Host Tim Wilkins and cohost Chris discuss the two tours and tried to guide a conversation about each one since the inaugural LIV Golf Season. We discuss the controversy and the difficulty surrounding the game of golf as fans try to navigate their fandom around both tours and the overall game of golf.
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[Applause] welcome to the Yankee Cowboy podcast coming to you from Dallas Texas here’s your host Tim Wilkins ladies and gentlemen welcome to another episode of the Yankee Cowboy podcast I’m your host the co-host is actually I’m Tim Wilkins obviously Chris you’re joining me once again we’re talking about today’s topic we’re gonna be doing a a kind of a not really something that I would say that I am
Completely you know the expert on Chris I think we can kind of say this but as a casual golf player and a golf Watcher over the years the live golf versus PGA conversation has become a topic throughout the Sports World obviously through its exposure through the expansion of live
Golf and then obviously with the Saga and the drama that ensues with it as well as the Netflix documentary uh full swing that kind of culminates with multiple guys on the tour Brooks kka his brother many different candidates or people that are on the the new golf tour and so today’s
Topic we’re kind of going to dive into it and and as a casual fan but really kind of as a way to to educate people but also kind of be cynical to be casually cynical about the arguments that people place upon this tour and I understand a lot of them are exactly
What they are um you know tradition and and things like that but you got to rock the boat sometimes Chris I appreciate you joining me as always this topic I I know is not the usual NASCAR NFL UFC baseball topic but it’s definitely something that’s in there in the throughout the Sports World
So yeah Tim now I’m uh again I think this is both you know for me I know you’re more of a more of a golf fan than I am I I’ll say I’m one of the uh the fair weather major slash back in the day when Tiger Tiger Woods was in contention
Golf fans but I I I’ll admit last year with the kickoff of the of the Liv uh the Liv tour I I actually watched quite a few of those early tournaments just because I was interested to see what this whole uh concept of live was compared to what the PGA was so
Definitely kind of excited to have a different conversation for sure that’s not racing and politics yeah so I mean the thing about live golf obviously uh it is funded by the Saudi Arabian uh I believe the correct terminology for this thing so everyone gets it on the same page here it is sponsored
And you know is by their investment firm their investment firm group that they have through the country and the main argument they have against Liv golf is that it’s considered white Wasing or Sports watching because of the country of Saudi Arabia’s human rights atrocities that have occurred mainly due to the murder
Of the journalist uh Mr kogi and so that’s where this kind of controversy started so that’s where the controversy is now let’s reverse back to where game of golf is okay as a casual Player golf is emphatically difficult there are some days that you’re really good and then
There are some days that you just outright are the atrocious atrocity of the terribleness of golf and it’s not like Happy Gilmore in the movie it is definitely not like most things in this world there are some days you’re doing really well and there’s some days that
You just suck that’s the game of golf golf istically cruel but to get to the level of a PGA professional Chris I think needs to be documented as well because this is where the conversation starts to kind of go towards more of a monopoly and More in my opinion to the
Hands of why not live golf what’s wrong with more golf if you’re a golf fan or if you’re a golf player why not more golf now to me a professional in PGA Tour Chris I think I’m not sure if you knew this but you have to qualify
Through not just you know being an NCAA Collegian athlete you can be that way there’s that there’s one path there but the way to get to the path of a PGA professional you have to play out a corn fairy tour which basically is a bunch of
Amateurs and uh there’s no to gain even access to the corn fairy tour you have to go to Q School what they call a qualifying school so you basically have to work your away from being an Amer or an amateur for you you know people that want to use the English dictionary
Correctly um and you have to work your way up there’s obviously amateur tours around the United States in the big States like Florida C California Texas has another amateur uh tour as well but you have to basically rank in the top 50 players on the corn fairy tour or you
Can supered and win three of their events and by doing so you automatically lock yourself into a PGA Tour card there’s only been three player there’s only been 12 players in the history of the PGA to ever get locked in after winning three three events in one year
By the way there’s only been 12 players there is other membership exemptions like I talked about if you’re an NCAA Collegiate Champion also if you win the uh the amateur championship at the US Open I believe the courses that they play those at you automatically lock yourself in so
