're wearing the same matching hoodie, right? We didn't even want to change. We didn't even care to change. We're in the same blue hoodie, which I think you could find in our store at one point this week. Hopefully, a re-up coming.

But my sources tell me. There's going to be more to come, but if you cannot wait to get some rowback, you can go to rowback.com, rhobac.com, and you can get 20% off polo's, QZips, hoodies, and teas with code NLU again, roback.com, code NLU for 20% off your first order, R-H-O-B-A-C-K.com, code NLU. Sorry, real quick on roback. You guys know I'm one of the pre-eminent dog lovers in this world, but I had no idea until very recently that roback is short for Rodeesian Ridgeback,

which is a type of dog. Like I get that there's the dog logo. I just never knew, you know, I thought they, there's just something they wanted to go with. I had no idea where the name came from. So I feel like my eyes are now open. Randy, how do you feel about the Queen's dogs? Not to go out trap John yet,

but the Queen's dogs being picked up by Prince Andrew. That's, you know, seems like it's there was all this worry that the Corgis because the Queen didn't want the Corgis to outlive her, which is kind of like, you know, bullshit, it was a little bit. It wasn't they were going to murder the Corgis, but they know that it looks like now the prince Andrew will take care of them. All right, if we're on Prince Andrew and the color of this Corgis,

maybe we want to see different. Stop avoid these controversial topics. Let'm gonna start to see different. Start avoid these controversial topics. Let's get back to Saudi Arabia and live golf, okay? Viewership down this week, big time. I don't have official metrics from when I, there was about 30, between 30 and 60 K viewers on YouTube Friday and Saturday, I think it peaked around 95 K on Sunday,

which is about 50%, you know, 50% of what it was when they had the weekend to themselves, a Labor Day weekend in Boston, going up against other golf and going up against NFL. And then next up is Bangkok, October 7th through 9th and then Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. They're going to Saudi Arabia, October 14th through 16th. And then it's time to come back to Trump to Ralph or the finale. But I got said, when Boston happened, that was their chance to own a weekend, when they didn't own this weekend, it definitely did not do nearly as well. And that's where I, the TV stuff, man, I don't know how it's all going to play out. I think, you know, it

was noted in report of this week, Apple TV and Amazon are out. Yet Greg Norman is saying there's as many as four networks interested in broadcasting. I truly can't name it Fox is what people seem to be pointing towards i can't name another one somebody mentioned foodbo tv uh... ice we have a show i think that is some how on there are sometimes on there and i still don't know what that is uh... i don't know if that would be a win for live i don't know what the strategy

is going to be i don't know i know live sports are extremely valuable and but fox sports did not want a broadcast the biggest one of the biggest championships in golf. What is there incentive going to be to want to get back into golf? I don't have an answer to that, but it seems like norm, it is of course coming from Norman's mouth

that there are a lot of people interested in this because the product is working so well and man the numbers on YouTube do not spell that out. Just for context. And I look, God bless, and I love the WMBA. Like I've been watching a little bit more of it. The WMBA games will get like 500,000 viewers on ESPN, and that's like a pretty high level rank,

but we're talking about a fifth of that, right? And so obviously it's different things. Like some people just have TV on to, in the background or whatever, but like, I don't really quite think that there's this huge driving audience out there that's like dying to see live golf, is there? I'm especially like on a Sunday,

what kind of person was tuning in on an NFL Sunday today to see this? I would be kind of really fascinated here, like what, you know, are you so into Cam Smith that you're like, yeah, I definitely was here. I mean, there was, I saw like Shipnack was saying, oh, it's so much easier for people in their home country is to see them play whenever, maybe that, okay,

maybe the international audience is something that they're kind of interested in appealing to, that like, they're not gonna show oner-bond, you know, that often on the PGA tour broadcast. And so it's great for people in India to watch him. But I just don't know that there's a lot of domestic growth here. The world is pretty saturated with professional sports, especially in the fall. So I think you're going to have to figure out some way.

