Speaker 1: Welcome back to fire Drill. As you can tell by
Speaker 1: my voice, I feel like crap, but I'm still here.
Speaker 1: Still did a fire drill. UH. And this fire drill,
Speaker 1: we had a lot like sometimes you think in the
Speaker 1: fall season there's not a lot going on. We talked
Speaker 1: Nelly Korda, We talked Pat Perez and his comments about Phil.
Speaker 1: We got into that kind of UH. We talked UM
Speaker 1: about Andy fitz Alex Fitzpatrick and his exemption into Q School.
Speaker 1: But before I get into everything, let's talk about Dormy
Speaker 1: Workshop and power Points. Both of those companies have been
Speaker 1: huge supporters of the fire Drill of fire Pick Collective,
Speaker 1: Dormy Workshop, Artisanal, Alan's word, Uh, club covers, Putter covers
Speaker 1: awesome stuff, go check him out. And power Points is
Speaker 1: a great scoring app. Really changes the way that you
Speaker 1: can enjoy playing golf. It's very cool. UH, downloaded and
Speaker 1: go my parcel. Thank you to both of those companies
Speaker 1: for supporting us. UM. We talked about a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1: We talked about Roe and Chicago to UH. I love
Speaker 1: everything about this because it included a lot of great
Speaker 1: stories from Alan and Michael. Why I love to be
Speaker 1: on this podcast. They had some great stories about Roger
Speaker 1: Maltby someones that you probably haven't heard. And don't forget.
Speaker 1: All of these podcasts are on the YouTube channel. We
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Speaker 1: awesome stuff. Not only this podcast need a fourth a
Speaker 1: new podcast that we have for coming out, but all
Speaker 1: the stuff that's coming up. Without further ado, here's the
Speaker 1: three of us talking golf. I got can't get j nothing.
Speaker 1: What I'm thinking about, can't get well, I'm thinking about guys.
Speaker 1: Um you know this. This has been a messy season
Speaker 1: in professional golf. We can all agree with that. But
Speaker 1: yesterday this is a list of people who won big
Speaker 1: time golf tournament. Tony fine Now, Tommy Fleetwood, Padrick Harrington,
Speaker 1: Nellie Korda personally four of my favorite folks in the game.
Speaker 1: I mean we all know that. And Roe he should CoA,
Speaker 1: that's right, I mean held back from the dead. I
Speaker 1: mean that he's only thirty one years old, like the
Speaker 1: guy feels like he's had three careers already. Um, we don't.
Speaker 1: We don't have to celebrate every victory so much as
Speaker 1: just acknowledged that it's nice when good things happen to
Speaker 1: good people. I mean, especially Tommy Fleetwood has been a
Speaker 1: little lost in the wilderness. It hasn't won in three
Speaker 1: years with a golf swing that beautiful, and um, you know,
Speaker 1: he's just he's he's almost too nice to be a
Speaker 1: professional athlete, right, He's such a sweetheart. Maybe that's part
Speaker 1: of the issue, but I was delighted to see him breakthrough.
Speaker 1: Fee now has now reached the magical threshold of five victories.
Speaker 1: As when we talked about last week, Russell Henley, you
Speaker 1: know that's um, it seems like all in the last month.
Speaker 1: What are our thoughts on, just just a very pleasing
Speaker 1: weekend in professional golf, what a week, huge week and
Speaker 1: all kinds of like juiciness that will get to as well,
Speaker 1: But let's start like on the golf course for a change,
Speaker 1: we had good things happen on the golf course. I
Speaker 1: will say if I had to rank them in most important,
Speaker 1: I would put Nellie Korda as first because she's just
Speaker 1: so important to the women's game, right, Like she's a
Speaker 1: bona fide superstar, like obviously had some very serious health issues. Uh. Yes,
Speaker 1: it was like a relatively nondescript LPGA event end of
Speaker 1: the season. But I just think she's so important to
Speaker 1: the women's game, the court of Sisters in general, I
Speaker 1: think if I had to rank them in importance. Uh,
Speaker 1: It's great to see Tommy Fleetwood win again. Like you said,
Speaker 1: good dude, Tony is obviously very well liked and and
Speaker 1: and has moved up to like star ranking on the
Speaker 1: PGA tour as they lost have lost some. But I
Speaker 1: think Nelly Corda's just like from an important standpoint, she
Speaker 1: is such a huge part of what the LPGA is
Speaker 1: going to be going forward. It's awesome to see her back. Well,
Speaker 1: I I would I would agree with that, Um, but
Speaker 1: I would put I would put Tommy Fleetwood first. Uh.
Speaker 1: I mean, it doesn't seem that long ago that there
Speaker 1: was a magical combination of of Tommy Fleetwood and Francisco
Speaker 1: Molinari in the uh in the Ryder Cup, and you
Speaker 1: kind of hope that maybe that could go on forever.
Speaker 1: Of course, nothing really does. But sometimes these partnerships in
Speaker 1: golf to like like seven A Loaf the Ball and
Speaker 1: Alaball and Sergio uh and uh to me Tommy Fleetwood,
Speaker 1: just you know, I'm I'm happily surprised for the Putre
Speaker 1: Tours benefit that he did not go to live. He
Speaker 1: seemed like he might be the kind of candidate who
Speaker 1: could um and uh when he plays well, it's great,
Speaker 1: great for golf. And I would say the same of
Speaker 1: you know, my big three Alan would know this well,
Speaker 1: Ryan might not, but my big three for the last
Speaker 1: five years have been Tommy Fleetwood, Jordan's Speech and the
Speaker 1: Italian detective Mulinary. So I'm always reading for those three. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and of course we're now less than a year from
Speaker 1: a Ryder Cup in Rome. I mean, wouldn't be wonderful
Speaker 1: Francesco could rediscover his form, but definitely, you know, this
Speaker 1: European team is very much in transition and they're looking
Speaker 1: at a lot of rookies and unproven players coming through
Speaker 1: as as this entire generation of great players has been
Speaker 1: swept out to live. And so a guy like Fleetwood
Speaker 1: who has experienced who's he's kind of in that he's
Speaker 1: not old, he's not young. He's kind of in that
Speaker 1: sweet spot. If he's on his game, aim like that,
Speaker 1: that becomes a big deal with or without Francesco as
Speaker 1: his wingman, and um so a a revitalized Tommy Fleetwood
Speaker 1: is a big deal when it comes to the Wryder Cup,
Speaker 1: And it's never too soon to start thinking about that
Speaker 1: for me, Alan, do you have any insight as to
Speaker 1: why he didn't go to live? Was he high on
Speaker 1: their list? So I would imagine he would be. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was. I mean, I think he's a very simple
Speaker 1: guy and he he loves his family, he loves playing
Speaker 1: the European Tour. He's found a nice home, you know,
Speaker 1: moonlighting on the PGA tour. And I think there's a
Speaker 1: small subset of humans that the quality of life and
Speaker 1: routine and comfort and familiarity kind of Trump's money. I mean,
Speaker 1: Tommy Fleetwood already made a lot of money, and I
Speaker 1: think he realized that's a lot more money is not
Speaker 1: going to really change my life. But he just likes
Speaker 1: how how things are and he's he's just kind of um.
Speaker 1: He doesn't he doesn't overthink things, doesn't overcomplicate things, and
Speaker 1: it's admirable trait. I mean, um, going to live has
Speaker 1: certainly has his benefits, but you know you're gonna take
Speaker 1: a lot of rapnel. You're gonna lose out on all
Speaker 1: the places you've always enjoyed playing. Um, you might be
Speaker 1: given up the Ryder Cup. And I think Fleet was
Speaker 1: just was content. You know, one thing I've always enjoyed
Speaker 1: about him is he just even as if the game
Speaker 1: kicks him around, and he's had a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of near misses and he's he's blown a couple
Speaker 1: of majors, and but he does sort of exude gratitude
Speaker 1: and contentment like like, hey, I'm playing golf for a living.
Speaker 1: How great is this? Like that's always energy I get
Speaker 1: from him, no matter what, you know what, heartbreak gets
Speaker 1: dished out. And so I think he's he's one of
Speaker 1: those guys who's just happy with where he is, and
Speaker 1: so why why blow everything up professionally? And you do
Speaker 1: raise a very good point because with this dual citizenship,
Speaker 1: he has, you know, on on two very very prominent tours,
Speaker 1: the European Tour and the US Tour. Um for years now,
Speaker 1: he's played where he wants to play, and uh, a
Speaker 1: live golfer can't really say that we can't say that,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's an interesting thing. I mean, he
Speaker 1: comes from a pretty scrappy part of England and I
Speaker 1: don't know that much about his his family growing up,
Speaker 1: but he's always struck me as a guy who's, you know,
Speaker 1: very middle class sensibilities. And it becomes a philosophical thing.
Speaker 1: He's averaging what three to five million dollars a year.
Speaker 1: That's a phenomenal living and if I live, maybe he
Speaker 1: could make eight or ten. But some people are happy
Speaker 1: with three or five, right, I mean, like that's not
Speaker 1: a living alan that is one year more than ten
Speaker 1: families exactly. So I think in some small way it's
Speaker 1: obviously what's a rebuke to the excesses of professional golf
Speaker 1: right now, and I salute him for it. Uh just
Speaker 1: a quick note on on not knowing his family. I
Speaker 1: don't know his family either, but uh, one year, my
Speaker 1: friend Burtus Downs and I and others were we're having
Speaker 1: teen downtown Berkedale the year that that that speed one,
Speaker 1: and Tommy's aunt was at the table next to us,
Speaker 1: having just come back from church, and we chatted her
Speaker 1: up and she was delightful. That's why I think that's
Speaker 1: maybe where my whole Tommy Fleetood And you know, my
Speaker 1: thing with Tommy Fleetwood began at a Marriott, the saw
Speaker 1: Grass Marriott, where he was just like hanging out the
Speaker 1: entire week in the lobby, talking to whomever about anything.
