WEBVTT - Golf’s New World 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:09.880 It's the Son of a Butch podcast, a little bonus 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:14.880 episode this week obviously, with I mean everything that's happened 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.400 in the last couple of days, I figured I wanted 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:20.680 to talk a little bit about it. I'm as much 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:23.560 in the dark as I think everybody that's listening. I 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:26.440 don't think anybody knows what's going to happen. But if 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:28.320 you would have asked me, I mean a year ago today, 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:32.320 I was in London for the first Live tournament, And 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:34.680 if you'd have told me in a year that Jay 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:41.120 Monahan would be merging with the PIF and Live and 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:43.680 all of those things, I just wouldn't have believed you. 0:00:43.720 --> 0:00:46.199 And I think the reason why I wouldn't have believed 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.200 that this was going to happen, or was ever going 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:52.479 to happen, in all honesty, it was Jay Monahan. It 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:55.680 was the stance that Jay and the PGA tour and 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:59.040 everybody kind of that wasn't a part of Live. I 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:05.520 mean everybody took that stance, right, everybody took the anti Saudi, 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:12.160 the blood money, the murderous dictators, the human rights, the 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.959 nine to eleven. That was that was the stance that 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:19.320 that was definitely one hundred percent the stance jay Monahan took. 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:22.039 I mean, I think we're all seeing, you know, the 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:24.840 clips of him last year at the RBC Canadian Open 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:27.920 with Jim Nantz, you know, talking about the families of 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:30.679 nine to eleven and talking about all the things associated 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:33.120 with that and saying, you know, if you ever had 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:35.319 to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour. 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:39.039 And then a year later, he's now doing business with 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:41.679 the same people that he was telling people not to 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:47.280 do business with. So I think it's it's it's it's fascinating. 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:51.560 I think it's a stunning turnaround. But I guess in 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.640 a lot of ways, it's not surprising because listen, at 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:57.200 the end of the day in twenty twenty three, and 0:01:57.240 --> 0:01:59.040 I've been saying this for a while, some people like this, 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:02.680 some people don't like this. In twenty twenty three, sports 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:09.440 is a business, and professional golf is a business, and 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:12.320 I think what we've seen in the last forty eight 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:16.680 hours is this is business. And I think Jay Monahan 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:20.440 made a business decision. I find it fascinating that Jay 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:24.160 Monahan made the identical same business decision that the forty 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:30.160 eight guys that went to play Live made and were vilified, crushed, 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:36.280 crucified in the media, and it's been a stunning one 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:40.320 hundred and eighty degree turnaround. Why did this happen? Listen, 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:42.640 I'm a golf instructor, right, I'm not smart enough to 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:46.720 know why things like this happened. But what I do 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:50.359 know is I've been a part of the live ecosystem 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:53.560 for a year. I went to every live event last 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:56.360 year all of my players. Not by design, but it 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:58.040 just happened that all the players that I worked with 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:04.320 went to live and the last year, the amount of criticism, 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:08.320 some of the things said about them written about them. 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:12.120 Every time I would post a video of Dustin Johnson's 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:15.240 golf swing, or Brooks's golf swing or Pat Perez's golf swing, 0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:21.040 the DMS I would get from people on murderer you 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:23.880 work for murderers, you work for you know, people that 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:27.000 support blood money sports watching it was just it was 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:31.760 crazy and I think it's been fascinating to watch, you 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:36.280 know how this entire thing is unfolded. I met Yaser 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:39.320 from the PIF. I met Yaser in twenty seventeen in 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:42.320 Abu Dhabi at the Abu Dhabi Championship. I think he 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:45.320 was either playing with the Brooks or DJ and got 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:48.240 to spend eighteen holes walking around with him and listening 0:03:48.280 --> 0:03:53.200 to him talk about his vision, his love of the 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:57.280 game of golf, how much he wanted to get involved 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:02.240 in professional golf, how much he wanted Saudi Arabia to 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:07.280 be a part of the fabric of professional golf. A 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:12.040 lot of people see that as sinister, and I just 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:14.880 I just don't. Maybe it's because I've met Yaser, and 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:18.640 maybe it's because I grew up in you know, in 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:22.359 Morocco and lived in Dubai and lived in the Middle East, 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:25.760 and I've been to Saudi Arabia, you know, almost every 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:30.239 year since twenty eighteen, So I don't see it as sinister. 