No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 756: ZoZo Recap

Episode Date: October 23, 2023

Neil steps in as our substitute teacher on this week's recap pod as Collin Morikawa wins the ZoZo with a final round 63 for his sixth career PGA Tour win. We take stock of Morikawa's prospects headed into 2024 compared to some of the other big names on tour and other notable finishes from the week in Japan. We also recap Minjee Lee's win at LPGA BMW Ladies Championship in Korea, the LIV team championship and some of the rumblings around LIV's attempts at a big name signing and more (Note: We recorded our pod before the LIV team championship finished so there won't be any discussion about the results from Miami). 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. Expect anything. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Lang Up podcast. That's right. This is not solid. It is your substitute teacher.

Neil here joined by my esteemed colleagues, Mr. Big Randy. Randall, how are you this beautiful Sunday? I'm good. I'm so happy. You know, you walk in, didn't get the homework done last night, but you see the substitute in there. And you just feel like I'm off the hook today. I'm sitting in the wrong seat. It's just we're acting a fool on you today, Neil. Well, you know, I'd love to fire up the, the VHS tape and, and keep the class quiet, but we got a lesson plan to get through also joined by Kevin Van Volkenberg, KVV. What's going on in Baltimore? Sunny day in Baltimore, still a little bit of, you know, crispy

weather that's perfect for golf. So after we get down to this, I might sneak out. Big, when you, when you had a substitute back in the day, did you ever switch names, switch desks, did you ever pull any of those shenanigans or are you more well behaved? I was pretty well behaved to actually be an honest. We may have sat in some wrong seats, but I know I wasn't the ring leader of any of that stuff, but I probably went along with it.

Bangalong. Who keeps yelling bangalong from the back of the class? What's going on? Pipe down back to it. Are you on the class list? Who are you, sir? Yeah. What if I just pretended to be the role of TC today? Just firing like, you know, terrible, but excellent takes right and left. And just the teacher wouldn't know whether I was TC or not. TC's out. It's not a it's a sick day. Thank God for the substitute. Doesn't have to, doesn't have to worry about getting off topic. Uh, also what do they, our friends over at foot joy, you know the benefits of having foot

joy on your feet, but with the thermo series layering system, you can play more golf in more conditions to extend your season. Thermo series is the most advanced to peril layering system in golf. Anyone who lives or plays anywhere cold knows it's all about having the right layers. Guys, it's getting cold up here in New York I've got a couple of thermo series. I got a jacket. I got a vest. Can't wait to bust those out It is vesting season Randy this collection was made specifically for golf designed to work together So you can easily layer up or down as conditions change the base layer is excellent made for golf to keep you warm But also to give you the

full mobility you need to swing freely no matter what layer you put on over it or how many you'll be comfortable all day long. T.C. put the whole system work during the recent film room series in Scotland. You can find that on our YouTube channel on our website search for when revelation comes. The vest and hoodies are no brainers, but don't sleep on the pants and jacket as well. So many ways to layer up and down. This is technically advanced gear packed with performance stretch materials designed for the golf swing while providing warm thing comfort, which means even when the temperature drops, you can take it low as well. So go to footjoy.com, stock up on those layers and be prepared for anything with the thermo series as the day evolves, you can evolve with it. I also want to shout out the new foot joy fall collection

we have in the NLE pro shop. So a lot, a lot of good stuff going on with our friends at foot joy. All right, fellas, let's take it. Go ahead. Have you tried the, the thermal gloves that they have? No, I just got into the thermal gloves. It's, you know, if you're a true sicko and you want to play golf on its 40 degrees, they're incredible. The, I mean, it's, it's the, the vest for me has been a crucial piece up here in New York. Randy, let's take around the golf world. Call him or call him runs away with the Zozzo championship over in Japan. We'll get to that here shortly. Men G Lee wins the BMW ladies championship in Korea.

She holds off Allison Lee in a playoff out in C1 Valley Country Club. And I just watched Adrian Moronke snatch another win on the DP World Tour at the Estrella Dom on Delucia Masters. Burdy the 17th hole to take the lead from Maddie Schmidt, who was trying to become the 17th first time winner on the DP World Tour this year. How about that? And of course, of course, we have the Liv Golf team championship finals down in Miami, final round teaming off and about in hour.

Yes, that's right. We're recording a little earlier today so that the boys can watch some NFL football. I feel like I've been on the road most of the last two months. So I can't wait to get to the couch and put red zone on. But let's start with the Zozo. I got a question for you both before we dive into it to Callumorca was six shot victory. Do you guys know what is what is Zozo? Do you know what the business does?

I do not. Oh, I mean, I've insurance broker of some kind insurance broker. Randy, what do you have? If I had to guess, I'd say some nebulous holding company that has its hands in a lot of different things insurance electronics commercial real estate. Who knows what defense contracts? Gasping a wide net there, Randall. Zozo is actually an e-commerce platform in Japan. And they actually specialize in e-commerce technology. So you know, some, what do they call it,

AR, what is that augmented reality stuff? You know, sizing apps, things of that nature. Didn't know that, looked it up last night. I actually caught the last nine holes of the final round last night after I got beat and settler's a catton. I poured myself a whiskey and I watched things about 2 30 in the morning. It was a little snooze fest. And then he charged to a six shot victory with a final round, Bogey free 63 playing in the second the last group. So that's always weird when the leader, you know, is six shots clear and we still got a wait for that final group

to come up the fairway. He birdied the last hole as well, beat Bo Hossler and country music sensation Eric Cole, who came and T2. Justin Sowe was actually the 54-hole leader. He had a tough day, finished with a 4 over 74 to finish T10. Randy, let's go to you first. Morra Kawavictri, his sixth, what does that make you feel? A sixth on the PGA tour, it makes me feel good. I know, I get a lot of crap from, I feel like DJ and Tron specifically. I've, I've staked my claim.

I wouldn't say I've staked my reputation, but I've certainly staked a claim to Moracawa over the years. Listen, I think this is a good win, an important win for him. He'd had a, a good season, really a better season than I would have imagined in 2022, 2023, but just couldn't get over the hump, couldn't get a victory. So this is his first win in a decent amount of time to do it running away, going away,

I think is somewhat of a new thing for him. I just think, listen, golf and men's golf in particular is a little bit more interesting when Kalamore Kawa is win-in tournaments and playing like he showed this week. I don't know. You know, when you win two majors as early as he did, you get excited. I think somebody we look to that, we're hoping joins the ranks of, you know, that upper echelon. And I think on the backs of winning the British and the PGA, he was there. He deserved to be there, but has kind of become not a forgotten man, but has just kind of gotten passed by a little bit.

And somebody that's easily forgettable at times. not a forgotten man, but it has just kind of gotten passed by a little bit and somebody that's easily forgettable at times. And so good win for him. I know this isn't like the most important win. It's it's kind of this new PJ tour of fall season. But I think it's great. And hopefully it's a sign of things to come, you know, if he can start picking them off here at a somewhat regular clip, he's writing that conversation amongst the top two, three guys in the world, in my opinion. KVV. You know, Neil, I was thinking about this back when we were sort of big on the, in that

artist mechanic thing about whether, whether, you know, Mark Howe is an artist or mechanic, and I was throwing out that idea of like, you know, he ought to just stick to the things that he's good at, right? Just hitting butterflies all day, trusting that always and always. And it seems like there are times when he's all in on that. And then there are things like there's other times when he's like kind of wants to work it both ways or sort of feels like he's just not getting enough out of that. And I don't, I wish Conmore calmed me feel more things, right? Because he's just so fricking talented.

