No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 798: Cognizant Check In + LIV Jeddah Recap

Episode Date: March 4, 2024

With the PGA Tour event at Palm Beaches pushed to a Monday finish we throw the audience a bit of a curveball to start tonight's episode with a modified Pro Golf Fantasy Draft. From there it's on to Palm Beaches (25:00) for a look at the tournament where Austin Eckroat leads by a shot with just seven holes completed. We look at the rest of the contenders and the apparently softened course setup - plus Webb's interview and the notable sponsor's exemptions for this week's event at Bay Hill and the rumor mill surrounding Rory's LIV comments. Then it's on to LIV Jeddah for the return of Anthony Kim to pro golf (51:00), Talor Gooch popping off again and the PGL lawsuit against LIV. We close with a look at Hannah Green's win on the LPGA (1:15:00), our reaction to The Match, a look at the Seminole Pro-Member tee sheet and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The right club. Be the right club today. Yes! I mean, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most! Better than most. Expect anything different. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast.

Salih here recording this on Sunday night. We do not have a result for the cognizant Palm beaches, whatever it's called. I it's going to take me a while prior to it as the Honda several times. T.C. is here on this Sunday evening. Hello, T.C. Buenos dias. Sorry. C. Which is gracias on this Sunday evening. Hello TC. Buenos dias. Sorry. C which is gracias. Neil is here. Hello, Mr. Neil. Gentlemen, happy to be here. We are, uh, I have a lot to talk about tonight. We're going to start it and maybe

an unusual location, but, uh, I want to give a shout out to our friends at tidalist hitting a pure iron shot is one of the most rewarding feelings in golf, but also one of the most difficult to define and capture. Finding feel is a new titleist original series that digs into this subjective world to share some of the secrets behind the amazing depth of feel found in every T-series iron. And if that is not, that does not sound appealing enough. Our very own Neil Schuster appears in the video and the series as the test dummy. Neil, what did you learn in this process? I was, they put me through the golf version of sensory deprivation. Have me wearing jackhammer gloves and earplugs and like the lawn care headphones. And they're trying to deprive

me of my feels. And I said, absolutely not. You know what I will say, guys? I hit balls for like at least 90 minutes, ton of golf balls. They gave me different clubs and I hit the shit out of it. I just, I was flushing it, which felt good because there's a bunch of cameras and a bunch of random people around and I was a little nervous, but I hit it really good. So that was cool. Well, Neil, question for you on that. At one point in the video, you said this feels like hitting a human skull. I did.

And I said a lot of other stuff too. I said, like this one feels like a leather baseball mitt, like when you're catching one in a catcher's mitt, you know, so they kind of, you know, they might cherry picked one of my more visceral statements. Oh, no, you get going and you're trying to describe to people what it feels like. And one of them felt a little, well, how do you know what that feels like? I don't know. It just kind of popped into my head. I wouldn't say I know what it feels like to hit a human score with a golf club,

but with, with, with a hand, you know, it just doesn't feel good. It was, it was me expressing that didn't feel good, uh, which I think was user error, not necessarily the club. I love the opening of the series. It is, I feel like the, you know, this feeling of a well struck golf shot is like the thing we all chase and it's the hardest thing to define. And I enjoyed the path to trying to find whatever, trying to put that into words, which I struggle with almost every single time, but it is the essence of the game. It is available

on the titles, YouTube channel, take the time, give the series a watch. And with the launch of finding field titles is also giving you an opportunity to win a custom set of new T series irons. There are two quick steps to enter from now until March 9th. Subscribe to the titles, YouTube channel, leave a comment on the finding field video on YouTube. God, you know, I love that. Solly, a little comment competition. I know you do. Right out of my playbook.

I love that. Um, all right. So we're at a pause point in the cognizant, uh, classic, uh, Austin Eckrode is leading. He's got 12 holes to play. Uh, we of course had Joaquin Neiman, Jookey Neiman as Neil would say, I guy keen when at live King Abdullah economic city. Uh, Hannah Green wins on the LPGA tour. All that talk about we are throwing a curveball to start tonight's episode. We are not going to start with the week's current events. We, uh, are looking for something a little more cheery to do a little more fun on this podcast.

And we came up with an idea this week. I'm a huge, I've always been a big baseball or Bill Simmons always did a basketball trade value column where he ranks like the top players in the game. But the essence of it is projecting out, you know, would you trade this guy for this guy? It's not who's the best player right now. So we are going to do, uh, fan graphs also does something similar where they rank the top players in the game as it's, uh, with their trade value projecting out over the next six years and baseball, you get six years of control of somebody. And so that's how they do that evaluation. Whoever, you know, signed the best contract, whoever has the highest ceiling would be the high, had the highest trade value. So we have, we've come up with a system and we're going

to go through all of men's professional golf and we are each going to draft 10 players to project out over the next six years. So it is not a ranking of the top players currently. You know, the, where does Dustin Johnson go in this? Where do some of the college guys go in this is a little more interesting question than just a straight power ranking. We have come up with a points system for these players. We're going to, these are going to be under lock and key, no management of this.

We're going to lock these lineups and check back in in six years. I'm going to set a calendar reminder to go look back on this. God, that's a wild concept six years from now. But I love this. I, when you recommended doing this or proposed this earlier, I was like, hell yeah. Now I don't do great with drafts. I'm terrible at fantasy football, but I'm fired up to do this with you guys. I was, should we do a buy in like a hundred bucks? Maybe like throw it in all into Bitcoin and see what's worth. How many, how many kids are going to be running around at that time? Like maybe, maybe like the, the winners got to, you know, take the kids to splash world or something. I don't

know. Like that's probably a punishment more than a, more than a win. Oh gosh. I was thinking all about that that's probably a punishment more than a win. But gosh, I was thinking all about that this week when, when, when the usj announced the back to back week, shenokak. Yes. So, yes. We're going to open in 2036. And I was like, I want to be 50.

I know. I was like, whoa, that's wild. You know, maybe it's my pending fatherhood, but I was like, that's a long time away. I don't know what the world is going to look like in 2036. See, my head went to Lucy lead made it at 11. My daughter will be 13 and a half or so around that. But I was like, that's a long time away. I don't know what the world is going to look like in 20 36. See, my head went to Lucy lead made it at 11. My daughter will be 13 and a half or so around that. She'll be, she'll be more than prepared for, for Shinnecock. So, uh, we've come up with a point system.

It is not scientific. It is not subject to debate as to how, uh, it's kind of like coming up with a fantasy football. Is it a PPR league? Is it whatever? Uh, but we've come up with a point system of how things mattered to us and a major win over the next six years for any of our guys is going to be worth eight points. A signature event when on the PGA tour includes the players, includes playoffs. It's going to be worth three points. A PGA tour win is worth two. What if they get rid of the signature events?

All right. Well, you might have to reevaluate that. We're going to have to come back and then TC that'll be like, we'll have to decide what's a BDE, right? Like we, you know, you probably still throw the players in that. We, they're Genesis. Like I think there's some, some stalwarts that we would consider, but we'd have to talk about it. Until then, whatever the age, wins are worth two. What about like an opposite field? to what about like an opposite field? I opposite field with ends are worth one. I hope our guys are not playing opposite field events. I'll say that. So yeah, we're saying to your events are worth three.

Yeah, but it could be like, you know, it could be something for like the younger kids when they're coming out, you know, it's a good thing for your more. Call one at the, you know, at the Reno or whatever. That's a really good point. So, uh, same sure. Vince, we're three PGA tour wins are worth two live Vince are worth three. PGA tour wins are worth two. Live wins are worth one. DP world tour wins are worth one. Uh, opposite field events are worth one on the PGA tour

and a major top five is worth one point. All right. So eight points for major. What basically I did my all, all my rankings based on who I think has the best chance to win majors, right? I love you for that top fives. I know exactly why you did. And I want to see where this guy's going to fall out on your board. We did a random generator online. I sent it to you guys. I videoed myself doing the random generator just to make sure you thought there, you know, soon there would not be any shenanigans. It will be a snake. TC will have the first pick. I will have the second pick and then Neil will have three and four. I'll take five TC gets six and seven and so on and so forth. So without any further delay, we are going to go 10 rounds. So 30 guys will be picked and we are going to go

to TC first TC number one player over the next six years. Who is going to rack up the most points? Who is your pick? Number one player guys? I six years, who is going to rack up the most points? Who is your pick? Number one player. Guys, I'm going to surprise you here. I've thought about this a lot with my team. We can certainly talk about what a BDE is and everything like that. But I'm going to go with Victor Hovland. Wow. Wow.

I was hoping you'd take either Sheffler or Rom so that I didn't have to decide between the two and it was just going to become a lot easier. But, uh, I think, I think I'm bullish on Victor Hovland. I think he's the best golfer in the world. Okay. I, uh,

disagree with that, but I appreciate, all right. I think over the next six years, he will be the best golfer in the world. Sure. That's, that's, that's well said. That's the goal of this exercise again. I'm taking Scotty. I think the ball striking truly is generational. Um, and he can't possibly put this back for six years, right?

I'm sure we're going to listen back to this in six years and laugh, but, uh, I've taken Scotty's chaff, flair, uh, as my number one, uh, pick. Neil, you get three and four. Well, or sorry, any concerns about a back injury or anything? No, of course, but I mean, no more than anybody else. Okay. I'm, you know, just head to man. I'm taking too easy.

I'm taking John Rahman, Brooks, Keppke. Oh, I was hoping Keppke would fall to me. No, I just think with majors and I feel like that top five and majors, both those guys are around next six years. We're in the prime. I feel like for both of them, healthy Brooks got to take him for the major points. God, I could break TC's heart right here if I wanted to, but I cannot, cannot pass on Mr. Roy McElroy coming back at number five. So I have Scotty and Rory.

God, I feel good about that. All right. I'm going to go kind of opposite end of the spectrum here. I'm going to go Ludwig. Of course. At the, the, what is that? That's your six pick. Six. Yeah. And I'm going to surprise some people with the next one. Oh my God. You know, no, no, no, no, no. Wow.

