John Middlekauff reacts to Keegan Bradley winning the Travelers and how Keegan's play will impact his role as Captain of the Ryder Cup team and if he'll ultimately name himself as a player. With a great win, comes a hard loss, and John dives into Tommy Fleetwood losing the Travelers after having a three stroke lead heading down the stretch. Next, John talks about Brian Rolapp's role as the new PGA Tour CEO and what he would like to see Rolapp change when it comes to the PGA and LIV relationship.
Finally, John answers your questions in this episode's mailbag segment.
6:09 - Should Keegan name himself to the Ryder Cup team
14:56 - Tommy Fleetwood comes in second
30:22 - Brian Rolapp new PGA CEO
36:39 - LIV Update
44:11 - Mailbag
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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 Happening Everybody? John Middlecoff Little Go
Low podcast today recording from my hotel room in the
(00:22):
corner as you can see, and very very excited because
we got a big show today. We did a football
podcast yesterday, and I did want to do a golf
podcast this week because there's a lot going on. Huge
television ratings. Last week obviously a big moment with Keegan Bradley,
the Ryder Cup captain, defeating Tommy Fleetwood on the eighteenth
(00:44):
hole of essentially his home course, his home area. The
local kid gets it done for the second time in
three years. So we will talk about Keegan Bradley cutting
through the noise and should he just name himself as
a member of the team that he's also the captain enough?
Can he be the playing captain? Obviously he can be
the playing captain, the first one since Arnold Palmer, But
(01:05):
shouldn't he just be at this point Tommy Fleetwood on
the opposite end of you know, with the thrill of
victory comes the agony of defeat, and Tommy Fleetwood is
a little bit of a throwback, you know. I mean
it's you don't see as many meltdowns as you used to.
I feel like maybe it's the the the equipment. Maybe
(01:27):
it's these courses are too easy for these guys. But
it's rare to witness what we just did. I mean,
a top player who just looked like he was going
to cruise to a victory and then all of a sudden,
you're walking off eighteen and it looks like the guy's
in tears. Brian Rolapp the new PGA Tour CEO commissioner,
you know, technically the CEO, also the commissionaries. He's the boss.
(01:48):
I have three things that I think he should immediately
implement moving forward, just to kind of help to get
this ball rolling and things that can I think make
the transition a little bit easier. We have Live Dallas
this week, also known as a Bryson d Shambeau home game,
so we'll see if Bryson, who is the betting favorite
going into the weekend, can get his first win actually
(02:11):
on American soil from since joining Live. Obviously, he has
one more major this year to see if he can
win another major and knock off. I guess he's won two,
but they've both been a US Open, So can he
win the Open, which you know tournament that would give
Bryce a little trouble given that there are a lot
of variables there and you can't scientific his way, you know,
(02:32):
through pars and birdies. But before we dive in to
some golf talk, I do need to tell you about
my friends, my partners, and the official ticketing app of
this podcast. You know, I've spent the last couple of
days in the Fox studios and it's obviously pretty cool.
But you walk down some of these hallways and you look,
you're right, and you'll see like Edelman jumping in in
Brady's arms after they came back from twenty eight to three.
(02:54):
And then you'll look in another and you'll see Brett
farverar Aaron Rodgers, and then you'll look and you'll see
Derek Jeter, and you just realize this network has broadcast
some of the most important sports moments of mine in
your lives, and it's really kind of cool to be there.
And then you realize, like a lot of people were
at these games. There were a lot of people that
witnessed this Super Bowl or this NFC championship, or this
(03:15):
playoff game, or this historic regular season game, Caitlin Clark
tournament game. You can go to these games. So if
you want to go to a game this summer, any sport, obviously,
this fall football season is not very far away. Me
and Colin were talking about arch Manning today and someone's like,
you know, you're in Fox do you know what the
opening game is? I'm like, what is it again? They're like,
Texas Ohio State nine am, Pacific Standard time, kickoff opening weekend.
(03:40):
I'm like, Texas Ohio State. That's how arch Manning starts
the season. If I was a UT fan or I
was an Ohio State fan, I'd have to be at
that game because that thing. I mean, what a way
to kick off the season. So any event you want
to go do concert, comedy show as well, they got
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(04:01):
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I think sometimes we just spend too much time talking
about stuff that like, ultimately doesn't matter and sometimes you
just gotta cut through the noise and just call a
(04:22):
spade a spade. And one thing being around Colin and
the show this week, like he's really good at that.
He can just kind of cut through, find an angle,
something he's fired up on, and just attack it. And
I think sometimes the golf media is different than a
lot of other different medias and I'm pretty close, you know,
in the football circle, and there's not that much fluff
(04:42):
to football, right, Like if something bad happens, people attack it. Fans, media,
the shows, like if you have a bad time out call,
if you make a bad play call, if a player
does something stupid, if anything happens there there is every
different angle attack, and I think sometimes with golf it
(05:03):
almost feels like the media all reiterates the same thing sometimes,
like the fans don't care about the ball roll back,
the players don't want it, who wants it? The media
is the one pushing that. And I think sometimes with
Keegan Bradley, it's like, well he can't play and be
the captain. Why not? He's clearly one of our best players.
(05:24):
It's not even debatable at this point in time, and
it's not one of those situations where our team is
so deep with star power. It's like, well, it's an
easy one for Keegan. Just be the captain and become
a legendary captain. Maybe do it for the next four
Ryder Cups. It's like he's still in the prime of
his career. He is clearly one of the best Americans.
(05:44):
He just won a tournament for the second time in
three years. He's played really well over the course of
the last month, finished top ten at the Memorial and
at the PGA Championship, and obviously had an incredible comeback
on Sunday against Tommy Fleetwood. And here's the other thing.
In some events, right, like a playoff game, whether it's basketball,
(06:05):
whether it's baseball, whether it's hockey, any situation you know
in an industry you're in. If you have a big meeting,
we've all been there, Especially younger people or someone who
doesn't have that much experience, you can feel overwhelmed. You're like,
I wasn't quite ready for the moment. I hadn't prepared
for this moment. Hell I didn't even want to be
in this moment. Keegan Bradley has campaigned for over a
(06:29):
decade that he never unpacked his bags from the last
Ryder Cup he was a part of because it hurt
him so bad one to lose and two he would
do anything in his power to get back. Like he
has openly talked about his passion for the Ryder Cup,
for America, for the team, how it means everything. Honestly,
when you say the Ryder Cup, even before Keegan Bradley
(06:52):
became the team captain, when you just think American Ryder Cup,
like Keigan Bradley's passion for it is right up there. Viously,
like Speith and Justin Thomas, that combo you think Tiger
and Phil, but that they've been very hit or miss players. Obviously,
there are some historic players like a Seve Ballisos or
you know, some of the Europeans that have had huge moments.
(07:14):
But when I think Kegan Bradley, I think about a
guy that two years ago was kind of screwed who
got I don't want to say overlooked, but got bypassed
for Justin Thomas, who at the time this year it's
a no brainer to take him, but at the time
it was a little controversial and they showed it on Netflix.
He was clearly pretty devastated. And now you're looking back
(07:35):
two years later, he's asked to be the captain, and
he even talked about it last week or I guess
after he won that. All he thinks about now since
he's been named the captain when he's not playing golf
is how to be the Ryder Cup captain and what
to do as a Ryder Cup captain. It consumes his
life and the only time that he can relax a
(07:56):
little bit and just play golf is when he's inside
the ropes. And you see him when he's inside the ropes. Now,
he's been fucking awesome. So like this notion that the
captain of one of these teams is like the difference
between hiring Freddy Kitchens or Bill Belichick or you know,
Steve Kerr and Mark Jackson. That's just not the case, right.
(08:17):
I Mean, most of these pairings are player driven. The
Ryder Cup, especially when it comes to the Americans, is
much closer to like the NBA. The players pick and
choose everything. If Scotty Scheffler doesn't want to play with you,
guess what he ain't playing with you. If Justin Thomas
wants to play with somebody, he's gonna play with that guy.
That's the way it works. So obviously there are things
(08:39):
that behind the scenes that matter, and there is a
chemistry element. But when I hear people like what about
the leadership, the leadership you're either gonna make a ten
foot plotter or not, you really are. And this event
being in America, especially in the Northeast Anario, where he's
comfortable with. It's been well documented he went to Saint
(09:00):
John's the Ryder Cups in New York. I think at
this point in time, Keigan Bradley should just officially name
himself on the team and then just figure it out
from there because if we're serious about winning this, which
whether he's on the team or off the team, it
is going to be very difficult. I think they are
better than us. The only advantage we have is typically
(09:21):
the home team wins. But when it comes to like
Kegan Bradley shouldn't do this, put the team first. For
who Andrew Novak, Ben Griffin Again, I like these players
that they've had awesome seasons, But for a guy who's
played in this event before, who's won a major, who's
won big time events lately, and let's face it, who's
(09:42):
kind of wired for it, And this is a huge point,
sticking point why they took Justin Thomas a couple of
years ago. Obviously has a really good record in the
Ryder Cup, but you go, you know what JT is,
He's kind of a war daddy. You want him in
the trenches with you, and you say the same thing
for speed, And I do feel that way Keegan Bradley
and some of these other names, and maybe they would
(10:03):
turn out to be that way, like if you put
him on the team, they would like I think Max
Homa has proven to be like, Okay, he can handle
the moment and he gets into it and it feels
like it's a big Tom Kim Like it doesn't always
play that well on the PGA Tour, but in some
of these team events, you're like, fuck Tom. Tom Kim's
kind of a you know, a little shit stort kind
of like him around and Team Europe historically has been
(10:26):
full of those type guys and I think we lack
some of that and that's what JT brings. Like Ultimately,
Sky Scheffler's not bringing that to the table. Colin more
Kaw is not bringing that to the table. JT is
speak a little bit. Kegan Bradley definitely will. And I
remember a couple of years ago, it's different. You know,
we have a bigger advantage in the President's Cup when
the famous meme that they've kind of you know, messed
(10:49):
with the production when Tiger Woods is playing Abe Answer
and he walks in the putt from like fifty feet
even though he didn't start walking it until it literally
fell in. But last time I checked, wasn't he a
playing captain? And it worked out? Okay? And I think Tiger,
like Keegan similar very serious guys like these aren't screw
(11:10):
around guys. This guy's Keigon Bradley's not having like three
extra beers, like, he'll do whatever it takes to get
it dialed in. I just think he's the choice right
in terms of the way he's playing. He's got to
be on the team. And I got no problem if
he's also going to be the captain, Like, I don't
think he needs to recuse himself, Like, okay, I got
to be a vice captain. Now give it to someone else.
(11:32):
You've come this far, you be the captain, You be
the playing captain, And let's roll and congrats to him
who I saw there were some incredible stats this Weekend
about the ratings of this tournament. That Sunday drew three
point five million people. It was up thirty five percent
(11:54):
from last year when Scotti Scheffer won it. It was
the third highest non major of the year, behind The Players,
which obviously Rory won, and The Heritage, which Justin Thomas won.
Even golf channels Thursday through Friday coverage average almost six
hundred thousand viewers, up forty percent, so it peaked at
like five point five million people watching. It's a good
(12:18):
tournament to watch. I don't know if it's the fireworks.
I don't know if it just looks really like the
green looks so plush, like the course is always just
in great shape. It really pops on television, you know,
not shocking to see the players of all the non majors,
the players really pops. Pebble if the weather's good, always pops.
(12:38):
RBC Heritage because of the water kind of always pops.
I think The Travelers is just an elite PGA tournament.
You know, it's had some great winners lately. Keegan's won
in dramatic fashion, Scotti Sheffler last year won in dramatic fashion.
It's just a really, really fun tournament, But with a
winner comes a loser. And you know, I think Tony
(13:02):
Feno said this a couple of years ago when he
was really struggling to win tournaments and he was clearly
one of the better players, definitely one of the better
American players. I think he summed it up, like, you know,
a winner is just a loser that never gave up.