But it just when he does well, it sometimes feels like rooting for a machine. Like, there's just not a ton of personality there. I wish he would, I know he's very smart. He's very like analytical. I just wish he would sort of open up a little bit of that side more. I know that I was listening to press comments

of the one afterwards. And they're asking him, you know, Hey, did you figure out something? And he's like, yeah, I really picked up something this week. Uh, Katty and I were like on the range talking about we were like, that's it. That's the key we're going to trust. And he did the thing that he always does. He's like, well, can you expound on that?

No, no, no, I'm just going to keep that to myself. I'm like, come on, man. Like no one can steal your secrets in golf. It's not like, you know, John Rom is going to be like, come on, man, no one can steal your secrets in golf. It's not like, you know, John Rom is going to be like, you know, I was listening to Colin and I picked up this thing and he's doing, now I'm going to do it and I'm going to dominate him. And so I just wish that there wasn't that sort of wall up all the time around him because the talent is so immense.

I think we were talking, saw you being not here would really want me to emphasize, this is his best season statistically in data golf, which seems weird to me that, you know, he's gone 27 months without a win. And yet like his stats are better all around, but the highs just haven't quite come at the right moment. So I wish I felt deeply about column mark out, but I don't know that I do. And just to put a just to put a fine point on those stats, you know, from the PGA tour, just looking at Stroke's gain stuff.

I mean, he's 10th total Stroke's gained on the season, but when you break it down into the components, T to green, he's fourth off the T 19th approach. He's second, but it's around the green and putting that's been his bug a boo, at least this past season. He's 94th strokes gained around the green and 111 strokes gained putting. So certainly KVV like you said a guy that's just striping the ball to eat a green, but has not done enough with the flat stick to cash in any wins until today. Well, some of the... To me, the number speaks for themselves, but the, I mean, we joke about the eye test, but it's like the anecdotal stuff that sticks with me is like watching that final round last night, he makes it look so easy when things are going well, including with the putter.

Like sometimes it's like, oh my God, he's just rolling everything in. Like even as, you know, the putts that he misses, they're all burning the edge. So he's very, he's like the microwave man with the putter. And when that's cooking, it's like, oh God, why doesn't he win more? But there's some things that when it doesn't go well,

like my lasting memory of more Kalbawa, there's this fair or not, is that, you know, floodship at Kapalua in January. You know, he had, he was winning that tournament from basically for 71 holes and then Ram just came and snatched it from him. And that just felt like, oh man, what a tough way to start the season off. But then you go back and you look at the, the stats, six top tens, loss in a playoff at rocket mortgage against Ricky, you know, another close call. I think he was solo third at farmers.

So there's a lot of really good golf being played, but when it doesn't go his way, it's almost in a public way, like that club chip where you're like, oh, man, that's just, that's what sticks with me instead of like the just consistently good golf. Biggie, you've had some adventures with the putting grip. You've tried some different things. Could you trust a man who punts, punts with a pencil grip like for to, to be a truly dominant player? I, I mean, who really knows, but I, I think where my mind goes is it feels like somebody that can catch a

feeling and get really hot with the flat stick. And when he does, it's like, look out because if the ball striking does anywhere close to, you know, kind of what he's capable of. He's going to win golf tournaments when he's putting them ball well. But yeah, he strikes me in somebody that's just not going to string together week after week after week. The most consistent putting performances necessarily. But I am glad he's like gotten to the pencil grip, right? I feel like a lot of guys, women spend so much time just being bad putters with conventional grips. I do think like radically changing it to something like the pencil grip and like getting whole new feels is an important step. So yeah, I guess I come back to I'm not sure if he's ever going to be among the best putters in

the world over the course of a season, but he can certainly be that over four days. And when he is, he can, he can beat anybody when the ball's striking there. broader question here though about and we're doing this, this, this question's live for you. The pencil or the claw grip. Fleetwood more Kawah. Phil at times. Who am I missing? Is there anybody who is the best putter with that grip? Because those three guys, I think

of like, ooh, things get a little weird. Like Fleetwood doesn't, he's gone to the claw, but like I wouldn't say it saved his putting is that grip? Has that grip turned anyone into a good putter or has it made them just a less bad putter? Is my question. I think I think it did for Phil. Like if you look at Phil's putting stats, he legitimately became a better putter as he got older. And some of that was going to the like setting up conventional. And then the last second go into the pencil grip.

He didn't always do it. Like he when he won the PGA, he literally only did the pencil grip like on one hole of the 72 holes. I think it was like the hole 17. But I do think overall it made him a better putter. But in total, I got, I don't know. I mean, Chris, Tomarko's weirdo grip springs to mind is like one that that's more of a reverse claw. Yeah. I'm probably missing somebody, but I'm just because the reason I bring it up is when people go to the arm lock putter, it's a career changer, right? You look at somebody like Keegan or even Ricky and

Wyndham Clark with this putter that longer putter that they're using. So the, and the broomstick too, like Randy, you were talking to your guy Stu Haggistad about how it almost changed his, you know, his career as a high level amateur. And so, and the broomstick, like Adam Scott, I think he's become a better putter with that, but I can't really think of anyone, and I'd encourage people to reach out if I'm missing somebody where that claw grip has made them,

has really changed, made the putting a strength instead of less of a weakness is what I'm getting at. I was just kind of looking up quick search while you were asking that question. Another guy I would throw in there is Sergio. Okay. I think he pretty famously went to the, I don't know if it's a pencil. If I'm being 100% on this guys, I don't really know the difference between the pencil and the claw. And the saw.

There's also the saw. And the saw. Yeah, you the saw grip and the saw. Yeah, you know, I know it's all got something to do with like, which fingers you place on the grip and obviously where it's positioned, but they're all pretty similar. I don't know if, if I can buy some time here, like did Sergio's putting stats have, have they kind of gotten better over the course of his career? I don't know offhand. He got real bad for a little bit. And then remember, he was like putting with his eyes closed

and doing the claw at the masters. I still don't I still kind of want like a mythbusters episode on whether Sergio putted with his eyes closed that entire master's run, which he claims that when he won it, I don't know that I believe that, but more power to him if he did. That's, that's truly sick. Neil, I have a question. What kind of settlers like a ton player? Do you think Kalamork how it would be? Oh, man. I mean, I think he's playing. I don't think he's chasing dev cards. I think he's, he's, he's trying to build, build build cities man. I think he's just trying to to Faraways and greens like play the standard way Okay, I worry a little bit that he might be chasing the longest road which is often a road to nowhere

I got to be careful with those two victory points, but I think he tried to you know play the game like As as it was instructed you know what I'm saying? Like the the blueprint for the game. Like, okay, no, I'm going to build a bunch of settlements and I'm going to try to build cities on these. I would watch that as like a spin off of TGL. BJ player is playing. I love that game. I can't get it off of it. It's awesome. Yeah. So at the risk of interrupting, sorry, I found some Sergio stuff. You're never interrupting. I just felt that was an important diversion for the for a moment there to go off.

But go ahead, right? Well, just looking at the data golf page and Sergio's overall putting, like, he's really fluctuated, right? He had a horrible year way back in 2004, 2005, 2006, he's still a negative putter. Flips it in 2007. It's pretty neutral the next few years. Has one bad year in 2010, but then has a run 2012 through 2015, where he's positive strokes gained overall putting.

