No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 786: Farmers Recap

Episode Date: January 28, 2024

KVV remains in the captain's chair for tonight's pod along with Shane Bacon and Kyle Porter as Matthieu Pavon wins at Torrey Pines with a birdie on the 72nd hole to beat Nicolai Hojgaard by a shot. We break down the finish, the international leaderboard, the lack of French golfing success, the concept of non-Sunday finishes on tour plus Tom Whitney's week and which PGA pro we would trust (and not trust) with handling nuclear weapons. We also have some fun with wondering why certain players didn't go to LIV (47:40), the abysmal pace of play this past week, the angst over sponsors exemptions at Pebble next week, the latest edition of The Match, and - with some help from Jordan Perez - we break down Nick Dunlap's decision to turn pro after his win last week (1:04:00). On the back half of the pod we talk through the rumored PIF-PGA Tour deal, our hopes for what a reunified pro golf world could look like, the Anthony Kim rumors, a few musings on buddies trips, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The right club. Be the right club today. Yes. That's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Better than most.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the no-ling up podcast. I am again your designated survivor host Kevin van valkenberg week three of this and I guess the final week. God, it's just flown right by. I can't believe that these people entrusted me with this while they were off around the world doing amazing golf things. But you know what? I've had a little help from my friends along the way. And I got a couple of one here tonight, couple of you're familiar.

People talk sometimes about the OGs of NLU. I gotta say, we've been at the OGs as much as the original Five By God in some ways. We've been supporting this podcast long before it could support peoples for a living. Mr. Shane Bacon, I have to my left. How are you tonight, Shane? I'm doing good. I'm solo parenting tonight.

Wife is out with some friends. So both kids are asleep and I'm hoping that it stays that way. I lock their doors. That's good parenting, right? You lock them in their rooms. Yep. I left them water. They'll be fine. Yeah. This is a kid friendly podcast. If you know, they run into the room screaming about the mules taken over the PGA tour. That's totally fine. I remember, you know, the Harbaugh brothers always said that kids could come to work. They wanted to know what hard work was like.

So I like to feel we are of that same philosophy. Listen, this is just like the hard boss. I mean, that, that's what I, when I think about the hard boss, I think about Kyle Porter. Speaking of many, many children, Kyle Porter, the first time I believe that you and I have ever done the knowing up podcast just without Solly. So, you know, the heck with him, it's great to see you tonight. How are you, Kyle? Yeah, I think we were the, I'm great. I think we were the first three non golf, like non professional guests on this podcast. Is that right? I, yeah, that is correct. I believe that like bacon, I think, like you and bacon were like number eight and nine on the original. We're up to 750 podcasts

now, but you and bacon were inside the top 10. I believe I came in at number 14. I didn't even cover golf. So I don't know how I wormed my way into that. But, uh, yeah, one of my friends texted me the other day and he's like, I don't know why, but I was listening to the first podcast you were ever on for no way enough. He's like, you're going through a drive-through at a fast food restaurant. He's like, this is, this is so unprofessional.

Amazing, by the way, like, calling for the bottom of the line. Now, like I'm looking at Kyle's setup and like legitimately it looks like what I feel like Nancy's office probably looks like. That's how clean and professional it looks and you're like ordering Arby's like episode seven. Hang on, this is excellent. We have to get to the winner. Let's say the night show is brought to you by Titleist, the number one bowl in golf,

and the choice of your newest PGA winner, Matthew Pavon, which makes four consecutive wins by Titleist Pro V1 and Pro V1 X players to start the PGA Tour season. Matthew, who plays the Pro V1, is one of the 109 players that teed it up with the Titleists this week at Torrey Pines, more than six times the nearest competitor. Matthew's game is best suited for flatter mid-flight trajectory as he gets what the Pro V1 is compared to the higher flying Pro

V1 X. He says the Pro V1 generates the perfect amount of spin off the tee and he loves his ability to control trajectory and flight shots and he describes it as powerful into the wind. He's also preferred that softer feel of Provy one around the green. Choosing the right ball is all about flight, spin and feel. So head over to tidalist.com and start the fitting process and find out which titleist golf ball model will help you play your best. You know, a surprisingly interesting week for golf. If you're listening to this, you're probably listening to it on Sunday

morning, so we don't quite have the results yet for a couple of tournaments, but we do have the farmers because the farmers as the last few years has ended on a Saturday, perhaps not to conflict with like the Grammys or, you know, the professional football. It's definitely Grammys. Definitely Grammys. Matthew Pavone. Matthew Pavone. I'm not quite certain how to pronounce it as our winner of the farmers guys. What a surprise I think this was like going into the week I believe Matthew was 125 to 1 the third straight Winner who is at least 125 to 1 on the PGA tour

Pavane is the first Frenchman to ever win on the PGA tour although I feel like that comes with a bit of a cheat because Martin trainer was born in France And so there's much discussion on the Twitter's tonight about what makes someone French. Uh, perhaps, you know, you can leave us a message and say, what does make some one argument? I'm not interested in jumping into that Twitter. Uh, but Pavon, uh, really played pretty amazingly down the stretch except for gagging a putt pretty badly on 17, but just to kind of go through a little bit of the play by play,

like, uh, you know, Mrs. the fairway left on 18. And you don't think like, uh, it's, it ends up kind of in the lip of a bunker. Think like, well, he's still got a layup here. Like you can probably get it on. He's, he's got a one shot lead at this point. Mrs. the layup yanks it hard into the left rough and then hits about as good of a shot as you can hit into 18

with his third. Bacon, what's going through your mind at this point? Were you thinking Tiger Woods, by God, when he made, he slopped it around to make birdie on the last hold of the US Open, or were you letting Matthew have his own moment? Yeah, I mean, it was the other side of the golf course where Tiger hit that shot out of the rough in 0-8.

I mean, I saw some people mentioning that, you know, the US open moment, you know, didn't hit the fairway. Obviously, we needed to hit the fairway. And then, you know, he misses it kind of in the right rough, but apparently had a perfect lob wedge number. He was like 1-0-8 or something. I think in 0-8 from that, and he just hit a jumpy lob wedge. I was thinking this dude's not going to make the playoff is what I was thinking. I mean, you know, I was going over the, Kyle, I think about pro golfers minds a lot when I'm watching these things, you know, where this dude goes, missed five footer, yank tee shot, terrible shot out of the bunker.

I don't know what he was trying to do there, but it was like, it was like a lot of loft. Like that's one of those shots. You kind of just like punch the six iron down the right side, you know, almost like you're trying to punch out of trees. And it looked like he was trying to like slam eight iron down there. He misses it 30 yards left or whatever in the rough. And I was like, this dude's going to make six. And then the professional golfer's mind, he hits the shot of the year to this point. You know, I mean, it's just so crazy how you can click back in that quickly.

Well, I take it back even all the way to six, the T shot he hit on 16 on the par three. I mean, it looked like he was just baby in it out there and it was, it was horrible. It ended up in the bunker and he hits a bad, I mean, it was just from 16 on, he looked like things were moving quickly and not because he plays quickly, but because like mentally it was just coming, coming a undone. And so for him to hit that shot, I mean, I, I totally agree with you, Shane. Like that was my big takeaway from the end was mentally, we've all been there before of like, I'm, I'm, I'm done. Like it's over. And he hits, I mean, up and down from 155 to win the tournament

with, you know, this 22 year old rider cupper coming out behind you. Like I, I don't understand how you can be that mentally capable to hit that shot in that moment. It was, it was super impressive. And KVV, the putt was like dead center, dude. You know, it was like no questions about it. Well, and I think it even going back to, uh, what you were talking about, like things started to get a little bit shaky, uh, for him on 14, he's leading by one and he goes full Icarito and just males that green long, which you cannot miss long on 14 and somehow that ball stays up.

Pavon goes down there, finds it. The CBS crew is like completely baffled. They're like the only person who knows how that ball stayed up is that volunteer over there. He's, he's one of these cross-handed European chipping Matthews out there. He's, he's hits this unbelievable cross-handed chip. Two about a foot. So, you know, he taps it in, no big deal. And then as Kyle said, he fans one way right on 16. It's an awful bunker shot and rolls in a 25 footer. And, but then, you know, he misses the shorty.

I get what he's trying to three-point on 17. And you're like, who's, which dude is this? Like I still can't quite comprehend which Pavan we were sort of seeing there at the finish because it was both like unbelievable at times and just like totally muley, just completely outclassed by everyone around him. So could it stay him for just having the mental fortitude to for hanging in there down the stretch? Yeah, I've got a, I got a great stat here. KVV, they, they mentioned this on the broadcast. So I went and looked it up for the week. He was, he had 26 putts longer than 20 feet and

he made seven of them, which is, which is an insane number. Nikolai Hoygard had 21 putts from over 20 feet and he made zero of them. Yeah. Don't do Tony and, uh, and, and don't do the Tony stats and the Xander stats. I think, I think Tony and Nikolai were over 41 combined or something. It was it was atrocious. Have either of you guys played Tori before? Yeah, I played it once. Is it what is the putting like on her shape?

Because I feel like always I see guys hitting pots where it just like that Paul has no chance at the hole. Like that is two feet left. It looks it's crazy. You're so spot on KTV. It feels like you just have no idea which way it's breaking ever. And you see these good players like Xander on 18. I mean, that had no chance. I mean, it never was going to go right. It almost is like the greens totally fooled these players. I don't remember personally that being the experience

there, but it definitely feels like it feels like it's a part of the Tory Pines, you know, kind of bloodline through these golf tournaments is outside of Tiger. Nobody can ever really read these putts at the last moment, you know, until you get down the stretch and then we saw some dead center. I mean, you think about Rom dead center last couple of greens. You think about Tiger. I mean, it was just, I can't believe he got that up and down. Like I can't, I don't think people understand how tough that was to do

from that lie to that green, to that angle, to that pen, obviously helped by the soft greens, but that is like what going to be one of the moments in my mind, I think from this year. I was watching it like a little bit of a delay just because I feel like it helps me fast forward through the commercials or you got, you know, kids running around, whatever. And he's like getting ready to hit and on our internal Slack, uh, Ben hoteling texts like, Oh my God, unbelievable.

And I thought, Oh my God, he hit it in the pond. Like there's no way that I thought in that scenario that he hit it to five, six feet, but you know, that was, that shows you like pressure, like Oliver's man, like they can ball. I will say I want to really like give some flowers to Nicholas Hoygard because you know, flies in from Dubai, basically on Monday after a pretty good finish there, just basically hasn't seen the course at all shows up and just balls out.

Like I eat it. It looked like, you know, the beginning of the day, Steven Yeager leads by a stroke. You're not really thinking that Hoygard is going to like make a charge and like literally have a putt that probably should have got him into a playoff considering how things played out. But man, that guy can absolutely, he can roast the ball. It is not even like full backswing kind of roses. It's not Fina ask, but it doesn't even like get the full like wrist hinge at the top. It's just like, Hey, I'm going to get this up here

and just turn and burn on the ball. Yeah. And he kind of has these held off iron shots that are really cool looking at times. Uh, you know, Dottie Pepper said on the broadcast at one point on the back nine KVP that she was like, I mean, he's got to, he's got to get this, these misses figured out. And, and it's like, okay. Yeah. But also like he's, he's, he's such the modern player of like gaining with distance and not really worrying that much about, about where it's going. And I mean, the thing that stands out to me, that is it's like the, it's like the Sung Jae in thing where he's been on, he's like 25 and

you're like, hasn't he been on tours since like 2004 or something? That's how Hoyard's been a pro for like five years and he's 22 years old. And he's just now getting into this sort of PGA tour centric schedule. But I mean, you win DP world in November in Dubai. That's a big deal. I mean, I think the, the, the ceiling is, is, is very, very high. Bacon, I put it out on Twitter. Ludwig or Nikolai people were like, Oh, have you ever seen, have you ever even seen Ludwig swing? It's like, no, I'm actually experiencing him for the first time ever at Corey Pines.

Yeah, that's, that's, that's how this is going. You haven't, I figured that was just a clear tron trolling that you were figured he'd be somewhere over the Atlantic and be, you know, be of see that tweet and, and buy the wifi just to be agreed to. Wait, wait some out of his, out of his, out of his first class stupor. He's like, I knew a tweet came through.

The Ludwig, the Ludwig, this is probably not the right place to say this, but the Ludwig thing has gone too far. Okay. People are acting like he's a top three, but he's great. He's really good. The ceiling is very high, but I just think it, it comes at the expense of not talking about somebody like Nikolai Hoygard. Gotcha.

