No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 752: LPGA Check In

Episode Date: October 12, 2023

Big Randy, Tron and Cody are back with a post-Solheim cup check in on all things LPGA. We start with Lexi Thompson's appearance in this week's PGA Tour event, some recent comments from LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan about maximizing the tour's financial opportunities and capitalizing on the positive momentum of the Solheim Cup. We close with a look at the last couple of tournaments, Epson Tour graduates and some other news and notes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yes. That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. episode and joining me are two associates, Mr. Tron Carter, TC. Good morning or good afternoon where you are. How are you today? Hello, big. I'm great. I'm great. Good to be here. Excited to talk to some ladies golf. Absolutely. And the third man of the crew, the serge, Cody McBride, Cody, always a pleasure, man. How are you? Thanks, big. Happy to be here on this program with you.

You know, this gets me fired up, baby. I want to go, you know, before you get to this ad read, because I know you're chomping at the bit to do it. I want to say a hearty, hearty congratulations to you, sir. A big event this week. You turned 40 years old. I know you're not one for public big guy. I know you're not one for public announcements or anything else, but how does it feel? Is it more difficult getting out of bed? Do you roll over now instead of sitting straight up? Like what's the difference between 39 and 40? No difference that I've noticed yet.

Thank you for the well wishes. Yeah, I got, can you remember when we were young, how old 40 seemed, you know, when friends, young, how old 40 seemed, you know, when, when friends, neighbors, parents, they would, uh, a lot of black balloons over the hill. Uh, I feel like that's not as prevalent anymore with turn and 40. But yeah, it's been, you know, I've noticed the body just being a little bit, more sore, slower to recover.

Honestly, over the last two, three years, I feel like it's been a slow slide into that, but we're looking to change some habits, not to get too far off script, but turning 40, it's been a good milestone for me and I'm trying to change some habits, trying to really get into yoga, which was one of my

New Year's goals, which I'd been awful at, but we're making an effort here over the last three months of the year. We, if I've realized, if I don't start doing some work and preventative care for my body, it's just going to get worse. So yeah, maybe not the most fun thing to think about on your birthday, but that's kind of where my mind is. I appreciate you bringing it worse. So yeah, maybe not the most like fun thing to think about on your birthday, but that's that's kind of where my mind is. I appreciate you bringing it up. I've been seeing a lot of hot yoga on your calendar. Been, been yassa power flow hot. Really? Yeah. Good on you, Vic. And one thing we're talking about in Spain is that we walked by some outdoor tennis courts. You've been getting your drills in yet?

I did. I got a drill in earlier this week. I'm drilling next week. That's another, you know, with the cold weather coming, I tennis is great out here in the winter, a lot of indoor events and lessons. And so yeah, I'm trying to get back into swinging things. I will say very sore after playing Monday for the first time in a few months, actually. So we got to give you one of those ice baths, buddy. We might need to do you doing the cold plunge action, but you know what, your birthday and this podcast brought to you by our good friends at Titleist and the new T series, Irons. Randy, I'm going to vacate the runway. This is your show.

This is your airstrip. I want you to land this ad because I think we got a big, big bird coming in. What happened, buddy? Oh, my God. I, well, if people, I don't know how people would not have heard about it already, but in case you have not, let me set the scene for you. It was late last week out here at Riverdale Dunes, the Riverdale golf course, the Dunes course, playing in a four-some with some Colorado Roost people. And you know, after really cold top in the ball for much of the first four or five holes,

we get to the par four six, I believe. God, the six or seventh, who could say? And I finally had a good drive. I had, I believe my laser said 177. Of course, you know, I still try to convert all my Colorado distances to sea level. So I'm trying to do the math in my head, maybe take it off, not quite 10%. But we're getting somewhere down in that, you know, one 55 to 160 range. And that's my title is seven iron. What a comfy club that is T100. They couldn't get me out of the T100's. Flushers only in that. I make a great swing. The ball just,

you know, it comes out of the window perfectly. I even I think in the air I I muttered be good. Really? Yeah. Yeah. I it hits on the front of the green. It was like a back left pin. Some firm greens ball releases and just starts tracking. I actually I kind of you know started putting my club away picking up my golf bag. I didn't even see the ball to completion. A couple guys a little further up the fairway. I said, oh my god, I think that went in. I said, are you guys serious?

They said, I really think so. And lo and behold, walking up, you know, seeing the ball in the hole. That's the first eagle, hold out, eagle from a substantial distance. Gosh, I can remember one. Maybe when I was like, in my early 20s, it does not happen often. So very special. I would say all credit, of course,

to the title is T100 Irons. You heard it talking about that last night. We even had, I don't think I've had a, like a whole out from a substantial distance since the day of his wedding, or the day before his wedding. I had an albatross. I remember that. That was the last time.

I can't even remember the last time I chipped in. You were on a heater though, because you had a couple of whole ones there, I remember when I first made a Florida. It's three aces in like an 18 month stretch and I haven't had one since and I didn't have one for the first 30 however many years in my life. So I think that you know what you're missing now that you had then. What?

I think you need to go back to the DQ diet. You need the proper fuel in your belly, but this is still a title of sad. You heard Randy talk about his T100 irons. They hit great. They go to the proper distance. The dispersion of them is incredible. And just like Randy said, the angle of descent of these balls coming in to hold the greens, have the proper roll out, have the proper control are amazing. Randy's in T100s. I'm in T150s. TCs in T150s. Most important thing here, people go get fit. You can find a fitter or a fitting event near you

at titleist.com. That's titleist.com and go check out that new titleist T series, Irons. Big. Actually, Cody, Cody, I want to congratulate one of the guys who fit us, Robert O'Rourke out in California. I got married this past weekend, want to wish he and his lovely brides Sophie, hearty congratulations. I love it. Big time supporters of the program too. I we got birthday announcements and congratulations. We're gotten wedding announcements now.

Who knows what else we're gonna have in this podcast, but I'm pumped. Congratulations to him. Awesome, awesome fitter, like a true professional at what he does. That's the takeaway. People go get fit, titleist.com, you can find a fitter in your area.

I, Cody, thank you so much for that setup. You're a true friend, a true professional. We have a great episode today. We're going to get into a lot of things. We're going to start with a few news items off the top. We're going to get into the recent LPGA events, a couple good ones since the Soulheim Cup. And now the ladies start their second Asian swing. They have four weeks coming up over in Asia. We're going to talk, highlight the Epson tour. They handed out 10 LPGA cards for 2024. So we got a good episode here. I'm so excited. Two. They're handing out the Epson tour prize packs. That was so sweet.

That's awesome. Let's start right here, though. And I, it's, I'm curious. I guess like how big of a deal it is, what your guys' thoughts are. It was announced that Lexi Thompson has accepted a sponsor's invite to play in this weekend's Shriners PGA Tour event in Las Vegas, which one of you, where did your mind go initially when you heard this news? My mind went to Lexi is currently 82nd in the race to the CME Globe and has only put in 13 LPGA events this year, which is like half the schedule.

So maybe like focus on tidying your shit up and like competing and succeeding. And like she has two top 10s all year. You know, there's, there's a dozen ladies out there that I would have gone with before Lexi. But, you know, I'm not the one giving out these exemptions. So Cody, did it surprise you? Yeah, I mean, I think it's shocking. I didn't see it coming right now. It's not surprising that Lexi is a person

that ultimately was selected and then she accepted the sponsor's invitation. But I think, you know, that the aggregation channels that are out there on social, I think did my guy, Pistol Pete, did him completely dirty here by, you know, he stumbled through his words and called the invite a gimmick. It's not really, you know, and then took it back. It's not a gimmick, but, you know, the the PGA joint.

