Speaker 1: I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset. When
Speaker 1: I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
Speaker 1: And when I find my ball.
Speaker 2: In a bright egg Frida egg, the dreaded Frida egg,
Speaker 2: Frida egg, Frida egg, egg, Frida egg, bride egg Lie,
Speaker 2: I'm about ready to run off of the hump.
Speaker 3: Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast.
Speaker 3: Today's episode is with Jeff Shackelford. He is the owner
Speaker 3: of Jeff Shackleford dot Com also runs the uh A
Speaker 3: substack newsletter called The Quadrilateral. Jeff and I talk about
Speaker 3: the latest on the Distance Insights Report. Obviously that's a
Speaker 3: hot topic in golf uh and Jeff is very well
Speaker 3: versed in distance and the issue, having you know, basically
Speaker 3: written about it for the last twenty years. So we
Speaker 3: talk about the the latest updated interests of that, as
Speaker 3: well as a little bit on the Saudis and Augusta National.
Speaker 3: So this will be a episode that kind of covers
Speaker 3: a lot of things that's going on in regular golf
Speaker 3: as well as pro golf. So, without further ado, here
Speaker 3: is Jeff Shackelford. All right, we're we're back our Distance
Speaker 3: correspondent our external distance correspondent, Senor Jeff Shackleford from Jeff
Speaker 3: Shackleford dot com, also the author of the Quadrilateral, a
Speaker 3: substack newsletter that everybody should subscribe to.
Speaker 1: It is a what is it, fifty bucks a year?
Speaker 2: Fifty four?
Speaker 1: I RaSE it.
Speaker 2: I don't anticipate raising inflation for a while. Inflation and yeah,
Speaker 2: just inflation. That's all or six bucks a month.
Speaker 3: The keys are getting more. They they're charging you more
Speaker 3: every time you hit the key.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The bandwidth.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we're back. We got another update on the
Speaker 3: distance report. It seems like years ago when I was
Speaker 3: in Los Angeles when this first came about and you
Speaker 3: came over with the two fully printed out insights report.
Speaker 1: This was pre COVID. It was right before COVID. I
Speaker 1: mean it was.
Speaker 3: February of twenty nineteen, twenty twenty, and now we're here
Speaker 3: another update added areas of interest another six weight is
Speaker 3: six month kind of feedback loop. Jeff, what did you
Speaker 3: think of the latest updates?
Speaker 2: I thought it was really good. I mean, obviously the
Speaker 2: bad news is it's feeling like we're we're not going
Speaker 2: to really address this for a while. When all is
Speaker 2: said and done. So that's a bad news. I think
Speaker 2: the good news, though, is that it's a little more
Speaker 2: aggressive than expected, and obviously we don't have all the
Speaker 2: details of what they truly have in mind. You know,
Speaker 2: it's the same kind of thing as the last one.
Speaker 2: They're throwing out the areas of interest and and teasing
Speaker 2: some of them. Others are more explicit, and so I
Speaker 2: think that's fascinating how it'll play out. But if it
Speaker 2: is what it reads like, it's it's it's it's the
Speaker 2: R word. It's a there's a rollback for for the
Speaker 2: top guys, and that's that's a big deal. And it's
Speaker 2: kind of shocking. I mean, I realize we have a
Speaker 2: lot going on and we can discuss why this is,
Speaker 2: but there's been nothing from players, and I you know,
Speaker 2: I have a few theories, but that's kind of shocking.
Speaker 2: I thought we'd get one sort of whiny meltdown from
Speaker 2: a manufacturer bending somebody's ear, and there's been nothing. So
Speaker 2: I think that's key because this thing could get derailed quickly.
Speaker 3: It's, you know, just like reading the tea leaves and
Speaker 3: the way it feels, it seems like the manufacturers are
Speaker 3: somewhat on board.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's right. You know, David Dusk had
Speaker 2: a good piece in Golf Week a few weeks before
Speaker 2: this came out where he had anonymous submissions to questions
Speaker 2: from manufacturers, and the tone in that was a really
Speaker 2: good sign. You saw for the first time a realization
Speaker 2: or it just wasn't that knee jerk reaction, and they
Speaker 2: may have had a good sense of what was coming.
Speaker 2: And this is the thing I think was most impressive
Speaker 2: in the in the rollout. And we've been you know,
Speaker 2: wanting this for however long, but they're trying to throw
Speaker 2: them some bones to actually help the recreational golfer because
Speaker 2: all the data. They won't come out and say it,
Speaker 2: but the data shows the average person has not gotten
Speaker 2: the benefits from from the equipment. The people who are
Speaker 2: paying for the equipment haven't gotten the benefits that the
Speaker 2: people who are not paying for the equipment who just
Speaker 2: show it off are getting. It's it's not even close.
Speaker 2: And so they finally are saying, hey, look, we're going
Speaker 2: to give you some things that you've wanted or that
Speaker 2: we think will help you innovate for the average person
Speaker 2: who's actually paying, and we're going to though, you know,
Speaker 2: throttle these guys back, and there might be some ways
Speaker 2: they've done it where you know this addiction the companies
Speaker 2: have to marketing off of the pros. They can keep
Speaker 2: doing that. You know, they're just in love with that
Speaker 2: idea and maybe there's just no other way to sell equipment.
Speaker 2: I don't know, but I don't think. I don't think
Speaker 2: that's true, and so I like that they try to
Speaker 2: give them some things and give them that opening to
Speaker 2: to come back with with stuff, because it makes it
Speaker 2: very hard for them to whine about these chain when
Speaker 2: you've given them some room to innovate.
Speaker 3: So just to you know, give a quick overview the air.
Speaker 3: Updated areas of interest are ball testing, so you know,
Speaker 3: one of the things they haven't been doing is testing
Speaker 3: golf balls at high swing speeds on tour. They've been
Speaker 3: testing them at below the highest swing speeds on tour,
Speaker 3: which will be an update. They still aren't going all
Speaker 3: the way up, which is kind of a head scratching
Speaker 3: move in my opinions. It's just going to go faster
Speaker 3: and faster in the next couple of years, and then
Speaker 3: obviously a potential for a ball that's faster for slower
Speaker 3: swing speeds, yeah, if I read it correctly, and slower
Speaker 3: for high swing speeds, which I think is kind of
Speaker 3: that's what you're talking about, blending the two really helping
Speaker 3: the average player out and you know, not helping I
Speaker 3: think the ball has been the opposite.
Speaker 1: The ball and the equipment's been the opposite.
Speaker 3: The higher you swing, the higher speed you swing it,
Speaker 3: the more benefits you get from the average player.
Speaker 1: That's been kind of the thing.