Which, which that's, that's kind of a, he might not like him, but he respects him and I appreciate that. You see where, you know, he, like, if I'm forced to root for him, that's really, really difficult for me. But, uh, I was texting with somebody today. He called him a quote, weirdo industrialist. And I thought that was a really good way of putting it. Uh, I was afraid that this was going to come to me and I was not going to be

able to go past this guy. I am going to take Xander, uh, with the eighth overall pick. I got to put my money where my mouth is. I've ridden for his major record and you're going to rack up top fives and majors there. So that's going to be great for you. It's a tortoise and hare situation. I think he gets one. I think he gets one in the next six years. I mean, he better. Like that's what I'll say. All right. So we're 10 picks into this. We've got two live guys. We're eight picks in. I'm sorry eight picks in. We got two live guys. They're both on Neil's team. Yeah. But I mean, I think my picks are justified on the snake there, right? Because it's again, it's it's

thinking about major wins. I think there's something to a guy that two guys that have multiple major wins. I'm happy with my squad right now. So on the way back around, major wins. I'm happy with my squad right now. So on the way back around, I'm going to go with Colin Morcawa, another two time major winner. Six more majors in him. That's in the past. It's in the past. I know, but I think that that things are looking up for for Mr. Colin. And this is this is where, you know, we're on the border of getting out of our depth here. But I'm thinking I'm going down the board here.

God, what projects out? We had time to prepare for this is what I know. I know I had a couple names on here, but I don't like them at this point. Why don't you know what? I'll take Max. I like to cowboys. Easy pick here. I'm thrilled to get.

I almost took him in the third and I will take him here in the in the fourth. I said he's going to win a major this year. That is ill. While a tourist, it's good pick. Neil, who'd you pick before max? Colin more, Calla more, Calla.

All right. You got Zalatoris. God, this is going to get so it's weird. It gets weird at the bottom 30. I mean, I had some names in there that I had was not expecting to have, uh, you know, when we started the exercise, I was not expecting to say, you know, when we started the exercise, I was not expecting to say that one of these guys is going to be one of the best 30 players over the next six years. Yeah. Sheesh.

You know what? I'm going to go with, I'm going to go with Justin Thomas. Wow. T.C. I was thinking that too. Between, between him and Max, I was kind of, I think he might be, he's trending and I don't dislike that pic, T.C. Thank you, Neil. Let's see here.

This is where it starts to kind of get weird, I think. Are you going to reach here, T.C.? You going to reach? No, I'm not going to reach. I just, you know, Blandi's in play. He's, he's playing some of the best golf of his life. I know. I know you're thinking, Occe, you know, Nick Hardy, who was the other guy that was playing the best golf in the world? What about Tommy? TC? I told you. Yeah. Well, I know that's, that's kind of, that's where my heart wants to go here. Neil, you don't take Tommy within your first five picks.

That, that really kind of says it all. We kind of have settled everything at this point. You guys are baiting me into this. God, I can go with big tone because he wins a ton of mule events. I can go with one of the Hoy guards. Give me Tommy. Give me Tommy, baby. You had to do it. You had to do it. Obviously with it with his fifth, uh, fifth pick. Oh, it does get hard at this point. Are you, are

you going to back up your love for the John the Baptist? I am going to, who is John the Baptist? Young Tom Kim. He stinks. I think I take time to get a complete injury risk too. I am going to take. I think I could get value on that guy, so I'm not taking him just yet. I'm going to take camp Smith. Okay. Well, I had camp Smith on the list. Um, I'm going to go Wyndham Clark and I'm going to go with Gordon

Sargent. Wow. Yeah. I'm going to go Wyndham Clark and I'm going to go with Gordon Sargent. Wow. Yeah, I'm reaching hard. Wyndham Sargent is off the board. All right. That's back around to me. This is interesting. I got it's all live doing this live balance is really, really interesting.

I am going to take Bryson. I like that. I like that. Bryson, go in a major that Bryson. Yeah. I went in another major for sure. I'm going to go with Joaquin and then I'm going to go with. It's might be time to get weird guys.

Seventh round, you can, you can start to experiment get weird guys. Seventh round. You can, you can start to experiment a bit as far down the board. Yeah. I'm looking at, you know, saw his out there, Cam Young's out there. Sam Burns is out there. You got country music sensation, Eric Cole out there with force, all sorts of sample size going on, but I think we're going to, we're going to go in a different direction where you go with Nick Dunlap. Wow. sorts of sample size going on. But I think we're going to, we're going to go in a different direction.

We're going to go with Nick Dunlap. Wow. TC, I, I've, I'm glad we can get this documented on paper. All right. For as hard as you've written for this guy, I cannot believe, cannot believe you'd let him get to me in the seventh round. All right. This is a damning, damning moment for you.

Give me Jordan. I'm taking Jordan's beef in the seventh. Thanks, master. Hmm. Well, Keen's off the board. Let me take a look. Just take a peek over at the live squad here. And there's not, it's like, I'm not really looking at, I feel like Gooch. Gooch is so interesting because he's going to run out of major exceptions. Yeah. That's what I mean. It's like the rest of these guys, like Patrick Reed, like I'm not the guys that have some status or some major exemptions. I'm not feeling kind of worried about the Joaquin thing. I mean, I guess nobody's taking Dustin.

That means over 40. He's in decline. I know, I know that can win a major. He's bad. That's bad age there. I don't like that at all. He gets into the masters every year. Yeah, he could win a major, but he also, you know, live wins are only worth one point. Like, and he's going to play 14 times a year, but they are way easier to win. You know, I think upside wise, Cam Young, I'm going to take Cam Young, even though he hasn't proved it to me, but I just feel like there's a lot of talent there. He was such a weird one because he doesn't fucking win on the PGA tour. And he doesn't, you know, he's been a little close on majors.

I just couldn't picture. Count on. And I think I'm going to go with another kind of safe pick here, but I think a guy's going to be around because he works his ass off and it's Matt Fitzpatrick. Okay. Let's get that. That's kind of like a high floor.

Yeah. Like I think he's going to just be doing stuff for the next six years. Wonderlic test. Like he doesn't, he's not going to get any trouble. I don't, I don't know. I mean, he's swinging out of his shoes a little bit too much. So maybe, maybe an injury risk, but I think he's got a sustainable career ahead of him. I'm going to take a decky.

Okay. Y'all forgot about this. And he's like 30, isn't he? He's older than that, right? And maybe 32. 32. Let's see here. You know, Kieran Vincent's staring me in the face. You know, you got, you got Coke rack, things of that nature.

Gosh, and all seriousness. I love my team. You're going to get Vikings or who's the team that got cut off the clock or because they didn't get a pick in the time. Big tone struggling. This is, this is a lot of different directions. We can go here guys. Leek at the bottom. Give me saw. Okay. And who else get to there? See here. Give me saw. Hit and give me. Me. Sung Jay. Hmm. I didn't know what Sung Jay I looked at him. I just don't I don't either. I get we got to start doing something here pretty soon.

I'm going with Nikolai Hoygard in my ninth round. Neil, your final two picks. I'm going to go with, uh, Daniel burger. Hmm. I like that. And I'll go, I'll take Sam Burns too. Wow. Okay.

I'm going to take Tom Kim. Tom Kim in the 10th final pick. I will sprint home with that team. All-star team here. TC final pick. Who's Mr. irrelevant? Yeah, Mr. irrelevant. I could go with Sammy Valamaki. You go with Albert Hansen. Although he's, you know, probably, probably a few years away. Mr. Pavon. Yeah. We could go with one of the young Japanese. I took a look at, uh, uh, Nick Taylor. I think he's, I think he's going to be around.

Yeah. I like, I wish Thor Bjornsson wasn't hurt. I know, I think that would be a big reach on Nick Taylor. Fair enough. Personally. Um, He'd even go a Jason day. Like he's playing some good golf. He's getting older, but, uh,

let's see. So you, so you, you went with Nikolai Hoygard. I did. So I could go with, I could go with Rasmus. I could go with Adrian Dumont, Nade Shassard. This was the worst thing we could have done was give him the very last pick, you know, this is, this is, this is only with a stable compound. Next name you say, TC is your pick. That's the rule. You got to make a pick.

Next name you say is your pick. Okay. Okay. Huh. Uh, it's obvious, I think who it should be. Really? Yeah. It's obvious.

Interesting. Is he inside the top 100 in the world? Depends on if you use the corrupt rankings or the real rankings. We should use the, what are the SI ones? The distance per shot rankings. You could use the thirsty golf rankings, the distance per shot, data golf, or the corrupt world shot rankings. You can use the first, the thirsty golf rankings, the distance per shot data golf or the corrupt world golf rankings. Give me a big tone. Wow. The unstable compound not coming off the board. Ben Woo Lee. I would have thought he would have gotten, he was on my big board there. I think he's like 26.

Is that I'm totally guessing. Okay. I'm just going for some guys that are, you know, absolutely. Like, like big tone plays a lot. He's right in the prime of his career. He just hasn't played great lately, but so it's hard. It's that's what's weird about this. You don't really don't know. You buy us. Yeah.

It's really hard. Not to men with these 25 and a half. Um, so I would see you left out there. It's the names that were on there. Rasmus, Tyrrell, Hatton. I know interested. He doesn't do anything in majors and he plays on live now. I think that's the low ceiling. Keegan. I mean, he's, he wins a lot. Getting older though. I've, the six years out thing is where I like, I don't know. He looks like Couture to me in six years.

Uh, Corey Connors, um, I had, I had out there. He's been like the forgotten man lately. I feel like I haven't heard or seen much of my guy. I tell you who we may have forgotten out there. Cam Davis. Cam Davis is really good. Yeah. He kind of just doesn't do that much though.

TC. I mean, uh, JT post in TC who you said is just, you know, I think he's the most under player in the world right now. No world class, touch your music sensation, Eric Cole. None of us wanted to take a chance on Justin saw. If I had a name to that I think can go boom that I had a pick to play with. When you ding the amateur, he is very, very, very legit, very, very, very legit. And could go thermonuclear boom. Um, really impressive golf swing.

That was the, that was the one that was off the board. Yeah. We could keep, I mean, maybe we'll do a secondary draft. Maybe we'll do the next 10 picks if this was a hit for people. All right. This was very fun to do. I hope it was fun to listen to. But TC's team is Hovlin, Ludwig, Cantley, JT, Fleetwood, Neiman,ap, saw, hith, sung J and big tone.