And what's it going to be like when they're in Thailand and in Bengea? Who's getting up in the middle of the night to watch this stuff? Oh, and you know what I was gonna say? You know who hasn't had good TV ratings? Outside of Tiger? Is the PJ Tour when all these dudes were playing in one place. Like, so yeah, when you fracture it,

how are they each gonna have similar to what they were before, let alone, how's one or the other really gonna grow and explode? That's, you know, how are they each going to have similar to what they were before, let alone, you know, how's one or the other really going to grow and explode? That's, you know, and let's not move past like, hey, that same question for, you know, who's watching this, you know, versus the NFL, like that question stands for the PJ tour as well, both for my self and golf fans in general. Like, I am not going to sit here and try to pretend the fortnet goes up against an NFL slate, even for myself who is a hard, hardcore golf fan. But, you know, look, we had a great kind of finish to that tournament today, but it is the time of the year where it's very optional to tune into golf, right?

I don't think people are craving two different golf tournaments going on at once. It was like that one week when they used to have the WGC where they'd have China and another event in the same week, the opposite field event. And it was like, no one is asking for two events at this time of the year. All right, we need a break from all this. And here we are back in the same situation with multiple events. I just looked it up in the lowest rated show on TV this year. It was something called like, welcome to flatch on Fox.

And it got a point two rating. Does that mean that if you're looking at that as an executive, other guy, maybe if there was 500,000 people watching this on YouTube, I could see like the TV network being like, Oh, yeah, let's do this. Like there's a untapped audience right there. But like, man, like 90,000 or 50,000 people, that is so honestly, if you put,

you could replay any football game ever played. I don't care what it is ever played and it would get better than a point two rating on you know, on ESPN. So I guess I don't quite grasp like what the incentive would be to put it on. To tie a bow kind of on the least final thought I had was I heard not Rage's story this week from a Twitter DM that said they he was writing in a car with a with a friend and that friend got a phone call from a Massachusetts number. Gaging his interest in attending either live Chicago or the live event in Miami. They're little telemarketer calls directly

calling people about coming out to live events, which is I had not heard that until this week, and I've only heard that one story at very well, could be false, but it was very specific details. And I was like, oh my God, that was kind of going in my, what I was saying earlier about, the links that they're gonna go to try to buy this thing and will it into existence, we've not come close to seeing the edges of that.

So Rich Harvest Farms also, we are who we thought they were. That was pretty much, even more adult, not even outrageously bad, you know, television to watch. It's kind of dull to watch in general. I thought it was going to be way worse, but just if Liv could start playing like events at like Cypress Point or Pine Valley, I'd be all in, man, or not all in, but I'd be like, oh, I'll watch this. This would be like, oh, wow, we're all the golf, but like, yes, they're not going to good

venues. And the lesson that we have plenty hard on PGA tour venues as well. It's not like the tour goes to only great venues, but that was one way they could differentiate themselves. But again, the golf, not really the goal. Back to circling way back to what I said about the future and how I do think like if I can go in the positive column for live year one of building, you know,

flying the plane while also building it by any measurement of from their perspective has to be considered a success with the momentum they've gained. I wouldn't necessarily say the people watching it, but these tournaments getting off the ground and being played without a hitch, you know, of any kind to this point and getting the players they have pretty darn good overall getting some of the results they've wanted like I'm sure they couldn't have asked for a whole lot more and I still do believe in this team concept of golf and this whole idea of you know franchise is guys getting cut traded with relegation building on itself year over year over year instead

of like these teams just changing week after week after week it gives me nothing currently but like do I think over time that that could be a lot more interesting? I do. I still believe in that part of it. There's still, I don't think the shotgun start is super appealing to me, but I still do think like it's just important to note, any dancing on the grave is still premature because they are, they have shown an ability to be agile, to solve relatively decent-sized problems rather quickly and just change how they're doing things.

And that's something, maybe the biggest flaw in the PGA tour is that just the answers know to everything, any possible change anybody would want. And to that, I say, there is a strong possibility that this thing is going to improve and become more interesting. I don't think, that doesn't change any of my previous statements of like I can see around the corner that it's not going to be what I want, but it's still a far ways away from.

