No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 621: RSM, Dubai and CME Recap with Michelle Wie West

Episode Date: November 21, 2022

Soly and Neil fire up the Sunday night pod with a recap from all fronts of pro golf as Adam Svensson takes the RSM, Jon Rahm wins the DP World Tour Championship as Rory claims the Race to Dubai and Lydia Ko wins the LPGA's CME Group Tour Championship.  We take a thorough look at both men's tour finishes and Rahm's OWGR frustrations before we're joined by Michelle Wie for her insight on Ko's win and this past LPGA season. We also wrap with a few miscellaneous listener questions covering P's lawsuit, Bryson, the new PGA Tour app and more. 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. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up Podcast, Sally here, not in the Kill House in my own house on a Sunday evening talking to my guy, Mr. Neil Schuster, calling in from New York. Good evening, Neil.

Mr. Sally, good to be with you up here in the in the streamer studio. We're just chatting off flying a lot of sneaky busy week in the golf world. I was looking at the agenda as of yesterday. I was like, what are we going to talk about? And then as of today, it just it filled up. It always does. There's always something come Sunday evening to talk about. And we're going to have a guest later on who's going to be joining us to talk a little bit of LPGA. But first off, I got to tell you listen, they sent a script over for this ad read, and listen, I don't know if you can hear this, Neil. Oh, I'm doing it live, folks.

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And I went into my closet, pulled out a different brand of pants and they were wrinkled to hell. And I pulled out a pair of the Travis Matthew perfect pants that I have not worn since whenever was the last time I needed to wear pants down here. Needed no ironing, needed no dryer throw or anything. There's a reason why they call this thing the perfect pant. It is great for wearing to work. You can wear it out socially. You can wear it to the golf course. The reason they call it the Open to Close pant by Travis Matthew is you can truly wear it from Open to Close. This sounds like it's from a script, but it

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Just always trying to evolve up the game a little bit. So I'll have to check out the perfect pant. Wrinkle free is valuable when you start getting busy. You don't want to get the iron out or if you live in tight quarters and you don't want to do the whole iron, that's a lot of value. There's a lot of it. It's massive for travel too. Yes. It really helps when you can roll and pack light, you know, and get some multiple uses out of the pants. Love that.

We got RSM to talk about. We got Dubai. We got CME tour championship. Why don't we, we usually start with PGA tour. Let's start there anyways. Adam Svensson into the winter circle for the first time in his 70th career. PGA tour start, Bogey free, 64 in the final group. Neil, he missed 11 greens all week. Missed one green today over a week, spanning two different golf courses in all types of conditions.

It was damn cold on Thursday. It was windy a lot. There were a lot of beanies out there today. And he got it done for his first PGA tour win. He was a popular pick of mine and a lot of draft Kings stuff all year. Never came through for me. Popular pick for TC and somehow ended up

always coming through for him. But he's now into the winter circle and Canada rejoices tonight. Yeah, one of those guys that seems to just be kind of quietly balling out. It was almost a kind of a matter of time. I didn't know much about him. I mean, it kind of shocked me. I think that he kind of looks like Steph Curry's like white brother. I mean, there's some some like facial thing. I, we would, we would, once I saw that, I couldn't unsee it.

But I was sitting there watching the leaders come through the turn, like, you know, 9th, 10th, I was like, this is really boring. I was struggling to tell like, because everyone's wearing the, you know, the beanies. Like, who was who? I was like, Spencer, or like, you know, who am I watching? I just want to turn red zone back on. Like, do I have to watch this? And then all of a sudden, it was like, you know, who am I watching? I just want to turn red zone back on like, do I have to watch this?

And then all of a sudden, it was like this harmin, the gala, like showdown started on like the 14th hole. And then I was just locked in for the rest of the round. And then Spenson comes out of nowhere from the top rope and just pours cold water on this birdie fest that those guys are having it and just runs away with it in the last two holes. So I mean, like massive, you know, credit to Svensson for just taking control of the shot he hit in the 17, the par three was like just a really, really good golf shot after

a birdie on 16. So a big shout out to Adam, but also like pleasantly surprised on like the finish and how into it I was. So not a lot of big names in the field, but still a fun duel down the stretch, even though neither one of those guys won. I could think of a better way to describe the fall season than like, yeah, I couldn't really tell who was who, but like, hey, that's very end. There's a little bit of excitement there, right? Like it's just these fall events are not something you can watch. Thursday to Sunday. I don't, I don't advocate that, you know, for anyone, but come Sunday. There's

almost always some kind of good finish. It's a, it's always a weird week. This is always a bunch leader board on this back nine going into this final day. You know, they play the, this time of year, you need to golf courses. If you're going to get a full field through when they play the, you know, the Thursday Friday, they split between the seaside course and the plantation course. Every time I've played seaside, man, I walk off and I'm just like, dude, that's a hard, hard golf course. Like it just exposes me and then watching dudes just fly right through it with, you know,

with zero issue coming in. There were some low numbers out there today. Calum Terran shot a 64 to finish. Joel Damon shot a 64 today. Sahi had 66 Brian Harman shot 65. And it was kind of like, if you looked at the win probability charts, like I always do, it was like everybody chilling at like nine to 20% all afternoon and then Spencer and Bernie 10 and 11 and he just had so many more holes to play than the rest of those guys.

It looked really bunch, but he was in the driver's seat from that point on. Yeah, dude, it's just the saw-hit run. I don't feel anything already anymore. I'm numb to it. I was just expecting the pain. It was such an awesome, awesome run to see and he gets the ball just to violently, violently lip out on the low side on 16 and Spencer on 17 had a putt that I mean, it looked outside the whole low as it was approaching the whole with dying speed and it somehow fell in that right side and into the back of the hole. I had no point that I think that putt was fallen

and that ends up in, that's two shots swing and otherwise those two are gonna play off together. Well, it's, the goal is so easy to root for. I mean, he's just very swaggy. He's kind of the kid. And he, he's kind of, he almost looks like it's always fallen apart. And he, you know, he's taking these big lashes at the ball

but then he's rolling in birdies. He's just kind of always on the edge. And then you contrast that with Harmon, who's just pretty much his exact opposite. Those two would be great for a buddy's cop movie. They're so different, but it was great theater watching them both attack the course with different styles of play. I'm a little concerned about Harmon and his, you know, we're having trouble pulling the trigger.

I mean, I was counting 10, 11, 12 waggles. He's stepping off putts. Listen, the home game models were off the charts form as a, as a C Island man. So maybe there was some added pressure on him, but I've never really seen him as a guy that had issues with the, you know, with taking the club back. But today was like, whoa, you know, we were, I was expecting the pull back after the second and third waggle and he went seven or eight more. So that was, you know, but then compare that with the gole who's just like kind of, you know, sending it,

right? He does it. His whole process just feels like, all right, cool. Let's just like, let's just flag this one, man. Like it feels a lot less orchestrated if that would be the word. He reps the hoodie game better than anyone else. I don't tour. It just looks swaggy. How he does it. The I don't know how that where those strings came from. Strings are hanging down to his belly button. I mean, he just just oozing confidence with it. I get distracted when I see the hoodie strings hanging over the ball as I go back to swing. But man, he had one bogey and one double on the week. He doubled

a par five today on the front nine, which was before TV coverage came on, which when I saw that happen, I was like, all right, he's probably kind of out of it, but shoots a back nine 31 with that horrific lip out on 16 almost just finished in a total, total fury. But it was an awesome year for Sehith. I mean, it was, he obviously had the incredible close call at the waste management with a horrible bounce that just did not go his way. Ball plugs in the lip on the 72nd hole at the travelers. And then this lip out on 16, it just seems like the rubber the green absolutely hates this guy. And it's, you know, you got to go through this. Everyone, almost everyone's got gotta go through a lot of close calls.

It just seems like, if I'm looking at it, this is the first top five of Adam Spenson's career. And by far, his best ever finish for a player that is, if I may say, if you look at the numbers truly about his average as they come on the PGA tour, and for him to get it done in that first instance, the first real chance to win, and Sawhis still struggling to get one after three,

really good chances. Is frustrating for a saw hit fan. As you can imagine. Well, and saw it like it's the the hoodies. It's like baggy. It looks it looks comfortable. His pants are kind of baggy. You know, he's just it's swaggy like his whole way.

What's that? It's just not refined and technical, which is refreshing, which I love. He just looks like he's he's kind of always got like a little vibe in his step and he's got a little bit of Icarito going after the mega bonus in him where he's snapping at the ball to get down and it's short of the pin. It's like he doesn't really know

what the ball's doing in the air. It's really fun to watch. So I find myself immediately rooting for him. I think he birdied like what for the last six, or for the last seven. But when he started going on that run, kind of in the middle of the back nine, it made me sit up and it was like, oh, good. You know, I'm not going back to red zone just yet, you know, it was tough coming over from red zone to because every time I went to the CME or to golf channel, it was a

commercial we're playing through. And it's like, well, I could just watch football. I could just like straight up, 10 hours straight of like no breaks, you know, maybe they throw in an Amazon like game rewind on me. And it's just like, up, well, let me flip over to the golf, you know, I'm gonna be on the pod and it's like, oh, it's commercial. All right, well, I'm gonna go back to Red Zone then.

So that's tough to compete with. You gotta get the laptop out here. So what I did today, I had the LPGA and the PGA tour streaming in two separate windows kind of vertically stacked on the right side. And I could keep whatever I needed going on the left side. And I could keep red zone on the TV. That's the other way. You got it. I don't really think the tour. They can't really care if you watch, right? If they're going to put up commercials, this may commercials up against NFL football, you can't pretend that you cared that people watch. But I know it's just a hard, it's not, it's not a compelling

sales pitch. I put it that way. It's not. It's really not. But weak field at the RSM, but about as good of a leaderboard near the end there as you could have hoped for. Right. Not according to the OWGR.

It wasn't a real field, which will get you here shortly. We will get there. But I mean, I guess a lot of depth or just't a real deal, which will get you here shortly. We will get there. But I mean, I guess a lot of depth or just a lot of people, which I guess leads to the models telling us that there's a lot of depth. Not a ton of big names. I give a shout out to Cole Hammer, kind of a young book, starting to make some waves on the tour. I think, you know, coming out of college, you got to, you got to either get it like right away or you're kind of going to be on that Mav McNeely path, which is nothing wrong with that. Almost then you're going to have to play the corn fairy and learn how

to be a pro, which I think is probably a the long way, right? And we'll talk a little bit about the PGA tour you coming up, but good to see him with a, I think top five finish in a strong Sunday. Back gets him into the next full field event, which is Sony, which he had used up a bunch, you know, some sponsor exemption starts this past year on the PGA tour has not had a lot of success. He's Sean Martin had an article about it on PGA tour.com just saying, you know, I would make a bogey and I would start to panic.

