The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Go Low - LIV vs. PGA, Jason Sobel stops by, what we can expect from Tiger Woods

Episode Date: February 1, 2024

John is back talking about Golf in this season's first episode of Go Low. He dives into the latest between LIV vs the PGA, and what the future of the sport looks like. Jason Sobel from The Action Network is also back this year as the guys talk about the state of golf, what's going on with Anthony Kim, the latest with Tiger Woods. 5:21 - LIV Tour vs. PGA Tour 30:15 - Jason Sobel 32:00 - The state of golf 44:15 - What's going on with Anthony Kim 56:06 - Lugvig Áberg makes golf look so easy 59:12 - The latest with Tiger Woods Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest. Check out Gametime - the fastest growing ticketing app in the US, and the official ticketing app of 3 & Out and GoLow -  for tickets to all of your favorite NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA teams. Concert and comedy show tickets, too. Go to Gametime now to create an account, download the app and use code JOHN for $20 off your first purchase. #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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and deposit restrictions, terms, and responsible gaming resources. What is going on, everybody, John Middilkoff. Little go-low podcast today. We're going to talk a little PGA Tour Golf. There were some breaking news with the live, the investment, and everything that happened today. So I wanted to give my two cents on that in the landscape of a sport that is in chaos right now, no way around it. Some call it a sport. Some called it a hobby.

Some called I played today. So I was in the mood. I talked to my guy Jason Sobel from the Action Network. He works on Sirius XM, the PGA Tour Channel. He's been covering golf for 25 years. There's a lot of gambling stuff. He will join this as well. He's at Pebble Beach.

We're not going to talk as much gambling this week. I'm not even gambling on Pebble Beach. It's just the win. There's no cut. I'm not even going to, it's just impossible to gamble this week. We'll be having picks next week for waste management. But this will be kind of my thoughts on the current state of the breaking news today of guys like Steve Combs.

Owen and Arthur Blank and the Fenway group investing in the PGA Tour. The Saudis are still on the outside, what all this means for everything, which ultimately just kind of sucks for us fans. And the plan will be golf podcast today. I saw Mike McDonald, the Ravens defensive coordinator, got hired in Seattle, did a reaction video that is up on the YouTube page. So my golf stuff and the football stuff is all under the same YouTube page, John Middokoff.

So just a three and out go lo Obviously this content will be there as well And then I'll do a big mail bag On on Friday football-wise I also created last year a Instagram for golf stuff It's Golopod at Golopod So definitely during the year We will interact

I mean just any golf question Whether it's just about yourself Questions about the PJ tour betting you name it At Golopod is an Instagram That's golf centric that my team runs, aka myself. So I'm going to try to put a lot of golf content on there in 2024. That's for sure.

Me playing around, me screwing around. And just got to get better at that as a content creator. This would be a golf heavy podcast and then back football tomorrow. So let's roll. But let's just start. I was just driving home because this is the last day at TPC on Wednesday before they close it to, you know, the pros. Now, it's open to the pros all year long, but I mean, for the tournament.

And when right between whole nine and ten, there was like this huge area for a practice, you know, driving range, practice facility. It's where they put their merchandise tent. And on the merchandise tent, they put all the former past champions. And those are guys like Brooks Kepka and Phil Mickelson. You know, Bryce and Deschambeau has played very, very well at this tournament. and driving home, I thought, you know what's crazy about in other sports?

Football, for example. When Peyton Manning or Tom Brady hit free agency, you know, Peyton had the bad neck, and Tom, Peyton was cut, Tom, Bell, Bellich just said, I don't want you anymore.

Whenever they ultimately signed, and Tom, remember, took a small deal, right, he didn't make that much money. No one, no one besides a die-hard Denver Bronco fan could be like, oh, yeah, I remember when he signed that six year or five year 80 million dollar contract in 2012

because after the initial report of a guy moving teams or Kevin Durant joined the Warriors like no one actually gives a shit about the money right Lamar Jackson got paid and then it's like was he still good or bad right Jalen Hertz got a lot of money like is he still an elite player and I think one problem with golf is it's nowhere near the power of football

it's a niche sport and because the Saudis came in rightfully so because the business model of golf was all screwed up, they have thrown everything off kilter. And the moment I saw Tiger Woods in the fall talk about, it was the Hero Championship, which is his event. And he gave a press conference. And this was, you know, I forget the exact date, maybe mid, late November, maybe early December.

And he kind of acted like a tough guy in the sense of like, yeah, we're not guaranteed to do a deal with the Saudis. We'll see what private investments we can get. And I knew right there this is going to be problematic. Because in no world in this country can, and listen, a lot of the reason these guys are investing isn't just because golf is quote unquote undervalued or they see great business opportunity. A lot of it is golf is, you know, these elites want access to the PGA tour. They can buy a piece of it. They give out a little equity.

They think they can make some money back. But a lot of it is access. You're not going to be able to make the return. turns you're making in the National Football League. You're just not. The ratings of Tori Pines last week were like $1.5 million on Saturday. Last year when Max Homo was battling guys like John Rom, it was like almost 2.75 million people watched. So they lost a lot of viewers in a year span. No sport is big enough. I couldn't go to the NFL and start another league and take away Bosa, T.J. Watt, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert,

and C.J. Stroud to the other league, and it'd be okay. And the NFL is about as bulletproof as anything. I can't take your best talent and be unfaced. And right now the report about this morning about the equity and the players getting equity and all the infusion of money, I got news for you. Nobody gives a shit.

Nobody cares. And Max Homer tweeted about this kind of saying, like, I know no one cares. We got to figure out to make this a better product. The only way for this to be a good product, the reason waste management is always so awesome. Last year, it was Sheffler with Rom on his heels. John Rom is now gone. So when you have these events and you have DJ, multiple time major champion, Brooks Kepka, who's won about five,

Bryson D. Chambot, one of the better, you know, more polarizing under 30 guys in the game of golf, U.S. Open champion. Obviously bringing John Rom, you could argue. the best player in the world, definitely one of them. Even getting personalities like Patrick Reed and Terrell Hatton, you need people in sports. One reason the Yankees and the Lakers are so big is because not just fans like them, a lot of people hate them. And in any business, when it comes to entertainment, whether you're a podcaster, whether

you're in golf or football, you need to invoke emotion, right? You've got to have people rooting for and people rooting against. and the PGA tour and obviously all the older euros that were taken off, you watch it, it's kind of bland and boring now. And I'm a high-end golf consumer. I watch the majority of tournaments. I gamble on golf. I play a lot of golf.