So the one moment today in watching the broadcast when I was like, well, that'd be kind of cool is when they talked about if there was a tie between the teams that they were going to send the top two, the tapens had to pick out the top two performers and they were going to go play a yeah, I was it like low and it wasn't low in total it was like overall like score or whatever sudden death and they were like oh and if three teams tie we could send as many as eight guys out on the way and I was like oh that'd be kind of chaotic and cool like it if live golf was that all the time I would be like oh yes sick eight people playing all at once that was about the only time I, oh, I'm riveted by this idea. And then of course it didn't happen because Peter Euline made a bogey and chase kept them made of whatever. So also, how do we go this long and not mention Bryson almost getting his head cut off today? They can't, they cannot stop cutting off people's heads. They cannot do it. They can't stop referring to it. If you didn't see this, like Bryson,

at some point, like, hit a ball outside the ropes, big surprise, and tried to go duck under the ropes and basically, like, caught the rope, like, dead in the eye. And then, like, acted like he'd been assassinated by a sniper from, like, far. It was, uh, juxtaposedly hilarious. I mean, I felt bad, you know, for a half second, but he was, he seemed fine, so it became funny again, because it was truly, like, I, I was texting our group, I was sad, you know, for a half second, but he was same fine, so it became funny again, because it was truly like, I was texting our group, I was like, what happened?

Did he just have like a brainiannurism? Cause I saw him like lying on the ground, like putting his hand in his face, and I was like, oh my God, it's bracing okay. Did he get hit by a flying ball? No, he got his beheaded by a rope, which honestly reminded me of when I was in high school, and the cops came to a party and broke it up once,

and we had to like run from the party And we were like jumping and running through yards and I caught a clothesline like right in the face It's nice throwback to that high school moment of trying to evade the cops. I literally when it happened I was like, oh, I didn't listen to the sound yet And I was like, oh gosh Is a joke here about his head getting cut off here? Is that appropriate? And then let's do the sound of the announcer literally goes off with his head.

And I was like, oh, but they cannot resist it. They cannot help themselves from doing it. It's just it's amazing. Not a lot of awareness among that announcing crew. I got I got pretty much all I've got on the live front. It's a I don't I got a lot. I'm not apologizing for anything we left, but left behind. First time Phil broke 70. You know, he was like 36 over par or something prior to, you know, today's round and then he shot like

made five birdies or something today. So clearly like been reinvigorated and dialed in by the live golf as Phil. On the DP World Tour, Big Shot Bob McIntyre gets his first big win at Marco Simone, beating Matt Fitzpatrick in a playoff. Rory with his about a C-game was also in the hunt there. At the end, you guys catch much of Marco Simone. I'm playing to catch up on the highlights. I was traveling during a lot of it and was kind of having the bad online streaming experience of it.

But any reaction to the golf course at all, it pick up anything from that? It seemed fine. It looked like they had sort of buried the power lines, which was an important thing, I think. I mean, I didn't watch a ton of it. I did watch, I did watch on it, honestly, because I wanted to see a little bit of it for a Ryder Cup purposes

and watch a little bit with my daughter. She was trying to explain to me why Rory made a bad decision and going for the green on You know and hit it way in the hay whatever, but yeah, I mean it was fine I didn't get to watch the ending but I like Bob McIntyre I think it's like if I do love like new faces emerging Who could be Ryder Cup people and and Bob is definitely one of those and I Honestly ever since Matt Fitzpatrick like one the US Open, I was like a non-believer

in, in Maddie Fifth for a long time. And I, I've really kind of, he's grown on me a lot. And so I kind of like watching him play golf now, just sort of, he's earned that extra level of like, respect and love. So it was fun to watch a little bit of that down the stretch. I don't know, I mean, it, it going to play as a Ryder Cup venue? Like, it didn't strike me as like, it wasn't any holes where I was like, oh, that's amazing.

