In this episode of The Links Golf Club Podcast, hosts Gregory, Cooper, and Chris recap Andrew Novak’s recent triumph and debate whether a gorilla could outperform 100 humans in golf. They discuss the upcoming events at Lake Merced and Industry Hills, and mention progress on community-led events. They also touch on major tournaments like the Zurich Classic and Chevron, preview the upcoming Byron Nelson event, and review PGA 2K25.
🔗 Links Mentioned in This Episode
– NYC and LA Community events released, Lake Merced Arbor Links, and Tree Farm go on sale soon (look out for announcement in the mulligan newsletter): https://www.linksdao.io/events
– Become a LinksDAO member:
https://links.golf
– [Members Only] Join Hillcrest Country Club in Kansas City
https://clubhouse.links.golf/hillcrest?section=initiation
– Hillcrest Progress Update #1: https://youtu.be/T387RPJIAws
– Restoring Hillcrest Trailer: https://youtu.be/r7C-lwpRKNo
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🏌️♂️ Tournament & Tour News
• Zurich Classic – Andrew Novak wins
https://www.cbssports.com/golf/news/patient-consistent-improvement-leads-andrew-novak-to-first-career-pga-tour-win-u-s-ryder-cup-contention/
• Zurich Classic Leaderboard
https://www.pgatour.com/leaderboard
• Chevron Championship heartbreak
https://x.com/NUCLRGOLF/status/1916612155899629718
• LIV Golf in talks with OWGR – Sportico
https://www.sportico.com/leagues/golf/2025/liv-golf-owgr-world-rankings-points-1234850399/
• NCAA Golf Predictions
https://www.nbcsports.com/golf/news/brentleys-bracketology-predicting-2025-ncaa-d-i-mens-golf-regional-fields
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🌐 Around the Golf Internet
• Gorilla vs. 100 Golfers Debate
https://x.com/mrsenorhill/status/1917014665483128891
• Augusta Divot Souvenir
Why cant I be so lucky? Just saw this online.
byu/MercFan4Life ingolf
• Pinehurst No. 4 Closing for Renovation
‘Difficult decision’: Pinehurst No. 4 to close for unexpected restoration
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🎮 What We’re Doing
• Coop’s PGA2k25 Power Rankings
https://x.com/coop_golf/status/1915614309729657145?s=12
– 2025 Goals Podcast
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00:00 Welcome and Weekly Highlights
01:52 Upcoming Events and Announcements
04:39 Zurich Classic Recap
13:45 Chevron Championship Drama
17:13 Byron Nelson Preview
22:19 President’s Cup and LIV Golf Updates
26:21 Speculating on Golf Resolutions
27:46 NCAA Selection Show Excitement
28:10 Georgia Tech’s Performance and Future
31:21 Gorilla vs. 100 Handicaps Debate
35:24 Augusta Grass Souvenir Ethics
38:46 Pinehurst Resort’s Decision
41:34 PGA 2K25 Game Review
43:25 Q1 Goals Update
49:28 Closing Remarks and Feedback Request
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] welcome back to Elise Golf Club Podcast Everyone a weekly conversation show about our wonderful club and the world of golf this week Andrew Novak redeemed himself we debate whether Gorilla could beat a 100 humans at golf and we check in on our goals to hold ourselves accountable and I got a feeling that some of us are off track hand up myself let’s get into that and a few other things along the way i am Gregory joined as always by Cooper and Chris gentlemen how are we feeling today feeling good it’s you know sun is shining flowers are blooming golf is being played it’s hard to be two down when when all of those three things are true it’s true it’s better than Prozac it’s going well yeah the uh the handicap’s dropping we’ve got regional groups popping up uh golfers are playing golf together um best time of the year we’re we’re we’re go going up i was stoked about March april’s been even better absolutely yeah this is the apex mountain of the year for sure we’ve already talked about this we’ve just gotten through a bunch of awesome golf stuff a lot of awesome NFL draft stuff obviously the M like it’s just it’s great and then baseball season’s in full swing it’s warm outside i want to have class outside i might like request from Chris if I can start working outside we’ll see we’ll see how that goes i’ll let y’all know but uh yeah let’s just dive into this pretty full week uh before we do though any plugs any announcements what should the people know yeah so let’s maybe talk events real quick before we get started so we mentioned last night for the first time we have added another signature event to the schedule Lake Merrced in San Francisco uh great course you know get a lot of a lot of press a lot of great pics taken of it uh after its recent Gilhands renovation uh looks absolutely mint looks amazing uh I have a couple friends that played it last year and had nothing but good things to say so that is officially added to the schedule for our Linkstyle Signature events it’s October 22nd so we’ve got a little time to plan ahead in case you want to travel in for it we’ll have more details uh on exactly when Spotth will open up when you can purchase Spot and all of that coming out later it is not live yet and we’ll give everyone plenty of advanced notice but really excited to get that added uh we’ve been working hard to round out the schedule with some West Coast love for West Coast members uh so really excited to have that on there as well and then I know we’ve got we’ve got some other spots at some communityled events is that right Goop yeah uh I was going to let Greg go first because of the schedule but I’m really stoked tomorrow you’ll be seeing in the mulligan um and posted that we are moving forward with LA’s regional first event uh of the community led events it’s going to be at Industry Hills on May 31st la shout out so we’ve got two big California events coming down the pipe um if you’re interested in that we will have the link on the events page up for you soon um and if you’re interested in hosting an event in your area let us know i know Greg you’ve got one coming up at uh you know one of my favorites here yeah Sweden’s Co i love We’re just like riding the wave of a momentum here with all the local groups we kicked them back off a couple weeks ago and in the census especially people are just like “Yeah I want to help i want to organize an event.” The fact that we have now you know two 16 person events one happening in New York one happening in LA and more to come uh is great and then as you mentioned Sweden’s Cove another you know could be 19 person event right now we have 16 people signed up uh going to meet out in the Sasquatch Valley uh in East Tennessee and we’re going to play all day golf uh if you’re interested check out links.golfevents and you can sign up for that there are a couple spots still available but there aren’t very many and we expect