January 12, 2026 • 18 mins
Cameron Parker stops by the show to catch Craig and Jake up on the latest golf news.
Brooks Koepka is returning to the PGA Tour, Austin is gaining a tour event at The Omni Barton Creek, and Cam breaks down the impact of these new developments.
Brooks Koepka is returning to the PGA Tour, Austin is gaining a tour event at The Omni Barton Creek, and Cam breaks down the impact of these new developments.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Second hour of the program here on Sports Radio AM
thirteen under the Zone. Glad to have you with us
on a Monday. Hope your Monday's going okay, Listen, It's
only fair if I say on Fridays that if Friday's
your traditional Friday, like the traditional work week, and I say,
good on you, good for you, hope it goes well.
And I say for those you know, I say, for
those poor individuals who Friday is really kind of their Monday,
(00:25):
maybe that means their Monday becomes their Friday or something
like that.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
So good for you if that's the case. For the
rest of.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Us, hey, we manage and we go through it as
best we can. Glad to have you with us. Coming
up a little later in just a few minutes, we'll
hear from Sean Miller his thoughts, and we also will
start and we'll hear from Vick Schaeffer, Texas women's head coach.
With the long runs coming off the laws to lsh you.
I wanted to take an opportunity while we had a
few minutes def Cameron Parker pop in here.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
It's important, I think.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
For us on the radio station where Cam is concerned
to have a little bit of Proof of Life from
time to time. Because Cameron sat in Jake's chair our
first two years and plus and and produce this program,
and then he got promoted upstairs, so to speak. I
(01:19):
began to refer to him as a middle management clown.
But he's but he's but he's as assistant program right now.
We still work very closely together. He's my engineer on
long runmen's basketball, and he will still fill in on
some play by play for us on occasion.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I think I got a.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Baseball game or two for you coming up here around
the corner. We'll get to all of that. But but
Cameron established himself also on this program for several things.
One his hatred of all things Jerry Jones and his
disaffected nature with his favorite NFL team, the Dallas Cowboys,
That's one thing. And so I needed to get an
(01:59):
update you on all of this with Ebra Flues being
fired and the Cowboys moving forward. I know Jerry's Jerry's
Jerry's always going to be there, but how do you
feel about the moves the Cowboys make made?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Well, obviously, the defense was horrendous, and I think horrendous
might be putting it lightly in terms of like, statistically,
I think it's one of the worst NFL defenses in
this century, so it makes sense ibra Flus was not retained.
The sad part of it is going the next season,
the Cowboys will I think have their fourth different defensive
coordinator in as many years. And Craig, you know this
(02:33):
from Texas football during the twenty tens, where every year
there's a different offensive coordinator, different play caller, and all
that does is just stunt the growth of so many players.
So on one hand, it's necessarily that Dallas makes the
move defensively in terms of their coaching, but at the
same time, it's just hurting the defense and these players,
(02:54):
and it's probably been a bit reason why the Cowboys
have struggled defensively.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Here's a question should I put to the listeners today,
do you have a side team in the playoffs now
that we're to the playoffs, Because I said, you know,
fantasy guys, the guys who played fantasy football sometimes when
their teams get knocked out, they have fantasy playoff drafts,
so they can kind of plug back into it. But
even if you're not doing that, if it's just NFL
playoffs in general, do you have a side team.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Not really.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I was asked this yesterday, like is anyone you're you're
rooting for? It was like, no, but there's one team
I'm not rooting for, and I think Jake agrees with me.
It's the Philadelphia Eagles. One team I did not care
everyone else. You know, usually at this point, I kind
of like the root for players' legacies. So I always
enjoyed rooting for Mahomes even though you diggle to Texas
Tech and a lot of people don't like him or
(03:41):
the Chiefs, but it's, you know, cool to see both
his legacy. I think it'd be a lot of fun
to see Josh Allen finally get a championship ring. I
went to high school with the May family, so I
kind of a connection there, a little bit to Drake
May obviously.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
You know, you know there's a couple of Texas players
still in the playoffs. Kyle Shanahan a Texas guy.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
So I'm just rooting for a good matchup here, to
be honest, And so even you know your rams, I
like Stafford.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
You know a couple of Longhorn legends that team.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yeah, you got Poonaford, who's wreaking some havoc. On the
defensive front, you got Jordan Whittington, who may be back
coming off the knee injury, maybe back for this week's
game against Chicago.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
But the other thing that you've established yourself for is
being the knowledgeable golf officionado that you are. Cameron's fine
golfer in his own right. But in addition to that,
his following of the PGA Tour and of the Lift
Golf Tour is important to mention. Cameron made his feelings
(04:39):
known about how much he hated Live Golf. He hated
I think about you every time I get an email
from the Live Golf communications staff.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
You're the only person on that chain. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
I get what I get him almost weekly, so I
wanted to, you know, eventually send him to you. But anyway,
there's a couple of there's a couple of PGA related
item and said I wanted to ask about one. The
FedEx Cup Falls schedule is going to include two new tournaments.
