Go Low - LIV vs. PGA, Jason Sobel stops by, what we can expect from Tiger Woods - 3 and Out with John Middlekauff

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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(01:33):
What is going on? Everybody? John Middlecoff Little Go Low podcast. Today,
we're gonna talk a little PGA toward golf. There were
some breaking news with the live, the investment and everything
that happened today, so I wanted to give my two
cents on that. In the landscape of a sport that
is in chaos right now, no way around it. Some

(01:53):
call it a sports, some call it a hobby. Some
called I played today, so I was in the mood.
I talked to my guy Jason from the Action Network.
He works on SiriusXM, the PGA tour channel. He's been
covering golf for twenty five years, does a lot of
gambling stuff. He will join this as well. He's at
Pebble Beach. We're not gonna talk as much gambling this week.

(02:15):
I'm not even gambling on Pebble Beach. It's just the wind.
There's no cut. I'm not even gonna it's just impossible
to gamble this week. Will be having picks next week
for waste management, but this will be kind of my
thoughts on the current state of the breaking news today
of guys like Steve Cohen and Arthur Blank, and the
Fenway Group investing in the PGA Tour. The Saudi's are

(02:38):
still on the outside. What all this means for everything,
which ultimately just kind of sucks for US fans, and
the plan will be golf podcast. Today I saw Mike McDonald,
the Raven's defensive coordinator, got hired in Seattle, did a
reaction video that is up on the YouTube page. So
my golf stuff and the football stuff is all under

(02:59):
this YouTube page. John Middlecoff, so just three and out
go Lo. Obviously this content will be there as well,
and then I'll do a big mail bag on on Friday.
Football wise. I also created last year a instagram for
golf stuff. It's golo Pod at golopod, So definitely during

(03:20):
the year we will interact, I mean, just any golf question,
whether it's just about yourself, questions about the PGA Tour, betting,
you name it. At golopod is an instagram that's golf
centric that my team runs aka myself. So I'm going
to try to put a lot of golf content on
there in twenty twenty four, that's for sure. Me playing around,

(03:40):
me screwing around and just got to get better at that.
As a content creator. This will be a golf heavy
podcast and then back football tomorrow. So let's roll. But
let's just let's just start. I was just driving home
because this is the last day at TPC on Wednesday
before they cl to you know, the pros. Now, it's

(04:02):
open to the pros all year long, but I mean
for the tournament. And when right between whole nine and ten,
there was like this huge area for a practice you know,
driving range practice facility. It's where they put their merchandise tent.
And on the merchandise tent they put all the former
pass champions and those are guys like Brooks, Koepka and

(04:25):
Phil Mickelson. You know, Bryson d. Chambeau has played very
very well at this tournament. And driving home, I thought,
you know what's crazy about in other sports? Football, for example,
when Peyton Manning or Tom Brady hit free agency. You
know Peyton had the bad neck and to Peyton was
cut Tom Bell check, you said, I don't watch you anymore.

(04:47):
Whenever they ultimately signed and Tom remember took a small deal, right,
he didn't make that much money. No one, no one
beside a diehard Denver Bronco fan could be like, oh yeah,
I remember when he signed that six year or five year,
eighty million dollar contract in twenty twelve, because after the
initial report of a guy moving teams or Kevin Durant

(05:08):
joined the Warriors, like, no one actually gives a shit
about the money, right, Lamar Jackson got paid, and then
it's like was he still good or bad?

Speaker 2 (05:16):
Right?

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Jalen Hurts got a lot of money, Like is he
still an elite player? And I think one problem with
golf is it's nowhere near the power of football. It's
a niche sport. And because the Sadis came in rightfully so,
because the business model of golf was all screwed up,
they have thrown everything off kilter. And the moment I
saw Tiger Woods in the fall talk about he was

(05:41):
the Hero Championship, which is which is his event, and
he gave a press conference and this was, you know,
I forget the exact date, maybe mid late November, maybe
early December, and he kind of acted like a tough
guy in the sense of like, yeah, we're not guaranteed
to do a deal with the Sadis, Like we'll see
what private investments we can get. And I knew right

(06:02):
there This is gonna be problematic because in no world
in this country can and listen. A lot of the
reason these guys are investing isn't just because golf is
quote unquote undervalued or they see great business opportunity. A
lot of it is golf is you know, these elites
want access to the PGA Tour. They can buy a
piece of it. They give out a little equity. They

(06:22):
think they can make some money back, but a lot
of it is access. You're not gonna be able to
make the returns you're making in the National Football League.
You're just not. The ratings of Tory Pines last week
were like one point five million. On Saturday. Last year
when Max Homer was battling guys like John Rahm, it
was like almost two point seventy five million people watch.

(06:43):
So they lost a lot of viewers in a year span.
No sport is big enough. I couldn't go to the
NFL and start another league and take away Bosa, TJ Watt,
Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert and CD to the other league
and it be okay. And the NFL is about as

(07:05):
bulletproof as anything. I can't take your best talent and
be unfazed. And right now the report about this morning
about the equity and the players getting equity and all
the infusion of money, I got news for you. Nobody
gives a shit. Nobody cares. And Max Homer tweeted about
this kind of saying, like, I know, no one cares.

(07:26):
We got to figure out to make this a better product.
The only way for this to be a good product.
The reason waste management is always so awesome. Last year
it was a Scheffler with rom on his heels. John
ram is now gone. So when you have these events
and you have DJ multiple time major champion, Brooks Koepka

(07:46):
who's won about five Bryce and d Chambeau one of
the better, you know, more polarizing under thirty guys in
the game of golf, US Open champion, obviously bringing John Rahm,
you could argue the best player in the world, definitely
one of them. Even getting personalities like Patrick Reid and
Terrell Hatton. You need people in sports. One reason the

(08:08):
Yankees and the Lakers are so big is because not
just fans like them, a lot of people hate them.
And in any business, when it comes to entertainment, whether
you're a podcaster, whether you're in golf or football, you
need to invoke emotion, right. You got to have people
rooting for and people rooting against, and the PGA Tour

(08:28):
and obviously all the older euros that were taken off.
You watch it, it's kind of bland and boring now.
And I'm a high end golf consumer. I watch the
majority of tournaments. I gamble on golf, I play a
lot of golf. I do a podcast that I'm like,
I'm gonna start talking about golf the last couple of years.
And I found at Torrey Pines, if I wouldn't had

(08:49):
a lot of money on Ludvig getting in the top ten,
no chance I would have watched it beside a couple
holes right when nothing's going on. But I would not
have taken time out of my Saturday to watch a
bunch of guys I've never heard of. And the reason
you're going to start getting some of these more often
in the no cut events is because the fields are
really diluted. And then this week, for example, at at

(09:10):
and T I have a close family member who is
plays golf in that area and he said, last year
Pebble Beach and the powers that be were very, very
mad because their field really sucked because up until last year,
the events going on in the Middle East had paid
players to come over, so a lot of guys did

(09:31):
not play at Pebble Beach and part of it is
the pro am. It's slow, so the fields sucked. Beside
Jordan Speith, who is a you know at and T
is one of his biggest, biggest sponsors, no one played.
So now they have to rotate to keep these sponsors involved.
And they do these fields because listen, golf's unique, right,
You're not guaranteed if you have one hundred and fifty

(09:53):
man field and there's a cut to have Tiger Woods,
Phil Mickelson, John Rahm and DJ playing Saturday and Sun
in meaningful rounds. You know, in football, if Patrick Mahomes
is playing, he's in the game the entire time. With golf,
with a cut, you could be gone. But isn't that
what makes the sports so great? Like I'm sorry this
week a short a small field of seventy to eighty guys,

(10:15):
no cut event, which is just giving out money. It's
cool if you're those guys, But for me, the consumer,
these businesses exist because of us, and I don't have
any interest in consuming the product. I don't care who wins.
I don't care to gamble on it, like I'll peek
at it. But I do think that that hurts it.
And it's been proven that these no cut events don't

(10:35):
really work for us. So golf is unofficially it's been
broken for a while. Today when you see the news
about these investments, I think it's officially screwed up because
it's pretty clear that Live and this merger is still
a pretty you know, a ways out for all these
guys playing together. At least that's what it feels today.

