No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 616: Butterfield / LIV Championship Recap

Episode Date: October 31, 2022

Seamus Power wins in Bermuda while the inaugural season of LIV golf concludes at Doral. We start with Power's win and take a larger look at how the tour markets its fall events and some other storylines from the week. Then it's on to the LIV team championship where the match play team format peaks our interest but also exposes the lack of the tour's roster depth. We also get into some best and worst superlatives from the first year of LIV golf and take our best guesses at what lies ahead in 2023. 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/LA/MI/NJ/TN/PA/WV/WY), 1-800- NEXT STEP (AZ), 1-800-522-4700 (CO/KS/NH), 888-789-7777/visit ccpg.org (CT), 1-800-BETS OFF (IA), 877-8-HOPENY/text HOPENY (467369) (NY), visit OPGR.org (OR), or 1-888-532-3500 (VA). 21+ (18+ NH/WY). Physically present in AZ/CO/CT/IL/IN/IA/KS/LA(select parishes)/MI/NH/NJ/ NY/OR/PA/TN/VA/WV/WY only. $200 in Free bets: New customers only. Min. $5 deposit. Min $5 pregame moneyline bet. $200 issued as eight (8) $25 free bets. Bet must win. Ends 1/8/23 @ 8pm. Risk-Free Stepped Up SGP: 1 Token issued per eligible game. Opt in req. Min $1 bet. Max bet limits apply. Min. 3-leg. Each leg min. -300 odds, total bet +100 odds or longer. Ends at start of final game of the 2022-2023 NBA Season. See eligibility & terms at sportsbook.draftkings.com/basketballterms. 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. What a moment. What a moment. The four aces all American all the time. Oh, I'm turned over to my my guy Jerry Foltz, a K DJ pie. Hello, pie man. Greetings guys. We're going to have to check on our guy. Push. He's going to be a massive four aces fan at this point. You know, I know. I know. Push rides for the Lakers. The Cowboys, you know, America's team.

America's team. I got to think push is probably a huge four-aces guy at this point. Go listen to the trap drop that if that makes no sense to you. This podcast is brought to you by friends at Cash App. The easiest way to send, spend, save and invest with friends. Hopefully everyone in your friends group has a cash tag because that is money because Cash App connects you effortlessly with your friends and your finances. tag because that is money because cash app connects you effortlessly with your friends and your finances. I would like to take this moment. Let's give a shout-out to all our friends that are on cash app. We're going to give a shout-out to the friend who will only pay you back in Bitcoin. A lot of people are saying that might be me. Shout-out to the friend that's

always got a hot stock tip with absolutely no track record of picking stocks. Also it might be me. with absolutely no track record of picking stocks also might be easy. Shout out to the friend that orders the expensive champagne at dinner than wants to split the bill evenly. Also, I mean, GCC also, shout to the guy who sends, send you the money, but that he owes you before you have to request it. I don't know if that's anyone in our group, but that's that's Harrison White, Harry the Lurker. Yeah. Okay. And then shout out to the guy with the custom cash app card and they put this note in there, I got a lot of ideas for how we could incorporate that in our

content in the future. That could be a some very embarrassing photos that have to go on your cash app card could be could be interesting. If you're not familiar, cash app is an easy way for you and your friends to enjoy sending, spending, saving, investing, splitting, tipping, donating, gifting, or just pressing buttons to look busy. All with the number one finance app in the App Store, that's money that's CashApp. Download CashApp from the App Store. Now use code NLU when you sign up, you get a free $15. Plus, $10 goes to youth on course, support in junior golf, CashApp, NLLU code, free $15.

Story of the golf world, you know, sort of the sports world this weekend, I think we can all agree, you know, with NFL and live championship and F1 going on and you know, college football and Florida Georgia and all that was of course, Shamest Power. Emerging as the new king of the fall series at the Butterfield TC, what, I mean,

the Irish are gonna be over the moon if they were opening the Butterfield, TC, what, I mean, the Irish are going to be over the moon. If they were opening the show with, with James power, we had to, we had to do it to them. They've been, they've been telling us about them for years. He, he's out there doing it. I don't think this tournament should exist. It was, it was a, it was a tough play in one though. Even if the tournament shitty, you know, if you're showing up, you better win, right? You know, there's nothing, nothing, nothing more he could do this week. 65, 65, 65, 70, gets it done by one shot. He kind of stumbled in, but he made four bogies in his last six holes,

interspersed with two birdies in there as well. But I think the story of the day was Ben Griffin, right? I will say, like, yeah, it was, it was spicy out there. There was some wind. There was some elements going on that golf course can look extremely, extremely benign and it was benign earlier in the week. And then the second that wind starts to blow, like, I know that 16th hole really gets a lot of run on social media and a lot

of the highlights they show. But I have no interest in hitting a 230 yard shot on the side of a cliff when the winds blow in. And it was, they moved the tee up on Sunday on that hole because it was dead into the wind, but seeing some pretty narrow greens and some downhill shots that they hit on some of these par-3s with wind whipping,

I don't really want a whole lot to do with any of those shots. So I do think it, obviously, the Ben Griffin and the Chamuses scorecards on the back nine did not look pretty, but if you're watching, go shot by shot, it was like pretty easy to see how all that on it. And I will say, I was not watching every shot. I did have to tune in for a little bit there,

but yeah, there was a lot else going on this weekend. Shamus played well. I mean, he held it together. And then it was just crazy to see Ben Griff. I mean, Bogey, like he, and like, because he was playing so well, he had five birdies in his first 10, sorry, six birdies in his first 11 holes and then goes bogey, bogey, bogey, bogey, double 12 through 16.

And that's gonna catch up with you out there. You start stringing those together, it's tough to come back from. Yeah. I don't have a lot to add here, guys. I'm not gonna pretend that I was really strapped in for the Bermuda event. I flipped on golf central this morning. I heard Brando invoking the job not done. Kobe Bryant presser playing the press conference video. And I was like, what the hell is he talking about? And he was

like, what are you referring to? She's so much Shamus Powers 54 whole position at the Butterfield Championship. I was like, you know what? I don't think I can do this, man. And shout out to Brandon, listen, if you, you know, same thing with Shamus Power. If you're going to cover an event, you might as well cover it, right? But that I just could not invoke the same enthusiasm for the Butterfield, you know, people are out there doing it.

I respect that, but I can't pretend that I watched, watched much of this. Congrats to Shamus Power, Sully. Will you apologize for not mentioning him that one time in that podcast like two years ago? I will not, and I'm just gonna let this run on for years and years and years. But like literally Brendan Kelly 33,

Shamus for Ryder Cup, question mark, questions, like in the same breath, people will make fun of the field and the event of the butter field and take the result and be like, Oh, well, this means this for sure. Like this means sure he's going to be on the rider cup team. So look, that he very well may make it, but this has absolutely nothing to do with that. And there's some things to take away. Second win is nothing to sneeze at. You know, it's it's multiple time winner is is a thing not many people do. Thomas D trees playing really good golf, Patrick Rogers is playing good golf. Our guy Justin

Lauer is up there again. David Lingmerth playing well. You had the Monday qualifier Aaron Badaly thing that was cool. I mean, there was, there was some stuff there. If the sickos were really looking for it, there was Brian gay, Brian gay, 50 years old. 66 66 66. Yeah. Yeah. If if you needed a PGA tour fix, uh, it was out there for you. There was some stuff to sink your teeth into. I just, I was, uh, I was sated as far as PGA tour golf goes this week. I, I didn't, I didn't need it, but, you know, I respect those that did.

Uh, there was a question from Shake Griffin as well. He said, I didn't watch live, but watch for me. The quality of golf on the back nine was horrible with a weak field. Why is the PGA tour trying to compete with the NFL and college football in the fall? And to that, Mr. Shake Griffin, I would say, I don't think they are trying to compete. I think they are very much also the same attitude of like, look, we got to put up golf tournaments for our members. And we're going to put one up this week. Like it's going to be on TV like a little bit, but like, we don't really even care that much. So we're not really going to ask you guys to care that much about it. But hey, we're also going to put up 500 FedEx Cup points this week,

which yeah, there was a great point, the Friday, May, a great point this week of like, horrible fields still giving away 500 spots while there's only 70 cards being maintained in the next year is kind of like a little bit surprising that there weren't, you know, more guys recruited to play in this event. But this is just like the reality of Pro Golf as we know it and then all this stuff gets kind of put up on this same platform and same level-ish playing field of like, yeah, this is this PJ Tour event counts the same as the farmers does towards the end of the year standing, which is insane. It's totally insane.

But it's also like we say pretty much every week in the fall,, which is insane. It's totally insane, but it's also like, we say pretty much every week in the fall, like this is very optional viewing. Like it's just not, and it's gonna change. Like it's, it's even harder to get into it this year knowing that these fall events aren't gonna count towards the same next year. And it makes, I mean, again.

This is the last dance. It's the last dance. Glory's last hole. This is the last dance of the fall reach around season. It was a very Randy Brown ass field going on out there. You know, we got we got Bill Cartwright teeing it up. Oh, man. But yeah, it's just again, the reality of pro golf and how things kind of got away from

from the PGA tour and the over scheduling and at the same time like, yeah, the guys are, guys, despite what a lot of the live players have said, guys want to play in golf tournaments, right? And it's a PGA tour, just didn't stand up golf tournaments in the fall. They would go play the European tour. They would go play a breakaway league exhibition, like they would go do a lot of other stuff. There is a reason why there are fall events I think that they are going to be correcting that into the future and find ways to give top guys dollars in the fall while also giving these young guys kind of a A hybrid-ish corn fairy between between cornfaring PGA tour event to play in and that's what this felt like it's just as wild that it's full FedEx Got points and also on that note

I mean it's not like the PGA. And also on that note, I mean, it's not like the PJ Tours taking out some high interest loan in order to like put on this event and like damaging their future prospects. So like people are, people are paying for the person's man, people are paying for the TV. Like, how do you look at your members and be like, yeah, no, people definitely will put up a,

whatever it is, $7 million per, $8 million per. But like, we're gonna just choose not to do it. Like, yeah, I get it. It's just, it's really weird when the onus is like put on the fan of just like, oh, no, no, no, we don't expect you to watch this one. Like, just, you know, don't worry about it. It's just, that's where it kind of becomes like, wait, what are we doing? What is, what is this?

What is this product? But it's also what makes it. Butterfield could be, there could be a high interest loan involved. That's true. That's true. For mutant banking industry and all that. Sure. I'm not saying they're not taking out a high interest. I just I don't think the PJ tour is putting themselves in financial dire straits to do it. But this is what also makes me super sad about like how little the fan

matters here. Like truly, they're like, we don't care if you watch or not, both for the good events and the bad. Like we just don't really care. We're not really gonna make it happen. It's like, gosh, just makes you feel so powerless. But like when you look at it inside the context of like even the fall season of, let's say there's three less fall events,

like how much better are the fields for the remaining fall events going to be? Like they've stretched it so thin? I mean shit. We saw it this week that Kim swan He shot 89 81 Andy Friday just absolutely detonated him in the newsletter this week Like it's it's a joke. It's a fucking joke like this tournament shouldn't exist It makes the tour look bad like live, live did a, like, was highly successful in, in scheduling their season finale against this event. Pick it off.