Those are kind of the I believe the exact number of players that get in from being NCAA I think it’s in the top 10 in in the country there’s also other ways as well where there’s the country of Canada has a PGA Tour Latin the Latin American countries
Have a way to get in as well so there’s obviously different Avenues to get into being professional golfer Chris and I think people think that it’s more of an exclusive group of people but it really is but it’s also you are the best of the best you worked your way through just
Like the NCAA basketball football Etc and they go professional they do the same thing golf is more of an exclusive it takes you’re 23 24 years old but you’ve been playing since you’re a very young person so I think a lot of people don’t give a lot of golfers credit for for being
Consecutively very good but going into the controversy as well Chris I think we can talk about this the the thing the reason why this started this conversation started with Liv golf versus PGA had nothing to do with Phil Mickelson making comments about the the tragic death of
Mr kogi and in in that thing there was there’s conversations well before that about these golfers that have been on the tour a long time trying to cut down their schedules to the event schedules that they’re required to make uh due to their golf rankings that they have to make commitments to
Actually play throughout the year there’s obviously the major tournaments we talk about being a casual fan obviously the C the the major events the US Open in the United States The Players Championship which is this weekend at TPC Sawgrass in Florida hence why we’re doing this topic now because it’s a
Pretty big event it’s the it’s the PLAYERS Championship which is known to be the PLAYERS Championship it is run by not by the organization but by the players and the reason why this topic is important to every that understands golf is that the top the champion that won
Last year at the Mr Smith cam cam Smith was not accepted to come back even though he’s a champion because of his status on the live golf tour the top five players in the world that won that were in the top 10 of the tournament last year are now in
Live golf so the argument now is Chris I think and as a sports person you understand this you want to play against the very best of the best right that’s what you want no absolutely so absolutely at the same time what the argument is with live golf
Is pretty simple I’ll just give you an example of what happened in the world of golf which Chris I think you looked this up too as well that there is something called when you win a major tournament like the Masters which comes around soon once you
Win The Masters you are allowed to play every single year regardless of what player ranking that you’re ranking in the world rankings that you sit in but and also there’s something called a sponsor exemption and there’s other things that also some of these tournaments you qualify based on your overall world
Rankings so because live golf started the PGA and I’m not saying they’re very like a teenager but the world rankings did not see the status of the live golf results in your world ranking numbers so this to give you a c clear indication here Chris there’s the PGA
Tour which is played in United States the DP World Tour which is played in Europe that used to be known as a European tour when we were kids that’s what they changed it to it’s a DP World Tour that’s over in uh Europe and they do have they do foresee live Golf Ranking
Players as allowed to play and then they have the Asian tour World Asia tour which allows them to also play and also Latin America so the three basically the rather part of the globe allows people to actually play the game on golf so it’s just this this conversation is
Kind of complicated guys so bear with me here while I’m trying to navigate this so everyone has a kind of a base on what we’re talking about the main topic of conversation with golfers is I want to have World official world rankings so let’s just say hypothetically I know not every single
Player is a Bryson dampo or a Dustin Johnson or uh Tiger Woods or any one of these players that I mean D raso to live golf by the way this year okay I’ll just give you give you the list here and some of these players you may know some of them
You don’t and Chris I think you can probably agree with me that some of these guys you will recognize is just a casual call fan um for example Bryson we I just I said Bryson Paul Casey and Ebron alir aliri he actually finish runner up in this the players championship last year Charles
How II uh Lou alzen L haen excuse me uh Brandon Brandon Grace Dean burer Charles swel uh terrible name Saturday uh sorry about that everybody if I bat botch professional golfers names I am terrible but let’s as we go through the list here the main ones that you probably
Recognize is Dustin Johnson Patrick Reed Pat Perez Sergio Garcia Abe aner Carlos Ortiz obviously everyone knows Phil Mickelson Kevin naw Bubba Watson who just actually got came off an injury this year so this is his first year Taylor G uh Harold VAR thei Ian polter Henrik Stinson Lee
