Speaker 1: It's the son of which podcast. I'm your host Claude Harman.
Speaker 1: This week solo episode of the pod. I am back
Speaker 1: on the road currently in Adelaide, Australia for Lives in
Speaker 1: Saudi last week Underneath the Lights, but just kind of
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about the off season. I mean, just
Speaker 1: like the players, I got an off season and just
Speaker 1: want to kind of talk through some of the stuff
Speaker 1: that I did on my off season, which is always
Speaker 1: good to kind of recharge, live a normal life, get
Speaker 1: off the road. I think I did twenty two weeks
Speaker 1: on the road last year or so it's always nice
Speaker 1: to have an off season. One of the big things
Speaker 1: I did off season was I went to the PJ
Speaker 1: Merchandise Show, which is always, I think, a really interesting
Speaker 1: kind of state of where professional golf is. And I
Speaker 1: was really impressed with the crowds that I saw up
Speaker 1: in Orlando. I think there were some big manufacturers that
Speaker 1: came back to the PGA show and you kind of
Speaker 1: get a good buzz of kind of finger on the
Speaker 1: pulse of what's going on people, and I saw a
Speaker 1: lot of people really excited about golf. One of the
Speaker 1: big things I think I saw at the PGA show
Speaker 1: was It seems like there was a lot of tech,
Speaker 1: a lot of simulator tech. Obviously, TGL launched in the
Speaker 1: off season, and yeah, I watched some of it and
Speaker 1: I liked it. I liked what I saw. I thought
Speaker 1: the venue looks amazing down there in Palm Beach Gardens.
Speaker 1: I thought the way it looked on television was really
Speaker 1: really cool. I know they're having some issues with the
Speaker 1: technology and stuff like that, but I do think that
Speaker 1: there is a place for that kind of golf. And
Speaker 1: I don't know how many people are watching or what
Speaker 1: other people are thinking, but I liked it. I thought
Speaker 1: it was interesting, the team concept of it. I talked
Speaker 1: to Adam Scott in November. He was in Dubai. I
Speaker 1: was in Dubai. He was doing some practice at my
Speaker 1: academy and got to catch up with him and we
Speaker 1: talked about it and got to watch him play on
Speaker 1: his TGL team. You know, over the last three years,
Speaker 1: Live has made the move to go to team golf.
Speaker 1: And find it interesting that the PGA Tour is going
Speaker 1: to the same thing. Yeah, it's in a simulator, but
Speaker 1: it's cool. I mean, I think the guys really they
Speaker 1: look like they like it. I saw Matt Fitzpatrick at
Speaker 1: the Grove down in Jupiter a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: and he had played in the TGL, and DJ and
Speaker 1: I were there. We were asking him about it and
Speaker 1: what he thought about it, and so I do think
Speaker 1: there is a place for that, and I think Lives
Speaker 1: has shown that team golf has a place. It's fun,
Speaker 1: and I think the guys you've watched on the TGL broadcast,
Speaker 1: to me, they look like they're having fun. And that's
Speaker 1: always been one of the things that I think has
Speaker 1: been hard for a lot of people to understand that
Speaker 1: haven't been, you know, a part of Live. I think,
Speaker 1: you know, it's twenty twenty five and everybody has talked
Speaker 1: about it. I've talked about it, and you know, I
Speaker 1: think everybody's tired of talking about it. But the team
Speaker 1: stuff is fun and it has been fun over the
Speaker 1: last three years for those of us that have been
Speaker 1: on Live and have been part of kind of a team.
Speaker 1: You know, the practice round, the way that the players travel,
Speaker 1: the way the players practice together and play together and
Speaker 1: hang out together. So in that respect, I think it's
Speaker 1: been cool to watch TGL kind of have that same
Speaker 1: concept and I think they're taking some of their cues,
Speaker 1: you know, from Live, which, hey, imitation is very flattering.
Speaker 1: So I think Team Golf is here to stay. I
Speaker 1: think it's here to stay on Live. I think it's
Speaker 1: here to stay in TGL and we'll see where it goes.