And I think what makes golf a lot different than
these other sports is, like, you know, finishing third is
really impressive. You're finishing in a tournament of one hundred
(13:24):
and fifty people. You're beating one hundred and forty seven, right, Hell,
you could finish second, and if you lose an extra holes,
no one beats you through the course of the seventy
two holes. Where in basketball, like everyone was better than
the Utah Jazz, right, the Colorado Rockies suck. But if
you finish like twentieth in back to back tournaments, like
(13:45):
you're playing pretty good golf. So a winning percentage on
the PGA Tour, if you have like a three percent
winning percentage, you're a Hall of Famer. Right. If you
win a couple percent of the tournaments you enter over
the course of your career. Incredible accomplishment, right I saw
I think Jordan Spie spending three hundred tournaments in his career.
(14:07):
I'm pretty sure he's won like fifteen or sixteen tournaments.
So think about his winning percentage. You're talking about a
couple percent, three four percent, and my math could be
a little off there. I guess if you've won fifteen tournaments,
it'd be like five percent, and that probably is only
going to continue to go down if he keeps playing
and he doesn't win tournaments. But objectively, Tommy Fleetwood's a really,
(14:30):
really good player. I mean, there is no disputing he
is an incredible ball striker, a very consistent player. I
looked at his winning percentage. Now, he's played less tournaments
than guys like Speeth and Justin Thomas, But when you
just factor in cuts made, he's played in one hundred
and fifty nine PGA tournaments. He's made one hundred and
(14:53):
thirty five cuts, so he's made eighty five percent of
his cuts. To put that in perspective, again, these guys
have played more tournaments. Obviously, Tommy plays a lot in Europe.
Speace cut percentage is eighty one percent. Thomas's cut percentage
is eighty two percent. So just to put into perspective,
like you're in the mid eighties, you are, You're a
big time player. He has twenty eight top five finishes,
(15:16):
he has forty two top ten finishes. He's finished runner
up six times. He's been an awesome player in majors.
Like his resume speaks for itself. He's made well over
like close to thirty five million dollars. He is objectively
a high end player, one of the best players in
the world, one of the best European players. A guy
that is going to be a lock, a lock for
(15:39):
the Ryder Cup four years to come, like that is
not going to change it. He can't win, and you know,
a guy like him, I think it's easy to go.
He's gonna win. It's inevitable. And then you watch Sunday
and you kind of struck with are you sure like her?
Are we sure? Cause I'm watching that He's up there
(16:00):
on the fourteenth toll, and I know Keegan after he says, listen,
I obviously you're not in a great position there, but
I go, hey, these last four holes, anything can happen.
You can have birdies, eagles, doubles and that's what happened kinda.
I mean, Tommy Fleetwood was in the middle of the
fairway with one shot lead on eighteen, with the should
(16:23):
have been a nine iron in his hand, and he
hit a biting witch and didn't win. And you just
watch these moments and this is what makes golf I
feel like it used to happen more. Maybe it's just
old age, maybe it's just nostalgia. Maybe it's actually not true,
but I feel like we used to have a lot
of meltdowns. And I do think when I was definitely
(16:43):
before this equipment boom the club, you know, there would
be much more, there'd be a greater disperse of shots.
Right When you watch some old highlights of Tiger and
Phil in the late nineties early two thousands, both those
guys were all over the fucking map off the tee,
I mean all over the map off the tea consistently.
(17:05):
It's why Tiger implemented those little stingers and hit three
irons off fairwell, you know, in the fairways all the time.
It wasn't just he's like a conservative player. It was
also because he could hit a three hundred and twenty
yard drive into the homes at any moment, same with Phil.
These guys. Now, I do think it's shocking, and I
mean shocking when someone down the stretch of a tournament
(17:29):
just hits the ball fifty yards into the trees. It
does not happen like it used to, which is understandable
because anyone who's decent listening to this at golf, if
you have a newer club, your missus do not disperse
as crazy as they did ten, fifteen to twenty years ago.
And I've just somehow I've gotten down a Sevy ballisterios
rabbit hole on YouTube recently, and the one theme that
(17:52):
keeps coming up and Johnny Miller keeps talking about this.
Some of the greatest players are the most popular players
in the history of the sport sprayed the ball, and
it's almost like they become closer with the fans because
they're around them all the time. You know who notoriously
did not hit the ball straight, Arnold Palmer, Sevi Bolstero's
(18:14):
Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth. These guys have blown
all over the map. They're all over the place, and
that's what made them so great as they hit these
spectacular shots. Well, Tommy Fleetwood like his shots, he's like
peppering the fairway, and to me to watch him implode
like he did on eighteen, like, there's no other way
(18:35):
to say it than he kind of choked. Because if
you were in that situation and you just had two
putts to win the tournament and you three putted like
that is whether you're playing Keegan Bradley to win the
Travelers or whether you're playing your buddy for one hundred dollars,
that is one hundred percent a choke job. And then
I think when you factor in like the pressure on
(18:56):
him to do it, is this guy a winning talent.
There's no disputing that. His consistency speaks for itself. But
when you watch that situation, you have to go, I
don't know, like I do think there might be some
sort of mental hurdle, and this only makes it worse,
makes you question yourself now you look earlier. This season
(19:18):
is a good example. JJ spawn gets to extra holes
with Roy McElroy and then just kind of implodes. Not
all his fault, the ball just flies on him on
seventeen and losing the playoffs by I don't know what
was it, four or five shots, and then he used
that to his benefit later in the season to help
him win the US Open. The difference, though, is JJ
(19:38):
has less of this conversation around him. JJ hasn't been
a guy finishing forty two times in the top ten.
He doesn't have twenty eight top fives, doesn't have a
career of contending in majors. So once you start getting
that conversation around you, it only grows. We see it
in the other sports all the time. We've been talking
(19:59):
about all week, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen,
who can win a Super Bowl? Who can get it
done in the playoffs, who's gonna get over the hump?
Who's gonna beat Patrick Mahomes. We see it in basketball,
it's like, what when can James Harden never get it done?
In turns iin you just never got it done, just
never was able to get it done. And the difference
in some of these team sports and these individual sports,
(20:19):
like you could always blame well, a coach called chitty
plays well, my defense sucked, well, I'm of the second
best player on my team, tore his ACL in the
second round, so we didn't have the depth. And golf,
there's no one to blame by yourself. It's just you
and your caddy and it's on you to win it.
And it's it's what makes it's so fascinating to watch.
It's essentially a one on one sport. Sometimes there are
(20:42):
three or four guys in the mix, but there's just
out there on an island. You're like a cornerback. They're
throwing deep and it's just you and the wide receiver
and you could screw up and you can point, but
we all just are watching you. And in golf, middle
of the fairway, whole eighteen, Tommy Fleetwood, you're gonna hit
a nine? Are you gonna pitching which you gonna knock
it in stiff or you're gonna leave it way short
(21:04):
to the left and give yourself a very hard up
and down. Because you know what Keigan Bradley did and
he mentioned this, I saw the shot and I hit
that exact same shot one hundred thousand times. He called
it like a ten to ten, which was basically ear
to ear, and he stuck it five six feet and
he was a guy that got over that. And you
know what he acted like, I've been here before, I
(21:26):
expect to hit this shot. And when you look at
Tommy Fleetwood. Who again, I'm pro Tommy Fleetwood. I was
rooting for Tommy Fleetwood. I wanted to see him win.
He had no clue what to do, felt lost. Hell,
we've all been there. Sometimes you get over a shot,
You're like, I don't know what to do. You can't
be like that on the PGA Tour, not on whole
seventy two of a big time event against another big
(21:47):
time player and expect to win. So obviously there you
could say Tommy can learn from it, But Tommy's been
in this position a ton now, truly leading like this
with a couple holes to go. Maybe maybe not as much,
but it does make you question, like, sometimes you know
a guy can go on to make a bunch of money,
have all these accolades, have a bunch of success, and honestly,
(22:09):
he could be a guy that wouldn't shock me if,
like I don't know, never wins a PGA Tour event,
which is which is crazy to say, but you know
the odds, it's really really difficult to do. Now, you
could say, you put yourself in enough situations, it's eventually
going to flip your way. And uh, I would have
said one before Sunday. But after watching Sunday, you go,
(22:31):
I don't know, man, I don't know. Pro golfers drive
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co slash audio. Okay, Brian Rolapp, the new commissioner for
(24:27):
the PGA Tour CEO Boss new Goodell, I'll call him
new Goodell. I think there are three things he can
do to just kind of set up a little runway
to get us to get us off and run in here.
And I think he's been handed a tough situation lots
going on the splitting golf. Some of the stuff that
(24:49):
jay Monhan screwed up, the suspensions, just a lot of
moving parts that he had nothing to do with. So
I don't put any of the blame. And these decisions
are not easy to to reverse, right, But this is
what he's been tasked with to figure out how to
reverse these decisions and get this operation just it's going
(25:11):
in the right direction, but take it to the next
level and not have what happened over the last couple
of years ever happened again. I think the number one
thing he can do immediately tomorrow is tear up all
the suspensions, because every guy that went to Live was
immediately suspended from the PGA tour. And these guys have
(25:32):
talked about it, like John Rahm goes, you know, sometimes
when I'm driving down Frank Lloyd and I look over
there and I see TPC and I see the stadium,
I miss it. Do you know what I would say, Hey, John,
if you're in town next year and you want to
play in the waste Management you have a spot, you're
no longer suspended Bryson, you want to play in one
(25:54):
of these Texas events sometime this Scottie Scheffer and some
of the boys are playing. If you're open, if you
don't have a live event, you're in. Wesley Brian the
live golfer. That's where j Monahan really lost me. But
any of these guys from Jaukee Neeman to fill the
(26:14):
DJ to do you guys want to play the Florida Swing?
Do you guys want to come to the Arnold Palmer,
You're in. So I think that's the number one thing
he should do is just disband all the suspensions and
then obviously as they work to get fully some sort
of integration as we move forward the next couple of years,
they can figure that out. But on a short term basis,
(26:35):
if Brooks Kopka wants to play in the Arnold Palmer,
if John Rahm wants to play at Torrey Pines, doors
are wide open. Number two, there needs to be into reports.
Brian comes from the NFL, where an injury report doesn't
tell you, you know, unless they say the guy is out.
(26:56):
You don't know. The questionable can turn into a probable
really quick. But at least you have some idea. Throughout
the week, you go, hey, you know what, Josh Allen
didn't practice Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I can't be stunned
if he does not play on Sunday in the game.
But if a guy plays Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in
practice and then doesn't play in the game, You're like,
(27:19):
what's going on here? And to me, that's the PGA
Tour is they're in really deep with gambling, and rightfully so,
it is an incredible product to gamble on, it really is.
But this notion of guys withdrawing on a Thursday or Friday,
it's like, yeah, my wrist have been feeling weird since Monday.
We got to know. And you can't be in business
(27:40):
and try to do this above board without some sort
of injury reports. And the players, these guys love pushing
back against anything you ask them to do, whether it's media,
whether it's injury reports. This needs to become mandated again.
It doesn't have to be that in depth. It can
just be Colin Morikawa risk. It doesn't even need to
(28:01):
be probable questionable like he's playing right, but it just
so at least you know, Jordan speedth tweaked his back
this week and then by I think the was it
Friday withdrew from the tournament. It's been nice to know
that something was up with his back, and I think
the PGA Tour has done a really, really poor job
(28:21):
of that and it doesn't feel like Jay Monahan even
put any effort into doing that. Last, but not least,
one thing the NFL is very serious about is their
relationship with their broadcast partners, because the lifeblood of the
sport is the games. Is Fox, CBS is NBC broadcasting
(28:46):
the games, and Brian was in charge of that right
he was in charge of the media rights deal and
the power that those broadcasts mean for the business of
the NFL and the health of the sport, the cash
flow of the sport. Golf is a complicated sport. It's
easy to broadcast a football game in the sense that
(29:08):
you're never gonna go to commercial when they're playing the
game golf, you have guys hitting shots at all different times,
so it's not an apples to apples comparable, right, same
with basketball and baseball. When the action's on, it's pretty
obvious when there's a break in the action, you could say, well, Scott,
he's walking right now. What's Rory doing? Well, Rory and
Scotty are walking right now. What's Bryson doing. It's not easy.
