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[Assistant] And, and said that when you stand on 18 with the trophy in your hand, you want to know that you beat the best players in the world. That was essentially what Rory is saying. Now,


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[Assistant] Right now, if you look at the major championships, is the OWGR right now a reliable way to measure who the best players in the world are?


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[Assistant] No, I don't think anyone can do it. I think dated golf does the best job that you possibly can. And I think there are four live golfers inside the top 50 according to their metrics, which rely a lot on strokes gained. I've said on this podcast numerous times, I would love to see the majors take a step back, re-examine the changing landscape.


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[Assistant] And use some sort of qualification for live players, just as they do other tours. Whether you take the leading points earner, which would have been Taylor Gooch from 2023, top 3, top 5, however they want to do it. I do wish that they would do that, but...


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[Assistant] We have to base this in reality, and that seems very unlikely. The major organizations are the exact same folks who shot down Liv's OWGR request.


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[Assistant] But, so I say that right now in late February 2024, as it comes to qualification, the majors have not yet reached a breaking point, which is why I don't think


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[Assistant] They have made any changes. You know, no one views Taylor Gooch as a legitimate threat to win a major championship. He does not yet have a top ten.


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[Assistant] In a major in his career. Who else are we even talking about as potentially not getting in here?


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[Assistant] A Dean Bermester, a Lucas Herbert who are other top 100 players in the world whose ranking is sure to plummet now that they've signed up with Liv and so you haven't reached a point yet.


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[Assistant] But you will over the next couple years. Like I think back to Brooks Koepke. Had Brooks Koepke not won Lassner's PGA, his major exemption would have run out at the end of 2024. Bryson's major exemption runs out at the end of 2025. Dustin Johnson's major exemption runs out.


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[Assistant] At the end of twenty twenty five to get in all four majors camsmiths eventually will run out at the end of twenty twenty seven and so you are going to reach a point.


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[Assistant] Where marquee big name players who anyone with two eyes can see that they belong in major championships. They have a realistic shot to win them. But the majors have...


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[Assistant] Have the opportunity, they have the window to kind of buy their time and sit on their hands and say, this, this will probably shake itself out. You know, something, something's going to happen.


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[Assistant] With these two established tours, why do anything right now?


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[Assistant] Once again, hilarious memes, hilarious dunking on TaylorGooch. I understand.


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[Assistant] It's low hanging fruit. You and I would not, would never stoop that level.


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[Assistant] Uh, on X, if you're interested in those sort of defenses. Rex, finally, I did want to get into the policy board meeting that happened on Monday. Apparently a marathon.


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[Assistant] policy board meeting ahead of the Cognizant Classic. Uh, Rory McIlroy is playing.


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[Assistant] Uh, this week's event, long time, five or six years, uh, since he has been in this field, although he is no longer


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[Assistant] A part of the policy board, it does always seem like he has his finger on the pulse, but the news that came out was a Webb Simpson, a wide ranging interview.


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[Assistant] But that's why it's so interesting because Webb Simpson said that essentially the conversations are centered around six players who are going to be desirable.


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[Assistant] To the PJ tour, the rest they're gonna send to Q school, the corn fairy tour, DP world tour, whatever you want to do. But those six players, if we're keeping tabs on them now are Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, who are lifetime members. Phil comes with his own.


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[Assistant] Rex in the Web Simpson interview was does does incorporating those six players alone and no one else like is that enough to restore the PGA tours luster?


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[Assistant] It's, it's rightful place as the obvious preeminent.


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[Assistant] Golf tour, just those six players alone, or are they still lacking some of the second and third level depth that's been, that's been robbed of them with live golf's introduction?


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[Assistant] I'm not sure either, uh, but I agree with you. It does seem...


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[Assistant] Highly unlikely that that would be. And again, if one of those players is, is Phil Mickelson, who is actively recruiting players away from the PGA Tour to live golf, it's hard to imagine they say,


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[Assistant] Come on over Phil. Everybody else, you go to Q School, you go to Europe, you do your thing. Phil, sure, you can, you can be welcomed back in the family.


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[Assistant] The whole point is to bring all of the best players in the world together again, not just kind of a cherry picked half dozen.


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[Assistant] That's why I think this is not the, the road that they should be pursuing because yes, Liv has definitely taken, I would say a lot of like top 50 depth. You look at the official World Golf rankings of the players who left, when they left and what the ranking was. You're like, we're talking about Joaquin Nieman, we're talking about Terrell Hatton, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, uh, Adrian Maranque, Taylor Gooch.


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[Assistant] And so that has kind of robbed the tour of that second and third level of depth that makes it feel like the best tour in the world, but also.


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[Assistant] That doesn't even make mention of the young guys, whether it's the Caleb Srot, who has been pretty impressive in his limited time so far, with Liv, David Pooge.


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[Assistant] Uh, who, who just had a, a breakaway win, uh, on the Asian tour, Eugenio Shikara, uh, won last year on live. Like are all of those guys replaceable with up and coming college studs? Maybe, probably.


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[Assistant] But if I'm the PJ tour, I think I would want to welcome back and back into the fold and see just how good.


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[Assistant] They can be. I think that's what it comes down to. The whole point is to get everybody back.


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[Assistant] Under the same umbrella and picking and choosing just because they're popular with their peers. They have certain amount of status. Uhm, they finished high on the PIP. Like to me, that's just a non-starter.


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[Assistant] And not the way they should be pursuing it. Rex!


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[Assistant] I love that. I did, I did see an attendant taking out the garbage, which I thought was a fitting metaphor of when you're babbling on about God knows what. Uh, but I did not hear, I did not hear any yelling. I did not hear any screaming. I did not hear any hostility. Uh, but kudos to you.


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[Assistant] That was just, that was an all time, that was one of the moments of the year, 2024.


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[Assistant] Uh, in golf channel history, comparing Tiger Woods's undefined reign as a policy board of directors.


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[Assistant] Fresh after her, uh, grooming wrecks. My grills are accumulating dust and cobwebs have not used them much this week. And on Thursday and Friday, I'm heading to Orlando for my sister-in-law's wedding. And then I'm heading up to sunny Connecticut to co-host golf today.


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[Assistant] And so, we're putting all of our faith and trust in you, what is on the grill.


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[Assistant] We'll be back on Sunday evening. I'll be in the wonderful residence in, in Stanford, Connecticut to recap.


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[Assistant] The Cognizant Classic Roy McRoy's performance there as well of course as Anthony Kim's performance.


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[Assistant] On live, it should be a meaty, a beefy podcast and hopefully I don't shoot all the bullets that I will save.


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[Assistant] For Monday's golf today, but in the meantime, you guys know the drill. Make sure you do go to mpsports.com slash golf for the latest news, notes and features and commentary from the world of golf. It should be a compelling week. The golf world.


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[Assistant] We're here for ya. We can't wait to break it all down in a couple of days. Mmm, taco bar.


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[Assistant] Yeah, to make it simple, uh, and I did not get out on the golf course to see a golf shot until Saturday. So that explains why it wasn't the worst week. It was just not my best RSM classic week. It was cold. It was rainy.


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[Assistant] For a lot of days, we had a lot going on and there was a lot of breaking news as we've covered. So I didn't actually get around to covering the golf tournament until Saturday. And I, I had, you know, obviously watch Ludwig at the Ryder Cup, but I wanted to, all right, let me see what's special. Let me see exactly. So I spent two days, 61, 61.


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[Assistant] And I watched him warm up and I talked to Peter Hansen, the European tour player who's kind of his performance coach. And my takeaway was, well, a couple of things. Yes, he has all the tools. Like Peter Hansen sort of marveled at the idea that he's sort of the modern tour professional. He stands on tee boxes and just sees opportunity. And I think the best example of that is the fifth hole.


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[Assistant] On the seaside course, it's this long, it says 450 yard-ish dogleg around sort of this marsh and he cut the corner every day and on the last day he actually drove the green.


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[Assistant] Confidence of power of, I have some, I can do something that you cannot that the great players bring to the table. I will say this, my biggest takeaway was on Saturday I asked him, you know, clearly driving is your strength.


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[Assistant] And you're really, really good at putting. What do you feel like you need to improve? And he actually said his wedge play, and I was taken by that.


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[Assistant] Because if you look at what he did over his final 36 holes, he played the back nine on the seaside course and 10 under par. And he had just two approach shots that were over 150 yards. So his wets play is good enough to pull that off.


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[Assistant] And yet somehow he sees it as something he needs to improve upon. I hate.


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[Assistant] Doing this, that he's the next fill in the blanks, Tiger Woods, Roy McElroy, John Rahm, whoever we're going to pick because those always lead to unfair expectations. But I found it impossible to overstate what his ceiling could possibly be.


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[Assistant] Thank you, I want to go back to last week because you're right, if you kind of go through the feedback that we got and we appreciate all of your feedback, but this one kind of came across and we've tried to make this clear before. We actually do like each other sometimes, like we're getting into fantasy football season and that's probably going to change.