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:34.159 I got invited at my academy in Dubai. We have 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:37.719 coached and worked with the Saudi national team to try 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:41.320 and help them improve, and you know, all my staff 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:44.680 work with the kids and the players that play for 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:46.599 the Saudi national team, so I knew a bunch of 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:49.640 the players involved in this. I got invited to the 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:54.600 launch of the Saudi International and the European Tour in 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:59.360 twenty eighteen and got invited over by Yaser and Majad 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:03.400 and I saw jayme on Hen I think not long 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:05.920 after that at the Players Championship, and I said this, Jay, Listen, 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:09.440 I was just in Saudi Arabia. You should really reach 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:11.800 out to Yasser. He really wants to be a part 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:13.520 of the PGA tour. He really wants to be a 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:16.400 part of professional golf. I think he's got some good ideas. 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.159 You should talk to him and you should really have 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:21.719 a conversation with him. And I remember in twenty eighteen, 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:23.360 you know, Jay was like, yeah, you know, we don't 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:26.080 know how that would look. And I said, in twenty eighteen, 0:05:26.080 --> 0:05:29.560 I said to jayme Onhan, Jay just gives whatever the 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:31.680 Saudis are trying to do, if they're going to come 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:34.320 up with their own tour or whatever it is they 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:37.080 want to be a part, is give them fall. Give 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:39.120 them tournaments in the fall that you guys don't want 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:40.800 to be involved in because you guys are trying to 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:42.760 get out of the fall to try and not go 0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:45.880 up against professional football. So I told Jay that in eighteen. 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:47.719 I told him that in nineteen. I told him that 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:50.000 in twenty, I told him that in twenty one, and 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:54.360 I told him that last year, and for whatever reason, 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:59.200 I don't know why, but for some reason, Jay just 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:03.040 never had an interest in doing that, and the specifically, 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:07.400 you know, for the last year, everything that has come 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:10.920 from Jay and the PGA Tour aside, and really from 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:14.239 the majority of the media has just been anti Saudi, 0:06:14.279 --> 0:06:16.080 anti lib. I mean, how many times have we heard 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:20.760 Jay Monahan say the Saudi backed league? I mean, I've 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:23.440 lost count how many times I've heard him and other 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.640 players and people in the media say that. So do 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:30.200 we talk about is the PGA Tour now a Saudi 0:06:30.240 --> 0:06:37.479 backed league? I mean, it's crazy. And the abject hypocrisy 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:40.680 behind all of this has just been staggering, and I 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:43.480 don't understand why it was always like that. It's been 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:45.760 fascinating to me that it took almost a year for 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:51.719 anyone to even question what the PGA Tour was doing 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:56.000 and why so many of the PGA tours corporate sponsors 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:59.280 and tournament sponsors were doing business in Saudi Arabia. And 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:03.520 that was okay, But it wasn't okay for the forty 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:05.320 eight guys that went to live for them to do 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:09.279 business with Saudi Arabia. There's a thing on everybody's phone 0:07:10.200 --> 0:07:12.840 called the Internet. It's called Google. If you want to 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:15.960 find out information, and if you want to educate yourself, 0:07:16.200 --> 0:07:18.960 you can. So when I went over to London last 0:07:19.000 --> 0:07:22.119 year and spent the week at the first Live event, 0:07:22.440 --> 0:07:25.080 I spent that week mainly a lot at night, just 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:28.080 kind of doing some research as too. You know, who 0:07:28.120 --> 0:07:31.040 does business with Saudi Arabia, which companies do to business 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:33.840 in Saudi Arabia. And I was interested because there was 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:36.040 so much backlash against the guys that went to Live. 