February 19, 2025 • 52 mins
It's the return of "Go Low" and John opens the show by diving into the state of golf and talking about what golf needs to do in order to get more people to watch and the importance of the PGA working with LIV to help ratings. Next, John discusses the emergence of Ludvig Åberg and how he is a star in the sport. Next, John gives you his best picks for this weekend's Mexico Open.
Later, John answers your questions during this episode's mailbag segment.
5:07 - The state of the sport
32:31 - Ludvig Åberg is a star
41:10 - Mexico Open
43:12 - Mailbag
Follow John on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube for the latest. #Volume #Herd
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on everybody? The long awaited
return of the Go Low podcast. It's hard to mix
(00:26):
in golf talk when football is going on. I know
where my bread is buttered and where the most people listen.
But I love the PGA Tour. I love golf in general,
whether it's playing it, gambling on it, talking about it.
And I haven't touched the club in like two months.
(00:46):
I think I might go hit balls either today or tomorrow.
Playing this Friday. So where I live it's starting to
get sunny again and golf season is in full swing.
I've watched a lot of golf so far this early
on in the season, so I am excited to talk
about it. Here's the drill will be once a week
(01:06):
obviously this one. I just have some big picture thoughts
on the state of the game, what happened last week
and uh with Ledwig winning, as well as just a
couple other little tidbits here and there.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
But overall, my hope is from a podcast standpoint to
this year, get some guys on the podcast, whether it
be people in the business.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Uh, I know some people that work with apparel industries
that represent golf. Uh, you know people on the PGA
tour players potentially caddies. I saw Brandal Shamblee today at
the gym, seeing him a bunch, and I talked to him.
I got a bunch of you know, from Bones, Phil's
old caddy caddy for J T. Jeff Ogilvie. I see
these guys. It's gotta gotta be a salesman when we're
(01:52):
you know, mid sweat, and UH find a way to
pitch them to come on the show. Which you know,
Branda was really really cool. Uh. We talked to Little Ludwig.
So yeah, our hope is to expand this operation as
well as shoot a bunch of golf videos this this year.
And I already got Dontrell Willis, the lefty from the
(02:16):
Florida Marlins, who actually lives right down the street from me.
We uh, hopefully you're gonna do that sometime soon. I
got to hit him up. I know he's been traveling,
but to just play with some people, maybe play with
some pros, play with some athletes, play with just I've
done it with myself for the YouTube channel. So that
that's kind of the game plan. Very fluid. I mean,
(02:37):
we can, we can pivot at any moment. But I
love golf. I say it all the time. I like golf.
My relationship with golf is so much different than football
because I don't tackle anybody right. I'm not, you know,
kicking out the defensive end where I used to play
right guard in the wing t offense for the Davis
Hye Blue Devils. But I play golf and it's the
(02:59):
one sport which I think which is awesome to see
its explosion and its interest. I guess we could just
start there. I think I feel a lot like when
I hear people that cover the NBA that discuss their sport,
whose ratings are plummeting over the course of the last
i don't know, six seven years and are not doing
(03:23):
very well right now, yet all these people still watch
it and love it. Like you don't hear Brian Windhorst
or Bill Simmons go just because other people are watching,
I'm not gonna watch. And I feel that way about golf,
like I love watching PGA golf. I love watching pros
play at Torrey Pines at riv the players coming up
(03:45):
obviously the majors, but I will watch the Mexico Open.
I also like to gamble on it. But like I'm
in the business of talking about things that are popular,
talking about things that are entertaining to the masses, and
I'm not an idiot. Like, overall, the sport from the
professional level is in a really, really bad spot and
(04:08):
it sucks right Yet the game itself, more people in
twenty twenty five are playing golf than have ever played
the sport, and it's not even close. The popularity of
YouTube golf is just growing exponentially by the month. I
am a consumer of that. It's why I wanted to
(04:29):
get into the business of doing it myself. I love
Bob does sports. They can't produce a video and I
can't watch it fast enough. I mean, I consume all
their shit. I watch Grant play all these guys Grant
and I have a lot of admiration for the business
that these guys have built. I don't really watch that
much good good stuff, but I have nothing but respect
(04:50):
for everything that they have done. I've watched a lot
of the Brian Bros. Like, what Bryson has done is incredible.
It is awesome to watch his I've watched him play
with Tony Roma, I've watched him play with Tom Brady.
He's just I've watched him try to break, you know,
the course record at random Muni's around Texas or in Florida.
(05:13):
He's just really good. He's just very, very entertaining. In
the state of golf on the Internet from that standpoint
of quote unquote YouTube golf and these creators is its
own little world. And these guys, obviously Bryson, but you
remove him, these people, you know, starting with I mean,
we have salespeople at the volume that used to work
(05:35):
at Barstool, Like the deal and the money that they
make Taylor Made is pretty crazy. A couple of years ago,
when I was playing at mesa country club with some
people in the golfing business, one of them works for
Taylor Made, and he was saying the amount of money
and product that they push is stupid.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
And you have.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Seen these companies get in bed with Barstool Sports, with
Grant Horvat, with with Bob Does Sports, and it has
been a lucrative proposition for them, you know, in terms
of are they better off going with them or like
Dan Patrick? And I'm pro Dan Patrick, but I know
who I'd want to be in business with. So the
(06:15):
popularity of the sport at the casual recreational level is
absolutely booming. I mean I live probably ten less than
ten minutes away from TPC Scottsdale where they just hosted
the waste management I'm probably a five minute walk of
two minute drive to Greyhawk and probably fifteen to twenty
(06:39):
minutes away from True North, which I would consider those
three the three most popular and definitely probably the most famous.
I mean, you could argue Quintero or Weikapa. I mean
there are a couple other ones public courses in Arizona
which I would consider a hub, and honestly, in terms
(06:59):
of the West Coast, I'd say this in Florida are
the most popular golf destinations. And these places are charging
over five hundred dollars during the winter months when our
weather is seventy five degrees to play golf. And when
I first moved here, I complained about it all the time.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
I'm like, that is fucking insane.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
I'm not paying, after taxes, five hundred and seventy five
dollars to play Greyhawk. And then you would look at
the t sheet and it would be packed. Same thing
for Truon and obviously same thing for TPC. So it's
like I could complain about it, but that is not
only the going rate. People are paying constantly. It's why
it would force me to join TPC. And honestly, I've
looked into like private clubs around here. They are it's
(07:40):
insane how expensive it is. I mean the sweet country
clubs are well over five hundred grand. I would call
an average club around here is one hundred and fifty
to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. I mean where
I come from. When I joined a place in the
Bay Area which was pretty nice, Castlewood, my buy in
as a junior member was fifteen hundred dollars. The club
(08:00):
my brother's at in Davis, California, which is a nice
country club. I think the bidens like ten k. So
it is extremely expensive and people are paying. But you
couldn't charge these rates if people aren't willing to pay
to play golf or join your club. So the popularity
is insane. Yet the ratings when you watch pro golf
is not good, and it clearly leads leads back to
(08:22):
the live situation and then stealing the players paying for
the players to join their league. And I never blamed
any of them because anyone putting one hundred thousand dollars
one hundred and fifty or one hundred million dollars, one
hundred and fifty million dollars, two hundred million dollars in
front of your face. It's easy for everyone on the
outside to judge these individuals. I mean, if no one
cares anymore. But at the time, I probably would have
(08:45):
taken the money too, you know. Now it's been very
lucrative for the guys that stayed as well, especially the
top guys, because guys like Scotti and Ory have been
winning and finishing high the most, meaning they've made more
money over a tour that is losing.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I mean, they don't.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
It doesn't pencil what they are paying these players, but
they had to up their purses to keep these guys
from leaving. So it's just completely all out of whack.
But the business model was always kind of fucked up. Right,
when I turn on the Bill's chiefs, I never have
to worry about Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes being like,
you know what, Mahomes just took this week off. He
(09:25):
just he just flew back to Dallas and he's just
are and are He's just hanging out with the fam.
He's just kicking it right, that happens all the time
in golf, and before Live it happened honestly, way too much.
You would turn on it's like, oh yeah, Tiger's taking
the next two weeks off. Oh yeah, DJ and Koepka
are playing this week. You're like, what, That's not how
any of these other sports operate. Now In the NBA,
(09:47):
guys just don't play, but they're supposed to. They just
you know, choose rest. I'm over And it's been a
huge problem for the NBA. Honestly, it's been a disaster
for their business model. Not necessarily they've actually made more
with TV rights, but the TV companies their revenue in
terms of what they can sell advertising because they're way
less people watching. It's a problem and I don't necessarily
(10:10):
know how golf fixes that because uh, it's just never
going to be a situation where I can't imagine when
this reunification happens. And listen Tiger Woods, whose mother just passed,
which it's kind of when you have someone as famous
as Tiger Woods, it feels like you know him way
(10:33):
better than you actually know him. But like part of
Tiger to at least me who grew up on him,
and I would say him and Michael Jordan are easily
my two favorite athletes of all time. I don't even
think there's a close third, and I think both of
them are going to go down as I would argue
probably two of the most famous, the two most famous
athletes of my life. I mean they were famous pre Internet.
(10:54):
When they're famous, like if you're are you Michael Jackson famous?
Are you like eighties Mike Tyson famous, be like to
Houston famous, or are you like Internet famous, Which doesn't
mean you can't profit and become a megastar, but it
was different, like the fame of Michael Jordan in the
nineties or Tiger Woods in the late nineties early two
thousands does feel a little bit different. And when you
(11:16):
talked about Tiger Woods, you always talked about his father, Earl,
who was just always around. But like if you follow
Tiger really closely and as he got older, listened to
him talk like his mother played a massive role in
his life. And honestly, you know Earl, you know Tiger
got somethings running around from pops, like his mom was
(11:37):
extremely serious. And Tiger mentioned this when he was sitting
with Jim Nantz, like she was on my ass about
academics and getting good grades. And honestly, as Tiger became
a star started making a lot of money, a huge
part of his foundation is giving back to education to
young people. It's huge interwoven into his life. And when
(11:59):
you think about Tiger Woods, to me, the number one
thing you think about that defines like the Tiger Woods experience,
like the talent that it's like the insane discipline and
all these players over the years about how he's in
the gym earlier than them. Uh, just he's just a
workout fiend. He's a practice fiend. I mean, he's just maniacal.
