Brandel Chamblee on Golf’s Wild Year: Rory’s Slam, LIV’s Reality & Ryder Cup at Bethpage ⛳️

Trey Wingo sits down with Trusted Voice Brandel Chamblee (NBC/Golf Channel) to break down the most electric golf season of the post-Tiger era. Did Rory’s career Grand Slam make this Masters an all-timer? Is Tommy Fleetwood’s FedEx Cup proof the Tour is booming? Should the PGA Championship move back to August—or even go global? We also dig into LIV’s product problem, Scottie vs. Tiger perspective, and what it’ll take for the U.S. to win the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.

No yelling. No hot takes. Just data, history, and context.

What you’ll learn
– Why this Masters belongs on the all-time list
– How schedule tweaks could supercharge ratings
– The real reason LIV struggles to matter
– The data behind U.S. vs. Europe in the Ryder Cup
– Tiger’s peak vs. Scottie’s surge—properly contextualized

Chapters
00:00 The Best Year for PGA Tour Post-Tiger
03:47 Memorable Masters Moments
06:37 The Future of the PGA Tour
09:21 The Impact of LIV Golf
12:17 The PGA Championship’s Scheduling Debate
15:13 Globalizing Golf: A New Era
17:50 The Legacy of Players in LIV Golf
32:13 The Future of Golf Tours
34:33 The Role of Sports in Society
35:38 Ryder Cup Preview and Team Dynamics
39:31 US vs. Europe: Ryder Cup Strategies
43:26 The Importance of Team Chemistry
46:38 Keegan Bradley’s Impact on the Ryder Cup
51:57 Reflections on Tiger Woods’ Dominance

Hey everybody, what’s up? Trey Wingo here. Welcome in to another edition of Straight Facts Homie. This podcast where we do this wild thing where we look at sports through the lens of data and information and stats and historical relevance. No screaming, no yelling, no arguing. We just present the information and let you decipher it the way you want to decipher it. Glad you’re with us. Really special episode today. You know, we do this thing called trusted voices on this podcast. people that have been in the game, people that know the game, and people that can help people who haven’t been in the game the way they’ve been in the game relate to the game. Well, we just concluded the PGA Tour season with the Tour Championship, Tommy Fleetwood, finally breaking through. It was really a remarkable year for golf. So, we decided to bring in one of the most influential golf announcers out there. Also somewhat controversial for his opinions, but you’re always backed up by data, by the way. They’re always backed up by data and and that’s why we bring him in. My good friend, host of uh many many shows on NBC and the Golf Channel, former PGA Tour player Brandle Shambbley. Brand, you’ve been covering this game for a long time. Uh was this the best year for the PGA Tour ever in the post Tiger Woods era in terms of what we saw the excitement week to week? That’s a good question. You know, I’m surprised that question didn’t come up right out of the gate. You come up with a good one. I’d have to I’d have to say it was. You know what? It’s been Tiger completed the career grand slam in 2000. So, you know, we’ve had uh a few players have a go at that and Rory finally breaks through to become the sixth guy to complete the career grand slam. We have a dominant number one, the most dominant number one since Tiger Woods. We had this great run with Tommy Fleetwood just building, building, building. He finally wins the FedEx Cup. Ratings are through the roof. Yeah, I would have to say, you know, there was all this and you would have been in the middle of this cuz you call golf, too. the debate about how was golf going to live after post tiger era. How was it going to get on? It was going to crash and burn. But, you know, the game was recreationally bursting at the seams. It seemed to me that the game should be doing well professionally. The ratings didn’t look like that the last couple years, but they’re through the roof this year, and I think everybody who televises the sport is extremely happy with it. So, I’d have to agree with that. Yeah, it’s funny because it sort of snuck up on us, right? I I don’t know how you felt about the Masters, but I I would put that Masters on the Mount Rushmore of Masters. Again, I I want to be clear, I’m not as well verssed as you or others in the Masters of the 40s and the But to me, the way it play I mean, Justin Rose made 10 [ __ ] birdies on Sunday and didn’t win. Okay? I mean, it’s not like he was like 30 strokes back. He was in he made the playoff and he didn’t win and he made 10 birdies on Sunday. So, I would put for me, and I’d love to get your perspective on this, I would put that on the Mount Rushmore of Masters with Tiger 97, Jack 86, and sentimentally for me, Tiger 2019. I can understand Faldo versus Norman in 96. I get it. But like the sheer emotion, grown men weeping to see, you know, there’s an old meme on Instagram, men want only one thing and it’s disgusting. Yeah, they want to see Tiger win another major. I mean, that that’s that’s what they want. So that’s why 2019 to me is is up there. Would you put this year’s Masters on the Mount Rushmore Masters? I thought it was the best ever. Okay, that Thank you. Good. Feel good about my answer then. Yeah, I thought it was the best ever. Now there are a lot of people out there go that’s sacrilegious. Jack 86. Jack 86 was certainly unbelievable, but it it was it was the exclamation point on the greatest major championship career of all time. It didn’t change the way we view Jack Nicholas in any way. It was a nostalgic great moment is what it was. 5 was Jack pitting against the best two players sort of in that in that run and Johnny Miller and Tom Weissoff. So you could say 75, you could say 86, you could say 97. You could even make an argument for 2001 because Tiger Woods won it and it was the fourth major in a row. You could put all those in there and you can then put in Tiger 2019. To me it goes this one Rory because he completes the career grand slam after not winning a major championship for a decade plus. Then it goes Tiger Woods because well it was Tiger Woods and he also similarly hadn’t won a major championship decade plus. But you know that was just a nice nostalgic moment. It was a reminder of just how great Tiger Woods was. This was a guy who just couldn’t get it done and and everybody was so familiar with his failures and in particular his failures at Augusta National and everybody loved Rory. I mean, I mean, I know he’s done some controversial things at times and said some things, but he always walks them backs. He’s always gracious. He’s much more fun to watch play golf because he’s everywhere and all over the place, and you don’t know what’s going to happen with him. He’s got a little Jordan Spath in him, a little Rory Maroy in him, and a little Tiger Woods in him, and you put all that together, and uh I think that final picture of him, you know, on his knees on the green sort of crying and celebrating all at once summed it up beautifully. So, I’m with you. It’s on if if it’s not your number one, it’s certainly got to be on everybody’s Mount Rushmore. If it’s not, I want to hear why it’s not. Well, I get a lot of push back about 86. And also get a push back about Oh, no, not 86, rather. 96. A lot of people push back about 96 to me. Well, you know, Norman choking away a six-stroke lead in the final round. Yeah, but you I mean Yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, Yeah. But I mean, had a history of doing that. I mean, it was really nothing new. And it was just it was just the Greg Norman experience on steroids basically. It was. and Faldo, you know, he was, I would say, underrated as an intimidating player, but nowhere near the popularity of Tiger or Jack or Rory. I mean, he was just a cold-blooded killer that went about his business and didn’t talk to anybody. You know, he created a personality for TV after his career uh and and sort of, you know, found some popularity, but he certainly wasn’t popular as a player because he just didn’t talk. He just went about his business in in sort of a Hoganesque kind of way. you know, 95. I can understand an argument for 95 with Krenshaw winning there after being completely out of form. Uh, the week his mentor, lifelong coach Harvey Penn, I can understand an argument for 95 because again, Krenshaw was hugely and still is hugely popular. Yeah, the going back to Faldo for a second, you’re right. Like he didn’t say much in what he did. He made sure he cut down the thing that he did for all those years. Like he remembers after the 90 open or the 92 open championship, he said, “I’d like to thank the press from the heart of my bottom. I mean, the bottom of my heart, you know, so he he just didn’t give you the warm fuzzies, man. He didn’t give you the warm fuzzies until he got into No, he was witty. I played with him one uh one year at Bay Hill. And the other person in our group was this guy named Skip Kindle, who is like universally loved, like one of the nicest guys you will ever meet. Skip wouldn’t say a bad word about anybody. and and Nick came up and Nick had this habit of grunting. He wouldn’t really say your name. I was convinced he didn’t know anybody’s name. And he would just sort of uh you know uh he’d grunt like caveman on the first te. You know, here’s my ball. I’d say, you know, here’s my here’s the ball I’m playing. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And you know, it never said good shot. And on the last hole, I had the honor. Skip was next and and Nick hit last. And so I hit and Skip hit. And then Nick hit. And then Skip and I just took off walking in front of Nick. and and Skip, he he didn’t have one nice thing to say down the February because Nick hadn’t said I mean, we were both playing good. He hadn’t said one good word to us. Then the very next week was the players championship and I had outdriven Nick all day long, which wasn’t hard cuz Nick didn’t hit it very far. So anyway, we’re at the players next week and all of a sudden I hear I feel like this presence behind me and it’s Nick Foul. I turn around and he has this contraption. Remember this is 97 98. Nobody had Trackman. He had this contraption that measured club head speed. And he put it down behind my ball. He’s like, “Carry on hitting. I just want to see something.” And I couldn’t even believe he was talking, let alone talking to me. But I could tell that it was killing him that I was hitting it past him. And he just wanted to know what my club head speed was. And I think that might have been the only time he ever ever talked to me. Not that like, you know, I ran in his circles or anything, but that was him. He was a cold-blooded killer. one of the most underrated, intimidating golfers because he didn’t miss shots and and you felt like he was looking down at you the whole time he played with you. So, I I kind of get 96, but I’d push back on it. Yeah. And real quickly before we move on here to something else, that reminded me of like Bryson’s hurt feelings when Rory wasn’t talking to him in the final round. Like, who cares? Like, really? Like, he didn’t say a word to me. Well, who why should he? He’s trying to beat your ass, you know? Ben Hogan was out there giving people hugs and kisses and throwing candy. I don’t think so. That’s just the way it works, bro. Not everybody’s everybody’s cup of tea, you know. I mean, you know, Bryson’s, you know, he’s a little awkward and, you know, and you know, I mean, he and Rory would have had, you know, the odd run in here or there. It’s like, I’m not talking to you. I’m going to kick your ass. That’s fine. That’s what sport’s all about. That’s that’s the whole point. As Herm Edwards said all those years ago, you play to win the game. That’s why they keep score. Okay? That’s that’s kind of the entire thing when we get into competition. And speaking of competition now, we just I think we both agree this was the greatest year post Tiger Woods being a a star on the PJ tour. How do you keep it going? Like that’s that’s the thing, right? You and I know this having been in television. Look how good the ratings were for this one. Yeah, but how are we going to get better? How are we going to get better ratings the next time? So, if you’re the PGA Tour and Brian Rolap, the new Grandmaster of Time, Space, and Dimension, how do you keep this thing going? Obviously, you hope Scotty continues to be on this generational run, but but how do you maintain the level of anticipation and excitement week in and week out? You’d be far more familiar with Brian Rolap’s success in the NFL than me. I know I know what I’ve read. He was, you know, uh hugely credited uh with the great trajectory of the NFL over the last 20, 25 years to replace Goodell. You know, it’s not look doesn’t look like Goodell is going to retire anytime soon. So, that’s why he made this move. And it’s a compliment to the tour that they can, you know, they can wrestle away a man as talented and as successful as Brian Rolap. Having said that, you know, here the PGA tour is, as you just alluded to, and I agree, the most successful year post Tiger, okay, it’s it’s bursting at the seams recreationally. It is very popular with every single avenue. You go into any Bailey and I where were we were flying this morning and random airport and there was a religious show up because it’s Sunday and there was golf channel and she was like God and golf that’s it God and golf and golf is everywhere and so Brian you know speaking at the at the tour championship said something along the lines of you know we’re we’re not going to make incremental change we’re going to make substantial change and we’re going to be aggressive and I thought okay here’s the game it’s never been better and you’re going to blow it up. So I there was a disconnect there for me. I didn’t quite understand. So you know we’ve talked for years and I don’t mean to be controversial but when people love to say look at how much money they’re playing for on the PGA Tour and you can thank Liv. First of all I would say no you thank Tiger because Tiger made the game so popular that it became uh a viewed vehicle for a country’s economic development in terms of Saudi Arabia. That’s Tiger’s influence. So here comes Liv. And now people are saying,”Well, you’re playing for so much money because of Liv.” And that’s great. I’m like, “Well, hold on. If the market doesn’t if it’s not a rational uh trajectory of improvement in the game, in other words, if the market doesn’t sustain these 2530 million purses, if the ratings are not there to sort of back them up and they’re being propped up by private equity, private equity comes in now$ 1.5 billion, $3 billion, you know, they’re not philanthropists. Uh they want to they have one interest. Yeah. billion want to make more billions 10x return. Now the the the foundation of professional golf has always been philanthropy. It’s driven the game. That’s where volunteers come from. You take a week off from work to go do something philanthropic. Tours can’t run without volunteers. You turn the game into just about profit and you start siphoning off this profit that these tournaments have and then give to charity. Like I’m here at the WM Phoenix Open. $18 million in in profit because they run the best event on tour. And all of a sudden, the tour is going to want 15 of that, 12 of that, 16 of that. All of these charities in town are going to have to fire people. People in need are going to go wanting and the WM Phoenix Open is not going to be able to have the success it’s had. I’m sus, you know, I’m not suspicious. I’m concerned about wanting to blow the tour up because it’s I have no doubt that Brian will figure out a way to do it and make more money for the PTA tour. But will it be to the detriment of the PTA tour? And if and if he talks about shrinking the tour from 45 events or 42 events to 25 or 26, you know, the tour has historically hated a void because if there is a void, trust me, someone’s going to come in and want to run a golf tournament and use the players and buy the players from the PGA Tour. And what are the chances that somebody’s going to create domestically another PGA Tour? So, you know, I I I I’m a little cautious about the idea that he wants to blow the tour up and change it drastically and aggressively, which was kind of the message I got from Brian. Yeah. I I DM’ him as soon as he got the job and I said, “Can we just do this one thing? Can we please move the PGA Championship back to August?” I I will die on this hill. Okay. The idea that we have the major season end in July on July 20th makes no damn sense to me whatsoever. So that was the first thing I said to him and his first response to me. He said, “I think we have a lot of wiggle room in the schedule and how we want to do it.” So it it was clear to me in the first conversation over text that I had with Brian that he was thinking about this from the moment he took the job. So let’s start there. Please tell me you believe the PGA Championship should go back to August. Yeah, the tour does end early for sure. You’re, you know, it’s barely halfway through the year and that’s it. All the majors are over. I understand the PGA Championship