Welcome to this week’s episode of Claws Connect, where we’re diving into the latest happenings on the PGA Tour. First up, we’re talking about the winner of the week, Austin Eckroat, and his impressive performance. But beyond that, we’re also discussing a bigger issue that’s been on everyone’s mind – the lack of star power at the top of the leaderboard week in and week out.
We’re comparing the PGA Tour to the LIV Golf League, and wondering if a competition between the two tours might be just what the doctor ordered. After all, with the stars of the PGA Tour dropping the ball and winning having never been easier, it’s time to shake things up.
And speaking of shaking things up, we’re also talking about the timing of the latest Netflix series, Full Swing Season 2. With the PGA Tour in a bit of a slump, could this be the perfect opportunity for the streaming giant to capitalize on the lack of star power and bring some excitement back to the sport?
Tune in to this week’s episode of Claws Connect to hear our thoughts on all of this and more. We’re diving deep into the world of golf and giving you the analysis and commentary you won’t want to miss. So sit back, relax, and get ready to connect with the world of golf like never before.
Outline:
0:00 – Intro
6:18 – Stars need to step up
10:06 – Full Swing timing couldn’t be better
15:15 – LIV Recap and Jaco talk
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How are you not winning these tournaments if you’re like supposedly the best of the best like that should be like I’m saying when these guys go to live you’re looking at oh okay like I don’t have to compete with this guy anymore now I have a way better chance
Of winning well guess what maxma hasn’t won in a while Rory hasn’t won in a while Justin Thomas hasn’t like what are we doing yeah the PJ tour has a problem and if the if I have to use the media guide to see who wins this week at
Arnold Palmer then we’re it’s time to ring the alarm Bell because we have an official like problem how’s it going everybody welcome back to episode four of claw connect we’re remote again we’re keeping you on your toes you don’t know where we’re going to be each week uh we’re either
Here doing remote or we’re ex golf um busy week this week we’re working on our pretty much our biggest redrop for the claw ball so um yeah we’re we’re we’re busy and we’re just kind of shooting content I got a YouTube video I’m editing right now so um yeah sometimes
It doesn’t work out for us to get to X golf but we did play golf there um and that’s going to be coming very soon so that was a lot of fun yesterday yeah getting that stuff shot I’m like I’m excited for and this is Joe by the way
What’s up everyone uh we’re uh yeah we’re yeah we’re like really wanting to get out and play and like have that as as something for you guys to check out I mean it’s obviously fun for us to actually be swinging clubs instead of sitting exactly but I’m I’m I’m yeah I’m really
Stoked for that we wanted to get out and play yesterday but we didn’t oh man we weren’t successful with that yeah yeah we touch we tried touch 70 degrees Yeah 70 degrees here in Michigan which is just absolutely unreal uh for for early March so it’s spring is here it feels
Like uh next week’s going to be a little bit colder um but yeah we’ll still be playing kind of indoors at X golf um and yeah got a lot of exciting content coming for you exciting episode coming for you this week uh we’re at Bay Hill
This week for the PGA Tour which is always a fun tournament um tiger always used to dominate it so that made it really fun that kind of probably set it up at like the top of the bar in terms of tournaments you want to watch and uh
Players wanted to play um no that’s not the case obviously with tiger um not playing this week which is unfortunate they weren’t sure if he was going to it was like the a last minute thing and um maybe he’ll play in The Players if not
We’ll see him in the Masters but um I’m hoping the PJ tour has a good week this week we we need a good tournament um I feel like the last few weeks I mean been bit a couple Duds on the PGA tour to say the least um the cognizant we’ll recap
That here in a sec but yeah we’re going to recap the cognizant this week uh Little live golf recap um Anthony Kim being back this past week um got a lot of headlines probably got a lot of people downloading the live Golf Plus app which is really I mean live I mean
If that happened in high quantities that’s like the win for live you know what I mean like they just want people downloading that app so um maybe they watch AK he didn’t play good but now it’s like oh maybe I’m not as interested in the PJ tour as I thought maybe I’m
Going to like look into this live thing a little bit more so just getting people to like download that app and watch AK is like the huge win and I feel like that was I mean they yeah l i mean if if Anthony Kim does good that’d be cool but
Just the fact that they got a lot of eyeballs on Liv this past weekend uh was huge I saw some data um they Ed this new um this new streaming partner uh called caffeine TV which is really big worldwide they got millions of users um and it said 2 million people were
Watching which I’m not really sure if that’s 100% ACC urate cuz that’ be a lot of people um and I don’t even know that many people like watch but I think it’s kind of like a a view on or like an impression on Twitter or something it’s
