WEBVTT - Let’s Not Learn the Wrong Lessons from Phil Mickelson’s Downfall 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:02.480 I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. 0:00:02.640 --> 0:00:04.920 When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset. 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:06.920 And when I find my ball in a fried egg 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:10.600 Friday egg, the dreaded Frida egg, Frida Egg, Frida egg Egg, 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:12.959 Frida egg bride egg Lie, I'm about ready to run 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:13.680 off of the hump. 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:38.120 Hello, and welcome to the Frida Egg Podcast. My name 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:42.320 is Garrett Morrison, and today's episode asks the question have 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:46.559 we learned the wrong lessons from Phil Mickelson's downfall? So, 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:49.600 as you are no doubt aware, things have been moving 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:53.320 quickly for Phil. He made headlines with some frankly wild 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:57.120 comments about Saudi Arabia's efforts and golf. He got dropped 0:00:57.240 --> 0:00:59.960 by most of his major sponsors. He's been getting flak 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:03.880 from golf media and even from some fellow PGA Tour pros. 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:07.759 A lot has happened, and if you've been following golf 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:11.400 news lately, you've probably heard plenty about it, maybe too 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:15.280 much so. In this episode, Andy Johnson and I try 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:18.360 to give a fresh take on the whole situation. Now, 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:22.039 we definitely aren't here to defend Phil or to say 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:24.800 that he shouldn't face consequences for what he did and said, 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:28.479 But we do want to explore what's motivating the backlash 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:32.080 against him, and we also want to ask whether he 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:35.959 was saying anything that was worth listening to. This episode 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:38.480 was partly inspired by an article I wrote for the 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:42.920 Friday dot Com called Phil Mickelson and the Uses of Leverage. 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:45.000 I'll put a link in the show notes, and if 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:53.639 you're interested, check it out. All right, here's me and Andy. 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:57.600 I think that where we should start is just where 0:01:57.600 --> 0:02:00.720 we are right now. Phil is being dropped sponsors. 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.600 He got dropped in the PIP standings too. Just out 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:08.040 this morning, the morning of the recording, Wednesday morning, that 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:10.800 he uh that he's finished number two in the PIP. 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:14.400 After announcing a few months back that he won the PIP. 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:16.880 Toward the end of December, he sent out a tweet 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:22.360 announcing his victory, even though reportedly the PIP calculations hadn't 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:24.840 even been finished for twenty twenty one yet. 0:02:24.919 --> 0:02:27.280 And then Tiger piled on this morning. 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:30.280 You know, yeah, well so that the PIP the full 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:35.360 pip's stats were released today and Tiger obviously was number one. 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:37.919 I don't know why there was any question that he 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:39.920 would win it or not. I'm not sure if it 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:44.000 was close, but you know, he's clearly gonna lead most 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:46.799 of those categories just in terms of name recognition. He's 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:49.840 the only golfer that a lot of people know. Phil 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.160 Mickelson lags way behind him in terms of fame, but 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:55.200 Phil was number two and so he got he got 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:57.160 plenty of money. I'm not sure how many millions he got. 0:02:57.160 --> 0:02:58.720 He didn't get the eight million. 0:02:58.400 --> 0:02:59.359 Dollars top millions. 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:02.760 He's got six million. I think. I think that's a 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:05.400 nice little chunk of change. And it sounds like Phil 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:08.560 could maybe use some money at the moment. So I'm 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:12.480 sure that any amount is welcome. But if people aren't 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:17.360 familiar with what happened in the past couple of weeks, 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:20.079 and you know, if you're following golf, then you're probably 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:24.800 familiar with it. But he made some controversial, pretty shocking 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:28.400 comments to Alan Schipnook about his involvement with the emerging 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:32.440 Saudi Golf League. He referred to the Saudis as scary 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.760 mother efforts, but said that even though he was fully 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:38.720 aware that this was a sports washing play, he used 0:03:38.720 --> 0:03:42.520 the term sports washing. I believe with Shipnook and even 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:46.000 though he was fully aware of the abysmal human rights 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:49.240 record that Saudi Arabia has, he was still willing to 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:50.160 go along with us. 