wanting to move to earlier in the year. You know, it it it gives it, you know, uh, perceptively it gives it a larger role. It it seems to mean more. You remember back when it used to be Glory’s last shot, as if that that’s what they called it and they were, which by the way has is grammatically wrong. I mean, I love TND and TBS, but like Glory doesn’t have a shot. You have a shot at glory there. I’m off my soap box. Continue. Very good. I like that. But nonetheless, you know, it it it did help, I think, add weight to the back end of the year. The FedEx Cup is, you know, it’s a contrived event. It does bring the best players in the world together, but because of the money in terms of weight accomplishment, no. And I I’ll argue that point. You know, the the minute you start reducing the size of a field, you reduce the competitiveness. and and to the degree that you reduce the size of the field, you reduce the chance that you’re going to get the best golf. So these small field events, small field events, they all they ensure is that you’re not seeing the best golf. That’s all they ensure. You see the guys who’ve played the best for the year, but you also ensure that you’re not going to see the best golf. 30 players at the end of the year, you know, Tommy Fleetwood played great golf, but beating 30 players is a lot easier beating 60 or beating 120 or 150. So yeah, they could move the PGA. The problem is when they move to PGA, you know, it’s always oppressively hot. So, they have very uh they’re very limited on how they can set a golf course up, you know, so they’re always going to be soft. You know, it’s always going to be, you know, 100°. It’s always going to be 90% humidity and it’s going to be target golf. It’s not going to be compelling golf. And the idea was they’d move to May and they’d have a better chance of, you know, having a more weighty event to begin the year and that they’d have more versatility in setting up golf courses. But yeah, I’m with you. They could they could move it later in the year after the open championship and and I think everybody would be happy with that. Well, I mean, think think about it. Just this year alone, we had this, you know, Scotty Sheffller, four majors and you win his first four majors in 1,197 days. The cute stat, that’s exactly the same days between Tiger and his first and fourth major. And we can debunk the fact that Scotty’s not close to Tiger Woods in a minute. I have all the information. I know you do, too. he’s on a great run, but call me when he does this for a decade and then we can have this conversation. But like the idea that that was what everybody was talking about and I was like, “Well, we’ll see you in April.” I mean, it it just sucked, you know, and and to the to the point about hot, I get it. But I you know, Tiger Woods won the 2007 PGA at Southern Hills in Tulsa, which might as well be a pizza oven. Okay, it happens. You know, the last time the PGA was at Oakill in Rochester, it was too damn cold. you could play it in May or August up in so many of these courses. Beth Paige in 2019. Tiger had no chance at competing in the because it was too cold and he just come off the the win at Augusta. I’d rather see some of those courses. I think it opens up where you can play if you move it back to August. Uh I think you’re right. And one of the things it hit me when Brian Rup was talking at the Tour Championship was uh it just seemed to me like more tournaments were going to get moved to the west coast which is a good idea and they end prime time ratings east coast and the weather’s beautiful on the west coast and I understand why we never go to the Pacific Northwest. I mean we are rarely up there Chambers Bay the PGA is Sahali but we’re rarely up there. You know what a beautiful place and what a beautiful time of year to be there. you know, why would we not make that, you know, once every five or six years, make our way back to the Pacific Northwest, have more tournaments on the West Coast. So, yeah, I I you’re not getting an argument from me there. The PGA, you know, look, there’s a case to be made that the PGA could move around the globe, not just the United States, but Canada, Latin America, Europe, you know, it I get it’s the Professional Golfers Association of America, but professional golf associations are important to the game. And the fact that three of the four major championships are played in the United States, you know, when you start to think about grow the game, make it more global, there is one major that could move around the globe that that doesn’t, and that’s the that’s the PGA Championship. So there you open up, you know, a host of opportunities and and potential places to play that are more interesting in August and not so oppressively hot. Now, you’re looking uh 10, 15, 20 years down the road to be able to do that. But I I think I don’t know anybody that would argue with that. Maybe the PGA of America would, but I don’t know anybody that would argue about the PGA possibly moving to some place in Europe or Latin America or Canada or elsewhere besides the United States. Well, I I tell you that’s a really interesting point because that has been a driving force that the NFL has hammered home over the last 10 years. We want international games. You know, last year was the first game in Brazil. We’re going back there again. We have games in Germany. We have games in London. That is very much the mindset that Brian is coming from from his position in the NFL. And I think that would be I hadn’t even thought about that as a possibility. I think that would be a tremendous idea and because it’ll do two things. one. I I like the fact that I mean, if we’re being honest about it, okay, unless the only major you have won is the PGA Championship. The other three have a little more weight. They just do. One is the oldest tournament in golf. One is the toughest test in golf. And the Masters, I don’t have to explain to anybody how special the Masters is. And then it’s like, and there’s the PGA Championship. If it’s the last chance you have, I think it adds more weight. And then if you can make it travel, I think it becomes a much bigger spectacle. How much conversation have you actually heard about that? Because I think that is a tremendous idea. Yeah. And look, not just the NFL, the NBA. I mean, they’re doing trying to do the same thing. They’re trying to be global, move move around and doing everything they can to to facilitate that. So, I’ve heard a little bit of it amongst those people powerful enough to make it happen. It’s been asked a few times to the executives at the PG of America. didn’t seem too averse to the idea, but I think it gets more weight when you’re sitting around talking to people who know the game or in the game. Uh, and you think, why are three major championships played in the United States every single year? Because look, you know, one of the things that Brian Rolap could do, and I I’ve never understood why uh, you know, because one of the things he said is we are going to respect tradition but not be bound by it. And I I thought that that was an interesting comment and I agree with that to the extent of you know why is there only four major championships. I personally think the players is a major championship. It is a major championship in every single facet, every single metric you could use to denote the best event, the most memorable course, the most easily recognizable, the most respected amongst tour players and on and on and on you go. So the players championship, they could call it a major championship easily. they could just say boom, it’s done. It’s a major. Sorry, it’s counting as a major championship. And it would add more weight to that event and then give more opportunity to the PGA of America to move that event uh around around the globe, which I I think would be a great idea and would change the game and make it more global and make it more weighty and make it more impactful. I mean, the the problems are is that the economic drivers of the game are mostly here in the United States. They don’t have a $25 million event. The Australian Open should be a big event. Uh the BMW PGA Championship should be a massive event. The PGA Tour can facilitate the growth the growth of those events and make those more weighty so you wouldn’t be so and loads of other people wouldn’t be so down on the end of the year. Like that’s it. That’s golf over. There’s no more big events. But the PGA, the BMW PGA Championship in England, I mean that that to me could be a massive event as could some sort of world