I do a podcast that I'm like, I'm going to start talking about golf the last couple of years. And I found it, Tori Pines, if I wouldn't have had a lot of money on Ludwig getting in the top 10, no chance I would have watched it. Beside a couple holes, right, when nothing's going on. But I would not have taken time. out of my Saturday to watch a bunch of guys I've never heard of.

And the reason you're going to start getting some of these more often in the no-cut events is because the fields are really diluted. And then this week, for example, at AT&T, I have a close family member who plays golf in that area. And he said last year, Pebble Beach and the Powers that Bees were very, very mad. Because their field really sucked. Because up until last year, the events going on in the Middle East, had paid players to come over.

So a lot of guys did not play at Pebble Beach. And part of it is the pro-am, it's slow. So the fields sucked. Beside Jordan Speath, who is one of his biggest sponsors, no one played. So now they have to rotate to keep these sponsors involved, and they do these fields, because listen, golf's unique, right? You're not guaranteed if you have 150 man field,

and there's a cut, to have Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ron Rahm and DJ playing Saturday and Sunday in meaningful rounds. You know, in football, if Patrick Mahomes is playing, he's in the game the entire time. With golf, with a cut, you could be gone. But isn't that what makes the sport so great? Like, I'm sorry, this week, a short, a small field of 70 to 80 guys, no cut event, which is just giving out money, it's cool if you're those guys. But for me, the consumer, these businesses exist because of us. And I don't have any interest in consuming the product.

I don't care who wins. I don't care to gamble on it. Like, I'll peek at it. But I do think that that hurts it. And it's been proven that these no-cut events don't really work for us. So golf is unofficially, it's been broken for a while. Today, when you see the news about these investments, I think it's officially screwed up.

Because it's pretty clear that Live and this merger is still a pretty, you know, a ways out for all these guys playing together. At least that's what it feels today. And as long as you can't have Jordan Speath, Justin Thomas, Scotty Sheffler, Patrick Cantlay, Tony Fienow, and all those guys playing with John Robb, DJ, Kepka, Bryson, Cam Smith, we got a problem. Right?

And right now it's just the majors. It's basically four times a year. And that sucks, right? It really does. And you could argue that it's a big buildup for those tournaments. True. But those tournaments have always been big. I mean, the master is one of the biggest events we have in this country.

It gets 10 to 15 million people to watch every single year, right? That would be big if me and you were playing in it. But to lose, I mean, waste management, the field is just dramatically different with all these guys gone. The players championship, dramatically different. Memorial, all these tournaments, golf doesn't have that many events that truly matter beside the majors. You know, there's probably under five where you could go, yeah, the majority of good players are going to be there. RIV.

And that's not the case right now. And the other thing that, listen, I understand Tiger, who takes a lot of pride in the PGA tour, he became a billionaire because of the PGA tour. I totally understand his stance. But trying to get these investment people, you know, our local businessmen,

I mean, they're not local businessmen, but you know what I mean, the Arthur Blanks and Steve Cohen, those type guys, to give you hundreds of millions of dollars. I get that. But if you're trying to strong arm the Saudis, With those investments, you do understand those guys are laughing at you.

And when you do this stuff, it also feels a little bit like, yeah, we're going to try to do this as long as possible without you. It's impossible. They don't, we don't have to guess anymore. They don't want in on golf. They're in. And they have an unlimited budget, unlimited amount of money. So I don't care how rich Arthur Blank is, how rich Steve Cohen is. They have that type money in their couch cushions.

They can pay a golfer, five. $500 million one guy and not even blink. It does not matter. They offered Tiger $700 to $800 million. He can barely even play. They didn't give a shit. They just wanted him on their tour. And one thing was clear is once they announced

that they were going to do business, some of these guys are like, what am I staying loyal for? What are we even doing this equity? So I get equity. Part of, like, I was listening to this business podcast and they were talking about how Elon, you know, gives a lot of equity

in terms of shares and stuff to everyone that works at Tesla. It's why I guess the operation at Tesla is pretty impressive in terms of the workers. And when you're invested in something that you know has a chance to make a lot of money, it makes a lot of sense. So when I have stock options and I'm working at a Costco,

an Apple, Facebook, a Tesla, it's pretty tangible. Stuff like this, like I don't know if I really see it. And I also see that from the investment side, how are you going to justify The PGA Tour said last year when their purses went from like 12 or 13 million to 20 to 25 That the whole thing would crumble within a couple years You see what they have to ask these sponsors now we need double the amount

In all these companies farmers insurance Wells Fargo you name it you go around You know the year of the different tournaments month they're all pulling out They're like yeah this doesn't pens it doesn't make any sense because part of it didn't even make sense before But we want in we want the access it's good for our client It just makes sense. We give back to charity. Well, they've jumped the shark. And they were forced to because of the Saudis,

but this gets back to the elephant in the room. They have an unlimited amount of money. It never ends. Like, if football there was no salary cap, there would be some teams that would pay some players that other teams would not be able to compete with. But that's not the case. They have a salary cap,

and everyone has the money to pay players. Right? You see it in baseball. Like the Yankees and the Dodgers have a lot more disposable income. come, then say the Tampa Bay Razor, the Oakland Athletics. And that is a little bit what golf feels like right now. Is the Saudi and the live and that operation is just dealing on a different level

because of the amount of cash they have available to them. And their willingness to spend it. And also their willingness, they're not looking to turn a profit. They do not care because clearly no one's watching. I love golf. I've probably watched a total in two years of 18 holes of that league. And they have star players. It does not matter.

So it's just about bleeding and screwing over the PGA tour slash getting them to agree to like, I don't even want to say a hostile takeover, but like let's do business. And anytime you do business with someone who has all the money, they kind of usually get the control. So I understand from the PGA tour standpoint, doing everything humanly possible, you know, to guard the gates here,

but eventually those gates are going to be shattered down. So you're just delaying the inevitable. And when I saw the kind of the outline of this, I'm like, this feels so hollow. This feels so short-sighted. I just don't think this is going to work. Now, I know you have to do something to keep some of the guys that stayed on the tour, make it worth it for them,

keep them somewhat loyal and I guess try to make them whole. But ultimately, when Steve Cohen does business, he likes to get his money back. You ever read whatever that book's called? I think it's got like a shark on the front. It's all about him. It's like what the show Billions was about. Dude's a financial killer.

These guys aren't in business just for to say that I own part of the PGA tour. Like they want to get an ROI. And Yasser and MBS and those guys clearly don't care. So I think the inevitable outcome in this, now listen, there are legalities, the DOJ, I can't even pretend to know how that would all play out. but if you do not do business with them, you will lose. Because what's going on right now is not a sustainable model. It's really not.

And it's simply because you can't split, like you can't have Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, and LeBron playing in this league, and then Yokic, Luca, and Tatum, and three other guys playing in another league. That's not going to work in 2020. We got too many options. We have too much time.

