No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 95: Mailbag w/ D.J. Piehowski

Episode Date: September 5, 2017

New addition to the NLU team D.J. Piehowski joins to debrief on an exciting week in golf, and take some spillover questions from last week’s mailbag post. We talk Uihlein, JT, Spieth, Presidents Cup, and... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 95: Mailbag w/ D.J. Piehowski appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I spent the week this week at the web.com tour event here in Columbus and I got to say I was really impressed by the app the PGA tour app That allowed me to see exactly where the guys were that I was trying to follow were on the course I was impressed with how timely it was to you know the in the past you know some of these updates have not been very quick But very impressed with this make sure you're checking that out on the PGA tour app Also before we get going want to mention the new Odyssey O-Works Red and O-Works Black putters. I've got one in my bag, I'm really enjoying it. We're going to talk a little bit more about this later in the show, but for now, let's get than most.

That is better than most. Better than most. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No Laying Up podcast. How do I sound? Professional podcasting. How does this sound? D.J. Pie-Houseki, newly addition on official basis to the No-Lang Up family. How are we doing?

Good. How are you, bud? I'm great. I'm so excited about my new equipment and how we're finally a professional organization. 95 episodes in. So that's great. Slip right into the century mark there.

I know. I kind of wanted to make it 100 with crappy audio. No, I mean, it's been a work in progress as people know. And I kind of had it figured out when I had my old laptop. And then I changed to a temporary one, then to a Mac, and then the programs weren't working right. And it's just been a mess. So I appreciate everyone's patience and a lot of feedback that we've gotten

on the sound quality has been taken note of and we're resolved, it's good to go. So, I think maybe people don't say this enough, but the fact that you were at what, three years ago, you were like a CPA working for like a major organization and the fact that you even have a podcast that players have come on all this stuff like the whole thing is really pretty amazing to begin with. So I think the qualities should be the least of your concerns.

Three years ago, three months ago, I was a student. But yeah, now that we're somewhat legitimate, it's time to get serious. But in one of our legitimate moves, we brought in a guy to kind of start helping us with some of this stuff. That is yourself. I mean, most people listen to this know who you are, but you've been on the podcast before, obviously, but talk a bit about what you're going to be doing for us. And how you got here, your path to where we are today. Yeah, definitely. So I have been working in golf media for about seven, eight years, something like that. And the last five or six of which was was at the PGA tour, working, you know, in a kind of a couple different capacities there.

And basically was kind of looking, you know, to do my own thing for a long time and, and, you know, just kind of struggling to figure out what that meant or what that thing was. So I was kind of looking, you know, in the mirror after a while and was like, hey, you know, I've done this kind of a wide range of different stuff, whether that's, you know, writing, video, social strategy, photos, like all kinds of different things. And I was kind of looking at, you know, groups like yourselves, and kind of a lot of these small, smaller kind of organizations that are, that are kind of up and coming and operating much more nimbley and, and all of that stuff and, and kind of looking at like,

you know, I think a lot of these companies need kind of a Swiss Army knife style person who can, who can help with a lot of different stuff that comes up on a day to day basis. So obviously it was talking to yourselves and, and the golfers journal as well. And just kind of, you know, floated the idea to you guys, hey, why don't we kind of make this official? And I don't know, I guess it's kind of an agency, it's kind of a freelance thing, it's, I don't really know what to call it

or what the model is, but yeah, it's going well so far. So yeah, we've done some fun stuff already, and then we got some big stuff in the works as well, just from a video standpoint, from a podcast standpoint, from a podcast standpoint, from a writing standpoint, all kinds of different things. So yeah, excited to get going. I think you just nickname yourself the Swiss Army knife.

I think we're going to run with that. I kind of like that. So yeah, it sounds great. I love it. All right. Well, yeah, let's not get into too many spoilers about what's to come, but I think that people will agree it is a lot of really good stuff. But I wanted to do kind of a mailbag podcast.

I know there are a lot of people sent some questions in for it and I wrote about 3,700 words or something which is just a giant waste of time with mailbag. So I kind of want to just get on the horn and talk through some good, we got so many good questions and I could honestly probably do it for about three hours, but we narrowed it down to about 15 or 20 questions we want to get through. But first I kind of want to debrief on pretty exciting week in golf. I want to start with the web.com tour event, the nation nationwide children's hospital championship here in Columbus at the Scarlet. I made it out Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The conditions were pretty tough.

It rained. It was cold. It was windy. It got pretty nice on Sunday. But I kind of felt like it was flying out of the radar going into the week that Peter Uline was back from the European tour trying to get his PGA tour card through the web.com finals he qualified on. Non-member FedEx Cup points, he was between 126 and 200 on the list and came into the week

as the highest ranked player in the field and just Sunday 65 to win his first ever web.com event and get his card in one stop. I just think that was kind of an important story in golf this week and felt like it was a bit under, flying under the radar going into the week. Yeah, for sure. I think Uline is like one of my favorite guys. I mean, I think he and like I think Patrick Cantley is kind of in that category too, where it's like these almost kind of hipster feeling. You almost kind of feel like a hipster when you're a really big fan of those

guys, because you know, there are these guys that have just all the talent in the world and kind of almost like when you get the feeling when you watch and play and when you watch them set up their schedules and stuff that like, like they could be top five players, like if they really wanted to be but they kind of just It almost feels like they kind of you know have other priorities. I know can't lay obviously has issues with this back and stuff and it's kind of resting for that Purpose but you know you line like your podcast with you line is still maybe my favorite one I mean it's so good to hear his outlook on why he liked playing in Europe and, you know, why he didn't really mind kind of for going a couple years on tour and doing all that stuff. And I mean, it's just so cool that like as soon as he was like, all right, cool. I'm going to go for it now. I mean, he comes out and wins in his first event. It's just like so impressive.

And, but, you know, he's he's been so impressive throughout his career. I mean, even in Europe, he's played well. And before that, obviously, it was like number one amateur in the world, won the amateur. It's the best college player in the country. I mean, he's just been such a stud at every level. So I forget, I think Porter's always beating that drum. I'm like, look at what these guys have done on every level. And usually the trend line kind of continues no no matter, no matter what, as they kind of age with their

competition. Yeah, and I've gotten the chance to kind of follow on, I went and followed them a little bit in, in Ireland this year and at the British Open this year. And I just, I'm so impressed by, and I just love how he just gets up and hits cuts everywhere. Even if the whole dog clicks right to left, he just gets up and just hits a hits driver and hits like a power cut around the corner and man, he roll these young guys that roll it so well is what or what you know, it's easy to kind of I don't know, look past the other skills of these guys that really bomb it and the fact that he rolls it so well and I mean, I also just kind of pay attention to what other players say about players. And when I tweeted that earlier this week about it, kind of people not talking about you

lying being here, I mean, I mean, I don't agree. That was immediately like, yeah, they're playing for 24 spots. He's going to get a spot like he everyone kind of knows what level talent that he is. But I kind of wanted to talk, well, first, a lot of people were saying, like, I don't know, I want to talk about the system and how it all works. And I know that in that podcast that he and I talked, I was kind of surprised at how much he did enjoy playing the European tour and how he wasn't in such a hurry to make it back.

And I think it's kind of just perspective on, you know, he hadn't really been outside North America before he started traveling the world and the experience he got traveling the world for five years playing golf and playing really well along the way was just kind of second to none and you can't really replace those life lessons but I kind of when I ran into him at the British I was like you know what's your schedule like the rest of the year and he's like yeah I'm doing this this and this and coming home for the web finals and I was like oh so you were just lying to me about how much you loved Europe he said something on

lines we got we had dinner on on Wednesday night and he said something along the line. I was kind of giving him crap for, for, you know, saying that. And he's like, yeah, you know, I went and played in Houston this year. I think it was Houston. I was like, I've never, I've never made the cut in a tournament played Sunday, played well, had a good week and was home for dinner on Sunday night. And I was like, you know what? This is kind of nice. And I just kind of, that kind of hit home me.

It was kind of like, all the factors that go into the decision-making for these guys. And yeah, him kind of seen the appeal of being state-side, being home, and after going out and seeing the world. I can relate to that. I can really relate to that. So for sure. And I think just, you know, obviously I've never done it on the European side, but just from kind of traveling with the tour a ton, I mean, it's one of those things too,

where you go for the first year or two years, three years, and, you know, it's the coolest thing in the world, and you're going to all see all the sights, and you're going to different restaurants, and you're going to do all this different stuff. And then, you know, by the fourth year, you're at the same TGI Fridays in Akron that you've been at like the last four years.

And you're like, okay, I'm good. I think I got it. And I mean, he's got to feel a little bit of that. You know, he's been out there for what, three years or so kind of doing his thing. So if he said, I mean, five, three, well. It's a really challenge tour, I think, and the European tour.

