Six down, six to go: Now comes captain Keegan Bradley’s biggest headache | Golf Channel Podcast

In this week’s edition, the guys discuss yet another Scottie Scheffler clinic, also analyzing the FedExCup Playoffs top-30 drama, the six automatic qualifiers for the U.S. Ryder Cup team and the upcoming Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club. #PGATour #Golf #GolfChannel #GolfChannelPodcast #ScottieScheffler #KeeganBradley

Chapters:
(00:00): Scottie Scheffler is relentless, as Robert MacIntyre found out at the BMW Championship
(07:30): This is one of Scheffler’s most admirable (and understated) qualities
(12:00): The top six for the U.S. Ryder Cup team is set. Now it gets interesting
(23:00): What stands out from the top 30 competing at East Lake Golf Club
(30:00): What we like and don’t like about the Tour Championship format change
(44:30): Jon Rahm wins LIV individual title without earning a victory this season
(46:30): Henrik Stenson, Anthony Kim among those facing LIV relegation
(48:30): Bryson DeChambeau wants to tee it up in Napa with his Ryder Cup teammates, but he can’t
(50:30): What to watch for early in the week at East Lake

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Six down, six to go: Now comes captain Keegan Bradley’s biggest headache | Golf Channel Podcast
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[Music] Hello and welcome into this edition of the Golf Channel podcast with Rex and Lab. We’ll add another one to the Scotty Sheoffller highlight reel after some vintage iron play at the beginning of the final round to the BMW championship. There was a tiger-esque chip in on the 17th hole at the BMW and Sky Shuffler has now won for the fifth time during this PJ tour season. Rex Scotty was five down after 36. He was four down after 54. Invoking Tiger Woods once again and Dan Hicks, you expect anything different? Yeah, you really don’t. And even when he was five down going into the weekend, you kept thinking to yourself, he has 36 holes. I mean, Scotty Sheffller can make up five strokes probably in five holes. And that’s pretty much what he did. Now, part of that, let’s let’s be honest, Robert McIntyre sort of let him back in on this one. It’s not as though Robert McIntyre had much fight in him on Sunday. He played his first uh five holes in three over par. Didn’t make his first birdie until the 16th hole. So, it’s not as though Bobby Mack put up a heck of a fight, but it was tiger-esque and all the way to the point, and we talk about this a lot when it comes to Scotty Sheffer that maybe his brand of golf isn’t quite exciting. And I’m not quite sure why we have that conversation because there’s a an artistry to it there. He does do things with the golf club, things with the golf ball that I really we haven’t seen anybody do really since Tiger Woods. He just does does them in a slightly different way. But this isn’t Jordan Speed out there. It’s not going to be exciting. He’s not hitting it all over the lot and talking to himself and yelling at Ted poor Ted Scott when he’s back on the bag. He kind of is very methodical and I think that’s what we saw for the better part of Sunday. But then 17 was just cool. That that’s exactly what you expect out of someone like Scotty Sheffley. That’s what Tiger Woods did in his prime and it was awesome to see him do it. Now had a one-stroke lead. Kind of made just walking up 18 a little bit more relaxed for him. But yeah, it was awesome. I mean, there was it was a one birdie 73 for Bobby Mack. You said he didn’t have much fight. He was clearly fighting his golf swing, right? Like this is a player who hit just eight greens in regulation. He clearly juiced a few shots. His driver was uncooperative uh at least on the first nine. He was heckled throughout. He didn’t say he he had no comment when asked by reporters whether the uh the tour staff at Kell did a good enough job policing some of the the jers that were directed his direction. So it was clearly a very difficult weekend for Bobby Mack going against one of the most popular players on the PG tour and obviously the number one player on the upcoming US RDER Cup team. There’s certainly a sense of inevitability to your point right when he’s five down at the halfway point. It certainly happened quicker on Sunday than I was anticipating. He was tied for the lead on the fifth hole. He took the lead outright on the seventh and never surrendered it. But there is a sense of in inevitability because that’s what happens when you lead nearly 40 statistical categories on the PJ tour. Like what we’re seeing has is you can throw out all the Tiger comparisons you want. Like we have not seen a player like Scotty Sheffler since Tiger. like he’s so accurate off the tee that he puts boatloads of pressure on his opponent. You certainly saw that with Bobby McIntyre. He hit uh just one fairway on his opening nine, let Sky Sheffller in because he didn’t miss a shot over that stretch. The iron play is elite. He was only quote unquote only fifth for the tournament. He was second on Sunday, but he birdies three of his first five holes to again get right back into the fight. You see the short game. It wasn’t just the incredible uh pitch in chip in on 17. There was also a couple of saves on the front nine, particularly when he missed left of the par three that sort of defied logic, explanation, and belief as well. And oh yeah, he’s never putted better than he has during his PJ tour career than he did this season. Much improved from sort of that 10 to 15 foot range. I know he missed a a couple of short putts on the back nine when the greens got really slick, really bumpy, and a Caves Valley had so much slope, but like Rex, he’s so much better, like head and shoulders over everybody else. Like you covered Tiger Woods in his prime. I covered sort of the start of the Rory era, that 2012 to 2014 range. Covered Jordan Speed in 2015. like we’re seeing something really special unfolding right before our eyes and I just can’t wait to see where it leads because every week just sort of adds to the legend when it comes to Scotty Shuffler and I think this goes to what we’ve kind of talked about the last few weeks because what’s going to stop him like we’ve already seen bit of an injury he had the neck injury at the players championship that year and he was able to play his way through it and ended up winning. We had whatever happened at the beginning of this year trying to make the ravioli and cutting open his hand that set him back a little bit. I mean what a month maybe set him back but yeah cost him a month and then there’s there was probably some residual for that first month of the season where he was sort of re getting you know getting used to his reps and his body again and I keep coming back to the idea that the one thing that I saw last Sunday when Ted Scott had to go home for personal reasons and Scotty repeatedly said this guy that Ted was where he needed to be with his family right now. But the one thing you did see when he had his friend the PJ tour chaplain on the bag last week was we understand the one thing we know about Scotty de Sheffler. He loves routine routine routine above everything else. And I think you could almost see it a little bit that that almost took him out of his routine. Nothing against the replacement caddy, but it wasn’t Ted Scott. It