Tiger Woods on the Champions Tour? Jim Furyk weighs in | Golf Channel Podcast

Tiger Woods on the Champions Tour? Jim Furyk weighs in | Golf Channel Podcast

Hello and welcome into this edition of the Golf Show podcast with Rex and Lav. Well, folks, we have another fun one for you today. Last week at the Constellation Furick and Friends, both Rex and I had an opportunity to meet with Jim Furick, tournament host, uh PGA Tour uh standout and now uh a tournament host on the PGA Tour Champions. Rex, I’ve been enjoying these fall podcasts. I don’t know about you because we get to do a little bit something different than we do typically week in week out during the heart of the PG tour schedule. A couple weeks ago we had Michael Brennan, the newest star on the PJ tour who won in Utah. Now we had an opportunity to sit down with Furick to go over everything from, you know, his hosting roles of the PJ Tour Champions event, the playing future of a certain Tiger Woods on the senior circuit, even a little bit of RDER Cup reflection. Why did you want to sit down with Furick and what should the folks expect when we roll this interview? I think you and I both when we sit down at the end of our careers, we’re going to look at the people that we enjoy talking to the most as far as doing interviews with. And Furick’s on that list and I’m going to footnote this. I did not bring it up in the interview with him. But I can tell you now in the confines, safe confines of my own home and say that he gave me one of the worst beatdowns that I’ve ever had in an interview. And it was back in the old days when we have to do had to do the scrums behind the 18th green at Augusta and it must have been Sunday afternoon. And so it’s kind of a little awkward cuz you’re surrounded by people and you’re kind of having to whisper because there’s people still on the green and you know everything is going on around you. And I remember sort of just standing in the wrong spot and I wasn’t particularly there to talk to Jim. I think I was there to probably talk to someone else. But they he kind of shuffles in front of me and I was stuck like I suddenly he’s glaring at me like okay what’s your question? and I don’t even know what I asked. And he glares at me and I again I should have brought this up in the interview. He glares at me. He goes, “You want to try that one again?” So I just stuck my tail between my legs and walked away. It was a very valuable lesson to always if you have nothing good to ask, don’t say anything at all. But he’s he’s so fascinating to talk to because as you pointed out, he can kind of touch on every bit of sort of the professional golf landscape. I I love talking to him about the RDER Cup. It’s obviously a very probably tender point for him having been a losing captain, having been a losing vice captain this time around, but I I think he provides such valuable insight going forward. And it’s not all great insight, but I do think that he has an analytical mind. Look at what he has done with his career. And it what he has to say should probably be listened to because the United States is going to break out of this sort of routine of losing so poorly when they’re on the road, not to mention losing so poorly this time when they were at home. It’s going to have to be because a collective effort because of that knowledge that Jim Furick and Davis Love and Steve Stricker and all of the past captains have come up with. That’s what the Europeans do so well. It’s not as though that team is not that much better than the American team or vice versa. This comes down to what can a captain do to capitalize on the talent that he has and clearly Luke Donald did it better. But Jim Furick is such an interesting voice in the game. It was a fascinating conversation. It certainly was. And Jim Furick does not suffer fools well. And he shouldn’t like we should be prepared. We should be diligent. We shouldn’t be sloppy. I like that about him. He’s a deep thinker. He’s a great interview and I think that’s going to be apparent as the interview. Now, last week we talked to Jim Furick at the consolation Furick and Friends. Pleased to be joined by Jim Furick, the tournament host of the Constellation Furick and Friends. Thank you so much for joining us, Jim. I want to get to We had an opportunity today. It was media day here at Hammock Beach Resort and we got thoroughly beat up here. So, I’m just curious, what drew you to this area? You’ve been hosting the event for a long time in the Jacksonville area. Why here? Well, the move we needed to make a move and we really wanted to dot every eye, cross every tea, look at every opportunity uh that we had with the event and where it was going to go. Hammock Beach reached out to us and and asked if we would be interested. Um, we drove down here. I had never spent any time at the resort. Tabitha brought our daughter years and years ago when she was younger. They stayed a night or two with some friends. Um, so she had a little background. I I’d heard a lot of great things about the course but had never played it. Um, man, we, you know, you pull up, we we checked in at the front desk, we walked out of the back of the hotel and the resort and you get on the top of the steps and I went, “Oh my, this this place is gorgeous.” I mean, we’re right here on the beach. Brad Howard, the GM, you know, he’s been here forever. Great wealth of knowledge about the resort. You know, a mile of beachfront property, six holes on the water. Um, and they kind Hey, wait a second here. a great event space on that lawn in the back. Um, and I started