Speaker 1: When you're in a sport and you know so much,
Speaker 1: the temptation is there.
Speaker 2: Sergio Garcia before he won the Masters, I heard the
Speaker 2: father in law gave him a big cage rattle like
Speaker 2: quit acting like the game, like owes you something, go
Speaker 2: out and earn it, like go win, like stop being
Speaker 2: such a little basically, And I was like, oh wow,
Speaker 2: that that might be exactly the pep talk that Sergio
Speaker 2: needed anyone the Masters and I benefited, you know, I
Speaker 2: mean that's I felt a little like, I mean, this
Speaker 2: is really good info.
Speaker 3: I got thoughts in my head. Can't get him not
Speaker 3: to think what I'm thinking about, thoughts in my head,
Speaker 3: can't get him out not to think, well, I'm thinking about.
Speaker 1: Hello, this is Alan Chipnook back for another fire podcast.
Speaker 1: I am in Denver, Colorado for the US amateur Matt Janella.
Speaker 1: After a long sojournto Ireland is back in Oceanside at
Speaker 1: Firepit World headquarters. Welcome home. Man.
Speaker 2: To say it's been a rough re entry into reality
Speaker 2: would be a complete and total understatement. Thirty one hours
Speaker 2: from Waterville, the Villa Maria little hotel in the middle
Speaker 2: of town. Bus Shannon JFK mechanical troubles La Uber de
Speaker 2: San Diego home thirty one hours later, and yeah, yesterday
Speaker 2: I was borderline coma.
Speaker 1: Well, thanks for shaking over the cop Yeah, thanks for
Speaker 1: shaking off the cob webs here for our listeners. So
Speaker 1: we thought today would be a little bit of a
Speaker 1: state of the fire pit. There's a lot going on here.
Speaker 1: I've been living the amateur life. I was at bel
Speaker 1: Air Country for the Women's Amateur. I'll be Cherry Hills
Speaker 1: this week for the US Amateur. And we want to
Speaker 1: talk a little about the Ireland trip, and we thought
Speaker 1: we'd relive some of the fallout from our Billy Walters
Speaker 1: excerpt last week. We kind of podcasted as it dropped.
Speaker 1: But it's been a very eventful you know, basically six
Speaker 1: days since then, so let's get into it. But I
Speaker 1: will say, you know, and I was writing every day
Speaker 1: for Firepak Collective dot com from bell Air and it
Speaker 1: was just so refreshing to be at a at a
Speaker 1: high level amateur event. I've been as people probably know,
Speaker 1: I've been covering this war between the PGA Tour and
Speaker 1: live golf, and while it's been fascinating, it's also just
Speaker 1: all about the money, and everyone sueing each other or
Speaker 1: they were, and all the bitchiness and all the name
Speaker 1: calling and the mud slinging, and the overwhelming feeling at
Speaker 1: bell Air was just sort of joy and gratitude. And
Speaker 1: these young women were just so delight to be on this,
Speaker 1: this really fascinating golf course, to be in LA with
Speaker 1: all the excitement and competing for a national championship, and
Speaker 1: it was just an absolute like palate cleanser. And you know,
Speaker 1: I have no doubt this week that the Westampster is
Speaker 1: gonna be the same. So it's been. It's been a nice,
Speaker 1: nice break, nice change of scenery.
Speaker 2: And I want to know, I want to know more
Speaker 2: about it. I will say on the subject of money, Uh,
Speaker 2: just in order in order for us to pay some
Speaker 2: of our bills.
Speaker 1: Yes, I want to thanks thank.
Speaker 2: Some of the sponsors that we have not only a
Speaker 2: part of the Fire Drill but also the Fire Pit Podcast,
Speaker 2: but also just a sponsor and supporter of everything we
Speaker 2: do here at the Fire Pit Collective. And that's first
Speaker 2: Dormy Workshop, which as you know, is an incredible golf
Speaker 2: family business based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where all they
Speaker 2: do is make quality leather headcovers and accessories. As you know,
Speaker 2: Ali found the Bishop Brothers at the PJ Merchandise Show
Speaker 2: almost ten years ago, been promoting their people and products
Speaker 2: ever since. Go to dorm Workshop dot com and use
Speaker 2: promo code fire Pit fifteen for fifteen percent off your
Speaker 2: next purchase. Or go to the pit shop at Firepitcollective
Speaker 2: dot com and order one of our exclusive Dormy Workshop
Speaker 2: headcovers or stash bags.
Speaker 1: Plus.
Speaker 2: Link Sol is a big sponsor of everything we do.
Speaker 2: We have a much more immersive relationship going forward as
Speaker 2: of recently. In fact, John Ashworth is now sharing some
Speaker 2: of our office space here in Oceanside. And you know
Speaker 2: we play all of our home golf at Goathillpark, all
Speaker 2: that he's done up there, any and all things link Soul,
Speaker 2: John Ashworth Goatthillpark. We're a big fan of supporter of
Speaker 2: Go to linksoul dot com and use fire Pit twenty
Speaker 2: five for twenty five percent off your next purchase of
Speaker 2: all things link Soul. On that note, Al, I mean,
Speaker 2: you know that comparison and contrast of ProLife versus am life,
Speaker 2: and that refreshing kind of of look at not only
Speaker 2: you know, amateur golf but specifically women's amateur golf at
Speaker 2: a place like bel Air. What are your kind of
Speaker 2: big big takeaways.
Speaker 1: Well, one of the things, and this is I'm not
Speaker 1: breaking new ground here, but to see it up close
Speaker 1: in personal and such intimate setting, is how much more
Speaker 1: fun it is to watch the top women play an
Speaker 1: old classic golf course because they can't blow it over
Speaker 1: every bunker and every dog leg, and they don't hit
Speaker 1: it so high that it just stops dead on the
Speaker 1: green like they really do have to play the dog legs.
Speaker 1: They have to use the contours of the green, they
Speaker 1: have to use the ground more. It's just so pleasing
Speaker 1: esthetically to watch. And I'd played bel Air once since
Speaker 1: the Tom Doak restoration. It really came away with a
Speaker 1: new love and appreciation for it because they it was
Speaker 1: a race track. I mean, they'd shave the grass down everywhere,
Speaker 1: and so it really brought out the contours around the
Speaker 1: green and so the recovery shots were fascinating. Like just
Speaker 1: and again, you know, I think that the top male
Speaker 1: pros and even amateurs, they can impart so much spin
Speaker 1: even in the short game, and they just kind of
Speaker 1: throw it up in the air and stop it by
Speaker 1: the hole and that's cool. It's fun to watch, but
Speaker 1: you know, there's fifteen sixteen seventeen year old girls out
Speaker 1: there playing in the US Women's Amateur and they don't
Speaker 1: have that kind of strength, and so it's much more
Speaker 1: about bumping it into the slopes and feeding it off
Speaker 1: of the hills. And it was just super fun to watch,
Speaker 1: So that aspect of it was great. And you know,
Speaker 1: Rachel Heck was one of the stars of the week
Speaker 1: from Stanford and she's just such a breath of fresh air.
