Golf Lovers United reviews the recent @LIVGolf events in Korea (won by Bryson DeChambeau/Crushers GC) and Mexico (won by Joaquin Niemann/Legion XIII GC) and analyze the performances of the various players/teams from recent events.
The guys also briefly touch on the upcoming @PGAChampionship in a couple weeks, and speculate on the upcoming LIV Transfer Window before LIV Golf DC in June, and the strategic moves that LIV has yet to make. Stay tuned for more!
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Personal Anecdotes
03:09 Experiences in Spain and Golf Courses
05:57 LIV Golf Tour Performances
08:54 Highlighting Individual Players’ Performances
12:10 Team Dynamics and Performance Analysis
20:49 Future Prospects and Rumors in Golf
27:55 The Evolution of Harold Varner’s Game
30:00 Patrick Reed’s Resurgence and DJ’s Inconsistency
31:57 The Impact of Coaching and Mental Approach in Golf
39:01 The Future of LIV Golf and Team Dynamics
45:59 Speculations on Player Transfers and Team Changes
57:07 Viktor Hovland’s Unique Position
58:47 The Importance of OWGR for Players
59:51 Strategic Moves for LIV Golf
01:08:44 Engaging with Fans and Critics
01:11:50 The PGA Championship/Majors and LIV Players
01:18:54 Personal Golf Experiences and Opportunities
Bryson DeChambeau and Charles Howell III from @CrushersGC duel it out at Jack Nicklaus Golf Club in Incheon, South Korea: https://youtu.be/teKzHAGbfBc?si=G82OsaKQLnVKwYmi
https://www.youtube.com/@LIVGolf
https://www.youtube.com/@brysondechambeau
https://www.youtube.com/@CrushersGC
https://www.youtube.com/@UC3jFoA7_6BTV90hsRSVHoaw
https://www.youtube.com/@UC1hf0FeA1HLNc883o70Kqxg
https://www.youtube.com/@GrantHorvatGolfs
https://www.youtube.com/@RickShielsPGA
https://www.youtube.com/@UCnUYyAtDiyeaobSzKqVE_BA
The Golf Lovers United Team:
Pro Golf Critic: https://x.com/progolfcritic
Golf Lover UK: https://x.com/golfloveruk
Red Harrington: https://x.com/redharrington44
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to the Golf Loves United podcast. I am Golf Love UK and this is my good friend, confidon, and all round good fellow pro golf critic. How are you, mate? I’m doing well. Um, it might take some convincing of of other other people that I’m um I’m as good as you say say I am. But look, people people have to like your opinion, but you’re a good person, so f them. If they if they don’t like you, they don’t have to like your opinion. Look, I’ve said to you before, I think I think you can be at times bombastic. You can be a little bit antagonistic. You got you got shade you got a shade of Mr. Trump about you when you want to. Well, I’ll tell you guys being as a human being, you’re a really good human being. Thank you. Mrs. PGC would completely agree with a lot of that stuff. She says that I’m the biggest troll that she knows. Um, she also but she also said in my astrology chart there there’s a lot of that stuff. I’m I’m not an expert on astrology stuff. I’m solely going by her her opinion of of my, you know, various things on my chart. So, for what it’s worth. So, you can’t blame me. It’s blame my my astrology. Like, it is what it is. Yeah, it is what it is. Does that fact that people still believe in that? Oh, I can’t say that cuz people are going to go mental if I if I criticize it. But I I Anyway, there’s more to it than there’s more to it than than you think. So, I’ll let her do a do a reading for you and you’ll you’ll be like, “Oh my god.” You’ll I’m telling you I I was in the same boat you were a while ago and then all of a sudden I became a believer. So for what’s worth if she does it and it says Ben’s got the ability to hit five beautiful irons in a row and then duff a wedge six foot then I’m then I’m all on board. That might be you’ll have to see in inconsistency. That might be part of it. Yeah. You never know. Um good. Right. On that note, um I just very quickly for the listeners and the viewers, I was in Spain for that power cut, the the the the complete power outage, I have never experienced anything like it. So we had no electricity, no phones, no running water because obviously all running water is done by power by water plants that got electric pumps to drive anything. So like there was no toilets. Like in our hotel um there were people filling systems with buckets of water from the swimming pool so that people could use a communal toilets and flush them. Like it was crazy. Like there was nothing you could do. But for the first five for the first 5 hours I was on a golf course like had no idea. Yeah. It it was insane. And then every now and again your phone reception came back for like 90 seconds and we we were literally 45 minute walk sorry 4 hours and 45 minute walk from our hotel. We’re about an hour. We’re sorry about 40 minutes in a car from where we play golf. And so we’re thinking we’ve got a four hour 45 minute walk with our golf bags anywhere. I’m on my phone. We’re all panicking like crap. No idea what to do. Uber came to life. I managed to book an Uber. I booked it and within 20 seconds of booking it, I lost my signal for 6 hours. Didn’t get it back. The six of us were in a massive like big big like van, like a multi-seater van. And we passed over we got we gave up counting. We passed over 60 golfers walking with bags in the boiling hot Spanish afternoon heat like three o’clock. People just like it was horrific but look it’s one terrible it was crazy. Played a couple of lovely courses. Played one that I think was a dog track that some people liked but yeah played chapparel which is amazing. Any any UK listeners I know the Americans don’t come and play play with Spanish golf. Any UK listeners go and play chaparel. Absolutely superb. And a course called Torabrada. Absolutely amazing. can get a chance to play those two. If you get a chance to play Alharin, avoid it. It’s a dog track. It’s dangerous. Um, too many holes crossing next to each other, balls from different fairways on top of each other. The round took five and a half hours on. Give an example on the 11th hole. I had to wait to tee off in the 11th hole cuz players had overshot the par three on the 10th and come across the 18th. I then had to wait on on the 11th before I could play my second shot because people from the 18th are across it. Like it it was it was a dog track. So, avoid that one. But yeah. took took Brad was absolutely superb and Chapparel was the views and the vistas in Chapparel. If you get a chance to play either those two and you’re going to Spain and they’re on your on your tour options from a tour provider, go and check them out. Chaparel and uh Tora Cabrada. Anyway, that’s that deal with um just for fun. There’s only like three there’s only like three courses in Spain that that I really know. Most of them are are from the professional golf world. I mean, Borama, obviously. The thing is, and I know a cortisan. Yeah, I know. I know we can’t do it. I know we can’t do it because you’re only going to be over here for sort of a week this time. We’ll play a bit of golf. You got to bring your clubs this time. We’ll go and play a few courses. Um, I will see if I can get us over to Port Rush to get on there cuz we know I got the connection. Maybe we can get that done. But like Spain has got like anything from sort of 10 to 50 in the Spanish rankings. They’re all They’re all basically 10 to 12. Do you know what I mean? They’re all so good. I don’t know how you how you tell them apart. The Spanish golfer is absolutely elite. But yeah, day day one felt like an absolute beast. Shot my handicap and of course I never played before. Felt absolutely brilliant with striping it. Day two I lost four balls by the seventh hole. Oh my god. I might Well, there that goes to the inconsistency. I was Yeah, it’s just might just be be part of the deal. Yeah, day three shot one over my handicap having had 12 cans of copper burger the night before. So maybe get rid of the inconsistency by drinking too much cider. But yeah, um a fantastic trip away, but the the power cut, Jay, was like nothing you’ve ever Yeah. No, it sounds a lot like Florida. The last hurricane that came through when I was living there. Like we were had no power for almost two weeks. Like it was crazy. And it was just a nightmare. And that was one of the things that just made me me realize like Yeah. You said that to you said that to me. You said to me and Jerry when we were playing golf. That was that was the final straw for you going look I can’t do a Florida anymore. There’s loads of stuff you liked about it, but like No, the infrastructure was just so fragile because the hurricane wasn’t even like that bad. And for the Yeah, it was a whole thing. I don’t want to back I know a lot of our listeners are from Florida. Like I I know a lot of people in Florida. We We had a great time for me. We had a great time in Florida. You said there are things about Florida you do like and I and I and I I love Florida being being on the being on the East Coast. That’s a huge benefit. Right. Let’s get let’s get into live. Um, do we want to go into the rumor I’ve heard first or do we want to go into the players and how they perform first? Let’s let’s let’s talk about let’s talk about the last tour. Let’s talk about Bryson. What a what a win. Yeah. For man’s had three miserable Sundays in a row. The Masters didn’t go to the Masters didn’t go to plan. Mexico didn’t go to plan. And Miami, it’s been three in a row. Miami. Yeah. Miami, Mexico, and the Masters. None of those went to plan for him. [Music] um like even Riad earlier in the year and international series India like he was right up there as well and uh yeah it’s just been kind of a story of the season for him and I was starting to get a little nervous uh like I I was talking to with with a bunch of live fans and we all kind of came to the conclusion yeah I mean it’s time for Bryson to get a win because like you don’t want something like this lingering for too long. He closed really really strong. Look, he shot 66 uh on Sunday, which is really great. Even though Charles Howell beat him by three, which is like unbelievable. Um the shooting 63. I did not see a 63 out there. Like just the uh conditions were starting to get really difficult. Like the greens were getting firmer. It was windy. Uh and for those guys to shoot the scores that they did, it was really really impressive on on that last day. So yeah, shout out to them. Shout out to the crushers. Shout out to, you know, all the crushers for really performing and coming to play that that last day. Sunday Crushers are back. Uh Bryson said it on the broadcast and yeah, it’s just exciting to see those guys play well. Like I love the Crushers. Uh they’re my second favorite team like like like I’ve said. Um you know, and yeah, they’ve just they they really came to play led by Bryson who’s just I think he’s this was really really important for him. I think it’s going to give him a boost for the rest of the year. Um and with the PJ Championship coming up like he’s going to be one of the top two three favorites. So yeah, I’ll see what happens. The crushes. Hang on a second. Yeah. [Laughter] So crushes. I I I just