[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For errant shots. That's what I think Torrey Pines does best. We've seen it in major championships. We've seen it every year on the PJ Tour schedule. I just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I really like watching PGTour players play there, uh, and it'd be a shame if somehow, uh, that's, that's reduced over the next couple years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wow. See, I would actually go the opposite. I wish the tournament was 72 holes on the south course.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It's much more fun. There's a greater variety. You still get some of the crazy scenic shots. However, like, the south course doesn't look particularly fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Especially in tournament conditions where the rough is that thick and the fairways are that pinched. Like the 12th hole just looks, just looks abysmal. It would, if, if you're, if you're missing, if you're missing the fairway at players at our level who cannot muster the swing speed,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To extricate balls from that thick or rough, you'd make 7, 8 or 9. It's just a dead straight hole with just nothing but thick rough. Like that doesn't look fun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I do think when you get to this world tour concept like they're gonna have to really think through this. This is actually my favorite part.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of the PGA Tour schedule is, is right now. I know a lot of people like the Florida Swing because it's getting you excited for the Masters. Uh, obviously people like, uh, the Travelers Championship and the Memorial and the Canadian Open. Like I think that's a decent swing as well. You and I both love our Fortnite, uh, in, in Scotland or England.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The Scottish Open leading in the Open Championship. The FedEx.com playoffs are great. But I, I love this. I love the, I love the two events in Hawaii.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, PJ West is kind of nostalgic for me. My grandparents lived, uh, right down the street and then you get into this stretch now, uh, with Torrey Pines, then Pebble, then Phoenix, then Riv. Like this is the best part of the PJ Tour schedule while over in Europe.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're going to want to stake their claim to Abu Dhabi and Dubai as well to begin.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The season so i think that's something to figure out i'm not sure if i'm in the minority i think that's the best stretch of the pj tour season but i can't get enough golf.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, over these next couple weeks, I just wish it was completely separate from football as a, as a, as opposed to kind of dividing our attention.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're actually hitting the road on Monday morning. We're not going to get.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're not going to get into live golf, we're not even going to get into a pebble preview because you and I will be tackling that in the Wednesday podcast. But before we get out of here, anything else on


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, because that is where my two mongrels are currently devouring.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Their lunchables, yes, exactly. It's definitely like an intricate dance of trying to get the ribs that I'm smoking done today at a proper time while still doing


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was, I was rushing outside. I was throwing the charcoal down. I was, I was gassing it up, getting that ready to go. I threw on four splits. Those hopefully are burning down to coals as we speak. And at that point,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hopefully I've got the smoker running from 250 to 275 and we'll be able to start the rip process and pull those off around four or five o'clock, which should be midway through what hopefully is a great Chiefs. Raven's Gabe, what do you have, Rex?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Chats folks it could be a busy few days in the world of golf so in the meantime.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In between our two podcast records, make sure you guys go to mbcsports.com slash golf for LACE news and updates from the world of golf. As previously mentioned, Rex and I will be back on Wednesday. He will be at Pebble. I will be in my home.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Studio will fire off another preview podcast as well as catch up to any updates that has been on the PJ tour. Thank you guys for listening. Hope you have a great rest of the weekend. We'll talk to you in a couple of days.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hello and welcome into this edition of the Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lav. Happy Easter Sunday. Monday, if that's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In Houston on Sunday, and that's where we're celebrating. We will get to that. But to me, Rex, the biggest stories of this Sunday were Scottie Scheffler,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] An Alejandro Toasty Scotty Shuffler, if you guys missed it, for some reason.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Again, Steven Yeager, miss Lowe said afterward that he was disappointed, but that he misread the putt. In any case, Scottie Scheffler finished one shot shy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In his bid to win three PGA Tour events in a row of feet that had not been accomplished since Justin Johnson in 2017. Rex, what's your read on Scotty's Sunday as well as his entire week in H-Town?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was definitely a weird week. You know, not just the three putt from six feet on Friday, the end of the streak of, of under par rounds in the PGA tour. As you mentioned, he had the double on 15, uh, on Saturday when he ripped it off the front edge. Like how did that possibly happen type thing? He had a horrible miss again on 15.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On Sunday with just a wedge. I mean, he's missing 75 feet. What's that? 25 yards?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right of his target with a wedge, like you never see Scottie Scheffler do that and then he failed to get up and down. Just a couple of really strange shots and uncharacteristic misses. Just a little bit untidy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And a couple of course management mistakes, missing short side, that you just don't expect to see Scottie Scheffler make. And so, my takeaway from Scottie's week wasn't necessarily


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Miss in the 72nd hole. It wasn't necessarily the putt on Friday. It wasn't the wedge on Saturday. To me, this was Scottie Scheffler's probably a C game. Maybe his B minus game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And yet he, and yet he still could have, should have, would have won the Houston Open for three in a row and heading into the Masters.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, that to me is my biggest takeaway, Rex. I'm not word at all.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As it comes to Sky Sheffler, he's still, uh, installed as a 9-2 favorite.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, for the Masters in two weeks time, I think Roy is next at 12 to 1. But my question to you, do you think it's actually made Scottie's task easier at Augusta that he didn't win? That he isn't trying to go for, I guess would have been his fourth in a row.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the Masters, knowing he is the prohibitive favor. I, I, I think, for the sake of argument, I think he is the prohibitive favor anyway.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But now it's not, you know, Scotty mania as it, as it was DJ-esque in 2017 before the slip in the rental house.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think, I think, I mean, for our purposes, I think it adds a little bit of intrigue. I'm already looking forward to Tuesday morning or Tuesday afternoon whenever Scottie Scheffler.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Meets with the media because he is undoubtedly going to be asked once again about his putting and perhaps the idea that this, that this new putter wasn't some salve for his game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that is really just a bandaid. Like any, he may have said it was a misread on the 72nd hole. It does not take you and I, we are not Phil Kenyon. And you can look at that stroke and say that was short and quick. And that is why.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That it missed left. He is, he is going to be asked. Again, this is, this is a, a more general sports media


