Speaker 1: It's the Son of a Butch podcast. We come to
Speaker 1: you every Wednesday. I am your host, Claude Harmon. This
Speaker 1: week's guest Brendan Quinn. I haven't had a journalist on.
Speaker 1: I've had some TV people on, but I hadn't had
Speaker 1: a journalist on full disclosure. We recorded this last Thursday
Speaker 1: during the day. We I mean everybody pretty much knew
Speaker 1: John Ram was signing with Live, but we did it
Speaker 1: as kind of a hypothetical. Even though we thought he
Speaker 1: was going to sign You never know. I mean, all
Speaker 1: these rumors, there's there's rumors about people all day every day.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to get a journalist on because I
Speaker 1: hadn't had one on before. I had some people that
Speaker 1: were in the TV space, but I wanted to get
Speaker 1: someone who writes. And the thing I like about Brendan
Speaker 1: he doesn't come from a golf background. He starts. He
Speaker 1: still writes college basketball. But I wanted to get someone's
Speaker 1: perspective that wasn't a kind of season golf journalists because
Speaker 1: I think in twenty twenty three, I think everybody's opinion
Speaker 1: kind of you know that is that is deeply, deeply
Speaker 1: embedded with all the tours is somewhat, I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe compromise just because of their own bias. So I
Speaker 1: thought to get a fresh take Brendan. I really like
Speaker 1: his writing, and we talked about some good stuff. Listen.
Speaker 1: It's crazy times, and I don't want to bombard all
Speaker 1: you guys with tons of PGA tour lift stuff, but
Speaker 1: it's impossible, given you know, everything that's happened in the
Speaker 1: last week with John Rahm going to Live to not
Speaker 1: talk about where we are with that and where everything is.
Speaker 1: So I think it's a really good podcast, and we
Speaker 1: talked about some you know, some stuff that you know. Listen,
Speaker 1: it's been going on for the last two years, and
Speaker 1: I thought it was important to get another point of view.
Speaker 1: So sit back and enjoy listening to Brendan Quinn. I
Speaker 1: guess is Brendan Quinn, you write for the Athletic both basketball,
Speaker 1: college basketball and golf. But obviously we could talk about
Speaker 1: college basketball. But it's the end of the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three season. The golf landscape Brendon over the last two
Speaker 1: years is just it's unrecognizable from what it once was.
Speaker 1: On the podcast, I've talked about this, I've had players
Speaker 1: talk about it, I've Caddy's stuff. But we're in the
Speaker 1: middle of it, right. Some of these guys are on
Speaker 1: the PGA Tour. Some of these guys are on live.
Speaker 1: But for those of us in the sport, I think
Speaker 1: it's hard to see the overall view of it when
Speaker 1: you're in the middle of it. And right now, it
Speaker 1: seems like there's two sides, right there's the PGA Tour
Speaker 1: guys and then there's the live guys. And as a
Speaker 1: journalist and someone watching the last couple of years, what's
Speaker 1: it been like and what are your thoughts? Because it's
Speaker 1: I mean, I even though I'm right in the middle
Speaker 1: of it, I work with three guys that are on live,
Speaker 1: two of the biggest guys on live. Still, to me
Speaker 1: is crazy that when I look back at, you know,
Speaker 1: the end of the year in twenty twenty one, you
Speaker 1: just couldn't have told me that we'd be where we
Speaker 1: are today.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's funny. It's for number one, it's
Speaker 2: not what I or a lot of people signed up for.
Speaker 2: When you're like, I wanna go cover golf, right, it's
Speaker 2: and then suddenly you're in the middle of like covering
Speaker 2: this like geopolitical just spionage. There's just you know, with
Speaker 2: all these layers and understanding. And I remember when when
Speaker 2: it all really started kind of bubbling to the surface,
Speaker 2: but that would have been like twenty one summer, right,
Speaker 2: I was coming out of basketball season and going to
Speaker 2: Augusta and this was like, right, things were really popping
Speaker 2: around Phil et cetera, et cetera. And my editor is like,
Speaker 2: you know, you want to write a column about you know,
Speaker 2: live and all these things going on and you know,
Speaker 2: right and wrong, because it was very much still the
Speaker 2: right and wrong portion of the conversation. And I said
Speaker 2: to my boss, I'm like, I gotta tell you, I
Speaker 2: don't know what a sovereign wealth fund is.
Speaker 3: Can we start there, you know?
Speaker 2: And I kind of embarked on it that way, and
Speaker 2: one of my first big stories on it was very much.
Speaker 3: Speaking to.
Speaker 2: Academics and finance people and journalists who work in that
Speaker 2: space of foreign governments and understanding governments stuff like that.
Speaker 1: This kind of involvement in sports there is I mean,
Speaker 1: it's crazy to me, you know, as someone that has
Speaker 1: been you know, part of I'm on tour on LIB
Speaker 1: the last two years because that's where my players went.
Speaker 1: But I find it crazy that as much as golf
Speaker 1: wants to be like everything else. Right, And one of
Speaker 1: the big things right now I think is the golfers.
Speaker 1: The Saudis have come in and started to pay professional
Speaker 1: golfers like other athletes get paid, like they get paid
Speaker 1: in American football, soccer, over in Europe, baseball, basketball. You know,
Speaker 1: some of the contracts, the film contract, the Bryson, the DJ,
Speaker 1: the Brooks, those big live contracts. We're on a par
Speaker 1: with what we see in basketball, baseball, other sports. Right,
Speaker 1: We've never seen that before, but we have seen governments
Speaker 1: countries get involved in sports through various companies and things
Speaker 1: like that. Right, Yeah, why do you think that golf
Speaker 1: has been so Why has this issue been so polarizing
Speaker 1: in golf?
Speaker 3: So?
Speaker 2: I think mainly it's there's a difference between buying a
Speaker 2: team and creating a league. So, you know, we're not
Speaker 2: going to go and rehash you know, should the tour
Speaker 2: have taken those initial calls, et cetera, etc. Right, it's
Speaker 2: a whole other thing. But there is something fundamentally different
Speaker 2: by creating a competitive league that's going to go up
Speaker 2: against your old school standard bearer, the brand, the institutional
Speaker 2: piece and go head to head. You know, that's that's
Speaker 2: not You've seen that happen in other sports. You've never
Speaker 2: seen it created this way though, and where the money
Speaker 2: came from and all that. So I think that was
Speaker 2: like the most baseline reason for why this has been
Speaker 2: so different. And then you know, I mean, we can
Speaker 2: get into all the geopolitical stuff of why it became
Speaker 2: a hot button issue and some people, I think, use
Speaker 2: that to their advantage and other people honestly felt that
Speaker 2: way and things like that, But it's.
