‘Happy Gilmore 2’ review and the great Joaquin Niemann Top-10 debate | Golf Channel Podcast

In this week’s edition, the guys share their reviews of the new “Happy Gilmore 2” movie and debate whether Joaquin Niemann is truly a top-10 player in the world, plus look ahead to the Wyndham Championship and the final regular-season event. #GolfChannel #GolfChannelPodcast #HappyGilmore2 #FedExCup

Chapters:
(0:00): Rex and Lav give their honest thoughts on “Happy Gilmore 2”
(11:30): After the Korn Ferry exec fiasco, should they just do away with sponsor exemptions – period?
(19:00): Data Golf has Joaquin Niemann as a top-10 player, despite his major struggles. A debate ensues!
(29:00): It’s crunch time as players try to lock up their playoff spots. Here’s who we have our eyes on.
(35:00): Newly minted pro Lottie Woad is already the betting favorite at the year’s final women’s major
(36:00): Send us your questions for Sunday’s show!
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‘Happy Gilmore 2’ review and the great Joaquin Niemann Top-10 debate | Golf Channel Podcast
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Hello and welcome into this edition of the Golf Show podcast with Rex and Lab. And before we get to the real golf, the important golf, the golf where players are fighting for their competitive livelihoods, Rex, we have to discuss something far more serious, more existential, and that is the battle between the quote unquote regular golfers and the Maxi Golf League. If that sounds familiar, yes, that is indeed the ridiculous plotline for Happy Gilmore 2. once they finally got around to actually having a plot. We didn’t have time to discuss this on Monday’s pod show on linear television. But you watched it over the weekend with your family. I watched it on Monday night. Your thoughts, please. All right. First off, take it easy with the spoiler alerts. All right. It’s still relatively new. I don’t think we need to get thrown. People are going to be tuning in to a YouTube uh or or a podcast titled Happy Gilmore 2 Review. who they probably know to either skip ahead to the Windom Championship talk, walking Neiman talk, whatever else we get to in this podcast. Spoiler alerts are certainly going to happen. Uh well, yeah, let’s let’s try to go easy with that. But yes, it was a very thin uh thinly veiled disguise of what Liv Goth and the PGA Tour has become. And and kind of a comic I want to call it empty calories. And full disclosure, I didn’t have any expectations at all for this movie. As a rule, and I’m probably going to be in the minority on this one, I don’t find Netflix to be very cutting edge when it comes to creating good content. It’s they seem to be more along the lines of let’s just throw everything we possibly can out there and see if we can charge people 9.95 a month. And it’s been a good business model. I’m not even saying it’s not. It’s clearly working out very well for them. But you don’t go I don’t go to Netflix to sort of take a deep dive on what I feel like is an artsy film, what I feel like is a film that’s going to ask me questions about myself or make me feel things about myself. I go to Apple for that. I I go to Prime for that. HBO Max. HBO Max. Yeah. I don’t go to Netflix. So, I didn’t have very high expectations coming in. And on that front, I was kind of pleasantly surprised because I felt like they pulled off something that seemed cheesy. They pulled off something that could have very easily just been it was silly. Like I said, it was a lot of empty calories. I will say I laughed a lot. I I I laughed throughout. First and foremost, hour 57 minute run time is way too much. They could have cut about 30 minutes out of that movie and not missed anything. But they would have had to cut about 30 cameos. So that’s probably why they didn’t want to do it. They leaned in heavy with the cameos. I laughed a lot. It was entertaining. And I will say I thought some of the cameos specifically when it comes to the PGA Tour golfers were actually enlightening because look I Scotty Sheffller is not going to win an Emmy for that performance. It’s not going to happen. He’s never going to be confused for Daniel Day Lewis. However, for a professional golfer who comes across as very vanilla, who comes across as not having much of a personality, and we’ve talked a lot about this, he actually does have a really good personality. He’s kind of he’s got a bit of a cutting edge personality if you know him a little bit. for someone that doesn’t come across that way in public. I thought what he did in that movie was pretty funny. I thought when he got arrested, again, pretty obvious joke. I don’t know how creative it is. I’m not sure Chappelle is pulling off that joke, but for Scotty Shuffler, I thought it was pretty good when he was in the jail cell watching. I thought that was pretty good. I thought Xander Schoffley’s one line, and he had one line in the entire movie, and I thought he was pretty good. So, across the