I would feel like the world was collapsing around me and now he can look back and reflect and say, I can compete on the PGA tour, I've proven it already in just, I think, his sixth start or something like that. And to get it, you know, produce what he did on a Sunday. So he was a, he finished fifth in the PGA Tour U-standing. So he got exempt into final stage of Cornfairy Finals of Cornfairy Q-school.

He finished T-59 there. So he does not get guaranteed starts out of that. He will get starts on the Cornfairy Tour coming up this next year. I'd imagine him with his amateur record as well as, you know, you know, the PGA tour you ranking. I imagine they'll find some sponsors that want to have him in PGA in corn fairy events as well as, you know, how many Monday qualifiers can he go play and how many starts can he get on the PGA tour?

He got a lot of non-member FedEx cup points in this event this week, which you can leverage into getting status on the PGA tour, if you finish. So if he finishes in the top 125, he gets enough, as many points as the 125th guy got on last year's FedEx cup point list in this coming year as a non-member, he will get status for the following year. So that's another route for him to get status on the PGA tour. So I look forward to watching it. It is fun. You know, he's, I look up and he's 22 years old. He's like, oh, he's a young buck. And then I do reflect on, you know, I get excited for

all these guys coming up and I reflect on what, like Jordan's beef gave us at age 21. If people ever get confused, again, I say this anytime somebody, you know, like a zalator is just struggling for a first win. And you say, oh, he's young. He'll get a figured out. Just reflect on how much those young guys, these dudes that came out and set the world on fire at age 21. How ridiculous that was because we probably still didn't appreciate as much as that wouldn't happen. So, but in Cole's situation, is it still where you have to pick like, all right, I'm going

to go try to ball out at this PGA Tor event and just get credit for the PGA Tor tournament I played in. And I'm going to sacrifice corn fairy opportunities. Like you can kind of get stuck in the middle still. Yes. Right. It feels like your result or how you played in the PGA Tor event if you got a sponsor's exemption should be credited to your corn fairy season. Right.

I guess I get why it isn't, but it's almost like you get you. There's a, there's a gotta be a lot of guys to get stuck in the middle, like even talking to Lauren Cogler about this with the symmetric tour and, and you know, the LPGA. It's like, well, if I go finish well here, I can make like more money than I could make all season on the, you know, symmetric tour, but I'm not gonna get any credit for it. And that's kind of what, like, it's just, it's tough. I feel like that decision's really hard. I think you at his talent level,

you go for the PGA tour as much as possible. I mean, a couple more finishes anywhere near this. I mean, he got 120, he's got 120 points as it stands right now. And I don't know what the actual number he needs to get because of course the PGA Tour website defaults to whatever it says after the playoffs and it doesn't tell you what that is.

But he still needs, as a fair amount to go to get it, it won't be simple, but another top three finish or so puts him in really good position to do it. If you get a bunch of starts through sponsors exemptions, can Monday qualify for an event or two or if you can leverage another top 10 out of the Sony Like it would you if you're a premium talent like get up there and play with the big boys, right? I mean it's it's that's the best path towards a pga tour Corn fairy fallback is always an option if it doesn't work out, but

Yeah, or do it early, right? Like you're in Sony like try early in the season try to yeah Get hot and then if it's not going well then focus on the corn fairy tour for the back half in the season, try to get hot. And then if it's not going well, then focus on the corn fairy tour for the back half of the season. Yeah. Harry Higgs had a T21 after a tough weekend, but I just, I flag this one because I feel like something really good's happened for Harry sometime soon.

He just seems to be close. He's had a bunch of really good starts to tournaments in this fall and seems to be in a much better mental space. He's had some tough weekends to not make it as strong of a finish, but well, just got a much better mental space. He's had some tough weekends to not make it as strong of a finish, but well, just got a feeling about this one, that he had something good's going to happen for Harry Higgs

in the near future. All right, let that be noted. Sally's monitoring. I'm also in dead last and haven't got a pick yet, right, in this season for the draft gig. So also, take that for what it's worth. Patrick Rogers gave DJ a little bit of a sweat after DJ called him out last week on just kind of being a nebulous tour player.

But this is the one of any who has been closest to winning in the past. And he had a tough Sunday, but another solid week for him. One shout out David Lamerth, another T10, a really, really, really strong fall for him coming off a win in the corn. Very final is getting back to the pitch. Which looks like he's got a little bit of a honeymoon phase going on with the new putting stroke. really, really strong fall for him coming off a win in the corn. Very finals getting back to the pitch. Looks like he's got a little bit of a honeymoon phase going on with the new putting stroke. Well, I've never, like, I don't even know how to describe this on the podcast, but he's

kind of got, he's got like a long putter that's not quite all the way a full long putter. And he's cradling it in the left hand between his ring finger and middle finger, like kind of an inverted claw, basically, with the left hand up, not the right. And it must be working for him, I guess, but I just had not seen that until I saw him putting this weekend, but anything else you want to highlight from the RSM?

Well, no, but you've got to note in here about winners and losers just of the fall. And I was thinking about that before the pod. I think it's, and this going to come off as a backhanded compliment, but the all anonymous squad, right, had a big fall like like Damon, Russ Henley, Harmon. I feel like he's been in the mix the last three, four weeks. Uh, the guys that, you know, if they were walking through LaGuardia, you probably wouldn't recognize them, right? And but they're just banking millions and millions of dollars here in these fall events that, you know,

are not the the primo stuff. Meanwhile, the, you know, the horses that are playing in the fall, they're all, you know, over in Dubai. So I think those guys would be winners. If I call one out, probably that you're going to call out Taylor Montgomery seems like he's you know Starting to buck his head heading into 2023 and then the last one I had on a list was just a DP world tour trophy The the sheer size of that thing like it's almost taller than Rory I think that would would be a winner in my book It's just like outrageously big like and it I was trying to look at the picture of Rory holding it. It doesn't look very heavy, you know, I was like, God, that thing's like five feet tall, but it doesn't look like he's struggling to hold it up. So I'm very curious to like, what kind of materials they used to make it. But the outrageously large

trophy, go look it up if you haven't seen it. I guess I should have clarified. I meant big winners of the fall in this, the fall PGA tour schedule to start the years where I was going with that. But I, listen, I appreciate all nominations for that. But for sure, I was actually leaning more towards as we go to the Cornferry reshuffle to see who from this time period. I mean, if we're really getting down to the nitten grid of this part of the year, like if we're trying to pretend

like this is what's going to defy it, decide the FedEx cup, one is if we really care about the FedEx cup, but that's not the serious part of it. But it is a very serious part for the dudes that just graduated from the Cornferi Tour and are taking every start they could possibly get this fall. And to your point, yes, Taylor Montgomery is shuffled into the number one spot. And for those that aren't familiar, there's 50 graduates from the Cornferi Tour, both 25 and the regular season pointless and 25 from the playoffs that go get their PGA tour status and you are ranked 1 to 50 in that group to start the PGA tour season

Kind of it's a trade-off alternate. It's like number one from the points list Then number one from the playoffs number two blah blah blah goes off like that and they reshuffle that order based on your points Earned so far at this point of the year. So Taylor Montgomery reshuffles into number one in that slot. This is on PJTor.com slash fantasy slash reshuffle. You can see it. They had a great, they just updated, they had a great ranking to show how much, how much people had risen or fallen.

And now they've refreshed it for the reshuffle. They don't show that. But Montgomery, Dietri and Tyson Alexander, the big winners, Ben Taylor, Ben Griffin, Will Gordon, Kevin U, David Lingmerth, Robbie Sheldon, and SH Kim shuffle into the top 10. I think the biggest, I don't say disappointment. Carl Uin came out and is as fallen from number one, the regular season's point list down

to 30th. So he could potentially cost him some starts. Austin Eckrow, I think we were kind of expecting a little bit more. I mean, it's a long season to go for him, but he shuffles all the way down to 32. So, Bradley names, Brandon Matthews shuffles down to 40th on that list as well. So, it's a huge race amongst these guys. It's not very really well covered on television or like I'm not even going to pretend like it's something that a lot of golf fans are going to care great about.

But if you're interested in that kind of stuff, it is an interesting thing to check out. Which it could be the feature storyline of the fall season. Like, if we're going to start the FedEx cup stuff in January, moving forward so that there is more of an offseason, these guys battling it out to remain on tour or get a leg up heading into, you know, January feels like something that they, I don't know, the TV broadcast could make an effort to focus on. With graphics, like you're saying, with like, hey, let's just take a look at it. Like instead of showing me the Comcast Business Top 10,

show me this, show me the rookie power rankings or whose making noise, which I think would then lead to more discussion in the booth for these guys. Like it's a good topic when the field doesn't have that many big names on it, it's an opportunity to introduce some new people. So, I don't know. Without looking, can you tell me who's leading

the FedEx cup right now? I gotta think Max is up near the top and I got, no, I can't. Shamest power is leading the FedEx cup. So, this the last year we're gonna do this. This the last year where these eventsest power is leading the FedEx cup. So this the last year we're going to do this. This the last year where these events are going to count towards a FedEx cup. And I think that time is long overdue. I think it's very silly to have such an inauspicious start to your PGA tour season to have this many

events happen in a time period where these guys are not playing a lot of golf. Twenty-fifteen hours, two starts this fall. Rory has one, Max made three, Tom Kim made three. I'm just looking at the big guns and seeing how much they're playing this fall. Can't lay made one start, Sheffler made three. The standing just like don't mean anything at this point. And I'm just glad this is going away and we can definitively start the FedEx Cup season at Coppola next year or in 2024.

That just seems like a way better way to do things. So happy to close this chapter of the PGA tour book because this is so long to do. But that's kind of my point too, is like the PGA tour in order to keep these sponsors of these events happy, they're gonna have to almost sell those sponsors a new narrative of like,

yo, you guys are gonna be like the storyline of these tournaments now has to change. Or else like, you know, your devalue in the fall season, which should, you know, I understand and that's there should be an off season. I'm, we've been pushing for that for years. But I think there's still a place for these tournaments if you frame it properly for viewers. And that's where you're question earlier about, you know, kind of this getting caught in this nomads land between Cornfairy and PGA tour is where I think I don't know.

I still don't I don't think anyone knows yet how this is going to shake out for next year, these fall events, but with only 70 full time cards being handed out at the end of 2023 season, it there's going to be a lot more these events. I believe as I understand it are going to be a lot more about that shuffle. In terms of 71 is going to have a much better chance at retaining their card, the number 125 on the list, but you're going to have to go into the fall and re-qualify in some way and get your points through this fall season for the next year. And it will just kind of, it's what this tournament already is. It just has these FedEx cut points bolted onto it that don't make any sense.