Speaker 1: A journalist, it's just covering the sport. Yeah, what has
Speaker 1: surprised you about the last two years?
Speaker 2: You know, I think the biggest surprise is the kind
Speaker 2: of the constant lack of clarity, if that's it, Like everything.
Speaker 1: Is just everything speculative, everything.
Speaker 3: Speculative, speculative, speculative.
Speaker 2: You hear people say one thing, and like it took
Speaker 2: a while for a lot of people to just be like, Okay,
Speaker 2: let's just stop listening to what anyone says because the
Speaker 2: numbers it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Until right in the middle of John Rahm going to
Speaker 1: live rumor Mania three hundred six hundred and like, like
Speaker 1: I'm in the I know the people involved with making
Speaker 1: these decisions and the numbers that get thrown out, it's
Speaker 1: like you don't even know what to believe anything anymore.
Speaker 3: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: And it's crazy, it's not like is it like that?
Speaker 1: And not? Do you think it's like that in the end?
Speaker 1: And do you think the rumor mill on let's say
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes is going to leave the Chiefs? I mean
Speaker 1: we saw that when Lebron was going when when the
Speaker 1: Lebron lottery was happening in the NBA are where was
Speaker 1: Lebron going to go? That was that was was big news.
Speaker 2: Well, there's there's rail, there's guardrails to all that stuff.
Speaker 2: There are dates on the calendar of when you can go,
Speaker 2: we know the length of It's nothing like that.
Speaker 3: There is nothing like that in this space.
Speaker 2: Where it's like, you know, six months ago, if you
Speaker 2: asked anybody about John Rahm as a non starter at
Speaker 2: that point, you know, I mean, it's one hundred and
Speaker 2: he's not going anywhere. You know, these guys are tent poles.
Speaker 2: They're not going anywhere. Well, now it appears one of
Speaker 2: those tentpoles is gone, so okay, Well that means let's
Speaker 2: look at those other tempoles. How many of them are
Speaker 2: actually planted right, because this one, I mean, this is
Speaker 2: going to be It's obviously right now when we are
Speaker 2: speaking right now, this is still slightly speculative, but it
Speaker 2: seems like this is happening.
Speaker 3: This is a this is a different domino.
Speaker 1: In what way? In what way do you think John
Speaker 1: Rahm is a different domino at this point? So because
Speaker 1: obviously the biggest domino in my opinion, Yes, Phil was huge, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but DJ going to Live to me was the tipping
Speaker 1: point that changed everything. When a player of his caliber,
Speaker 1: with his resume, as beloved as he is by the fans,
Speaker 1: as popular as he is on the PGA tour. I
Speaker 1: remember getting the call from DJ and him telling me
Speaker 1: that he was going, and I was shocked, even though
Speaker 1: I'd been with him for the last five years and
Speaker 1: watched him entertain this and watched him agonize over to
Speaker 1: the decision. And he struggled after the Masters, after winning,
Speaker 1: for those two years after before he went to Live,
Speaker 1: because the question of do I do this? What is
Speaker 1: my legacy going to do? He played terror, He didn't
Speaker 1: play great for two years, not up to the standard
Speaker 1: that he's used to. And I think the struggle of
Speaker 1: the decision to do it, and I still remember rend
Speaker 1: In him calling me and even though I thought he
Speaker 1: might do it, I was shocked. I got off the
Speaker 1: call and I just went, holy shit, Yeah what just happened.
Speaker 1: And I think he was the domino. And if you
Speaker 1: talk to the people that subsequently went after DJ, they
Speaker 1: all will say, yeah, once DJ went, it made it
Speaker 1: more viable. Now John Rahm is a bigger dominant. I
Speaker 1: think for Live the three biggest dominoes have been DJ going,
Speaker 1: Brooks winning a major as a live player, and if
Speaker 1: John Rahm does go to Live, that is another domino
Speaker 1: because I think in the same way that maybe I
Speaker 1: know for a fact that after the Masters and Brooks
Speaker 1: almost winning, people went, Okay, we've got to figure out
Speaker 1: what is really happening, and we've got to try and
Speaker 1: figure something out because we thought that this wasn't going
Speaker 1: to happen, and it basically just did. And then he
Speaker 1: wins the PJ So that was a big domino to
Speaker 1: where then he's on the Ryder Cup team and all that.
Speaker 1: Do you think that the domino effect of John Rahm
Speaker 1: is he's such a big player, two time major champion,
Speaker 1: you know, all of the things that he's done up
Speaker 1: to this point in his career. Why is he such
Speaker 1: a big domino?
Speaker 3: Number One is age? Okay, So like obviously DJ was.
Speaker 2: Still incredibly mid thirties, could certainly pop up and win,
Speaker 2: you know, another major and no one would be stunned.
Speaker 3: But also someone clearly on the back end of the career.
Speaker 3: Rom's twenty six, twenty seven. So A, you have all
Speaker 3: this runway.
Speaker 2: B you have his ranking, see you have he was
Speaker 2: a face of the tour without question, and.
Speaker 1: The face of the European tour.
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker 2: The thing that really I think is kind of the biggest,
Speaker 2: biggest piece of this though, is the legitimacy of the
Speaker 2: brand in terms of competition. When When Live wants to
Speaker 2: say we have a top three player in the world
Speaker 2: now and the reigning masters Chimp and Brooks at times
Speaker 2: is the top three player in the world, and other
Speaker 2: times he is not. I mean physically he is what
Speaker 2: he is. There are times you think he could be
Speaker 2: done in a year if his body doesn't hold up.
Speaker 2: Like John Rom ain't going anywhere for ten years, fifteen years,
Speaker 2: as long basically as long as he wants to go.
Speaker 2: So that's different and when you talk about what he
Speaker 2: has behind him in terms of brand potential and things
Speaker 2: like that. He's the face of Callaway, He's the face
Speaker 2: of a lot major pieces.
Speaker 1: He's one of the faces of the European Ryder Cup
Speaker 1: team for the next fifteen years.
Speaker 2: Is this the final one that gets a major brand
Speaker 2: to come in and say, we're gonna put X amount
Speaker 2: of dollars into your friend, he's gonna get his own team.
Speaker 2: We're gonna put X amount of dollars. Rumor is he's
Speaker 2: going to get his own Yeah, we're gonna put X
Speaker 2: amount of dollars. And when that happens, other brands seeing
Speaker 2: it and say, okay, well, now that brand's going to
Speaker 2: put in this money. You know, we all kind of
Speaker 2: roll our eyes a little bit where at some of
Speaker 2: the valuations of some of these franchises where it's like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: that Sergio's team's worth two billion, and you know, it's like,
Speaker 2: I feel like he just kind of pulled that number
Speaker 2: out of this guy.