(10:56):
And as long as you can't have Jordan'speth, Justin Thomas,
Scottie Scheffler, Patrick cantlay Tony Finow and all those guys
playing with John Robb, DJ Koepka, Bryson cam Smith, we
got a problem, right and right now it's just the Majors.
It's basically four times a year, and that sucks, right,

(11:19):
it really does. And you could argue that it's a
big build up for those tournaments, true, but those tournaments
have always been big. I mean, the Master is one
of the biggest events we have in this country. It
gets ten to fifteen million people to watch every single year, Right,
that would be big if me and you were playing
in it. But to lose, I mean waste management. The
field is just dramatically different with all these guys gone,

(11:42):
the Players Championship, dramatically different, memorial, all these tournaments. Golf
doesn't have that many events that truly matter. Beside the majors.
You know, there's probably under five where you could go, Yeah,
the majority of good players are going to be there,
riv and that's not the case right now. And the
other thing that let's and I understand Tiger who takes
a lot of pride in the PGA tour. He became

(12:04):
a billionaire because of the PGA Tour. I totally understand
his stamps. But trying to get these investment people you
know are local businessmen, I mean they're not local businessmen,
but you know what I mean, the Arthur Blanks of
Steve Cohens, those type guys to give you hundreds of
millions of dollars. I get that. But if you're trying
to strong arm the Sadi's with those investments, you do

(12:26):
understand those guys are laughing at you. And when you
do this stuff, it also feels a little bit like, yeah,
We're gonna try to do this as long as possible.
Without you, it's impossible. They don't. We don't have to
guess anymore. They don't want in on golf. They're in
and they have an unlimited budget, unlimited amount of money.

(12:47):
So I don't care how rich Arthur Blank is, how
rich Steve Cohen is. They have that type money in
their couch cushions. They can pay a golfer five hundred
million dollars one guy and not even blink. It does
not matter. They offered Tiger seven hundred to eight hundred
million dollars. He can barely even play. They didn't give
a shit. They just wanted him on their tour. And
one thing was clear is once they announced that they

(13:09):
were gonna do business, some of these guys are like,
what am I staying loyal for? What are we even
doing this? Equity? So I get equity part of Like
I was listening to this pot a business podcast and
they were talking about how Elon, you know, gives a
lot of equity in terms of shares and stuff to
everyone that works at Tesla. It's why I guess the
operation at Tesla is pretty impressive in terms of the

(13:30):
workers and when you're invested in something that you know
has a chance to make a lot of money, it
makes a lot of sense. So when I have stock
options and I'm working at a Costco, an Apple of Facebook,
a Tesla, it's pretty tangible stuff like this, like I
don't know if I really see it, And I also

(13:50):
see that from the investment side, how are you gonna
justify it? Like the PGA Tour said last year when
when their purses went from like twelve to thirteen million
to twenty to twenty five, that the whole thing would
crumble within a couple of years. You see what they
have to ask these sponsors, now we need double the amount.
And all these companies, Farmers, Insurance, Wells, Fargo, you name it.

(14:12):
You go around, you know, the year of the different tournaments,
they're all pulling out. They're like, yeah, this doesn't pence.
It doesn't make any sense because part of it, it didn't
even make sense before. But we want in, we want
the access. It's good for our clients. It just makes sense.
We give back to charity. Well, they've jumped the shark
and they were forced to because of the sadis. But
this gets back to the elephant in the room. They

(14:33):
have an unlimited amount of money. It never ends. Like
if football there was no salary cap, there would be
some teams that would pay some players that other teams
would not be able to compete with. But that's not
the case that they have a salary cap and everyone
has the money to pay players, right you see it
in baseball, like the Yankees and the Dodgers have a

(14:53):
lot more disposable income than say the Tampa Bay razor
the Oakland Athletics. And that is a little bit with golf,
feels right like right now is the Saudi and the
Live and that operation is just dealing on a different
level because of the amount of cash they have available
to them and their willingness to spend it, and also

(15:14):
their willingness they're not looking to turn a profit. They
do not care because clearly no one's watching. I love golf.
I've probably watched a total in two years of eighteen
holes of that of that league, and they have star players.
It does not matter. So it's just about bleeding and
screwing over the PGA tour slash getting them to agree to,

(15:38):
like I don't even want to say, a hostile takeover
but like, let's do business. And anytime you do business
with someone who has all the money, they kind of
usually get the control. So I understand from the PGA
tour standpoint, doing everything humanly possible, you know, to guard
the gates here, but eventually those gates are going to
be shattered down, so you're just delaying the inevitable. And

(15:59):
what I say, Oh, the kind of the outline of this,
I'm like, this is this feels so hollow, this feels
so shortsighted. I just don't think this is gonna work.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
Now.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
I know, you have to do something to keep some
of the guys that stayed on the tour, make it
worth it for them, keep them somewhat loyal, and I
guess try to make them whole. But ultimately, when Steve
Cohen does business, he likes to get his money back.
You ever, you ever read whatever that book's called. It's
got I think it's got like a shark on the front.
It's all about him. It's like what the show Billions

(16:30):
was about. Like, dude's a financial killer. These guys aren't
in business just for to say that I own part
of the PGA tour, Like they want to get an
ROI and Yaser and NBS and those guys clearly don't care.
So I think the inevitable outcome in this now. Listen,
there are legalities the DOJ. I can't even pretend to
know how that would all play out. But if you

(16:52):
do not do business with them, you will lose. Because
what's going on right now is not a sustainable model.
It's really not simply because you can't split, Like you
can't have Kevin Durant, Steph Curry and Lebron playing in
this league and then Jokich, Luca and Tatum and three
other guys playing in another league. That's that's not gonna
work in twenty twenty four. We have too many options,

(17:14):
we have too much time. You gotta consolidate. This was
a niche sport to begin with. So I'm nervous as
someone who I'm a football golf guy, and I don't
really like what I'm seeing right now because I don't
think the last we've seen the last of these guys
going over there. And if you're the Saudist and you

(17:35):
see something like this today, like I would put the
double press into a couple more guys, I like I
would try to build a new team around. Heyes, Ander
and Cantley, Are you sure? Hey, Tony Finow JT are
you sure? Here's four hundred million dollars and just keep
and even if you can't get them, Hey, Ludwig, get
some of the young cats. Hey, you want in on this,
We'll give you one hundred and fifty million dollars. This

(17:57):
isn't equity. I've got equity before in some startups. When
I first got into the podcast world, nothing happened. So
just because you get equity doesn't mean the company's going
to turn it into Microsoft or the company's going to
turn it into the National Football League. Now, the PGA
tour is already established, but what's the actual value there.
It is kind of based on how many people are watching.

