Speaker 1: I miss a green, for example, I'm already upset.
Speaker 2: When I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.
Speaker 1: And when I find my ball.
Speaker 3: In a brid egg Friday Egg, the dreaded Frida Egg
Speaker 3: Friday fridagg Bride Egg Lie, I'm about ready to run
Speaker 3: off of the hump course. Welcome back to another edition
Speaker 3: of the Frida Egg Podcast. Today I'm joined by Joseph Lamania.
Speaker 3: Joseph and I discussed what the PGA Tour should do
Speaker 3: to combat Live a few weeks ago, and I figured
Speaker 3: with the PGA Tour news with the meeting last week
Speaker 3: with Roy mclroy and Tiger Woods kind of heading that up,
Speaker 3: and then the PGA Tour swift implementation of said plan
Speaker 3: for the twenty twenty three season, Uh, it would be
Speaker 3: a great time to talk to Joseph again and see
Speaker 3: really evaluate how they did and where it goes from here.
Speaker 3: Obviously a ton of details have yet to be sorted out.
Speaker 3: Next year will be a truncated version of the full plan,
Speaker 3: but figured it would be good to discuss, you know,
Speaker 3: the finer points of where where it needs to go
Speaker 3: as they continue to sort out all the little details.
Speaker 1: With Joseph all.
Speaker 3: Right, big changes on the PGA Tour with that mind
Speaker 3: brought back Joseph Leamangna, Joseph, thanks for coming on. We
Speaker 3: obviously talked before the tour had really made any moves
Speaker 3: about how it should combat live, and now they've made
Speaker 3: some moves. So excited to discuss and see where we
Speaker 3: stand with these changes and if it's enough, you know,
Speaker 3: significant chain to really you know, restructure the tour in
Speaker 3: a way that's sustainable moving forward.
Speaker 1: Joseph, how are you.
Speaker 2: I'm great, Thanks for having me. Kind of a historic
Speaker 2: day on the PGA Tour. I feel like this is
Speaker 2: a bit of a victory lap compared to where we
Speaker 2: were a couple of weeks ago when we last talked.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, you know, the tour seems to be
Speaker 3: heading in a direction, and I think it's the correct direction.
Speaker 3: Whether or not, you know, they get all the way
Speaker 3: to where they need to be, I think it remains
Speaker 3: to be seen. But for those that missed it, for
Speaker 3: those that are tuning in and don't really know what happened.
Speaker 3: J Monahan and Rory macleroy did a press conference at
Speaker 3: the tour Championship on Wednesday morning, and they announced the
Speaker 3: addition of twelve elevated events. So the big thing that
Speaker 3: is the big change is that you will know when
Speaker 3: the quote unquote top players and we'll get into what
Speaker 3: the players are will be playing. So they have committed
Speaker 3: to play in sixteen events in addition to three other events,
Speaker 3: and they are they include so they are the FedEx
Speaker 3: Cup Playoffs, which is three events, the Genesis, the API,
Speaker 3: that Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Memorial, the WGC Dell Matchplay,
Speaker 3: the Century Tournament of Champions, and then there will be
Speaker 3: four other events that will be elevated. They have yet
Speaker 3: to be determined, so four of the existing PGA tour
Speaker 3: stops will be elevated. We could speculate on those and
Speaker 3: it sounds like moving forward, they are going to the
Speaker 3: idea of rotating those four. I like that idea if
Speaker 3: you're going to have to work in the existing structure.
Speaker 3: But then along with those are the players, the Masters,
Speaker 3: the PGA, the US Open, in the Open, so the majors,
Speaker 3: the players and those other events, and then top players
Speaker 3: will be required to play an additional three events. And
Speaker 3: these top players will be based off of the PIP,
Speaker 3: so the Player Impact Program, the much valueed Player Impact
Speaker 3: program that became effectively what Live picked off for their
Speaker 3: player selection in the last year will be expanded. It
Speaker 3: will go from ten to twenty players. The PIP will
Speaker 3: go from fifty to one hundred million, and it will
Speaker 3: have some changes. It will remove the Q score in
Speaker 3: the social media score. It sounds like there will be
Speaker 3: a PIP rating for like almost every player on tour.
Speaker 3: It sounds like that will be something that is tracked.
Speaker 3: It's unclear whether it will be a public facing, you know, ranking,
Speaker 3: which is interesting. Along with that, they a couple things
Speaker 3: for like kind of the rank and file members were
Speaker 3: announced a earnings assurance program. Upfront, players will get five
Speaker 3: hundred thousand dollars which will be go against their earnings,
Speaker 3: so it's effectively a hey, this is a league minimum salary,
Speaker 3: and as players earn money, it will go against it.
Speaker 3: But it will be paid upfront to players and non
Speaker 3: exempt players. So like guys that just missed out on
Speaker 3: being top one twenty five will get a five k
Speaker 3: travel stipend for each of for miscut so to kind
Speaker 3: of ease some of those concerned. I think these were
Speaker 3: just kind of bones thrown to the rank and file
Speaker 3: as they completely overhauled the system at the top. So
Speaker 3: this is going into effect in twenty twenty three. It's
Speaker 3: important the schedule is already announced, so their hands were
Speaker 3: a little bit tied as to what they could do
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty three. I think it would look a
Speaker 3: little bit differently. I believe these will be full field
Speaker 3: events in twenty twenty four. They will cut down to
Speaker 3: smaller fields for these special top tier events. But in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty three, with the field, with the schedule already announced,
Speaker 3: there is really just a limited amount they could do.
Speaker 3: But this is I think significant that they got this
Speaker 3: done so quickly after the players only meeting last week.
Speaker 3: The fact that this has been pushed through in less
Speaker 3: than a week's time is significant, and I think twenty
Speaker 3: twenty four schedule will look significantly different than this year's. So,
Speaker 3: Joseph off the top, what do you think of the changes?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you put it well, that it's directionally correct.
Speaker 2: That is, I will say that for it, and it
Speaker 2: could end up being very good. There are some tbds
Speaker 2: and we're have to see how some of that shakes out.
Speaker 2: I think the easiest way to frame my perspective on
Speaker 2: the whole our conversation last time. What we're going to
Speaker 2: talk about today with the schedule is there's a business
Speaker 2: quote I really like from Jeff Bezos which is stubborn
Speaker 2: on the vision, flexible on the details, and there are
Speaker 2: certain things that I will be stubborn about that they
Speaker 2: need to accomplish these high level goals or else this
Speaker 2: still isn't in a good place. How you get there.