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, r-reporters who are going to be in attendance for the Masters than have been the golf specific folks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, like you and I, like I anticipate five to ten questions.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In regards to his putting, uh, and I don't think, had he won this golf tournament.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think the questions would have been much different. I think it would have been historical comparisons to Tiger, historical comparisons to the best runs we've seen in the past.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 5, 10, 15 years, whether it was Rory, whether it was, uh, DJ, uh, whether it was Spieth back in 2015 and 2017, like that's the sort of heater that Sky Shuffler is on. I think now there's at least a semblance of intrigue. I'm not buying it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, Friday's, Friday's stats are obviously skewed by the three part from,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And of course, it gets aggregated everywhere. The tour sends it out on its own official.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Having a pretty shocking miss, which again ended a streak of, I believe it was 29 consecutive under par rounds, uh, which is a record, uh, on, on the PGA tour. And Scotty just looks at him and says, no, I do that. I do that all the time. You watch me a lot. So that happens a lot to me.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I wish we had Brad's here to defend himself. I don't know if, I don't know if he soiled himself in the flash area.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You and I have both been in that position where it can be very awkward and the athlete just kinda stares at you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it happens, uh, and I'm glad that he took that bullet instead of us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm sure Brad will join us at some point on the podcast this year. I'll be marking that down as something that we can talk to him about. Rex, you mentioned Alejandro Tosti.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You guys are unfamiliar with him, the 27 year old Argentine, very good player.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A very good season for Holly Hunter-Toasty. In fact, his best finish prior to the Houston Open was a T-43, so he badly needed a week like he had in Houston. And it was just about everything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can see obviously the raw power for a player who's five foot six. He led the field, uh, in driving distance, uh, garnering a lot of comps to Jose Altuve, uh, the second base extraordinaire, uh, for the Houston Astros. He's a very fun player and he's also,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A very fiery player, Rex, and I can't help but think, especially with the defections to live.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Over the past couple years where they've really, they've really taken up a lot of the PJ Tours jerks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or kind of player nuisance that the PJ Tour desperately needs. I thought it was a great week for him, uh, and my arrows back pointing up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I always find it interesting, because whether you think of players who have been on the PGA Tour over the past couple of years who have kind of a shoddy reputation, whether it's Sergio Garcia, whether it's Bryson DeChambeau, whether it's Patrick Reed,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whether it's Terrell Hatton, it's very interesting that some players...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or a little bit silly, like remember when, when Terrell Hatton was like taking a shotgun?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Explosive, like, like the tantrums that he throws at himself, uh, tantrums he throws when the pace of play is not going well, he got into a little bit of a tiff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that, I think his, his college coach J.C. Deacon made a great point that it seems like he's at war on the golf course.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But to me, if you're a fan, that's exactly what you want to see.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe not going so far as to being disrespectful or showing poor etiquette.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it's just sort of the fire and the passion on a tour that's, that's largely full of vanilla players. Like, I loved it. I love, I love everything about it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, like that's a pattern. Great, great quote. I have no idea what that means. No idea. That's still a phenomenal quote.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, at the, at the University of Florida. Like, he's, he's very, highly thought of. I mean, he's 27 years old, he finished third.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] While being suspended, it was very likely he was going to be the number one player coming off the KFT before that suspension.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Nick Dunlap went from a player that no one had ever heard of if you're a general PJ Tour fan. Like, unless you're following College of Amateur Golf, you'd never heard of Nick Dunlap before the American Express. Unless you follow the, the Corn Fairy Tour, you'd never heard of Jake Knapp, uh, before he got, uh, to next go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then did it again, uh, at the Cognizant Classic with another high finish there. To me, Alejandro Toasty, uh, is, is kind of cut from that mold.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As well, and I, I think, Rex, when you think about the PG Tour landscape currently, Liv has taken a lot of things. They've taken, you know, top end players, uh, like, like John Rahm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of the PJ tour, maybe even the future PJ tour, whether it's Joaquin Nieman or like Adrian Maranque. But I think what they've taken mostly is the guys who are polarizing, who one way or another, you felt something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] About them, whether it was Patrick Reed, whether it was Sergio Garcia, whether it was Brooks Koepka, whether it was Bryson Nishan, but those players were, were popular because they were successful, but they were also popular in the sense that people wanted to follow them because you, you may, you may have like hate followed them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? Like, it's, we, we, we have that, we have that on, on social media as well. But, but those players, like, you kind of just love to hate them. But don't you need both though? They make you feel something. It could be good, it could be bad. To me Alejandro Tosti is kind of that player.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it is, it is rags to riches to now see him living out his dream on the PJ tour, but there are also dozens.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You at least want to see what happens. I think that's a really promising start for a Pichator rookie.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, Scotty, Wyndham Clark, Vander, Victor Hovland, Brian Harmon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Personalities. Like, I think Rory has become a polarizing figure ever since he kind of steps the forefront.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, of the PGA Tour Live Civil War, obviously Patrick Cantlay, we saw, we saw what happened at the Ryder Cup. Uh, he is a polarizing personality for fans as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Has a lot of very likable, nice guys. And I think that's probably a problem.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is it not? Like, you need, you need players, you need players that fans don't like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, that was not a very good description of what Chris DiMarco actually said if you guys missed it on the Subpar Podcast again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With Colt Nose and Sleazy Man. He- Chris DiMarco.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, in career earnings on the PJ Tour said that he hopes that Live Golf buys the PJ Tour Champions and ramps up the prize funds because he called the PJ Tour Champions, uh, purses, which for all the non-majors are essentially $3 million or less. He called it, quote, kind of a joke.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And, and related it to the players championship when he said that seven players.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, earned at least two million dollars. Of course, uh, that was a gross exaggeration, but the, the, the tone deafness.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That Chris DiMarco showed here. And, and look, there was, there was no one supporting Chris DiMarco. There was no one like, yes, increase the, the, the purses for the Pugetor champions. These guys deserve it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And for some reason, they're still handing out $3 million purses for the senior tour when, I mean, the ratings are what they are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No one's really paying attention. Steve Stricker has played well. Padraig Carrington continues to play well. Uh, that's great, but I don't think anyone is clamoring for more of PJ Torque Champions coverage or support. And yet for him to say,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They want to play for some real money out there. It was, it was rightfully laughed off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Why did that start? Why is there now the sense of entitlement? It goes back to Phil Mickelson.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Phil, Phil is going to go down in this PGTour civil, in, in live golf civil war as, as sort of the, the spark plug, the one who sort of initiated this entire movement, who is, who has reshaped. I think in, in 25 years, Phil Mickelson will, will be remembered as the player who helped reshape this. But, but to me, he's also kind of brought this influx of entitlement across the board where, where players think,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just because you've won a major championship or you won two or three times on the PGA Tour that all of a sudden you should be paid like a top end NFL quarterback when the reality of the situation is this is still very much a niche sport.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These are, these are still athletes who, if they walk in downtown Panavidra, they would, they would most likely not be recognized.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Without their PJ Tour player uniform on, and yet they've, they've, they've been filled with this, this, this belief that they're somehow