I have Scotty Rory, Xander, Zalatoris, cam Smith, Bryson, speed, Hedekki, Nikolai, Hoygarden, Tom Kim, Neil has Ram, Kepka, Morikawa, Homa, Wyndham Clark, Gordon, Sargent, Cam Young, Matt Fitzpatrick, Daniel, burger and Sam Burns. I absolutely, I love my team. Let's, let's put a hundred winners up top though. No winners. No winners.

No, nobody wants the ball. What's the good score? You got winners up. I got solid. Doesn't have winners. Guys are like, when it like Xander, Rory struggling to majors, Scotty stuff, struggling with the putting. I mean, yeah, they're big names, but I like my squad. Come on.

I tell you what, it really interesting one would have been Nicholson. If he wins one major, there is, I mean, it's weird to think like Gary Woodland won a major, Brian Harmon won a major, like, you know, some random names. We're not going to have all the majors covered over the next six years with these 30 guys. I can promise you that, but yeah, um, that was fun. That's a fun way to start the show versus, uh, just getting right into the, the, to the very shitty stuff before we do get going. When we're choosing what to wear, the key is to be comfortable.

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special URL, that's shopduer.com slash NLU. It's an awesome deal. Don't wait. Get 20% off now. Shop doer.com slash NLU. We got to send Randy to the store. I wanted to go check it out. All right. Cognizant Palm Beach is massive Sunday. Rain delay means a Monday finish. We elected to go ahead with the pod tonight. I don't think all the things we have to talk about tonight are contingent on who wins this tomorrow. Could this have been avoided today? This was they went off in two sums off one tee and they got absolutely boned by a three plus hour delay today. I don't think it was in the forecast the whole time.

Like they didn't even try to get better though. If it's a shorter rain delay, I mean, they're probably still finishing on Monday though with three, two tee, three guys. I don't know if they get it all in. Cause it seems like complicated things for tomorrow for the seminal pro member. Neil, I know you're a big seminal pro member guy. I was looking over the, uh, the field. There's some, some masters of the universe.

Uh, I always, always shocked me. Like, Oh, that guy, yeah, that makes sense. Okay. Cool. Part of me wonders with the horrible start the tour has had to the year, like another day of moving up three, some tea times, tape delay coverage, all the things that would have come with the horrible ratings that they were like, Hey, let's just, let's just go for it and hope we get lucky.

And the, the tour is not going to get lucky this year. No, we have evidence of that. So yeah, I don't know if they would have got it in. They could have got a lot more golf in today. Cause yeah, Austin Necro. It's does 12 holes to play. He's at 15 under Eric Van Roy and is 14, but he's in the house. He shot 28 on the front nine today. Jake Knapp is at 13 under. He only has three holes to go and Shane Lowry is three back, but has 13 holes to play. So kind of weirdly doesn't seem like that interesting of a finish. I hope I'm rooting for Austin Neero though. I know he's your boy TC. Yeah, I think I need to go back and listen to the

preseason pod because I think I, that was one of my predictions, right? It's Eckero among many others. We would have to check the tape on that pod or maybe one in this in the fall who can really say, I just want to say Shane, Larry random horse for course here always seems to be sniffing around. Hasn't won it yet, but always in the hunt down here. I wonder what it is about the Palm beaches that gets him, gets him. I think he lives down there. Right. It does.

Yeah. I'm not sure. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, Noren, your boy, Sally, he's playing well. Uh, Billy Horschel showing some form as well. Horschel really wanted to finish. She was rushing to get, uh, get the tee shot in on 18.

So he got to get in the house and get up to get up to, I assume. Is he in Bay Hill? I'd actually don't even know. Maybe just to get home. Uh, but I did not get it today. Two, that's a strong, strong performance from him. I mean, like I do feel like with some of these guys, like a Tyson Alexander, Doug Gimm, guys like that playing well, getting to top 10, like priority ranking has become a massive, massive deal this season with guys just not,

like straight up not being able to get into events because, you know, a lot of guys are playing more often now. And yeah. So I don't know. I just I struggle with the forecast was bad, like all week for today. And they still chose like they're like, I guess the tour meteorologist said it was a 30% chance of rain and no thunder and lightning. And it just was bleak. You know, it's just another thing. Like, like, if there's a right decision to be made, the tour refuses to make that decision. Just doesn't seem like anybody's very focused right now. Uh, that's just the word I keep coming back to the whole, the whole beginning of the season has just felt very unfocused.

Some of that is uncontrollable to just with the wins you're getting. TC, make a good point about the priority ranking stuff. A story that's not being told though, right? Like hard to follow how important that is for, you know, maybe there's a storyline there with some of these guys to help fans get a little bit more excited about a lesser known guy winning.

I think the Jake Knapp stuff is great. Like he seems, it's cool to see a guy go on a hot streak and a guy with some personality and some flair. Uh, but yeah, it's been a, you know, it's kind of another week of like, man, this is not going great. It's just kind of wild too to have this, this open weekend kind of of not, you know, post football season that just sit does seem to be a vacuum, right? When there was the rain delay today, I was like, Oh, shit, what do I do today?

I guess I'll stand down the trim that I was, uh, this, that trim project I haven't finalized yet because it is like there's nothing really else on. And it just seems like it's amazing that they can't really bang it out. Mind hunter episodes on Netflix. It's just bleak stuff, you know, all around that they can't figure out a way to, to get their events to peak this time of year. What, what do you, what do you think about the setup this week? Little, little chatter. They got the new date. Um, oh, you know, a little bit away from the West coast swing, trying to recruit some more guys,

maybe a little more benign setup. Uh, as we go into Bay Hill and into the players, uh, I think they successfully recruited a few more guys to come. I don't know if that was kind of the string attached there, but no wind also. Uh, a little bit lower scores. I think a little bit more mean made of this than maybe there was the scores are point three shots lower overall compared to last year with a little bit better field this year. So it seems kind of similar to me than last year. 10 move from a par four to a par five. So I'm just using straight scoring average not in relation to par on that.

And I don't know it doesn't bother me as much. Maybe it's bothering some other people that. And I don't know. It doesn't, that doesn't bother me as much. Uh, maybe it's just bothering some other people just because the wind didn't blow. I mean, it feels like they did neuter the course a little bit too smiley. I had a tweet, uh, just kind of referring to, you know, he said, already 27 players under par at PGA national this morning. Some reasons why primary rough, very short compared to two years past, fairly cut around the greens appears longer,

even though officials confirmed it's the same length. Course is playing softer. And then he said, you know, basically where the tournament sits in the calendar, if you are a player in the signature events, why would you go beat yourself up for four days and get tired for Bay Hill players back to back weeks, more money and points available to the following to I don't mind the slight tweak to the course still going to be difficult, but that's a good point of, you know, they're trying to get more guys to show up for this, you know,

kind of it's in a weird spot on the calendar. And it just does, it didn't feel like it matched up to the identity of, of what this tournament has been about in the past. I got just a function of the realities of pro golf though, right? I mean, what that's what this tournament has turned into was dog shit. Right. I mean, no one playing in it, weird spot on the calendar and just a total shell of itself to the point that Honda, the longest running sponsor on tour,

didn't want to be involved in it anymore. Right. So it's hard. You know, it's called the cognizant until you can, until you can demand where guys show up, like you have to be doing things to help recruit players to the events. The guys that were in town living there are not showing up for the event. So again, it's just kind of one of the realities of, of the PGA tour, right? And I don't, I really don't know. I don't know who wins there. If they make it way harder and then just have less

good players show up because I want to watch the best players. Yeah. It's just such a sad state of affairs though. That like this is where we're at that they have to ease up on the course set up to get guys to show up. You know, I thought that stuff is a little premature though. Like let's wait till the tournament ends and see where the score ends up. Like I felt like we were complaining about this on Thursday and Friday. It's just like I like, why don't we wait for Sunday or Monday?

This is not my Honda classic. Okay. Sure. Sure. TCI understand. Jack's still on the booth though. Still, still getting up in there with, uh, with Dan Hicks chopping it up about ice cream and other, other, other things too.

We had Luke Donald in the booth as well. Uh, making an appearance. I, I enjoyed listening to him. He was, uh, I thought he was his commentary commentary was delightful. Um, don't have a whole lot more on it. I was watching on second screen a lot and just kind of on mute. So I didn't really pick up on it. It's not worth investing all of your time into. It's just not.

Well, yeah. And then like, I feel like, you know, all NBC wants to do is just plug the Olympics the whole time We've Olympics into everything like I'll see T pan bronze medalist in Tokyo. Oh My god make it stop. It was was fluff on CT pans bag Did I I think I saw you know, if you're a caddy fluff you guys know fluff, right? Yeah, I don't know Okay, just making sure I think I think we got there. Okay. Just making sure. I think, I think he's working CT pans back. Uh, anyway, sorry to detract other highlights. Thomas Dietrich had us an awesome six putt. I'm really sorry about that. TCA. I don't know where that, what that does, uh, for your rankings. Um, and then, uh, we had got some news, some sponsors exemptions

for Bay Hill, uh, board members, Adam Scott and web Simpson getting another round of exemptions into a signature event here. I'm so torn on this man. I know. Initial reaction was like, dude, that's not good. And then it's like, well, man, I mean, these guys are putting in a heck of a lot of work, but it does just, it does just, it's a little bit of Nancy Pelosi, you know, playing the stock market a little bit to me of like, be careful, Randy's going to come at you. You know, you get Palo Alto networks in the portfolio. All of a sudden you guys are making the rules here and you're getting these bypass exemptions into it and getting to play at it. I don't know, man. It's just a little off. Yeah.

He can doesn't mean you should. Adam Scott's been playing good golf, you know, and I, there's something to that of, you know, he plays a little bit more of a global schedule. And if he isn't able to get in the top 50 in the FedEx Cup, it's not necessarily representative of the golf he plays and, and all that. I get that web. I have a little bit more difficulty with as well,

but, you know, he's, he's kind of a sponsors dream as well. So we've had some things to say this week. What's going to say, you know, he's, he's kind of a sponsors dream as well. So we've had some things to say this week. What's going to say? Webb should, Webb should get one just for his Q and a with shoe pack. Yeah. I mean, like Webb, Webb hasn't finished in the, like he hasn't finished in the top 40 at an event since, uh, you know, last fall, basically. So I'm having some trouble with that one.