(18:17):
And I'm seeing this in the NBA right now that
their ratings are diminished, the consumers not consuming them like
they used to do. So it's proven that the only
thing we can all agree on to watch is the NFL.
Why because all the best players play, everyone tries, right,
you know, when you turn on the TV, you're gonna
get everyone's best effort in golf. Right now, I turn
on the TV, I don't even know who half the

(18:38):
players are. I don't know where some of the guys
I'm used to watching have gone right there on the
CW where I watch, you know that has live and
University of North Carolina football games, because I've got the
ACC and the barstool Bowl. But I think golf has major,
major issues and to act. And I was driving to

(18:59):
actually out the dog off today at the at the groomors.
I turned on PGA Radio and even they were saying,
like this, you still got a lot of questions to
answer here. You can't feel good about this just because
you throw out a headline. And this also feels like
we're in the day and age of just getting press releases.
No one beside the players, right, we don't give a
shit about press releases. When can all these guys like hey,

(19:23):
this week at Riviera, all these guys are getting together.
I've said it over and over. Let these guys come
back on the tour like, hey, you guys want to
play Waste Management, you want to play riv you want
to play the Memorial, you want to play any tournaments.
Doors are open, and they once made the mistake of
blocking them off. And it's it's that wasn't the main reason.
But it's led to this chaotic environment. And anytime you

(19:46):
have a chaotic environment, if there's a lot going on
in society, people are just gonna tune you out. And
this is what I said about like part of like
people tuned in forever with Belichick and Brady. It wasn't
just because they were great, Like a lot of people
rooted against them. A lot of people wanted to see
them fall. That's powerful. There's a reason Duke basketball got
such high ratings for so long. People watch them rooting

(20:08):
for them to lose like that. That's a powerful thing.
To either hate them or love them. You never want
to be in the middle that apathetic, indifferent. I don't care.
No different in a relationship. She either loves you she
hates you, but at least she's emotionally moved by you.
The moment she stops thinking about your calling you're texting you,
she gone. And that's what I feels like. Starting to

(20:30):
happen with the uh Witch's fans with golf, Like, what
is happening? What is going on? Can we just get
everyone together, round up some money and just play for
a lot of it and just watch guys go at it.
That's what happened my entire life, and it was kind
of enjoyable, right but that feels like that's long gone,

(20:51):
and my confidence level on everyone figuring this out, everyone
getting together. I don't care what press release you tell me.
This is all I care about. I don't care about
a press release. I don't care the Pith and the
Sadi's and the same thing, and the Jay Monahan and
the PGA Tour have agreed to a deal. Tell me
when there's a golf tournament that isn't a major in

(21:12):
everyone's playing, tell me, hey, Jack's Place, DJ is gonna
be there, Bryson's gonna be there, Kaopka's gonna be there,
Cam Smith's gonna be there, Terrell Hatton's gonna be there,
as well as all the PJ Tour guys. Then I'm interested.
But right now, I'm gonna keep gambling on the PGA
Tour because I like it and I got issues and
I'm kind of a degenerate. But it's not as enjoyable.

(21:34):
And you really felt it last week, You're gonna feel
it next week at the waste management. I mean, you
can't afford to miss this many guys. These guys are
stars right. I mean, these guys are major champions time
and time again, some of the best players in the
history of the sport. Even Phil who quote unquote, you know,
we could call him washed.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
He's old.

Speaker 1 (21:54):
He is a massive, massive draw. I mean, he's pretty
freaking famous. It's kind of a big deal to have
him in your tournament and he's just long gone. Doesn't
even care. He's just tweeting now, like, oh cool to
see these guys kind of admitting they were wrong, and
I don't even care. We don't even care on the
outside now at this point who's right or wrong. Everyone's rich.
The live guys are rich. All the PGA tour top

(22:15):
guys might be a little less rich, but they're not
checking into the airport. They're flying net jets. They got
big ass houses in Scottsdale, in Dallas, in Jupiter, Like.
They make one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year,
even this year on the PGA Tour. If you may,
if you got your tour cord, it guaranteed you five
hundred thousand dollars. Most of these guys are gonna make
anywhere between three to eight million dollars just playing. That's

(22:37):
beside the guys they're gonna win the big time tournaments.
So it's just it's just kind of sad. And as
someone that follows golf and football really closely, it's crazy
how opposite both are. Football feels as strong as it's
ever been. I Mean, we complain about it, but that's
human nature. We can plain about a lot of things.
But the ratings, the interest. Everywhere you go, people are

(22:59):
talking foot I mean I played golf today with a
seven year old business owner from Oklahoma and we talked
multiple holes about Baker Mayfield, about how he was getting screwed,
he got some raw deals with coaches. You know, he's
kind of a hot head. I mean, this guy had
a million opinions on him. Million just couldn't stop talking
about Baker Mayfield. And just you know, when Baker Mayfield's
on the bucks, like you're just gonna watch him plays

(23:20):
Haavy ten games and he's gonna play against whoever they're
playing that week. Derek Carr, Daniel Jones, you know, Matt Stafford, whoever.
They all just play each other, and it's that's how
it works. They're all in it together. Like ultimately, in football,
the forty nine ers have been part of the highest
rate of games over the last ten years, them and
the Cowboys, Tampa and a lot of these other teams

(23:41):
have not. Tampa's a bad example because they got Brady
for a couple of years. But you know, choose the
Carolina Panthers or just but everyone makes the same amount
of money because they're partners, and the stronger you are
as a group, the more money you can make. It.
It's like that in life, you could only do so
much so far. Like if you're listening or watching this

(24:02):
podcast I just recorded, then we got you know, James
is working the video. We got Adam working the audio.
We got Christian helping out on both sides. We have
a team of like five six people on every show.
When I record with Colin, we got ten guys on
the zoom. Like you can't do you can't do nothing yourself.
You need help. And it feels like everyone's kind of

(24:24):
doing their own thing. All this mercenary stuff. Even Kevin Durant,
everyone talks about him being quote unquote this mercenary when
he went to Golden State. He's still stayed in the league.
He was still playing against Lebron, James and Giannis and
you could hate on him going to the Golden State
all you want. It's not like he like, yeah, guys,
I'm leaving to grease see you guys. I'm gonna play
in this Greek league or or Chinese league. They offered

(24:48):
me one hundred million dollars a year. See a peace out, right,
That would have been like what the fuck. No, he's like,
you went to a team. Everyone got pissed off because
he went to the team to beat him, but he
was still in the league. And that's every time this
guy goes to live you're like, see audio, it's never
gonna see you again. That just sucks. I don't really
don't know what else to say besides like, yeah, I

(25:11):
think there's there's just a lot of fluff with a
lot of these announcements. One thing I've learned now and
I got pretty fired up. You know, the announcement when
CNBC had on j Monaghan and Yasser from the Piff
and it was like, God, these guys are gonna do
a deal, these guys are gonna do business together. And
then all of a sudden, we're it's February first. Nothing.