was Sunday PGA Tour event. The expectations are very high. The margin for error is very high. All of these things factor into it. this week. I didn’t know what to expect because if that’s what you’re hoping for, if this is your best case scenario of, oh, he has a replacement caddy on the back this week, then I don’t know if that’s really a very good game plan coming into it. And he seemed to hit his full stride, you’re right, probably Thursday and Friday, he didn’t have it his agame, but by the time Sunday afternoon came around, and there were couple three putts late on Sunday. You’re right, it’s probably more attributed to the greens firming up than anything else. It was rare because you don’t see him open the door. You don’t see him make an unforced error. in a situation like that. But otherwise, he was spotless. Otherwise, he was flawless. Everything about him, you’re right, is Tiger. I mean, covering Tiger Woods in his prime week in and week out, we’d ask the same simple question, Tiger or the Field. It always seemed ridiculous. And more times than not, you picked Tiger Woods simply because he would prove you right more times than not. Scotty’s getting really, really close to that. I I don’t know if I’m fully invested yet because next week’s going to be an entire entirely different scenario at East Lake where he has had success, but he’s also had some advantages going into that tournament in years past that he won’t have this week. So, I’m looking forward to next week, but you’re right, it’s a indomitable force when you are a player like Robert McIntyre. And I appreciate everything that Robert McIntyre said about wanting to fight, wanting to be in this situation. And I think it was kind of cool to see a potential Ryder Cup showdown between those two because I think Robert McIntyre has proven himself to be a world-class player. Scotty’s just better than everyone else right now. He certainly is better than everyone else right now. You mentioned the Phil and Caddy, Michael Chromy, for Georgia. Great. First win without Ted Scott on the back. When you look at sort of the the skill set, like he was third in driving accuracy for a player who is not dinking it out there. Like he’s going full throttle. He has an extra gear when he wants it, but he can also hit that sort of fairway finder. The iron play is elite, incredibly elite, has always been elite. I think if you put him in sort of like an up and down scrambling contest, most PJ tour players would take Sky Sheff regardless of what the official stats say. Like you would trust Sky Sheffer getting a ball up and down probably better than anybody else. And the putting thanks to Phil Kenyon over the past couple years is so marketkedly improved. you have all the skill set, but Rex, I think one of the thing that stood out to me at the BMW and watching it over those four days at Caves Valley, one of the things that you can really admire about Scotty Sheffller is how prepared he is each and every time he plays. Like Scotty never mails it in. Roy Mroy, we had not seen him since the open championship. Even he admitted that he had not done basically anything over the past couple weeks. Scotty never says that. Scotty never does that. Scotty’s never just sort of like working on something, trying to find something, looking ahead to the following week. He shows up on the first te ready to play. And when I think when you look at sort of the playoff opener in Memphis, he easily could have skipped that event as Roy Mack did. He had nothing to gain at that point. He was not going to get past by Septra at number three. So he was going to lock down that number one spot heading into the BMW. He ends up finishing Sky Sheffller does a shot out of the playoff when he really struggled trying to make a putt on Sunday at the BMW. He had the backup caddy. He already is the number one seed and that was not going to change. He was already going to be banking another $5 million in bonus money. He hunts down a worldass player on an increasingly difficult golf course over the weekend. He said he was spent. He said he was tired, but he was ready for the fight. Like it doesn’t matter where Scotty is playing. It doesn’t matter what’s going on in his personal life, his caddy’s personal life, any other sort of outside distraction, he is always ready to go on Thursday morning. And I think that’s why I think you see this like mind-numbing consistency where he always finishes inside the top eight. But that skill is so transferable throughout the course of the regular season. And I think it’s to me it’s one of Scotty’s most admirable qualities. And I do think again context is going to be important here because Robert McIntyre out of the top 10 players going into the final round only two of them didn’t shoot par better. It was Bobby Mack and I mean he played he played poorly. Not not a lot of fight in there. Sometimes you say you lose sometimes you say you got beat. In this particular case I think it’s probably a little bit of column A little bit of column B. To your point and he was asked about this with our colleague Carl Banks afterwards about I think it’s 16 consecutive rounds under par right now on the PGA tour. and he immediately went back to I don’t take a round off. I don’t take a hole off. I don’t take a shot off. I I I don’t even know if that’s a Tiger Woods trait because that seems to be something that it it’s easy to say everyone shows up every week to win. Like you want to be focused, but that’s simply not true. I think it would apply to any lot in life. Whatever your job is in life, yes, I’m sure you want to do very good at work, but some days you’re going to have bad days, some days you’re going to have good days, some days you’re not going to be focused. Certainly, I’m guilty of that more times than not recently. However, I think when it comes to Scotty Sheffller, I think it’s an amazing attribute that you’re right, he he didn’t have to be in Memphis. He he didn’t even really have to be at the BMW Championship. You talked about wanting to lock up that top spot. What does it even matter? We don’t have starting strokes anymore. It’s not as though so he would have gone into East Lake third or fourth or fifth. It doesn’t matter. Lowest score wins and you’re going to be the FedEx Cup champion. But yes, it’s an amazing ability of his to focus on every single shot and to be prepared and the few times when he hasn’t and probably go back to the beginning of this season and I think it crystallized for most of us that the hand injury set him back essentially a month and it took him a month to play his way to where he wanted to be, where he needed to be, where he felt most comfortable when he showed up. It’s so simple though. You and I have seen it so many times with him and Randy Smith on the range. It’s the molded grip. It’s making sure his alignment’s right. making sure that that the footwork is what it is. I mean, and it’s never complicated. It it certainly is never complicated. And and Roy even mentioned uh after the open like, yeah, I won three times this year. That was when Scotty Sheffller was dealing with the fallout with the injury and he was not playing his best golf at that point. He said it sort of tongue and cheek, but also there’s a whole lot of truth in that. Scotty Sheffler was not at his best. Roy McCroy took advantage and he