It's a gimmick. Well, it's a total gimmick. Okay, but she is not a gimmick. Okay, I think that's what he wanted to make very, very clear is that yes, a lot of these events are searching for a new identity because they do not have FedEx cup points awarded the same way it's been in years past and they're looking for ways to juice numbers and right for a least so TC, I feel like I'm getting painted in here just like I got painted in the the Lucas Glover corner here. You're right about Lexi and her season so far and nobody was harder on Lexi leading up

to the Soul Heim cup than I was and I want that on the record here and I want the, you know, you guys, if this is our court of law, I want you guys to hear me out on this. She played so fucking good at the Soulheim Cup. She did. All right. We did. Since then, it's, as she's found, she clearly found something. And J. Ray pointed this out the week of the Soulheim Cup and we're like, oh, like Lexi's leading this off here. I don't know about that. You know, she, as put together, like really, really good performances, playing in almost, you know, every week since she came back from the Soulheim couple and straight to Arkansas had a great finish there.

She appears to be like, you know, her driver is back. It those quick hooks that she had off the tee that she was struggling with earlier in the year. No longer an issue. She's still hitting a ton of greens, which has never been her issue. And I went and saw her last week up in North Dallas. She's making a ton of putts. I mean, she has a T19 TAT5 sense the Soulheim cup. It seems like she has it together.

And of all the people, if they are looking for somebody to juice numbers and bring one of the professionals to play full time on the LPGA tour over to a PGA tour event, on a course where distance is not going to be like that bigum and issue, Lexi is that. I'm with, I'm, listen, I hear all that. I would hesitate to say she plays full time on LPGA. Well, she's the minimum. All she has to do is play the minimum events necessary to keep her cart.

I don't know. It's just, it seems like she was complaining about the media coverage at Soulheim Cup or one question at Soulheim Cup, and now she's seeking out the spotlight again. It's like, you can't go both ways, right? Well, I don't know about seeking out. I was like, God, you guys are paying me in this horrible corner. I can't believe Randy ways. Right? Well, I don't know about seeking out. I was, God, you guys are paying me in this horrible corner.

I can't believe Randy, you're over there being silent. I can't believe I'm the only one here. She's not seeking it out if the invitation is presented. You know, and I think that's the question, Cody. I'm just asking you. I know you are. You're doing a very good job here. And I'm happy playing this, you know, this part here, but it's a difference

between seeking something out and like, you know, if she was out like throwing out random Twitter statements of like, you know, talking shit about like, I can play in any event or anything else, the invitation came from the tournament organizers. She did not seek it out. She accepted it. The Shriders. Yeah. Very much. We need to be going after the Shriders. No, but I, you know, I remember what was it? And the last time this happened was in 2018. That's right. At the barber saw Brittany Linsa come. Now, I would say that obviously there's hometown things there in that area of the country that we're going to drive a lot of fans to that event.

I would say this is case in point of like, what is the Shriners? What is this event anymore? And I think they're looking for juice on the ground. And I think from, nobody can deny the poll that Lexi has when it comes to not only the women's professional game, but golf in general, like even through no matter what can be said, some based off of her actions and some not based off, you know, completely from like bogus reporting out there, they're like, she fucking drives a lot of people to the game. She is a role model for a ton of young girls

and young boys coming up who are looking at it. And I think this is a great thing. Who knows how she's going to perform? That's 100% on her. Answering the questions, post-round. That's also 100% on her. But I think this is awesome. I don't think that she was out there seeking this out.

That's fair. I think a lot of my issues with Lexi are also have to do with her representation, as we've talked about as well. I am curious you guys bring up a lot of good points. I have zero problem with her accepting the invite with the invite going to her, the tournament can do what they want. I am curious how long this had been in the works because Tron, to your point, if this was pre-Solheim Cup, there was nothing pointing to her being informed. Thankfully, she's played really well since the Soulheim Cup. And Cody, as you said, she played excellent at the Soulheim Cup. Because otherwise, it would be like, this would be about the worst point in her career in which to do something like this.

So I guess it was a bit odd. I think where my mind immediately went when I heard the news was, you know, we've heard whispers and who knows if they're, we'll say they're very unfounded, but loud whispers that like, hey, we're not sure if Lexi's going to even be playing next year. So it seemed like, hey, if you're ever going to do this, now's the time, if she really is thinking about winding down, which is interesting. Obviously, we don't know for sure. We'll all find out together over the coming months.

Yeah, as far as like driving eyeballs, I'll be curious. She tees off Thursday afternoon, I think to 19 local time, she's playing. I thought her pairing was a little strange. She's playing with... Were below?

Who's is it Troy? Trevor. Trevor were below. Yeah. And then some other guy, honestly, I'd never heard of. Let me look him up real quick. But it like not a marquee pairing. Well, so things is the mules, some of the mules

are pissed because like they're going off the 2021 2022, which they should be so bad. It's so bad. So guys that like Dylan Wu is going back and forth with our guy Ryan over Monday Q info and he was, and he's got a great point. He's like, hey, like I'm like 80 if this year and we're I'm trying to improve my standing heading into 2024 that's what this false season that's that's how they they've explained it to everyone as hey, this is for improving your your standing and He can't like you he was on the alternate list yet. He's also into Zozo for neck for which is like a 75 or 7 year 75 person field He was on the alternate list, yet he's also in DeZozo, for neck, which is like a 75 or seven year,

75 person field. So the whole category thing is outrageous. They need to figure out what's going on with this stuff. Also, is Lexi just gonna straight up skip the entire Asian swing? That's another good question. I don't know. Because then if that's the case,

she's 82nd right now. She basically has to finish like very high, like probably top six, top seven, I would think for the onica event down in Tampa. And then that's, that's really her only shot to get inside the top 60 and make the, the tour championship. Correct. Yeah. I know that's's I'm curious her schedule as well. She's obviously missing the first event of the Asian swing. So what about you, a invitation? Exactly. The third member she's playing with Kevin Roy.

So Kevin Roy, Trevor, we're below and Lexi are going off the second to last group of the day. Does she have any shot at making the cut Cody? What are your expectations? I am going to go with that she will not make the cut. I think that she will play well. I just do not see her like lighting it up like that on a, on a pretty big golf course that people go really deep on. I mean, this is one of those, this is an event where it's like a true like, you know, it's a race out there to get as deep as you possibly can. And I think, you know, what, what is success is making the cut success or like, where are we drawing this line here for know, what is success? Is making the cut success?

Or like, where are we drawing this line here for what will a successful week for Lexi P? I mean, I think making the cut would be unbelievably successful. I think, honestly, I think hanging around 74, 75, acquitting yourself well, making some birdies, like just breaking 150.

Yeah, looking at how these things have gone for Brittany and Suzy Waley and Anka and Michelle, we, I mean, making the cut would be maybe one of the stories of the year. So I don't expect that, but yeah, TC, like break in 150, and again, making some birdies, having some highlights for the folks, for the kids. I think that'd be a successful week. TC brought up a good point about categories for some of these events, and you brought up Zozo that's using current year standings for their events. And I agree, every time there's using current year, yeah, uh, standings for their events.

And I, I agree. Every time there's a sponsor's invite that goes to somebody who is not a full-time professional or even some who are just not full-time professionals at like the highest level. I think back to like, you know, I think it's Zurich. Like that stands out there. And the out of that crazy ass, you know, mild buddy, the medic that was like, yo, what are you doing? Like, can you even break 80 out there? Uh, that people who at the end of the day should like play better, but it, it, it stinks because, you know, like Harry's not in the event this week, but like, this is an event that, you know, for the guys who were, you know, he's still in 126 to 150 from last year's category. He's not getting in. But like, you know, they had opportunities. They could go Monday,

qualify. You know, that's what Dylan tried to do. He missed out on it. And then ultimately got brought back around anyway when he got brought up on the ultimate list. But Lexi here will become the seventh woman to play in a tour event. As Randy mentioned, a couple of their names earlier, we got Babe Zaharius. She had seven starts on the PGA tour. Shirley Spork. If I could just say babe, sorry Cody, it interrupt. If people wanna like, just go read Babes Wikipedia page, it's incredible.

We kind of touched on it. Cody, I remember. Yeah. We went through like her resume. I think it was before Founders Cup, but it's absolutely incredible. Art, go ahead. Yep. So we have Babe.