I know he had some injuries along the way and kind of delayed this, you know, this actual arrival. But I kind of want to talk to you a bit about the system and how I know I couldn't help. I kind of harped on the fact that we have this system between the PGA tour and web tour that sent two of our really good top young American players to go play elsewhere, and that ULINE was just not interested in playing the Web Tour. And you know, like, just for a guy at that talent level, you know, going and playing in Boise and stuff like that, just wasn't that appealing to him on any, that's what kind

of sent him overseas. And it just feels like there's a lot of factors working against him. And they ended up, you know, the people say like you play, like play well enough things what kind of sent him overseas. And it just feels like there's a lot of factors working against him. And they ended up, you know, the people say, like, you play, like, play well enough things. They'll take care of themselves and you'll get places to play and everything. But just couldn't help, I had like a bad feeling, like,

the fact that he's been gone this long comes back. And like in his first shot, like, makes it like, abundantly clear as to what his talent level is to be like, yeah, I show up. And yeah, he won by one, thanks to, you know, Ryan Armer Bogie, the last hole for him to win, but just kind of shows up and wins immediately to qualify for the tour. It was kind of like, this is the guy that should be out there. It should be a found a way. I'm not saying specifically for you line, I'm saying for a

player of that talent, shouldn't there have been a better path to the PGA tour? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's a tough one. And I think a lot of it kind of comes down to, I think a lot of it comes down to kind of the intangibles, like you said, I think for him, you know, he was super excited about the idea of going and playing overseas and doing all that stuff for kind of the first time in his life. I think some guys are just not comfortable doing that.

And I think they are way more comfortable in Boise and in Omaha and Kansas City and figuring that stuff out and and kind of You know doing traveling, you know driving from event to event and doing that kind of stuff like works for them as well And so I mean I don't know. I mean for every For every I mean you lens kind of a standout. I think just because he's you know He was the best amateur player in the world not that stuff But I mean he for every one he's, you know, he was the best amateur player in the world and all that stuff But I mean, he for every one of him, you know, there is another guy who kind of Go through the web tour process and comes out and and wins and and does all this stuff and then kind of you know

Says hey, I couldn't have done this without playing on that tour and some of that you know feels contrived and some of it You know, whatever feels kind of like marketing, but I think a lot of it is I mean, I think there is a lot a lot to it I mean learning how to you know, even not in the media guys Rave about like privately will say oh no, I needed that you're on the web tour needed to learn exactly Yeah, so I get that I totally get that but I just feel like I don't know Just just the Keppka you line thing and maybe it's just such a small group people It's not worth kind of you know, you know, dying on this hill over But I just felt like well, just something sour about it. It might. Yeah, that's kind of what I'm thinking in like I don't know what if You know, I don't know if it's just that those two it was kind of those two like right at the time that they made the changes

And they almost kind of became like these louder than Necessary like examples, you know, I mean like I don't know that that many guys are like going to do that now If they are like I haven't really followed them or paid attention I you know, I mean like I almost think it's just because those were the first two guys And it was right at that time that they kind of stuck out as these like Big examples for this alternate path that I'm not sure like that many guys have really taken since yeah It's probably not worth beating the drum on but I did after After we won after you know, he came off the course

And just and we talked briefly and he was just he neat so he birdied 11 12 14 and 15 and went after a pin on the 220 yard 17th hole a back right pin with a right to left wind and he just Stuffed it like he it was an insane shot and he missed the birdie putt. And he kind of looked at me after his time, like, I won't repeat what he said, he's calling. He, he, like, felt like he missed an opportunity. He thought he, you know, if you make that putty, probably wins and then armor went and bogie it.

And then he comes out, he's like, yeah, my web.com tour career is over. And I was like, well, wait a second here. Like you, you still a lot of, you're gonna want to play the rest of the web finals. Like if you get, well, wait a second here. Like you still a lot of you, you're going to want to play the rest of the web finals. Like if you get, if you win the web finals, you get into the players and your priority goes way up. So I think he legitimately thought after he won that he was going to skip the rest of the offense. I was thinking about

that. I don't know what he would, yeah, there's still lots of play for it, but it would be tempting to take some time off. I'm sure you can't imagine. But just, yeah, that's the, so that's the, the kind of low key crazy thing about the web tour. I was talking to some guys about it that are off this week. And you play super hard to get your tour card. And then it's like, you basically,

like, if you look at the web tour schedule, these guys have played basically, you know, 15 weeks in a row, 14 weeks in a row, something like that. And because it's the web tour, it's a limited schedule, all that stuff. I mean, you kind of have to play all of those, right? So, so you're going to do all that. Then you play the web tour finals. And then if you get in, then all of a sudden, like, it's the next week is a safe way.

And like, you've just got to stay on your horse for so long, whereas like if you do have your web tour card kind of locked up for next year, you know, and you don't end up getting your PJ tour card, it's kind of nice to take like three months off before the season kicks back up. So it's kind of like, it's a kind of a weird spot. A lot of these guys are in. It's win-win obviously, but it's kind of strange. It's a fight for those priority positions though, too, because they matter. That's just where a lot of a lot of the field lines get drawn So yeah, that's what you gotta just keep keep your foot on the gas for like six straight months

If you're the last one making it in in you know getting a card You're not necessarily getting to play a ton of events. So for sure Yeah, it was a fun week. It was just kind of cool to see you know I've been to a lot of big tournaments this summer and to kind of just see an event where there were like almost no fans out there and just see the grind. I just have so much respect for all those dudes on that grind and just like the caddies and just, you know, it all looks so glorious, especially in the PGA tour

then you can just fall back one level and see the level grind. It's just, it's super impressive. And yeah, I mean, the web tour caddy is like, that's like as real as it gets. Right. That's all like they were, like essentially, like their caddy check was like a garage there.

Oh, yeah. And like, yeah, that's you just, you just, you just forget some of that stuff. So it's crazy. And then what's even worse is you know, you see guys like get their cards and then switch, like dump their caddy and switch to someone else. It's like, it's like investing at even worse is you know you see guys like get their cards and then switched like dump their caddy and switch to someone else

It's like it's like investing at some point, you know like you got to just like hit your hit your wagon to the right guy Last thing I wanted to know from the web was a In caught ZB on Friday morning and it was just unseasonably cold I left because it was so cold and I had a sweater on and It's blowing like it's 220 and it's blowing into his face on the par 3 eighth and he just hits this three iron. He is like on the cut line, first of all. He's not bawling out, like he's not like crushing it.

And he hits this three iron. And while it's mid air, he just turns, he's just, count it. And I didn't even watch it land. I mean, it was a six shot, but it was like 15 feet away. He didn't make the birdie, but it was just, I mean, it was just super pumped to hit that shot. It was, it was, it was cracking me up. That's kind of vibe out there. He's, God, he, like, I think he legitimately plays so much better when he's got someone to kind of like show off to

you a little bit. Like, there was what he sent us. He sent us a video of himself playing the BMW a couple years ago. I think last time was at Conway and there's a par three. Is it 17 I think? Yeah. He he was playing in like a Sunday morning. It's like early, you know, he's like one of the kind of the first ones going off or whatever and the cameras just happen to catch it for like PJ to her live or something And he just flushes this t-shirt and as soon as it leaves the club base goes, oh, that's a fucking ace That's it and it And it hit the stick and like should have gone in and he was like legitimately. I've said it didn't go in

That is a great clip. That is a great clip. No, it's fun It was fun. I went followed Luke got three her few holes ZB and just, you know, some of the guys we know. And just, it's just fun to just kind of go to like a laid back event and vibe like that. But, let me say this, how about 17 minutes here of WebTour on a week, the JT1 for you? That's great. I'm just holding it all back.

I can't just go for it. I love it, man. You're very well rounded these days. It's just building up. All right, that's a good transition. Why don't we get to the next hour and a half that we're going to spend on Dell Technologies. Last two things I noted down was peer U lines

gone from 270, ninth in the world at the start of the season to 74th. I just found that climb pretty interesting. And the Keppka thing is going to get destroyed much like some of the golf narratives. But we're going to get destroyed much like some of the golf narratives, but we're going to get to that as one of the questions. But before we break down the Dell technologies, I want to get back into what I mentioned

the top of the show regarding the Odyssey O-Works putter and the new micro hinge face insert. Now, I've experienced a lot of gains in technology and other parts of my game, but never really thought about how much goes into your putter and the technology behind it. But the new technology in this putter changes the way people look at the roll off of the putter face.

I talked about in the past how I feel like I can give the ball a much better stroke. The ball kind of comes off soft and there's incredible gains in top spin and roll at impact. Regardless of how you stroke the ball and I feel like I can hitputs a lot more firm get them on a better line and the stainless steel micro hinge plate is co-molded into a Thermoplastic Ella at lastometer feel layer try to say that This is like my third attempt trying to say it. It really has made a significant change for me I'm excited about go check out more at Odyssey Golfolf.com. Now let's get back to the podcast.