Speaker 2: Flexible on some of that, So I think we'll get
Speaker 2: into that today, But overall it was a huge positive
Speaker 2: step for the tour yesterday.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think obviously for anybody that's been following the PGA
Speaker 3: Tour Live debate and anybody that's been in the PGA
Speaker 3: Tour camp, the last six months have been painful. Like
Speaker 3: anybody that is like, Okay, I do not want the
Speaker 3: Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund really owning and making decisions
Speaker 3: on professional golf, behalf, you know, whole, like them being
Speaker 3: the de facto effective dictator of men's professional golf.
Speaker 1: You know, anybody that didn't want that to happen.
Speaker 3: This has been a very bleak six months, and finally
Speaker 3: it feels like there is some action, and I think
Speaker 3: I think, you know, when I look at what happened yesterday.
Speaker 3: I think there were two leaders of the PGA Tour
Speaker 3: that stood up and one was somewhat confused, gave wishy,
Speaker 3: washed answers, and one stood up there very clear. It
Speaker 3: was very clear, concise and powerful with his messaging. And
Speaker 3: Jay Monahan was the one that was seemed almost befuddled
Speaker 3: and confused by what was going on, whereas Rory McElroy
Speaker 3: stood up there and what stuck out to me And
Speaker 3: I think what I would center on Rory's quote of
Speaker 3: we're trying to build a tour for you young ambitious
Speaker 3: players who want to be the best player in the world.
Speaker 3: That needs to be the mission statement of the PGA Tour,
Speaker 3: and that needs to be what every decision they make
Speaker 3: and every single little thing they do from here out
Speaker 3: with this kind of restructure needs to be centered.
Speaker 1: Around that thesis statement.
Speaker 3: And my concern centers around, all right, we've got the
Speaker 3: big vision, right, who is executing the little details that
Speaker 3: is going to make or break this idea? I think
Speaker 3: like this, I think the big complaint from golf fans
Speaker 3: will be like, Okay, you're just creating a bunch of
Speaker 3: WGCs that weren't really executed.
Speaker 1: Well in the first place.
Speaker 3: And I think my big concern is that the players
Speaker 3: have gotten together, they said this needs to change, this
Speaker 3: is what we want to do, and they're handing it
Speaker 3: back to the same people that screwed up the WGCs,
Speaker 3: and we're going to effectively get the same thing.
Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, I mean a lot of directions we could
Speaker 2: go where A point that I wanted to make I
Speaker 2: think is a natural follow up from what you just said.
Speaker 2: So I think the goal is to get the best
Speaker 2: players playing meaningful golf, right, get the best players together
Speaker 2: playing meaningful golf, And you're kind of suggesting with the WGCs,
Speaker 2: like maybe the golf still isn't meaningful. You get the
Speaker 2: best players together, but it's not necessarily meaningful. The point
Speaker 2: I would make is we have to reform the playoff
Speaker 2: system and how the FedEx Cup points work, and that
Speaker 2: will inform whether or not the golf is meaningful. So
Speaker 2: if that is accomplished, I think we're there. I think
Speaker 2: they've done the stuff that I will be stubborn about.
Speaker 2: They've nailed it. If they don't fix that, if it's
Speaker 2: still thirty players playing in the finals, and you know,
Speaker 2: too many players go into the playoffs and too many
Speaker 2: events getting points, then we haven't accomplished that, and you
Speaker 2: will end up with events that feel like wgc's. But
Speaker 2: if they reform the playoff structure and how the points work,
Speaker 2: then these events they are much easier to interpret for
Speaker 2: the fan. You have the best players together and you understand, hey,
Speaker 2: this guy's got to step up and play well at Memorial,
Speaker 2: at Genesis, at the Majors for them to qualify for
Speaker 2: the playoffs. So if they do that, I'm bolldy on board.
Speaker 2: What happened this week?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's the biggest question.
Speaker 3: And I think obviously I do not envy Jay Monahan
Speaker 3: and his team that have sold sponsorships through for you know,
Speaker 3: a number of years forward based off of one thing
Speaker 3: and going back to the sponsors and being like, hey,
Speaker 3: I know, we told you that this was like the
Speaker 3: greatest thing since slice spread, Like especially in the case
Speaker 3: of I know, we told you that we've figured out
Speaker 3: we've nailed this playoff system. You've I think they poured
Speaker 3: in a billion dollars and you know you've put your
Speaker 3: financial commitment behind this, but we need to change it.
Speaker 3: I think the biggest question and you just hit on
Speaker 3: is after twenty twenty three, knowing that, hey, in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty three, there's limited things they can do after twenty
Speaker 3: twenty three.
Speaker 1: What does the playoffs look like?
Speaker 3: Because that's going to inform what these events look like,
Speaker 3: as you said, and you know now that they've got
Speaker 3: this in place. I think this is a big part
Speaker 3: of it. You know, what do the playoffs look like?
Speaker 3: If there's going to be three events? How does that
Speaker 3: get trimmed down? How do you go how do you
Speaker 3: go from let's just say, let's take a number out
Speaker 3: of the air, seventy players are in a typical elevated event.
Speaker 3: How do you go from those seventy players down in
Speaker 3: the playoffs? How does that look? And I think that's
Speaker 3: the biggest question, And these are the little details that
Speaker 3: are going to make or break this for the tour.
Speaker 2: Agree on the point of I don't envy him for
Speaker 2: having to go back to FedEx and say we're changing things.
Speaker 2: The part I disagree with that keeps getting thrown around
Speaker 2: is that like FedEx is going to be so upset
Speaker 2: that we're dramatically improving the playoffs like this should be.
Speaker 3: But I'm saying they sold the deal like you sell
Speaker 3: a billion dollar deal under the pretense of these playoffs
Speaker 3: suck like they effectively. And I think this is one
Speaker 3: of the big issues with like the leadership staying intact
Speaker 3: like and one of the things I wonder about long
Speaker 3: term is like, how does the entire leadership team. I mean,
Speaker 3: you can't teach an old dog nutrix. That is a
Speaker 3: adage that is pretty set in stone. And the entire
Speaker 3: leadership of the PGA Tour has operated under an old
Speaker 3: system that has been outdated and ripe for disruption. We
Speaker 3: have this disruption, We have a two year window where
Speaker 3: they do nothing and the players have to put this
Speaker 3: all together for them, and then you're going to hand
Speaker 3: it right back to that same leadership group. You know,
Speaker 3: this is not just same on hand, it's everybody around him.
Speaker 3: You know, these people have been operating what they know
Speaker 3: the business as can no longer be the business.
Speaker 1: It has to change.
Speaker 3: So you know, the reality is this is where my
Speaker 3: general lukewarm feel centers around. It's like, can these business
Speaker 3: leaders adapt and understand where it's going? And you know
Speaker 3: this is the first the first challenge is going to
Speaker 3: be getting FedEx on board.