match play as could the Australian Open. So there are other avenues to pursue from the September to December and I as savvy as Brian Rolap appears to be perhaps that’s where he’s looking and if so I applaud him and I look forward to it. Yeah. Listen, I didn’t go to law school but I had some buddies of mine go and one of my friends that went there said the first thing one of the professors said is the worst argument you can make is well that’s the way it’s always been done. And I don’t think Brian I don’t think Brian subscribes to that at all. So, I love that idea. And I you also get push back from people. Well, we can’t move the PGA Championship back to August because of the FedEx Cup. Let’s be honest, the PGA Tour offices and the FedEx care about the FedEx Cup more than anybody else except the players that get to make a ton of money. To me, the idea of, well, we can’t go up against football. Hey, I remember when the tour championship used to be in October, okay, it was on Halloween weekend. That’s too long. I understand that. But the golf audience is not really a a football audience anyway. You’ll find your match. And if you go into the first week of September, I think you’re going to be fine. Yeah. Look, the Tour Championship has done exactly what they wanted to do. They brought the best players of the in the on the PGA Tour together for a year-end concluding event with higher ratings than prior to the Tour Championship. So, they they they’ve done exactly what they were intended to do. Uh, nobody was claiming this is a major championship. It doesn’t even denote who played the best golf anymore because, you know, the idea that Tommy Fleetwood played the best golf is preposterous. He played some really good golf, but the player of the year was Scotty Sheffler. There’s several ways to denote who the player of the year is, and it is not the FedEx Cup. Uh, personally, of the four iterations that have existed with the FedEx Cup, I probably could make a better argument for the second one where you go in there and you could win the tour championship and not win the FedEx Cup. And sometimes you’d have two different winners, you know, four times they had winner of the FedEx Cup and the winner of the Tour Championship. That’s who played the best that week and who played the best for the year. That made a heck of a lot more sense than the handicap system where you could go in there and shoot the lowest score and neither win the FedEx cup or the tour championship or this year where Tommy Fleetwood wins the event and you know, you’re going to look at that and you’re going to go, “Well, it’s a year-long season or championship.” It’s like, well, no, it does not denote who played the best in any way, shape, or form for the year. So, you know, they’ve got some things to work out with the FedEx Cup. This is not the final iteration of the Tour Championship. You know, the Varden Trophy tells you who the best is really. Clearly, the money in the list used to, but it’s certainly a decent metric. And who won the most major championships, and that’s that tells you who. Not the FedEx Cup. Uh, the tour loves it, and I think the fans enjoy getting the best players of the year together, and they play together day one, 2, three, and four. It certainly gave us plenty to talk about in Atlanta. And by the way, just the whole point that it’s always at East Lake, don’t tell me we can’t have a major in August if you’re going to freaking Atlanta in August. Okay? If you’re you’re going to have the Tour Championship at East Lake in August where you will literally lose 70 pounds of body weight by sweating, don’t tell me you can’t play a PGA Championship somewhere else in August. Yeah. I mean, look, I mean, we we go there as an homage to we go there as an homage to Tom Cousins who rebuilt that community. purpose-built communities now or I think 20 30 different ones around the country. So, it’s an homage to legends, absolute legends of the game, but it can come back there every four or five years. It should move and it should move to the West Coast and make it an anchor course like we have the US Open anchor courses. There you go. I think those are that’s a great idea. And I will bet you that is in the works. And I it wouldn’t surprise me 3, four, 5 years down the road, we see the tour championship being played on the west coast ending uh in prime time on the east coast and they’re playing in great beautiful weather with beautiful scenery. Why not? The tour starts on the west coast in the most beautiful scen scenery. It could very well easy easily end there with the best scenery, the best views and ending in prime time on the east coast. You know, we’re having this great discussion about everything that’s going on in golf. And we’ve barely mentioned those three letters, LIIV. And there were two years ago, it sure seemed like Liv came out swinging and they were taking big players like Brooks and Bryson and eventually John Rom and some of the other big names. And then they played and the product is awful and it is absolutely terrible. And suddenly, you know, the the PGA tour was very interested in putting these two things together. And like we said, they had this renaissance year and the ratings are good. Like, you know, 47 people are watching live whenever they can find it. The impetus to me for the tour to get this deal done is like not there at the moment. They’re good. I mean, like outside of Bryson, who has been phenomenal and has been an unbelievable content creator, I mean, he’s carrying that thing. Uh, I mean there there’s really no interest there’s no interest globally in wanting this thing to come together unless you want all the best players together on one tour. It’s been really interesting for me and your opinions on this have been very outspoken. So I think everybody knows where you stand. But you know Liv had the hammer and then they swung it and somehow the PJ tour built a wall that bounced that hammer back and hit him in the forehead and I don’t know what happens now. All Liv did was buy a moment in time and it’s such a poor product and they understand golf so rudimentary that uh they’re not capable of creating their own moments. So the only way they can even buy a moment in time is to sort of parasitically you know poach players. That’s it. They don’t have a conduit to creating uh stars or interest in the game. You know there there are sports everywhere. People only watch sports that matter. That’s it. And there’s nothing about Liv that matters. And it’s a it’s a horrible product. And when people say, “Well, they got Yeah, Bryson’s a heck of a player.” But when people want to tell me he moves the needle, I’m like, “No, he doesn’t. Where’s the evidence? Where’s the evidence? He’s playing on live. He’s winning. He’s doing well. They’re they’re finishing in prime time on the East Coast on a network. And more people watch pickle ball.” Like, you you’re not going to tell me he moves the needle. you set a a a camera up and watch Tiger Woods chip in his backyard and it will outrate a live event. For that matter, it may outrate a PGA Tour event. I mean, but the PGA PGA Tour events getting three and a half million people watching on a random week with sort of random winners and you’ve got these so-called uh uh marketable so-called interest, so-called draws and nobody’s watching the product. it doesn’t matter. Uh because people look at it and they’re like, “Well, first of all, there’s no merit to it. There’s no meaning to it.” And they’re finishing on three and winning or two and winning or 17 and winning. Uh you know, there’s no flow to it. And it’s clear that the people who tried to put it together had no idea about the history uh of the game of golf. So, it just hasn’t resonated. They’ve spent 10 plus billion dollars and they can hardly get anybody to to watch the thing. And and you know when we that was never their intent anyway. I mean let’s be honest they they wanted a seat at a table. They wanted to buy a seat at the table. That’s what they want. Yeah. And to facilitate economic diversity, you know, within a country that is so oppressive that they can hardly make a toaster because it’s so oppressive. You know, to the degree that you oppress women, you’re going to have an economically deprived country. And and and you know, that’s those are the people that fund live golf. That’s who funds it. Uh, so I I don’t think that’s lost on the audience here in the United States. I don’t think that’s lost on them. That might have something to do with the fact that nobody watches it, but it’s probably