kind of envisioning, you know, the buildout, what it could like, and really a fan experience, a player experience, uh, how the sponsor would see, uh, kind of a stay and play at a resort. You know, you get all your clients and your guests here, and they had so many different areas throughout the resort where you could entertain where it it just it was a natural fit. And I think a lot of it just seeing the folks down here, the members, uh, seeing their excitement for the event, seeing the staff, the people here at Hammock Beach, Brad Hower and and his group and how excited they were about the possibility of us coming and, you know, it really has been a nice marriage and a great great team uh to work with. So to to kind of officially announce it, you know, a couple of months ago and and now be here for media day and really uh you know, we had constellation at the golf course yesterday. Played with some of their executives. Uh some of them have seen the course, some of them haven’t. Uh we got a much nicer day than you. It was a good weather. The breeze was 5 miles an hour yesterday. You guys played in about what 20 today. It was it was So this golf course, you know, it’s always breezy here. It usually is. Uh it shows it teeth. Uh, I think Jack, you know, the Nicholas design team, there are some pretty wide corridors out there in spots. Uh, good thing because the wind’s blowing. Uh, you it’s a wind tunnel at times, but those greens are quite tough. They’ve got some undulation. Uh, fairly quick. Uh, you can hide some pins out there. It, uh, it’s it’s definitely a great test of golf. And so, you kind of wrap all that up. I mean, once I saw the event spaces, and it’s interesting, you asked what’s the difference between playing an event and hosting event. Well, playing event, I would have looked immediately at the golf course. you know, hosting an event. Okay, you know, what’s the fan experience going to be? What’s our sponsors experience going to be like? Okay, let’s go check check out the golf course. Is this going to be good for the players? And, uh, it’s in perfect shape. I love the past pal and fairways. Um, the day we visited it, you could have held a tour event on it that day. I mean, nothing needed to really be done to the golf course. And now they’re actually going to do a renovation on the on the bunkers uh uh next month uh in preparation. So, nothing that we asked for, but upgrading the course even more. So, um, I think it’s going to be a great fit for us. I think it’s going to look amazing on TV. Our players, uh, I think are going to love the golf course. Um, and our sponsors really happy with it, which is, uh, all key. And we’ll set up our same fan experience like we always do. You know, a lot of fun, great food, probably a cocktail or two. Uh, there’ll be football in the big screen TVs, you know, kind of a little tailgate village. And and, uh, you know, we’re we just want to golf’s the vehicle to kind of get everyone in the house, but we want everyone to have a great time and have fun. that you talked about when I asked you earlier the idea of bringing the bits and pieces of the tournaments that you love to play in when you were on the PGA tour to your hosting duties. Is there something specific that you wanted to make sure that you addressed when you were in that chair as the host? I think first and foremost we want to make sure our sponsor and our guests are are having a blast and having a great time and the hospitality is amazing from a player perspective. uh you know there was no better event on the PJ tour than the memorial for spoiling players and making the media for whoever’s coming. That that that was the top notchotch and so trying to set the bar high and I think you know we want to make sure that uh we compete with the best best events on our tour and we want the players to kind of leave Tabitha said it today. We want them to feel a little spoiled out there, you know, have have a great time, you know, have the food be an upgraded experience. Uh, and I think really Hammock Beach is going to is going to allow us to We had a great run at Timuana Country Club for 5 years. Got off to a great start. We’ve raised uh well over $5 million in the five years of the event and it’s time to flip the page, start a new chapter, and we couldn’t think of a better place to uh to kind of grow and it’ll help our foundation grow as well. You know, moving uh still maintaining that Jacksonville roots, moving down to Flaggler County, getting a little closer to Daytona, getting a little closer to you in Orlando. Um, and it allows us to kind of spread our wings and move into Flaggler County and and help more people here on the northeast Florida side. That was going to be my followup. You talked today during the press conference about expanding the footprint of the foundation. What does that mean to you? Well, I I think you look at, you know, anyone, no matter where you live in this country, not far from your community, there’s folks that need a little help and some great charitable organizations. and and Tabitha’s vision was, you know, before we started our foundation in 2010, we were very involved with different charitable organizations, Tabitha was on a number of different boards in town. And her vision was really to to kind of band and pull uh you know, raise awareness for for what was out there, band and pull a lot of the different great charitable organizations together, band and pull our community together, and and uh and kind of rise up to to help as many folks as possible. And I think once you start realizing the