Speaker 1: But at the PJ Merchandise Show, I saw a lot
Speaker 1: of simulator tech. It seems like every simulator company is
Speaker 1: coming up with some sort of putting articulated floor, kind
Speaker 1: of where the floor can move, where you can put
Speaker 1: a monitor in the ceiling and kind of show you
Speaker 1: the line of the putt platform. Golf is a new
Speaker 1: company that I started doing some work with. They're going
Speaker 1: to be putting in some of their units in my
Speaker 1: academy in Dubai and in Thailand, and they've got an
Speaker 1: articulating surface so you can hit balls and the floor
Speaker 1: moves different lives uphill, downhill, side hill, something that's been
Speaker 1: very difficult for a lot of people to simulate if
Speaker 1: you practice on a driving range. So that tech is
Speaker 1: really cool, and it seems like every single company now,
Speaker 1: simulator wise, is coming up with some sort of moveable
Speaker 1: floor for putting, which, again we as golf instructors and
Speaker 1: as golfers, you're always trying to find a way to
Speaker 1: simulate what's on the golf course. So if you are
Speaker 1: in a simulator setting, having that type of movement to
Speaker 1: where you can see how the putts move. I've always
Speaker 1: thought that putting from an instruction standpoint, and we've been
Speaker 1: part of the problem as instructors, has been kind of
Speaker 1: taught backwards, right. We teach stroke first and then then
Speaker 1: work on feel. And I try with a lot of
Speaker 1: players now that are that are starting out juniors, beginning golfers,
Speaker 1: and even competitive golfers, is hey, let's not just go
Speaker 1: to mechanics first. Let's go ahead and look at what
Speaker 1: your feel is like onlaw pots, what your perception of
Speaker 1: break and speed, and how you're matching the line to
Speaker 1: the speed. I think that's huge, and I think all
Speaker 1: the companies out there are coming up with products that
Speaker 1: are going to allow golfers, whether they're in a home situation,
Speaker 1: whether they're in an academy or a studio type situation,
Speaker 1: lesson type situation, there is products out there. There are
Speaker 1: products available that are going to help that. So I
Speaker 1: saw a lot of that at the PGA show. I
Speaker 1: got to spend some time with Greg Rose and Dave Phillips,
Speaker 1: both from TPI, co founders of the titles Foremust Institute.
Speaker 1: It's always a great opportunity for me to catch up
Speaker 1: with them. I've had them on the pod and kind
Speaker 1: of pick their brains on where they see things going.
Speaker 1: There seems to be a lot of companies out there
Speaker 1: right now trying to do three D tech with just
Speaker 1: your camera, sports Box AI. I mean they're on the
Speaker 1: broadcast now on PGA Tour. It's an app you can
Speaker 1: put on your phone and kind of film yourself and
Speaker 1: then it puts mark on your body stuff. So I
Speaker 1: think we are going to see more of that, more
Speaker 1: tools for the average golfer to be able to say, Okay,
Speaker 1: let me video myself and use technology, use AI to
Speaker 1: see kind of what my body's doing. I think they've
Speaker 1: got to work some of the tech out, and I
Speaker 1: think they're trying to figure out how accurate it is.
Speaker 1: But my view on technology for golfers is I think
Speaker 1: there are a lot of people. When I go to
Speaker 1: these PGA merchandise shows and we look at new tech,
Speaker 1: it's always funny to me that within the instruction community
Speaker 1: you'll see other instructors at the PGA show talking about
Speaker 1: various products, talking about new technology, and a lot of
Speaker 1: times it's a lot of guys and people arguing over
Speaker 1: the tech. Who's got the right tech, who's got the
Speaker 1: best tech. Their tech doesn't work, their measurements don't work.
Speaker 1: I look at technology and I think that technology can
Speaker 1: help the majority of golfers get better. I think launch
Speaker 1: monitor technology, I think three D technology. I think all
Speaker 1: of the tech out there in some way can help
Speaker 1: golfers get better. So I think we are going to
Speaker 1: continue to see that. I think we are probably just
Speaker 1: at the beginning of AI and what AI can do
Speaker 1: in golf, what it can do for golf instruction, what
Speaker 1: it can do for golf diagnostic technology. So I'm really
Speaker 1: excited to kind of see where that goes. But it's
Speaker 1: always fun for me to just walk around the show
Speaker 1: and see what's out there. The companies that I work with, Cobrapuma,
Speaker 1: got to spend some time in their booths looking at
Speaker 1: all their new product and listen, if you listen to
Speaker 1: the podcast, you know that I'm a Cobrapuma guy. But
Speaker 1: when you get to see all the products from whatever manufacturer,
Speaker 1: you're associated with, from whatever clothing company that you're associated with.