just because, you know, or mostly because the product stinks. Well, I mean, listen, walking Neiman won what, five tour live events this year, and somehow John Rom was the overall champion. Someone explain that to me. Like that that to quote Ted Lasso, that don’t make no sense. And then and I get push back on this Brandle all the time and I I find it comical when I say John Rom’s legacy has been ruined by going to the live tour. When he left he was the number one player in the world and my good friend and your your friend Justin Ray who was the Tiger Woods of golf researchers the he’s just the best there is. He had the greatest called John Rom destroyer of worlds. Well now you might as well just call him John Rom destroyed his own career. And yes, he made 250 million or whatever that number was, but the first time they came to him, he’s like, “No, I’m about winning. I’m about legacy. I’m about championships. He can’t win anything.” And if you ever seen him at a live event, he looks like he would rather be anywhere else in the Yeah. Every now and then a video will pop up where, you know, he’s swinging and somebody’s taking a picture of him or the music is blaring and he looks like he’s absolutely ready to torch the place. uh you know and and all of these guys, yeah, they’re golfers, but deep down they love being relevant. They would love to be competitors and they’re irrelevant and they’re Lewis and Clark can barely find their television broadcast. You know, it’s like they’re irrelevant. Nobody talks about them. Nobody cares what they’re doing. Four times a year when they come to major championships, they drag the dirty laundry and the baggage of Liv to that event. And you know, it it it mucks up the atmosphere a little bit. And then, you know, look, they bought they bought the best players money could buy. They bought, you know, a dozen 15 some pretty good players. So, it stands to reason a couple of them at major championships are are going to play decent. But by and large, when you go back and you look at the data on every single player, which I’ve done two or three times, it’s tedious to do it. But you go back and look at every player before and after live. Before they went to live, after they went to live, and with very few exceptions, their games have deteriorated substantially. into Bryson’s the lone standout. He’s the lone standout. He is. But when you go look at Rom before and after deteriorating Dustin Johnson before and after deteriorated. Well, he doesn’t care anymore. And Dustin Dustin doesn’t care anymore. Let’s just be clear. Dustin does not care. Just before and after. It’s over, you know, and it’s Sergio Garcia before and after deteriorated. And you just go down the list and you’re just like, well, this is doing them harm from a professional standpoint. Yeah, they’re all making some money if that’s all you care about. They’re not playing for history. They’re not playing for legacy. And they they their their their careers have really subsided. So, how do you see this eventually? Because I I think all of us would love to see all of the best players on one tour, right? I think that that’s the thing. How do you eventually see these two sides coming together? Because like I said, Liv took their shot and it was it was damaging to the PJ tour. And then we had all these other stories that we talked about and the ratings are up. The PGA is not so interested in making this happen until it’s really favorable for them at this point. Yeah, I don’t see them coming together. I really don’t. You know, they’re going to separate about this for almost two years now and longer than that. Then they’re going to exist as two different two different entities. You know, even even when people were saying that the PGA Tour was damaged by the Exodus to live by, you know, a dozen players or so, I was suspicious of the ratings being down. I didn’t buy it because they were they were essentially uh rating television broadcast using old criteria, old metrics of just linear TV. Well, that’s not how almost anybody consumes sports these days. They’re on an iPad, they’re on their phone, you know, they’re all over the place. Multiscreening, they are. And so when they when they went back and re-evaluated last year’s and the year before using the same way that they decide who’s watching this year, the same ratings last year was up 20%, the year before was up 15%. In spite of the narrative that it was down, it made no sense to me that it could be down. The game was bursting at the seams recreationally. How could it be down professionally? Unless people were turned off at the prevalence of greed in the game of golf, which people were, but golfers still have golf on. Golf Channel’s in every restaurant I go to. It’s in every single club I go to. It’s in the gyms that I go to. It’s everywhere because you know what? Nobody dies on the golf channel. And everything else is so divisive in the world. You don’t want to turn it on. You get pissed off. So, you put on sports. This is why we watch sports. It’s the last thing that tells the truth. Nobody tells the truth in anything. Nobody anywhere. Where can you find the truth? You know what tells the truth? Sport. I can turn it on and I know that guy or that girl is better than that guy or that girl. You know, I know who the best team is. I know who the best quarterback is. You know, I know who the best golfer is. It tells the truth. Uh it’s about merit and and we draw entertainment from that. But it’s also, you know, it also, I think, it communicates values when you watch sport. And there are not many places in the world where you can watch that uh and drive that kind of interest from it. Yeah. By the way, that’s why we created this podcast because we were tired of the divisiveness and the screaming and the argument and the [ __ ] I mean, the name of this podcast is Straight Facts. Straight facts, homie. Because we want to get to the things that make you more interested in the game and make you smarter when you watch the game. That that’s what we’re trying to do here instead of the screaming. This is what I think. Give a [ __ ] what you think to be perfectly honest and I don’t want to hear you screaming at me. The other thing that this leads to next, what’s going to happen in a couple of weeks at Beth Page Black and that’s the writer cap. And for clarification, we are taping this the day before uh Luke Donald announced his captain’s picks. The good news for the US is that uh the last two times the Ryder Cup has been on US soil, we won it 2016 at Hazeline, 2021 at Whistling Straits, where that was really Scotty Shuffler’s coming out party. people forget he was the anchor match against John Rahm and it was the only one of the US players that had a lower world ranking than the European player and John and Scotty went out there and just spanked him and I was like okay this this kid’s going to be something here. Where is your optimism on the US making it a third straight win on home soil? Uh I’m not as optimistic as the blowouts have been. The last five RDER cups have been won by the home team and been won by an average of almost seven points. They’ve been absolute blowouts. So, first and foremost, I just hope it’s close because I want something compelling to happen on Sunday. But I think, you know, strategically, the advantage that the home teams have had have been setting up the golf course to, you know, play to the strengths of their team and expose the weaknesses of the away team. And they’ve been successful at that. But it used to be just that the US team drove it more wild but longer and they were better wedge players. But they no longer, you know, can set up a golf course with no rough because it’s they’ve got more straight drivers now. You know, Tiger and Phil and Fen and Bubba, you know, they’re not on the team. Dustin Johnson, Brooks, they’re not on the teams. So, you don’t have these long and crooked drivers on the team where you set it up wide open and these guys can get out there and just get after it. So, if they set it up that way, it serves no advantage to the US team. So they I feel like they’ve lost their advantage and being able to set a golf course up in such a way that it plays to the US team. Now the home advantage is a point or two. It’s about it’s about two points. So they do have that. They have the world ranking advantage which has proved no advantage whatsoever over the course of their history. Uh because Europe just, you know, always goes in hugely underranked and and you know, the the the the underdog and and they just they they