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Being marginalized by the corporate overlords and they're being severely underpaid and not valued to what their actual worth is when I don't think the marketplace has ever or will ever actually support that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is to cut costs if tiger woods was eligible for the champions tour and beginning of twenty twenty six.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If my math is correct, I believe he's 48 years old now. If he can't save the senior tour, no one can. Uh, to me, that's something to watch out for.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the next couple of years, Rex, before we get out of here, we do have to give a shout out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Steven Yeager, who did win the golf tournament. Six time winner on the corn fairy tour. That's the second most all time before the aforementioned Jason Gore. That's like not an accomplishment that you'd want.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That is, that's, that's, that shows that you're like really good. Like we're talking top 150, 200 players in the world and yet you were not good enough.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Good on Stephen Yeager for the persistence and winning in his 135th event of his PJ tour career in Nelly Korda or as our buddy Schleybach calls her.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the LPGA, first player since Yanni sent three wins before April 1st.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you are a women's golf fan, this is exactly what you want to see. Uh, America's most high profile player who is still very much in the prime of her career, mid twenties, absolutely dominating the competition. I think it just makes the major season, which of course begins the week after the master of the Chevron championship.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That much more exciting. You've got an early flight.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For the Valero Texas Open, we'll be doing the full preview pod on Wednesday, but before we go, what's one thing you're looking forward to this week?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've been to the Valero Texas Open a couple times. TPC San Antonio might be one of my least favorite golf courses of the entire PGA Tour road.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I think it's entirely bland, I think it's hard for the sake of being hard, and I don't like it as a, as a tune-up event for the Masters. That said, apparently I'm...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Apparently I'm out of line there. If you look at the field this week, pretty good. Roy McRoy, Jordan Spieth, Ludwig Oberg.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Tom Kim, just to name a few, Cory Connors, of course, uh, is the defending champion. I'm not sure if the players didn't want kind of three weeks off from the players championship.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, to, uh, the, the masters that didn't want that kind of break. They're just trying to get competitive reps. Maybe they don't want to have the situation where, you know, you're sitting at home thinking about the masters and you kind of, uh, heighten it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More than maybe you would, or maybe they think TBC San Antonio, unlike me, uh, is a good tune up for Augusta. If I were a PG Tour player, I would have watched what transpired over these past couple of days at Memorial Park and said, hm, probably should have teed it up there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was a really good test of golf. Hand up, I did not pay attention to this tournament all that much when it was in the fall.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I thought this was a phenomenal tune of, I'd love to see it the week ahead of the Masters moving forward.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wide fairways, uh, very slick greens, pretty severe runoffs around some of the greens, uh, very long, particularly some of the par fours. Uhm, I thought, I thought it was a really, really good test, uh, very short rough, obviously, uh, which, which played completely differently than it did, uh, in the fall. Big fan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Houston Open, when it was there for years, the golf club at Houston, like I don't ever remember like howling winds in that golf course. Yeah, I mean, it's always gonna blow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Green's as fast as possible without killing them off. Like I thought that was a really good preview. You're going to, you're going to see much higher wins in San Antonio this week for the Vallejo Texas Open, if that's any indication. All eyes obviously are going to be on Roy this week. That has not played well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, over the past couple of months. I'm kind of a hit or miss record at this golf tournament as well. I believe he finished tie for second in his first appearance. I covered that one in 2013, if memory serves, and then missed the cut, uh, last year, which portended a missed cut, uh, at the master tournament the following week. Uh, Rex, I smell like hickory smoke. I was by the pit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All afternoon watching the Houston open as I smoked an Easter ham as well as an Easter lamb. Wow. What did you have on the grill this weekend? How'd you celebrate Easter?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did you participate in the Easter egg hunt? And if so, how many eggs did you get?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Given your torn meniscus, I'm, I'm sure you're not cutting, uh, juking and spinning out, out in the open field looking, looking for your blue egg.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I hope your recovery is coming along nicely. I, as one does in Ponte Vedra, had an Easter brunch at TBC Sawgrass. Golf courses are still looking immaculate. How spoiled are my kids, Rex? I think they did their Easter egg hunt at no other.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that paid off. Kudos to Cam. He found the golden egg.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're a free week of daycare tuition. Thank you Cam. We came home, pulled up Amazon and said, son, whatever you want to buy, whatever it is, it's yours. You're saving daddy a whole lot of money this week.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's a thanks to Kim. Hope you guys had a happy Easter at home. We'll be back in a couple of days time for the preview edition of the Blair Texas Open as well as getting in all of our Masters forecasts that are sure to go wrong. In the meantime, you guys know the drill.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] TBC San Antonio going all the way through Friday before he will join me on Saturday from our rental house in Augusta. But as always, thanks for listening. Thanks for the support. Talk to you guys in a couple of days.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hello and welcome into this edition of the Golf Channel Podcast with Rex and Lab. I hope you enjoyed golf's two week off season because we're ready to get back at it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What to watch for and the players to watch in 2024. Rex, I think of this as the podcast that is sure to age poorly. We are not certified prognosticators, but we are semi-informed speculators still.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't think either of us could have foreseen Brooks Koepka coming off the injured list to win a major championship and nearly nab a second one we couldn't have foreseen 36 year old Brian Harmon blowing away the field.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, nope, because I predicted that Xander Schauffle would be the 2023 PGTRO Player of the Year, and he had not a single victory. Uh, so no, I don't, I'm not sure I had any victories.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I think that was correct. It's a variation of the who will be most disappointing type topic that we tend to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the sports talk radio podcast. I mean, you were, you, you were looking good for about nine and a half months until Kyle Morikawa changed swing coaches.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I went with Mark Blackburn, the hottest coach in all of professional golf and then won the Zozo championship. Now he's back safely inside the top 15 in the world and looking good for a, uh, even, even more of a bounce back in 2024. Uh, so we'll have to see how well that ages as well. I mean, I think back to that podcast, I said, and you pushed back, there will be less division.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the game of golf in 2023. That one also looked pretty good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For about five months, the two sides were kind of just going their separate ways. There was still like the overhanging drama surrounding the official World Golf ranking and where the live players should be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, exempted a major championship. That was kind of hovering over it. And then June 6th happened.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the entire thing got blown up. There wasn't just more division among live and PGA Tour players. There was literally division within the policy board, within the pack.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the rank and file, the superstars, uh, PGTour leadership, the whole thing, uh, spectacularly.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Exploded and so we are going to start Rex with our storylines to watch. These are big picture storylines. We'll get into the players, which I know you guys are all interested in hearing who are picks for breakout players will be, but let's look at kind of the 30,000 foot view. Rex like what's what's a big storyline that we should watch in the coming year?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For my big picture storyline, in your right, like that's just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's still so much uncertainty. What's that going to look like? It probably, I don't think you'll see any real effects until 2025 at the earliest. I'm going to focus strictly Rex on the PGA tour.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And most specifically, this new look PJ tour schedule. If you guys are just joining us for the very first time, first of all, welcome. Secondly, 2024 of course, uh, marks the return to the calendar year schedule.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the PGA tour, the wrap around is dead. The points that were accrued in the fall don't necessarily carry over into the new year. There's really this renewed emphasis on the January through August schedule and they've the PGA tour has has put a lot of time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Can earn enough points in those fulfilled events to potentially change their career and get into the signature events. And so, one of the big storylines is, does this thing work?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The top 70 and top 50 are, are right now. They're, they're expecting somewhere, I think around a 35% churn. That seems high.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That seems really high. I think there's a lot of skepticism that that will actually happen. Will you have a revolt among the rank and file, which I know is one of the storylines to watch over the past two months of the season with these players who are feeling marginalized?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or squeezed out by the PJ Tours new structure that all revolve Rex around this new look PJ Tour schedule. You probably have to give it three, six months until we have a fair assessment of it. Uh, but I'm very interested to see how it looks, how it feels and how we actually like it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They've said that they've done thousands of these simulations and this formula that they have come up with in terms of the allocation of FedExCup, uh, points for signature events versus fulfilled events. Like they said that this is the most accurate estimate that they can come up with. However, if they are wrong to your point, like we're talking, we're talking career changing stakes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That, you know, could potentially be changing depending on whether or not this, this formula is correct. Changing midstream, uh, will certainly be a choice. Uh, but I, I think for the PGA Tour's sake, they better hope it is right. There's just so much now riding on being inside the top 50. So much riding, of course, being in the top 70, the top 125.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Et cetera. Very curious to see how that goes. And when it, as it also pertains to the PGA Tour schedule, like there's so much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, nitty-gritty that you can get into with this, right? Like seeing who is going to receive the four sponsors exemptions. Is it going to be, obviously Tiger would receive one for the Genesis, but


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, there's players who are, who are pretty bold-faced names who could potentially be needing a handout here, whether it's Justin Thomas if he slips us on the top 30, or Will Zalatoros who's on the injury mend, or Adam Scott, uh, who has