Speaker 1: I mean, she was coming in straight from rotc training
Speaker 1: at the Air Force, didn't touch a club or her
Speaker 1: phone for eighteen days and was absolute grunt, you know,
Speaker 1: doing pre dawn jogs and all the things you've seen
Speaker 1: in the movies. And previous to that, she'd had, you know,
Speaker 1: surgery to remove a rib because she had this very
Speaker 1: unusual disorder that was affecting her nerves. And so she
Speaker 1: played one round of golf since October competitively, and she
Speaker 1: was just so happy to be there and every and
Speaker 1: she just every win was a blessing and I mean
Speaker 1: she's like my new life coach. Talking to her, it
Speaker 1: was great. She just has such a fantastic perspective on life,
Speaker 1: and she knows.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm I'm out on the life coaching is that.
Speaker 1: That you're You're my backup like ill you know, and
Speaker 1: I need to go to the bullpen, I'll signal the right hand.
Speaker 1: Uh uh so that makes it right making. She was
Speaker 1: a delight and you know, the champ for Megan Schoolfield
Speaker 1: was of Auburn just really naturally fun, funny personality and
Speaker 1: she was like the other finalists, Latana Stoone, they were
Speaker 1: both fifth year They've they've had long journeys in college.
Speaker 1: Both have had very nice careers but never had a
Speaker 1: big breakthrough of this level, and so it just meant
Speaker 1: so much to them. I mean, Schofield she burst into
Speaker 1: tears after winning her semi final match, so just the
Speaker 1: relief and the happiness, and she was a mess after
Speaker 1: the championship match. It was just so sweet, you know,
Speaker 1: talking about her parents and her college coaches who took
Speaker 1: a chance on her, and it's just great. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's really it's really a joy to be around that energy.
Speaker 1: And uh, I think everyone who was watched on TV
Speaker 1: or those who made the trek out to Bela or
Speaker 1: just came away with a new appreciation for how good
Speaker 1: these players are, how funn it is to watch golf
Speaker 1: at that level, and and just the good vibes of
Speaker 1: the amateur game.
Speaker 2: Is that the fifth year senior stuff is that is
Speaker 2: at all pretty pretty a direct sort of riple effect
Speaker 2: of COVID.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they did grant all the players the ability to
Speaker 1: take a fifth year if they wanted it, and a
Speaker 1: lot of them have and like they're getting there, Stone
Speaker 1: and Schofield, the two fives, they're getting master's degrees, like
Speaker 1: you know, they're they're really taking advanceage of it. And
Speaker 1: it was interesting the final four players. There was a
Speaker 1: third fifth year player out of Michigan and then Heck
Speaker 1: is in her fourth year, and that was an interesting
Speaker 1: part of the week. Is kind of a subtext to
Speaker 1: this is not only the COVID stuff, but also the
Speaker 1: arrival of ni L the name, image, likeness, money. The
Speaker 1: top players now are not incentivized to go to the
Speaker 1: LPGA or you know, Heck could have turned pro two
Speaker 1: years ago she wanted to, and would have been would
Speaker 1: have been coveted in the marketplace. But she has various
Speaker 1: deals that are giving her a nice cushion and take
Speaker 1: away any of the injury risk. And she's not even
Speaker 1: sure she wants to turn pro. We talked about she said,
Speaker 1: I'll probably try and see how it goes, but you know,
Speaker 1: I'll have a Stanford degree and I'll have a lot
Speaker 1: of options, and I'm just gonna take it as it comes.
Speaker 1: And an interesting subtext to that is that the the
Speaker 1: international players, because they're on student visas in the United States,
Speaker 1: cannot take nil money. It's it's kind of a violation
Speaker 1: of the visa the way it's worded. So fifteen of
Speaker 1: the sixteen quarter finalists at this Women's Amateur we're American
Speaker 1: and and in the last this century, almost every winner
Speaker 1: has been a teenager, and whereas all the two finalists
Speaker 1: were both you know, twenty two. And so I think
Speaker 1: you're going to see a change in the women's amateur
Speaker 1: where it's going to be more heavily American and it's
Speaker 1: going to be older. These players who stick around for
Speaker 1: because of because of il money makes it an easy choice.
Speaker 1: So I think that's I think that's good for the championship. Yeah,
Speaker 1: these players, they've been around, you've kind of gone on
Speaker 1: there on this journey with them, especially in the case
Speaker 1: of Rachel Heck, who was his freshman phenom and then
Speaker 1: had two years of injury and it's now back like
Speaker 1: you're just more invested than in a seventeen year old
Speaker 1: who hasn't lived any life and hasn't been through any adversity.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think for for US fans, for
Speaker 1: better or for worse, you know, they kind of gravitate
Speaker 1: towards the American players. That's just where their rooting interest
Speaker 1: goes when they don't have a lot of history with
Speaker 1: the players. So I think it's good for the championship.
Speaker 1: It's it's going to be the demographics are changing, and
Speaker 1: it's been it's been forty years since any player mid
Speaker 1: am you know, to find is someone who's twenty five
Speaker 1: or older won the US Women's Amateur but and almost
Speaker 1: as long on the US amateur side. But I think
Speaker 1: you're gonna you're gonna have a lot more twenty two
Speaker 1: to twenty three year olds, which is getting creeping up
Speaker 1: on the midam's cutoff. So it's funny how how these
Speaker 1: market forces and big picture things affect these tournaments.
Speaker 2: I know we'll get into Ireland here in a second,
Speaker 2: but I was with Anya donegan at La Hinch just prior,
Speaker 2: you know, after the Women's US Opening, before she left
Speaker 2: for the Women's US Amateur, And that was a big
Speaker 2: part of our conversation. You know, here she was talking
Speaker 2: about a breakout star at Pebble Beach and how she
Speaker 2: kind of won the hearts of the golfing world with
Speaker 2: her first round sixty nine, her walk in talk on Friday,
Speaker 2: you know, all that she went through, you know, lost
Speaker 2: and then broken clubs coming into the Women's Open, you know,
Speaker 2: to talk about a breath of fresh air. I mean
Speaker 2: just just could not say more about being around her.
Speaker 2: But the big topic of conversation for her was, you know,
Speaker 2: now with all this business stuff coming at her and
Speaker 2: you know, potential opportunities, but then her going to school
Speaker 2: at LSU and not being able to get any nil
Speaker 2: money because of the visa she's on, She's had a
Speaker 2: huge disadvantage. You know, she comes from a small town,
Speaker 2: you know, in Ireland. You know, I know I know
Speaker 2: her parents, you know, work and stuff, but it's you know,
Speaker 2: I don't think they're very well off. And international travel
Speaker 2: and all the costs that go along with golf in general.
Speaker 2: I mean she you know, I just don't know how
Speaker 2: this all gets sorted, if and when it does, or ever.