Westwood those guys you recognize those guys have been on the tour so a lot of this group of people have been on the tour for 15 20 years some of these guys have been on the tour for a decade so Chris my question to you as a person
Is out of those five guys that we just listed or even the guys we listed which one do you think was the biggest pull that pissed off the PGA the most well again it’d be hard to say I mean obviously you look at the names like uh Dustin Johnson I he was probably
One of the most well-known names you know aside from you know Phil and Sergio but you know Phil Phil and Sergio are kind of the you know late 90s early 2000s stars of of the PGA but I would I would have to say to me Dustin Johnson would probably be the biggest uh
Probably be the biggest steel that Liv uh that Liv saw I I guess I could I am I correct you’re close and the reason why if you look at that list of names I mentioned cam Smith right I mentioned that wer the guy cam Smith he won the
Tournament last year at the TPC sass this tournament he also won uh the British Open last year he he did not come to live golf till after he won the British Open or the open as they call it now uh so he waited till almost mid-season to come on
Board everybody knows about Phil Mickelson but Phil Mickelson so everyone understands this live golf was primarily last year in the inaugural season was primarily on YouTube it had a good following it had a decent showing but this year they just announced a multi-year deal with the CW Network which actually you can
Watch the coverage on the CW app for free so it’s just like a YouTube thing you don’t have to have a TV you just go to the app and you watch it like a normal coverage people have asked me hey do you can you still watch it on
YouTube not really can’t watch the full thing so that that’s the thing and I I think so going into it the main I I think your argument is correct with Dustin Johnson me personally I think it was Brooks Kea and everyone knew everyone that kind of casually watched golf knew that
Brooks Kea and Bryson D shampo didn’t like each other it was kind of funny they just had a little friendly I would not say friendly rivalry but they had a rivalry didn’t like each other and uh Brooks Kea in my opinion was the one that kind of in my personal view
Alongside with Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson kind of those three together and then cam Smith cing on coming on board Bryson is well Bryson probably could have stayed on the PGA tour and and garnered a lot of celebrity but he he stayed so that’s the group of guys
That are playing right now on live golf now the reason why I bring this up is that everybody talks about this argument about Sport washing by the Saudi Arabian government or by the people and I I hate to say this to everybody the contracts of all these live
Golfers they’re going to be set for the rest of their life uh so this give you an example let give you an example Chris what do you think if you only had to play 14 vents a year okay which by the way the the structure of
Liv golf I think we can well read into this it has a PRI a a prize pool of about $25 million I think it’s 20 million sorry 20 million a tournament um a total prize purse so obviously the first person the first winner the S of the solo uh wins uh
$4.44 million and there’s also a team element to it which uh the total team win I think is a mill Mill and a half and they split that amongst I think the four members and there’s a lot there’s a team element to it that’s why there’s a
Lot of Attraction towards Li golf is because these guys are not just making a bounty they’re doing it as a team and they’re doing it as a it’s a kind of a different format it’s a shotgun start which if anyone doesn’t know what golf is with shotgun start means everyone
Starts on a hole a different hole and they all play through so everyone’s playing 18 holes at one time you know I have to wait for the late tea times which I think Chris as a casual fan you might appreciate that because you can watch that for two hours and go about
Your business after so yeah the in the field I believe is a 48 golfers correct yeah they they might expand that I believe it is 48 total which we’ll talk about this later on but the PGA just announced this past week that they’re expanding their exclusive tournaments
Which has no cuts and they’re raising the prize pool to basically match what live golf is doing so we’ll discuss that later on and kind of how this kind of navigates the sports picture picture of golf here but this give you an idea here of the contracts that these guys are
Making okay Phil Mickelson $200 million these are all fiveyear contracts okay fiveyear contracts Dustin Johnson 150 million Bryson 125 million Brooks kka 100 million Cameron Smith 100 million okay let me just tell you something here that’s $675 million for five players okay the total revenue of the
PGA tour in 22 was somewhere 1.5 billion so over time Liv golf is going to spend more money on their players than what the PGA Tour is even worth at some point also um just to kind of reiterate this a little bit Chris uh it it’s it’s perfectly
