No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 769: Hero Recap

Episode Date: December 4, 2023

Scottie Scheffler wins the Hero World Challenge as Tiger returns to competitive golf, but we begin this week's pod with the latest on the Jon Rahm to LIV rumors, its impact on PGA Tour leadership and private equity negotiations, and the curious silence from Rahm and his camp. Then it's on to this week's mule uprising (24:40), the forthcoming distance announcement from the R&A and USGA (49:00), Jay Monahan's recent appearances (1:08:30), and reactions to actual golf played this week, starting in the Bahamas with Scheffler's win, the Cat's potential 2023 schedule, Morikawa's penalty, and more (1:15:25). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I Can write club be the right club today That's better than most Better than most Battle the most! pep from you tonight, Neil. I need I need you to bring me bring me up a little bit. Thanks a lot. Happy Holidays, Tolly. It's good to be back, baby. I thought we were we were going to keep it between the May when the mustard coming into Christmas, finished the year quietly. Oh, no. Big week and golf. Happy to be here to help break it down. This, yeah, this is supposed to be a little bit the down the quiet time of year, the downside time of year today did not feel like this whole week did not feel like any kind of downside here. T.C. is here. We had a lot, a lot of talk about

tonight. T.C. you fired up. I am. I am. When was the last time we were on like for like a recap? We just missed one week. We didn't do one over over Thanksgiving. So we got two weeks of stuff. You know, we got got there's so much to talk about. I'm chomping at the bit. I'd say number one on the list is that the Scotty Scotty Sheffler was playing a ProV1 golf ball. We got to give a shout out to our friends at Titleist. If you haven't seen it yet, we partook with some in some content with them. They invite us out to a video shoot with Scotty Sheffler and Jordan Speed. They did, you know, spend some time with them learning like what model of golf ball they're playing and why what fits them, how they figure out their flight, their spin, their feel.

Obviously, we talked about it with speed as well. And how he gets hit fit is ProV1X. Scotty Sheffler plays the ProV1. I use it, of course, to win the hero world challenge this past week. You can check it out on the titles YouTube channel as well. After we filmed the video, we had a teeny tiny bit of time. We snuck in a chipping contest. Scotty Sheffler, Jordan Speeth, and me,

with no handicap of that at all. I'm not really sure what the contest was as supposed to establish there, but I mean, I'm gonna spoil this result. I did not win the chipping contest, but they're posting that video to their YouTube channel tonight. You can learn a thing or two about that. One, one thing to take away, listen to how they talk about chipping and don't listen

to how I talk about chipping because I listened back to it and it was kind of terrifying and not hard to see the differences in it. Both of those guys chipped their little hearts out today. Speak, he had some magic around the green, saving part of the heart. And Scottie gets so steep, man, he gets so steep on the ball with that, I guess out to in or, you know, almost cuts the ball when he chips it. It's pretty, pretty fun to watch.

All right. We got a lot to talk about. Brom to live. Question mark. We have a mule uprising. We have, I mean, a ton of other shit on the mule front and PGA tour front. We have some distance related announcements coming this week. We're just going to touch on that.

We'll get there. We're not going to go deep into it tonight. We're going to give the governing bodies a chance to announce it. TC's favorite tournament, the hero, TC's least favorite tournament in the Australian open, some questions, some various stuff. It was a lot to get to tonight, but I think we got to start with what was undowly the biggest story of the week, which is, I'm going to throw it to you first, Neil, because you're the least first in all this at our talk right before we started recording. Had me a treat, it just leveled this. you first, Neil, because you're the least versatile this that are talked right before we started recording,

had me intrigued up to your interest level in this. John Rom, potentially, maybe probably going to live this week confused. Yeah, I mean, I would say I'm pretty well versed and I've been following the internet and I just clear a couple of things up. So John Rom has not set a word. He's not set a word to, I believe,

anyone publicly or privately about any of this, people are trying to get in contact with them and have been unable to reach him. His team that they haven't said a word have not. There was something that came out of Dubai last week that said they kind of shot it down, but there weren't really any actual quotes attributed to it in there. That is the only shut down or comment I've seen on this in any way. So we're relying on some kind of deep state Chris Broussard asked sources are doing a lot of heavy lifting here.

Correct. But it feels like the lack of him saying something speaks volumes because it does feel like it's picked up and it'd be hard to ignore if you were him. So I mean, I think in some ways the the solace look at it, if you ignore the declarations of fealty is, you know, what a kind of a judo move here by him, like maybe get in the last second, force things to come back together, maybe get a quick guaranteed payday, I guess like, hey, nice move, but also like, I don't know,

man, either do it or don't. I don't know why we got like sit around and and Not say anything for the last five days. I mean, I guess maybe we're working on details, but I don't know The the dragon it out thing feels a little self-centered, so I don't I don't really know what to think to see what's your reaction I mean, it could be a busy time frame at the butcher shop, right? We're here enough for the holidays. You got holiday parties, Christmas parties, all sorts of stuff. You could be slammed, you know, take a ticket TC, get in line. I'll get to you when I can. Yeah, I feel like he's kind of vociferously denied stuff previously. And that doesn't seem to be happening here.

Can we go through that? This might be a bit tedious and I tweeted a bunch of this out, but I think this is important to document of just again, this is not our opinion. This is John Rom's words that he's used over a period of time. And I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on like, Hey, post June six, if things changed for you, I like, we can, we can talk about that separately. But this first quote that I'll, that I'll use here, this is after June six has happened, right? This is sometime around the beginning of August this past year. He told golf sin etiquette etiquette, etiquette, I don't, my, my,

Spanish is in Pocito Oxy. Oh, is that, is that golf without etiquette? Maybe it might be. All seen etiquette. That's the Asian Tay Lasty, Miss Ali. It looks like it. He said, Phil Mickelson respects my decision and I respect his decision. He has told me that I have no reason to go to live. And he has told me that several times. I laugh when people rumor me with live, I've never liked the format. So if you were, if you were viewing that quote through the ultimate skeptical, I would say, all right, if they're changing the format like they are, potentially allegedly

maybe changing the format and they need to get all the owners permission on that or something. I don't know. Again, there's no, there's no like trusted sources releasing any of this stuff to this point. But that, again, the only wiggle room in that quote is if the format changes all of a sudden, maybe John Rahm goes back on all of these other quotes, which happened, which again, if you go back to at the 2022 US Open, he said, yeah, money is great. But when Kelly and I, this first thing happened, we started talking about it and we're like, what are lifestyle change if we got 400 million? No, it would not change one bit. Truth be told, I could retire right now. I could live a very happy life and not play golf again. I've never, I've never really played the game of golf for monetary reasons. I play for the love of the game. And I've never really played the game of golf for monetary reasons.

I play for the love of the game and I want to play against the best in the world. That's end quote, just a comment to say, none of the top 30 in Strokes game in the world currently play on live golf. So again, he would be going back on that last part of the quote alone of saying he wants to play against the best in the world

because the best in the world do not, that's decidedly do they do not play on the live golf tour. He also said continued I have always been interested in history and legacy and right now the PGA tour has that. There's a meaning when you win them a moral championship. There's a meaning when you win Arnold Palmer's in a Bay Hill. There's a meaning when you win LA Tories, some of these historic venues. That to me matters a lot after winning this past years past US Open only me and Tiger have won at Torrey Pines, making puts on 18. That's a memory that I'm going to have forever and not many people can say that. And quote, even the PGA tour dickwriters that we are, they don't even hand us scripts that thick of laying on the

the propaganda. He said, my heart is with the PGA tour. That's all I can say. It's not my business or my character to judge anyone who thinks otherwise. And for a lot of people, I'm not going to lie. Those next three, four years are worth basically the retirement plan. It's very nice compensation until they retire and sail off into the sunset.

And if you want to keep going back to February 22, this is my official, my one and only time. I'll talk about this where I'm officially declaring my fealty to the PGA tour. I'm a PAC member and I have a lot of belief in Commissioner Jay Monahan and the product that they're going to give us in the future. There's been a lot of talk and speculation about the Saudi League. It's just not something I believe is best for me in my future and golf. And I think the best legacy I can accomplish will be with the PGA tour. I would, you know, that, that, listen, that's, that's tough. Uh,

if we change our mind, but he has a lot of changes in mind, and I respect that. Like if he does go, there is a, you, you can make a business case for why he's doing it and like the kind of classic response that you see online is, could you say no to $300 million guaranteed? It'd be a very hard to think to turn down. I guess what I've been curious about is it seems that ROM, and I would definitely, definitely understand his frustration with PGA Tour leadership. I think they've done a very, very poor job, but he seems to have been on the outside looking in with some of the other top players on the PGA Tour. And I'm wondering if there's some bitterness or is he, does he feel like he's been on the

outside? And I'm wondering if there's some bitterness or is he, does he feel like he's been on the outside because he is probably top three best golfer, let's say top two, but he doesn't really seem to have a leadership role in the revamping of the tour right now. And I'm starting to kind of think back and be like, hi, I wonder why that is, is that, is that his choice or does he feel like he's been sideline and is that leading to some of this as well. Yeah, I think there's definitely some resentment there towards Rory and others, you know, whether it's impressors or whatnot, it seems like I think on the flip side though, like none of these guys are tiger and John Rums not even Rory, I don't think, you know, he's probably got a brighter career ahead of him than what Rory has ahead of him. But maybe I'm wrong on that. But I think overall, we may be misreading the situation a little bit through the lens of what live is right now. Because like I'm going to agree with Shane Ryan had a couple of great tweets about this kind of

when when everything started percolating. He said, the fascinating thing about the ROM rumors, which I realized might just be nothing, but let's pretend they're not for a moment, is that they very closely follow a profit-seeking logic. If you think the tour and live are eventually going to merge, and your number one goal is money, and for the record, I haven't seen a ton of players wrestling with ethics on other side, then it's optimal to sign with live golf right now. It's money with no consequence, and the benefit for live is it puts the negotiation squeeze on the tour if they think there's some doubt. This is amateur analysis, but it feels

like if live got wrong, it would crush the tour and pretty much forced them to merge, not to mention that if Ram goes, you'd expect at least two to three other big names to follow before the new season. So I think on that level, I think this is the best money that Yasser could spend. I think it brings, you I think it brings them to the tour. It sounds like there's some dissension among even the player directors on the tour side of, hey, should we take the Saudi money? Should we just go with the private equity money here?

How should we structure any new investment in the tour? I think this basically guarantees that the Saudis stay at the table and have a stronger negotiating position to be much more tied in to whatever the next thing looks like. And again, it's basically Yasser and the boys like running circles around Jay. Oh, and I'm finally getting to the point where I feel like Jay Monahan is almost out of a job. Like I think we're almost there, finally.

Yeah, I just don't know who else is gonna take that job right now because there's not a lot of moves on the chess board. So, you know, I feel like he would have to quit. I don't know if they're gonna, I think they're gonna neuter him and then I think Chris Hargier's gonna fire him. I think he's got a lot of authority to do that.

