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[Assistant] In the final round, shot 74, uh, tumbled outside the top 15, his worst finish, uh, in months, uh, on either the, uh, PJ tour or the DP world tour. Now he's showing up, uh, at Wentworth along with the 11 other European Ryder cupers of the 12 players on that squad. Who are you most looking forward to paying attention to this week?


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[Assistant] That doomed trip to Marco Simone where they're just wearing themselves out and developing bonds and friendships that apparently are going to doom the US team. I look at a player to kind of


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[Assistant] Nits with that argument, Rex. Like, you look at a player like Matt Fitzpatrick, who, even though he won at the Heritage, uh, was very disappointed, he thought, by his PJ Tour season, started to play a little bit better at the BMW, had a chance to win at the Czech Masters. Now he's going back to the BMW PJ. Like, he's a player who is finding form to me at the right time. Like, it's not like these guys have to play,


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[Assistant] They're essentially prolonging their season for one extra month in order to, to peak at the Ryder Cup. It's not like they're, they want to peak for the,


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[Assistant] Uh, DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, like the Superbowl.


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[Assistant] Is this year's Ryder Cup? And so I don't think they actually had a problem adding the one or two starts. If you're Roy McRoy, uh, he didn't say he didn't practice much with the tour championship with the back injury, got into the competitive flow again in the Irish open. I expect him to be a little bit sharper this week and then you are playing the Ryder Cup in a week and a half time. I think I would still


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[Assistant] I would still rather have the European way of building up this Ryder Cup than the Americans who besides Max Holman, Justin Thomas, have largely had a month off.


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[Assistant] Can you, can you just retell the story? We might, we might have some, some new listeners. We might have some people who have just picked up golf in the past couple years because of all this Saudi drama. Missile Strike? Yes, can you take us back to Missile Strike? Because you were, I believe one of a handful of U.S. riders who was actually in Honolulu


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[Assistant] For this, uh, Missile Strike, which was not. But what was the scene? What was the panic? What were the calls like back home? And what was the rest of the week like covering that, covering that golf tournament?


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[Assistant] They're doing what? I mean, not to be insensitive, but man, to have had a camera.


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[Assistant] As you raced around the hotel room, saying, saying your goodbyes, trying to dig yourself a little bunker. God, what a story. Obviously, obviously that person who sent out the


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[Assistant] Uh, that, that missive was, uh, was, was fired, uh, quickly. Uhm, but man, what a story from Life on the Road. I have nothing, absolutely nothing that can possibly compare to that. But yes, this is the one year anniversary of the Queen dying.


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[Assistant] Uh, yes, Georgia does play them at Texas, uh, in 2024. That could be Arch Manning versus Dylan Raola. Uh, so I'm very much here for that one. Rex, uh, since last we talked on this, your podcast, you actually did get your back patio.


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[Assistant] Finish. Jason, was that his name? Was Jason the? Yeah. He must have listened to the podcast. He hired a couple extra crew. And he appeared to have the back patio done, the pool resurfaced based on your picture and your snappy chat with the pit barrel fired up. What's the latest?


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[Assistant] Folks, this is the new Workhorse Pits 1969, delivered by my friend, uh, Barbecue Pitmaster, uh, store owner of Gentry's in Orlando, uh, delivered on Saturday. This thing is an absolute behemoth Rex. Uh, it is 800


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[Assistant] It is only on about six inch casters. Uh, I have not yet seasoned it. I'm doing it after this very podcast. Uh, basically just spray down the inside with Pam, uh, and fire up.


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[Assistant] Run it about 250 for four to five hours. That's what I'm doing for the rest of the afternoon. Give it a little linseed oil application on the outside. Apparently. Have you ever used Rex boiled linseed oil? Apparently it's highly flammable, highly flammable. There's all sorts of internet discussion boards, but what you should do with your rags.


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[Assistant] I'm actually a little bit nervous. Luckily I have a fire pit out in the backyard. I guess I'll just be putting the rags in there. It can just like spontaneously combust. So we'll see how that goes. I'm neither the handiest nor the smartest when it comes to these sorts of things. But we'll see how that goes. It is, it's a work of art, Rex. I'm not gonna lie. It's always a little bit...


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[Assistant] Nerve racking to buy a smoker sight unseen, basically just going on YouTube videos. Uh, shout out stones barbecue who gave me the inspiration for this pit. But man, it's, it's, it's two arms to get the door open. It's two arms to get the cowboy firebox. It looks solid thing. This thing is absolute, an absolute tank.


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[Assistant] Should, repeat should, last generations to come. Very excited. We did have our first Jags party on Saturday. Made the best rack of ribs I ever have in my life. Shout out Ricky, uh, with the finishing touches on how we did that. Uh, Rex, what did you fire up for the first NFL Sunday of the year as you watched your fantasy teams go 0-2?


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[Assistant] I can, it says ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill. Folks, spoiler alert, spoiler alert, it was a drill. It did not happen.


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[Assistant] Sorry about that. That's my bad. I guess it's always a good reminder to tell your loved ones that you do love them. Uh, Rex, uh, since you did mention the fantasy, uh, teams and you going 0-2, oh wait, you did mention that. Uh, I did. What are your thoughts after week one? Uh, are you panicking? Are you selling? And if so, who would you like to trade me? Uh, I'm not.


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[Assistant] Uh, is going to do me there. I did notice that you had an injury to Deontay Johnson whose hamstring


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[Assistant] The platform. I don't like how it reads. I don't like the add and drop function. I don't like the lineup setting. Not a huge fan of that one. I still like my team. Uh, T Higgins. Where you at bruh? Have you in every single league?


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[Assistant] Can you put up a donut for me? Not please. I do think there's better days ahead for the bangles as well as the bills and the chiefs. Chiefs coming to our town.


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[Assistant] Rex, Chiefs are coming to the Jags on Sunday, the first home game. As I mentioned, I'm now a seasoned ticker holder. We'll have the tailgate fired up. I'll make sure to send you some snappy chats. We're one of the few people in the stadium who actually have shade.


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[Assistant] So that's the game, which I'm very excited about that. Uh, it'll be my second Jags game ever, but I'm very excited.


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[Assistant] So I went to a game last year and enjoyed it so much. I had so much fun at the tailgate.


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[Assistant] And the in-game experience was so good, being right next to the Bud Light Zone, that I decided to get.


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[Assistant] Uh, season tickets this year. I think I'm going to all but two games. They're playing the Texans and the Colts, uh, neither of whom I actually wanted to see. Uh, so I'll make sure to turn those into a nice little profit, uh, for my family, but we'll see how that goes. A funny story.


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[Assistant] So on next Tuesday we'll record the podcast before I head to Spain.


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[Assistant] Uh, for the Solheim Cup, first away or home, uh, Solheim Cup I have ever covered for GolfChannel.com. I have everything booked for months. Travel has been booked for months. Accommodations, staying at a very affordable place with a shuttle to and from the golf course. There was only one problem.


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[Assistant] As I was looking through my travel accommodations on Concur on Monday. Had never actually put in for a media application.


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[Assistant] Shout out Christina Lance and my new friend Borja, uh, who hooked me up with, uh, media credential, uh, almost immediately. Uh, that's the kind of service we've come to expect, uh, and do appreciate from our friends with the LPGA. Absolutely cannot wait to cover that one, Rex.


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[Assistant] Team events are unmatched. There's crying.


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[Assistant] Even if you win or lose, there's drama. There's always some sort of rules controversy. There's going to be a player who gets under another player's skin. Uh, we can nitpick the pairings and the lineups to death. Like it is the gift that keeps on giving. Uh, we'll, we'll, we will do, you'll, you should probably need to study over the next seven days. We will do.


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[Assistant] At least half the podcast with the Solheim Cup preview on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to that.


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[Assistant] More interest, huh? So it's almost like the players want to make sure they're at their absolute best in these team.


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[Assistant] Oh I know, we're gonna, we're gonna clip it, we're gonna splash it on the homepage at mcsports.com slash golf. It's as if you were a column. He said the thing out loud. Not sure why he said the thing, but folks, we're glad he said the thing. It's ultimate fan privilege.


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[Assistant] Incentives that are going to be getting him a lot more money in this one year. Now they'll worry about the contract extension down the road, but they needed him back. After getting pushed around by the Lions with


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[Assistant] Uh, Patrick Mahomes not having Travis Kilce. Might not have him this week against the Jags. Either like, they needed, they needed to shore up the defensive line in doing so. But they paid him. They paid him. And now, he can help them. What did it take?


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[Assistant] What did, what did it take? Rex, Rex wants these guys to get paid and not just with charitable donation, which each and every player on the US and European Ryder Cup team gets. Perhaps Rex, there's just more, perhaps there's just more to golf than money. You ever thought about that?


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[Assistant] But these guys were, it wasn't, they weren't paying for this. It was, it was basically gifted to them. They're not paying.