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[Assistant] Just based on the idea that you're already a pain in the butt. Like I'm already tired of you being in my fantasy league with my sons because all you want to do is complain about the draft order. All you want to do is complain about, oh, why is it a snake draft? Why don't we have 12 teams?


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[Assistant] That's the only time I think we're really gonna get nasty. What happened last week? It was not performative because I think we can both agree that


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[Assistant] No, and, and I think, I want to go back and I'm just, I just want to revisit this because there was so much comment on it. I, I think it's important to point out that


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[Assistant] History's going to decide which one of us are right, which captain is right. And I think it's going to be fun sort of breaking down because I think Luke.


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[Assistant] This would have backed himself into a very similar corner that Zach Johnson did last week with some of his, or with one of his picks specifically. JT could end up coming out and going 5-0 and the United States could lose and it's not gonna matter. If the United States loses, it's all gonna be on Zach's back.


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[Assistant] JT can come out and go 0-1-5 and the United States wins and it's, that's not gonna be on his back either. This is a win, this is very, very easy. This is wins and losses. That's all it comes down to. And we can sit here and pick it apart. I think we did a good job last week, both making our comments.


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[Assistant] Ultimately, this is just gonna be a pass fail. That's what this is. Someone asked me on a radio interview earlier this week about, you know, what's the best case scenario for Zach Johnson. Win! That's it. Like, there's nothing else. What are you gonna come home with? With some sort of symbolic victory? Just win!


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[Assistant] And I don't think anybody, certainly, I wasn't trying to debate that last week. And I just think it's interesting now because you look at Luke's picks and you could essentially say that Shane Lowry is his JT.


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[Assistant] Like for all the wrong reasons, you can go down the list of why Shane probably should not have been.


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[Assistant] I picked for this team. The most important is, all you have to do is look at his world rankings. Since the beginning of the year, he's lost 17 spots.


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[Assistant] in the world ranking. He simply has not played well. He didn't make it to the PGA Tour playoffs. He tried to add another event on the European Tour last week. He ended up missing the cut. He's just not playing well, but it's obvious if you look at the makeup of the team.


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[Assistant] That he fits into some pairings easily. You can pair him probably with Rory pretty easily and based on the people that he has around him, uh, I think Luke feels confident with that.


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[Assistant] And I'm not even going to sit here because I realized as I was sort of researching it this morning, listen, if this came down to a pic, if the conversation between Shane Lowry and Adrienne Marant.


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[Assistant] And I think you could probably make a really good argument for Adrian Moran for a lot of reasons so we can get into those.


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[Assistant] My argument last week was based entirely on the statistical profile of what Marco Simoni is going to be. About the type of player that, at least if you go to the experts, they say that you need to bring this type of player to this golf course. It's going to be a lot like Paris was, Le Golf National, four years ago.


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[Assistant] Adrian Moran doesn't fit into that category. If I kind of go down his stats, he's not the kind of player that I would probably go out of my way to pick specifically as a rookie. And you can make all the good arguments. Like, he won there.


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[Assistant] This year, I mean, the dude clearly knows how to play that golf course. He has been on the incline ever since he won in Ireland two years ago. I just don't know if he was the right player. So I'm not as passionate.


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[Assistant] About the Shane Laurie pick, because I think to your point, this really isn't about picking the best player. It's about trying to create the best team, and I think Shane Laurie was probably that guy this time around.


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[Assistant] And I think if this is two years from now, when we're back in the United States, when we're back at Bethledge Black, which is a big ballpark, it would be perfect for him. I would argue that he probably should have been the first of the six captains picks because he fits that style of play, but he is very much an American style player. And I, my understanding is Marco Simone's not going to be set up that way. I will give you full credit.


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[Assistant] A number one draft pick immediately. He doesn't even get a preseason game. Doesn't even get to practice. Then you just send him straight to the Super Bowl and plop him down and tell him, okay, do your thing. Make your magic. Come on now.


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[Assistant] And I think that's what this situation is going to be. And look, he's a wildly talented player. He should definitely be on this team. But making that transition and having one on the European tour is certainly going to help. But I don't think anything can prepare a young player for what he's going to face in Russia.


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[Assistant] Uh, Jason Gold, the commissioner of our other fantasy league, meet me on camera one because I got a bone to pick. I don't know what the sound was. The magic of the way we're going to edit this is you're going to throw the sound in after the podcast. So I have no idea what I may have said or what I did not say.


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[Assistant] Well, we touched on this last week. I think this is going to be a transformative year for the Ryder Cup team, win or loss. I don't know that either way it's going to play out. It's going to be a step in a new direction, and it has to be. They didn't have a choice on this matter. Lib-Golf essentially gutted their team, and we can go back to the idea that


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[Assistant] Would Sergio of Garcia made it onto this team? Maybe, probably. He probably would have ended up being a pick. But Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, uh, probably not. Stinson was going to be the captain. I would put, even though Paul Casey ended that conversation.


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[Assistant] They probably weren't going to be on the team. So one way or the other, with or without lived golf.


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[Assistant] And again, we're probably going to get into this over the next couple of weeks because we've got some time to go before we get on a plane to go to Rome. In my mind, I'm still having a hard time.


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[Assistant] I will, I will go on to say though, I'm having a hard time in my mind, sort of.


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[Assistant] Working this out in my own head, because the Americans, at least on paper, should be the favorite team. If you look at their world ranking, if you look at their records, if you look at what they've done in the major championships, if you look at what they did in the last Ryder Cup, but there's a lot about this European team that you have to like. And Eiburg is right there at top of the list. Again, couldn't hear the sound.


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[Assistant] Also would like to go back and listen to the entire episode because my guess is I couched it a little bit like I normally do and would have said, well, I mean, if he comes out and he probably turns it on and then maybe based on where we are in the world right now. So thanks a lot for that, Jason. Appreciate your help.


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[Assistant] I don't know that they are an underdog. And I guess you said dangerous, so I guess it could go either way on that, uh, sneaky underdog would be another way of saying it. Uh, I would say that the Europeans team definitely has more questions. For no other reason than we have no idea.


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[Assistant] What Aver is going to do when he shows up. Again, he can go 5-0, but here's a guy that's never played in a major championship before, and he's clearly a talented player, clearly deserves this spot on the team, but he is such an unknown commodity. The only thing any player that you talk to about playing in a Ryder Cup can possibly even compare it to is being in contention on Sunday at a major.


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[Assistant] He's never done that. He's never even been around that. So I think that's going to be a big question. Sepp Straka, he's going to be a rookie. He's got four rookies on that team. I mean, you kind of know what Tommy Fleetwood's going to give you. You kind of know what Shane Lowry is going to give you if he finds a way to sort of play his way out of it. But I definitely think there's more question marks for the European side.


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[Assistant] To your point, this feels a lot like one of those 1990s European teams where you probably had four or five dominant players that could go head to head with the Americans at the time. And keep in mind where we were.


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[Assistant] In golf at that moment in time, this feels a lot like that. And you're right. You're going to have to, they're going to have to get a lot of production out of the Rory's and the John Roms and even the Tommy Fleetwoods. Like the veterans are going to have to step up and by and large, historically they have.


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[Assistant] Like the European team, we do this every two years and we have all these questions and we don't know what the team is going to look like and well, this guy isn't playing his best and then somehow they-


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[Assistant] Show up at the Ryder Cup and it's like they all turned into Tiger Woods in 1999. It's an amazing transformation that they go through.


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[Assistant] This is such a different year, because of everything that Liv Gough sort of threw on the doormat.


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[Assistant] Like suddenly you had a captain that only had sort of half the amount of time.


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[Assistant] To prepare, I only had half the amount of time to get his team ready to get the golf course ready to get whatever's in that magic blueprint book of theirs that they passed down from captain to captain. So there are a lot of question marks, but I'm still not 100% sure that


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[Assistant] The Europeans shouldn't be the favorites, just based on one simple fact. Like if you're going to look at anything else.


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[Assistant] 30 years. Three damn decades it's been since the United States has won overseas. It's really, really hard.


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[Assistant] If your discretion advised, uh, Rex using a curse word. Uhm, it is- Take care of that, Jason. You want, you want some afterwards? Take care of that one, Jason. Three damn decades.


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[Assistant] Well, and we always have this conversation around this time of year. So we start looking for year-ending content. We're talking about, all right, best tournament, best shot, head, best play, whatever the case may be. And you always kind of have to pump the brakes because it's probably going to come from the Ryder Cup. And there's been plenty of really, really cool moments this year, but you get in that environment.


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[Assistant] You go back to Paris and you just remember what Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood were able to do. I mean it was just a magical week for those two and someone else will have the same week.


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[Assistant] So John, who's finishing up the deck today as we speak, uh, and you'll probably hear him back there at some point. Uh, John's very, very nice. I've had a chance to get to know him over the last three weeks as he's trying to get the deck. For a one-way job.