They picked good events next week. We've got my Acoba. It just broke. I curse you the tour junkies. My Acoba is going to live next year. My Acoba to live question mark. Kim swan to live also just coming into the wire here as we record this Are we sure that C1 Kim and and and and swan and Kim swan aren't the same person? It's sure it could be a common issue Maybe they just got the name switch. Did you explain that Kim swan is like a 60 what is he 65? You're old dude. I think he's like the board He's on the board of directors of like the golf course. I think he used to play like high level college golf. Just I know you've you've shattered

about a couple times now, but Andy Johnson on the shot gun to start this week was talking about it and said it would be like if they the NFL was like, Hey, this guy over here was like he was an instrumental project manager and getting the stadium built and he used to play offensive guard in college. So if you guys don't mind, just let him take a couple of snaps out there. We're just going to get him some reps. It would really mean a lot to him. It's just like maybe the funniest visual. But it's just, it's crazy that like there's this event that like the tour is, hey, we're

the serious golf tour. We're the we're the serious competitive meritocracy stuff happens. And we've got Luke Donald Johnson Wagner, Swan Kim, John Dele Greg Koch, DJ Trayhan, one of the co-brothers, things of that nature in the field this week. And it's like, I keep thinking it says Nick Jonas at the bottom of the at the bottom of the leader board. Nick Jones though, he's a local. Come on guys. No, right. It's not, it's not good. It's not good in any way. But there's something to like your eyes kind of going towards the bottom of the field, filling out and comparing that to live in terms of like, imagine if like

live had to fill out 140 person fields, like, oh my God, they can't even fill out 48 person fields without becoming a complete joke. In terms of, it just seems like an easy talking point for the live stands out there to be like, you know, to shit on the bottom half of the PGA tour fields when it's really like, all right, well, you gotta remember, there's probably like a hundred dudes in here that like legitimately qualified through it corn fairy and through excruciating methods

of like getting to this point. And yes, that is the bottom half a complete joke and kind of representative of a lot of problems will be due to our a million percent. But like there's also something to that volume of professional golfers competing on a course at the same time that I know it's easy to shit on that like you still don't want that smoke

in terms of comparing the strength of fields of some of this stuff between the, between the live events. I'm not saying this to you, I'm saying in general of like, yeah of this stuff between the, uh, between the live events. I'm not saying to you, I'm saying in general of like, yeah, but I'm just saying too, like the torches needs to be better, right? You just need to like not put yourself in that situation in that scenario. It's like the, it's the ghosts of Tim Finchham coming back to, to roost, you know, it's, it's, uh, and yeah, like, you know, guys that Monday qualifier or, you know, guys that,

that haven't played a tournament in three years, they can turn up and shoot, you know, guys that Monday qualifier or, you know, guys that that haven't played a tournament in three years, they can turn up and shoot, you know, five, six, seven under, you know, multiple days in a row. And it just goes to show you like, like the depth of golf and how good, you know, like how good guys are, even that haven't been in the mix here of late. But like to me, it's just that bottom 40 guys in this field, like, you know what, like make it a hundred man field. You know, like, like, it's like, why are you filling it out? Or like, or cut the amount of FedEx cup points there. I mean, it's just like, to me, like, it's insulting to the farmers and

the infinux and colonial and harbour town and like all these tournaments that put out a good product and all that and like this counts for the same amount and that's bullshit. TC, I think you would have beat 8981 this week. I think I could have been right now. I definitely would not have been 81. I think I could have been right about the line. 28 over I think would have been right about the Vegas line. I think the guy, it's sorry, the guy was averaging like 218 yards off the team. It was my joke. It was my joke.

It was my joke. I just wanted to go out 218 yards. You got gusted on. What do you want him to do? I will say, sorry, sorry, 232 for the, for the second round, 224 for the week. So he was averaging 217.5 in the first round. We, we kind of glanced over it, but the Ben Griffin story, I think, you know, it's, it's, this is not the first place to be documented this past week, but basically

walked away from golf about two years ago and at the age of 24, I think it was. And went back to, uh, Q. School had a great season on the Cormoratory tour this year. Got his tour card and now is coming close to winning PGA tour events. It's the kind of thing that like, I'm literally watching some of our friends here in Jacksonville go through this thing of like, dude, I was like a couple shots away from getting my tour card like a few years ago. And I'm a couple shots away, you know, I'm a shot away at second stage of of Q school

this year. Like how do you, how do you, the line between giving up and also being able to compete in professional golf is insane. It's just incredible. And that's why I like, I was rooting for Ben Griffin this week just because I think it would have, it's a little bit, it's inspiration for a lot of those dudes that are like powering through this stuff and just going on the road away from their families every week and grinding their asses off, just trying to make it because it really can change in a week and pro golf.

And we saw it with Phil Pnoles, you know, basically sneaking into the Cornfairy Finals, they can get his PGA tour card this year. And that's kind of the thing that keeps a lot of careers alive. So he, uh, I don't, I know, I don't know Ben Griffin and don't really know anything about him, but it was kind of, uh, that was a fun story at least to follow this week. And I think you say a lot of this, the same for Tron, you kind of alluded to it earlier, but like, I mean, Ben Crane is another one. It's just like, yeah, what's Ben Crane's life been like the last, the last couple of years? And to, to be able to just pop up randomly and shoot whatever he shot 62, 63 or something. And in round one is insane.

Aaron Badelies kind of in that, that same like wilderness. I know it's a, it's a totally different world, but like even having them in the same field, kind of fighting similar demons is kind of cool. And I think it kind of speaks a little bit to the importance of, I don't know, not to turn like a positive into a negative, but like it kind of speaks to the importance of like having somebody who can do some of the storytelling stuff out there, right? Because these stories are so freaking cool. But at the same time, it's like if you are a casual fan

and it's like, all right, this weekend you've got NFL, you've got college football, you've got a couple movies coming out, you've got Halloween, you've got this, you've got blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's like, I need you to dive in and I'm like, Ben Griffin's story at the Bermuda Championship is like, dude, that's a tough ask, right? And so I think it all kind of speaks to like,

that whatever, I think it all speaks of speaks to like, that whatever. I think it all speaks to the telecast, getting better and the storytelling and all that stuff and kind of some of the important stuff. Which also like, there's no off season. Right. I mean, like these guys like Ben Griffin graduates from CornferriTour and gets back to the tour

and it's like, there's no off season. He teased it up a week and a half after the last CornferriTour event. And it's like, I'm not trying to take anything away because I'm a sicko. I love following the race within the race during the fall series where you've got the Thomas Dietri's who are playing really well or friend of ours,

Justin Lauer, who's up in the top 20 in FedEx Cup. And he's got a fantastic head start on the year or Austin Smotherman who shot 62 first round this week and then didn't play well in the weekend. It's still a real golf tournament and it's still really, really tough to win. But to me, it's just like the tour is needlessly cheapening its own competition in a way.

So let me ask you a question on that. Because we talked, Tron, we did the podcast, whatever that was, Shriners or something, it was you and I. And we were kind of talking about some of that race within the race and following some of the fringe guys and stuff. Do you feel like this is all like very, very personal, but do you feel like you have fallen off of following that from years past?

And if so, why do you think that is? I think, yeah. Cause I feel like I have personally, I feel like I used to be way deeper into that. And now I've just like, I don't know if it's too many events or what? I'm not trying to lead you to an answer, but I was thinking about that the other day. No, I definitely think, yeah, it's,

I mean, even if you finish 160th on the FedEx Cup for a season, you're still making like a lot of, it's still life changing, right? And it's still gonna fund your career for another few years. And I think the margins are, you know, like the margins are thinner than ever, but also once you get your PGA tour card, it's kind of like, all right, you're good for a little bit.

I think on the corn fairy tour, I think there's so many good guys coming through. Like I haven't fallen off one bit on really following that and tracking that, but I do think like, it's been cheapened a little bit as well by the amount of guys that left for live, guys getting kind of a get out of jail free card and getting able, you know, being able to,

like, all right, so and so finished, 130 second this year, or just the way that the tour operates as well, to where like, when you lose your card, you don't really lose your card. When you finish 126th, you're gonna get like 18 starts next year, you know? And it's kind of one of those things.

It's like, yeah, like you don't have the certainty, you're not gonna, you know, you're not gonna get into some of the events that you wanna get into and everything. But for me, it's like there needs to be more downside. There needs to be a little bit more churn, a little bit more turnover to get that, you know, that razor's edge back a little bit, right? This next one I'm going to stay away from for personal reasons, but something else happened

down in the, in Burbuta this, this past week, TC. Yeah. Grayson Murray, scooter accident, Gladys okay. I would imagine slash, I'm being told by a variety of people that there's a lot more to the story and I'll leave it at that, but I would probably caution against like,

complaining about not being able to rent cars on the island of Burbuta if you're a tourist. I'm just leave that there. Like it feels like, hey, you kind of got away with one here, like maybe leave it alone, dude. What happened? And what happened? I was pretty checked out on this one as well. That's going to be a theme throughout the week here, by the way. A lot of people here. He crashed a rental scooter. Like a mo-ped. And he had to withdraw. Yeah,

yeah. That's like how the space all messed up, like, you know, like not good bad bad accident. Yeah. So well, and so of course with that in mind, uh, easy transition here. NBA fans, the weight is over. Basketball is back. So tip off the season with draft King sports book and official sports betting partner of the NBA new customers can make any $5 NBA moneyline bet and get $200 in free bets. If your team wins, check this out. In addition to the usual bets, everyone can boost their winnings up to 100% with draft King stepped up same game parlay. So go to the draft King Sportsbook app, opt in place a stepped up same game parlay today with payouts

bigger than ever. Draft King Sportsbook is where we all go to bet on the NBA. So download the Draft King Sportsbook app now, use promo code NLU, make any $5 bet this week and get $200 in free bets if your team wins. Only the Draft King Sportsbook with promo code NLU, minimum age and eligibility restrictions apply, C show notes for details. I've not been following the NBA very close this week, but I do have to question Mystery 100 Club yesterday. It was telling me the Lakers are one shooter away from really starting to get it together.

I'm gonna bet the under on whatever he's betting the over on right now. I don't think it's happening for them right now. That's all I can bring you for the NBA right now. But TC, I'm told my bucks are 5.0. They are. They are. They are.

They are. They are. Yeah, I watched some, you know, Sally, I was talking to your neighbor, James about he's a he's a big Pelicans fan. So I was I was getting deep with him on the Pelicans. By the way, I want to apologize to the people of Bermuda real quick. I called it a national open earlier this week. It's not a national open. It's a territorial open, which is kind of which is almost cooling. thing. Yeah. That would be kind of a cool grand slam to win. The territorial open. Guam, the Guam open things of that nature. It is time. What a moment at the 18th club here at

D'Arral as the four-access or your inaugural live golf team champions. My fitbits going crazy over here. That was a line that Jerry Folt said as they were coming down the stretch because I'm sure there's so much writing on it for fans everywhere, but what was your guys reaction to the live championship for now? What are, I don't even know what they call it, live team championship, whatever it was.

Dijay, I know you were knee deep in it because you were very aware that they were going back to stroke plate today. Yeah. So a lot, a lot going on there. A lot of directions we could take it. Let me lead with, I thought Friday and Saturday were, were sweet like sincerely. I thought that the format was actually like really cool.

