In this edition of the Golf Channel Podcast with Rex & Lav, Rex Hoggard and Ryan Lavner weigh in on the future of major championships and the need for change – not just with world rankings, but with the men’s professional landscape. #GolfChannel #GolfChannelPodcast
Chapters:
00:00: Why did LIV drop its OWGR bid now?
4:20: How to fix a MAJOR problem?
8:20: What does this means for LIV’s format
13:00: Captain Weir says no LIV players on INT’L Presidents Cup team
15:15: Wild rumors floating around
19:00: Current landscape is not sustainable
21:00: Feel like a big event this week at Bay Hill?
27:30: Rex’s mea culpa; but he needs A LOT of API tickets
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Current golf landscape is unsustainable; where is the urgency? | Golf Channel Podcast | Golf Channel
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Hello and welcome into this edition of the Golf Channel podcast with Rex and lav another signature event on the PJ tour schedule the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill where Rex you are at the moment I believe in the dining area but first before we get into
That did want to start with the biggest news of the past 48 hours since last we talked Liv officially withdrawing its bid for official World Golf Ranking points after getting denied last fall Rex first of all what’s the reasoning behind the move uh I I wouldn’t even want to
Venture into Greg Norman’s head about what the reasoning was and before we start I I want to give such a such a huge shout out like I can’t do the Emojis hands with the blessings and the whole nine yards but Nas veratu actually answered a question you had on the Pod
About last week about WEN Neiman and where he would be as far as top 100 in the world come PGA Championship time so Nas veratu I I want to thank you and and for on behalf of lav and all of our listeners for doing the math that we
Don’t want to and aren’t qualified to do I feel like no Fatu too is GNA have to expand his Arsenal he’s clearly very good at the official woff ranking better than they are can you do like data golf do you mind doing like data golf projections as well since that seems to
Be a more valid measure at the moment but yes to answer the original question that we had in the podcast walk Neeman would have fallen just outside projected the top 100 for the PJ Championship thus kind of outside that official unofficial ranking list the PJ of Americans it’s
Hard to imagine they would have overlooked him for that one though uh to go back to your original question why why did they pick now why did Greg Norman pick now to sort of withdraw from this fight that they felt like from the very beginning from even before Liv golf
Started this was something he was planting his flag on this felt like the hill he wanted to die on and I think one of us actually mentioned it maybe last week that it seemed like a waste of energy and resources at this point it wasn’t going to happen like you could
Continue to scream into the void but no one was going to hear you and my guess is that someone close to Norman or Norman himself figured out that okay my re my energy is better served going after where I can possibly make some progress and that’s the four major
Championships and that’s what this is going to come down to it’s going to come down to the four majors actually deciding we want to make sure we get the best field in golf and at what point does that become a problem does it become a Tipping Point that we’re not
Getting that because we’re overlooking these players that are playing live golf so it kind of puts the ball and their court and we have seen at least as on the on behalf of Augusta National on behalf of the PG of America they are willing to reach out to players that
They feel like should be in their Championship so I I think it’s a good move actually on Norman’s part you obtained the memo that Greg Norman sent to members of the live golf league and he called it quote enormous efforts they have been making over the past year and
A half to try and get official World Golf Ranking points for the live golfers first of all the official world golf rankings biggest beef with Liv golf was the fact that it was a closed shop and Liv’s answer to that was basically creating this promotions event for three
Players plus the Asian tour order of Merit winner which this year was Andy ogry who’s now on live then they added what was essentially a hand pick team John ROM’s team where he also had Terell Hatton a top 20 player in the world that’s it those were all of the quote
Unquote enormous efforts that were made to try and follow or comply with owgr criteria so I thought that was a little bit disingenuous that Greg Norman said in that memo I I’m with you that it does leave kind of two major questions here one as you mentioned is the player
Access to the major championships it does provide I think some context now to the to the recent war path that that Bryson Des Shambo have been on Taylor gu has been on Walky neeman’s been on I think it makes more sense now because if you say it over and over again you’re
Basically just trying to discredit an existing institution like the official World Golf Ranking so that it just becomes kind of accepted that this is no longer a viable solution it’s no longer an accurate measure of who the best players in the world are we we we talked
About it early this week on golf today the First World Golf Ranking is is fair in the sense that it’s measuring what it’s supposed to be measuring but it’s clearly flawed and it’s clearly now inaccurate it is not a direct representation or a good representation
Of who the best players in the world are I think that’s kind of indisputable what is going to be interesting Rex with the major championships is what happens when this issue reaches critical mass because right now we’re arguing over Taylor G who at 32 years old does not