Speaker 2: But to your point, I think us women, you know,
Speaker 2: us amateur golfers are going to be greatly benefiting from
Speaker 2: the NIL deals and the international players are at a
Speaker 2: huge disadvantage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean this, this, this could all change, of course,
Speaker 1: through some tweaks to the student visa language or advocacy
Speaker 1: by various groups. So it's not forever, but that's certainly
Speaker 1: the landscape right now. And I know Anya came into
Speaker 1: bel Air very late because of that, and she, you know,
Speaker 1: she never quite looked like she got her footing. And
Speaker 1: it's a heck of a long journey. It was. It
Speaker 1: was the wrong week to come in late because a
Speaker 1: lot of the players stayed with families of bel Air
Speaker 1: members and some unbelievable houses right there, and they were
Speaker 1: having the time of their life and they're in these
Speaker 1: mansions in bel Air and bopping around Los Angeles like
Speaker 1: Latana Stone her her host family had this murdered out
Speaker 1: Rolls Royce like Black Home Black. She was, you know,
Speaker 1: she was going to and from the golf tournament and
Speaker 1: it's like, I mean, it was just it was just
Speaker 1: a funny. There's there's a lot of nice clubs out there,
Speaker 1: but the Beller people like to like to show off,
Speaker 1: and so the cars and the houses. And I made
Speaker 1: a I made a joke on not a joke and
Speaker 1: observation on Twitter that got a lot of pickup because
Speaker 1: all the Beller members they got the club crest on
Speaker 1: their hat, their shirt, their belt, their socks. I mean
Speaker 1: we needed to yeah, fourteen club, you know limit in
Speaker 1: your in your bag. We needed like a two logo
Speaker 1: limit out there at bell Air because they were all
Speaker 1: in violation of it. But I will say the club
Speaker 1: did it. They were extremely welcoming like that. They did
Speaker 1: a great job. It's a very hilly golf course and
Speaker 1: they had an army of staffers out there and carts
Speaker 1: to just get fans around if you need it, if
Speaker 1: you needed a boost, and they were pulling. Everyone was
Speaker 1: carrying waters and there was a place where they had
Speaker 1: you know, cold towels you could cool off because there
Speaker 1: was some hot days. They were very hospitable. So I
Speaker 1: guess we'll allow them the logos because they did a
Speaker 1: nice job with the fans.
Speaker 2: I was saying to Anya Man coming in on Friday
Speaker 2: before I'm dealing with the jet lag of coming west
Speaker 2: on that far of a trip, you know, from Ireland
Speaker 2: to the West coast, eight hour difference, that's a real thing.
Speaker 2: And for her to get in and have to turn
Speaker 2: around and adjust to that and also play that, you know,
Speaker 2: play an unfamiliar golf course, there was a lot stacked
Speaker 2: against her. I tried to put her in touch with
Speaker 2: Gunner Weby, son of Mark Weeby, and then who played
Speaker 2: on the PGA Tour obviously, and then Gunner is now
Speaker 2: at the DP World Tour and having some good success
Speaker 2: and not long after Covid sort of recommitted to playing professionally.
Speaker 1: And.
Speaker 2: I think he has tie. He has a tie for
Speaker 2: the course record or almost shot fifty nine at Bella
Speaker 2: not not that long ago. So I tried, you know,
Speaker 2: I put them in contact. I don't know if they
Speaker 2: were ever to ever talk, but wanted to get any
Speaker 2: a little inside scoop on the on the ins and
Speaker 2: outs of bell Air, just to try to give her
Speaker 2: a little help going into going into it. So I
Speaker 2: don't know whether or not that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't ask for that. Yeah, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of inside knowledge to be gleaned, like I was staying
Speaker 1: at the Trophy Championship in Jim Bones Mackay's brother came
Speaker 1: up to say hi, I never met him before and
Speaker 1: he's a member out there, and so you know, it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: it could have some so mu sort of ring up Bones.
Speaker 1: He's played a lot at bell Air. There's there's some
Speaker 1: fun connections you make out there. But let's talk about
Speaker 1: Ireland a little bit. Because you were you were kind
Speaker 1: of keeping people apprized of your travels on social but
Speaker 1: I'm privy to more of the details. I mean when
Speaker 1: the content's coming and we'll talk about in more detail
Speaker 1: various stages, but we just tell the listeners like some
Speaker 1: of the highlights and how long you were there and
Speaker 1: how many rounds you played and how much you saw
Speaker 1: of the entire island, because it's pretty incredible.
Speaker 2: So, even going back pre COVID, my dream was always
Speaker 2: to play in The Father Daughter with our daughter Kylie,
Speaker 2: who is now nineteen. We started talking about this and
Speaker 2: actually had entered The Father Daughter pre COVID when she
Speaker 2: was about fifteen, and it didn't happen, and for a
Speaker 2: variety of reasons, but it just didn't work out. So
Speaker 2: the goal was to play in the Father Daughter with her,
Speaker 2: do some work in Ireland and then play in the
Speaker 2: Father Son. It's something I've played in now for over
Speaker 2: ten years, and.
Speaker 1: We've talked a lot about that.
Speaker 2: I've done features on that. That's obviously one of the
Speaker 2: greatest events in golf in the world, there's no question
Speaker 2: about it. Ninety six teams, Fathers and Sons, thirty fourth year.
Speaker 2: This year it was the fifteenth year of the Father Daughter.
Speaker 2: And I will tell you that Kylie is had played
Speaker 2: a lot of hockey growing up. We've gone to Gohill Park.
Speaker 2: She played a year on her high school golf team
Speaker 2: when we were in Florida. But at that point that
Speaker 2: high school golf team was really just almost like an
Speaker 2: introduction to the game. It wasn't a very hyper competitive
Speaker 2: so she had never actually played eighteen full holes of golf.
Speaker 2: She had played Winter Park nine with me. She'd you know,
Speaker 2: hit some range balls at Goahill Park. The Father Daughter
Speaker 2: up to forty teams this year. It's not you know, yes,
Speaker 2: there are there are a lot of There are a
Speaker 2: lot of you know, young women out there who can
Speaker 2: play really good golf. And obviously there are some the
Speaker 2: variation of Dad's skill levels is all over the map,
Speaker 2: from you know, plus to twenty five handicaps. It's it's
Speaker 2: it's really you know, even the father son. It's not,
Speaker 2: as I say, if you show up to win, you're
Speaker 2: probably not at the right kind of event. If you
Speaker 2: happen to win, then let's celebrate, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: It's not about that. It's about the networking and the
Speaker 2: camaraderie and the conversations and the it's just it's just
Speaker 2: about so much more that we've talked about a million
Speaker 2: times that golf provides. It's about the course, it's about
Speaker 2: the community around that golf course. It's it's so much.
Speaker 2: So Kylie goes in. We get three incredible days of weather,
Speaker 2: thank god, because if it was raining sideways, I think
Speaker 2: she would have looked at me.
Speaker 1: Like is this really what? Like?
Speaker 2: You play in this? I mean, you know, like she's
Speaker 2: just way more sensible than anybody that I know, So
Speaker 2: she would have looked at me like this just makes
Speaker 2: no sense. I mean we got to go again, and
Speaker 2: so we had great weather. She had her first pint
Speaker 2: of guinness. She's nineteen drinking age there is eighteen, So
Speaker 2: she had her first pinted guinness, first shot a whiskey,
Speaker 2: She had her first eighteen holes of golf, she had
Speaker 2: her first tournament of golf. She got her first you know,
Speaker 2: little tattoo. Her and her mom went to Dublin Inc.