Speaker 2: Sure, and again flexible on some of the details here,
Speaker 2: but I do know that it needs to be somewhere
Speaker 2: around eight players playing for the championship, and the criteria there,
Speaker 2: whether it's eight, whether it's twelve, it needs to be
Speaker 2: that if any one of those players wins, you feel
Speaker 2: like they were the champion for the season. That is
Speaker 2: a non negotiable. How you move back and decide, Okay,
Speaker 2: it's gonna be thirty six players in the first round.
Speaker 2: However you decide to do that. I think there's some
Speaker 2: flexibility around, but you need to have a special championship,
Speaker 2: and you cannot give FedEx Cup playoff points for every event.
Speaker 2: I think that's my biggest concern from seeing this new
Speaker 2: schedule is that, Okay, sure the top players are committing
Speaker 2: to playing twenty times, but is the incentive still for
Speaker 2: them to play twenty nine times thirty times to give
Speaker 2: themselves the best chance of qualifying for the playoffs. If
Speaker 2: that exists, you've diminished the value of the schedule in
Speaker 2: a lot of ways, and the playoffs at the end
Speaker 2: of the year still don't have the appeal that they
Speaker 2: should have for a season ending championship. Is that do
Speaker 2: you agree with that?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so like, just to I think, to make your
Speaker 3: point a little bit clearer, let's just use this year
Speaker 3: as an example to jump off of with the FedEx Cup.
Speaker 3: And I'm gonna just run down the list as we
Speaker 3: head into this week. It's Wednesday, it's Thursday morning. Here
Speaker 3: is the FedEx Cup standings heading into East Lake. And
Speaker 3: you tell me when we get to a player that
Speaker 3: you would feel does not deserve to be in the
Speaker 3: final event and have a opportunity to win the FedEx Cup.
Speaker 3: All right, Scheffler can't lay Xalatorus, shawfle A, Burns, Cam Smith, Rory,
Speaker 3: Tony Finow Uh, Sepstraca playoff anomenaly obviously.
Speaker 2: Yet do I have the button here and say stop?
Speaker 3: So Sepstraca, I think, like I think there are names
Speaker 3: below him that deserve it. But this is obviously one
Speaker 3: of the issues, like Sepstraca probably shouldn't have been in
Speaker 3: the playoffs in the first place.
Speaker 2: Play part of the issue. We're talking about a full
Speaker 2: schedule that they gave points to every event, right, so
Speaker 2: so if you were to pare down the number of
Speaker 2: events that actually pay out playoff points, somebody like Matt
Speaker 2: Fitzpatrick would show up higher because he won the US
Speaker 2: Open and it wasn't because he right right, it's not
Speaker 2: getting your points through the RSM Classic, through Bermuda like
Speaker 2: those issues go away. So yeah, it needs to happen.
Speaker 1: So we get to like Stepstraca out, Does Sung Jay
Speaker 1: deserve to be there? Probably not right.
Speaker 2: Right, I'd want to pull up his schedule, but I'm
Speaker 2: I know Sung Jay he's a perfect person to talk
Speaker 2: about because his strategy from the beginning has been play
Speaker 2: as many events as possible, because he understands qualifying for
Speaker 2: the playoffs isn't based on like your average points per event,
Speaker 2: it's just your total. So the incentive is to play
Speaker 2: as much as possible. And that's a significant problem. I
Speaker 2: kind of want to we'll get there, but I kind
Speaker 2: of want to talk about how that's a similar problem
Speaker 2: to to what the NBA is facing, and they're they're
Speaker 2: doing something about it, So you have to remove that
Speaker 2: incentive for players and some Jay's the perfect talking point.
Speaker 1: John Rahm maybe not.
Speaker 2: I mean he hasn't had a great year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Scott Stallings definitely not. He's played really good golf.
Speaker 3: He probably should have been in some sort of thing,
Speaker 3: you know, recently, he's played really good golf, but you
Speaker 3: know one T two doesn't vault you into the finals.
Speaker 3: J T definitely right with the PGA win, right.
Speaker 2: Right, And and again we we'd want to look at
Speaker 2: how did he do in a subset of events. So
Speaker 2: I'm sure under our revised criteria, like he'd probably be
Speaker 2: qualifying because we'd reward the majors heavily. Cam Young probably yeah,
Speaker 2: And he had a good year.
Speaker 3: Matt Fitzpatrick in as we talked about, I mean, he
Speaker 3: was leading strokes, gained total for a long time and
Speaker 3: then and then you get into like Max Ooma, Hideki,
Speaker 3: Jordan Speeds, Jauq Neeman, and I think at that point
Speaker 3: you're like, no, none of these players. So if you
Speaker 3: take out Sepstraw, Sung, JM John, Rom, Scott Stallings right there,
Speaker 3: you're at twelve eleven players. So we're right where you
Speaker 3: talked about eight to twelve players.
Speaker 2: And I think what's so promising about what the PGA
Speaker 2: Tour did this week is having this schedule of fourteen
Speaker 2: events that you know all the best players in the
Speaker 2: world are going to play. Those are the perfect events
Speaker 2: to give the FedEx cut playoff points too, and stop
Speaker 2: there like that's the fourteen you know, all the top
Speaker 2: players are going to be there, and and that's all
Speaker 2: We're giving points to everything After that, we're gonna have
Speaker 2: to incentivize in a different way, but we're not gonna
Speaker 2: set the system up to have bad incentives.
Speaker 3: And I think, like, so the big question telling FedEx like, hey,
Speaker 3: this is how it's gonna work right at that point?
Speaker 1: Don't you like that? Don't you say, like, yeah, hey,
Speaker 1: if FedEx cup points are coveted, they're they aren't just
Speaker 1: handed out like they are now.
Speaker 3: FedEx cup points means something, and they are. They are
Speaker 3: the they are the currency of elite golf on tour.
Speaker 2: Right, and maybe this is a natural I think some
Speaker 2: of the counter argument here will be, Okay, if that's
Speaker 2: how you do things, then how do you end up
Speaker 2: doing status on tour if only those fourteen events are
Speaker 2: paying out? Like what do the other events represent? And
Speaker 2: I think the best solution that I can come up
Speaker 2: with is you maintain basically two lists. You have your
Speaker 2: FedEx cup points list and you have an eligibility list,
Speaker 2: which could sort of be similar to like the official
Speaker 2: World Golf rankings, but internal to the PGA Tour. You
Speaker 2: just have a point system that when you're playing outside
Speaker 2: of one of those fourteen events and in those fourteen
Speaker 2: events you're accruing points. They just aren't. They don't translate
Speaker 2: into qualification for the playoffs. They translate into status. And
Speaker 2: I think what the PGA Tour will love about that
Speaker 2: is I think I came up with another list that
Speaker 2: they can brand and sell. So that should be music
Speaker 2: to their ears.
