Does the fight for PGA Tour survival make for compelling TV? | Golf Channel Podcast

In this week’s edition, the guys discuss Brian Campbell somehow becoming a multiple winner this season, why the John Deere highlights the Tour’s late-season drama and preview the upcoming fortnight across the pond. #Golf #GolfChannel #GolfChannelPodcast

Chapters:
00:00: How is Brian Campbell now a multiple winner this season?!
08:00: Bubble Watch officially kicked into high gear at the Deere. Was it good TV?
14:00: Out of nowhere, Max Homa shows signs of life
20:00: Sky Sports’ Jamie Weir joins the show!
45:30: Gary Woodland is a Ryder Cup vice captain
48:00: Tour tweaking the FedExCup bonus structure
49:30: Listener questions: Keegan Bradley the right captain pick, and what are the best pies?!

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Does the fight for PGA Tour survival make for compelling TV? | Golf Channel Podcast https://www.youtube.com/golfchannel?sub_confirmation=1

[Music] Hello and welcome into this edition of the Golf Show Podcast with Rex and Lav. The multiple winners on the Pidge Tour this season, Scotty Sheffller, Roy Moy, Ryan Fox, Seep Straa, Ben Griffin, and yes, Brian Campbell. Rex, can you believe it? He prevailed in a one-hole playoff. Thankfully, this one did not go five holes against Ameiliano Grill to win the John Deere Classic. Your thoughts, please, from 6,500 miles away in Scotland. Staying in Edinburgh, we flew over a couple days early to do some sightseeing around Edinburgh. We’re staying in Resident. Beautiful little spot. Uh it’s cold, it’s rainy, just so you’re packing to come over in a few days. So, just so you know that it’s not just that he’s a two-time winner, Brian Campbell, it’s that he’s done them both in playoffs. I mean, this is maximum pressure and he doesn’t seem to get impacted by at all. He looked confident. He looked relaxed. He did not look like a player who was scrambling on a Sunday afternoon. Even when things got tough, you you look at what happened to him on 14. That was a really bad drive. He had to pull off a really difficult shot from the fairway bunker. Couldn’t quite do it, but he was able to get up and down. You look at the way he sort of rebounded from 15. That was an awful drive. Just sniped it left of left. Didn’t even go looking for it down in the woods. makes a double bogey, but still never really feels like he’s out of it. He just keeps grinding away and grinding away and makes a birdie on 17 to essentially force the playoff. It’s been impressive for a player that, let’s be honest, you and I probably have never mentioned Brian Campbell on this podcast in 10 plus years of doing it. Now, seven of those years, he had lost his scorecard and he was a little bit a drift, which speaks to his resil resilience. But I I do like the idea of a player like this and I don’t particularly want to compare him to Ben Griffin because I think Ben has been a little bit more consistent than Brian has on this particular front. But this victory does get Brian into the top 30 on the US Cup point standings. And we’re talking Brian Campbell for Beth Page. I think you jumped ahead a couple steps on that one. I just pointed out that it gets him inside the top 30 with a couple of big events coming up that he can certainly uh the one part that I would say is his consistency just isn’t there after that playoff o over poter who just won last week. I think we labeled pot gear a true phenomenon. That was a playoff victory. He hasn’t had a top 10 finish since then. As a matter of fact, he’s missed more cuts, missed more weekends than he’s played more since then. So, it’s not as though he’s gone out and done what Ben Griffin has done or Seraa and turned himself into this worldass player that seems to be in and about the lead week in and week out. But when you see how he plays and it’s not the modern game, I think you pointed out you actually have a faster ball speed with your driver than he has, which is the most humblest of brags. And I will say that the signature shot that he hit on Sunday was on 17, the par five. The second shot that was a 277 yard shot to like 18 ft for pretty easy two putt birdie. Do you know what his driving average was for the week? Off the tea. 270 yards. No, it was 270 yards. So he actually hit that 3-wood off the deck longer than he was averaging off the tea. So he’s not the prototype of the modern professional. It’s not like he’s going out overpowering golf courses like we saw pot gator last week, but he’s pretty impressive when his game is on. I mean, this is why I love covering professional golf because over the past two weeks, I’m not sure that you could have a more stark dichotomy in two players who both won on the PJ tour. They just so happened to be in the playoff at the Mexico Open. Aldrick Pocketer two weeks ago at the Rocket Classic. We’re talking about a guy with 195 mph cruising ball speed. A guy who hits at 330. A guy who’s 20 years old and seemingly has a limitless future. You know, major championships, you know, he could be a President’s Cup Stalwward, you know, a potential top 10 player in the world. All of it is on the table for someone like him. Fast forward one week and the player who he lost to New Mexico Open player, Brian Griffin, wins the John Deere Classic. He was last among those who made the cut in driving distance. You mentioned the 164 mph ball speed with his T-OT on 18 in regulation in the playoff. He has 108 mph club head speed and anyone who follows me on Instagram and sees my club head speed, you know that I swing a whole lot harder than that and spray it everywhere. You mentioned no having not having a top 10 finish since the Mexico. He hasn’t had a top 30 finish since Mexico. Even with a win, he was still 58th in the Fetus Cup playoffs and not yet sort of secured his spot in the playoffs which just start in in a couple weeks time. Like that’s really really hard to do. And yet I can’t I can’t be more impressed or have more respect for him as a player because he has to know that the tide is washing up against him. He has to know that there are just more and more Aldrich potters coming down the pipeline and it is going to be incredibly hard for him to keep his playing privileges on the PJ tour for the years to come. And yet now he has two years again of security. He just showed that he could beat the strongest field uh that they’ve had the John Deere ever in the OGR era. Like you just have to have respect for a player who doesn’t have all of the physical capabilities and all the physical tools but he has belief in himself. He has timeliness and he certainly has clutch putting which was evident on Sunday at the John Deere Classic. And I was impressed. We talked a little bit over Sunday and into the earlier in the week about the idea of his resilience. I think it was 10 years ago that he essentially started his PGA tour career at the John Deere Classic playing as an amateur on an exemption and then everything that he’s been through in that ride and we were listening to his post round interview and he was asked specifically about would you have done anything different and I think you had a really good simple response it as just don’t don’t get hurt just stay healthy would have been the easiest part but I mean he was a great he was a great college player he was a great amateur player he’s he flashed on the PJ tour quickly and then as you mentioned got a drift injuries, was just