Speaker 3: But I'm not saying that would be legitimate.
Speaker 2: But like someone like rom having his own team and
Speaker 2: being a guy who could go and.
Speaker 3: He could win multiple majors in a year, he is just.
Speaker 1: If John Rahm goes to live he could win five
Speaker 1: day times.
Speaker 3: He's that yeah, oh yeah right, And.
Speaker 1: Not to say that the other guys aren't. But I
Speaker 1: say this all the time on the podcast. Anytime we
Speaker 1: talk about John Rahm, we've had his coach, Dave Phillips on.
Speaker 1: I don't he is so talented. He is one of
Speaker 1: those players that you don't you don't understand how he
Speaker 1: doesn't win every week. Right, that's how great of that's
Speaker 1: how great his talent is. And I think the other
Speaker 1: thing that you're talking about internationally John Rahm is he's European.
Speaker 1: Even though he went to college in America, he's European.
Speaker 1: He's Spanish, and that plays another role in it as well.
Speaker 2: I think, and you know, I mean, this further fractures things.
Speaker 2: I mean, look, by the time this thing airs, who
Speaker 2: knows what the state of the framework agreement is at
Speaker 2: that time, if there is any more clarity as to
Speaker 2: what's going on. But like everyone's talked about the game
Speaker 2: being fractured in recent years, and like this is the
Speaker 2: epitome of it. Man, Like if we don't get to
Speaker 2: see Scottie, Rory and Ram playing each other at like
Speaker 2: on a regular basis beyond four weeks a year, then
Speaker 2: the game is fundamentally broken. At that it's already broken,
Speaker 2: but there's just something different, you know, even with DJ
Speaker 2: over on Live and Brooks, there's Jeff.
Speaker 1: Smith and the players.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like camp Smith Campus is a great example, and
Speaker 2: Bryson was a great example. But like right now, I
Speaker 2: think when you just think of like the best players
Speaker 2: in the world, that's the conversation. And Cam was in
Speaker 2: that conversation and it has changed, it feels like since
Speaker 2: he went over.
Speaker 1: And also I think if your Live, you're not gonna
Speaker 1: get Tiger. You're not gonna get Rory. You're not gonna
Speaker 1: get Scotti, Scheffler, you're not gonna get j t You're
Speaker 1: not gonna get Jordan, You're not gonna get the PGA
Speaker 1: Tours boys. Yeah, and they are their boys, right, they
Speaker 1: are the one you're not probably I'm ninety nine point
Speaker 1: nine percent sure you're not getting Max Homy either, right,
Speaker 1: So from Live standpoint, they're like, Okay, we're not gonna
Speaker 1: get Tiger and Rory. Rom is the closest thing we
Speaker 1: can get to. That to further our legitimacy of what
Speaker 1: we're trying to do. You said, obviously it's your opinion
Speaker 1: that golf professional golf is broken if it is broken,
Speaker 1: and that's up for debate, but there are a lot
Speaker 1: of people that share that center.
Speaker 3: That's how I feel.
Speaker 2: And if you and someone gonna make a noo counterpoint,
Speaker 2: and I'm fine with that, but that's how I feel.
Speaker 1: But if it is broken, is there a way to
Speaker 1: fix it?
Speaker 2: Well, we thought that that was there was the potential
Speaker 2: of it if LID was coming unto the umbrella of
Speaker 2: this for profit business being created by the pediator et cetera,
Speaker 2: et cetera, et cetera, with the investment fund from the
Speaker 2: public investment fund. Okay, we thought there was going to
Speaker 2: be some sort of marriage of the clans, right of
Speaker 2: the two sides. But this is like another This is
Speaker 2: a great example of when you're trying to understand things
Speaker 2: in real time.
Speaker 3: I'm like, wait a second, does rom doing this? Is
Speaker 3: that good for the framework deal? Is that bad for
Speaker 3: the good Dad? I just like, I don't pretend to
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm not a smart man. I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't know. And to me, it.
Speaker 2: Feels like if it changes the valuation of live without
Speaker 2: question beyond just the money that is going to Ram,
Speaker 2: it changes the valuation of the brand to have him
Speaker 2: associate with it. And then you've spent multiple months trying
Speaker 2: to come up with valuations for both the PGA Tour,
Speaker 2: all of its properties and live and all of its holdings.
Speaker 2: So this changes all of that, and the deadline is
Speaker 2: kind of on the clock here.
Speaker 1: If you're a regular listener to the pod, you know
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Speaker 1: your daily health and fitness regiment. There is an argument
Speaker 1: I think you can make that both both the tours
Speaker 1: as they are today are as strong as their biggest players.
Speaker 1: Because the PGA Tour, just like the Knock against Live
Speaker 1: as everybody goes, I don't even know half the people
Speaker 1: who are playing. But there is a large contingent of
Speaker 1: players playing on the PGA Tour that could walk into
Speaker 1: a restaurant and you not know where they are. And
Speaker 1: I think in a lot of ways, golfers fly under
Speaker 1: the radar like that, because if you're six foot eight
Speaker 1: and you're in great shape and you show up in
Speaker 1: e Bentley to a restaurant and you've got all the
Speaker 1: blade and the ice on, more than likely someone's gonna
Speaker 1: go I'm guessing that guy plays professional sports of some right.
Speaker 1: If you just walk in and you're like when Christian
Speaker 1: McCaffrey walks into a people are are they don't. That's
Speaker 1: not a normal guy, That's not normal, right, So golfers,
Speaker 1: I think I have had a lot of anonymity by
Speaker 1: the sport. Right up until Tiger. It wasn't athletic, it
Speaker 1: wasn't seen to be athletic. You know, nobody was in shape.
Speaker 1: It was a bunch of old people and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But do you think that because if if Rom does
Speaker 1: go to live, it's Rom, it's Phil, it's Brooks, it's DJ,
Speaker 1: it's camp Smith, it's Bryson, it's Sergio, right, they're kind
Speaker 1: of the big ones, and then there's a bunch of
Speaker 1: other ones. If you're a golf fan, you might know
Speaker 1: who they are. But if you aren't a diehard golf fan,
Speaker 1: you might know that. But like I said, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of people, you know, these these opposite field events
Speaker 1: mississip it be and that's only gonna get worse now.