One we know right here in Austin. There's also a
(05:12):
new one in Asheville, North Carolina. So there's one there
the cliffs at Walnut Cove. I don't believe you've played that,
of course, have you? Okay, it'll be get This the
PGA Tour's first tournament in Ashville since Ben Hogan won
the last three. Ashville opens from nineteen forty to forty two,
(05:33):
and anybody who's been to Ashville, No, it's what a
beautiful place it is. I've had it described to me
this way, and I'm inclined to kind of agree. It's
like Austin from fifty sixty years ago, put in the mountains.
It's very eclectic and it's really cool. There is a
college in town, unc Asheville, but it's not so much
(05:53):
about me in the college town. It's more of an
artist's kind of town and it's very very cool. So
there's that, so that's pretty cool, as well as obviously
the event coming to Austin, which will be really cool
to have that again, even though it's beyond the determination
of winning the FedEx Cup.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Yeah, we'll be at Omni Barton Creek, so it will
not be at the Austin Country Cup anymore, which does stink.
I think a lot of people love the tournament, acc
I think the members are ready to move past it
so they come back to Austin, though it's going to
be at Tom Vozzio's design, and I think this is
kind of a warm up event for twenty twenty seven.
(06:33):
I think the PJ Tour schedules going look so different
in twenty twenty seven, and that includes probably no more
trips to Hawaii. So this Sony Open this week maybe
the last time we have a PGA Tour event in
Hawaii for a long time. But they're kind of playing
this event at Barton Creek. The kind of see, kind
of gauge how it works out, with eyes on maybe
moving it back to the March spot in the schedule
(06:55):
in twenty seven, like the Austin Country Club event used
to be the Doll match Play, right, that was always
in March right leading up to the Masters, and then
of course the WGZ events went away. So this is
kind of just a let's see how it works out
type of thing, but hopefully we're going to have. You know,
this a great event to have. It is the weekend
the LSU game, so Texas football fans are walking to
(07:15):
attend this game if you're not going to Baton Rouge
and maybe you can attend the Good Good Championship. By
the way, Good sponsor good, good golf. So it's exciting though.
You know, obviously the match play meant a lot to me,
and it meant a lot to the Austin community. It
sucks on having an event here in Austin, but hopefully
this means that we're going to have golf become a
major part of the PJ Tour calendar going forward. Why
(07:38):
is it going away from Hawaii? I hadn't heard that all.
That's a great question. There's a lot of different answers. So,
of course, this last week and was supposed to be
the Century which is usually played at Capela right now,
Capalua went through a major drought in the west side
of Maui, and so the PJ Tour decided to move
the event away because of the issues happening between the
(08:03):
Kapelua Plantation Course and the Maui Land and Pineapple Company,
which kind of owns a lot of the a lot
of the acreage in Mali that is responsible for watering
the golf course. There's like a two hour podcast we
can do based on what's happening. Basically, the PJA Tour said, Hey, okay,
a lot happening there. We're not going to play this
event at Kapelu and instead of having a makeup event
(08:24):
the same weekend, they said no more. And then now
with the Sony Open PJ Tour, and that's a who
in why live right, and they've refused to extend this tournament.
