Did LIV Mayakoba Feel…Different? | The First Cut Podcast

Rick Gehman, Kyle Porter and Patrick McDonald discuss a LIV Golf weekend that felt…different?

#golf #livgolf #firstcutpodcast #livmayakoba

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ABOUT THE SHOW: The First Cut brings you everything you need to know in the world of professional golf. Nearly every day Rick Gehman, Kyle Porter, Mark Immelman, Greg DuCharme, Sia Nejad and Patrick McDonald bring you the best analysis in the game. From DFS to betting previews, interviews and recaps… everything golf is on the table when you listen to The First Cut.

Let’s jump into the live thing here because I I’m going to live Las Vegas on Thursday and I am uh I’m very interested in this so like let me just like just to talk about the golf obviously right there’s the funding there’s the like all that

Stuff but but golf wise I feel like they’re stuck between being serious and being unserious right you know they I mean they have a roster right like it’s it’s no longer a huge joke about the roster that they run out and the leaderboard that they had last week is a great example of

That um you know but but there’s so much of it that like the things that are serious the golf gets matched with something that’s unserious like the team aspect that has um Untouchable captains one one team has three co- captains for some reason the draft the the transactions

Like the the unserious joke aspect the serious golf gets matched with the unserious music playing which I don’t even really care about but the fact that they turn off the music at the end and they turn it off in the playoff means they know it’s unserious um so for every and and I

Think the thing is golf wise like it doesn’t have to be a gimmick right like they have enough good players um I still have trouble finding on my local CW doesn’t show it but like it’s accessible on on YouTube in round one you can download it through the app

Like that that’s the accessibility that I want in my sport I we just talked about how much I’m on YouTube but they’re stuck in they’re stuck in they need to they need to almost take themselves more seriously and I think other people would too Patrick you want to go or you want me

To kind of along those lines the one thing I’m I’m G to try to speak quietly right now the one thing that I’ve kind of been thinking about recently is instead of creating your format and adjusting it to thegr standards which your opinion on owgr I don’t really care what if from

The beginning they just made it o wgr compliant where where would we be right now my God I think about how many non- major winners would have already joined live exactly and so to your point Rick they are in between the you know we demand to be taken

Seriously we demand owgr points but then you got dualipa in the background you got these guys seemingly playing for their teams like the sasan Muno quote from live golf Orlando last year where he was like I played it safe pretty much because of the team competition which was cited in the owgr

Report and I know Kyle’s a big proponent of the team it it needs to be like way if you’re gonna be not compliant with owgr just go all the way or reel it in and just ask the teams I mean KP we just there was there was listen

There was uh there was no Pebble Beach proam uh according to golf Twitter everybody was watching live uh and they got a great playoff and walki Neeman is Victorious and the first thing he says is yeah I’m not in the majors which is like that says a couple

Of things um one I kind of think it’s a corny jab at the owgr that literally everyone ourselves included who have been wrong about everything in the last two years except knowing that the owgr was not going to award them points for this uh we knew that was coming two that’s what the

Money was for the money was because you knew this was possible three it says I don’t even really care about what I just did I’m only thinking about the majors this is not all that serious and like it’s just like it I don’t know it’s the it’s the

The ju to position of demanding to be serious but not acting that way themselves yeah I mean you’re right I I I I don’t know how to sort of condense all these sort of like different thoughts that I have I I I thought the major quote was so so so so

Telling in that that’s the context for all of this right and and I almost feel like these leagues I guess Liv can’t do it I almost feel like the PGA Tour should like ride that context more more and and they do a little bit but um it’s just so disjointed

Because you know none of the organizations own like they’re all separate which we’ve talked about a million times with with with the I said this on the um I was on the Friday podcast on Monday and I was talking about how like everything in the NFL

Points to the NFL playoffs in the Super Bowl you talk about everything in that context the draft the offseason free agency the preseason the training camp the first five weeks the trade deadline everything is talked about within that context and golf has all these weird side contexts where and it’s kind of

Interesting because you know doing this gets you into that and they’re sort of related but golf is just very very strange in that sense and I think that what Neiman said is like I mean the four majors are just such the top of the pyramid but the pyramid is really like

Four P like 10 pyramids and we can’t we can’t all talk about the same thing because it’s all so disjointed Rick I think Rah brings such gravity to that entire organization not just obviously he’s the one of the three best players in the world and has been it’s basically been

Him and Rory and DJ for the last seven years as the as the best guys now Liv has two of them but he brings gravity of like and even Hatton brings some gravity like these are not guys that were good 15 years ago like Sergio they were rder cuppers in September or in

October J John ROM is a serious person Terell Hatt is a serious person and we’ve talked about it before where if you ever see John ROM compete he he steals attention like I I cannot stop looking at him I can he’s he’s a black hole like I’m focused on him and that’s

Kind of my big point is the golf is good enough the golf is compelling like there are enough Good Guys on that team on that roster with a lot of shots being shown in a small period of time that the golf is good enough I

Just I just feel like the the rest of it is kind of a circus yeah I I it’s it’s I mean the music and the the concerts and all it’s just unnecessary right I don’t I don’t even mind the team stuff I think the team I said this on the Friday podcast

As well I think the team stuff could actually be broken off into a separate deal right if you want to make and I’ve I’ve always liked the team aspect of live that might be the only thing about Liv that I liked but if you want to make five events that are maybe some