board, it was entertaining. I would highly recommend someone watch it, but don’t expect to come away thinking to yourself, “Oh, yeah, I learned something special today.” because it was just kind of a stupid, you know, look into where we are in golf right now with a bunch of jokes in there. Yeah, there’s there’s a lot to get to there. Obviously, I think your point about Netflix is is well taken that this was like a quintessential Netflix movie. You know, it’s per perfect for this like direct to streaming sort of world that we live in now. It’s big on star power. It’s light on actual substance. Like it reminded me of Full Swing. Full Swing is never going to win a sports Emmy as a documentary series. We’ve we’ve batched on this on this podcast before. If you’re looking for something that’s light, looking for something that’s breezy, sort of a a surface level recap of of what happened in golf in 2023, 2024, 2025, like Full Swing, I think probably does a little bit of a serviceable serviceable job for that. There’s there’s a reason why it took nearly three decades to make the sequel of what was a hugely popular and sort of a a cult classic in the original Happy Gilmore. Like the these actors needed the money to be so irresistible that it would bring all of them back. Um and so I think that’s what you get. I I do want to say before we get into some of the critiques that like I think it’s really fun to see these quote unquote regular golfers as they were referred to. There’s they clearly couldn’t say PG tour uh in the movie in a in a different role. You mentioned Scotty Sheffller, like I thought his dead pan uh sort of delivery and personality was perfect for the lines that they had for him. You mentioned Xander Schoffé, like that’s what she said over and over again was was was pretty good. I thought Will Zelator’s acting was really good as the Hebby Gilmore’s former caddy. Like I thought those were really good. Did Roy Moy and Brooks Kepka leave a bit to be desired on the acting front? Sure, probably. But you and I would not be very good actors as well. I just thought it was really fun, really neat to see golfers doing something completely different, something out of their comfort zone. I think playing himself is pretty entertaining. I have to admit on that front, too. Like Yeah, he probably got probably got more lines than than I probably would have uh given him, but but yeah, I see your point there. I think I think overall the Rex like I can’t I can’t imagine a scenario that I’ll ever rewatch Happy Gilmore 2 again. And I think that that’s a bummer because the original again and and as you mentioned it’s not like this was some kind of masterpiece like there was no Academy Award winners. It didn’t win an Oscar. Um you know the Rotten Tomatoes rating is not is not very good. You know the plot’s a little bit silly. It’s a little bit goofy, but Happy Gilmore, the original, the one in the 1990s, it had a very high watchability rate and there was tons of quotable moments. You mentioned you laughed a lot. I I didn’t think it was very funny at all. Like the I I chuckled a few times, but I didn’t laugh. And I think that there’s like an actual distinction between those two things. And and to me, the reason why I think that was, as I thought about it more than I probably should have over the past 12 hours, is that there were so many non-acctors in Happy Gilmore 2. Like, there are literally dozens of cameos from either PJ tour players, other celebrities, other athletes. Bad Bunny almost. I thought Bad Buddy I thought I thought Bad Bunny was was really good. He ends up being the the caddy for Hebie Gilmore. I actually think that the number of non-acctors that they had actually hurt the movie because the acting by and large was was was was pretty terrible. Like it’s a real skill to be an actor and particularly to deliver lines on time with the proper delivery that you have that that makes sort of translating that to an actual art. And I think that’s something that’s lost when you don’t have actual actors doing that. Like yeah, was it stupid? Was it harmless? Absolutely. That doesn’t make it good. The fact that the Rotten Tomatoes rating for at least right now Hebar 2 is better outrates the original uh to me has has me sort of like questioning everything in my life and in human existence. No. And that’s a good point and it might be generational because I think I told you my son Trevor, he watched on the plane flying home from Europe and loved it. He said it was one of those deals where he had to catch himself because he kept laughing out loud and people kept turning around and looking at him. So he enjoyed it. So this might be their generations happy Gilmore is the easiest way of saying it for well it would have been my generation not so much your generations but like for us watching it the first time around there was almost some shock value to it and I will also say it’s hard to do comedy in sports take off out of it just do comedy in