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:55.480 So once in a lifetime opportunity to reshape the PGA tour. 0:03:55.960 --> 0:04:01.440 Exactly right, So human rights abuse is you know during journalists. Yeah, 0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:04.080 I get that, I get that, But what about reshaping 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:07.520 the PGA tour? Okay, So, like these comments were, I mean, 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:11.760 at least they seemed somewhat honest to a degree. That's 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:14.360 maybe the only good thing that can be said about them. 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:17.320 But obviously he just kind of laid out for everybody 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:22.640 the moral failings of this entire enterprise, made it so clear, 0:04:23.360 --> 0:04:25.080 and so he got a lot of pushback. 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:29.960 Yeah, and this seemingly, this quote seemingly killed all the 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:34.240 momentum that the league had. Obviously at the start of 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:38.600 Riviera Week, it was all the talk. It was, you know, hey, 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:41.920 this thing is going to happen. There are players that 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:46.440 are signed, maybe even twenty players that are signed, and 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:52.039 these comments came out and everything essentially crumbled around him. 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:54.960 Dustin Johnson put out a statement saying that he would 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:57.640 stay on the PGA Tour for the time being. Bryce 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:01.599 and Deshambeau stepped back from the Saudi who were Xander 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:05.440 Shaffle even confusingly put out a statement that nobody was 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:08.240 asking for that that he was not going to be 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:11.560 on with the Super Golf League funded by Saudi Arabia. 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:14.760 And so, yeah, it seems like this was a major 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:18.520 setback for the Saudi League. But everything I've heard indicates 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:20.960 that it's still going to go forward. It just might 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:24.279 not have some of the big names that it might 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:24.960 have had before. 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:28.680 Yeah, it seems like, I mean that's the thing. Somebody 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:32.200 with this william to spend billions of dollars, just doesn't 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:34.919 give up because they first failed, you know. 0:05:35.120 --> 0:05:37.960 Yeah, and they've hired all these people. There's this there's 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:43.240 this emerging bureaucracy in place for the SGL and that's 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:46.520 not going anywhere either. They're ready to do this. They're 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:48.359 just not going to have Bryson to Shambeau and Dustin 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:51.840 Johnson right away. They may have them later, you know, 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:53.560 when it all calms down a little bit. 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:57.840 So you wrote a piece a little bit, I mean, 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:02.520 everybody in the in the world's piling on Phil you know, 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:06.800 and kind of celebrating the PGA Tour's great win. Your 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:09.640 piece had a little bit different view. It was on 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:11.800 the Frida egg dot com. If everybody wants to go 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:15.560 read it, tell us a little bit about, you know, 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:18.200 kind of what you gleaned from the situation. 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:22.200 Well, first of all, basically what convinced me to write 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:26.360 the article was listening to what other people in the 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:29.960 media and in the game were starting to say about 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:34.440 the situation. And a lot of the blowback that Phil 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:38.880 got was not necessarily about his involvement in the sportswashing enterprise, 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:42.080 which is I think the point of this. You know 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:45.080 that that is the thing that was wrong here is 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:48.479 that he was he was helping an oppress of government 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:53.080 do its business knowingly, no, very knowingly, like he was 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:56.279 fully aware of it, eyes wide open the whole time. 0:06:56.920 --> 0:07:00.440 That's what's objectionable here. But it seemed like that a 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:03.000 lot of players, that a lot of members of the media, 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:07.600 what was offensive to them was that he had betrayed 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:11.640 the PGA tour. And so the pushback on Phil wasn't 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:15.960 so much we should reject this SGL because it is 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:20.280 an amorl endeavor. It was we should reject the SGL 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:23.280 because it's a threat to the PGA Tour. And this 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.120 became especially clear to me when I heard what Brandal 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:30.000 Shambly had to say on Golf Channel. There was, you know, 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:33.520 a segment that he did after Phil released his so 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:36.280 called apology that wasn't really apology. It was more of 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:40.480 an extended self justification, an attempt to you know, men 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:44.880 some relationships that he had broken. But you know, Brandal 0:07:45.120 --> 0:07:48.960 said a lot of really persuasive things in this segment. 