And then reverts back in 2016 and really 2016 through 21, he's negative strokes gained putting and then had a slightly positive 2022. So I guess all that's to say listen if If I think if you get to the point where you're doing the pencil the claw, you know What a all of these grips you're obviously searching for something you're not just like a naturally Great or even very good putter. And so I think that just leads itself to there's going to be fluctuations, you're going to get hot. I mean, even anecdotally in my own game, right? There are times where I'm like, damn, dude, I can't miss, right? And the claw feels good. And then I go through valleys where

I'm like, I don't think I can hit a putt straight right now. So I think I guess that's a little bit what I'm afraid. Like I feel like that's just going to be more of a car was career, right? He's never going to be among the best putters. It's always just going to be a matter of like, well, is he putt? Well, if he is, he's got a chance to win however many times the putters hot, which is, you know, the blueprint for winning six times on the PGA tour is just, yeah, number one or two or in the top five of strokes game approach. And then hopefully your putter gets hot. Give yourself chances. I know that's why I was going to say it's, it's not a bad formula,

you know, in terms of like trying to build the type of player that can win events. It's, it's not bad. It's certainly better than being a demon putter and hitting the ball like shit, right? I don't think anybody quite wants to go that route. It's kind of the bohasa route. Like if you looked at his stats, like he is a truly below average, like bottom of the barrel approach player and it's like a really great putter. And he's a dude who's hanging on the fringes of,

you know, the 125 like it's never quite built off of the college success to be like a legitimately great or even good BJ2 player. You definitely would rather have the approach player. Well, uh, it gets a great transition KVV because notable finished bow hustler comes in second at Zozo. Buried the 72nd hole to shoot even par and solidify the 51st spot on the FedEx Cup fall standings list. What does that mean? Do you guys have any idea what this does for Mr. Bo? Can I phone a friend? Where's Solid? It's, well, it pretty much locks up his spot and quote what we're I guess we're calling the next 10. So the guys in the 51 to 60 section of the Fed X Cup standings here in the fall season are now eligible after the RSM.

So after the C Island event are eligible to play in the first two signature events. So the AT&T Pro Am and the Genesis, not century because that's only for guys that won last season, but it's also a signature event. So I think both finish seventh at the Shriners and then T2 here. not century because that's only for guys that won last season, but is also a signature event. So I think both finish seventh at the Shriners and then T2 here. So he's playing some pretty good golf. He still has not has yet to win in his career, but he seems to be stringing together some good good finishes. And now he gets a couple looks at a signature event in January. When I said that he was a below average approach player, I actually overrated him in that sense. This is our French on Martin said that over the last five seasons and strokes gained, he's the third in putting with a minimum of 200 rounds and DFL last in a pitch play.

Like he's essentially the worst approach player on the. What a stressful way to play golf for a living to just like, man, I cannot hit the green, but I'm going to get up and down from everywhere. That's crazy. That's stressful for that. That's so stressful. And then the other way drives you insane when you hit 17 greens and can't make any putts, you know, it's like pick your poison. Yeah. I know that you can tell like more colleagues frustrated when it's like, but why am I not winning more? He almost feels the same way. If I can't get the ball in the hole. Right.

Right. I feel like this fall season is like a really interesting test, right? Of like these points in theory, don't matter, but also kind of matter for these guys individual careers. Like we're not going to see any of these guys get themselves into the designated events by winning these things like that we've used to, you know, they're still get masters sort of entries with these wins. I just don't know like what to think. I think what by the time we get to January or whatever February, when the real season

starts to flip over, we're just going to have a much better grasp of like, all right, is it okay that like we essentially have an off season of golf tournaments that doesn't matter for the fans that just if you're a true like sicko, you're going to tune into this as like background noise. But otherwise, unless you're betting on them, what are you, why are you watching? Well, I think the argument is that so it's a little confusing, but I think the top 50 from last year's FedEx cup standings are all in the signature events.

So the 10 events starting in January. And then there's this, the next 10 lists. So if you get into that in the fall series, if you get into this like 51 to 60 realm, those 10 guys also get in and then, you know, depending on exemptions and stuff, because I think these signature events supposed to be 70 to 80 guys. So I think it could get interesting as the season goes along to see like almost the relegation of guys, you know, so Bo Haaser gets into these first two,

but that's no guarantee that he's not gonna be an all 10. He doesn't have exemptions. So it's like he's played his way into two of them. He plays well at those. Then hopefully he stays inside that top 60, in the FedEx, the new 2024 FedEx Cup standings. But the fact that we're using both last years results and then now the seasons turned over

with the FedEx fall standings, it makes it confusing, makes it harder for a fan to understand the juice, right? Like it's just like, I don't know, you know, I guess we're gonna brand it the next 10, so that's what I should care about. So I agree with you. It should be, you know,

it's guys playing for their card still, so like Min Wulee had an awesome event. He finishes T6, find around 65. So he is now 94th on the standings list, the top 125 get their tour card. So he's kind of played himself here in the fall, as long as he avoids massive disaster before the RSM, like he's got his card locked up for 2024. So, and you can see if you go to the PGA towards website, those are kind of the stories, the articles that they're featuring is like, Hossler, Minwulee, guys that are playing their way into good standing for next year.

I feel like maybe our site's editorial director should write some sort of explainer for this, since we'll be pointing back to this many times of like, what does the fall season mean? And we could just be like, oh, check out this Q and A that we did here, what we used to do on the explaining the merger stuff. I think that'd be a good

prime. That would be very informative. We'll send a note. Let's see. We'll go. We'll keep rolling down here at the Zozo Robbie Shelton shot a final round 65 to jump up to fourth place. So he had one of the rounds of the day. And then good final rounds from three Japanese players. Rio Isha Kawa, 67 for a T4, can say, Hirata, 66 for a T6, and Rio hits at Sunay. I thought I was gonna get through those three. I was really trying to test myself there.

66 for a T6. So it's good to see some Japanese flags on the leaderboard. The Rio Isha Kawa is a blast from the past Truly Wasn't he shot 58 when he was 18 or something and it was like you know going to be that the Japanese tiger and it's just sort of kind of Meandered around his entire career. Yeah, he I mean a lot of I just know he was very ballah ballahood Yes, starting like 2009, 2010. He's only 32 now, looking up his profile.

But yeah, you're exactly right. I feel like I used to like, that name used to mean something. Yeah. And may of 2010, in the final round of the crown, he shot a 12 under 58 to win the tournament by five strokes. The 58 was the lowest score ever carded in a Japanese golf tour event. No, I feel like he was supposed to be Hideki before Hideki.

He was going to be as a teenager. Yeah, you're exactly right. Yeah. Well, some home game models here in the final round. Uh, and watching the event, the course team, you play in pretty hard other than Warcollo running away with it on Sunday. The scoring was, you know, most guys are didn't didn't get to 10 under. And then a tough day for a lot of guys at the top of the Learboard, falling back down.

JJ spawn, respawn here, final round 68 for a T6 finish. And then tough final rounds for Emiliano Grillo and Justin Suss. Suss was, had the 54 whole lead finished T10 with a four over in his final round. All right. Justin Suss has been playing some golf, I gotta say, but he just can't quite close yet. I mean, he's definitely like re-emerged as a legitimately decent player, but he keeps having these kind of

stinky final rounds that make him tumble down the board. So I've got to come up discussion questions for you guys. Do you expect a better worse or you're going better? Are you buying selling or holding for a 2024 season on on these four guys? Call them more, Kala. for a 2024 season on these four guys, Call him or Calla. Think better season, worse season, similar season. Randy, what's a you? I think it's gonna be a better season. I think it's gonna be a better season in the sense that

I feel like he's gonna win. I guess I would expect for his ball striking to be pretty similar. It's 26 years old, you know, this is prime time of his career. So I don't expect the ball striking to take a step backward. I expect him to nab a winner to, it'd be great if he could get in contention at a major. So I'm buying on Colin.

