No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 809: LPGA Check-In

Episode Date: March 21, 2024

Randy, TC and Cody are back with another LPGA check-in as we recap the tour's Asian Swing highlighted by a pair of wins for Patty T and some other notable performances from the last three tournaments. Then it's time for a look ahead to the upcoming event at Palos Verdes and beyond as the tour returns stateside for a three week run of events before a week off ahead of the first major of the year - the Chevron. We also touch on the rumors regarding a mixed event at the 2028 Olympics and some other assorted news and notes from the women's game. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Be the right club. Be the right club today. That's better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different? better than most. Expect anything different. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the no laying up golf podcast. This is a women's golf check-in.

My name is Randy. I'm joined by two associates today. Mr. Cody McBride. How are you this afternoon? Big excited to be here chopping it up about some women's golf buddy tours finally back in the states. I know awesome as the Asian swing was. I'm excited to get some good consistency. Some solid regular viewing hours for us. I'm Jack buddy. Well good good. Also joining us. Mr. Tron Carter TC. What's going on today? My man. Hey big. Uh, we got the Epson tour in town here in Jack's. I totally,

yeah, I kind of forgot about that. And that's up the street at Atlantic beach country club this week. And I tried to get up there on Saturday, uh, bring the kiddos out for a couple hours of that. But yeah, we got three banger events upcoming on the LPGA schedule. So stoked to check in after the Asian swing. It seems like they were gone for like the all of Q1 basically. I know, I know. It's like, they've just been over there doing things, but, uh, we're, we're,

we're going to get LPGA back on much more of a regular cadence. We'll get into the schedule before we do. So Cody, let's thank our proud, proud presenting sponsor, our good friends at Yeti. So excited, Biggie. Thank you for that great introduction. And of course, thank you. Big thank you to our title sponsor of the LPJ events all year long. That's Yeti. They've been with us for a couple years now. Doesn't matter if it's luggage, hard coolers,

soft coolers, drinkware, you name it. Yeti products perform when it matters most. I love that blue color. I love their clear new bottles. Awesome logo there too. The under bottle. They're so sweet. Everybody head over to yeti.com for their complete line of products and more Yeti made to get lost. I don't tell people to get lost a lot but Yeti's new slogan made to get lost. I don't tell people to get lost a lot, but Yeti's new slogan made to get lost gear for wherever you find yourself.

Check them out. Yeti.com Cody. What was the last time you were lost? A long, long time. This is all like aided due to navigation and like GPS and everything else like that. But there has been a couple of times where I was in my travels truly like, oh shit, man, like we out here.

I don't know where we're at, but it usually doesn't take long. You know, you find key terrain features, everything. You'll triangulate yourself and figure out where you're at pretty quick. What about you, big? Oh, it's been, it's been a minute. You know, I'm, I'm old enough when I first started driving the cell phone, the GPS was not a thing. I'm trying to remember. Andy was printing out MapQuest.

I literally did. When I went to college, I drove from Montana to Arizona. And I remember before I left, I went to the gas station and bought one of the jumbo Atlas's and then the entire drive, which is this like down I-15 basically the entire way, but I would flip pages from state to state. I remember pulling into gas stations to ask for local directions. I remember pulling up, you see a man or a lady walking down the street, you ask them for directions.

We don't get that anymore, TC. And I would venture to say, I think we're all a little worse for it. I agree. I think one of my favorite things of going on a trip back in the day was you would go to, you know, my dad was always a big, big Hertz guy, just like my uncle juice. He would always go to a, uh, you always go to the rental counter and they would give you a map and they would highlight out, all right, like where are you headed? And they would highlight the route out for you basically. What a, what a delightful kind of lost art that was.

Yeah. The little trip tick AAA would provide that. Um, God, you said something else that jogged my, Oh, back when I was doing some college visits I'll never forget we're up in the Boston area and driving downtown Boston with my dad my mom my poor mom writing shotgun trying to navigate the insane city grid or lack of grid that is Boston my dad getting so frustrated god those were good times I feel like we need, we need like retro, we should have a month where it's like, nobody's allowed to use the GPS on their phone. Like, let's go back to the old days. Well, AT&T tried to do that to us a couple weeks ago. What happened? What do you mean? They just throw, you don't remember this? Like all AT&T service was down for like 18 hours.

Speak for yourself. Mine was up. Yeah, I didn't notice a lack of, huh. Anyway, this probably has nothing to do with women's golf. We can get this show back on the road. We do have another sponsor. Before we dive into our agenda, I wanna thank Titleist. The show is also brought to you by Titleist,

the number one ball in golf and the number one ball in the LPGA Tour. Guys, it's no secret, the best players in the world are incredibly dialed in to their equipment and that starts with the golf ball. Last season, 77% of all golf balls played on the LPGA Tour were either a Pro V1 or Pro V1X. For those that don't either a Pro V1 or Pro V1X. For those that don't know Pro V1, they have a

mid-flight trajectory, a bit lower spin in the long game and a softer feel compared to the Pro V1X. The X flies higher, spins more in the long game and has a slightly firmer feel. I, because of those spin profiles mainly, I'm in the Pro V1 X. Cody, what are you in? Are you in the X or are you a Pro V1 guy? X boy. You're an X. TC, I gotta think you're a Pro V1 guy. Is that correct?

I'm V. Yeah, Pro V1. Okay. I simply don't need any more spin. Let me ask you about two LPGA players. So Lilia Vu, what would you guys guess? Is she a Pro V1X or a Pro V1? Good question. I would say she's probably the V. She's an X.

Really? Yeah. And Allison Corpuz. How about her? I'd say she's a Pro V1. Yeah, V. Yeah, she's a V. Good job. Allison, of course, she's a V. Good job.

Allison, of course, grew up in Hawaii, learned to play the game seeing that lower, more penetrating trajectory, which she gets with the Pro V1 while still getting all the short game spin that she needs. Her favorite shot, the one stop and hopper around the green. And then for Lillia, her preference is increased spin and the height of the Pro V1X. She's great at controlling spin Fliting the ball down when needed but loves to take advantage of that higher flight when attacking firm greens She just loves control in her short game

So folks listening the best players in the world will tell you the importance of having a golf ball that is fit to your game And you can do the same thing head over to titleist comm to start the fitting process Find out which title is golf ball is right for your game and you can do the same thing. Head over to Titleist.com to start the fitting process, find out which Titleist golf ball is right for your game. Thank you very much to Titleist. And boys, you mentioned it. We've been watching the ladies over in Asia. I will say some wonderful prime time viewing windows out here in Denver.

I will be sad to see those go. Maybe let's just chat briefly about what what has been what's behind us. I want to go back to the last episode we had was at the beginning of the Asian swing. And so we have not talked about I think a big story in the women's game. Patty Tavitaneket, of course, she had a dominating win in Saudi on the L.E.T. And then she backed it up going back to back with a win in Thailand. Cody, let me throw it to you. It's just great.