(29:29):
They have to make a better job and a more
assertive effort to figure this out, because it does feel
sometimes that beside like a Sunday of a major or
Sunday of a big tournament, that it kind of becomes
like a highlight reel and anytimes like oh, let's go
to John on whole fourteen, Well, if you haven't seen
(29:51):
John in two hours, you're like, I bet he's gonna
make this long ass putt, and then oh, John from
fifty feet for eagle. I just think that they've kind
of lost the plot. And it's the one thing I
do agree with the vast majority of the golf media
about is the TV product has been pretty shitty and
(30:13):
would not have been accepted in the NFL. It would
have been a major problem. And I think there's just
too much money on the line too, Like you guys
are spending too much if you're CBS and NBC did
not try to figure this out and make it a
better product. And I actually think that that's where Roll
app comes in, and he might be the right guy.
So number one, suspension's done, Number two injury reports, Number three,
(30:37):
we got to fix the broadcast. Okay, we got a
little The US leg of the Live Golf season is
in full swing and for the next couple days twenty seven,
twenty eighth, and twenty ninth, Bryce and d Chambeau. I mean,
I'm sure you saw him on social media. He was
all over town. He is he was born and raised
in the Central Valley in California, but he went to SMU.
(31:00):
He's lived in Dallas forever. This is his home event.
And I think you know, Bryson more than anyone else,
has done a lot for golf in the last couple
of years. He's he's kind of transcended. I mean, it's
really remarkable what he's accomplished in terms of becoming like
(31:23):
as big of a golf influencer. And if you're listening
to this, you know, you know the power of Bob
of Horvat, of the Brian Brows, of the four play
guys like it's a big deal on YouTube. Golf, you know,
is you could argue is as big on YouTube as
it is anywhere. And Bryson entered that space and he
(31:45):
immediately became a rock star and he changed the game.
I mean, we talked about it a couple weeks ago.
When has one of the favorites before a major ever
just done like a hole by whole tutorial of what
he plans on doing it. It's pretty awesome, And I've
said forever I use some of his videos before the
tournaments to scout him. You can't take much away from
(32:08):
the break fifty when they're playing the red tees, But
when it comes to watching Bryson, he'll just go to
a random course, typically in the Texas area Dallas area,
where he lives, and just try to break the course record.
I haven't watched his most recent one. I think he
just broke a course record. I've watched him get kind
of close, and you're just like, this guy is so
(32:28):
fucking good at golf. I mean his advantage. That's where
sometimes on in a major, you watch him that live
because he's playing the other guys, you know, it doesn't
quite put into perspective how much he's dominating. But when
it's just him out there in some random course and
he's just split in these fairways three hundred and forty yards,
(32:48):
playing by himself, playing eighteen holes in like, you know,
two hours, it's a remarkable sight to see. And he's
the betting favorite this week. I would imagine there's gonna
be a big turnout for him, and uh, I think
sometimes it's cool to watch a guy kind of turn
around his career because I would say two plus years ago,
(33:13):
his approval rating was pretty low. People were kind of
down on him. And I would say now, just universally
with sports fans, if you just say Bryson d Chambeau,
you're like doing what We're gonna watch him like he's
he's a needle mover and you know, speaking of the
Ryder Cup, he's a lock to be on that team.
And he's another guy that I think is gonna take
a lot of pride and be a fucking awesome Ryder
(33:34):
Cup player for us. Like I'm really excited to watch,
you know, Bryson the Ryder Cup. Hell, he should have
made it a couple of years ago. But you know,
if you want to attend this event, if you're living
in Texas, kids under twelve get in free. Obviously it's
you can follow every shot on Fox Sports. Excited to watch,
So watch Bryson d Schambeau tee it up in his
(33:54):
home town event. Okay, let's do a little mailbag at golopod.
(34:15):
At golopod is the Instagram fire in those dms. Get
your questions answered here on the show. Very very easy
to do. We got a bunch here here. We'll start
with Vince. What up? John was watching the Travelers and
with four holes to go in Fleetwood in the lead,
I decided to put my last three dollars in my
draftking account. I love that when you just have like
(34:36):
five dollars. I put one dollar each on Bradley, Henley,
and Day, who were in second, third and fourth at
the time. I placed a bet that was minus six
hundred on Fleetwood. I had a gut feeling he would
joke again, do you think he ever breaks through? Would
love to hear your answer on the pod? One dollar
paid out forty six before the t I would have
(35:00):
said one, I really would. And then you watch that
and you go, maybe he's just destined to have an
all time like top five, top ten career and make
a bunch of money and just never win one of
these tournaments. Because that was a tournament. You just don't
blow that tournament if you're him. Because he was playing
well too, it'd be one thing. It's like the guy
was falling apart like he was playing well, he was
(35:21):
in the controlling lead and even on eighteen, right in
the middle of the fairway. Uh to be a great
iron player and to really question what club you hit,
and I know Keegan said he kind of got gusted,
but that ball wasn't even close and then Keegan got up.
There was zero hesitation. I feel like most guys the
(35:41):
last couple of years on that whole. I mean, at
worst hit in the middle of the green, but you
can't have a three putt bogie that it just can't happen.
So one thing that makes me nervous about Tommy is
he's not a great putter. Honestly, He's the type putter
(36:02):
that in a big spot feels like I'm like this
just as a casual golfer, we all play with different
people that you have no faith that they're gonna make
a putt. And on the PGA Tour, did anyone think
on eighteen that Kegan was gonna miss it? Not a soul,
not one. And honestly, when Tommy got out over some
of those putts down the stretch, you just didn't have
(36:23):
that much faith. And again I'm pro Tommy Fleetwood but
you watch him putt you go, He's just not gonna
make it. Not sure if you watch the Brian Bros.
But if you know about Wesley's suspension, I was wondering
what your thoughts are about it. Do you think a
fine would have been more reasonable than a suspension? After all,
he went there for content creation, not to participate in
(36:45):
a live tournament. People's careers shouldn't be in the balance
of the rules that are still so vague. This is
what I'm talking about with Brian Rolapp. I think I
saw Wesley tweet out today. And for those of that
aren't super deep, Wesley's like a fringe, you know, top
one hundred, top one, twenty five, top one fifty level
PGA tour talent. Him and his brother George have a
(37:07):
YouTube channel. They do a lot of stuff with Grand Horvat.
They are, I mean, Wesley's a pretty fucking good player. George,
I think, was like an All American in college as well.
They're big time players. I mean, Wesley's a legit PG
tour player and was supposed to play in an event
this year but did the duels creation with Live and
(37:28):
Jay suspended him. And this is where and I think
it rattled Wesley, Like I think Wesley is not trying
to be controversial, like he's in the business world. Like
we're all in the business world. You know, is this
a little more difficult for me to do a podcast
sitting in a hotel room? Of course, but I had
to make a business decision. It's like I'm gonna do
this with Colin for a couple of days. Right, did
(37:50):
it impact the podcast or at least the the ease
in which I do it? Of course, Like we all
have to make tough business decisions or just businesses in
general sometimes, And I don't fault Wesley from making that decision,
and to think that then he would get slammed when
when Jay's in the position, I think the problem that
doesn't make any sense with Wesley Bryant's suspension is how
(38:14):
is Jay in a position feels like, you know, we
see these lame duck politicians or presidents or whatever. It
feels like Jay's been a lame duck for years. How
is he in position to to like render this verdict
against a guy? And if it'd be one thing, if
it was a bigger name, like what are we talking,
(38:36):
what are we doing? How can this happen, and then
I see the mental gymnastics where they invite Horvat to
play in the Barracuda up in Lake Tahoe. It's like, well,
he's not actually a member. It's like, well, what does
any of this fucking stuff matter? So I thought it
was just embarrassing that Wesley got Honestly that happened, though,
(38:56):
I really do, and I think that's a reflection. If
I was roll App, would I would text Tiger and
be like, can we just give Jay his golden parachute
now and get him out of here? We'll give him
the jet use for another five years, We'll give him
a couple more memberships, and can we just can we
just get his office cleared out? Like I think Jay
(39:18):
and a lot of people have talked about this. You get,
you know, peacetime generals, wartime generals. Everyone has different strengths
and weaknesses. I'm not sure about Jay Monahan because the
shit really hit the fan the last couple of years
and it felt like he was completely I don't know,
over a skiz and listen, this wasn't an easy situation.
(39:38):
But you get role App who's had a front row
seat for Goodell, for decades, Like the NFL gets crazy
situations all the time, and you know what your task
was doing handling them, figuring them out for what's best
for you, the players, the business of the operation. So
one thing I think the PGA Tour needs to do
(39:59):
a better job of. I haven't had a chance to
watch the newest Duels, but the way that you know,
the creator classic it was at the PGA Championship look
kind of cool. Well it was cool. I watched it.
I didn't. I watched a little bit of the first duels.
This second version, Like the stuff they're doing with with Grant,
(40:21):
with with Wesley, with Fat Perez, with Mason Nutt and
Bob and those guys commentating on it is kind of genius.
Like these guys have huge fucking audiences, you know, and
there's a reason some of these players go on pardon
my Takes audience or podcasts. You know, seven million millions
(40:42):
of people are listening. I was gonna say seven figures
on seven million people. Seven million people are listening. That's
pretty big, But you know what I mean. I don't
know if you do the mailbag for golf podcasts, but
my question is this, we have all these popular golfers J. T.
Speeth and others. People have historically great record of winning
majors in various competitions and being in contentions in the majors,
(41:05):
Yet when the majors come around or whatever tournament is
being played that week, they are nowhere to be seen
in the top twenty leaderboard. It seems to me like
there are a lot of randoms. Like Austin Eck wrote,
Jake Knapp and Sam Burns leading the pack on day four.
I like the variety, but gambling wise, I'm struggling. Well,
(41:25):
there are individual courses did suit individuals better, so there
are certain guys who are gonna play better at certain courses.
I also think there's a randomness. Like if you're a
PGA Tour golfer and you play in twenty events, and
let's say you have an awesome season, you make nineteen
of twenty cuts, you had a fantastic season. If you
(41:47):
top ten in those nineteen events that you made the
cut in, I would say in seven of them. If
you top ten and seven of those nineteen events, you've
been awesome. And if you did that means more likely
you top five in ave the potentially even one that's
a that's an elite season, but that means potentially, of
those nineteen cuts you made, how many would that be? Twelve?
(42:12):
Of those other finishes are gonna be somewhere between twenty
five and fifty. So you're just not really in the mix.
And that's what makes golf like it's not just a
winner and a loser. Like you're gonna have some tournaments
where you have a bad four hole stretch and all
of a sudden, you finish thirty eighth and you're like,
I didn't even play that bad. It's what makes the
(42:34):
sport kind of unique. It's why Tiger was so big
on cuts, and it's why there was so much pushback
on the signature events, and you know, the live set
up sometimes with you know, being only three rounds, and
now the signature events, the no cuts, the smaller fields.