World number two, two 35 in the corrupt. Oh, WGR. I mean, he did say a lot in that interview though. And I would preface any of our commentary on like, Hey man, I'm glad you're somebody's saying something. Yeah. Uh, I don't know if I love all of it. It feels like, yeah, these meetings are starting to turn into brainstorming

sessions, which doesn't make me feel great about like You know we're blown past deadlines at the end of the year like You know I said last week. Yeah, my wife says hey, what's going on with all that? You know PGA tour Live golf mashup, you know the co-lab and it's like I don't I don't know it doesn't really seem like they know either So that's it. It was not, it was not a, uh, it didn't make me feel super optimistic. Let me put it on.

Well, I'm saying I'd love to work out a deal with Piff. Uh, you know, I have to say, what does that look like? I said, I have no idea. That's something we talked about. Yeah, we got to talk about it. We got to get going. Yeah, we got to get going on this guys. Yeah. Yeah. We know, man. We're all, we're all saying that that's not, I was hoping you guys, the board has a clear understanding of what Yoss from the Saudis are thinking are seeking. Webb said, we're not sure yet. I do. I love the idea of a team golf and the idea of franchises and you know, it's something

any good company is going to listen to it is it's investors or potential investors and see why they want to do that. I think that conversation be sooner rather than later. Like man, you know, it's, it's, uh, I think he said at one point like, yeah, we should get in a room with Yasser and you know, maybe let him in on the whiteboard session. It's so funny because he kept getting so close to get to like making really good points and then just finishing it like in the worst way possible. He's like, you know, how to eat. There's, there's less spots,

but we create a more competitive environment, right? Like, like field sizes, for example, 156 in my opinion are just a terrible thing. And I'm like, Oh yeah, let's go. He goes, I think field size need to go down to 144. Sure. We're talking about taking spots away from guys, but in terms of path back for live guys, if live goes on two more years, you're only left with five or six guys with any kind of exemption left, blah, blah, blah.

All this way of saying like, yeah, man, I don't, you're not making any of us feel any better about any of this, any of what's going on. It is a big step up from when James Han was on the policy board spewing some of the most psychotic shit any of us have ever heard. But yeah, it doesn't leave you with, uh, with a great feeling of wherever the exciting talks about, talks about the signature events. He's like on paper, it's working great. Uh, ratings.

I don't think if something has been something to write a home about, but it's hard cause pebble was rained out centuries and it is in a different time zone. I think we'll know a lot more post RBC heritage as we're throwing all of our eggs into the post masters basket. And then he said, he said about, he said about Monaghan. Shoupag asked if anything will be determined before players. He said, if I guess is Jay will do a press conference, like he always does with players. And I bet he'll get into some of it or a lot of it and really bring the golf media up to date with where we are. I think

he's shown this, that transparency is king right now, especially from leadership. And I think he wants to be as transparent as possible, the golf world as far as where we, where we are, where, what we're thinking and where we're hoping to go. Like, man, when I think of transparency, I think of Jay Monahan and the PGA tour. I want Monahan just to word for word, just redo his speech from last year and see if anyone notices, just do the whole thing. Like we're focused on legacy, not leverage, uh, or the PGA tours moving on. Uh, no, I think last year was the PGA tours moving on, right? And, uh, yeah, that moving on is not looking so great here, but on another note, um, the tour is adjusting field sizes from 144 to 156 man for the

Valispar and Valero on the back. So that web's pissed about that. Oh, on the backs of a bunch of cornfair guys, not getting a lot of starts. Uh, this feels like a good adjustment, uh, kind of in season, uh, to make happen. Just, I think they've met, they've badly miscalculated injuries and exemptions categories to the point where some of the guys that have graduated from the cornfair are getting kind of royally screwed out of this section of the year.

But their time is coming. The, once the majors hit and summer opens up, uh, there'll be a lot of tournaments that, uh, but man, I was just thinking about that. How bleak everything looks right now, how bleak this summer is going to get. Once the, once the majors hit, how bad those, uh, those summer events are going to be this year. Oh my God. Three M things of that nature.

I think it's, it does suck for some of the rookies or some of the guys that came off the corn fairy tour when, you know, you've, you've ostensibly got your PGA tour card and you've, and you haven't made a start since you've been one start in like Palm Springs or like that's, that's tough, right? And you know, all right, corn fairy tours been down in Latin America, Central America. Like, you know, that's not an easy trip to go down there and play. It's, it's, yeah, it's no man's land. That's ox. Yeah.

That question was from glute activator was how bleak is the summer going to be. Uh, this is the best part of the season. Another one, I'm all yonix. It does, there's, does there feel like less excitement of the signature and elevated events this year compared to last year? Uh, I'd say wholeheartedly. Yes. I think it wholeheartedly, yes. I think it has everything to do with June 6th

of just kind of killing any momentum they had going last year with what the future plan was for the PGA tour. And now none of us have any idea what the future plan is. It's super hard to like pretend like this golf matters anywhere in the world right now in between the majors. It just is so, so bleak. I think one other thing too is just the I Totally get it like if you win a signature event you should get more points, but there was a really good example in

a golf you know a golf channel piece on like so Chan Kim number two from the PJ tour from the corn fairy tour last year is, is next up at number 74. He's currently out of the playoffs because he posted two finishes of top or of T 14 or better in his first four starts. Top 50 member, SEP Strakka is number 48. Despite posting two MCs and four starts, three of them signature, no top 25s aside from a

T 12 at the small field century. So that's, that's a tough one to stomach a little bit. It is. There's a lot of time left though. I mean, there's, there's four months left, right? I think if we look back at the end of the year and you can read back something like that, I think that's definitely worth reevaluating. It is. It's, this is shameless power. We're walking through the end. Yeah. Something worth, I was gonna say, TC, that's definitely something to monitor, right? But at the same time, if we had the old system where all the, you know, reach around events counted and it's like some no names way out in front of the Fed X cup,

it's like there's, you know, we got, hopefully we can find the balance here at some point. Then we've got, you know, we got Zach Johnson and Jimmy Walker doing this. It's actually playing well this week. I mean, he's still, he's still got some game. So he, he, the one thing I will say for Zach Johnson is he, he shows up and he plays well often. So I don't want to act like his whatever, if it's an exemption or whatever, like at least he's taken advantage of it. What career money or 300 cuts made or something? I don't know what it is, but I just saw it today. 11 under too many cards. I'm going to push back on, you know, it's going back to Wyndham last year.

Cut, cut, cut, cut. I'm talking about this week. 5, 260. One good start doesn't justify. Okay. Well, listen, I'm just, I'm calling him like I saw him today. I was like, Oh, Zach Johnson playing well. This is a not exactly suspended household. He should be suspended after the rider.

I feel like I agree. Would it be nice to get some, some, some new blood bubbling up? Yes, it would be for sure. It's just funny that like, cause, cause web's one of those guys that's going to take advantage of that top, you know, 30 career money list exemption at some point too. And it's like, we're all looking for the guys who did this and like all these guys have been on the policy board at different points and have basically enacted all of these get agile free cards. Speaking of Zach Johnson, uh, this episode is brought to you by season two of Netflix hit sports series full swing.

2023 was yet again a year like no other in the world of professional golf. The full swing cameras were there to capture it all from a controversial and divisive agreement between the PGA tour and the PIF to the selection of Ryder Cup teams in the face off between the US and Europe at Marco Simone. Full swing takes you inside the locker rooms, meeting rooms and family rooms where it all happened. We've seen the results on the course, but full swing takes you behind the scenes to experience the physical toughness, mental resilience and technical prowess. It takes for Ricky Fowler to return to the winner's circle or for

Wyndham Clark to take down his first major. Also looks at the life of a pro and the pieces are not coming together, whether it's Joel Damon struggle for newfound fame with newfound fame, I should say, or Justin Thomas missing his first FedEx Cup playoffs since 2014 and fighting for that last Ryder Cup captain's pick relive the 2023 season of professional golf with inside access. You won't find anywhere else watch full swing March 6th only on Netflix. It's under embargo. I'm not sure what I'm allowed to say about it just yet, but I have watched it all and there's a lot of really good stuff in it. So I will encourage

people to do a lot of them. I think the embargo list tomorrow, but the ask, yeah, I can only, I think I can, yeah, I think you might be right, but we'll be recapping the entire season. We're recording that actually on Monday. That'll be out on Wednesday morning, um, as, uh, as it hits the Netflix airway. So whenever you are done watching it, uh, you know, obviously there's going to be spoilers in there. Whenever you are done watching it, you can listen to our recap whenever you want to. So, So I got a couple more things from, from cognizant real quick. Okay. I just want to give a shout out to bud, Collie.

Seriously, that, that comeback's been under reported and under appreciated three years off, uh, slew of injuries from car accident. Uh, just to, you know, pretty remarkable stretch of golf he's playing right now. So just shout out to him. That's, that's been awesome to see, you know, on the flip side, I couldn't believe country music sensation, Eric Cole finishing almost DFL in this event. Uh, allegedly he took a week off. What? And this is, this is what happens when he takes a week off. He's going to build it all back together now.

Oh, he's been on the road. You know, life on tour, man. It dragged you down, you know, every, every night, a different hotel, a different city, different, you know, different stage. It just gets a little difficult at some point. Byron Maxwell 76, Asitoo, the address, the Rory rumor, please. Listen, I would be, let me just put it this way. I would be the most stunned of any development in the history of golf. If, if Rory was going to live, I'll just put it that way. He is not in talks with live from what I gather. If he's joking about it at a press conference, I don't think, uh, that means he's actually potentially going to live.

It would be one of the great heel turns of all time. I, I would like to scheme out maybe an entire episode of what would happen if Rory went to live because it would be, uh, man, that would be absolutely insane on so many different levels. Yeah. I mean, I think, I do think he's trying to put some pressure on the big leagues at the tour to make something happen. Right? I think it's, you know, I'm sensing some frustration from him. I think there's been some rumors abound of, you know, PIF and the DP world tour talking.

Uh, I could see Rory being involved in that to basically say, all right, cool. PGA tour is not going to do my global tour idea. Then you know what? I'm going to go with somebody who, who will, and then I can still play the PGA tour and the majors and all that. Yeah. I don't know. I struggle with that is just his relationship with SSG as well.