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[Assistant] Two, two fifty nine a night to stay at the best western in Rome. They're not paying.


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[Assistant] You know that one right? I see what your, I see what your point. It's the same thing with Brooks Koepke said no one knows how many


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[Assistant] I see, I see where you're going with this. Speaking of which, so you didn't have a, so did you have an issue with Brooks Koepka? Brooks Koepka isn't a newborn at home. He's a newborn at home, he doesn't have any live golf tournaments until the week before the Ryder Cup. Did you have any issue with Brooks Koepka? It was important to Brooks Koepka to go!


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[Assistant] So you want, what's your solution? You want these guys to be paid $50,000?


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[Assistant] Probably, actually, if you include Spieth in there, three players who you could afford to not have on that trip. Like I think, I think if Brooks had not been on that trip, I think that could have been a potential story, right? Like not reacclimating himself with players who maybe he only sees now four times a year. Yeah, like I think, I think that, I think that all could have been interesting.


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[Assistant] Xander and Pat, uh, did not have an issue with it. Jordan Spieth obviously had an excused absence, so we all know who he's going to play with, and I'm pretty sure he's going to be playing well.


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[Assistant] Uh, in Rome, once again. Alright, we're gonna leave there. We've already got 45 minutes on a podcast. That was supposed to be about 25. Uh, make sure you guys check us out on golf today on Wednesday. We'll have a hit. What we're most looking forward to.


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[Assistant] The fall portion of this golf year for, uh, Rex. I'm Lav. Make sure you check, uh, NBCsports.com slash golf for all the latest news, notes, features, commentary, videos, and podcasts. We'll see you on Tuesday.


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[Assistant] Wow, you make a lot more money than I do if you give out full-size candy bars. We give out the good stuff, like there's Reese's Pieces and Snickers and all the good stuff, but I don't, like, you're talking about like a full-size...


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[Assistant] We don't have, we have friends over, not really a party tonight. Happy Halloween, by the way. And we don't really dress up like my wife is really into gory stuff. Bunkmate likes to do the whole makeup thing. Stop doing that. I stopped doing that a few years ago. She still does it.


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[Assistant] That's true. There's only one kind of makeup that I'm comfortable putting on my face now, if I'm being honest. This one. That's right, that one. Thank you, Jess.


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[Assistant] Really appreciate it. Uhm, so it's more of a, like, the highlight for us is so we have a new, we all kind of go in the driveway.


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[Assistant] No, into my house, but so we have a big driveway. So all the kids walk by and like at the end of the driveway we had the big bowl and so we kind of let them put their grubby little paws in there and pull out whatever it is that they want. And then we have like a cooler of like soft drinks and waters for the kids. And then we have a grown up cooler.


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[Assistant] Uh, beers and whatnot for the grownups. And so we're a big hit around the neighborhood. Like the dads will make two loops intentionally to make two stops at our house just to make sure that yeah, yeah, grab whatever candy you want. IPA, good, good.


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[Assistant] So you don't give out full sized candy bars, but you do give out double IPAs? Uh, not double, that'd be ridiculous, but yes, we give out IPAs. Come by the house, 810 Riverbend.


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[Assistant] Decades probably good. It kind of depends. Like we, you know, I had, I had three, so I had sort of the perfect experiment. Like one of the, the middle one got old really, really quick. And so he quit, stopped kind of trick or treating around 13, 14 years old. Uh, the younger one probably went a little bit later. So yeah, you got about a decade. Got a decade of.


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[Assistant] Pulling kids around the neighborhood when it's hot and sweaty in Florida in October and although it's gonna be nice tonight.


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[Assistant] I need to capitulate on something here before we get into that answer. Really, really good question, but I need to apologize. I, I, I was very critical of BunkMate, my beautiful wife, last week.


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[Assistant] For having the audacity of saying that the David Beckham docu-series, which is a four-parter on Netflix, was better than the Michael Jordan docu-series, which was an eight-parter, I think, on Netflix, if I remember correctly. I thought that was just sacrilege. I thought, well, what kind of...


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[Assistant] Heresy is this. This is ridiculous. You don't know what you're talking about. I have since watched the David Beckham doc and a couple things. One, it is better because I think it's more honest if I'm being.


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[Assistant] Clear. Like, I just think David Beckham allowed himself to be shown


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[Assistant] As the beautiful man that he is, and also as this sort of flawed and handsome man, as well as this sort of flawed...


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[Assistant] I'm about to drop like I'm about to give some free publicity. So at the end of this doc, like the last 15 minutes of the Beckham series, it essentially is Beckham outside of his English estate on a, on a beautiful winter morning.


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[Assistant] And you can tell it's cold and apparently he spends every morning in this tent that's got like this unbelievably like versatile and robust and massive grill. And it's, I'm going to get this wrong. You looked it up yesterday. It's the, it's the cashmere caveman company. Is that it?


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[Assistant] Get that right? And so it's just this massive kitchen. So you have, and it's all fed by, by, by fuel, by, by wood or charcoal. It's got like a Blackstone version. It's obviously got a smoker. It's got all of these things. I watched that three times.


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[Assistant] And then I took a deep dive on the internet that lasted about three hours trying to figure out exactly what the cave means.


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[Assistant] His was 50 grand. I'm very versed in this. Uh, but his is kind of built out a little bit like his tent. We have our friend, uh, that feels like a bargain.


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[Assistant] It feels like a bargain to be honest with you. It kinda did, it is a tent.


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[Assistant] We have our friend, uh, with the European tour, Tom, who, you know, we, we spent a lot of time with at the Ryder Cup and Tom kind of blew us both away when we, and we're getting to the grilling talk, uh, really, really early in this podcast. I apologize. But, uh, he kind of blew us away cause he, we were talking about, you and I were saying what we were going to grow when we got home and he's like, eh, already put mine away and he lives in England and we were both like.


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[Assistant] Dumbfounded. Like if you told us that he threw his car into the river, we, I think you and I would have had less of a shock response. Cause we were like, what are you talking about? And I guess it gets really cold and that in the UK they don't have like porches like you're sitting on your lovely porch right now. I have my porch that just got finished.


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[Assistant] And so we don't have, they don't have that. And so it made sense as soon as I saw Beckham in his tent with the flaps down and the smoke going and he's cooking and he's making breakfast in the whole nine yards. And I'm like, Oh, I get it now. That's brilliant.


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[Assistant] I'm going to say that it's the answers I expected. There's no reason for the major championships to move quickly on this. This goes back to


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[Assistant] Talking with a lot of live players, talking with a lot of live officials two weeks ago at Doral at their team championship. There is a high level of confidence. Now this is sort of the new way to deal with the media is if you say something loud enough and long enough.


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[Assistant] That you hope it just comes true. So in this particular case, I think that's what Liv is leaning into that if you say whatever it is you want loud enough and long enough and repeatedly enough.


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[Assistant] That eventually the four major championships will K because we've, we've addressed this because of the world ranking situation and live golf does not get world ranking points that now you've left those players in sort of this major championship limbo. Tyler Gooch, Taylor Gooch for example, isn't qualified for the majors.


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[Assistant] Next year, so it becomes an issue. The easiest carve out at least from the live golf perspective is if each one of the four major championships decided just to make some sort of exemption categories for


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[Assistant] Pick your number, the top five off the Lib money list or points list, whatever you want to call it, top 10, whatever the case may be, at least that provides an avenue. And I think from the Lib perspective, that makes sense. From the major championship perspective, it's clear they're not going to get bullied into this. And I'm not even saying it's not going to happen because if you're Fred Ridley,


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[Assistant] Or if you're the RNA or if you're any of the majors, it does start to become an issue.


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[Assistant] If you don't, quote unquote, have the best players in the world. I think we could have argued that Taylor Gooch is a top whatever player, fill in the gap, top 20 player, top 15 player.


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[Assistant] Like he's a really good player, even though he joined that tour. If he's not in the major championships, that's a problem, but it doesn't seem as if the majors are in much of a rush to get to whatever the solution is going to be.


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[Assistant] I don't know if I side with them. I wouldn't put it that way. I sympathize, or I guess I empathize would be the better way of saying- I certainly don't empathize with them because they made to move to live.


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[Assistant] Yes, and so, and I think most of the players that I talk to at Doral understand that. They understand that when they walked away, this was always going to be a possibility, regardless of what Greg Norman or anyone else at Lyft Golf said, that there was always going to be the chance that they weren't going to get world ranking points and that the majors were going to become a non-starter. I guess this all dovetails.


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[Assistant] Of Saudi Arabia, I think this is all contingent on wherever we land, whether if that's two months from now.


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[Assistant] When December 31st comes and goes and that's the deadline for the framework agreement or my guess is beyond that.


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[Assistant] I would find it hard to believe that they come to some sort of solution.


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[Assistant] I'm sure the majors are just going to wait to see how this plays out.