them to sell out just a $10 deposit it’s a communityled event you’ll pay at the course we’re not making any money off it we just want to get together and have a good time uh cool so yeah let’s uh let’s get started first we’re gonna just talk a little bit about great golfers playing great golf the Zurich as you all know from last week one of my favorite tournaments of the year I was glued to the television uh whether that be YouTube TV on my phone or my actual physical television pretty much the whole weekend i had that in the NFL draft going simultaneously andrew Novak he redeemed himself after losing in that playoff last week to Justin Thomas uh it’s great him and Ben Griffin won uh he did gain 1.98 strokes on the field overall most of that was from around the Greens another week two in a row where the winner actually lost off the tea to the field which is somewhat interesting given the distance conversation uh he was though better by pretty much every measure last week uh but he lost to Justin Thomas kind of ran to a buzzsaw there uh but uh he did win this week with his partner Ben Griffin so it’s mostly going to be about Andrew Novak but shout out to Ben Griffin too uh he was he’s now fourth in data golf points overall in the world uh calculations sort of a bunch of different things just to be able to stack rank golfers to sort of get away from the uh WGR industrial complex it’s a it’s a good measure just to kind of see where people are right now he’s fourth in that he’s sixth in the FedEx Cup standings he’s above Ludvig he’s above Colin Morawa uh both stalwarts in those list and he’s ninth currently in the RDER Cup standings above Kentley so top six obviously RDER Cup autoqualify ninth puts you in a conversation for kind of having to be talked about if someone’s asking Keegan you know who are you picking ninth puts you in that like you can’t be ignored so we’ll see how he goes uh super excited he’s had four top 10s in the last 20 events but he’s also missed seven cuts so there’s like kind of a two outcome player here uh guys I know you probably watched and recorded and rewatched and seen all the highlights of the Zurich because I know how important this event is to both of you uh what were your impressions what are your surprises uh anything that stands out from that event uh I I have to admit I did not watch the full thing or really do much of it at all uh I’m I’m ashamed to say uh I do love team golf just in general uh and I I like the format although you know maybe it’s representative that you know it wasn’t enough to kind of get me watching this weekend which had a lot of family stuff going on um but uh you know it doesn’t quite have the juice of a RDER Cup at President’s Cup with the you know country pride and everything not on the line or whatnot but y um still a lot of fun like the change of pace you know it’s fun to see something different than just the same old 72 hole stroke play event and yeah I mean Andrew Novak he’s he’s at least from my perspective I don’t know about you guys but like kind of came out of complete nowhere to be uh you know kind of garnering all those all those accolades at least currently that you were just listing off Greg so I mean we’ll see if it holds up it’s still very early but yeah he’s kind of shot onto the scene the past couple weeks and and has kind of forced himself to be part of the conversation which is which is cool i would love over the weekend just like “Sorry kids daddy’s watching an off field PGA Tour event in New Orleans at a Pete D course can’t take you to your thoughts we’re going to have to wait got to watch Eolf.” Uh I do have one question well let me get your thoughts Coop and I have one question about what would make this the type of event that y’all want to watch like obviously the reason why I like it it’s somewhat ironic you know I’m saying that I like it very much but I also I love New Orleans i love the golf course as an idea i’ve never played it uh and I love team events but maybe we can talk about what would make it better but Coupe did you pay attention at all to it over the weekend any thoughts i made a a concerted effort to try um I thought TPC Louisiana showed off i’m totally alone in this by the way i I really did i paid attention i looked at the the leaderboard i tried to tune in uh on Saturday and was like “Wait this doesn’t look right.” Um this is a broadcast of last year’s For the Rain Delay it took me longer than I’d like to admit to realize that i was like scores don’t don’t make sense i thought Rory and Shane were in a different position um but that was really what I was looking for was kind of the the buddy story uh with those two um so on Sunday later in the day uh when it came down to deciding what to watch that didn’t win out in my household um over starting The Walking Dead but I did see the last couple of holes um you know watch the finish kind of uh while scrolling on my phone and uh it it was interesting it was cool good to see you know Novak pull it off but uh the course looks great i’d love to get out there get down there sometime um and visit greg is Greg is personally offended that you disgusted by both show so as the as the head of the Zurich classic uh fan committee within Lynx what’s one thing that you would like to see started at the Zurich to actually get you to choose it over watching a 15-year-old show uh that ran on AMC when I was in you know just out of college um boy I don’t know i think uh the hype I mean you had the Grand Slam winner Rory in the mix until you know until Sunday i I think there’s not much you could do really to to to change my mind about that um I don’t know Chris do you have any any ideas yeah I think it’s a similar conversation like we like a lot of people were having around TGL a few months ago as well like I think it all comes down to stakes you know it’s like the Ryder Cup and then less so the President’s Cup but you know more than the Missouri Classic have stakes because of the you know country pride and because it has a lot of builtup history and it’s really hard to replicate that and I mean that you know there’s I think there’s FedEx Cup points attached to the event and you know it’s a typical PJ tour event and all that but it it’s hard to get too hyped up for it at least personally when it doesn’t have some of that bigger stuff on the line and I think most of the players even you know consider it an exhibition right uh so it’s tough to say what you change to make it that way you know I think you kind of have to build up some history or like have some have have some duels develop you know kind of two pairs that you know play it every year and go up against some other you know pairs every