I mean, I don't even know what else to say. We're huge Patti T fans. Does her resurgence, does her her play does her winning twice already. How much of a surprise is this to you? Yeah, big surprise there big I would say that didn't see the Saudi win coming I would say just based off results but we know and she talked a lot about it coming out of that week in preparation from going or to go into Thailand of how much work that she was putting in and that she was absolutely grinding on her game, that she had made a couple

changes, that everything was kind of finally getting back into place. Her ball striker was turning back into form and she was finally seeing the ball go in the hole, which has been the struggle for her. And as soon as it seems like she got confidence back with her putter that, I mean, the door just completely opened wide up. She had, you know, shot 67, 67, 66, 67 to win by one in Thailand over Albine Venezuela. And honestly, it was like kind of stress free watching it. Yeah. What I mean, I guess, first of all, what a hell of a final round by Albain to put the pressure on Patty, but Patty par five, birdie the 18th to win TC.

I know that's got to warm your heart. I tie national winning the tie championship. I mean, that as a big national open guy, I know it's not technically the Thailand open. It's the Honda LPGA Thailand, but I feel like it's close enough. Yeah. It seems like the, you know, kind of a poster event for them over there in Thailand. So yeah, that's fantastic. I think the, it seems like the LPGA is on a good run of winners this, you know, starting

off this year too. So good. It's kind of the opposite of the PGA tour start to the season of the stars need to play better on the PGA tour. The stars are playing great on the LPGA tour and that certainly bodes well. I know we've talked about it a lot here in episodes past about maybe a parody problem of sorts on the LPGA. And I think there's, you know, if the stars are playing better and more consistently, I think there's probably, you know, that bodes well for everybody that bodes well for ratings

that bodes well for new fans that bodes well for building stars, all that. So somebody that I wanted to shout out big, you know, it's not on the agenda, but Ayaka Furuway. Yeah. She's, she's got four top tens in five events this year and didn't play well, like kind of lived, limped home in Singapore, still finished top 10 there, shot 75 in the final round. But she's like, she's number two in the season standings thus far ahead of Patty T. Now granted,

Patty T won in Saudi Arabia as well. That's on the L.E.T. side of things. But Furuway, I think, I feel like everybody's talking about Lydia and Patty and Nellie and Furuway is right there with them. I mean, it's been ultra impressive. For sure. For sure. Like you said, four top tens, five starts. I think the bugaboo for her a little bit is just closing the deal, which as you said, a little bit evidenced by that final round 75 in Singapore. Singapore was the week after Thailand. We'll just go right to Singapore guys. I mean, I think when we get to the end of the season, we'll just go right to Singapore. Guys, I mean, I think when we get to the end of the season, we still might look back on this Singapore event as if not the best kind of Sunday of the LPGA season, it's certainly going to be in the conversation. You had Hannah

Green and Celine Boudier dueling down the stretch. Ultimately Hannah Green birdieing the 16th, the 17th, and the 18th to clip Celine by one shot. Just a hell of a performance and really a hell of a golf tournament. Cody, the more we've talked to folks, I was talking to Sophie Walker, I'm sure you traded some notes with her as well, but it seems like Singapore is the crown jewel of the Asian

swing, certainly the early Asian swing on the LPGA Tour. Yeah, I think it's the course adds a lot to that. They play the number one course in Singapore in a country that is extremely, I would say, overpopulated. Their golf courses right now, I don't know if you guys have dug into this at all, but they're not like owned outright. They're leased from the government. And what's happening is because their population is becoming so large that as these leases for the golf courses come up,

they're not actually being re-signed and they're being turned into like housing developments because the need for housing is that great right now so i think it's a golf course i think it's the fact that hsbc is the title sponsor and kind of the way that that carries across asia. And ultimately it's the person the field that this that this tournament brings with it and you see that by hand agree and i think that's a perfect winner her closing this out of her back nine is very reminiscent of her when she won last year at Wilshire and she just kind of you know ran up and there's no really you know no really faults in her game. She just kind of went out and

took it and it was it was awesome to see. I think Hannah Green TC what does Hannah Green do anything for you? I think Hannah Green, TC, does Hannah Green do anything for you? I think she's in an interesting spot in the LPGA ecosystem where she's won a major back in 2019. She won the KPMG Women's PGA Championship at Hazel Teen. And the win in Singapore was her fourth win on tour now. I mean, is she somebody in your opinion that is she a major threat? Does she deserve to be mentioned in that upper echelon? Talk to me about your feelings relative Hannah Green.

Yeah, I think it's one of those things. She's 27. I'm trying to think who the comp would be on the men's side of, you know, took down a major, but she's not I'm trying to think who the comp would be on the men's side of You know took down a major, but she's not really Winning consistently enough to you know, and she's one of good good courses, too. But you know like Made two out of five cuts last year in the majors You know hasn't really done a whole lot outside of that wind in the majors So it it's tricky. Like she's, you know, I tend to like Australian golfers. She's from Perth. You know, they tend to kind of play proper golf, but yeah, it's, I'm struggling to find a comp of somebody on the men's side who's,

who's taken down a major, but it's kind of a little bit more advanced in their career. And there's just not a whole lot of ceiling left there. Yeah, as you're saying that, I'm racking my brain trying to think who would fit that profile. You know, it's funny, talking to Hannah Green, I think this was, gosh, it was more than a year ago, but I know she's really put an emphasis

on trying to acquire distance, to acquire speed in her golf swing. And for, for a while there, I was a little dubious whether that was helping her. But now with the win last year at Wellshire, like you guys said, really strong Sunday final round in Singapore to win again, maybe it is helping. I, I, I'm not sure. You know, I look at her KPMG Insights profile page and again take these a little bit with the grain

of salt just because it's you know players and caddies self reporting some stuff but strokes gain driving is really one of the weaknesses of her game and so I'm just wondering in terms of, you know, any added speed and length off the tee, it's not really showing up in her statistical profile right now, but her approach play this year has been phenomenal. She's gaining over a shot on approach

and she's putting the ball really well too, gaining almost a stroke per round there. So I don't know, yeah, bit of an interesting one. I think she's got some parallels to Leona McGuire. You know, if you kind of strip away the Solheim Cup aura from Leona, you know, obviously Australians don't play in the Solheim Cup. So it's, you know, kind of similar,

like I think Leona's 28 or 29, similar profile as far as wins. Obviously, Leona doesn't have a major championship to her credit, but it just seems like maybe not the longest players. They're really, really good approach play and, and yeah, that's, that's probably the closest comp I can come up with. I will say she, she works with, you know, she works with Aaron and Zoot and she does put a ton of time into her fitness. And I know that, that binding speed was a huge emphasis. And even though the stats don't necessarily show that, I also will say, I think Leona

is the best comp TC that you possibly could make. And I'll say, you know, they don't get an opportunity to play in the Solheim Cup, but we saw that at the International Crown. And I think every single other, not just team event, but kind of how the Aussies on the LPGA Tour kind of surround and move about the tour.