(12:19):
And unlike Michael who listen, I can relate to more,
you know, drinker, smoker, gambler. Not saying Tiger doesn't participate
in those, but you know, you watch Michael as he's
gotten older, like kind of got big. You know, you
watch Tiger, it looks like he's still in the gym
multiple hours a day. And Michael, if he had been
injured like Tiger, I mean, he'd probably be fearm pounds.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
You know.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Tiger's will to just grind, and I do think he
gets that from his mother, and you know when she
passed away was now two weeks ago. I think it
was pretty jolting because or jarring because just a couple
of weeks ago at the TGL, the thing that they
him and Rory created for ESPN, she was just there like, look,
(13:03):
you know, my mom's in her mid seventies, just looked
like a normal older lady, sitting with Charlie and kind
of the Woods crew, and then all of a sudden,
she's dead. So when Tiger had to pull out of
his own tournament last week, just like it's too soon, listen,
we don't know, and Tiger can be very secretive about stuff,
and I don't blame him in terms of this situation,
(13:25):
but I do think it's fair to assume, like, was
it a little out of the blue because no one
had that vibe when she was there, kind of like
making fun of him when Tiger was sucking it up
on TGL. But you know, speaking to Tiger, I think
one of the issues I have with the big picture
of the sport and this quote unquote bringing everyone back together,
(13:47):
which feels inevitable. I mean, obviously live they had a
television product that had twelve thousand people watching. Now it
was tape delayed, and they finally did a deal with Fox,
but still they had an event where twelve thousand people watched.
It is not going that well, not in the not
from the player standpoint. They are making historic amount of money,
(14:08):
not just with signing bonuses. But Joaquin Neeman, who went
over there a couple of years ago, has already made
forty five million dollars on Live. I mean, Taylor Gooch
I think is well over forty the money. I mean,
it changed people's lives, you know, Paparez made. Paparez made
more money in three years playing on Live than he
ever did in the PGA Tour for twenty plus years.
(14:29):
So we speak of Dustin Johnson and Phil and Bryson
and Keepka and these guys that got you know, NBA,
NFL level contracts. But some of these guys that just
got five or ten million to go and then had
some success and won some tournaments and just finished some
top tens. They printed cash there. But the only reason
he disrupted this is because he wanted a part of
the PGA Tour and the PJ Tour wouldn't listen to him.
(14:52):
And now once they were forced to, they kind of
created this role for Tiger who, let's face it feels
he's acting like I don't know, I don't know if
he's quite the CEO, but he's like a board member
and someone that has a lot of pull in this situation.
And I've been saying this all season long about Tom Brady.
(15:13):
I respect the shit out of Tom Brady. I admire
everything he stands for in terms of how much he
how driven he was, how much effort he put in.
Obviously from a competitive standpoint, clearly how great he was
on the field, but all the intangible stuff made him
the greatest player of all time and one of the
most famous athletes in the history of American sports. But
(15:33):
then you put him on television. I was not shocked.
He wasn't good. Like, how would Tom Brady know what
good television is?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Like?
Speaker 1 (15:42):
How could he compete against me and you to like
entertain us. I've been consuming for thirty five plus years.
I'm a consumer. Tom's a player, and for twenty five
plus years college and pro, he played on Saturdays and Sundays.
I'm not saying he didn't watch football and off days
or whatever, but he didn't look at it from our perspective.
(16:04):
He doesn't know what's entertaining. And I think about that
from the Tiger Woods perspective. Tiger Woods knows if his
body's healthy, how to dominate and how to practice, how
to prepare for a tournament, how to compete in that tournament,
how if he has a chance to win, how to
close out that tournament. You could argue there's no one
that's ever been better. Only Jack could even have a
(16:25):
conversation about a guy that can, you know, won as
many majors. But just in terms of pure dominance, it's incredible.
But Tiger Woods is kind of like Michael Jordan. They're
so famous, they're so big, they kind of live in
a different world than all of us. And the product
just isn't that great on television. And I understand NBC,
(16:46):
it takes a lot of shit. They don't take it
as seriously. Let's say, is Sunday Night Football, Well, of
course they don't. The NFL makes them a lot more
money and more people watch, so you take things more seriously,
especially in business that I view more revenue. Very understandable,
but like, how does Tiger Woods know what is a
(17:06):
good golf tournament? And not in terms of an entertainment standpoint?
He knows a good course setup, what a good field
will look like. Yeah, I mean I could tell you
what a good field will look like, but just in
terms of the entertainment standpoint, so you could bring all
these guys back together. Is it going to change anything?
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Now?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
I've always defended golf coverage, which takes a lot of
shit in the golf ecosystem of people that talk about
the sport. It is not like football, right where when
someone's playing, you watch, and when there's a break, a timeout,
change a quarter, you just go to commercial golf. I
(17:44):
mean a tournament even Saturday and Sunday after a cut,
you have people all over the course. You have people
hitting shots consistently at the same time, guys that are leading,
guys that are behind, guys that are chasing. Like it
is impossible to show everything. It literally is. And when
you pay more money than something is worth, the only
(18:06):
way to make that even close to pencil is to
force an ads. And when you watch golf tournaments, there
are just more ads than any other sporting event you
will ever watch. There's not like that in basketball. It's
not like that in baseball. It's not like that in football.
But there are specific ins and outs of the action,
(18:28):
and that's just not true in golf. So I do
think it's you're never gonna get a perfect situation of like, oh,
you just satiated all of our appetites. You showed every
shot I wanted to see. I saw a couple guys
on the cut line Friday, I saw everyone in the
mix because a lot of times you'll be like, wait,
that guy just finished third. I watched the entire round Sunday,
(18:49):
and I didn't see him hit a shot happens all
the time, you would never go you know what, Ceedee
Lamb had seven catches. I only saw two of them, right,
That just would not happen. And I think you have
all these guys that play the sport for a living,
and who are I mean Tiger's It's like he can't
even relate to the good golfers on the PGA too,
(19:11):
even the guys that are involved in it. How do
they have any comprehension of what entertains us? Besides just
they're playing like Tiger playing entertains me, but just in
terms of what a good broadcast, how getting the business
back together? How like what happens with cuts? No cuts?
They got no clue. I mean, they really don't. And
(19:31):
I appreciate all these guys that have written letters, justin
Thomas Max Homa has been really aggressive trying to, you know,
just help out the broadcast partners. But I just think
there's a lot of trial and error going on. At
the end of the day. The most important thing in
a sport that is niche that this is not. It's
(19:53):
never gonna be a top two or three sport in America,
even though more people, especially if they continue to play,
will actually the sport then watch the sport. And though
in theory, like in basketball, baseball, and football, why they
have been big my whole life is because most young
boys at one point in time probably play little league,
(20:14):
probably play on a basketball team. Even a large percentage
of people just play high school football. Even if you
don't actually play, you're just on the team. So if
that continues to grow, having your product be good is
really important because these people will watch. And I just
think that there's also a big part of this story.
(20:37):
And I saw Adam Scott had a comment of like,
there will be bitterness when these guys return, and it's
why Rory McElroy is taking a lot of shit because
he's basically changed his tune saying, listen, it happened, it's over.
We got to welcome these guys back, and people like
Adam Scott and I'm just gonna I'm not saying all
(20:57):
these individuals fall into this category. Jordan Speek, Justin Thomas
just named famous guys. Tony Fenow could have made fifty
one hundred hundred and fifty million dollars if they would
have left three or four years ago, but they chose
not to. Like, I'm sorry, that was your choice. You
made a decision to stay. So you're being bitter that
whoever went and got one hundred million dollars got one
(21:20):
hundred and fifty million dollars. They took the risk. That's
kind of what business is all about. I mean, a
huge reason a large percentage of rich people that did
not inherit their money are rich is because they took
massive risks at one point in time in their life.
And while it worked out, there has been a large
percentage of people did not get to that point because
(21:41):
their risk failed. And luckily for these guys like they
still ended up making a lot of money. So I
don't want to hear like, yeah, we're bitter, we're pissed off.
No one gives a fuck, No one cares at this
point in time. You decided to stay, and I commend
you for that. That was your decision. You stood on
whatever more stance you had, whatever belief you had in
(22:02):
the tour, and I got no problem with that. But
I never had a problem with the guy leaving. And
if you want your business to continue, which is the
only thing that should matter, you just gotta let these
guys back like you're not finding them, you're not making
them work their way back. I'm sorry. They played their hand.
You played your hand and we got a result. And
now if these guys are gonna come back together, like
(22:24):
the bitterness and listen, I don't blame anyone for quote
unquote being bitter or mad, but to think that they
should be fined or like if Bryson D. Chambeau wants
to just come back and play fifteen events, I'm sorry
he's playing fifteen events. If Brooks Keepka goes, hey, I'm
not gonna play fifteen events, but I'll play seven Brooks.
(22:44):
Come on in, buddy, John Rahm, what do you want
to play? You pick your schedule. Welcome to play wherever
you want. You need those guys, and that's where we're
at because you know, tennis, forever, I would say, has
had less guys at the top than golf. It's had
usually two or three, and for the most part, you
get very lucky. There's so much better than everyone else.
(23:07):
It felt like ninety percent of the tournaments with Federer,
with Djokovic, with Nadal, it happened with Agasy and Sampris forever,
that they're just gonna be in at minimum the final
four of every Grand Slam, in every major tournament. Golf's
a little more random, like you can just have a
shitty Thursday and I'll not make the cut. But you
are very, very dependent, like Tiger's done now, like he's
(23:27):
never coming back and playing like that. Those days are over.
He might play a tournament here, tournament there, but his
impact as a player is over.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Like it's done.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
So you need and the tour has been lucky. Scottis
Scheffler's gone on like a two year historic run. Rory
McElroy has played some of the best golf of his
career over the last couple of years. Ludvig has thrown
his hat in the ring of like, yeah, I'm pretty sweet.
So you've had one of the most famous great players
of all time in Rory the Shooting Star had a
(24:00):
season that paralleled like Tiger Woods, and this young guy
who looks like a model who just plays like perfect
golf just kind of hit the scene because if you
just would have had some randomness like Jordan Speace's risk
doesn't work. Justin Thomas wasn't very good last year. Max
Homa fell off a cliff. So it's like, you got
a lot of guys like I love Adeki, but I
(24:22):
don't know if Adeci can just carry your sport. So
you need you got two or three guys who are
just rockstar, superstar Hall of famers who are playing elite golf.
You need to bring Bryson Brooks and John ronback and
then like unlike some of these other individual sports, you
can have random players win golf tournaments like that can
(24:43):
be really exciting. It's like John Middlecoff just took down
Rory McElroy. That happened forever, like guys beating Tiger and
Phil or Jack and Arnie or Nick Faldo or Greg Norman.