And I, you know, I don't, I, I, I, like what if Fenway was involved with that too? Cause they have a relationship with the Saudis already and the DP World Tour already. I don't think they would want to be investing in two separate, different, um, you know, competing interests, but I mean, again, I, this is the, the problem with all of this is like, I think we're thinking too much along the lines of common sense. And that is not what has been ruling out over the last couple

years. And you end up with these decisions that are like blindsiding us because I think, you know, we just keep expecting common sense to prevail and it just has not yet. Or it just seems like money keeps prevailing and we're like, you know, maybe we're getting fooled by that. Well, it seems like inertia is like definitely prevailing too. It seems like the tour is trying to make strides internally. Like they've moved a bunch of stuff over PGA tour enterprises. I think everybody's getting their paychecks from there now. Uh, us included, right?

So, uh, I talked to Randy about that. I saw that, that, uh, I saw that come through that wire come through. I was like, PGA tour enterprises. It almost says PGA tour, but it seems like they're trying to. They're trying to bring more tournaments in like in under the umbrella of championship management. It's like similar to what they did with the cognizant where they basically kick out the host organization.

I think they're trying to do that at Quail Hollow right now. I think they're trying to buy the Ryder Cup. That seems like a basically a certainty. Buy that off the PGA of America. So they're trying to get all their ducks in a row, but it's like the house is on fire over here and they're trying to like remodel the case. It feels like everything there. That's where when I said earlier that the unfocused distract a lot, a lot of, of

stuff going on over here and we're not really paying attention to the product being rolled out week to week. The thing I'll say about Rory is I'd like to see him play a little better. It's like this week. So like this week, I hope he's in a good mood. That's great. But like, man, like, I kind of wish we just maybe get back in the lab a little bit and and just say a little let maybe I'm feeling that way like a lot like Roy is on full swing a ton. So I've you know, I watched the whole season two and like maybe that's some of that is maybe I'm being influenced by stuff he said last year or I've just had a bunch of of Rory in my life this week, but I'd like to see him just play a little better and go win and trend towards Augusta, basically.

So when we get caught up in these rumors, that then I gotta think like, okay, if he's trolling great, but like that's gonna suck a little bit of energy out, right? Cause now it's gonna be asked about it this week and he's gonna be asked about it next week. And I mean, is that really what he wants to be thinking about it this week and he's going to be asked about it next week. And, and I mean, is that really what, what he wants to be thinking about right now? Maybe. I don't know.

He seemed to, he seemed to welcome that. Yeah. Is he using his fuel? Think so. His fuel. Yeah. Just, you know, it's like he needs that chip. He needs that, that people doubted me or people, you know, here's, here's what, like I'm, I'm hoping in that, uh, he's played really well in a lot of

stretches leading up to the masters and just hasn't fucking mattered. It just has not like when the gun goes off, like the only thing that matters when the master starts, it doesn't matter how you play in your practice round, doesn't matter how you play the week before. The only thing that matters is being ready for that exact moment. I'm thinking about this a lot in terms of spring training, watching my red legs of like, look, yeah, you can go for four today, but like it doesn't matter. Whatever it's going to matter. It starts March 28th.

And the optimist in me is saying like, maybe he really is using all of this as training ground for like trying to peek exactly for that, right? And not being as concerned. Um, it's, he's playing a lot. I'm sure he's going to want at least a couple of good finishes, a couple of good feels in there. But yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm a little concerned with how his game has looked over so far this year since he's came to the States, T 66 at, at Pebble, T 24 at Genesis and these T 16 sitting there right now.

He's finished. He'll probably slide down a bit from that in a weaker field. Yeah. I mean, those are not good starts to his year and not, you know, representative of him as a player. So I don't think I was like wildly, I mean, he shot 67, 67, round one too. He made a triple Saturday. Yeah.

That was, that was pretty uncharacteristic. He tried to hit a ball out of the water. He did something similar pebble though. Like that there just seems to be kind of incomplete weeks going on. Um, but yeah, you could say, Hey, that's golf, but I'm also just a little bit like, let's not, I'm just, I just want to watch them play golf. Right. I feel like you, you know, you're off the policy board. You seem like that turned into a big distraction for you. Then maybe we step away from the mic for a little while.

I agree with that. Yep. Over to not over to Jeddah over to King Abdullah economic city. Um, thank you, Sally. Yeah. And it seems like it seems like the live, I think we've broken through with them. Yeah.

That's been, that's been maybe my number one cause of the last several years. It's just King Abdullah economic city getting short changed by calling this event live, Jedha. Um, uh, the big story of the week, of course, the return, the long awaited return that everyone's been clamoring for the return of Anthony Kim to competitive golf after 12 years away. Neil, I'm going to throw it to you first. What's your, what's your general reaction to, uh, not even necessarily to, to how AK

played, he of course finished dead last this week, but, uh, what's your reaction to, to the return of AK? Uh, I think I said it last week, I really mean this when I say I'm more interested in AK like as a human, like as a person. And I still have really yet to hear him talk other than maybe I saw a clip of him talking. I mean, I finally saw like for all of last week,

we didn't see a picture of him. Like I was like, I was just actually gonna happen. I just like to hear about, you know, not that I'm entitled to this, but the last 12 years. And I'd like to hear why he came back. And so I'm kind of I'm more interested in the story in the why of this, instead of really seeing him play golf, watching some of the clips and the highlights, his swing looks, it looks good. It looks a little, you know, he looks rusty, obviously. It'd be a let down anywhere he came back to play, but I truly mean this when I say like I'm rooting for him,

but I feel like I'm rooting for him as a person. Like I hope he's not being like used as a, like a circus attraction, you know, like I hope he actually wants to be there. Like does he really want to sign up? This definitely feels like a better situation for him than him trying to grind his way back on the PGA tour. I, I mean that like guaranteed, it's, it's a pretty comfy setup for him, right? Now, does he deserve

that? I guess if, but then again, we go back to our like old Jake Paul jokes of like, we're one step away from like, well, let's just attention any way we can. But like, I will withhold that judgment until he's played, let's say five events and see where we're at. But if he's dead last in all of them, it's like, what are we doing? Like, and, and, but again, I'm rooting for him. Like, I kind of think it would be awesome if he went out and bald out. So I hope he's like, I hope he wants to be there. And this is like, but I would like to hear that from him. Like, I'd like to kind of think it would be awesome if he went out and balled out. So I hope he's like, I hope he wants to be there. And this is like, but I would like to hear that from him. Like I'd like to kind of understand where he's at. So that's, I guess, my take.

I, yeah, I held off on saying anything on the, on social this week, just because it's kind of impossible to weigh in until like we hear his story. Like we've certainly, you know, heard some things about the situation, but it really is his story to tell and not ours, especially with the severity of, of you know some of the contents of that story. It's not a golf story I don't really think it's more of a of a human story And I know I know people hate the the whole like you know I know something but can't tell you thing but it's kind of an impossible situation you're to try to Comment on things that are like public like his performance and him playing live while also having an idea of what's been going on behind the scenes, but definitely not to the extent where we can actually tell

that story. Like, like he said, he's going to tell that story when it's time, but it also just makes the timing of him coming back super weird. But you know, from what we've gathered, there is some sort of documentary in the works, no clue of, you know, on its status or if it, you know, him coming back changes that now that he's under the live umbrella. But the whole situation just makes me really uncomfortable. Uh, I, I can't help but think that he is being exploited like by, you know, both by his handlers, by Norman, by live, he's like a pawn now. Who are his handlers?

I, I have an idea of, of who they are. But again, that's just kind of something that, uh, you know, we're just kind of have heard off hand, but he's just a pawn in this dumb ass golf war. And there is like a reason he hasn't played competitive in 12 years. Like he's not, he's not going to be competitive. He's just not like he's bringing some short-term eyeballs to live. But I think this is probably going to get old pretty quickly. There was certainly a buzz this week, but it all just felt very uncomfortable. Like I don't really know what the

goal is here. Like it's kind of a can't win for live. Like if he plays well, that doesn't really speak greatly of the competitive nature of the live tour. And if he doesn't, it's just a side show. And then, you know, when you have limited fields and you desperately want OWG our points, it's not a good look to guarantee a start in every one of these events. But it's also, I don't know. I don't know. I'm personally own goal. You know, and Neil, I'm with you like, I don't know him at all. And I, you know, we even even, since we've been doing this, he's not even around in

the golf world. Like I, but I do find myself rooting for him as a person and like best case scenario. I think for all of this is that competitive golf helps him keep his life on track. And if it does, I think we can view this whole experiment as a success regardless of what he shoots, but it's really hard to say anything more than that at this point. And it's not, um, I don't know, man, it's really uncomfortable and it's, I don't know what the, what the realistic hope is here. Yeah. I don't know what success looks like, right? I mean, yeah, it's successful. That's, it's kind of undercuts live their

credibility. And he's gone this long without playing again. It's one of those things too. We're like the prime of his life. He decided not to play pro golf for, I'm sure, a variety of reasons and health reasons. But again, we don't know that, right? And you can't just come back. I would just like to hear that like why now and if it's for the money, that's dude. Like let's find the money. It didn't seem like it's for him that much money. Is he getting like, like I was kind of underwhelmed by the dollar figures being. But again, that's yeah.

And that's kind of depends on what happened with the insurance thing, which is again, kind of part of that story that we don't really, we don't really know. It's like, oh yeah, he's always had this insurance policy. That's why it doesn't come back. Like, nobody really knows if that's true or not or like, who paid it off? Did it get paid off? I guess it was there an insurance policy. Like AK has always been, yeah, like we made shirts, eight legends never die. It's like sometimes it's like that the legend is, is better than the reality. There's no more legend anymore now. Right. And then, okay. So then I saw a lot of questions online this week of like, Oh, well, what if

he came back to the PGA tour, you guys would be riding, you know, D riding form. It's like, honestly, in some ways it would probably work itself out a little quicker because he probably just missed the cut. Right. So it's, it's like, you wouldn't get exemptions into, you know, the top, the signature events, right? He would have to join the policy board. If like, uh, you know, I think he lives in Dallas. So like he gets an exemption in the Byron Nelson. It'd be like, yeah, that'd be a fun, probably a story like, okay, but I think he probably has to CJ cup,

CJ cup, honoring Byron Nelson. Then it would feel like if he made the cut, it would be a massive story. But it would probably be, I don't know, I guess I'd feel kind of similarly of like, all right, let's see what happens. I guess it feels a little different when it's going on, like on the other side of the world and I can't watch it live and it just, you know, they're sending out hype videos of the desert and like sand blowing. Hi haters.

