In this week’s episode, 54 Golf takes the LIV Golf League to school after they were shut out by the PGA Tour this Major Championship season. We delve into the failures of LIV at The Masters, PGA Championship, US Open, and Open Championship. And take a closer look at the performances of Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, Joaquin Niemann, and Tyrrell Hatton.
Let us know if the grades match the results.
Chapters
0:01 Introduction and Overview
1:12 League Performance Discussion
4:36 Major-by-Major Breakdown
13:32 Individual Player Grades
17:21 Closing Remarks
–
#1-rated LIV Golf League Podcast & Blog — https://fiftyfour.golf/
–
email the show: 54golfusa@gmail.com
–
Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/_54golf/
X/Twitter — https://x.com/_54Golf
TikTok — https://www.tiktok.com/@_54golf
–
New audio episode every Wednesday & video on Thursdays!
–
All right. On today’s episode, we are just Jerome and I, the jerks went to Beth Page Black. Literally one week to the day after Jerome and I went and set a date for us to play golf while I was in New York. They waited until I left and until you couldn’t go to go play Beth Page Black. What a bunch of two motobags. What a bag of smash. Just terrible. Just terrible people. We’re not going to do too much on the Ryder Cup. We’re actually going to look back today on the live golf major season which was likely a disappointment as we look back through it because of no winners. Long cold winter for the league I feel. We’ll get your take on it here in a second. We’ll go we’ll grade the league on how well they did at each major and then we’ll pull out the top fourish players from the league and give their major seasons a grade. [Music] So, let’s start with the league itself. Just flat grade, no wins. Obviously, you can’t be too upset when Scotty Shepler wins a major. So, you throw those two majors out. Rory got the career grand slam that, you know, he’s been waiting for for like whatever 10 years. So, I don’t know how upset you can be about that. as as a Rory hater of course you’re upset but as a league I don’t know that you know I think the Masters was a good chance for obviously for live golf to win that a lot of their players fit that course well so to not win the Masters was probably a disappointment for sure for the league and then you had the US Open where Hatton was tied for the lead with four holes to go so and Carlos Ortiz was kind of right in it too with headed to the back nine of the last day overall on a grade similar to school A+ best total failure for the here. How would you grade the league across the board through the four for four majors? I’d say a B. I mean, leaves room for improvement, but there was a lot of competition. A lot of competition is as in there were a lot of guys who just were competitive in those events from the league. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. We’ll get down in into each event. I just I think you have to win, right? Like at this point, the league is built on the backs of some very big names, big stars. John Rom, Bryson Dashambo, even Walking Nean to a lesser extent. Without a win, though, I don’t I can’t give them a B. It’s a C or less without a win for me. I you know what, and that I think that’s a really fair thing to say. I give him a little bit more credit than that, but that’s fine. Like I don’t think I don’t think it’s an egregious thing for you to give him a C. Yeah, it’s And it’s a it’s a I mean it’s not a I mean it’s not a terrible grade. It’s a passing grade. Like they performed well enough as a league. the stars I feel like let them down and we’ll look at the despite the fact that you’ll hear some really decent finishes from all of them. They let them down in the sense that you never felt like John Rom was going to win a major this year. Like if you were watching like maybe heading into the event you did, you know, there was never a moment where you were like this is Bryson’s event to win, you know, like we never got to that point. So this I feel like the stars kind of let them down. Maybe we got spoiled over the last couple seasons where Bryson won a major, Brooks won a major, Rahm was in, you know, was not really in the mix, but Bryce was in the mix every single event, right? Mhm. and other guys kind of chimed in again similar to to this season. So, I’m gonna give him a hard C. You could convince me as if that’s a C minus because of top guys like Waco Nean not even being in the conversation and playing so well in the league and then again and then Bryson shooting a 78, you know, and storming his way back to a top 10. There’s some weird finishes when you look back at