You've got to consolidate. This was a niche sport to begin with. So I'm not. nervous as someone who I'm a football golf guy and I don't really like what I'm seeing right now because I don't think the last we've seen the last of these guys going over there and if you're the Saudis and you see something like this today like I would put the double press and do a couple more guys I like I would try to build a new team around hey Xander and Cantlay are you sure hey Tony Fino JT are you sure here's 400 million dollars and just keep and even if you can't

get them, hey Ludwig, get some of the young cats. Hey, you want in on this? We'll give you $150 million. This isn't equity. I've gotten equity before in some startups when I first got it in the podcast world. Nothing happened. So just because you get equity doesn't mean the company's

going to turn it into Microsoft or the company's going to turn into the National Football League. Now, the PJ Tour has already established, but what's the actual value there? It is kind of based on how many people are watching. And I'm seeing this in the NBA right now. Their ratings are diminished. The consumer's not consuming them like they used to do.

So it's proven that the only thing we can all agree on to watch is the NFL. Why? Because all the best players play, everyone tries. Right? You know when you turn on the TV, you're going to get everyone's best effort. In golf right now, I turn on the TV. I don't even know who half the players are. I don't know where some of the guys I'm used to watching have gone.

Right? They're on the CW where I watch, you know, that has Live and University of North Carolina. of football games because I got the ACC and the barstool bowl but I think golf has major major issues and do act and I was driving to actually drop the dog off today at the at the groomers I turned on PGA radio

and even they were saying like this you still got a lot of questions to answer here you can't feel good about this just because you throw out a headline and this also feels like we're in the day and age of just getting press releases no one beside the players right we don't give a shit about

press releases. When can all these guys like, hey, this week at Riviera, all these guys are getting together. I've said it over and over, let these guys come back on the tour. Like, hey, you guys want to play Waste Management, you want to play RIV, you want to play the Memorial, you want to play any tournaments, doors are open. And they once made the mistake of blocking them off, and it's, it's, that wasn't the main reason, but it's led to this just chaotic environment. And anytime you have a chaotic environment, if there's a lot going on in society, people are just going to tune you out. And this is what I said about, like, part of, like, people tuned in forever with Belichick and Brady, it wasn't just because they were great.

Like, a lot of people rooted against them. A lot of people wanted to see them fall. That's powerful. There's a reason Duke basketball got such high ratings for so long. People watched them rooting for them to lose. Like, that's a powerful thing to either hate them or love them. You never want to be in the middle. that apathetic, indifferent, I don't care. No different in a relationship.

She either loves you, she hates you, but at least she's emotionally moved by you. The moment she stops thinking about you, calling you, or texting you, she gone. And that's what I feels like starting to happen with just fans with golf. Like, what is happening? What is going on? Can we just get everyone together, round up some money and just play for a lot of it, and just watch guys go at it? that's what happened my entire life and it was kind of enjoyable, right?

But that feels like that's long gone. And my confidence level on everyone figuring this out, everyone getting together, I don't care what press release, you tell me, this is all I care about. I don't care about a press release.

I don't care the Piff and the Sotties and the same thing. And the Jay Monahan and the PGA tour have agreed to a deal. Tell me when there's a golf tournament that isn't a major and everyone's playing. Tell me, hey, Jack's place, DJ's going to be there,

Bryson's going to be there, Kepka's going to be there, Cam Smith's going to be there, Terrell Hatton's going to be there, as well as all the PJ Tour guys. Then I'm interested. But right now, I'm going to keep gambling on the PJ Tour because I like it, and I got issues, and I'm kind of a degenerate. But it's not as enjoyable,

and you really felt it last week, you're going to feel it next week at the waste management. I mean, you can't afford to miss this many guys. These guys are stars. right i mean these guys are major champions time and time again some of the best players in the history of the sport even phil who quote unquote you know we call him washed he's old he is a massive massive draw i mean he's pretty freaking famous it's kind of a big deal to have him in your tournament and he's just long gone doesn't even care he's just tweeting now like oh cool to see these guys

kind of admitting they were wrong and i don't even care we don't even care on the outside now at this point who's right or wrong everyone's rich The live guys are rich All the PGA Tour top guys Might be a little less rich But they're not checking into the airport They're flying net jets They got big ass houses in Scottsdale

In Dallas and Jupiter They ain't making $150,000 a year Even this year on the PGA tour If you got your tour court It guaranteed you $500,000 Most these guys are going to make anywhere between three to $8 million just playing That's beside the guys

They're going to win the big time tournaments So it's just kind of sad And as someone that follows golf and football really closely, it's crazy how opposite both are. Football feels as strong as it's ever been. I mean, we complain about it, but that's human nature. We complain about a lot of things. But the ratings, the interest, everywhere you go, people are talking football. I mean, I played golf today with a 70-year-old business owner from Oklahoma,

and we talked multiple holes about Baker Mayfield about how he was getting screwed. He got some raw deals with coaches. He was kind of a hot head. I mean, this guy had a million opinions. on him. Million of, it just couldn't stop talking about Baker Mayfield. And it just, you know, when Baker Mayfield's on the Bucks, like, you're just going to watch and play 17 games.

And he's going to play against whoever they're playing that week. Derek Carr, Daniel Jones, you know, Matt Stafford, whoever, they all just play each other. And it's, that's how it works. They're all in it together. Like, ultimately in football, the 49ers have been part of the highest rated games over the last 10 years, them and the Cowboys. Tampa and a lot of these other teams have not.

Tampa's a bad example because I got Brady for a couple years, but choose the Carolina Panthers or just rent. But everyone makes the same amount of money because they're partners. And the stronger you are as a group, the more money you can make. It's like that in life. You can only do so much so far. Like if you're listening or watching this podcast,

I just record it. Then we got, you know, James is working the video. We got Adam working the audio. We got Christian helping out on both sides. We have a team of like five, six people on every show. When I record with Colin, we got 10 guys on the Zoom. Like, you can't do nothing yourself. You need help.

And it feels like everyone's kind of doing their own thing, all this mercenary stuff. Even Kevin Durant, everyone talks shit about him being, quote, unquote, this mercenary when he went to Golden State. He still stayed in the league. He was still playing against LeBron James and Yonis. You could hate on him going to Golden State all you want. It's not like he's like, yeah, guys,

I'm leaving to Greece. See you guys. I'm going to play in this Greek league or Chinese league. They offered me $100 million a year. See ya, peace out. Right? That would have been like,

what the fuck? No, he's like, you went to a team, everyone got pissed off because he went to the team to beat him, but he was still in the league. And that's,

every time this guy goes to live, you're like, see ya, adios, never going to see you again. That just sucks. I really don't know what else to say. Beside like,

yeah, I think there's just a lot of fluff with a lot of these announcements. One thing I've learned now and I got pretty fired up the announcement when CNBC had on Jay Monaghan and Yasser from the Piff and it was like God these guys are going to do a deal

these guys are going to do business together and then all of a sudden it's February 1st nothing it's like no so you can't a lot of time with PR and stuff we all buy into it and then it turns out none of it's true Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show.