And I do get it like FedEx when they were investing, you know, a billion dollars or have much money they give to the PGA tour over the life of the contract. They wanted all the events to be FedEx cut events. I get that. It's a new world. Things had to change. Things are going to change. And I think these are, these events are going to be about that shuffle. Maybe they can tell that story better into the fall. And I don't, well, I'm not going to pretend it's going to be super exciting. Like it's not. It's not. There's something there though. Like think about how compelling it is to watch hard knocks on HBO. And where's the drama come from there? It has nothing to do with the star players. Maybe it's their personalities. It's about the cut. It's about the guys that are trying to make the team. They're trying to make the 53 man roster.

And that's almost what the fall season should be about. It's like, okay, we got to round out this squad of 125, right? I know there's all these loopholes and status and some people, it's very complicated. But if you start to think about it, like, hey, these are the 125 are rolling in the next year with or 75, then that creates drama on the like almost you could look at like the season cut line like who's going to keep their card and and there's

so that's just a built in. There's a storyline there right like I know it's it's not as easy as say hard knocks with one team but it's still only like you said like 50 guys right like it's a very clear group of people that that are going to that these tournaments matter for. So I'd like to see that be more of a storyline because I think I, I know what you're saying, like, I don't know if that's compelling to a casual fan, but it is compelling to somebody that watches the tour week to week. Amen to that. Speaking of storylines, I think one of the biggest storylines we've had going on so far this year has been rowback and rowback active where these guys understand quality. There's only one way to describe rowback and rowback active where he's got this. Understand quality.

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That's rhobac.com, 20% off polo's, quzips, hoodies and more with code NLU joggers vests. They got the whole thing. roback.com code NLU. We thank them for their sponsor. I got two things to add there. One, the Robac hoodies pass the thing you reach for in when it's dark in the morning out of your drawer, just for flexively.

It does. It ends up on the top of the pile. And two, my dad, my parents were in town. The franchise was like, hey, what, I'm gonna get one of these Robacs, these hoodies. You guys don't have them in stock. I'm like, yeah, I can't gotta get one of these rowbacks, these hoodies. You guys don't have them in stock. I'm like, yeah, they keep flying off the shelves, dad. So I'm gonna have to send them to rowback.com instead.

He's like, no, I won't want them with the no-lang upload though. I'm like, well, let's build up to it. Once we get some inventory, we'll get there. We'll get there, franchise. On to the DP World Tour in Dubai, John, we're doing the order of these events in the order that they hand out world ranking points. Okay, that's only fair, right?

For first place. Of course. I mean, I would call this though in the words of Sean Carter, a big task event, right? Like when you look at the guys that showed up for it, I mean, I think it has to be, it's a season, if you're going to call them a strategic partner or your strategic alliance, like they're season ending tour championship. Like that has to be a big task event, right? It.

That's kind of the, the, the prop, you want to do world ranking stuff now or do you want to wait till after? Well, go, no, let's just hit the news of the day. Go, let's go over the top of the task, right? There's some big names in this, obviously. I think it's just like the, the cream kind of is an auto rise to the top on this, you know, I mean, John Rom wins it by two, Tural Hatten, Alex Noren finished tie for second at 18 under Rory finishes 16. Fitzpatrick Fleetwood at 13. Then we got Rasmus Huygard, Adrian Maronque,

Audriar Naus, Jorge Campilo, rounding out the top 10. That kind of tells the story right there. Like all the cream of the crop rises like the I the first six names I've listed off there are incredible players that have had awesome seasons that are renowned worldwide players. I think it's the problem is gonna be The next level of guys on the DP World Tour is where the gap really widens between the PGA tour And we will we'll get into some of that But it basically to say it's a top heavy field. It was a selective thing that ROM in some of ROM's comments about, you know, talking about how many top players they had in it. Because it does lose a bit of a little bit of luster when you get past that in depth really matters and a lot of these things. I agree in like macro terms with you, but I would say seven of the top 20. I think we're there. You go down like little farther down the leaderboard, you got hovelin at T23 with Lowry.

Like those guys are, you know, those guys are studs. I think it gets a little, I don't know, less compelling like Min Mou Lee, yeah, I guess Victor Perez, like those are known names, but I feel like at some point, the top heaviness has to be factored in. I think this is a, we have a question here from Zach Rivera. Like was this win a BDE premium for ROM?

I think it is. I think you win the season, the tour championship on a major professional tour. I think that's a big win. And I think that the top heaviness of it, who he beat to do it at the top of the leaderboard is important. I think that's a hard tournament to win is what I'm getting at. It's a really hard, it's a really weird one to describe, right? I mean, if you go out and you beat Rory, you beat Fitz, you beat Hovel, and you beat Lowry, you beat Fleetwood, I like, of course, that's a, that's a good win, right? But at the same, in the same vein, there's only 10 guys in the top 50 there, right? There's seven of the top 25, and only 10 in the same vein, there's only 10 guys in the top 50 there, right? There's seven of the top 25 and only 10 in the top 50 is kind of my point in terms of,

you got to beat, there's some guys you got to beat right around there, really good players. And I think there's a valid question that Ram brings up in terms of are those guys properly accounted for in the field? And that I don't know the answer to just yet. But look, sorry, that part really permeates through the conversation. It's a great win for ROM. I mean, his third win of the year, and I think it was just, you know, hearing his comments afterward and hearing Roy's comments afterward are, we're proof, it was validation for me, I think, in that understanding, the importance of basically understanding that important

golf exists outside of the majors, right? Neither of them want a major this year yet they both reflected on how good their years were. And that's where again, I think the divide is so wide for me in terms of PJ Taurus Ice DP World Tour competitive golf and live golf was like we have objective things we can look at of those guys years to say they played great golf this year. They had great results in the biggest, the biggest events where they want to peak the best, did they, did they get the results they wanted? No, but Rory says at the end of this season, which he wins the, he wins the DP the race to Dubai.

He finished fourth in this tournament this week. He says he's about as complete of a player as he's ever been. That means something. It means more than, you know, it's not as if Justin Thomas' season is better than Rory's. Rory probably traded all for a major. He probably always would, but Rory played better golf this year than anyone else on the planet. And that's worth something. Yeah.

And I would add to that, Rory's season was better than Roms. I mean, and again, finishing number one on both in the FedEx Cup and the DP World Tour rankings. Like, that's a resume. Like, you can throw that on the first page of the resume. That's an awesome year. And then, Ram, I think this one kind of saves it for him a little bit.

Like he won two national opens. That's cool. But otherwise a little bit, not enough there to for me to be like, oh, he played like awesome golf. Like I think he, did he say that after the round? That he, like really, he kind of, he bought out this season? Well, he did his thing where he, any perceived round that he like really he kind of he bald out this season. Well, he did his thing where he any perceived slight that he's getting. He had to say, oh, for anyone that said I had a bad here.

I mean, come on, I won three different times. So three different three different continents. I mean, I guess I think it's kind of a backhanded compliment by me to ROM because he did. You're right. He won on three different three different times, three continents. Some, you know, some, I guess interesting wins, but for me, that's a down year for Ron. Right. So it's almost a comment of like I kind of expect more from them, but good energy for him rolling into into the next season,

like he seems to be back as the buoy, which is great, you know, the butcher is, the shops open, man, premium cuts, they're coming in 2023. Very interesting to me to look at Raham going back to 2019. Here's his strokes game 2.4, 2.4, 2.38, 2.11. So basically he was 0.3, not even 0.3 shots worse, this year than he has been over the past three years. That goes to show how thin the margins are in terms of that level of production the previous three seasons. The wins did not follow that enough.

Like it doesn't correlate enough, like with how good of golf he has played. And he's just constantly constantly, he's the booey, you can't sink him. Like the ball striking, is that good? It felt like he hit a ton of edges for a lot of this season. Look, I watched the highlights today and he was just pouring puts in the middle all day long.

He was imperious as they set on the broadcasts. He birdied the first three holes today. And I have just tremendous respect for that guy's golf game. We spent a little time with him last week out in Phoenix. And it was very interesting. Just talk golf swing with him in terms of basically how easy it is for him. And also he said something to us. It said that his swing is like a bow and arrow.

And that kind of picture that you're winding the arrow of, you know, the bow backwards with your right hand, the string, you're pulling the string back with the right hand. He's like, that's describing his back swing. And then he says, it's almost like his left hand moves forward. The, the, the, you know, more solid part of the bow moves forward. That's his hip movement. That's how he described his swing and that, that swing thought it might really help me.

I think that might really be a positive. Well, but he was also describing it as how that's unorthodox because like normally when you pull back a bone arrow, you leave that lead hand still. And he's like, I almost like generate more leverage by like if it was a bone arrow, like moving my front hand forward, which is, you know, you would think with a bone arrow that would lead to less accuracy. The other thing that was funny from that conversation that we had with them was he's like, yeah, I just get my hands into the spot at the top and then I just go.

And I was like, hold on, John, like go. What does go mean? Because go means a lot different things to a lot of people. Like for me, it means go means I'm going to slide by hips. He's like, no, no, I rotate, you know, and he started, then he started digging in on like getting his left hip pointing left. And I don't know, it's really interesting to hear how little these guys think about technique, right?

It's more about like set up that they can control. And then it's like one trigger, get my hands to one spot. And then in his terms, it's go, right, which is muscle memory of like, and then, but digging in with it a little more, it's like, no, I want to rotate on my back, right foot, but I want to get my hips going before my hands go. So it was very fascinating. And I think there's a lot of good golf in store for ramen in 2023, because he does seem like he's got a little bit

of a chip on his shoulder with just like, hey, you know, like I, like you said, like if you look at the numbers, I played great golf. It's just hasn't translated into like, maybe it wasn't at the right time of the year for him in 2022. I also was a teeny bit frustrated with him in that conversation talking about how literally it talks about technique. So it's like, yeah, yeah.

Like you put in like thousands, if not like millions of hours, a minute, hours, whatever you want to call it, working on this. So you don't have to think about that anymore. That's not as simple for everyone replicated in terms of just go. It's like, yeah, your hands are going to find the right spot at the top. And then you go, that was a, that was a takeaway I had to have like, all right, you're helping which kind of not right now, man.

Well, but I think it's, it's a testament to the, it's feel based a little bit, right? And you can tell, because his swing, if I'm sure people have tried to change it or, or it's not perfect, right? It's on orthodox in some ways, but it's like, that works for me. It's, it's, he's chasing like, these are my triggers. And I think that that, that, that resonates with me because that's how I try to play golf, right? And he, he has, it's like an athletic-based swing, which I think is awesome.