need and you realize that, hey, we’re doing some great work, but we’re just scratching the surface that there’s so many more people out there that you could help. And so I think that growth is, you know, again, raising more awareness, bringing more folks together and and being able to help more people in need. Take a bit of a 30,000 foot view of the PGA Tour Champions. And we spoke about this earlier today. Tiger Woods turns 50 in December, and we don’t know if he’s going to play at all, how much he’s going to play. But if you looked at it as if he may play, what kind of impact did he have on the circuit? Oh, huge impact. I mean, you remember when he he came to the PJ tour, I don’t think any of us had any idea. I mean, it hit hit us like a ton of bricks as far as how fast things were moving, security, fans, the excitement. Um, but the economic impact on the tour, uh, on the cities that he played in, the events that he played in is, you know, astronomical. I think for us it would be, you know, if if he does do indeed decide to play some events, just being prepared, being ready is is step one, but two, it would it would be a huge boost for our tour. And I think uh I think we’ve got a lot of great value. I mean, we’ve got a lot of we always talk about the PJ tour umbrella, and we play in a lot of cities where the tour doesn’t go. Midwest cities, Sou Falls, Madison, Wisconsin. We go to a number of amazing communities, raise a lot of money for charity, affect those communities in a positive way, but also touch uh areas that don’t see PJ Tour live and and they get to see Burnhard Longer and Colin Montgomery and Hall of Fame players, Ernie Ell’s uh you know, week in and week out, year in and year out. And uh I think we add to the overall value of the PGA Tour, but you know, we’re we’re it’s fun. we kind of stand on our own and and uh you know just because we’re old we’re not comp doesn’t mean we’re not competitive anymore. I think we loosened up a little bit but uh it’s still highly competitive out there and and and fun that we still have that opportunity. That’s where we wanted to go with this. If he sent you a text and you had to maybe talk him into it, what would you tell him? Why would how would you talk him into this? I I think honestly I the first thing I’d say is you got to dip a toe. I mean when I turned 50, uh I still wanted to play the PJ tour. still thought, you know, I had a little I I think you did. The first full year I was 15 and a half. So the first full year where I could play either tour. I played seven PJ tour events. I played probably 15 Champions Tour events and then every year I went to three and then I went to one and then I went, “Yeah, it’s time for me to kind of move on.” I think just tip a toe, come see what it’s about. Come see if you like it. Um it’s a lot less taxing on all of us. Uh, it’s a lot less taxing on your body. I love the carts in a practice round. Greatest invention of all time. You don’t have to take a cart if you don’t want to during the tournament, but in a practice round. I haven’t played a practice round in four hours yet. Like, I haven’t sniffed four hours. Then you go to the PJ tour and you’re lucky to play nine holes in three hours in a practice round. Um, I it’s less taxing on your body. Um, three round tournaments, it’s a track meet. I mean, you you got to get out. you shoot one or two under one day, you feel like, “Oh no, I’ve got to shoot 63 to get back in this tournament.” Um, but I would say tip a toe, come see if you like it. Enjoy it. And one by one, almost everyone I’ve talked to, it might take it might take a few months, but then one by one, everyone says, “You know what? I kind of like this Champion store thing. This is this is a little bit more fun, a little easier on my body.” You know, I get myself a you know, get myself in contention a lot more often. I give myself, you know, chances to win golf tournaments. when you’re 50 years old, it it’s fun. That’s why we all played the game, right? We all played because you wanted opportunities to to make history and and win events. I think that’s a good pitch. We should just send this directly to Tiger Woods. Now, I would I would be remiss if I did not ask a Ryder Cup question. You were a vice captain this year for Keegan Bradley and the US team at Beth Page. You have been a captain before. And one of the things that I did want to ask you, having been in that chair so many different times, worn so many different hats, in your mind, in the modern era, can someone be a playing captain? Man, it would be extremely difficult. I’m not going to say never. I mean, you think if you go to the other side, you think like Rory may be given that opportunity someday. Um, usually we pick a captain that’s a little farther on in years. Keegan was only 38 years old. He’s still in the meat of his career. Um, he still has opportunities to make uh RDER Cup teams. I think Ray Floyd did that actually. He was a pick after being a captain. I think he then played on a Ryder Cup team. Um but the duties that are required and expected, the amount of stress, um you know, when you’re a captain, you’re overseeing a large group of folks, not just 12 players. It’s pairings, uh it’s messaging, um but you’re the CEO of a company of about 75 people. And and the amount of work it takes to kind of get that group all moving in the right direction and all pulling and working for the same goal takes a lot of energy. um then to have to turn around and just flip the switch and now worry about yourself going to play practice, get ready to compete in basically the