(25:32):
It's like no, So you can't a lot of time
with pr and stuff. We all buy into it and
then it turns out none of it's true. Okay, football
season is not quite over yet, but we had this
little week off. I had to text my main man,

(25:53):
Jason Soble. You can find him Action Network, you can
find him on Serious. I was listening to him yesterday
driving around, talk about taking the Red Eye out to
where he's sitting right now, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. But
as anyone knows, it's from northern California. Monterey, ain't San Diego.
It ain't always hot and warm. It has got to
be chilly and windy out there right now.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
I've got three layers on. I'm sitting in this tent
where yeah, the tent's actually blocking the greatest view in
like the entire world. I've got still water cove right
behind me, and yet I'm facing away from it because
we've got this tent here. It's cold. I mean yeah,
like I come from Florida, man, I I'm not suited
for this, and yet this might be the best day
we get all week. It's gonna be a little nasty

(26:36):
here at Beebble this week.

Speaker 1 (26:37):
You know, your boy, I've changed up my gambling strategy.
For years, I got probably too aggressive on winners and
it's just you hit one and it keeps you going
the rest of the year. In terms of that mentality,
it is stupid. I have been hammering top tens from
JT Posting to Tony Fenau to my guy Ludvig. That's
the way, especially early, once you kind of get a

(26:57):
feel on some guys. Now moving forward, you know, we
were gonna put this out on Wednesday, but I don't
even I don't even think it's very easy to gamble
this week, given the weather and given all the variables.
But the next couple of weeks, I mean waste Management
and riv which you know is fair to say Tiger
is going to be playing in that event I assume,

(27:19):
so yeah, yeah, I mean are going to be well
gambled on my early take. Right now, Justin Thomas is winning,
and he's winning early. I kind of like him at
waste Management here in like five six days.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
I have a one and done pool where we have
to put in the picks before the year started, and
we took Justin Thomas in Phoenix based on track record
and based on I just had a feeling that's where
the momentum was going, it's getting there. And for those
people that didn't look at JC, that only know I
had a bad season last year, it didn't make the playoffs,
they handed him a Ryder Cup spot. If you haven't

(27:52):
been paying attention to Justin Thomas four top fives in
his last four worldwide starts, I mean, the guy's playing
some really good golf right now. I know we always
hear from players, the top players in the world are
never like, I'm not even close right now, I'm not
gonna play well. They always go, yeah, I'm really close.
Either I'm there or I'm really close. Justin Thomas's press

(28:13):
conference today said I'm really close, and it's hard not
to believe them. I think it's coming really soon for him.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
Hey, let's talk some big picture stuff. Torrey Pines is
an incredible tournament. We've had some really famous guys when
there obviously over the years. That was the first time
that it really felt like, yeah, this is you're feeling
this split and let's face it, at this point in time,
we're all numb to it. But it's just this, This
is not the NFL. You can't afford to keep losing

(28:41):
guys like John Rahm now Terrell Hatton joining his team. Obviously,
the merge you talk about it a lot on your
radio show, feels inevitable. But as of right now, nothing's
happened so like and clearly this year, it's not gonna
change anything in twenty twenty four. So these fields, I mean,
has golf ever been unhealthy as it is right now

(29:01):
for a sport that has as many stars as it has,
you know.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
Ever is certainly a long time. So.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
But in the in the internet Tiger Woods age.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
Yeah, no, I mean it's it's not great. Look, Tiger
changed the game in many many ways. And I heard
this years ago and I've glombed onto it for a
long time. That golf is always a niche sport until
Tiger came along and it became a mainstream sport because
of Tiger Woods. Everyone wanted to watch Tiger. And so
even if it's becoming a bit of a niche sport

(29:35):
without Tiger playing on a somewhat regular basis anymore, this
is really divided everything. It's been hard to be a
golf fan. I have buddies all the time at my
club we're playing golf, and they'll go, wait, is this
guy what Leagueacy is HEPGA tours, he live. They don't
know who's playing where, and quite honestly, a lot of
their entertainment value has gone from it. A lot of

(29:58):
the players, and we talked about this on our show
the other day on pg Tour Radio, that a lot
of the players who inspire passion amongst the masses have
left for live. And you know whether that was the
early guys, the Phil Sergio, Bubba Bryson, Patrick Reid. I
know people listening right.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Now with Repka.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
Yeah, i'd Kepka. I didn't like some of those guys.
That's fine, but you had an opinion on them. There
are too many players right now on the PGA Tour,
bad example. But Matthew Pavon wins at Tory Pines last week.
You go, hey, do you love that guy?

Speaker 1 (30:32):
Not?

Speaker 2 (30:32):
I don't really know. No, do you hate him? Now?
Of course I don't hate him. Well, what do you think?
I don't know. It's got a beard, seems like he's
got a pretty good swing. That's about all you know
about the guy. He doesn't inspire passionate at least not yet.
And so I think it's tough for the PGA Tour
trying to find these personalities that are going to inspire

(30:53):
that passion, and you're right. I look Hatton joining the
other day. I think that's a big blow to the
PA and the dp World Tour. I saw people who
are pro PGA Tour anti live on Twitter trying to
rationalize it as if like, oh, well, he's he's never
even won a major, and yeah, he's he's just like
got a bad temper. He's one of the most fun

(31:15):
dudes to watch in all of golf, and for the
PGA Tour to lose him, it's another big blow. I
don't know where this goes from here. We're talking about
the SSG, the Strategic Sports Group, infusing the PGA Tour
with three hundred billion dollars. I don't even know what
you do with that money. I don't know where it goes.
I think it's probably a good thing. Anytime rich people

(31:38):
want to give you more money to invest in your products.
I don't think it's a bad thing. But yeah, at
some point, either we've got to get all the games
best players together on a more regular basis again, or
the majors are just gonna be the four best tournaments
by far and the other ones are just gonna like something.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
Isn't it fair to say that there's a chance that
obviously this year is no, it's not gonna happen. Well,
next year is no.

Speaker 2 (32:02):
Lock.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
I mean, this could be a couple of years worth
of the separation and then there's already been a couple
of years. That's a long time to lose the momentum
that golf clearly got, you know, during shutdowns and the
amount of people playing golf, because when you play golf,
it's easier to watch it because you can contextualize whether
you shoot one hundred or eighty, it's just you gravitate. Well,
the reason a lot of people play football or watch football,

(32:24):
they probably played when they were young, or basketball or baseball, right,
golf for it when I was a kid, and not
as many people play it. Now. Way more people play,
you're more likely to chime in and this thing like
you're out there right now. Obviously the players feel numb
to it all, like no one's talking shit anymore when
a guy leaves, But they're not numb to the fact
that the overall business like this is not this is

(32:46):
not good. So is there any sign of like what's
gonna happen? Or everyone just in the dark beside the
heavy hitters.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
I really don't think anyone has any great ideas as
to what's going to happen moving forward. Do you think
that the PGA Tour needs to think more outside the box.
We were talking the other day on our show about
making up players and why don't they do it more
off and I'm like, mike them all up. You know what,
ten years ago the players might have balked at that, saying,
we don't want to be biked up, We don't want
to have our private conversations public. I would now if

(33:17):
I'm Jay Monahan, if I'm a PGA Tour executive, I
go to the players and go, look, the goalposts have changed.
I don't know if you've noticed over the last couple
of years, we've lost a lot of momentum, We've lost
a lot of fans. We have to do anything to
bring them back and make this as entertaining a product
as we can. And so that's something that I would
be like, absolutely, we need to do this, and we