And then, just, just one thing on the Nikolai thing, you know, to that point, and KV, I think you set it off the top. It's, you know, his whole traveling across the world, basically, and still playing great golf. There was a great point. Andy Johnson made, you know, him and poor, do the, they, they do the picks every week, you know, on their podcast. And he, I think it was the Mexico open last year. And Andy was like, you got to take John Rom this week. Like a one and done, you got to take John Rom. And in my head, I'm sitting there going, no, no, no, you saved John Rom for the US Open or, you know, for the Masters and one of those big events that he's, you know, get a contending

and potentially winning. There's only 20 guys that can win those. And I think Andy's point was he is so much better than everybody else in the field. You take wrong when it's a water downfield. I think he won that week. And I kind of feel the same way about Hoy guard to your point Porter is, you know, Ludwig's amazing, but this was obviously not the Tory Pines field of old. And this guy might be just the best golfer in this field, you know, All right, guys, we had a Frenchman win. We had a German who led at the start of

the day. We have some Swedes involved. We have, you know, uh, I think Kevin, uh, he's, you on lead on the first yet led in the first round. Is this the international tour that Rory was calling for? We just, you know, is this what it's going to look like? It was this, the, just guys from all around the world dominating on U S soil and American fans just going to have to like it. If this, we get this unification going. Well, when I think of the great global golf, uh, you know, that can be played,

I definitely think of Tory North as, as the place for that to be played. It's the one, uh, ambassador to the world. I, I mean, do how, how far into the global discussion do we want to go? We're not laying out our schedules here. Are we? Uh, no, but I'm just saying like, you know, this is part of what we're talking about. Like if, if more players are involved in these kinds of fields, I guess you're going to have these, you know, maybe not signature tournaments where there's not

really a, a name brand face up at the top of the leaderboard. Is this kind of what's the future of the PGA Tour could look like or whatever the PGA Tour enterprises looks like going forward? Yeah, I think it could be. I mean, listen, like golf is inherently such a global game. And I think that sometimes you get into this space where people, and so much of our experience is on Twitter. So it's a leap to say that that's real life,

but people accuse you of having such an American-centric viewpoint. And I think that's a fair critique. Like, I think sometimes we get so siloed into like the American way of thinking of like, Oh, it's, let's the three M and then the Honda and then the API and all these different things. And it's like, man, golf is so global. And I wish, I wish there was a way to let it, to let it be that.

And I think the, the, you know, a lot of these guys that were at the top of the board KVV, they got cards from the DP world tour. I know. And I, well, I mean, and I that were at the top of the board KVV, they got cards from the DP world tour. I know. And I, well, I mean, and I do wish there was more of that. Pavan's a great example. Like he, he finishes 15th, I think in the tour to Dubai, the race to Dubai. That's why he ends up getting his tour card. He actually bumps Rasmus, how I guard out of getting his sort of, you know, dual

privileges on here. So like it's a good example of, you know, the idea there's been a lot of talk about why are we giving all these cards to the DP World guys? Like they're not good enough. And then Pavan comes over and wins, you know, at a course that's really hard to win at. So I don't know that like that that it's a pretty good defense of that system. I think in this moment, Pavan coming out winning. Yeah. You know, I've always interested in this, like Pavan winning this, right? And, you know, it's first Frenchman to win on the PGA tour. I want to know what does that do in France?

I don't know if there's a way that you could figure out the, you know, the media hits or the interest or the clicks from France alone. But is this a big story over there? Is this a middle-ean sports story? Is this no story at all? Because I feel like when international winners happen, we as Americans always assume it's a big deal, right? I mean, this is the first time this is happening. This has got to be earth shattering. I feel like van de Velde was earth

shattering. It was the open championship, you know, in France, I think there's argument to be made that in the late 90s, that's the biggest golf tournament in the world, right? Maybe now it's the masters, but at the time it was probably open. But is this, does this matter over there in terms of, of sports fans carrying or is this just something they're going to see on the newspaper or the website tomorrow and, you know, it'd be kind of buried down the middle of the page. I don't know. The, the meltwater mentions are off the charts.

Is that right? There's numbers are crazy right now. They're out. You know, Alex Kirschner asked the question, asked for a call out for questions and he Benchants are off the charts. Is that right? numbers are crazy right now. You know, Alex Kirschner asked the question I asked for a call out for questions and he asked, it seems like France should have more good players. To the point where Pavon would not have been the first French guy to win the tour in a billion years. Uh, it's in the same footprint of European countries with many elite players. Why did it not work out this way?

I, to be honest, having him into France a couple of times, I would just say it's cultural, like culturally it's a more of an elitist thing. And you're just not going to see a lot of, you know, people in the lower classes, like taking up golf just because there's not a ton of like access to public courses. And so you're, you know, if you're good and you're athletic, you're almost certainly playing soccer in France. And if you're not playing soccer, like, I'm not sure what the next thing would be, but I don't think it would be golf. And that's, it shows you how like important it is for access around the world where it's, it's not even just like, all right, does your country have wealth? It's like, does your middle class have wealth? Do you have like courses that you can, you know, are within traveling distance within metro areas and stuff? I don't know a ton about that, but that's just my kind of understanding

as it's seen as a little bit more elitist in France. It would be really interesting to compare that KVV to Spain and Italy, right? Because I think of those countries as being somewhat economic, similar in Spain. Spain's history is extraordinary. And Italy has had major champions know, major champions and, and, you know, guys that have had a ton of success at a really high level. And I just wonder what the differences are between those three countries, for example, in the way that they even develop from a, from a youth standpoint. I don't, I don't know that. I've never looked into it, but I think it would be interesting.

Yeah. I think someone has to be with like having a star, right? Like who, yeah, Seville lights the way for, you know, for a bunch of guys. And then, you know, I mean, I couldn't tell you like who the greatest Italian golfer is, but like, maybe it's Conestino Rocha who's like, you know, almost winning the open championship and then that inspires them on our brothers. And I think certainly longer, like inspired Kimer and inspired some of the next generation of German golfers. I think you just answered all your questions yourself.

Like you just absolutely nail that. You're like, you're like, literally nailed all the reasons why I think this all makes sense. So if Vanderbilt wins the open, you know, I mean, I know it's crazy to think like it's one shot. It's a playoff, whatever the case may be. But if he wins that and you know, he's the champion golfer of the year and not the guy on the Netflix loser show.

It's like, you know, your experience in life in the future of what, you know, the young people watching that it might've changed it. So it's so crazy that literally it could come down to a single swing, you know? Shane, what do you think happens if Victor Duboison wins the match putt? Yeah, I mean, you know, those kids would be about what 12 right now, like just, you know,

battling it out, young AJG, a players, uh, it is funny though, right? I mean, we're talking about Pavone and like the shots he hit at the end and how crazy it was back and forth in terms of emotion. And wasn't that Duboison at the match play? It was like 40 yards out of play. Yeah. Best shot you've ever seen in your life. Yeah. Yeah. Guys, there were a lot of talk of Pavon's tattoo throughout the thing. What was it KBB? What's it today? The saliva that flows now will become the tears of joy tomorrow.

Um, this has to be a mistranslation, right? Like he went in there and like, yeah. And it's got to be like the sweat of today. But why? I mean, I guess if you have that tattoo and you ultimately have success, become a professional golfer and you do well, you don't like get it removed, right? You don't get like sweat tattooed over the word salami. You just kind of own it, right? But it did strike me as a like, you know, as American kids who get like Chinese symbols, like tattooed on their, their shoulder, their neck, that are like total mistranslations and completely screwed up. And no one has the heart to like

tell them that it's wrong. Like there's no way that it's the quote that he heard was that the saliva flows now will be the joys of tears of tomorrow. It sounds like a Kenyan Martin sub tweet. Kenyan, I think Kenyan Martin, we were getting some, some Kenyan Martin love on social the last couple of days. I've been really into it. Yeah. Yeah.

And he went on one of those basketball podcasts. It's been great. Give me all the Kenny and Martin stuff you can give me. Did he go on like the, the Kate, the Garnett, Kevin Garnett and Paul? I think it was this, I think it, I think it was either Garnett one or I'll find you the link and send it to you. But he was talking, he was talking about old basketball days and it made me laugh. He went since he was, was like rocking.

They were like, he got injured and they dropped like two seeds in the tournament. Right. Uh, big Randy won't like this, but since he was like the, the, they were like the, the, like the Miami of basketball, like the you, not Miami. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Well, we'll, we'll have to check in with big guy for the Cincinnati talk. I'm sure he'll be, he's real sad to have missed out on this bear cats jam. Uh, guys, Saturday finishes, should more tournaments look into something like this? I'll see the Florida to Shayna. Yeah. I mean, I just did something for the Friday on this. I would say absolutely. I mean, I think you could start on Saturday and on Tuesday for a big portion of the year. And I think you still get the weekend fix

because obviously people are obsessed with the idea of Saturday and Sunday golf. You still can watch that. And in theory, you could watch more players because everybody's gonna be in the field then. So you're not gonna have guys miss the cut on Saturday and Sunday, right? I mean, depending on if cuts still exist

in the next couple of years. And then the tournament ends on Tuesday, and you kind of own Monday and Tuesday. Before Monday Night Football in theory, and then all of Tuesday is kind of golf's day. My point was there's seven days in the week, and that's it. Why not own one of the days if you can? I feel like Maxion has done a great job of this, right?

During college football season, Maxion has become this social media phenomenon. And the reason being is it's the only thing on TV, right? And so it became a thing and people got into it. So that was, that was my idea on the piece, at least KVV. I think my, my pushback KVV would, or to both of y'all would be it's harder to own, at least if you're playing in America and you're in the, the American time zones, it's harder to own something when it has to end by, you know, six, I mean, think about, I think about the way that I view golf when I'm not working and it's like, oh, it's Saturday and Sunday, I'm kind of in and out of the house.

I'm playing with the kids. I'm going for a bike ride and it's always kind of in the background and that changes a lot when it's on at 4pm on a Tuesday, right? Because you're, you're, you're coming home from work, you're going to pick up dinner, you're taking the kids to soccer practice or whatever it is. I don't know that I think that routine gets a little bit, it just, I think it cuts into a lot of your just built in viewership that you have naturally.

Well, Porter, what was your tweet about the ratings though? I mean, the thing last year about all the major ratings into one didn't touch. Like didn't come close to the chiefs game, right? Yeah. So the final round of all four majors, the average, the average viewership, if you, if you add them all up, it was like 30 million. Okay. And she's, this was the average viewership was 15.

Yeah. So I mean, I guess just that my point is like, I get, I get everything about what you're saying Porter in terms of the scheduling and like the way it works right now and how it would change things up. My point is simply, I don't know how many people you're stealing from the 50 million that are watching that football game, but it's probably going to be some of them, you know? And so, I mean, if you're pulling from this pool and maybe losing from a certain pool, but the way we watch and consume media these days has changed so much. I mean, I watch more sports, my iPad than I ever do on my TV anymore. It's so weird to say, but it's just, I mean, I have little kids too,

but I'm watching a lot more on a tablet, even on the road. I don't know about you guys. I never turned the TV on at my hotel anymore. I just consume everything on my iPad. Certainly with like YouTube TV, that's been a huge thing. Like, you know, have it wherever you go and stuff. And I, I agree with that. I mean, it did make me wonder if like maybe the, the live business model going forward, especially as if there's going to be some, uh, sort of, you know, joint agreement where they're all working together is to start their first round on Sunday and then have them Monday, Tuesday, where everyone like,

get everyone really excited about the golf and then hopefully that excitement carries over to where like the junkies are like, all right, well, I just saw this great PGA tour finish on Sunday. Like I still want, oh wait, no, I can turn on tomorrow on Monday and see the second round of the live, you know, team slash thing. You know, it's maybe, I don't know, maybe that would prevent guys from bouncing back and forth, but that would seem like easier to own. Days when the PGA tour is not playing, uh, especially if you're all in theory, working together to sort of, you know, grow the pot.

Uh, we can talk about that in a sec. Uh, I want to talk a little bit more about just kind of a few other notable things here, max homo friend of the pod, friend of Shane's pod, friend of us all really friend of the world, uh, finishes 13th in a, in his defense of this thing. Uh, you guys want to get to watch any of Max seem like, you know, he's in it briefly on Sunday. And then a couple of bogies kind of made him drift back down the board.

Yeah. I mean, the thing for me with Max Shane, just over the last couple of years, he's raised his four, right? I think the ceiling was raised, uh, three, four, five years ago. The floor is crazy. No, I mean, he's got, I think it's 10 top 15s in a row, uh, three, four, five years ago. The floor is crazy. No, I mean, he's got, I think it's 10, top 15s in a row, nine or 10, top 15s in a row. And so, and so it's to the point where you're like, I know what I'm getting here.

I mean, he, he, it was a backdoor top 15. He kind of sneaked inside the cut, played well on, on Friday, Saturday, but I just think the floor with him is so high. And that's the, that's the fine. Like that's the last level when you talk to guys out there is how can I, how can I raise my like consistency of my four to be top 15, top 20 every week. And that to me is what he's done over the last two or three years. Yeah. He wasn't going to get to 13 today, but I was, I was interested. I'd say that early in the round.

I mean, he makes that long par put on five. I think he made like a 20, 25 footer to save par on five. And then he Eagles six. And at that point, I think he was at eight or nine, you know? And so, I mean, you know, like, like to Porter's point, I mean, that didn't have his best stuff, didn't put great, you know, throughout the week. And at least, you know, has a outside shot at contending on a Sunday, thanks to a couple of good swings, you know, early in the round, it's just,

you know, when we were doing the podcast, like if he finished top 20, I was jumping up and down, you know, because obviously that minute was going to be something positive we could talk about, you know, throughout the week. And to your point, Porter, it's every single week he's finished in the top 15, top 20. I had the brief moment of panic where I was like, boy, if Max wins today, like I need to make sure I get him on the pot because like we can't break this tradition. I hope he's willing to do this. It's going to be like random number of call. Your phone call.

Yeah. Oh God, I don't need this. He needs to know that he can't not come on if he wins, whether, whether DJ and Solier or not. So anyway, we could have, we could have figured it out. I think good.

All right. Ludwig was kind of in it for a little bit made a couple, make a really nice up and down on 18 after hitting it in the pond shot. I don't know if he was ever really in it, but, uh, you know, certainly made it fun. I think, uh, to watch how you tweeted, who will have the better career, uh, Ludwig or, or Nikolai. What, uh, prompted that and are you, are we ready, prepared for the hate that was in your mentions from all the Aberg stands? How do you pronounce his name?