Really talk about it and to think about it. The
PJ Tour has increased the purses to these events. I
think fifteen or twenty million dollars. The winner of this event, Well,
(08:47):
it costs a lot of money to have an event
in Hawaii, right. It's a lot of money to build
the infrastructure, to move your staff out there at the
house players, all of that and above. And this was
set up by the previous regime the PJ Tour. J Monahan,
Brian Rollaps come in. He's had experience with Believe the
NFL and Believe the MLB. He's coming in with a
(09:10):
how can we make more money and save money type
of thinking and these events and why it costs a
tour a lot of money. I think he's looking at
possibly just eliminating it and also maybe moving the schedule back,
because you know PJ Tour this weekend starting up, it's
going up against the college football playoffs. Also, the NFL
playoffs right now, a lot of people are gonna be
(09:31):
watching unless they happen to stumble upon the golf channel
in between divisional games, right, So looking at possibly moving
the schedule back past the Super Bowl, when they're gonna
have more viewers, more coverage, make more money from NBC
or CBS, and that would basically just eliminate the Hawaii
which sucks because it's great viewing.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Yeah, and isn't Super Bowl. We can always win the
waste management. What's going on in Phoenix?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yeah, of course, somebody remember Scottie Shuffer's first PGA Tour
win was in a playoff at the Phoenix Open. At
the same time, the Bengals and Rams were playing a
super Bowl game.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
So they and totally forgot about Scotty and I was
so wrapped up in the Rams. Of course, a lot
of people were to yeah, and uh. And Ryan Reynolds,
not the actor, but the associate director of athletics basketball
operations guy with Texas. He's a lifelong Bengals guy, so
it would have been in his mind, who the Yeah, yeah, exactly. Okay,
(10:24):
So that's that's one thing, which, by the way, I
hate to hear about a lot of this going away
and very little retro. One retro has nothing to do
with golf, NASCAR going back to North Wilkesbarrel. Yeah, last
year they had the All Star Race that they got
it in the rotation coming up, which I think is
really cool, a.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Little old track up there in the foothills of the mountains.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
And they also decided to eliminate the playoffs too. They
just decided to go back to the chase format which
began with like twenty years ago. Basically the chase format
ended Jeff Gordon's reign unfortunately, but instead of the playoffs
where every three races four drivers are eliminated, just goes
back to the ten race. Whoever has most points wins
the championship. So NASCAR making changes, PGA Tour making changes,
(11:06):
all trying to stay up to date, stay afloat compared
to what the NBA and NFL is doing.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
But the biggest changes I'm sure you're about to get
to here. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, And because I couldn't, this was the primary reason
havev and Cameron come in here.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Brooks kept Cup.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
He's back, five time major champion, returning to the PGA Tour.
It's part of this new returning member program sounds like
something a credit card company does. It's going to allow
three of Live Golf's other top stars to come back
if they want so. Keepka is expected to make his
(11:42):
return at the Farmer's Insurance Open that's at Tory Pines
there and Lajolla there in San Diego. At the end
of the month, He's expected playing that Waste Management Phoenix
Open the following week. So and this returning member program
is allowing Live golfers who've been away from the PGA
Tour for at least two years and who play and
who won the Players Championship or one of the four
(12:03):
Majors to be able to come back under certain conditions
with severe financial penalties. The other golfers who could return,
Bryson to Shambeau, John Rom Cameron Smith could all return.
So you hated all of them when they left. So
especially Kopka, especially Brooksy, you kind of softened on the
(12:26):
Shambo since he won a major or two, you kind
of you kind of you've kind of softened on him
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I think I have on all of them.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
So basically what this what's happening now is uh, the
PJ Tour has seen all the chaos in the transfer portals. Okay,
we're gonna have our own transfer portal so lif golfers
can transfer back to the PGA Tour here. But basically,
Brian Rolapp, the new commissioner, just giving double middle fingers
to anyone not named Bryson rom and Cam Smith, Hudson Swafford.
You know we don't care about you, Kevin enjoy Live.
(12:55):
We're only going to bring back the big names, right.
And the funny thing too is Craig you may mentioned
you know the criteria will come back major winners from
twenty twenty two twenty twenty five. Do you guys know
who won a major championship in twenty twenty one? Phil Mickelson,
Yes he did. And you know who's kind of in
charge of the Player Advisory Council and helped build this negotiation,
(13:19):
Tiger Woods. So Tiger Woods once again playing and toying
with Phil mickleson here. Why is it twenty twenty to
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
No one knows.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
PJA Tours is making up as it goes, But it's
interesting they could have said, hey, twenty ten to twenty
twenty five and included Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia and
Phil mickleson No. Twenty twenty two to twenty five very
specific for a reason because of Phil Micklelson in his
anti Pha tour stands, and also he's gone off the
rails politically his Twitter goal. Get his Twitter if you
want a good laugh, because he sees on a different
(13:48):
planet right now.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
But it's very interesting that the only Tigers shutting him out.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Tiger always finding ways to just kind just nick Phil
Michlson one last time.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
All right about Brooks getting back in. How you feeling
about that?
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Hey, I'm I'm glad that have I hope cam Smith
and Bryson and and Rom come back. I don't I
don't think. I think John Ram and camps with are
pretty happy where they're at right now with Live. But
for Brooks, you know, he's been kind of behind the scenes,
pretty open about not wanting to be on LIB. You know,
all all those guys where their their team uniform is
(14:22):
right Like you watch the Masters, you see Sergio in
his red and yellow what are the Fireballs uniform? Like
a Madden Creative team Seriously, but Kepka would never wear
his uniform. He always swore his his Nike, his Nike stuff,
So he was never really bought in to live. I
think he did at the same time, or I think
he did it because it was most amount of money
(14:42):
he could make. He wasn't playing well, his body was
a teering, and he thought his career was going to end,
and then he ends up winning a PGA Championship at okill.
