After Ryder Cup debacle, is golf really ready to be a mainstream sport? | Golf Channel Podcast

After Ryder Cup debacle, is golf really ready to be a mainstream sport? | Golf Channel Podcast

Hello and welcome into this edition of the Golf Show podcast with Rex and Lav. Hope your October are off to a very good start. First, a word of thanks for this podcast. Uh Rex, we got some numbers back on the pod performance month over month. We’re absolutely crushing it. Double digit gains year-over-year across the boards. You guys are really responding to the product, especially here on YouTube. It is much appreciated. So, keep tapping in, keep subscribing, keep commenting. Let’s take this thing to the moon. How’s it going today, Rex? Uh, better than you. You were the vision of fall golf. You’ve let the beard come in a little bit thicker than what it normally is. You sound like you wore that victory on Monday night. Your beloved Jags beat the Kansas City Chiefs in what was an epic showdown. Your skyscraper fell down not once, but twice on his way to the in zone for the winning touchdown. I I do want to touch on that, but your voice uh doesn’t sound great. So, I’m going to go ahead and and carry this. And where where did you want us to go with this? Because you asked me off the top like what were you thinking? Where did you think we were going to go with this? No, I need I need to stand up for myself. This has nothing to do with what happened on Monday night here in Jacksonville. I’ve been dealing with a cold for a couple of days now. My wife also under the weather. This is your run-of-the-mill cold. This is what happens when the weather finally dips below 90° and when you have two kids in school, this is bound to happen. I I feel better than I sound, but I am dreading the golf today roundtable that you and I have. At 3:30, we’re gonna be dealing with all of Aean Lynch’s conspiracy theories. Hopefully, a little bit of green tea and some throat lozenes will improve upon that. I did I did first want to get into the continued Ryder Cup fall and that’s like a segue to to get into what happened on Tuesday. You were part of the captain’s media availability for the 2026 President’s Cup. Thank you to the PJ tour for sending out the beatty stuff that arrived in our mailbox. It’s very conveniently the Monday after the RDER Cup. How much I’m curious Rex in talking to Brandt Snedker who’s the team USA captain and Jeff Ogulvie who is the international team captain. How much was the recent Ryder Cup and what happened there a talking point for the discussion among the media? I I’m glad you brought that up and and I do want to address it. It was an interesting conversation. And I think both of those captains are going to be so fascinating over the next year because I just love how both of them sort of process information. Certainly Jeff Oggov, he’s redesigned Madina. So the thought process of him going in to what is what I really feel like is a pivotal moment for the President’s Cup. I don’t feel like talking about that right now. I feel like falling back on what we’ve talked about really for the last two weeks, which was the fallout, as you put it, from the Ryder Cup. There was more scuffling back and forth last week that PG of America president Don Ray Jr. had come out with an apology to the membership. Uh some people felt like that apology fell short. I think the part that people get caught up in is it seems as if the PG of America keeps wanting to circle around back to the idea that oh well it happened in Rome two years ago and you and I both were in Rome and you and I both were at Beth Page and I think you and I both are going to agree that those were two vastly different atmospheres. You can’t compare anything to what we experienced at Beth Page. I say all this only to point to a video that’s on social media right now. And I suggest anybody that has an interest is go go look at this video. And it’s Baker Mayfield, the star quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And he’s in the tunnel clearly waiting to go out and he gets jawing back and forth with a fan. And I would suggest you don’t do this at work. You certainly don’t have the sound up if you listen to it at work. I wouldn’t even do it on a work phone. Don’t do it around small children because it’s very much not G-rated. It is a just a vile exchange between star quarterback and what I can only assume is a drunken fan. And I went back immediately to the idea that that was awful. No one should be subjected to that. But Baker Mayfield understands, yeah, this is my this is my lot in life. If I want to be an NFL quarterback, sometimes I got to hear this nasty nonsense and sometimes I’m going to give it back. I don’t want anybody to make excuses for what happened at Beth Page. It was disgusting. No one should have had to go through that. But I keep falling back on the idea if golf ever wants to be a mainstream sport, we need to stop clutching the pearls on this one. But isn’t golf entirely different? Like that was a extenduating circumstances in a football game where the players are typically not near the fans in in close proximity, but that’s the point. He’s right next to a player going into the tunnel heading onto the field. When you’re on the field, you can’t hear individual barbs about your wife, about some rumors, about your parents, about