Well, it's like he's pissed off every single level of stakeholder with the tour. Over the last four years into this thing, guys. And it's like the whole argument the whole time has been like, no, we can't fire him now. Like, what are we gonna do? Or two far into this? And it's like, we're four fucking years. Wait could be another two years of negotiations. You know, God,

it's starting. He started to feel like the, the little boy with his finger in the deck. And then there's more holes popping up. It's like, Oh crap, Chris Stroud and the mules are doing something over here. And then all of a sudden, you know, you think you got the top players happy, but now Ron might leave. It's, yeah, I mean, it's just, it's kind of a nightmare scenario for the tour right now. It, I agree with Shane's analysis. Like, I really don't, if Ron was going to speak out against like the format and like what Liv stands for as much as he has and flip, like they're, they're, everything you just said, all the reasons to do it now, like make sense in a

vacuum, right? If you want to be totally cold-hearted, if you don't feel like you've been well represented through this process, if you're mad at how the PJ Tora's handled things, if you're mad at Rory, for how he's reshaping things, if you're mad at just how things are going, if you don't feel like you've got enough respect, you can middle finger those guys and go and get your live money. And I don't know if that will mean he'll hit a shot out and live. I don't know like what it actually happens with live going for you know, does that? Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. It's like, like, is there any downside? Does the format even matter to him? If he's, you know, at worst, he's going to play a season on live. But so this is where I, I, I follow that logic

and I get in a pretzel a little bit to say, like, all right, well, what's going to stop? Like, is there going to be a total run on the bank now? Like a resender and can't lay and who else just going to make a sprint over there the bank now? Like a resander and can't lay and who else just going to make a sprint over there to get the money back? Well, I can't just yostra putting that up right now. The move that like confounds me of all of this is like, why is Graham McDowell getting resigned

in like November to team to smash? And with, you know, when there's, you know, I would think it would benefit them more to have some spaces open to be able to threaten to, you know, and is that the level that we're at with these negotiations, right? Because as I've understood the negotiations to this point, it's been, like Piff wants a deal with the PGA tour, like they don't want to continue to go to battle. And like while this is like a decent, a very good strategic move in that, it is counter to like negotiating in good faith, right?

And maybe they view the tour getting private equity money involved is not negotiating in good faith. I would, you know, again, my extremely amateur understanding of how all this stuff works is like a least part of getting private equity money involved in this helps get through DOJ scrutiny. So again, this is that stuff that gets way above my pay grade pretty quickly, but like still something's not adding up here to the point

where I'm like, ah, yeah, this all really makes sense. Because I don't know, man, in my world, how people think I'm just writing for the PJ tour, like mindlessly throughout this, that's not really been kind of where I stand. It's more of like, dude, I just tend to take humans at their word, right? Like I just tend to like wanna believe them

when they say things and want you to be a relatively stand up person. And the amount of like people we've just seen fall one by one by one fall into this ridiculous greed has just been like, man, you too, Ron. Like I just didn't have that. I did not have that with how strong he spoke in favor of what he had decided to do.

And to switch at this point, man, is an enormous curveball. It's pretty big middle fingers to a lot of people that have spent a lot, a lot of hours working on this thing and trying to hold it together while people have fallen off one by one. And it's a really bizarre move to this point. And I questioned the involvement of agents in all of this.

And again, we could find out that this is not true and it's one huge negotiation tactic. You know, and it clears up this week, but certainly the breadcrumbs lead us to think that this is happening this week. I just think anything regarding moral high ground or standing by your word or anything like that went out when out the window when Jay Monahan and Ed Hurley, he pulled the bullshit that they did on June six without telling any of the players that you can, you know, Tiger talked about it in his presser this week. Like, you know, he was shitting all over Jay and his presser. I think that changed the entire dynamic of everything and through so many of these guys

under the bus, I don't think that that's even close to being resolved from an emotional standpoint for guys like Ram. Even then, he's saying that after that happened though, like I laugh at the people that remove me with live, like it's not for me. And it's like the fuck man, like, at some, you're going back on something, right? You're allowed to change your mind on this, but like, again, what did that mean when you said this? I don't know. That's the shit that just goes with it. But I would. It's less about like, yeah, he can be mad at monahan and the and management. And they definitely handle this very poorly. But I mean, it feels like you're kind of stabbing some of your members of your tour in the back,

right? Like how are you going to look? Some of those guys in the eye, you know, you've got friends out on tour. Maybe I don't know. I've always given it like, Ram has been one of those thoughtful guys. And I've always given, like, Rama's been one of the most thoughtful guys, and I've always been very impressed with what he has to say when he sits down on the press conference in his second language, no less. And so if this is true, and it does come out that he's going to live, I would love to hear him talk about it. I'd love to hear his thought process.

I mean, just, I find it fascinating of how he would justify it. And then my question to him would be, if you had these issues with the tour, why have you, you have one of the best voices in the game right now? Why haven't you been more involved in trying to fix it from the inside, like some of the other guys on the, you know, Lair Advisory Board

and, you know, Rory step back, you know, a chance for you to step up maybe. So that's the stuff where I like, huh, this feels like a pretty drastic change without making an effort to like, voice your problems publicly or do anything to help the situation before you kind of send it in the other direction.

As far as it goes for your current compadre, as I guess you could say. I'm totally with you and that I like Ram. I think he's thoughtful. I think he's extremely as I guess you could say. I'm totally with you and that I like Ram. I think he's thoughtful. I think he's extremely like I regard him very highly. I also don't think he has a ton of friends on tour. I think he's kind of a lone wolf type. So I don't think he's necessarily turning his back on,

you know, and granted he likes to play the DP World Tour too. And he, you know, like add enough some of this stuff as well. Like he, you know, he wants to play the DP World Tour too. And he, you know, like adding up some of this stuff as well, like he, you know, he wants to play in Spain a little bit. He wants to play kind of all over the world. You know, there could be a bunch of stuff that he doesn't like, whether it's the way the new schedules coming about or hip or whatever, you know, it's, it's, and I think, I don't know, also it seems like winning the Masters

changes the dynamic versus when you become a Masters champ, you're kind of King made into that field for the rest of your life, right? Versus like, you know, going to, let's say it's Gucci or like, you know, walkie-neemon. Like this is the first weekend I've thought about walkie-neemon in two years, you know, which is a shame, right? Because walkie-ne was a really good up and coming player. But I just think with Ram, it's like, I don't think it's tough to psychoanalyze the guy because I don't know what makes him tick.

And I think that's one of the things that I like about him. Like he's kind of a, but that's where I'm at though. T.C. though, like he kind of told us what makes him tick, right? I mean, some of the quotes you just read, it's like, do you not really feel that way anymore about anything? He's the only thing he's voiced that he's upset with was there weren't enough portage on the course. And guess what? They tried to fix that this week. Like they apparently was going to be a portapoddy every three holes now. Like, I bet if you spoke up and you had some issues, you know, some things things you could probably help before you just are like deuces. I'm out of here, fellas. Yeah. It, uh, I don't know, something, something stinks

here. Tiger's still talking about it, like deal getting done before the end of the year. And I just don't know how between like Rory, between Tiger, between Jay, between everyone involved in this. How like no one's been able to get in touch with John. How, how can no one get them on the phone? Or I don't know is he just like, is it off? I that's that's the part that's baffling me is it's just like he's just not. He's just not available period. It seems like he might be trying to fuck with people, which is. That's one like dude something is weird here.

Like he I've reached out to his agent a couple times. I've got nothing back. I know players have reached out directly to John and been like, yo, can we like talk? And he just like has not replied. And it's like, dude, that's where I'm at with. I've always, I always held him at such a high level. And I'm like, dude, at least like talk to your fellow, like your, your,

your players like your business partners, right? I mean, you're, you're not like necessarily an LLC or like, like, you guys are all partners together, right? In this, especially in this, with this like wars going on here, like you need to be up front with the people that, you know, your decisions affect other people's lives as well. And I've always thought of John as somebody like thoughtful enough to like recognize that.

And that's why the whole thing is just like Brooks, not at all. Like Brooks up and leaving Patrick Reed, leaving Bryce. None of those guys have I thought this way about them. And I don't know, I want to see Ron flip like this potentially. Again, it's, I keep qualifying that just because we're waiting for a credible source to break it. But man, the breadcrumbs are everywhere. I didn't realize, one quick clarification.

And TCU, you answered this question for me earlier this week. I didn't realize they had to take out the claws and the framework agreement about, uh, you can't poach players because that was in violation of anti-trustables. That was highly anti-competitive. Yeah. Which makes sense now that you've explained that to me, but I totally missed that news over the summer. So I was like, oh, okay, well, that makes a lot more sense now.

Which also if you're throwing another, like a DOJ concern in this, right, is now that you are back actively bidding for player services. Now any any involvement with the PIF, even if it's diluted a little bit by private equity investment, has to be even more scrutinized, right? I mean, like they haven't been fighting for, you know, for players forever, but like the same month that you're fighting for players now, you want to try to get something through DOJ approval? Like good fucking luck. I don't know.

Yeah, I mean, that makes me, then you got that leads to more questions of like, well, who approached who first is wrong? Like, hey guys, I'm available, you know, so then they could they argue, oh, we didn't, you know, we didn't go after him. He came to us. Yeah, I don't know.

It's all, now we're just getting into total speculationation. I thought some of the, like the, the, the letter that tiger and Monati and the other player directors sent out this week was interesting and kind of the wake of all this plus the mule uprising. You, where do you want to go next? You want to go? I, I mean, we could go a lot of different directions, but, uh, I like it when that happened.

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on the original MLM by using promo code NLU. You can save on the MLM plus premium membership bundle unlocking total savings of 99, 99 don't miss out on the opportunity to elevate your game with Rapsoto and to play without limits. Do you hear the people saying, TC, do you hear limits. Do you hear the people saying TC? Do you hear them? Do you hear the song, the attorney men? What, what, what's not as a mule mate? Does it, does it, doesn't, uh, doesn't make a force?

It is the music of the people who will want their points again. A, a petition went out. It's a dear PGA tour membership. A group of us are requesting a special meeting to address issues related, but not limited to the following. FedExCut points allocated to signature events versus full field events. For example, currently a fifth place finish

in a no-cut 78 player field is awarded 272% more points than a fifth place finish in a traditional event with a cut. We are requesting a significant reduction before the first designated event. Bad language in there, because they call it signature and designated event. We need some consistency here, guys.

If I'm gonna say that. If you're gonna have me sign this. Number two, number of limited field signature events. Number three, PIP program. Number four, PGA tour leadership, PGA tour policy board and player directors. And number five, if you want to be a part of this meeting, please sign this petition. Yeah. I don't know.

I don't know if the mules really want to know their meltwater scores. Come on, guys, what are you doing? So bad, man. And then, you know, you got Chris Stroud mouthing off at every turn. Your boy saw my boy. I hate to do this to him. He was my partner at the AT&T Pel Beach Pro in this past year. Couldn't have been more of a delight, but I am going to respectfully disagree with you, my friend on a lot of the quotes that you have put out here this past week.