largest stage in golf. I I just don’t know if there’s enough time, enough energy uh to do both. And so I would say no. Not saying it’s impossible. I’m not saying it can’t be done. Tiger did it uh in Melbourne. Um not saying it can’t be done, but extremely extremely difficult. And so uh you know in that case I think Keegan was obviously in a very difficult position. We all want to play on Ryder Cup teams. We all want to uh compete. But uh you know I think in his mind you know for the for the greater good and you know he he wanted to be the best absolutely the best captain he could be. And uh his messaging during the week the way he conducted himself handled himself um you know I thought he did a good job. I’m sure the unpacking has already began about what happened at Beth Page and I’ll just keep this simple looking ahead to two years in a dare manner. How do you turn it around? How’s the US team turn it around? Yeah, we definitely have to get better. Uh, without a doubt. I think that um I don’t follow a lot of the social media. I don’t follow a lot of what’s written. Uh, we talked about this in the past. Probably should. We’ve always got along great and I have a really great reputation for the media. I’m I know it can be scathing. I know that we’re going to get criticized and, you know, we should. We we were seven points down after four sessions. That’s that’s not acceptable. Um we’ve got to look in the mirror, but I don’t think that we have to tear it down. I mean, when you think back to 2014 and you think about the task force and all of us getting in a room and kind of having conversations and it that felt like a little bit of a start over moment. Um you know, we have to start doing things in a different fashion. Um we haven’t since then. Um, the home teams won every RDER Cup until this one. I don’t think it’s time to tear it down, but I do think it’s it’s a time to reflect. It’s a time for all of us uh to get together with the PJ of America to get together and uh figure out how we’re going to do that, making the plan and moving forward. But I think we keep building on what we’ve got. Um, I know I’ll get criticized for saying that. I know there people there’s people out there that won’t agree with it, but um I’ve already had kind of all the captains usually have a talk with the with the PJ of America. I’ve had mine talked about ideas and things that I’d like to see happen in the future. And um you know, I think the right people will put those plans in motion. So um you know, I spent a lot of time with Davis Love recently. Uh we had an outing together up in New Jersey. We rode up, flew up together, flew back, had dinner, spent a lot of time together. It was fun getting to talk to him and and I think he really in my mind when we had that task force and we were going to change things and we’re going to put the wheels in motion. Davis was was the captain. I mean we were all in a room and I was looking we were identifying who you know what skills were needed for the next captain and I was looking at this this white board going save us love. Like I mean it they should have just wrote DL3 right across the board. I was like he’s got to be the next captain. And and I think we’re all kind of following that that game plan. you know, he handed stuff down to Steve Stricker and to myself and Freddy and Jay Hos and we’ve kind of all done that. And so, we’ll keep the ball moving in the right direction and and uh we’re surely going to get better. And what we have to do though to be in my mind, what we have to do to be successful is you want to win all your home rider cups. That’s for sure. Right. Um but man, you got to go on the road and win. And we haven’t done that in 30 years or whatever it’s been. And so that’s kind of the next step. And and that’ll be the goal for a Dare Manner. Um, wonderful spot, wonderful owner and JP McManis. Obviously, it’s tough with the crowd, a homec course setup. It’s difficult to get it done. Europe was able to do it uh this year at Beth Page and and that’ll be our goal uh moving forward. Always appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Can’t wait to get back here next year for the Constellation Furick and Friends. I can’t wait. Thank you for coming. Thanks. And a special thanks to Jim Furick for sitting down with us at the Constellation Furick and Friends. certainly look forward to getting out there in 2026 with a new tournament host site uh at Hammock Beach, which Rex, you and I both had an opportunity to slap it around last week. Very, very ugly. However, what was your biggest takeaway from your sit down with with Jim Fur? Uh, twofold. One, the question about Tiger Woods, I was a little worried talking about not suffering fools. Well, apparently that question didn’t land very well a few weeks back when I had a chance to interview the PGA Tour Champions President Miller Brady because he had no interest whatsoever in playing ball. He kind of dismissed the question, sort of dismissed the idea that he’s the only player coming out. Pointed out correctly so that it’s going to be a really cool class. You have Zack Johnson, Roy Sabatini, uh my boy Ryan Palmer, you have plenty of interesting players coming out. You have plenty of new blood coming out onto the senior circuit. So, but it was nice that Jim Furk was able to play ball the way I kind of hoped he was going to play ball because you look at the impact and like we don’t know if Tiger Woods was going to play one PJ Tour Champions event, 100 PJ tour champions event, or no PGA Tour Champions event. Let’s be clear about this. I would