the finishes. And so I don’t I’m wondering if it’s fairy or rosecoled glasses if we give them anything better than a C. Trying to be fair, but we’ll see. Okay. But I think the other thing to bring up is that I mean you could call it rosecoled glasses, but the other side of that equation is everybody’s always putting them down. they they have to adapt their play to something different every single time they play into a major with with nobody giving them any credit for the kind of golf that they’re playing currently. So, I mean, call it rosecolored glasses. I call it sticking up for my guys and giving them credit where credit’s due. I mean, you’re not wrong about that. We could go on, we could do this whole show on how much the legacy golf media was all was just pouncing on every negative thing throughout every single major. Again, we’re not going to talk about that, though. Let’s go uh major by major and give a quick quick grade for the league or I should say how you if you think back to it, how you felt about their performance. Back to the Masters, Patrick Reed finished two shots off the lead. But again, it was kind of like final round hold out for Eagle on 16 to get him within four, birdie 17, birdie 18 to get him within two, you know, like kind of that thing. He was never really headed into the playoff with Justin Rosen. He didn’t have a commanding lead. Yeah. Nothing like that. Yeah. He was not he was not there. And so I for meers D for the league because you know the the guys who can I mean former winner John Rom like you know former winner Sergio Garcia like those guys were not there in the mix. Bryson obviously just losing out to John Rom two years ago like he wasn’t really truly involved in in the mix m at that major and so it’s a D for me. I don’t so so let me ask this. What’s what’s what would an A be? The entire top five all live guys including the winner. No, I think Well, an A is a win for sure. That’s automatic A. Now to get an A without So there’s a lot in between A and D then. So what you’re telling me is your specificity for each grade is very minute. Yeah. I mean for you’re right. There is a lot between A and D. like if if A is a W if is A is a live guy winning and D we had a guy what did Patty Reed finish second? He finished third. He finished third. So a live guy finishing third and we have C and B and all of the the minutia minuses and pluses in between. Do you see what I’m saying? And you know what it is? It’s because you watch it and you can you get the feel like I got the feel for how competitive they truly were. There’s a third place finish and then there’s a down to the last hole third place finish and it was kind it was not the same thing for Patrick Reed in my opinion. Wow. It is it is it must be so nice to have that kind of I am just I think it’s very critical and that and if that’s the way you want to view it that’s fine. I think it’s great to have a third place finish and yeah was did it come down to a playoff? No. Was it a couple strokes? Yeah. I mean, it’s not like not like Patty Reid finished six strokes behind first place. He finished two strokes out of the playoff. Two strokes out of the playoff. Maybe I’m being a hater here. I gave they gave the league a D. But I But again, you got you got to look at that’s that’s you saying it, not me. I think I All I’m saying is all I’m saying is I think a Liv player finishing third by two strokes in the top 10. How many live guys were there? He might have been the only one. No, Bryson finished. Bryson back door to top five. He finished four strokes off the lead and that was it. So I give that a B minus. You talked me into giving them a C. Two in the top five. Two guys. Two in the top. Two in the top five. You talked you talked me into getting a C. That’s just me. Listen, if you want to give them a D and and and have such small such small criteria for climbing, that’s fine. If that’s the way you want to live your life, that’s You got to earn your A’s, though. You got to earn your A’s. If if if it’s not a win, it’s not an A. I’m 100% with you. All right, so let’s move on then to the PGA Championship. Bryson came in two, but he was five shots behind Scotty Shuffler, but he did have the second best score. He didn’t play great. You know, he didn’t really finish well. He was one under par in the last round. Finished six under for the event. John Rom finished tied for eighth, seven shots behind Scotty Shuffler. So he got and walking Neman finished well. Three under par on the last day, four under for the event. Same thing, seven shots behind T8. So three live players in the top eight. None of them really truly in contention when