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.440 I was interested to see on which companies were doing 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:41.400 business in Saudi Arabia. I mean it was a two 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:44.800 second Google search to find out that FedEx had given 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:48.560 the Saudis four hundred million dollars for their twenty thirty initiative. 0:07:49.320 --> 0:07:52.160 That took me less than two seconds to find. If 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:54.080 you want to find that information, you could find it. 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:58.520 You could find which of the PGA Tours Global Partners, 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:03.400 Corporate Global Partners, tournament sponsors. You could find which of 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:07.360 those companies and those organizations were doing business in Saudi Arabia. 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:09.800 And what I found fascinating last year is not one 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:13.680 reporter asked Jay Monahan, why are the majority of your 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:17.960 corporate and tournament sponsors doing business in Saudi Arabia, And 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:20.080 why do they want to do business in Saudi Arabia. 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:22.600 I mean, you've got Jay the majority of last year 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.800 standing up in front of every interview he gives. Behind him, 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:28.280 there's a giant sign that says FedEx cup, FedEx cup, 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:32.240 FedEx cup, FedEx is giving the Saudis four hundred million dollars, 0:08:32.679 --> 0:08:35.600 and you're telling everybody don't do business with the Saudis, 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:39.920 which to me just it never made any sense. And 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:43.200 to me it always seemed that, yeah, this was always 0:08:43.200 --> 0:08:46.760 about the money, and the reason why a lot of 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:49.360 the PGA Tours corporate partners and a lot of their 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:53.040 tournament sponsors are doing business in Saudi Arabia was for 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:57.640 financial reasons. Obviously, obviously they're doing business in Saudi Arabia 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:00.720 for financial reasons. But I just couldn't underst and why 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:03.720 the forty eight guys that went to live were just 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:15.880 pariahs for a lot of people, the moral argument, the 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:19.000 nine to eleven argument, the forty eight guys. In my opinion, 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:22.040 this is my opinion, right, the forty eight guys that 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:26.319 went went to live, they had no involvement in in 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:29.719 nine to eleven, but they were portrayed as nine to 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:34.000 eleven sympathizers. And now you've got the guy that basically 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:37.240 pushed that argument turning around and doing a deal with 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:39.240 the same people that he was telling people not to 0:09:39.320 --> 0:09:44.400 do business with, which I think everybody's still trying to 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:47.199 make sense of it. I know there are a lot 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:50.720 of people that are outraged by it. I've got to 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:52.920 think that there are players on the PGA tour that 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:56.280 are kind of just scratching their heads and saying, Okay, 0:09:56.280 --> 0:09:59.880 wait a minute, I had big offers and listen. I also, 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:02.400 I think it's important and I hopefully think that it 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:05.880 will come out as to how many players, how many 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:10.920 household names were trying to get offers from the Saudist 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:15.200 last year and had gotten offers. And you know, there 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:20.800 are already rumors that players and fathers of players that 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:24.280 had big offers from Live that turned them down on 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:28.120 advice from the PGA tour that they're thinking about and 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:30.720 looking into taking legal action and seeing what their legal 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:33.760 options were because all of these guys were told don't go, 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:39.080 don't go. Stay with the PGA tour. What was it 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:44.080 history and trophies, not about money. And you know, in 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:46.520 the last forty eight hours. The only thing I hear 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:51.400 people talking about is money. But last year, money was 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:57.400 evidently bad. Taking money was evidently bad. Being an athlete, 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:01.600 being a professional golfer and doing basically what every other 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:04.480 professional athlete does, which is try and make as much 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:07.960 money as possible. We see it in American sports. We 0:11:08.040 --> 0:11:12.560 see it in the UK in football. We see it 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.760 all over Europe and football. We see it in F one. 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:18.480 We've seen it in cricket, and we see it in 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:24.360 the NBA, the NFL, NHL, every major professional sports in America. 0:11:24.720 --> 0:11:28.199 There are players trying to get big contracts, big signing bonuses. 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:32.760 It leads sports news. But for some reason, there was 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:35.760 a segment of the population that just wanted golf to 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:38.280 just be this. And I've said this. I said this 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:42.360 in an article right after Brooks won the PGA. It's 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:45.600 like golf is the Truman Show and it has to 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:49.040 be the way it was in the forties, fifties and sixties. 