Speaker 1: For me, it's always fun to kind of talk to,
Speaker 1: you know, the guys that are designing the clubs, the
Speaker 1: people that are designing the clothing. So I think Cobrapuma
Speaker 1: is doing a really, really good job. I think they've
Speaker 1: got some really innovative tech. Their new driver. You've heard
Speaker 1: me talk about it. I really like it. It's fast
Speaker 1: scene players put it in the bag, and then they're
Speaker 1: three D printing with their irons. Kyle Westmoreland, who I've
Speaker 1: had on the pod before, he just won with their
Speaker 1: iron on the corn Ferry, and I think that technology
Speaker 1: I'm excited to see. You know what that could look like.
Speaker 1: Is there a world if the companies can three D
Speaker 1: print irons? Is there a world maybe five ten years
Speaker 1: from now, where you, as a player just are able
Speaker 1: to go online and say, Okay, this is what I
Speaker 1: want my iron to look like. Do I want offset?
Speaker 1: Do I want it to be more of a blade?
Speaker 1: Do I want it to be more game improvement, more
Speaker 1: top line less top line? What shape do I like
Speaker 1: in my Iron? So I think, just like I said
Speaker 1: about AI, I think we're scratching the surface of what
Speaker 1: building a golf club and building an iron could look
Speaker 1: like down the road, and I think Cobra he's kind
Speaker 1: of at the forefront of that. And I've got their
Speaker 1: three D iron in my bag. I love it. It's
Speaker 1: kind of got a blade looking, kind of old school
Speaker 1: iron look to it, but the tech involved in it
Speaker 1: with where you can hit it on the face, the forgiveness,
Speaker 1: I think all of that is we're just touching the surface.
Speaker 1: So it's going to be cool to see where that goes.
Speaker 1: On the Puma side, Puma's shoe company first and foremost,
Speaker 1: and I think Puma's got some really really cool stuff
Speaker 1: coming out, kind of some retro old school Puma golf shoes.
Speaker 1: So excited to see all of that stuff. Later this year,
Speaker 1: got to hang out with Steve Malbone from Malbon Golf,
Speaker 1: who you know, he's he's a friend. I think he's
Speaker 1: doing some really cool stuff. We kind of talked about
Speaker 1: all the stuff that they're doing with Jason Day and
Speaker 1: all the craziness in what surrounds kind of the stuff
Speaker 1: that they're trying to do in the golf space. And
Speaker 1: I think we're in an interesting place in kind of
Speaker 1: golf fashion as well. I think, you know, I think
Speaker 1: there's space for everybody, and I think there are a
Speaker 1: lot of cool new companies and I think it's going
Speaker 1: to make the bigger companies adapt and look at trends
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. So I think I saw more
Speaker 1: influencers at the PJ Merchandi Show as many influencers and
Speaker 1: people in that space as I did just regular golf instructors,
Speaker 1: regular PGA pros. You know, normally when you go to
Speaker 1: the PGA Merchant Show, merchandise show, it's khakis, it's blue blazers,
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's very much old school. But this
Speaker 1: year it seemed like there's just big armies of social
Speaker 1: media people walking around. And I think that's a trend.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think the YouTube golf stuff is here
Speaker 1: to stay. Like I said, I'm down here in Adelaide
Speaker 1: at the Live event and today Rick Shields was out.
Speaker 1: He signed a big deal with Live. You know, YouTube extraordinaire.
Speaker 1: It's got a huge channel, huge following, and he's now
Speaker 1: doing content for Live. We've seen the PGA Tour do that.
Speaker 1: We've seen the PGA Tour do their content creator. The
Speaker 1: pg Tour has hired influencers to kind of come out
Speaker 1: on tour to be a part of what they're doing.
Speaker 1: And I think that is here to stay. But you
Speaker 1: could just see it at the PGA show. You just
Speaker 1: see these armies of content creators just walking around with
Speaker 1: their videographers and sound people and so listen. I think
Speaker 1: the golf space is big. I think there's room for
Speaker 1: all of it. And I think you are seeing. You're
Speaker 1: seeing the manufacturers get more involved with YouTubers and influencers.
Speaker 1: You're seeing clothing companies do that, and now you're seeing
Speaker 1: tours do that. You're seeing the PGA tour do that.
Speaker 1: You're seeing live and I think that's here to stay.
Speaker 1: You're going to see that on the LPGA as well.