completed the career grand slam. You could make the argument, Rex, that the Scotty Bobby Mack duel that we had at Cave Valley was actually sort of like the least important story line, which is something uh a little bit odd to say, a little bit absurd to say in the second playoff event, but you had sort of more storylines just like you had them at in Memphis. Let’s start with the RDER Cup in the automatic qualifying, which ended after the BMW championship. There is actually no movement among those top six players. They stay the same as they did last week. It’s Scotty Sheffller. It’s JJ Spawn. It’s Xander Schoffley. It’s Bryson Nambo. It’s Harris English. And it’s Russell Hemley. Those are your six automatic qualifiers for the US RDER Cup team. Team Europe’s six automatic qualifiers will be determined after this week’s British Masters on the DP World Choice. That’s why we’re focusing focusing right now on the Americans. What did you learn about the other players who are in the mix? Because keep in mind this week’s tour championship is the final chance to audition and impress US captain Keegan Bradley. Well, twofold. One of them, Maverick McNeely certainly showed us something and he had probably hadn’t been playing his best golf coming in to this week. And I think it’s safe to say that that this was largely with the Ryder Cup on his mind. And every captain’s going to say the same thing. Every captain’s going to tell you that this is not a one week or a two week essentially playoff qualifier for the Ryder Cup. This is a two-year cycle. you need to factor in so many different things. However, there’s a reason why they wait so late in the process to to pick to make these selections. Now, it’s the Billy Horseshoe rule from a few years ago where you want the hottest hand. And I can imagine a scenario where I don’t know where Maverick McNeel actually falls on the big board that’s in Keegan Bradley’s war room right now, but my guess is he’s inside. He is probably one of those six picks coming up. I mean, I guess we can sit and b it back and forth. However, if he has one another good week at East Lake, I don’t know how you keep him off the team. There there was a couple other I think Ben Griffin was fascinating because he’s sort of in that limbo, that no man’s land, and he talked about after his round today the idea that he wanted to come in and actually try to lock up one of those automatic qualifying spots. I don’t even know if it was statistic or mathematically possible ma I depending on how he would finish. I guess if he’d won maybe finished second, but I think it was on a lot of guys minds. I don’t think there’s clarity. But if you’re going to look at one small piece of movement, again, very small sample size. Keegan Bradley, who had been hovering at 10th, slipped to 11th. And I’m not sure what that means. I still would argue that he is still among the top 12 Americans by any measurement, by any metrics. But I I think there is maybe a sliver of doubt now that wasn’t there a few weeks ago. Ben Griffin said that he overdosed. Have you ever done that in the final round? Uh I have not, as you can tell by my sure physical physique. I’ve never overdosed uh on on creatine. I I think Ben Griffin’s point was was well taken that you sort of want to take the guesswork out of it, particularly in a player who’s going to be a Ryder Cup rookie. You don’t want to have to be a pick. You just sort want to take matters into your own hands and be among the top uh six qualifiers. I do think Ben Griffin is going to be on that team. I don’t think it’s particularly close. So, in one sense, Rex, I think after the BMW, we have clarity. On the other hand, I think that we have like complete pandemonium potential and and just complete and utter chaos like Justin Thomas, Comma, Ben Griffin. To me, those three players should be considered locks for that US Rder Cup team. I would now throw Cam Young in a very similar category, including that win in the Windom Championship. He now has three consecutive top 11 finishes uh on the PJ tour. He’s playing the type of golf that you want out of a quote unquote hot player. and obviously has the great course fit at Beth Paige Black as well. Patrick Kentley I would also throw in that category largely. Yes, he’s been playing better of late. His record is not quite as bad as we mentioned on the Wednesday podcast as people are sort of dogging him for. You also look at his match play record 156 and one in RDER Cups and President’s Cups over the past couple years. So I think in that sense you do have clarity. Other than that, Rex like it’s chaos. It’s it’s potential anarchy. Like what do you do with that last spot? You mentioned Maverick McNeely who has sort of been hovering inside the top 12 in points. He didn’t play well in the major championships even though he had three top five finishes in the signature events. He’s certainly become a more well-rounded player as matter of fact McNeely over the past couple years, but you really don’t know where he is on Keegan Bradley’s radar. You look at a player like Chris Godric, who I’ve certainly been stumping for since the Scottish Open open championship double uh in in July. He has now finished outside the top 30 in back-to-back events in the playoffs. Just barely snuck inside the top 30 to get to the East Lake for the Tour Championship so he could at least potentially audition one more time. Andrew Novak, uh who has been one of the breakout performers this year, he was dead last in the field at the BMW Championship. Brian Harmon who’s sort of right there at least points-wise. He’s not a good fit for Beth Paige Black. Jordan Spe didn’t even make the BMW championship. So, you probably have to consider him out. And Keegan Bradley, although he tied for 17th at the BMW, he has done next to nothing since he won in very surprising fashion at the Travelers Championship. Had Keegan not won the Travelers, I think he would have been 15th in the point standings. And all of a sudden, this isn’t even really a a conversation where he could potentially be a playing captain if we’re taking his own words at face value. Where do you go if you’re Keegan Bradley and you sit here on August 18th? Well, and I I’m not quite sure I 100% agree with what you said. I think you pick Justin Thomas, Colin Morawa, Ben Griffith, and Matt McNeely as locks right now. So, that would be 10. Nope. Nope. Not Patrick Can and and Cam Young. And Cam Cam Young. Yeah. So, I’m I’m sitting there cleareyed with 11 picks on that US Router Cup team and I have nowhere nowhere to go with that 12. And and you don’t think Keegan Bradley is going to be that 12 because I still strongly believe that Keegan’s going to end up being that. And it and it was a fascinating back and forth. I think it was a little gamemanship coming from Roy Moy, but I think there was a little bit of truth in there as well when he spoke with the media at the BMW about the idea that you can’t do both in the modern era. He said he’d actually been approached by officials from the European tour about just the concept of maybe doing both. I think it would make sense because two years from now be played at a dare manner and Ireland. You would imagine Rory’s probably going to be a lock as a captain if he wants to do that. But the way he’s playing right now, he’s still going to be in line. I think this