(33:38):
need to do it for every golf tournament. Maybe the
last two groups of the day, three groups of the day.
These guys are all miked up we can hear their conversations.
What else should we do? I don't know. I would
love to see a world in whether it's twenty twenty five,
twenty twenty six, beyond that where Look. If the PGA
Tour and Live are going to coexist, let the PGA

(33:59):
Towour have January through August. Let Live have September through December.
If players from Live choose to play on the PGA Tour,
let him play on the PGA Tour and let him
go out there and play. If they only want to
play live, hey, I got the bag and I don't
want to play the first eight months of the year.
Fine the news play four in the last four months
of every year, and you don't have to. If players

(34:21):
on the PGA Tour want to play live events, let
him go do it. If they'd rather have an offseason
and take four months off, they can do that instead.
To me, that would be a perfect compromise. That's when
we talk about deal and making a deal. It's not
just financial. That to me would be a great deal
for both tours get out of the way of each other.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
I forget the date. It might have been November or
early December. Whenever the Hero was and Tiger talked, and
if you remember, Tiger kind of acted like a tough
guy that day in terms of a negotiator. He said,
we're not lock to work with Live, We're not we
have options. He kind of talked like a Hedge fun
guy would talk like we don't know the price. And
then within a week or too, it started all these

(35:01):
rumors cause it's like they tried to act like I'm
the boss here and it's like you're not. You don't
have the money. And then immediately they steal rom because
they can offer a number. And it felt like after
that they went on CNBC that this was all over
stealing the guys, they were gonna work toward a finale.
I felt everything changed that day when Tiger kind of
acted like, I'm kind of the commissioner. Now I'm running

(35:24):
this and we don't have to go with these guys, like, no,
you do. They have more money than Steve Cohen and
all these other guys. They have an unlimited amount of money, Tiger.
They have you surrounded. You have no choice, And ultimately
that's why it feels like it's still gonna end up
it that way. But they lost John Ram and now
Durell hadn't, and they've been sniffing around Female and all
these other guys as well.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
I think what's happened. And Rom had this famous quote
about a year ago where he said, I pledged my
fealty to the PGA Tour. Essentially he is loyal to
the tour that he was brought up on. And what
changed for me? It's two things. First of all, it's well,
I don't really like the PGA Tour that much anymore.
I don't know if I like Live Golf either. But

(36:04):
I'm a golfer. I'm gonna make lots of money. I
might as well go make the most money that I
could possibly make, And if neither one of them is
that appealing, then I'll go for the one with a
bigger paycheck. And secondly, I believe that the PGA Tour
in starting to have negotiations with Live Golf, with the
with the pif they've essentially opened it up to guys

(36:26):
like Rom, guys like Hat and to say, well, if
my own tour is negotiating with them, why can't I
negotiate with them? Why can't I go play over there?
Not to mention the fact that Rom essentially signed a
three year deal. We don't know the exact number, somewhere
in the what four or five hundred million dollar ch
At that point you kind of yeah, it's four hundred
and five. What's what's the difference another one hundred million

(36:48):
between friends and the PIF.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
But he was would you say he was already really rich,
but this took him to in a different stratosphere. Whatever
they're paying, Yeah, of course, of course.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
I mean, that's that's it for all those guys. I
don't blame them whatsoever. Look, you play golf for a living.
The whole reason we work for a living is to
go make more money. I don't have a problem with it.
That said, Rom signed a three year deal. There's no
saying that. Rob after three years can't say, Okay, now
I'm done playing live, had a successful run there. Now

(37:19):
we go reclaim my PGA tour card. I don't even
know if they understand what that would mean yet. But
once your contract's done with the one league, why can't
you go join another one? Your free agent? And so
that might be literally a three year, five hundred million
dollar deal or whatever it might be for Rom, and
then all of a sudden he's back on the PGA
Tour in a few years. What's a big deal?

Speaker 1 (37:39):
You mentioned it earlier. I mean, obviously looking back, the
biggest mistake they made. And I guess at the time
they feel obligated. I mean Jay specifically, if they could
redo it all, they would not have banned them all
for life, right, because they would have would they have
guys playing last week? And it wasted some of these tournaments.
I know now lives playing some of the same weeks.
But you know what I mean, do you think he

(38:00):
regrets that move.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
I don't know if they regret that move. I mean,
the biggest regret here is that they never took them
seriously in the first place. The absolute arrogance of the
PGA Tour to say, no one can take down our product.
No one is going to eat into our market share,
no one's going to sign our players to other deals.
Our players are who they are, and you know, we

(38:25):
control them and we control the PGA Tour, and that's
what we're gonna do. It's just, honestly, there's not another
word that I can come up for it but arrogance.
And they never thought that this could happen. They didn't
see a future where this was a possibility and that's
really really hurt them. And you know, quite honestly, I'm
I'm surprised that there hasn't been more contrition on the

(38:47):
part of the PGA tour. Obviously just talking with those
who were on the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia's
and admission that hey, we didn't get this right the
first time and we got to fix things. But boy,
it's just they screwed up from the beginning and essentially
now they're trying to clean up the mess that they
made because of that.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
What's crazy is like you watch, you know, Ludwig's stardom
to shoot like a rocket, or even this this weekend,
that nap kid from UCLA or you know, we'll get
into done lap. You know. The first thing you think
about is like, I'm sure Norman and fucking yass are
trying to get a hold of them.

Speaker 3 (39:25):
No doubt, absolutely, and they should. They should be going
after Anthony Kim all these Anthony Kim rivers. I've been
saying for two years, John, if there's a white whale
for live, it's akay, you go get him.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
What what player in the world do you want to watch?
What Tiger Woods, maybe, and Tiger's not going to live
what other player in the world plan through?

Speaker 1 (39:46):
A lot of us that don't quite understand his situation
in terms of why he's been out of the game,
the insurance he quit, Was he injured? Did he just
you know, it's so long ago. I wasn't locked in
like I would be now situation like that. I obviously
remember watching him. I've watched the YouTube highlights some of
the Ryder Cup stuff. But why did he disappear and

(40:06):
why is it such like, well, he can't come back
because of the insurance money? What does that even mean?

Speaker 2 (40:12):
There's an insurance policy. It's been reported as ten million dollars.
It might be less, it might be more. I mean,
we haven't heard from Anthony Kim himself. We haven't heard
from an insurance company that said, hey, here's here's what
he's gonna owe us if he goes and plays golf again.
But reported as ten million dollars. There's some other things though,
I think there are a lot of personal stuff. There

(40:33):
were injuries from AKA, there's some family things, and I
had always heard that it was more of a family reason.
His dad had pushed him into the game. And this
was sort of his resistance against his dad, pushing back
against him, saying, look, you want you want to push
me to be a professional golf. Well you know what,
now that I went, I'm not gonna do it anymore,

(40:55):
just to just to fight back against you. So I
always hear the insurance policy thing, and I'm not so
sure I think there is one. I'm not sure so sure.
That's the number one reason why he stopped playing though,
and didn't go back to the PJA Tour.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
So if he does come back, which rumors have it,
is it fair to say like he's gonna go to
live not the PGA Tour, because how could he just
show back up on the PGA Tour right now?