Have a top 10 in a major championship we’re arguing over a Lucas Herbert or Dean burmester who are not all into or inside the top 100 currently on the fish will Golf Ranking but not yet except into all the major championships that’s not good enough something has to change
For the majors to compel them like a Neeman uh has has done over the past four months to actually make some changes to their qualification criteria well and I would I would push back a little bit on what you just said about the official World Golf Ranking no
It’s not an accurate representation of where we are in the World of Golf right now I would say largely not of their making I mean official World Golf Ranking did not tell the players to leave the PGA Tour and joy and live or tell the piff to invest all this money
And live so I I want to be real seem very bad timing that the owgr did that refresh right in 2022 yes same exact year that Liv launched and and kind of torpedoed the entire Pro Golf landscape yes and and I had a bit of an adolescent moment
Yesterday with the editor of ours who suggested I do kind of a Q&A similar to what you did when we did the golf ball roll out and and my thoughts my feelings on that are well that’s that’s kind of cheap and easy journalism and I didn’t
Particularly want to do it but I did it because I’m a team player and then once I got done it it was a lot of heavy lifting you had to look into a lot of different things and and I felt like it at least in my mind it cleared some
Things up so to answer your questions the reason why Greg did this is I think he got tired of pounding his head against that wall that wasn’t going to budge I mean the wall was simply going to be there and he was going to end up
With a cracked skull so he had to move on to something El so the question is what ounce do you have to do and look to walking Neiman for the path forward I would say if there’s other Live players and Bryson is a great example because I
Was talking with someone from his Camp just today about this and I was completely on board with him like he wasn’t justifying Bryson should or should not be in the major championships but he said after next year his exemptions run out largely run out and he goes do you really want are you
Really going to tell me that Bryson D Shambo shouldn’t be in the major championship based on his play current play on live go and I said no I absolutely cannot do that and the major championships will be less without a Bryson D Shambo but walki Neeman has
Created the path forward if you really want to get in Taylor G there’s qualifying if you really want to get in Taylor G you can go play all of these other events around the world if you really want to get in Taylor G you kind
Of keep your mouth shut and you do the right things on the golf course instead of running your mouth I do think it is interesting so we’re recording this podcast on Wednesday and on Wednesday is when the RNA unveiled their qualification criteria for this year’s open championships and so the majors
Have been abundantly clear what they think of Liv Golf Augusta does not mention Liv golf when they invited Walky demon neither does the PJ of America there is no special category for Live players at this year’s open but there is a new wrinkle that there’s a top five from an International Federation list
That does include and take into account tours such as the Asian tour which is where a lot of uh Live players have been playing uh Dean bermas David Pue are among those who have played other events and gotten through the open qualifying series and will be playing at Royal trun
Uh Taylor G if you want to be in the in the major championships you can uh either either qualify or you can go play uh until your heart’s content on the Asian tour as long as it does not conflict with Liv tournaments I think Rex an interesting question where we go
From here is what does this mean now for Liv’s format where they’ve kind of been doing these dual roles of having individual titles and Team Championships all running kind of concurrently but now that it’s at least official that this is not going to matter in terms of uh
Future owgr participation where does the seve live well and you said primarily the world rankings issues with Liv Goff was promotion access close Ty close shop and it was to a certain degree and clearly the four on four off which is what essentially they did this year
Wasn’t good enough for them and from Liv gos perspective they didn’t feel like they were given enough guidance like what would have been a good enough number eight on eight off each year 10 12 like give me a number a percentage whatever seems like 25% is what the
Established tours the the churn the churn if you will churn rate if you want to go to that the other part of the equation which you did not mention it is this which the competition side of this and even though that wasn’t as big of a concern our colleague Amy Lynch actually
Brought this up I think it’s been relatively recently on golf today with the idea that if you have two players coming down the stretch who are on the same team one player is financially motivated as a member of his team to help another player out as much as he
Possibly can that an issue you can sit and pretend like it’s not and I think the world ranking made it clear Peter Dawson in interview with the Associated Press last year made it clear that was an issue and I keep going back to the PGA Tour suffered kind of the same
Consequences if you want to put it that way when they moved the Zer classic to a team event and I remember even in the moment the PGA Tour saying that okay if we don’t do a fourball a forums element if we just keep it for ball so
Everyone’s playing their own ball so we can calculate exactly what they did could we be part part of the world ranking then they do not get world ranking points and there was a very very hard note that still doesn’t work because you have two guys working in