vote that he’s probably not going to play any at all just based on his current health model. However, if he does play, imagine the impact he could have on that circuit. And Jim said it much better than I ever could. Just going back historically and being there in 1996 and 1997. Oh my, I just dated myself. When Tiger Woods made Yes. When Tiger Woods made his debut and it was night and day covering the tour before that and covering tour events after that, they turned into events. They turned into rock concerts. He turned into a rock star and it was just rocket fuel for the PGA Tour. Now, fast forward and just imagine what he could possibly do to the PGA Tour champions. there are scenarios where that product could probably be a little bit more attractive on a week in weekout basis than the PGA Tour event that week and that to me is fascinating. So, I did enjoy his answer to that. And then the other side of it is, and I had this conversation with Davis Love and Steve Stricker, other players who have sort of made the turn late in their career to turn into tournament hosts. And it doesn’t sound to me like Jim Furk is wildly involved in the running of the tournament. But it always is an eye-opening experience for a player who has spent their entire lives just expecting the first tea to be ready for him when he shows up. Just expecting the courtesy car to be there when he shows up. Just expecting the range balls to be perfectly placed when he walks in. When you’re on the other side and you’re the one that’s kind of expected to make sure all of these things happen, it is fun to see players on the other side go, “It takes a lot, man. It takes an army to pull this off.” It certainly does. As you said, he has a small team of what, three to five full-time employees for the remainder of the season just to put on one PG tour champions event. A 54hole event. That’s it. And yet still he has an entire team of doing so. I love the point that he made, Rex, of dur throughout his PG tour career. He has taken little bits and little snippets of what he liked best about certain tournaments and tried to incorporate them into his own. I thought that was the that was the first time I’ve ever heard that and I really liked that sort of thinking and I would think other players uh who are sort of the current crop who may eventually become a player type host for an invitational type event would sort of take on that philosophy as well. There are so many well-run PJ tour events week in and week out taking a little bit of something from each I thought was very interesting. I want to go back to something you said with Tiger Woods and Jim Fur sort of outlining what the positives for Tiger playing would be and obviously those are pretty numerous. I think we have to view this realistically though and and Miller Brady in the interview did with him on golf today didn’t really want to talk about it but he did mention at least sort of the increased security measures making sure that these PG tour champions events are going to be prepared for a possible arrival of one Tiger Woods. I remain very skeptical Rex that that we are going to see it. I think a couple years ago you could have made the argument that yeah maybe he would play a handful of them. He certainly talked optimistically about doing so. He liked the idea of being with um sort of the players of that ilk, of that vintage players who he had grown up playing with like a like a Fred Couples type, a Marco Mirror type, getting back um sort of back competing against them. However, I think the last couple years have sort of dimmed that optimism a little bit. It hasn’t just been the back issues, which were numerous anyway, including the fuse back. Then it was uh the ankle issue and the fused ankle. Then it became the Achilles issue which knocked him out of the entire 2025. And now Rex, we have the back issue. And so if you are Tiger Woods, are you really going to spend what clearly appears to be a finite number of golf swings and golf shots left in that body? Are you going to burn them on the over 50 set or are you going to try and catch lightning in a bottle in a major championship and save that for the Masters? Save that for the Open Championship. I tend to think it’s the latter perhaps. And and that’s a really good point. I I will will counter it a little bit and say that he’s already preparing one way or the other. It’s not as though he stops working. If he has an event on the horizon, if he’s looking at the PGA Tour, if he’s looking at majors, if he’s looking at the PGA Tour champions, he’s going to continue to work. That’s just the way he’s wired. talking to people inside his camp. He still goes to the gym. He is still as regimented as he ever has been. To your point, no, I don’t see him just wandering out to play a 54hole senior tour event just to spend time with his buddies. And that’s kind of always the argument that well, he sort of misses being around him. And I’m maybe on some level he does, but I don’t see him doing that, especially if he’s not going to be competitive. Um, again, not not speculating that he would be one way or the other, but I don’t think it’s a given that he would just be competitive because I we see it every year when a when a PJ tour player turns 50, the expectation is he’s going to go out and dominate, and that’s not really the case. You end up with Bernard Langanger who continues to play so well so late in his career. So, there isn’t it’s not a linear equation here. You don’t go straight from the PGA tour and just have that expectation. I will say one caveat on that and