Speaker 3: So this is kind of flipping it on its head,
Speaker 3: which is, in my opinion, probably the way it shouldn't
Speaker 3: have been for a long time. And then you know,
Speaker 3: the big one is different driver faces for professional golfers potentially,
Speaker 3: where we might see a less forgiving driver face where
Speaker 3: the moi, you know, where off center hits aren't as
Speaker 3: rewarded as they have been. You'd see more of a
Speaker 3: distant drain if you miss the center of the club face,
Speaker 3: which I mean I can't I can't see how any
Speaker 3: golf fan in the right mind wouldn't want to see that.
Speaker 3: One want to know who's actually hitting the center of
Speaker 3: the club face coming down the stretch at a major championship.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, Now how that's done is beyond me. I
Speaker 2: saw one report imply that would that would mean shrinking head.
Speaker 2: I don't think that was the impression I got.
Speaker 1: It's not what I got either.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, and that's where I was saying, they can
Speaker 2: still market the club whatever it is, the Rogue carbon
Speaker 2: Wood four, and and but there would be a marking
Speaker 2: on it that would make clear that this this, this
Speaker 2: one is for the elite player or the the serious golfer,
Speaker 2: whatever that is. And it's on the conforming list. And
Speaker 2: then there's the one that's sold to the to the
Speaker 2: recreational player. And so that to me is really fascinating.
Speaker 2: And I think we don't know but the combination of
Speaker 2: all these things and then what that does to change
Speaker 2: the player's attack of the ball, that's the part. We
Speaker 2: don't know how much that might reduce distance. So I
Speaker 2: don't know what the final number is, but it seems
Speaker 2: like it's a solid ten percent right now that it
Speaker 2: would take off those elite guys. I would push back slightly.
Speaker 2: I think that I feel like the clubhead speed bump.
Speaker 2: I mean, they're talking about going to a number that
Speaker 2: is the average of the top ten drivers on the tours.
Speaker 2: So and they're also it's also more flexible. It's it's
Speaker 2: it's it's it's optimum launch conditions. It's not a set number,
Speaker 2: and I think that's really important. I mean, I wrote
Speaker 2: the Future at Golf. I wrote about the need for
Speaker 2: that a long time ago, and now that was before
Speaker 2: you had guys walking out on the range with their
Speaker 2: track man, and so it seems like a logical step
Speaker 2: when you know that the players have this ability to
Speaker 2: be fine tuning and honing their launch conditions daily with
Speaker 2: adjustments to the equipment and some of its adjustable and
Speaker 2: all that. So I think that that's a natural progression
Speaker 2: of the testing, but it's also gonna Yeah, that was
Speaker 2: a pretty stagger statement that John Spitzer made to Mike's
Speaker 2: the Tour and golfed.
Speaker 3: I just.
Speaker 2: Probably pretty much every ball on the tour right now,
Speaker 2: other than a guy playing a pro v from three
Speaker 2: years ago because he likes the way it feels, might
Speaker 2: be non conforming. That's kind of that. I mean, that
Speaker 2: was that was shocking, and there's just been no I've
Speaker 2: seen very little reaction. I've been watching a lot of
Speaker 2: the NCAA tournaments, so I can't say that I've been
Speaker 2: mining on the internet for reactions, but I haven't seen much.
Speaker 3: It's been uh, you know, we talk about the balls,
Speaker 3: they would be illegal under these new testing guidelines. But
Speaker 3: in a way it seems like, you know, the Taylor
Speaker 3: Baide was puffing their chest out about the stealth. The
Speaker 3: equipment companies, you've set parameters, they're always going to innovate
Speaker 3: against them. I think that's if you go back to
Speaker 3: the history of the golf ball with when John Lowe
Speaker 3: and got his regulations he was excited about way back
Speaker 3: when you know, the next day the golf ball manufacturers
Speaker 3: came out with something that was longer and faster than
Speaker 3: the golf ball he fought so hard to regulate against.
Speaker 3: So you know, this is what engineers do. You give
Speaker 3: them parameters, they are going to innovate against it. And
Speaker 3: it seems like recent the recent innovations have been kind
Speaker 3: of finding loopholes that make illegal equipment. For like you know,
Speaker 3: with the stealth, they're talking about how this actually you know,
Speaker 3: it goes beyond the CT because of carbon right where
Speaker 3: it actually is faster than they'll allowed, but they found
Speaker 3: a loophole to get to that, and it I think
Speaker 3: the resetting is going to be great. I The one
Speaker 3: thing I'll say is that we're going to reset and
Speaker 3: we're probably going to get you know, they talk a
Speaker 3: lot about like allowing for innovation. We're probably going to
Speaker 3: get back here in another fifty years. Is the reality right?
Speaker 2: Maybe? Maybe? I mean right now, I feel like it's
Speaker 2: so aggressive, and it may be aggressive to with the
Speaker 2: idea that they'll end up having to negotiate a spot
Speaker 2: in the middle, But I feel like it's going to
Speaker 2: make a significant dent. And then but I think the
Speaker 2: bigger question is does it put an end to to
Speaker 2: your question about fifty years? Does it does it slow
Speaker 2: down or and the potential pursuit of speed the Bryson
Speaker 2: esque type or I don't want to say, but I
Speaker 2: watched a young golfer. I saw a clip on Twitter
Speaker 2: just from a tournament over the week or last week.
Speaker 2: I couldn't believe how hard the player swung. And does
Speaker 2: that do these changes permanently put an end to to
Speaker 2: kind of that long drive contest type swinging out of
Speaker 2: your shoes and return a little bit more of a
Speaker 2: premium on a variety of things and skills. Uh So
Speaker 2: that's I. Yeah, I just feel like the injury thing
Speaker 2: and the possibility that the driver phase changes could could
Speaker 2: really stop players from trying to swing that way. I
Speaker 2: mean maybe I'm maybe I'm that's a wishful thinking, I
Speaker 2: I but we'll take We'll take anything.
Speaker 1: Right now, years ago I did this.
Speaker 3: I did a podcast with a guy who did a
Speaker 3: study on tennis, and this is what happened when the
Speaker 3: oversized racket came about. And if you look at the
Speaker 3: world's top ten ranked golfers now, it's the youngest they've
Speaker 3: ever been. And this is this parallels tennis. Tennis had
Speaker 3: a period where youth dominated and it was the youngest.
Speaker 3: They had the youngest major championship winner at every venue
Speaker 3: in the same year. And this is what prompted the
Speaker 3: guy to look into it. And I think we're at
Speaker 3: that same impass here right now, where we have, you know,
Speaker 3: the youngest top ten in the world we've ever seen,
Speaker 3: and it's by it's shattering. I mean, Sam Burns just
Speaker 3: got into the top ten. Another twenty five year old
Speaker 3: bumped out DJ. So we're at this impass. What's interesting
Speaker 3: to me, I think about the whole situation is if
Speaker 3: this gets say, this gets implemented in a couple of years,
Speaker 3: and it's a less forgiving face that that in a
Speaker 3: ball that spins more.