This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be.

Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes.

Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tontons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith Rule of 2. Listen to Stuff to Blow Your Mind on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, football season is not quite over yet, but we had this little week off.

I had to text my main man, Jason Sobel. You can find him Action Network. You can find him on Sirius. I was listening to him yesterday driving around, talking about taking the red eye out to where he's sitting right now, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. But as anyone knows, it's from Northern California. Monterey ain't San Diego.

It ain't always hot and warm. It has got to be chilly and windy out there right now. I've got three layers on. I'm sitting in this tent where, yeah, the tent's actually blocking the greatest view in, like, the entire world.

I've got Stillwater Cove right behind me, and yet I'm facing away from it because we got this tent here. It's cold. I mean, yeah, like I come from Florida, man. I'm not suited for this.

And yet this might be the best day we get all week. It's going to be a little nasty here at Beville this week. You know, your boy, I've changed up my gambling strategy. For years, I got probably too aggressive on winners. And it's just you hit one and it keeps you going the rest of the year in terms of that mentality. It is stupid. I have been hammering top tens from JT. Posten to Tony Fienow to my guy Ludwig. That's the way, especially early once you kind of get a feel on some guys.

Now moving forward, you know, we were we were going to put this out on Wednesday, but I don't even, I don't even think it's very easy to gamble this week, given the weather and given all the variables. But the next couple weeks, I mean, waste management and RIV, which is it fair to say Tiger is going to be playing in that event? I assume so, yeah. Yeah, I mean, are going to be well gambled on. My early take right now, Justin Thomas is winning and he's winning early. I kind of like him at waste management here in like five, six days. I have a one and done pool where we have to put in the picks before the year started. And we took Justin Thomas in Phoenix based on track record and based on I just had a feeling that's where the momentum was

going. It's getting there. And for those people that didn't look at JT that only know, I had a bad season last year, didn't make the playoffs, they handed them a Ryder Cup spot. If you haven't been paying attention to Justin Thomas, four top fives in his last four worldwide starts. I mean, the guy's playing some really good golf right now. I know we always hear from players.

The top players in the world are never like, I'm not even close. right now. I'm not going to play well. They always go, yeah, I'm really close. Either I'm there or I'm really close. Justin Thomas in his press conference today said, I'm really close, and it's hard not to believe him. I think it's coming really soon for him. Hey, let's talk some big picture stuff. Tori Pines is an incredible tournament. We've had some really famous guys win there, obviously over the years. That was the first time that it really felt like, yeah, this is, you're feeling this split. And let's face it, at this point in time, we're all numb to it. but it's just this this is not the NFL you can't afford to keep losing guys like john rom now

turel hatton joining his team obviously the merge you talk about it a lot on your radio show feels inevitable but as of right now nothing's happened so like and clearly this year it's not going to change anything in 2024 so these fields i mean has golf ever been as unhealthy as it is right now for a sport that has as many stars as it has you know ever is certainly a long time. So I, but. In the internet, Tiger Woods age. Yeah.

No, I mean, it's, it's not great. Look, Tiger changed the game in many, many ways. And I heard this years ago and I've glommed on to it for a long time that golf was always a niche sport until Tiger came along and it became a mainstream sport because of Tiger Woods. Everyone wanted to watch Tiger. And so even if it's becoming a bit of a niche sport without Tiger playing. on a somewhat regular basis anymore. This has really divided everything. It's made it hard to be a golf fan.

I have buddies all the time in my club. We're playing golf and they'll go, wait, is this guy? What league is he? Is he PGA Tour? Is he live? They don't know who's playing where. And quite honestly, a lot of their entertainment value has gone from it. A lot of the players, and we talked about this on our show the other day on PJA Tour

radio, that a lot of the players who inspire passion amongst the masses, have left for live. And, you know, whether that was the early guys, the Phil, Sergio, Bubba, Bryson, Patrick Reed. I know people listening right now are like... Kepka. Yeah, I didn't like some of those guys.

That's fine, but you had an opinion on them. There are too many players right now on the PGA tour. Bad example, but Matthew Pavon wins at Tori Pines last week. You go, hey, do you love that guy? Nah, I don't really know them, though. Do you hate them? No, of course I don't hate them. Well, what do you think?

I don't know. He's got a beard. Seems like he's got a pretty good swing. That's about all you know about the guy. He doesn't inspire passionate, at least not yet. And so I think it's tough for the PGA tour trying to find these personalities that are going to inspire that passion. And you're right. Look, hat and joining the other day, I think that's a big blow to the PGA tour and the DP World Tour.

I saw people who are pro-PGA tour, anti-live on Twitter. winner trying to rationalize it as if like, oh, well, he's, he's never even won a major. And yeah, he's, he's just like got a bad temper. I'm like, he's one of the most fun dudes to watch in all of golf. And for the PGA Tour to lose him, it's another big blow. I don't know where this goes from here. We're talking about the SSG, the strategic sports group infusing the PGA tour with $300 billion.

I don't even know what you do with that money. I don't know where it goes. I think it's probably a good thing. Anytime rich people want to give you more money to invest in your products, I don't think it's a bad thing. But yeah, at some point, either we've got to get all the games best players together on a more regular basis again, or the majors are just going to be the four best tournaments by far, and the other ones are just going to lack something.

Isn't it fair to say that there's a chance that obviously this year is not going to happen? Well, next year is no lock. I mean, this could be a couple years worth of the separation, and then there's already been a couple years. That's a long time to lose some momentum that golf clearly got, you know, during shutdowns and the amount of people playing golf. Because when you play golf, it's easier to watch it because you can contextualize whether you shoot 100 or 80.

It's just you gravitate. Well, the reason a lot of people play football or watch football, they probably played when they were young or basketball or baseball, right? Golf, when I was a kid, not as many people played. Now, way more people play. you're more likely to chime in. And this thing, like, you're out there right now. Obviously, the players feel numb to it all.

Like, no one's talking shit anymore when a guy leaves. But they're not numb to the fact that the overall business, like, this is not good. So is there any sign of, like, what's going to happen? Or is everyone just in the dark beside the heavy hitters? I really don't think anyone has any great ideas as to what's going to happen moving forward. I do think that the PGA Tour needs to think more outside the box. We were talking the other day on our show about making up players and why don't they do it more often? I'm like, mic them all up.