Speaker 3: Maybe it could be the business to our top ten
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Speaker 3: Now back to Joseph Lemanna. So how do you feel
Speaker 3: about the PIP being the decider of the first twenty
Speaker 3: spots in these events? And then how do you think
Speaker 3: the rest of the spots should be filled? Right?
Speaker 2: I need to get some clarifying information on my understanding
Speaker 2: is that you're only that the PIP qualification does not
Speaker 2: qualify you for all of those events that but instead
Speaker 2: if you that if you are in the top twenty
Speaker 2: and PIP, you must play in as many events as
Speaker 2: you qualify for. Basically, but broader point, I am not
Speaker 2: a fan of the expansion of the PIP, and I
Speaker 2: think that's my biggest concern in seeing what they did
Speaker 2: this week. I have a lot of reasons for why
Speaker 2: I don't like the pit being expanded. I think, for one,
Speaker 2: having a black boxed formula that spits out one hundred
Speaker 2: million dollars a year is a concern. And I also
Speaker 2: think you have to consider what in what it incentivizes there.
Speaker 2: Do you want contrived drama and players trying to make
Speaker 2: a splash online because that's what ultimately they're incentivized by.
Speaker 2: I mean, do you some of this stuff gets really
Speaker 2: like part of the criteria's Internet searches. Yeah, there's enough
Speaker 2: money in this. Do you do you want to player
Speaker 2: figuring out how to set up bots to go search
Speaker 2: his name all year? Like that's that might sound crazy,
Speaker 2: but this is incentivizing things in a way that I
Speaker 2: don't think is necessarily healthy for the tour. And the
Speaker 2: point that I would make would be, I think players
Speaker 2: are already incentivized to have awareness, right there are business
Speaker 2: opportunities that are available to you. There are sponsorships that
Speaker 2: come to you when you have strong brand awareness, Like,
Speaker 2: is it really necessary that the tour is allocating money
Speaker 2: to those players and providing that incentive on top of
Speaker 2: what they already are incentivized to do. I think this
Speaker 2: could lead to some behavior from players that you just
Speaker 2: don't want to see. And more importantly, I don't think
Speaker 2: a player should have to worry about their PIP if
Speaker 2: they're trying to be the best golfer in the world.
Speaker 2: Just let them play golf and things should take care
Speaker 2: of themselves.
Speaker 3: I think this is You're probably gonna hear me say
Speaker 3: this multiple times on this podcast, but I'm going to
Speaker 3: go right back to the Rory quote. What should be
Speaker 3: the general thesis of this entire tour and every decision
Speaker 3: should center around does this work towards this? We are
Speaker 3: trying to build a tour for young, ambitious players who
Speaker 3: want to be the best player in the world. Nowhere
Speaker 3: in there does it say the most popular player in
Speaker 3: the world.
Speaker 1: This is you know, the PIP. If that hundred million
Speaker 1: dollars a year was allocated in a different way, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe one like I think the biggest shortcoming of the PIP,
Speaker 1: without a doubt, is that there is nothing in the
Speaker 1: PIP formula that has to do with how you play
Speaker 1: on the golf course. Imagine if that NBA would operate
Speaker 1: this way, it would like would we have somebody that
Speaker 1: was like a you know, like can we allow like
Speaker 1: influencers into the pip Like does uh you know the
Speaker 1: best trick shot artists? Like does he he have a
Speaker 1: chance at pit money because of this? Like it's just silly.
Speaker 1: It It then becomes like, you.
Speaker 3: Know, it should be there should be a significant aspect
Speaker 3: of this that is based off of en course play
Speaker 3: at the bare minimum, if not all of it should
Speaker 3: be based off like why don't you just have another
Speaker 3: one hundred million dollars that you can throw at your
Speaker 3: top players that that can go to ward off the
Speaker 3: live to or money. And that's the other thing that
Speaker 3: I wanted to talk about maybe later is like how's
Speaker 3: liv going to respond to this? Because there is going
Speaker 3: to be a response, And to think like the tour
Speaker 3: has already made the mistake of at Riviera thinking it
Speaker 3: was over when the film comments came out, We're moving on.
Speaker 1: This is not over.
Speaker 3: It's it's going to be a five to five year
Speaker 3: battle here, Like everybody's dug in the tour has made
Speaker 3: a counter move back, and there's going to be something
Speaker 3: that comes back from Live.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and to go back to the to the Pip
Speaker 2: and I think a whole part the continuity between the
Speaker 2: last time we talked and now, like my message is
Speaker 2: going to be the same. This is an incentive issue.
Speaker 2: So if you are a top let's say you're an
Speaker 2: aspiring professional, you're you're twenty five years old, you just
Speaker 2: get your PGA tour card.
Speaker 1: Say you're Pearson Cootie.
Speaker 2: Sure, or even even take a step further, say you
Speaker 2: have like a language barrier or something, you're from a
Speaker 2: different part of the country, a different part of the world.
Speaker 2: Why why do you have to worry about how the
Speaker 2: player Impact program works? Like I think you should be
Speaker 2: worried about your game, Like is my wedge game up
Speaker 2: to snuff? Like do I know these golf courses? Can
Speaker 2: I put on poa? Like why do I need to
Speaker 2: worry about Or my agent has to worry about how
Speaker 2: I can grow my brand awareness because some of our
Speaker 2: tours funds are being allocated towards this season end. Like
Speaker 2: I just don't think it puts players. It's a there's
Speaker 2: a level of overhead there that I don't think players
Speaker 2: should have to be dealing with. And you have to
Speaker 2: have a system of good incentives for a full blown
Speaker 2: schedule to work correctly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and just on that pip, the issues with the
Speaker 3: PIP right. So last year is a perfect example. Hideki
Speaker 3: Hideki Matsuyama wins the Masters. It's estimated that that win
Speaker 3: is a billion dollar win for Hideki Japan. And I
Speaker 3: think majority of people listening to this podcast are Americans,
Speaker 3: And if you're just a golf fan, you know, you
Speaker 3: might not understand like Japan is a golf craze country.
Speaker 3: Japan is a vital you know, when you talk about
Speaker 3: the tour and their growth, like you know a company,
Speaker 3: their values a lot of times predicated on how much
Speaker 3: bigger can your game get. Japan is a big piece
Speaker 3: of this puzzle. It is a wealthy country that has
Speaker 3: a lot of golf fans. Hideki Matsuyama is Japan's Michael
Speaker 3: Jordan in a way. You know, you go to an
Speaker 3: event and Hideki made the cut on the number. You know,
Speaker 3: you go to a major, Hideki made the cut on
Speaker 3: the number. For most American players, those who made the
Speaker 3: cut on the number, nobody is watching. Not one press
Speaker 3: is watching you know that player. If it's you know,
Speaker 3: Jordan Speed, Nobody went out and watched Jordan Speth right
Speaker 3: after he made the cut. You go out to Hedki,
Speaker 3: there will be a ce of twenty plus Japanese media outlets.