But there's, you know, like put a bunch of grandstands up and make it, you know, hopefully, like, you know, fly in some English fans to make it a little more rowdy. I don't know that the Italians are going to get bonkers for it. But hopefully, maybe. So I think I didn't want to draw too many conclusions from it, because from everyone I've spoken to, they're going to, they're going to, you know, do some manipulation to it, which is every bunch, every, every bit in their right, and it's just going to be a little different than, uh, than, than how it plays for this golf tournament. But strong effort from the Europeans to, you know,

show up and play the event and, uh, to get some tournament experience on that golf course, which has worked well for them in, in rider cups and there were no American players that went and did it and I don't blame them for it. Again, I think it's going to be a very different golf course a year from now anyways, but yeah, that was noteworthy in that regard. I'll be picking in on the highlights. They do European Tour does a great job of kind of accumulating those and be checking in on that as I go to survey my super important opinions on on

Captain's picks and things of that regard. So you're getting. All right. You're going to get the final one where you wasn't going to make it in. But he made it. Here he is. He's plugging in headphones as we speak. Max Holma.

K up. What's up, kid? Hey, guys. Max. Well, KVV. What's up? What's up, Maxwell KVV what's up? What's up sir, how are you? Good morning Damon. Good morning Damon, did you direct the positive hit yet?

It has not man. I'm still glad you're not broke like under extension. I'm so glad. and the the the the the the the

the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the

the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the I still don't really know what happened. You Mongolian reversed him. You Mongolian reversed him, bro. That's what happened. He flipped that shit.

Max, I was comparing it to Tigers a chip in in that like a world golf cup thing. He played with devol, where like he had the crazy, like it's that is so weird. You say that because that's what I thought of as I was walking up the fairway. I thought I didn't know my ball was in the bunker. Now, I don't know why that shot popped up in my head

But that's exactly why I thought oh This is why I'm the best in the game. I can just read thoughts all around Max, do you feel like just way more freed up in these situations now with the the success you've had the wins You've been able to pull off do you feel like you can play offense in a situation like that? Yeah, I feel like the fact that like my coach Mark this morning texted me and said, just hang around. He's told me Jack and Tiger won a lot of turns by hanging around. And I just never felt like I had that in me.

Like I feel like I had to play great, you know? And I mean, you have to play great. But at the end of the day, part of it is just trusting your game and saying I can just keep hitting golf shots and I won't fall back I mean yesterday I didn't pull a whole a putt all day and I was still one back so that has helped but experience has helped and also honestly like my back pocket kind of like I guess like ace in the hole was shut off to Jason Coagrack was that I'm going to play the president's cup like next week so winner lose it's like I was gonna be

really happy come Monday I'm happier now but I was like it was going to be all right. So I just felt like I had a lot of things working for me and the positivity aspect of this. Did it feel any different to show up at a golf tournament and be the favorite? Like not only are you defending champion, but you were the favorite this week. So the first time that's happened in your PGA tour career. A little bit, yeah. DJ texted me on Monday or Tuesday and said, what a world. And I laughed because it's weird. But at the end of the day, it was like, I could look at it as like a burden of expectation

or I could look at it as this is pretty fucking awesome. And it was cool just to be odds on favorite time with, you know, Hadecki, it was cool. So I like, looked at it as like what a awesome, like opportunity. And yeah, I don't know. It's like it is one of those things. I think like golf moves so fast.

And I could picture being, that was my first start back in 2013, never as a pro. And just begging to get a top 10. And now you go in there and they're saying, yeah, you're, you know, statistically supposed to win. And that was a, that felt really good. What do you think it'll feel like, Max, to put on that USA stuff next week?

You know, you had a lot of things that are overwhelming and big the last few years, but it really curious to what it that'll feel like. Dude, that's a great question. I don't know. I think it's going to be a little overwhelming as far as just how cool that is. I think being around those 11 other players

and the captains and everyone who's had just a tremendous success is going to be nuts. But yeah, it's weird. It's like something you dream of your whole life. And the next week we get to do it. Very thankful. You know, Joe's already been the one and one one. So I have at least somebody lean on, but it's crazy, man. Like, that's what I was saying. Like, whether this week went great or didn't, I would still have this upcoming week, you know, that I was gonna get to live out

a little kid's dream. Oh, I know you got places to be, but where are you right now, Max? Where are we find you right now? I am on a plane about to go to Charlotte. Yeah. And my wife's eating chicken tender is a french fries.