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[Assistant] For a one week job, we're well into three weeks now. I will say though, and this is such a bad thing to admit, so I see John this morning and I offer him a cup of coffee and I'm standing on the pool deck and we're talking about, you know, how long this is going to take and John finally turns to me and he goes, hey, uh, I'm a big fan.


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[Assistant] He started just rat tat tatting. I like your writing. I like you on TV. Love the podcast with you and laugh. It never even dawned on me that this man who I've known now for three weeks and he's worked really, really hard and it's hot as the sun down here in Florida and just hits me right across the face on the very last day with, hey, big fan. And my response was, of what?


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[Assistant] That's right. You two are trading places. I don't know if she's staying anywhere close to the Taj Mahal that you seem to stay at when you're up there. So it'll just be me and the boys on Wednesday and Thursday night for the draft and then the first night. So I'm going to do, and this is something that the boys love. It's just, it's a little tricky.


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[Assistant] Because, uh, you gotta, when you're dealing with skirt steak, and I love doing skirt steak tacos, and like I make my own salsa verde, and it's really, really good, but man, you've gotta be so careful with that, because if you, you can overcook it so easily.


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[Assistant] I mean, and again, it depends. This is Florida, so it's a million degrees outside. So there's a lot of reasons for you to drink water. But yes, if you want to be able to maintain for, and you said there's 22 bars.


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[Assistant] Go Nick Rada. Go Nick Falda. 18 Pars wins it. Uh, we have done that before, but we did a scavenger hunt. I think we did it last year for one of our friends birthday where everyone had to wear the card around their neck and you kind of just went, it was in Sanford, which is kind of close to where we live.


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[Assistant] And we did one of those and it can, uh, yeaah, go for pars cause it gets messy really quick.


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


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[Assistant] Lucas Glover, two weeks ago fighting for his PJ Tour status, now the hottest player in golf, fourth in the FedEx Cup, and maybe, just maybe,


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[Assistant] A U.S. Ryder Cupper. We'll get into all that as well as everything else from Rex's week in Memphis. Plus, we'll dive into the explosive allegations regarding Phil Mickelson, what it means for his legacy, and what, if anything, should be done about it. Rex, you're back home from Memphis. Uh, so much to get to this week. We're actually recording this.


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[Assistant] A day early I'm off to the BMW Olympia fields on Tuesday. First of all, how much weight did you gain?


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[Assistant] While you were in Tennessee, your, your face is looking, it's typically gone.


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[Assistant] What could have been easier than this? The barbecue shop is inexcusable given the fact that you could have ordered ahead and picked up.


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[Assistant] Never mind, never mind the fact that I spent an hour, an hour meticulously researching, planning, mapping it out, uh, all so you could hit just three of six stops. I was thinking about it the other day.


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[Assistant] I desperately want to get Memphis back on my personal schedule, not because I think it's a great tournament, and obviously it is, and you know, the impact they make in the local community, the St. Jude Children's Hospital, if you guys have never visited that, I think that'll change your life if you actually do. But just the fact that this is one of the great food cities.


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[Assistant] In all the world and doing so on expense account it just feels ridiculous however.


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[Assistant] It just does not fall in a good spot for us. Next year we have the Olympics. That's going to be a time crunch. Getting back from that and then heading to the playoff opener. So 2025, I think.


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[Assistant] Is going to be my first crack at it and God, who knows what the industry is going to look like.


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[Assistant] I've looked, I've looked it up, I've experienced it just because it's a barbecue restaurant does not mean it is a world-renowned barbecue restaurant as the one that I suggested in Memphis itinerary.


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[Assistant] You visited Memphis and did not get barbecued. This is like going to New Orleans and stopping at the Olive Garden or Domino's as our old boss, Jay Coven, once famously did with his family.


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[Assistant] Fair enough, uh, the final round spilling into bath time was certainly unexpected, but we were able to see the thrilling conclusion, uh, playoff victory Lucas Glover defeating Patrick Cantlay. Patrick Cantlay


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[Assistant] Put on an absolute stripe show all day long on Sunday until he got to the first playoff hole, overcooked his tee shot just a little bit and then narrowly missed. I don't know how that par putt, uh, on the first playoff hole did not go in, uh, but now Lucas Glover.


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[Assistant] Back to back winner on the PGA tour. This was arguably, actually inarguably the second most impressive victory of his career. The first of course being the 2009 US Open, that sloppy Monday finish. But Rex, you were there. You've covered Lucas for a very long time, even dating back to his college and amateur days. What are we witnessing here from the 43 year old? It seems like he's completely reborn.


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[Assistant] I shrieked, I shrieked when I saw that yesterday.


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[Assistant] I mean, you would think that you're absolutely insane. I was actually going to encourage the people I commend you on that story, uh, with the Navy SEAL. Make sure you guys check that out at golfchannel.com. That was a very interesting read. I don't even think Rex is being like a prisoner of the moment to say that this might be one of my favorite stories.


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[Assistant] Okay, but yeah, it's a good story. Uhm, I think the New Yorker did like a 10,000 word story on it, uh, just recently, but like tackling that issue.


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[Assistant] Head on, the fact that this has always been an elite ball striker, and now it seems that at age 43, at an age when players should be falling off the cliff with their careers, it actually seems like he's unlocked something, and greatness is still possible.


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[Assistant] He was going to go down various rabbit holes and he was going to eventually figure it out even if it meant going cross handed or putting left handed or whatever the case may be and he settled on this broomstick putter.


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[Assistant] That has revitalized the careers of Bernard Langer, Adam Scott, Scott McCarran, and so many others. And I think.


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[Assistant] You know, the question is now where does, where does, where does this lead? You know, where does, where does this hot streak eventually go? You look at his recent finishes, five of his last six starts now.


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[Assistant] Have been six or better. He's been doing this for the better part of two months. He's now up to fourth in the FedExCup standings behind Ram, Scotty and Roy McElroy. I mean the defining players of his 2023 season. He's up to 16th.


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[Assistant] In the U.S. Ryder Cup standings and we'll certainly have a discussion here. Do you think it lasts this week?


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[Assistant] At the BMW because I don't think anyone would blame Lucas Glover.


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[Assistant] If he just completely ran out of gas, finished 35th, slid down the kind of staggered start, the tour championship, and then finished, what, you know, 15th in the finish cup standings, he'd still be a hell of a way.


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[Assistant] To close out the year, but where do you think this story is going over the final two weeks of the season?


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[Assistant] Like, I understand you want to look professional, including now with live golf, adopting shorts regardless of the weather conditions. I understand wanting to differentiate themselves and make it a professional workplace.


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[Assistant] It's kind of goes back to the argument when we were standing on the range right at the open championship.


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[Assistant] And it's absolutely pouring down rain. You look ridiculous if you don't have a rain jacket or an umbrella. It looks ridiculous for these guys to be sweating through their trousers when it's 115 degree heat index. Like come on, let's just, let's just use common sense. And plus it's borderline unsafe. Uh, you haven't let that go.


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[Assistant] I mean, it really is unbelievable. The Windom was, I think, a great story. Uh, a guy who had seen the absolute depths of this profession and went on the PGA Tour. It was an entirely different thing that happened in Memphis, Rex. Like out-dueling Patrick Cantlay.


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[Assistant] Head to head, holding off Roy McRoy, Jordan Spieth, Tommy Fleetwood, Max Homa. I mean these are literally the 70 best players on the PGA Tour during the season and it's Lucas Glover who missed only five times inside 10 feet and made three insanely clutch putts.


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[Assistant] On the back nine, all outside 10 feet, all for par or bogey, just to say the mix.


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[Assistant] It was 60 feet of putts and three holes that did it for him. It's amazing. On a day when his ball striking just wasn't good. If you had told Lucas Glover two months ago that you'd only hit nine greens in regulation on the final round of a tournament against the very best players in the world and you'd still win, he would have thought that was absolutely bonkers. I think the question now, Rex, obviously,


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[Assistant] Switches to the U.S. Ryder Cup discussion. The U.S. team is going to be finalized on Sunday night after the BMW Championship. Right now, just Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, and Patrick Cantlay have locked up spots on that team. As of now, Brian Harman, Brooks Koepke, Max Homa are numbers four through six. You would think regardless of what happens,


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[Assistant] This week, those three players are going to be on that American squad, but then I think it's going to get interesting.


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[Assistant] Yes, I would expect him to be in Rome. Jordan Spieth, ditto for him. After that.


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[Assistant] I don't know. Ricky Fowler, I would certainly put him on that team and you would think with the breakthrough and the research that he's shown, that's nine guys. And so where does Lucas Glover now fall among the


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[Assistant] Cameron young's the com work how was the same burns the jt the tony finaust i certainly think he deserves to be in the conversation.


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[Assistant] With captain's picks to be made in now 15 days, are you gonna put him on that team?


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[Assistant] Yes, the reigning PGA champion, the guy who was the 54 hole leader at the Masters. Yes, I absolutely think he's a lock. I mean, did he play great?