We have Shirley Spork played in the 1952 Northern California Reno open. Randy mentioned Onika earlier. She had course played in the 20 or 2003 Troll Shwab challenge. It was not called that then, but of course, that's what the graphic that we're going off of now. Suzy Waley, a name that we've mentioned multiple times here. A very good teaching professional club professional went on to be president pj of america. She qualified and played in the 2003 travelers championship. Michelle, we west, of course, had eight pj tour starts from 2004 to 2008 and Brittany, lintsakom, 2018 barbersault championship of all of these. I did a little bit of research. So babe actually qualified for some of these

PGA tour events she played and surely qualified for the Northern California arena open. And Suzy, of course, qualified via winning her, I think it must have been section championship. That's exactly right. A lot of the blocky. Yep. To get into the 2023 travels championship. Michelle, Brittany, Anika and Lexi now going the route via sponsors exemptions. So I think there is a little bit of differentiating that we can do there, but we'll see how the week goes. I'm excited. Is it going to make me view in and watch Shriners? Probably not. We watch a ton of golf, but it's it'll be late night golf and or you know evening golf for me It's hard, you know the the Rangers are doing really good

Move out of the AFTS You know we're moving to the championship series now, so I don't know if it's gonna take me away from that But but who knows excited to see how Lexi does and it'll it'll roll right into What about China? coverage, I think that starts at 11 p.m. So late it'll roll right into what about China coverage. I think that starts at 11 p.m. So late. That's right.

Late night golf for the women the next several weeks. We'll get into that. The other news item and it's kind of a combination between some Solheim Cup post mortem. We got the TV ratings. Both Sky Sports showed really strong, relative to previous iterations of the Soulheim Cup, strong numbers this year.

Golf Channel had the most watched final round of a European Soulheim Cup since 2007. We talked about... Despite shooting us in the face of a shotgun, there's still people are still watching. Exactly. We talked about even though the coverage was not great, which, which is great, right? It's, it's wonderful. More eyeballs coming to the women's game, very deserving. But I think it goes hand in hand with, I think it's a pretty big announcement.

I'd love to have a, a quick conversation with you guys. So an article of regionally appearing in the financial times, but I'd love to have a quick conversation with you guys. So an article of regionally appearing in the financial times, but I'm going to quote off of a sports business journal write up that the LPJ is, I'm quoting now, the LPJ is set to a point strategic advisors to attract greater investment as it looks to capitalize on the rapid growth of the game, according to the reporter from the Financial Times. Goes on to say, LPGA Commissioner Molly Marcusa-Mann said that the women's game was, quote,

being held back commercially by a lack of broadcast exposure and investment. She singled out the disparity between the writer cup and Soulheim cup as an example and went on to say quote I'm 100% convinced that if we got even a small percentage of the investment made in the writer cup The soulheim cup could be a huge home run for players for fans For broadcasters for sponsors. I think we're sitting on a gold mine and we need to capitalize on that. So and we need to capitalize on that. So guys, I mean, I think we talked internally. It's great to hear this from the commissioner

because I think we've been waiting for Molly to settle into her role. We've heard a lot of things about, you know, some, you hear the good and the bad, and but finally, to me, this feels like, hey, Molly is is kind of going on the offensive exactly TC being assertive and working on this is like a big picture item, something that she can hang her hat on as the commissioner of the LPGA. So I'm curious, Cody, you're Tron. If you guys want to pick this up, any thoughts here?

Yeah, I think it's probably goes hand in hand with some of the ladies European tour stuff, that some of that merger stuff kind of figuring out how to capitalize on a soul, I'm cup, especially with one coming up this next year. And then, you know, as we move down the line for the next overseas one in Netherlands, and then wherever they decide to go in that be 2026 here in the States, or sorry, 2028 here in the States. But yeah, I think it's, you know, it seems like it's very much similar to some of the investment that's going on in National Women's Soccer League, WNBA, like, like I saw the Warriors just being like a $50 million investment to bring a WNBA team to just strictly from a business perspective, it seems like a golf channel would probably argue

against, well, hey, nobody watches this. It's like nobody watches this because you guys don't put a coherent story around it and there's no critical mass whatsoever. And it's just scatter shot. You're doing the bare minimum. And it's like, hey, like if you play offense, like we've said, and go on the offensive and put together a coherent plan, high stuff together and tell stories, this feels like a really like undervalued, under realized asset that could be like some great, you know, great commercial inventory, great viewing, just all sorts of things, you know,

and it's, it seems like a no-brainer to get more capital around it on the front end to, you know, try end to try and do that. Try and play offense instead of just, hey, we'll take the scraps that you give us and be okay with it. Yes, I would say something that came out earlier this year, actually probably, I don't even know if it was a month ago now, it might have been a couple weeks, but just the differences in LPGA viewership when it is on Golf Channel, which is cable versus NBC or CBS, which is network.

And I think in this day of streaming and wire cutting and everything else, people forget the fact that like, you know, Golf Channel people still have to pay for the package that that comes in versus network is like, you can get some wires or the digital wires now and like anybody can get that. The rabbit ears. Yeah.

So it does matter of where it is presented here. So I broke down the disparities here between Soulheim Cup and Ryder Cup and what NBC put out because when we were at Soulhyme Cup and what really started the weakest Soulhyme Cup is kind of the, the potential loss for the greater game of golf of what could have been and what could have been was this incredible two-week European festival showcasing the best, you know, men and women professional golfers from the United States and from Europe. And I think I still believe that was a huge missed opportunity that we know people in the back were trying to figure things out and make

it work. But when you're working with like a 27 layer cake and you're trying to pull, you know, layer three, seven, 19, and then 12 on top of it to make it work. It just becomes too complicated. And I understand the people who were trying to figure it out are just like, oh, yeah, get this out of here. It makes complete sense to me. But luckily, NBC on the hook for both Soul Heim Cup and Rider Cup. So just going through their press releases and everything. This year's Rider Cup had more than 100 hours of live tournament and studio coverage across Golf Channel, USA Network and NBC.

The Soul Heim Cup from NBC, 25 hours. So it invested a quarter of air time to it, just strictly numbers wise. On top of that, the Solheim Cup was only on cable or their streaming options, meaning they kept it strictly on Golf Channel or Golf Channel dot com or whatever else. Now I think that's where we start here. And we know from their broadcast agreement that the LPGA tour has, it was, oh, thank you so much,

big brother, PGA tour for coming down and helping us negotiate this, is that I believe, and from the information that we've got, it is that the LPGA's current television contract is only four cable options. Everything that is above and beyond that, when we talk about networks or anything else,

that is in partnership with either the LPGA purchasing that airtime or the sponsor of whatever event going and purchasing that airtime. So it's not built in just like the PGA tour does for every single one of their events this year, specifically when it comes to NBC. You know, yeah, the second part of it is, so that was hours and how we broke them down. The Ryder Cup, NBC and whoever else that they contracted with, they had over 80 cameras,

including wire cams, plane cameras, top tracer cam, slow motion cams, the, you know, Venus, whatever, shallow depths of field cams, all of those, 80 of them total, right? They had very, very close to 40 cameras on site, total for the Soul Hunt cup, almost half, right? Talent pool, Ryder Cup. There's 20 plus members over 20 people from overall NBC talent, majority of them coming from golf channel. When you got live from crew, you got studio crews, you got on course crews, you got all those people, all right, that over 20 members for the Soulheim Cup. Obviously, we talked about it during the event. They sent over 11 people. They didn't even use all 11 because they bench Woody, which I don't understand. I still don't understand

the decision of why they bench Woody, like when they only had so few on course recorders there in the first place. NBC is going to say, well, they're going to blame the world feed because they use the world feed for both, you know, and it will hate, you know, the European tour and the PJ America and these European tour, like these are the decisions that they made on how to cover it, how, how many cameras to have dotted out of the, but so it's not like NBC's the only responsible party for this, but their lack of

investment is is glaring, right? Just from a personnel standpoint, and from a, you know, the 25 hours, I'm sure they would say, well, we did wall to wall coverage of all the matches, you know, live. And then we just didn't have any studio shows around it. Whereas, you know, they did all sorts of studio shows for the Ryder Cup. This is just where it seems like, hey, having a pile of money, it basically

have a five-year plan, or a three-year plan, or a five-year plan, or a 10-year plan, to work towards something and say, hey, we're going to identify these eight tournaments that we want on network TV this year, build a coherent story around those, and make longer-term decisions instead of just, hey, we don't know what our schedule is going to look like

next year, much less in four or five years, and have to make sacrifices. Or like, it just feels like having access to more capital to build a foundation off of seems very, very useful and worthwhile for them, right? I think that's right. seems very, very useful and worthwhile for them, right? I think that's right. I that's been one of my biggest frustrations, I guess, Cody, to your point. Not only does the LPJ have to buy network television time.