Speaker 1: Could we see.
Speaker 3: A a window for the guys like Adam Scott and
Speaker 3: Sergio and these older players that actually have experience hitting
Speaker 3: the center of the face, because I remember when I
Speaker 3: was in high school and I sound like an old
Speaker 3: man saying this now, but I used to stand on
Speaker 3: the first t terrified of hitting like a low quacker
Speaker 3: off the top.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that was the worst. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And you see now with drivers that you want to
Speaker 3: hit the driver, you you, that's like the best club
Speaker 3: you can hit when you're nervous, because it's impossible to
Speaker 3: really miss it. You know, if you hit one off
Speaker 3: the bear, off the hazzle, it's going to go fifteen
Speaker 3: yards shorter and in the same you know, frame of
Speaker 3: space if you nut one, you know, And I think
Speaker 3: that's going to be the interesting thing is that if
Speaker 3: you do this, there is going to change the trajectory
Speaker 3: of golf and which golfers are the best golfers.
Speaker 2: See. I still feel, and maybe it's wishful thinking, I
Speaker 2: still feel like if you look at that top ten
Speaker 2: right now, not not to focus too much on them.
Speaker 3: But.
Speaker 2: Colin Markyle will be given time to adjust to that
Speaker 2: driver face and he won't have any trouble. Will Zalaturus
Speaker 2: won't have it, and he's on the top ten, but
Speaker 2: he's a great ball striker and he'll adjust. I do
Speaker 2: feel like it will put a little bit more premium
Speaker 2: on certain skills or other skills, and that's a positive.
Speaker 2: So yeah, maybe that that keeps some older players around.
Speaker 2: But my sense is that part of the reason we're
Speaker 2: part of it is just a generational thing. At the moment,
Speaker 2: we've had some older players who lasted a long time
Speaker 2: are kind of retiring or going away. But I'm having
Speaker 2: a hard time with the money involves and the way
Speaker 2: the game's played. I just feel like there's going to
Speaker 2: be a lot of turnover no matter what. So I
Speaker 2: don't know, and that has very little to do with
Speaker 2: the equipment in some ways, unless you get into the
Speaker 2: injury speed stuff, then that does have a direct tie
Speaker 2: to how the equipment is what the equipment allows the
Speaker 2: player to do. So I think it's a positive when
Speaker 2: the game has a lot of different ways to play,
Speaker 2: it has a lot of different age groups. I think
Speaker 2: it's the thing that makes our sport special and my
Speaker 2: sense is that those those truly special players will continue
Speaker 2: to be. In fact, I feel strongly, with no evidence whatsoever,
Speaker 2: that those extra they're all great out there, but the
Speaker 2: ones that are extra special, I think they may stand
Speaker 2: out more if this happens. You know, that would be
Speaker 2: the case i'd make to somebody like Rory McElroy, who's
Speaker 2: kind of I mean I briefly mentioned it at Riviera.
Speaker 2: He's kind of all over the map on it and
Speaker 2: he rolls his eyes at people like us on this stuff.
Speaker 2: But I think you could make a case that he,
Speaker 2: you know, players like him, would stand out just a
Speaker 2: little bit more, or that player like Tiger Woods or
Speaker 2: Phil Mickelson actually would have won even a little bit
Speaker 2: more if the equipment hadn't changed so much and then
Speaker 2: gone the way it did in the last ten to
Speaker 2: twelve years.
Speaker 1: You know, co Crack better get his Saudi check asap.
Speaker 2: I think he's getting it soon. He'll be probably in London.
Speaker 2: Picked it up the first of eight Biggies.
Speaker 3: It's I think the one thing I forgot to mention
Speaker 3: was the key thesis of that of that podcast was
Speaker 3: when technological change is introduced, new skills are rewarded and this,
Speaker 3: this rollback at the professional level would be an introduction
Speaker 3: of technological change, and I think what the overall point
Speaker 3: would be is that it would be more the skills
Speaker 3: would be more similar to skills of past, which is
Speaker 3: where you know, these where older players hanging on might have,
Speaker 3: you know, a significant advantage because they don't have to
Speaker 3: relearn these skills or relearn new skills. And that I
Speaker 3: think that's where these young players are at such an advantage,
Speaker 3: is that they never learned the skills of hitting a
Speaker 3: small head and a spinny ball.
Speaker 1: They don't even know what that was like.
Speaker 3: And whenever you have to relearn skills or learn new
Speaker 3: skills at an older age, you're at a huge disadvantage.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's no question I but I just feel like
Speaker 2: the timingness will be, this will be easy, will ease
Speaker 2: into this, and there will be and and I'm you know,
Speaker 2: with launch monitors now and fitting and how good people
Speaker 2: are at doing that, I just feel that there's nothing
Speaker 2: that they're talking about that's so extreme that that's the
Speaker 2: equivalent of going from a big headed driver to persimmon
Speaker 2: or something. It's just nothing that's that great of a leap.
Speaker 2: And so the combination of what they have in terms
Speaker 2: of availability, in testing, free, free equipment, the timing. You know,
Speaker 2: we're looking at this happening over a couple of years,
Speaker 2: three years, probably four years. I think they'll be able
Speaker 2: to adapt. And those players you're talking about, some of
Speaker 2: those guys, will you know four years from now, Sergio
Speaker 2: Lee Westwood, you know, well they yeah, yeah, I don't
Speaker 2: want to say, but the chances of them still being
Speaker 2: U relevant or not great.
Speaker 3: You look at Ricky Fowler and he's kind of I think,
Speaker 3: like I who knows, like everybody loves it, but I
Speaker 3: think he's one of the guys that you could look
Speaker 3: at and concretely, you know, hypothesized that distance really cost
Speaker 3: a very very He's had a very good career, but
Speaker 3: a longer great career because when he came on tour,
Speaker 3: as you know, he was the young guy. He was
Speaker 3: like a top twenty five driving distance guy, and you
Speaker 3: can see like he just got completely outpaced with with
Speaker 3: that new wave of golfers where he became average and
Speaker 3: length and all of a sudden that has you know,
Speaker 3: disastrous effects down down the rest of your game and
Speaker 3: through the bag. And I think, you know, puts more
Speaker 3: pressure on putting.
Speaker 1: He hasn't put it.
Speaker 3: As well, he hasn't hit the ball as well as
Speaker 3: he's tried to stay relevant in the distance race.
