LIV Team Championship Recap, Tommy Finally Wins, Ryder Cup & The Masters/R&A Make a Move | GLU #071

In this episode of the Golf Lovers United podcast, hosts Golf Lover UK and Pro Golf Critic discuss a variety of topics surrounding the world of golf, including Tommy Fleetwood’s 1st PGA Tour victory, and the upcoming Ryder Cup. They delve into the controversies surrounding player selections for the Ryder Cup, the changes coming to the PGA Tour with Brian Rolapp being named the new PGAT CEO, and the importance of creating more pathways into the majors. The conversation also touches on the dynamics of the LIV Golf Team Championship and the future of golf events, emphasizing the need for more match play opportunities.

Chapters

00:00 Intro and Tommy Fleetwood’s Victory at East Lake
02:30 Ryder Cup Discussion: Keegan Bradley’s Captaincy and Team Selection
07:57 PGA Tour Format: Playoffs vs. Straight Money List
17:30 Breaking News: Changes in Masters and Open Qualification
24:00 Team Championships: Legion’s Victory and Future Prospects
29:13 Team Dynamics and Player Pairings
31:19 Evaluating Team Performance and Weak Links
33:20 Ryder Cup Selection and Match Play Skills
35:30 The Need for More Match Play Events
42:16 Future of Match Play in Professional Golf
46:07 Player Performances and Team Changes
50:13 Brooks and Bryson Rivalry

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LIV Golf Michigan / Team Championship Final Round Highlights: https://youtu.be/xeUc7gNzt8c?si=DzwxKVPUxDeSb39I

@PGATOUR Championship Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e16zucsLSd4

https://www.youtube.com/@tommyfleetwoodgolf
https://www.youtube.com/@PGATOUR
https://www.youtube.com/@LIVGolf
https://www.youtube.com/@RyderCup

The Golf Lovers United Team:
Pro Golf Critic: https://x.com/progolfcritic
Golf Lover UK: https://x.com/golfloveruk
Red Harrington: https://x.com/redharrington44

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this is the Golf Loves United podcast and I am Golf Love UK, joined as always by my partner in crime, Pro Golf Critic. How are you, mate? Doing well. It’s been a really fun last few weeks. I mean, it seems like we’ve crammed in so much golf into like a three-w weekek window. Like, I’m really glad next year they’re going to spread this out a little bit more because it’s been pretty in intense lead through the team championship. So, uh, yeah, we have a lot to to talk about for sure. And I feel like I’ve just been dumped by a girlfriend or something cuz it’s it’s over now. That’s it. Thank we got a lot of great stuff coming in the fall though. So, yeah, European tour. Got some amazing events in the European tour. Some of my favorites and we’ve got an amazing Ryder Cup coming up which would be great. So, we’re going to talk obviously about Liv. Um, we’re going to talk about a teams event today. And then we’re going to do another podcast from you guys which come out real soon as well, which is going to be a review of the actual overall singles championship and um, a review of who got relegated. Look, deep dive into some of the stats around putting driving and what cost people this and that. Um, and I want to talk about Liv, but I do just want to say very quick before we we dive into Liv because we are going to be live heavy today. No doubt. Nice to see Tommy Fleetwood get that first win. um won the PGA won a PJ tour championship. Look, lovely guy. I don’t think there’s anyone out there that doesn’t like Tommy Fleetwood. And nice to see him, Jay. Look, he’s he’s knocked on the door a lot, hasn’t he? But to finally get that win, big win for him for sure. I got to give him credit. Uh give credit where credit is due. He’s he was knocking on the door for a long time a lot of times. I mean, he’s got a lot of top three finishes. I mean, I think he had like 12 12 top finishes before he got got across the line. So, uh, really happy that he that he got it done. I mean, it did take take him doing it in a very very limited field event with about half as many players to play live events, but a win is a win. They they were playing for $10 million, which is nothing to shake a stick at. That’s like one of the biggest purses in golf, obviously. So, and he gets he gets exemption. So, m he gets major exemption now for three years. PJ tour card locked up for five. Um, not that I think Tommy’s form is going to drop off, but if you’ve got a five-year exemption and you’re having a couple of bad months or you get an injury that all the stress and the mental anguish goes away. So, like it’s it’s it’s a real great great win for Tommy and and one of the nice guys on the tour literally. Oh, my phone just buzzed. James Coran has just reported that Keegan Bradley will be picking himself. I know. I’ve heard that too. I’ve heard that for a little little bit. I’m pretty sure it sounds sounds like think of that cuz I’m I’m on the fence. I’m on the fence. Part of me says it’s the pres It’s the present cup. It’s the Ryder Cup. It’s a being the captain is a massive honor. Go be the captain. So part of me says that, but the other part of me says the other part of me says, have a word of the American Rder Cup team. Say to them, look, can I go and do it in two years time? Because there is no doubt at all in the minute that Keegan Bradley is in the top 12 American golfers. So he should, if he wasn’t captain, if he wasn’t captain, well he Well, he is. Look at look his performance this year. If he is, he he would be he would have been picked any other year. So I don’t know. No, because he he was a similar he was a similar spot in the standings last Ryder Cup and he was not picked. So we got to Very true. We got to put put that out out there. I think this is a horrible decision. I’m not going to lie. Like when he got picked uh to be the captain, he it’s basically like he’s going back on on his word. He was like, “The only way I’m going to going to play is if you know I um qualify on points.” He was, I think, uh 10th or 11th in the points. So, he’s not exactly high up. So, yeah, all this is going going to be announced pretty soon. But um yeah, I mean th it’s like if the American team loses and this is where I think it’s obviously a huge advantage having it um at home and I’ve talked about this before and we’ll talk about it again how you’re basically going in as a home home team. You’re already up four or five points. I think this is just a huge huge miss. I just think it’s a really really bad idea particularly with there’s a lot of other qualified people that you you could have picked instead of yourself because you’re basically picking like half of a player because he’s not going to play that many sessions anyway. Yeah. So well if he’s not going to if he is going to play a lot of the sessions and someone else going to pick up the heavy work. I was also talking to Riot this is the last but I was doing Ryan Binge from Golf News Net today. I don’t know if you know do you follow Ryan? Nice guy. He’s