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, been so loyal to the PGA tour and kind of a headliner for the past two decades, but would now need a spot. So that is very interesting how players fair and signature events. If you're lower on the on the leaderboard and still accruing points versus players who are finishing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th in a full field event. Like you can really dive headlong.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And this stuff, I do think it'll be plenty of fodder, certainly, for podcast material.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In twenty twenty four let's transition rex to the players to watch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'm going to like, I'm going to think of this as tiers. We're going to do like a top player who's ready to make the leap, which could be major championships.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, titles, whatever the case would be, top 50 and player outside the top 100 who is making a leap in a different way. So let's start with the superstar. Who is a player in your opinion who is already well established? Everyone already knows him. We've talked about him plenty on this podcast, but now is ready to take that next step in his career.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As well in, in no small part because I'm sick of picking the same guys who, who just, who just fail to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the PGA Tour, he too did not have a victory in 2023, although his schedule was very busy, uh, with the PGA Tour Policy Board meetings and the such. I'm sick of picking a player like Max Homa who, to his credit, finally got his first top 10 in a major.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the Open Championship, other than that, I think back to the US Open in particular, he owned the course record at LSAC, uh, and then absolutely, uh, face planted, uh, in that major championship. Like I'm sick of picking those guys to make the leap and so I'm just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm just going in a different direction. I do feel strongly about it that Victor Hovland is certainly ready. The FedExCup champion from this past year. I would argue right now as we record this podcast on December 26th that he's playing the best golf in the world.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the moment, he is such a complete player, as you mentioned. Like it was, it was shocking to see a player of his caliber who had such a pedigree.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, with the, with the extract man, uh, maestro Joe Mayo has completely reinvented himself around the greens, given himself so many more tools in a, in a wider arsenal to succeed in, in, in you look at his stats, he was 20th on the PJ tour.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Other golf ball and we couple i think that better skill set to go along with.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, he was right there staring Brooks, kept you down before finding the fairway bunker on the 16th hole at Oak Hill. Like he's 26 year old, 26 years old. He has the game. He has the experience. It is time for Victor Hovland.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To make that leap. Right, so how about a top 50 player?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who's ready to elevate, get inside the majors.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do some things, crash the top 25, however you want to define it, but who's the top 50 player who you like this year?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I thought it was a little bit of a surprising downturn in form.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For Sam Burns, you mentioned the win at the match play, but didn't have a single top 25 finish.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the major championships this year seem to be kind of fighting his swing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At times, you know, kind of snuck into the tour championship, uh, where he actually did play well at East Lake, but didn't have a particularly good Ryder Cup.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, as, as well, I'm, I'm with you. Sam Burns obviously has all the talent. He has all the pedigree. Uh, and it is about time that he shows up at the major championships as well. For me, this top 50 player is kind of obvious at this point and it's, it's, it's Ludvigo Bear. I mean, he's all the way up to 30 seconds.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the world despite never playing a major championship but you think when you look at what he does well he should fair exceptionally well and it should take him almost no time to actually get comfortable and that sort of cauldron i'm so glad that he played the rs m classic rec not because.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He won the tournament for his first PGA Tour victory, but that start gave him enough rounds on the PGA Tour that he was able to compile strokes game data. And so now we can accurately compare him to some of his peers. And in the limited action, since he graduated from Texas Tech,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In strokes, gain total, like, that's gonna play everywhere, especially being that elite driver of the golf ball. You think Roy McRoy, you think Scottie Sheffield, you think John Rahm, those were all players whose game traveled, uh, and who were, uh, exceedingly competitive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Almost every single time they played, I think he'll only get sharper.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As he gets, you know, seconds and third looks at some of these courses on the PGA Tour and he also has Joe Skavern.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which I don't think is any small thing. Like people forget this dude's 24 years old. Like he's three years older than Tom Kim. He's two years younger than Victor Hovland. He's mature. He's poised.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's ready. I think when we do this podcast at the end of 2024, I think we're looking at Ludwig Ober as a top 10 player in the world.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, accomplished players who left school at the exact same time. Rosang won her first start on the LPGA, but then kind of petered out as the season went on. There was a lot of golf she played, not much time off and kind of ran out of gas by the end of the season. Ludwig O'Bair, I think quite interestingly, got stronger.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As the year went on, he won on the European tour, played great at the Ryder Cup and then won in the final fall event. Uh, so I think that'll be interesting to see how both of those players perform.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, this is the long shot division player outside the top 100. This is the one we will certainly be victory lapping if we do nail and somehow this player gets inside the top 50, top 25, whatever it ends up being.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I'm with you. Like, for a player who began the year...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the Korn Ferry Tour, this is a player who is an immense talent, has been for several years and now his arrow is pointing straight up. You're right, like three or four years ago, like everyone thought that this was the second coming.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, into his pro career, uh, I'm with you. Like he might not, he might not have the consistency, uh, to be an elite performer on the PGA tour, but he's going to pop up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Matt Fitzpatrick, quietly, he had a really nice 2023 race, like 7 top 10s on the European Challenge in DP World Tours, picked up his first win, uh, he leaped more than 600 spots.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the world ranking and I think one of the turning points for Alex was his performance.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the open championship, he qualified to get into the event and then he ended up finishing in a tie for 17th and really outshined his major championship winning brother. That gave him a lot of confidence when I believe in his next start on the challenge tour and away he went. Like a lot of people


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not too long ago, thought that this was actually the more talented Fitzpatrick.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's longer, he's a little bit more dynamic, he has more shots, and everyone thought that Matt was just kind of the scrappy scrambler, kind of like a Jordan Spieth knockoff, now that it's obviously not come to fruition, and Matt has established himself.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As a premier player on the PGA tour and European tour and has for a very long time, but I actually don't think it's unrealistic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That Matt Fitzpatrick and Alex Fitzpatrick could be on the same European Ryder Cup team in two years time at Bethpage. I think Alex can, if not top 50 in the world, can get close to that top 75 mark and then he can make even more strides. There's, there's a lot of room for improvement when it comes to Alex Fitzpatrick and it wouldn't surprise me to see him make the leap.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You saying the International President's Cup team is going to disappoint or lose. This is, this is well-run material by this point. It's odd that you're taking this stand.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right now, coming off an International President's Cup performance at Quell Hollow, in which no one gave them any chance. Like we, we talked about before that event, I remember distinctly saying like, hm, I wonder if this thing could wrap up on Saturday, as it almost did at Liberty National five years before that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There is a decently young, strong nucleus when you look at this International Presidents' Cup team with Tom Kim, uh, Sung Jae Im, uh, Min Woo Lee, Min Woo Lee, he's coming on very strong over the past couple of months.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There was actually a window. I think back to the Ryder Cup this year and the President's Cup the year before. There was about a 45 minute window and a pathway for there to be