Speaker 2: You could throw in a there's a Looke Donald before him.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's quite quite a few cases. And yeah,
Speaker 2: there's no question that watching what guys were doing, he
Speaker 2: felt the pressure to adjust. It's very hard to hold
Speaker 2: your ground. And again you could make the case there
Speaker 2: are a couple of people who have sort of just decided
Speaker 2: they play it a certain way and they'll play well
Speaker 2: certain courses and they're happy to make a living doing that.
Speaker 2: But he had aspirations to do something a little bit
Speaker 2: more profound in his career. But then you also can't
Speaker 2: really gauge what kind of money he has made and
Speaker 2: what that does to your drive. I mean, he has
Speaker 2: done he and I mentioned this before on other shows.
Speaker 2: You know, Forbes never puts him in that top one
Speaker 2: hundred list of athlete athlete income and it's just laughable.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's he's doing as well as anybody in
Speaker 2: golf or has been in the last few years, so
Speaker 2: it's hard to so I just think those career windows
Speaker 2: are going to shorten a little bit and that's what's
Speaker 2: fascinating about not really necessarily positive about them, the Saudi
Speaker 2: situation and all the money that's going into these towards
Speaker 2: the players. Look, I mean it's it's there, they have,
Speaker 2: they can give it to them, but it's you do
Speaker 2: wonder what kind of effect it's going to have on
Speaker 2: longevity in a sport where we need. We We like
Speaker 2: getting to know players, we like watching their career arc.
Speaker 2: It's one of those things that makes up for the
Speaker 2: fact that the sport's kind of boring to watch. We
Speaker 2: get invested in them and it's really fun when they
Speaker 2: still do something later in their career after we saw
Speaker 2: them emerge, And yeah, I just love that about the
Speaker 2: sport and I feel like we're losing that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you don't have to look at any further.
Speaker 3: And this is if we could just you know, forget
Speaker 3: the last six months of his life. But look at
Speaker 3: Phil Micholson with the PGA. You know, that's the perfect
Speaker 3: example of a career arc. And you know, you know
Speaker 3: Watson at at uh at the Open years ago, it's
Speaker 3: you get this, you you hold on because the sport
Speaker 3: allows for players to age so gracefully in comparison to
Speaker 3: a sport like football or basketball, where one day they're
Speaker 3: relevant and the next day they're washed, and it's so
Speaker 3: visually apparent that they're washed. But this sport allows for
Speaker 3: some grace and some some aging and and you know,
Speaker 3: moments of of where they shine and they they still
Speaker 3: have it. And and that was Phil at the PGA.
Speaker 3: And you know, that's the thing that you when you
Speaker 3: introduce more and more money the drive. I think the
Speaker 3: one thing I would push back on is like the
Speaker 3: really special players will will stay special. Like Tom Brady
Speaker 3: is a perfect example of of that, and like where
Speaker 3: you know, great, great players will defy this thing because
Speaker 3: that what drives them is not the money. But for
Speaker 3: a lot of players, and maybe that's the case, is
Speaker 3: like a lot of players that were never that great,
Speaker 3: the money will will make them, you know, kind of
Speaker 3: fade out a little bit faster.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's I think something we take for granted
Speaker 2: with Tiger and Phil, how much they just kept coming
Speaker 2: at you even when they had seemingly plenty of money.
Speaker 2: And I think Jordan Speed's one of those players who
Speaker 2: will be that way. Most of the events considered the
Speaker 2: greatest in the history of the game were the ones
Speaker 2: where there was a convergence of generations and and the
Speaker 2: new guy was coming and the old guy was hanging on,
Speaker 2: and the and the and the elite player of the
Speaker 2: day was involved. And I think that's a really a
Speaker 2: good reminder, like sixty at Cherry Hills and the eighty
Speaker 2: six Masters.
Speaker 1: Pebble Pebble with Watson and Jack.
Speaker 2: Absolutely yeah. So there, and you can go way back
Speaker 2: even into the you know, pre pre war years, and
Speaker 2: same kind of thing happened. And that's it's just one
Speaker 2: of those things in our sport that we really really
Speaker 2: love that they and we're very lucky a lot of
Speaker 2: them like to travel. They like the life, and they
Speaker 2: don't really know any other way, so they play a
Speaker 2: lot and it's one of those intangibles for golf. So
Speaker 2: and that's what. But one other thing on this, you know,
Speaker 2: on the distance thing, I think that's really interesting. I've
Speaker 2: been kind of mulling. I'll probably write something to the
Speaker 2: newsletter about it. But part of the reason I have
Speaker 2: a theory that we haven't gotten the reaction from players
Speaker 2: is that the manufacturer's money just doesn't matter as much
Speaker 2: to most of the players like it used to again,
Speaker 2: you know, a new player coming out on the tour. Yes,
Speaker 2: I'm well aware that that whatever that one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty thousand dollars advance at the start of the year
Speaker 2: to where ball, hat and glove is huge, And I
Speaker 2: understand that five million a year for somebody is not
Speaker 2: laughed at. But I think when you look at the
Speaker 2: money that's coming to them from the tour or the
Speaker 2: options they could have somewhere else, that manufacturer bending their
Speaker 2: ear about Hey, you got to tell everybody this is
Speaker 2: terrible for the game, and it's mean and it's cruel,
Speaker 2: and it's going to take the average person back thirty
Speaker 2: yards and all that nonsense that you might get. I
Speaker 2: just don't think they have that ability to sway the
Speaker 2: players and have them do their bidding like that. And
Speaker 2: maybe they're not even pushing them.
Speaker 3: That way anymore.
Speaker 2: Maybe they really realize with the pandemic that the game.
Speaker 2: They will sell equipment if the game is healthy and
Speaker 2: being played, and what the pros do has not very
Speaker 2: little to do with their bottom line. Ultimately, if they're
Speaker 2: moving equipment, it's because people are playing golf.
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Speaker 3: by volume. Elijah Craig reminds you to think wisely and
Speaker 3: drink wisely. Now back to Jeff Shackelford, so on a
Speaker 3: different topics. Obviously, I think overall everybody's happy about this.
Speaker 3: This is a good positive development for the game of golf.
Speaker 3: What's your what's your read on the Saudi situation? Obviously,
Speaker 3: they last week they announced their their host sites, which
Speaker 3: was quite underwhelming. Greg Norman has gone on a media
Speaker 3: tour and from what I've seen, with the exception of
Speaker 3: Gary Williams, was met with with softball questions, what what
Speaker 3: do you expect now that the schedule set? Do you
Speaker 3: do you expect to see some players defecting in the
Speaker 3: near future and challenging the PGA tours attempt to ban
Speaker 3: players who go play.
Speaker 2: Well, I just don't know the rules well enough to
Speaker 2: understand because the way the dates are set up, it
Speaker 2: looks to me like you could play I believe three
Speaker 2: is the number that they can get a release on.