it I think we can make the assumption that winning the US Senior Open would hold a certain intrigue to him because of his USGA records. He loves the idea that he has the three US Junior titles and the three US Amateur titles and the US Open titles. And if he could add a Senior Open title to that, I think that would intrigue him. But you’re right, can his body cooperate? As of right now, it’s not and it hasn’t in a long time. Yeah, I think the US Senior Open is is maybe the one senior event that I could foresee him playing in 2026. Maybe if his body isn’t quite as close to 100% as he can get it, maybe he has to push that back to 2027. We’ll see then at that point where his body is. But yeah, it’s really hard to to foresee him playing, you know, three to five regular PJ tour champions events. I think five or so years ago before these most recent issues cropped up with the ankle, with the Achilles, now another back issue that then yeah, I I think you could have maybe cobbled together a schedule where he’s playing about once a month where it’s it’s whether it’s it’s his tournament at Riviera, major championships, maybe he sprinkles in some senior majors as well. Maybe he could have gotten to that point. It’s hard to see it right now as we are now what about a month about a month and a half away from Tiger Woods turning 50. How about the other happenings in the world of golf Rex over the past week? It was Aaron Ry winning on the DP World Tour, the penultimate event of the season, uh, a tournament which Roy McCroy shot 62 in the final round, inching him closer to capturing what would be a seventh career race Dubai title. and Ben Griffin join the likes of Roy Moy and Scotty Sheffller as the only threetime winners on the PGA Tour in 2025, winning the Worldwide Technology Championship. What was the more notable achievement in your opinion? I’m going to go with Ben Griffin only because of what it represents, I would argue, because at this point last year, he was not the type of player that you would anticipate would win three times in a season or make a Ryder Cup team. He we hadn’t achieved that level yet. As a matter of fact, I had to go back and look just out of curiosity. He actually was one of those feel-good stories from last fall. He played his way in to the first two. We talk about this all the time, but here is here it is the perfect comp. What What are players doing right now in Bermuda and next week at the RSM Classic if you’re not trying to wrap up your status where you’re trying to get in to the season’s first two signature events. You do that by finishing 51st through 60th on the FedEx fall points list. That’s exactly what Ben did last year. And because of that, he played just well enough to suddenly get himself in via the other AON list going into Bay Hill and got into the other ones and it kind of snowballed at that point. That is a perfect comp of what you can anticipate something happening if a player does get not on a hot roll. I’m not talking about a hot four or five weeks here. We see that we have seen that the last couple of years where players can play the way in, play the way out of the signature events. Here is a a sustained performance that allowed him to achieve this. Like you look at what he did clearly winning in New Orleans as a team. That that was one thing. It gave him so much confidence going forward. But I I remember doing this story back in the middle of the summer. What really put him over the top was that tie for eighth at the PGA Championship. He had never played particularly well in major championships. And I remember talking to his caddy Alex about it gave him so much confidence that suddenly, okay, I had won in New Orleans with a partner by my side in a different type of format. But here, I was able to prove it to myself that I do deserve to be at that next level. He goes on to win at Colonial. Now, you see the way he finished the season. I would argue he was probably one of the bright spots for the US team at the RDER Cup. It is amazing to watch a guy I I always laugh at this idea that somewhere over the course of the last, I don’t know, six, seven months, there has been someone sitting on a couch that is sort of staring at the TV and finally goes, “Honey, is that the guy that wrote our mortgage?” Just four years ago. Just four years ago. So, that was Ben Griffin, who is now a top 10 player in the world. Spoiler alert, Rex, you and I are doing sort of our year-end episode of the show in about a month’s time. We’ll be highlighting certain players. We’ll be highlighting certain tournaments. I guarantee Ben Griffin is one of our breakout stars of the year for 2025. No one could have foreseen that this was a player who’s going to elevate in the manner in which he did to again. Now, he’s all the way up to number nine in the world ranking. as confident as any player. Certainly not one who wants to see 2025 end anytime soon. But I think there’s a lot of things to like about Ben Griffin and you and I are going to get into it in that show. But but the fact that he went out and he chased speed, he chased distance, he chased power. There are so many cautionary tales for him to do so successfully and to revamp his game and to supplement that with this what is a really tidy short game uh and and putting streak that he has in his career like he’s a very well-rounded player. When you look at that US roster for the Ryder Cup team, you could make an argument that he was one of the if not the most complete player. We didn’t see that on display because he did not play in the alternate shot format, which