By the way, like, I know it seems like Nance had practiced this as a bear. Ludwig, a bear. Is that how as an announcer, Shane, can you give me any insight into whether that should be trying to say, say, ah, I'll bear. I'll bear. Okay. Well, I'll get her back back to you. I go back to the, the European writer cup, uh, social account tweeted out a video of

everybody saying their name, the way it's said in their home country. You're like, I don't like Nikolai Hoygard was like Nero Hoyzer. And I don't, I don't know, man. Like, I think I'm going to stickero Hoijer and I don't, I don't know, man. Like I think I'm going to stick with Nikolai. I don't have that in me. Maybe Nick. I might just be safe with it.

Nick, I don't, I'm in on Ludwig. I don't, I don't want to misconstrue my, the way that I view him. I think he's, I think he's a tremendous talent. I just, I just think it has, and it got so crazy in the fall. He wins RSM and, and obviously played well at the Ryder Cup for them, for the most part. I think he had some pretty good, pretty good partners at the Ryder Cup that, that carried it a little bit. Um, but going into the years, like, Oh, well, there's, he's like one

of the five best players in the world. And you're like, I mean, he was, he was at Texas tech 12 months ago. You know, like it, it's, it's different to, to, like we just mentioned with Max. I think it takes time to, to build that. Okay. This is what it takes to consistently perform at a top five, top ten level. And I just, I think it's going to take him a little more time. The swing is amazing.

The performance is amazing. His, his fluidity is amazing. I just, I don't want it to. Putting is not great. Is that fair to say? Like I, you know, it's not a, it's not a great putter. He can, and you can be a good player with being a good putter. I sometimes feel like with these complete players, it's almost like we're

searching for a hole because holes always exist in golf. Like, you know, in basketball, maybe basketball is the best example of where you have to play kind of across every position. But, you know, it's like, they got to do. And you can't do everything perfect unless you're Tiger, right? And so, you know, you're kind of always trying to pick things apart. I think the putting is fine at times. I don't think he's going to be Brad Faxon. But I mean, I think it's good enough to where, I mean, I think this dude's like top seven or eight guy in the world,

Porter. Like I just think he's, I mean, I know what you're saying. We like to, you know, get hyped about these types of players, but I mean, Tita Green. Also, I was thinking about this on, on Friday. This dude's going to win Tori like two or three times. He is like made for this golf course. When's the next U S open at Tori? Cause Ludwig's got to be licking his lips. Well, there's probably like five of them between now and 2050. I mean, they've, they've announced, no, aren't they not going back there? Maybe they're not going back to tour. That's the thing. That's what I was wondering about. Cause it's, it's so Pioneer

Snet heavy, right? So it's like, maybe Ludwig missed his chance. So are you, are you, when I asked the Ludwig against Nikolai, Nick question, you're straight like Ludwig, I would go Ludwig, but I think it's going to be closer than people probably think. I mean, I think I think the Hoy guard is unbelievable, too. I mean, I think these are the two best young European golfers that exist. I mean, and I'm not calling Rahman and Roy obviously young anymore to this point. Right. Where does Hovland fit in? I think Hovland is probably passed young at this point.

Is he 26? I think he's 26. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's hard to not put them in there. I guess you're right. I mean, 26 and between those, those two groups, though, is even he's turned pro in 2019, right?

Yeah. It's just great. Like you said, it's crazy. These guys have been playing pro golf for like five years. In 18 months, Kyle, will you be convincing yourself that like a team of like Lucas Grover and Ryan Bream or something is going to beat into the Hoygard twins in the first round of the best page? Like, wow, you know, what will you do to talk yourself into your, you're

talking up all these euros and, uh, and yet, you know, nobody, nobody, except you maybe solid cares as much about the U S is a domination on home soil. This is, this is the play. You get it out of the way. We're still, we're still like 20 months away. So you get it out way early and then you let it, you kind of let it taper off over time. Okay.

All right. We'll see when you're talking yourself into Scott Stallings and the Ryder Cup team, whatever, making that 12 spot, like, you know, we got, we got done lab cut. We had Gordon Sartre. We haven't even talked about Gordon Sartre. We got guys, I mean, we are guys coming. By the way, I got a chuckle out of Jason Sobel had a tweet. He said, a 20, 27 Ryder Cup will be the cootie brothers playing the Hoy guard brothers. And I was like, that's, that's not, that's not out of the equation of possibilities. My whole point with Ludwig is let's not overlook Nikolai.

Even Rasmus played very well on European tour this week. I just think I think those guys are really good. And so much of the young Euro attention just goes straight to Ludwig, and which is great. Like that's he's he's a great player. I think the pedigree with Nikolai, he wins. Like he's won a significant amount for a 22 year old, even if, even if it is the European tour, I just,

I think winning at that age is so meaningful and so impactful for the rest of your career. I understand why like the European, these European guys want to come play on the PGA tour. Like it's the, right now it's where the best golf in the world is being played. Certainly where the most money is, but there is a part of me that loved back in the day when you just, there would be these guys who'd win over on Europe. And the only way to really read about it would be like in the agate print and

the newspaper, or you'd hear like, Oh man, like those, that guy's won like four order of merits. Like who is calling Montgomery? Like he did Kim's over here, like just for the majors and he kind of stinks it up. Like, how's he so dominant over there? I kind of almost wish that the Hoy guards were just going over there to just kick ass and win like, you know, 11 times in Europe. And then sort of like, all right, now we're going to bring our games over here and test it in the US. Like a lot of those generation of the Nick prices and the longers and stuff like that. So you're anti global tours. What you're telling me clearly. I'm just, you stay

there. We'll stay here. We'll shrink the game. Shrink the game. I don't want to see anybody. It's this way. We're going to do it here. Guys, in terms of human interest stories, uh, I didn't really get much better than Tom Whitney, who finished, I think, what was it, 15th. He served in the Air Force for, I think at least about a decade almost. I went back to the corn ferry tour after he got to the Air Force and earned his PGA tour card. Used to be a nuclear missile operator. He was talking to Amanda on the broadcast.

If you didn't see the broadcast, he talked how when he was you know in the Air Force his brother Committed suicide and that in a lot of ways to kind of help him deal with that like it was golf as a big part of it But that he marks his ball with his brother's dog tags Obviously his brother was in the military as well And that he was like I'm gonna do that for the rest of my life. A couple of thoughts there. First of all, that would scare the crap out of me marking my ball with something so important that I would feel such an emotional connection to, because I cannot stop losing ball markers. Like I have these amazing ball markers and like, they'll just end up in the

washing machine or in the cushions of my couch or I would, I would be terrified after every single round. Uh, also, one of you guys put this in our sheet here. Who would you, what PGA to a player would you want to handle nuclear missile operations going forward? And who would you not want? And who would you not want? Is a great, it's maybe the better question. I put that in there. Okay. I would not want, he's not American, but I would not want to real hadn't anywhere near anything nuclear.

And also, I don't know if you have to add any numbers, but isn't toasty terrible at adding up a scorecard. So I don't think I want toasty in that, in that room either. That's a great fire off the launch coordinates like in aggregate. Yeah. I'm not, no, thank you there. I'm out. That's how you end up at a situation at the Sony

open several years ago when they, oh, that's right. The text went off. Yeah. And there was a quote from Charles Howell in a, in an article where he was like, we legitimately thought like, this is it. Porter, what was it? Was it a missile text? Was that what it was? Yeah. Yeah. It was like a public service announcement thing that comes on your phone that essentially says like, you know, they're, uh, it's been a missile detective. I always thought like Nihilus JT was that gave a great quote. I was like, well, I just kind of put on my headphones and lists of music and was like, nothing

I can do. So might as well just like, you know, like that's, that's pretty insightful that JT's character in a lot of ways. It's kind of dark. I wonder what you put on. What do you put on? KVV. I'd love to ask you this question. What do you put on the headphones?

I mean, I, I hope you put on something like soothing, right? It's something that wouldn't let me be your favorite song. You'd be like, all right, I want to hear something great as I'm going out some, some positive, you know, if this is a real positive conversation, some cold train or something. I mean, yeah, something that would make me think'd be like, all right, I want to hear something great as I'm going out some, some, you know, this is a real positive conversation. So cold train or something. I mean, yeah, something that would make me really, you feel like grace, maybe closer to God, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'd probably put on a podcast. Make sure I get my farmers recap on these blisters.

Listen to me going through the drive-through as you, there you go. Oh, episode seven. No. What have I done in my life? Yeah, I would probably not have Rory doing the missiles. Just a little too emotional. You wouldn't want to see poor Steve Elkinton's house get nuked or something or Phil's house.

I'm going to say this. I'm going to put all. Can I check all of the above? I don't want them dealing with this. I'm going to put all, can I check all of the above on, I don't want them dealing with this. I don't think golfers are even the most logical golfers. I don't think they're the most logical people. I could see Matthew Fitzpatrick being a sort of a good like missile control guy, like very like make sure, check all the numbers, make sure that, you know, things are double check with all the heads of state. We're really going forward with this, you know, it's the

situation. He's very diplomatic and methodical. He would be great. Very much sure. Adam Scott might, might do well there too. I could see that too. Yeah. Yeah. Ever seen Adam Scott get mad on a golf course? I was just trying to think about that. No, truly mad. I hear him say Adam, Adam, you know, I'd probably say more swear words in one round that Adam Scott has said in his whole life on the golf course. Just pretty depressing. I bet he's, he's the kind of guy that he sounds awesome when he does say it.

Oh, yeah. He does curse. Yeah. Even that sounds great. Maybe when the boys get back from Australia, they'll be able to do some Australian accents for us. I think I've told the story before, but I was doing a, I was at a shoot one time with Adam Scott and there was a,

I had like a table full of hats and there was like the tall rope hat, like when they were first coming up and he goes, I can't, he kind of was just talking to nobody and he goes, well, I can't wear that one. And I'm standing there and I said, what do you mean you can't wear that one? He goes, I, that doesn't look good on me. And you know, me and I'm standing there. I'm like, I'm like, listen, man, you're Adam Scott. I think everything looks good on you. And he goes, all right. And he picked it up and put it on and it did not look good on him. And I was like, you know what? It's fair

point. And he took it off and he had a big smile on his face, but the big structure had didn't look great on, on a yes. We also, we also cannot have speed anywhere near the, the nuclear. Oh God. It'd be awesome or terrible. Yeah. And less, in less growers carrying the nuclear football. I can see you're only making a late save, you know, Jordan would kind of like fumble his keys and, you know, Michael would grab them out of midair and, uh, yeah, we work out a little, a few more down the leaderboard thoughts here, just not on my guy, TC, Tony Fina, boy, the putting was really bad today. I don't put her here. You can look up strict

scale. Maybe if you get a sec, but I, I couldn't even quantify it in my brain as to like how ugly some of it looked to me. Just like, I, there was, I had no confidence whatsoever. But he was standing over a putz that he was going to make any of them today. Yeah. 79 guys made the cut. He was 72nd in putting. Well, the eye test worked for me as well. In addition to the, uh, the stats, I don't know.

I mean, like, I think we know if he now, like he's, he's going to win, then it's just going to be like a hot putting week. And if it's not, then he's going to be fine. He'll be around, you know, the top 25. But it's not going to a lot of times when he wins, but just doesn't have his like best stuff. Right. He's just, it's such a liability in that area that he's got to really be hot on the greens in order for that to happen. You know, it was funny, like out of the gate, Emelman was just on him about it. You know, he was like, that's not even close. And he was like, that's two cups outside.

You know, you could just tell. I mean, I'm sure as a great golfer, even watching that is frustrating because it's so good Tee to Green. You know, I mean, he's hitting these cut eight irons in a wind, you know, holding it up against the wind up eight, 12 feet. And then it's just like, you got no chance.

And then you're watching no one, he's not going to make it. It feels like he doesn't feel like he's going to make it. But yeah, to your point, KVV, it's like, cool, still finished whatever 12, it's fine. He's got that Hedeki toe up in the air. Yeah. Way up in the air. I don't understand that. Why not get the putter bent if that's how you feel comfortable with so that it's still sliding against the ground. I mean, I don't know. It just, it looks so awkward to me. I'm sure there's some putting guru who would be like, no, it's the strike point is the same or whatever in the middle of the putter, but like, God, I, it just seems so bizarre.

Well, it's, it's, I mean, speaking of awkward putting things, Matthew Pavon, center, uh, sort of shifted. I can't do that. I'm sorry. Straight center dude. That thing is like 50, 50, sort of shafted. Yeah. I can't do that. I'm sorry. Straight center, dude. That thing is like 50, 50, you know, it would, it would make me like when you look face on, it looks like you're,

if like the ball is high enough that it looks like you're hitting it with the shaft. Yeah. It looks horrible. It feels like the center shafted putters were like a thing in like the 80s and they just completely got wiped off the map for a while. And now it does feel like they're sort of coming back, especially like these long, like lab putters, whatever they're all center shafted. They're supposedly like give you a better MOI or whatever and easier to sort of take straight back and straight through. I don't know. Like I'm not, I would love to see like all the center shafted putter guys, like what

their stroke is gained. And maybe it's hard to isolate because you're only doing that if you're already kind of a sloppy putter, but it doesn't look aesthetically pleasing. Uh, guys, why didn't Tony go to live? Like, I'm not asking for investigative journalism here. I'm just asking thoughts like, what was the incentive for him to stay that, you know, I guess I kept thinking every time I see him now, I'm like, yeah, dude, like if, I don't know, if John went to live, like you probably should have gone to live.