The other side of this, too is this past season,
Brooks Kopka's ten year contract with Nike ended, so there's
some thing, some thought behind that, possibly this line and
Nike did not want to re sign with Brooks if
(15:03):
he sit and live golf, so that could have played
a big part in it too. You know, now Brooks
can make some more money from a Nike contract. Now
he is forfeiting a lot of money by going back.
I think he's doing eight five million dollars to a
charity of his cause, which is nice. Uh, He's not
eligible for FedEx Cup bonus. I mean he's won for majors,
so he's completely set for life in terms of money.
(15:24):
So and so wouldn't be Cam Smith and rom and
Bryce decided to comeback, so Farry.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Wind up playing in the majors anyway, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
There are you know, uh, you know, Rom obviously won
the Masters, so you know he can play it all
and he's won a major within the past couple of years,
so he's qualified.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Cam Smith same thing.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
He you know, he won the Open Championship and he
can play in the Open Championship for the rest of
his life. So and and Bryson, you know, he's he's
set for the next five years too. So I would
love this those guys back on the tour. But it's
very interesting that the timing of this and also just
the criteria that, you know, because the Hudson' Swafford, former
PJA Tour winner Georgia Bulldog. You know a lot of
(16:00):
people are saying, who he got a five year band
for the PJ Tour for joining lyf you know, why
didn't Brookshi Bryson get a five year band? Maybe philled it.
We don't know about it. But it's interesting. The PJ
Tour is kind of making it up as they go along.
But Rock comes in and says, hey, who are the
big names we are missing on the tour? I Reclys Bryson, Brooks,
John Robbin, campus Smith. Is there a way we can
kind of get them back into the fold, and Brooks
(16:21):
as the first one to take it, and we'll see
the rest of the guys follow.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
What's what's the larger strategy here?
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Do they want Live to keep existing as a kind
of big bad and just weaken it or is their
goal to eventually absorb all of those players back.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
I don't think that's ever.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
We're going to see the combination the merger of the
PJ Tour and Live like we once thought we were.
The other note too, is you know, you know, Live
is funded by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, right,
and what's a big part of you know that money
the wealth oil? Right now oil is selling at an
old time low, right, So they're funding this tour there
(16:57):
they're being out drawn in viewership by TG out by
the way, the golf simulator stuff in the spin that's
getting more fewers and Live all right, it's kind of
fun to watch it is, yeah, in interesting. So they're
putting all this money, they're giving out these big contracts.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Is it really paying off? Is it working? Who knows? Right?
Speaker 3 (17:15):
You know, they may decide to go ahead and just
go ahead and bankrupt the entire thing, don't really know,
but you know, Roy talked about it, you know, last month,
He's like, how much longer can they afford to pay
these guys, about getting their return on investment that they
thought they were going to and losing Brooks.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Koepka is a big draw.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
And they still have Bryce in the Shamba, they still
have John Rom, they still have Campsmen, so three of
the biggest names in golf. But at this point, you know,
Brooks comes over. If they lose Rom or Bryson, then
all of a sudden, the PJ Tour looks like they're
winning this battle.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I don't I can I don't know if I.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Can guarantee, but I know the PJ Tour will still
exist in three years, will live golf exists in three years?
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I don't know. Flip a coin. Yeah, you've gone so
soft lately, you really have. Well, how's that is?
Speaker 1 (17:59):
It's some management thing now, I mean, it's just you know,
you just soften your stand so much.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
You know you used to was it?
Speaker 1 (18:07):
What was it that mister Potter says in the in Uh,
it's wonderful you once said you were apt to conquer
the world, you know that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
No, I'm just kidding there. Okay, all right, so proof
of life. He's still here, He's still around.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
You know, if you come to basketball games at Moody,
you'll see Cameron because he's up there. He's engineering force
up there. Afterwards, and we've got tickets to give away,
right we do. Yeah, Texas Vanderbilt.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Hey long, Gordon's just upset number thirteen Alabama, So come
out for Wednesday. Moody is going to be rocking. And
I know Sean Miller we talked about it today. Uh,
really looking forward to support from Texas fans. So giving
away a lot of tickets this week. You're on the Zone.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, tenth ranked team in the country and undefeated both
the Vanderbilt men and women still unbeaten.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Wow, thank you, thanks for dropping in.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Okay, Uh, we're gonna hear from Sean Miller coming up
next on thirteen under the Zone.