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[Assistant] My understanding is the Endeavor deal was the least attractive.


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[Assistant] There's a connection between Jay Monahan and Fenway Sports. He essentially started his career there, so you would think that those negotiations would be robust, to use that word for the second time on the podcast. I must be trying to get some sort of award today. Uhm, the way it was explained to me, explained to me is this process is trying to find the best possible deal for the PGA Tour and the PGA Tour player.


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[Assistant] And in this particular case, it's clear Endeavour's offer was not that. Now this, this is going to come up over the next few months, if not the next few years.


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[Assistant] A lot of this deal is hanging in the balance because of player equity.


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[Assistant] And that's the way the tour hopes to make those players whole. We're talking about Rory, talking about Tiger. We're talking about the players who stay loyal.


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[Assistant] It seems Endeavor's offer didn't include any player equity. So that's a non-starter. I said this yesterday on golf today. I was, I was on after you did your round table with Joel Biel, which was very good by the way.


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[Assistant] I will say this, that I was talking with someone in the private equity world about this yesterday and I said, I can only imagine how complicated negotiations are for a billion dollar deal between two entities that are that large, the PGA, Toyota Public Investment Fund, and then whoever else.


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[Assistant] Is involved, like I can only envision in my mind how complicated and nuanced.


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[Assistant] Those negotiations are now you add to this the idea that oh, if we also make this work, then we have to find a way to get the lid players back on the PGA tour in a way that's appeases everyone, which seems impossible. You need to find a way to make the players whole who stayed loyal to the PGA tour. And you also have to figure out how the governance.


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[Assistant] Because now all of a sudden you have one entity, whether that's the PIF or someone else, that has invested billions. And they're going to want a seat at the table. And how much is the tour going to be willing to give up?


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[Assistant] To accept that money. It's, it's so many steps and it's so involved. Like once, once I kind of went down the rabbit hole on Friday night when the Sportico story broke, like I'm becoming more and more disheveled by the whole idea because I can't wrap my mind around how this would ever work.


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[Assistant] This is the third copy of the framework agreement that I printed out because I keep, keep like scribbling all over it that eventually it looks like a three year old's, you know, project that you put on the refrigerator. So I keep having to print it back out. But in the first section, it refers to.


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[Assistant] The PIF having right of first refusal, but that's only if there is a definitive agreement. So between now and the, and the idea that there may or may not be a definitive agreement, they do not, the PIF does not have right of first refusal. When that clause would come into play would be if we get to December 31st and they announced that the PGA Tour and the PIF have come up with X, Y, and Z, whatever the definitive agreement looks like at that point,


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[Assistant] Just clean up real quick. I don't know that Fenway is the leader in the clubhouse to be honest with you. I just don't know if I had to guess.


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[Assistant] It's, it's, I think the PIF is still the leader because they are going to give the most attractive offer. I don't have a doubt in my mind that they're going to offer the most attractive deal for the tour and for the players for all the reasons that you and I have talked about. The idea that the public investment fund wants an immediate return on their investment is not correct. Like they think in decades, not days.


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[Assistant] Whereas if you go to any other private equity, PE, as you're calling it now, they want some sort of return and they want it almost immediately.


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[Assistant] So let's say finway does step in and they do suddenly get a seat at the table and a piece of the pga tour in this new for-profit entity they're gonna want to see results very very quickly and where those results come from cuz now you start talking about why does the tour need two billion or whatever the number is.


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[Assistant] Injection like why do they need the money? The easy answer is because the model they've created with the signature events and elevated purses and everything else. It's not sustainable that based on the economics of the moment, they can't do this even with very, very lucrative media rights deals. They can't sustain this. And so you need that $2 billion. But going forward, where does the profit come from?


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[Assistant] Cutting, consolidation, you're talking about, and I've asked this question a couple of times and never gotten a good answer. The idea that NUCO or PGA TOR enterprises is going to be made up of all the for-profit assets of the PGA TOR as well as LibGov and the DP WorldTor.


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[Assistant] I've asked for a list, like give me 10 items that are for profit.


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[Assistant] And it's, it's very, very hard to get that definitive list. And I will say that suddenly you start talking about the TPC networks. You start talking about the president, president's cup would be a for-profit assets. You're talking about any of the events that fall under championship management. There are a lot of things involved here, but I don't see how that profit margin works in the traditional sense for a PE.


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[Assistant] The DOJ would be the bigger one. And look, the players have to approve this, but the DOJ one is going to make or break this.


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[Assistant] I think I have been the one that says the technology is going to be the thing, uh, along with the personalities that make or break this. This is an entertainment product. I'm going to hijack the podcast one more time. My apologies to Jason Gold because I'm gonna need you to slide that graphic in.


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[Assistant] Right about now, the one that I sent you because I do want to point this out that we are 23 minutes in and this has not come up that you and I played each other in fantasy football this week and not only.


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[Assistant] Did I win? Which, uh, I wasn't sure if I was gonna win. At the beginning of the week, the projections were not going my way. The final score, ladies and gentlemen, drum roll. 166.18 to 99.28. Were you even trying?


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[Assistant] You noticed I didn't mention anything about my team in the other league, so clearly I don't want to address that at all.


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[Assistant] That's not going well at all. To answer your question, we do these pods early because you're very much a morning person.


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[Assistant] So it takes me a while to wake up even with a gallon of coffee down my throat. I will say that this concept kind of gets me fired up. And again, this is contingent on two different things. One, the technology has to work and I, you and I are friends with a lot of people who are working for this outfit.


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[Assistant] And I have a lot of faith that they can get the technology to work, but it's never been done before. So there's a lot of logistical challenges that they're going to have to get to if the product that we end up with on January 9th, I believe it is, if we're watching it and you and I are both kind of like, yeah, that's cool.


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[Assistant] As I've gone through the list and as I've spoken with people there, I've kind of gotten very excited about the idea that hitting off real grass. Oh, that's awesome. Hitting out of real rough.


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[Assistant] Yeah, very, very good. Any shot from 50 to 60, 70 yards will be actual shots, not into that big oversized simulator green. All of this is very attractive to me. The idea that you can essentially turn the green into whatever green you want to turn it into. It's sort of on a virgin.


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[Assistant] It's on a rotating table. It has all kinds of levers underneath that you can create breaks here. I remember having a meeting.


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[Assistant] It was earlier this year with some folks, and they were talking about what they were hoping to build in the SoFi Center. And the idea going forward, this won't be out of the gates, but imagine that let's say Tiger Woods' team is the home team this Tuesday night. And Tiger has decided to build his own, it only needs to be a 15-hole golf course because they only play 15-hole matches.


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[Assistant] He can build his own virtual 15 whole golf course. Imagine sort of the opportunities. So I do think that part is cool if they can pull it off. The bigger part in my mind is are the players going to realize that this is less competition and more entertainment? Because a lot of players that they've signed up, in my opinion, have a hard time wrapping their mind around that.


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[Assistant] And you're going to need personality, personality, personality. Like you're going to need all of these players to be on top of their game and I'm not talking about their putting in their wedge game. Really don't care about that stuff.


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[Assistant] What I want to hear is Patrick Cantlay showing some sort of personality, which he's always struggled with in the past. Lucas Glover is on one of the teams and I've covered Lucas for a long time, big fan.


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[Assistant] I don't know that he has the gear to show some sort of real personality in the heat of the moment. All these players are going to be miked up. It's going to be live. You're going to have the opportunity to talk smack. You're going to have the opportunity to have a little fun with it. Will they? That's going to be the breaker.


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[Assistant] Depends who it is, obviously Tiger and Rory are co-founders of the league and so they're, they have equity and they're, they're fully invested in whatever it's going to become. They've actually.


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[Assistant] I don't think the actual contracts, because if you look at the number of players that they've actually announced and signed, they have more players than they have spots. That's by design because they know that.


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[Assistant] Rory probably is going to struggle to get from, let's say he plays in Maui to start the year.


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[Assistant] Some players are going to struggle to turn around, well yeaah, that's a bad example.


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[Assistant] Who, but whoever starts at century and get all the way to the East coast by Tuesday. So there's going to be some logistical things. So they had to create more spots. So it's very much a sliding scale. I think this goes back to, and again, this is the player empowerment thing. I think less about what they're getting paid up front. This isn't live golf. They weren't all just offered.


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[Assistant] I think what they were offered is equity in whatever it's going to become.


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[Assistant] Appearance fee like money, but the bigger deal is okay, now you have equity in whatever the New York team is going to be.


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[Assistant] Uh, well, we could have done it today, Halloween, so we could have done it Tuesday, and I think that's a Panavidra Indian club in whatever the case may be. Panavidra Indian club, very nice, $100,000 initiation fee. Can we, uh, can we change to today? Is that ship sale? No?