Speaker 2: And she got three little daisies on her arm representing her,
Speaker 2: her mom and her grandma. You know, she you know,
Speaker 2: as you know Alan A, teenagers dealing with COVID and
Speaker 2: in high school really handcuffed their social growth. Kylie moved states,
Speaker 2: she moved high schools. Her social growth was seriously stunted
Speaker 2: by this global pandemic. She had become very you know,
Speaker 2: shellish as far as her social endeavors. She works hard.
Speaker 2: She gets a four point two GPA. She's an amazing
Speaker 2: human being, talented in so many different ways. This trip
Speaker 2: to Ireland, that tournament the father daughter not only helped
Speaker 2: us in our relationship, it helped her social growth, you know, immensely.
Speaker 2: Like Katie and I, we watched her literally blossom. And
Speaker 2: she was with three great, young, incredible women in Julia Carr,
Speaker 2: Sophie Grace Carr. So Julia Carr is the son a
Speaker 2: daughter of Marty Carr. Sophie Grace is the.
Speaker 1: Daughter of.
Speaker 2: Roddy Carr and then and then Aide Malloy's daughter. She
Speaker 2: is Adriana Molloy. These girls have been playing in the
Speaker 2: Father Daughter for so long, and they took Kylie under
Speaker 2: her wing and you know, helped kind of shepherd her
Speaker 2: as a golfer but also as a young female in
Speaker 2: a foreign country. It was you know, so that in itself,
Speaker 2: if you're looking for highlights, and we did a we're
Speaker 2: going to do a whole feature on the Father Daughter
Speaker 2: and why this particular tournament matters in the bigger scheme
Speaker 2: of things for the fathers the daughters in the greater
Speaker 2: game of golf. So that to me is where we
Speaker 2: started and that was like the the biggest highlight.
Speaker 1: In addition, by the way, yeah, by the way, her
Speaker 1: first round was at Waterville, Like I mean, you're talking
Speaker 1: about one of the great links courses in the world
Speaker 1: like that, it's all it's not all downhill from there,
Speaker 1: but it's close. And but yeah, that that's that's so cool.
Speaker 1: I mean, of course, I've I've gotten to know Kylie.
Speaker 1: She's just such a sweetheart and delighted you guys had
Speaker 1: that experience. Yeah, she'll never forget it. That's special.
Speaker 2: No, And I think it's changed the way she's looking
Speaker 2: at her life.
Speaker 1: She's changed.
Speaker 2: It's changed the way she's looking at you know, the
Speaker 2: future of of where she wants to go to school,
Speaker 2: or to live, or to travel.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: I think travel is such a gift, getting out and
Speaker 2: seeing the world around us. It's why, you know why
Speaker 2: my life, my professional life has been such a blessing
Speaker 2: to be able to you know, move around and meet
Speaker 2: the people I meet at some of these destinations or
Speaker 2: events like a father daughter or father son. So yeah,
Speaker 2: that's she's come back and she wants to play more golf.
Speaker 2: She wants to win it next year. She got better
Speaker 2: every swing by the end. Her last hole of her
Speaker 2: last round was the eighteenth water glass along a watervill
Speaker 2: along part five along the water. She had hit the
Speaker 2: green in three on the previous day and I think
Speaker 2: four putted and she was getting too she was getting
Speaker 2: two shots.
Speaker 1: She was getting two shots.
Speaker 2: On this particular day, she lipped out for what would
Speaker 2: have been a five net three, which would have been
Speaker 2: an egle four point in Stableford, and it just hung
Speaker 2: on the edge and we all collapsed. It's a picture
Speaker 2: I posted on Instagram. Mel McLain of Momentum Golf Photography.
Speaker 2: He shot and so she made a six for four
Speaker 2: and made a birdie. But like that's where it ended,
Speaker 2: and she is hooked.
Speaker 1: She's hooked. So anyway, that's so great.
Speaker 2: In addition to all that good, Yeah, in addition to
Speaker 2: all that, we played lahinch ardglass Port, Marnick Port, martin Port,
Speaker 2: Marnick Lynx a dare from the tips. I stopped by
Speaker 2: and saw the changes to Donebeg, you know, obviously keeping
Speaker 2: all politics aside. You know, what Hawtrey did to what
Speaker 2: the original Greg Norman design was was something I wanted
Speaker 2: to get eyes on. And next door to Donebeg is
Speaker 2: Michael Boland's original home going back to the eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 2: Michael Boland, if you did, if you saw our Dublin
Speaker 2: travel show, is my great great grandfather. So we knocked
Speaker 2: on doors, talk about a highlight. Katie, Kylie and Bandon
Speaker 2: and I the four of us knocked on doors, found
Speaker 2: a farmer who knew what we were talking about. Brought
Speaker 2: us out to my great great grandfather's old farm. We
Speaker 2: found the ruins of his house where my great grandfather,
Speaker 2: Francis Bolan was born before he emigrated to San Francisco.
Speaker 2: So I mean I've been out there now twice. We've
Speaker 2: shot some stuff there that's we pieced together from the
Speaker 2: epic immigration museum in the Family History Center and all
Speaker 2: the information we got there and connected the dots to
Speaker 2: the home in which they used to live. And as
Speaker 2: of this morning, I took a couple of stones we
Speaker 2: took from the old ruins and put them in our
Speaker 2: backyard into kind of a ceremonial like situation with bandon
Speaker 2: and I bringing it next to this other little collection
Speaker 2: of rocks we have in the backyard. So that those
Speaker 2: are just two highlights I mean not to mention two
Speaker 2: all Irelands, the football, the Gaelic football and the hurling.
Speaker 2: The courses we played the forty foots we went to
Speaker 2: Portumna and Portumna Golf Club, like the Portumlak golf course
Speaker 2: is my new best value golf course in the world,
Speaker 2: not just in the world. For thirty euros, you can
Speaker 2: play Portumda Golf Club. And I'm going to do a
Speaker 2: whole feature in a little breakdown on you know it's
Speaker 2: it's you know it's you can get it. Get to
Speaker 2: it from an hour and a half from La Hinch.
Speaker 2: It's next to like a national forest. It is immaculate condition.
Speaker 2: Thirty euros. You're going to play a golf course in
Speaker 2: which you think it's three hundred euros. It's it's phenomenal.
Speaker 2: So I've got to spend time with Owen Lynch, his
Speaker 2: family and Portumna friend I've made in my travels. I
Speaker 2: got to play backyard hurling with his kids. They roughed
Speaker 2: me up a little bit, but I was able to
Speaker 2: hold my own. I went out with a guy named
Speaker 2: Noel Ryan port pints in La Hinch at the Nineteenth
Speaker 2: Bar in La Hinch for two hours. I was well
Speaker 2: overserved myself. I barely survived the night, you know, I
Speaker 2: just did. We have stories out of this trip to
Speaker 2: Ireland and the previous trip to Ireland that are going
Speaker 2: to last us for the next twelve months and then some.