I think with the well-roundedness of his game, he would have been a good fit if not for sort of a oneofone golf ball. Uh, however, I do think the arrow was pointing up. You mentioned the PJ championship, finishing the top 10 there. Obviously, the next step for him is getting there with the completeness of his game, the all-around nature of his game. I think Ben Griffin could certainly get there. A couple of other notable moves, Rex. Uh because Ben Griffin, although he did steal a title, these fall tournaments are largely for players who are jockeying for position, trying to sew up status, whether it’s among the top 60, whether it’s among the top 100, whether it’s among the top 125. In that respect, Chad Rainey, Sammy Volamaki, both making the biggest moves, leaping more than 25 spots in the FedEx Cup standings. Both Chad Ramy and Sammy Valaki should be uh safe now to have fully exempt status on the PJ tour in 2026 with that new uh cut off point for the top 100 players. How about across the pond? Abu Dhabi, Aaron Ry winning for the first time worldwide since the Windham Championship in 2024. Tommy Fleetwood losing in a playoff to Aaron Ry just as he did 5 years ago at the Scottish Open. And now Roy Moy moving to the brink of a seventh race to Dubai title. Marco Penge is going to have to do something extraordinary and pray and pray that Roy Mroy has an off week at a golf course where he has not had many off weeks in his career. No. And this is we’ve touched on it a couple of times. The idea that after the Masters it was almost inevitable in a lot of people’s minds that there was going to be a fallout for Rory and justifiably so. I’m not going to sit here and say that I would been at the end of the year criticizing him because when you reach the top of the mountain, this is something that he had thought about for more than a decade. And to get there, you can imagine someone’s going to exhale. They’re going to enjoy the moment. They’re going to make the most of it. And he talked like very shortly after that in New Orleans, as a matter of fact, about no, I still have plenty I want to accomplish this year. The Ryder Cup was first on the list. There was major championships he wanted to focus in on. Obviously, going back to Royal Port Rush was going to be important to him in Northern Ireland. However, it’s that money title, as you pointed out, it would be the seventh essentially order of merit title in Europe. I mean, that he’s coming for you. He’s coming for you. And when he says things like this, I don’t think that the public, maybe even the golf media gives it enough credence because in Rory’s mind, these historic landmarks mean something to him. He’s talked about winning open championship, national opens before. The idea that winning the Scottish Open probably means more to him, no disrespect, than winning winning the Genesis Invitational. And that’s just the way he’s wired. And it’s fun to watch him now. And there was some hand ringing last week cuz he talked about the idea that his he’s going to roll back his schedule. And certainly my guess is uh that people with SSG are going to be a little concerned about that. But you still see he has things he wants to accomplish and this one would be really oppressive accomplishment. I mean just an incredible 2025, is it not? Like how could you possibly draw a better one? the golf courses on which he has won, the titles which he has won, the significant achievements. I mean, good lord, Rex, he won a pebble. He won a team Srass, another players championship. He won the Masters, obviously, to complete the career grand slam to become the seventh player all time to do so. He won the Irish Open. Remember the bomb that he made on the 72nd hold just to get into the playoff, which he pa? He won an away rider cup, which he had deemed one of the hardest things to do in all of golf. And now he is going to wrap up the money title on the DP World Tour. I know that a lot of those tournaments sort of are are cross-pollinated, right? And he’s getting points for what he is also achieving for the co sanction events on the PJ tour, but good lord, man. Like you could not have drawn up a better 2025 for Roy Moy. And to your point, he’s going to have about two months off now, right? We’re going to see him at the Optum Golf Channel games December 17th at Trump National Jupiter. That’s the only time we’re going to see him for about a twomonth span. I do think it’ll be very important for him to single out sort of tournaments, venues, a schedule that can really optimize and maximize what he wants to do in 2026. I do think if you look hard enough, there are still plenty of carrots that you could potentially dangle in front of him, but I think it’s going to be it’s not quite as apparent as it was in 2025. and all he did was go check check to basically every single goal he had. And looking ahead, it’s going to be the major championships. He’s talked about a lot about wanting to win an Olympic gold medal or just a medal in general. So that’s on the horizon. The Rder Cup is always going to interest him, especially going back to Ireland in two years at a Dare Manner. That one’s going to be very important to him. So it’s not as though he’s ready to to ride off into the sunset. when he he’s only 36 and in his and when he says those remarks he points out that he wants to find the way to pay play his best golf over these last 10 years. That’s the idea. So he’s given himself essentially another decade window to let’s see what I can pull off between now and then. I will say and you and I are both members of