struggling just to keep his car in the corn ferry tour before he eventually made it back to the big big circuit. And we talked about this last week with Potgeer, the idea that he’s a phenom, not just because of what he can do with the golf ball off the tea, not just because of that prod predigious power that he has off the tea. It’s because there’s so many other areas that, you know, he can improve on his short game, his putting, all of the things that we’re seeing him get better at on almost a weekly basis. Whereas, if you’re a Brian Campbell, at this stage in your career, you almost feel like you’re maxed out. And so, this is what you bring to the table. It’s not as though you’re going back to the drawing board on every off week trying to get that 1% better. You don’t really have that option. I I will say it is impressive watching him play that brand of golf on the modern PGA Tour because we just don’t see it very often. It’s just not something I I go back to the days when early in my career when I covered it and you had a Gavin Kohl’s type player who really couldn’t hit it out of his shadow, but he kept his tour card for the better part of almost a decade. And you realize how difficult that was because every part of your game has to be on. You don’t have the the luxury of not being able to. I didn’t chip well this week, but I still finished well. I didn’t putt well this week, but I still finished well. to your point about what he had done in between Mexico, that playoff victory, and this week, this second victory only moved him up to 29th on the FedEx Cup points list. So, he’s still not guaranteed to make it to East Lake, even with two wins. And we’re going to have uh a punch out later in the program. Uh it is going to be very lucrative if you can make it to East Lake and particularly waves at the Fed Cup playoffs. Stay tuned for that one. Rex, just four weeks remaining in the PG2 regular season. So I thought in that respect that John Deere sort of accomplished what it was supposed to that these are the players who are fighting for their competitive livelihoods particularly after PG tour sort of shifted the goalposts from top 125 to top 100 uh keeping their eligibility for 2026. And so you had Ameiliano Gley who began the week just outside the top 100 losing in the playoff now he’s safely inside the number projected 64th. You had a player like Kevin Roy as well, David Lipsky, Carson Young, Matt Coocher, Kurt Kittyama, even Max getting inside the number. Were you satisfied? I I know I know the big names besides Max Homa didn’t really show up on the weekend, but if you’re the PGA Tour and you’re trying to build these tournaments as sort of the last, you know, sort of the the the last dance for a lot of these players to keep their cards, do you think that it was a successful week in that respect? I think so because there’s a function on the PGA Tour scoring app where you can kind of go it’s called the bubble watch. So right now it’s top 100 and top 70 and I think three players played their way in and three players played their way out of that magical top 100 number being one of them. He was 105th coming into this week. All you want to see is volatility. Yes, you’d like for it to be a big name like a Max Homa and we’re going to talk about Max in a minute. I think he did he’s going to be disappointed that he didn’t play very well, especially on Sunday, but he has to be happy with what he was able to do with himself on that front where he was on well on the outside of trying to crack that top 100 and essentially just keeping his job for next year. So, this will go a long ways. We we brought this up a few weeks ago, I think, when we were talking about getting into this final stretch of the season. I think it will be compelling for an element of the audience. You have to be a golf fan to want to pay attention to this. Everything else is probably just numbers that people kind of your average golf fan are probably just going to gloss over because it doesn’t really resonate. It doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot unless you get a story like a Brian Campbell today where you can go back the last 10 years and point out that this is where things went wrong and this is where he tried to start. This is where things started to go right again and you start building yourself to it. I like it. I’m sure you do too because it gives us content, gives us something to watch, gives us something to talk about. And I think there’s an element there of storytelling that if you do it right, and I think CBS did a good job this week and last week of sort of pointing out the guys who are on the bubble and what they’re playing for week in and week out, I don’t think you can inundate people with that type of information. I don’t think you can do it on every single shot. But if it’s done correctly and done in a way that tells a story, I I think it is compelling for a certain element of the audience. Yeah, I think it has to be a balance. And I think the John Deers of the world are the are the perfect antidote to golf fans, the diehard golf fans who may have been turned off by sort of the signature event series and the PG tours pandering to the biggest stars and making sure those guys are paid and making sure they have the best chances to win and making sure that they’re in the proper TV windows and making sure with no cuts that they’re going to be around for all the fans on the weekend. Like that is that is clearly star driven. And I I I think there’s certainly obviously a segment of the golf population that likes to watch that. And I think the the TV ratings for the signature events in particular on the PJ tour have been really strong this year. And I think the PJ tour would view them as a success. But that would get really old really quickly. And I think that’s one of the criticisms of live golf, right? Where it’s 54 players and you’re seeing them week in and week out, 14 times a year. The field sizes don’t fluctuate and it’s just it just grows tired that way. You need to have an infusion of these types of tournaments, these types of storylines, these types of drama and significance. There’s still something special about trying to keep your place among the very best teams or the very best leagues or the very best players. You know, I think that’s what if you’re if you’re a fan of the NBA or the NFL, I’m a I’m a big Jacksonville Jaguars fan. The Jags were terrible each of the last two years. That’s really hard to watch. And late in the season, there’s not much to watch, right? You know, at that point, you’re actually hoping that they lose so you can get a better draft pick. In the PJ tour, there really is no tanking. You just have a bunch of players who, like we saw, battling out on Sunday, who have been sort of floundering this season. Whether it’s Milliano Go, he didn’t have a top 10 this year, whether it was David Lipky, who just missed out on the playoffs. the 165th in the Fetus Cup standings, looking like he’s going to drop all the way uh to sort of limited status on the Cornferry tour at this rate. And so to have them battling out for significant tournaments, for significant prizes, um I think is a is a huge appeal for the PG Tour because at this point it’s still the pre-minent golf circuit in the world. And even though these players might not be having a great season, trying to stay there, trying to stay at that level to me is compelling drama even if