It's like the purity of golf to me is four rounds,
(42:55):
one hundred and fifty people cut half the field. And
with that comes, especially in tougher tournaments, like you're gonna
have some guys that just get fucking rocket shipped out
of there, and you're also gonna have some random guys
that play well. Now, typically those guys come back to
the pack, right you know, Look who was in the
final group on Sunday at the Travelers Tommy Fleetwood, Russell
(43:15):
Henley and Keithan Bradley all top what fifteen to twenty
players in the world. So I think for the most part,
over the course of the season at the bigger tournaments,
the cream usually rises. Can you touch on the Brian
Rollap hiring and the Jay Monahan stepping down as a
guy who has a lot of NFL experience with the
(43:36):
product being the best of the best. What changes do
you expect to see the PGA Tour moving forward to
grow viewership? Anything particular you're hoping for with the transition
with the typical live PGA deal getting done, I mentioned this.
I do think they gotta figure out to get some
sort of uniformity with the partners, like we're all on
(43:57):
business together, and the tour has less leverage than the NFL,
Like the networks need the NFL. The networks can't function
without the NFL. These networks can function without the PGA Tour,
though CBS like they use them for a lot of inventory.
I would say CBS is pretty dependent on the PGA Tour,
(44:22):
but their product is the better one of the NBC.
But I still think we can work to figure out
different ways to just make the broadcast better and find
a way to show more golf while still like, I'm
pro ads if you listen to my show, we got ads.
We gotta pay the bills. We're not doing this for free.
This isn't a charity. This is a business. No different
(44:43):
than the PGA Tour, no different than CBS. But I
feel like the highlight nature of the broadcast is pretty
out of whack. I really do. And I think one
thing he could do immediately, and I mentioned this earlier,
it's so easy. Rip up suspensions, rip them up. It
(45:03):
might piss some people off originally, but we're eventually gonna
start playing together. They already kind of do with the
majors anyway. Hey John, you want to play at Tory Pines?
Hey Brooks? Do you want to play at the Arnold Palmer?
Hey Bryson, do you want to play at the Colonial?
You live here? You guys want to be part of
some of them? If not, no big, but hey, it's
(45:24):
open to you if you're if you're interested, if you
if you tell me that, like, hey, you know, Bryson
and John Rahm are playing at Tory Pines this weekend,
might make it a little more interesting. I think those
are two things he can immediately do to just kind
of get the ball rolling. And you know, I think
Jay sometimes, let's face it, when you make a decision
(45:47):
and you stick your feet in the ground and you
don't want to budge, it's hard to pivot because whether
you're too stubborn you don't want to look like you're wrong,
whether uh, you don't want it to blow up in
your face. You don't want to say, well, why didn't
you do this to begin with? And I feel like
Jay was like that two years ago. Or if your
(46:08):
role app you're not tied to anything. These weren't your ideas.
You didn't force this upon anyone else, so you can
do whatever the hell you want to do. Why do
you think Justin Thomas is not more of a factor
in majors? This guy should have been thriving at a
place like Oakmont, can work the ball both ways with
his irons, and is lethal with a three wood. I
(46:29):
just don't get why he isn't more of a factor
to win big events. Your thoughts, Uh, he can get
squarely with the driver. He can get really squarely with
the driver, and I think putting sometimes a little hit
or miss. But I do think when you look at
Justin Thomas's major career in a weird way for a
(46:52):
great player and for a guy that's won multiple majors,
I do think it's a little underwhelming. If you just
bring up his major record the Open Championship, let me
find this. He has won his best, finished his eleventh,
(47:14):
and then he has a lot of like T fifty
threes cuts cuts T thirty one, T fifty three. For
a guy that's like an all time shot maker, he
should be unreal across the pond the Masters. He's never
really played that great T thirty nine, T twenty two,
T seventeen. Actually, let me take that back. He's he's
gotten better in twenty twenty. I guess do we count
(47:36):
that one? He finished eighth in twenty two, but he's
missed the cut the last couple of years. He finished
thirty six this year. He has not had a good
major season this year for sure. Honestly his last He
hasn't played well in majors the last three years of three, six, nine, eleven.
(47:58):
In his last eleven. He's been cut one, two, three, four, five,
six seven times seven miss cuts in his last eleven majors.
It's pretty nuts. So it's like he's talked about it,
but there is a little track record there. I would
(48:20):
say this right now with Justin Thomas. I just wouldn't
put any money on him in these majors based on
his for whatever reason. I don't know if he's pressing.
I don't know. He's had an awesome season. For a
guy that's had an awesome season, who's a Locke Ryder
Cup to miss two cuts, I mean the PGA Championship
in the US Open, and he was not very good
(48:44):
at the Masters either. I don't know. I honestly don't
know what to tell you there, my fellow bald brother,
do you like Fleetwood, Finale and Fowler. Do you think
that those guys will ever win a major? Stars of
the Game but can't get it done? And do you
think some players who won majors the last couple of
(49:06):
years will ever win one again? Clark, Harmon spawn Xander
feels like Xander will, but the other guys are probably
just a one major player last one for you. Do
you think Charlie Woods will be one of the greats
in say ten years. He seems like a kid who
has the best shot out of the superstar kids. I
think it's to even take a guess on Charlie Woods
(49:29):
as impossible that one's tough the pressure on him. Let's
just assume this. He's going to be an excellent high
school golfer and play college. And if I had to bet,
he either stays in the SEC and just plays like Florida,
you know, like his dad's backyard, one of the sweet
SEC schools, or plays at Stanford, the pressure on him
(49:53):
will be unlike anything we've ever seen. I mean, there's
pressure on Tiger, but he wasn't trying to live up
to Tiger. There have never been a Tiger to be
ker Wood's son. Is We've seen it recently with Brownie
with you know, we're gonna see it with Arch and
he's not even Peyton to Eli's son. So I it's
all it feels unfair to Charlie. I would say, I mean,
(50:17):
Xander's not been good this year, but he got hurt.
I would say Wyndham Clark no chance, Brian Harmon extremely unlikely,
JJ spawn be pretty crazy, but shit, he looked pretty good.
I would say probably not. On those guys you listed.
Ricky Fowler is never gonna win a major. Tony Fenow,
(50:40):
I would say, has a chance. If you told me
Tommy Fleetwood has one win, like his career ends with
one win, and I know he's won on the European Tour,
it wouldn't shock me if his one win was like, oh,
the British Open, or you like Tommy Fleetwood won the
US Open, Like I could see his one win being
a make just being in a position where he just
(51:03):
kind of wins it, you know. And he's had some
of these. He's had like incredible rounds on a Sunday
when he's kind of out of it. I've bet on
him a couple times to top ten and top twenty.
It's like, this is never gonna happen. All of a sudden,
Tommy Fleetwood shoots four under on Sunday. So if he
can do that where he's like two behind in the
US Open, he shoots five under all of a sudden,
he wins and he kind of gets to fly under
(51:24):
the radar a little bit. I think he's less likely
to win it if he's in the last group. I
think he's more likely to win it if he's like
two back and he's in like the third or fourth group.
So I got Tommy Fleetwood's in the in the house,
he posted a number, then the other guy fucks up.
Is like Tommy Fleetwood's the twenty twenty seven US Open champion. Okay,
(51:56):
last question, I've been thinking about Tiger and Scottie. Huh,
I like, where your heads at? Seems to me like
Tiger was less surgical than Scotty. Scotty is almost boring
to watch, no risk, no crazy highlights. Tiger was always
making the most insane shots after making subpar shots, like
the famous chip on sixteen in two thousand and five.
What was he doing left of the green to begin with?
(52:17):
I don't think it can be overstated. Equipment in twenty
twenty five, in really equipment for the last decade, the
equipment Tiger used and Phil used early on in their career,
and guys you know, from Jack to Arnold to Greg Norman,
the variants on those clubs. I started playing golf in
the nineties. Golf was so hard. One reason I was
(52:41):
never that I'm a better player now than I've ever been.
But even in high school in like two thousand, two
thousand and one, two thousand and two, we had some
really good players in my area, like Nick Watney, Spencer Levine,
Ricky Barnes was from a little closer like Stockton, but
he was All those guys are a little older than me,
(53:02):
but like guys that went on the PGA Tour. But
for the most part, like if you were shooting mid
to high seventies, you were like a top two or
three guy on a golf team in high school. If
you look at the high school scores now, it is
stupid how good all these teams are because it's never
been easier to play golf. It doesn't mean that you
don't have to be good to play golf. But like
(53:24):
this equipment, I think I heard I don't know if
it was on no laying up or someone said that
earlier this year that Scottie Scheffer last year in twenty
twenty four hit like fifteen percent more fairways in twenty
four than he did in twenty three. And obviously he's
swinging hard and hitting the ball really far, he's hitting
the ball really straight. Tiger did not hit the ball straight.
(53:48):
But also part of the reason he didn't hit the
ball straight because Tiger swang hard like all these guys now,
Tiger was swinging in terms of you know, ball speed,
clubhead speed, like with the loy but equipment in ninety
seven or two thousand, Like if you miss hit it
a little bit, it's like you could be way off.
And I just think that part of what made golf.
(54:12):
I mean, the three most famous golfers of all time
are Arnold Palmer, well probably Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicholas,
Tiger Woods. But like Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods, if
you go back and just watch highlights of Arnold Palmer,
he did a lot of shit from the trees. Like
what made Phil and Tiger so spectacular was like the
(54:33):
crazy shots from out of nowhere. Scotty's like, oh, yeah,
you just hit an eight iron from one hundred and
seventy yards the middle of the fairway to six feet
tapped it in for Bertie, like Tiger was like, yeah, Tiger,
you know, he took a He took a five iron
from two hundred and ten yards, He roped it around
a tree, bounced on the top of the bunker, and
ended up rolling seventeen feet and then he rolled it
(54:54):
in for a most incredible eagle I've ever seen. That's
not really what Scotty Shuffer does. But I think it
gets back to the equipment. When you watch Tiger in
twenty nineteen, it was much more and when he won
the Masters, and even when he started playing well, remember
when he was the playing captain of twenty nineteen President's Cup,
(55:16):
it was he was playing more boring golf because with
this equipment, there's no point to not be boring. You're
just kind of like hitting it out there three hundred
and ten yards. You're just moving the ball forward. If
you're a good wedge player and good short iron player,
you're gonna knock some balls tight. You're gonna make a
bunch of parties. That's not how Tiger and Phil played
in their heyday, because that's not really the equipment. If
(55:37):
you're swinging as hard as those guys are swinging, a
fucking seven iron could land way left. You know, it
wasn't because Tiger was trying to do it. I think
the equipment is the ball. The equipment is a big
reason it's harder for these guys. Everything is so optimized,
like everything swing, speed, ball control, like perfectly to a
(56:01):
t Did track man exists for Tiger twenty years ago?
I mean, I'm sure there were elements of which it existed,
but nothing to the extent of now. Even Tiger talks
about now, I feel I'm a field guy. They're like,
what do you mean you don't measure? He's like, no,
I can, just I can tell sixty seven yards. I'm
just used to looking at it. The way these guys talk,
it's feel feel feel. We don't have field players anymore.
(56:24):
I mean, Scotty is he's the closest thing to a
modern day field player, but it's also very optimized with
the numbers, and Bryson's the most extreme right all the numbers.
Can you imagine Bryson if he tried to play the
way he's playing in nineteen ninety eight, where some of
(56:45):
his drives would end up, he would hit drives on
a hole into a different city, swinging that hard. I mean,
it would go look at John Daly who bombed. He struggled.
The balls would fly all over the map, which made
golf pretty entertain That made anyone that tried playing golf
twenty thirty years ago. It's like a lot of people
just quit You're like, this is not fun at all. Now.
(57:08):
It's like you hit a couple of shots, like hey,
hit this oversized callaway. You're like, fuck, did I just
hit this seven iron one hundred and eighty yards? You're like, yeah,
blasted again. That would never have happened in nineteen ninety six.
Like I quit, I'm not playing with these Mizuno blades.