Second hour of the program here on Sports Radio AM
thirteen under the Zone. Glad to have you with us
on a Monday. Hope your Monday's going okay, Listen, It's
only fair if I say on Fridays that if Friday's
your traditional Friday, like the traditional work week, and I say,
good on you, good for you, hope it goes well.
And I say for those you know, I say, for
those poor individuals who Friday is really kind of their Monday,
(00:25):
maybe that means their Monday becomes their Friday or something
like that.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
So good for you if that's the case. For the
rest of.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Us, hey, we manage and we go through it as
best we can. Glad to have you with us. Coming
up a little later in just a few minutes, we'll
hear from Sean Miller his thoughts, and we also will
start and we'll hear from Vick Schaeffer, Texas women's head coach.
With the long runs coming off the laws to lsh you.
I wanted to take an opportunity while we had a
few minutes def Cameron Parker pop in here.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
It's important, I think.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
For us on the radio station where Cam is concerned
to have a little bit of Proof of Life from
time to time. Because Cameron sat in Jake's chair our
first two years and plus and and produce this program,
and then he got promoted upstairs, so to speak. I
(01:19):
began to refer to him as a middle management clown.
But he's but he's but he's as assistant program right now.
We still work very closely together. He's my engineer on
long runmen's basketball, and he will still fill in on
some play by play for us on occasion.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I think I got a.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Baseball game or two for you coming up here around
the corner. We'll get to all of that. But but
Cameron established himself also on this program for several things.
One his hatred of all things Jerry Jones and his
disaffected nature with his favorite NFL team, the Dallas Cowboys,
That's one thing. And so I needed to get an
(01:59):
update you on all of this with Ebra Flues being
fired and the Cowboys moving forward. I know Jerry's Jerry's
Jerry's always going to be there, but how do you
feel about the moves the Cowboys make made?
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Well, obviously, the defense was horrendous, and I think horrendous
might be putting it lightly in terms of like, statistically,
I think it's one of the worst NFL defenses in
this century, so it makes sense ibra Flus was not retained.
The sad part of it is going the next season,
the Cowboys will I think have their fourth different defensive
coordinator in as many years. And Craig, you know this
(02:33):
from Texas football during the twenty tens, where every year
there's a different offensive coordinator, different play caller, and all
that does is just stunt the growth of so many players.
So on one hand, it's necessarily that Dallas makes the
move defensively in terms of their coaching, but at the
same time, it's just hurting the defense and these players,
(02:54):
and it's probably been a bit reason why the Cowboys
have struggled defensively.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Here's a question should I put to the listeners today,
do you have a side team in the playoffs now
that we're to the playoffs, Because I said, you know,
fantasy guys, the guys who played fantasy football sometimes when
their teams get knocked out, they have fantasy playoff drafts,
so they can kind of plug back into it. But
even if you're not doing that, if it's just NFL
playoffs in general, do you have a side team.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Not really.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
I was asked this yesterday, like is anyone you're you're
rooting for? It was like, no, but there's one team
I'm not rooting for, and I think Jake agrees with me.
It's the Philadelphia Eagles. One team I did not care
everyone else. You know, usually at this point, I kind
of like the root for players' legacies. So I always
enjoyed rooting for Mahomes even though you diggle to Texas
Tech and a lot of people don't like him or
(03:41):
the Chiefs, but it's, you know, cool to see both
his legacy. I think it'd be a lot of fun
to see Josh Allen finally get a championship ring. I
went to high school with the May family, so I
kind of a connection there, a little bit to Drake
May obviously.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
You know, you know there's a couple of Texas players
still in the playoffs. Kyle Shanahan a Texas guy.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
So I'm just rooting for a good matchup here, to
be honest, And so even you know your rams, I
like Stafford.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
You know a couple of Longhorn legends that team.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Yeah, you got Poonaford, who's wreaking some havoc. On the
defensive front, you got Jordan Whittington, who may be back
coming off the knee injury, maybe back for this week's
game against Chicago.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
But the other thing that you've established yourself for is
being the knowledgeable golf officionado that you are. Cameron's fine
golfer in his own right. But in addition to that,
his following of the PGA Tour and of the Lift
Golf Tour is important to mention. Cameron made his feelings
(04:39):
known about how much he hated Live Golf. He hated
I think about you every time I get an email
from the Live Golf communications staff.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
You're the only person on that chain. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
I get what I get him almost weekly, so I
wanted to, you know, eventually send him to you. But anyway,
there's a couple of there's a couple of PGA related
item and said I wanted to ask about one. The
FedEx Cup Falls schedule is going to include two new tournaments.