Like clearly you had some sort of offer. I don't know. I just don't get it. I would say, you know, I mean, this is just my take on it, but it feels like that's a lot of travel for a guy that really likes being around his family. You know, and he has a family that he talks a lot about. Obviously you watch the Netflix show about it. But I mean, you're traveling internationally.

It is a completely different situation than you're traveling continental US most of your year. And so I just feel like for a guy that has been extremely successful in professional golf and made a lot of money and lives a very normal life and seems like an extremely normal dude having to kind of depart away from family for that long when these kids are, you know, in extremely formidable years probably wasn't that interesting to him, even if it was 80

hundred million dollars, whatever the case may be, right? I think it's also it's also a lot of disruption from the life that you know, right? He's been living the same life for year over year over year for eight, nine years now. And you go to this event and you stay here, you know, and with that many kids, which I can speak to it, you, the routine of it is, is awesome. Like, that matters, you know, and, and who knows,, like everybody's going to say, well, if you pay so-and-so enough money, they'll do this or they'll do that. And I think that's an atrocious argument, which we probably don't have time to get into. But I just think that

that routine and the rhythm of that probably matters more to somebody like him than, you know, some of these guys who are traveling either by themselves or with, you know, maybe a partner or a caddy or whatever. You know, I did see, you know, that thing where people do on Twitter, it's like the schedule is out and here's the, it's the little graphic of the plane that flies, like whatever. And like those live tournaments, man, like there ain't a lot of like short, no flyovers.

I only, you only got 14 of them, but sometimes it's like, Oh, all the way around the globe. Now we're going all the way back. Oh, we're going to Australia now. Oh wait, we're back to like, it was not exactly like, oh, all the way around the globe. Now we're going all the way back. Oh, we're going to Australia now. Oh, wait, we're back to, like, it was not exactly like the short, like puddle jumpers of, you can see why the PGA tour kind of goes in a sort of rhythm that it does. You're not exactly flying like cross back and forth

multiple time zones. So that doesn't make sense. I think that's a good answer. Cause I had not really considered the travel aspect of it. And, you know, maybe at some point, like, if you have a $50 million, does $90 million really change your life? Like it has to be a number, I guess, that's makes it worth it for some of those guys. Uh, I guess to the, like Xander, you know, why didn't Xander go?

I still can't figure that out. Uh, Xander was sort of creeping up the leaderboard. Maybe this is just like my sort of sicko brain that's working this way. Uh, where some of these guys who floored it with live for a long time and everyone has expected them to go, it just surprises me really to see like, oh my gosh, we're back at Tory and like, this is Xander Sometown and like, oh yeah, like he still plays on the PGA tour. Like why didn't he go?

I guess I just, I'm still wondering it in my mind. Like I'm, I don't want to say I'm happy because at this point I don't really care one way or another, but you know, I just surprised. I've got a question for you guys. Are you more like when you think about it, are you more surprised when you think of, when you see a guy and you're like, oh, he didn't go, or when you remember a guy and you think, oh, he did go? Because I think I'm more surprised by what you said KVV. I'm like, oh, I forgot he didn't leave.

Like he's still here. When Adrian Moranck went to live and we were talking, Beal and I were talking about this last week, it's like, you could have told me that he went to live like six months ago. And I've been like, Oh yeah, of course he did. You know, and then eventually he just, finally he did. I think we were wondering if he was listening to the podcast because they were like, what reason do you have to possibly stay? I don't know. I mean, I guess I'm more surprised sometimes other than if it's

like a super big name by some of the guys who just, you know, oh yeah, you're still here. That's crazy. Like I thought for sure you were going. I feel like the, I feel like this year the ROM stuff has, I've missed knowing ROM exists in this part of the season because it's such a big part of the season. And I feel like of all the people that have left, so many people left kind of at the same time, right? I feel like I've missed rom like to me Tory pines is John Rom and it's kind of weird not seeing him at this golf course. So I'd say in terms of all the, did you go, did you not go this past week was the one I've maybe felt at the most.

Does that make sense? Yeah, I think rom has real gravity as a player and there's not a lot of guys that you can say that about. And so I think I felt that actually at Kappa Lula just because he was defending champion. Yeah, that's a great point. And it was like, man, this is this is and I don't know that I had felt that before, but it felt like this is a lesser event because John Rom's not here. I think that's a fine thing to admit. like this is a lesser event because John Rom's not here. I think that's a fine thing to admit.

Like that's just the reality of the situation. And I think Rom has a gravity that not a lot of other guys possess in professional golf. I do too. And just the fact that he wasn't, he's not an American, it makes me feel like to me, it just, I was thinking about this look like, oh yeah, like Scotty and Jordan. And I don't know, it just, I, I was thinking about this, like, Oh yeah, like Scotty and Jordan and I don't know, it just,

it feels like something's missing. Like I do really feel like a piece of, you know, the PGA tours rib has been taken out and that, you know, of the four tournaments we've played, John has won three of them, you know, in his career. So he's one century, won the MX is one of the farmers, you know, won the US Open here too. It just feels very much like it just doesn't feel complete without him. And so, you know, who knows whether he will, I don't know what some sort of agreement would look like. You know, well, I hope

we'll talk about that in the next segment. But I hope that there's a time that comes again, where at the beginning of the year, we don't have to wait until like Las Vegas for John to be playing golf again against some of the best players in the world. Just a couple of sort of other notes here. I saw on Friday that rounds were five hours and 45 minutes. Oh my God. I don't know.

Like again, nobody's talked about slow play on this podcast more than, you know, than we have. I just don't know if there's any kind of answer, but I just don't quite understand like, why in the world are we playing six hour rounds on in the second round in where it's they're fighting the leaders are fighting darkness coming in Friday night, it just seems, I guess it's third round, it just seems stupid. There has to be a way to kind of move these guys along, whether it's assessing penalties or just making them play fucking faster, I don't know what it is. Well, I mean, Colt knows that they had 60 people looking for a ball in the rough today. I mean, I think that when you have this thick

and dense of rough too, that's going to make it place low because you're not going to have 100 people, 200 people, 1,000 people around every group. And so, I mean, that rough was so gnarly. You'd see some of those balls just absolutely disappear. It's like a mix of no repercussions, obviously, no penalties for slow play. And then when you go to places like Tori,

you know, when the ball didn't go anywhere and it's as hard a test as they'll face for the first six months of the year, you know, and you can't find every golf ball. I mean, you know, some of like, like Max had a shot on, I think it was nine. It was kind of a finger of the bunker and you're like, swing, take a practice rounds. I'm like, it doesn't look like there's even a golf ball there. You know, I mean, this is just a, I just feel like it's kind of the perfect storm of, of all the things that, that play into your point, KVV six hours of golf, you know, just, I saw a note. This is such a stupid thing, but I couldn't resist bringing it up.

There's a note in a pj tour.com story that the pond on 18, obviously very famous pond, but I always just thought of it as like the gray water pond there. Didn't have a name. It's actually called Devlin's billabong, which is named after Australian Bruce Devlin, who was in contention at the 1975 Andy Williams San Diego Open for taking seven hacks to get his ball out of the water on the way to making a 10. I feel like I've been cheated all these years, not knowing that this is Devlin's billabong. I want like Trevor talking about Devlin's bill and Nance talking about Devlin's billabong every time they come through the replay. Let's see the video again.

Let's bring it back. Maybe the winner jumps in and takes some seven swings out. What exactly is the definition of a billabong? I always thought billabong is an Australian term of some kind. Right? Like I always thought it was just the clothing company. Yeah. I, it's a great question. I do not know. Uh, but I would love to know like why Bruce Devlin decided to take seven swings, after like his ball was in the water, like it was really just still sitting there. And like after six, it was like, all right, well, I'm invested now. Like, I really, and then, you know, he got up and down in three from there. Like, I, you know, I, pretty, I guess, you know, stick to it. It only made double par.

Uh, anyway, I just, that was struck me as like, uh, completely insane thing. Um, order a bill of pong is a pond or pool of water that's left behind when a river alters course or after floodwaters recede. There you go. I didn't know that. There you go. Okay. Speaking of Australia, Shane. Okay. Medvedev. Yeah. Australia. I knew you guys would sneak 10. It's like in five hours from now. I'm getting myself ready for it. So, so A and G C Berger on Twitter tweeted the Jimmy Butler meme of KVV just, just empty in the, the content you saw everything I got. Yeah.

And I, and I, in my head, I was like, I mean, if KVV wants to break, we can, Shane and I can just go 90 minutes on the Australian up and pre-final for, I mean, I mean, Alcarez, Alcarez in that match was like Pavone. I mean, it was just like beauty and brilliance and then trash tennis mixed in at the end of that, that final set. I thought he was going to go on and win that one, but I don't give him that much of a chance here, buddy. I just don't think it's going to happen for him. I appreciate everyone assuming that I was just working my ass off and I was working very hard to sort of steer this company. I will say the boys did a lot of work on the front

end in order for us to have like podcasts ready to go It wasn't just me like crank it on you know, the the peloton like trying to keep the lights on It was there's very much The two weeks and leading up to tour sauce were like the busiest two weeks in the history of NLU in terms of like putting in the grind So while I appreciate the people being like oh What kems will they kill it when everyone else is just fucking around. Like, no, they're doing a lot of work down in Australia too. Like that's not like it's just a vacation.

So, but thank you for all those who have noticed. The next week for the published thing, you know, as we've come, who is going to get these sponsors exemptions? A little bit of, I guess, controversy. I don't know. I would say grousing is probably a better word. That three of the sponsors exemptions went to Peter Mulnaughty, I guess, controversy. I don't know. I would say grousing is probably a better word. That three of the sponsors exemptions went to Peter Malnadi, Adam Scott, and Mav McNeely, who, uh, surprised, happened to be members of the PGA Tour Advisory Board. Uh, guys, do we care one way another about, I mean, I think I would probably want Adam Scott in my tournament one way or another

if I were a tournament, uh, chairman. But, uh, you know, I guess I could see the case with malnadi and math McNeely. I mean, math's kind of hometown kid. So I think that makes sense. But do we gear at all? Like who these sponsors, exemptions go to? Did web get one as well? Am I in? I believe that's correct as well. So it'd be four out of the five sponsors, assumptions said went to the advisory guys, right? Cause web's on the board, isn't he not? Web, Adam Scott and, and Mulnadi are on the, yeah, they're on the like decision-making board. I think McNeely is just the put the, like the lower, I don't know what they're called, like the put the, the pack.

The commissioner in training. Oh, the pack. Yeah. And then others here on the, the actual, like, we're making the decisions board, but regardless, they're all involved in it. I think I don't love it. But my bigger issue is that there's exemptions to begin with at all. Yeah.

I think that's the bigger point is like, well, what are we doing here? Like, is this, if you want to have a tiger specific, he can play whatever he wants. Anyone who's won 80 times on tour is allowed to have a play in whatever turn of the all means. But if, if are we doing a meritocracy or not, that's kind of where I land on. All of this. And I think it, it leads to situations that you get yourself in like this. They are not great.

But it's not necessarily the decision that was made here. It was the decision that was made last year to allow exemptions at all. Yeah. I will say it's a lot of work. So I guess if you're like trying to in some ways protect the future of your tour, and there's a lot of people who are in calls

and taking meetings and trying to convince the other players to vote. Yes. On these sorts of things, like, you know, they're being, having time taken away from their practice schedule. So I could see the argument, I guess of like, all right, we, you know, this will reward them in some sense, but I can also see like, if you're a player right on the cusp of it and you're really trying to scrape your way

into some of these events, like that would feel kind of shitty to see. You know, I don't, I don't know. Peter's, uh, ranked pretty, I can't imagine Peter's like one of the ones on the cuffs. Peace. Certainly you got to go down the list pretty far to get to Peter Monati. All due respect to Peter, you're excellent at golf better than I will ever be at, at probably anything, but, you know, you're still not quite the first guy I think would come up, uh, being picked.

Just minor is this wouldn't be an LLU podcast. If we didn't mention Rory, uh, Rory,ory, Rory now said that he told that, you know, I guess in the conference call or maybe SIS I reported that he's playing the Cognizant cup, which is the Honda, a performally known as the Honda in an effort to play more ahead of the masters. I'm not sure he said that, but we're sort of drawing the dots here. Good idea, bad idea for Rory to sort of get in as much as possible. Kyle, you're our resident, uh, Rory expert. Please, uh, give the floor to you.

Yeah. I think I'm on record with it. I think I might've told him this, but I, I think the only move for the masters is, uh, to fly up the Thursday morning of so good and roll in 15 minutes beforehand. Just go out and shoot 66. Like the full rider cup experience. I had the cop cars drive yet there. Yeah.

Hey, cop cars down Magnolia way. Kind of unshaven Rory, you know, maybe, you know, it doesn't have to be hung over, but like just looks like he kind of jumped out of bed. Like you to have had some wine the night before. Like even if it's just a glass. Yes. Hit like four drives. Play the first hole with your shoes untied.

Yeah. Shoot 65. Yeah. That's that's my only. That's my only take. Okay. I think that's a great take. I think it's a brilliant take.

I'm not, you know, one of these years where I why Why not just, just lean into try our methods, you know, can't hurt. You know what, you know what Rory can do? Shoot 67 at Augusta National and that's what he can do. So yeah, like, it's like, go play all the practice rounds you want. You know what it's about. Can you, can you imagine tracking the flight on Thursday morning? So good. It's like a storm in like Southern Georgia and they got to fly around it. Oh, just burning down Washington Avenue, screaming into the parking lot, flashing your credential as you run to the first tee.