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.520 It can't change. Change is bad, and we just have 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.360 to have the status quo because that's the way it's 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:57.719 always been. And if you were one of the live 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:01.040 guys and you got the bag and you decided to 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:06.960 make a financial decision, You're a bad person, You're a 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:10.760 trader to the PGA Tour. And none of it made 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:14.680 any sense because pretty much the majority of the in 0:12:14.720 --> 0:12:17.760 my opinion, the majority of the decisions the PGA Tour 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:21.960 makes or financial decisions. I mean, their headquarters looks like 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:26.760 something a Bond villain would live in. It's got a 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:30.240 it's entirely surrounded by water, It's over one hundred thousand 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:33.840 square feet, and there are a nonprofit organization, and I 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:36.920 just don't know a lot of nonprofit organizations that have 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:41.280 that type of headquarters and have executives flying around on 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:44.040 private jets like the PGA Tour does. And listen, I 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:46.640 don't have a problem with any of that, right, I 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.720 don't have an issue with the way the PGA Tour 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:52.600 runs their business. I don't have an issue with any 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:55.360 of it. But what I do have an issue is 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.320 the players that I worked with last year just got 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.600 crushed because they went to live I got crushed because, 0:13:02.640 --> 0:13:04.800 I mean I had people coming up to me saying, 0:13:04.800 --> 0:13:07.080 you know, how are things on the dark side? I 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:10.839 mean the amount of DMS on social that I've gotten 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:13.760 saying that, you know, I'm a Trader and all of 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:16.120 these things. I mean, it got really really personal, and 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:18.160 it was really really personal for a lot of people, 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:24.800 and the media was basically beating the drum of anti Live, 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:28.480 anti Saudi all of that. So I think it's going 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:32.000 to be fascinating to figure out and to see where 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:35.560 all of this ends up. I really do. I really 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:38.280 think it will be fascinating. I don't think anybody really knows. 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:41.360 I think Jay Monahan has a tremendous amount of bridge 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:44.400 building to do. There are a lot of people that 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:49.360 wonder if he can survive this, if PGA tour players 0:13:49.440 --> 0:13:52.640 will be able to see him as somebody that they 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:56.280 have confidence in. You know, I really don't know. But 0:13:56.559 --> 0:13:59.840 what I do know is yah Sir. I consider him 0:13:59.840 --> 0:14:01.840 a off lucky enough to have spent time with him 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:07.360 over the last year, both professionally and privately, and he's 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:11.320 one of the most soulful, kind of He's a very 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:15.640 very soft person. He's always asking questions. He's easily one 0:14:15.640 --> 0:14:19.840 of the smartest people I know, and he is absolutely 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:24.960 a golf junkie. He is passionate, so so passionate about golf, 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:28.200 and every time I'm around him, he's asking me to 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:30.560 look at his golf swing. He's talking to me about golf. 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:32.600 When you walk around with him in the pro am 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:34.920 and he hits a bad shot, you can tell that 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:38.280 it affects him the way it affects everybody that plays golf. 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:40.720 And I think the fact that he's from Saudi Arabia, 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:45.000 why is that a sticking point. He's a golfer, he 0:14:45.040 --> 0:14:50.480 loves golf rightly wrongly. He has a lot of money. 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:53.000 The Saudis have a lot of money, and they want 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:56.400 to invest that money in golf. I don't see the 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.760 sinister reasons as to why they do it, because I 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:02.080 think I don't see that because I've lived in the 0:15:02.080 --> 0:15:04.720 Middle East. I love the Middle East. It's like a 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:09.440 second home to me. And you know, I left my dad. 0:15:09.600 --> 0:15:14.000 We started an academy in Dubai in two thousand and 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:17.280 I moved to Dubai and in the summer of two 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.240 thousand and seven, and I lived there until two thousand 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:24.960 and eleven. And when I left the United States, they 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:32.120 were massive, massive talks about you know, gun control, school shootings, abortion, 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:35.560 all of those things. We're still talking about those in 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:39.640 twenty twenty three. None of that. Nothing has changed there 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:42.840 hasn't been any changes. We're still talking about gun control, 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:47.680 We're still talking about school shootings. And if you look 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:49.680 at a country like Saudi Arabia when I first went 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:54.240 there in two thousand and eighteen, every year when I 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:57.160 go back, I'm really surprised, you know, the changes that 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:01.000 are happening in the country. My daughter went to the 0:16:01.120 --> 0:16:06.680 Jetta Film Festival earlier this year for a week. She's 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:10.080 studying film at Dartmouth and she went there and a 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:12.960 friend of mine got her an internship and asked her 0:16:13.000 --> 0:16:14.800 if she wanted to go to the Jeda Film Festival. 