Scotty dominated the PGA championship. I give that a B minus. You had a bunch of guys finished in the top eight, but there was a huge disparity between the winner and the guy who finished in second. Yeah, I I agree with you. still sticking to the C despite a second place finish. I think got to delineate there somehow. Uh the the score differential there, the big score differential really hurt hurt the league. Um US Open, it’s interesting because felt like it was their best felt like on Sunday it was the the league’s best chance to win with Hatton right there heading into 14 into the 14th hole with Carlos Ortiz as well. Haden and Ortiz both finished tied for fourth, four shots behind JJ Spawn. John Rom finished tied for seventh. So three in the top seven. He was five shots behind. But again, Rahm finished Rahm played round four amazingly. He was three underpar in a tournament where only one player finished underpar for the entire week. So Rahm’s final round really helped him move up in the standings. Kind of a backdoorish top 10, but a good finish. and three players in the top seven again with Hatton challenging. Now, now we can start talking about a Bminus type of event where See, that’s so funny because I feel like that’s a C+. Well, interesting. Well, I mean, listen, the winner was the only one that shot under and he Well, to be fair, he did make he did make a 55 foot putt on 18 to get under par. That’s fair. Otherwise, he would have finished even, which is what he which is what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to I digress. I think, you know, was it a really tough round? Absolutely. You still got to call a spade a spade and it’s it’s a C plus. I think it was our I think it was the league’s best chance to win. I think Hatton with kind of no names. I don’t want to call them no names cuz they’re not no names, but Bobby McIntyre and Victor Havland were the other two golfers who finished ahead of Terrell Hatton. Hatton shot two over par on the last day to finish three over for the event. And he was really ugly right in the mix. It was I think it was live golf’s best chance to win a major this year and so that’s why I give them a B minus. And then of course the event that we just witnessed where to be fair no one was in contention except for world number one Scott Shuffler sheets a 78 finishes up the event with 65 68 64 to be the only live golfer in the top 10 and he finished eight strokes off the champions pace. That’s a D for me. You’re being very kind. It’s not a fail. You’re being very kind. one top 10 in an event where where guys are shooting 17 15 17 12 10 underpar you know it was not a difficult setup for for an open obviously there were so many players deep underpar when the event finished obviously screwed the pooch in round one by getting off to such a bad start otherwise he would have been right there I mean he played the best he played the literal best last 54 holes in the history of the championship he could have written it off though. He could have gone home. You’re right. He could have gone home. He didn’t. He could have he could have just been like, “You know what? The next round I’m going to play whatever and then I’m going to go home and I’m going to get ready for or actually not go home cuz they’re staying, right? They’re still over there.” Funny enough, you say that. He actually did go home. He was at the premiere of Happy Gilmore 2 yesterday. So, when you fly private, I guess it’s no big deal to fly from the UK to America, back to the UK to play a golf. God, he went all the way to [ __ ] LA and then came all the way home. You know what? You know what? I’ll say this though. I mean, let’s be honest. It’s a Netflix movie and Sandler lives in New York. I would not be sure in New York. He might have just been in New York. You might be right. I don’t know where the location was, but it was it was u the premiere was Monday night. Yeah, Monday night. And so Bryson somehow showed up there since he’s in in the movie. I mean, it’s you know, private jet. Yeah. It’s not that goes wherever he wants. You take you take a nap. Climate change is not real. And we might lose half of our What does What does climate change have to do with flying across the Atlantic Ocean? Well, you know, they they complain about the carbon dioxide. Meanwhile, like carbon dioxide makes up like 0.003% of the air you breathe. Anyway, we’re not doing science yet. We’re not we’re not we’re not going to get into this. We’re not going to get the things that that China is doing to our atmosphere on a basis. India literally dumps the the garbage in their river. They they dumped so much garbage in their river that