You know, I don't think I need to preface this, but I'll preface it just in case with like, it's still an association of just the worst possible people you could put together. I'm rooting for them all to fail. I hope it doesn't work out. But having said that, I thought they actually nailed a lot of the details of the team championship. I can't believe for something that has completely pulled

out of thin air, featuring all the worst people you know, I was kind of blown away at the fact that I was like, oh, that's actually, I'll watch the last couple of holes of each of these things. I don't need to watch the first 15, you know, I don't need to, it's very much like, let me flip it on and see like, you know, whose name, Bubba mispronounces on and the first C. And then I'll flip it off for four, five hours. And then I'll come back and, you know, watch the last two or three holes and watching the last two or three holes. I was like, Oh, that's actually a good format. It got me pumped for the for the international crown on the LPJ, which I think is going to use the same for that next year, right? Are they doing stroke play final round?

That I don't know. And yeah, I don't know why they went to stroke play today. Although I guess actually it kind of, it kind of ended up working out with, it kind of felt like a, you know, I guess the scores just worked out the way they worked out, but it almost felt like a little bit of a singles match there with Dustin and Cam coming down the stretch. But I don't know, all of that is to say, like after a year of missteps and deeply, deeply, deeply meaningless golf, it was a bit of finding it at the bottom.

So I please don't take this for, you know, some massive like, we really saved it at the bottom. So I, I please don't, don't take this for, you know, some, some massive like we, we really saved it. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's just, I thought there were some positives this week. It's amazing how much better the team match play is in turn, like I can flip it on and I can understand exactly like what's going on. And it's like a three day cumul, I couldn't even, I still don't understand how their team stuff works. What scores count? What don't? I think they change that and then way through the season. Like I just don't, I can't talk myself into caring about caring about that. But I'm like, for a moment there on Saturday, whenever it was, I was like, oh, share the four races about to go

down. I was like, oh, God, they actually might be onto something with that. I mean, it's super easy. Just turn in and be like, this team is playing this team, and this is the score right now. And how do you strategize who are you are putting in the ForSums match? If you're not familiar, there was two singles matches and a ForSums match. So there's three points, no halving. I believe you just play off until somebody wins.

So you're guaranteed to, you know, somebody to win it. So do you hide your two guys not playing well in ForSums? So the, you know, basically, so they're playing half a match and the other guys are playing a full match. Like, that's interesting. Now, like Dustin Johnson playing, like, sure go, Alcurti or whoever he was playing is like very emblematic of like one of the great wastes of talent. We're going to see in this era of golf.

But at the same time, it was like, obvious of how, how they can make this team part work. Yeah, that was my takeaway. I like the format. I think it gives you context. It's like I still don't think. I was watching the stroke play today and unless I can't play like wonderful golf. He was the only guy out there.

I mean, DJ, you hit a feathery 70% driver into that drivable par four. But otherwise, I mean, DJ, you hit it feathery, you know, kind of 70% driver into that drivable par four. But like, otherwise, like, and like even afterwards, I was like, Oh, cool. Like, that's it. Like the four aces win and they win a shitload of money. But also like, the second place team, like each of them wins, like two million dollars a piece too. So, you know, the third place team wins like $1.5 million a piece. Like the team gets six millions. It's like None of this really matters. I was also thinking about that when Dustin had the whatever he had, a three footer or something to win on 18. I was like, well, it's probably a little less stressful when you've

signed a $250 million deal at the beginning of the year. That money's already in the bank account. Now you're just playing for like three or four. That's a little different than, you know, whatever. Well, and I think so, yeah. So like really it's the end of it. I'm like, oh, yeah, like that's, you know, like I'm, you know, I'm saying I'm rooting for punch because I'm like, I thought camp, like camp, camp shot 65 and like play this dick off.

And I got to say TZ, you kept calling up donkey punch GC. I'm just like, and that's, you know, not doing that here, no? We're not doing that. We're not doing that. It's a serious golf. I'm sitting there watching it. And it's like, you know,

Pat Perez has a bad lie in the, like in the rough, in a bunker and there's Maroon 5 is playing in the background. Or like P is, P's in, you know is in a bad spot. Another like the soundtrack in the background, like the deep club beats just hitting those bass beats.

It's just such a bizarre weird thing and then they cut to another side of the course and there's no music going on and all that. But it's like, how does it treat me like you do? It's just, it's, it's just so bizarre, man. You're going to get us in my copyright trouble. Which how do they not get hit with a ton of ads on YouTube? You can't play music on YouTube without having the rights to it. I don't know.

It is very, it's very dystopian in a lot of, a lot of those ways. Bubba's doing the interview with Taylor Gooch. And he apologized for this. And I'm, you know, Bubba's not a an on course commentator. So I'll give him a little bit of a pass. But it was. Bubba tried to do on course. Commentary. We'll go.

Oh, it's very, I don't know, man, but like when I'm sitting there trying to remember who's on what team and he's interviewing Taylor Gooch and be like, yeah, so how did your captain Brooks? What did he tell the team this morning? Which Brooks, of course, is not Taylor Gooch's captain. He's on a completely different team. And then Gucci just like runs with it. It's just like, yeah, yeah, you know, we just got to play hard. And it's like, God, what is this thing, man? What are we doing? In Gucci. In Gucci's defense, he may not know who's on the rest of his team.

Right. Based on some of how he's made his decisions. But it also goes, like, I think they, right based on some of how he's made his decisions. But it also goes, like I think they, listen, this is like year zero for live in reality. Like it's like probably the year that shouldn't have existed, but it was like we had to just bust through the door and blow this shit up and fuck around for a while and figure out what works and what doesn't. And like what definitely didn't was like,

guys just changing teams without rhyme or reason throughout the course of the year. And just getting, so like, what definitely didn't was like, guys just changing teams without rhyme or reason throughout the course of the year. And just getting, so like, so the team championship, of course means nothing to a sports fan, like sitting there watching it, like, oh gosh, yeah. They made the right moves, signing Dustin Johnson, like, lives, like the four aces didn't sign him, live did, right?

It wasn't like the four aces were captain to buy somebody that made all the right decisions and all that. That's where like, you're kind of seeing that start to crystallize as the year goes along and the teams were way more consistent at the end of the year. And I think that goes to show like there is franchise possibility in this thing. I don't think that there is a sweeping amount of talent coming down the like coming in to live. I don't think like I don't think the dudes were waiting until after the $50 million team finale to like be like, oh yeah, I'm coming, I'm coming to live now. Now's my time. Yet at the same time like legitimate strategy around like

people shout on Pat Perez a lot, but like it seems like you're there's going to be a fourth man on each team. And like who has the weakest fourth man might decide how these events shake out. Like I can see my fifth man on each. Yeah. It's like a substitute player on each team. I can see myself going from a 0.1 interest level in the golf, like up to an undisclosed number based on that. Like I think it will get it.

It is built on it's it's more interesting than it was in the very beginning, right? When it was so completely random and you couldn't keep track of any of it. Now it's like, well, I know how dumb the clique's logo is and all that, like, are they gonna pull off the upset this week? They're at least, I still feel the exact same way about where this ends up

because of, for a lot of reasons. Yet, I think that it's gonna go better for them interest wise next year. What do you guys think? Let me push back on that just a little bit because I think the only thing to me and this might change if we're in it for the long haul here and we have time to actually like build up some, you know, history on this fucking thing, which is stupid to say in the first place.

But the only reason today was interesting was because it was Dustin versus Cam Smith and because of what we've seen them do on the PGA tour and in major championships. Right? Like, I don't know like Chicara is a good example, right? Of he won the event where in Thailand. And it's like, if he goes and rattles off three live victories next year, do you suddenly have all this context about Chicara and you're thinking about him coming down the pike? Like, I think this stuff is still only interesting in the context of like what these players have done

on the PGA tour, which is kind of the whole, the whole point, right? Or like it still is, it's almost like dependent on existing strictly teams though. Like that. No, it's a team aspect building. Like I still don't care on an individual basis. Right. And that's so I guess where I was going to go with that is like, they have a really specific decision to kind of be made here because if you're going so that there was a couple of stories that came out about the live guys sitting down

with some media and kind of going through their business plan for next year. And you know, no surprise, this is what the PGL said too, but a lot, lot, lot of the potential revenue is derived from these franchises. And I think this week was a good example of seeing, like you said, how well the team aspect can work. But I think the team aspect only works when you start to have like the different formats, like we saw on Friday and Saturday. And then that only works if you like, don't give a shit about OWGR points, right? And if you kind of almost are like punting on this idea of golf as an individual sport,

because honestly, man, like watching the finale, I don't think Paparez and P and Gooch and Dustin like, I don't think they're faking that. I think they're legitimately like, dude, we've grown closer over this year and like we are getting to know each other better and we're I think they're legitimately trying to play for each other again Hand up pause typical parenthetical. I don't give a shit really about like these things But I don't doubt that they do like I think it clearly means something to them It looks like they're having fun however in order to like Keep growing this thing and growing this thing and growing this thing. Like you have to convince guys to jump on for that for 90% of your season instead of

what you've trained your entire life for, which is playing individual pro golf. Do you know what I'm saying? Like it's, it's a very weird thing where they almost have to just like pick a lane. And that means giving up on a bunch of other stuff, which I don't think they're going to do. Because if it's 13, you know, 13 of the regular stroke play events next year, like those don't make me feel anything. And the team thing feels so ancillary. We're like, today, you know, love him or hate him.

Most people hate him. I think he's a clown, but like shout out to Pat Perez. Right. Like that was a really, really difficult golf course. Yeah. He went out and he shot 200 par and like his score accounted for his team and they won by, you know, a shot, right? Or like, I think Cam was like, I think Cam legitimately loves playing team golf.

Like, I think that, you know, I think that they're probably going to have one more guy come onto their team next year, you know, as far as like, you know, he's a new. He's new. Uh, no, that's not. It's not. Uh, and, and, uh, but, but like, it's, you know, it's very much like, they said they want to consolidate guys,

they want to all live it at the same time. But they also got lucky because like if, if Cam doesn't play as Dick off, like, then, you know, the four ACEs win by eight shots today, and it's totally meaningless coming down the stretch, or even worse possibly, is like, if the Keppga brothers don't completely shit themselves, you know, coming down the stretch, or even worse possibly, is like, if the Kebke brothers don't completely shit themselves, coming down the stretch on the front nine there because they teed off on the back,

I think they, they, it's smash golf club with Brooks Kebke, Peter Uline, Chase Kebke, and Jason Cocrack, like winning the overall team competition, it would have been a fucking disaster, right? Yeah. And then like going into this week too, like it's just the quarter finals come up and I'm like, all right, like who's playing today? And it's, you know, Brooks against Varner and Varner beat the shit out of Brooks.

And you know, you got Jason Cocrack and Chase Keppka against Turk, Pettit and Hudson's Swaford. You know, you got the majestic, just took it to the ironheads, beat the shit out of them. Like, not should get, like, not should lose his captains. Pay back the valuation of his, of his, of his franchise. This event shows off how shitty their fields actually are though. Like, it's pretty easy to hide behind like the, whoever's in the top 10, but like, then you see these actual matchups and you're like, oh my god.