I'm still bullish. Gaby. I'm buying too. I think honestly like Mark how would be a sneaky master's pick You know, you don't have to put that well to win the masters which I feel like Maybe most people understand now, but it's still kind of like one of those enduring Miss that's like oh if you just bolster and like nobody puts truly great at the masters because those screens are so tricky and hard to figure out But you know, it's last two finishes the worst you know solo fifth when he chipped in right in front of If you just bolster, and nobody puts truly great at the Masters because those greens are so tricky and hard to figure out.

But, you know, his last two finishes were, you know, Solo fifth when he chipped in right in front of Rory and that sort of at the bunker on 18 and then he was T10 last year. I could see very much more of how I like, you know, winning twice, but one of those is a major this year. So I'm buying. Okay. I feel like I would buy two, but I, it almost feels like it would be a disappointing season

if he doesn't win a major. Is that, are we at that point in his career? I think that's, that's kind of my feeling. It's like, oh, if he goes and wins a couple signature events, do I feel like that's underachieving? I think I, I feel like if he can tend to win a signature event, events is nothing to sneeze at. But yeah, yeah.

I'm with KVV where he's going. He's got to put himself in real contention at least a major. Yeah, he's too like his elevated profile of winning two majors at a young age, puts him in that category of like, if he doesn't contend, it feels super disappointing. So maybe a fifth place in a relevant fifth is kind of meaningless.

But if you're around the lead on Saturday and you're in the mix and somebody snatches it from you, that's still a successful major, I think. But if you're, if you're just finishing like meaningless, can't let T-10s, then I'm not, I'm not in. And some of it is just he set the bar so high for himself you wins five times in 24 months coming out on tour two of those being majors and it's like when that momentum starts to stall out you're almost it it makes me as a golf fan say what's wrong with you you know where it's like that I mean he's still won six times in his first four years on tour it's

it's it's a pretty pretty good pace right there. It's remarkable. And even I think people forget about, you know, he started his career making 22 consecutive cuts on two, which is second all time to Tiger, who has the record at 25 to start a career. I mean, there are very good reasons to have been excited about Moracawa, right? And the way he wins two majors quickly picks up a few more two wins. I mean, he's a guy that, again, if he were to win a major in 2024, all of a sudden, that gives him three. And that separates him from, you know, the JT some of his peers, you know, that third major is a very, very big one. Everyone's a big one as I listen to myself say that, but just in terms of his standing in the game, if you could get to three, I mean, that's huge as a 26 year

old. I love who's winning is it, for me, it's this hovelin versus more kawa like same class coming out on tour. Hovelin had a, you know, what you'd say is a much better year, but still hasn't won a major, but I'm really excited to watch those two progress and see, you know, who kind of takes that, that mantle from that class of, of PGA tour rookie. Yeah. Who's career would you rather have this point? JT's or Mark House?

Like if they both quit playing golf or if like going forward, I think going forward. I think they both won two majors. JT's won more regular season things. He's been more of a rider cup stalwart, although the last one certainly did not, you know, enhance that as much as we thought it might. But, you know, who would you want? They're similarly like talented players, I think, in terms of that, you know, top 5% of talent. And I guess in, it may be a struck me when you said, like, if you get set third major, he moves ahead of JT. They, you know, JT had took a longer gap between his two majors.

Mark Howard sort of knocked them off real early quickly in the first two years. So I guess I'm just curious, who would you be buying going forward more JT or more? It's gotta be more, some of that's unfair though, because I think it's an age thing, because he's younger.

But I do feel like his game probably, it feels a little bit more sustainable or has more upside. I guess he just feels more consistent. You know, JT's, it always been an excellent ball striker but he seems like things get a little squarelier for him, especially off the tee. So I feel like long term,

I feel like Morokawa's got a chance to have the better career. I think I'd rather have Colin as well. I mean, the age you can't ignore being what, three, four years younger. I just think the ball striking is what it is. And you just hear people gush over Morcha was iron play and what an awesome kind of pillar to have. And I think

JT is just it's just always inconsistent, too inconsistent for my liking. And I don't necessarily outside of team competitions. I don't really trust JT in those biggest spots. I don't know. Yeah, I would coast on that, Randy. That's kind of my feeling too. More colleges feels a lot more sustainable, especially in those big moments. Last thing on, excuse me, Mark Howard, Neil,

I don't know if you saw, he's using a driver from three, four generations ago, Taylor and I always love it when players are just like fed up with like their current equipment or like, no, I'm just going back to what I trust. The old school stuff like I don't know, it's just like a, I love it when they go to Japan and they're like, all right, not that many people watching and putting the old trustee in the bag. I'm just going to be going a pound phase, going by six shots. It's a, it's a really interesting, you know, just thinking about JT. He put it at worse than more a call with this year. And so he, and he didn't hit it quite as well.

I mean, JT hits the ball pretty well, but they're, they're, they, they kind of mirrored each other at least over this last year, where they, they hit the ball pretty good, calling hits it a little bit better. And they both put it it very poorly. And JT's put it it even poorer than more a cow. So I guess I'd be very curious what we see of JT next year. And if he starts, you know, going to a pencil or a claw or if he starts exploring some alternate groups. JT might be too proud. Maybe like maybe like that might be seem extremely unbecoming. Yeah. No, I don't need that.

He kidn me. I don't need to save my putting. We're talking about. I know we're spending a lot of time more. Call with it just to put a fine point on like what a third major would where that would put him, right? It would it would put him past JT. It would tie him with speed and of course, we know speed.

I don't want a major now in a very long time It would put him past John rom currently it would I Just think he would become Behind Brooks Capkets like all of a sudden Corp Collins really the most decorated current American player That's really in his prime. You know, I know Phil's still still playing Tiger. We'll show up every now and again. But I just think that's like,

the narrative on Colin could change really quickly if he were to win a major. So, which makes me excited about him. All right, gentlemen, one more question for you. Who wins first? Eric Cole, Bo Hossler, Justin Sir. God. I apologize Eric Cole.

I'm not really familiar with your game. I know the key is the country music. He's to you. Imagine being Eric Cole and being like, why did I keep calling me a country music? Because I just started calling that because his name sounds like a country music. Sorry. I know why we call anything else. I know why we call that. I just I have to imagine

that Eric Cole is baffled by such things unless he's like a, you know, big country 90s country music guy. I would probably go Cole. Like I I've seen just enough of him to sort of feel like he is in maybe he's a poor man Max's home. Like he just took him a little bit longer to sort of feel like he is in, maybe he's a poor man, Max's home, like he just took him a little bit longer to sort of find a game that's, you know, a PJ tour quality level. And he was, he was bouncing around on the, the cornferrey tour for a while until the last year. And I feel like he's showing enough, like every time he's in contention that I feel like he's, he's a decent enough player. I don't know how

you can win if you're a hustler and you just are such a bad iron player. And so obviously has some closing issues at the moment. I mean, I said to me, it strikes me as the most talented of those three. It was like a really good amateur. One of the better, like a really good college career. But I guess I got to go air coal. Randy. Yeah, I don't have, I don't feel confident about my answer, but I think I would lean to Justin Soh just because I feel like he's he's sniffing around like KVV said he's he's maybe got a little bit more pedigree. Um, I feel like he's got the juice to go out and win something here soon. I'm buying all the air cold stock. I'm really, really impressed with a guy that just kind of hopped

on the scene out of nowhere, apparently he won like a Gabilian mini-tour events. So it's a guy that knows how to win, which is not nothing, right? I know it's a lot different to win on the big tour than it is to win mini tour events, but it feels like he he struggled to get to the tour and he's made the most six top tens this year. I just I constantly see his name on the leaderboard made the FedEx Cup playoffs. Like he's just he seems like he's he's comfortable. Now that he's made it, it's like one of those guys that it's like the definition of it's really hard to make the big leagues, but then it's easy to keep your card or a lot easier to keep your card than get your card.