Unison together when it should be a competition so those were the two things that the world ranking weren’t going to bend on everything else they could work around they made it clear like mathematically we can work around 54 holes we can work around short fields we
Can work around no Cuts that’s not a problem it was those two issues that they got caught up on one of the things that I kind of dug into with the Q&A was is another ranking and you mentioned data go that we could go to and I had
Never really I hadn’t spent that much time to be honest with you looking at data golf uh it is a really good website it’s kind of eye opening there’s a lot of really good information there and they do include live golf and I kind of
Went down I think when you look at Wen I think Wen is maybe top he’s 12th as opposed to 72nd in the world I think in the official World Golf Ranking and most Live players are much much higher than where they are right now interestingly
Brooks kka is not Brooks kka is lower on data golf than he is in the official has played particularly well over the past nine months that’s true uh the other one but it also has its flaws like the one that stood out to me data goof uses
Scores and results from the PGA Tour Champions which means that Steve Stricker Steve strier is a world beater Steve you can’t have that they also had like Ricky Fowler who is 30 something in the official World Golf Ranking and outside the top 100 on data golf so
There are he hasn’t played well since his win in Detroit it’s a smaller window I guess is the problem and I and I am conditioned and maybe this is a me problem not a DAT of golf problem but I I think when you start getting reactionary so much to the point
That what have you done in the last pick a number four weeks eight weeks 12 weeks I don’t think that’s a good judge of talent either because a guy can just get hot that doesn’t mean he’s a worldclass player so as it relates to what this
Leaves for Liv now that its format has has been has been denied by the official World Golf Ranking they’re not even going to pursue it if I were live I would lean into the team element headlong that would be my Avenue to try and create an even more compelling
Product I’ve covered college golf you covered college golf ages ago they call it team a team competition it isn’t really you’re you’re adding up to scores you play five you count four and that’s your team total at the end of the day if I’m Liv I’m incorporating way more match
Play I’m doing metal match play you’ve covered the live finale at deral uh at at the end of the year like that’s probably the best live tournament there is because there’s match play people like to see it and I think and I you can easily imagine a scenario where you keep
The best live teams that have been established plus you add some of the top PGA Tour teams assuming there is some sort of merger and there is some sort of cohesion and they can do battle four to six times a year it probably doesn’t work 14 times a year probably doesn’t
Work 10 times a year Well four to six times a year I think that could even be a more compelling product there was a little bit more news also Rex with the President’s Cup team specifically the international President’s Cup Captain Mike Weir saying there will not be any Liv players on his
Team when they do battle at Royal Montreal later this year on its face not surprising President’s Cup is a PJ tour entity but what do you think it means for the competition that just like a qu Hollow two years ago bill Live players will be in attendance uh I was on that
Conference call with Mike we yesterday right before I came on to join you and George SZ on golf today and I I will say that the way Mike is looking at this and by comparison to what Trevor emman faced at Quail Hollow Trevor was sort of slapped across the face with Liv gof
Right in the middle of his team coming together like it it it happened in real time for Trevor and I think we’ve talked about this before that man like he was he was put in a really really difficult position I think I’ve told this story about actually texting Trevor you know
What are you going to do about Louie Who and the response is has Louis joined Liv G and I had to inform him that yes he did like I’m the one that’s telling him that you just lost one of your best players it was very uncomfortable for me
And I can only imagine how uncomfortable it must have been for Trevor Mike talked about this a little bit yesterday it won’t be that impactful at least in the short term because he probably won’t have to terms of disruption you know he’s not gonna have the disruption throughout the the process that Ratatat
Tat right across the face like every two days I’m having to to to to talk about a player who’s not going to be around and I needed that player around really really badly however there is the other side of it that he is still without Louie who’s tasing he is still without
Cam Smith he’s still without Mark Lehman like he still has these holes in his lineup to fill it’s not surprising and I didn’t even consider it newsworthy and it want it happen because of course he wouldn’t it’s a PGA Tour product and we all know where we are right now that
Could change between now and Rural Montreal although I I doubt it it doesn’t seem like we’re heading in that direction but no the the the all right I I I didn’t want to do this so because I hate trafficking in stupid rumors because I just came off the range and
It’s nothing but stupid rumors I’m gonna no no no time go ahead yeah yeah Mark the time so there there is a rumor going around among players and agents and caddies on the Range that there’s going to be some sort of conference call on Friday morning here at Bay Hill Friday morning