it doesn’t have potentially some of the marquee names and even more so because they’ve moved the go go goalpost and we’ve talked about this a little bit. The idea that they moved the number from 125 to 2100. We’re going to have a player who finishes 110 and probably feels like they had a decent season compared to what they had done over the majority of their career and they’re going to be on the outside. it’s gonna they’re going to have limited status. But I love the idea and we talk about this all the time when it comes to the Premier League and the relegation of those teams is something that’s very compelling. Like those are storylines I think that even even your average fans don’t spend a lot of time paying attention to. You don’t get that in the NFL or Major League Baseball or the NBA. If a player is not up to a standard, there’s probably going to lose this contract, but there’s no hard line where you say, “This player’s out, that player’s in,” depending on where how you played over the course of the season. Golf has always had this. So, it always is fun. I I used to say Q school was one of my most enjoyable events to cover because you had that hard line and it was six rounds and you didn’t necessarily have to gravitate towards the star player in that field. I remember the year that Dustin Johnson earned his tour card at Orange County National. I didn’t write about Dustin Johnson. I wrote about Michael Allen who had tried to qualify for the PGA Tour 20 straight years and finally broke through. Those are the stories I think for those specific events and to a certain degree this event, the John Deere Classic, that’s what they can hang your hat on. This is probably an awkward segue then because Max Homa uh who seemingly under normal circumstances would be fighting for his competitive livelihood and said he’s exempt on the PJ tour through 2028 because of its various lifelines was the uh I would call him the protagonist at the John Deere Classic. A player who did not have a top 10 finish this season has not done much of anything other than a surprisingly good performance at the Masters earlier this year. doesn’t even have a top 10 Rex on the PJ door since May 2024. Maxoma very much in the mix. Shot 69 in the final round. Ended up the log jam for fifth. If not for Miss Putts inside 10 ft on 17 and 18. Absolutely could have been a part of that playoff. Did you see this week coming for Max? And if not, what do you think it can do for him? I did not see this week coming. Not just because of his putting, but his ball striking. I don’t I don’t think so either. I I wanted to point out two things. one earlier in the week he kind of made some headlines and to be fair to Max when we ask a player a question very few answer as well as Max does he actually get put some thought into it wants to give you a decent answer and he was asked something along the lines of why aren’t you on social media anymore and he made the revelation that social media media is a garbage fire of mean people and he’s 100% true like I I know that’s not a revelation to any of us it’s a little disingenuous and he has said this before that he always seems to fall back on that based on the fact that social media, Twitter X, it pretty much made his career or made his personality, made his brand. I think his play on on on the course brought it to a new level. But before he was winning, he was a social media star. And so I do feel like for roasting for roasting people, in other words, being mean. Well, yes, and he did it in a very fun way. He he would go after swings and things like that. But he was part of that cesspool that is the garbage fire of mean people on social media. So, I do always roll my eyes to throw the emoji out there just since we’re talking about social media. I will say it was a bigger week though for Max for the reasons we just pointed out. 122nd on the points list. I mean, you’re way on the outside. He’s not in the field next week at the Scottish Open. He’s not in the field at the Open Championship. So, he’s running out of time really, really fast. He needed this one just to give him some sort of boost going into whatever’s left of the season for him. And I will say to your point, who saw this comment? probably not max but he had an answer earlier in the week to a question about how is this time different these struggles different than the last time you went through this 2016 2017 sort of that time frame when he lost his tour card kind of hit rock bottom in a very similar way he said this time is different because he feels like he’s much much closer this time around he said last time it felt like I couldn’t do anything right that I was just floundering that I had no chance whatsoever this time it feels like when he shows up he at least has an opportunity yeah I mean game game-wise I was in golf today. Last week we did one of those CDW like stats segments and it involved Max Homa and we were going through sort of what he is doing now sort of through the bag comparative two or three years ago when I would call him a star on the PJ tour. Uh a perennial winner. He looked like he was going to be on a cup team for a long time. The stark difference from Maxoma in 2025 to Max Homa in 2021 is is crazy. Like we’re talking three and a half shots in terms of a scoring average and just off the tea approaching the green around the green putting. It was marketkedly bad. Like he’s not hitting as many fairways and so now he’s not hitting as many greens. And when he does miss greens his short game’s not as sharp and oh yeah when he actually gets on the green he’s not making many putts inside 10 ft and so he’s making a lot of bogeies and consequently he’s also not making many birdies. Like he was just sort of floundering. Um, and I think when you look like at Sunday in particular, he obviously had a poor day with the putter, but he hit just five fairways. Uh, that was the fewest of any player uh who made the cut. He had driven it beautifully for for three days. So, I think there will still be a lot of positives to draw on. But I go back I think what you actually saw from Max Homa on Wednesday in his press conference is is a better window into his soul than than whatever’s going whatever whatever he said with the media on Sunday night. Like that’s as candid of a pre- tournament press comments as you’re ever going to find where Max said the day before the tournament started that pieces of his game feel awesome, but he’s not sharp. You know, anyone can get hot for 4 days. Hopefully that’s me. Ended up being him for at least three and a half days. He said that Maxoma did that he can’t wait for the season to be done so that he can begin to unwind. He said to your point about social media that he can’t wait um excuse me that he can’t uh go out to sports bars anymore because fans will either come up to him, fans will say something to him. It’s just not a pleasant experience anymore because of all of the quote angry a-holes. Um and so I was I was reminded watching uh the press conference and and we watched it live. I was I was reminded of the line that everyone wants to be rich but no one wants to be famous. And I think that probably says a lot for a lot of PJ tour players where a Tiger Woods or Roy Moy who have lived their lives in in fishbowls and now in sort of the social media era and Justin Thomas and Jordan Spe and Max have all risen to promise sort of have risen to promise. It can’t be easy for