Speaker 1: Uh So he just has an easy going nature and
Speaker 1: ut he is well. Yeah, and of course you know
Speaker 1: the Wryder Cup in Paris where where he was such
Speaker 1: a star. And um, some people remember that I had
Speaker 1: written a column a year ahead of that basically predicting
Speaker 1: long term American dominance and large because of Tommy Fleetwood
Speaker 1: didn't happen in Paris. It's still gonna happen going forward,
Speaker 1: and I will vindication will be mine eventually, but certainly
Speaker 1: was not a great start. And so many people were
Speaker 1: so mad about that, and I got so much trapple.
Speaker 1: But Fleetwood and his caddie do. He's great Ian. They've
Speaker 1: always had a great set of humor about it. And
Speaker 1: they see me and they laugh and they wind me
Speaker 1: up and like they were never mad about it, Like
Speaker 1: they took it from what it was, which is just
Speaker 1: a little bit of a little bit of track, as
Speaker 1: they say in Ireland. And um, actually so so you
Speaker 1: finish his Tommy's cat, who is great dude, so garrulous,
Speaker 1: and you know he's just a mountain of a man,
Speaker 1: but he's he's as sweet as his boss. He sent
Speaker 1: me a d M said, I'm gonna I'm at the airport.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna buy the philm book. I need something to read.
Speaker 1: I said, I'll send you on don't be readulous Like no, no,
Speaker 1: I'll buy it, like I'm excited. And it was like,
Speaker 1: really cute. You know, just DM me for no reason
Speaker 1: other than to share that. So uh, Anyway, I think
Speaker 1: we need to talk about I mean, I would love
Speaker 1: to hear what you guys about Roe Chicawa, the dude.
Speaker 1: I mean, every time he wins, and it has been
Speaker 1: three years since he's one, he's thirty one years old,
Speaker 1: he's eighteen wins on the Japan Tour. His first win
Speaker 1: came when he was fifteen years old. It's just ridiculous.
Speaker 1: It's insane. His career prior to that, and I wonder
Speaker 1: Someone tweeted like, do you think you'll ever come back
Speaker 1: to the PGA tour at me? And I was like,
Speaker 1: if he was ever, this would be the time to
Speaker 1: do it. Because a Headecki is to can you know
Speaker 1: a lot of the pressure that he was the maiden
Speaker 1: son off of him. It would be very interesting to
Speaker 1: see what his career would be if he ever came
Speaker 1: back to the PGA Tour, because the first time he
Speaker 1: came here, he played okay, not obviously didn't win or
Speaker 1: anything like that, but he kept his card a few
Speaker 1: a few years in a row. But the entire nation
Speaker 1: was like he was the maiden son. I think it's
Speaker 1: the prod yeah, prodical son. Okay, uh whatever. I don't
Speaker 1: know these words, but but we don't know. He might
Speaker 1: he might view the US Tour like uh, like an
Speaker 1: American player might view the live tour. In other words,
Speaker 1: he's got a home tour. He's happy there, he's been
Speaker 1: very successful there, and uh, you know what, why does
Speaker 1: he need to chase the US Tour necessarily to uh
Speaker 1: uh for any reason? Really? Uh? But I do remember
Speaker 1: when he played in that two thousand ten I think
Speaker 1: I have that year correct, Alan creck me if I don't.
Speaker 1: He got paired with Tom Watson for this first two rounds,
Speaker 1: and and Watson is nobody's full when it comes to
Speaker 1: assessing talent. I remember Watson saying the brooks Kepka early on,
Speaker 1: It's like this guy is absolutely the real deal. And
Speaker 1: then Watson said that week that this Roy Chikao was
Speaker 1: was the real deal. So u uh, but maybe he's
Speaker 1: just very happy doing what she's doing. Well, you know remember, um,
Speaker 1: of course you remember this Ryan because you're a barn
Speaker 1: Rat completest. But you know, whatever, it was a month
Speaker 1: ago when um cur Desk, you know, had that those
Speaker 1: very moving comments about how lonely he's been over here
Speaker 1: and how hard it's been as kind of a stranger
Speaker 1: in a strange land. And I think that's maybe something
Speaker 1: Issie cow has had to weigh. I mean, you can
Speaker 1: actually accrue pretty good world ranking points on the Japan Tour,
Speaker 1: at least in the old formula, and um, the Asian
Speaker 1: Tour is becoming more and more important in the grand
Speaker 1: scheme of things. I mean it just maybe that um,
Speaker 1: he doesn't love it over here and doesn't feel comfortable
Speaker 1: and the golf courses are different. I don't know, but
Speaker 1: he did have a great nickname and re leased to
Speaker 1: call him the Bashful Prints. That's tough to yeah. John
Speaker 1: Peterson tweeted about the Bashful Prince and said he played
Speaker 1: probably the most two rounds. Uh, well of anybody he
Speaker 1: played with, it was with Row and uh and he
Speaker 1: just loved him. And I mean everybody that I talked
Speaker 1: to loves him. And uh. I remember seeing him at
Speaker 1: some event, I'm sure the Bubi Open, but he had
Speaker 1: he always had club covers. His his driver cover was
Speaker 1: of himself and it matched and matched what he was wearing.
Speaker 1: Do you remember that, Like if he was wearing pink
Speaker 1: and Advisor, his head cover was him in a pink
Speaker 1: outfit with Advisor. I mean it was ridiculously. I mean,
Speaker 1: you have made it when you you have made it
Speaker 1: when you have a club cover of yourself, but it
Speaker 1: also matches what you're wearing that day. A suitcase full
Speaker 1: club covers for every outfit. Yeah, he's like, I gotta
Speaker 1: do this. Oh and I gotta bring his scripting like
Speaker 1: the guys that do scripting on the the Masters includes
Speaker 1: a head cover for his driver. That's the next level. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well I would I would, you know, if it's in
Speaker 1: if it's in his heart, I would love to see
Speaker 1: and make another go at it because he there was
Speaker 1: so much promise there. And you bring up a really
Speaker 1: good point about um. You know Headeki is, he's the
Speaker 1: master's champ, he's the man and the crush of Japanese
Speaker 1: media around ishikaw his first time around was suffocating just
Speaker 1: to watch I could imagine what it was like to
Speaker 1: be him in the middle of it. So there would
Speaker 1: definitely be a lot more relaxed um, and I think
Speaker 1: that would certainly serve him well. And it's different. He's
Speaker 1: a he's a hardened tour pro now versus a teenager. So, um,
Speaker 1: they'll be interesting to see how he builds on this.
Speaker 1: And of course, you know, Live famously kind of open
Speaker 1: the vault for Adeki and he turned them down. I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm sure now there'll be more they'll is Sheiko is
Speaker 1: on the radar screen like that's always a subtext when
Speaker 1: a player has success. Now what does that? What does
Speaker 1: that mean in the context of live recruitment. But one
Speaker 1: quick note, especially for for our younger members over audience,
Speaker 1: but Soevy by Stir has become one of the great
Speaker 1: just golfers of all time, one of the most charismatic
Speaker 1: offers of all time. By sticking to his home tour,
Speaker 1: the European Tour, and and playing major championships. Um, he
Speaker 1: came to the United States, he never really liked to hear,
Speaker 1: never really made his mark here. Um. But there is
Speaker 1: more than one way, of course, to the World Golf
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. Uh, But just to becoming an iconic
Speaker 1: figure in world golf aside from the U S Tour.
Speaker 1: It's and it's always been the case. That's right. And
Speaker 1: even I mean Jumbo ZACKI, who's going back many generations now,
Speaker 1: but really pioneer Japanese golf. He hardly ever left Japan.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was skipping the Masters because you don't
Speaker 1: want to. He don't want to leave Japan, so um,
Speaker 1: and he remains a revered figure. So you're right, Michael,
Speaker 1: I mean, especially in through social media and all interconnected world.
Speaker 1: I mean, if if Cows start winning regularly in Japan,
Speaker 1: that'll be felt elsewhere. So it'll be really interes to
Speaker 1: see what he does. Let's talk about Tony Fine now,
Speaker 1: because the guy has been on an absolute heater. I
Speaker 1: mean he is for half a decade considered. First of all,
Speaker 1: it was it was an amazing story he made to
Speaker 1: the tour given his humble circumstances, but you could see
Speaker 1: the physical talent and then he was kind of an
Speaker 1: underachiever who couldn't quite win despite all the top ten
Speaker 1: and now he's he's winning at a furious clip. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, he's working on his golf swinging, he's done this,
Speaker 1: that and the other. But it just seems like a
Speaker 1: comfort level and and and a confidence thing. And it
Speaker 1: is fun to see him in full flight, and it
Speaker 1: makes you wonder like, how is this really? Is he
Speaker 1: on a tear or is this going to become his
Speaker 1: standard of play? Which would be awesome to behold? So
Speaker 1: what are our thoughts on Tony Fine? I use a
Speaker 1: I mean, you said it, Allen, but the fact that
Speaker 1: he's on the PGA Tour is ridiculous. Turn pro seventeen.
Speaker 1: Uh played many tours his whole life. A couple of
Speaker 1: side notes on the my side of the golf that
Speaker 1: I UH covered He um was a leading money winner
Speaker 1: on a tour called the All Pro Tour. I believe,
Speaker 1: I don't know know that that doesn't matter. He was
Speaker 1: a leading money winner and the tour went bankrupt and
Speaker 1: uh he never got paid, or he eventually did, but
Speaker 1: it was only part of it. And UH, I remember
Speaker 1: people I caddy down that tour. Uh when a couple
Speaker 1: of players stayed. There was an event in Chicago, and
Speaker 1: I caddy on the tour and everybody's like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: this Tony Final guy is great. Um. And and second
Speaker 1: of all, uh, I tweet out often when Tony wins,
Speaker 1: and I didn't do it this time. But it was
Speaker 1: a Genesis Monday qualifier what what whatever it was called
Speaker 1: before the open, referring to yeah maybe yeah, and uh
Speaker 1: he uh finished dead last in the Monday qualifier, dead
Speaker 1: freaking last shot two with an eagle, by the way,
Speaker 1: And it's just like no one knew who the hell
Speaker 1: Tony Final was back then, you know. Uh, he was
Speaker 1: a mini tour player forever. Now, granted he turned young
Speaker 1: pro very young, but um, I mean his path is ridiculous.