put teams together far better than the US. They use statistics far better than the US. They are just way way beyond the ability of the US teams to understand the metrics that are important to putting teams together, picking them, pairing them, and preparing them for the Ryder Cup. So, I feel like Europe’s going to give the US team uh a very good RDER Cup. It’s going to I feel like it’s going to be tight. I feel like Europe could win it. Uh but, you know, um hopefully it’s just it’s close. I I would like I would like to see it close. But, you know, the European team has been strategically playing a lot of golf over here in the US and getting used to the crowds and they have some very I would say favorite players. And as much as people want to say that New York’s going to be, you know, uh, a mess and chaotic, there’s going to be plenty of Europeans there and there’s a huge Irish contention in and around New York. So, I don’t know that Europe is going to be under represented in that crowd. Well, to your point just about the camaraderie thing and and I think that comes from so many of these guys that, you know, base themselves in where you are in Arizona or Florida, they but they they come from Europe. Just the way like guys like Justin Rose hung around to see Tommy Fleetwood finally break through. You just don’t get that same sense from the US team. Like I remember years ago when the you might have been for the 96 or 97 RDER Cup at at Oak Hill 95 95 95 they flew over on the Concord and they left an empty seat for the for the Ryder Cup that they were going to bring back with them. There is a sense of teamwork and working together and being bonded in this together that I think is very different for the Europeans than it is for the Americans. Yeah. I mean the US, you know, they consistently make mistakes in the picks of their players. They consistently make mistakes in the pairing of their players and preparing their players. And Europe is as good at it as the US is bad at it. Yeah. And and if you just go back to you can go all the way back to the beginning when the US first started picking players. If we just go back to 2012 from then to now going from four picks to six picks the United States picks. Okay, these are guys that they thought about thought we got to fill out our team. They are 30 49 and 8. That ain’t good. 49 and eighth. And the European team has a winning record with their picks. Indeed, going all the way back to when the US first started picking players, uh, the US has a losing record with their picks and Europe has a winning record. Uh, and which begs the question, you know, why for live from Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I’m going to go into, you know, great detail as to where they go wrong with these picks, how they go wrong with these picks, and and try to, you know, peel back the layers on how the US so consistently gets it wrong, uh, and Europe so consistently gets it right. And and you know I’ll give you one and this is this is really nuance but if you go back to the last RDER cup at Rome and you probably know this you were there you probably heard this but know the first hole at Rome was a dog leg left the last hole at Rome was a dog leg left. Now generally speaking if you win the first hole not generally specifically see if you win the first hole you have about a 60% chance of winning the match. That’s how important the first hole is. And if you win the first match of the RDER Cup, that has been a 68% uh predictor of who wins the Ryder Cup. That’s how important the first hole is. That’s how important the first match is in the first session. Okay. So, what did Europe do? Knowing the importance of the first hole and knowing the importance of finding the fairway, chose players that could work the ball right to left. The US picks like a Brooks Kepka uh and and their player, they put out a lot of players that work the ball left to right. So they, if you go back and watch, they hit it in the right rough. They lost the first hole. They lost heavily like got swept and they lost the rder cup. Carrying that forward going to the last hole, which is a dog leg left. Again, that’s why they chose and wanted players that could work the ball right to left to find that fairway. That’s that’s just one little detail that Europe pays attention to that the United States consistently misses. So, you know, they’re going to have their hands full because I promise you Luke Donald and his team will have thought about things that the US team hasn’t thought about. Yeah. And I I do think the Europeans also have a huge advantage because we play the President’s Cup. I mean, they get two years to get stirred up for this thing. And the US players do this every year. Look, I I enjoy the President’s Cup. I like watching it. I think it’s fun, you know, but it’s not the Ryder Cup. It is a is not the same thing at all. And I think that wears on the US players having to do this every year. Yeah. Well, it’s true. You know, the President’s Cup just hasn’t resonated uh yet just because the international team doesn’t beat the US team. So, there’s not this rivalry, but in the same way that the US, well, in a different way, the US has this President’s Cup. Europe plays the Sevy Trophy. And the Sevy Trophy is is not just some frivolous competition that Europe plays. It is how they prepare for the RDER Cup. So, they try out captains, they try out assistant captains, they’re looking at potential teams, they’re looking at potential players. They bring them into a room and they talk at length about what it means to be in the RDER Cup. So, it’s preparation for the RDER Cup. It’s not just another competition. It’s more preparation for the RDER Cup. So, in essence, it’s like, you know, uh, you know, pre-season uh game uh for Europe. And they and they use it to test out those theories and those teams. Yeah, it’s it’s my favorite sporting event in the world. Nothing Super Bowl ever open really championship. Oh, the Ryder Cup is my favorite thing. Well, I it’s the only place I know where millionaires play for free. I mean, you think about it. That’s an issue though. They’re not Well, well, right. But I mean, like insisted they get paid. Yeah. And I and I get that. And that but that goes back to the 99 Ryder Cup at Brooklyn, you know, where David Duval and people said, “Well, why are we doing this for free?” And then he they got caught up and they realized that’s why you’re doing it because it’s the greatest [ __ ] thing of all time. But the Rder Cup is by far my favorite thing. And you know, obviously the hot topic going in was would Keegan pick himself? I wanted him to pick himself, understanding fully that it might have been impossible for him to really control everything he needs to control as a captain, but there’s no doubt in my mind he’s one of our top 10 players, let alone top 12. I mean, I’ve seen the Keegan Death stare, okay? I seen him go after Miguel and El Jimenez when he dared talk to his Gaddy those years ago, you know, like that’s what we need on this team. I thought that’s what the US needed because there there’s so many new faces on this squad. I think he when I heard his explanation, I respected it the way he the way he said it. When he said, “Look, they offered me the job to be the captain, and if I’m going to accept that job, I can’t play and do that.” I understand that, but god, I wish he was on the team. Yeah. You know, the thing that Europe’s been able to do is find sparks in players and in captains. So, Sevy was a huge spark that team. They they honor his legacy at every single RDER Cup. But so was Colin Montgomery and and so was Ian Palter and for one year in Ireland, so was Darren Clark. the US has failed to find a spark, you know, an overwhelming sense of passion in the RDER Cup. You know, the US, there’s more a sense that Europe’s doing it for the honor and the US seems like they’re doing it for the obligation. And so, when you see someone come along like a Keegan Bradley who has the potential to have infectious passion permeate a team, can he make a bigger impact as a player, as as a coach? And I I would just argue that he’s got potential to have a bigger impact as a coach because his passion can be there at every single session and he can set the timber and the tone Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. The US consistently makes mistakes in the media room. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, they give the Europeans billboard material. And so I think you know his and I thought he did a great job on the day that he announced his team handling all the different questions. So, if he went out there as a player and a captain, he would probably have to pair himself early. So, he’d have to be in probably the first or second match. And if they beat him, so you think about the momentum that they would gain from beating their most passionate player and beating their captain and the distraction it would cause because the entire week would be more about Keegan than the team. Why did you pick? Where are you going to play? and it would it would sort of send a message uh you know it would just sort of waft in there that it’s it’s all about the captain as a player as opposed to the team. So I think he did the right thing and I I almost felt like if he wins this Ryder Cup he may well have won it by not choosing himself and and and choosing Cameron Young because that that you know that’s that’s where it was. If he played it was probably not going to be Cameron Young and if he didn’t it’s Cameron Young. That to me sends a message to the team. Personal sacrifice for the collective good of the team is the kind of things that gets teams wanting to run through a wall for the captain. I hope you’re right because the irony here is if anybody else had been the captain in 2023, he’s probably on the Rome team. No doubt. And if he’s and so and because he didn’t make the Rome team, he probably thought his competitive days were over. So that’s why he probably accepted the captaincy. And then if anybody else was the captain this year, they would have picked Keegan. So he’s missed out on two just on the weirdest of circumstances which is unfortunate for him. But I think when his career is over he’s played now he can say he was the captain. I mean being a captain of a RDER Cup team is a is a is a a great one of the greatest honors in the game of golf. Uh you know getting in the Hall of Fame being a captain of a Ryder Cup team. I mean as a player that’s the two highest you know places you could ascend to in the game. and uh and you know he’s you know he’s got a ways to get into the Hall of Fame I think but uh but being a name to captain is you know I think that’s a testament to his passion that he’s shown it’s a testament to the success he had early on in 2012 at the RDER Cup and the fact that you know he so visibly was hurt by not being picked and in an era where it was hard to find passion you know Phil left Tiger didn’t want to be the captain for reasons I can’t quite discern I don’t know why Tiger didn’t want to be the captain of this team but maybe it’s cuz he’s busy you know with his dude on boards or whatever. So, and you know, they overlooked David Deval. They they didn’t choose Marco Mayer. They didn’t choose Justin Leonard. So, there were, you know, there were other picks that were more obvious, but I think, you know, because of the the full swing Netflix video where Keegan was so obviously distressed about not being picked, but also showed so much passion for the Ryder Cup was enough. They were like, “Hey, we got our guy. We got a guy here who lives, sleeps, breathes, and eats the Ryder Cup. Let’s pick him.” My favorite Rder Cup memory that isn’t the US winning has to be 2014 when the Welshman Jamie Donaldson sunk the winning putt for them to win in 2014. And if you I’m sure you’ve seen this interview. They interview him the next morning. Can you believe that you sunk the winning putt? He goes, “Nope, cuz I’m still drunk. Still absolutely hammered.” Look, the Europeans know how to party. I mean, my favorite was Tommy Fleetwood, Francisco Molinari after the 2018. Yeah. In France. Yeah. They they woke up. The European social media team put that video together of them together in the bed. Yeah. In the bed with the RDER Cup. Good for you. Yeah. It was awesome. It was great for me. Course they beat they beat Tiger and Bryson and you know I mean it was it was just an epic week for them. Yeah. Well, the weirdest stat of all time is the two the two US players that have the most Rder Cup losses are Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods. I like you just you can’t you can’t make that [ __ ] up. You know what I mean? No, it boggles the mind. I mean, even when you start to look at, you know, Tiger’s individual record, not individual, his team record. This is what I mean by they just could never solve the problem of who is going to play with Tiger Woods, which, you know, you would think that’s a huge advantage. You got Tiger Woods, uh, you know, as your teammate. He was, what was he? He I think he played and won one, sorry, he won eight matches. I’ll find it here in a minute. Yeah, I think it was 81 19 and2 was his team record. It’s just ridiculous. 19 and2 you think? Yeah. No, sorry. It was 919 and two. So this is what I mean by us never found a spark. You pair Tiger Woods with you know Marco Mirror, Paul Azinger, Mark Calvet, Davis Love, Phil Mickelson. Oh that was a disaster when Hal Sutton did that. Paired those two together. What were you thinking? But but it was you couldn’t find a pairing for Tiger. 9/119-2. Sevy with his teammates was 188 and3. Now you’re talking about in Tiger arguably the greatest match play player of all time. He you know so what Sevy would do, Sevy would take a rookie or he would take one of the lowest ranked players on the team and he would whisper in their ear, put his arm around them telling them you are the best player, you’re unbelievable. Do you have any idea how good you are? And you know at days in they thought they were bulletproof. You know, he would take Sevy took players like the I mean you you know I mean if you’re a golf nut you’d know these names but he took Antonio Gerrio he took Paul Wei he took Manuel Panero now he took Jose Maria Alathabo when he was a rookie and he was 43rd in the world but later on he took David Guilford who was 58th in the world. Okay so you know you compare how Sebie was as a teammate versus Tiger. Tiger intimidated even his own playing partners. There was no fault of his own. But you know, one thing I I know is like tormentors rarely make great mentors. Sevy was a mentor. Tiger just intimidated everybody. And that’s just one of their problems. They could never get a spark out of Tiger. They could never get a spark out of Phil. And you know that echoed into the future. Yeah. Well, hopefully the home streak thing continues. I just want it to be again compelling. I remember when I was at the ble all those years in the 80s, I would wake up just to watch it. I thought it was the most fascinating thing I’ve ever seen. The war at the shore in ‘ 91, obviously what happened in Brooklyn. It’s all been terrific. Brand, this has been great. I appreciate your time. Before we leave, since we were stuck on Tiger, I’ve mentioned this story a bunch of times, but I want you to tell it. 2000 Open, you came in feeling pretty good about your game, and you found out on the range before the first round that you had no chance. Well, I was hitting balls Tuesday. I had a really good friend of mine who had played the tour in the late 60s and early 70s, fellow by the name of Jack Harden who was good friends with Butch Harmon. And Butch was right beside us because Tiger was hitting balls behind me. And I was oblivious. I was just grinding away. And my friend Jack was watching Tiger. Not watching me, he was watching Tiger. And Butch kept looking at him like, “Can you believe what we’re watching?” And you know, again, this is Tuesday of the week. And Jack, you know, he always called me pro. and he came up to me and kind of whispered. He goes, “Hey, pro.” He goes, “If you don’t stop what you’re doing right now and turn around and watch what’s going on behind you, you will have missed the greatest show in the history of golf.” He goes, “Look, I know.” He goes, “I know you’re playing good. I know you’re grinding. I know you think you’re going to kick ass this week.” He’s like, “But you need to just stop.” And so I did. I stopped. And Jack and I just sat there and Butch wasn’t saying a word. Butch was just looking at us, you know, just, you know, his eyes were huge because it was it was, you know, you’ve watched a million guys hit golf balls, but every single shot was absolutely flush, murdered, you know, had that sound, had that click, every one of them flew through the same window. Everyone was just cleaving the air and had the same turn and falling and he worked his way through. So, it’s, you know, he had this real uh it was a slow back swing, smooth and slow and gathered at the top and then just the most violence you could ever imagine at impact and then he’d