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[Assistant] At the US Open? No, but he still finished 17th. It wasn't a great week at the Open Championship, but I was particularly surprised by that finish at T64. He's not been playing, uh, his best golf, uh, on live as well. He's no, you know, Cameron Smith is one, two of his last three, um,


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[Assistant] Uh, even, you know, Phil Mickelson popped up for his first top 10 last week at Bedminster. He's also had a lot going on. Just had his first kid. You see that, uh, typically as it pertains to players on the PGA Tour as well. When you have a significant life event, as Brooks Koepkes did, uh, he and his wife Janet walked in the first kid, uh, prematurely, kids still.


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[Assistant] Uh, in the ICU, yeah, I give him a little bit of benefit doubt that he's probably been distracted and he's not fully, uh, a hundred percent committed.


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[Assistant] To his craft. If Brooks Kepkes somehow drops to 12th, which I don't think is going to happen, I'm still putting him on that team.


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[Assistant] One of the biggest prime time players that we've seen of this generation, uh, and he's absolutely among the 12 best Americans. Where I think it's an interesting discussion as it pertains to Lucas Glover is, is the remaining players who need to be picked.


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[Assistant] All are pretty similarly profiled. Are they not? Like, you think of Kyle Morikawa. What's his strength? Iron play. What's his weakness? Putting. What's Cameron Young's strength? Driving the golf ball. What's his weakness?


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[Assistant] You look at Tony Finau. What's his strength? Driving an iron play. What's his weakness? Putting. Lucas Glover. What's his strength?


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[Assistant] He's not been in that cauldron in a team competition in 14 years since the 2009 President's Cup has never played on a Ryder Cup and


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[Assistant] Right now, Rex, I would not put him on that team. I would still pick Justin Thomas.


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[Assistant] For that team, I think a lot of people are overlooking the fact that unlike in years past where the first couple players roles directly.


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[Assistant] Into the Ryder Cup. Remember the Hazeltine year 2016 Ryder Cup where Ryan Moore got super hot and Bubba Watson had kind of tailed off and Ryan Moore made that team in what became an eventual US route. Like that was the following week. We're still almost 50 days away.


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[Assistant] From the Ryder Cup matches starting, how a player is playing on August 16th.


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[Assistant] Is not particularly relevant to how he's necessarily going to play on September 29th. There's also obviously the difference between stroke play


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[Assistant] And match play for as good as, as Lucas Glover has performed in stroke play over the past two months in the PJ tour. It's an entirely different animal needing to make putts and hit clutch shots on the road.


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[Assistant] In a way, Ryder Cup, in an environment he has never been, uh, for a player who is very open about the demons that he's been battling.


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[Assistant] Ricky Fowler. He's the heartbeat of the team. You'd send him out first in singles and not even think twice about it.


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[Assistant] I mean, it's certainly a tough decision and Lucas Glover has dealt another dose of heartburn in Zach Johnson's direction. I do personally think it will be a moot point. It's a lot to ask Lucas Glover.


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[Assistant] To go for the three-peat this week at the BMW. I mean, if he, if he pulls it off, if he somehow wins, he's qualifying automatically. He could move as high as number five in the standings. He would be on that team regardless.


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[Assistant] It's not out of the realm of possibilities. Yes, if he, if he makes a spirited run this week in the BMW, if he makes a spirited run for the $18 million FedEx Cup prize, then yeah, he's given Zach Johnson a whole lot to think about, but he wasn't even on the, he wasn't even on the radar.


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[Assistant] Two weeks ago, and so if I'm Zach Johnson and I'm looking at overall bodies of work, are you going to trust a guy who is in I think the best form of his life at 43 and has played absolutely red hot for these past two months? Or are you going to look at the body of work of Justin Thomas, a dazzling record in the Ryder Cup?


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[Assistant] On a way game, the Americans have not won in 30 years on foreign soil, a 15 time winner, a future hall of famer. You got to roll with, you got to roll with JT and those credentials, or are you going to, are you going to roll with a guy who's, who's clearly riding a hot streak? I think that's the question that's going to come down to.


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[Assistant] Yeah. Sam Burns could pop up. I think Burns squandered a big opportunity on a golf course that he's enjoyed success before finishing outside the top 60 last week. Uh, TBC Southwind really, really dented his chances. Tony Finau hasn't been playing well either.


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[Assistant] FedExCups ended earlier than it did in 2014 though. FedExCups ending a month early.


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[Assistant] That could certainly dry up in the next six weeks, but boy, does that make for a compelling story line. I mean, it makes for a compelling story line. It could, it could. The team, the team does not play on August 15th.


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[Assistant] They play in 6 weeks. How a player is performing right now, I would trust that Justin Thomas is going to find his game over the next month at home than thinking that this Lucas Glover run over the next 2 months.


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[Assistant] Why? Because he's a generational talent. He's proven that.


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[Assistant] He can find the right partner, which he would with the Jordan Spieth or Ricky Fowler. Some of his mistakes that he's been making, uh, would be offset by having partner play. You wouldn't necessarily need to trot him out there in all five matches like you typically would in a president's cup or even a writer cup.


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[Assistant] Previously, and look, he's the heartbeat of this team. He's the heart and soul. You do not leave JT on the bench. He showed at least.


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[Assistant] I think Zach Johnson picks him for that U.S. team. I would expect to see him in Napa for the season opener. Or excuse me. That would be helpful. It's the opening event of the fall series.


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[Assistant] He didn't qualify for the FedExCupLifts. I think his blind spot is pretty obvious. This has been the worst year of his career by a wide margin.


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[Assistant] JT, if he's in good form, if he can find some sort of form over the next six weeks, if something clicks with he and his dad.


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[Assistant] He just needs his presence. Justin Thomas would scare some of the Europeans. Lucas Glover would scare absolutely no one. Great player. I don't know about that either.


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[Assistant] I'm not giving you that one. Two decades of reputational play on the PJ tour, but JT would scare somebody, yes, if he's in good form.


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[Assistant] He wasn't catching some of the hole. I mean, they were dead in the center walking after them each and every time. I think regardless.


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[Assistant] Rex of what transpires over the next two weeks. This has been a, it's going to be a fun storyline to watch. You can only, you can only get so excited.


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[Assistant] About mega millionaires like Roy McRoy, Scottie Scheffler and John Rahm fighting over an $18 million prize, right? Like that's, that's not what gets our juices flowing. It's unlikely stories like Lucas Glover. It's players who like Cam Davis.


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[Assistant] To watch heading into the faint, uh, FedEx St. Jude championship. What was your takeaway by how that drama kind of unfolded on Sunday afternoon?


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[Assistant] You think, you think Mac Hughes on the plane ride home was, was ruining a shot he gave away, a missed, a missed two footer, a duff chip, whatever the case may be, but that's a tough pill to stomach.


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[Assistant] 30 cutoff. It feels more demanding. It feels more arduous. It feels like it's more elite. Now I'll see how it feels when I get on site at Olympia fields. It may, it may feel kind of lame just having 50 PGA tour players there. There's no cut. Uh, and they're basically jockeying for position to maybe.


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[Assistant] Get inside the major championships, three of the four major championships. The PGA championship is the only one that automatically exempt him too. But I guess we'll see how it feels. I think it is typical, Rex, to have


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[Assistant] As much as we've talked about, there's actually little volatility of the players who actually play their way in.


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[Assistant] And just this time it was Cam Davis, uh, who ended up tying for six, had a good week at TPC Southwind, uh, and got inside the top 50 and Hideki Matsuyama.


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[Assistant] Who played a five hole stretch on the back nine and five under par, including an eagle on the 16th hole to jump inside the magic number. Now he still has a lot of work to do ahead of him. He currently has the longest active streak of qualifying for the tour championship at nine consecutive seasons, but at least now he has a chance to go for number 10. I know Hideki


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[Assistant] Is an interesting case because just like Justin Thomas, he'd be a player who could vacuum up one of those sponsor exemptions. You only get four of them for those signature events. Had he not made it, you would think he'd be a quality candidate for one of those sponsor exemptions for sure.


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[Assistant] I mean, we're certainly putting a lot of faith in these tour models and the formulations and exactly what they've been doing with all these simulations. We're certainly putting a lot of faith in that. On paper though, it does look...


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[Assistant] Enticing, I think there could be a good flow to it. I don't think you're necessarily going to keep on running. You said you called it a home run yesterday. No, I think I think I backtrack to a stand up triple.


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[Assistant] I backtrack to a stand-up triple. I really like it, and I think if a player plays well, like an Eric Cole, who, you know, no one really heard of him until the Honda Classic.


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[Assistant] Uh, vice for the title there and now he's all the way inside the top 50 and now set the signature event. That's a player who you can see next year, whether it's a Pearson Coonier or whoever has a great year, uh, and then alters the trajectory of his career.