Speaker 2: You can play three before the FedEx, and then the
Speaker 2: three when the schedule flips to the New twenty two
Speaker 2: twenty three year. So I don't know is anybody can
Speaker 2: unless they try to play four or is anybody gonna
Speaker 2: really initiate a battle with the tour? And then so
Speaker 2: that's number one and then number two. It just seems
Speaker 2: like that he's rolled out a schedule. There's no requirement
Speaker 2: to play. So the thing that that the model they
Speaker 2: stole from the Premier Golf League group required you to
Speaker 2: be involved in all the events. The whole thing only
Speaker 2: works if you're you're really all in on every half one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly that you know, whether Lewis Hamilton wants to
Speaker 3: or he's a dude. He's at Saudi Arabia, And you know,
Speaker 3: I think that's the thing that what made that speech
Speaker 3: that he made a few few months ago so endearing,
Speaker 3: was like I have to be here. I'm not happy
Speaker 3: about it, right, but you know this is the you know,
Speaker 3: the the requirement was a big appeal to the model
Speaker 3: is that the top players are going to be playing
Speaker 3: every time we tee it up.
Speaker 2: Right, So what's the point of this if it's they
Speaker 2: can just dip in and dip out. And I think
Speaker 2: a few guys will and can you blame him. I mean,
Speaker 2: could you blame Richard Bland for playing that event in
Speaker 2: London at this point in his career and probably not
Speaker 2: that field that much better than the ones he's placed
Speaker 2: played against in Europe and he can make a check
Speaker 2: that is phenomenal. I wouldn't blame him, and he doesn't
Speaker 2: have to make any commitment. Although Greg mentioned I noted
Speaker 2: this on my blog today. He mentioned in the Gary
Speaker 2: Williams interviews contracts. So I don't understand again this independent
Speaker 2: contractor thing, and then you're signing signing contracts, you know,
Speaker 2: like what's in that? They're they're kind of all over
Speaker 2: the map, and I get it. They're trying to pivot
Speaker 2: here in a reaction to the tour, and they dump
Speaker 2: the Asian Tour event in London like a hot potato
Speaker 2: and turn that into one of their events, just to
Speaker 2: what six weeks after announcing it as a centerpiece of
Speaker 2: the Asian Tour. So they're moving all over the place
Speaker 2: and the courses are totally uninspired. And we know more
Speaker 2: and more that I mean, we were goofy. We look
Speaker 2: at a venue and that's what gets excited about a tournament.
Speaker 2: But I think more and more people are appreciative of
Speaker 2: the role the venue plays and the romance and the
Speaker 2: history or the character of the design, whether it or
Speaker 2: even you know, the players championship and the finishing holes.
Speaker 2: People just are more drawn to certain places and they
Speaker 2: don't have the most inspired group of venues, is probably
Speaker 2: the best way to put it. So it just seems
Speaker 2: to me like, yeah, they'll get some players, but I
Speaker 2: don't ultimately, I'm not seeing the long term wisdom of
Speaker 2: wanting to join it. I'm not getting the long term
Speaker 2: vision that can that a player can can trust signing
Speaker 2: on for and that that's uh, that's a problem because
Speaker 2: and the Saudis could pull the plug at any minute.
Speaker 2: They could, they could lose interest in no time, and
Speaker 2: they're not trustworthy that way. I don't think this. You know,
Speaker 2: Norman talks about going back, you know, back to twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2: They've been involved in the game. Oh wow, it's like
Speaker 2: they were, you know, practically at leaf Links at the
Speaker 2: founding of the sport. I mean, give me a break.
Speaker 3: That's like one of my pet peeves is when when
Speaker 3: somebody has in their logo, like you know, whether it's
Speaker 3: like a coffee shop established twenty twenty, Yeah, like, what
Speaker 3: what does that mean?
Speaker 2: Yeah, big deal, unless it's ironic, unless they're just trying
Speaker 2: to be funny. But yeah, so that part of his
Speaker 2: case is just really strange to me. And then yeah,
Speaker 2: that he hasn't I mean, tell you what you need
Speaker 2: to know about the saudis that he can't say. Look,
Speaker 2: there's no question that they they they there's some things
Speaker 2: in the past they would like us to forget. They
Speaker 2: want to forget, they want.
Speaker 1: To move forward in the near pass.
Speaker 2: A couple last weekend. But he can't even bring himself
Speaker 2: to do that because it's not what they want to hear.
Speaker 2: And so when you put that together with everything, it's
Speaker 2: it's a it's a high risk thing for a player
Speaker 2: to leap. On the other hand, you know, I don't
Speaker 2: know how many people truly understand what who they are
Speaker 2: and what you're getting into.
Speaker 3: I don't think that that I think that's the thing.
Speaker 3: I don't think that the general public understands. I happened
Speaker 3: to run into somebody on a golf course who you know,
Speaker 3: was like, oh, I listened to golf dot com subpar
Speaker 3: podcast about Greg Norman and he which you know they
Speaker 3: Colton Drew did an interview. They they didn't really ask
Speaker 3: many tough questions. I don't think they identify themselves as journalists,
Speaker 3: so you know, whatever that may be. But they didn't
Speaker 3: ask any questions. But the guy was like, it's pretty interesting,
Speaker 3: there are some interesting ideas. And I think that's the
Speaker 3: issue with you know, the general public just I don't
Speaker 3: think it necessarily understands the the you know, impetus and
Speaker 3: why they're doing this. And like you said, they could
Speaker 3: get bored and pull the plug.
Speaker 1: There.
Speaker 3: They're kind of they're kind of deploying what what Uber deployed.
Speaker 3: You know, we're going to kill the taxi industry, which is,
Speaker 3: you know, by offering an attempt to offer a better
Speaker 3: product that pays pays more or in Uber's case, is
Speaker 3: way cheaper for the consumer and more convenient.
Speaker 1: And then once we.
Speaker 3: Have killed off all the competition, we can do whatever
Speaker 3: we want with it. And that's the thing I think
Speaker 3: it's scary is that it could start as something and
Speaker 3: if they effectively kill the PGA tour then it could
Speaker 3: evolve into something that's even worse, you know than the
Speaker 3: PGA tourist product.
Speaker 2: Ever was right right, and then one player one day
Speaker 2: could say Holy cow, I just read a book about
Speaker 2: this whole kushogi thing. This is terrible. And they could
Speaker 2: they could, I mean the whole thing. You just don't
Speaker 2: know what could set them off. And that's uh, you know,
Speaker 2: that's something where the the agents and people involved have
Speaker 2: to to do the homework for the players and explain
Speaker 2: that to them. Because I had a conversation with a
Speaker 2: player at Revier this year and it was an amazing
Speaker 2: description of what this was and you know, I had
Speaker 2: no concept of it was just to this player, it
Speaker 2: was just a it's a rich guy who really wants
Speaker 2: to get into golf. Well, it's a little more complicated
Speaker 2: than that. And then the fund and and and then
Speaker 2: it's obviously complicated because the public investment fund is involved
Speaker 2: in a lot of well Uber you just mentioned.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well that's the.
