Summary
In this episode of the Golf Lovers United podcast, hosts Golf Lover UK and Pro Golf Critic discuss the recent U.S. Open at Oakmont: including the challenges of weather, the importance of mental toughness, and the implications of player performances, particularly focusing on JJ Spaun’s victory and close calls by Tyrrell Hatton and Carlos Ortiz.
They also delve into the infrastructure needed for hosting major championships, the significance of locker room privacy, and the competitive landscape highlighted by numerous missed cuts.
The conversation wraps up with insights on the Open Championship qualifying process and delving into various aspects of golf, including the complexities of the rules and the mental challenges faced by professional golfers.
The podcast concludes with Rory McIlroy’s current battles with the golf media, and explore potential future scenarios for the sport; particularly in light of the shifting @LIVGolf & @PGATOUR dynamics with the hiring of the new PGA Tour CEO, Brian Rolapp and his relationship with LIV Golf CEO Scott O’Neil. The conversation emphasizes the growing optimism in the pro game and the continuing need for cultural shifts within golf.
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction and British Weather
01:48 PGA Tour Scheduling and Infrastructure
06:17 JJ Spaun’s US Open Victory and Challenges
11:06 US Open Recap & Player Conduct Issues
16:38 Brief Open Championship Preview
24:46 Open Championship Qualifying Insights
33:15 U.S. Open Performance Highlights
41:09 Rules of Golf and Mental Challenges
53:25 Rory’s Break, Media Spat, and Future Plans
57:56 Options for World Golf Collaboration
01:00:57 The Super Bowl of Golf Concept
01:02:24 New Leadership in the PGA Tour
01:18:10 The Need for Global Golf Experiences
https://www.youtube.com/@usga
https://www.youtube.com/@LIVGolf
https://www.youtube.com/@UCZ5fOnOmQunH18xZGhu9f_Q
https://www.youtube.com/@RickShielsPGA
https://www.youtube.com/@UCdCxaD8rWfAj12rloIYS6jQ
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
GLU GC: https://x.com/glugolfclub
ladies and gentlemen boys and girls welcome to the Golf Lovers United podcast i am Golf Love UK and that is Pro Golf Critic and it is for the first time we’ve been doing this it is definitely hotter in the United Kingdom than it is in LA where you are right now we are in 29° it is that sticky hot humid that we get in the UK it’s it’s I would describe it as I describe it as octo early October Florida yeah that’s that’s when the weather in Florida actually starts to get good so you can imagine how bad it is the rest of the summer so yeah yeah but yeah no it’s uh hopefully it doesn’t last too long for you um Oh no no no i’m not going to I I I’ll cope with it i’ll cope with this rather than gray and miserable i prefer Korean miserable if I’m being honest an air conditioning unit i got an air conditioning unit at home like spend a couple thousand pounds some air conditioning and then you can enjoy this weather that is true yeah if you don’t have AC if you live in a hot hot climate you are just totally boned so uh luckily I don’t have to deal with that it’s been absolute perfect weather here in California the last you know few weeks um even move moving to the summer it’s part of the reason why there needs to be more US opens out here there needs to be more highlevel championship golf uh during the summertime on the west coast because you don’t have to deal with all the stuff they dealt with at there’s too there’s there’s too much in the southeast and too much in the in like that middle east belt of America where it’s warm it’s sticky you you get you get you get horrific rain like I just it seems to me that like the PJ tour of and majors have often just got that bit ofuling wrong yeah no I completely agree like I mean and there’s an argument to be say to move the PGA like move the PGA after the open have the PGA in like rather than go go back to August yeah go back to August then they they need to figure something else out with the schedule it doesn’t really work the way it is i think the PJ Championship needs to maintain flexibility and sort of have it at various times of the year maybe move it outside the country like like we’ve been talk talking about um Australia um Asia like other places where you could potentially bring it just to sort of do an abandoned June not August yeah i mean look as much as I love I love bandit nudes it’s really hard to to get there so it would be very low attended so true i I get that i get that that that is that is the issue we we’ve actually seen that and said that about who and I have spoken i I did that article for two of those Scottish papers on the question was is the reason is is the is Donald Trump good enough reason to not host the US Open the the US Open the Open and I said actually like above and beyond any of that and I said I’m not don’t want to get drawn on politics let’s put anything else aside the world of golf has changed dramatically in both corporate and all the other areas of golf we’ve discussed this we’ve had the maps up or we talked about on the podcast like that there’s a lot to be done and and they are building what was the figure I talked about it on I think it’s like 2 and a half thousand holiday homes they’re putting in in and around that area to that have the ability to take spectators and members and corporates and whatever else they’re building that so like it it will have it but I don’t believe that the infrastructure was there for for Turnbury to hold the the open the last 10 years with with the with the way the open has grown yeah the way it’s it’s grown yeah i mean um even Port Rush seems like it’s it’s expanded since the last time and that was only six years ago so u and the open really is British open aka open open championship is has really become uh the largest championship in the entire world like it really is uh just in terms of um attendance because even the US Open like they kind of have a smaller footprint at some of these uh some of these venues you know they usually get 30 to 40,000 per day um and I think um I think Port Russia is going to have like 60,000 a day so I mean that’s It’s it’s big it’s really really uh really big i think Port Rush has now got Port Rush has got the infrastructure as we’ve been through it like outside of Port Rush anyone who’s going to the open this year and we will we will do an episode on the open because we’re going to be able to talk about it in some real detail because obviously I played it this year um but out if you are if you’ve got your back if you’re playing the second hole or you are playing up the first the right hand side the first and your back you’re facing this the the green on the second tea behind you is a huge holiday home park i think I think someone said to me it’s nearly 600 700 properties that have got the ability there they’re like they’re like most of them are two and a half threebedroom double bedrooms with twins all all of a sudden there you’ve got the ability to host sort of three and a half thousand people there you got the village of you got the town of Port Rush the town of Port Stewart all next to each other they’re going to be maxed out but they’ve got that capacity turnbury doesn’t have that turn doesn’t have it yeah it’s a smaller footprint for sure you know I’ I’ve been to Turnbury like like I’ve uh tal talked about a few times 2016 was right after Trump took ownership and um yeah it was um I didn’t knowing what I know now about infrastructure like I see what the challenges are like it’s it’s um you’re you’re sort of bound by by the coast there’s not a lot of ways in and out um there’s just not a lot of property it’s one road it’s one one semi- dual carriageway and then like one lane either side it’s it’s not it’s but things will get better and the secret to hosting at Turnbury is having the ability to have and just north of the second course at Turnbury which is what it’s called now my brain’s gone blank it’s not Arthur’s Se bless the place in Edinburgh anyway wherever it is just north of that there’s a big field where they’re whacking in the um all the all these properties so then you don’t have to worry about people traveling as much because you can have because you’re going to have 2 and a half four five 6,000 people staying on site so all of a sudden you’re taking away some of that stress of bringing people in now um should we say congratulations to someone in a second cuz what a win but yeah JJ yeah we usually don’t start with the people that win and sometimes we kind of forget who who wins because we want to focus on the live guys who almost won um it’s the reason why why I’m wearing this hat uh but no shout out JJ Spine native Californian um he’s obviously been kind of a journeyman uh let’s let’s be honest of professional golf um he’s got a really interesting backstory he actually um he he had aspirations of being a a pro skateboarder of all things so he’s actually a pretty elite skateboarder which he’s kind of kind of got the right frame for it um he he’s of Filipino heritage which in California you know we have a pretty uh a pretty large Filipino American population so grew up in Southern California he grew up on Poana Greens which is a theme that I have been trying to lean into as much as possible at Oakmont the uh the the composition of these green complexes it really really really it gives the the advantage to certain players if you grown up on poana greens or if you’ve played well on poana greens I think that that translates into this and that’s exactly what we saw happen you know he made a 65 ft putt at the end with a little bit of help from Victor Havlin but um it was a great finish the conditions were really really challenging that the last day um he got really really fortunate that they had the rain delay when they did because he was not in he was not in a good spot helped him retreat it really really helped him cuz he was look he was five over after six holes um he was really struggling he got that that little 90minute break he was able to talk to his coach his coach kind of calmed him down just just said look you need to just play freely that you need to not be so tight and something clicked and he wound up shooting 40 on the front nine 32 on the back nine um I had him penciled in for a 76 because I just didn’t think I mean it it’s hard to predict that that you’re going to have a rain delay that sort of stops play but he was definitely trending towards 76 or worse um except I was happy to see that he he was able to figure it out he was able to get it together he played a really solid back nine um congrats to JJ Spawn uh you know he he almost won the players championship beating Rory Mroy in a playoff yeah he came up a little bit short um except yeah he’s a worthy champion and look these US Opens these major champions we ma major championships we don’t always get a