year’s Ricup probably could go a long way that if Keegan is some sort of a playing captain and it goes well, then maybe that changes his mind. But I tend to agree with what Rory said that I don’t think in the modern era you can pull off both. And Rory actually broke it down really to the studs. I mean to the bare bones with the idea that this is beyond all the things that the captain has to do. Like let’s don’t ignore the fact that there are speeches, there are meetings, there’s media, there’s so many just countless things that a captain has to do. But the one strategically that I think Rory pointed out that was worth visiting is that if you make yourself a pick, Keegan makes himself a pick, essentially you’re picking someone that can only play one team match on Friday and one team match on Saturday. Why would a would a captain tie his hands like that? Because at some point, Keegan’s going to have to captain. He can’t be on the golf course all day long. And then once you go into Sunday, once you start thinking about the logistics of does he go first, does he go last? Does he put himself in the middle of the lineup? Like that that makes no sense to me. So I I’m 100% on board that I don’t think it is a good idea. I don’t think it’s going to work out well if he makes himself a playing captain. All of those things being said, I do think he is one of those picks and I would tend to agree with the 11 that you’ve thrown out there. So my simplest answer is I don’t know how again go back to any metric you want to go by write a cup points list world rankings data golf which is what we always fall down strokes gain total everything that we use to measure golfers he is by he is inside the top 12 American players but he also comes with complications that the other players don’t come with it does certainly feel like the pendulum has swung from Keegan’s got to be on the team to now it seems increasingly likely that Keegan would potentially leave himself off of the team. And I say that because of an emergence of one player that I have not mentioned who I think is a really interesting case because he has been so quiet over these past couple months. He wasn’t quiet at Caves Valley. To me, that player is Sam Burns. And here’s why I think that Sam Burns is a really interesting pick potentially for that 12th spot. Yes, he’s been very quiet since he blew that blew that 54 hole lead at the US Open. Shot 78 in that final round. has had at least prior to the BMW just one top 25 finish since. However, then just finishes fourth, the BMW. He’s the second best putter on the PGA Tour. I think most importantly, because you’re looking at a team that is certainly bringing some newcomers onto it. Sam Burns, Rex, went three and 0 last year in team play at the President’s Cup. two of his partners paired with Patrick Kentlay and Ken Morawa. It was not Sky Sheffer. Sky Sheffield was with Russell Henley who I would expect to run it back this time around at Beth Paige Black as well. Those are two players in my opinion who are going to be on this US Ryder Cup team. And so when you’re looking at potential pairings and you have sort of a der of those potentially Scotty Sheffer, Russell Henley, Xander Shoffley, Patrick Kentlay, it’s nice to have a player like Sam Burns who has been there and done it. He’s played in the last three cup teams. You know, he can handle it. If he has another good week at East Lake, I could I could easily make the case for Sam Burns as a final pick as opposed to it to a Keegan Bradley based on what was just his win at the Travelers Championship and not much else in 2025. Again, I think the biggest danger when it comes down to this, and we do this every year, either for the RDER Cup or the President’s Cup, it’s you’re always going to be a prisoner of the moment. I don’t think you can lean into the idea that this is all this is a two-year rolling cycle and the idea that it’s going to come down to two 70ole 72 whole tournaments to essentially decide who gets that last pick is a little unrealistic. Now I I know we just had the conversation about there’s a reason why they pushed it back. You want to get the hottest hand and I think the Europeans also have sort of an intriguing option here. Luke Donald has some options he can go with when it comes to picking someone based on how they’re playing right now. I’m not against the Sam Burns pick. Certainly, he could fit into that team room. And at this point, my guess is Keegan Bradley is starting to look at give me exactly what the teams are going to look like. Like, all right, I’ve waited now for two years. What exactly what give give me some pairings? Give me some options. How are we going to work this? How’s every how the all the pegs going to go into the riot holes? I just don’t think he has done enough over the other players on that list, specifically Keegan Bradley, if you’re going to lean into Patrick Kentlay and Cam Young. And I’m not 100% in on those two either. I think both of those would be a bit of a stretch as well. However, PG of America picked Keegan because I think they want him to think outside the box. He was certainly an outside of the box selection as a captain. So, you would expect the same thing when he makes his picks. Something tells me Rex, we’re going to be talking more about this on the Wednesday podcast and certainly a next podcast following the Tour Championship because Keegan Bradley will make his picks a week from Wednesday. His six picks for the US Router Cup team. Can’t wait to debate that and plenty more. One thing that I did not mention following the BMW championship was sort of this race for the top 30. You and I loved loved the race for the top 50 in Memphis. We thought it was good drama. Obviously consequential. I would argue one of the most consequential rounds of the entire season is that final round of the St. Jude championship. It turns out that just a single player moved inside the top 30 this year. That was Harry Hall. Lucas Glover after tying for 40th at Caves Valley is the player who falls out. Car Harry Hall is an interesting player. He’s already won on the PJ tour. He won the Isco last year, opposite field event, has sort of reinvented himself. He’s by far the best putter on the PJ tours. Ball strike has come a long ways. He’s now working with Butch Harmon. Had dramatic chip in on 17, helping secure his spot. Ended up finishing sixth at the BMW. But to me, there was also plenty of drama even if you didn’t have a whole lot of volatility with players moving in and out. What stood out to you Rex as it relates to the top 30. And this is different because this goes back. We’ve been doing this now three weeks actually. I would say the Windham championship sort of started this conversation, but just getting into that top 70 and giving yourself an opportunity essentially locking up your tour card for next year. All of those things factor into it. I still argue that last week in Memphis is by far the most consequential week for a PGA Tour player just because of what top 50 means, getting into signature events, everything else. I’m not dismissing the idea of getting into the top 30 getting to East Lake because there are extra perks. You get an extra year of exemption. That that’s pretty big for everyone. I think it locks up whatever top 50 doesn’t lock up getting you into. I think probably the