not seems like a really good bloke and I was saying I don’t know why there are so many people like they talk about Griffin this and the lots of other people. I know Morakawa’s had a tumultuous season caddyywise but he hasn’t had that bad a season playingwise and it feels to me like people have just overlooked Morocawa who’s got Ryder Cup experience two-time major winner had a pretty good season in many ways with his golf game. He’s had a few It’s either been played well or or played poorly, but he’s had and it seems like it seems like the whole of the American psyche has just overlooked Colin. Like, am I wrong on that? Like, I’m not saying he’s I’m not saying he’s nailed on pick, but when you look at some of the other names to me, I would rather take Colin over Sam Burns and over an over Griffin. Yeah. Yes. I mean, this this is look the the whole Colorau situation. We’ve already talked talked about that he’s been he’s had this this sort of uh Ted with with the the media now for like six months. I think it’s all intertwined. I think that um me personally, I want Colin Morau on my team for sure. Uh people are pretending like he didn’t have a reasonable year and it’s like yeah he didn’t play that great in the majors but like he has a great record in the RDER Cup last I checked I think when he got got paired with I think it was 2021 he got got paired with DJ they didn’t lose a single session so um and I think he he wasn’t quite as good in in Rome but it’s like you’re not going to be as good on the road. So um I don’t want to spend too much time talk talk about the Ryder Cup though because we will save that for another time. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously obviously just with that with that news it’s just broken. So Morawa was RDER Cup record. He’s 43 and one. That’s a great record. 43 and one having one of those being an away leg. Yeah. Yeah. Because I think you have to evaluate some of these guys completely differently at home than you than you do on the road too. Especially in an away drubbing when you got drummed away from home to still pick up a few points is great. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I think he won three. Yeah, I think he won three points in uh maybe three. We’ve done some we’ve done break we’ve done breaking news. Christ, we done we done a bit of PGA tour. We didn’t we didn’t even get to the breaking news of the day, too. It’s part of the reason I’m wearing this. I know. I know. I know. We We will do that. The last thing I want to say on the PGA tour. Um I’m still It’s very difficult. We we’ll talk about it in our next show about the live format and about is for like Ram and Neman is five wins and a lot of 23 to 33rd finishes more impressive season than finishing second to ninth in every event and the same so that’s something we’ll discuss but but for the for the there is no one in the world that thinks that Tommy’s had a better season than Scotty. Yes, Tommy won that event, but what what could be done? We’ll address live later, but what could be done on the PGA tour, do you think to to cra and and maybe here’s something. Do we need season long winners? Are we these playoff things? These playoffs. We don’t need playoffs. We don’t need this. That’s that’s where I’ve been going for a while. The PJ tour, they’re trying to draft off of other American sports with like having playoffs and such. It does not work. Or if you don’t have teams, like it doesn’t work. Yes, you straight money list. What’s wrong with a straight money list? And and if you want to make the last couple of events be a bit more spicy, just have two of the last the last two events be worth a bit more money. So if you do get hot towards the end of the season, you got to I I just wonder if a straight money list is the right way to go for the PJ tour. The Asian It’s what the Asian tour does. It’s what the Europe European tour has kind of a a different system. Well, they didn’t know the GP would always do the money list for years. They did that. I’m just wondering because unless unless you influence Yeah. Unless Unless you’re going to have um match play cuz look, I’m really glad they got rid of I’m really I’m really glad they got rid of that um what’s the word? That that weird point graduated point system. I’m glad they got rid of that. It kind of made no sense. Yeah. And then and then one year you had a one year you had like a winner of that event and a winner of the overall that became itself confusing. That was okay. That I was fine with because then you have a seasonl long points and you have a winner of the tournament like when Tiger won in 2018. Like I was totally fine with having this season long points thing and then having a winner of that tournament like because if if it wasn’t for that like you know um and they had they had done the strokes thing, Tiger wouldn’t have won. So yeah. So, and I and I just think for me just a straight a straight money list and if you want the last couple of events to be the FedEx events whether they continue to sponsor or not is going to be left to be seen. Um I know we have views on that but whether whether the points list works not I don’t think it does but if you want if you want your last three events like the St. Jude, the Windom, the BMW, whatever, and the final event, whatever you want them to be. If you want those to be worth more, then you just make the purses for those slightly higher so that the money list has more of effect in the last four. If you want the three or last or four events to be like the culmination of the season, then you then you then you do that. I’ve got no issue. And you and you can also cut players out where it goes from 120 to 70 to 30, I don’t mind that either, but I just think that point No, you can’t. You can’t. No, you can’t. So yeah, there’s a lot of things that they say East Lake’s not going to be. I saw today there someone says East Lake’s not going to be used next year for the final event. Is that correct? No, I think it’ll be probably used ne next year. However, there’s been sort of some weird stuff going on in behind the scenes with with East Lake. Apparently, the previous commissioner Tim Finchum promised um East Lake this event basically in per in perpetuity, which is like I don’t know how he got away with that. So, especially because so much has changed um in the pro golf world. Like that event used to be held in October in Atlanta, which is a way way way better time of year to have it. Now, this moved up to August because they wanted to have have the season completed for the most part prior to the NFL season, football season here in the U the US. Um and then also the PJ Championship moved out of that August slot and moved up to May. Uh there’s there’s just so many moving parts that like um everybody knows that the PJ tour had to change this eventually. Like they had to go to other venues similar to what what the BMW champ uh championship is doing. And I know that they