sports it’s not really easy I think if you start looking at baseball movies I mean I’m a huge Field of Dreams guy I think it’s one of the best movies ever been made that’s not a comedy it’s hard to bring comedy to sports and they did that with the original Happy Gilmore really well. Yeah. The the watchability, the quotable aspect. I think I think you’re definitely right about the generational aspect where I saw some some critique on Twitterx where it was essentially like a Tik Tok movie and it was just like the collection of celebrities or famous people and there was like behind every corner there was another reveal. Oh, there’s Travis Kelce. Oh, there’s Bad Bunny. Oh, there’s Eminem. Oh, there’s Jenna Sims. It was it was something to you like keep your keep darting your eyes like waiting for the next reveal and like that’s not what I enjoy. I’m I’m 38 years old. I’m probably too old for that. Your son’s in his early 20s. Like I could understand why that would be appealing. That’s obviously what Netflix was going for was huge star power. They know they’re going to do numbers on this movie and ultimately it will be a it will be deemed a success by Netflix because of how many people are going to tune in to see three decades later whether the sequel was was worthwhile. Ultimately to me it wasn’t. It was disappointing but it’s harmless. It’s fine. It was fun at times. Was the premise completely far-fetched? Did I think they do the original somewhat of a disjustice or misjustice? I certainly think so, but again, it’s not for me. It might be for you. Watch it. Leave a section. Leave a Leave a comment in the uh in the section below our YouTube video. Let us know what you think. You and I are not movie experts, but we we we like what we like. I didn’t like it. Sounds like you liked it. That’s the I don’t think I would say I liked it. I I don’t think I don’t think I would say I I liked it. And you probably nailed on it that it just wasn’t the original. I think for for someone of my age, it just wasn’t the original. also for it’s a good comparison when you compare it to full swing because it comes off so light. It comes off missing the point so much as someone as you and I are sort of embedded in what’s going on in golf right now. The idea that Maxi Golf and whatever regular golf going headtohead and coming to an end in this one particular match is silly to the extreme. I will say having Shooter McGavin come off as a sympathetic figure is curious because I I don’t know if you know this but that the role of Shooter McGavin in the original movie was modeled after Greg Norman. So there is some irony there as well. Uh there certainly is. I I wish they had sort of renewed that rivalry as opposed to taking sort of a a driveby of what the modern landscape is with with what was essentially live golf meets TGL with like this this rival breakaway league that’s also very technologically driven. Um had that not come to pass over the past couple years, maybe the plot line of Happy Gilmore 2 would have been decidedly different. Ultimately, that’s the uh plot line they chose. Again, leave us your reviews. I know what people are going to say. Lav, you don’t like anything. Lav, you Lav, you you always hate that voice. What are you doing? Who is that? What are you doing there? That’s what people say. That’s what people say with their criticism voice. I don’t That’s what you hear. That’s what you hear in your head when people say that. That’s That’s what I hear. Again, make up your own decisions. Let us know in the comments section. We’ll read it. We’ll read a couple of the good ones on Sunday’s show. How about that? Rex, we also had some spillover from our much belly hooded golf channel uh golf today roundtable on Monday. The producers had us on for about a half hour, two segments full of Aean Lynch as always. Uh his conspiracy theories. Two things stood out to me. one, you want to get off a take that you couldn’t about the cornfair tour exec who got a sponsor invite into last week’s tournament, shot 91 and promptly withdrew. And also, and I’m I’m still sort of myiffed by this, how is declaring Walke Neman a top 10 player in the world a controversial take? The stats say it, the eye test says it. This should not be controversial. Uh, those are two separate questions. And I guess Aean and I and maybe even Damon I wasn’t seeing on the feed. We we all owe you an apology apparently for dismissing some of your takes not verbally but just with our our facial cues or dismissive sort of roll of the eyes and and I I immediately thought they were talking only about me because as you were talking normally always when you’re talking I’m sure I’m rolling my eyes. I’m sure I’m shaking my head. I’m sure I’m having some sort of sort of animated outbreak. Quote, Rex, and I quote from on the tea, the disrespect these I’m not sure if I can say this word. It starts with a P show to Ryan Lavner as he’s speaking. The um poop eating grins and looks insufferable um