Speaker 1: And we have already been hearing from some people on
Speaker 1: the PGA to or that it seems like there's a cast,
Speaker 1: there's a there's a there's a two class system. There's
Speaker 1: the haves and the have nots. And so do you
Speaker 1: think that there's a case to be made that if
Speaker 1: you look at if Rom were to go, if you
Speaker 1: look at the stars, are they getting closer from an
Speaker 1: amount from a.
Speaker 2: Maybe who they say it's it depends on how you
Speaker 2: look at You can almost look at it inside out too,
Speaker 2: where it's like when when I say that the game
Speaker 2: is fractured, just Rom going to live. I don't think
Speaker 2: magically is gonna make people wake up on a Saturday
Speaker 2: or Sunday morning and be like, holy shit, I got sorry,
Speaker 2: I just clap in your mi like holy shit, I
Speaker 2: gotta watch John Rom today. I'm sure there's people in
Speaker 2: Spain who feel that way, and I'm sure there are
Speaker 2: some fans who do, but the large public, he just
Speaker 2: doesn't have that much sway. I don't know if anyone does.
Speaker 2: So here's the thing, what guy going I don't look
Speaker 2: at it as the like that much tilt on the scale.
Speaker 2: I look at it as that him going over there
Speaker 2: does make that product slightly smaller. I still don't think
Speaker 2: anyone particularly is going to be.
Speaker 3: Crawling to the.
Speaker 2: Remote to make sure that they are watching every week.
Speaker 2: The PGA Tour is getting more and more water down though,
Speaker 2: like the tour needs to have all of the best
Speaker 2: players there just to get any just to get casuals
Speaker 2: to watch on a weekly basis. So now you have
Speaker 2: a scenario where say there's two tournaments happening at the
Speaker 2: same time, which will happen multiple times this year, Well,
Speaker 2: you know, the tours.
Speaker 3: A little bit watered down.
Speaker 2: And I'm not a big fan of live now I'm
Speaker 2: watching no golf, you know, and there are a lot
Speaker 2: of casuals.
Speaker 3: I know people listening to this are not.
Speaker 1: People listening to this are golf fans. And so take
Speaker 1: your journalist hat off. We think the average golf fan
Speaker 1: now thinks about the professional game.
Speaker 2: I think they're sick of the conversation. I think they
Speaker 2: see a lot of entitlement on all sides. I think
Speaker 2: none of these guys are relatable anymore.
Speaker 3: I think the people are just bored with the con
Speaker 3: It was. It was kind of sexy and weird.
Speaker 2: Right in the beginning, but now it's just like, all right, man,
Speaker 2: like this two years of this, there's still nothing. They're
Speaker 2: still just you know, pissing on each other's legs and
Speaker 2: arguing over money, and and none of.
Speaker 3: Them steal each other's girl, is right.
Speaker 2: It feels like like a high school fight, right, like
Speaker 2: like the two sides of these dudes, who are you know,
Speaker 2: just kind of going at it like it's just old
Speaker 2: and tired, and there are so many options, right, Like
Speaker 2: this is a football country. Everyone's watching football right.
Speaker 3: Now, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Is a football country.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're going to turn on the Masters and
Speaker 2: say who's playing where, and they're going to get caught
Speaker 2: up on it. I just think my buddies back home,
Speaker 2: I live in Detroit, I play with like we are
Speaker 2: public golf course guys, right, we have like our one
Speaker 2: trip a year, like that's our group, right, And you
Speaker 2: know they follow along with the rumors and send me
Speaker 2: texts of like.
Speaker 3: Man, is this real? Is rom going? And I'm like,
Speaker 3: I don't know, probably to but.
Speaker 2: I think that's most people where there's no appeal to
Speaker 2: any of this is there.
Speaker 1: I think the only thing that I see is to
Speaker 1: me this this happens. What's happening currently between the PJ
Speaker 1: Tour and Live. You know, the people at the Country,
Speaker 1: the club that I work at, the finance people, They're like,
Speaker 1: I don't understand what the big deal is. This happens
Speaker 1: literally every single day in the business world. Companies, no competition.
Speaker 1: Somebody you see a company that's vulnerable, you try and
Speaker 1: buy them, they say no. Then you hear the guys
Speaker 1: going through divorce, and you go, well, hey, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: are you interested in selling?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: No competition, but this happened. I mean Dan Rappaport I
Speaker 1: saw where Taylor Gooch now has left the Range Goats
Speaker 1: and gone to Smash and he's like, you never need
Speaker 1: to know the lack of legitimacy for Live. When the
Speaker 1: best player in the league goes to another team. I'm like,
Speaker 1: that happens all the time, like pitchers in baseball. When
Speaker 1: the side Garrett, the guy that played for the Astros
Speaker 1: they won the World Series, Garrett Wilson, Garrett, I can't remember,
Speaker 1: but he was playing for the Astros, Cy Young getting
Speaker 1: paid a ton. The following year, they had a great year.
Speaker 1: The following years at the Yankees try they paid more money,
Speaker 1: they paid more money. And I guess being inside the
Speaker 1: sport and being part of athletes, I've always I haven't
Speaker 1: had an issue what's going on with live because I
Speaker 1: am pro athlete, because I work for athletes. I work
Speaker 1: for golfers, so I am a hired gun to professional golfers.
Speaker 1: And I think that professional athletes, whether they're golfers, baseball,
Speaker 1: but whatever, like everybody else in every other walk of
Speaker 1: life and business, should have the opportunity and should be
Speaker 1: able to make a choice to make as much.
Speaker 3: Money as they want with that question.
Speaker 1: That happens in every other walk of life. And I've
Speaker 1: been fascinated as watching this happen for two years, and
Speaker 1: I've always thought this about golf, and I think we're
Speaker 1: in a stage right now crazy. You know the live rumors,
Speaker 1: you know the John Romrouvers, the ball roll back and everybody.
Speaker 1: But it's always seemed to me like there has been
Speaker 1: this Truman Show utopian view of golf that golf has
Speaker 1: to be this evergreen concept and thought that it never changes, right,
Speaker 1: and it's the only thing in life that can't change.
Speaker 1: It has to stay the way it was in the
Speaker 1: fifties and sixties and all the rules and all the stuff.
Speaker 1: And I've always thought that at times golf can seem
Speaker 1: antiquated and archaic, and I don't think the sport grows
Speaker 1: if we have more courses where it's impossible to become
Speaker 1: a member right where you know there are only like
Speaker 1: if you look at a lot of the guys when
Speaker 1: you know when Jimmy Dunn and Ed hurleyhy are involved
Speaker 1: in all this stuff for professional golf, I mean, those
Speaker 1: guys are the golf illuminate. They're members at Cyprus Augusta
Speaker 1: Pine Valley, similar they are part of something that the
Speaker 1: majority of people in golf will never even be part of.