Speaker 1: I think they're trying to find a way to get
Speaker 1: more eyeballs in a non traditional way. I think the
Speaker 1: way that all of you listening to the podcast. Everybody
Speaker 1: consumes their content differently. Everybody has a way in which
Speaker 1: they like to produce their content or absorb their content,
Speaker 1: and I think the content creators right now, I mean,
Speaker 1: we've never been in a time to where it's easier
Speaker 1: to produce content. So if that's something you're interested in,
Speaker 1: I think it's here to stay, and I think we
Speaker 1: are going to see more of that. And I had
Speaker 1: a pretty extensive talk about that with Rick Shields today
Speaker 1: about what he's trying to do, what you know Live
Speaker 1: wants him to do, and that's happening on the PGA
Speaker 1: Tour as well. At Waste Management over the weekend we
Speaker 1: saw basically, I mean, you couldn't look at your social
Speaker 1: media feed if you're a golfer and not see somebody
Speaker 1: in the influencer social media space at Waste Management. The
Speaker 1: PGA Tour, I think has done a great job at that.
Speaker 1: They've got their sixteenth hole, their stadium, and it seemed
Speaker 1: like that was kind of the melting pot for all
Speaker 1: of the stars people outside the golf space that love golf.
Speaker 1: They're hitting shots, they're trying things, and then all the
Speaker 1: influencers and all the content creators are are at that
Speaker 1: as well. So again, that's not going anywhere. That is
Speaker 1: here to stay. One of the other crazy things that
Speaker 1: happened in the offseason Noah Kent finalist in the US Am.
Speaker 1: He'll play in the Masters and the US Open this year.
Speaker 1: He was at the University of Iowa, made the decision
Speaker 1: to go into the transfer portal, And for those of
Speaker 1: you listening in America college sports right now, it is
Speaker 1: absolutely crazy with all of the nil stuff, with all
Speaker 1: of the money that are being paid to now college
Speaker 1: athletes and college golfers are in that same boat. Now.
Speaker 1: There is a big shift in college golf right now
Speaker 1: to where the NCAA is reducing team and squad size
Speaker 1: if down to kind of eight nine, and I think
Speaker 1: a lot of the college coaches are kind of scrambling.
Speaker 1: So Noah, who I've had on the pod, made the
Speaker 1: decision to go into the transfer portal lead the University
Speaker 1: of Iowa, and it was just crazy the amount of
Speaker 1: offers from schools and what schools are now able to offer.
Speaker 1: And that is the wild wild West right now. I
Speaker 1: don't think college golf coaches ever envisioned time to where
Speaker 1: college athletes would be getting paid, that they could pay
Speaker 1: college athletes. College athletes could then say listen, I want
Speaker 1: to move, and another program saying hey, listen, we've got
Speaker 1: some money, we want you to come. And I think
Speaker 1: that's new. And I think everybody in college golf on
Speaker 1: the playing side, the players and the universities, the coaches,
Speaker 1: everybody who's trying to figure out where and how we
Speaker 1: navigate this kind of new world. But college athletes now
Speaker 1: in America that play college sports, specifically on the golf side,
Speaker 1: they're getting paid. Now, they're getting paid to play. And
Speaker 1: I don't have a problem with that, I really don't.
Speaker 1: I think it's been a little bit upside down. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you look at college football in America, I mean,
Speaker 1: if you look at the number of college football coaches
Speaker 1: that are making over ten million dollars a year, and
Speaker 1: historically the athletes, it's been illegal to pay them. I
Speaker 1: mean it's been illegal for college athletes who are on
Speaker 1: scholarships to get a job, to get a part time job.
Speaker 1: So I can remember when Tiger was at Stanford, he
Speaker 1: got taken out to dinner by Arnold Palmer, and Arnold
Speaker 1: Palmer paid for the dinner, and it was it turned
Speaker 1: into a really really big deal. The NCAA was talking
Speaker 1: about sanctions. Tiger had to write a check I think,
Speaker 1: to Arnold Palmer for the dinner and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So those days are over. So college athletes now across
Speaker 1: the board. But in golf, if you're good, you can
Speaker 1: get paid. You can get paid to go to school,
Speaker 1: and you can get paid basically a salary to play
Speaker 1: college golf. So Noah kind of made the decision to
Speaker 1: leave Iowa and ended up it went to a bunch
Speaker 1: of different schools. I was part of that process, and
Speaker 1: we looked at a lot of different programs. It was
Speaker 1: like a two week period where I think I was
Speaker 1: basically every single day on the way to work or
Speaker 1: on the way home, I was talking to a college
Speaker 1: golf coach about their program, about the fit and stuff,
Speaker 1: and ultimately Noah did a lot of visits and chose
Speaker 1: the University of Florida J. C. Deacon and the Gators.