Speaker 1: Well. I think the listeners can probably pick up on
Speaker 1: your excitement and your passion for this, So it's going
Speaker 1: to be I can't wait to see it all come
Speaker 1: to life. I mean you should. All this everything you
Speaker 1: just talked about has been captured on camera, like it's
Speaker 1: going to be some spectacular content and you know, we've
Speaker 1: we've kind of recommitted to these this the long form
Speaker 1: travel pieces because you know that's Matt so good at
Speaker 1: it and they're timeless and who doesn't get swept up in,
Speaker 1: you know, wanting to visit these amazing places. So that
Speaker 1: the Dublin version is already out on you can find
Speaker 1: it on our YouTube channel or I think when this
Speaker 1: podcast drops, of course we'll link to it and maybe
Speaker 1: we'll reup it on our homepage. And this this is
Speaker 1: kind of part two of Ireland Focus in Belfast, but
Speaker 1: has a lot of other facets as well, so that'll
Speaker 1: be coming hopefully next week. So it's it's fun. It's
Speaker 1: fun to a lot of people do travel, and you
Speaker 1: can certainly if you type in ten best golf courses
Speaker 1: in Ireland, you're going to get various lists and various opinions.
Speaker 1: But the thing I love about these immersive stories you do, Matt,
Speaker 1: is that it's the golf is part of it, obviously,
Speaker 1: but it's really a cultural excursion. You're sort of like
Speaker 1: the Anthony Bourdain of the golf beat, where it's like
Speaker 1: really burrowing into these places you visit and finding the
Speaker 1: characters and finding the history and I mean there's much
Speaker 1: an anthropologist as you are a golfer, and so I
Speaker 1: just love, you know, just as a fan. I love
Speaker 1: to watch them because they make me feel connected. I've
Speaker 1: been to these some of these places, not all of them,
Speaker 1: but I feel closer to them after I watch the
Speaker 1: videos because it's you get the context and the history
Speaker 1: and it's it's neat. So I can't wait for this
Speaker 1: one because I've been lucky to play through Northern Ireland
Speaker 1: and it's phenomenal, but I want to learn.
Speaker 2: More well that you know, the whole I think we're
Speaker 2: we're both kind of refocused. Our whole team here at
Speaker 2: the fire Pro Collective is refocused on our core, you know,
Speaker 2: our core objectives inform and inspire, entertained, and make people
Speaker 2: smart about the world they live in, inspire them to
Speaker 2: go see it and do it for themselves, and entertain
Speaker 2: them if and when we can make them laugh or
Speaker 2: cry or do both. And that's the way I've looked
Speaker 2: at any and all things I've done from a travel perspective,
Speaker 2: and I don't rate courses on tea to green on
Speaker 2: the architecture or architects. That certainly factors into my overall
Speaker 2: rating of a golf course, but or a travel trip
Speaker 2: or a destination. But for me, it's about the overall experience.
Speaker 2: And the experience is at a course from when the
Speaker 2: time you pull in to the time you leave. What
Speaker 2: is that experience? What do you feel? You know, it's
Speaker 2: not just do I want to go back and play
Speaker 2: that course again? It's do I want to go back
Speaker 2: and experience that course again? And all that comes with it.
Speaker 2: It's you know, it's the person, the first greeting you make,
Speaker 2: to the to the sendoff you get, and whether or
Speaker 2: not you feel like you feel that warmth, and it's
Speaker 2: something you can't really sometimes describe, but it's something that
Speaker 2: you can articulate in what you feel. And so I
Speaker 2: look at that in all of my trips and all
Speaker 2: of my travel logs. My journeys is and we don't
Speaker 2: when we go and move around, we don't just experience
Speaker 2: the golf course. You go out to dinner, you go
Speaker 2: out for a pint or a beer or a drink.
Speaker 2: You've got to go find a place to stay, you
Speaker 2: have to get to your next location. So that's what
Speaker 2: journeys or away games is. I used to do at
Speaker 2: golf die just before I did journeys at Golf Channel
Speaker 2: and now what we're doing at fire Pit and partnering
Speaker 2: with in some cases Golf di just in Golf Channel
Speaker 2: is to is to try to continue on that whole experience,
Speaker 2: which is, yeah, it's forty to sixty percent golf, and
Speaker 2: it's forty to sixty percent of what's happening off the
Speaker 2: golf course. And and we are sticking to that formula
Speaker 2: because it's something that has always worked and why change now.
Speaker 2: And you know, you and I have done a lot
Speaker 2: of trips together. You've written about our trips. You know,
Speaker 2: we've you know, socially posted about our trips. We're going
Speaker 2: to be doing more trips together in the future as well.
Speaker 2: And look forward to some of some of that as
Speaker 2: you know, as we continue to kind of team up
Speaker 2: on all things, you know, golf.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, I look forward to that. Yeah, we were
Speaker 1: talking about some some destinations this morning that I've been
Speaker 1: in touch with us as we're starting to put out
Speaker 1: all these videos and they want us to come do it.
Speaker 1: It's like, do you want to go to Iceland? I
Speaker 1: think we want to go to Iceland. We want to
Speaker 1: gone down the list it's Montana, yes, check Hawaii. But yeah.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about another big event in the recent
Speaker 1: history of the Firepit Collective, which was the Billy Walters
Speaker 1: Phil Nicholson excerpt that we dropped last Thursday. It just
Speaker 1: took over the golf media, the sports media, crossed over
Speaker 1: into the business page. I get. It was just the
Speaker 1: amount of energy as we knew what would happened. Like,
Speaker 1: you know, Bennett, one of our our key support guys,
Speaker 1: he actually called this, uh word Press, which that's the
Speaker 1: kind of the what our what runs are the organization
Speaker 1: that runs our website. Excuse me, Bennett called WordPress to say, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're expecting a lot of traffic, like we got like
Speaker 1: let's let's uh get the girders in plays, like, let's
Speaker 1: button things up. It's like, you know, here, when the
Speaker 1: hurricanes come, you start putting plywood over the windows and
Speaker 1: stuff like That was kind of the vibe. We knew
Speaker 1: this was gonna go crazy, and of course it did. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's it's always fun and interesting to be the center
Speaker 1: of these storms, you know. This was this was Billy's story.
Speaker 1: These are Billy's words, not not minor yours. But we
Speaker 1: were a delivery system. And it was actually interesting because
Speaker 1: a guy came up to me at bel Air. He's
Speaker 1: just he was just a fan at the tournament and
Speaker 1: he's just a fan of the fire but I've never
Speaker 1: met him before. He introduced himself and said, I just
Speaker 1: got to ask you, like, what was it like, you know,
Speaker 1: right before you pressed publish on that on that excerpt,
Speaker 1: because you know, you knew things were gonna get crazy.
Speaker 1: And he's like, did you think about it? You take
Speaker 1: a deep breath, you say a little prayer, like he
Speaker 1: was like, it was, it was sort of he understood
Speaker 1: sort of the cinematic moment of like when you press
Speaker 1: the button, then these things go live. It was, it was.
Speaker 1: It was a perceptive question, but you know, I was,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'd been I'd been immersing this for so long,
Speaker 1: Like I guess I'm I'm not immune to it. But
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, here we go. You know, it's just
Speaker 1: because it does take over your life socially as far
Speaker 1: as I spent two days on the fire pit handle
Speaker 1: just engaging with people, answering quot questions, adding context, and
Speaker 1: that was fun. But it's I felt I felt I
Speaker 1: frew time had to lay down and close my eyes
Speaker 1: because my brain was scrambled. There's just so much coming
Speaker 1: in and so much going out at the same time.