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I remember jotting down in my notebook and looking at the, looking at the monitor and writing it down and saying, well, this, this pans out and this pans out and this pans out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The international team could win. I actually think this is going to be one of the closer ones.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's pain free. He's got more range of motion than he's ever had before. He was shooting all the scores at home. He obviously did not look good at the hero world challenge, but he at least looked healthy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, it's certainly a red flyback. It reminds me that Will Zeltouris was my breakout player.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of 2023, instead he just broke on the range.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, at the Masters and set out for the, uh, last eight months of the season, huge Willie Z fan, huge believer in his talent. Uh, I hope he gets right. I hope he plays a full schedule. Uh, and I hope he gets back to the type of winning golf in very competitive golf that we all know that he can produce. I thank you for at least offering a player.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because I'm going to throw two names at you as players who could potentially disappoint.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In twenty twenty four and this one pays me as much as it paid me to hear you you bag on my boy willy z like that. Jordan spieth.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is that player for me? Like I'm ready to see something again.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jordan Spieth dealt with a wrist injury, uh, for a couple months in 2023, but you look statistically.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jordan Spieth was the 38th best player statistically last season on the PGA Tour. He is still above average or right at average in every major statistical category, but he is no longer exceptional in anything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's not an elite iron player like he was in 2017. He's not an elite scrambler like he was early in his career. He's not an elite putter as he was during that great year in 2025. Like, if you zoom out, Jordan Spieth has won just twice in the past six years.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One of those was the 2021 Valero Texas Open against a weak field while the rest of the superstars were getting ready for the Masters. And the other was a 2022 Heritage.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When he needed a fluky win and a bunch of guys vomiting all over themselves in order to prevail.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In that playoff, like Jordan Spieth is still going to pop up in a major championship occasionally.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 2021, he had that duel with Kyle Morikawa. Then he kind of yipped that two footer in the last green. Remember in the third round.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, to kinda doom his chances there. Uh, this year at the Masters, like, he's always the threat of Augusta nationally, finished the top five once again. He was great at the President's Cup, the aforementioned President's Cup, uh, where the Americans won quite handily. But if there's any magic left,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the spieth bottle, like, it kind of feels like he has to show it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This year, he, he's to me in, in danger of becoming just another really good PGA Tour player. Like, he still produces moments of magic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He still has these flourishes that all the fans love and that we love to cover.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, but I kinda need to see something in 2024, and I'm worried that we just might not.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's junior days! He was the first call I ever made as a staff, a staff writer for Golf League Magazine. It was my first job, March 2020, uh, March 2010.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I called a Texas, I believe he was a freshman or sophomore at the time, uh, who just won the state title, and his name was Jordan Spieth. Very first call I made in golf media. How about that, Jordan Spieth?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, I'm kinda curious to see what Brooks Kapka does this year. He's, he's, he's 33 years old now, uh, he's a new father, he's on year three of live, he doesn't have his brother in the safety net there, like, he got his fifth major championship at the PGA Championship.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To kind of complete the hard climb back, right? But he also didn't play great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He didn't build on that at all. Uh, he was kind of a dud in the Ryder Cup as well. I'm just curious to see.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What he's going to do. I think a lot of times it's like it could potentially be like one final flourish for a great, proud champion. I don't think that, I don't think that PJ was going to be, but I also wouldn't be surprised if Brooks takes a step back in 2024, even if he is healthy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To watch my, I was, I was gonna mention the President's Cup that you absolutely dogged on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, for, for not just the tournament competition, we love match play. We love the team atmosphere. We love the buildup and kind of drama over the captain's picks. Who's going to make the team. Who's going to add a star, kind of the JT drama this year with the Ryder Cup.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I love all that. I absolutely love team competitions. So the President's Cup was certainly an event that I was looking forward to. How about you? What do you think is a major tournament to watch and why?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We could potentially do some drilling, uh, some drilling content there. I remember Trune as the place where I shot 36-46. I was straight out downwind and then you make the turn and that was predominantly left to right wind into and I had absolutely no chance. Uh, Pinehurst as well. Hopefully we're staying in a house.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In golf channel podcast history, that the tournament to watch in 2024 is the Masters!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You don't, you don't think it's going to be funneling out of there. Like I, I do think it'll be kept under wraps. Like no one wants to embarrass themselves. No one wants to get thrown out and have their lifetime exemption revoked. But I do think it could be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Testy. There were reports in 2023 of course that Phil Mickelson didn't say a word.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then he was woofing for basically the rest of the year. I'm very curious to see what the patron reception, patron, uh, will be, will be for defending champion John Rahm now that he is defected to live golf. And when you look at the field, Rex.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And our friend at the AP, Doug Ferguson, just had a note on this. There's only 77 players who right now have qualified. There's the potential for this to be the smallest, shortest field in years. And so as much as we love it, the Masters has actually become the easiest major to win.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The easiest major to forecast the easiest major to predict and so i think that all will be very very interesting and if tiger woods can play.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Two or three times. Had to do there's first major.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, five year anniversary of him winning that incredible Masters after coming back from all the vacations that he did. Uh, the Masters to me is by far the most interesting major that we're going to have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Some of those, some of those old timers have, have some hashtag takes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think just interesting and notable that Chairman Fred, Fred Ridley has made his feelings known on live where things are the players who play for live.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He has not gone out of his way to change any qu- qualification criteria for Liv, and now he has to, uh, welcome back John Rahm, now a Liv golfer. Alright, that's gonna do it for this edition.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Of the century, the first event on the 2024 PGA Tour calendar, neither Rex nor I will be in Maui. Sad to report, but we'll still have plenty of notes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And info to get your way. Hope you guys have a great rest of the holiday season. We'll be back in the year 2024 to break it all down once again on this podcast.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Obear, who won his first P.J. Tour event in his 11th start on the P.J. Tour 6161 weekend, uh, to absolutely crush the field. If you're keeping a score at home, his 259 tied the P.J. Tour record for the lowest 72-hole mark. We saw him at the Ryder Cup. We saw him at the NCAA Championship.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We see, you've seen him now up close and personal in the flesh, uh, at your fifth major. Quite simply, is he the game's next superstar?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The short answer is yes to my question. He is a superstar. And it is interesting, right? Because, because now he has crossed by playing the RSM Classic. He has crossed.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The threshold, we're having the number of rounds to be able to see what his stroke scan statistics are against his peers on the PGA tour. He is 10th.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In strokes, gain total in second strokes, gain off the tee his first and total driving, which combines distance and accuracy. You look at anyone who is topping that category or at least in the top five or top 10, those guys play well each and every single week. It is such an advantage. The skillset.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That he has, and that, and keep in mind, he's playing on golf courses that he's seen for the very first time at the end of a very long year, completing his senior season at Texas Tech, getting right into his pro career, trying to play a lot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That a player like Ludwig Ober would have had to toil an apprentice on the corn fairy tour for a year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Assuming he finishes inside the top 25 or top 30, whatever it was going to be, which was not a given.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he was still getting seven sponsored exemptions on the PJ tour. He would have to potentially do it the way that John Rahm and Kyle Morikawa did. And so giving those guys a direct pathway for a year and a half on the PJ tour is absolutely huge. Uh, and now he, I believe is one of the PJ tours biggest assets as we move ahead to 2024.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't even know why I'm trying. I'm not gonna let fantasy football ruin real football for me this year. The last two seasons, I've just been obsessed about, not the team I care about, which is the Washington Commanders, and not the players that I care about, but instead I'm just worried about what's going on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He came screaming into the room, hair on fire, dad dad dad dad dad, you'll never believe what happened. And he kind of walked me through the scenario that, uh, I think I was, had a 1% chance of winning.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And my youngest son's defense got him negative one point and I won by exactly one point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I outscored everybody in the league this week. So I, I don't feel that bad. Like I, if I was 0-2 and I would have outscored everyone in the league for two weeks in a row, that would have bugged.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Come on, let's do this. Let's see. Come on. It is a visual meter. Uh, pull the color down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pull the collar down a little bit. Oh, look at that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, well before I move on from that, I do wanna, this is like a pet peeve and I don't understand this. Why would two of the three Florida games this week?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In September, like we could do the one o'clock game when we get to November and December. I don't know why we just couldn't. So Tampa and Jacksonville played at the same time, home games. And I was thinking to myself, as I was looking at your snappy chats, thinking that's awful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the, on the NFL, like why would you, and I'm not even like, look, they talked a lot about players cramping up and it's hot. They're professional athletes. They're going to be fine. I know it's fine, but it's more about the fan experience. Isn't it just a bad fan experience being out there in the middle of the day, just cooking?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Can I just ask, because we went to the UCF game, and it was a 7 o'clock game, and it was, we pre-gamed beforehand, so we had 2 or 3 hours out in the sun, and then once we got in the stadium, it was just scorching hot. And so the next day, I'm watching, again, I'm looking at your Snapchat, watching the game, thinking to myself,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I can't imagine how miserable that is. Like I was in the stadium at 7, 38 o'clock, the sun was going down and it was, I still felt like I was cooking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Watch the surprising amount of golf on Sunday. I think you and I both are fans of Sahif and so I was very curious to see if he was going to close it out, get that first victory against a really good field. Actually, I was pretty impressed going forward. I'm not quite sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the mix, and we'll go ahead and get straight to it. Cause nobody, you know what your superpower is? Taking early victory laps.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, if we're gonna do this silly, transitive property things, which is what I think you're trying to pull off here, because as we know, Marco Simone is gonna be so much like Silverado, which is where they played the Fortnite Championship last week.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Marco Simone? Uh, I did. I read through the, uh, the packet. Thank you very much for the folks in research for giving us that. It is Marco Simone. I've kind of been...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, well I'm running scared from it on most interviews that I do. I go, I go to say it and then I panic and then I just refer to the course in Rome. Much like I refer to the Governor. The Ryder Cup video.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, yes, yes, you're out of your mind and you have to kind of roll the R a little bit. Like it's, it's terrifying if you're trying to do this on TV. No, no, you won't be getting any, uh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Any kind of apologies from me because the transitive properties are stupid. He had three good rounds, which is great. And I think I said this last week.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I didn't care if JT won last week. It wasn't going to prove anything else beyond my argument that I made when he was a pick and I didn't care if he missed the cut last week.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My argument, when he was a pick, is heart and soul of the team. Totally get it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You compare him easily with Jordan Spieth and probably a couple of other guys, Ricky Fowler. So he fits into the team.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Totally get that. He has a history. He has, he, he has a very, very good history in the Ryder Cup. I looked at this from my pure statistical standpoint. I don't know how many times I have to go back to this. That the four things that matter at Marco Simone. Thank you, Research for the proper pronunciation. Simone. Simone. Simone. Simone. I'm looking at it right now. Simone. Not ne. Simone. All right. Ne. Marco Simone. Thank you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And all three of those categories. And we're talking about driving accuracy. We're talking about greens and regulation. We're talking about scrambling. We're talking about putting now fast forward. If you want to keep playing the transit of properties game, which is what you want to do here. Okay. He had three good matches.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He also hit less than half his fairways, 21 to 56. Again, Cerrado is not Marco Simone-y.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That ranks 64th in the field out of 68 players who made the cut. He finished tied for 40th and scrambling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know if that's fair, but I think Jordan played so well. Like I remember him doing the interview, I think it was on Saturday, where I don't think JT hit a putt for seven holes. But I'm saying, but I'm saying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, absolutely zero Miracopa. I will say, and look, this, he kind of backed up Todd Lewis's reporting from a week earlier that he's still working with his dad, Mike Thomas, on his swing. They're still.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But now he wants to own it and listening to him talk last week about just the concept, you can hear Tiger's voice echoing. You can hear Tiger, Tiger behind him saying the exact same words over the last few decades where I want to own my own swing and look.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But Charmin was there for Tiger early in his career. Hank Haney showed up in the middle part. Sean Foley was there. He had people to watch, but by and large Tiger Woods was really, really good at taking ownership of his swing. That way if something went wrong in the middle of a round, he was able to fix it on the fly better than probably anyone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I want to say ever, but that's probably ignoring Jack Nicklaus like we always do. I think that JT is trying to do the same thing. I think last week is hugely encouraging for JT, not for the Ryder Cup team, not for Zach Johnson. If he can do that, if he can do that, if he can take ownership of the swing, then that to me is much more encouraging than anything he did at Silverado.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I will, however, take two mea culpa's on two vastly different other scenarios. I was exactly today years old.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] When I learned that, so behind the camera and you have the same thing, it's just a fancy ring light, it's just the same version, just a bigger sort of industrial version of the ring light that everyone else has in their home right now. I was doing a hit last week, uh, I believe it was for Golf Central.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the AC in my house has gone out for about the main time this year, which is driving my wife and I crazy. It's a brand new AC unit, so we're having issues. And I have had problems with this in the past. Other, forget about the fact it's 110 degrees in my office and I'm trying to do TV. Probably not the best case scenario.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What happened though, is in the middle of the hit, in the middle of, towards the end of my very first answer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Anna being the perfect professional played it off perfectly. The green light just turns off. So I'm essentially sitting in the dark.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Answering the question, thinking that Anna was just going to be like technical difficulties. Rex, thank you so much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, for your help. Instead, she just plows ahead and asks me the next question. And I am literally go back and look at everyone. I encourage you. I believe that there's a clip on it on nbcsports.com of me just sitting in the dark, answering the questions. That's the, that's the first miracle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, well that was, that was the point. I, this was kind of a late call up, uh, uh, Mark Zaner, who is one of our super producers who you constantly argue and disagree with. He, he called me about 15 minutes before, sorry for the late, uh, and I go, okay, that's fine. It's a million degrees in my house. I'm not putting the suit on. And he was perfectly fine with it. And I go, also, it's a million degrees in my house. Zaner for president.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Zana for president. The phone might turn off because that's happened as well because when it gets really, really hot, we all know iPhones turn off and that that's happened in the middle of a hit as well. TV is not easy folks. TV is really, really difficult. There's a lot of things coming at you at one point. If you mispronounce Marco Simone once Marco Simone once everyone's going to jump down your throat. If you're having to juggle.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A thousand degrees, sweat dripping off your nose and then your equipment's turning off in the middle of it, it makes it that much harder.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, uh, we should actually do that show at the end of the year when things are slow and we have nothing else to talk about. Just go through and just tick off our top five terrifying moments on TV over the course of the year. Cause every year there's a whole lot of them. And I also have, and I can't believe I'm going to admit this only because have you finished, uh, much like, uh, other big companies, we have mandatory training on all manner of things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like they, they, you know, sit you down at the end of every year. I think you and I both were plowing through our mandatory training last week. I will go back a few weeks.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there was one mandatory training that came up and it was, uh, I'm going to mispronounce this word, but it's essentially on how not to get injured in the workplace.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Anyway, well, this is the problem. So this goes to the heart of it. I tried to knock it out like Saturday morning in Memphis. Failed the test. So that was wasted 30 minutes. I'm like, alright, I'll get to it, you know, when I get done. After the playoffs, when I got to, you know, a couple weeks at home. Sat down last Wednesday. Did the same thing. Went through the entire training again. Failed the test for a second time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So now I gotta, like now I'm determined. Now I have to do this. It's like three months overdue. So I have to sit down. It's like I'm back in college and I have reams and reams of notebooks where I'm taking notes and pausing and making sure I understand something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Finally got it right. 100%. Thank you very much. You always just choose the longest answer.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To your point watching it on Sunday and it is kind of jarring that you have a player with so much potential a player with so much talent that you're right is is lacking in one of the key areas like dominant players of this era.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They all seem to do one thing really, really well. They all drive the golf ball really well. You look at John Rahm, you look at Scottie Scheffler, you look at Roy McElroy, like, that's the one thing that connects them all. Like, and the other parts of their game are varying degrees of good or great, depending on what they do well. In this particular case, I immediately went to the idea of what Victor Hovland.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] has done over the last two years. I mean, Victor Hovland took what was a huge liability that you and I both have probably sat here and said, well,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He can really hit the golf ball, but he's gonna have to chip eventually. And he's turned that into a strength, which is pretty amazing. And I can imagine Sahib.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Making the very very same transition. I think when I think of Sahith long term though, it seems to me he's always dealing with some sort of