Speaker 1: And I do think that there are certain people in
Speaker 1: golf that are kind of the gatekeepers that, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: sometimes want golf to stay the way it was and
Speaker 1: the way their version of what it is should be
Speaker 1: And I don't think that. Does that happen in other sports.
Speaker 2: I'm maybe a little bit, you see a little bit
Speaker 2: in college sports. There are people who are just against name,
Speaker 2: image and likeness legislation and are just wow, we're.
Speaker 3: Paying these guys.
Speaker 2: And now it's all different and it's changed because it's
Speaker 2: not my version of college football. And it's just like
Speaker 2: and when I went to school, Hell, does it matter
Speaker 2: to you if this nineteen or twenty year old kid
Speaker 2: is able to make a car commercial and get.
Speaker 1: The universities making one hundred and fifteen, the coach is
Speaker 1: making fifteen million.
Speaker 3: Making ten million a year? What is the hashue?
Speaker 1: College coaches get paid a lot. They don't get paid
Speaker 1: as much as Jay Monahan does.
Speaker 2: Facts, but I think you do see it there though.
Speaker 2: There is this ideal of the college sports. Are these
Speaker 2: guys coming, they get their scholarships, They play for my
Speaker 2: school with that school's name across the tire, and that's
Speaker 2: all that matters. But when you tell them, oh, well
Speaker 2: the playing fields, that evening out a little bit. Now
Speaker 2: the kids are getting some money, they have control, they
Speaker 2: can go to whatever school they want, because guess what,
Speaker 2: the school doesn't matter They're just going to play their game,
Speaker 2: maybe go to some glasses, maybe get into I don't know,
Speaker 2: it's really up at this point.
Speaker 3: It's up to the athlete. If the kid wants to
Speaker 3: get a degree, then get a degree. They don't let
Speaker 3: me do it.
Speaker 2: But it is a pathway to the professional sports. So
Speaker 2: you see a lot of pushback there, and I think
Speaker 2: there's there's all kinds of stuff that goes into that
Speaker 2: of why so it's just people like college sports and
Speaker 2: other people. I just don't think like seeing kids get
Speaker 2: money and be entitled. So that's the closest comp that
Speaker 2: I can find. Now, it's obviously the other sport that
Speaker 2: I cover, so it's easy. But the difference that comes
Speaker 2: with professional golf though, at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: is that what is there to identify with in a
Speaker 2: professional golfer? Right, I'm from Philadelphia, so I'm an Eagles guy, Phillies.
Speaker 3: Six, right, So there's a lot of teams.
Speaker 2: I went to Saint Joe's University in Philadelphia, so Seeing
Speaker 2: Joe's is my school, so were the guys who play
Speaker 2: for those teams?
Speaker 3: Those are my guys, you know, And there's just nothing
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 1: And golf you have to pick an individual.
Speaker 3: They're just they're just people.
Speaker 1: You're a Rory guy, You're a j T guy, You're
Speaker 1: a DJ guy, whatever guy you are.
Speaker 3: Like, what's the is there?
Speaker 2: How many of those guys actually had like carry emotional
Speaker 2: attachments from their fans. Tiger did, But Tiger doesn't count.
Speaker 2: He's his own sport basically.
Speaker 3: But these guys, you.
Speaker 2: Know, everyone's just kind of along for the ride with them,
Speaker 2: but they're not living and dying. They're not you know,
Speaker 2: when if they blow it on a Sunday, that fan
Speaker 2: isn't waking up on Monday morning crushed for the next
Speaker 2: three days. The Eagles loose to the Cowboys this weekend,
Speaker 2: people filled up, You're gonna be pissed on Monday.
Speaker 3: It's it's different.
Speaker 2: So, you know, and live creating teams, that's not you know,
Speaker 2: people are not gonna ever have that attachment to those
Speaker 2: teams they're trying.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just don't.
Speaker 2: I just me personally, I just don't see that ever
Speaker 2: being a real thing. I like the team competition, but
Speaker 2: I don't think anyone's gonna ever be just ride or
Speaker 2: die for smash.
Speaker 1: That's just the rider die for smash. I'mna make a
Speaker 1: t I'm gonna tell Brooks to make a t shirt.
Speaker 1: Rid Er die for Smash. You mentioned Tiger Woods. Obviously
Speaker 1: Tiger didn't go to Live. I think Tiger basically right
Speaker 1: now is kind of the de facto. He and Roy
Speaker 1: are the face of the PGA Tour. In twenty twenty three,
Speaker 1: Tiger came back at the Hero last week his tournament
Speaker 1: said he's probably gonna play, you know, maybe once a month. Okay,
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three. Does the game of golf and
Speaker 1: the professional game of golf still need Tiger?
Speaker 3: I think so.
Speaker 2: I mean, does it like need it is an interesting
Speaker 2: way of putting it. I know they want in terms
Speaker 2: of moving the needle, in terms of still getting casuals
Speaker 2: to watch, in terms of getting extra attention.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it needs it. It's extremely cred I still think.
Speaker 1: That one of the knock on lives, and you mentioned it. Listen,
Speaker 1: the team nobody cares. I'm not gonna get involved in that.
Speaker 1: A lot of people say, listen, I just I don't care.
Speaker 1: I don't care who's playing it. I'm not gonna watch.
Speaker 1: You still think that the casual, not die Hard, but
Speaker 1: the casual golf fan and the casual non golf fan
Speaker 1: will tune in. If Tiger Woods teased up at.
Speaker 2: Riviera, I think they're more likely to. And if he
Speaker 2: can do anything, the people are gonna pay attention to it.
Speaker 2: I don't really care anymore because I just don't think
Speaker 2: it's a really competitive venture anymore. But you know, people
Speaker 2: will come out, people will buy a ticket, ask Rivier
Speaker 2: if they want Tiger to play, you know, I mean
Speaker 2: it getting people to come out and physically spend money.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But there's also I've always thought at this point
Speaker 1: there's an argument to be made for Tiger because his
Speaker 1: body is where it is now. He's only going to
Speaker 1: play a very very limited schedule, right, So the question
Speaker 1: is can he get the momentum he needs to be
Speaker 1: competitive again, and obviously he's going to be competitive in
Speaker 1: the majors or at this point is it Michael Jackson
Speaker 1: in sal Polo in front of three hundred thousand people saying,
Speaker 1: this is my new this is the song off my
Speaker 1: new album, and Everyody's going just play PYT and Thriller
Speaker 1: totally nobody. And I think Tiger was such an unbelievable
Speaker 1: golfer that he has spoiled us so much that I
Speaker 1: think everybody still expects him to do what he did
Speaker 1: in the.