Speaker 1: The fact that he is a top player in the
Speaker 1: world right, it just shouldn't be. His story is not
Speaker 1: told enough that he has gotten to this point well.
Speaker 1: And I mean it's a detail I love that, Like
Speaker 1: in his basically unheeded garage in Utah to hit balls
Speaker 1: in the winter, his dad just hung a mattress on
Speaker 1: on on the off the ceiling and Tony was just
Speaker 1: hit it into a mattress like that. That's about as
Speaker 1: no frills as it gets. And remember you know he said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I like maybe a little space here, but my hands
Speaker 1: would be numb by the end. And um, it's a
Speaker 1: great story. It's a great image. Like you can just
Speaker 1: imagine that that sound like, you know, flap in the
Speaker 1: ball and the mattress over and over. It reminds me
Speaker 1: of Rocky like hitting the big you know, meat carcasses
Speaker 1: in in the freezer. It's kind of analogous and that
Speaker 1: will definitely harden an athlete. So it's cool that that
Speaker 1: Tony's access that and you know in winning time now
Speaker 1: and and his his place in tournament golf. Oh's the
Speaker 1: most to the emergence of tiger Woods and the and
Speaker 1: the late seve he's in the early two thousand's. Tony's
Speaker 1: place does more Jordan's speed than Justin Thomas. They would
Speaker 1: have found their way to golf even if there had
Speaker 1: never been a Tiger Woods. But Tony fine really needed
Speaker 1: tiger Woods to emerge, uh, to make golf cool interesting
Speaker 1: and you know, something he aspired to do because otherwise
Speaker 1: some of Tony Finell's athleticism is going to pursue one
Speaker 1: sport basketball That was the that was the sport and
Speaker 1: he I mean I know this because he's told me this.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he sold to many others as well. Uh
Speaker 1: So it's a significant nod. His whole career and path
Speaker 1: is a significant nod to uh to Tiger. And I
Speaker 1: was just just one of the quick note. You know,
Speaker 1: of course we're all obsessed with the golf and we're
Speaker 1: all trying to get better at golf. But I think
Speaker 1: Tony Finel's actual golf swing like John Rom's, but it's
Speaker 1: but it's different as well. Show it's so different from
Speaker 1: Phil Mickelson's, and it's so different from Sam sneeds Um.
Speaker 1: And it's just further proof that for all of the
Speaker 1: advancement in golf instruction him, there is no one way
Speaker 1: to go about this business of how to hit a
Speaker 1: golf ball and how to shoot the lowest scores over
Speaker 1: over seventy two holes. And I find that very inspired
Speaker 1: part of me very inspiring as well as well said,
Speaker 1: and you know, one of the first people who really
Speaker 1: encourage Fenee to go for it and and game a
Speaker 1: pep talk like son, you can do this was Lee Trevino.
Speaker 1: And they crossed paths when Feene I think it was
Speaker 1: still a teenager and and and Lee Buck saw something
Speaker 1: special in this kid. And like you were saying, as
Speaker 1: Tom Watson has an eye for talent, probably Lee Trevino
Speaker 1: might be the greatest talent scout there is. Like he
Speaker 1: he just understands the game and it's such a visceral
Speaker 1: sort of instinctive level. And um, you know, female is
Speaker 1: talked about how important that that was was to have
Speaker 1: as Lee as a mentor and obviously talk about in
Speaker 1: some ways, Lee Trevino was tigraphed for a Tiger in
Speaker 1: that he was a public course golfer. He did not
Speaker 1: look like the typical tour player. Uh, you know, he
Speaker 1: had he had to break through various stereotypes. And so
Speaker 1: I think, you know, people, any golfer of color is
Speaker 1: gonna feel a certain kinship. And for Trevino to reach
Speaker 1: out to to Fee now is really cool and that
Speaker 1: that's part of his journey as well. That is really neat.
Speaker 1: And just one quick thing that that triggers. Last year
Speaker 1: at the Father's Son Tournament, Uh Trevino was there. It's
Speaker 1: just he's in his early eighties, he looks great. It's
Speaker 1: just a total pleasure to watch Lee trevinoll play golfery
Speaker 1: golf balls beyond the range of Tiger Woods as he was,
Speaker 1: and Roger Malty the course whisper was there for for
Speaker 1: Golf Channel or NBC Sports And uh And I said
Speaker 1: to Roger that anymore. And I said to Rodge, does
Speaker 1: anybody know more about the golf swing than Lee Trevino?
Speaker 1: And Roger said, no, nobody knows more about his own
Speaker 1: swing than Lee Trevino knows about his. If I don't know,
Speaker 1: if I made that, just could followed it. It was
Speaker 1: a long road to a small house. But can we
Speaker 1: follow what? No, No, it's big in the end because
Speaker 1: in other words, he knew his thing, and as you said,
Speaker 1: he had a great eye for for other things. But
Speaker 1: so I would distinguish a little bit between Lee Trevino
Speaker 1: and and Tiger What you said about golfers of color
Speaker 1: and not being welcome in public. Off, of course, that
Speaker 1: well said all completely true, but it would be completely
Speaker 1: unimaginable for Lee Trevino coming off of driving range at
Speaker 1: Gusta National, as Tiger allegedly wins did and saying, you know,
Speaker 1: Tiger said, hey, Kenny, you better give me something right now.
Speaker 1: Lee Trevino just like had to look inside himself to
Speaker 1: figure out what he needed to do. And of course
Speaker 1: that's why, that's why Lee Trevino was held in such
Speaker 1: awe by generations of players who came his generation and
Speaker 1: generations that came after him. Real quick, real quick about
Speaker 1: the Houston Open, because this is Tyson Alexander, son of
Speaker 1: famous Florida coach Buddy Alexander. Uh finished second, and I
Speaker 1: I tweet this often, but like no one saw Tyson
Speaker 1: Alexander's results and didn't think it he should quit. Three years,
Speaker 1: he took him to uh seven years to get the
Speaker 1: Corn Ferry Tour. In three years, he missed at first
Speaker 1: stage by combined thirty nine strokes. He missed by twelve,
Speaker 1: he missed by fifteen, and he missed by twelve again
Speaker 1: like he was not He would never talking about people
Speaker 1: who are not supposed to get here. Uh. I mean
Speaker 1: eleven years into his pro career, first time on tour
Speaker 1: and four events into his his BJ Tour career, finished
Speaker 1: the second and I mean basically as his card locked
Speaker 1: up for next year. It's ridiculous. Uh, no way he
Speaker 1: should be here. And Tyson is a good dude that
Speaker 1: I've talked with you know some but ridiculous. I mean,
Speaker 1: the guy missed a billion times at first stage and
Speaker 1: somehow is now you know, kept his card. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Do you remember his mother, Joan? Of course? Yeah. For
Speaker 1: those who are wondering where Michael's mind is, Joan Alexander
Speaker 1: was a media official for the PGA tour, A very
Speaker 1: nice person. But is that is that did she marry
Speaker 1: into the family or is that his actual mother. I've
Speaker 1: never been clear on that. I can't I can't say
Speaker 1: I got No, it's not that I can't say. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Good Lord Mike class An NBA with
Speaker 1: Joan Alexander, we don't know about it. Yeah, well, we'll
Speaker 1: tide you this up after the pod and make a
Speaker 1: few phone calls. But okay, one second, one second, but
Speaker 1: I think this is I was. You'll love this ran
Speaker 1: because when I was on the Latino Americans who Are
Speaker 1: in early two thousand eighteen doing that big story for
Speaker 1: Golf magazine, he was he was playing the tour and
Speaker 1: we talked and I found him very engaging. But even
Speaker 1: then he was kind of pondering his his future. You know,
Speaker 1: we were we were like in this in this crazy journey,
Speaker 1: turns out to get from Jamaica to Costa Rica is
Speaker 1: almost impossible. And that that was we're all on this
Speaker 1: this flight. A lot of people flew um back into
Speaker 1: the US. And then when you went went north to
Speaker 1: go south, and one guy went through Toronto to save money,
Speaker 1: Like if you look at a map to go from
Speaker 1: Jamaica to Toronto to go to Rica's absolute insanity. But
Speaker 1: he saved like three so he did it. And anyway,
Speaker 1: but even Tyson back then was like I don't know, man,
Speaker 1: like I have a question what I'm even doing here.
Speaker 1: And it was dark times. And so now four years later,
Speaker 1: as you said, he's he's now a legit PGA tour player.
Speaker 1: It's awesome to see and and everybody knows that Tyson's
Speaker 1: paternal grandfather was a drinking buddy of and golf partner of. Yes,
Speaker 1: holy sh it, I mean, this is why I'm on
Speaker 1: this spot. Is so crazy that like what who, Like
Speaker 1: only Michael Bamberger and Allen ship Nick would just come
Speaker 1: in and we're like, oh, I hung out with him
Speaker 1: at the altin American Tour and then his ample was
Speaker 1: drinking buddies with Arnold Palmer. I was just like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, man, I have some Q School stats. I
Speaker 1: always feel so dumb on this podcast. Don't even go there.
Speaker 1: Just wait, I'm just fine. I'm hearing from people who
Speaker 1: aren't buying this bullshit. So don't even just like, I
Speaker 1: put up some Q School stats and you tie it
Speaker 1: back to Arnold Palmer, Like what we would even be
Speaker 1: want about Tyson Alexander if you hadn't brought him up? Ryan?
Speaker 1: Fair enough, fair enough, I've done my I've done my Jenna.
Speaker 1: But we also need to talk about the fact that
Speaker 1: Michael Michael Bamberger for those not watching on YouTube, Okay,
Speaker 1: Michael Bamberger has a perfectly pressed white dress shirt on
Speaker 1: a very nice card again probably from I'm gonna guess
Speaker 1: Ralph Lauren or something you know. And and and before
Speaker 1: the pots started he got off and he has p
Speaker 1: J pants on. Is like, I mean, it's a Ryan.
Speaker 1: I love his business on top party on the bottom.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows this. I love it. I mean people watching
Speaker 1: on YouTube, but like, oh my god, he has a
Speaker 1: he has a h he has a nice look at him.