Like okay they might have like glanced over it but not really sure they were like fully watching you know um I don’t I don’t want to I don’t want to like dark conspiracy theories but I can totally see some like uh some some Farms some uh some like click Farms out in uh
Some BS where ever yeah yeah uh somebody’s got somebody’s got 10 computer screens in front of them all lugged in watching so whatever like that’s I mean AK gets a lot of eyeballs so that’s I mean the first thing uh let’s just um kind of jump right into
First thing let’s talk about the cognizant a little bit um cognizant I mean didn’t really watch much of it um I knew kind of going into the week it was going to be kind of a weaker field I mean Rory and Ricky were probably two of
The biggest names there um and I mean Rory finished what seven off the lead um and I don’t know where Ricky ended up finishing up but he did he had a couple good rounds in there but I don’t know man like I feel like I mean I had to
Look up the guy that won again I had no idea who Austin ecro was sorry Austin ecro all respect to you but um again another had some confusion yeah we yeah I I I made a joke earlier like first time I heard the name I thought they were talking about the
The LA Chargers running back a but but you’re right I mean yeah it was a field of just like names and again you know uh so uh positive spin on it for me again like like watching uh live golf more consistently now or like Pro Golf more consistently it’s like you
Know like it’s the oneon-one treatment for me where it’s like I can I can start learning you know new people I I don’t know like but it’s like but that’s not for the like the lay Watcher it’s like they want to see the bigger names you know and you mentioned you mentioned
Rory and um yeah Rory Patrick mat yeah Rory had he had to win oh yeah cam young yep that’s a big that’s a big name um and but I mean Camy young hasn’t won on the PGA tour yet so like yeah he’s a big name but I mean how
Are you not winning on some of these fields like I’m sorry but like shouldn’t these bigger names be kind of rising to the top now that all this Talent has supposedly went to live like don’t you think that that would like R like wooden yeah like like there’s L comp the talent
Yeah the talent vacuum going on like it’s just like that should be sucking the uh the bigger names up to top I don’t know what it is and we didn’t we didn’t mention Jake knp either I mean he had a strong strong showing coming off
Of last week’s yeah so I mean like he he may have some same power um yeah I was going to say yeah I was going to say too with uh we we talked a little bit about the betting last week um that was one
That I did I had um I had cam young young beating Rory uh like just head to head and that was pretty tight but um but really like my like what I’ll remember you know a year from now about that tournament is Rory Rory’s like memeable moment where he was in the
Water uh and and just like hit it up and you see come down the hill and he just stares at it and just absolute disgust yeah so I mean if you look at Rory it’s a tough course though yeah all fairness to him uh he he played really good for
The week you take away that seven that he made on the bear trap on number 16 on uh pretty sure that was Friday um and I mean he had he had a really good week he missed he he was number one in um Tia green for the week so his ball striking
Is incredible right now wedge game still not where it needs to be um and his putting was he’s a little streaky putter I mean everybody knows that um but he usually could have been towards the top of the leaderboard if he just made a couple more putts and hadn’t had those
Couple blow up holes um and really like he should have been like this was almost like a glorified corn fairy Tour event this week like no disrespect to any hot take but I mean I don’t know if that is not take I mean I don’t I I have
To like we I need like a encyclopedia or something for all these new or just like a nameless like a media guide like who are these people like I don’t know who these people are um and yeah I feel like maybe with just you would think that Rory’s
Just licking his chops going into the week like who do I got to beat like Austin eot a guy last name skins like I don’t know gol awesome awesome golf name absolutely but I don’t know it just seems like how are you not winning these tournaments if you’re like supposedly
Like the best of the best like that should be like I’m saying when these guys go to live you’re looking at oh okay like I don’t have to compete with this guy anymore now I have a way better chance of winning well guess what Maxa
Hasn’t won in a while Rory hasn’t one in a while Justin Thomas hasn’t like what are we doing yeah the PGA Tour has a problem and if the if I have to use the media guide to see who wins this week at Arnold Palmer then we’re it’s time to
Ring the Alarm Bell because we have an official like problem um but if somebody good wins this week whether it’s Scotty or Max Homer or something somebody that moves the needle like we need a big win for the PGA Tour this week um Arnold Palmer signature event and mean you got
Players right after that like come on let’s like golf needs it like golf is yeah like damaged right now yeah well I don’t want to I don’t want to like send things off the rails here but oh they’re off but do you think do you think what like what do you think