One we know right here in Austin. There's also a
(05:12):
new one in Asheville, North Carolina. So there's one there
the cliffs at Walnut Cove. I don't believe you've played that,
of course, have you? Okay, it'll be get This the
PGA Tour's first tournament in Ashville since Ben Hogan won
the last three. Ashville opens from nineteen forty to forty two,
(05:33):
and anybody who's been to Ashville, No, it's what a
beautiful place it is. I've had it described to me
this way, and I'm inclined to kind of agree. It's
like Austin from fifty sixty years ago, put in the mountains.
It's very eclectic and it's really cool. There is a
college in town, unc Asheville, but it's not so much
(05:53):
about me in the college town. It's more of an
artist's kind of town and it's very very cool. So
there's that, so that's pretty cool, as well as obviously
the event coming to Austin, which will be really cool
to have that again, even though it's beyond the determination
of winning the FedEx Cup.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
Yeah, we'll be at Omni Barton Creek, so it will
not be at the Austin Country Cup anymore, which does stink.
I think a lot of people love the tournament, acc
I think the members are ready to move past it
so they come back to Austin, though it's going to
be at Tom Vozzio's design, and I think this is
kind of a warm up event for twenty twenty seven.
(06:33):
I think the PJ Tour schedules going look so different
in twenty twenty seven, and that includes probably no more
trips to Hawaii. So this Sony Open this week maybe
the last time we have a PGA Tour event in
Hawaii for a long time. But they're kind of playing
this event at Barton Creek. The kind of see, kind
of gauge how it works out, with eyes on maybe
moving it back to the March spot in the schedule
(06:55):
in twenty seven, like the Austin Country Club event used
to be the Doll match Play, right, that was always
in March right leading up to the Masters, and then
of course the WGZ events went away. So this is
kind of just a let's see how it works out
type of thing, but hopefully we're going to have. You know,
this a great event to have. It is the weekend
the LSU game, so Texas football fans are walking to
(07:15):
attend this game if you're not going to Baton Rouge
and maybe you can attend the Good Good Championship. By
the way, Good sponsor good, good golf. So it's exciting though.
You know, obviously the match play meant a lot to me,
and it meant a lot to the Austin community. It
sucks on having an event here in Austin, but hopefully
this means that we're going to have golf become a
major part of the PJ Tour calendar going forward. Why
(07:38):
is it going away from Hawaii? I hadn't heard that all.
That's a great question. There's a lot of different answers. So,
of course, this last week and was supposed to be
the Century which is usually played at Capela right now,
Capalua went through a major drought in the west side
of Maui, and so the PJ Tour decided to move
the event away because of the issues happening between the
(08:03):
Kapelua Plantation Course and the Maui Land and Pineapple Company,
which kind of owns a lot of the a lot
of the acreage in Mali that is responsible for watering
the golf course. There's like a two hour podcast we
can do based on what's happening. Basically, the PJA Tour said, Hey, okay,
a lot happening there. We're not going to play this
event at Kapelu and instead of having a makeup event
(08:24):
the same weekend, they said no more. And then now
with the Sony Open PJ Tour, and that's a who
in why live right, and they've refused to extend this tournament.
Really talk about it and to think about it. The
PJ Tour has increased the purses to these events. I
think fifteen or twenty million dollars. The winner of this event, Well,
(08:47):
it costs a lot of money to have an event
in Hawaii, right. It's a lot of money to build
the infrastructure, to move your staff out there at the
house players, all of that and above. And this was
set up by the previous regime the PJ Tour. J Monahan,
Brian Rollaps come in. He's had experience with Believe the
NFL and Believe the MLB. He's coming in with a
(09:10):
how can we make more money and save money type
of thinking and these events and why it costs a
tour a lot of money. I think he's looking at
possibly just eliminating it and also maybe moving the schedule back,
because you know PJ Tour this weekend starting up, it's
going up against the college football playoffs. Also, the NFL
playoffs right now, a lot of people are gonna be
(09:31):
watching unless they happen to stumble upon the golf channel
in between divisional games, right, So looking at possibly moving
the schedule back past the Super Bowl, when they're gonna
have more viewers, more coverage, make more money from NBC
or CBS, and that would basically just eliminate the Hawaii
which sucks because it's great viewing.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Yeah, and isn't Super Bowl. We can always win the
waste management. What's going on in Phoenix?