Speaker 1: You get a sweater and a dress shirt on. Man,
Speaker 1: just got out of bed a couple hour minutes ago
Speaker 1: before we started this. Indeed, I would never go down
Speaker 1: this road, and I'm not going on this road, but
Speaker 1: I would never buy rock that Ryan apologized. But you
Speaker 1: know that Michael has some deep affinity for the hard
Speaker 1: collar polos, to the point that if you see them
Speaker 1: at some Florida pro shop, he'll like clean the whole
Speaker 1: joint out. He has like a lifetime supply. Tell us
Speaker 1: that your tell us about this, Michael, you have a
Speaker 1: history with these shirts. Well, no, no, we're not going
Speaker 1: to do a whole thing on that, but will appreciate this.
Speaker 1: I once, many years ago, had I was playing golf
Speaker 1: at Cypress Point Club and I was I was playing
Speaker 1: with the gentleman named Chuck Winston. Um. It was just
Speaker 1: a great gim and you had to wear a coat
Speaker 1: and tie at lunch at Cypress Point in those days.
Speaker 1: And he had a hard collar golf shirt on that
Speaker 1: would accommodate the tie so he wouldn't have to change
Speaker 1: for lunch to the first two. And I think that's
Speaker 1: maybe where my thing started. Like this really actually makes
Speaker 1: sense now, of course, nobody works to tie a lunch anymore,
Speaker 1: but it's a whole thing. Yeah, that's funny. Um, alright,
Speaker 1: one one last winner. Let's just do a little a
Speaker 1: little chit chat about Padrick Harrington, who was one of
Speaker 1: the real originals in the game and had a terrific
Speaker 1: year on the Senior tour. UM. I absolutely love Padrick.
Speaker 1: He's so much fun. And one story that makes me
Speaker 1: laugh is if you remember what he won. He won
Speaker 1: the British Open and he won the PG Championship, So
Speaker 1: he was going into Augusta trying to win three majors
Speaker 1: in a row. And I got to sit down interview
Speaker 1: with him, uh maybe six weeks ahead of the Masters,
Speaker 1: to do a big Master's preview story. And I've done
Speaker 1: all these stats, and I showed up with a big
Speaker 1: like yellow legal pad and I really wanted to like
Speaker 1: talk through his how he's gonna attack Augusta. And you know,
Speaker 1: I had stat upon stat and he looked at my
Speaker 1: notebook and he said, put that away. I said, what
Speaker 1: do you mean. He said, I don't want to see that.
Speaker 1: I get that out of here. Like he was like,
Speaker 1: really like somewhat exercise. I said why, I said, It's
Speaker 1: just a bunch of stats. He's like, I know you're
Speaker 1: gonna ask me all these questions about how I've played
Speaker 1: this hole and this shot. He said, I don't want
Speaker 1: to be standing out there during the Masters thinking about, oh,
Speaker 1: the fourteenth hole is where I have my highest stroke average,
Speaker 1: and you're the one who put that thought in my head.
Speaker 1: He's like, he's like, banish that notebook. I was like, okay, Pudrick,
Speaker 1: but like this is I had a whole thing here,
Speaker 1: and he's like, I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be mean.
Speaker 1: He's like, that's how fragile I am. I cannot be
Speaker 1: standing over a shot and I guess national thinking about
Speaker 1: a statu you put in my head six weeks earlier.
Speaker 1: And that amazed me. But I thought it was like
Speaker 1: so much insight into the guy. And we had a
Speaker 1: very cordial conversation after that. But I just had totally
Speaker 1: had to wing it because my months of preparation went
Speaker 1: out the window because he's so He's like a cat
Speaker 1: on a hot tin roof. Absolutely one of the funniest,
Speaker 1: smartest people in golf. And we know, you know it's
Speaker 1: funny Alan when we and and Ryan when we said,
Speaker 1: when we come up with lists of people who would
Speaker 1: be good TV commentators when we often say Phil of
Speaker 1: course and Calumn Montgomery of course, but Patrick would be
Speaker 1: the best of them all. I've never really had that
Speaker 1: thought before, but he would be absolutely fantastic. I think
Speaker 1: this is a different conversation. I mean, he just fascinates me.
Speaker 1: And I said, what you've been working on, you know,
Speaker 1: in your golfwak? I know you're always working on something.
Speaker 1: He's like, I've been thinking about the position of my tongue.
Speaker 1: Like I was like, like it was like a record scratch,
Speaker 1: like he said. He said, yeah, because where are you
Speaker 1: position your tongue affects your jaw, and if your jaw
Speaker 1: can affect your entire spine, He's like, so I was,
Speaker 1: you know, I've been experimenting hitting shots with my tongue
Speaker 1: in different positions and and with different um levels of
Speaker 1: force against my jawline. And I was like, man, that's
Speaker 1: some next level stuff there. But he was dead serious
Speaker 1: along those lines. When you when you look at stop
Speaker 1: action photographs of like even Ernie els Uh, when you
Speaker 1: see him at impact, speaking of their jaw, their veins
Speaker 1: are always sticking out of their neck and they're all
Speaker 1: clenched and they're all tight and it's it's just such
Speaker 1: a reminder of what an athletic act hitting a golf
Speaker 1: ball is. Even if the overall picture is smooth and relaxed,
Speaker 1: that moment an impact takes. So I think he's probably
Speaker 1: it's if I need another thing to screw up my golf.
Speaker 1: I got enough, yeah, Michael. But Michael will have his
Speaker 1: tongue out when we're playing next. Alright, So UM a
Speaker 1: victory that was that was overlooked by many golf fans
Speaker 1: but has meaning to us. What was Andy Ogletree winning
Speaker 1: in Egypt um as part of the International Series on
Speaker 1: the Asian Tour. And Andy Ogletree has accidentally become a
Speaker 1: very important person in the world of golf. You know,
Speaker 1: he played one live event in London finished I believe
Speaker 1: dead last UM by a lot, but that he if
Speaker 1: If you're talking about this antitrust lawsuit between the PGA
Speaker 1: Tour and Live Golf, which could blow up the entire
Speaker 1: landscape but professional golf, Andy ogletree experience is going to
Speaker 1: be exhibit A because he was basically suspended by the
Speaker 1: tour and this is a guy who had no status,
Speaker 1: had nowhere to play um more or less, and that's
Speaker 1: why he He he lunged at the first opportunity that
Speaker 1: was available to him, which was live golf and UM.
Speaker 1: And now he's you know, he's he's been he's been
Speaker 1: banished by the tour. Now he wasn't suspended for life,
Speaker 1: it's basically till the end of this year. And his agent,
Speaker 1: Mac Barnhart, who's appeared on this podcast a few times,
Speaker 1: feels like they're going to be in position to get
Speaker 1: get Andy back on the PGA Tour um and if
Speaker 1: not that there, they will have a very strong case
Speaker 1: that the tour is coluding against him because he was
Speaker 1: not a PGA Tour member. He was not a lifetime
Speaker 1: member like a Dustin or Philmicholson. This this this is just
Speaker 1: a young player desperate for a place to play. So, Ryan,
Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on on ogle Trees victory and
Speaker 1: what it means? Yeah, I mean huge, huge to him.
Speaker 1: I mean it's his first professional victory. He's just I
Speaker 1: mean the podcast, UM, you know, I I encourage a
Speaker 1: lot of people to go back. Uh, you know, I
Speaker 1: tweeted about him all week. He he led from the
Speaker 1: second day on UM and I mean he shot twenty
Speaker 1: three under and I mean stared down, burned. Uh, I
Speaker 1: mean the Winsburger Wiseburger made an eagle on ten, hold
Speaker 1: out for ten, like got it within two and Andy
Speaker 1: just played well. Um but I tweeted about it a weekend.
Speaker 1: It really felt like Andy was at the like I mean,
Speaker 1: he was at a point of I'm not sure you
Speaker 1: know how many more years he can go on, even
Speaker 1: as the US Amateur champion. Just hasn't played well and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, finally get over some injuries. But I just
Speaker 1: encouraged people to go back and listen to that podcast.
Speaker 1: It's easy from the outside to say he made a
Speaker 1: stupid decision to go to Live and get suspended and
Speaker 1: all those kind of things, and it's just not that simple.
Speaker 1: It's complicated, and he didn't have a place to play,
Speaker 1: and he was out of money and all the things
Speaker 1: that a lot of pro is go through. And no
Speaker 1: matter how he felt about Live, and I mean, he
Speaker 1: seems to be supportive of it, which is understandable. He
Speaker 1: went there, but a lot of players in his position
Speaker 1: would have taken the one start even and he was
Speaker 1: hurt and not playing well at the time, obvious by
Speaker 1: his score. Um, but I think it's it's huge in
Speaker 1: the pro golf landscape. As you said, Alan, that that
Speaker 1: the Asian Tour is a viable option. Today starts UH
Speaker 1: Asian the first Asian Tour Q school in the United States. Um,
Speaker 1: it's only going to grow from here if if Live
Speaker 1: continues to grow. Asian Tour is a huge part of it.
Speaker 1: The guy one seventy dollars, it's almost double what you're
Speaker 1: going to win on the corn Ferry Tour UH for
Speaker 1: an event. It's a huge part of this story in
Speaker 1: pro golf, and I think Andy kind of just proved
Speaker 1: that it's a viable way to do it going forward
Speaker 1: through Live Golf. You're gonna be able to play your
Speaker 1: way on to Live through the Asian Tour. It may
Speaker 1: only be a handful of spots, but um, it's an
Speaker 1: actual road to a big time golf tour where we
Speaker 1: know the persons are huge and so yeah, we've talked
Speaker 1: about this previously. We don't have to go really deep again,
Speaker 1: but um, there's it's quite likely the Asian Tours is
Speaker 1: gonna surpass the European Tour and it's importance in the
Speaker 1: scheme of of global golf, and especially if you're a
Speaker 1: young player, and a young American. Ryan's whole career has
Speaker 1: been built on on highlighting how cutthroat it is to
Speaker 1: try and make it from Canada or Latin America to
Speaker 1: the corn ferry to to Monday, to try and just
Speaker 1: get on the PGA Tour where it's so hard to
Speaker 1: keep your card, and if Asia Asia is turning out
Speaker 1: to be a very viable option, and for a young American,
Speaker 1: the United States Amateur champion, to go over there and
Speaker 1: and highlight that for his other colleagues, it's I think
Speaker 1: that's powerful and and quick thought about that on UM.