Like, in that, yeah, that's like more of what I think the future of this looks like than what they had maybe had built it as. But then like the other thing is, all right, so the clique show up this week, Shurgo Alcurti, what or who is that? And it's the team. Champion ship, like he,

how does he just bear a sheet under the team for the championship? He's been the reserve all he like how does he just bear a sheet under the team for the championship? He's been the reserve all year right? They just like if you're not on the if you're not on the the 40 man roster by September you can't get a playoff call But we know that rule. I mean come on. That's that's been a rule if for quite some time Yeah, did I see just because I don't know where else it's gonna slot in but did I see a quote or a tweet or something about James Piett calling for a singles match against Dustin Johnson.

Did you guys see that? No, I did not. I'm going to see if I can effort that, but that I may have dreamed of that, but I think there was a true like in the locker room. He was like, I want DJ, which is the unintentionally funniest thing that's probably happened on that tour all year. I mean, like, but like shout out to the cliques for going up against Torque and basically glory cancer got it done. Uh, blandie gets up, gets emotional, blandie it in GMAC, uh, beat Otago and Scott Vincent. And then, uh, you know, Michelson, Michelson played

well against Cam. I guess Cam said there were four holes behind because Michelson was slow playing him so much. But you got to put the you got to put the live like, you know, grading on a curve. So it's probably two holes behind like in terms of what what the live guys are going to exaggerate. But yeah, so apparently it gives them a gamesmanship a little bit, which but again, like that's where again, it was very simplified. It was easy to tune in and be like, Oh, shit, Phil's giving Cam a run for his money right

now. Instead of like today, it's like, well, Alicia has this put on. Wait, is that his second or last or his last hole? Yeah, it's got to go. It should go. It really should. That's where it's like, they've got the format partially right. And that's where again, it's kind of like the scary part being, this is year zero and

experimental and that they can crystallize some of this stuff and iron out some of it, shout to the ironheads and really improve on it. So, you know what the thing that really, really stuck out to me this week was, and just like it was kind of a, it's a total aside, but it just shows you how badly tie votes are and everybody that set up the Olympic golf, how badly they fucked that up. Yeah. Ty Votah and everybody that set up the Olympic golf, how badly they fucked that up. Cause like Olympic golf could be sweet and you could have teams, countries playing together. You know, you could certainly have an individual side of it.

Shit, you could do something like this for a variety of different tournaments on the PGA tour. Like you could do an individual's event, kind of like this for East Lake. Say, you know, you get the top eight guys advancing through match play. You take those eight guys after that and then throw them into a stroke play final on the last day. So you don't have to worry about only two balls in play the whole day. But like, that was my big thing was like, man, like the Olympics could, like,

could have been sweet if they did something relatively creative like this. Yeah. And I think I feel like I've mentioned this in the past. I don't know how much of that falls on the tour and how much of that falls on like the IOC or maybe some of that's working together, but I think a lot of the whole thing with the Olympics is them trying to mimic like how do you, they don't want to come, you know,

they don't want to do an NBA season and then like decide it with a three point shootout. But you could certainly have an individual winner as well. Like you could have individual and then, you know, a team winner. I really dig the and again not to not Saying that like I would become you know the world's biggest live golf fan if they were to make these changes But I think where you start building context tron is kind of what you're talking about with like Okay, you have this set for man team for next year and then trying to decide if each week is basically like this team event trying to decide like who's your foursome specialist, who's your singles guys, what are you know, this guy's been struggling here. Let's slot it like then

it gets a little more interesting rather than just like let's go play arbitrary shit golf like all over the world is just I'm not going to be signing up for that. That's where like honestly if I had a recommendation to them, be like, do give up on the OWGR thing. You're not close and if you still need another year in compliance to do it, like you're, if you think you're close, you're just not. You're not even remotely close.

Like go do the different thing. Like you're supposed to be this different thing. These dudes left the competitive golf ecosystem. You gotta embrace what made you different, what makes you nimble. Like stop trying to shoehorn this into this stroke play thing because you have something special here. If you want all the value to come from these franchises,

like give me matchups. Give me matchups look forward to, like I think eventually too, like how I was thinking about this too. How dumb is the name, like the Washington commanders sound right now, because like that's new. That's like the new name. I like, if somebody came out with a team name, the patriots now, how ridiculous would that sound? Yeah, like we've been familiar actually playing. I think that would play pretty well actually,

right? But how funny would that be? Like, but we've known that since we were born, that name, basically, since we were born. that name basically since we were born. And like over time, like the Seattle Kraken eventually just becomes like common term. And it the Kraken sort of say it like, initially when you hear it, it's kind of freaky. The Las Vegas Golden Knights, like all this stuff. You know what's the name that people don't even

bat an eye at anymore? The Corn Fairy Tour. It's like, that's just something I go, yeah, no, that's just what it's called. That's the stupidest name ever. Yeah, you gotta just stick to your guts. But like, there was a certain amount of, I guess sadness today for me as well,

where I'm like, shit man, like, or really yesterday too, like Dustin Johnson, it's the semi-finals. Dustin Johnson's playing fucking sure go alchurty in the semi finals. That's what I've been saying. This is such a waste of the DJ and Cam are truly wasting some of the most outrageous talent that the sport, not the sport has ever seen, but like two of the best players that this sport has. They're wasting their talent by going up against sure, a guy named sure go that I've never heard

of before. Like that's a waste of your talent. I'm sorry. And that's where the cam thing really has frustrated me. Like he just didn't never seem like that motivated by money to me. And he seemed like a hyper competitive dude that like I just can't imagine like, you know, going and not wanting to compete against Rory and Shephler's and all those guys. But that's props for like getting up for it. You know what I mean? Like he's DJ and him like they haven't mailed it in. They're still. He stunk his overseas ones. Cam was really bad in the in the overseas ones and haven't mailed it in as always relative when you're playing against a bunch of plumbers and firemen. And shout to our boy. It's like 65 could have been afe.

You know, like so that was something to like watching derjaj. It's like 65 could have been afe. So that was something too. Like watching Daryl today, it was just, man, like, I think it can be two things at once. It can be like actually a pretty good tournament golf course for, you know, to identify a certain skill set, I think. Like somebody like Lee Shout there, like that's probably not the best venue for him, especially off the tee, but like, it's,

it's also deep, like, it's next to the airport, there's always planes flying over. It's a place that like, I've been there once, I never, ever want to step foot there ever again, just because like, it's the more, it's everything I hate about Florida golf. It's tied into, you know, one package. And like, you can maybe drop the golf from that, just maybe everything I hate about Florida. like you can maybe drop the golf from that. Just maybe everything I hate about Florida. It's like it's like inland my like I hate Miami. I like it's inland.

It's awful. It's it sucks. It's bad bad spot. I want to a couple. I hate to even like put this in like the wind column or like a shout out to live on this. But for the match play portions, a constant scoreboard showing the status of the matches in real time, like the lowest bar you can clear. They managed to do put that up there. And just the ridiculousness of NBC refusing to do that for their team events just gets highlighted as well. And then, of course, they've done such a good job with this this past

year, making up the caddies, catching the conversations, it just pulls you in immediately. It's all of a sudden, shock shockingly dudes are available to do this. I know they're getting paid enormous amounts of money and don't really get a say in these things, but like, I'm amazed that it's possible to mic up these guys and get their golf conversations on. We do have the technology. Apparently, it is possible.

Those mics were hot and shit down the stretch too. P called himself a fucking twat. And then I think, you know what? Props to, props to Bubba. He laid out, it's like Arlo and the gang were like, hey, this is probably your last event, doing play by play or doing on-course commentary, like give it, you know, bring it to us and he's like,

no, I'm not talking right now because the caddy and the player are talking right now. Will you guys give me a sec here? So I promise the bubble. Props the bubble just in general for laying out for live like way before he could play in any of the events like in a huge hurry to leave live. Apparently, he didn't even collect all his pip money

because he left before he did his charitable thing and didn't even get to select. He just had to get to live so fast, so fast. His credit card at the restaurant. I think I gotta get out of here, man. get to select, he just had to get to live so fast, so fast. So fast. The guy got to get out of here, man. It's the dough, it's the dough. It's the dough. The Ember.

Oh, there's a store. Yeah, Tom dope put up an Instagram post. This is like four, four years ago now. He's a literature dough. He's at this, he's at the Detroit airport. I think they're, they're like small commuter jet facility. And there's this restaurant called the Embers in there. And he was pitching about the, the pace of the service and how slow it was. So he handed his credit card to a fellow diner that he didn't know who was sitting a couple of tables

over. And he said, will you please pay for me and then destroy the credit card? Burn after reading. I think that's kind of all I got from LivTour Championship. I know we got some superlatives lined up, kind of looking back at the year that was live unless there's anything else you guys want to get to before we do that. I guess one thing that I had a question about

was just like Blandy and GMAC. They were all emotional after they had a tight loss in the semi's there. Blandy or GMACs, it's something about Blandy and GMAC, they were all emotional after they're, you know, they had a tight loss in the in the in the semi's there. Blandy or GMACs, it's something about Blandy not qualifying, like not having he like being just shy on points for next year, which there was an art. I was golf digest article by Evan Priests that like kind of, they will talk about a little bit to the kind of outlines how they're forming the rosters next year.

But it sounds like each team has a principal player slash captain that takes one of the spots. And then the next 24 guys are qualified through this past years. standings, I believe. And then each captain gets a wild card selection to take for the final spot. So maybe he was one spot outside of qualifying for that. I truly couldn't say. spot outside of qualifying for that. I truly couldn't say. They'll probably change that by next week as well. But also this week, did you guys notice at all like third leg Greg seem to be very, very much behind the scenes? Way lower. Not out in front of the camera. I wonder if that like that's been the big thing we've been banging on for the last couple of months is like, is third leg Greg on his way out. Are they going to refresh this and bring in an adult? Like that, you know, a tool, Coach LaGuy seems like he's kind of the adult in the room,

came from the Tampa Bay Bucks. He's, you know, kind of laying out some of the future plans that they have. Like I feel like, you know, that's like the, like the PGA towards gotten super lucky because Greg Norman has been personally involved and invested in this thing and is a fucking buffoon. Yeah. And that's where it's like their, their comms director was, was exposed for liking some, some quite, quite, quite inflammatory posts on Twitter this past week, who also comes from the Greg Norman side. And it's, I just if that if that clock starts ticking a little bit on that end or Why all of a sudden Greg Norman would have a a low profile at the grand finale here the last time

They're really gonna be on camera until I believe February or so that it is a little bit just a tad Suspicious and I'm sure they'll try to play it as oh this was always the least step aside and all that but, but yeah, I would say I'd be a lot more worried if I'm the PGA tour and it's it's like the entire thing isn't seemingly based on some personal vendetta. Well, whether it's, it's more of a business venture. It's just my reaction after reading, you know, Evan's article in golf digest, with, and like you said, the, uh, a tool, Kausla, cost was just like, oh, well, that makes sense. Like that makes perfect sense. So it's just like 90% of the podcast this past year has been like, this makes no fucking

sense. Like why, why is this happening? This is bullshit. What he's saying. There's plenty of bullshit still being said and we can get to some more of that. But like, it was all caged in these like lies and propaganda. Whereas like, auto cost was like, hey, we have to start commercializing the product. Get on TV. We need to find corporate partners,

these are milestones we need to get hit going into next year. It's like, oh, that's like pretty direct. And like, that makes a lot of sense, rather than like pretending that everything is fine here. Like, yes, you do need to check off on those things. And like, actually laying out how the captains are gonna own 25% equity in the teams. And like, starting next year, the teams like pay

for their own travel. And we start to graduate from this recruiting phase and all that. Like, man, like finally some answers into like how this is all gonna work instead of just putting up this big curtain over everything and pretending like everything's fine behind the curtain. So that's at least got my attention.