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Yeah, of course, somebody remember Scottie Shuffer's first PGA Tour
win was in a playoff at the Phoenix Open. At
the same time, the Bengals and Rams were playing a
super Bowl game.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
So they and totally forgot about Scotty and I was
so wrapped up in the Rams. Of course, a lot
of people were to yeah, and uh. And Ryan Reynolds,
not the actor, but the associate director of athletics basketball
operations guy with Texas. He's a lifelong Bengals guy, so
it would have been in his mind, who the Yeah, yeah, exactly. Okay,
(10:24):
So that's that's one thing, which, by the way, I
hate to hear about a lot of this going away
and very little retro. One retro has nothing to do
with golf, NASCAR going back to North Wilkesbarrel. Yeah, last
year they had the All Star Race that they got
it in the rotation coming up, which I think is
really cool, a.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Little old track up there in the foothills of the mountains.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
And they also decided to eliminate the playoffs too. They
just decided to go back to the chase format which
began with like twenty years ago. Basically the chase format
ended Jeff Gordon's reign unfortunately, but instead of the playoffs
where every three races four drivers are eliminated, just goes
back to the ten race. Whoever has most points wins
the championship. So NASCAR making changes, PGA Tour making changes,
(11:06):
all trying to stay up to date, stay afloat compared
to what the NBA and NFL is doing.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
But the biggest changes I'm sure you're about to get
to here. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Yeah, And because I couldn't, this was the primary reason
havev and Cameron come in here.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Brooks kept Cup.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
He's back, five time major champion, returning to the PGA Tour.
It's part of this new returning member program sounds like
something a credit card company does. It's going to allow
three of Live Golf's other top stars to come back
if they want so. Keepka is expected to make his
(11:42):
return at the Farmer's Insurance Open that's at Tory Pines
there and Lajolla there in San Diego. At the end
of the month, He's expected playing that Waste Management Phoenix
Open the following week. So and this returning member program
is allowing Live golfers who've been away from the PGA
Tour for at least two years and who play and
who won the Players Championship or one of the four
(12:03):
Majors to be able to come back under certain conditions
with severe financial penalties. The other golfers who could return,
Bryson to Shambeau, John Rom Cameron Smith could all return.
So you hated all of them when they left. So
especially Kopka, especially Brooksy, you kind of softened on the
(12:26):
Shambo since he won a major or two, you kind
of you kind of you've kind of softened on him
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
I think I have on all of them.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
So basically what this what's happening now is uh, the
PJ Tour has seen all the chaos in the transfer portals. Okay,
we're gonna have our own transfer portal so lif golfers
can transfer back to the PGA Tour here. But basically,
Brian Rolapp, the new commissioner, just giving double middle fingers
to anyone not named Bryson rom and Cam Smith, Hudson Swafford.
You know we don't care about you, Kevin enjoy Live.
(12:55):
We're only going to bring back the big names, right.
And the funny thing too is Craig you may mentioned
you know the criteria will come back major winners from
twenty twenty two twenty twenty five. Do you guys know
who won a major championship in twenty twenty one? Phil Mickelson,
Yes he did. And you know who's kind of in
charge of the Player Advisory Council and helped build this negotiation,
(13:19):
Tiger Woods. So Tiger Woods once again playing and toying
with Phil mickleson here. Why is it twenty twenty to
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
No one knows.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
PJA Tours is making up as it goes, But it's
interesting they could have said, hey, twenty ten to twenty
twenty five and included Dustin Johnson and Sergio Garcia and
Phil mickleson No. Twenty twenty two to twenty five very
specific for a reason because of Phil Micklelson in his
anti Pha tour stands, and also he's gone off the
rails politically his Twitter goal. Get his Twitter if you
want a good laugh, because he sees on a different
(13:48):
planet right now.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
But it's very interesting that the only Tigers shutting him out.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Tiger always finding ways to just kind just nick Phil
Michlson one last time.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
All right about Brooks getting back in. How you feeling
about that?
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Hey, I'm I'm glad that have I hope cam Smith
and Bryson and and Rom come back. I don't I
don't think. I think John Ram and camps with are
pretty happy where they're at right now with Live. But
for Brooks, you know, he's been kind of behind the scenes,
pretty open about not wanting to be on LIB. You know,
all all those guys where their their team uniform is
(14:22):
right Like you watch the Masters, you see Sergio in
his red and yellow what are the Fireballs uniform? Like
a Madden Creative team Seriously, but Kepka would never wear
his uniform. He always swore his his Nike, his Nike stuff,
So he was never really bought in to live. I
think he did at the same time, or I think
he did it because it was most amount of money
(14:42):
he could make. He wasn't playing well, his body was
a teering, and he thought his career was going to end,
and then he ends up winning a PGA Championship at okill.