I'm just going to go through him. He said, I've been frustrated with what the tour has done for years. Since I was on the pack, the tour doesn't care about you if you're not in the top 30. And I learned quickly that I needed to take care of myself. The tour has built this bad culture. I love Jay Monhan, but the tour has never tried to give back to the players. We've never had a voice. So Jay has a free hand to do whatever he wants.

He said, I believe Moni handed a lot of people at the tour genuinely care about us, but the system has never been set up to help the players. Uh, the tour has taken all this extra money and not spread it out properly. I've talked to so many players about this and the answer is always we need to be unionized. Uh, positive at any point when you guys would have, but he said he said it was too, it was too difficult. They've made it tougher to make cuts now. They did cut it up. Guys making cuts from 70 to 65, which like part of the issue, like part of the reason we're in this whole thing to begin with is the fact that it's, it's so hard for some of these guys

to lose their cards. Correct. It's such a lack of turnover. And there's such a lack, like, Chris Stroud, you played in 402 PGA Tour events. You've made 208 cuts. You finished in the top 10, 34 times. 209, if you count us making the team cut at the Pelwitch Pursuit. Yeah, yeah. He's made almost $14 million on course.

Which should be celebrated. What a fantastic career. But can we keep it in perspective? But also like I shuttered, I know how much money is in his pension as well, 208 made cuts. Like like the guy finished 168th in the FedEx cup this year, 180th in the FedEx cup fall. He's 627th in the world golf ranking. And he still has a fucking place to play. Like he's gonna be able to play 14 to 16 times next year, I bet.

And somehow the tour doesn't care about him. Like Chris, I would argue that the tour cares way too much about you. And that's why the shit is so out of balance. But you're too much of a moron to understand that. These people are so fucking entitled. It's insane. Nobody's ever rocked up to a tournament to watch Chris Stroud or Ben Silverman or Lonto Griffin. Get out of here,

man. It just, it remind, I have to think of college football and you being in the locker room and you kind of hear some guys that aren't hitting, they're not getting, they're not getting a look from the coach. My coach is fucking me, man. You know, and the guy in the lock index, I know, man, I see you ballin' out there. And then he turned the film on and it's like the guy, he, you know, is just getting beat and one-on-ones in practice. Like, you're not going to see the field, dude. You're not playing well.

It's the same thing here. It's like, Chris Stroud, nobody even knows what you look like. If you walk through the airport, nobody would recognize you. And I don't mean that offensively, but that shit, like, you've made $13 million. And like, but you're not moving the needle. Why are you complaining about the PIP? Like what? It's just, it's, it's ridiculous. You're not, you are not the value of the, the media rights period. Like so this guy's won one tournament. And it was an opposite field event, which the entire point of opposite field events is to have is to get you a start again. I got a challenge flag though, because we got rained out of the final round of the team portion

of the Pelvis Pro Am and Aaron Rodgers is saying backing it. So we could have won. It has an asterisk on it. He could have won twice if we'd have gotten through and gotten to play that final round. But he continued. I've learned this over 16 years on tour every single year. I see more unhappy players. The players on liver happy. I talked to Mark Leishman today and he said the team aspect is fun, but the coolest part is

these people care about us. And then so he's going to be playing in the live promotions event this upcoming in a couple of weeks here. And he's, you know, the question was if he earned status, what would happen? He said, I go straight to live without question. I give him my tour status for one year. I would be worth it because the tour has done everything wrong. If they say I can't be on the PGA tour, that's fine. I love the PGA tour and what it stands for, but I'm so unimpressed without everything

has transpired in the last three years. I love the PGA tour and what it stands for. But then like, what do you love about it then? I just, I don't get it. I think we can find community on the last quote, you know. I think we are a little bit further. From where he's sitting though, like, you can be really underpressed to how it's going,

but you have to understand that part of the reason that the tour has met so many headwinds and everything they've tried to do for decades and decades, decades not just within the Saudi part has been the fact that it's a 501 C6 membership organization that has 200 members where the bottom 170 have more power than the top 30, right? And like this is a, it would not ever be this way

if you started it right now. And he says it almost himself by accident, by saying he's been on the tour for over 16 years. All he's known is being a part of this majority of rank and file members that have held this power to have this representation. Like he should not be, again, like there's, you're gonna hear a lot more of this because these guys continue to be incredibly tone deaf

and everything that they say publicly to just a complete lack of recognition of where the value is driven. You wanna unionize, like good fucking luck unionizing, like without the support of Roy McElroy and the top guys that have been like trying to negotiate at very decent deal to keep you guys getting paid like throughout the Sony open and the American Express and the farmers and all these non signature events. They're going to still have massive purses that you are going to be able to make starts

on the PJ tour and play like the fall events this past year like do to plan like a winners person of $1.4 million like I'm telling the money is still there. The life is still good. They cannot stand the fact though that it might be getting better for the elite players. The players that are just better at golf. Like, I feel like this, the PIP has projected this other aspect onto the top players, which is that they're undeserving of the status that they've earned in golf because of one side thing that of some money,

that's really, it's not that much money when you win in the grand scheme of things. They just thrown at these guys. The designated events are not a popularity contest. They are earned through merit on the golf course. I need, if you are gonna be a mule that's gonna make statements like this, you have to make the case to anyone

why lesser golfers should be deserving more, right? You have to make the case to anyone why lesser golfers should be deserving more, right? You have to make the case in a value driven business, why you deserve more. Things are changing. Things that might be changing in the percentage that you guys are getting might go down, explain why it shouldn't, you have to make that point to me.

If you're gonna earn anybody's respect through these statements. Preach, Sally. You know what I like? Yeah, that was well said, Sally. I'm not going to really push back on that. I kind of struggled to like, because I listen, I hate the leadership at the PGA tour. I think there's what they've been completely innapped.

I think it was really interesting. Jay's deal book summit this week thing. Like he was saying like, you know, this leadership, like he was making a case for this leadership team, this leadership team, this leadership team. Well, you know what? Like I was looking at the NASCAR media deal that just got signed this this week that puts the PGA tours in perspective of like the PGA tours is in as much as the NASCAR one, especially, you know, knowing that the discovery element of

it, you know, kind of evaporated. But I think the thing that I struggle with is there is a certain element of me that does agree with these guys in that I don't think the tour knows what the fuck they're doing as far as modeling the signature stuff out as far as churn rates and how this is really going to look next year. But these guys, like they're talking about it the wrong way. They need to understand that it's basically two different points list. It's two different tours, right?

And there's some connectivity you can play your way from one tour to the other But for the most part like these guys playing the signature events are playing a different tour than you and they kind of have Already but for Lanto and these guys to bitch about how you know How the the FedEx cup points work and dot it out all. Like it's, it's basically two different points lists. Guys, and if you play well, you can play your way into these things. Bottom line. And I need you to also recognize how dumb it was for this thing to have been flattened

over 47 events. Like, yeah, you have the players as worth 100 more, the majors are worth 100 more, whatever it is. But I'm sorry. Like the, I don't want to, I don't want to pull a bad example here, but I assume like in the past year, and just using the past years in example, like the fall is going away now,

but like the RSM is worth as many points as the Genesis, right? And the fields are vastly different, right? So again, while there's gonna be more points in the signature events in these, you know, go into the top five guys, like the players are gonna be better, the field is gonna be better, it's gonna, I'm not gonna vouch for the distribution, like I'm gonna run the models or done the top five guys, like the players are going to better, the field is going to be better. It's going to, I don't, I'm not going to vouch for the distribution. Like I'm

done to run the models or done the math on that. But like, that's not pretend like these things should be even close to the same. Like you've been, again, you've been getting away with murder on this for many, many, many years and things are going to change. And it's time. It's past time for this to change. I'm sorry. Yeah. And it's like, there is some, some like empathy for like, yeah, man, it was kind of sweet that the butter field got the same amount of points as the, uh, you know, waste management or the genesis, but like, that doesn't make any sense. So it's like, I'm sorry, that's good.

That's going to have to change because, uh, it's just not work, man. And like, if you got to have enough of a feedback loop to realize, like, I'm not the guy out here that's like moving the needle. Like, like, if you really want to sit down, Mr. Stroud and look at the probably the viewing numbers on, you know, a signature event, like when the big guys show up and when they don't, it's like, that's just the way it works, man, period.

You got to play, you got to be more like, you know, country music sensation, Eric Cole, play your way in and less like Chris Stroud, like, go, go, go practice, man. Like, Eric Cole, play your way in, and less like Chris Stroud. Like go, go, go practice, man. Like it's right there. You could still go out and make a bunch of cuts. Like it's still merit, merit-based. It's just, yeah, you're going to have a little steeper hill to climb.

And that sucks for you, but I'm sorry. These guys getting rooms together and they just hype each other up. And it's a total echo chamber and they don't like understand anything past what's directly in front of them. And like Nate Lashley bitching about the pip on Instagram and say, what was the best? Can we can we talk about that? We can absolutely talk about that. You see, do you have the quotes in front? I don't have them in front of me. Yeah, let me hold on. I will say before we get to that, I a great question came in from Florida Georgia line sucks, is the

Twitter handle is Chris is Chris is Chris Strauby left out of the signature of it's the equivalent of Florida state being left out of the playoffs. I would say yes, that's that's the exact equivalent we're looking for. God TC was getting some noles fired up today. Talking about the noles. Yeah, I think Nate lashley, you know, first of all, the PIP stuff came out. I don't think we've talked about the results. We have all have we?

No, that we did not do a recap last weekend. Yeah. So from a PIP perspective, you know, we've got Rory, Unseats Tiger at the top. Rom finishes third, Speed, Sheffler, Ricky, hoveland, JT. My guy, Tommy getting into the top 10, beating the pro out. Tommy 9th, max 10th. Any surprises in there for you guys

before I go to 11 through 20. Just a, just Tommy. Same disclaimer we put on this every year and even the metrics have changed a little bit. The PIP has been poorly communicated to people and also people don't read, so I don't, you know, it's not a social media contest. It's not. It is a measurement of the value you've brought and like if you can't tell from you know, some of the names on the back half of this like if you're on TV a lot and you're playing really well and you're playing well in big tournaments and winning big tournaments While a lot of people are watching you're gonna rise up the Nielsen ratings and you're playing well in big tournaments and winning big tournaments. While a lot of people are watching, you're going to rise up the Nielsen ratings and you're

going to that value you've provided to the tour is now rewarded to you monetarily. I don't want to hear any complaining about social media metrics when Brian Harmon got $2 million, $2 million player impact bonus. Like, he got that for winning the bridge open last year. That's really good. And also getting our friends across Pond all riled up about hunting. Correct. I think that definitely helped us. Definitely. It's a, it's a pip in fact as well.

I think pip wise to, they have done a, you know, like you said, I did a very poor job of communicating. It gets cut in half again next year. It doubled. And then I was getting cut in back. Right. And then, you know, sweet dad's company is the MVP index. They were involved in it before. Now that's gone. Like all things taped together. And they basically did it.