these guys to live that life. Particularly when you’re struggling as he has because Jordan Spe for all his struggles, Justin Thomas for all of his reg relative struggles, they didn’t quite um have the amount of despair that that Max Homa seems to bring to tournament weeks, including when he’s working on his game at home as well. No, and that’s a really good point. I think Max probably speaks for a lot of tour players in that situation. I would imagine Roy Moy has had similar thoughts over the last few weeks that yes, I’d like to be successful. I don’t particularly like being famous. So, I can see how he’s in a difficult position. Probably needs a break away from the game, but he’s got a lot to do between now and then. Yeah, he certainly does. Just inside the top 100 in FedEx Cup points. Well, Rex, earlier this week, we had a chance to catch up with our friend and yours, Jamie Weir of Sky Sports, to talk all things Scottish Open and the Open Championship. That conversation coming up after this short break. [Music] And for this boots on the ground segment, we are pleased to be joined by Jamie Weir of Sky Sports. And Jamie, before we get into the Scottish Open, the Open Championship, and the Rder Cup, I want to talk a little bit about final qualifying for the Open, which wrapped up earlier this week at four sites around the UK. Which stories sort of resonated with you most? I think the standout story has to be Lee Westwood qualifying at Dondom Lynx. Just remarkable. 52 years of age to have the hunger to still turn up and you know mix it with all the other guys who are trying to play 36 holes in a day just for that chance to get to the open championship. H you know he’s knocked on the door obviously so many times and opens Lee Westwood. He’s been so close to getting his hands on that elusive clar jug. Hasn’t quite managed it. Could he do it? What a romantic story it would be if he was to do it at this stage of his career. But I think just just show the willingness to go and roll your sleeves up and get involved in FQ like he did and qualifying top qualifying at Donnell this week. That was obviously the standout story. Um some other great stories around as well. The Estonian kid 20 years of age, you know, I think there’s nine golf courses in Estonia or something like that and he’s I think won pretty much at everyone, you know, events at every one of them. um comes over at West Lanc double bogeies his 36th of the day to fall into a playoff and then holds his second shot from the fairway in that playoff Q chaotic scenes. So Richard Tedar will be playing in his first open championship as well. Uh and where I was I was at Royal Sync Ports and we didn’t get the sort of you know really romantic stories that or or the sort of big names I think that maybe people might have been hoping for. Greg McDall was playing there and obviously the open championship is not just in Greg McDall’s home country this year but it’s in his hometown so it would have meant something very special to GMAC to get to Port Rush that wasn’t quite to be we had both pters father and son trying to qualify at Royal Singorts as well and Luke who as you guys will know is a sort of rising amateur star in the game had a wonderful round in the morning five under par unfortunately just the wind picked up in the afternoon and the wheels slightly came off for him sadly um because it would have been great to see him play in his first open. I’m sure he will play in many. And his dad um also was one underpar for his 36 holes Ian Poulter uh for the day as well. Um so neither of them made it sadly, which would have been a great story. But but where I was, you had somebody like Nathan Kimy who has been a pro for 12 years, a name that many people might not necessarily know, but has never played in a major. He’s now heading into his first major championship. and his girlfriend um is also a professional golfer and won the British amateur at Royal Port Rush 14 years ago. So wonderful little stories like that. And Seb Cave who’s an an amateur um and Curtis Knipes who is playing only his second ever major and his first major was six years ago at Royal Port Rush when he was the youngest man in the field and he’s been through it all since then. he’s sunk to the very lowest parts of the game and considered giving it all up but now he’s heading back to the open. So it’s all the little stories you get like that from open qualifying which are just fantastic and it’s the same as you guys know for you know US Open qualifying. It’s all these wonderful little nuggets that we get throughout the day. Um so yeah it was a tremendous day down in the south coast and deal on Tuesday in glorious sunshine as we’ve had here in the south of England where I live for the last five weeks now. It’s just been uh we haven’t had a drop of rain in weeks and I’m assuming it’s probably the same up at Royal Port Rush and at Renaissance where we’re going to be next week. But my garden is completely yellow. There’s been no rain here at all. The weather’s been glorious and as you can see I’m brown as a berry as well. See that’s good news though. Brown and and bouncy yellow. That’s what we want, right? When we go absolutely open championship point of view. Yeah, absolutely. We we want it to be firm and fast and fiery for them, don’t we? Uh, going back to final qualifying, the idea that three out of the four qualifiers were won by players from Liv, what do you think that says about that tour? It just says that there’s tremendously good players on Liv. I don’t think that’s a surprise to anybody at all. Um, you know, they’ve got some very competitive golfers over there and, you know, this is their route into getting into the majors. Um, obviously there are now other avenues open to him and Sergio Garcia got a spot in the open by by getting the one available spot on live and and many of them obviously have eligibility through being major champions. But I think it’s great that the other guys, this is actually the first time in I think three years that the likes of Lee Westward and Ian Poulter have tried to qualify in FQ. Um, and I think it says something about them that they’re still willing to do that at that stage of their career. Um, so yeah, I I I’ve seen people talk about that over the last couple of days. Oh, what does it say about Liv? It says what we already knew about Liv, which is that there’s some really good golfers playing on live and fair play for them, you know, between playing in Dallas last week and Val Dorama next week to want to come over and and mix it up and play 36 holes in a g day and and get to Port Rush. Jamie Rex is going to be joining you next week at the Scottish Open. I’ll be seeing you at Royal Port Rush for the Open Championship. What do you think makes this part of the golfing calendar so special? This part of the year for me is just so special. You know, my kids are breaking up for school tomorrow. And as I said, the sun has been shining here for five, six weeks straight. Wimbledon’s on at the moment. Test cricket is on at the moment. I know that means nothing to the vast majority of your audience, but just this time of the year, the late evenings, the sun’s shining, you can go out for a round of golf at, you know, 7:00 at night and and still get 18 holes in, 8:00 at night and still get 18 holes in. So, I just love this part of the year. And from a golfing point of view, I think so many of the European golfers who are