I think on that end, like as far as the, you know, as far as the franchises and the teams doing that, like I think that only makes it stronger. Like it kind of allows all as far as the franchises and the teams doing that, like I think that only makes it stronger. Like it kind of allows all the teams and the franchises to have their own identity, right, with uniforms and with all that, where I would, you know, kind of raise my hand and say, well, all right, if you guys want to commercialize this, like what sacrifices you don't have to make to the product. If you add commercials into the shotgun store

or whatever, like, how is this gonna work? How similar is it gonna look to a PGA tour broadcast, you know? Yeah, I still have strong, I still think that there's a little bit of peak cocking around, this is what we wanna do, just because you can't say out loud, this is a giant sports washing activity and we don't care if we lose money on it.

Like, yeah, we need to be on TV like all that. But yeah, it's a great article golf. golf.degist.com that I think just kind of starts to, well, we're going to talk with Evan. I think sometime this fall, just kind of laying out what that future looks like. Guys, we're starting to slow down a little bit. I think we'll live, you know, kind of being pushed off

to the side here for a few months. Might have a little more time to get on the golf course. Practice a little golf, play a little golf. You can play your best golf with the RAPSOTO mobile launch monitor, the number one rated personal launch monitor on the market today. It features incredibly precise measurements for marketable accuracy, data rich visuals and performance combines. It's really small.

It fits on the outside of your bag. It's about the size of a rangefinder. It takes like two seconds to set up and it pairs Doppler radar with an iPhone or an iPad camera. It ensures that every golf ball is tracked. It visually charts each of your golf shots that you hit on the practice range. Excuse me. It'll show you where you're missing.

How far it goes when you pull it left. How far it maybe doesn't go when you push it right. How much, oh, if you're hitting 70% of your balls right, it gives you so much data to help you improve, well, you know, a lot of people go to the range and just continue to work on things that they, whatever went wrong in the most recent round, when in reality, this thing is going to give you a lot better information as to what you should be practicing. It helps you practice with the purpose every time you hit the range, get the launch monitor, every golfer needs the MLM from RAPSOTO, the official

launch monitor of no laying up, rapsoto.com, such NLU promo code NLU for $100 off the MLM again. Rapsoto.com such NLU promo code NLU $100 off the MLM. I'm going to dust off my Rapsoto this week. We've got our NLU season ending championship at Jack's beach this week. We got the NLU team out of the which is a miss. Yeah. Yeah. We got the Nordic. We got the Nordic.

Out of the way this week. It's going to be gorgeous weather and my golf game freaking stinks right now. So I'm going to try to find something. Well, we put together a few questions and segments here to kind of as we as we look back and we covered a lot of stuff with the related to live this week. But wanted to look back at this past year and kind of take stock of things. And we're gonna start this out.

And we'll start with you, DJ. What is your headline for Lives 2022 season? What is it all boiled down to? So I was kind of thinking headline from this week, but I actually think it kind of works for the whole season too, which is that, you know, you can mess with the wording, but 65,000 people watch live golf finale at Trump D'Arral.

I think there's a lot of words that are chosen very specifically in there. I think it's very important that we have this. So on one hand, I am fully with you in that like, it is year zero. It is a total experimentation ground. We're not on TV, yada, yada, yada. But even with that said, like think about how much fucking oxygen live has gotten this year and how much like coverage it's gotten,

how many people are talking about it. And I still have not met a human in real life that has asked me about anything pertaining to anything that's happened on the golf course with this thing. And it's really hard to put into context in the grand scheme of things in a professional sports media world, how few 65,000 is. And you're playing for $50 million this year. And you've had this lead up. You've signed truly like we can't quibble with this. Some of the best players in the world,

some of the most marketable players in the world and you have 65,000 people watching your product. And I'm not even messing with like the YouTube stuff because I think YouTube actually has a lot of positives to it, which I think we can get to later on. I just, I don't know, man. I don't think it's all roses and I don't think it's all solved with some magical TV deal either. I don't think that, you know, just because

you get on FS1 or you get on some cable sports network, all of your problems go away. I still think it's like this thing that there's not a massive appetite to actually watch. Like, I think at the end of the day, like, it's still a golf product, right? And I think it's like this thing that there's not a massive appetite to actually watch. Like I think at the end of the day, like it's still a golf product, right? And I think that's kind of the weird part here is they've been, they've kind of made their bones on this idea that like, oh, we're going to disrupt all the things that you don't like about watching golf. We're going to make it super exciting. Yada, yada, yada.

But at the end of the day, it's still like, holes two through 17 are just like really boring, pretty nondescript golf. And it feels a lot like you're watching, you know, the Valero Texas Open out there. There's just not a lot of differentiator. And so, I don't know, I think it's, I think we've said a lot about the team stuff. I think there's a lot to pull on there that can really separate it.

But as of right now, you've had as much coverage as you're probably going to get unless Rory or Jordan Speeth or someone else massive jumps and 65,000 people have chosen to watch it. And I don't think that's good. I think one clarification, I don't think it's millions of people watching,

but I will say they do have TV deals in like 25 countries and there's people watching on the website plus YouTube. Like it's not just the YouTube stuff, right? I don't think it's hundreds, you know, hundreds of thousands or millions of people watching, but there's probably more people watching than, and I don't think anybody was watching. I think for Sweden, but I think they deeply also care about the US and UK markets. And that's YouTube. And like to get that few people watching is pretty astonishing. I mean, we got, we had what 5,000 people watching our premiere of a episode that they can watch at any time that does not need to be watched live, 5,000 watch that. And they're getting

65,000 to watch KM and DJ like that is that's incredibly is incredible. T.C. What's your headline? What's it all boiled down to? I would say golf exclamation point, louder and with terrible branding and music. I honestly cannot get over the team names. I still cannot wrap my head around the fucking team. We'll get to team names. We'll over the team names. I still cannot wrap my head around the fucking team.

We'll get to team names. We'll get to team names. Yeah, I mean, I think that's that's it. I think there's, you know, I don't know. It's one of those things I can't bad better really good article in the Washington Post this week about, you know, he went over to the Jetta event. You know what?

It's not Jetta. It's King of Dollar Economics. Thank you. It's 90 minutes away the Jetta event. You know what, it's not Jetta. It's King of Dollar Economics, it's just 90 minutes away from Jetta. And how to pretty insightful piece on that is just like he talked to a female volunteer there. And like he said, his one like unscripted interaction of the entire week.

And there's a Dave Eger's book, I read a few years back called A hologram for the King that it kind of reminded me of. Of like, I think the main point of his piece was largely around the impatience and kind of wandering eye of the Saudis of like, King Abdullah economic city was supposed to house two million people and have mass transit and a subway system and you know or like the the re odd financial district was they set aside a hundred million dollars to build that and it's still like isn't built or

Neo or the line city like they've got all these irons in the fire and like the jetta tower for instance it was supposed to be the tallest building in the world. They paused it in 2018 and they haven't started it back up since. And it's like, you know, at what point do they get bored? Do they not see the return with live or, you know, who knows what their true motivation or priority is with it? Maybe they've already, you know, largely achieved that to a certain extent as soon as they sign on a corporate sponsor or to or as soon as they sign on a corporate sponsor or to or as soon as they sign on a media deal in certain markets, it's normalized doing business with

the kingdom from public, you know, standpoint or like from a public opinion standpoint. So I think that's kind of the big theme for me is like, it's, you know, I think this year started as a very, you know, kind of, you know, oh, this is sports washing, this is, this is, you know, all about the politics, all about the political science behind it. And I think that's almost faded to the background a little bit, and now it's just like, just why?

Right? Like it's kind of like, you know, it's like, we've established that, that's why they're doing it. But like, I keep getting back to like, yeah, but I would say the same thing if like Canada was trying to own golf or the state of California or something like that, I would still say like, a, like, why and be like, that's not good. Like, you know, Martin Slumber's had a, had a piece with John Huggin this week as well,

where he's like, he's like, the Saudis want to throw a bunch of money into golf. That's great. But he's like, what I'm worried about throw a bunch of money into golf. That's great, but he's like, what I'm worried about is the meritocracy element of it and making sure that there's pathways and that shit is earned. And that I think is more of a question than ever. And I think, sorry, just real quick, I think I brought a Ben Crane earlier as kind of like a throwaway comment, but he's like the best example that I've seen in a long time of why you can't just pick 48 arbitrary dudes and then instantly give them, you know, an opportunity to win world ranking points against Cam Smith against Dustin Johnson,

etc. Because there's fucking guys like Ben Crane, who can still go out on the PJ tour and shoot 62. Like there, you don't just get to like jump the line on all of those dudes. And that was just kind of the, I thought about that this week when we saw that on Thursday. And I think it is again, we're probably not speaking to the crowd that listens to this podcast an hour in, but there is a huge still disconnect of like the difference between being a paid spokesman, spokesman for the Saudi government and like this sport having Saudi funding. Like we've, like we've, has been pointed out many times

like the Saudis are invested in a lot of business and it's not a one drop rule. It's not, you know, if, if five percent, if they own five percent of FedEx, it doesn't mean like I refuse to use FedEx in any way, that's not the case at all. It's like if the difference between that and like having to go around and say nice things

about your bosses that are the Saudis is like what has made this so offensive from the jump? So I still don't believe when the Saudis try to say things like that they wanted to invest in the PGA tour and the PGA tour would answer the call. Like listen, I don't, I'm not gonna go ahead and believe that, but there is Martin Slumberz, to the Martin, I agree with Martin Slumberz the way he put it in that article as well. In terms of like, I

just need people to know how fast those differences are. And I know that will change no one's mind about how they feel about it. But my headline for the season, strange mix of pro golfers joined Saudi funded exhibition series. It is there's no rhyme or reason behind the players that play in it. Other than these are the guys that we're willing to sell out, the four aces are not the best golfers of of any kind. They're just like the best of the sellouts. Like that's kind of how this is defined to me. Like I'm watching a competition. Even some of them aren't even the best of the sellouts. They're just happened to be the best team of the sellouts, I guess. But that's how I would summarize the competition that I just watched. I enjoy watching the best of

athletics in a lot of a myriad of ways. And this was just not that. It was a weird collection of talent and non-talent that we were forcing upon us to try to care about. And like, look, I don't regret one ounce of breath we've spent on this podcast talking about it. Like the whole dynamic of all of this is still extremely, extremely interesting. It cracks me up, still when we get questions of like, all the thing I ever hear about live is from you guys still whining about it.