their river is I know I know we’re on a European sports casting thing here now but like let’s let’s not get into Yeah, we’re not getting how terrible India is. Um I mean on top of the fact that we have Austin that and we do have a we do have an Indian on our on our team. Uh all right, so let’s do some individual grades real quickly. We’ll start with the big man Bryson. Here is his 2025 season. We talked about him three times already. Tied for fifth at the Masters, tied for second at the PGA Championship, missed the cut at the US Open, tied for 10th at the Open Championship. B minus. He has high expectations. And you have high expectations for him, too. I’ I’d give him a B+ if it wasn’t for missing the cut. I’m with you. I think it’s I think a B minus is a is a fair grade. It’s not a C. It’s not a B because he missed because he missed the cut. If he had made the cut at all four and had three top tens, that’s a B major season for him. Obviously, an A would have been a win. We talked about that already. Three three top five finishes could have been in a cut would have been like a B. Three top five four top five finishes would have been a B+. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think he’s disappointed in his major season. So he’s one but he’s one of the guys who wants an A. So his B minus probably would would sting a little bit. I think he would say this major season stung. And you could tell in his open press conference afterwards when he went right to Ryder Cup, how he’s going to bring the energy to the RDER Cup. And he’s going to look at that as a redemption on the world stage for his lackluster major season. Um, number two guy in the league is John Rom for sure. Here’s John Rom who John Rom did make all four cuts. He finished T14 at the Masters, T8 at the PGA, T7 at the US Open, and T34 at the Open Championship. So, we got we got two top 10s, a top 15, and a made cut basically. B minus. Yeah, it’s not a C. I agree with you. It’s not a C. He made all four cuts. He was never really truly in any of them, but he didn’t embarrass himself. Again, is about winning majors. He’s not here to finish top 15 or top 10. Exactly. And um he needs to, you know, he’ll he’ll play well in the RDER Cup, but he can’t go much longer without a major before people start the John Rom is the next Cam Smith and isn’t going to win another major because he only plays 54 holes and doesn’t care and cashes big check. It’s coming. We’re like this close to that. They they almost said it last year when he had mis cuts in the majors. In 2024, everybody everybody has a bad day. I know. In 2024, he missed the PGA cut. He did not play at the US Open because he was injured and he finished T45 at the Masters. So, he did not have a good major season. So, he had a rebound season. He’s headed in the right direction at the majors. So, he kind of quelled that that that murmur about him being, you know, taking the check and not caring. Two uh two real quick grades here. We Neman, Masters 29, PGA Championship, T8, US Open, and the Open. Missed the Cut. It’s not great. It’s It’s a That’s a C. You’re too kind. That’s an F. Two mis cuts for me. I mean, no. Four mis cuts would be okay. I’ll give him a D plus. Okay. Four miscuts is an F. That’s a complete failure. Fair enough. One T8. The T8 is just it’s it’s got to wear a back brace cuz it’s carrying the load. He’s such a competitor. along with this similar to Bryson and and John Rom because it’s not well while he didn’t finish as high as them in in as many majors his the stand the standard for him is a little bit lower I think and so well it’s I think it’s not the standard I think that’s lower it’s our expectations expectation that’s a better word and especially for us our expectation our expectations for Trell Hatton are higher because we know what a competitive guy he is and how he’s played in live for the rest of the world out there. Hatton is not and he’s not he’s not that famous of a name, you know what I mean? So, yeah, for sure. I wouldn’t say it’s wasn’t disappointing. I wouldn’t say it was over the top grade. Maybe maybe you could talk me into a solid B a solid B performance or had Yeah, I I mean hopefully he can put something together and win next year. Um do you want to change your overall grade for the league after you look looked at the top four guys? Yeah, I was harsh because it wasn’t it wasn’t just the top four guys. There was a lot of other guys that that had, you know, we we talked about Patty Reid finishing second. We didn’t even bring him up here in the individual grades. Uh he and he didn’t deserve it because I missed our grades for this our contest. We do it