Bryson we don’t always get a Rory or Scotty or one of those top guys winning like sometimes you get like a Windam Clark or you you get a JJ Spawn or or you get a Gary Woodland i mean all these guys are very good players i mean they’re guys that have won on the PJ tour they they’ve won throughout the world but you’re not always going to get that elite elite champion and I I think JJ Swan’s a worthy champion you know he’s he’s had a solid career he’s had a few wins on the PJ tour so yeah it’s good do you know Do you know why I’m really glad he won there’s there’s two reasons one i I think sometimes you can have luck in golf and luck does rub rub either way that when he hit the flag and it came back 63 yards I felt like there there’s hitting the flag and it there’s there’s hitting the flag and it going seven yards eight yards off the green but it was 63 yards cuz it got the top of that slope and went down and I really really felt for him and I’m glad I’m glad he won because I thought he played I say wire towire borderline wire towire winner if you know what I mean he was he was there the whole time he was the first round leader yeah low round of the tournament 66 so yeah yeah it wasn’t like he came through the pack on the final day he drifted back came back obviously Burns was leading at one point but it was for me it was I’m glad he did that and I think sometimes just the ability to stick around when you’ve had such bad luck like he had is a really really impressive thing uh 100% like this was a uh one of the things that I love mo most about this particular tournament was the fact that it was a mental examination and we don’t get nearly as much of that in men’s professional golf that we need um I think that this was I mean we we saw it the whole week like this this course was was really driving people crazy i mean people were were were busting lockers they were throwing clubs they were throwing fombs like I mean the whole night I’m not I don’t want I don’t want to talk so this might surprise listeners right i don’t want to talk about the name the person who bust the locker up and there’s a reason there’s but there’s a reason I don’t want to talk about it jay do I agree with it no but the changing room in sport is sacrosanked like it is your what it’s not right to do it but I’ve seen it i’ve seen people smash cricket bats i’ve seen people smash tiles in showers they’ve had to pick up the bill and they’ve had to apologize but it never leaves that changing room of who’s done it and how what happened some of the stuff you’ve seen happen in changing rooms is bloody awful but it’s kind of that’s the one place you can go and do it and you can do it in privacy right or wrong and you it shouldn’t be told whoever released that story about him doing that I think that’s just wrong like again when the Rory and when the Rory and the driver I have no issue with the media reporting it my issue with Rory’s driver is whoever leaked that from the testing should be fired hands down if someone in that’s what everyone’s saying and the reporters didn’t have well no see but does he say that the media’s job is to report it that’s fine but who but it’s not the job of anyone in testing to release that information no one in testing should have said that there’s got to be some privacy on these things if the rules were different and if anyone fails it must be reported then that’s fair enough but that isn’t transparent for sure and I and I think it should be but it wasn’t and like the changing instant that that like some things while I don’t agree with with smashing it up the locker room is is that one place like they’ve got press conferences they’re videoed from going from their from their locker room to their car they go from the locker room to the first tea they videoed from the first tea to the 18th green like the only moment they get private is the scorer’s hut and the locker room that’s true i mean I’m not condone I’m not condoning it you know what I’m trying to say no no i get what you’re you’re saying but the thing is it’s not like there were cameras in there that actually caught this they just it just saw there was photo in there capturing the aftermath of this thing so um and someone took that photo and said who it was and I don’t agree with that well yeah and it’s someone that’s part of a a another podcast that will remain nameless that sort of has a a reputation for doing stuff like this but I don’t condone it for sure i don’t like when when people damage damage golf courses in general that includes you know and stuff like that yeah the amount the amount abuse I’ve got for criticizing Lowry for smashing at the course for Rory for smashing that tea for Tur Hatton when he smashed a tea like I don’t get Oh you didn’t call out Tur Hatton for when he smashed the tea okay right find repost old tweets and yes I did you did in the same way that I criticized Sergio for smashing the bunk crap like just don’t do it the problem the problem in this particular instance is the the the person that do it i’m going to name names because that’s what what I do windham Clark he he not only did it this time at the US Open also at the PGA Championship that was just a month ago he threw his driver he he broke a stansion that was on on a tea and nearly just one one of the volunteers so Mr mr stewart by like three four inches I think someone said yes Winnham Clark is going through some uh some mental issues at the moment he’s he’s talked about it on full swing uh he’s actually got a mental coach that sort of helps him through this so except he he’s obviously going through the a bit of an existential crisis with his golf game because turning down 60 million will do that for you well yeah that’s that’ll be the unsaid thing that sort of hap happens but Liv definitely dodged a bullet there getting Terrell Hatton instead of Windom Clark for sure so yeah I I think a lot of these guys like um it just goes to the the mental test of Oakmont like I want a golf course that’s going to break guys like I really do even though that that makes me a little bit of a satist but like when we get to this high level of professional golf in the m major championships it’s not just about identifying the person that’s playing best it’s about identifying the person that has that’s thinking best that uh is passing the mental test and a lot of these guys flat out failed the me mental test that Oakmont presented and I thought that that was great i really do so even though some of the guys that I wanted to win and do well they also failed the test but uh yeah like it it was still a great tournament it was still I I think Oakmont as a course is probably the hardest course probably in all of ma major championship golf at this point it would have played much harder if it was firmer and faster with that rough and sort of firmer greens and and they got a ton of rain so kind of slowed the course down a little bit i I actually saw a really interesting comment where someone said I’ll be it would have been harder if it was windy and a couple of players said no it wouldn’t have if it they said they said if it was windy we know had the ability to if the wind’s into our face to fly one up in the air knowing the wind that it would have really helped us from the shots out the rough they were actually saying actually the wind would have helped us in some ways I don’t know if that’s true or not maybe who knows but I I I tell you what I am hoping for I’m hoping for a one and a half club wind all day every day at the open port rush all day every day One of my mates rang me this morning said “Um I’m going to Port Rush got tickets for Saturday and Sunday what do you recommend?” I went “Stand next to the 16th green and and just watch watch people mentally crumble watch caddies and players have 10 or 15 minutes worth of conversations of which club they’re going to hit it’s going to be I said “If it’s I said if it’s still if it’s still it’s just a par three to them.” I said “But if the if there if the wind’s off the into the left then you’re going to have so much fun if they don’t have uh featured hole coverage of the 16th hole at Port Rush like what are we even doing so they they need to do uh 16 and they probably need to do what is that that four this the par4 that sort of goes out towards the water it might have been might be five I can’t remember but very just visually appealing kind of a par four each one par four that goes slightly uphill bunkers left and bunker forward right which one the one that’s the the dog leg left to right up to the water yeah the one that basically has the green that it looks kind of like an an infinity green and it kind of has out of five yeah that’s five you tee off about 60 foot 70t above the fairway and you got two choices you can either hit it to 225 230 to a fairly wide bit of fairway leaving yourself 80 to 95 in depending on where the tea and the flag are or you can just rip one with a driver at the green if the wind isn’t into and you’ve got you these guys don’t missit many but you have got to carry 250 of scrubland yeah yeah no I remember Brooks playing they’re all they’re all going to do the carry but if you do if you do slightly top one or don’t get it quite right and if the ball starts to go a bit left to right in the air it just it makes that carry from 250 to 260 to 270 yeah that that’s that’s going to be a great hole the the one I think is another one I think will be really interesting and and probably not on many people’s radar is going to be eight of vile par four but we’re not going to do the open show and preview now we’re not do we’re going to get into otherwise I get so excited no I’m more excited about Yeah yeah no I might be be more excited about uh Port Rush that might be the one the major that I’m most excited about this year so yeah we’re we’re going to do a whole deep a deep dive in in um into it talk about your your experience there at a later show uh I’ll talk a little bit about 2019 because I thought that that was just a really great test even though it kind of at the end it didn’t really turn out to be that thrilling of a championship I think some of the changes that they made are going to change that and hopefully we get a little bit more conditions that make it a little bit more challenging so we will save that for another day though we’ll go go back to the Yeah 2019 was I was playing golf at that point but my consumption of golf and watching golf tournaments inside and out was lower due to still due to still playing cricket so I I remember 2019 and I remember watching it and I’ve actually got a photo of of Annabelle actually hold probably have on my phone somewhere of her holding a her holding a golf club and a an orange golf ball watching Shane Lowry and like lit literally one of the earliest photos I’ got got of Annabelle doing that which is which actually really sweet i I don’t know if I