Speaker 1: They won the national championship a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: Jac has been on the pod. Noah's a Florida kid
Speaker 1: from Naples, and so that's where he's going to play
Speaker 1: his college golf. So the interesting thing is Noah played
Speaker 1: in the fall for Iowa, and you can't play for
Speaker 1: two schools in the same calendar year. So even though
Speaker 1: he's at the University of Florida now as part of
Speaker 1: the University of Florida Gator golf program, can't play. So
Speaker 1: that was a big deal for trying to figure out
Speaker 1: what we were going to do. He's going to play
Speaker 1: as a finalist of the US Am you get into
Speaker 1: the Masters and the US Open. So Noah will play
Speaker 1: in the Masters, He'll play in the US Open, but
Speaker 1: he isn't going to play any tournaments in college golf
Speaker 1: in the spring. He can play on the team, can
Speaker 1: practice with the team, he can work out with the team,
Speaker 1: he can qualify with the team. He just can't compete
Speaker 1: for two schools in the same years. So the next
Speaker 1: time he'll be able to compete for the University of
Speaker 1: Florida is in the fall of twenty twenty five. So
Speaker 1: we're scrambling to try and figure out, Okay, what is
Speaker 1: that land look like from a competitive standpoint. I think
Speaker 1: we're going to try and look at having him do
Speaker 1: some of the Monday qualifiers for some of the Florida
Speaker 1: events on the PGA Tour. Is there a world where
Speaker 1: maybe he can get some invites, maybe Asia, maybe DP
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe even PGA Tour. I mean, that would
Speaker 1: be unbelievable if he could get a PGA Tour event.
Speaker 1: But it has just been fascinating to watch in a
Speaker 1: very very short period of time the landscape of college
Speaker 1: golf change literally overnight, and I don't know where we're
Speaker 1: going to go with this. I think it's just the
Speaker 1: infancy of paying college athletes and paying college golfers. Listen,
Speaker 1: whatever side of the fence you're on on that, I
Speaker 1: don't have a dog in that fight. But I don't
Speaker 1: have a problem with college athletes being paid. I really don't.
Speaker 1: I think it's the world we live in and it's
Speaker 1: going to be really interesting to see kind of where
Speaker 1: that goes as well. And then I'm back on the road.
Speaker 1: Did Saudi last week and Saudi for Live they played
Speaker 1: under under the lights. They played at night, which was
Speaker 1: a really it was cool, but I gotta be honest,
Speaker 1: it was a weird experience. I think everybody was coming
Speaker 1: to Saudi Arabia that's associated with Live, the players, the caddies,
Speaker 1: the coaches, all of us on the team side. You know,
Speaker 1: you're flying. I flew from Miami fifteen hours to Doha
Speaker 1: and stuff, so the time difference, but then you're playing
Speaker 1: at night, so it's a really weird experience because normally
Speaker 1: you get up first thing in the morning and you're
Speaker 1: getting to the golf course early. It was the complete opposite.