How far right is that tee shot going? Is that like in the old media center or maybe just stripes it right down the middle. Maybe it's hitting. It couldn't be further right than the, the one he hit in the final round in 20. Patrick Reed. Yeah. How did that stay in play? That's a great question. That thing was so far right. It was on Washington road. It was, but you know what? He made a par from that. I believe I didn't bug you. Go watch the replay of that. You haven't seen it on YouTube because it is, it is captain block city. Just I've also seen him drive at three 70 on that hole and be in as Kyle

refers to the divot free zone. Oh, well, like 50 yards past that bunker on the right, uh, and have wedge in there. So, uh, it's capable of many things on that course. Uh, Rory and Max are also playing, uh, this week on Monday with Lexi Thompson, a Rose Zang, I believe, uh, Rory and Lexi are teaming up andory and Max are also playing this week on Monday with Lexi Thompson and Rose Zhang. I believe Rory and Lexi are teaming up and Max and Rose are teaming up in the latest edition of the match. Guys, we'll be tuning into the match. I will watch it for sure. I think, I mean, again, going back to the point about the PGA tour and not battling other sports, it's on at a time when there's nothing else on.

So I think it's a smart play. And obviously, you know, the thing we always forget about with TV is chemistry and personality. Let's put stars on TV, but are they good at TV? Max Homa is good at TV. Very, very good at TV. And he's going to be the star of this. And obviously, I think Rory's one of those guys that is really good at TV. And he's going to be the star of this. And obviously,

I think Rory's one of those guys that is really good at playing off brilliance. And so I think it's a good play all around. I think it'll be fun. You know, it's not super charismatic on TV. Those Lexi and Rose look there. They would see if Lexi get their front of what's my golf. I think that the boys may have to carry it into the charisma department. Rose saying is sneaky, very funny, but it's not like, I think that easy to be funny on the golf course, especially in a competitive environment. Uh, I dunno, we'll see if, uh, I, I would say I would probably lean towards

max and Rose in that situation. They're going to be a little bit more relaxed, but you know, Lexi's hitting basically, you know, chips from the fringe cause Roy's hit at three 80, then you know, they might have an advantage in that situation. Let's see hitting chips from the fringe might not be a good. I was just about to say that from the fringe, you know, Roy's driving greens. I think the thing that they need in, in something like that, I go back to the, uh, I can't remember who was playing.

It might have been the, the brate, one of the Brady ones, but JT was a walking announcer and it was, it was awesome. I wish that they had more of like contemporary, almost friend, like friends of the players on the microphone, like next to them almost, because I feel like that adds a dynamic that, I think it's really, I think it's a skill to be able, and I'm bad at it when I'm playing golf,

to be able to talk and play at the same time with any sort of focus at all. And if you have somebody that's almost like translating for you, I think that's funny. I think that's awesome. We're just someone who's talking shit to you the whole time. Like if you have people who are like, you know, given, given each other a little crap, uh, that would have been, I think that's the key element that's missing here is

like on course reporting, you know, where someone's just constantly like messing with you. And KVD, I mean, when I was, I did the on course supporting to the first match with Tiger and Phil, and I remember they were, they were pushing me to get those guys to go at each other in terms of bets and things like that. Right? It was like, let's get them going, you know, which is a relatively awkward place to be between these two people that you literally grew up watching and idolized. And you're like, Hey, do you want to challenge Tiger to a long drive here? But, you know, that

was a little bit of part of it is like, stir the pot. Let's get people going. And imagine if that would have been, you know, I mean, at the time, like a Pat Perez or somebody who knew both the guys and it played some golf with them, you know, that could like the new things that I wouldn't known to JT, to Porter's point about JT, it's like, it would make a lot of sense to get somebody out there that's doing that, right? I actually think, I think smiley would be good at that. He's good at just his regular job. But I think he could, he could go the other way and be a little bit,

a little bit funnier as well. Shane, I, I wish that you would have kind of gone out those guys and been like, Phil, I thought you were funny. Are you going to say anything funny today? Yeah. Yeah. Let's have a, let's have a leather jacket, long drive contest on this one, Tiger. What do you think? Who can hit it? They're, they're, I remember that, uh, Phil walked by me with this crazy look on his face when Tiger missed a putt on about 14 and he just walked by him with these wide eyes and he went, I willed that out of the hole. Like as he walked by me, go to the next tee and I was like, that, you know, I was

not prepared for that, but, um, yeah, different personalities in that match. I was like, yeah, I was not prepared for that. But yeah, different personalities in that match. I'll say that. Indeed. And the good thing is that they've always continued to have that great leadership. They just still love each other so much. Guys, Nick Dunlap announced that he is turning professional this week. I'm going to bring in my colleague, Jordan Perez here, who's, who's happened to be kind of sitting in the wings. Jordan, nobody knows the amateur game better than you,

frankly, or at least nobody has studied it enough times. We were not surprised, I think, to see Nick turning professional, but was there any reason for him to turn pro? Is there any part of your heart that still wanted him to be an amateur for a little bit longer? Of course, selfishly, I would have loved for the number one amateur in the world who have stuck around for longer than like, what, two days? But it didn't shock me too much when Nick took

up the opportunity. I think considering how well his amateur career had already gone, I mean, you have to remember, he was just on such a heater this past year, having won, he started last summer he won the northeast, won the north and south, then won the usm and then months later just happens to win a pj tour event um everything was really falling in place for him to get his pj tour card anyway this year through pj tour you accelerated so at some point or another, he was going to take flight, he did it in a much cooler way in my opinion. Yeah. And I think it's interesting because you mentioned him potentially taking up some NIL money and sticking around a little bit longer.

And I think that does extend a lot of college careers nowadays, but I guess, I don't know, I guess there was not enough going on in Tuscaloosa for Nick Dunlap to put it off any longer. Yeah, Jordan, I thought I wrote about this in my normal sport newsletter on Friday. And I thought he, I thought he actually said it very well where he said it's the hardest, easiest decision I've ever had because it um, it's, it's obvious that you, I think it's obvious that you kind of have to pull the trigger. You have to go. You have to, to me, it's not even the money.

It's the getting into the signature events, the major stuff. Like you're, you're just setting yourself up so well, right? But I think there's some real sadness and he acknowledged it and I was glad that he acknowledged it. There's some sadness about missing out on college golf, right? Missing out on, I don't know, we probably all think about times in college that were really, really fun, that you can't, it's really hard to recreate that,

especially as a professional golfer. And so I was glad that he at least acknowledged what he's missing as he's leaving. How good is Dunlap potentially going to be Jordan? Like, what is it that makes Nick great? I don't feel like, you know, you're one of the people who has been watched a lot or at least followed a lot of Nick's tournaments. Like, I know I said last week, I don't want to project how many majors

he's going to win or whatever, as much as like we like to do that on this pod. But what is it that makes Nick good and what is it that translates to this level? I think the best way to contextualize it is just in terms of players that were at his caliber, which at, you know, until this week, we were thinking other top ranked amateurs, right? And you saw Nick and it was very easy to tell, especially by Cherry Hills, that he was kind of a cut above the rest. And I mean, there's a lot,

there's a crop of great talent coming out. I mean, Ludwig, Ludwig, I would say, is kind of in that realm, Michael Thorpe-Yornton, same deal. And so I don't know, you saw Nick, and especially at Cherry Hills, and it was like, there was something different, you know? I mean, and yes, like the hard skills

hits the crap out of the ball, has some exceptional putting. There's just, there's the hard skills that are there. But I think some of his course management, it was just like, am I watching like a 20 year old play golf right now? Or am I watching like a season 30 year old play golf on the PGA tour?

And to me, like struggling to make that distinction really stood out to me. And I don't, you know, I don't want to play the over-undergame. I don't want to say, oh, Nick Dunlap is just going to take over the PGA tour and take over professional golf as much as I love to. But I think Nick Dunlap is going to be around for a while. I don't think this is the last of Nick Dunlap. And I would just say that the skill that he has is he's a winner.

This guy wins all the time. He wins at crazy levels. He wins when he's expected to win. You know, I mean, think about young superstars that turned out to be superstars as a professional. Like those people won all the time and he's won all the time. Won crazy, crazy tournaments and Different conditions and different golf courses that ask different questions. I just you know like This dude's gonna win a lot because that's what he does and to see him already win

You know on the pga tours an amateur I mean, it's no surprise that an amateur is winning on the pga tour I've kind of been saying this is probably likely gonna happen the last five, six years because they're so good now. But this dude, I would not be surprised if this dude won it again this year. You know, like that's the level that he's at. And when he's near the top of the lead with five or six holes to go, he knows what to do at the end. You know, it's not often on this podcast that we can say this in fact, maybe never, but Shane, you were in the field with Nick Dunlap at Cherry Hills. How ridiculously hard was that setup? Can you just give us a

little bit of insight into like what it means to like his golfing skill? I mean, you are a very, very good golfer. Uh, you're, I've played with you many times and I'm always kind of just in awe of how you hit the ball. And obviously like that course was a lot of course for you and Nick, like kicked ass at it. What was that like to sort of be in, in the US Am field and, and then afterwards seeing, Oh, that's what the best play, the players amateurs in the world are like, I mean, real quick, Shane, what's crazy is you were probably at, you were probably leading him after the first seven holes.

I don't know when you guys teed off, but he was like five over through seven. Yeah. I was like, I was, I was texting him. I was just talking to him nonstop. I, um, like it was, I mean, KVV, I've said this a couple of times, but I've been to a decent amount of us opens and the rough at cherry was deeper and thicker than any I'd been to. I mean, it was just tough. A golf conditions as I played in. And then to your point, KVV, I had a moment where I got home and turned the match play on. And I was like, oh, so these dudes not bothering these guys. They were like short left on one where I was practicing out of and

my group couldn't get the chip shot on the green. And these guys are chipping it to a foot. The level is insane. I think about the lies I had and then watching it on TV later in the week and how those guys could navigate the lies. And it's so impressive to me after I had no freaking clue how to hit certain shots out of them

and these guys were getting up and down, hitting shots from 120 to five feet and doing all that's asked. I mean, it was a tough professional US open us amateur setup and he wins it. And you know, then he wins it. AmEx, right? You talk about two different golf courses asking two different questions to people. And I mean, that's his, to me, in my opinion, at least as wide as you can get. All right, Jordan, who's next? Who's going to be the next next Dunlop? Is there a Gordon Sargent or Michael Thorbjornson in our future who's going to be the next next Dunlap? Is there a Gordon Sargent or Michael Thorebjornson in our future?

Who's going to come out and win an amateur event? Is this the new world where people are faster and stronger and being young is actually an asset? Like you said earlier, I think Nick was kind of a cut above the rest. He was just a little rare and I can't safely say there's anyone in the top 10 right now who I feel like, ah, that guy, I can definitely see him taking PGA Torben, at least within his amateur career. Right.

I mean, Michael Thorpe-Jornsson, Loki almost did it. So maybe him, but I don't know. Nick, Nick was special and it, that what he did was so generational and so beyond cool. And I, I feel like my brain still hasn't fully processed it. But I think when it happened, I was like, are you kidding me? But it's Nick Dunlap. I, if you were to ask me months ago, I'd have been like, okay, that seems plausible.

Awesome. All right. Well, uh, Jordan, I'm gonna let you go, but, uh, everyone give it a check to read Jordan's piece that you wrote about Nick and just like how, you know, this is the wave, you know, everyone knows the way of the future, but like, if you pay attention and you follow the amateur ranks, like you're going to see just like how strength and speed and all that stuff has kind of trending

towards the, the modern evolution of the game, you can see basically you can pick out the next stars of tomorrow and you can probably see them at a tournament near you where you can walk like up right up the ropes and not have to pay money that, you know, to see them and you'll get to see like a future, I don't know, eight, nine, nine time major winner. Is that our prediction for Dunlop yet? Anybody go higher than that?

I was, I was going back to Tron saying that more coward went eight majors after he won the open and he said casually and just I, I, it's, it's the best. I love it. Hordinelli would win 10 or 11. That was a meal, right? Yeah. Still on the board. Don't take that off Nellie's.

Come on now. Yes. Right. All right, Jordan. Thank you for joining us. Life hack. Go watch the mammoth or golf. All right.

So guys, uh, rumor going around. I think that this has been trending this way for a while. Is that a deal between essentially the PIF and the PJ Tour is eminent. We have heard some stuff basically could be announced as early as next week, even early in the week. I guess, you know, we've been, we've had a lot of takes and a lot of talk about in all our various mediums about this. What does it mean sort of going forward?

I still don't know like what we're, what it's gonna look like. Nobody really does, except for those inside the internal circle. But if in fact, the deal is going down, what will that mean I guess for our lives? Will we still have to talk about this kind of stuff every week? Will it just all sort of settle and then we'll finally move on?

What do you think the future is going to hold? I hope we don't have to talk about it every week. It's been, you know, there were moments last year, KVV, where it was, it was interesting. It was fun. I don't know about you guys. I got so the word that I used around the rom sign, it was, I felt so disillusioned with pro golf and just so exhausted by the whole thing in a way that I was not necessarily at the beginning. It's kind of like you're almost in awe of how crazy the whole thing is. Like Phil Mickelson starting a rogue golf

tour. Like this is, I'm covering history right now. This is crazy. And then a year and a half in, you're like, this kind of sucks. I think the really interesting thing of the last few weeks, Sean Zachary to GetPieceForGolf.com about Rory, Global Tour, Keith Pelley talking about it.

I obviously, the idea of a global tour has been around for a very long time, but the way that it's been pushed and talked about recently is really interesting to me, especially with the strategic sports group entering the conversation, the PIF obviously involved. I don't know, it feels like, I think the thing that I'm most intrigued by is how many different options are on the table and I don't know behind the scenes even which ones they're talking about. It could be, I mean I wouldn't be surprised by anything that's presented whenever they do come to a conclusive deal.