your friends, about your weight, like whatever the case may be. It’s all sort of drowned out in a sea in a cacophony of noise and 60,000 fans in a jam-packed stadium. You can’t single out individual barb. Same thing in an NBA stadium. Yes, you are close along the sideline, but 60,000 fans or an NBA stadium, but 20,000 fans are all shouting at once, particularly when you’re trying to to make a free throw. That’s different where golf, it doesn’t lend itself to that sort of continued and sustained noise. And so individual barbs, abusive taunts, those tend to stand out when again you don’t have like the the the backbone and the backbeat of constant noise. I would strongly disagree with your first part that I I don’t think it does. I don’t think those barbs get drowned out by the cacophony of a stadium. I think if we were to have any professional athlete on this podcast, they would tell you that, “Yeah, man. I I heard stuff from the crowd all the time and sometimes it got to you and most times not more than not athletes tend to ignore it. Just look at the NBA last year. How many exchanges did we have between star players and fans last year in the NBA where they’re barking back and forth at each other? LeBron James was involved in one of those episodes. So, I don’t buy the notion that no, no, no, it’s drowned out. It’s just white noise at that point. And and if that’s the case, then I think you and I both walking inside the ropes at Beth Page, there was a certain amount of white noise when it came to being inside. Certainly when you got on the other side of whatever the name of that road was on a Palmer Road, I think is what they renamed it, but it was it was called Round Swamp Road. That’s that’s the name of the road. Once you got on the the the club side of Round Swamp Road, I I think there was a cacophony of noise there. Again, I’m not saying this is direction golf should go. I’m not saying that this is a good idea because you’re right, golf should be different. Rory is right. Golf should be above this. But if private equity wants to move this to the next level, which I think is a safe assumption that what they want to do with their billions of dollars and in the investment in the PGA tour and live golf, then one of those sort of unintended consequences is going to be what we ran into at B Page. Another difference though in an NBA stadium, if LeBron James is jawing with a fan, what happens with the NBA stadium security? they immediately go to that fan, not just remove him from the game, but very likely are going to kick them out for the remainder of the season if they’re a season ticket holder. That happened to Beth Pa. There was plenty of fans got kicked out. Not that many fans got kicked out. And they only got kicked out after what, two hours of just a torrent of abuse that Roy Mroy was subjected to on that Saturday afternoon. So, I do think there’s a little bit of a difference there. This does lead me into another discussion that Kam Morawa actually brought up on Wednesday in Japan. He’s playing in the Bay Current Classic uh the no cut uh event on the PJ tour. It’s the first time he’s played of course since going 02 and one at the Ryder Cup. But if you remember in the leadup to the matches at Beth Page, when he had his uh press conferences, every player did, he said that the crowds, at least during the practice rounds at Beth Page, were kind of lame, a little bit tame, and he wanted quote chaos to rain down uh during the matches at Beth Page because he thought that the American players could then use that energy to their advantage. The whole the whole point of having it in New York was to have it be loud and have it be difficult. He said, however, though, Rex, on Wednesday, he did not mean for this to cross the line. He was not saying that he wanted the fans to be rude. He takes zero responsibility for what actually transpired after his comment, which I think could be viewed as some as instigating or initiating some sort of quote chaos. You buy in that? Do you agree with that? K Morawa or anybody else bear any responsibility for that? I don’t think Kamura Kawa had any idea of how bad it would be. I don’t think the PG of America had any idea of how bad it would be. You wanted the crowds. That was the whole reason for bringing that tournament to Beth Paige. It was the whole reason why in 2013 the PG of America wanted to do it because they knew the spectacle, the event it would become. It would essentially move the Ryder Cup to the next level. But no one wanted it to go in that direction. Consequences, but consequences nonetheless. I think to to pull back the curtain a little bit when I interviewed the the CEO of the PG of America last week, I I asked you for some just some ideas for questions because we were going to get about 12 minutes with him and I wanted the questions to be as concise and yours was probably the best you sent me and it was the buildup. I’m paraphrasing here. I don’t remember exactly what the question was. The buildup to this was you we wanted you wanted the PG of America wanted loud. You wanted rockish. You wanted everything New York could possibly bring. Do you bear any responsibility for what happened? I found that the answer was a little dismissive simply because there is a level of trying to to not take responsibility for something that I think many people on