Acceptable for people to not like live golf it’s a different format right I don’t have a say so what you like or don’t like but what I have a huge problem with and I think we can hear this over the topics of the podcast over
The last year or so is that I I hate hypocrisy I hate when people don’t you know rules for thee but not for me and there’s a certain level of you know certain things here that just don’t make any sense on why people are upset now what I’m getting at is
That there is money companies that the PGA Tour is sponsored by that have some kind of Saudi Arabian business dealings and I’m going to go through a very list of sponsors here that these players which we talked about earlier on these sponsor exemption for some of these tournaments most of the players that
Play in the PGA Tour that are in the top 50 to top 75 will play about eight to 10 times a year potentially some are you know exemption status and some are don’t some just don’t want to play so 14 events in my opinion is doable for these guys that don’t live
Golf but just go through the list here Chris ready for this can you guess who Bryson D champo is sponsored by back when he was on the PGA tour I couldn’t I could not tell you without without uh without looking up to be honest with you Tim rocket
Mortgage who has a very large business dealing with Saudi Arabia uh RBC is a sponsor by Dustin Johnson when he was on the tour Phil Mickelson ready for this here we go American Express Callaway golf hinin amstell and workday Ian polter MasterCard Henrik Stenson Mutual of Omaha Lee Westwood
UPS some of these guys have very large large business dealings with Saudi Arabia now obviously after they announced to go to live golf massard paused some of their deals with a couple of these guys uh Phil Mickelson probably took it the biggest when it came to sponsor deals because Callaway golf
Uh paused the relationship so what I’m getting at is guys is that the argument that play people place against the tour is something that’s completely Reckless if you actually sit there and watch I think you said you watched it did you actually enjoy the coverage Chris for
The most part yeah I mean overall you know and again me as a as a fair weather golf fan when I watched it you know it was easier to follow because obviously it was just a fewer number of players um you know just from a and again I haven’t
Obviously watched any the tournament uh start of their season this year but um you know the graphics they had on the left side of the camera or on the left side of the screen were really really really good because they were in live time then also the the team format was
Something I found interesting you know where golf is traditionally a and I think will always be an individualized sport but when you look at it from a from a team aspect to it it definitely brings more of a of an appeal to it and obviously as as we’ve talked about too
With only having a uh you know a smaller field the tournaments just start I mean or the the rounds just take less time you know you’re not sitting around from morning until early evening um waiting on a tournament to finish so or waiting
On a round to finish so um yeah I I I overwhelmingly did like the way the tournaments were uh were set up for sure so honestly going back into this what what is your I I’ll ask a simple question here is do you think live golf will sustain
Itself or is it going to go back everyone’s going to go merge back into itself and everyone’s going to be back Happy Happy Joy Joy here next couple years I mean I I look at from the perspective of not as again I probably beat a dead horse with saying uh you
Know not being a full uh a full-time golf fan but I you know I did find I did find similarities back to when you know again obviously said weren’t really going to talk Motorsports but uh end up throwing a little bit of Motorsports into it um you know when the uh when the
Indie Racing League or what was then it was then cart uh split from or split in 1996 and became uh you basically two Open Wheel series you had the Indie racing LC at cart and you know they basically competed um as two separate entities you know from 1996 until they
Reunified in 2008 so you had 12 years of of Separation um so again who who knows how long it’ll be but I do see just based on some of the changes that PGA Tour is making or these proposed changes that they’re making that they’re definitely you know they they the PGA
Tour still is the 800 you know was looked at as the 800 pound gorilla and I still think that there’s still the gorilla in the room but maybe they were only about 650 pounds now they definitely I I agree I do I agree with you there um because ultimately and I
Ultimately I think what what will happen you know when you start when you’re when you have a a basically pseudo Monopoly in in in any type of business Not Just Not Just Sports but when you have a pseudo Monopoly in something you you get you get lazy you get complacent and then
When you have uh you have folks come in who’ve got you know there’s no there’s no such thing as as an unlimited budget you know there’s only a finite amount of money on planet Earth but when they come come in with you know with very very