Speaker 1: So everybody was jet lagged. We were trying to get
Speaker 1: to the golf course kind of mid afternoonish. I was
Speaker 1: getting to the golf course around three four o'clock every day,
Speaker 1: which normally I'm getting to the golf course between six
Speaker 1: seven eight o'clock at the latest, but three o'clock at night,
Speaker 1: having some food and then going out. And everybody was
Speaker 1: trying to practice underneath the lights at night, so teeing
Speaker 1: off at like six thirty seven o'clock at night pro
Speaker 1: am time. One of the pro ams DJ played in
Speaker 1: Saudi is tea off time seven thirty at night. So
Speaker 1: the other part of that is we were getting back
Speaker 1: to the hotel after the round. You're trying to eat,
Speaker 1: we're getting back. I think the earliest I got back
Speaker 1: to the hotel for the week was around eleven o'clock
Speaker 1: to midnight. And then your jet lag, you're wide awake,
Speaker 1: You're trying to sleep, but then you realize you don't
Speaker 1: have to do anything the following day until you know,
Speaker 1: four or five o'clock in the afternoon. So it was
Speaker 1: a really interesting experience. But the experience of playing night
Speaker 1: golf it was cool. I don't think I'd want to
Speaker 1: do that all the time, but I think lives trying
Speaker 1: to innovate. I think that Lives trying to bring some
Speaker 1: different things, and I think the PGA Tour is trying
Speaker 1: to do that as well. So I think all the
Speaker 1: tours are trying to figure out in twenty twenty five
Speaker 1: how they can innovate the product. But I said this
Speaker 1: to someone at the PJ Merchandise Show, and I think,
Speaker 1: whether you like Live, whether you don't like Live, that's
Speaker 1: I mean, we can talk about that forever, and that's
Speaker 1: a personal choice. But five to seven years ago, I
Speaker 1: never heard anyone talk about the product, what the product
Speaker 1: was of professional golf. Professional golf was, what it was,
Speaker 1: the tours played, where they played, the tours played, the
Speaker 1: tournaments they played, and I never heard anyone talk about
Speaker 1: the fan experience, what the fans wanted, what the product was,
Speaker 1: how the product can could be better. And I think
Speaker 1: Live coming along has made everybody in professional golf say, Okay,
Speaker 1: what do the fans want, what are the fans don't want,
Speaker 1: and how can we make that experience better. So, if
Speaker 1: you're on the anti Live side and you think there
Speaker 1: are a lot of negatives associated with that, one of
Speaker 1: the positives is it is made all the tours kind
Speaker 1: of pivot and go, Okay, how can we make the
Speaker 1: experience better for the fans? And the way professional golf
Speaker 1: is being televised and packaged and brought to all of
Speaker 1: you that are listening that are golf fans is changing.
Speaker 1: It's changing on a regular basis. Five years ago, there
Speaker 1: was no PGA Tour. You right, there are no content
Speaker 1: creator tournaments. I mean, if someone told you ten years
Speaker 1: ago that at the Tour Championship on Wednesday of the
Speaker 1: FedEx Cup Tour Championship there would be an influencer golf
Speaker 1: tournament televised on Golf Channel, nobody would believe that. They'd say,
Speaker 1: get out of here. That's never gonna happen. So when
Speaker 1: there isn't competition sometimes it can lead to a lack
Speaker 1: of innovation. And I think one of the positive things
Speaker 1: over the last three or four years. It's very easy,
Speaker 1: in my opinion right now, to look at professional golf
Speaker 1: and it's just doom and gloom. You know, we hear
Speaker 1: that on a regular basis. It's just product is bad,
Speaker 1: viewership is bad, the fan viewings down, all of those things.
Speaker 1: But I think golf is evolving. Professional golf is evolving,
Speaker 1: and I think the way that we view golf and
Speaker 1: the way that we watch golfers play, I think you
Speaker 1: are going to see more and more of this content
Speaker 1: creator to where you have someone who is on YouTube,
Speaker 1: who has their channel, and who is spending time with
Speaker 1: the best players in the world. I think it's bringing
Speaker 1: the best players in the world closer to the fans
Speaker 1: in these type of settings. Again, I talked about it earlier.
Speaker 1: Rick Shields was out with the four Aces today filming
Speaker 1: something for Live that'll be probably dropping soon. But you
Speaker 1: never saw that, right, You never saw any of the tours.
Speaker 1: I mean the PGA Tour now will have the players
Speaker 1: say listen, we need you to do these things with
Speaker 1: these content creators, with these social media people, with these YouTubers,
Speaker 1: they are going to be at the tournament and it's
Speaker 1: another way to get the product out. So I think
Speaker 1: that's here to stay. Night golf. I think we're going
Speaker 1: back next year to do night golf. And it was fun.
Speaker 1: It was a different atmosphere once a year. I think
Speaker 1: I'm fine with it, and I liked it. It was fun.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the ball was hard to see in the sky.