that side of the ledger don’t think was wrong. Uh I I think you’re I think you’re right. And if you read the YouTube uh comment section on that podcast, again, I thought the the interview was very well done. Derek Sprag did not come off um well according to our fans. They thought that he was aloof. They thought that he was sort of u going round and route in some of his answers, not taking accountability. Whatever the case may be, I think the PJ of America does bear some responsibility because of the pre-ournament messaging that we saw. And obviously, you single out New York City as a place where the fans are notoriously loud. The fans are notoriously difficult. It is notoriously a difficult place to play. Xander Schoffley said as much on Wednesday in Japan. Knowing that, in my opinion, the PJ of America could have done a better job of preempting some of the abuse that we saw, having more security, being more vigilant, having a sort of a an understanding or at least an outward messaging that you still need to be respectful. And that’s where I think K Morawa was going when he said that he was was asking for chaos. He wasn’t he wasn’t saying chaos in terms of like Roy Moy enduring three days of abuse and Erica Maroy enduring three days of abuse and Shane Lowry being criticized by everybody for his weight or John Rom with the like the the Ozmpic jokes. That was not what K Morawa meant when he said that he wanted chaos. What he meant was that they wanted energy, that they wanted an atmosphere, that when they made birdies, they wanted the place to absolutely be unhinged in a positive way, in an energetic way, not to actually have this vitriolic response. I think I I think his intention was good. And so I don’t think Kyle Morau bears any responsibility whatsoever because that’s how it should have been. Had the Americans played better, I really do think the place could have been absolutely electric. Instead, they didn’t. They faltered. They played poorly. The fans who paid $750 were pissed and they took it out, unfortunately, on their opponents. Yeah, I’m I’m not really worried about what Colin Moa or the PG of America wanted or what they thought they were going to get. This was almost inevitable. And you’re right, the fact that the US team played so poorly for the first two days or was outclassed so much for the first two days certainly didn’t help that situation. But I don’t know why you ever thought it was going to be something other than what it was. Even if it was going to be an American blowout, I would argue that the vitriol would have probably just been louder because that’s what New York fans do. the idea that you want something different than what the New York fan normally dishes out at an event, whether if that’s a Yankees baseball game or, god forbid, I don’t know who goes to New York Jets games, but if they go to a New York Jets game, why you would want to do that, I I would have no idea. That’s not what they do. They don’t sit in those stands and politely clap a good hit. That That’s not the way a New York fan is wired. And I’m not quite sure why everyone on that side of the ledger, again, thought it was going to be something other than what it was. You’re absolutely right. I don’t think Colin Morawa or even the PG of America had anything nefarious in mind when they went into this thinking that yes, what we want is poor Shane Lowry being teased about his weight. Absolutely not. But if you were being realistic, and I think a lot of people now have come around to the idea that yeah, we probably should have expected this. Yeah, I think you’re I think you’re probably right about that. Just to circle back to something with the President’s Cup is Brandt Sedeker was a part of Keegan Bradley’s backroom staff uh at Beth Page. Now he’s going to be captainating his own squad. You look at the odds makers um and who they’re potentially positioning for a 2027 US captain. Brandt Senker is actually among the favorites for that one too, thinking he could potentially get a two-year term. Both teams have some continuity and get something going in that respect. I’m just curious, and I’m sure, you know, we’re only a week and a half removed from the fall from the RDER Cup and he’s still sorting through the wreckage. what what did Brandt Senker not think about the the fans necessarily but about team USA what went right what went wrong what he could potentially learn from that and I I specifically asked Brent because the idea that’s the continuity that the US side is trying to get it’s struggling to get that’s what the task force was supposed to create and it’s been kind of hit and miss sometimes we’ve seen scenarios where this continuity between the President’s Cup and the Ryder Cup is helpful at one point both captains were asked could it be hurtful for the Americans because they have to play every year. I do think it was interesting that Jeff Ogley couldn’t imagine how that was a scenario because in his mind, I’d like to find some way to play an event in the off year just to get our team better prepared for when they go in to the President’s Cup. But I asked Brent specifically, was there anything looking ahead to next year that might have changed based on what happened at Beth Page? And he acknowledged that yeah, there’s always plenty of learning. You’re always going to do the unpacking. There was