will because that’s the thing that’s always made the most sense. They’re going to change this format. We all want match play. There’s no surprise in that. And I think eventually we’re we’re going to land on that. I feel very very confident. Um, no, except some of the changes that they they made are actually good. I I think that splitting it up so that you have this regular season award like Scotty Sheffller obviously won the season long point so he got $10 million for that. Then you have this tour championship there was $10 million for that and very quietly the sort of FedEx cup this huge huge bonus at the end end of the season got significantly reduced. So FedEx is not have having to pay nearly as much as they have in the in the past for this sort of huge season ending thing where I think last year was like 20 million I think it was $25 million bonus. So uh yeah. So yeah, they’ve changed stuff. It’s going to continue to change for sure. Now that Brian Rolap is there, I have way more confident that the adults are in the room and they’re going to be able to figure this thing out. Um, except like I said, until they do that and lift some of these bands, that is part of the reason why I’m not paying attention to the PJ tour the way that I used to. Um, I’m not going to be as interested. So, and we have another tour for us to sort of focus on. So, that’s where we’re at. Look, I think we do the right thing by discussing the PJ tour. Um, the one thing I am going to say that confused me a little bit is there still doesn’t seem to be great clarity at the moment around what’s happening with the cards that are disappearing. Who’s coming over from the DP World Tour? It was meant to be top 10. Who’s coming out the KFT with the golden ticket cards? Yeah, I’m not saying I’m not saying you’re wrong, but they have said they’re going from 125 to 100 tour spaces. So with does that mean then that they’re going to relegate 35 off the tour? Sorry, no, 40 off the tour cuz you got five people from the KFT and 10 from the 10 from the DP World Tour because if you got 125 and you’re going to bring in 15 players, you’ve got to get down to 85. Does that mean you’re going to be 140 players? It’s uh it’s going to be 100. That’s the number of cards that they’re they’re going to keep for neck next year. And we got to be what I’m saying is if it’s going to be if it’s going to be a hundred though, how are you going to get in 10 from the DP World Tour and five from the very It’s including those. It’s not 100 plus. Yes. Right. Okay. So, they’re going to get rid of 25. They’re getting rid of 25 off the tour and they’re bringing in 10 from the K 10 from the DP World Tour, five from the KFT and I think they they they did used to bring in like another couple of invites from different Asian events. I know we had that that guy who won the Japanese Open last year or something that he came across. So they got a couple of So so okay that that that makes a bit more sense cuz this is the first year that the media haven’t really spoken about people in the drop zone and losing their cards because that used to be it used to be it used to be a big thing. Yeah. And that’s what I’m saying. There doesn’t seem to be as much clarity as before. No, not at all. And this is something that Brian Rolab again he he addressed um in detail and he’s only been on the job three weeks. Like the two terms that he uh he mentioned that I thought were really really important. Simplicity and scarcity which is to anyone following this that’s something that that we’ve been talk talking about for a while. I’ve been talk talking about this for like four or five years that like the PJ tour like you need it to be um um you need to simplify this process like you you need to be able to simplify what does it actually mean to have a tour card because there’s so many exemption categories. There’s so many ways pe uh people and players get in to certain events. like there’s just like this like weird pecking order that like you’ve got to clarify that because it’s part of the reason why we like live so much is because that process is simplified now that you have re you have three zones that are very very clear exactly what those zones mean. So that’s something that the PJ tour needed to focus on. I know that’s going to be a focus moving into the future. Scarcity is the other thing like they had to reduce the number of events like that was very very clear to me. they they’ve already eliminated look looks like one or two events from the schedule from last year’s schedule to next year’s schedule. So, they’re going to start reducing that. They’re going to start reducing the number of full cards. They’re going to start reducing their footprint. Um, and these are all things that are going to help them out long in the long term in terms of building value that we kind of talk about with the sort of franchise model that they’re going to have events that they’re able to spin off and they’re going to be able to create new assets to sort of lift up their tour. That’s the whole game. That’s the whole thing they’re playing on. And it’s going to take them a while to execute it except now they have the right person, the right leaders in charge to do it. Good. Well, I look forward to seeing what’s going to happen. We will talk a lot more about this the politics and OWGR and and other news. I know we’re going to talk about your news you got on your hat on a second, but um I think we’re in for a very interesting few months. And I think what is really interesting is seeing just how many live players are actually entered into the DP World Tour over the next few months. It’s really interesting. And well, there’s nine or 10 guys that have full cards that actually have uh membership. So, yeah. So, yeah, there’s and and depending on what happens, their membership disappears in the first of January. So, who knows what’s going to happen. Are they going to get are they getting those events in now, get as many Ogr points they can, opportunities to play where they can before they’re not allowed to play? Who knows what’s going to happen, right? Yeah, it’s a lot of moving parts. A lot of moving. We We What we’re trying to avoid is a seven-hour podcast. for 17 minutes in already, but it’s been 17 minutes of housekeeping thing needed to be done. So, the other breaking news, obviously, Coran’s talked about the um about Keegan Bradley. I’m sure that’s going to be confirmed while we’re on while we’re on this or recording our next one, but opens. Yeah, the Opens and the M the Opens. The Open and the and the Augusta. What was wrong with me? The Open. Why you got to call the British Open? So, why you got to call the British Open? It’s too It’s too confusing otherwise. So, I could say the the Masters and the Open have announced a change in qualification criteria, which I think is interesting. Oh, for sure. So, long story short, they’re basically creating new pathways into the Masters. There sort of