Speaker 1: But uh yeah, it was It was interesting, and of
Speaker 1: course Phil is he's remarkable. He's at the live event
Speaker 1: at Trump Bedminister when all this stuff goes on, and
Speaker 1: played the first two rounds. He played some of the
Speaker 1: best golf of the year. I mean he was he
Speaker 1: was right, he was nipping it cam Smith's heels and
Speaker 1: then in classic Mikelsonian fashion, made an eight on a
Speaker 1: par three and crashed and burned and just set himself
Speaker 1: on a fire. I mean, it would have been epic
Speaker 1: if he could have actually won his first live event
Speaker 1: the same week this drops, it would have been so
Speaker 1: in character. The guy just somehow thrives on the on
Speaker 1: the juice, you know, he just that's that's the whole
Speaker 1: that's the whole subtext of the excerpt and to my
Speaker 1: book about him and just his life, like he needs
Speaker 1: the juice and everything, and you know, maybe it all
Speaker 1: caught up with him during the fire around. But what
Speaker 1: were you over Ireland? I mean you were far away geographically,
Speaker 1: but everyone's in the golf world there so was what
Speaker 1: was your action like.
Speaker 2: There, No, it was I was on the seventeenth tea
Speaker 2: of Waterville, A very good part three. And one of
Speaker 2: the drastic improvements that that Tom Fazio made to that
Speaker 2: golf course was that whole seventeenth green. You can look
Speaker 2: out beyond, you can see the Waterville house in the distance.
Speaker 1: And.
Speaker 2: Rain and wind are are at its peak. I mean,
Speaker 2: it is coming sideways. It's totally out of control. I've
Speaker 2: got both rain gloves on, you know, everything is so
Speaker 2: too total breach of rain gear at this point. I
Speaker 2: mean I was, you know, I literally poured water out
Speaker 2: of my shoes after the round. And at that moment
Speaker 2: was when was when, you know, the send button happened
Speaker 2: and my phone is going crazy and I'm getting tech
Speaker 2: and comments and commentary and I'm trying. I'm trying to
Speaker 2: respond to some of the most important ones. I think
Speaker 2: even a text to you at that point in both
Speaker 2: rain gloves with a rain soaked face of my iPhone,
Speaker 2: and I was like, I just I can't do that.
Speaker 2: I can't do this right now, this is not happening.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna have to hit pause on But it was,
Speaker 2: you know, we're with you know, ninety six fathers and
Speaker 2: sons and all of whom you know, care and consume
Speaker 2: the game, not unlike anybody probably listening to this podcast.
Speaker 2: And I think it's a general mixed reaction, which is,
Speaker 2: no one's surprised that Phill bets or bet a lot.
Speaker 2: I think the numbers were staggering when you put a
Speaker 2: B instead of an M, as we discussed previously, that's
Speaker 2: that's amazing. Then running the numbers of how many bets
Speaker 2: on average per day or specific days in which made
Speaker 2: a ton of bets, and that was kind of a
Speaker 2: and then and the in the attempt to bet on
Speaker 2: you know, I guess, which he denies, but Billy says
Speaker 2: he made that phone call and want to bet on
Speaker 2: the US team in twenty twelve. It was just a
Speaker 2: massive headshake, which is just like, wow, I you know,
Speaker 2: obviously you know all that being true. Uh, that's just
Speaker 2: that's that's that's insane. That's that there are people who
Speaker 2: have problems, you know, gambling issues, and that takes it
Speaker 2: to a level that I don't think a lot of
Speaker 2: people can even process or imagine to be to be realistic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, although you know, importantly, in his very artfully crafted statement.
Speaker 1: You know, Phil didn't deny calling Billy and requesting him
Speaker 1: to take the bet. He just said he didn't wind
Speaker 1: up betting on the Ryder cut. So it's you know,
Speaker 1: it feels he's His legal ease is always interesting to parse.
Speaker 1: But I will say.
Speaker 2: Armand Katayin, by the way, not to not to you know,
Speaker 2: like armand Katain's response to all of that and what
Speaker 2: he filed in response to that on our website as well.
Speaker 2: I just thought was was really important, and I think
Speaker 2: we're gonna we're gonna get Arman on a podcast here
Speaker 2: in the near future. But I just you know, I
Speaker 2: go back to playing softball with Army Katain at Sports
Speaker 2: Illustrated in Central Park, and I've always respected and marveled
Speaker 2: at his you know, much like yourself, people like Haimi Diaz,
Speaker 2: Tim Rose of Fort, John Hawkins, Bob Verdi. I've always had,
Speaker 2: you know, some of my favorites, and he's always been
Speaker 2: one of my favorite.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Bill Knack is another guy I ad mentioned, but like
Speaker 2: armand Katayin is, he is no mess around as it
Speaker 2: relates to journalism, writing, reporting, and the sum total of
Speaker 2: his of his his work portfolio it's incredible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, Army and I we've been talking
Speaker 1: off and on for a while, and I mean it
Speaker 1: was a three year project to get this book in print. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was almost the way he describes it, I'm on paraphrase,
Speaker 1: but it was like he was writing his Bucking Bronco
Speaker 1: because Billy Walters has stories upon stories and that, and
Speaker 1: but fact checking them and running down the other people
Speaker 1: who were part of the tale and confirming it all.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was like the mother of all fact
Speaker 1: checking jobs. And you know in the story you mentioned
Speaker 1: that on Firepay Collective that Armand wrote, he does get
Speaker 1: into some of the methodology and but it was, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was I think the writing the book that actually
Speaker 1: typing up the stories was the easy part. It was
Speaker 1: all the vetting and all the investigating and and all
Speaker 1: the fact checking that was the real challenge. And hats
Speaker 1: off to Arman because that was, no doubt complex. But
Speaker 1: I will say what one one of the primary reactions
Speaker 1: that came through on social is as I was as
Speaker 1: I I was engaging with so many different golf fans,
Speaker 1: but people saying, you know, this makes me like Phil Moore,
Speaker 1: you know what a legend like as we talked about
Speaker 1: last week, I mean, Phil's going to survive this because
Speaker 1: he survives everything. And I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: are like, hey, it's his money, he can do whatever
Speaker 1: he wants. Like if I had that kind of money,
Speaker 1: I would I would I would bet on everything too.
Speaker 1: And there was I think this is partially because sports
Speaker 1: betting and gambling has become such a part of the
Speaker 1: mainstream culture. People were just more amazed than than outrage.