plenty of unpacking to do when it came to how the golf course was set up. I think that’s probably going to be the focus. Keegan Bradley was pretty open about the idea that they got that wrong. And I think this time around at Madina, I think the focus will be on more what what’s the team you have? Like don’t even count like probably just take your top eight players because I think historically they they produce about 75% of a winning team’s points. So if you take your top eight and what do they do best? I don’t think Keegan Bradley and his stats team did a very good job of taking that in mind when they set up that page. Keegan acknowledged as much. My guess is that was a big part of the conversation for Sned now and going forward to make sure Madina is in the right shape for the team that he has. And I think there’s something also to be said for the other side of the coin was Jeff Ogaly. And I I don’t think any of us should have been surprised by this, but he was asked, “Have you reached out to Luke Donald about maybe trying to pick his brain?” He said, “I had reached out to Luke long before Page.” like he’s been in his ear for a long time trying to figure out whatever the magic formula is that you’ve concocted. Whatever your superpower is, he’s trying to pick it as much as he pick as much as he can from that. And I would anticipate Jeff being a really good captain. I thought the international side has had a lot of really good captains, yet they still can’t get over the hump. But it was fascinating to me talking with both captains yesterday that it was Jeff who seemed to have a lot more interest in what happened at Beth Paige than Sned. And look, Luke Dunl obviously had a lot of things working in his favor that Jeff Oglevie does not. First of all, Roy Moy, John Rom, Tommy Fleetwood, those players are not going to be coming through the door for Jeff Oglev. Secondly, the the Europeans had history. Like they’ve won away Rder Cups before, and when you look at what the Internationals are trying to do, they’ve won uh in the competition just once in 1998. They’ve tied just once in 2003. Look at the ones in the US at least, they have all been blowout. So again, they’ve never won on American soil. And so trying to instill a sense of confidence, a a sense of self-belief among his players for something they have not done before, I think is is one of Jeff Oggovy’s chief challenges. I’m I want to go back to something you said cuz I don’t I don’t quite understand how it could be viewed that the Americans playing in a cup competition every year could be detrimental. I I’m not sure I quite understand that logic. Well, I think and this got brought up on Sunday night at Beth Page. I don’t remember who the reporter was that sort of asked Keegan and a couple of the Americans about the idea that is it almost too much at this point. Every year the Americans are expected to show up at these team events and expected to to perform and there’s always this hyperfocus on it. I didn’t buy into that narrative because on the other side Luke Donald would be the first one to tell you that no part of team Europe’s success is they added that sevy trophy which is essentially a RDER Cup style competition between GB and II and continental Europe because specifically they wanted to get into a routine of this. I I don’t believe that narrative, but certainly it came up and Brandt and Jeff were asked about it and both of them sort of dismiss the idea. I I don’t think it’s overload. I think probably you have certain players who get to this time of year and are tired and would love to have a week off and then you and I see it all the time. They show up on Monday and they’re wearing the uniforms and the chants come from the crowd and suddenly you’re energized and you’re like, I never I never don’t want to play in one of these things. Yeah. I mean, it’s such a great testing site. It’s such a great proving ground particularly for this crop of American players now where you don’t have a lot of ready-made pairings. And so when you flash forward to to 2026 and what could transpire, we don’t have no idea who’s going to be on the team, but there’s a a very real possibility that they’re going to have some new pairings that we did not see just a couple weeks ago at Beth Page. I think in that respect, it’s very good for team USA at large, Ryder Cup and President’s Cup to be getting those sorts of reps. I I do like the appointment of Brandt Senker and I do like the the idea that they shouldn’t be necessarily blowing up Team USA model, you know, going a complete wild card like a Keegan Bradley, going this like absolutely crazy route that Phil Mickelson suggested with with Lou Holtz or or a Coach K. Like that doesn’t make any sense to me. where I thought the PJ of America went wrong was was viewing 2023 as as as as like this inflection point and all of a sudden they had to go to a different direction instead of recognizing that in 2023 first of all nearly all the American team was sick. it was going to be a very difficult uh uh Ryder Cup to win anyway considering the players that they had on that roster and the format they had whether it was Victor Havlin, a Roy Moy, a John Rom, a Terrell Hatton etc. playing in front of 50,000 fans who are screaming at you against you not necessarily trying to insult you but just trying to make it very