Is that a South West flight? I can't pick out the detailing. Are you flying all this? Yeah, I'm on a hand or what's the deal here? I have a window, so I have a window seat. There's some wood trim on that on that plane. That's not much commercial to me. They've upgraded these because they're going to fly, man.

I'm pretty nice now. Hey, pro, this was number five for you, and that's a big milestone. Do you have any, do you have any idea why? Put you in. Guys, I'm Ricky Fowler. Yeah, that's exactly right. I'm proud of you.

I'm really proud of you. Thank you. Yeah. All right, man, we're gonna let you go. I know you got places to be. Thank you for keeping the tradition alive. I can't believe that we've gotten to do this as many times as we have, but you you you calling after every win. I can't believe you still do it. Please don't ever forget about us little people. I'll never stop. Let's do it a whole lot more. I love you guys. I'll never forget about us little people. I'll never stop. Let's do it a whole lot more. I love you guys. Lots of stuff, Max. Congrats. Yeah, thank you.

Rainy, want you take us to the LPGA tour this week? Yes, yes, we'd love to. They were in Portland, beautiful Portland, Oregon, back at Columbia Edgewater. They had been on a hiatus from that course, but very glad that they're back there, traditional home for the event. A very good event. I'll cut to the chase. Andrea Lee, first LPGA tour victory.

This of course is on the heels of our magnificent win at the Sintoss skills challenge with us last week in Cincinnati. Shout out to the bump. Spoiler. Oh, well, it's been out a little while. So I don't feel. Yeah, I don't feel bad about that. Andrew Alito is a very interesting story. Actually, shades of of our good friend,

Max Homa, super talented junior player, one of the highest ranked, if not the highest ranked amateur in the game, went to Stanford, rewrote all their record books, and was a little bit of a struggle when she came out on tour, had earned her card right away, and dropped back down to what was the symmetric. Now, the Epson Tour finally broke through earlier this year winning on the Epson Tour, and has followed that up now with her first win on the LPGA tour. She's still just 24 years old, but tons of talent, awesome, awesome wedge player, short game.

I was just so impressed with how steady she was down the stretch. She shot 67-66 this weekend, shot a back 9-31 today, ended up winning by one stroke. It was for a little while there though. It was like as many as nine players had a shot with like three holes to go. It was it was a real sweepstakes, but Andrea Lee is your winner. Congrats to her. That vaults her way up in the season long race for the the CME season long race for the tour championship. And I would just say that's that's kind of the game within the

game going on right now on the LPGA. They have seven events, well six and then the seventh being the tour championship. And the top 60 prior to the tour championship will get in that season ending event. So today, Andrea Lee with the win, she vaults up to 18th, will be playing in an event like that with a $2 million first place winners prize, which everybody starts at level par.

The biggest first place prize in women's golf. And so beyond that, what was really interesting out in Portland, it wasn't the most star-studded of fields, but there was a lot of jockeying for position. So besides that top 60 for the tour championship, the next big metric is the top 100 at season's end, go into the top priority status, essentially earning their card for next year.

And so you had players like, this is where I'm going to start mispronouncing names, but Dan Yella, Darkeia, finished runner up her best result on the LPGA tour. That essentially will secure her card for next year. You have somebody, somebody young German player, Esther Heinz-Lite. She finished tied for third. She's in good position to finish in the top 100. So it was really fun. Liliavu looks like she's going to win sooner than later. She was another former fantastic amateur player, really getting back into form. And then the

other one, Maya Stark finished eighth in her first start as a full LPGA member. She had won earlier this year in Northern Ireland. She was not a member of the LPGA while doing so. That helped earn her membership on the LPGA. Of course, this eighth place finish. She's in good shape going in and next year. So it was a really fun day at golf, kind of a sweepstakes there at the end.

And the women are headed off to Northwest Arkansas for the Walmart Championship next week. And it's only a three round event. It's one of the rare three round LPGA events. Insert, live joke here, I believe, this way, where that goes. And let me open it up to you gentlemen. Any questions for me? You know, I'm happy this way, this way. And let me open it up to you gentlemen. Any questions for me? You know, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Well, I think I've been familiar with a week on the LPGA tour where I think they struggled, they didn't fill the field. They didn't get 144 players. And I guess I'm curious as to why this event is struggling from a commitment standpoint. Is it just too many events in a row here and the West Coast traveled, adding a lot to it?