It's like, oh, it's still the most important thing that's happened in golf in my lifetime. And, and it's still going to shape how the next 10, 15, 20 years are in professional golf. And I don't regret at all the time we spent talking about it. I just wish I cared about the golf more or the golf mattered more or it didn't diminish professional golf in the way that it has. So, so I go back to your point of like the, the third, you know, the third place team today, like two of the guys like Chase Kebka and Peter Elin, one of them can't get a PGA tour card. The other one can't keep a PGA tour card. I can't even get it inside the top 125 guys. Okay. Chase Kebka is not even in the realm of a PGA tour card. Exactly. And they're,

and they're, their scores like counted today or like we're going to count today, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like, you know, like feel like it validated a lot of how I was feeling about the PGL, because I know we've, you know, some rightfully and some not so rightfully, I think we've taken a lot of shit for like, well, you guys were all in on the PGL, you know, when this was their idea, now you hate this live stuff. And I think what was so appealing about the idea of the PGL was like when you get everybody to go at once, right?

That's the whole thing. that's the whole thing. That's the whole thing. Picture today and the team for like really this weekend and the whole team format and picturing that those teams are made up of whatever pick for like actual competitive tour players. I mean, God, dude, sign me up for that. How much better is that than the Valero Texas open? How much better is that than a lot of the stuff that we watched 25 weeks a year, right?

But like, what was so fucking clear from the jump here was like, oh, God, they're not going to even come close to getting everybody. And all it is going to do is make both things way worse. And I think we've pretty validated in that as well. That's what I've been screaming from the rooftops. And it's just like take the tiniest peak around the corner to what's to come. Like the whole, the wave of, like, I, I've seen nothing. I've heard nothing that makes me think there's a whole new wave of talent top other guys

that are going to be making the leap now, right? So so now it's just Cam and DJ over there playing with the plumbers and firemen and just like throwing up a shit ton of distractions. And a big chunk of like the medium players that like the A-bansers, the co-crax and whatnot that like help support the talent of the PGA tour. They're not needle movers, but like they're very good players. They're not superstars by any means, but they're very good players. And a shitload of the best entertainers, the pricens, the reads, like he kind of entertains in like in like a ass backwards way of just,

it's really funny to make fun of, like fill always a constant entertainment, all gone. And that's just where, like, yes, that's exactly why this, this polarizing split is, I don't think it'll be a great thing. But let's get to our questions. Sorry, last thing. In a weird way, it almost like, it almost makes those guys that like could have been supporting characters, like totally fucking irrelevant. Like you said, A-B answer.

And it's like, dude, I haven't even thought about A-B answer in four months. And Carlos Ortiz is another one. Or Matt Wolfe is probably the best example of someone that's like, dude, you could have had your week or your couple weeks or whatever. You could have been, I love watching A-Bans or play golf. I love watching like contend for PJ tour events. I don't give a shit if he's like contending for, you know, what, like if he wins his singles match and one of the, like it's, it's just, it's really, it's really

weird. It like makes those almost like worst of the worst on those guys. The only thing I'll push back there is wolf. Liv makes so much sense for wolf. Like the dude was pretty clearly like not cut out for PJ tour professional golf grind and to do it however many weeks a year in a team aspect and 54 holes like seems way, way, way more, makes sense for Wolf.

That's the only pushback I would have in any of this. But let's get to the remaining superlatives. Let's start TC here. What was Liv's biggest success? We've probably touched on some of these throughout the course the last hour, but what's been their biggest success? I was impressed with the way that they set up a broadcast that quickly.

Like it came together. Centurion was pretty juiceless, but I think when they, you know, as they kind of found a rhythm, their second, third, fourth event, you know, they stood something up out of nothing. And they didn't have a working leaderboard on the website. There were some things that maybe could have signaled, hey, this is just a little bit about the golf, which when you don't have a leaderboard on your website, it's like, all right, like clearly you don't even fuck about the golf. But like the fact that they just showed a bunch of golf and in a way that I wish,

you know, the PGA tour would kind of take some notes from, like more handheld cameras, like a little bit more lo-fi in certain regards, but just cutting around and some of that is, you know, all the players being on the course at the same time and only 48 players, but at the same time, I think it's, you know, hats off to him for, that's, you know, doing a TV broadcast is not an easy thing to do as golf channel and NBC and CBS tend to show us on a weekly basis. So I think, you know, hats off to them on that front. I think when it was first announced, it was pretty easy to let a visual in your head of like, this is gonna be a bunch of streaming cell phones, like wandering around on a golf course.

And it was not that. It was like a very, very proper telecast. I'm pancing the current television broadcasters, if I may say. And honestly, part of the reason why I thought that part was gonna be a disaster was how much they've been in our ears screaming about how hard it is to produce golf.

And it was like, oh no, we just actually just rolled out of the out of bed and produced it like that. It was pretty, pretty sick. Yeah. D.H. Well, was there lives biggest success? I think Cam Smith. I think the Cam Smith coup was there was their biggest success.

I think that was the like the momentum was starting to slow at that point when you're starting to get the like tringolies and people like that that are your big signings and getting the fucking open champion right after he wins a clear jug is like that that was a gut punch to the PJ tour. See, that was kind of my answer, but I framed it in, I think their biggest success was disrupting the professional golf scene by signing away significant names, some significant names, talents and entertainers. Is my answer? Like, it's a, it's a big win to sign cam, but it's a bigger loss for the golf world. Like, it's just bigger disruption more than it is, like, a great thing for live and just kind of tears. It tore apart the golf world and tore apart. It's yeah, it's disruption for the sake of disruption,

more than it is a benefit. That's the thing. I think it's like the success is, you know, like, because I think some of the stuff that they spurred with the PGA tour, you know, the tour accelerated certain things or forced the Torah to look at things differently and to at least try to evolve the product, which hopefully we'll see that over the next couple of years. But it's not a debits and credits thing, right? Like it's the credits to not add up the debits.

The debits are much higher. They've, you know, it's like, I'm sitting here bum because I love watching Cam Smith play golf. He just, he plays fearless, aggressive golf. He rolls the rock so well. Even that up and down on an 18 that he had. It was just really fun to watch him scramble around and play golf.

And I was just bummed that really I only get to see that four times a year now in the biggest moments. What was Liv's biggest mistake? I'll start this one. I think it's maybe a common answer we may have touched on this as well, but I think Liv's biggest mistake. It's hard to judge, but I still do wanna say having third leg Greg run the show.

It's hard to say like what kind of credibility, quote unquote, it gave them. Or how much he was able to his impact was able to help sway some of these top names to join. But it has been a total clown show from the public facing perspective. And that feels like their biggest mistake, Dege. So this is going to sound like a trite throw a answer. But I mean this very sincerely in that I think their biggest mistake was being massive dicks constantly. In that like, like, they were the most unlikeable, not only the most unlikeable group of players, right? Like, nobody, it's been very clear over the past however many years, like, there's not that many people riding for, for a lot of the guys that signed up. But I think just by treating this thing like, fuck you, it's us against them.

Like, so, just, I don't know, just so like, hostile towards everything. I think if you saw, and maybe some of this has to do with the courses that were available to them, and the players that were able to jump for this thing like it was a very Your vibe attracts your tribe situation, but if you if you take like a lot of the successes from This past week and you just You know mind a race the last six months eight months nine months whatever and you just picture This is like a league that would have come in and just be like hey hey man, the PJ tours doing their thing and we're just, we totally respect that. And we're just gonna be over here like trying to get this new thing stood up.

And I hope you like it. And if you don't let us know what we could be doing differently. Like if they would have just had a little bit of humility, I think people are so fed up with how boring the PJ tour is that they would have attracted a ton of people to like ride for their cause. And instead it just turned into like, fuck you. If you don't like it, you're a fucking loser, snowflake pussy. And like this is real golf.

And it's just like Jesus, man. Like, yeah, that's gonna like turn some people off. And it just seems like a little bit of tact would have gone so far. And that has to do with hiring Greg Norman as well. And it has to do with, you know, maybe that was the PGL's mistake, right? It was that they didn't approach it that way.

And maybe that's why they didn't attract all the people who wanted to sell out. And so who knows? That's from afar, but I would say being huge dicks would be my answer. T.C., what was your biggest mistake? T.J. it's funny how the people who seem to be the loudest about like, keep your politics out of my sports.

It's crazy how that works T.J. bringing politics to the forefront. Totally crazy. I would be very curious. I'm not sure if this was their biggest mistake, but it very well could have been. But it also could have been a good thing. You know, maybe things would have progressed

a different way and they wouldn't have gotten, say, cam. But I would say the biggest mistake was just like the Michelson stuff in the spring. Like Michelson's, you know, A, putting a lot of your eggs into the Michelson basket. Being in the Michelson business at large. Yeah. Yeah. It just seems like that's going to be like not a very good

business. It's a volatile business. There's going to be some some like a point of diminishing returns, I think, some boom years, other stuff, bust years, the Michelson business. Yeah, there's some skeletons in the closet. There might be some some audits coming, you know, you know, stuff like that, where I think, you know, stuff like that where I think, you know, that whole thing really changed

because they were ready to like sign a bunch of people right then and there, right? I mean, it was, you know, red fit. Awesome. And it was kind of one of the, yeah, it was kind of one of those things where it was like, you know, like that kind of put a pause on everything, but I'm not sure whether that was, you know,

kind of allowed them to get their ducks in a row a little bit more, or if it was, you know, truly a hindrance and they would have signed more top shelf guys right away. Next up is what was the funniest moment? I'm going to take this one first. The first photo of Phil at the live party. I think that's the funniest moment. My runner, I'll let you guys pick it. I'll get you my runner up. Dej, what'd you have? That's be the funniest moment. My runner, I'll let you guys pick it. I'll get to my runner up. Dish what you have.

Uh, I've, gosh, I forgot about the fill thing. I, I, I feel like I forgot about so much. I'm so excited for some of the year in review content that's going to come out to just remind me of all the shit that I forgot about. But I think the first look at the logos for me that day of when the, when all the like sniper photos, they didn't allow any media at the press conference essentially. They just had like a big party where they like unveil all this stuff.

And you know, people are tweeting out these like gorilla photos of the logos and the fireballs logos out there. It was just that that was I think maybe the happiest I've been in this in this whole process was was watching all the clip art logos come out TC got you know my favorite thing it will not be topped I don't think in the history of live was the picture of slugger I mean that that was that just fucking spectacular man I mean that that was that just fucking spectacular man

My my runner-up was the fan that got hit on the AT toll at Boston Went into a speech about the PGA lived in to get along and they egged him on until he put his trump hat on it And the whole crowd cheered that was the funniest moment to me. That was that was the most dystopian and Just how is this real life moment for me. That was that was the most dystopian and just how is this real life moment for me. It was a rally and cry for peace. I appreciate that from from that guy. The voice of reason. The first Brooks presser. That was some of the funniest shit I've ever seen in a totally miserable way. But some of the worst shit I saw all year was the trash talking between not organized. Yeah, culture. Oh, so bad. The best team name at logo and worst team name logo TC will go to you first. Oh my god, there's so many different directions like I go with this. I almost feel like we've

got to do like a non a non fireball. I excluded them because I know DJ was going to take that with best end words. Yeah. Like NBA. Best in the NBA. Yeah. The cliques and the nivlecs are so dumb, but so harmless and everything. Like I think my least favorite or the worst is the crushers. It's just so corny and stupid, just from the name, but logo wise,

I mean, it's gotta be either stinger or smash. Like they both look like a colonoscopy of sorts. And then best, I would say, you know, I'd say fireballs. I also think them logistics. It's a terrible name, but I think they have a good brand name. Good motif. I would say the exact opposite. I think the name's great.