difficult uh to win. I’m sure there was some insult in there. I I don’t want to absolve the the European fans, but I think but I think by and large it was not as vitriolic as we saw at Beth Page. And so instead of recognizing all of these other factors, and look, Zack Johnson clearly made some mistakes. He made some mistakes with his pairings. I think he made some mistakes with his captain’s picks. Um I think he’d be the first to admit that he probably relied on the old boys club a little bit too much instead of who was playing the best at that time and who was be best fit for that golf course. And so I think instead of recognizing all of those factors and looking at it and just like yeah we probably deserve to lose by five in this RDER cup let’s keep with the process they ended up abandoning that completely and going in a completely random direction. So, I do think that Brandt Sedker’s appointment first in the President’s Cup and whoever they eventually made uh make for the 2027 Ryder Cup, I do think will be a return to the task forcian era because I do think there’s something to be said for continuity for essentially passing down a playbook from one cup to the next. And and I think that’s what Europe’s greatest success has been is is is having a proven plan that they’re making slight tweaks and alterations and then motiv motivational tactics built upon that. Not want to I don’t want to get pushed into the corner defending the PG of America on this one. And you’re right, they seem to abandon a plan that you need to let this play out over decades. Not one or two cups, but this needs to play out over decades. The Europeans didn’t get to where they are right now overnight. It’s taken a while. We’ve our colleague Paul McInley will sit and talk for hours about the idea that the playbook has evolved and grown for decades now in Europe. This isn’t something that just came up over the last few years. Now, if you go back to when the decision was made, and you’re right, it was a Zigg when everyone else thought the PG of America was going to Zag, but when they named Keegan Bradley, keep in mind it was very late in the process compared to previous captains being named. And the PG of America had made it clear they were waiting around for Tiger Woods to make a decision. And that was Tiger Woods’s captaincy to take if he wanted it. He decided he didn’t want to take it. There was other things in his life that was dominating his time and he couldn’t focus the way he needed to. And so the PJ of America was probably in a more difficult position than they are now. But they’re kind of in a similar position because now again they’re going to sit and wait to see what Tiger Woods wants to do. Next time around seems obvious, seems clear that it should be Tiger’s turn. Just depends on if he wants it. Yeah, absolutely. Those decisions typically again are made in like the January February range. So we got we have a couple months to sort this out. But again as Rex mentioned that process with Keegan Bradley well they were talking about the PJ championship still trying to get Tiger Woods on board. That would have been in May. Tiger then turned it down and they didn’t announce Keegan Bradley I believe until I believe it was like early August if memory serves maybe maybe late maybe maybe late July somewhere in that range. Obviously atypical obviously did not work out. All right, we have plenty of golfy golf stuff. Bay Current is in Japan. They’re dealing with a tyco a typhoon. Burko has got to be absolutely on edge. Waiting to see how that one plays out. We also have the season ending corn ferry tour championship uh here at the other course at TBC Sawrass. Uh Rex, that one the top 20 in the points. Not top 25 will be getting PJ tour cards for next season. So we’ll obviously break that down on next week’s recap show. But how about some of this silly season stuff that came out earlier this week? Starting first with the Skins game, a throwback to my youth. Uh Keegan Bradley, the the past Rder Cup captain, Tommy Fleetwood, the RDA Cup hero, Xander Schoffé, and Justin Thomas, who are part of Team USA as well, will team up in this made for TV event 9:00 a.m. on Black Friday streaming on Amazon Prime Video. you excited for this one? I’m excited just because of Amazon’s interested in golf. I think that changes a lot of things because so now all of a sudden you see it in other sports where Amazon has sort of put its flag in the ground when it comes to the NFL with the Thursday night game and they’ve done a really impressive job at it. Now Apple is involved with sports. They have MLS, they have baseball games. I I think what you’re seeing is a step into the future and I’m always fascinated by that. the idea that the way you the way the fan now digests golf. The way they consume the content of golf, it’s it’s been that way for since the beginning of time. It’s it’s on a TV. It’s sitting in your living room. It’s my father-in-law who struggles with the remote control sometime. It’s this is a step beyond that. And I think it’s also proven. You pointed out the skins game, the TGL schedule also came out next year. And I think this goes into that conversation where TGL kind of tinkered with their format a little bit. They’ve got some prime time games now on Sunday nights instead of just Monday and Tuesday night. And it that is less so