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:51.840 He picked apart the statement, and I think in a 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:55.760 really accurate way. He did mention that the Saudi Arabian 0:07:55.800 --> 0:08:01.000 government was not the entity to do business. He did 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:03.600 mention those things, But the bulk of his commentary had 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:07.360 to do with this betrayal of the PGA Tour, and 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:10.760 he ended up saying, how does golf desperately need to 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.960 change the game of golf is booming, the PGA Tour 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:16.560 is doing extraordinarily well. And then he went on to 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:20.160 call the PGA Tour a very philanthropic tour that takes 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:21.880 care of players from the time they get out of 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:24.280 college until they want to hang it up. I can't 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:26.160 imagine a tour that takes care of players from the 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:31.840 beginning of their career into late age other than the etc. Etc. Etc. Obviously, 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:35.599 Brandall Shambily's employer, Golf Channel, has a very close relationship 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.040 with the PGA Tour. That became closer with the recent 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:42.319 media deal. And I started to realize that the reason 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:46.400 that people were mad with Phil and were kind of 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:50.160 shunning him in this moment wasn't that they wanted to 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:54.640 reject sports washing and golf. It's that they wanted to 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:56.320 prop up the PGA Tour. 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:58.920 You know, something I just thought of is on the 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:02.440 Shotguns Start, we had seller shy on who's the lead 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:05.880 producer of I hope I got that right. He's not executive. 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:09.439 I think it's lead producers. The correct title of CBS 0:09:09.480 --> 0:09:13.520 Sports is Golf Broadcast, so what you watch on CBS. 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:16.800 He's done a really good job. He's been in place 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:20.080 for like a year. But we asked him about, you know, 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:23.240 the idea, because his predecessor had talked about how they're 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:26.480 a partner of the PGA Tour. It's a broadcast, you know, 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:30.600 not media. They aren't. You know, there's a very clear 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:35.920 delineation between being a partner and being media. And you know, 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:38.200 this thought just popped in my head when you were 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:42.560 talking about it is is Golf Channel. They're a partner 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.160 of the PGA Tour, and I think it's the same 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:48.520 type of relationship there. You know, what's what's beneficial for 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:51.360 the tour is beneficial for its partner. And I think 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:53.720 that's the thing that everybody needs to keep in mind 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:56.720 when when you're you know, with with these things, is 0:09:56.760 --> 0:09:59.440 that that this is more of a partnership. This isn't 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:04.119 a media relationship like a you know, there's no competing 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:08.000 media organizations right there are partners and that's it. 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:10.520 A lot a lot of people have a lot to 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:12.600 lose if the PGA Tour goes. 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:15.560 Down, exactly. And that's the thing is that Golf Channel. 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:18.240 You know, that was a question that had started to 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:22.880 brew up because it seemed like this was going to happen. 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:26.320 Was like, wait, where's this going to be telecasted? Who 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:28.760 has the rights? Like what's the rights to deal look like? 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:31.319 And I think one of the things is that this 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.640 threat of a competitor, whether it was the PGL off 0:10:34.679 --> 0:10:37.679 the BAT which later turned kind of into the SGL. 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:41.000 When you know, the initial rejection of the PGL, which 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.760 was a couple of years ago, the premier Golf League. 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:47.960 Part of their investor group was the Saudis, you know, 0:10:48.280 --> 0:10:51.439 and now you look back, it's like, well that was 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:55.520 a lot better than everything being the Sadis. Which is 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.120 what happened is the Saudis just stole the idea and 0:10:58.160 --> 0:10:59.839 put all their own money into it. 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:04.640 Well, it's hindsight's twenty twenty, you know, we like nobody 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:07.640 could have predicted that the Saudis would break off and 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:12.000 form their own, you know, version of the Premier Golf League. 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:14.719 Well, that's what happened. They got feedback and it was like, oh, 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:16.880 get the Saudi Arabia money out of it, and they 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:18.600 tried to do that, and then all of a sudden, 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:20.040 you know, they just did it on. 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:23.079 Their own, and they have a lot less money now, 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:25.600 you know. That's the That's the other problem is that 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:28.880 the involvement of the Saudis gave them a lot of 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:33.640 financial might the original Premier Golf League, and once the 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:36.800 Saudis were out of it, it was they have a 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:38.840 lot less of an advantage over the PGA Tour in 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:39.280 that sense. 