They're a very close group of people. And Hannah is like at the center of that. Like she is the mesh that keeps, you know, the girls from Melbourne and the rest from Perth. And then you have, you know, Steph that's down from Sydney, like, she's the one that kind of keeps it all together. And, and her relationship with Minji is like, kind of what opens Minji up. You know, Hannah was recently, you know, she got married this off season.

I think that's an awesome step in her life, especially somebody that's kind of coming and seeing that later on. She wanted to live her life and travel the world and focus on her craft and now getting married and kind of moving into a different chapter. And obviously the drive is still there. It's not going to be like top five in the world. She's a solid top 15 in the world player.

Here's the comp on the men's side. Shane Lowry. It's a good one. Has a major. Doesn't, you know, hasn't won prolifically. He's 36 years old. It's kind of a similar point in his career. I think length has never been, you know, he's a great approach player. I don't think length is necessarily

his calling card. I don't know. And you're never shocked if like he's the first page of a big tournament. You know, it's like, oh, Shane Lowry. Yeah. He's got game. I like that. I was never shocked if he's on the first page of a big tournament. It's like, oh, Shane Lowry, yeah, he's got game. I like that. I was going to throw out Keegan Bradley, just setting aside. Keegan's won a lot more though. Whatever your personal feelings are. Yeah. And that isn't a thing on Keegan at all.

I think Keegan wins a lot more than people give him credit for. As long as shit. Keegan wins a lot more than people give him credit for. Long as shit. You know, and honestly, his career, he stretched this thing out. And the fact that Keegan had his number one tool taken away from him is is pretty incredible to see, like where he's at now. And I think the wins speak there for himself. The other thing about Shane, too, I think like.

You know, Shane and Rory, I do not envy them because they carry like a very proud golfing nations, like the weight and the pressure of that on their shoulders. And, you know, I think there's, you know, Hannah and definitely Minji and, you know, the rest of them from Australia definitely feel that too. It's phenomenal. Well, the final event that you know, since since we've last checked in the final event that occurred was, uh, they finally got back to China. The blue, what about China LPGA? Uh, they, they had not played this event since I believe 20, it was either 2018 or 2019, of course, COVID and you know, God knows what else, but finally got back to China. And guys genuinely, let me just say, I am thrilled that Bailey Tardy, really a

dominant performance. I mean, a Sunday 65 to win by four shots. She shot 66 on Saturday. So going 66, 65 to win her first LPGA event of her career. Hell of a performance there. Of course, going back to last year's US Women's Open, I had poked fun a little bit at Bailey. She jumped out to an early lead quite confidently

and I think correctly said, I'm not sure we really need to worry about Bailey. But guys, I guess the question is, you know. I don't think that, that's not where the vitriol came from, Vic. I think you're, you don't think that that's not where the vitriol came from. I think you're, uh, you know, that might be. Well, you, I think you got pretty personal with you're taking shots at her dog. You're taking shots at a lot of things.

I apologize. He doesn't like canines. And I will say very sadly, that dog is since past, but I was apologizing to the guy. No, no, no. I was apologizing to the family. You're a bad guy, Randy. No, no, no, I was apologizing to everybody. I did not bring those people into it initially. I do have a tape that I'd like to roll here though, just to kind of round out. I'm just kidding.

So later on in life, congratulations to Bailey Tardy. Of course, Dominic from Is Just Like Big said, she ran away with this thing. It was awesome to see, like even when she was, you know, three, four strokes ahead, the fact of how she finished on her back nine of like just pouring everything in is phenomenal stuff. I was gonna say her 65, Cody, like she started off with seven pars in a row

and at that point you're kind of like, oh, here we go again kind of thing. And then she Eagles eight birdies nine and makes five birdies on the back nine to seal the deal. So for people wondering if if Randy ever did apologize to Bailey, he did. We in person, we talked about that. There was an in person apology that was done last year at Walton Heath at the women's open. And I think, you know, everything was mended.

They we separated in a great spot. I don't know if Bailey actually remembers that apology, but I know we do. And if anybody ever needs it, I have videotape evidence to prove it. Well, let's talk about Bailey Tardy because she is somebody that by and large, you know, people that that we know and have spoken to. I mean, this is not a fluke win in the sense that like Bailey Tardy has a ton a ton of talent. She's got a ton of game for whatever reason, you know, I

think lack of maybe focus, quite honestly, being one of those, it just hasn't clicked to this point in her professional career. But we really could be seeing a bit of a shift. She's 27 years old. I guess my question to you guys, TC, I'll start with you. Do you hope, do you think, are we in for a big Bailey Tardy season perhaps? What do you think this portends the rest big Bailey Tardy season perhaps? What do you think this portends the rest of the year?

Yeah, I don't know. It's it seems like her hallmark, she's got a little bit of inconsistency in her game. So we'll see if it's kind of, you know, volatile, high pops up because like granted, this was her only our second start of the year. I don't even think she got into the first few Asian swing events. She missed the cut down in Orlando at the, or sorry, what was that? Bradenton or Sarasota for the drive on championship in January, shot 74, 74 there. So yeah, I don't know. I have a tough time kind of pinning her down, but it's kind of one of those things where that sort of player, once that sort of player has a place to play and a card locked up and can kind of free roll it a little bit, I think that's really going to, you know, like,

I would not be shocked to see her win once, maybe even twice more, because she's got that weight off of her shoulders of like, she was a rookie last year. She knows how to, you know, she knows where she's playing not only the rest of this year, but also next year as well, having a window under her belt now. So yeah, and you know, it seems like her game is very much like, you know, hey, I'm gonna, like, I'm gonna hit the shit out of it, Tita Green. Yes. Like, like I'm an elite, like, I have a different skill set than 98% of the women out here. So I'm going to use that to my advantage. So, you know, I mean, shit, if we see her put it all together consistently, it could be, you know, the start of something great. Cody, just real quick, You know, the start of something great. Cody, just real quick, Bailey, her bugaboo, I mean, again, going into the KPMG insights

page, last year, her putting and her short game were not good, not nearly good enough. That's self-reported bad. So it might be even worse. I know, I know. To the tune of, you know, she was losing almost a stroke per round on the greens, which ranked 239th on the LPGA tour. But it's her ball striking and this year, you know, very small sample, but TC you're right. Like her putting has essentially been neutral, minus 0.07 strokes gained per round and her ball striking has just been phenomenal. So I I'm excited Cody my question. You know with this win she all of a sudden

vaults into a very serious candidate to perhaps grab a Solheim Cup spot. You know we gotta remember this is a Solheim Cup year. Is it? I mean is that going too far? What are your expectations for Bailey? I would like to see her continue with the momentum. She's an awesome, awesome person awesome hang and like truly puts a smile on your face every time you get to talk to her. But she she needs to be consistent like she she struggles with her short game. And it's so weird because he see I think we've talked about this a lot. Like she grew up in Atlanta. She's an

Atlanta girl, like Atlanta Athletic Club, I think, Yep. And it's like, so comfortable and confident on the hardest grass that they play on. And that's like uber grainy Bermuda and like, all of her wins, whether they like you can go back into AJGA to college, to like, you know, women's amateur, like she played on like super tough golf courses. I mean, she's won like the women's North and South and you know, contested every year at Pinehurst number two. And like, she's won at some really, really hard, difficult golf courses

on on places where your short game should be the worst. And it seems like you put her on like fair grass courses where she's like, has to putt and chip on bent or rye. And she's like kind of lost. And it's just like a, it's a fascinating thing to watch and kind of see. And I hope this just comes with like, you know, repetition and like more exposure to some of these places, but she's got to square that stuff up.