Speaker 2: Day, right, And I was kind of curious to see
Speaker 2: TGL just because I mean literally, you asked me, does
Speaker 2: golf need Tiger? I don't know, but I do know
Speaker 2: that an entire professional league was created just basically to
Speaker 2: allow Tiger Woods to hit golf shots on television?
Speaker 1: Right, does golf need something like the TGL?
Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't know who's watching that. I
Speaker 3: maybe I just it's to me. Do I care?
Speaker 2: I don't know, And I know some people over there,
Speaker 2: so like I feel bad saying this, but like I
Speaker 2: just have zero interest in watching. And I live in Michigan,
Speaker 2: like I have to play in simulators, you know, But
Speaker 2: I just don't know if it's.
Speaker 3: If it's like a real thing. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Maybe I'm not a big enough golf fan to be
Speaker 2: perfectly honest with you. But what does it do for anybody?
Speaker 1: Put your journalist's hat back on? Okay, next year, at
Speaker 1: this time, on this day, What the hell do you
Speaker 1: think this looks like? What do you think and what
Speaker 1: would you want it to look like? But first of all,
Speaker 1: what do you think happens? Do you think that we
Speaker 1: spend another year of just this dangling of a carrot,
Speaker 1: that maybe there's a daytant that maybe we can get
Speaker 1: everybody together. Does maybe live if John Rahm goes to
Speaker 1: more players follow, does this all just become one big
Speaker 1: Morgas board of.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it gets worse.
Speaker 2: This is totally a guess, right, This is not based
Speaker 2: on like, oh I've got some secret conversations, not that.
Speaker 2: This is my absolute guess is that the framework fractures,
Speaker 2: Live doubles down more money.
Speaker 1: So if the framework goes away, you you see, y'alls
Speaker 1: are going.
Speaker 3: What are they gonna do?
Speaker 1: I'm gonna push back all.
Speaker 2: Where they going to pack it up? Yeah, there's no true.
Speaker 2: They're too deep. They're too deep, right, This is the
Speaker 2: it And that's based on reporting when I was at
Speaker 2: I went to the event at the Ral and I
Speaker 2: left there confident that if this thing, if the framework
Speaker 2: doesn't go through and it is just still two separate entities,
Speaker 2: that what are they would they ever realistically pack it
Speaker 2: up and just be like, well, I guess you know,
Speaker 2: tip the cap PGA tour. That doesn't happen in this world.
Speaker 2: They have too much money, So who's.
Speaker 1: The commissioner next year.
Speaker 3: That was gonna be the other part.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, fractures the side split. I don't
Speaker 2: think Jay would survive. Why that, you know, lack of
Speaker 2: confidence amongst the players.
Speaker 1: If you're a player on the PGA Tour, whether you're
Speaker 1: a big player, do you think it's different if you're
Speaker 1: a superstar versus non superstar? Your opinion of Jay Monahan
Speaker 1: at this point, I mean, is Justin Thomas's opinion of
Speaker 1: Jay Monahan. Is Roy McElroy's opinion of Jay Monahan different than.
Speaker 2: I think those guys at least, I think those guys
Speaker 2: at least feel like Ted Podd Jr. Those guys at
Speaker 2: least feel like he has to take their call and
Speaker 2: answer to them to a degree, right, Like they still
Speaker 2: have weight. Those other guys you have, they just they're
Speaker 2: along for the ride. They don't have weight. And guess what,
Speaker 2: the the notion that they should to me is crazy, okay,
Speaker 2: because go cover professional sports and go ask the tenth, twelfth,
Speaker 2: fourteenth guy in the NBA locker room. You know, if
Speaker 2: the owner really cares about their opinion, and that's that's
Speaker 2: just just the way professional sports.
Speaker 1: There's about Lebron's opinion exactly.
Speaker 2: So I think to your question, yeah, like Jay knows
Speaker 2: that he has to you know, play Kate. Answer to
Speaker 2: those guys that you're talking, those those small, those few
Speaker 2: which could get fewer big time voices, and those guys,
Speaker 2: I think that they the more the worse this gets,
Speaker 2: the more power they have, the more power they have,
Speaker 2: the more options they have to be able to pick their.
Speaker 3: Own new leader.
Speaker 2: They're going to have an extra seat on the board.
Speaker 2: They now rank the independence. So why couldn't this be
Speaker 2: a player led not revolt, that's not the right word,
Speaker 2: but a player led.
Speaker 3: Coops say, you're out. Do you have a.
Speaker 1: Problem with the players being more involved with how professional
Speaker 1: golf is run? Because some people do. Some people say
Speaker 1: this is basically the mark of the end because the
Speaker 1: players will now just basically say listen, it's all all
Speaker 1: about us. Will take all the money. And we've heard
Speaker 1: that in you hear that sometimes in the NFL. You
Speaker 1: hear that sometimes. And it's a players league, right. But
Speaker 1: the owners, I mean, I work at a club, my club,
Speaker 1: I've had them on the podcast. Jim Craney owns Houston Astros.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's what the players want, And then I
Speaker 1: spend a lot of time around Jim and I listened
Speaker 1: to what he wants as an owner, as someone that
Speaker 1: wants to return on his investment, right as the one
Speaker 1: that put up the money to buy the team. I
Speaker 1: think there's a really great story that during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: one of the players, Jim was playing with one of
Speaker 1: the players, and it was when the players were in
Speaker 1: baseball were saying, you know, we we should still get
Speaker 1: part of our salary and stuff like this, and I
Speaker 1: think one of the players, it was a big player
Speaker 1: for the Astros, said to Jim they were playing golf
Speaker 1: during the pandemic in Houston, I mean in Florida, and
Speaker 1: he said, you know what, you bought the team for?
Speaker 1: How much? And how much is it worth? Now? You know?
Speaker 1: Jim turned around and said to him, go buy your
Speaker 1: own team. Then, yeah, go get six hundred million dollars,
Speaker 1: go raise it, Go buy your own franchise. Then you
Speaker 1: make all the decisions you want. But until you can
Speaker 1: go pony up and get six hundred million to go
Speaker 1: buy a franchise, you're making forty mm hmm.