a-holes. That that was what someone said after the segment. I I mean, I guess I owe you an apology. I I feel like I do that all the time. I’m not quite sure this this particular person just caught up. Welcome to the show. I don’t think you get the show, but yes, there was two takes that I did want to get in there. And you’re right, Aean had his normal conspiracy nonsense, and I was ready to go with this one. And it’s about the cornfair tour executive who got the sponsor exemption into last week’s event. As you pointed out, shot a million. He was 17 shots off the lead to end that round, withdrew, never came back. He’s actually he he is a PDJ of America professional. He has played in tournaments before. This isn’t someone like you or I that that just get up from the desk and decide that we’re going to play golf. So, there was an expectation. I have no idea what world you could have possibly added to that field because that’s the idea behind sponsor exemptions, but all right, we have them. This goes back to something we, the Royal, we you and I have talked about a lot a lot over the last two years when it comes to signature events. And I think when we started out, it sounded as if it came across that we were being critical that Jordan Speed and Adam Scott and Ricky Fowler were getting the vast majority of those sponsor exemptions into the signature events specifically. And I think we both came around to the idea that it’s not their fault for taking the sponsor exemptions. It’s not even the sponsor’s fault for wanting them in the field. Of course, you’re going to want the game, not the player. Exactly. And I think the the conclusion that you and I eventually landed on, get rid of all sponsor exemptions. Stop doing this. And I know this is sacrian when it comes to the business of professional golf. I’m sure there’s someone in Panamedra Beach that’s going to listen to this and not be very happy that I’m saying it, but it’s time for it to go away. They don’t do this in hardly any other sport that I could find. I think there might be an element to it when it comes to tennis where there are sort of outliers where you can get invitations, but outside of that, Gillette’s not deciding who’s going to be the starting quarterback on Sunday for the Patriots. They name the stadium. They paid a lot of money. They don’t get that right to do that. Only in golf, it seems like, do the sponsors decide, okay, this is who I want to be in this field to compete against the professionals. and lean and but I will say that okay a lot of these sponsors probably want this as part of the deal. I’m sure a lot of the sponsors also want proams tournaments need proams and when they went to the nine and9 format a few years ago there was a lot of hand ringing and a lot of pearl clutching and we are now to the point where we can both admit that yeah 99 proams are so much better for the pro and the amateur. That was sacrosanked as well and we got beyond it. I would have argued 10 years ago if the tour would have thrown out go from 125 fully exempt to 100 that’s never going to happen. There’s going to be a revolution. The players are never going to allow that to happen. It’s happened now. So I think it’s time that you can probably take a hard look at the policy and the idea that the tour is leaning into meritocracy more now than it ever has because of obvious reasons because of live golf and what they don’t do and the tour wants to point out that we do it much better. Go straight down the line. Get rid of sponsored exemptions. Period. Uh, I do like that take. I particularly like that take on the PJ tour. It does just seem antiquated and there are so many other avenues to get into these signature events now in particular. I think that’s what we’re sort of mainly focused on here because those tournaments end up having such a decisive impact on status for the following season, status for that season. Like they’re they’re hugely important. and to sort of be gifting those spots to players who have not earned their way in otherwise uh does feel like a huge miss. I sort of understand it on the cornfairy tour level. Again, is it is it completely ridiculous? Is it farical that cornfairy tour executive, the umbrella sponsor, um who looks after tournaments that have a $1 million purse, they wanted this guy to get his rocks off and play in a tournament and he shot 60. He shot 91 and embarrassed himself and he ultimately withdrew. Do I understand it? Sure. There probably was at least some sort of costbenefit analysis. It it it should stop. I don’t know that it will stop, but it should stop because the cornfairy tour and college golf and amateur golf are deeper now than they ever have been. There are literally dozens and dozens of players who are graduating from college golf who just need a a spot to play. They’ve proved it over their last four to eight years that they have tons of game and tons of firepower. And when you’re closing all of these other avenues, and it’s harder