year and and develop a little rivalry or something um I mean the other big thing is a lot of the big a lot of the top name players aren’t playing in it right but obviously yeah it brings down the the volume a few notches very few named brands on that leaderboard some social media chirping like that some rivalry i agree Chris would be really cool that being said if you look at the numbers um Live Mexico versus the Zurich I think it was 15 times the viewership so there it doesn’t count the app though it doesn’t count the app taylor wasn’t playing millions were watching there’s an asterisk um you know you got to you got to make sure to look out for those exceptions um but it just still shows the dominance right of of even these off-week events over anything else that’s out there yeah for sure and I think like to to kind of both of your point my dream would be to have a situation where they do four of these a year it’s the same partners and you do like you said build some stakes around that but you also get to follow the teams cuz I I was shocked by I kind of started liking TGL’s a bit but I was shocked by how much I enjoyed it without the stakes just because you kind of started to like feel the teams and they each had their own little culture and even though it’s like a joke that we’re talking about Chris you know celebrating in downtown Atlanta after Atlanta GC1 like you know it’s you can’t start with no history and have it immediately you have to build it but I think there just needs to be a lot more intentionality on how people can care about it because I think people one thing that Liv is interesting is that it’s team golf and I think that’s why check it out uh but I would like to see more team golf integrated into the PJ tour okay before we run off this I do want to talk about Andrew Novak he does have a football betting podcast which I found out about this week that’s pretty awesome it’s called the Screenplay Podcast no free ads but never listened to it i can’t recommend it but I did find that he made some picks for the NFL draft he took 15 1.5 the over on 15 1/2 offensive players drafted in the first round he hit that which is good he took the over on two and a half QBs he missed that but I think everyone thought Shadur was going to be drafted in the first round uh maybe not Ballners but I think most most of the media most of the population thought uh he took under two and a half running backs that hit and he took uh the under on three and a half wide receivers i’m going to give him a push for this i don’t know actually how the bet settled but uh there were you know if you count Travis Hunter as a half of of a wide receiver then it’d be three and a half if you count him as a whole wide receiver even though he’s going to play both ways it would it would be the over not the under so pretty solid hit rate you know you got to give him at least two of those four uh maybe two and a half of those four i don’t think that’s bad for someone who’s a professional golfer and obviously has other things on his mind so uh let’s talk about quickly the chevron wait just absolutely i first want to say I didn’t know how deep we were going i am very surprised that you did not know about this like it it seems it seems right in your sweet spot pj golfer talking about football it’s like uh Yeah I’m the ven diagram yeah yeah you are you are the target audience for that so the fact that he hadn’t reached you before maybe a bad sign for his distribution sure it’s always the biggest problem with the product um I would love to have known about this earlier but I’m excited that I get to dive in now uh let’s talk about Chevron just absolute heartbreaking tragedy in the end we don’t have to spend too much time on this but I just wanted to mention it it was an LPGA major this week uh so if you’re just loving major golf then why not tune into the chevron uh Aria Junagarn was just like really tough situation she was up by one it’s a major championship on the 18th she hit her her approach shot long and then just literally duffed a chip like something that you know a one of us type moment she was rushing there were pace of play issues they were on the clock i think that was in her head but all she really had to do was to get that on and instead she duffed it and then she left uh her next chip really long left herself a really long putt missed the putt went to playoff and then lost to Mao Sego so shout out to Maiggo but I guess my question to you all is like what’s the worst shot you’ve ever hit do you do you have a memory of just like the worst like let’s make Ara feel kind of welcome in the one of us situation and let’s all share a moment where we hit a really bad shot uh just one yeah just one just one which is the best which is the best bad shot uh the best bad shot I ever hit was I think like a fivefooter um on the 18th in front of the crowd at the Ryder Cup to miss and lose to Raasmus shout out Raasmus um definitely the highest stakes putt of my entire golf career um in front of a crowd and yeah just not a hard putt just worried it um you know so definitely the pace of play issues there you know it’s lot it’s intense but shout out to Masiggo uh actually playing with links member Big Bucks uh at the proamp today so he’s with the champ um but yeah Chris what’s your it’s all it’s all connected together i honestly I there’s too many bad shots i can’t isolate just one there’s too many to choose from i’ve got a little recency bias i had a really great cold shank into some water uh last week so that that’s what’s top of mind but there’s just so many to count i can’t I can’t pick just one fair yeah mine’s recency too i was playing the keep in McLemore uh I was even on the front nine which is the first time I’ve ever done that and then I ate a chicken salad sandwich stood up on the 10th te and hoszle rocketed my driver like I hadn’t missed the center of the club face in the first nine uh I should have even probably shot lower arguably i was on fire and literally like hit the hit the shaft on with my driver and proceeded to go eight over on the back and turned in a very pedestrian round so uh you know everyone hits bad shots golf is not a game of perfect uh it’s about minimizing the bad shots but uh but yeah she’ll be back uh tough scene but uh excited to see where she goes from here um let’s touch on the CK Cup byron Nelson just a mouthful here in a little a little bit uh it’s played at TPC Craig Ranch which is right side of Dallas either of you played that course know anything about it i have not i mean all I really know about it seeing it on TV every year is uh you know it’s uh it is a kind of up the middle TPC course I think is the