than the prime sort of element of this. If Prime really wants to get into to the golf game, this could change really the way golf is consumed. In my mind though, when you look at what TGL is able to do, they’ve able to present this package essentially to their media partners and the media partners have been able to massage it. I think that’s an interesting move as well. Yeah, it certainly is. I think as it relates to to Amazon, it’s not just the Skins game that they’re going to be having on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Keep in mind, remember, they’re also streaming those. Yeah, they also have the the two NFL games uh on on Black Friday as well. So, it’s going to be a jam-packed day. Al, keep in mind, Amazon has also dabbled into the Masters coverage that was new for 2026. Two hours of streaming coverage each day leading into the Masters. So, I think their intentions are pretty clear. I’m I’m nostalgic about this. It’s like I I remember watching it. Uh I remember really enjoying it. It does feel like the the landscape is is is on the verge, if it hasn’t already, of being oversaturated. like there’s there’s there’s so much golf and there’s this narrative that you and I have talked about that there’s probably too much PJ tour golf that if anything if you want to make the PJ tour product stronger you need to be eliminating events not adding events and so the more that you get in the fall when we’re supposed to not be seeing these players when we’re supposed to be missing golf when we’re supposed to be missing these players when we absolutely cannot wait for the calendar to turn so that the PJ tour can begin again. But all of a sudden, they’re popping up at various sort of one-off events throughout the fall. I think it does dilute it just a little bit more. That said, I’m willing to give this a chance. I’ll definitely be watching just because I it’s something it’s something different. Again, it hearkens back to my youth. I may hate it within the first 15 minutes and turn it off, but I’m at least going to give it a try. No, I’m kind of with you. It does seem we reach a point of oversaturation when it comes to this. However, I would counter the argument and say this feels more like a one-off and we’re starting to see these more in sort of that shoulder programming for the PGA Tour season. Well, I think what you’re referring to has more to do with let’s just start with the fall events. Those seem to be the easiest ones. How much attention is really going to be paid during the fall to PGA Tour events? How much attention is really going to be paid even in the summertime to some PGA Tour events? If you listened to Brian Rolloff, the new CEO of the PGA Tour, he’s made it pretty clear. Yeah. Yeah, if he hasn’t come out right and said it, less is going to be more going forward. And I think that has more to do with PJ Tour events more than sort of these prime time one-offs. Yeah. And that’s why I do think the Golf Channel games that we’ve got that we’re going to be paying attention to about the week before Christmas has potential because it’s at least different, right? It’s a it’s a skills competition type event as opposed to the skills game, excuse me, the Skins game which is just based head-to-head trying to win some more money. You mentioned TJL and the schedule release. I’m throwing it up on the screen now if you’re watching along on YouTube. What you notice a bunch more ESPN, a bunch more late prime time trying to essentially edge out, particularly when you get into late winter, edging out some college basketball games, which could also be in that 7:00 window. I’m sure we’ll be talking more about the TGL season. Keep in mind, it does begin in late December, a couple days after Christmas. What are your expectations? you excited as excited about it as you were for season 1 or is it met with sort of a shrug at this point? No, I’m excited because they proved last season that TGL even during that first season I think you saw them evolved and added technology and things to just not their telecast but to the competition the way they altered the competition essentially med mid-season to add an element to it that maybe they didn’t foresee and I would anticipate them doing the same thing going forward. I think from a technological point of view and again you and I have had Jeff Nubar the executive producer that that does that show for lack of a better term he does the broadcast and if you look at what they’re trying to do it’s fun from a TV perspective because it seems to me they’re on the next page whereas and I’m not even picking on us as Golf Channel or NBC or CBS or anyone else that does golf TGL and ESPN are allowed to do things much differently. They’re allowed to be much more creative. They’re allowed to take some chances that you’re probably not going to see at a PGA Tour event. And my guess is, and I think we’re already starting to see it, a lot of things that we saw at TGL last year will be incorporated into regular PGA Tour events and regular PGA Tour event telecast simply because it is the cutting edge. It seems to me that’s the lab that you want to turn to. There’s a couple of matches. I mean, they’re starting in December, which is a little weird to start your 2026 season in It’s a rematch. It’s a rematch of the SoFi championship. And you’re Atlanta Drive. I assume