than ever to get the pinnacle of the sport on the PJ tour, giving one of those spots to an undeserving executive ju just just feels wrong, even on a tour again that is that is just powered by million-dollar purses and that’s it. Well, and I’m not going to beat up on the executive like this is no disrespect to him. like I’m sure he jumped at the opportunity and and I will say I’m I’m a huge supporter of the Folds of Honor. I do a lot of work and and I I believe what Dan Rooney does, Lieutenant Colonel Rooney is absolutely fantastic. And he texted me last night and said he’s going to be a sponsor exemption into the field at the Allied Championship. That is entirely different. They’re not bringing Dan in for his golf. They’re bringing Dan in for what he does for uh the foundation and everything that he has done for this country. This is entirely different. I don’t know what the tournament would ever get out of having an executive. But to your point about the idea that oh it could be better used specifically on the cornfairy tour for a young upand cominging college player. I don’t disagree with that. But I feel like the pathways now are so much better for golf for college golfers to go not just to the PGA tour but to the cornfair tour. And maybe if you got rid of these sponsor exemptions, you could even widen those pathways to where performances in college golf create opportunities for you at the cornfair tour level. and then suddenly you’re you’re on that stepping stone towards a PGA tour card. Use them for good, but get rid of them. I don’t like the idea of a tournament director and an executive from a company, which we have seen done time and time again deciding who’s going to get this start. It’s stupid. It’s antiquated. Get rid of it. And keep in mind, the Ally challenge, I I would argue, is an entirely different animal on the PJ tour champions was the golden ticket for the over 50 set. uh you know, competitive livelihoods have have largely been established by that point. These players are trying to make a name for themselves, trying to get on the PJ tour, trying to better themselves. One spot, it did seem like one spot, too many. How about the WE Nean thing? Cuz Aean Aean scoffed at it. He bristled at it. I I I tried to go back at him like data golf has nean at number nine and data golf I think is in a better job certainly than the official world golf rankings since lib golf does not get owlgr points of trying to rank these players as fairly as they can based on strokes gain metrics. Walke Neman had been residing in the top 10 routinely weekly until his miscut at the open championship. Then again he won the live event in England and now he’s back inside the top 10. and Aean took exception that how can we nean be a top 10 player in the world without performing in the majors. You didn’t get to answer. What would be your defense about that? Because people of course are arguing on my Instagram account. They’re arguing on X. They’re arguing in the YouTube comment section as well. I thought you did a good job out of the gate. I’m going to answer the question. I thought you did a good job in the context of this conversation. And to point out, I gave Neman a D minus on on Sunday’s pod. And I and I I gave him a D for his major performance. And it was all about major performances. And that spot in the data golf rankings came up. He he is ninth. And as you go through it, he certainly should be based on his performance on live golf. I thought you did a really good job of circling back around and pointing out that it’s just not Neman that has success in everyday normal open PGA Tour events and live events. I think you immediately pointed out to Sept Straka. He’s had a career year. Hasn’t played all that well in the majors. Russell Henley, the expectations are so high for him. Again, really good year. Hasn’t played particularly well in the majors. This is not a live golf versus PGA Tour thing. This is a performance thing. And if you look at the strokes gain numbers to get to your point, I tend to agree with what Aean said. I would argue and you and I always go back to data golf and I agree with the notion that it is the only benchmark that we can really use right now for the the official world golf rankings. It’s it can’t be used just point blank period. You can’t sit and look at me seriously and say birth kept 500 and whatever ranked in the world right now. You just can’t do it in this particular context. However, when you look at what we has done more to the point hasn’t done in the majors. He’s played 26 major championships in his career and he has exactly one top 10 fence. That was this year at the PGA championship and I believe on live television you call it the back door of all backdoor top 10s in major championships. I tend to agree with that as well. I would say top 20. We can have a different conversation and maybe that’s splitting hairs, but no, I agree with Aean. I don’t think he’s a top 10 player. And I would challenge