That's the only thing that didn't like make me laugh out loud out of like secondhand embarrassment. And then the logo is kind of was on fire. Yes, stick. Didn't make me laugh out loud out of like secondhand embarrassment. And then the logo is kind of was on a chest stick. Yeah. Didn't make you know, it's like so British and so like kind of twee. It's it's great. I'm in on the majestic. What were your picks, and each I had the majestic says the best name.

Uh, I think the four aces have a solid logo, very derivative of other, other logos, uh, throughout the game. And then the fireballs, you know, I, I got a soft spot, very derivative of other logos throughout the game. And then the fireballs, you know, I got a soft spot, of course, in my heart for the fireballs. But I, of course, procedurally have to give them worst name and worst logo. But I'm going to give an honorable mention to Stinger GC and the one that looks like the colon. I don't really know what else it would be. Other, like, it just looks like you're trying to make it look like a colon. And I don't know what else it would be.

I don't know what they were going for it. That wouldn't be a colon. Is it like a snake or like a squirt? It's like puffy. It's like super puffed. Like, I don't know. It just has to be like it's a cool. Yeah.

Yeah. I think the four aces, and maybe it's just because they're their winners, but I think they're their team name. So first of all, I thought it was like four aces like you four of a kind, like aces, like that makes perfect sense. Yet the in the email description about the names, it's about hole in once, four hole in once is what it's about, which there was a big strike against them, but I think they're they're they're both teeth and everything is probably my favorite, but I got to throw a vote for the Ironheads, which is worst everything.

The war is, oh, it's terrible. It's been really taking the Ironheads to task all season. I mean, the Ironheads, that's your team name. That's not bad, but yeah. Shout out to Craig Hayward. Who I struggle with this one, I'm not gonna lie. Who came out?

I, let's not let Torque get off Scott free here either. It's bad. They're, they're, their whole thing sucks too. I struggle with this one, but who came out looking the worst? It was really tough to pick between a bunch of dudes that came out looking really shitty. I, I don't think it's even close personally.

I think, I think the Michelson business takes it by a mile. I think picture, this dude won a fucking major last year. It became the oldest major champion in the history of golf and should have been just like a year long celebration tour. And instead is just like a shell of himself, divorced dad, energy, making bad jokes with people he clearly like doesn't want to be hanging out with, has just been publicly dependsed with like comments

that never meant to be public. It's just, it's like, he's like toast. And that is, that's one of the great falls of our time, I think. I don't think he's coming back. I think that's an easy one. And I think I almost I almost was giving him probably too much credit for like the in the Phil was right camp in terms of like changes being made to the PGA tour in a really backwards way. He ends up looking good in some of that, I think. Now in some way, and it's not I am not in the fill was right camp on this, but like,

and I think you went about, obviously went about it in all of the worst possible ways, imaginable, including under any circumstances, got a head to do it. YouTube not have to head to it, but he bottom line, like he had a point in a way about, like, why is there not more money being distributed and all the sudden money to get distributed? If you overly simplify everything, that is a win in the field column in the court of public opinion. I think that that that sums up really well. I think who came out looking the worst, I guess maybe just the guy I was most wrong about or had backwards was Keppka, like the Bulldog tough guy, like major champion. All I care about is majors in competitive golf, man.

Like I just want to compete like a real ass. And for him to like go and in his own words sell out. That was the one that was just like the most like what the fuck is going on right here. But as he's probably not the one that came out looking the worst, but that he he came out looking worse than maybe it's being talked about, I would think, because he's been totally irrelevant ever since then. You know what, I'm gonna go, that like Capco is up there for me. I'm gonna go a different direction though.

I'm gonna say J-Mon-Han. Like I think the way that he's been depanced and all this, and just the PGA tour at large as far as the way that they run their business. I'm here in around town that like they've called around to every single golf club. I've heard this from very credible people here in town, like not related at all to Cam.

That they've called around and had San Jose, Atlantic Beach, Pablo Creek, I get, because Finchham and Monohan are members there, PVIC, the yards even. They've called around to every single one of these places and had him black bald. And it's like, man, like that's kind of fucked up. Like they got, like I think, I don't think Cam really, you know, did anything egregious on his way out the door.

Like yeah, he's the reigning players champ and they're in that sucks that he's not gonna be able to go defend his title and all that but You know like the tour doing stuff like that or doing stuff like Like that they they've been rumored to do like just bad business, right? Like the stuff that they're getting investigated on now on like the anti-trust and the and the group boycott stuff of just like Holy shit like you guys are so sloppy and you're so poorly run and you're so like

in the way that your own members, like they're perception of you and is so negative and like they're it's kind of, I think it's ripped the bandaid off of that. And I think at the end of the day, that should be a good thing for the PGA tour here, moving forward if they can wrap their arms around it and figure out how to get better for it. But really overall, it's just like, man, the the amount of pettiness and just point missing by the tour from, I mean, even going back to like monahan at the Canadian Open, right? Of, standing up there and looking terrible in the booth and talking about the 9-11 families and this and that. And it's just like, dude, you're like this ain't it, you know?

So I don't know. I think that's, like, I think between Jay Monahan and Greg Norman, they both need to get the fuck out. So, you know, for the sake of golf. I have no reason to doubt the information we were saying about the being blackballed from any clubs, and if that is the case, that's super fucked up, and also like it seems like,

wait, it seems unbelievable. Like unbelievably stupid in terms of group boycott stuff, they are necessarily petty, that almost like I can't picture that being the case. Even I'm again, not telling the information, it's just like there's no way they can care that much. There's no way they could take it that personally. And if that is the case, they deserve whatever is coming to them.

Is it just makes no sense? And they're using, they're using like, you know, all right, cool, you want Morgan Stanley to come stay at your hotel, cool. That's how, and like I believe it wholeheartedly because they did all the same shit with certain vendors that work with the tour that we're gonna work with live, and they threaten them into submission.

And it's one of those things, it's like how fucking sloppy and lack of common sense can you have here, man? Very different scale, of course, but it just reminds me of when the tour suspended by Twitter account when I tweeted that Bryson video during the COVID tournament. It was like, hey, man, like this is what you guys are working on right now?

Like, come on. Yeah. This is what you got going. This is what you put your best minds on. Come on. I'm gonna throw out, I think also receiving votes, certainly not a winner here, but I don't think anybody had any Taylor Gooch sentiment

before this. And I don't, I like Taylor Gooch before this. But I think you'd have to admit you're probably in the minority there, right? I think there was, I think people were, I just thought he was a really good guy. Sure, but I think people were very, very neutral on Taylor Gooch before this.

And I think sentiment has dropped in his regard. I feel like we gotta give Baba an honorable mention. Baba almost is... It's Baba Shoe'd himself as a total cartoon character who's a complete empty... I just don't think anybody cares. I don't think anybody cares. I think that leads us into who came out looking the best.

And I think Bubba, like, I'm totally with you. Everything he's done has been so fucking soulless and seemingly against like everything he's ever said in the public eye and just like nobody cares. And Dustin would be, I think, the clear winner of kind of like who came out looking the best, which is just, you know, he basically made the whole thing possible with the last minute about face when it looked like they were floundering and everybody was going to drop out and Dustin,

like securing him, kind of made this whole thing go forward. And I don't think he's taken, like any of the heat for anything. And that's why I don't think he deserves to say come out looking the best. I think he's to blame for most of this, but just to his demeanor and everything helps him, helps him pull it off. I think Sergio also comes out looking like a total showed as well, because he's doing the whole pity party. Well, the same dude that he said in the meeting to the European tour players, like you guys literally, I'm not making this, you guys are fucked, this tour is shit. It's now being like, yeah, I guess like some of those dudes don't, some of those dudes don't

want me in the locker room for the Ryder Cup. It's like, super. Why would that be? Super. Why? Why would that be? Who came out looking the best? T.C. Do you have an answer to that one? I mean, generally, I think the majors, right? Like, I think that's like, they're, they're not an individual. They're not a live play. Like if it was a live player, I would say, got probably Peter Uline because he made,

I was wrong earlier. He made $12.6 million this year, you know, as far as public perception goes, there's not a whole lot of guys that are just, it's more like who didn't come out looking like an asshole or who just kind of slid under the radar. Like guys that didn't lob grenades on like, like, they're in their way out the door. Like, Charles how the third, he's like,

hey, I was happy with my time at the tour. I'm ready for something new. I do not begrudge him one bit, you know, it's like, cool, man, like, you made your bed, you committed to it, you're not suing the tour. You're not talking shit about people on the way out. Like you're just, you know, you want to change your pace. I respect that. But like, I think the majors, just like the majors come out looking best because it's gonna be the only time that all the best players in the world tee it up together every year.

And, you know, I think we were on a track before this even where the majors were getting more and more and more important and the rank and file PGA tour events, we're getting less and less and less important outside from, you know, I am full of them. And I think that's one of the things that they've tried to address with, you know, that meeting in Wilmington, or the BMW and all that,

but like, and hopefully with the upcoming tour format being tweaked, but that, like, this is only accelerated that, right, like the majors are real golf. That's what matters. According to Peter Dawson, it sounds like the masters, the past champs are gonna come play in the masters and they're probably not gonna get invited to the Champions dinner, but like the British open

is still gonna be an open. The US open is still gonna be an open. Some guys may have to qualify their way in. If anything, I think that makes it a stronger event. It makes it more interesting. It makes sectional qualifying more interesting, right? So yeah, I would just say, the majors and really, the US open, the USGA, the RNA, and Augusta National,

just first and foremost, and the PGA of America, I guess. Like it's just, now as long as they, as they keep their hand out of the cookie jar, and don't get greedy with all this stuff, and don't, you know, and don't get too cute and give the PGA tour too many favors here. I struggled with a who came out to look the best, honestly. I kind of, I want to say, Rick, Rory, in terms of just like, at least like a example, one and like one of the few people ever to like start leading the group of PGA tour players, like start making their own decisions, which they are responsible for. And while playing

excellent golf and while speaking on the topic very clearly and in a very committed way, I think it's been very, I think he's come out looking great in all this. And I don't know if this answer was, a question was designed to be someone around live. And if I may throw a also receiving votes, the people that were talking about this way before everybody else was, and it was warning maybe around a year ago

around this time that was saying, hey, like maybe pay attention to this thing and listen to this and let's talk about it. It's a very interesting, relisted, if you go back to literally our episode from this week, last year, and we could not, we did not have the concept down of like a league versus an event series

and we were working off extremely small amount of information at that time, but it's very interesting. How things have all played out and one of my favorite moments, if you go back, almost three years now to the January podcast that we did, 2020, there was a question, you know, it was talking about the PGL breakouts and all that. The question was asked, like, who do you think would be the first to leave?