assessment of it big kind of standard standard not not shots fired but just it’s a standard PJ tour course you look on data golf you know kind of the course fit uh graph it like traces the outline of the PJ tour average course you know it’s it’s standard uh but you know that can lead to still can lead to good viewing week in week out but uh I I don’t know that there’s too much that stands out about the course itself fair yeah I mean to your point about course fit scotty is the overwhelming favorite across all betting markets as well as DG right now was like 20% win odds on uh wherever I was looking earlier that’s wild that’s that’s uh I think he was even higher yesterday on DJ like day of golf i think he was like 25 that’s really it’s uh for a straightforward course where you just have to strike the ball well and hopefully putt well he should win we’ll see i mean Spe Sunjm Bonan Hun Anne and Taylor Pendrith are all rounding out the top five uh so you know there’s some good names on the board that we didn’t have last week it’s kind of back to a return for seeing great players on on a golf course uh so we’ll see how that goes but um you know I guess either of you either commentary on the event or what’s the best golf course you’ve ever played in Texas those are kind of the two connection points I can make to this i’ll I’ll do just quickly on the the event or or just kind of a meta storyline i I kind of feel like so Scotty’s you has 20% win odds according to you know data golf for the betting markets or whatever but it kind of feels like he hasn’t done much recently actually which is weird to say but um I don’t know it feels like that’s a little bit of a lingering storyline going into the PGA and you know getting further through the year um you know like a year ago or two years ago he like he literally won everything like up to this point in the year you know um and so you know see him without without a win or you know without being like at the top at at the Masters I mean he still played well right is you can’t really say he’s playing badly um but it definitely feels like he is not the dominant Scotty that we’ve seen over the past couple years and then obviously Rory’s he’s kind of elevated himself into the picture xander elevated himself last year winning two majors so like um I think that’s pretty interesting and it’ll see it will be fun to watch as we go through the rest of the majors like does he come back into form and and kind of take things does does he uh subside a little more and someone else takes the reigns whether that’s Rory or Xander or somebody else so thousand Lynx coin bet on the line does he win another major in his career how about this over under one and a half majors in his career that aren’t the Masters or Scotty yeah the the that aren’t the Masters uh clause at the end is makes it interesting for sure yeah he could win 20 Masters but do you think he wins a US Open an open or PJ championship that’s a great question to pose because like on the one hand like if like you could easily say like one and a half for the best player in the world is like the most dominant golfer we’ve seen in in since Tiger like it seems of course he’s going to win more uh but then he also has not won one yet so that’s uh that’s a wild dichotomy to think about i don’t know Coupe what do you what do you where do you land on that i don’t think he’s going to get any worse golf it he’s he’s still pretty young um and for thous I’m taking the over on that i we’ve got some really interesting US Open venues coming down the pipe um I think a couple that fit his style uh at least in the next 10 years and we saw you know saw Tiger win in 2019 right i mean that was that was the Masters right which is the caveat here but I do think he’ll he’ll outperform the field just on raw skill at some point twice at at those other other events um but it’s it’s a it’s not I wouldn’t take over for two right i think that that’s uh that’s a really really narrow narrow band there but um they just got the raw power and he’s going to be home in Texas this week so you know bullish on on that yeah PJ Championships coming up at Frisco you know a couple years so that could be a fit for him i think Oakmont sets up pretty well for him i mean Quell Hollow sets up well for everyone so that’s kind of an equalizer and you know we’d love to see Aori i’ve already talked myself into the Grand Slam Ferrari so we’ll The good news is we’ll know pretty soon uh let’s talk about President’s Cup i know there’s a lot of President Cupheads out there uh Brent Sneder was named the uh the US captain this week i actually missed this uh Chris added it to the logs uh they’re playing at Madina number three which is going to be awesome to watch uh Jeff Ogulvie was named the international captain i guess my question is what would have to happen for the US to lose like this can be like an act of God it could be whatever but like it’s hard to get jet like unlike with Keegan like I have a lot of questions and thinking about it for the Ryder Cup because I am genuinely worried the US is going to lose at Beth Page this year but like under what circumstances would the US lose and does the captain even matter could you throw out my niece and you know they’d still win or like you know what do you all think i I think I saw a quote from Snetedker this week that was it was basically saying that last year uh the President’s Cup was a lot closer than it looked i think it was like a seven point differential at the end or something but um like his point of view was there were points on Sunday that you know it was very much in doubt and like it was a lot closer than the final score that though I like I think from that point of view maybe it is a much more realistic outcome than you know you would say i mean the narrative is very much like yeah the US wins every year it’s less interesting and all that but I don’t know I mean the it all comes down I think a lot of it to players who’s healthy you know there’s a lot of time there’s a year and a half that’s a lot of golf to play you know before then some new young guys can really step up on either side between now and then so you know it’s a little hard to call at this point but would love to see it be closer just to you know be more competitive every nothing else yep yeah maybe with the geopolitics with Canada now it only like ratchets up you know like it they’re really going to want it uh on golf scores depending on where it’s going but the implications of Canada becoming the 51st state really put the President’s Cup of Jeopardy i don’t think anyone’s really covering that and they should i I wonder if that was a part of the campaign recently for their