The other side of this, too is this past season,
Brooks Kopka's ten year contract with Nike ended, so there's
some thing, some thought behind that, possibly this line and
Nike did not want to re sign with Brooks if
(15:03):
he sit and live golf, so that could have played
a big part in it too. You know, now Brooks
can make some more money from a Nike contract. Now
he is forfeiting a lot of money by going back.
I think he's doing eight five million dollars to a
charity of his cause, which is nice. Uh, He's not
eligible for FedEx Cup bonus. I mean he's won for majors,
so he's completely set for life in terms of money.
(15:24):
So and so wouldn't be Cam Smith and rom and
Bryce decided to comeback, so Farry.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Wind up playing in the majors anyway, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
There are you know, uh, you know, Rom obviously won
the Masters, so you know he can play it all
and he's won a major within the past couple of years,
so he's qualified.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Cam Smith same thing.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
He you know, he won the Open Championship and he
can play in the Open Championship for the rest of
his life. So and and Bryson, you know, he's he's
set for the next five years too. So I would
love this those guys back on the tour. But it's
very interesting that the timing of this and also just
the criteria that, you know, because the Hudson' Swafford, former
PJA Tour winner Georgia Bulldog. You know a lot of
(16:00):
people are saying, who he got a five year band
for the PJ Tour for joining lyf you know, why
didn't Brookshi Bryson get a five year band? Maybe philled it.
We don't know about it. But it's interesting. The PJ
Tour is kind of making it up as they go along.
But Rock comes in and says, hey, who are the
big names we are missing on the tour? I Reclys Bryson, Brooks,
John Robbin, campus Smith. Is there a way we can
kind of get them back into the fold, and Brooks
(16:21):
as the first one to take it, and we'll see
the rest of the guys follow.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
What's what's the larger strategy here?
Speaker 3 (16:26):
Do they want Live to keep existing as a kind
of big bad and just weaken it or is their
goal to eventually absorb all of those players back.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
I don't think that's ever.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
We're going to see the combination the merger of the
PJ Tour and Live like we once thought we were.
The other note too, is you know, you know, Live
is funded by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, right,
and what's a big part of you know that money
the wealth oil? Right now oil is selling at an
old time low, right, So they're funding this tour there
(16:57):
they're being out drawn in viewership by TG out by
the way, the golf simulator stuff in the spin that's
getting more fewers and Live all right, it's kind of
fun to watch it is, yeah, in interesting. So they're
putting all this money, they're giving out these big contracts.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Is it really paying off? Is it working? Who knows? Right?
Speaker 3 (17:15):
You know, they may decide to go ahead and just
go ahead and bankrupt the entire thing, don't really know,
but you know, Roy talked about it, you know, last month,
He's like, how much longer can they afford to pay
these guys, about getting their return on investment that they
thought they were going to and losing Brooks.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Koepka is a big draw.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
And they still have Bryce in the Shamba, they still
have John Rom, they still have Campsmen, so three of
the biggest names in golf. But at this point, you know,
Brooks comes over. If they lose Rom or Bryson, then
all of a sudden, the PJ Tour looks like they're
winning this battle.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I don't I can I don't know if I.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Can guarantee, but I know the PJ Tour will still
exist in three years, will live golf exists in three years?
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I don't know. Flip a coin. Yeah, you've gone so
soft lately, you really have. Well, how's that is?
Speaker 1 (17:59):
It's some management thing now, I mean, it's just you know,
you just soften your stand so much.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
You know you used to was it?
Speaker 1 (18:07):
What was it that mister Potter says in the in Uh,
it's wonderful you once said you were apt to conquer
the world, you know that kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
No, I'm just kidding there. Okay, all right, so proof
of life. He's still here, He's still around.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
You know, if you come to basketball games at Moody,
you'll see Cameron because he's up there. He's engineering force
up there. Afterwards, and we've got tickets to give away,
right we do. Yeah, Texas Vanderbilt.
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Hey long, Gordon's just upset number thirteen Alabama, So come
out for Wednesday. Moody is going to be rocking. And
I know Sean Miller we talked about it today. Uh,
really looking forward to support from Texas fans. So giving
away a lot of tickets this week. You're on the Zone.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, tenth ranked team in the country and undefeated both
the Vanderbilt men and women still unbeaten.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Wow, thank you, thanks for dropping in.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Okay, Uh, we're gonna hear from Sean Miller coming up
next on thirteen under the Zone.
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