Before the field te’s off that is unprecedented I’ve never seen it in all of my time covering the PGA Tour I haven’t been able to confirm so I don’t even believe that there is is going conf call among whom players players and tour officials which which is again is
Unheard of unprecedented never heard it in nearly three decades of covering the tour and one of the rumors that they they’re going to address is the idea that somehow they would allow the Live players into TPC next week and like I even ran this by a couple of Live
Players what and and it was laughable what yes that’s exactly the response I expected from you so so the idea here and again these are all unsubstantiated rumors I hate trafficking in these I love these well they’re awful they’re they’re awful because there’s nothing to this I I can’t stress this enough this
Is wild wild speculation please please no one tweet this out let’s just keep it amongst ourselves and and we can be safe with this because the idea is a couple of things could possibly happen in this meeting on Friday morning again completely unprecedented and I can’t find one player who can confirm that
Because they haven’t gotten any memo about a possible uh conference call on Friday morning but one of them is yes that they would the Live players would be allowed back into the field next week at the Players Championship never mind the logistics that the entire live tour
Is in Hong Kong and it would be kind of tough to get them to TPC all grass in time never mind that you already have a full field at TPC Saw Grass and what are you gonna kick players out what you gonna expand 156 and not finish like
There’s so many stupid things the other rumor that I heard is that there’s a done deal they want to announce that yes it’s imminent like we have a deal with the public investment front of Saudi Arabia everything’s going to be fixed in the game of golf the other rum I had is
There’s going to be no deal everything is called off the reason I traffic and all of this nonsense is because if you’re Mike we you cannot get caught up in those weeds you won’t be able to Captain you won’t be able to lead you won’t be able to create any kind of team
That would have any kind of continuity his job is hard enough man like we we’ve talked and we I’m sure we’ll talk more for the year is out about everything the Internationals haven’t been able to do in that event but the one thing Mike Weir can control is The Narrative at
This point and yes I’m sure he’d love to have Louie and he’d loved to have Mark and he’d Lov to have cam on that team but right now that’s just not realistic but I think what is realistic make sure you clip that do the time just so we can
Send that out on social just so I look awful I I think what is realistic though Rex is is assuming that this deal continues to to drag on and the talks continue uh to be ongoing that by the time we do get to Royal Montreal and
There is no resolution yet he is going to be asked incessantly about Fielding what is not the best team about he could have Cam Smith he could have wae Neiman he could have any number of players in addition to Tom Kim and and Min Wu Lee and Hadi matama like there actually is
Potential for the international side playing at home to be quite stab home at at home in Canada but it to to have a more formidable challenge to the American team and so absent of that I think this is just kind of a sad reminder of how broken the top level is
Right now you mentioned the PLAYERS Championship next week that is no longer the strongest field in golf the President’s Cup is no longer the best Americans versus the best international players on the Liv side we just talked about it they abandoned their bid for points they’re basically playing 54
Holes without any meeting or historical context but the biggest loser in all this is the fans the sense of urgency that you and I have that people in the media have that golf fans have of all wanting to bring the game game back together again does not seem to be
Shared that sense of urgency by the top levels of management on both the PJ tour and the piff side now perhaps your perhaps those rumors are correct perhaps on Friday there will be conference calls perhaps the whole thing deal will be off perhaps it’ll be saved perhaps it’ll be
Playing at TPC sress who knows but I think I think yesterday’s reminder about the President’s Cup was was just it it’s it’s an it’s an indictment of where we are right now where everything just kind of stinks no to your point it is absolutely 100% not sustainable and everyone it’s interesting this week
Being on the Range here at beill and also having to kind of be in contact with players in Hong Kong on live golf you mentioned the memo that Greg Norman sent out I had to send a couple text messages to players in the middle of the night luckily one of them was just
Coming home from dinner and we started sort of communicating back and forth and everybody says the same thing like if you can find one unifying goal or one unifying note in all of this nightmare it’s that yeah we we can’t keep going down this path this path is bad for
Everyone except for a very very small sliver of top players who are getting paid and getting paid very very well everyone else is suffering the fans especially the fans uh I would say those players who were just outside of that eper Echelon like everyone is suffering from this and it’s making the
Product worse and worse by the day so I can’t imagine and I keep coming back to the idea that there’s so many I was talking with a player this morning on the putting goup and there’s so many big issues to tackle and one of the ones is
Okay how do the Live players come back because that seems to be one of the big stumbling blocks and coming to some sort of agreement and I will give this player credit and he’s like I don’t like many many players who went and joined live