What do you think about that? I think that's exactly right. And that's unfortunate for the event because like I said, the course is great. I think Portland's awesome. I think it's well supported. But it's like, you know, they're in the midst of, I think seven straight weeks. This is like the you know, they're in the midst of, I think, seven straight weeks.

This is like the halfway point where they have seven straight weeks of tournaments on the OPGA tour. And so, yeah, I think a lot of players just treated it as, you know, if we got to take a week off, this makes a lot of sense. And the Walmart event next week has long been a popular one. So I think they don't want to take that week off. So unfortunately, I think a lot of people circled this week. I know she didn't make the cut, Randy,

but I just love seeing Lucy Lee out there. She's playing really well of late. One of my favorite just stories from it. It's been super fun like as my kids are getting my youngest hours gotten into golf to show her like highlights of Lucy Lee on when she was playing Pinehurst at 14 and now we like and look and she's just earned her LBJ tour card for this year and stuff so like that's a cool thing it's like one of those stories of golf that like you know almost a decade later

shows up and it's like hey here's this person who was like burst onto the scene and like, it was super awesome. So I was, I know she has played better than she played this week, but it's just super awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Every time they, they show those old, it is amazing how, I mean, she was 11 years old.

So of course, she was, she was young, but I mean, just saying that out loud, just looking at an 11 year old in a major tournament It's it's outrageous and all the credit and she shot from six to 800 yards shot like 75 Whatever was like and I was gonna say all the credit in the world to her to to now still be playing one Just still be playing professional golf not burning out not you know, we've seen the cautionary tales but has clinched her card already through season on the Epson Tour and will be a full member next year.

And, you know, I'm hopeful for her. She's still super young. The future is all ahead of her, but I think she's somebody that certainly could become a fan favorite over the next several years. Only other notes I had remaining for this week in golf was Lady J is back on Twitter, first tweet since October of 2020, getting chirpy in the replies as just staying

very much on brand with the previous brand. It's still the same person behind that account, and that's for sure. I just want to thought that was a cause for celebration. I know TC is celebrating somewhere. Yeah. Went after Jeff Shaggleford, right, for something like saying that the lawyer quit

or something, I don't know who knows. On that note, also Larry Clayman has been suspended from legal practice in DC, which I'm not a lawyer, which I think I've made very clear, but I don't can't imagine that's great for reads $750 million lawsuit against Brandl, but who knows, we're kind of living in a backwards world maybe that could be their strategy at this point uh...

venue shopping around to me maybe the floor to the appeals court can hear that one anything else we leave it out anything uh... about this coming week we're going to do a preview pod uh... for the president's cup here you kvv what are uh... what's your excitement level as we turn over to uh... to the president's cup uh... it's i'd say decent i mean i it's not a venue that i and Nationals last time around because I thought it would help kind of save the event a little bit and at a place like where I'm over and it seemed like a really fun Place for that could potentially happen. I don't I can't imagine a scenario where The International's win and you have to sell your house because you're underwater. So I but you know that we're fine Okay, all right, that's good here, but you know, maybe I don't know. I mean, what's your level of excitement for it?

I think there's weird fun stuff that comes out of these team competitions regardless of how close the competition is in that regard. I'm excited for it. I love team golf, I think. You know, it'll be it'll be a it'll be fun to get a look at new team USA obviously without Bryson and without DJ, without Capca. And you know, some of the other names they lost off the off the team that freaking dominated the Ryder Cup last year Like it was you know they were set up to really go on a run and they've definitely lost some talent But it's been mostly replaced. I would have loved to see in Zalatoris There this this this go around which obviously is not gonna happen But in that regard I think there's gonna be yeah I think there's way more that goes into this event in the final result anyways

It's still not the Ryder Cup of course. We know that but, but I think that there's, I don't know, last time like, reads Cady Punch to fan and there's, you know, it just, weird shit happens in team golf. And there'll be some interesting storylines developed. I have no idea what they are yet. I help, you know, even at Liberty National, on the bottom of the hearing, he was doing Tiger Points when they were down 14 and a half to 2 and a half. And there's just, there's bound to be some kind of usable content and some kind of fun entertainment that comes from it.