About uh the full swing documentary in the context of like the timing of like what’s going on with PJ tour right now I mean like because I I like I think it I mean they need it I mean because things are getting a little dry it couldn’t be
Any better timing for the PJ tour though full coming out this week because it’s going to be like an adrenaline shot for kind of the World of Golf um and it’s just kind of that spark that I feel like people need to just realize like why
They kind of fell in love with golf and why they fell in love with the PJ tour in the first place um and just really showcasing these players like you have to develop a relationship that people care about like I watch drive to survive all the time and because of watching
Drive to survive I watch more F1 because I have like this relationship with these ra with these drivers and I think the same can be said for full swing to where if you’re watching it it’s like oh okay like I want to watch this more I want to
Watch PJ more now because I feel like I have more connection I feel like there’s this disconnection right now between like the viewer and the golf and I think full swing is really hopefully and I feel like P tour is just like okay this
Has to work um f swing is good enough to where they can kind of develop that relationship again with the with the fan whether they’re casual or hardcore and the product of the PGA Tour so um but it’s perfect timing what do you think I
Yeah and I I’ve heard uh a family member sent me a an article about uh about the new season and it sounds like it’s just going to be amazing for sure you sent me those quotes um here let me pull up yeah yeah like while while you’re bringing while you’re
Bringing it up I’ll I’ll butcher it but I mean they’re saying that like the first season was very like Foundation Building and just like everything’s everything’s good and this is Golf and you know like their major storylines were you know like colen morawa and Scotty shuffler are different people you
Know like I or Tony feno and it’s just like they did these kind of just like very superficial things but second season is going to be really like really get into the weeds and right uh going to be pretty pretty raw so this quote says season one felt like an entertaining but
Generic and surface level introduction to golf for new audiences season 2 is more of a lived in compelling narrative that gets into tough subjects and tells the complete story so if the former had an everything is great like fuy like Yay Vibe um season two is going to be a
Little more like raw um and says it lets you hang out in the details of difficult moments which is that’s kind of like what I mean I’m a drive to survive guy and that’s what drive to survive is like it’s all about just like these it’s the
Rawness right like it’s just it’s the real stuff like it’s not foofy foofy like Yay everything’s great and it’s like people don’t want to see that like people struggle with golf all the time you know like they want to see yeah they want to see the best in the world going
Through what they’re going through because it just makes it more relatable yeah and who was that uh who did that article was that the Atlantic yeah yeah okay I’m gonna I’ll see if I can I’ll see if I can link to that in the newsletter or we can do that in this
Uh yeah for sure down in the the notes below because it was a really good I mean I think by the time this is out uh you know episode one might be out but whatever it’s stream it’s streaming like it’s on demand everybody can watch it
Whenever they want so so yeah yeah I mean that’s definitely a reason to be excited about that that new season I think two um like one of the they like they did come out with a longer trailer for it last week which I finally got
Around to watching and I mean the uh I mean it’s I mean so rapid fire there’s so many different storylines that I can’t wait to see I mean like the Joel yeah the Joel the Joel Damon stuff saying how much he just it’s almost like he regrets agreeing to be on season one
Because now I mean he’s you know his his like not that he’s a household name necessarily but his name ID’s gone up so much that he’s he’s kind of annoyed he’s kind of annoyed like not being able to fly under the radar at tournaments when
He like does bad you know so and he’s not playing good right now unfortunately Virgil D so um yeah I don’t know I’m I’m hoping for a good week at Arnold Palmer like it’s like come on we need it the PJ tour needs it um and then hopefully
That’s good momentum we got a good full swing is good and then we got good momentum Arnold Palmer is a good tournament and then we got good momentum going into the players like come on not that much to ask for um yeah so um yeah
Liv did you watch did you watch Liv did it did AK get you to download the live Golf Plus app I didn’t I you know I uh in in last yeah in last week up or issue that we did or uh last week last week’s podcast
I was saying I was going to watch you know like I I would finally watch one live but that just was not feasible with the uh the time the time difference uh and you mention that in the newslet yeah yeah um so I ended up I
Ended up watching highlights of it um it was like I don’t love it like I’m not not a huge fan it’s just I could see getting used to it um with the I mean like even like the and we talked about this like the scoreboard on the left side is just very
Like F1 F1 race um with with the teams like the team symbols next to it and um like the kind like the shifting and all that it just felt very G like very like gamified in a sense I don’t know yeah I and as far and as far as the product I