their elections if anybody was talking about the President’s Cup um I didn’t catch any of those uh you know debates or campaign speeches but um definitely interesting to see market plays out the futari is is a pretty good system um usually right yeah I I I don’t know we’ll have to see how it breaks down um but excited for to uh you know pull it out cool yeah I’m afraid that we’re in like a minority report situation where poly market is just going to dictate like the final destination of all of us rather than our own free will but that’s a different podcast let’s talk about Sportico which recently just reported that Livolf was in advance talks uh with the official World Golf Ranking famously uh Liv does uh events do not count towards that so you’ll notice I’m not looking at in front of me but John Rom is like the 5,000th player i know he’s not that low but he’s like you know it does matter at some point I think for these guys who are very competitive so Chris you added this one too do you have any thoughts you want to talk about with uh OWGr you know I I saw the headline and added it just because it you know it’s something that is is newsworthy that said I mean at least personally I don’t know if you guys feel this way but I kind of have a it’s hard to get too either worked up or have a strong opinion about any of these because um it’s just hard to keep track there’s been so many headlines over the past two years not just on the OWGR stuff but you know the the PJ merger just all the different developments uh you know getting into majors getting world ranking points all these things it’s like I’ve kind of lost the thread and therefore it’s hard for me to make sense of like what actually is important what’s not is something going to happen is it not i don’t know like is it even worth speculating i don’t know it’s maybe a little bit of a downer take but that is my general like sentiment of just all of that related stuff you know it’s like let’s just get players and majors and see them battle it out watching fun golf that’s that’s kind of where I’m at right now i don’t know do Do either of you have a a different viewpoint on that you think this really matters we were talking about the politics level of golf i I remember Donald Trump said that he was involved in the talks with Liv and the PGA to get everything kind of resolved and we haven’t seen any moves in that um I mean Tiger and Adam Scott were at the White House like that was like a month ago or Right yeah i mean the first 100 days are over and we don’t have a resolution is all I’m saying um I think I think you know we have to see how this keeps playing out um I I really want I I know for the pros for the golfers involved right they want to be playing together they want the best fields they want the most competition across the board and I just think that’s what the fans want too so you know I’d like to see that happen um however we can get that over the board uh call your congressman senators right i think this is uh top priority for for us here um in the world of I think like the only reason it matters to me is if it’s a step towards the resolution if it’s not a step towards the resolution then I don’t really care but like I I’m with Coupe i want to see it resolved uh all right most important part of the episode ncaa selection show is tonight uh let’s continue this bit into this week uh we are very excited about Georgia Tech we decided last week that we were going to become Georgia Tech fans uh shout out to the Yellow Jackets uh so let’s rally around our boys i’m going to say last week was kind of bleak i don’t know if you were following along feeling a little bad about my pick yeah we we blindly followed uh Chris he made such a good argument for Georgia Tech and then immediately afterwards they wandered into the ACC championship just completely lost they played at the club at Old Stone which is in Bowling Green uh really close to Nashville it’s site of one of my favorite golf courses in the US which is Park Mammoth uh it was actually started by a former member at Old Stone old Stone is a really cool club uh and it’s a pretty good golf course but they just absolutely got demolished by pretty much everyone who was there i think they were pulling like little kids off the gallery and they were hitting shots that Georgia Tech wasn’t uh they they shot a bunch over far par and they lost 03 to Virginia Tech in the quarterfinal match they didn’t even make it through their first match so it’s it’s going to start hard but like like a Phoenix rising from the ashes I think we’re excited to see where they’re what region they’re going to be placed in i think that matters a lot course fit’s going to matter who the matchups are is going to matter uh so next week we’ll check in to see kind of where they’re playing uh you know but things start on May 12th so they have some they have some practice time they can get back down to Atlanta and really grind um so I guess number one like how are we feeling about our boys number two you know even Chris you give us one tidbit about Georgia Tech to get us even more excited i think we can continue this on through uh through the championship yeah madness kicking off yeah you go ahead Coupe you go ahead i mean that’s that’s my take i mean what would we do without a little bit of drama some uh you know some downturn to kick us off here i think that uh yeah we got to stay tuned see how the the matchups play out for for May Madness but I’m looking forward to hearing more uh any good news at all from Chris on on our pick here yeah definitely feeling bad about the pick but you know they’re exper they’re they’re just peeking at the right time they know to peek at the right time they get a little a little extra rest uh uh out of it you know just gear up for for when it really matters so that’s what I’m baking on right now and uh let’s hope it actually comes true my my here here’s some tidbits about uh Georgia Tech Golf or just you know like alumni of Georgia Tech Golf which you probably don’t know I mean most recently like Matt Cooer and Steuart Sink both both Georgia Tech alumni David Duval which was you know at least in my formative golf years was fun to have him out there the number one world ranking uh and all that good stuff uh and then Bobby Jones that’s That’s the other big one georgia Tech alumni uh you know needs no introduction but we we need the the Yellow Jackets to channel some Jones this this upcoming week or two weeks from now that’s for sure let’s do it yeah so we’ll do our our Maid Madness selections next week we’ll talk about those uh we’ll know exactly what the bracket looks like tonight excited to tune in for that uh and