Speaker 1: I don't think a lot of people would appreciate the
Speaker 1: fact that live is of all being very quickly here.
Speaker 1: And and one of the things that I think it's
Speaker 1: been a very legitimate criticism is that it's an invitation
Speaker 1: only series of of of tournaments. And of course where
Speaker 1: you're establishing here, where you're where you're describing here, is
Speaker 1: that that's not the case. So you can play your
Speaker 1: way onto the Lift Tour via the Asian Tour, which
Speaker 1: I mean it's very different how it's done on the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour, but still proves that there there there is
Speaker 1: a merit path there's a lot of different there's a
Speaker 1: lot of different ways to define merit, but there is
Speaker 1: one very concrete, numbers only path via Asian Tour success
Speaker 1: that will get you on the Lift Tour. Is that.
Speaker 1: I mean it may only be three spots, it may
Speaker 1: only be one spot week to week. You know, it
Speaker 1: fluctuated as as this season went on. But um, you
Speaker 1: know there's there's definitely going to be a path, and UM,
Speaker 1: you know that that is significant. It's also important from
Speaker 1: the World Rankings because that's one of the criteria that
Speaker 1: the World Rankings has set out, is that you need
Speaker 1: to be able to essentially play your way onto the
Speaker 1: tour if you want if you want world ranking points.
Speaker 1: So um that you know live Is is trying to
Speaker 1: check those boxes. I mean they they're trying to barge
Speaker 1: their way in. Um when it comes to ranking points.
Speaker 1: I think they're realizing that it's not going to be
Speaker 1: that easy and so they're going to have to abide
Speaker 1: by some of the pre established criteria and that that's
Speaker 1: an important one. Is there has to be you know,
Speaker 1: there's there's a you're gonna love this Ryan. There's there's
Speaker 1: strong conversation about adding a Monday que Um however, yeah,
Speaker 1: so um, you know again, even if it's only one spot,
Speaker 1: it's like that could change your career. So um so yeah,
Speaker 1: as you're you're right, Michael Live is adapting to the realities.
Speaker 1: They try to do it their way. Nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1: I think they've realized that Okay, it's um, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be more complex and they're gonna have to make some
Speaker 1: tweaks and that that's ongoing. So uh, if Greg Norman
Speaker 1: is listening, Um, I think I tweeted out that I'll
Speaker 1: take twenty million, uh to I'm covered the Monday qualifiers,
Speaker 1: but I talked to my non existing agent and he said,
Speaker 1: fifteen seems more reasonable. Soft million. Greg, if if you're listening,
Speaker 1: probably gonna accept ten. If we're being a Ryan, the
Speaker 1: agents supposed to ask for more than what the So
Speaker 1: I don't know something about about Aiogle Tree. Of course,
Speaker 1: it takes enormous talent to make it in golf. But
Speaker 1: I think just the fact that he won this tour
Speaker 1: me here's a kid from smalltown, Mississippi's father owned to
Speaker 1: Piggley Wiggly there and now he's playing in Egypt, and
Speaker 1: it just is another demonstration of you have got to
Speaker 1: have the grit gene to make it in golf. Um
Speaker 1: and uh. And it's neat to see. And it's a
Speaker 1: tremendous testimony to him. I remember when, of course we
Speaker 1: all remember if we followed golf closely winning one the
Speaker 1: U s Am and then and then many of us
Speaker 1: would remember how well he played when Tiger was the
Speaker 1: defending Master's champion in that was the postponed Masters in November,
Speaker 1: when Dustin Johnson won and he played beautifully the Thursday
Speaker 1: Friday rounds in the presence of Tiger Woods. Not easy
Speaker 1: to do. And then he fell off the earth, and
Speaker 1: it would be easy to say, like we'll never hear
Speaker 1: from this kid again. And uh. And I watched it,
Speaker 1: just a brief clip of him yesterday, was like I
Speaker 1: didn't even I almost literally would not even recognize him. Uh.
Speaker 1: But it's a great testimony to to what's deep inside
Speaker 1: him without even really knowing. Just the fact that you
Speaker 1: saw his name in the agate listing of a tournament
Speaker 1: in Egypt and that he won is phenomenal. And I
Speaker 1: always think that top top amateurs like that. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I see a lot of them in many Tour events.
Speaker 1: I think it's just so hard mentally guys to get
Speaker 1: back right. Like I mean, Andy was the US Open champion,
Speaker 1: you know, played at Georgia Tech, had uh, you know,
Speaker 1: exemptions into PGA Tour events, and and not that long
Speaker 1: after that, you know whatever, two years he is playing
Speaker 1: the g Pro. Listen, the g Pro is a fine
Speaker 1: mini tour, but it is miles and oceans and countries
Speaker 1: away from PGA Tour events, and mentally, it's just got
Speaker 1: to be so hard. The guy had, you know, exemptions,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure sponsors and those kind of things, and
Speaker 1: golf people forget quickly, and sponsors forget and people don't
Speaker 1: give a shit about you anymore when you start to
Speaker 1: play poorly. And Andy, you know, and he had points
Speaker 1: that he said about about live and and the PGA Tour.
Speaker 1: But Andy went wherever he could play. I saw him
Speaker 1: at the Colorado Open, played on the Golden State Tour,
Speaker 1: played on the g Pro Tour, played where he could play. Uh,
Speaker 1: and now it's back. It's just it's a I love
Speaker 1: the fight part of it because uh, he was at
Speaker 1: the top of the world literally and uh and fell
Speaker 1: too near the bottom. Yeah, I mean, and look at
Speaker 1: look at these players were talking about. You know, Nell
Speaker 1: Corda obviously tremendously gifted, but blood clot in her arm.
Speaker 1: Her sister just heard her back and is out, Um
Speaker 1: like there's adversity there. Um. Tommy Fleetwood, I've been kicked
Speaker 1: around the last three years. He comes back and wins
Speaker 1: in Africa of all places. You know, Um, we talked
Speaker 1: talked about fee now, I mean I like that the
Speaker 1: grit gene, Michael, it's it's it's a real thing. And
Speaker 1: you know, even Padrick like he was, he was a
Speaker 1: good European tour player, and he knew he had more
Speaker 1: inside of him, and he dedicate himself to blown up
Speaker 1: his entire golf swing in his game because he felt
Speaker 1: like there was another level there for him. And it
Speaker 1: was a gamble, right, I mean he this is a
Speaker 1: guy who famously took like an accounting degree because he
Speaker 1: wasn't sure he could make it as a as a
Speaker 1: touring pro. But he knew he knew what he had
Speaker 1: inside of him, and of course it paid off, winning majors,
Speaker 1: can be Hall of Famer, and now he's's having a
Speaker 1: great final act on the on the senior tour. So
Speaker 1: I mean, we talked so much about talent, that's the
Speaker 1: word that gets thrown around so oh much. But grit
Speaker 1: is probably the delineator, and at that at the professional
Speaker 1: golf and uh, I've said this a million times, but
Speaker 1: the greatest grinder I've ever seen in golf there the
Speaker 1: two guy caddy for named Billy Britten, who's um uh,
Speaker 1: who played in the eighties. But the single greatest grinder
Speaker 1: in the history of golf is Tiger Woods. There's no
Speaker 1: question about him. I thought so hard for every stroke.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's true. Yeah, Well, this would be
Speaker 1: a great place to end the podcast, but we have
Speaker 1: there's some other things we should talk about because everyone's
Speaker 1: talking about them, and we were just talking about Live Golf,
Speaker 1: and the big news out of Live this week is
Speaker 1: is Pat Prez's war on Phil Mickelson. You know he Um,
Speaker 1: he had some very spicy comments, and of course people
Speaker 1: have been asking me about them, so I will say this. Um.
Speaker 1: I knew there was history there, and in the writing
Speaker 1: of the philm book, I went to Perez and I said,
Speaker 1: I've I've heard this part the rumor from a lot
Speaker 1: of people. Um, And he didn't want to talk about
Speaker 1: it and then when he when he when he signed
Speaker 1: up with Live I went back to him. I was like,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, you're now in a very closer environment.
Speaker 1: And Phil, I mean, come on, He's like, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to talk about it. And UM, in this very
Speaker 1: litigious moment in in golf, let me choose my words carefully,
Speaker 1: I will just say that it involves Mrs Perez. Phil
Speaker 1: did something that that deeply offended her and Pat and um,
Speaker 1: you know it's Phil did some of your Phil is
Speaker 1: alleged to have done correct well, according to Pat, you know,
Speaker 1: Phil apologized for it and um, and you know, so yes,
Speaker 1: he He's alleged to have just something. He's alleged to
Speaker 1: have apologized for it. Um. This is an open secret
Speaker 1: in the world of golf. Many people know the details. Um,
Speaker 1: some claim to have seen evidence of whatever happened. UM.
Speaker 1: So I think we we'll leave it vague for the
Speaker 1: listeners to try and connect. Not Live Golf in some
Speaker 1: aspects has become like the w w E. It's like
Speaker 1: they have I mean, like the w w E. If
Speaker 1: you said, hey, two of our best players are name
Speaker 1: players would have some sort of like fight like that
Speaker 1: it's great. That's great. I mean, like they are kind
Speaker 1: of like, it's so wild what is going on on
Speaker 1: the live tour, Like it's just crazy. I mean, it's insane,
Speaker 1: and it's obviously been bubbling up inside of Perez for
Speaker 1: a while. It's funny that he would make it public,
Speaker 1: and by making it public but not adding any real details,
Speaker 1: of course, they're just gonna touch off all kinds of
Speaker 1: rampant speculation and um, and someone's gonna ask him about
Speaker 1: it again, So ione's gonna ask Phil about it, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, the I would say it was not masterful
Speaker 1: public relations, Like if you want to get off his jesse,
Speaker 1: you should have just put it all out there. And
Speaker 1: now this is gonna have multiple news cycles. But you're right, Ryan,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's the personalities on that tour are so fascinating.