But you need those guys there as well, And that's
part of the problem. Sometimes you turn on these tournaments
and I'm not count this week, but the fields are
shitting now. And Rory and Scottie have really taken advantage
(25:06):
of the last couple of years. I mean, Scotti Scheffler
made on the course over sixty million dollars last year,
Xander Schoffley won multiple majors, almost made thirty million dollars
on the course. I mean, these guys are getting paid
like Ceedee lamb Right or T J. Watt, Scotti, Scheffer's
getting paid like he's Lebron James Luka Dancic, like it's
(25:27):
this is so it's like, yeah, you turn down some
money staying, but you've profited the top guys Xander, Rory
and Scotty they have printed money. But I just I'm
nervous about whatever this thing's gonna look like, how this
is gonna go. I think anytime you have these big egos,
super rich guys, you know, in an individual sport unlike football,
(25:51):
like football guys are I told Colin this a couple
of weeks ago. Football players are used to getting yelled at,
You're used to being humbled. You're just this isn't like
everyone's kissing your ass twenty four to seven. If you're
a good player, you are you are pushed or I
would say criticized, might be strong, but held accountable on
(26:13):
a weekly basis when you walk into the building by
a position coach, by a coordinator, by the head coach,
then of course by the media, by your teammates. Like
it's just an intense environment. Sometimes it's a golfer. It's like,
no one's telling me shit. I mean, what was the
last time someone you know really said something to Tiger.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
That made him uncomfortable?
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Doesn't happen a lot. It hasn't happened a lot. It
hasn't happened for twenty five years. Where you know Mahomes
and he's probably already given him ten pointers after the
Super Bowl of things that we could have done better.
And I just it's gonna be interesting how this all
shakes out.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
And I'm not that confident.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
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Speaker 1 (28:31):
Now on the bright side, I mentioned this earlier, but
I see this. I've seen him at the gym probably
like six or seven times. I am a huge Brandal
Chambly fan, and I think what I love about an
analyst is you can be twofold. You can be the
John Madden John Gruden, you could be kind of like
(28:52):
an uplifting entertainer. Now, if you watch John Madden and
John Gruden, they weren't shitting on that many guys. They
were more just entertainers. And then you get like Troy Aikman,
who you watch Troy post like the Romo entrance into
that world. Troy's stepped up his game and I would
say he, by four of all the top cats, is
(29:15):
the most critical and he will just blast coordinators, coaches, players.
He will just let which which is my style. I like,
I'm a John Madden Gruden guy. Those guys entertain me.
But I do like when you see something obviousespecially when
I'm gambling on it, for you just to let it rip.
And I think Brandle's great at that. He just he
will be very critical, where I think a lot of
people in this business are just scared to be and
(29:38):
he's he doesn't apologize for it, and I don't agree
with everything he says, but he is I think he's
elite at his job, elite. And I've seen him at
the gym sometimes, like I gotta say something to him,
and I'm just soaked in sweat on the StairMaster, trying
to be less fat, and he walks by a couple times,
and eventually I just kind of say something about Ludwig's
swing and he stops and we talk for a minute,
(30:00):
and he was just like, because I essentially said, I'm
gonna go to the driving range the next couple days
and try to emulate whatever that guy's doing, He's like,
good luck. He's like, if you figure it out, hit
me up. And I think sometimes when you see a
young player, you just know it right away.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
You're like, I.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Don't know if I've ever seen anything quite like that.
I remember in his first year watching Shoho Tane hit
a double, and I remember when he turned first and
started going to second, and I was like, this guy's
running faster than every player in the big leagues. I
didn't realize he was six or five and could run
(30:39):
like a deer, and he hits bombs and he pitches.
Remember the first year once they traded Alex Smith and
Mahomes started. I think his first game of his career
was against the San Diego Chargers at the time, and
it was like, holy shit, is this Brett Favre reincarnated?
And you just know it right away. I think Ludvig
(31:00):
kind of falls under that category, and I think sometimes
you got to be careful in golf. It's such a
challenging game. You go through so many ebbs and flows.
Your swing can change as you get older, so it's
hard to make like definitive statements about guy's career. But
when you see a guy six three sixty four whose
(31:20):
swing looks exactly the same every time he takes it
back and pulls the trigger, who plays gets over a
shot and pulls the trigger within the blink of an
eye and hits the ball like Bryce and d Chambeau level,
deep and straight as an arrow, It's like, I just
don't see this guy failing. And I got a good
(31:41):
buddy that works at Adida's Golf who's a big part
of kind of their operation and was telling me about
this guy three years ago, and he's like, he's just
he's what you consider like an all time blue chipper.
And sometimes you see that in sports, like when a
Andrew Luck comes out looks like Cooper Flag. I don't
know if even he falls under that category, but just
like this is just a can't miss And I hate
(32:03):
that term in the NFL draft because there's no such thing.
But every once in a while, there are certain type
players that like, yeah, if he doesn't get injured, like
Anthony Davis, if he doesn't get injured, like he's a
camp miss player. Miles Garrett coming out can't miss player,
it's rare in golf, But like that is Ledvig. He's
just a can't miss player. And he's been on the
tour for like less than two years. He came on
(32:25):
in the summer of twenty twenty three, so his first
season on the PGA Tour was in twenty twenty four. Now,
like I just said, because of live, these fields aren't
as deep, right, even random guys like Carlos Ortiz or
you know, Jaukee Neeman's really really good and when they reunify,
he'll be one of the better young players on the
(32:46):
PGA Tour. But DJ's kind of mailed it in. But
you know, the Brooks, the ROMs, you just go through
all these guys that would just add to a field,
make it harder to to not just win top tens,
top twenties, make cuts. In his first first full season
on the PGA Tour, he played twenty events, he made
eighteen cuts, and of those eighteen cuts, eight of them
(33:08):
he finished in the top ten, and eight of those
top tens, five of those were in the top five.
So his first full season on tour, especially the first
half of the year, never having played some of these courses,
it's like, holy shit. And you watch him early on
in this season, you know, he's four for four. Now,
granted the century he didn't have a cut and a
(33:29):
smaller field, but he finished fifth. But you watch him
the other day. Honestly, a couple weeks ago when they
were at the when it was just the Regula Tory
Pines tournament, he was winning and then he got Listen,
I've been sick twice in the last three months. He
just got like he started puking on the course. You
can't convince me if he just had been healthy. I
(33:50):
don't know if he wins, but he's a lock two
or three. And that's the thing with him. It's like,
you know, hoblind came on the scene. It was like
this guy is going to dominate, and it turns out
like he just tinkers. I do that a lot, Like
I've changed my grip, I changed my swing path. I'm
just constantly thinking of like different arm angles. Sometimes I
play well, sometimes I don't, but I can never stop
really tinkering. What's his name? Hank Haney wrote about it
(34:12):
in his book about Tiger. Tiger was a sneaky, big
tinker and sometimes you had to get him back on path. Ludvig,
there's nothing even a tinker with. His swing's just pretty
like a to B two C and it's just straight
and long. His putting is not I wouldn't call him
Steve Stricker, but holy shit, when you hit that close
all the time, you're not gonna miss. So I'm just
watching the guy I go. I had. I took a
(34:34):
thousand dollars. I had one thousand dollars in my account.
I just spread it around on Tory Pines and I
hit one of like five bets. So I placed like
four or two hundred fift dollars bets, and I put
two hundred dollars on Tony feen Out to finish in
the top five, and I got kind of lucky. He
birdied seventeen. Then he birdied eighteen to finish tied for fifth.
So I turned one thousand dollars into fifteen hundred, so
(34:55):
I made five hundred bucks. And I immediately put one
thousand dollars on Ludwig two win the Players. Last year
was the first time he'd ever been in the Players.
He finished eighth, which the Players also because of live
is not as good of a field. And I also
put five hundred dollars on him to win the Masters,
where last year he finished second in the first he's
(35:16):
played in four majors. Because last year was the first
year he's ever played majors. He finished second at Augusta.
He missed a couple of cuts, and he also finished
t twelve at the Open. Like I think he's a
lock this year to finish at minimum. I would say
top five in one of the majors. I'd be shocked.
If he doesn't have multiple top tens. Can he win it?
It's hard to win majors, but he feels like a lock,
(35:39):
Like I don't think he's done winning this year, and
last year he had a knee injury. This year he's
been sick. If he's healthy, which right now he clearly is.
Like who's better than him? Scotti Schafflin, Okay, who's on
one of the great runs of all time? Roy McElroy,
who has found like the second iteration of his prime
Xander who has like a rib injury. Okay, I'll give
(36:01):
you that. You know, Bryce in his world rankings a
little off because he plays on LIV but obviously one
of the best players and one of the most unique
talents we've ever seen. Okay, I would say John Robb
but ever since he went to Livy finally fell off
a cliff. But when Rom's right, like that's the crew
he's with, Like that's his crew, that's who he's rolling with.
Like j T can't hold this guy's jock. Jordan Speith
(36:23):
would die to be this good. Even good American players
like Tony Feenow and Wyndham Clark, none of them are
this good. So I think I say it all the time,
like I watch sports for the best players and the
two sports which obviously I watched the most.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Are football in golf.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
I love golf, and I fell in love in golf
not just because I played it, because watching Tiger Woods play.
I fell in love with football, like growing up watching
Steve Young, watching Troy Aikman, watching Barry Sanders, you know,
Brett Fahr to Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. And that's
like what I love about Levick. That's why I love
about the NFL drafts, Like Abdul Carter, it feels like,
if he stays healthy, he's going to be an elite
(37:02):
NFL player. Like that, what he does translates, and that's
what I feel about Ludvig. And we're already seeing it
happen last but not least before we get into Uh,
we're gonna do it at golo Pod, at Golopod Mailbag.
We're gonna do it every week, So fire into those
dms to get your questions answered here on the show.
I did want to hit my Mexico Open, which I've
(37:23):
hit a decent amount of just outrights over my couple
of year PJ Tour gambling career. One of them was
last year Jake Napp I think he was like thirty
to one. Maybe I bet fifty bucks. I think got
won fifteen hundred. Maybe I won two thousand, and I'd
have to go back and look. But I hit him
and he's been playing really well. So this is one
of those tournaments that listen, nobody's playing in the betting
(37:47):
favorite is ax Sha Batilla. Uh so, who's good player.
But you know we have former winners like Tony Fenaw
and John Rahm.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
Obviously neither is.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
In this field, but a part then I'm gonna do
a top twenty parlay will be Jake Knapp, who's defending
champion and playing well. He just top twenty did at
I think he finished well at the Waste Management too,
but he just played well at Tory, which.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
His hometown of San Diego.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Kid Bo Hostler, who always plays well early in the season,
and Mike thor Bornson who just goes as Thor. He
was supposed to be the Ludwig of last year. He
was like the number one guy coming out of college.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
And now they have this thing.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Called PGA Tour you that if you're like essentially the
number one guy when your college season ends in like
the late springtime, you get a free membership to the
PGA Tour. That's what happened to Ludvig, and that's what
happened to Thor. Now he is not playing well, but
this is a resort course, like this would be a
fun course for me and you to play. This guy
(38:50):
is really, really long. I think I watched him play
a couple of years ago with with Horvat on YouTube.