Speaker 1: You know. It was just like, wow, that's crazy. But
Speaker 1: you know that kind of makes me like Phil, So
Speaker 1: I'm agnostic, you know, I'm I think I'm not trying
Speaker 1: to convince anyone of anything when it comes to Phil Nicholson,
Speaker 1: like I are my attitude of my book, and I
Speaker 1: think Billy Walters was the same, like I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: tell the story. These are the facts, and people can
Speaker 1: draw their own conclusions. And with that was interesting. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, I just I read that the
Speaker 1: Cincinnati Reds baseball seam they have a sports book on
Speaker 1: the ground, you know, and Pete Rose, of course his
Speaker 1: banned for betting, Like the society has changed a lot,
Speaker 1: and of course a bunch of NFL guys are getting
Speaker 1: suspended right now for betting. You know, it's it's a
Speaker 1: fine line when you get into the the participants of
Speaker 1: the games. And you know one I was talking about
Speaker 1: to Bamberger about this and he was close to Bart
Speaker 1: Giamatti actually wrote a play about Bart Giammotty that was
Speaker 1: produced in Philadelphia, and Giamatti was the commissioner of baseball
Speaker 1: who banned Pete Rose. And Michael's also friendly with this guy,
Speaker 1: John Dowd, I believe is his name. He was kind
Speaker 1: of look, he was the person who did the investigation
Speaker 1: of Pete Rose. And Michael's takeaway, if I can speak
Speaker 1: for him, is that what these guys say is even
Speaker 1: if you're betting on your own team, that shows a
Speaker 1: level of desperation. And what happens is that when you're
Speaker 1: betting that much and that really eventually the book is
Speaker 1: going to own you. And that was the whole lesson
Speaker 1: of the Black Sox scandal, going back to nineteen nineteen
Speaker 1: the Chicago White Sox is when you're betting on your
Speaker 1: own sport, you're gonna lose, and you're gonna you're gonna
Speaker 1: eventually owe the bookie your life. On some level, and
Speaker 1: then you can be manipulated, and then you can they
Speaker 1: can extract information, and then they can they can nudge
Speaker 1: you to go to the dark side. And that's really
Speaker 1: the danger. And I thought that was inching perspective when
Speaker 1: it comes to phil Is again, he's denied betting on
Speaker 1: the Ryder Cup, and we'll have to take that at
Speaker 1: face value, but that he was considering it, and that
Speaker 1: he gambles so much. I mean, it would be very
Speaker 1: easy for him to start dabbling and betting on golf
Speaker 1: because there he has real proprietary information. You know, he's
Speaker 1: he's in the locker room on Wednesday and he knows
Speaker 1: that some guy you know wrenched his back or found
Speaker 1: a magic putter and made thirteen birdies in their practice round,
Speaker 1: or you know, you can imagine that someone on the
Speaker 1: inside what kind of information they're privy to, and that
Speaker 1: that it was wishing perspective from Michael is That's where
Speaker 1: it gets dangerous. Is when you start betting on your
Speaker 1: own sport. You've gone, you've you've already broken a very
Speaker 1: important barrier, You've sort of crossed the rubicon, and then
Speaker 1: what how susceptible are you to to keep pushing that,
Speaker 1: and again we don't have.
Speaker 2: Any isn't that in that isn't that called insider like
Speaker 2: insider trading, which ironically is ultimately what what Billy?
Speaker 1: You know? Yeah time, I mean, I told this story
Speaker 1: not even that long ago on this podcast, but when
Speaker 1: I was, you know, in two thousand and four, when
Speaker 1: I extracted one thousand pounds from our Sports Illustrated editor
Speaker 1: Jim Harry to go over to the Open Championship and bet,
Speaker 1: you know, at lad Brokes on the corner stores, and
Speaker 1: I was run around talking to every caddy, swing coach,
Speaker 1: physio wife I could find. I was pumping them for information,
Speaker 1: like I'm you know, it was totally unethical, but I
Speaker 1: was having a great time, and so I I understand
Speaker 1: that that rush. You know, you hear something about some
Speaker 1: obscure player who'd got in a fight with his wife
Speaker 1: the night before, You're like, oh, I'm gonna bet against
Speaker 1: that guy. Like I totally went down that rabbit hole.
Speaker 1: And I'm coming this is my confessional now twenty years later,
Speaker 1: but you know it was when it was in the
Speaker 1: service of the readership I wrote about it was all
Speaker 1: really for fun. I'm not really a gambler. That was
Speaker 1: a one off, but I kind of picked up on
Speaker 1: that adrenaline, like, oh god, I think Nick Price just
Speaker 1: sprained his ankle, like I gotta go bet against him
Speaker 1: in the in his matchup against kJ Choy, like you know,
Speaker 1: like it's it's just funny, like how I can see
Speaker 1: it that. I'm not talking about Phil, I'm talking about
Speaker 1: anybody when when you when you're in a sport and
Speaker 1: you know so much, the temptation is there, and so
Speaker 1: that's why you need that firewall because then things can
Speaker 1: can go off the rails very quickly. Uh.
Speaker 2: Aaron Hills, Ricky Elliott practice round talking about ultimately Port Stewart,
Speaker 2: which we just did the story on which we'll drop
Speaker 2: in our Northern Ireland piece, told me, you know his
Speaker 2: guy Brooks Keepka has never hit the driver better, never
Speaker 2: hit it farther, never hit it straighter. I put one
Speaker 2: hundred bucks thirty five to one. I think Brooks was
Speaker 2: at that time thirty five hundred bucks later. And then
Speaker 2: Sergio Garcia before he won the Masters. I heard the
Speaker 2: father in law gave him a big cage rattle like
Speaker 2: get over yourself, like quit acting like you know the
Speaker 2: game like owes you something, go out and earn it,
Speaker 2: like go win, like stop being such a little bitch basically,
Speaker 2: And that was the father in law. You know, it
Speaker 2: comes from like a you know, kind of a football
Speaker 2: family and kind of gave him, gave him that shake up.
Speaker 2: I had heard that and I was like, oh wow,
Speaker 2: that that might be exactly the pep talk that Sergio needed.
Speaker 2: Anyone the masters and I benefited. But you know, I
Speaker 2: mean that's I felt a little like, I mean, this
Speaker 2: is really good info. I'll put a little couple of dollars.
Speaker 1: On this one.
Speaker 2: And I know, I can't tell you how many golf
Speaker 2: bets I've lost when I thought I had insider info.
Speaker 2: But those two in particular, uh stuck with me because
Speaker 2: they were big wins.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's interesting. I mean a guy like Jason Sobell,
Speaker 1: you know, he was at ESPN. Now he writes for
Speaker 1: the Action Network, and we have we have other colleagues
Speaker 1: who were on the beat and now they're they're writing
Speaker 1: for gaming sites. You know, Teddy Greenstein, he's he was
Speaker 1: in Chicago trib like ye. You know, they're out there
Speaker 1: talking to people. So it's I don't know where you
Speaker 1: draw the line on this it's it's or can you
Speaker 1: like how like how how? I don't know it's but
Speaker 1: I think how you do it for the players is
Speaker 1: you just you just say this, this is the red
Speaker 1: line you can't cross. And so I will be curious
Speaker 1: if if there's any formal investigation into Billy Walter's accusation,
Speaker 1: if the PGA of America will look into it because
Speaker 1: it's their championship. You know, Phil was a PG to
Speaker 1: remember then he's not now, but if if the framework
Speaker 1: agreement gets consummated, he would have access to go back, like,
Speaker 1: are the the powers that be just going to completely
Speaker 1: sweep this under the rug and and just dismiss it.
Speaker 1: Are they going to feel compelled to look into it?