should have it somewhere i’ll find it while we’re chatting but um it’s it’s it’s going to be it’s going to be a great event and on the note on the topic of 20 2025 open did Carlos get open status because of the top four finish or is he still has he not got open status yet someone asked me that question online yesterday and I was like I’ll ask Jay on the I’ll ask Jay when we speak yeah he was already in so he was already into the British Open aka Open Championship because of his international series Macau win back in March so the top three in that particular event they got in uh to Port Rush so Carlos Ortiz finished first uh Patrick Reed finished second and that’s amazing photo that’s that’s her watch that’s her watching Shane L six years ago that’s crazy yeah she’s grown up a lot since then obviously that’s really She’s so pretty i know i know I’m biased um yeah so he had already got international series of course yeah so and then Jake Crack was third and so it was Reed Co and Ortiz and then Sergio has got um currently got the status on Liv hasn’t he with that one with with that poultry one position that drops down how um however actually it’s funny because in our Twitter spaces that we had a couple days ago Lucas Herbert’s caddy Nick Pew came in and talked about Lucas Herbert’s schedule the next couple weeks because uh so Lucas Herbert’s fifth in the live standings sergio is fourth the top three are already in uh qualifications Rom and Bryson and Waco they’re already in the championship so it’s basically the next spot after that sergio currently has it there’s one more event that they have to to play here in the United States in Dallas dallas and whoever is um highest up in the standings at that point they’re the ones that get the open qualification now there’s some other players that are kind of jocking but those it’s all going to be sorted before Valerama right yes so it’s all going to be sorted after uh so so basically the way it way way it happens is we got Dallas that’s in a week as soon as that’s over like two days after that is when they have all of the open qualifiers um in the UK so all the players that don’t get into the open have to fly over there and play in that qualifier including someone like Lucas Herbert who is uh um I think he has a huge advantage playing West Len uh because his caddy is actually from that area so I think he might have an advantage there and I want to see Lucas Herbert get into Port Rush because I think he has a great chance of contending too so is it is it three spaces or four how many spaces come from Bernham and Barrow because LA last year I was it Serat and it was it was Lihiri didn’t did Lihiri did Annaban Liry lose in a playoff in Bernham and Bar was I think so that sounds right um I don’t think they know the the amount of spots until the day of i feel like like I think a lot of lot of times you don’t really know because like certain players drop out certain players get in and then it sort of changes the the uh the rankings and all that but um it’s it seems like uh so yeah final qualifying is Tuesday July 1st it would be four spaces four spaces for the open guar guar guaranteed it as you say is there’s potential for there to be a fifth but the extra spaces get shared round so it like there’s obviously five or six qualifying events so it’s not a case of Burnham’s going to have four maybe have six for the for Burnham to have six that’d have to be everyone would have to get an extra one but Burnham’s got four spaces um I again I’ve said it before I’d like to see I’d love to see um they’re all everyone’s going to be in the everyone’s gonna be at Valdder Armor and JCB they’re going to be in the UK and Europe for that period of time get get over a week early get to Burnham and Barrow get in qualifying through there like it’s or wherever it might be i only say I’ve played it i’ve played it and I know it that’s the only reason I say that no I want to I want to fact check myself so there’s there’s four final qualifying locations for our port rush there’s Burnham Barrow there’s Dundon Lynx that I’ve actually played uh there’s West Lanks that we talked about and then Royal Sync Ports uh which is the other one so yeah yeah so all those are great i wouldn’t be surprised if Pulse tried to qualify for the Open at Royal Sync Ports the only reason I say that is on his on his IG yesterday he was playing he was playing there really oh that’s some playing there so well it’s not that inside he’s got Well it’s probably half million he’s got one and a half million followers i’m I’m I’m He’s hardly texting me to let me know right but a lot of people aren’t putting two two together about about that so um but no yeah I I think the RNA really I think they do it right when it comes to the qualifying like they they don’t save it all for this sort of final qualifying like you have other ways there’s other tournaments to get into the top three so you qualify just like the international series Macau so that live guys h have a little bit of a better shot to uh to get in i want to see the US Open and the USJ adopt some of that because I think they have way too many spots reserved for that sort of final qualifying and there’s just too much randomness at at these qualifyings at these 36 whole qual qualifies that you have to play in one day it favors the younger players it doesn’t favor the older players like you have to play you you have to be in really good shape uh to do that and it’s like completely different than competing in a 54 to 72 tournament so that’s over three to four days rather than 36 holes in one day so I just think there’s a lot of randomness there um I’d like to see them probably change it uh the USG i mean um I like the open nature of these so that like basically anybody could get in but I think the amount of spots I think the RNA does it right i think the USJ needs to tweak it so we were supposed to stop talking about the port rush but we we can keep talking about we can move on no no we we’re talking about the open qualifying which is very relevant because it’s going to be open over the next few weeks for sure people were making that decision and and I and I look I’m looking I’m looking to live standings and depending on on some automatic qualification stuff with Sergio and Lucas Herbert like I’m I’m not calling anyone out i’m obviously not calling people out but would I like to see if if Sergio and Lucas don’t get they got a qualifying Munoz got a qualifying lee’s got a qualifying dean got a qualifying um Annaban got a qualifying Morant got a qualifying same thing for Peters for Gu um for Answer for Blandy i know Blandy’s got automatic I think because of the the the senior majors but maybe he hasn’t um Charles no he’s not in he’s not in he’s not in i I can’t see a world in which GMAC doesn’t try and qualify i can’t see a world in which he doesn’t try and qualify it’s like it’s it’s basically a hope it’s basically a home course for him he won He won the um He won the It was either the world it was we won the amateur Open he won the amateur open there in like 97 or 96 and I think I think I think still holds a tied course record with Lowry who who got the tied the course record in the open so there’s there’s lot there’s there’s a lot of players there that like if you are if you are Ben Campbell Paul Casey Tringali um Kima Wolf Serat Horsefield Uline um Jinky Kazuma why wouldn’t you just try and qualify why wouldn’t you just do it well like fill you got if you got 16 spaces mate like hear me out got 16 spaces get eight of you in every single event that aren’t there and and and law of averages with having so many good players there if there’s four spaces at every event and you put in eight you got to think you get two and a half three of them per event these guys are at a huge disadvantage though because they’re literally playing Sunday night in the United States and they have to so they they’re getting no practice rounds at all they have to to go straight from Dallas to whatever qualifying they they have within like basically 36 hours um that’s a tough I’m I’m not having it jerry Folultz turned up to play with us he he turned up for a 10:00 tea time at at 9:58 and shot one over and and Jerry’s a 65year-old former pro like these guys can these guys like these guys can they can shoot two under two under and get themselves into qualifying it’s not gonna it’s not going to be a score of seven eight under is going to win going to be the win score sometimes it is though some sometimes these qualifiers are very very difficult to get in like I remember last year some of them were much much lower than that some of them were were like seven eight under to get in so it’s like you are and you’re playing against guys that have the advantage of being on site and playing practice rounds and some of these guys are like European tour players and like challenge tour players and all those guys some probably going to be some PJ tour players over there too so there there’s just like a lot of variables there and like you want to have uh as much advantage as possible it’s why again I want them to have other qualifiers throughout the year where these guys are a little bit better prepared to get in just like they were at the International Series Macau so and there’s like other European tour events where they have the same thing other PJ tour events too where the top three not already qualified get in all that stuff is really really really important and I just think that that’s the way to do it in the future and I just hope the USGAA figures it out because it’s it’s just um trying to cram too many people in a small in one day is just it’s it’s a huge logistical challenge just especially if you have a golf tournament half a world away that that finishes up like a day and a half before i think I the most valid point you actually make on all this having looked at it is they finish in Dallas at 6:00 uh on the third on on 20 the um Sunday the 29th and the tea time the first tea time is 7:00 on July the 1st the Tuesday so you got to fly against the clock have eight hours sleep they’re going to travel first class i’m not going to cry for them um they’re going to travel they got to get to a hotel get off the plane and get and play that is a tough ask that isn’t that is But hey Lucas Herbert’s caddy Nick was telling was telling me like I mean his his schedule is going to be really tough like he uh he’s he’s got to fly into Heathrow he’s got to get up to Manchester like he’s going to drive to the course and like hopefully Monday there’s no there’s no delay because if you get a delay all of a sudden a flight delay you get totally hosed so he has to get up there and try to uh uh get some information about about the course and all the all that prior to the Tuesday round so it’s just a really really Is Herbs doing West Lanks is he as well yeah yeah he’s doing West Lanks mhm