you’re an Atlanta drive fan. You went to Athens. You’re a Georgia Bulldog. No. Or are you not playing that? I’m a fan of the Jupiter Stinks logo. Uh Jupiter Links. Jupiter Links. You You said it wrong. Jupiter Stinks based on their 2024 2025 performance. I I did want to point to the Jupiter Stinks. I’m I love where you went with that. Jupiter Stinks and the Boston Commons and having Tiger and Rory play together in prime time is going to be just incredible. Those two teams were awful last year, so they’re going to have to find a better way to be relevant. Yeah, I think I think that’s exactly right. If you’re not watching along on YouTube, that match, which TJL has already buil as as a Tiger Rory match of 2026, will be on March 1st, 9:00 p.m. uh Eastern time. I think when you look at like their biggest challenge this year as it relates to TGL and I’m sure we’ll be getting into this more as the winter heads on is like now that the novelty of the technology has has worn off, right? Like the actual like in-game experience of seeing a ball, you know, smack against the screen and seeing how it then plays out. Now that the rosters are exactly the same, barring some sort of lived defection from 2025 to 2026, how are you going to elevate the product? And I still go back to the outcome needing to mean something. In my opinion, that’s why the the PNC, the old fatherson now parent child event works so well because if you watch Tiger and Charlie Woods, they are trying like hell to win their first PNC title. It means something to them. So I think if it means something to the competitors, it’s going to mean something to the audience. And so I’m very curious to see what the reception is going to be like from fans and viewing audiences for season two. Tiger is beat up. He’s recovering from Achilles surgery. Rory has very much made it clear that he is satisfied and that only five events all year long in the world of golf mean something to mean something to him. Four major championships and the Ryder Cup. And so if he’s not getting up for, let’s say, the players championship and he’s not getting up for PJ tour signature events, how could we expect Rory to be getting up for made for TV exhibitions at 9:00 on a Tuesday night? the newness, the novelty has worn off for some of the players as well. Again, I think that’s their biggest challenge is overcoming that and putting a compelling product on TV now that is not brand new and innovative. Actually, you and I being a would probably give him plenty of reasons to be motivated to play in these TGL matches along with Tiger Wood. So, my guess that takes care of that. And I I tend to agree with you if the technology is not going to be the drawing point now. If you’re not going to focus on, oh, that’s neat, watching that ball slam into that that screen and the way the computer can track it and the way the green moves and all of the things that they did last year, I’ll go back to what I argued last year. It has to be the players personality. It can’t be just your head down anymore. I I I’m wildly impressed with what Cam Young was able to do at the Ryder Cup, but I’m still not sure if he’s a right fit for TGL because he is very much a bit of a robot on the golf course. A really good robot when it comes to golf, but not much of a personality. So, I think that’s what’s going to drive it more than anything else going forward. Royy’s made it clear he’s not afraid to skip signature events on the PG tour. But Rex insists that come January 2nd, 700 p.m. Eastern time, Roy is going to be motivated. He is going to be fired up. He is going to be hungry. I didn’t say that. Knock off LA golf. Oh, wait. I didn’t go that far. I said, I know, but it is absolutely ridiculous to think about if that were actually the case. Rex, you and I were a little bit concerned that we wouldn’t have anything more than 15 minutes to talk about on this podcast. And look at us uh running upwards of 35 minutes. I hope you guys are enjoying these sorts of fall podcasts. It’s going to be a little bit of everything. I hope that’s okay. We really don’t need to go that in depth on the PG2 fall coverage. Of course, things are going to pop up. Of course, news is going to pop up and we’ll be here to digest it all. All right, that is going to do it for this edition of the Golf Joe podcast with Rex and Lab. You guys know the drill. mbcports.com/golf aka soon toberelaunchgolfch channel.com. Thanks for listening. Thanks for support. We’ll talk to you guys next week.

In this week’s edition, the guys discuss the lingering blowback directed at the PGA of America, debate what can be done to fix Team USA’s system and look ahead to some of the fall’s silly-season events. #Golf #RyderCup #GolfChannel

Chapters:
(0:00) – Welcome
(02:00) Even the upcoming Presidents Cup captains are talking about what happened at the Ryder Cup
(06:00) – Is pro golf really ready to be a mainstream sport, with its unintended consequences?
(10:00) – Collin Morikawa says he didn’t really want “chaos”
(14:00) – What U.S. Prez Cup captain Brandt Snedeker learned from Bethpage
(22:00) – Skins Game is coming back and TGL releases Season 2 schedule

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After Ryder Cup debacle, is golf really ready to be a mainstream sport? | Golf Channel Podcast
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