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just a little nagging injury, nothing big, nothing that's going to sideline him, but that does concern me. But this is, this is impressive when you look at, he played well here before he finished tied for six at the Fortinet. It seems to, he's much more comfortable on the West coast. So you start to wonder, is he going to be one of those players? A lot like Phil Mickelson.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Towards Europe anyway, simply because of what Luke had to do with his team, uh, and the home field advantage. I mean, there's a reason I keep going back to three decades since the US won on European soil, but I also, you have to love.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That team, I mean, John, Ron, Victor, Hoblin, Roy, McElroy are all playing really, really good golf. And then you add a, a, a Ludberg to it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, it's absolutely amazing that these young players are emerging at this particular.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What a lot you can do to whistling straights. I mean, I remember talking with the team going into whistling straights. There wasn't a lot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean it was set up more aka PGA Championship than it would be Ryder Cup. And to your point, I would go back to Paris. Again, this is always the great example where, I mean, they set that golf course up not


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In this particular case though, they had everyone else behind them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you look at what Francesca Molinari did, you look at what Tommy Fleetwood did in Paris, you would think they're looking to get the same production out of those players sort of on the back end that they got that last time around.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Speaking of dogs, how nervous were you? Come on, gimme, gimme, gimme your pain. I need to, I wanted to call you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was, it was interesting, I was on, I think it was golf today two weeks ago, right, as Stacey was, I think was making her picks, and I was listening to sort of the interview she was given, and I was taken by the idea, to your point,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It does, actually I was looking at the accommodations this morning for the US team. It actually looks like much better than what I'm sure you and I will end up having in Rome.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, but I, I love the idea that, and again, this goes to kind of the way Stacy Lewis built this team. And it kind of goes to how I sort of nerded out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] With the US team, I mean, she took a hard statistical profile of this course and tried to get players that locked in her picks were locked into exactly what this course demanded AKA JT in the conversations that we've been having for the last.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I also found it fascinating that she actually said her pics were locked in for two months. Now there were some, some weird circumstances that sort of dictated.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That okay, these were the players she was going to get locked in on, but unlike Zach Johnson.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who seemed to be huddled in the war room up until the very last moment to make his picks. It seems like Stacey Lewis knows exactly what she wants from this team. I said this before, I'll go back to the K-Club Ryder Cup, and I thought Tom Lehman, I mean, he did everything right. I felt like I was kind of embedded. You know, I covered that team that week when I was at Golf Week Magazine.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not going to matter if it's three or four points. And my worry is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This could go one of two ways. I mean, your champion, Roseanne...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] She's going to be a rookie, but I think we can all agree like what she's accomplished is going to be a very, very short amount of time. They need to get big production out of her. If that's the case, then I think it's probably closer than what we'll end up seeing at the Ryder Cup.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This goes back to a conversation I had before Zach Johnson made his picks. I called, uh, Davis Love III, one of his vice captains, just about some, just some background stuff I was trying to get on the actual team. And I said something along the lines of, well, you know, it looks like you're going to be leaning towards