Alex North finishes T2. I just got to get, he wins a million pounds or a million euros in this event. I just got to give a shout. This dude went from my Acoba to Houston to Dubai over the last three weeks with a trip to Phoenix in between to hang out with us as well at the same shoot. The same Callaway shoot on that Monday.

Like just the respect for these dudes show it up and all these but I'm still recovering from the career trip like a month ago, like a from jet lag and to show up and ball out. He's playing some very serious golf right now. So in a big tourist office got, yeah, it even goes back to the open. He was like the first alternate, but instead he flies to Tahoe, right, and finishes second in the event out there. So it's like he's not flies to Tahoe, right? And finish his second in the event out there. So it's like, he's not scared to make moves, right?

He's like good for him. Like he treats it like a business. Like, yo, I'm gonna go close this deal here. And then I'm gonna hop on a plane and go close this deal here. Like I like, I know her in his great, man. He's really like enjoyed spending time with him on Torasauce and, you know, manipulating with the OWGR side. Like I got a lot of respect for the way that guy, you know, kind with the OWGR side, like I got a lot of respect for the way

that guy, you know, kind of builds his calendar. I got even more respect after he said, solid, you're exactly right on this. You got a great point. And then say you're exactly right. That is not what he said. He said, you have a point. He said, you have a point.

Thank you for holding me accountable and holding the rest of the DP World Tour accountable as it comes to the World Golf Raking. Of course, of course. That's what he told me. Let's get into that now. We've been dabbing at it, nibbling at it, and I'm amazed by this now. Everybody wants to talk about the ODEBGR.

Everyone's making fun of me two, three, four years ago when I kept wanting to bring it up, but it seems to just keep permeating through the golf conversation these days. All right. Well, let me start this off, right? I did kind of a deep dive this afternoon because I remember being announced in August, but like listen, did I read the OWJR FAQs? No, I didn't.

But did I do that this afternoon? Yes, I did. So they made changes that they took three years to analyze and they brought in a whole committee, consultants, and they were like, how can we make a more accurate, official world golf ranking? And so I want you to check me on this, Sully. As I understand it from my reading earlier, the changes that went into effect in mid-August were they've introduced a Stroke Gained component as a way to evaluate strength of field. That's a huge difference.

We'll get to that. It is. And I think there's some pros and cons to it, the two that we can get to. They've made more emphasis placed on field strength and depth. So now there's no more minimum points for a Euro Tour event. Basically events, you know, around the world, getting crowned because they're almost like grandfathered in, right, from a previous era, when people weren't, when the game wasn't as global or I guess you could argue as US centric. So, and that goes to a kind of, I think a lot of people have issues with this maybe because of different views on what the OWGR should be, right? And I'm not going to argue necessarily, like maybe, maybe in theory, the OWGR should be used to boost global golf, right? Maybe it should be giving more points to the European tour and the Asian tour to help,

because the money has gotten so outsized from what is given out in the PGA tour, that, you know, the reasons for playing the DP World Tour and the Asian tour are diminished if there's not a ton of ranking points available, right? So they had this minimum first place points, or minimum points aspect to the world rankings in the prior version, where even if the European tour got the worst possible strength of field, they were going to hand out 24 points to the winner, right? And this would, because they were the Euro tour, because that if you're a European tour, and I think the Asian tour had a minimum of 14 points, they were going to hand out to the to the winner no matter what happened.

And the European tour, I think, Aiman Lynch had an article this week said something like, it hit that minimum. It didn't reach that minimum, something like 24 or 26 times a year, right? Whereas on the PGA tour, that would happen maybe twice. So it's an artificial boost to like half of the European tour fields that around, and this is where it gets really boring. It's like, it gets really boring,

is like it only really affects the guys from like 50 to 200 in some way. Basically, it causes the European tour and Asian tour guys' rankings to be overinflated because these fields are not as strong as the points that are given out at the end of it, right? And then it creates the circular thing where the ranking, so let's say you get an overinflated ranking

to get to 60th, your official world golf ranking would also be what sets, what you determines what you contribute to field strength, right? So there was no, so basically it's a very circular thing of my rankings over inflated, which I'm adding to the next field, maybe getting that field over inflated, and that was what was causing this bias in the system. That is potentially, let me get through the rest of the changes.

But I agree with you. I think there was a correction needed to be made. My argument will probably be that there may have been a bit of an over correction, which I want to get to. But we said more emphasis placed on field strength. And then because of that, more emphasis placed on depth. Right. So that kind of weights field size more heavily because if you have 146 people, it's harder to, they're obviously gonna have like more points to go around.

Then you have the, and Data Golf had a good tweet thread about this, I thought was really helpful. And their kind of general point in this was that it makes it very difficult to compare limited field events with full-size field events because of the weight placed on the depth. And I think also because of the Stroke's gain factor that's implemented, right? So you're basically saying like a guy, like let's take Rom for instance, didn't win, you know, like you won three times, but like not any,

like I guess you could say elevated events. And but his strokes gained, like you just outlined, it was only like 0.25 worse than it's been when he was at the peak of his powers, right? So he's going to add a ton of depth because of that strokes gain number to any field that he's going to be a part of. And that's probably the case for like, there's a big fat middle to the PGA tour. Yes. Where a lot of guys are like, you know, basically like, like, they use Robert Streb as like the average, like the benchmark golfer, right? Like he would be like the most average PGA tour player. And there's just a million dudes that if you get a field of 146 are

going to make that feel very strong compared to the 50, right? But the problem to me is, and I know this is a hard argument to make, because it's not danger. But that doesn't really pass the eye test when you look at like, I think winning that DP World Tour Championship is like, that's a hard win. Like at the top, like they should get more credit

in the top 10 or something for winning that event because of the, you know, seven of the top 20 are at that event like Ron beaten out. It's Patrick, US Open winner beating out Rory. It also just being the culmination of the event like there's some inherent like juice there that's not, I guess accounted for. When you start to factor in the strokes gained and then the size of the field. when you start to factor in the strokes gained and then the size of the field. So I think they may have over corrected in weighting the strength of field or the field size

is kind of what I'm starting to think after I went through this. They may be. I'm not going to say this a perfect system. I think it is important just to note, again, what this is for. This is for the official World Golf rankings are for, listen, there's a sponsorship aspect to it.

You get some benefits if you get in the top 10 or if you're ranked number one in the world, you get some bonuses from your sponsors. Let's just put that aside for right now. Let's just look at competitive golf. It is a qualification system to get into the biggest events in golf, right? That's what it is.

I try to think of it this way. I try to think of a comp and here's what I came up with today. And like, do you care if your NFL team is ranked number one in DVOA, which is like the strokes gained basically version of the NFL, right? Or do you care if your team is eight and one or six and five or whatever, like care for a fourth down stop and win the game? You care about the record, right? Like that's the score. That's the score. And a player's record and finish and all that is like what the score is in golf. Yet there's this whole underlying layer that's trying to predict like what's the predictive value, what's about to happen, what's like the vagus value of what's about to happen.

That's what the Stroke's game aspect gives you. It's a real time rating of what everyone's ability is, not like the convoluted result of their finish. Like what it does, like what it does, you, you can, if you finish between the difference between first and second, the difference in points is outrageous, right? And the difference in money is outrageous. Yet the difference on the golf course is pretty small, right? So that's what, like switching more towards this, this Strokes game world rating is just like a mathematical way of determining what the probability was that you would beat all those people,

like what the accomplishment was of beating 50 dudes that are a positive stroke game player. And like that's where it gets really, really boring. It really does. You can't, it's really hard to appreciate how good the average like PGA tour player is. And that part's not sexy. And I think that's the hard part to, I guess the harsh reality of this is seeing the hard data that shows the middle of the road PGA tour player and the middle road DP world tour tour player,

the both the volume of guys on the PGA tour and how vast that differences between that player. And that's what's going to contribute to this now to your point now. So this new system, it used to only count how many top 200 players were in the field. And it's weighted based on, you know, first was obviously worth more than 200, but it only counted that. Now fields are calculated with every player that's in the field. You contribute an amount of what they're called performance points to the field. So John Rom has an outrage to Strokes game world rating of 2.4. He contributes himself 16 points to this field, right? He 16 points goes straight to the field rating and you add up all the field rating of everyone involved in it. And that's what the points

are going to be that you divide up by the end of it. Now if you scroll down, the maybe the 12th ranked player in the field this week was Adrian Moron, who was 0.3 strokes gained, he contributes two points to it. And so the reason why the RSM got way, way, way more points added to this this week is the number of players that were in the field. Like if you get a player that is a Pablo uh, Lara Thaible is a negative strokes game player and he adds a stroke to the field. He adds a point to the field. And so if you get a hundred more guys, there, there's only 50 guys in the field this week at the DP World Tour of Rund. If you start adding up those points, you're just not going to get to a high total. This same thing happened

at the tour championship and the same thing happened at the BMW championship. And I'm curious if the guys that are as they go to look forward to these limited event, elevated events or whatever they're going to be, if they're looking at this OWGR thing and thinking like, I don't know if we want these limited field events because we're going to get eaten alive on the OWGR front. It's not, I guess the part that frustrated me about this past week is it's not this, in particular, is not a DP World Tour screwer over. This is the first week where that balance has been off, right? And that this was not a topic of conversation for John Rahman of the DP World Tour fans during the tour championship that got heavily discounted this year compared to the previous model. This is a

week where it looked really bad on paper. But if you dig into it and the data golf thread, it was easier to, or I'm sorry, it was harder to win the DP World Tour event this week for a top player than it was to win the RSM. So in that part, it was imperfect, but that further you dig down, it's harder for like the Robert Streb level player to earn the appropriate amount of points at the RSM than it would have been at the DP World Tour. So the waiting in that and that's where you can argue like, it should be more towards the top and the bottom or the limited field events should have a different distribution. I think that's the point,

Rahm's trying to get to. I guess my frustration is like, he's a smart, thoughtful dude and I think he knows that. And when you distill it down into calling it laughable, I think that's when you're over generalizing it, right? And the people are gonna pick up on that and they're gonna follow it and know it's a hard point to make. But it's not laughable.

It's just like you don't love this little mathematical intricacy of how it works. So a lot there. A lot. I agree with you on like your overview of this makes a ton of sense, right? And like the in some ways on paper, like the strength of field thing is,

it's justified, right? I get and you're I agree with you on the depth thing. Like it does kind of say the as you said Or like the quiet part out loud of like oh the average player on the PGA tour is just a lot better than the average player on the DP World Tour Like that's you know kind of a problem for the Euro Tour, right? The there's a bit of a common sense element to this though like let's ask Augusta National who who would they rather have the winner of the RSM or the winner of the DP World Tour Championship? As like if they were just going to do an auto, like, you know, exemption based on those two, I think they'd probably say the winner of the DP World Tour Championship for sure. And so it's kind of like then why is the RSM getting 12 more world,

you know, like so many more points, like that there's something where there's an over correction there. Like that doesn't make sense to me from just a common sense standpoint, even when all of the justification with the data. So there's that factor to it. And I think the PGA tour, this could be a PR nightmare for them coming up. Like you said earlier, they're going, they're, they're leaning in heavily to this elevated. We want the best players on the PGA tour playing together 15 times or 14 times next year.