Or if she, you know, in order to make the Solheim Cup team, and that's kind of what I like about the overall points list is like it is truly a year of consistency here. Especially now because we're on the, I don't know, what would you call it? Kind of a drawn back point scale this year, just because we just had another Solheim Cup last year. So a lot of the dead weight is like dropped off the back and you

truly have to like, you need to run for the next eight months or else you have no shot of being there. Yeah, I think that's right. I'm fascinated to see how Bailey keeps playing. I truly, you know, if the putting can just be okay, I wanna see how far the ball striking can take her. I'm excited to watch certainly the next, you know, several weeks, but as we inch closer to Solheim as well, it'll be fascinating to see, you know, if she sticks around and her place

in that conversation. Speaking of Solheim, Albain Valenzuela could be a nice addition to the European team as well. Yeah, I think we'll talk a lot about Solheim. But I think the European team has a lot of interesting decisions. Don't you TC? I mean, uh, Suzanne Patterson is flex right now.

It's nuts. Like if you want to compare the team that they played with last year to where like that teams out right now, it's, it's not even like, you know, 70% of those people are missing. Where's headwall? In the off season. Where's head? Keep keep that. Well, headwall is doing doing. She's doing two a day.

Yeah, just you know, doing OTAs. Yeah. Yeah. Well, guys, I want to take a peek about what's ahead on the LPGA schedule. But before we do, DC, you brought up Ayaka Fudeway as somebody that has, you know, maybe a little under the radar, gotten off to a wonderful start this year. Is there anybody else, Cody, I'll start with you. Anybody else we can kind of highlight that aside from the obvious, right?

Like Lydia Ko has had a phenomenal start to 2024. Is there anybody flying a little bit under the radar we can shine some light on through these first, you know, two plus months? Well, yeah, you know, my heart here. I want to give a quick shout out to my girl that you guys all dogged me on last year because we had to go back to Q school, but obviously Lucy Lee.

I knew you were going to go with Lucy Lee. I mean, how could I not? I mean, she started the year, so she's made the cut in every tournament that she has been eligible to play in so far, which isn't a lot, honestly, because besides the tournament champions to start the season off and then not having the points to qualify for the whole Asian swing, that only left drive on, And that's really it. Like she went over to Singapore, played in China just because they're looking for people. It's a tough spot to be in. But it's made every single cut. T4

at drive on another, you know, T14 went over to Saudi and played there and then in China rounded that out with a T10 finish there. But from where we were at last year to where we're at now, phenomenal improvement. I think this just shows like, you know, Lucy's really young. She needs years of not only like professional golf experience, but like life experience. She's traveling to brand new places, seeing brand new, you know, things and people and trying to adjust to all this. I love where this second season

is kind of settling in for her right now. And then the second one is obviously last year, Alexa Pano, you know, won on the ladies European tour is awesome win in Ireland, and then, you know, just kind of how she she started this year ended up withdrawing from the HSBC in Singapore. But outside of that has had a you know, two pretty solid solid starts made some good going over. Yeah, made some at tournament of champions. That's where she started the year at and then, you know, went over to Ramco ladies and made a nice little check there for t 18

finish but I will just jump in. You guys, I'm on a KPMG insights kick today. I do think I want to give them credit. I've the build out of the KPMG performance insights page that it's getting much better. Lucy Lee, where her success has been coming from, her iron play.

I mean, third, again, limited sample, right? Not everybody has that many starts, all the disclaimers. This certainly could change. But right now, Lucy Lee is gaining about a shot and a half on her approach play, which by far is the strength of her game. Actually, she's negative in like every other category. So exceptional iron play right now.

And then I thought the real interesting one is looking at Alexa Pano. I mean, TC maybe self-reporting some awful putting, losing over a shot per round, just putting. But the rest of her game, you know, tee to green has been phenomenal. So Alexa maybe is one, if we're to believe the stats, you know, if she finds a hot putter,

dang, she could win, you know, just about any week, it seems like. Yeah, I would say somebody else to shout out Sarah Schmelzel had a very solid finish. But yeah, it just it feels like, you know, Minji just getting things kind of started up for the year she finished had a kind of a middling performance at Singapore and then played well in China. I think she finished fourth. So it's kind of one of those things. I think it feels a lot like this week coming up, this stretch, we've got three great tournaments in a row. It feels like this is like the Sony, you know, farmer's Phoenix stretch or the Sony farmer's pebble stretch on the PGA tour when they had the fall season, right? Of like, we're coming out of the fall season.

Some of the top guys have played Zozo or WGC or, you know, CJ Cup or whatever. But now, now everybody's getting back together for full field events at, you know, proper venues and all that. So I feel like we're going to find out like, I think the next, you know, three weeks are extremely important just to see kind of like I'm expecting Minji to come out fire and they're at Palace Verde, you know, here this week. And then we've got not to take us ahead, Randy. I'm sorry. Hey, real quick, one thing on Minji, I want to shout out. So number one, the Aussies listening to this, I know that there is an awesome, I guess, like documentary that aired in Australia in the States, we haven't been able to find this

thing anywhere. It's not on YouTube or anything else like that. But I know the Australian Golf Digest crew, I think they're the ones that like ran it or produced it or something like that. So shout out to that. But I did find something that Golf Digest in the United States put on their YouTube page. And it's Minji and Minwoo together.

And it's like a three-part series, SponCon all over this thing. But it's like fascinating because it's literally at their home club in Perth and kind of talks through them growing up, how they got to where they're at, what their like differences as kids and kind of how they've moved through their professional lives. Obviously, at different speeds with Minji being like, you know, she's been a professional golfer now for 10 years, a major champion and like, you know, just continues been a professional golfer now for 10 years, a major champion

and like, you know, just continues to get better and better and better every year. Whereas Min Woo is just kind of bursting onto the scene now and being more widely known. But it was cool to see their interactions and kind of how they are. And then Minji is still, she's such an introvert, even with her own brother. It's fascinating to watch and kind of see and see it play out, but I want to shout that out. It's on YouTube for anybody who wants to go see it. It was awesome.