obviously applying their trade and and most of them living in the States, they love getting back over here for this time of the year, they love that runup to the Open Championship, the Scottish Open. Um, which we’ll get into it, I’m sure, but I would love to see it a proper traditional Scottish links golf course. It’s at Renaissance fine, but um they they love getting over for that. Then we head into the Open Championship and I think there’s just something about the height of British summer. The the sights, the sounds, the smells of being at an Open Championship. I love it. I I I it’s it’s my favorite week of the year being at the Open. And um and this year being in my own little country is going to be extra special. Well, and I’ll get straight to the Scottish Open right now. It’s become one of the more popular stops on the PGA Tour simply because it gives players sort of that extra week to assimilate to to climatize themselves being over in the UK getting ready for the Open Championship. But you touched on it. Why can’t they go to a more traditional links course? Money is the is the very quick answer. You know, Renaissance pay to have it there. And um you know, Renaissance, I suppose, is a Lynx golf course. That’s certainly how they would sort of sell themselves as a Lynx golf course. It’s not a links golf course in the same sense as courses like we see on the open rotor like Mirfield or Carnushi or or or wonderful courses like North Beric or Gullen. It’s not like that. But it does prepare you I suppose for links turf. Um but it’s been there six years now and it’s been a co-sanction event for the last three years and one thing you have to say is it produces great champions and it produces uh you know some real drama down the stretch. We had Bob McIntyre winning last year which was just wonderful and he you know obviously had that tournament snatched from his grass the year before by Rory that incredible finish birding 17th and 18th uh the previous year Xander Cha won it the first time it was a co-sanctioned event so we’ve had some really huge winners major champions and major champion in waiting perhaps in the case of Bob um and it’s been at Renaissance for six years now and it’s there to stay for the foreseeable so look I I understand why people would love to see it at more traditional links golf courses in Scotland, especially with how the incredible options you’ve got to choose from in that country. But it is where it is and it is still a way for the guys to prepare for Port Rush and I’ve got no doubt that next week we we’ll be in for another thrilling tournament, another exciting finish on Sunday and probably another stellar champion. Jimmy, you mentioned your little country. It it has happened to produce uh many great golfers, Hall of Fame golfers, generational golfers. How? Why? Why do you think Northern Ireland has become such a hot bed for great golfing talent? There’s the million-dollar question. Why? I don’t know. It’s just some sometimes the stars align and it’s just sort of serendipitous. I was actually talking about this literally on Tuesday when I was down at Royal Singorts because obviously, as I said beforehand, Greg McDall would have been one of the real sort of special stories there if GMAC had managed to make it. And when you think back to that 2010 US Open at Pebble Beach, which Greg McDile won, it sort of kickstarted this incredible phase where three of the six majors in that six major stretch were won by people from Northern Ireland and three different golfers from Northern Ireland. Rory Mroy winning the US Open a year later, congressional in 2011, and a month after that, Darren Clark winning the Open Royal St. George’s. And for three golfers from that tiny little country to all win majors in the space of 13 months, it was just extraordinary. And that helped that was a catalyst for the Open coming to Northern Ireland. I think without that happening, it might not have happened or it certainly wouldn’t have happened as quickly as it’s happened. Um, and there were felt a real sort of weight of momentum behind let’s get the Open Championship to Northern Ireland. And as you know, we’ve got not just one but two wonderful courses to choose from in Royal Port Rush and Royal County Down. And thinking back to 2019, it was just such a magical week. Everybody I spoke to that week, be it media, players, Patties, people from the RNA, they had nothing but praise about Royal Port Rush for how beautiful it was, how spectacular it was. And with Turnbury no longer on the open ro, I think it’s probably the most picturesque golf course in the open ro. but how warmly they were received, how well this how much the whole town, the whole country, the whole community got behind the open championship being there. You know, it’d been 68 years, 1951, the last time the Open Championship had been in Northern Ireland. So, for not just the weeks and months building up to the 2019 Open, but for years building up to the 2019 Open, there was such an excitement about it. And a lot of these courses on the open road, their members aren’t that keen on having the open come to town to be honest because they have to hand their course over to the RNA a couple of months in advance and they don’t get to play in it. If they do get to play in it, they’re playing off mats and they’re like, “Oh, do you know what? It’s actually a bit of a pain having the Open Championship at Royal Port Rush. They were just so excited about it to showcase their golf course to the world, to showcase our little country to the world as well.” And Northern Ireland continues to emerge from a difficult past, a troubled past. And I think that week just being having the eyes of the world on us that week, the golfing eyes of the world on us that week, and being able to see just what a special little place it is, what did wonders for Northern Ireland? And and it’s no surprise that we’re back there within six years. I haven’t answered your question at all, have I? How did we produce so many major champions in such a short space of time? And not just Northern Ireland, because you got to remember when it comes to golf, we’re one United Island. So to have Podrick Harrington win three majors before those guys, to have Shane Li come along and win a major since then as well. Um there’s just something in the water. Maybe there’s something in the Guinness, who knows? Um I think you know sport is a huge part of life in Ireland. Um we tend to have this sort of underdog mentality where you know this this fighting spirit, this great call it what you want. Um, but I think it was in the case of those three guys, GMAC, Rory, and Darren all winning in that 13-month stretch, it was just a kind of perfect storm and the stars aligning and um, I certainly think, you know, now every young Irish golfer coming up through the game, I spoke to Podrick Harris about this just a couple of months ago, having seen what Podrick did, what GMAT, Rory, Darren, and now Shane have done, every young Irish golfer thinks there’s no reason why I can’t go and be a major champion as well. If somebody from our little part of the world can do it, there’s no reason why I can’t do it. So, you know, I think the success those guys have had and the Open Championship being in Northern Ireland has helped now create a new generation of Irish golfers as well. And that that’s just wonderful to see. Nailed it. You answered his question and you and you answered