yeah maybe we need to get some NIL money going uh we might need to you know just see what we can do for the boys uh you know depending on how they fare but I I’m still confident uh let’s move over and talk a little bit about uh the world of golf internet here there’s a couple stories one wanted to have this debate mentioned this earlier everyone was talking this week about who would win in a battle one gorilla versus 100 people and there was tons of discourse around this so I think it’s really important to bring that into the golf world and so here’s the stakes and I want the two of you to argue you can take both sides on the same side i’ll take the other or you can take opposite sides doesn’t matter but ultimately one gorilla not a special gorilla just like a regular gorilla let’s assume the gorilla is motivated and let’s assume the gorilla understands what golf is right it knows it needs to get the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible without cheating okay could one gorilla shoot a lower score on an 18hole golf course let’s just say average like 72 rating 113 slope could that gorilla shoot a lower score than the cumulative score of 110 handicaps could Could a gorilla shoot an 800 basically is is the question like an 820 on a 18hole golf course well I mean 8,000 right probably like the the the number for a 10 handicap if you like you know you could model all this out but let’s say they would shoot between 8,000 and 8,500 uh could a gorilla get around eight get the ball in the hole in 18 holes in fewer than 8,500 strokes yes absolutely okay okay a lot coupe is bullish on the gorillas gorilla golf game yeah I I have no doubt i mean they can sign language they can they can whack a golf ball you could just one putter get it get it around i mean I think that’s I’m on team gorilla what if it gets the ball in a sand trap like what like is it how it’s not getting the ball in the air you said this on we talked about this on Twitter like it’s not getting the ball in the air so it’s going to have to like punch down the fairway what’s its emotional state going to be like like we know it understands the game but like has it read golf is a game of perfect is it working with Bob Rutella no like it has no understanding of how to moderate its emotions i don’t think the golf course is going to be in great shape when the grill is done it’s going to smash up going to get frustrated going to smash up a green or two group behind group behind is going to be pissed be frustrated yeah um definitely going to leave a couple of ball marks right i I think the big question is are there any force carries are there any big you know kind of infinite loop situations that that could really throw it out of whack because I’m kind of with you Goop like playing vanilla course with with none of that yeah could shoot 8,000 probably much better than 8,000 but you know like you said if it’s stuck in a sand trap as a bay 150 yard force carry yeah if there’s lots of gor mhm yeah spay bay i think wind wins at Spay Bay the blue monster maybe not a lot of water force carries right like it’s uh it’s much much harder although pop bunkers like you said Greg I think loft is is the main the main problem i think it’s going to putt at least 100 times on every green right i just like I just don’t think it has the dexterity to get the ball in the hole i think it’s going to take like I I don’t know i I’m not as confident uh I would love to see this play out like one of my favorite things about the 100 versus gorilla fight situation is there are people like animating models around stuff and there were like actual primate experts who dove in maybe we should get L stagner on this you know maybe Coupe we can uh we can not mention him and just see you know what do the statistics say right but I’m I’m not as confident as I’ve thought about this uh way too much uh but I’m glad we had the conversation anyway i just looked up just had to look up whether gorillas have opposable thumbs exactly how I expected to go today yeah yeah we need Jane Goodall to consult for the next PGA 2K game and then we can really get a good simulation going on isn’t she dead der damn all right i don’t know if she is i don’t know all right next topic uh so this I think was recycled content from previous years this is the first time I’d seen it somebody posted on Reddit they basically took a uh they didn’t steal grass necessarily from Augusta like they didn’t take a shovel and they didn’t dig the grass out but a player had hit a divot that had entered into the gallery and they took that divot home and they planted it at home so that they can grow Augusta grass so I guess where do you all stand on this was this thievery or not was this morally correct or not and then two what’s a souvenir that you’d risk a lifetime ban for to get from any venue i don’t think it’s thievery i mean I say once it’s separated from the ground it’s fair game it’s like picking up a piece of pine shaw or something uh and I say kudos to the to the guy or gal that that was uh enterprising enough to do it kind of fun i’m actually kind of uh surprised they don’t sell them in the merchandise center personally what would you pay what would you pay for seeds like a you know a starter sapling that you could that you could plant at home what would you pay i would not personally pay too much uh my my yard situation maybe not the best one out there but I’m sure there’s a lot of people that would pay uh would pay a decent sum of money to get that going and the grass in their backyard they’re buying gnomes you know they’re buying gnomes yeah exactly what’s uh what’s something that you would want to steal from a sports venue it could be any sport boy um you know I think I missed my opportunity on this but like a seat from the old Yankee Stadium i think I would do a lot for for one of those um big fan of of the house that Ruth built um ah boy for anything i mean stealing a like a club or a ball from Tiger Woods I mean would be probably pretty sweet i I remember there was that set that Link’s members were talking about of like Tiger Woods clubs i think it ended up being fake of his set of his irons that were up for sale i mean there’s some really cool memorabilia out there um most of it is now older or past you know it’s been collected and bought and sold a bunch of times mickey Mantel stuff the jersey i saw Babe Ruth’s jersey that he he did the cold shot uh in i mean there’s some there’s some really cool stuff out there um in real time I mean boy I don’t know a Venus Williams tennis racket like there’s Yeah like Serena I don’t know there’s some cool cool options greg what’s your what’s your pick what are you risking