Randy, I don't want to get you made a culprit here. Alexa Pantone won in Northern Ireland. Just- No, that was me. I said Ireland. Oh, okay. Very good call on that though. But was it the Irish Open at least?

No, it was the one at Galgorm Castle. Tough, tough scene there. So my bad. Fulmea, Kallipa on my part. Northern Ireland, of course. Yeah. And then, yeah, I mean, Randy, like Lilia Vu, like withdrew what two weeks in a row with back issues as well. Like it's, I feel like it's, you know, it's almost a bonus if you played well in Asia, because there's a lot of players not making the trip. There's a lot of players that just going over to knock off some rust. A lot of players came back and are freaking exhausted after coming back,

after being over there for close to a month. Uh, you know, so a lot, a lot of moving parts right now. And it's like, all right, let's, let's really get the season started now. Yeah. Do you think you could travel with a sleep number on the Asian swing? Like, bad bag. I mean, that's a mattress issue, man.

Because you got physios, you got everybody else, unless there's something pulled or tweaked somewhere along the line. You gotta get these people. And I know that there's a proud mattress sponsor of the LPGA tour. I'm shocked. Their number one player had to withdraw back to back weeks.

You got to fix that. Yeah. She's got to take a page out of a Louie's playbook and start traveling with that mattress. You know, TC, just to keep Canada off my back. Yeah. K Canada loves to come at me. Nice right now.

Brooke is playing nice. Some, some really good results. Three top tens and four starts. I think, you know, certainly something to keep an eye on. That's big of you, Randy. Thank you. Thank you. Megan Kang is hitting the shit out of the golf ball right now.

Let's flip it on to the other side. Is there anybody that's not playing well? I think I'll start us off one that I kind of identified. Jennifer Cupcho, just not doing a whole lot. Off to a tough start this year, struggling with her iron play. She's somebody that just continues to confound me a little bit. She has won, you know, she certainly won a major, but yeah, I just keep waiting for a...

She didn't have a good year last year either. No, she didn't. She had a second up in New Jersey at Liberty National. I think otherwise she had what, one top 10? Other than that. A lot of made cuts, but just a lot of middling performances. Yeah. Cody, who's somebody that you're kind of keeping your eye on that hasn't really played well to start the season?

Well, real quick, do you think Jennifer Cuff Show's husband, Jay Monahan, has just kind of of been inundated with like requests and everything else? Maybe it's just they've been super busy in their household. People inviting him to fly out to the Bahamas for secret meetings and stuff like that. I think I all dude, you know, he gets just absolutely lit up on social. Spammed all the time. I beg you put her on the list. Really a situation from office space. Why should I be the one to change my name? He's the one who sucks.

Big, you put her on the list, but I'll get ahead of it and point this one out. Pretty disappointing start so far, I would say, from what our kind of community expectations were for Maya Stark. Now, having said that,'s, she's made every cut, but it's just, she's just kind of there. I don't know. I want to save some flack for you, Cody. None of these ages. There are no cuts. Well, even, even before that, you know, she played drive on obviously a cut and drive on tournament champions. You know, I understand she only played two of the Asian events, Thailand and then Singapore. But you know, I know she was up the road. She spent a couple of weeks here up in Dallas.

I don't know why she's practicing at the Nelson Sporting Club and bouncing between there and Los Colinas, but she's putting in the work, man. She's grinding. But on the flip side of that, I also know that she spent like the majority of her off season back in Sweden grinding and like hitting in a simulator and out of like a covered porch out into like three feet of snow. So it's gonna take a little bit to knock off these cobwebs but that's why I'm excited for the LPGA Tour to finally get back you know have

somewhat of not just consistent schedule but like travel for the players because it takes so much you you know, out of them bouncing around as much as they have. Yeah, yeah, I'll even throw in her her compatriot or country woman, Lynn Grant, you know, not not an awful start to the year. I don't want to make it worse than it is, but she's played four events, no top tens, just a slow start for her a little bit.

Her best result was her most recent in Singapore, which hopefully will portend to better play ahead. But yeah, just a sluggish start for our friends from Sweden. TC, I don't want to put that on you. No, it's all right. It's all right. I think Lynn needs to start getting on her horse a little bit. The ladies European tour. I don't want to diminish the European Solheim Cup team too much because

you've got Esther Henselet played well in, she's German. She played well in Saudi Arabia. Emily Christine Pedersen is playing nice all over the world right now. Charlie had a good showing there. And then we had the ladies magical Kenya open as well. We had a few decent performances there on the European side. And then Bronte, Bronte won in Morocco. So the ladies version of the trophy Hassan too. Bronte would be, you know, I love, love her fiery personality. She should be a fun addition.

You know, if she, if she were to make the soul home cup team for sure, could be like if headwall doesn't make it like Bronte could be like, Hey, you know what? Like I'm the glue person. I'm the, you know, I'm a good locker room person. I'm going to you know, I'm a good locker room person. I'm gonna bring the energy. The ladies European tour, they have their own podcasts and they usually try to get like most recent winners on stuff like that. They had Bronte on there.

And it was such a fascinating discussion because they asked her kind of like, you know, what happened, where have you been? And she talked about how much confidence she had like after the Toledo-Sulheim Cup, and like how she was on like cloud nine and everything, and then like basically she somehow convinced herself that she was like the worst putter in the world.

And like took her all the way to rock bottom and like played horrible for really like, you know, an 18, two year stretch. And finally building everything back and putting pieces back in place. And, you know, finally seeing her back in the winter. So kind of that full circle evolution of, of her being like, why didn't like change anything? Like I didn't change my putting stroke. I didn't change anything how I do it. It was like strictly just mental and how you can go from like the highest highs to the lowest lows. Just because of something that randomly pops into your head one day. It's crazy to see.

Randy, I'll shout out Pauline Rusin-Bouchard and Fatty Cano as well for their couple other Europeans playing nice. I think we're missing, I think we're maybe missing a legit Solheim contender is Alexandra Försterling. Yes. Another German. She just won the the Ramco team series event, beat Charlie Hall by three strokes. And she won twice on the L.E.T. kind of in the in the fall season last year. She won in Majorca in November and before that in Switzerland in September.