two changes that they’re sort sort of doing now. They’re removing this sort of PJ tour winner loophole where they had a bunch of really lower tier events that that weren’t full FedEx Cup points. When you won those events, you automatically got an invite into the Masters. That’s now being removed. So, the only way on the PJ tour that you get in by winning is if you win a full point event. So, that scraps all the points from the fall. So you could used to have the winner of the hot dog classic or whatever it was called used to don’t winning winning winning an event any event on the PJ tour earning 1.5 million or 1 million whatever it was prize money it’s amazing it’s an incredible lifetime achievement 99.99999% of people couldn’t even dream of teeing it up in an event like that let alone winning one but they but they were but they were a step down from the rest from the rest of the tour now what they replaced it with is the winner of the Scottish, the winner of um Hong Kong, the winner of Japan, the winner of South Africa, the winner of Australia, and one other slipped my mind. Spanish Open Spanish Open. So that mean that means as of now that Chris Gotup is into the Open and into the Masters. The Spanish Open isn’t till October. Um Tiger Samakawa won the Japanese Open, so he’s in for that. Hong Kong Open is back end of Nove back end October November weekend won last year. Yeah. Yeah. But it’ll be current champion. Australian Open is December. December. Yep. It’s big event and and Daniel Naidu won the the South African Open except South Africa’s going to be in end of February, early March and I think they’re it’s early March. So the South African Open that was going to be my question. So the other So Gossup will be in. Well, he was going to be anyway cuz he’s uh I know, but but I’m saying but Tiger Summerwell will be in cuz that event’s in June, isn’t it? Uh yeah, I think it’s open in June. So the June one, so the one that’s the one that has one that isn’t in is Naidu. So there’ll be there’ll be a place from the South African Open. Expect to see that heavily attended. And obviously you got the place from the Spanish, the Australian, and Hong Kong. It’s It’s better. It’s It’s better. And And full credit to um Michael Mchuan. Michael Mchuan on um from Bunkered. He’s been banging this drum for two years. When I was when I first met him when we were walking around JCB, I actually remember two years ago when we we were we were stood on 12th Green 12th Green chatting with AK when he was trying to hit that wedge down that audacious hill and we’re talking about the opens. He’s like, “Look, you’ve just you’ve just got to link it to national opens. You’ve just got to link it to national opens. have your other criteria, but link it to national opens. And he he’s been banging that drum for two and a half, three years. Not saying you and I haven’t, but like because I’ve been banging it for like five years, but yeah, but ital it seems to be Yeah. A lot of the people with brains in the room are saying this is the way to go. This is the way to go. If you were passionate about Global Golf and you understood all these other great tournaments that are out there that let’s be honest, because of the PJ tour and their schedule and all the things that they were doing, they were stripping those events of talent. Now that you’re including these in like the most important events in golf and allowing additional pathways um and and give the RNA credit like they were last year the Australian Open was part of the uh Open qualifying series. So the the top three not already in the open, they got in. It’s it it’s how Mark Leeman got into the O open this year. So they’ve been doing this for a while and this is something we have been been talk talking about. Like that’s part of the reason why to me the Open, a British Open has been elevating over the course of time because I think that their qualifying series is great because it elevates all these other events throughout the world that allows additional ways for these players to get in. Whether you’re on Liv or you’re on the European tour, you’re on the PJ tour, whatever. It gives you plenty of pathways to get in. And it’s part of the reason why Liv had the most amount of players in at the Open than like any uh at Port Rush than any other major. So, those are the things and I know Liv is already linked to all four of these new uh qualifying events. Obviously, Liv is going to have a ton of players in the Spanish Open. They’re going to have a ton of players in the Hong Kong Open they did last year. They’re gonna have a ton in the Australian they did last year. and they’re gonna have a handful in the South African Open because I double checked the schedule and there’s no live conflicts with the South African there’s no live conflicts with any of those four that I that I mentioned. So, uh sort of clears the path for those Scottish Open obviously kind of has its flaws. However, uh we’ll see what happens next year, but there’s no conflicting live event next year with the Scottish. So there’s an opportunity for Li players to play in that as well potentially given again there’s so many moving parts. We don’t know exactly what the European tour is going to do after the RDER Cup moving into next year because there’s all sorts of stuff that we’ve heard going on with that. So moving parts except I think this is a great step in the right right direction. I criticize Augusta National maybe more than anybody else except I want to give them credit where credit is due. Obviously, I’m a critic of pro golf. I criticize everything. However, I want to give them their props here because I think that this is a step in the right direction. Is that everything they need to do? No. I want to be clear on that. However, I want to give them kudos here that they’re moving in the right direction. Excellent. Right. Let’s do the team championships now. Do you think I need a little bit of praise for my prediction for the final? Come on, give it to me. Give me my flowers. For the score. The score. The score. And what would need to happen for Legion to win? Come on. Give me my flowers. Yeah. Fair. Fair. Well, no, because I I I never get any flowers for any of my predictions, even though I don’t make that many. So, yeah. But that’s why it’s fine. It’s fine. Well, well, well, I’ll remind people I predicted that 20 under was going to be the winning score. Mhm. And I also said that if Legion were to win, the two young lads would have to ball out and they did. They were 20, the team was 20 under and the two young lads between them were were 12 under, which is uh superb. I think they were 11. Sirat was uh 64 6 under and Tom was 65. Sorry. 