finish like Mikuel Berishnikov, you know, just this most graceful looking finish. No violent finish, but what happened in between the back swing uh you know, the top of the back swing and and his finish was just nothing but violence. And I watched for about 30 minutes, perfect divots, clipping them off. And now he had played a practice round that morning with Marco uh and John Cook and he had shot 643 or something. And they all came in the locker room and they were like, “Nobody in this field has a chance to win the tournament. The tournament is over.” And it’s the greatest prediction like ever. And they were like, “It is over. Nobody’s winning. Okay, you’re we’re all playing for second.” And you know, Tack and I that night sat at dinner like have you ever seen anything like that? I was like I turn around and hit golf balls and I felt like I was hitting a marsh. I I couldn’t have felt more impotent, you know, out there hitting shots and we went to dinner that night. I was like, “No, I’ve never seen anything like that. It is the most amazing thing.” He shot 65 the first round and I mean it was over before he hit a ball, but 65 the first round and then off he went. I’ll give you one shot though. I finished early I think on Thursday and I got in. It was on TV and the 12th hole is like an impossible green to hit just trying to hit. Yeah. And the imagine a US Open though and so you know rockh hard grain pin was over that left bunker slopes away from you and it’s maybe it might be six steps deep over there. It might be six steps deep. So I I got up there and I think it was a foreign for me and I was just trying to run it up on the front and I sky drew a foreign. It landed short and it just went right through the green. Okay. And so Tiger stood on that tee and I was like okay hot dog. Let’s see what you got. I just want to see if you can stop it on this green. Like let’s see. cuz it, you know, I had played with him a few times, but anyway, I think he hit a stick sir and he, you know, you could see he was rehearsing these real high finishes and he just guided it way up in the ionosphere and it came down and stopped like eight feet and I was like, “Good lord, nobody in the world. Nobody could.” That’s like, you know, David Copperfield stuff. Like, nobody can do that. And then he made it. Uh, and I was like, “Yeah, it’s over. You can’t you can’t beat him.” Uh, yeah. I mean, it’s the greatest golf uh the game’s ever seen, you know. I mean, I you know, we talk about what Scotty Sheffller’s doing right now. It’s the closest thing to Tiger, but there’s as much distance between what Scotty Sheffller is doing right now and what Tiger did at his best as there is between Scotty Sheffller right now and everybody else in the world of golf. That’s how much better Tiger was at his best in 2000 in 2007 to Scotty Sheffller. 12 under was the score. Second place was three over. He beat the field by 15. And I’ll die on this hill that the Tiger 2000 season is the greatest season by any athlete in any sport and it’s not close. Well, that’s that’s impressive. I mean, you obviously you know other sports a million times better than I do. I mean, I I know one sport basically, but I have tried to find comparable There isn’t one. I mean, I think he set the scoring record in all three majors that he won that year at the time. Obviously, they’ve changed. You have to go to a horse. Yeah. You know, you got to go to Secretariat and that’s it. I mean, that’s the, you know, to to win by 15, you know, maybe Usain Bolt in the 100 meters, you could go there. You know, from a percentage standpoint, it it works out about the same percentage that he was beating his closest competitor in time. But it’s it’s it’s without a doubt the the single greatest golf year. And I’m not just talking about because of the score, because it of course over time scores get lower, players shoot lower scores. That’s not how you judge whether Jack Nicholas was better than Tiger Woods or Tiger was better than Ben Hogan. That’s not how you do it. You do it in the score, but in the differential to the competition. How much was he beating his competition by? And then you can compare eras and generations. And so if you do that, I’m not just looking at his raw score. I’m looking at the difference between him and everybody else. And he was demonstrabably the best. And he was better than Jones. He was better than Hogan. And at his best, he was better than Jack. Now, would you rather have Jack Nicholas’s career or would you rather have Tiger Wood’s career? Which would you rather have, Trey? I think Tiger’s the greatest player in the history of the game. So, you’d take Tiger’s career. I would take Tiger’s career. Yeah. I would take the longevity of Jack’s without all the chaos that came with Tiger being, you know, just an absolute freak show. You know, Jack wasn’t far behind at his best, Tiger’s best. But even Jack would say he never had Tiger short game. No, he didn’t. You know, Jack Jack, you know, I hear all these stories about Jack not having a great short game. There’s no metric for us to definitively say that. I feel like it was just because he was so good elsewhere. Somebody was taking a knock at him. I go back and I watch videos of all these. I don’t see Jack hitting poor pitches or poor chips or poor bunker shots. I don’t see the evidence of him being a bad short game, but the evidence of Tiger being brilliant is is everywhere and it’s captured the way it’s everywhere. It’s everywhere and it’s it’s under Yeah. And we we should end on this. This is a nugget I got from Justin Ray a few years ago. Scotty running away with the tour scoring title this year at 68.1. It would be the fifth best all time behind Tiger 2000, Tiger 2007, Tiger 2009, Tiger 2006. And then also Tiger is sixth and seventh. So Scotty Sheffller is five, Tiger is one, two, three, four, six, and seven on the lowest scoring rounds ever in the history of the PJ tour. There you have it. That’s interesting. I mean, I I would not argue with Jay, but uh I don’t, you know, I don’t I don’t have those same numbers, but I’m not going to argue with Jay. You know, I’ve got him third of all time and only 2000 and 2007 uh what is it? 794, I think, was his scoring average in those years. Well, that might have been I mean to be to be fair, this was before one of the last couple of events of the year, so it might have fluctuated one way or the other. Yeah. Well, there’s also two ways to do it. You can do actual scoring average or you can do adjusted scoring average. So, there’s a lot of ways to do it, but it’s clear that we’re witnessing the most dominant player since Tiger Woods. Uh, and and what he’s done eclipse some of the years of Tiger Woods. That’s saying a lot. When we’ve had in that interim from 2010 to now, we’ve had Jordan Speed, we’ve had Roy Moy, we’ve had Brooks Kepka, we’ve had Dustin Johnson, we’ve had some some spectacular players come along and and Scotty, what he’s doing right now eclipses anything that they they did. Absolutely. Just do it for a decade and then we’ll have conversation. But on the way to being Tiger Woods, correct? This is what it looked like, you know. Correct. The difference also is this is Scotty at 29 and Tiger had that eight-year advantage in terms of you know how much faster he got started. Taking nothing away from Scotty. I want to be clear. It’s been just trying to put it in perspective for everybody. It’s what we do. Brand always a pleasure. Love chopping it up with you and somebody out there that’s listening. Find someone that loves you the way Aean Lynch loves Brandle Shampoo. That’s my favorite part of this podcast right there. And he’s going to be so angry at me for saying that and I don’t. He he he loves to deny it. He’s he’s jealous of our ability to find fair weights. It’s like Tiger. The evidence is there. So, that’s it for this episode of Straight Facts, Homie. Our thanks to Brandon Shambbley for joining us. And by the way, don’t forget you like what you see, like and subscribe. We’re on YouTube. Plus, we’re on all the uh podcast platforms, Amazon, Spotify, Apple, you name it, it’s there. Tell your friends because we want to make sure you’re informed as a sports fan. Not yelled at, not talked down to, not waggled your finger at. You’re informed here because we want to give you the information because that’s what we do on Straight Facts Homie. Once again, thanks to Brandle Shambbley. Thanks for watching everybody. Like and subscribe on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. We’re out there everywhere. We’ll see you soon.