Speaker 3: So Hideki wins the mass and wins his home Countries
Speaker 3: PGA Tour event, which he said he felt more pressure
Speaker 3: at than the than the Masters. You know these this
Speaker 3: is like sportsman of the Year in Japan without a
Speaker 3: doubt home run, Like you know, he is the biggest
Speaker 3: thing in sports in Japan, this huge economic country for golf.
Speaker 3: He Bubba Watson's ten. Hideki can't even get it beat
Speaker 3: Bubba Watson in this contrived whatever you know, cash pot
Speaker 3: handout that you've you've put together and like I know
Speaker 3: they've updated this, but this is going to be like
Speaker 3: an inexact thing, like this is the pitfalls of it,
Speaker 3: and Hideki didn't get that because it was an American bias.
Speaker 3: System is always going to be American biased because it's
Speaker 3: put together by Americans.
Speaker 2: Right, That's that's the part. I think the Tour would
Speaker 2: come back and say, look, we agree we messed up.
Speaker 2: Hideki should have been in there, but we've revised the system.
Speaker 2: Now we've removed social media, which I think they just
Speaker 2: couldn't figure out I was laughing because it said social
Speaker 2: media is always changing, so it's hard to captures, like
Speaker 2: they probably couldn't figure out how to handle TikTok, Like
Speaker 2: that's probably what that means. But to your point, like
Speaker 2: the it's always going to be a biased system in
Speaker 2: some direction, And why is the tour? Are you signing
Speaker 2: up for maintaining that? Like that's the part. Do you
Speaker 2: want to deal with the complexities of internet searches? And
Speaker 2: if somebody searches Hdeki golf, is that Hideki Matsuyama or not? Like,
Speaker 2: why do you want to sign yourselves up for maintaining
Speaker 2: that kind of logic and then putting it behind a
Speaker 2: black box or putting it in a black box where
Speaker 2: people can't see how the calculation is working. I think
Speaker 2: if they're going to do this and lean into it,
Speaker 2: it has to be public and the methodology has to
Speaker 2: be transparent.
Speaker 1: Would it be just better served with one hundred million dollars?
Speaker 3: And this is like a question I would ask a
Speaker 3: Rory McElroy if I talk to him, I would ask Jmonhan,
Speaker 3: if I talk to him, would the hundred Can you
Speaker 3: tell me with a straight face if one hundred million
Speaker 3: dollars would just be better served if you just said,
Speaker 3: if you finished in the top ten, we'll distribute the
Speaker 3: one hundred you know, top ten of the season long race,
Speaker 3: assuming that gets cleaned up, we're going to distribute a
Speaker 3: hundred extra million dollars in that.
Speaker 2: I'd be fine with that, but I think what they
Speaker 2: would say is, no, we want to get some of
Speaker 2: these players who are really marketable, like a Tiger Woods
Speaker 2: who may not play and may not be able to compete, like,
Speaker 2: let's still reward them, or even potentially somebody like Ricky Fowler.
Speaker 2: There are I still think there are other solutions to that.
Speaker 2: I know the one I'd thrown out, people may not
Speaker 2: love it, But if you did, like an all Star
Speaker 2: weekend or some exhibition where fans could vote on who participated,
Speaker 2: that's actually a cleaner, more direct way of funneling money
Speaker 2: to some of the players that are most marketable. So
Speaker 2: I think broader point PIP is I can sort I
Speaker 2: can even maybe get behind the goal of PIP, but
Speaker 2: I cannot get behind implementation and some of the incentives
Speaker 2: that it creates, and I think those are that's enough
Speaker 2: to nix the program.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I mean to me, having this be a
Speaker 3: a big part of your overhaul is a big mistake,
Speaker 3: because it was. This was legitimately one of the least
Speaker 3: effective things that was done to attempt to counteract Live
Speaker 3: last year. This was put in place to counteract Live.
Speaker 3: You know, this was supposed to appease people like Phil Mickelson.
Speaker 3: Five of the ten players that got the PIP are
Speaker 3: now on Live, you know.
Speaker 2: But overall, Andy, I don't want to be too negative,
Speaker 2: Like I agree this this is a problem. I don't
Speaker 2: think it's overly significant. Like I still think the bulk
Speaker 2: of what they did yesterday like we're we're good, Like
Speaker 2: that was it was good, it was smart. We're on
Speaker 2: the right path, and it could end up being really good,
Speaker 2: especially if they reformed the playoffs and the point structure.
Speaker 2: The PIP is a minor setback, but overall, we're moving
Speaker 2: in the right direction.
Speaker 3: I agree, completely agree. I As I said at the top,
Speaker 3: this was a very refreshing day. My next question would be,
Speaker 3: how do you go about filling these fields?
Speaker 2: Right? I think what I do? I think I go
Speaker 2: with the two points lists. So if there's one hundred
Speaker 2: and twenty spots, let's say the first seventy could be
Speaker 2: filled from players from the previous year who got their
Speaker 2: eligibility right. They're exempt, fully exempt into the next year,
Speaker 2: so one hundred and twenty spots. However, many of those
Speaker 2: first seventy players decide to sign up for that event,
Speaker 2: they're registered. After that, you got fifty spots, and I'm
Speaker 2: filling them with the highest ranking in this secondary list,
Speaker 2: which basically is a ranking system of previous year Korn
Speaker 2: Fairy Tour. It's the weakest events on the PGA Tour
Speaker 2: potentially plus some of the strongest events on the Corn
Speaker 2: Fairy Tour. And you have that eligibility list constantly updating,
Speaker 2: so that you know you have a playoff list, eligibility
Speaker 2: list constantly in flux, constantly bringing up the youngest talent.
Speaker 2: I think that's the way I would probably go about it.
Speaker 2: The only other way I can think of as doing
Speaker 2: it with like OWGR. But I think that introduces some
Speaker 2: complexity and potentially some antitrust. I'm not a lawyer, but
Speaker 2: maybe you don't want to get more involved with OWGR.
Speaker 3: That is a way to do it, though, I mean,
Speaker 3: I think this is actually like kind of brilliant in
Speaker 3: the sense of like they have this opportunity to distance
Speaker 3: themselves from the owgr and potential like legal ramifications of
Speaker 3: that as well. I think this is like an unbelievable opportunity.
Speaker 3: This might be the biggest opportunity outside of just we
Speaker 3: aren't going to just hemorrhage our top players, is that
Speaker 3: you finally have the excuse to really reform how the
Speaker 3: Corn Fairy Tour and.
Speaker 1: The PGA Tour interact.