you to look at the current top 10 in the official world golf ranking and make a a credible argument that those 10 players should be supplanted by Nean. So I can make a credible argument and I would do so because Aean’s present premise was that because he did not perform in the major championships he cannot be considered a top 10 player in the world. Whereas Walke Neman on live has won five out of 11 starts where we I think we all agree John Rom a top 10 player in the world has not won a single tournament in 2025. Walke Neman is nearly winning at a 50% clip rate. You look at some of the other players in the top 10 of the official world golf ranking and what they did in the majors. Justin Thomas number four in the official world golf ranking had no top 30s in the major championship. Wait, we’re not talking about the majors this year. That’s not the conversation. It’s what they’ve done in the majors over the course of their career. That’s why I went to Waen’s career numbers. 26 majors won top 10. That was the bigger argument I was making. But you I mean no one’s arguing that Walke is a top 10 player of all time. we’re talking about right now is Walke Neman a top 10 player in the world right now. Justin Thomas is number four in the world right now. He didn’t have a top 30 in a major. Kyle Morau is number six in the world golf ranking. He did not have a top 10 in a major. Keegan Bradley is number seven in the world ranking. He had one a single top 30 finish in the major championships. Sea number 10 in the official world golf ranking. had three miscuts and a T-52 at the Open Championship. All of those players, I don’t think anyone would would bristle or argue it. Maybe probably Karawa because of his current form over the past couple of months is a top 10 player in the world. Just because you’re not performing in the major championships does not like totally dismiss or discount your other resume. And the point that I made on the golf the golf today round table is that there have been plenty of players certainly in recent memory who have had week-to-eek success and out of the PJ tour wherever else they play but not in the major championships. Luke Donald I think probably most famously at least in recent memory 10 to 15 years ago like Luke Donald world number one never even really sniffed a major championship other than one. He had a long ago US Open. Billy Horchel up until last year’s open championship at Trun had not done much of anything in the major championship despite winning more than a half dozen times on the PJ tour. Max Homa until recently had not done anything in the major championships despite winning a half dozen times on the PJ tour. I think your better argument was are the golf courses on live ade adequately preparing Walke Neman for major championship success. I think that is something to be considered because what he is doing from a strokes gain perspective on the golf courses is that he is playing is exceptional and clearly data golf has him as a top 10 player. I think the eye test is obvious. He’s still beating topend players whether it’s Rahm, whether it’s Hatton, whether it’s Bryson on a week in and weekout basis. It’s just not translating to the biggest events. I don’t think that to to do discounts him as a as a top 10 player in the in the world when you’re looking at all of the things considered. Well, and again, you’re focusing just on this year’s majors. The world ranking, the official world golf ranking is a two-year rolling window. So, at the very least, I think you would have to add last year and into the mix and take a deep dive that way. Okay. Well, Justin Thomas Justin Thomas didn’t do anything in the majors last year. Uh Keegan Bradley didn’t do anything in the majors last year. Uh Sepraka didn’t do anything in the majors last I know he had a runner-up finish, I think, two years ago at the Open Championship. Okay. So, I I mean, that’s better than anything Waqen had done. And to your point, you’re right. I I made the point that if you look at his strokes game data in the live golf events, he’s just off the charts good. His ball striking is it rivals, at least statistically, what Scotty is doing on the PGA Tour. And that somehow someway when he shows up at these major championships, that ball striking becomes a liability. So yes, I do believe there’s either something about his game or how he’s preparing for those big events visav the live events and the golf courses that they play that’s holding him back on some level. I’m not quite sure what that would be. And again, I don’t know that I would rate him much further outside the top 10 than ninth. I just don’t think he he is right there right now based entirely on his lack of performance in the major championships. I will say as it as it relates to the live venues, they’re certainly stronger on the whole across the 14 sites than they were when they first launched in 2022 and 2023. I think when you dive deeper though, particularly into those numbers, and