Speaker 2: Right, Well, I would count the question with this, like,
Speaker 2: once there's outside investment my end, you are seeding control? Yes, right,
Speaker 2: so it there. The money that these players want to
Speaker 2: make has to come from somewhere. So if they want
Speaker 2: to play for all these all these millions of dollars
Speaker 2: and get all these endorsements and all this stuff, well
Speaker 2: that has to come from somewhere. And to get it
Speaker 2: from somewhere, you have to seed a degree of control.
Speaker 2: Like they're say, the framework actually went through, okay, and
Speaker 2: this for profit business is me Are they under the
Speaker 2: impression that they still just get to call their own
Speaker 2: shots or all this stuff? Do we just think that
Speaker 2: the public Investment fund is just going to be like,
Speaker 2: here's three billion have fun. Yeah, you know, like no.
Speaker 1: I thought that was good. I mean I had players,
Speaker 1: you know, I had players from the PGA tour. I
Speaker 1: had people involved in, you know, broadcasting the PJ tour.
Speaker 1: When the framework happened, they all said it was fun
Speaker 1: while it lasted. But you guys are toast. Now Jay's
Speaker 1: going to get rid of Live And I'm thinking I've
Speaker 1: gotten to know Yelsa pretty well over the last four
Speaker 1: or five years, both professionally and spent some time with
Speaker 1: him privately. I'm thinking I don't think someone's going to
Speaker 1: give you three to ten billion dollars and say have
Speaker 1: at it and whatever you want to do. I'm good
Speaker 1: with that. Yeah, I just don't see that happening.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that was very much. I mean, the tour
Speaker 2: was pushing that hard when that agreement was was finalized,
Speaker 2: you know, finalized in air quotes, because obviously we know
Speaker 2: it wasn't finalized. But you know, the day those two
Speaker 2: are on CNBC, Man, the back channels were already cooking
Speaker 2: with the narrative.
Speaker 1: When that when they're in control when that day happened.
Speaker 1: Did you think you were getting punked? Did you think
Speaker 1: it was real? I got a text I was driving
Speaker 1: I've just left the gym. I was driving up to work,
Speaker 1: and someone sent that to me. I'm like and I'm like,
Speaker 1: that's not real. And then five seconds later my phone
Speaker 1: just went yeah, and I was just like.
Speaker 3: What, yep, were you surprised?
Speaker 2: I was in I was in Philadelphia visiting my father
Speaker 2: and had a flight out at like seven pm that day,
Speaker 2: and it was what nine o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 3: Or something, and.
Speaker 2: I was so caught off guard and so just kind
Speaker 2: of like reactionary. I said, not only do I need
Speaker 2: and not only do I have to leave Dad, sorry,
Speaker 2: but like I gotta go home. I need to be
Speaker 2: at my desk cause this day is gone to hell.
Speaker 2: And I looked it up and there was a flight
Speaker 2: leaving in like fifty minutes, and I just hauled as
Speaker 2: to the airport and just got on a plane and
Speaker 2: went back to Detroit and was at my desk and
Speaker 2: on the phone for the next you know, as you know,
Speaker 2: fifteen hours or whatever. And yeah, I mean it was.
Speaker 2: It was so preposterous to see the two of them
Speaker 2: sitting next to each other acting like this was a
Speaker 2: normal situation to be Like.
Speaker 1: Well, I think that situation, I mean, I know both
Speaker 1: of them. I think the situation was way more normal
Speaker 1: for Yaser than it was for j Yosters used to
Speaker 1: doing shit like that all the time.
Speaker 3: Sure, but they had been and they had been talking
Speaker 3: for weeks, and a Jay I think had come to
Speaker 3: the point of being accepting.
Speaker 1: Because Yoster had always wanted totally to get involved in
Speaker 1: the PGA tour. You know, I went to the Saudi
Speaker 1: International when it launched on the European tour in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: I have an academy in Dubai and we teach the
Speaker 1: Saudi national team, so I knew all the guys there.
Speaker 1: They invited me over. Keith Pelly was there from the
Speaker 1: European Tour. He was announcing how great it was going
Speaker 1: to be for the European Tour, and I saw Jay
Speaker 1: I think at the at the Players Championship a couple
Speaker 1: of hours, like, dude, talk to him. They want to
Speaker 1: be involved, they want to invest in professional golf, and
Speaker 1: you know, for whatever reason, that didn't happen. Lastly, lastly, can.
Speaker 3: I ask you if you think the Framework Agreement's going
Speaker 3: to get done.
Speaker 1: Now? I don't think it gets done because I just
Speaker 1: think that there are too many people that see the
Speaker 1: Saudi's involvement as something sinister, as ulterior motives. And having
Speaker 1: spent a good chunk of my adult life living in
Speaker 1: the Middle East, you know, I lived in Dubai for
Speaker 1: three years, and you know, when you look in my opinion,
Speaker 1: taking away all of the geopolitical elements of it, right
Speaker 1: just from a shear what I think they're trying to do.
Speaker 1: I think they look at their population, which the majority
Speaker 1: of it is under the age of forty to fifty,
Speaker 1: and they look at Dubai and most people only know
Speaker 1: about Dubai because of golf. A lot of people know
Speaker 1: about Dubai because of golf. Now, in the last five years,
Speaker 1: maybe Dubai's become but there was a big period of
Speaker 1: time to where people like Tiger Woods and Freddie Couples
Speaker 1: and Greg Norman and the American golfers that went over
Speaker 1: there kind of put Dubai on the map. And I
Speaker 1: think what the Saudis are doing, And you know, Randal
Speaker 1: continues to call this sports washing, but I think what
Speaker 1: they're trying to figure out is how can we use
Speaker 1: sports as a vehicle to bring tourism in to do
Speaker 1: other things. I'm not a politician, right, so and the
Speaker 1: barstool guys and the no laying up guys love to
Speaker 1: use at all. Anybody that said they're not a politician's
Speaker 1: gone to live. I'm like, well, are you guys politicians?
Speaker 1: Are you guys in politics? You guys are doing podcasts
Speaker 1: right And I just I've been to Saudi every year
Speaker 1: multiple times for the last five years, and everybody that
Speaker 1: I've met involved and from the golf standpoint, loves golf.
Speaker 1: They want golf to be a part of what they're doing,
Speaker 1: but I don't think the framework gets done because I
Speaker 1: just think there is a core group of people that
Speaker 1: just fundamentally, like you said, they don't want to see
Speaker 1: the power and they see that if they do a
Speaker 1: deal with the PIF, with Yaser and the Saudi, is
Speaker 1: it some it's a power struggle and they're losing. I
Speaker 1: think it's I think it's been good for golf because
Speaker 1: I think it's made everybody involved in professional golf somewhat
Speaker 1: wake up, because I think the system's been broken for
Speaker 1: a long time. The tour knows the system's broken, the
Speaker 1: agents know the system's broken, and the players know it's broken.