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:43.280 But I think you think about the last two years 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:46.120 of this going on, the tour has changed a lot. 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:48.800 We have the player what we talked about at the beginning, 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:52.200 the Player Impact Program we have, you know, the potential 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:56.920 for this NFT partnership that Phil talked about. With the 0:11:56.920 --> 0:12:02.720 PGA Tour, we've seen, you know, talks of doing different 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:07.880 tournament formats and pushing in directions where the fall maybe 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:10.720 we don't have all these tournaments that are consequential to 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:13.600 the FedEx Cup. There's all these changes that are being 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:18.800 talked about. And what has done that is competition. Competition 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:22.400 is a very good thing in every single industry. It 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:26.000 makes companies better. If there's no competition, what happens is 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:30.440 the big gorilla in the room becomes complacent. And I 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:33.280 think that's a really good way to describe the PGA 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:35.200 Tour for the last twenty. 0:12:34.920 --> 0:12:37.280 Years is incredibly complacence. 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:41.400 Yes, And the people that have been hurt the most 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:44.440 by the complacency of the tour is the fans. And 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:47.360 I think that is very telling of the product that 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:50.880 they put out. Like diehard golf fans love golf like 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:55.240 they're gonna show up. Regardless whether they're like thrilled about 0:12:55.280 --> 0:12:58.280 showing up or not is different. But if they're really 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:02.240 excited about showing up, you're gonna you're gonna broad the net. 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:04.520 They're gonna people are gonna be like, wow, Like why 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:07.000 does Andy want to watch golf so bad? You know? 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:10.760 And I think that's the thing that gets missed a 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:15.240 little bit, especially with golf in this weird space where 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:18.920 you don't really have owners that have financial interest in, 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:20.320 you know, in the fans. 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:20.600 Right. 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:25.440 There's no owner that benefits from having sellouts at every 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:29.520 single tour event, right or their tour event outside of 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:33.120 these individual tournaments that don't really have much power. And 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:37.280 because of that, the complacency can be at a at 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:40.120 a level unseen in any other professional sport. 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:44.040 Really, And this is getting into what the main point 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:47.679 of my article was, is that one thing that Phil 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:52.040 was talking about to Alan Chipnook into other journalists that 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:54.640 he spoke to in the past couple of months. Yeah, 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:58.280 John Huggins Golf Digest article from early in February has 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:03.400 gotten somewhat swamped by the subsequent quotes that Phil Ncholson 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.839 gave to Shipnook. But that John Huggen article on Golf 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:11.280 Digest where Phil talked about the quote unquote obnoxious greed 0:14:11.360 --> 0:14:15.040 of the PGA Tour was pretty sensational too, and important 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:19.160 for understanding where Mickelson is coming from, and part of 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:22.960 where he's coming from is trying to create leverage against 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:26.680 the PGA Tour. It is very, very difficult to change 0:14:26.920 --> 0:14:30.840 what the PGA tour is doing for a multitude of reasons, 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:34.680 some of which you just described. But one of the 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.400 reasons it's so difficult to change what the PGA Tour 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:41.280 is doing is that they're just not incentivized to do 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:45.960 anything that might make the majority of its membership mad. 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:49.120 And right now, the majority of its membership is not 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:52.480 of the stature of Phil Mickelson. The majority of its 0:14:52.480 --> 0:14:55.360 membership is these kind of middling players. I mean, nobody 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:57.640 who's on the PGA Tour is middling. They're all exceptional, 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:01.720 but in terms of PGA tour players sort of also rans. 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:06.000 Their interest is in making as much money as possible, 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:09.240 and right now the PGA tour system is designed to 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:12.400 kind of overpay them. But the problem is nobody knows 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.960 who these people are. They're being rewarded for no particular reason. 