You know what? Ten years ago, the players might have balked at that saying, we don't want to be miced up. We don't want to have our private conversations public. I would now, if I'm Jay Monaghan, if I'm a PGA Tour executive, I go to the players and go, look, the goalposts have changed. I don't know if you've noticed over the last couple of years, we've lost a lot of momentum. We've lost a lot of fans. we have to do anything to bring them back and make this as entertaining a product as we can. And so that's something that I would be like, absolutely, we need to do this and we need to do it for every golf tournament.

Maybe the last two groups of the day, three groups of the day. These guys are all miced up. We can hear their conversations. What else should we do? I don't know. I would love to see a world in whether it's 2025, 2026, beyond that, where look, if the PGA tour and Live are going to coexist, let the PGA tour have January through August. Let Live have September through December.

If players from Live choose to play on the PGA tour, let them play on the PGA tour and let them go out there and play. If they only want to play live, hey, I got the bag and I don't want to play the first eight months of the year, fine, then you just play the last four months of every year, and you don't have to. If players on the PGA tour want to play live events, let them go do it.

If they'd rather have an off season and take four months off, they can do that instead. To me, that would be a perfect compromise. That's when we talk about deal and making a deal, it's not just financial. That to me would be a great deal for both tours. Get out of the way of each other. I forget the day. It might have been November or early December, whenever the hero was, and Tiger talked. And if you remember, Tiger kind of acted like a tough guy that day in terms of a negotiator. He said, we're no lock to work with Liv. We're no, we have options. He kind of talked like a hedge fund guy would talk like, we don't know the price.

And then within a week or two, it started, all these rumors, because it's like they tried to act like, I'm the boss here, and it's like, you're not. You don't have the money. And then immediately they steal rom,

because they can offer a number. And it felt like after that they went on CNBC, that this was all over stealing the guys they were going to work toward a finale. I felt everything changed that day when Tiger kind of acted like, I'm kind of the commissioner now. I'm running this.

And we don't have to go with these guys. Like, no, you do. They have more money than Steve Cohen and all these other guys. They have an unlimited amount of money, Tiger. They have you surrounded. You have no choice. And ultimately, that's why it feels like it's still going to end up it that way. But they lost John Rom and now Terrell Haddon.

And they've been, you know, sniffing around, fiend out all these other guys as well. I think what's happened. And Rom had this famous quote about a year ago where he said, I pledged my fealty to the PGA tour. Essentially, he is loyal to the tour that he was brought up on. and what changed for me, it's two things. First of all, it's, well, I don't really like the PGA tour that much anymore. I don't know if I like Live Golf either, but I'm a golfer. I'm going to make lots of money.

I might as well go make the most money that I could possibly make. And if neither one of them is that appealing, then I'll go for the one with a bigger paycheck. And secondly, I believe that the PGA tour in starting to have negotiations with LiveGolf, with the PIF, they have essentially opened it up. to guys like ROM, guys like Hatton to say, well, if my own tour is negotiating with them, why can't I negotiate with them? Why can't I go play over there? Not to mention the fact that Rom essentially signed a three-year deal.

We don't know the exact number somewhere in the, what, $400 million range? At that point, you kind of, yeah, whether it's 405, what's the difference, another 100 million between friends and a PIF, but he was, would you say he was already really rich, but this took him to a, in a different stratosphere? whatever they're paying. Yeah, of course. Of course. I mean, that's, that's it for all those guys. And I don't blame them whatsoever. Look, you play golf for a living. The whole reason we work for a living is to go make more money. I don't have a problem with it. That said, Rom signed a three-year deal. There's no saying that

Rob, after three years can't say, okay, now I'm done playing live. Had a successful run there. Now we go reclaim my PGA tour card. I don't even know if they understand what that would mean yet. but once your contract's done with one league, why can't you go join another one? Your free agent. And so that might be literally a three-year, $500 million deal or whatever it might be for ROM, and then all of a sudden he's back on the PJ tour in a few years. What's the big deal? You mentioned it earlier.

I mean, obviously looking back, the biggest mistake they made, and I guess at the time they felt obligated, I mean, Jay specifically, if they could redo it all, they would not have banned them all for life, right? because they would have guys playing last week and at waste in some of these tournaments? I know now lives playing some of the same weeks, but you know what I mean. Do you think he regrets that move? I don't know if they regret that move. I mean, the biggest regret here is that they never took them seriously in the first place.

The absolute arrogance of the PGA tour to say no one can take down our product, no one is going to eat into our market share, no one's going to. sign our players to other deals. Our players are who they are. And we control them and we control the PGA tour. And that's what we're going to do. It's just honestly, there's not another word that I can come up for it, but arrogance. And they never thought this could happen.

They didn't see a future where this was a possibility. And that's really, really hurt them. And quite honestly, I'm surprised that there hasn't been more contrition on the part of the PGA tour, obviously just talking with those who run the public investment fund of Saudi Arabia's an admission that, hey, we didn't get this right the first time and we got to fix things. But boy, it was just they screwed up from the beginning. And essentially now they're trying to clean up the mess that they made because of that. What's crazy is like you watch Ludwig's stardom shoot like a rocket or even this weekend,

that nap kid from UCLA or, you know, we'll get into Dunlack. app, you know, the first thing you think about is like, I'm sure Norman and fucking Yosser trying to get a hold of them. No doubt. Absolutely. And they should. They should be going after Anthony Kim. All these Anthony Kim rovers, I've been saying for two years, John, if there's a white whale

for live, it's AK, you go get him. What player in the world do you want to watch more? Tiger Woods, maybe, and Tiger's not going to live? What other player in the world do you watch more on that? Can you explain to a lot of us that don't quite understand? his situation in terms of why he's been out of the game, the insurance, he quit, was he injured, did he just, you know,

it's so long ago I wasn't locked in like I would be now a situation like that. I obviously remember watching him and I've watched the YouTube highlight some of his writer kept stuff, but why did he disappear and why is it such like, well, he can't come back because of the insurance money. What does that even mean? There's an insurance policy. It's been reported as $10 million. dollars. It might be less. It might be more. I mean, we haven't heard from Anthony Kim himself. We haven't heard from an insurance company that said, hey, here's what he's going to owe us if he

goes and plays golf again. But reported it's $10 million. There's some other things, though. I think there was a lot of personal stuff. There were injuries from AK. There were some family things. And I had always heard that it was more of a family reason. His dad had pushed him into the game. And this was sort of his resistance against his, dad pushing back against him saying, hey, look, you want, you want to push me to be a professional golf? Well, you know what? Now that I went, I'm not going to do it anymore just to, just to fight back against you. So I, I always hear the insurance policy thing. And I, I'm not so sure. I think there is one. I'm not so sure that's the, uh, the number one reason why he stopped playing,

though, it didn't go back to the BJ. So if he does come back, which rumors have it, is it fair to say, he's going to go to live, not the PGA tour, because how could he just show back up on the PGA tour, right? No, he could. He's got past champion status. He will get into essentially every non-signature event that he wants to. Yeah, he'll get into plenty of events. He'll have opportunities.