Speaker 1: And man, what I love to be in the room
Speaker 1: when when Pat and uh Phil get together at the
Speaker 1: first event next year. You know, obviously they avoid each
Speaker 1: other socially, it seems, uh, but man, would I love
Speaker 1: to be at the first live event when when those
Speaker 1: two are in the room together, especially as you said,
Speaker 1: it's eventually all the details are eventually going to come out.
Speaker 1: He's open a cannon worms. Somebody's gonna put it out there,
Speaker 1: as you know better than anyone, Like the story. I
Speaker 1: heard the story way before I started with fire Pit, Like,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's relatively known, and so it's like it's
Speaker 1: gonna come out and then they're gonna have to meet
Speaker 1: and there's only fifty four players. It's not like there's
Speaker 1: wave different waves or whatever. They're going to see each
Speaker 1: I mean, I've always described the pg Tour as high
Speaker 1: school with money. You know, it's this very insular world.
Speaker 1: It's very gossipy and live. It's times at times three
Speaker 1: because it's a third of the size, so it's like
Speaker 1: everything's more intense. It's a small group of people and
Speaker 1: they're they're really bound together their their fortunes and their livelihoods.
Speaker 1: You know, in a way on on the PGA Tour,
Speaker 1: it was it was every man himself. Live is different.
Speaker 1: It's an interconnected network of of golfers who need each other,
Speaker 1: not only through this team element, but you know, they
Speaker 1: know that the future of this thing is is not set.
Speaker 1: Like you know, the Crown Print. If he could just
Speaker 1: wake up tomorrow and be like this is a bad
Speaker 1: idea and um, and pull the plug, right, I mean
Speaker 1: that that's an actual possibility. Um, it's not. It's not
Speaker 1: a self subtaining, sustaining entity like the PGA tour. So
Speaker 1: like these guys are bound together, their professional fortunes are
Speaker 1: are linked, and so it makes it all that much
Speaker 1: more intense, and so any little, any little feuding like
Speaker 1: this takes on more important. So yeah, it's how come
Speaker 1: we haven't heard anything about the Dustin Johnson Brooks cup
Speaker 1: good relationship for a while. How are those two getting along?
Speaker 1: They're getting along fine. I mean you know they had
Speaker 1: they had this this dust up Sunday night in in
Speaker 1: Paris after the Ryder Cup. The story I heard, which
Speaker 1: is so lame. I don't know even It's like I've
Speaker 1: tried to fact check it. I've never gotten anywhere but
Speaker 1: that they were all hanging out and um some and
Speaker 1: of course you've got you've got the wives slash girlfriends
Speaker 1: in the mix. And that's a whole other subtext to
Speaker 1: live is like if you look at in all of golf,
Speaker 1: which significant others have the biggest profiles and love the
Speaker 1: attention the most and are the thirstiest. To use the vernacular,
Speaker 1: I mean they're all on live golf now. It's just unbelievable.
Speaker 1: And so you have you Brooks, and you have Jenna,
Speaker 1: and you have Dustin and Paulina and supposedly this is
Speaker 1: what I've heard. I can't say it's true, but it
Speaker 1: makes me laughing. This is actually it that some group
Speaker 1: wanted to go go out in the town in Paris
Speaker 1: and some other group didn't want to and there's an
Speaker 1: argument and it was something about who was responsible for
Speaker 1: calling a car and Brooks and Dustin got into it
Speaker 1: like it was like so prosaic, and um, you know
Speaker 1: who knows? And uh, as I said last week about
Speaker 1: the Reds having their own reality show, uh, it should
Speaker 1: be filed up directly by just the you know, real
Speaker 1: Housewives of lip Goff right, like a hundred percent the reads,
Speaker 1: the reads, Yeah we didn't men talk about just then? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the personalities over there, Mrs Perez, Uh, Jenna, Justine,
Speaker 1: Holy Molly, there's a lot of room. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of personalities. I think. I don't do you even mention
Speaker 1: this on a podcast. I tweeted it when I was
Speaker 1: at the live event in UM Chicago. Um, Jenna drove
Speaker 1: by in a cart with their dog this black laugh things.
Speaker 1: His name is Cove. I've seen on social media right
Speaker 1: like it was so funny. I love dogs, I have
Speaker 1: I love dogs on the golf courses in the UK,
Speaker 1: but I've never seen a dog on the tournament grounds
Speaker 1: like it was just so funny. Um, once saw a
Speaker 1: very charming thing in a Marriott parking lot Brooks Jenna
Speaker 1: and dog going for a walk early in the morning
Speaker 1: before Yeah, I mean you're devoted that dog. Listen probably
Speaker 1: others nobody loves her dog with it. I love my
Speaker 1: dog so well traveled dog. Yeah. Well yeah, when you
Speaker 1: got on play and it's not a big deal, but um,
Speaker 1: it's just as to the point of I mean, there's
Speaker 1: an element of absurdity to all of this. And um, hey, Jake,
Speaker 1: if you don't put the the uh the little clip
Speaker 1: that I put up on Twitter of Mrs Perez going
Speaker 1: this new tour is gonna be I kindact right here,
Speaker 1: you've missed out. Yeah. Well, and that's the thing. I mean,
Speaker 1: anyone who follows Ashley Peret on social knows she's she's
Speaker 1: not a shrinking violet. So um anyway, it's wild. Is
Speaker 1: is Amy Michelson up to playing the role of Barbara
Speaker 1: Nicholas for this new tour. I mean she's well positioned
Speaker 1: and that she's so beloved and respected. Um, but I
Speaker 1: have not seen Amy Michelson at any tournament since the
Speaker 1: November Masters. That's two years ago now. Um, just have
Speaker 1: not seen her a major championship. You know, there was
Speaker 1: a she wasn't. She wasn't at Kioa when Phil won.
Speaker 1: What about what about the Ryder Cup in uh in Wisconsin?
Speaker 1: She was there. I guess I that's a different deal.
Speaker 1: That's such a team thing and and you know they've
Speaker 1: got to have an actual procession of wives in the
Speaker 1: opening ceremony. I'm accepting that, but just just a regular
Speaker 1: whether it's a tour event, a live event, or a major.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen her. I'm not saying she hasn't been there,
Speaker 1: but usually she's very easy to spot and um so
Speaker 1: she's definitely her tail, her travel or at least her
Speaker 1: public profile. So I don't know if she wants that
Speaker 1: role or not. I mean she kind of had it,
Speaker 1: um even up until Phil Phil left the PGA Tour,
Speaker 1: but uh, yeah, it is it's so funny in golf,
Speaker 1: and like I've been reading this, this biography of Greg Norman. Um,
Speaker 1: they've written in the nineties, and Um, Lauren Laurence st. John.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's a great pull by you, Michael. Um, it's
Speaker 1: a it's a good book actually, and she she did
Speaker 1: a really nice job. And there's so much Laura Norman
Speaker 1: in the book and all this talk about she's she's in.
Speaker 1: She's just there after every round, she's on every plane flight,
Speaker 1: she's part of every business meeting. And it's just funny
Speaker 1: how in in golf the wives have such public roles,
Speaker 1: Like I know Lebron James is married and and it
Speaker 1: seems like she's a very nice person, but you never
Speaker 1: hear anything about her in any context of his professional life. Um,
Speaker 1: whereas you know when Harold Varner goes to live the
Speaker 1: headlines where Harold Varner's wife encouraged them to go to live,
Speaker 1: like it's just a whole thing in golf that's so
Speaker 1: interesting because they don't really have teammates, right and so
Speaker 1: um and the effect of Justine reid On on Patrick's
Speaker 1: career we know has been significant, not just catting for
Speaker 1: him in the Mondays where we know nothing untoward happened
Speaker 1: because we've spoken about this in the past, UM and
Speaker 1: UM on down the line. So it's just it's amazing
Speaker 1: the prominence of these wives. They are definitely gifts from
Speaker 1: the content gods. I agree with that. What is your
Speaker 1: insight too, whether Greg Norman is going to be moved
Speaker 1: and whether somebody knew might be coming in, namely Mark King.
Speaker 1: As of right now, I don't think it's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean it won't happen next year. UM. I
Speaker 1: think that they're trying to They're trying to hold the
Speaker 1: line and keep everything cohesive, um going into next season.
Speaker 1: Like clearly we've talked about this before. Live is way
Speaker 1: ahead of where any of us thought it would be.
Speaker 1: His acquisition of players. Now they're trying to bake out
Speaker 1: the team elements and trying to get better tournament venues.
Speaker 1: And this is not the moment to blow things up.
Speaker 1: But you know, Norman is working really hard on all
Speaker 1: the details, Like he's involved on a granular level, and
Speaker 1: the guy's almost seventy years old. I'm not sure how
Speaker 1: much he wants that grind. Clearly, UM, if there's ever
Speaker 1: gonna be a reapproach it with the tour, Norman's got
Speaker 1: to go because he's been he's been such a thorn
Speaker 1: in the side of the PGA tour and Jay Monahan.
Speaker 1: Um so I could see a year from now he
Speaker 1: will declare victory and and he will um, he will
Speaker 1: exit stage left. And and you know Mark King, the
Speaker 1: former tailor Maids are he's been. He's been talked about
Speaker 1: quite a lot as as a potential successor. Um, you
Speaker 1: know him very well, Michael. I mean I think he
Speaker 1: would be he'd be well suited for the job. Whether
Speaker 1: he wants or not unknown, But um, I think I
Speaker 1: think that right now that that Norman's on pretty solid
Speaker 1: footing and he had some public misteps. He said some
Speaker 1: dumb things early on, but um, they kind of they
Speaker 1: kind of put him on ice. Like Greg, Norman took
Speaker 1: a much lower media profile the second half of the season.
Speaker 1: That was by design. Um you know he's um you
Speaker 1: have to give him a lot of credit. I mean,
Speaker 1: he helped build this thing and um so it's his baby.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's going anywhere in the short term.
Speaker 1: The real question about Live is how do they fix
Speaker 1: the nibblicks. It's kind of one of my regrets is
Speaker 1: that I didn't lean into that, like you could have
Speaker 1: been a bit at every press conference, like so many
Speaker 1: questions about the teams didn't just like you know, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like, is there strife among the nibulicks? You know?