Golf I don’t like what they did goes but I understand why we need to have them back and I think eventually that sets in for everyone but it’s clear that’s going to take some time what’s the mood on the Range rex or on the on the putting green is that
Anyone actually talking about the tournament does anyone actually care this a signature event does anyone actually care the Masters is is upcoming or is it all just kind of this existential crisis that Pro Golf seems to find itself at the moment well it’s funny the the player I was talking to
This morning started the conversation with uh what do you think of this world ranking stuff and my mind immediately went to because all we did yesterday was talking about live golf withdrawing their bid that’s what I thought he was talking about he was actually referencing will zor’s sort of
Dismissive comments about the world ranking when we asked him yesterday when he was in the media center where he did sort of the prototypical PGA Tour player thing and shrugged your shoulders it is what it is like it’s clear that even players on this side who are benefiting
From what’s going on to a certain degree in the world ranking because they’re moving up exponentially from where they probably would have been had live golf not existed even they recognize this is not the right way to do it and no one is pretending like they have all the
Answers on this one and again I keep going back to in the short term this is up to the major championships to make this right that might not be fair it might not be something they want but this is what you’ve been given this is how you have to lead the game because
It’s clear it’s not going to come from the official World Golf Ranking or the PGA t or certainly live golf like to fix this problem and to make sure that at least in the short term that you get the top players together when it matters the most at the major championships that
They have to make the decision to sort of take the blinders off and realize that we can’t look at them differently just because they joined another all right Rex this week is the fourth signature event of the PGA Tour season kind of a mixed bag of winners so far
Whether it was Chris Kirk uh you also had Hideki Matsuyama uh you also had Windham Clark when the shortened event at Pebble Beach that you covered as well is it time that the boldface names step up do you think it’s going to happen this week the second leg of the Florida
Swing oh yeah no I I would say it’s Pastime to be honest with that’s kind of the column I’m writing today because I I’m I’m taking a bit of a dive into okay this is what the tour created and this is how they wanted to do it because they
These Signature Events AKA designated events are no longer mandatory these are all the perks and the prize money and the the extra points that they gave players to convince them to play in these events and by and large at least through the first four you’ve got pretty good participation there’s just one guy
Who’s qualified who’s not in the field this week it’s Tony fenale so you have 69 players but by and large participation has been pretty good so you’ve got the first half of this right now it’s up to the players to sort of deliver the second half because as you
Pointed out and look you and I both the big fans of Chris Kirk and the Redemption story and both of us have written our own versions of that story I I will Point dendam Clark and be a little disappointed not because it’s Windham Clark but because you only got
54 holes and the PG that could have been that could have been an epic showdown with lud Bob berg it really could have and they had their Sunday like this is Sunday without football at Pebble Beach if you get the right weather conditions and it’s an outdoor Sport and I’m not
Blaming anyone at Pon aidra because we got some sort of once in a century storm at Pebble Beach that week but it’s just B really really bad timing and even Hideki who certainly in Asia is a star you can’t tell me that he moved the needle we the highest ranked player to
Win one of these Signature Events was wendam and he was at 10 in the world that’s not what they need they they need to be better than this it is interesting we ran a a graphic on golf today earlier this week kind of contrasting the start
To the 2024 season as opposed to 2023 and I think 2023 was certainly clouded in that run up to the Masters because you had John ROM winning four times culminating uh with the Masters title yet had Scotty sheffler winning twice including the players championship and so when you have those top players
Playing at such a high level I think it kind of overlooks the rest of the season which kind of petered out neither of those two players who were the two Front Runners for player of the year ended up winning post April 10th or whatever it
Was so when you look at this start of this season I think the full field events have actually been pretty good they’ve they’ve served their purpose they’ve launched some careers if it if it comes to to Jake naap or res Rex’s careers in terms of Grayson Murray last
Week’s winner uh Austin eek wrote is a highly accomplished amateur player who’s now finding his footing as a pro I think that’s been very very successful where it has been lacking but we haven’t been far off has been in these Signature Events we weren’t far off from having a
Sahith or Jordan spe wi at the centy we far off from having a ludig oberg I mean Wham Clark is rainning US Open Champions not like that was a disappointment but you could have had a showdown in that final round as well we weren’t far off at Riviera which was stolen byi matam
With that final round 62 the lowest score ever shot uh to win the tournament at Riviera from having a Xander schafle or Patrick kentley or will zalatoris win that title I’m with you I think it’s going to happen this week you look at the leaderboard last year it may have