my question because I was going to ask how how was Port Rush such an immediate success? you walk through why you thought it was going to be a success as an open venue again after all of those years, but was there any level of surprise that it was almost immediately brought back into the fold? It almost has a spot now almost like St. Andrews where you know we’re going to be back there every six, seven years. Not a huge surprise to be honest because I just I think as I said everybody was blown away about it but literally nobody had one bad word to say about it in 2019. Um, we got four seasons in a day, which is classic, you know, Ireland. We got, you know, beautiful sunshine when Shane shot that 63 on the Saturday and then it was pretty foil all day in the Sunday. Um, the course just holds up to any Lynx golf course in the world. It is a spectacular golf course. Um, and as I said, you know, in this day and age when you can have wonderful drone shots for for TV viewers, there’s not many more picturesque golf courses. white cliffs hall, the back of that fifth green falling off onto onto the white sandy beach below it. Um the Giants causeway in the distance. I mean it just everything about it is beautiful and romantic and the warm the the warmth of the welcome that Northern Ireland gave all the players that week. I don’t think it was any surprise at all that the RNA would try to get their back back there as soon as possible and that is the case and it feels like just yesterday 2019 but the world has changed a lot since then. who could have foreseen what was going to happen just 12 months after that open championship. But here we are 2025 heading back to little or Northern Ireland and Royal Port Rush and I cannot wait. Jamie, please hold your phone steady or you’re going to give me a seizure. Uh going back to going back to 2019, uh a player that you’ve followed for 20 some odd years now. Roy Moy had the early exit, the miscut, uh the emotion poured out afterward. Why do you think that he’ll be better equipped to handle Port Rush and this home game better than he did six years ago? That’s a really good question. You I think in the weeks building up to Port Rush last time, first of all, you know, Rory played a huge part in the Open coming to Northern Ireland and we’ve we’ve covered that already. So, there was such an excitement on his part years out from the Open being in Northern Ireland. for the weeks and the months building up to it, he was asked so many times, what is it going to be like playing an open in your home country where you’ve got the course record and blah blah blah. And he tried both different tactics. He tried sort of saying, “Oh my gosh, it would just be the most special thing in the world. It would be incredible.” D and he also tried the playing it down. It’s just another golf tournament, you know, I’m just going to turn up there, tee it up on Thursday morning like everybody else and see how I get on. So I think he was almost trying to kid himself into thinking it was no big deal where it was enormous for him and then he ended up just making a horix of his very first hole. Quadruple bogey up the first behind the afall from the word go and and obviously we all know then he made a great scrap on Friday afternoon to try to make the cut. Didn’t quite manage it but I think he’s got six more years of experience under his belt since then as you both have heard Rory speak so many times about throughout his career. one thing that he prides himself on most I think is his resilience and the fact that he you know was able to bounce back from that and then not just you know literally months later he won the FedEx cup didn’t he in 2019 y um and that is the hallmark of I think that was all that was almost a sort of sort of sliding doors moment that 2019 open championship he gave a really emotional interview to Tim Barer the sky cart for us after that where he was fighting back the tears tears. In fact, he wasn’t fighting about the tears. He was in tears. And you, that is one of the reasons we love Rory because he always wears his heart and his sleeve. And you saw just how much it meant to him then. And I think having had six more years of experience under his belt since then, having completed the career grand slam with that weight lifted off his shoulders now, I’m sure he’ll be incredibly nervous teeing it up on Thursday morning this year as well. But I just think that he is a different person since then. He’s a dad. He’s matured. He’s achieved his lifelong dream and we’ve spoken plenty especially when he didn’t seem his usual self at Oakmont. We’ve spoken plenty about him being disinterested unmotivated needing to find his race on detra again. I think being in Northern Ireland at an open championship with a chance to win your second Clar Jug having knocked on the door especially with that heartbreaking miss at St. Andrews three years ago. This is something that he is cannot wait for and I think he is mentally far better equipped than he was 6 years ago and it’s been such a season of extremes for Rory. Obviously you mentioned winning the career grand slam, finally winning the green jacket at the Masters, but it has been a bit indifferent since then. Do you think Port Rush is sort of that tonic that pushes him over the top that finally allows him to get inspired again maybe? Yeah, I think it’s exactly what he needs. I think just being back on this side of the pond is exactly what he needs. I think he he was finding the the grind of having to go back straight into the PGA tour and and you know find what that yeah he he himself has spoken about this the reason for getting out of bed in the morning the reason for spending four hours working grinding in the range he he was really struggling to find the why he was doing it all and I think just being back over here um at this time of year as I said it’s a special time in this part of the world being back on Northern Irish soil next week uh or in a couple of weeks time I think will just allow Roy to just sort of breathe a sigh of relief and think ah all is well with the world again and I really do think this could be a special week for him whether he goes and wins the clar chug I don’t know obviously there’s you know who knows what’s going to happen who knows he might be getting the wrong side of the draw we can’t predict what’s going to happen over four days at ropert rush but I think just it’ll be a mental reset for him and exactly what he needs at exactly the right time Jimmy if you take Rory out of this. Which which players this week at the Scottish Open are you most keen to watch? Sort of with an eye on the Open Championship and potentially being one of the favorites there. I I think there’ll always be a lot of attention on Shane going into Port Rush for obvious reasons as the defending champion there if you like. But I think given what happened to him at the Travelers and given the fact that he was the runner up at Royal Port Rush six years ago, I think there’s a lot of goodwill for Tommy Fleetwood. Um, yeah, his game just sets up perfectly for Lynx golf. Again, as I said, he’ll Everybody has to get lucky on being the on the right side of the draw if there is indeed a right side of the draw. But just if Tommy can just get off to a good start, I I think he could be it would be an incredibly romantic win if he were if he were to to to compete at least at the Open Championship. So, I I think everyone would