So I think a huge element is just is the
equipment and the balls and just the uh yeah, I
(57:30):
mean I I also think that you watch some Tiger
Phil highlights, even stuff from like the nineties with Greg Norman,
some of the eighties stuff, it a lot more variants,
a lot more variables. They're just less variables now. It's
I was not rooting for Tommy Fleetwood too crumble like
he did. But it can't really be argued that it
(57:51):
was kind of entertaining because we just don't see that
as much. It used to happen all the time, because
at any moment in professional golf a guy could get
like a double bogie. It just feels, especially in a
non major, it feels kind of rare. Now it's like
rare to watch a guy get a bogie in a
big spot because she's like, I was just gonna hit
it three hundred and twenty yards, then I'll knock it
up around the green and more than likely get up
(58:12):
and down that that was not the case back in
the day. So appreciate everyone listening, and I'll see you
in a couple of days back from Scottsdale. So yep,
the volume
The volume What is Happening Everybody? John Middlecoff Little Go
Low podcast today recording from my hotel room in the
(00:22):
corner as you can see, and very very excited because
we got a big show today. We did a football
podcast yesterday, and I did want to do a golf
podcast this week because there's a lot going on. Huge
television ratings. Last week obviously a big moment with Keegan Bradley,
the Ryder Cup captain, defeating Tommy Fleetwood on the eighteenth
(00:44):
hole of essentially his home course, his home area. The
local kid gets it done for the second time in
three years. So we will talk about Keegan Bradley cutting
through the noise and should he just name himself as
a member of the team that he's also the captain enough?
Can he be the playing captain? Obviously he can be
the playing captain, the first one since Arnold Palmer, But
(01:05):
shouldn't he just be at this point Tommy Fleetwood on
the opposite end of you know, with the thrill of
victory comes the agony of defeat, and Tommy Fleetwood is
a little bit of a throwback, you know. I mean
it's you don't see as many meltdowns as you used to.
I feel like maybe it's the the the equipment. Maybe
(01:27):
it's these courses are too easy for these guys. But
it's rare to witness what we just did. I mean,
a top player who just looked like he was going
to cruise to a victory and then all of a sudden,
you're walking off eighteen and it looks like the guy's
in tears. Brian Rolapp the new PGA Tour CEO commissioner,
you know, technically the CEO, also the commissionaries. He's the boss.
(01:48):
I have three things that I think he should immediately
implement moving forward, just to kind of help to get
this ball rolling and things that can I think make
the transition a little bit easier. We have Live Dallas
this week, also known as a Bryson d Shambeau home game,
so we'll see if Bryson, who is the betting favorite
going into the weekend, can get his first win actually
(02:11):
on American soil from since joining Live. Obviously, he has
one more major this year to see if he can
win another major and knock off. I guess he's won two,
but they've both been a US Open, So can he
win the Open, which you know tournament that would give
Bryce a little trouble given that there are a lot
of variables there and you can't scientific his way, you know,
(02:32):
through pars and birdies. But before we dive in to
some golf talk, I do need to tell you about
my friends, my partners, and the official ticketing app of
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Brady's arms after they came back from twenty eight to three.
(02:54):
And then you'll look in another and you'll see Brett
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And then you realize, like a lot of people were
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(03:15):
playoff game, or this historic regular season game, Caitlin Clark
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you want to go to a game this summer, any sport, obviously,
this fall football season is not very far away. Me
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you know, you're in Fox do you know what the
opening game is? I'm like, what is it again? They're like,
Texas Ohio State nine am, Pacific Standard time, kickoff opening weekend.
(03:40):
I'm like, Texas Ohio State. That's how arch Manning starts
the season. If I was a UT fan or I
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I think sometimes we just spend too much time talking
about stuff that like, ultimately doesn't matter and sometimes you
just gotta cut through the noise and just call a
(04:22):
spade a spade. And one thing being around Colin and
the show this week, like he's really good at that.
He can just kind of cut through, find an angle,
something he's fired up on, and just attack it. And
I think sometimes the golf media is different than a
lot of other different medias and I'm pretty close, you know,
in the football circle, and there's not that much fluff
(04:42):
to football, right, Like if something bad happens, people attack it. Fans, media,
the shows, like if you have a bad time out call,
if you make a bad play call, if a player
does something stupid, if anything happens there there is every
different angle attack, and I think sometimes with golf it
(05:03):
almost feels like the media all reiterates the same thing sometimes,
like the fans don't care about the ball roll back,
the players don't want it, who wants it? The media
is the one pushing that. And I think sometimes with
Keegan Bradley, it's like, well he can't play and be
the captain. Why not? He's clearly one of our best players.
(05:24):
It's not even debatable at this point in time, and
it's not one of those situations where our team is
so deep with star power. It's like, well, it's an
easy one for Keegan. Just be the captain and become
a legendary captain. Maybe do it for the next four
Ryder Cups. It's like he's still in the prime of
his career. He is clearly one of the best Americans.
(05:44):
He just won a tournament for the second time in
three years. He's played really well over the course of
the last month, finished top ten at the Memorial and
at the PGA Championship, and obviously had an incredible comeback
on Sunday against Tommy Fleetwood. And here's the other thing.
In some events, right, like a playoff game, whether it's basketball,
(06:05):
whether it's baseball, whether it's hockey, any situation you know
in an industry you're in. If you have a big meeting,
we've all been there, Especially younger people or someone who
doesn't have that much experience, you can feel overwhelmed. You're like,
I wasn't quite ready for the moment. I hadn't prepared
for this moment. Hell I didn't even want to be
in this moment. Keegan Bradley has campaigned for over a
(06:29):
decade that he never unpacked his bags from the last
Ryder Cup he was a part of because it hurt
him so bad one to lose and two he would
do anything in his power to get back. Like he
has openly talked about his passion for the Ryder Cup,
for America, for the team, how it means everything. Honestly,
when you say the Ryder Cup, even before Keegan Bradley
(06:52):
became the team captain, when you just think American Ryder Cup,
like Keigan Bradley's passion for it is right up there. Viously,
like Speith and Justin Thomas, that combo you think Tiger
and Phil, but that they've been very hit or miss players. Obviously,
there are some historic players like a Seve Ballisos or
you know, some of the Europeans that have had huge moments.
(07:14):
But when I think Kegan Bradley, I think about a
guy that two years ago was kind of screwed who
got I don't want to say overlooked, but got bypassed
for Justin Thomas, who at the time this year it's
a no brainer to take him, but at the time
it was a little controversial and they showed it on Netflix.
He was clearly pretty devastated. And now you're looking back
(07:35):
two years later, he's asked to be the captain, and
he even talked about it last week or I guess
after he won that. All he thinks about now since
he's been named the captain when he's not playing golf
is how to be the Ryder Cup captain and what
to do as a Ryder Cup captain. It consumes his
life and the only time that he can relax a
(07:56):
little bit and just play golf is when he's inside
the ropes. And you see him when he's inside the ropes. Now,
he's been fucking awesome. So like this notion that the
captain of one of these teams is like the difference
between hiring Freddy Kitchens or Bill Belichick or you know,
Steve Kerr and Mark Jackson. That's just not the case, right.
(08:17):
I Mean, most of these pairings are player driven. The
Ryder Cup, especially when it comes to the Americans, is
much closer to like the NBA. The players pick and
choose everything. If Scotty Scheffler doesn't want to play with you,
guess what he ain't playing with you. If Justin Thomas
wants to play with somebody, he's gonna play with that guy.
That's the way it works. So obviously there are things
(08:39):
that behind the scenes that matter, and there is a
chemistry element. But when I hear people like what about
the leadership, the leadership you're either gonna make a ten
foot plotter or not, you really are. And this event
being in America, especially in the Northeast Anario, where he's
comfortable with. It's been well documented he went to Saint
(09:00):
John's the Ryder Cups in New York. I think at
this point in time, Keigan Bradley should just officially name
himself on the team and then just figure it out
from there because if we're serious about winning this, which
whether he's on the team or off the team, it
is going to be very difficult. I think they are
better than us. The only advantage we have is typically
(09:21):
the home team wins. But when it comes to like
Kegan Bradley shouldn't do this, put the team first. For
who Andrew Novak, Ben Griffin Again, I like these players
that they've had awesome seasons, But for a guy who's
played in this event before, who's won a major, who's
won big time events lately, and let's face it, who's
(09:42):
kind of wired for it, And this is a huge point,
sticking point why they took Justin Thomas a couple of
years ago. Obviously has a really good record in the
Ryder Cup, but you go, you know what JT is,
He's kind of a war daddy. You want him in
the trenches with you, and you say the same thing
for speed, And I do feel that way Keegan Bradley
and some of these other names, and maybe they would
(10:03):
turn out to be that way, like if you put
him on the team, they would like I think Max
Homa has proven to be like, Okay, he can handle
the moment and he gets into it and it feels
like it's a big Tom Kim Like it doesn't always
play that well on the PGA Tour, but in some
of these team events, you're like, fuck Tom. Tom Kim's
kind of a you know, a little shit stort kind
of like him around and Team Europe historically has been
(10:26):
full of those type guys and I think we lack
some of that and that's what JT brings. Like Ultimately,
Sky Scheffler's not bringing that to the table. Colin more
Kaw is not bringing that to the table. JT is
speak a little bit. Kegan Bradley definitely will. And I
remember a couple of years ago, it's different. You know,
we have a bigger advantage in the President's Cup when
the famous meme that they've kind of you know, messed
(10:49):
with the production when Tiger Woods is playing Abe Answer
and he walks in the putt from like fifty feet
even though he didn't start walking it until it literally
fell in. But last time I checked, wasn't he a
playing captain? And it worked out? Okay? And I think Tiger,
like Keegan similar very serious guys like these aren't screw
(11:10):
around guys. This guy's Keigon Bradley's not having like three
extra beers, like, he'll do whatever it takes to get
it dialed in. I just think he's the choice right
in terms of the way he's playing. He's got to
be on the team. And I got no problem if
he's also going to be the captain, Like, I don't
think he needs to recuse himself, Like, okay, I got
to be a vice captain. Now give it to someone else.
(11:32):
You've come this far, you be the captain, You be
the playing captain, And let's roll and congrats to him
who I saw there were some incredible stats this Weekend
about the ratings of this tournament. That Sunday drew three
point five million people. It was up thirty five percent
(11:54):
from last year when Scotti Scheffer won it. It was
the third highest non major of the year, behind The Players,
which obviously Rory won, and The Heritage, which Justin Thomas won.
Even golf channels Thursday through Friday coverage average almost six
hundred thousand viewers, up forty percent, so it peaked at
like five point five million people watching. It's a good
(12:18):
tournament to watch. I don't know if it's the fireworks.
I don't know if it just looks really like the
green looks so plush, like the course is always just
in great shape. It really pops on television, you know,
not shocking to see the players of all the non majors,
the players really pops. Pebble if the weather's good, always pops.
(12:38):
RBC Heritage because of the water kind of always pops.
I think The Travelers is just an elite PGA tournament.
You know, it's had some great winners lately. Keegan's won
in dramatic fashion, Scotti Sheffler last year won in dramatic fashion.
It's just a really, really fun tournament, But with a
winner comes a loser. And you know, I think Tony
(13:02):
Feno said this a couple of years ago when he
was really struggling to win tournaments and he was clearly
one of the better players, definitely one of the better
American players. I think he summed it up, like, you know,
a winner is just a loser that never gave up.
And I think what makes golf a lot different than
these other sports is, like, you know, finishing third is
really impressive. You're finishing in a tournament of one hundred
(13:24):
and fifty people. You're beating one hundred and forty seven, right, Hell,
you could finish second, and if you lose an extra holes,
no one beats you through the course of the seventy
two holes. Where in basketball, like everyone was better than
the Utah Jazz, right, the Colorado Rockies suck. But if
you finish like twentieth in back to back tournaments, like
(13:45):
you're playing pretty good golf. So a winning percentage on
the PGA Tour, if you have like a three percent
winning percentage, you're a Hall of Famer. Right. If you
win a couple percent of the tournaments you enter over
the course of your career. Incredible accomplishment, right I saw
I think Jordan Spie spending three hundred tournaments in his career.