And those are going to be limited field events because they want to reward those guys with big money, right? So that's, if that's the route they're going to go, then all of a sudden, if they change the rules with the OWGR, because, oh, wait a second, now we should change this. It's going to look like they're basically just making it up on the fly when it benefits them, right? Because there are strategies going that way. So I think they should do that. But what I'm kind of getting at is that message is not going to look good, right? It's going to be like, oh, well, now it's helpful to you. So you're going to change the OWGR, which is then going to devalue the OWGR and the

majors might just freaking figure it out for themselves and like move away from this, Well, now it's helpful to you. So you're going to change the OWGR, which is then going to devalue the OWGR and the majors might just freaking figure it out for themselves and like move away from this, which I think is bad for golf. I would like that everybody to be bought into this world ranking system because I think that's, you know, but I think some changes probably do need to be made. It's just that they don't get out in front of this now. Like, and that's why like you said at the end, I am thrilled that ROM is bringing this up. He should be like, like, I, you know, maybe laughable said at the end, I am thrilled that ROM is bringing this up.

He should be like, like, I, you know, maybe laughable is not the right word, but hey, yo, he's raising his hand and saying like, yo, you're telling me that we're going to play a bunch of limited field events. Well, guess what you're telling me? Like, ROM could have waltzed into the RSM and won that running away, right? And so are you, you're basically kind of incentivizing him to do the opposite of what you wanted to do, which is go play with Rory and Fitzpatrick and Lowry Well, you know actually I'm gonna go play the RSM and just bank world ranking points So now you're just like you're kind of you got some things that are not aligned there Yeah, and that's where I think what is First of all to your point I think that's a future problem that is not currently on the table.

If the PGA tour goes and tries to change the OWGR, I agree with you. That's going to be a bad look. We're not there, though. That's not what they're trying to do at any point. We can deal with that if it comes to that. That's inventing a problem a little bit for right now. It's also, you look at Oxaybati. I just pulled this up.

He finished 45th this week at the RSM. Super unsexy. There's no commercial value to any of that. That doesn't make the TV product any better. No one that tuned in this week cares where he finished. But he had to beat like a hundred really freaking good golfers to get that spot. And that's where those points come in, right? And that's where it's gonna like just math math.

Again, he played a 100 and however many guys were in the field this week and he beat like a hundred of them. That's where the value in his performance comes in and the points he gets for it, right? And that's what you get more points for beating a John rom. Like there's two ways to getting to a field strength. It's a bunch of top 50 guys.

Get you to a field strength of 150 50 or a lot more lower ranked guys. And the way the math works out is pretty similar to like probability and all the really boring stuff. So again, it's way, way, way in the weeds. I, I don't know if it's perfect, but I do know that this makes a lot of sense for trying to like globally place all of this random golf that's happening, right? It's just, but there's a there's an inherent bias then to and and maybe this is just the fact of the matter of it. It makes it very PGA tour centric, right?

So it's not great for global golf of like you would want to be a thriving Euro tour. But what you're basically saying is if we're gonna go off of the field size and we're gonna use Stroke's Gain, then that's gonna make the depth of that field just based on sheer numbers, a lot more valuable. So I don't, like to answer your question, it definitely isn't in perfect ranking system. Do I think it's, did it answer some of the questions that were the issue before?

Yes, but has it now like one solution has created, you know, some unintended consequences here, which need to be acknowledged. So I think it's... I don't know, man. I think that representation of competitive golf as it stands, and if you want, I think the path to supporting the DP World Tour is with more money,

than it is giving it more points. Like more money is going to lead to more competition. The reason why the PJ, it's not because American golfers are better than the rest of the world. It's because the most money is in America and the international players are traveling and would rather compete there for the most money. 100% and that's right.

But also, I just only see OWGR's job to boost the DP World Tour is my point. I would love to see bigger purses on the DP world tour and better fields. I think there should be more elevated co-sanctioned events on the DP world tour that's for me up for that too. That makes a ton of sense.

I think again, what this addresses is just giving out. I guess the answer in the data golf thread also maybe think this too. The problem, I think if we boil it down after this discussion, it's like they have to figure out a better way to compare limited field, like high tier limited field events with 144 maxed out events, right? Like there's just that comparison.

I don't know what the answer to that is. That's for the, you know, the freaking data nerds to figure out, but like there's gotta be a way to make that comparison a little bit more comparable, right? So that you get, I don't know, you should get a the part to me that didn't make the most sense was the fact that there were just more points available at the RSM than the DP World Tour event. And I, you know, again, we can go back to the data and why that is. But like that, that's, there are a lot of good golfers

dueling against each other at the DP World Tour event. And they should feel like that is a worthwhile, like, use of their time. Like, they should want to plan their schedule to go to that, right? That just feels like something, that feels like the issue to me. I guess I don't have the answer to it.

I'm just trying to like almost think out loud here on like what is the root problem? And that seems like, especially if we're gonna go with all these limited field events, the big issue. So anyway, we have a guest in the studio, Sally. We do have a guest, we're gonna bring her in shortly, but first listen, there's a way you can, maybe not we can, but the way these guys, some

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Bringing in our guest to help us recap this past LPGA tour season and the CME tour championship this past week. Miss Michelle, we west. Michelle, how are you? Hi, how are you guys? Thanks so much for popping on. We are doing well. We're arguing about world ranking points and all this stuff as you came in.

And it's not fun at all. So we're excited to bring you in to help shine some color. I'm what we saw this past week. Yeah. The world ranking points, very complicated. I haven't deep dived in it yet. So I don't think I'm the person that asked quite yet. But maybe in a week, give me a week. Now we're over it. We want to move that above the shoulders, like, nobody knows. Let's talk storylines. Even when I was playing on tour, I never

understood world ranking points. It's just, it's so complicated. It's like, you can drop so fast and then then you climb your way back up, but then all of a sudden, like, you know, someone jumps you by playing one, well, one week, I don't know, it was like very confusing, but I'm sure there are people way smarter than me that are figuring it out. Well, you know, this may be a questionable move on our part. We're bringing in some competition really to help us recap the week because as I understand it now, you are also a golf podcaster. Well, you know, not a competition. We're doing golf mostly. You know, where we talk about golf mostly, I feel like you guys talk golf all the time.

So there's some of the trap drop competitor. Um, but you know, not a competitor. I would say hopefully collaborator at one point, you know, all friends in the game, all trying to grow the game. Um, you know, obviously a huge fan of you guys. So we'll be learning. I was mostly, mostly, I believe we can, we can classify this as collaborating here. But so Lydia Co season kind of help us, you know, first, I guess, going all the way back to helping us shine a light on her ridiculous rise through her teenage years and kind of, I don't even want to say a drop off. It was inevitable. There was going to be a drop off of some kind, but

it certainly seems like the Lydia Co. I don't want the question for you. Is this the Lydia Co of old? Is this the best golf Lydia Co has played in her career? Is she wins for the third time this year and wins a CME tour championship and wins $2 million prize, the biggest prize in women's golf history to this point? What's your reaction when you

watch Lady a Co play golf these days? You know, she's just so consistent for me. You know, she just seems like she's really coming to her own. You know, she's a full

fledged adult now. You know, she's not a 15 year old brace wearing, you know, player on tour. She's a fully fledgedledged adult now. She's not a 15-year-old brace wearing player on tour. She's a fully-fledged adult who's making your own decisions and going out there and applying because she loves the game and knows the impact that she has on the game. When she was 15 and winning golf tournaments, she was a phenom. She was just so consistent, so good, and then just kept falling up with it.

Obviously, as we all know, golf is a really hard sport, and I've had my fair share of up and downs, and she's had her fair shares of up and downs. I don't think her downs are ever as bad as mine, but she's just so consistent, and I think her love for the game is just unwavered. And it's really cool to see her pick up the biggest check in woman golf history, big kudos to Terry Duffy from CME for really believing in the LPGA and making this tournament such a success. I appreciate in your post round, too.

I think she was asked, I heard the end of the question, but I was like, what are you going to buy with this? And she was like, ah, it's not really as much about the money here. I just really wanted to win the championship, right? Which it looked. That's the right answer. I know, but I always appreciate here that here that you want to win the season long race.

You want to make it feel like that. Your season was worthwhile. This format is interesting because all 60 players that make the see me tour championship have an equal chance to win it. There's no handicap. There's no points race or anything like that. It resets into this week yet the cream seems to rise at this start every year. It's been the storyline in the winner has made a ton of sense. What is there anything to that? How would you describe why that has happened

that way? You know, I think on our tour, there's so much talent on our tour. You know, the top 60 goes out there and all 60 have a legitimate chance to win the tour championship. And like you said, everyone has a fair chance. You know, we don't have any of the handicapping like men does. But I think the way the golf course is set up, I think the way the conditions were especially today, you know, gusty, colder, It sets up for the best player to win. And, you know,

Lydia Coe won the Veritrophy one player of the year. You know, it's just a good week for her. I'm really proud of her, but, you know, at any moment, Leonna McGuire looked like she was going to run away with it at one point, you know, and Anorquist made a huge run for it today. The talent is amazing out there. I mean, see the low number. It's not, they make tibarone look really easy. It's not that easy. Overhead images give me nightmares. It's like everything that gives me nightmares

about Florida golf. There's water, one side, OB, Palmetto's everywhere. And just no one hits it in that trouble. It's remarkable. It's absolutely remarkable. It's a dicey chipping spots too. Yeah, those pop bunkers. Oh yeah, the pop bunkers for sure

still give me PTSD and nightmares. I've been in the lip of the bunkers one too many times over there. It's a good golf course. Me see in a shootout. It's a great golf course, especially when the conditions get a little bit tough and gusty, those bunkers really come into play. And into play and Lydia Co has one of the short games out there.

Best bunker play, best hands out there. So that really is our inner vantage. Is there, I hate asking a question in this generic almost, but the next turn we would want to see from Lydia is returning to a major champion. So what has, does anything have to change for her? Is this, you know, you roll this style of play out there and she's bound to get a major championship victory of some kind in the next year?