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[Assistant] Uh, yeaah, cause, uh, into, off the right, uh, yeaah, off the left, that's gonna be no good. Like, what's the use? Like, I think I'll just mail it in. The bigger issue for me is, I haven't put the top back on my Jeep.


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[Assistant] So it might be a cold ride up and a cold ride back is the biggest issue.


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[Assistant] I think they have hitting base too at Pablo Creek, if I remember correctly, like they have a very nice setup, like you mentioned.


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[Assistant] The entry fee for Panabidra, my guess is the entry fee for Pablo is even higher.


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[Assistant] Uh, that's a good question. I just got the kitchen done, so I'm trying to get it all organized back there. Did some Asperger's last night. I did some Asperger's last night with, uh, pimento cheese instead of regular cheese. Kids loved it. Went over really well.


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[Assistant] Uh, don't know. Haven't even, uh, thought about it. I haven't done ribs in a while. I think we're gonna have friends over this weekend for the games. By the way, Georgia looked really good against Florida. As an aside, uh, since I've already capitulated to the Bunk Mate, you know what, uh, we won't ever be doing again? We'll never be going to a college football game. Cause she made it exactly one quarter, not one half.


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[Assistant] Not one game, one quarter at the UCF game against West Virginia on Saturday. So we won't be doing that again.


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[Assistant] Uh, we barely made it into the stadium. It was too hot, which it was kind of hot. I will grant you that, although it's better than it could have been in central Florida this time of year. Uh, and it was very crowded. It was a sold out game and the bounce house probably isn't.


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[Assistant] The most relaxing place if you're kind of have some anxiety issues already going into it it's moving around quite a bit in that particular game so it was it was a couple different things and that didn't work out very well as a matter of fact i'm actually surprised by the time we parked.


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[Assistant] Uh, and we got really good parking. My brother-in-law actually worked for the school, so we were able to use his tickets in his parking. By the time we parked, I was shocked that she actually got out of the car. Because it already had built to the idea that yeaah, she wasn't going to like this at all.


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[Assistant] Hello and welcome into this edition of the Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lev as predicted.


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[Assistant] On the Friday night podcast, we did not get in all of the third round of the Masters. Play was suspended because of inclement weather.


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[Assistant] The final group on the seventh green, there was pooling on the greens, there was pooling in the fairways. It was an almighty mess at Augusta National Recs.


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[Assistant] In your master's career, do you ever remember the feels like temperature dropping 35 degrees day over day? That was absolutely insane. What a miserable day at the master's.


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[Assistant] Yeah, this is the, uh, it's not even like a two-horse race. This is like a two thoroughbreds race. Like this is mono-e-mono, two of the biggest alphas that you could possibly imagine on the world stage going head to head. Like it absolutely should be a phenomenal Sunday. So just a couple of housekeeping notes. Brooks Kaepka does have a four-shot lead.


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[Assistant] Over John Rahm. Uh, Brooks was one under for the six holes that he plays. He is facing like a ten foot par putt on the seventh green. John Rahm has about a ten foot birdie putt.


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[Assistant] Uh, to cut into that deficit. He's one over for the six holes that he has played. Uh, the incredible amateur story, Sam Bennett is two over for the first six holes. So yes, like Brooks Koepka has a seven shot lead over third place. Yes, there's a lot of golf to play. 28 and a half holes.


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[Assistant] They will play on Sunday, but I was a little bit surprised, right? Like this was a very dire forecast. Like this is not.


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[Assistant] Catch anyone by surprise that they were not able to get in the complete third round on Saturday. They were forecasting up to two inches of rain, so they were able to complete the second round. They were able to make a 36 hole cut and they were able to get through at least six holes of play. They should be on schedule for the


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[Assistant] You know, 630, 7 o'clock finish that you typically see on CBS on Sunday at the Masters. So all in all, it was not a complete waste. It is just going to be a marathon Sunday. Who do you think that that


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[Assistant] Benefits or who has the greater advantage. Brooks Kepka used to playing.


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[Assistant] 54 holes, get in your jokes now. Or John Rahm, uh, an absolute alpha who has been playing some of the best golf of his life this year.


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[Assistant] Games, it is interesting too. So like Brooks Koepke right now he has a four shot lead.


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[Assistant] Uh, if he is able to maintain that advantage heading into the final round, you're not going to have a situation that you typically have where you have kind of a, a restless night. You know, you're, you're trying to get to sleep thinking about all that that's going to happen in the morning. Remember the, the famous story from Scottie Scheffler last year where he was crying in the fetal position.


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[Assistant] You're not going to have that sort of build up. You're basically going to have


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[Assistant] Two or three hours. So that's a, you know, you grab lunch, get a cool down, maybe get some treatment, then head back on to the tournament practice area, uh, to resume your warmup for the fourth and final round. But if you're John Rahm, I think you also look at this as a positive.


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[Assistant] As well. Historically, in his career, he has been one of the game's most fearsome closers. Like, he is not afraid to make up a two, three, four shot deficit. I think that taps into kind of his aggressive mentality. He's not quite as tentative on the greens, and he can go for it. One thing that is going to be interesting,


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[Assistant] In the final round, so obviously it was completely saturated today to the point that it was over saturated, but you don't get mud balls when the conditions are like this because the ball essentially cleans itself as soon as it hits the turf. The forecast for Sunday is low 60s.


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[Assistant] About 20 mile an hour winds, which is going to dry out the golf course as well. You're going to have a lot.


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[Assistant] Of mud balls when you get to that second nine at Augusta national. I'm not sure there's any more.


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[Assistant] Especially like fushers like this who are, who hit the center of the clubface almost every single time to have that element of doubt or uncertainty has to be absolutely maddening.


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[Assistant] These are two very gritty players. Brooks Koepka has been the best US Open player of the past decade. Obviously John Rahm won a US Open in 2021 where Brooks Koepka was right there again. That's kind of what's broken out here.


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[Assistant] At Augusta National for all the great scoring that we had over the first two days, at least in the late early wave, which Brooks Koepka was a part of and John Rahm was not. Like this is going to very much turn into a test of patience.


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[Assistant] As you said, and making sure that you're hitting the ball absolutely on the screws. I do want to get into Brooks Kapok. He does of course have a four shot lead with 28 and a half holes remaining to go.


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[Assistant] In this Masters, you had an opportunity to catch up with his swing coach, Claude Harman III. Uh, he was the man who was guiding Brooks to his four previous major championships.


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[Assistant] They split, they got back together last year. What did he tell you about this newest reincarnation?


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[Assistant] He's so much more interesting now than he was, say, four or five years ago when he was just kind of the major Terminator who showed up at the game's biggest events.


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[Assistant] And basically just put the major field in a chokehold. There's more layers to him. There's more depth to him. Uh, obviously the Netflix exp- special kind of exposed him and made him vulnerable in a light that we didn't know. The injuries that he sustained, first to his left knee a couple years ago, and more specifically to his right knee. That was the damaging one two years ago.


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[Assistant] Uh, that, that essentially put his, uh, career at the breaking point. Like it was, I think it was a lot closer to Brooks Koepke walking away from the game.


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[Assistant] Then perhaps he had previously made known and for him to get healthy, to get now on the other side and to be competitive.


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[Assistant] In this Masters, uh, one of the two majors that he had not yet won on the game's biggest stage with all that swirling around with this Pidgeot Tour live drama, uh, is nothing short of remarkable. We had such a hard time handicapping how these guys would play.


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[Assistant] And I, like I thought he was, he was fascinating. He was a, he was a case study for how much does that form on the lift tour actually matter once you get in the major championship. So to have this performance, uh, is absolutely astounding. We're not going to be able to talk, Rex, until a master's champion is crowned. So if it is Brooks Kapka.


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[Assistant] He's four shots ahead, 28 and a half holes to play. If it is Brooks Koepke.


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[Assistant] What does that mean? What does that mean in the larger sense of golf? Is it a massive loss for the PJ Tour? Is it a massive win for Liv? Where does this put him in the pantheon of all-time greats? Like, it could be a pretty weighty Sunday at Augusta National.


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[Assistant] He slipped, this is according to Brooks Kapka. He slipped, injured his knee, sustained ligament damage, tried to put it back in, and shattered his kneecap. His kneecap was dislocated, putting it back in.


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[Assistant] He shattered it. The error, the error was not trying to put it back in. Because that was the error.


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[Assistant] Totally disagree. No, no, no. Okay, 100% disagree. Like, should he have done that?


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[Assistant] No, probably not. He probably should have waited for a surgical consult. His error, Rex, was returning three weeks later.


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[Assistant] For the master's tournament. His error was not taking out the six month break.


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[Assistant] That his surgeon suggested. He continued to play major championship golf. He played the Masters three weeks later. A month later, he was in the final group with Phil Mickelson at the PGA Championship going head to head at Kiwa Island. And on the final day, his, his knee kind of gave out and he started hitting it left. And from that point it was over. Brooks Koepke finishes on the top eight.