I believe the last CBS LPJ broadcast was from the Toledo, the Dana Open, that Lynn Grant actually ran away with. And it drew over a million viewers, which is like one of the most watched women's golf rounds of the year. And there was nothing particularly, you know, exciting about the Dana open. I mean, it's just any other event week to week, but that it was on broadcast TV in a time frame, I believe, one o'clock Eastern, that people expect to find golf on on broadcast TV. And I think that's the biggest thing when you look at the LPGA package on golf channel is they seem to be, well, we got a slot. The PGA tour goes in first. That's our first priority. They get the premium TV window. And then it seems like we got a slot in. But sometimes it seems like the champions tour gets, gets privileged above the LPGA. Sometimes

the corners are very champion. And so you end up having LPGA broadcast times that are like, well, some weeks it's like 11 a.m. Eastern to 2 p.m. Eastern. And then other weeks, it'll be four to seven Eastern. And then you just never know when the broadcast window is going to be. And so it just makes it hard to consistently build routines and, and capture those casual viewers that are more attuned to like, oh, I'm going to flip on golf channel and see what's

on, you know, it should be a live event right now. Or just like you said, I know on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, I'm going to flip on CBS and I know golf looks going to be there. Yeah. So that's frustrating, specifically Cody, to your breakdown of, you know, how they treated the writer cup versus the soulheim cup. I mean, that's, that's what it gets down to to me and, and Tron, you said the same thing. It's just, I would love to see an investment and a mindset of, hey, the, the, this game,

this sport is, we can make money off this because it's a good product. And if we sell it to people, we are going to bring in viewers that love golf. And I think with how much the PGA live stuff has potentially turned people off and a number of other factors, there's no reason the LPGA can't settle into a nice profitable role. I just refuse to believe that that's not possible. And so good on Molly for going on the offensive and calling this out publicly and stating her goals, right? If I can go back to that sports business journal article and quote, Molly Samor, she says that the LPGA is quote, close to naming a

strategic planning partner to look at various options for increasing investment, including bringing in capital from outside parties. She says it's impossible, quote, it's impossible to maximize value in any business without investment. We have this amazing product and we need to figure out how to commercialize it, monetize it, and have investment come into it. And I think that's the biggest thing for me is we got a shift from this diversity and inclusion where we're just going to kind of throw a token investment at some stuff.

To like, no, there's, you know, there's money made. Yeah, these businesses should be looking at it as an opportunity to make money and to monetize this. And so I'm hopeful, you know, I think again, internally, we're like, okay, this is the first kind of sign from Molly of like, all right, this is maybe this is what, you know, we can hang your administrations hat on. So what is that like on the Capitol side, does that mean that they give up equity in the tour? Does that mean that they're selling off tournaments and basically say, hey, stand these up

and you stand to, you know, and then peg purses against it and you stand to reap the, you know, and then peg purses against it, and you stand to reap the, you know, all the profits beyond those operating expenses. Is it, you know, different title sponsorships? I like it's kind of a black box, it seems like, right? Yeah, so I will say from, again, the same sports business journal article, the sports business journal is great

if people aren't aware of that. But they cited a recent deal between CVC capital partners and the Women's Tennis Association, the WTA, where CVC invested 150 million into the WTA. And that was for a sale of 20% equity. So conceivably, they could, yes, they could kind of sell off equity in the tour. I think there's an opportunity to, again,

like the WTA has a presenting partner for like the overall tour. I think that's a way to bring capital into the game. I think there are a few different avenues and it'll be interesting to see what comes of any of them. And something too, like getting the ladies European tour stuff, hey, that's a side door, a back door for a Ramco and getting some of that money in a palette, debate the merits of the virtues of that all you want. But, you know,

it's, I'm sure they'd happily take the oil money, right? But, but also that's a good side door into like, hey, maybe, you know, maybe it's an international deal with Prokering gamble or other multinational brands that, that, you know, what's stopping them right now from, that, you know, what's stopping them right now from sponsoring is that there's, there's, you know, a lot of, you know, it's very domestic, right? And it's in, hey, you're getting basically worldwide, you know, five continents or six continents, if you are, you know, moving forward with this. So because that's the thing. It's like there's, you know, it's tough, like it's tougher. It's not as clean because Korea is a huge market for the LPGA. Like there's, there's different stakeholders versus men's golf, you know? Yeah. And I think you're, yeah, you're exactly right. Those could be potential positives.

They, it could make certain things tougher. I, that's where I admittedly don't have as good of a grasp. But I think bottom line, it's nice to just one hear this messaging, see this messaging from Molly from the commissioners office. And I think, you know, through, And I think, you know, through, again, Soulheim Cup numbers, some of the, I think the women's British Open did good ratings. The, like, there is some momentum for sure in the women's game. So hopefully they can capitalize off it. The big thing is like the broadcast.

And I think that is the product. Yeah. What they can do to spice things up, reset with NBC golf channel, or go out and find, you know, if it's a ESPN plus, like a new streaming partner for tournaments, that's, I think that's going to be pivotal. Talked about numbers from the Solheim Cup, 260,000 viewers that was reported from golf channel, but specifically in sky. And I think when we look at sky and we talk in US, how we talk the difference between cable and network and where people go where they're used to seeing golf, I think that

is reflected here in the numbers that sky reported with a peak audience, just a little above 730,000 people, which is, you know, crushes the US numbers by far. But because, I mean, it's that way because they put it on, you know, SkySpoor's golf and people know where to go find the golf. You know, I don't, you could have a discussion there about viewing times and everything else like that, that it was a European hosted event. But I think like the numbers work out there. And I think, you know, for them, it's, it was the most watch, soul, hum, cup ever in the history of it for for any European, whether it's sky sports or BBC. You know, it's, I'm like, so far past the, the discussion of like, oh, nobody watches them because it's boring and, and, you know,

I can't relate to it. Like that's, that's so much BS because it's just spend any amount of time at all watching the play. Like you love golf like you're going to love it because it's about as pure of golf as you can possibly watch. I think there's there's so many things every like everything other than seemingly like NFL NBA MLB like ratings are going down for everything and LPGA seems to be going in the opposite direction and just because it's it's been seems to be going in the opposite direction. And just because it's been lightly watched over the last five to 10 years, doesn't mean that has to be the case moving forward. Why would people again, and if viewership numbers are the end

all be all and you see lackluster investment from the platform who is actually presenting the product, then what do you expect? I mean, I understand that NBC, they're going to look at this as like a huge win, but at no point in time, are they looking at it as like, wow, like, just think if we put an ounce, I'm not even talking about equal here, because we're a long ways away from equality when it comes to be you know, the difference between the men's professional game and the women's professional game. But fuck, just try a little, little bit harder. And around this out, Randy, a couple quotes that really stood out for me. Molly, I'm 100% convinced that if we even gave a small percentage of the

investment made in the writer cup, the Soul Heim cup would be a huge home run for players, for fans, for broadcasters, for sponsors. I think we're sitting on a gold mine. We need to capitalize on that. It's impossible to maximize value in any business without investment. If you think about where we could be or where the future could be, the returns are there. That's somebody who like of all the things that have been said about Molly. And you know, we've been pretty harsh on her as well about, hey, what what is the future of all this look? Like that's somebody who I'm like, yep, let's do it.