bigger deal for most players, it’s just a point of pride. I think if you get to the end of the season, regardless of what you’ve actually done, right or wrong in your own mind, man, I made it to East Lake. That that was pretty impressive. I think that’s always on I always fall back on Justin Thomas’ list that he thumbs into his phone. That seems like a pretty good standard of just get to East Lake. I think that proves something if you’re among the top 30 players. But I’m with you watching it Sunday afternoon. I’d love the other storylines. Like I’m not going to say that the combination of Robert McIntyre’s play and Scotty Sheffller’s play, at least to start the tournament sort of took a lot of the oxygen out of the room when it came to who’s actually going to win. It seemed like early that yeah, Scotty’s going to run away with this thing if if Robert McIntyre can’t make a game of it. And I just went by Ricky Fowler. And what Ricky has done over the last three weeks is beyond impressive when you consider also he has been grinding hard the last three weeks to do this just to get inside that top 50. We talked endlessly this year about him not being inside the top 50 and needing sponsor exemptions and everything all the hoops he had to jump through to get there and but then to have the opportunity to carry it on one more week. I mean that very rarely happens and I I don’t know about you but I started tracking it when he made the bogey on 12 he dropped from 25th projected on the points list to 28th right and they started talking about him as a Ryder Cup potential pick at that point which I did think was fascinating. On the 13th, he makes a birdie and he goes from 28th to 26th. On the 14th, he makes a bogey and goes from 28th uh 26th to 28th. And then finally, it was a that was a nasty double bogey on the 15. That dropped him all the way down to 33rd. So the the game was pretty much over by then, but it gives you an idea. And you don’t like the math. I do though. I I don’t have to do the math in my head. I can just look at the number. One number is yellow. I mean, one number is red, one number is green. I know you struggle with that as well. Red, green, red’s bad. Good. Can’t we do like yellow and blue? Like come on. Like why why is it why does it got to be red green for a very colorblind person? I do think the math rex is like needlessly confusing especially for fans to follow and you have to do like some long division to figure out why a a birdie bogey swing between two players who would seemingly have no sort of correlation. Why that has a bearing on the top 30 like I do think that that was a little bit needless. However, it certainly was compelling on Sunday, right? It was Ashe Batia making fourle bogeies but still sneaking in. It was Chris Goddup going to his parents house in New Jersey and still sneaking in. It was Michael Kim’s bogey on 17 and then getting bumped out when Victor Havlin, his playing competitor on Sunday, burning 18 to knock him up. But you’re right, like Ricky Fowler’s plight was by far the toughest to watch. You mentioned 15 like being in the middle of the fairway arrows the green flubs the flop shot makes double bogey to drop outside the number is it relates specifically to to Ricky Fowler. Yes. Was he disappointed afterward? Absolutely. But this I think big picture was two great weeks for him. Back-to-back top 10s in the FE Cup playoffs against the very best of the PJ tour season. His top 50 status is secure. He’s into the signature events in 2025. No more asking for uh exemptions and invites like Jordan Spe and Tony Fen now are going to have to do among others in 2026. I don’t think that Ricky’s plight is going to quiet critics, right? I think like you can you can dig down and and and and deep dive into the numbers and nearly 50% of Ricky Fowler’s FedEx Cup points were earned because of those six invitees into the signature events. those at memorial. It was largely just his finish at the memorial, but that’s fair, right? Yeah. But like you you I think we’ll we’ll see if there’s potentially a policy change as it relates to that and signature events in 2026. But I think big picture Ricky Fowler accomplished what he wanted to over the summer. And I applaud him just as we talked about last week getting through Memphis. He had to play well in these two weeks to secure his status. He did it in Memphis, came close at the BMW. Ricky Fowler, hats off to you. Xander Schoffé, it should be mentioned, did not crack the top 30. First time he has done that uh since he had his PJ tour card. Uh very strange season for Xander Schoffé after that rib injury. Sort of derailed the early part of it. Uh he said Rex a great quote afterward that there’s nothing worse than trying your hardest and playing like uh you know what but it is the worst combination once a hard reset. We’ll see if we see Xanderhoff late when he turns up if he turns up in Napa for the Ryder Cup tuneup. All right, plenty more on the top 30 talks. Be talking all things tour championship and East Lake after this short break. Stay tuned for more golf podcast with Rex and Laugh. [Music] All right, Rex. Scotty Shuffler clinched the number one seed in the FedEx Cup stands before even teeing it up at the BMW Championship. But news flash, that doesn’t even matter. On May 27th, in the middle of the PGA Tour season, the tour announced that it was getting rid of the staggered start format that had been in place since 2019. Now, as you get ready to head to East Lake for the 30-man Tour Championship, it is just winner take all. Lowest score after 72 holes doesn’t just win the Tour Championship, they also win the season long FedEx Cup race. Now that it’s here, we’re at the PJ tours grand finale. What do you think of it all? I’m going to miss doing the math because the I figured out how to do the spreadsheet and find out who’s actually should have been winning versus who was winning using the shadow leaderboard. Yes, the old shadow leaderboard. You could always go to the official world golf ranking because they only use the true leaderboard, not the starting strokes leaderboard. It gets rid of a distraction that was unnecessary. I understand what the tour was trying to do. And again, this is two decades of nip and tuck and tinkering. Like they they’ve tried to come up with a formula that works. And clearly, if Scotty Shuffler, who owns this thing, doesn’t like the format, then you probably have gone down the wrong road. Let’s go somewhere else. It’ll be simple. I I do appreciate that. I think where you we’re going to have a conversation on Sunday is if we run into a situation where a player not named Scotty Sheffller or Rory or maybe even Sepra, I guess. But give me someone out of the top five, maybe the top 10, where you could make make a vague argument that they should win the FedEx Cup. If someone if the 28th player, I don’t even know who that is right now, ends up winning, then you’re going to have a problem calling him the FedEx Cup champion because that person has always been someone that players, not the media, not the fans, have decided over these two decades is important. Winning the FedEx Cup championship is a standard. Normally, when I get to East Lake, I start working on stories about players of the year, rookie of the year, and what the races look like. Clearly, the player of the year race