want to shout out obviously about Charles How as well. Charles How’s had some injury issues. Um he’s been fairly slow in coming back from that injury. Yeah. But what a performance today. Was it eight? Eight or nine under? It’s nine under. Nine under with a bogey. N bogei 16. Yeah. Nine under with a bogey. And you you got to feel like five birdies in a row. Yeah. That’s that’s one that’s got to be one of the best rounds in the history of live. Nine under with a bogey. And obviously I know Bryson and there’ve been a couple of Bryson and Waco. But but under the circumstance put it right up there with Lucas Herbert. Lucas Herbert at Chipotle shooting 61 10 under. Like I think it was like a comparable round. I’ll I haven’t really dove into the stats yet at all. I’ll have to double double check. But uh yeah, I mean it was one of the just just looking at the dispersion of scores like I just think that it’s going to be be one of the top five to six rounds in live golf history. Yeah. And also with the crushes. I have seen some bad luck on a golf course. Um I messaged bar I messaged Barn earlier. You could hit that shot. I actually said to him you could hit that shot 100,000 times and not managed to do that. I actually think you could have managed to do it a million times. Hitting the flag you can do. to hit the flag at that angle, at that pace, at that low point of the flag where it’s got the most resistance and at that exact angle. And the ball the ball if the ball had been like 2 foot less rolling, it would have just nestled nestled in that rough in the fringe. Yeah. Like he like that. It’s crazy. I that might be one of the crulest like that. I’m sure I’m sure listeners and viewers can can think of others, but that’s got to be right up there with the crulest breaks I’ve ever seen in golf. And to bounce back from that, to bounce back from that was great. So, it was good good to see good to see the crusher perform well. Um, also good to see um Taylor Gu come back to bit of form. He’s been so poor so poor of late and that’s not being horrible. He has been poor of late by his standards. No, he would admit it. Yeah. Yeah. And also, sorry, go on. Yeah, I was just just gonna say Taylor Gu considers himself to be um an elite player. I think we we all consider him to be a top 10 to 15 player on live and he’ll be the first to say he hasn’t been playing like it. No. Um and and now he’s, you know, starting to creep up the standings a little bit like he’s with this uh third place finish kind of gets him into the top 20. So, I think he’s trending in the right right direction, which is great to see. Uh because look, Smash is they need Taylor Gu to play at an elite level for Smash to sort of be in contention and they they finished second this week. It’s not it’s it’s not a coincidence that it took Taylor Gu shooting 14 under, finishing in third um in order for them to get there. So like they they need to see more from Taylor Gu. I was a little disappointed in a couple things that I saw from Smash. Like Jason Kok the last day, he just really didn’t show up. Like he shot I think it was 77, but it looked like he gave up a little bit. It looked like it looked like he was he looked like he was pissed off and that was it. No, that was the like he was the difference. Like looking at the breakdown, G shot 66 on Sunday. Uh a Brook shot two under, a Graham shot two under, all solid scores, and then Koke Rock shot 77 and uh Smash was in the lead for the majority of the day until he’s sort of kind of hit a little bit of a bogey train and they wind up losing the crushers. I mean, a significant margin. Um they lost by nine. Uh if Kokrack shoots, you know, 70 69, they’re like right there. They’re right in it. So, uh, yeah, like that’s how like when you have all four scores counting, like it doesn’t matter if you have like one or two guys that are doing really well, like you need every single guy on your team to come to play. Just like the Crushers, they didn’t need anything spectacular from Honorbond or Paul Casey because they got something spectacular from Charles Owl and they got some something really really great from Bryson. So, all it took was Honor Bond just that like like steady even par the last day like that was enough to sort of uh keep his uh floor high so that he’s not in that like 77 78 category and like everybody else like Paul Casey 67, Bryson 66, Charles How 63 and they were able to run away with it. So, yeah, really solid Sunday. they sort of getting back to that Crushers Sunday Crushers mentality that Bryson talked about a little bit at the end. And uh yeah, Crushers are going to be a force the rest of the year for sure. Um just a couple of quick shout outs. Great to see Matty Wolf back. I you know, you know, I believe I know Mattie is in very very openly struggle with some sort of mental health issues with regarding like regarding golf and focus and other things and and like and Matt’s been open about that’s not me telling Tales out of school. mass being open about that but um he has got you talk about Gu being a top 10 15 player Matty Wolf for me if every single person’s playing their a game Matty Wolf everyone playing a game Matt Wolf’s top eight maybe top 10 he is absolutely one of the best players on live and good to see him get get a bit of form back he’s an elite talent there’s two other players I really want to well I want well under Dicky Bland he’s aging like um the best French wine in the world but there’s two people I want to shout out of in a different way. One is um Kazuma, who I call Jinky cuz J I N his first name and K I call him Jinky. Yeah, Jinky Kazuma. Like that’s what I’ve always called him. And he he cuz but him for him to come back from that injury and finish tied seventh. And it wasn’t a tied seventh with one great round and then some scratching around. It was a tied seventh with a four under, two under, two under, some solid golf. and he and Kevin Na really are the best two players in Iron Heads. Iron Heads are struggling. Danny Lee has been all at sea all season and and the Iron Heads have just not been able to get anything going. And then the other person I want to shout out and and it’s difficult for them because the sticks get a lot of flak for some poor performances and I get a lot of flak for being an Ian Palterr. Now I’ll I’ll be I’ll be an Ian I’ll be an Ian Paul to home as long as I can draw breath for many reasons but mostly the RDER Cup and secondly the amount of time he’s always given us and how kind he’s always been always been to us but but PZ has come back today and his ability to play he he he’s he grinds he’s always on the internet practicing sharing what he’s doing to to finish tied 13th was amazing and also gutting for him to make that double on five which was his fourth is his third the whole three from the back for him. Um he made a double on that. And I then had a little look at Pulse’s Pulse’s scoring this year and where his rounds are going to ride cuz I’ve actually spoken to you about this that and I was someone one of my one of my mates from my golf tours. Oh, Pulse is done like Westy’s done. They were talking about some of the players that aren’t playing and I’m not Westy’s West is a different story. There’s other stuff going on maybe with his game. I’m not as sure of that. But where I will be a pulse is I’ve actually looked at his par three scoring and that’s where PZ is killing himself this year. His par three I went through his par three scoring and par threes make up about make about um 20% of the holes they play and par threes make up about make up about nearly 50% of his drop shots. Yeah. Yeah. I mean that so he’s he’s dropping ties into this where he made it double on the par. So there wasn’t no wasn’t 50. It’s nearly 60 nearly 60%. looked at my number. Nearly 60% of his drop shots been on par threes this year. So, there’s obviously something going on there. Um, I know I know I think he’s on his third or fourth putter for the season. Um, he’s been very open about trying out different putters and he’s very open about trying out different gear and he’s he’s been well known as a gear head and a tester his entire life. Yeah, of course. So, I just wonder if maybe a few putter issues in the par 3s, but great to see him back and um yeah, I agree with a little bit of life into the sticks. Um, and one the one thing one the one person I know that you’re a huge fan of and you you were a huge fan of his signing over to the four aces is Thomas Peters. So, do do you want to speak a bit more about that? There’s a great another great finish in Thomas Peters. It’s not like he’s not set the world like this year, but he’s he’s done he’s done consistently well um in the sense that he’s he’s had one, two, three, four, he’s had five finishes in the points. This is his highest. It’s his first one in the top 10, but he does seem to be a player who’s really sort of got a hold of his game. And you’re a big Aces fan. So, do you want to talk about those pieces? For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Just to wrap up the Ian Poulter thing first though, because I think that it’s it’s worth reiterating. Um, he was in the drop zone all season because he had hadn’t got any points all year. Um, and this, uh, tied for a 13th got him back into the open zone, which is a huge, uh, from all indications, the drop zone and relegation this year is actually gonna mean something. So, for him to get out of that and have a solid performance, get him out of the drop zone. Look, he’s in 45th, so he’s certainly not out of the danger danger zone just yet. However, I think we’re going to hit a run of courses here towards the end of the year that that are going to be good for him. So, and then obviously you got got the home game at JCB that that I think is going to going to uh play well. So, sneakily having done a deep dive into Pulse, I did a deep dive into someone else who’s going to get eviscerated sadly. And I don’t mean to kick a man while he’s down, but Freddy Ketchup, turn this off now if you not. Yeah. Now, we got to be honest about it though. He has not been playing well. He’s finished 51st. PZ Pulse hasn’t struggled at any long courses. I think Well, PZ is older guy. Like Pulse has not struggled at long courses. So I’m not worried about Freddy Ketchup. He’s dropped shots on par threes and par fours. He is the drop shots everywhere. Wait for this. He’s the highest drop shots on par fives by three by four shots really. like you shouldn’t be dropping and and no disrespect like in in there in in that when I was looking at it on my windows just shut back open in that I was including players like I was including players like Ollie Schneidland who only played two events I was including I included Wade who played two events included Lee Westford who’s on a bad season Jang who’s been pretty poor all year even amongst those meer even amongst those in Brandon Grace like Freddy Ketchup’s par five scoring for a young man who hits the ball a mile has been absolutely awful. Jay, yeah, I think it goes to show you I think one of the things that we kind of talked about was he was it’s