You're thinking on the right things. And if people don't get motivated and pumped up about like hearing quotes like that from her, and I don't know what else you're looking for. Yeah. And I think that's exactly right. I think it's getting money invested. We've talked about the TV product, how you show the product on TV. And it's continuing to try to get to one underserved markets. We've heard whispers that next year, there's gonna be a event in Boston, there might be an event in New York.

I think the LPGA is positioned to, they should be going to Chicago. They need to kind of serve some of these markets that have been left behind annually by the PGA tour. And on top of that, if they can get to some of the golf courses that we all know and love and some of these classic or old school courses that you simply could not put a men's event on, that's what's going to interest people. I mean, there are so many

golf geeks and nerds and people that just want to watch good, proper golf on some of these historic venues that we all know. And so, yeah, it's a lot of different kind of variables, but at least with this reporting and these quotes by Molly, I'm more optimistic, I think, than I've ever been, certainly during her administration, and at least I know that they have their eyes and their minds in the right spot.

So we'll see you over the next several months. And then once we get there, then we can evaluate what's a major and what's not a major. Exactly. Yes. And we can focus on the important shit, right? Exactly right, T.C. Exactly right. Well, let's move on. I said there've been two events since the Soulheim Cup, since kind of we've been together two weeks ago. They played in Arkansas, the Walmart Northwest Arkansas championship. Last week was the ascendant LPGA just outside Dallas. Kodman, let's start here with the ascendant. How was your time on the ground?

Any big takeaways? I'll note Hugh Joochim won that event by four shots, her six LPGA title. Yeah, it was a good event. The first time that I've ventured into the colony. So I don't know if you guys know where that's at, but it's just a little bit further west of Frisco, which a lot of people know that name of now, another suburb in North Dallas. But a great big on an interesting golf course that claims to be a links course, but is, you know, you said, you said, uninteresting golf course or an uninteresting golf course. I said, an uninteresting golf course.

It's not somewhere where I'm going to seek out. But I know, you know, it's another one of those places where they have a great membership who's very, very excited, who's willing to host and gets absolutely riled up. And I think having a, you know, an LPG event in Dallas is very much needed. So it was great. It was hot, hot weekend still. Luckily, it's finally cool and off here in Texas. But man, Hoijou and Kim absolutely running away with it from like the get go opening

with that 64 and then never really letting up there. I mean, she what shot even power on her third round and then followed it up again. Winds of 1300 and just blows the rest from out of the water. But happy to see it. I walked two rounds with her. She seems to be close to being back. She just didn't make a lot of putts, which I think is... Even though she's coming back from, was she hurt? I honestly, I don't know.

And I've asked a lot of it. I think it's one of those things where, you know, a little bit of expectation management. I mean, she just burst onto the scene last year and was just, you know, rookie of the year, but you got to think that she's still getting used to a lot of this. And she travels a ton. She plays in like almost every event possible, you know, some hefty expectations for somebody

who last year was rookie of the year. Yeah. But it was nice to see her play. Well, I taught, you know, she was paired with Lexi for two of those rounds. I, you know, I'd still very, very impressed with Lexi's ball striking. She was making putts when she needed to make putts. Kind of had a, you know, opening round 71, which wasn't the best, but I watched that 65 that she shot in round two.

And she made everything, man. It was so impressive and pretty cool to watch. And then, you know, it was an overall fun event. Quite a few people live in the Dallas Fort Worth Metro. So there's some big fans out there happy to see Cheyenne, get another top 10. And when she starts making birdies, she just makes them in like buckets, had low round of the week with the 63 on Sunday, finish solo six. So nice to see her continuing good form. Cody, this is the one with that God awful 18th hole, right? Yeah.

Yeah, there's everyone there that play off a couple of years ago. It's just like, oh my God, make it stop. It's a weird place out there, man. It's, uh, there's not. Not, not a place called the colony. Yeah, that kind of sets up a lot of patriots out there. Yes. TC, I want to highlight our, our girl. I'm going to call her our girl, because we've been, we've been kind of riding for for a few years now and Not much going on, but she is finally starting maybe to put it together and that's Bianca Pogged in nonin from the Philippines. She finished tied for second at the ascendant and that was coming off a tied for third

The previous week in Arkansas. She is vaulted all the way up to 48th in the race for the CME Globe. She likely will make the tour championship for the first time and also like her world ranking push like she's jumped over 200 spots in the world rankings. She is incredibly long. She is I don't know. I just really like her swing her game and it's exciting to hopefully she's maybe putting together all the talent. We'll see. Yeah, amen. I love.

Love seeing that. And I love seeing Soyeon Roo play well as well. She had a T7. She was tied with Leon and McGuire. They're at T7. She's another one, like kind of coming out of the wilderness. She's, you know, not had a, a good year. That would be putting it lightly and, yeah, so good to see some form out of her. Good leaderboard there. I'm stoked about, uh, Angel is leading the A on risk reward challenge. She is. Right now with three weeks or three events left to go that are that are counting events. They're doing one at the BMW Korea. They're doing one at the Japan and then they're doing one at game bridge. That's it.

And they're all par fives. Yeah. So she's up almost a full shot under par on the risk reward whole, you know, from an average perspective. So we'll see if she can hang on to that. I got some substantial payday. That is a big payday. It might, God, I know Angel too. If anybody happens to be, Angel desperately

wants to play in the Grand Thornton in December. So if anybody can arrange for her to get a partner to get in the Grand Thorton, that would that would make her whole year as well. She'd be a great partner too. Like she'd be no like, you know, great, very good driver the golf ball. She'll set you up. Obviously, she's playing par five as well because it's seemingly all the, you know, all the A on risk reward holes or parfives. Yeah, she's, she's currently 0.017 ahead of a tie at TITICUM. So it's kind of a two horse race at this point there.

But yeah, she would be a fantastic partner. Her putting's been good this year. I mean, she's a fun hang. You know, you can easily spend four to five hours with her out on the golf course. We talked about Lexi Lexi. I think her, her two top 10s this year on the LPGA tour. If happened in the last two weeks, she finished fifth in Dallas. She finished tied for eighth in Arkansas. I think the only other thing from Dallas, I wanted to say was Catherine, was he finished tied for seventh in her first LPGA tour start? She was a Monday qualifier, played her college golf at both USC's. I always love when people, you know, they she played four years at Southern Cal and then did a

COVID year, grad year at South Carolina. But it's tough. As Bethan Nichols wrote on golf week, the LPGA changed their rules. So if you finish in a top 10, you're automatically qualified for the next week, except the next week in turn it up is strictly on CME point. So essentially, she's like, S-O-L. It's, it's, hey, nice top 10, but we don't have another tournament to get you into. That sucks. So that sucks, yeah. But I wanted to call her out, awesome first start on, on the LPGA for her. Do you know other, other signs of life in Texas, I wanna call this out to Marina Alex.

I thought she played so good the first two rounds and I have no clue what happened in round three. Saturday she brought it home with the 76. Score obviously does not match to how the rest of her weed going. Still finished top 20 at T 16. But somebody who honestly we talked about a lot the Soulheim Cup. Somebody who was definitely in Soulheim Cup contention starting the beginning of the year through the first

and second part of the year and probably is the most disappointed to be left out of all you know talk of it It is her and hopefully this is her Improving form because we got no it's another soul. I'm cupped here. So points are counting already Like I guess this is just where I get back to with Lexi is like We've talked about multiple instances where how bad of a season by her own standards Marina is having and she's still two spots ahead of Lexi

in the season long standings. And she's played seven more events, but still. It's yeah, I don't know. It's a true agency with all like I just we'll see what happens with. You know, some just popped into my head too. For this, the Shriners thing. I understand the Lexi thing and I understand the the poll, having an American there. I guess if I was the alternative organizer who was looking for something of that juice and maybe it's just because her profile isn't big enough yet, a fuck, Lynn Grant won a co-sanctioned men's and women's men's who who hits it a fucking mile. And like, you know, I think maybe this is just one of those things of like

Lynn not having a big enough profile yet. Because I mean, that would make more sense. If that came out, I'd be like, Oh, okay, I get that. Like, when has a win this year, I think we've all said that we probably, you know, expected her to, to, you know, when she did, it's crazy things. She only came over here in like fucking May when the COVID restrictions were lifted. She already has a win, how to great soulheim cup. But again, expectation management, we kind of thought that she would come over and just start clipping everything off.