yeah so it’s going to be interesting see how it play plays out i think these guys are at a huge disadvantage um and like I I hope as many of them get in as possible already obviously although I do have to say we already have basically like 17 18 players already in so which is the most out of any of the other majors already prior to qualifying so I think that that’s a good sign uh cuz like Patrick Reed’s in Tom McKibbons in from his uh place on the the European tour last year um and then you got past champions like like Louiesie and Henrik and then you have Leechman got in through the qualifying series as well in um Australia so he was another beneficiary of the qualifying series that I was talking about um and then obviously Carlos Ortiz and Kok got in from the qualifying series as well right well that that’s good i feel we’ve done that and uh let’s move on to I feel like talk about I talk about the world of golf a lot but before we talk about anything else if you want to get a I want to do a quick live corner from the US Open because we haven’t talked talked about just yet i just want to get an ad read in oh okay i want I want people to go and buy rangefinders so we can make some money fair point fair point what’s your problem continue yeah all right if you would like to get a rangefinder or a GPS or some device that measures where your shots are gone your shot tracking data go to shotscope.com and enter the code golf lover at checkout that’s shotscope.com golflo at checkout for 15% off and as Jay always says it’ll be in the notes below we also don’t people look please please do like and share what we do if we bring you any enjoyment at all even if you hate watch us even if you hate watch us and you’re part of like some some of those groups that dislike us still share it with those people so they can hate watch too lot less haters out out there now even than there were just a couple weeks weeks ago which is really interesting um no the link is in the description code is in the description there’s a there’s a good reason for that the PGA Tour has now got a new leader in place who’s good makes Scott O’Neal like Yeah all right we’ll talk about that later but if you’ll say that to the back end say the back end yeah if people haven’t picked up on that yet they’re really are simple yeah for sure they’re they’re good friends they’re good friends and went to Harvard together yeah they’ve known each other for like 20 plus years um so yeah let’s let’s reverse let’s get back to the US Open close it out tie uh tie a bow around it it’s a couple players I want to shout out for their great performances in the US Open obviously JJ Spawn won except we we had uh two other live players uh two two live players that were in contention really three uh there was for a while there John Rom was like you know he was he was in the clubhouse of four over people didn’t really know what the weather was going to be those last nine holes guys kept falling down the leaderboard is like oh John you should probably stick around just to make make sure but uh you know Bob McIntyre got into the clubhouse at plus one So that kind of ruled ruled him out however want to shout out John Rom uh he was my pick uh to win this particular event um unfortunately he just had he had a great first round great final round 6967 uh those middle two rounds just a couple things that he needed to clean up he shot uh you know 70 75 73 uh Friday Saturday so that kind of like took him a little bit too far away um except uh he’s playing great it’s just that he he lost a few shots on the putting green just in terms of just I think his speed on the greens was just not really matching up the line and and he was he was doing his typical rom stuff he was he was yelling he he was dropping fbombs it was great great TV great box office love that uh Terrell Hatton though terrell Hatton was he was like when we hit that back nine he was my pick that bounce on seven dream there were there were there was like a sequence of it’s made less it’s made less painful the fact that JJ did sink the sink sink that 60 64 footer like if if he hadn’t sunk the 64 footer that bounce on 17 and I I’m not Tier’s mentally strong it’s the type of thing that would haunt a lesser man yeah for sure so uh yeah he’ll be fine i’m not wor worried about Terrell at all he he has a very short short memory uh there was just a sequence of events that sort of happened there 16 17 18 that just like if one thing just flipped I think we would have seen him get to like one under par like he hits a great T-OT on 16 the par three hits it to 10 feet he’s got a great look to make make birdie there he just burns the edge and he didn’t quite get it so he made a par but that’s one shot right there 17 you already talked talked about just getting in the one position that you couldn’t get in like short of that that bunker on that downslope in that deep rough that’s some of the deepest rough on the entire course you’re just not going to get up and down like I I saw Phil in that same spot on day two trying to make make the cut he made double from that spot so and Phil’s got one of the great short games of all time so he he got put in a really tough spot if he goes literally 10 yards left 10 yards right if he gets in that bunker which is where he went in to hit it he gets up and down mo most of the time makes he makes birdie instead of bogey that’s a two shot swing and we’re already talking three shots and then if he makes par on 18 that that gets him to one under par and we’re probably look looking at a playoff the next day so there’s these like little margins in these major championships that are just like really really thin like it can go either way and it comes down to either executing or not unfortunately Terrell he executed the entire the entire week really and it just just came down to the end and he just got a bad bounce he he missed a a putt by a very small margin and that was the difference so uh shout out to him though shout out to Carlos Ortiz as well carlos Ortiz and Terrell Hatton their best finishes in majors um ever carlos Ortiz played great the entire week his ball striking was on another level his putting wasn’t great and he just had a couple little mishaps um on the on the back really one where where he made a double bogey he kind of uh I kind of took him out of it but got to shout him out for the fourth place finish uh T4th that basically gets him um into all of the majors next year which is really really great um because these these guys that are like people forget about how good guys like Carlos Ortiz are like Carlos Ortiz has won around the world he’s won on the PG tour he’s won on the Asian Tour he’s won on Liv there’s it’s a very short list of players that have that have done that so um and he’s seventh in the Liv standings he’s 28 in data golf like he’s he is a quality quality player that people totally forget about so can I can I just do a very can I just do a very quick who didn’t make the cut now the reason I want to say this is I actually think if we did career earnings or the the how high they are up in OWGR or whatever rankings you want to use this must be the best quality of missed cut field in the history of major golf like you look you look at that list you look at it you’ve got um Oberg Fleetwood Dashambo Clark Lowry Rose um Beta Klay Mickelson Smith um I say Blandy some people I I said Bryson I said okay yeah there are just there are just some names DJ Wacka there just some names it’s just like oh my god that person missed it step DJ Cory Connor’s had to withdrew Wacko Neiman like you just go down the list it’s just it’s just endless great golfers that missed the cut like it just shows how brutal it was but there we are that’s it and your your point i know we’ll say about Puana Greens and all of that and and people need to calm down hype and calm down excitement um so I got a question for you about the US Open very quickly mhm i don’t know whether we’re going to be completely the same or opposing views in this so if we are the same that’s nice if we’re opposing views then let’s argue it i’m going to say a statement sam Burns it was unfortunate he didn’t get relief for him but he shouldn’t have got relief because under the letter of the law the casual water wasn’t at his B wasn’t at his feet and the rule is casual water and it’s it’s they asked him to take his stance twice and there was no casual water now his stance unfortunately if he had stood next to the ball he would have probably got relief but it has to be in your stance which is a ridiculous rule i’m not saying the rule is correct i’m saying that the rule was applied correctly and therefore I think Sam Burns and his caddy should have pulled him off that and gone right you had your second rule in let’s regroup let’s think about this again not oh you’re pissed off going go and hit it thoughts yeah you know this this kind of goes into the rules of golf and all that and there’s definitely a few rules I think need to be tweaked however the thing that I always go back to is that if you have rules officials there on site and they’re making rulings and you get multiple officials that say the same like I’m totally fine with it at that that point like it’s it’s just like if if you have an NFL game or or NBA game and like you have officials there like you’re you’re not going to necessarily agree with every call but it’s like it just kind of is what it is at that that point and you you have to rebound you have to respond and it’s honestly to me part of the mental test sam Burns if he wasn’t going to get relief from that spot he needed to change his approach on that shot he did not do that and he tried to hit the hero shot it came off left he wound up make making double bogey because of it like that’s part of the me the mental test of the US Open and like you you put yourself in these tough spots um even though he was in the fairway so it’s not like he he was in a really tough spot but like you just have to play for it you have to take all the variables into consideration maybe play up short of the green play short of the trouble so that at worst you’re going to make make a bogey maybe you have to play 10 yards short of the green ship up and you get out of there with a par like that’s you you can’t go at flags when like you’re in a spotlight like like that you just can’t so so I think that was part of the mental examination to me i don’t have any problem with it i think we talk way too much about these very minute rules in golf i’m I’m all about playing it as it lies like I would be totally fine if we got to the point in golf I’m all about simplifying the rules because some of these rules are just so we we spend way too much time on rules it’s like play it as it lies i don’t care if it’s in a puddle i don’t care if it’s unfair in a divot um if if there’s a a movable temporary immovable obstruction