(14:07):
I'm pretty sure he's won like fifteen or sixteen tournaments.
So think about his winning percentage. You're talking about a
couple percent, three four percent, and my math could be
a little off there. I guess if you've won fifteen tournaments,
it'd be like five percent, and that probably is only
going to continue to go down if he keeps playing
and he doesn't win tournaments. But objectively, Tommy Fleetwood's a really,
(14:30):
really good player. I mean, there is no disputing he
is an incredible ball striker, a very consistent player. I
looked at his winning percentage. Now, he's played less tournaments
than guys like Speeth and Justin Thomas, But when you
just factor in cuts made, he's played in one hundred
and fifty nine PGA tournaments. He's made one hundred and
(14:53):
thirty five cuts, so he's made eighty five percent of
his cuts. To put that in perspective, again, these guys
have played more tournaments. Obviously, Tommy plays a lot in Europe.
Speace cut percentage is eighty one percent. Thomas's cut percentage
is eighty two percent. So just to put into perspective,
like you're in the mid eighties, you are, You're a
big time player. He has twenty eight top five finishes,
(15:16):
he has forty two top ten finishes. He's finished runner
up six times. He's been an awesome player in majors.
Like his resume speaks for itself. He's made well over
like close to thirty five million dollars. He is objectively
a high end player, one of the best players in
the world, one of the best European players. A guy
that is going to be a lock, a lock for
(15:39):
the Ryder Cup four years to come, like that is
not going to change it. He can't win, and you know,
a guy like him, I think it's easy to go.
He's gonna win. It's inevitable. And then you watch Sunday
and you kind of struck with are you sure like her?
Are we sure? Cause I'm watching that He's up there
(16:00):
on the fourteenth toll, and I know Keegan after he says, listen,
I obviously you're not in a great position there, but
I go, hey, these last four holes, anything can happen.
You can have birdies, eagles, doubles and that's what happened kinda.
I mean, Tommy Fleetwood was in the middle of the
fairway with one shot lead on eighteen, with the should
(16:23):
have been a nine iron in his hand, and he
hit a biting witch and didn't win. And you just
watch these moments and this is what makes golf I
feel like it used to happen more. Maybe it's just
old age, maybe it's just nostalgia. Maybe it's actually not true,
but I feel like we used to have a lot
of meltdowns. And I do think when I was definitely
(16:43):
before this equipment boom the club, you know, there would
be much more, there'd be a greater disperse of shots.
Right When you watch some old highlights of Tiger and
Phil in the late nineties early two thousands, both those
guys were all over the fucking map off the tee,
I mean all over the map off the tea consistently.
(17:05):
It's why Tiger implemented those little stingers and hit three
irons off fairwell, you know, in the fairways all the time.
It wasn't just he's like a conservative player. It was
also because he could hit a three hundred and twenty
yard drive into the homes at any moment, same with Phil.
These guys. Now, I do think it's shocking, and I
mean shocking when someone down the stretch of a tournament
(17:29):
just hits the ball fifty yards into the trees. It
does not happen like it used to, which is understandable
because anyone who's decent listening to this at golf, if
you have a newer club, your missus do not disperse
as crazy as they did ten, fifteen to twenty years ago.
And I've just somehow I've gotten down a Sevy ballisterios
rabbit hole on YouTube recently, and the one theme that
(17:52):
keeps coming up and Johnny Miller keeps talking about this.
Some of the greatest players are the most popular players
in the history of the sport sprayed the ball, and
it's almost like they become closer with the fans because
they're around them all the time. You know who notoriously
did not hit the ball straight, Arnold Palmer, Sevi Bolstero's
(18:14):
Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth. These guys have blown
all over the map. They're all over the place, and
that's what made them so great as they hit these
spectacular shots. Well, Tommy Fleetwood like his shots, he's like
peppering the fairway, and to me to watch him implode
like he did on eighteen, like, there's no other way
(18:35):
to say it than he kind of choked. Because if
you were in that situation and you just had two
putts to win the tournament and you three putted like
that is whether you're playing Keegan Bradley to win the
Travelers or whether you're playing your buddy for one hundred dollars,
that is one hundred percent a choke job. And then
I think when you factor in like the pressure on
(18:56):
him to do it, is this guy a winning talent.
There's no disputing that. His consistency speaks for itself. But
when you watch that situation, you have to go, I
don't know, like I do think there might be some
sort of mental hurdle, and this only makes it worse,
makes you question yourself now you look earlier. This season
(19:18):
is a good example. JJ spawn gets to extra holes
with Roy McElroy and then just kind of implodes. Not
all his fault, the ball just flies on him on
seventeen and losing the playoffs by I don't know what
was it, four or five shots, and then he used
that to his benefit later in the season to help
him win the US Open. The difference, though, is JJ
(19:38):
has less of this conversation around him. JJ hasn't been
a guy finishing forty two times in the top ten.
He doesn't have twenty eight top fives, doesn't have a
career of contending in majors. So once you start getting
that conversation around you, it only grows. We see it
in the other sports all the time. We've been talking
(19:59):
about all week, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen,
who can win a Super Bowl? Who can get it
done in the playoffs, who's gonna get over the hump?
Who's gonna beat Patrick Mahomes. We see it in basketball,
it's like, what when can James Harden never get it done?
In turns iin you just never got it done, just
never was able to get it done. And the difference
in some of these team sports and these individual sports,
(20:19):
like you could always blame well, a coach called chitty
plays well, my defense sucked, well, I'm of the second
best player on my team, tore his ACL in the
second round, so we didn't have the depth. And golf,
there's no one to blame by yourself. It's just you
and your caddy and it's on you to win it.
And it's it's what makes it's so fascinating to watch.
It's essentially a one on one sport. Sometimes there are
(20:42):
three or four guys in the mix, but there's just
out there on an island. You're like a cornerback. They're
throwing deep and it's just you and the wide receiver
and you could screw up and you can point, but
we all just are watching you. And in golf, middle
of the fairway, whole eighteen, Tommy Fleetwood, you're gonna hit
a nine? Are you gonna pitching which you gonna knock
it in stiff or you're gonna leave it way short
(21:04):
to the left and give yourself a very hard up
and down. Because you know what Keigan Bradley did and
he mentioned this, I saw the shot and I hit
that exact same shot one hundred thousand times. He called
it like a ten to ten, which was basically ear
to ear, and he stuck it five six feet and
he was a guy that got over that. And you
know what he acted like, I've been here before, I
(21:26):
expect to hit this shot. And when you look at
Tommy Fleetwood. Who again, I'm pro Tommy Fleetwood. I was
rooting for Tommy Fleetwood. I wanted to see him win.
He had no clue what to do, felt lost. Hell,
we've all been there. Sometimes you get over a shot,
You're like, I don't know what to do. You can't
be like that on the PGA Tour, not on whole
seventy two of a big time event against another big
(21:47):
time player and expect to win. So obviously there you
could say Tommy can learn from it, But Tommy's been
in this position a ton now, truly leading like this
with a couple holes to go. Maybe maybe not as much,
but it does make you question, like, sometimes you know
a guy can go on to make a bunch of money,
have all these accolades, have a bunch of success, and honestly,
(22:09):
he could be a guy that wouldn't shock me if,
like I don't know, never wins a PGA Tour event,
which is which is crazy to say, but you know
the odds, it's really really difficult to do. Now, you
could say, you put yourself in enough situations, it's eventually
going to flip your way. And uh, I would have
said one before Sunday. But after watching Sunday, you go,
(22:31):
I don't know, man, I don't know. Pro golfers drive
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co slash audio. Okay, Brian Rolapp, the new commissioner for
(24:27):
the PGA Tour CEO Boss new Goodell, I'll call him
new Goodell. I think there are three things he can
do to just kind of set up a little runway
to get us to get us off and run in here.
And I think he's been handed a tough situation lots
going on the splitting golf. Some of the stuff that
(24:49):
jay Monhan screwed up, the suspensions, just a lot of
moving parts that he had nothing to do with. So
I don't put any of the blame. And these decisions
are not easy to to reverse, right, But this is
what he's been tasked with to figure out how to
reverse these decisions and get this operation just it's going
(25:11):
in the right direction, but take it to the next
level and not have what happened over the last couple
of years ever happened again. I think the number one
thing he can do immediately tomorrow is tear up all
the suspensions, because every guy that went to Live was
immediately suspended from the PGA tour. And these guys have
(25:32):
talked about it, like John Rahm goes, you know, sometimes
when I'm driving down Frank Lloyd and I look over
there and I see TPC and I see the stadium,
I miss it. Do you know what I would say, Hey, John,
if you're in town next year and you want to
play in the waste Management you have a spot, you're
no longer suspended Bryson, you want to play in one
(25:54):
of these Texas events sometime this Scottie Scheffer and some
of the boys are playing. If you're open, if you
don't have a live event, you're in. Wesley Brian the
live golfer. That's where j Monahan really lost me. But
any of these guys from Jaukee Neeman to fill the
(26:14):
DJ to do you guys want to play the Florida Swing?
Do you guys want to come to the Arnold Palmer,
You're in. So I think that's the number one thing
he should do is just disband all the suspensions and
then obviously as they work to get fully some sort
of integration as we move forward the next couple of years,
they can figure that out. But on a short term basis,
(26:35):
if Brooks Kopka wants to play in the Arnold Palmer,
if John Rahm wants to play at Torrey Pines, doors
are wide open. Number two, there needs to be into reports.
Brian comes from the NFL, where an injury report doesn't
tell you, you know, unless they say the guy is out.
(26:56):
You don't know. The questionable can turn into a probable
really quick. But at least you have some idea. Throughout
the week, you go, hey, you know what, Josh Allen
didn't practice Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I can't be stunned
if he does not play on Sunday in the game.
But if a guy plays Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in
practice and then doesn't play in the game, You're like,
(27:19):
what's going on here? And to me, that's the PGA
Tour is they're in really deep with gambling, and rightfully so,
it is an incredible product to gamble on, it really is.
But this notion of guys withdrawing on a Thursday or Friday,
it's like, yeah, my wrist have been feeling weird since Monday.
We got to know. And you can't be in business
(27:40):
and try to do this above board without some sort
of injury reports. And the players, these guys love pushing
back against anything you ask them to do, whether it's media,
whether it's injury reports. This needs to become mandated again.
It doesn't have to be that in depth. It can
just be Colin Morikawa risk. It doesn't even need to
(28:01):
be probable questionable like he's playing right, but it just
so at least you know, Jordan speedth tweaked his back
this week and then by I think the was it
Friday withdrew from the tournament. It's been nice to know
that something was up with his back, and I think
the PGA Tour has done a really, really poor job
(28:21):
of that and it doesn't feel like Jay Monahan even
put any effort into doing that. Last, but not least,
one thing the NFL is very serious about is their
relationship with their broadcast partners, because the lifeblood of the
sport is the games. Is Fox, CBS is NBC broadcasting
(28:46):
the games, and Brian was in charge of that right
he was in charge of the media rights deal and
the power that those broadcasts mean for the business of
the NFL and the health of the sport, the cash
flow of the sport. Golf is a complicated sport. It's
easy to broadcast a football game in the sense that
(29:08):
you're never gonna go to commercial when they're playing the
game golf, you have guys hitting shots at all different times,
so it's not an apples to apples comparable, right, same
with basketball and baseball. When the action's on, it's pretty
obvious when there's a break in the action, you could say, well, Scott,
he's walking right now. What's Rory doing? Well, Rory and
Scotty are walking right now. What's Bryson doing. It's not easy.