Yeah, which is not fair at all. Yeah, she's, I mean, you know, she's still getting her feet on her. Of course, Sally would say she's, you know, an old pro, an old veteran. But, you know, yeah, I should have mentioned just tying a bow here, the Walmart Arkansas Championship, Hey, Ron Rue won that by three shots. That was a 54-hole event scheduled. Which 54-hole events, just Just you can miss me with that. Like, yeah, we a lot of legacy stuff.

Well, I think we, I think everybody would like to see them go away. I think that's the point of order after we start trimming the majors, then we get down to these like 54 whole events and like we got to start asking what's going on here. The only thing that I'll say about this 54 whole event is that, you know, if they're following up the Solheim couple like they did, luckily it was a 54 whole event. That's true. And Bianca finished, finished time for third. She did as well.

And another, another sign of life from former Solheim Cup player. You'll lay me know. I mean, what the she's making cut. Yeah. Guys, we got another sweet. She's coming. The Nostrom. You know, she's she's on the way

as well. She's 26 27, but you know, like you got to go all the way down to Elizabeth Sokol who finished T10 to find a single score in the 70s. This event. The scores were low. They were like, they run ruined 1900 through three rounds.

Yeah. Bit of a birdie. 64, 64, 66. Which, all right, Cody, have you ever been to North was Arkansas? No, bunk. Yeah, he hasn't took me there yet. People keep telling me about it. They're raving. Yeah, saying it's the new, you know, it's like everybody's moving from Austin. I'm very, very sad. That's the Northwest Arkansas. We talk to the same people. Yeah. Yeah. They're raving,

Cody. Yeah. That's another one that's presented by PNG. You know, it's the Walmart Northwest Arkansas championship presented by PNG. If you can find me a sponsor that works better for women's golf than PNG. Yeah, amen. Like consumer packaged goods, they make it's perfect. You could do different, you know, some of your different brands, you could have the tied championship. You could have the, that's, you know, the, they have,

they have a multitude of different brands, you know, you could have the, the Crest tooth paste championship. You'd have the Gillette championship. I think it is a pure silk part of that brand too. I don't think they have that anymore. Do they? Oh, did they spend that? I don't know. Oh, you're right. That, uh, that tournament.

You're right. Right, right, right. But again, for a week after the Soul Heim Cup, uh, very, very impressed with the field, it must be something everybody raves about that tournament, everybody raves about the location and how they are treated while there. So again, we talked about, you know, the Canadian event, but I think at some point time we got to go to Northwest Arkansas, at the same time with all the Solheim Cup players who

decided to make the trip directly from Spain to Arkansas, we also had people going from Spain to France to play the French open right outside of Paris. Now, national open, a true BDE. But what I would say is, I'm a little confused here because according to the, I can't remember the presenting sponsor of it. But throughout this, throughout the summer, I can't remember the presenting sponsor of it.

Throughout this summer, they did a lot of promotion, social promotion on the event about Lexi playing in the event. Lexi was on my flight from wherever the hell we took out from in Spain to Paris and stopped in Paris. No, sorry, Lexi was on my flight. out from in Spain to Paris and in stopped in Paris. No. Sorry, it's Lexi was on my flight. Does it say Lexi or I say Nelly? Nelly. Nelly.

You are not going to say it. But are we talking about? I'm talking about Nelly. I'm talking about Nelly. I'm talking about Nelly. I'm talking about Nelly. I'm talking about Nelly. I'm talking about Nelly.

I'm talking about Nelly. I'm talking about Nelly. I'm talking about Nelly. I'm talking about Nelly. I'm talking about Nelly. I'm talking about Nelly. I'm talking about Nelly. I had no idea how they made their next flight because there was a line. There was like a two hour line to get through immigration. Zarek. Not crazy. Rose was on my flight. She said she didn't even, she hadn't even gone to sleep yet. So she was just waiting on her or flight from Paris back over to the States. But anyway, Nelly, take everything I said, I got Lexi on the brain. Nelly, Nelly, ton of

promotion to play in the French open. She was clearly signed up to play in the French open. She flew to Paris with I think all intentioned pursues of playing in the French open and somehow never teed it up in the French open following the Solomke applause. Don't really understand what's going on there. I reached out to try to figure out what happened. Nobody really knows anything. But I do understand that I think the winner of the French open was like 325,000 euros or something like that. And that's what I was told was going to be Nellie here. Yeah. The winner is 52,500 euros.

If you can't downgrade that national open, then just be up. Let's say you finished solo seventh, you're not even making 10k. You're kidding. It's not even paying for the week. Let's say you make the cut, you finish 60th. You're not even making a thousand euros. It's crazy. That's tough. So I guess then, the entire person, you know, you're not even making a thousand euros. It's crazy. It's tough. So I guess then The entire purse is what was being reported to be paid to Nelly for her appearance in which she

She ended up not playing that week. So I don't know what's going on there. I should put it back into the purse who knows? Double the purse. Yeah. We'll see a T.C. Swede's went three out of the top four there. Crazy. I know. I've never even heard of two out of the three. That's incredible. They're having more weedians in the mix right now, too, Randy. Wow. Love one Scandinavia gets involved. Fans are coming to. They are coming.

Would you guys, the week after this was the Ramco team series in Hong Kong. We had a number of big names, Lili Avu, Rose Zhang, Jin Young Co, Carlotta Saganda. I think we've kind of touched on how aamco is, you know, it's just something that these ladies can't really turn down. They offer big appearance fee monies. And I think with the Asian swing coming up on the LPGA tour, this fit well with a lot of these women.

They can go over play Hong Kong. And then they're already in the far east for the event in Shanghai. But anything you guys want to talk about. So, yeah, so like the Aramco team thing is like two days and then the individuals three days. I think it was two and a half. I think it was two and a half.

How this thing works. This particular event was just a 36 hole individual events. So stupid. Which Janet Lynn won G. Lynn, who's had a, had a really good year. Well, I think it was, it was shortened because they just had a ton of rain. Oh, was it short? Okay. All right. All right. Yeah. I was thinking, like, damn, 36 holes just that is not. And then the ladies are going, the, ladies your peentores go into DLF next in India, the one with the, with the Styrofoam bunkers. That's a, I, I Gary player special. And then they go there to, to the, the Aramco team series, Riyadh. Yeah. And then they got to the Majorical, ladies open and they rounded out at the

Andalusia Costa del Sol open to Espania. I got a dig back into that. I haven't heard exactly. Post business and deportase. Of course. The LPGA, as we said, they're on an Asia's Asia swing this week. Primetime golf, the Buick LPGA Shanghai, it's 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. Eastern on golf channel. The next week is the BMW ladies championship in Korea.

Boys, I know you're disappointed. You're not back over there this year. Especially it's closer to Seoul too. in Korea, boys, I know you're disappointed. You're not back over there this year. Especially it's closer to Seoul too, but much better venue, much better, you know, much closer to Seoul should be many, many more fans out there. I plan on waking up or, you know, having some, some late night watching. That's, yeah, it'll be fun. Perfect for Denver too. It'll come on nine o'clock out here. Watch it for a few hours before I go to bed.

And then they wrap the swing up. They're going to Malaysia and then the Toto-Japan Classic before coming back to Florida for the Pelican and then the CME. So we got six, I believe six straight weeks of LPJ Golf here right to the tour champion. So it's going to be hot and heavy. Yeah, I was curious. I asked you guys what you might be most curious about what you have your eye on, either particularly with this Asian swing or over these next final six weeks of the calendar.

Anything you want to shout out that that's top of mind for for either of you. For me, it's just who's going to make the top 60? Who's going to get, you know, it's a pretty pretty because it totally resets when they get to Naples too, right? Or when's that event? When's a big ass purse. So you got a lot of really good players kind of on the bubble there. You got a lot of really good players kind of on the bubble there. Um, and of course, Madsen is currently 60th. Patty Tavit Tannikit is 61st, Madeline, Sackstrom, 62nd, uh, Stephanie Kiyaku, who's had a very good year 65th. Gemma's 66 until the cash trend 67th.