in your line it doesn’t matter none of that matters play it as it lies um I think that that would just simplify it and that’s not exactly fair but it’s like you know we need to simplify these these rules and to me that’s a very very easy way to get rid of half of the rules in golf and make it just easier it’s going to speed up play because you’re not going to be waiting for rulings you’re you’re just like “Well I just got to play it i gotta play it as it lies i got to play it off this cart path i got to play it um I got to play it off this off this guy’s foot.” Like I mean you you just got to play it as it lies like it’s it’s just going to speed things up we’re always talking about slow playing golf that would be a very easy way to speed it up yes it can be a little bit unfair but life is unfair golf is unfair anyway so um I think that that’s what I’d like like to see i didn’t have any problem with with the ruling two officials stepped in they told him he didn’t he didn’t like it it obviously got in his head and he shot you know 78 so uh it totally took him mentally out of out of the tournament which is part of the examination of the US Open like I said so we agree in ways and it the overall is that maybe some rules need to be looked at right yeah yeah i’ve for the listeners we’ve got a new we got we got a new segment for the listeners that they don’t know about and Jay I’ve just I can I just tell all of you listeners right he’s so pissed off about this cuz it’s going to cuz he’s not going to know the answers so the regular snow might last podcast we’ll see it’s not mate i’m not I I’m going to record it on my mobile phone um it’s good fun so it’s a quiz for the listeners and for Jay to all play so my father passed away he found this in his one of his bits and bobs the other week and there’s it was from it’s from 1959 and it’s a quiz book for those not on YouTube it’s a TV quiz book,500 entertaining instructive questions with answers on 60 different subjects it was published in 1959 um some of the subjects include um the British Commonwealth the USA capital cities churches foreign words and phrases wit and humor the sea things like that but there is a 25page question set on golf so each episode for the next however many weeks I’m going to be giving Jay three questions from here and you’ll all get a chance to play along now I don’t expect any of you to get more than maybe three out of 25 or four out of 25 there is a question here which will be our leader because I because let’s get you off to a negative start where he has to know the name of a town in Wales he’ll have never have heard of so this is to give you it’s it’s good fun okay so Jay where in the champ Where is the championship golf course of the Royal St David’s Club in Wales name the town if you do know this I’m going to be absolutely livid if you actually know the answer to this well the thing is like I’m also thinking through context clues like St st david’s like you obviously have St andrews is in the town of St andrews so I’ll I’ll go with St david’s i don’t even know if that’s a town in um in Wales but I think that that’s a pretty good guess so it’s a good guess the answer is Harle right okay i’ve never been to Wales next question if we have any Welsh listeners I apologize i I have no desire to really go to Wales either i guess there’s a couple good golf course courses there potentially but um yeah yeah may maybe we’ll play Call when you come anyway which golf question next question which golf club you should get this one which golf club is accepted as the ruling authority on the game st andrews obviously royal and Golf Club yeah Royal and Ancient Club of St andrew yeah yeah perfect you can have that that’s correct you one one out of two how many clubs make up traditionally a set of irions traditionally in 1959 my god that’s interesting so I mean 1959 I’m guessing everybody had a three iron at that point for sure um so it’s probably and we’re we’re not counting wedges I’m guessing even though Yeah i probably go three through nine so I’m guessing that is a set of seven clubs no cuz it was traditionally one through nine Jay oh my god in 1959 listeners in 1959 your traditional sets start with a one iron let’s put that down as an incred but that’s why I love this quiz because it’s great fun is that crazy there’s no I don’t care what it is there’s no amateurs out there that should be playing a one or a two or even a three or three so I haven’t carried a four I haven’t carried a four iron for five years yeah yeah i’ve still got a four i mean I have a 282 but that’s only for like I actually did read and it was and it was a PGA Championship i think they said it was the first time that fewer than 50% of the bags had a four iron in mhm yep yeah because they’re putting in nine words putting in words was the first I think it’s the first time first time first time in major championship that the fewer than 50 people had a four out yeah because even I’ve I’ve got a utility wood it’s a Callaway UW shout out Callaway um it’s 20° it’s kind of in between a five and a sevenwood um it’s Yeah yeah i’m I’m still going to try to try the Pingwoods too obviously but um really want to try that driver that uh 440 driver because I I need I think that’s probably going to be the next club in my bag that gets switched out i’ve already decided on a lab putter a lot of people know that I’ve been sort of figuring out my whole putting stuff i’m I’m the lab putters they don’t work for everyone they’re working for me for sure just with with my stance and being a little bit more upright again interesting interesting what I saw on the internet yesterday it was a guy called Sinking Putts um he’s on Instagram he’s he sells gear and like he’s club pro whatever type of thing and he had um putter orders and last week they had 16 lab putters and one um Scotty JJ Spawn just won the first major championship with a lab putter too that I’m sure is going to increase their sales too luckily I already got got my order in prior to JJ Swan winning but so we’ll see but uh no I mean I mean look there’s there’s a a lot of good putters out there i think the thing people need to just the thing I never did for a long time was going to get fit for a putter like that’s like it’s so so so critical even if it isn’t lab even if it’s Ping or Scotty Cameron or Odyssey whatever it is I think you need to get get fit because you need to know what your stroke is you need to know kind of the waiting like are you consistent with your strike are you consistent with your line are there things that you can do to make yourself more consistent fitting is like such an important part of the process and people don’t think about putter fittings at all it’s all about oh I I like the look of that putter i’m going to use it it’s like that might be the worst putter for you so So I definitely uh suggest that everybody goes to get fit for a a putter and I will say just going for so many variables there’s so many variables like like tow hang little bit of tow hang blade mallet half blade rounded have you got your perimeter waiting on the edges if you got it coming through the middle like there’s so many variations of shaft center center shafted center shafted mid mid shaft heel shaft like you got so many options on there what what degree of loft have you got on a putter like actually in many in many ways there’s probably there’s probably because most outside of heads on a driveway to different manufacturers inside of a manufacturer probably you got three heads in most drivers you look at Ping you’ve got the you got the 440 Max you got the low spin then you got the um the S the SF tech which is the one to to stop the um yeah straight flight technology yeah so they got they got three heads you look at Ping putters you’ve got you got the PLLD range which has got the milling you got the you got you got the and you got two other ranges with different types of face and one’s got inserts one’s got the the spongier one and then you’ve got three or four different head shapes in each one so already you’ve got like 15 16 head so I think actually people really do overlook putter fitting and and how fitting must work so right it’s overwhelming let’s draw let’s draw this to a close by talking about um and I don’t want to do Rory we’ve done him to death well I want to I want to say a personal plea to I want to say a personal plea to Rory cuz he listens here’s everything there’s no way that comment was made to me and someone hadn’t told him that he what we said or he listened anyway um there we are so I feel for anyone that’s going through tough times in life there is nothing wrong at all in playing the travelers this weekend and going do you know what i’m going to take a break until until the Scottish open and I’m just going to go and play some golf and chill out with the family and do whatever I got to do and just like if you’re not enjoying it just take a break and no one’s going to judge you for it say “Look I need some time off i’m on the Masters my head’s not on it i need to go and practice i need to go over to Ireland i’m gonna go and play Port Rush five times i’m gonna go and chill out just go and do it just go and do it there’s no point to him playing the rest of the PJ tour season there just isn’t and I posted this on Twitter uh last week when he was having this this little spat with the media and it’s like this is just it’s it’s so clear to me what he need needs to do like he just needs to take the rest he shouldn’t be at the Travelers there’s no point to it like I think he’ll probably play okay but uh because he had a great finish to the US Open and and uh he kind of stopped caring that last last round and shot the round of the day 67 tied with Rom um so yeah I I think Scottish Open uh I’ll play Port Rush uh I’ll play Irish Open you know play Wentworth that basically needs to be the rest of the schedule the rest of the year like there’s no point to playing any more PJ tour events even though the let’s be honest the PJ tour season the Travelers is the last sign signature event for the entire year they obviously have their playoffs coming up in a couple months but um he doesn’t really need to play in that if he didn’t want to so um or he could take the first two off and just play the tour championship um uh because there is a very large cash prize not not that he needs any more cash but um especially considering some of the stuff happening in the in the background where he’s going to be flush full of full of cash for a while um uh except I think some of these other championships are more important to him obviously the Irish Open is is very very close to him uh the Wentworth BMW PGA is the flagship event of the European tour he loves that uh particular event as well all the European Rder Club uh players need to be playing in that to get ready for the Ryder Cup which is going to be in short