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[Assistant] As a brief aside of a player who is going to keep grinding, I'm sure you missed it that Justin Thomas has announced that he will play in the Ned Bay Golf Challenge.


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[Assistant] Those signature events for 2024 for which he is not currently eligible is to remain among the top 30 in the world.


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[Assistant] In the week preceding that, Justin Thomas could certainly, if he wins that tournament, help boost.


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[Assistant] His world ranking, very interesting. Alright, besides the Jay Monahan stuff and his return, we covered that on last week's Offshore Podcast with Rex and Lavin. Besides the Lucas Glover,


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[Assistant] He did add that he, uh, Mikkelsen, he did not know whether Mikkelsen, uh, eventually made the bet elsewhere. Mikkelsen, for his part, said on social media, on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that he did not make the bet, did not deny doing so. What was your takeaway, Rex? Is this a big deal? We've always known that Mikkelsen loves


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[Assistant] Some action on the golf course or do you think this is imputing his character once again?


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[Assistant] He was so deep in the throes of addiction that he allegedly tried to make a wager


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[Assistant] Uh, or 100%, just the same way it did with Pete Rose, whose name was invoked by Billy Walters. I think where I come down in this, Rex, is this is a guy who once made, according to Walters, 43 bats in Major League Baseball in a single day.


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[Assistant] How do we know for sure that Phil Mickelson did not cross the line while in the throes of addiction and bet on his own sport simply because he said so? Yeah. I mean.


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[Assistant] But it, it needs, it, it, it deserves, I think, a closer look. I don't know if it, I think of investigation as probably too.


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[Assistant] Strong of a word, but PJ Tour, I mean, Live Golf has a no betting clause as well. PJ of America. Caught the guys in Iowa.


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[Assistant] This is kind of what we've, we've always known or at least had a suspicion, but it also paints, I think, an interesting backdrop for what has unfolded over the past couple years, where if, as Walter says, that Mikkelsen squandered a sizable portion of his fortune, there was only one way that Phil was going to recoup that.


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[Assistant] At age 51 and it's to get a nine figure signing bonus from the Saudis. You were not going to get that any other way. You're not going to get that on the PJ tour. You're not going to get that through endorsement money. It was literally just to get a check.


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[Assistant] That's why he was, uh, so highly rewarded or motivated to get it done, uh, and why he wanted to launch live golf. So I think that was an interesting backdrop to that as well.


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[Assistant] And that was like before they made baseball watchable. Like I don't watch baseball anymore, but I went to a Braves game and like at least things were moving quickly. Back in the day, that was not the case. So I think it just shows just how sick it was. Do you think Roy's quip?


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[Assistant] You were standing there on Thursday. Rory clearly wanted to be teed up.


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[Assistant] On the, on the Mickelson Ryder Cup thing. Do you think that was fair or foul saying at least Phil can bet on it because it's not going to be part of it?


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[Assistant] Again, this goes back to- This is a disease and you shouldn't be poking fun of those who are clearly suffering.


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[Assistant] And Phil has clearly made himself bigger than the game, uh, which is not going to go over well for Rory or basically any of his peers, uh, in the world of golf. I also would point out, Rex, uh, that Mikkelsen himself laughed off a fan comment last week by saying, quote, I'm not a gambling man.


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[Assistant] And also, if you saw the YouTube video, uh, with Bryson DeChambeau match, uh, he was clearly woofing about all the gambling stakes they were going to be in. So he may be a changed man. He may have expressed remorse. Uh, he may have said he was disappointed by his actions, uh, but he still does love to chase a little bit of on course.


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[Assistant] Alright, you are home this week. I will be in Chicago, uh, hopefully, uh, tasting some deep dish pizza. What's on the grill? Because fantasy football season is upon us and you need to start dialing it in.


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[Assistant] The golf channel bonus, the golf channel bonus must have just hit.


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[Assistant] Uh, you definitely have to dial in the ribs, right? Cause I think that goes without saying, I'm not getting red zone this year. I mean, now he Jags season ticket holders for at least half of my Sundays will be overtaken.


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[Assistant] Uh, buy a home Jags playoff games. And of course we'll have watch parties in the outdoor kitchen for when they are away as well. You mentioned the fantasy football league. I will be in with the Hogwarts, but obviously not for $200 buying because that's absolutely ridiculous for what should be a home friendly neighborhood league. Uh, we're also you and I.


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[Assistant] Fantasy Football League, uh, headed. The, the commissioner is Jason Gold, who is our video producer and will be putting this very podcast up on YouTube. Shout out to Jason.


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[Assistant] Any other platform in which you get your podcast that should provide a plenty of entertainment this fall will have to have some sort of.


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[Assistant] Why not? We have a weekly podcast. There needs to be some sort of punishment and or, and or reward. I prefer to think of punishment. Uh, or how we, how we fair in this.


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[Assistant] Oh yeaah. Fortunately we did not get sent into HR for your F-bomb violation on this very podcast, so that's quite alright. I'm very much looking forward to those fantasy drafts. It should be great fun. We will come up with very good punishments or rewards.


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[Assistant] For that. Alright, that's gonna do it for this edition. Golf Channel podcast with Rex and Lab. Make sure you go to golfchannel.com for all of my news, notes, features, analysis, commentary, videos, podcasts, whatever else I'll be doing from Olympia Fields. Who really knows? At this point, Rex will have a well-deserved week at home before we both reunite. Next week, the Grand Finale Tour Championship at Eastlake. He'll be there early week. I'll be there once, you know, the ball's actually in the air. Alright, that's gonna do it. Thanks for listening this week.


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[Assistant] Uh, you're gonna have some thoughts on this final major Sunday, in this major particular, so I'm gonna kinda leave the floor to you. I am going to say, before we get to those, and certainly you make some legitimate points,


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[Assistant] This was a masterful performance. When you look at everything he did, he did everything you have to do well at the Open Championship to


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[Assistant] To win and certainly win by six strokes. He had, didn't have a three putt all week long, hit into one bunker, reminiscent of Tiger Woods back in 2006. And even that, that time he got up and down. He never really opened the door on the weekend. I mean, consider that going into the weekend, he had a five short, like.


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[Assistant] And that he never got to two strokes yesterday early in the round. He had a bogey started to seem like the wheels were coming off. Got him back on exact same thing this morning.


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[Assistant] It's amazing to me that we never would have had the conversation certainly four days ago probably four months ago.


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[Assistant] I agree with everything except for this was out of nowhere and it was out of nowhere in as much as you and I didn't talk about them.


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[Assistant] On Wednesday in the podcast, and I can't imagine anyone did. If Schleybal didn't put money on him, who is the biggest Georgia homer, then no one was going to talk about him. But, and I think we addressed this on Friday night in the podcast. I mean, I talked to Justin Parsons.


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[Assistant] And something did click last year his record and this open championship had been horrible until last year and he missed the cut.


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[Assistant] The week before the Scottish open and shot over par on day one at St. Andrews and then something just fell into place. And the way Justin described it to me is he should have played links golf well.


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[Assistant] He, he had sort of all the elements. I mean, he's kind of an old school guy. He plays golf shot, not golf swing. And he loves to sort of be creative and he loves to sort of keep it in front of him. And obviously a very, very good putter with a great short game, all the things you would expect, but it didn't sort of fall in until last year. And that carried over. He played pretty well last week.


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[Assistant] I guess to your point, you're right. We didn't talk about him on Wednesday. I don't think anybody did, but if you were really looking closely, I guess we probably should have.


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[Assistant] No, he wasn't up for this week. And maybe he should have, that's kinda my point. I'm not trying to do revisionist stuff here. I mean, we did not pick him, he wasn't on my radar, but I guess looking back now that yes, we probably should have clued in and maybe looked into it a little bit harder. These things are tough. What does it mean?


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[Assistant] I think it means it's kind of fulfilled his career and I don't want to say he's topped out. I don't want to say this is it because even at 30 something years old, that's not fair or accurate. But I remember, I think we had this conversation. I remember being in Savannah. It must have been for St. Patrick's Day because we were there for some reason and seeing the newspaper the morning he signed to go to the University of Georgia.


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[Assistant] This is a junior golfer being on the front page, not the front of the sports page on the front page. I mean, he was a really, really big deal and he kind of addressed that tonight about he had a ton of talent. He'd one of us junior, I think he qualified for two Walker cups, which is really, really hard to do.


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[Assistant] All the things that he accomplished. And then I was so thrown and I'm sure you got into this in your game story. Mark Schlabel walked up and asked you something about how many times did he win when he was at the University of Georgia and you said twice, is that correct?


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[Assistant] And so he seemed to have hit a wall and he hit a wall on a really, really weird spot. And I, it was funny. The one thing I took away from Tuesday, uh, Saturday night's press conference was he was asked about what do you consider your greatest accomplishment on tour? And he'd won twice before this weekend. And he said he qualified for the playoffs.