Speaker 1: I think maybe they had some more lights but I
Speaker 1: think all the tours are trying to figure out a
Speaker 1: way to kind of merge all of the kind of
Speaker 1: things in twenty twenty five that are on social media
Speaker 1: and how you can merge them into professional golf. And
Speaker 1: then for Live, this is our biggest tournament of the
Speaker 1: year here in Adelaide. Rumors one hundred thousand tickets have
Speaker 1: been sold. Concerts every night. We just saw the exact
Speaker 1: same thing at Waste Management. So I think this is
Speaker 1: the biggest tournament by far that Live has and I've
Speaker 1: been down here for all of them and it's always
Speaker 1: great to come down to Australia. The Australian sports fans,
Speaker 1: the Australian golf fans are amazing and I can't wait
Speaker 1: for the tournament to start. It's going to be bigger
Speaker 1: this year than it was last year, and it was
Speaker 1: bigger last year than it was the year before which
Speaker 1: the first year, everybody that was on Live that came
Speaker 1: down here was just blown away by how crazy the
Speaker 1: fans are for golf in Australia and the golf course,
Speaker 1: you know, the Grange Golf It's not one of the
Speaker 1: superstore Australian sand belt golf courses, but the bunkering in
Speaker 1: this part of the world is second to none. It is,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, the best bunkering in golf. And the
Speaker 1: fact that they're going to play a professional golf tournament
Speaker 1: and showcase Australian golf and kind of the sand Belt
Speaker 1: kind of design and stuff. I'm here for it. I
Speaker 1: love it. It's hot down here. Last year Live came
Speaker 1: down to Australia in April, so they were going into fall.
Speaker 1: It's in the hundreds here. It's firm, it's fast, it's bouncy,
Speaker 1: and it is going to play very very lynxy and
Speaker 1: they are trying to put some water on the golf
Speaker 1: course to try and soften it, just to try and
Speaker 1: save it because of the heat. But I think the
Speaker 1: greens are going to get very very firm, they're going
Speaker 1: to get very very fast, and I think on Sunday
Speaker 1: it's going to be a shootout and there's going to
Speaker 1: be a lot of stuff going on. But this is
Speaker 1: Live's kind of flagship. To me, it's kind of like
Speaker 1: their Players Championship right Live doesn't have any majors. If
Speaker 1: I said this was like a major for Live, everybody
Speaker 1: would crush me. So this is like to me, it's
Speaker 1: like it feels like the players, right, it feels like
Speaker 1: this is one of the biggest tournaments. This is their
Speaker 1: biggest tournament of the year so far, and it's one
Speaker 1: that everybody you know that is associated with Live has
Speaker 1: marked on their calendar. And it's a fan favorite down here.
Speaker 1: I mean, the fans just come out and support this,
Speaker 1: very similar to the way that the fans come out
Speaker 1: and support Waste Management. You know, they have their watering
Speaker 1: hole here down in Adelaide for Live and Waste Management.
Speaker 1: Last week had the sixteenth hole. They're a purists that
Speaker 1: hate that. They're a purist that thinks that goes too far.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I like to watch it. So I
Speaker 1: do think that professional golf is changing. I think it's
Speaker 1: changing really right before our eyes, and I'm interested to
Speaker 1: see where the landscape and where we go in the future.
Speaker 1: We're already seeing this week in the last week or
Speaker 1: so and this week again USGA RNA trying to find
Speaker 1: a way and having a qualification system for the live
Speaker 1: players to play in some of these tournaments. So I
Speaker 1: think you're going to see more crossover. You hear all
Speaker 1: the rumors about what's going on with a merger. When
Speaker 1: will the two tours come together? Will they come together?
Speaker 1: What will that look like? That's above my pay grade.
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody knows what that's going to look like.
Speaker 1: But if the off season showed me one thing, it
Speaker 1: showed me that the professional golf landscape is changing. But
Speaker 1: as I've said before to everyone listening, professional golf is
Speaker 1: a very very very small, small part of golf. It
Speaker 1: really really is. It's a huge part of it. It's
Speaker 1: probably the biggest, most recognizable part of it because it's
Speaker 1: on TV, because of the PGA Tour and all the
Speaker 1: various tours all around the world. But the way that
Speaker 1: all of you listening consume and watch content and watch
Speaker 1: golf is changing, and I think all of the tours
Speaker 1: are scrambling to try and figure out how they keep
Speaker 1: up with that. What is the demand? What do you
Speaker 1: as the viewer, as the golfer, what do you want
Speaker 1: to see? And I think we've never been in a
Speaker 1: time where all of our voices are being heard. They're
Speaker 1: being heard by the tours, right They're definitely being heard
Speaker 1: by the PGA Tour. The PGA Tour is trying to
Speaker 1: pivot again. If five seven years ago you told me
Speaker 1: that there would be a team indoor golf league that
Speaker 1: Rory McElroy and Tiger Woods would be fronting, and on
Speaker 1: Tuesday Night it would be on ESPN and America, Scott
Speaker 1: van Pelt and all of the superstars that they have
Speaker 1: involved in this and they're bringing out to showcase it
Speaker 1: would be involved. I just don't think people would buy it.