Yeah. It's like, what, what is it feel? It truly feels like we're in the metaverse and I'm, Yes. It's sort of struggle just with like everything, man. It, uh, from what we, from what we have heard, like if this does sound rushed, like really rushed and it may have made sense a year from now or to start the next season. Um, if there was a real actual comeback, but again, that's where I get back to the, like really rushed. And it may have made sense a year from now or to start the next season.

If there was a real actual comeback, but again, that's where I get back to like this just being a pawn in this dumbass game. Like sure, Liv got the buzz. Now he's going, they're going to Hong Kong next or Singapore next. I forget where they're going next. And then they come back to the States. Like, I guess, you know, getting a couple starts with no fans around is maybe again part of the goal. But again, I don't know. It's maybe we'll get the story. You warm up and then you, as their season ramps up, he's in, in form, but it's just started. You guys, do you guys see the TV, the, the, the caffeine, the, uh, streaming platform they're on? I think they were reporting that what, like two million, a million people watch.

And the comments below, you know, outside of like the CC, like this is, this is the future. A lot of people, what's caffeine TV? Like genuinely people would be like, what is that? Well, and solid, you said like, all right, so this was on YouTube and there's the largest video platform in the world. People total watched and we're supposed to believe that 2 million people watched on caffeine TV. Like I think 2 million people watched the masters streaming.

Right? Like 2.7 million watched the Thursday masters broadcast, but 2 million people on caffeine. I literally have never heard of this network before they announced this partnership, but 2 million people logged on to watch that not they don't get 70,000 people to log on to the CW app to watch live golf when it's on. They don't get 10,000 people to watch it on the live plus app and they don't get 200,000 people to watch on YouTube, but 2 million on this network that I've never heard of before is the actual published number that they put out to convince us that that it was a success. And I honestly, if there were two million people watching,

like good for them, that's, that's great. But like, you know, I, it gets back to what I think Neil, if there were, they would have a TV deal. They would have a television deal. I wouldn't be on caffeine. I love to sell that. I just, just theoretically, if there were two million people on caffeine TV, stop telling me about it. Just have the two million people. Just, just keep them. You know, that's, that's great. Yeah.

Just those two million can go over there. I just stopped telling me how much I'm, stop trying to make me feel like I have FOMO. I don't have it. Even some of the people down in Australia, they're reaching out. They're like, yeah, like, live was great to watch the last couple of years. And now it's just on like linear TV and they load it with commercials. It's just as bad as anything else.

The biggest mistake I think they've made is taking it. They should have just kept rolling with YouTube. I think they'd have a ton of momentum right now. So I think some ego got in the way with that decision. You can still watch it on YouTube, right? Yeah. Can you? The first round, at least I think some ego got in the way with that decision. You can still watch it right? Yeah. Can you? The first round, at least I think you can.

I don't know exactly, but I mean, listen, I got to give credit where credit's due on the live on the live front. Pays to play penalty. That is really good stuff, which is like, you know what? Like we're relying on these guys. The inherently unserious 54 man, three, you know, three round shotgun start league to actually enforce the rules and pace of play. It's, it blows my mind. That's the work. You know, this is going to end with Bryson in a video guide. Oh, WG ARP, what are we doing guys? Huh? We gave him a rock of pace play penalty. Huh? What are we, what are we doing? What are we doing here guys?

Which, and, and like, I feel bad cause it's my cliques. Obviously. Cliques didn't have a good week. Blandy, Blandy was outside the top four. Crushers are on a, on the war path right now. Unbelievable. But man, I was, it was, and I think ROM's been in the group where they, that they've warned every single time on pace of play too, which I can't imagine Rob starting on like the third hole in a shotgun. I bet he's so pissed when he's like, they cart him out, they cart him out.

This is stupid. This is stupid. Why are you starting me on seven? Why not 10? At least 10. Oh, oh, now I have to start on a part three. This is bullshit. Rob, Rob, he's probably getting, uh, getting all these, uh, pace of play wardings cause he's like, actually taking the golf seriously. They're like, Hey dude, man, there's music playing. Just kids. Just keep it moving. Just keep it moving. Come on, John. All right. So, so Wade Orms be subbed in for, for Matt Wolf who withdrew due to some sickness.

You see, this was the first time hearing of this that they have guys just sitting around waiting for guys to withdraw to sub in mid tournament. That's the first I'm hearing of this, that they have guys just sitting around, waiting for guys to withdraw to sub admit tournament. That's the first time hearing of this. I think this did happen last year or two years ago. I think I'll be boner. It's been one of the subs a couple of times. I forgot about that though. Probably walking Neiman one by four shots as well as second win. He immediately is getting interviewed by of course, Dom Boulay afterward. Dom tells him he's a favorite for a major and he responds of course saying,

how could that be? If I'm 100 in the world, uh, despite getting a special exemption into the masters, uh, the first thing Neiman does yet again after winning a live event is wine about his OWGR ranking. That's going to really appeal to the golf masses here. What seems to be motivating him. So good, good on him. I mean, I hope he comes in.

Balling out like there is no doubt that this division or this bifurcation of the pro game does make the mass, the masters and the majors. I think it makes it more interesting. And so I hope the live guys bring their game and it's nice to see my guy keen falling out right now. It, it makes it more interesting comparison to all the other events, but I don't think it like makes it more interesting than the majors were prior to this, because it's still like the part of the, the bothers me and especially like after watching full swing is like the talk of all the, you know, the live

made the guy's performances in the majors validate live. It's like, if it did, people would watch, but nobody's still watching. No one's watching. No one's paying attention and nothing is changing. People are watching. Well, other than caffeine TV, like it doesn't change anything about the live product again, whether or not live players can still compete in majors. That question's been answered.

Like I don't think there's no one realistically. It's, it's that I was told Steph Curry couldn't shoot meme going around of like everyone's saying the live guys can't compete in majors anymore. It was like some guys were saying that going into last year. I was not one of them certainly, but I don't know how anyone is saying that at this point. I mean, they have ROM now and they have Kepke who won a major last year. Like that's over and done with once the majors come around. I know for me, it's going to be just golf as usual.

I do not find myself rooting against any of the live players in these events as much as I think the live product is stupid. And the biggest waste of my time in my professional career is, is this split of these two, these two tours that get out sustain this. The majors are going to be normal golf events. It's going to be exciting and it's going to be way worth investing your time compared to these normal week to week. I, yeah, I agree with that. The I get a little sick of this stuff too. And it's like, there

is a path into these events. If you guys, it's like, you got the money. Now you're gonna have to work a little harder to get into these events you wanted to play in. Like I think that's a fair trade off. Like, and like, okay, should we fix the OWWGR? Like, I don't really want to get into that right now. but like, you guys knew this when you went over there. I mean, God, we've been over this. So I'm not going to rehash it, but I agree. Like for that to be the first thing he says in both winning interviews, it's just, it

is a little lame. I'm kind of rooting at this point for things to get even more dysfunctional. Like let's try for Kate things. Let's, let's make it like So like, let's add like, you're right. The faster bottoms out, the faster gets built back together. That's how it was after the ROM leaving thing was just like, that's a Rory leaves. Okay. Sure. That's fine. Like what I would go. Why does it never put you go? And then let's get, like, let's basically make it so that the PGA

tour loses their broadcast deals and some of the networks can get out. And then we totally have to rebuild the whole thing and tear it all down. Like how's, right? How sick would that be? You know? I don't know. I think Ryan Palmer's playing with Brian Roberts tomorrow at the, at the seminal pro member. Maybe he can bring that up with him. Couple of other things on the live front. The aces, the four aces look fucking terrible. Like they look awful. And I was blown away at the high flyers or the, uh, the iron heads performance this week. And lastly, the majestics need to be relegated.

Like they're so bad. They're, they're last place virtually every week. I know if there was some sort of relegation, I think I, it would definitely help me be a little more interested in things. Uh, there is. Isn't there a lot like four guys? Yeah. Well, that's what I mean. It's that the team, I'm saying like the whole fucking team name goes away too.

Like the ironheads are our RIP evaporate, right? Not just the players. I'm saying like the team gets executed like the name itself. They come up with a new clip art graphic for the next team. You know, well, I the next team, you know. Well, I'm worried about, you know, the Clics have been on a run as far as their social lately, but this week they misidentified.

They, you know, they had a video with Adrian Moran and they put the name Kaye Samuja up there. I'm laughing at the Clics have been on a run lately with their social stuff. They have that purple, those purple uniforms that they released. And they had a great. Oh, no, I T.C.

I would back you on this. It's it's less about the Clics. It's it's whoever's running their social media. I like when there's competence, like in chaos, when you see like, like this whole disorganized tour, but then they have like, there's like one social media manager for the Clics. It's like balling out and like trying really hard and like Bland ammonium and putting together like dope Instagram graphics.

It's like, I appreciate that. Like the guys doing the guys doing a good job. Guy or girls doing a great job. It's just all there's freaking tornado going on around them. And they're, they're just balling out. It's great. Ripper. I think, I think the Rippers have, have a great social media presence as well.

A couple of other things on this front too, the Saudis bought the naming rights for the ATP, yes, four rankings and tennis. They've been, it seems like they're doing that a heck of a lot cheaper than what it costs to do all the live stuff. Right. And then I did see that, that Taylor Gutch purchased the Oklahoma wildcatters, which we haven't even talked about Taylor Gutch yet. That was a long time ago at this point this week. And I know everyone's gotten their shots on. Hold on. Hold on. So I don't skip over that. Taylor Gutsch bought a professional bull riding team. Yes. That's sick. Good for him. I mean, another word pro bull riding teams. My guy, big heads like, I just got all this money.