Been won by by a player who maybe most golf fans weren’t intimately familiar with with Kurt kitama but you look at the rest of that leaderboard it was Scotty it was Jordan it was Rory all in the mix to try and get it and it I think
That’s the signature event at its best when you have the best players vying for the title and whoever plays the best that week gets it even if it is a player kind of unheralded like Kirk Kama uh no no you put words in my mouth I I’m not
Guaranteeing it’s going to happen I I I said it has to happen like I truly believe for this experiment to work that it has to happen eventually that for the reasons you just pointed out beill seems to bring out the best in a lot of the
Top players I look at the way ruy played last week at PGA National he’s played well here in the past so there’s plenty of reasons to be optimistic and to your point about the full field events and I said this to someone earlier in the week the full field events are exactly what
We thought they were going to be they were going to be stepping stones for players who weren’t in these elevated events these these special events to sort of move their way up and that’s what we’ve got so I I will give the the tour credit on many many fronts as
They’ve tried to build this new schedule and sort of deal with this moving Target that is fighting live golf that they’ve created something that has the potential to be good it’s just not there yet Rex I know you loathe the home game you don’t loathe the tournament you like
The tournament but you loath the idea of a home game how has it gone so far this week and what are your plans what do you what do you intend to focus on for the rest of Bill week no I need to offer M aopa uh because I had a friend of mine
Yesterday kind of call me on my BS he he called me out on the idea that you’re complaining about driving 45 minutes to work and driving 45 minutes back to work once a week I mean once a year I have you have to do that once a
Year he has to do it every day and I was like all right fair enough you got me on that one like I I I’m a Pampered I live a Pampered life I don’t know what you to tell me I’m soft I’m like charman like I’m sorry and for anyone I’ve offended I
Know that no one wants to hear that it takes me 45 minutes to get to the golf course to eat my free lunch I I know how that sounds but it’s cold it’s it’s not that good a little bit it’s a little bit better this year you know the bigger
Deal and I’m gonna I’m gonna call people out like on the mat on this one I had to uh russle up uh upwards of 20 tickets for people this year to Bay Hill 20 I got a I got ACH signature event do they even have 20 leftover tickets uh no no
They don’t that’s the problem and and the tickets they were willing to offer me as a media member were were were not many they were two to be quite specific so I’m having to to call favors in from caddies and players I’m having to do a
Lot of work the problem is I got a bunch of drunks from my neighborhood who want to come out on Friday and just walk around and get drunk which is why that that conference call that I know isn’t going to happen because very much ruined
A day I was looking forward to so and then on top of that I had a group of caddies this this is going to throw you for a loop would you have told me that there’s three caddies in this week’s field cading for players who all played
College golf at Houston that one kind of blew me away I I would not have taken the under on that one I wouldn’t have saw it coming anyway the Houston guys wanted to go fact the the Houston guys wanted to go to the Houston UCF game didn’t even realize Houston’s number one
In the nation good for Houston good for you guys so sport basketball huh yeah yeah more you know yeah the more you know anyway I was able to even round those up so I I got a lot on my plate this week on top of just doing the day
Job so that’s why I say it’s my worst week that was a terrific Mula and we do appreciate it and I can’t think of a more uh rousing endorsement to make sure you go check out Rex’s work as well as Brentley Roman our colleague who will
Also be on site this week at beill you guys know the drill make sure to go nbcsports.com golf for the latest news notes commentary and features the ARL Palmer Invitational make sure you are like frantically refreshing the homeage page on Friday to see if all of Rex’s unsubstantiated rumors somehow come to
Fruition fingers crossed it will at least give us something to talk about all right that’s gon to do it for this edition of Golf Show podcast with Rex and lav we’ll be back either on Sunday night or if Rex is feeling frisky early Monday for my backyard uh site of the
Players championship for a full recap and then we’ll spit it ahead to the uh fifth major I believe it’s still a fifth major in golf we’ll debate that as as well thank you guys as always for listening uh have a great rest of the week
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You 2 are tough guys to watch and listen to because depending on the day of the week is how you feel about LIV golf. Go back and listen to your last few podcasts and your all over the place as to the angle your coming from then next podcast your saying something completely different… if your both trying to stay neutral your not doing a very good job… The fans are the biggest losers in all of this…I would love to see PIF walk away from the bargaining table and sign a few more big names then adopt another form for ranking points and let the WRP system die a slow death like it is doing now and for the past 5 plus years or longer.
they left. they got financing and started their own rival company, doing your business. and they are sniping your best and most highly trained employees away from you. they are the competition. have any one of you ever owned a company?