655 under. So they they they were 11 under. And to get 11 under from two 23 year olds or 22 and 23, two very young lads and to be 11 under that team is so I think Caleb’s still 21. They have a combined age of 43. So Caleb’s 21, Tom McKibben’s still 22, which is crazy because they are probably, if you look at the whole landscape of global professional golf, I mean, they’ve got to be two of the top three or four talents under the age of 23. I mean, it’s really, really impressive what they’re doing. And we can’t underestimate the fact that you know under the toutelage of John Rom and Terrell Hatton like they have improved at this as the season has gone on. There’s no question question about they have improved since they’ve gotten on live golf and they would both say that they both said that in the press conference after they they won. So uh I want to shout out Legion. Congratulations to them for the win. like it was except the reason why I’m wearing my Crushers gear because I’m so proud of the Crushers and just the the fortitude that they showed to, you know, because they kind of had that lead at the end. It started getting really tight and there was just so many clutch shots down the the stretch and I was rooting really hard for the Crushers even though I love Legion too. Like they were two of my my top four or five teams uh at live. I just it was just a really really great final. Like I just like with the last nine holes I was absolutely glued. It was electric that that finish. The crowds were amazing. The golf was really high level. You know, people were kind of criticizing that 18th hole at the Cardinal at St. John’s. And like I really like that as a final hole because like it’s it’s kind of like St. Anders in that that like it’s a getable shorter par4 forward that that you could potentially drive and get close to. Um however, it takes like a really quality wedge shot for you to get close once you’re um under pressure. And to me, like that’s one of the hardest shots in golf that we found out on the second playoff when both Bryson and Paul Casey didn’t hit good pitches going in there. Um it’s a hard shot to do under pressure. So definitely want to give credit to Legion. Give credit to the Crushers and credit to Stinger for getting there too, getting to the final, but yeah, it was just a absolutely box office finish. I really love that that format and the match play leading into it. You had so many great matchups. You had Phil against John Rom. You had, you know, Brooks against DJ. Like, I mean, it was just uh uh Patrick Reed and Gu was another one that that was actually like a really good good match. So, yeah, there’s just a lot of great a great matches. And shout out to Tom McKibben and Caleb Serat 2 and 0 in for in forsomes alternate shot like that that’s what got them there too. So those two were playing really well the whole event. It it’s part of the reason why Legion won it. It’s it’s basically the reason that Legion won because you you pretty much got exactly what you expected from Robin Haten like you always do. Well, it’s difficult to say it when I love them all so much and they’ve just come second. Can the Crushers win a team championship with a team that lacks a little bit of firepower outside of their leader, Legion 13, if they stay the same, if Hatton goes and sets up his own team, who knows? But Legion 13 with John Tur and two young lads that hit the ball 7,000 yards like it they they do feel that there are going to be very few better um alternate shot pairings than McKibben and Serat and Chucky Three Sticks Nanaban. Like you’ve just got three you got two three you got two great pairs there. Casey, it was actually uh Charles How and Paul Casey were the they were Annab played Annab played. Yeah. So, you’ve got two great pairings there in Casey and Chucky and McKibben and Sarat. But I I I watch it and I’m part of me just says is does crushes need a So, Crushers haven’t got a fourth man, right? Crushers don’t have a fourth. No, they absolutely do. They absolutely have a fourth. No, no, we need to stop this. No, hang on. No, hang on. No, let me finish my point if you jump in. What I mean is like you look at a lot of the teams go meto’s the fourth inqual’s the fourth in Smash you a lot of teams you there’s a lot of obvious fourths what I’m trying to say is the crushers are just it’s like they’ve got they got first in Bryson and then three guys at like 2.75 or at three I mean they haven’t got like a weak link they don’t have a weak do do crushers need to go and get and who would you drop it’s such a weird conversation do they need to go and get a second to to compete properly. No, the only because we we can’t discount the fact that Crush has won three events this year. Like three three they did the three repeat. Yeah, they won three in a row. They won three three in a row and that corresponded with a Bryson elevated like honestly we have to be clear like we got uh high level Bryson really for a quarter of the season a third of the season maybe and they were still the second best team because as as quiet as it’s kept Bryson’s year this year wasn’t as good as last year there were a few things because he kept tweaking the ball his clubs his irons his wedges all his tough and it’s very hard to maintain consistency throughout the year if you’re doing that. Um, and I think that’s honestly part of the reason and we that manifested itself in the playoffs second playoff hole. He had a fairly short 50 60 yard pitch shot. He left it short and that was basically the different like I mean it it was really really exposed at that that point. So there’s these little there’s these little fine margins that like if Bryson was just a little bit better throughout the year. Um and at the end of the season like Crushers probably still win the championship. So uh so we we we can split hairs on this all till the Cows come home. However, I think Crushers need to run it back in the words of Bryson because they still have a great team, solid team. They have no weakness, which is part of the reason why they’re always That’s why I was saying they don’t have a fourth man. They don’t have an obvious fourth player. You look at virtually every team, apart from Legion, most teams have an obvious fourth player. A player’s just not up to it at the moment. And like Fireballs, they don’t really have a fourth man, but they they they seem to be a bit more roller coastery. Some days it’s BSA, some days it’s Sergio, some days it’s Abe, some days it’s Pew. They’re all amazing. They’re all great, but they have like an up and down. But I thought what was really interesting and I just I want to talk about a couple of results the Legion had. If it wasn’t for an audacious chip, sorry, audacious putt on the 18th by um by Tier against Richard Bland, that game could have been that could have been lost. and against Ram. Like I know I know he’s not been in the Ryder Cup team, but I just I’d be much happy my Ryder Cup team without Adrian in it. I really would. I really would. I’ve been beating this drum that that like the way that we pick for the Rder Cup team is totally wrong because being a a great match play player is different than being a great stroke stroke player. And