Speaker 1: How is the team crabberd camaraderie and the nibblicks? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean that that's That's a real part of this
Speaker 1: offseason is what Lives is gonna how they're gonna bake
Speaker 1: out the team element. And I really think that just
Speaker 1: a side note about that. Here how here is how
Speaker 1: Live has changed the world of golf. And this is
Speaker 1: not a parody or a joke. There's a guy, his
Speaker 1: name is Lendon Michaelson Landon Michelson, Uh ironically that has
Speaker 1: played many tours for a long time, and it is
Speaker 1: trying to start a new mini tour and it is
Speaker 1: based off of the team concept and it's basically a
Speaker 1: mini tour of Live. It's like a little for person
Speaker 1: They're trying to get uh investors to purchase little teams,
Speaker 1: you know, at a very minimal cost for people that
Speaker 1: basically want to gamble on mini tour golf and uh,
Speaker 1: it's wild like Live has had so far reaching effects
Speaker 1: on the game of golf. It is literally reached the
Speaker 1: mini tour level. Now, it seems like that's that's tough
Speaker 1: to do because all your players ultimately just want to
Speaker 1: leave that tour like I want to move up, like
Speaker 1: how you can have any cohesion. But I guess that's
Speaker 1: part of the fun, as you just keep bringing new bodies.
Speaker 1: And Okay, well we're talking. We barely mention this like
Speaker 1: half an hour ago. Let's just before we go, let's
Speaker 1: pour out a little um almond milk or whatever it
Speaker 1: is for Roger Malpi and Gary Coke. Like they they've
Speaker 1: been a big part of our lives. They've been in
Speaker 1: our in our living rooms for many years now, and
Speaker 1: NBC is part of ways. I mean, we all love Roger,
Speaker 1: especially such a character and uh Michael tell tell us
Speaker 1: a good story about one or both of them. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, everyone knows when Rodge won the UH when
Speaker 1: he won the Memorial Tournament. I think in seventy five.
Speaker 1: I think the first place check was for d K
Speaker 1: and they really gave you a check back then, not
Speaker 1: the cardboard thing. Roger went to a bar and lost
Speaker 1: the check at the bars. Do not know that one out?
Speaker 1: I mean, I I thought it was apocryphal. I've never
Speaker 1: heard the details that that's fantastic. I think it's true. Uh.
Speaker 1: Uh Roger very very very insightful golf guy. And just
Speaker 1: a quick note about Gary Coke, very very insightful golf guy.
Speaker 1: And you know, totally different personalities. But they did their
Speaker 1: jobs really well for long time. And uh and I
Speaker 1: think they you know, like like like Venturi, Uh, they
Speaker 1: brought a lot of comfort to people for a lot
Speaker 1: of years because they were just so uh familiar and
Speaker 1: good at their job and and uh and and and
Speaker 1: they were a presence uh in the game obviously, and
Speaker 1: uh and just you know, to those of us have
Speaker 1: been around the game. I never knew Gary, but but
Speaker 1: Roger was always you know, I've been a lot of
Speaker 1: hotels with them in other places or some hotels, and uh,
Speaker 1: just a warm, endearing person. And uh. The year that
Speaker 1: when Tiger won uh the US Open at at Tory
Speaker 1: Pines that week, particularly spent a lot of time with
Speaker 1: uh with Roger and when I picked up a lot
Speaker 1: that week. But one thing I would say in particular
Speaker 1: was that the Tiger has very very high standards and
Speaker 1: I could see that he obviously respected Roger and uh uh,
Speaker 1: that's that's a lot to me about Roger as well.
Speaker 1: But anyway, they'll be missed. Have a funny Roger Mulvey story.
Speaker 1: It's inappropriate, but you know this is for mature audience.
Speaker 1: Is this podcast anyway? Um? Flying home from the Open
Speaker 1: Championship one year, I got upgraded to the pointy end
Speaker 1: of the bird and multi happened to be seated next
Speaker 1: to me, and so you chit chat or whatever. It's
Speaker 1: a long flight, and so I was. I was cued
Speaker 1: up a movie to watch, and I was watching The
Speaker 1: Devil's Advocate and I could see him. You know, you
Speaker 1: can kind of feel the person next to you like
Speaker 1: watching your screen. It's like a weird thing because you
Speaker 1: could have watched it himself on his own screen. But whatever,
Speaker 1: I didn't really care. But I've never seen the movie before.
Speaker 1: And at some point that Charlie's their own appears on
Speaker 1: the screen topless, and I just couldn't resist. I looked
Speaker 1: over at Roger and he's watching, and he gave me
Speaker 1: this huge grid and like two thumbs up, like it
Speaker 1: was so great, I've never forgotten. Oh that's amazing. This
Speaker 1: is a this isn't a serious question. Do you think
Speaker 1: that Live had anything to do with them being replaced?
Speaker 1: Meaning like they are kind of old school, right, I
Speaker 1: love both of them, as you know, like, but you know,
Speaker 1: Shane Bacon's out there, Smiley starting to get into it,
Speaker 1: Colt knowst is making a name for himself, Like, I mean,
Speaker 1: he's very good, and he's already made a name for himself,
Speaker 1: but maybe moving up to like a bigger role at NBC.
Speaker 1: I don't know that, I'm just throwing out names. Do
Speaker 1: you think that, like trying to make the game younger
Speaker 1: that Live has kind of pushed Not that it had
Speaker 1: any big thing to do, but just like on a
Speaker 1: smaller scale, do you think that golf is more cognizant
Speaker 1: of the product they put out? The PGA Tour is
Speaker 1: more cognizant of the product they put up. Yes, in
Speaker 1: a word, absolutely, And even before Live was on the scene,
Speaker 1: you know, the CBS was very aware that that Master's
Speaker 1: telecast was getting older and older by the year. And
Speaker 1: I don't know this for for sure, but I believe
Speaker 1: it's well north of sixty the average age of the
Speaker 1: person watching the Master. Uh So you know, now I'm
Speaker 1: the oldest person in this group, but we all have
Speaker 1: some attachment to Roger I remember very well as a player,
Speaker 1: but even if you never knew that part of him,
Speaker 1: just as a persons in your lives. But there's a
Speaker 1: lot of people under twenty five just like, who's this guy?
Speaker 1: Uh uh so sure, I don't think there's any question. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in the world where dude perfect is kicking beach balls
Speaker 1: and amen corner Like, clearly it's on the minds of
Speaker 1: of the golf decision makers. And you know, there's there's
Speaker 1: this whole generation that that is getting replaced, and I
Speaker 1: don't think it's really an indictment of any of them
Speaker 1: as individuals. I think what you said is bang on. Ryan.
Speaker 1: It's like we have to reinvent ourselves a little bit
Speaker 1: and um there this this is just one more step
Speaker 1: and it will be I agree, it'll be interesting to
Speaker 1: see who fills those roles. Um, you know what, I
Speaker 1: was going to release the listeners, but there's one more
Speaker 1: thing we have to talk about, which is Ryan, You're
Speaker 1: you're Alex fit Patrick Scoop and the story that created
Speaker 1: a lot of conversation ation on on social media and elsewhere. Um,
Speaker 1: for the listeners who have missed the story and we
Speaker 1: will direct them towards it, but give give a brief
Speaker 1: summary of of what it means and then what the
Speaker 1: reaction has been for you personally. Just like Monday Qualifiers,
Speaker 1: we bury it at the end of the podcast, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, jeez, I'm just kidding. Um, I mean the
Speaker 1: quick summation of the story, and it does get a
Speaker 1: bit complicated, But p G A tour you is um
Speaker 1: the rankings for what used to be college seniors, and
Speaker 1: if you've finished in the top five, you've got corn
Speaker 1: Ferry status at the end of the year after n
Speaker 1: t S and then you go to spot in the
Speaker 1: um finals of Q School. Alex Fitzpatrick, brother of US
Speaker 1: Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick, finished sixth and according to I
Speaker 1: hate to say, according to multiple sources because that it's
Speaker 1: just awkward, according to multiple sources, and my voice is
Speaker 1: gone at this point. But um he um. He had
Speaker 1: lawyers involved. The Fitzpatrick family had lawyers involved, arguing about
Speaker 1: the ranking one particular event held during COVID in particular,
Speaker 1: and the tour UH gave him an exemption. This special
Speaker 1: exemption the first in PGA twour history that I know
Speaker 1: of and anyone else I've talked to uh, and he
Speaker 1: got a spot in final stage and in the grand
Speaker 1: scheme of things. I think you said it perfectly on
Speaker 1: in your tweet, like, is a special exemption for Alex
Speaker 1: Fitzpatrick that big a deal in the golf world. No,
Speaker 1: but does it set a precedent that the PGA Tour
Speaker 1: is bending its rules and and not having this hard
Speaker 1: line in the sand? Um, it is becoming more and
Speaker 1: more uh, that players have leverage and they've never had
Speaker 1: leverage before. Um My, my opinion is had this happened
Speaker 1: two and a half years ago, pre live the pg
Speaker 1: twour would have told them to go pound sand and Uh,
Speaker 1: this year they made some sort of deal. It seems
Speaker 1: that both have an n d A because the tour
Speaker 1: won't say anything and Alex can't say anything. Um. And
Speaker 1: it seems he has a valid point about the rankings,
Speaker 1: but it's just, UM, it seems that you know, we're
Speaker 1: getting closer and closer to hand picking the players that
Speaker 1: are out on the BG Tour. I mean that's really
Speaker 1: been happening in sports in general. I mean you look
Speaker 1: at the NBA, the players have never had more power.
Speaker 1: They basically create their own teams, and they broke with
Speaker 1: their own trades and they formed these super teams. Um.