Speaker 3: With this moment, you know, we have been stuck and
Speaker 3: this is like the thing that probably worries me the
Speaker 3: most about handing back the keys to the leadership that
Speaker 3: has their entire lives have been around appeasing player one
Speaker 3: hundred on the PGA Tour.
Speaker 1: That's literally what their incentives are.
Speaker 3: If I am the standout collegiate player, if I just
Speaker 3: Sam Sam Bennett, I just won the USAM how do
Speaker 3: we create a system that Sam Bennett can be up
Speaker 3: in these big events if he plays well. If he
Speaker 3: plays well, he can be up in these big events
Speaker 3: as fast as we possibly can get him up there.
Speaker 3: And the biggest opportunity to me with this whole thing
Speaker 3: centers around reforming how the Corn Faery Tour and the
Speaker 3: bottom tier of the PGA Tour interact and how these
Speaker 3: players get up to the top exactly.
Speaker 2: And I think that the system that I'd be advocating
Speaker 2: for here would be pretty simple. So you know, maybe
Speaker 2: a win in a corn Fairy Tour event gives you,
Speaker 2: like whatever, twenty five points, which might be equivalent to
Speaker 2: a T ten, and some PGA Tour events which would
Speaker 2: be twenty five points, So you're kind of comparing apples
Speaker 2: to apples. And then at any given point, you could
Speaker 2: look at the eligibility list and it's the top's going
Speaker 2: to mostly be the top players on the PGA Tour, right,
Speaker 2: But once you start to get to seventy two, one
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty five, you're in that range that's going
Speaker 2: to be updating pretty often. And then a player gets
Speaker 2: into it, a Memorial gets into Genesis, plays well and
Speaker 2: earns playoff points. Like there would be a way to
Speaker 2: configure the system so that it's influx constantly elevating talent,
Speaker 2: and I think the cleanest way to do that is
Speaker 2: to separate the idea of playoff qualification criteria and eligibility criteria.
Speaker 2: It does not have to be that all seventy players
Speaker 2: who make it to the postseason are fully exempt for
Speaker 2: the next year. That's a concept that doesn't have to stay.
Speaker 2: It shouldn't be relegation or postseason. There could be a
Speaker 2: middle ground.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree with that, and I think the biggest thing,
Speaker 3: like as of right now, and I would even extend
Speaker 3: it down to Canada and Latin America, these points all
Speaker 3: need to have some value and relate to each other.
Speaker 3: Maybe the point the FedEx Cup points don't relate in
Speaker 3: any way, and I'm fine, and I think that is fine.
Speaker 1: Those are your you know, your top tier that are
Speaker 1: only earned in specific events, as we've talked about.
Speaker 3: But every other point on a tour that you run,
Speaker 3: maybe not Champions Tour that should be just gone in general,
Speaker 3: but every other point that you earn on Latin America,
Speaker 3: Canada corn Ferry or this bottom tier of tour events,
Speaker 3: they need to relate.
Speaker 1: They should all be the same currency.
Speaker 2: Yes, And I would double down really hard on this
Speaker 2: concept that they should be separate, because, for example, you
Speaker 2: do not want to get in a situation where a
Speaker 2: top player like Rory McElroy plays those seventeen regular season
Speaker 2: events and then feels like, you know what, I need
Speaker 2: to keep playing to have my best chance of qualifying
Speaker 2: for the playoffs. You want to have that. The incentives
Speaker 2: have to be set up properly for the stars, So
Speaker 2: by keeping those separate, you're not mixing up. You aren't
Speaker 2: incentivizing the top players in the world to just play
Speaker 2: in as many events as possible. That waters down the product. Again,
Speaker 2: I think the clear example here is the NBA, who's
Speaker 2: dealing with the same thing, Like, how do you get
Speaker 2: the stars playing in all of the regular season?
Speaker 1: Explain that a little bit.
Speaker 2: There are a lot of analogies you can make for
Speaker 2: what the PGA Tour is facing. I think the NBA
Speaker 2: is actually probably the best one. It's a little different,
Speaker 2: like there's guaranteed money to the players, contracts are guaranteed
Speaker 2: and stuff. But overall, they have an eighty two game
Speaker 2: regular season and then a postseason. And a problem that
Speaker 2: the NBA has had is that some of the stars
Speaker 2: sit out a lot of the games, and it's not
Speaker 2: always the star's decision, like sometimes that's based on medical
Speaker 2: advice and that you should be resting your body. Point is,
Speaker 2: it's really hard to play all eighty two games if
Speaker 2: you're an NBA player, and it's probably hard to make
Speaker 2: the sell to those guys that those games are that impactful.
Speaker 2: So the NBA is getting out in front of it.
Speaker 2: You know, there's not even a Saudi backed irrational actor,
Speaker 2: as Jay Monahan would put it, and they're considering how
Speaker 2: to make their product better. They've done many things to
Speaker 2: actually move towards creating a better system of incentives. One
Speaker 2: of those things was performing how the lottery system works
Speaker 2: for draft picks. To incentivize teams to continue to compete,
Speaker 2: They've changed their playoff structure so that they are now
Speaker 2: two additional play in spots, so if you're the ninth
Speaker 2: or the tenth seed in your conference, you're still incentivized
Speaker 2: to keep playing. You don't want to be the seven
Speaker 2: or the eight seed now, so you're incentivized to get
Speaker 2: up into the sixth or the fifth seed. Like broader point,
Speaker 2: they have evaluated how can we make the system of
Speaker 2: incentives proper And they're even considering shrinking their schedule. From
Speaker 2: what I hear that that's not a leading contender for
Speaker 2: what they're going to do, but they may put in
Speaker 2: like a tournament in the middle of the season to
Speaker 2: substitute some games to make all of the games more
Speaker 2: elevated and for every game to have meaning. So I
Speaker 2: think again broader point here, you have to constantly be
Speaker 2: evaluating how you make all of your games meaningful. And
Speaker 2: if that system gets out of whack, then you got
Speaker 2: to rebuild it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And it's such an important point because this is not
Speaker 3: over once, this is instituted. This is not we've we've
Speaker 3: beaten live and even if liv goes away to borrow.
Speaker 3: The goal of the organization should never, should always be
Speaker 3: centered around how do we field the very best product,
Speaker 3: how do we make everything mean the most we possibly can,
Speaker 3: as opposed to the mentality of the last forty years
Speaker 3: has been how do we make number one hundred on
Speaker 3: the on the money list happy?