Speaker 2 (41:20):
He could. He's got past champion status. He will get
into essentially every non signature event that he wants to. Yeah,
he'll He'll get into plenty of events. He'll have opportunities.
So again, if I'm live, I throw the bag at him. Absolutely,
that's the guy. Like Terroll Hatton's a great player, Teral
Hatton's animated, He's entertaining. He's a guy that can get

(41:43):
people to watch. Nobody's getting you to watch like Anthony Kim,
and Anthony Kim's the one guy that for me. If
I'm like, Hey, I'm gonna go play golf this Saturday
with some buddies. If Anthony Kim signs with Live tomorrow
and somehow gets the field, guess what my Saturday might
now be cleared. I might have to sit on the

(42:04):
couch on Saturday and watch him play golf. That's how
much I think people want to see him again. And
I think it would make a huge dent in just
them collecting more players of interest. And again, this is
about and we've talked about Live for so long, just

(42:25):
what the league is about, in the fight with the
PGA two or and all this. At some point Live
has to turn into a viable sports franchise and we're
sitting there talking about who's gonna win this week? Is
that the Clicks is that the Crushers is this dude,
And it has to become a product where like we
actually understand what's going on and we're watching the product

(42:46):
just not because it's like, Wow, this is weird new thing,
but oh, because we're interested in the golf, because we
have bets on the golf. They signed with us Integrity,
a couple of weeks ago when it becomes a better
betting and people can make more of an investment in
what they're doing and then become more engaged in the product. Again,

(43:07):
this just to me, this is sports business one oh
one in twenty twenty four. You're running a league, you
make it as appealing as possible to betters and fantasy
players and get them involved, because that's who's going to
continue watching your product, the people that have a personal
investment in what's actually taking place.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
I would say I'm on the high end of golf consumption.
You know, I watch most tournaments, I gamble on it,
and last year when they went to the elevated events
to try to battle live, they've given more money out.
I remember Paul McGinley went on a ramp maybe at
the Masters or the US Open. Basically, like obviously, the
difference of golf when it comes to money is when

(43:49):
the football happens. You know, Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jacks,
if they're health they're gonna play, and golf you have
no clue who's gonna make the weekend. Which most of
us that are I would say high end fans or
consumers talking about like that, aspect of it, and I
think it feels like a lot of the old school
players starting with Tiger Back, love that part of it too,
but now the money's so big they push back. It's like, well,
I can't afford to not have seven of the top

(44:12):
ten guys in the tournament at home, but I'm sorry.
Like this week and then in a couple of weeks
and a lot of these tournaments, now these seventy five
guy fields no cut. One, from a gambling perspective, it's
way harder to gamble, I feel, and two like it
doesn't do that much. Like listen, I the last week
the field at the end, random guys. It was still

(44:33):
exhilarating watching these guys come down the stretch. This doesn't
do much for me.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
The no cut events have never done a whole lot
for me. Quite honestly. Shortened fields no cut, have you
ever had someone come up to you and go, man,
this tournament's really fun. But I just wish there were
like fifty fewer players in it, Like, no, that's not
a thing. Let more players in have a cut. I
get it. PGA Jordan. I assume this is part of
their mentality. First of all, they want to keep the

(44:58):
players happy, and the best way to keep the best
players happy, I bet the money it is to keep
paying them and ensure that they're essentially I mean, it's
like an appearance fee. It's basically like there's no appearance
fees on the PGA Tour, but show up this week
and you will get paid. You will make a paycheck.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
Because Live Live Live has that right with the no cuts.
If you're in the event, you're getting paid no matter what,
if you finish the DFL.

Speaker 2 (45:21):
Yes. The other part of this is PGA Tour's own product,
PGA Tour Live, where they can put if Rory McElroy
is nine shots back going into Sunday's final round this week,
and they go early round coverage, catch it on PGA
Tour Live ESPN Plus at eight thirty eight am in
the morning. Like, Okay, they can show their guy, they

(45:43):
can show the big names. I just don't know that
golf fans necessarily want to watch even the biggest names
when they're way back in a non major championship event.
It just doesn't have that much of an appeal.

Speaker 1 (45:55):
I would like you won't.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
I won't I consume a ton of golf. I'm not
watching that first thing in the morning, just to like,
just because it's Rory, just because it's Scotty, just because
it's Jordan or JT. I'm not watching them if they're
nowhere near the lead and not in contention.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
Yeah, I mean, it's it's sad. I mean, golf is
clearly broken right now and there's not necessarily an end
in sight, even though it feels like the deal is,
I guess getting relatively closer. I mean one of the
cooler moments, though a couple of weeks ago, was and
obviously this guy's a high end player. I mean us
am champ Us Junior Amle the guy attacker Woods to
do it, but still to be in the final group

(46:31):
against Justin Thomas and Sam Burns and I don't care
how many shots you start to day would lead to
win that tournament is got to be one of the
most remarkable things I've ever seen. I mean, that was incredible.
I know it's an easier course or whatever, it's not
doing it a memorial or riv or something, but I
don't care. That was freaking awesome and.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
We're not the only ones that think so. How about
the fact that during the Chiefs Bills one of the
best playoff games that we've seen all year, and the
NFL rules everything. The PGA Tour event on Golf Channel
wasn't even on network TV. On Golf Channel did a
pretty good rating just because people are like, whoa, there's
a twenty year old amateur who's about to beat some
of the biggest names in the game.

Speaker 1 (47:11):
Saban called in for about four Holesban called in for
about four holes when I was will after that, Yeah,
that probably helped SEC country.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
Yeah, how I mean, it's just it's a cool story.
Look I said about Nick Dunlap after he won, and
the whole rhetoric on our channel on PGA Tour Radio
is about will he turn pro?

Speaker 1 (47:29):
When will he do it?

Speaker 2 (47:30):
And people say he's got to do this, he's got
to do that. I said, you know what, he's got
to do whatever the hell he wants to do. And
if he feels like, you know what, it's time for
me to turn pro, start making money, go play professionally.
This is what I was going to college for. Good
for him. And if he says, you know what, And
we saw that video of all the Alabama teammates and
the bus cheered for him and going nuts. And if

(47:52):
he goes yeah, I want to go hang out with
my boys for three more months and go in an
NCAA title and then I'll turn pro. He should have
done that, and I just hope that, you know, he
doesn't regret this decision turning pro. I don't think he will.
And he's gonna be a very good player for a
very long time. Not to take any shine off of
Nick Dunlap. I feel like those casual fans out there

(48:13):
who are like, wait, what are you guys just talking
about the next big thing like a week ago, and
now it's him, and now it's this guy. Nick Dunlap's
not going to be a tenth the player. I don't
think that Ludwig Obert is. I mean, Ludwig's a generational talent.
Nick's gonna be a very good player for a very
long time. I think Obert is the real deal though
when it comes to superstars.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
Yeah, totally agree. And the thing with Ludwig, right, I
mean he played out was it four years in college?
You know when this guy wins this tournament and it
wasn't just to me if it had been whatever, what's
the tournament in Iowa? The Farmers Open or whatever, But
to me, the way he did it, against who he
did it, and obviously all the things that come along

(48:54):
with it you're into the events. I do wonder if
doing it against two Ryder Cuppers was like I don't
really have a choice, because that's kind of what it
feels like, like he didn't really want to leave starting
the week. Clearly it wasn't his plan, even though he
was in all these events. He had the sweet nil
deal like lud Big did with Adidas. Right now he's
making money, but once you want it. It was almost