And I'm looking forward to that. Is this last international cup for Adam Scott for whatever reasons does it come about? Will we see him? I don't know. He's fully committed to the PGA tour as far as everything I've heard, but yeah, who knows? It could be multiple reasons why it's not, but could be a captain down the road. Who knows? Maybe just the end of his player, but he'll, you know, captain it down the road. Who knows? I would think he's staying, staying put at this point if he hasn't gone

to this point, but we'll see. I have, we'd be remiss, and I don't want to piss off the great people of Ireland. The mid Am was concluded. The men's mid-AM, and it was an all Irish final with Matthew McClain. He's a 29 year old optometrist from Belfast. He won three and one over countrymen and close friend, Hugh Foley.

So this was actually, which I almost found hard to believe. It's the first time somebody from Ireland has won a USGA championship and amateur championship. Obviously inspired by the queen, right? Yeah. I'm not touching that one. KV. Come on. Come on, KVB. Get your politics out of the sports. I'm part of the Irish to sport. Like my family that's spread all around the world by the famine. I was good. Well, you can take pot shots. I don't I don't feel comfortable, you know. I don't have that God bless the Queen.

Seemed like a very nice lady. I'm not going to go much further than that. They got as I steered us back towards the mid end. They got dumped on with rain. I think the courses were blue mound and Aaron Hills were or doubt up really good. They got like five inches of rain in between round one and two or basically as rounds two in stroke play had started. But they streamed a little bit of it. I think of the final match. I didn't get to watch much of it. But hopefully there's some mid-Amp coverage at some point in the future where you can watch and play

some mid-amp coverage at some point in the future where you can watch and play a course like Aaron Hills. So, yeah. And the, the, the women's mid-AM for anybody interested has just begun at Fiddle sticks. It's all they have ever played Fiddle sticks down in Fort Myers. Have not played Fiddle sticks. That's it. You made that up. There's knockoff course.

There is. I promise. I promise. Okay. Terrible. Pretty hot to be playing in Ford Myers right now. But yeah, what are you going to do? With that, I think that is a wrap on the beginning of the new PGA tour season as we turn over here into into presence couple weeks. Presidents cup week, we are going to have live shows after every day, Thursday through

Sunday. And yeah, I'm looking forward to the week. I think it's better than, you know, going, definitely better than like the Sanderson or something. Sorry to take a shot at the Sanderson, but better than going to a 72-all-stroke play event this week. So that's the backhand compliment I'll give the president's cup. I'm excited, I am excited. We'll have more to come on that preview on Monday.

And not the only major championship. The, of course, our very own Rousse Club Championship taking place this coming week in Kansas City. So good luck to all the chapters, the Rousse and all the people participating. NLU is sending a delegation. So this will be the inaugural event

and we're gonna crown a champion. So if you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out nolayingf.com slash join. We have something called the Nest and this is one of the season long events, championships, if you will. But we're graphically rainy and I will not be there, but we're sending, we got our best squad on it.

We got our plugs. A best men and women on it. So we're coalition of nations. We're excited for our representation there. But thank you both for spending a lovely Sunday evening with me. My Sunday scaries are close to being gone

here a little bit, but still feeling the guilt and shame from consuming too much crab and alcohol this weekend. But you've got a lovely part of the world, KV. I must say it was a great time down in Breton Bay. So maybe one of these times we'll get to hang out when you come I believe we can do that at some point

This was too tight of a window. Don't give it don't kill me into this. I got enough going on I just I had to throw that in there. I just love digging. Yeah, I know you got you got a lot this Maryland is not that like It's it take it would take me what like If 90 minutes to come see you so But like, if 90 minutes to come see you, so what in those scenarios? It was not close. Yeah. So thanks everyone for tuning in.

As always, thanks to Max for calling in after a win. As always, another ridiculous sentence to say. And we'll see you guys later this week. Cheers. Cheers. On. Get a right club. Be the right club today.

Yes. 90x. better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different.