Speaker 1: And you know, it's an interesting question. We'll see. Of course,
Speaker 1: if it's the tour, they don't talk about these things
Speaker 1: at all. Golf is always so hush hush, But I
Speaker 1: think it's probably a wake up call for professional golfers,
Speaker 1: like you know, you got you just you just can't
Speaker 1: cross that line. Even even ten, eleven, twelve years later,
Speaker 1: it might it might come out and when again Phil's
Speaker 1: denied it, Billy says in the excerpt, like we hung
Speaker 1: up I don't know if he plays a bet with
Speaker 1: somebody else, So we're gonna have to take Phil's word
Speaker 1: that he didn't. But to even make the call and
Speaker 1: even to consider it is very interesting and revealing. And
Speaker 1: this whether this is a point of inflect for the
Speaker 1: game or not, I don't know. But you know, the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour has gotten really big into sports betting. Live
Speaker 1: Golf just announce the relationship with sports bet. They're going
Speaker 1: to I think it's sports bet. I I don't keep track.
Speaker 1: There's so many of them now, but they're they're literally
Speaker 1: just and there's so many. Yeah, there's there. Live is
Speaker 1: going to offer, like you know, official channel to to
Speaker 1: bet on their rounds. So it's so pervasive. Whether the
Speaker 1: whether the sport wants to take a hard look at
Speaker 1: this or not. I mean there's already language. But if
Speaker 1: if things are going to get are going to get
Speaker 1: taken a little more seriously, and if there's going to
Speaker 1: be any fallout from this particular case remains to be seen.
Speaker 2: Man, At times, we go from you know, am life,
Speaker 2: you know, n I L deals to UH to to
Speaker 2: you know, where we are in the state of gambling,
Speaker 2: uh with a little you know, father, daughter, father son
Speaker 2: in the middle, you know, Little Ireland, the purity of
Speaker 2: the Irish, the Irish where amateurs actually play for borderline
Speaker 2: nothing by the way, to talk about all All Ireland finals.
Speaker 2: And you're got you got guys like Joe Canning, who
Speaker 2: are the Steph Curries of their game, telling me that
Speaker 2: who's a prominent figure in our Dublin piece. Joe Canning
Speaker 2: fourteen years one in all Ireland, you know, won four
Speaker 2: club four club championships, all Ireland's for Portumna, you know,
Speaker 2: just all everybody agrees he's one of the greatest to
Speaker 2: ever play the game. And at the height of his
Speaker 2: powers was making about forty thousand euros a year in
Speaker 2: endorsement deals. If he was lucky forty thousand a year,
Speaker 2: you know, and you know he would have been he
Speaker 2: would have been making, you know, forty million a year
Speaker 2: in the US.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's like, he's he's.
Speaker 2: Messy, he's Gretzky, He's Steph Curry, he's game changer. And
Speaker 2: and they did it for the love of each other,
Speaker 2: their town, their county, and still do to this day.
Speaker 2: It's changing a little bit, and I think there's more
Speaker 2: money floating around things to the people like a JP McManus,
Speaker 2: who you know, sort of realizes like this is kind
Speaker 2: of ridiculous. Let's try to help these people out where,
Speaker 2: you know, but the GAA and some of the people,
Speaker 2: you know, Joe Canning tells me he's a shot from
Speaker 2: the sideline as time is running out, ties up the game,
Speaker 2: and in a tie game at the end of hurling,
Speaker 2: and an all hurling final means they come back like
Speaker 2: two weeks later and replay the game. So another eighty
Speaker 2: three thousand tickets are sold, all the concessions, all the merchant,
Speaker 2: all that stuff. It happens all over again.
Speaker 1: How much does Joe.
Speaker 2: Cannon get to that, you know, zero amazing And the
Speaker 2: difference between that and the PGA Tour players and all
Speaker 2: that's happening in professional golf versus the purity of you know,
Speaker 2: the GAA sporting life in Ireland. You couldn't couldn't get uh,
Speaker 2: you know, further ends of the spectrum. So it's just fascinating.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, I mean, in summary, I think if people
Speaker 1: are fans of fire pay collective, it's because we sort
Speaker 1: of were eclectic and we follow things we're passionate about,
Speaker 1: and we're never going to be like a golf dot
Speaker 1: com or Golf Digest dot com, and we try and
Speaker 1: cover everything. It's just there's enough of that out there already.
Speaker 1: You know, we don't want to write five hundred word
Speaker 1: stories about Rory McElroy's new putter. You know, we'll let
Speaker 1: that other people do that, but we kind of immerseer
Speaker 1: o Lucas Glover.
Speaker 2: Lucas Glover's new putter is a pretty hot topic. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that is interesting if you want to hear more on that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, Lucas poor some out. I mean, Lucas
Speaker 1: is what a run he's been on. But you know,
Speaker 1: we're we just kind of follow our hearts and so
Speaker 1: like I'm on this little run of amateur events. It's
Speaker 1: been fun and I'll be writing every day about the
Speaker 1: US amateur People can check that out on our website
Speaker 1: and your Island. Content's coming, you know, it's now two
Speaker 1: months from the book release of my live book. There
Speaker 1: will be a content bonanza around that. We've got various
Speaker 1: other projects in the works, so it's nice to surprise
Speaker 1: the listeners and the readers. I think maybe they don't
Speaker 1: necessarily know what's coming next to me. That's a good thing.
Speaker 1: Like I think, you always want to surprise and delight
Speaker 1: the people who are falling along, So I can't wait
Speaker 1: to watch all these these videos unspool. Matt. I know
Speaker 1: you're gonna be busy on the editing and the back
Speaker 1: end of all this, so it'll be it'll be great fun.
Speaker 1: We will of course put that on all our channels
Speaker 1: and let everyone know what to look for and when.
Speaker 1: But I think this is a fun chat, so thanks
Speaker 1: for taking the time. Any party shots before we release
Speaker 1: the listeners.
Speaker 2: No, good to be back, Good to be home. I
Speaker 2: love being away, but it's always good to be home.
Speaker 2: Good to be back in Oceanside. I've missed my goat
Speaker 2: Hill Park community. We got a monthly medal on Saturday.
Speaker 2: I'm hoping my links golf experiences and the shots that
Speaker 2: I was hitting over there translates into something fun come Saturday.
Speaker 2: But you know what, you know, the curse of having
Speaker 2: any expectations going indie golf round is the death of
Speaker 2: all good scores. So yeah, but good to be back here,
Speaker 2: Good to be back on with you and uh and
Speaker 2: can't wait for what's next because it's a lot and.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's always something coming all right. Well, this was
Speaker 1: another fire Drill podcast. I am Alan Schipnak. That was
Speaker 1: Matt Janelle. We appreciate you for listening. Thanks to Link
Speaker 1: Soul and Dormy for sponsoring us and helping us keep
Speaker 1: doing what we're doing. And we back at it again soon.
Speaker 1: So that's the end. Thanks. I'm bed big again.
Speaker 3: I played the wind, made a fortune when my ship
Speaker 3: came and I ran the table and never thought I
Speaker 3: could fall. Then the wind and hit me. Lack of
Speaker 3: canon the ball, and now I can't shake this, lose.
Speaker 1: In the stream.
Speaker 3: Every road I take is a dead end street. I
Speaker 3: got thoughts in my head, can't get them out, trying
Speaker 3: not to think what I'm thinking about. I got thoughts
Speaker 3: in my head.
Speaker 1: I can't get
Speaker 3: Them out, trying not to think what I'm thinking about.