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:17.440 You would when I lived in Dubai, I would never 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:21.720 even contemplate sending my daughter, you know, ten years ago 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:25.200 to Saudi Arabia. It would just be a very different experience. 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:28.480 She had a great experience. She really really enjoyed her 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:31.960 time there. I have found it fascinating that an enormous 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:34.360 amount of the people in the media and that have 0:16:34.440 --> 0:16:39.880 been adamantly against, you know, the Saudi's involvement in golf 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:42.960 and live have never once been to Saudi Arabia. They've 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:45.120 never spent any time in the Middle East. They know 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:48.120 nothing really about the culture. They don't have any friends 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:50.880 from those from those parts of the world, and everything 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:54.560 they're doing is is is making their own opinion based 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:57.120 off of, you know, what they're hearing from other people. 0:16:57.240 --> 0:16:59.920 So I think what the Saudis have been trying to 0:16:59.920 --> 0:17:04.239 do in golf, I see it as positive. I've been 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:07.800 in talks, you know, for the last five years. You know, 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:10.600 when I went over in twenty eighteen, the first thing 0:17:10.680 --> 0:17:13.520 Yaser said to me was, I want you to help 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:18.240 me bring golf to our children in Saudi Arabia's that's 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:22.439 my vision. My vision is for young people to see golf, 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:25.719 to have it play the role that golf has played 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:28.480 in my life. And you know that has been something 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:31.640 that has been very very important to me and a 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.240 really good friend of mine, a young kid named Noah 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.119 Ali Raza. I used to teach Noah as a as 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:39.439 a golfer when I was in Dubai. He was one 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:42.119 of the first lessons that I ever gave. He was 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:44.560 trying to play professionally, went to school in the US. 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:47.920 He was a very very good player, loved golf. He 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:50.639 was in the first ad we used my dad and 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:54.280 I for our academy in Dubai. Noah was the guy 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:57.720 in our advertisement with my dad and I about you know, golf, 0:17:57.720 --> 0:18:00.159 about trying to get better. Noah is now take and 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:03.600 over golf Saudi and I've been in constant conversation, you know, 0:18:03.680 --> 0:18:07.520 since I went to Saudi in January, and Noah's been saying, listen, 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:11.040 we need to try and bring golf to Saudi Arabia. 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:15.080 We need a grassroots approach to try and build golf 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:19.840 in the kingdom. And you know Bob Diamond, who used 0:18:19.840 --> 0:18:24.239 to run Barklay's, was big into golf, started you know, 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:28.440 Barkley's sponsorship of the Premiership in football in the UK. 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:32.320 He's a big golfer. He's a member at my club. 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:34.080 And you know I was having dinner with him and 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:36.040 he was talking about the things that the Saudis were 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:38.800 trying to do, and he said, you know, the Saudis 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:41.840 say that they want to change their country, that they 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:45.720 want to change from what they've been and want to 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:48.080 try and do something different. And I'll never forget this 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:51.640 that Bob said, if that's what they're saying, why wouldn't 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:54.439 we want to try and help them. Why wouldn't we 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:57.239 want to try and help them change their country? And 0:18:57.320 --> 0:19:01.320 if golf can be a vehicle to do that. Then 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:06.480 I'm here for it. I really am. I think having 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:08.560 lived in that region, I think a lot of people 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:10.639 in Saudi Arabia look at what happened in Dubai. I 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:12.760 think a lot of people in the US had never 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:15.439 really even heard of Dubai if it wasn't for golf. 