Speaker 2: Right? It just it just can't work that way. The
Speaker 2: system has to be set up so that every player
Speaker 2: understands how do I get to the best to be
Speaker 2: in the best player on the PGA Tour, and what
Speaker 2: are the incentives that are laid out in front of me?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 3: So with this, you know, obviously we've talked a great
Speaker 3: deal about the structure, Uh do you have You've talked
Speaker 3: about the All Star game, and uh, one of the
Speaker 3: one of the things that reminded me of your topic
Speaker 3: of All Star game is Tiger and Rory, the tm RW,
Speaker 3: the Tomorrow Group and their TGL which will be This
Speaker 3: was announced yesterday to kind of odd that it was
Speaker 3: announced the same day as this widespread sweeping reform of
Speaker 3: the PGA Tour. But there will be effectively all star
Speaker 3: competition all Star like competitions. It will be a screen
Speaker 3: golf league played on Monday nights of tour events and
Speaker 3: they will feature people like Roy McElroy and Tiger Woods.
Speaker 1: They will be a team event. Uh you know. This
Speaker 1: will be set up in partnership with the PGA Tour.
Speaker 3: I think this is a obviously this was created by
Speaker 3: Rory and Tiger another avenue for top players to make
Speaker 3: more money and also opens the door. I think this
Speaker 3: is like, you know, just from a business side of things,
Speaker 3: a landmark thing opens the door for joint ventures effectively
Speaker 3: with the PGA Tour and for profit profit ventures backed
Speaker 3: by players. Really, you know, like this is you have
Speaker 3: an idea, bring it to the tour and you can
Speaker 3: do it in partnership. This has always been a closed
Speaker 3: shop and this is a landmark, you know, in terms
Speaker 3: of where the tour goes and the things that are
Speaker 3: attached to the tour. I think it's a landmark, you know, situation.
Speaker 2: Oh it's great. Finally some innovation, right, like get get
Speaker 2: creative with it, get nuts, Like if they're hitting crazy
Speaker 2: shots in these stadium like structures and crazy shots we've
Speaker 2: never seen before. Fine, like put something on Prime Time
Speaker 2: They're they're gonna. I think they're gonna do well. I
Speaker 2: don't know all the details here, but I think they're
Speaker 2: gonna do very well on this concept. And it's creative. Finally,
Speaker 2: like this is excellent by Rory and Tiger. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean you think about like a lot of companies,
Speaker 3: like the one of the ways Salesforce became a really
Speaker 3: big company. It was an open platform right where, which
Speaker 3: means that other entrepreneurs, other innovators could build things on
Speaker 3: their platform. Not all the innovation has to come from
Speaker 3: within the moat at Mpanavidra.
Speaker 1: And this is a great example.
Speaker 3: Allow innovation to happen outside of your bubble and then
Speaker 3: bring it in and profit from it. You know, not
Speaker 3: may that are nonprofit, right, but allow this to continue growth,
Speaker 3: Like all the growth ideas don't have to be your own,
Speaker 3: right if you allow for open you know, collaboration with
Speaker 3: other organizations. This is a really healthy way for the
Speaker 3: tour to grow their revenue, build loyalty with their top players,
Speaker 3: but also innovate, which is something that they've really struggled
Speaker 3: with and.
Speaker 2: I hate going there. But also a way to get
Speaker 2: money to the most marketable players on your tour like this,
Speaker 2: This is how you do it, not through some contrived
Speaker 2: thing like the PIP so go this direction, like put
Speaker 2: those players in the marketable players in a position to
Speaker 2: profit off of their awareness. You don't have to calculate
Speaker 2: some kind of awareness score.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 3: So now with the a as JMI hand, like say,
Speaker 3: irrational actor the live tour, do you how do you
Speaker 3: anticipate their response? So do you do you foresee you know,
Speaker 3: anything that they are going to do to attempt to
Speaker 3: kind of what would be their next chest move.
Speaker 2: I think it's just increasing the amount of money they're
Speaker 2: paying to some of these players and trying to pull
Speaker 2: them over. But now it's harder to pull some of
Speaker 2: those top guys off. And I do think what's important
Speaker 2: for the PGA Tour is to be involving all these
Speaker 2: stars and the decisions like to be having those players
Speaker 2: only meetings and for Hedeki Matsuyama to feel valued, your opinion,
Speaker 2: you are wanted here. So it's it's gonna be harder.
Speaker 2: But I think Live just has to keep throwing money
Speaker 2: at these guys and figure out a way that they're
Speaker 2: kicking off some of these players who have bad contracts.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, you cannot have a closed off system,
Speaker 2: so they need to figure out some way, which kind
Speaker 2: of goes against their business model to have players flowing
Speaker 2: between tours, whether it's like just the Asian Tour and
Speaker 2: Live Tour. You can't have a closed off system. All
Speaker 2: their world rankings are going to tank. So you can
Speaker 2: sign those guys up, but they'd have to be committing
Speaker 2: to never playing in majors unless they qualify another way.
Speaker 2: That's that's the decision that players are making at this point.
Speaker 3: It's why the tour's most you know, I think the
Speaker 3: thing where you can be the most bullish on is
Speaker 3: if they continue to push on this idea of the
Speaker 3: most competitive tour. That was their best chip to play
Speaker 3: against a organization with more money than them, like the
Speaker 3: ability to financially reward players. You know, they can't compete
Speaker 3: with Live. There and that's why it's so smart and
Speaker 3: why every decision they make has to center around does
Speaker 3: this fit with Rory's We are trying to build the
Speaker 3: tour for the young, ambitious players who want to be
Speaker 3: the best player in the world, because Live's system can't
Speaker 3: compete with that, right and the only way they could,
Speaker 3: I think is through the Asian Tour. But like you said,
Speaker 3: that would go against a lot of players contracts, Like
Speaker 3: how are they What are they going to say to
Speaker 3: Henrik Stinton, who obviously he won, but the guy's washed,
Speaker 3: He's not a not a top fight player anymore. What
Speaker 3: are they going to say to Lee Westwood? What are
Speaker 3: they going to say to James Piatt, you know, who
Speaker 3: signed a contract, like isn't one of the better players
Speaker 3: in the world. Like that's the that's the way they
Speaker 3: can fight back is through this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but again I'm agreeing with you that the PGA
Speaker 2: Tour what they can do offer the best competition, and
Speaker 2: we're really close to it. We're not there yet, though,
Speaker 2: and that you the point I want to make. We
Speaker 2: have to reform the playoffs like this Without that, I'm
Speaker 2: out on what happened this week. If they do that,
Speaker 2: I'm fully in, Like, you can't. We can't call this
Speaker 2: a success until you've figured out the whole schedule which
Speaker 2: has to culminate in a special championship with only a
Speaker 2: limited number of players, like eight to twelve.
Speaker 1: So I'm with you.