Who cares about LIV and their players; they’re gone and made an irreversible decision for greed. There are plenty of great golfers on the pga tour and guys filling the spots are getting a great opportunity. Looking forward to seeing more new great golfers.
Ryan 3 min in and your repetitive nonsense from every show is making this impossible to watch.
Rahms team has A Rahm and hatton 2 Ryder cup stars and then a super amateur who already has shown the goods, and then Kieran Vincent. The brothers are awesome golfers. . One brother proved his spot last LIv season in clutch fashion. and the other earns it in the RELEGATION tournament. Equally clutch. How awesome is that? And they have cool personalities which doesn’t hurt but is not applicable here.
Point is this legion 13 team is an expansion and the 4 dudes on this roster make the league stronger. Not weaker as often happens in expansion.
And then there’s AK. The pga tour would have done whetever as you have mentioned. So don’t mention that in this argument.
I really wish you guys didn’t have to do this nonsense.
The owgr for just like you guys are making fools of themselves trying to justify nonsense.
LIv is professional golf. The owgr has a responsibility to rank professional golf but special interests keep them from that.
It’s not because of relegation or teams or 54 holes or any of that.
Lav, you are such a PGAT sycophant, it’s gross.
The majors ARE the OWGR along with the PGA Tour. So they aren’t going to make this right. The only way this gets right is if players on the TOUR speak up and viewership/sponsorship keeps dipping.
This is a joke. The LIV tournaments are better to watch than most PGA Tour events (excluding Signature Events) with more interesting fields. They also require their players to compete in different countries and not just play in the US. Yet you're telling them to change their format? We need a world tour with the best players involved from all tours as Rory says.
Rex is an absolute tosser!
GC being own by a corrupt MSM trying hard to protect the corrupt PGAT establishment. Sounds about right!
The PGAT must let top LIV players play the Players for the 5th major gimmick to remain true, because it definitely wasn’t like the 5th major last year as it was significantly weaker
It seems inevitable that at some point, there will be unification. But as long as the two leagues remain adversaries, the single most impactful move the PGA Tour could make would be to swallow some pride and extend invites to the top 7-10 LIV players to compete in the signature events. I get that this would be a tough pill to swallow for a lot of people (execs, players, and fans). But it would not only be hugely in the best interest of the Tour, but it would also be the one move that Yasir might have a fairly difficult time countering. Would he truly permit Jon Rahm, his $600 million man, a free hand to go play the Genesis, API, Players, Memorial, etc., and deliver massive ratings wins to the PGA Tour? He might. Or, would LIV end up scheduling more of its own events opposite those PGAT signature events to prevent that type of crossover? The other thing this does for the PGAT is that it provides at least a small security blanket against Yasir's strategy of poaching top players. Even if Hideki or Hovland eventually jump, the Tour knows they'll at least get them to appear in a handful of their biggest and most lucrative events every year (unless, as mentioned above, LIV were to block them in some way — which I'm guessing wouldn't be a very popular move).
If you two want to have an ounce of credibility, you should have a ‘sponsored by the PGA tour’ watermark on your podcast.
Should be called the pgatourchannel
The OWGR discredited themselves
The owgr is not just unfair to LIV They are biased against every other tour on the planet on behalf of the pgatour monopoly
Liv will create their own majors. Invite the top men from the owgr to play them. And then have incredibly huge paydays. And then create their own system.
TUGR world rankings appears to be the most accurate… at the moment
A lot of talk with no substance in this clip.
These two guys need to understand that the OWGR is already a mostly meaningless mechanism that no longer serves a function useful or relevant enough to justify its existence.
A new ranking system is needed that will encompass all professional golfers globally, which would also include more performance metrics and analytical data to make the rankings far more accurate than what is in place now.
Until that new system gets established, however, the organizers of the four majors would be wise to immediately modify their own qualification criteria to include the top players from LIV Golf.
The bottom line is that LIV Golf isn't going anywhere, and is already in the process of taking over as the new top-tier professional golf tour on the planet, which will eventually render the PGA as a feeder and lower-tier tour.
LIV's 54-player field format is perfect, its 54-hole format is perfect, its shotgun start format is perfect, and aside from Anthony Kim being signed, its management has also been near perfect.
LIV's current teams format may or may not mean much to fans, but it does add another unique element to the product for every event.
What LIV Golf needs now is a new world ranking system to be established, a national US television broadcasting deal, plus some kind of new cooperative agreement to make the golf equipment and apparel brands a bigger part of LIV's long-term strategic plan, including allowing them to be more visible on the players, and at their events.