(49:15):
like maybe even the coach is like, bro, this is
you just got to take advantage of the opportunity, which,
like you said, I hope it's one of those that
golf's weird, you know it's it's not. He clearly is
a pretty good player. But if you look up in
a couple of years and it has it gone well,
he wouldn't be the first to go through that, right.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
I mean, if you could tell me right now, hey,
I started at ESPN a week out of college, If
you could say, hey, if you go back in time,
were you happy with that decision or we'll give you
another Not that I could have stayed in college, but
we'll give you another semester of college. I would have
to fail a few more classes than I actually did.
You go back in college, hang out with your buddies

(49:55):
and have like one more shot. Like that to me
is like, that's the kind of stuff he might regret.
You never regret, like, you know, turning pro or something
like that. You're gonna regret the decision to like miss
out on the reason you went there in the first place,
the reason you were having a good time. I'm sure
he'll have a great pro career, and I'm sure either
way it was gonna turn out fine for him. A

(50:17):
lot of people are I saw a lot of people,
especially on social media, who I don't think understood what
it means to be an amateur, bitching and moaning about
the fact that he wasn't gonna get paid the one
point six million dollars for winning that golf tournament. I'm like,
that's he's an amateur. He can't and he can't do
it after the tournament. And oh, by the way, don't

(50:38):
worry about this kid. He's gonna have whether at nil
deals before he turned pro. He's gonna have manufacturer deals,
OEM deals with a bunch of company. I'm sure he's
got logos all over his gear this week, and so
he's gonna be just fine. Let's not worry about Nick Dunlap.
He's gonna have he's gonna have a place to live,
and he's gonna have food on the table for as

(50:58):
long as he needs it.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
I would say this as from a gambling perspective, gambling
on Ludwig. You know, last week he missed about seven
puts that me or you might have made. He is
so freaking you put him at these harder courses, you know,
waste It brings a lot of guys into play. But
any course to me, riv the Memorial like, he is
gonna be a major if he plays the Honda like,

(51:23):
any course where you gotta hit it pretty straight. He
is a freaking machine. And if you can get two
or three, it's not as much three to one now
top tens, but two and a half to one, even
two plus two ten to me, he's an auto hammer
top ten.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
So the one thing John that I keep saying about
Ludwig is, more so than any other top player in
the world, he makes the game look easy. You watch
him play, you go why doesn't everyone just hit it
three forty straight down the middle and then hit the
ball close to the hole and roll in their pudet.
Looks like a simple game. You watch Scottie Scheffler and
you see his footwork, You're like, dude, that looks impossible.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
I can't do that.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
You watch Rory mckelury and you're like, that's a guy
who's really good. Again, I play golf and I'm like,
I can't do what he's doing. You watch Ludvig and
you're like, it apparently looks like he's swinging at it,
and he just hits a crap out of the ball
every single time. I'm telling you he's he's got some
John Rohm qualities, I think, to him, without the maybe
the aggression, I don't know if he's got the same

(52:22):
internal desire to go win. We're gonna find that out
over the next couple of years. But other than that,
he's good to I was talking about that one and
Dunpool earlier, where I have Justin Thomas to win Phoenix.
I have Ludvig to win the Masters this year. Now, granted,
a lot of that is game theory. It's not necessarily
I'm betting on Ludvig to win the Masters is first
ever major, but a lot of it's game theory. It's

(52:45):
trying to be contrary and take a guy that no
one else can have. But I'm confident enough that I
think he will play well in his first trip around Augusta,
that I'm taking him there. That's how much I love I.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
You know, a lot of times with the younger guys,
I watched him a lot of toy It's not even
just their putting, it's their short game. He had a
couple of chips, like a bunker shot a chip like
he was over the green. It was like, this guy's
got touch. It's just the putter. And it's just from
what I've been told by people that have been around him,
Like Butter's just kind of streaky, you know. It's not
like he's got some Tony fenwe weird stroke going zla taurus.

(53:19):
He's gonna when he gets hot on a given week.
Everything else in his game elite, I mean elite. Obviously
short game will improve a little bit, but his Tita
green is top notch on the PGA Tour and his
chipping is fine. This guy's not like starting where Victor
started or anything.

Speaker 2 (53:34):
You know, can we talk about Tony Fenale's putting and
someone who I mean, what it's so bad? Here's the deal,
by the way, I always you knows comes back to
kick me in the teeth every single time. And of course,
like Tory Pines, where you want to take the ball strikers,
it's like tee to green, it's this course has teeth

(53:54):
and this course is tough in the score. I want
the guys who are big, brawny ball strikers, and you
pick those guys, they get into contention. Then you see
that they can't make a three footer even sniff the hole,
and it's like, oh that's well, ball striking is great,
but can't make a putt, you're not gonna win a
golf tournament. So females like that. And Taylor Pendrith last

(54:15):
week who four putted from twenty feet on the second
hole and still finished like three or four back and
that didn't help. So yeah, there was there was a
lot of that going on last.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
And Tory forces you to just you know, flip up
Tiger eight and you watch him hitting above the.

Speaker 4 (54:30):
Hole like none of these guys would get remotely close
on this butt. I mean not close on a Thursday,
let alone Sunday, you know, to make it the Monday,
no fucking chance. Speaking of Tiger, yeah, uh, you know,
I would say he physically looked a little better at
the Hero, just not and obviously he talked about the.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
Surgery was more for the long term. Uh, what's crazy
is I during Tori, I was clicking on his PGA
Tour page until he got in that accident. He was
playing pretty good golf in like eighteen and nineteen, Like
he was never gonna probably be the number one player
in the world, but he was gonna be a factor
on the tour for a while. They clearly derailed him,
and it got It got tough to watch last year

(55:12):
when it was super cold at the Masters. It was
hard to watch if you'd you know, now, it feels
like that that probably not gonna happen anymore. And even
he admitted once a month that feels a little bold.
I'll also believe it when.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
I see it.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
But you know, do we get Tiger four Majors and
two or three other tournaments this year, I'd be prettyweet.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
Yeah, I'm down for that.

Speaker 1 (55:31):
And you said over under till the Tour Championship seven tournaments,
including majors that high or low.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
I mean, I would think the plan is pretty much
a blueprint right now that he's gonna play RIV. He's
gonna play the Players Championship, then get into major championship
mode Masters, PGA, US Open, and the Open Championship, and
if he plays well enough at any of those, like
maybe then he has to make this about the FedEx

(56:01):
Cup playoffs. But that's a good decision to have to make.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
But I don't think like a memorial or something like
that in the middle of the year.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
No, I think that's too close to It's like, it's
two weeks after the PGA and two weeks before the
US opened. So I just don't think he's gonna do it. Yeah,
and I don't. I don't think that's you know, I
think Jack will understand. I don't think that's a big deal.
But once against the major championship season, it's just gonna
be majors. And I think his play is dependent largely

(56:32):
upon the weather. You know, Pinehurst for the US Open,
that helps. It's a flatter golf course. Then some of
the US it's not beth Page, it's not Oakmont, you know,
it's not a big ballpark like that, should be able
to walk, it should be nicer weather. So I mean, look,
am I optimistic about Tiger this year and playing some
good golf? Not really? But am I gonna sit here

(56:56):
and say there's no way he can do it? I'm
gonna write him off. He's not even gonna make a cut,
of course not. We've been here a million times with
Tiger already. The guy's proven it all of those times
in the past. Sure, you can certainly come back and
you can play good golf again.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
Two guys I'm gonna ride throughout the year, you know,
for top tens will be Jason Day and Keegan Bradley.
Another guy that I'm gonna keep a close eye on
is is Hideki, who I think, for the first time
in a while, showed a little signs of life that
he just not to win, but just you can get
some decent odds. Sometimes he's like forty to one and
he just has at any moment he can go six

(57:30):
seven under and get right back like he did the
other on Sunday at Torry times.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
He's on my do not playlist right now. I am
I am off a DECKI look, I had too many
times over the last few years where I played Hideki
and the neck injury shows itself on a Friday and
all of a sudden he withdraws or it just starts
playing worse, and you know, and it all falls apart there.