again, he’s won five of 11 events, what is notable is that we Neman is not playing his best when Liv is at some of their most difficult venues. You look at Dural in the Miami stop. Walk Nean tied for 33rd. Walkin Neman tied for 20th in South Korea on the golf course that um hosted the President’s Cup in 2015. He tied for 23rd at Merido. Remember in Dallas, those were really difficult conditions. Singledigit uh winning score. It was windy. It was hot. It was firm. It was fast. T-23 for walking Neiman there. And then the week prior to the open championship at Val Dorama, former Roder Cup site tied for 23rd. So again, those are really poor results at notable venues, heralded venues when a player otherwise appears to be dominant, right? Like if if you’re going to have a winning score between 14 and 20 underpar, Walke Neman has has proven at this point in his live career that he’s probably going to be the favorite for that tournament. But if it’s going to be demanding, if it’s going to be exacting, if it’s going to be tight, if it’s going to be firm and fast and maybe there’s some tighter corridors where speed control in the greens is going to be of the utmost important, we Neman is not that dude yet. And so I think it is notable to sort of translate what he is doing on Liv’s most difficult courses versus then again what he’s going to face at the major championships which of course are the most difficult and the most demanding and the most exacting courses that you’re going to find all year long. Uh I think Aean did the his his magic trick on you. He he simply got the last word in and this has been eating you eating at you for the last 24 hours where he asked the question followed up with you don’t think he’s a top 10 player and never let you answer that. That is Aiman at his absolute best. It is. I look forward to sharing the desk golf today next week with Aman. You’ll be you’ll be alongside him at the BMW Championship where you can have your own set of fun. Uh this is the final week, Rex, of the regular season on the PJ tour. The top 70 in the Fetish Cup standings will be finalized after this week at the Windham. That means those players are then exempt for the playoffs. Everyone else number 71 onward will be fighting for their competitive lives in the FedEx Cup fall. I think we all hope Rex for volatility. You know, we’ve got we’ve we’ve got 52 minutes to fill on Sunday night. I think it’s more fun when you have players who are moving in and out of that top 70 bubble. But keep in mind, last year after the Windham Championship, we didn’t have a single player who moved inside that top 70. It’s usually just maybe one or two players historically. With that in mind, you know, there’s other sort of barometers, other sort of checkpoints, other sort of categories to keep an eye on. So, which players in particular most have your attention at the window? I mean, when you look at the names that are outside the top 70 right now, and that’s going to be the magic number going forward, both the Hoygards. And that is pretty surprising when you consider the expectation is for at least one of those horses to be on that Ryder Cup team and do something special for the Europeans like they did last time around. You Chris Kirk, Gary Woodland, uh Adam Scott, all of these players right now are outside the top 70 and they’re all going to be scrambling and it’s become such an important number. I will say one of the conversations that we did have on Monday’s um golf today roundtable was the idea of how everything just feels different this time of year than it probably has in the past. There’s always been an element of okay, you want to try to get into the top 125, you want to try to play for your career, but there’s still outlets to make sure that you get a job. Like I think you kind of fixated on the top 100. Fact of the matter is that won’t get solved until late November. like that top 100 or who actually gets a full tour card is still going to be up to up for grabs for another few months. What we’re really focused on here in the short term is going to be top 70 to get into that first playoff event in Memphis because the only way you’re going to make it inside the top 50 and that’s the golden parachute right there because you get to play in all the signature events essentially make your own schedule is to make it to the top 50 and that’s the second playoff event, the BMW championship. Yeah. Unlike Yeah. So we we shouldn’t necessarily get fixated on the players who are trying to secure their playing privileges. This is about playoff participation. And you know, some people care about the playoffs, some people don’t care about the playoffs. There’s certainly some notable names. Gary Woodland, the recipient of a couple sponsor exemptions in the signature events. Uh very much in the mix. He’s sitting at 75th at the moment. So needs to needs to play reasonably well. Certainly needs to make the cut to have any chance. Davis Thompson, a winner on