And I think Eric Cole is going to be around for a long time. I would agree that it seems like so has, you know, I think he murders the ball off the tease. Got kind of that prototypical bomb and gouge tour game, but I don't know. I think Eric Cole feels like the most complete player. I think he's going to have a big I'm buying him for 2024. I think he keeps it rolling next year. I think you're exactly right in that Eric Cole's game, the stats would are flashing brightly that Eric Cole is on a different level than both and Hossler just well, Eric, because he's a well-rounded golfer in, in every way.

He, he does not get off the, so his weakness is, at least in Stroke's gained, is off the tee, but his approach play, his, his putting, his around the green, all very, very good. Um, whereas, uh, actually, so is an excellent putter. Like you said, Nilly, he gets off the tee, he's got distance, but he's horrible around the greens. He doesn't hit his irons nearly as well as Eric Cole and KVV about Hossler.

So I think Eric Cole is probably the smart money, Neely. That's, that's a good pick. Anybody else in this, uh, in this field sort of worth discussing. I mean, I feel like it's weird to see Ricky, like basically, you know, in a 70 man field in the 60s. I would have thought that Rick would, you know, have a little more pride than that. No, I'm sorry, Rick. I feel like, you know, this is always a set of weird event, right? Like you're going, a lot of the players, especially ones with Japanese heritage are going

over there. It's sort of important to them. That's obviously one of the reasons why Ricky plays, but man, what a sort of a lame showing by him. I guess I'm willing to question this, Neil, it's not the agenda. So I'm springing this on you guys doing it live. What kind of season do you expect from Akshay as a sort of going for it? He's in the 20s. I think he's finished 21st this time. 20s, I think he's finished 21st this time. He's won now on the tour. He's going to be in more of these kind of bigger events. I'm just I guess curious as to sort of thoughts overall. Well, I think that he's in the just outside the top 100. So I think he's kind

on that that card, you know, like full status bubble. I think what would really, if he could get up like, you know, his tour card, like a full status, I think he, consistency would be great. If he didn't have to, I feel like he's had to go to like Puerto Rico a lot. Just a lot of auxiliary places, a little bit of, I don't know, stability for him would be good.

But I, you know what, I, with, uh, auction, he, I find his swing like magnetic. I really, really, really enjoy watching him hit the golf ball. I think it's, it's, uh, it's almost, uh, hip, hypnotic. Like it's, it's crazy. The movie puts on it. So I hope that he is, like, I hope I see him on my TV more in 2024. I'm rooting for him. Let me put it that way. Pretty good. Just stats wise over the last year. So he's been, you know, approach 30th,

you know, and then Sturks gained 30th off the tee. But putting is pretty, pretty bad. 174th in putting in terms of the events that he's been in. So got to got to figure out what I mean, he's one of those guys who does the arm lock thing. So if you're, if you're starting with the arm lock and you're 175th in putting, yeah, could be, could be tough. I would say the only other guy I'd bring up is Sung J. M. I've been pretty disappointed with Sung J. I was expecting a bigger 2023 season from him. And I feel like for a guy that hits it that good, I followed him for nine holes at the BMW championship. I mean, he just flags it, man.

And he, another guy that doesn't, can't seem to get the ball in the hole. And I would like him to, to play better is, is where I'm at with that. Play better. I will say the greater son, the great, the great thing about the Sunday thing, those he and and see who Kim go on a metal in the Asian games. So they don't have to serve their 21 man months of mandatory military service, which has to be sort of a relief in some ways about their golfing careers. I don't know how they feel about the skipping out on that sort of, you know of patriotic obligation. But the idea of like, look what

happened to Slangling Bay's career when he had to go serve it. And now he and C. Wukim do not have to. It has to be like a good sign at least for their don't have to take a 21 month break in the middle of the prime of their career. Before we get to the BMW ladies, I just want to give a shout out to precision pro guys, did you know we have our own rangefinder carry case now? Did you know that? Oh, yeah, no laying up branded from precision pro.

We partnered with precision pro to customize the NX 10 range finder with your favorite NLU designs, Threp, the pod on the course, head to precision pro golf.com forward slash NLU and use code no laying up all one word to save $20 on the rangefinder and case. We've been using the NX 10 for almost a year and this rangefinder is excellent, locks on the target lightning quick and the additional features such as the slope switch HD optics and magnetic card mount make the NX 10 are go to choice on the course. You won't find a better customer care package and golf from free battery placements to industry leading customer service. And a 90 day money back guarantee, Randy, we love those money back guarantees. There is a reason precision pro golf is our trusted partner.

It has been for years. Don't wait. go to PrecisionProGolf.com forward slash no laying up to save $20 and get your NLU rangefinder and carry case with code no laying up, excited to be working with them on a future episode of Taurus sauce. So stay tuned for more on that or excuse me future season. All right, Mr. Bigg, we're going to stay, stay in the neighborhood. BMW Ladies Championship over in Korea. Min Ji Lee, Min Wool-Eek, a great, great weekend for the Lee siblings. When's the BMW Ladies Championship in a playoff over Allison Lee, which I believe was Allison Lee's second runner-up finish of the BMW Ladies championship. Ranny, were you able to tune in? I tuned in bits and pieces throughout the four days.

It overnight event, so I got to be very upfront and honest was not watching live as the tournament concluded. But I had watched parts of all four rounds prior. Of course our young hitter, Lauren Coglin, had a great week, we can get there. But yeah, just a really class performance by Minjee Lee. A few notes, this is her second LPGA victory of the season. She won a little over a month ago in Cincinnati

for the first time this season. I think interestingly, it's her 10th career LPGA victory, which puts her in pretty select company only two Australians prior to yesterday. I had ever won 10 times on the LPGA tour, of course, Kari Webb leading the way with 41 victories, unbelievable. And then Jan Stevenson won 16 times. So Minji Lee joins those two as Australian 10 time LPGA winners. Minji joins five. They're now five people that have won at least twice on the LPGA tour season. We have Lily of Boo and Celine Boudier each winning three times. We have Lily of boo and Celine Boudier each winning three times. And now Minji Lee, Jin Young Co and Ronning Yin have won twice. She's just really good.

I think that's what it boils down to. She wanted a playoff, as you said, Neil over Allison Lee. Allison actually did really well to get into the playoff. She, she bogeyed her 70th hole, but then birdied 17 and 18 her 71st and 72nd holes to force the playoff. Minji rolled in. I don't know, maybe a five footer, little curler for birdie to win on the first playoff hole. Allison Lee had missed a little lengthier birdie putt and was in for par. So yeah, I think Minji, I don't know, we can go down the leaderboard. There's some other finishes I want to highlight, but Minji is just super solid. It's more of

the same of what we've seen the last couple of years. She's just always hangs around really, really good ball striker and surprise when the putter shows up and she's making putts, like she's one of the toughest women to beat out there on tour. So good, good win for her. Before you go down the leaderboard, I do just want to call out golf in Korea, especially this time of year. I don't think there's a place on the planet where fall pops more than Korea. And looking at the videos that that Sally and Tron and Cody did last year at this event and a couple of film rooms while they were over in Korea, I mean, just the foliage far north, you know, on the map and stuff. But I know that's, that's a little bit of a digression.