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[Assistant] Didn't Tiger, didn't Tiger at the Masters famously pop a bone back into his wrist? At least he said he did.


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[Assistant] Uh, no, I think it was a shoulder. I thought it was a shoulder or a hip. Definitely, it was like a wrist bone. Yeah.


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[Assistant] We were, we were chuckling at the idea that if, if Brooks Kepka wins by four or five is like the lead story at PJTour.com.


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[Assistant] In its own right, but I, I still believe that Brooks is kind of a unicorn in the fact that he always played kind of a light schedule. He has been able to look listless for months on end and then he shows up at the major championships. Like I, I don't think.


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[Assistant] Like it's like a one-size-fits-all thing. Like I don't think Brooks is necessarily.


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[Assistant] Uh, indicative of the larger live model. I would look at more like a Joaquin Nieman, who by the time he left.


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[Assistant] Would he be able to then sustain that level of play in the major championships? I think is a better question moving forward than a player who is a generational talent, like one of the best.


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[Assistant] Uh, of his generation in Brooks Kapka. That's, that's kind of where my head is on, on that particular matter. I'm not sure what it necessarily says.


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[Assistant] How about Liv? I think it's more a reminder of how special this guy is.


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[Assistant] Then Brooks Kepka on Friday, he was asked if you were this healthy, had circumstances been different? Had you been playing at this level last summer? Would you have made?


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[Assistant] The move to live golf or would it have been made more difficult? He said, to be honest with you, it would have been made more difficult. Now he did say that he's happy with his decision. I'm not sure what else he could have said otherwise, but he has still maintained friendly relations with PJ tour players. He played a practice round with Rory McRoy who.


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[Assistant] Uh, is the foremost PJ Tour loyalist, uh, earlier this week at Augusta National. PJ Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan attended Brooks Koepka's wedding.


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[Assistant] Uh, a couple of years ago, like he, he has still, he has not, you know, he's not wave the live flag. He's not been a Phil Mickelson. He's not been a Patrick Rees, not been an Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, who have been kind of at the forefront of defending that model. Brooks has always just used.


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[Assistant] And he circled the major championships and he's once again proving.


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[Assistant] That he is among the game's best when it matters most. One thing before we get out of here, Rex, we're at the 22 minute mark on this podcast, which is supposed to be between 15 and 20 minutes.


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[Assistant] Do you think we see Tiger Woods tee it up on Sunday morning for the completion of the third round?


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[Assistant] Like I care about you. I don't even know where I'm going. It's a simple question. Do you think we will see him? I said yes.


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[Assistant] He is on his way to his highest score at the Masters. The highest was actually weekend 78's a year ago when he made the cut and probably 14 months after serious injury sustained to his lower right leg. I'm not sure I've ever seen him hobble like he is at this point.


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[Assistant] He has 28 and a half holes to play now. He's in the final group off the 10th tee. He has 28 and a half holes to play on Sunday. Joe Lakava told our friend Ian O'Connor of the New York Post earlier this week, I have no idea how Tiger would get through 27 holes.


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[Assistant] Like, I have all the respect and admiration for what Tiger Woods is doing here. I don't think anyone can question he's, he's one of the toughest athletes ever.


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[Assistant] Particularly in golf. I mean, Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods are probably 1A and 1B coming back from their respective injuries like.


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[Assistant] Is there anything to prove this week? Are you going to try and grind out your 54th right now to get to 40th? You know, I think you have to look.


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[Assistant] Big picture. And only Tiger Woods knows his body. Only he knows what he's feeling. Only he knows what sort of recovery and treatment and what 27 and a half holes on a rain-soaked golf course are going to do to his leg. But PJ Championship is at about five weeks time.


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[Assistant] And oh kill the u.s. open at l.a. where he dearly wants to be a child at home wants to be two months from now the open returns liverpool in july.


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[Assistant] It wouldn't surprise me if he didn't play on Sunday and I'm kinda hoping for his sake that we can have him.


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[Assistant] For the rest of the majors, I just don't want to see something that happens Sunday at the Masters that could potentially jeopardize the rest of a 2023 major season.


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[Assistant] I actually, I actually don't think he will. I think he'll do the calculus and see that.


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[Assistant] If, if it was any other tournament, Rex, like this, I'm having flashbacks to the PJ Championship last year at Southern Hills, right? Like he, he was absolutely miserable. I think he shot 79 that third round, just a horror day, uh, at the PJ Championship. Brutal weather conditions, uh, very much like we saw here at, at Augusta National. And he decided that Saturday night, hey, I'm in last place.


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[Assistant] I'm not gonna show up on Sunday. If this was not Augusta National, if this was not the Masters, if this is not a tournament that he won five times previously and has all the reverence and respect in the world for, uh, I think it's an easy decision. The only thing that complicates it is his special relationship with the Masters.


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[Assistant] The better story is Brooks Kepka. I actually do think that Jon Rahm will come back and win this Masters. The reason I think so, Brooks Kepka has a little bit of scar tissue. Remember the last major championship he won?


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[Assistant] Uh, forfeited 7 or 8 shot lead on the final day and ended up eking out a victory.


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[Assistant] Over Dustin Johnson at Beth Bage Black added scar tissue with that finished scar tissue going head to head losing against Phil and even in the U.S. Open that John Rahm won 2021 at Torrey Pines, Brooks Koepko once again had an opportunity to win there and made a couple of late bogeys. John Rahm I think is more battle tested of late.


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[Assistant] Uh, and his history and record as a closer leads him to believe that he can once again


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[Assistant] But we will find out, uh, on Sunday at the Masters. They should be on schedule once again.


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[Assistant] Before that late Sunday finish, as is tradition, make sure you guys check out, uh, golfchannel.com for all of our stories, all of our analysis, all of our blogs, all of our game stories, all of our columns. It should be a busy night as well as Rex, hopefully on live from


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[Assistant] From the Masters on Sunday evening. But thank you guys for listening to this edition of the Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lav. We'll be back on Sunday or Monday with a full recap of the 87th Masters.


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[Assistant] Yes, yes, deep in the bourbon, deep in the IPAs was a terrible idea. It's a tradition unlike any other. No, uh, it was a good Christmas because anytime, we go through this. So my family spends Thanksgiving in New Orleans at other people's houses and you're kind of moving around.


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[Assistant] Yes. Whereas Christmas is just more, just kind of us. So it's much more enjoyable.


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[Assistant] Uh, well, before I give my selection, I just want to give a peek behind the curtain and just let you know how the production value of these podcasts. You talked about 52. I think we did one every day during the open championship and during the major, so it's 52 plus.


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[Assistant] I know the production value was you texted me 15 minutes ago and ask you, you ready to do the pod? Yes. Do you want to do to, you know, some sort of award? Sure. What are you thinking in five texts? Text exchanges came up with our list. So yes, the high production value of our podcast is a, do you want to talk about this? Sure. And apparently you've done research. Is that right?


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[Assistant] Rory McIlroy, and as you pointed out, we're members of the GWAA, and you and I have had this conversation now probably for the last, what, three weeks? Four weeks now?


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[Assistant] About who should, yeaah, who should be on the ballot. So it was very straight forward actually. It was Scotty Shuffler, Rory, and Cam Smith. And I actually had a hard time coming down between Cam Smith and Rory McIlroy. And it's, look, this goes beyond the golf course. We know that. Like Cam Smith going to live golf after winning the Open Championship. Rory being so outspoken against live golf.


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[Assistant] They were sort of right at the middle of this. Look, you could say Phil Mickelson is the face of lived golf, but I think Cam Smith sort of took on that mantle as the highest ranked player that the breakaway league was able to secure. All those things being said, I think what Rory did both on and off the golf course for the entirety of the year, if you look, go back and look at his record, he played well in the majors. He played well.


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[Assistant] In the spring, he played well in the summer. He finished out the season strong. He won the DP world tour.


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[Assistant] Season long title, we won the FedEx Cup, I can keep going on and on. I just think he's the player of the year.


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[Assistant] It'll be interesting though. Yes, that's what I was going to say. Like, I think you're going to be on the losing end of this. Not because I think anyone's going to hold.


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[Assistant] I think it's going to be the opposite. I think they're probably going to hold it against Rory and pick Scottie Scheffler because Scottie just sort of focused on the golf. And if you look at what he did in the spring, it was pretty impressive, but it will be an interesting vote.


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[Assistant] If I, as I studied the list, I'm thinking this is the only one, cause it's gotta be Tom Kim, right? I thought about, I mean, Cameron Young was an impressive addition to the PGA Tour landscape, and I think he's going to be an extremely oppressive player, but man.


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[Assistant] What Tom Kim did, just the personality, what he did at the President's Cup to light it up, to win twice on the PGA.


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[Assistant] No, that's not right. I didn't like the idea that we just wanted to anoint him sort of the next best thing. Crown him!