order after that so so and he’s ob obviously going to going to play the Ryder Cup too but uh yeah like there’s there’s no point to him playing the rest of the PJ tour season he’s got to figure some stuff out figure out his uh his business interests his family stuff his mental game his mentals and that’s it that’s the only thing he needs to f focus on the rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest rest of the year that was my advice to him it got a lot of traction on Twitter so there’s always a chance that that he saw that too but I mean it’s very obvious to me and a lot of a lot of Rory fans and sort of a lot of my haters completely agree with that comment so that goes to show you there’s probably something to it and it’s just if you’re whether you’re a dad or not it doesn’t matter if you’re if you’re a man woman whoever you are who you’re struggling and the stuff’s a bit much like if you have the opportunity to step away just step away like no one’s going to judge you like he’s he’s not down he’s not down the mines or he’s not he’s not on the battlefield fighting just go go go and have a have have a have a break have have a few have a few weeks off he probably feels like he has the last three years though because he’s been put in position he’s been put in impossible positions and like we were some of the people that told him it was not worth it it was not the way to go like he needs to be one of those people bringing golf together instead of instead of dividing it instead of being the most polarizing figure in golf that you know he’s probably top he’s been a top three most polarizing person the last few years like it wasn’t worth it and he’d probably be the first to say that it wasn’t worth it so um and he doesn’t owe the PJ tour anything not now no especially with the new lead leadership coming in too right let’s talk about then we can we we can’t do 20 minutes on it because we’re going to do another we’re going to do a deep dive probably in the next couple of weeks but you and I have both talked about there’s three or four options of world golf everyone comes back together i still don’t think that’s on the table option two is that option four we go one to four option four which is the more later one which is Rory goes and bees the face of the P of the DP world tour has a DP world tour type schedule has his global thing going on as well where live players can play on it and he plays in maybe five or six PJ tour events a year that he wants to go and play in he’s previously won he’s got an exemption for doesn’t need to have a tour card because as long as he’s not banned from the tour you can play with your exemption so he could play five six events in the PJ tour play four majors play um seven or eight events on the DP World Tour lovely stuff what whenever you want to do there’s that and then with that for the future golf comes some of the live players going and playing and then some of these elevated DP World Tour events whatever that might be that was option four option two which was a DP World Tour gets bought by Liv and and Liv do that or Liv just pile a load of money back into Liv and try and get load more players in and then option three was one we had which was I know was kind of your favorite which was like an open harmony they’re not playing all together but there is like a Super Bowl of golf where once a year or twice a year the top 12 or the top because you got two options now because when you first mentioned it we didn’t have um TGL but now we do so you you could have one event where it’s the top four teams on TGL versus the top four teams on Liv and another event where it’s the top 24 players on Liv top 24 24 players on on the PGA tour and I think with the with the addition of Mr rolap coming in to the PGA Tour I think you are going to find much more in the way of harmony than you are going to have acrimony completely agree and it’s something that has got me very excited about about the future of golf um and it’s something that uh you know we’ve been talk talking about it for as long as we’ve been doing this podcast um I wrote a piece about uh kind of it was literally titled the Super Bowl of golf um over two years ago um it was the beginning of 2023 where basically what I wanted because we don’t get enough match play in golf obviously we talk about this all the time like having one huge match play single elimination event with all the top let’s say either 16 to 24 players like I when I broke it down I was like you could probably stretch out to like 24 players that are like the signature players in golf the ones that drive interest that everybody wants to see around the world globally uh that’s the way to go um and I think that being your Super Bowl like having a final match with Rory against Patrick Reed Rory against Cam Smith Bryson against Scotty Sheffler like that’s box office to me like that’s like the problem that was always the problem that I had with the uh WGC match play was they had too many players they had 64 there was a lot of random randomness to it they did not want like the 63rd player playing the 64th player in the final they didn’t want that if you cut that down to the top 16 to 24 you are guaranteed to have a great final there’s no bad finals so that’s what I felt like was like the solution to kind of having the Super Bowl like this huge endofyear event that involve all the top players that being said I also think now that we have new leadership in I think that the PJ tour and they have somebody in that understands the business of sport um a lot more and they’re all about a culture of innovation like I talk about this culture of innovation on Live all the time if you listen to the podcast you’ve heard heard me say it a bunch you’ve seen me tweet about it too i think that these are really really important things important concepts that the PJ tour is now going to have ssg is finally uh this is their handpicked candidate make no mistake about it um SSG particularly Arthur Blank led the search for the new PJ tour CEO they’re really three candidates out there i think Brian Rolap was the right choice more than guys that had more golf experience that I was and those that and those that don’t know who Brian Rolap is very quickly he was number two essentially in the NFL he was very very widely but respected and expected to be Roger Goodell’s replacement um he understands innovation he understands monetization he understands sports he actually comes from a background where everyone gets a contract everyone gets guaranteed money everyone plays in teams and franchises matter interesting anyway but more interesting more interesting than that is obviously Brian would tweeted in the past about being a friend with Scott reading his book they both went to Harvard together not in the same year but they’re both Harvard alumni and they’ve worked together and crossed over from Scott’s days when Scott was um running um franchises in the American sports teams and they’ve worked together and they’re both the same they’re both the same Mormon faith so they’re actually both very they are close and they do get on so I actually think that if you’re if you’re thinking if you’re one of those people going “Oh I’ll live beer in two years time.” Well you said that four years ago so probably slow your roll it’s getting a bit boring now you can’t keep saying you can’t keep saying live won’t be here in two years time every year and adding two years on because eventually you’ll be right because the world will end like at some point at some point like you’re going to be correct like you know what I mean like some point at some point after 17 if after 110 years right and live then folded they go yeah see told you oh I was right I was right the whole time what yeah morons morons oh my god they yeah They don’t realize how clanished they actually are and it’s just like yeah it’s provided me a lot of a lot of joy and sort of comedy the last few years just just because I knew how wrong they actually were but um it is what it what it is but yeah I I think that we’re um I haven’t been this um I was actually actually talking to Red Harrington um a couple days ago and he was like I haven’t heard you be this positive about the PJ tour like maybe ever and I was like “Yeah because this is like I know how um in the world of business whenever you bring in a new CEO people have to remember you loved the PGA tour people People have got to remember this you you were a PGA tour stand for 15 years you loved it since the ‘9s since I came on the scene it’s been people talk about Rogan like Ro Oh Rogan’s now Republican like if you lost your biggest Democrat like Rogan Rogan was the biggest bar um Bernie Sanders fan i only said Barry Sanders very different human being bernie Sanders and Barry Sanders are two different men he was like he had Sanders on the show and he absolutely loved him like he was like champion Democrat like if you managed to lose Pro Golf Critic as a fan of your product when he was your absolute fanboy you need to understand you’re not doing the right thing they they drove me away there’s no question about it like there through their inept leadership um and just just some of their incompetent actions that they’ve done over the last 5 years they just ran me off um and that’s fine like look I understood the dynamics of it i understood the things going on behind the scenes i was always hopeful that like you bring in new leadership it’s a domino effect it happens with every business you bring in a new leader it’s like eventually everybody underneath them in that senior leadership team you know they come under scrutiny some of them are going to stay some of them are going to go through this process is where the culture actually changes at any company so this was the the first step I was hoping and I had sort of tweeted this this was going to going to happen like like a month ago they had sort of vetted all the candidates were down to a half handful um I was hoping that they were going to announce it sooner than later it started to get leaked last week because Adam Shfter posted it there was this huge thing at the NFL where they announced that Brian Rolloff was leaving to go to the P PJ tour it got out they had to get out in front of it here we are so I’m glad that this is h happening now Jay Manz actually is obviously going to um allegedly going to stay on for another 18 months through through the end of his contract i think he’s going to be like a ghost um after the FedEx Cup playoffs like I think is going to present that trophy and we’re basically never going to see him not see him again he’s going to be part of the PJ tour board still for a while through the end of his contract so he’ll be involved and they need a little bit of continuity because Brian Rollup’s not a golf guy except I think like I also tweeted about they’re also going to hire a golf