He's just, he's just, He's got a lot of talent.
So I'm throwing him in there. I think it's almost,
you know, one hundred bucks, Thatt, You're like nineteen hundred dollars,
so that I'm gonna play this nap Hostler and Thor
Burns and so might be saying his name right, but
(39:10):
big fan of the guy.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
He's a beast.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
At Golo Pod. At Golo Pod, I'm gonna start using
that Instagram more. Definitely use it every week for the podcast.
Question for the pod, but probably more go low related.
How can a company like NBC not provide shot tracking
on every shot? Watching the Genesis now and female gets
a shot track, but Ludwig, who likely is about to win,
(39:48):
doesn't get one. I don't get it. When I went
to I went to waste management on Friday and walked
around to like three or four holes and behind every
hole on the tea box was the track man. And
that week, you know, CBS had the waste management, though
(40:10):
the Golf Channel usually, I would say every tournament beside
Majors gets a big part of Thursday and Friday coverage
and on the Golf channel. You know, golf channels owned
by NBC. And one thing with NBC, with the changing
landscape of television, they have cut a lot of costs
and clearly the the shot tracers and everything involved when
(40:35):
that create, you know, is expensive. I think it has
to do with just cutting cutting, and as someone who's
shot a golf video last couple of last year and
had a guy edit it, it is difficult to add
those So there are gonna be times when you just
miss it. But there are also times when you're watching
it's like, I don't even think they have the option here,
(40:57):
How's that possible? So I think it's just they're cheap,
they're cutting costs, but it is difficult to watch pros
play without the shot tracer. Uh, same thing. This weekend's
Golf telecast was much improved with swing metrics and shot
tracing graphics golf porn for US golf nerds. The lack
(41:20):
of consistent swing metrics graphics in weekly telecasts annoys me.
They are capturing a lot of the swing data via
the track Man launch monitors. Include more of this in
the podcast.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
I Hear You Man, I hear you see if I
can find.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Okay love the two pods. Also side note, I just
got married this past August. Congratulations This from Tyler. With
this year being a Ryder Cup year, I'm curious to
know who you would pick for top twelve Ryder Cup
starters this weekend. Obviously a lot will change, and you
(42:00):
don't know who the automatic qualifiers will be at this point,
but you would love to hear your team. Well, the
European team looks pretty good.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
You know.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
If Rom finds form and Hoveland finds form, the top
of their team is stacked. You got Rory, you got Rom,
you got Ludwig, you got Hoveland, and you got Hatton
and you got Fleetwood and Shane Lowry. So I mean,
you know, the bottom of their team can be a
little hit or miss, but the top of their team
(42:29):
is every bit as good as ours.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
So it is.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
It's clearly very difficult to win on foreign soil, so
at it being it played in New York with Kegan Bradley,
plays is gonna be nuts, but their team is gonna
be really, really good. And although obviously you know Bethpage
is a long golf course, Rory long skin tour, rom
super deep, Ludwig, I mean right behind Rory, I mean
(42:56):
their top players, hovelind Win, He's right bombs it. I
think it's really easy to pick our top six right now.
It's scottis Scheffler, It's Xander Schaffle, it is Colin Morikawa,
you know, well off to see with Patrick can't lay,
you know. And I would say Justin Thomas is definitely
(43:17):
rounding in the form, so I got no issue with him.
I'm probably I'm trying to do this off the top
of my head, so if I'm missing someone that is
is a lock, Scotty, Xander Morikawa, Bryson. I think Bryson
is a lock Kepka depending on form, but I have
no problem having Kepka like basically a lock. Then I
(43:39):
think there are just a lot of questions with the
you know what speace risk situation.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
You know, can't lay, like I said, is probably on
the team.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Justin Thomas is definitely on the team, and then there's
just kind of that next group of guys. You know,
Homa is in the wilderness right now. You know, Wyndam
Clark is actually showing some signs of life.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
You know, Kegan.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Bradley is actually played pretty well.
Speaker 3 (44:01):
Now.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
He's the captain and he said he'll only pick himself
if he doesn't have to pick himself. He's automatic qualifier.
So I don't know, we just got to see how
this year goes. But some of these guys winning these
tournaments like D three as a euro A decies not
even available, you know, Rory European. I'm interested to hear
your thoughts on the TGL. Obviously, Tiger did not provide
(44:24):
the jews everyone is looking for, but I think it
generally has a place. I play simulator golf here in Baltimore.
The leagues are full and highly competitive, so this isn't
a crazy new thing, which is how the golf purists
are talking about it. With a couple simple tweaks, I
think it could be legit. Here are my ideas. Get
a real golf booth, the idea that players themselves can
(44:46):
be the color commentators is ridiculous and obviously doesn't work.
You can catch them on hot mics like other sports,
and huddles on sidelines, but have someone sitting there discussing
the strategy. Phil would be perfect, but that's a pipe.
The hammer switches every three holes. Even if it isn't used.
This would help a team crawl back, keeps a team
with a lead from just running out the clock no timeouts.
(45:10):
Icing just doesn't work.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
The point I haven't.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Really watched that much the last After the first couple
of matches, I think you're taking it a little too seriously,
and maybe I'm wrong, but I think it's less about
who's winning and losing, you know who's Obviously there have
been some cool moments, but I don't think it's about
(45:35):
like who won this year's TGL, Who who was able to,
you know, win playoff games in the TGL. I think
it's more about is it really entertaining? The best part
about the TGL, and I honestly don't even think is
that close is the technology? So watching guys hit shots
(45:57):
into this enormous screen like it's cool. I think it's
just an entertainment product. It should just be an easy watch.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
And maybe I'm wrong. That's my opinion.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
It's less about the competitiveness, though some fun competitive moments
are cool. I saw was it Fleetwood? I think they
had like four of them on Monday on President's Day.
Fleetwood hit this crazy putt to win a hole and
they went nuts.
Speaker 3 (46:24):
It was cool. Matt Ryan was there with Arthur Blank.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
We've seen Kisner skull, a sand shot that hit the
pin that Tiger started like peeing his pants laughing. I
think you need a mix of both. But I think
competitiveness like it's Sunday at a PJ golf tournament, I
don't think that's the answer. I don't know how you
balance the entertainment standpoint of the players talking and the broadcast.
(46:53):
You know, listen, before Phil went to Live, it felt
like he was in line to be I don't know,
the next Johnny Miller, the next just all time great broadcaster,
and he chose that life and he didn't want it.
Speaker 3 (47:15):
So I think that.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
It's kind of sad that he disappeared from our life
from as golf lovers, because he could have played a huge,
huge role doing that. Got to hear your take on
the Bryson D. Chambeau Donald Trump video most watched YouTube video.
I don't even think I watched it. I saw clips online.
I'm not like a loyal Bryson watcher, like I don't
(47:42):
miss like Bob does sports post something, I'm gonna watch it.
I would say the Brian Bros. Depending on where they're playing.
I watch a lot of those. The Bryson. I think
he's really entertaining. But I've watched him with Romo, I've
watched him with Brady. I like Trump's, you know, kind
(48:02):
of in to over the top, kind of like push
cut thing he's got going on. People say I kind
of putt like him, kind of stabby, but listen Bryson.
Bryson's a rocket ship and what he's done and utilize
this modern technology. Obviously he's boys with Donald and it
was perfectly timed right before the election. But like he
(48:25):
puts stuff up, they go. He does big, big numbers
for a reason. Like he's he's fun to watch, and
I think he's he's I think he's like the modern
day Phil. What Phil kind of was three social media
and everything just from an entertainment standpoint, that's kind of
what Bryson has turned into, which is good for the sport.
(48:46):
You know, historically, basketball, baseball, football, they have been full
of these guys. You know, one thing I saw someone
on social media say that one big issue right now
that basketball is having is their players. You know, the
younger players like no personalities. It's kind of a personality
less sport. And I think golf sometimes can become that,
(49:09):
and it's really really important that you have big personalities
and from an individual standpoint, you need the individuals to
kind of separate themselves. And Bryson has done that and
through YouTube. Obviously he's a great player, and he won
the US Open in pretty historic fashion with that bunker
shot at Pinehurst. But I think YouTube no one has
(49:32):
utilized it more as a professional. You know, when you
think about some of these guys like Draymond had a
podcast kind of you know, it was huge. See some
of these other guys start podcasts. You know, Bryson did
his version of that on just playing golf. He's like
playing some random course in Texas. He goes to, like
the guy, what's the course record? The guy will be
like sixty three, and Bryson will try to break it.
(49:54):
Fucking genius.
Speaker 3 (49:55):
I mean, it really is.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
Anyone could do it. Anyone could do it. And look
at the two guys like now or Bad as partners
with Phil. Phil's don't dummy like Phil sees it. And
Phil's got a big personality like he's Taylor made for
part of you know, to hold a YouTube video and
to be successful, like you're gonna have to have a
big personality to do it. So Big Brison fan, If
(50:17):
Full Swing in Netflix offered you a role to narrate
the show, would you accept? The journalists that narrated season
one and two are good.
Speaker 3 (50:26):
But I think you'd do great.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
I mean, come on, of course I follow the guy
forget his name, the producer. The thing the Netflix show
doesn't really do it for me. I've I've probably watched
the first two season a total of if they're eight
so sixteen, probably five or six total. Kind of bores
(50:48):
me a little bit, which I appreciate. Like them, it's
hard to do. Gosh's just not that interesting, you know,
It's just it's really some of these guys just.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
Aren't that interesting.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
But I would do it in a heartbeat, for sure. I'm glad.
The one thing that's cool about Netflix, it's kind of
like YouTube with golf. It's really been good for some
sports that you know, like the NFL doesn't need it,
but golf f one for us in America. It's a
(51:21):
great way to have casual people that like competition and
like stars and like you know, good drama and stories.
It's a great way to get in front of their eyes.
And the Netflix thing to me has been by far
just a net positive. Okay, that is a go low
episode one twenty five in the books, and we'll keep
(51:45):
them coming. So I will talk to everyone soon on
a football podcast, probably what days today according to this
for Wednesday, for Thursday, and we'll be back swinging. But
enjoy the week. Like I said, I got, I got
Nap Mostler and thorpe Bournson I can't really say his name,
but Michael Stanford kid this week Top twenties. It's hard
(52:09):
to pick a winner just in these fields are so
random in the resort course, don't feel comfortable. Even top
tens are kind of difficult. But enjoy the week and
we will talk soon.