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[Assistant] Cronum, just be done with it, because he had one good, I think, I mean, to be fair, he had one good Saturday afternoon at the President's Cup. I don't want to take anything else from him. I just felt like, okay, like we got a little breathless over him at the President's Cup, but I still think it's, it was an impressive performance at the President's Cup. I love the energy. I love the personality.


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[Assistant] Well, and I don't even know how healthy he has been since he left Pepperdine because, I mean, he's dealt with some wrist injuries if my memory serves me correctly. So I think- Yeah, he said- he said-


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[Assistant] So it's, you know, just sit and think what he could become. You're right. The personality is fantastic and his golf is right there behind it.


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[Assistant] That didn't even hit the green. It was at number eight at Pebble Beach during the third round and Jordan Spieth hits it so it should be nothing whatsoever. He's hanging on that cliff. I still, I had to go back.


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[Assistant] I mean, from what I was told, he and his caddie Michael Grela were emotional about it after the round. I mean, because they realized that I really should not have done that. And it was so dangerous that, in the research I was doing earlier this week about it,


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[Assistant] Pebble Beach won't even let you get close to that cliff anymore. They put up sort of a temporary fence. You can't go up and play shots. So they don't even want people to try them because it's ridiculous. You're going to tumble down the cliff.


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[Assistant] That was good. Yeaah. And I think if a memory serves, there was a kind of some tree trouble as well. Like not only do you have to worry about the lip, not only do you have to worry about, uh, you know, uh, picking it cleanly, but I think there was actually a tree that he sort of had to go under and around. It was a weird.


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[Assistant] I went with player wise and it's Scottie Scheffler, because if we were having this conversation at this time last year, we'd probably-


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[Assistant] Yeah, I didn't think that this was where he was going to end up. And it happened so quickly in the spring. And I think you and I had this conversation after you won the Masters. I mean, you covered him a lot in college. You knew him a lot better than I did.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even yeah, way back to his junior golf days and I asked you point blank, did you see this coming in your rare moment of honesty, even you had to admit that no, I did not see this coming.


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[Assistant] No, that's a good one. And I did this story just a couple of weeks ago about how it fractured so many relationships on tour. And man, I feel like I'm wearing Christmas right now. My voice is awful. Do I look like Christmas?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think so. Uh, yeaah, prob-probably, because, and this one's always tough, because...


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[Assistant] I mean, you and I both go through this with our friends, like everyone thinks that the Masters is the coolest place to go to, and I'm not saying it's not the coolest place to go to. It's one of those places that after, and I think you spend 10 days there, 12 days there, however, you spend up fortnight there, uh, just because of your duties, it starts to wear on you after about 10 days.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, that's it. So after like 10 days it starts to wear on you. The one that I'm always going to go to is an open at St. Andrews. And the outcome sort of factored into this as well. I love the idea that it sort of came down to those two players towards the end, Kim Young and the mix as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Anytime, I mean, let's face it, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at St. Andrews. It's just a special place. It's almost like it was built to host a major championship. So that's always going to be at the top of my list.


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[Assistant] This is a, this is, if I'm being honest, this is the one I'm not the most comfortable with because I could start going through, listen, as I pointed out, we had 15 minutes of production here to get ready. I, as I, you immediately start going through your mind and you start remembering the cool tournaments of the year and some of the cooler finishes, but the one, and this is probably a recency bias on my account, but the door changes. The RSM classic?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, well yeaah, that's always at the top. That's the fifth major though, so I couldn't count that as a non-major. You see what I did there.


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[Assistant] Uhm, I love the idea that it came down to Discotti was sort of clinging. He was not playing his best.


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[Assistant] And again, sort of in the bag for Rory on this one, but it seems to be such an apropos way for the PGA Tour to end their season that that guy of all the guys, if it's not going to be Tiger Woods who's coming off the bench and limping onto the court, that in this particular case that it was Rory, I felt like Jay Monahan could not have got a better assist.


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[Assistant] We booked the wrong hotel. There's no way I'm doing the PGA Championship. You and I booked into the wrong hotel.


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[Assistant] Uh, it's also Rome, which leads very, very well to the next question, and this is for you specifically, best meal of the year.


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[Assistant] That one's good. Yeah, I totally blanked on that one. And as I stumbled through my memory.


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[Assistant] Yeah, that was good. You did a better job because I stumbled through the places I ate in New Orleans because that was like, we did, we talked two weeks about New Orleans, me being there, where I was going to eat, what I was going to drink and like one place doesn't stand out because keep in mind, I was just in New Orleans three weeks ago or a few weeks ago for.


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[Assistant] Yeah, so I don't want to take it, like this is sort of...


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[Assistant] I'm taking it for granted now because I'm sure I ate the best meal of the year somewhere in New Orleans. Didn't you have COVID during New Orleans?


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[Assistant] Uh, I caught it in New Orleans. I think I caught it. You know what? I caught, I know. Shocker. I was, I was walking home Saturday night and walked, not down, but across Bourbon Street. Not down, but across Bourbon Street. And I could smell the COVID.


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[Assistant] But we ate twice when I was in Memphis for that tournament, which was a very good tournament by the way. And so I'm gonna go with the commissary, which is sort of a lame answer, but we ate there two times that week. And I had two separate meals and they were both divine.


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[Assistant] I'm throwing this one at you sideways, but give me your best drink of the year. I was thinking about this as well.


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[Assistant] No, no, that was a little bar right down the street. I was with you guys. No, we did, we, yeah.


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[Assistant] Yeah, maybe I was a little late. But I remember Gospu.


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[Assistant] Uh, it should come as no surprise that the bunkmate also was, uh, the architect of my favorite drink.


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[Assistant] Lauren Lakava, who's been working at the Golf Channel now, I want to say two or three years, and she's very, very good at her job. And she was my producer when I was in Ireland for the Irish Open. And Lauren Lakava is, I think she's mid-twenties would be my guess. And so she's fresh out of college.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Joe Lakov's daughter, uh, just to pick up the name off the floor, but there was something that my wife, uh, had her drink that was like a Guinness. Cause again, we're in Ireland and it was Irish whiskey and I'm not quite sure what it was called. And then there was some sort of like a sweetener or cream in there and it was delicious. Now it's probably why I sound the way I sound right now, but yes, that's gotta be my favorite drink.


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[Assistant] Uh, this one was easy for me, Phil Mickelson, and I know that that's...


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[Assistant] And it seems like it's low hanging fruit and we're kind of punching down on him at this point in time to be quite honest with you, but when you look at the arc of his year, which is pretty much I feel like the arc of his legacy at this point, when you see how things unraveled in February with the comments that were on the Fire Pit Collective website and the story that he wrote about where he blasted everyone, he blasted


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To where he is now, and I don't know if he's better or worse, I don't know how his legacy endures this, but I don't, he didn't play well. You could tell, like, he was just out of his element when he did come back, he looked out of sorts, and this is a guy who, two years ago, when he wins the PGA Championship, you and I are like, man,


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[Assistant] This is, this is amazing. Late in his career, he's done this.


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[Assistant] He's going to get, whenever he transitions to TV, he's going to be brilliant. He's going to be our, I don't know, pick your poison. He's going to be our Tony Romo. He's going to be our voice of golf. Like there were so many things to get excited about Phil going forward and that it all unraveled and it imploded and maybe things come around. Maybe things change, but I don't see how.


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[Assistant] Uh, well this goes back to, and I didn't want to do the spoiler thing, best was the Presidents Cup. For all the reasons you pointed out, like it was a much much better week, I don't know, you said thirty-


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[Assistant] I don't, I don't, I'm not saying no, I'm not going out on my limb, I'm going out on that limb and saying it's the best story I wrote. It was the best to write because, and I realized this, like it's dawned on me since then, like we always end up talking about whatever team event was that year, Ryder Cup.


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[Assistant] Why? It's because we're not just talking about one winner, there's twelve winners.


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[Assistant] And so it's times 12, the happiness and the good cheer and the opportunity for good quotes and good soundbites. And the opposite is true. We're not writing about just one loser. We're writing about 12 losers and the emotions. Give me all the grief. That's right.


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[Assistant] And, and it was all there. I mean, for, and I think you and I both sort of experienced this.


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[Assistant] To see the look on Trevor Immelman's face after having gone through this for three years because of COVID, he kind of got the extra year that he, so he spent a good portion of the last three years focused on this and what he was focused on unraveled.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So quickly and right on the doorstep of this year's matches with Cam Smith and Mark Leachman going to live golf and him losing him from the team. Just the emotions. You factor in Tom Kim, you factor, you said 30 to 45 minutes of hope on Sunday. I think that's, that's a little, that's a little stretch. I think it might've been 15 to 20 minutes.


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[Assistant] But you're right, they at least gave it a window of, oh, if things start falling their way, this could happen.