we’re solely picking these teams based off for the most part picking them off of their stroke stroke play results. Like I think the teams would be way better if they were if they had something going on throughout the season where they had all these matches where like you could match up players. You you can watch you can match up Rom against um against or Hatton against like really see who is the elite of the elite when it comes to playing match play. Like people were like trying to clown me on social media for saying Cameron Tringali like the US team needs to take take a look at him for the Rder Cup team, but like he’s 7-0 in match play on live golf the last four years. Like these results shouldn’t be ignored. And it’s not like he’s beating some clowns. Like he’s beaten guys like like Abe Answer who’s a very good match play player. He beat Terrell Hatton. Like I mean he he’s beaten Sebastian Munoz. Like he’s he’s beaten very very good players like and guys that have winning records in the Ryder Cup, winning records in the President’s Cup. Like this is not something that should just be ignored. And like yeah, he hasn’t he hasn’t won like a a full PJ tour live event, but like again it’s match play. like it’s it’s a completely different skill set that I I feel like we really need to take a look at that going forward and there needs to be more match play and professional golf to figure out who’s actually good at it. Well, we we we will talk about it not in this show or the next, but a couple of shows time. I’ve been very passionate that I would like to see Liv be eight singles events and four or five teams events leading into a culmination of a season playoff. Whatever it might be, we’ll talk about a later time. I I I would like to see the singles and the teams be pulled apart. You still have a bit of element for the one for the singles with the teams coming, but I’d like to see four or five proper match play events because it’s such good viewing. Yes, it’s so good. How good how good would it have been to have Paul Casey and Charles Howell against the veterans against the young kids Tom McKibben and Caleb Sat? That would have been a box office ma matchup, too. So, LIB needs to they need to figure out a way to add and we’re not saying do it all all at once. You can add maybe one match play event next year, whether that’s at the beginning of the season or mid-season, whatever it is. Like, these are the things that there’s a very there’s actually there’s actually a very natural fit because they’ve actually got two mid-season breaks. do the first mid-season break, the last event’s a team event, the second mid-season break, this that’s a team event, and then you’ve got obviously the end of season. So, you can actually do it very easily, get three in very very easily. Mhm. And you you have the these team events, Brighter Cut, President’s Cut, um end of the year in the in the fall. This is a training ground where you can say, “Hey, if you want to bring in some PJ tour players, European tour players, whatever it is, and bring them in to see what they they actually have in match play, um, on a course that might be similar to what they are playing in whatever the team competition is.” Like I think that that would be box office and it prepares these players a little bit better because like I feel like Rom and Hatton and Bryson are much better prepared now than they would have been playing 72 hole or 54 hole events going into this. Like now they’re in that like match play mode where like I think they’re going to have great records in the Ryder Cup for sure. So, and I want to see the the captains take this event um into account with their picks because they’re they’re not really doing it this year in the future. I think that that’s a very important thing that they need to figure out. I’m going to say a little bit. I loved that course, Jay, as you know. We’ll talk about it later. Oh, I loved it. I loved it. It’s the best of the three in the Midwest. However, I have low expectations of golf in the Midwest, as everybody knows. I I know. I know you do. But I thought it was I thought it was in immaculate condition. I thought it was it wasn’t great. Would would I want to see it for a regular live season event? No, I don’t. And the reason is I think it can be a bit of a birdie fest. Mhm. And having what having looked at the scores each individual got, that’s why I put minus 20 as the team score. And when I put that, people were like, “Oh, it’ll be – 12 – 13.” Like, are you guys Are you guys watching this? like it’s it’s it’s a getable course. Um and I and I don’t like birdie fest week in week out. We know we’ve discussed that before. I don’t mind a birdie fest every now and again. And for the singles championship like the course two weeks ago got no issue with a bit of a birdie fest there. Not that it’s a course I liked. I didn’t like the v f v f v f v f v f v f v f v f v f v f vista. We’ve discussed that. But I don’t mind every now and again. But what I’m saying is I thought that course was really good. It’s perfect for the team championship. I don’t know if it’s going to go there next year. I don’t know what the plan is for that. Sounds like it will. Sounds like I really I really really liked it. I thought it was a a really good well-maintained course and a perfect match play course. And bizarrely that 18th is a great match play hold as you said. You’ve got to got that you got that forced carry over the bunker. We got to put it down the left and you can rip one and it curves a little bit like it’s just a fantastic course and I and I felt it it looked one of the best on TV of all the 14 courses this year. I actually thought it had one of the best looks all year of all the courses outside of weirdly I don’t know what JCB looks like on TV because I just watch we we watch it. Everyone says JP JCB looks really good, but you you and I have no knowledge what JCB looks like on TV. Just in highlights. Yeah. I got a question for you. Of all the courses Liv plays out outside of Michigan because we talked talked about it. There’s one other course that you would pick for match play specifically, what course would that be? Because I have one in in mind that I think is is like I would want to see a a match play event on this course. And that to me is Hong Kong Golf Club. Hang on. that that we played. Um, not Riad, not Adelaide, Hong Kong. Yes. Not Singapore, not Miami. Well, it won’t be next year. Not Mexico City. No, I think Chipultipek. The two that stands out to me are Chipotape, which is me. Mexico Cityong Varma. Verama for match play would just be rancid. I’d love Well, yeah, they did have a Ryder Cup there, too. But it it’s kind of it’s again to me I think you want to have a course that’s like a little bit e I don’t want to say easier but like I think that makes for a more com compelling match when you can make a lot of birdies and there’s not a lot of birdies to be had. What was the course won the PGA