very clear he was kind of putting too much pressure on himself because like he I mean look for a lot of these guys getting to live is a once in a-lifetime opportunity. Like it really is. And I think he’s putting a little bit of pressure on himself and that usually shows itself a little bit on par fives because it’s it’s like that’s your opportunities to really score. Um, and he’s just he just hasn’t been been doing it. Like he’s and all year like he’s his his best finished is uh tied for 30th in Mexico. So that’s not going to get it done. He’s he has failed to get any points. Uh like Kazuma comes back. He only plays two events and he’s already in 36th in the Sanics. So, it goes to show you like some of these guys kind of they know how to grind it out. They know how to grind through sort of tough rounds and stuff like that. And I think a lot of that is like sort of wy veterans like knowing where to pick their spots and sort of getting confidence like their their confidence never waines. Like Ian Poulter, even though he hasn’t been playing well, his confidence is never going to Wayne. He who talks about like new guys and it’s a chance for lifetime. There’s no one there’s no one player for me who who resembles more it’s a chance for lifetime than Max Lee. He he won through the qualifiers. He isn’t on a team. He basically knows unless he shoot unless he gets in the top 24, he’s not going to stay on live. Highly unlikely unless the rumor I’ve heard is true, which we’ll talk about in a moment and what might happen. Um he’s not going to ever be part of a team. But Max Lee’s taken every opportunity. I know that Max Lee is only he’s only in 43rd, but he’s had he’s he’s he’s got points, so he’s he’s not in the he’s not in the drop zone. And he’s had one, two, three events where he’s been outside the points by one shot. So, if you put if you put him in if you put him in the points just on those three by just one shot, we’re not talking three or four. I did the math and that put that would have put him at 30 32. Sorry, sorry, not 32. Hang on. Where are we? I got the 35. So put him at 35. Now 35 is still not not guaranteed to stay, but this is a young man who who hits the ball not very far at all. You look at his numbers, Jay, and he and I are comparable and I am not a good golfer. You look at his yardages and he and I are comparable. So like this is a guy his ball speed. He Yeah. So, he’s super He’s super accurate. His his drivers I looked at his driver yardages his driver yardage about seven eight yards longer than me. Like, we’re not talking a big hitter by any stretch of imagination. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. But he’s he’s getting every ounce of talent out of that. and and and then you got Freddy Ketchup who we’ve said about it and you said and I said this a couple of weeks ago that the thing he’s got to do is just try and enjoy himself and I am worried I am worried that we’re now in the middle of the season the transfer windows open I think one or two things are going to happen so should we dive into the rumor well I want I want to before we dive dive into that I did want to have our little fores corner just just because I I do your four’s corner out because Stride is waiting for this. Yeah, I know. Yeah, shout shout out Strider. Shout out guy Strider. Um, no, four aces has definitely shown a lot of improvement and honestly a lot of that has to do with I talk about the floor needs to be higher for some of these guys. Thomas Peters has not really shown who he is really on live and we’re starting to see it this season. He finished tied fourth. He was right up there in contention in Korea. I think that he was playing really really well. Like at one point he was like tied for the lead or or you know a shot or two back. And we’re starting to see some really good stuff from Thomas Peters. Like he’s starting to look confident because like I know when he came over in 2023. I think he’s one of the players that had the most amount of sort of drama when he came over just with sort of all the stuff going on with his agency and his management. We all he got dumped. He got dumped by XL, didn’t he? He was Yeah. Which is ridiculous. Yeah. And he’s And it he’s been very candid that like he didn’t like that. He didn’t like the way he was treated going out the door. All that stuff. We’ll we’ll probably dive into that in more detail later at a later time. But most people know the situation with Excel Sports Management and it’s it’s kind of a complete clown show. Um but I will say hang on hang on. For those that don’t know, let’s do a 30 second recap. XL are XL look after a number of players including a Mr. Certain Woods. They’re very close to him in their organization. Um and also they look after a number of members of the media who have been very anti-live the whole time. The no laying up guys. No laying up. They’re very involved with XL. So there’s been a concertive effort by players who are with XL or close to XL through other investments like Tiger and and media like no laying up who who are managed by XL that have been very anti- live and as soon as Thomas Peters came across he was dumped by XL management and was viscerally turned on by some members of the media for going across. So some people haven’t listened to our podcast for the full two years. So I just I just thought I’ give that to be clear I want to name names. I want to name names. Excel Sports Management, Mark Steinberg. People pe people will probably know Mark Steinberg because he’s managed Tiger basically his entire career. Like he was front and center at at all of Tiger’s uh transgressions and everything going on with him and he basically runs like a lot of his business, Vench Ventures and and that’s basically who runs Excel Sports Management. They also manage a lot of players. you know, Justin Rose is another one that they managed, but they’ve been very anti-live from the very from the very beginning on this uh that it it’s very very clear anybody on their roster that has any sort of flirtation with Live Golf, they basically completely dumped. Thomas Peters won. Um our our guy Beners has talked about it a lot. uh he was was managed by Excel for um a while and he started doing more stuff with Liv like he started doing the designing of the championship rings and stuff like that. Um and uh once he started doing that like he started losing opportunities and part of it was driven by um Excel. So there there’s a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes and it’s part of the reason why I’ve been so anti Mark Steyberg Steiny and Excel is because I know what they’re doing behind the scenes. I know how anti- live they’ve they’ve been and are and it’s something that like really really bothers me because there’s no reason for them to do it. It’s like there’s these little things behind the scenes that are causing this rift in the golf world where like if certain if certain people weren’t involved, certain entities were removed from the equation, we would be living in a much more blended golf world. And because certain people have more of an influence and they’ve been very anti-ived, they’ve been encouraging this division from from the beginning. They’re the the people are the actual problem. So, I want them removed. I want them taken out of the the equation. It remains to be seen if that’s actually going to happen. Um, however, you like I could spend a two hours talking about some of the behind the scenes stuff, but going back to Thomas Peters, um, I think he’s playing really well now. Finished fourth in Korea. He was, uh, you know, 15th in Mexico. Like, he’s been trending as the year has gone on. Um, I feel like he’s one of those guys that kind of needs to play a little bit more, too. Like I think we’re going to see him a little more on the European tour schedule kind of in the summer sort of fall late summer. Like I think we’re we’re going to see more from him which which I think is really good cuz he’s a super talented player. Like there were people when he joined Lib saying that he was a top five talent on Lib. Like I didn’t agree with that. However, I think that he’s a really really solid player and for him to be either the third or fourth player on the aces is a huge huge deal for the Aces. So shout out to him. Shout out to Harold Varnner. Harold Varner’s been playing much much better this season. So Thomas Peters is 24th in the standings. Harold Varner is right there 23rd in the standings. Night and day. Let’s Let’s give Let’s give HV3 his props cuz you and I are both Yeah. I can’t remember. We’ve been critical of him. I can’t Yeah, we have been. I can’t remember the exact words you said, but I think you basically said he’s got to black on black crime. Yeah. Yeah. You said black on black crime, but you actually said you got to put up or shut up now. that last that last event the year you like you either get on with it or stop or stop or stop chatting. It was time. It was time. And I think he’s uh he’s been open about it. Like he he had a rough uh year last year kind of in in his personal life. Like some of that stuff was sort of self-inflicted like he’ll he’ll be the first to to admit it. However, I think that he’s found a little bit of a of a stasis in his life. I think that that has translated onto the golf course. I think him having Thomas Peters on this team is actually a really good thing for him too. Like those two are pretty close. I think Thomas Peters bring brings the best out of Harold Warner and vice versa. And we saw that on the range goats two years ago when Harold Varnner had, you know, was really solid year where he was, you know, top seven or eight in the standings. So I think we’re starting to see more of that from Harold Varnner. Yes, he he had a tough week in Korea for sure. I mean he finishes up 52nd. However, he’s had a couple top 10s. Like, he’s been in the points the majority of the time this year. He’s 23rd in the standings. Him and Patrick Reed have been ascending as the year has sort of gone on. Patrick Reed 14th in the standings. Like, we saw him at the Masters like he’s got that look look in his eye like he’s got his confidence. He won last year on on the Asian tour, Hong Kong Open. Like, he’s getting and he finished third in the Masters. So, um and this past week he finished tied tied fourth at Korea, too. So, he’s playing well on a lot of different courses. Um, he’s probably going to be in all three of the remaining majors this year, which I I know is something that’s like important to him and it sort of gets him like it gets him it gets him amped up. Like it gets him like ready for the rest of the year. So, we’re starting to see really good play from him. And then DJ still kind of lying in the weeds in 28th except there’s signs of life from DJ. I just need to see a little bit more consistency from him. DJ DJs. Yeah, DJ’s got the similar problem to PTS. DJs have DJs putting two good rounds together and then one bad one like and and it’s a killer. It’s a killer. And people talk about the live format of three rounds versus four. In four rounds, you can have a bad one and still