Speaker 3 (52:22):
The volume
The volume. What is going on everybody? The long awaited
return of the Go Low podcast. It's hard to mix
(00:26):
in golf talk when football is going on. I know
where my bread is buttered and where the most people listen.
But I love the PGA Tour. I love golf in general,
whether it's playing it, gambling on it, talking about it.
And I haven't touched the club in like two months.
(00:46):
I think I might go hit balls either today or tomorrow.
Playing this Friday. So where I live it's starting to
get sunny again and golf season is in full swing.
I've watched a lot of golf so far this early
on in the season, so I am excited to talk
about it. Here's the drill will be once a week
(01:06):
obviously this one. I just have some big picture thoughts
on the state of the game, what happened last week
and uh with Ledwig winning, as well as just a
couple other little tidbits here and there.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
But overall, my hope is from a podcast standpoint to
this year, get some guys on the podcast, whether it
be people in the business.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Uh, I know some people that work with apparel industries
that represent golf. Uh, you know people on the PGA
tour players potentially caddies. I saw Brandal Shamblee today at
the gym, seeing him a bunch, and I talked to him.
I got a bunch of you know, from Bones, Phil's
old caddy caddy for J T. Jeff Ogilvie. I see
these guys. It's gotta gotta be a salesman when we're
(01:52):
you know, mid sweat, and UH find a way to
pitch them to come on the show. Which you know,
Branda was really really cool. Uh. We talked to Little Ludwig.
So yeah, our hope is to expand this operation as
well as shoot a bunch of golf videos this this year.
And I already got Dontrell Willis, the lefty from the
(02:16):
Florida Marlins, who actually lives right down the street from me.
We uh, hopefully you're gonna do that sometime soon. I
got to hit him up. I know he's been traveling,
but to just play with some people, maybe play with
some pros, play with some athletes, play with just I've
done it with myself for the YouTube channel. So that
that's kind of the game plan. Very fluid. I mean,
(02:37):
we can, we can pivot at any moment. But I
love golf. I say it all the time. I like golf.
My relationship with golf is so much different than football
because I don't tackle anybody right. I'm not, you know,
kicking out the defensive end where I used to play
right guard in the wing t offense for the Davis
Hye Blue Devils. But I play golf and it's the
(02:59):
one sport which I think which is awesome to see
its explosion and its interest. I guess we could just
start there. I think I feel a lot like when
I hear people that cover the NBA that discuss their sport,
whose ratings are plummeting over the course of the last
i don't know, six seven years and are not doing
(03:23):
very well right now, yet all these people still watch
it and love it. Like you don't hear Brian Windhorst
or Bill Simmons go just because other people are watching,
I'm not gonna watch. And I feel that way about golf,
like I love watching PGA golf. I love watching pros
play at Torrey Pines at riv the players coming up
(03:45):
obviously the majors, but I will watch the Mexico Open.
I also like to gamble on it. But like I'm
in the business of talking about things that are popular,
talking about things that are entertaining to the masses, and
I'm not an idiot. Like, overall, the sport from the
professional level is in a really, really bad spot and
(04:08):
it sucks right Yet the game itself, more people in
twenty twenty five are playing golf than have ever played
the sport, and it's not even close. The popularity of
YouTube golf is just growing exponentially by the month. I
am a consumer of that. It's why I wanted to
(04:29):
get into the business of doing it myself. I love
Bob does sports. They can't produce a video and I
can't watch it fast enough. I mean, I consume all
their shit. I watch Grant play all these guys Grant
and I have a lot of admiration for the business
that these guys have built. I don't really watch that
much good good stuff, but I have nothing but respect
(04:50):
for everything that they have done. I've watched a lot
of the Brian Bros. Like, what Bryson has done is incredible.
It is awesome to watch his I've watched him play
with Tony Roma, I've watched him play with Tom Brady.
He's just I've watched him try to break, you know,
the course record at random Muni's around Texas or in Florida.
(05:13):
He's just really good. He's just very, very entertaining. In
the state of golf on the Internet from that standpoint
of quote unquote YouTube golf and these creators is its
own little world. And these guys, obviously Bryson, but you
remove him, these people, you know, starting with I mean,
we have salespeople at the volume that used to work
(05:35):
at Barstool, Like the deal and the money that they
make Taylor Made is pretty crazy. A couple of years ago,
when I was playing at mesa country club with some
people in the golfing business, one of them works for
Taylor Made, and he was saying the amount of money
and product that they push is stupid.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
And you have.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Seen these companies get in bed with Barstool Sports, with
Grant Horvat, with with Bob Does Sports, and it has
been a lucrative proposition for them, you know, in terms
of are they better off going with them or like
Dan Patrick? And I'm pro Dan Patrick, but I know
who I'd want to be in business with. So the
(06:15):
popularity of the sport at the casual recreational level is
absolutely booming. I mean I live probably ten less than
ten minutes away from TPC Scottsdale where they just hosted
the waste management I'm probably a five minute walk of
two minute drive to Greyhawk and probably fifteen to twenty
(06:39):
minutes away from True North, which I would consider those
three the three most popular and definitely probably the most famous.
I mean, you could argue Quintero or Weikapa. I mean
there are a couple other ones public courses in Arizona
which I would consider a hub, and honestly, in terms
(06:59):
of the West Coast, I'd say this in Florida are
the most popular golf destinations. And these places are charging
over five hundred dollars during the winter months when our
weather is seventy five degrees to play golf. And when
I first moved here, I complained about it all the time.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
I'm like, that is fucking insane.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
I'm not paying, after taxes, five hundred and seventy five
dollars to play Greyhawk. And then you would look at
the t sheet and it would be packed. Same thing
for Truon and obviously same thing for TPC. So it's
like I could complain about it, but that is not
only the going rate. People are paying constantly. It's why
it would force me to join TPC. And honestly, I've
looked into like private clubs around here. They are it's
(07:40):
insane how expensive it is. I mean the sweet country
clubs are well over five hundred grand. I would call
an average club around here is one hundred and fifty
to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. I mean where
I come from. When I joined a place in the
Bay Area which was pretty nice, Castlewood, my buy in
as a junior member was fifteen hundred dollars. The club
(08:00):
my brother's at in Davis, California, which is a nice
country club. I think the bidens like ten k. So
it is extremely expensive and people are paying. But you
couldn't charge these rates if people aren't willing to pay
to play golf or join your club. So the popularity
is insane. Yet the ratings when you watch pro golf
is not good, and it clearly leads leads back to
(08:22):
the live situation and then stealing the players paying for
the players to join their league. And I never blamed
any of them because anyone putting one hundred thousand dollars
one hundred and fifty or one hundred million dollars, one
hundred and fifty million dollars, two hundred million dollars in
front of your face. It's easy for everyone on the
outside to judge these individuals. I mean, if no one
cares anymore. But at the time, I probably would have
(08:45):
taken the money too, you know. Now it's been very
lucrative for the guys that stayed as well, especially the
top guys, because guys like Scotti and Ory have been
winning and finishing high the most, meaning they've made more
money over a tour that is losing.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
I mean, they don't.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
It doesn't pencil what they are paying these players, but
they had to up their purses to keep these guys
from leaving. So it's just completely all out of whack.
But the business model was always kind of fucked up. Right,
when I turn on the Bill's chiefs, I never have
to worry about Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes being like,
you know what, Mahomes just took this week off. He
(09:25):
just he just flew back to Dallas and he's just
are and are He's just hanging out with the fam.
He's just kicking it right, that happens all the time
in golf, and before Live it happened honestly, way too much.
You would turn on it's like, oh yeah, Tiger's taking
the next two weeks off. Oh yeah, DJ and Koepka
are playing this week. You're like, what, That's not how
any of these other sports operate. Now In the NBA,
(09:47):
guys just don't play, but they're supposed to. They just
you know, choose rest. I'm over And it's been a
huge problem for the NBA. Honestly, it's been a disaster
for their business model. Not necessarily they've actually made more
with TV rights, but the TV companies their revenue in
terms of what they can sell advertising because they're way
less people watching. It's a problem and I don't necessarily
(10:10):
know how golf fixes that because uh, it's just never
going to be a situation where I can't imagine when
this reunification happens. And listen Tiger Woods, whose mother just passed,
which it's kind of when you have someone as famous
as Tiger Woods, it feels like you know him way
(10:33):
better than you actually know him. But like part of
Tiger to at least me who grew up on him,
and I would say him and Michael Jordan are easily
my two favorite athletes of all time. I don't even
think there's a close third, and I think both of
them are going to go down as I would argue
probably two of the most famous, the two most famous
athletes of my life. I mean they were famous pre Internet.
(10:54):
When they're famous, like if you're are you Michael Jackson famous?
Are you like eighties Mike Tyson famous, be like to
Houston famous, or are you like Internet famous, Which doesn't
mean you can't profit and become a megastar, but it
was different, like the fame of Michael Jordan in the
nineties or Tiger Woods in the late nineties early two
thousands does feel a little bit different. And when you
(11:16):
talked about Tiger Woods, you always talked about his father, Earl,
who was just always around. But like if you follow
Tiger really closely and as he got older, listened to
him talk like his mother played a massive role in
his life. And honestly, you know Earl, you know Tiger
got somethings running around from pops, like his mom was
(11:37):
extremely serious. And Tiger mentioned this when he was sitting
with Jim Nantz, like she was on my ass about
academics and getting good grades. And honestly, as Tiger became
a star started making a lot of money, a huge
part of his foundation is giving back to education to
young people. It's huge interwoven into his life. And when
(11:59):
you think about Tiger Woods, to me, the number one
thing you think about that defines like the Tiger Woods experience,
like the talent that it's like the insane discipline and
all these players over the years about how he's in
the gym earlier than them. Uh, just he's just a
workout fiend. He's a practice fiend. I mean, he's just maniacal.