The big takeaway really for me for the Dell is that Tron is gonna be an official sketcher, official sketcher's brand ambassador. Brand ambassador. Yeah, that's cool. Very good for him. Yeah, I muted the bet down. He wanted to do like where sketchers

for the entire weekend, including to dinner for our leashman first JT final round, but I just did not want to be as I don't want to do it. And he's like, yeah, that's why it's a good bet. And uh, leashman went out in 30 and I was looking up what brand, what style of stitchers I was going to have to buy. But fortunately, leashman had a rough back nine. But uh, I know you're, I know you're working on setting up some good golf for Chicago. It says it's even better when he's going to have to play this classic courses and his sketches. So yeah, I got a few things written down here about, let's talk about with the Dell, but I mean,

the first thing I wrote is like, this is just, this is getting absurd. It's kind of getting absurd with the run that JT is on. I say this every time he wins now about how I've kind of felt too close to it and not really fully realized how talent, I knew how talented he was, but to match your talent to your success is a different thing. To win five times, a major and now a playoff event. I don't know, I just, I keep saying I couldn't, I didn't see this coming.

I mean, you guys got six PGA Tour wins at the age of 24. That's like, that's one less than Justin Rose has in his entire PGA tour career. And I know J Rose plays a lot in the European tour, but Rose has like 300 career PGA Tour starts. That's, this is not a shot at Rose. I just picked out a name that was kind of an interesting comparison for how many wins that is.

It's nuts. I mean, I am in the same boat. I for sure would have lost a lot of money on the JT will be player of the year, but I mean, it's awesome to watch. I mean, I think that without getting too much into the hyperbole, I mean, I think that, you know, without getting too much into the hyperbole, I mean, I think he like, I think when he wins, it feels a little bit like when Dustin wins to where like, I mean, I was going through stats and stuff.

I mean, he just did like he just did everything great. And like, like when he does that, I mean, it's like, it's kind of like a different game. Like, it's just hard for anybody to run him down like that. And, and you know, you feel that way when Dustin has it going too. I mean, they just drive the ball so well that like, you know, they just drive the ball so well that, you know, it lowers the chances of any greens they're going to miss because they're so much closer.

And, you know, when they are missing greens, then, you know, on these weeks where they do like that, they, you know, JT got up and down 20 out of 21 times, which is like laughable. Like it literally makes both of us laugh when you hear that. And it's like, I mean, it's just like, how are you going to beat that guy? And so like, you know, I know we'll feel the same way, like if Dustin comes and wins next week, like it's a similar feeling, you know, but it's just, it's turning into the tour in a cool way is turning into, you know, but it's just, it's turning into the tour in a cool way, it's turning into, you know, it's these three, four, five guys that like, one of them just

seems to be clicking every week and like, you know, there's not really much that anybody else can do about it, you know. Yeah. And I mean, it's almost, I mean, I don't know if this is cliche to say, but I feel where we're at with GT is in that it kind of you could see nerves down the stretch for him back when he was young as well as about to say, but like before he had kind of gone into this stretch where you know, you could just see him kind of battling nerves and nerves are always going to exist.

I coming down the back nine of a tournament on the tour, but now he's been there enough where I feel like he's over this hump of it feeling new. And like I felt like he grew up a lot between the US Open and the PGA, you know, handling that final round he played about as poorly as he could on that Sunday at Aaron Hills. And he, his response to that at the PGA was beyond impressive. Like it was just a completely, completely transformation. Now I feel like we're kind of through the looking glass on, and he's realized what his potential is. And running off a win like this

seems incredibly routine to him already. For sure. And that's, yeah, exactly. I feel the same way about watching the US open on Sunday. I mean, I know we're all kind of texting about it, but I was kind of looking at that. Almost like a little smarmy and kind of like, oh, see, like, you know, he's not quite there yet.

Let's just chill. And then, yeah, I mean, he just makes me look like an idiot. Like he just, it does everything the right way. These last kind of two, three months. It's just, it's been awesome to watch him. It's exciting to, exciting to watch it. It's amazing that he went, I mean, I made the point at the time, last year that I don't think he did enough to deserve to be on the Ryder Cup team last year.

But it's kind of amazing to think that he's about to play in his first team event next month, like this month. And it's- That's true. And I know it's different, but the comparison I came up with, and I was trying to illustrate yesterday about age 24 season, five wins in winning a major in one year.

Granted, there is the speed thing, he won two majors, five events in one year at age 22, so it's different, but I just imagine, and I know he did it in a very different way, but imagine how much we freaked out, people freaked out about Anthony Kim and his rise, right? This is a young,

brash American, and again, I know it's different, Kim Swagger was just completely off the charts, but I feel like it's just where we're you know for American golf fans to have like and I'm trying so hard not to do the JT speed parallel right now which we'll get it too but just to have these like two guys emerge as these top young players D.J. is obviously you know the number one player in the world and but he's a different age bracket he's's 33 years old, I think, but just to have these two young guys kind of, you know, root for and whatnot, it's pretty, it's pretty exciting. So definitely those guys are the buddies too, which makes it cool.

So I'm trying, I'm trying to figure out a way to word this to see where we are on this thing where I think the way to say it is the jokes about the jokes about the jokes of the buddy thing are tired. I think that's what fits the phase. Yeah, totally. It's reached Jeff Knox status. Yeah, it's like I hate even making the jokes about it now because people aren't, I don't know, it's laughable. I just can't believe that there's so little self-awareness in the media on television. And I mean, Hicks, I think, said it's like three times during one hole at one point yesterday.

And man, it's just unbelievable. I want to be, I want to see people be like, look, they're, they're, they're not like best friends. I know Speed said that and the press conference, I was like, you know, they're, he's one of my best friends. But it's like, like, JT and Ricky are closer than, than JT and Speed Thar is far, far as far as I can tell. I mean, they got to be like, Speed has that kind of sense of humor where I can see him

just rolling. Oh, I totally agree. I totally agree. Which is great, which does make it like that's kind of a, you know, a rare win in, in this whole column for us here, right? Yeah It's it's hard because I always struggle with I Was struggle with you know removing myself because I know that I live in like a giant

Echo chamber Yeah, because I watch golf for 50 hours a week, but like I always try to talk about it like the way my dad would talk about it My dad is like the most average golf fan in the world. And like, I know that he's already tired of this. So like, that means, all right, it's time to stop. We got it. That's a good sign. Just an overall observation, and I'm not going to get in the details of how the points

are some work. How is JT not leaving the FedEx cup? I mean, I don't speak barely behind speed, and I don't speak basically finished, I think you finished second to him, yeah. I had, so I understand a little bit about how that works, but just amazing to me. That he, it's a, how many wins the speed

have this here? Three. I think three, yeah. So it's still pretty remarkable. But, did you get to, I don't know how much did you see of the 12th hole? I mean, what do you think about like the way some of the players like JT especially Ram I think played it this way where he just they bonded into 13 fairway to get around the trees and get

Avoid kind of the strategy elements of the whole. Yeah, a lot of players were not thrilled about this whole I didn't see too many players actually play it. I did a deep dive on kind of the shot link Just like how it's laid out where the pins are where guys were making birdies from and and that kind of stuff and and did a good amount of kind of texting with people about it and stuff and I don't know I mean it did like I think Zach Blair had kind of the best take on it that it just looked like it was laid out backwards like you know you got this kind of center line bunker which is skews to the right side, which means the right side of the fairway is way skinnier.

But there's no reward. Like your angle gets like way worse from going over on that side of it, which you got to cover that bunker, you got to do all this stuff. And it doesn't make sense. Like, I don't know. I'm not, I'm not crazy about guys like guys like you know playing from the wrong fairway. I think that's kind of a ugly kind of an ugly look, but I get it. I mean if you got you know You're playing for as much money as you are and all that stuff. I mean I get I get why you do it

And actually I'm looking at the shot link stuff now and the guys who played it from over there were basically like It looks like there were two doubles and one birdie and the rest were parsed. I mean, that's better than the field average. Yeah. So I don't know. Did you get to see much of it?

I know the fairway was kind of candid downhill, right? And you're like, so if you hit the left side, you kind of like had an awkward downhill eye, which sucks. I don't know, the whole thing just doesn't seem like it was like It seemed like a good idea when you look at kind of like the overhead view and then from it guys actually playing it It sounded like it was pretty awful. Well, I part of me wishes I didn't read this I was literally was reading an article before we came on it's a high-madeeas peace for golf world It's just called the great divide. I think it just went up and I was reading it as we got started.

Now I feel like I'm stealing all the takes from it, but I think people should read this and just kind of how thin the line is because of what technology has made the game between setting a whole up difficult and getting away from you and the players bitching about it. And it's a really interesting article. I don't want to steal too much from it

because I think just I may nails it as he normally does and fighting, fighting this bomb and gouge era, you know, and of course, that otherwise is kind of a generally favors the long players. You know, it's always going to be met with any changes that are going to be, you know, players are going to bitch about the changes. That's just, that's just what happens.

That's, that's happens every course. And I don't know, players are going to bitch about the changes. That's just, that's just what happens. That's, that happens every course. And I don't know. It's just interesting to see the thought process, Gilhands put into it, into, you know, trying to make this whole more challenging for the players. And, yeah, I don't know if it's just, I don't know if it's executed properly, but the, the challenge of designing a hole that's essentially for the pros that, you know, it's not, it's for point 0, 0, 0,1% of the golfing world, and you got to try to design these holes to be challenging for them.