and then have another good one and and and end up in the top eight, nine, 10. Like, you can do that four in three rounds. You cannot have a bad one. You can have a You can have a not great one, but you can’t have a bad one. So, yeah. And and he’s another one that’s had just a couple holes here and there like we saw at the Masters, too, where he was right in the mix and then he makes an untimely double and a bogey and then all of a sudden he’s missing the cut. Like, it’s been a lot of the same stuff on Liv, like he’s he’s been in contention and then there’ll just be an untimely double or or like a bogey on a par five. A big shout out then to a friend of the show who’s actually DJ’s coach, Claude Harmon. I was listening to Claude’s podcast there. The three best golf podcasts for me are ours. Um I absolutely love Claud’s. Um I love Claude’s golf podcast. And then agree, where are we with the other one? Um I love Hack It Out. Um I I look excluding your issues that you fall out. What’s his name? It’s still a fantastic podcast. Let’s call him out. Yeah, call him by name. I I I like Lou. I get on with Lou. Lou and I have exchanged messages where Lou’s actually sent me a message messages going, “What what’s wrong with your mate?” And I’m like, “No, there’s nothing wrong with him. Like, you’re just falling out. You’re just arguing with each other.” Like, actually, if you two play golf together. Thing is, all jokes aside, if you two actually play golf together or spend time together, having listened to his podcast religiously, it’s the one of the three I listen to all the time. Um, you two you two would get on great just because like you’re both you’re both you both you both love gear, you both love stats, you both love golf, you both you both love proving people wrong when people when someone says when someone says ridiculous like well if my proximity to the hole was this this and this you’re going to go well that’s pros don’t do that. You’re like you’re you’re both very similar in the way you deconstruct arguments against people. The data stuff I I completely agree with you there. my problems with him have been more related to Liv and and his feelings about Saudi that are very uneducated. Um those are the those are some of the reasons why I get into with people about Liv and about everything around it. And when I try to educate people about some of that stuff, that’s when like I start to sort of tear down some of these narratives that they have in their head. And it’s it’s um it’s mindblowing for a lot of people when they start to really find out the truth. So, he’s one of those people that I’ve gotten into it. It’s fine. I haven’t talked to him in a while. Um, I’m sure if we sat down and talked, uh, it would it would be a little bit better. But, until that that happens, I’m still going to have my problems with them. So, go ahead. Their podcast is fantastic. I love it. They do they do a if you don’t listen to it out, go listen to their podcast. like they they do a couple a week, but they do one every single Saturday which called the Saturday stat and I absolutely love it where they’ll ask two or three questions and you got how far are you away yardage percentage wise or points wise like if you are 150 yards in a rough what percentage chance you got putting it within 35 foot for a scratch for a 10 and a 20 handicap whatever they do that type of stuff and they talk about that and common misconceptions all that type of stuff. Anyway, what we’re saying, look, his stats are great. Lagar’s stats are very, very solid. What I was saying was about Claude. Claude, he wasn’t He’s talked about DJ. He wasn’t talking about DJ. He was talking about do you try to make a putt or not miss a putt and he was alluding about working with a player um recently who’s had who’s had a run who’s had run a poor form and not played very well. Um who was who was before that quite good. And there’s only a couple of players in my mind that fits into could be Max Homer. He didn’t say who it was and I don’t know it was but he was saying who it could he was saying with this player and he was actually talking about what he when he did this player said I want you to stop thinking about your stroke. I want you to stop trying to not miss a punch. I want you to get the ball in. So from 4 foot getting in six foot three five foot getting in six foot get it in. And I do wonder looking at DJ he he’s changed putters a couple of times. He’s now got his own putter thing going on with Bryson and and Lab and LA Golf. There’s a couple of things to me that just say, is DJ overthinking his putting? And I know DJ’s one of these guys, they say, “Oh, he forgets about a bad shot.” Now, I I do get that, but I I’m watching DJ and if you’d said to me two years ago, who’s the best lag putter in golf? You not not not best putter from inside 10 foot or 12 foot. Hello, Cam Smith. I’ve got one name in mind. I’d say Brooks. Honestly, Brooks is really good at he’s underrated at lag, but DJ for me for his entire career put him at 40 foot. He’s put it into a trash can lid or dust bin lid, depending if you’re this side of the pond or your side. and and I’ve been watching him of late and the 35 40footer is finishing six foot from the hole, five and a half foot from the hole, 7 foot from the hole, leaving himself missable pars to the odd giving the odd bogey and maybe not making quite as many birdies on the par fives where he’s got the distance. So, it’s interesting watching players and the they all hit the odd wild shot, but it does seem to me to be putting might be DJ’s issue, but that that’s a separate little story. But I just want to share that story broad about about whenever there are too many people don’t try to make a putt, they just try to not miss it and they get in their own head. He said, “And as soon as you start missing a putt,” and he told a story about Brad Faxton and Brad Faxton, he said, “Brad, what do you do when you putt?” He said, “As soon as I get over the ball, if I’m not thinking about the go the ball going in the hole and I’m thinking about my stroke,” he said, “I I get up.” He’s like, “I I come out my stance.” He said, “If I’m thinking about my technique or my stroke, I get up and I’m I’m watching so many players today having listened to Claude say that and go, Christ, it looks like so many of them are thinking about their stroke.” And it’s just so interesting. I think some of it is just the confidence factor particularly with DJ because he’s he’s been switching in and out of the spider and the lab putter all year and it’s like that alone is an indicator and Brooks talked about it last year where you know he was experimenting with a different type of Scotty hammer. It’s the one that um Justin Thomas uses like the one that that um has a little bit more of a mallet style and he was and then at the end of the year he was like what am I doing? I need to go back to my old my old faithful. Um and then all of a sudden when he started going going back to that that putter is his performance starting to to improve a little bit. Um I just think when a lot of these guys they have sort of a little bit of loss of confidence in whatever club that that it is. Some for some it’s the driver, some it’s the putter, some it’s you know the mid to long iron, some of them it’s you know fairway woods. But whatever it is, some of it’s wedges. Rory is probably more uh the wedges than the putting. Um like when you lose confidence, it it just sort of it shows it it’s it shows itself in trying to tinker and like trying new things and instead of going to like what you know what’s worked for you in the past. Like I’ve heard DJ and his his caddy his brother Austin talk about like Austin said, “I’m never letting you get rid of that spider putter because it’s been so good to you.” like he won the Masters with it, like he’s won a million tournaments with it. Except just when you start to lose confidence with like any club, like all of a sudden you’re like, maybe I want to try something some else. So, I would love to see him just like it doesn’t matter which one it is. He just needs to stick with one the rest of the year and he starts to have good results with it. Like the rest of his game’s going to come because his long game is fine. like yes, he probably has to clean up a couple things just like the the odd bogey on par five or or the odd double that just kind of comes out of nowhere that takes him out of contention. We’ve seen that happen twice this year uh with with him in uh in Miami where he he was right up kind of at the top. Um and then I think that was Singapore. He was right up there uh as well. So I think we’re going to continue to see I think we’re going to see improved play as DJ goes on through the year. Like that was been my prediction from the beginning. Um, I thought we were going to see some improved play in the majors. Um, I mean hopefully he gets in the PJ championship. Like people don’t know this, but Dustin Johnson because of some sort of weird loophole in the rules is not in the PGA this this year yet. He um if he’s going to get in, he he needs to get a special invite, which sounds like it might it may be be coming here in the next few days, TBD. Uh, but like I want to see him play in all the majors. Like I think we’re actually going back to Oakmont for the US Open where he won his US Open 9 years ago. He’s obviously got a lot of confidence there. Uh so yeah, I just want to see DJ come to a resolution with his putter in his bag and I think just start building confidence in the Russell Cup. But yeah, shout out to the Aces though. Like they had such a bad year last year. Go end. Aces corners now in a dead end, right? Aces corners over. But shout out for Aces. Shadow Extra Shadow Extracurricular because they may be a sponsor. When’s that gear coming? Oh, I already got plenty of like you get all your Ping stuff already that that I haven’t gotten any. I’ve gotten a bunch of extracurricular stuff and you haven’t gotten any. All right, so that’s just how it is. Okay, quick share to Ping. Love their gear. Wearing another one now. Um um that ping and a putt. You talk about putter confidence. I’ve had three different putters off ping. tried them all and I and I’ve gone to a blade which I never thought I’d go to. There was never a blade cutter. I’m now with a blade. I I love it. It’s just got me confident. I just feel confident rolling it. So, Pinganza um 30 PLLD. Go check it out. Anyway, right. That That’s the Pink one. Should we Should we do a quick ad read or not? Yeah, sure. Go ahead. Shot Scope. Head over to shotscope.com and use golf lover at checkout. as golf lover at checkout for 15% off all of your scoping needs. Be it a rangefinder. Oh, look at that. It’s a good bit of kit, isn’t it? Have you got it? Have you started used in the wild yet? Yes, I have. I have. And the combination of having the rangefinder with I call it a Pebble like the little Apple Watch, but GPS. Mhm. Having those two combined is amazing. But I I don’t really I maybe use the GPS six times around cuz I just want to know like a cover distance or a layup distance. I only use it six, seven