(12:19):
And unlike Michael who listen, I can relate to more,
you know, drinker, smoker, gambler. Not saying Tiger doesn't participate
in those, but you know, you watch Michael as he's
gotten older, like kind of got big. You know, you
watch Tiger, it looks like he's still in the gym
multiple hours a day. And Michael, if he had been
injured like Tiger, I mean, he'd probably be fearm pounds.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
You know.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Tiger's will to just grind, and I do think he
gets that from his mother, and you know when she
passed away was now two weeks ago. I think it
was pretty jolting because or jarring because just a couple
of weeks ago at the TGL, the thing that they
him and Rory created for ESPN, she was just there like, look,
(13:03):
you know, my mom's in her mid seventies, just looked
like a normal older lady, sitting with Charlie and kind
of the Woods crew, and then all of a sudden,
she's dead. So when Tiger had to pull out of
his own tournament last week, just like it's too soon, listen,
we don't know, and Tiger can be very secretive about stuff,
and I don't blame him in terms of this situation,
(13:25):
but I do think it's fair to assume, like, was
it a little out of the blue because no one
had that vibe when she was there, kind of like
making fun of him when Tiger was sucking it up
on TGL. But you know, speaking to Tiger, I think
one of the issues I have with the big picture
of the sport and this quote unquote bringing everyone back together,
(13:47):
which feels inevitable. I mean, obviously live they had a
television product that had twelve thousand people watching. Now it
was tape delayed, and they finally did a deal with Fox,
but still they had an event where twelve thousand people watched.
It is not going that well, not in the not
from the player standpoint. They are making historic amount of money,
(14:08):
not just with signing bonuses. But Joaquin Neeman, who went
over there a couple of years ago, has already made
forty five million dollars on Live. I mean, Taylor Gooch
I think is well over forty the money. I mean,
it changed people's lives, you know, Paparez made. Paparez made
more money in three years playing on Live than he
ever did in the PGA Tour for twenty plus years.
(14:29):
So we speak of Dustin Johnson and Phil and Bryson
and Keepka and these guys that got you know, NBA,
NFL level contracts. But some of these guys that just
got five or ten million to go and then had
some success and won some tournaments and just finished some
top tens. They printed cash there. But the only reason
he disrupted this is because he wanted a part of
the PGA Tour and the PJ Tour wouldn't listen to him.
(14:52):
And now once they were forced to, they kind of
created this role for Tiger who, let's face it feels
he's acting like I don't know, I don't know if
he's quite the CEO, but he's like a board member
and someone that has a lot of pull in this situation.
And I've been saying this all season long about Tom Brady.
(15:13):
I respect the shit out of Tom Brady. I admire
everything he stands for in terms of how much he
how driven he was, how much effort he put in.
Obviously from a competitive standpoint, clearly how great he was
on the field, but all the intangible stuff made him
the greatest player of all time and one of the
most famous athletes in the history of American sports. But
(15:33):
then you put him on television. I was not shocked.
He wasn't good. Like, how would Tom Brady know what
good television is?
Speaker 3 (15:41):
Like?
Speaker 1 (15:42):
How could he compete against me and you to like
entertain us. I've been consuming for thirty five plus years.
I'm a consumer. Tom's a player, and for twenty five
plus years college and pro, he played on Saturdays and Sundays.
I'm not saying he didn't watch football and off days
or whatever, but he didn't look at it from our perspective.
(16:04):
He doesn't know what's entertaining. And I think about that
from the Tiger Woods perspective. Tiger Woods knows if his
body's healthy, how to dominate and how to practice, how
to prepare for a tournament, how to compete in that tournament,
how if he has a chance to win, how to
close out that tournament. You could argue there's no one
that's ever been better. Only Jack could even have a
(16:25):
conversation about a guy that can, you know, won as
many majors. But just in terms of pure dominance, it's incredible.
But Tiger Woods is kind of like Michael Jordan. They're
so famous, they're so big, they kind of live in
a different world than all of us. And the product
just isn't that great on television. And I understand NBC,
(16:46):
it takes a lot of shit. They don't take it
as seriously. Let's say, is Sunday Night Football, Well, of
course they don't. The NFL makes them a lot more
money and more people watch, so you take things more seriously,
especially in business that I view more revenue. Very understandable,
but like, how does Tiger Woods know what is a
(17:06):
good golf tournament? And not in terms of an entertainment standpoint?
He knows a good course setup, what a good field
will look like. Yeah, I mean I could tell you
what a good field will look like, but just in
terms of the entertainment standpoint, so you could bring all
these guys back together. Is it going to change anything?
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Now?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
I've always defended golf coverage, which takes a lot of
shit in the golf ecosystem of people that talk about
the sport. It is not like football, right where when
someone's playing, you watch, and when there's a break, a timeout,
change a quarter, you just go to commercial golf. I
(17:44):
mean a tournament even Saturday and Sunday after a cut,
you have people all over the course. You have people
hitting shots consistently at the same time, guys that are leading,
guys that are behind, guys that are chasing. Like it
is impossible to show everything. It literally is. And when
you pay more money than something is worth, the only
(18:06):
way to make that even close to pencil is to
force an ads. And when you watch golf tournaments, there
are just more ads than any other sporting event you
will ever watch. There's not like that in basketball. It's
not like that in baseball. It's not like that in football.
But there are specific ins and outs of the action,
(18:28):
and that's just not true in golf. So I do
think it's you're never gonna get a perfect situation of like, oh,
you just satiated all of our appetites. You showed every
shot I wanted to see. I saw a couple guys
on the cut line Friday, I saw everyone in the
mix because a lot of times you'll be like, wait,
that guy just finished third. I watched the entire round Sunday,
(18:49):
and I didn't see him hit a shot happens all
the time, you would never go you know what, Ceedee
Lamb had seven catches. I only saw two of them, right,
That just would not happen. And I think you have
all these guys that play the sport for a living,
and who are I mean Tiger's It's like he can't
even relate to the good golfers on the PGA too,
(19:11):
even the guys that are involved in it. How do
they have any comprehension of what entertains us? Besides just
they're playing like Tiger playing entertains me, but just in
terms of what a good broadcast, how getting the business
back together? How like what happens with cuts? No cuts?
They got no clue. I mean, they really don't. And
(19:31):
I appreciate all these guys that have written letters, justin
Thomas Max Homa has been really aggressive trying to, you know,
just help out the broadcast partners. But I just think
there's a lot of trial and error going on. At
the end of the day. The most important thing in
a sport that is niche that this is not. It's
(19:53):
never gonna be a top two or three sport in America,
even though more people, especially if they continue to play,
will actually the sport then watch the sport. And though
in theory, like in basketball, baseball, and football, why they
have been big my whole life is because most young
boys at one point in time probably play little league,
(20:14):
probably play on a basketball team. Even a large percentage
of people just play high school football. Even if you
don't actually play, you're just on the team. So if
that continues to grow, having your product be good is
really important because these people will watch. And I just
think that there's also a big part of this story.
(20:37):
And I saw Adam Scott had a comment of like,
there will be bitterness when these guys return, and it's
why Rory McElroy is taking a lot of shit because
he's basically changed his tune saying, listen, it happened, it's over.
We got to welcome these guys back, and people like
Adam Scott and I'm just gonna I'm not saying all
(20:57):
these individuals fall into this category. Jordan Speek, Justin Thomas
just named famous guys. Tony Fenow could have made fifty
one hundred hundred and fifty million dollars if they would
have left three or four years ago, but they chose
not to. Like, I'm sorry, that was your choice. You
made a decision to stay. So you're being bitter that
whoever went and got one hundred million dollars got one
(21:20):
hundred and fifty million dollars. They took the risk. That's
kind of what business is all about. I mean, a
huge reason a large percentage of rich people that did
not inherit their money are rich is because they took
massive risks at one point in time in their life.
And while it worked out, there has been a large
percentage of people did not get to that point because
(21:41):
their risk failed. And luckily for these guys like they
still ended up making a lot of money. So I
don't want to hear like, yeah, we're bitter, we're pissed off.
No one gives a fuck, No one cares at this
point in time. You decided to stay, and I commend
you for that. That was your decision. You stood on
whatever more stance you had, whatever belief you had in
(22:02):
the tour, and I got no problem with that. But
I never had a problem with the guy leaving. And
if you want your business to continue, which is the
only thing that should matter, you just gotta let these
guys back like you're not finding them, you're not making
them work their way back. I'm sorry. They played their hand.
You played your hand and we got a result. And
now if these guys are gonna come back together, like
(22:24):
the bitterness and listen, I don't blame anyone for quote
unquote being bitter or mad, but to think that they
should be fined or like if Bryson D. Chambeau wants
to just come back and play fifteen events, I'm sorry
he's playing fifteen events. If Brooks Keepka goes, hey, I'm
not gonna play fifteen events, but I'll play seven Brooks.
(22:44):
Come on in, buddy, John Rahm, what do you want
to play? You pick your schedule. Welcome to play wherever
you want. You need those guys, and that's where we're
at because you know, tennis, forever, I would say, has
had less guys at the top than golf. It's had
usually two or three, and for the most part, you
get very lucky. There's so much better than everyone else.
(23:07):
It felt like ninety percent of the tournaments with Federer,
with Djokovic, with Nadal, it happened with Agasy and Sampris forever,
that they're just gonna be in at minimum the final
four of every Grand Slam, in every major tournament. Golf's
a little more random, like you can just have a
shitty Thursday and I'll not make the cut. But you
are very, very dependent, like Tiger's done now, like he's
(23:27):
never coming back and playing like that. Those days are over.
He might play a tournament here, tournament there, but his
impact as a player is over.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Like it's done.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
So you need and the tour has been lucky. Scottis
Scheffler's gone on like a two year historic run. Rory
McElroy has played some of the best golf of his
career over the last couple of years. Ludvig has thrown
his hat in the ring of like, yeah, I'm pretty sweet.
So you've had one of the most famous great players
of all time in Rory the Shooting Star had a
(24:00):
season that paralleled like Tiger Woods, and this young guy
who looks like a model who just plays like perfect
golf just kind of hit the scene because if you
just would have had some randomness like Jordan Speace's risk
doesn't work. Justin Thomas wasn't very good last year. Max
Homa fell off a cliff. So it's like, you got
a lot of guys like I love Adeki, but I
(24:22):
don't know if Adeci can just carry your sport. So
you need you got two or three guys who are
just rockstar, superstar Hall of famers who are playing elite golf.
You need to bring Bryson Brooks and John ronback and
then like unlike some of these other individual sports, you
can have random players win golf tournaments like that can
(24:43):
be really exciting. It's like John Middlecoff just took down
Rory McElroy. That happened forever, like guys beating Tiger and
Phil or Jack and Arnie or Nick Faldo or Greg Norman.