So, again, if I'm live, I throw the bag out of him. Absolutely. That's the guy, like, Tirol Hatton's a great player. Terrell Hatton's animated. He's entertaining. He's a guy that can get people to watch. nobody's getting you to watch like Anthony Kim. And Anthony Kim's the one guy that, for me, if I'm like,

hey, I'm going to go play golf this Saturday with some buddies. If Anthony Kim signs with Live tomorrow and somehow gets in the field, guess what? My Saturday might now be cleared. I may have to sit on the couch on Saturday and watch him play golf. That's how much I think people want to see him again. And I think it would make a huge dent in, in just them collecting more players of interest.

And again, this is about, and we've been talking about Liv for so long, just what the league is about and the fight with the PGA tour and all this. At some point, Liv has to turn into a viable sports franchise and we're sitting here talking about,

who's going to win this week? Is it the cliques? Is it the crushers? And it has to become a product where, like, we actually understand what's going on, and we're watching the product just not because it's like, wow, this is this weird new thing, but oh, because we're interested in the golf

because we have bets on the golf. They signed with U.S. integrity a couple of weeks ago when it becomes a better betting product and people can make more of an investment in what they're doing and then become more engaged in the product. Again, this just, to me, this is sports business 101 in 2024. You're running a league. you make it as appealing as possible to betters and fantasy players and get them involved

because that's who's going to continue watching your product, the people that have a personal investment in what's actually taking place. I would say I'm on the high end of golf consumption. You know, I watch most tournaments. I gamble on it. And last year, when they went to the elevated events to try to battle live, they're giving more money out. I remember Paul McGinley went on a ramp,

maybe at the Masters or the U.S. Open, basically like, obviously the difference of golf when it comes to money is when the football happens, you know Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson, if they're healthy, they're going to play. In golf, you have no clue who's going to make the weekend, which most of us that are, I would say, high-end fans or consumers or talk about, like that aspect of it. And I think it feels like a lot of the old school players starting with Tiger Back love that part of it too. But now the money's so big, they push back. It's like, well, I can't afford to not have seven of the top 10 guys in the tournament at home. But I'm sorry, like this week and then in a couple weeks, and a lot of these tournaments now, these 75 guy fields, no cut. One, from a gambling perspective, it's way harder to gamble, I feel. And two, like, it doesn't do that much. Like, listen, the last week, the field at the end, random guys, it was still exhilarating watching these guys come down the stretch. This doesn't do much for me. The no cut events have never done a whole lot for me, quite honestly. shortened fields, no cut. Have you ever had someone come up to you and go,

man, this tournament's really fun, but I just wish there were like 50 fewer players in it. Like, no, that's not a thing. Let more players in, have a cut. I get it. PGA touring, I assume this is part of their mentality. First of all, they want to keep the players happy and the best way to keep the best players happy.

I guess it is to keep paying them and ensure that they're essentially, I mean, it's like an appearance fee. It's basically like there's no appearance fees on the PG. tour, but show up this week and you will get paid, you will make a paycheck. Because Liv has, Liv has that, right? With the no cuts. If you're in the event, you're getting paid no matter what if you finish DFL.

Yes. The other part of this is PGA Tour's own product, PGA Tour Live, where they can put, if Rory McElroy is nine shots back going into Sunday's final round this week, and they go, hey, early round coverage, catch it on PGA Tour Live, ESPN Plus, at 838 a.m. the more like okay they can show their guy they can show the big names i just don't know that golf fans necessarily want to watch even the biggest names with their way back in a non major championship advantage doesn't have that much an appeal i i would like you i won't i can i won't i consume a ton of golf i'm not watching that first thing in the morning just to like just because it's rory just because

it's scottie just because it's jordan j t i'm not watching them if they're nowhere near the lead not contention. Yeah, I mean, it's sad. I mean, golf is clearly broken right now, and there's not necessarily an end in sight, even though it feels like the deal is, I guess, getting relatively closer. I mean, one of the cooler moments, though, a couple weeks ago was, and obviously this guy's a high-end player. I mean, he's with US Am champ, US Junior Am, only guy at Tiger Woods to do it, but still, to be in the final group against Justin Thomas and Sam Hurts and just, I don't care how many shots you start today with the lead to win that tournament is got to be one of the most remarkable things I've ever seen. I mean, that was incredible. I know it's an easier course or whatever.

It's not doing it a memorial or RIV or something, but I don't care. That was freaking awesome. And we're not the only ones that think so. How about the fact that during the Chiefs, Bills, one of the best playoff games that we've seen all year and the NFL rules everything, the PG tour event on Golf Channel, wasn't even on network TV on Golf Channel, did a pretty good rating just because people are like, whoa, there's a 20 year old amateur who's about to beat some of the biggest names in the game. Saban called in for about four holes. Saban called in for about four holes when I was watching. Yeah, that had probably helped SEC country. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's a cool story. Look, I said about Nick Dunlap after he won

and the whole, uh, the whole rhetoric on on our channel on PJ tour radio is about will he turn pro, when will he do it? And people say, he's got to do this. He's got to do that. I said, you know what, he's got to do whatever the hell he wants to do. And if he feels like, you know what, it's time for me to turn pro, start making money, go play professionally, this is what I was going to college for, good for him. And if he says, you know what? And we saw that video of all the Alabama teammates in the bus cheering for him and going nuts. And if he goes, yeah, I want to go hang out with my boys for three more months and go win an NCAA title and then I'll turn pro.

He should have done that. And I just hope that, you know, he doesn't regret this decision turning. I don't think he will. And he's going to be a very good player for a very long time. Not to take any shine off of Nick Dunlap. I feel like those casual fans out there who are like, wait, weren't you guys just talking about the next big thing like a week ago and now it's him and now it's this guy?

Nick Dunlap's not going to be a tenth of player, I don't think, that Ludwig O'Bair is. I mean, Ludwig's a generational talent. Nick's going to be a very good player for a very long time. I think O'Bare is the real deal, though, when it comes superstars. Yeah, totally agree. And the thing with Ludwig, right? I mean, he played out, was it four years in college, you know, when this guy wins this tournament. And it wasn't just, to me, if it had been whatever, what's the tournament in Iowa, the farmers open or whatever. But to me, the way he did it against who he did it, and obviously all the things that come along with it, you're into the events. I do wonder if doing it against two rider cupers was like, I don't really have a choice. Because that's kind of what it feels like. Like he didn't really want to leave starting the week.