at that you don’t like? Um Bryson came second. Um oh and Kentucky. Yeah. Yeah. Valhalla. Now that for me is a superb match. That’s a good match play course. I could see that. Great match. No, they had the Ryder Cup there. They had the Ryder Cup there at Yeah. 2008. I mean, there’s certain courses going that would be a great RDER Cup course. JCB wouldn’t be a great match play course. It really wouldn’t. Um, Bowling Brook, no, we need to leave Bowling Brook. I’m not a fan of it. Chattam Hills, loved it. We might be leaving the next Chattam Hills in the event it gave us, I really liked. Do I like the calls? No. Um, left a little bit. Yeah, Marido. I I didn’t mind it. I didn’t love it. Um, Robert Trent Jones. I really like that. I really like President’s Cup Soul Soul Cup. Again, it’s a great course. Um, yeah. Korea. Now, I I’ve said before the career event is the is probably the only event I watched bits of it, but due to what was going on in a little bit with stuff I was doing and being away on holiday. Yeah. And the I probably only watched three hours of that over the three days. So I don’t I don’t feel I could comment on the crew. I don’t feel I got a good enough handle of it because I I was trying to get and tune in towards the last hour and a half because of where I was and what I was doing. I was watching the last hour and a half which means they’re showing you the no maybe even an hour showing you the the groups that at the front and obviously I’m watching 15 16 17 18 15 16 17 18. So I don’t feel an Chipotle. Good. Yeah. Not a massive Dal. Yeah. Not not not a match play course in my opinion. Sentosa, no. Hong Kong, yes. Graange, I said no immediately, but Graange could be a great match play course actually. It could be, but it could be except I like Adelaide as as it is. Like I don’t think you need to tweak that at all. It’s really turning into one of the live majors. So, uh, but yeah, Hong Kong Golf Club is the one that I I want to see a match play of NF for sure. And you know, and you know my opinion on it. You know my opinion on it. I know why they’ve gone to Riyad Golf Club, but Royal Greens would be a phenomenal I know they’re not there. The Royal Greens would be a phenomenal match play course. And interestingly, did you see that Royal Greens is now getting the Saudi Invitational back for next year? Yeah. Yeah. So, Saudi Invitational went to Riad along with Liv, but now Raw Greens has got the Saudi Invitational back, which I think I I not buy. This year, 2025, they’re going going back back to Riad though. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 2026. Okay. Yeah. That would be a fantastic match play course. And the reason it’s a great match play course is there’s ravines and water everywhere and every everything’s getable, but you’ve also got and and we saw you got that wind set wind at Raw Greens that plays up and you’ve got you got a couple of holes where you miss by three foot, you’re off by 40 yards. I quite I quite like the peril of that. But um I was going to ask you a question about match play. Would you think the match play event is better? And I know it’s hard to do and I know it make the event longer, but I would love the first event. I would love the first event to be four singles. I know pairs belongs in match play. I get that. But I would just love that first round that that quarterfinal before the semis. There’s Palmy just love to see that that be a beer. I know it’s difficult get on the ignore the practicalities getting on the calls, but I would just love to see all of them doing it. It’s not only that it’s the fact that then you all of a sudden you have four points to win and you could easily one win one up in a tie. Then you’re going to have a million playoffs. So like I just don’t see that like it needs to be a it needs to be an odd number. You could talk me into maybe having five player teams at that point at some point in the future uh for that that particular event maybe except it’s got to be because you know college golf kind of does it too just with the five and you always have a odd number. Uh yeah four singles I don’t think that works for a variety of reasons. Uh, we need more match play and like I’ve also been suggesting at the beginning of the season now that we don’t have the WGC match play. Like I would love it if you throw all 54 players or maybe 60, you throw them in a bracket and like I want to see some of these some of these players on like I want to see Rahm and Terrell Hatton play a match play against each other match play. I think that would be completely box office. Like I want to see some some of these other guys on teams have to play each other. I think that would be great. So, um, and again, that doesn’t necessarily count towards the standings and it should be either a mid-season or like a preseason thing. But, you know, the whole thing is we need more match play. It’s so clear. It’s so clear to like any hardcore golf fan that we do because it you get all these compelling matchups that you wouldn’t normally get in 72 or 54 whole stroke play events. Um, and like the fact that we haven’t had it for this long and the the fact that we had it for a while with the WGC and it’s gone away is a complete travesty. The fact that we used to have it uh at Wentworth back back in the day and that that went away mostly because of the PJ tour again, that’s a travesty, too. So, I think we need to we need to have a return to it. We need to figure that out. I wrote about this like two and a half years ago. the way that they could potent potentially do it. You could do it on a variety of different courses because a lot of courses people are scared about what the scoring is going to be and all that stuff. It’s like it’s part of the reason why they’re having the Walker Cup here at Cypress Point because Cypress Point’s never going to have a 54hole or 72 hole tournament again because a lot of people think that it’s too easy and they they don’t want guys shooting 59 60 61 on their course. So just do a match play and Cypress Point is going to show amazing on TV. So and we we could do this at a variety of different places, but yeah. So more match play, more match play, more match play. Um, a random one. I was really really happy for me to see him play really well in the sing in in in the in the in the match play. I know he’s had a tough season. Things haven’t gone his way, this that and the other, but he he won he um he lost his singles in the f in the in the quarters to Ben Campbell, but they won overall, but when it got to the semis, he actually he he he took he took the win against Brendan Grace 4 and two, which beat him convincingly. Yeah. Beat him convincingly. And I remember looking I’m just going to double check with couple event with a couple of holes to go. Yeah. So he um was the low score of the day in the toqu team um on the final day with a 67. So look great to see me finish and look there’s there’s we’ll talk about it later