Alternate shop match play Team whatever that’s interesting I just sometimes it gets a little conflated and you’re like I I don’t totally know what I’m supposed to be paying attention to here but I do think the team part of it is is intriguing I just I don’t know if I said this on

Sunday Rick and and I think it’s true of Liv itself I don’t totally know what it is I don’t know if they know what it is right now because really what it is if you pull back and take all them names and people and everything out of it it’s

The new European tour right and we pay attention to the European intermittently throughout the year when they have really good events when they have Rory and Ron playing or whoever we don’t pay attention every week but now I think Liv has sort of demanded that we not demanded but it’s it’s compelled us

To pay some attention to it and I’m curious about what your experience of that is on site this weekend in Las Vegas so am I Patrick you and I are in two separate universes this week so what should what should we be looking for what should I be looking for when I get

To live on Thursday like I I have zero idea what to expect well one more thing on the team thing I think they should ask like the tournament to tournament team winner and just have it behind the scenes yes exactly if they’re they’re I mean marketing themselves everyone is saying

They’re the F1 of golf but then you have a new team win every week and that’s just not how F1 works at all that’s not how the Premier League works or any of these team organizations I will say for Liv I hope we see a Resurgence from my

Rippers we didn’t get on the podium in myoba with the addition of Lucas Herbert uh a quiet acquisition but I think a large one with a uh the four scores needed on Sunday or Saturday um but it it depends what you’re kind of getting into to Rick are

You going to be credentialed are you going to be just a fan are you going to be in the sweets I know they have a big par three setup as well and I mean my dad went to live DC because it was at our home course and he kind of just

Wandered around wherever you want it was like a black wristband to get into the VIP sections he had like a black liong on he got everywhere he just went everywhere um I I’ll have access okay and and I love actually playing could you yeah I’m the uh 55th guy playing this

Yeah um and I and I love lvcc it’s it’s it’s very different from a lot of other courses in Las Vegas it’s a old old school like tree line it doesn’t look like Desert Golf at all like I love that golf course so I am I am kind of

Interested to see I think I’ll be interested to see how fans consume it are they there for golf are they there for festivities and also so I don’t know it’s kind of hard to measure but like I I’ve seen plenty of John Ramen I’ve seen plenty of Terell

Hatton and Dustin Johnson I want to see them in a different scenario and see if it’s the same yeah I I don’t think uh and it has nothing to do with the league it has more to do with the weekend I think because correct everyone’s just gonna be there

To have fun drink a lot and see a few golf balls fly in the air they’re not going to really be caring about if John Ram’s winning a golf tournament I think they’re not going to be following him around they’ll just be in the Party Booth on on the certain hole because

Because of the shotgun start they can just stay there all day and they’re gonna see golf shots so you just described the Phoenix Open also yeah I think that’s pretty fair yeah yeah and I just Rick I I just think like and and this is completely anecdotal and there’s

No there’s nothing um what’s the word empirical behind it but live just feels different now and I think there are so many implications for that reality and a lot of them affect the PGA Tour I think I think live for the first time to me feels

Like a real thing and I think if you’re still calling it an exhibition league with John ROM out there swearing and F bombs I mean it’s just not you know and maybe that’s been true all along but for whatever reason that shift has happen for me and I think it’s going to be

Interesting to see what the PGA Tour does with that and and and um you know how those how those two things merge or don’t merge or continue to coexist yeah Liv has a um a real big advantage of being able to move quickly while uh the

PGA Tour has to like what what’s to say like trying to turn a battleship it everything everything takes a while Liv can just say oh well we’re gonna count these four scores or we’re gonna add another team or we’re gonna do this or we’re gonna you know so it is a huge

Advantage and you know when uh I I know they’re leaning into the data and I think that’s gonna add some add some validity as well do you need to go do you need to go Patrick we might have lost Patrick well real quick Rick it’s it is weird because they

Um they’re almost leaning into both extremes right like are you like the the the every shot thing that they announced or that got announced by Josh Carpenter of of sports Business Journal last week I don’t know if he broke that news I don’t I don’t think it was a press

Release I think he had it uh that’s that’s big boy stuff like we’ve been we’ve been asking for that but then on the other end it’s like we’ve still got music going for like 97% of the and I’m with you I don’t I don’t really care one way or the other about

The music but I don’t know if you can you can you be both it seems weird to be both I that’s what I agree I think they’re kind of stuck stuck in the middle I’ll tell you what like being able to see any shot that I want live

And having shot tracker it like those are literally my two dreams for any golf organization right for every every shot with data and every shot that I can see that that is literally a dream and it I think and I know we’re going to this can lead us into the break because we’ll

Talk about Phoenix afterward but an advantage that they have Rick is just fewer tournaments right because you know you I was I wrote about this this morning for CBS sports.com Victor and Xander withdrawing from the Phoenix Open it doesn’t materially change the revenue model for the 2024 Phoenix Open it doesn’t matter right

Like it the Phoenix Open is still going to be a good tournament and a big party and all that stuff but what it signals is that there’s there’s a there’s two different tours or there’s two different leagues within the PGA Tour and the top guys don’t care about the Le I mean don’t

Care they still care but they’re they’re not as focused on the Lesser one as they are on the Signature Events and if you can’t control like some of the if there’s unknowns if there’s unknown variables with these lesser events that’s just that’s a that’s a difficult long-term product to promote and I think

The NBA’s been seeing that for the last few years right where load management stuff like that that makes your product worse and I think that Liv has that going for it in a way the PJ tour does not