(29:29):
They have to make a better job and a more
assertive effort to figure this out, because it does feel
sometimes that beside like a Sunday of a major or
Sunday of a big tournament, that it kind of becomes
like a highlight reel and anytimes like oh, let's go
to John on whole fourteen, Well, if you haven't seen
(29:51):
John in two hours, you're like, I bet he's gonna
make this long ass putt, and then oh, John from
fifty feet for eagle. I just think that they've kind
of lost the plot. And it's the one thing I
do agree with the vast majority of the golf media
about is the TV product has been pretty shitty and
(30:13):
would not have been accepted in the NFL. It would
have been a major problem. And I think there's just
too much money on the line too, Like you guys
are spending too much if you're CBS and NBC did
not try to figure this out and make it a
better product. And I actually think that that's where Roll
app comes in, and he might be the right guy.
So number one, suspension's done, Number two injury reports, Number three,
(30:37):
we got to fix the broadcast. Okay, we got a
little The US leg of the Live Golf season is
in full swing and for the next couple days twenty seven,
twenty eighth, and twenty ninth, Bryce and d Chambeau. I mean,
I'm sure you saw him on social media. He was
all over town. He is he was born and raised
in the Central Valley in California, but he went to SMU.
(31:00):
He's lived in Dallas forever. This is his home event.
And I think you know, Bryson more than anyone else,
has done a lot for golf in the last couple
of years. He's he's kind of transcended. I mean, it's
really remarkable what he's accomplished in terms of becoming like
(31:23):
as big of a golf influencer. And if you're listening
to this, you know, you know the power of Bob
of Horvat, of the Brian Brows, of the four play
guys like it's a big deal on YouTube. Golf, you know,
is you could argue is as big on YouTube as
it is anywhere. And Bryson entered that space and he
(31:45):
immediately became a rock star and he changed the game.
I mean, we talked about it a couple weeks ago.
When has one of the favorites before a major ever
just done like a hole by whole tutorial of what
he plans on doing it. It's pretty awesome, And I've
said forever I use some of his videos before the
tournaments to scout him. You can't take much away from
(32:08):
the break fifty when they're playing the red tees, But
when it comes to watching Bryson, he'll just go to
a random course, typically in the Texas area Dallas area,
where he lives, and just try to break the course record.
I haven't watched his most recent one. I think he
just broke a course record. I've watched him get kind
of close, and you're just like, this guy is so
(32:28):
fucking good at golf. I mean his advantage. That's where
sometimes on in a major, you watch him that live
because he's playing the other guys, you know, it doesn't
quite put into perspective how much he's dominating. But when
it's just him out there in some random course and
he's just split in these fairways three hundred and forty yards,
(32:48):
playing by himself, playing eighteen holes in like, you know,
two hours, it's a remarkable sight to see. And he's
the betting favorite this week. I would imagine there's gonna
be a big turnout for him, and uh, I think
sometimes it's cool to watch a guy kind of turn
around his career because I would say two plus years ago,
(33:13):
his approval rating was pretty low. People were kind of
down on him. And I would say now, just universally
with sports fans, if you just say Bryson d Chambeau,
you're like doing what We're gonna watch him like he's
he's a needle mover and you know, speaking of the
Ryder Cup, he's a lock to be on that team.
And he's another guy that I think is gonna take
a lot of pride and be a fucking awesome Ryder
(33:34):
Cup player for us. Like I'm really excited to watch,
you know, Bryson the Ryder Cup. Hell, he should have
made it a couple of years ago. But you know,
if you want to attend this event, if you're living
in Texas, kids under twelve get in free. Obviously it's
you can follow every shot on Fox Sports. Excited to watch,
So watch Bryson d Schambeau tee it up in his
(33:54):
home town event. Okay, let's do a little mailbag at golopod.
(34:15):
At golopod is the Instagram fire in those dms. Get
your questions answered here on the show. Very very easy
to do. We got a bunch here here. We'll start
with Vince. What up? John was watching the Travelers and
with four holes to go in Fleetwood in the lead,
I decided to put my last three dollars in my
draftking account. I love that when you just have like
(34:36):
five dollars. I put one dollar each on Bradley, Henley,
and Day, who were in second, third and fourth at
the time. I placed a bet that was minus six
hundred on Fleetwood. I had a gut feeling he would
joke again, do you think he ever breaks through? Would
love to hear your answer on the pod? One dollar
paid out forty six before the t I would have
(35:00):
said one, I really would. And then you watch that
and you go, maybe he's just destined to have an
all time like top five, top ten career and make
a bunch of money and just never win one of
these tournaments. Because that was a tournament. You just don't
blow that tournament if you're him. Because he was playing
well too, it'd be one thing. It's like the guy
was falling apart like he was playing well, he was
(35:21):
in the controlling lead and even on eighteen, right in
the middle of the fairway. Uh to be a great
iron player and to really question what club you hit,
and I know Keegan said he kind of got gusted,
but that ball wasn't even close and then Keegan got up.
There was zero hesitation. I feel like most guys the
(35:41):
last couple of years on that whole. I mean, at
worst hit in the middle of the green, but you
can't have a three putt bogie that it just can't happen.
So one thing that makes me nervous about Tommy is
he's not a great putter. Honestly, He's the type putter
(36:02):
that in a big spot feels like I'm like this
just as a casual golfer, we all play with different
people that you have no faith that they're gonna make
a putt. And on the PGA Tour, did anyone think
on eighteen that Kegan was gonna miss it? Not a soul,
not one. And honestly, when Tommy got out over some
of those putts down the stretch, you just didn't have
(36:23):
that much faith. And again I'm pro Tommy Fleetwood but
you watch him putt you go, He's just not gonna
make it. Not sure if you watch the Brian Bros.
But if you know about Wesley's suspension, I was wondering
what your thoughts are about it. Do you think a
fine would have been more reasonable than a suspension? After all,
he went there for content creation, not to participate in
(36:45):
a live tournament. People's careers shouldn't be in the balance
of the rules that are still so vague. This is
what I'm talking about with Brian Rolapp. I think I
saw Wesley tweet out today. And for those of that
aren't super deep, Wesley's like a fringe, you know, top
one hundred, top one, twenty five, top one fifty level
PGA tour talent. Him and his brother George have a
(37:07):
YouTube channel. They do a lot of stuff with Grand Horvat.
They are, I mean, Wesley's a pretty fucking good player. George,
I think, was like an All American in college as well.
They're big time players. I mean, Wesley's a legit PG
tour player and was supposed to play in an event
this year but did the duels creation with Live and
(37:28):
Jay suspended him. And this is where and I think
it rattled Wesley, Like I think Wesley is not trying
to be controversial, like he's in the business world. Like
we're all in the business world. You know, is this
a little more difficult for me to do a podcast
sitting in a hotel room? Of course, but I had
to make a business decision. It's like I'm gonna do
this with Colin for a couple of days. Right, did
(37:50):
it impact the podcast or at least the the ease
in which I do it? Of course, Like we all
have to make tough business decisions or just businesses in
general sometimes, And I don't fault Wesley from making that decision,
and to think that then he would get slammed when
when Jay's in the position, I think the problem that
doesn't make any sense with Wesley Bryant's suspension is how
(38:14):
is Jay in a position feels like, you know, we
see these lame duck politicians or presidents or whatever. It
feels like Jay's been a lame duck for years. How
is he in position to to like render this verdict
against a guy? And if it'd be one thing, if
it was a bigger name, like what are we talking,
(38:36):
what are we doing? How can this happen, and then
I see the mental gymnastics where they invite Horvat to
play in the Barracuda up in Lake Tahoe. It's like, well,
he's not actually a member. It's like, well, what does
any of this fucking stuff matter? So I thought it
was just embarrassing that Wesley got Honestly that happened, though,
(38:56):
I really do, and I think that's a reflection. If
I was roll App, would I would text Tiger and
be like, can we just give Jay his golden parachute
now and get him out of here? We'll give him
the jet use for another five years, We'll give him
a couple more memberships, and can we just can we
just get his office cleared out? Like I think Jay
(39:18):
and a lot of people have talked about this. You get,
you know, peacetime generals, wartime generals. Everyone has different strengths
and weaknesses. I'm not sure about Jay Monahan because the
shit really hit the fan the last couple of years
and it felt like he was completely I don't know,
over a skiz and listen, this wasn't an easy situation.
(39:38):
But you get role App who's had a front row
seat for Goodell, for decades, Like the NFL gets crazy
situations all the time, and you know what your task
was doing handling them, figuring them out for what's best
for you, the players, the business of the operation. So
one thing I think the PGA Tour needs to do
(39:59):
a better job of. I haven't had a chance to
watch the newest Duels, but the way that you know,
the creator classic it was at the PGA Championship look
kind of cool. Well it was cool. I watched it.
I didn't. I watched a little bit of the first duels.
This second version, Like the stuff they're doing with with Grant,
(40:21):
with with Wesley, with Fat Perez, with Mason Nutt and
Bob and those guys commentating on it is kind of genius.
Like these guys have huge fucking audiences, you know, and
there's a reason some of these players go on pardon
my Takes audience or podcasts. You know, seven million millions
(40:42):
of people are listening. I was gonna say seven figures
on seven million people. Seven million people are listening. That's
pretty big, But you know what I mean. I don't
know if you do the mailbag for golf podcasts, but
my question is this, we have all these popular golfers J. T.
Speeth and others. People have historically great record of winning
majors in various competitions and being in contentions in the majors,
(41:05):
Yet when the majors come around or whatever tournament is
being played that week, they are nowhere to be seen
in the top twenty leaderboard. It seems to me like
there are a lot of randoms. Like Austin Eck wrote,
Jake Knapp and Sam Burns leading the pack on day four.
I like the variety, but gambling wise, I'm struggling. Well,
(41:25):
there are individual courses did suit individuals better, so there
are certain guys who are gonna play better at certain courses.
I also think there's a randomness. Like if you're a
PGA Tour golfer and you play in twenty events, and
let's say you have an awesome season, you make nineteen
of twenty cuts, you had a fantastic season. If you
(41:47):
top ten in those nineteen events that you made the
cut in, I would say in seven of them. If
you top ten and seven of those nineteen events, you've
been awesome. And if you did that means more likely
you top five in ave the potentially even one that's
a that's an elite season, but that means potentially, of
those nineteen cuts you made, how many would that be? Twelve?
(42:12):
Of those other finishes are gonna be somewhere between twenty
five and fifty. So you're just not really in the mix.
And that's what makes golf like it's not just a
winner and a loser. Like you're gonna have some tournaments
where you have a bad four hole stretch and all
of a sudden, you finish thirty eighth and you're like,
I didn't even play that bad. It's what makes the
(42:34):
sport kind of unique. It's why Tiger was so big
on cuts, and it's why there was so much pushback
on the signature events, and you know, the live set
up sometimes with you know, being only three rounds, and
now the signature events, the no cuts, the smaller fields.
It's like the purity of golf to me is four rounds,
(42:55):
one hundred and fifty people cut half the field. And
with that comes, especially in tougher tournaments, like you're gonna
have some guys that just get fucking rocket shipped out
of there, and you're also gonna have some random guys
that play well. Now, typically those guys come back to
the pack, right you know, Look who was in the
final group on Sunday at the Travelers Tommy Fleetwood, Russell
(43:15):
Henley and Keithan Bradley all top what fifteen to twenty
players in the world. So I think for the most part,
over the course of the season at the bigger tournaments,
the cream usually rises. Can you touch on the Brian
Rollap hiring and the Jay Monahan stepping down as a
guy who has a lot of NFL experience with the
(43:36):
product being the best of the best. What changes do
you expect to see the PGA Tour moving forward to
grow viewership? Anything particular you're hoping for with the transition
with the typical live PGA deal getting done, I mentioned this.
I do think they gotta figure out to get some
sort of uniformity with the partners, like we're all on
(43:57):
business together, and the tour has less leverage than the NFL,
Like the networks need the NFL. The networks can't function
without the NFL. These networks can function without the PGA Tour,
though CBS like they use them for a lot of inventory.