to get your hands on yeah I I love Atlanta’s uh stadium mostly just because the concession situation is really great and they have some of those Coke remix machines uh so it’s a little bit of a Zigg or a Zag but I would steal one of the Coke remix machines and put it in my house if you never used one of these things digital interface tap whatever combination of things you want you can just like we called them suicides as a kid but you can mix a bunch of stuff create a cherry diet Dr pepper and I put one of those in my house comes out at exactly the right temperature uh little known fact never put ice in a vending machine because it’s already cool and it just is a way to get less soda so I’d have one of those in my house i would go downstairs between meetings and just fill up a cup and drink uh Coke Remix um all right so Pinehurst Resorts closing number four from May 19th to August 7th to resurface the greens a lot of people were complaining about this online uh I’ll take the like shout out to Pinehurst for doing this because a lot of people were starting to complain about it the the Greens looked really rough it was probably outside of their control a similar thing happened at Sweden’s last year and they made the same tough decision where they’re just like “Look we’re going to shut down we’re going to refund everyone we’re going to make everyone whole we’re going to communicate very effectively but it’s unacceptable that the Greens are this way and we can’t get them back without shutting it down and doing a bunch of work.” So uh I don’t know what’s said to be here i just wanted to kind of shout out the resort for doing this they’re going to be losing a significant amount of money but I think it’s the right decision for golfers and it’s the right decision for the course long term but any thoughts on this one yeah I had a similar reaction i I think it’s you know a good call on their part and it’s better to close down and fix and like issue people you know refunds or reschedule or whatever rather than you know like every golfer knows the feeling of showing up and then you’re paying a full greens fee for punch greens or whatever like you don’t want that situation and I mean it is it’s one of those things that kind of like you said you know it happened at Sweden’s it kind of happens to the best of them you know it’s some of these situations was a little surprising that like I mean we were just talking about them last week they have a ton of courses there obviously they played the you know US Open uh right next door last year so it’s kind of wild that it can happen in kind of an isolated scenario just one course I I don’t know the background there you know kind of what what else they had going on specifically on the number four grains that that maybe led to it but um yeah I mean I think it’s one of those things that you kind of have to bite the bullet and and do so kudos on them for fishing it and hopefully they get it back in order ASAP and I saw some of our Lynx members have some trips like late August so hopefully they fix it quick yeah that’ll be good i mean you got to do what you got to do make the course uh playable in good shape um you know the trade-off can you do winter greens you play the courses and then you set up like you know an off alternate green sites or things like that with the property at least let people out there and keep some revenue going i mean I don’t think Pinehurst necessarily needs the money they’d rather you know have the full experience and nobody really wants to play um a bad one but uh yeah I mean you know somebody who gets mad at my home course for punching the greens uh you got to do what you got to do to keep the course in good shape yeah this is they’re playing from a position of strength to your point like Pinehurst it’s not it’s obviously a loss of revenue but they have 10 soon to be 11 courses and uh more than enough demand in fact they you know continue to be able to raise prices for people to play it so all right so let’s do a little bit on what we’re doing uh we did we tested a stream yesterday on PJ 2K25 coupe any thoughts early thoughts on the game what’s better or worse than the previous version just a check-in for all the gamers out there yeah graphics are massively improved um the swing mechanics are a little bit different a little bit tougher um as if you were watching the stream uh I struggled a little bit with You were bad yeah um a little rusty let’s just call it Let’s just call it what it is you were bad i expected a lot more from you listen if the trade-off is my real life handicap goes down and my video game handicap goes up that’s a trade I’m willing to make um all day uh but I do think that there’s a lot of good play styles i know there’s a lot of cool online stuff that I’m excited to work on with the links community our good friend friend of the pod uh Jay Gellzinger is porting over the 1907 Spay Bay routing to 2J 2K25 over the next month or so so we’re really excited to have that in there and then as the renovations continue out at our course in Scotland we’ll have the new version loaded into play as well really looking forward to that and then you know we got to get some LAR data um once the designs or renovation is complete uh at Hillrest in Kansas City but would really love to have that one playable in the game as well um but yeah the mechanics the graphics all greatly improved uh highly recommend 2K25 if you haven’t been out there and if you want to play pop in the Discord we have a a little gaming committee uh there’s some folks who are playing some matches love to get that going wager some links coin it’s uh it’s a good time best golf video game out there I think yeah it is incredibly fun to play Spay i don’t have 25 yet and I probably won’t buy it until we have spay bay honestly cuz I don’t play anything else on it but just like I got 20 minutes to kill I’m going to sit down i’m going to play Spay Bay on a video game is awesome so like you know check that out uh all right let’s let’s talk about then be just kind of last segment here i think we owe each other we owe our families and we owe uh the listeners an update on our Q1 goal or I guess a Q1 update on our 2025 goals uh we did a podcast back in January we set those goals so let’s hold each other accountable here uh Chris I’ve listed out the goals that you sort of said to the public that you were going to complete just give us a progress update on where we are what’s going well what’s not going well what you doing about it uh I’ll do a very quick run through uh so they don’t take up too much time but uh basically hitting very well on a lot of them and failing miserably at a few of uh work out four