I'm going down the leaderboard right now. Uh, this season, long leaderboard. Let him cook. Lauren, our young hitter. Young hitter. She's 73rd right now. If we could get her into, it's really big to get into that because you can basically set your schedule in a big way next year and you don't have to worry about reshuffle or anything like that.

Mel Reed is 74th, Stacey Lewis 75th. So, you know, Maria Fosse 77th, Shabu no 79th, Marina Alex 80th. Like see, we talked about her 80 second. You know, who knows if that'll even matter. Bailey Tarty 84th. So yeah, a lot of a lot of relative maintenance there. So yeah, a lot of, a lot of relative, the main names there. TC, keep going. Go down to 90. Yeah, Lydia Co, 96th, Meena Harry guy, 99th.

It's crazy. Was that Salis? Somebody that's, you know, mentality, Lucy Lee, you know, there's, there's, yeah. It's, it's, it's, the margins are thin on the lady's side Not a good year a lot of people probably shocked to hear Lydia Kose name that far down on that list But the good dudes is the fall season is Lydia Kose season defending champion all the BMW As well as the tour championship. So as long as she gets there. She she got a good feeling around old Tiburon

I would I would imagine too. Like there's, I'm not sure how the LPGA status works with, you know, previous wins or how long you get full status after a win. I imagine. Yeah. Right. I don't think Lydia's sweat and anything necessarily. No. Yeah.

But not being able to play in your championship because again, that's the biggest purse outside the majors. Yeah. But not being able to play in your championship because again, that's the biggest purse outside the majors in a 60, a 60 woman field. That's, that'd be tough. Kodemain, what do you, what do you have your eye on? Mine comes down to a kind of a combination, but, but ultimately, like, looking at these season ending awards, so specifically rookie of the year, Rolex player of the year, things of that because again, a lot of these limited field events that carry same weight, but less people that you got to beat. So excited to see currently, Lillia is at top of the Rolex player of the year points with a pretty big almost 20 point gap between her and Celine, Celine tied with Runen Yinn. Runen's had a phenomenal season. And then you

mentioned the L.E.T. event last year in which G. U. Lynn, the landlord one. So we got a landlord victory. We got the the tenant victories. You know, it's a lot, a lot going on. But the most important thing is we'll kind of ties back to what we discussed earlier and touched on in previous episodes and what is actually going to come of this rumored LPGA, LET merger and see if we get any additional news out of that. What's the latest? Do you have any update or can you just level set for people that might have missed some prior podcasts?

Well, there's reports that came out since an ad a week. I think during a player's meeting in which there was a lot of disgruntled LPGA members because one of the key things that was being discussed is awarding the top four who were not otherwise LPGA tour members or qualified on the ladies European tour, LPGA tour carts for the next year. Effective, basically the beginning of this year, which was kind of crazy because I know there's a ton of people who kind of split tours and everything else like that,

they feel like, hey, I didn't get a fair shot of this. If I were to know that I could have played full time L.E.T. in order to get an LPGA tour card, I wouldn't have bounced back and forth, watered down my schedule. Of course, at the end of the day, if you just play better, it takes you a long ways, but I understand where the women are going with this. The LET voted on that and they actually turned it down. So they said, hey, that is not going to be enacted for this year that we're already in 2023, but they voted on enacting it and sent that back to the LPGA tour for the 2024 calendar year, which makes complete sense. Which the ladies that it would have, as of right now,

Selene's number one, but then it's Johanna Gustavson, the one sweet. Yep, yeah, sweet French open. Anna Pellea's Trevino is third Dixha Ducar and Indian is fourth and Treetshot Shin Glob is currently fifth and Ty and then a Dede is sixth, the Linn is seventh. So Ann Van Dam is currently ninth. So she could, you know, conceivably have gotten a path back to the LPG. It's worth through this if she played well at the end of the year here. So the other thing that I think it helps a lot of players out, specifically with some of these, these very strong college players who are coming out that are not getting the amount of sponsors invites and everything else to LPGA tour events that majority of the ones that we have our eye on or at least from Europe that gives them an opportunity to kind of go home, set up their new base operations,

get into a lot more events via the LET build, kind of that roster up just like, you know, we saw Lindo, we saw Maiado, we saw, you know, Selene did this exact same thing, but actually gives them a pathway to the LPGA tour that is different than going through, you know, Celine did this exact same thing, but actually gives them a pathway to the LPGA tour that is different than going through, you know, Q series and everything else like that because the Q series things and we'll probably next month dive into that as we start looking towards, you know, November and December, because even them coming through Q series,

like they don't really get the best access in the world, the category that they're put in kind of stinks. But I think that's a good segue to Epson tour, at least, because we have some new graduates. Yeah. Epson tour just concluded their 2023 season with their tour championship and through their season long race to, I forget what they call it, race to something. It's essentially the race, the LPGA tour. Race to the printer cartridge. The race to the printer cartridge. We have 10 graduates coming out onto the LPGA tour full time in 2024. I will just run down the list. At top of the money list, somebody that's

just run down the list. At top of the money list, somebody that's friend of the program, we've gotten to know a little bit through the years, Gab Gabby Ruffles, Australian. She finished with nearly $160,000 on the Epson Tour, which is a hell of a season, one three times. I'm excited. The fact that they don't have the, what do you call it? Battlefield promotion. You're right. Right. It's the race. The call. It's the race for the card, by the way, very boring. Race for the car. That is a little boring. Yeah, we got to, it should be like the print. I like the printer cartridge.

The battle, the road to the toner and the race for the toner. the battle, the road to the toner and the race for the toner. I can't wait to watch her. She former US amateur champion almost went back to back. I think she's going to do really well. She famously, she did not submit the paperwork last year to sign up for Q series. So sealed her fate and went back to the Epson tour, but to her credit embraced it, talked about, you know, this, yeah, this is going to be the best thing for me. I'm going to make the most of it. And she won golf tournaments. And I do think that can be a very

important thing, like learning how to win, getting comfortable winning. I'm really excited. I think she's going to be someone we're talking about a lot next year. Second on the list was Natasha Andrea Un who was a graduate from San Jose State. Had a great season. She won once on the Epson tour. great season. She won once on the Epson tour. This is going to be her first time plan on the LPGA tour. Finishing third off the strength of winning the tour championship Austin Kim. T.C. She's a St. Augustine resident. You could go down. Yeah, go down and have a game with her. I don't know where she goes out of there. Probably Polencia. I would assume. There's like no good golf in St. Augustine. It's crazy. I'm not sure. She played collegially at Vanderbilt, the, uh, the Epson Torchampingship.

Correct. Yep. Yep. That was her. I think her only win of the season, but obviously a big one. Uh, fourth is Ron quickly. G1 zone, uh, 26 year old Korean, not a ton to note there. Fifth was Minji Kang, 28 year old Korean. Six Agatha, Laisney of France. I'm sure I mispronounced that. She won once this year.

Got to front the French are gonna come after you, probably. I know, I know. Jenny Coleman, she's been on and off the LPGA tour through the years. She's 31, so getting another crack is cool. Eighth Roberta Lieti from Italy, not much to note on her. But nine and 10, I thought we're interesting. Nine is Isabella Fiarro, who 22 year old Mexican. She played at Oklahoma State. Cody, I think this is somebody that

didn't she leave the program at Oklahoma State? Wasn't she kind of involved in that? We weren't quite sure what all was going on there. I think so. I don't want to say anything to was going on there? I think so. I don't want to say anything to outside right now. But yes, I believe so. I'll get back with more information for you. I think there's all sorts of athletes that have left Oklahoma state throughout the years. You know, Virginia, Chicara, you had Mr. Fast Twitch, the wrestler. Yeah, it was AJ Ferrari or whatever. Yeah. But yeah, it's Isabella.