the PJ tour last year. remember he was in position again to win the deer this year did not get it done. Now he finds himself on the outside looking in number 78 for the playoffs. A couple of other players like an Adam Scott who’s looking to avoid missing the playoffs for the second time in three years. Tom Kim certainly has my attention. I was looking at the scenarios like Tom Kim has to finish I believe inside the top four and also get some help just to make the playoffs. That’s a pretty big falloff uh for a player for whom much was uh expected even if he does not get done this week and maybe even continues his slide in the FedEx Cup fall. He has not played well this year going through some changes. Fired his caddy, fired his swing coach, sort of going at it alone at the moment. He’s still secure on the PJ tour through the end of 2026. So, he’s not necessarily in danger of losing his card. That’s probably a discussion for another day, isn’t it? all these golden parachutes, all these safety nets that some of these players have. If you really want to introduce real Jeopardy, which is one of the sort of holding or the um sticking points for for live golf and it’s OWGR application, is that there’s no real Jeopardy at the end of the season. You might be in the drop zone, but because you’re a captain, because the they want you back, other business interest reasons, you can be brought back for another year. Even if you are underperforming, Liv is trying to do more of that. think the PJ tour could cut some of those safety nets as well. Anything else, Rex, that has your attention before we get out of here on this midweek podcast. I will correct push back a little bit on that idea. You’re right, we’re not fixated on top 100 and that when the time comes for us to fixate right around the RSM Classic, you’re right, there are a lot of loopholes for guys to get in. Certainly, winning on the PGA Tour carries a lot and I would agree with that policy. However, this is about the top 50 and I think there is a finality to that that most players have if they haven’t felt it yet, they will feel it soon. Sooner or later, I would argue because again for the players who have been on the outside now essentially the last two years of those signature events looking in, you realize how difficult it is. You can play your way in by one of the swings or any of the AON uh lists that you can play your way in on, but it’s difficult and that means you simply have to play so much golf over a condensed period of time that you’re probably not going to be performing at your best. So, I would say as it applies to the top 70, top 50, there is some finality to that. Yeah, I’m way more concerned or interested in following the top 50. No, I’m I’m more interested in the in the top 50 race because that has an impact on who we’re going to see in the most marquee events on the PG tour schedule. Like, keep in mind, you win in 2025. That only gets into the signature events this year. A player like Aldrich Podgeer, who you and I were raving about just a couple of weeks ago in Detroit, he’s 42nd on the list. He’s not guaranteed to play his way into the signature events in 2026. That feels like a big miss. other sort of marquee names who the PJ tour is sort of hoping gets across that line and uh experiences some upward trajectory players like a Jake Knap who’s 47th. Uh Windham Clark, he’s certainly had his up and downs this year. He’s 48th. Jordan Spew Wild Golden who we’ve spent many minutes on this podcast assessing uh the number of sponsor exemptions he got in signature events. He is currently the bubble boy at number 50 heading to the Winter Championship. Spe is playing this week in Greensboro what he hopes will be four in a row. Not just trying to get inside the top 50 and lock up signature events. Also trying to make it to the tour championship, potentially win the FedEx Cup and oh yeah, also draw the attention of one captain. Keegan Bradley will also certainly talk Rex on Sunday about the AIG Women’s Open, the final major championship of the season on the women’s side. How about this? We discussed her on Sunday. Lahi Wde who just won her uh professional debut on the LPJ at the Scottish Open. She has been installed as the pre-ournament favorite. Not Nelly Corda, not Genotitical, not Lydia Co. It is Lahi Wde whose uh LPJ card is not even a month old is the favorite to win a major championship uh at the Open. Can’t wait to watch Lahi this week as well as all the other uh top women players at Royal Por. We’ll discuss that and plenty more on the Sunday show. If you have a question for the show, you guys know the drill. Drop it in the comments section. Find us on email, find us on X, Insta, however it is you get your podcast. All right, that’s going to do it for this edition Golf Show Podcast with Rex and Lav. In the meantime, you guys know the drill. mbcports.com/golf aka channel.com for more. Thanks for listening. Thanks for support. Talk to you guys on Sunday night.