times a week doing pretty well on that minus some you know vacation weeks and some family being sick kids being sick weeks but all in all doing very well i think I’m probably hitting like 80% or something on that one feeling good about that one less than 30 minutes of social media screen time failing miserably uh partially workrelated so I can blame it on that a little bit but uh you know definitely not definitely not hitting that one so far this year volunteer two times this year i mean I guess I’m on pace i I have not volunteered anywhere yet though um but uh still need to get some planning going so uh maybe a little behind but and still and still make that one work handicap down to five i mean we’re So we’re just getting started at least personally right i kind of didn’t didn’t get to play any legit rounds of golf uh first few months of the year but getting back into it first few rounds are not going to help me get down to five but uh you know it’s early still early got a long time to go so uh hopefully get that going in the right direction soon and then my last two were play five top new top courses kind of top to me that I wanted to play and then play with 10 new links members and then I think I’m going to hit those out of the park this year just looking at signature events spay bay events uh some community le ones we got going i think I’m going to hit those uh with with room to spare but still have to get going on that i haven’t actually checked off any of those boxes yet so all in all feeling pretty good but Kuba how about you you’ve got you’ve got some good goals in there too well I love to hear that um yeah uh I had 1,000 lbs combined squat deadlift bench and overhead press i haven’t done a new baseline um I was just around 800 lb when I did that in January uh I am getting my numbers are going up right but I haven’t gone for a a single rep max yet um and I also don’t think I will test that before doing 100 holes at the summer solstice because I don’t want to risk injury um I’m already a little bit hurting from softball so I don’t want to you know blow a knee or something like that and not be able to participate in that so I’ll check in on on some updated numbers mid mid to late June for you on that one um completely failed to take profits in crypto that was one that I I should have when I said that on our podcast should have immediately withdrawn everything um that would have been I think it maybe marked the pico top of the crypto market uh said that so cool top indicator there um we hopefully we’ll we’ll get back up at some point um not married yet haven’t bought a house yet but working on both uh we’ll we’ll keep that going longer lead time items you know you got to plan and do all that stuff um and then yeah again like you Chris is winter was a little bit uh rough here in the Northeast for getting out and playing playing golf so I’m probably behind pace on 100 rounds to Argos or Jin but for my break 80 20 times goal I’m outpacing that i’ve got a couple of 78s and 79s on the card and my uh index has dropped down from an 11 9 to an eight flat now so uh I’m I’m coming after you guys in the single digit territory so uh that’s going all right and then yeah we’re right now posting more golf content so trying to get that out and and boost that up need to do some more of that personally um but on course is the best place for that so working on that stuff awesome all right so mine I’ve only ran 46 out of my 500 miles this year not great uh bit off a little bit more that I could chew there we’ll see how that goes i also obviously look at my goals every week and just like don’t change my behavior around it uh but uh of the 500 GitHub commits uh that I said I would do I’ve already done 278 so I’m I’m exceeding there i also uh have completed 12 of 60 lessons on Pimpsler cuz I’m trying to learn Mandarin so uh I could be doing better there but I am technically ahead of pace i think that 60 goal was a little low and it’s letting me cheat a bit uh my handicap’s down from a 7.8 to a 7.2 trying to get to a five want to break 75 twice have not done that yet i want to break 90 12 times with my vintage clubs at like around 6,000 yards have not done that yet haven’t played a round of vintage golf since December uh cuz I’m so focused on the modern golf stuff uh I want to play five courses on my wish list and punch list uh I do I I’ve already played one which was the keep in uh in McLemore i was really excited about that course uh it was fantastic so I’m one fifth of the way there and then I have Country Club Buffalo Prairie Dunes Lookout Mountain booked and then hopefully tree tree farm depending on how that goes uh to the end of the year so I’m looking pretty good i mean the the one that’s just massively off is is the running i just am not running that much i’m I’m choosing to work out instead and doing speed training for golf but I could probably stand to get some cardiovascular health so thanks for doing that i think it’s good you know let’s check in in a couple of months see where we are but we’re not going to forget about it you know we’re all going to see where we are we’re trying to make each other better so uh yeah let’s get out of here uh behalf of Cooper and Chris I want to thank everyone for listening and watching today it was the first time we did a a live stream so uh give us some feedback on that to all listeners uh we really want your feedback on how this is going you know obviously um it’s not like we’re putting hours into this as you can probably tell by watching it but our goal is to make this something that you really enjoy and something that you get a lot out of and whether that’s stuff about the club stuff about golf it’s just kind of a benefit to you but also something that other people can listen to that you can share so that they can learn more about joining our club uh so let us know that feedback and Discord put YouTube comments good or bad uh topics uh room for improvement or just guests that you’d like to hear we have some cool guests coming up and then don’t forget to follow and subscribe you’ll be notified every time we post uh lots of exciting stuff coming on YouTube especially so I would definitely subscribe on YouTube we have some content series coming out on Hillrest and Spay and some other travel golf stuff and like super excited about all of that so you subscribe on YouTube you’ll get a push notification we go live on something you can see it uh but also we’re available anywhere you get podcast you can see that on Spotify or Apple Podcast especially so uh yeah thanks everybody thanks Cooper and Chris for taking the time and we will see you next week thanks for tuning y’all see you