Deep pockets are willing to pay you know these enor amount amounts of money to get the best players in the world and tell them hey you only have to play half the amount of tournaments compared to what you have to pay on uh play on the
On the PGA tour side and you’re making I don’t know seven eight nine times more money I mean that’s very hard to say no to I I I’ll say this the the one thing going to keep this Saga or this journey or this story together for a long period
Of time is two things there is a clash action lawsuit going on between the two of them which now they just now rule that they can dispose of the uh of the investment fund that can actually the PGA can actually you know dispose that person also the majors and Chris I know
You’re a casual fan which you’ve stated many times is that they’ve actually ruled that the major tournaments which by the way are completely ruled by a separate body of govern like governing and and golf they’re governed by themselves so the Masters is ruled by the members of
Augusta and they they said that any winner past winner of the Masters who is now currently on the live golf can compete that’s why you see some of the internet memes out there with you know with Scotty Sheffer who he is a he made a joke about it he said all the live
Golf guys can go out 9th green at 900m which is a running joke about you know Happy Gilmore with the the sprinkler system but it the argument that the the PGA Tour guys are maing I mean are making now are completely what Phil Mickelson and some
Of these guys and Royer mroy and even Tiger Woods which by the way Tiger Woods wasn’t very vocal with it other than saying that he doesn’t believe it’s a it’s a it’s a competitive atmosphere which he could have kept his mouth shut on that situation but it’s Tiger Woods
He’s gonna make his voice heard and that’s how he’s going to play it but the thing is Chris that the one thing that’s going to decide all this the ending of this because how long it goes on for you know is that if the the world governing body of golf says
Hey you actually going to receive world ranking points based on your participation in and live golf these guys can now qualify for tournaments because some of these guys will and the reason why I bring this up is for all the other topics that we talk about sports golf is
The one that has like 19 different exemptions to for you to enter any kind of competition like I I said sponsor pass winner hell you can be an amateur you can be a you you you have like four different types of exemptions for a tournament but the one thing that you
Don’t have an exemption for is which by the way the exemptions for these tournaments if you are a pass winner for some of these major tournaments other than the Masters in the US Open in the British Open um is only like four or five years so you know Bry and G shampo can
Play for three or four years in this tournament um because he’s a pass winner uh Tiger Wood you know these guys can play for a lifetime in the Masters and things like that but other major tournaments they you know they want to continually earning points that they can qualify for
These tournaments so they can actually play I understand it’s a big pocket of money which by the way it really is these guys are making a substantial amount of money but they also still have to maintain there’s also parts of this contract Chris I don’t think you I’m not
Sure if you read into them or not but they really can’t have too many personal endorsement deals um which kind of determines on how much money they’re making um I’ll just give an example for this when a player goes on the live golf thing they’re show they’re supposed to
Be wearing uh the live golf uh when they do like a media or any kind of kind of media type of interview or anything like that they’re supposed to be wearing live golf attire they’re not supposed to be wearing any other type of attire um when
They’re on the golf course they can wear pretty much their own personal endorsements that they carry but they’re very short shorts too right wasn’t that a big deal oh yeah hell yeah that was a big deal as a guy at Golfs Believe Me shorts are godsend I tell you uh
Especially in the middle of freaking the summertime another big argument a lot of people made Chris and I think people can argue about this for nauseum sake here is that some of these tournaments were played on Trump or organization uh golf courses last year they only played I
Think on two or three I think it was two I think it was BM in Miami which national it’s Trump National and Doral Miami this year just give you the schedule here which you talk about you miss out you only missed out on one by
The way you missed out on the one up in Playa and basically was in Cancun Cancun Mexico uh the one this coming next week I think next two weeks is uh Tucson Arizona the Orange County National uh which is Orlando you have Australia Singapore Tulsa Oklahoma which is the
Same place that played the last year in the US Open two years ago uh Trump National in DC uh Spain England uh I believe it West Virginia Ben Mis Illinois Miami and they’re playing the last tournament this year in Saudi Arabia so you know as a schedule you can’t tell me