But it's impossible to ask, I'm really sure. And I think that they play this hole, like as a part five for the members, which as a part five, you look at it, you're like, oh, it's actually kind of cool. But as a part four, as a relevant part, as a relevant part. That's driving when you, I guess when you're playing a part five for guys who hit it much shorter and you're thinking about it as a three shot hole I think it's kind of cool, but when you have I Don't know the thing that that kind of bugs me or bums me out about a hole like this is

Like I do think that this is closer to what the tour needs than Then a lot of the stuff that we see and you know when you got guys kind of walking off the hole and saying, like, hey, I hit driver, I hit four iron, I hit three wood, I hit, you know, I had this in, I had this in, like, and it's kind of confusion and variety. Like, that's awesome. Like, that is so cool. And it doesn't happen very much. But when it's done poorly, like, it just does so much more damage than good, because

the narrative around this now is like, oh, what a terrible whole, because they kind of try to do something different. And so it just sucks when you have an opportunity to do something different like this and to inject strategy into a golf course like this and kind of get people talking about the right things. And they walk away kind of talking about the wrong things. It's just that's a bummer And it kind of leads us to more of the kind of hit it long straight kind of robot golf that that we see so much of on tour And I mean I was I was texting with text was about it and asking you know kind of what like what are the most strategic holes you guys play on tour And I mean like the list was so short that it was like hard to

come up with answers. I mean, it's like number nine at Hilton head and number 10 at Riviera and other than that, it's like, you know, it's a pretty short list. You know, as far as thinking about options off the tee and, you know, how different pins affect things and all that stuff. So as someone who spent their summer playing in the UK where everything is options off tea and factoring in fairway bunkers. I'm becoming especially woke to, I've been slow coming around to the technology issue and now I'm realizing just the depth of how big it goes, how far the problem goes and how wide reaching it is. And and this

is the kind of things you're going to see. And I don't think it's necessarily, certainly good for the game. But, but yeah, you had mentioned it and you mentioned Patrick Cantley earlier, but you mentioned a quick stat. I just wanted to mention on air that Patrick Cantley hasn't missed a cut this year. That's remarkable. He's the man. He might be, he might be the third best player in the world by his beef in Dustin. Okay, I'm just going to skirt pass that. No, he like, I love watching Can't Lay. I think he's like, I was trying to make the point. It was not well received. That Patrick Can't Lay is like the hipster version of Spief in that they play the game very similarly. I think they they put it like crazy, they're great iron players.

They like kind of hit it medium length, but you know, kind of think courses to death. And like, it's just, I don't know, it's awesome that, you know, he got his status at Tampa and then only ended up playing what, seven more events than that or something like that. And I assume, I mean, I haven't talked to him, but I assume a lot of that is limiting because of his back

and trying not to put too much pressure on that and kind of gearing up for the end of the season here. But to do, like, you know, it's almost kind of the opposite of what you see with a lot of these web guys. We were talking about status and stuff where it gets so hard when you don't get into a routine. Like, it's almost easier to play every week because you kind of get in a routine and you get like,

you get things going when you're really playing kind of every third week, every fourth week, whatever, it just is so hard to have any kind of consistency and the fact that yeah, I mean, he's done that this year without missing any cuts. It's just awesome. I would love to see him more and more and more. So hopefully plays well these next couple of weeks too. Shout out to Paul Casey for the best club twirl of the year. Just let one loose that I just had to assume that he flagged it. And it was like 20 yards short of the green and 20 yards left of the flag.

Like the camera had to pan out to find the flag. Johnny Miller is like, there's a club twirl and then he's like, well, I'm not sure what he's twirling about. And I think that's a low key toer sauce move also is, is like a toer sauce to like, because you're embarrassed to like cover up a bad shot. Like I've definitely done that. But I can never been able to relate more to a club twirl on a shot that misses the green. So here's a real quick thing that we should just get on the record.

Paul Casey needs to win something, man. Like what's your stat? He's 12 of the last 14 and top 25. 12 of, yeah, 12 of his last 14 events were top 25s. One of those that was outside the top 25 was a 26th at the US Open. The other one was like 41st or something. So like, I don't know the last time he missed a cut. And he's like, it's funny to, I don't know.

I mean, I know we talk about kind of narratives plenty, but if Paul Casey was a 22 year old kid from Oklahoma state or something, like, imagine what people would be doing to him about like, this guy just can't win. He just, he gets so close, but he just can't do it. But because he's like established, Paul Casey has been around for, you know, 10, 15 years. He's just like, oh, yeah, cool, another good week. And it's just wild that it's like almost statistically impossible that he hasn't won since, I think he won a career like, I don't know,

four years ago, three years ago, something like that. It's like, it's nuts. He's playing like some of the best golf on the planet. Yeah. Before we move off the Dell, I think I just want to mention that we need to have some kind of tour sauce intervention. There was a shoot I've lost it. Somebody said something to me today. It's like, if everything is sauce, then nothing is sauce. And the amount of stuff I've got

to filter through on a weekend of how like just calling random things to our sauce that are not to our sauce like if you need two people just go back to the original post learn what it is This morning this is on you as an educator. No, I've done I've written four primers on it like what do I have to do? Golf channel this morning they were doing something about longest dry best golf drives like routes to play good golf And they just called one of them tour sauces. Like, we're killing it here, guys. You're ruining it. It might be dead. The sauce might be dead.

So, just want to put a couple last few things and then we'll get to some questions. Bubba took somewhere between 1 million and 1.2 million. There's what they, what what the I heard through the grapevine from Volvik to play their golf balls this year. He made less than that on tour this year and it's his lowest career lowest earnings in a season since 2006. If people are wondering why I'm so hard on that is one of the most questionable decisions to ever ever be made by a top professional golfer. I don't have much reaction to that. It's some bad investing.

There's a reason why I keep hammering it. It's like, what are you doing here, man? This is wild. I mean, you are one of the best ball strikers on the planet. And you went out and barely tested a golf ball and took a pile of cash to play color golf balls. So question, but it's like predatory lending. Yeah. Last, if I answer this as quickly as you can, where do you think DJ ranks on the career all-time PGA tour earnings list? I already saw your stat. Or you know, I think you

might have heard it. Yeah, yeah. It's insane think he's in almost fifth on career earnings. If you ever get bored, just go to the career money leaders on the BJ toiless. It's fascinating. Zach Johnson is 11th 42.4 million dollars. Matt Kutcher's 13th, David Thompson's 12th. David Thompson has been passed by a few guys in recent. He was like 7th at one point. Speed is already 20th. Like it's wild. Roy Sabatini has made 30 million dollars on tour. I mean, it's just will blow your mind. So go spend some time on that.

Has anybody done like a career money list adjusted for inflation? Probably. I'm sure like Jake Nichols has got something on that, but that would be interesting to read. All right, you ready for questions? Sorry, 30 something minutes in before we got to any. There's lots of talk about golf. I wouldn't play it on all that. No, that's great.

Well, time to be alive. Seriously. Um, Grant Hamill had the, had the first one. Power rank, the worst golf narratives used during a TV broadcast. And he threw in a couple of the speed JT buddies, Sam Saunders, DJ athlete. Do you have a power rankings? Of those three, my no, it can be anything. You can do a few examples out there. So these are power rankings of the ones I like to hear about the least or the most cringe worthy, right? Yeah, the worst golf narratives is what he says, yeah.

All right, I would say JT Jordan, would be number one. I always like the juxtapositions, not really narrative, it's just a kind of a funny one from the broadcast, but the juxtaposition of how dark it is in reality versus how dark the camera's making it look. I think it's a good one. Sam Saunders, you know, it doesn't bother me. It does bother me because, you know, again,

I've watched so much golf, but like, it's really a pretty big deal when you think about it. It's worth mentioning, but it's not worth mentioning every time and it doesn't define. I just feel, I mean, I feel for Sam is it's like, it doesn't define who you are as a person. And it's kind of, you know, the way people, like, there's a bunch of jokes about, there was something that went out. It was, I forget it's like a bears, one of the guy that, a bears player's wife, one like an Olympic medal. And that was the that, a Bears players wife, one like an Olympic medal,

and that was the headline, like Bears players wife is making a name for herself, and they didn't say her name. Apparently she's not. And yeah, and if Sam won, it would be like Arnold Palmer's grandson won a golf tournament. It's just, it's gotta be hard for him. I don't know, I just feel bad for him in that scenario.

And that he, he must be like, It's gotta be hard for him. I don't know. I just feel bad for him in that scenario and that is. He must be like, just mega well adjusted to be able to even like function with all that going around him all the time. You know what I mean? Like think about how few people, this is very obvious, but think about what percentage of golfers make it to the PGA tour.