isn’t going to be much at all. It’s Scotty Sheffller over and over again. However, I have noticed in recent years, maybe five or six years, that when you start having these conversations that players would opt to, well, it kind of depends on what happens this week because the Tour Championship, the FedEx Cup, they mean something to the players. I’ve made this argument when it comes to the players championship for a long time. It’s not going to be the media. It’s not going to be the fans. It’s not going to be the PGA Tour that decides if the players championship is the fifth major. It’s going to be the players. If they decide it’s one of their fifth most important events, then that’s what it’s going to be. And I made the same argument about the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup that it started to impact important decisions like player of the year. I don’t think that’s going to be the case anymore. I’m not necessarily saying that’s a terrible thing, but what the tour had created during a time of year when we’re probably not paying a lot of attention to golf. Let’s be honest, football season is starting. You and I both have fantasy drafts coming up. There’s a lot of things on our plates. So, I I always gave the the tour their flowers when it came to what they created during a time of year when there’s not a lot of interest there. I just think this move, the right move, is going to take away from that interest a little bit. As a general rule of thumb, I don’t think it’s very good when you’re 18 years into the FedEx Cup era and guys are still being asked a what you think of the format and b what do you think it really means to be a FedEx Cup champion? Like if you’re still asking that every year since 2007, then you probably don’t have something that makes it very clear. the PGA Tour, if you listen to them, the FedEx Cup has always sort of, you know, can conoted seasonl long winner while also they’re also insisting that this is a playoff and anything can happen. And they always cite the New York Giants upsetting the New England Patriots and upsetting and and and breaking that that unbeaten season because anything can happen in the postseason just like anything can happen in the golf postseason in my opinion. And I I sort of want to reserve some judgment because I want to see how it plays out. But in my opinion, as I said here on the eve of the tour championship, this format does feel like a poor version of both of those things. It feels like a poor version of trying to crown a seasonl long champion and it feels like a poor version of a playoff. Now, I’ve been led to believe that this is just going to be a a bridge year, right? like they made this decision in the middle of the 2025 season that we’re going back to just a 72 whole stroke plate tournament just like it’s always been, you know, prior to 2007. We’re all for all the points and all that. Just win the tour championship and now you’re just going to be the FedEx Cup champion. Like I get it. It’s simplistic. It’s easy for fans to wrap their heads around. It’s when you sort of wrap around all of this other meaning to what a FedEx Cup title is supposed to be that I think becomes a little bit convoluted and I think is missing the point. Where are you in terms of like your level of excitement to see how this pans out as opposed to previous years particularly since 2019 when that staggered start format was put into place. Oh, I’m not particularly interested in who wins the FedEx Cup. That doesn’t interest me at all. I’m interested in starting. Everybody’s starting at even par. I’m interested in the idea that Scotty Sheffler, Rory Maroy, who plays East Lake phenomenally. So, I do think that levels the playing field a little bit when it comes to those two players, anything can happen. And look, Scotty has gone in there with the advantage the last two years, I believe, and and it’s worked out well for him, but he has needed that advantage. So, I think certainly that’s something to keep an eye on. And just to circle back around to something that you said, I feel like that what the tour has done with the regular season, let’s just separate the two. Let’s just crown the regular season champion who was Scotty Sheffller. Let’s give him a big check. If you’d like to come up with some sort of trophy, that’s fine, too. But let’s leave that behind on Sunday at the Windom Championship. Let’s crown the regular season champion and then move ahead to the playoffs. Those things that that needs to be two vastly different things. And as far as what I would look forward to, again, it’s it’s a large tournament. It’s an important tournament during a time of year and you have the top players by and large all buying in to what is going to be the big finish for the PGA tour. I feel like that’s a win for the tour. I I’m I’m with you. Like I had a I had a whole long week to think about this and I’ve come around that that wiping the points clean after the regular season is absolutely the direction that the PGA Tour should go. And I think that for a lot of reasons like just name Sky Chef the FedEx Cup champion after the Windham championship and then wipe wipe the points. You can still then cut down at that point based in the top 70 after the Windham the Fed Cup standings. Those players get into Memphis. Then you cut to the top 50 just based on the actual leaderboard and then the top 30 based on just the actual leaderboard at the BMW. I think you can still even have an additional cut down if you really wanted to get freaky at the Tour Championship. Let’s say you have sort of a western for western amateur format type where you have let’s say 54 holes for stroke play qualifying then cut it down to top eight for the match play. Here’s why I like this idea Rex because again I’ve been noodling this for the past week. First of all, you have a deserving seasonlong champion. I think if you pulled every single player following the Windham championship and you asked him who has been the best player on the PG tour in 2025, they I think are almost all going to say Sky Sheffller. Maybe Roy Mroy votes for himself, but it’s probably going to be Scotty Shuffler. You can still have all of the designations for those top 50 and those top 30 based on the regular season standings. And in my opinion, that’s probably a better indication of who has played the best this season. It is a larger sample size instead of having these these bloated uh point totals in the playoffs where they’re trying to inject more volatility. So the top 50 after the Windham championship, those the players then get uh gain entry into these signature events in 2026. You can sell the top 30. Those are the players are going to get the two-year exemption and m and exemptions into three major championships. You can have all that stuff happen after the Windham championship. And then I think Rex because of that you will then have sort of a a trickle down effect even a reverse flow where all of a sudden the 3M of the world and the Windham championships even gain more stature gain more importance because then those players are jockeying for the top 50, top 70, top 30 trying to get into there as well. But I think the biggest bonus and the biggest benefit to this format change would be that it’s easier for fans to follow. I think I mentioned this on the Wednesday podcast like I call