KVV, I'll say this, no idea. I mean, I haven't known what's going on in this world over the last six, seven, eight months. It's felt like, it's funny is it's felt like every week is the week, you know, it's now it's finally going to happen and, you know, the wrong thing pushed it forward. And then I just, I just, I don't think they know. So it's hard to predict when I don't think they quite understand a Porter's point, what they're trying to do here. Yeah, I still, I am a little bit confused as to why there are still like live signed to Adrian Moranke last week and they're rumored to be very

interested in Terrell Hatton. Uh, that's, you know, sort of a, I think that from what I understand, like there's some legal language that's sort of holding up with the TGL stuff with Hatton steel. It's just what I've sort of heard. But why do they still need players if we're going to have a reunification? I mean, is it going to be a limited reunification where players are not allowed to sort of like float back

and forth for a while? Is there going to be some sort of suspension they have to serve? I guess they just, all possibilities are still on the table. And there's not as many people talking about this kind of stuff or leaking as they once did, sort of what's going on and certain, you know, forces are, I think, keeping things a little closer to the vest.

And who knows? Like, hopefully there'll be something, I guess, like, you know, if you're, that's what your hope is that they'll get together. I've made my opinions kind of on the Saudis involvement stuff, you know, if you're, that's what your hope is that they'll get together. I, I've made my opinions kind of on the Saudis involvement stuff, uh, well known enough that news came out this week that, you know, the Saudis essentially are what prevented the LPGA and the LET tour from merging that they started to put their hand up and said, we'll pull out of all of our

Ramco stuff, uh, if you guys go forward with this. So, you know, here they are on one tour trying to, you know, unify and basically have more than the women's professional game, they're trying to keep them separate. And it just, it doesn't really make a lot of sense to me other than like they want to have, you know, have as much power as they possibly can, which has always been sort of some of the concern of like,

are they coming in as partners? Are they coming in as minority investors? Or are they coming in to take over the game entirely? I don't know. I just don't know what the future holds. Things keep changing from month to month about what's going forward. Joel and I talked a lot about last week in Canadian court, Yasser gets accused of aiding and abetting a kidnapping. Has that thrown the negotiations

into any kind of, you know, speed bumps at all and what happens next when some other kind of event goes on that's they have to answer for it. And I don't know. And it's speculating is almost kind of silly. I'll just, I'll read your Bryson's quote here just into the record. He said, I think a deal is going to come quicker

than you think. He said sort of recently on a live conference call, it might not be the next couple of weeks, maybe a month or so, but it is going to come quicker than you think. He said sort of recently on a live conference call, it might not be the next couple of weeks, maybe a month or so, but it is going to happen. There's no way around it now. This is about the good of the game for the fans and the health of the game for the fans. So.

Yeah, for the fans, fans, for the fans guys. Yeah. Hey, can I ask you guys a question? What, in a dream world, what do you guys want it to look like? A KVV, like what, if, if you could be, if you could make this, what you wanted it to be, what does it look like? If you snap your finger, I guess it would be that a limited number of players can, uh, from live guys can

compete on the PGA tour, uh, and that in then the, like, can they can be immediately, like non-live events when there's not a live event going on that rom can come and, you know, be in five PGA tour tournaments a year or whatever. So we can see him again at RIV and see him again at some places that, you know, the, I don't think the players is, is a good fit, but see them at play at tournaments that kind of means something. And then in the, like what's our traditionally thought of as like the off season from, you know, November on, there can be some sort of team element where like PGA tour players can be involved in. Like I think that would be sort of a fun addition to, you know, I don't think

that they can flow back and forth quite as freely as maybe Phil Mickelson would want, but I would probably be a mildly interested, at least if, you know, there was a Jordan Justin, you know, team, whatever, two more people that then was like in the first week of November, going to play if, you know, the Phil Mickelson high flyers team in like a, you know, is it Jordan Justin, Ricky Smiley, SP2K, if Smiley dust off the clubs and compete for some of that, the Mac coin, then why not? Uh, you know, it's, I mean, Liv has shown that like they're willing to just put together buddies teams.

So why can't the PGA tour throw together a buddies team to take them on anyway? But I think I would probably in November, would I, on a non NFL night, would I tune in for something like that on Wednesday night or something? I might, you know, if it's a good course, if it wasn't like, you know, the crooked cat or whatever and something, you know, something, something in sweltering Houston or whatever. I think I would be mildly interested, but I don't know that I, you know, whether it's, I would love to see Brooks and I would love to see Rom again. There's not a lot of guys over there that I really missing, but I think those guys are, are certainly people that would be see more of,

what do you guys think? Is there any option that would interest you? I think burn everything down to start and just, and just start the whole thing. Like I'm in on the global tour idea. I think it's a great idea. I've got the receipts on, I was writing about this in like 2016. It's not because Rory said it was two weeks ago or whatever. And before all of these live-in-eats were even golf fans.

We were talking about this and thinking about it. And I think golf is, it's global and it's, I think it's wonderful when you see it manifest. Honestly, like the, the live Australia event was cool. Like it was, it was like a legitimate thing. And I think to have a global tour that, you know, sort of emulated what F1 does where it's 18 events, 20 events, 16 events, whatever you want it to be, that was over the course of seven months, eight months.

That sounds awesome to me. And if you want to have a team component, I think the team component, I've been critical of a lot of things of live. I've actually enjoyed the team component of it. I think they, they don't make it make sense. Like they make it more complicated than it needs to be. But, you know, I've told this story before, my kids, we watched one of the first live events and they're like, Hey, dad,

like I would love to see JT and Jordan and Rory on a team together. Like, oh, that's interesting. Like, you know, I think them growing up is they've just viewed golf and sports differently than we do or our parents did or whatever. So I just, I do wish that they would burn the whole thing down and rebuild it. I think the SSG investment is really interesting. There's a great podcast, Bruno Castro, and I'm sorry, I can't remember the name of his co-host. They have a podcast called Course Record and they dive into the the strategic sports group and it's it's really good because you're like, okay, you just see you see private equity and you see a ton of money and you're like

Oh, whatever And I still kind of feel like that I feel wary of that but also these are people that have had a lot of success of that, but also these are people that have had a lot of success in sports, with sports teams in sports leagues that you look at it and you're like, okay, like maybe the PGA Tour hasn't, hasn't, you know, really like grown and I mean, they've grown, but they haven't, they haven't really done that very well. I don't think, and these people have, and man, I'd love to have those people kind of speaking into the future of golf. So I don't know. I think that and man, I'd love to have those people kind of speaking into the future of golf So I don't know. I think that part of it will be really interesting. I

I got a note from a somebody working private equity this week I was like, hey, man, like you shit on private equity a lot And like there's a lot of actually like jobs and like growth that comes out of private equity stuff Like I feel like I'm a fan of your podcast and I wish you could speak of this with a little more nuance. And hand up, I certainly do. I'm not a finance guy. And a lot of my opinions of private equity reform basically over all the media type stuff, taking over newspapers and stripping them down to the bone and basically just bleeding them to death to get as much value out of it. So part of being in media means that you've come to view private equity very much as like a vampire squid that is eating things up. And that's not the reality

of a lot of things. Like there is a lot of smart people who are, you know, their whole purpose is to grow companies and to actually, you know, make them make money, not just for evil, but for good. So I'll, you know, hand up, I'll sort of admit, sort of a semi-mea culpa on that side of things. I don't know. We'll see. I just hope like there's no, there's no way that they're not going to have some sort of agreement, I think at this point.

So might as well just like, you know, it's, I think Marla said in the wire, like either do it or don't, but I got somewhere to be like, just this time to do it, right? Just enough. Uh, hold on. The leather jacket was like two months ago. Like, come on guys. What are we doing?

Shane, what's your, what's your dream Sarah? I'm a global tour guide too. I mean, I, I think the, like you said, shrink the schedule and space it out and put it in some different places on some great golf courses would be very cool. And I think as you said, the live Australia, things probably the biggest win of live to this point. So if you could model anything after anything they've done, it would be modeled after that, right?

Uh, guys, Anthony Kim might be returning to golf. Yeah. This is not a prank. Golf.com reported this week that Anthony Kim is considering a comeback. Uh, and the Kim has not played golf in 12 years professionally. He has been, uh, really who knows what he's been doing. Uh, as soon as he's been playing some golf, what he has sort of likely been doing is, is collecting on an insurance policy that he took out, uh, that sort of would pay out if he had injuries that were, um, made it unable for him to compete professionally further. He had some back issues and thinking Achilles issue and had to have some surgeries and

kind of a lot of ways like lost the fire for being a professional golfer. Anthony Kim has sort of lived on as a legend in a lot of our minds really in a lot of ways of Twitter's mind. Like it's just kind of been a running joke of, I honestly barely remember other than the Ryder Cup, like many Anthony Kim moments at this point, I've seen them on YouTube more than I remember actually living them guys. Is there any chance that Anthony Kim is going to come back at 38 years old and be a great professional golfer?

Uh, KVV, I had this, I had this pulled up. I was so excited to do this. Um, please do. So you nailed it by the way about Anthony Kim, the legend that is Anthony Kim. A lot of it came from that Oh eight Ryder Cup team, right? And him, you know, flashy and winning the matches and playing some great golf and not even realizing he beat Sergio. If you remember that whole moment, can I read you the, this just to give people an idea of how long ago this was because it's so easy to

think about Anthony Kim as this young fresh player and maybe not about the reality of the situation. And I listen, I hope to God he's awesome because that would be great for golf. Oh, eight American writer cup team. Phil Mickelson on that team. Still listen to recent major champion. So, you know, Stuart, sink, Kenny Perry, Jim, Pyrrhic, Justin Littered was on that team as was Ben Curtis and boo weekly and Steve Stricke and Hunter mayhem and JV Holmes and Chad Campbell. What have all those people having common guys? They do not play like at the highest level. I guess other than Phil, they are not playing in terms of PJ Torque golf right now. Right? They're not. And I think again, you

think of, I've done this a million times on Twitter. I'm as, I'm as, I'm as guilty as anybody in this world. But to think about anything, he came the way we remember them. And you think about Oh, eight writer cup team, that's a group of people that the years have passed by in a sense as time tends to do. And so it'll be very interesting to see what he looks like now considering prime AK was playing with those guys. The myth, it's going to, it's going to solely the myth, right? Is it a myth or is it a legend? I think it's a legend. It's probably a better way to say it. I think Kim was a screw up in a lot of ways and did burn some of his talent on, you know, stupid shit, like staying out and drinking and, you know, going to strip clubs and doing

all kinds of stuff that everyone sort of knew about, but no one really wrote about. But he also is the guy who holds the record for most birdies, you know, single round at the masters, like, you know, has been going on now for 70 some years. And that's, that was Anthony Kim too. Yeah. No, you're right. Legend is probably a better term. I just, I'm, I, I think, you know, if you're him and live gives you, I think.

He's unquestionably going to live. Like I, it doesn't really, would you not? Yeah. It doesn't make sense for him to, to, to return to the PGA tour and have to, that would be really messy, but it makes sense. Right. If you, if you're so interested in, in playing golf and, and you want to compete or, you know, just have that opportunity or experience, but from all of our perspective, I wish he would

not do it and not have his willy maze on the Mets moment and not, you know, and that's a very selfish standpoint. I'm, I'm speaking like selfishly from my standpoint. I think from his standpoint, it makes a ton of sense. If you can get your insurance policy paid up and or paid back or however that has to work and go play some golf, then great. I just don't, he wasn't, he was good. He's a good player. He was, he was not, uh, like he wasn't number one in the world for three years or something.

I think the near times did a really good sort of essay about this. And I think it to a certain like age of Asian golf fans. Anthony Kim was like the sort of really cool rebellious like guy who they could look up to, right? And so like I would love to have some of that perspective because I think like, you know, Tigers always sort of been like, oh, I'm, I'm coblination. Like I'm, and really more people think of Tigers like an African American than they do as Asian side. But for Anthony Kim, like it wasn't like there wasn't Asian golfers before, but it was, he

was the first one of that like younger kind of generation, right? It was like, listen to rap music. Like he, he connected with people. He was a Nike guy. He was cool in some ways. We're the big belt buckle. You know, I was joking on Twitter today that is the sort of tweet of the Twitter account, fake Peter Alice was like, it never surprised me how fascinated American media are over Anthony Kim. I don't really think that that's

true. I think that fans have really been more fascinated by Anthony Kim, but I also love like pointing out that Europeans are still but hurt that he like called for the ball and kicked Sergio's ass when Sergio was like a Ryder cup behemoth. That's what Anthony Kim was. He was fearless. He was a person who wasn't consistently great. But there were times when if you could get him dialed in, like he could go out there. I mean, I think he's got 61 St. Tiger's event the one year that he was far go whatever that he wanted. Like he was an incredible iron player. And whether he can survive now, you know, Brennan and Andy were talking about this and they're on Shocking start about he was pretty long back then But you know who else was long was like Ricky and you know who was not long now is Ricky like Ricky's like in the middle Of the pack in terms of distance like there's no scenario where Anthony Kim is gonna come out and he'd be hitting it 350 He's not gonna be hitting it like Rory or Scotty or some of these guys who could just absolutely nuke it. Like you don't do that at 38 having done not a lot of professional golf for 12 years. So can he survive, you know, without being

a really long player? I don't know that that's a snare. I don't want to piss on the like the story, the fair tale of it, but I also don't really, I mean, him playing live events and shooting 74s, like, is that really like, who does that benefit? I hope, I guess, the benefits Anthony's checkbook and by God, go for it, if you can get them to pay off that insurance policy and get another 10 million out of it, great. But I just don't know, I don't see it being like this Cinderella story where he comes back and qualifies for the, on a major and contends, which is the only way I think it becomes really exciting. How do you not sign this guy off the top? If you're live, I, that's the one, the things I've been thinking a lot about. We all said it.