I don't have to do with it. I've always been in a bull riding. Let me, let me just, let me just bankroll these guys. He's, listen, it's trickle down. That's great stuff. That's great stuff. He's putting it to good use. Taylor Gucca again was talking about, uh, you know, not being eligible for the masters and went on to say, if Roy McElroy goes and completes his career grand slam without some of the best players in the world, there's just going to be an asterisk. It's just the reality. I think everybody wins when the majors figure out a way to get the best players

in the world there. This is old news at this point, but the, it's just the reality is, is my favorite part. Like it is because I said so, right? I mean, and again, if you look at the list of the top 50 players in the world on a real rankings list of actual power rankings, like the Bo Hossler is the best ranked player in the world. That's not in the masters as of now. And he's probably going toossler is the best ranked player in the world. That's not in the masters as of now, and he's probably going to get in. And the names that are missing are not the ones, uh, like Dustin Johnson and Bryson and Cam Smith and the best

players in the world. So I agree with his statement. Like, well, I think everyone wins in the majors, figure out a way to get the best players in the world there. Masters has done that. They have accomplished getting the best players in the world there and Taylor has not done anywhere near enough to get into the masters not even like remotely close Kind of pretty easy Roy gave him its it's gooch and it's I've seen Oost Hazen's name tossed around as like another snub. You think there's anybody else in that list that's like Who would be the third guy that you think is, I don't wanna say a snub

because I know you don't agree with that, but like, who's the first guy out out of those two? Who do you think has better case? Oost Hazen or Guch? I would say Oost Hazen. I mean, he lost in a playoff, you know, there. And he's an international player. That's always been a thing for Augusta

in terms of, you know, extending, you know, exemptions's an international player. That's always been a thing for Augusta in terms of you know extending You know exemptions and things like that. He would be way more likely to get one than Gouch was again the live Golf does not count according to the mate like the OWG are like it does not count for anything Who's Jason is accomplished some things outside of outside of live golf as well So I mean who stays and finished 50th in the Las Vegas event. He's fifth in the standings right now. So he was T two this week. He finished second, which when you go on their site, it says

King of dollar economic city up at the top, but it still says Jetta. Yes, it does. The finish. I know there's no, it's progress though. TC it's progress. It was Tayson did win twice on the sunshine tour slash European tour. Um, he won the Dunhill and he won the Africa Asia bank Mauritius open to close out December.

So I think he does have a decent case to get an invite. Um, but. Guts does not. He just straight up does not. Um, I want to give a shout out as well. A new ish. I don't know if this is a new tool, but a tool that I've not really utilized a lot of discussion that goes around a lot of times on what, you know, how hard is it? What does a live win

mean? How hard is it? Who has top players in it? All this blah, blah, blah. Guess who? Data golf has an incredible like table of all this stuff. Now it's called tournament summaries. It's right there on the homepage go to tournament summaries They do a great I have great graphics for every event that's been played on the major on the pga tour major championships dp World tour live golf cornfairy tour that show like every Every field how many guys they have above zero strokes gain so above average players in the field like the century had 55 of those So above average players in the field, like the century had 55 of those this past week, the cognizant had 75 players at at zero strokes, gained or better or above average players.

Whereas live Jetta had 29 of those players, right? And it gives us an X score, which is like the expected probability of somebody that posts a Xander Shoffley line, which is like two strokes gain, which is a really good player, the expected probability that someone in the field would beat that basically it's a way of saying like what's how difficult is it to win this golf tournament and it ranks all the tournaments in that in that vein. And it's just a really interesting way of looking at you know what the hardest events are to win who the where the best players in the world are playing not based on the WGR, but based on their actual strokes gained. It's

basically goes something like Premier events, the signature events, but based on their actual strokes gained. It basically goes something like premier events, the signature events, Century, Genesis, Pebble, and Waste Management rank as the top field events so far this year. Then it goes Live Vegas, Live Jetta, Myacoba. And then the next tier is the other PJ Tour events, which is Cognizant, Sony Open, American Express, Farmers Insurance, Mexico. That's the order of like the average skill distribution total in the order of like the average skill distribution total in the fields of those events. So they're saying live, the live events are harder to win.

No, that is a separate question. So that's average distribution of the players, but because of the limited fields in the live events, the harder to win events are all PGA tour events. And then the hero Dubai Desert classic even ranks up there. And then you go live Vegas, live Jed and my Acoba and then a bunch of DP world tour events in terms of how hard it is to win. So this model would say the Mexico open is harder to win than any live event because of the volume of players in the field. And basically, yeah. So like the Mexico open had, um, let's see, 42 players, 31% of the field

was zero strokes gain or better. And live has like 29 per event. So that's just, listen, I may have to utilize this when I, when I dictate what's a BDE. It's a very interesting model for the tool TC. It's also, it's a tool in the BDE toolbox. They have a separate model for excitement, volatility and star power. And they give it a rating from like one to a hundred in terms of like, you know, the excitement, how much leads are changed or, you know, leads are changing volatility, like how much unexpected stuff happens and star power, like how much the best players are involved and give like tournaments and overall ranking for the year, which is super

interesting. Like Sony like the does it slap index. Really is. It's like super interesting. Uh, it gives a Sony open century Phoenix and then Las Vegas are the top four events. So this year, uh, just, they just continue to crush it. But, all right. It's not, I do have.

It was Tayson won the Alfred Dunhill championship, the one in South Africa, not the Dunhill links, the one in St. Andrews. Just want to correct. I said it right. No, I'm just, they're two different Dunhill events. So many Dunhill's trophies on one trophy, son, two things of that nature. Roz, I'll come on open classic. Uh, also per the times live is involved in an eight figure lawsuit

with Andrew Gardner and the PGL. Of course we're waiting for this one. I know I like this too long. That's not two years ago. I wonder what their case is against live. I'd have to see the details of that. Andy's sick. I like Andy. I hope he, I hope he prevails. Well, he's gone dark on us. We haven't talked to him in a long time. And I was like, ah, he must be geared up for a major lawsuit. I don't think he wants to be talking to us. So, hey, you guys can depose me. This was Andy's idea. Okay. On the LPGA tour, Hannah Green won in dramatic fashion, burning the last three holes,

including a 30 foot bomb on the last to win the HSBC women's world championship by one over Celine Boutier. That happened early Sunday morning. I woke up just in time. My daughter to see that this morning. It was fantastic. Awesome moment. Andrea Lee was basically pimp stepping. Hannah Green's putt in for her, but it was like a foot out and Hannah Green's, or Andrea Lee started walking it in for her. And after it fell, they had a cool celebration. So congrats to Hannah Green ball. They're off to the, what about China tournament this week? They are off to a but about China. Um, this week, I like, I think overall it's been a really good LPGA start to this season. It's kind of the opposite of the PGA tour starts this season. I'm stoked for them to come back state side and get out to LA and,

you know, the other events in California and really like they've had a really, really good slate of winners so far this year. Allegedly the match was this week. That feels like a long, long time ago as well. Max Homa, Roy McElroy, Lexi Thompson, Rose Zang. Did you guys, were you guys able to catch much of this, Neil? I know you and, you and Carson were watching a lot of this. I watched it. Thompson Rose Zang. Did you guys, were you guys able to catch much of this? Neil? I know you and, you and Carson were watching a lot of this. I watched it. No, I honestly guys, I'm going to be totally honest with you. I thought it was really bad.

I really did. And, and I, I think I thought about why I think it's a couple of things. Way too many cooks in the kitchen. It's just, it's turned into a Leviathan, just a monster of like, what if we had this? What if we add that? What if we have six people announced? What if we, you know, it's just, there's just too much. It's too much going on for me. And I think the other thing that I really struggle with, with the match franchise is there's no through line. And I think if they had a consistent format or something that linked it to the last one,

and you guys could argue with me that that's the wrong thing for this as a charity exhibition. But I think if there was something that was cohesive about it from previous matches, then it would help me. But I thought that this was very hard to watch, and there's a lot of dead time that I really struggled with. And I thought Max and Rory and the players themselves were fine. I feel like it's just the circus around them that, that, uh, takes all the air out of it for me.

So I, just my honest opinion, I did not find this, um, I would not have been watching if I wasn't on the pod this week. Let me put it that way. I think I was probably more excited for this one than I had been for recent iterations of it, just because I think Rose and Lexi, I thought that was an interesting thing, which also like how is live not signed Lexi yet?

Like just go to live, like just do that. But like the park was cool, like I was excited to see the park, great golf course. Yeah, but the freaking drone, I couldn't even get a sense of the place. Like it's, like, oh, it's again, we're just doing normal. Like can I just get a drone shot of the hole without like, turning it upside down and like, that's the thing.

It's like they've, they've, they've over engineered this thing so that it's not for anybody. That's, that's where I was going. Exactly. Right. I can hear people saying, well, this isn't for you. This isn't for you. It's like, well, who is this for?

Is it like- What's up for my wife either? She's like, turn this off. This is brutal. Like, what are we doing? Is it for DJ Khaled fans? Right? Like, is that what it's for?

Like it is like so caught. Like I liked a lot of the golf stuff. I found it kind of super interesting to watch like to just to start Max and Rory kind of spray it all over and like Rose and Lexi just hitting just hitting stripes. Like the contrasting styles of play was like interesting, but it just drug on forever. And I know it's time.

Yeah. The whole like they don't know who's talking to him when they're driving the carts, like all the in between the golf stuff is like, it's all fucking fluff and I don't need any of it. Like I think like Chuck Charles Barkley, very talented. Honestly, don't like don't don't really need him. I just I guess that's the thing. Like I'm just trying to watch the golf, but maybe that's what it's like.

Oh, it's not for me. Chuck's good. I think you could easily do Chuck Imelman and and dude, that was the thing. Like we're concerned. It's not mean spirit. It she just doesn't. She just talks and talks and talks and talks and talks. And all the stuff she was saying to Max was just so bizarre and out of left field. And like, you know, it's, I cannot believe that someone green lit bringing Christina

Kim in for this one. It's insane. Well, I don't like it when they're trying to make these guys stand up comedians either. It's like Max is good on the mic and Rory is good, but like, don't make that's not they're not good at it as like their core thing. So stop like trying to get to the hit, like they hit a one liner. It's like once over 12 holes, like you're gonna get like three of those, but it's like we're basically using 12 holes to get like a Instagram reel is how I feel of like, yeah, let's just take a bunch of cracks at like getting

a joke off here. And it's like, no, man, why don't we just play the golf? Like it's not that fucking complicated. DJ college. Sorry. Do you want to, do you want to apologize to DJ college? No, I do not. I, uh, of course, breaking news reported that DJ college showed up for the match. No, I do not. I, uh, of course, breaking news reported that, uh, DJ college showed up for the match, uh, flew down to Florida thinking he was playing in the match. Uh, and put that out there on the X social media. I got called out for fake news, uh, by our guy, Biz nasty, uh, Paul Bizonette, who was riding around in the cart with DJ Khaled. Uh, Paul has since, uh, he has since rescinded his, uh, accusation of fake news.