What, any reason you would say as though, as to why we haven't seen Lydia win a major in a couple of years? No, I mean, it's really hard. I mean, it's a shame. It really is. You know, I think it's, you just, you see these top rank players and you just expect them to win a major every year because

Tiger kind of set that standard, right? You know, it was just so used to a dominant player a really good top tier player just winning a major and tiger made it seem so easy Rory made it seem so easy doesn't Johnson, you know like Some of these players I feel like have set the standard and made majors look really easy. Like Jordan Speeth when he was going on that, you know, major run. He was winning everything left and right. But winning majors is extremely difficult. There's four, there's five on our tour. And it's just, you know, there's a lot of pressure that comes with entering that week.

But I think Lydia Coe just needs to keep doing what she's doing. She's for sure going to win a major within, you know, hopefully next year, if not the next year, but she's going to win. It's not a question of if it's a question of when. There seems like there's a lot of similarities between Lydia's season and Rory's season. Like, before you hopped on the show, we were just talking about how Rory didn't win a major this year, but he had an all-time season and finishes first on both the PGA tour and the DP World Tour rankings. Do you feel like Lydia, you know, and it seems like Rory acknowledges the had a good season in this, you know, post round today? Do you feel like Lydia feels like she had a good season? Or would you feel that way, you know,

without the major? I would hope so. Yeah. For sure. When three times, you know, when he had to off-term it is really hard, too. I mean, you have to be 144 of the best players out there. And as a grueling, people don't realize it's a grueling four days out there, you know, a competition within yourself, but also other people in the level of play is just so amazing. But yeah, I mean, I would, if I had the season that Lydia had, I would for sure call it a success. I would not call it a disappointment. But did, please slap me in the face.

That's a good one. But no, I think she obviously would have loved to a wound a major, but at the same time, I think she walks away this season with her head held up high and a very happy woman. Well, help us out with another story that came out this week. Beth Ann Nichols wrote it for golf week in terms of there was an event that Mr. Duffy

who you mentioned earlier from CME Group that was hosting this week where he made a call for players. You know, it's a corporate event and asked for LPJ players in the room to stand up and the lights shined on and there were no LPGA players that showed up at this, some kind of dinner of something this week. And it kind of made the rounds on social media and this story just kind of,

it hit me in a weird way because all of our experiences on the LPGA tour have been the complete opposite of this in terms of, I'm amazed at some of the pro-amp parties I've been to or the experiences I've had of how many LPGA players show up at these things and support, knowing who writes the checks and knowing just how to support them and what you're providing

those sponsors. What did you make of that story that came out this week and is there any kind of explanation for how this happened this past week that the response of the race to the CME felt like he got kind of short-changed a bit by the LPGA tour players? Yeah, I mean, first of all, I can totally understand Terry's point of view, you know, to go

up on stage and to kind of go through that in front of his friends is, you know, very embarrassing. You know, I wasn't there, so I don't know first hand, but I'm sure there has to have been some big misunderstanding between the LPG, the players, and Terry. There's no way that our organizations, our players, would do that on purpose, or do that in a purposeful way. So first off, I think there was a huge mistake, huge misunderstanding between the organization, the players, and that we're supposed to go.

And Mr. Duffy, to my understanding, it seemed like Serena Williams was supposed to speak and pulled out. So that, I think, that was a key fact that was emitted from the article. I also do feel like the article was just slightly unnecessary. I'm just surprised that even made the news outlets. But yeah, I mean, I don't think that in any way, you know, our tour would have done that on purpose. There's, you know, our tour respects Mr. Duffy to the highest extent. And we're so grateful, you know, for CMA support of the tour championship, you

know, having a huge check, the biggest check in women's golf history this week is monumental for us. So, it's just below my mind to think that this would ever have happened. You know, it's just really, it must have been a series of really unfortunate events. You know, that happens in life, unfortunately. You know, it's a big organization. There's a lot going on in the tour championship. I'm sure that, you know, on our tour, you know, our employees on our organization work for jobs, you know, there's a million things that the

employees of the LPGA does. So there must have been like one missed email or one miss phone call, you know, unfortunately, that this had to happen. It's this a very unfortunate situation, but it just must have snowballed into this happening. And I'm sure they feel just so awful, so embarrassed that this happened. And it's hopefully something that we can avoid in the future. I think that the LPJ players, I think acting like a founder is still very much

instilled in every player on our tour. We know where we came from, the 13 founders, the 13 women came together to form our tour. And we know the sacrifices that they made to make our tour. So I find it very hard to believe that the players, like I said, in the article are just forgetting about all that. And it was just unfortunate that it got aired out the way that it did. Yeah. And to Molly Marcosamons, credit, the commissioner of the LPGA tour, she said there hasn't

been a greater supporter of the LPGA and CME group in Terry Duffy. There was clearly a disconnect and it's my responsibility to make sure that this doesn't happen. So in this particular issue, I'm taking full responsibility as a leader of the organization to make sure that it doesn't happen again. Because I saw a lot of comments that were flowing this week of, this would have never happened under Mike one. And yeah, I wanted a chance to ask you about that because like I said, it's just doesn't, if anything, I've come from away from every LPJ event raving about like how much you guys get it in terms of the how much the sponsors

are flowing, you know, keeping your sport flowing and the growing in the way that it is really. And the new schedule was announced for next year over $100 million in purses for the 2023 LPGAC season. And there's so much positive momentum that just there had to be more to it. That was kind of my thinking. And yeah, I'm sure there's just some kind of confusion as to, you know, who was expected to be there and how it fell through but very very sorry I was I had that flag too to say like I

appreciated the commissioner kind of hand up like I'm on in this one but Michelle what's your experience with with Molly because she's been commissioned for 18 months and I feel like I watch a good amount of golf but probably more than the average call fan and I feel like I watch a good amount of golf but probably more than the average golf fan. And I feel like I've never heard her, like I've never heard an interview with her. I haven't heard, you know, I honestly, until the article, like I didn't really even know what she looked like.

And for me, it's like I'm thinking the first year or so she's probably trying to, you know, she's honored listening tour or she's trying to get her, understand the organization, but I don't know much about her. So I'm curious like what your experience is with the new commissioner. Yeah, you know, being on the board, if I had a lot of opportunity come, you know, to talk to her, to come across with her and, you know, love her as a person. I think she is amazing human being. You know, I think that it's been, it's been a tough year. it's been a tough year. It's been a tough year to be a commissioner of the LPG tour.

And also the first year as a commissioner, just getting thrown in, and then you get just all these scenarios thrown at you. So I think she's just taking extra time to really do the bright things with our tour. There's a lot of really complicated issues out there right now. So I think she's just like taking time to make sure she says the right things, does the right thing. And I think in comparison to Mike, you have someone that is

very comfortable talking in front of the media, talking in front of the camera, being in front of people. And I think personality wise, I think she is different from Mike. And that's okay. And I don't think it's fair to expect the same thing. You know, just be like, oh, I've heard Mike talk so much about A, B, and C, you know, personality wise, Molly may not be the same. And I don't think she is the same.

So probably just hearing less from her because she's probably maybe not as comfortable speaking in front of the masses like Mike. As we all know, you know, my self-destribed Mike is a talker. He will tell you that himself. Yeah. That's tough act of fall. Well, you know, I think it's hard for anyone to kind of compare themselves to Mike in that sense.

But yeah, I thought that the statement that she made following the CME was really great. And I think she showed that she was a great CME was really great. And I think she showed that she was a great leader because she took, she didn't try to put the blame on anyone else. She didn't try to scapegoat anyone. And as a leader, I respect that. I respect that she took the responsibility. It's a shame that, you know, nothing but positive news came out of last week because last week should have been a celebration the entire week. And it's just sad that one article kind of dampened a little bit, but having Lydia win, I think that was a really positive thing for CME.

And it's just, I think all the players that I've talked to, that they had an amazing experience there. So I think that's something that we should focus on instead of just one little trivial thing that happened and got blown up. Yeah, I do hate when when some of these stories, which I'm as guilty as anyone on this, as throwing gas on it in terms of having a negative story like that be kind of the highlight of the week or you know the thing that is highlighted the most, but we appreciate your perspective on that. Had to ask you about that. No, people love drama. I enjoyed drama too. perspective on that had to ask you about that. Now, people love drama. I enjoyed drama too. I have to say,

I watch reality TV. Well, Michelle, thanks for jumping on. She's got a new podcast with how you led better. It's called golf mostly. Be sure to check it out. And we'll we'll we'll ring you up any Sunday night that you have free to come on anytime you're to shine.

I don't see. So appreciate it. Yeah, that's one. Thanks, Michelle. Thanks. Thank you. All right. Well, let's, sorry, let's get to a couple of questions here

from the listeners. I got one from Greg Bosch here that I thought was pretty good. Do we have a Rory Rom rivalry? Rom seems to be the only big name player who disagrees with Rory's opinions. Will be a problem in Rome as our resident Ryder Cup expert.

What are your thoughts? I do not think so. There was some quotes flying around this week as well that we're talking about, Ram's appreciation for Rory stepping up and standing up for what he believes in in the past year, whatever, and sitting in all those meetings

and things that Ram has no interest in doing. I think there was definitely some recognition of that. I think there's some unnamed people out there that are trying to throw some major gas on this, but I don't necessarily think it's a thing. I think there's gonna be, without a doubt, not just between ramen and Rory, but between a lot of the top guys,

there's gonna be some discrements on how things are gonna shake out, right? And, Ram had some comments a few months ago about how the new schedule was gonna fit for him, there's gonna have to be some changes on things like that. And while the group of guys that were in the Delaware meeting are unanimous in their agreement in wanting to play together more often

in kind of that general consensus, the details of working that out still needs to be determined. And there's gonna be differences, there's gonna be sacrifices being made. But I definitely don't think that there's much to, you know, there's much to, definitely don't see that big a problem in Rome. I'd love to be able to stoke that fire,

to be able to say that yeah, you guys are totally screwed for Rome, but I just don't see that big a problem in Rome. I'd love to be able to stoke that fire to be able to say that, yeah, you guys are totally screwed for Rome, but I just don't think that's going to be the case. So I would add to that, I feel like, like, I kind of hope there's a rivalry brewing here. Like not like I'm glad that the top players on tour have kind of united and they've in spirit like signed on to be like, Hey, man, like we're not going to go down without a fight. And we need to make our tour better and we need to make it more entertaining.

And all of that's awesome. That said, I don't need all these guys to like each other. You know, the result, right? Like on the course, like I hope Ram wants to beat the shit out of Rory. I really do. I hope and I'm and vice versa. Like I would like there to be a little bit more juice because honestly, all the guys that were the villains, they left.