She is an LPGA rookie. So she's somebody we're going to see getting starts on the LPGA calendar here as the fields expand. So another one to keep an eye on. I get so many emails about the Aramco team series. It's it's crazy. In one way, I'm not on that email list. I get emails if they want me to come out and be like, paid,

come hype the event. But there's also a ton of press releases that come with them. I will say this is that I'm still confused and I haven't really heard any new updates or anything on the whole LPGA, LET, merge or not merge, or they're already merged, but we need to figure out a pathway forward situation. But I always know that like, okay, there's like a mutual understanding and the LPGA currently is underpinning like the vast majority of L. purses that are not a Ramco series purses. But don't you think just like back in the day of like the PGA tour and the European tour that there's like this sort of like

handshake agreement and it feels like the more and more and more like ladies European tour events come in are played on US soil that are not at least some way co-sanctioned events. Like it just continues to like kind of not make any sense to me during that same week the Ramco series event is in Tampa and like the LPGA tour is like bouncing between China and Singapore. I'm like what what what I was gonna say, not only is it not, you know, is it is it in the states? It's the same week as an LPGA Tour event and sucking certain players off from the LPGA Tour field as well. Meanwhile, players went over and played in like Saudi. So like what's the status of like the conflicting event releases?

Did they have? Did they not have to use one of those releases for Saudi because there wasn't an LPGA Tour week? Did they have to use one here? Like, what's the deal? It's crazy, too. Like, I don't like I can't even find a they have a gross and a net team scoreboard on the website, but I can't even find like the the individual results from that. Like, like my big thing is like, it just seems like the ladies European tour is like exceptionally

poorly run, like, like wildly, wildly amateurish. I don't know. I'm just looking from like TC, I'll agree with you from the surface and saying that from what we have seen from the events that we follow most of the time, which usually are the Ramco events that are held in the States. In addition to the big European tour events that are usually in mainland Europe that will follow and the Solheim Cup. Like, still, the Solheim Cup was a complete shit show. Oh, that's great. And the soul hunt cup, like still the soul hunt cup was a, was a complete shit show. Um, and I know a lot of that. Just for people wondering, this is like the, the logistics, the organization, all of that stuff.

Yeah. But I know that a lot of that falls on like, it just seems that, that the European tour kind of what got us so fired up when we were in Korea is that I think there just is there must be a ton of like, I don't want to say corruption, but I think there's just a ton of backdoor dealings of handshake agreements of like, oh, yeah, you know, coast of the soul is this for this big splash of money, and they get this slew of things. And, oh, yes, so we're gonna pin this over here.

And it just seems like everything is so disorganized and kind of like aloof that nobody is really there to be like, yo, this is the tour. And this is the steady state product because even within their own tour, they have a separate tour, the Aramco Team Series. Well, and I mean, shit though, ladies know, ladies European tour points was called the race to the coast of Del Sol. Yeah, you sell it last year and they no longer.

It's just called the order. It's just the order of merit. Now they've pulled out as soon as they got that. So I'm kind of, yeah, which just canceled the contract. We spotlighted last year. Yeah. Yeah. So like just to tie a bow on that, that happened.

Yes. And you know, yeah. I guess Cody, to your point, kind of the broader point is it remains to be seen whether as I believe the PIF is going to start exerting more influence through the LET, whether the dealings with the LPGA tour, whether they're coming together and working as partners for something that works best for both of them, or if they're going to start working against each other. That's what I can't quite figure out at this time is, are we in this together and working towards a mutual agreement or are we like butting heads? And I guess you know time will tell but I don't have a great update on like the internal

Affairs of that right now. I guess one other player Ruining in has played all five events. No top tens. In fact, she's only got four rounds in the 60s. I'm certainly not ready to hit the panic button, but just some real mediocre golf from her. So it's something to keep an eye on as we go forward. Gentlemen, we've we've mentioned defending champion this week. Come on. Yeah, let's give her a break. Had to go. She had to go back home to China. You know how many, you know, responsibilities and everything

she probably had going on a new major champion returning home. She could still play some better golf pressure this year because it's an Olympic year. You know how much that means to China? I mean, I'm looking at her to be one of the best players in the world. Come on. Yeah, I think she should be a shoe in for the Olympics. Well, of course. But you know, she, she had to go home, see coach,

you got Shen Shen over there, getting her all fired up about shit. All right. So this week is the, uh, the palace Verde's event. I think the interesting thing to note, it's been relabeled the say repack championship, which I love. I really like some of these former players and certainly say repack championship, which I love. I really like some of these former players and certainly say repack her influence on not only women's golf, but Asian golf and global golf is, I won't say unparalleled, but it is massive. I'm glad to see her kind of owning one of these events. Of

course, you have the the onica late in the year in Florida. I think it's wonderful how some of these these luminaries from days past are still involved in and taking over championships. I think that's good for branding. I think it's good for you know, some of these week to week events on tour. Palace Verde is really an up and down course, truly. Up, down, a lot of little weird holes. When the wind's up, it can be fairly tricky.

Excited to watch this week. You guys said Rooting in, defending champ. Anything else you want to add as far as this week, or should we look ahead the next couple of weeks also? I just think Xavier Pak, like criminally underrated probably from a career perspective, right? Both on the, you know, I mean, I know she's got what like four majors, I think, you know, certainly gets compared to an Annika or Lorena Ochoa or whatever. But I just think from a cultural standpoint, like she's every bit the equal of

Annika as far as what she did for professional golf in Korea, not just men's or women's, just golf in general. I would say not just Korea, but all Asia. I watched her press conference yesterday and kind of that was the one thing is that everybody, you know, kind of kept going back to like, yep, yeah, the 1998, you know, major win and kind of what set the stage for this huge golf boom in South Korea. She made a point two or three times to correct them and say, no, not just South Korea, but all of Asia. It's something that she's very proud of and rightfully so.

I didn't realize that her foundation basically is like underpinning the majority of development in South Korea for all both men and women's, you know, junior golfers that are coming up to include like, you know, not just access to tournaments and practice facilities, but like helping with, you know, cost of monies for food, forging for everything prior to them getting into like the National Academy, which I thought was like, yeah, that's really, that's really cool. Something that you you probably don't have to do. She could have went back home to South Korea and just kind of continued on with her life. And she decided not to and

completely reinvest herself and make her mission like developing the next generation of champions. Yeah, yeah. Well said. Totally agree. It's kind of weird. She never she never lost an LPGA playoff. Six and six and oh, yeah. Cool stat. I like stats like that. Big how many total events do you think she won on the LPJ tour to include majors? Oh Great question. I have no idea. So this is a pure guess I will say Including majors

18 25 dang 25 wins in 12 years Pretty sure who do you think is the second on that list for? Koreans with the most LPGA tour wins It's an MB I would guess MB with 21 and then there she is Jen young Climbing up that list with 15 now.

Yeah. I want to see something from Jin Young on this West Coast swing here. I do too. She's got to be happy about being on the West Coast. Got that good food. She talks about the, you know, the weather that's more, uh, you know, agreeable to her. She might be a dome golfer. Uh, you know, agreeable to her. She might be a dome golfer. Hmm. That's interesting.