Mean we I don’t think we mention it that like how bad Anthony Kim did I mean like he I think on on Sunday he did finally get a couple of birdies yeah uh I think he had more I think he had more Shanks than birdie but that’s fine I like I’m
Not I’m not going to crap on the dude he’s been out for so long and I’m looking forward I mean I am looking forward to see his like I like the progression he’ll make like once he gets settled in and everything but but man yeah 12 12 years will it changes how you
Look for sure he like I was watching he looked rough yeah um and I don’t know I don’t know I don’t know like what he’s been up to you know since he’s been away but definitely grew the hair out that like that was a different look for sure I
Mean and yeah and just like seeing him in shorts and stuff it just seemed like you know he was out he was out like weekend warrior and it with some buddies or something right right yeah I I think he played better than he scored like I watched pretty much all of his
Highlights and I mean he hit some squirly shots obviously like he had a couple I mean yeah he had a couple Shanks couple kind of not so ideal kind of iron strikes from the middle of the Fairway which are pretty routine for most players but I mean it’s first time
Playing in a while like let’s wait before we like overreact and just like oh my gosh like what a terrible decision this was for Liv again Liv doesn’t like it would be great if AK could get to the top and Challenge and get in contention
That would be huge oops my M um but they don’t really care like I don’t think I think they just want people to just download the app and get some eyeballs on live and that’s what that’s Anthony Kim is doing but I mean I thought I
Thought he played better and he scored I mean he his putting looked pretty bad like I think he needs to work on that a little bit but the swing I mean ak’s always had a solid swing um I mean he made some really good it’s that’s a
Tough week I mean it was really windy you got to be able to control your ball flight um it’s a rough rough week to start um the course wasn’t extremely difficult but the conditions were um so yeah let’s just wait let’s pump the breaks before we start like overreacting
Too much I mean I know the media is just like they love that he had a terrible week you know because it just makes it look like live is more of a joke or something and that’s their narrative so it’s like Oh yay like this just proves
It’s more of a joke and it’s like nah not really like I mean he has stretch where I mean he’s one under through 11 holes like um you but you take I mean he’s also just had a couple bad stretches of holes where he’s five overpower through three or or four of a
Bar through two like it’s hard to if you’re not making a lot of birdies to recover from that and that’s what happened I mean yeah yeah and yeah and I I watched I watched some like post round interview with him and he was saying that he yeah he was over despite the
Scoring that he had you know he was pretty happy with how things went so like it just tells you he’s pretty close to to to making that that move but um I think that uh lives Liv’s best uh like lives best raw right now though is Walky
Neeman dude he’s he’s I mean watching those highlights it was just yeah he was just Tor up like how do you not to watch him in a major like how do you not want to watch him like dueling on sun like if he gets in contention Sunday at the
Masters like he he is I would say easily top five player in the world right now easily um and I don’t think that’s like too hot of a take like like I mean he’s I mean he won the Australian Open he’s won two live tournaments um he just got
The exemption into the Masters they announced yesterday he got the exemption into the PGA Championship like they announced today the whole live golf is um not going to get official World Golf Ranking points that’s that ship is sailed Greg Norman was trying trying official world golf rankings are like we
Don’t care like screw you guys so Greg Norman’s like H whatever I’ll just like get a good relation ship with these major championships and get my guys taken care of that are the best of the best um so I mean if Wy nean comes out and wins the
Masters I mean official World Golf Ranking looks like crap and I me these majors are just going to start letting all these live guys in because they’re proving that they’re top of the top right like I just if these guys don’t merge together I want to see them
Compete against each other cuz I want to just end this conversation of like who’s the better tour and like who has the better players right now and who has more Talent like let’s just play like ride or cup style like live vers PJ tour and see what happens like if you’re not
Gonna merge that would be pretty cool yeah I saw like some news that said piff was um they were just like H whatever like I don’t really want to pursue this old PJ tour thing anymore so they might be pulling out of like a merger and um
Cuz I know they wanted to make that happen but I don’t know I feel like they feel like they have a good product now to where um they’re better than the pj2 right now and I don’t know I feel like both just it’s just like golf just feels
In a weird spot right now like I don’t really like that what Liv has done like I don’t like that Liv has taken all this Talent from the PGA Tour because I’m a fan of the PGA Tour like I grew up watching the PGA Tour I mean I I used to