times around maybe because I’m zapping a flag cuz I’m just too aggressive. I got to touch the wacko Nemans at the Masters. I got IATA all the time. It’s always too aggressive. I’ve always got my foot down on the floor. Unless you have somebody switch out your uh your measuring from yards to meters like what what happened to Phil Mickelson and Grant Horvad in their video with Josh Allen and John Josh John. They had that GPS couldn’t switch it out like you couldn’t Yeah, you you couldn’t pull the trick on them. So, uh but but no, I like the GPS. I love the slope feature, too, because I’ve never had a rangefinder that actually had slope before. Um, and it’s made a difference because I I start lasering things and and I’m like, “Oh, that’s a much bigger slope than than I thought it was.” So, it’s definitely a huge huge help. Um, obviously can’t use slope in tournaments. Um, I’m not playing any tournaments yet for another couple weeks, but uh yeah, it’s it’s been great getting in the bag. Yeah, shout out Shot Scope. You guys have been doing a great job. So, yeah. So, golf lover at checkout for 15% off your shot scoping needs. So hopefully now if anyone tried to do the plus the skip 30 skip 30 they’re still in the shot scope golf lover ad read right. Um let’s see. Well the the best the best part about the these ad reads unlike other podcasts out there that will remain nameless. We’re actually passionate about a lot of the things that we use like ping like shot scope like extracurricular like form wellness. Shout out form wellness too. If you’re willing to have an alcohol sponsor we’d have another one. No alcohol. No, no gambling. Outside of that, we’re good. So, no CBD, too. No, not doing I got we got we we got an alcohol sponsor who was happy to sponsor like Jay won’t do it and they’re like, “Oh, okay. I might I might just have got some free off free stuff off them.” Anyway, you might you might you might see a putting video coming out in the next two to three weeks with me putting around some tins of margarita mix. So, just just in case anyone wants to know where that’s come from. I mean, honestly, as as much as I want this podcast to be fully funded, I would rather pay I would rather pay for my own travel and stuff like that then. And I don’t have anything against alcohol. It’s just me personally. So, I’ve never I’ve never objected to it. I understand that in in the same way that I couldn’t have a sponsored link to Liverpool Football Club. I can’t my brother I can’t my brother-in-law’s football team anything involved with this. I I’ve had nothing but Liverpool for the last like eight, nine weeks off him. Honestly, I know I know you’ve met him. I just I can’t have any more of it. Right. So, yeah, we can’t have any PJ tour sponsors, too. So, that’s kind of another story. And but also, we don’t need it. All that money Liv keep giving us. Apparently, you and I don’t need it. Yeah, exactly. Oh my god. I get somebody that that tries to con convince me about that every week and I’m like, am I missing? I had someone say to me I had someone say to me about six weeks ago, I’ve been told by a reliable source that you’re getting £1,500 a month off Live. I’m like, if I if I am if that’s true, please, for the love of God, tell me where it’s stored because I’ve not seen any of it. Because if I am, that’s two and a half years of backdated cash I’d love to see. I know. Yeah. It’s like like look, we’ll we’ve been we’ve been very honest and transparent. Like we’ll get the the occasional free gear here, here, and there. Like, you know, I got my Aces stuff that was more extracurricular, not really really live live golf. My dad is begging me for free live stuff all the time. I’m like, “Dad, you’re going to have to purchase some of the stuff. Like, I don’t get that much free stuff.” My mate said to me, he said, “Oh, can you get me one of those really nice clicks jumpers?” I went, “No, I quite like a nice clicks jumper. like like they’re they’re like 125 bucks. I don’t get that. Just buy one. Just buy one. People need to be supporting if you like live the way you want. Like we’re very grateful for some of the free stuff that we get. However, a lot for every free thing. I probably purchased two, three, four things in the shop. So So everybody needs to support them. Someone said to me, “How how much money and free stuff do you reckon you had out of live?” And I was like, I get when when I’m at events covering them, I get my food, but every member of the media gets their food. I get free parking, but every Yeah. And it’s great. Every me every member of the media gets free parking. And I was trying to think of the of anything I’ve had that no one else gets off live. And the only thing I had was when I went to Saudi, they organized and paid for my transfers from the airport to the hotel. That’s it. That’s it. Which is what $200. But you know that’s it more than I’ve got. That’s all I’ve heard and that’s all I’ve heard and like and I’m like I’ve been told by reliable source. So if anyone else knows where this 1,500 reliable source yeah like if anyone knows this 1,500 pound a month’s gone. Firstly tell me and don’t tell my wife so I can keep it. Right. We spoke about Yeah. Go on. That’s gone to clicks because I eviscerate the clicks. No. No. Yeah. The Yeah. Clicks have been uh Yeah. They’ve they’ve been they’ve been having a little bit Let let me rip them apart fairly. Okay, go ahead. I’ll let you do it. Outside of Richard Bland in the last five events, the other three players have been in the points twice. Two. It’s bad. Freddy Freddy’s never been there. Yeah, he’s out to sea like you said. And two from what was it? What was it from? From [ __ ] Let me just double check. [ __ ] Yeah. I mean, look. Look, Moroc won an event, so he’s like exempted from criticism basically the whole year. But but is he Jay? Is he like, and I want to be brutal. So he got he he got first in the first event, he got points in the second event. He hasn’t had a finish above 32nd since then. So he hasn’t had the finish above 32nd and and one, two, three of those have been below have been below 40th. Um then and you look at Martin Kimmer and Martin Kimmer’s had one in the points. Oh, sorry. It wasn’t two in the points. It was one in the points. So, in the last five events, the other three guys have had one finish in the points. I don’t like to say that people need to go, but if we want this league to be competitive, one or two things going to happen in this transfer window. So, might here comes the rumor. I’ve been told by two different people and this could be this could be complete nonsense if it happens this year but it could happen this year. You think it’s you you said you think it’s going to happen ne for next year what I’m about to say. Yeah. I mean I was I was more optimistic like a few weeks ago and after Miami I was less optimistic and I thought it was going to be next year. So yeah. So, I’ve been told that the reason they played the new format with starting times for this week, this Sunday, was because they were doing their final test of how they can have 60 players, which means 20 groups on the final day. People go, “Oh, what what do you mean?” Makes sense. Are they going to bring in two new teams for in the transfer window or are they going to bomb out a couple of players? So, the two new teams, how would the two new teams work? Well, they’d only need to bring in six players because they’ve already got Max Lee and they’ve already got AK. So, they need to bring in six players and they’d have they had a 15 they had a 15 teams of four. Yeah. And they got some other guys kind of on the periphery like Catelyn and Ollie Schneider. They can make it up with Cat and Ollie Schneiderlings and a couple others. Whatever, whatever they need to do. Wade Ormsby, they’ve got they got three players there. They need to find three more. And I dare say they’ll be able to find three more. One one who seems obvious to me is BSA. Like he obviously should be coming in like but anyway. For sure. Yeah. So I’ve been told they’re 100% going to 60 players and two of the people have said to me they think it’s going to happen in the transfer window. I like you had no faith in that happening this early. So one or two things going to happen in my opinion this transfer window. They’re either going to restructure some of the teams, which could see Hatton going to the sticks and Stenson going to the clicks, bomb out Freddy. Um, and then then obviously Rahm needs a player. Does he get does he get Buster? Something like that. Who knows what might happen there. Yeah, but I Lee Westwood like that’s kind of one I I I don’t I don’t think Westy goes anywhere. I think he’s a captain. It’s the end is his last year probably last year if I had to guess. It’s his last year in his contract. So it would be very difficult to do that. He’s in the drop zone. Agree. But yeah, are they going to bring in two new teams now in in a couple in three week for three weeks time or are they going to just tweak things and get rid of a couple of people? Because what we can’t have we can’t have that bottom of that leaderboard where the clicks are and I’m not just picking the clicks. Look, the sticks have have got things to address. They know that um and we we’ve discussed them. But you’ve got the clicks and you’ve got um Iron Heads. Iron Heads absolutely rock bottom. They did well in the team championship. So they maybe of a pass and then and then out Kazuma most of the year. So you know a little bit outside of Smash is second place finish today. You could have lumped Smash into that because Smash were languishing on sort of seven eight points. So, like there’s a there’s a lot of things there to be looked at. Um, what what do you think genuinely about two new teams coming in in this in this transfer season or is it more a restructure players you’re thinking about? Yeah. I mean, look, the other thing people have to think about, something that we’ve talked about on this podcast was there’s some contract stuff going on with with some of the players and and the the equipment stuff like we’ve talked a little bit about Terrell Hatton obviously with his sort of paying sit situation and Callaway being the sponsor of Legion like that. Um there’s it seems to me that that that’s a situation that that needs to be resolved and it’s pretty clear Terrell Hatton’s not willing to switch equipment and it’s pretty clear that he loves Ping. So I mean something and it’s very clear Callaway wants their entire Legion team to be Callaway to to be playing Callaway. So obviously that says that something has to happen there. So can I see a situation where uh Terrell Hatton is moved to another team mid-season? Yes. I still think the most likely scenario is that’s something that happens during the offseason just because I mean even though yes it’s a four to five week window and there’s a lot of things that can happen like as we’ve seen in the past with Legion like they they basically started that whole team and spun that up within five six weeks. So, and it was a very very um the process was pretty quick overall like you know John obviously signed on in December, Terrell and Caleb sign signed up in January and they they were teeing it off end of January or early February. So, uh the president is there to um how fast things can happen. I’m just I I just feel like from the folks that I talked to um I feel like if that were to happen now I would have heard that things are in the works now. Not that that being said some things have been in the works for for a while. Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t think a mid-season adding two teams happening either. But when I’m being told the reason they did that shift this Sunday was and the words were used and I sent you the message the words used were final test for 60 players. Well, if you’re doing your final test, you’re doing it week 12 and 13. Why would your final test be week seven? That that’s that’s all I’m saying on it, Jay. Like, so I I was completely on your side. I completely agreed. Oh, they’re not going to go to 60 next year. They’ll just do a bit of a restructure. They’ll just do a bit of a rejig. It It was the presence of the word final test. Ready for the two and the words were ready for the two new teams. Well, for me, you’d just do that in week 12 or 13, wouldn’t you? That doesn’t mean it’s just saying it’s old garbage. That logic is fine. That logic is sound and I get it. um except it it could be a final test and still it means hey we have tested it now sufficiently enough that like we know how to do this and then it doesn’t happen until the end of the year that could be part of it. Uh the other thing is the staggered shotgun in addition to having the three teams the three groups in the final day going off one they also had the staggered shotgun off a 10 too. So now you’ve basically got they’ve been testing and that they uh started text uh testing in Mexico last week. So there was a lot of things there’s a lot of these little things going on people need to pay attention to for sure. That’s that’s just what’s making me feel it. The staggered shotgun in Mexico on the par five to get obviously create a bit of distance. It was easy to stag on a par five. That what I I know I know you again your logic could be sound. you can do it now so you’re ready for next year. But it just it just seems they’ve done it they’ve done two different staggers when they didn’t need to right before the mid-season break and the words final test ready for the two new teams. It could mean ready for the two new teams next year. It could mean they’re coming now. The the only issue with using the current crop of players that that on the periphery you’re not going to have the two strongest teams. I love Wade being on the show. I think he’s a fantastic guy, good player. But yeah, if your two new teams are being made up of No, John Catelyn, Ollie, Wade, um Anthony Kim and Max Lee, they’re not the they’re not the two strongest unless unless you’re getting and I’m not obviously I’m not saying Tiger Woods, let’s all calm down. Unless you’re going to get peak Tiger Woods and peak VJ Singh as the captains of those two new teams these three, you know what I mean? And as you’re getting people whoever now Morawa Yeah. That that’s what kind Yeah. Morawa. No. No. Look, I I mean I I think the amount of grief the amount of the amount of people that keep saying that I keep saying Morawa is coming to live. I’ve never once said he’s I’ve not said he’s not coming because they’re scared. Because they’re scared. A lot of these people that I talk to on Twitter, their fear comes out in their tweets. And that’s the thing that I’m I’m I’m blown away that the PJ tour hasn’t figured this this out yet. Like literally all it takes is Yaser and the PIFF saying, you know, we’ve got this war chest of money. And I was literally just reading the other day that Piff has injected Liv with an additional basically 600 million um in capital and they’re going to continue doing this throughout the year. So they have a war chest that all it takes is like the board approving, hey, we need to go out and get some more talent. We’ve been talking to these guys now for a year, two years. We know, we know who wants to to come over because we’ve had several people say they’ve had regrets about not taking their opportunity and their deal when they could have. The for all the reasons that we’ve talked about, the ironic thing is how many players who’ve turned the money down, who regretted it, and then played badly. Played badly on the PGA tour. It was really really people dropping for whatever else, but we know Max had an offer. We know Matty Fitzpatrick had an offer. There’s a few of them had an offer and Victor Hava. Victor Hava. Victor. The Victor one’s always been really weird for me because Victor’s never actually spoken well not weird but he’s never spoken negatively about Liv. I just everything you hear about Victor Havland, he’s just a guy who exists on his own. Like he doesn’t like he goes back to Norway as much as he can and listens to thrash heavy metal whenever he can. He’s very much happy on his own. like you get the feeling that that’s except if he likes being like I think he’s the type of guy that that loves to be in Europe. He he loves to to be like he he loves uh the Middle East. Like I mean it just seems to me it’s always seemed to me that like all it would take would be Victor Harlin talking to the right people to get him over over the line. And I don’t think that uh that has ne necessarily happened yet. Um, it does seem like if he had the right offer, like it would probably happen. However, again, there’s he’s been one of the guys that that like the OWGR stuff is like really really important to him. It’s really really important to Well, it was more important to Xander Schoffley before. Now that he’s won two majors, like it’s not as important. So, except the OWGR stuff is this other sort of um entity out there that like if Liv were to be able to to uh solve that and I know conversations are going on. I know there’s been articles come out talking about the OWGR and and Liv and Trevor Imlman talking to Scott O’Neal and all this stuff. All that has happened. However, I don’t want people to like get too excited that this is imminent because I don’t think that it is. So, there are things that like Liv would have to tweak in order to be eligible for OWGR stuff. Um, I don’t know if they’re willing to do that. I know that they uh all I’ve wanted is for them like if OWGR was serious to them, I wanted it to be in the right people’s hands and I wanted them to make a final decision one way or the other if this is something they’re going to pursue or if it’s something they’re not going to pursue because that’s the one thing that’s out there that like all live fans want to know. Hey, if we are going to have to make tweaks, it’s better to make tweaks sooner than later. So, once we have a fully formed league. So, there’s a lot of things going on behind the scenes. I’m hopeful that they are able to solve that because I think that that just alone fixes a lot of the problems that we kind of talk about and like them being live being part of the ecosystem and all that. I think all that stuff would be great. It would be great for everybody. It would be great for the players, the fans, everybody. I’m just not sure how far away we actually are from that. So, you know, my opinion on this and I couldn’t have been more vocal on sometimes you have to force people’s hands. If Liv really wants OWTR, they don’t need to go and get they don’t need to go and get Victor and Xander and Colin. That that would force it. But they could just they could just easily go and get four players ranked 30 to 60 out the OWGR, get them on to live and then again that weakens the PGA Tour fields that weakens everything. All of a sudden then the OGR becomes even more more of a fast. I just think that there there are ways you can go and do it. Go go go go go and drop go and drop 80 million on I put that I I never I’ve never actually published my list on what what I would do if I ran live. What what I I’ve got it somewhere. I actually shared it with you guys, didn’t I? Where is it? Um well this is it. If Go ahead. So people people are saying that Liv could invest one point 1.5 billion the PIFF could invest into PGA Tour. That wasn’t it. And I and my argument is what’s what’s a better use of 1.5 billion investing in the PJ tour which is struggling financially we know that or 200 million on Hideki 200 on Xander 120 on Morawa 100 100 on Victor 60 on Tommy 40 on ash 40 on Sahath 40 on Minu Lee 32 on Sunjm 32 on Siw Kim 28 on Septra 20 on each of the Hoyard brothers 20 on Lori Caner eight on Potterer and eight on Jake Knap that leaves them 560 million to resign existing players. You put all those players I just mentioned on a three or four year contract. If you want to use you want to use 1.5 billion, you can do it like that. And also this I just want to say something for those of people that don’t understand how maths work. Everyone’s contract isn’t forward paid. John Ram didn’t get 500 or whatever million it was day one. He got his prata for the first year and then the other money is sat 50 million each year is sat in an interest earning account. So if you’re dropping 1.5 billion on those players, you’re only going to be dropping let’s say 1/5if that 1.5 billion 300 million in the first year. The other 1.2 can sit in a four or 5% account earning money or being deployed elsewhere in the PIF Empire. So when people say, “Oh, live they’ve got these massive contracts.” They’ve not been paying them out in their full entirety. They’ve been sat earning interest. So you could drop you could drop that money I’ve just said on those existing players which can cost you 300 million in the first year or five 400 million depending how many years you give them. And I think that’d be a much better use of money. And then OWGr turns the next day and says, “Here’s your points.” Because the OGR can’t have those players I’ve just listed not in their rankings. Yes. What they would be in their rankings but dropping down their rankings because they just look so fast. And you could take that list and you could take out Hideki Xander Morawa Victor and Tommy and if you just went Aksha Sahath Minu Lee Sunjm Siu Kim Stepard Brothers Caner Potiger and Jake Knap and go there you are th those players out of OWGR not getting points is far. That’s how I would use my money. I wouldn’t be using it on giving 1.5 million to 1.5 billion to PGA Tour Enterprises. No, I I mean, look, I totally understand why they’re trying to trying to do that and I I get I get everything going on with the PF and Yaser and the PJ Tour, PJ Tour Enterprises, SSG, all that stuff. That being said, as a golf fan, I just I never thought that that that was the path that like u if I were the one making the final decision, I would would basically be strategically going behind the scenes to force the OGR’s hand and force the maid major’s hands. Like honestly like some of the one of the the biggest move they’ve made and we didn’t realize it at the time uh was Liv signing Walke Nean because Walke like the majors have