I would say CBS is pretty dependent on the PGA Tour,
(44:22):
but their product is the better one of the NBC.
But I still think we can work to figure out
different ways to just make the broadcast better and find
a way to show more golf while still like, I'm
pro ads if you listen to my show, we got ads.
We gotta pay the bills. We're not doing this for free.
This isn't a charity. This is a business. No different
(44:43):
than the PGA Tour, no different than CBS. But I
feel like the highlight nature of the broadcast is pretty
out of whack. I really do. And I think one
thing he could do immediately, and I mentioned this earlier,
it's so easy. Rip up suspensions, rip them up. It
(45:03):
might piss some people off originally, but we're eventually gonna
start playing together. They already kind of do with the
majors anyway. Hey John, you want to play at Tory Pines?
Hey Brooks? Do you want to play at the Arnold Palmer?
Hey Bryson, do you want to play at the Colonial?
You live here? You guys want to be part of
some of them? If not, no big, but hey, it's
(45:24):
open to you if you're if you're interested, if you
if you tell me that, like, hey, you know, Bryson
and John Rahm are playing at Tory Pines this weekend,
might make it a little more interesting. I think those
are two things he can immediately do to just kind
of get the ball rolling. And you know, I think
Jay sometimes, let's face it, when you make a decision
(45:47):
and you stick your feet in the ground and you
don't want to budge, it's hard to pivot because whether
you're too stubborn you don't want to look like you're wrong,
whether uh, you don't want it to blow up in
your face. You don't want to say, well, why didn't
you do this to begin with? And I feel like
Jay was like that two years ago. Or if your
(46:08):
role app you're not tied to anything. These weren't your ideas.
You didn't force this upon anyone else, so you can
do whatever the hell you want to do. Why do
you think Justin Thomas is not more of a factor
in majors? This guy should have been thriving at a
place like Oakmont, can work the ball both ways with
his irons, and is lethal with a three wood. I
(46:29):
just don't get why he isn't more of a factor
to win big events. Your thoughts, Uh, he can get
squarely with the driver. He can get really squarely with
the driver, and I think putting sometimes a little hit
or miss. But I do think when you look at
Justin Thomas's major career in a weird way for a
(46:52):
great player and for a guy that's won multiple majors,
I do think it's a little underwhelming. If you just
bring up his major record the Open Championship, let me
find this. He has won his best, finished his eleventh,
(47:14):
and then he has a lot of like T fifty
threes cuts cuts T thirty one, T fifty three. For
a guy that's like an all time shot maker, he
should be unreal across the pond the Masters. He's never
really played that great T thirty nine, T twenty two,
T seventeen. Actually, let me take that back. He's he's
gotten better in twenty twenty. I guess do we count
(47:36):
that one? He finished eighth in twenty two, but he's
missed the cut the last couple of years. He finished
thirty six this year. He has not had a good
major season this year for sure. Honestly his last He
hasn't played well in majors the last three years of three, six, nine, eleven.
(47:58):
In his last eleven. He's been cut one, two, three, four, five,
six seven times seven miss cuts in his last eleven majors.
It's pretty nuts. So it's like he's talked about it,
but there is a little track record there. I would
(48:20):
say this right now with Justin Thomas. I just wouldn't
put any money on him in these majors based on
his for whatever reason. I don't know if he's pressing.
I don't know. He's had an awesome season. For a
guy that's had an awesome season, who's a Locke Ryder
Cup to miss two cuts, I mean the PGA Championship
in the US Open, and he was not very good
(48:44):
at the Masters either. I don't know. I honestly don't
know what to tell you there, my fellow bald brother,
do you like Fleetwood, Finale and Fowler. Do you think
that those guys will ever win a major? Stars of
the Game but can't get it done? And do you
think some players who won majors the last couple of
(49:06):
years will ever win one again? Clark, Harmon spawn Xander
feels like Xander will, but the other guys are probably
just a one major player last one for you. Do
you think Charlie Woods will be one of the greats
in say ten years. He seems like a kid who
has the best shot out of the superstar kids. I
think it's to even take a guess on Charlie Woods
(49:29):
as impossible that one's tough the pressure on him. Let's
just assume this. He's going to be an excellent high
school golfer and play college. And if I had to bet,
he either stays in the SEC and just plays like Florida,
you know, like his dad's backyard, one of the sweet
SEC schools, or plays at Stanford, the pressure on him
(49:53):
will be unlike anything we've ever seen. I mean, there's
pressure on Tiger, but he wasn't trying to live up
to Tiger. There have never been a Tiger to be
ker Wood's son. Is We've seen it recently with Brownie
with you know, we're gonna see it with Arch and
he's not even Peyton to Eli's son. So I it's
all it feels unfair to Charlie. I would say, I mean,
(50:17):
Xander's not been good this year, but he got hurt.
I would say Wyndham Clark no chance, Brian Harmon extremely unlikely,
JJ spawn be pretty crazy, but shit, he looked pretty good.
I would say probably not. On those guys you listed.
Ricky Fowler is never gonna win a major. Tony Fenow,
(50:40):
I would say, has a chance. If you told me
Tommy Fleetwood has one win, like his career ends with
one win, and I know he's won on the European Tour,
it wouldn't shock me if his one win was like, oh,
the British Open, or you like Tommy Fleetwood won the
US Open, Like I could see his one win being
a make just being in a position where he just
(51:03):
kind of wins it, you know. And he's had some
of these. He's had like incredible rounds on a Sunday
when he's kind of out of it. I've bet on
him a couple times to top ten and top twenty.
It's like, this is never gonna happen. All of a sudden,
Tommy Fleetwood shoots four under on Sunday. So if he
can do that where he's like two behind in the
US Open, he shoots five under all of a sudden,
he wins and he kind of gets to fly under
(51:24):
the radar a little bit. I think he's less likely
to win it if he's in the last group. I
think he's more likely to win it if he's like
two back and he's in like the third or fourth group.
So I got Tommy Fleetwood's in the in the house,
he posted a number, then the other guy fucks up.
Is like Tommy Fleetwood's the twenty twenty seven US Open champion. Okay,
(51:56):
last question, I've been thinking about Tiger and Scottie. Huh,
I like, where your heads at? Seems to me like
Tiger was less surgical than Scotty. Scotty is almost boring
to watch, no risk, no crazy highlights. Tiger was always
making the most insane shots after making subpar shots, like
the famous chip on sixteen in two thousand and five.
What was he doing left of the green to begin with?
(52:17):
I don't think it can be overstated. Equipment in twenty
twenty five, in really equipment for the last decade, the
equipment Tiger used and Phil used early on in their career,
and guys you know, from Jack to Arnold to Greg Norman,
the variants on those clubs. I started playing golf in
the nineties. Golf was so hard. One reason I was
(52:41):
never that I'm a better player now than I've ever been.
But even in high school in like two thousand, two
thousand and one, two thousand and two, we had some
really good players in my area, like Nick Watney, Spencer Levine,
Ricky Barnes was from a little closer like Stockton, but
he was All those guys are a little older than me,
(53:02):
but like guys that went on the PGA Tour. But
for the most part, like if you were shooting mid
to high seventies, you were like a top two or
three guy on a golf team in high school. If
you look at the high school scores now, it is
stupid how good all these teams are because it's never
been easier to play golf. It doesn't mean that you
don't have to be good to play golf. But like
(53:24):
this equipment, I think I heard I don't know if
it was on no laying up or someone said that
earlier this year that Scottie Scheffer last year in twenty
twenty four hit like fifteen percent more fairways in twenty
four than he did in twenty three. And obviously he's
swinging hard and hitting the ball really far, he's hitting
the ball really straight. Tiger did not hit the ball straight.
(53:48):
But also part of the reason he didn't hit the
ball straight because Tiger swang hard like all these guys now,
Tiger was swinging in terms of you know, ball speed,
clubhead speed, like with the loy but equipment in ninety
seven or two thousand, Like if you miss hit it
a little bit, it's like you could be way off.
And I just think that part of what made golf.
(54:12):
I mean, the three most famous golfers of all time
are Arnold Palmer, well probably Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicholas,
Tiger Woods. But like Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods, if
you go back and just watch highlights of Arnold Palmer,
he did a lot of shit from the trees. Like
what made Phil and Tiger so spectacular was like the
(54:33):
crazy shots from out of nowhere. Scotty's like, oh, yeah,
you just hit an eight iron from one hundred and
seventy yards the middle of the fairway to six feet
tapped it in for Bertie, like Tiger was like, yeah, Tiger,
you know, he took a He took a five iron
from two hundred and ten yards, He roped it around
a tree, bounced on the top of the bunker, and
ended up rolling seventeen feet and then he rolled it
(54:54):
in for a most incredible eagle I've ever seen. That's
not really what Scotty Shuffer does. But I think it
gets back to the equipment. When you watch Tiger in
twenty nineteen, it was much more and when he won
the Masters, and even when he started playing well, remember
when he was the playing captain of twenty nineteen President's Cup,
(55:16):
it was he was playing more boring golf because with
this equipment, there's no point to not be boring. You're
just kind of like hitting it out there three hundred
and ten yards. You're just moving the ball forward. If
you're a good wedge player and good short iron player,
you're gonna knock some balls tight. You're gonna make a
bunch of parties. That's not how Tiger and Phil played
in their heyday, because that's not really the equipment. If
(55:37):
you're swinging as hard as those guys are swinging, a
fucking seven iron could land way left. You know, it
wasn't because Tiger was trying to do it. I think
the equipment is the ball. The equipment is a big
reason it's harder for these guys. Everything is so optimized,
like everything swing, speed, ball control, like perfectly to a
(56:01):
t Did track man exists for Tiger twenty years ago?
I mean, I'm sure there were elements of which it existed,
but nothing to the extent of now. Even Tiger talks
about now, I feel I'm a field guy. They're like,
what do you mean you don't measure? He's like, no,
I can, just I can tell sixty seven yards. I'm
just used to looking at it. The way these guys talk,
it's feel feel feel. We don't have field players anymore.
(56:24):
I mean, Scotty is he's the closest thing to a
modern day field player, but it's also very optimized with
the numbers, and Bryson's the most extreme right all the numbers.
Can you imagine Bryson if he tried to play the
way he's playing in nineteen ninety eight, where some of
(56:45):
his drives would end up, he would hit drives on
a hole into a different city, swinging that hard. I mean,
it would go look at John Daly who bombed. He struggled.
The balls would fly all over the map, which made
golf pretty entertain That made anyone that tried playing golf
twenty thirty years ago. It's like a lot of people
just quit You're like, this is not fun at all. Now.
(57:08):
It's like you hit a couple of shots, like hey,
hit this oversized callaway. You're like, fuck, did I just
hit this seven iron one hundred and eighty yards? You're like, yeah,
blasted again. That would never have happened in nineteen ninety six.
Like I quit, I'm not playing with these Mizuno blades.
So I think a huge element is just is the
equipment and the balls and just the uh yeah, I
(57:30):
mean I I also think that you watch some Tiger
Phil highlights, even stuff from like the nineties with Greg Norman,
some of the eighties stuff, it a lot more variants,
a lot more variables. They're just less variables now. It's
I was not rooting for Tommy Fleetwood too crumble like
he did. But it can't really be argued that it
(57:51):
was kind of entertaining because we just don't see that
as much. It used to happen all the time, because
at any moment in professional golf a guy could get
like a double bogie. It just feels, especially in a
non major, it feels kind of rare. Now it's like
rare to watch a guy get a bogie in a
big spot because she's like, I was just gonna hit
it three hundred and twenty yards, then I'll knock it
up around the green and more than likely get up
(58:12):
and down that that was not the case back in
the day. So appreciate everyone listening, and I'll see you
in a couple of days back from Scottsdale. So yep,
the volume
Host
John Middlekauff
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