He's like, I don't think Colin really knew what I was talking about. I was asking about Colin might have been lying to me. I like to apologize. He apologized. Apology accepted list. These are important issues in golf. I'm glad we can settle them in a peaceful way. But yeah, no, so I will not apologize for that.

That was a real thing that happened. We've said this for years and I know the gambling aspect is the reason why, but this just shouldn't be live. It should be condensed down if that was trimmed down into two hours that had been an entertaining product. I really do think it could have been. There was enough there to it just, it drags and drags and drags and drags. And you just need all of the best match was the second one they did with, uh, you know, Barkley was in the booth with Tiger, Phil, uh, Tom Brady, um, that was on the quarter. JT was on the course with them. Like somebody there, like kind of stoking the flame a little bit more than

like Catherine Tappen, not her fault, but Catherine Tappen walking up and like interviewing them and tell me about that birdie on that whole bat is not, it's just not it. It just seems like, well, we talk, we talk about this a lot with our content like there's something to a smaller crew just to some just smaller guys like that they I don't have a problem really with any specific person. It's just too many. It's too much. Well sure. And but it's like people in the wrong spots. And yeah man let's yeah it's almost like the somebody they're in a room and they're like,

yeah, fucking throw another shrimp on. Yeah, let's do that too. Yeah, let's, that's not how this goes well. It's like you need to strip it down, man. That's the, that, you should be doing the opposite of this. And that's where it, so that's where it's like, all right. Well, yeah, why wouldn't we have DJ Calvi? He's got 40 million followers.

Like of course we're going to. It's like, well, then don't have Rose Zhang. Like that's not, that's not a good crossover. Right. Like Rose Zhang is the definition of golf nerd. I mean, the highest possible compliment. Like she's an incredible athlete, incredible student and like a credible like representative of the women's game. But like her and DJ Cal had not the crossover we're looking for here folks. It just, I don't know, too many cooks in the kitchen, too many, too many. Uh, it, yeah. And the ratings reflected at only 511,000 viewers, which was a record low for the series.

So, uh, Sally, I'm, I'm right with you. I think my favorite one was that second match as well. But the, what was with Lexi? She had like a hundred yard wedge shot. She's like, I don't, I don't have that. It's a hundred yard wedge. When you don't have that shot. She's like, I don't have that. It's a hundred yard wedge. And you don't have that shot. She looked nervous, but I thought I actually thought she was pretty entertaining.

She was pretty outgoing and, you know, did decent interviews and like that. That I was a little worried about her on that stage, but she seemed to, she seemed to show out pretty well. So Max aim pointing was tough. Come on, Max. It's got to go. And then Max was great. Max had a good, good couple. I mean, the one club challenge was still super interesting watching Max geek out over Rory hitting that cut five wood. That was, that was the best audio moment of the whole thing for me, but somebody, uh, Ryan, Ryan Barath on Twitter said that the next match should be Lexi versus Scotty on this'll do. It pine her.

I thought it was great. Like I would, I would watch the hell out of you. You want to see, you want to match that'll go too long. It might be that one. Uh, you want to take us home with some, uh, some final notes, TC. Yeah. Listen, I just wanted to give a shout out to the Argentina open visa, Argentina open the 117th, uh, you just wanted to give a shout out to the Argentina open visa Argentina open the hundred and seventeen

You know you guys know I love my national opens Mason Anderson prevailed over Christopher Ventura in a playoff and they played through big crowds out there they played through the Dang dang a fever dang fever. There were some guys playing in mosquito nets In the pro am so just wanted to give a shout out to national opens as well I don't know how how did it how did on Hill Cabrera do he teed it up? He he shot 68 70 Missed the cut, but you know, that's pretty good coming out of prison. Right. It is indeed. Sure.

So, and then, yeah, just I threw the, the seminal pro member on there. Neil, I saw your guy that commission is playing. Yeah. Manfred's down there. The long stand, drunken Miller, just Titans, man. Titans only down there. Big cats playing. I saw that. I saw a tiger was in the field.

Interesting. So what do they do? Did they, anybody that's playing in the tournament tomorrow, did they just move their tea times later? Like the do this to sabotage the, the seminal pro member. Maybe, you know, her, you got her lehy and, and done in the field. You know, I would, yeah, I'm sure they'll try to work around their schedule if they can maybe send a couple of, uh, of PJs down for the boys to,

to, to speed them up the road, even if it's just what, like make that, make that 30 minute drive, a, uh, Taylor Swift, right? It would take longer to get to the airport. I think then it would. So like going back to the match real quick. Do you think they do another match? Or I mean, 511,000 viewers seems extremely low, especially when we're getting the 2 million on caffeine. Maybe they just move it to caffeine.

I was going to say, I think it's gotta go to especially. Sorry. I don't know. I'm sure they will. I'm sure they'll tweak it again in some way. And I feel like this felt under promoted. I just, I kind of had forgotten about it. I know they moved the date once. It kind of felt like the TGL stuff fell apart in a big, big way.

And it was like, all right, cool. Let's fire up one of these. And it was a little, maybe a. And it was like, all right, cool. Let's fire up one of these. And it was a little, maybe a little half baked. Yeah. It's just, I don't know. I feel like there's, there's a spot for like shell, wonderful, world of golf type stuff that doesn't have to be live. Yeah. I mean, and on the golf course, and it's for golf enthusiasts a little bit more,

you know, yeah. Some day, some day we're going to get content for STC. I don't know when it's going to be. Yeah. Last thing I had, there was, I just had to throw this in there. There was an Irish golfer, uh, senior guy, Joe Lyons. He won the Spanish senior amateur and he had to throw his trophy away at the airport because Ryan air wouldn't allow him to carry it on. This is the, this is a trap draw crossover for, for anybody curious

why we're bringing this up. This is, this is our other podcast where T.C. You know, it's basically a national open. You want a national open and they made him, they made him throw his trophy away. I feel like they could have gate checked if like 55 bucks. I've gotten caught on that with, uh, with Ryan air at some point. And I feel like he could, he could have. Yeah. It sounds like maybe he, he didn't want to pay the, pay the fee. I'm sure there was probably a way for him to, he could have probably shipped it home too. This was in the Irish independent.

It's, he was forced to bin the trophy. I always love that, that turn of phrase been, he bended. I need to get to the bottom of phrase been, he bended. I need to get to the bottom of that one. Just like the lady that was doused in her own breast milk on Delta, like we're, I got all these sources of stuff that I'm tracking for the track. Any listeners interested in these topics, please, please go check out our other podcast, the trap draw. I want to give a shout out to the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. I got a chance to be on a panel there this past Friday. I got a chance to meet a lot of analytics nerds,

golf nerds, basketball nerds, betting poker chess, all kinds of walks of life at that conference this past week. I had a bunch of NLU fans in the audience watching and got to chat with a bunch of them afterwards. But that was a fun, fun thing for me to partake in. I've heard about that conference for long time. I haven't been to a conference in a really long time. Uh, so it was talk about Sally talked about growing the game, Neil. Yeah. And, uh, you know, kind of just on goings in golf and, uh, you know,

it was with somebody from the PGA of America, from the LPGA tour and the PGA tour, kind of talking about trends and stuff in the game. And yeah, I got it just talked a lot about everything that's going wrong in golf now. And, and, and, and, you know, some of the good things that are going on at lower levels, but also a lot of the damage being done at the high levels and how that filters down into other areas of golf. And, and yeah, we, we got into it pretty good. It was really fun. I'm sure the video will be posted on YouTube, I think in the next couple of weeks, but you can, you can check that out on the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics

conference. What were some of the other like, like what was the most interesting topic or speaker? Um, so Michael Rubens from FNAX was a, was a packed house for that one. Uh, I don't know if it just was, shouldn't he be worried about the baseball, the baseball going to be baseball uniforms. That's where the quote Cape front that came out this week of him saying, we're getting the shit kicked out of us. Cause I guess they made it exactly. I was supposed to, uh, per, according to him, first specs from Nike. I don't know exactly. The uniforms

are a total disgrace, but, uh, the tip I got, uh, I was to hang out in the speaker room. Cause I guess we're all the, uh, all the panelists hang out and you get a chance to network with a bunch of people from all different kinds of sports. I met some professional poker players and people that worked in analytics and soccer and worked for the Celtics and all kinds of stuff. It was it was really, really interesting just to, you know, see how far behind golf is on all this stuff. I won't let TC in the room. No eye test at that. You would love this conference. This is you need to come next year. Like this is this is so up your alley of just all the different industries and stuff like that. You would you would have known way more people there just because you know almost like everyone,

you know, from all these little fringe places. I think you would love it. I want you to come next year. All right. Well, yeah, put it on the put on the calendar. And you know what? Only though, if the PJ Tori, I know your checks probably going to clear this week for, you know, PJ Torch, PJ Torch enterprises, enterprises paying you to be there. So I'll, I'll, I'll back channel with them, see if I can get it paid for. Correct. I think that's going to do it for this week. Enjoyed switching things up a little bit this evening and we are rolling into a signature event week. We'll have a happy hour show on Wednesday. We will have our full swing preview or recap episode by episode recap coming out

Wednesday morning. Our happy hour show will be Wednesday afternoon. Rolling into Thursday, we will be live next Sunday night to recap Bay Hill. And we roll right into players week. So a fun, always all the month of March, whether it's starting to turn down here. Yeah. Look forward to it. So we got Oscars. Yeah. Oscars pods going out this week in advance of that. I'm actually heading up to play a Rob Collins, uh, new reversible course of the Palmetto bluff. So stoked for that. Well, you guys probably won't be hearing from me for a while. I'm expecting a child here in the next human of a week. So this will be, I'm signing off. I will see you all on the other side. You're going to rock it. Neil. I can't wait. Thanks

for watching. Tune it in and we'll see you back here next week. Cheers. Be the right club. Be the right club today. Yes! Johnny, that's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most!