But I popped on the coverage briefly and the same thing. I'm like, oh my god, that just looks like, you know, perfect, perfect autumn weather. Yeah, I totally agree with you. It's, I think in some of those far-flung places, especially in Asia where I don't really know the, you know, the geography, the land, all that well. It's nice to see true fall colors in Korea, Neil. And it's always fun to see the fan clubs. They were doing a pretty good job highlighting some of the different fan clubs. I mean, you said it, Sali and Cody and Tron went last year to the BMW ladies' championship. And it it just how much the people of Korea love the women's

game, it's really cool. And so tuning in to coverage this week, it's just fun to see women's events that are supported and treated like any other big sporting event. It was really cool. I like watching Minji Lee, Randy, because it's just like as good of an iron player. Like it's maybe it's sort of fitting that machine Mark how one of the same sort of week, because she's I think I saw a stat where she's like actually better than anybody, including like all you know, this is men and women from certain distances, whether it's like 100 and that's like 125 to like 200 yards out. She's like the best player in the world, iron wise, like even better than the men in terms of proximity to the whole,

like just a amazing, amazing golf swing. Yeah. It's, uh, those are the KPMG insights, which you got to take them with a little grain assault. But again, I beat the strome all the time. It would be so cool to have shot link data in the women's game because then you could have those of an apples to apples comparison with some of the best iron players in the men's game. But yeah, you're exactly right. She is just a supreme ball striker. The bugaboo has always been a little bit the putter. I think that's a bit overblown. But certainly when she's feeling it with the putter, like I said, she is so tough to beat. All right, Randy, take us down the leaderboard. Yeah.

It was a really good leaderboard. So some names I want to highlight and we don't have to go far. Lydia Coe finished solo third. It's her first top 10 on the LPGA tour since her first start of the year back in February. And it's coming out of time. She got really hot around this time last year.

She ended up winning the CME Tour Championship. But right now, even with this solo third, that moved her up to a hundred and first in the race to the CME. And you guys will know that the top 60 make the tour championship. So she's got three more, three possible starts. They have two more events in Asia. And then they come back to Florida and play the game bridge prior to the tour championship. So she's going to need at least another really, really good week. If not, you know, a couple good weeks to even make the tour championship. But it's nice to see a sign of life from Lydia.

Solo. Randy, can I just do it? Please go ahead, David. Look in there. It's not only in her first top 10, it's her first top 30. Like she's been, she's finished outside the top 30 the entire season. I mean, I know like we love Lydia and like she again, she's been super pleasant to deal with in person every time I deal with her, but this season has been horrendous in terms of her standard. I mean, she started the year number one player in the world and didn't finish in the top 30 for eight months. That's, that's fucking crazy.

It is crazy. I know. I like to blame it on getting married, right? What other reason could there be? No. Yeah, it's strange. I don't have a great answer for it. I don't know if she just hasn't been playing very good golf, but things can change in a hurry. So we'll see. We'll see how she strings the next couple of weeks together. Solo fourth, I was going to say Angel Yen, fresh off her first career LPGA victory last week in China. She finished his solo fourth. She's having an excellent year. She moves into the top 10 in the race this year. I mean, she's seventh right now in the player, the year standings. It's just, it's fun to see her really start to put it together. So. And rockin' and no laying up towel. And rockin' and no laying up towel. Maybe the NL you know, who can say who yeah, exactly. And then a tie a tittacom finished into tie for fifth.

She had struggled a little bit through the summer, but has now had back to back week. She finished runner up last week in China, fifth this week. So she's has a men's talent. I think she's probably the one that everybody's looking at, you know, who's the next young player on the women's tour that's going to win a major. I think it's probably a tie at Tidacom. Lauren Cogland, young hitter. She was, she was sniffing around. She started the round tied for fourth. Just didn't have the best Sunday finishes tied for 10th, but a really good result for her. She's just outside of that top 60, which is really important for the tour championship.

Because unlike the men, if you make it to the tour championship, everybody starts level par. There's no season long handicap. And you just got to get into the women's tour championship to have a shot at. It's one of the most expensive purses in their game outside of the major. So big week, big week for them. Perine Delacore went 66, 66, I believe we call that the McKenzie Hughes on the weekend to finish tied for 13th.

And then the last one I want to point out was Sunhyung Park, former major winner, two time major winner. She was the 2017 Rolex player of the year on the LPGA tour. And guys tied for 16th this week is by far her best finish of the year. You want to talk about somebody that has just fallen off a cliff. She's currently ranked 274th in the world. I think she's battled some injuries. She's battled some driver-possible yips, but tied for 16th is by far her best result on tour this year. So I wanted to highlight that. And then just a quick note, a sad note, Anna Nordquist, who was in this event with Drew after the first round, she was

flying back to the United States. Her ex-husband, Kevin McCalpin, who had been a caddy, caddy for Lexi Thompson, he had caddy for Martin Laird on the PGA tour. He died suddenly. And Anna and Kevin, it sounded like a very bad situation. I know they were going through a divorce, which was tough. Anna had spoken about it publicly at times. So just thoughts and prayers all around there. Kevin's family and, uh, that's, that's a horrible situation.

Um, but wanted to, wanted to shout that out briefly. around their Kevin's family and that's a horrible situation. But wanted to shout that out briefly. And the women are off to Malaysia. This way they are, yes, that's right. They are halfway through a four week Asian swing right now. They are in Malaysia this week as people are listening and then they finish in Japan, the Asian swing, and then they all come back to Florida for the game bridge, and then it's the tour championship.

So three more events for people jockeying to get into the tour championship, and then the tour championship is going to be that weekend right before Thanksgiving week. Love it. Well, guys, let's take it down to Miami for the the live team championship. So watch got to watch a little coverage flipped it over from college football on Saturday to watch. So interesting format. They're doing match play for the 12 teams. So it was the semifinal matches on Saturday, the four acer four aces beat the high flyers, the crushers beat the cleaks, the range goats beat the fireballs and torque swept the stingers. So today, Sunday, 1 p.m. Eastern, all 48 players will play 18 holes in a shotgun

start. So it's stroke play on Sunday in the final round with the four scores counting towards the team final score. So all four players on each team, all their scores will count. But only the four winners from Saturday, semi-finals. So the four aces, crushers, range goods and torque will be competing for the $14 million team top prize. It's a total person with $50 million. The four teams that lost in the semis on Saturday will be playing for those spots five through eight, and then the remaining four teams will be playing for those spots nine through 12. Randy, who you got, man?

Let's get a prediction. I know when people are listening to this, but let's put it set in stone now and we can issue me a culp as if we're wrong. Who's, who's Tron's it, put it set in stone now and, and we can issue, may it call up as if we're wrong. Who's, who's trans team, the four aces? Is that the three weeks? And I think he lost fireballs. He's a big guy. Oh, but they were just, well, I'm going to go with the four aces in.

I don't think he's team. Yeah, who could possibly beat the four aces? I would say my, my, my money's with the range goats. Uh, Taylor Gooch. That's that. That's that. Yes, Baba Taylor Gooch, uh, he won the individual event in Jeddah. So 18 million bucks.

That guy has just been printing money this year. He's made so much money, uh, playing golf on the live tour. So, uh, good for him. And uh, it feels like he's playing good's playing good pretty good golf right now. So I'm going with the range goats. I think they get it done. Hopefully as you know, as Bubba said, it just seems like the ton of interest in buying, buying the team. So maybe a team championship leads to to a big deal for the range goats heading into 2024. KVV, who do you think wins?

heading into 2024. KVV who you think wins? I'm going to go with the crushers because I think Bryson cares more about this than anyone. I think Bryson is truly, truly invested in the live product. So he's playing some good golf lately. He's just, I think I saw he birdied like nine of 11 holes in one stretch. So I'm going to say that Bryson is going to lead his team to the title just because I would love to watch the Bryson speech and celebration in the rambling about how this is going to change the world, not just golf, but the future of the world. Yeah, I mean, watch some of the matches yesterday. I wouldn't say it was great golf. DJ had

a shank in his match against Phil. But, but, you know, it is still fun to watch Dustin Johnson play Phil Mikkelson in a match, you know, a match play situation. So I probably found it somewhat entertaining. Randy, did you catch any of it? I flipped it on a little bit Saturday. Um, it was on the CW here in Denver and I was like, Oh, you know, kind of scrolling through the guide and I did flip it on. I know this makes me sound like a funny, dutty. Neil, what do you think about just the constant music going? And I just find that the telecasts to be too much.