guy to sort of come in and and be that commissioner role they’re probably not going to call it commissioner they’re probably going to call it something else to make it seem like it’s a different role except that’s definitely going to going to happen and that’s going to be when the entire culture of the PJ tour changes and they can actually start changing their entire organization which is what I’ve been waiting for for four years my only concern is if that commissioner is of the that brigade that Davis love that Freddy couples like that’s my only concern but also like as we’ve seen from all the old articles when Freddy used to go and play for money give Fred enough cash and he’ll tell you whatever opinion you want so like I think Freddy is a yes person and I think again he’s a product guys like him and Davis Love and guys like like that are a product of the PJ tour culture when the culture of the PJ tour changes they will change along with it i’ve seen this happen in in business i’ve been a part of a lot of companies where new CEO comes in new leadership comes in the culture of the company totally changes totally flips and that’s what I think is going to happen here you either have to have have to buy into it if you’re going to be part of the company or you’re going to do something else so um I think that’s what what we’re going to see here in the near future it’s going to take a while for this to sort of pan out like I’m not expecting any ma major changes now in 2025 i think the ship has kind of sailed um and even 2026 now is probably probably not going to happen either i think 2027 is when we’re sort of looking at some potentially major changes to the schedule or like a little bit more crossover because um I want the sort of Super Bowl match play thing except I also want other four five six crossover events between Liv and the PJ tour and maybe some of those existing PJ tour events allowing exemptions for some of the top live players like there’s no tournament on earth that’s going to say no in a fair and honest world to John Rom Bryson Brooks DJ Phil playing in their tournaments there’s just it’s just not going to happen like every tournament wants those guys playing in it i’d also argue there’s there’s no tournament really that’s going to say no to Ortiz Poo Munos Burmese and and Herbert like they’re all they’re they’re a step down in gravitas a name but they’re still world class golfers that would elevate any event so we we we talked a little bit about Brian and um Scott i think that it’s very encouraging i think there’s also been a real seed change that I know you and I have both spoken about that there seems to be zero rhetoric at all coming out of the Liv camp and many of the Liv media and Liv members anymore it’s it’s like we’re not going to talk about the PJ tour we’re not really going to talk about OWGR anymore we’re going to do what we do if you want to slag us off you slag us off we’re going to say nothing and it actually seems to been very pronounced in the last two weeks which makes me wonder if there’s been a comment or a discussion or a meeting where everyone’s gone should we just rise above this because do you know what like we don’t need to do it like do do you agree with me do you think that’s feels like something’s been being done yeah 100% i’m not saying I’m not saying I’m not saying ordered it actually feels a bit more organic it feels more than that i think this is a cultural thing i I I 100% agree with you like I don’t think that the and as much as like everybody knows how much I love Greg Norman and his team that that that shouldn’t even be debated um except that is Greg Norman brought a different culture than what Scott O’Neal is bringing in and it Greg Norman had more sort of combative way of going about it because that’s exactly what Liv needed at the time scott O’Neal is not like that his team is not like that they’re much more corporate they’re much more folks that land on the beach are not the same people that build the roads and the houses it’s a great analogy great analogy and I think that’s exactly where we’re headed here um I’ve already heard from a couple you loved that one didn’t you you really you really enjoyed that one yeah it was good no it it’s it’s a good every now and then 32 on analogies i’m one for 32 on analogies it’s like me picking major championship winners um so but I do get it get it right every now and now and then um so also also like on that on that you tell the listeners who bet on JJ Spawn to win my brother and my wife yeah that’s right that’s right yeah yeah like neither of us picked him your brother and my wife both pit JJ Spawn to win because the the agreement that I have with my brother I’m not giving him betting advice but I’m also with him I’m being objective i’m taking my live hat off literally and figuratively and sort of tell him hey like the these are the people you need to look out for he doesn’t bet them all but like he he does it strategically and he he wins on his golf bets much more than he loses for sure um it’s part of the reason why I don’t bet because I get too wrapped up emot emotionally i over overthink it that’s another story um so so but yeah I uh talked to a couple Liv players and there is this vibe and culture within Liv that that like and we we sort of saw it in uh the documentary series Live to Win where Scott O’Neal addresses the players and he’s he’s like I know people have said mean things about you and to you the last few years i’m sorry i’m sorry for that but we need to move on and I think that moving on is something that’s very hard for a lot of us to to do in including me because I’ve had a ton of personal attacks on social media the last three years really strictly for liking live golf and I think all all these things around that need need to be considered and like I have tried many times over the past couple years particularly since June 6th two years ago to just like to try to let some of this stuff go and like to try to move forward and I think this leadership change that’s the thing that’s given me more positivity that change is actually on the way and that’s something that like I needed to see before I actually changed um and I’ve told a lot of people I reserve the right to go back to hating the PJ tour if I start seeing more of the skull duggery that they’ve done in the past i I don’t want to see it and we need to figure out this thing with the golf media too brand Shamley Aean Lynch those are guys that we need to root out or we need to get them to stop with this nasty rhetoric towards the Liv players and to Saudi proxy they need to stop doing it i need the golf media to stop doing it too if you stop doing that like I will turn down my volume from 100 to gradually zero where I don’t criticize the PJ tour at all so that’s what I’m hoping for because I love golf in general i’ve already expressed all the reasons why I my growing dislike for the PJ tour why it came about uh maybe I need need to do another deep dive on that at a later later time but I want to put it in the past so that’s the whole thing to this new leadership coming in new culture a whole vibe change on both sides more collaboration making cool stuff happen in professional golf that’s what I’m all all that’s what I’m all about in the end and if that’s what I get in the next few years I will be a happy camper well look we can’t we can’t say fairer than that um I I just think that so much of the nonsense like I it’s it’s just people people desperate to have a side we discussed this my view on society and that people are just desperate to have a side and they’re desperate to have a team to belong to the family unit’s broken down i can’t believe the podcast’s going this way the family unit’s broken down um people don’t have youth clubs and sports clubs in the same way they used to in other ways and the same sense of camaraderie and belonging so they search for something so if if they can find other mates to go “Yeah I agree with you we hate live because of this i agree with you i hate so it’s just like that is that club of hate and like like just grow up like like these the keyboard warriors like you’d never speak to me like that in person like you just wouldn’t do it.” Oh and that one guy that one guy that one guy that been slagging me off and he met he’s met me at JCB and as and asked me if I’d have a picture with him i’m like firstly why do you want to why do you want a picture of me i’m an absolute noark i am a literal noark in the world of golf and two you’ve must have sent me 60 tweets saying I saying this that and the other like I I like it’s just can we all just be kind and I actually said the other day about you and Lagnet like you and Lustagna would get on great like you you’d get on great you’d love golf you love the data like you get on really well so many people just like they want they want to find something to argue about and it’s just like have a minute off if you I using now is your time i hate coffee i can’t stand it you’ve never seen me go to a coffee lover’s tweet and go I hate coffee you must be in the pockets of the Colombians like like you just like grow except for Except for four wellness you’re you’re a starter starting to get for wellness i like all the for wellness stuff but not coffee cuz I don’t drink coffee the for wellness stuff is amazing but not the not the coffee cuz but but that’s my point like like you like it’s just it’s just so mental that anyone go I hate something so much I’m going to go over to where they’re talking about it to tell them I don’t care you must care cuz you’re here chatting about it no some of those people people are real but I I will say some of this has been drummed up by these these fake accounts that the these these these bot accounts these AI chat bots that I know for a fact that PJ Tour has funded some of this stuff um and I was hoping some of that stuff would come into the in the litigation again I’m willing to put all that stuff in the past as long as it stops because if it doesn’t stop I’m not going to stop so um I just want to live in a much better golf world it’s part of the reason why I uh I started commenting more on uh golf you know three years years ago it’s part of the reason why I became pro golf critic um is because you know I just had all these criticisms of where the pro golf game was going and I felt like it needed to shift course um we’ve been off course for a long time i finally feel like we’re getting on the right course that doesn’t mean um everything that I want in pro golf is going to happen it doesn’t mean that however I just wanted us to like I wanted to have some sort of evidence something I could put uh I can follow away to say uh we’re now on the right track i think that we’re getting there we’re not there yet except there’s evidence there’s more evidence than not at this point that we are going to be on the right