They reverse engineered it to take care of certain guys in years past. It was a model. Also, they did not build in the proper like, like, like to get this money, you need to be a part of this tour into the future. They did not properly build that it because, dude's the first, the first batch of 10 guys who got put money five of them left for live after getting them. Yeah. So the guys at, you know, seven through 10, each got five million

dollars a piece and then you got 11 through 15, get three million dollars a piece that's Xander, J. Day, which is kind of shocking. Tony Fina, your guy, Colin Worcawa, who will get to later, Matt Fitzpatrick, who will also get to later. And then 16, Windham Clark, 17, Cam Young, 18 team Rose. Love seeing that. Patrick Cantley, 19, which, hey, I think Hat Kate probably helped him out, right? And then Brian Harmon and 20, each of them got, you got, you got two million dollars. But Nate Lashley said, how many golf fans actually know what the PIP on the PGA tour is? Would love to hear from golf slash PGA fans if they think this $100 million was well spent. There's 150 to 200 members of the PGA tour. Again, wait,

wait too many. And they just spent $100 million on 20 players. Seems a little ridiculous. Time for new leadership on the PGA tour. This is an absolute kick in the face for the rest of the PGA tour players. He did this in between pumping up his Airbnb rental property up in Flagstaff. I believe was his previous Instagram post. And I was able to get some of the backend metrics as far as the hip, how they calculated everything. You know, from a meltwater perspective, Rory won that, you know, the meltwater stuff, like, can't lay, he was in the money in the meltwater

and just got crushed in some of the other elements as well. So, you know, you got meltwater, you got Nielsen, you got Google searches this year, Niel, you might have been consulting for him on this stuff. And then you got this fan, like basically, like how recognizable you are among golf fans and then how recognizable you are among the general population. That's just a true, it's the airport and the eye test, right? Which one of these guys can walk through. And I always used to say like, Harman for a long time couldn't walk through

and it could walk through an airport. Nobody recognized them. That's probably not the case anymore. I think it's probably still the case. Literally that that test is literally they have like a focus group of people and they hold up a picture of the guy and say, do you know this person's name? And if they name him, it's a, it's a yes, if they can't name him, it's a no. That's how they do that. I would be curious if that's a picture with their hat on or hat off. Which guys, the craziest part about that is, how have one got second to last? He got 19th among these guys. How have we got seven only beat Brian Hormann? No, in the in the fan recognition

really category. That's crazy to me. Like Sky Shepler only got you know amongst other people like was was among the bottom finishers as well. It's crazy. Not so well, I guess I mean Hobbins on a tunnel. He's not really on any commercials. That's that's where you're going to be I guess, I mean, Hoblin's on a tunnel. He's not really on any commercials. That's where you're going to be making hay on the recognition scale. Is like, are you, are you pimping Grant Thornton or not? It's very true.

So yeah, Mules, just keep giving us the content. It's greatly appreciated. I can't believe we're on round like 18 of this. I had a bunch of Mules respectfully using that term, of course, text to us like, do, hey, I, just so you know, I do not side with Chris Stroud on this. Like, please don't let me in with this guy.

This is not what's going on here. And I do think I'm curious if there will be a true mule scanner is someone going to come through a, you know, a top player going to speak and be like, you guys are idiots. Like, you know, who's going to, they might have to kind of get put in their place. If they're not careful, I, like, they're a lot of dudes and I are gonna get really, really frustrated and they probably already are with like trying to still help them out in whatever new thing they're trying to negotiate. And like a lot of the top guys are maybe ultimately

gonna say like, okay, like we're doing our own global tour. Like we're doing a attack on, we can have a relationship with the PGA tour, we can have a feeder system of some kind, but like, you do not have the power you think you have. We can have a feeder system of some kind, but like, you do not have the power you think you have. And if you're going to kind of threaten us with this power, please know that we have the power to just go do our own thing. And all the private equity guys, all they really want is us

and not you guys, I'm sorry to say that. But that's kind of how, if you want things to have this continuity, it's probably going to have to be our way. Like we have been elected to represent, you got there are people on the board that are elected to represent you guys, and we're gonna do our best to have that represented. Like, listen to Peter Mountonotti's reaction to the changing the signature events,

but otherwise, if they, if they like petition, like this petition is one of the dumbest things I've ever seen, because that's gonna literally get thrown out and it's gonna incentivize the top guys back. We're not doing this. Like, I do not wanna be a part of this tour. Like, maybe that's why to literally get thrown out and it's going to incentivize the top guys back. We're not doing this. Like I do not want to be a part of this tour. Like maybe that's why Rory could be like part of the reason he resigned.

It's like, fuck this. You know what? Like I'm sure there's a multitude of reasons. Like I'd be pissed if I was on a five hour board meeting when I'm in Dubai playing an tournament probably in the middle of the night, you know, on the board meeting. But like, like it just kills me too,

where because not only it's like, it's not just PGA Tour and Live. Now you've also got the endeavor guys, trying to stand up, you know, you got ARIA manual and the gang trying to stand up, you know, events, let's say live in the PGA Tour, keep going at this, like separate tracks. The top guys are gonna go play in these big money events

at like top courses that the endeavor guys are basically going to put up and call the tours bluff and be like cool like the best players like good luck telling them that they can't come play in this because their media rights are yours or whatever. It's like it's going to get even stickier if the PGA tour tries to, you know, finagle this in a way that, I don't know, it's like it's, I think we're, we're on the verge of this thing turning into a complete and utter quack. Well, don't we, remember when we already kind of had that with the match stuff? And two, that was kind of what the TGL was supposed to be, but almost, you know, in the, in the dome, in the metaverse, on the Sims, right? Like, I think there's too many side jobs. God, we got too many things going on. There's too many. Oh, my God. Like,

none of us, we talk about the player enhancements. It's 2024. They sent out a, they sent out a email this week, the Torres Vice President of Food and Beverage, their executive chef. They've got a whole Food and Beverage program outlined here. But for all tournaments, they now have cold plunge recovery. They have a complement, you must provide a complimentary courtesy car program.

Player, families have to have a flushable restroom out of the course now, which I believe was a wrong, not only it was one on the front nine and one on the back nine. Correct. And then a minimum of four relief stations per nine holes for players. So that's for all tournaments. For signature and playoff events.

Uh, we've got all the meals are going to be so mad. They can get less, they get less bathrooms. It's tough. They are guaranteeing. On site and convenient parking options for players, spouses, caddies, coaches, agents and

managers, player families and other player support constituents. Team for player dining includes access for all those other people, including trainers and therapists. They're implementing a nutrition program designed to boost nutrient density for optimal athletic performance.

This program includes 100% non-GMO, grass fed slash finished meats, pastured eggs, poultry and dairy, wild caught seafood and seasonal local organic produce and the whole grains. Manufacturer representatives now receive complimentary food and beverage. You must provide dry cleaning and laundry services

and you must provide complimentary picture yardage books. Thank you. How about it? Thank you. I mean, and that just kind of sums up like, and you know, I know that's for signature events, but pretty much all that can probably be said for any PGA tour event. And straight out on the boys, you guys are complaining. I mean, come on, man.

Like, life's pretty damn good when you're a pro golfer. I don't know. I'm just, I'm not really here for the uh yeah. I think if I was an old guy like one of the veterans I'd be like hey like fuck all you guys. Like the mules like you guys suck the best players you guys also suck because it's like everybody's trying to get theirs right and at some point it's you know you got guys making it in a single season I don't know there's inflation and all that stuff, but even adjusted for inflation, you guys, you got guys making it a single season. What what dudes made in their entire careers?

It builds off of the back of the tour that they built. And they're and most of them are replaceable like that that money and value is still there whether or not you're there or not. And that's the part that Yeah, got them just Very sick of talking about all this but they have they have pro golf since such a good spot. Yeah, it's going to get worse. I have a feeling things can change in an instant, both in golf and in the NBA, but no matter how the action unfolds, you know,

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Hocus you know, it's so much run. They do. You big NC's internment guy. I am. I of it. Yeah. Okay. I think it's sweet. I can't get caught up on it. Distance announcement is coming. This coming week, as we said at the top of the show, we are not going to dive into the many, many details of the distance debate. We have too much fun talking about mules and the destruction of professional golf to get into a, a, a fiery topic like that. But Mike Stature at golf digest reported the USJ and RNA are

expected to announce early next week that they will be changing the rules to roll back distance in golf and not just for elite players. The expected decision likely would make nearly every popular golf ball played both professionally and recreationally nonconforming. The news comes from multiple industry sources with direct knowledge of the plan. Plans of golf governing bodies speaking on background. The change involves a revision to the way golf balls are tested to see if they conform to the rules specifically is expected to be announced that the test for the overall distance standard would increase the swing speed at which golf balls are tested from the current standard

of 120 miles an hour to 125 miles an hour while increasing the swing speed at which golf balls are tested from the current standard of 120 miles an hour to 125 miles an hour while increasing the swing speed the test would not change the distance limit of 317 yards. So set another way, the limit for this test that they run, the ball can only go 317 yards, but the way they test it is now going to be at 125 miles an hour, whereas now it is at 120 miles an hour. So all that's to say, the rollback would be roughly 5% the golf ball cannot have to travel 5% less distance when swung at 125 miles an hour. Other news and notes around this, there's a lot of reaction to it. Rory returns, which I feel like from just from a strategic philosophical perspective for us, we're going to wait until the USGA kind of comes out to really going to do a full episode on it and wait until they come out with their full plan and react to

that because I feel like we're just getting some bits and pieces. Yeah, bits and pieces. I know that one and slumber's especially are probably going to have a lot of quotes to go along with this. They're going to probably do a full media tour I'm guessing on Wednesday. We're hoping to speak with them next week as well. That might be a bonus episode if that doesn't have happening. But we kind of need to hear a lot more about it than just this. I know people are up in arms about it. I kind of wish this wouldn't cut out until they had a chance to get in front of

the narrative. But you know, which I think that was intentional by them. Or do you think? I mean, yeah, if anything, I would say they would want to have the narrative and kind of own that. We're, but that's where I feel like for us, it's like I just don't want people to think we're giving it short shrift. Like we're just trying to be a shripped responsible here. Yeah. Rory took to social media for maybe the first time in four or five years, since he tweeted

drunkenly at Steve Elkington on that flight that one time, Roy said, I don't understand the anger about the golf ball rollback. It will make no difference whatsoever to the average golfer and puts golf back on a path of sustainability. It will also help bring back certain skills

in the program that have been eradicated over the past two decades. The people who are upset about this decision shouldn't be mad at the governing bodies. They should be mad at elite pros and club and ball manufacturers because they didn't want bifurcation. The governing bodies presented us with that option earlier this year. Elite pros and ball manufacturers think bifurcation would negatively affect their bottom lines