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:19.320 And so what would be better for the fans is 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:22.200 if there were a tour that serve the interests that 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:24.880 serve the interests of the top players. A little bit 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:27.280 more because the top players are who we want to 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:30.760 see week in and week out. The top players are 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:33.280 the ones who actually drive interest in the game. We 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:36.920 want to see those players reliably show up to tournaments 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:40.120 and compete with each other and have rivalries with each other. 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.640 But right now, the way the tour is, with all 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:47.240 these tournaments spread out on just about every weekend of 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:50.280 the year in order to give playing opportunities to the 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:53.440 majority of PGA Tour members, it becomes just so hard 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:56.600 to follow the season, and you just never know when 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:01.600 Roy McElroy, John Rahm, Colin Moore, kylewa Victor Hovlin. You 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:03.320 don't know when these guys are all going to show 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:05.760 up at the same tournament, and so it's just hard 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:09.000 to keep track of the storylines. And even when there's 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:12.280 a strong field, not everybody is there. 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:15.720 And the other thing is that you have these huge 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:19.720 high points in the story of the season, and you 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:21.880 can make an argument that some of the lowest of 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:25.800 lows are in between them, those weeks between majors because 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:27.560 none of the guys are playing. 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:30.680 And then there's the FedEx Cup playoffs, which are nothing, 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:33.440 you know, like even players are starting to speak up 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:37.560 about how lacking in juice the FedEx Cup playoffs are. 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:41.120 Nobody wants them, nobody's interested in them. This should be 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:43.360 a high point of the season, but it's not so. 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:46.600 The and this is I think the the I guess 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:50.440 the substance of the SGL as a threat, you know, 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:56.520 beyond once you get past the not so good humanitarian things, 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:58.440 the bad humanitarian aspect. 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:01.400 Let's just pretend that this con is being put forward 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:04.600 by the Premier Golf League without the Saudi backing. 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:09.040 Yeah, when you look at it from that sense, is like, oh, 0:17:09.760 --> 0:17:12.879 the playoffs like would be pretty cool if it was 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:17.199 twenty events and the players were at all twenty events, 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:21.240 Like you'd have some really cohesive storyline. I'm you know, 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:24.160 it's going to be really interesting to compare it. Contrast 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:29.080 the Netflix documentary with the F one stuff that they're doing. 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:32.840 Obviously they're doing a F one Drive to Survive style documentary. 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:35.440 Is like, I just was going through my head, It 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:37.840 is like, how do you do the F one stuff? 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:42.160 If Hamilton and Verstapen aren't at every like that's the 0:17:42.359 --> 0:17:46.080 you know, overriding kind of big story, right, and if 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:52.520 they just aren't at races, kills the story. There's no story. 0:17:53.040 --> 0:17:57.240 Yeah, absolutely. I mean so it's become almost a cliche 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:01.000 to compare Formula one to golf and talk about all 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:03.480 the things that Formula one does better. But I think 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:07.440 it's a really interesting comparison because the sports have quite 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:11.160 a few similarities in the way that they're kind of 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:16.800 individual sports with these interesting, sometimes kind of cranky characters 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:20.320 who form rivalries with each other. But in F one, 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:25.320 it's just twenty drivers. That's all you're following over the 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:29.119 course of the season. They're at every single race because 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:32.200 they can't miss a race. If one of those drivers 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:34.920 is not in the race, then that means that they're 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:39.040 injured or sick or something has happened. But they're at 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:42.400 every single race, and so you get these great kind 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:46.040 of season long dramas like we had last season with 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:49.320 Verstappen and Hamilton, but also between the teams that are 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:52.880 farther down the order that don't have as fast cars, 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:56.199 there are rivalries between them too, and interesting characters that 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:58.760 we as fans get to know over the course of 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:01.840 the season because we're seeing them at every single race 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:06.280 and kind of getting familiar with their quirks and their relationships. 0:19:06.359 --> 0:19:09.600 With each other and all that stuff. Golf has absolutely 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:10.199 none of that. 