Like religiously watch every Sunday with tiger and I was like on the edge of my seat um and one of my students yesterday shout out Buzz um he was saying that like it’s just all the drama and the intensity and like the just the kind of anticipation of what’s going to happen
Next has just been like wiped away like there’s like you didn’t want to like take a bathroom break before because you didn’t want to miss a shot before you could like too or like pause the TV or something you know or before streaming services so um it’s just gone strategically yeah yeah strategic
Bathroom break yes yeah like there was some strategy involved yeah way more strategy that’s that’s kind of going into guys playing on Sunday right now I’m trying to win the tournament yeah right right but no I just I don’t like it I feel like golf is
Just kind of a little damaged right now like a little fractured like yeah YouTube golf is doing good and we’re all about that we’ve talked about our support for that but it’s not the same like this is we’re talking best players in the world like top of the top at the
Top of their game that’s why the majors are going to draw so much attention but it just sucks it’s like what are we only going to look forward to watching like five tournaments a year now and that’s it because I gota use my media guide to
Figure out like who wins every week and like I mean I got to get up at three in the morning to watch live because they’re in Saudi Arabia or J like I think they’re in Japan uh this week yeah they’re in Japan hand this week so another kind of weird time frame thing
But I don’t know I’m just I’m annoyed I’m annoyed by it yeah and I I’ll I’ll go back like my final word on it it’s like I’ll go back to what I said in episode one that it’s just like for me for me the like watching Jetta the Jetta tournament it’s
Just like who car like there’s no history there like there’s no yeah like to me that’s that’s huge and I like there’s there’s a like cognitive dissonance where it’s like yeah I it’s like I want to watch golf but it’s like I and it’s like they’re good but it’s
Like I don’t really you know like there it just seems a little soulless at this point but I don’t know I don’t know but and then but then on the other hand it’s like you have the PJ events where it’s like yeah you need your media guide to
Like see who’s playing so it’s like they it’s just in a bad spot both yeah they’re both just like it’s not the most like desirable product right now like it’s um but if we have maybe we’re just overreacting because it’s been like a rough couple weeks like the Mexico open
Needed the media guide for that need the media guide for last week um we’re getting into a good stretch here the Masters is um like just over a month away which is just I’m super excited for that obviously I know everybody is like who isn’t um so maybe we’re just
Overreacting and then we have a really good week at Arnold Palmer this week and then the players is awesome too and we’re just like yes like we’re back um but it’s just been a slow start to the PJ tour it seems um maybe yeah maybe like Ricky Fowler said something about
Them needing like an off seon to just kind of build a little bit more anticipation like like NFL has and things like that and I thought that was an interesting take to where it’s like huh maybe it starts this week maybe the offseason ended we just forget everything that just happened sorry Jake
Naap and lost these guys pre yeah the equivalent of NFL NFL preseason yeah like spring training baseball Springs training right exactly yeah your mic your your mic all right yeah I’m just I just sat on I’m just getting all flustered um but in Rory they said this on the PJ tour today or
They said this on um golf Central they said yeah Rory I feel like he’s just been using these last few tournaments as like his training camp his spring training I’m like yeah oh my gosh so you guys are basically just like confirming what everybody’s feeling that these
Tournaments suck um yeah but I don’t know maybe again like I said we’re just overreacting uh let’s just forget everything that’s happened let’s just boom it’s the offseason preseason over week one starts this week set your fantasy lineups yeah keep an eye out for the newslet everybody this week we’ve
Been doing really good with that Joe’s killing it with that um the claw ball weight list get on that cuz that drop is coming very soon it’s our biggest restock that we’ve done since the club all launched um I’ve got a bunch of content coming on that with the latest
YouTube video Yeah Joe’s got the claw ball there um we’re we’re losing we’re losing Joe with his feed here with this video and audio so uh we’re going to wrap up guys uh this was a good episode hope everybody enjoyed this um we were hoping I feel like we’re really
Desperate for full swing to be really good if you want to jump in the Discord and kind of talk about kind of what you think about full swing as you’re watching it uh we’ll be in there kind of hanging out this week helping people with their swings go and join there um
And then yeah hoping for a good hon Palmer this week good live tournament maybe AK can uh break 70 and yeah that’ll be that’ll be positive so um yeah thanks for watching everybody peace out Joe I’ll give you a shout later um and yeah we’ll talk to you in next
Episode all right see you guys