when in reality the game is already bifurcated. You think we play the same stuff you do? They put pressure on the governing bodies to roll it back to a lesser degree for everyone. Bifurcation was the logical answer for everyone and yet in this game, money talks. Rory, let it fly. Yeah, I mean, maybe he's entering a DGaff stage off the off the the council back back on social media. I don't know. I mean, I appreciate what he says there. I, it's just probably, probably maybe unnecessary this early on for him to do that. But, you know, pop off, Rory. The big deal. I feel and go off. Feeling a certain way. I would say, I actually saw a really good

thread from Patrick Harrington on this topic and other rules changes in the past. I thought it was very level headed and thoughtful. I don't think he's a fan of it, but it's kind of coming at it from a, giving the governing bodies the benefit of the doubt. I wonder about the timing of this. It's been a really long year in golf. I guess you could argue both like,

hey, you had, you know, you already came out the bifurcation stuff, got shot down. If you, if you don't do something now, you're going to lose the momentum. If you wait, I guess, but I just, it feels a little like head scratchy for me of like, everybody's, maybe it's just me that it's exhausted, but feels like, uh, I don't know. Feels like there's a lot going on in the game. What do you guys think about that? The timing of it? I mean, the easy answer here is, yes, the timing is bad. I get, I don't feel. Feels like there's a lot going on in the game. What do you guys think about that? The timing of it? I mean, the easy answer here is, yes, the timing is bad. I don't feel bad for them on the timing of this. It's to say, you know, doing it too late is better than not doing it at all, right? I mean, there's a reason why we've gotten, like the time

to react was a long time ago, a long, long time ago, like early 2000s was to say, like, hey, we have an issue. They they in theirs was to say, like, hey, we have an issue. They they in their own words have said, like, well, we're monitoring an issue here. They let things go on too long. And a product of letting things go on too long is then it became, well, why now? Well, why now? They kicked the can down the room, kicked the can. Now we're in this spot of like, now they're budding up against something horribly timed

with everything else going on in the golf world. And like seemingly more power being put into the hands of professionals to make their own decisions on whether or not to do stuff like this. And going up against all that, it's going to, people are just have so much distrust in everyone involved in golf right now that it's like a tough time to get a PR message across. All that to say, like I'm extat, I mean, Mike one took this job just a little over two years ago was concerned. I was, I guessann took this job just a little over two years ago, was concerned.

I guess I wasn't concerned. I was a little concerned by the first things he said about it when he got the job. I think he was playing the game politically quite right, and I was really ecstatic for Wann to get this job because I thought someone with his background and his ability to navigate difficult situations would come in and recognize, like, yes, we have an issue and something needs to be done here. So all that's to say, like, the unfortunate timing, butting up against everything, yes,

but like, these things are complicated. They have a ton of studies that go into this. They have comment periods, they have suggestion periods, they have all of this feedback loop to try to get this right. And man, they kind of laid the trap here. They kind of said, like, hey, all right, we, you know, we don't want to roll

it back for everyone, but we'll give you the option. You guys can just adopt it. And the tour, guys, again, with their complete inability to get any good PR said, no, we don't want to do it. And now the ball's going to get rolled back for everyone. And it's just kind of funny to me. I'm not going to lie. I think there's a few things with like slumbers in one,

seemingly haven't even gotten their own talking points in line. Slumbers just talked about the game being deskilled in certain ways, which I tend to agree with. Granted, I don't think the ball's the only way to fix that. I think drivers should be smaller. I think, you know, there's all sorts of things. I think the, and it's not just a distance thing with the ball, I wish the ball spun more.

And then, you know, you kind of, like, I think the devil's gonna be in the details with this. Whereas Juan said, hey, this is about sustainability and all that, but it's just been so funny to see people making the argument against rollback today online of like, yeah, like what are the courses going to do? Like they're going to have to spend money to just like, you like, what the fuck do you think has been gone on for the last 25 years? Or

like all the, all the pros like Ricky, you know, a few other guys that they, that they talked to down in the Bahamas said, you know, oh, like, yeah, I mean, this is 20 years too late. Why don't they do 20 years ago? Well, that doesn't mean that they shouldn't do it now. Like, you know, if it's 20 years too late, then you're admitting that it's a problem and that, you know, something should have been done then that then you're like, you're making the case for us there. I think, uh, yeah, I'm very keen to see, you know, what they use as data points, like what they use for the time frame of, because there's different trends over different times too, right? Like I think some of the top

players have kind of maxed out their distance and some of the the mules have started catching up to the top players. Like you're going to talk about de-skilling. I think that's de-skilling, right? It's when the disparity between the top players and you know, I think a lot of the distance gains over the last five to ten years have been the rank and file guys, you know, closing the gap to the best drivers of the golf ball. I think the rank and file guys are getting replaced by guys who drive it farther, right? That is like that. There's more. Yeah, that's that's true to the representation more on tour. I guess not that Maurice Bagg example, because he actually has increases distance by a lot, but it's not that Justin

Thomas continues to get longer and longer every year. It's more just the more guys that drive it like him. And they're just and that is, you know, de-skilling the game. I think turns people off. Like I agree with that, but it is more of a way of saying the balance of skills being tested might be a little out of balance in that there's too much emphasis on driving it far. And I think there is a case, we promise we weren't going to get in this in details, but there's a case to be made here that like and I agree with you, T.C. I think this is not address a lot of the issues we have with technology. If I was to put a rough percentage on based on what we know now, I'd say it's a dress is maybe like 25%, maybe 20% of the issues. Like I think,

yeah, driver heads is a bigger issue and like, hey, is it worth a dress? Like the only thing this address is right here to my understanding of, basically, the information we have right now is to say, like, all right, a really well-struck, perfectly-struck drive, the distance that is now gonna fly is less, right? And I'm a big proponent of distance as relative, like it doesn't change a whole lot more of them to say, like, all right, no longer,

when you crush a drive, is it gonna fly 317 on a neutral, like, flight, it's gonna fly like 300 yards. Like, that's gonna fly like 300 yards. Like that's the difference now. And that brings back a lot into the game that I would like to see. It makes less wedges, it makes more mid-iron testing. It just re-balances things.

It's, there's still some flaws in, when you're using a 460cc driver and a ball that doesn't spin that much, but at least it's a cap on one thing, and I hope they're not done after this, but again, we can dive into all of them. Totally agree. And I think too, it's like, you know,

the devil's in the details, like I said, it's kind of a how, how are they gonna achieve this stuff? Is it through aerodynamics, is it through spin rates, is it through, you know, kind of changing the compression of the golf ball, all sorts of things? Like people forget there was already a rollback back in the 60s with the, the world, like the world outside of the US played a different golf roll. It was smaller and went a lot farther and was listen to Trevino talk about it on our

pod this past week. Thank you. The, he's like, I can drive a pass of bunkers because we have a small ball. And it's like, imagine the technology. Is it playing a role in, uh, it's in a lot of the gates that we've seen in all this. But so I think having, you know, but like, be, you know, having artistry, I totally agree with you, like the games out of proportion, right? The, the, it's too heavily weighted. It's like basically making it so that baseballs don't spend anymore. It's just power pictures

and there's no more Greg Maddox's. There's no, you know, no more crafty dudes they can make, they can work the ball. Whereas also, I feel like some of the people that are missing the point so much too are like, like, it's not like this is happening in a vacuum, right? This is happening like, it's not like you're just going to go play the same course from 7,500 yards and they're going to beat this shit out of you. Like, stuff, you know, comes back up in spots or like if it if it is that drastic of a difference, which based on what they've said, it's it's not, but we'll see again, the devil's in the details, but like, you know, if everybody's hitting it 10, 15

yard shorter, I would think that they would set the golf courses up according to this well, right? Or if you weren't going to get move up or move up set of tees, if you're not hitting it far enough, like you're you're just changing one input of of how the game has played. And I will last thing I'll say on this is is I don't think a lot of people have done this, but I would say if you are looking to learn more about this, even if you disagree, if you agree or disagree with us, I the homework I would just put in is like I would like for people to go read the USJ distance

insight reports, like at least like that's all work from the same like baseline here. And within that, like some key findings that came out in the 2020, like just bulleted findings in there. It says the inherent strategic challenge presented by many golf courses can be compromised, especially when those courses have not or cannot become long enough to keep up with increases in the hitting distances of the golfers who play from their longest teas. This can lead to a risk of many courses

becoming less challenging or obsolete. Number two, increased hitting distance can begin to undermine the core principle that the challenge of golf is about needing to demonstrate a broad range of skills to be successful. Number three, of course, is continued to lengthen. It is at odds with growing societal concerns about the use of water, chemicals, and other resources. And number four, longer distances and courses, longer teas and longer times to play are

taking golf in the wrong direction and are not necessary for a challenging, enjoyable, and sustainable game. Slambers also has a quote of saying, the impact of long-term hitting distance increases on some of golf's essential elements are now clear, including changing the strategic challenge of the sport, altering the balance of skills needed to be successful in risking courses being less challenging or obsolete. It's, it can be tiresome reading, it can be cumbersome, but it is, I, it's not a simple solution. It's not a simple. I'm also, it, it, it always makes me like, intimidated knowing it's going to be 2028 when there will be a bifurcated solution for two years and then 20 30

If that's a long way away in my god, that's like some guy was in my replies today like what am I gonna do with all these golf balls? Like I'm a guy who's on to figure that out brother. You're probably you stockpiling golf balls. See, yeah. Yeah. Last note, I would say like, that's a, what percent of amps do you think like could do something to help them gain 5% more distance by either being fit into a proper golf ball, fit into a proper driver like 90% of amps could probably find 5% of distance through like a proper fitting process. And what was the, or getting the bunker? What was the KJ joy thing? The hammer drill. Hammer drill. You know, get some hammer drill going. Just, you know, kind of get, you know, getting shaped basically. Yeah, I don't know if the hammer drill gets you a shape.

I don't know if that's the point of it, but I just love that that sounds like a monster. He called it monstrous, which I look this up today. T.C., you don't have the definition of monstrous is in humanly or outrageously evil or wrong. It's depraved. Some other good quotes that were that were flying around here are good questions. Car for the course, how will a rolled back ball impact distance, the distance per shot metric using the Si golf rankings? I haven't heard much about that.

Do they, I don't know if they continued that ranking. Past day one, I haven't heard about it. So it's it. I got it. I feel like a size has been taken, taken L since they came out about ranking. Mikey five bucks. Do you think the ball frogs locker room is going to be okay

after the big Rory Keegan disagreement? I think their locker room got got completely obliterated anyway, right? At daddy roach, when have you ever in your life heard a golfer say, man, I wish I couldn't hit it that far. I think that's one of the most like disingenuous arguments that I've read on the internet coming coming from influential media people as well. It's like the most frustrating thing. We'll get into all that stuff on Wednesday. How about let that be a little tease for that? So anything else before we get into allegedly the golf that happened this past week? Can we do some live stuff real quick? Are you going to do that after? What do you want to do for live live stuff? Well, you know, we had smash brought in GMAC. Wolf's still on the roster, you know, we're

thinking there's going to be a blockbuster coming up. Moronks been poking around. Dean Bermister has been cleaning up down in South Africa. Yeah, open South African, open champ. Yeah. The live schedule for 2024 came out. They're going to Houston and June, which, you know, can you imagine how sweaty Ron would be in Houston and June? They're going to Houston and June, which, you know, can you imagine how sweaty Rom would be in Houston and June? They're going to Las Vegas country club. They're going to the Grove and Nashville, where they have a corn fairy tour event. They're going to JCB that like crazy, exclusive course in England. There's no Trump stuff on the schedule.