But you need those guys there as well, And that's
part of the problem. Sometimes you turn on these tournaments
and I'm not count this week, but the fields are
shitting now. And Rory and Scottie have really taken advantage
(25:06):
of the last couple of years. I mean, Scotti Scheffler
made on the course over sixty million dollars last year,
Xander Schoffley won multiple majors, almost made thirty million dollars
on the course. I mean, these guys are getting paid
like Ceedee lamb Right or T J. Watt, Scotti, Scheffer's
getting paid like he's Lebron James Luka Dancic, like it's
(25:27):
this is so it's like, yeah, you turn down some
money staying, but you've profited the top guys Xander, Rory
and Scotty they have printed money. But I just I'm
nervous about whatever this thing's gonna look like, how this
is gonna go. I think anytime you have these big egos,
super rich guys, you know, in an individual sport unlike football,
(25:51):
like football guys are I told Colin this a couple
of weeks ago. Football players are used to getting yelled at,
You're used to being humbled. You're just this isn't like
everyone's kissing your ass twenty four to seven. If you're
a good player, you are you are pushed or I
would say criticized, might be strong, but held accountable on
(26:13):
a weekly basis when you walk into the building by
a position coach, by a coordinator, by the head coach,
then of course by the media, by your teammates. Like
it's just an intense environment. Sometimes it's a golfer. It's like,
no one's telling me shit. I mean, what was the
last time someone you know really said something to Tiger.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
That made him uncomfortable?
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Doesn't happen a lot. It hasn't happened a lot. It
hasn't happened for twenty five years. Where you know Mahomes
and he's probably already given him ten pointers after the
Super Bowl of things that we could have done better.
And I just it's gonna be interesting how this all
shakes out.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
And I'm not that confident.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
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Speaker 1 (28:31):
Now on the bright side, I mentioned this earlier, but
I see this. I've seen him at the gym probably
like six or seven times. I am a huge Brandal
Chambly fan, and I think what I love about an
analyst is you can be twofold. You can be the
John Madden John Gruden, you could be kind of like
(28:52):
an uplifting entertainer. Now, if you watch John Madden and
John Gruden, they weren't shitting on that many guys. They
were more just entertainers. And then you get like Troy Aikman,
who you watch Troy post like the Romo entrance into
that world. Troy's stepped up his game and I would
say he, by four of all the top cats, is
(29:15):
the most critical and he will just blast coordinators, coaches, players.
He will just let which which is my style. I like,
I'm a John Madden Gruden guy. Those guys entertain me.
But I do like when you see something obviousespecially when
I'm gambling on it, for you just to let it rip.
And I think Brandle's great at that. He just he
will be very critical, where I think a lot of
people in this business are just scared to be and
(29:38):
he's he doesn't apologize for it, and I don't agree
with everything he says, but he is I think he's
elite at his job, elite. And I've seen him at
the gym sometimes, like I gotta say something to him,
and I'm just soaked in sweat on the StairMaster, trying
to be less fat, and he walks by a couple times,
and eventually I just kind of say something about Ludwig's
swing and he stops and we talk for a minute,
(30:00):
and he was just like, because I essentially said, I'm
gonna go to the driving range the next couple days
and try to emulate whatever that guy's doing, He's like,
good luck. He's like, if you figure it out, hit
me up. And I think sometimes when you see a
young player, you just know it right away.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
You're like, I.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
Don't know if I've ever seen anything quite like that.
I remember in his first year watching Shoho Tane hit
a double, and I remember when he turned first and
started going to second, and I was like, this guy's
running faster than every player in the big leagues. I
didn't realize he was six or five and could run
(30:39):
like a deer, and he hits bombs and he pitches.
Remember the first year once they traded Alex Smith and
Mahomes started. I think his first game of his career
was against the San Diego Chargers at the time, and
it was like, holy shit, is this Brett Favre reincarnated?
And you just know it right away. I think Ludvig
(31:00):
kind of falls under that category, and I think sometimes
you got to be careful in golf. It's such a
challenging game. You go through so many ebbs and flows.
Your swing can change as you get older, so it's
hard to make like definitive statements about guy's career. But
when you see a guy six three sixty four whose
(31:20):
swing looks exactly the same every time he takes it
back and pulls the trigger, who plays gets over a
shot and pulls the trigger within the blink of an
eye and hits the ball like Bryce and d Chambeau level,
deep and straight as an arrow, It's like, I just
don't see this guy failing. And I got a good
(31:41):
buddy that works at Adida's Golf who's a big part
of kind of their operation and was telling me about
this guy three years ago, and he's like, he's just
he's what you consider like an all time blue chipper.
And sometimes you see that in sports, like when a
Andrew Luck comes out looks like Cooper Flag. I don't
know if even he falls under that category, but just
like this is just a can't miss And I hate
(32:03):
that term in the NFL draft because there's no such thing.
But every once in a while, there are certain type
players that like, yeah, if he doesn't get injured, like
Anthony Davis, if he doesn't get injured, like he's a
camp miss player. Miles Garrett coming out can't miss player,
it's rare in golf, But like that is Ledvig. He's
just a can't miss player. And he's been on the
tour for like less than two years. He came on
(32:25):
in the summer of twenty twenty three, so his first
season on the PGA Tour was in twenty twenty four. Now,
like I just said, because of live, these fields aren't
as deep, right, even random guys like Carlos Ortiz or
you know, Jaukee Neeman's really really good and when they reunify,
he'll be one of the better young players on the
(32:46):
PGA Tour. But DJ's kind of mailed it in. But
you know, the Brooks, the ROMs, you just go through
all these guys that would just add to a field,
make it harder to to not just win top tens,
top twenties, make cuts. In his first first full season
on the PGA Tour, he played twenty events, he made
eighteen cuts, and of those eighteen cuts, eight of them
(33:08):
he finished in the top ten, and eight of those
top tens, five of those were in the top five.
So his first full season on tour, especially the first
half of the year, never having played some of these courses,
it's like, holy shit. And you watch him early on
in this season, you know, he's four for four. Now,
granted the century he didn't have a cut and a
(33:29):
smaller field, but he finished fifth. But you watch him
the other day. Honestly, a couple weeks ago when they
were at the when it was just the Regula Tory
Pines tournament, he was winning and then he got Listen,
I've been sick twice in the last three months. He
just got like he started puking on the course. You
can't convince me if he just had been healthy. I
(33:50):
don't know if he wins, but he's a lock two
or three. And that's the thing with him. It's like,
you know, hoblind came on the scene. It was like
this guy is going to dominate, and it turns out
like he just tinkers. I do that a lot, Like
I've changed my grip, I changed my swing path. I'm
just constantly thinking of like different arm angles. Sometimes I
play well, sometimes I don't, but I can never stop
really tinkering. What's his name? Hank Haney wrote about it
(34:12):
in his book about Tiger. Tiger was a sneaky, big
tinker and sometimes you had to get him back on path. Ludvig,
there's nothing even a tinker with. His swing's just pretty
like a to B two C and it's just straight
and long. His putting is not I wouldn't call him
Steve Stricker, but holy shit, when you hit that close
all the time, you're not gonna miss. So I'm just
watching the guy I go. I had. I took a
(34:34):
thousand dollars. I had one thousand dollars in my account.
I just spread it around on Tory Pines and I
hit one of like five bets. So I placed like
four or two hundred fift dollars bets, and I put
two hundred dollars on Tony feen Out to finish in
the top five, and I got kind of lucky. He
birdied seventeen. Then he birdied eighteen to finish tied for fifth.
So I turned one thousand dollars into fifteen hundred, so
(34:55):
I made five hundred bucks. And I immediately put one
thousand dollars on Ludwig two win the Players. Last year
was the first time he'd ever been in the Players.
He finished eighth, which the Players also because of live
is not as good of a field. And I also
put five hundred dollars on him to win the Masters,
where last year he finished second in the first he's
(35:16):
played in four majors. Because last year was the first
year he's ever played majors. He finished second at Augusta.
He missed a couple of cuts, and he also finished
t twelve at the Open. Like I think he's a
lock this year to finish at minimum. I would say
top five in one of the majors. I'd be shocked.
If he doesn't have multiple top tens. Can he win it?
It's hard to win majors, but he feels like a lock,
(35:39):
Like I don't think he's done winning this year, and
last year he had a knee injury. This year he's
been sick. If he's healthy, which right now he clearly is.
Like who's better than him? Scotti Schafflin, Okay, who's on
one of the great runs of all time? Roy McElroy,
who has found like the second iteration of his prime
Xander who has like a rib injury. Okay, I'll give
(36:01):
you that. You know, Bryce in his world rankings a
little off because he plays on LIV but obviously one
of the best players and one of the most unique
talents we've ever seen. Okay, I would say John Robb
but ever since he went to Livy finally fell off
a cliff. But when Rom's right, like that's the crew
he's with, Like that's his crew, that's who he's rolling with.
Like j T can't hold this guy's jock. Jordan Speith
(36:23):
would die to be this good. Even good American players
like Tony Feenow and Wyndham Clark, none of them are
this good. So I think I say it all the time,
like I watch sports for the best players and the
two sports which obviously I watched the most.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Are football in golf.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
I love golf, and I fell in love in golf
not just because I played it, because watching Tiger Woods play.
I fell in love with football, like growing up watching
Steve Young, watching Troy Aikman, watching Barry Sanders, you know,
Brett Fahr to Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. And that's
like what I love about Levick. That's why I love
about the NFL drafts, Like Abdul Carter, it feels like,
if he stays healthy, he's going to be an elite
(37:02):
NFL player. Like that, what he does translates, and that's
what I feel about Ludvig. And we're already seeing it
happen last but not least before we get into Uh,
we're gonna do it at golo Pod, at Golopod Mailbag.
We're gonna do it every week, So fire into those
dms to get your questions answered here on the show.
I did want to hit my Mexico Open, which I've
(37:23):
hit a decent amount of just outrights over my couple
of year PJ Tour gambling career. One of them was
last year Jake Napp I think he was like thirty
to one. Maybe I bet fifty bucks. I think got
won fifteen hundred. Maybe I won two thousand, and I'd
have to go back and look. But I hit him
and he's been playing really well. So this is one
of those tournaments that listen, nobody's playing in the betting
(37:47):
favorite is ax Sha Batilla. Uh so, who's good player.
But you know we have former winners like Tony Fenaw
and John Rahm.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
Obviously neither is.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
In this field, but a part then I'm gonna do
a top twenty parlay will be Jake Knapp, who's defending
champion and playing well. He just top twenty did at
I think he finished well at the Waste Management too,
but he just played well at Tory, which.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
His hometown of San Diego.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Kid Bo Hostler, who always plays well early in the season,
and Mike thor Bornson who just goes as Thor. He
was supposed to be the Ludwig of last year. He
was like the number one guy coming out of college.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
And now they have this thing.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
Called PGA Tour you that if you're like essentially the
number one guy when your college season ends in like
the late springtime, you get a free membership to the
PGA Tour. That's what happened to Ludvig, and that's what
happened to Thor. Now he is not playing well, but
this is a resort course, like this would be a
fun course for me and you to play. This guy
(38:50):
is really, really long. I think I watched him play
a couple of years ago with with Horvat on YouTube.