Clearly it wasn't his plan, even though he was in all these events. He had the sweet NIL deal like Ludwig did with Adidas right now. He's making money. But once you won it, it was almost like maybe even the coach is like, bro, you just got to take advantage of the opportunity. Which, like you said, I hope it's one of those that golf's weird. You know, it's not, he clearly is a pretty good player. But if you look up in a couple years and it hasn't gone well, he wouldn't be the first to go through that, right? I mean, if you could tell me right now, hey, I started ESPN a week out of college.

If you could say, hey, if you can go back in time, were you happy with that decision? Or we'll give you another, not that I could have stayed in college, but we'll give you another semester of college. I would have to fail a few more classes than I actually did. You go back in college, hang out with your buddies and have like one more shot. Like that to me is like, that's the kind of stuff you might regret. You never regret like, you know, turning pro or something like that. You're going to regret the decision to like miss out on the reason you went there in the first place. The reason you were having a good time, I'm sure I'll have a great pro career.

I'm sure either way, it was going to turn out fine for him. A lot of people are, I saw a lot of people, especially on social media, who I don't think understood what it means to be an amateur, bitching and moaning about the fact that he wasn't going to get paid the $1.6 million for winning that. golf tournament. I'm like, that's, he's an amateur. He can't. And you can't do it after the tournament. And oh, by the way, don't worry about this kid. He's going to have, uh, whether at NIL deals before he turned pro. He's going to have manufacturer deals. OEM deals with a bunch of companies. I'm sure he's got logos all over his gear this week. And so he's going to be just fine. Let's not worry about Nick Dunlap. He's going to have, uh, he's going to have a place to live.

He's going to have food on the table for as long as he needs it. I would say this as, as, from a gambling perspective, gambling on Ludwig, you know, last week he missed about seven puts that me or you might have made. He is so freaky. You put him at these harder courses. Like, you know, waste, it brings a lot of guys into play. But any course, to me, Rive, the Memorial, like, he is going to be a major, if he plays the Honda, like any course where you got to hit it pretty straight, he is a freaking machine. And if you can get two or three, it's not as much three to one now top ten. but two and a half to one, even plus 210. To me, he's an auto hammer top 10.

So the one thing John that I keep saying about Ludwig is more so than any other top player in the world, he makes the game look easy. You watch him play, you go, why doesn't everyone just hit it 340 straight down the middle and then hit the ball close to the hole and roll in their put? It looks like a simple game. You watch Scotty Sheffler and you see his footwork, you're like, dude, that looks impossible. I can't do that. You watch Rory McElroy and you're like, that's the guy who's really good.

Again, I play golf and I'm like, I can't do what he's doing. You watch Ludwig and you're like, it barely looks like he's swinging at it. And he just hits the crap out of the ball every single time. I'm telling you, he's got some John Rom qualities, I think, to him without the, maybe the aggression. I don't know if he's got the same internal desire to go win. We're going to find that out over the next couple of years. But other than that, he's good.

I was talking about that one in a dozen. Dunnpool earlier where I have Justin Thomas to win Phoenix. I have Ludwig to win the Masters this year. Now, granted, a lot of that is game theory. It's not necessarily I'm betting on Ludwig to win the Masters' first ever major, but a lot of it's game theory. It's trying to be contrary and take a guy that no one else is going to have. But I'm confident enough that I think he will play well in his first trip around Augusta

that I'm taking him there. That's how much I like. I, you know, a lot of times with the younger guys, I watched him a lot of Tori. It's not even just their putting. It's just their short game. He had a couple chips, like a bunker shot, a chip like he was over the, it was like, this guy's got touch. It's just the putter.

And it's just from what I've been told by people that have been around, I'm like, this putter's just kind of streaky. You know, it's not like he's got some Tony Fienow weird stroke going, Zalotaurus. He's going to, when he gets hot on a given week, everything else in his game, elite. I mean, elite. Obviously, short game will improve a little bit, but his Tita Green is top notch on the PJ tour and his chipping is fine. This guy's not like starting where Victor started or anything, you know.

Can we talk about Tony Fienow's putting as someone who. What the book is going on with that? I mean, so bad. Here's the deal. By the way, it always comes back to kick me in the teeth every single time. On a course like Torrey Pines where you want to take the ball strikers,

it's like tea to green, it's this course has teeth and this course is tough in this court. I want the guys who are big brawny ball strikers. and you pick those guys, they get into contention, then you see that they can't make a three-footer, even sniff the hole, and it's like, oh, that's, yeah, well, ball striking is great, but can't make a putt, you're not going to win a golf tournament.

And so if he now is like that, I had Taylor Pendrith last week, who four putted from 20 feet on the second hole and still finished like three or four back. That didn't help. So, yeah, there was a lot of that going on last week. And Tori forces you to just, you know, flip up Tiger O.A.

and you watch him hitting above the hole. Like, none of these guys would get remotely close on this put. I mean, not as close. On a Thursday, let alone Sunday, you know, to make it to Monday, no fucking chance. Speaking of Tiger, you know, I would say he physically looked a little better at the hero, just not. And obviously, he talked about the surgery was more for the long term. What's crazy is I, during Tori, I was clicking on his PJ tour page, until he got in

accident, he was playing pretty good golf in like 18 and 19. Like he was never going to probably be the number one player in the world, but he was going to be a factor on the tour for a while. It clearly derailed them, and it got tough to watch last year when it was super cold at the Masters. It was hard to watch if you, you know, now it feels like that that probably not going to happen anymore. And even he admitted once a month, that feels a little bold, I'll believe it when I see it.

But, you know, do we get Tiger four majors and two or three other tournaments this year? That would be pretty sweet. Yeah, I'm down for that. And you think we get that? Do you have I said over under till the tour championship seven tournaments, including majors? That high or low? I mean, I would think the plan is pretty much a blueprint right now that he's going to

play RIV. He's going to play the players championship. Then get into major championship mode. Masters, PGA, U.S. Open, and the Open championship. And if he plays well enough at any of those, like maybe then, He has to make a decision about the FedEx Cup playoffs, but that's a good decision to have to make. You don't think like a memorial or something like that in the middle of the year?

No, I think that's too close to it's like it's two weeks after the PGA and two weeks before the U.S. open. So I just don't think he's going to do it. Yeah. And I don't think that's, you know, I think Jack will understand. I don't think that's a big deal. But once he gets into major championship season,

And it's just going to be majors. And I think his play is dependent largely upon the weather. You know, Pinehurst for the U.S. Open, that helps. It's a flatter golf course than some of the U.S. It's not Bethpage. It's not Oakmont. You know, it's not a big ballpark like that. Should be able to walk.