For now, they've got kind of an open date there in Florida, prior to the masters. And then yeah, I just had like Phil, Phil continues to go after Jay, propping up his guy, big big shot Bob Ball. Uh, in Portland, the, uh, the, uh, I think real estate agent and developer of some sort out there, uh, Jay is meeting with Yasser this week. Um, which is again, back to the rom thing. I'm like, all right, does Jay not pick up the phone to Yasser and be like, yeah, what the fuck is going on, man?

Like are we meeting to negotiate like next week or are you seriously like poaching rom right now or kind of thought we had to semi off the record agreement here. Not like go after players. We get this deal done. Like I, this is the part where I just, it's weirdly not adding up to me. I, if you ask me, I think ROMs going based on all the evidence we've heard, but something still stinks here. And I can't figure it out. Yeah. Well, you know, I guess lives been calling that project X, uh, folks, they're people.

Uh, they've got their promotion series. So I want to apologize to you. Condolences. Your guy Kyle Stanley signed up for it. I think my bad career options at this point. I'm gonna doffner. There's some glass from the past in there, which honestly, some of those guys, I'm like, they're better than some of the guys in live right now. Like the C1 Kims and the, you know, some of the other guys.

There's still seven or eight spots left, you know, Murong's been rumored. What else? And then just live adjacent to, I did see that the tennis grand slams are plotting their own world tour to kind of cut the ATP out, like the top players and the grand slams just getting together and basically being like, you know, hey, there's too many players, there's too many events, like let's slim this thing down a little bit. And then the Asian Champions League, I think in soccer, big news there, they're no longer staging their their events, their quarter finals semi finals and final events in Asia. They're going to Saudi Arabia for those,

which like, that's just, you know, hey guys, like maybe that's how things are gonna work. It's like, they'll say certain things and then three, four, five years down the line, we're having the fucking tour championship at King Abdullah economic city. Thank you for not calling it Jeddah, right? King Abdullah economic city always gets short.

But I just think there's something to be said for like it doesn't matter if it's the Saudis or whomever like it's the same thing if like the Canadians were saying hey we're gonna have a bunch of tournaments in Ontario. No we're not like we're not doing that guys you know any I just had to get all that out of my piece. He's an anti globalist. I just I just wanted to get all that out of my system. I got so fired up this week that Jay was doing the deal book summit. Like, does Jay not have enough going on right now that he needs to go do some fucking PR stunt up in New York and speak half an hour before Elon Musk. It was on and it was a terrible performance. Yeah, I watched that TC. I looked at it and it going. It was a little too rich for my blood to get in that room with the heavy hitters, but He just like from it was about 30 minutes long and every question like as a viewer

I just got more and more uncomfortable with like his He just seemed to be surprised by Being asked like some pretty I mean obvious questions and it's like, man, you're just not, you're not projecting a ton of confidence. Yeah, I know how confidence, and by all accounts, he's been bouncing around the global home and in a great mood, just chatting everybody up,

projecting confidence there. And it's like, dude, like, like if you're not gonna nail this appearance, then don't sign up for it, Like, you signed up for this. You'd be, you know, it was ostensibly about mental health. But there was maybe seven or eight minutes of it. And it's like, hey, you know what? Like, I was totally trapped and I told my wife I needed help.

Like, you know, and like, I think we've been on this podcast. We've been fair to Jay on that front of like, hey, like, we, you know, we hope you're healthy. We hope everything's good on that front But like this is kind of a prison of your own doing because of your your lack of action on certain things and your terrible decisions on other fronts. Yeah, a couple of things other things jumped out one. I mean, Sorken's a pro. I thought he asked him Jonathan Like he he's very good at respectful detonations and and following up when Jay had a few bad answers like yes And did you feel like you were in a box like with this decision making? And Jay's like, no, of course not.

And then proceeds to answer the question of like, yeah, you were definitely in a box. And then ask them basically again, like, so how does that? So how is that not being in a box? It's like, well, you know, I don't know. And it's just that's where it's like, oh my God, man, you're getting kind of like lapped here in this interview. And then a few other things, one, you started kind of hitting this talking points

to strengthen the business. So five billion and media rights, revenue contracted through 2030, five billion and contracted sponsorships. One thing that stuck out to me called out the number one sport streaming on ESPN Plus. I was kind of thought thinking about that. I was like, huh, that's, that's surprised you guys. That's surprised to me. The golf would be the number one sport on ESPN plus, I, I was kind of thought thinking about that. I was like, huh, that, that's, that's, that's surprised you guys. That surprised me. The golf would be

the number one sport on ESPN plus. You probably pick a metric to, to call it that, like most minutes streamed or, you know, most, just because there's the volume. I would get so high. That's, that would be my guess, right? I mean, I, I don't know. I mean, I could see that though. I mean, there's no other option to watch the like the early round PGA tour coverage other than right there, right? So like for a lot of college football games, they're on ESPN plus, but like almost all them are on TV in some way. I don't know. I could see that. I could see that in the PGA tour. I still don't know if it's that many people, but you know, he then proceeded to say the rollout was a failure on my part of the you know the June 6th

stuff. I own that I continue to own that like I think that's the first time I've ever I know that's kind of what I said I don't think you really said that in the past, but okay, and then he said I believe I am the best leader for the PGA tour. Yeah. Okay. I mean, I kind of felt a little half-hearted for me. And then the players will get equity. So I bring this quote up because I'm like, you got all these mules rising up. Why aren't we messaging that behind the scenes? Like, if they're going to get equity because they're not, you know, because they're not mules or not. Okay.

Well, he, the way that he kind of phrased that quote in this interview made it sound like all the players past, present, and we're going to build in. in we're going to keep hold on to equity and give it to future players and he made it sound like, you know, like an Oprah Christmas giveaway like you get equity you get equity. So it there's a couple of tears of equity in the in the plan that as of a couple weeks go. I don't know if it's still the same plan, right? I mean, it's none of this is finalized yet, but it's you know, the top guns are going to get it. You know, there's a next tier of guys that are going to get a certain amount and then like pass players that would get a certain amount, but like, and then you could earn equity grants through solid play like into the future, right? It's not a closed

system like that, but I don't think I'm sorry. I don't think Chris Stroud is getting in this first round of equity. I don't think that level of players getting any equity. Well, and that's kind of was my reaction to it, but that kind of just goes back to like, he's almost saying these things, just kind of firing from the hip and an interview like this. It's like, how are you not more buttoned up on on describing it? Like, the terms might have changed if you lose ROM, right? I know. And he just feels unprepared in these sit down interviews. Like, and I don't I would not be doing anything publicly right now.

Like you are another, another swing in a mist for me. Crosshairs, you're just not, you're not doing it. You're not doing it. It's just so poor. The entire strategy from a communication standpoint for the tour of the last two, three years, not to mention just the exes and those and the actual leadership that's nonexistent. And he's like, he's up there a day after or the same day that Tiger is publicly shitting on him and his in his presser.

Like Tiger is like, yeah, like, you know, basically repudiated Jay's actions on June 6th and everything that led up to it and said, hey, that can't happen again. And didn't exactly give him a vote of confidence. And then Tiger and those guys send out the letter, which I thought it was a definite tone shift this week, too, of talking about, hey, the groups that we've met, it's a longer timeline that they're on. They want to see this thing out for decades, not years.

And then saying to you that they're going to vote with one voice, like, hey, we're not voting, you know, for two on a player basis, we're voting, you know, all six of us will be unified going into a vote or a vote's not going to happen. Which I think to be fair too, like I've been extremely critical of them, but like, based upon everybody I've talked to who's been involved in this, Patrick Cantler has been like one of the few directors who's like, got his shit together, asks probing questions, is curious, like kind of has his shit together and knows like he's doing good things for the tour at large, even the mules. So I don't know, I respect that. That's big of you, TCC. Especially on the back end of him getting dumped by Goldman Sacks. It's tough. That was just tough. Yeah.

I'm lucky. If you would think his hat, it'd be worth a lot more these days. But I thought the, the, uh, hat deal, I thought like that was going to be a much bigger deal, like the whole, because it was what, like a couple million bucks a year or a million dollars a year. One or three years. Yeah. You know, so you're welcome. Like I gave you guys more, more meltwater. And you know what to do with on the hat. So I take us to the Bahamas. I'm like, I gave you guys more, more meltwater. And you know what to do with on the hat. So I take us to the Bahamas. Okay, enough with the depressing stuff.

Let's get to the real, very real golf events this past week. Scotty Shephler gets off the Schneid, wins a big, gets a big W to close out the year over an elite and deep field down there in the Bahamas and a total grindfest among grinding their faces off shoots 20 under par to win by three over Sepstrakka JT finishes third big tone and Matt Fitzpatrick

finished in a tie for fourth not a lot to go to other than to say Scotty had a new putter in play and Olsen brand putter this past week and a lot of you know talked about a lot of stuff with Phil Kenyon. He did finish deadlass in round four and putting, but he did. Yeah. It didn't look great coming down the stretch, but. So it was like the Lucas Glover guys, I hand up. I hate this tournament more than any other tournament. Like worldwide. I thought you love this one. It's, it's, and I think it's just grace that it gets world ranking points. Last place guy gets over a hundred K like the whole set to T.C see I got a whole thing so antithetical to like everything that they're trying to be about. It's the it's a black eye on like the last I thought I've been fixed the last guys like should not get world

ranking points. You beat no place. Talk about this for the last three or four years on this podcast whenever this comes up. And's like that, like that is so, you know, even if the last place guy doesn't get him, like, you know, and I know it's the top players in the world, but you also have guys getting sponsor exemptions into this, like Tiger and all that. And it's like, Hey, at some point, like if you don't eat anybody, you shouldn't get fucking world-ranked. It is very critical with all that's gone on with the live OWGR stuff. I think it's just, it should have been fixed. It's unnecessary. The other thing that bothers me just more generally

is it's like this is Tigers event, Genesis is Tigers event. Same thing with Jack Memorial and Honda. It's like I kind of want the top dudes to have like, if you have two events that are yours, do you really have any? You have one? Yeah, like what a question.

Why can we, you know, I get a little tired of like, no, this is Tigers event. And then like in three months, we're going to have another like, no, this is Tigers invitations. Well, this is like it was Tigers, I kind of hit and get going cash grab. And I think it's totally fine as that. I think it's totally fine for those dudes to go down there and place them December golf.