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And his point was, and he goes, the veterans haven't done very well. Like it's the Davis loves of the world that have let us down in this particular match. And I think he'd probably say the same about the women's team. And I think what she has done essentially overhauled the team, whether she wanted to or not, it's going to be a new look team. I will say, I'm very, very curious about the venue.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'm very, very curious. It's also much different. The LPGA has been playing the last few weeks. So you're going to get, in theory, all of these players.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hopefully at mid-season form, which would make a really compelling match.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, I hate to say that, I don't even want to read what the comments are going to be after this particular one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Name me a Ryder Cup and I'll tell you the losing team was the one that was probably the most compelling. I mean, when you go back to Glen Eagles, it was by far the U.S. team losing in whatever Phil Mickelson wanted to do in the post-game press conference and everything just sort of imploding.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Going forward from there. Look at every time the Europeans win. They celebrate so much better. It's so much more enjoyable. You and I walk into those press conferences on Sunday night knowing that they're going to be inebriated.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They're gonna be a couple of champagnes or whatever it is they drink in and the lids gonna come off. Whereas in golf, you always sort of get that stoic vanilla.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Answer 9 times out of 10, where you very, very rarely are you going to get someone that kind of comes in and have fun with it. You have 12 guys that come in that Sunday night and they all want to have fun with it. And that to me is more entertaining.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, Thomas Bjorn got it tattooed on his buttocks after they won in Paris.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Probably certainly not Thomas Bjorn, but it kind of shows you how much they enjoy this. I'll go back to last week. I thought this was a great story by Roy McElroy talking about he went back and watched Medina and he said he came to tears.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it kind of shows you, and I'm not saying it means more to Europe than it does to the United States. I don't believe that. I'm not making that argument at all. It just seems like they enjoy it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More than the U.S. team does. Now, whistling straights was a bit of an outlier and it was kind of weird because we still had some restrictions and when they marched those guys into that tent, they really didn't have a chance to sort of fully embrace it. But by and large, the Europeans are much more entertaining.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You'll be joining me at the course to grind out some, uh, some blocks? No.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, I got football going on. I actually grilled last night. So, I was gonna call this a garden. It's not a garden. The place where I have plants that I can use to eat. Anyway, I have peppers because it's not really a garden.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, well, no, there's no weeds, but it's not, like, it would be like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's go outside and see my race car. Well, it's clearly not a race car. It's just a car. So I just want to, the place where I have my plants, but we, uh, we grow peppers. I don't know if you grow peppers, man, you cannot kill peppers. They just like, it's the one thing in Florida that just seems to thrive. I had never been able to figure out like what to do with them. My peppers for some reason are crazy hot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And like I've tried to work them into like different dishes before and they're either just too hot or kind of overwhelming.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I did jalapeno poppers with my peppers last night, and they were faint.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, no, no, no, it was fine. Like everybody, even, even bunkmaid who's not big on spicy stuff, she seemed to like it. So we, we did that in stakes just for the games lesson.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, well for me, it's an incredibly busy week because, you know, I'm obviously, RSM is our sponsor, but I'm also on team RSM. So the guys, like Zach Johnson and Chris Kirk, we do a lot for RSM this week.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And even if I wasn't the tournament host, it would be a busy week. And then on top of that, you know, my, my family works in the office. So that means the granddaughters need to be taken care of. So sometimes it's carpool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, sometimes it's, uh, hitting balls and sometimes it's, uh, shaking hands and kissing babies. So it's a busy week for me, but first and foremost right now is Pro-Am today, Pro-Am Wednesday and see if I can get some semblance of a game and I won't tip you off, but I'm going to get a really cool pairing this week. So I got to get ready for that as well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we've been through this at the RSM Classic a few times, like what, now what?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, we weren't a FedEx tournament, we weren't a Masters invitation, and then we became part of the FedEx season, and it was great. And as Tim Fincham, when I was on the board a lot, he would come up with this new plan, like the first tee.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I got an idea. And then you think, well, I wonder how that's going to work. Well, obviously FedEx cup, things like that. So I'm always looking glass half full.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This new fall for us is going to be great, but it is. I was watching the golf channel and they're putting up what guys are playing for. I'm like, holy cow. That is, the tour is right. That is exciting.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] All these guys are playing for different things. So yeah, it's, it's going to be fun. We have a weird field, like it's really strong at the top and it's heavy in the middle and then it's really heavy with new guys. So our fans, our friends, our, our clients that come here, they're going to love it no matter what. So we'll see what happens next year.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are you going to be an elevated event next year? No, we're about 12 million probably short on that. Uhm, what would I want it to be? You know, honestly, RSM is an incredible partner.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sea Island loves the week before Thanksgiving. It fits in their long range plans, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where we are. We patterned our tournament after the old Hilton Head Harbor Town.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The old, um, Buick Southern or whatever it was called at Calloway Gardens where everybody wants to come.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We talked in the office about the new caddy area. Said, if we take care of the caddies and we take care of the wives, the players are going to keep coming. So I'd love to just stay in our little niche and keep raising money. I played a lot of those tournaments that weren't


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I think everybody has to be very, very patient. You know, I misspoke a few weeks ago and let some cats out of the bag.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, which if we talk long enough today, I'll probably do it again. Let's do some more of that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think we're trending in the right direction. You know, obviously a lot's changed since last June. Uhm, I think Jay's doing a great job of now, uhm, getting everybody on the same page and going in the right direction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know when it's going to happen, but I know that the players, the top players, the, whatever they call them, the Delaware group and the board,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the guys like me that are, you know, sitting on the outside edges a little bit helping out, we're all in alignment and we're working with management and things are going in the right direction. Today, Monday is a huge board meeting in Panabita and I'm going to be, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to tee off on the,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] First hole, I'm gonna look at my phone. I'm gonna tee up on the second hole and then I'm gonna look at my phone to see if Charlie Hoffman is texting me or Patrick Cantlay is texting me. Because it's a big, it's a big big day.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, nothing will come out of it at the end of the day, you know, publicly, but it's a big day in moving forward. And I think, you know, Jay and, and his team and our team of players are working really well together in the right direction.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What I think is that there's a lot of people that want to invest in the PGH order.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, if we all got together and took it public, we could do pretty well. You know, raising capital just, just as a, as a corporate entity on the stock market. So I think we're in a great position. One friend.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] CEO, investor guy said, you guys make money every year. You know, you're a pretty good business. It's not broken. Uhm, he said, I fix broken businesses. Yours is not broken. So now it's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think we have a kind of a clean slate to negotiate with people and the tours, you know, managing that and obviously in a hurry to uhm, to calm things down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I leave, I leave the live in the Saudis, the PIF out of it, just like I leave any other entity that wants to invest in the tour. We need a direction. We need to set our board. Obviously we lost a board member and now Tiger's on. We need to set our board. We need to set our direction and then there are