Speaker 1: You see it in college sports now with the n
Speaker 1: I L deals. Um, the power is flowing back to
Speaker 1: the players. Um. And so maybe golf with its you know,
Speaker 1: it's old traditions. Was it was time, But it is
Speaker 1: interesting and it does reveal the specter of Live because
Speaker 1: you know, if it Alex, while Matthew Fitzpatrick has been
Speaker 1: honest that he got an offer from Live, whether that
Speaker 1: was before after the US Open, Alex Lex just Alex
Speaker 1: has been too. He said he turned down two million dollars. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well there you go. I mean this is a kid
Speaker 1: who he's a walker cup. He's a good player, but
Speaker 1: he's not a marquee player. But the Chase and Brooks
Speaker 1: Keptica playbook. You know, it's kind of like you get
Speaker 1: the little brother on tour and then it becomes that
Speaker 1: much more attractive for the older brother who's got the credentials. So, um,
Speaker 1: you know, Alex has value to Live because of his
Speaker 1: brother and because maybe he'll blossom into a player. Who knows.
Speaker 1: But so it it does reveal some larger truths and um,
Speaker 1: it's another interesting footnote in how things are changing professional golf.
Speaker 1: What are your thoughts, Michael, Uh, if the tour loses
Speaker 1: its way, that it's not completely doing things by the book, Uh,
Speaker 1: then it's not the pH Tour that that well we
Speaker 1: know one respect. Uh So I think this is, you know,
Speaker 1: potentially a very serious moment in golf. Ryan and I
Speaker 1: we're talking about this the other day. Part of me
Speaker 1: for not remember the young man's name. But a fourtune
Speaker 1: year old kid from China played in the Masters and
Speaker 1: they game running you know, the gentleman's same gun Yang
Speaker 1: and uh uh and he got a two stroke penalty.
Speaker 1: The whole world wanted this kid to make the cut,
Speaker 1: but he got three bad times and they gave him
Speaker 1: two shot penalty. What are they gonna do not give him?
Speaker 1: I mean they have nobody ever gets add times and
Speaker 1: nobody ever gets to penalized for it. But this kid
Speaker 1: did what was the what was the what were the
Speaker 1: Master's officials gonna do ignore their own rules? We clocked
Speaker 1: him for three bad times. It's in the rule book.
Speaker 1: We're gonna give it to him. So, I mean, that
Speaker 1: really is golf, you know, equal opportunity under the law.
Speaker 1: So if you get away from that, you get away
Speaker 1: from a golf really is all about what what serious
Speaker 1: tournament golf is all about. This is also of a
Speaker 1: piece you know Bubba Watson at public that he's um,
Speaker 1: you know, to our tour events have been low key
Speaker 1: paying appearance fees for a long time. To the players,
Speaker 1: they're just not called that. It's like the corporate sponsor
Speaker 1: wants you to come speak at a cocktail party, will
Speaker 1: pay you three hundred thousand or five thousand dollars for
Speaker 1: half an hour of your time. I mean, it's essentially
Speaker 1: an appearance fee. We we It's been known in the game,
Speaker 1: but Bubba kind of blew the lid off of it.
Speaker 1: And I wrote something about it in my mail bag
Speaker 1: last week, and then I've had two people reach out
Speaker 1: to me because I had heard I had three dollars
Speaker 1: a few times as a number. I put that in
Speaker 1: my column and some guy wrote to me and said,
Speaker 1: you're he clearly was, you know, looking at his bio
Speaker 1: and and talking to him. He knows his stuff. He
Speaker 1: was like one of those guys was in the room.
Speaker 1: He said, you gotta add a zero to that. He's like,
Speaker 1: I know, he's like he's like, I know one superstar
Speaker 1: asked for four million dollars, So do you wanted something
Speaker 1: during the week, he said. Another Hall of Famer Icon
Speaker 1: wanted eight million dollars for his foundation. Um. Now whether
Speaker 1: these were paid is less clear, but um this this
Speaker 1: is a thing in golf. It always has But we
Speaker 1: know that they pay appearance fees around the world. So
Speaker 1: the tour has always tried to put itself above it,
Speaker 1: but it has In reality, they've been doing the same thing.
Speaker 1: He here's the here's the way. I think that it's
Speaker 1: different in those standpoints, and yes, I agree, but Q
Speaker 1: School has always been the place where tour pros don't
Speaker 1: have any power and and the tour rightfully so uh
Speaker 1: has had a no like no excuses. Talked to a
Speaker 1: pro whose mother in law had a stroke and passed
Speaker 1: away a week before Q School. He asked for a
Speaker 1: different site. They said no. A guy this year, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, missed the deadline for final stage by a
Speaker 1: couple of hours. They said no. And I understand it
Speaker 1: because then you opened Pandora's boxes. Alan Shipnik has a
Speaker 1: bomb ankle and he wants to get moved. And Michael
Speaker 1: Bamberger has a sore shoulder and his mom is in
Speaker 1: the hospital. You open yourself up to endless stuff. Q
Speaker 1: school has always been the place that I was on
Speaker 1: with the Pulson's today. Q School has always been the
Speaker 1: most you know, those guys have a problem with PG
Speaker 1: two or you as a problem and as a as
Speaker 1: a concept in general. Now with Live, I understand it.
Speaker 1: You know you want to keep your young players. But
Speaker 1: Q School has always been the most democratic part of golf.
Speaker 1: Right there is no anything you tee it up. Norman
Speaker 1: Young was the best college player, and that in almost
Speaker 1: like he wasn't the next Tiger Woods. And he lost
Speaker 1: and he didn't get through and that's okay, that's how
Speaker 1: golf works. And uh and and I think that is
Speaker 1: the leap that we've made that Q School. Yes, those
Speaker 1: back deal door deals have been made, but Q school
Speaker 1: has always been the place where nothing happens. There is
Speaker 1: no The tour never cared about those players enough to
Speaker 1: make any deals. There was no deals. It's just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: go get through first stage. Dude, I don't know what
Speaker 1: to tell you. And now it's it's not and and
Speaker 1: we are sliding quickly down a hill that is going
Speaker 1: to be a lot of handshake deals and lawyers and
Speaker 1: all those kind of things. It's just it's it's not
Speaker 1: a great place. But if the tour is not really
Speaker 1: careful here, they they will ld the goose because all
Speaker 1: of corporate America is so way way into golf for
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons, in one of which is, you know,
Speaker 1: these fine young men are such you know, principles and show.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean to be spoken, it's just said. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's a merit based system. Uh. The rule book does
Speaker 1: whatever can to eliminate ambiguity. To your point, Ryan, you know,
Speaker 1: there are some areas like metal exemptions and major medical
Speaker 1: extensions where they've got to read tea leaves and it
Speaker 1: gets very difficult for the tour and there's always a
Speaker 1: lot of fussing about that. But this sort of and
Speaker 1: even Bubba getting paid to go to a cocktail party,
Speaker 1: and whether it's three million or three thousand, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's shady and it's in the gray area, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't really affect two central things here is what actually
Speaker 1: happens in the tournament. Are the are the scorecards directly accurate?
Speaker 1: And how do you get into the tournament in the
Speaker 1: first place? That those two things are the underpinning of
Speaker 1: what makes the pH A Tour the pH A Tour.
Speaker 1: That's why it matters. Access has never been more important.
Speaker 1: And when you start cluttering that up with agendas and
Speaker 1: handshake deals, it uh, it gets very messy, very quickly.
Speaker 1: So I would encourage any of the listeners if you
Speaker 1: haven't seen Ryan's excellent story, go to um fire Collective
Speaker 1: dot com check that out. We also we will make
Speaker 1: sure that Andy Ogletree's earlier Fire Drill podcast is prominent
Speaker 1: so you can find that as well, because it is
Speaker 1: a great It's a great background on on how the
Speaker 1: professional game is changing, and actually a really interesting kid
Speaker 1: who has become an unlikely protagonist in this whole golf season.
Speaker 1: So um, we covered a lot of ground on this podcast. UM.
Speaker 1: I want to thank all the listeners from making it
Speaker 1: this far. Do you guys have any final thoughts before
Speaker 1: we go? Well, I get to do a podcast with
Speaker 1: Michael Bamberger his pajamas, That's my final thought. In in
Speaker 1: the in the group thread, Ryan was gonna call he
Speaker 1: was gonna call it this his this was his Willis
Speaker 1: Reed game or his his Jordan Flew game, because he's
Speaker 1: clearly under the weather, but he powered through um an
Speaker 1: hour and fifteen minutes of po ding, So it's a
Speaker 1: heroic effort. You've entered, entered the animals. Articles will be
Speaker 1: written about this, but they might be by me anyway.
Speaker 1: I might my own own article about my own plant heroism.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, if you've enjoyed this podcast against all odds,
Speaker 1: we have another podcast offering in our network that's gonna
Speaker 1: drop here in two days. Michael Bamberger, myself, Jeff Ogilvie.
Speaker 1: It's called Nita Fourth. As the title might hint, um,
Speaker 1: we bring on a mystery guest every week. One of
Speaker 1: the host is responsible for that. The other two don't
Speaker 1: know who's coming on, and so at least to some
Speaker 1: very freewheeling, fund spontaneous conversations, we have a really interesting
Speaker 1: mix of of guests, some hardcore golf people, some folks
Speaker 1: who are golf adjacent but just really love the game
Speaker 1: and have a different perspective. So that will be that
Speaker 1: will be coming to your ear soon, and we hope
Speaker 1: you'll check it out because Michael and I have had
Speaker 1: great time in recording these conversations, as has Jeff Um.
Speaker 1: But uh, all right, I can. I can sense the
Speaker 1: fatigue for my co host, so we're gonna go. This
Speaker 1: is This has been another Fire Drill podcast. Thank you
Speaker 1: for listening. We'll do it again. They're usually Sunday evenings
Speaker 1: because there's some some travel issues. We this one's going
Speaker 1: up Monday afternoon, but we are committed to doing this
Speaker 1: every week, so thank you for listening. At the end,
Speaker 1: that Big played to win, made a fortune with my
Speaker 1: ship game. I ran the table and never thought I
Speaker 1: could fall them, and winter time hit me like a
Speaker 1: cannon ball. And now I can't shake this losing the street.
Speaker 1: Every road I take is a dead end street. I
Speaker 1: got thoughts in my head. Can't get John not think
Speaker 1: what I'm thinking about. Go sit my head, can't get
Speaker 1: him out trying not to think what I'm thinking about.