it like the sports center test where how can you relate to the the widest reach and the widest audience so that if anyone is tuning in at Sports Center at 4:00 on a Thursday, how can you make them understand what is happening in the PJ tour playoffs? Having birdie bogey swings between Michael Kim and Victor Havlin when you have no sort of bearing on why that matters like that to me is convoluted. That to me is confusing to the mainstream general sports audience. Having these cutdowns I think just have so many potential benefits. Not just from the simplicity, but I also think that there’s like sort of that reverse flow back to the other tournaments of the PJ tour that make them even stronger. To your point, this is very much a bridge year that the commissioner said as much. Jay Monahan when they made these changes, certainly Brian Rolap, the new CEO of PJ Tour, PJ Tour Enterprises, sort of echoed that idea. So whatever comes next year sounds like it’s going to be different. It’s going to be something that they haven’t tried as you pointed out in 18 years. In this particular case, and you and I have had this conversation a few times recently, you have to kind of accept the world the way it is, not the way we wish we wanted it to be. And I tend to agree with you that the starting to to cut backwards from Memphis all the way to the tour championship is the easiest solution to create a quote unquote true playoff. And I think that’s the best way to do away with Roy Maroy skipping the first playoff event. That’s the easiest way. If if you’ve crowned a seasonl long champion, a regular season, then yes, go into the playoffs and give it all of that volatility. The twofold problem is one, I I’ll address mass play because you keep circling back around to it. It It’s not the sponsors, it’s not the media partners. It It’s not even really the tour that doesn’t want some version of massplay at East Lake. They’ve been bouncing this back and back and forth for two decades now. It’s the players who have decided that our standard more times than not 50 whatever 50 weeks out of the year is 72 holes of stroke play. Why would we change it for our own playoffs for our own biggest events? So it would be players. But here but here’s the big differentiator, right? Cuz I was ready for that argument, right? The whole point then of crowning Sky Chef the seasonl long FedEx Cup champion after the win is that you can then do something completely different where the players have an issue maybe is you’re still you’re still making the tour championship winner the FedEx Cup champion, right? And I would agree that doing one format for the entirety of the season and then switching it at the very end to make the seasonl long champion does not make a whole lot of sense. That’s why you have to keep them separate. Call Sky the FedEx Cup champion and then you can do match play in this playoff bonanza, whatever you want to call it. players would not should would not or at least should not have as much of an issue with that because it’s completely separate and it’s completely different than what you’re doing right now if all of a sudden you just made the match play finale and maybe they wouldn’t I I don’t know maybe in their mind if you can convince at least the vast majority of players that this is going to be two different things these are two different animals like on one side you have the regular season on the other side you have the playoffs let’s try to do something new let’s try to do something innovative that’s what Brian Lump rollup talked a lot about he wants to innovate on the PGA tour. That would be one way of doing it. The other half of the conversation and I think this is the one that you don’t we’re not going to get past. This is about accepting the world the way it is, not the way we want it to be because there is a very real possibility that you would have had Scotty Sheffler, Rory Maroy, and Xander Schoff finishing 51, 52, 53 at that first playoff event, which means they’re not at the next two playoff event. And that’s simply a non-starter for sponsors. That’s simply a non-starter for media broadcast partners. And so I I understand what you’re saying. It is the cleanest way to pull this off, but it’s also the most it’s it’s the easiest way for the people who are important, the fans, media partners, the sponsors to turn on you. That’s also though like the the rationale for why there is not a cut at some signature events, right? Like you don’t want Roy Murray to implode in the first round and all of a sudden he’s not there for the weekend when you’re going to have the biggest audiences, you’re going to have the biggest uh fans on set. That almost never happens. You look at the entirety of their season like Sky Chef never hardly ever finishes inside of the top eight. Roy Mack didn’t have that great of a performance this week at the BMW champion. He was safely inside the t top 30. Xander Schoffley if he was not injured if his swing was in a better place. He never finishes. He I mean he hasn’t missed a cut in more than two years. Like to me that’s that’s a non-starter and it’s sort of but it happens. It’s a but it happens. You’re you’re sitting here trying to make the argument that it never happens and that’s not the case at all. It happens and that’s why it would be a non-starter. But it happens so infrequently that that that basing any sort of argument on something that is a statistical anomaly just is illogical to me when you could have a better format for the PJ poor for the PJ tour postseason. So I don’t buy that argument at all. Again, if the players don’t want it, it’s it’s history history tells us it’s probably not going to get pushed through. This is also Rex a brand new era for the PG tour. CEO Brian Rolop may be telling players this is how it’s gonna go. This is what sponsors want. This is what fans want. This is what broadcast partners want. I know that it’s what SP what sponsors want. Like I’m not quite sure where you’re coming up with that either. And also you’re right. It is a brand new era and there is a CEO and he wants to innovate and by all every account he’s been very impressive so far out of the gates. The players still hold the majority of votes on the on the policy board. That’s boring inside baseball stuff but the players still have the ultimate vote. Brian Rollet, by the way, slaves to meet with the media this week at the Tour Championship. We’ll be talking about that on the Wednesday podcast and certainly on the recap podcast next week. All right, after this short break, plenty of live news to get to. John Rom players relegated. It was a busy week, a live circuit as well. We’ll get into that and more as this podcast continues. [Music] Okay, Rex, congratulations are in order for John Rom, who defended his live individual title despite not winning a golf tournament individually in 2025. Is this ridiculous? He lost another playoff. I think last week I said it’s it’s inconceivable and I’m just going to double down on that. It’s just inconceivable. I mean, I’ll say it in the voice of the Princess Bride. It’s it it simply cannot have happened. But if you look at how consistent he is and you brought up the very good point that how is it even possible that he can win the individual title over Neman who has five victories on the tour and it’s because when we didn’t play