I understand that I think the music would be wonderful for the people on site, but I find it very distracting as a television viewer. I don't like it. Yeah, you can kind of hear it in the background. It's just maybe it's because we're like, you know, it's tough to build up the drama when there's just like, like, you almost feel like there's just a lot of stuff going on. Yeah. Whereas in normally in a golf tournament, and this is not like a comment on music versus no music, but it feels like when it gets dead silent, it builds the drama. And so that match with Phil and DJ was coming down to, it's a shotgun, so I

don't know what hole they were on, but they're down like the last one or two holes. And it was a drivable par four and Phil Phil had this like a hundred foot pot where he had to like put it through the fringe. And he was like, you could tell he was like, there's a bunch of people moving around behind the flag. And he was like trying to wait for them to stop, but basically there's probably like a party going on back there where the DJ is, and it's like,

well yeah, kind of like what do you expect, you know, but like nobody's really focused on the match that's being played. And then just the other thing is like, I'm all about shorts, but man, there are just some bad shoe sock combos. I mean, Camtron Goli continues to wear some of the worst like golf fashion I've ever seen

where they wear these like long crew socks that are like multicolored with like gray shoes. It's like, what are we doing? I will say though on the flip side of that I think Dustin Johnson's golf fashion has like gotten so so so much better now that he has that whatever clothing company sponsors the four aces and He's wearing like really clean foot joys like getting him out of a deed of stuff was was like the best thing that ever happened to DJ He looks like a proper ass golfer out there,

whereas a lot of these guys are dressing like clowns with the, with the crew socks and these love and I'm just going to say the fucking logos still. It's just like, I can't believe these, this clip art stuff is still. It's just going with it's unbelievable. I know. It goes back and forth between being just like a little bit Mickey Mouse for me. But then you said like, yeah, here's Phil, Michael, Sam, play, and Dustin Johnson. That's intriguing, right? I don't know.

I had no, like it's entertaining enough for me. My wife was like, what is going on? This is great. This leaderboard's like giving me a migraine. know, there's a lot of colors. That's what I mean. You don't really know what's going on. And but like, is it to flip it on for 20 minutes or an hour? Like, was it entertaining? Like, yeah, sure. I could have it on in the background. But like, is that if you were asking me, is that worth like $50 million per. It's like, ah, man, I don't think so. You know, like, I feel like, right. I don't know if the pay off is worth what the product is being put out there. So, and why are why have we ditched match play for the finals of the team event?

That's that's I think that doesn't make sense to me. It's the classic issue with match play to begin with. I think for the onsite spectators, like match plays just tough because there's not a lot of golf on the course. So I think it's like, oh, cool. We want to make sure that we get everybody out there in this shot gun, all 12, all 48 guys are playing so that fans can go watch all the golf. I'm assuming that's the reason. Okay. I think look, I've had many, many hours on this podcast to talk about my moral objections to live, but from a competitive standpoint, I still feel like

if I'm going to take this seriously as a concept, I feel like it's still stuck between stations, right, to throw out an old steady reference. Like, he doesn't know whether it wants to chase OWGR points. It doesn't know if it wants to be like serious, it doesn't know if it wants to be in a team or product. Like I actually think that the concept for the championship is pretty cool. Like as you said, guys playing each other in these match play things. I wish that they could just lean all into that. Basically say like, hey, all the stroke play stuff that we're trying to kind of like, Hoover up, you know, these theoretical AWGR points that we feel like we're being to kind of like Hoover up, you know, these theoretical WJR points that

we feel like we're being cheated out of. We'll put that aside for this event because our whole concept is team golf, right? And we love the team element of it. Like if they would lean into that, I'd probably be like, yeah, man, like I want to watch the high flyers versus the range goats in this semi final match. And I'm going to get as much camera shots of Taylor Gooch, you know, and Bob Watson, like, taken on Phil and whoever other knuckleheads are on his team. I think that will be fun. I might be compelled to do that, but when you split it up and then you're trying

to tell me like, oh, it's actually a team thing, but also it's the stroke play thing and it's worth 25 million here, but it's just to come to becomes too nonsensical. I do want to ask you guys before we kind of like move on from this. Phil's comments at the beginning of the week said, he was asked if he thought that more, like high level PJ tour players were going to join live and he said, no, I don't think that I know that. I know that there are many people who are going to come. Phil, ever the salesman is still sort of leaning into this heel character a little bit. Just curious to what you guys thought of those things like

is, are we going to see something that come, you know, the framework agreement doesn't quite get, you know, nailed down. They dropped the element in the framework agreement that said they couldn't try to post each other's players because they sort of got word. The Justice Department was like, uh, hell no. That is not going to be legally tenable. What if a John Rom, like gets $300 million to, you know, he knows he's in the next five years of majors now with his masters win? Is that a possibility come the spring when we don't, when we sort of decide whether this is framework thing is going forward or not? Man, I don't know. It's been really quiet.

Jesus, KVV on the frame. Yeah. Here we're just talking about the range. Here I am. I think it's a victory. We're just trying to steer it home at the end of our year. Like, yeah, you know, November, December is usually pretty quiet. Like, I got a bad feeling that it's not going to be very quiet this year. I like the agreement. It's this year. I like the agreement.

It's dead. It sounds like the agreement's not going to happen. That's a total shock. It just leads me to believe, man, they really, really post sides just didn't want to go to court because for the PGA to just seed any moral high ground that easily makes me question the tactics, I guess. Yeah, I think we'll see some player movement. I would be shocked if it was like a super high profile guy like John Rom as you say KVB. I mean, the last group of guys that left were what your Brendan Steele's and Danny Lees. And I could see some more guys like that who don't necessarily move the needle anywhere.

But I would be floored if it was a cream of the crop PJ tour guy. And I don't know. It seems like they're, you know, the TGL stuff is, I keep seeing an announcement for that weekly. I still don't know what's going on there. But it feels like that is a way to get these guys, you know, some money. And you see names like Cantlay and Xander, like all some of these guys that have been rumored to be unhappy or all signing up for the TGL. I got to think that that comes with

some I feel like that probably holds the line for another season if that makes sense. For the top let's call it top 20 guys you know of like the big names of like no you know what let's I could see them saying like okay you're gonna you know this is worth my time you're gonna pay me for it and I'll see how this goes for a year. So I don't know if there's gonna be a ton of player movement in early 2024, but I could see like, at the end of 2024, it, you know, that stuff doesn't go well or whatever.

I just, I know the, because I would say Neil, sorry, I would say important in that is assuming that the framework agreement is dead. It seems like the tour is pursuing outside investment from some group. So I think it'll be important to your point, not only the TGL, but to see what type of investment outside investment is made. Because I know that the PIF and live, Yes, they have deep pockets and you know,

it's good. It's tough to fight that. But at some point, you know, I feel like they have to look at this live thing and be like, just with the TV rights and it doesn't seem to be like there's going to be a financially viable tour. If they're given out $50 million for this event, and you hear the sports books say nobody's betting on this, which basically means it's tough to turn that on instead of college football, right? Like, it's... No one is watching.