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[Assistant] Every year he'd been on the PGA tour. That's kind of like for most people who don't follow golf, you're going to roll your eyes and think, well, that's a dumb accomplishment. That's an accomplishment. Cause that means you're better than eight players, eight players, Rex.


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[Assistant] Yeah, no, it means that you've done something that...


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[Assistant] I mean, this is Tiger Woods territory. Actually, that's not fair because Tiger Woods hasn't done it. I mean, injury-wise. But I mean, it's a pretty amazing accomplishment.


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[Assistant] What it means to his career is, I guess, and this is always a tricky territory where you say, had he underperformed up to this point? And maybe he had, and maybe this was his potential all along. It's odd to say that because of where the game is right now. The game is about power. The game is about getting bigger. He was the second, third and fourth round leader.


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[Assistant] The first round leader was 14 inches taller than him. He is not a large man, 14 inches. I mean, it's like they were playing two separate sports. He's not short. I'm glad that he kind of clarified that in his press conference, but it's clearly middle of the pack.


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[Assistant] And he doesn't belong in that category when we talk about, oh, he knocks the cover off the ball and he's sort of that modern athlete and that's how they're going to overpower the game. He didn't do that at all. He hit a lot of fairways. Again, go back to no three putts and one bunker. He did all the things you had to do right on a Lynx golf course.


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[Assistant] Do, do I think he can, does that translate to Augusta, which is a big ballpark where I wouldn't imagine.


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[Assistant] That his game would be a perfect fit? Probably not, but it was perfect here.


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[Assistant] I would agree with everything except for one, you said two kind of weaker fields. I covered the Wells Fargo that he won and he beat Dustin Johnson. It was not, now granted. It was not a, it was not a Quill Hollow. It was not a Quill Hollow. It was an Eagle Trace. It was at Wilmington. No, I'll give you the golf course. No, I'll give you the golf course, but it wasn't a weak field. Again, he beat Dustin Johnson. He was probably second


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[Assistant] He's not the guy that's going to sit there and make a lot of headlines. And he's probably not going to be that guy going forward. It's going to be interesting to see how he handles this. Being the champion of the year comes with a lot of unique challenges that you don't necessarily get when you win the other three major championships. Like this one sort of comes with some responsibility. You're supposed to


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[Assistant] Be the representative of golf essentially outside the United States for everyone else outside the United States. And that's not really Brian Harmon. He wants to, again, I thought the great line.


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[Assistant] I will say, you talk to people around him, you talk to JT, I talked to Harris English last night, none of them are surprised. They all realized how much talent he has. Zach Johnson, I read his comments that he said this afternoon Zach was waiting.


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[Assistant] Just cold and wet and kind of blowing sideways. I walked the first couple of holes with Rory and it was just, it was just miserable out there and he never looked flustered. And talking with Justin Parsons earlier this week about it, it was, he sort of had to get to this point where


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[Assistant] He not only believed that he was good enough to win a major championship, but he was able to compartmentalize all the things that normally distract him and in this particular case,


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[Assistant] The weather was going to distract everyone, like even Rory talked about, like it was hard out there because I knew I couldn't hit driver because there's water on the club face. I mean, it's the differences are that minute, but they're that large when it comes to this level.


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[Assistant] Let's go after it. That's fine. We've paid off Harmon. We've done the thing where we've talked about the winner and I think we're pretty good.


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[Assistant] Uh, well, because they don't really hunt over here the way we do in the United States. Certainly they don't hunt over here the way people do in Georgia. So I think there is a cultural difference that they're trying to wrap their minds around. I will say, and I'll give Brian credit on this one after he kind of talked about this.


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[Assistant] Yeah, he played ball, but he cleaned up his axe after Friday. I think Friday, he probably said some things that in retrospect is kind of, that's how he got the butcher of Whore Lake. And then a lot of, a lot of the tabloids sort of weighed in. So I think he cleaned it up. He was very, very clear. Like he doesn't hunt with a gun. He only hunts with a bow. This is something that he's always done. He talked about harvesting.


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[Assistant] I think it was an elk and carrying it down off the mountain. Like there's a lot of things that people in that culture.


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[Assistant] Uh, I don't hunt personally, but I do like to fish and so I can kind of, kind of empathize with what he was going through. Again, this was a total cultural difference and you are, and I'm quoting the person who ever yelled this at Ricky Fowler, you're being a quote unquote coward right now because that's not


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[Assistant] The take you had today in the hierarchy of major championships. I don't know how many you've covered. It seems to me it's probably quite a bit.


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[Assistant] Where would this one rank? Come on, hit me with it. In terms of memorability?


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[Assistant] Whatever, just, just rank it for me. I don't care how you do it. You can have your metrics. It's up to you, pal.


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[Assistant] I'm going to echo some things you said, but I'm going to be very, very out front. I'm going to try to clean some of this up right now. This has nothing to do with Brian Harmon. It was a dominant performance and that's part of why this one probably isn't going to resonate. I'm going to get on the plane tomorrow.


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[Assistant] He pretty much sucked the drama out of the place. There was a little bit of drama on Saturday.


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[Assistant] Again, he got off to kind of a rocky start, but he, you know, he righted the ship a little bit of drama early on Sunday, a very, very similar scenario, but he made the turn.


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[Assistant] And it was funny, and alright, I'll go ahead and throw this one at you, because you weren't sitting there. Uh, the, our friend Jack Ryan, who's sitting behind us from the PGA Tour.


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[Assistant] Another Georgia Bulldog, unfortunately I'm surrounded by him in that media center. Uh, after, after Brian had teed off on 18, and he had found the fairway.


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[Assistant] With a six-stroke lead? Yea, I believe he had a six-stroke, he must have had a six-stroke lead. And he goes, do you think you could get it to the house from where he is in the fairway and still win?


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[Assistant] And I could, right up until the point that so Brian hits his next shot, it's a bit of a layup, hits his third shot into a bunker. And I turned to Jack and I said, I don't think I can get it to the house from there.


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[Assistant] In the middle of the fairway, again, I've got a 200 and whatever 60, 70 yard drive under my belt. So I've only got...


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[Assistant] Uh, nope, not doing that. I don't know if I could make a 12 from that bunker that he hid in. I don't want to find that out.


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[Assistant] Well, we have, we have Andrew Bradley playing tomorrow, our colleague Andrew Bradley, so we'll get an update. Maybe he'll do better than a 12 on 18. He's a pretty good player. I'm hoping he will. But again, to your point, I don't, I just want to clean it up. Brian Harmon's performance was brilliant. Everything about this open, though, was bad, which is weird, because in my mind,


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[Assistant] This one brings a really, really like, so, yeah.


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[Assistant] My ranking of the open venues goes san andrews which is that that's from most people and then i have a two a and a two b.


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[Assistant] Cause I really, really enjoyed Port Rush. I played it a couple times. I thought the first time we went there was really good with Shane Lowry. And this is 2B. I felt like this was so unique in 2006 and it was like one of the first times I think I really sat and watched Lynx Golf and sort of was just mesmerized what Tiger was doing. This was so far from that.


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[Assistant] This was not even close to that, it was wet, balls were spinning back, it was, it was puddles.


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[Assistant] Like when you start seeing puddles on Lynx Golf courses, you realize that yeah, like this isn't right. I have no problem with conditions. Please don't comment me. We should be playing in the rain. We should be playing in the wind. But when you're playing in puddles, that's not Lynx Golf in my mind. And this was disappointing.


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[Assistant] I saw a tweet, and this goes to something you said earlier, that someone did like the totals. And I wish I could give them credit, I apologize for not being able to do it off the top of my head. But for all four of the majors, you had to make the cut in all four of them.


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[Assistant] And scotty sheffler was the runaway winner at eighteen under par like total score and the four major championships in it it was like six seven eight strokes ahead of whoever's in second place which is fascinating to me because he didn't want to major.


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[Assistant] This year, so I guess he should stand out to me. Personally, I go to the Masters and what John Rahm was able to do, I think that in my mind was probably the best of the four.


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[Assistant] And I guess that's just me thinking that anything can happen on the back nine.


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[Assistant] So maybe that's just in my mind. I'm certainly not going to say Brooks.


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[Assistant] At the PGA championship, which I think is what you're going to say because you're a homer and you're from Rochester and you love that area so much you moved away when you were 18 years old and haven't been back as we've already established.


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[Assistant] And, uh, nothing against Wyndham Clark or LACC. I had such high expectations for that, but I didn't feel like there was any drama there as well. So, I, I had to be something.


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[Assistant] It's been flat. I don't think we can walk, we can't dance around it. I mean, it has been, can you name, like, what was the most exciting thing to you other than going home to your precious Rochester?


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[Assistant] Well, and I don't even mind that. Like, to that point, I'm not even sitting here and saying that, oh, because they're not named players or they weren't ranked inside the top 20 or whatever the case may be. That has nothing to do with this. I think, again, we're talking about moments. We're talking about moments!