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:13.239 Yeah, and I think like the thing that you know, 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:16.600 for golf, what's missing out? Right, we're talking about F one, 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:21.280 but like what is missing out is that imagine last year, Right, 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:25.040 You've got a guy like Ricky Fowler who's like on 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:29.320 the down in a decline. His decline in a way 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:33.800 gets muted because he's not everywhere. Right, It's like, okay, 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:37.080 place here, He's not there, like it. It gets like diminished, 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:39.800 like you kind of hear about it every month once, 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:44.200 but the weeks in between when he plays mutes it. 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:46.520 And then on the other side of the coin, you've 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:48.639 got a guy like Sam Burns who had like a 0:19:48.760 --> 0:19:51.240 meteoric rise and we got to the end of the 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:54.280 year and everybody's like, oh what great year Sam Burns had, 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:57.880 and people talked about it during but the same thing 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:02.040 happened is like this guy coming like this young star 0:20:02.800 --> 0:20:06.800 is kind of trampled by these intermitten weeks when he's 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:10.920 not playing, and these other pop up stories that are 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:15.119 really a lot of times insignificant, like whoever won the 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:19.280 John Deere I can't remember, you know, whoever won the 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:23.240 John Deere? Whoever won the three m Like, these things 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:26.639 come in and they and they kind of trample down 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:31.080 the big stories, the ones that people like that you 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:34.560 can build on. And what it does is it really 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:39.480 hinders the top players, which Phil has. I don't think 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:43.760 he's gotten fully there to Maybe he has, but he wants. 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:45.240 The money, like he's motivated by the. 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:48.640 Money, the money, but he doesn't understand the harm that 0:20:48.720 --> 0:20:52.480 this does to the big stories which are generated by 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:56.040 the big name players. Like why people don't like it's 0:20:56.080 --> 0:20:58.760 really hard, Like you ask somebody who's your favorite golfer 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:01.880 A lot of times, like I my entire life, I've 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:04.080 kind of just been like, I don't know, you know, 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:07.399 outsided Tiger. It's like, you know Tiger, I don't know 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:11.240 who else. And it's like, well, why you don't have 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:14.639 a feeling? Why don't you don't have Like a really 0:21:14.680 --> 0:21:18.520 easy answer is because these stories never get to volop fully. 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:21.760 And think about how much this would benefit somebody like 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:27.280 Victor Hovland, who is tremendously likable, a great player and 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:30.840 up and coming young but I feel like he has 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:34.800 gotten the short end of the stick here in terms 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:38.200 of public popularity because of the way the PGA Tour 0:21:38.320 --> 0:21:42.480 season is structured. He hasn't starred enough, he hasn't been 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:45.400 put out front enough, he hasn't been given the opportunity 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:50.640 to bring to people his engaging personality and his fun style. 0:21:50.359 --> 0:21:53.959 Of play well. And then you also think, like a 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:58.280 good example of this is Brooks Kopka right where Brooks Kepka, 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:01.280 you know, he flew under the radar for a long time, 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:04.919 felt like he was getting disrespected all the time, and 0:22:04.960 --> 0:22:07.120 then all of a sudden, you know, and people were like, well, 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:09.639 he's a dial tone. He has nothing to say. Was 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:13.679 what the general consensus on brooks Koepka was for years. 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:16.560 Oh he's got nothing to say, and then all of 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:19.360 a sudden one year he just comes out guns ablazon 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:22.040 with all these opinions. But it's just because he was 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:25.840 actually given the opportunity to talk because he had become 0:22:25.960 --> 0:22:28.679 such a big star from all the major success and 0:22:28.720 --> 0:22:31.520 he had gotten passed, you know, and all of a sudden, 0:22:31.560 --> 0:22:34.520 then it's like, oh, this guy actually says stuff of 0:22:34.640 --> 0:22:37.840 substance like we have you know, this is it's unbelievable 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:40.719 how blunt this guy is. Like he probably was pretty 0:22:40.720 --> 0:22:44.000 similar to that, but he just hasn't ever afforded the opportunity. 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:47.040 And this is someone very in the similar vein that 0:22:47.119 --> 0:22:51.240 had this meteoric rise but was drowned out by everything 0:22:51.280 --> 0:22:54.719 else going on, way too much stuff going on. It's like, 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:58.040 you know, it's like, I imagine you probably could sympathize 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:01.000 to this. When you edit something somebody sends you ten 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:04.119 thousand words and you edit it down to three thousand words, 0:23:04.440 --> 0:23:07.040 it probably gets a lot clearer what the actual point 0:23:07.080 --> 0:23:07.840 of the article is. 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:12.560