And like the fact that he's done that, just like even made it to the tours, like phenomenal, that's awesome. Yeah. I kind of feel the same way about you, Lionel. Exactly. Connections with, you know, the fact that he actually is a world-beater, like,

and also kind of has all the resources in the world through his family and stuff is like, that's really cool. I love when guys do that. I'm with you there. Anything a spanyard can breathe. And it can get compared to Sevy. Just like a guy who's been to Spain or is playing in Spain.

Yeah. If you've ever set foot on, or if you've heard of the country of Spain, then anything you do is somewhat comparable to Sevy. Sevy would be proud. Even Johnny Miller dropped one of them yesterday. It was just like I know Johnny come on You're you're about you're better than this you're above all this

Yeah, that that might be my least favorite especially around the masters last year that was that was absolutely abused I hope this isn't viewed as disrespectful to Arnie and Sevy. I think it's the opposite It's like right yeah, everything that these guys do is comparable to these guys We get it. Well, it kind of cheapens like when you throw it all of it around so much, like it just cheapens like the actual good stuff. Yeah, and it's not, we get it. Like you, like, announcers are older than we are and they watch these legends and they're trying to do their best for their, these names to live on in an eternity.

But man, you're kind of ruining it, just, just saying. I got two DJ ones on here. DJ's Trackman with his wedges. He's been practicing that a lot. And DJ can dunk big athletes and athletic guy. DJ also, he's so athletic though, that that one doesn't bother me either. Because every time I look at it, I'm like,

yeah, no, that's true. Like he is a freak of nature. Yeah. Yeah, the Trackman thinks funny. I don't know. I also kind of quietly revel in a lot of these things too, when they reach meme status. I don't know.

I also just, it does make me laugh. Like there's kind of a point of not diminishing returns, but the opposite of that where it actually I think gets countered. It comes back around. It's like the omega commercial. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly.

And then it came back around. And then, yeah, exactly. And then yeah, exactly. And then you're like, you know, am I really like enjoying this that much less than whatever else was going to be on in this place? Like yeah, whatever. This was a good one from Harry Arnett. I wanted to put this in the mail bag,

but I couldn't write it as well as we can just talk about it. What imagined silly season events would you like to see once the president's cup is over? Oh, all right, you started on this one again, I think about this. Well, so, A, but I wanted to pick your brain on this too because you kind of have a better, your experience with the tour has a better understanding of how these things work. So, the way I kind of see it is the game just priced out, like these battle at the bridges or whatever money these guys used to get for these made for TV events.

It seems like they just played for so much money as it is that the appeal for those is not necessarily there. So it may not be realistic to say let's bring back battle the bridges or battle big horn or all that stuff. It may not be that interesting, but the twist I wanted to put on it, and there's only a few people here that will understand this, but have pros go play a betting game. And if I could pick one, Wolf Hammer would be absolutely fascinating. And we've got a video that's going to come out that explains Wolf Hammer.

It's too difficult to explain. Well, this podcast is going to be long enough as it is, but it's difficult to explain all the rules. But essentially, you play Wolf, but you also have this hammer item where you can allow, essentially allows in-hole presses, and their strategy is to when you use it or whether not you accept the press, which doubles it, etc. But imagine, imagine the Wolf with exponential junk. Yes, and you can get extra points for hitting fairway, green, and par better, or like sandies, and all this stuff.

But imagine, Phil, so obviously if there's a betting element to it, the money's got to go to charity or something like that. I don't think so. Well, I feel, well, okay. If we want to just completely suspend reality, then yeah, let's just have players bet their own money. But imagine Phil out there, like betting, and then you get to their mic tubs, so you hear what the bets are you hear all the points and That would that would be more fascinating to me than just like a stroke player match play event along, you know, we'd rather insignificant And yeah, if people knew the all the rules of Wolfaer you would be so we I played some this weekend

But two guys that had never played before and the guy that lost the the most money Frankie P, shout out, he called another one of our guys afterwards to say how much funny he had. Because it's like that, but it's that good of a game. So stay tuned, we're gonna- The most dangerous game. Most dangerous game. We've got a video coming out in the suit

and we'll explain all the rules, but a lot of people, there's another question we got. I was like, what's the best betting game? And that is, the answer is Wolfhammer. I never want to play golf again without playing Wolfhammer. And shout out to the guys at Greenville Country Club, GH West and Cheney that introduced us to that, because it's honestly the most fun game. I'm, GH is in, they're all in Scotland right now and I'm texting them throughout the

day, like, what's the rule on this? Because it gets way out of control. But I want to see pros play Wolfhammer. That'd be great. I think there's a couple, a couple wild things you can do. And as far as like keeping it realistic, I mean, one thing, you know, I was, I think about this kind of frequently, like I, I'm really bummed that, you know, the Ricky Rory Detroit expedition or like exhibition that was supposed to,

supposed to happen last year that didn't really come together. Like I wish that would have come together just as like a proof of concept, just to like, just to show like, and maybe it wouldn't have worked. And maybe that's why I don't really know why they pulled the plug or whatever, but maybe that's, you know, maybe that's why maybe it wasn't going to be feasible. But I would love to get something like that off the ground just to show, you know, just to show like what is possible and how it's okay to stray from this stuff.

And I think, I think Zurich was a good example of that this year where it's like, you know, it's just so, there's so much money in these title sponsorships, there's so much money in TV deals, all this different stuff that like, you know, it's hard to feel comfortable breaking from the norm. And it was so cool to see Zurich and, you know, you had this kind of like a pretty wild format.

Like it was so different than anything else. And they got all the stuff figured out. They got all the FedEx Cup points figured out and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all that stuff. And like it worked. And you know, nobody died. And it was great. Like it was awesome to see that stuff.

So I would love to see more. And I think like, you know, the quote unquote silly season is kind of the place to do it. So like a couple of things that I think would be cool. And I don't think you know, you wouldn't want to account for like official money or anything. But like I kind of think that the way to pull something like this off would be to basically get, you know, to kind of write off the idea that you're going to get these like big name crazy wealthy stars to do this stuff.

Because I think they're taking kind of well deserved time off at that time. But I think if you can get like some young guys and float some cash at them, like we always had a rule at scratch, which was always the less famous, our video subject is the more outlandish the video has to be. Kind of a thing. And so keeping with that, maybe you take the

guy like the first four guys that were out at the webtoor finals and you do basically like a survival match or something like that where it's just like 18 holes like whoever wins like, you know, gets their card. I don't know. That's that's probably. But or like even like an alternate shot, like players in their caddies or like player, like basically like a member guest or something like, like players get to pick, you know, who they want to play with them or I don't know, something like that. I think would be cool. I think Wolf Hammer is probably still a better idea, but yeah, I don't know. Just get get crazy as far outside the box as you can get.

I'm in. And honestly, like on the Euro tour first. That's the for sure Yeah, I know you've you've mentioned this before I think but like whatever kind of Whatever our version of the like MBA all star weekend could be yeah, I think would be awesome like back Maybe that's a cool thing to do like and maybe you could get some guys to do something like that If you had it at a cool location and then, you know, when I took one afternoon to film or whatever, that could be cool. Yep. All right, Doug McAfary says, your ashes get to be scattered on one golf hole in the

world, which one? Oh, man. A morbid question. Yeah. That's a scary question, too, because, I, the rack of my brain trying to think of one and I, there's not like one that sticks out as there's a few that like I thought of, but there's not like one that sticks out as this is where it has to happen. Yeah, I think mine probably would be, I mean, it probably would have been one of the holes

where, of course, I grew up, which is now abandoned and overgrown and extra depressing. So, deep. I was kinda thinking, you know, before it was overgrown, but now it maybe makes even more sense. But I don't know, I think I would pick like, there's so many famous holes that come to mind that I would like, but like I haven't played a lot of them. So it's not that personal of a connection.

I don't know. I think I just try to pick the hole where I've had like the most fun playing. And honestly, it might be like number 16 at like Jack's Beach or something. It's like this shitty, like shitty bar five that like, oh, I just love it. It's just awesome. And like, I don't know, something like that might be fun. I thought you were going to go with something from North Barric. I know that that course really.

I was thinking about, I was thinking about that fun. I thought you were gonna go with something from North Barrett. I know that course really kind of. I was thinking about that too. It speaks to my soul. Yeah, so the 13th in North Barrett came to mind for me, but it was also between 17 and 18 at the old course. To get into play there this year, in the right setting, on a Friday evening, in the wind, like backties and kind of feel like

I conquered that back nine was like the best feeling I've ever had in golf. And that scene of, you know, that just kind of people gathered around watching you finish and it's like the best feeling I've ever maybe experienced on a golf course, that was what came to mind to me is. What about your hole in one hole and that that that was going to be my runner-up is 14 at Borough but I haven't really got to experience that hole

because I've only got to play one shot on it you know so I don't know what a relatable problem. 334 yards and it just just got to play it the one time hit the one shot and sure it might be a terrible hole it might be be for all I know, but I think I blacked out for that whole experience. I don't even remember what the hole looks like. I watched a flyover of it on the website the other day. I put that in our drawer post, but I didn't remember what it looked like.