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[Assistant] I mean, you can go back each year and I can tell you that John Romsputz at 18 at Torrey Pines when he won the US Open, I remember that. I'm always going to remember that. And I can kind of walk through the years and give you my moment of the year. Whatever it is I felt like, like, man, that's what I'm going to take from that major championship. It's really, really hard.


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[Assistant] Don't get me wrong. I mean, I think Brian Harman's par on 18 was awesome and you could see the emotion in his face and he was clearly happy. He won by six strokes. He could have made a 12 man. Like it's, it's hard to sit here and get excited about it.


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[Assistant] You can't pass judgment on the winners. This has more to do with how they got there. And in this particular year, more so than any I can ever remember, man, it's just been flat.


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[Assistant] Uh, I called it a cool decade. I know it was not a cool decade, but I did call it a cool decade simply because when he left here in 14, and I remember standing on the green and watching him hug his mom, Rosie.


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[Assistant] I did, yeaah, just like I did today, which I happily handed over to my teammate, because I'm a good teammate like that. I'm going to...


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[Assistant] I remembered what that felt like and I remember leaving and it was two or three days later, Jack Jack Nicklaus was doing some sort of interview and his take at the time was, oh, he's definitely going to, you know, rack up more majors than I want.


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[Assistant] And that's so shocking when you have someone like Jack Nicklaus say the thing.


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[Assistant] Where they're just all in and they're going to speak recklessly.


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[Assistant] Like that, but I think all of us believed it because it's not just that Roy had won four majors in four years. It was that he had won four majors in four years by an average of 4.76 shots.


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[Assistant] He wasn't even, I mean, he was blowing fields away. It was Tigeresque. It was Jack Nicklausesque.


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[Assistant] Whatever you want to call it, he was still young the way he was doing it. He was doing it the modern way. He was overpowering courses. He was happy. He was relaxed. And then.


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[Assistant] You kind of fast forward and I, like I said, I walked kind of today. I was out there in the rain and the muck and the mud and cold. And it was such a different feeling with him walking off today. And I just think.


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[Assistant] It was limitless in 2014 when he walked off. Like there was nothing.


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[Assistant] Roy could not do and suddenly when he walked off today, it hit me that there is limitations to even that potential, even that extraordinary talent, which we all agree.


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[Assistant] That he has and he did the right thing. He's not going to give us any of that grief, any of that sadness. He talked about, you know, you look at what I've done since then and I kind of agree with it. I would argue he's.


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[Assistant] Piece together a hall of fame career since he won that open in 2015.


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[Assistant] And yet somehow we're still in this dilemma where.


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[Assistant] He's okay with it, it seems like. He's okay with the idea that I keep knocking at the door. You want me to give him a gray?


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[Assistant] And I guess the grade would be an A- because you don't get it done, but he's certainly, well he's certainly there.


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[Assistant] He's certainly there, is the point. I mean, that was kind of his point, and it's hard for me to debate that, that at least the last, let's say three years, because there was a time, let's call it 16, 17, 18, when he really didn't factor in. He was missing a couple cuts.


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[Assistant] He was never really in the mix. He never legitimately had a chance to win.


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[Assistant] But when you boil it down and this was a fun exercise cause you and I.


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[Assistant] Yes, you can count on one hand how many quote unquote legitimate chances he had to win majors since 2014. And most of them have been in the last three years.


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[Assistant] And I would argue at least one of them has been this year at the U.S. Open, obviously. He had, uh, it was a golden opportunity. Didn't get it done. Just made a lot of pars. And when you look at sort of the ebb and flow.


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[Assistant] How this works out, he usually gets off to a fast start like he did the last two days. He birdie three of his first five holes the last two days and then he essentially plays one over the rest of the way in. That's what he's done.


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[Assistant] And it just has not been good enough to get it done. And it's, it's shocking to me. You and I both, you were there when I asked, uh, Ricky Fowler who finished runner up to him here in 2014. And I go, if I'd have told you in 2014, we're going to be 10 years or nine years down the line.


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[Assistant] 2015 was his best bet, but of course he injured himself in a kickabout. We're still not 100% sure what a kickabout is.


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[Assistant] But that was probably going to be his best opportunity.


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[Assistant] I would say even more so than this week. And I thought this week was a prime. I mean, this was just.


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[Assistant] Prime rib. Right out there for him. All you have to do is put it on the grill and sear it and get it ready. It was time. Smoke it. Let's smoke it. Reverse sear.


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[Assistant] We've been challenged by a DP World Tour official, who is going to be on the European Ryder Cup side by the way, to do a barbecue in Italy this year. I'm not quite sure how we're going to pull that off.


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[Assistant] I'm not dodging the question because I think injuries factor into this. I think loss of confidence factor into this. I think lifestyle factors into this. He got married, he had a kid.


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[Assistant] There's a lot of things that factor into it. I will say I did not go as far as apparently Brando Chambly did.


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[Assistant] I think Brando's point was he just doesn't work hard enough. And I disagree with that notion.


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[Assistant] I disagree with that notion, and again, didn't watch the show, so if I'm misspeaking here, Brando, I wildly apologize. I, I, but I don't, I don't think that's correct. I don't think this is for a lack of desire. I don't think this is for a lack of work. I think they're just really, really hard to win.


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[Assistant] And if you look at the landscape in golf right now, as I just pointed out, Scotty Sheffley did not win a major this year. And yet if you combined all four of them, he blows the field away with his score. So you can have a really, really good week.


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[Assistant] And still end up not winning and I think Rory's probably had a couple of those and he's probably had some that he didn't play really really good where I'll go immediately to the Masters like we're going to show up next year.


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[Assistant] At Augusta national and the conversation is going to be, he's going to be a month shy of his 36th birthday.


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[Assistant] And it's going to be, when is he going to complete the career grand slam? And that pressure is only going to continue to crush.


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[Assistant] Uh, probably, probably there is no, there's quite a bit of mental to it. I, again, I think the other factors are in this as well, but you're assuming that somehow he's beating himself up.


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[Assistant] Every single time. Now, I went to LACC and thought to myself, yeaah, that's gotta be mental.


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[Assistant] I mean, there's a reason why a player of that caliber can't make a birdie after the third hole. It's a hard golf course, but you're still...


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[Assistant] The second best player in the world. You're still a four time major champion. You've got to find a way to make a birdie.


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[Assistant] I said, I said A minus, I said A minus. A plus is winning a major championship. An A minus is some form of an A. How can, how can you possibly justify that?


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[Assistant] Well, cause he went miscut, tied for seventh, second at the U.S. Open and tied for sixth this week.


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[Assistant] I mean, I'm, I'm not going to sit here and, and pick it apart. I don't know who has probably Scottie Scheffler.


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[Assistant] Scotty Scheffler, Scotty Scheffler is probably the best, so I'm going to give him an A, and he didn't win one, as I just pointed out.


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[Assistant] He didn't win one, but if you look at his combined score over the four majors and having made the cut in all four majors, he is the lowest by far. How do I not give him an A? So by that same logic, do you disagree with that?


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[Assistant] No, I am. I think both those guys get A pluses. Absolutely. I mean, they won majors and they were, they played pretty well in other majors. So yeah, absolutely.


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[Assistant] Rory McIlroy played really well in the majors. This goes back to Jack Nicklaus finished second in 19 major championships. This goes back to what I just said.


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[Assistant] Uh, not in my mind. And it was an A-, so you keep, you keep sort of splitting hairs here.


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[Assistant] Both get A pluses. I guess I'd have to look at Brian Harmon's record in the other three majors. I don't know it off the top of my head. You wrote the story. How did you finish in the other three?


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[Assistant] No, I'm not going to play their game because you just laid it out. Like they essentially have the same season. They just pick different weeks. So which one would you rather have?


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[Assistant] Which one? Well, I'd rather win the Masters more than anything else. So I guess John Rahm would be the answer to that.


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[Assistant] Yeah, because if you look at what John Rahm did at the PGA Championship in the US Open, he wasn't clearly at his best. Uh, I think what he had this week was impressive, especially


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[Assistant] After starting the week, we saw how aggravated he was. He wasn't in a good head space, it seemed like. And he was able to at least give himself a chance on Sunday. I mean, granted, it was a far-flung chance like everyone else had here on Sunday.


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[Assistant] Yeah, no, I'm not picking between those two. I feel like if you had to, like, I'm giving them both A pluses.


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[Assistant] No, that's good. I totally agree with that. And I guess the opposite of that would be Scottie Scheffler, right? I mean, even though, I mean, the things we've just pointed out, the fact that he didn't win one because he hit the ball so well. I mean, does it feel like, like a missed opportunity? Did you waste a season?


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[Assistant] Because you did things this season that only Tiger Woods had done before you.


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[Assistant] And somehow you weren't able to pick off one of those majors. Again, they're really, really hard to win. I'm not discounting how hard they are to win, but


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[Assistant] I mean, you were at a level that very, very few players have ever got to before and somehow you weren't able to knock one of those off.