track here pretty soon so I’m willing to give a little bit of time and in the meantime I’m going to enjoy some some great golf i’m going to enjoy the rest of the live season i’m going to enjoy uh the last major that we have it’s so crazy you get to July that’s it for major season like we need to get the PJ Championship back in August we need to extend this thing out a little bit further um or or we or we need to have a September event where it’s the PGA Tour versus Liv yep 100% no we need to extend the season so that we have like if we are looking at the end of the ma major season in July we need to have big events in August which we do with the live team championship obviously um uh we might have to do something with the venues there this another story uh we’ll talk we’ll save that for another another podcast and then obviously for the PGA Tour fans they have the playoffs it’s not really for me just the format and every everything around it even though they change it’s not good enough for me it’s just like every other tournament on the P Pet PP PJ tour on a lot of courses that I’ve already seen a million times and then we obviously go in we get into the European tour season it really gets into really gets into high gear with some of my favorite events uh like I’ve said how Wentworth BMW PJ is one of my favorite events in all of world golf like I really enjoy Wentworth i got to make make it over there for one of those um maybe this year well we’ll have to talk talk about that one but um yeah there’s just a lot of great events irish Open even though it’s not at a great course this year but last year was at Royal County Down great course where where is it this year my brain’s gone blank where is it this year i think it’s at K Club if I if I remember correctly um I have to look that up but yeah I think it’s at K Club they’re they’re basically rotating between like a traditional links course one of the inland Parkland and posh Parkland yeah yeah so it’s at the K Club this year and it’s at the K Club in two years they haven’t figured out 2026 it’s probably going to be back at Royal County down again which would be amazing so uh yeah it’s a great course so uh except they have so many great courses in Ireland so many great links courses like they could figure out another one so um yeah so uh yeah I think it’s going to going to be a great I I actually think I actually think I’d like the the Irish Open i know I know it’s a logistical nightmare and I know Port Rush gets loads of stuff so he doesn’t need it but I do love what they do with the Scottish open with the Scottish championship where they where they have not Scottish Championship where they do the Dunnil links where they have a couple of different courses i love that i know i know it’s hard to do it with an open you want to be an open vent yeah you want to be an open venue so I know that if you’re if it’s your turn to host the open you don’t only want two days of it but you one day you could do it that you do it on rotation you have three courses and one year you have for last two days and whatever else you could work it out the one course has but I just I love it when they do it at different courses and Ireland’s got so many magnificent courses but again there’s infrastructure issues there like one of the best one the best course in the world is like old head like old head’s one of the best course in the world you probably you might be able to get 12 spectators on there’s literally a it is literally an It’s literally like a logistics is tough there it’s just joined by a thin spit of land yeah like it’s just there we are uh I feel like we’re done yeah but there there’s like so many other so many other great courses around there port uh Port Rush obviously uh the guy Bali Bunan Bal Lifen Castle Castle Stewart’s ridiculous there’s so many great courses over there that like we we need we need more of those in world golf and less TPC’s tpc’s to me have ruined pro golf for me like I I really have a hard time getting up to watch TPC River Highlands which is where they have in the Travelers this week like I’ve seen it every year for 30 years it’s very un It’s a very uninteresting course to me i don’t like it and I’m always saying we need to have more golf in the northeast United States because there’s so many great courses in New York and around the tri-state like Beth Paige where they’re going to have the Ryder Cup later this year except TPC River Highlands is just not good like it’s it’s give me if you give me the choice of playing Lehinch or TPC River Highlands I’m taking La Hinch 10 out of 10 times obviously I’m taking all those Irish and Scottish links courses 10 out of 10 times and I think that more people need to experience that because when you experience it when you experience that it like unlocks this thing in golf that like oh that’s what golf was originally about that’s the home of golf like that’s what this the whole spirit of the game came out of that it wasn’t invented here in the United States with this very uninteresting style of golf that we have the majority of the time that’s why I’m such a huge global I’m such an advocate for global golf uh there’s way more interesting golf courses out there that I grew up not even knowing existed and I want everybody out there to know that these courses exist and we need to play them more and more and more and more should we say good night should we get on with your day i I complet I completely agree with you i completely agree with you but I’m sweating and it’s I’ll let you get back to it but uh I actually I actually I played nine holes today i um did um my one we did a onetoone one with my members of my team and went and played nine holes um on a par three course nice just nice bit of fun we took Yeah yeah i I I don’t think enough people I think a lot of people hit the range and grinding on the range is great but I think sometimes just like looking down the card it was 89 yards 92 yards 68 80 78 58 147 78 120 and 116 like that’s just most that is just me in different wedges just for fun and like I actually played the first seven first six all with the same wedge having to between a 58 and a 92 with the same wedge just playing for flight control i love that like just get out there and play more par threes claude Harmon said it said it best he said it on his podcast he said it to me in person you need to go out and play more golf play less swing less golf swing more golf course because golf courses and sort of playing different shots like you you can’t recreate that that stuff on the range you just can’t like situational stuff and yeah that’s like the um and honestly like like when when I think about it as much as I like grinding on the range and all that stuff the most fun that I ever have is actually on the actual course so I think everybody needs to try to try to get out and play more i’m going to try to play more this summer last year it was a disgrace how little golf that that I played it was just the amount of rounds of golf that I actually logged was just a complete complete joke um I’m already ahead of schedule and pace this year as opposed to last year i’ve got a few tournaments coming up this year too that that I got to start getting getting ready for hopefully that lab putter come comes in time it probably won’t but um custom fitting takes a little longer i’ll be lucky to get it before the end of the year at this point but um yeah so uh no everybody need needs to go out there and play more golf for sure before we go um a big shout out to Ping for all the support they give me like the amount of gear they give me the clubs everything i’m so I’m so lucky and my game is better at playing like a consistent set that I really got to know so just a big shout out to Ping they’re so supportive and um are they going to send me some stuff too like what’s going on with that not not when you’re posting about how much you love Vokis and you’re branded Vok it’s a very difficult conversation look I got to be honest i got to be honest about my set you’re You’re JJ Spawn you You want You’ve got a mixed bag you know what you want to play yeah but look I like I said nobody’s hyped up the the Ping drivers as much as I I have i’ve been pleading with with Phil Mickelson to play the Ping driver the entire year and guess what he he puts puts it in the bag the US Open even though he miss he had one of his best driving rounds of of the year so the one the one thing I say about that Ping 440 right it can’t help with club path it can’t help with too much of face control cuz a lot of that is the guy holding it but if I’ve hit I don’t know how many 270 plus yard drives I’ve hit out the toe because I’ve managed to get that face square but I’ve hit it out the toe and I can feel it’s out the toe and the tech in it has just gone I got you mate don’t worry about it bang it’s like if I if I was if I was hitting that when I used to have my old tailor made that is going 230 and um and depending on what where it’s whipping around like it’s just Yeah yeah so there we are right we got to go ladies and gentlemen it does pay to be in the fairway take care everybody bye-bye
11 Comments
Rory is a child….and forgets his position….Can you imagine Jack or Arnie ever being snarky with the media?
Sorry the PGAT corrupting the OWGR was criminal…a conspiracy…Mark McCormack founded the OWGR to fairly rank ALL professional golfers….the PGAT management corrupted the OWGR to use as political tool against LIV…the PGAT can go to hell
LIV should charter a plane for them to get to qualifying
Ben and Jay ' Red Dose having a new PGA CEO Brian help Liv Golf CEO Scot coming together. Where do you see the European tour and DP world tour CEO. Or dose Liv Golf and PGA tour split the DP world Tour 50/50
Disagree re the Wyndam Clark locker destruction, I have talked to 3 Directors of golf re this, everyone of them said they would call the police, charge them and ban them for life.
Jay, I was going to give you crap for not having the Aces hat on until you qualified it with Jon and Tyrells finish at the US open. You're forgiven, lol
If the pga commentators were as good as you two i might watch a tournament once in awhile…
they ran me off 4yrs ago…
pga should hire GREG…
I want LIV to partner with DPWORLD
Here in Australia we’ve always referred to it as the British Open, unless it’s a Mandela Effect, then I stand corrected.
Currently the majors are perpetually dubious, they’re not always representative of the best players.
Lucas Herbert and Dean Burmeister are great examples: clearly top 100 players in the world, should be in all the majors.
If LIV keep throwing money at the good/great amateurs they’ll ultimately win.
A world tour with the likes of “legacy” players like Scheffler and Wyndham Clark playing internationally 8 or more times a year will be a great thing for golf.
No Laying Up know it but can’t seem to admit it