Speaker 3: Hard thing is I mean, you you live your daily
Speaker 3: life and you're probably contributing some money to to this,
Speaker 3: you know, regime, and you know that is something that's
Speaker 3: important to point out, is that they are involved in
Speaker 3: our lives every day almost you know, as is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and so that's one of those things where it's
Speaker 2: a it's hard for a lot of people to call
Speaker 2: out this group and the way they're behaving. And but
Speaker 2: again I just I just go back to, you know,
Speaker 2: at least you know, the premier goth Leete concept. Uh,
Speaker 2: there was with with you know, the franchise concept that
Speaker 2: they are building a lot of their dream or idea around.
Speaker 2: Obviously is a money play. It creates value and their
Speaker 2: tax implications and great things, but it also is a
Speaker 2: statement about creating something for the long term. And so
Speaker 2: now that the Saudis have dropped the that element of
Speaker 2: the or concept and it's a startup. It's a beta.
Speaker 3: Yeah, billions of dollars and no product billions. Yeah, it's
Speaker 3: a pre they got a pre money valuation. They you know,
Speaker 3: they got a huge pre money valuation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course.
Speaker 3: The thing is Greg's the founder of this startup that
Speaker 3: has zero equity, you know, zero control. Is it's just
Speaker 3: like a pre money valuation startup.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. And and what's the long term vision?
Speaker 2: Now when you strip away the one thing that would
Speaker 2: be the incentive for players and for investors, uh, to
Speaker 2: to build and to build into something bigger and bigger
Speaker 2: and bigger and create that value of the franchise. And
Speaker 2: so that's the brilliance and also where you get the
Speaker 2: comfort level with what the PGL concept does and now
Speaker 2: whether that has any gain, any traction with people. You know,
Speaker 2: I still have my doubts about the team element working
Speaker 2: if there's only really one team event at the end
Speaker 2: and they're small teams. Yeah. Anyway, those are all details,
Speaker 2: and you can look at team Tennis and say, well,
Speaker 2: that didn't work, and that could be the same thing
Speaker 2: in golf. I don't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I think. And from all this, the PGL
Speaker 3: has come out way ahead in terms of their image. Unfortunately,
Speaker 3: you know, the Saudi's kind of hijack their idea and
Speaker 3: and you know, just in terms of you know, their
Speaker 3: intentions and what they're looking for onto positive things.
Speaker 1: We're right around the corner from Augusta. Yeah, but what's one.
Speaker 3: Storyline you're particularly keen heading into the Masters this year?
Speaker 2: Well, as somebody who loves golf architecture, naturally, I'm totally
Speaker 2: fascinated by the changes at the eleventh hole and how
Speaker 2: that's going to play. You know, we've gotten a teaser
Speaker 2: which we don't normally get thanks to Eureka Earth, so
Speaker 2: we get to see what's going on, and it's intriguing,
Speaker 2: the fifteenth a little bit longer. There's some there's been
Speaker 2: talk of some greens being redone. You've written a piece
Speaker 2: about some some widening. The last aeriels did look it
Speaker 2: did look a little wider, but the rough also looked
Speaker 2: pretty pretty healthy. Who knows, it may have just rained
Speaker 2: for a few days and then cut it. Excuse me,
Speaker 2: the second cut. I got to start getting into my
Speaker 2: into my master speak mode, and so I'm always interested
Speaker 2: to see what they've done with the golf course, how
Speaker 2: it plays, how the players react. You know, it's it's
Speaker 2: another fascinating thing I've been. I've been, you know, at Riviera.
Speaker 2: I talked to players about something I was working on
Speaker 2: for the old course, and you know, we haven't really
Speaker 2: had many reports the players going there and playing. You know,
Speaker 2: that used to be such a thing and now it's
Speaker 2: more of rest and get there. Caddy figures out the lines,
Speaker 2: we discuss it the tea, we crunch the numbers, and
Speaker 2: we go play. So we really haven't gotten I mean,
Speaker 2: by now we should have gotten some players speaking about
Speaker 2: what they've seen, and there just hasn't been much, or
Speaker 2: if they've been, they just haven't been asked and all that.
Speaker 3: So I'm I think there's the there's so much other
Speaker 3: stuff going on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's part of it too.
Speaker 1: I can't remember a Masters where it's been.
Speaker 3: You know, the conversation's been so quiet about it coming
Speaker 3: up because of everything that's going on in the sport.
Speaker 3: You know, usually like each week is kind of this
Speaker 3: Master's build, and it seems like each week now is
Speaker 3: the latest in this soap opera we've been watching with
Speaker 3: the Saudi's.
Speaker 2: Well, and also it's just the time we're in where
Speaker 2: we have some parody Tiger and Phil. Well, Tiger's not
Speaker 2: playing who knows what Phil. Hopefully Phil plays, if he's
Speaker 2: gonna play, Hopefully he plays at the Valeros. So it's
Speaker 2: not a full spectacle when he arrives at Augusta. Rory's
Speaker 2: Grand Slam West has been done now for several years,
Speaker 2: so that's yeah, that's lost a little of its luster.
Speaker 2: And the way he's putting you don't really feel like
Speaker 2: right now his game is shaping up for Augusta. But
Speaker 2: who knows, he could anything could happen, but it doesn't
Speaker 2: doesn't look great. So yeah, there's not any great storyline
Speaker 2: with players coming in. Somebody's not on a streak, and
Speaker 2: the Major's Brooks is cooled.
Speaker 1: Off speed spend kind of quiet too, very.
Speaker 2: Quiet, and he's that the swing looks strange. And by
Speaker 2: the way, speaking of duck hooks, he had a few
Speaker 2: riv I saw, so it still can be done with
Speaker 2: modern equipment. But yeah, he cooled.
Speaker 1: Off Smith on sim Smith.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, that was a quacker. That was an
Speaker 2: old school which made his T shot on eighteen so
Speaker 2: incredible because again, like you said earlier, once you hit
Speaker 2: one of those, uh, and again there's a whole bunch
Speaker 2: of players who just don't know what that feels like.
Speaker 2: And once you hit one, it's the same as a shank.
Speaker 2: It's the same same kind of thing.
Speaker 1: It gets you here. Next one's going way right no
Speaker 1: matter what.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he hit that beautiful T shirt on a teen,
Speaker 2: Like my gout, he kept it on the planet. I would.