Uh, after palace Verde's new event guys, the Ford championship, uh, Seville golf and country club. This is the greater Phoenix area. I have no idea exactly where Seville South Phoenix. Okay. It's real, real sound. I have. So in college, I used to, uh, for like one of our classes, I had to teach a junior academy at Seville Country Club. And it's so far south, it's like south of Chandler,

down by... Is that more like Tucson? Is Tucson south? My Arizona geography. No, it's Seaside. Yeah. Okay. Tucson's like an hour and a half south, but come on. Well, yeah. It's still considered in the greater Phoenix Metroplex, but it's like on the very, very Southeast corner of that.

When I was there, this is a long time ago, 20 years ago now, Seville was literally just out there with like farmland and Arizona Cowboys and everything like that. It was truly a wild west place, but it's a great little, you know, private club. I'm sure it's going to, I know they're excited about hosting this because this event, uh, the Arizona event last year didn't have a title sponsor is just to drive on and, and they're up at superstition mountain and they've been trying to find a home. And I know what really makes these LPGA events to kind of click is like finding these clubs that have this awesome membership that kind of, you know, is excited about it and can help build some tradition around it. And I hope that this is a spot for it.

So this is the inaugural event, even though they had the drive on in Arizona last year, this is a totally new distinct event. Completely new. You got Ford coming in. So of course, they're buying up naming rights, everything else like that big. We got a new charitable component to it. Do you want to tell, legitimately, I think this is awesome news for women's golf. So it was announced that the Thunderbirds, of course, you know, the Thunderbirds is the people that put on the waste management open TPC Scottsdale. Been a tough Q1 for the Thunderbirds. It's been a tough Q1.

But yes, they were announced they are officially joining as the tournament family as a founding partner and from the press release as part of its relationships, the Thunderbirds have kicked in, they've increased the purse up to 2.25 million. But I just think bigger picture with the Thunderbirds taking out the shit show that was this year's PGA Tour of Man. I feel like the ladies kind of need that shit show like that. That's exactly what I was going to say.

The Thunderbirds know how to throw a party and they know how to make an event a big deal. And I think again, the more that the LPGA tour can do that for these non-major events is a wonderful step. And hopefully someday this turns into, you know, I don't know if it's ever gonna be as big as what the waste management is, but if it can be like a fun party in the desert, celebrating women's golf, like that's a massive win.

So I was really excited to see the Thunderbirds come on. I will say too, as part of that announcement, anybody, if you're in the Phoenix area, the greater Phoenix area, the Wednesday, you know, you love Phoenix, Randy. I know the Wednesday of the event. I believe that's going to be March 27th is a free day. So I believe you still have to like get a ticket online, but they're free. It's a great chance. Go out, see the course, get up close with some of the best female golfers in the world, bring a kid, bring a friend. I think that's a wonderful thing they're doing. So I wanted to shout that out if you happen to be

in the area the week of the event. And then the third event in this little three week run is the match play at Shadow Creek. I think big picture. It's awesome that they've moved this up in the calendar. I thought where it had been early May, it just wasn't in a great spot, especially when it was the week before the US Open. So this gets moved up. I think Shadow Creek is a fantastic match play golf course. This was all this was among the best viewing of the year last

year. Yep. Men's or women's. Are they doing tickets to the tournament this year? I don't think so spectators or no? No, I mean, nothing that I've heard I think as in years past, like it's super exclusive, you have to be staying at the, at the resort. Um, but hopefully that's an insurance thing or something. But yeah, it's, I mean, it's Wednesday to Sunday, you know, got a new title sponsor too. And T-Mobile T-Mobile. Yep. Yep. Uh, Padgeri Annan Rukarn. That was slow, but I think I nailed that pronunciation. She is your defending champ. It was an awesome event last year. And so we have an awesome event last year, but I feel like we were a little bit disappointed with like the final eight was so sick. And

then it was like, like everything broke the way of like, oh man, like the wrong people kept advancing as far as from a fan interest perspective. Yeah, nothing against Padgeri, but both Leona and Lynn were in the semis and a Leona McGuire Lynn Grant final would have been epic. We were robbed of that. I believe both lost their semifinal matches. But C'est la vie. I wanted to mention it's three events and then the LPGA tour takes a week off during

the Masters and then we'll come back takes a week off during the Masters and then we'll come back with the first major of the year, the Chevron. So as we've said all show, great run of LPGA coming up. And then the only other thing to throw in there as far as big deal in amateur golf is the ANWA. Of course, that will be taking place April 3rd and 4th from Champions Retreat. And then April 6th, the final round is a Saturday from Augusta National. We're going to have some content around that. Let's say we'll have a preview show. We're going to have a couple people on site. TC, you're going to be up there. I know you've said it's one of the best ways to just be at Augusta to see Augusta.

So much more on that, but that's, I'm stoked. Yeah. I'm going to go up. I'm going to do my, I'm going to go to Anwan Saturday, do the pod Sunday, and then probably Monday I'm going to do my, my, my waffle house visit. Oh, that's right. Yeah. So if you drop in a schedule, you know, if you, if you want some FaceTime with TC and you're in the area,

I'll, uh, you know, I'll be hanging out at a local waffle house likely. So, uh, perfect. More to come there. It's cool too. I think the, between the, the, you know, LPGA match play out at shadow Creek and ANWA going on that same week should be a really, really good week for women's golf at large, especially now that Chevron and ANWA don't conflict and go up against one another.

Yeah. One last thing on match play while we're there too. I just want to shout out new format for this year. You guys know this? Really? Oh no, I, this did not click for me. What is it? So it's 96 players this year, but it's three days of stroke play and then the pods then down to a match play bracket.

What are they cutting down to? So 96 players will compete in stroke play competition from Wednesday to Friday. I bet they go to 32 then with a cut to 65 players and ties after 36 holes. The third round after the third round, the top eight players advance to weekends match play. Oh, I kind of dig. You know, I've been asking for a format like that for some of these match play events. I'm glad that they're going to.

So they're going. They're going to do three rounds of stroke play, and then they'll just cut down to basically quarterfinals. Yeah. And then you win three matches and you win. God, this could create some awesome. There are big numbers out at Shadow Creek. Yeah, for sure.

But dude, this is setting up for some like prime playoffs for these eight spots. Yeah. Yeah. Like, is this going to be super bunch? It's kind of like what I've noticed. Liv is going through right now, too, is because they have so many playoffs in these events. There's only 54 holes. It's not really enough enough time, enough holes to like really separate each other. But if you're taking eight, I guess the only the only downside would be maybe I wish they would

have maybe gone to 16. I was 30. 32 probably doesn't whittle it down enough, but 16 would have been a really good middle ground, I think. So you have to win four matches to win the thing. But maybe that's a lot after three rounds of stroke play anyway, you know. So three rounds of stroke play into what will be a Saturday, which will be a 36 whole day. Like that's a lot of golf. They'll play the quarters and the semis on Saturday and just the finals on Sunday. It just right now it's laid out.