real quick. We’re the only two here and we’ll we’ll rattle off our picks real quick and the contest is over, but we’re going to run this out as is and still kind of make our picks despite the fact that you have won the contest. I have not won the contest already. And I what I think we should do is get a a night this week and get all of us to really rattle off uh picks real quick. I get to make my pick anyway. I mean I I mean go ahead and make your pick. Am I in last place? Am I in last place though? Hold on. Did I Did I pop out? I might have come I might have popped out. I also went through and compiled what teams are left for each of us. So just to go over that real quick. I am I am out of last place. Yeah. Yeah. No, Jay’s firmly in last place. Yeah. So okay. Okay. So, we’ll have to let we’ll have to let JPE even though his his plus seven finish last week really really sunk him down and the fact that you know kind of a a switcheroo you you you know he finished and because because this has kind of happened to me where I had a really bad finish with Mickelson’s uh plus seven finish in South Korea and then Cheeich finished minus 11 with the help of Torqu within two strokes of each other. I mean, that’s a big swing because he came up and I went down. It’s kind of the same thing with you. You went, you know, down five and he went up seven and you just went in the opposite direction. Yeah. Jay is 39 under. You’re 48 and now you’re you’re biting at the heels of Cheich who’s 49 and I’m at 63 and no one can smell you. You’re so That’s not We just said, but that’s not even true. Still I still have the goats still to pick. No, hold on. My bad. No, I still have the clicks to pick. You have to pick a player you’re talking about? Yes. Yes. Uh, a player from the Clicks. I have to pick a player from the Iron Heads. And I have to pick a player from the Majestics. Those are your last three players, huh? Yes. Those are my last three teams I have not picked from. And yeah, it’s going to be tough. It’s going to be tough. It’s going to need to be very strategic from this point on. Cheich still has Range Goats, Majestics, and Cles. You have had the be the best smattering. You still have smash, highf flyers, and majestics. And Jay, Iron Heads, Cleaks, and Highf flyers. Yeah, I I don’t think I have anybody major who’s going to really move the needle for me here, but we’ll see. I got some ideas of who I want to pick. So, I think I think we should get try and get the whole team together to do picks because it is not over. I am not claiming victory. A lot of things can happen. You guys could make terrible picks, too. I mean there is to say that but I am not going to be that guy. I’m not going to No, stop it. This is Scotty Sheffller performance this year in the league. Don’t you dare. You’re world class picker of live golf players and and teams. The only one in the only thing I’ll say is that I have come a long way in terms damn right about that. You were damn right about that. Yes. The last two years have been very first year I think you only knew about four guys in the league. True. That’s very true. Um, is this here? Here, I got an idea. Let’s do it on Instagram live. We’ve not done an Instagram live ever. I think a first ever Instagram live. We’ll So, follow us on Instagram if you want if you want to see our pics. We’ll do that later in the week. It’ll be like a late night get the boys together. Going to put a little blurb of our our handle on Instagram. Actually, you should put a little blurb or Instagram X YouTube everything. So, that 54Golf, that’s where you’ll find us. Yeah, that’s exactly where you’ll find us, you know. And then on all of them you can yeah you could click on the link tree too and then that’s where that’s how you get to Aaron’s only fans and you can watch him put things inside himself. Sometimes he gets him out. You get to figure out if he’s going to do that or not. It’s got to be the last three minutes of the show. All right. Thank you so much for listening. Please hit like. Please hit subscribe. Please go to the link tree and follow us on all of our socials, especially Instagram, so you get a notification when we’re posting our picks on Instagram live. And you can comment below in real time who of us have made the good picks. I know it’s going to be me, but regardless. And next week, come back. We’re going to get Austin and Mac on to talk to us about Beth Paige Black and how the conditions are. They’re not going to want to talk about it cuz they’re they’re still in the rough looking for his ball on for T1. Okay, that’s all I got today. Let’s get the [ __ ] out of here. [Music]
1 Comment
It was in NY.