when we do the next show but there are people I would like to see go to the qualification event. I’m hoping there’s going to be three places and win their way back in. I’d like to see me win his way back in. I think the kid can play. I think it’s great for their atmosphere, great for their team. chance to play himself back in. And we’ll talk about Stenson a few others later. Lastly, on the team championships, where was my brain? Did you see um did you see the different groupings from the from the other partners? So, Range Goats finished 10th, beating Majestics and Clicks. Clicks were plus one as a as a group, which what wasn’t great. Fred Freddy was Freddy was two over. Um yeah, he was the worst of all the players. So yeah, and then the four four aces four aces shot 17 17 under um with a with a phenomenal low round of the week from Thomas Peters of a 63. I know it doesn’t get seen because he wasn’t in that they had about half an hour half an hour of total footage went to all of the other matches combined, but Thomas Peters with the 63 round there is absolutely superb. Thomas Peters and we we can’t freak forget just a really quick force corner. DJ Patrick Reed both shot six 65 the last uh the last day or two. So 17 under between Thomas Peters shooting seven under. Those two shooting 10 under. Obviously Harold Harold Verer only shot even par. Um except I’m expected to see changes to the four aces potentially. Uh TBD we shall see. I know they’re negotiating. There’s one player out there currently on the team. So, I so want to say it, but I’m not going to. Let’s just say, let’s just say this player has a great rel he’s always had a great relationship with DJ and Brooks in particular. Yeah. Current current player on the PJ tour, American, played really good golf for a good number of years, maybe had some injury issues the last few years. All right, you you’re saying too much already, but I think that there is like uh there’s an opportunity for him. I’m not sure if they’re going to work be able to work out the finances, unfortunately. We shall see with that. I know it’s still sort of uh still being work worked out and I don’t expect any of this stuff to be sorted out until the end of the year, beginning of January only because I actually got a lot of varants I Well, because we have guys trying to play their way back too. So yeah, but that playing the guys playing their way back is one thing. But that’s not this podcast. That’s the next podcast. So if you want to hear what we’re thinking about that now, lastly, also um Brooks gets a lot of criticism. Like I think he react I think he overreacted the Bryson thing or maybe that pantomime, I don’t know. But Brooks shot 65 on the final day. Um he’s been playing better. If you are in that camp that thinks Brooks doesn’t care, please, please give your head a wobble. Yeah. Cares, but um the Brooks Bryson thing was so weird. He’s a cat. He dances, marches to his own cheer cat own. I I get it. But also, Bryson was trying to do the right thing by saying, “I want to play against their better player.” and he didn’t maybe phrase it the best way possible which is ironic because the next day when he had had a chance to think about it and Rachel said to him obviously a lot of people making and he said well yeah I picked Taylor because at the moment Taylor’s the form player and I was the c I’m our best player and I wanted to play against their best player I find it odd and almost a little bit charming and endearing that Bryson felt he couldn’t say that on stage in front of Brooks but what ended up coming out was worse it’s so funny. It’s so funny. Bryson’s such a kid. He doesn’t He doesn’t want that. He doesn’t want that to be out there. And then the way it was dealt with was so much better when he dealt with it with Rachel and said that like if he just said if he just said that, look, I know I know the fans want Brooks Knight to play, but the moment as amazing as player as Brooks is, Taylor’s their form player and I want to play their form player. If he had just said that, no one can argue with it. No one would have made anything of it, but then the media loves to run with it. Everyone loves to run. I’m like, I have a day off. I love it when we have this little friction between these guys. I think it’s great. That being said, we might have to go back and revert to what they used to do, forcing the captains to play each other because we missed out on a lot of potentially great matchups, whether it be against Sergio against Phil. No, no, I don’t like it. I mean, look, I I just think that there’s so many great matchups that we miss missed out on this year. So, I mean, no, I I don’t like it. And the reason I don’t like it is you’re taking the advantage away from the captains of the highest seeding who’ve got the ability to pick. They’ve earned the ability to pick and they should have the ability to pick. If they don’t have the ability to pick, because you’re also doing captain versus captain, you know, you know your pair’s lineup is, so obviously your sing your second singles is is solidified. You take away that advantage. Not necessarily because Crushers last year. Crushers last year. They had Casey in the singles and then they switch it out. So, you know. Yeah. But it’s it’s they don’t I like them having this. I like you’ve earned your right to have your pick. Have your pick. Right. We’ve done the team event. I’m just going to say players dropping off and leaving the leaving the league. Some weaknesses in the players. Highf flyers and clicks got some stuff to sort out. Highf flyers. So I didn’t mean high flyers. Sorry. Sorry, I didn’t mean high flyers. I didn’t mean high. I I know. But they still managed to finish in fifth place. Iron Heads have got some serious stuff sort out. So the clues. Majestics will be lit left to see what happens. Obviously Stenson’s going. Who do they bring in? There’s a lot of stuff to discuss and we will discuss that folks next week in next week’s podcast which will probably come out in a few days after this. Not a full week. And Jay and I are gonna record it now. I’m gonna put a different top on so it looks like it’s a brand new day. Jay might even change his hat. But we will be back recording in around about two minutes. I need to go for a wee. And then I’ll be ready to re-record. Oh, hang on before we go. How many people commented on that BBC joke in our last video? I can’t believe that got that got more comment that got more comments than anything else that we we’re literally talking about TV and that got more comments in YouTube than anything else. People love comedy. People love us clowning around. Like, I get it. But that was when that was just totally organic. Pretty totally organic stuff. Anyway, but yeah. All right, folks. See you later. Hope you enjoyed the show. I love the event. Teams championship is truly amazing. We want more match play Jay and I hope that live make it happen. 100%. Take everybody. Bye-bye.