I really, really didn't, but those are like the three that I thought of when that question came through. So it's good question. It is a great question. I'd like to hear what other people think about that one. Tweety have other good answers, I'm sure there's better ones out there. But it's not what's your favorite golf hole in the world. That's a question you can get. This is like what what what means the most to you? So yeah, I was trying to think of something at Dorneck or like Royal County down or you know, just kind of some of the some of the places that

it was I don't know, that's so many amazing walks this year that it's hard to really pick out. Like a hole that stuck out to, you know, I don't know. So, and plus, yeah, you just don't want to get caught in like a too cheesy of an answer. As I said, 18 at the old course. All right. Seven at Pebble. You know, so good. This one I'm going to lean on you. This is from Brian Adams. If you could take over the PGA tour for a year, what would you start doing, keep doing stop doing with the tour?

I thought your perspective on this as being a long time employee of the tour that has moved away from that. Hey, you're now freed up to have this discussion, and be kind of have some serious insight into, because I think, especially like, let's say it'd go back like three years when I started this podcast, we would just throw out anything and everything

that should change without real understanding of how things work. So, and I'm starting to, you know, as the curtain gets lifted, starting to see a little bit more about how things work. I'm starting to, as the curtain gets lifted, starting to see a little bit more about how things work and how essentially money ends up being the bottom line of any conversation. I thought with your understanding of exactly how things work, you might have some perspective on what you would change.

Sure. Well, this is probably kind of a bit of an unfair answer, I think, but maybe you'll see where I'm going with it. So I think as you dive into changing anything at a kind of big organization like this, especially a big successful organization, you know, you always run into roadblocks on everything. And that's kind of what you're just got them talking about. It's like, things exist the way they do for a multitude of reasons that nobody understands. And that's stuff, everything from, why do they still do tape delay coverage to,

why is there a 30 minute CBS kind of blackout window between golf channel and CBS? Why do they do this? Why do they do that? And like, none of those things are ever done with the intention of like, let's just mess with people. There's always a super complicated reason. And so what I would kinda say to that is on some of that stuff,

it's like, I know there's a reason why this isn't getting done, but tough, you have to figure it out. Just make it work. I feel like other leagues are so much better like tough, like you have to figure it out, like, like just make it work. Like, like, there, I feel like other leagues are so much better at kind of solving those issues. And I mean, golf has so many more variables being outside and different venues from week to week and all that stuff and more cameras and blah, blah, blah, I get all that. But like, some of it is like, you know, I know, I think just an ability to like see those roadblocks

and push through them and say, like, you know, I know this is tough, but like, let's figure it out. Anyways, is huge. So that's a very unfair answer without any actual solution. But I think that's one thing that Jay is so much better at is like, I mean, he's just, he's good at A, inspiring people to think like that and kind of tearing down a lot of those roadblocks

that existed and B and kind of tearing down a lot of those roadblocks that existed and B just kind of like, I think he's a little more stubborn in like, you know, kind of not taking no for an answer, which is cool. And so as far as specific things, I think one thing that the tour, I mean, one thing, I know the tour is so much more focused on this year for a lot of reasons. And again, this was kind of one of Jay's big things that he would he would talk about it meetings and stuff is always this kind of fans first approach, which sounds like kind of lame marketing speak, but it's really it's true that like all of these things come back to just making the fan a higher priority. And that's things like making the website as easy to use as possible.

It's things like making TV coverage better. It's things like making, you know, changing the way social works and doing all of those things. I mean, they're going to miss, you know, on some of this stuff, but I think the number one priority, which I think it is becoming the number one priority for the tour, and it's kind of where I think it should be be is just focus on the fans before anything else. And just like, that's where I think a lot of those roadblocks come from is like, hey, the fans really, really, really, really want this. And it's like, well, you know, that's

going to be hard for this reason and this reason. It's like, well, like, you know, who cares? Like make it happen. Like the fans should dictate every decision that we make. And so I think they're, they're starting to get a lot better on that, but there's still some work to go there. So I don't know if that's a really specific answer, but that's kind of a way to think about it. I appreciate the roadblocks that come with corporate sponsorships and keeping sponsors happy.

And like I said, money being the lifeline of an organization and how decisions get made, that's just the nature of our entire country essentially. I do sincerely appreciate the tours, efforts and understanding in kind of this new era of media, social media and of the fact that we have a relationship with them, I could go to either way. We're going to say a lot of things that aren't going to make them happy

and the kind of that vibe that we get from the Jay Manehan era has me intrigued. It really does have me intrigued. I know it takes time to steer a battle to turn a battleship or whatever that's saying is. So it, not everything can happen at the snap of fingers in any changes you want. My thing, and we've wasted enough space harping on it, is I would just so much of your product is consumed through television, that you got, that the torch should have so much say and be a lot more reactive to what how that gets presented. And I see it in particular, like I watched the golf channel NBC this weekend. It was good.

Like it was just, especially the golf channel coverage is just so subdued. There's not a ton of talking. They're just showing a lot of golf shots. It's not necessarily all puts. And you're not, they're not just ramming narratives down our throat. So then I get when you get the, you know, the CBS and NBC big broadcast on that you need to be a little bit more narrative based. But man, it's just like, I've seen, I've seen a different way of doing it.

I've seen Sky Sports on the European tour. And I've seen that it can be done differently. And it's so much such a better product. And I maybe I'm just speaking to the hardcore golf fans and that might not be their target, you know, who they need to deliver to. But it's, it's, no one can watch like a Sky Sports broadcast and a CBS one and had some CBS be like, yeah, we got it. We nail in it. We're doing it better than them. Like, it's just the way it's just the way it is. So the reason why I'm so hard on it is that we want change. I've said this a million times on this podcast. We just want change. Like, we're not, we're not in this for sport.

Like, we think it legitimately is, is legitimately is hurting the growth of the game. Well, and I think that I feel the same way about watching Golf overseas and just the jarring difference it makes when you're watching those telecasts. I think the key to it is subtlety. I think you mentioned it. It's not just beating things to death. And like, I feel like so much of the, so much of the US telecast and kind of, really like the marketing strategy for a lot of this stuff is just comes from like repetition, repetition, repetition.

You see a lot of that with like, you know, FedEx cup standings, you see a lot of with presidents cup standings and like, I, you know, I obviously get like the steak that those things have. But, you know, at the same time, like, it's just, it's, it's such a fine line between like informing and, and having people tune out of that stuff. And I think, you know, a lot of that subtlety comes from just making, making the actual product as good as it possibly can be, and people react accordingly, if that makes sense. You don't need to keep beating them over the head with it if the product's good enough.

I think the FedEx Cup has come a such a long way, even in the last five, six years. Look at the finishes we've had the last two weeks have been insane. Like, like, that's awesome. Like, you know, you don't need to keep kind of drumming people over the head, the week of, you know, Dallas. Like, let's, let's just like, I don't know, focus on kind of the high points instead of, instead of kind of constant repetition and stuff. And as far as, you know, kind of going to, you know, going to one thing that like, I think the question was like, what would you start doing? What would you keep doing?

Like, like look at PJ Tore Live. There's like such a good example of all these things that we're talking about, you know, it's like, it's subtle, it's consistent, it's good. It's kind of an answer to, it's an answer to so many of these questions that are like, why can't I, you know, fans are screaming, you know, when Tiger, you know, PGA Tour Life Starter a while ago, when Tigers on the course, Tory Pines on a Thursday morning, you can't watch it anywhere.

And the tour came up with a solution that was, hey, all right, cool. Here's the answer. Like, let's do this. Let's go all in and really commit to making this really good. And obviously it is. So, yeah, I mean, there's a million things they could be doing and a million things they are doing that are all good. And it's still in a good spot. It's kind of a big-ass machine to be moving around. Right. It kind of in line with that, there's a question from his name is either John P. Richards or Lenny Peppridge.

Why won't people just appreciate the FedEx Cup great fields for four straight weeks at usually good tracks? You kind of just touched on it there. It's been really good this year. To me, it's just always going to feel a bit contrived. And it's a cash grab. There's not a lot of prestige that comes with winning the FedEx Cup other than the $10 million. And there is some FedEx Cup fatigue

for how much it gets jammed down our throat. So I mean, we've got projected standings on Thursday mornings in January. And it's like, wait a second here. What is this? And I get that that, again, going back to what we said, that's just how things operate with sponsors and FedEx, you have to give them that exposure

for the entire year. But I don't know, it just gets into football season and it's just kind of, it's just totally. And yeah, and I mean, I think that, you know, obviously they're working on changing that, I think, with kind of some of the schedule re-orges and stuff. But, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's a hard one because FedEx is such a humongous sponsor and also like, not for nothing, you know, the fact that FedEx has committed that much money over that long of a period to the tour is like, it's kind of mind boggling.