Speaker 2: I was impressed.
Speaker 3: I think the thing with the snaphook that is like
Speaker 3: so many times you hit it so flush and it's
Speaker 3: just so far it doesn't feel that as bad as
Speaker 3: like you know, when you block one, right, but that
Speaker 3: snap hook can can sometimes feel pretty good.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'll believe me. Uh, I'm from the era when
Speaker 2: when we transitioned and shafts were not like they were,
Speaker 2: and there were certain shafts you you you'd like if
Speaker 2: you look up, you felt great and impacting. Where why
Speaker 2: what happened? How did that happen?
Speaker 1: That was a good swing, that felt good?
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think that's the thing about the hook
Speaker 4: is where it can feel really good and then then
Speaker 4: to the next one there's no way that's you know
Speaker 4: that that one is going right no matter what.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I don't miss that part of the game,
Speaker 2: and I don't think we want to bring it back,
Speaker 2: and I don't think these rule changes are intending to
Speaker 2: do that, and they it's very hard to with again
Speaker 2: with the quality of the equipment, But I do think
Speaker 2: we'd love to see that that just slight throttling back
Speaker 2: out of fear of missing the sweet spot would be
Speaker 2: I think it would do a lot of good and
Speaker 2: it would also help. Yeah, that's the thing we've got
Speaker 2: to you know. The Green Reading Books, I think is
Speaker 2: a great example of where the players actually took the initiative,
Speaker 2: either because they saw how stupid it looked, you know,
Speaker 2: guys standing there watching another player plot and looking over
Speaker 2: to the crowd and seeing people laughing at a guy
Speaker 2: with the book up to his face. So they watched
Speaker 2: it at home and it and somehow maybe the PGA
Speaker 2: to a rule staff did it. They got it to
Speaker 2: their ego and said, look, you know you guys, you
Speaker 2: all time, you really good players, you Brooks's and your rories.
Speaker 2: You're this is stupid. You look stupid. You're gonna you're
Speaker 2: not gonna appreciate this. Your generation is gonna look dumb.
Speaker 2: And those guys took the initiative to kind of get
Speaker 2: a skill of green reading back, whether it was for
Speaker 2: optics or whatever it was. And I think on the
Speaker 2: distancing that's the job of Jason Gore and the various
Speaker 2: player representatives. The PGA Tour role staff is like this,
Speaker 2: this is not to humiliate you. We're not trying to
Speaker 2: embarrass you. We want you, We want that that really
Speaker 2: great player to just be separated a little bit more, uh,
Speaker 2: with these these changes, and if they can buy get
Speaker 2: that buy in and not feel like they're gonna be
Speaker 2: we're trying to make them snaphook it and look bad.
Speaker 2: I think it'll it'll sail through.
Speaker 3: I think this is one other aspect we talk about
Speaker 3: the Masters and having a little bit less pop. One
Speaker 3: other aspect of a really, really, really young tour is
Speaker 3: that we don't have these built up storylines for for
Speaker 3: a decade, we don't have I mean, Sam Burns is
Speaker 3: in the top ten in the world, has won three times,
Speaker 3: and he hasn't played in the Masters.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm really starting to get concerned about that in
Speaker 2: terms of getting to know players, and I feel like
Speaker 2: this and television still really matters. So I have PJ
Speaker 2: Tour live on a lot and every once in a
Speaker 2: while for a bathroom break for the announcers, they'll go
Speaker 2: to a pre canned feature on a player and they're short,
Speaker 2: you know whatever, they are a minute or something. But
Speaker 2: I'm like, that's great, Wait, that was good. We need
Speaker 2: to do more of that. And the network model now
Speaker 2: is so shot driven, and I think this is going
Speaker 2: to be looked back on as a disaster. You know. Again,
Speaker 2: golf is not thrilling, and you need reasons for people
Speaker 2: to watch. And it used to be a sport that
Speaker 2: that that old old ladies. I knew. I knew a few,
Speaker 2: you know. A friend of my mom's mom love golf,
Speaker 2: never play in their life and they're there. I think
Speaker 2: we're losing touch with with a broader audience by just
Speaker 2: showing shot after shot after shot and not you know,
Speaker 2: going into the let's let's do thirty seconds where the
Speaker 2: catty just shows us what the player has in his
Speaker 2: bag and it shows a little personality or whatever it
Speaker 2: is we're missing out. Of course, we're getting no sound
Speaker 2: from the course, which every other sport is bringing you
Speaker 2: sound so you get to to hear these people. The
Speaker 2: players don't want to be heard whatever. I just feel
Speaker 2: like we're moving in a very dangerous direction along with
Speaker 2: what's going on with the parody where uh it's it's
Speaker 2: gonna be hard for a casual fan to uh to
Speaker 2: really kind of get invested. Plus, you know, let's face it,
Speaker 2: the old broadcast used to be a little bit of
Speaker 2: a yeah it's beauty, and we got that. CBS especially,
Speaker 2: it's just killing it with the visuals and the drone
Speaker 2: and the blamp and camera angles and improved, but uh,
Speaker 2: you know, the travelogue element to a broadcast, the length
Speaker 2: of the broadcast, you know, I just I'm kind of
Speaker 2: weird in that I almost think like the network shows
Speaker 2: should be a little tighter and a little bit more
Speaker 2: produced and less about shots. So I and I don't
Speaker 2: know how you measure how that has an impact, but
Speaker 2: I feel like it does.
Speaker 3: It's also on the TV network that has doesn't do
Speaker 3: any features anymore.
Speaker 2: No, No, that's what I mean.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, are they beyond it's beyond just the broadcast.
Speaker 3: But I think you know, you look at print journalism
Speaker 3: when Brenda and I on the Shotgun start to those spotlights.
Speaker 3: You know, you go back and you read these these
Speaker 3: feature pieces from sports illustrated from from you know, the
Speaker 3: nineties and the eighties and seventies, and you just think
Speaker 3: to yourself, God, this whole era of golf is devoid
Speaker 3: of that. You know, the idea of sending a journalist
Speaker 3: to right Sevy or to uh Jose Maria ol Thabo's
Speaker 3: town too, you know, in Inhi May, I believe it
Speaker 3: was him, didn't even have an interview set, and he
Speaker 3: was there for a week and he just talked to
Speaker 3: the people that knew Jose Maria and and and you know,
Speaker 3: and you're just missing the storytelling and in the uniqueness
Speaker 3: and and everything now is run through a filter through
Speaker 3: the agent. So I think that's an important thing to
Speaker 3: point out is when you see these appearances on podcasts,
Speaker 3: These are set up through the agent. Then they've got
Speaker 3: really strict talking points and different things with with some
Speaker 3: of them. You know, some are better, some agents are
Speaker 3: better than others. But you know, this is everything's kind
Speaker 3: of of uh doled out on a kind of fed
Speaker 3: out in a in a manner as opposed to the
Speaker 3: authenticity of the player profiles and different things is so
Speaker 3: much less now.