It’s not diverse you know it’s it’s pretty diverse schedule man like I feel bad if I was a golfer that you had to fly all the way around the world like 18 times but these guys make plenty of money when you’re making that much money I think you you’ll
You’ll you’ll put up with the with the travel oh I agree so that’s that’s where you kind of get at here is is and this is why I see like a more informative me talking too much podcast but to me the argument needs to be made here that the
PGA doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on when it comes to this argument you talk about the elephant in the room when it didn’t these players were begging for the PGA to make those moves three four five years ago now they announced this past month
That they’re going to have no cut tournaments which is a first for them for the PGA Tour not to have Cuts is almost unheard of I mean it’s I don’t know how you think about that which by the way is a is a it’s a vote for contention people like cut
When you have 150 players I understand having a cut but with live golf you only have 48 players and in the PGA you’re going to have 80 people in that tournament and there’s gonna be no Cuts that’s still gonna be very boring coverage on the PGA side well I mean if
You if you’re a if you’re a fan watching it I mean and again like I’m a fan but still boring as hell to watch I mean is is it really worth having like for example is it really worth having a player who’s 20 over for around continue
To continue to play I mean I I don’t I I I see and that’s where and that’s where live golf I think has it has it going with the the team aspect of it because I’m not sure if you know the rules on this on the team aspect three
Out of the four players count for the scoring total for the team that day so they do it each day so there’s three days so let’s say you don’t score that day but you do really well the day before the next day and your your overall score sucks maybe you’re like
You said like 10 over 15 over but that say that one day you you recorded a round of 10 o 10 like five or six under par and then the other guy Accords like another 5 under so it kind of combines and it helps the team score so that’s
Where I think you know the live golf has the team aspect of it man it’s just in my personal view a lot better aesthetically pleasing to watch on television um and I I can’t I know I’m not gonna say this Phil Nance Phil Nance will just
I’m sorry I can’t watch tooo much more um after listening to him and Tony Romo talk on the NFL season but it’s just to me man it I know this conversation that’s outside your parameters here but like as a sports fan you kind of have to enjoy for what it is it’s called
Competition yep and yeah no I mean you can’t you can’t again sometimes competition makes everybody better um and I think I mean could could I see there be a point in time where you know the the S the Saudis you know they they’ve been involved in all types of
Sports and they’re they’re willing to spend money but there could be a point in time where they find don’t find the value in spending money and before you know this this league is gone who’s who’s to say that’s going to happen only time will tell but in terms
Of right now what they’re doing I mean clearly the PGA Tour has their eye if they’re if if they’re if they’re making these significant changes to their uh to the way that they conduct their tournaments and how how these tournaments are broken into by the majors and the major major tournaments
In your regular PGA Tour and FedEx Cup tournaments I mean if they’re not making changes that does that that clearly means that they are looking and are definitely looking to see what the what the competition is doing because they ultimately if they didn’t care they
Wouldn’t be doing it so uh it it’s going to be definitely to see how this plays out um over the next many years and obviously with some the litigation going on too I think that’ll also Factor as well um you know whatever that the decisions are made on that too as
Well I think seriously not to say this to go down this Avenue here but the PGA Tour commissioner could have probably gone about this a little bit differently and I know he won’t regret saying anything that he has said in the media and acted the way he acted but as a fan
Of the sport I don’t see how both of these couldn’t coexist for the game of the golf like I I really don’t see how that these guys that play on the PGA tour listen you know we’re not going to suspend you which by the way when these guys I mean
You could read this all the listeners can read this when these players decided to go to live golf they’re basically giving up their entire live hood that they know to go take this money or what they people consider a bounty you know of 20 plus million dollars a year
However a lot of people don’t seem to understand that the PGA Tour didn’t give him any Outlet to say you know they they didn’t give him any outlet they they said okay listen you want to go there fine you can’t come back though it’s not like hey you’re
Going to be suspended for three years or anything these guys are being lifetime banned like it’s blacklisted like Pete Rose and baseball for going to a competition how is that not a how is that not a monopoly it just it’s a game of golf man