Like, it speaks out like super well of golf. I mean, I don't want to sound like a PJ tour shill, but like it is crazy that FedEx is committed all of that to the tour and to professional golf and stuff. And so I of course get them needing to get their return on that investment and kind of be constantly in the conversation. The only thing I would like to see

is just a little more like creativity and how that stuff is presented. Like a little more effort on kind of like how, show me like why is this important in the fourth week of the year? Why is this important in the eighth week of the year? That kind of stuff is just showing the standings, just feels like such a low hanging fruit, low context way to do it. Whereas when you start diving in, I forget the not kind of try to figure out the stat, but it's something like, you know, guys who played well in the fall, like that number

has translated so much better towards like where they stand in the playoffs and like, like kind of building that stuff out and like showing why you should care and why this stuff matters is so important and like an area for improvement, I think. And I think Tron's got a big, he's texted me about this a ton, which I don't want to blow up his whole take here before it's, it's formatted, but I think waiting, you know, waiting the regular season a little heavier in regards to kind of the playoffs as well, just makes, you know, makes all that stuff a little more relevant also. Like, like, whether that means, you know, I don't know what that means,

whether it means cash for, you know, the regular season winner or like something like that. Um, I think it's just hard to really, it's just hard to have it both ways. I mean, it's hard to have a super, you know, intriguing regular season race for position. And it's also you can't have that and a super volatile playoffs where you know guys can make these huge moves like it's you can't have it both ways. So it's hard to I know that's a hard one to kind of square. It's always it's better than what was there. I always go back to that.

It's way better way better. It's a cool kind of epilogue to the season. It's the way I see it. It's not, you know, we're past major season. There's not guys that would give up a FedEx, a major to win the FedEx Cup. It's just the way it is. That's fine.

It doesn't need to be better than the majors. I think the FedEx Cup is okay. It'd be cool if it finished with a playoff, but I know that playoffs don't rate well and match play doesn't rate well and you don't know what you're going to get. I've touched on the pass. I think there's a way you could give the top eight by, like double buys, give the next

eight buys and have the next 16 like the top 32. Essentially, the torch championship becomes like a big, big match play event at the end. I don't know if you got two guys playing one on one first of the difference in $7 million. I think that's pretty, that's pretty interesting. Other than like last year we end up roaring and what chapel and more were playing in a playoff. And DJ was sitting around waiting to see if he won the FedEx Cup. Like I just, I don't know. It's, it's, I won't go too much further on that. I think the FedEx Cup is overall a good thing for golf, but not just not like priority at the point of viewing. No, I totally agree.

And I think that the last thing I'll say in this is I think, I think, you know, kind of by no fault of the tour, like, you know, people tend to, I think people tend to kind of put words in the mouth of the tour a little bit. And they did it with the players championship a lot where it's like, oh, the tour is trying to make this the fifth major. And like the tour has never, ever, ever done that at all. And so I think the same thing kind of happens with the FedEx Cup where it's like,

you know, the tour, you know, wants us to feel like a major wants us to do it, whatever. And like, there's a difference between having something that's kind of the same format as a major, like a 72 whole stroke play event and having something that has kind of the excitement of a major. Like, I think those are two separate things. And like, that's where I'd love to see the FedEx cup just like, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I know you don't want to get to the end of the season and then mess with the format

too much, but like, you know, just make it totally different, like make it something that's totally completely unique and its own. Like, I think the only mistake you can make with stuff like this is just trying to make it something it's not and like trying to make it too close to a major or too close to a WGC or anything like that is just like just you know make it its own thing and like that requires a ton of creativity and experimentation and a lot of different stuff. And so like the players is such a good example. I mean I know you went there.

I don't know if it was your first time this year being there, but like, yeah, you know, it's not a major and it doesn't feel like a major, but it's like really fucking cool. Like, it's so fun to be there. And like, uh, I don't know. I mean, I think there's a lot of, there's a lot of just creativity that's needed and kind of careful branding and careful marketing and stuff. But yeah, it's,'s it's on the whole obviously a good thing It's just yeah, I think it's got some kind of ways to go. Yep. All right, Josh Elliott not the not the glorious madness George is madness, but what pro in their 20s now would make the best announcer or commentator post career? Oh man, um. I mean isn't

spieth like isn't he one of these already? Yeah that's definitely true. I think he would be great. I'm biased. I know we've already mentioned a couple times but I think Zach Blair would be great. I knew you guys. He just has great perspective on on the game and

kind of how things are played and in all of that. That, that's a good question. Let me think. Um, I gotta have like kind of incentive to go into the booth. It's hard to say because you know, if you play as like too good of a career, I don't know. I don't, I don't think I, I don't think you're feel going into the booth. Do you? No, no, but I wish he would.

Oh, it may say. Oh, good. Yeah. I feel the same way about Tiger. Like every time Tigers in the booth, it's just, it wish you would. I'll be amazing. Oh, good. Yeah. I feel the same way about Tiger. Like every time Tiger's in the booth, it's just, it's the best. Like, it's so smart. Yeah. Like, everything that comes along with it, I think, uh, man, so, okay, so I go to a couple of

different things. I think, you know, there's, there's two things you're looking for, um, from a commentator, which is like information, like things, you know, you don't already know and then just flat out like entertainment. And I think you want to be able to react to, you know, what they're saying in a kind of big way. So obviously my pick would be Bryson. Oh, that could be really good. Which I think would be awesome. Like, I love, I mean, how good is it to like watch something like it's so funded Here's something that you don't agree with from the commentator like that just makes it so much more engaging Yeah, I love that. I like it. I'm with you on that one

Maybe Patrick Patrick read in that same I think we've been in the booth together shot like read would be stuffing them in a locker shut up There's there's nothing better to me than when a guy like misses a shot in a commentator's like, oh, yeah, that was a horrible decision. What a terrible, what a terrible play. I feel like Patrick Rita would be very good at that. Simon Cooper says, I hear a lot of retired pros stop playing regularly after their career. True. Why? And what do they focus on instead and do they lose their game? Fishing. I think. Yeah. I was talking to Bacon about this yesterday. Actually, he was, he was, uh, he was playing with Azinger and was just kind of asking him what his lifestyle was like.

He's like, yeah, you know, I wake up and have breakfast and, uh, you know, go fishing for like six hours. Come home. That's, that's pretty much my life. And I'm like, I don't know. I kind of get it at some point. Like, if you've ever, you know, not that, I mean, you're a better player than I am, but not that either of us are, you know, elite golfers by any stands, but, you know, if you've ever gone,

like, without playing for a while, and then you go out and you just place so much worse than you know you should, like, that's like the worst feeling. Like, it's not fun to do that. And so I, there's got to be some level of that, right? Where it's like, yeah, and it's just, you guys have hit their peak, you know, they've become the best golfers in the world

and then they wake up one day and they're not. Like what, I don't think it's the point. It's the point. Right. And I've seen it enough that, you know, the last couple of years, it's impossible to imagine, especially, like, go back 10 years ago, it would have been impossible for me to imagine this being a reality for anyone, but it's like golf can get boring. Like if you play it every day, if it's your livelihood, if it's all you talk about,

if it's all you're practicing, it can absolutely like burning out is kind of an overused phrase in it, but it can just wear you down and that golf becomes a job and it is a job. And when you play the best courses in the world every week and can go play wherever you want, that like a lure of, you know, chasing top courses or whatever your chasing golf goes away. And once you feel like you've accomplished enough and you've made enough money in it, then you know picking up your golf clubs and going and playing isn't necessarily that appealing. I mean I know that I say I would experience that to like a 1% you know level this year and that I was so fortunate

to get to play so much good golf in the UK and made sure I did not take any of it for granted, but at the end of it, I was like, you know what? There were days where I was like, you know what, I'm not grabbing the golf clubs today. I'm not playing today. I'm gonna catch up on work and email stuff. Like, I'm fine not playing today,

where like that never existed before I went on a run of playing two straight weeks, you know? And so imagine these guys doing it for like 30 years Like that that appeal of you know grab and the clubs and go and play in It's got to go and I've talked to a couple guys that like I've kind of burned out on playing professional golf And there seems to be a cycle and you know when they've they've given up on professional golf After about after about a year, like the itch starts coming back and they go play and they're not thinking about a lot of things and they're like,

well, I still got some game here, like, you know, maybe I'll give this another shot of what not, like, the kind of like people go through phases where the game kind of goes away from them and then it may come back depending on where you left it when you left. So, yeah, I just want to emphasize that like golf is, it's such a job and you go and watch you left. So, yeah, I just wanted to emphasize that golf is, it's such a job and you go and watch these guys practice Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and go play practice round and then go work on putting drills. It's a job, man, and at some point it does stop being fun.

I know it looks amazing and glorious and whatnot on TV, but it's definitely a job. And some guys just, I joke like, you know, trying to get a guy's out to go play. ZB is the exact opposite. ZB will play like three rounds a day if he could, but some guys, like, now, man, the last thing I want to go do is play more golf somewhere else right now. So that's just the reality of it. Yeah.

Richard V, Richard, yeah, Richie V asked about the question about best games to play during a round. We covered that with Wolfhammer. Alex Newman, for a year, would you rather have to play a wood setup of three, five, seven, nine, and 11 in the bag or a Volvix? You can choose the color of Volvix. I don't spin the ball that much, especially around the green, so I think I'm going to pick the V Volvix. You can play a white Volvix too, right?

Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I don't think the ball makes this big a difference for me as any... Shout out to Super High-In-Player. Shout to Volvix, new sponsor of the podcast. This might as well be there, getting more mentions than anyone else here. I'm such a bad like fairway wood player that, I mean, that would just give me like PTSD if I had to start around with all that.

Couple more here and then I'd never go in long but no problem with these. We had a really good question. But Jeremy Schilling said, as you've spent a bunch of time inside the ropes lately, what has surprised you most and what don't we get to see on TV that's resonated with you? I'll first bet it to you because you've been essentially on the ground for many, many years. What was something do you remember when you first started doing it with something that

was initially kind of surprising to you or just the biggest kind of difference when you go to a tournament and see it versus what we see on TV? Yeah, I think it's like, this is kind of contradictory probably, but I think on some level, it's a how far, it's how far some guys hit it. I mean, like Dustin Bubba, like seeing those guys in person is like jarring. It's just crazy to the lines that they take.

Like this year was one of my favorites. I just stood, stood with Tron for a while behind the 16th tee at Sawgrass and just watched like those guys take, you know, the lines that they took, like where they go over trees that like I didn't even think were like in play and stuff. It's like, it's so, that's awesome to watch. But then the other thing, like on the flip side of that is like, how far, how far kind of like the medium guys like, don't hit it or kind of like, yeah. You know what I mean? Like, you know, like, I've played with you and I played with two guys at Sawgrass yesterday that, you know, are both kind of high in amateurs, have played on tour and stuff.

And you hit it as far as those guys do, but the difference is, I mean, they just do. Well, the second, the other shoe to drop here is that they just do everything else better than you. It's just like, I mean, it's not. They just don't miss anything. It's so crazy to watch, watch like kind of it's so fun. Like I can't recommend enough. Like if you're a hardcore golf fan, you get a chance to go to a tournament.

Like it's fun to follow super big names for a while, but just go follow like some middle of the pack guy for 18 holes or nine holes or whatever and just watch him like build his round and just watch where he picks spots to hit and watch how far he hits and try to figure out what clubs he's hitting and stuff because like, you know, if you're if you're a decent player, like it's it's not crazy off of, you know, what what the other guys are doing, you know, I played with Luke Guthrie yesterday and you know, he's usually maybe a half an iron or an iron longer than me. It's not insane.

The difference is like he just never misses. Yeah, ever. And it's just so fun to watch guys with ultra consistency like that. Yeah. I think to answer the question for me, it's kind of long lines what you said about how impressive some things are that you see, and honestly how unimpressive certain things are, and that, man, these guys are not, they are so far from so much further from perfect than I imagine, and that they make a lot

of mistakes. They miss, you know, in certain spots, but it's like if you put, if, you know, they've miss a wedge from the middle of fairway sometimes and put it in the bunker, but it's like if you put, if, you know, they've missed a wedge from the middle of fairway sometimes and put it in the bunker. And you and I do that a lot, and, but you put us in that bunker, it probably means bogey.

Whereas for these guys, it takes so many consecutive mistakes for them to just make one bogey in that. But they do make a lot of mistakes, and that's just kind of where, I don't know, I just, in my head, think that with that, with that much practice, guys should hit the fairway every single time. And they don't even come close.

Like, you know what I mean? But it doesn't bother them. It's, it's not, you know, it's so for me, it's helped me with my game and that, man, I'm just, I'm not good enough to get mad at, at any shot. Like, you're not ever good enough to get mad because there's dudes out there. I feel shanked a bunker shot yesterday. I'm sorry. Like, how could I ever get mad for hitting a shank? It's not like I physically know what went wrong in my head.

You know what I mean? So, and the other thing is just like, these dudes are, and it's, I don't know, but kind of high level to say, but these guys are just really normal human beings that are good at golf. And it's so much easier to relate to than say, like an NFL player, an NBA, or MLB,

like these guys that are more physical specimens and just have these, it's just hard to, you know, I don't know, golfers are just kind of easier to relate to and the way that they're individuals versus like, I don't know, I feel like for, just in my experience, like there's not like football bloggers that get great relationships with professional, like, offensive linemen for, you know what I mean?

So it's just so much easier to relate to because I've been around competitive golf growing up and that's what it kind of starts to feel like out there. Like you see the same guys, the same tournaments growing up, like in, you know, just around Ohio where I did and you know, it's not nearly the same level of course, but it still has that kind of same feeling, like these are just the guys that rise to the cream, but they're just still normal dudes that happen to be really, really good at this sport. And you see them off the course and

there's nothing impressive about them other than their, how normal they are and how it's, you know, it's, I don't know, maybe I'd just, you get get used to that. So so much faster than I would have thought you would have. And that's just kind of the thing that's resonated the most with me. Yeah, I think that's where it's so fun to me like to start following those guys. Like it's so much more fun sometimes to follow those guys. Like follow their careers than it is kind of like, you know, the top notch superstars. I think that's where kind of the whole streb nation thing comes from is like, you know, you go meet Robert Streb and hang out

and like have a beer and talk with him for a while and it's like, oh, man, like, you're like a professional athlete. Like how weird is that? Like, he's like, yeah, you know, I gotta go like pick up my daughter from daycare and then I got like a, if I gotta go mody yard and I gotta go do all this stuff. And it's like, oh yeah, that's, that's like, what it would be like if I was a professional athlete.

Like, that's very normal. Cool. Yeah. Normal is the word I use all the time. And it's, there's not a guy out there that doesn't seem normal once you start talking to him. So a couple more. And then we're rep this.

Joe Mayberry says, what's next for golf media as the youth movement continues to shine. Pods and social media are definitely not going anywhere. But what else? We're going to skip this question, but all I'm gonna say is just stay tuned. We got some stuff coming, so. Got some stuff.

Got some stuff coming. Coming very soon, actually. So last one I have written down, Joe Scherer said, could the buddy pairing tear up speed read in the president's cup? How do you think they're gonna, how they gonna do the pairings for this, this group of the president's cup? You know, you've, you've had president's cup fever a lot longer than I have. I'm gonna let you take this one. What do you think?

Yeah, president's cup fever. Yeah. I like the team aspect of it. I'm not, I'm not all in on the, the peak up as they say it on the tour. I'm just not like my juices aren't flowing for the actual competition, but I do find the team aspect very interesting. It's not going to be close, right? No, no. What are my favorite things is to be obnoxiously cocky about the US team. To the point where I don't care if they lose, I legitimately don't, but I'm just going

to be so obnoxious about that. No, I kind of hope they do lose, because I mean, I think it'd be super interesting, but like they're not going to. Like I was kind of trying to figure out if there would be like Some way it could statistically like be over by Saturday, but you know, I don't think there is but Tom Chai, I did is not walking through that door. That's right no doubt So I think it how the easy way to make this fall out is you keep, speak and read together and pair JT and Ricky. Honestly, I don't think that JT and speak would necessarily want to be paired and do that whole circus.

And like, yeah, honestly, I think that's kind of already been ruined. And hearing, you know, if you listen to last November's episode 58 of the No-Lang Up podcast with Jordan Speeth, speak mentioned how Reed was mad at him for pairing up with DJ for around at the 2015 president's cup. So I think that like legitimately there is the speed three thing is going to is going to stay together in that. I don't know.

I have no insight info. This is kind of speculation. I'm not sure how much speed enjoys kind of being the the the you know passenger being the passenger seat in that pairing, but I think we're going to see that pairing stay together just to avoid read starting World War III. I think for what it's worth, even if they had never met before, I think JT and Speed would probably be a good pairing. I mean, they have very different styles of game. I think they would complement each other super well if they were paired together. I've got to run that through Captain Read, though. I don't think that's getting through. style the game like I think they would complement each other super well if they were paired together.

I got to run that through Captain Reed though and I don't think that's getting through them. So, all right, Dej, this was one of our longest episodes ever and we are paying you by the hours. So I think that's a couple more things we could talk about. Run out the four corners offense here. That's right. Anything else we missed? Anything? I just want to note the tour, the web tour and the pd tour off this week. Walker Cup this week. Walker Cup. I'm pumped for that. Yeah. That's going to be, what are the television schedules like for that? I put you on the spot there. Do you know what the,

I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. I would recommend hitting a sugar-shaned bacon for that information. Yeah. So that's going to be really interesting't know. I would recommend hitting a sugar-shane bacon for that information. Yeah. So that's going to be really interesting to watch. I'm excited to watch that and kind of for them to have their own week for that. Otherwise, man, thank you for the time. We've crushed a lot of these. No doubt. Good golf coming up. BMW would be great. You got the president's cup and the big one the Web Tour Championship here in Jacksonville. And he's going to be in full force at the Web Tour Championship.

It's going to be super fun. Lot going on. Lot going on. All right, buddy. Talk to you soon. Thanks for coming on. All right, man. Cheers.

Get the right club. Be the right club today. Yes. Yeah. That's better than most. Be the right club today. That is better than most. That is better than most. Better than most. Anything different?