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[Assistant] Yeah, I'm kind of fixated on the playoffs because I think the Ryder Cup sort of fits in after that as we get closer to Eastlake and the team gets solidified a little bit more. Only because, like I guess we were talking about Adam Scott this morning, I think he's 78th right now on the points list and it's such


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[Assistant] It's such a cutoff this year. Like if you were going to pick a year to somehow finish inside the top 50 on the FedExCup points list, this would be the year because of what it means going into next season. I mean, everything's going to be so different and the difference between 50 and 51.


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[Assistant] It's just going to be jarring. I mean, the guy who finishes 50th.


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[Assistant] Is going to be able to play a very, very special schedule of nothing but elevated events with $20 million purses and the guy at 51 is going to be scrambling for his career. I think it's, it's impossible to overstate how important that's going to be. So it, the next two weeks in my mind will effectively be a fourth and a fifth playoff.


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[Assistant] Because people are positioning themselves now, and it's funny, I was talking with the tournament director Mark Brazel from Wyndham about this earlier this season, like his event.


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[Assistant] Has become more important now than it probably ever has been because of what it means going into next year.


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[Assistant] I was thinking about that actually. Do you think I can get him to stop?


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[Assistant] Welcome to this edition of the Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lav. It is Halloween, October 31st. Rex, two questions to start.


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[Assistant] Do you give out full size candy bars and be what sort of combo collaborative outfit do you have, do you and bunk have whipped up?


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[Assistant] That's pretty popular, that's pretty popular now. If you wanna, if you wanna give the kids what they actually want. Uh, we don't, personally. And actually, shopping for Halloween candy this year, it was insanely expensive.


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[Assistant] I don't know if it's inflation. I don't know if the chocolate factories are going through a difficult time. Uh, expensive. $8.99 a bag for some KitKats and some Twix.


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[Assistant] Money bag hoggered. Folks, if you want some IPAs swinging over to Longwood. What age do kids stop trick-or-treating? I mean, mine turns five in December. I've got a two-year-old as well. Like, how many more years?


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[Assistant] Do we have to go through this? Is this, is this another decade? Do kids, do kids age out of it? I live in Nakate where literally everyone is between the ages of 32 and 47. If you're a parent, I feel like we're in the throes of it for the next decade here.


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[Assistant] It is gonna be nice tonight. Uh, it'll be cooler tomorrow. More on that at the end of this podcast. That is what we call in the business a tease. Rex and I have a special event in which we will be together.


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[Assistant] On November 1st, let's get to the golf a little bit before we get into our shindig on Wednesday. To me, the most notable news item, or the past week, hello titleist, uh, in a press conference last week ahead of Asian Pacific amateur at Royal Melbourne, how much fun would that have been if you were a great amateur player to play Royal Melbourne?


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[Assistant] Uh, with a spot to play in the Masters. Both Masters Chairman Fred Ridley and RNA Chief Executive Martin Slumbers were asked about what they are going to do with live golfers as it pertains to the major championships in 2024. They had two different answers, at least that's how I interpreted it. Fred Ridley


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[Assistant] Well, Martin Slumbers, uh, said that recent suggestions, most notably in the Telegraph that the PIF and the RNA could somehow negotiate a deal that would guarantee some spots in the open for live golfers was, quote, completely off the mark.


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[Assistant] And that they're still evaluating the qualification criteria for next year. What was your read on all of this that dropped late last week?


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[Assistant] We'd love a sponsor, particularly a grill sponsor or an alcohol sponsor, literally anything.


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[Assistant] Tom, my man, just get a Pellicro, man, plug it in.


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[Assistant] Let it ride all one along. I do appreciate that Mia Culpa off the top, uh, to bunkmate. I'm not sure if she's off camera pointing a gun at you. Uh, I feel like you should be holding up a newspaper. This is not a hostage video. How about the question?


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[Assistant] Rex, how about the question at hand? The golf question. Now seven minutes in this podcast. I do appreciate it. Give me a couple once again.


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[Assistant] Yeah, it's pretty clear that the major organizers who were part of the OWGR board that made the world ranking decision as it pertains to live, like,


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[Assistant] Jay Monahan recused himself. Keith Peller recused himself. The major organizers were the ones who decided to live golf's fate. And so it's pretty obvious that they're not in a rush to do.


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[Assistant] You make a great point, Rex, about them screaming and thinking long enough if they, if they say it for long enough that they're gonna make some changes. They said that about the world ranking. They kept calling it obsolete for months and months on end. Well, that's still the determining factor in most of these major championship qualification criteria. They say over and over again that the majors need to do the right thing and carve out spots.


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[Assistant] That's the way we're going to be doing things. I do agree that the optics...


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[Assistant] Are not great. Having just five live golfers who are exempt into all four major championships in 2024 based mostly on the recent major championship performance. Those five players being Brooke Koepke, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, and Cameron Smith. I agree. That's, that's, that's not a great look. Then again, you sit around and look at the roster of live players. Like who, who are we leaving out?


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[Assistant] Who, who deserves to be in the Masters, who's not going to be there? Now, I, I do agree that Taylor Gooch, it seems odd to not have him there by data golf's metrics, which takes into account, uh, live performances as well as traditional PGA Tour and DP World Tour performances. He's like, he's the 29th best player.


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[Assistant] In the world, quite of their metrics and yet he's out to the top 20 in the OWGR and has virtually no path to get to Augusta National. But I also, you go down the list like this Harold Varner, Nito Pereira.


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[Assistant] Joaquin Neyman, like I'm not, I'm not sure that the Masters is worse off if we don't have those players. And yet I'm still, I still sigh with the live players that there should be a very, very small, uh, carve out for them.


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[Assistant] I want to touch on that, Rex. So Endeavor was believed to be one of the leading candidates, right, to invest.


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[Assistant] In the PJ Tours new for-profit model. My initial takeaway after seeing that headline was that if the tour is in any position at all to turn down this offer, it either has or it believes that it will.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Better deal, either from the PIF or other suitors. As you mentioned, there's probably six or seven others that are in the mix. Do you agree with that takeaway that, that if the, if the tour is turning it down, either has a better deal or believes that it can get one over the next couple of months?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's so nuanced and it would represent such a seismic shift.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the PJ Tours future, like, thinking that this all could get hammered out in six months, uh, seemed...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Initially, when the first story came out, there was, there was some talk that, that the PIF must have spiked.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This endeavor deal because they have the right of first refusal in the framework agreement but that's not true and to me that's an important distinction for readers and listeners.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I still think Fenway is the leader in the clubhouse because a tour PIF deal would not be palatable to...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The majority of the members, it wouldn't be palatable to the fans, it wouldn't be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, and so we're potentially looking at


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Knowing what we know now about the OWGR decision uh, very much remains.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To be seen. We touched on the TGL, there was some news that came out on Tuesday, not gonna lie.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Little bit confused for the whole TGL thing. We know there's going to be 24 players. Uh, we know there's going to be matches that begin on Tuesday, uh, during football season. And I believe they switch to Monday nights in primetime. We broadcast on ESPN, but the format


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then I thought it was going to be, I thought this would, they're basically just like going to a PJ Tour Superstore and like hitting into the screen. Like you and I have done countless times, uh, where they juice the numbers, uh, they, they, they, they guilt you into getting, uh, the brand new driver. And then when you actually get on the range, uh, you hit it everywhere, uh, more on that in a bit as well. But the actual golf course.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, what they're doing, this is at this newly built SoFi center. It is 97 yards long, roughly the size of a football field. They're hitting off real grass tee boxes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, there's gonna be sand, uh, the, the simulator screen that they are hitting into is, uh, 20 times the size of a standard simulator. So I, I didn't quite have that, that visual, uh, in my mind exactly right. Uh, I'm also intrigued, Rex, by this custom built,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't understand it. I'm gonna have to cover the first one in person just to see it for myself and just to get a bigger understanding. I think you want to go to the first one as well. But what would you take away from the format, the venue, the course as this thing starts to take shape beginning in January 2024?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's just really tough. I mean, we're, we're, we're sitting here, I've got... Lamar Johnson.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On, on IR, I mean, I feel good that I beat one of your sons last week, but this team, this team's just not very good. It is not, it is not panned out exactly how I thought. Bijan Robinson, uh, has not been the, the slate breaker that we always anticipated. Tony Pollard has been a massive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Disappointment, uh, his expected fantasy points, uh, per carry, uh, is among the worst in the league. I'm, I'm in a, I'm in a low, I'm in a low spot right now, Rex. I'm not feeling good about it, uh, and I don't, I don't actually feel good about making a deep playoff push.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, it's certainly an intriguing collection of players. I think anytime you have Tiger and Rory at the helm, it has an opportunity to be successful. We've seen Tiger though in a number of mic'd up situations, whether it was with the matches or skin games, whatever the case may be, he is not the most appealing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He seems very hesitant to say what he actually wants to say, uh, despite him being a notorious trash talker.