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:17.840 We saw Tiger playing in tournaments over there. We saw 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:23.000 all the big buildings over there. Every major player, every 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:25.800 person pretty much it's won a major championship in the 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:29.680 last fifteen to twenty years. They've all been paid an 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:32.480 enormous amount of appearance money to go play in Abi Dabi. 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:35.200 They've been paid an enormous amount of appearance money to 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:38.639 go play in Dubai. I don't have a problem with that. 0:19:39.920 --> 0:19:44.040 I've said this, Rory McElroy should be paid to play golf, 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:47.360 in my opinion, wherever he goes. He's earned that right. 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:50.400 That's how great of a player he is. And there's 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:53.479 a dirty little secret that a lot of what's happened 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:56.880 over the last years golfers get paid. Golfers get paid 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:00.320 appearance fees. Golfers get paid appearance fees outside the its 0:20:00.320 --> 0:20:03.720 fate golfers have been getting paid for a number of 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:08.000 years now in the United States to play tournaments. How 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:10.480 they've been paid, They've probably been paid in other ways, 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:15.359 to go to lunches, to go to dinners. I've seen that. 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:19.120 I've watched that. And it's not just the live guys 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:21.919 that we're doing that. Everybody that was a great player 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:26.600 has been getting paid. It's not news, it's not a surprise. 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:31.880 That's the way the world works. And I think Jay 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:34.800 Monahan made a business decision. And there are a lot 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:38.360 of people that think he sold a bunch of people out. 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:40.080 I think, you know, I think time will tell. I 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:43.800 think Jay's a pragmatist. But what I do think is 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:45.679 I don't think we ever needed to get here. I 0:20:45.760 --> 0:20:49.320 really really don't. I think these conversations could have happened 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:54.400 last year, two years ago, three years ago, because everybody 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:57.639 in golf, all the agents, all the players, all the 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:03.400 governing bodies, everybody PG Tour, everybody at the DP World Tour. 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:07.720 If you need an example as to it's always been 0:21:08.040 --> 0:21:13.520 about the money, ask yourself this question. Why is the 0:21:13.560 --> 0:21:17.680 European Tour no longer called the European Tour, It's the 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:21.880 DP World Tour. If it's not about the money, why 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:24.680 did the European Tour need to have a corporate sponsor 0:21:25.400 --> 0:21:28.240 and no longer be called the European Tour and be 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:32.000 called the DP World Tour. It's no longer called the 0:21:32.040 --> 0:21:38.800 European Tour, it's called a corporate sponsor's name of that tour. Kids, 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:43.280 it's always been about the money, and I just think 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:46.560 it's been fascinating and I think it's going to be interesting. 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:51.400 You know, I watched Rory's press conference yesterday. Rory has 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:54.600 always been fiercely, fiercely anti lib so it's going to 0:21:54.640 --> 0:21:56.960 be very interesting to see how all of that plays out. 0:21:57.040 --> 0:22:05.119 Because Live is Yau's idea, it's his passion, it's his baby. 0:22:05.200 --> 0:22:08.720 He basically came up with all the ideas. He was 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:11.280 involved in all of it. And I think it's going 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:13.560 to be interesting because there are a lot of people now, 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:17.720 especially after Rory's comments yesterday. Rory was very very It 0:22:17.800 --> 0:22:20.280 was important for Rory to say yesterday that this isn't 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:22.200 a deal with Live, it's a deal with the PIF. 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:26.280 The PIF owns Live, So we'll see how all of 0:22:26.320 --> 0:22:36.840 that plays out. On a personal note, I feel sorry, 0:22:37.640 --> 0:22:39.600 I really do. I feel sorry for Rory, not Roy. 0:22:40.400 --> 0:22:44.679 You could see last year how much him being the 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:50.040 spokesperson for the PGA Tour, for the PGA's tours, stance 0:22:50.240 --> 0:22:53.960 against live, against the Saudi's, against the money, all that, 0:22:54.080 --> 0:22:57.160 you could see that it was wearing on. It's my opinion. 0:22:57.920 --> 0:22:59.680 I don't have any facts around this, but I think 0:22:59.680 --> 0:23:02.640 it has affected him as a person, and I think 0:23:02.640 --> 0:23:05.880 it's affected him as a player. I think it's affected 0:23:05.880 --> 0:23:09.679 his game. I think he volunteered, but I think the 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:13.520 tour asked Roy to do a lot last year, and 0:23:14.560 --> 0:23:19.800 he did that job unbelievably well. The passion and the 0:23:20.440 --> 0:23:24.800 conviction that Rory speaks in his voice, you can hear it, 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:28.880 you can feel it. I'm a massive, massive Roy McElroy fan, 0:23:29.359 --> 0:23:33.840 both on and off the golf course. He is a 0:23:33.960 --> 0:23:36.680 joy to talk to when whenever I have time to 0:23:36.720 --> 0:23:39.960 spend talking to him, asking him questions. He's a thinker, 0:23:40.720 --> 0:23:46.800 he's got good ideas, he's introspective, he's he's a thinker 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:50.119 and that's what I really really love most about him, 0:23:50.160 --> 0:23:52.159 and I just love him as a golfer. I think 0:23:52.200 --> 0:23:56.800 he's an unbelievable player, so obviously he has been fiercely 0:23:56.840 --> 0:23:58.720