It says we'll advance to weekend match play competition that concludes Sunday with the championship match. Okay. No, that part 317th at Shadow Creek has been, legitimately, there might be some really high numbers in stroke play, which I think will be super interesting. I'm actually fascinated to watch them play Shadow Creek

as a stroke play course. Just for how difficult I felt like it's played at times during match play. Oh no. I just got to the bottom of the release. The players challenge a nine hole celebrity match featuring National Football League stars or return for its second year and will be played Sunday, April 7th prior to the championship match. Listen, that's fine. That's fine. As long as you're showing most of the, you know, just show me the shots from the championship match. I don't care if we cut to the, to the celebrities. Guys, the lawn guys are here. I'm just going to,

got the guy with the backpack blower out the garage door. I will say Friday night. That could be some really, really good like prime time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Playoffs. Like you said, uh, Cody, like that's, that's like provocative stuff. I think. Well, good on before trying a new format. I, I, I, I, I dig, you know, I dig freshen it up and try new things. Yeah. A couple of news. Like the freaking tour championship on the PGA tour. Like if sponsors are so spooked about having just match play, just have a stroke play lead in you get all three, you know, you get three rounds. Yeah, I know.

I know. Cody, you got some news and notes and then we'll get out of here. Yeah. One last thing too is that T-Mobile that purse has gone up by quite a bit. So more money in there for the match play tournament. I think it's awesome. Change of format. I think their LPGA Tour is going to announce like next week another purse that's gone up too. I think they're almost up to like $120 million that they're competing for total for the year.

Pretty good stuff. The other thing, this is coming across the wire from of course, Doug Ferguson of the AP, the Olympics, 2028. We know that this year the format is set and can't change anything about Paris. But 2028, the Olympic Committee is close to making an official announcement that's going to add a potential mixed team event, which is going to be awesome because of course that's in LA. I'm excited to see what that is, how you qualify for that. They say right now, I guess a couple of sources said that information should be put out prior to the Masters, which seems pretty quick. Like this is coming down right away. But the way that it works now is that at the Olympics, the men play their

tournament normal stroke play and then they're gone. And then the women play like the following week or whatever it is, I guess they're going to move kind of separate those by move them a day for 2028. And then those middle three days will be this supposed mix thing. But who knows how that's going to work out how qualifying how the teams all this stuff is going to play. But the good thing is that this isn't coming necessarily out of thin air. They already do this

for the Summer Youth Olympics, which I did not know about. Right. So it's been used for the Summer Youth Olympics since 2014. The last competition Atayah Tidakol was part of the Thai team that won the gold medal over Akshay Bhatia and Lucy Lee of the United States. I think this is pretty cool. This is obviously coming off the Grant Thornton that kind of mixed reviews, obviously not the best numbers or really the best field unless you're a Grant Thornton ambassador, but trying to throw more mixed events in there,

I think it would be awesome. And if you can solidify it with an Olympic medal, that's pretty damn cool in my book. Got Team Rose and Charlie Hall teaming up together. Well, when you guys were talking about Minji and Minwoo, I mean, how, how crazy would it be to have brother sister team represent in Australia? I think that could be, could be combustible. It could be combustible too.

I know it'll be interesting. Uh, you have Lexi and Curtis Thompson representing the United States. Any of the Thompson's. Yeah. I thought that was what was missing though though from Grant, you know, Olympics, obviously playing for a medal, there's real genuine stakes there. I think putting the Grant Thornton in December when it's just golf silly season, it just, I don't know, it just can't help but feel like an exhibition.

And so I think that drug it down a little bit. But I think that's fabulous news. I look forward to, you know, details being released. That's right. A rift. Shit. The only drawback is how do you set up the course? Right. Because I think they've had those issues with the Australian Open and when they do the concurrent thing of how do you know, course setup is challenging, especially at some of these old school tracks with very, very sloped greens and you know, how do you do it so that the ladies can access the whole locations and the greens aren't crazy firm, that they can accept a little bit, you know, longer iron or hybrid or fairway wood in. I wanna say that RIV already hosts a college event. I think Tiger has a college event

that both men and women play at. Maybe not, I don't know for sure. The last thing I wanted to get through, just some quick Epson tour notes, just because TC is gonna be out on the streets this week. I didn't, I didn't realize this like wasn't the case, but a quick shout out good on Calway for stepping up. They, they have announced a new partnership with the Epson tour. They're basically going to provide balls gloves to players who are not otherwise sponsored.

But even if you are sponsored by another manufacturer, they're gonna make this stuff available. I guess the Jody brothers who we've talked to a couple times with CEO of Devs and Tour, has said that like when he first got on the job, that he had players showing up at events and they were going into like the pro shop and basically just like buying balls and gloves and teas like with their own money. And he's like, kind of

like, like, what, what are you doing? Like, don't don't you have this stuff? Like, didn't you come here with balls and everything? They're like, No, it doesn't matter if I come here or not, like, I still have to pay for him. So he's been trying to figure out a way to get just get the basic necessities for these these players out there. It's crazy to think we just talked about $120 million that the LPGA tour is playing for and Epson is still down there like kind of just scratching away for chump change. So good on Callaway for stepping up and doing

that. The other thing on Epson is that Dow introduced what they're calling the next generation program. And what they're calling the next generation program. And what they're doing is that I don't know the actual monies behind it, but they've selected four Epson Tour players that they're sponsoring for the year. And again, I don't know if this includes like everything for them, but it is a financial investment that Dow is making in these players. And the reason why I came up on my radar is that young hitter, LaCarbi Abbey, she was selected as one of them too. She's joining Alissa,

Abdelgani, Anita, Uduway and LPGA tour rookie, Gurleen Kaur. I think it's awesome. Just more companies putting money out there of like, putting it in people's hands who actually need it and can use it and benefit from this instead of just splashing it randomly across like this massive pool. So excited about that. Cheers to Dow for doing it. And we'll see and follow them as they continue along the year. Amen. Thank you. Thanks for highlighting those and pointing those out. Boys, that's a wrap. I hope everybody enjoys the Palace Verdes event this week. Catch that on Golf Channel. And we will be back with a specific LPGA Women's Golf Check-in the week of ANWA and match play. So be sure to find that. But of course we'll be talking results on Sunday nights and whatnot doing our usual thing.

So gentlemen, have a great day. TC have fun out at Atlantic beach this weekend. And thank you. You got Saki Baba in the field, Randy. Oh, that's okay. Saki Baba, Annie Park, Amelia Garvey, Emma Talley, Sue Oh, like some real players. So that's good stuff.

All right. Hey, I hate seeing any part there. That as cool as that is, what are we doing? This is like going to a corn fairy tour event and like, you know, you see Harry Higgs there, you see Strebber there. I'm like, man, God, I hate that. Let us know what type of putter she's using. All right.

Well, thank you to everybody for listening and we will see you next time. Cheers. Be the right club today. That's better than most. How about in? That is better than most. How about in? That is better than most. Better than most!