And whoever asked it did not get the question out before DJ was like, fill immediately. That was one of the, one of the great podcasts, well, but we've ever had if I best say, I think honorable mention for guys that come out looking good to is this, you know, Chikara guy as well, like who has a wretched wretched reputation within the collegiate golf scene, like, you know, teammates, we're going to transfer out of Oklahoma state if he was still on the team. Like, there's stories of him getting into fights with, with like current players when he went on official visits, like getting into fist fights in the dorms. And, you know, he, he shows up and he wins, you know, and he wins a shitload of money and I think he comes from a pretty impoverished background

and set for life in more ways than one, both with the upfront and now with the person. He is another example of, I am not under any circumstances saying that live is only dickheads. It's just all the dickheads seem to prefer it. That's, you know, some other good example. TC, I'll give it from a hotel EA perspective. I think the staff at the hotel du-pont came out looking really nice. And the conference room setup that they provided for, you know, changing the structure of the entire PGA tour. I think that comes out well. So a couple of other fringe, you know, vote receivers at the end of that one. I like also, it cannot be overstated. How,

when we were in Korea, just asking around, we're like, oh, like it's kind of bizarre that live hasn't seemed to really gain any sort of foothold in the actual golfing markets in Asia. In Japan, in South Korea, well, they're looking to grow the game. Games aren't grown there. They don't need to. Maybe. Yeah.

But man, I was asking around wearing South Korea about Kevin Na. And they're like, oh, dude, everybody here fucking hates Kevin Na. He's a joke. He's a cartoon character. And it just blows me away that they haven't made any sort of inroads to South Korea.

LAT, wrapping up this section here. How do we see the next year playing out? How do you see the next four years playing out as it pertains to live? Digestive you. I think the next year, and of course, we'll preface this with who knows. I'm kind of, solid. You said this a couple weeks ago, like we've kind of left the station as far as like, being able to easily predict what's gonna happen. And now we're kind of in this territory of like, I don't know, man, it's pretty uncharted

and we'll have to see. So it's all pure speculation, but I am of the somewhat pessimistic mindset that it's gonna kind of slow to a bit of a bit of it like a relevancy next year. I mean, I know it's relevant from a competition standpoint this year, but I think they've still got like I was saying earlier, they've still got all the juice, they've got all the headlines, they've got all these things like once those go away, what's left? Man, and that's what we saw in a lot of those overseas events is like, man, once the drama leaves, like there's really no reason to tune in to this thing. And

so that's where I get a little skeptical that, that, you know, there's some big salvation coming down the line here. And so I guess from a big picture perspective, it's like, I kind of see it like running out of gas over the next year or so. And maybe they keep funneling money into it. But just the same way TC you brought up your beloved King of Dual Economic City. Talk to anybody who's been there. And then they're like, dude, it's like a it's like a Lego city. Like it's all these buildings. They're just completely empty. Like it, and I think, you know, that that Washington Post story you brought up earlier, trying to do a great job of laying out a lot of those abandoned projects.

I've just like, yeah, I know this was gonna be a, this was gonna be a $500 billion thing and they just, you know, wasn't really working so they just kind of walked away. So I know it's very easy to say right now, like we're in this thing for the long haul, but I'm skeptical of that. And I think no TV partners gonna help fuel that.

I think running out of players is gonna help fuel that, which just seems like it's gonna run out of gas. But, you know, I've been wrong many, many times before. So who knows? TC. Yeah, I think, you know, kind of simmers along over the next year or two. I think it'll be really interesting.

It sounds like these guys have either three or five year deals. I think a lot of them have five year deals. So we'll see kind of how they cycle guys in and out, how they, you know, who's in it to stay, how they integrate the Asian tour stuff into it as well. You know, I think some of these guys, some of these international guys may host Asian tour events

in their home markets, which I don't necessarily even think is a bad thing for golf. I think if they want to play the grow of the game talking point, that's actually a good thing. If cam's hosting something down there, or if Joaquin Neiman is hosting something in Chile, or something, I'm cool with that. I think that's a good thing.

I think that's a net positive. I think as the price of oil fluctuates, I think it's going to be harder and harder for this audience to stay focused a good thing. I think that's a net positive. You know, I think as the price of oil fluctuates, I think it's going to be harder and harder for this audience to stay focused on this thing. If they truly aren't able to secure the commercial investment that they needed to, but really at the end of the day, it's like, some of it comes down to as well. Like, how good is the PGA that we're going to be at evolving?

Right? And how badly are they going to get boned by this antitrust stuff? Because I think they've made some very, very like seismic strategic mistakes. And like in the way that they've gone about fighting this thing off and they've been extremely careless at the point where like you guys

are a multi-billion dollar organization and you wrote that email or you did this or you sent that text message, the fuck you thinkin', man. Which almost like, I started wondering, could that be like a good thing for the PGA tour of like having to clean house of everyone that committed antitrust violations?

And like just the tour, like is it that gonna be that big of a financial penalty to them that inhibits, you know, makes more guys leave or does it mean that they actually get some better leadership in there to change the way they do things? I do, I wonder. But I think it could be one of those things where it's like, you know, it could be an existential

thing as well, where, and maybe the next thing that pops up behind it, like they have to declare themselves insolvent the next thing that pops up, like, it could be a billion dollar plus fine, you know, something like, like, those damages are tripled in a civil case. The thing that they had those reserves filled, that's why they have them, see? Come on. That's when you pop the cherry on those NFTs. When that thing, when you got 20 billion NFTs sitting there, that billion is going to be nothing.

But it's been, it's really, really hard to know what's going to come now. I think it was pretty easy to sit here in February when everyone was, you know, signing off and saying we're committed to our commit to our we were the ones screaming on this podcast saying they're putting up the money. Someone's going to go play for it. Someone's going to go play in these events. Their strategy is literally pay Jason cocrack a ton of money and make other people want to come do it.

And that is how it ended up playing out. I just think that there's so much information out there on the table that I don't know why it would take. It would take something going very wrong at the PJ tour level for a rom, can't lay, shawfully, more a cow, one of those guys to leave. And it could still be a trickle-down effect of if they get one of those big names. 100%. The, the, the cows of cards could still fall to the point where like, even JT, I think has said like, I'm going to play with the best players in the world. I'm not going to be like the only one left at the, at the, you know, and I, I, I, at that point, I don't even know if I could fault those guys.

I really, but I don't sense that that's on the horizon. I really don't. I think that the Neiman was the only guy that left out of the guys that were in Delaware and I could be wrong on this. I could I could still see Adam Scott or someone else doing it, but those core guys that are on these US Ryder Cup and and Presidents Cup teams. I don't see even in the seven kind of corish guys on the European side as well. I just would be surprised. Listen has a lot of stuff surprised me to this point. Yes, but I just don't, I think those guys are at peace with the kind of money that they're going to be making from the PGA tour and have some competitive juice still left in them. So I think it is just going to kind of exist. It's been interesting to see kind of how bad the downtrend of viewership and interest has been over the last three or four of these events after Boston, I think was a pretty raging success. I think they would say with 180,000 people watching it on YouTube, and no matter how you slice up the TV deal stuff, like having a third of that audience is

mega not good. So it's just kind of kind of exist. It's going to be probably not as interesting to talk about going forward when there's third light Greg is an out saying dumb things, and Bryson isn't out there whining about not getting his pit money when he didn't complete the things he needed to do to get his pit money and all this stuff would eventually calm down. But yeah, I think it's just, it's hard to tell. Is Bryson done? You think like is he like stick a fork in him competitively as far as like eating Bryson contends in a major next year or in the next two or three years.

No, I don't think so. I think he's done. Yeah. I think a lot of these guys are going to struggle to compete in majors. I think it's going to be a different ball game to show up and not be that like people would be that excited about you being there. I think I guess another question for me is so they're going to 14 events next year, according to Evans article, nine are in the US and five are overseas. Believe that's right. Yeah, it's what they spelled out. Okay. So, so we know for sure they're going to Valderama. They're going to Maya Coba in Mexico.

I would assume they're doing London again or something, you know, in, you know, in or around London. Trump Aberdeen. Just from a me. Yeah. Trump Aberdeen. Trump. So there's your five already and that doesn't include like, that doesn't include anything

in Asia. Also, yeah, it doesn't include anything in Saudi. So I would think if anything, it'd be the opposite, right? It'd be five U.S. events, nine overseas. Nine U.S. events seems like a lot. That seems like a tie in the US, especially if you wanna be the world golf tour that they've tried to build themselves as.

Yeah, and I feel like they're already scraped from the bottom of the barrel a little bit as far as courses. And I think that's the other thing. There'll be Bedminster. There'll be Dorao, I assume, for the finale. There's gonna be Aberdeen, I assume, and then also the Trump course in Virginia

is gonna make up four of the, that's, that's gonna be four. And LA, maybe two. Potentially. Yeah. So I would assume Portland, you know, again, I think they've signed a multi year deal with that's Galantay. I would assume they're trying to get something in New York, like they do something at fairy point or they do something like that, that seems like somewhere that they wanna, you know, I would assume Boston

would be in the fray again. I would assume Chicago would be in the fray again. You know, they probably wanna get something in Texas. Who knows? Who could say? Who could say? I just had a quick, aged Pacific Am, wrapped up this weekend, Australian kid won, Harrison Crowe. You see that 17th hole? Yeah, our guy bowed gin dumped his shot

in the water on the island green 17th hole. We saw bow play. Junior players. Way at the junior players. Yeah. I think he's a sophomore or a junior at Oklahoma state. But yeah, it sounds like I don't know, just a strong Australian pipeline coming through gets into the masters with that. And then yeah, I talked about earlier, John Hogan had a good Q&A with Martin Slumberz. He was out at the age Pacific Am covering that. And then on the DP World Tour, Jordan Smith won for the first time in five years,

his second DP World Tour, when they were ball and hand all week. But so it doesn't count as an official record, but he set the 72 whole scoring record unofficially. He was like 31 under Pretty pretty serious and then I'm not sure if you guys saw that the story about Aaron Cochral Air Canada continues to be a massive massive massive. That's on you. That's a star alliance partner Yeah, it's just it's a stain on it's a stain on the star alliance name But his wife flew to Madrid to retrieve his clubs

that Air Canada had misplaced. They were able to get him to Madrid, but they couldn't get him to, I think they were in Portugal for this one, couldn't get him to wherever they needed him to be. So she, she's like, you know, six months pregnant, she hops on a plane to go get his clubs because Air Canada can't get this shit together.

So, anyway. Somehow busy week in the world of golf because thanks to the Butterfield. Yeah, thank you so much for all the drama that that brought us here this past week, but we will be back here for regularly scheduled programming here next week and thank you. Bye, man. And a quick quick quick quick quick shout out to everybody who said very nice things about our debut of Taurus sauce Scandinavia. Thank you to everybody who tuned in. Thank you to everybody who tweeted nice things and emails and texts and Instagram messages and YouTube comments and everything it was a smashing success from our end. And we've got we're going to brohoffs loot the big brawny.

Why do you keep saying it that way? It's brohoff slot. It's. No, no, it's loot. It's loot. Yes, it's like you're on vander's loot or it's like it's sleut. Okay. I've had I've got many messages from people saying that I'm correct. It's brewhoff. So it's brohoff.

I'm sticking. I'm sticking with it. I'm sticking with it. Nevertheless, we're going there and we pronounce it both ways throughout the episodes that were covered either way. But yeah, tune in for that Wednesday at nine PM Eastern standard time or savings time. I don't know, Eastern time, whatever we're on right now. And then we had, and then we got, we had a good trap draw this week, ran in our shopping it again. This coming week and then, yeah, and then Neil hopped on down range as well. We're getting a ton of positive feedback on that one. Cody, Cody, put him in the All right. That is it. House cleaned. Thank off, cheers, we'll see you next week. Better than most. Better than most.