Speaker 1: And I think Golf.
Speaker 3: The telecast is an interesting subject because I think this
Speaker 3: is a knee jerk of swings, like they can swing
Speaker 3: in different directions and maybe it was too produced and
Speaker 3: now they're pushing for more shots. Obviously there's all these
Speaker 3: features and sponsor features that need to be put in there,
Speaker 3: and and that you know, maybe that's the next thing
Speaker 3: that's pushed against, is that, you know, really, what is
Speaker 3: the FedEx Cup updates doing?
Speaker 1: What are they doing?
Speaker 2: Yeah, the FedEx Cup file? Yeah, he likes to go fishing. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Great.
Speaker 2: Although I think they've trimmed some promos this year, which
Speaker 2: is kind of the other interesting thing. We're getting more
Speaker 2: shots in part because they've they have trimmed a few things.
Speaker 2: Instruction is another thing I mean, I don't I don't
Speaker 2: need a golf lesson. But guess what, most of the
Speaker 2: people watching the broadcast would love more instructions Johnny Miller.
Speaker 2: You realize Johnny was so masterful one because he called
Speaker 2: it like he saw it. He knew how to create drama,
Speaker 2: and then he also knew how to educate you a
Speaker 2: little bit about the game and say, hey, now look here.
Speaker 2: You know, and some people didn't like his swing analysis
Speaker 2: and thought he was dead wrong and whatever, but that's
Speaker 2: some that's controversial. Those little things that are are being
Speaker 2: chipped away at I think are really problematic. And then
Speaker 2: to your point, yeah about I mean, look at the reaction.
Speaker 2: Uh Dan Rappaport's piece on Morgan Hoffman got and that
Speaker 2: was kind of that used to be done as a lot, Yeah,
Speaker 2: and now it's not done and they spent the money
Speaker 2: he went, He traveled a long way and it must
Speaker 2: have been, you know, in the works for a while
Speaker 2: and is and it wasn't a great and a fascinating read.
Speaker 2: And there are more stories like that, but yeah, those
Speaker 2: are all gone. And uh yeah, the Masters build up
Speaker 2: used to be. I used to I couldn't wait to
Speaker 2: get the golf World Preview issue, the SI Golf Plus issue,
Speaker 2: the Golf Digest, Golf magazine did great blowout stuff, and
Speaker 2: they'd usually be pretty original, and that stuff now is
Speaker 2: just kind of I mean, I did a piece of
Speaker 2: my newsletter just kind of revisiting one I wrote in
Speaker 2: twenty ten for Golf World about the links between Saint
Speaker 2: Andrews and Augusta National. And it's amazing how many people
Speaker 2: when I did the piece or they still stumble on it,
Speaker 2: like I had no idea and I saw the headline
Speaker 2: and that sounds stupid. And then you you know, you
Speaker 2: explained all the backstory of Bobby Jones and and like
Speaker 2: those kinds, and so it was fun for me to
Speaker 2: revisit it and not hate what I wrote and then
Speaker 2: add a few things that have been we've learned since.
Speaker 2: But yeah, there's no place doing that now, and I
Speaker 2: think all that adds up to being not great for
Speaker 2: the sport. That said, but at the same time, those
Speaker 2: podcasts you're talking about, they're still great that they're they're
Speaker 2: doing those even if they are you know, their guidelines.
Speaker 2: And then social media is a tool that I you know,
Speaker 2: would love to see that the TV networks just don't
Speaker 2: use very well to to do a little feature and
Speaker 2: if the worst case scenario is they put it on
Speaker 2: the social feed, that's it. But then if they get
Speaker 2: a rain delay or something, they can put it on
Speaker 2: the broadcast. They just go right to the tape of
Speaker 2: the replay of the rain or the tournament before, the
Speaker 2: year before. And they're also doing, by the way, very little.
Speaker 2: I haven't looked, but I haven't seen anything lately of
Speaker 2: old Masters. CBS had built that they were going to
Speaker 2: do a lot of old retro broadcasts of tour events
Speaker 2: this year, so little stuff. All those little things kind
Speaker 2: of add up, and I don't I think they're kind
Speaker 2: of being reflected in the ratings too.
Speaker 3: The players has done a wonderful job, and it's like
Speaker 3: adding time you an old Players is on, there's buzz
Speaker 3: about it.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: It's like people are like enjoy going back and watching
Speaker 3: nine nine players and in different things. But so we're gonna,
Speaker 3: we're gonna wrap up here, We're gonna see you in
Speaker 3: uh in Augusta and uh you're gonna you're you're ramping up.
Speaker 3: This is quadrilateral season. This is what people should be
Speaker 3: signing up for. So you'll be on site, and uh,
Speaker 3: how do people go about signing up?
Speaker 2: Ah, well, they can just go to my my main
Speaker 2: website just spelled g Off Jeff g E O F
Speaker 2: F and golf on Google and Jeff Shackle for dot
Speaker 2: com comes up the sign ups there it's free and uh,
Speaker 2: or you can try and spell quadrilateral. It's not that hard,
Speaker 2: but but it'll it'll turn up somehow, and or go
Speaker 2: to substack they have a ranking. And so yeah, it's
Speaker 2: going really well. And I'll be doing daily reports. I
Speaker 2: don't know, you know the majors where I stayed home
Speaker 2: during the pandemic. Uh, it was more of news and
Speaker 2: notes every day. I hope to be a little bit more,
Speaker 2: try to bring something a little more from on site.
Speaker 2: So we'll see. I'm a one man fan.
Speaker 1: So well, Jeff, we'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 3: And and thanks for coming on.
Speaker 2: All right, my pleasure.
Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to another episode of the Friday Podcast.
Speaker 3: Today's episode was edited by meg Atkins. Thank you, mech
Speaker 3: And just a reminder, we have another show, the Shotgun Start,
Speaker 3: if you're ever looking for more podcasts.
Speaker 1: The Shotgun Start is a three day.
Speaker 3: Week Monday Wednesday Friday podcast that delves into the world
Speaker 3: of professional golf mostly so if you want more takes
Speaker 3: on pro golf, this is a great spot to go.
Speaker 3: So it is on wherever you get your your podcasts.
Speaker 3: I host it with Brendan Porath. It is a it's
Speaker 3: a wonderful listen. It's it's something that you can get
Speaker 3: habitually into a little bit different speed than the f
Speaker 3: So thanks for listening. We will be back on Friday
Speaker 3: with another new episode.