And it’s it’s not which by the way you know you know this it’s okay to have competition in the world of NASCAR and the world of Motorsports we have competition there’s the cars tour there’s NASCAR there’s the Infinity Series there’s wheel and tour modifi there’s drag racing there’s imsa
There’s indie car there’s Sports Car Championship there’s endurance races there’s Baja racing plenty of Motorsports that go around it’s called a sport it’s called racing golf only had basically one major brand here in the United States so I mean Chris I’ll let you have the floor here but I’m saying like in my
View these guys were kind of limited in the United States to play either they had to go over in Europe and play which isn’t exactly guaranteed or they to go play in Asia which isn’t guaranteed so I mean if I was a player that made that kind of money it’s a
No-brainer if you ask me man yeah no I think I think clearly one one of the challenges things that people are gonna have to think about long term is uh you know is is is the sustainable I mean you figure um you know could could two golf leagues coexist like you said absolutely
I mean I think they could I think the challenge of it is and I think we’ve seen it in many sports that have seen splits or factions or breaks in uh in competition is when you have two of something you dilute the uh you delute the talent pool you won’t have the
Um you know when you when you can’t see all the best guys on the same field on the same course or on the same field or on the same track together then it also brings into account people are going to say oh well this is this is not you know
Well if this guy wins wins a PGA Tour event then well you know he’s not playing up against the top guys who are all on the live tour so you also bring that factor in as well just solely on on back to people are going to second guess
You know oh well he’s not playing against the best guy so clearly this is you know this is a water down version of what of what I’m of what I’m watching um so I think you got that that perspective is going to be uh it’s going to be
Interesting uh you know to watch and see long term what happens uh what happens there so if indeed these two uh entities do uh do remain separate I I will say the hypocrisy knows no bounds ladies and gentlemen when it comes to the the great lip tards and the great snowflakes of
The world for all the people that care about all these stats about diversity and all that other stuff here is the best facts for you for all you women golf fans out there the biggest sponsor of women’s golf in the United States armo is a nationally funded by the by the same fund
So I’m talking about it’s a company that is a national company so it to me that’s all the people in the world they want to talk about diversity and they want their own own rights and things like that it’s just kind of funny how to me Chris that people don’t understand the argument
Here is that we become a bunch of Hypocrites it it really sounds like that when it comes to sports it sounds like it it you you you you like LeBron James but he does business with China you know what I mean you know there’s there’s a there’s
A there’s a fake moral High Ground that that everybody tries to uphold you know and I think yeah we see it definely the PGA where you know essentially you’re saying oh all these guys are taking blood money well you know as you as you mentioned how many of these how many of
These athletes are sponsored by you know companies that have questionable uh you know human rights or questionable uh uh you know things that they’ve engaged in over the years so yeah that there is a level of uh you know fake moral outrage I think that we all that
We all kind of see uh go on right now for sure so the one thing that I I think a lot of people don’t understand and I I want to keep this kind of brief here about this the public investment fund or better known as the PF is The Sovereign
Wealth fund of Saudi Arabia it’s the it’s basically what they use um for a lot of their different interests they want to take part take part in um they they invest in new companies they start companies so it’s a pretty largely diverse fund and there’s no question that and I mean this
Respectfully it’s a very large diverse fund a lot of companies that the United States have done a that are in the United States we can list through them here um video game companies concert Distributors not going to name them Live Nation uh airport airplane manufacturers credit card
Companies large big funds so what I’m saying to everybody is EA Sports take two interactive blizzard Nintendo all has interest or have investment interest from the same fund that is my point that I’m making to a lot of people is you can’t have this fake moral outrage and not understand that most of
The things that you purchase and most things you consume and use on a daily basis has some kind of this kind of Interest investment projects are 38% of this funds projects live golf is one ounce it’s like a drop in the bucket to these people it’s what it
Is and I mean that in all respect to everything the amount of money they spend on live golf is nothing in comparison to what they spend on other things like birkshire haway okay and things along these and also soccer for all you sports fans that love European soccer so