He's just, he's just, He's got a lot of talent.
So I'm throwing him in there. I think it's almost,
you know, one hundred bucks, Thatt, You're like nineteen hundred dollars,
so that I'm gonna play this nap Hostler and Thor
Burns and so might be saying his name right, but
(39:10):
big fan of the guy.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
He's a beast.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
At Golo Pod. At Golo Pod, I'm gonna start using
that Instagram more. Definitely use it every week for the podcast.
Question for the pod, but probably more go low related.
How can a company like NBC not provide shot tracking
on every shot? Watching the Genesis now and female gets
a shot track, but Ludwig, who likely is about to win,
(39:48):
doesn't get one. I don't get it. When I went
to I went to waste management on Friday and walked
around to like three or four holes and behind every
hole on the tea box was the track man. And
that week, you know, CBS had the waste management, though
(40:10):
the Golf Channel usually, I would say every tournament beside
Majors gets a big part of Thursday and Friday coverage
and on the Golf channel. You know, golf channels owned
by NBC. And one thing with NBC, with the changing
landscape of television, they have cut a lot of costs
and clearly the the shot tracers and everything involved when
(40:35):
that create, you know, is expensive. I think it has
to do with just cutting cutting, and as someone who's
shot a golf video last couple of last year and
had a guy edit it, it is difficult to add
those So there are gonna be times when you just
miss it. But there are also times when you're watching
it's like, I don't even think they have the option here,
(40:57):
How's that possible? So I think it's just they're cheap,
they're cutting costs, but it is difficult to watch pros
play without the shot tracer. Uh, same thing. This weekend's
Golf telecast was much improved with swing metrics and shot
tracing graphics golf porn for US golf nerds. The lack
(41:20):
of consistent swing metrics graphics in weekly telecasts annoys me.
They are capturing a lot of the swing data via
the track Man launch monitors. Include more of this in
the podcast.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
I Hear You Man, I hear you see if I
can find.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Okay love the two pods. Also side note, I just
got married this past August. Congratulations This from Tyler. With
this year being a Ryder Cup year, I'm curious to
know who you would pick for top twelve Ryder Cup
starters this weekend. Obviously a lot will change, and you
(42:00):
don't know who the automatic qualifiers will be at this point,
but you would love to hear your team. Well, the
European team looks pretty good.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
You know.
Speaker 1 (42:09):
If Rom finds form and Hoveland finds form, the top
of their team is stacked. You got Rory, you got Rom,
you got Ludwig, you got Hoveland, and you got Hatton
and you got Fleetwood and Shane Lowry. So I mean,
you know, the bottom of their team can be a
little hit or miss, but the top of their team
(42:29):
is every bit as good as ours.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
So it is.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
It's clearly very difficult to win on foreign soil, so
at it being it played in New York with Kegan Bradley,
plays is gonna be nuts, but their team is gonna
be really, really good. And although obviously you know Bethpage
is a long golf course, Rory long skin tour, rom
super deep, Ludwig, I mean right behind Rory, I mean
(42:56):
their top players, hovelind Win, He's right bombs it. I
think it's really easy to pick our top six right now.
It's scottis Scheffler, It's Xander Schaffle, it is Colin Morikawa,
you know, well off to see with Patrick can't lay,
you know. And I would say Justin Thomas is definitely
(43:17):
rounding in the form, so I got no issue with him.
I'm probably I'm trying to do this off the top
of my head, so if I'm missing someone that is
is a lock, Scotty, Xander Morikawa, Bryson. I think Bryson
is a lock Kepka depending on form, but I have
no problem having Kepka like basically a lock. Then I
(43:39):
think there are just a lot of questions with the
you know what speace risk situation.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
You know, can't lay, like I said, is probably on
the team.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Justin Thomas is definitely on the team, and then there's
just kind of that next group of guys. You know,
Homa is in the wilderness right now. You know, Wyndam
Clark is actually showing some signs of life.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
You know, Kegan.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Bradley is actually played pretty well.
Speaker 3 (44:01):
Now.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
He's the captain and he said he'll only pick himself
if he doesn't have to pick himself. He's automatic qualifier.
So I don't know, we just got to see how
this year goes. But some of these guys winning these
tournaments like D three as a euro A decies not
even available, you know, Rory European. I'm interested to hear
your thoughts on the TGL. Obviously, Tiger did not provide
(44:24):
the jews everyone is looking for, but I think it
generally has a place. I play simulator golf here in Baltimore.
The leagues are full and highly competitive, so this isn't
a crazy new thing, which is how the golf purists
are talking about it. With a couple simple tweaks, I
think it could be legit. Here are my ideas. Get
a real golf booth, the idea that players themselves can
(44:46):
be the color commentators is ridiculous and obviously doesn't work.
You can catch them on hot mics like other sports,
and huddles on sidelines, but have someone sitting there discussing
the strategy. Phil would be perfect, but that's a pipe.
The hammer switches every three holes. Even if it isn't used.
This would help a team crawl back, keeps a team
with a lead from just running out the clock no timeouts.
(45:10):
Icing just doesn't work.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
The point I haven't.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Really watched that much the last After the first couple
of matches, I think you're taking it a little too seriously,
and maybe I'm wrong, but I think it's less about
who's winning and losing, you know who's Obviously there have
been some cool moments, but I don't think it's about
(45:35):
like who won this year's TGL, Who who was able to,
you know, win playoff games in the TGL. I think
it's more about is it really entertaining? The best part
about the TGL, and I honestly don't even think is
that close is the technology? So watching guys hit shots
(45:57):
into this enormous screen like it's cool. I think it's
just an entertainment product. It should just be an easy watch.
Speaker 3 (46:06):
And maybe I'm wrong. That's my opinion.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
It's less about the competitiveness, though some fun competitive moments
are cool. I saw was it Fleetwood? I think they
had like four of them on Monday on President's Day.
Fleetwood hit this crazy putt to win a hole and
they went nuts.
Speaker 3 (46:24):
It was cool. Matt Ryan was there with Arthur Blank.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
We've seen Kisner skull, a sand shot that hit the
pin that Tiger started like peeing his pants laughing. I
think you need a mix of both. But I think
competitiveness like it's Sunday at a PJ golf tournament, I
don't think that's the answer. I don't know how you
balance the entertainment standpoint of the players talking and the broadcast.
(46:53):
You know, listen, before Phil went to Live, it felt
like he was in line to be I don't know,
the next Johnny Miller, the next just all time great broadcaster,
and he chose that life and he didn't want it.
Speaker 3 (47:15):
So I think that.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
It's kind of sad that he disappeared from our life
from as golf lovers, because he could have played a huge,
huge role doing that. Got to hear your take on
the Bryson D. Chambeau Donald Trump video most watched YouTube video.
I don't even think I watched it. I saw clips online.
I'm not like a loyal Bryson watcher, like I don't
(47:42):
miss like Bob does sports post something, I'm gonna watch it.
I would say the Brian Bros. Depending on where they're playing.
I watch a lot of those. The Bryson. I think
he's really entertaining. But I've watched him with Romo, I've
watched him with Brady. I like Trump's, you know, kind
(48:02):
of in to over the top, kind of like push
cut thing he's got going on. People say I kind
of putt like him, kind of stabby, but listen Bryson.
Bryson's a rocket ship and what he's done and utilize
this modern technology. Obviously he's boys with Donald and it
was perfectly timed right before the election. But like he
(48:25):
puts stuff up, they go. He does big, big numbers
for a reason. Like he's he's fun to watch, and
I think he's he's I think he's like the modern
day Phil. What Phil kind of was three social media
and everything just from an entertainment standpoint, that's kind of
what Bryson has turned into, which is good for the sport.
(48:46):
You know, historically, basketball, baseball, football, they have been full
of these guys. You know, one thing I saw someone
on social media say that one big issue right now
that basketball is having is their players. You know, the
younger players like no personalities. It's kind of a personality
less sport. And I think golf sometimes can become that,
(49:09):
and it's really really important that you have big personalities
and from an individual standpoint, you need the individuals to
kind of separate themselves. And Bryson has done that and
through YouTube. Obviously he's a great player, and he won
the US Open in pretty historic fashion with that bunker
shot at Pinehurst. But I think YouTube no one has
(49:32):
utilized it more as a professional. You know, when you
think about some of these guys like Draymond had a
podcast kind of you know, it was huge. See some
of these other guys start podcasts. You know, Bryson did
his version of that on just playing golf. He's like
playing some random course in Texas. He goes to, like
the guy, what's the course record? The guy will be
like sixty three, and Bryson will try to break it.
(49:54):
Fucking genius.
Speaker 3 (49:55):
I mean, it really is.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
Anyone could do it. Anyone could do it. And look
at the two guys like now or Bad as partners
with Phil. Phil's don't dummy like Phil sees it. And
Phil's got a big personality like he's Taylor made for
part of you know, to hold a YouTube video and
to be successful, like you're gonna have to have a
big personality to do it. So Big Brison fan, If
(50:17):
Full Swing in Netflix offered you a role to narrate
the show, would you accept? The journalists that narrated season
one and two are good.
Speaker 3 (50:26):
But I think you'd do great.
Speaker 1 (50:28):
I mean, come on, of course I follow the guy
forget his name, the producer. The thing the Netflix show
doesn't really do it for me. I've I've probably watched
the first two season a total of if they're eight
so sixteen, probably five or six total. Kind of bores
(50:48):
me a little bit, which I appreciate. Like them, it's
hard to do. Gosh's just not that interesting, you know,
It's just it's really some of these guys just.
Speaker 3 (50:59):
Aren't that interesting.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
But I would do it in a heartbeat, for sure. I'm glad.
The one thing that's cool about Netflix, it's kind of
like YouTube with golf. It's really been good for some
sports that you know, like the NFL doesn't need it,
but golf f one for us in America. It's a
(51:21):
great way to have casual people that like competition and
like stars and like you know, good drama and stories.
It's a great way to get in front of their eyes.
And the Netflix thing to me has been by far
just a net positive. Okay, that is a go low
episode one twenty five in the books, and we'll keep
(51:45):
them coming. So I will talk to everyone soon on
a football podcast, probably what days today according to this
for Wednesday, for Thursday, and we'll be back swinging. But
enjoy the week. Like I said, I got, I got
Nap Mostler and thorpe Bournson I can't really say his name,
but Michael Stanford kid this week Top twenties. It's hard
(52:09):
to pick a winner just in these fields are so
random in the resort course, don't feel comfortable. Even top
tens are kind of difficult. But enjoy the week and
we will talk soon.
Speaker 3 (52:22):
The volume
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