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[Assistant] At least the content, I'm not sure, I love the story that I wrote, but I love the content.


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[Assistant] It's the open. Which is why I thought that was funny. Really? Well, it was a combination of things. Was she just a little distracting for you?


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[Assistant] Yes, yes she was if we're being honest. And then in her defense, we were also doing podcasts every night. So like we did this new experiment and you guys said you wanted the podcast every night after play finished at the Major.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that's great. I think we thoroughly enjoyed it. Hopefully the listeners thoroughly enjoyed it as well. For a writer on deadline, that is the worst possible, at least for me personally.


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[Assistant] I'm in the flow coming from the golf course. You're right. You see all these great scenes. You, you know, you have a chance to talk to the winner. You have a chance to talk to the loser. You start getting in a flow. You start getting ideas. The next thing you know, someone sticks a microphone.


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[Assistant] Talk time. Talkie now. You talk for 15-20 minutes.


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[Assistant] And then you factor in the bunk mate being there and it was a little cramped. We had a lot of people watching us and it just was not a comfortable experience for me.


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[Assistant] No, that, that one hurt, you're right, because that's, that's where we kind of do our reporting, in, in those circles, like it's not, you're not getting the gold when you're sitting in a press conference, you're, you're trying to go around the edges, so yeaah, that, that one definitely hurt, because, I dunno.


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[Assistant] We should ask Scott, if someone asked him. I don't know, maybe one of us should ask Scott.


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[Assistant] I know, and I, sort of a runner up here was you and I both, I think in LA, because we were both there on Sunday. And, you know, Joaquin, Juan, and everything.


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[Assistant] Uh, Congaree was a long time ago. I can see what's happening. You're running around the house, you're trying to find things to fix. December.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll take that bet. I mean, do you think Liv Goff and these lawsuits are gonna go somewhere? Do you think someone, do you think Greg Norman is suddenly going to stop talking?


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[Assistant] If I sound this bad in the post Christmas podcast, what do you think I'm going to sound like on January 2nd in the post New Year's Eve podcast?


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[Assistant] I'm sure it's gonna be worse, at that point. And you'll be celebrating, or mourning, one way or the other, a win or a loss. One way or the other.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, address that today actually on golf today in front of a national audience.


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[Assistant] Totally blanked on it, cause it's not as though this is another calendar. No, no, no.


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[Assistant] It's fun, Damon's so much fun to be around and we had a guy on the show yesterday morning and I'm gonna blank on his first name, maybe Mike Booker, his last name is Booker. Anyway, he had written a book about like having a positive attitude on the golf course and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think that the title of the book is a guide to a tournament golfer's mind or something along those lines. And I wanted that interview to go on for three hours.


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[Assistant] Look, as long as you're, you're, I think one of the phrases he used was, you're your own best friend on the golf course. And I'm like, I know PGA. Whoever talks like that.


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[Assistant] I know a tour full of players who are not their own best friends. They are their own worst enemies. And the only thing I could come to was, all right, like I get where you're coming from, Mr. Booker, but explain to me, John Rahm.


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[Assistant] Like, and we've had this discussion a lot recently, I felt like a lot of people are motivated by negative things. But in this particular case, I was like, sitting on a desk next to, of all people, Damon Hack, who you


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I was trying so, so, so desperately to turn on my dark Ayman Lynch. Like you don't know what you're talking about. You know, you have to go straight to the dark places in your life and you have to be motivated by all the negative things. I was really caught in the middle of that.


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[Assistant] And the palm tree is well placed. It's almost like you know what you're doing. You're outside. It looks a little chilly. It looks like an absolutely perfect Los Angeles day.


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[Assistant] Tell me, I'm just curious. You had to go in a day early and last night you did the boldest of bold and dangerous moves. You went to In-N-Out Burger on your very first night in LA. Is that true?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But you did this on Monday, which of course, as we all know, is the day after the Super Bowl, which I'm sure you did not take care of yourself that day. I'm sure there was plenty of bad food and maybe a couple drinks mixed in there. So you're on back to back bad days here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oof. Wow. Yes. No, I wouldn't have done that. Because I was curious.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, well, this is what I was curious about and we're gonna waste five minutes here at the top of the podcast just to make those who listen to this type of thing.


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[Assistant] You know what, that's why there's a fast forward button. Just hit the 15 second forward until you're done with this nonsense. Cause I have to ask, as soon as I saw the text message from you last night that you went to In-N-Out, I have like a very rigid schedule. I get In-N-Out.


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[Assistant] But I feel like, and there's probably something to this, I feel like I have a routine where like if I'm in San Diego at Toy Pines.


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[Assistant] Like Wednesday night, I'm going to the Brigantine because they have the best fish tacos in all of that area. Like I have my places that I go to on certain nights and so Monday night in and out just did me for a loop. I was, I just did not know how to respond to that.


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[Assistant] I'm in the business with my job. I should probably not be surprised by these things. I should probably see these things come and I should have an idea that okay, Tiger might play Riviera. I was shocked.


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[Assistant] My mind went back to the PNC Championship last December, just barely two months ago now, when you go back and you kind of look at it in the time frame.


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[Assistant] And there is nothing that I saw over, again, 36 holes driving in a golf cart, playing a team event with his son on a flat, warm Florida golf course. Nothing that I saw suggested, oh, in two months, it'll be good to go. It'll be perfect for Riviera. That never even crossed my mind. And look, he has, he's spoken truth to power.


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[Assistant] And enough of these press conferences he has talked about even today. It was, I want to play the major championships and maybe quote unquote a couple others. And of course.


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[Assistant] This would be one of the quote unquote couples, right? Cause this tournament benefits his foundation. There's every reason for him to be there, be here for that. It's a designated event. He was highly behind and he was a huge moving force to get the PGA tour to create this, uh, new event. All of those things being said.


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[Assistant] Would have never guessed it. I mean, I had no idea because watching him get out of the golf cart and take let's say four steps to a golf ball at the PNC.


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[Assistant] Nope, didn't see it happening. He must have made a wonderful recovery in the time frame.


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[Assistant] And I pointed this out on the show today with Damon that I went back to Sunday.


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[Assistant] In the lead up to the Super Bowl and how everyone talked about it was the training staff and everyone in the Kansas City organization who made sure that Patrick Mahomes really over the last two games of the season was physically able to go. We all saw how bad that ankle was. He limped, spent the whole game limping around and they couldn't heap enough praise on the training staff. I felt the same way today watching him because we were watching it by the way.


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[Assistant] But I go back to my point, we were talking today about the idea that, again, go back to what I saw at the PNC, go back to last Thursday, I was shocked. I don't think you can give enough praise to Tiger Woods' staff, the people he has around him. Rob McNamara, who's of course with him every step of the way. But the one that came to mind was Colby Tuller.


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[Assistant] Who's his trainer, who is, I think he's made a huge difference.


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[Assistant] And I spent some time around Colby. I've had a chance to watch him train other golfers. I've had a chance to sort of pick his mind about what he wants to do. And Kay Wayne is one of the best in the business. And you can see it. This is like his Mona Lisa, I would argue. I mean, he would probably sort of deflect that idea and say that Tiger did all the work and there's certainly something to that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Being ready to do this for whatever reason, whether it's for the foundation, whether it's for Southern California or because he grew up 40 miles from here, whatever the case may be, that is a modern miracle.


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[Assistant] That's the modern version of Second Sucks, yeaah.


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[Assistant] No, that's interesting because we kind of had a similar conversation as we're listening to the press conference today on the set. It was myself and Damon Hack and Jaime Diaz, our colleague who is brilliant and he's been around Tiger longer than any of us. He knows Tiger better than all of us combined.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And as we're having this conversation and we're sort of, we walked out in the hallway because they had free food. And so during the Tiger Woods Press Conference, I have to get free food. That's an obvious choice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But Jaime says something about 16. So 16 majors. Well, you know, maybe 16 is what's right. And from the other end of the hallway, I hear this conversation and I yell at the top of my lungs and add no context to it whatsoever. 83 is all I barked. 83. Because I feel like that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Between 16, 17, 18. Let's be honest. 83 though, if, if he can start adding the occasional genesis.


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[Assistant] Maybe, maybe, and we'll have to see going forward because I'm sure, I mean, the one thing that I thought was interesting that he said was a couple others and he would like to play more.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I trotted out the old lines. I trotted out one of the old favorites. However, in this case, he fired back with, oh, so you think this week, and I kind of, I did sort of the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, I'm going to be just wildly interested in to see after that T-shot on 1-2-1.


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[Assistant] It's 41 degrees. It's 630 in the morning. It's freezing cold. Probably gonna be a little bit of wind from what I saw. That is not an easy walk down that hill. I'm not sure you can make it down that hill.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, that's not true because you made a very good note of pointing this out last year that Joaquin Neyman won and Tiger Woods had to go down to the 18th green from the clubhouse.