It should be nicer weather. So, I mean, look, am I optimistic about Tiger this year and playing some good golf? Not really, but am I going to sit there and say, there's no way he can do it. I'm going to write him off. He's not even going to make a cut. Of course not. We've been here a million times with Tiger already.

The guy's proven it all of those times in the past. Sure, he can certainly come back and he can play good golf again. Two guys I'm going to ride throughout the year for top tens will be Jason Day and Kagan Bradley. Another guy that I'm going to keep a close eye on is Hedecki, who I think for the first time in a while showed a little signs of life that he just, not to win, but just you can get some decent odds. Sometimes he's like 40 to 1 and he just has at any moment he can go 6, 7 under and get right back like he did the other on Sunday at Tori Pines. He's on my do not playlist right now.

I am off Hedekhi. Look, I had too many times over the last few years where I played Hedekke and the neck injury shows itself on a Friday and all of a sudden he withdraws or just starts playing worse and, you know, and it all falls apart there. You got a name. You got a name for none of those top five, six, ten guys that you kind of like just trending into this year. J.T. Poston's another guy I like. Nikolai Hoygard just walked by like two seconds ago. And I was looking at him. He's not bad.

Rory McElroy is walking five feet away from me right now. He seems like a pretty good player. So, you know, I take Roy. John says hi. He's just out of your shot. So if I talk about how much I like Rory, he's not even going to hear me. so you know, you might have to walk about three feet closer right now. But let's see, other guys that I really like this year, it always depends.

I write a column at the beginning of every year called The Leap, and I'm trying to predict guys to be jumping into that next echelon. So, you know, Victor Hovlin, I think's going to win a major. I don't think it's going to surprise anybody when I say, I think Victor Hovlin's pretty good. Yeah, like, yeah, no kidding. If we're looking for a guy to win for the first time on tour, Bo Hoster is a guy that I've been on for a while,

and even this week at Pebble Beach could be a really good week for him. He's played well here the last couple of years. So he's a guy that I like. I don't know necessarily that he's going to go out and win a major championship. He's not going to be a household name, but I like him. I think he's a good player. So, you know,

it kind of depends on what you're asking of a player, like what kind of jump they're looking to make. But those are some of the names. Okay, I'll end it with this. Then is there any chance that you would bet on a guy in that top group, at least the Rider Cup names, the Zanders, the Cantlays, the Tonys, that have never won a major this year.

What would it take for you to pick one of those guys in one of the four big tournaments? It's so hard in those. Obviously, Zander and Tony have had success in them, Patrick, for the most part, is not. As of right now, between those three, I mean, I'd have to dissect everything. Zander's probably the name that I would go with

over Cantley and Fee now. You know, just as it comes to mind with Rory walking past me right here, that Rory was on the policy board last year, last year. Rory did not play his best golf for most of the year, only won the Scottish Open. Patrick Cantley on the policy board right now. I don't think most people understand how much work that is for these guys. It's not like, hey, once a month, we get a little Zoom call and, you know, we talk about things with the BJA tour and then go away and go play golf. Like, he gets done with rounds and has phone calls to answer and emails to look at. I mean, there's especially now.

Yeah, it's really tough. I think that Cantley is going to be the perfect example of guy that just isn't going to be able to play his best golf when there's all this other stuff going on. So Xander of those guys, watch out for Homa. I'm telling you, like, Max Homa has not had any major championship success to speak of. I would not be surprised if he goes out and wins a major for the first time this year too. He's really, really, really talents. Speaking of the other tour, I mean, one guy that started showing signs of life that clearly has a high ceiling, it's Bryson. You know, and I just, he's hard to, it's hard to know what those guys are doing over there. But I do think it's fair to say he takes golf seriously, right? He's not a slapie that's not trying

practicing. No, he's trying. I do think if his odds are just, could be a little out of whack, like if he was playing on the PGA tour and playing well, he'd be a 20 to 1 or above guy. If you start seeing the majors and you get him 35, 40, 45 to 1, which depending on how he's playing and live, there might be some value there for a guy that's just truly going to try, you know, in practice. Yeah, I don't mind. Look, if you can get Bryson at, it might need to be a little bit bigger number than that. Yeah, 40, 45 to 1, you know, U.S. Open. The master, he just went to Augusta National.

Bob Harrod from Sports Illustrated. I just wrote about him taking a little practice trip to Augusta National recently. That place is owned him, though. I wouldn't touch him there. You know what? Depends on the number. If you can give me a big number on Bryson, I might take a little shot on that just because the upside is there.

And again, when we're betting outright, if you're, if you're betting top tens, you said you've had really good luck with top 10 so far this year. And I love that. And I say this all the time. I'm going on a little tangent here. But for those who don't regularly bet on golf and want to start betting on golf, my first thing, my first piece of advice is to know what type of better you are, because that will help shape the way you bet.

If you're a guy that just says, hey, you know what? I'm going to throw 20 bucks out there. I'm going to put five bucks on four different guys with 100 to one odds or bigger. And I just want to hit a lottery. ticket, have something to watch on a Sunday. If I lose, no big deal, fine. Just understand that that's who you are. If you're someone who goes, I have worked hard for this money, I have made this money

myself, I don't want to lose money. I need to turn a profit. Top tens, but top 20s, top 40s. I mean, you get back guys, I was looking this week, Navrick McNeely, who I kind of like this week, has had some success at Pebble Beach. He's even money for a top 40 where essentially you just have to be in the top half of the field this week. I mean, there's some good numbers out there. So, um, Bryson's a guy going back to the Bryson conversation. Bryson's not necessarily a guy that I'm going to bet heavily for a top 10,

top 20 at a major championship because the floor is pretty low, but the ceiling's really high. And if he puts it all together for four days, sure, Bryson can win a tournament. So I don't mind the outright play, but I don't want to, I don't want to play the floor play because I don't know that floor is ever necessarily going to be pretty high. Were you getting drinks the next couple of nights, Spanish Bay? Yeah, we'll see what happens. We got some options around here. I'll put it this way.

I'm staying nowhere close to here, and I still don't have my rental car, so I might be beholden to some buddies and see where we wind up this week. The bearer question in the Central Valley, the price points are pretty expensive right around there. Yeah. Yeah, a little out of my company's price range, Salinas this week. I've been there. I've been to Salinas. Bigger question might be where I'm playing golf on Thursday, not where I'm drinking.

So we'll see what happens. Well, make sure you bring your rain jacket. Good talking to you, Sylvie. I need enough people to cancel their rounds on Thursday for me to get it off the alternate list. Take it easy. Talk soon. Thanks, dude. Appreciate it.

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