We all thought about it coming up. It's like, you give Lee Westwood and, and you know, these other guys money, it's like, dude, give Anthony Kim money when, and you know, these other guys money, it's like, dude, give Anthony Kim money when you start your league, give him 50 million that he wanted. Get him on there right off the bat. And at least all of us are like, well, hell, we'll watch this thing a year and a half after. I mean, I'm still going to watch like I'll still watch Anthony Kim play. I think I listened to the same pod you were talking about KVV with, with Andy and he was saying, you know, I'll watch him play.

I'll be excited for four events, right? And that's probably about the number. And if he goes out and wins one, cool. But what do we, what do we want to see? We'd love to see him contend in, you know, unfortunately for live, something that matters is not a live event to this point yet. You know, yeah. Uh, Robert, the civets used to cover golf.

Uh, he's now sort of a Twitter Gadfie said those who weren't there as it's on Twitter today, those who weren't there, re-imagined AK as a Marvel hero flawed, but with superpowers and truth. He was an immature, talented kid who said a master's birdie record after a long night at a strip club yet finished up without even a bag sponsor for all the romanticizing. The truth is, is he pissed it away? I don't think, I think that's a little bit harsh. Like, you know, there were some injuries involved that, uh, you know, certainly you don't like get $10 million from an insurance company without an insurance company doing a pretty serious, like in medical investigation

into your back injury that you claim is not letting you play. You know, I think some of the kind of reality of Anthony Kim is that he was sort of like a Jenkins character in some ways. Like he drank hard, he, you know, party hard, he was, had fun. He was woke up and went to the course and was like, I don't know how far my pitching wedge is going to go today. I'm just going to figure it out on the range and that like there's this great video of him and tiger at one of tigers clinics where tiger talks about everything he's going through before shot and then he asked, well, what about you, Anthony? Like, what do you, and he's like, Oh man, I don't know.

Like he just wasn't that same kind of player. Right. And he was a, he was an anomaly. He was someone who was like a jock who was like, had fun out there with it. And you know what sports needs those kind of people too. I mean, I don't think any of the media, the golf media is really like thinking about, oh my god, anything Kim's come back and be great. You know, there's a lot of people who just enjoyed making kind of Anthony Kim jokes over the years and having gifts of him.

So, you know, it just doesn't, it strikes me as like a little bit unfair to be like, oh, this is your savior. Yeah, you know what? Like he also kicks Sergio's ass and that still is in our memory. So taste it. You're up in that. I mean, like, like KBV, like same age, almost the same age as Anthony Kim. Like I remember when he burst on the scene, he was kind of our Sergio, you know, like Europe had Sergio. And then we had this guy that was maybe not as talented as Sergio, but would beat Sergio when it mattered because we knew AK had it. And when we say had it, you know, I mean, he had it and Sergio, you know, didn't always have it, especially when it mattered. And so you said he was kind of cool. Like I always thought Anthony Kim was like the coolest dude at a

golf tournament, you know, because everybody, everybody wasn't like that then, you know, we're seeing more personality in golf now, but he was an extreme outlier and it was fun to watch him. It was fun to root for him. He played well in multiple majors. I mean, a couple of top sevens in the open, maybe he wins an open. You never know. Yeah. I think, I think one thing that I've had a lot of sadness over KVV with live and this

sort of fits in with if he does end up going to live, which I think he will, if he, if he plays at all is they've collected a lot of characters, right? Yeah. It's not the best. No, it's not necessarily the best players. It's not, um, you know, certainly not like the dudes you want to go have a beer with, but Patrick Reed's a character. Sergio's a character. You know, um, even like the oceans 11 of like misfits

over there, like it's we're gathering a team of like rogues over here. And yeah, even so one last job, we're going to, we're going to snatch as much of Saudi Arabia's money as we can. Like this is one big con. Even somebody like a Stenson is kind of a character, right? And I hate, as somebody who talks and writes about the PGA Tour mostly, I hate not having those characters because characters make stories. And if you don't have heroes and villains and all different types of characters,

then I think it reduces the ability to tell a story. And I think it would actually fit in pretty well with Liv's historical sort of trend. If they collected another character in Anthony Kim. Well, I don't know. I mean, we'll see who knows. He might just decide Anthony's like, you know, mischievous enough for, you know, just to sort of say, maybe I won't do it. Maybe I'll just kind of be a big tease and I'll just be fine with what I got.

Uh, so we'll see. I mean, if he does come back, great. I'll probably, I would tune in or at least look at the replay of the highlights to see that. So KVV, what if he does come back and hit at 350 though? That would be amazing. What if he's just like, like launches it at 12 and he's hit at three 15. You're like, all right, well, let's get on board.

You know what Bernard? A lot of Bernard longer hits it longer now at 50, you know, at 68, then he did when he was told, you know, 22. So what if he's just like, yo, what if he's just, yo, what if he's like tiger upper body? You know, he just been, he'd been crossfitting for eight months. That would be sick. He does have apparently like full arm tattoos, full sleeves.

So that, that'll be kind of sick. There's not too many dudes on the tour who aren't caddies with the full Do you think there's any saliva tattoos or no? Maybe God, it's, I'll be sick. Always some Laker tattoos. I would think a case, you know, being an LA guy, he would be like, I'm going to be a Kobe, Kobe tattoo or two. I'm two. Uh, it's always a little bit strange when we're doing this pod, uh, on the Saturday finish of the farmers, because, uh, we still

have two tournaments that are kind of, uh, of interest that are going on. Uh, I don't want to spend a ton of time on them, but, uh, as you're, we're reading this Nelly Corda leads by, uh, four shots going into the, uh, I believe it's the drive on championship. Um, guys, I would think that Nelly probably gets this done. Uh, we, you know, I don't want to necessarily rack up the wind for a hundred percent, but I would say 98% sure she gets this done. This will be her first win in a little while. Um, I don't know. Any Nelly thoughts in general, like,

is there anything that's holding Nelly back from being great? I don't think there's anything holding back from being great, but I think winning this early in the season could, you know, lead to obviously something massive in 24. So I think it's a big Sunday for Nelly. And I'd love to see her pull it off because she seems like a momentum type of player and you pick up a win like this early in the year. I mean, you know, you could go out there and win three, four, five times like we saw a couple of years ago. So, um, I mean, this is the best story of the week in golf, right?

You know, I mean, Nelly, Nelly doing Nelly things is huge for golf. And talk about a burst out of a gate for the LPG tour. If Nelly wins this on Sunday and you get Lydia Nelly back to back. Come on. Yeah. I would just love to see her like go out and shoot like 67 tomorrow. Just like put the throttle down. Yeah. Win by six, you know, don't loan limp home or whatever. She can be a little bit conservative at times. The putter

can get a little bit gawky, but man, when she's throwing darts in there and nuke and not drive her, like she is fun to watch. I will say I do have one request and this I'm, I'm, I've said this a couple of times on Twitter. I'm a little bit weary of Nellie's like swing being like the most basic Instagram bait of like engagement or like, you know, describe Nellie court of swing and like one word or like how sick is Nellie court of swing? Yeah. Like obviously the court of swing is awesome.

Everybody knows this every single week. It's like an engagement juicer for various accounts to be like, you know, if you could swing it like Nelly Cordo, like how good would you be? Like, yeah, man, like that's not really the thing with, like I guess I get why you do it and it is pretty to watch, but also like, I also want Nelly to take the next step

and to be like a killer on the course because she's so fricking talented. Yes, like she does have the best swing in women's golf or even maybe all of golf period, but I also feel like I don't want her to be Adam Scott. I don't want to just be talking about how her swing is so amazing. And she's got one major like 10 years from now. I want that like her and to Nellie's credit, like she is not interested in any of that shit about being the face of the women's game and

like carrying like, you know, make, she just wants to win. Like she's a competitive, like driven person. I think it bugs the shit out of her that she hasn't won more majors. She hasn't won more tournaments. And I just, I guess just the constant engagement of like, how pretty is no like court of swing. Yeah, man, like we've already done there, been there done that. Like it's time to take the next step and be a, like an absolute killer on the course. Who's, what's the comp on the men's side for Nelly? She's won a lot. You know, num, number one, been on a bunch of us teams major.

I mean, like, what, like, who would you say? Think the right now isn't, isn't an Adam Scott right now? Like technically perfect, but something is, is there with the putting that limits her from winning five times a year. Like she's talented enough that she should be fricking dominating the tour. She's longer than, you know, all but one or two people on that tour. Like she's in the mix at majors. So she's clearly like, even when she doesn't have her best, she's plays well. I think that that's Adam Scott until proven otherwise. I mean, this would be nine wins in her best, she's plays well. I think that's Adam Scott until proven otherwise.

I mean, this would be nine wins in a major and she's 25. I mean, I know what you're saying, but it hasn't, it hasn't been like she's won twice. You know, I mean, she's, she's had, and she's been world number one. She's won some stuff outside the LPGA tour. Can I give a shout out by the way to the LPGA broadcast? They were bringing players in to do interviews this week. Did you guys see this at all? They had a lot of players involved in stuff this week that were like in the event. Oh, I would see this. Awesome. Like angel, like angel. Yeah. She was a part of the broadcast. I think last week, but just they're bringing in like certain players to do certain stuff with the media. And I just think it's a really smart thing. A little bit like what you

talked about with the match porter, you know, get these people comfortable right off the bat and, uh, and it plays. So shout out to whoever came up with that idea. I think even, I mean, go back to Phil at Harding Park, right? He just played the course. They bring him in the booth and you're like, this is unbelievable because it's the best thing I've ever heard. Because even, and Phil's obviously different in a lot of ways, but even as good as an analyst could possibly be, you're not going to have as much insight as somebody who just played

the golf course, right? Like, under those conditions in that atmosphere. And so I think anytime you do anything like that on a broadcast, it's so additive to it. They used to do this, if you've studied golf history at all, the guys used to come in the booth all the time and talk like Jack would come in the book, the booth constantly for ABC and like give his thoughts on, you know, and he would, it would be in contention and he would come up and do it. There was no like, Oh, like, aren't you, you know, there's the famous story about, you know,

Kenny Perry, like, shouldn't you go be hitting some balls, man? Like you're, you know, there might be a playoff. Like about, you know, Kenny Perry, like, shouldn't you go be hitting some balls, man? Like you're, you know, there might be a playoff. Like guys would do it. And I don't, we went away from that for a long time and I'm glad that it is finally coming back. So I'm glad to hear the LPGA is doing it. In the Ros Alchemyah championship over at the DP World Tour, Thurburn Olson leads by four going into the final day. And the other Hoy guard, Rasmus Hoy guard is in second

Literally like I did well. You know what I was literally thinking to myself What is Ra's al-Kamaya and I was so like foolish to like Google it and learn like oh, yeah It's a city in Dubai like it's named after the city. It's not some company or whatever So hand up apologies to not not to buy in the United the United Arab Emirates. Is that correct? Yeah, so hand up apologies to not being ignorant of that. I don't really have a lot to add about Fjord Bjorn Olsen, nor do I really care until he's actually won it. I just thought it was neat that the other Hoy guard twin is in second there. Um, you know, who knows who cares? We'll see. Good luck to, uh, does, maybe we'll get a Hoy guard victory still out of this weekend. Apologies to Thio Bern, Olson. Um,

guys, uh, Shane, you came up with this idea a couple of weeks ago that we wanted to kind of, uh, you know, wind down the pod with because we got in a couple of weeks ago that we wanted to kind of, you know, wind down the pod with because we got a couple of questions from some people. What makes for a good but golf buddies trip? If you've, if you love golf, you kind of know that going on a trip with your buds for, you know, maybe it's a bucket list course or maybe it's like, you know, just a course, an hour from your town where you can stay overnight and have a few beers and stuff. Some people will get questions about this, like, Oh, where should I go? Should I go to bandage? Should I go to sand valley or whatever? You know, you've done a bunch of these, I've done a bunch of these,

calm, not sure about yourself. But I'm really curious to throw this sort of thing to you guys. Shane, what would be your five kind of things that are essential to a good buddies trip? So I have a couple of things I think are essential and then a couple of things that think that are essential to bring Okay, so that's kind of the list I made I think one thing is group size making sure that the group size makes sense for what you're trying to accomplish

I mean, I just personally I feel like it's four I think when you get deeper than four eight is tough You know you think about dinners and you think about transportation stuff like that. I think stops are important. I only want to pack my bag three times. That's including when I'm actually leaving to go back home. So, you know, you do a golf trip and you go somewhere that's not Pioneer. So you're not going to stream song or band and you might be hopping locations. Just try to minimize the amount of time you have to pack and unpack. I think that throws a wrench. And then I think the main,

main part of a guy's trip at a buddy's trip is or are you guys, are you guys on the same page with what you're trying to accomplish here? So are you guys die hard golfers that want to play 36 a day and then maybe sneak onto the short course, then make sure you're going with that group. Do you have one person coming that's not that big of a golfer or it's going to be the outlier in terms of a handicap? Think about those types of things because you don't want to be the group that has the guy that's the 18 when everybody's a seven and that guy feels like he's out of place and then you don't and then you don't want to be that guy either. Right? So, you know, you don't want to be the group and you don't

want to be that guy. So I think it's just understanding what everybody's trying to get out of the trip. Is it going to be a lot of golf and you don't want to be that guy. So I think it's just understanding what everybody's trying to get out of the trip. Is it going to be a lot of golf and you're playing all these amazing places? Is it the camaraderie and you want to spend some time in the afternoon, go into a bar and having some beers and hanging out? I just feel like making sure everybody's on the same page with what the, the few days away from home is. And then I would say in terms of essentials on the trip,

bring cards, dies, liars, die, something like that. Just have somebody bring it because, you know, it can get to be seven, eight PM and you're sitting around your house or the hotel room, wherever you're at. And you're going, I wish we had something to do for the next three hours. I would say something I always do on a buddy's trip as I get $100 and $5 bills because you're gambling and you're exchanging money and whatever. It's just small bills is really nice. I also normally bring

like 50 and ones as well. And then the more important thing to do if you're going to a resort is get the dinner reservations. I think it's an easy thing to forget, but just get them. Even if you play golf into the night and you miss the reservation, make sure you call and cancel it first of all, but have them on the, have them on your agenda because if you don't do it, somebody's, it's going to be six PM and you're going to be going, what the hell are we doing for dinner? And a lot of these places book up. So that's kind of my buddy's trip layout, if you will.

