In this week’s edition, the guys discuss Luke Donald’s decision to go for a three-peat as captain, the dangerous game Jon Rahm is playing in his standoff with the European tour, and the small sample size regarding Scottie Scheffler’s early-round struggles.
CHAPTERS
0:00: Rex with a Bay Hill-related mea culpa
04:00: Breaking down the announcement that Luke Donald is running it back for 2027
15:00: Jon Rahm doubles down in his standoff with the European tour
23:00: Bay Hill storylines: Scottie’s Thursday thuds, other players to watch this week
31:00: Exciting things on the horizon!
European tour, and the small sample size regarding Scottie Scheffler’s early-round struggles.
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Luke Donald’s biggest concern as repeat captain: What to do about Jon Rahm? | Golf Channel
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The 5th major my ass you guys are kidding yourself as per usual😅🎉🎉🎉
Players is great but its not and never will be a major
As soon as Rosey said he wanted to play in Ireland, it was going to be Luke
Man id love to see how Eduardo keeps his stats, hes a wizard
Tiger was so excited his team won and got in the playoffs in TGL, he loves the team aspect
Tigers play in Australia in the Presidents cup was an absolute masterclass in how to play an extremely hard and fast course. He was 10 times better than anyone else there. I highly recommend everyone go and look at his play in Melbourne, it was truly special.
Who is here March 2026??
A lot of inside jokes in this one.
Guys Rahm if any selfish reason it is because he has a young family and maybe can’t add 2 random events.
But we know what this is, the dp world tour has a 4 event minimum but somehow Liv players must get permission like they are their master for the other 48 weeks?
That is absolute nonsense. Why would anyone sign that. Well the reason is because normally they do allow players to do what they want. But with Liv specifically it has been a tactic more than a fair punishment. So the matter at hand is ‘should people really be paying these penalties which were really tactics ? ‘
IMHO they should not.
Brooks getting fined to play sounds silly.
But Rahm and the boys being made to play even more tournaments than the minimum is even sillier. ..if you think about it.
The euros imo need to tell the pga tour to mind their business; and let everyone play the 4 tournament minimum like everyone else. This fight was never really their fight.
It is true the euro tour has been more sensical in all of this — and have greatly benefited with great fields because of it— but this some would say they are being stubborn.
Rahm does a lot for them.
Rahm is clearly not a selfish guy. I don’t think you mentioned the private plane story for the players stuck at war, which could cost him hundreds of thousands.
People care about the Ryder cup too much. IMHO. It’s a fun event. I enjoy watching it very much. Although I do get distracted tbh. But is it worth players careers being held hostage or controlled in some way?
I say Scottie wins.
Luke Donald is awesome, but no major titles on his resume for the hall of fame…but certainly a very distinguished career.
Tiger will and has always been a distraction to the Ryder Cup…sorry, it’s about finding a captain who can build continuity with our team…who can select players that are humble and ready to come together in a way that creates the ‘intangible’…where the whole is bigger than the individuals.
Mark Brooks would be an awesome Ryder Cup Captain.
If you were able to take off your PGA-only hat and be a golf commentator (independent in other words, commentating purely on golf on not allegiance) and think about Jon Rahm and the DPWT, your thoughts on this would have mattered.
so let me give you another view on this:
Golfers are normally independent contractors. They are not paid by the different tours to play…they make money when they finish high enough to earn money…unless you are one of the select golfers that can ask/demand appearance money like Rory to play in Australian Open!
So golfers are supposed to play anywhere they want or qualify for in order to attempt to earn some money.
So then LIV came around, and your thoughts about it doesn't matter because you are feeling and talking about it purely from an American point of view in which only the PGA really matters and how it can benefit you as an American…in other words the PGA. The PGAT is an American golf tour mainly for golf in America, for American golf fans and mainly for American TV audiences…you American golf commentators and golf podcast hosts don't give 2 shits about golf in the rest of the world, and it's as simple as that!
LIV offered contracts to certain golfers to play in 14 LIV events per year…so they received money and have a contractual obligation to play in these events. So now they are not independent contractors for 14 weeks out of the year. But LIV didn't add a clause prohibiting these golfers to play (earn) in other events on any other golf tour outside of these 14 weeks…so in the remaining 38 weeks of the year they are still independent contractors.
Back to Jon Rahm and the DPWT situation:
Rahm has dual-membership…DPWT and LIVS.
Rory, Lowry, Hovland, Rose etc have dual-membership…DPWT and PGA.
So, why does Jon Rahm (or any other LIV golfer) have to pay fines to the DPWT? Because he played in LIV event and in doing so skipped a DPWT event…?
Did Rory and the others have to pay fines to DPWT because they played in the Genesis and skipped the Kenya Open…? NO….THEY DID NOT HAVE TO!!
So why does the DPWT want to force LIV golfers to pay fines….like Rahm said, DPWT events benefit financially when LIV golfers strengthen their fields in certain events, and then they want to benefit financially also when LIV golfers are not in their field by fining them…what a joke!