I kind of always enjoy flipping this one on. Like I don't actually care about the results. It doesn't stand for much. It's not like I, if big tone would win, I wouldn't be touting it as a big win for my guy. It's just like whatever. Like it's the Bahamas, you know, if you don't miss you live in a warm weather state or city,

like you're getting probably in shitty weather and you're watching golf in a tropical island. Like it's totally harmless, but it is, does not need to have world ranking points and the 20th guys. It's such a minuscule amount of points. Like it doesn't really actually matter, but like first much scrutiny is the ODPGR is getting, this is an easy one to be like, are this event does not need these points? And it's just, it's kind of a disingenuous argument against it.

Like, oh, it's totally irrelevant now because the hero gets points. It's like, it is so minuscule the amount, but it just doesn't need to exist in that fashion. Or like, why do they need to do a four round stroke play tournament for this? Like, do something fun. Like, I don't find the course interesting. No offense to Dr. Moon, Joel. Like, he's, he's the one reason you would tune in aspirational cat. He is the needle. But yeah, and I don't know. I mean, like, and a great trophy that the cat with the world, with the world is a pretty sweet. And it's sad, like you're seeing, you know, like Zalatoris, I know he's knocking off Russ,

but like, I don't need to see him shoot 81, 68, 79, 71. Like, it doesn't need, like, it's just the same thing with like some of the WGC's in the past. Like, I don't need like, it's just the same thing with like some of the WG season the past like, I don't need to see a four round no cut event, especially in the off season when some guys are coming in rusty. Like, it just doesn't, it doesn't do anything. Who's this for? A couple of things jumped out to me. Sali, I watched the full final round and it is very, it's a pretty boring course on TV. I feel like I feel like a lot of the holes run together for me.

But it looks like a fantastic event to go to. Not a lot of people there get up a close and personal with top players in the world. So one of those like, hey, on site, this looks like it's probably a blast and probably a nice vacation for the, for the players. Like you said, a hit and giggle. I think TC just doesn't like it because it's all grainy permute around the greens and you would not be able to get, you would not be able to chip one onto the green from any, any green side spot below this green. So I don't think you could do it. It's looking extra great too. Yeah. So it was and, and,

like some pop on the approach shots on the greens, a lot of balls rolling out. And then two, I mean, God, Scott, he is a machine. Just like unbelievable picking up right where he left off on the ball striking. And the partner looked pretty good until, you know, until the final round, but it's just, he doesn't even need to put good. It's just crazy.

How old is he? He was rock solid. He is, you hear Ted Scott on the hot mic. What a shot pro, he's calling his guy pro. It's like that what what a golf shot right there pro. It's true. The guy's just a true pro. Unbelievable ball striker. So it's I know TC. I know you are not a mass fan. I really do enjoy watching him lash the golf ball. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, never any issue with his game. I mean, he's like the premium ball striker in the world right now. You know, I know, but you know, you've, you've been kind of critical of him winning

his bet for the game, I believe is a quote. I think him winning the masters is better for the game. Just, if we could revisit the quote, it's the worst thing that could happen to the game of golf. Thank you, Solid. I knew it was something, something all on the line. I just want to, I want to go on the record is saying I think Cam Young's going to have a big year. And I'm really, really rooting for for Will's out to us and missed him being involved in things. I really, really like him. I think he's he seems like a genuinely good dude. Um,

you know, that surgery he had was that's a pretty serious surgery. So rooting for him to show some signs of life and, and, you know, get the putter, right? Like the Lucas Glover kind of putting style, like he still kind of had that weird, yeah, look in that hat, it was bizarre. So I'm willing to give him, you know, some, one, some runway on the injury return. I mean, should I live in over it? And I think also with like figuring out how to compete with a long putter, it's one thing to practice with one at home

and it's one thing to put in the play and competition. He was dead last and putting this week. A lot of that attributed that first round. I mean, he lost almost six shots on the green in that very first round. He was third, 12th and 14th in the final, again, only 20 guys, but in the final Three rounds with that. So it wasn't like dead last. This is the worst thing in the world after that But love love see him like I set a stroke of flock of flame making you sweat a little bit, Sally You know just a nice second place there at it 64 on We haven't even congratulated my guy L.D

at it 64 on. Speaking of stuff, we haven't even congratulated my guy L.D. For getting the the captain seat running it back running it back as the rider cup captain. I think we saw the back meanwhile meanwhile, you know, ZJ is basically doubling down on saying, you know, like I feel like we did all the right stuff. We just got beat. So they just chipped in and made more pots. That's totally just what happened. So I said, I was losing this was best place. I was floating. Brock has a float in that the cat,

is he is he in line to be captain for Bethpage? I think the guys were saying like, Speed was saying he was kind of pouring cold water on it in his presser this week of like, the cat's got a lot on his plate right now. Basically, we're running a PGA tour and, you know, pressure this week of like the cat's got a lot on his plate right now. Basically running the PGA tour and, you know, like doing Jay's job for him. I have a feeling they're going to do like Stewart sink or something like that. And I don't know.

God, that'd be so good. I mean, I hope people listen to that interview from last week because I think they need someone younger like him to to fire up the team. But they should bring the singer back. That would be kind of sweet. He's got the free time now. How do we feel about Tiger? I feel good. I feel good.

I think it is good. What are we looking for at this point? Like just him getting around on two legs, not being so rich shit. Like that's encouraging, right? It seems like he's saying it's not, you know, no being sore as shit. Like that's encouraging, right? It seems like he's saying it's not, you know, no longer bone on bone as much like all the frictions gone. Swing looked pretty good.

I mean, you know, sweating like crazy out there. I think we're looking for like a just one like quote, could it happen? Run, right? I don't even like think we can realistically quote, could it happen, run, right? I don't even like think we can realistically hope that it could happen, but like one little like, shit, tigers like T5 going into the weekend of the Genesis is like kind of best case scenario that we would hope for, right?

I mean, just one little like glimmer of a hot tiger run just to, it's kind of ceremonies at this point. And I'm okay with that. I'm not gonna trick myself into thinking that it's going to be more than that. He's going to be forever caught in a vicious cycle of like rusty. Yet if you play too much,

your body's not going to recover in time. If you're in as much pain as you still say you are, everything else still hurts. He's saying his back hurts and everything is knee hurts, everything except for the ankle hurts. Like you're just not going to be able to play enough to get enough reps to not feel rusty. So we're just going to see a lot of performances

that look like this, I think. I mean, here and some stuff that he's no longer, that this is the PNC, allegedly his last tournament with Nike. Allegedly. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll see what happens there for similar things

of some other Nike athletes as well. Potential, you know, a parallel brand being started by one of the OEMs, but like Tiger did say, he's like, I'm going to try to play one tournament a month, right? So... Which I was trying to... What does that look like? I was trying to map that out, right? I think it is... I think it stops after July. Like trying to map that out, right? It would be farmers in January, it'd be Genesis in February. Which would he play farmers? Like that's such a big love story. I know, but it's such a big, brony walk. What else is he going to play in January?

I think you should go see I'm going back to like, I think you should go play Sony. You should play a while. I February, he's going to play Riv, which I think or what if you played pebble, took the next week off and then played Genesis? Could see. I mean, the pebble, that's not an easy walk, right? Really. I wouldn't say I mean, up the hill on six and like that weather. Yeah. I would say the easiest walk in the West Coast swing is probably, uh, I mean, waste management. So I would say, rib, right? Well, other than rib, I'm just thinking of it because we know he's he's playing there. But I think, you know, yeah, yeah, be sick. Scottsdale feels pretty flat. Yeah, the players in March. And then it's the majors after that. I don't think you play. I mean, Masters obviously April, PGA in May, US Open and June,

British in July. I don't think he's playing like the 3M or whatever is in August. And then the playoffs started. He's not going to be in the playoffs. I don't think you think he would choose players over Arnold Palmer. Just think it, just thinking out loud. I think because of the rough. Yeah, like the rough. I don't know play it and then all right then masters and then I mean, you know, I guess PGA at Valhalla I mean, the years where the PGA is kind of a crazy You know like a like a cold weather not a great

Walk I guess you could put colonial. And then you play, he definitely plays Pinehurst this year. Yeah. And then yeah, then they open. Mm-hmm. And then he's done, right? I think so. More Kala.

Kala and more Kala got penalized for using a greens, not using a greens reading book for his caddy, used a level during a practice round and wrote information from that level down into the book, which is illegal. He was tattled on by Matt Fitzpatrick as a believer. He, no, not tattled protecting the field. I agree. I'm team fits on this 100%.

A lot of people were shredding fits on social media is like, no, dude, like the onus on here is 100% on Colin and JJ. If you've broken a rule, then like you are responsible for that. Colin was on television being interviewed about that and gave some pretty bizarre answers to that. It was very much the, I mean, it's 100% on us. It's our fault and then proceeded to blame like eight other things of bad communication on the rule

and not understanding the rules. And nobody knows what the rules are and all this. And this was very clearly communicated to them when this new rule came out. And then goes in on Stephen Cox, the rules official, for not... For being five minutes late to meeting with him. Right. Right away. Maybe he was doing another rule. him out and then goes in on Stephen Cox, the rules official for not. I think five minutes later to meeting with him.

Right. Right. Maybe he was doing another rule and maybe he was doing something else. But like, hey, man, like that was chicken shit. I thought, and I'm not going to let him talk to, you know, a fellow rules official. Hitter Blanca is not going to let that slide with a colleague. Oxey's a pro and I don't know. I just, I thought there's some transgressions

stacking up for Colin. I think at this point between the full swing appearance, just some of the, I don't know, man, I'm just like, I think I'm good on Colin. Like you were vote, you were, you were team all of pants, T.C.? It's just the whole, the whole thing. You just, I don't know, like just talking to people, it just sounds. It's just the whole thing. I don't know.

Like just talking to people. It just sounds like he's just a fucking diva. So, well, I'm curious just the nuts and bolts of like fits colonists. So it's like he only did on the fourth hole. So did he see him look at the handwritten note that was written down? Like I don't even understand like the how that how that happens. How did it only happen on the fourth hole? Does that make sense?

Like how do you like, oh, I saw him look at the handwritten note and then look at the Greens book, but he didn't do it on any other hole. That that was a little confusing for me. Yeah, apparently I had more quotes about like this is a gray area and all kinds of stuff in the rules. But he told other guys they could do it and then I got popped for it. Just take it, you know, stand it up and say, hey, I messed up.

We're onto the next one. Yeah, I just, I heard a lot of things like he, it sounds like he's, he's, he's ego and his, the way he goes about things has changed a lot since things like he, it sounds like he's, he's, his ego and his, the way he goes about things has changed a lot since he was a cowl. So now. The last thing I have Phil was liking live bot tweets, accusing Tiger of taking steroids. And then I think he unliked it, I believe I checked. So it didn't know what you counting was log into it.