Speaker 1: But the agents all say to the players, listen, if
Speaker 1: you guys want to change this one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy high aver any people on the PGA Tour,
Speaker 1: you guys can vote. But nothing ever significant has ever
Speaker 1: really come out of the pack, right. There hasn't been
Speaker 1: anything that has been, you know, breaking, breaking news, and
Speaker 1: so I just think that maybe they gotten complacent and
Speaker 1: the players felt like they looked at other sports. I mean,
Speaker 1: I remember when DJ we were at Memphis and Steph
Speaker 1: Curry signed his new deal and DJ it was he won,
Speaker 1: so he just had, you know, amazing year that you won,
Speaker 1: you know, fifteen sixteen million dollars And we're sitting at
Speaker 1: dinner and he's like, well, at least I made more
Speaker 1: money than the commissioner of the tour this year last year.
Speaker 1: And he's like, that doesn't happen in other sports, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, Roger Goodell gets paid on a par with
Speaker 1: what Patrick Mahomes gets paid. He doesn't get paid exponentially
Speaker 1: more than the superstars. But in golf, for a long time,
Speaker 1: I think there has been a little bit of difference.
Speaker 1: But I just think that I think competition is good,
Speaker 1: and I think that if the PGA Tour, pivots and
Speaker 1: their product changes and gets better, and I think the
Speaker 1: majors now hold all the cards, right, yeah, the majors. Oh,
Speaker 1: you know, you've got to be a die hard, die
Speaker 1: hard tennis fan to know, namely five other tournaments Roger
Speaker 1: fetters one other than Wimbledon, the French, the US and
Speaker 1: the Aussie Open. You've got to be I mean, tennis
Speaker 1: has to be part of your DNA. And I think
Speaker 1: that the majors now will only become bigger.
Speaker 3: Yeah, one of the things that just will never go away.
Speaker 2: As the primary issue is that, like, if you were
Speaker 2: designing professional golf, now no one I related to the
Speaker 2: NC double A. If you were creating college sports, nobody
Speaker 2: would have ever created the model today that they created,
Speaker 2: that was created, and that it what it kind of
Speaker 2: formed into and just or devolved into or whatever you
Speaker 2: want to say, Like it just became this preposterous version
Speaker 2: of what it started out as. That's professional golf. It's
Speaker 2: the same. And you can't you can't undo the paste
Speaker 2: done right, Like you know, like the in college football,
Speaker 2: they kicked the can down the road on a playoff
Speaker 2: for all these years because they were beholden to these
Speaker 2: ridiculous bowls, keeping these bowls happy and all the ye
Speaker 2: we answered to the Rose Bull. It's like, why do
Speaker 2: you answer to the Rose Bowl? You know, who gives
Speaker 2: a shit? And and these in the in the tour,
Speaker 2: you know, we have to worry about this a tournament
Speaker 2: that sponsor and this and that, and you're like, you
Speaker 2: just can't. There's so many miles to feed and really
Speaker 2: that all that matters at the end of the day
Speaker 2: is guys competing against each other. But everything around it
Speaker 2: is just nothing.
Speaker 3: Makes sense.
Speaker 1: Brendan, thanks for talking us fascinating, fascinating times. Next year
Speaker 1: we're gonna get you back on and see if we
Speaker 1: were right. Ah, thanks for talking to us. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. Quote. So that was some really good stuff
Speaker 1: from Brendan. And listen. I mean we did this, uh,
Speaker 1: not knowing if John Rahm had officially signed with Live,
Speaker 1: but now that he has. Listen, depending on what side
Speaker 1: you're you're on, and you don't have to take a
Speaker 1: side I keep. I've been saying that a lot. It's
Speaker 1: just golf. You can watch golf wherever you want to
Speaker 1: go watch golf, but now that genre has gone to Live,
Speaker 1: I think it's a big deal. I think John Ram
Speaker 1: is arguably at any given time, the best player in
Speaker 1: the world. And I think when the best player in
Speaker 1: the you know, one of the best player I think,
Speaker 1: you know, you can make an argument when these guys
Speaker 1: are playing good. But Jon Ram is one of those
Speaker 1: players that when he is on and when he is
Speaker 1: playing at his best one four times last year including
Speaker 1: the Masters, there is an argument that you can make.
Speaker 1: And Jen Ram passes the eye test, uh for the
Speaker 1: best player in the world. So for Live to get
Speaker 1: someone who is arguably the best player in the world
Speaker 1: right now. He can go toe to toe with Rory,
Speaker 1: he can go toe to toe with Scotti Scheffler, he
Speaker 1: can go toe to toe with anybody on any tour
Speaker 1: anywhere in the world. And for all the things and
Speaker 1: for all the negative things that a lot of people
Speaker 1: say about Live, they just got John Rahm. And whether
Speaker 1: you like that, whether you don't like that, whether you
Speaker 1: think that's big, or whether you don't think that's big,
Speaker 1: one of, if not the best player in the world
Speaker 1: just chose to leave the PGA Tour. And I think
Speaker 1: that's significant. Now where this goes, how this plays out
Speaker 1: moving forward, I don't think anybody knows, but I do
Speaker 1: think that it is significant, and that is why I
Speaker 1: wanted to get brendan On to not only talk about
Speaker 1: that the rumors of that which turned out to be true,
Speaker 1: but also to talk about, Yeah, it's been crazy the
Speaker 1: last two years. I hope in twenty twenty four we
Speaker 1: all can just get back to talking about golf, golf
Speaker 1: on the golf course. I don't think that's gonna happen,
Speaker 1: because I still think there's a lot of moving parts,
Speaker 1: but it's going to be an interesting twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: and there were a lot of surprises in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three that a lot of people didn't see coming, and
Speaker 1: I think there's going to be more in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take a couple of weeks off for the holidays,
Speaker 1: heading out to Dubai to my academy, spend some time
Speaker 1: out there, and spend Christmas out there, but wishing all
Speaker 1: of you happy holidays, and we will see you all
Speaker 1: in the new year. Son of It, which comes to
Speaker 1: you every Wednesday listen. I can't thank everybody over the
Speaker 1: last two years that listens to the pod on a
Speaker 1: regular basis. It really does mean a lot to me.
Speaker 1: We've got a lot of cool stuff planned for twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four, a lot of cool guests that are going
Speaker 1: to be coming on, and we're going to keep doing
Speaker 1: what we do here at Son of a Bunch