Speaker 2: That's the PGA Tour's best. That's the hand that they
Speaker 2: can play. They haven't they they've moved towards playing it,
Speaker 2: but they haven't fully played it. We have to see that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I mean, I will say this, like the
Speaker 3: big ideas are easy. The easiest thing is the big ideas,
Speaker 3: And what concerns me is really the small details, the
Speaker 3: little things like what and I think the Veedex Cup
Speaker 3: playoffs are really a big part of it, but like
Speaker 3: the the minutia of how guys get into fields, how
Speaker 3: people qualify, like all these little d tails are the
Speaker 3: things that are going to make or break this. And
Speaker 3: I think there's a lot of celebrating and I think
Speaker 3: that it is important because you know, it's there is
Speaker 3: a right to celebrate, but it's not over yet. This
Speaker 3: is we have you know, if you use another sports analogy,
Speaker 3: we've won the we've won the division, and now we're
Speaker 3: going to the playoffs. There's a celebration after winning the division,
Speaker 3: but this is not done yet, and they need to
Speaker 3: do a lot of work, a lot of hard work
Speaker 3: on these minute details in order to make sure that
Speaker 3: this is the smashing success that it could be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so real quickly on that. If we were talking
Speaker 2: to Jamian right now or the commissioner Rory McIlroy. Part
Speaker 2: of I think their hang up is tying a lot
Speaker 2: of this playoff criteria to eligibility, Like they also announced
Speaker 2: now that if you qualify for the Tour Championship, you're
Speaker 2: gonna have a two year exemption. Like I think we
Speaker 2: need to get away from this necessity to tie eligibility
Speaker 2: and playoff criteria together. Like this is what concerns me
Speaker 2: right now. You're saying thirty players are going to be
Speaker 2: exempt for two years and you're also going to be
Speaker 2: playing in the Tour Championship. That is worrisome. I think
Speaker 2: we're potentially going to keep doing a Tour Championship that
Speaker 2: doesn't make sense and that doesn't have a lot of juice.
Speaker 2: How excited are people for the Tour Championship this weekend?
Speaker 3: Like, I bet it should be a snochal think about
Speaker 3: any other golf league or any other professional sports league
Speaker 3: that's last game of the season is like the one
Speaker 3: that gets the most poked fun.
Speaker 2: Of Imagine imagine waking up in whatever, checking Twitter, checking
Speaker 2: the newspaper and seeing, oh, Patrick Cantley is playing Rory today,
Speaker 2: Like that would be fun. Let's have an eight person
Speaker 2: match play, that'd be awesome. So, again, huge win for
Speaker 2: the PGA Tour this week. They're moving the right direction.
Speaker 2: We need this final piece to be checked off for
Speaker 2: me to be fully on board with everything that they're doing.
Speaker 2: So I'm steven on that vision, flexible in some of
Speaker 2: the details.
Speaker 3: Exemptions should be the most coveted thing that you can
Speaker 3: get win.
Speaker 1: Exemptions shouldn't exist.
Speaker 3: Shouldn't get an exemption for winning Bermuda, shouldn't get an
Speaker 3: exemption for winning John Deere, shouldn't get an exemption for.
Speaker 1: Winning The Travelers.
Speaker 3: In my opinion, shouldn't get an exemption for making the
Speaker 3: Tour Championship. We've seen friend of the Pod Roberto Castro,
Speaker 3: make the Tour Championship not retain his card the next
Speaker 3: year two times. This is not You know, seasons are aberrations, right,
Speaker 3: you know, so many times a player has a down
Speaker 3: year and then a great year right after you know,
Speaker 3: you know, great years can pop up. You can string
Speaker 3: together eight hot weeks. You can string together one good
Speaker 3: week and make the Tour championship if that one good
Speaker 3: week comes at the right time. You cannot give out
Speaker 3: exemptions like giving out a two year exemption should be
Speaker 3: the most like valued currency on the PGA Tour. And
Speaker 3: once again, exemptions, the idea of exemptions go completely against
Speaker 3: the vision of we are trying to build a tour
Speaker 3: for young, ambitious players who want to be the best
Speaker 3: players in the world, because that those exemptions block the
Speaker 3: young players coming up and having spots to play. It
Speaker 3: blocks the free flow that you need in order to
Speaker 3: get young players that are the Cameron Youngs of tomorrow
Speaker 3: up as quickly as possible.
Speaker 2: Right and I think again, to build on that, we're there.
Speaker 2: The infrastructure is now laid that you don't have to
Speaker 2: do that. If you have these fourteen events that are
Speaker 2: the only ones giving out playoff points, you're not going
Speaker 2: to have some of these names get filtered through to
Speaker 2: the Tour championship because they picked off weak fields. Like
Speaker 2: now we're in a place where we can eliminate that
Speaker 2: let's implement it only playoff points for those fourteen events,
Speaker 2: revised playoff structure, and now you have a season that
Speaker 2: makes sense and you have the best players in the
Speaker 2: world coming together to play meaningful golf.
Speaker 3: All right, I think that's a great spot to stop. Joseph,
Speaker 3: thank you again. People can find your writing at on
Speaker 3: substack Finding the Edge. You also do analytics consulting for
Speaker 3: high end golfers, so anybody that's interested in that can
Speaker 3: contact you.
Speaker 1: What how do they contact you for that?
Speaker 2: You can reach out to me on Twitter at Joseph
Speaker 2: Lamanya l A m A g NA, my emails on
Speaker 2: my substack as well. But I think the yeah, schedule
Speaker 2: optimization maybe has ventured into the PGA Tour hopefully taken
Speaker 2: some of the ideas. So Andy, if you want to
Speaker 2: co own a little schedule optimization business for the PGA Tour,
Speaker 2: I'm in all right.
Speaker 3: Well, you know we'll see the optimization will be limited
Speaker 3: if if they if they don't give up playoff points
Speaker 3: for everything, but if they do, if they continue to
Speaker 3: do that, optimization will give give a big edge to
Speaker 3: anybody that's looking to get it. You know, I didn't
Speaker 3: ever think about Sugjay as a manipulator.
Speaker 2: But he is Oh no, that's not my message.
Speaker 3: So all right, Jesseph, thank you so much for coming
Speaker 3: on and we'll talk to you soon and have a
Speaker 3: Hopefully this goes to the right direction and you really
Speaker 3: I hope you really enjoy.
Speaker 1: The Tour Championship this weekend.
Speaker 2: I can't wait.
Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to another edition of the Frida
Speaker 3: Egg Podcast. Today's episode was edited by the great Meg Atkins.
Speaker 1: Thank you Meg.
Speaker 3: A quick reminder, our pro shop is fully stocked and loaded.
Speaker 3: Next week we will be having a Labor Day sale,
Speaker 3: so starting kind of early next week, I think we'll
Speaker 3: probably do an automatic discount, So visit proshop dot thefridagg
Speaker 3: dot com and keep an eye out.
Speaker 1: Next week for our Labor Day sale.
Speaker 3: Thank you, and we will be back early next week
Speaker 3: with another episode of the Friday