love to see Tommy do it. Who else? I think again coming off a runner-up finish at the most recent major, Bob McIntyre is another one who his games tailor made for Lynx Golf and um will be chomping at the bit to get there. Obviously defending his title in Scotland and he’ll be pulled left, right, and center, and there’ll be so many demands on him as the returning champion next week at Renaissance. But then once he gets that out of the way, I think being back at Port Rush where he also played very well six years ago and he’s a far better golfer obviously now than he was then. I think he might be one that could perhaps provide a home winner as well. So you we we we always want to see the British guys do well. It’s been far too long since we had a British winner of the Open Championship, a European winner of the Open Championship. You know, we haven’t had it’s been the longest major since the last European win since Shane six years ago. So, um, we’d love to see a European winner this time. That’s no offense to you guys over there on on that side of the pond. You know, I love you all dearly. Well, very good transition because I can’t believe we’ve gone almost 20 minutes and haven’t asked you a Ryder Cup question. So, I’ll go ahead and get at it. Can Keegan Bradley do both, play and captain? Go. I do not believe he can in this day and age. No. Um, I’m sure he will tell you differently. Um, I find it it’s startling that after the uh his win at the Travelers, he came out in that press conference and revealed the fact that Seth Wall called him up and said, “We want you to do both.” That’s the first time I’ve heard him admit that. And I was like, “Really? What? Why?” Uh, because I just don’t think in this day and age it is possible to do both. Um, I think there’s so many demands new as a captain. There’s so many things that you need to um a have in place beforehand, which you can still do, I suppose, but b you need to be thinking on the hoof. If plan A isn’t working, you need to have a plan B, C, and D ready to go. And the captain needs to make calls, and the captain might be out in the golf course playing Roy Mroy at the time. You know, it’s it’s I think it’s very difficult in this day and age. In fact, I think it’s impossible in this day and age. Um, but he is clearly one of the best 12 American golfers. that is unquestionable. Whether he still will be come September, who knows? Um, and I think it’s he’s in this situation now where, you know, his duty as a captain is to assemble the best 12 players. So, he he has to he’s letting his team down if he doesn’t pick himself. It’s it’s a very confusing situation. I don’t really know how they’ve got into this situation, but the one man who is who will be smiling from ear to ear is the man who has been in his role for for three years straight and has all his ducks in a row and has his backroom team assembled and he’s probably going to have a pretty much very similar looking team to how he did in Rome and that’s Luke Donald. So yeah, perhaps it’s just what what the US need. Conversely as well perhaps you know having this left field choice and and having this captain who is such a sort of talismanic figure who pumps his chest and wears that red, white and blue and who it means so much to is exactly what they need out on the course as well. Um it’s fascinating to see how this whole thing plays out. Um but I was quite astounded and I don’t know if you two were as well when he admitted in that press conference after the travelers that oh yeah no this was actually the plan all along. This is what Seth and the PJ of America wanted all along. I found that extraordinary. It certainly was. Uh, last question for you, Jamie. Go ahead. Fly the flag. How you think uh Luke Donald’s squad is looking for Beth Paige Black? I think it’s looking pretty good. I mean, as I said, I think it’s going to be a fairly unchanged team from Rome. And certainly, you know, that top 10 um is looking very settled and, you know, some really some players who’ve had great success this season, but are just experienced um stalwarts now. And yeah, I think you know, Luke will have walked away from Rome two years ago knowing that the likes of Rory Mroy and John Ram and Terrell Hatton and Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Li weren’t going anywhere. I think when you then have somebody like Sept Straka elevate his game to another level and become a truly world-class player, that’s something that he probably couldn’t have foreseen leaving Rome two years ago. So, that’s a great thing to have. On the flip side of that, you’ve got somebody like Matt Fitzpatrick who was a major champion, but you know, was at the height of his powers two years ago, who his form hasn’t been quite there this season. There were a few little green shoots in Detroit last week. So hopefully Fitz can get back to the kind of player that we know he is because you’re going to need that experience for that unbelievably boisterous bare pit of Beth Paige. Um because I think it’s very difficult to throw a rookie into a RER cup like this one. So you know hopefully if players like that, if Justin Rose can find a bit more form, that’s the kind of experience I think that will be really important to the side as well. There will be probably one or two rookies in there. Um, Victor Hovlin coming back to a bit of form. Ludvig Oberg question marks over his form at the moment, but Ludvig is kind of that generational talent where I’m sure by September and once he pulls on that blue shirt, he will be able to find something. But on the whole, I think this is the best place European team to win on US soil for a long time. Um, I was going to say since 2004 because 2012 was just that lightning in a bottle, you know, freak occurrence. Madina, that doesn’t happen normally. So, I think this will probably be the best prepared side since Langanger came over in 2004 and emphatically won that Rder Cup. And, you know, we’ve spoken loads about the crowd and we will continue to speak about the crowd. I spoke to Billy Horchel about this a few months ago. And Billy said to me, and I I I love the way he said this and it sort of stuck with me ever since. Yeah, you know, that crowd will be pretty rowdy, but New Yorkers will eat their own. So if Europe does manage to get up if we do manage to get a bit of blue on the board early on, those New Yorkers will will turn on the American team and I think that is probably what Luke Donald and the Europeans will be hoping to do to to silence them early on and then for a few of the booze to be targeted towards the American players. So it’s going to be an incredible week. I I can’t wait for it and I think the European team is looking pretty good at the moment. I certainly think there are far many more question marks over the US team than there are of the European team. It’s certainly torturous that we have to wait two and a half more months before we get the Beth plays back. Fortunately, Jamie, we have the Scottish Open to look forward to and certainly the year’s final major, the Open Championship, a home game for you as well at Royal Port Rush. You’re one of our favorites. Look forward to seeing you next week and over the next couple weeks. Thanks for spending some time with us. Not at all, guys. Lovely to speak to you as always. All [Music] right, Rex, let’s finish this podcast with a couple of punch shots. Keegan Bradley rounded out his fifth and final vice captain