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[Assistant] I just think in this particular case, like, look, you're probably right. This is a chance to, let's knock some rust off. Let's see how close I am to being ready for Augusta.


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[Assistant] I would argue that the most encouraging thing, regardless of what happens the next two days, four days, five days, whatever the case may be, is the fact that yesterday, he had enough interest to go over to LACC and take a look at the North course, which of course is going to go to the US.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No golf, no golf clubs, none of that. But that at least shows me, this is a guy who missed the U.S. Open last year because of injuries. And so I'm encouraged by that one nonetheless.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I thought that was a master class. We listened to the Justin Rose interview today and I thought it was interesting. I was hoping that the likes of Ricky Fowler and Jason Day were listening in on that because it's interesting when you go through the dark times, when you get to a point in your career when you probably think, and look, I'm probably guilty of this, that Justin Rose was washed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That he was of a certain age. I had him pegged as one of the guys who would go to live golf. All of those things and for him to turn it around, and I think the number was...


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[Assistant] 1471 days, if I have it right, in between victories.


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[Assistant] And that to me shows exactly what Tiger Woods is probably thinking right now. Completely unrelated, if you get the response from the Bunk Mate and the text is, you rang, that can't be good, can it?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Looked around the residence and room. There's no flowers in here either. Let's hope she doesn't listen to the podcast.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Doubting, not betting business. Tiger Woods betting business. Uhm, it would be an accomplishment for him to make the cut.


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[Assistant] Like I said, that's doubting Tiger Woods, and I know what I just said, so I'm falling back on some bad habits here. I just think the conditions this week probably don't favor him. The fact that the last time I saw...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And again, I go back to the idea. This is his 15th start. He's never won this one. Like look, even at his absolute best, he never was very, very good. And it's interesting when you look at his record here on this.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it was 20 years ago. Yeah, it was a minute ago. If you look kind of pre and post.


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[Assistant] 2008, I mean, when, when he left here in 2008 and he withdrew because of a flu, he kind of shut the place down. It was dead to him. He didn't go back for quite a few years. And there's only been a handful of starts since then, really, since he became the host of the event and started to benefit his foundation. So it's not entirely fair because you would think sometime between 2008 and now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That everything would have fallen in place and he'd have figured out how to do it. But it makes no sense to me on this particular golf course. He just hasn't, yeah, he just hasn't been Tiger Woods.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm sure you saw Brando Chambly's tweet, I believe it was on Sunday, maybe it was Saturday last week when the tour was in Scottsdale, and they were talking about the Nick Taylor thing, that if you do what you just kind of mapped out, which my understanding is,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's the way the tour is leaning to make these designated events limited fields, whether that's 70 players, 60 players, whatever the number is that they're dealing with right now, it's going to be limited fields. Keep in mind, this is only 130 players, so it's already a limited field event, but they want to knock it down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think we run into those almost every week on tour, whether or not if it's, if it's that Cinderella story that wins or just contends, it's still part of the equation.


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[Assistant] I would say when I saw today that you, you covered the collegiate championship challenge. I believe that's what it's called, right? Did I get that right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When you look at, Zala Taurus won that. Scottie Sheffler won that.


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[Assistant] Saaya, all of these players, it wasn't that long ago when they would have been on the outside looking in, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so what I found today that Tiger Woods said that's probably going to echo for a minute or two.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is the fact that I don't think if we're reading tea leaves here, and that's what you have to do with Tiger Woods a lot of the time, if we're reading tea leaves that I don't think Tiger likes the idea of this just being 70 players, which is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fascinating to me, because over the course of his career, I think he's always wanted to play.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, it is. It is. And look, it does away with the meritocracy. And Jaime Diaz threw that out there, and I would expect Jaime, being the erudite that he is, to throw something like that out there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But there is something to be said for that, that you do have to create this path. I think we talked about this last week, sort of the Super League documentary that's on Apple right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The reason the super league blew up in large part was because they were trying to get rid of the meritocracy of it all. They just wanted the top players to be perpetually the top players. Talk about the Liverpool's, the Man U's, the Real Madrid's, all of these great teams. They were always just going to be the great teams. There was never going to be the opportunity for others to poke their head up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is going to become an internal conversation and I truly believe it's going to become an internal issue for the PGA tour because right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The vast majority of players will all say exactly what you just said. We're facing an existential threat, and something dramatic had to be done.


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[Assistant] And this is, this is our answer to that. This is what we're going to do to edge this off. It's only going to take a few months.


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[Assistant] All those players from 71 up to 200 to realize that this doesn't benefit me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This doesn't work for me. And for there to start to be pushback and what you're going to create is a serious internal conflict.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think that's what Tiger was trying to get at, which is interesting to me because he was a guy who throughout his career always wanted to play against smaller fields.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you played against smaller fields, it was easier to beat fewer players. That's just simple math. And in this particular case, at least if you're reading between the lines of what he said today, it sounds as if he wants to make sure that there are those safeguards in place that you talked about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That whatever level a player is, that's performing at that level.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Has the opportunity to play their way up and to get into these designated events. I don't know if they do it again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is a, this is a plane that's getting built while they're trying to fly it. So I'm not quite sure how you, you know, how you completely get this right. It took them a long time to get the FedEx points system right. So I might argue it's not even right yet. My guess is this is going to be an evolving process for a long time.


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[Assistant] Did it make you as sad as it made me that golf's only contribution to the Super Bowl was bad grass?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That the field was slippery and that was somehow golf's fault. Did that make you as sad as it made me?


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[Assistant] I wish I knew that dude, because I would love to have someone's name in my phone. Who you calling? The sodfather. I've got some grass issues. It's very serious. He's gonna get me through this.


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[Assistant] I came up in the meeting on Monday morning, like there was a couple of producers who thought, well, you know, this is an interesting story or whatever. And I felt like I was the voice of reason going.


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[Assistant] I'm not quite sure you can develop a style, a brand, a variation of grass that could have held up to that. There was a report at halftime of Jalen Hurts going to longer cleats. Like they were, they're going to destroy that. Everyone was.


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[Assistant] And you also factor in, like, they have to, they have to...


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[Assistant] Practice that whole Super Bowl halftime show for a week beforehand. So it's getting nothing but traffic. This is, this is, you know, all the green around the swill can burn at the old course that gets chewed up just because that's just grass can't withstand that kind of pressure, that kind of pounding. And yet golf is getting hammered for this because, oh, you guys couldn't create good grass.


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[Assistant] There was no, there was no issues with the recipe. Why'd they have to change it? It's turf.


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[Assistant] It's turf the rest of the year. I don't think they like to play the big game on turf. I think they like it on natural grass.


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[Assistant] I think less than, the phantom holding call blew over in my mind. Cause you have the guy who got the flag said I held it. So doesn't that mitigate the conversation?


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[Assistant] Haven't watched it, uh, normally wouldn't talk about another network show.


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[Assistant] Uh, I'm sure I'll watch it eventually. Uh, there's been a lot of things on my Netflix account that I've gotta catch up on. I mean, I don't know if you've, uh,


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[Assistant] You've been watching The Last of Us. I'm a big fan of the Mayor of Kingstown, which is taking me a little while to catch up on, which is very, very good.


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[Assistant] I gotta, I gotta, I have a lot on, uh, but I mean, if you feel compelled by all means, what'd you think of it?


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[Assistant] Uh, no, I will watch it. I am curious, like, and I knew it was going to be, like, my understanding was each player was essentially going to get their own episode, so they're certain.


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[Assistant] Give me Brooks Koepka. Give me a version of Brooks Koepka that doesn't come out to be a villain.


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[Assistant] And if they, they can do that in an honest and fulfilling way, then yes, I will be interested in seeing how this plays out. My bigger concern was not even concerned. My bigger take is Conor McGregor. That's not right. Conor.


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[Assistant] Yes, I'm sorry. One of them could beat me up badly and the other could beat me up badly.


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[Assistant] He did a funny spoof on it, I don't know if you saw it, but the best part about


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[Assistant] Uh, the best part about it is he does a Alan Shipnuck impersonation that's better than Alan Shipnuck. It's amazing.


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[Assistant] No, not next week. I'm at the Honda Classic next week. It's not next week. Uh, I will be doing it.


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[Assistant] On Thursday, you and I, we're gonna do a podcast on golf today. Early Thursday morning, you and I. Podcast.


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[Assistant] I was asked if that, if I was interested in this and I said, if you want five minutes on grilling in the middle of your golf show, then absolutely. We are all over this.


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[Assistant] We can do this. Like, trust me, we can do it. By that time, I might be talking to the bunkmate again. I'll have an update on the bunkmate. Please do.


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[Assistant] Your school, North Carolina States in the Sweet 16. Obviously we saw NC State's biggest fan in the world, Danny Cannell at the game getting some TV time. We saw North Carolina State's second biggest fan in the world, Russell Wilson.