They took their ball and went home. So now we, you know, we need a little bit of drama and some rivalry in the game. And if those two are, because they are, they are seem to be different. And ROM seems to, you know, kind of have a, and I think you have to be, if you want to be number one, like looking for a chance, looking for a reason to have a chip, like looking for a slight, and I think that a lot of top to your competitors

operate that way. So I'm kind of rooting for a rivalry on the golf course, right? But I hope that that doesn't lead to like, some of these guys subverting the the group because you know, because of ego or whatever. I don't think that's what's happening here, but I'm kind of rooting for it like in competition, like on the playing field, I would love to see Rom and Rory go at it next year, a bunch. That would be awesome.

If you haven't listened to the Xander Schoffley pod from this past week, he had a little comment in there that kind of caught me a little bit by surprise. He's like, you know, talking about the all those guys getting together and meeting, coming up at the plans for the future and said, you know, you know, basically some of us we don't like each other, you know, or this kind of, you know, competitive atmosphere is still there, right? Everyone's making a lot of money, but at the same time,

like, I'm sure you walked by a dude on the range just wanna be like, I'm better that guy. Like, I'm gonna beat that guy. Like, you just have to create this kind of, I don't like this guy. I definitely don't like him beating me. That's all still gonna be there. That's what I think you and I both like about competitive golf

and I think that aspect is gonna be totally there. I will miss a lot of the villains for sure. A lot of the dudes that left are the villains that I still didn't like root against them on the golf course. Because as much as I dislike Bryson, I still rooted for him in the golf course because it was always entertaining to watch that playing style out there.

And I know we're just not gonna have some of that, but at the same time, it's gonna be interesting to see who really separates themselves completely. You wanted those guys in it until Sunday, so then you could root against them. Like that's the fun part. It's like, yeah, and he's really good, but I don't like him. Like that's what we're missing a little bit of that now on tour.

So and I like, I really like both Rory and Rom. Like I root for both of them. So that would be a fun rivalry for me to watch if it starts to walk its head a little bit. Rory had some comments this week as well on Greg Norman. He said Greg needs to go. He needs to exit stage left. He made his mark, but I think now is the right time to say you've got this thing off the ground. No one's going to talk unless there's an adult in the room that can actually try to mend defenses.

I appreciate Rory's willingness to engage on this. I think that's there's nothing to win here. He's not going to convince any live fans that this is the right call and it's only going to add fuel to their hate that they've developed for him, but I appreciate his willingness to speak on it. I still push back that I don't know what reconciliation looks like at this point. I am sure he has a better idea of what that would be than I do and maybe does see a way that things can get, you know, mended in some way. He also had some comments about the lawsuits need to be dropped. And I totally agree with that. But just found his willingness to say great norm and needs to be fired as someone who's definitely not a part of that league. I found that to be very interesting. Well, this where you and I might differ just a little bit is like my biggest complaint like I'm not, you know, I don't find the live

format and stuff to be something I'm interested in. But I think what would help a ton is if they just didn't tell me, like we were talking to Porter about this a couple of months ago, like don't tell me how awesome it is. At every point, like, you know, look how like this, you guys are missing out, like look how awesome this is. It's like if they put somebody in place that was just like, let's just go do the work and come up for air like a year or two later. And it's like, maybe it could be, you know, maybe like that would just like, let's just go do the work and come up for air like a year or two later. And it's like, maybe it could be, you know, maybe like that would be like, Roy's right. That would be smart for them to do like not having a, you know, freaking circus, Barnum,

PT Barnum run in the show would probably be a smart move for live, right? To make it like, if you want it to be something sustainable without just like this week to week circus, that's, you know, he's almost given him a free idea. So and I got to think some of these players like, you know, I'm sure they don't like some of the guys that went over to live, but at the same time they're like, man, there's still some good golfers over there. Like, you know, it's, they, what, what is detrimental to the guys that have stayed on the PGA tour is that if there's always going to be an asterisk, well, yeah, you won, but like Dustin wasn't playing or like, yeah, you won, but Cam Smith wasn't

playing. So did you really win, you know, like having that bifurcated, you know, some of the best players in the world or somewhere else is probably like, if they're looking at it from just like unbiasedly, like that's, you know, that's probably an issue for them. Yeah, I think that issues past being resolved though. I also don't think I mean there's enough You know critical mass at the PGA toward level that I don't think any wins are discounted by cam or DJ not being there But that's where I disagree though because if like let's say live did the hard work and they put in somebody You know capable

competent to run it and they did the hard work of being OWGR certified. It's like, yeah, for like, they got all the requirements and then the 12 month clock starts. And then a year later, they are an eligible tour. Man, that's that, I got no problem with that, right? What I do have a problem with this is them saying like, hey, like we should be grandfathered in,

like the rules don't apply to us I think that's bullshit for sure, but if they go and do the work even though I don't really like the tour I don't want to watch it like I it's like hey man you guys are you guys are in now and yeah all of them will Carine down the world ranking points until that happens, but I guess that's where I'm saying like, that to me would be a little bit of a path towards reconciliation, as you say. It's like, yeah, now you guys are a certified tour because you did it the right way. Like you went through the, you know, the channels.

Like does that, you know, change the sports washing stuff? Do I still think that a foreign government, any foreign government should run a professional golf? No, it doesn't, but like it's still like, hey, I'm not going to like everything, right? Like if you qualify, you qualify. I just want to take this moment to highlight is again, how far away they are from qualifying in terms of the essence of what they are with being a long term contracts selective league is so far from the qualification aspect that like it would

break down what they are. That's why they're not going to do it and they're not going to get it. Like because you have to have a competitive underlying aspect of qualifying for this thing that they're never going to have. Yeah. But I guess that's probably Rory's point is if somebody competent came in and said that to him, like, hey, we got to make these changes. Yeah. Like, would it, you could argue it would ruin what they're trying to do. That's one argument. Like, I don't know the answer to that, but I'm trying to like read what Rory's thinking

here. And that's probably what he's thinking is like, God, just like everybody shut up over there about how cool and awesome and rich you are. Yes. And why don't you just play golf and like try to like build a competitive tour. If that's what you're going to do, just go over there and do it. Right. Just go. You're good, man. But stop complaining about how like, oh, and suing people and all that shit. It's such a waste to everyone's time.

Bryson said, I don't know if you want to, you want to take a victory lap on this one? Bryson said he didn't feel good after gaining 40 to 50 pounds. What? I, this was, I did not see this one coming. Did you? Ooh, who could have predicted that one? So I like God, I would yeah, I would like to take a little victory lap. Like who could have predicted that gaining 40 to 50 pounds and eating 7,000 calories of protein shakes and just bake in and straight meats would would mess up your gut. And and there's also an interesting line in there about like yet I was I was in a bad mood all the time,

and feeling grumpy, it's like, well, what are you putting in your body, but that's going to have an impact. And also, yeah, he had some serious injuries this last season. You start putting that much torque on your ligaments and joints. That was the easiest call of the century. putting that much torque on your ligaments and joints. Like, I just, that was like the biggest, the easiest call of the century two years ago. So yeah, I would like to take a little victory lap. I was early on that call, hell yes.

I miss, I miss Bryce. How was 2020? I think we did that show and tell podcast in June. It was, but we're golf returned. You were causing, you were calling alarm bells to say like Bryson's gotten massive like you guys need to start paying the shut up at the Schwab. Yeah, looking like a full-back. Oh my god. That was I'll never get that time period. Bryson like took over pro golf for like nine months and then it just was it was over. It was over.

Man, we got to we got to get DJ to dig up the that video he made where he put Bryson in the paperboy cap like it was a World War II like pre movie real like the ball is our storming in the Maryland and big Bryson's dropping bombs all over the place and then he got DC a made and they took it off the hold on my light just went out because I yelled the clapper one off on my light just went out because I yelled the clapper went off. We're back. So anyway, yeah, that was, that was good. Thank you for letting me, you know, do a little touchdown dance there. Jimmy Dunn is joining the PGA tour policy board as an independent director. As I think this is a great thing.

Seems to be for the PGA Tories. Got a great relationship with Jay Monhan, great relationship with a lot of the players and is probably seen as a good person to have as a representative of one of the 10 votes on the policy board. Probably more to come from that one, I imagine we'll hear some color from Rory and a lot of the gang coming in.

Yeah, that guy seems to just be the... Everyone knows. The prototypical board member advisor, like a guy that shoots you straight and has the, you know, has the right compass. So yeah, that's definitely a good thing for golf. It's going to, it sounds like it's going to be a part of his job is going to be help retain town on the PGA tour.

And as a trusted advisor to a lot of these guys, I think that will, can only help. It's probably too, it's a little too late at least. These are measures that, you know, maybe could have been made a long time ago if they'd have seen this threat coming properly, but it's a positive from this point forward. A couple more things I really got here. There's changes to PGA Toru.

I'm not gonna break down all the details of this one, but if you're interested, you could, there's a great article from Ryan Lavner that I retweeted earlier this week to show how the PGA Tor Tour plans to graduate some talent from the college and amateur ranks into the PJ Tour. It's a complicated system that, if you thought the ODBGR conversation earlier was too deep,

then you're definitely not gonna, not gonna do it. Well, no, but it's important to note that anybody that thought that was too deep, they're probably gone. So the people that, yeah, don't think it's too deep, they're probably still listening. I think it's important. Like the why why is this important is like giving the top tier

amateurs like a chance to go get it immediately out of college. That way the live performance doesn't look quite I mean, the live as it stands now go maybe qualify of the Quinn for a tour or take live money up front is can be a pretty easy decision. Whereas this is like, Hey, the top finisher in PGA Tor, you earn tour membership after the NCAA championship and is eligible for all open,

full field tournaments for the remainder of the year. So you win that PGA Tor, you go to the PGA Tor. Like that is a change and you get probably 14 starts after that. Then you're also exempted into the final stage of PGA Tor Q school School, if that does not, if those starts not go well enough for you to retain your status, then you can exempt into that final stage. That's a nice benefit.

Plus, yeah, and it's important to like reward, you know, amateurism and golf has always been very important, maybe more so than other, you know, sports when you compare the amateur game to the pro game. So it's always been a disadvantage for somebody that stuck around to win the national championship to play in the USAM. You know, they're at a disadvantage because they're halfway. Then they come on tour like we were talking about with Cole Hammer. They're halfway through the Corn Fairy schedule. They're just behind the April, right?