Speaker 1 (57:56):
So you got a name. You got a name for
none of those top five. I have six ten guys
that you kind of like, just trending into this year. JT.
Postin's another guy I like.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
Nickle Hoygard just walked by like two seconds ago and
I was looking at him.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
He's not bad.

Speaker 2 (58:12):
Rory McElroy is walking five feet away from me right now.
He seems like a pretty good player, So you know,
I take he's just out of earshot. So if I
talk about how much I like Rory's time gonna hear me.
So you know, he might have to walk about three
feet closer right now. But let's see other guys I
really like this year. It always depends. I write a

(58:33):
column at the beginning of every year called the Leap,
and I'm trying to predict guys to be jumping into
that next echelon. So, you know, Victor Hoblind I think
is gonna win a major. I don't think it's gonna
surprise anybody when I say I think Victor Hoblin's pretty good. Yeah, like, yeah,
no kidding. If we're looking for a guy who like
win for the first time on tour, bo Hostler is
a guy that I've been on for a while, and

(58:53):
even this week at Pebble Beach could be a really
good week for him. He's played well here in the
last couple of years. So he's a guy that I like.
I don't know necessarily they'se gonna go out and win
a major championship. He's not gonna be a household name,
but I like him. I think he's a good player.
So you know, it kind of depends on what you're
asking of a player, like what kind of jump they're
looking to make. But those are some of the names.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
Okay, I'll end it with this. Then, is there any
chance that you would bet on a guy in that
top group at least the Ryder Cup names, the Xanders,
the Cantleys, the Tonys that have never won a major
this year? What would it take for you to pick
one of those guys in one of the four big tournaments.
It's so hard in those where obviously Xander and Tony
have had success in them. Patrick for the most parts

(59:34):
not as of right now.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
Between those three, I mean, i'd have to dissect everything.
Xander's probably the name that I would go with over
Cantley and few, you know, just as it comes to
mind with Rory walking past me right here that Raror's
on the policy board. Last year Rory did not play
his best golf for most of the year, only won
the Scottish Open. Patrick Kentley on the policy board right now.

(59:57):
I don't think most people understand how much work that
is for these guys. It's not like, hey, once a
month we get on a little zoom call and you know,
we talk about things with the PGA Tour and then
go away and go play golf. Like he gets done
with rounds and has phone calls to answer and emails
to look at. I mean, there's especially a second job. Yeah,

(01:00:18):
it's really tough. And I think that Chantley is gonna
be the perfect example of a guy that just isn't
gonna be able to play his best golf when there's
all this other stuff going on. So Xander, of those guys,
watch out for Homa, I'm telling you, Like Max Olma
has not had any major championship success speak of. I
would not be surprised if he goes out and wins
the Majors for the first time this year too. He's really, really,

(01:00:41):
really talented.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
Speaking of the other tour, I mean, one guy that
starts showing signs of like that clearly has a high ceiling.
It's bryceon, you know, and I just he's hard to
It's hard to know what those guys are doing over there.
But I do think it's fair to say he takes
golf seriously, right. He's not a slappy that's not trying practicing,
so he's trying. I do think if if his odds
are just could be a little out of whack, like
if he was playing on the PGA Tour and playing well,

(01:01:03):
he'd be a twenty to one or above guy. If
you start seeing the Majors and you get him thirty
five forty forty five to one, which depending on how
he's playing and lives, there might be some value there
for a guy that's just truly gonna try, you know,
in practice.

Speaker 2 (01:01:17):
Yeah, I don't mind. Look, if you can get Bryson
at it might need to be a little bit bigger
number than that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
Yeah, for one, you know us open the Maaster.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
He just went to Augusta National. Bob Horrick from Sports
Illustrated just wrote about him, U taking a little practice
trip to Augusta National recently.

Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
That place owner. I wouldn't touch him there.

Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
You know what depends on the number. If you give
me a big number on Bryson, I might take a
little shot on that, just because the upside is there.
And again, when we're betting outrights, if you're betting top tens,
you said you've had really good luck with top tens
so far this year, and I love that, and I
say this all the time. I'm going on at the
tangent here. But for those who don't regularly bet on

(01:01:59):
golf and want to start betting on golf, my first thing,
my first piece of advice is to know what type
of better you are, because that will help shape the
way you bet. If your guy that just says, hey,
you know what, I'm gonna throw twenty bucks out there,
I'm gonna put five bucks on four different guys with
one hundred to one odds are bigger and I just
want to hit a lottery ticket, have something to watch

(01:02:21):
on a Sunday. If I lose, No big deal. Fine,
just understand that that's who you are if you're someone
who goes. I have worked hard for this money. I
have made this money myself. I don't want to lose money.
I need to turn a profit. Top tens, but top twenties,
top forties, I mean, you can bet guys. I was
looking this week Maverick McNeely, who I kind of like

(01:02:42):
this week because had some success at pebbal Beach. He's
even money for a top forty, where essentially you just
have to be in the top half of the field
this week. I mean, there's some good numbers out there.
So Bryson's a guy going back to the Bryson conversation,
Bryson's not necessarily a guy that I'm going to bet
heavily for a top ten, top twenty at a major

(01:03:02):
championship because the floor is pretty low, but the ceiling's
really high, and if he puts them all together for
four days, sure Bryson can win a tournament. So I
don't mind the outright play, but I don't want to
I don't want to play the floor play because I
don't know that that floor is ever necessarily going to
be pretty high.

Speaker 1 (01:03:19):
Where you getting drinks the next couple nights of Spanish Bay.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
Ah. Yeah, we'll see what happens. We got we got
some options around here. I'll put it this way. I'm
staying nowhere close to here, and uh, I still have
my rental car, so I might be beholding to some
buddies and see where we where we wind up this
week in.

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
The Central Valley, the price points are pretty expensive right
around the middle.

Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
Yeah, uh a little, a little out of my Gilroy
Company's price range. Uh, Salinas this week.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
I've been there, I've been bigger.

Speaker 2 (01:03:52):
Bigger question might be where I'm playing golf on Thursday,
not where I'm where I'm drinking. So we'll see what happens.

Speaker 1 (01:03:57):
We'll make sure you bring your rain jacket.

Speaker 2 (01:03:59):
Good talking. I need enough people to cancel their rounds
on Thursday for me to get it out off the
alternate list.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
But take it easy. Talk soon.

Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
Thanks dude, appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
The volume

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Go Low - LIV vs. PGA, Jason Sobel stops by, what we can expect from Tiger Woods

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John Middlekauff

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Go Low - LIV vs. PGA, Jason Sobel stops by, what we can expect from Tiger Woods