If the DPWT (or PGA for that matter) feels so strong about this, buy out the LIV-contracts and offer the golfers contracts to play on the DPWT…another joke…lol
But let's talk about stupid for a moment…like Forrest said: Stupid is as Stupid does".
The PGA helped the DPWT financially and as a "reward" for this "help", the DPWT has to give the PGA their top 10 golfers every year! How stupid do you have to be not to see that it weakens your tour every year and that you were basically turned into just a feeder-tour for the PGA…? So who was this idiot on the DPWT who agreed to that…?
So if they want to go into a Ryder Cup without Jon Rahm it wouldn't surprise me at all! Just calculate how many points Jon Rahm was responsible for in the last 3 Ryder Cups…and don't take for granted that Hutton will still get the points if he played with a different partner…just saying.
Like I said before, you guys are only concerned about golf on the PGA in America and stats of viewers…again, viewers in America. According to golf commentators and podcast hosts nobody is watching LIV golf. Maybe not many people in America is watching LIV golf…although so many of you came out of the closet you are watching it with AK's win in Australia…and don't come with BS it was because he had a chance…he was 5 back from Rahm and Bryson and given no chance! But how many people watching LIV in America doesn't matter. LIV is a product for the international golf fans and I promise you there are many more LIV fans in the rest of the world than there are PGA fans in America!
I just had a look and apparently PGA had +-3.1 million TV viewers on average during 2025.
How many people do you think watch and follow LIV all over the world…in our own time-zones. Just in Australia and South Africa alone there would be 1 million+ fans watching and following LIV…not even to mention Europe and South America.
So maybe it is time you guys realise America is not the center of the world, and definitely not world golf!
Let's talk about the PGA and LIV.
If the PGA is the best tour for the best golfers, why would they need to penalise and sanction golfers who prefer to play on LIV…?
Should it not be up to a tour to make their tour the best possible and then golfers will want to stay on it or move to it…?
LIV don't prohibit and is secure enough to allow their contracted golfers to play on the PGA or DPWT….but the PGA sanctions even golfers that play in the Promotional event. That looks like a very insecure tour that feels it can't compete doesn't it?
The PGA (and it's not a monopoly remember…lol) wants to force all good golfers to play on the PGA and to hell with any other tour that thinks they can also have some of the better golfers playing on their tours.
And they use all available methods…even the pro-PGA OWGR rankings. Can you imagine how Trevor Immelman must feel knowing that he is in charge of a totally irrelevant institution and even PGA golfers stating in interviews when asked about rankings, that the OWGR doesn't really reflect the truth…lol
Golf is supposed to be fair. And so should the Majors be and the golfers allowed to play in it.
So why not invite the top 50 from PGA (since it is the biggest), and top 15 from all the other tours (not already qualified) to compete in it? That would make it really Majors in which the best from all over the world compete
Question for a future voice of the crowd: I was watching Golf Today and a topic was brought up if Tiger doesnt say yes who could be a captain. A name that was thrown was Justin Leonard. IF Tiger saids no, who could be the captain?
Sco’T will be back!
Rex's old man rant ends at 2:34 😂😂
We don't need Rahm. Let him stay where he is.
Rex and lav talk you then
“Jupiter stinks” hahaha, good one!
Here is the difference between LIV and DPWT. DPWT policy is that he just needs to play 4 tournaments. Why does he need to play another 2? Secondly Rahm never ever played more than 4 tournaments. So what loss was he causing them or had caused them? None! So Jon was fine with paying the fine and the four tournaments. But it is now more punitive than necessary to add the two additional tournaments. The LIV argument is different as he consented so to do. DPWT never had such a contractual arrangement and are seeking to introduce this now and ONLY for LIV players. This is discriminatory.
Not sure where you get the info that Bernard Gallagher won 2 and tied one. He captained three, lost the first two and finally won on his 3rd attempt
I think Phil would be the best captain right now. I know it won’t happen, but if the USA wanted the best it is Phil.
The network bias to bash LIV is so evident. Rahm will alienate no-one on the European side
Luke Donald was the easy pick. However… looking into the future and 2029 at Hazeltine, you’ve got to think that Luke won’t go for a fourth. I believe Rex had the take some months back that it’s not ideal to send a first time captain to an away Ryder Cup. With Europe being heavy favourites in Ireland, is it an opportunity missed to install a new captain to get some miles under his belt with the longer term view to make more history and win another away Ryder Cup? You’d have to think Justin Rose is high on the list for 2029, is that a baptism of fire for him or whoever the captain ends up being?
Rahm will find a way on to the team, the DPWT are going hard with the view to wind it back and get him eligible.
On last week’s pod, great to have Brad Faxon on. Lets get more of him. He’s a ln absolute gentleman of the game and has some great insight.
I love the Players Championship, it is no major
Luke Donald only won the Ryder cup at Bethpage because Keegan Bradley ended up being the worst captain in Ryder Cup history. He totally blew the setup and pairings and yet the US still almost won. Real journalists would have said what everyone who watched it already knows.