Speaker 1: I just think they'd go nah. I mean, they're never
Speaker 1: going to do that. So I think there's a lot
Speaker 1: of different ways to consume content, and rather than look
Speaker 1: at all of the negatives about where a lot of
Speaker 1: people think the game is going, the state of the
Speaker 1: game and stuff like that, I try and look to
Speaker 1: the positives and say, Okay, we're getting more eyeballs on
Speaker 1: maybe some different ways of consuming golf content. Maybe we're
Speaker 1: looking at different ways of formatting professional golf. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but I think there was no competition. It was the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour that was it, and European Tour, Asian Tour.
Speaker 1: They weren't necessarily big players. It was the PGA Tour.
Speaker 1: And now I think there are alternatives, There are options,
Speaker 1: and there are a lot of different ways to consume,
Speaker 1: watch and ob all of the content that is out there,
Speaker 1: and I'm here for it. I've got a podcast. I
Speaker 1: continue to be blown away that I can be in
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia and someone who lives in Rio walked up
Speaker 1: to me and said, huge fan of the podcast. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you told me five years ago that would happen,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't believe you. So the golf Lands tape is changing.
Speaker 1: But focus on the positives that are positives for you
Speaker 1: as a as a consumer of golf content. Where you
Speaker 1: watch it, how you watch it, what you pay for.
Speaker 1: You have power you can vote with you know what
Speaker 1: you choose to watch. And there's a lot of content
Speaker 1: out there. There's a lot of great golf being played
Speaker 1: all over the world on a bunch of different tours.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of great young players. I got
Speaker 1: to watch Tom McKibben hit a lot of golf balls
Speaker 1: last week. I've known Tom. He made the choice to
Speaker 1: go to live. He's young. A lot of people are
Speaker 1: questioning that decision. I've known Tom a long time. He
Speaker 1: used to practic just at our place at my academy
Speaker 1: in Dubai. I've hosted him and he's practiced at my
Speaker 1: place in Florida. I think he's a bright star. I
Speaker 1: think he is part of this next wave of really
Speaker 1: good young players and we are going to continue to
Speaker 1: see them. And it's interesting the choice that Tom made
Speaker 1: to choose live over playing on the PGA Tour. He's
Speaker 1: one of the players that finished inside the top ten
Speaker 1: on DP World would get you automatic status to the
Speaker 1: PGA Tour. Matthew Pavaughan, who I've had on the pod,
Speaker 1: he did that, got to the PJ Tour one last year.
Speaker 1: We're seeing Thomas Dietree just winning waste Management. He played
Speaker 1: the majority of his golf even though he played college
Speaker 1: golf in America, played the majority of his golf in Europe.
Speaker 1: He's just one on the PGA Tour. So I think, again,
Speaker 1: it's easy to look at all the negatives. I think
Speaker 1: there are some negatives in professional golf right now, but
Speaker 1: there are positives, and there are a lot of them
Speaker 1: out there. And I've been saying this for three four years.
Speaker 1: You can choose to watch any tour that you want.
Speaker 1: Just because you're watching one tour doesn't mean that you're
Speaker 1: not a fan of the other. That there's some sort
Speaker 1: of litmus tests. You have to be a PGA tour person,
Speaker 1: you have to be a live person, all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of great golf all over the world
Speaker 1: on so many different platforms that you as a lover
Speaker 1: of golf, as someone that wants to watch golf, There's
Speaker 1: never been a better time for golf content. It's out there,
Speaker 1: you find it, and I'm excited to see where all
Speaker 1: of that goes. So just a little brief kind of
Speaker 1: what I've been doing. It's my podcast, so I can
Speaker 1: talk about that. We've got some really great guests coming up,
Speaker 1: and we're going to continue to try and give you
Speaker 1: as much great content as possible. Son of a Butch
Speaker 1: comes to you most every week. I try and get
Speaker 1: it out every week. My travel schedule sometimes that's tough,
Speaker 1: but be patient. And I continue to be blown away
Speaker 1: by how many people listen to the show. And I
Speaker 1: can't think all of you enough for making the podcast
Speaker 1: a success. Without you all listening, this doesn't happen. We
Speaker 1: will see you next week.