Each hole could also be sponsored by one brand of golf equipment or apparel brand, with that individual brand's advertising and signage shown prominently at the tee box and around the green for that hole.
Brands used by the favourite golfers of fans help attract more fans to the game by wanting to use and copy-cat their favourite player's equipment.
Can you explain how datagolf and tugr can count the LIV tournaments to their ranking systems yet OWGR cannot.
The R&A should be distancing themselves from the current situation. First Impressions are that they are giving opportunities to any tour except LIV. Having LIV players in other tour series takes away an opportunity for the upcoming players on those tours. It has shown that LIV players have dominated certain events on those tours recently. This does not grow the game. What about The Open Qualifying? If top LIV players go down the qualifying route it takes away the opportunity for other aspiring golfers. The Majors will be worse off for not having the best players at their events. Using OWGR as their criteria produces a weaker field currently. We all want to see the best players competing for majors with also the opportunity of a surprise from an unknown player jumping up the leaderboard.
The way to fix the Majors is to change their names to the Minors. As that's the path their on.
I wish they would just get it sorted out one way or the other because it's just dragging on and in the end it's the fans that miss out as the player's will get there money no matter what so come on guys get it sorted out.
so… Shall we watch what is going to develop with the DP World series and LIV going forward and forget the PGA politics??
OWGR is not worth looking at .. irrespective of whether it is calculated "correctly" or not.
Had the PGA tour just let them play instead of banning them and gas lighting anyone who went to liv there wouldn’t be an issue. They could play events on the PGA tour and get points too. However now that’s not an option and this whole thing is LIV’s fault?
The current landscape of the golf channel is unsustainable…
bla bla
How can the Players possibly be described as the fifth major this year. Behave yourselves, and sort this mess out.
Golf Channel is so biased so blinkerd… Liv players will keep winning wherever they play. . They will clean up all the majors.
Funny that yesterday the Open championship has opened doors to numerous players from Liv getting an invite
Where is the conflict if 2 LIV guys are battling for the championship and are on the same team?
How can you rank everyone when the players are not playing against each other? Just have a system for the ones outside of Liv and have one for Liv. Then take the top whatever number from each system to play in the majors.
Informative per usual.
Rex is a real jerk.
At this point for me i enjoy watching more of GoodGood golf than any of this bullshit going on with these leagues
Let us know when there is a tournament featuring the best filed in the world. Until then I'll keep watching Corn Hole.
LOL… Playing victim card is inherent in the LIV league.
They sued PGA to play in events after PGA told them they they couldn't participate if they left the tour and instead believed Greg Norman who told them PGA "couldn't" deny them entry; They knew OWGR requires new leagues 2 years to qualify-same as everyone else, because, GOOGLE; Created meme of discrimination against them because "they're the best in the world"; and now OWGR is irrelevant.
Sounds like political celebrity elitism-don't we have enough of that without golf?
If anything is unsustainable it's LIV's victimhood
Stop forwarding Greg Norman’s value in golf
LIV golf product is fine; it's the PGAT product that is failing.
Start your own Majors
Just grant the releases. So easy. 15 tournaments a year on PGA TOUR. SIMPLE
This felt like Lav bitching for 30 minutes cause the superstars havent won this season. Rex saying OWGR is irrelvvant cause the average winner (if you exclude Nick Dunlap) is 73. Wyndham Clark backed into his win due to the storms at Pebble Beach.
Taylor is the number one LIV player
Beating out Brycen DJ ….. all the greats
Really???? He needs to do anything else?
I don’t think so.
Please quit being PGA spokesman
Normally you do try.
You guys are still accepting the pga biass and not seeing the big picture. If you have 7 billion and you get a setback, you simply put the funds into a better direction. Ie, buy more players until the pga, sponsors and the majors bleed even more, buy the DP world tour, or Asian tour and let all liv guys qualify that way or whatever, Im sure this will be resolved as every week the pga tour is simply less exciting.
Rex it's called "Freedom of Speech" not running your mouth.
congrats Mike Weir you will lose by 9 points because you decided not to take Niemann, Louis, Cam Smith. What a fucking joke
It won't be impactful, you won't have 2 of the top 6 international players, Weir is a clown
The owgr was always bullshit
QWGR do not include many of the best golfers in the world.
The world is changing in all areas, not just golf. If you are not prepared to adapt, you lose touch, and this is what happens to the official Wordl Golf Ranking. This ranking no longer reflects what you want it to represent. They should change the name to PGA and European Tour Golf Ranking. A joke.
It must also be said that the field at LIv is now better than the field of players on the PGA Tour.