And they have to go use sponsor exemptions and that's stressful. And then, you know, I think this is think this is definitely a step in the right direction. Is it needlessly complicated? Maybe, but, you know, it's trying to make it work in a complex system it probably has to be. Yeah, you got, I mean, if they, with what happened with the Alex Fitzpatrick situation, I don't fault them for making it complicated

and well-defined and drawing hard parameters around it. But you can also start accruing through the accelerated program. You can start accruing points towards status as a freshman, starting with a freshman. If you get 20 points by the end of your third year of eligibility, and you can get points through like winning the Haskins award. If you win the Hogan, you win the Nicholas. If you're outstanding freshman,

you rack up like 11 points for all of those. And if you get an NCAA individual championship, you get three points. If you go, it gets a world number one in the amateur ranking. You get five points. And if you get up to 20, you can get an automatic qualification. Apparently the tour said,

can't lay J.T. and Patrick Rogers would have been the only three guys that would have qualified under the system had it been in place over the past 12 years or so. But basically, it's like, hey, you ball out in college, you're going straight to the PGA tour. It's like the amateur battlefield promotion. Sorry straight to the corn fairy finals in that regard. But yeah, it's interesting. It's good. It's good development, little in the weeds, but it's a good development. You know, it's not in the weeds. Patrick

Greed's lawsuit against a brand new shambly, a hated scene is get dismissed so early. I was really helping for a real discovery phase in this matter, but it still is just a little bit of faith in the justice system, but it judged through that out. And I don't know how I got on claimant's email list. So I'm getting his outrageous updates on these. I mean, the guy must have the the source

sitting next to his computer, because he's just throwing big, big words into all of his email updates on these lawsuits. That must be where next then. Finally, we haven't waiting for it. But if you're on his email list, you must be what's the head email distribution list for no laying up. That's my good.

I want your thoughts on the new PJ tour app that was unveiled this week. So I have some thoughts. And I guess I got to frame them in the way that I think about our, we don't have an app, but like our pro shop, for instance, like I hope the things that matter does it load quickly. Does this one load a little quicker than the old one? Yes, it does, which is great. It used to take like five to 10 seconds for the old one to, you know, turn the engine

over, right? And it would kind of just show me that like presented by Taylor made ad for like 10 seconds. And then you got there and the color scheme with the blue and stuff, I never really liked to hard to find things. So I think the home screen is a lot more engaging with the video on the front and I feel like it runs quicker.

So that's great. It's always tough to get used to buttons or new places, but I do find the leaderboard to be a little easier to access, which is usually the only reason I'm going to the PGA Torap is to check the leaderboard. So it's a step in the right direction, but they're still trying to shove like their their stories, their articles, like, hey, what's in the bag for Svensson? Like, I don't really, not really interested. I just want to see the leaderboard. And so then you click on the leaderboard, and I mean, the biggest issue is it's still like full page ads that kind of take up the whole thing.

So I wish that they, with this new app, they would have maybe reset the ad load a little bit. Obviously that's wishful thinking. But the way that like, you know, Facebook or Instagram rolls out like a new stories or reels. Like they don't put ads in them for the first six months, right? Because they want people to like get used to it and make it sticky. You want to be a positive experience.

Yeah, exactly. They want to make people come back and use it. And so I think there's just, they solve some problems, but just ignored like the elephant in the room, which is like, Hey, your ads are intrusive on the site. And I'll tell you the ad that's not intrusive, is like the, in the most effective one, is like the frickin' titleist thing that says like,

what, you know, on the leaderboard, like finding a way to fit in a brand to say like, hey, these guys played titles golf ball. I think that's really, really effective. A lot more effective than you making me look at this Rolex ad that takes up the whole page once you get past the first three guys on the leaderboard. Like the ad placement could be more thoughtful.

If I, there's things you can do where like, if I scroll down the leaderboard and then I start scrolling back up, then serve the ad, right? But let me make it through the leaderboard on the scroll before you start blowing me up. So, yeah, that's my, that's, I guess that's my update. Yeah, I, I was, I guess hoping for more, I guess fine. It's better.

Sure, I guess that taking this long, I would have, you know, thought, thought it would be better. I think it still looks a little funky. The whole, they're really kind of hammering this tour cast thing down, which is, I just don't think looks very good, graphic-wise. I know that there's an interview that was done, I think with Golf Digest or something where one of the developers of the app says, there's nothing that's set on a podcast

that we don't hear about the experience. And so I will say this again, for those that are listening to this, is what I think would be the most obvious upgrade to this. It would be, if I wanna click on Adam's Fencens round, again, the comparison I make is MLB app. Like when I go to check the red score, I can scroll and see the sequence of every at bat right in front of me. So

and so ground it out, so and so struck out. Oh, there's a two run double. Boom. Click on that and I can watch that highlight right there. There's none of that. Like you have to go and still click on every individual hole. And then like it, it doesn't like, you can embed the video in the description of what just happened right there Like it would just make it flow very naturally. I want to catch up on Roy's round and scroll through the the you know The whatever just happened instead of having to click on individual holes Just show a list of all the shots that happened you can divide it up by holes as you scroll But you can watch this you can have the highlights all sit right there and then of course when you click on the highlight

You're met with the 15 second pre- roll. Like you just cannot miss any opportunity to to hit me with that 15 second pre roll on the second video or the third video. Like at least, let me get what I came for. Yeah. And I think you nailed it. Like I just, if I was going to boil it down, I wish they'd lead more with the leaderboard. Like that is the purpose of the app is like the leaderboard's going to the purpose of the app is the leaderboard is going to dictate what player I want to jump into. And then like you said, then have that take me to the Adam's fence and what's in the bag article. Once I click through on that, but on the homepage, they're always kind of leading with the media stuff that is

not really why I'm there. If you're going boil down like, what is probably the purpose of the majority of visits to your app? It's to check in on the golf tournament that's happening and then wanna get more information on like, for me, like, okay, where does this guy stand? You know, where is he on this, you know, the rankings? What's his strokes gained? And so it's closer, but it's just not quite the right,

you're journey. Well, just your journey. Steal something from Reels, like have just a whole highlight section where I can scroll and then like, yes, on the fourth or fifth video, give me just a separate ad, like the sponsor ads on Instagram or something like that. Yeah, which they have on the homepage, they have, they do have the video, kind of the story component there. But again,

it's almost like too early to show me that, right? Like I guess, and maybe that maybe a more casual golf fan is just looking for like, show me the 30 seconds that I need to know of what happened today, right? But I think for us, we're usually going there to go deeper on eat on players or just like the leaderboard fore, like frames it for me, right? I can come to my own conclusions about like, oh, you know, like, you know, Tagala and Harmon balled out today. Like, let me, like, I want to check out those guys. So again, closer, I know we're probably nitpicking, but it's still like, it's the ads, guys.

It's the ads. That's the problem. Yeah, it's just not going to change. But yeah, I think it anything that It just needs to be a little more nuanced because I guess the argument is, like I'd love to be a fly on the wall with the sales team at the tour when they go talk to like some of these sponsors.

It's like you're putting them in a bad spot. You're making them like, like you're making me resent the ad, like I understand the ads are necessary. I understand that's a part of life. We have ads, but like the whole goal is. I understand that's a part of life. We have ads But like the whole goal is like you got to be more thoughtful about it and say like and if like I guarantee that we push back of like if they went to A sponsor say hey, we're gonna change it up this year. We need the same amount of money

But like your ads gonna show after the third video place and the reason we're doing that is because it's gonna be a win for everybody Right, like no work, though. Of course not, but I'd love to hear the sales pitch. Like, because I think there's a, there's a sale there of like, hey, we're trying to make these less intrusive and, and this a better experience for users, which then you could probably like bump up the price of like the presented by like the whole app sponsorship. You know what I'm saying? Like, oh yeah, but that's just not the way that they go about things.

So anyway, so I hope again, I mentioned meant to earlier, but I hope you got to let chance to listen to the Xander Shoffley pod from this past week where he, you know, have a frank conversation on all things live. I certainly hope the the accounts that we're sending around the irresponsible rumors are we'll gladly share that as well. And if you're so interested in hearing both sides of the conversation, then the new gladly do that. But I'm sure that will not be the case. So we'll be dealing with more rumors this winter. I'm sure what's going on the shop, what's going on the store, what's going on the newsletter, tell me any house. That's what I was going to say. I'd like to plug the NLU Pro shop. I'd like to do a little house ad at the end of the podcast. You got to the

bottom of the leaderboard. So now I think you're entitled to show an ad, right? What's new? We've got the holiday promotion going in the pro shop. So it's 17% off on orders over $170 with code BFC M2022. It's also on just go to store.no laying up.com. We got a ton of new stuff and we got these Ward sweaters with the skeleton wayward drive. It's like our best selling stuff. We've got some custom rowback polos that are kind of party boy shirts, which are great.

We've got some hoodie hybrids, some re-engineered hoodie hybrids, which is basically like a quarter zip hoodie, which are awesome. And also my favorite thing that's back in the shop, socks. Re-engineered our socks, we've got black socks, we've got white socks, we've got a combo pack of socks. So go check that

stuff out. If you're a nest member, it's 20% off, normally 15% off, so that's the best deal in town. So consider joining the nest. But yeah, man, big, you know, obviously big time in the shop. And I think this is the first year where we have like really good. I think that not too much inventory but enough to, you know, people might not get as many emails this year about like, why are you sold out on this stuff? Also the hat I'm wearing, which is brand new, the five panel camper hat. So, yeah, thanks for the support. It's helpful to, you know, when people support us by buying the merch, love seeing it in the wild,

get a kick out of it, ambush marketing, baby. Kind of the last serious golf pod of the year, um, will be, you know, hero, we'll, we'll take the hero to seriously probably. And of course, we'll have P and C. We'll have the match coming up. So there is some golf to be played played kind of more silly season stuff, but golf's going to look a lot different in 2023 as we flip the calendar over and you know, well, we may have some surprises for you up up our sleeve in the next year, which we're not going to give away just yet, but I think you're going to like it. So I, what I will say, I am excited about the 2023 season. I am talking about like potential storylines can Rory keep it going, you know, till the masters. Like I just can't wait for the masters, right? But I'm excited for

just seeing these guys like play the top players in the world getting together more. Like I'm I'm excited to see what how that progresses. Hopefully that cooperation doesn't fall apart or get watered down too much, but it feels like there's a lot of like Like almost the zombie March of the PJ tour has been a little bit like shocked awake of like whoa Whoa, we've been going through the motions a little bit like we need to make some changes here And like they're not gonna do everything that we wanted to do and not near one That's no, but it's like man finally like there's some some shit's happening right people are at least talking about it So that's good. So I'm excited to take a little time off here the next month and then get it hard.

And I'm also excited about the holiday medley, Sally. I always love those podcasts. Oh, God, I guess I probably start working on that. I'm falling a little crazy. It's a great, just the highlight highlights from the year. It's great stuff. We'll have a topic pod if all goes to schedule for next Sunday that I think you guys will enjoy as well. So thank you, Neil, for for tuning in for tuning to for dialing in on a

Sunday evening and thank you to the listeners for tuning in as well. Hope you guys have a great week. Have a great holiday. We'll see you back here soon. Cheers. Be the right club today. Yes. That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most.

Expect anything different.