for the US Ryder Cup team. It’s Gary Woodland who gets a nod joining Jim Furick, Bran Sedker, Kevin Kisner, and Web Simpson. Smart move by Captain Kings, I think. So, Gary’s respected in the team room. He’s respected as a player. He’s still very much an active player. So he’d be able to add a lot to those conversations about who would you you would pair him with and also the health issues I think Gary has gone through. Everyone respects what he has done, what he’s overcome, how he continues to play, how he continues to be on the PGA tour. And given the fact that Keegan Bradley seems to be trending more and more towards a player than a captain, I think all of the vice captains will have a louder voice. Yeah, I think it’s an interesting choice. Um, on sort of my short list of of favorites, I don’t think I would have put him there. I think it would have put Ricky Father and Matt Coocher sort of ahead of him. But then actually when I when I thought about it, I think it’s a really wise choice by Keegan Bradley. Still in his early 40s is Gary Woodland. He’s a beloved player. Uh a lot of South Florida ties, which is obviously the majority of what this US Router Cup team is going to be. Although he has been on only one uh US team previously, that was a 2019 President’s Cup, the one that traveled to Australia with playing captain Tiger Woods. I mean, the guy absolutely bleeds red, white, and blue. And and let’s let’s be honest here, Jim Furick and Brandt Senker sort of regardless of what Keegan Bradley ends up doing as a potential playing captain, they’re going to be doing the heavy lifting, this is an opportunity for uh Gary Woodland sort of plug some holes and I foresee him doing so quite well. All right, the PJ Tour Rex announced last week that instead of $25 million going to the winner of the FedEx Cup, it will instead distribute that bonus pool in three different waves. You like this from PJ HQ Group? I don’t know that I like it, but they had to do it when they changed essentially the tour championship format away from starting strokes, which would have been largely panned and I don’t think anybody quite understood it. Certainly Scotty Shuffler was not a big fan of it. But what you did when you fixed that particular problem, you created the new problem that you had three playoff events and the idea was you want to reward season long performance, which was what the Comcast top 10 is, and that’s through the Windham Championship. And then you wanted to transition to whatever the playoffs were. Well, now you’ve sort of taken that away because it really doesn’t matter how well you play. If you’re Scotty Sheffler and you don’t play well in the first two playoff events and you show up at East Lake, you still have the exact same chance as everyone else. So, you sort of had to even that out. So, they’ve created essentially three benchmarks. After the Windham Championship, there will be a payout using a portion of that FedEx Cup bonus pool. After the BMW championship, which is the second playoff event, there’ll be will be another payout. And then, of course, how you perform at East Lake. I think it’s the fairest and most equitable way. I’m not quite sure if this is going to stick simply because players are going to start looking at the numbers very very closely when it comes to these types of things. And I think a Scotty Sheffler, for example, he wouldn’t be the one, would probably not be crazy happy if he ended up dominating the entire regular season like he has done and then somehow got to East Lake and finish dead last. Now, the counter to that though, Rex, would be that if you look back at what happened in 2023 with John Rom, right, he was number one heading into the FedEx Cup playoffs. He was number one after uh the first playoff event, dropped to fourth after the BMW, and then he had a a terrible week at East Lake, ended up finishing 18th when he was, at least statistically, according to the PJ tour, the best player that season. And so instead of missing out on on potentially tens of millions of dollars, I feel like this is a better way to reward those players monetarily with $10 million after the Windham championship. That doesn’t even include the Windom rewards for the business top 10. So he’d also be getting the Comcast bonus as well. Again, Sky Shuffler’s already earned $16 million this season. Fans don’t care about how much money you earn. They just want a compelling format in a a season finale that actually feels fitting. I’m fine with it. I think it’s a better system. All right, listener questions. How about this one from our friend Joseph Boza? Did the PJ of America pick the right captain in Keegan Bradley? I don’t know. That’s the beauty of captains at RDER Cups and President’s Cup. It’s always about hindsight and we’re the ones that benefit from that because we’re the ones that get decide after the fact if they were good captains or not. To be fair, I I don’t know how many times I felt like Tom Layman is the example I always go back to as a US captain. I felt like he was going to be a brilliant US captain and that US team just got ran off the golf course. Now, it was a weird team if you go back and look at some of the players who were on there. You don’t wouldn’t necessarily equate them to being US RDER Cup players. I think the PG of America wanted to go in a new direction and I think what they tried to use is the passion of Keegan Bradley, his connection to the Northeast, being a Beth Paige Black, all of those things they were trying to capitalize on. Whether if he’s going to be a good captain, we don’t know. We know that Luke Donald is a good captain. where this thing gets complicated, and I keep coming back to that, is now you’re in a situation where he very likely is going to be a playing captain, and suddenly you’re going to have to come up with an entirely new scenario, an entirely new logistics. That’s going to make it difficult. Yeah, I like the pick at the time because I’m a believer that you don’t need to be deeply experienced in order to lead and be a good leader of of men. It certainly did come with a risk and I think the PJ of America is realizing that now. I thought that Kika Bradley would drop off in form. He has not done so. And now at this point you have a conundrum. I know you want to get to this one, Rex. What is your unofficial Mount Rushmore of American pies after July 4th? First and foremost, very unpopular opinion. Pumpkin pie is gross. I hate it. It doesn’t taste good. It’s mushy. It’s It’s not very It’s not something that I ever eat even in Thanksgiving. Uh and I I did mine in order. So, four, pecan pie or peacon pie, depending if you’re in Georgia, which you are right now. Three, cherry pie. Love cherry pie. Two, this is going to be a bit controversial, I know. Chocolate pie. So good. whipped cream on top. And then number one, apple pie. Come on. Fourth of July was last week. Has to be spiced apple pie. Otherwise, I don’t want it. And that is my official ranking. The Mount Rushmore of American Pies. All right, that is going to do it for this edition of Golf Jump Podcast with Rex and Lav. Rex and I’ll be back on Wednesday for a full preview of the Genesis Scottish Open. Rex will be the central reporter. Make sure you’re on the lookout for that. In the meantime, you guys know the drill. /golf for all latest news, notes, and updates. Thanks for listening. Thanks for support. We’ll talk to you guys in a couple of days. [Music]