had to bend over backwards particularly the Masters and the PGA to get Waco into the Masters because he is a very critical superstar player that is like very critical to regions that are important to them like Latin America market is like super super important to like a lot of people in the golf establishment. So if you start plucking like the most important young players from various markets whether it be Waco or Tom McKibben or you know whoever it is like we we could go on the list we could talk about Bister we could talk about Masave like all these guys start pick Caleb Serat just like picking guys off then all of a sudden the majors start looking back like man we really need to adjust to this and the proof is in what’s already happened to date like the Masters inviting Waco just doing this sort of special exemption. They they also did it to uh to Nikolai Horgard so it didn’t look like it was just for for Waco. But like those are the things. So if you’re picking and I think that’s why Victor Havlin is so important to this whole thing. He’s the one guy he’s so important to like the European market and stuff like that. if you pick him off and then he doesn’t have access to OWJR outside of European tour, which he would play and maybe he’s able to maintain top 50 the way Terrell Hatton uh has if you pick him off like the majors are going to have to adjust again. So those are like the little strategic moves that you could make and there’s a list of guys that I think are very very critical to that. I think you talk about Victor Havlin, you talk about Tommy Fleetwood, you talk about Colin Morawa, even Will Taus, like guys like that, if you start picking them off, it’s going to force people’s hands. So that’s one of the things that I I just want everybody to kind of keep an eye on as we sort of move into the next month, 6 months, eight months time that like I think we are going to start seeing more chess moves. And I haven’t even talked about sort of what’s going on with SSG and the PIFF that I talked about in the Twitter spaces. Something people need to keep an eye on. Yeah, you can talk about that and I think that’s you talk about different nationalities now. Both these guys are American but A Beta and Sahala both those are two other ones. Yes, 100%. Both of them like Ash’s A’s family are both born India. So heaths like they’re very very strong Indian culture and we saw an Indian event on the international series. We know for a fact we’ve been told this by maybe 20 people at live that there’s strong conversations about trying to get an event in 2026 in India. We know that it’s being discussed and I’d be amazed if there isn’t one in there’s not one in 2026 or one thousand by 2027. I’ I’d be willing to bet my Yeah, I’d be willing to bet a lot a lot of money that they 5050 because India is an important 100%. Well, it’s an important market even country in the world. Yeah, I mean it’s top two and it’s bigger than China now. Is it? Yeah. I thought it might be way way bigger than China. Way bigger than China’s No, it’s not way bigger. It would be close like cuz it’s like 1.5 1 1.44 billion something. I’ll let you look I’ll let you look look look that up. One of the things I did want to point out to people is that Rory Mroy. So the Europe European tour is adding another India event towards the end of this year and Rory has already committed to play in that. So that alone and I’m sure he’s getting a huge appearance fee for it just like I’m sure Bryson got for uh going to International Series India. So those are the things that are out there. It’s obviously a very important market. There’s a lot going on with sort of Hero Motor Corp and like them wanting to bring more high level golf to India and you need stars to do that. Rory Bryson is a start. It’s 100 it’s 120 million people difference. Okay. It’s not that many but the but the thing is the India population is growing whereas the Chinese population is is decreasing. It’s starting to stagnate a little bit. it they are they are big enough. It’s one it’s a one and a one a 1B basically in pop population. They’re very very I’m glad it’s an important market. I’m glad we covered um east east the far east and and and India’s populations. That wasn’t on the that wasn’t on any chart. That wasn’t even like I said before that market is so critical to the future of golf like I can’t stress to people how important that market. see some the moronic replies to my my sharing the information that live on live now got a new contract in in the Far East to be on 94 million homes and yeah no I didn’t even look at the the negative comments mate honestly the comments I don’t I bet you can’t even see the comments because I bet you got no they’re mostly blocked and muted I don’t have time I don’t have time to be talking to these clowns anymore like when I first came on Twitter and became pro golf critic like three years ago yeah I had a little bit more time to talk to people Now, like the amount of mentions and like messages that that I get, like I’m sorry if I don’t reply to everybody, you’re probably your best bet if you want a response to me is leave a comment on our YouTube YouTube channel. That that’s probably the best bet you have. Genuinely, the best way to speak to you is YouTube because you respond to every one of those because Twitter, look, I’ve like last year I had over 30 million impressions. like I can’t and like over like 300,000 mentions like I can’t respond to everybody the way I used to. And half these guys I don’t need to talk to anymore because I don’t even know where where they stand. One guy wrote a reply to me about a week ago saying you never respond to me. You never respond to me. Like why can’t you respond to me? And then thank God saved me the effort. Two people resp I think one was John Conrad who love John. Great bloke. Great bloke. Yes. Yeah. I think I can’t remember who the other one was. It might it might have been um live golf forecast and one of our good mates and replied Ben replies to everyone like Ben isn’t that guy who just doesn’t reply like and I and I then replied saying I reply to everyone that I see but I this is one of the posts like I my numbers aren’t what yours are at all but I this this post has something like 74 replies and like I haven’t got the time. I run a business. I’ve got a family. I’m desperately trying to get as many sponsors to give us as little money as possible. Um, and and trying to do that. Like I haven’t got time to read every single response, especially if we start off with all you live supporters are the same. Well, if anyone knows me, I’m not the same as every live supporter. I don’t bag on a PJ tour all the time. I watch the PGA Tour. I don’t hate Lud Goldberg like like half of the live fans do. I I know you I know I’m not Maybe you should maybe you should start hat maybe you should start hating the PJ tour the way that I have because I’ve shared with you some of the information that should turn you to the no to the dark side. I do I do I dislike and detest PJ tour management? Yes, 100%. It’s all it’s all part of the same it’s all part of the same or we can’t exempt them. It doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy watching the golf golf at the moment. Not I watched Scotty’s win like that. Talk about weak field. Talk about a weak field. But anyway, right. We we we did an hour and 11 minutes. It’s late. I’m I’m at my parents or my mother. No, dad’s not here, is he? My my mother’s house now. Um I’m going to go to bed. Um, it’s bank holiday Monday tomorrow and instead of playing golf, I’ve got a day out on my daughter, which actually I enjoy just as much because I I can’t have four days in Spain golfing and then try and get out the house on bank holiday Monday. That’s going to go down really bad. No, I want to cover that we haven’t covered. Yeah. Yeah. So, the only other thing I wanted to mention, obviously, we’ve got the uh PJ Championship now coming up in in a couple weeks. Currently, we’ve got 13 Liv guys that have exemptions, including John Catlin, who’s obviously just uh played in Korea, so I’m counting him in. So, 13 Liv players, I’m going to start uh releasing some of the names. I already did earlier today. Go to my Twitter, Pro Golf Critic. I released all the names of the folks that are currently in the PGA. There’s a couple names that are not currently in there just yet. Those invitations are going to be coming out pretty soon. So, as soon as I find out more information, I will start updating it. If I had to guess, I think we’re looking at between 16 and 18 live guys to get in. I think David Pu is probably going to get in. I think Tom McKibben, maybe. Uh, obviously, we talked about Dustin Johnson, and there’s a few other names like Lucas Herbert should 1,000% be in the PJ Championship. There’s no doubt in my mind he should be in there. Um, and honestly like Sebastian Munoz, like Munoz is sixth in the live standings, like I think he’s been he’s been so consistent all year that like some of these guys that are in the top 10 like Carlos Ort Carlos Ortiz has had a really really solid season. He’s won on the Asian Tour. He’s won on the International Series. He’s in the Open Championship aka British Open. And uh like guys like Mark Leeman, guys like like Mar Yeah, I’m trolling you now. Um, so guys like like Mark Leechman and like people like like that I think that they need to I’m hopeful that the PGA they really really analyze today and tomorrow who should be in similar last year when they manage to get Taylor Guch in. They need to look at the live standings, see who’s playing well. Look at data golf. Look at all the all the analytics and data that tells you who’s actually playing well right now. And like there should be at least just take 20 live players in. Oh, I’m not I’m not going to pick a number of 20. I’m just going to say if they want to be really easy, they could say we’re going to take the top 10 that aren’t already coming. So Neman’s there, Bryson’s there, Ram’s there. Sergio there. I can’t remember. Is Sergio? Sergio’s there. Sergio got the invite earlier this year. Lucas Lucas Herbert’s not. So Herbert should be invited. Mun should be invited. Burmeister should be invited. Or should be invited. And Leeman should be invited. That’s the top 10. And poo. Push. Unless he he’ll probably get in from his OGR, but it’s a little I think Poo is probably already there, but anyway, look, um, if you if you want to go and place a bet of any golf tournament in the world right now on the in the English bookmakers, I’m not sure what the odds are over in America, but the English bookmakers, you can get 140 150 to1 on Patrick Reed for the British Open. I said British to make you happy. Thank you. 141 on Patrick Reed. You can get him to finish top six 20 to1 like was it for a top Yeah. top just here’s my money. Here it is. Like that is an outstanding price 100%. Yeah. Port Rush. You just never know with the draw and all that stuff. Except I think that he’s going to play well in I think every I think I got a conspiracy for you about draws. They ain’t drawn. They ain’t They ain’t drawn. Okay. So, the