I’m going to end with this Chris at some point sports fans need to get off their moral High ground and just enjoy what they’re watching either playing or consuming it in some way shape or form and at some point by people doing not doing that and getting into these moral arguments
They’re not getting any better in their golf game they’re still they’re still slicing the ball they’re still still hooking the ball they’re still pulling it they’re not hitting they’re duffing their they’re duffing their chips they’re not playing golf well they’re just arguing about nothing a lot of
People don’t realize that the game of sports in life have zero day-to-day reflection on what we do other than if you’re a professional sports better if you are congratulations but that being said the game of golf is something that you enjoy it’s a challenging game I
Think Chris you can agree with me on that it is a challenge it’s not something as easy that uh everybody can do it well there’s 99% of us that suck at it there’s 1% are really good and the 1% are unfortunately not monopolized to uh to the PGA Tour anymore I will be
Interested to see what happens at the Masters Chris I think you can agree with me I hope Tiger Woods competes and does well uh I think we’re going to have ourselves a com competitive year when it comes to the majors but uh the next live golf tournament is in Tulsa
Oklahoma not Tulsa I’m sorry Tucson Arizona excuse me I’m looking at the wrong schedule but want to get your last thoughts here I’ll let you have the floor man since I’ve been talking for the last 10 minutes well again uh you know this was I think was definitely interesting
Conversation I I learned I learned plenty um you know but I think we’ll see what happens long term and you know for the for the betterman of golf it’d be great to have everybody Under One Roof but I think ultimately if um you know if indeed that this uh separation continues
As long as these guys can uh at least come together for the majors because when it comes down to it and I you know may agree or disagree but I feel like you know the majors are the are the big events that people pay attention to so
At least from that perspective the the major events you’ll see all these guys still continue to come together play now obviously I think it’ll affect the regular tournaments uh but I think only time will tell uh what what’ll happen and you know hopefully again both sides can eventually maybe come back together
And can have either a stronger PGA Tour or if ited gets absorbed into the LI tour or some some semblance of both um I think it would be uh guess soon to tell I I think I agree with you a lot there I think with closing here I think
Time will tell I think we’ll know more here in the next three years uh of the status of live golf um with them having a TV rights deal now um them kind of moving around the world when it comes to their tournaments they’re taking on notoriety uh fandom is growing their
Their organization is obviously growing in fans I think seriously the game of golf is in good hands I think the 1% of the golfers that are really good will have more competitiveness to play and do this for a living um but that’s what it’s really all about if you ask me it’s it
Gives these guys an opportunity to play competitively and make money doing it now the guys that Chris I think you can agree the guys that are playing right now on live golf they’re making goo amounts of money and so they’re not hurting you know they’re not they’re not hurting but
When you see guys that are competing on the PGA tour that are ranked number one number five number three number seven and they’re all really playing close N Net together and they’re and because of the rule changes that the PGA has made in the last year some of these
Requirements that they’re making for competition sake you have to understand that Liv golf did do some Rec I would say the bowl in a china shop it shook things up and that being said I think it’s interesting to talk about this going and get the T you know obviously
The PLAYERS Championship weekend have some fun to watch casually I know it’s uh it’s kind of in between Sports Seasons right now it’s we can there’s not too much uh NFL action just came off the combine there is not enough XFL which the quality of play there is kind of lacking and
There’s NCAA March man is about to kick off so there’s kind of in between things here and uh that’s all we ask for as sports fans we want to have something to enjoy so that being said guys I appreciate you joining us uh I know it
Was kind of a talk Fest but I appreciate you joining us hopefully it was educational feel free to like subscribe all that fun stuff tweet us do all the other fun things you like to do on social media keep your keep your elicit picks to yourself and uh that being said I
Appreciate the opportunity as always Chris from you joining me till next week for another fun one let’s do it yes sir all righty let’s see 5846 thank you for listening to the Yankee Cowboy podcast feel free to follow us on social media via Twitter Instagram or Facebook