great he finished outside the top 10 or whatever the case may be. And John Rom never really played poorly the entire season. He had one finish outside the top 10 and that was a tie for 11th. He had four runner-up finishes including Sunday. It it’s it’s just jarring to me that a player of that caliber wasn’t able to get across the finish line. Uh that certainly even more so that he won the individual race without winning that tournament. And I know you didn’t like my FedEx Cup take and you might not like this one either, but I think John Rom winning the individual title once again just further underscores like how ill advised it is for Liv to have this commitment to the individual results. Everything about Liv and its franchises are based on team play. So just go allin with team play. Instead, they’re meekly trying to accomplish both. Having an individual race, also a team play that obviously has not really caught fire so far. Now, you have to do the individual race if you live golf because that’s the only route potentially for official world golf ranking access and it’s the only way to appeal to great players like John Rom who still want to play head-to-head against some of the best players in the world over 54 or 72 holes. But it to me it just makes the whole thing a little bit farcical. Data Golf has John Ram as the third best player in the world right now in 2025. Everyone’s going to remember the fact he did not win a golf tournament this year as well as that collapse of the PJ championship on the second night. Speaking of live, Henrik Stenson, Meato Pereira, Anthony Kim among those who are facing relegation from the league after the final individual event of the season. Is this a big deal or no? I mean, I think it is a big deal. Stinson is a co- captain of his team. It would have been more interesting I think because you brought up the good point that you also had Ian Palter and Lee Westwood who were also the co- captains of that Majestic team as well and I think they finished 48th just inside the relegation number and 46th. So it was like they could have lost all of their entire leadership. So it actually turned out well for the Majistics that only one of them ended up being relegated. I’ll believe it when I see it. And I’m not even saying that to be doubtful or whatever the case may be. I’m saying it because we haven’t seen true relegation from that league before. There’s always been loopholes. There’s always been ways for these players, the high-profile players who were under contract to somehow circle back around. Last year, it was Bubba Watson. And I I think this is probably, you brought it up, the move that they need to get world ranking points and they need to come off the idea that some level of relegation better than what they’ve had the first two seasons has to be enacted. And this is probably a step in that direction, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Yeah, it could be pretty stark potentially, you know, the divide between live golf and the potential billions you’d win there and then going to the Asian Tour or wherever else you’re going to have to sort of meet your golf. Like there’s only two routes back to live golf. One is through the Asian Tour International Series or the Promotions event at the end of the season, which I believe just one event or excuse me, one spot is going to be available to. So Henrik Stenson, who’s going to be turning 50 next spring, it seems unlikely either of those two routes would be particularly appealing to him. Uh, same for Anthony Kim, uh, whose lived tenure is most likely over, hasn’t done anything, has zero points in two years. He’s been spouting off nonsense on social media. As I always say, Rex, some stories are better off not having a conclusion. In my opinion, that is the Anthony Kim story as well. Speaking of live, Bryson Shambo took aim last week at the PJ tour for not allowing him to play in the Procourt Championship, which you might recall is the first event of the FedEx Cup fall. Does Bryson Desambo have a point where he’s saying quote it’s on them speaking of the PJ tour if they don’t let us come together as a team and play in what could be a tuneup for the US Router Cup team to be fair to add context he was answering a question. So someone asked him this and he was coming back at him. So I’m not quite sure if he took a shot at the PGA tour. However, it’s misguided to the extreme because the fact of the matter is he still walked away from the tour. He still violated the policies and he is still going to be subject to whatever the tour decides to do. And right or wrong, that standard has been set. Hudson Swaffer essentially got a two-year suspension when he wanted to come back. He was relegated off live golf and approached the tour about coming back. I did the column late last year and essentially they told him he could come back in January of 2027. So not quite two years, but roughly they told him you need to sit on the bench and for two years. Call it a suspension. call it, I don’t know, uh, a bad deed, whatever it is you want to call it, that standard has been set. So, for Bryson D. Shambo to suddenly say, I want to go to Napa and practice with the rest of the the US team, is is I mean, it’s silly because he’s not paying attention to what’s going on on in in real life. And what’s going on is the PGA Tour, they probably don’t want to admit it publicly. They have set the standard. Yeah. I mean, the PJ tour has no financial incentive to help out the US RDER Cup team. Like, why would you let Bryson play in this tournament? Would it would he be an obvious sponsor exemption? Sure. Would it generate interest for the Pro Car? Sure. That’s not I think a good enough reason to potentially open up all sorts of other headaches, potential lawsuits. Who knows what could potentially transpire if they were allowed to Bryson Chamber to play here? That seems a little bit I don’t know u arrogant, ignorant, naive of what’s going on. Naive. Maybe all three certainly apply. All right, Rex, you’re off to East Lake to cover the Tour Championship. You’re going to be in the room where it happens with CEO Brian Rolap. What’s top of mind for you? What question are you going to ask him and why? Well, I think the playoff conversation that we just had like what he’s had a chance to sit in the big chair. He’s been in the office now for almost a month. It feels like he’s had an opportunity to start listening to players. He’s had an opportunity to start listening to sponsors and media partners. What does he envision the playoffs are going to look like? Also, how does what are the signature events look like going forward? Is that this going to be the standard? Are they is he happy with what those look like this year? He has a clean slate. He can come in and essentially get a lot of things done right out of the gates because he wants to innovate. He wants to be that fresh voice. Looking forward to hearing what Brian Rolap has to say. We’ll certainly have more on the Wednesday edition Golf Show podcast live available on our YouTube page and wherever it is you get your podcast. In the meantime, you guys know the drill. mccports.com/golf akaolfch channel.com for all of our latest news, features, and insights. In the meantime, thanks for listening. Thanks for support. Talk to you guys on Wednesday afternoon. [Music]