How many How many lateies did Ty grab in his career? Yeah. How many late earies did Ty grab in his major career? I’m going to go We don’t have to worry about him this year. So, No, but you know what I mean? Like I’m gonna go with none. No, I get it. I get How many late how many late earies has Rory had? Do you know what I mean? Like Yeah. Yeah. No, it’s true. Like Yeah. I think How many How many How many How many 6:45 a.m. tea times has Rory had and then on the on the last day teing off at 4:30 p.m. How many I I I I don’t care what anyone says. Conspiracy theory tinfall hat. They ain’t drawn, mate. They aren’t drawn. Probably not. Um, however, yeah, we’ll have to see. I think because sometimes, look, you you don’t know how football rush. All I’m praying for is on hole 16, Calamity Corner. I want those boys playing into the wind. I had to play into the wind. I know you listen to it a bit, but I know you probably skip 30, skip 30, skip 30 over my Port Rush review, but hole 16, calamity corner, 220 yards into the wind to the flag, 180ish carry to get onto the fringe. I hit the hybrid, which I carry about I think they’re going to play it longer than that, too. Well, I think they play like 240. Yeah. Yeah, that 240 35 240. They they didn’t once that year when Shane won it, they didn’t once go off the backback back tea. So they they they’ve if this is the tea box and this is the white members tee here at two at 210. We played about here. You can go back to here but they didn’t once play it because it’s got a little step to it. They once played at the front of the step which is about 220. They can go back to 235, but they just they they they didn’t do it the whole week and they’re unlikely to go back there because all of a sudden they just won’t. Yeah, make him hit driver if you make them hit three-ways. Make them hit drivers. Like I want them to stop coddling these guys and like they are going to they are going to have it at threewoods. If they pull off that 220 wind in and I can’t wait to see it. I just hope it’s wind in final day. And if you’re three clear, I’m still not backing you because that is a daunting t-sh I could I couldn’t carry my hybrid. I couldn’t carry my hybrid 180ish to make the carry into the wind. I carry my hybrid about 225. I couldn’t get it there. I was like eight yards short. So I got another ball out and went, I got to be able to get it there. Maybe I’d mis hit it. And I hit the second one even better than the first. And I was about 5 yards short of the car. I’m like, I cannot you cannot get it. I just want I want to see him off that because they’re going to be having to hit four irons and hybrids. It’s going to be it’s going to be amazing to see them having to strike relatively long clubs. Yeah, it’s one of those courses in the Roa that like uh they haven’t been there often. Obviously, they’ve only been there like it’s been 2019, but they hadn’t been there since 1951. So, it’s been a long time. And I think they’re it’s one of those courses that, you know, really challenges the pros and we need to see more of that in the road. Pass through the first five. Have I mentioned that or not? You know, I’ve I’ve talked to a lot of people that like get a little bit annoyed at how much we talk about our own golf game. So, I’m trying to talk about it less. You’re doubling down at talking about it more, though. So, they’re listening to the wrong podcast. To be fair, to be fair, we don’t we don’t talk about a lot. I I I said how great Spain was and that I was garbage day two. Um, but yeah, like I the port rush, the only reason I talk about is because that’s that’s where we’re going to be this year. No, no, it’s relevant. It’s 100% relevant. I completely agree. Like I um I haven’t played. Should we tell very quickly? Should we tell the story? I’m going to read the text out because I sent you a text and I got to read it out for everybody because your response just baffled me. You know what this You know what this is going to come to, don’t you? The offer I had the other day. Oh, about about the Oakmont thing. Okay, hang on, hang on, viewers. Jay’s one of my best friends, but at times he pisses me right off. Right, hang on. Where are we? Oh god, we we exchanged a thousand messages. Unbelievable. I know. I know. Yeah, hang on. It’s um a guy I can tell people what it what it was. A guy I Here we are. A guy I train a bit with in my London club. Spoke to him several times. Good bloke. Turns out I won’t say the connection or the other connection is a member of Oakmont and he said he can get me and what he he spoke he spoke to the connection and he’s happy to get me plus one on whenever I want to. Do you want to play it Jay? No, I’ve got no interest. Got no interest in playing. I I get a really kind offer and you I get a really kind offer from somebody who’s very connected in Philadelphia and Philadelphia sports teams and is a member of Oakmont offering the chance to let us play and your answer is no, not interested. Let me let me let me explain myself because I think and we we could close out to roast him in the comments of why just going flat out no not interested playing is a ridiculous we could close out we could close out the podcast on this there’s two things that that I really want to bring to pe people’s attention people know how I feel about the golf establishment in the United States people know how much I loathe it I think that a lot of these higherend clubs they hold these opportunities over people’s heads in order to get them to behave the way that they want. I know this for a fact with the golf media. You talk about Aean Lynch and his ties into Semino Golf Club, all that stuff. He’s Pine Valley, all that stuff. That’s not a coincidence. Trust me on this. So, me personally, I’m not going to allow my myself to be corrupted. Um, I know that’s a term everybody associates with me. I’m not going to allow myself my integrity to be corrupted by people sort of offering these opportunities. So, that’s one that that doesn’t really apply to apply to Oakland in this particular instance. I don’t think that that applies. The second thing that applies is that people know how I feel about golf in the Midwest. I’m not a fan of it in the Midwest United States. Basically, anything my window of golf courses that I’m like, I don’t need to play them like ever is from like um Ohio to like Arizona. like anything in anything in there. Like I’m just not finding myself in these places. Like I would have to plan a special trip. Everybody knows that I’m a I’m an American coastal elite. I love New York. I love California. That’s where I’ve lived 90% of my life. Um I just I just can’t get myself to uh to really go there. Oakmont is kind of in that like window where it’s like well it’s near Pittsburgh except Pittsburgh is very close to Ohio. That’s kind of like the very edge of like where I’m willing to go to go play golf. So if that opportunity comes, I will take it. It’s not just it was the way you went. No, I don’t have to be happy. So if anyone if anyone wants to come if anyone wants to come and me and play Oakmont and be really happy about it, let us know. Right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much. I’ll send my dad instead. He’ll love it. Well, I’d have a great day with your dad. Be amazing. Right, everybody. Thank you so much. Hope you’ve all had a lovely time listening to us. Um, don’t forget to go to Shot Scope Golf Lover at checkout for 15% off. And if you want to like, share, subscribe, all that jazz, please do. Um, we do it because we love it, but it’d be nice if everything didn’t cost us a fortune to do. Um, shop for wellness, shop extracurricular. Um, I’m shouting you you guys out in good faith. Please push it. Push through our sponsorship application, please. Um, and uh, that that’ll be another thing that becomes official. But actually, I love th those two products. And Shot Scope now I’ve be become a huge huge fan of. And Ping, Ping, send me my my golf bag, please. I need a new golf bag. I’m I’m committed to doing a a golf fitting with you guys, paying my own way to go. Just at least send me a free golf bag. That would that would be be amazing. Right. We’re going. They said they said you have to play one and be happy about. I mean, if that’s what it Yeah. Yeah, that would that’s what it what it takes. I’ll continue. How many people in the world do you think would get a text message made do you want to go play Oakmont and just reply with no not really interested? That’s why I’m different. That’s why I’m built different. Like yeah, that’s why I’m built different. Like it’s it just is what it is. So you get the good with the bad. It is what it is. All right. Take care everybody. Bye-bye. Thank you.
18 Comments
Any thoughts on LIV getting OWGR points?
Immelman is in a real dilemma, he’s got enough mates on LIV to feel the pain if he doesn’t but is also embedded in the PGA.
If (when) LIV get points then you’ll see the real situation: who plays for legacy and who doesn’t. Once you can get into the majors via LIV why would anyone not join LIV? More money, less golf, world tour and still get into the majors…it’s a no brainer.
If LIV got OWGR 18 months ago then the PGA tour would be a shot duck despite whatever No Laying Up say
They don't need owgr points but it would be nice. They are focused on getting more automatic spots from.majors
I would like to the teams expanded rosters so the captain has the choice to drop a player based on form on a week by week basis. The Asian tour is the safety net, go back to there and find form during the season. Freddy ketchup is a perfect example, giving mid season promotion to players doing well on the Asian tour.
New Indian team captained by Anibahn Lahiri would make sense, Anibahn, Sahith, Akshay plus highest ranked Indian player on Asian tour
Yes I was
Great to see Gooch doing good again! All four score counting really makes you work for it love that change by the league! Go smash! 🟦⬜️
I think LIV should stop the HK and Singapore stops and go to Japan and Germany? Those crowds in Korea were amazing.. what European countries would support LiV…Germany..Sweden..??
What are the odds we actually see any new players in the transfer window?
Always like Cabopino for a round when on the Costa Del Sol Ben. If you’re ever there again – Sunshine Golf are great help finding suitable courses and accommodation.
👍
Fun talks
First win one win every three years this is nothing but an average golfer 😂😂😂just average
I love the British open aka the United Kingdom open….
Jay and Ben are y'all saying mystics will be the second p ping team when will it be Nike b.
FootJoy . Jay will the new mystics beat Tony Tommy Tyrrell and JT Olson
Good stuff guys keep up the good work Best liv info out there
Addressing this “reliable source” – to quote the great Naomi Campbell, “I don’t get out of bed for less than $10k”😂
Ben & Jay do you see Callaway possibly getting two teams the second team would be a South African team
DJ is very frustrating. He just can’t put together a full tourney…with flashes of brilliance.
Poults, Westy, and Kaymer have to get replacements.