the golf writer association. You and I are both on the executive committee and this time of year is normally when I sit down and start coming up with the ballots for our male player of the year and female player of the year and senior player of the year. And obviously about two months ago it would have been well Scotty’s going to be the male player of the year simply because of what Scotty has a achieved this year. The difference here is and look Scotty will be the PJ tour player of the year. He will get the Jack Nicholas trophy again as he should but the GWA player of the year is a little bit more of an international flare like it’s not quite oh European tour but I think we would consider what he did at the RDER Cup what he’s doing on the European team what he’s done obviously on the PGA Tour. I would argue that it’s going to be a much closer vote or it should be a much closer vote with for the GWA than it would be for the PGA Tour player of the year. Uh that’s a good point. I just want to correct myself. Roy is playing in Australia in a couple weeks time. So we will see him over the next two months before of course the Optum Golf Channel games. I I I’m I’m with you. Roy Mroy is my 2025 GW player of the year and I’m not really thinking that much harder about it. Just as I had Cam Smith as my player of the year in 2022, even though Scotty Lav POV, I think Scotty Sheffler was the GWA player of the year in 2022. You may have to correct me on that one, but I think when you look at the totality of Cam Smith’s year in 2022, the significance, the certain titles he won with the players championship and the Open Championship as well. The GWA player of the year is supposed to look at the entirety and the summation of a player’s year. To me, Roy Moy with what he has accomplished, where he has accomplished it, the historical significance of what he has accomplished. To me, he is the clear player of the year in 2025. That’s not to take away anything from Scotty Chef’s two major season, but it was not quite as historically significant as what Roy did in 2025. I think I would tend to agree with you. Uh I’d much rather put that on you though because I want the headline to be under your name, not mine. I will also say because the AGW, the Association of Golf Writers, which is our counterpart in the UK essentially, I have seen in the past two years ago, they actually made their Ryder Cup team, the European Ryder Cup team their quote unquote player of the year because of what they had done. So, I think it it it’s going to go towards Scotty. I truly believe that because I find US golf riders to be a little insular when it comes to who they want their players of the year to be. But I’m with you. you if you just laid the laid the resumes out and you look at the historical context, what Rory accomplished by far is greater than what Scotty accomplished. And taking nothing away from Scotty, but Scotty’s got a lot of runway ahead of him. And he actually made his accomplishments look much, much easier compared to what Rory had. And folks, that’s why you can trust the Golf Show podcast with Rexen Lav. We’re not biased. We’re not insular. We look at the totality of a player. We try to put it in the proper context for you to say what it means. Roy Mroy has Sky Shuffers 2025. We’ll see if the rest of the golf writers agree on that later this year. All right, that is going to do it for this edition Golf Show Podcast with Rex and Lab. You guys know the drill. www.golfch channel.com is our new home. That’s where all of our latest news, notes, analysis, videos, everything else under the sun is apparent. Rex, is there something else you wanted to say before we get out of here? I’m gonna throw this out there and you’re gonna hate it because you uh hated it when I brought it up to you this week. GCP pod with Rex and Lab. That’s gcpod with Rex and Lav on X formal Twitter. Check it out. You didn’t like it. You didn’t like the idea. I didn’t I didn’t like it. I don’t like whatever username you tried to do. I will try and folks GC pod with Rex and Lab. Could it be any simpler? There was like an underscore in there. You really botched it. We’re We’re going to we’re going to try again. I do think folks, and this is sort of a teaser, we do have a lot of things planned for 2026, hoping to get them across the line. I think it’s going to be a big year for this show, uh, for the two of us, hopefully for the fans as well. Something that you guys can really enjoy. More news on that in a couple of weeks, hopefully. All right, thanks for listening. Thanks for support. We talk to you guys next week for a full preview of the final event of the PJ schedule. Rex will be on site, the RSM Classic. Looking forward to that one in Sea Island.

In this week’s edition, the guys interview Jim Furyk, who weighed in on his role as a tournament host, Tiger Woods’ Champions Tour prospects and what happened for the U.S. team at the Ryder Cup. Plus, they discuss Ben Griffin’s third(!) win of the season and Rory McIlroy’s dream 2025 continuing. #Golf #GolfChannel #TigerWoods

Chapters:
(0:00) Interview SZN continues on the pod
(3:30) Jim Furyk on hosting his own tournament, Tiger Woods’ senior prospects and Ryder Cup reflections
(18:30) Will Tiger realistically compete on the over-50 circuit?
(26:00) Other happenings from the week, including Ben Griffin’s 3rd win of the season
(31:00) Rory’s dream 2025 continues as he inches closer to Race to Dubai title
(34:30) Who will be the Player of the Year as voted on by the golf writers?

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