Uh, like I said, 22 years old. I don't, honestly, I don't know much about her game. I haven't really watched her, but a number of big amateur wins, um, will be a, a rookie for the first time. And then 10th was Kristen Gilman who probably had like the best amateur resume of anybody until Roseanne came along. She won the USAM twice, four years apart, 2014 and 2018 was an all-american player at the University of Alabama and just has struggled to really find a footing in the professional game. She's had LPGA membership before, but now we'll be back in 2024 as a 26 year old now.

So really curious if she can kind of find her place and settle in. So those are your 10 qualifiers. I know there were a couple if you want to quickly go down the Epson leaderboard that just missed the cut Yeah, I thought it sucks to you know miss it by $1,700 back a half her finish 11th. That's a tough Jenny Bay There's 13th only made 11 starts kind of splitter time. That's That's tough to finish you know couple you know a few thousand dollars out of the mix. But she had a great showing at Ann Warrie, she was the, the UGA golfer. Yeah.

Haley Moore struggling 16 starts finished 126th. Oh, she gets it turned around. And then I would say another USC Trojan that I'm stoked to see. I think she could be a future version of Gabby Ruffles is Amelia Garvey. Yeah. Ewey. She's finished 36th, pretty solid, but unspectacular season. And then Randy, there was a Russian that finished the top 20.

Natalia Gustava, 20 year old Russian. She went to the U as well. Okay. I got a good idea. I got a good idea. I got a good idea. I got a good idea. I got a good idea. I got a good idea. I got a good idea. I got a good idea. I got a good idea. I got a good idea.

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That's easier. Yeah, that's about all I have for you. Any parting thoughts, any takes you need to get off your chest? So this Maybank championship in Malaysia, didn't they, like it says this is the inaugural event, but didn't they used to have this? Didn't they used to have a women's event? They did and then it discontinued and this has come back online taking the place of the swinging skirts from

Taiwan. Okay. Yeah, swinging skirts is hilarious. So yeah, they're calling it the inaugural event, but they they have had Malaysian events in the past. Any any interesting way. I will say this, what's a lot bigger person. I'll say that for a time of which, you know, these persons are bouncing between in low twos to really like 3.38, 3.4 for normal events. This one for a new event coming in with a $3 million person, it means a lot. And then any interesting Grand Thornton pairings that we've seen come about,

I saw Lexi's playing with Rick. Rick Fowler. Yeah, you asked about interesting things. I was just surprising or head scratchers. I assume some of them are probably they share an agency or they share a sponsor. I think we have Rose and Sahas playing together. That's fantastic. I'm seeing Tony Fienaal and Nelly Corda. Don't love that. Team Was.

For Nadia and the Brook Henderson. Yeah, yeah, like that. And then Jason Lexi, Jason day and Lydia playing together that one. Yeah. Whose Mac is Max playing? Does Max have a partner? Not that I know of. We should get Max and Angel together. Max and Angels are playing together. We should get Max and Angel together Max and Angel's are played together 100% Little so Cal vibes Yeah, I Mean how many people are gonna be in this field? I would assume it's like 30 there's it's probably what 20 teams 30 teams I think it's 36 so 18 teams

Oh, it's only 18 teams now I feel like I feel like Tom Hogue is going to play because he won last year with Sawhith. So you got to wonder who's Hogueman going after. Yeah. Maybe Stacy Lewis, maybe some, you know, upper Midwest. Yeah. So, sorry, Amy Olson, although Amy Olson probably just had a kid. She did baby girl. Okay. That's going to be a tough one, I think. So Grant, there's a three round event.

Round one is a scramble. Round two is four sums. Round three is modified for ball. What is modified for ball. What is modified for ball? Both players tee off and then they switch balls for their second shots. I saw like a scotch for some and play the same ball until it is whole. Wow. I like that. That's cool. The lower ball of the partners, this count is team score for the whole. So what do we have so far? We got the pride of Canada team corners and Brooke Henderson, we got, yeah, we just have a spot on right? Yeah.

Why do you like to see? Well, you got to think Lillia Voo is going to be there. So who would maybe Lillia and Max? going to be there. So who would maybe Lilia and Max? I know. That would be that be actually a good one. Coaches always put like I'm curious to see how they feel this field out on the men's side as well. Because it's always been. It's got to be a Dallas team, right? You think like a Trinity forest team. So either spleaf and saline.

I doubt Jordan would play this, right? But okay, so Harry and Saline, they practice together all the time. Mother of an hour, yeah, something. Either way, the bottom of the team Alice pool right now is not performing well. So the boys got to worry about keeping cards outside of Jordan. But they'll be worried about that.

And then this is after the fact. This is after everything wraps. This is after that. But you know, everybody's after that sweet, sweet money. There's got to be a love. This is Korean team. There's got to be like a genuine co and Sungjae or genuine co and Tom Kim or something like that. That's that's good.

Really good. Yeah. What if we get a brother sister team? Men who? and Tom Kim or something like that. That's good. That's good. Really good. Yeah. What if we get a brother sister team? Minwoo. That has that. Yeah. The only thing that could complicate that is when's the Aussie open?

I think Aussie open is later because this is the, I believe it starts December 8th, you're right. So I think the Aussie Open is either that weekend or the next open or the next weekend. Yeah. So that means Adam Scott's out of the mix. So I mean, you know, of course Jason Day is playing then because it's opposite the Aussie Open. You know, like Danielle Kang, I'd be shocked if she didn't play right. She, I don't know, she could team up with a Vegas person or... Alexander? Yeah, I'm trying to think from the LPGA side who...

who'd be like the... players that are kind of locked to... Some thought-prov provoking stuff though. Uh, what's like, let's get a blood big, blood big and Lynn, blood big and say there's gotta be a Swedish. I think, well, I think blood big and Madeline. Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, with the Jack connection. Yeah, Jack carries both bags. Jack carries both bags. That means so sick.

All right. So that's a there. I'm sure there could be a tie connection here being that this is in. Where this is it just outside Orlando, right? It's going to play. No, it's right back at ID or still in neighbor's here. Yeah, it's the same. I think it's the far rat a tie and care to take.

Yeah, what happened to the barn rat? He still put a Spanish team would ramen so God to play. That'd be cool. Such a that would be so slow. I don't know if I don't know if wrong could do that. I know. Romantic. Go crazy. There's not enough said still I understand very good job. A for her at the time cup. She is so slow.

It we should get we should get the bullet and Charlie hole together. Oh, Lord. Terrible. You playing rose. Team Rose is definitely playing, right? Yeah. Yeah. Team Rose and like Georgia Hall.

I was gonna say Georgia and Charlie. So posh. Yes. That would make complete sense. Tommy and Charlie would be sick. God, I hope the Aussie. I hope the Aussie's teams don't let a don't let all this down. When is the DP world to feel like they're they're wrapping up

right around that time frame to rate. Tour championship is the week before Thanksgiving. So they've got the Aussie PGA, Joe Berg, the ISPS. I'm talking about the DP world tour. I'm talking about the DP World Tour. They got the, the ISPS Honda Australian Open, and they go to South Africa. So actually, yeah, it could work well. And then remember this year,

they're doing the wrap up, they're wrapping up their season in January and Abu Dhabi and Dubai. They're doing their season ending stuff there. Dubai Desert Classic in Abu Dhabi, HSBC in end of January. All right. I'm kind of hit on the Grand Thornton guys. I wasn't really in, but yeah, I'm thinking about some of these teams. I even though it's a true silly season event, I think it could be fun. It's just funny because there's so many guys like Stu Sink has always played in this. Harris English, like the C Island guys beat this thing up. I'm very curious to see how they handle, how they handle the mules. This is a new

new event, new identity rebranding's been done. T.C. You got to see if they stick with it or not. All right. Well, boys, it was it was a it was a pleasure to chat with you. This was fun. We're going to be back for an LPGA episode two weeks from now, middle of the Asian swing, so we'll reconnect then, but I don't know if you'll then post, post China and, and Korean, Korean. Okay, that would be great. Yeah, yeah. So, appreciate everybody listening, TC Cody, cheers to you guys, and we'll catch up next time. Cheers to you guys and we'll catch up next time. Crack on. Get the right club. Be the right club today.

That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most. The most, better than most.