A PGA tour communications official had a similar thing this past week, right? That's unlucky. It's unlucky. Yeah, it's tough. Keep the burner straight. At the Australian open, walking Neiman, a name we have not mentioned very often in this year, if at all, wins the Australian open over Rikuyu, Hoshina in a playoff. Your reaction, TC, your guy, your guy, Waco. Mike, Mike, that's it.

Joaquin Neiman, that's right. I'm sorry, Neil. I missed it. Which, so first of all, going back to the hero, I think part of the reason I dislike the hero so much too is because it's always scheduled against the Australian Open, which I think is dog shit. That's bad for the game globally.

Like, you know, all these guys are big grow the game guys now. Well, you know what a great example or a great way to grow the game would be to go play in the Australian Open or the Australian PGA every few years. Yeah, Minwool Lee looked great. He continues to cook one last week

and going for the Australian double there. I don't know, I still, you know, it was up in Sydney. It was at the lakes in the Australian, which talked to a bunch of Australians. They said the Australian should actually be called the American, because it's just bad Americans to help off. I think it's time to pull the plug on the co-ed. For this.

Like co-hosting the national open. I think the setups are so rat and like need to be so radically different that it kind of dumbs down the men's setup. That's not saying that like it's just two different games, right? And it was probably less pronounced this year than it was last year when it was a Victoria and Kingston Heath. But like talking to players that played in the last year, they're like, yeah, man, like it was, that was not the same Kingston Heat Victoria that we would play if this was just a men's event. You know, with, you know, like,

because there's a bunch of bunkers that they have to cover that, you know, Australian golf is very like, it's about the firmness of the greens and the greatness of the greens and all that. And they softened the greens and they had to put the pins in spots that are accessible because the ladies are, you know, landing in a lot shorter and, you know,

coming in at a different trajectory, which is just a different game, right? And so I think, I don't know, I wish, and then, you know, it's a national open, like they got a shrink the field for this too. It's just like go back to doing, and it comes back to Gulf Australia. Basically, you know, they, I, I think the women's Australian open

when they had a royal, Adelaide was brilliant. And they lost $600,000 on it. And so this is a way for them to not lose as much money or to make a little bit of money. And then speaking out of the other side of their mouth, they're giving blocky an appearance fee and paying a bunch of money for him to come down. And listen, I know he made the cut and finished top 30. He shouldn't have been there in the first place.

It's like, it's fucking embarrassing. T 27 finished tied leash and your boy, Blandy. I mean, come on, TC. Yeah, that's fine. You know, it's, I don't know. I just like block you go teach some lessons, dog. I think I asked about Neeman, but okay, I thank you. Thank you for that . I'm good on block. Yeah, I don't know. I just I watched a little bit of it, uh, you

know, good to see Waco playing well. I like Waco. Yeah, really, really kind of, I did not expect Waco to fall off in the way that he has. I mean, there was a, it was a bright star. They had really two really good back-to-back years on the PGA tour and left for live. And as far as I can tell, did not even have a top five on live this year, which is pretty tough to do in a 48-man field.

No top 10% finishes for a guy that you, you know, is in the top 10% of elite professional golfers in the world, at least when he left for live. And he's been like the case of like, dude, what a bummer career wise of somebody, you know, playing a lot less golf and not really doing much of any consequence. Miss the cut the PGA last year, Miss cut the open championship. He did finish T 16 at the Masters, but Miss the cut, they put the open championship. He did finish T 16 at the Masters, but, um, Miss the cut, they put the US open. That's a limited field of 32. Yeah. T 32 at the master at the US open. But I hope this means something for it. I mean, I can't at least speaking.

I think there was 10 top 100 players in the field of the Australian open. It's not, uh, it's not a premier, premier win based on the field. I mean, winning a national open is nothing to sneeze at, but I hope this means the return of some good golf for for walking Neiman because that's just another live casualty that and I had noticed until I dove into that this week of all golfers on the planet over the past 12 months, Stroke's game live had zero guys in the top 30. Like they have, I would have thought they have

something one of the top 30 players in the world and they like based on all metrics of all golf included all over the world via data golf and counting all your live golf, counting all the Saudi Asian tour events, counting everything of course they had no guys in the top 30 and that was like a bummer. I feel so they're they're getting strokes gained out on live.

So it's not by category, but your strokes gain can still be calculated based on your total score. Stroke gained is your scores. The data, the data board are bestowing strokes gained. It is just, yeah, it is, it's not votes, right? It is just your golf scores. I don't know why I get so much flag for always counting counting strokes gain. It's like that's literally the metric by which golf is judged on. But Yaku's still on 25 years old. I think there's still plenty of chance for him to make an impact on the golf world.

But yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I think it would have been cool if Minji and Minu both won their national open. That would have been awesome. Both finished a little bit outside of the money, but good win for Ashley B. U.I. I think she's, you know, she's had a great couple of years.

I think her husband's Australian, too, I believe, or she's South African as well. I do not know the answer to that TC. She's 34. She's had a great question. 34 years old. She won the A.I.G. women's open last year. She won the shop right this year and wins, of course, the Australian Open this week. She's a great question. 34 years old. She won the AIDG women's open last year. She won the shop right this year and wins, of course, the, the Australian Open this week. She's at

it. You don't see a lot of career renaissance is on the women's tour in the mid 30s. So incredible, incredible run for her. At pop and fresh, ask how exhausting is all this? That's not that bad, Mr. Poppin. Mr. Fresh. I think it's extra exhausting when you got to worry about, you know, who's going to fill those two spots with the cleaks? I know. Right. You got to be wrong. Right.

I would think I think they're going to try to, well, you know, and then it got me thinking about about my nibblicks back in the day. And then nibblicks became ripper after yosser moved the team. It was like the sonics moving to Oklahoma. The nibblex don't exist anymore. No, the nibblex don't exist. I do not know that. That is first time in the punch GC no longer exists either. Punch GC became that's the range goes. Okay. And then the nibblex became ripper. Got it. And I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah.

You think so. Is there room for another team? Those butchers? Well, I know I think click leaks would probably become. There's two teams that don't have owners. The high fly or sorry, the, the iron heads, not of an owner. Kevin Nas, not an owner. There's no equity.

And then the clearest, you don't have an owner either, with, you know, Kymher is not an owner. So, I think they've reserved those two for just kind of, you know, guys that come. So, you know, high flyers have a spot open right now. You can see, I can see Keegan going there. Ironheads have a spot open right now. And then yeah, we've got this smash. You know, we'll see what happens with smash, you know, if they kind of feel wolf and try to get some cash considerations or future draft pick or something like that. And then Torquette. I can't tell if TC this is a serious if he's serious or not, like, oh, all these team movements. I cannot it's it's the fact that they haven't leaned into this part of the thing that could drives me nuts. So it's so it could be so money and dumb and like lighthearted and just just

lean into it and they're doing nothing with it. Drives me nuts. It's almost like the whole thing is a prop up and not that what's behind it is not actually real. It's almost like that. Thankfully, it's not. Didn't the Aces sign somebody this week, though? Oh, no, the Aces brought back paparazzi. That was a while ago, right? I'm sorry. I think that was a couple of weeks ago. Yeah. Okay.

That was after the winter season after the winter meetings, I think. Yeah. Yeah, which, you know, GMAT going to smash is like, I know he's buddies, you know, I know, he's buddies with Ricky Brooks's caddy and all that. But yeah, it's going to be really interesting to see what happens with a wolf. Allegedly. Yeah. I don't know if you're going to agree with that with. I like, listen, the majestic's like, get your fucking house in order. Well, three captains thing is outrageous. We can't have that.

The same thing you said earlier, like if you have three captains, you don't have any like who's accountable. One chief guys, one chief. Yeah. I think Stenson needs to take control there. Rapping up here, I would encourage people if you have not yet, please check out the Lietra Vino episode that we recorded on Wednesday. That was a personal a personal career highlight for your boy. That was one that chased pretty hard for several years of probably it was number one on the list to just get that guy to sit at a table and tell golf stories. We had him for two hours uninterrupted and I could have done another eight probably and got a lot of requests for a part two.

I'm hoping they'd be up for it at some point, but what a legend, man, what a, what a perfect, perfect antidote to everything else going on in golf of just like having somebody tell stories from when, you know, being a professional golfer was a was a lot more fun, a lot more of a hoot, and the tequila story just absolutely slayed me so much. So please check that out if you haven't done YouTube and on anywhere you can get your podcasts. So, good man. Yeah, and we got some, you know, it is merch season.

So we'll have maybe one or two more promos going out to sign up for the newsletter newsletter dot no laying up dot com. If you want to, if you want to find some deals and just want to say thank you truly to everybody that's purchased merch from us this holiday season. We, we appreciate the support. And I think T.C., I think we put some good, pretty good stuff on the shelves. A few more drops come. I think we might have a big arrival of rowback stuff in the next couple weeks. So be on the lookout.

So the subtle dog logo might be back in stock, hopefully before the shipping deadlines. So stay tuned for that. Yeah. I would say I think we've got what a what's in the bag video drop in this week? We do. Yes. What's in the bag? Trap draws going nuts right now, you know, we're deep into football season. I do have to say, my wife's not happy with me for bringing up a Christmas light situation. She hired somebody to put up Christmas light. I think she's the one to put your family in that position. I thought it was big of you to come forward with that information, TC.

Now, did you guys have to put her on blast in the Instagram promo? Probably not, but I think it was. She was. That might have been especially not happy about that. The issue, but I think that, you know, at the end of the day, she needs to look in the mirror. That was issue, but I think that, you know, at the end of the day, she needs to look in the mirror. That was, that's, that's, you know, the blame falls squarely on my sister-in-law. And then, you know, I just like to say, my guy Kyle got it done tonight.

That was a rousing victory. That would go for those. Shannys. That don't know. That's the 49ers being the Eagles. And how about, God, what an offensive. I don't even know what the word is. Sweepstakes. Sweepstakes with the 49ers being the Eagles. And how about God, what a, what an offensive, I don't even know what the word is. Sweep sticks. Sweep sticks with the Falcons Jets game. What a, what a thrill that was to watch today. God, basically watching Iowa football play

the awful, awful game, watch the whole game. It's thunk. Save some stuff for the trap, drop. We thank everyone for tuning in. Like I said, we will have a lot more stuff covering the distance stuff. Later this week, as that news comes out, we look forward to many, many wonderful and agreeing conversations with many people over the coming weeks, months, years, decades, centuries as well. So anything else for me to part? You know what? I just, our friend Julian Surrey played really well, finished tied for eighth this week at the Australian Open. I was glad to see that.

And Cam Smith, two shots behind him, Cam bouncing back after a really, really depressing performance last week at the Australian PGA. So good stuff there. And hopefully it boasts well for the Rippers heading into 2024. You're here. You're here. Thank you, T.C. and hopefully it boasts well for the Rippers heading into 2024. Here, here. Here, here, here. Heck, T-Seek.

Well, thank you, everyone, for tuning in. We'll be back here later this week. Cheers. Get a right club. Be the right club today. Yes. Beat. That is better than most.

How about him? That is better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most.