Okay, we can debate the merits of whether it's good or whether it's moral, whatever. No one is watching. It has gotten no traction whatsoever with the public at large. So is like the KSA going to be sort of happy with the return which I've always sort of theorized it's sort of at the corporate level, right? If you have Phil Mixen on your squad or Dustin Johnson on your squad and you can then get him to play with some CEO who is interested in investing in Saudi Arabia who feels like it's going to be a worthwhile thing,

but isn't quite sure how it's going to be perceived within his board of directors or whatever. That's to me still worthwhile if you're live, if you wanted to do that thing. But in terms of like it ever having any kind of return, I just do not see it. Like who, my mind will change if one of these teams, if the, you know, forays is sells for a billion dollars. That's always been the sort of thing that they're thinking is going to start to bring back some of this

money. I just cannot imagine like when F1 teams are not selling for that, how in the world like a collection of four dipshit golfers is going to is is wearing cartoon logos is ever going to bring in that kind of investment. But maybe like maybe if you're willing to bring in like Russian oil money or you know, certain money from Southeast Asia or whatever, I just it makes no sense to me. And yet they're

going to keep going. There's all this talk this week. Polters going on and on about it. But Kymher's going on and on about it. They're all doing their salesman pitch of, we've talked to his excellency and we think it's, we're totally reassured for the following season. Like it's going to go on and on. We're going gonna be here for generations. DJ had a little speech about it. I'm like, all right, man, cool for you, but I guess if the PIF doesn't come to agreement with the PGA tour and the PGA tour goes private equity and they're able to keep, you know, ROM to me, it seems like a huge linchpin

because I truly don't care. Like if Patrick or Zander were to leave, I do not think it would make any difference in the PGA tour's product. But if ROM left, it would, I think, be a significant sort of shockwave event. Let's say that the PGA tourist is able to hold on to all their people and they get private equity money to do it and they're dumping all this money into TGL and they're essentially saying, like, please, please, play this video game golf.

What is the, like, point of live going forward in terms of it's never going to build an audience? It has to be only has to be at the corporate level because I just don't understand who's ever going to catch on. They would have caught on in some sense. That's my point. I think the couple of things there is, I don't think they're going away, but I would think that it would be hard for them to pour more money into it. That's why I don't think there's going to be like some massive like $300 million player signing.

But I can see them being like, no, let's stick to the plan. Let's see how we do in 2024. Yeah. I mean, like, yeah, I'm just, I think the buzz of it this year just feels so nothing. Yeah. Well, at least in the last year we were talking about it. They, the stuff internationally, like stuff down in Australia. It's almost like they'd have a better chance

if they just went more worldwide. But I guess those markets aren't big enough to justify, they still have to have the US in some capacity, you know what I mean? That's where the money, the money is from a sponsor standpoint. But yeah, I'm with you on the, I'm the simple edges man. I don't know. Just a little, Just a little exhausted. But if you know what, it was kind of, it was fun to tune in and see what, oh, this is what you guys have been up to.

That's this is this cool. It left me. I didn't watch a ton on Saturday. It truly was like, hey, it seems like you guys have your thing. And if you guys like it cool, like, it's just not for me. I don't know how else to say it is. Like, I just, it's not what I'm looking for as, and there are plenty of problems with the PGA tour broadcast. Yeah. And for that record, like, neither is like the Zozo in Japan, like, right, I need to be watching that either, right? Like, it's fall. Right. It's not golf season for me. Like I'm, I'm, there's a, there's a playoff baseball. There's football to watch. Like I'm, I'll be, I'll be back in January. It's kind of where I'm at. So, uh, that's not like, I wouldn't say that's a

glowing endorsement of like, God, you didn't turn into the Zozo. I can't believe that. Like you, you missed out. I guess the problem from live would be, you missed out. I guess the problem from live would be, this is one of their two big weeks, right? They just had their individual championship and this is supposed to be the team championship and like it just doesn't hook me at all as a television product, you know?

I just don't see a path to like, oh my God, this is a huge. And the party early in the week, like, there just seems to be such a disconnect between like them wanting to make golf this cool hip thing. And me thinking like, guys, golf, like, it's just never going to be that cool. It's just not that cool. No, it's not. It might not be like a growth opportunity. No, like, you know, it'll, it'll be sustainable. It'll be around. But like, it might not be this,

like wildly profitable sport. It's not sexy. It's not like that's not what golf is. And that's okay. I was going to be really funny if the masters like decided to do it like we do the risk club championship. We're like, all right, the team that wins gets all these births and the all the guys on that team get a birth into the masters. So make the team aspect of dog fight. Make them just all these guys just fucking going at each other for a master's birth. But screw the individual stroke place stuff.

We can't judge that. Let's just lean into the team element of it. All right. Well, good luck to, good luck to my range goods today. Anything else, guys? No, I just think weeks like this underscore my larger feeling of, I think it would do well for professional golf to just go away for a little while and let people miss it. And then come back and build excitement for a new season. I just feel like all these fall tournaments, I do think golf from a spectator standpoint, from just comparing it to other professional sports leagues.

You just have to go away to let people begin to miss it and then come back. Which I think we're getting closer to that though with this fall season, not really counting towards entry into the next seat. Like, you know, not forcing the top guys to play in these events. Like I feel like the top players are getting some time off, which is kind of the best first step towards that reality, Randy. Yeah, that's that's fair. It's true. It's truly the only sport. I mean, I guess tennis is like this, but the where it's just it's ongoing. It's ever present. There's never a time. It's like if if you lived in a place like where it was always summer, you would probably like kind of get bored of summer. And yet, when you live in a place that has seasons, that that winter might be a little bit bleak, but man, it sure feels good when spring comes around. And that would be kind of cool if golf had such a thing.

All right. Well, just a couple of in-house announcements. Like I said at the top, new foot joy fall collection is live in the NoLang approach shops store.noL Lang up dot com. Randy, we got some custom strap polos in there. People should check those out. I just ordered one for myself. Neil. I got one coming. A multi print joint that we put together with foot joy, some woven hoodies. We have a big restock on the ladies collection. So women's apparel. We've got both foot joy stuff, rowback stuff. So if you're looking for something for a woman in your life that golfs, check that out, or if you're listening in your woman, please check that out. And then also some kids apparel, you know, some junior hitter stuff in there.

So check it out, KVV, anything we should be looking for from you coming up. Yeah, we got a couple of sort of writing pieces that we're sort of still churning on and you know, one of them from our young, young man, Ben, who's wrote a piece about first time truly playing Link's golf and how I did lock some things in his brain. I'm really kind of excited about that writing debut for Ben. So I always got a piece that he's been working on kind of about that writing debut for Ben. Saul has got a piece that he's been working on kind of contrasting some of the changes that baseball has made to sort of save itself

as a sport and what golf could learn from that. I'm excited about that. So this should be a drop in, I think either this week or the following. All right, and then Ben and Saul, look out for some coverage from them. They're going down under to the Asia Pacific amateur down at Royal Melbourne in Australia. So we'll have some content around that this week.

Randy and I breaking down the census, the NLU census results on the NES pod this week. So NES members take a look, look out for that. Yeah, I think that's it. Good stuff, guys. Thanks for paying attention for the substitute teacher. Hey, you know, it's your your great sub suit. Neil, I'm going's it. Good stuff guys. Thanks for paying attention for the substitute teacher. Hey, you know It's you're a great substitute Neil. I'm gonna give you great reviews if if I ever get on rate My husband you know keep in control across today

All right, let's go watch a football. What do you say? Yeah, there we go? You guys Bangalong! It's gonna be the right club. Be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most! I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.