I liked that. Kyle, you and I have been on a many buddies trip together as we bounced around the Northeast once and played Beth page and wink, wink, foot and the creek. What do you think is essential to a buddy's trip? Is it a, a chubby guy like myself who can do dumb impressions later in the night when your, your feet hurt like shit? Was that essential aspect of a buddy's trip? I did see, I think it was on the, was on the refuge this week's writing about the wing foot experience and how you

were just offered to enjoy it. So we was media day at Beth Page a few years ago, and you were going to come up and you were, had gotten us a sort of a hookup to play wing foot. And so we were like, oh, what can we like fill in around this and stuff? This is great. Like we'll pour up and you and I would sort of team up to do it. And so we, we walked Beth page. And then later that day, we walked 30, another 18 at the creek, which was, which was really sweet. Like I would love to go back and play the creek because I was starting to get tired and I didn't quite. And then the next day, it was like my, I don't know, maybe I was just wasn't in walking 36 shape,

but my calves and like back were starting to sort of get tight and my brain just completely like fried. And I think I made like contact with the face like twice on the first 16 holes at the wing foot. So I was like, oh, my one chance to get to play wing foot. And here I am just like absolutely just hustling the shit out of it into this, you know, rough after every, and you pour, pour, pour out the new or just like, okay, well,

it looks like Kev's eye in his pocket again on this whole like, I hope I didn't ruin your buddy's trip. Like I said, I didn't have a blast at the previous day. Yeah, I was going to say, not at all. It's always the golf almost doesn't matter on, on, on trips that are good. The golf almost doesn't matter because the people, the people that you're with, but you know, I just got back actually in December, we went out to a little mini buddy strip at maybe the house that the Shane Bacon built. Pine dunes, East Texas, the old stomping grounds. Yeah. Uh, the old stomping grounds and I think that I think the two things that I would add to

Shane's list are one, somebody that's sort of the captain of the group, because you can start, you can start to go and like, if you have too many people, like Shane said, and you have multiple people that think they're in charge, it just starts to like go in different directions and then people you missed. And, uh, it's a little bit of a mess. And then two, I think a game or a couple of games that everybody understands and agrees to, because you get to the course and you're on like the second hole and you're warming up or whatever and you're like, well, what are we going to put? And then people, I don't know the game. And it like, I think that's important because that adds to the, both the competition and

the fun of it. So I think a captain and then at least one or two games that people know the rules of understand and want to participate in. What I would sort of add to that is what I has been really successful for my main buddy's triplet going every year is that we have a team element where we go with eight people and we're divided into two teams and those teams have been essentially the same for 15 years now. We also have an individual element. So if you were sucking, yeah, it's very much like if you were sucking hard on the golf

trip, there is still reason for you to like pick your head up and be like, all right, I'm going to help the team. Like the team stuff matters to me. And over time, he started out being like, we were like, Oh, I want to win the individual this like, and, and now the team shit way it matters way, way more than the eventual stuff. It's almost like the individual trophy guy at the end of it is like an afterthought.

It's like, Oh yeah, like, you know, my body mat wanted this year. That's great. That's cool. You've won it four times now, but like really the team thing is what matters. That's, I think a key element to it. I don't think that venue is super important if you have all those other things that we talk about, like you can have a pretty fun buddies trip kind of anywhere as long as you're just have a chance to go back and decompress at

night and BS and laugh and have a few drinks or, or not drink or whatever is your fancy, but I, we've had a, like a really fun golf trip in Frederick Maryland, which is not exactly anybody's destination place for a golf trip. And all the public courses there all, you know, had to make tea times. Like on the public thing beforehand, there wasn't any kind of like thing that booked us all at once. And we had it rented an Airbnb and it was like right after COVID, because we weren't going to fly anywhere.

And I was just like, this is an absolute blast. Like I, and I, but I've been to Bannon twice and you know, I think this year are going to go to sweetens for a buddy's trip. And that'll be great. But I'm not gonna say just the people and the things that you come up with. I think. Okay. KVV, a couple of things I just want to add to what you said, because I think

you're spot on in terms of the competition. I feel like competition on these trips, when you go with the same people year after year after year, it could be the biggest part of the competition. I feel like competition on these trips, when you go with the same people year after year after year, it could be the biggest part of the trip. And that can be both fun and can be stressful for people, right? If you're not playing great, you feel like you're letting the team down, you're letting your buddies down, things like that. I think if you go to places that aren't the sought after resorts, which I mean, I've been on Buddy Shrips to Band and Stream Song and you name it, and they're awesome, right? Because these people, my buddies that don't get to go on this stuff that much are playing these places they've always wanted to play.

But I think when you go to maybe a step down from that place, what's nice is you can convince golfers to play different formats easier. Yeah. You know, because everybody wants to post the score from Pacific and banning trails and things like that. Like it's a part of the trip, right? What did I shoot at banning dunes? But, you know, like I go on a yearly trip to Tubaque, Arizona, and

it's a 27 hole resort and it's great. It's perfect for us, but we can play four on four scramble because the, but the part of the trip isn't about posting your score. That's not what we're there for. And so I couldn't agree with you more on that. You know, the venue is important to, if you want to go play these places, but in terms of the hang and what you guys are trying to do, and then my thing about the competition,

something we've introduced on our big trip is the competition in Saturday afternoon. So it like the morning tea time is the last part of our Ryder Cup, if you will. And the afternoon is kind of a go out and F off around. So you can play buddies that you wanted to play that are on your team or, you know, there's a couple of guys on our trip that have a yearly match between four guys that aren't gonna get to do it

because they're all on the same team, right? And I mean, I think this year we had like a six on six scramble going in the afternoon. So it's like the Ryder Cup is done, the cup is decided, the afternoon is kind of's like the writer cup is done. The cup is decided. The afternoon is kind of spent going and doing whatever you want. And a lot of the time that's the most fun the guys have on the entire trip. So I would say just including a little bit of like fuck offness, if you will, at the end of the trip is always a good thing. I think you can also almost overvalue venue, right? My, uh, my dad just got back from a trip in the, I think it was in

the fall to, they did like the Aaron Hills, um, sand, like just all kind of all over the, the Midwest. I don't want to get my regions of the country wrong on this podcast, but, uh, wasn't Memphis. You're good. Yeah. Yeah. That's for sure. And he was like, man, by the end of it, we've just driven so much and stayed so many places. I was just, it wasn't, you, by the end of it, we've just driven so much and stayed so many places. I was just, it wasn't, we were just like chasing, you know, you're like, you're just, you're kind of chasing venue.

And I think that really takes away from the opportunity to like be in a place to open some beers, to open some, to play some cards and to just like enjoy that, even if it's a lesser venue than a sand valley. I think, I just think chasing that on a buddy's trip like that can be detrimental to the trip. I went to band and last year with friends and, you know, it banded and if you don't know if you've been like, you pay like the, the main rate for your first round and then you

pay half your, that rate for your second round. If you want to play a third round, it's free. And so it's hard for like golf junkies to sit there and be like, well, there's still like two hours of light left. Why would I not go play like one of the top 100 courses in America? And so my friends and I fucking OD'd on golf this last year in three days, we played 144 holes. So it was like, Oh, we're playing 45, 45, 45, 18. And

it was just like overwhelming, like at the end, like how sore and I don't want to say miserable because we had sort of gotten ourselves in shape to do it. But you just like, you didn't, we didn't get any like hanging out time because of why that's it would rain to shit ton. And so by the time we were done with our, you know, 45 holes that day, it's like, all right, well, let's get dinner and go to sleep because we got to get up, you know, for, you know, cause you're exhausted because you're not 25 years old anymore. Yeah. So, you know, we got one guy who is pretty well off, like had bought like a $500 ball of whiskey as like a treat for us to bring along. It's like, we barely even got to the end of it because we didn't have time

to drink it because it was like freaking 10 o'clock by the time we got back from dinner every night. And it's like, okay, well, I'm, I have two sips and I'll go to bed. So I would say don't OD on golf. Even if it's like, oh my God, when am I ever going to get back to band and like, yeah, man, like those free rounds are cool. And it is fun. If you can like play alternate shot at Pacific dunes, but also like, you know, hang out with your buds. So, so do it. Amen.

Uh, speaking of buds, my buds, uh, knowing up are coming back, uh, the next week, we're going to be out at Pebble Beach, uh, to sort of be a part of the, uh, the AT&T. Uh, I just want to say thank you to everybody who hung around with us for the last three weeks and, uh and entrusted me with sort of, you know, at least getting them through the last three weeks, which were turned out to be fairly eventful. And thankfully there was no deal done. I was a little bit worried that the deal was going to go down and I was going to have

to run this ship by myself. But thank you, Shane. You rode with me twice. And Kyle, thank you for coming on tonight and you you wrote with me twice and Kyle Thank you for coming on tonight and thanks to Joe Beal for doing it. It means a lot. It means a lot that people Care enough to sort of tune into this podcast even when their favorites are not necessarily on this thing So I'm very appreciative of it and we had a lot of fun content come out while the boys are down in Australia Filming some other content. We had a really good fun content come out while the boys are down in Australia, filming some other content.

We had a really good, groundhog day, perfect club pod. And one of our first narrative pods that we've ever done, I did a thing about Gary player. Listen to it. It's great. If you haven't gotten a chance. It was really, really fun for me to put together. It was a lot of work, but DJ and I talked a lot about it and ahead of time. And then just, just seeing DJ's wife, I worked really hard a lot on the sound stuff.

And I think it really, I haven't really heard anyone who was like, man, that was a waste of my time. Like most people were like, oh, that was only an hour. I wish that was longer than that. And if you've listened to this podcast from the beginning, you've known that Gary Player holds a special place in my stupid heart for it. So thank you guys again for coming on on and I hope to have you back You know, maybe next time there's tour sauce. Maybe we'll just keep you know, have our own little spin-off show here

I yeah, I think we should lock the boys out and just run it back next week. That's your bubble I do I always enjoy coming on. I always enjoy talking to you guys and miss miss senior, miss seeing you during the off season. I, I don't know how you feel. KVV. I know this got kicked around at one point. I want to, I want to do at some point, I don't know if it's a trap draw or something like that, but just a state of the golf media pod. I would just be curious to hear your thoughts about even your transition from ESPN to NLU and where you think everything is at. And I would love to, to be a part of that conversation.

If, if you, if you ever want to do that, I would love that. That sounds like a very much a good trap draw episode where we're talking about what it means, because, you know, frankly, with the world of journalism collapsing around us, right and left, I'm sure you guys get people who ask you like, Hey, what can I do to go into journalism? And now those are tough conversations to have because, you know, I'm sure you guys get people who ask you like, Hey, you know, what can I do to go into journalism? And, uh, now those are tough conversations to have because, uh, you know, I'm a little bit older than you guys. Uh, and it is so dramatically different than when I came in like in 2000,

and after I graduated in college, and I can't imagine like what people who, you know, are just getting into it or thinking, uh, because I don't want to discourage them because we really need journalists and we really need people who are smart and interesting and stuff, but also like it's kind of overwhelming like how quickly the sand is shifting underneath our feet. So that sounds pretty fun. Why don't we do that? That's a nice positive thing to end the bar. KVV, I just wanted to say, uh, you killed it. You did a great job the last three weeks. So, uh, a round of applause to you. Have a very nice drink tonight when we finish.

And make sure if you're not subscribed to normal sport newsletter, do that because Porter pumps out great content. And it's very entertaining. I laugh at it. I was in it last week. I didn't expect to see a tweet of mine. I don't tweet nearly as much as I used to. So that was always a nice little bonus.

But Porter, I always love your stuff. I get fired up for the end of the season because I get shock and start recaps I don't tweet nearly as much as I used to. So that was always a nice little bonus, but a quarter. I always love your stuff. I get so I get fired up for the end of the season because I get shock and start recaps and I get normal sport, which always makes me smile. Thank you. Hey, you know, we're, there's, I, I like to support other media that I feel like is, is, uh, on the positive side of how I view things and just ignore the stuff that I don't, I don't even need to talk shit about it.

I just want to support the people that I do love and you guys will always be in that circle. So thank you so much for helping me out. And cheers, if you couldn't stand these last three weeks, you're in luck. That's it. That's it. The old crew, the original lineup will be back next week.

All right, good night. Be the right club today. Yes. Be the right club today. Yes. There you go. That's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.