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of people that want to invest in the tour. I think we're in an incredible position, but everybody is only focused on one thing, is live golf. You know? And that's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A big thing, but it's business wise, it's not the end all. Now what do we do with the players? That's an excellent question. You know, obviously we had a great time with Brooks Koepka for about a month there that we hadn't seen him in a long time. And that's the kind of things we need to do is figure out what do we do with Brooks Koepka, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeaah, it's difficult. You know, um, Jay has said a lot of things publicly for the last two or three years. Uhm, you are either suspended for a long time,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or your band for life. One of the two. Uh, he didn't say, well I'll see what happens down the road, you know, maybe we'll just let you back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They made a business decision and they gave our competitor leverage by going away and breaking the rules.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, it's pretty simple in any business. You know, you leave our team and then sue our team. It's kind of hard to reconcile that. Now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know Jay very well, and he and I look at it the same way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Forgiveness and grace and the things that we should have, but business is business. And so I don't know where that all ends up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You can't, you can't tell the players that stayed, these guys are going to be suspended for a really long time and then not have some consequences.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But what that is, is going to be decided as Jay has said eloquently and we remind him of it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The rules made by the players for the players. That's the way it's always worked since Dean Beaman. The players...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Have a process to set policy. We don't run the business, but we know that yeah, we'll sign on for the FedEx Cup playoffs. That sounds pretty good. We've hashed it out for two years. Yes, we'll go for that. And now last year you saw a bunch of guys get together. We'll agree to play more tournaments.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you'll do this. So we're, we're in that mode right now. And so that will come down to basically management, outside advisors, and then the players deciding, hey, this is what we're comfortable with, with Brooks Koepka.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's a great question because two years ago I said, oh don't worry about it, they won't blow that much money.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If they come in and invest in a U.S. company, which they've invested in a hundred U.S. companies, and that stock is tankin', tankin', tankin', tankin', they're gonna bail, you know? They're gonna go take that money and reinvest in another company. So I would think business-wise,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They see the writing on the wall, I would think. You don't think they'll get pissed off and double down? I think they got pissed off two or three years ago, yeaah. But I don't know. You know, that's... In Vegas, when you get...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're doing well in soccer. We're doing really well in Formula One. We're doing really well in these other entities that we're investing in. So I don't know. That's, that is big hypothetical. Uhm, eventually,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You gotta look at their, their tour and it's, you know, it's not.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's not in demand. They're not making any money. So if I'm running it, I would say, hey, you know, let's, let's sit down with.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really, we have, we have team golf. It's called the President's Cup.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the Ryder Cup, and the Solheim Cup, and the Walker Cup, we have team golf, it's great. Uhm, I don't know if another model actually works, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was great. Zach did a really great job of focusing on this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And trainers and chefs go early two weeks before in practice. I mean, we were as prepared as we could have been. He did an unbelievable job in messaging and having fun. And I keep saying it, Brooks did some really cool things. Team building, we had a fun couple nights.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We ended up maybe a little flat from five weeks off. We ended up with four players sick and on antibiotics, three caddies sick. Uhm, things just didn't go your team's way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it was, it was an awesome week and I think, uhm, I think Zach has to be proud of what he did other than the score.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It doesn't happen when you win, you know, I would say as far as banding together and being excited and confident, it was exactly the same as 2016 is a lot of the same guys, um, you know, in management and I, you know, Zach was playing, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Firik was there, Stricker was there. It was the same group of guys kinda getting them ready.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, there's always something swirling around, whether it's Brooks and Bryson, you know, or whatever it is, but the team...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like I said, we're flying over to Rome to practice and Brooks yells at me from the back of the plane, hey!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I'm like, holy cow, that is going to be so cool. You know? And it was, it was, it was fine. Our team gets along great. We had a caddy and a player following Max Homa with a bucket of ice on our golf cart.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Icing him down in between shots because he was so sick. I mean, everybody was pulling together, whether you were playing or whether you were watching. And I, you know, that's just for the haters to talk about. We get along great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We're ready to go and when we lose, you know, it has to be Zach's fault or it has to be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, Ricky Fowler's fault. It's not, it's not just golf.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There isn't much difference until Friday morning and you get waxed, you know? There's really no difference. Uhm, you know, Zach rallied them, confident going into Saturday, you know, it's not over. They're always playing hard, playing positive, but it's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, it's momentum. It's momentum in sports. You know, you see it all the time. The Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl. Like, it was one play.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One series of downs and the momentum switched and the Patriots believed they can win. And once they started thinking they can win,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They blew, they blew him out of the water in the second half. It happens in sports all the time. Well, there's no way you can lose until...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Unless you're in, in the arena, unless you're in the team room, you know, Patrick Cantlay didn't wear a hat and he got beat up about it. It was the most incredible golf I've seen with people waving hats, but Patrick Cantlay didn't wear a hat in 2021 and we won. So nobody really talked about it. Obviously it was a home game, but Luke Donald didn't wear a hat in the Ryder Cup and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cory McElroy didn't wear a hat in the Ryder Cup and Monty didn't wear a hat in the Ryder Cup.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] People gotta understand, these guys wear the same hat all year and then we take them away from them and give them a new hat. I turned all my hats in in Rome. They didn't fit. I wore my Steve Stricker Ryder Cup hats that fit. I was the guy in the white hat when everybody had a blue hat. I mean, it's not a big deal, you know? And then, I don't know how the guys did it on Sunday.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That hat, Patrick had done it before, but all of a sudden, guys don't have hats on. And squint and bright sun.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's fun. Like everybody says Ricky Fowler, why did he give that putt? Well Ricky knew it was over. That's why he gave the putt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On TV, it didn't look like it was over, but we already seen, we already seen them celebrating.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know, it's, we, we love it. We, we put our hearts and souls into it and we always get along. I've never seen a team. I wasn't in, in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, 2018, and then this year, European Tour Golf Design renovated the golf courses, so they...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which worked, it already worked once, so maybe we don't do anything.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's just like in baseball, some teams water than field, some may get firm. You know, we're going to suit our team. So that's just natural. But uhm, what do you do at Bethpage? You know, I've always been no rough, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pins in the middle of the greens from Paul Aizinger and make a bunch of birdies. Well, that's hard at, that's hard at Bethpage. So, you go the other way. You make it like Oak Hill.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okill was tough. You miss a fairway, you were in trouble in, you know, other than...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The first nine holes, maybe Brooks, you know, just put it in the fairway, put it on the green. Maybe that's our style of golf, uhm, for, for Beth Page. I don't know. Analytics will tell us that. But, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I played a bunch of Ryder Cups, Presidents Cups. They set it up for them on home soil and I think that's fair.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was out of character for Rory, you know, which is surprising.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's the passion of the Ryder Cup. I mean, I've literally yelled at Sergio Garcia in the middle of a fairway when we're watching. And that's not my, that's not my nature. And Sergio can get under your skin. And Sergio and I are, and his dad are great friends, you know?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sergio, you're in the way and you're being a silly young kid. Back then he was a silly young kid. But, you leave there, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My next conversation with Rory is going to be about the tour board and that's over and done, because that's Ryder Cup and that's passion, but uhm, it just spilled, but it was...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Rory got caught in the middle between two caddies yelling at each other on the green and, and he was ready to putt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so, it went, it's Joe Lakawas, Rangers fan, you know, like, he's not gonna back down, and they weren't gonna back down, but uhm, it spilled a little longer than we thought, all the way back to the hotel, uhm, but, uhm, it gave them a little, a little pump when we were,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Maybe that was Roy's motivation, you know. Keep his guys fired up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey, there's a fight. It's the Ryker Cup. You know, everybody's mad at each other. You know, that's part of it. So uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So Ben Lang, that builds these smokers out towards Waycross, Georgia, he would call this a 108. I'd say it's like a 300 gallon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, tank and it's reverse flow. So in Texas, you know, direct flow smoke comes out that end. So the secret to this one is everything's dripping on a plate that's hot and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Getting more, more good smoke, like fat smoke.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We've got some ribs. They've got ribs. We've got chicken thighs. Yea, ribs out of the big smoker are already done, but that's some extras. And they are uhm, they are cooking stuff for tomorrow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On the range, we feed all the reps and all the TV people, all the caddies and a bunch of players.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The busier time of the year, there'll be another one of these out in the driveway and then another one and so we'll run


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Jimmy Walker is really good. Uhm, Jim Furick's getting more and more into it. And uh, Zach Johnson has all kinds of cookers out back at his house. So they'll call me like when they need wood.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He gets, whether it's astronomy or long range rifle shooting, when he gets into something, he goes all in. So he's using it a bunch. And then there's a local chef, friend of ours, puttsandpans on Instagram, and he has one of mine at his house. So that's the best place to put it is with a chef.